brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 322-325 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/209 hypnosis and virtual addictions gerard fitoussi¹ 1 private practice, fontainebleau, france, drgerardfitoussi@yahoo.fr abstract: virtual addictions are more and more frequent and affect various audiences who are no longer limited to adolescents. this review will discuss the various points to be taken into account in the management of these addictions as well as the interest and place of hypnosis in this pathology. it will be based on the similarities between the hypnotic phenomenon and virtual addiction. keywords: addiction, hypnosis, attention, virtual games, adolescents. how to cite: fitoussi, g. (2021). hypnosis and virtual addictions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 322-325. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/209 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/209 mailto:drgerardfitoussi@yahoo.fr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/209 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 323 addictions and virtual addictions in particular are the subject of multiple forms of management. the approaches used are varied, supportive therapy, motivational interviewing, cognitive and behavioral therapy (griffiths, 2008). is there a place for hypnosis and if so, which one? 1. hypnosis definition the first step in clinical and therapeutic approach requires defining the words used as precisely as possible. the definition of hypnosis has been the subject of many debates in the research world (elkins et al., 2015), the definition adopted to date is the definition of the american psychological association, division 30: « a state of consciousness with a focus of attention, a reduction in the peripheral field of consciousness, and characterized by an increase in the capacity to respond to suggestions ». 2. hypnotic state and cyberaddiction one of the elements behind the use of hypnosis in cyber addiction is the similarity of this addiction with the hypnotic phenomenon. in both conditions, we find a focus of attention and an increase of absorption of the subject in the activity undertaken, with as a corollary a time distortion during the state of hypnosis and the addiction situation -. the subjects do not recognize how much time they spent in front of their screen and are led, also in both conditions, to have an automatic behavior. it should be noted that the absorptive capacity to immerse oneself in the action is predictive of the addictive behavior, as it is predictive of the capacity to enter in hypnotic trance. it follows that the most hypnotizable subjects are also those who have the most problematic behavior with their screens, in particular with their smartphones (olson et al., 2020) allow. 3. clinical and therapeutic features the banality of the symptoms, until they take on worrying proportions, led to the fact that very often, parents, practitioners are not concerned with the appearance of this addiction until it is advanced (dell'osso et al., 2006). it can be added another misleading trait, patients whose profile is not the usual one, mostly adolescents, but also in recent years, a significant number of adult women rising to more than half of cyber-gamers. whether hypnosis or another method is used, the treatment requires that the practitioner know the universe of cyber addictions and the different games, some being more problematic than others. it is also required to hypnosis and virtual addictions gerard fitoussi 324 identify underlying pathologies like phobias, depression, or family conflicts making addiction to screens a refuge. one of the first step will be to install trust and therapeutic alliance, which will allow to establish a contract and set goals. 4. hypnosis and addiction according to various authors, the method that have demonstrated their significance in gambling addictions and addiction treatment is cognitivebehavior therapy (griffiths, 2008). however, the approaches (s) used are diverse. considering hypnosis, the first point is the absence of contraindication for hypnosis in its use in addictions (rago, 2020) several studies confirmed the usefulness of hypnosis in relieving pain and reducing anxiety (rago, 2020) symptoms found also in addictions. in addition, numerous studies have shown the benefit of using hypnosis in combination with other methods in several fields of intervention, particularly with cbt, in a “new vision”, cognitive hypnotherapy (alladin, 2012). multidisciplinary interventions, varying according to the severity of the case and the phase of treatment, are particularly indicated. (rago, 2020) conclusion virtual addictions fall within the field of addictions with their specificities. in this context, therapeutic alliance is essential. hypnosis has its place within the framework of a multidisciplinary approach. more research on the utilization of hypnosis in cyberaddiction is needed references alladin, a. (2012). cognitive hypnotherapy: a new vision and strategy for research and practice. american journal of clinical hypnosis, 54(4), 249– 262. https://doi.org/10.1080/00029157.2012.654528 dell'osso, b., altamura, a. c., allen, a., marazziti, d., & hollander, e. (2006). epidemiologic and clinical updates on impulse control disorders: a critical review. european archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 256(8), 464–475. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-006-0668-0 elkins, g., barabasz, a. f., council, j. r., & spiegel, d. (2015). advancing research and practice: the revised apa division 30, definition of hypnosis. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/00029157.2012.654528 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-006-0668-0 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 325 international journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis, 63(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2014.961870 griffiths, m. d. (2008). diagnosis and management of video game addiction. new directions in addiction treatment and prevention, 12(3), 27-41. http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/23070 olson, j. a., stendel, m., & veissière, s. (2020). hypnotised by your phone? smartphone addiction correlates with hypnotisability. frontiers in psychiatry, 11, 578. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00578 rago, n. (2020) « usage/abus de substances: troubles liés aux substances et troubles addictifs », in le livre bleu de l’hypnose, , pp. 195-203, anfortas ed 2020. https://livre.fnac.com/a15109701/giuseppe-de-benedittis-lelivre-bleu-de-l-hypnose https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2014.961870 http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/23070 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00578 https://livre.fnac.com/a15109701/giuseppe-de-benedittis-le-livre-bleu-de-l-hypnose https://livre.fnac.com/a15109701/giuseppe-de-benedittis-le-livre-bleu-de-l-hypnose microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 98 összefoglalók magyar nyelven agy. átfogó kutatás a mesterséges intelligencia és fiziológiájával és biokémiájával issn 2067 – 3957 1. kötet, 3. szám július 2010: boldog nyár! www.brain.edusoft.ro főszerkesztő: pătruţ bogdan 1. műveletkiválasztó mechanizmus tervezése kooperativ futballrobot számára, fuzzi döntéshozó algoritmussal s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei mohsen taheri abstract a robokupa egy nemzetközi verseny többtényezős kutatások számára mint:mesterséges intelligencia, képfeldolgozás, tanuló gépek, robot útjának megtervezése és ellenörzése illetve akadályok elkerülése. a robotfutball játékban a környezet igen dinamikus és kompetitiv. annak kérdekében, hogy egy dinamikusan változó környezetben dolgozzanak a robotok, a döntéshozó rendszerük flexibilis kell hogy legyen és valós idejű alkalmazkodóképességgel kell rendelkezniük. jelen munkában a middle size soccer robot lígára (msl) koncentrálunk, továbbá egy itt játszó robotok néhány hibrid hierarchikus fuzzy döntéshozó illetve döntéskiválasztó módszereivel foglalkozunk. egy játékos (agent) viselkedése kerül bemutatásra, illetve ezen viselkedést osztályozzuk két rétegre: alacsony szintű viselkedés rétege (“low_level_behaviors”) illetve magas szintű viselkedés rétege (“high_level_behaviors”). ez utóbbi rétegben két döntéshozó mechanizmust mutatunk be. elsőként néhány hasznos metódust implementálunk, amelyek ellenörzik a robot állapotát a megfelelő viselkedés elvégzésére. második fázisban bevezetésre kerül a csapat stratégia, csapatképzés, a robot szerepét tisztázzuk illetve bevezetésre kerül a robot pozicionáló rendszerének leírása. ennek megvalósítására egy fuzzy logikai megközelítést használunk, akárcsak annak eldöntésére, hogy melyik a robotjátékos legjobb helye a játékban. véleményünk szerint egy dinamikus szerep motor (“dynamic role engine”) szükséges egy sikeres csapat megvalósításához. ez a dinamikus szerep motor a támadó és védekező játék esetén segíti az ütközések és az akadályok elkerülését. végül befoglaltuk az impelentált algoritmusunkat a robocup 2007 és 2008-ba, és az eredményeink bizonyították a bevezetett módszer hatékonyságát. az eredmények kielégítőek voltak, és az adro robocup csapatban hasznosításra is kerültek. a project fejlesztés alatt áll, és a jelentésünkben néhány érdekes módszert ismertetünk. 2. a neo-cortex struktúrájának logikai kifejtése ronald j. swallow abstract a neuron posztszinaptikus potenciálja hosszú ideig úgy volt ismert mint egy korreláció a bemenő axon frekvenciamodell és a gerjesztő szinaptikus kapcsolatintenzítás között. annak érdekében, hogy a korreláció hasznos legyen, ezeknek összehasonlíthatóaknak kell lenniük, és normalizálni kell őket (a kapcsolaterősség kovarianciája konstans kell legyen az egész korreláció során). egy neuronokból álló, biológiailag negvalósítható hálót (n darab serkentő és egy gátló, inhibitor, neuronból álló hálót) tanulmányoztunk, a kapcsolaterősség változásának vizsgálatára egy igen egyszerű pavlov szabályt alkalmaztunk (ugyanazt a szabályt a serkentő és a gátló neuronra). a meglepetés az volt, hogy az ilyen neuronokból felépített háló képes a korrelációk normalizált összefoglalók magyar nyelven 99 egybevetésére. a háló nagyobb tanulási képességet mutatott az új bejövő mintákra mit a régiekre, ezáltal próbáljuk magyarázni az agy kíváncsiságát illetve a memória plasztikusságának csökkenését az emberi kor előrehaladtával 3. a tesztelők sokoldalú intelligenciája és az általuk elért eredmény közötti kapcsolat a toefl és ielts olvasásellenörző részlegének keretében minoo alemi, marzieh bagherkazemi abstract a jelen tanulmány a tesztelők sokoldalú intelligenciája és az általuk elért eredmény közötti feltételezett kapcsolat tanulmányozását célozza meg, különös tekintettel az olvasás ellenőrzésére a toefl és ielts keretében.howard gardner teóriája a sokoldalú intelligenciáról azt sugalmazza, hogy az intelligencia nem egy magányos, egyedűlálló tulajdonság, hanem inkább egy sokoldalú kosntrukció, amely cask részben genetikai eredetű, és amely fejleszthető vagy leállítható, megbénítható, az élet soránaz elmélet alapján nyolc intelligenciatípust különböztetünk meg: nyelvim matematiaki, zenei, testi, térbeli, intra-és interperszonális illetve naturalisztikus intelligenciákat, de a lista nem teljes. a tesztelők sokoldalú intelligenciája a midas (multiple intelligences developmental assessment scales) felmérései által volt felbecsűlve, mely 1994-ben shearee által let kifejlesztve. következésképpen, a toefl olvasásellenörző részlegének keretében fellelt hajlam a 90-es években került alkalmazásra, és kimutatható volt egy pozitiv korreláció a lingvisztikai es logikai intelligenciákkal ugyanezen az alapon, 163 résztvevőből 89 részt vett a tesztelők sokoldalú intelligenciája és az általuk elért eredmény közötti kapcsolat a toefl és ielts olvasásellenörző részlegének keretében, és ez a teszt eltolódott a lingvisztikai és térintelligenciák irányába. a következmények aggasztóak voltak a nyelvi fejlődés kielégítő volta tekintetében. a jelen tanulmány hasznos lehet a toefl és ielts tesztek összeálításában, amennyiben azok úgy vannak tervezve, hogy olysan intelligenciatípusokat célozzanak meg, amelyek pozitiv korrelációban vannak az adott teszttel. 4. ekg hangkártyán át gheorghe blioju abstract a jelen tanulmány a legolcsóbb módszert írja le, amely által egy egy ekg rendszert meg lehet figyelni, egy elektronikus eszköz és egy szoft segítségével. az eszköz képes lesz arra, hogy a biojeleket felerősítse, és hogy továbbítsa a pc-be, a hangkártya segítségével. a szoft képes lesz arra is, hogy a kapot jeleket a pc képernyőjén megjelenítse. 5. fuzzi törvények szerint működő mozgásszabályzón alapuló autonom humanoid robot tervezése és megvalósítása s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri abstract a humanoid robotok tervezése a mechatronika és automatizálás laboratórium, számítástechnika, islamic azad university keretében az évtized elején kezdődött. egy sor humanoid robot-típus került fejlesztésre ezen évek soránez a dolgozat a hardware és szoftwaretervezését írja le egy gyerek nagyságú humanoid robotnak a persia team által 2009-ben,a robotnak 20 szabadságfoka van mely a hitec hsr898-on alapszik. a dolgozatban olyan területekre koncentráltunk mint a mechanikai struktúra, képfeldolgozó egység, robot kontroller, robotok mesterséges intelligenciája illetve viselkedések tanulása. 2009-ben a gyerek nagyságú humanoid robot fejlesztései a következők voltak: (1) új konstrukció tervezése a humanoid robot számára és (2) új hadware és szoftware kontrollerek használata a robotban. a projektnek két nagy része van, úgymint a hardware és a szoftware. a szoftver projekt egy olyan robotalkalmazást fejlesztett ki, amely járás kontrollert, autonom robotmozgást, részecskeszűrön és megfigyelésen alapuló helyzetelemzést, lokális mesterséges intelligenciát, pályatervezést, mozgás és hálózatkontrollert tartalmazott. a hardware brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 100 tartalmazza a mechanikai struktúrát és a vezérlő áramköreit. mindegyik robot képes a járásra, gyorsjárásra, labdaleadásra, illetve a labda elkapás után a labdával való cselezésre és rúgásra. ezek a humanoidok sikeresen vettek részt egy sor robotfutbal versenyeken. a project fejlesztés alatt áll és egy sor új érdekes módszert írtunk le a dolgozatban. 6. mindenirányban mozgó széleslátású futballrobotok modellezése és megvalósítása és alkalmazása a robocup-msl-ben. s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri abstract a dolgozat célja egy középtermetű futballrobot tervezése és megvalósítása a robocup msl líga szabályai szerintelsősorban a robocup szabályainak megfelelő középtermetű futballrobot terveztünk. a tervezett autonom futballrobot a következőket tartalmazza: mechanikai platform, mozgásellenőrző modul, mindenirányú látást biztosító modul, előirányu látást biztosító modul, képfeldolgozó és képfelismerő modul, célkeresés és célpozicionálás, koordinátameghatározás, úttervezés, versenystrategiák megtervezése és akadályelkerülés. ez a futballrobot felruházza a laptop-számítógépet és az interfész áramköröket a döntéshozatal képességevel. a mindenirányú látást biztosító szenzor kapcsolatban van a képfeldolgozó és pozicionálló modullal, illetve az akadályelkerülő és célkereső modulokkal. a terep feltérképezesére határkövető algoritmus( boundary-following algorithm bfa ) alkalmaztunk. a környezet modellezésére, önérzékelésre az adatfúziós módszert alkallmazzuk. a látásalapú önérzékelés és a konvencionális útmérést egybekapcsoltuk egy robusztus önérzékelés céljából. a lokalizálló algoritmus egy sor felismert környezeti objektum szűrését, megosztását illetve adatintegrációját tartalmazza. a kontrollstratégiák közül bemutatjuk a támadást, a védekezést illetve a labadaátvevés stratégiáját. a módszereket egy sor robocup versenyen teszteltük, középtermetű robotokon 7. agybetegségek az ókori mezopotámiai társadalmakban abstract az ókori mezopotámiában nem használták a hullaboncolást vagy a disszekciót, így az emberi test belső szervei csak alkalmi sebesülések során kerültek megfigyelésre. az agyat a fej olyan részének tekintették, amely nem vesz részt a gondolkodásban. ennek ellenére a babiloni és assziriai orvosok egy sor agybetegség tüneteit azonosították. ezeket soroljuk fel az alábbiakban. 8.moduláris versus egységes (nem moduláris): az agy és az elme két szemlélete minoo alemi,parisa daftarifard abstract jelen dolgozat célja paradigma felvázolása tekintettel a tanulás és a nyelv szempontjaira. továbbmenve, a cél az, hogy a hibákat és eredményeket különkülön nézőpontból tárgyalja. ennélfogva a dolgozat célja nem az egyik vagy másik paradigm melleti érvelés. végül a dolgozat felsorol egy sor aggyal és elmével kapcsolatos kérdést, moduláris és nemmoduláris szempontokat figyelembe véve. 9.a mesterséges intelligenciáról mint egy új matematikai eszközről angel garrido abstract a natematika elsősorban elsőrendű predikátumkalkulus.ennélfogva az alkalmazott monoton logikához tartozik. megtaláltuk a klasszikus logika érvrendszerének határait és a fuzzi logika gyakorlati hasznát és egy sdor más érdekes eszközt. a továbbiakban bemutatunk egy sor használatos eszközt a mesterséges intelligencia, matematika ezen új területéről. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer on the (colored) yang-baxter equation david hobby, barna laszlo iantovics and florin f. nichita abstract. the quantum yang-baxter equation first appeared in theoretical physics and statistical mechanics. afterwards, it has proved to be important also in knot theory, quantum groups, etc. this paper deals with the (colored) yang-baxter equation and computational methods. a new result about the set-theoretical yang-baxter equation is presented. keywords: yang-baxter equations, computational complexity, computationally hard problems, applications of mathematics. 2000 mathematics subject classification: 16w30, 13b02. 33 hobby, iantovics, nichita on the yang-baxter equations 1. introduction and preliminaries the quantum yang-baxter equation first appeared in theoretical physics and statistical mechanics. afterwards, it has proved to be important also in knot theory, quantum groups, the quantization of integrable non-linear evolution systems, etc. throughout this paper k is a field. all tensor products appearing in this paper are defined over k. for v a k-space, we denote by τ : v ⊗ v → v ⊗v the twist map defined by τ (v⊗w) = w⊗v, and by i : v → v the identity map of the space v. we use the following notation concerning the yang-baxter equation. if r : v ⊗v → v ⊗v is a k-linear map, then r12 = r⊗i, r23 = i⊗r, r13 = (i⊗τ )(r⊗i)(i⊗τ ). definition. an invertible k-linear map r : v ⊗v → v ⊗v is called a yang-baxter operator if it satisfies the equation r12 ◦ r23 ◦ r12 = r23 ◦ r12 ◦ r23 (1) remark. the equation (1) is usually called the braid equation. it is a well-known fact that the operator r satisfies (1) if and only if r◦τ satisfies the constant quantum yang-baxter equation (qybe), if and only if τ ◦r satisfies the constant qybe: r12 ◦ r13 ◦ r23 = r23 ◦ r13 ◦ r12 (2) remark (i) τ : v ⊗v → v ⊗v is an example of a yang-baxter operator. (ii) an exhaustive list of invertible solutions for (2) in dimension 2 was obtained in [5]. (iii) finding all yang-baxter operators in dimension greater than 2 is an unsolved problem. let a be an associative k-algebra, and α, β, γ ∈ k. we define the k-linear map: raα,β,γ : a⊗a → a⊗a, raα,β,γ(a⊗b) = αab⊗1 + β1⊗ab − γa⊗b 34 hobby, iantovics, nichita on the yang-baxter equations theorem. (s. dăscălescu and f. f. nichita, [4]) let a be an associative k-algebra with dim a ≥ 2, and α, β, γ ∈ k. then raα,β,γ is a yang-baxter operator if and only if one of the following holds: (i) α = γ 6= 0, β 6= 0; (ii) β = γ 6= 0, α 6= 0; (iii) α = β = 0, γ 6= 0. if so, we have (raα,β,γ) −1 = ra1 β , 1 α , 1 γ in cases (i) and (ii), and (ra0,0,γ) −1 = ra 0,0, 1 γ in case (iii). remark. in the next section, we will generalize the construction given in the previous theorem, in order to solve another type of yang-baxter equation. 2. the main result there are many versions of the yang-baxter equation. we present a lesser known version of this equation (which is called the “colored yang-baxter equation” by some authors) in this paper. we attempt to find solutions for it and to explain how computational methods could help us. in another paper, we will study its applications in theoretical physics. formally, a colored yang-baxter operator is defined as a function r : k × x × x → endkv ⊗ v , where x is a set and v is a finite dimensional vector space over a field k. thus, for any x ∈ k, u, v ∈ x, r(x, u, v) : v ⊗ v → v ⊗ v is a linear operator. as in the previous section, we consider three operators acting on a triple tensor product v ⊗ v ⊗ v , r12(x, u, v) = r(x, u, v) ⊗ i, r23(x, v, w) = i ⊗ r(x, v, w), and similarly r13(x, u, w) as an operator that acts non-trivially on the first and third factor in v ⊗ v ⊗ v . r is a colored yang-baxter operator if it satisfies the equation: r12(x, u, v)r13(x+y, u, w)r23(y, v, w) = r23(y, v, w)r13(x+y, u, w)r12(x, u, v) (3) 35 hobby, iantovics, nichita on the yang-baxter equations for all x, y ∈ k, u, v, w ∈ x. we now apply our original method to find solutions for the equations (3). we assume that x is equal to (a subset of) the ground field k. our method of constructing solutions to equation (3) is based on the ideas applied before. the key point of the construction is to suppose that v = a is an associative k-algebra, and then to derive a solution to equation (3) from the associativity of the product in a. thus, we seek solutions to equation (3) of the following form r(x, u, v)(a ⊗ b) = αx(u, v)1 ⊗ ab + βx(u, v)ab ⊗ 1 − γx(u, v)b ⊗ a, (4) where αx, βx, γx are k-valued functions on x × x, for any x ∈ k. inserting this ansatz into equation (3), we obtained the following system of equations (whose solutions produce colored yang-baxter operators): (βy(v, w) − γy(v, w))(αx(u, v)βx+y(u, w) − αx+y(u, w)βx(u, v)) +(αx(u, v) − γx(u, v))(αy(v, w)βx+y(u, w) − αx+y(u, w)βy(v, w)) = 0 (5) βy(v, w)(βx(u, v) − γx(u, v))(αx+y(u, w) − γx+y(u, w)) +(αy(v, w) − γy(v, w))(βx+y(u, w)γx(u, v) − βx(u, v)γx+y(u, w)) = 0 (6) αx(u, v)βy(v, w)(αx+y(u, w) − γx+y(u, w)) + αy(v, w)γx+y(u, w)(γx(u, v) − αx(u, v)) +γy(v, w)(αx(u, v)γx+y(u, w) − αx+y(u, w)γx(u, v)) = 0 (7) αx(u, v)βy(v, w)(βx+y(u, w) − γx+y(u, w)) + βy(v, w)γx+y(u, w)(γx(u, v) − βx(u, v)) +γy(v, w)(βx(u, v)γx+y(u, w) − βx+y(u, w)γx(u, v)) = 0 (8) αx(u, v)(αy(v, w) − γy(v, w))(βx+y(u, w) − γx+y(u, w)) +(βx(u, v) − γx(u, v))(αx+y(u, w)γy(v, w) − αy(v, w)γx+y(u, w)) = 0 (9) remark. (i) the system of equations (5–9) is rather non-trivial. it is an open problem to classify its solutions. 36 hobby, iantovics, nichita on the yang-baxter equations (ii) that system has some remarkable symmetry properties which can be used to find some solutions. for example, the equations (6) and (9) are in some sense dual to each other. likewise, (7) and (8) are in some sense dual to each other. (iii) if we look at the system of equations (5–9), one simplification that produces many solutions is to let αx, βx and γx be functions that do not depend on x. in this case we may call them α, β, and γ. letting γ be an arbitrary function and a an arbitrary element of the base field k, one verifies that setting α = aγ and β = γ gives a solution. similarly, letting γ and b ∈ k be arbitrary, setting α = γ and β = bγ gives a solution. 3. the set-theoretical yang-baxter equation if x is a set, let s : x × x → x × x be a function, s12 = s × i and s23 = i × s. definition. using the above notation, the set-theoretical yang-baxter equation reads: s12 ◦ s23 ◦ s12 = s23 ◦ s12 ◦ s23 (10) we obtained the following theorem, which will be proved in another paper. theorem. let x be a set and r ⊂ x × x a reflexive relation on x. we define the function s = sr : x × x → x × x, by s(u, v) = (u, v) if (u, v) ∈ r, s(u, v) = (v, u) if (u, v) /∈ r. then, s satisfies (10) if and only if r ∪ rop is an equivalence relation, and r̄ is a strict partial order relation on each class of r ∪ rop. (we let rop denote the opposite relation of r and let r̄ denote the complementary relation of r.) 37 hobby, iantovics, nichita on the yang-baxter equations 4. conclusions computational methods are very important in solving the yang-baxter equations. for example, hietarinta found all r-matrices in the case n=2 using grobner basis and computer calculations (see [5], [6]). these papers are very much cited by many authors. however, the computational methods are not powerful enough to fully classify the solutions for other small dimensions: a complete computer calculation for n=3 is still out of reach at this time. on the other hand, the computational methods can be very useful in approaching problems in quantum group theory. for example, one can explicitly solve the set-theoretical yang-baxter equation (10) for small sets be exhaustive search. computational methods are helpful for solving other equations and problems in quantum group theory. in section 3, we give a new theorem about the set-theoretical yang-baxter equation which will be proved and studied in future papers. we anticipate interesting connections of it with the constructions given in section 2. finally, we propose the problem of finding algorithms for solving the system of equations (5–9). references [1] r.j. baxter, exactly solved models in statistical mechanics, acad. press, london,1982. [2] r.j. baxter, partition function for the eight-vertex lattice model, ann. physics 70(1972), 193-228. [3] t. brzezinski and f. f. nichita, yang-baxter systems and entwining structures,communications in algebra, vol. 33(4), 1083-1093, 2005. [4] s. dascalescu and f. nichita, yang-baxter operators arising from (co)algebra structures, communications in algebra, vol. 27, nr. 12, 5833-5845(1999). [5] j. hietarinta, all solutions to the constant quantum yang-baxter equation in two dimensions, phys. lett. a 165(1992), 245-251. [6] j. hietarinta, solving the two-dimensional constant quantum yangbaxter equation. j. math. phys. 34 (1993), no. 5, 1725–1756. 38 hobby, iantovics, nichita on the yang-baxter equations david hobby department of mathematics suny of new paltz, usa email:hobbyd@newpaltz.edu barna laszlo iantovics petru maior university of targu mures, romania email:ibarna@upm.ro florin felix nichita institute of mathematics ”simion stoilow” of the romanian academy bucharest, romania email:florin.nichita@imar.ro 39 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer study of the formulation and preparation of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 mirela mitu, ancuţa fiţa, teodora balaci, andreea stănescu, emma creţu abstract. the experimental study objective was the development of chewable tablets with the calcium complex association, the minerals and vitamin d3 for children, subject to the rules as stipulated by the romanian pharmacopoeia xth edition. generating sources of calcium, used as raw materials in the preparation of these tablets are natural products represented by complex mineral rich in calcium lactoval r© hical (ratio of calcium and phosphorus is 2,2:1, report the same as breast milk) and 30% bovine colostrums [1, 3], making the absorption of calcium should be increased. also, in order to fix and better absorb calcium in the body was added to make the preparation of these chewable tablets and vitamin d3. was chosen as a method of preparing direct compression. excipients for direct compression are diluents-binder-disaggregated. they are unitary excipients or co-processed products, multi-processed excipients together to meet those properties: microcrystalline cellulose (vivapur 102) ludipress, lactose (tablettose 80), kollidon cl isomalt dc 100. was also added to a lubricant (magnesium stearate) and sweetener and flavoring to carry out the preparation of tablets and after 30 days as provided romanian pharmacopoeia xth and its 2001 supplement, which comprises: organoleptic control, uniformity of weight, strength, disintegration and their friability. working method chosen and make the appropriate choice leads to tablets in terms of quality standards officinal. keywords: chewable tablets, calcium complex association, vitamin d3, direct compression method. 2000 mathematics subject classification: 92c99. 80 m. mitu, a. fiţa, t. balaci, a. stănescu, e. creţu study of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 1. introduction chewable tablets are solid pharmaceutical dosage forms with the following advantages: an improved bioavailability due to decay in the mouth (an improvement of dissolution); ensure the elimination of the need for available water to swallow the tablet. the administration seeks immediate therapeutic effect, confers an increased level of patient acceptance (especially in pediatrics) by pleasant taste and a commercial presentation through a substitution variant form preparations liquid. calcium is the most abundant mineral in the human body. an average human body constitution contains calcium ion 1000-1500g, 99% of which is located in the bones and teeth. besides the ability to give skeletal mechanical strength, calcium is essential for transmitting nerve impulses and muscle contraction. the calcium is known as the preventive factor in osteoporosis, increase bone density. milk and milk products constitute one of the main sources of calcium from food, both in childhood and in adolescence, adulthood and old age. recent studies have shown that immunostimulator effect of vitamin d is higher than that of vitamin c [2]; the likelihood of upper respiratory tract infections is inversely proportional to the concentration of vitamin d in blood. 2. materials and method materials: were used lactoval r© hical, (dmv international), 30% bovine colostrums, vitamin d3 type 100 (dsm), ludipress (basf ag, germany), kollidon clcrospovidon (basf ag, germany), isomalt dc 100 (baneo-palatinit gmbh, germany), tablettose 80 (meggle, wasserburg gmbh), vivapur 102, vegetable magnesium stearate (faci spa), maize starch (chemaster international inc.), caramel flavor powder (vegan, kosher, gluten free), sweetener. all excipients used were pharmaceutical quality and purity analysis. the tablets formulation: in the table(1) are shown the composition of the studied wording. mixing for compression was obtained using a cone double homogenizer. in that were loaded materials: that vitamin d3, and sweetener, caramel flavor, and corn 81 m. mitu, a. fiţa, t. balaci, a. stănescu, e. creţu study of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 starch, magnesium stearate, kollidon, vivapur 102, colostrums, isomalt, ludipress and lactoval. time is set during the mixing: 20-minutes. the mixture was passed through the sieve vi and compressed. direct compression mixture was made with a rotary tablet tx 30 equipped with 30 pairs of stainless ponsons flat edge, with edges intact, with a diameter of 15mm. were obtained uncoated tablets, uniform appearance, as a disk, compact structure, with smooth, flat and edges intact 15 mm; • color white, mottled with yellow pigment; • odor weak characteristic odor; • taste sweet, refreshing; after preparation of chewable tablets were determined: • uniformity of mass; • friability; • mechanical strength (diameter, height of tablets); • disintegration. determinations were performed in accordance with f.r. x., and e. ph. 5 [4, 5, 6]. all calculations were performed on 20 or 10 (friability test) tablets. equipment: • balance mettler toledo for uniformity of mass; • the apparatus pharmatest ptf 10/er for friability test; • pharmatest ptb 311e device for mechanical strength (diameter, thickness of tablets); • pharmatest ptz s device for the test of disruption; 82 m. mitu, a. fiţa, t. balaci, a. stănescu, e. creţu study of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 table 1: the compositions of the chewable tablets with calcium and vitamin d3 active substances ingredients quantity lactoval r© hical 0,8 mg colostrum 400 mg vitamin d3 type 100 (100.000 u i/g) 100 mg excipients ingredients quantity role ludipress 100,1mg binder,diluent,disintegrant isomalt dc 100 96,4 mg sweetener tablettose 80 89,31 mg diluent kollidon cl 36,4 mg binder vivapur 102 36,4 mg diluent magnesium stearate 22,75 mg lubricant maize starch 18,2 mg lubricant, diluent caramel flavor 5 mg flavor sweetener 4,64 mg total 910 mg 3. results and discussions uniformity of mass: it weighted 20 tablets uncovered and calculated the average mass. the same tablets are weighted individually. compared to the average mass calculated, the individual mass may submit a deviation: 18 tablets ±5% and just 2 tablets ±7, 5%.the values of individual, average masses and the percentage deviations calculated are shown in the table(2) and figure 1 conclusion: it is noted that the tablets meet standards officinal regarding individual mass, masses limits of the tablets which can vary are between 0,866-0,957, and has the corresponding percentage deviations range from: 2.19% and 2.64%. 83 m. mitu, a. fiţa, t. balaci, a. stănescu, e. creţu study of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 the friability: a loss of less than 1% is considered acceptable for most products. from the experimental results, show that the formulation studied requirement as regards friability. for studied wording, weight loss is less than 1%. to test using 10 chewable tablets are dusting with a soft brush. the drum introduced in tablets, previously weighed, to secure the cover and fasten the drum unit. the drum starts to rotate with the rotation speed of 25 rpm default operating mode. the determination is made after 100 revolutions, respectively after 4 minutes, the tablets are removed and remove all dust again any tablet is broken away. weigh the tablets, then friability calculated using the formula: friability = [(mi-mf ) / mi] x 100 where, mi = initial weight of tablets mf = final mass of tablets the test is done once. if results are not satisfactory or if weight loss is less than 1%, repeat the test twice and calculate the average of three determinations. results: mi = 893.786 mg mf = 890.777 mg friability = 0.33% < 1%. conclusion: it is noted that the friability for 10 chewable tablets is less than 1%, so the tablets meet usp requirements. the mechanical resistance, the diameter and the thickness of tablets: to test were using 10 chewable tablets. each tablet was placed in the device (pharmatest ptb 311e), after which values were determined for the three parameters (diameter,height and hardness).the tests led to following results and are shown in the table(3)and figures(2, 3). conclusion: the data in the table above and figures(2, 3) observed that chewable tablets have values very close in terms of their size (diameter, height) 84 m. mitu, a. fiţa, t. balaci, a. stănescu, e. creţu study of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 table 2: the values of individual, average masses and the percentage deviations of tablets crt.no. individual mass (g) percentage deviation(%) 1. 0,909 -0,11 2. 0,896 -1,54 3. 0,892 -1,98 4. 0,921 +0,10 5. 0.902 -0,88 6. 0,934 +2,64 7. 0,916 +0.66 8. 0,911 +0,11 9. 0,923 +1,43 10. 0,899 -1,21 11. 0,893 -1,87 12. 0,917 +0,77 13. 0,925 +1,65 14. 0,913 +0.33 15. 0,890 -2,19 16. 0,899 -1,21 17. 0,901 -0,99 18. 0,887 -2,53 19. 0,920 +1,10 20. 0,894 -1,76 average 0,8584 85 m. mitu, a. fiţa, t. balaci, a. stănescu, e. creţu study of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 figure 1: percentage deviation of invidual mass of tablet but also in terms of mechanical strength. this is due largely to correct adjustment tablet machine. the disintegration of chewable tablets: for chewable tablets disintegration test were used 6 tablets at the same time absolutely the same conditions, so that all samples are inserted into the same water bath maintained at 36-38◦c; arm support device with baskets of moving up and down control by a microprocessor running 30 races per minute over a distance of 55 mm. it is preferable that chewable tablets correspond to the dissolution test for uncoated tablets, which must be disintegration, more than 15 minutes. the following table iv shows disintegration times for the disintegration six chewable tablets under test. conclusion: chewable calcium tablets correspond officinal disintegration rules for uncoated tablets (disintegration time 8-8, 4 min. <15 min., figure(4). 86 m. mitu, a. fiţa, t. balaci, a. stănescu, e. creţu study of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 table 3: the diameter (mm), the thickness (mm) and the mechanical resistance (n ) of the studied formulation crt.no. diameter (mm) height (mm) hardness (n ) 1. 15.02 3.94 123.5 2. 14.99 3.98 115.0 3. 14.99 3.95 120.5 4. 15.01 3.93 109.5 5. 14.98 3.97 125.1 6. 14.99 3.95 113.8 7. 15.00 3.94 119.3 8. 14.99 3.97 113.7 9. 14.99 3.93 131.9 10. 14. 8 3.97 120.8 average 14.99 3.95 119.31 4.conclusions two natural products represented the calcium complex association used for preparation of chewable tablets: a lactoval r© hical, rich in minerals, with a high content of calcium, and bovine colostrums. to obtain chewable tablets, direct compression method was used to very good because it eliminates the presence of high temperature and humidity, which are risk factors, using direct compression excipients coprocessor, which ensured the stability of active components. working method chosen and make the appropriate choice leads to tablets in terms of officinal quality standards. following the test of stability is seen that after 30 days the average weight values, individual mass, diameter, thickness, resistance and disintegration increases and decreases relative to the friability tablets made initial determinations. this is due hygroscopicity of some excipients, which may adversely affect the stability of chewable tablets. therefore, preparation of these tablets should be made under controlled conditions followed by blister or filling their bottles with a desiccant substance. 87 m. mitu, a. fiţa, t. balaci, a. stănescu, e. creţu study of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 figure 2: the hardness of tablets (n ) figure 3: diameter (mm) and height (mm) of tablets 88 m. mitu, a. fiţa, t. balaci, a. stănescu, e. creţu study of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 table 4: time of disintegration of chewable tablets crt. time of disintegration(min) time of disintegration(sec) 1. 8 480 2. 8.32 499,2 3. 8.2 492 4. 8.04 482,4 5. 8.18 490,8 6. 8.4 504 figure 4: the disintegration time of chewable tablets 89 m. mitu, a. fiţa, t. balaci, a. stănescu, e. creţu study of chewable tablets with a calcium complex association and vitamin d3 experimental study has shown the possibility to obtain film-based natural products that have an appreciable content of calcium and other trace elements, minerals and vitamin d3, an important role in returning stability excipients used. children having a pleasant taste will more easily accept the chewable tablet flavor and active substances are more easily disposed of pharmaceutical form as the tablets are broken in the mouth and are more easily absorbed and metabolized in the body, with the development of therapeutic, to the tablets are swallowed. references [1] buckley j, abbott m, martin s, brinkworth g, whyte p.” effect on an oral bovine colostrums supplement on running performance”. abstract from: 1998 australian conference of science and medicine in sport, adelaide, south australia, october 1999; [2] grant wb, holick mf (2005). ”benefits and requirements of vitamin d for optimal health: a review”. altern med rev 10 (2): 94-111; [3] gregory s. kelly, (nov.2003). ”bovine colostrums: a review of clinical uses” altern med rev 2003;8(4):378-394; [4] xxxeuropean pharmacopoeia 5th edition, council of europe, strasbourg, 2004; [5] xxxfarmacopeea română, ediţia a x-a, editura medicală, bucureşti, 1993; [6] xxxunited states pharmacopoeia, usp 27, united states pharmacopoeia convention inc, rockville md, 2004. mirela mitu, ancuţa fiţa, teodora balaci, andreea stănescu, emma creţu department of pharmaceutical technology, faculty of pharmacy, university of medicine and pharmacy ”carol davila” bucharest contact e-mail: aastanescu@gmail.com 90 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 239-245 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/281 internet addiction and the postpartum depression in pandemic beatris-cela stan¹, eva-maria elkan2, ana-maria papuc3, doina carina voinescu4, anamaria ciubara5 1 phd student faculty of medicine and pharmacy, ugal, romania 2 lecturer at faculty of medicine and pharmacy, ugal, romania 3 student at faculty of medicine and pharmacy, ugal, romania 4 professor at faculty of medicine and pharmacy, ugal, romania 5 professor at faculty of medicine and pharmacy, ugal, romania abstract: the addiction on internet is spread on the hole globe and include all the age and social gourps. postpartum depression is caused as also accelerated and magnified in many cases in situations of isolation (social, medical, living, professional). the own perception about isolation varies from person to person and the consequences are depending on the degree of frustration which some deprivation are inducing it. the mother has the sensation of unjustice of the destiny, that she deserves on a certain plan something more and this dissatisfaction will lead her to be to upset, worried, undecided, anxious and ashamed, helplessness and finally depressed. the spectrum of the postpartum depression is extended up to demisive behavior (abandonment of the job, career, extended family, friends and even the husband) in many cases because of the fear not to be accepted or not to upset the others.the difficulties encountered bu the investigators and the therapists it consists precisely in the fact that it is needed to define correct and concrete this subjective experiences and also to measure them and to correlate them with the actions and the evaluated consequences of the patients actions. the bet with destiny which the woman made it many times, she tries in the moment of depression that she has lost, and just her baby can become the existential motivation to go further and this happens often to mothers with a psychovulnerabilizant family hystory and there are situations in which this assumption seems to look very bad for the women and so the women tries to argue and to justify some of her behaviors.this hard journey form denial to awareness and afterhtat assumption and reconciliation can be traversed with specialised help focused focused on the mother who wants to manage her past in a new setting. keywords: addiction, internet, pandemic, postpartum depression. how to cite: stan, b.-c., elkan, e.-m., papuc, a.-m., voinescu, d.c., & ciubara, a. (2022). internet addiction and the postpartum depression in pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 239-245. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/281 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/281 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/281 internet addiction and the postpartum depression in pandemic beatris-cela stan, et al. 240 introduction the uncertainity, the shortages, the daily variation of social rules, of the working rules and the permanently appearence of events that are disturbing the free time can lead to the voluntary or involuntary readjustement of the reality wich becomes fragmentated (huidu, 2018; neculau et al., 2018; rodideal, 2019; sandu & nistor, 2020) for the mother which must respond to the challenge of new family roles. the mother is the person from which the others are requiring to be the anchor and the shore in the pandemic and her duty is to bring hte peace and hapiness in the family, and the expectations from her are that she to became a balanced and quiet person as also a prudent, calm and confident person (baroiu et al., 2021; luca, baroiu et al., 2020).there are existing divergent opinions about the utilisation of the internet, because the internet permits conexions which in other situations would not be possible, between peoples with similar ideas and conceptions about life but which in their social microgroup are not finding peoples with the same ideas, but on the other hand it is lost the valuable time for the interactions face to face with other peoples. the fathers can have also postpartum depression in a percentage of 4-25%, the fathers are expresing more the anger and fear rather their sadness (melrose, 2010; radulescu 2020). sometimes the parents of a child can confrount with the onset of a chronic disease of their child against which they feel powerless. the psychologic therapy adresses to the mothers which use the internet and is cognitiv-behavioral and htis therapy will combat the maladaptative behaviors and will bring the correction of some wrong beliefs and convictions and the interpersonal psychotherapy. the women avoyd to seek help because they have fear to be badged because of this diagnostic. the therapy wll help the women to process their visions with negative impact about what maternity is and the role as a mother it seems to overwhelm them.in fact a role negociation is made as also the lossprocessing and the confrountation which the mother learns to do with her proper person and her proper ambivalence (fonseca, 2018). the patients with postpartum depression have a modification of the psychic tonus, dysphoria and have emotional oscillations, sleep disorders going to insomnia, confusing states of different intensities and anxiety which can go up to panic attacks, feelings of guilt toward the child and toward the partner and the anxiety not to cope with the familal and social roles. there are also suicidal thoughts in this pacients, and 50% of this women do not adress to a psychiatrist to seek help (leturneau, et al., 2007; sakakihara, 2019). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 241 objectives we want to show the unseen face of the suffering of the mother who takes refuge on the internet, generated by the personal hystory, by her anxieties, by taboo’s, inadequate support, perturbated social and family roles. the support of this adrifetd women protects the child and the whole family. results the mothers no longer having the support of the extended family that often disappears due to the pandemic ( protection fo grandparents of the child which can no come in contact with the family because of the danger to take the virus), the mother will seek help in the virtual space.the mother will try to get informations from internet from parent groups to learn how to raise how she knows better her child to keeps him out of the hospital (where she and her child can get infections and the hsopital is the place where she will get a pcr testing and she is not shure if the consequence will not be the isolation of their and her family). the pandemic is complicating the contact with relatives and friends together with the problems at the job of both the father and mother can lead to alienation and so the mother will lose the support from the person she needed most, her husband. the harsh reality she will try to counteract, by looking for words of wit on the internet to strengthen her, to go through the pandemic and overcome the difficulties of her child's newborn age. because the excessive utilisation of the phone, internet, tv she will neglect involuntary her child and she will lose the interaction which can put her in a good light before her family and the self-worth in one's own eyes. if there appear observations and critics in the family, the feelings of guilt of the mother will grow and the greatest guilt she will have thinking that she hav eborn a child in hard times and she will feel guilt also toward the husband because she cannot be a good mother and a good wife. the mother will take distance toward the colleagues and friends because whe will try to put a mask over her suffering and whe will try to communicate with other people on internet to comfort her. the women which use the internet to ask about information about birth and child’s education are 66-75% .there are risk factors on which it is very hard to act, such as life history, the previous depressive episodes that load it with an even higher risk, the environment of origin. many women will avoid to seek help because the postpartum depression is a corollary and other problems which the woman cannot manage and in this way fear may arise about the exposure to the authorities (filip drozd, 2015). the excessive utilisation of the internet from mothers and the disruption of the sleep internet addiction and the postpartum depression in pandemic beatris-cela stan, et al. 242 program of the child and that’s why children become confused and angry and are after that exposed to the psychical and physical abuse from the mothers. the internet is used by some persons to counterbalance the feelings of guilt and helplessness because the own poor management of their lives and the way they are perceived by the society (sakakihara, 2019). other therapies which can rebalance the women with postpartum depression compared to conventional ones and international accepted according to the actual guidelines are the white light of 10.000 lux up to 30 minutes per day. the postpartum depression intervenes when the child it still depends on the quality of the interactions with the adults. the children of depressive mothers can develop retardation in mental aquisition (verbal, motor) as also retardation in the social interactions (dennis et al., 2019).the figure 1 shows how the facts can escalate from tensions and depression to violence. figure 1. the cicle of violence after aya sakakihara (2019) so where? the role of the multidiciplinary team is to intervene in this situation of balance which can evolve to real crisis, and the role of the team is to offer to the mother safe and secure alternatives for a dialogue with meaningful sense and direction with the purpose to help her to slide elegantly through the hardships of dayly life, and so the mother can feel she is part of the social life and that she is still a women which is appreciated, understood and that she is a secure base of atachement for her child. we want to offer a model of intervention for the mothers in difficulty in the problematic utilisation of the internet insomnia agitation of the child disturbance of the couple dynamics and family rituals abuse, neglect, physically and phychic mother depression (and the other members of the family) brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 243 pandemic and we want to prevent the development of major depressive episodes in the postpartum period which can have as a consequence the endangering the harmonious development of the child and the damage of the mental health of the mother on long term. discussions the program adi-adds-w (internet adiction and depressions in women) designed by our team is a new instrument to combat the addiction on internet for the depressed women: the mothers will complete a questionnaire for the inclusion in the study as also they will make (if they wish) a voice registration of their needs, because written answers can differ from the information given by voice registration and we will have more spontaneous information production the internet can become a good tool to combat even the addiction on internet and the mothers postpartum depressionbecause we can generate working groups on internet and whatsup –therapeutic groups for mothers or even individual therapy with permanently renewed audiovisual media with the purpose to interact with the beneficiaries (grigoras & ciubara, 2021; luca, burlea et al., 2020; pandele et al., 2021). the therapist can accompany the mother in the precious time spent with her child counselling from the neonatologist who is part of the team creating a neurologist-neonatologist-psychologist trinomial to discuss each case conclusions indifferent of what kind of protocol is used for the rehabilitation of the mother with different addictions as also the addiction to the inadequate use of the internet, the basic principles are the family support, the social and educatinal insertion and the interdisciplinary vision of the specialists with the maintainance in the pandemic of a secure remote so that the mothers can feel that every moment they are understanding, security and support. references baroiu, l., dumea, e., năstase, f., niculeţ, e., fotea, s., ciubara, a. b., stefanopol, i. a., nechita, a., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2021). assessment of depression in patients with covid-19. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 internet addiction and the postpartum depression in pandemic beatris-cela stan, et al. 244 dennis, c.l., brown, j.v.e., brown, h.k. (2019) interventions (other than psychosocial, psychological and pharmacological) for treating postpartum depression. cochrane database of systematic reviews, 11, cd013460. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd013460 drozd, f., haga, s.m., brendryen, h., kari slinning, k.(2015). an internet-based intervention (mamma mia) for postpartum depression: mapping the development from theory to practice. jmir research protocols, 12, 4(4), 120. https://doi.org/10.2196/resprot.4858 fonseca, a., pereira, m., araújo-pedrosa, a., gorayeb, r., ramos, m. m., & canavarro, c. (2018). be a mom: formative evaluation of a web-based psychological intervention to prevent postpartum depression. cognitive and behavioral practice, 25(4), 473-495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2018.02.002 grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 huidu, a. (2018). social acceptance of ethically controversed innovative techniques related to or derived from assisted reproductive technologies – a review of literature. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 2(2), 114. https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/11 letourneau, n., duffett‐leger, l.,stewart, m., hegadoren, k., dennis, c-l., rinaldi, c. m., & stoppard, j. (2007). canadian mothers’ perceived support needs during postpartum depression. clinical research, 36(5), 441-449. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2007.00174.x luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a-c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 melrose, s. (2010). paternal postpartum depression: how can nurses begin to help? contemporary nurse, 34(2), 199-210. https://doi.org/10.5172/conu.2010.34.2.199 necula m. r., sandu, a., & damian, s-i. (2018). the role of social assistance in therapeutic education. archiv euromedica, 8(2), 24-30. http://journalarchiveuromedica.eu/archivhttps://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd013460 https://doi.org/10.2196/resprot.4858 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2018.02.002 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/11 https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/11 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2007.00174.x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/10.5172/conu.2010.34.2.199 http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 245 euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_1 2_2018-24_30.pdf pandele, v. f., tucmeanu, a., antohi, m. e., & ciubara, a. (2021). the effect of using facebook on elderly people during covid-19 pandemic. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 69-71. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199885x/2021/11/5.19 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 rodideal, a. a. (2019). causes-solution tree: parents are the main actors expected to mediate children online activities. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 8(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/13 sakakihara, a., haga, c., kinjoc, a., & osakic, y. (2019). association between mothers’ problematic internet use and maternal recognition of child abuse. child abuse & neglect, 96, 104086. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104086 sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). individual versus social in psycho-sociology. the social construction of reality. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2), 44-49. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/21 http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/47200213 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/47204285 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/21961858 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.19 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.19 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/13 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104086 https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/21 https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/21 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 29-35 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/107 intelligent support system for personalized online learning irina shpolianskaya¹, tatyana seredkina 2 1 dr. of economics, department of information systems and applied informatics, rostov state university of economics, russian federation, irinaspol@yandex.ru 2 master of science in mathematics, department of information systems and applied informatics, rostov state university of economics, russian federation, seredkina.1994@yandex.ru abstract: the current conditions of the covid-19 pandemic have required universities to transfer educational processes in the online environment. elearning systems provide educational institutions and students with the opportunity to effectively organize the educational process and share knowledge. they provide each student with freedom of access to information and flexibility of the learning process. the student can individually determine the duration and sequence of courses by changing the trajectory of the educational process following their needs. in the context of the pandemic, students and teachers have to optimize their work over the internet. this requires more extended personalization of the learning process. intelligent technologies allow you to construct personalized learning paths for each student, varying methods, forms, and speed of learning. this study presents the architecture of the e-learning support system for the selection of online resources and for including them in the student's learning path. the system developed as a set of personal agents and services that interact based on a set of interconnected ontological models. ontologies provide a more adequate representation of online resources and compatibility of the user request format with descriptions of training resources from different developers. the system recommends training modules based on current requests and user characteristics that match their profile. the system dynamically updates the knowledge base user characteristics, thereby increasing the effectiveness of recommendations. keywords: personalised elearning; pandemic; learning paths; recommender system. how to cite: shpolianskaya, i., & seredkina, t. (2020). intelligent support system for personalized online learning. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 29-35. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/107 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/107 mailto:irinaspol@yandex.ru mailto:seredkina.1994@yandex.ru https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/107 intelligent support system for personalized online learning irina shpolianskaya & tatyana seredkina 30 1. introduction elearning systems present educational institutions and students the opportunity to effectively organize the educational process and to share knowledge. they provide each student with freedom of access to information and the flexibility of the learning process. students can independently settle the duration and sequence of the courses and change the learning path, following their needs (biletskiy et al., 2009). the need to implement intelligent online learning support systems is due to the requirements of an individual approach to each student. intelligent technologies allow you to construct personalized learning paths for each student by choosing methods, forms, and speed of learning. in recent years, there has been a huge increase in the number of learning resources available online (odonnell et al., 2015). large volumes of knowledge and a variety of alternative courses in the online environment require the construction of personal learning paths taking into account the capabilities, needs, and characteristics of students, their cognitive and personal characteristics. the main problem is the difficulty for students to find the most appropriate courses that best suit their interests. adaptive methods of managing educational resources help to personalize learning (chrysoulas & fasli, 2017). in personalized e-learning systems, the following tasks are solved: a) construction of a learning path (yang et al., 2010) and rational selection of a set of educational materials that meet the current needs of the student (dharshini et al., 2015); b) determining the profile of the student (kardan et al., 2013; ognjanovic et al., 2016); с) development of ways to present knowledge about the educational process (peylo, 2000; tarus et al., 2017). 2. methods construction of a learning path is a complex task due to the need for multiparametric analysis that takes into account the prerequisites and learning outcomes of the course program, current knowledge, individual characteristics, and learning styles of students (dharshini et al., 2015). the composition of heterogeneous information resources and services in the learning path should be performed automatically. the procedures of learning object selection must perform quality analysis, taking into account their characteristics, their compliance with the user profile. the selection and sequence of knowledge fragments can be determined according to the brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 31 student's characteristics, such as learning styles, preferences, abilities, initial requirements, and course duration. building a learning path involves discovering the best possible way to link each student to learning objects or pedagogical requirements. some researchers consider the problem of creating an optimal learning path as a weighted directed graph where each node represents a course unit (alshalabi et al., 2015). many papers have proposed evolutionary algorithms, such as genetic algorithms, ant colony optimization algorithm, and the methods of particle swarm optimization (chu et al., 2009). methods for finding the optimal learning path in the online environment are implemented in the form of recommender systems (drachsler et al., 2015). the purpose of developing and implementing recommendation systems in the e-learning environment is to optimize the selection of educational resources from a variety of available ones based on the analysis of the quality of educational resources and user perception (sobecki & tomczak, 2010). to make the lms personalized, a recommender system can be integrated into the lms to suggest training material based on information, relevant to a specific student (dascalu et al., 2016). recommender systems use ontologies, artificial intelligence, and fuzzy logic, as well as other methods, to provide personalized recommendations (chen et al., 2012). in (lin, 2010) it is proposed to use expert methods and fuzzy logic to evaluate the quality and ranking of online resources. this approach provides a simple and convenient tool to support the online course selection process based on the preference assessment procedure. in recommendations of e-learning resources, ontologies are used to represent knowledge about the learner and the learning objects (george & lal, 2019). ontologies can be reusable, and they support inference mechanisms to provide more relevant recommendations. in (sharma & ahuja, 2016), the authors used ontology to support e-learning using a recommendation system. in curlango-rosas, ponce & lopez-morteo (2011), a method for searching for learning objects is proposed, following a student's profile and the description of the learning objects. in gulzar, raj & leema (2019), an approach to creating a recommender system is proposed where an ontology is used to model and represent knowledge about the student and educational resources. the sequential pattern analysis algorithm detects subsequent patterns of choosing didactic modules in the students learning process. 3. results intelligent support system for personalized online learning irina shpolianskaya & tatyana seredkina 32 the method of integral course quality assessment based on the fuzzy logic approach has been proposed to ensure the evaluation, selection, and integration of e-learning objects into the learning trajectory. we have proposed a new approach to the problem of e-learning courses quality evaluation, which we dene in terms of fuzzy preference relations and linguistic variables with a single integral indicator. this approach provides a simple and convenient tool to support the process of online course selection based on the quality assessment procedure and the learners' preferences. evaluation of the functional characteristics of a learning object has been performed based on a comparison of the resource descriptions in the ontological model of training materials and the user model. semantic proximity measures have been used to assess whether resources match the student's profile. to enable the process of searching and composing learning resources into the learning path to be implemented dynamically automatically, resources are given a semantic description using the owl language based on ontologies. the ontology includes a resource description model, a student model describing their requirements and characteristics, and an ontological model of curriculum competencies. using the ontological approach provides the basis for creating an intelligent e-learning support system, when ontologies store data on the current state of the student's learning process, data on their requirements, and data on successful strategies for selecting and using resources by other users with similar characteristics. based on this information, the system searches for resources and then integrates them into the structure of the learning path. in the proposed e-learning support system, domain ontology classifies various areas of professional and scientific knowledge and binds to them the concepts (keywords) used in various online courses. the applied ontology holds information related to users and learning resources. the system uses the student's profile to recommend an e-course with appropriate characteristics. the student profile is continuously updated during the training process. ontologies are used as an integration platform for all processes. information search based on personalized agents creates a dynamic environment integrated with all e-learning processes. students, using personal agents, search for educational material according to their needs. learning objects are associated with the corresponding ontologies, which brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 33 makes it possible to build semantic queries on a given topic. ontology becomes a link between the needs (requests) of the user and the characteristics of the educational material. the possibility of navigation through the portal can also be extended with semantically explicit links between pages of the portal. the developed system to support personalized learning has a microservice architecture and includes online procedures for monitoring learning processes. the adaptive recommender system operates with the following services: service for online courses quality assessment, service for user behavior data collection, service for user behavior data collection. the system generates and evaluates alternative options for the synthesis of individual trajectories and selects the learning object that best corresponds to the current student profile. each user has a personalized agent that connects to the online learning system services. the software implementation of the system provides flexible support for the student, forming appropriate recommendations in the learning process. 4. conclusions this paper presents a new approach to solving the problem of personalization of learning in a dynamic electronic environment. within this approach, a method of using owl-ontology for integrating resources into an individual learning trajectory is proposed. the architecture of the elearning support system for the selection of online resources for their further inclusion in the individual trajectory of student learning is defined. the developed system is implemented as a set of personal agents and services that interact based on a knowledge base represented as a set of interconnected ontological models. the system recommends a resource based on current requests and user characteristics following their profile. in the process, the system dynamically updates the knowledge base about the current characteristics of the user, thereby increasing the effectiveness of generated recommendations. references alshalabi, i. a., hamada, s., & elleithy, k. (2015). automated adaptive learning using smart shortest path algorithm for course units. 2015 long island systems, applications and technology, farmingdale, ny, 2015 (pp. 1-5). https://doi.org/10.1109/lisat.2015.7160187 https://doi.org/10.1109/lisat.2015.7160187 intelligent support system for personalized online learning irina shpolianskaya & tatyana seredkina 34 biletskiy, y., baghi, h., keleberda, i., & fleming, m. (2009). an adjustable personalization of search and delivery of learning objects to learners. expert systems with applications, 36(5), 9113–9120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2008.12.038 chen, w., niu, z., zhao, x., & li, y. (2012). a hybrid recommendation algorithm adapted in e-learning environments. world wide web, 17(2), 271–284. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11280-012-0187-z chrysoulas, c., & fasli, m. (2017). building an adaptive e-learning system. in proceedings of the 9th international conference on computer supported education volume 2: csedu, 375-382, 2017, porto, portugal. https://doi.org/10.5220/0006326103750382 chu, c.-p., chang, y.-c., & tsai, c.-c. (2009). pc2pso: personalized e-course composition based on particle swarm optimization. applied intelligence, 34(1), 141–154. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-009-0186-7 curlango-rosas, c., ponce, g. a., & lopez-morteo, g. a. (2011). a specialized search assistant for learning objects. acm transactions on the web, 5(4), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1145/2019643.2019648 dascalu, m.-i., bodea, c.-n., mihailescu, m. n., tanase, e. a., & pablos, p. o. d. (2016). educational recommender systems and their application in lifelong learning. behaviour & information technology, 35(4), 290–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2015.1128977 dharshini, a. p., chandrakumarmangalam, s., & arthi, g. (2015). ant colony optimization for competency based learning objects sequencing in elearning. applied mathematics and computation, 263, 332–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2015.04.067 drachsler, h., verbert, k., santos, o. c., & manouselis, n. (2015). panorama of recommender systems to support learning. in f. ricci, l. rokach, & b. shapira (eds.), recommender systems handbook. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7637-6_12 george, g., & lal, a. m. (2019). review of ontology-based recommender systems in e-learning. computers & education, 142, 103642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103642 gulzar, z., raj, l. a., & leema, a. a. (2019). ontology supported hybrid recommender system with threshold based nearest neighbourhood approach. international journal of information and communication technology education, 15(2), 85–107. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijicte.2019040106 kardan, a. a., sadeghi, h., ghidary, s. s., & sani, m. r. f. (2013). prediction of student course selection in online higher education institutes using neural network. computers & education, 65, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.01.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2008.12.038 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11280-012-0187-z https://doi.org/10.5220/0006326103750382 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-009-0186-7 https://doi.org/10.1145/2019643.2019648 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2015.1128977 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2015.04.067 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7637-6_12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103642 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijicte.2019040106 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.01.015 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 35 lin, h.-f. (2010). an application of fuzzy ahp for evaluating course website quality. computers & education, 54(4), 877–888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.017 odonnell, e., lawless, s., sharp, m., & wade, v. p. (2015). a review of personalised e-learning. international journal of distance education technologies, 13(1), 22–47. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijdet.2015010102 ognjanovic, i., gasevic, d., & dawson, s. (2016). using institutional data to predict student course selections in higher education. the internet and higher education, 29, 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.12.002 peylo, c. (2000). w2 adaptive and intelligent web-based education systems. in g. gauthier, c. frasson, k. vanlehn (eds.), intelligent tutoring systems. its 2000. lecture notes in computer science, 1839. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45108-0_86 sharma, m., & ahuja, l. (2016). a novel and integrated semantic recommendation system for e-learning using ontology. proceedings of the second international conference on information and communication technology for competitive strategies ictcs 16, article 52, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1145/2905055.2905110 sobecki, j., & tomczak, j. m. (2010). student courses recommendation using ant colony optimization. in n.t. nguyen, m.t. le, j. świątek (eds.), intelligent information and database systems. aciids 2010. lecture notes in computer science, 5991. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12101-2_14 tarus, j. k., niu, z., & mustafa, g. (2017). knowledge-based recommendation: a review of ontology-based recommender systems for e-learning. artificial intelligence review, 50(1), 21–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-017-95395 yang, f., li, f. w. b., & lau, r. w. h. (2010). an open model for learning path construction. in x. luo, m. spaniol, l. wang, q. li, w. nejdl, w. zhang (eds.), advances in web-based learning – icwl 2010. icwl 2010. lecture notes in computer science, 6483. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3642-17407-0_33 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.017 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijdet.2015010102 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.12.002 https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45108-0_86 https://doi.org/10.1145/2905055.2905110 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12101-2_14 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-017-9539-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-017-9539-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17407-0_33 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17407-0_33 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 237-246 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/202 comparative study of ethanol intoxications in the context of covid-19 pandemic reported to the year of 2019 mihai terpan¹, anamaria ciubara2 1 phd student, "dunarea de jos " university, galați, romania, terpan.mihai@yahoo.com 2 ph.d., hab. professor, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, university "dunarea de jos" head of psychiatry department, senior psychiatrist at ”elisabeta doamna” hospital, galati, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract: excessive alcohol consumption that causes disorders of social conduct, causes a rejection reaction with the intervention of the authorities. the paper compares trends related to people with the diagnosis of acute intoxication (f10.0) admitted to the "elisabeta doamna” psychiatry hospital in galati, from the 1st of january to the 31th of december 2020 with the period from the 1st of january to the 31th of december 2019. in the retrospective study we selected people discharged with acute intoxication, code (f10.0), and harmful use (f10.1), excluding all patients with other psychiatric diagnoses from the database of the "elisabeta doamna" psychiatry hospital from 2020 to 2019. icd-10 (classification of mental and behavioral disorders) was used for diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. the data was processed statistically using: microsoft office-excel, the jamovi project (2021). jamovi (version 1.6) [computer software]. in 2020 there were 39.58% fewer discharges by a total of (7973 cases) compared to (13197 cases) in 2019. in 2020, acute intoxication (f10.0) accounted for 7.41% of total discharges compared to a percentage of (8.27%) in 2019, showing a decline by a percentage of 45.92%. comparing the years 2020 with 2019 by gender (of the total number of discharges with acute intoxication (f10.0), there is an increase in the percentage of discharges by 1.16% (from 86.98% in 2019 to 88.14% in 2020), while in the female gender, the percentage trend has decreased by a percentage of 1.16% (from 13.02% in 2019 to 11.86% in 2020). keywords: alcohol, covid-19, pandemic, psychiatry, intoxication. how to cite: terpan, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). comparative study of ethanol intoxications in the context of covid-19 pandemic reported to the year of 2019. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 237-246. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/202 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/202 mailto:terpan.mihai@yahoo.com mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/202 comparative study of ethanol intoxications in the context of covid-19 pandemic … mihai terpan & anamaria ciubara 238 1. introduction alcohol consumption is considered an easy and accepted mechanism of socialization and relaxation (ciubara et al., 2015). when the amount of alcohol ingested exceeds the body's metabolism capacity, the amount of alcohol that reaches the blood level increases causing a multitude of effects (damian et al., 2019). at the cerebral level, excess alcohol causes behavioral disorders with impaired social behavior through aggression, disinhibiting behavior or coma (ciubara et al., 2018). these changes shall be referred to the persons in the entourage or other persons close to them who refer the matter to the authorities for the resolution of the dissocial conduct (tabian et al., 2021). the authorities represented by the ambulance, emergency reception unit and the police, handle persons in case of violent manifestations to the psychiatric sector to determine the impact of alcohol consumption and the remission over time of alcohol-related disorders. the pandemic and restrictive measures have changed society's behavior (luca, baroiu et al., 2020; sandu, 2020a; 2020b; 2020c sandu & nistor 2020; sandu et al., 2020). in addition to changes in social behavior, changes in psychiatric pathology were also identified (luca, ciubara et al., 2020). 2. research methodology present work compares admissions to the "elisabeta doamna" psychiatry hospital in galati, related to people with the diagnosis of acute intoxication (f10.0) and harmful use of alcohol (f10.1), in the period between the 1 st of january and the 31th of december 2020 with the period between the 1 st of january and the 31th of december 2019. in the retrospective study we selected people discharged with acute intoxication code (f10.0) and harmful use of alcohol (f10.1), and excluded all patients with other psychiatric diagnoses from the database of the "elisabeta doamna" psychiatry hospital from the period between 2019 and 2020. icd-10 (classification of mental and behavioral disorders) was used for diagnosis of psychiatric disorders (world health organization. 2016). the following items were used for statistical processing: the environment of provenance (urban, rural), gender (male, female), diagnostic criterion (f10.0, f10.1), day of the week (monday –sunday). the data was processed statistically using: microsoft office-excel, the jamovi project (2021). jamovi (version 1.6) [computer software] and sofa statistics open for all version 1.5.4. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 239 3. discussions the two diagnoses of acute ethanolic intoxication (f10.0) and harmful use of alcohol (f10.1) were chosen from alcohol-related disorders because they reflect the effects of acute abuse sufficient to associate disorders with the behaviors that cause a response from reactive societies (american psychiatric association, 2013). these two disorders are those in which excess alcohol ingested is associated with an oriented structure towards fulfilling desire as quickly as possible, and a reduced tolerance to it. the research range was chosen to compare the dynamics of admissions between the pre-pandemic year 2019 and the year of the 2020 pandemic. the beginning of government measures was between the 15 th and the 16 th of march 2020 by affecting the people’s ability to leave their homes. 4. research results 4.1. gender distribution table.1 gender distribution year f m freq col % row % freq col % row % 2019 235 65.3% 12.6% 1623 62.4% 87.4% 2020 125 34.7% 11.3% 978 37.6% 88.7% source: authors’ own conception in 2019 the number of people admitted to the hospital with the two diagnoses was 1858 with a predominantly of male distribution 1623 (87.35%) and higher number of patients from urban environment 1256 (67.60%). in 2020, the number of persons admitted with the two diagnoses was 1103 with a predominantly male distribution 978 (88,67%) and urban environment 753 (68,27%). compared to 2019, there has been a decrease in admissions for the two diagnoses in 2020 of 40.64%, which can be attributed to the covid-19 pandemic. at the male level, there was a decrease in the absolute figures from 1623 in 2019 to 978 in 2020, a decrease of 39.74%. as a percentage, the share of the male gender increases from 87.35% in 2019 to 88.67% in 2020 by 1.32%, which showed an insignificant increase. at the level of the female gender there was a decrease in absolute figures from 235 in 2019, to 125 cases in 2020, a decrease of 46.81% comparative study of ethanol intoxications in the context of covid-19 pandemic … mihai terpan & anamaria ciubara 240 higher than the decrease observed in male gender. in percentage terms, the share of the female gender decreases from 12.65% in 2019 to 11.33% by1.32%, which showed an insignificant decrease. in conclusion, although in absolute figures we have a significant decrease in admissions in 2020 compared to 2019, the percentage distribution by gender remains almost identical. 4.2 distribution by location of residence table. 2 distribution by location of residence year rural urban freq col % row % freq col % row % 2019 602 63.2% 32.4% 1256 62.5% 67.6% 2020 350 36.8% 31.7% 753 37.5% 68.3% source: authors’ own conception in 2020 there was a decrease in admissions for patients from urban areas in absolute figures compared to 2019, from 1256 patients to 753 patients in 2020 of 40.05%. as a percentage, there is an insignificant increase in 2020 (68.27%) compared to 2019 (67.60%). in rural areas there is a decrease from 602 patients (year 2019) to 350 patients (year 2020), a decrease of 41.86%, which is similar to the decrease in urban areas. as a percentage, there is an insignificant decrease in 2020 (31.73%) compared to 2019 (32.40%). in conclusion, although in absolute figures we have a significant decrease compared to 2019, the percentage distribution by average remains almost uninfluenced. 4.3 distribution by diagnosis and gender table.3 distribution by diagnosis and gender diagnosis year f m freq col % row % freq col % row % f10.0 2019 142 67.0% 13.0% 949 64.6% 87.0% 2020 70 33.0% 11.9% 520 35.4% 88.1% f10.1 2019 93 62.8% 12.1% 674 59.5% 87.9% 2020 55 37.2% 10.7% 458 40.5% 89.3% source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 241 in 2019, the diagnosis of f10.0 represents 58.72% (1091) and f10.1 42.28% (767), compared to 2020 where the diagnosis of f10.0 represents 53.49% (590) and f10.1 46.51% (513). for the diagnosis of f10.0 we have a decrease of 45.92% in absolute figures in the year 2020, but a decrease of only 5.23%. male gender represents a percentage, in 2020 88.14% (520) a percentage increase compared to 2019 86.98% (949). the female gender represents a percentage of 11.86% (70) in 2020, down 13.02% (142). for the diagnosis of f10.1 we have in 2020 a decrease of 33.12% in absolute figures from 767 in 2019 to 513 in 2020, but in percentage an increase of only 4,23%. the male gender represents a percentage of 89,28% (458) in 2020, a percentage increase compared to 2019 87,87% (674). the female gender represents a percentage, in 2020 10.72% (55) down in percentage compared to 2019 12.13% (93). 4.4 distribution by day of the week and diagnosis table 4. distribution by day of the week and diagnosis day of the week f10.0 f10.1 2019 2020 2019 2020 no. col % no. col % no. col % no. col % monday 160 14.7% 116 19.7% 131 17.1% 78 15.2% tuesday 166 15.2% 80 13.6% 104 13.6% 62 12.1% wednesday 158 14.5% 83 14.1% 121 15.8% 83 16.2% thursday 126 11.5% 74 12.5% 106 13.8% 69 13.5% friday 145 13.3% 88 14.9% 122 15.9% 77 15.0% saturday 165 15.1% 79 13.4% 84 11.0% 77 15.0% sunday 171 15.7% 70 11.9% 99 12.9% 67 13.1% source: authors’ own conception for the diagnosis of f10.0, in 2019, most admissions were on sunday 171 (15.7%), followed by tuesday 166 (15.2%) and the fewest admissions were on thursday 126 (11.5%). in 2020 there is a change, with the most admissions on monday 116 (19.7%) followed by friday 88 (14.9%), and the lowest number of admissions we had was on sunday 70 (11.9%). it is noted that if in 2019 the differences between the days of the week were only 4.2%, in 2020 the differences between the days of the week were by 7.8%, a significant increase of 185.71%. there is a significant comparative study of ethanol intoxications in the context of covid-19 pandemic … mihai terpan & anamaria ciubara 242 change in the consumption pattern for acute intoxication (f10.0) with increased consumption on certain days for 2020. for the diagnosis of f10.1, in 2019 most admissions were on monday 131 (17,1%) followed by friday 122(15.9%) and the lowest number of admissions on saturday 84(11.0%). in 2020 we see a change, with the most admissions on wednesday 83 (16.2%) followed by monday 78 (15.2%), and the lowest number of admissions we have on tuesday 62(12.1%). it is noted that if in 2019 the differences between the days of the week are 6,1%. in 2020, the differences between the days of the week were by 4,1%, a significant decrease of 67,21%. there is a significant change in the pattern of consumption for the harmful use of alcohol (f10.1). 4.5 distribution by diagnosis and environment table 5. distribution by diagnosis and environment location f10.0 f10.1 2019 2020 2019 2020 freq col % freq col % freq col % freq col % rural 336 30.8% 191 32.4% 266 34.7% 159 31.0% urban 755 69.2% 399 67.6% 501 65.3% 354 69.0% source: authors’ own conception in 2019, for the diagnosis of acute ethanolic intoxication (f10.0), 755 cases (69.2%) predominated for the diagnosis of acute ethanolic intoxication (f10.0) in the urban areas, in comparison to 336 patients (30.8%) in the rural areas. in 2020, for the diagnosis of acute ethanolic intoxication (f10.0), urban areas also prevailed by 399 cases(67.6%). compared to rural areas which showed only 191 cases (32.4%). as noted, for the diagnosis of (f10.0), despite the fact that in urban areas, there was a decrease in the number of cases by the year 2020 (from 755 in 2019 to 399 in 2020), the decrease in the overall percentage was less than 2% (from 69.2% in 2019 to 67.6% in 2020). in 2019, for the diagnosis of harmful use (f10.1), the cases from the urban areas showed a number of 501 cases (65.3%), which was prodimenet in comparison to the number of cases from rural areas, which presented only 266 cases (34.7%). brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 243 in 2020, as well as for the diagnosis of harmful use (f10.1), the number of cases from urban areas predominated by a number of 354 cases (69.0%), in comparison to the number of cases from rural areas, which presented only 159 cases (31.0%). as noted, for the diagnosis of (f10.1), despite the decrease in the number of cases from the urban areas in the year 2020 (from 501 in 2019 to 354 in 2020), the increase in the overall percentage was observed by more than 3% (from 65.3% in 2019 to 69.0% in 2020). in conclusion, the same growth of hospital admissions is maintained in percentage terms, although in absolute figures we can observe a decrease of almost 50%. 4.6 distribution by month table.6 distribution by month luna 2019 2020 freq col % row % freq col % row % april 162 8.7% 74.3% 56 5.1% 25.7% august 189 10.2% 71.6% 75 6.8% 28.4% december 220 11.8% 71.9% 86 7.8% 28.1% february 121 6.5% 47.8% 132 12.0% 52.2% january 112 6.0% 41.2% 160 14.5% 58.8% july 131 7.1% 65.2% 70 6.3% 34.8% june 113 6.1% 60.4% 74 6.7% 39.6% may 159 8.6% 69.7% 69 6.3% 30.3% march 189 10.2% 57.6% 139 12.6% 42.4% november 196 10.5% 71.3% 79 7.2% 28.7% october 140 7.5% 59.6% 95 8.6% 40.4% september 126 6.8% 64.9% 68 6.2% 35.1% source: authors’ own conception in 2019, the months with the most hopsital admissions were: december by 220 cases (11.8%), november by 196 cases (10.5%), and equally, march and august by 189 cases (10.2%). in 2020, the months with the most hospital admissions were observed in: january by 160 cases(14.5%), march by 139 cases (12.6%), and february by 132 cases(12.0%). in 2020, we note that the months with the most hospital admissions were the precomparative study of ethanol intoxications in the context of covid-19 pandemic … mihai terpan & anamaria ciubara 244 pandemic months as opposed to 2019, when the months with the most admissions were the holiday months (december-november). in 2019, the months with the fewest hospiatl admissions were january by 112 cases (6.0%), and june by 113 cases (6.1%), and february by 121 cases (6.5%). in 2020, the months with the fewest hospital admissions were april by 56 cases (5.1%), september by 68 cases(6.2%), and may by 69 cases(6.3%). in 2020, we observe a correlation between the number of admissions and the onset of the pandemic, which changes the specific model of admissions of the year 2019. 5. conclusions in 2020, there were 39.58% less discharges (7973 cases) in total compared to 2019 (13197 cases). in 2020 acute intoxication (f10.0) accounted for 7.41% of total discharges compared to 2019 (8.27%), a percentage decrease of 45.92%. comparing 2020 with 2019 by gender (of the total discharges with acute intoxication (f10.0), there is an increase in the percentage of discharges of 1.16% (from 86.98% in 2019 to 88.14% in 2020), while in the female gender the percentage trend is decreasing by 1.16% (from 13.02% in 2019 to 11.86% in 2020). at the male level, there was a decrease in 2019 compared to 2020 by 39.74%. compared to the female gender where we had a decrease of 46.81%. in conclusion, although in absolute figures we had a significant decrease in admissions in 2020 compared to 2019, the percentage distribution by gender remains almost identical. the gender difference of about 7.07% shows a greater compliance of the female gender of the measures imposed by the pandemic, possibly due to the factor of higher anxiety levels in females. in 2020 there was a decrease in urban admissions in absolute figures compared to 2019 of 40.05%, while in rural areas we had a decrease of 41.86%, the percentage distribution by gender remains almost uninfluenced. the pandemic also influenced the two environments without distinction. for the diagnosis of (f10.0), we had in 2020 a percentage decrease of only 5.23% and for the diagnosis of (f10.1), we had in 2020 a percentage decrease of only 4.23%. in conclusion, the abusive consumption of alcohol as a percentage of total admissions is not significantly influenced by the pandemic. there is a significant change in the consumption pattern for acute intoxication (f10.0), with increased consumption on certain days for 2020 and decreased on other days. for the harmful use of alcohol (f10.1) a tendency to flatten the pattern of consumption was observed. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 245 in conclusion, the period of the pandemic has changed the level of admissions in absolute figures, but regarding percentages, it is observed the preservation of the habits. references american psychiatric association. (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). american psychiatric publishing. ciubara, a. b., tudor, r. c., nechita, l., tita, o., ciubara, a., turliuc, s., & raftu, g. (2018). the composition of bioactive compounds in wine and their possible influence on osteoporosis and on bone consolidation. revista de chimie, 69(5), 1247-1253. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.18.5.6300 ciubara, a., burlea, s. l., sacuiu, i., radu, d. a., untu, i., & chirita, r. (2015). alcohol addiction a psychosocial perspective. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 187, 536-540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 damian, s-i., diac, m., iov, t., hunea, i., & bulgaru iliescu, d. (2019). particularities of medical education in the field of forensic toxicology. studying dangerous chemical agents in forensic research. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4sup1), 337-344. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/194 luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3s1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 sandu, a. (2020a). from pandemic to infodemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 277-289. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/88 sandu, a. (2020b). the principles of bioethics and their use in ethical decisionmaking. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 9(1), 139154. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.1/39 sandu, a. (2020c). bioethics of public policies. ethical standards in crisis situations. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 141-160. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.18.5.6300 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/194 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/88 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.1/39 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 comparative study of ethanol intoxications in the context of covid-19 pandemic … mihai terpan & anamaria ciubara 246 sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). the dynamic perspective versus the cognitivebehavioral perspective in counselling. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/22 sandu, a., huidu, a., & frunză, a. (2020). social perception of ethical values in the romanian post-secular society. journal for the study of religions and ideologies, 19(55) 18-32. http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/1187/838 sofa. (n.d.). statistics open for all, version 1.5.4. sofa statistics.com. https://www.sofastatistics.com/home.php tabian, d., drochioiu, g., damian, s-i., girlescu, n., toma gradinaru, o., toma, s. i., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2021). toxic blood hydrogen cyanide concentration as a vital sign of a deceased room fire victim—case report. toxics, 9(2), 36. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics9020036 the jamovi project. (2021). jamovi.org. https://www.jamovi.org world health organization (who). (2016). international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (10th ed.). world health organization. https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/icd10volume2_en_2010.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/22 http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/1187/838 https://www.sofastatistics.com/home.php http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics9020036 https://www.jamovi.org/ https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/icd10volume2_en_2010.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 72-81 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/75 effect of calisthenics exercise program on some liver enzyme values and blood lipids mine turğut¹, mücahit sarikaya 2 1 bartın university, faculty of sport sciences, bartin, turkey, minetrgt@gmail.com 2 van yüzüncüyıl university, school of physical education and sports, van, turkey, mucahitsarikaya@yyu.edu.tr abstract: the purpose of this study is to research the effect of the eight week calisthenics exercise, applied to sedentary males, on some liver enzymes. 20 volunteer males, the age average of whom is 29,40 ±3, 47 years and height average of whom is 177,45±4, 89 cm, participated in the research. the body weight, fat percentage and fasting blood sample were taken by the expert persons in the suitable laboratory environment in the healthcare institutions, determined, before and after the application of the exercise program. spss 22. 0 package program was used for analyzing the data obtained and independent groups test (wilcoxon test) was applied for comparing the descriptive statistics and the values before and after the exercise. as a result of the findings we obtained, it was found out that there is a significant difference between the blood lipids, triglyceride, hdl, ldl, and total cholesterol levels before and after the calisthenics exercise program applied (p > 0. 05). similarly, it was determined that there is also a significant change between the pre-test-post-test liver enzyme values (ast, alt) (p > 0. 05). in conclusion, it is understood that the calisthenics exercise program, we applied, provides a significant and efficient change on sedentary males physiologically from the results of the study. starting from these findings, not needing upper level materials for applying the calisthenics exercises suggests that it is efficient to guide the sedentary males to exercise. at the same time, this exercise program being easily applicable home is important because it is thought that obtaining a healthy body mass index can also protect from cardiovascular diseases, caused by sedentary life style and the risk factors causing these diseases. keywords: calisthenics exercise; lipid and liver enzymes. how to cite: turğut, m., & sarikaya, m. (2020). effect of calisthenics exercise program on some liver enzyme values and blood lipids. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 72-81. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/75 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/75 mailto:minetrgt@gmail.com mailto:mucahitsarikaya@yyu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/75 effect of calisthenics exercise program on some liver enzyme values and ... mine turğut et al. 73 1. introduction in today’s conditions, the attraction of the technological development took people hostage and made them the prisoners of sedentary life. that being the case, people of all ages is in a situation using the technological means excessively and have become dealing with all activities, which they can perform via their physical power, via the technological tools. this situation also brings the problems caused by inadequate physical activity with it. physical activity may be defined as the bodily movements resulting in energy consumption in the skeletal muscles (neiman, 1950, pp. 31-33). exercise was defined as physical activities planned for increasing the physical performance and improving the mental health, like swimming, running, and riding (wikkerink, 2016). the purpose of exercise is to fasten the metabolism, to strengthen the muscles, to burn fat, and to increase the flexibility of the joints (tarhan, 2019). it is not necessary to go to gym in order to exercise; it makes exercise attractive that some exercises are done home and performed with less materials. one of these exercise types is the calisthenics exercise. the calisthenics exercises were designed by aiming to provide optimal balanced, adequate and high efficiency such that daily walking applications are completed. calisthenics exercises consist of movements increasing the flexibility and strength of the body (bozlak, 2019). it is a type of exercise consisting of various movements applied without an equipment and apparatus, using your own body weight (srivastava 2016). such exercises are the short muscle contractions happening by using the body mass together with the movement in order to increase the strength and flexibility of the body and contain all body movements, therefore require that big muscle groups are contracted. the calisthenics exercises focus on big muscles and can be combined with breathing exercises and applied rhythmically (aydin et al., 2014). they can be adapted depending on the physical suitability levels of the people (rus et al., 2019). they are suitable for using in sedentary and elderly people (akyol, arslan & çolak, 2016). it is a fact proven today that regular exercising and being physically active provide an apparent increase in the metabolic parameters (penedo & dahn, 2005; talaghir et al., 2018). it is known that the liver enzymes, which enable us to have an idea on the liver functions, one of the metabolic events occupying a place with respect to the health, have a close relationship with the exercise. human organism needs that the inner balance is ensured in order to continue its life. the changes created by the exercise on the enzyme brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 74 activity, are being able to preserve the inner balance and the natural reactions to the stressor. alanine aminotransferase (alt) and aspartate aminotransferase (ast) enzymes are the enzymes present in this reactional process and connected with the liver damage because they are in most of the livers even though it is in a specialized place of the body (hyder, hasan & mohieldein, 2013). it was indicated as a result of the researches that an increase occurs in the alt and ast enzymes after exercise (kim, lee & kim 2007). general opinion is that there is not any inconvenience in the increase of these enzymes with medium and high intensity exercise. also, the benefits of regular exercise are not limited with the balancing of liver enzymes, it is known that it has effects on positive direction on the lipid metabolism too (triglyceride, cholesterol, hdl, and ldl) (arslan et al., 2001;yalın & gök, 2001). it was reported that many exercise programs effect the fat and carbohydrate metabolism and cause moderate decreases in the body weight, total cholesterol and triglyceride in fat depots (özer, bozdal & pancar 2017; tran & weltman, 1985). starting from the existing information and considering the healthy life, exercise has an important place on the lipid mechanism and liver enzymes. because of this, in our research, the purpose is to determine the changes to be indicated on the lipid metabolism and liver enzyme levels by the regular calisthenics exercises, applied for eight weeks, on sedentary males. 2. material and method 2.1. subjects in this research, the pre-test – post-test model was used. the participants were asked whether they have any health problem or not before the research. to the research, 20 volunteer sedentary males, without health problem, with an average age of 29,40 ±3, 47 years, who not attending any sports center in the zonguldak province. bioelectric impedance analyzer (tanita, tc-418, usa) was used for determining the weight and fat percentage measurements of the participants. no diet program was applied to the participants during the research 2.2. procedure 2.2.1. blood lipid measurement tests: the participants went to the healthcare institution, determined, on an empty stomach, before the calisthenics exercises, lasted 60 minutes for 4 days in a week, and after the exercise for 8 weeks and made their whole effect of calisthenics exercise program on some liver enzyme values and ... mine turğut et al. 75 blood count measurements by the expert people in suitable laboratory environment. the blood values; the whole blood count measurements were done with abott c16200 device and ldl, hdl, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and ast and alt values were obtained. 2.2.2. body mass index (bmi) the participants went to the healthcare institution, determined, on an empty stomach, before the calisthenics exercises, lasted 60 minutes for 4 days in a week, and after the exercise for 8 weeks and made their whole blood count measurements by the expert people in suitable laboratory environment. the blood values; the whole blood count measurements were done with abott c16200 device and ldl, hdl, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and ast and alt values were obtained. 2.2.3. exercise and workout program the workout schedule lasted for 8 weeks was consisted of medium intensity calisthenics exercises of 60 minutes for 4 days in a week. the intensity was held at the pace in which the participants felt themselves comfortable (such that the heart pulse number was between 130 and 150). in each workout period, after 10 minutes of warm up, the exercises in the table 1 were done. every workout was completed with 5 minutes cooling exercises. table 1exercises, method and durations: exercises duration/number exercises duration/number/s pistol squat 3set/8 repetitions leg raise 3set/8 repetitions lunge stop 3set/8 repetitions russian twist 3set/8 repetitions shoulder tabs 3set/8 repetitions inverse pull-up 3set/8 repetitions dips 3set/8 repetitions superman exercise 3set/8 repetitions crunch 3set/8 repetitions plank 3 set/30 s 2.4. data analysis the data obtained in the research was analyzed by using spss 22.0 package software. in order to reveal the difference between the pre-test and post-test values of the research group, of the non-parametric tests, the dependent groups t test (wilcoxon test) was used. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 76 3. results table 2physical characteristics of the participants n age (years) (mean±sd) standing height (cm) (mean±sd) 20 29,40 ±3, 47 177,45±4, 89 in the table, considering the physical characteristics of the participants, the average ages and standing lengths were determined as 29,40 ±3,47 years and 177,45±4,89 cm respectively. table 3comparison related with the pre-test – post-test results of some lipid profile values of the participants measurement (cm) sequences n sequence average sequence total z p weight pre-test – post-test negative lines 20a 10, 50 210, 00 -3, 92** , 000** positive lines equal 0b 0c , 00 , 00 total cholesterol mg/dl pre-test – post-test negative lines positive lines equal 17d 3e 10, 24 12, 00 174, 00 7, 00 -2, 57** , 010* 0f trig mg/dl pretest – post-test negative lines positive lines equal 20g 0h 10, 50 , 00 210, 00 , 00 -3, 92** , 000** 0i hdl mg/dl pre-test – post-test negative lines positive lines equal 0j 20k 0l , 00 10, 50 , 00 210, 00 -3, 92** , 000** -3, 65** , 000** ldl mg/dl pre-test – post-test negative lines positive lines equal 19m 1n 0o 10, 68 7, 00 203, 00 7, 00 fat percentage % pre-test – post-test negative lines 20p 10, 50 210, 00 -3, 92** , 000** positive lines equal 0q 0r , 00 , 00 p<0,01**, p<0,05* effect of calisthenics exercise program on some liver enzyme values and ... mine turğut et al. 77 according to the table 3, it was observed that a significant decrease occurred in the body weight, cholesterol, triglyceride, hdl, ldl, and vyy values of the participants in the research group of the eight week calisthenics exercises (p<0,01). this result indicates that the exercise program we applied is efficient on the blood lipids. table 4comparison related with the pre-test – post-test results of some liver enzyme values of the participants measurement (cm) sequences n sequence average sequence total z p ast u/l pretest – post-test negative lines positive lines equal 5a 15b 10, 10 10, 63 50, 50 159, 50 -2,02* -, 042* 0c alt u/l pretest – post-test negative lines positive lines equal 2d 17e 10, 09 9, 25 171, 50 18, 50 3,08** , 002** 1f p<0,01**, p<0,05* according to the table 4, it was found out that the 8 week aerobic calisthenics exercises had significantly changed the ast and alt liver enzyme values of the participants in the research group (p<0,01). 4. discussion our research was performed in order to determine the eight week calisthenics exercise program, applied to the sedentary males, on some physiological parameters and according to the research results, it was found out that it effected in the positive direction on both the vyy (body fat percentage) and blood lipids (triglyceride, cholesterol, hdl and ldl) levels and liver enzyme (ast, alt) levels of the sedentary males who did calisthenics exercises regularly for eight weeks. wang et al. (2020) researched the randomized clinic researches of physical activity interventions done on nafld patients until april 20 th , 2019. in the research, it was found out that physical activity is correlated with the small decreases in the liver enzyme parameters (ast-alt). at the same time, in this research, it was asserted that in the serum lipid parameters and both aerobic exercise and strength exercise alone can improve most of the liver functions and longer exercise duration usually has a better brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 78 improvement effect. as it can be understood from the result of this research, it suggests that physical activity alone can improve the hepatic enzyme levels, most of the serum lipid levels for non-diabetic nafld patients. in another research, in the research where li et al. (2020) applied aerobic and strength exercise of 10 weeks on 24 male obese students; they found out that these exercises may prevent the diseases caused by obesity by increasing the energy consumption and insulin sensitivity, by triggering positive changes in the glycose and lipid mechanism (cholesterol, triglyceride, hdl, and ldl). the result of this research indicates similarity with our research result. in the research performed by gonulates, saygın and ġrez (2010), it was found out that 8 week regular walking program provides positive developments in the blood lipids (hdl, ldl, tg, and tk parameters) on 40 sedentary women, between 40 and 55 years old. in another research too, gonzález et al. (2017) reported that exercise has a preventive effect n the progress of liver disease by targeting the lipid composition and fat tissue and especially aerobic exercises support the existing recommendation. in another research too, in a research where çinar et al. (2017, 2019) researched the effect of the fitness exercises which overweight women applied for 60 minutes a day, 4 days a week for eight weeks on the ast, alt and ldh metabolism they revealed that eight week fitness exercises substantially effect the liver enzyme levels. uadia et al. (2016) determined that the physical and flexibility exercises applied 2 days in a week for 6 weeks creates increases in ast, alt and ldh levels in the research which the effects of the regular exercise was researched. petterson et al. (2008) found out that alt and asl values increases after exercise in the research which they researched the chemical levels of these values of intense muscle exercises. starting from these researches, it can be said that the increase occurred in alt and ast may keep the levels of these enzymes in a certain interval raised alt and ast values may be decreased with regular exercise. there are studies indicating that the increase in the liver enzymes depending on the duration and intensity of the exercise is not an abnormal situation and it is balanced in the process afterwards. 5. conclussion in conclusion, the calisthenics exercise program, we applied, caused significant decreases in the body weight, cholesterol, triglyceride, hdl, ldl, and vyy values in sedendaty males and the applied exercise program is efficient and it is important for being a healthier society that it is conveyed effect of calisthenics exercise program on some liver enzyme values and ... mine turğut et al. 79 to the people that this calisthenics exercise program which the individuals can easily apply in home too how to do it. on the other hand, we can say that a liver running according to its purpose is important for having a healthy body with respect to the human health. we think that, especially while it is emphasized that the increase in the liver enzymes, seen in the ones who newly starts regular exercise, results different from the results of our study can be obtained with another exercise program to be applied by taking the duration and intensity of the exercise as the basis and these results would be normal. references akyol, b., arslan, c. & çolak, c. (2016). the effect of callisthenic exercises on pain threshold, pain severity and muscle strength on sedentary women diagnosed with upper extremity and low back pain. journal of turgut ozal medical center, 23(1), 29-35. https://doi.org/10.5455/jtomc.2015.2954 arslan, e., kelle, m., baylan, y., diken, h., atmaca, m., tümer, c., obay, b., & ġermet, a. (2001). sporcularda plazma lipid düzeylerinin kendi aralarında ve kontrollerle karģılaģtırılması [comparison of plasma lipid levels among athletes and controls]. dicle tıp dergisi [journal of medical school] 28(1), 23-34. aydin, t., akif sariyildiz, m., guler, m., celebi, a., seyithanoglu, h., mirzayev, i., peru, c., sezer, e., & batmaz, i. (2014). evaluation of the effectiveness of home based or hospital based calisthenic exercises in patients with multiple sclerosis. european review for medical and pharmacological sciences, 18(8), 11891198. çınar, v., talaghir, l. g., akbulut, t., turgut, m. & sarıkaya, m. (2017). the effects of the zinc supplementation and weight trainings on the testosterone levels. human sport medicine, 17(4), 58-63. https://doi.org/10.14529/hsm170407 çınar, v., tunçalp, ö., öner s., akbulut, t., & polat, y. (2019). kilolu kadınlarda düzenli egzersizin karaciğer enzim düzeylerine etkisi [the effects of regular exercise on liver enzyme levels in women with weight]. spor ve performans araştırmaları dergisi [ondokuz mayıs university journal of sports and performance researches], 10(3), 223-230. https://doi.org/10.17155/omuspd.562563 gonzález-ruiz, k., ramírez-vélez, r., correa-bautista, j. e., peterson, m. d. & garcía-hermoso, a. (2017). the effects of exercise on abdominal fat and liver enzymes in pediatric obesity: a systematic review and metaanalysis. childhood obesity, 13(4), 272-282. https://doi.org/10.1089/chi.2017.0027 https://doi.org/10.5455/jtomc.2015.2954 https://doi.org/10.14529/hsm170407 https://doi.org/10.17155/omuspd.562563 https://doi.org/10.1089/chi.2017.0027 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 80 gönülateģ, s., saygın, ö. & ġrez, g. b. (2010). düzenli yürüyüģ programının 40-55 yaģları arası bayanlarda sağlık iliģkili fiziksel uygunluk unsurları ve kan lipidleri üzerine etkisi [the effect of regular walking program on healthrelated physical fitness elements and blood lipids in women between the ages of 40-55]. uluslarası i̇nsan bilimleri derisi [international journal of human sciences], 7, 560-570. hyder, m. a., hasan, m. & mohieldein, a. h. (2013). comparative levels of alt, ast, alp and ggt in liver associated diseases. european journal of experimental biology, 3(2), 280-284. kim, h. j., lee, y. h., & kim, c. k. (2007). biomarkers of muscle and cartilage damage and inflammation during a 200 km run. european journal of applied physiology, 99(4), 443-447. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-006-0362-y neiman, d. c. (1950). exercise testing and prescription: a health-related approach (5th ed.). mayfield. özer, y., bozdal, ö. & pancar, z. (2017). acute effect of cırcuıt aerobıc and tradıtıonal aerobic training on hamstring flexibılıty ın sedentary women. european journal of physical education and sport science, 3(12), 268-275. http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejpe.v0i0.1267 penedo, f. j., & dahn, j. r. (2005). exercise and wellbeing: a review of mental and physical health benefits associated with physical activity. current opinion in psychiatry, 18(2), 189-193. pettersson, j., hindorf, u., persson, p., bengtsson, t., malmqvist, u., werkström, v., & ekelund, m. (2008). muscular exercise can cause highly pathological liver function tests in healthy men. british journal of clinical pharmacology, 65(2), 253-259. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2125.2007.03001.x rus, c. m., talaghir, l. g., iconomescu, t. m. & petrea, r. g. (2019) curriculum changes in secondary school physical education and sport subject in the romanian education system. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 66, 342363. bozlak, s. (2019). sayokan sporcularına uygulanan kalistenik egzersizlerin esneklik, kuvvet ve denge yetileri üzerine etkisinin i̇ncelenmesi (yüksek lisans tezi) [investigation of the effect of calisthenic exercises applied to sayokan athletes on flexibility, strength and balance abilities] [unpublished thesis]. kırıkkale üniversitesi. srivastava, r. (2016). effect of pilates, calisthenics and combined exercises on selected physical motor fitness. isara publications. talaghir, l. g., gheonea, v., rus, c. m., cretu, c. m. & iconomescu, t. m. (2018). statistical analysis of hospitalized morbidity indicators based on drg in romanian public hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 61, 163186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-006-0362-y http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejpe.v0i0.1267 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2125.2007.03001.x effect of calisthenics exercise program on some liver enzyme values and ... mine turğut et al. 81 tarhan m. a. (2019). üniversite öğrencilerinde yüksek şiddetli aralıklı egzersiz ve orta şiddetli aerobik egzersizin kognitif fonksiyonlardan seçici dikkat üzerine olan akut etkilerinin karşılaştırılması (tıpta uzmanlık tezi) [comparison of acute effects of high intensity interval exercise and moderate intensity aerobic exercise on selective attention from cognitive functions in university students] [unpublished thesis]. dokuz eylül üniversitesi. tran, z. v. & weltman, a. (1985). differential effects of exercise on serum lipid and lipoprotein levels seen with changes in body weight: a meta–analysis. jama, 254, 919–24. uadia, p. o., orumwensodia, k. o, arainru, g. e, agwubike, e. o. & akpata, c. b. n. (2016). effect of physical and flexibility exercise on plasma levels of some liver enzymes and biomolecules of young nigerian adults. tropical journal of pharmaceutical research, 15(2), 421-425. https://doi.org/10.4314/tjpr.v15i2.28 wikkerink, s. (2016). the acute effect of exercise intensity on cognitive function [unpublished thesis]. university of waterloo. wang, s. t., zheng, j., peng, h. w., cai, x. l., pan, x. t., li, h. q., hong, q. z. & peng, x. e. (2020). physical activity intervention for non-diabetic patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. bmc gastroenterol, 20, 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12876-020-01204-3 yalın, s., & gök, h. (2001). egzersiz ve lipidler. türk kardiyoloji derneği arşivi, 29(12), 762-769. https://doi.org/10.4314/tjpr.v15i2.28 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12876-020-01204-3 the analysis of parents and pedagogues’ social attitude to education of disabled people brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 48-55 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/93 changing the educational paradigm in postpandemic world: possibilities and risks of artificial intelligence using svitlana hanaba¹, olha mysechko 2 , ihor bloshchynskyi 3 1 doctor of philosophical sciences, associate professor, professor of pedagogics and social-economic disciplines department, faculty of foreign languages and humanities, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, sveta_ganaba@ukr.net, orcid.org/00000002-4373-7075 2 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, professor of the english translation department, faculty of foreign languages and humanities, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, ov.mysechko@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0003-4667-6252 3 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, head of the english translation department, faculty of foreign languages and humanities, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, i.bloshch@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000003-1925-9621 abstract: modern technical innovations are marked by an extremely powerful symbiosis with scientific achievements. today, there are a number of technologies that can reproduce human thinking and such skills as understanding complex information, drawing independent conclusions, and the ability to engage in meaningful and coherent dialogue. they testify to the possibility of innovative achievements in neuroscience to individually assess the level of concentration and perseverance of students, pace, best time to learn, etc. the robots are not able to inspire despite their computing power, simplicity of interface and ability to store information. they lack empathic abilities. they do not fully promote the realization of social skills. the global pandemic has actualized and intensified the introduction of artificial intelligence in the practice of education. researchers have expressed a number of concerns that artificial intelligence in exchange for the rapid acquisition and effective use of a variety of information by a person will help to do levelling of the spiritual and emotional sphere of a person, i.e. “human nature in a human being.” keywords: artificial intelligence; pandemic; education; technical innovations; empathic abilities. how to cite: hanaba, s., mysechko, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). changing the educational paradigm in post-pandemic world: possibilities and risks of artificial intelligence using. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 48-55. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/93 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/93 mailto:sveta_ganaba@ukr.net mailto:ov.mysechko@ukr.net mailto:i.bloshch@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/93 changing the educational paradigm in post-pandemic world: possibilities and … svitlana hanaba, et al. 49 introduction and relevance of the research topic the events surrounding the pandemic have shown the fragility and tenderness of the human world. the virus once again reminded us of what we had so passionately and persistently denied. namely, that we are mortal, that we are not separate from the living world, that we are created from a rather delicate matter. on the contrary, we are quite strongly connected by invisible threads of dependence and interaction with the world of all living and non-living things. the pandemic caused a large-scale crisis and human social existence. the point is that it destroys the normal functioning of public life, exacerbating the situation of uncertainty and unpredictability, causing a loss of integrity within the meaning and comprehending of today’s realities. modernity is full of alarming forecasts and dangerous risks, largescale crises phenomena, etc., which destroy not only the basic structures of public order, but also the logic of their existence. occasionality, spontaneity, probability, situatedness are increasingly becoming the determining factors in the development of the social world. such a world is increasingly determined by the present, it happens “here and now” and it is unknown what will it look like in the future. the present is considered as a kind of bifurcation point, which contains a number of options both for the death of society and human being, and for their further development. it does not have a single centre that would determine its further progress. everything is possible and acceptable in it. it is obvious that humanity is experiencing a large-scale crisis of the current generation, the consequences of which are difficult to be predicted. the crisis nature of the situation is exacerbated by the fact that the intervention of the covid-19 virus can serve as a dress rehearsal for the following crises: economic, political, climatic, sanitary, and so on. french sociologist eva illoous, analysing the research of infectious diseases expert dennis carroll, warns that unknown viruses will further threaten humanity in the future. this is due to the so-called “consequences of zoonosis”, i.e. the results of increasing contact between pathogens of animal origin and humans. these contacts are caused by an increasing human presence in ecozones, which for some time remained out of our reach illoous (2020). crises are always perceived as a threat, as a collapse of the stable and wellestablished things, which brings everything unknown and unpredictable. however, crises are a necessary condition for development. they, on the one hand, symbolize going beyond the clear, predictable, comfortable, etc., and, on the other hand, open opportunities for reaching radically new horizons of development. changing the situation and its reassessment, brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 50 transition to new stages of development testify to the viability of society. crises put society or a human being in a marginal environment or a neutral zone, i.e. in a situation where the usual stereotypes and behaviour no longer work, and new ones still not exist. the situation is experienced as a crisis, when a person ceases to see possible ways out. but at the same time, a person is open to new experiences during a crisis, which means that a crisis can serve as a basis for positive change and can become a positive part of personal or social experience. the pain that a person feels during a crisis motivates him/her to seek new ways, solutions, resources to acquire new skills, knowledge and as a consequence for development. the basic idea is to understand that moments of crisis are not only manifestations of social disease, but also the search for potentially new conditions, resources and opportunities. each civilizational crisis that humanity has gone through had its own context and content. modern crises are associated with the depletion of the potential and drive of industrial society. they symbolize the rejection of the previous belief in social progress in favour of ambivalence and eclecticism. today, along with the awareness of the crisis, there is an active search for solutions and attempts to understand what is happening to us as a human community, how it will affect the world and our lives in the future, what to prepare for, what risks and problems we will face in the future. the peculiarity of the situation is that a number of issues that have arisen before humanity, despite their depth, severity and lack of any standard options and algorithms for solving, will have to be resolved quickly and radically to somehow secure ourselves in the future. decisions that could normally take years of reflection and discussion are now made in a matter of hours, so the alternative is even worse (hanaba et al., 2020). today, entire countries are taking part in large-scale social experiments. hardly anyone would dare to do such experiments at normal times. and the times are completely different today. one of such experiments is the education system transfer into online mode. we are talking about network education. despite the fact that it has become relevant and widespread in recent decades, the mass transfer of the educational system into online mode has caused a number of problems, difficulties and risks. they have their own specific nature in different countries, but there are a number of problems that are common to many countries: inequality of consumer access to educational resources, lack of modern educational programs, insufficient level of media literacy of some teachers and so on. of course, the governments of different countries are working to solve these problems, so to speak, at the tactical level. changing the educational paradigm in post-pandemic world: possibilities and … svitlana hanaba, et al. 51 however, a number of unresolved strategic issues remain. given that education is one of the main resources of social development, how will changes in education affect further social progress? what changes will the teaching style undergo and what will be the role of the teacher in the learning process? how will the content and methodology of teaching change under the conditions of transfer to online mode? what new teaching aids will become widespread in the near future? will the traditional education system be preserved and in what form? how will modern scientific and technological innovations affect the field of education? etc. thus, eternal questions need to be rethought: what to teach, how much to teach, how to teach, why to teach. finding answers to these questions in the context of civilizational challenges will not merely help to eliminate the contradictions between them and those forms of life practices that are broadcast by educational institutions. they will also allow constructing education muchin-demand in the modern information technology age, which is able to function effectively in an era of crisis and constant change, and so on. of course, the analysis of the outlined number of issues involves a number of thorough studies in the future. within the article, we will consider the possibilities of using artificial intelligence in creating an educational paradigm. artificial intelligence in education: opportunities and risks modern technical innovations are marked by an extremely powerful symbiosis with scientific achievements. today, a real revolutionary breakthrough is taking place in the field of science that results in a series of discoveries referred to by experts as nano-bio-geno-neuro-info-computernetwork and other technologies. today, there are a number of technologies that can reproduce human thinking and such skills as understanding complex information, drawing independent conclusions, and the ability to engage in meaningful and coherent dialogue. these technologies in the field of scientific research have received a common name – artificial intelligence. one of the subtypes of artificial intelligence is machine learning. such learning is a process in which software learns on the same principle as humans. during such learning, the program analyses significant layers of data and looks for regularities to classify information or create forecasts. the cyclical nature of this algorithm allows the program to “learn”, changing its intentions depending on previous findings. artificial intelligence can perceive much more information than humans can. and therefore perform tasks much faster and more accurately. in general, artificial intelligence is an entire digital “nervous system” that is able to exceed the intellectual potential brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 52 of a person of any profession. this circumstance allows a number of world analytical institutions to make serious assumptions and predictions not only about the replacement of almost half of current labour actions and operations with “smart machines”, but also to expresses concern that the world of machines will eventually make significant adjustments to the human world including a number of dependencies and own domination. according to a recent report by the mckinsey global institute, about half of today’s labour operations could be automated by 2055 (manyika et al., 2017). can “teaching” be present on this list? what is the role of artificial intelligence in educational institutions? the opinion of the well-known physicist m. kaku is interesting. he outlines the great prospects for the introduction of artificial intelligence into education in his works such as “the future of the mind” (kaku, 2015) and “physics of the future” (kaku, 2011). yes, the researcher believes that education will be based on internet technologies and gadgets such as google class in the near future all. they are transformed into tiny lenses and will be able to download all the necessary information. already today, there are glasses of augmented reality, which have such a function. therefore, in 1-2 years, schoolchildren and students will be able to easily search for answers on the internet on exams. it will be enough for them to blink and the necessary information will appear at once (kaku, 2015). as a result, on the one hand, there will be no need to overload the brain with unnecessary knowledge, most of which, as practice shows, is not used in the future. on the other hand, the release of part of the mental reserve will lead to a reorientation to the development of the ability to think, analyse, argue and make decisions. of course, a person will become more autonomous, he will take more responsibility for his life and the role of self-education will grow accordingly. if the innovations of artificial intelligence are already able to offer a number of technical opportunities for self-education, then a person is not always intellectually and emotionally, psychologically ready for it. it is about the ability to take a conscious approach to lifelong learning. another feature of the education of the future will be that a person will be able to study not only in an educational institution. already today in social networks there are many educational programs, educational platforms that help a person to acquire knowledge in any field. in the future, these technologies will not only become widespread, but also undergo qualitative changes. thus, cities of the near future, filled with information and communication resources, will in themselves become active participants in the new educational environment. in particular, games can be offered for children, which will take place within the city environment for many days and months. we will learn to equip changing the educational paradigm in post-pandemic world: possibilities and … svitlana hanaba, et al. 53 textbooks with artificial intelligence and they will be able to select educational materials such as photos, texts, videos, tasks and diagrams according to the needs of a particular student (kaku, 2011). even today, it does not look like a fantastic circumstance that proves the possibility of innovative achievements in neuroscience to individually assess the level of concentration and perseverance of students, pace, best time to learn, how long it takes for information to pass from short to long memory, etc. thus, the main aspect of learning is to create an individual trajectory for each student’s learning. what dangers and risks of introducing artificial intelligence into the practice of education do we see today? first, artificial intelligence lacks empathic abilities. robots are not able to inspire despite their computing power, simplicity of interface and ability to store information. inspiration is a product of empathy. this is a state when the teacher can “join” the inneremotional world of the student through sincere approval, emotional praise or even through non-verbal behaviour in the audience. an educator can inspire his students to learn, create and succeed. artificial intelligence with state-of-the-art facial imaging cannot assist in such a case. in this way, values are not nurtured in the human soul, are not an attribute of his inner world. they are modelled using certain technologies and are instilled in a person from the outside, depending on the circumstances and needs. second, artificial intelligence does not fully promote the social skills needed to navigate in our complex world – where, we are constantly negotiating, coordinating our actions, motivating and persuading. third, computers do not know what to do next, so homo sapiens will continue to ask questions that need to be addressed. it is also important to remember that observation and imitation are important aspects of primate learning. a person learns best from imitation and practice with other people. ideas of introducing artificial intelligence into the practice of education in general, innovations of artificial intelligence were quite carefully rather tested than implemented into educational systems prior to the pandemic. an exception may be the education of leading asian countries. in particular, the chinese have been increasing the number of classrooms equipped with artificial intelligence cameras and brainwave trackers in recent years. educational institutions in south korea and japan use a variety of humanoid robots to better learn a foreign language. the events of the pandemic did not just make serious adjustments to the learning process. they have accelerated and deepened the crisis of the brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 54 classroom model of education, which has prevailed since the enlightenment times. this model of education is focused on scientism, fundamentality, the concept of completed education, subject-fragmentary, unified and standardized construction of knowledge, disciplining, demonstrativeillustrative construction of learning, didactic isolation of educational content and appears as a rigidly structured space in which the use of information sources tends to narrow to instructions. it does not meet modern sociocultural needs and necessitates the reorientation and modernization of education in the direction from the person who is being taught to the person who learns. if the network model of education was considered as an alternative to classroom one, now under pandemic conditions, it turned out to be almost the only possible in the provision of educational services. in spite of the fact that the network model allows everyone to learn at their own pace and helps them adapt to different types of tasks, perform individual diagnostics and track positive learning progress, we believe that machines cannot replace “live communication” of a teacher. a teacher is a person who not only has a certain hemisphere of knowledge, but also possesses unique human skills, values, individual aspirations. innovations in artificial intelligence must be combined with an active human facilitator. they are designed to make the work of a teacher easier and more efficient. the routine in education should be gradually removed and passed on to intelligent assistants. scientific and technical innovations transform the process of acquiring knowledge into a kind of industry, producing a number of social, including educational phenomena. they contribute to the development of visualization in educational activities, etc. radically change previous perceptions of the learning process. they take it beyond educational institutions, making it open and accessible, contributing to the formation of digital culture and connectivism as a principle of education, and so on. priority is given to the creation of new knowledge, rather than the consumption of ready-made information, the ability to comprehensively and contextually solve problems and outline new ones in familiar situations, the ability of a person to develop and self-develop for life opportunities. conclusions education has always been one of the important factors of human socialization. it acquires its new characteristics and outlines in the context of the demands of a certain historical epoch. the powerful development of the information technology sphere produces a special cyberspace and requires a different education. such education involves the use of artificial intelligence and is characterized by a high level of mobility, is open and accessible to a wide range of people. the global pandemic has accelerated the transfer from changing the educational paradigm in post-pandemic world: possibilities and … svitlana hanaba, et al. 55 the classic classroom system of education to the network one. it updated and intensified the introduction of artificial intelligence in the practice of education. the robots are not able to inspire despite their computing power, simplicity of interface and ability to store information. they lack empathic abilities. they do not fully promote the realization of social skills. researchers have expressed a number of concerns that artificial intelligence in exchange for the rapid acquisition and effective use of a variety of information by a person will help to do levelling of the spiritual and emotional sphere of a person, i.e. “human nature in a human being.” undoubtedly, these issues require a number of studies and are relevant in a pandemic, crisis society. references illoous, e. (2020, mars 23). l’insoutenable légèreté du capitalisme vis-à-vis de notre santé. bibliobs. https://www.nouvelobs.com/idees/20200323.obs26443/l-insoutenablelegerete-du-capitalisme-vis-a-vis-de-notre-sante-par-eva-illouz.html hanaba, s., mysechko, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). solidarity of efforts as a common condition for the survival of the world in a pandemic. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2), 29-38. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/137 manyika, j., lund, s., chui, m., bughin, j., woetzel, j., batra, p., ko, r., & sanghvi, s. (2017, november 28). jobs lost, jobs gained: what the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages. report. mckinsey global institute. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lostjobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages kaku, m. (2015). the future of the mind: the scientific quest to understand, enhance, and empower the mind. anchor books. kaku, m. (2011). physics of the future: how science will shape human destiny and our daily lives by the year 2100. knopf doubleday publishing group. https://www.nouvelobs.com/idees/20200323.obs26443/l-insoutenable-legerete-du-capitalisme-vis-a-vis-de-notre-sante-par-eva-illouz.html https://www.nouvelobs.com/idees/20200323.obs26443/l-insoutenable-legerete-du-capitalisme-vis-a-vis-de-notre-sante-par-eva-illouz.html https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/137 https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/overview https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages https://www.google.com.ua/search?hl=ru&tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22michio+kaku%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=5 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.2, pages: 24-34 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/35 consciousness a dialogical presentation mendo henriques¹ 1 faculdade de ciências humanas | school of human sciences; universidade católica portuguesa | catholic university of portugal, palma de cima, 1649-023 lisboa – portugal, mendohenriques@ucp.pt abstract: consciousness is, probably, the most common and the most mysterious experience in human life. it encompasses a stream of mental activities that include knowledge and recognition, emotions and feelings, organic dispositions, and linguistic acts, as well as altered states such as those provoked by drugs and pathologies, and mystical moments. the philosophy of mind is habitually reprimanded for neglecting to characterize exactly what consciousness is. in this regard there has been little change over the previous decades because consciousness has a wide assortment of meanings according to authors and disciplines. consciousness is analysed in scientific perspectives such as neurosciences, psychology, linguistics, physics, and cybernetics. each science highlights special features of consciousness‟ rooting in the subject, according to specific interpersonal contexts, biological developments and always as a mirror of the brain's complexity. a short state of the art of consciousness‟ studies is useful if it searches for constant issues beyond the variety of explorations of conscious experience. beyond the psychology‟s self, the psychoanalysis‟ ego and the mental maps of neurosciences, we observe trends in the philosophy of mind that search for a dialogical ground; what relates us to the other as we say „i‟, „thou‟ and „we‟, is an essential aspect of human experience and a permanent challenge. keywords: consciousness; philosophy; mind; body; neurosciences; brain; machine-learning; intentionality; relationship; “i and thou”; first secondand thirdperson studies. how to cite: henriques, m. (2020). consciousness a dialogical presentation. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup2), 24-34. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/35 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/35 mailto:mendohenriques@ucp.pt https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/35 consciousness a dialogical presentation mendo henriques 25 1. consciousness: a self-replicating entity as wittgenstein reminds us, nothing seems to be so near and intimate and, at the same time, so remote and inaccessible from us than our own conscious mind. this is the challenge of consciousness: everyone apparently knows what it means to be conscious, but once he/she reflects, there is an unbridgeable gulf between the inner conscious world and what is out there. can we throw some extra light on this conundrum? the fact that consciousness presents itself as a part of the mind and a part of the universe, capable of creating a model of itself, of being selfconsciousness, generated classical designations throughout history. socrates speaks of the daimon, the scholastics of the soul, descartes of the cogito and more designations exist, such as spirit, animus, heart… classical theories of consciousness were focused on the relationship of the one and the multiple, that is, the relation of being human with the being in which it participates. classical philosophers narrated how consciousness lives in tension between different world models, or more accurately, how our world changes according to our consciousness, as we impart meaning upon data of experience. these narratives of duality brought us formulae such as parmenides‟ being and appearances, plato‟s ideas and phenomena, schopenhauer‟s will and representation. as we ask about frameworks for studying consciousness, we could start by saying that the complexity of consciousness (penrose, 1994) depends on the amount and type of information it uses to create a model of itself. it varies from infant to adult and we can question whether there is awareness in non-human animals, in robots and in artificial intelligence. the minds of children are particularly difficult to investigate; animals have very different shades of sensibility; the creators of artificial intelligence have the ambition to turn it self-conscious through quantum computers. may we say that elementary machines – for instance a thermostat, a photoelectric cell have a zero degree of consciousness, as they use a single information circuit? vegetative beings have multiple information circuits about water, temperature, gravity, light. animals like insects and reptiles have information circuits to determine the spatial coordinates of partners, rivals, prey and of themselves. social animals have information circuits related to the group to which they belong and the hierarchies with which they live, expressing themselves through emotions and gestures. we, human beings, beyond the previously named capacities, have the power of relationship, allowing us to reach self-consciousness and to extend brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 26 ourselves to the past through memory and to the future through promise. this reflection upon ourselves, as self-consciousness or cogito, is the power of the daimon, soul or spirit. we are not closed beings but open ones; we are made of relationships, of empathy with the other, the one that of himself says 'i' and of the others „thou‟ and 'we'. 2. rené descartes and the philosophers of mind rené descartes (1596–1650) was aptly called the father of modern philosophy as he settled the agenda for the study of mind. he is best known for his sharp distinction between the physical and the mental (cartesian duality). 1 the body is one sort of substance and the mind another because each can be conceived in terms of totally distinct attributes. the body is characterized by spatial extension and motion, while the private mind is characterized by thought. descartes was an interactive dualist. he settled the starting point for scientific knowledge about mind and body, and the correlations between them. inside the body, the brain controls sensory input and motor output. for him, consciousness was a state of mind, with the body having a role restricted to nonconscious processes and the brain a key role in linking matter and mind (garvey, 2011). in the passions of the soul, descartes (1946) progressed from philosophical dualism to a conception of duality in human nature grounded on anatomical observations. he stated that we can “think with the body” as genera of passions agitate the mind as they emerge bottom-up from the body. the mind, then, moves the pineal gland in a top-down process. in that interface, the rational soul creates specific types of conscious experience or ideas. this model of interplay, showing conflict and resolution, remains an inspiration for contemporary neuroscience. science realized, some 150 years ago, that descartes‟s account about how the body's sensory system caused the psyche's understanding of sensations was not right; however, we should not give away his model too soon. we do not accept dualism any longer – “descartes' mistake” – as new perspectives are extant about how the psyche rises out of the properties of the cerebrum. notwithstanding, his differentiation of mind and body remains a focal issue in the investigation of consciousness. 1 classical dualism has proved to be a thought-provoking and never-ending source of debates especially in modern neurosciences: see damasio‟s discussion of descartes‟ philosophy in descartes‟ error and libet‟s original interpretation of descartes‟ dualism in mind time. consciousness a dialogical presentation mendo henriques 27 much effort was devoted since descartes to improve the study of how the physical and the mental relate. these two entities were considered as separate substances by leibniz (1646–1716) and built to run together in perfect harmony (psychophysical parallelism). george berkeley (1685–1753) denied the possibility of mindless material substances (immaterialism). the french materialist la mettrie (1709–1751) bluntly extended to man descartes‟s idea of animals as simple automata. conscious and voluntary processes would be the outcome of mechanisms, no more than that. no space at all for volition or instinct. such belief is held by contemporary neuroscientists who search for the neural correlates of consciousness (cavanna & nani, 2014). immanuel kant (1724–1804) stressed that the limitations of mathematics in scientific method would prevent them to describe mental phenomena. he pointed out that mental phenomena are individual and therefore inaccessible to experimental manipulation. he admitted physiology as a scientific discipline, but he ruled out psychology because the study of the mind would not support a quantitative approach. 3. the birth of modern physiology and psychology the progress in physiology and psychology through psychophysics was a reaction against the idea that mental phenomena are not the subject of experimental study and mathematical modelling. the key figure was gustav fechner (1801–1887). he discovered the logarithmic connection between stimulus and individual sensation (weber-fechner law). with the rise of psychophysics, developments were made in the comprehension of the sensory system. hermann helmholtz (1821–1894) discovered the neural basis of perception. sense organs cause equivalent experiences notwithstanding the way they are stimulated. a hit in my eye makes me "see stars" despite the hit not being connected with light. helmholtz also denied consciousness as the fountain of decisions; he assigned them to the brain thus undermining the idea of personal responsibility, which is the basis of moral behaviour. his suggestion of the cognitive unconscious later became a battle horse of cognitive psychology. wilhelm wundt founded the first psychology laboratory in leipzig in 1879. another key figure was william james (1842–1910), who identified consciousness with the stream of thought. as psychology was fully established as a scientific discipline, ramon y cajal (1852-1934) proposed the nerve cell as the basic unit of the nervous system. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 28 with sigmund freud, alfred adler, c.g. jung, and viktor frankl psychoanalysis showed the relevancy of the unconscious. in dreams, lapses and stereotypies, in complexes and archetypes, in the loss of meaning, the self abandons his conscious attributes as it subverts language and image codes. psychoanalysis offers different explanations for neurotic symptoms as unconscious desires; mental illnesses reveal the deterioration of the contact between consciousness and its neurological supports. the gestalt psychologists studied the mental processes that underlie perception, and jean piaget studied the development of mental processes. the gestalt slogan the whole is more than the sum of its parts stressed dynamic interactions in the nervous system and piaget was instrumental in stressing the notion of development. the introduction of information theory by shannon and weaver (1949) was decisive for a mathematical account of cognition. this mathematical technique allows to quantify the amount of data in a sign, the pace of data transmission through a communication channel, and the limits of a communication channel information theory acknowledged the brain as an instrument that can be treated as an intermodal framework for data. the main philosophical caveat is that data do not disclose their meaning. pcs transmit information; however, whether that data are important depends on whether the recipient can decipher it. conceiving the brain as a black box led to the development of intelligent machines. mcculloch and pitts (1943) stated that the neuron was the basic information processing unit. cognitive psychologists started using "box and arrow" diagrams for portraying brain processes and data transmission. the relationship between box-and-arrow descriptions and neuroscientific mechanism descriptions became a key foundational issue for cognitive science (datteri & laudisa, 2014). 4. contemporary explorations of consciousness a major and innovative development for consciousness research during the past decades was the demonstration of the existence of unconscious, automatic psychological processes in perception, memory, and action, the so-called cognitive unconscious by john kihlstrom (1987). most of the processing undertaken by the brain occurs without our awareness (velmans, 1991). however, the term “cognitive unconscious” is not widely accepted. the term „cognitive‟ classically referred to knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes, all key components of consciousness. a minority of scientists consciousness a dialogical presentation mendo henriques 29 follows neisser‟s cognitive psychology (1967) restrain the term “cognitive” cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience to refer to what the brain does. the imageology of mental procedures uncovered that consciousness is not a sine qua non condition of rational thought: inferring and choices can be made without awareness. intelligent machines such as computers and cars without drivers prove that point. subjects can recognize or segregate a stimulus, and that does not imply that they are aware of it. as consciousness is not relevant to strict rationality and for many kinds of decision processes, we came a long way from the cartesian underestimation of the limitations of the duality of mind and body. on the other side, despite unconscious cognitive processes being a game changer, that does not liquidate first-person psychology. john eccles and karl popper wrote the self and its brain (2012) portraying interactionism as the best approach to the mind-body problem. popper indicates the existence of the three worlds of physical objects, mental objects, and conceptual objects. each world is supposed to empirically interact with the other two. eccles reviews clinical cases and experimental results to build this interactionist thesis on neuroscientific grounds. the unity of our experience is enclosed into a “self-conscious mind” (eccles & popper, 2012). consciousness goes beyond the basis of rational thought (schneider & velmans, 2007). contemporary neurosciences map the mental activity as a brain activity and denounce descartes' error but leave unresolved two major problems: the problem of qualia and how mental processes determine voluntary actions. the first issue, the relationship between conscious qualities (qualia) and brain activities was conceived by david chalmers in the framework of property dualism. (chalmers, 1996) according to him, mental properties are an irreducible and fundamental characteristic of matter, together with other characteristics that are merely physical. the second issue was raised centuries ago by princess-philosopher, elizabeth of bohemia, who asked descartes to tell her how the mind, being only a thinking substance, could determine animal spirits to cause voluntary actions. eventually, the philosopher admitted no definitive answer could be given (garber, 2001). to explain the physical manifestations of mental acts and the mind‟s access to external realities is the challenge of every theory of consciousness. bernard j. baars has developed the global workspace theatre scenario, a cognitive stage in which activities develop both at the conscious and unconscious level (1997). what are the main questions of his model? brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 30 consciousness is an information gateway to the brain. as neuronal networks operate, consciousness provides integration to specialized brain areas which otherwise would be apart. is insight like a bright spot on the stage of memory concerned with perceptual and linguistic processing? consciousness and information. up to what point do we need consciousness to interpret new combinations of words through the linguistic functions of syntax and semantics? consciousness and memory. is consciousness a prerequisite to report features such as sensory inputs, rehearsal, and recall? consciousness and learning. as memory mechanisms operate unconsciously, there is large cortical activation during any learning procedure, while it is limited to a few areas when automatic tasks occur. does information necessarily go through the focus of consciousness? consciousness and voluntary control. consciousness seems the only way to enable higher-order cognitive functions such as problem solving and decision-making. do conscious goals lead to the choice of conducts and ultimately, free will, the ability to voluntarily carry out actions? consciousness and self. conscious input to frontal cortical areas enables the interpretation and control of behaviour. is this the only way to build a sense of our feelings and being the author of our own behaviour? certainly, there are many kinds of consciousness. nonetheless, we barely know how they are related. are dreaming, periphery and centre consciousness simply quantitative variants of unfocused, half-focused, and self-consciousness? or then, again, are there qualitative contrasts between various types of awareness? could these inquiries about the assortments of awareness be replied considering the intellectual and neural associates of consciousness? are portrayals and calculations just feasible for sorts of cognizance? are various examples of neural action related with various types of consciousness? what about biological markers of consciousness? this inquiry has been honed by evidence collected about oblivion and other non-conscious procedures. we know to extract information about the contrasts between awareness and unconscious procedures. does awareness include explicit sorts of calculations and portrayals? is it true that they are related with explicit sorts of neural action, and localized in the mind?~ how do we determine the presence of consciousness? this is a pragmatic question that confronts clinicians in therapy units and operating theatres. is a braindamaged patient in a coma (i.e., unconscious) or is he, instead, in a lockedin state conscious about everything that is being said, but unable to move his body? if evidence of consciousness is inferred consciousness a dialogical presentation mendo henriques 31 behaviourally, does the classification of patients into coma, minimally conscious, persistent vegetative state or lockedin syndrome reflect an underlying degree of consciousness of such patients? to determine the presence of consciousness we must find reliable neural correlates or then, again, some method for speaking with the patient. the varieties of conscious experience most handily considered by science lie in human adults; science attends to brain conditions and its quality and appearance in events of awakening, sleeping, dreaming, and extreme lethargies, and even coma. yet, how would we determine awareness when an elevated level of correspondence is not accessible? neural markers of consciousness are important for deciding awareness but they do not exhaust the mystery of consciousness. 5. further perspectives whatever analytic progress is made in scientific and philosophical perspectives, the elusiveness of consciousness remains. some difficulties are resolved, but new ones have emerged. we may sum up by saying that as the 19 th century started – the epoch of philosophical idealism there was little differentiation among life and consciousness; both were held accountable of vital energies impervious to experimental examination. at the beginning of the 21 st century, we know that life does not depend upon a vital essence, but we are still not sure about what consciousness is. the demonstration of unconscious processes sharpened the issues addressed by philosophical studies. contemporary philosophical hypotheses about consciousness address inquiries such as: what kind of links does consciousness has with cosmos? how does it relate with the brain? what kind of issues can be settled by experimental research, and what can be comprehended through a philosophical conceptualization of those issues? what main models are available for our comprehension of the human being, who is simultaneously body, brain, and mind? contemporary philosophers of mind pay attention to scientific results, the record of neural procedures that catches the embodiment of our experience; as they start from the observation of what means to be conscious, that reality of the felt quality of our experiences makes them engage first-person issues; philosophers question our second-person conscious relationship with the world and the other. is conscious experience altogether dictated by the basic conditions of the cerebrum? is conscious experience fit for causing occasions in our brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 32 cerebrums and the world at large? what is the connection between qualia – the felt nature of experience and conscious states? philosophical investigations of consciousness attempt to locate it inside human existence. intentional consciousness builds the world of objects through acts of knowledge: to experiment intently; to understand what has awakened our attention; to judge what we understand in our experiments; to evaluate the consequences of judgments: to identify ourselves with other people (henriques, 2010, 2016). neuroscientific investigations of the psyche are centred around the cerebrum equipment ("wetware") that epitomizes mental procedures; and neuroscientific investigations of cognizance focus around discovering its neural causes and correlates. neuroscientific research has two major obvious philosophical implications, namely for ethics and for legal responsibility: 1) the extent to which the qualia of consciousness are determined by the functional relations of particular brain areas to activities in the external world 2) the free will problem that asks if deliberate activities are controlled by cognizant decisions or by preconscious mindsets. in social psychology there is a re-established enthusiasm for exploring how individuals behave in various social circumstances: through subjective strategies and quantitative techniques. studies of perception, cognition, emotion, for example, rely to some extent on subjective reports verbal reports, overt response, filling out a questionnaire. first-person examinations of awareness deal with how one can explore conscious experience, an issue that concerns psychologists but that cannot be eradicated from philosophy because there is no consciousness without language. consciousness expresses itself through language which is a set of meanings transmitted by words. the identity between reason and language resides in the logos. each language is a set of meanings shared by humans. speech is the individual use of language through which the subject recognizes himself, understanding concepts and realizing relationships. language, besides conceptualizing our experience through general and abstract (datteri & laudisa, 2014) names, contains the pronouns and indicators of subjective spatial and temporal relationships generated by the relationships of the self with others which bring us to the second-person level of research of the mind. i presented a short overview of contemporary consciousness‟ studies. there is another fundamental word of consciousness that was not focused here, that is, recognition. recognition originates second-person studies based on the i-thou relationship. objects are intentionally consciousness a dialogical presentation mendo henriques 33 apprehended, but beings are existentially recognized. we want to know the world, and the world wants to be recognized. we relate with beings that are more than mere objects as they manifest themselves outside the chain of causes and in reciprocity with us. consciousness is relational because the other brings us into a common reality. encounters or acts of recognition result from relationship in consciousness and originate the ethics of human dialogue, the aesthetic of creation and enjoyment of art and the epiphany of celebrations. in these encounters it is as if, suddenly, we listened to the music to whose score we had no access and of which until then, we had only heard loose notes. our discoveries, decisions, revolts, loves, struggles and reconciliations are thus born. the narrative of such celebrations, the feast day of consciousness, would require a new paper. references baars, b. j. (1997). in the theater of consciousness: the workspace of the mind. oxford university press. cavanna. a. e., & nani, a. (2014). consciousness: theories in neuroscience and philosophy of mind. springer-verlag. chalmers, d. (1996). the conscious mind: in search of a fundamental theory. oxford university press. datteri, e. & laudisa, f. (2014, may 22). box-and-arrow explanations need not be more abstract than neuroscientific mechanism descriptions. frontiers in psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00464 descartes, r. (1649). les passions de l‟âme. in c. adam & p. tannery (eds.), œuvres de descartes, vol 11. vrin/cnrs. garber, d. (2001). descartes embodied. cambridge university press. garvey, j. (ed.) (2011). the continuum companion to philosophy of mind. continuum henriques, m. (2010). bernard lonergan, uma filosofia para o séc. xxi. é realizações. henriques, m. (2016). the lonerganian revolution in the understanding of scientific research. international journal of communication research, 6(3), 220231. kihlstrom, j. (1987). the cognitive unconscious. science, 237(4821), 1445-1452. www.jstor.org/stable/1699849 mcculloch, w. s., & pitts, w. (1943) a logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity. bulletin of mathematical biophysics 5, 115–133. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02478259 neisser, u. (1967). cognitive psychology. appleton-century-crofts. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00464 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1699849 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02478259 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 34 penrose, r. (1994). shadows of the mind: an approach to the missing science of consciousness. oxford university press. popper, k. r., & eccles, j. c. (2012). the self and its brain: an argument for interactionism (reprinted). springer. schneider, s., & velmans, m. (eds.), (2007). the blackwell companion to consciousness. blackwell publishing. shannon, c. e., & weaver, w. (1949). the mathematical theory of communication. the university of illinois press. velmans, m. (1991). is human information processing conscious? behavioral and brain sciences, 14(4), 651-669. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x00071776 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x00071776 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 364-373 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/215 perspective on the double edges of virtual reality in medicine both addiction & treatment marcel-alexandru găină¹, alexandra boloş2, ovidiu alexinschi3, ana-caterina cristofor4, alexandra-maria găină5, roxana chiriţă6, cristinel ştefănescu7 1 assistant prof., umf ,,grigore t. popa” iași & psychiatry resident within „socola” institute of psychiatry, romania, marcelalexandru_t_gaina@d.umfiasi.ro 2 corresponding author: lecturer at umf ,,grigore t. popa” & senior psychiatrist within „socola” institute of psychiatry, iași, romania, alex_andra_bolos@yahoo.com 3 assistant prof. at umf ,,grigore t. popa” & senior psychiatrist within „socola” institute of psychiatry, iași, romania, alexinschi@yahoo.com 4 lecturer at umf ,,grigore t. popa” & specialist psychiatrist within „socola” institute of psychiatry, iași, romania, ina_cristofor@yahoo.com 5 neurology resident at the neurosurgery emergency hospital ,,prof. dr. oblu”, iași, romania. gaina_alexandra@yahoo.com 6 professor dr., umf ,,grigore t. popa” & senior psychiatrist within „socola” institute of psychiatry, iași, romania, d.stigma@gmail.com 7 professor dr., umf ,,grigore t. popa” & senior psychiatrist within „socola” institute of psychiatry, iași, romania, cristinel.stefanescu@gmail.com abstract: although the therapeutic potential of virtual reality has been foreseen since over half a century ago, the lack of graphical processing power made it impossible to apply in medical therapeutic sciences until last decade; nowadays, the hardware required for virtual reality is even 100 times more affordable. a head-mounted display induces immersivity engulfing the subject’s eyesight perception in a stereoscopic manner. the same tool that may aid better self understanding and bonding can also trigger psychopathological mechanisms through which the user becomes alienated from the real world. as virtual reality became even more popular during sarscov2 pandemic, users worldwide have spent more time into a virtual world. depersonalization/derealization syndrome can occur if virtual reality is abused. the greater the person’s involvement in virtual reality, the greater the chance of a lack of bodily self (depersonalization). controllers that mimic hands could prevent the subject from acknowledging the real world as true – derealization. virtual reality’s dissociative potential is related to individual psychological traits and prolonged exposure. children are the most prone to develop behavioral changes. adults may develop behavioral problems related to virtual reality gaming, gambling, pornography and also social networking through created avatars. blue light wavelength could harm sleep architecture and circadian rhythm by disrupting melatonin, therefore making virtual reality exposure problematic after sunset. state of the art reveals that using virtual reality in a therapeutic manner, actually facilitates the fight against addictions with cue therapy intended to extinguish conditioned response. the exposure to a substance (nicotine, alcohol, or any other psychoactive recreational abuse potential substances) can trigger craving in a controlled environment, that is malleable in the hands of the therapist. virtual reality can offer an exposure perspective that is both vivid enough to be a challenge, but also safe enough to ensure patient involvement and to amplify the therapeutic alliance. keywords: virtual reality, dissociation, addiction, cue therapy, craving. how to cite: găină, m.-a., boloş, a., alexinschi, o., cristofor, a.-c., găină, a.-m., chiriţă, r., & ştefănescu, c. (2021). perspective on the double edges of virtual reality in medicine both addiction & treatment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 364-373. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/215 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/215 mailto:marcel-alexandru_t_gaina@d.umfiasi.ro mailto:marcel-alexandru_t_gaina@d.umfiasi.ro mailto:alex_andra_bolos@yahoo.com mailto:alexinschi@yahoo.com mailto:ina_cristofor@yahoo.com mailto:gaina_alexandra@yahoo.com mailto:d.stigma@gmail.com mailto:cristinel.stefanescu@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/215 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 365 1. introduction virtual reality headsets are technological devices able to induce a sense of presence for the user within a virtual environment that is generated by a software interface throughout the graphical processing power of hardware equipment. cambridge dictionary defines virtual reality as a set of images and sounds that resemble an interactable environment for the user – therefore including computer 2d generated environments, whereas the oxford dictionary definition describes the technique in a more specific manner, that includes the head mounted display concept and the ability to interact with the virtual environment via dedicated equipment – “gloves fitted with sensors”, the latter being more specific. from a historical perspective, the prototype sensorama introduced in 1962 by morton heilig has foreseen the potential of using virtual reality as a simulator tool, by trying to stimulate all of the user’s senses, but was more of a display than an interactive environment, and was registered as a patent in 1961. the next milestone is david evans and ivan sutherlands’ “ultimate display” (botella, 2017) – also called the “sword of damocles” due to its massive dimensions of the headset, that had to be suspended from the ceiling (sherman & craig, 2019). the user was also able to move somehow freely in the virtual environment. meanwhile, after a few decades, the exponential multiplication of transistors per circuit intuited by today’s 56 years old moore’s law fuelled the concept of virtual reality into becoming reality, backed by graphical processing power. the computer gaming industry has resurrected the development of virtual reality, by raising the demand. the last decade was the peak of this technology, as it became available, affordable and also promoted by user developed content. from 263x230 pixels for each eye in 1995, nowadays native 4k resolution is possible for each eye, and the graphical processing units of 2021 are able to maintain a level of frames per second that is above 95, therefore the central nervous system of the individual might have a hard time discerning reality from virtual environment. surprisingly, the software is the one that lacks a major leap. history has taught us that humanity has no limits related to comfort. for 200 000 years, our predecessors have gone to great lengths to be able to provide necessary goods in order to survive. nowadays, the hunt has been replaced by a touch on a smartphone application or a computer mouse click, the waiting time has been reduced by delivery services that bring that food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/morton_heilig perspective on the double edges of virtual reality in medicine both … marcel-alexandru găină, et al. 366 straight to the door within an established time schedule. but humanity has not changed on a biological level, and the same hormonal systems hold the key of our affective state, so we merely replace the adrenaline of the fight for survival with the burden of existance without a scale of purpose. our needs are met, but we are prone to develop anxiety disorders. we are entangled in virtual networks but lack the very core of what has brought us to the very peak of the food chain – social interaction. it comes as no surprise, then, that the topic of virtual reality seems to elicit a growing interest in the scientific community, resulting in an increasing number of articles published in the national library of medicine pubmed database, with reference to its applicability in medicine, from 739 publications where the keyword was " virtual reality" in december 2001, to 13,991 articles on 07 may 2021. the purpose of this article is to weight the state of the art regarding the therapeutic potential versus side effects of virtual reality (v.r.) exposure techniques and cue reactivity. understanding concepts behind v.r. immersivity and sense of presence by immersivity namely the visualization of an image, with a frame rate per second of at least 95 fps individually, at the level of each eye the visual cortex is stimulated, auditory stimuli project towards the auditory cortex, and the hippocampus organizes kinesthetic stimuli. nonetheless, the immersivity is the objective part of the virtual experience, dependent on the image projected by the headset, whereas the sense of presence is the subjective feeling of actually being in a different environment and can be influenced by the individual’s personality traits or medical conditions (luca et al., 2019; servotte et al., 2020). cooptation of all sensory functions, such as wind or olfactory stimulation, exponentially amplifies the difficulty of the central nervous system to discern the virtual world from reality. the immersivity level is directly proportional to the number of senses involved (miller & bugnariu, 2016). haptic feedback of the controllers give the user the ability to experiment sensitive and vibrational feedback of his actions. distractibility by immersing into a different place, the mind can be distracted from physical stimuli in the real world. this concept is being studied and used to diminish pain, as distractibility interferes with the perception of the pain, but brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 367 also with the emotional component that usually modulates and amplifies the pain, through complex circuits involving the anterior cingulate cortex (gîrlescu et al., 2020), the thalamus, the insula and the primary and secondary somatosensory areas. hoffman et al. (2007) showed in a small sample study, but with data obtained from fmri, that using vr or combining it with opioids, decreased the intensity of the pain in comparison with no treatment or with opioids alone. furthermore, the higher the graphical quality of the vr headset used, the deeper the immersivity and the more important the analgesic effect obtained with vr distractibility (hoffman et al., 2004). using vr concepts to treat through the distractibility it can induce, virtual reality has found its applicability successfully, in the case of veterans with grade ii and iii burns, for whom virtual reality has led to a massive decrease in the required doses of morphine-type analgesics, especially during the painful wound care procedures (maani et al., 2011). also, it was successfully used as a distraction method in the rehabilitation of pediatric patients with burns, with a significant decrease in pain intensity and stress (ali et al., 2021). in the last 2 years, virtual reality has entered dentists' offices for the first time (wiederhold et al., 2014), as well as urological medical guidelines, being used as a first-line technique in providing anesthesia in endourethral microsurgical interventions, to the liking of anesthesiologists by comparison with conventional surgical techniques that required analgesia and complete anesthesia (alaterre et al., 2020, luca, baroiu et al., 2020). at the same time, virtual reality finds its applicability in a variety of techniques designed to educate or improve the disabling symptoms of psychiatric disorders. the fastest results can be obtained through vret techniques or gradual exposure in virtual reality, thus giving the patient a new dimension vivid enough to provoke the defensive reaction, but safe enough not to paralyze in the face of exploration of various forms of anxiety (e.g. acrophobia, agoraphobia, arachnophobia etc.), being used by rothbaum since 1995 (rothbaum et al., 1995). exposure to stimuli, exploring the whole world for a patient with dementia, even immobilized in bed, or engaging in physical activity, increases the positive antioxidant effect on the population practicing the same exercise routines outside the helmet, visible by lowering the level of reactive species of oxygen determined in the blood. perspective on the double edges of virtual reality in medicine both … marcel-alexandru găină, et al. 368 semi-immersive vr techniques have been used successfully in patients with dementia or minor neurocognitive impairment and could therefore be a practical guide for patients with cognitive decline (kim et al., 2019). a systematic review by segawa et al. (2020) showed that there is growing evidence that vr is effective in the treatment of both substance use disorders and behavioral addiction (nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, gambling), especially for inducing a very vivid craving effect, in a controlled environment, but could also play an important role in its extinction by exposure therapy. the sars-cov2 pandemic has found the gambling industry adapting, while gambling was not affected by the lockdown, as it moved towards virtual mobile devices. the possibility to gamble using a virtual reality (sandu & nistor 2020) headset is frightening, as the protective measures of banning a person considered pathological gambler are not feasible anymore. but presence itself may turn virtual reality into a pornographic rollercoaster, as researchers determined that the level of perceived interaction is directly proportional with the level of salivary oxitocine secreted, therefore the potential for addictive pornography through virtual reality reaches new, unexplored borders (dekker et al., 2020; sandu, 2020a; 2020b). contraindications and side effects of vr therapy the main relative contraindication is cybersickness or induced vertigo (weech et al., 2019). also, seizures triggered by photic stimulation are commonly mentioned and included in the warnings of most consumer headsets and are an absolute contraindication (pandita & stevenson won, 2020). the only visible limitations are practically given by the cost of the equipment and of the software, respectively, and, even more so, by the professionals’ availability to get out of the comfort zone in order to adopt these techniques. depersonalization / derealization and dissociative disorders the immersivity leads to various degrees of a specific side effect of virtual reality – a depersonalization and derealization syndrome, characterized by a feeling of detachment from itself and the real world. this can have different degrees of manifestation, from mild symptoms of fatigue, daydreaming or headache to true chronic dissociative disorders (heydrich et al., 2019). a small sample study of 30 participants by aardema et al., showed by using brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 369 different scales to quantify the depersonalization/derealization symptoms, that preexisting dissociative symptoms increase their intensity in the virtual environment, but time of exposure may play an important role in their appearance (aardema et al., 2010). people suffering from depression or anxiety are more likely to develop these symptoms and also, disfunction of the left temporal lobe could be a risk factor for exacerbating underlying depersonalization symptoms (lambert et al., 2002). as technological progress facilitates access to vr and opens the viability of automated exposure (without human contact), the dissociative symptoms induced by virtual reality exposure need to be under the radar of the scientific world, in order to prevent unwanted depersonalization and derealization events. as more data emerge, the possibility of including dissociative disorders as a warning in the consumer headsets instruction book may prove beneficial in order to counter this unwanted side effect. furthermore, a dissociative disorder scale may need to be applied by researchers. the addictive potential of virtual reality games is nonetheless amplified by the perspectives of online gaming. the users have a hard time detaching from the virtual environment, as their perception of reality is mostly abolished, but their sense of bonding is amplified by multiplayer game scenarios. virtual reality – a blue light source circadian rhythm perturbation and even jet lag may be encountered with prolonged exposure to blue light (kim et al., 2018). aside from eye strain induced by blue light spectrum (450-480 nm) exposure (porcar et al., 2016), the suppressing of melatonin and increased alertness (cajochen et al., 2005) may determine circadian rhythm perturbation and even jet lag may be encountered with prolonged exposure, although the effects are hard to measure. the development of organic light-emitting diode (oled) lens with newer v.r. headsets instead of the older liquid crystal display/led emitting display (lcd/led) lens diminish in theory the level of blue light emitted, but the fact that a head mounted display engulfs the user delivering it straight to the retina has not been researched. impact of the sars-cov2 pandemic the covid-19 pandemic has locked people indoors and set workplace and school lectures online, therefore increasing the risk of perspective on the double edges of virtual reality in medicine both … marcel-alexandru găină, et al. 370 developing a form of digital addiction (luca, burlea et al., 2020). furthermore, isolating people increased the chances of developing social anxiety (sandu & damian, 2018) in what should be the mental health aftermath of this pandemic. the scientific world managed to survive through virtual conferences which already have strict standards (sandu 2020c), and probably the hybrid manner (real presence + virtual presence) will continue to be accepted even after the pandemic finally ends (luca, ciubara et al., 2020). worldwide, people are more open to buying virtual assets, virtual coins manage to replace traditional values such as precious metals, challenging the fundamentals of economy itself. virtual reality gaming is now on the edge of a major leap, as most of the already abused online gaming industry offers the perspective of an even more addictive environment through virtual reality, and some are even targeted at the v.r. consumer. conclusions in the century where time has become, perhaps, the most important resource, we are witnessing the emergence of new reality techniques designed to facilitate and enhance the therapeutic process of patients with various psychiatric disorders, ensuring good cost-effectiveness and especially having a significant therapeutic impact. the very characteristics that make virtual reality a valuable tool may prove harmful, through its addictive potential and its risk of inducing/exacerbating dissociative disorders. mental health professionals should develop means to weigh these side effects and place a strict border between using virtual reality as a therapeutic tool and promoting an addiction. references aardema, f., o’connor, k., & cote, s. (2010). virtual reality induces dissociation and lowers sense of presence in objective reality. cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, 13(4), 429-435. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2009.0164 alaterre, c., duceau, b., & sung tsai, e. (2020). virtual reality for peripheral regional anesthesia (vr-perla study). journal of clinical medicine, 9(1), 215. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9010215 ali, r. r., selim, a. o., & abdel ghafar, m. a. (2021). virtual reality as a pain distractor during physical rehabilitation in pediatric burn. burns. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.04.031 https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2009.0164 https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9010215 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.04.031 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 371 botella, c. (2017). virtual reality and other realities. in s. g. hofmann & g. j. g. asmundson (eds.), the science of cognitive behavioral therapy (pp. 551–590). academic press. cajochen, c., munch, m., kobialka, s., krauchi, k., steiner, r., oelhafen, p., orgul, s., & wirz-justice, a. (2005). high sensitivity of human melatonin, alertness, thermoregulation, and heart rate to short wavelength light. the journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, 90(3), 1311–1316. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2004-0957 dekker, a., wenzlaff, f., biedermann, s. v., briken, p., & fuss, j. (2020). vr porn as “empathy machine”? perception of self and others in virtual reality pornography. the journal of sex research, 58(3), 273-278. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2020.1856316 gîrlescu, n., hunea, i., diac, m., damian, s-i., knieling, a., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2020). cerebral oedema in diabetic ketoacidosis. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 32-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/13 heydrich, l., marillier, g., & evans, n. (2019). depersonalizationand derealization-like phenomena of epileptic origin. annals of clinical and translational neurology, 6(9), 1739–1747. https://doi.org/10.1002/acn3.50870 hoffman, h. g, richards, t. l., & oostrom, t. v. (2007). the analgesic effects of opioids and immersive virtual reality distraction: evidence from subjective and functional brain imaging assessments. anesthesia and analgesia, 105(6), 1776 –83. https://doi.org/10.1213/01.ane.0000270205.45146.db hoffman, h. g., sharar, s. r., & coda, b. (2004). manipulating presence influences the magnitude of virtual reality analgesia. pain, 111(1), 162– 168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2004.06.013 kim, c., yoon, h. c., kim, d. h., & do, y. r. (2018). spectroscopic influence of virtual reality and augmented reality display devices on the human nonvisual characteristics and melatonin suppression response. ieee photonics journal, 10(4), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1109/jphot.2018.2842124 kim, o., pang, y., & kim, j. h. (2019). the effectiveness of virtual reality for people with mild cognitive impairment or dementia: a meta-analysis. bmc psychiatry, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2180-x lambert, m. v., sierra, m., & phillips, m. l. (2002). the spectrum of organic depersonalization: a review plus four new cases. the journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 14(2), 141-154. https://doi.org/10.1176/jnp.14.2.141 luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2004-0957 https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2020.1856316 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/13 https://doi.org/10.1002/acn3.50870 https://doi.org/10.1213/01.ane.0000270205.45146.db https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2004.06.013 https://doi.org/10.1109/jphot.2018.2842124 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2180-x https://doi.org/10.1176/jnp.14.2.141 perspective on the double edges of virtual reality in medicine both … marcel-alexandru găină, et al. 372 neuroscience, 11(3s1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a. c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1s1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 luca, l., ciubara, a., ciubara, a. b., chirosca, a. c., & sarbu, f. (2019). youth perceptions towards psychiatry. european psychiatry, 56, s464-s464. maani, v. c., hoffman, h. g., & morrow, m. (2011). virtual reality pain control during burn wound debridement of combat-related burn injuries using robot-like arm mounted vr goggles. journal of trauma: injury, infection and critical care, 71(1), 125-30. https://doi.org/10.1097/ta.0b013e31822192e2 miller, h. l., & bugnariu, n. l. (2016). level of immersion in virtual environments impacts the ability to assess and teach social skills in autism spectrum disorder. cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 19(4), 246 – 256. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2014.0682 pandita, s., & stevenson won, a. (2020). clinical applications of virtual reality in patient-centered care. in j. kim & h. song (eds.), technology and health (pp. 129-148). academic press. porcar, e., pons, a. m., & lorente, a. (2016). visual and ocular effects from the use of flat-panel displays. international journal of ophthalmology, 9(6), 881–885. https://doi.org/10.18240/ijo.2016.06.16 rothbaum, b. o., hodges, l. f., & kooper, r. (1995). effectiveness of computergenerated (virtual reality) graded exposure in the treatment of acrophobia. american journal of psychiatry, 152(4), 626-628. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.152.4.626 sandu, a. (2020a). pandemic catalyst of the virtualization of the social space. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 115-140. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 sandu, a. (2020b). bioethics – philosophy or science?. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(1), 44-60. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/35 sandu, a. (2020c). the principles of bioethics and their use in ethical decisionmaking. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 9(1), 139154. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.1/39 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://doi.org/10.1097/ta.0b013e31822192e2 https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2014.0682 https://doi.org/10.18240/ijo.2016.06.16 https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.152.4.626 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/35 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.1/39 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 373 sandu, a., & damian, s-i. (2018). perceived quality of life and responsibility for own health condition. micro-research. archiv euromedica, 8(2), 18-23. http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiveuromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_1 2_2018-18_23.pdf sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). digital dementia. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 4(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/4.1/22 segawa, t., baudry, t., bourla, a., blanc, j. v., peretti, c. s., mouchabac, s., & ferreri, f. (2020). virtual reality in assessment and treatment of addictive disorders: a systematic review. frontiers in neuroscience, 13, 1409. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2019.01409 servotte, j. c., goosse, m., & campbell, s. h. (2020). virtual reality experience: immersion, sense of presence, and cybersickness. clinical simulation in nursing, 38, 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecns.2019.09.006 sherman, w. r. , & craig, a .b. (2019). introduction to virtual reality. in b. a. barsky (ed.), understanding virtual reality (pp. 4-58). morgan kaufmann publishers. weech, s., kenny, s., & barnett-cowan, m. (2019). presence and cybersickness in virtual reality are negatively related: a review. frontiers in psychology, 10, 158. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00158 wiederhold, m. d., gao, k., & wiederhold, b. k. (2014). clinical use of virtual reality distraction system to reduce anxiety and pain in dental procedures. cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 17(6), 359–365. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2014.0203 http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/ejmh/index https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/ejmh/index https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/4.1/22 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2019.01409 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecns.2019.09.006 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00158 https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2014.0203 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 69-80 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/123 implications of word-initial vowel glottalization in childhood apraxia of speech treatment elad vashdi¹*, amit avramov 2 , špela falatov 3 , huang yi-chen 4 , jiang pei-ru 5 , paula teodora mamina-chiriac 6 1 dpt, clinician, yaelcenter institute director, israel, center@yaelcenter.com 2 senior mdt and vml consultant, yaelcenter, israel, amit.avramov@gmail.com 3 center za zdravljenje avtizma director, slovenia, info@centerza.com 4 mspa-cpsp, beyond speech pathology clinic director, tai, elaine.y.c.huang@gmail.com 5 bsppath, sunny speech pathology clinic director, taiwan, panny320@yahoo.com.tw 6 bs-psych, psychology office, romania, paulachiriac83@yahoo.com abstract: a vowel is a speech sound in which the airflow moves freely with minimal obstructions through the vocal tract and can appear in different places in the words structure. word initial vowel glottalization is a phenomenon described in the literature while clinical implications were observed among children diagnosed with apraxia of speech (cas). this research examined the clinical consequences of the phenomenon on the analysis and treatment of cas. 256 cas cases were examined using the vml (verbal motor learning) method evaluation. analysis of the consonant groups shows that 11% of the children had difficulty with producing the glottal consonant, in comparison to other consonants. the implications of the findings influence the analysis process and are crucial for the treatment of 11% of the cas population. further theoretical discussions and findings are reported. keywords: childhood apraxia of speech; autism; nsome; oral motor; glottalization; phonetics. how to cite: vashdi, e., avramov, a., falatov, s., yi-chen, h., pei-ru, j., & mamina-chiriac, p.t. (2020). implications of word-initial vowel glottalization in childhood apraxia of speech treatment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 69-80. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/123 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/123 mailto:center@yaelcenter.com mailto:amit.avramov@gmail.com mailto:info@centerza.com mailto:elaine.y.c.huang@gmail.com mailto:panny320@yahoo.com.tw mailto:panny320@yahoo.com.tw mailto:paulachiriac83@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/123 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 70 introduction a vowel is a speech sound in which the airflow moves freely with minimal obstructions through the vocal tract. the vocal cords vibrate through the vowel production and are considered to be the main element of vowel production. different languages contain different vowels; however, there are five basic vowel groups: /a/, /o/, /u/, /i/, /e/. the vowels differ from one another by the minimal obstructions created by the tongue, lips, jaw and vocal cavities. vowels also differ by the length of the sound and the tone (qc vowel wikipedia, 2020). in the spoken language we can also find combinations of two or three vowels together (diphthongs and triphthongs) in which vowels are blended in overlapping transitions. the vowel’s production physiology consists of a preliminary vocal tract air pressure, which creates a pressurized air flow from the lungs directed out through mouth and nose. the airflow is facing mild structural changes along the vocal tract which modify it to perform a phoneme. a speech sound created with higher degree of airflow obstruction (partial or full) is considered to be a consonant. vowels can appear in various places in the word structure, among places is the head of an utterance. the word "apple" is considered to be pronounced with a vowel at the head of the word. during my work with children diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech (cas) i have started questioning this perception. cas is defined as "a neurological childhood (pediatric) speech sound disorder in which the precision and consistency of movements underlying speech are impaired in the absence of neuromuscular deficits (e.g. abnormal reflexes, abnormal tone)" (american speechlanguage-hearing association, 2007; lupu et al., 2016; lupu, et al., 2016). the core problem in cas is a deficit in the ability to plan speech sounds on a motor basis. a phenomenon i observed during my work as a clinician is a poor ability to imitate or spontaneously pronounce the sounds /a/, /o/, /u/, /i/ and /e/ (the 5 vowels in hebrew and the basic 5 vowel group sounds) as a single sound, and later on at the beginning of a word. these sounds can be referred to as word initial vowels (wiv). interestingly, some of the children who had this problem could pronounce the sounds /ba/, /bo/, /boo/, /bee/, /beh/ or other consonants with all the 5 vowels. if there is an ability to produce the consonant /b/ with all the vowels, one would expect that production of wiv would be intact. why could these children pronounce the vowels with other consonants but not as wiv? can we consider them as having the ability to pronounce the vowels? how does implications of word-initial vowel glottalization in childhood apraxia of … mirona letiţia dobri, et al. 71 it influence the decision-making process in treatment? the purpose of this article is to try and answer these questions. the sound /a/ (as in the word /apple/) appears in the vowels chart of the english phonetics as a short vowel. the science of phonetics defines 3 critical parameters for vowel existence: 1. the portion of the tongue that is involved, in the articulation. example: front versus back vowels. 2. the tongue’s position relative to the palate. example: high versus low vowels. 3. the degree of lip rounding or non-rounding (shriberg & kent, 2003). this vowel exists in other languages such as french, german, hebrew or arabic, having similar basic phonetic characters. in english the sound /a/ is considered to be a vowel regardless of its location within the word. in hebrew or arabic languages, the sound /a/ is also considered to be a vowel when it is located at the head of the word (e.g. vowel-consonant-vowel structure like in the word /ani/). however, in hebrew and arabic writing, the sound /a/ at the beginning of a word is represented by two graphemes, one for the glottal consonant (/ʔ/) and the other for the vowel /a/ (consonant/vowel combination, cv), similar to cv combinations such as /ba/, /ta/ or /ka/. the sound /a/ in hebrew physiologically consists of a glottal, plosive, voiceless consonant /ʔ/ and the vowel /a/. surprisingly, in hebrew speech acquisition research the consonant /ʔ/ does not appear in the charts (lavie, 1978). when the glottal consonant appears at the beginning of a word with a vowel (cv combination) it is still considered to be only a vowel in the speech acquisition tables. for example, the word "ani" in hebrew (which means "i" in english) is considered as vcv structure while the first sound of the word actually consists of the consonant /ʔ/ & the vowel /a/. the phrase /ani/ is physiologically pronounced as a consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel combination (cvcv structure). it is true for any vowel combined with the consonant /ʔ/ in hebrew. physiologically it is a cv combination; phonetically or in writing it is considered to be a vowel (burlea et al., 2010; lupu et al., 2015). if the sound /a/ as in "apple" in english is physiologically pronounced identically to the sound /ah/ in hebrew as in the word "ani", and we consider the sound /a/ in hebrew as a syllable (the consonant /ʔ/ + vowel /a/) then how should we treat the sound /a/ (as in /apple/) in english? as v or cv? word-initial vowel glottal stopping hebrew is different from english regarding the glottal consonant, since in hebrew it is part of the spoken language while in english it is an brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 72 irregularity. many researchers investigated this phenomenon since the late 70's until very recently (garellek, 2012; umeda, 1978). the researcher's main objective is to understand the factors that contribute to the occurrence of this phenomenon. for this article it is only important to acknowledge the existence and prevalence of this phenomenon so we can apply this knowledge to the cas treatment. dilley, shattuck-hufnagel and ostendorf (1996) investigated factors that affect glottalization. they used 5 radio broadcasters and analyzed their utterances. they have found differences in rates of glottalization between the 5 subjects and between the locations of the vowel (non-phrase initial vs phrase initial). glottalization was measured in one case at 70% in phrase initial condition, while the lower rates were in the range of 15-20%. garellek looked for the factors which are most important in predicting where full glottal stops occur, and for whether incomplete glottal stops can be detected acoustically (garellek, 2012). garellek used the same method as dilley et al. (1996) but included only 4 subjects in the study. 2010 word initial vowels were extracted. 53% of them were found to have irregularities (range 4364%) and 15% to have a full glottalization (range 6-32%). for the vast population with no speech problems, the glottalization is not such an important functional phenomenon. however, for the children diagnosed with cas it might be. if the vowels appear with some consonants but not with the plosive glottal consonant, then the assumption of poor vowels pronunciation is questionable. it might lead us to avoid using these vowels with other consonants and focus only on practicing the vowels as wiv. that can cost months of treatment with no progress. in addition, if we consider the wiv as a syllable, then the approach to treatment might differ. we might try other techniques in order to establish a new consonant, the plosive glottal. the hypothesis of this research was that a large percentage of children diagnosed with cas will present low control over wiv while being able to better pronounce the vowels with other consonants. another question we wanted to answer was whether the vowels are the first sounds to appear among children diagnosed with cas as in typical development. method a retrospective study was conducted analyzing 256 entry evaluations of children diagnosed with cas. the data was collected over the years 2006-2012 of children evaluated at a private clinic in israel. a set of variables based on the vml method assessment was established for the retrospective implications of word-initial vowel glottalization in childhood apraxia of … mirona letiţia dobri, et al. 73 data collection (vashdi, 2013; vashdi, 2014). each evaluation was examined thoroughly, and the data was extracted according to a detailed index. each variable had a ladder of 3-5 score with a specific definition of each stage for scoring. reliability tests of the vml assessment tool show inter-rater agreement of 81% and correlation of 0.79. subjects 256 evaluations were examined. sex distribution: 76.6% boys, 23.4% girls. the average age was 5 years old, and the age range was 1:7 – 19 years old. all subjects were diagnosed with speech delay and suspected cas. 65% of them came with diagnosis of autism as well. the inclusion criteria were: 1. speech delay or suspected cas evaluation. 2. extracting at least 80% of data needed. data that was not clear enough to fit the variables criteria was not used. 3. the evaluations were only in the hebrew language. measurements in this study we used the scores of single sound production (ssp) (wiv, cv, coda form of consonants) in the hebrew language. every sound got a score of 0-3 (see table 1). table 1 – sounds scoring index source: authors'own contribution 3 consistent imitation or deliberate production of sound at least 80% of the time 2 non-consistent production of sound, low accuracy of sound production, low intelligibility of sound. 1 spontaneous production of sound. inability to imitate the sound. 0 no ability to pronounce the sound new variables were formed out of the raw data: 1) percentage of wiv, 2) percentage of each consonant group (ba +bo + boo+ bee+ beh+bb). we sorted the scores of each group of sounds from high to low (table 2). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 74 table 2 – consonant and word initial vowel groups sum score source: authors'own contribution consonant &vowel group score percentage significance word initial vowels 2111 54.97396 b and rest b 1863 40.42969 m and rest m 1619 35.13455 n and rest p 1609 34.91753 n and rest n 1429 31.01128 t and rest t 1348 29.25347 ch and rest d 1334 28.94965 g and rest ch 1298 28.1684 g and rest g 1253 27.19184 k and rest k 1182 25.65104 l and rest l 1163 25.23872 v and rest v 960 20.83333 j and rest sh 957 20.76823 j and rest j 913 19.81337 f and rest f 860 18.66319 ts and rest s 858 18.61979 ts and rest ts 768 16.66667 r z 768 16.66667 r r 537 11.65365 *represents the vowels with the glottal consonant. ● the score column summarizes the total score for the group across all participants. ● the percentage column shows the percentage of score out of the possible maximum for each consonant or word-initial vowel group across all participants. ● the significance column describes significant paired t-test at level of <0.05 for the consonant mentioned, and all the other consonants that are beneath it. ● the following consonant pairs were not significantly different: d:t, d:ch, v:sh, f:s, ts:z. implications of word-initial vowel glottalization in childhood apraxia of … mirona letiţia dobri, et al. 75 we sorted the scores of each single sound from high to low. for each subject a qualitative examination for differences between vowels group score and single consonant groups score was performed. in this examination the score of the vowel group was compared to the score of each consonant group (e.g. /b/, /p/) while excluding the non-vowel consonant score. the purpose was to find differences in occurrence of vowels with consonants versus wiv. the null assumption was that the vowels group score will be higher in all cases, since the vowels are first to develop and the occurrence of cvs depends on the wiv development. we wanted to see if there are cases in which other cv combinations are stronger than wiv. even minor gaps of 1-2 points between wiv and another consonant group were recorded, since for a child with minimal sound control every sound or degree of control over a sound might be significant. paired t test was used to obtain statistical significance for the single sound test between the sound /e/ and the sound /m/, since, if such difference will be found, then we can conclude that all the wiv are within the 8 strongest sounds (see table 3) . paired t test was used in addition for the comparison between the vowels group and the consonant /b/ group. results the score of the sound /e/ was found significantly higher than the sound /m/ score (paired t test<0.05). the results show that the 5 wiv are with in the 8 strongest sounds. the other three were /ba/, /pa/ and /ma/ (see table 3). table 3 – top 15 sounds source: authors'own contribution sound score a (apple) 546 ba (banana) 461 i (eat) 426 o (or) 422 ma (mum) 391 u (uzi) 367 e (elephant) 350* pa (pancake) 348* mm (came) 321 bo (ball) 311 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 76 da (dance) 306 na (nine) 304 ta (task) 294 bu (bully) 285 bi (bee) 283 *no significant difference was found between /e/ and /pa/. significant differences at the level of <0.05 were found between every two adjacent sounds on the table. in addition, the wiv group was found to significantly have the highest score in comparison to the other consonant groups, obtaining 54.76% of the maximum score, while the b consonant group which was ranked second, obtained only 38.62% (paired t test<0.01) in 28 cases (11%) the wiv was not the strongest consonant group. table 4 presents these cases and the specific differences between the groups. in these cases, the vowels were in better control under another consonant then as wiv. table 4 – weak word-initial vowels cases source: authors'own contribution score percentage number of differences b p m n l t d k g sh f word initial vowels highest differences 100 46.7 93.3 80 73.3 0.0 66.7 40 80 0.0 0.0 53.3 46.6 6 53.3 66.7 13.3 26.7 40 40 26.7 0.0 26.7 13.3 0.0 26.7 40 2 93.3 73.3 60 93.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 80 26.7 0.0 13.3 60 33.3 4 0.0 0.0 0.0 60 26.7 0.0 40 0.0 0.0 13.3 20 26.7 33.3 2 80 80 80 93.3 0.0 80 53.3 80 66.7 0.0 13.3 66.7 26.6 7 20 0.0 33.3 13.3 13.3 13.3 13.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 26.6 6 40 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 40 26.7 0.0 0.0 13.3 26.6 2 40 40 20 0.0 86.7 26.7 0.0 20 0.0 40 20 60 26.6 1 40 40 13.3 0.0 0.0 33.3 33.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20 20 4 26.7 0.0 6.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 20 2 60 60 40 0.0 40 40 100 80 0.0 0.0 0.0 80 20 1 86.7 86.7 86.7 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 86.7 86.7 13.3 7 13.3 13.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 13.3 13.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 13.3 4 6.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 13.3 0.0 13.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 13.3 3 13.3 20 13.3 0.0 6.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 13.3 3 implications of word-initial vowel glottalization in childhood apraxia of … mirona letiţia dobri, et al. 77 100 100 100 66.7 66.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 86.7 13.3 3 46.7 53.3 20 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 60 60 0.0 0.0 46.7 13.3 2 0.0 0.0 0.0 93.3 13.3 0.0 13.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 80 13.3 1 6.7 0.0 20 46.7 26.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 33.3 13.3 1 100 80 33.3 73.3 46.7 100 100 100 100 40 100 93.3 6.6 8 60 66.7 6.7 6.7 0.0 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 0.0 0.0 60 6.6 7 93.3 100 100 93.3 100 93.3 100 100 93.3 0.0 0.0 93.3 6.6 5 6.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.6 2 40 0.0 100 100 0.0 0.0 6.7 13.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 93.3 6.6 2 6.7 0.0 6.7 0.0 0.0 6.7 13.3 0.0 6.7 0.0 0.0 6.7 6.6 1 13.3 0.0 6.7 0.0 6.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 6.6 1 93.3 93.3 93.3 93.3 93.3 93.3 93.3 0.0 0.0 93.3 100 93.3 6.6 1 13.3 0.0 13.3 20 0.0 20 33.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 26.7 6.6 1 the score percentage of all the relevant consonants and vowels in 28 cases in which the vowels score was lower than at least one consonant group. the difference in percentage is shown form the highest to the lowest. the number of differences for each case is summarized in the last column. table 5 – inclusive vowel-form groups and word initial vowel ladder source: authors'own contribution inclusive vowel group percentage word-initial vowel percentage va 31.66* a 71.09* vo 24.45 i 55.46 vi 24.42 o 54.94 ve 24.14 u 47.78*** vu 21.49** e 45.57*** *significantly higher than the rest of the results (<0.01) **significantly lower than the rest of the results (<0.05) ***significantly lower than the first 3 results (<0.01) and higher than the last one (<0.05) ● no differences were found between vo, vi and ve variables in the inclusive vowel group. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 78 ● no differences were found between i and o variables in the wordinitial vowel group. ● the lower percentage score of the inclusive vowel group is attributed to the influence of the consonants control. discussion this research dealt with the hypothesis that wiv should be addressed in speech as syllables constructed from the consonant /ʔ/ and a vowel, rather than a single vowel. the consonant /ʔ/ exists in some languages while represented with a letter (like the letter /א/ in hebrew); however, it is not mentioned in the developmental consonants acquisition charts. the pronunciation of the wiv is probably the same in most languages, which is different to the graphemic representation. the english language does not have a representation for the glottal consonant since it does not formally exist in the language; however, it does exist in the spoken english language. the vowels are known to be the first sounds a child will master, followed by the consonants. it is well demonstrated in research on typical development and the findings here support that (irwin, 1983; templin, 1957). however, in 11% of the cases observed here, which are non-regular developmental processes, the wiv group was not the strongest in comparison to other consonant groups. we consider vowels as sounds with minimal obstruction of air flow; however, with a word-initial vowel, it is not always the case. the occurrence of glottalization in wiv in english can reach up to 70% (dilley et al., 1996). the phenomenon of vowel glottalization in english, the existence of a glottal consonant in some languages and the finding of the struggle of children diagnosed with cas can lead us to think differently about definitions. it is true that in most cases of cas, the wiv will be the strongest sounds as was reflected in the retrospective study (89%), but the residual 11% is a significant group that requires a different intervention. the reason that 11% of the children struggle with the wiv might be the plosive glottal consonant, since the vowels are being produced with other consonants. the ability to pronounce a vowel depends on achieving the control parameters which are crucial for the vowel's motor scheme. if one can produce a vowel in some combinations, there is probably some control over these parameters, hence the reason for poor pronunciation in other cv’s relays on the consonant control rather than on the vowel control. in implications of word-initial vowel glottalization in childhood apraxia of … mirona letiţia dobri, et al. 79 some cases, it might also be related to a specific consonant/vowel transition difficulty. the implications on evaluation and treatment of cas might be: 1) consider wiv as a group of the glottal consonant /ʔ/ just as the /b/ or /k/ group. the analysis of these sounds will consider not only the vowels but also the glottal consonant. 2) when analyzing the ability to pronounce vowels, we should consider the occurrence of vowels along all the consonants and not just as wiv, since such consideration might result with wrong decision making. if the child can produce the vowels with the consonant /b/ for example, but cannot produce the wiv, we can assume that he has control over the vowels parameters and likely to have a problem with producing the glottal consonant. hence, we should consider a plan in which he would be able to use these vowels with another consonant even before acquiring them as wiv. table 5 shows the difference between wiv development ladder and inclusive vowel developmental ladder. these two implications are crucial in treating the 11% group of the cas population. glottalization probably does not influence the rest of 89% of children with cas, but we assume that this new way of analyzing vowel production can be beneficial for them as well. summary phonetically, the glottal consonant should be included in the consonant developmental charts. it is important for professionals to acknowledge its existence, even in english, since in cases like that it might come useful. it seems that the plosive glottal consonant is being pronounced and used in many languages but at the same time it is being ignored phonetically. we are grateful to the children with cas for throwing light on that spot. references american speech-language-hearing association. (2007). childhood apraxia of speech. technical report. ad hoc committee on apraxia of speech in children. asha. https://www.asha.org/policy/tr2007-00278/ burlea, g., burlea, a.m., & milici, r.c. (2010). prevention and intervention in speech and language therapy for the success of lexicographical acquisitions. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 30, 86-100. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf https://www.asha.org/policy/tr2007-00278/ https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 80 dilley, l., shattuck-hufnagel, s., & ostendorf, m. (1996). glottalization of wordinitial vowels as a function of prosodic structure. journal of phonetics, 24,423 444. https://doi.org/10.1006/jpho.1996.0023 garellek, m. (2012). glottal stops before word-initial vowels in american english: distribution and acoustic characteristics. ucla working papers in phonetics, 110, 1-23. https://escholarship.org/content/qt7m55b8bb/qt7m55b8bb_nosplash_a d63f821e520155ec5195eaaa435e10f.pdf?t=mezowz irwin, j.v., & wong, s. p. (1983). phonological development in children: 18-72 months. southern illinois university press. lavie, s. (1978). norms of the hebrew consonants system between the age 3 to 5 [unpublished master’s thesis]. tel aviv university. lupu, v. v., ignat, a., ciubotariu, g., ciubara, a., moscalu, m., & burlea, m. (2016). helicobacter pylori infection and gastroesophageal reflux in children. diseases of the esophagus, 29(8), 1007-1012. https://doi.org/10.1111/dote.12429 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., ciubara, a-m., ioniuc, i., ciubara, a. b., gheonea, c., & burlea, m. (2016). the study of effects regarding ingestion of corrosive substances in children. revista de chimie, 67(12), 25012503. https://revistadechimie.ro/pdf/lupu%20v%2012%2016.pdf lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., mihaila, d., burlea, m., & ciubara, a-m. (2015). heterotopic gastric mucosa in the distal part of esophagus in a teenager case report. medicine, 94(42), e1722. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 shriberg, l. d., & kent, r. d. (2003). clinical phonetics (3rd ed.). allyn and bacon. templin, m. (1957). certain language skills in children. institute of child welfare monograph series 26. university of minnesota press. umeda, n. (1978). occurrence of glottal stops in fluent speech. journal of the acoustical society of america, 64, 88-94. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.381959 vashdi, e. (2013). using vml (verbal motor learning) method techniques in treatment of prosody disorder due to childhood apraxia of speech: a case study. international journal of child health and human development, 6(2), 255260. vashdi, e. (2014). the influence of initial phoneme cue technique according to the vml method on word formation with a child who has apraxia of speech and autism a case study. international journal of child health and human development, 7(2), 197-203. vowel (2020, december 1). in wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vowel https://doi.org/10.1006/jpho.1996.0023 https://escholarship.org/content/qt7m55b8bb/qt7m55b8bb_nosplash_ad63f821e520155ec5195eaaa435e10f.pdf?t=mezowz https://escholarship.org/content/qt7m55b8bb/qt7m55b8bb_nosplash_ad63f821e520155ec5195eaaa435e10f.pdf?t=mezowz https://doi.org/10.1111/dote.12429 https://revistadechimie.ro/pdf/lupu%20v%2012%2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 https://doi.org/10.1121/1.381959 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vowel brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 220-230 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/138 latent aggression and impulsive manifestations of the psychiatric patient. clinical, legal and ethical aspects codrina moraru¹, ionuţ-dragoş rădulescu 2 , alina-ioana voinea 3 *, mirona-letiţia dobri 4 , gabriela rusu-zota 5 , petronela nechita 6 1 second year medical resident in psychiatry, “socola” psychiatry institute, iaşi, romania, moraru.codrina@gmail.com 2 md, specialist in psychiatry, “elisabeta doamna” psychiatry hospital, galaţi, romania 3 las ct, hertfordshire partnership university nhs foundation trust, st. albans, united kingdom 4 third year medical resident in psychiatry, “socola” psychiatry institute, iaşi, romania 5 md, phd, lecturer, department of pharmacology – algesiology, faculty of medicine, “grigore t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iaşi, romania 6 md, phd, senior psychiatrist, “socola” psychiatry institute, iaşi, romania abstract: psychiatry represents the medical branch that focuses not only on the patient’s mental state but also on general health issues and wellbeing. with the continuous development of human civilization, the individual no longer uses aggression, a counterproductive method for day to day living in the community, to meet its basic needs. neurobiological changes that lead to aggressive manifestations are a medical problem only if the aggressive impulses occur in a person with a psychiatric diagnosis already established and poses a danger to himself and others. aggressive behaviour due to a medical condition or biological factors is an old problem that has great forensic implications both for the patient and for the medical staff. decreased quality of life, low emotional support and social marginalization are some of the repercussions that emerge. understanding the negative effects of aggressive impulses found in multiple psychiatric diagnoses is the key to an optimal doctor-patient relationship. an individualized treatment is necessary, the final goal being social reintegration. keywords: aggressive manifestations; psychiatric diagnosis; social reintegration. how to cite: moraru, c., rădulescu, i.-d., voinea, a.-i., dobri, m.l., rusu-zota, g., & nechita, p. (2020). latent aggression and impulsive manifestations of the psychiatric patient. clinical, legal and ethical aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 220-230. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/138 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/138 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/138 latent aggression and impulsive manifestations of the psychiatric patient. … codrina moraru, et al. 221 introduction aggression in the psychiatric environment is a real problem for both the patient and the medical staff due to the numerous ethical, legal and moral issues. it is necessary to have a good knowledge and understanding of the term aggression in order to implement a correct medical treatment that offers the patient a functionality as close to normal as possible and also protection for the doctor and auxiliary staff involved in managing the case. aggressive behaviour is found in most species as an adaptive function. in the human species, however, with the continuous development of civilization, the individual no longer uses aggression as a method of satisfying basic needs. persistent patterns of aggressive behaviour mask psychiatric disorders that often require medical treatment and psychological intervention (archer, 2009). various definitions of the term “aggression” have been formulated over time, but the etymology of the word comes from the latin aggresio which means “to attack”. therefore, what designates aggression is the act of attacking, undermining, or destroying an object or being consciously, intentionally, or outside the rational exercise of thought in order to provide the resources necessary for survival or for personal protection or protection of those around. the above definition also requires a social context and does not imply self-aggression. aggressive impulses are a medical problem when the patient already has a psychiatric diagnosis and is a danger to himself and others. extensive studies have highlighted areas of the brain that are related to behavioural changes and aggressive behaviour, especially in the limbic system. the amygdala is the one that deals with fear emotions, defensive reactions, motivation and emotional learning. the hypothalamus together with the amygdala mediates fear and anger. electrostimulation of the amygdala causes an increase in the intensity of aggression, while amidalectomy reduces it. destruction of the amygdala makes it impossible for the patient to recognize facial emotions. in addition to the limbic system, other brain areas with a role in emotional processing have been discovered, such as the pre-frontal dorso-lateral cortex (dlpfc) and the orbito-frontal cortex (ofc), which integrate information with the corresponding affective signal. destructive changes that occur in this area affect cognition, memory and emotions in general. if the neural network between the limbic system and the orbito-frontal cortex is affected, changes occur in terms of emotion processing and the per se damage of the regions results in difficulties in brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 222 regulating emotions with an inhibitory deficit of aggressive behaviour. patients with anatomical lesions at the ofc level have higher violence/aggression scores compared to normal controls and patients with brain lesions located in other areas (cardinal et al., 2002). sociopathic behaviour arises due to destruction of the frontal lobe, especially the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex. lesions in the amygdala and hippocampus were highlighted by imaging scans, changes that were not found in patients with non-violent behaviour. another structural feature is the reduced prefrontal lobe volume in patients with antisocial personality disorders following nuclear magnetic resonance examination. in addition to structural changes, neurochemical changes were also noted. thus, volkow et. al noted low glucose use in the prefrontal and temporal cortex in patients with a history of aggression (volkow et al., 1995). metabolic hypoactivity in the frontal region and subcortical hyperactivity were noted in aggressive criminals compared to control groups (raine et al., 1998). in patients with a history of repetitive aggressive manifestations, an inverse correlation was observed between aggressive impulses and ofc metabolic activity (cherek et al., 2006, pp. 424–446). reduced metabolic activity in the hypothalamus, thalamus, and ofc was also observed in individuals with a history of domestic violence who also had an alcohol dependence compared to healthy control groups (chirita et al., 2012; new et al., 2002). aggressive traits are influenced by both genetic factors and the external environment (miles & carey, 1997). following a study by yeh et al. (2010) genetic mechanisms have been shown to account for 28% of verbal aggression, 35% for aggressive traits involving the use of objects, and 45% for aggressive aggression against others. studies in humans suggest that the neural circuit which generally handles aggressive manifestations is vast and complex and is associated with low cortical functionality in the dorsolateral orbital and prefrontal area, while in the temporal medial area increased functionality is noted (george et al., 2004). aggressive behaviour is divided into two entities: the form in which it occurs and the type of manifestation. aggression can be verbal and/or physical manifesting itself in a direct or indirect form. the indirect type of conduct that aims to damage interpersonal relationships is called “relational aggression” (murray-close et al., 2010). aggression is also seen in an accepted social form (eg. law enforcement) or as part of the basic traits of a psychiatric patient. other types of aggression include premeditated aggression and impulsive aggression (barratt et al., 2010). latent aggression and impulsive manifestations of the psychiatric patient. … codrina moraru, et al. 223 the difference between the two is that, in the premeditated type, it is used as a purpose to obtain a material good, for example hitting a person to steal his bag, while in impulsive aggression the desire to hurt the other is the main goal of the act. aggressive manifestations and epilepsy epilepsy is a central nervous system (neurological) disorder in which brain activity becomes abnormal, causing seizures or periods of unusual behaviour, sensations, and sometimes loss of awareness (marcangelo & ovsiew, 2007). the underlying mechanism of epileptic seizures is excessive and abnormal neuronal activity in the cortex of the brain (fisher et al., 2005). the reason this occurs in most cases of epilepsy is unknown (hammer & mcphee, 2010). some cases occur as the result of brain injury, stroke, brain tumours, brain infections, or birth defects through a process known as epileptogenesis. new studies in epilepsy have shown that aggressive manifestations during seizures are short-lived and limited; they are not planned and with a specific direction. they usually occur at the onset of an epileptogenic seizure as a defensive measure or when the patient is being held by others. a complete medical history, psychiatric comorbidities, social history and the presence of trigger factors are necessary to establish a correct diagnosis and institute drug treatment for these patients. dementia and aggression dementia is a set of related symptoms that involve progressive impairments to memory, thinking, and behaviour, that affect the ability to perform everyday activities (livingston et al., 2017). most often patients with dementia are agitated and have hallucinatory symptoms. the etiology of dementia is necessary to institute a treatment that slows the progression of the disease. the aggressive manifestations found in this diagnosis are usually directed at family members and represent additional stress for the family, which leads to the institutionalization of the patient (ciobotea et al., 2016). in a study by jost et al., the major symptoms were classified into 3 groups, namely agitation, psychotic and affective symptoms. it was found that the onset of dementia occurs with a psychotic syndrome while agitation is diagnosed in the first year after onset. affective symptoms are the last to appear. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 224 some evidence suggests that education and support for the person with dementia, as well as caregivers and family members, improve outcomes. cognitive and behavioural interventions may be appropriate (valcea et al., 2016). aggression and psychosis psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, are accompanied by symptoms that distort perception and thinking such as auditory or visual hallucinations, delusional ideas, pursuit, persecution and suspicion. inadequate family and social support, abuse and stigmatization make it difficult for the schizophrenic patient, reducing his addressability to medical services, compliance with drug treatment and psychotherapeutic means (bolos et al., 2012). against such a vulnerable background, a patient suffering from auditory hallucinations or ideas of persecution is more likely to commit acts of violence, being under the belief that his life is in danger or that those around him want harm. among patients with schizophrenia, studies have shown that those suffering from hallucinations are less violent than those with delusional ideas of persecution and harm (walsh et al., 2001). however, in most cases of violence involving people with psychotic disorders, they were the victims. schizophrenia and psychotic disorders are psychiatric disorders with a lower violent potential compared to affective disorders or antisocial personality disorder. although psychosis itself is an unpredictable medical condition, not subject to the logical behavioral reasoning of healthy subjects, acts of violence committed by a psychotic patient can occur after a series of stages or psychotraumatic events and have a prodromal phase. the family or those close to the patient notice changes in the patient's attitude and condition. aggression and affective disorders aggressive behaviour is also found in patients with bipolar disorder and includes verbal and physical aggression, anger attacks, homicide, sexual assault. a study performed on a number of 121 patients diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder, the most common type of aggression evaluated was verbal (20.4%), followed by physical (19%), against some household objects (17.5%) and finally against the self (14.6%) (perlis et al., 2004). most often the aggressive behavior is confused with the state of euphoria present in the context of the manic episode. the patient has symptoms that attract the attention of the family and specialized medical staff, while affecting the latent aggression and impulsive manifestations of the psychiatric patient. … codrina moraru, et al. 225 social and professional functionality of the individual (untu et al., 2015). driving at excessive speed, alcohol abuse and psychoactive substances, recalcitrant behavior is only part of the symptomatic picture. they can be part of the manifestations of a manic episode when there is an obvious change from a previous level and when the diagnostic criteria are met. if these symptoms persist for a long time (lasting years), they are attributed to a personality disorder. another type of bipolar disorder is the mixed type, the patient developing at the same time depressive and manic symptoms, which leads to increased irritability, hostility and physical aggression. most often these patients require hospitalization in a specialized center and psychiatric treatment. of particular interest is anxiety disorder, in which the patient has a “fight or flight” response when subjected to negative external stimuli (barlow, 2002). hostility, irritability and aggression are just some of the traits that diagnosed individuals have. in this diagnosis, aggression can also manifest itself in the form of anger attacks that the patient has, with the intention of doing harm (fernandez & johnson, 1990). most of the time, the aggressive behaviour that the patient displays is just a normal biological response to the fear and anxiety he feels. verbal or physical aggression are the most common forms of anxiety in the diagnosed patient (moscovitch et al., 2008). the continued mental suppression of negative thoughts that an anxious patient may have may manifest itself later in life through uncontrolled outbursts. recent studies have shown that people with anxiety disorders have an increased risk of having aggressive behaviour due to a genetic susceptibility to stress (barlow, 2002). aggression and substance abuse alcohol abuse is one of the most important determinants of aggressive behaviour with the highest rate compared to other psychiatric disorders. alcohol consumption, benefic in low doses (ciubara et al., 2018), is often associated with physical violence and can have serious consequences, from causing severe injuries and death. also, acute alcohol intoxication and alcohol dependence are associated with an increased crime rate worldwide (world health organization, 2007; bulgaruiliescu et al., 2015). people already diagnosed with a personality disorder have a risk of violent and aggressive behaviour that increases with consumption, which is due to the disinhibiting effect that alcohol has; favors risky actions and blurs self-control (ciubara et al., 2015). studies show that 60-70% of the male population had at least one episode of physical or verbal aggression directed brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 226 at their partner (gorney, 1989). domestic violence and alcohol abuse are aggravated when both partners drink alcohol regularly and abusively. consumption of psychoactive substances has been correlated with the development of aggressive behaviour. people with such a disorder have an increased risk of being the aggressor or even the aggressor. just as in the case of alcohol consumption and benzodiazepine use has been correlated with an increased incidence of aggression due to the pharmacological effect it has, namely the action on gaba receptors and the loss of inhibitory control (dumbrava et al., 2019). there is a vulnerable category of patients such as those with personality disorders, for whom benzodiazepine use increases the risk of violent behaviour. long-term use of stimulants such as amphetamine and cocaine cause cognitive changes associated with impulse control, leading to disinhibition and marked behavioral manifestations. in contrast, heroin and tranquilizer abuse alleviate aggressive behaviour due to the sedative effect they have. recent studies have highlighted multiple psychological changes resulting from illicit consumption. thus, aggressive behaviour results from the inability of the individual to procure drugs, the relationships he has with various suppliers of illegal substances, all with a negative impact on the psyche. another example of global violence is that resulting from rivalry between drug providers as a method of establishing dominance. aggression and personality disorders personality disorders are an important point in the study of aggression due to the increased prevalence among individuals (diac et al., 2020). the most common types of disorders with a high incidence of aggression are represented by: antisocial personality, borderline, narcissistic and paranoid (ciubara et al., 2016). borderline personality disorder is characterized by intense or uncontrollable emotional reactions that often seem disproportionate to the event or situation, unstable and chaotic interpersonal relationships; impulsivity and violent or dangerous behaviors. altered self-image, selfdestructive behaviour accompanied by depression or anxiety are some of the characteristics of the diagnosis. unusually, the lack of empathy observed in serial killers is an extreme feature of the spectrum. individuals with this type of personality have deficits of the limbic system, disinhibition in the frontal cortex, making them prone to sadism and lack of empathy (harenski et al., 2012). latent aggression and impulsive manifestations of the psychiatric patient. … codrina moraru, et al. 227 conclusion aggression is the outcome of many psychiatric and non-psychiatric etiologies that require increased attention for diagnosing, treating, and socially reintegrating the patient. in the psychiatric field, aggressive impulses are of major importance because they involve the patient as a dual person: the aggressor and the aggressed person with multiple forensic and social implications. references archer, j. (2009). the nature of human aggression. international journal of law and psychiatry, 32(4), 202–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2009.04.001 barlow, d. h. (2002). anxiety and its disorders: the nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (2nd edition). guilford. barratt, e. s., stanford, m. s., felthous, a. r., matthew, s., felthous, a. r., & kent, t. a. (1997). the effects of phenytoin on impulsive and premeditated aggression: a controlled study. journal of clinical psychopharmacology, 17(5), 341-349. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004714199710000-00002 bolos, a., ciubara, a-m., & chirita, r. (2012). moral and ethical aspects of the relationship between depression and suicide. revista romana de bioetica, 10(3), 71-79. bulgaru-iliescu, d., costea, g., scripcaru, a., & ciubara, a-m. (2015). homicide and alcohol consumption. a medico-legal and psychiatric interdisciplinary approach. multivariate analysis. romanian journal of legal medicine, 23(2), 137-142. https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2015.137 cardinal, r. n., parkinson, j. a., hall, j., & everitt, b. j. (2002). emotion and motivation: the role of the amygdala, ventral striatum, and prefrontal cortex. neuroscience & biobehavioral reviews, 26(3), 321–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-7634(02)00007-6 cherek, d. r., tcheremissine, o. v., & lane, s. d. (2006). psychopharmacology of aggression. in: nelson rj, editor. biology of aggression. oxford university press. chirita, r., sacuiu, i., burlea, a., & chirita, v. (2012). the role of nitric oxide inhibitors in treatment on symptom severity and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15, 113-113. ciobotea, d., vlaicu, b., ciubara, a., duica, c.l., cotocel, c., antohi, v., pirlog, m.c. (2016). visual impairment in the elderly and its influence on the quality of life. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 54, 66-74. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis54_05.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2009.04.001 https://doi.org/10.1097/00004714-199710000-00002 https://doi.org/10.1097/00004714-199710000-00002 https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2015.137 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-7634(02)00007-6 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis54_05.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 228 ciubara, a. b., tudor, r. c., nechita, l., tita, o., ciubara, a. m., turliuc, s., & raftu, g. (2018). the composition of bioactive compounds in wine and their possible influence on osteoporosis and on bone consolidation. revista de chimie, 69(5), 1247-1253. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.18.5.6300 ciubara, a., chirita, r., burlea, l.s., lupu, v.v., mihai, c., moisa, s. m., untu, i. (2016). psychosocial particularities of violent acts in personality disorders. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 52, 265-272. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis52_17.pdf ciubara, a-m., burlea, s. l., sacuiu, i., radu, d. a., untu, i., & chirita, r. (2015). alcohol addiction a psychosocial perspective.‏ procedia social and behavioral sciences, 187, 536-540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100. dumbrava, d. p., radu, c. c., chiroban, o., bulgaru-iliescu, d., iov, t., damian, s-i., & ureche, d. (2019). retrograde extrapolation of blood alcohol concentration a theoretical and practical approach. revista de chimie, 70(2), 407-409. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.2.6925 diac, m., oprea, r., iov, t., damian, s-i., knieling, a., & bulgaru-iliescu, a-i. (2020). finite elements models of the head in craniocerebral trauma – review. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 08-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/25 fernandez, e., & johnson, s. l. (1990). anger in psychological disorders: prevalence, presentation, etiology and prognostic implications. clinical psychology, 46, 124-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.04.012 fisher, r., van emde boas, w., blume, w., elger, c., genton, p., lee, p., & engel, j. (2005). epileptic seizures and epilepsy: definitions proposed by the international league against epilepsy (ilae) and the international bureau for epilepsy (ibe). epilepsia, 46(4), 470–472. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0013-9580.2005.66104.x george, d. t., rawlings, r. r., williams, w. a., phillips, m. j., fong, g., kerich, m., momenan, r., umhau, j. c., & hommer, d. (2004). a select group of perpetrators of domestic violence: evidence of decreased metabolism in the right hypothalamus and reduced relationships between cortical/subcortical brain structures in position emission tomography. psychiatry research, 130(1), 11–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-4927(03)00105-7 gorney, b. (1989). domestic violence and chemical dependency: dual problems dual interventions. journal of psychoactive drugs, 21(2), 229-238. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.1989.10472163 hammer, g. d., mcphee, s. j. (eds.), (2010). "7". pathophysiology of disease : an introduction to clinical medicine (6th ed.). mcgraw-hill medical. harenski, k. a., thornton, d. m., harenski, k. a., decety, j., & kiehl, k. a. (2012). increased frontotemporal activation during pain observation in https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.18.5.6300 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis52_17.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.2.6925 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/25 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.04.012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0013-9580.2005.66104.x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-4927(03)00105-7 https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.1989.10472163 latent aggression and impulsive manifestations of the psychiatric patient. … codrina moraru, et al. 229 sexual sadism preliminary findings. archives of general psychiatry, 69(3), 283292. https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.1566 livingston, g., sommerlad, a., orgeta, v., costafreda, s. g., huntley, j., ames, d., kivimäki, m., larson, e. b., ogunniyi, a., orgeta, v., ritchie, k., rockwood, k., sampson, e. l., samus, q., schneider,l. s., selbæk, g., teri, l., & mukadam, n. (2017). dementia prevention, intervention, and care. the lancet, 390(10113), 2673–2734. https://doi.org/10.1016/s01406736(20)30367-6 marcangelo, m. j., & ovsiew, f. (2007). psychiatric aspects of epilepsy. psychiatric clinics of north america, 30(4), 781–802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2007.07.005 miles, d. r., & carey, g. (1997). genetic and environmental architecture of human aggression. journal of personality and social psychology, 72(1), 207-217. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.1.207 moscovitch, d. a., mccabe, r. e., antony, m. m., rocca, l., & swinson, r. p. (2008). anger experience and expression across the anxiety disorders. depression anxiety, 25(2), 107-113. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20280 murray-close, d., ostrov, j. m., nelson, d. a., crick, n. r., & coccaro, e. f. (2010). proactive, reactive, and romantic relational aggression in adulthood: measurement, predictive va lidity, gender differences, and association with intermittent disorder. journal of psychiatric research, 44(6), 393–404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2009.09.005 new, a. s., hazlett, e. a., buchsbaum, m. s., goodman, m., reynolds, d., mitropoulou, v., sprung, l., shaw jr, r. b., koenigsberg, h., platholi, j., silverman, j., & siever, l. j. (2002). blunted prefrontal cortical 18fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography response to metachlorophenylpiperazine in impulsive aggression. archives of general psychiatry, 59(7), 621–629. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-0327(02)004512 perlis, r. h., smoller, j. w., fava, m., rosenbaum, j. f., nierenberg, a. a., & sachs, g. s. (2004). the prevalence and clinical correlates of anger attacks during depressive episodes in bipolar disorder. journal of affective disorders, 79(1-3), 291-295. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-0327(02)00451-2 raine, a., meloy, j. r., bihrle, s., stoddard, j., lacasse, j., & buchsbaum, m. s. (1998). reduced prefrontal and increased subcortical brain functioning assessed using positron emission tomography in predatory and affective murderers. behavioral sciences & the law, 16(3), 319-332. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-0798(199822)16:3<319::aidbsl311>3.0.co;2-g untu, i., chirita, r., bulgaru-iliescu, d., chirila, b. d., ciubara, a., & burlea, s. l. (2015). ethical implications of bio-psycho-social transformations https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.1566 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30367-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30367-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2007.07.005 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.1.207 https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20280 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2009.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-0327(02)00451-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-0327(02)00451-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-0327(02)00451-2 https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-0798(199822)16:3%3c319::aid-bsl311%3e3.0.co;2-g https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-0798(199822)16:3%3c319::aid-bsl311%3e3.0.co;2-g brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 230 entailed by the aging process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 48, 216-225. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis48_16.pdf valcea, l., bulgaru-iliescu, d., burlea, s. l., & ciubara, a. (2016). patient’s rights and communication in the hospital accreditation process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 55, 260-270. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf volkow, n. d., tancredi, l. r., grant, c., gillespie, h., valentine, a., mullani, n., wanga, g-j., & hollister, l. (1995). brain glucose metabolism in violent psychiatric patients: a preliminary study. psychiatry research, 61(4), 243– 253. https://doi.org/10.1016/0925-4927(95)02671-j walsh, e., buchannan, a., & fahy, t. (2001). violence and schizophrenia: examining the evidence. the british journal of psychiatry, 180, 490–495. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.180.6.490 world health organization. (2007). who expert committee on problems related to alcohol consumption, second report. world health organization, geneva. yeh, m. t., coccaro, e. f., & jacobson, k. c. (2010). multivariate behavior genetic analyses of aggresive behavior subtipes. behavior genetics, 40, 603617. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-010-9363-z https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis48_16.pdf https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/0925-4927(95)02671-j https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.180.6.490 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-010-9363-z brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 127-138 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/99 pedagogical and psychological aspects of the implementation of model of the value attitude to health myroslav kryshtanovych¹, tetiana kotyk 2 , tamara tiurina 3 , dora kovrei 4 , halyna dzhanda 5 1 doctor of science in public administration, department of pedagogy and innovative education lviv polytechnic national university, lviv, ukraine, mf0077@ukr.net 2 doctor of pedagogical sciences, рrofessor of the department of professional methods and techniques of primary education vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk,, ukraine, tetiana.m.kotyk@i.ua 3 doctor of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, professor of the department of sociology and social work, lviv polytechnic national university, lviv, ukraine, tamara.h.tiurina@i.ua 4 lecture of the vocational school of ferenc rákóczi ii. transcarpathian hungarian college of higher education 2nd year postgraduate student of mukachevo state university, mukachevo, ukraine, dora.kovrei@i.ua 5 deputy headmistress of educational and methodological work of the vocational school of ferenc rákóczi ii. transcarpathian hungarian college of higher education 2nd year postgraduate student of mukachevo state university, mukachevo, ukraine, dzsandag@i.ua abstract: preserving health is one of the most difficult problems that requires consideration and solution at all levels of the study of human life, both in the context of psychological, analytical and pedagogical. today, a strategy for improving and promoting health is considered a medical problem and boils down to treating patients only. unfortunately, measures that can positively affect people's health: disease prevention, promotion of a healthy lifestyle, and attitudes toward “healthy” behaviour are clearly not popularized today. in solving the task of health conservation, it is important to apply the efforts of the whole society and the responsible attitude of each person to personal health and to the health of the people around her. today, there is a close relationship between education and health, as the level of education to a large extent determines the level of literacy on health issues. the cultivation of the value of health, the desire to preserve and strengthen it, acts as a pedagogical problem. higher education institutions are an ideal place to promote a healthy future and support the development of their own health-oriented lifestyle. for the formation of this paradigm in the student mind, an important element is the recognition of the importance of the psychological aspect of this issue, as well as the proper use of elements of cognitive psychology in this process. the presented study will enable representatives of higher educational institutions, as well as interested persons in maintaining the health of future specialists of various industries, to quickly and efficiently introduce the principles of a value-based attitude to their own health into their own educational process. keywords: health; determinants of health; cognitive psychology; pedagogical aspect; motive; higher educational institution. how to cite: kryshtanovych, m., kotyk, t., tiurina, t., kovrei, d., & dzhanda, h. (2020). pedagogical and psychological aspects of the implementation of model of the value attitude to health. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 127-138. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/99 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/99 mailto:mf0077@ukr.net mailto:tetiana.m.kotyk@i.ua mailto:tamara.h.tiurina@i.ua mailto:dora.kovrei@i.ua mailto:dzsandag@i.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/99 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 128 1. introduction among the determinants that determine the state of public health, the socio-economic situation, lifestyle, the system of providing medical services, and genetic factors are distinguished. however, the state of health depends not only on biological factors, environmental and social environment, but also on the fact that a person’s own health is worth it (berg‐kelly, 1995). in particular, in the educational space, the problem of developing cognitive skills in the formation of a value attitude to the health of future civil safety specialists is relevant, since health conservation refers to their professional competencies and competencies, which is due to the peculiarities of professional and practical activities to be responsible for creating a healthy environment in the workplace, stimulate workers to safe work and behaviour, etc. the health of students as a vital need and as a condition for professional development has attracted the attention of many scientists. the developmental aspects of the sustainable need to preserve and strengthen the health of students in the psychological plane were studied by such scientists as avdeenko (2017), boychuk (2019), martyniv (2018) and others. problems of creating a healthy environment and the environment, the main provisions of cognitive psychology about the ways and methods of forming the student’s value attitude youth to their own health and education of a health culture are highlighted in the workings of vashchenko (2016), berezhna (2020), yezhova (2019). the results of the analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature make a generalization, scientists often resort to the issues of preserving and strengthening the health of students, however, studies aimed at substantiating the pedagogical conditions for the formation of a value attitude to their own health are not enough for future specialists in civil safety. the assimilation of elements of world and national culture on health, life values and norms of social life, as well as the use of modern elements, skills and techniques of cognitive psychology, becomes an urgent task of modern education. the reorientation of education to the formation of values, among which the most significant value of health, provides for a gradual reform of the educational system in the modern educational space based on the priority of the values of spiritual and moral education over material and economic ones. the educational role of education is, first of all, pedagogical and psychological aspects of the implementation of model of the … myroslav kryshtanovych, et al. 129 the transfer to the next generations of the traditional spiritual hierarchy of values, thanks to which the best achievements of the national culture are assimilated. therefore, it is extremely important to develop among students the value-based attitude to their own health, because today's student’s tomorrow will set an example of healthy behaviour and life activity, influence the formation of value orientations in society. special attention in this context deserves the professional training of specialists in the field of civil security. the authors generalized and systematized the main pedagogical and psychological aspects of the process of introducing the model of health protection of students of higher educational institutions. this systematization in the future will enable representatives and interested parties to quickly and efficiently implement these models in their own training system. 2. main research 2.1. actualization of the study of the model of maintaining health preservation of health is an integral part of the professional activities of civil security specialists, because they are the bearers of health promotion ideas and are called upon to be responsible for ensuring the optimal environment for maintaining a healthy environment. therefore, their professional training should be focused on the development of a value attitude, first of all, to their own health, and then to the health of others, since health is the main resource of professional activity of civil security specialists, an indicator of the specialist’s effectiveness (cushion, 2020). in the course of the study of professional training of future specialists in the specialty “civil security”, we found that their professional training requires changes, since students rely on frivolous disciplines that promote a healthy lifestyle and give young people guidance on healthy behaviour. such an assessment is quite understandable, because during the transformations in all spheres of activity, the approach to education in an educationally categorical form no longer causes a positive perception, and also often causes resistance. it is quite understandable that in such a situation it became necessary to search for qualitatively new ways and approaches in the work of teachers and personal activity and interest on the part of educational applicants to form value orientations for a healthy lifestyle, while using all the resources available in the academic environment education, as well as involving elements and methods of cognitive psychology. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 130 as a result of the analysis of the scientific and pedagogical literature on the problem of research, scientific search, reflection of our own scientific and pedagogical practice in the contexts of pedagogy and cognitive psychology, we determine that the formation of a value attitude to their own health among future civilian security specialists will be effective under such pedagogical conditions (koedinger & corbett, 2006): ₋ the use of technology and basic health preservation in classroom and extracurricular activities. ₋ the development of sustainable motivation for education seekers to maintain and promote health, the development of health literacy. ₋ creating an educational environment conducive to the health of all participants in the educational process. for greater effectiveness of the influence of conditions and paradigms of cognitive psychology (dillon, 1994), in the context of our study, we consider it appropriate to determine the expected result of their implementation: ₋ to become the basis for the self-development and self-realization of future civilian security professionals; ₋ to contribute to the formation of a consciousness that is tuned for the health care of education applicants studying in the specialty «civil security»; ₋ embrace the health care of all participants in the educational process. the mechanism for the development of a value attitude to health is the focused active activity of the subject to resolve the contradictions between awareness of the value of health and real behaviour. intrapersonal conditions affecting the result of the development of a value-based attitude to health are individual characteristics (level of subjective control, selfesteem, level of claims, motivation for success or avoidance of failure) as the basis for the uniqueness of a person’s reaction to external influences; needs (first of all, the need for health) as a form of communication between the body and the outside world; learned norms, values and standards as components of a person’s past experience, which determine the specifics of attitude to health (lemke, 1990. the means of developing a value attitude to health is directed at social influences consisting in the provision of significant information about health. by the way, it increases the significance of the information received, it is the activation of activities aimed at self-knowledge, reflection, the pedagogical and psychological aspects of the implementation of model of the … myroslav kryshtanovych, et al. 131 expansion of ideas about the chosen profession, collective and individual creativity. 2.2 use of health technologies in classroom and extracurricular activities let us characterize the first pedagogical condition the use of health-saving technologies in classroom and extracurricular activities. it is well known that the effectiveness of the educational process in the institution of higher education depends not only on the preparedness of scientific and pedagogical workers to perform their duties, but also on other factors. such factors include the material and technical base and infrastructure of higher education institutions, resource support, opportunities for socialization of educational applicants and support of their academic, cultural, sports adaptation to the living conditions of the academic environment. confirmation of this thesis is found in the work of huang (2012), who argue that «the academic environment should be considered in a social, developmental and academic context, which affects the educational results of applicants for education and attitudes» consequently, the development of a value attitude to their own health among future specialists in civil safety should be realized not only in a purely educational process, but should be considered as a set of pedagogical actions, forms, methods and means aimed at ensuring the health care of students, in particular their physical, psychological, social, spiritual components. the use of health technologies in both classroom and extracurricular activities involves the active involvement of students to participate in various activities of tourism, sports, local history, culture, art, etc. it is proposed to form the activities of the institution on the following pedagogical principles and cognitive principles (hmelo-silver, 2004): ₋ analysis of the life of students and teachers in terms of maintaining their health, which includes analysis of the functional state of the body and possible negative changes in the learning process; ₋ analysis of the child's life in the family in terms of negative impacts on maintaining and strengthening its health; ₋ formation of health of students and teachers in the educational process, which aims to include in the school curriculum special subjects dedicated to health; ₋ organization of special extracurricular activities; ₋ education of parents and teachers to preserve and promote the health of students; brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 132 ₋ individual counselling of students, their parents and teachers on topical issues of maintaining and promoting health in the educational process; ₋ creating conditions to ensure the health of all participants in the educational process; ₋ valeological optimization of the educational process and school environment; ₋ prevention, recreation and correction of pre-nosological abnormalities of individual health directly in the learning process. in the context of our study, it is important to note that student youth is characterized by their own specificity, which consists in the characteristic living conditions, the richness of academic life and activity. despite the challenges faced by students of a psychological, social, cultural nature, it can be characterized as a high-risk population through difficult age-related problems, namely: changes are associated with the process of "maturation" (adaptive, physiological and anatomical), adaptation to new living conditions and education, the formation of interpersonal relationships outside the family, and the like (anderson, 2000). the reflection of one’s own practical activity indicates that the process of developing a value attitude to one’s own health, the formation of a conscious attitude to it, requires a mandatory combination of knowledgeinformation and motivational components. the mastery of theoretical knowledge in the field of a health culture is important, but insufficient for the formation and development of skills of the person of «correct» behaviour. here, a special role is given to a conscious and active attitude towards the problem of maintaining and strengthening one's own health, which is based on the following volitional qualities, such as self-control and determination. under the selfdevelopment of a health culture, it is necessary to understand the continuous process of a person’s purposeful activity to change their needs and abilities, consciously manage their development, as well as the choice of goals, ways and means of self-improvement in accordance with their life values and attitudes towards a healthy lifestyle (dolmans & schmidt, 2006). 2.3 development of sustainable motivation for education seekers to maintain and promote health, development of health literacy regarding the characteristics of the second pedagogical condition the development of sustainable motivation for applicants to preserve and strengthen health, the development of health literacy, we consider it a priority. pedagogical and psychological aspects of the implementation of model of the … myroslav kryshtanovych, et al. 133 it is appropriate to note that health can be considered as a crosscutting need, if not met, the value of other needs decreases. the need for health motivates to certain actions, in particular taking care of it, following the rules of a healthy lifestyle. motivation for a healthy lifestyle, according to scientists such as nosko, grishchenko (2018), is a system of value orientations, internal motivations for maintaining, restoring and promoting health. the criteria for the formation of a positive motivation for the health of young people at the level of physical health can be considered the desire for physical excellence, attitude to one’s own health as the highest social value, physical development, general physical performance, hardening of the body, compliance with the rational regime of the day, personal hygiene requirements, proper nutrition. in the formation of motivation for health conservation, it is necessary to apply the approaches of psychology that are consistent with the interest of students, their physical and mental state. it is impossible to effectively influence the state of youth’s health without changing their lifestyle, while adhering to the principle of nature compatibility and taking into account the specifics of age development. students of the first years of health education have the least personal value, because a healthy young person does not need to change anything in relation to their own health. in order to maintain health, deep knowledge, steady motivation and the realization that health is a variable quantity and, if not taken care of, are needed, its condition will worsen over time. however, it is impossible to force the student to systematically master the methods and techniques of maintaining and strengthening health. only such paths can be suitable that stimulate it indirectly, activate it as a subject of its intellectual and professional formation, development and self-development. the presence of an emotionally positive attitude is an important determinant of the formation of the need to take care of health. it is the emotional processes that are the prerequisite for human activity that make up the energy basis of activity and is its motivator. creating a positive psychologically emotional climate in the academic environment of higher education institutions contributes to the formation of the need to lead a healthy lifestyle, to take care of your health and the health of others. without satisfaction with one's own learning, it is difficult to form a high consciouslyreflective level of motivational readiness, in which the values of selfdevelopment, professional self-determination and self-realization play a leading role. for example, focusing on motor activity in educational applicants for 1-2 years of study, helps to enjoy sports, to form the need for brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 134 self-affirmation, and therefore to activate intellectual and emotional development. in turn, experiencing positive emotions allows you to look at a specific problem, in our case, a health problem, from a different perspective and thus find the right solution, and also helps to get rid of negative habits (snow &, lohman, 1989). sustainable motivation for health protection by a future specialist in civil safety stimulates an internal desire to grow at a professional and personal level. to assess the effectiveness of the formation of positive motivation for a healthy lifestyle among young people, martyniv (2019) identified a number of criteria: ₋ at the level of physical health: striving for physical perfection, attitude to one’s own health as the highest social value, physical development, general physical performance, hardening the body, maintaining a rational regime of the day, fulfilling personal hygiene requirements, proper nutrition; ₋ at the level of mental health (psychological comfort): compliance of cognitive activities with the calendar age, development of voluntary mental processes, the presence of self-regulation, adequate self-esteem, lack of accentuation of character and harmful behavioural habits; ₋ at the level of spiritual health: the coordination of universal and national moral and spiritual values, the presence of a positive ideal, hard work, a sense of beauty in life, in nature, in art; ₋ at the level of social health (social well-being): civil responsibility has been formed for the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle, communicativeness, goodwill towards people, the ability to selfactualization, self-regulation, self-education is positively directed. the special nature of the professional activities of future civilian security experts makes it possible to single out criteria for positive motivation and a professional level, such as: a readiness for healthy activities and responsibility is developed and responsibility is not only for personal safety, but also for the safety of others. thus, the active health of young people is motivated by motives that determine their focus, in this situation, on maintaining and enhancing health. the basis for the development of a value-based attitude to health among students is the creation of a healthy educational environment, which we identified as the third pedagogical condition in the course of the study, according to which it is possible to implement a model for the development of a value-based attitude to own health among future civilian security professionals. pedagogical and psychological aspects of the implementation of model of the … myroslav kryshtanovych, et al. 135 the formation of such an environment is based on a certain «ideology» of higher education institutions, which laid the priority for the health of all participants in the educational process. a healthy educational environment is created in the process of integrating the educational interactions of higher education institutions with the aim of qualitatively transforming the real life environment of job seekers into an enabling environment for the development of their essential potential and individualization, the formation of a new strategy for healthy personal health care, a valuable attitude to health and others content and technological content of health-preserving educational space is associated with the introduction of health-preserving technologies in the educational process as ensuring optimal living conditions for each student, research and teaching staff, support staff, their successful adaptation to the educational process on psychological, physiological, social levels. an important role in the organization and effective functioning of the health-saving academic environment of a higher education institution is played by its social component effective cooperation between the administration of a higher education institution, student self-government bodies, applicants for education, and teachers who together create a corporate health culture. communication between all participants in the educational process affects the formation of a culture of individual health, manifests itself not only in the healthy habits of a young person, but also determines his lifestyle and activities. the connecting element in the triad «health healthy lifestyle health culture» is the value attitude to health (wilson & brooks, 2014). a health culture is a reflection of the development of a value-based attitude to health, the level of literacy on health issues, the availability of skills and abilities to apply health care and knowledge in practice, which determines the willingness of a future civil security specialist to carry out professional activities at a high professional level. based on a synthesis of the achievements of scientists, the results of research studies highlighted in scientific publications on the impact of the academic environment of a higher education institution on the development of a responsible attitude to their own health, it concludes that the educational environment can change depending on the strategic goals of a higher education institution, as well as pedagogical technologies used in the educational process. however, the academic environment, which is aimed at the health care of all participants in the educational process, must fulfil a number of functions, the implementation of which determines the provision of opportunities for the development of a value attitude to their own health brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 136 among higher education applicants. these functions include (weaver et al., 2010): ₋ value-orientational (development of sustainable motivation for health conservation) ₋ information and cognitive (assimilation of knowledge, the formation and development of skills and abilities of health and health conservation) ₋ systemic-formal (production of continuous health care and education, development of an individual program for maintaining a healthy lifestyle); ₋ organizational and activity (active involvement of applicants for education in health saving, gaining experience in health saving). the functions of the academic environment of higher education institutions, aimed at the health care of all participants in the educational process, are determined, and the development of a value attitude to health among future specialists in civil security as an important personal and universal value is made. 3. conclusions as a result of the study, the authors determined and theoretically substantiated the pedagogical and psychological conditions for the development of a value attitude to their own health among future specialists in civil security. analysing the study, we can conclude that the value attitude to health is the determining personal and professionally significant quality of all students, including future civil security specialists. pedagogical conditions and methods of cognitive psychology, covering the use of health-saving technologies in classroom and extracurricular activities; the development of sustainable motivation for education seekers to maintain and promote health, the development of health literacy; creating an educational environment conducive to the health of all participants in the educational process are important in the process of developing a value attitude to their own health among future civilian security professionals. the implementation of health-saving educational technologies and cognitive skills is crucial in the development of knowledge, the formation of skills and abilities of a healthy lifestyle and the development of a value attitude to their own health both for applicants and others. pedagogical and psychological aspects of the implementation of model of the … myroslav kryshtanovych, et al. 137 in the future, the results of this study and the psychological and pedagogical aspects highlighted in this case can be applied in the practice of conducting educational activities in higher institutions of various profiles. references anderson, j. r. (2000). cognitive psychology and its implications (5th ed.). worth publishers. avdeenko, i. m. (2017). student health culture and environmental approach to its development in a higher education institution. general theory of health and health. publisher rozhko sg. berezhna, t. i. (2020). health-preserving pedagogical technologies are an important component of the health-preserving environment of a secondary school. scientific notes of nizhyn state university named after m. gogol. series: psychological and pedagogical sciences, 2, 35-39. berg‐kelly, k. (1995). normative developmental behavior with implications for health and health promotion among adolescents: a swedish cross‐sectional survey. acta paediatrica, 84(3), 278-288. boychuk, y. d. (2019). modern approaches to understanding the essence of human health and related concepts. general theory of health and health. publisher rozhko sg. cushion, c. j. (2020). exploring the delivery of officer safety training: a case study. policing: a journal of policy and practice, 14(1), 166-180. dillon, j. t. (1994). using discussion in classrooms. open university press. dolmans, d. h. j. m., & schmidt, h. g. (2006). what do we know about cognitive and motivational effects of small group tutorials in problem-based learning? advances in health sciences education, 11(4), 321-336. hmelo-silver, c. e. (2004). problem-based learning: what and how do students learn? educational psychology review, 16(3), 235-266. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:edpr.0000034022.16470.f3 huang, s. l. (2012). learning environments at higher education institutions: relationships with academic aspirations and satisfaction. learning environ res, 15, 363-378. koedinger, k. r., & corbett, a. t. (2006). cognitive tutors: technology bridging learning science to the classroom. in k. sawyer (ed.), cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 61-78). cambridge university press. lemke, j. l. (1990). talking science: language, learning and values. ablex martyniv, o. (2018). analysis of students' readiness for a healthy lifestyle as an indicator of a culture of health. scientific bulletin of uzhhorod national university. series: pedagogy. social work, 28, 100-103. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:edpr.0000034022.16470.f3 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 138 martyniv, o. (2019). analysis of students' readiness for a healthy lifestyle as an indicator of a culture of health. scientific bulletin of uzhhorod national university. series: pedagogy. social work, 28, 100-103. nosko, m. o., & grishchenko, c. b. (2018). formation of a healthy lifestyle. mp lesya. snow, r. e., & lohman, d. f. (1989). implications of cognitive psychology for educational measurement. in r. l. linn (ed.), the american council on education/macmillan series on higher education. educational measurement (pp. 263– 331). macmillan publishing co, inc; american council on education. vashchenko, o. m. (2016). formation of a health-preserving environment of a secondary school: theoretical aspect. theoretical and methodological problems of education of children and students, 20(1), 77-89. weaver, s. j., lyons, r., diazgranados, d., rosen, m. a., salas, e., oglesby, j., king, h. b. (2010). the anatomy of health care team training and the state of practice: a critical review. academic medicine, 85(11), 1746-1760. wilson, j., & brooks, g. (2014). teaching presentation: improving oral output with more structure. proceedings of clasic (pp. 512-524). 4-6 december 2014, singapore. yezhova, o.o. (2019). formation of a value attitude to health in students of vocational schools. mcden. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, pages: 168-184 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/147 predicting covid19 incidence using data mining techniques: a case study of pakistan saba noor¹, waseem akram 2 *, touseef ahmed 3 , qurat-ul-ain 4 1 department of computer science, lahore garrison university, lahore, pakistan 2 department of computer science, comsats university islamabad, pakistan, imwaseem.khan@yahoo.com 3 department of computer science, lahore garrison university, lahore, pakistan 4 department of computer science, lahore garrison university, lahore, pakistan abstract: the outbreak of coronavirus (covid-19) came to the world in early december 2019. the early cases of coronavirus were reported in wuhan city, hubei province, china. till may 18, 2020, 198 countries have been affected by this life-threatening disease. the most common and known traits of covid-19 are tiredness, fever, and dry cough. in this paper, we have discussed the predictive data mining approach for covid-19 predictions. in predictive data mining, a model is developed and trained using supervised learning and then it predicts the behavior of provided data. predictive data mining is a renowned technique known to many health organizations for the classification and prediction of diseases such as heart disease and various types of cancers etc. there are several factors for comparing the model's accuracy, scalability, and interpretability. this predictive model is compared to the basics of its accuracy. in this proposed approach, we have used weka as it provides a vast collection of many machine learning algorithms. the main objective of this paper is to forecast the possible future incidence of corona cases in pakistan. this study concludes that the number of corona cases will increase swiftly. if the government take proactive steps and strictly implement precautionary measures, then pakistan may be able to overcome this pandemic. keywords: weka; predictive data mining; covid-19. how to cite: noor, s., akram, w., ahmed, t., & qurat-ulain (2020). predicting covid-19 incidence using data mining techniques: a case study of pakistan. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 168-184. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/147 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/147 mailto:imwaseem.khan@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/147 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 169 introduction the disease of covid-19 was originated in wuhan city of province hubei, china. chunyun, the days of mass migration for the yearly spring festival. to limit the spread of covid-19, chinese authorities adopted an extraordinary approach on 23 january 2020. these guidelines comprised of national-wide quarantine, limited and strict traveling policies, and vast surveillance of covid-19 alleged cases. the covid-19 was confirmed to reach pakistan on february 26, 2020, when a student returning from iran tested positive. by march 18, cases of covid-19 has been reported all across the country, as of june 04, 2020, there have been about 85264 confirmed cases with 28923 recoveries and 1688 deaths in the country. the aim of this is study mainly centered on forecasting the breakout trends in pakistan base on the breakout pattern in china, spain as the density of population is dense in these countries. we wanted to illustrate, how these precautionary measures restricted the outbreak. current condition in pakistan according to the ministry of health, government of pakistan, the total number of confirmed cases is 85264 and 1770 deaths on thursday, june 06, 2020. punjab province is most affected with confirmed cases (31104), then the province of sindh with confirmed cases (32910), province of khyber pakhtunkhwa (11373), province of baluchistan (5224), gilgit baltistan (824), federal city (3054) and kashmir with total cases of 285. the results are shown in table 1. the overall covid-19 case history of pakistan is as in figure1. table 1 : results of confirmed, deaths and recovered cases in different province of pakistan (covid.gov.pk) sr. province confirmed cases deaths recovered cases 01 punjab 31104 607 7712 02 sindh 32901 555 16022 03 khyber pakhtunkhwa 11373 500 3150 04 baluchistan 5224 51 2021 05 islamabad 3544 38 518 06 azad jammu & kashmir 285 7 173 07 gilgit baltistan 824 12 532 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pakistan predicting covid-19 incidence using data mining techniques: a case study … saba noor, et al. 170 figure 1: covid-19 case history (covid.gov.pk) method the predictive model is based on a time-series cumulative dataset of coronavirus confirmed, recovered, and mortalities. definitions s. zhang et al. (2020) defines corona disease as coronavirus disease (covid-19) is a transferrable disease spread by a recently discovered coronavirus. a positive case of covid-19 infection was defined as a case with a positive result for viral nucleic acid testing in respiratory specimens. a suspected case can be defined as a case with symptoms of covid-19 infection but not confirmed by viral nucleic acid testing. dataset datasets are collected from humandata.org. that track global-time series data. the extracted data for the model is updated to june 04, 2020. model development forecasting the covid-19 incidence in pakistan, the linear regression-based approach is mainly focused on comparing the performance of model rmse, and mae is proposed. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/nucleic-acid brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 171 literature review twenty kinds of literature were reviewed for this study. the objective of this literature review is to discover how different models perform according to the given scenarios. in (yang et al., 2020) presented a study, predicting the epidemic trend of coronavirus in china. they used a modified seir model with an ai approach trained in the late 2003 sars dataset, to predict the outbreak. this study concludes that the breakout trend will start to decline by end of april. in (s. zhang et al., 2020) proposed a study to estimate the reproductive cases of covid-19 to predict daily cases on diamond princess cruise ship. they used serial interval distribution of existing daily incidence and estimate reproductive numbers of covid-19 based on approximately poisson distribution. the outcome of this study states that the number of new cases will gradually increase and cumulative covid-19 cases may reach 1514 in the next ten days. the paper by (binti hamzah et al., 2020) developed an online tracker for daily statistics and analysis of corona cases, this paper aims to forecast the active confirmed, recovered cases of covid-19 within and outside of china. this study uses susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (seir) as a predictive model. his study concludes that the peak of the outbreak will reach in late may 2020 with cases exceeding 76000 and start to decline in early july 2020. authors in qasim et al., (2020) use a mathematical model, sequence mean weight (tsmw) to predict covid-19 cases across pakistan. this model finds out that the count of patients may reach 77,905 with at least 8285 confirmed cases and 1382 death in the next 45 days, till 29 th april 2020. autoregressive–moving-average model (arma) is a hypothesis-based testing model firstly proposed in 1951; it is mainly used for un-stationary time-series data. this same heuristic can be used in simulation modeling (l. li et al., 2020) in which an earlier digital prototype is developed to analyze the performance of this model before deploying it. in simulation modeling, the heuristic can be used for digital prototyping. this study represented a baseline of the transmission process of covid-19 by using a new model based on gaussian distribution theory. this paper finds out the key factors of virus spread, such as the incubation period of the virus, reproductive number, and daily infections. the study (y. li et al., 2020) developed a dynamic time series model to forecast the short term trend of covid-19 spread inside china. the model is based on different mathematical formulas. this study concludes that in china, total cases of coronavirus may reach to 36,343 after one week (february 8,2020). wuhan will peak its confirmed cases on march 2020. after which the infection rate will start decline predicting covid-19 incidence using data mining techniques: a case study … saba noor, et al. 172 throughout china. this study ignore some factors that can impact the result, factors such as birth rate or natural deaths artificial intelligence with another predicting model can provide more realistic figures as (yang et al., 2020). table 2 below provides summary on the literature review. table 2: a detailed comparative analysis table of different techniques s r # title publi shed technique advantages disadvantages remarks 1 yang et al. (2020) 2020 artificialintelligence and (seir) it’s used an aibased model trained on past sars dataset for more effective predictions this study did not take into consideration of phase-adjusted protective measures and realtime changing parameters, which can disturb the prediction accuracy using mathematical tools for epidemic prediction but it considers homogeneous population 2 s. zhang et al. (2020) 2020 heuristic models provide mortality and disease spread the heuristic models define only one phase of the breakout but fail when the disease grows toward another stage. useful for finding mortality and disease spread. 3 binti hamzah et al. (2020) 2020 susceptibleexposedinfectiousrecovered model (seir) assess the decline in efficient contacts when the completion of the acute and extreme closure of the society since outbreak in not successfully contained, so it does not provide an entirely accurate prediction also, provide political as well as economic expected predictions 4 qasim et al. (2020) 2020 mathematical derivation model model can validate new future data the lower bound remains close to actual data for the same situation provide a generic prediction of expected covid-19 cases brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 173 5 l. li et al. (2020) 2020 simulation model provide transmission of the virus using gaussian distribution, accurate results the model can provide accurate results for developed countries, but for undeveloped countries, the simulation propagation may not be as accurate use simulation of propagation which can be reliable for factors of spread 6 petropoulo s & makridakis (2020) 2020 s-curve model and univariate time series model past patterns like precautionary measures will remain effective as data is accurate it does not provide long term prediction of cases as well as cumulative cases predictions using timeseries realtime data, predictions can be used for govt. 7 ardabili et al. (2020) 2020 sir model provide generalized ability of ml models and accuracy for different lead times sir model cannot provide promising results, where independent individual for social distancing use the ml model as well sir model and provide differentiation of accuracy 8 yan et al. (2020) 2020 supervised b oost-classifier represents a simple clinical test for precisely qualify death risk the model will not remain the same and start varying for different data identify high death risk patients in the early stages of the disease 9 wynants et al. (2020) 2020 probate support medical decision making update coronavirus predictive models are available this paper evaluates other prediction models 10 y. li et al. (2020) 2020 seiqdr, ts modelama model dynamic model does not consider natural deaths and birth useful in developed countries 11 qin et al. (2020) 2020 arma more useful as smi data is more user relative big data from unauthentic source it can be useful for undeveloped countries as smi is more user relative predicting covid-19 incidence using data mining techniques: a case study … saba noor, et al. 174 12 tiwari et al. (2020) 2020 time series forecasting method predicts daily cumulative cases effectively ignores socialeconomic factors the model can be implemented by using who data rather than govt. provided 13 fong et al. (2020) 2020 machine learning and multiple regression forecast with relatively lowest prediction error small data can be used for a fully observable situation not for partial observable prediction using small data requires an accurate data set 14 stübinger & schneider (2020) 2020 dynamic time warping forecast the breakout of covid-!9 using a lead-lag structure cannot predict the long term spread produce results based on differentiatio n of different countries 15 chakrabort y & ghosh (2020) 2020 waveletbased forecasting this model is most suitable for nonstationary data. not provide an accurate result for stationary data lack of accuracy as compared to arma model 16 avery et al. (2020) 2020 phenomenol ogical modeling interpreting the limited data require govt. provided accurate facts and figures can guide in for economic policymaking during this epidemic 17 janies et al. (2008) 2020 sdt (demarcation of sequence e characters) provide interpretation of zoonotic potential of coronavirus it lacks out grouping and rooting criteria provide bio medic details of covid-19 18 g. zhang et al. (2020) 2020 improved seir dynamically predicts results insufficient test cases can predict small scale predictions 19 wu et al. (2020) 2020 eirmetapopulati on model provide support validity for the forecast. ignore the traveling factor of disease spread it can also nowcast current situation that happening brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 175 20 murray (2020) 2020 statistical model explicitly supports age structure variation not dynamic as more accurate data will be a need as no. of patients increases can help for better management of health resource in case of instant increase of cases statement of the problem on february 26, 2020, pakistan registered its first covid-19 case, and on march 25, 2020, pakistan confirmed its first death in lahore due to covid-19. since from february 26, covid-19 outbreak keep its spread in pakistan, and as the government of pakistan lifted most of the lockdown, it is essential to predict what pakistan affords this ease. moreover, it can be able to overcome this pandemic, or it will become another america or wuhan! objectives of the study the main objective of this study is to predict coronavirus incidence and its trends across the different regions of the country by using an efficient and strong model. ● analysing the current trend of covid-19 in pakistan. ● developing a reliable predictive model ● predicting the coronavirus cases using linear regression. methodology based on the gathered outbreak data, this model tried to discover the transmission rule of the coronavirus, forecast the breakout situation. the dataset of coronavirus is collected from humadata.org and verified through figures provided by the ministry of health of pakistan. to carry out this prediction, weka, a tool of data mining which was developed by the university of waikato, new zealand. weka applies different algorithms on datasets and provides results. there are four major phases of this model. in the first phase data pre-processing and data, transformation is carried out. the second phase of this study comprises of model training, in which linear regression as a forecasting algorithm is used. during the training of the model, cumulative confirmed, recovered and mortalities cases area fed as the dependent variable and time-series data variable as the independent variable. predicting covid-19 incidence using data mining techniques: a case study … saba noor, et al. 176 linear regression plots straight lines on scatter graph, so the possibility of outliers is minimum, but it has been observed that in daily cases, total daily cases decline or incline against the plotted curves causing outliers. in such regard, it is better to use mode instead of median as it provides a real-time accurate average. the third phase of models validates the accuracy of the model, in which rsme and mae are considered. the fourth and last phases provide results and forecasts for the next 58 days. figure 2 represents a detailed overview of proposed methodology with all these four phases of the model as: figure 2: a detail overview of proposed methodology data-pre-processing: the required data for this model is filtered from the global pool time-series dataset. the attributes of this dataset are confirmed cases, recovered cases, and deaths to date. data-transformation: data pre-processing provides the national data set required by the model. however, as weka is being used as a data mining tool for this model, the default format for data is. arff, so after extracting meaningful data for this model, data transformation is applied in which data is transformed from csv to arff. training and evaluation of data: for training and testing of this model, 80% of data are used for training and 20% for evaluation. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 177 model training: the main objective of training the model is for learning so it can generate and predict. this model uses linear regression for forecasting. 80% of data is feed to the model, and 20% of data is used for its performance and efficiency evaluation. validation of model: to evaluate the accuracy of the model rmse is mainly targeted. results this is a dynamic predictive model that can predict data changes, and the model can predict cases on a daily or weekly basis. this model works with three datasets and predicts cumulative, confirmed cases of patients infected with covid-19, death toll, and recovered cases. as the number of confirmed cases increases rapidly in the last three weeks and from figure 3 generated by this model concludes that the confirmed cases in pakistan are expected to increase rapidly. this model expects that the number of coronaviruses confirmed cases till july 31, 2020, will get a rapid rate with no effective policy to encourage masses for social distancing and other safety measures. figure 3: confirmed cases predicting covid-19 incidence using data mining techniques: a case study … saba noor, et al. 178 figure 4: recovered cases figure 5: death cases this model also predicts recovered cases and deaths for this period. the recovery rate will also swiftly increase with nearly 90,000 recoveries, in figure 4. from figure 5, the death toll for this period is expected to remain at 12,000. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 179 evaluation of results evaluation of model is performed using very well-known measures of accuracy, mean absolute error (mae), and root means square error (rmse). the 58-day evaluation of predicted cases is represented in figures 6, 7, and 8. figure 6: evaluation of confirmed cases figure 7: evaluation of recover cases predicting covid-19 incidence using data mining techniques: a case study … saba noor, et al. 180 figure 8: evaluation of death cases discussion and limitations in this paper, we have reviewed many datamining kinds of literature and their techniques. susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered model (sier) is a mathematical model that describes circumstances in which an individual with an infectious disease becomes a source of infection for others. as from the name, this model has four stages, with parameter β (beta), which controls the rate of spread, α (alpha) incubation rate, and γ (gamma), which is the recovery rate. this technique base on the sir model. this technique forecast future events just like covid-19, which spreads through close contact of infected masses. in early 2020, one of the biggest pandemics of the 21 st century came to light with many mortalities and infected cases. the rate of transfer of this virus was very fast in both developed or underdeveloped countries, and it was essential to predict and analyze this rapid spread; till now, many researchers have proposed many techniques and models. the forecast has relatively the lowest prediction error as it used machine learning algorithms for the prediction of corona cases. machine learning is one of the significant developments of the last ten years. it is an application of artificial intelligence in which we train the machine by providing available data, and machines can then use artificial neural networks upon some pattern to brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 181 provide results. similarly, one of the most critical applications of ai is deep learning; it is a more advanced version of machine learning. the concepts of deep learning were proposed in the early 2000s, but the breakthrough in deep learning came after the winter of ai in 2010. as from the name, this model has four stages, with parameter β (beta), which controls the rate of spread, α (alpha) incubation rate, and γ (gamma), which is the recovery rate. this technique base on the sir model. this technique forecast future events just like covid-19, which spreads through close contact of infected masses. the heuristic model use some early profit estimation techniques, find the best cost-effective solutions; completeness is not guaranteed at some point where backtracking is not possible or not be efficient. this study is not considering any social and economic factors such as educational, economic, or relational beliefs. these factors may affect the spread. conclusion the pandemic of coronavirus came to the world in early january 2019 and till june 04, 2020, almost the whole world is affected by it. this virus is closely related to bat coronaviruses causing covid-19 disease. as explained earlier there are many known symptoms of this disease such as tiredness, fever, and dry cough. the disease of covid-19 spread exponentially causing a rapid infection rate. this infection rate is even faster in the third world and highly populated countries like india, bangladesh pakistan, etc, and the current situation of pakistan is not satisfactory as the infection rate continuously rising, with very limited finical and medical resources. pakistan must take proactive measures to gain control over this pandemic and this study can help policymakers to take comprehensive action as well as necessary future needs in the health sector. we have carried out this study to find out the future trend of the situation with the help of the data mining technique of linear regression, with the help of three different cumulative data sets of recovered, deceased, confirmed cases, and our proposed methodology. this model finds out that the infection rate will gradually increase but at the same time, it is also observed that the recovery rate will increase rapidly as compared to the death rate. in the future, we will analyze this rapid rate of recovery as compared to the death and some other social factors like public awareness and personal belief of the public regarding reality and severeness of the coronavirus. predicting covid-19 incidence using data mining techniques: a case study … saba noor, et al. 182 conflict of interest statement the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. ethical approval approval was not required. reference ardabili, s. f., mosavi, a., ghamisi, p., ferdinand, f., varkonyi-koczy, a. r., reuter, u., rabczuk, t., & atkinson, p. m. (2020). covid-19 outbreak prediction with machine learning. ssrn electronic journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3580188 avery, c., bossert, w., clark, a., ellison, g., & ellison, s. f. (2020). policy implications of models of the spread of coronavirus: perspectives and opportunities for economists. national bureau of economic research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27007 binti hamzah, f. a., lau, c. h., nazri, h., ligot, d. c., lee, g., tan, c. l., & et al. (2020). coronatracker: world-wide covid-19 outbreak data analysis and prediction. bulletin of the world health organization, march, submitted. chakraborty, t., & ghosh, i. (2020). real-time forecasts and risk assessment of novel coronavirus (covid-19) cases: a data-driven analysis. chaos, solitons and fractals, 135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chaos.2020.109850 fong, s. j., li, g., dey, n., gonzalez-crespo, r., & herrera-viedma, e. (2020). finding an accurate early forecasting model from small dataset: a case of 2019-ncov novel coronavirus outbreak. international journal of interactive multimedia and artificial intelligence, 6(1), 132. https://doi.org/10.9781/ijimai.2020.02.002 janies, d., habib, f., alexandrov, b., hill, a., & pol, d. (2008). cladistics. 24, 111– 130. li, l., yang, z., dang, z., meng, c., huang, j., meng, h., wang, d., chen, g., zhang, j., peng, h., & shao, y. (2020). propagation analysis and prediction of the covid-19. infectious disease modelling, 5, 282–292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idm.2020.03.002 li, y., wang, b., peng, r., zhou, c., zhan, y., liu, z., jiang, x., & zhao, b. (2020). mathematical modeling and epidemic prediction of covid-19 and its significance to epidemic prevention and. annals of infectious disease and epidemiology, 5(1), 1052. murray, c. j. (2020). forecasting covid-19 impact on hospital bed-days, icu-days, ventilator-days and deaths by us state in the next 4 months. 114. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.27.20043752 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 183 petropoulos, f., & makridakis, s. (2020). forecasting the novel coronavirus covid-19. plos one, 15(3), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231236 qasim, m., ahmad, w., zhang, s., yasir, m., & azhar, m. (2020). data model to predict prevalence of covid-19 in pakistan. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.06.20055244 qin, l., sun, q., wang, y., wu, k. f., chen, m., shia, b. c., & wu, s. y. (2020). prediction of number of cases of 2019 novel coronavirus (covid-19) using social media search index. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072365 stübinger, j., & schneider, l. (2020). epidemiology of coronavirus covid-19: forecasting the future incidence in different countries. healthcare, 8(2), 99. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8020099 tiwari, s., kumar, s., & guleria, k. (2020). outbreak trends of coronavirus (covid-19) in india: a prediction. disaster medicine and public health preparedness, may. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2020.115 wu, j. t., leung, k., & leung, g. m. (2020). nowcasting and forecasting the potential domestic and international spread of the 2019-ncov outbreak originating in wuhan, china: a modelling study. the lancet, 395(10225), 689–697. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30260-9 wynants, l., van calster, b., collins, g. s., riley, r. d., heinze, g., schuit, e., bonten, m. m. j., damen, j. a. a., debray, t. p. a., de vos, m., dhiman, p., haller, m. c., harhay, m. o., henckaerts, l., kreuzberger, n., lohmann, a., luijken, k., ma, j., andaur navarro, c. l., … van smeden, m. (2020). prediction models for diagnosis and prognosis of covid-19: systematic review and critical appraisal. the bmj, 369. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1328 yan, l., zhang, h. t., goncalves, j., xiao, y., wang, m., guo, y., sun, c., tang, x., jing, l., zhang, m., huang, x., xiao, y., cao, h., chen, y., ren, t., wang, f., xiao, y., huang, s., tan, x., … yuan, y. (2020). an interpretable mortality prediction model for covid-19 patients. nature machine intelligence, 2(5), 283–288. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-0200180-7 yang, z., zeng, z., wang, k., wong, s. s., liang, w., zanin, m., liu, p., cao, x., gao, z., mai, z., liang, j., liu, x., li, s., li, y., ye, f., guan, w., yang, y., li, f., luo, s., … he, j. (2020). modified seir and ai prediction of the epidemics trend of covid-19 in china under public health interventions. journal of thoracic disease, 12(3), 165–174. https://doi.org/10.21037/jtd.2020.02.64 predicting covid-19 incidence using data mining techniques: a case study … saba noor, et al. 184 zhang, g., pang, h., xue, y., zhou, y., & wang, r. (2020). forecasting and analysis of time variation of parameters of covid-19 infection in china using an improved seir model. 1–6. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-16159/v1 zhang, s., diao, m. y., yu, w., pei, l., lin, z., & chen, d. (2020). estimation of the reproductive number of novel coronavirus (covid-19) and the probable outbreak size on the diamond princess cruise ship: a data-driven analysis. international journal of infectious diseases, 93, 201–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.02.033 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 238-249 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/247 influence of sports games on coordination abilities of adolescents as a component of physical development: neuropsychological features oksana bashtovenko¹, gennady yarchuk2, viktoria zvekova3, kristina hancheva4, vitalii silaiev5, svitlana stanieva6 1 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, osiabasht@gmail.com 2 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, gennadiu1310@gmail.com 3 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, vikazvekova19@gmail.com 4 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, kristinka78a@gmail.com 5 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, vitaliy.silayev.94@gmail.com 6 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, stanevasvetlana675@gmail.com abstract: the article reveals perspectives on sports games aimed at physical development and development of coordination skills of adolescents. physical exercise has a positive effect on such psychological properties of students as memory, thinking, attention, speed and accuracy of reactions, logic, perception of motoric of one’s own body and the sense of external space. the basic statement of neuropsychology that the basic intelligence of a person being physical intelligence is revealed. development of coordination skills is an important qualitative aspect of motor activity, reflecting the level of physical fitness. purposeful formation of coordination abilities enables to solve a number of problems of physical, aesthetic and intellectual improvement of adolescent students. the use of sports games in the process of physical education promotes a favourable development of motor coordination, and thus helps increase the level of motor readiness of adolescents during sports activities, as well as provides the highest efficiency in the process of physical development. keywords: neuropsychology, psychomotor development of adolescents, sports game activities. how to cite: bashtovenko, o., yarchuk, g., zvekova, v., hancheva, k., silaiev, v., stanieva, s. (2021). influence of sports games on coordination abilities of adolescents as a component of physical development: neuropsychological features. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 238-249. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/247 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/247 mailto:osiabasht@gmail.com mailto:gennadiu1310@gmail.com mailto:vikazvekova19@gmail.com mailto:kristinka78a@gmail.com mailto:vitaliy.silayev.94@gmail.com mailto:stanevasvetlana675@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/247 influence of sports games on coordination abilities of adolescents as a … oksana bashtovenko, et al. 239 introduction in modern conditions, there is a growing interest in such human qualities as the ability to quickly navigate in space, respond quickly to signals of external environment, finely differentiate one’s muscular sensations and regulate the degree of muscle tension. the concept such as “coordination” also includes a sense of rhythm, the ability to control muscle relaxation, and the ability to act quickly in non-standard environments. obviously, development of coordination skills contributes to the growth of the indicators of motor functions, such as endurance, speed, flexibility and strength. for example, there are studies of coordination abilities in young football players (ljach & witkowski, 2010), which show that the use of special coordination training aimed at developing specific coordination skills (cs) has led to greater improvement, with cs and technical skills of athletes from experimental groups were significantly higher (by 2.5–38.3 and 3.6– 12.2%, respectively) than athletes from control groups who developed cs by a traditional method, using dexterity exercises. it is also argued that the importance of stability of motor coordination levels in childhood and its role in determining organized sports participation may have consequences for talent identification, as well as potential health benefits in childhood and lifelong period (halaidiuk et al., 2018; komogorova et al., 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020a; maksymchuk et al., 2020b; palamarchuk, 2020; sitovskyi, 2019; vandorpe et al, 2012). games have long been an integral part of human life and are used to foster and develop various qualities of the younger generation, including physical. by its very nature, the game unobtrusively encourages its participants to use their knowledge, skills and abilities in concerted action with teammates, develops attention, operational thinking, a sense of teambuilding, responsibility, mutual aid and many other socially important and useful qualities. boychuk (2015) believes that the purposeful development of coordination skills of students in the process of physical education and sports training helps increase the process of training movements. the most important coordination skills for outdoor games are the ability to differentiate movement parameters, react, navigate in space and coordinate movements. the use of the combined method in the process of physical education of schoolchildren will promote the correct learning of movements, increase the level of movement skills and children’s interest in training. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 240 neuropsychological features and psychomotor development of adolescents who play sports echemendia and bauer (2015) in their paper reviewed a brief history of sports neuropsychology, providing a basic overview of the code of ethics, and discussed key ethical concepts such as charity, independence and autonomy. the role of ethnic/racial cultural considerations in sports neuropsychology, as well as ethical issues related to the use and development of tests, the different roles that sports neuropsychologists play in sports medicine, and several illustrations of the challenges faced by sports neuropsychologists in terms of confidentiality, competence, defining the role and boundaries of roles are discussed. although this article does not provide simple answers to complex questions, it highlights the areas that require thoughtful discourse for clinicians who engage in the dynamic and evolving nature of ethical sports practice in neuropsychology. organization, programming and control of any motor action occur at different levels of the central nervous system according to the principle of dynamic subordination. higher (leading) levels of construction of motor activity always regulate semantic movements and program processing of movements. the lower (“background”) levels, which are under control of the higher ones, serve the executive, or motor sides of movements (rolling stock). sensory corrections of both leading and background levels provide the motor action of the stability of the supporting parts of the body, in the synergetic coherence of all links involve the kinematic chain, muscle force efficiency, spatial accuracy, stability, etc. there is an opinion that engagement in any kind of sports is aimed primarily at physical development. this is true, but not the whole story. but memory, thinking, attention, speed and accuracy of reactions, logic, perception of one’s own body motoric and a sense of external space – all this helps to consolidate sports training. neuropsychology believes that the basic intelligence of human is physical intelligence. it begins to form in a child at its early motor development, its biorhythms, respiratory processes, the moment of birth and in the first year of life. the plasticity of the child’s brain is quite high up to 9 years old, then it begins to decline. however, this plasticity of each person persists throughout life. therefore, the brain of an adult can also be trained and developed, including through physical exercise. during development of physical intelligence, the potential of mental and emotional intelligence increases. therefore, when choosing a sports activity, it is necessary, first of all, to listen to recommendations of neuropsychology. influence of sports games on coordination abilities of adolescents as a … oksana bashtovenko, et al. 241 during physical exercise, the work of the centre of gravity of the athlete’s body is improved, which guarantees balance of the body in space. that is, at this time the hemispheric interaction in the brain improves, and this is a factor in improving the speed of thinking processes. there are also studies that look at the relationship between physical education (physical education), physical activity at school (school physical activity), school sports and successfulness. research shows that such activities can have a positive effect on learning and memory. there is also a positive link between physical activity and cognitive health observed in schoolchildren. in addition, an important by-product of enhanced school activity will be increased fitness (trudeau & shephard, 2008). complex muscle development. as one moves, the muscles of the rectus and oblique muscles tense. this has a very positive effect on the stability of the energy potential of brain structures and regulation of excitation/inhibition processes in them. it also serves to develop dexterity, physical plasticity and flexibility. self-control and consistency. during physical exercise, special attention is paid to torso rotations, body extension and smooth movements, which makes all actions more thoughtful. that is, there is a development of the kinetic factor and the functions of programming, regulation and control. the anterior and frontal lobes of the brain are responsible for these functions. thoughtful movements affect dexterity, form a consistent approach to performing various tasks (arithmetic, writing, reading and memorizing information), alignment of handwriting and sense of rhythm. manual dexterity. for effective grip with the hand, one needs a sense of size, relief and grip angle. this will further serve to develop the tone of fine motor skills, which also affects the function of speech. neurodynamic brain function – it is the structure responsible for stable circulation of energy in all areas of the human brain. aerobic load during intense training contributes to further coordinated work of the processes of excitation and inhibition of brain cells. this type of load stimulates and develops a relatively constant level of concentration, distribution and switching of attention, as well as stable memorization of information. functions of the cerebral hemispheres. visual perception of the general trajectory of the route and its analysis in detail serves development of the functions of the left and right hemispheres. emotional and volitional sphere and self-esteem. since any type of exercise/training is aimed at achieving results, it is very important to go beyond one’s achievements. the ability to set goals and achieve them is the property of a stable adult character. therefore, regular training gradually brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 242 teaches adolescents discipline, control over their feelings in case of failure, help see progress and understand the cause-effect relations between the training process itself and improvement of the result. training strong-willed qualities over one’s previous results reinforces self-esteem and proper pride. modern physical education is traditionally considered only as a means of optimizing the physical status of an individual, which, as a rule, is reduced only to formation of motor ability, normalisation of the younger generation through intellectual and socio-psychological development, which limits the possibility of holistic personality formation (pasichnyk et al., 2015). development of coordination skills in the process of physical exercises numerous studies show that different types of human coordination manifestations in physical education, sports, labour and military activities, everyday life are quite specific. therefore, instead of the basic existing term “dexterity”, which turned out to be very ambiguous and vague, the term “coordination abilities” was introduced into theory and practice, and the system of such abilities and the need for a differentiated approach to their development began to be discussed. in the system of motion control, one of the main concepts on the basis of which others are built, there is a concept of coordination of movements, i.e., the organization of controllability of the musculoskeletal system. according to giuriato et al. (2021), regular participation in strength training and coordination activities is positively correlated with health benefits in sports (team and individual). the content of maturity is a recognized parameter in assessing the results of physical training. the results show that control over body size and body shape, coordination exercises and early development (determined by a positive inclination parameter) benefit children in performing tasks related to physical fitness and motor activity. in defining the concept of coordination abilities, the fundamental point is: what the criteria for assessing these abilities are. the results of many years of research allow us to make the following generalizations. therefore, to avoid possible misunderstandings, it is first necessary to clarify that the criteria are the main features on the basis of which coordination abilities are assessed. in other words, it is an assessment of the level of coordination capabilities and their individual components. the main criteria for assessing coordination skills are: accuracy, speed, rationality and ingenuity, which have qualitative and quantitative characteristics. influence of sports games on coordination abilities of adolescents as a … oksana bashtovenko, et al. 243 participation in organized sports gives young people the opportunity to increase their physical activity and develop physical and social skills. however, when the demands and expectations of organized sports exceed the maturity and readiness of the participant, the positive aspects of participation may vanish. the nature of parental or adult involvement can also affect the extent to which participation in organized sports is a positive experience for pre-adolescents. this is an update of the previous policy on athletics for preschool children and includes guidelines for sports for preschool children (committee on sports medicine and fitness and committee on school health, 2001). based on the above, the correctness of performing motor actions has two sides: qualitative, which intends to bring the movement to the intended goal, and quantitative – the accuracy of movements. in all cases, it is a question of target accuracy, directly related to the successful solution of the motor assignment. this accuracy can be of “final character” in relation to the final moment of the movement. here it is synonymous with accuracy. a positive transfer of target accuracy was revealed, which is manifested in various ballistic movements that have an accuracy objective. in another group of cases, the target accuracy “takes a procedural nature”, manifesting itself in the direction of dosing muscle efforts, i.e., in the directions of movements. a distinction should be made between the accuracy of reproduction, differentiation, evaluation and measurement of spatial, temporal and force parameters of movements; accuracy of reaction to a moving object; target accuracy. although there is information in the literature that between these indicators of accuracy in some cases there are positive relationships, but there is much more reason to believe that these indicators are relatively independent manifestations of accuracy, which in different ways characterize the coordination abilities of an individual. in the process of control and regulation, complex in terms of coordination of motor actions, adolescents can coordinate their motor activities on one criterion. for example, other criteria apart, the indicator of assessment of coordination abilities in general developmental coordination exercises without sports gears (various combinations of movements and positions of arms, legs, torso) there is almost always correctness (adequacy, accuracy) of performing these movements. the leading feature of the assessment of coordination abilities belonging to the group of ballistic movements with a focus on accuracy, will be the accuracy of the hit, etc. however, these qualitative and quantitative criteria of coordination abilities isolated from each other are extremely rare. the so-called complex criteria are incomparably more common. in this case, students coordinate their brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 244 motor activities simultaneously on two or more criteria: speed and efficiency (skiing on average terrain); accuracy, timeliness and speed (when performing transfers and other technical sports and game techniques); accuracy, speed and agility (in sports and martial arts), etc. such complex criteria for assessing coordination abilities are indicators of the effectiveness of the implementation of holistic purposeful motor actions or a set of these actions, where there is a demand for human coordination abilities. analysis of the impact of sports games on the development of physical qualities in adolescents in the methodological literature, unfortunately, the possibilities of the sports-game method of development of physical qualities in adolescents are still insufficiently revealed. however, the practice of teachers considered by us shows that with the correct use of this method senior students are always enthusiastic, internally fit. such their attitude is explained by the fact that in the game everyone is worried about their success and the success of their team. it is because of this attractiveness that this position can change for the better indifference, and sometimes a negative attitude towards development of strength qualities in senior students. the effective and competitive side of the game method captivates students, forces them to show their physical and mental strength in the competition for the championship, to achieve victory. sports games are combined with gymnastics, athletics, active games, ski training, swimming. the method of conducting such games in physical education lessons is subject to general requirements, but also has its own specifics, which is associated with the need to maintain a certain intensity of the lesson. this dictates the efficiency, clear thoughtfulness of methodological techniques, the need to ensure that all students participating in the games, received approximately equal load. the teacher must create conditions for active participation in the game of all students. sports games are usually held in a frontal or group method. in the first case, everyone plays the same game (sometimes divided into two three teams). in the second case, the games are used to solve educational problems and at the same time there are two or three, not one game in the classroom. boys and girls often play separately. when conducting games, it is impossible to achieve a sufficiently selective effect on the muscles and internal organs of adolescents. in this regard, it is necessary to skilfully use games in combination with other means of physical education, especially gymnastics. influence of sports games on coordination abilities of adolescents as a … oksana bashtovenko, et al. 245 sports games can be held in any part of the lesson. in the preparatory part their main task is the organization of attention, body warming up, improvement in various constructions. in the main part of the lesson with the help of games a variety of pedagogical tasks related to improvement of motor skills can be solved. the task of the final part of the lesson is to bring the body to a relatively calm state, organized ending of the lesson. therefore, games that do not require tension and excitement are held here. the method of playing games requires more careful monitoring of the load for adolescents with relatively poor physical development. if sports games are well learned and held at the lessons, they quickly become usual for children in everyday life, and this is very important in the general work in physical education of students. in the school pedagogical process, it is important not only to conduct a game itself, but also to organize the whole lesson of physical education, preliminary selection of the game, its purpose and combination with the program material. a game can be part of the lesson, as well as its main content. the physical education lesson, which includes a sports game, is subject to the usual requirements. for more effective implementation of the planned content of such a lesson, it is important to carefully consider conditions for conducting it: creation of hygienic conditions; accounting for the placement and movement of players during the game. organization of the lesson includes an appropriate appointment and use of assistants to monitor actions of players, and work with adolescents who are exempt from classes. these games accumulate many types of movements, the contractile capabilities of muscles in them, as a rule, are not fully used, but the main task of games with elements of general developmental exercises is not to achieve maximum results, but to strengthen the musculoskeletal system, general physical development. as a rule, such games are rich in plots and motor actions, which helps to successfully solve the problem of not only physical but also moral education. during the game, children learn to follow the rules, think fast, show will and endurance, help each other. when describing games with elements of general developmental exercises, the game material with simple gymnastic exercises is taught first, which simultaneously promote development of attention, intelligence and orientation on the playground. then games with skills of transfer and throwing of a ball, overcoming of obstacles possible for teenagers are described. thus, mobile games are combined with gymnastics, athletics, sports games, ski training, swimming. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 246 the body of senior high school students is characterized by greater stability. the musculoskeletal system is quite flexible, plastic. muscles continue to grow and strengthen, that is why the strength data of adolescents are still not great; the body is not yet ready for heavy exercise. however, at this age the activity of the heart and blood vessels stabilizes, lung capacity increases. therefore, the games include short runs and jumps, a variety of energetic running and movements of the arms, legs, torso, which contributes to the normal development of adolescents. the developing organism feels an increasing need for oxygen. the respiratory system of students is more developed than in primary school age, but breathing is not yet deep enough. sports games with active movements help strengthen the respiratory system. the author of the approach to the development of physical qualities and improving the health of adolescents notes that extracurricular work on acquisition of theoretical knowledge, aimed at creating a lasting motivation for self-study on physical education and conscientious attitude to one’s health. the use of the proposed innovative technology contributed to the improvement of health, physical development, level of physical fitness, physical activity of students in grades 10-11 (khrystova, 2018). adolescents begin to think more critically and abstractly, they develop the ability to think abstractly. this enables them to master more complex games with numerous rules. strengthening control over emotions contributes to development of endurance in action, discipline, tact in relation to teammates. students’ actions in sports games become more coordinated, accurate, game tactics are improved, the ability to dodge players quickly and deftly increases, the choice of tricks from a conventional opponent is enriched, as well as ways to fight them in martial arts or with the support of teammates. the conditions for performing actions become more complex, the complexity of the tasks set before the players increases. the rules of the game are becoming more complicated, and resolving game conflicts requires participants to have well-developed willpower and endurance. adolescents are interested in games in which joint efforts are aimed at achieving a common goal. they are becoming more attracted to games in which each team has a specific task: to work together to gain an advantage over another team, to win the game. thus, the methodology of sports games includes unlimited opportunities for integrated use of various techniques aimed at shaping the child’s personality, skilful pedagogical guidance. of particular importance is general training, pedagogical observation and foresight. influence of sports games on coordination abilities of adolescents as a … oksana bashtovenko, et al. 247 conclusions therefore, the analysis of the problem shows that all the criteria for assessing coordination skills are complex and ambiguous. they are specifically manifested in real motor activities and in various combinations with each other. all this should be taken into account both in the selection and development of appropriate methods for assessing coordination skills, and in the analysis of specific indicators. by coordination abilities we mean the capabilities of individuals that determine their readiness for optimal control and regulation of motor action. all criteria for assessing coordination skills are complex and ambiguous. they are specifically manifested in real motor activities and in various combinations with each other. in the ontogenetic development of motor coordination: the child’s ability to develop new motor programs reaches its maximum at the age of 11 12 years old. during adolescence, there is an improvement in coordination skills. the general level of development of coordination abilities reached at this age creates wide preconditions for improvement of motor activity. it is recommended to include exercises for development of coordination skills not only in isolation, but also in combination with exercises aimed at developing other qualities (speed, strength, endurance, agility) in the lessons of physical culture and sports training, which will give the greatest training effect. the game method is a means of training that ensures effectiveness of the educational process, access to a wealth of knowledge, expands possibilities of information transfer and control of students’ knowledge in the learning process. the method of conducting sports games consists of the following components: selection and planning of games, creating interest in the game, conducting the game and its management, ending the game and summarizing. the technique of conducting sports games is aimed at fostering emotional, conscious mastery of various motor skills. references boychuk, r. (2015). theoretical substantiation of programs of targeted development of coordination abilities of pupils in lessons of physical training with elements of sports games. pedagogics, psychology, medical-biological problems of physical training and sports, 19(1), 7-12. https://doi.org/10.15561/18189172.2015.0102 https://doi.org/10.15561/18189172.2015.0102 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 248 committee on sports medicine and fitness and committee on school health (2001). organized sports for children and preadolescents. pediatrics, 107(6), 1459-1462. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.107.6.1459 echemendia, r. j., & bauer, r. m. (2015). professional ethics in sports neuropsychology. psychological injury and law, 8, 289–299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-015-9241-3 giuriato, m., kawczynski, a., mroczek, d., lovecchio, n., nevill, a. (2021). allometric association between physical fitness test results, body size/shape, biological maturity, and time spent playing sports in adolescents. plos one 16(4). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249626 halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284–2291. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf khrystova, t. (2018). рreservation of health of senior school age in the process of physical education. economic and social-focused issues of modern world: conference proceedings of the international scientific conference (october 24-25, 2018, bratislava, slovak republic), (pp. 263-267). http://eprints.mdpu.org.ua/id/eprint/2358/1/%d0%a2he%20paper_kh rystova.pdf komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 ljach, w. i., & witkowski, z. (2010). development and training of coordination skills in 11to 19-year-old soccer players. human physiology, 36, 64–71. https://doi.org/10.1134/s0362119710010081 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.107.6.1459 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-015-9241-3 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249626 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf http://eprints.mdpu.org.ua/id/eprint/2358/1/%d0%a2he%20paper_khrystova.pdf http://eprints.mdpu.org.ua/id/eprint/2358/1/%d0%a2he%20paper_khrystova.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi.org/10.1134/s0362119710010081 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 influence of sports games on coordination abilities of adolescents as a … oksana bashtovenko, et al. 249 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 pasichnyk, v., melnyk, v., levkiv, v., kovtsun, v. (2015). effectiveness of integral-developmental balls use in complex development of physical and mental abilities of senior preschool age children. journal of physical education and sport 15(4), 775-780. http://dx.doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2015.04118 sitovskyi a., maksymchuk b., kuzmenko v., nosko y., korytko z., bahinska, o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtehnko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532-1543. https://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20222.pdf trudeau, f., & shephard, r. j. (2008). physical education, school physical activity, school sports and academic performance. international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 5, 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-510 vandorpe, b., vandendriessche, j., vaeyens, r., pion, j., matthys, s., lefevre, j., philippaerts, r., lenoir, m. (2012). relationship between sports participation and the level of motor coordination in childhood: a longitudinal approach. journal of science and medicine in sport, 15(3), 220-225, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2011.09.006. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 http://dx.doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2015.04118 https://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20222.pdf https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-5-10 https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-5-10 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2011.09.006 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 314-328 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience tetiana berbets¹, vitalii berbets2, inna babii3, olga chyrva4, andrii malykhin5, liliia sushentseva6, serhii medynskii7, olha riaboshapka8, tetiana matviichuk9, valeriy solovyov10, iryna maksymchuk11, borys maksymchuk12 1 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, berbec08@ukr.net 2 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, berbec1977@ukr.net 3 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, in77na77@ukr.net 4 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, chyrva81@ukr.net 5 berdyansk state pedagogical university, ukraine, master_ped@meta.ua 6 lviv polytechnic national university, ukraine, sushentz2009@ukr.net 7 bogdan khmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, sermedyn@ukr.net 8 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, lifeisgood81@ukr.net 9 lviv state university of physical culture, ukraine, tetfart@gmail.com 10 lviv state university of physical culture, ukraine, valerisolovyov@gmail.com 11 mariupol state university, ukraine, 0963113686@ukr.net 12 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, 0674256781@ukr.net abstract: the article deals with the process of updating the content and methods of technological training. the latter aims to form pupils’ skills of independent creativity and educational and handicraft activities, which act as the means of improving education quality. the international relevance of the article lies in the objectification of ukraine’s experience, which can be used in the post-soviet countries, given that these countries follow conservative principles in planning and implementing educational content. the article proves that the effectiveness of developing pupils’ experience of independent creativity during handicraft and technology lessons is determined by the following organizational and methodological conditions: comprehending the need for independent creativity; developing pupils’ positive motivation towards independent creative handicraft and technology activities; improving educational and methodological support; using innovative pedagogical technologies and information and communication technologies. the article summarizes research findings of certain ukrainian and foreign researchers, which adds up to the generalized contribution of its authors. keywords: educational and handicraft activities, technological training, situations of success, workbook, game technologies. how to cite: berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 mailto:berbec08@ukr.net mailto:berbec1977@ukr.net mailto:in77na77@ukr.net mailto:chyrva81@ukr.net mailto:master_ped@meta.ua mailto:sushentz2009@ukr.net mailto:sermedyn@ukr.net mailto:lifeisgood81@ukr.net mailto:tetfart@gmail.com mailto:valerisolovyov@gmail.com mailto:0963113686@ukr.net mailto:0674256781@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and … tetiana berbets, et al. 315 introduction the analysis of theoretical and practical aspects in the development of pupils' experience of independent creativity during handicraft and technology activities shows that there are several contradictions between increasing attention of society to the problem of developing creative and independent personality in pupils and an insufficient realization of technological training potential in solving this relevant problem; an objective need to reorient the vector of school education to increase the level of development of pupils' experience of independent creativity in pupils and the lack of effective methodology for developing this personal quality during handicraft and technology activities; the need to increase the level of development of the experience of independent creativity in pupils aged between 10 and 14 (grades 5-9) and the application of only traditional educational means and technologies. considering themselves as adults, on the one hand, contradicts adolescents’ actual abilities. on the other hand, real adults’ attitude towards them does not correspond to their new insights, which is why they strive for independence and individual behavioural manifestations. due to their lack of necessary experience in independent activities, pupils may deal with numerous life problems, which proves that adolescence is the most sensitive period for developing experience in independent creative handicraft and technology activities (komogorova et al., 2021; maksymchuk, 2020a; maksymchuk, 2020b; onishchuk et al., 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020; sheremet et al., 2019). thus, the authors of the article have clarified the concept of “pupils’ experience in independent creativity”, which is considered as a complex of knowledge and skills in planning, organizing, and performing individual creative handicraft and technology tasks with the help of non-standard approaches and without teacher supervision. the creative experience is a result of the creative and active acquisition and application of knowledge and skills during independent, highly organized, and motivated creativity. in general, independent activity involves various tasks. it is manifested through cognitive or practical tasks, which motivate pupils towards participating in handicraft and technology activities. each independent activity should correspond to the aim and objectives of educational material, as well as ensure gradual progression from ignorance to knowledge, from the lower to the higher level of independence. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 316 a complex of didactic means, which contribute to developing both technological education content and its information environment, is of great importance in the organization of pupils’ independent creativity during handicraft and technology lessons. it has been found that technology teachers prefer the following tools for organizing independent activities: textbooks and manuals (30.7%), blackboard (60.8%), instructional and technological cards (45.3%), creative design (3.8 %), whereas modern educational tools (computers, workbooks, multimedia projectors) are applied quite insufficiently. however, despite many pieces of research on this problem, which consider various aspects of independent creative handicraft and technology activities of pupils, several issues related to developing the experience of independent creativity in middle school pupils during technological training remains insufficiently studied. besides, the problem has been intensified by the modernization of content and methodology of pupils’ technological training in comprehensive schools. therefore, the research aims to justify the effectiveness of organizational and methodological conditions for developing independent creativity in pupils during technological training independent creativity of pupils in learning: global trends recently, several theories have emerged in educational and neuroscientific discourse to stimulate the cognitive and creative potential of pupils, considering interdisciplinary research. thus, some scholars claim that the creative intellectual activity of pupils is inseparable from their motor activity. one area stimulates another, as well as lack of motor activity inhibits both cognitive and creative spheres. there is still insufficient experimental evidence of the links between the motivation behind the independent creativity and motor activity. at the same time, gearin & fien (2016) state that physical activity boosts motivation towards cognitive activity and offers non-standard solutions to didactic problems. currently, one can observe the links between people’s neurobiology and their educational, cognitive, and creative capabilities. a holistic approach to this issue has revealed the interdependence between such, at first glance, heteromorphic aspects as thinking, attention, physical activity, motivation, nutrition, lifestyle, independence, response to positive and negative stimuli (gruart, 2014). the motivation for independent creativity in childhood is based on adaptive mechanisms, which gradually become socially oriented. developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and … tetiana berbets, et al. 317 such research much popularizes educational tools “claiming to use “right-brain techniques” (lindell & kidd, 2011). besides, the idea that people are “left‐brained” or “right‐brained” is a neuromyth that was debunked (lindell & kidd, 2011). the correlation of the hemispheres in creative solving of didactic or life problems is much more complex than previously understood. today, some researchers justify the neurophysiological basis of independent creativity and identify specific brain circuits involved in specific higher brain functions. as noted by dietrich (2004), “there are four basic types of creative insights, each mediated by a distinctive neural circuit”. at the same time, dietrich (2004) indicates, “by definition, creative insights occur in consciousness”. given that “the working memory buffer of the prefrontal cortex holds the content of consciousness, each of the four distinctive neural loops terminates there” (dietrich, 2004). also, “when creativity is the result of deliberate control, as opposed to spontaneous generation, the prefrontal cortex also instigates the creative process” (dietrich, 2004). thus, both spontaneous and intentional creative modes of information processing include integrated emotional-intuitive and rational (mental) mechanisms. it means that science and art find common mechanisms and systematize the interaction between knowledge and creative thinking (dietrich, 2004). the basis for the current stimulation of independent creativity is an assumption that educational or any other personal motivation is based on human subjectivity as one of the main bio-social functions. moreover, social, psychological, and neurophysiological mechanisms operate simultaneously in their implementation (della sala & anderson, 2012). the other side of stimulating pupils’ independent creativity now lies in reassessing the importance of motivation’s emotional component. previously, the role of emotions in cognitive activity and education was underestimated, and they were considered an additional component. currently, scholars are proving that emotions affect the quality and intensity of such higher cognitive processes as memory, attention and, consequently, motivation for independent creativity (li et al., 2018, p. 220). the nature and quality of emotions have more influence on cognitive and creative processes than rational attitudes. from this one can conclude that modelling educational conditions should be based on optimizing the atmosphere, receiving positive incentives and the child’s stay in an emotionally ecological environment. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 318 stimulating independent creativity of pupils in ukrainian discourse different aspects of organizing independent creativity of pupils during handicraft and technology lessons have been covered in many pieces of research. thus, the category of independence has always been considered in didactics, psychology, and technologies teaching. in particular, the concept of independent activities has been defined by aleksiuk & kashin (1986), buriak (2007), savchenko (2007); classification characteristics of independent activities have been specified by onyshchuk (1981) and usova (2000). the importance of enhancing pupils’ independence during technological training has been highlighted in research by kobernyk (1998). the analysis of certain studies (kobernyk, 1998) shows that the problem of organizing independent creativity of pupils during technological training is rather relevant. the current stage in technological education development is characterized by the rapid increase in information volume given limited teaching hours and high requirements for the level and quality of pupils’ educational achievements in handicraft and technology activities. however, one can observe that pupils’ interest in handicraft and technology lessons, the volume of acquired knowledge, and the quality of technological training are decreasing. therefore, comprehensive schools should aim to develop a creative, active, and independent personality of pupils during technological training. the authors of the article agree with serhiienko (2010) that organizational and methodological conditions are based on certain functions of activity: planning, organization, motivation, control and analysis. teacher activity is not a temporary action, but a process, a series of continuous interrelated actions, each of which is, in turn, the process and the product of certain functions. an aspect-based approach to teacher activity involves taking into account and considering real-life practical situations and conditions. therefore, organizational and methodological conditions are viewed as specific concrete circumstances concerning the organization and methods of developing the experience of independent creativity in pupils, which are aimed at improving this process. they also agree with erganova (2007), who defines the following goals of using workbooks in the educational process: ensuring the quality acquisition of educational material; developing educational and cognitive activity; developing the experience of learner autonomy; promoting creativity in educational and cognitive activity. developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and … tetiana berbets, et al. 319 studies by galperin & talyzina (1992) prove that workbooks and textbooks are complementary learning tools according to their functional purpose. the only difference between them is that textbooks are primarily aimed at highlighting educational material, whereas workbooks are intended for its understanding and consolidation and, therefore, contain a system of guidelines for the gradual development of the experience of independent creativity. the analysis of pedagogical literature shows that educational literature is represented by the educational and methodological complex in the system of didactic tools, which includes the workbooks. the authors of the article agree with shchukina (1998), who believes that it is expedient to single out the general sanitary and hygienic requirements, the requirements for font design and printing materials for workbooks. one of these requirements is a dedicated evaluation of the clarity of colour combinations when selecting lettering, fonts and background colours. considering the complexity of the problem, it is impossible to reveal all its aspects within this research. prospects for further studies include developing theoretical and methodological principles of organizing independent creative handicraft and technology activities for different age groups of pupils, improving the content of pupils’ independent activities with the help of didactic means and information and communication technologies during handicraft and technology lessons, organizing independent extracurricular activities of pupils. the experience of implementing the simulated conditions the selection of pupils for the implementation of the new conditions is rooted in the assumption that the level of general technological training, the level of experience of independence and creativity in learning and certain personal qualities of the pupils should be approximately the same and they should be engaged in sports sections. given that pupils in grades 5-9 studied in urban and rural comprehensive schools, the level of technological training was generally the same. pupils were more independent in their learning as they used less the help of teachers or peers in solving their learning tasks and used more additional sources of information, which is a requirement of the high level of educational achievements. the effectiveness of developing the experience of independent creativity in pupils during handicraft and technology lessons is determined by the following organizational and methodological conditions: comprehending the need for an independent creative activity as an integral brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 320 component of technological training of pupils in a modern school; ensuring the process of developing pupils’ positive motivation towards independent creative handicraft and technology activities; improving educational and methodological support of organization of pupils’ independent creativity during handicraft and technology lessons; using innovative pedagogical technologies and information and communication technologies while organizing middle school pupils’ independent creativity. it is certain that the effectiveness of the first condition directly depends on technology teachers' comprehending the importance of the organization of pupils’ independent creativity during handicraft and technology lessons and considering them as an integral part of the educational process. independent learning facilitates pupil-centred learning, intellectual development and increases the intensity of the educational process. due to the well-developed experience of independent creativity, pupils can deepen their knowledge independently, perform practical tasks and carry out self-control, self-assessment, and self-correction of educational activities. the second condition is realized by creating favourable conditions for pupils to increase their interest in independent creativity while performing handicraft and technology tasks. nevertheless, these motives are related to fulfilling the existing needs of the subject of activity and, therefore, play a stimulating function, which determines the subject orientation of pupils’ independent creativity. pupils’ experience of independent creativity is developed by many motives that are different in content, features and of different origin (social, cognitive, professional, and axiological). of great significance in developing pupils’ experience in independent creativity are such motives as cognitive interest and creating a situation of success. the interest in creative independent activities and their results serves as an incentive to complete independent activities. creating the situation of success in any independent creative activity aims to encourage pupils to make optimal use of their capabilities, strive for quality performance, persist in achieving a certain goal and overcome the difficulties that may occur. the teacher must encourage pupils to feel that they are “no worse than others” so that they can feel comfortable while performing an independent task. therefore, teachers need to select realistic tasks for pupils and evaluate their performance, while ensuring a proper microclimate, in which the pupil does not feel insecure and afraid. there should be a comfortable pedagogical environment (atmosphere of kindness, sincerity and openness; harmonious environment facilitating independent creativity; better perception of the new developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and … tetiana berbets, et al. 321 and fast reproduction of the learned material). teachers’ positive evaluation evokes positive emotions in pupils. there is a great variety of methods for creating situations of success for schoolchildren during handicraft and technology lessons (independent search, fulfilled aspirations, positive evaluation of partial results, family joy, hidden pedagogical tools, verbal support, the joy of learning, eureka, selfknowledge, advancing, etc.), using which the teacher not only retains the natural desire of children to learn but also leads them out of the sphere of emotional impressions to the state when the child not only wants to learn but cannot but learn. situations of success are created by the teacher for the whole class gradually, improving the emotional climate in the team, supporting pupils in educational activities and developing a sense of self-confidence. however, the pupil is happy to communicate with the teacher and classmates, feeling that they have noticed his/her success and approve it. the whole class appreciates the success of an individual pupil, which creates a reserve for the next activity. the third condition for developing pupils’ experience of independent creativity involves developing and improving educational and methodological support of handicraft and technology lessons. comprehensive educational and methodological support includes planning, developing, and creating an optimal system (complex) of educational and methodological documentation and teaching aids, which are necessary for an effective organization of the educational process within the allocated time and the content defined by the curriculum. different teaching aids have different goals, didactic functions, and opportunities. complexity in methodological support of the educational process implies selecting appropriate teaching aids based on their didactic functions for organizing independent handicraft and technology activities. rather effective, in this case, is using workbooks, which form a didactic complex intended for organizing independent creativity of pupils in class and at home, allow saving some time and performing more activities in less time. also, they complement the basic educational material. the main aim of using a workbook during technological training is to ensure the operational acquisition and systematization of concepts by pupils and to promote the activation of their creative independent educational and cognitive activity, the development of practical skills to organize independent work using theoretical material, textbooks and other additional didactic tools, internet resources, etc. therefore, it is impossible to ensure successful stepby-step creation of the experience of independent creativity in pupils without brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 322 developing the means of step-by-step control, which is the most important task in the development of workbooks for pupils. adherence to the complex didactic training tools enables the teacher to successfully use workbooks within the framework of the general methodological complex of crafts and technologies. given that the workbook includes such components as drawings, diagrams, flowcharts, pictures, self-check questions and tasks, it must follow certain psychological and pedagogical requirements: 1) to correspond to the topic of the lesson under the curriculum; 2) to focus on the main aspects, be visually enhanced, contain a detailed explanation, study the essence of the phenomena, as well as to summarize the acquired educational information; 3) to include the images accorded with the scale proportions of their parts, especially if they relate to significant details, and demonstrating the most important details in tones. besides, workbooks have the following advantages: 1. using a workbook eliminates the need to spend time writing homework and classroom tasks. there is a one-week gap between handicraft and technology lessons. during this time, the child can forget everything covered in the previous lesson. homework is an elementary encouragement for the pupil to work in the next lesson. 2. the workbook allows completing a full “precomputer” training of the pupil in the lesson. this allows him/her to work with the computer more consciously and purposefully. 3. the workbook usually contains a large number of illustrations. considering that the principle of visual learning is one of the main ones, it contributes to a more complete perception of the information received and, therefore, to the greater acquisition of knowledge. the intended way of performing educational tasks in the workbook can be presented through pictures, diagrams, tables, instructions and technological cards for their further material embodiment during independent practical work. in the workbook, it is necessary to place a sequence of tasks and the so-called “free space” for tasks, that is, to perform them in workbooks it is recommended to leave enough space for the creative realization of thoughts. in turn, the teacher needs to show possible ways to find a way to complete the task, to learn how to make the algorithm independently, to perform the task. the workbook should also include some creative tasks. while performing such tasks, pupils can show their – if elementary – skills and knowledge to compile such algorithms. combining a summary of theoretical foundations of the topic and the sequence of typical tasks creates the so-called information complex. this is the first section of each topic developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and … tetiana berbets, et al. 323 covered in the workbook. the second main section of each topic discussed is a system of different tasks and exercises for pupils’ classwork and homework. this section should include several different types of typical tasks. this will enhance their ability to perform tasks and improve the quality of mastering the material. non-standard tasks can be offered to pupils only after mastering typical ones. this contributes to the purposeful and intensive development of pupils’ thinking and the formation of their creative skills. it is also advisable to include additional information in workbooks: notes, historical data, references, conclusions and summaries missing from the textbook. this is necessary to widen pupils’ outlook and specify the educational material in the form of short conclusions. some self-check questions can be suggested to teach pupils to evaluate their understanding of the discussed educational material. the workbook should include instructions for practical work. the objectives of the lesson should be clearly stated, the training aids should be described and the algorithm for completing the task should be given. it is also helpful to include a list of bibliographical guidance that will allow pupils to better and more thoroughly understand the topic, as well as to familiarize themselves with new information sources. this is the final component for each topic presented in the workbook. thus, the structure and content of the workbook include the information complex for each topic of the course: short theoretical information, algorithms for solving common problems; tasks for independent work (typical, developmental and creative ones); instructions for practical and laboratory work; generalizations and conclusions on each topic: notes, summaries, conclusions, self-check questions, references. the fourth condition implies using innovative pedagogical technologies and information and communication technologies while organizing pupils’ independent creativity. the introduction of innovative pedagogical technologies, in particular, project-based learning and educational games, assists pupils in developing their independent orientation skills in scientific, educational and reference literature; learning how to find the information they need without assistance; preserving and strengthening their independence, that is, the willingness to create, etc.; adapting to real self-study; seeing themselves as creators of their activities; developing creative imagination, which is a powerful stimulus for generating new ideas, searching for alternative solutions, their analysis, synthesis, which in the future will become the basis of innovative thinking. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 324 the effective development and implementation of the project by the pupils, as well as design and technological activities should consist of the following stages: organization and preparation, designing, technologization and summary. at each stage, the pupils perform some specific sequential actions, implementing the project, and the teacher becomes the organizer of educational activities. at the organization and preparation stage, the pupils comprehend and reveal the meaning of the next workpiece. they come up with ideas, propose different options and product parameters and, finally, discuss and choose the best one. before choosing the product, the pupils should understand its usefulness and practicality. during this stage, they form their self-evaluation skills. at the designing stage, the pupils create the chain of production: they choose a sketch, tools and equipment, determine the chain of technological operations, select a rational technology for making products; they carry out economic, environmental and mini-marketing operations. at the technologization stage, the pupils perform scheduled operations, carry out selfmonitoring and quality control of the product. at the final stage, the project is monitored, compared and tested. thus, the pupils determine whether they have achieved their goal and what is the result of their work. after completing all the steps, the pupils defend their project (product, plan, model) before peers. effective technology for developing the experience of independent creativity in adolescents is educational gaming, which helps to create creative situations, exchange knowledge and organize independent mental activities. handicraft and technology lessons provide tremendous opportunities for using game technologies, such as solving crossword puzzles, riddles, etc. such tasks are performed by either one or many pupils together, competing in speed and completeness of the answers. below are some educational games that are appropriate to use during handicraft and technology lessons to develop independence and creativity of pupils: “journalists”, “research laboratory”, “dreamers”, “compiling test papers”, “put things right”, “the mysterious package”, “the advertising campaign”. with the help of multimedia technologies, an e-book (eencyclopedia) has been created. it is a training tool, whose recorded pages are shown on the display screen; computer didactic and educational games that widen the pupils’ outlook, stimulate cognitive interest, creativity and form necessary skills and abilities. it must be noted that by applying information and communication technologies while organizing independent activities of pupils during handicraft and technology lessons, one can create special conditions required developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and … tetiana berbets, et al. 325 to find necessary methods for solving creative situations, modelling, and constructing creative objects, to fulfil individual needs of each pupil, to make the process more mobile, as well as highly differentiated and individual. conclusions the results of observations on the pupils’ experience of independent creativity, their questionaries and sample interviews, as well as the study of the pupils’ creative projects and the results of their work prove that the eg pupils are more aware of the importance of independent creativity and can logically use the experience gained in educational situations. it has helped them to increase the level of independent educational creativity, to acquire skills of creative search of ways and places for applying the acquired knowledge and to strengthen interdisciplinary connections. the criteria and indicators of developing pupils’ experience of independent creativity have been determined. they include motivational and axiological criterion (the pupils’ ability to set a goal, show interest in the creative process, express a positive attitude to independent activities and handicraft and technology activities, cope with difficulties, achieve good results in independent creative tasks, strive for creative self-improvement); cognitive criterion (pupils’ understanding of independent creative tasks, knowledge of stages and technologies, awareness about the process of performing independent creative tasks and creative design methods) and the operational and activity-based criterion (the pupils' ability to independently perform creative tasks, use a workbook and creative design methods; the ability to design independently and improvise in so doing). based on the outlined criteria and indicators, the levels of developing pupils’ experience of independent creative handicraft and technology activities during technological training (high, sufficient, average, and initial) have been characterized. it has been found that the number of middle school pupils with the average (32.4%) and initial (21.3%) levels prevail. only 14.7% of pupils have a high level. the organizational and methodological conditions for developing middle school pupils’ experience of independent creativity during handicraft and technology lessons have been justified. they include comprehending the need for an independent creative activity as an integral component of technological training of pupils in a modern school; ensuring the process of developing pupils’ positive motivation towards independent creative handicraft and technology activities; improving educational and methodological support of organization of pupils’ independent creativity during handicraft and technology lessons; using innovative pedagogical brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 326 technologies and information and communication technologies while organizing pupils’ independent creativity. references aleksiuk, a. m., & kashin, s. o. (1986). udoskonalennya navchalnoho protsesu v seredniy shkoli [enhancing the educational process in secondary school]. higher education. buriak, v. (2007). systema dydaktychnykh umov efektyvnosti orhanizatsiyi navchalnoyi piznavalnoyi diyalnosti [the system of didactic conditions for the effectiveness of educational cognitive activities organization]. ridna shkola, 5, 25-27. http://catalog.library.tnpu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=2 79628 della sala, s., & anderson, m. (2012). neuroscience in education: the good, the bad, and the ugly. oxford university press. dietrich, a. (2004). the cognitive neuroscience of creativity. psychonomic bulletin & review, 11, 1011-1026. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03196731 erganova, n. y. (2007). metodika professionalnogo obucheniya [vocational training methodology]. academy. galperin, p. y., & talyzina, n. f. (1992). upravleniye poznavatelnoy deyatelnostyu uchashchikhsya [managing cognitive activity of pupils]. pedagogy. gearin, b. m., & fien, h. (2016). translating the neuroscience of physical activity to education. trends in neuroscience and education, 5(1), 12 19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2016.02.001 gruart, a. (2014). the role of neurosciences in education... and vice versa. international journal of educational psychology, 3(1), 21-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/ijep.2014.02 kobernyk, o. m. (1998). navchalno-vykhovnyy protses u silskiy zahalnoosvitniy shkoli: sutnist, proektuvannya, orhanizatsiya [the educational process in rural comprehensive school: concept, design, organization]. knowledge. komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes? knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 li, l., gow, a. d. i., & zhou, j. (2018). the role of positive emotions in education: a neuroscience perspective. mind, brain, and education, 14(3), 220-234. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12244 http://catalog.library.tnpu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=279628 http://catalog.library.tnpu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=279628 https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03196731 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2016.02.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/ijep.2014.02 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12244 developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and … tetiana berbets, et al. 327 lindell, a. k., & kidd, e. (2011). why right‐brain teaching is half‐witted: a critique of the misapplication of neuroscience to education. mind, brain, and education, 5(3), 121-127. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751228x.2011.01120.x maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 onyshchuk, v. a. (1981). urok v sovremennoy shkole [the lesson in a modern school]. prosveshchenie. palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 savchenko, o. y. (2007). theoretical approaches to defining the quality of school education. pedahohika i psykholohiya [pedagogy and psychology], 2, 26-34. https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=45489 8424665960140 serhiienko, n. (2010). orhanizatsiyno-metodychni umovy rozvytku profesiynoyi kompetentnosti vchyteliv zahalnoosvitnikh navchalnykh zakladiv [organizational and methodological conditions for developing professional competency in comprehensive schoolteachers]. teoriya ta metodyka upravlinnya osvitoyu, 3, 23-26. http://tme.umo.edu.ua/docs/3/10sereet.pdf shchukina, g. i. (1988). pedagogicheskiye problemy formirovaniya poznavatelnykh interesov uchashchikhsya [pedagogical problems of forming cognitive interests in pupils]. pedagogy. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228x.2011.01120.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228x.2011.01120.x https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=454898424665960140 https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=454898424665960140 http://tme.umo.edu.ua/docs/3/10sereet.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 328 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 usova, a. v. (2000). chtoby ucheniye stalo interesnym i uspeshnym [making teaching interesting and effective]. pedagogika, 4, 30-33. https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=9268402 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=9268402 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 51-66 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/170 psychocorrection of adolescents 'anxiety by music therapy lyudmila matokhniuk¹, natalia avramenko2, yulia kushnir3, оksana shportun4, viktoriya shevchuk5, inna shorobura6, vasyl kaplinsky7, victoria overchuk8, tetyana koval9 1 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, head of the department of psychology, municipal higher education institution "vinnytsia academy of continuing education", vinnytsia, ukraine, lyda1974@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000002-6316-2352 2 candidate of pedagogical sciences, lecturer of the departments of philology and humanities public, higher educational establishment "the academy of continuing education", vinnytsia, ukraine, edelnata@yahoo.de, orcid.org/0000-0003-1241-0261 3 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, associate professor of department of psychology, donetsk national university named after vasily stus; vinnitsa, ukraine, ju.kushnir@donnu.edu.ua; orcid.org/0000-0002-2502-0257 4 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, professor of psychology department, vasyl stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia, abstract: personal anxiety in adolescence is largely determined by psychological factors (personal, adaptive, motivational), and the correction of personal anxiety in adolescents is possible by combining two areas of work: reducing the effects of psychological factors on its occurrence; development of constructive forms of behavior in psychogenic situations, in conditions of increased anxiety through the use of music therapy. the aim of the study is to study the state of anxiety in adolescence after psychocorrection by music therapy. a set of methods was used to study the psychological features of anxiety in adolescents, ways to overcome and level before and after the psychocorrection program. there are a number of positive changes in the indicators of personal and motivational factors of anxiety: an increase in self-esteem and responsibility, increased selfesteem, which, in turn, led to a decrease in the difference between this indicator and the level of claims, a change in attitude realistic type, changing the distribution of affiliation motives and achieving in favor of the motive of the desire to accept and the desire to succeed, respectively. the effectiveness of the corrective effect was manifested in the change in the distribution of subjects by levels of anxiety. a high level of personal anxiety was recorded, after the implementation of the program it halved. during the study, a number of positive changes in the indicators of personal and motivational factors of anxiety were recorded. the results show, however, that psychocorrectional work with music therapy is effective in the work of a psychologist. the obtained results can be used both during the training of future psychologists, the development of a psycho-correctional program and during family counseling. keywords: personality; adolescence; psychological states; music therapy; treatment-and-prophylactic medicine; art therapy. how to cite: matokhniuk, l., avramenko, n., kushnir, y., shportun, o., shevchuk, v., shorobura, i., kaplinsky, v., overchuk, v., & koval, t. (2021). psychocorrection of adolescents 'anxiety by music therapy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 51-66. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/170 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/170 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/170 ukraine, shportun_o@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0003-4528-4329 5 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, senior lecturer of general and engineering disciplines department, national academy of state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, vikashevchuk71@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-0436-1183 6 doctor in pedagogy, professor, rector of khmelnytskyi humanitarianpedagogical academy, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, shorobura@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0003-3728-7968 7 doctor of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the department of pedagogy and vocational education, vinnytsia state pedagogical university named after mykhailo kotsyubynsky, vinnytsia, ukraine, kaplinskiy55@mail.ru, orcid.org/0000-0003-0829-1079 8 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, associate professor of department of psychology, donetsk national university named after vasily stus, vinnitsa, ukraine, vik.over030506@gmail.com; orcid.org/0000-0002-7744-9346 9 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the department of art disciplines of preschool and primary education, vinnytsia state pedagogical university named after mykhailo kotsyubynsky, vinnytsia, ukraine, tanyabyzja@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0001-6491-4010 psychocorrection of adolescents 'anxiety by music therapy lyudmila matokhniuk, et al. 53 general background of research such scholars as l. borovyk, l. matokhniuk, k. demyanyuk, v. shevchuk, s. pidhaichuk, o. danylenko, a. halimov, i. bloshchynskyi, i. revealed the peculiarities of professional imagination formation in the process of implementation of technical disciplines with the aid of modern information technologies (borovyk, matokhniuk, demyanyuk, shevchuk, pidhaichuk, danylenko, halimov, bloshchynskyi, 2020). some issues on changing the educational paradigm in post-pandemic world, namely: solidarity of efforts as a common condition for the survival of the world in a pandemic; possibilities and risks of artificial intelligence using were presented in the works of s. hanaba, o. mysechko, i. bloshchynskyi (hanaba, mysechko, bloshchynskyi, 2020). as for higher school instructors’ pedagogical skills improvement as a basis of educational strategy for development of students’ professional training, these aspects were substantiated by i. melnychuk, i. drozdova, i. savchak, i. bloshchynskyi (melnychuk, drozdova, savchak, bloshchynskyi, 2019). problems of complex portfolio usage as one of the means of the future primary school teachers training of the new ukrainian school were regarded in the work a. kykylyk, h. stukan, l. hlushok, i. shorobura, i. bloshchynskyi (kykylyk, stukan, hlushok, shorobura, bloshchynskyi, 2020). other scientists studied the strategic significance of english in selfeducation of the students of socio-humanitarian specialties for fundamentalization of university education (melnychuk, rebukha, zavgorodnia, bloshchynskyi, 2018). an important circumstance that enhances the relevance of the study of psychological features of anxiety in adolescents is the need to take into account their age specifics to exclude diagnostic errors (savchin, vasylenko, 2005). adolescence deserves special attention, because it is the period of formation and fixation of stable psychological properties of the individual. modern psychology is largely focused on the use of music therapy in correctional work as an important means of forming a harmonious personality of the adolescent (ermine, titarenko, 2001). technologies of music therapy provide activation of emotional and volitional potential, correction and development of cognitive and motivational components of personality, act as a means of communication, contribute to the formation of purposeful knowledge of the surrounding reality, etc. (shportun, 2009). according to d. kuznetsov (kuznetsov, specialist, 2013), a significant increase in the number of anxious young people is observed brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 54 during periods of instability of economic and political relations in society. the problem of personality anxiety has always occupied an important place in pedagogical and age psychology and today is well developed (pavelkiv, 2011). problems of personal anxiety to a greater extent cover the issues of its psychodiagnostics, psychocorrection and psychotherapy (astapov, 2019), (imedadze, 2019), etc. however, the multifaceted research of anxiety as a systemic phenomenon and personality traits (astapov, 2019), etc. does not cover the full range of problematic issues related to this phenomenon. society has undergone complex socio-economic changes for recent decades. uncertainty and unpredictability of the future causes a state of emotional tension in most citizens. a significant number of young people feel lonely, feel emotional discomfort due to lack of trusting relationships with peers and adults, uncertainty of social position in the team, unformed values, plans for the future (shportun, 2009). an important circumstance that enhances the relevance of the study of psychological features of anxiety in adolescents is the need to take into account its age specifics to exclude diagnostic errors (pavelkiv, 2011). adolescence deserves special attention, because it is the period of formation and fixation of stable psychological properties of the individual. it is the social and scientific significance of the outlined issues that determined the choice of the research topic. personal anxiety in adolescence is largely determined by psychological factors (personal, adaptive, motivational), and the correction of personal anxiety in adolescents is possible by combining two areas of work: reducing the effects of psychological factors on its occurrence; development of constructive forms of behavior in psychogenic situations, in conditions of increased anxiety through the use of music therapy (petrenko, 2013). the aim of the study is to research the state of anxiety in adolescence after psychocorrection by music therapy. materials and methods a set of interrelated methods was used to solve the tasks and achieve the goal of the study. to perform the first task, the scientific and methodological literature was processed and analyzed. to perform the second task, the psychodiagnostic tools of the study were selected: the scale of self-assessment and assessment of anxiety by spielberger j. khanin; d. phillips' method of researching school anxiety, method of determining the type of temperament according to g. eisenko's personal questionnaire; diagnosis of timidity and shyness by e. ilyin. psychocorrection of adolescents 'anxiety by music therapy lyudmila matokhniuk, et al. 55 the experimental study was conducted on the basis of the municipal institution "general school of i-iii degrees of vinnytsia city council". in total, the study covered 60 students aged 13-14 years (8th grade) and 14-15 years old (9th grade). of these, 32 students participated in the experimental group, and 28 students formed a control group. all participants were warned about ethical conditions and could withdraw from the experiment at any time. the work was carried out in 2018 2019 and was carried out in two stages. at the first stage, a program to correct the level of anxiety by means of music therapy was developed and implemented (petrushin, 2000). in the second stage, the effectiveness of music therapy in reducing the level of anxiety in adolescents was tested. at the preparatory stage, a training program was developed and participants were involved in group work. preliminary assessment of adolescents' readiness for training work was assessed, the purpose of the training, its tasks and expectations were formulated. the possibility of realization of these tasks for the available period of time was estimated, the concrete purposes of each training employment and local purposes for each exercise were considered. exercises were selected accordingly. at the first stage, a program to correct the level of anxiety by means of music therapy was developed and implemented. in the second stage, the effectiveness of music therapy in reducing the level of anxiety in adolescents was tested. 1. motor relaxation and merging with the rhythm of music. the method of classes conscious and sensory perception of musical rhythm, which occurs in movement as one of the most characteristic spontaneous manifestations of life in youth, as well as developing the ability to mentally and somatically obey the rhythm of music and merge with it; a full experience of the feeling of eurythmy and syntony, a harmonious combination of the rhythm of the movements of one`s body with the rhythm of music. 2. musical and motor games and exercises. the purpose of classes stimulation and concentration, coordination of audiovisual, motor and tactile correction of the person, creation of conditions for communication and interaction in group, communication of the individual with group and group with the individual. 3. mental and somatic relaxation with music. musical relaxation is a form of passive perception of music, aimed at deep relaxation of a person with mental, somatic or social disorders. one should not focus on the form and content of music, but perceive it as a "sound field", which brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 56 helps the process of relaxation and immersion in the free flow of associations due to the expressiveness and dynamism of music. this method has three components: psychological, musical and biosonic, which are combined in different variations. psychological influence is carried out through a vivid imagination of self-suggestion formulas aimed at relaxing the muscles of the body. as a result, the peripheral vessels dilate, heat enters them and the blood content is redistributed. 4. vocal expression singing. the purpose of classes stress relief, harmonization of personality, positive mental and somatic effects on respiration, heart rate, digestion. establishing social contacts. 5. playing musical instruments and rhythmic recitation. the purpose of classes is the realization of a sense of rhythm and the development of creative abilities. through physical activity, children acquire skills of agility, flexibility, a sense of coordination of motility. not only acoustic, rhythmic, motor, tactile and visual perception develops, but also attention, imagination, mental somatic stability is maintained. 6. receptive perception of music. the purpose of classes the removal of internal conflict, problems, helping to stabilize the personality. it is used to relax and stimulate the individual, who in the process of perceiving music becomes an active participant in the figurative action, enriching it with his inner world of experiences. such classes are aimed at encouraging active perception of one's personality. in their process, the basis of sensory and imaginary associations corresponding to conflict experiences is laid; there is a conscious excitation of the mechanisms of abstraction from personal pathogenic factors. this helps to stabilize the general mental and somatic state. 7. pantomime. the purpose of classes: to promote mental relaxation and creative stimulation, to develop creative imagination motor skills for self-expression, to help relieve mental stress. tests and pantomime enrich facial expressions. this is a game, not a dance. in order to correct the use of several variants of pantomime. 8. motor dramatization to music. dramatization is a synthesis of music, movements, dramatic and speech expression. songs are used, the plot of which can be depicted in the motor elements. for example, a work that celebrates the sea or lake, its latitude, depth, color, turbulence or vice versa peace, as well as works from the list of indicative musical works for motor relaxation and merging with the rhythm of music. 9. musical story. it is an effective way of mental and somatic stimulation with the participation of movements, dramatization and speech. psychocorrection of adolescents 'anxiety by music therapy lyudmila matokhniuk, et al. 57 all the stories are accompanied by music, which traces the murmur of a stream, and the howl of the wind, and the habits of animals. 10. playing with a doll and bibabo (a character in a puppet show like parsley). playing with a doll and bibabo helps to express the inner state of the child and the nature of his or her relationship with parents, relatives, friends and social environment (chub, 2009). this method is used in working with children under 15 years. 11. breathing exercises with music. proper breathing is crucial for training willpower, general relaxation. relaxing musical stimuli bring relief, a sense of harmony, balance; human character becomes softer and more plastic. results of research the results of a psychocorrection program to reduce anxiety in adolescents. psycho-correctional program to reduce adolescent anxiety was carried out in terms of two adolescent groups: 13-14 years (8th grade) and 14-15 years (9th grade). the effectiveness of psychocorrectional work was tested by individual indicators of personal change, identified through analysis of psychological techniques and analysis and generalization of experimental data obtained during the correctional experiment using techniques, as well as observation of behavior and communication of group members in normal conditions (matokhnyuk, 2019). the results of the study of the level of school anxiety (according to the method of phillips) showed significant changes (fig. 1) (lemak, petryshche, 2012). the results of the first factor "general anxiety at school" shows that the general emotional state of the child associated with various forms of its inclusion in school life has changed (omelchinko, kisarchuk, 2009). the results were distributed as follows: a significant percentage of low anxiety was recorded in the experimental group 65,5% (19 students) and in the control group 54,8% (17 students), underestimated anxiety 34,5% (10 students) in the experimental group and 38,7% (12 students) in the control group, increased anxiety was recorded in the control group of 6,5% (2 students), high anxiety was not detected in both groups. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 58 fig. 1. the results of the study of the level of school anxiety of adolescents in the control and experimental groups according to the method of b. phillips the results of the second factor "experience of social stress" were distributed as follows: low anxiety was recorded in 16 people in the experimental group 55,1% and in the control group in 17 people 54,8%, reduced anxiety in 12 people 41,4% of the experimental group and in 12 persons 38,7% of the control group, increased anxiety was observed in 4 students of the control group 12,9%, high anxiety was not detected in any group. the third factor "frustration of the need to succeed" showed the following results: low anxiety in the experimental group shows the result of 51,8% (15 students), in the control group 38,7% (12 students), low anxiety was found in 10 students 34,4 % of the experimental group and 11 students is 35,5% of the control group, increased anxiety was recorded in the experimental group 13,8% (4 students) and in the control group 19,3% (6 students), high anxiety was detected in 2 students 6,5 % of the control group. the fourth factor is "fear of self-expression" (horny, khotenchan, 2014). the results of this factor show that low anxiety was found in 17 psychocorrection of adolescents 'anxiety by music therapy lyudmila matokhniuk, et al. 59 subjects (58,7%) of the experimental group and 11 (35,5%) of the control group, low anxiety was detected in 10 students, 34,4% of the experimental group and 13 students is 41,9% of the control group, increased anxiety was recorded in the experimental group 6,9% (2 students) and in the control group 16,1% (5 students), high anxiety was detected in 2 students 6,5% of the control group. analyzing the fifth factor "fear of the situation of testing knowledge" the results were as follows: low anxiety in the experimental group 69,0% (20 students), in the control group 18 students (58,1%), low anxiety – 24,1% (4 students) in the experimental group and control group 22,6% (7 students), increased anxiety – 6,9% (2 students) of the experimental group and 19,3% (6 students) of the control group, high anxiety on this factor is not detected. the sixth factor is "fear of not meeting the expectations of others" (horny, khotenchan, 2014). low anxiety in the experimental group showed a result of 65,5% (19 people), in the control group 15 people (48,4%), low anxiety in the experimental group – 27,6% (8 students), in the control class 38,7% (12 students), increased anxiety was detected in the experimental group of 6,9% (2 students), in the control group of 4 students (12,9%) of the subjects. the seventh factor studied was "low physiological resistance to stress." low anxiety in the experimental class is 48,3% (14 students), in the control class 41,9% (13 students), low anxiety in the experimental class – 41,4% (12 students), in the control class 38,7% (12 students), increased anxiety – 10,3% (3 students) of the experimental group and 6 students 19,3% of the control group, a high level in this factor was not detected. as far as the eighth factor we studied is concerned "problems and fears in the relationship with teachers" the results were distributed as follows: low anxiety in the experimental group was found at 72,4% (21 students), in the control class 58,1% (18 students) , underestimated anxiety in the experimental class is 24,1% (7 students) and in the control class 32,2% (10 students), increased anxiety was recorded in the experimental group 3,4% (1 student) and in the control class 9,6% (3 students). after analyzing the results of the method "assessment of the level of school anxiety by phillips", we can conclude that in general the level of anxiety after correctional work with adolescents has changed. the low level of school anxiety is generally in the lead. the high level of school anxiety in the experimental group was not detected, in the control group it decreased significantly (shevchenko, 2006). brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 60 after psycho-correctional work, adolescents with low levels of anxiety have sufficient self-control, self-discipline, adequate self-esteem. in relations with others, they are proactive, freely defend their own position in life, resolute in their actions and deeds, and set up for success. they perceive changes in life positively. the next stage of the study was to determine the level of anxiety according to the method of c. spielberger j. khanin (fig. 2) (lemak, petrishte, 2012). fig.2. the results of the study of reactive anxiety in adolescents of the control and experimental groups according to the method of c. spielberger j. khanin this technique studies reactive and personal anxiety. examining reactive anxiety, the results of the study showed that in two groups the low level of reactive anxiety leads. the results of the study show that in the experimental group the low level of reactive anxiety is 75,9% (22 students), and in the control group recorded 61,3% (19 students), the average level of reactive anxiety was recorded in the experimental group of 7 students 24,1%, and in the control group 35,5% (11 students). the results of the study show a high level of reactive anxiety in the control group. in 1 student (3,2%) of the control group there is a high level. this means that there is tension, anxiety, nervousness from certain situations, which has a negative effect on performance. it should be emphasized that after psycho-correctional work with adolescents, the results of reactive anxiety have changed. the number of subjects with low levels of anxiety has increased. psychocorrection of adolescents 'anxiety by music therapy lyudmila matokhniuk, et al. 61 adolescents with a low level of personal anxiety are characterized by sufficient self-control, self-discipline, adequate demands on themselves (fig. 3). fig. 3. the results of the study of personal anxiety of adolescents in the control and experimental groups according to the method of ch. spielberger y. khanin in relations with others, they are proactive, freely defend their own position in life, resolute in their actions and deeds, and set up for success. they perceive changes in life positively. the figure shows that schoolchildren are dominated by low and medium levels of personal anxiety. a low level of personal anxiety was recorded in 19 students of the experimental class (65,5%) and in 16 students of the control group 51,7%. this means that the majority of students in both classes have a positive perception of changes in life, defend their position, are set up for success, adequately assess themselves and their capabilities. the next step was to study the self-assessment of mental states of adolescents after psychocorrectional work using the method of g. eisenko (fig. 4) (lemak, petrishte, 2012). brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 62 fig. 4. the results of the study of mental states of adolescents in the control and experimental groups according to the method of g. eisenko "self-assessment of mental states" the diagnosis showed the following results. the first step in our study is rigidity. this destructive condition is characteristic of 75,8% (22 students) of the experimental group and 64,5% (20 students) of the control group. this means that the subjects are able to show stability in the interests of certain attitudes, in which the opinion is defended, an active position is established. they are practical, neat, true to their positions and principles, resistant to stress, in the form of disobedience to the environment. in second place of our study is frustration. this is a state when the adolescent experiences a negative emotional state, when on the way to meeting the need the subject encounters unexpected obstacles that can be eliminated. according to the study, this figure reached 24.2% in the experimental group and 19,3% in the control group. researchers in this category sometimes have a strong need to remain dissatisfied. aggression was detected only in the control group in 9,7% (3 students). they are characterized by emotional rudeness, resentment, both against peers and adults in the face of impudence and cynicism, especially if this cynicism is presented under the guise of the moral principle "the strong survive, the weak die out." psychocorrection of adolescents 'anxiety by music therapy lyudmila matokhniuk, et al. 63 anxiety was detected in 6,5% (2 adolescents). masking their anxiety, hiding it from adults and peers and even from themselves, they themselves do not know what they need, can not ask for help, provoke a negative attitude towards others. such children do not change their habits, they stubbornly stand in their positions, defending interests and tactics in everyday life. such people are characterized by increased emotional sensitivity, vulnerability, for a long time retain the resulting emotional state. the results of the research indicate the presence in the sample of respondents with a high percentage of reluctance to get closer on an emotional basis, a high level of anxiety and frustration. therefore, it is advisable to check for the presence of such a barrier as shyness and timidity. for this purpose, we use the method of e. p. ilyin "shyness and timidity" (fig. 5) (lemak, petrishte, 2012). fig. 5. the results of the study of adolescents in the control and experimental groups by the method of "shyness and timidity" e. p. ilyin the level of emotional state has changed. a low level of emotional state is leading in this diagnosis. in the experimental group, this result is 19 students 65,5%, in the control group 17 students, 54,8%. this means that after conducting psycho-correctional work, the subjects do not feel fear of failure, they have increased the number of friends, almost no anxiety. they feel parental support (chub, 2009). brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 64 among the surveyed students, 34,5% (10) of the experimental group and 45,2% (14) of the control group belong to the average level of emotional state. this category of children rarely participates in fun games and competitions that require interaction with other children, rarely engage in sports, dance, music or theater. a high level in the repeated study was not recorded. discussion and conclusions the results of the study show, however, that conducting psychocorrectional work with music therapy is effective in the work of a psychologist. overcoming anxiety in adolescents by means of music therapy can be carried out in three directions: learning techniques for mastering their emotional state; empowerment by developing the skills needed to perform successfully; restructuring of self-esteem and the structure of adolescent motives. music allows you to change the anxiety on a deep, subconscious level and avoid what is not so easy for a child or even a teenager to cope with. parents should be involved in such work, and they are given the task to talk at home about situations that once caused their children fears, anxiety, and which they still overcame. empowerment and the acquisition of new skills, abilities allow you to successfully overcome anxiety. conclusions the developed and tested program of correction of the level of anxiety by means of music therapy shows a number of positive changes in indicators of personal and motivational factors of anxiety, namely: growth of self-esteem and responsibility, increase of self-esteem, which in turn reduced the difference between this indicator and level of claims. , changing the attitude to the past, present and future towards the predominance of the realistic type, changing the distribution of affiliation motives and achieving in favor of the motif of thresholds acceptance and the pursuit of success, respectively. the effectiveness of the corrective effect was manifested in the change in the distribution of subjects by levels of anxiety. there has been a halving of the high level of personal anxiety, a number of positive changes in the indicators of personal and motivational factors of anxiety. the results of our study show, however, that the conduct of psycho-correctional work by means of music therapy is effective in the work of a psychologist. therefore, the prospect of further research is the study of various exercises and techniques of art therapy and its application for different age groups. psychocorrection of adolescents 'anxiety by music therapy lyudmila matokhniuk, et al. 65 references astapov, v. (2019). trevozhnostʹ u detey [anxiety in children], liters. https://cutt.ly/6yyxfrp borovyk, l., matokhniuk, l., demyanyuk, k., shevchuk, v., pidhaichuk, s., danylenko, o., halimov, a., bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). formation of professional imagination in the process of implementation of technical disciplines with the aid of modern information technologies. postmodern openings, 11(3), 20-40. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.3/198 ermine, p. p., titarenko, t. m. (2001). psykholohiya osobystosti: slovnyk-dovidnyk [psychology of personality: dictionary-reference book], ruta, kyiv, 320. https://cutt.ly/wyyxpcg hanaba, s., mysechko, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). solidarity of efforts as a common condition for the survival of the world in a pandemic. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2), 29-38. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/137 hanaba, s., mysechko, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). changing the educational paradigm in post-pandemic world: possibilities and risks of artificial intelligence using. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 48-55. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/93 imedadze, i. v. (2019). voprosy vozrastnoy y pedahohycheskoy psykholohyy: l. s. vyhotskyy y d. n. uznadze [questions of age and pedagogical psychology: l. s. vygotsky and d. n. uznadze], cultural-historical psychology, 15(2). https://psyjournals.ru/files/107042/chp_2019_n2.pdf#page=5 kuznetsov, m. a. & specialist, ya. a. (2013). emotsiyno-volʹovi ta osobystisni osoblyvosti vpevnenoyi povedinky [emotional-volitional and personal features of confident behavior], bulletin of kharkiv national pedagogical university named after g. s. skovoroda. psychology, 46(1), 89-102. kykylyk, a., stukan, h., hlushok, l., shorobura, i., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). complex portfolio as one of the means of the future primary school teachers training of the new ukrainian school. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(1sup1), 163-184. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.1sup1/229 lemak, m. v., petryshche, v. yu. (2012). psykholohu dlya roboty. diahnostychni metodyky: zbirnyk [psychologist to work. diagnostic methods: collection], view. 2nd, corrected. uzhhorod: oleksandra garkushi publishing house, 616. https://wp.nmc-pto.rv.ua/dok/mzpssl/psyhologu_dla_roboty.pdf matokhnyuk, l. o. (2019). psykholohiya informatsiynoyi kompetentnosti osobystosti (geneza ontolohichnoho rozvytku) [psychology of information https://cutt.ly/6yyxfrp https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.3/198 https://cutt.ly/wyyxpcg https://psyjournals.ru/files/107042/chp_2019_n2.pdf#page=5 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.1sup1/229 https://wp.nmc-pto.rv.ua/dok/mzpssl/psyhologu_dla_roboty.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 66 competence personalities (genesis of ontological development), odessa, 527. https://pdpu.edu.ua/doc/vr/2019/matokhnyuk/dis.pdf melnychuk, i., drozdova, i., savchak, i., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2019). higher school instructors’ pedagogical skills improvement as a basis of educational strategy for development of students’ professional training. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4 supl. 1), 170-184. doi:10.18662/rrem/184 melnychuk, i., rebukha, l., zavgorodnia, t., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2018). strategic significance of english in self-education of the students of sociohumanitarian specialities for fundamentalization of university education. modern journal of language teaching methods, 8(11), 712–720. omelchinko, j., kisarchuk, z. (2009). psykholohichna dopomoha dityam z tryvozhnymy stanamy [psychological assistance to children with anxiety], school world, kyiv, 112. pavelkiv, r. v. (2011). vikova psykholohiya: pidruchnyk dlya studentiv vyshchykh navchalʹnykh zakladiv [age psychology: a textbook for students of higher educational institutions], condor, kyiv, 468. petrenko, v. e. (2013). formy proyavu ta chynnyky vynyknennya tryvozhnosti u starshoklasnykiv [forms of manifestation and factors of anxiety in high school students], current issues of psychology: collection of scientific works of the institute of psychology named after gs kostyuk, 11(7), 209-216. petrushin, v. i. (2000). muzychna psykhoterapiya: teoriya i praktyka [music psychotherapy: theory and practice], knowledge, kiev, 216. savchin, m. v., vasylenko, p. p. (2005). vikova psykholohiya: pidruchnyk, «akademvydav» [age psychology: textbook, "akademvydav"], kyiv, 360. horny, k., khotenchan, n. m. (2014). dytyachi strakhy. metodychni rekomendatsiyi [children's fears. methodical recommendations], ternopil, 115. chub, n. v. (2009). dovidnyk dlya batʹkiv. psykholohiya dytyny vid a do ya [handbook for parents. child psychology from a to z], "osnova", kharkiv. shevchenko, n. f. (2006). osobystisna tryvozhnistʹ ta shkilʹna adaptovanistʹ u pidlitkiv: spivvidnoshennya ta vikova dynamika [personal anxiety and school adaptability in adolescents: the ratio and age dynamics], visnyk, kharkiv, 16, 166-177. shportun, o. m. (2009). formuvannya indyvidualʹnoho stylyu profesiynoyi diyalʹnosti maybutnʹoho vchytelya muzyky zasobamy narodnopisennoyi tvorchosti [formation of individual style of professional activity of the future music teacher by means of folk song creativity], vinnytsia, 238. http://library.vspu.edu.ua/repozitarij/repozit/texti/avtoreferati/shportun. pdf https://pdpu.edu.ua/doc/vr/2019/matokhnyuk/dis.pdf http://library.vspu.edu.ua/repozitarij/repozit/texti/avtoreferati/shportun.pdf http://library.vspu.edu.ua/repozitarij/repozit/texti/avtoreferati/shportun.pdf your paper's title starts here: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 185-199 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/164 analysis on the multiple intelligences of students from faculty of physical education and sports ana-maria şuruba-rusen (vasiliu)¹*, daniela murăreţu 2 , daniel constantin murăreţu 3 , răzvan-liviu petre 4 , marian daniel teodoru 5 1 nationaluniversity of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sports, bucharest, romania, ana_vasiliu85@yahoo.com * corresponding author 2 railway technical college mihai i, bucharest, romania 3 nationaluniversity of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sports, bucharest, romania 4 nationaluniversity of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sports, bucharest, romania 5 nationaluniversity of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sports, bucharest, romania abstract: the present research is based on the theory developed in 1983 by the american psychologist howard gardner, according to which people possess eight distinct types of intelligence: verbal/ linguistic, mathematical/ logical, visual/ spatial, bodily/ kinesthetic, rhythmic/ musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist. the way these multiple intelligences are combined differentiates us as humans, for example, in school, students react differently. some students are more interested in learning, some are not. this may be due to different types of intelligence. our research aims to highlight the dominant types of intelligence for second year students, depending on which teachers can adapt their teaching methods. the research was carried out over a period of 3 weeks. the participants in the research are 111 romanian students from national university of physical education and sports, out of which 42 are female and 69 are male. the research methods used are: scientific documentation, questionnaire-based survey (multiple intelligences test was applied), statistical-mathematical method, graphical method. the results of the research provide us important data to see to what extent kinesthetic body intelligence is dominant in students practicing sports and what are the other types of intelligence present in athletes. finding out the dominant types of student’s intelligence can provide us important information according to which we can adapt our teaching methods. thus, we can conduct our didactic activity in an attractive manner, in which the potential of students is not wasted and feel motivated to learn and evolve in a traditional classroom. keywords: multiple intelligences; students; learning; teaching methods; schools. how to cite: şuruba-rusen (vasiliu), a. -m., murăreţu, d., constantin murăreţu, d., petre, r. -l., & teodoru, m. d. (2020). analysis on the multiple intelligences of students from faculty of physical education and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 185199. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/164 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/164 mailto:ana_vasiliu85@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/164 analysis on the multiple intelligences of students from faculty of physical … ana-maria şuruba-rusen (vasiliu), et al. 186 introduction american psychologist howard gardner, developed a theory according to which people possess not just one type of intelligence, but eight distinct types of intelligence: verbal/ linguistic, mathematical/ logical, visual/ spatial, bodily/ kinesthetic, rhythmic/ musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist. the way these multiple intelligences are combined differentiates us as humans and makes us unique. for example, in school, students react differently to stimulus. some students are more interested in learning, some are not. some communicate better with others, some not. some are more attracted by music, some are more interested in mathematics or nature. this may be due to different types of intelligence. the theory of multiple intelligences creates a great opportunity to apply the theory of multiple intelligences, not just in schools, but in organizations too. according to weller, businesses can use multiple intelligences theory to structure workshops and training sessions for employees which will enhance teamwork, develop human potential, and foster creativity (weller, 1999). conducting a research on 200 hundred adults, who were tested regarding the multiple intellicences, visser et al. (2006), using factor analysis saw lower g factor loadings for bodily-kinesthetic abilities and higher loadings for cognitive abilities such as: linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial, naturalistic and interpersonal intelligence. shearer (2004) considers that teaching is more of an art than a science and is interesting to see how multiple intelligences assessment can help benefit students as well for their own personal and professional development. but the theory of multiple intelligences has not just fans, but critics too. according to shearer (2004), many educators, psychologists, and administrators are resistant to adopting mi because they question both its validity and its efficacy. critics of mi theory pose two important challenges to its viability. first, is multiple intelligence theory a valid representation of the human mind/brain? second, how effective is multiple intelligence theory as a basis for improving educational outcomes, learning, and personal achievement? gardner himself admits in his book ,,multiple intelligences. new horizons‘‘ that he had a lot of critics regarding the theory of multiple intelligences (gardner, 2015). cerruti suggests that the theory of multiple intelligences is a conception of the mind which motivated a past generation of teachers and may provide cognitive neuroscientists a framework in which to conduct brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 187 rigorous educational neuroscience research. but most of teachers did not recognized that multiple intelligences do not offer an interpretation regarding how an individual child’s mind learns nor a description of how cognitive processes actually operate (cerruti, 2013). white is another researcher who observes a lack in multiple intelligences theory. howard gardner's theory of multiple intelligences has a huge influence on school education. but it has a lack of justification on how the intelligences are identified (white, 2008). ghorbani et al. (2002) suggested that subtle cultural differences might exist in the processing of emotional information. conducting a researh on multiple intelligences in poland, having as subjects from poland and great britain, furnham has found that males have higher self-estimates than females on general, spatial, and also musical intelligence. likewise, he noticed an apparition of different results between the two cultures (furnham, wytykowska, & petrides, 2006). chan conducts a reasearch in 2003, having as subjects gifted students from china: six hundred and thirty-nine students. students' responses on the research conducted by clan, indicated that intense involvement, perfectionism, unchallenging schoolwork, multipotentiality, and parental expectations could be relatively common problems among gifted students, and also reported the problem of poor interpersonal relationships. he also found that specific adjustment problems were found to be associated with specific intelligences of the participants at the research. so, chn saw a complex relationships between adjustment problems and giftedness or multiple intelligences for this gifted children (chan, 2003). applying multiple intelligence in schools, kornhaber noted that this helps increase the standardized test scores, improves student behavior, increases parent participation and implies improvement for students with disabilities (kornhaber, 2004). vaughan goes further and talks about the existance of another type of intelligence: "the spiritual intelligence which can be developed relatively independently. spiritual intelligence calls for multiple ways of knowing and for the integration of the inner life of mind and spirit with the outer life of work in the world. it can be cultivated through questing, inquiry, practice and also spiritual experiences" (vaughan, 2002). marjorybanks conducted a research on 400 children, with the age of twelve to see the relation between academic achievement, intelligence and creativity. the results obtained showed that the hypothesis which suggests that beyond a certain level of intelligence academic achievement is related increasingly to creativity and ceases to be related strongly to intelligence, was https://econtent.hogrefe.com/author/wytykowska%2c+agata https://econtent.hogrefe.com/author/wytykowska%2c+agata analysis on the multiple intelligences of students from faculty of physical … ana-maria şuruba-rusen (vasiliu), et al. 188 not supported. for some areas of academic performance the results suggest an alternate proposition, that creativity ceases to be related to achievement after a threshold level of intelligence has been reached. it was also found that at high levels of verbal ability, non-verbal ability and creativity appeared to have differential relations with academic achievement (marjorybanks, 1976). acording to kornhaber people learn in a variety of ways, complements existing educational beliefs (constructivist; progressive; hands on), educators already use some of the practices of multiple inteligences and this provides framework for organization of practice and extends practice. regarding the changes that resulted after adopting the multiple intelligences theory in the act of teaching in schools, the author notes that if the school is constructivist at the beginning, the adoption of multiple intelligences extends their existing practices. but if the school is fairly traditional, adopting multiple intelligences theory is fostered, and marks changes in the curriculum (kornhaber, 2004). as far as applying the theory of multiple intelligences, barrington (2004) states that universities were sceptic in applying this theory in tertiary education. universities have been slow to accommodate this diversity in their teaching/ learning strategies and multiple intelligences theory could reduce the gap between students and teachers views. as the matter of the results obtaines by barrington after conducting workshops on multiple intelligence, in which students were active and enthusiastic, the researcher considers that this is a useful pedagogical tool for higher education and multiple intelligence should be considered an inclusive pedagogy (barrington, 2004). stevens and macpherson offer ever since the year of 2007 a very interesting approach on how to teach in schools according to multiple intelligences that students have, and explain who we can use each intelligence in the act of teaching:  verbal/ linguistic intelligence: can be used creative storytelling; learning by listening too, telling or talking about imaginative stories. for instance, this can be made by using creative writing, speculative fiction, campfire stories, books that students are interested in: for instance, harry potter by j.k. rowling; real world work stories which include group norms, role playing, creative process, presentation stories like "sailing in a sailboat" (when times is rough, throw people overboard); brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 189  logical/ mathematical intelligence: stories about logical/ mathematical processes, learning from stories about a process or discovery, for instance accounts as the story of a business, forensic accounting; or how a person made a particular and very important discovery; or you can imagine that you are at the top of a big mountain and you have to derive the surface area;  visual/ spatial intelligence: comics, graphic novels • learning by reading or drawing narratives that can include complex plots and characters in order to facilitate understanding of a particular concept; physical examples from math board games videos art and optical illusions use of visuals in biology "second life" (online, virtual environment) – the visual analyze;  body/ kinesthetic intelligence: learning through dance in a variety of styles that can tell a story • e.g., ballet, capoeira, tai chi and others, stretch breaks.  musical/ rhythmic intelligence: "setting words to music; learning by associating concepts with music or rhythms as a memory aid (this can include songs, poetry, dub poetry, rap, nursery rhymes (poetry) use stravinsky to teach about irish potato famine sing christmas carols to teach chemistry create a bank of links have students bring in music (often political) eminem (unemployment) play historical songs";  interpersonal intelligence, by using biography, learning by linking people through the details of personal life (for instance, "biographies of historical figures, past and current cultural heroes, text diaries of anne frank • film gandhi • epic poem homer • participants also suggest: stories about small business exploit student skills to improve whole class! public archives (keep track of children) biography "learning lives uk" – letters";  intrapersonal intelligence: by using journaling technique: learning by writing your own personal reflections and experience, your stories in a systematic way. (paper, electronic journals, video recordings, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, instagram stories, and so on;  naturalistic intelligence: using fables; learning easier by using tales or stories in which animals or imaginary creatures tell or play out stories with a strong moral (for example: stories from indigenous traditions and first nations, historical moments turned into a fable, telling the moral of the story also is necessary) (stevens & macpherson, 2007). analysis on the multiple intelligences of students from faculty of physical … ana-maria şuruba-rusen (vasiliu), et al. 190 our research aims to highlight the dominant types of intelligence of second year students, depending on which teachers can adapt their teaching methods methodology the research methods used are: scientific documentation, questionnaire-based survey (multiple intelligences test was applied), statistical-mathematical method, graphical method. participants the participants in the research are 111 students, out of which 42 are female and 69 are male. figure 1. percent of participants at the research related to gender source: figure arising from the original research activity first, 117 students participated at our study, but because 6 of them did not answered at all the items, we had to exclude them from our research. all 6 students who did not answered at all the items are boys. most of them are boys (62.16%). girls represent 37.83% of the respondents. the age of the participants is between 19 years old and 26 years old (students in the second year, level 1 of university studies and students from first year, level two of university studies: master students). 62.16% 37.83% percent of participants related to gender (n=111) boys girls brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 191 instruments we used the test of multiple intelligences inventory of howard gardner, comprising 79 items. the types of items are verbal items with two answer options: yes and no. if the item fits with the way of thinking and acting, the respondent answers with ,,yes’’. each item fits a certain type of intelligence and has a distinct number from 1 to 8. at the end of the interpretation, we collected the answers with yes for each of the eight types of intelligences and so we found out for each respondent to what extent each type of intelligence characterizes them. procedure the research was carried out over a period of 3 weeks: one week in november 2019 (for 59 students, face-to-face, in grup at university classes) and two weeks in april 2020, (for 58 students, individually, online). results the results of the research provide us important data to see to what extent kinesthetic body intelligence is dominant in students practicing sports and what are the other types of intelligence present in athletes. table 1. first 3 scores for dominant types of intelligences for students from national university of physical education and sports (romania) type of intelligence number of students feminin gender (n=42) percent of students feminin gender (n=42) numer of students male gender (n=69) percent of students male gender (n=69) verbal/ linguistic 0 0 6 8.69% mathematical/ logical 7 16.66% 15 21.37% visual/ spatial 6 14.28% 9 13.04% bodily/ kinesthetic 19 45.23% 29 42.02% rhythmic/ musical 7 16.66% 13 18.84 % interpersonal 12 28.57% 19 27.53% intrapersonal 10 23.80% 4 5.79% naturalist 5 11.90% 0 0 source: data resulting from own research analysis on the multiple intelligences of students from faculty of physical … ana-maria şuruba-rusen (vasiliu), et al. 192 analyzing the first three scores obtained by students from national university of physical education and sports, we observe differences between genders. the most present intelligence is, as we were expected the bodily/ kinesthetic intelligence, due to the fact that our respondents study at a university based on physical education and sports. in second place for both girls and boys is the interpersonal intelligence, this shows that our students are sociable persons and related good with others. in the third place, is the intrapersonal intelligence for girls. as the matter of boys, in the third place is mathematical/ logical intelligence. table 2. rank of types of intelligences for students from national university of physical education and sports (romania) related to gender type of intelligence number of students feminin gender (n=42) rank of students feminin gender (n=42) numer of students male gender (n=69) rank of students male gender (n=69) verbal/ linguistic 0 7 6 6 mathematical/ logical 7 4 15 3 visual/ spatial 6 5 9 5 bodily/ kinesthetic 19 1 29 1 rhythmic/ musical 7 4 13 4 interpersonal 12 2 19 2 intrapersonal 10 3 4 7 naturalist 5 6 0 8 source: data resulting from own research what surprises us is that the least present type of intelligence, for girls is the verbal, linguistic intelligence. to be honest, we did not expect this, because in the physical education and sports field we consider that the ability to express yourself in a verbal/ linguistic manner is very important in order to convince the people around you to change their lives in a good way and to improve their quality of life. this might explain the fact that a lot of our students write their papers with several grammar mistakes, but unfortunately we notice this is as being a general problem for our students, not just for girls. a possible solution probably is that we could encourage and help them more to express their opinions and beliefs and convince them to be more attentive at classes. as the matter of boys, the naturalist intelligence is not their strong point. we could organize more classes in the brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 193 middle of nature, so that we might improve their level of naturalist intelligence. discussions we recommend that the teaching to be done according to the multiple intelligences theory propose to keep and this is why we recommend the following: as far as that goes for the verbal/ linguistic intelligence, we propose creative storywriting and storytelling at classes of pedagogic disciplines, having as assignment to create a story about the sports they like, to imagine that they are already physical education teachers, coaches or parents and they have to address the story to a child which is not more than 7 years old about how to play a certain sport they like, helps students from the university of physical education and sports to develop the verbal/ linguistic intelligence. also, role playing could be a good approach to develop the verbal/ linguistic intelligence for students to create a scene in which they play the role of the parents, children, teachers, athletes and try to understand some fears they have or to motivate people to give up to a sedentary life and do physical activities and sports. also, debates regarding problems that affect students could be organised. another interesting role play, in order to teach students about self-esteem, about the importance of studying, having goals, motivation and career opportunities, we use in counseling and guidance classes and which is received with enthusiasm by students is to imagine them that they are in future, after 10 years when they already got their master degrees, are successful, happy people and they are invited to the graduation ceremony of the national university of physycal education and sports to transmit to the graduates a motivational speech for the generation from the year 2030. the logical/ mathematical intelligence of the students from the faculty of physical education and sports could be developed by introducing in classes assignments for students in which they have to find solutions for problems they observe in daily life: for instance to find possible solutions for promoting fair play in sports competitions and to reduce doping, or how to convince an adolescent or someone to quit smoking and adopt a healthy life, how to convince someone give up to a sedentary way of life and be active, how to write projects in the physical and sports area (students already have a usefull class about the management of programs). introducing in classes fun games with crosswords can help develop the logical/ mathematical intelligence (we used this year at students at the counseling and guidance analysis on the multiple intelligences of students from faculty of physical … ana-maria şuruba-rusen (vasiliu), et al. 194 discipline activities in which students had to solve crosswords in order to find out about the topic of discussion for the lesson or to find a hidden message about the lesson they learned, and students responded very good at this activity, being something new and unusual for a class, so their attention was captivated and they gave very good feedbacks about the activity they had to do. creating escape rooms could help students develop their logical/ mathemathical intelligence and the visual/spatial intelligence too. with the help of visual/ and spatial intelligence, we can present to students from faculty of physical education and sports clips with moments where athletes in limit situations, who are helped by other athletes to finish the race. thus, we teach students about moral values which sports promote, like fair play. for instance, at olympic games which took place in barcelona, in 1992, the british athlete derek redmond who was the favoured to medal in the olympic 400 meters sprint. when he had just 150 meter left of the race, he got injured and was helped by his father to finish the race. he received standing ovation from 65.000 people who were at the stadium, and we believe conquered the heart and respect of many more. he reached to finish the last meters alone. although, he was officially disqualified, this moment is a memorable one, teaching us that no matter how hard it is, you must never give up. this example is good for interpersonal intelligence too, because it teaches us to help others in need. students from physical education and spots faculty, can be adviced to watch games, and work with programs that study the movement of the athletes. for instance, in our university students at computer aided training classes, learn how to work with a very usefull tool named kinovea, which is a video player for sports analysis. for body/ kinesthetic intelligence, especially in the period of the social isolation given by the pandemia of coronavirus, we believe that a possible alternative for making physical activities in the times when, for our safety we were not allowed to get outside homes for much time to recommend to students the virtual games which they can play with the help of game consoles: playstation, xbox 360, by playing sports games. if they have a kinect sensor, is better, because they are not static, they actually do physical activities. but playing games very much time could lead to other problems such as gaming disorder, so we have to be attentive not to fall in this trap. teachers had to find solutions very fast for continuing the act of teaching after schools were closed, physical education teachers too. for instance, they continued trainings and classes via platforms like zoom, and children were able to do the physical training with the help of the physical education teachers or instructors. for instance, my third years old son brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 195 attended at the karate classes twice a week with the karate instructor from kindergarden, via zoom platform. watching other children doing the same thing, was a mobilising factor. some parents did the exercices along wit their children, and after each class we felt more optimistic and relaxed, and energized. so, practicing physical activities and sports has a multitude of benefits that contributed to help keeping people healthy even in hard times, as the coronavirus pandemy. our university could create a sensory path garden which stimulates nu just the body / kinesthetic intelligence, but the five senses: hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, tasting and so stimulating the multisensorial memory. for improving musical / rhythmic intelligence, in addition to the suggestions provided by the two authors above, we suggest play motivational songs to teach about motivation, or songs about famine, protecting the world, respecting human rights, being a better person, in order to teach the students about human rights, and respecting the nature (for instance: ,,heal the world‘‘ -michael jackson, ,,earth song‘‘ – michael jackson, ,,man in the mirror‘‘ – michael jackson), songs that reduce stress and provide calm and to teach students about the balance about emotional states („only time“ – enya, „return to innocence“ – enigma), songs that motivate and give an optimistic state of mind and to teach about motivation, („don’t worry, be happy“ – bobby mcferrin, ,,somewhere over the rainbow‘‘ – israel kamakawiwo), for teaching our students to continue, and never give up, no matter what obstacles appear, we recommend songs like ,,don’t give up‘‘played by sarah brightman and gregorian. in addition to the examples offered above, for interpersonal intelligence, we suggest for teaching students form physical education and sports through interpersonal strategies to use: biographies of important athletes who succeeded high performances, poems and stories about improving the quality of life, movies about exceeding the limits and finding the best in people: ,,forest gump‘‘, with tom hanks as leading actor, movies about dreaming with eyes open and which we can teach students to establish goals: for instance watching movie ,,cast away‘‘ with tom hanks as ,,big‘‘, with tom hanks as leading author, ,the movie ,,the pursuit of happiness“, having as leading actor will smith. for teaching about the biography of a great athlete, teachers could use the movie ,,ali‘‘, with actor will smith as leading actor, about the life of the world boxing champion muhammad ali (name at birth was cassius clay). playing boardgames which have as topic the emotional intelligence, is also a fun way to develop multiple intelligences. analysis on the multiple intelligences of students from faculty of physical … ana-maria şuruba-rusen (vasiliu), et al. 196 in addition, for developing the intrapersonal intelligence of students, knowing that intrapersonal intelligence is about what motivates students for success, knowing their feelings and thoughts, their fears, we suggest teaching by reading passages of books which are well known as containing personal reflections and experiences, like the book ,,living to tell your life‘‘, written by gabriel garcia marques. for students from faculty of physical education and sports, we recommend biographical books of great athletes: ,,my story‘‘ usain bolt & shaun custis, ,,open. autobiograpy‘‘ – andre agassi; ,,my autobiography“ alex ferguson, ,,my story‘‘ rafael nadal & john carlin, ,,roger federrer. in search of perfection‘‘ by rene stauffer, ,,letters to a young gymnast‘‘ – by nadia comaneci, the romanian gymnast who is the first gimnast in the world to take a perfect 10. another useful tool is the book for teaching students from physical education and sports about survival techniques, we could read and analyse the book ,,survival handbook. how to reach your goal, overcome obstacles and harden your character’’ – author bear grylls, this book is useful for students who have a developed naturalistic intelligence too. also, for intrapersonal intelligence, we recommend motivational clips (for instance, students can wath the motivational speech of the actor denzel washington at the graduation ceremony of the university of pennsylvania). for developing the naturalistic intelligence of students, we suggest teaching by using stories with a moral: for instance ,,the story of the deaf frow‘‘ who was trapped in a pit and because she wasn’t able to hear the words that other frogs addresed to her, by telling her that she could never succeed, she did not give up and tryed to jump till she succeded to save herself from the pit. for promoting moral values and fair play for and students from the faculty of physical education and sports and accepting that we are different, we recommend the moral story about ,,the story of the uggly duck“, who was rejected by other ducks because she was different (she was a swan) and all stories which promote moral values and to be honest and correct. our university offers the opportunity for students to develop their naturalistic intelligence by organising training stages at the mountains for learning to ski, and survival techniques, and at seaside for swimming. the potential of the naturalistic intelligence is huge, students would take classes in nature, in parcs for instance. this can be completed by organising classes in adventure parcs, building mountain trail zip lines, climbing lines and excursions for teambuildings. the potential of our country is huge, romania having an adventure park in a salt cave from harghita, the first one from europe. as a result, students could write journals about their experience in nature (so they develop the verbal / brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 197 linguistic intelligence) or make movie clips about their experience (in this case they develop other types of intelligence too. conclusions finding out the dominant types of students’ intelligence can provide us important information according to which we can adapt our teaching methods. thus, we can conduct our didactic activity in an attractive manner, in which the potential of the students is not wasted and feel motivated to learn and evolve in a traditional classroom. although the theory of multiple intelligences is not new, we believe is helpful to be applied in kindergartens, schools, highschools and universities from romania. we consider that this subject could be a starting point for a new research regarding the level of applying multiple intelligences in the act of teaching in schools, highschools from romania, and universities also. by knowing the types of multiple intelligences and knowing the students we work with, what their interests are, what their dominant types of intelligence are, it helps us to adapt our teaching techniques so that student learn in the most useful and attractive way for them. what howard gardner wants to show by the theory of multiple intelligences is that we can teach the same content using different methods. a student's effort to learn can turn into a song. a student's effort to prepare for the session can turn into a theatre play. a lesson in a sport can be the subject of a trailer, a short video clip to be made by students. learning survival techniques can be turned into a brochure to be made by students; convincing some people to give up the sedentary lifestyle or promoting fair play in sports can be interesting subject of moral stories or short video clips, trailers to be made by students who want to send the message that the practice of physical activities influences the quality of life in the best way possible. due to the results obtained, we believe that we should extend our research in order to apply this inventory at a larger scale, for most of our students in order to obtain a clearer view of the types of intelligence of our students. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this article and should be considered as main authors. analysis on the multiple intelligences of students from faculty of physical … ana-maria şuruba-rusen (vasiliu), et al. 198 references barrington, e. (2004). teaching to student diversity in higher education: how multiple intelligence theory can help. teaching in higher education. critical perspectives, 9(4), 421-434. https://doi.org/10.1080/1356251042000252363 cerruti, c. (2013). building a functional multiple intelligences theory to advance educational neuroscience. frontiers in psychology, 4, 950. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00950 chan, d. w. (2003). adjustment problems and multiple intelligences among gifted students in hong kong: the development of the revised student adjustment problems inventory. high ability studies, 14(1), 41-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/13598130304089 furnham, a., wytykowska, a., & petrides, k. v. (2006). estimates of multiple intelligences: a study in poland. european psychologist, 10, 51-59. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.10.1.51 gardner, h., (2015). multiple intelligences. new horizons. sigma. ghorbani, n., mark, n., bing, m. n., watson, p. j., davison, h. k., & mack, d. a. (2002). self-reported emotional intelligence: construct similarity and functional dissimilarity of higher-order processing in iran and the united states. international journal of psychology, 37(5), 297-308. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590244000098 kornhaber, m. l. (2004). multiple intelligences: from the ivory tower to the dusty classroom but why? teachers college record, 106(1), 67-76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00319.x marjoribanks, k. (1976). academic achievement, intelligence, and creativity: a regression surface analysis. multivariate behavioral research, 11(1), 105-118. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr1101_7 shearer, b. (2004). multiple intelligences theory after 20 years. teachers college record, 106(1), 2-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00312.x stevens, a. & macpherson, a. (2007). narrative and multiple intelligences to improve engagement and learning. transformative dialogues: teaching & learning journal, 1(2), 1-6. https://www.kpu.ca/sites/default/files/teaching%20and%20learning/t d.1.2_stevens_narrative_%26_multiple_intelligences.pdf vaughan, f. (2002). what is spiritual intelligence. journal of humanistic psychology, 42(2), 16-33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167802422003 visser, b. a, ashton, c., & vernon, p. a. (2006). beyond g: putting multiple intelligences, theory to the test. intelligence, 34(5), 487-502. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2006.02.004 https://doi.org/10.1080/1356251042000252363 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00950 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00950 https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/chas;jsessionid=7qog1srtdc6qa.x-ic-live-01 https://doi.org/10.1080/13598130304089 https://econtent.hogrefe.com/author/wytykowska%2c+agata https://econtent.hogrefe.com/author/petrides%2c+kv https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.10.1.51 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/00207590244000098 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00319.x https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr1101_7 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00312.x https://www.kpu.ca/sites/default/files/teaching%20and%20learning/td.1.2_stevens_narrative_%26_multiple_intelligences.pdf https://www.kpu.ca/sites/default/files/teaching%20and%20learning/td.1.2_stevens_narrative_%26_multiple_intelligences.pdf https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022167802422003 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0022167802422003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2006.02.004 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 199 weller, l. d. (1999). application of the multiple intelligences theory in quality organizations. team performance management, 5(4), 136-146. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527599910283493 white, j. (2008). llusory intelligences? [howard gardner's]. journal of philosophy of education, 42(3‐4), 611-630. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14679752.2008.00643.x https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=l.%20david%20weller https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/1352-7592 https://doi.org/10.1108/13527599910283493 https://www.researchgate.net/journal/1467-9752_journal_of_philosophy_of_education https://www.researchgate.net/journal/1467-9752_journal_of_philosophy_of_education https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2008.00643.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2008.00643.x brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 343-362 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/186 project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard service of ukraine yurii ivashkov¹, anatolii mysyk2, victor zalozh3, oleksii hluzdan4, olena voitiuk5, andrii maltsev6, lesia balahur7, iryna kryvoruchko8 1 doctor of military sciences, associate professor, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, yuriyivashkov@ukr.net 2 doctor of military sciences, associate professor, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, tmysyk@gmail.com 3 candidate of military sciences, associate professor, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, vzalozh@gmail.com 4 candidate of military sciences, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, gap20085@gmail.com 5 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, o.a.voitiuk@gmail.com 6 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, andromedd74@gmail.com 7 candidate of pedagogical sciences, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, abstract: the strategic management in the state border guard service of ukraine, which includes management decisions, is always associated with certain risks due to the high level of uncertainty in the internal and external environments. this totally applies to the decision-making process in project activities. at the same time, each alternative carries a greater or lesser risk of failure, wasted resources, effort and time. in this connection the article considers methodological issues of project management in the state border guard service of ukraine; a risk assessment model in the implementation of projects has been proposed and the risk impact on success probability of projects has been determined. the project management methodology depends on their scale, timing, location and conditions of implementation. but at all life cycle stages of any project, there will be problems associated with the presence of risks that will affect the project success negatively. one of the ways to reduce the risk in the project activities of organizations is to involve higher educational institutions, where significant scientific potential is concentrated. the article proposes the methodology for risk assessment of projects which are implemented in the state border guard service of ukraine together with the departmental educational institution which is based on probabilistic-statistical modelling using expert assessment. taking into account that the activities of each of the project participants are associated with their own group of risks, the article identifies four main groups of risk factors. keywords: state border guard service of ukraine; project management; project success; risk impact; assessment. how to cite: ivashkov, y., mysyk, a., zalozh, v., hluzdan, o., voitiuk, o., maltsev, a., balahur, l., & kryvoruchko, i. (2021). project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard service of ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 343-362. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/186 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/186 mailto:yuriy-ivashkov@ukr.net mailto:yuriy-ivashkov@ukr.net mailto:tmysyk@gmail.com mailto:vzalozh@gmail.com mailto:gap20085@gmail.com mailto:o.a.voitiuk@gmail.com mailto:andromedd74@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/186 khmelnytskyi, ukraine, krivir25@ukr.net 8 candidate of pedagogical sciences, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, denesukgalina@gmail.com mailto:krivir25@ukr.net mailto:denesukgalina@gmail.com project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard … yurii ivashkov, et al. 345 1. introduction the present-day management in the state border guard service of ukraine (hereinafter – the border guard agency) should be aimed at creating and maintaining a balance between ensuring an adequate level of border security and maintaining the openness of the state border for legitimate cross-border cooperation (zalozh, 2016). to achieve this goal, the management of the border guard agency makes strategic management decisions, which are aimed at transformation in organizational structures, forms and methods of management and resources. it ensures the stability of the agency functioning and its development. the necessity to make management decisions on carrying out organizational changes is also caused by the existing military-political and socio-economic situation, which places high demands on accelerating the border guard agency adaptation to the rapidly changing conditions of life and functioning. all organizational changes require the development and implementation of projects (obtaining a certain unique result), for the effective implementation of which it is necessary to change approaches, including principles and management technologies including the methodology of making management decisions on project implementation (popov, 2010). project development and implementation is a long process, and the implementation of all procedures and the effectiveness of the project itself largely depend on the quality of the project management process at all stages, in particular, when making a management decision, which should foresee all possible risks that may affect the project success (mazur et al., 2004). this applies without exception to all areas of the border guard agency activity. moreover, it is very important to remember that failure to complete a project or problems with its implementation, which is carried out by the border guard agency, can lead to resonance in the society, cause inefficient use of public funds and failure of the state to ensure the appropriate level of the state border security. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 346 all this requires the border guard authorities to know the theory of management decisions, the theory of project management, and specific project management methodology must meet the real conditions of the state development and the special activity features of the state border guard service of ukraine. the theoretical basis of the article is scientific research on topical issues of project management in the fields of public administration, management of organizations and institutions in various areas of activities and forms of ownership. the development of the author’s approach to the defined problem was influenced by the scientific works and research results of many scholars. in the latest edition of the textbook clifford f. gray & erik w. larson (2014) presents all the project stages, including the integration of the organization’s project strategy, defining the project goal, a project plan development, risk management. jeffrey k. pinto (2004) described the management of the project environment, the interaction of the project and the organization, the management of project objectives and planning, all the aspects which are related to human resources. s. d. bushuiev & n. s. bushuieva (2005), v. a. rach (2000) analysed the existing systems of knowledge, methodologies and technologies of project management. they also considered the current directions of their development. v. v. morozov, o. v. kalnichenko & yu. h. turlo (2011) considered in detail the stages of the project life cycle defining the functions and roles of the project organizational structure and the formation of key documents. a. i. orlov (2003) gave examples how to use the intelligent tools (methods of decision making, optimization, expert assessments, modelling, controlling) in solving practical problems of project management. these scientific works not only formed the scientific achievements of project management, but also carried out the practical implementation of the results in project management of different scales and in different activity areas. however, despite extensive research on this issue, there is a focus on a narrow area of activity – business project management. this issue has been considered partially at the level of the professional training (bloshchynskyi, project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard … yurii ivashkov, et al. 347 2017; karpushyna, et al., 2019) or foreign language training in order to enhance the training of future border guard officers (bloshchynskyi, 2017; lysenko et al., 2020). at the same time, the study of project management issues in the state border guard service of ukraine, as a special-purpose law enforcement agency, has not received sufficient attention from scientists yet. this determines the relevance of the research topic and stipulates the further development of the theoretical principles of project management in the border guard agency and the proper practical recommendations for improving the process under study. 2. methodology the aim of this research is to determine the methodological basis of project management in the state border guard service of ukraine, to analyse the potential risks that affect the project management success and to develop a model for their assessment for further consideration in the decision-making process. despite the fact the project management as a separate independent branch of management (specific management activities) was formed in the middle of the xx century, the general agreement of scientists and practical experts regarding the definition, context and content of the categories “project” and “project management” as well as a practical model for project management has not been reached yet. at present, different sources interpret the concepts of “project” and “project management” in their own way (campbell & collins, 2012; morris & geraldi, 2011; zalozh, 2016), however, in our opinion, they do not contradict, but rather complement each other and are united by common semantic accents: a sequential (coordinated) set of measures, one-time nature, the result uniqueness, temporal localization and limited resources. accordingly, the term “project” in the border guard agency means a system of coordinated and managed activities, which are aimed at achieving a specific goal (a unique result that has requirements for the quality of ensuring the state border security) under conditions of time and resource constraints as well as specific features of organization and implementation. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 348 under the term “project management” we mean a methodology of planning (decision making), organization, management, coordination of all resources throughout the project cycle, which is aimed at effective achievement of its goals by applying modern methods, techniques and management technologies. the project management methodology depends on the project scale, the implementation timeline, quality, limited resources, location and conditions of implementation. all these factors are the basis for distinguishing different types of projects in the state border guard service of ukraine – their classification (popov, 2010; morozov, et al., 2011; mazur, et al., 2004). by scale, the projects in the border guard agency should be divided into: small project – a form of individual initiative, which has received recognition from others. they are small in scale, simple, limited in volume and may not require external financing, special equipment, etc. an example of such a project can be the initiative research work of any department of the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine (hereinafter – the educational institution), which is aimed at improving certain areas of activity; medium project – the most common one in practice. these projects have a relatively short duration, but require more careful study of all project subsystems and involve more considerable expenses. a typical example of a medium project is the modernization of organizational structures of the bodies of the state border guard service of ukraine; large projects – targeted programs that contain many interconnected projects, united by a common goal, allocated resources and time. such projects are characterized by high cost, labour intensity, duration of implementation. an example of such a project can be the strategy for the development of the border guard agency for a certain period, etc. by purpose, the projects can be divided into: project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard … yurii ivashkov, et al. 349 “breakthrough” strategic projects – the projects, the implementation of which introduces essential changes in the elements of the internal environment of the border guard agency; operational activity improvement projects – projects that improve the characteristics of the internal environment elements of the border guard agency; compliance support projects – the projects that maintain the characteristics of the internal environment elements of the border guard agency at the required level. by timeline of implementation – short-term (1-2 years), medium (3-4 years) and long-term (5-10 years). by location and conditions of implementation, projects can be international, state, territorial and local. each project is divided into several phases, the set of which is its life cycle. in the process of the life cycle, the project is born (formation of the project concept), planned (developed), implemented and completed. the state of the project, regardless of the defined classification, from its idea up to its completion is characterized by a change in a number of indicators that determine its essence and on the basis of which the project success is determined. therefore, for the high-quality implementation of a project (achievement of success) it is necessary to make it manageable. at any stage of the project cycle, it will be necessary for the border guard management authorities to make management decisions in order to solve the problems, which are connected with the presence of risks in all activity areas. the experience of project implementation allows us to conclude that the main risk factors may be: instability of legislation, economic and social situation; uncertainty of the military-political situation; incomplete scope (inaccuracy) of provided information; uncertainty (inaccuracy) of objectives, interests and behaviour of participants in public relations; change of power; technological risk, etc. in addition, despite the wide range of different types of projects, we can highlight a general list of problems that arise during their implementation: brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 350 projects last longer than a planned period (deadlines for their implementation are not realistic); many corrections and alterations and as a result – overtime work; lack of human, financial and logistical resources; impossibility of well-timed access to the necessary resources (information, logistical, etc.); constant change of priorities (requirements to perform another task, which is considered to be more urgent or important); making a lot of effort to achieve intermediate results; a large number of projects that are being implemented simultaneously; “student syndrome”, which is associated with the phenomenon, when very often the project team begins to be fully engaged in tasks at the last moment before the deadline, and as a consequence there are delays; insufficient qualification of the project manager and team (lack of necessary skills and knowledge); the project uncertainty, etc. all these drawbacks are also inherent in the projects, which are implemented by the management bodies of the border guard agency, and, accordingly, all project activities are always associated with certain risks that may have a negative impact on the project success. one of the possibilities to reduce the risk in the project activity is the cooperation of the relevant management bodies of the border guard agency administration with its educational institution. taking into consideration that a significant scientific potential is concentrated in the educational institution of the border department, this will contribute to solving such a problem as a lack of qualified personnel or the lack of specialized knowledge and skills to formulate the project concept and its development. in the management decision making the main factors, on which measures for reducing the level of project risks are focused, are the volume and reliability of information on risk sources as well as the degree of control over them. project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard … yurii ivashkov, et al. 351 therefore, we should consider the problem of risk assessment of projects that are implemented in the border guard agency, on the example of the interaction between the management bodies of the border guard agency administration and its educational institution, which is based on probabilistic-statistical modelling with the use of the expert assessment (orlov, 2003). therefore, at least two organizations participate in this project – an educational institution (scientific and pedagogical team) and an employer (the appropriate management body of the border guard agency administration). as a rule, the work on the project is divided into two stages: the first stage is the actual research work of an applied nature (the educational institution is responsible for this stage); the second one is the implementation of the obtained results in the practical activities of the border guard agency (the appropriate management body of the border guard agency administration is responsible for this stage). it should be noted at once that a certain group of risks is associated with the activities of each of the project participants. and in the structure of the group of project implementation risks in the educational institution, the risks of not performing work in accordance with the technical task as well as not returning (fully or partially) of spent resources come to the fore. the possible results of the research work can be described in the following way: 1) work and obligations of all project participants are fulfilled in full; 2) the research part of the work is performed in full, but for certain reasons the employer has not fulfilled his obligations in full, which did not allow to implement the work results in the practical activities of the agency; 3) the research part of the work has not been completed, but significant scientific results have been obtained. extra time is required to complete the work; brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 352 4) the research part of the work has not been performed, but some interesting scientific results have been obtained. however, the initially planned scientific result will not be achieved in the near future; 5) the fulfilment of the research work in the educational institution is completely disrupted. in addition, in any of the above-mentioned cases, there is also the likelihood of exposure to environmental risks, which may worsen the result of the project activity. so, the assessment is unequivocal only in two cases out of five: result 1 is a complete success, and result 5 is a complete failure. in other cases – results 2, 3, 4 – some scientific results are received. moreover, in the case of results 1, 2, the staff of the educational institution performed everything that was required. we should consider the process of implementing projects in the border guard agency in detail. 3. results construction of a general project implementation model. in identifying the main factors that determine the project implementation risks, we will proceed from the fact that: first, a team of scientists from the educational institution work, then they transfer their developments to the employer for the adoption and implementation of the results in the practical activities of the border guard agency. the probability that a team of scientists will perform their work fully depends on two groups of factors, which are determined by situations within the team and within the educational institution (in the article we assume that these groups of factors are independent of each other). the third risk factor is related to the project employer, the fourth one – to the negative impact of the external environment. thus, we distinguish four main groups of risk factors associated with: the team of performers; educational institution as a whole; the employer; the influence of the external environment. we assume that all four project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard … yurii ivashkov, et al. 353 groups of factors in the theoretical-probabilistic sense are independent of each other. accordingly, the general form of the mathematical model for calculating the risks of project implementation will be the following one (1): 1 2 3 4 , уp р р р р= × × × (1) where ps is the probability of “complete success”, and the risk that the project will not be fully implemented is estimated by the probability of “lack of complete success”, i.e. by the variable (1 p); p1 – the probability that the situation within the team of performers will not interfere with the project (therefore, the risk of the team is estimated by the variable (1 p1); p2 – the probability that the situation within the educational institution will not interfere with the project (1 p2) – the risk of the educational institution; p3 – the probability that the employer will complete his work, after the team of scientists completes their part of the project in full (1 p3) – the risk of the employer; p4 – the probability that the situation in the external environment will not prevent the project implementation (1 p4) – the risk of the external environment. calculation of partial probabilities by risk groups. when calculating these probabilities, we will approximate them using linear functions (2): 1 1 21 2 2 1 21 2 3 1 21 2 4 1 1 2 2 ... ... ... ... 1 1 1 1 i i j j m m c c g g gp x x x q q qp y y y f f fp z z z u w u w u wp = × × × = × × × = × × × = × × × , (2) where х1, х2, …, хі, g1, g2,…, gі – score of the factors when calculating the risk within the team of performers and their weighting factors; і – the number of factors in the first group; y1, y2, …, yj, q1, q2,…, qj – score of the factors, when calculating the risk of the educational institution brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 354 and their weighting factors; j – the number of factors in the second group; z1, z2, …, zm, f1, f2,…, fm – score of the factors, when calculating the employer’s risk and their weighting factors; m – the number of factors in the third group; u1, u2, …, uc, w1, w2,…, wc – score of the factors, when calculating the risk of the environment and their weighting factors; с – the number of factors in the fourth group. the score of the factors хi, yj,, zm, uc are evaluated by experts for each specific project, and according to the results of expert evaluation, the scores of weighting factors gi, qj, fm, wc are set the same in groups for all projects. taking into consideration the results of the research analysis (zalozh, et al., 2008) as well as the practical experience of analysis and risk management, the expert group was asked to evaluate the factors xі, yj, zm, uc according to the following qualitative scale: 0 – a virtually impossible event (with a probability of less than 0.01); 1 – an extremely unlikely event (with a probability of 0.02 to 0.05); 2 – unlikely event (probability from 0.06 to 0.10); 3 – an event with a probability that cannot be ignored (0.11 to 0.20); 4 – a quite probable event (probability of 0.21 to 0.30); 5 – an event with a significant probability (more than 0.30); assuming that the maximum score is 5, the sum of all weighting factors was chosen to be 1/5 (0.2). therefore, if for all factors the experts set the maximum score (5), then the corresponding probability is estimated as 0, i.e. the project implementation is considered to be impossible, and vice versa. to determine the factors that will determine the risk in groups р1 – р4 and their weighting factors, we involved the experts from among the officers of the border guard agency administration, who deal with project implementation in accordance with their functional responsibilities, and the scientific and pedagogical staff of the agency educational institution. the sample size was 30 people, which is sufficient to determine the weight of the factors. given the objectives of the study, the number of factors was project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard … yurii ivashkov, et al. 355 minimized by excluding insignificant ones, i.e. those factors that do not significantly affect the project implementation process. the evaluation results are shown in tables 1-4. table 1. factors that will determine the risk of the performers’ team and their weight factor number factor description weighting factor (gі) х1 the project implementation will be affected by underestimation of the research complexity (including the possible choice of a fundamentally incorrect research direction) 0.03 х2 the project implementation will be affected by lack of time (due to improper planning of the project implementation process, provided that the main research direction is chosen correctly) 0.08 х3 the project implementation will be affected by problems that are related to the scientific supervisor, in particular, with his long absence, his substitution or insufficient qualification. 0.06 х4 the project implementation will be affected by problems that arose during the implementation of tasks and are related to other members of the performers’ team (except the leader), including their insufficient qualifications 0.03 table 2. factors that will determine the risk of the educational institution and their weight factor number factor description weighting factor (qj) y1 the project implementation will be affected by organizational changes in the educational institution 0.02 y2 the project implementation will be affected by the lack of necessary resources or inconsistency of the facilities and resources 0.08 y3 the project implementation will be affected by the problems that are related to change of priorities (requirements to perform another task that is considered to be more urgent or important) 0.07 y4 the project implementation will be affected by 0.03 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 356 problems that are related to a large number of projects being implemented simultaneously table 3. factors that will determine the risk of the project employer and their weight factor number factor description weighting factor (fm) z1 the result of the project implementation will be affected by problems that are related to the drawbacks in the work of its management bodies, including the untimely provision of the project performers with the necessary resources (redistribution of resources to other projects) 0.05 z2 the result of the project implementation will be affected by the problems that are related to the change of course (policy) priorities of the border guard agency that will make the project results unnecessary. 0.07 z3 the result of the project implementation will be affected by problems that are related to the inability to implement the results in the practical activities of the border guard agency 0.06 z4 the result of the project implementation will be affected negatively by organizational changes in the border guard agency, in particular, by a change of management 0.02 table 4. factors that will determine the external environment risk and their weight factor number factor description weighting factor (wc) u1 the project implementation possibility will be affected by the lack or reduction of funding for the border guard agency (budget reduction) 0.02 u2 the project implementation possibility will be affected by changes in the status and / or strategy of the border guard agency and its bodies, including the educational institutions (in particular, due to liquidation or reorganization) by the decision of higher authorities (the ministry or the state leadership) 0.07 project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard … yurii ivashkov, et al. 357 u3 the project implementation possibility will be affected by decisions of the relevant higher authorities (ministries or the state leadership) that are related, for example, to the information closure or to a policy choice that make the project implementation unnecessary or inappropriate 0.03 u4 the project implementation possibility will be affected by changes in the military-political situation, which will lead to the decision of the relevant higher authorities (ministries or the state leadership) to change the priorities in the activities of the border guard agency and its bodies 0.08 therefore, the probability of successful project implementation is assessed by the following mathematical model: 4 1 , у k k p p = = õ (3) where 1 1 2 3 4 2 1 2 3 4 3 1 2 3 4 4 1 2 3 4 ; ; ; . 0,02 0,08 0,07 0,031 0,02 0,08 0,07 0,031 0,05 0,07 0,06 0,021 0,02 0,07 0,03 0,081 p x x x x p y y y y p z z z z u u u up = × × × × = × × × × = × × × × = × × × × the research results were implemented in the research activities of the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi. the calculation of probabilities that are related to the implementation of three standard projects of the border guard agency and the dependence of project success on the impact of certain risk groups are shown in table 5 and figure 1. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 358 table 5. probability calculation of the implementation of standard projects project number project 1 project 2 project 3 1. risk within the team of performers gi xi1 xi2 xi3 0.03 1 2 4 0.08 0 1 3 0.06 0 1 4 0.03 1 2 5 p1 0.94 0.74 0.25 2. risk inside the educational institution qj yj1 yj2 yj3 0.02 1 2 3 0.08 0 1 2 0.07 0 1 4 0.03 1 1 5 p2 0.95 0.78 0.35 3. risk of the project employer fm zm1 zm2 zm3 0.05 1 1 2 0.07 0 0 2 0.06 0 0 1 0.02 1 1 1 p3 0.93 0.93 0.68 4. risk that is connected with the external environment wc uc1 uc2 uc3 0.02 1 1 2 0.07 0 0 2 0.03 1 2 1 0.08 0 0 1 p4 0.95 0.92 0.71 probability of the project implementation pу 0.79 0.49 0.04 probability of fulfilling project tasks without taking into account the employer’s risk p1* p2* p4 0.85 0.53 0.06 probability of fulfilling project tasks without taking into account the external environment risk p1* p2* p3 0.83 0.54 0.06 probability of fulfilling project tasks without taking into project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard … yurii ivashkov, et al. 359 project number project 1 project 2 project 3 account the educational institution risk p1* p3* p4 0.83 0.63 0.12 probability of fulfilling project tasks in the educational institution p1* p2 0.89 0.58 0.09 figure 1. dependence of the project success probability on the impact of certain risk groups. the obtained result provides an opportunity to draw conclusions about the impact of a factor change on the overall probability of the project implementation. the results of the implementation showed that in general the proposed model use allows to calculate potential risks at the project 0.94 0.95 0.96 0.95 0.79 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 p1 p2 p3 p4 pу project 1 0.74 0.78 0.93 0.92 0.49 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 p1 p2 p3 p4 pу project 2 0.25 0.35 0.68 0.71 0.04 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 p1 p2 p3 p4 pу project 3 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 360 planning stage in advance and manage them in order to ensure the project management success of the border guard agency. 4. conclusions thus, the decisions, which are made in the project planning and implementation, vary in both the complexity and the scale of the involved resources. as a rule, decisions are a choice of several options or alternatives. in this case, each alternative carries a greater or lesser risk of failure. therefore, the project manager’s task is to assess alternative solutions not only in terms of resource and time parameters, but also in terms of failure risks or work performance with improper quality level. so, this article considers the basics of the project management methodology, the issue of risk assessment of the implementation in the state border guard service of ukraine. the research is based on the results of the scientific school of the border guard agency in the field of risk analysis and practical results, which were obtained during the project management. in particular, the probability of the first project implementation is high and depends almost equally on all four factors. the probability of the second project implementation is 50/50 and is connected with the presence of all four types of risk. the probability of the third project implementation is the lowest as it is connected with high risk within the team of performers and within the educational institution. the obtained results lead to the conclusion that the conceptual phase and the project planning phase are very important stages in the project implementation. the more thoroughly the project is thought out and planned, the less difficulties await at the implementation stage. the use of the proposed risk assessment methodology at the project planning stage will allow not only to calculate potential risks in advance, but also to minimize their negative impact, which will ensure the project success references bloshchynskyi, i. h. (2017) usage of anki specialised program application during future border guard officers’ independent foreign language professional project management risk assessment methodology in the state border guard … yurii ivashkov, et al. 361 training for passing state examination. information technologies and learning tools. vol. 58. no 2. 49-58. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v58i2.1605 [in ukrainian]. bloshchynskyi, i. h. (2017). enhancement of cadets’ practical training at the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi. science and education, 4, 5-10. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-4-1 [in ukrainian]. bushuiev, s. d. & bushuieva, n. s. (2005). sovremennyye podkhody k razvitiyu metodologiy upravleniya proyektami [modern approaches to the development of project management methodologies]. project management and production development: collection of scientific works, 1(13), 5-19. luhansk: snu named after v. dal. url: http://www.pmdp.org.ua/images/journal/13/1.pdf [in russian]. campbell, c. a., collins, m. (2010). the one-page project manager for execution: drive strategy and solve problems with a single sheet of paper. 2nd ed. hoboken, new jersey: john wiley & sons, inc. gray, clifford f., larson, erik w. (2014). project management: the managerial process. sixth ed. new york: mcgraw-hill education. lysenko, s., lavrynenko, n., bohuslavets, a., kryvych, m., oliynyk, l., stasyuk, v., lahodynskyi, o., osyodlo, v., yahupov, v., hrishko-dunaievska, v., bloshchynskyi, i., artemov, v. (2020). psychological support for the foreign language training of the students at international relations faculties. universal journal of educational research 8.6, 2344 2351. doi: 10.13189/ujer.2020.080618. mazur, i. i, shapiro, v. d., olderogge, n. g. (2004). upravleniye proyektami [project management]. in i. i. mazur (ed.), 2nd ed. moscow: omega-l [in russian]. morozov, v. v., kalnichenko, o. v., turlo, yu. h. (2011). upravlinnia proektamy rozvytku pidpryiemstv [management of enterprise development projects]. kyiv: krok university of economics and law [in ukrainian]. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 362 morris, peter w.g., geraldi, j. (2011). managing the institutional context for projects. project management journal, 42(6), 20-32. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20271. orlov, a. i. (2003). menedzhment [management]. moscow: publishing house izumrud [in russian]. pinto, jeffrey k. (2004). the elements of project success. field guide to project management. second edition. in david i. cleland (ed.), (pp.14-28). hoboken, new jersey: john wiley & sons, inc. popov, yu. i. (2010). upravleniye proyektami : uchebnoye posobiye [project management: textbook]. moscow: infra-m [in russian]. rach, v. a. (2000). printsipy sistemnogo podkhoda v proyektnom menedzhmente [principles of a systems approach in project management]. project management and production development: collection of scientific works, 1(1), 7-9. luhansk: snu named after v. dal. url: http://www.pmdp.org.ua/images/journal/1/1.pdf [in russian]. zalozh, v. v. upravlinnia orhanom derzhavnoi prykordonnoi sluzhby ukraiiny: teoriia i praktyka [management of the state border guard service of ukraine: theory and practice], na sbgsu, ukraine, 2016 [in ukrainian]. zalozh, v. v., kachurovskyi, i. a., makhniuk, a. v., biliavets, s. ya. (2008). teoretychne uzahalnennia i rozrobka rekomendatsii shchodo upravlinnia ryzykamy v sferi okhorony derzhavnoho kordonu [theoretical generalization and development of recommendations for risk management in the field of the state border protection]. khmelnytskyi: na sbgsu [in ukrainian]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 29-41 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/267 the usage of modern platforms and onlineservices for organizing of the distance educational process in the context of modern neuroscience olena vasylenko¹, nataliia bailiuk2, olena opanasenko3, liliia apolonova4, lesia viktorova5, anna rohulska6 1 kyiv national linguistic university, kyiv, ukraine, vasylenko2015knlu@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-95422094 2 odessа polytechnic state university, odessa, ukraine, nataliia.bailiuk@op.edu.ua, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0520-6660 3 taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, kyiv, ukraine, opanasenko.univ.kiew@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2205-2445 4 zaporizhzhya institute of economics and information technologies, zaporizhzhya, ukraine, admeliorem45@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7541-2697 5 military diplomatic academy named after yevheniy bereznyak, kyiv, ukraine, viktorova17@ukr.net, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4072-974x 6 bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, ukraine, nyuwe4ka@ukr.net abstract: the paper is focused on the question of remote learning a foreign language in the context of neuroscience. the notions of “distance training”, “neuropsychology”, and “pedagogic technologies of remote teaching ” have been cleared up. it has been emphasized that an educational institution is free to choose its own model of the organizing of remote training. it has been pointed out that neuropsychology is based on experimental and clinical neuropsychology and that the first neuropsychological research had been carried out by l. s. vygotskyi (1956) and a. luriya (1965). the articles of domestic and overseas scholars, which contain critical analysis of remote teaching a foreign language, have been reviewed. the survey of different countries scientists' publications, concerning foreign language distance teaching's directions of the study, has been clarified. the advantages of the distance teaching have been defined. it has been pointed out that autonomic activities of a student cannot be passively organized. the advantages and disadvantages of home-schooling have been clarified. the accent has been made on the usage of modern platforms and online-services, particularly moodle and google classroom. the influence of neuropsychology on higher mental processes has been explored. it has been noted that the lack of “live” social relationship is finally dangerous, especially for children, and emphasized that while organizing remote training process cognitive exercises should be used to boost children’s brain functioning. the accent has been made on the necessity of cognitive activities for enhancing children's concern for studying. the unique example of the usage of a. luriya’s (1964) and m. rosenzweig's (2009) methodologies has been given. the well-known master on school psychology b. arrowsmithyoung’s study (2012) on remedial work with children, who have problems in learning, has been analyzed. keywords: distance training, neuropsychology, home-schooling, higher mental processes, neuroplasticity, cognitive exercises, moodle, google classroom. how to cite: vasylenko, o., bailiuk, n., opanasenko, o., apolonova, l., viktorova, l., & rohulska, a. (2022). the usage of modern platforms and online-services for organizing of the distance educational process in the context of modern neuroscience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 29-41. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/267 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/267 mailto:vasylenko2015knlu@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9542-2094 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9542-2094 mailto:nataliia.bailiuk@op.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0520-6660 mailto:opanasenko.univ.kiew@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2205-2445 mailto:admeliorem45@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7541-2697 mailto:viktorova17@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4072-974x mailto:nyuwe4ka@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/267 the usage of modern platforms and online-services for organizing of the ... olena vasylenko, et al. 30 introduction today educational system modernization in the country is more and more often being linked to the development of distance education, which is seen as one of the most important factors of the enhance of the educational services market’s competitiveness. the main issues worth tackling for teachers of educational institutions are not only implementation of distance education system but also providing favourable influence of the new technologies on educational process. first the meaning of the notions of “distance training”, “neuropsychology”, and “pedagogic technologies of distant training” should be clarified. in accordance with the regulation of the ministry of education (tabachnyk, 2013), the distance form of education is a form of organizing of educational process in educational institutions (tertiary institutions, general out-of-school education, vocational educational institutions, general educational establishments). it provides realization of remote education and envisages for the possibility for graduates of receiving a state standard document on the relevant educational and qualification level. as n. zhevakina (2009) points out, distance training is a focused interactive process of a teacher’s and a student’s engagement, based on usage of modern information an telecommunication technologies that allow to provide training on distance. distance education is regarded as a process that has been realized on the base of special pedagogic technologies. pedagogic technologies of remote training are technologies of mediated active communication between teachers and students with usage of telecommunication connection and methodology of students' individual work with structured training material that is represented in the electronic form. they have a pronounced personally oriented focus and are able to provide intensification of the students' cognitive activities, feedback, qualified tutorial support and students' integration into specially created educational space. the option of a model of distance training entirely depends on an educational institution, namely, on: educational process participants' digital competence; availability of efficient information and educational environment that provides not only dissemination of information but also online interaction between students and teachers, including distance onlinelessons (for example, a distant platform); existence of the references to qualitative digital educational and methodological resources and to the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 31 mediatheque of the teacher's own developments (vorotnikova, 2020; onishchuk, 2020). new discoveries in psychology, neurophysiology and medicine have prepared by the beginning of the 20th century the ground for a new science's appearance, that is, neuropsychology (demchenko, 2021; prots, 2021; kosholap, 2021). as clinical neuropsychology encyclopedia purports (stringer, 2011), the term of “neuropsychology” means a science, studying interconnection between the brain and behavior, and widely encompasses research on lateralization and localization of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral phenomena; neuro-development; aging and brain; neuroplasticity and related spheres. both experimental psychology (focusing on animals or controlled studying neurologically balanced people, using such methods as a dichotic listening and a tachistoscopic submission) and clinical neuropsychology (exploration of behavioral consequences of brain damage or dysfunction) have contributed towards neuropsychology science. the first neuropsychological research was carried out by l. s. vygotskyi (1956) but a. luriya (1965) is the one considered to be the founder of neuropsychology after all. l. s. vygotskyi’s (1956) works in the realm of neuropsychology continued his general psychological studies. exploring different forms of psychological activities, he was able to lay down the guidelines: about the development of higher psychic functions; about the consciousness structure system. the principles, formulated by l. s. vygotskyi (1956), became significant in the history of neuropsychology. they triggered the beginning of focused studying of the consequences of local brain damages, carried out by a. luriya (1965) together with colleagues. they also defined forming of the domestic neuropsychological school that nowadays still occupies one of the leading positions in the world. distance training involvement in the process of learning foreign languages particular attention has been paid to the problem of remote education in scientific literature lately. distance training system is a central concern of scholar circles and modern tendencies witness further activation of the exploration in this sphere. the usage of modern platforms and online-services for organizing of the ... olena vasylenko, et al. 32 attention should be drawn to the article (white, 2006) where a critical review of the sphere of distance teaching of a language has been made. its appearance is interpreted as a sign of technological possibilities' development. the author concentrates on the questions of conception, definition, and also on theoretical and pedagogic perspectives in the sphere. the specific accent is made on obvious changings in the range from the concern of organization problems to the focusing on questions of the possibilities of teaching within the framework of the new paradigms of languages distance training. besides, problems, caused by “low-tech” technologies has been considered. the author gives a number of conclusions, concerning the practice of languages distance teaching and also makes propositions about the directions of distance education improvement. over time c. white (2014) emphasizes the relevance of explorations on distance training of languages since this issue has been recognized as one of the most important directions of learning languages. the author analyses important directions of the research on distance learning and teaching of languages in order to indicate new and new gaps and also to clear up research questions, methodologies and instruments, focused on the knowledge of pedagogics, usage of technologies, students' actions, innovations. in the study the assignments for a synchronous education has been developed, the role of tutoring has been disclosed, multimodal educational environment has been described, emotional condition of the students has been analyzed. attention should be paid to serbian scientists' project (trajanovic, 2010). they were the first who implemented distance learning system in serbia, proposed academic programs, began to carry out and improve english language academic courses on the information technologies faculty. the authors cleared up the technological aspect of the system of electronic education, discussed the main features of foreign languages’ teaching. they started from the general design of the course, selection of training materials, technological and pedagogical processing of the course materials, the role of a teacher, support and motivation of the students, the assessment of the work results. the professors pointed out drawbacks and difficulties of technological and pedagogic character and also indicated the problems and new steps on the english language courses' improvement during the distance teaching and the teaching of foreign languages. in a. bollinger’s study (2017) the differences between the level of anxiety in the process of learning foreign languages (high, moderate, low) brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 33 and students' achievements in different educational environment (traditional or distance education) have been explored. in an educational institution in georgia spanish and french are taught. the foreign language academic performance was measured by the course final grades. the results of the experiment showed that there were no pronounced differences between students' achievements within traditional and distance educational forms of teaching foreign languages but there were big differences in achievements between the students with different level of anxiety. the study's conclusions help teachers to make pedagogic decisions, concerning satisfying of the demands of the students with different characteristics in their classes. d. altunay's research is an appropriate confirmation of the distant education’s usefulness (2010). the author insists that remote education is an advantage for those who would like to get educated but cannot do that for some reasons. moreover, it removes physical barriers between students and professors and gives students a possibility to study when and where they want. today, thanks to the development of information and communication technologies (ict), plenty of technological instruments are being used in distance education. as for learning languages through distance training, the distance learning may become a good support for those who cannot attend language courses and schools because of the lack of time or money. for instance, usage of computers may be considered as an ideal thing for doing repeatable exercises and for immediate feedback, and the internet allows students to interact with other fellow students and native speakers in a synchronous or asynchronous way and any time they like. different internet-recourses could be used to provide high level of knowledge. they give a possibility to get acquainted with genuine manner of speaking, and they make the process of learning language more interesting as they comprise pictures, interactive forms, animation, colors, sounds and digital video-clips. furthermore, synchronic and asynchrony education services enable interaction and shared education. in addition, visual conspicuousness of linguistic forms during a text chat can help students confirm or not confirm their hypotheses about a certain thought. but, unfortunately, students can have problems with access, equipment and compatibility. usage of damaged discs without backup may result in losing of the work done and panic. studying the problem above-mentioned, it's worth to pay attention to the article (hohol, 2020) where foreign languages' distance teaching has been characterized as one of the newest forms of education, complementing the usage of modern platforms and online-services for organizing of the ... olena vasylenko, et al. 34 effectively face-to-face training and remote learning in tertiary institutions. the author emphasizes that quality and efficiency of a foreign language distant course mostly depends on how good it has been organized; on pedagogic professionalism of the teachers, taking part in educational process; on qualitative methodical content, used in the course. in the study the key principles of foreign languages distance teaching in tertiary institutions has been clarified; the ways of enhancing quality and effectiveness of this form of education have been defined, the main conceptual guidelines have been outlined. besides, a model of organizing of distance teaching foreign languages’ course has been proposed; the system of control and knowledge monitoring on all types of language activities has been represented. it has been accentuated that autonomic learning must not be passive. on the contrary, students should have been involved into active cognitive activity, which is not confined by acquisition of the knowledge of a foreign language but implies necessarily its practical usage. it has been emphasized in the recommendations, concerning efficient organizing of a foreign languages’ distance course in tertiary institutions, the necessity of careful selection of training material; good planning of academic groups' work; regular individual and collective reporting; systematic consultations, provided by the teacher, etc. certainly, in the process of the course's organizing, apart from didactic characteristics and functions of multimedia devices and telecommunications as a technological basis of education, it is also necessary to take into consideration conceptual tendencies of didactic organizing of the distance learning as a component of the general contemporary educational system. b. isiguzel's exploration (2014), where the results of experimental students groups’ research have been represented, also merits attention. the first group, which attended german lessons in mixed educational environment, was comparatively more successful and higher motivated, than the control group, which did it in traditional educational environment. the research data were collected through the german language courses' achievement tests, according to the german language learning motivation scale. t. kameneva’s article (2020), focused on remote education, is worth interest as well. the author argues that so called home-schooling becomes more and more current in ukraine lately. online education's emergence revitalized in a great measure the development of home-schooling and gave new possibilities and pathways to various knowledge. therefore it's brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 35 impossible to overrate usefulness of distance learning for disabled children and for those who live in remote regions. online formats allowed to expand considerably the spectrum of subjects, available for learning, and made the process of learning more comfortable. despite the fact that remote school education has been popularized actively and presented as a world-wide trend in ukraine, the monitoring of its spread in the developed countries demonstrates rather moderate indicators: the number of home-schoolers doesn't excel 2–3 %. the usa is a record holder on home-schooling. according to various data, in the united states from 4-10% of all the schoolchildren are home-schoolers. on the contrary, in half of the eu countries, including germany, netherland and sweden, distance education is banned. at the same time psychologists point out a number of widespread issues, facing children who learn in individual way. for the absolute majority of contemporary children digital reality becomes a ground zero. they perceive the actual reality in their peripheral vision as if being distracted by it from the exciting process of swallowing of primitive content of gadgets. low communicative ability, introversion, adhd, loss of emotional resilience and of the level of empathy, irritability and aggression are often characteristic of schoolchildren, as a result of such a disbalance. eventually these traits turn into bitter heritage in their adult lives. the usage of modern platforms and online-services for organizing of the distance educational process there are commercial and free platforms of distance learning and online-services. in particular, commercial platforms have a range of advantages, namely: functionality, security, appropriate level of users' support, systematic update and new versions' development, possibility of setting, tech-support. atutor, claroline, dokeos, lams, sakai, moodle, ilias, googleclassroom and others are free platforms of distant education. indisputable advantages of such platforms are free setup and usage, considerable geography of their spread over the world, possibility of modification. the shortcomings, indicated by explorers (romaniuk, s., 2016), include: complexity in maintenance and technical support, and sometimes an entire absence of the support said. but still the benefits are greater. it's impossible not to mention here the platform moodle (modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment). this system, developed by australian computer scientist martin dougiamas, is one of the most popular in the world. it is exploited in more than 100 countries by more the usage of modern platforms and online-services for organizing of the ... olena vasylenko, et al. 36 than 18 billion users. in addition, it may be easily downloaded from the internet. the platform enables creating of qualitative online courses; moreover, it can be adapted to the demands of certain educational project and completed by new services. moodle has been projected with due account of modern pedagogic achievements, and the main accent is being made on the interaction among students and wide using of discussion. the interface of the program is simple, suitable and efficient, the design has modular structure, which is easily modified, and language packs, which can be connected, allow to achieve entire localization. students can edit their accounts, add photos and change numerous personal data, get acquainted with reminder of the events in the course, load up the assignments done, view the results of the tests and courses, communicate with the professor through personal messages, form and chat. the next platform, classroom, is a new development of the google company. it is expected to facilitate the work of the teachers and make it more effective. a teacher can organize communication with students, quickly prepare the assignments and hold classes through interactive service of classroom. while developing assignments, the teacher can use an option of common access to the document or an option of automatic creating of a copy for each student, see who has finished the assignment and who hasn't, provide feedback and make questions to the student in real time both in and out of class. in the interactive regime students have a possibility to get acquainted with assignments and materials, emerging in google drive folders, and with notes in the test files. immediate communication both with the teacher and the fellow students is another useful function of google classroom. all the possibilities mentioned are in favour of the choice of the said system, and its functionality, in spite of comparatively short period of existence, is not inferior to the actual market leaders. the impact of neuropsychology on a child's higher psychic processes under terms of the existing education the amount of students who have problems with mastering of the school curricula or have emotional, cognitive, psycho-physical developmental disability, behavioral challenges increases dramatically. such tendencies present society with new challenges, concerning finding optimal ways for organizing of effective atypical education and of qualitative bringing up the children with special needs in the process of their education, socialization and harmonic formation of personality. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 37 professor r. dunbar (2010), an anthropologist, the head of the social and evolutionary neuroscience research group in the department of experimental psychology at the university of oxford, discovered that default-system of the brain, answering for human's thinking capacity, forms in evolutionary way in the framework of real social relationships. that is, the lack of live, offline social relationships is particularly dangerous for children whose brain intensively forms and develops itself. b. richards (2017) disputes in his article a common opinion about memory as to which forgetting is a process of losing, gradual fading of critical information in spite of our endeavoring to keep it. as the author points out, the aim of the memory is not simply an exact keeping of information but “an optimizing of making decisions” in chaotic, rapidly changing conditions. in this cognitive model forgetting is an evolutionary strategy, a purposeful process that works in the background of the memory, assesses and discards information that doesn't contribute to the species survival. s. bernard (2010) argues that corresponding meaningful measures, evoking students' emotional interest and connecting a new information to their actual knowledge, help forming neural pathways and long-term keeping in memory. long lists of dictionary words that don't correspond with the theme being learnt by a student can be blocked by affective (or emotional) filters of the brain. schoolchildren have to add the new information to the old, otherwise it won't be memorized. as it's known, the brain stores information as neural paths. when a child gets new information that is not linked to what its brain already has it is difficult for this new information to take root. efficient learning process help recipients of education discern regularities and place the new information into the context of the old one. certainly, as a help for teachers, neuropsychological exercises is recommended to make a remote educational process interesting and substantive. j. henley's paper (2012) introduces the well-known master of applied psychology barbara arrowsmith-young, who, having realized that a part of her brain doesn't work properly, developed by herself a number of cognitive enhancing exercises. the results changed her life and now she has helped thousands of children with learning disabilities. her mother, a teacher, developed a series of flash-cards with numbers and letters and, thanks to her hard work, she helped the daughter achieve high level in literacy and count. at school and later, at the university, she concealed her numerous learning difficulties, working 20 hours a day. her health improved the usage of modern platforms and online-services for organizing of the ... olena vasylenko, et al. 38 when she became 26. her fellow student gave her a book “the man with the broken world” by russian neuropsychologist a. luriya (1971) as a present. the book contains the author's research and his speculations over the works of a highly intelligent russian soldier liova zazetsky who got shot in a brain in a battle under smolensk in 1943 and whose state was described in detail. while reading the study, the girl noticed the similarity between the soldier’s and her own disease and realized what particular part of her own brain didn't work from her birth. then she read about mark rosenzweig's study (anwar, y., 2009), an american explorer, who discovered that lab rats in the rich and stimulating environment with toys and toy wheels developed a bigger brain, than those who grew in a bare cage. the scholar concluded that the brain continues its development, not “hardening” at the moment of the birth but constantly changing on the base of experience – the concept, known as a neuroplasticity. barbara began to develop exercises to stimulate nonfunctioning parts of her brain. she drew 100 clocks with two hands, showing different time, and wrote that time on the back of each card. then she tried to define the time on each of the cards, checking herself every time by turning over the card. she worked on it 8 to 10 hours a day. eventually, she became more prompt and exact. barbara developed more exercises for different parts of a brain and discovered that they are efficient, too. her first school she established in toronto in 1980. now she has 35 of them in canada and the usa. she and her collaborates developed cognitive exercises that proved to be very effective, stimulating 19 different functions, important for reading, writing, count, general understanding, logical thinking, visual memory or auditory processing. thousands of children with delaying the development of mental processes, dyslexia or dysgraphia diagnosis, who are considered to have a learning disability, attend arrowsmith's schools during three or four years then return to their educational institution and achieve success in learning and vocational activities. b. arrowsmith-young's dreams every child to choose for itself some cognitive work in order to reveal and remove potential difficulties. conclusions undoubtedly, modernization of contemporary education links to the development of distance training. it has been clarified that remote education is the form of organizing of the educational process in educational institutions. it is based on distant interaction between a professor and a student with usage of information and tele-communicative technologies. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 39 the literature review shows that today there are a lot of domestic and overseas works, concerning the research of distance teaching a foreign language. among modern platforms for the organizing of distance learning process moodle and google classroоm are popular and easy to use. as it is known, the first theoretical approaches in neuropsychology were developed by l. s. vygotskyi (1956) but a. luriya (1965) became the founder who carefully explored this sphere. the scholar proved that a child's psyche and brain, which are forming, are plastic and ready for the development of neuropsychological factors. it is a fundament for further improvement of cognitive and emotional processes. without any doubt, neuropsychological methodologies in pedagogy are doomed to success in children's psyche correction. thus, using neuropsychological knowledge, pedagogues have a possibility to turn education into a more efficient process, evoking in children motivation for learning. references altunay, d., mutlu, m. (2010). distance foreign language learning. distances et savoirs, 3(8), 463-473. https://www.cairn.info/revue-distances-et-savoirs2010-3-page-463.htm anwar, y. (2009, august 3). mark rosenzweig, pioneer in brain plasticity, learning and hearing, has died at 86. berkeley news. https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/08/03_rosenzweig .shtml bernard, s. (2010, december 1). science shows making lessons relevant really matters. edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/neuroscience-brain-based-learningrelevance-improves-engagement bollinger, a. (2017). foreign language anxiety in traditional and distance learning foreign language classrooms. doctoral dissertations and projects, 1429. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/1429 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dunbar, r. (2010). how many friends does one person need? dunbar's number and other evolutionary quirks. faber and faber. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7475690-how-many-friendsdoes-one-person-need https://www.cairn.info/revue-distances-et-savoirs-2010-3-page-463.htm https://www.cairn.info/revue-distances-et-savoirs-2010-3-page-463.htm https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/08/03_rosenzweig.shtml https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/08/03_rosenzweig.shtml https://www.edutopia.org/neuroscience-brain-based-learning-relevance-improves-engagement https://www.edutopia.org/neuroscience-brain-based-learning-relevance-improves-engagement https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/1429 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7475690-how-many-friends-does-one-person-need https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7475690-how-many-friends-does-one-person-need the usage of modern platforms and online-services for organizing of the ... olena vasylenko, et al. 40 henley, j. (2012, june 12). how barbara arrowsmith-young rebuilt her own brain. the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/12/barbaraarrowsmith-young-rebuilt-brain hohol, i. (2020). foreign languages distance learning course organizing at a higher education institution. problemy inzhenerno-pedahohichnoi osvity [problems of engineering and pedagogical education], 68, 80-86. http://dspace.univd.edu.ua/xmlui/handle/123456789/10054 isiguzel, b. (2014). the blended learning environment on the foreign language learning process: a balance for motivation and achievement. turkish online journal of distance education, 15, 108–121. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/tojde/issue/16893/175970 kameneva, t. (2020). home-schooling ta online-navchannia: korotkostrokova neobkhidnist chy pryvablyva perspektyva? [home-schooling and onlinetraining: a short-term necessity or attractive perspective?]. hromadska dumka pro pravotvorennia, 7(192), 13-16. http://nbuviap.gov.ua/images/dumka/2020/7.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 luriya, a. (1965). vosstanovitelnoe obuchenie i ego znachenie dlya psihologii i pedagogiki [remedial training and its significance for philosophy and pedagogy]. pedagogika. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/luriya=lekcii_po_ob_psc.pdf luriya, a. (1971). liudyna z rozbytym svitom [the man with the broken world]. redakcionno-izdatelskij sovet moskovskogo universiteta. https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000494654-poteryannyj-i-vozvraschennyjmir-aleksandr-romanovich-luriya onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/12/barbara-arrowsmith-young-rebuilt-brain https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/12/barbara-arrowsmith-young-rebuilt-brain http://dspace.univd.edu.ua/xmlui/handle/123456789/10054 https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/tojde/issue/16893/175970 http://nbuviap.gov.ua/images/dumka/2020/7.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/luriya=lekcii_po_ob_psc.pdf https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000494654-poteryannyj-i-vozvraschennyj-mir-aleksandr-romanovich-luriya https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000494654-poteryannyj-i-vozvraschennyj-mir-aleksandr-romanovich-luriya https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 41 richards, b. (2017). the persistence and transience of memory. neuron. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317789595_the_persistence_a nd_transience_of_memory romaniuk, s. (2016). dystantsiine navchannia inozemnoi movy: porivnialnyi analiz suchasnykh platform ta onlain-servisiv [distant teaching of a foreign language: comparative analysis of modern platforms and online-services]. visnyk dnipropetrovskoho universytetu imeni alfreda nobelia, 1, 318-325. https://dspace.nlu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/11141/1/romanyk-318325.pdf stringer, a. y. (2011). neuropsychology. in j. s. kreutzer, j. de luca, b. caplan (eds.), encyclopedia of clinical neuropsychology. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79948-3_671 tabachnyk, d. v. (2013). polozhennia pro dystantsiine navchannia [regulation on distant education]. verkhovna rada ukrainy. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0703-13#text trajanovic, m., domazet, s. d., misic-ilic, b. (2010, january). distance learning and foreign language teaching. researchgate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/32231723_distance_learning_a nd_foreign_language_teaching vorotnikova, i., chajkovs`ka (2020). dystantsiine navchannia: vyklyky, rezultaty ta perspektyvy. poradnyk. z dosvidu roboty osvitian mista kyieva [distant training: challenges, results and perspectives. from the experience of kyiv educators]. b. grinchenko university. https://don.kyivcity.gov.ua/files/2020/8/19/90.pdf vygotskyi, l. s. (1956). izbrannye psihologicheskie issledovaniya [selected psychological studies]. pedagogika. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/76001762.pdf white, c. (2006). distance learning of foreign languages. cambridge core, 39, 247– 264. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/languageteaching/article/abs/distance-learning-of-foreignlanguages/1a77490b8ee03527fdc7b279660a96f5 white, c. (2014). the distance learning of foreign languages: a research agenda. cambridge core, 47, 538–553. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/languageteaching/article/abs/distance-learning-of-foreign-languages-a-researchagenda/90ce8420cdedfde5178939491fbdee8f zhevakina, n. (2009). pedahohichni umovy orhanizatsii dystantsiinoho navchannia studentiv humanitarnykh spetsialnostei u pedahohichnomu universyteti [pedagogical conditions of organizing humanities specialties students' distant training in a pedagogical university]. luhansk. https://dspace.lgpu.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/2973/jevaki na.pdf?sequence=2&isallowed=y https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317789595_the_persistence_and_transience_of_memory https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317789595_the_persistence_and_transience_of_memory https://dspace.nlu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/11141/1/romanyk-318-325.pdf https://dspace.nlu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/11141/1/romanyk-318-325.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79948-3_671 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0703-13#text https://www.researchgate.net/publication/32231723_distance_learning_and_foreign_language_teaching https://www.researchgate.net/publication/32231723_distance_learning_and_foreign_language_teaching https://don.kyivcity.gov.ua/files/2020/8/19/90.pdf https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/76001762.pdf https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-teaching/article/abs/distance-learning-of-foreign-languages/1a77490b8ee03527fdc7b279660a96f5 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-teaching/article/abs/distance-learning-of-foreign-languages/1a77490b8ee03527fdc7b279660a96f5 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-teaching/article/abs/distance-learning-of-foreign-languages/1a77490b8ee03527fdc7b279660a96f5 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-teaching/article/abs/distance-learning-of-foreign-languages-a-research-agenda/90ce8420cdedfde5178939491fbdee8f https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-teaching/article/abs/distance-learning-of-foreign-languages-a-research-agenda/90ce8420cdedfde5178939491fbdee8f https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-teaching/article/abs/distance-learning-of-foreign-languages-a-research-agenda/90ce8420cdedfde5178939491fbdee8f https://dspace.lgpu.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/2973/jevakina.pdf?sequence=2&isallowed=y https://dspace.lgpu.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/2973/jevakina.pdf?sequence=2&isallowed=y brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.1, pages: 22-37 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/26 violence on minors in forensic medicine iuliana hunea¹, manuela ciocoiu 2 , nona gîrlescu 3 , diana bulgaru iliescu 4 1 the institute of forensic medicine, 4, buna vestire str., iasi, romania, pathophysiology department "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, tel.: +40 232 267 801, romania, zamisnicu.iuliana@gmail.com 2 pathophysiology department, “gr. t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universitatii str., iasi 700115, tel.: +40 232 267 801, romania, mciocoiu2003@yahoo.com 3 the institute of forensic medicine, iasi, romania; department of morphofunctional sciences, “gr. t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universitatii str., iasi 700115, tel.: +40 232 267 801, romania, nona.girlescu@yahoo.com 4 the institute of forensic medicine, iasi, romania; department of forensic medicine, “gr. t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universitatii str., iasi 700115, tel.: +40 232 267 801, romania, bulgarudiana@yahoo.com abstract: the offense of “ill-treatment of the minor” under article 197 of the cpc (civil procedure code) has in time been the subject of a nonunitary jurisdictional practice, which in 2009 led to the introduction of an appeal in the interest of the law. the type of offense in this case is impossible to prove without legal medicine and medicine in general because the court could not properly assess the “serious danger”, the ill-treatment of the minor being both a criminal offense and a threat of crime. one of the equivalences in their medical practice is the silverman syndrome, which we will present along with a case of parental negligence, this time when the solution of acquittal or conviction lies in the conclusions of the forensic report, then in demonstrating the intention or praeterintentia as forms of guilt by perpetrators by the court. keywords: violence; minors; abuse; neglect. how to cite: hunea, i., ciocoiu, m., gîrlescu, n., & bulgaru iliescu, d. (2020). violence on minors in forensic medicine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 22-37. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/26 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/26 mailto:zamisnicu.iuliana@gmail.com mailto:mciocoiu2003@yahoo.com mailto:nona.girlescu@yahoo.com mailto:bulgarudiana@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/26 violence on minors in forensic medicine iuliana hunea, et al. 23 1. introduction violence on the child captures a multitude of concepts (nambo, 2019) for a wide range of forms of abuse (physical, verbal, emotional, sexual), ill-treatment, neglect and exploitation (economic/work, sexual), which also include phenomena such as abduction and/or disappearance, migration in risk situations, human trafficking. all this can be manifested in all the environments in which the child grows and develops (sandu & ignătescu, 2020). this phenomenon can be subsumed to violence against oneself, interpersonal and collective violence. the classification in one category or another is made according to the particularity of the act and the relationship between the offender and the minor. abuse and neglect are the main forms of violence against minors, and they find their regulation in law no. 272/2004 (parliament of romania, 2004) on the protection and advocacy of the rights of the child. child abuse is understood as “any voluntary action of a person who is in a relationship of responsibility, trust or authority towards him, by which life, physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development, bodily integrity, the physical or mental health of the child are endangered”. child neglect is understood as “the omission of a person who has the responsibility of raising, caring or educating the child to take any measure subordinated to this responsibility, which endangers life, physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development, bodily integrity, physical or psychic health of the child.” neglect results in situations where the parents or persons in the care of the minor involuntarily fail to provide the care and education the child needs and thus endanger the physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development, integrity physical, mental or physical health of the child. if the omission is voluntary, the abuse will be demonstrated. in other words, the difference between abuse (ill treatment applied to the minor) and negligence is realized by the subjective side of the act. thus, the abuse has as guilt forms of the intention (direct, indirect) or praeterintent, while the fault enters the form of violence in the category of negligence. all these mark the difference between the act and the crime, that commits criminal liability through art. 197 of the new penal code /npc (parliament of romania, 2009). 2. the battered child syndrome in forensic medicine, forms of physical violence are reflected in the battered child syndrome. the history of this syndrome begins in 1946 when brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 24 john caffey titled an article “multiple fractures in the long bones of infants suffering from chronic subdural hematoma.” (caffey, 1946/2010). dr. caffey describes in detail the history of 6 children under 1 year of age who had chronic subdural hematoma in association with multiple long bone fractures (total 23 fractures). but after eliminating all the probable pathologies, it did not establish the certain traumatic etiology of the lesions (geddes et al., 2000). it was not until 1962 that kempe et al., in the article “the battered child syndrome”, managed to impose the unanimous recognition of this syndrome (kempe et al., 1962). silverman syndrome (which recognizes injuries of violence anywhere on the body surface produced by any mechanism) is accepted as shaken baby syndrome (sbs), which is a form of acute (or chronic) encephalopathy with hematoma or blade of subdural haemorrhage, retinal haemorrhage and other lesions produced in a unclear context in a child under 3 years (some authors mention 5 years; most commonly, 1 year) (johnson et al., 2013). the suspicion of this syndrome should be raised in practice (kamberi, 2018) in the following cases: child brought to hospital with an acute (manifestation) lesion +/other old or recent lesions (bruises, burns, fractures, malnutrition, dehydration, erythema fesier); or without evidence on the external examination, delay in presenting the child to the doctor, the marked discrepancy between the history provided by the parents (vague, contradictory) and the obvious signs with the tendency to (self) explain: “it makes easy bruises, it always falls, it is fastidious / has multiple allergy” (johnson et al., 2013). 3. shaken baby syndrome from the epidemiological point of view, sbs predominates in children under 3 years, with the maximum incidence below 1 year, with a death rate of 10-40%, and, in the survival cases, the incidence of sequelae is 93% (behavioral, cognitive disorders, cerebral palsy, blindness, epilepsy). in 55% of cases, boys are the ones affected (probably due to the fact that in boys there is a faster increase in volume of the cranial cavity in relation to the content, thus the brain has more freedom of movement). the portrait of the offender (sandu, 2018) is characterized by under the age of 25 and male, having the quality of parent, friend of parents, babysitter. risk factors are: young parents, emotionally immature, unstable family situation (recent divorce), prematurity of the child, low socioviolence on minors in forensic medicine iuliana hunea, et al. 25 economic status, depressive situations (loss of work place, death in the family), birth of another child, family with a history of intra-familial abuse (meytahler et al., 2001). as aetiology of the syndrome, the following mechanisms are incriminated: by vigorous shaking of the child’s chest, arms, shoulders or feet, repeated movements of flexion-extension are printed on the cephalic extremity, all the more pronounced in infants who do not have welldeveloped cervical musculature. it is a traumatic association without impact, produced by an indirect whiplash mechanism, with repeated accelerationsdecelerations and consecutive flexion-extension movements of the head. the most dangerous ones are the angular accelerations in the rotating component movements because there are unequal, asymmetrical slippages of the cerebral hemispheres relative to each other, relative to the walls of the skull, with an impact with both the walls of the brain and the brain itself. also, the centrifugal force resulting from the rotational movement removes the hemispheres from each other, putting stress on the callus body and producing lesions at this level. however, there are also authors who do not recognize the veracity of this mechanism and who state that such injuries cannot be caused by the mere shaking of the body, in the absence of an impact between the head and a body/hard surface (cf. experiment duhaime on primates would require acceleration of 300g to induce injuries, or by shaking, forces of maximum 10g are developed) (johnson et al., 2013; smith et al., 2003). of course, there are patterns of injuries with an impact on the head, in these cases the lesions being somewhat specific to the classical mechanical traumatic mechanisms (adapted to the particularities of the infant’s craniocerebral brain; e.g., rare contusions of the counter-stroke or extradural hematoma), but the specialized literature recognizes, in most cases, and supports, the existence of pure sbs, without impact. characteristic of sbs is the discrepancy between external (minor) and internal brain lesions (subdural hematomas, subarachnoid hemorrhage, cerebral contusions, cervical spinal cord injury, retinal hemorrhage, diffuse axonal injury). subdural hematoma is found in over 90% of cases. it is produced by the rupture of the cortico-dural veins, as a result of the antero-posterior shear by the flexion-extension movements imprinted on the head of the child. it can be unior bilateral with the tendency to expand in the interhemispheric ditch. in many cases the volume of the hematoma is not a substitute for space, in contrast to the serious clinical condition of the patient, which makes us believe that, in the sbs, the subdural hematoma brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 26 would not cause death. in any case, it serves as an indicator of brain trauma. occasionally, there have been cases of chronic hsd with re-bleeding, indicating repeated abuse as chronic hsd with risk of re-bleeding is encountered only in children with coagulopathy, cerebral atrophy or hydrocephalus. as well, subdural hematomas of different ages can coexist, attesting repeated traumas. retinal hemorrhages are present in 85-100% of cases, being represented by preretinal, intraretinal and retroretinal hemorrhages, often with a confluent character, less often than in vitreous hemorrhage (10%); sometimes they are accompanied by detachment/rupture, infarction or optic nerve atrophy. in 81-85% retinal lesions are bilateral (knight, 1976). no link has been established between the localization of the retinal (right/left) hemorrhage with that of the subdural hematomas. to explain these injuries, several theories have been issued: hypertension in the retinal venous system (in the central vein of the retina) as a result of cerebral edema; vascular mechanism: transient stopping of blood flow due to compression of the carotid-ophthalmic vascular system during shaking of the head or through retinal vasospasm; direct mechanical mechanism: displacement of the vitreous => traction of the retina; vascular rupture due to the sliding of the retinal layers and their disruption; acute chest compression, with valsalva effect and with retinal hemorrhages due to increased intracranial venous pressure (very rarely separated after cardio-respiratory resuscitation); the strong fractionation of the optic nerves by the brain sliding inside the cranial box, for this mechanism advocating the relatively frequent findings of retinal haemorrhages with a concentric character around the papilla of the optic nerve. the cerebral contusion occurs very rarely and is caused by the morphological immaturity of the brain structures, with the lack of myelination; it occurs more frequently in the calyx body, in the basal faces of the frontal and temporal lobes (by contact with the rough surface of the base of the skull) and in the superior cerebellar peduncles (by striking the cerebellum tent), being usually accompanied by cerebral edema, which has moderate intensity (adams et al., 1982). spinal cord injuries are subdural hematomas and high cervical spinal contusions explaining respiratory rate disorders. violence on minors in forensic medicine iuliana hunea, et al. 27 diffuse axonal lesions (lads) are reducible and typical lesions for sbs, probably involved more than the subdural hematoma in the unfortunate prognosis of the syndrome (povlishock, 1992). these occur as a result of the rotating movements of the head, which creates shear forces, the technique of identifying these lesions being the immunolabeling for 68-kda neurofilament and for the precursor protein of beta amyloid (beta-app), thus visualizing the axonal amputation bulbs, in the form of round or oval axonal retraction balls (knight, 1976). a macroscopic indicator would be the vascular lesions that accompany the axonal ones that are seen as dots or fine hemorrhagic stripes (streak hemorrages) in the white substance; they are inconsistent in children due to the high elasticity of the vessels in this age category; the affected areas of choice are the bald body, the parasagittal white matter, the bridge, the cerebral aqueduct (knight, 1976; mimasaka et al., 2000). the lads are probably more involved than the subdural hematoma in the unfortunate prognosis of the syndrome; affirmation supported by clinical evidence: in cases that showed no more than this lesion, the clinic was dominated by lethargy, unconsciousness, respiratory depression/apnea, seizures. during normal head movement, the tension developed in the axons is not harmful, in vitro studies showing that the axon has the capacity to extend up to 100% of its length, due to the viscoelasticity, without causing intraaxonal injury. the axonal injury is dependent on the magnitude and duration of the force (mimasaka et al., 2000). the physical properties of the brain, such as its mass and shape, are essential. the density differences between the gray and the white substances explain why lads are formed at the limit by shear, tension and compression forces. the presence of the brain stem can be a barrier, which the brain hits, especially in the lateral movements, for which these movements are considered more likely to produce lads than the posterior ones. also, in the rotational movement, the cerebral hemispheres move away from each other, thus explaining the lesions from the level of the callous body (johnson et al., 2013). the forces acting on the skull box are not fully understood but are common both in road accidents and in precipitation, through acceleration-deceleration mechanisms, and also in the so-called “baby shaken syndrome” (mimasaka et al., 2000). regarding the last pathological entity listed above, joseph shapiro has launched a new hypothesis regarding the thalatogenesis, claiming that death does not occur as a result of lad production but as a result of nerve damage that irritates the diaphragm at the time of the extensive neck flexion, death being caused by respiratory failure. after trauma to the brain, two pathological forms appear in the injured axons. initially called retraction bulbs, they were brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 28 identified at the proximal end of the interrupted axon (geddes et al., 2000). later it was observed that these bulbs are formed by progressive axonal focal dilatation, which eventually leads to secondary axotomy, now called axonal bulbs or reactive axonal swelling. in other axons, these dilations have been observed not to evolve, taking the name of axonal varicosities. in humans, this swelling is visible from the first hour after trauma, appearing as dilations of 10-20μm, which increase in size, reaching 24-48 hours at 50μm. during this time the sweeling can coexist with the retraction bulbs and with the progressive sweeling (davis et al., 1984; centerwall et al., 2000). it was found that in the most affected axons, disturbances of sodium homeostasis and intracellular calcium are observed, with the elevation of its levels producing progressive focal dissolutions at the system level of alpha2spectrine and ankyrin 3 subaxolemia and with the passive accumulation of water, which contributes to the progression of sweelling (centerwall et al., 2000). with these, we note the mitochondrial impairment with the alteration of the cytoskeleton and including axonal transport, resulting in cellular debris that accumulates at the level of the swelling. this process leads to secondary or delayed axotomy, which disconnects the two axonal ends, forming the characteristic image of the lad, namely the retraction bulbs, widely characterized by povlishock (povlishock, 1992), who initially claimed that mechanical forces act directly on the cytoskeleton and neurofilaments, with subsequent disruption of axonal transport. during this time, adams and colab. were the ones who argued that the secondary axotomy is the result of focal alterations of the axolemy permeability, with the massive increase in the influx of ca (adams et al., 1982; davis et al., 1984; centerwall et al., 2000; maxwell, 1996). even if not even identified immunohistochemically, the presence of triple association (subdural haemorrhage, subarachnoid haemorrhage, retinal haemorrhages) should be the marker of lad convulsions. glasgow score (gcs) is one of the most important indicators of the severity of traumatic interest in brain function in sbs. the data on the average glasgow score in patients with sbs at the time of presentation to the emergency department vary by author, most of them being in the range 9-12 gcs, with a correlation between gcs severity and prognosis (centerwall et al., 2000; maxwell, 1996). gillilanda has developed a definition of sbs based on clinical diagnostic criteria: equimotic marks of compression with the fingers and/or costal fractures; subdural and/or leptomeningeal hemorrhage; strong shake history (strich, 1956). according to this researcher, at least two criteria met diagnose sbs. violence on minors in forensic medicine iuliana hunea, et al. 29 paraclinical investigations are: eyeball, ct, mri, rx, laboratory blood tests (for differential diagnosis of hemorrhagic lesions), lumbar puncture. the differential diagnosis is made by coagulation disorders, ocular hemorrhages during labor or as a result of resuscitation (although very rare occurrences are considered), other retinopathies, any other cause of subdural hematoma, including its production by direct cranial impact. the prognosis is unfavorable: 19% of the victims die, 55% have neurological sequelae, 65% have visual sequelae disorders, while only 22% are completely cured. it seems that, except for the cases of cures without sequelae, the usual evolution of brain lesions is towards hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, which is sometimes also cause of death. at 6 months after trauma, the lesions are already stabilized, when the victims may have multicystic encephalomalacia, porencephaly, diffuse cortical atrophy, microglia, hydrocephalus or retinal detachment, optic nerve atrophy. (strich, 1956). in addition to the characteristic sbs lesions listed above, in a child with silverman syndrome, lesions of ano-genital abuse, linear fractures of the parietal bones, tegument burned with cigarettes, signs of hot water immersion, old scars, traumatic alopecia (isolated, positioned), contagious wounds of the lips, dental expulsion, malnutrition, dehydration, weight loss, developmental delay, poor hygiene, costal fractures at different stages of healing, long bone fractures with spiral path (very suggestive in a child under 1 year that still does not walk, clearly caused by the twist of the member) can be identified. extremity fractures are found in 77% of abused children. epiphyseal-metaphyseal fractures are highly suggestive of abuse because the force required to produce them must be much greater than that encountered in accidental traumas at this age (generally by forced grasping and snatching of the forearm of the child) (merten et al., 1983). 4. ill-treatment applied to the minore case report in order to illustrate violence directed at minors, we will present a case from the forensic practice, which initially raised the suspicion of illtreatment applied to the minor, attracting in the alternative to request further forensic expertise. we will propose the case of the so-called a.i., age 1 year and 4 months, from the rural area, on whose behalf a traumatological expertise was ordered to be performed. brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 30 the minor was admitted for 9 days with the diagnosis of “unspecified degeneration of the lower limb”. the history of the disease records that the above is addressed urgently for edema in the lower limbs. he is hospitalized for clinicalbiological and specialized imaging behavior. the pediatric surgery examination includes: hypotonia, psychomotor retardation, small skull (-2 ds), weight hypotrophy (g.-2.92 ds; t-0.760 ds), craniofacial dysmorphism, hypopigmented skin. from the pediatric consultation we note: the child has signs and symptoms that may suggest phenylketonuria. at the inspection of the lower limbs, there is edema, redness at the level of the bilateral limb, and at the level of the right leg there are yellowwhite spots. sensitivity and peripheral pulse are present. the pediatric examination records that there are clinical signs and symptoms that may suggest phenylketonuric pathology. from the neurological consultation, the cranial perimeter of 43 cm and mild psychomotor retardation are retained. psychological consultation records delays in psychic and language development, psychomotor agitation. x-ray of the fist revealed a bone age corresponding to the chronological age of 10 months. the metaphyses of the forearm bones have a regular outline. it is discharged with the diagnoses “degeneration of the foot, grade i, bilateral; acute tracheobronchitis; iron deficiency anemia; delay in psychosomatic and language development; psychosomatic agitation; slight psychomotor delay; observation of phenylketonuria (under investigation)”. at the impartia forensic examination performed two months after the discharge, the absence of traumatic injuries is noted on the date of examination, a weight of 9 kg, a waist of 72 cm. while the first-degree frostbite of the lower limbs are reversible lesions, without the potential for themselves to affect further development (characterized by local erythema and edema), the same cannot be said about the diagnoses of “delay in psychic development and language; slight psychomotor delay”. at the same time, it should not be omitted that the frosts are the result of exposure to cold, a physical factor that acts both locally (the production of frosts by rapid exposure pediatric consultation “at the inspection of the lower limbs edema, redness at the level of the bilateral limb, and at the level of the right foot is observed yellow-white spots. sensitivity and peripheral pulse present “and of the acute pernio by slow exposure over a long time at low temperatures 4-6 ºc), as well as in violence on minors in forensic medicine iuliana hunea, et al. 31 general, with severe thermoregulation disorders (all the more stressed in children and the elderly), exposure that sustained and prolonged can lead to hypothermia, with the death of the victim. to form, the frostibite requires a stage of exposure to the cold with zonal vasoconstriction, a period of heating, with vasodilation and increased local blood flow. depending on the extent of these vascular changes, different severity results from the first degree the easiest, to the fourth degree the most severe, with necrosis of the entire affected segment. the first degree frostbite present in the case of the minor are erythema-edematous, with the red, hot and swollen skin, all of which are reversible changes. regarding the diagnoses of “delay in psychic development and language; slight psychomotor delay, hypotrophy, at the pediatric examination, the clinical picture composed of hypotonia, psychomotor retardation, small skull (-2 ds), weight hypotrophy (g.-2.92 ds; t 0.760 ds), craniofacial dysmorphism, hypopigmented skin, it seems to be that of a phenylketonuria, an aspect also recorded in the observation sheet. phenylketonuria is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder that affects the metabolism of phenylananine, by the enzymatic deficiency of phenylananinhydroxylase. in patients with phenylketonuria, it is not possible to convert phenylalanine into tyrosine; phenylalanine accumulates in the blood while the tyrosine concentration decreases, resulting in melanin deficiency, which explains the hypopigmentation of the skin. excess phenylalanine in the blood is toxic to the nervous system and disrupts the development of the child’s brain, with repercussions on the development of the intellect. some of the excess phenylalanine reaches the systemic level, where the white matter affects the white matter by neuronal demyelination, and another part is converted into phenyl ketones and excreted in the urine. in romania, the screening test for phenylketonuria is performed routinely in maternity hospitals. given that this was a home childbirth, with subsequent travel to maternity, the mpother could not say whether the test was performed. subsequently, it was confirmed that the test was performed and the results did not require further diagnostic investigations, with phenylketonuria (phenylanaine 0.43 mg/dl in the first determination and 0.48 mg/dl in the second determination) being denied. weight hypotrophy recorded in the pediatric examination (g.-2.92 ds; t.-0.76 ds) correlated with psychomotor retardation, deficient anemia and bone age on left wrist x-ray of 10 months, lead to deprivation nutrition, as an etiological factor incriminated. normal growth is defined by progression in weight and height consistent with established standards for age and sex, related to individual brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 32 genetic potential and to hormonal, environmental, socio-economic and cultural factors. waist, weight and speed of growth are currently the parameters unanimously accepted by the world health organization as markers of health status. the auxologic evaluation remains the method of choice in the early detection of growth and development disorders (chitescu et al., 2018). these parameters are compared with those of other healthy children, of the same age, sex and from the same geographical area graphically represented by a standardized gaussian curve the world health organization (who, 1995) (chart 1). chart 1 of the reference values, the average is at the tip of the curve, and the deviations are expressed by the percentile or standard deviation (ds) violence on minors in forensic medicine iuliana hunea, et al. 33 method, with an accepted deviation from the ideal values of + 2 ds (diaconu et al., 2013). for a quicker interpretation, in pediatric practice, the chart proposed by who has been transposed into values shown in the table below. the number of standard deviations for each parameter is calculated using the formula: ds = real parameter ideal parameter for age ds tabular (table 1) table 1 age (months) waist sd waist weight sd weight 14 74.8 2.6 9.71 0.79 15 75.9 2.7 9.92 0.80 16 77 2.7 10.15 0.81 17 78 2.8 10.38 0.82 18 79 2.9 10.56 0.84 19 79.9 2.9 10.74 0.85 20 80.8 3.0 10.91 0.87 21 81.7 3.0 11.04 0.88 22 82.8 3.0 11.25 0.89 23 83.5 3.1 11.42 0.90 24 84.2 3.1 11.58 0.91 the forensic examination performed showed that the 1 year and four months (16 months) child weighed 9 kg and had a waist of 72 cm. by applying the above formula, the following ds values for waist and weight are obtained: sd weight = 9-10,15 = -1,41 ds 0,81 sd waist = 72-77 = -1,85 ds 2,7 the obtained values fall within the accepted deviations, of + 2 ds, from which it results that the weight deficit present at the hospitalization (g.-2.92 ds) has been recovered. in contrast, the ds for the waist, although still within the accepted parameters, increased. the correction of the weight deficit, after the period of hospitalization and the emergency placement in a social institution, is still a factor that supports the etiology by the deficit of brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 34 contribution of the weight hypotrophy, resulting in the fact that the changes were reversible (chart 2). chart 2 parents hospital social shelter nutrition particularly influences height-weight development. thus, overfeeding leads to a height-weight advance with the conclusion of the increase in higher height, while malnutrition causes height-weight delay and neurological disorders, elements found in the case in question. another factor that influences somatic growth is the affectiveeducational environment in which the child develops. a balanced environment with the presence of both parents leads to a harmonious development, while a disharmonious family environment leads to a growth delay. this aspect is verified in the case in question because, although the weight deficit was corrected during the placement of the minor, ds of the waist, still in normal parameters, increased, moving away from the median. the model of the height-weight growth has variations in time, so the evaluation is done by reference to the stage of development of the child and to the age. the growth is divided into four periods: 1: prenatal 2: first years 3: 4 years the beginning of puberty violence on minors in forensic medicine iuliana hunea, et al. 35 4: pubertal the deficit present at admission in the case in question is in the second period of growth, in which the child grows up without specific hormonal influences. hormonal deficits may go unnoticed during this period because no marked growth disorders occur. in contrast, deficits in these early years may cause a slowdown in growth (table 2). table 2 endocrine causes other causes • permanent sth deficiency (idiopathic, genetic, congenital, acquired) • transient sth deficiency (prepubertal, hypothyroidism) • excess glucocorticoids (cushing's syndrome) • pseudohipoparatiroidism • diabetes • untreated diabetes insipidus • genetic growth delay • constitutional growth delay • intrauterine growth retardation (russell silver, embryo-fetopathies: toxoplasmosis, rubella) • genetic diseases (turner, prader willi, lawrence moon) • chronic diseases: cardiovascular (congenital heart disease with left right shunt, congestive heart failure); pulmonary (bronchial asthma, cystic fibrosis); gastrointestinal (celiac disease, crohn's disease); hematological (thalassemia, siclemia); renal (chronic uremia, renal tubular acidosis); immunological (rheumatoid arthritis juvenile); neurological (cranial tumors); • malnutrition (anorexia, postchemotherapy anorexia, psycho-affective deprivation) 5. conclusions the lesions and pathologies present seem to show serious negligence, which of course must be proved by the investigation of the competent bodies. without substituting us for the magistrates, we believe that, if this had been proven, the case would have been classified by the prosecutor or paid by the court because the offense under art. 197 of the npc bears only on the intention and the pretense as guilt. brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 36 references adams, j. h., graham, d. i., murray, l. s., & scott, g. (1982). difuse axonal injury due to nonmissile head injury in humans: an analysis of 45 cases. annals of neurology, 12(6), 557-563. https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.410120610 caffey, j. (2010). multiple fractures in the long bones of infants suffering from chronic subdural hematoma. clinical orthopaedics and related research, 469(3), 755–758. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-010-1666-0 (original paper published 1946). centerwall, s. a., centerwall, w. r. (2000). the discovery of phenylketonuria: the story of a young couple, two retarded children, and a scientist. pediatrics,105(1), 89–103. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.105.1.89 chitescu, c. l., radu, a. d., aciu, f., & moraru, m. (2018). new psychoactive substances (npss) abuse in romania: analytical strategies for drug screening in biological samples using high resolution mass spectrometry. romanian journal of legal medicine, 26(2), 173-182. davis, j. h., rao, v. j., & valdes-dapena, m. (1984). a forensic science approach to a starved child. journal of forensic sciences, 29(2), 663-669. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6233391 diaconu, d., cirdeiu, e., anton-păduraru, d. t., trandafir, l. m., oltean, c., burlacu, m., & grigore, i. (2013). pediatrie: suport de lucrări practice pentru studenţii facultăţii de medicină (pp. 25-32). editura «gr.t.popa» umf iaşi. geddes, j. f., whitwell, h. l., & graham, d. i. (2000). traumatic axonal injury: practical issues for diagnosis in medicolegal cases, neuropathology and applied neurobiology, 26(2), 105-116. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.13652990.2000.026002105.x johnson, v. e., stewart, w., & smith, d. h. (2013). axonal pathology in traumatic brain injury. experimental neurology, 246, 35-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2012.01.013 kamberi, f. (2019). knowledge and attitudes of nurses toward the use of nursing diagnosis in clinical practice. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 2(2), 43-55. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/14 kempe, c. h., silverman, f. n., steele, b. f., droegemueller, w., & silver, h. k. (1962). the battered-child syndrome. the journal of the american medical association(jama), 181(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1962.03050270019004 knight, b. (1976). forensic problems in practice. xi. injury from physical agents. practitioner, 217(1301), 813-18. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/995837 https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.410120610 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-010-1666-0 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.105.1.89 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6233391 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2990.2000.026002105.x https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2990.2000.026002105.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2012.01.013 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/14 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1962.03050270019004 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/995837 violence on minors in forensic medicine iuliana hunea, et al. 37 maxwell, w. l. (1996). histopathological canges in central nodals of ranvier after strech injury. microscopy research and technique, 34(6), 522-535. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8842021 merten, d. f., radkowski, m. a., & leonidas, j. c. (1983). the abused child: a radiological reappraisal. radiology, 146(2), 377-381. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiology.146.2.6849085 meythaler, j. m., peduzzi, j. d., eleftheriou, e., & novack, t. a. (2001). current concepts: diffuse axonal injury-associated traumatic brain injury. archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 82(10), 1461–1471. https://doi.org/10.1053/apmr.2001.25137 mimasaka, s., funayama, m., adachi, n., nata, m., & morita, m. (2000). a fatal case of infantile scurvy. international journal of legal medicine, 144(1-2), 122124. https://doi.org/10.1007/s004140000150 nambo, j. (2019). learning from violence: middle-school principals facing school violence prevention programs. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(3), 163-179. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/163 parliament of romania. (2004). law no. 272/2004 on the protection and promotion of the rights of the child. romanian official gazette, part i, 557. [rom.] parliament of romania. (2009). the new penal code. art. 197. retrieved from https://lege5.ro/gratuit/gezdmnrzgi/codul-penal-din2009?pid=41994642#p-41994642 [rom.] povlishock, j. t. (1992). traumatically induced axonal injury: pathogenesis and pathobiological implications. brain pathology, 2(1), 1–12. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1341941 sandu, a., & ignătescu, c. (2020). social construction of the legal system. research in the northeastern region of romania. postmodern openings, 11(1), 111-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/111 sandu, a. (2019). the social construction of probation counselor: comparative qualitative analysis in romania and the republic of moldova. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 7(2), 72-99. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10 smith, d. h., meaney, d., & shull, w. h. (2003). diffuse axonal injury in head trauma. journal of head trauma rehabilitation, 18(4), 307–316. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001199-200307000-00003 strich, s. j. (1956). diffuse degeneration of the cerebral white matter in severe dementia following head injury. journal of neurology, neurosurgery & psychiatry, 19(3), 163–185. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.19.3.163 world health organization. (1995). physical status: the use and interpretation of anthropometry. technical report series no. 854, 121-311. retrieved from https://www.who.int/childgrowth/publications/physical_status/en/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8842021 https://doi.org/10.1148/radiology.146.2.6849085 https://doi.org/10.1053/apmr.2001.25137 https://doi.org/10.1007/s004140000150 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/163 https://lege5.ro/gratuit/gezdmnrzgi/codul-penal-din-2009?pid=41994642#p-41994642 https://lege5.ro/gratuit/gezdmnrzgi/codul-penal-din-2009?pid=41994642#p-41994642 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1341941 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/111 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10 https://doi.org/10.1097/00001199-200307000-00003 https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.19.3.163 https://www.who.int/childgrowth/publications/physical_status/en/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, pages: 01-16 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/138 peculiarities of self-image dependence of the students with high level of neuroticity oleksandra kuzo¹, liubov kuzo 2 , olha zaverukha 3 1 ph. d. in psychology, assistant professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, lesyabasyuk@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7028-7180 2 ph. d. in psychology, associate professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, kuzolyubov09@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-3262 3 ph. d. in psychology, lecturer at the department of practical psychology and pedagogy, lviv state university of life safety, lviv, ukraine, olichka.zaverukha@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2701-2215 abstract: the article presents the authors’ theoretical model of selfimage functioning with a peripheral part on the border of the relationship between the self and the significant other person. an experimental study of the peculiarities of self-image dependence is provided. the study involved 150 students of lviv state university of internal affairs. peculiarities of self-relation (dependence of the self-image on significant other people) of students with high and moderate levels of neuroticism have been studied. the method of rapid diagnosis of neurosis (k. heck; h. hess), methods of self-assessment of mental states (according to h. eysenck), author's experimental study of the "dependent" characteristic of the self-image were used. correlation analysis and mann-whitney comparative analysis were used for statistical data processing. as a result of the ascertaining experiment, it was found that the peripheral part of the self-image of boys and girls with a high level of neuroticism (hn) is more dependent on the opinion of reference other people (unstable selfimage) than of persons with moderate neuroticism (mn) and this is accompanied by high levels of anxiety, frustration and rigidity. the hypothesis that students with a high level of neuroticism will more often depend on the opinion of significant others than students with a moderate level of neuroticism was confirmed. the studentship is a sensitive period for effective psycho-correctional influences in order to form a stable, positive and independent self-image, and therefore, the quality use of psychological services of psycho-corrective influences can significantly affect well-being, learning and quality of life. the self-awareness of students with a high level of neuroticism should be considered both as the main object and as a fundamental support for psycho-correctional influence, and the resource of this influence should be sought in an adequate relationship. keywords: self-concept; self-image; high level of neuroticism; moderate level of neuroticism; students; institution of higher education. how to cite: kuzo, o., kuzo, l., & zaverukha, o. (2020). peculiarities of self-image dependence of the students with high level of neuroticity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 01-16. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/138 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/138 mailto:lesyabasyuk@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7028-7180 mailto:kuzolyubov09@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-3262 mailto:olichka.zaverukha@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2701-2215 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/138 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 2 1. introduction the current socio-psychological conditions in ukraine and in many other countries of the world, associated with the rapid pace of life, economic instability, political conflicts and the rapid outspread of covid-19 are becoming increasingly critical and threatening to the psychological functioning. today, the process of mass neurotization of the population no longer surprises anyone and is perceived, rather as a kind of lifestyle with an extraordinary level of emotional tension. according to european data, the number of patients with neuroses is 4-5 times higher than the number of other diseases, despite the fact that many disorders of the neurotic nature remain out of sight of neurologists (semke, 2001). and this is not the latest data. in such difficult conditions, special attention deserves the state of mental health of student youth, which is a special age and social stratum, characterized by an increased risk of mental health disorders caused by increased sensitivity due to age, high mental load, mental tension (karpenko et al., 2012; smith et al., 2017; walker et al., 2017).the problems of students arise interest of contemporary researchers in various aspects (tsilmak et al., 2020; topuzov et al., 2020; gonta & bulgac, 2019; voloshenko et al., 2020). the phenomenological and syndromological basis of personal response to changing conditions of the social environment largely depends on the internal awareness, consistency, stability and integration of the individual (related to its self-concept). socio-economic instability largely becomes psychological instability. it has a particularly negative impact on the formation of young people, when seemingly regular age-related processes of mental integration lose their function. it is an indisputable fact, that mental and psychological health of student youth has a significant impact on their academic performance, job search and quality of life in general. and no matter how perfect the learning process is, it is largely the mental health of young people that determines how well it can be used. therefore, the focus of our study is to identify the features of the self-image stability under the influence of the referent others of boys and girls with high level of neuroticism. 2. literature review from a clinical point of view, liedloff points out that the collective term «neurosis» includes a wide range of different psychological symptoms and diseases, when not only biological but also psychological and social laws http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=2723593 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=3704080 peculiarities of self-image dependence of the students with high level … oleksandra kuzo, liubov kuzo, olha zaverukha 3 are violated (liedloff, 1991). the issue of creating a basic contractual model that would facilitate the dialogue among experts on neurotic disorders remains relevant today (wegemer, 2020; simoncic et al., 2014). it is with the self-concept that most experts in this field associate the basic defect in terms of neuroses (adler, 2002; horney, 1994; rogers, 2012; kohut, 2009; kernberg, 2001; zaharov, 2000; mjasishchev, 2013; kim et al. 2020; basiuk, 2009; jeronimus et al., 2013). however, their researches in most cases are based on the clinical position of the vision of neuroses. we will mainly use the concept of «neuroticism» (which is much broader than the concept of «neurosis» or «neurotic disorders» in the narrow clinical sense of these words) identifying it with «neurotic clients». there are few such studies today (vinkers et al., 2014; kopala-sibley et al., 2020). therefore, we shift our emphasis from medicine and symptomatic treatment to a more psychological sphere, where understanding the mechanisms of formation of personality traits can help to find the deep patterns of neuroticism. understanding the disease and the healing process as something that arises in interaction and communication with people is a leading position not only in the works by sullivan (2000), but also mjasishchev (2013), kohut (2009) and others. the mechanisms of the «neurotic self-consciousness» formation become clear through the rejection of the true self. instead, pseudo-self emerges, whose relationship is built through clearly defined defensive strategies to avoid anxiety or maintain self-esteem, which is initially «defective». this can happen in quite different ways: analysis of problems without delving into them (rationalization, cynicism), symbiotic attachment to others to find early feelings of child safety or avoiding problems by escaping into disease, causing harm to others through their own tension (aggression) (gelan, 2009; popovici, & buica-belciu, 2013). neurotic individuals are quite resourceful in finding similar ways to deal with anxiety and inability to make mature decisions (liedloff, 1991). on the other hand, the decisions of neurotics are often quite effective, but require excessive waste of energy, which deprives them of interest in life, because the main task is still to overcome anxiety (aldinger et al., 2014). the origin of such mechanisms is rooted in early childhood and depends on the sensitivity or insensitivity of self-objects (important figures for the child mother and father or people who replaced them) to child’s needs. fighting for the love of important other people, the child is ready to give up their own needs and does so in a way parallel to the formation of pseudo-self (kohut, 2009).thus, interpersonal relationships form the basis of a neurotic process that can eventually be engraved in the ego-syntonic http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=29785935 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=10864232 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=34703092 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=34709993 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=30074033 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=1698394 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=5367688 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=6712098 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=9520353 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 4 shell when the concept of «failed life» is formed (pospelova, & kosyanova, 2017; ryum et al., 2014; stan, 2015). we can start talking about the clearly carved features of neuroticism from a young age, when the central psychological neoplasm is already a stable self-awareness and a stable self-image, when own model of personality appears, by which the attitude to oneself and others is marked (cuperman et al. 2014). the main task of the article is: to trace the peculiarities of selfrelation (dependence of the self-image) from significant others of students with a high and normal level of neuroticism, that is to find out the features of the dynamic component of the self-image, and its peripheral part. the hypotheses are assumed that students with high level of neuroticism are more often tend to depend on the opinions of significant others than students with a medium and moderate level of neuroticism. understanding the relationship between self-image dependence and the level of neuroticism can be a professional tool in correcting the level of neuroticism, and thus improving the quality of life of student youth. based on the analysis, synthesis and generalization of the theoretical material, a theoretical model of the functioning of the self-image with a peripheral part on the border of the relationship between the self and the significant other was constructed (fig. 1). the core part of the self-image in this model includes what is inherent in all people and has the potential for development: the tendency to self-actualization, the desire for power (maddi, 2002) and those innate characteristics that are called the constitution in the literature, as well as basic ideas about themselves, which are formed as a result of physical well-being or ill-being of the organism in the early stages of ontogenesis (bodalev, 2000; kernberg, 2001). fig. 1. theoretical model of the functioning of the self-image with the peripheral part on the border of the relationship of self significant other. source: authors’ own contribution http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=15724228 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=15724228 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=3737278 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=3638523 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=10872262 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=10872262 peculiarities of self-image dependence of the students with high level … oleksandra kuzo, liubov kuzo, olha zaverukha 5 the peripheral part of the self-image is called the zone that surrounds the core of the self (as a source of basic self-awareness and personal integration) and is responsible for creative adaptation in reference relations. new experience enters here, identity is enhanced through this area, and behaviour is corrected. when a significant other fall into the zone of object influence, it can lead to changes in the peripheral part of the selfimage. a significant other is understood as a person with whom there is an emotional "intimacy", however, not only from the position of support ("supporting figure", "sympathetic") but also from the position of frustration ("frustrating figure", "antipathetic"). on the one hand, the peripheral part is the adaptation zone, and on the other – the site responsible for the level of neuroticism. this model makes it possible to substantiate the concept of neuroticism, the stability of the peripheral part of the self-image, and genesis under the influence of relationships that are significant for boys and girls. the stability of the self-image (as a manifestation of the self-concept) and the level of neuroticism may be in a certain relationship. of special importance is the issue of identifying the features of the stability of the selfimage of boys and girls with a high level of neuroticism. thus, the theoretical analysis of the problem allows to assert that the issue of the stability of the self-concept requires a comprehensive study and is a matter of selected theoretical logic, an understanding of the age features of the formation of a personality, the strength of external interference and mental norms. 3. research methodology classical test methods and questionnaires only are not enough for a comprehensive study of neuroticism, since a neurotic has the ability to distort reality in his "neurotic way." there is a need to supplement test methods with projective techniques and competently designed experimental research. a group of respondents. the study involved 150 students of lviv state university of internal affairs, aged 18-21, including 45 boys and 105 girls. the interviewees studied at the faculty of psychology. on the basis of cluster analysis, 2 groups of subjects were singled out: boys and girls with a high level of neuroticism (hn); boys and girls with a moderate level of neuroticism (mn). below we propose to consider the general scheme of our research (abridged version): brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 6 stage i – initial measurements. the technique for express diagnostics of neurosis k. heck; h. hess (rajgorods'kij, 2001). "self-assessment of mental states" (according to eysenck) – determines the level of anxiety, frustration, aggression, and rigidity (rajgorods'kij, 2001); stage ii – experimental study of "dependent" characteristics of the self-image (exp. №1) 1) the respondents were offered the following instructions: remember your positive and negative traits. rank them according to the suggested list. put 1 point in front of the trait that is most inherent in you, 2 points – in front of the one that is slightly less inherent… and 17 – in the least inherent in you (self 1). 2) the respondents chose two emotionally significant persons (the most pleasant and unpleasant of the group) and gave them a red (positive) and blue (negative) card. 3) therefore, a triangle was formed, in which each subject had the opportunity to receive 2 feedbacks from important persons in the group (conventionally called "sympathetic" s and "antipathetic" a). the person being examined positive object negative object supporting figure ("sympathetic") frustrating figure ("antipathetic") the selected persons made a personal portrait of the subject by ranking the same 17 features on separate cards. the respondents, having studied the “opinion of others about themselves”, could express their comments and make adjustments, share their impressions through an emotional reaction. 4) at the end of the lesson, after the received feedback, the subject was given the task to re-evaluate himself/herself, ranking the above 17 features (self 2). peculiarities of self-image dependence of the students with high level … oleksandra kuzo, liubov kuzo, olha zaverukha 7 the final card of the subject, after transferring all the data, is presented in table 1. table 1. an example of the data obtained on the respondent x as a result of exp. № 1 we received similar results as a consequence of the exp. №2 (after psychocorrective classes). stage ііі psychocorrective classes (training) (15 classes 2.5 hours) stage іv final measurements: method of express diagnostics of neurosis (k.heck, h.hess); “self-assessment of mental states” (according to eysenck); study of the “dependent” characteristics of the self-image after training (exp. №2). in the present article the authors focus on the second stage of the study (although a comparison of the 1 st , 2 nd and 4 th stages is involved). correlation analysis and mann-whitney comparative analysis are used for statistical data processing. initially, spearman’s correlation was performed № features self 1 red (s) blue (а) self 2 1. confiding 9 8 11 7 2. greedy 17 17 13 17 3. cheerful 5 4 17 8 4. indecisive 15 11 12 15 5. persistent 3 1 1 2 6. envious 16 16 9 16 7. sociable 6 3 15 6 8. shy 13 14 16 14 9. neat 4 9 8 3 10. vulnerable 7 15 7 11 11. anxious 14 12 6 12 12. brave 8 6 5 4 13. aggressive 12 13 14 13 14. careful 2 7 10 5 15. responsible 1 2 2 1 16. demonstrative 10 5 3 9 17. female (male) 11 10 4 10 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 8 for each student who was examined, as a result of which it became possible to obtain the following data: for example, halia, 21. table 2. an example of the obtained correlations for a separate examined student before and after training (p = 0.05) self 1 s a self 2 self 1a s a а a self 2a self 1 1,000000 0,776961 0,299020 0,921569 0,821078 0,825980 0,666667 0,769608 s 0,776961 1,000000 0,333333 0,852941 0,855392 0,794118 0,799020 0,857843 а 0,299020 0,333333 1,000000 0,468137 0,348039 0,406863 0,335784 0,372549 i2 0,921569 0,852941 0,468137 1,000000 0,794118 0,799020 0,767157 0,779412 self 1a 0,821078 0,855392 0,348039 0,794118 1,000000 0,769608 0,718137 0,911765 sa 0,825980 0,794118 0,406863 0,799020 0,769608 1,000000 0,772059 0,840686 aa 0,666667 0,799020 0,335784 0,767157 0,718137 0,772059 1,000000 0,872549 self 2a 0,769608 0,857843 0,372549 0,779412 0,911765 0,840686 0,872549 1,000000 self 1self-assessment of the examined before the influence of s and a (before the training); s – evaluation of the examined by “sympathizer” (before the training); a – evaluation of the examined by “anti-sympathizer” (before the training); self 2 – self-assessment of the examined after the influence of s and a (before the training); self 1a – self-assessment of the examined before the influence of s and a (after the training); s a – evaluation of the examined by “sympathizer” (after the training); aa – evaluation of the examined by “anti-sympathizer” (after the training); self 2 a – self-assessment of the examined after the influence of s and a (after the training); those variants where significant correlations were observed were coded in 2, and those where correlations were not significant in 1. mannwhitney comparative analysis allowed to observe the features of given peculiarities of self-image dependence of the students with high level … oleksandra kuzo, liubov kuzo, olha zaverukha 9 connections of students with high (hn) and moderate (mn) level of neuroticism. 4. results studying the results of the express diagnostics of neurosis method (by k. heck; h. hess) confirmed the relevance of present topic. among all the examined students, 43% had a high level of neuroticism hn (they got 20 or more points out of a maximum 40), which is quite high indicator in the formation of the risk group. the results of the experiment showed that: 1) self 2 correlates with self 1 in cases where the level of neuroticism is lower. that is, regardless of “what others think of me i have a clear picture of myself.” we can say that the self-image of such students is independent, and self-attitude is steady. accordingly, in those cases where there is a high level of neuroticism, self 1 and self 2 do not correlate, that is why, it can be stated that the primary “opinion about myself” has changed under the influence of “opinion about me” of important other people. therefore, the self-image of such students can be considered dependent and unsteady (fig. 3). the correlation of the level of neuroticism and steadiness of the self-image is given in fig. 2. fig. 2. the correlation of the level of neuroticism within the examined with a steady, unsteady (dependent) and contextually unsteady self-image. note: hn high level of neuroticism; mn moderate level of neuroticism. it should be noted that the group of subjects with a situationally unstable self-image (6%) was not taken into account, as this included those brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 10 subjects for whom the self-image is not stable, but is not dependent on the opinion of significant others. their perception of themselves changed (no correlation was found between self1 and self2), but it is not known under the influence of which factors (because no correlations were found between self-s and self-a). this may be caused by poor motivation, inattention of the subjects, incomprehensibility of the instructions, or some other features. situations and factors that may have influenced this group are outside the scope of our study and are not known to us. note that when constructing fig. 2. each group, and not all the examined boys and girls, was taken for 100% 2) similar patterns of comparative characteristics are associated with anxiety, as there are significant correlations between anxiety and neuroticism (r = 0.72 whereas p = 0.05). that is, students whose level of anxiety is not high often remain of the same opinion, their self-image is independent. students with a high level of neuroticism are more likely to change their perceptions of themselves under the influence of significant others (p = 0.05) (fig. 4). therefore, anxiety can be considered as one of the important indicators of neuroticism, by recognizing and influencing to which level neuroticism can be changed. 2 self1 and self 2 correlate 1 self 1 and self 2 do not correlate fig.3. comparison of the relationship self 1self 2 of students with high level and moderate level of neuroticism (before training) peculiarities of self-image dependence of the students with high level … oleksandra kuzo, liubov kuzo, olha zaverukha 11 in addition, significant correlations were found between neuroticism and frustration (r = 0.64 at p = 0.05) and rigidity (r = 0.49 at p = 0.05). 2 self1 and self 2 correlate 1 self 1 and self 2 do not correlate fig.4. comparison of the relationship self 1self 2 of students with high and low levels of anxiety (before training) 3) it is quite interesting to trace the peculiarities of the influence of "anti-sympathizer " (a person who was given a blue card as the least pleasant of the group) on students with different levels of neuroticism. it is worth noting that there are no statistically significant differences in this effect on people with high and moderate levels of neuroticism (that is, we cannot state that students with hn are more likely to change their perceptions of themselves under the influence of "anti-sympathizer", or, conversely, with mn). however, it is easy to see that in cases when "antisympathizer" has a statistically significant effect on self1, the level of neuroticism after training changes in the direction of growth, but the level of aggression of those exposed to it is low. the explanation may be as follows: students with a low level of aggression are not able to resist the idea of "anti-sympathizer", and therefore, the level of their neuroticism will increase (perhaps a negative emotional charge actualizes early internal conflicts, which exacerbate neuroticism). however, it is noteworthy to note that in those cases when self1-a correlates ("anti-sympathizer" sees the person as accurately as the person brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 12 sees herself), the level of neuroticism drops significantly. that is, if you "notice that you are felt" (regardless of whether it is "sympathizer" or "antisympathizer"), the level of neuroticism under the influence of training decreases. 4) similar patterns of influence on the personality has "sympathizer" (a person who received a red card and is emotionally the closest in the group). students with a high level of neuroticism tend to change their perception of themselves more often, bringing it closer to the idea of "sympathizer" than students with a medium or low level of neuroticism (fig. 5). as with "anti-sympathizer", students who have a low level of aggression are more likely to change their minds under the influence of "sympathizer". as a matter of fact there are grounds to trace the relationship between aggression and neuroticism in this regard, although no such significant correlations were found in our study. 0 the influence of "sympathizer " is absent 1"sympathizer " affects the personality fig. 5. influence of "sympathizer" on self-perception of students with high and moderate levels of neuroticism therefore, it can be argued that if a significant person (regardless of "sympathizer" or "anti-sympathizer") sufficiently accurately feels and describes the personality of the respondent, it can be a guarantee of a powerful psycho-corrective effect on neuroticism. however, dependence on the opinion of another will be associated with an increase in neuroticism. peculiarities of self-image dependence of the students with high level … oleksandra kuzo, liubov kuzo, olha zaverukha 13 conclusions 1. a theoretical model of the functioning of the self-image with the peripheral part on the border of the relation self and significant another person was proposed, which allows to define the concepts of neuroticism, stability and dependence on significant others. the peripheral part of the self-image is the area that surrounds the core of the self (as a source of basic self-awareness and personal integration), that is in contact with the social environment and is responsible for creative adaptation in reference relationships. 2. projective methods and experimental research, in contrast to test methods, allow bypassing the "blind spots" in the self-perception of neurotic individuals and thus more adequately explore the deep mechanisms of the neurotic process. in regard, an author's experimental study was proposed. 3. analysis of correlations in the studied groups showed that hnrespondents are characterized by a significant positive correlation between neuroticism and instability of the peripheral part of the self-image, while such a relationship was not typical for the group of mn. boys and girls with hn tend to change their perception of themselves more often, bringing it closer to the opinion of the "supporting figure", than those studied with mn. no such features of hn -respondents were studied in relation to the dependence on the opinion of the “frustrated figure”. however, it has been found that the level of aggression of individuals who are exposed to both "supporting" and "frustrating" figures is low. as a result of the ascertaining experiment, it was found that the peripheral part of the self-image of boys and girls with a high level of neuroticism (hn) is more dependent on the opinion of reference others (unstable self-image) than of persons with moderate neuroticism (mo) and this is accompanied by high levels of anxiety, frustration and rigidity. therefore, the hypothesis of our study was confirmed. 4. anxiety, frustration and rigidity can be considered in the context of significant markers of neuroticism, hence significant correlations were found between them (r = 0.72; r = 0.64; r = 0.49 at p = 0.05). 5. the self-awareness of the neurotic client should be considered both as the main object and as a fundamental support for psychocorrectional influence, and the resource of this influence should be sought in adequate relations. instability of self-awareness and dependence of the selfimage can act in this case as diagnostic criteria of neuroticism and it is especially worth paying attention to them from an early age. at the same time, this period seems favorable and sensitive for effective psychobrain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 14 correctional influences in order to form a stable, positive and independent self-image in cases where the natural process of positive age dynamics has failed. 6. this topic needs further study in the context of development and improvement of the program of psycho correction of neuroticism of young men, which would be based on the features of the self-image of students with a high level of neuroticism. the introduction and support of psychological care services in the institutions of higher education is an extremely urgent and important task. references adler a. (2002). ocherki po individual'noj psihologii. moskva. aldinger, m., stopsack, m., ulrich, i., appel a., reinelt, e., wolff, s., jörgen grabe, h., lang, s., barnow, s. (2014). neuroticism developmental courses implications for depression, anxiety and everyday emotional experience; a prospective study from adolescence to young adulthood. bmc psychiatry, 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-014-0210-2 basiuk, o. b. (2009). do pytannia rozuminnia modelei nevrotychnosti (na prykladi yunatskoho viku). psykholohichni aspekty natsionalnoi bezpeky: iii mizhnar. nauk.prakt. konf. lviv, 191-193. bodalev, a. a. & stolin v. v. (2000). obshhaja psihodiagnostika. sankt-peterburg. cuperman, r., robinson, r. l. & ickes, w. (2014). on the malleability of selfimage in individuals with a weak sense of self. self and identity, 13(1). 123. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2012.726764 gelan, c. (2009). the role of self-image in interpersonal communication. 15th international conference. knowledge based organization international conference, 4. sibiu, romania. 26-30. gonta, i., & bulgac, a. (2019). the adaptation of students to the academic environment in university. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(3), 34-44. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/137 horney, k. (1994). the neurotic personality of our time. new york. jeronimus, b. f., ormel j., aleman a. & penninx b. w. j. h. (2013). negative and positive life events are associated with small but lasting change in neuroticism. psychological medicine. 43 (11), 2403-2415. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291713000159 karpenko, v., mykolaichuk m., voitenko v. & medynska yu. (2012). suchasnyi stan psykhichnoho zdorovia studentskoi molodi: emotsiina, mizhosobystisna ta rolova sfery. praktychna psykholohiia ta sotsialna robota, 11, 2-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-014-0210-2 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=10872262 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=7050085 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=356324 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=4&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=9&doc=86 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=4&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=9&doc=86 javascript:; ../1 https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2012.726764 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=5367688 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=4&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=14&doc=135&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/137 https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?filters%5bauthorterms%5d=b.%20f.%20jeronimus&eventcode=se-au https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?filters%5bauthorterms%5d=j.%20ormel&eventcode=se-au https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?filters%5bauthorterms%5d=a.%20aleman&eventcode=se-au https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?filters%5bauthorterms%5d=b.%20w.%20j.%20h.%20penninx&eventcode=se-au http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=19&doc=184&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=19&doc=184&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=19&doc=184&cacheurlfromrightclick=no https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291713000159 peculiarities of self-image dependence of the students with high level … oleksandra kuzo, liubov kuzo, olha zaverukha 15 kernberg, o. f. (2001). tjazhelye lichnostnye rasstrojstva: strategii psihoterapii. moskva, 13-73. kim, j j., gerrish, r., gilbert, p., kirby, j. n. (2020). stressed, depressed, and rank obsessed: individual differences in compassion and neuroticism predispose towards rank-based depressive symptoma-tology. psychology and psychotherapy: theory, research and practice (if 2.645). https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12270 kohut, h. (2009). the restoration of the self. chicago. london. kopala-sibley, d. c., chartier, g. b., bhanot, s., cole, j., chan, p. y., berlim, m. t., & mcgirr, a. (2020). personality trait predictive utility and stability in transcranial magnetic stimulation (rtms) for major depression: dissociation of neuroticism and self-criticism. the canadian journal of psychiatry, 65(4), 264–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743719839705 liedloff, j. (1991). normal neurotics like us. continuum-concept.org http://www.continuum-concept.org/reading/neurotics.html maddi, s. (2002). teorii lichnosti. sravnitel'nyj analiz. sankt-peterburg. mjasishchev, v.n. (2013). lichnost' i nevrozy. moskva. popovici, d-v. & buica-belciu, c. (2013). self-concept pattern in adolescent students with intellectual disability. international conference on psychology and the realities of the contemporary world (psiworld). bucharest, romania. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 78, 516-520. pospelova i. & kosyanova o. (2017). psychological bases of teaching future psychologists to form positive physical self-image in adolescents. science and education. 164(11), 60-64. rajgorods'kij, d. ja. (2001). prakticheskaja psihodiagnostika. metodiki i testy. uchebnoe posobie. samara, 169-171. rogers, c. (2012). on becoming a person: a therapist's view of psychotherapy. boston. new york. ryum t., vogel, p. a., walderhaug, e. p. & stiles, t. c. (2014). the role of selfimage as a predictor of psychotherapy outcome. scandinavian journal of psychology, 56 (1), 62-68. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12167 semke, v. ja. (2001). osnovy personologii. moskva. simoncic, t. e., kuhlman, k. r. & vargas, i. (2014). facebook use and depressive symptomatology: investigating the role of neuroticism and extraversion in youth. computers in human behavior. 40,1-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.07.039 smith, k. a., barstead, m. g. & rubin, k. h. (2017). neuroticism and conscientiousness as moderators of the relation between social withdrawal and internalizing problems in adolescence. journal of youth and adolescence. 46(4), 772-786. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0594-z http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=1&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=3&doc=29 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=1&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=3&doc=29 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=1&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=3&doc=29 https://www.x-mol.com/paper/journal/111676 https://www.x-mol.com/paper/journal/111676 https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12270 https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743719839705 http://www.continuum-concept.org/reading/neurotics.html http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=6712098 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=9520353 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=4&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=10&doc=97&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=4&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=10&doc=97&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=4&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=5&doc=44&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=4&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=5&doc=44&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://paper.researchbib.com/view/issn/2311-8466/164/11 http://paper.researchbib.com/view/issn/2311-8466/164/11 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=1202465 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=31539030 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=4&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=8&doc=71&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=4&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=8&doc=71&cacheurlfromrightclick=no https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12167 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=10864232 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=2231165 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=749076 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=17&doc=169&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=17&doc=169&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=17&doc=169&cacheurlfromrightclick=no https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.07.039 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=2723593 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=32259655 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=3501934 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=12&doc=115&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=12&doc=115&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=12&doc=115&cacheurlfromrightclick=no https://www.researchgate.net/journal/1573-6601_journal_of_youth_and_adolescence http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0594-z brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 16 stan, m. m. (2015). study on the structuring of self-image in early childhood. international conference psiworld. bucharest, romania. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 187, 619-624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.115 sullivan, g. s. (2000). vashingtonskaja shkolan: mezhlichnostnaja teorija psihoterapii. tehniki konsul'tirovanija i psihoterapii: teksty. moskva, 152-174. topuzov, o., shamne, a., malykhin, o., aristova, n., & opaliuk, t. (2020). adaptation peculiarities of the first-year students to university life: study on stress resistance. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(2), 48-59. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2/265 tsilmak, o., okhrimenko, i., barko, v., protsenko, o., & gerashchenko, o. (2020). psychological profile of unsuccessful university students. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(2), 267-289. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2/278 vinkers c. h., joels m., milaneschi y., kahn r. s., penninx b. w. j. h., & boks m. p. m. (2014). stress exposure across the life span cumulatively increases depression risk and is moderated by neuroticism. depression and anxiety, 31(9), 737-745. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22262 voloshenko, m., dzhezhik, o., & azarkina, a. (2020). the method of forming the health-saving competence of pedagogical universities’ students. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(1), 198-208. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/209 walker, k. l., chang, e. c. & hirsch, j. k. (2017). neuroticism and suicidal behavior: conditional indirect effects of social problem solving and hopelessness. international journal of mental health and addiction. 15, 80–89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-016-9648-4 wegemer, c. m. (2020) selflessness, depression, and neuroticism: an interactionist perspective on the effects of self-transcendence, perspective-taking, and materialism. frontiers in psychology. 11:523950. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.523950 zaharov, a. i. (2000). nevrozy u detej i psihoterapija. sankt-peterburg. http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=ru_ru&daisids=3638523 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=4&sid=d6pkabpnf2woq9fcbmh&page=8&doc=76&cacheurlfromrightclick=no https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.115 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2/265 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2/278 https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22262 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/209 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-016-9648-4 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.523950 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 158-172 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/274 neuropsychological fundamentals of envy anna lisovenko¹, maryna kriukova2, larysa absalyamova3, inna chukhrii4, nataliia korchakova5, kseniia androsovych6 1 national university "odesa law academy", odesa, ukraine, annafedorovna200884@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1794-270x 2 national university "odesa law academy", odesa, ukraine, marisel039@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7447-196x 3 kharkiv national pedagogical university named by g. s. skovoroda, ukraine, lara.ab2011@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8668-9552 4 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynsky state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, chukhriiinna@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6189-7873 5 rivne state university of humanities, rivne, ukraine, nataliia.korchakova@rshu.edu.ua, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-00031164-3370 6 institute of gifted child of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, ksn@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4121-270x abstract: the article deals with psychogenetic and neuropsychological principles of envy. its originality lies in the fact that envy is seen as an unpleasant emotion and feeling, and a negative attitude, projected onto another person who, compared to the object of envy, has certain advantages, opportunities, or is in a more favourable position (social, psychological, physical, financial). besides, the article analyzes theoretical-empirical and experimental studies on envy, its neuropsychological aspects and influence on the functioning of the brain. it shows prerequisites (genetic and social) for envy as an emotional experience and analyzes the role of social comparison in generating and consolidating envy. the article discusses describes the neuropsychological localization of envy in brain structures and the role of mirror neurons in the formation of envious impulses. it also theoretically proves that envy as a mental reaction is a situational and short-term feeling of dissatisfaction aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities or luck, which is manifested in a strong desire to have them for oneself right away. social comparison (not in one’s favour) causes a profound drop in self-esteem, which the brain perceives as physical pain. this triggers specific mechanisms of imaginary psychological compensation when someone else’s defeat is perceived as one’s victory. short-term envious reactions are based on the natural action mechanism of mirror neurons in the brain that come from “imitative desire”, important for survival. neuropsychologists have traced the overactivation of mirror neurons responsible for assessment and motivation in those people whose experience of envy is frequent and long-term. the article suggests possible ways of envy psychocorrection based on the neuropsychological mechanisms of its formation. keywords: envy as a reaction, envy, “pain from comparing”, mirror neurons, impulsiveness. how to cite: lisovenko, a., kriukova, m., absalyamova, l., chukhrii, i., korchakova, n., & androsovych, k. (2022). neuropsychological fundamentals of envy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 158-172. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/274 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/274 mailto:annafedorovna200884@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1794-270x mailto:marisel039@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7447-196x mailto:lara.ab2011@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8668-9552 mailto:chukhriiinna@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6189-7873 mailto:nataliia.korchakova@rshu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1164-3370 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1164-3370 mailto:ksn@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4121-270x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/274 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 159 introduction envy is a perennial problem of rivals, competitors, friends, people with similar interests and values, and sometimes even relatives. however, the stimulation of envy is one of the most powerful motivators, and a manipulation mechanism, consciously or unconsciously used by politicians, producers of goods, services and advertisers to achieve their goals. the phenomenon of envy is mentioned, however, in many personality theories of different areas in psychology: classical psychoanalysis (freud, 2007; 2016; klein, 1997; 1999); individual psychology (adler, 1997); humanistic psychoanalysis (fromm, 2003; 2012); socio-cultural theory (horney, 2019). the international relevance of the article is as follows: depending on which scientific approaches are used, envy is theoretically considered as a competitive attitude towards others; hostile feelings or attitudes; the feeling of annoyance; special forms of anxiety and frustration; a form of personal aggression; a defensive reaction; manifestations of achievement motivation and unhealthy perfectionism; high levels of harassment and narcissism; manifestations of inferiority or immaturity. available definitions of envy are somewhat similar since they describe it as an unpleasant emotion and feeling, and a negative attitude, projected onto another person who, compared to the object of envy, has certain advantages, opportunities, or is in a more favourable position (social, psychological, physical, financial) (lisovenko, 2017; 2018). nowadays, it is crucial to analyze envy in the context of its centuryold status as a significant component of interpersonal relationships. there are numerous studies on this very concept in european scientific discourse. despite the predominant negative connotation of envy, as noted by suri et al. (2014), functional envy can play a positive role, stimulating the spirit of rivalry, competition, success, changes in one’s social status. this fact helps to explain the causes of this phenomenon. kleef (2010) justifies such duality with a positive or negative impact of envy on self-awareness and well-being, one’s attitude to others and behaviour caused by different conditions. schwaerzel et al. (2002) consider envy in correlation with jealousy, hatred, compassion and competition. at the same time, all the mentioned researchers view this phenomenon as a personality trait, which validates the importance of this article. neuropsychological fundamentals of envy anna lisovenko, et al. 160 prerequisites (genetic and social) for envy as an emotional experience the first scientific attempts at theoretical-methodological analysis of the envy problem belong to the psychoanalytic school of thought. according to freud’s (2007; 2016) psychoanalytic theory of personality, envy is seen as an expression of death instincts and the earliest manifestation of aggression within object relations, in particular, in the insurmountable and ongoing oedipus complex as a contradiction in child-parent relations affecting other periods of life and types of relationships. freud (2007; 2016) expressed the idea of “male sexual jealousy” as the basis for shaping female sexuality. in adulthood, the conflict is resolved by a woman’s attempt to compensate for her inferiority through the desire to give birth. however, the authors of this article cannot agree with this motive of motherhood. besides, freud (2007; 2016) believed that envy is the real basis of many attitudes, such as “the spirit of community”, which leads to the demand for “justice”, solidarity and equality of all. what appears in society in the form of “public spirit” is caused by what was originally envy, i.e., no one should stand out, and everyone should be the same and have the same things. freud (2007; 2016) noted that a social feeling is based on reversing what was originally a hostile feeling, in a positive connection with the nature of identification. adler (1997) relates envy to the feeling of inferiority and considers it “an aggressive personality trait”. according to adler’s structural-theoretical approach (1997), envy means a reaction (when one has no self-esteem) to people’s inequality that is associated with feelings of helplessness and infallibility and combined with one’s desire for power and superiority. thus, envy should be considered “as a factor in the current state of the human psyche”, and the striving for superiority and overcompensation as the main motivating force in the life of each individual (adler, 1997). fromm (2003; 2012) claimed that envy and jealousy are special forms of frustration, namely when one is denied the satisfaction of a certain desire. envy arises when one cannot possess what one wants and, especially when someone else possesses it. the scholar believed that desires, aspirations and fears can manifest themselves as a reaction to certain living conditions. a lifestyle generated by the economic system becomes a major factor determining one’s personality, given the leading need for self-preservation forces one to accept the conditions in which one has to live (fromm, 2003; 2012). besides, it was fromm (2003; 2012) who introduced the concept of brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 161 “consumer society”, with which he associated the “prosperity” of envy. horney (2019), together with fromm (2003; 2012), argued that a market economy based on competitive relations negatively affects personality development and mental health. it is because people are faced with a choice: to have many advantages, join the pursuit of social success, or “become someone important”, that is to prove oneself (to find one’s talents). horney (2019), in contrast to freud’s (2007; 2016) approach to women as “inferior” to men, stated that “men’s envy of pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood, women’s breasts and breast-feeding gives rise to an unconscious tendency to devalue them”. a woman threatens her husband with the humiliation of “masculine self-esteem”, because “women play their role by the very fact of their existence”, unlike men. thus, men’s envy of women’s ability to create a new life is one of the factors that motivate them to create cultural values and achieve scientific success. a common cause of envy, as noted by horney (2019), is basal anxiety due to the lack of security, love, and recognition. klein (1997) considers envy to be an innate destructive-aggressive feeling. people are born with different tendencies to envy, including the experience of fetal development and childbirth. klein (1997) also notes that envy is not a mere lack of this or that object; it is a fundamental attitude, a way of viewing life as opposed to love. it is because envy is closely related to the primary insufficiency and the destructiveness of death instincts and love to the sufficiency and life instincts (klein, 1997, p. 19). as stated by lacan & miller (1990), the object of envy is not useful for an individual. it is not what he or she wants but rather what satisfies another individual with whom he or she compares or identifies himself or herself (watching how his or her brother is being fed, the child no longer feels the need for breastfeeding). lacan & miller (1990) emphasize that envy is a sin that leads one (who envies) to “behold” those who are satisfied or are enjoying something. however, the psychoanalysts claim that envy involves not two, as is commonly believed, but three subjects. the third one is someone invisibly present, whose recognition the envious person seeks (lacan & miller, 1990). the concept of “envy” was also analyzed in the studies by deryabin (2016). she considers envy along with pride, arrogance, flattery, insult and malice as a negative emotion generated by the social environment, rather than the body constitution (deryabin, 2016, pp. 174184). according to the scholar, envy is associated with dependence on the opinions of others. in neuropsychological fundamentals of envy anna lisovenko, et al. 162 turn, this creates a desire to overshadow others and, at the same time, be no worse than others (deryabin, 2016). it must be noted that one’s attitude towards reality, material and spiritual needs and aspirations are reflected in the brain, perceived as satisfaction or dissatisfaction and expressed in the form of emotions and feelings. being reflexive psychophysiological processes, emotions and feelings act as a complex reaction of the body, which involves almost all parts of the nervous system. therefore, from a psychophysiological point of view, envy can be considered as a mental reaction to certain stimuli (both internal and external), as well as to the dissatisfaction of intrapersonal and social needs (lisovenko, 2018). according to heider’s theory of equilibrium (1958), one can want a certain thing only because someone else has it, although he or she has never felt the need for it before and has not even thought about it. as noted by berbets et al. (2021); demchenko et al. (2021); karasievych (2021); kosholap et al. (2021); lebreton et al. (2012); prots et al. (2021); sarancha (2021) the desirability of the stimulus increases if one sees that this stimulus is significant and is desirable for someone he or she is watching. interestingly, advertising relies on “the effect of mimetic infection” and “the pursuit of someone else’s goal”. in this regard, envy engages people in current social values (both positive and false). there are varied and ambiguous views on the origins of envy from a psychological point of view. some scholars adhere to the genetic theory of envy and others to the social one. according to the genetic theory, envy is innate and belongs to complex instincts. it acts as a superstructure of selfpreservation which contributes to the evolution of the species. the natural basis of envy is biological competitiveness that is one of the oldest mechanisms of individual survival (it can be observed everywhere, even in the most highly developed animals). the proponents of this theory believe that ancient people who envied their fellow tribesmen had more incentives for development and self-improvement. consequently, were more likely to survive and pass on the “genes of envy” to their descendants. others claim that envy serves as the basis of progress since it motivated primitive people to discover ways how to bypass their rivals. envy may first seem absurd without a biological purpose since one does not obtain what he or she wishes. acting as a kind of mechanism that objectifies the previously unconscious needs, envy can indeed be constructive for survival and evolution. after all, one is envious not only of the owners of certain objects brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 163 but also the owners of certain qualities, skills, talent, status. in this sense, envy is stimulated by the desire for self-fulfilment or superiority. importantly, envy is directed not only at those who have achieved a clear or subjective advantage in areas important to the envious person but also at those who seem to have more “value” than he or she does. the point is that human needs are socially determined (leontyev, 1971). the growing desire to enjoy wealth, prestige, honours and power also generate new socially conditioned needs, because people imitate them in society. the possession of what is considered socially valuable is a certain criterion of the social hierarchy. according to the social theory, envy, being not innate, emerges during social interaction. the mechanism of social comparison is central to the formation of envy. envy is seen as repressed dissatisfaction with oneself compared to others. comparison is one of the key procedures inherent in the process of one’s understanding the material world, oneself and other people, as well as in interpersonal communication. the term “social comparison” was proposed by festinger (1954). according to his theoretical concept, people feel the need to assess their abilities to build an accurate idea of themselves, necessary for optimal functioning. people resort to comparing themselves with others when they lack some resources of the objective reality to assess their characteristics (festinger, 1954). therefore, the need to assess themselves, increase self-esteem and self-improve motivates people towards social comparison. the set of negative emotional experiences that emerge because of social comparison (not in one’s favour) are called “the pain from comparing” (salovey & rodin, 1984). envy occurs when one compares oneself with others under some significant indicators and leads to decreased self-esteem. in this case, social comparison can occur automatically, without a conscious desire or intention, inevitably imposed by social interaction, even against one’s will and in an uncontrolled form. thus, the media show how people from all over the world (mostly “celebrities”) live and relax, or what they buy. regardless of one’s desire, they expand the range of one’s social comparisons, often not for one’s benefit. moreover, social comparisons can be made by others (parents, teachers, colleagues), who set up someone more successful as an “example”. people are social beings, who are extremely sensitive to each other’s reactions. they always know whether they meet or do not meet others’ expectations. this can be somewhat confusing since everyone wants to be socially accepted and approved neuropsychological fundamentals of envy anna lisovenko, et al. 164 (lisovenko, 2017). therefore, the social theory of envy is also called the theory of “social learning”. it shows that there is no innate tendency towards envy, while its mechanism is triggered by parental and pedagogical comparison. describing the neuropsychological localization of envy in brain structures and the role of mirror neurons in the generation of envious impulses schwaerzel et al. (2002) believe that the feeling of envy can act as a driving force of competition. however, this requires one to learn how to cope with it. smith et al. (2009) consider envy to be a deviation in the brain. after experimenting on envy, kleef (2010) noticed the increased activity of mirror neurons in the parietal lobe and premotor cortex. normally, these areas help one decide whether an object is worth attention which means that the systems of evaluation and imitation are linked in the brain. it follows that the more powerful this connection, the more envious the person. therefore, it has been suggested that the brain function of envious people is somehow defected (klein, 1999). suri et al. (2014) managed to trace the neural mechanism of envy in the case when the award is received by someone else. after experimenting on macaques that were taught to expect rewards after presenting a certain image, they found that primates valued their reward much higher than that of a competitor. besides, the social context of rewarding modulates brain activity. a social aspect is rather essential for the rewarding system, namely in assessing how one reacts to the reward received by others (foster, 1972). on the one hand, one can feel joy, which requires a high level of empathy. quite often, however, rewarding others makes one envious. boyer & lienard (2006) studied the activity of 207 dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain during an experiment. these neurons play an important role in the rewarding system of the brain and are activated in response to a pleasant stimulus (a reward). in the case when one expected a reward, 52% of dopaminergic neurons turned out to be active. only 32% of them were active when someone else received a reward. also, the researchers tracked the activity of 319 neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain involved in maintaining social connections (boyer & lienard, 2006). of these, they identified neurons whose activity increased with a growing probability of receiving one's reward and partner’s reward. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 165 social comparison (not in one’s favour) causes a profound drop in self-esteem, which the brain perceives as physical pain. this triggers specific mechanisms of imaginary psychological compensation when someone else’s defeat is perceived as one’s victory. one can assume that people with low levels of endorphins (natural painkillers) are expected to be more prone to envy. increasing the level of this hormone is likely to help the envious person feel better. short-term envious reactions are based on the natural action mechanism of mirror neurons in the brain that come from “imitative desire”, important for survival. neuropsychologists have traced the overactivation of mirror neurons responsible for assessment and motivation in those people whose experience of envy is frequent and long-term. a neuropsychological experimental study conducted by takahashi et al. (2009) found that the human brain perceives the feeling of envy as physical pain, while malevolence triggers reward patterns. the researchers conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging studies to monitor the brain activity of 19 male and female students when reading two stories about other fictional students. story 1 described the success of three characters: (a) an a student of the same sex in the same field of study, (b) an a student of the opposite sex in another field of study and (c) an average student of the opposite sex in another field of study. after that, the respondents were asked to rate their level of envy towards the characters on a scale of 1 to 6. character a induced stronger envy and stronger anterior cingulate cortex activation, which plays a key role in pain processing. the obtained results prove that the brain uses the same schemes to process both psychosocial pain (envy) and physical pain. it means that envy and pain act as physiological “twins”. in story 2, characters a and c experience a series of misfortunes, including food poisoning and financial problems. fmri data show that the misfortunes of character a induced stronger activity in the corpus striatum, which is a part of the brain that is activated when receiving various “bonuses”, social and financial rewards. besides, the researchers managed to predict which characters would induce stronger malevolence (corpus striatum activity) when reading story 2 based on the level of envy (anterior cingulate cortex activity) they experienced when reading story 1. this suggests close links between the ways the brain processes these feelings and, most importantly, the malevolence mechanism: “when your gain is my pain and your pain is my gain” (takahashi et al., 2009). this is similar to the situation when someone we know and “on the same level” with us begins to neuropsychological fundamentals of envy anna lisovenko, et al. 166 “climb” the social “steps”. consequently, we may have the illusory feeling that we are, on the contrary, “falling”. there is a direct connection between chronic envy and atherosclerosis. envy leads to anger which, in turn, increases cholesterol, heart rate and blood pressure. these changes contribute to a heart attack. besides, there are psychological studies on the links between envy and depression (lisovenko, 2017; 2018). lebreton et al. (2012) decided to test whether there are neurophysiological indicators of envy, or it is only a personality trait. their research hypothesis relied on the mimetic theory, according to which human development is driven by “mimetic (imitative) desire”. according to this theory, people strive for something, not because of its form, quality, or usefulness, but, above all, because other people desire to possess it (its popularity and value in the surrounding society). this type of human preference is rather “contagious” and quickly spreads: the attractiveness of the target object increases the more likely the more people are interested in it. all this leads to the conclusion that human development is driven by envy. consequently, we choose the same food, the same clothes as others, and almost all advertising gimmicks are based on the desire to have what another has (dumouchel & dupuy, 1979). lebreton et al. (2012) also studied the effect of “people’s opinion of one’s desire to obtain something”. they analyzed the behaviour and brain activity of 116 adults aged between 18 and 39 years old. during the mri scan of the brain, the participants in the experiment were shown short videos on various objects (clothing, food, accessories) and different situations. in one case, the object appeared in a neutral context (e.g., candy on the table). in another case, the object was presented as the purpose of another person’s action: someone’s hand was reaching for the candy. after viewing each scenario, the participants rated the object on a scale of attractiveness of 1 to 10. the obtained results confirmed that the objects of interest to others were rated as high as possible (for most participants (60%), the candy chosen by the stranger from the second video turned out to be the most desirable) (lebreton et al., 2012). that is, if someone has chosen this candy, most believe that it is the best, even if it is not. this logical chain is characteristic not only of envious people, but also of those who tend to always adhere to the opinion of the majority (conformists), and of jealous people. the results from the mri scan have attracted the researchers’ attention with the increased activity of two areas of the brain. the first one brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 167 is the system of mirror neurons in the parietal lobe and in the premotor cortex, which is responsible for imitating and interpreting other people’s actions. another activated area in the prefrontal cortex and the corpus striatum is involved in the evaluation of any objects or actions, as well as in decision-making (whether to spend effort and time on this object). even though the activation of these zones is natural, the researchers were surprised by how closely these zones are interconnected. when the participants in the experiment interpreted the observed object as an object of someone’s desire, the system of mirror neurons activated the evaluation system, making this object more valuable. this means that mirror neurons motivate “values-related” neurons to evaluate what one can see around. thus, the interaction of the two systems is a fundamental mechanism that explains how non-verbal behaviour spreads desire; how observing others’ actions modulates ratings of value and desirability. indeed, the more related the system of evaluation (significance) and the system of imitation in the brain are, the more one depends on the external pattern of behaviour, and, accordingly, the more envious he or she is (lebreton et al., 2012). this pathological connection makes one over-dependent on external assessments and external patterns of behaviour because it encourages one to always meet the “standards”, even if they are inappropriate and unattainable. however, lebreton et al. (2012) claim that the dysfunction of mirror neurons in these areas may explain the lack of interest among autistic children in the object, which is of great interest among healthy children, as well as the absence or decreased empathy. thus, envy is a natural activity mechanism of mirror neurons in the brain that is based on mimetic desire. it has been experimentally proven that mimetic desire is contagious as it spreads extremely quickly (this characteristic of the psyche is actively used by advertisers, forcing people to want to buy something unnecessary). still, mimetic desires can be characterized by some hidden positive moments that were evolutionarily important for survival (the desire to eat what relatives ate helped to avoid poisoning; copying protective behaviours and learning to work helped to survive; learning the language and culture of others ensured the interaction with them and social adaptation). thus, imitation is one of the basic forms of learning, whose neurophysiological basis is a system of mirror neurons, which links the sensory, emotional and motor parts of the cerebral cortex encoding information about the same acts of behaviour (lebreton et al., 2012; ramachandran, 2000; rizzolatti & sinigaglia, 2012). it is also believed that the emergence of mirror neurons was a key moment in neuropsychological fundamentals of envy anna lisovenko, et al. 168 human evolution (“a huge leap forward” as noted by ramachandran (2000)). it is because they play a key role in learning (e.g., in the development of language, culture and civilization through imitation (ramachandran, 2000)). on the one hand, envy is a natural activity mechanism of mirror neurons in the brain that is based on “mimetic desire” and is fundamentally important for survival. on the other hand, mri scan data indicate brain dysfunction in pathological enviers (the overactivation of mirror neurons in the parietal lobe and the premotor cortex, as well as stronger activity in the prefrontal cortex and the corpus striatum, responsible for assessment and motivation). one can assume that there is a conflict between the “primary” structure of the brain and the latest means of communication and the media. thus, tabloids and celebrity reality shows are becoming more and more popular. it results in the contagious desire of today’s youth to meet the standards seen and promoted (beauty, success, power, wealth, freedom), as well as adopt the values of strangers. moreover, these standards and values are often unattainable and inadequate. still, the origins of envy should be found in social relations, as well as the benefits they provided. envy may have taken root since it was an indispensable tool for comparing oneself with relatives, on the one hand, and assessing competitors, on the other hand. it may have been a very effective tool for promoting common values in primitive society. it follows that envy could have been a regulator, i.e., an important mechanism to maintain unity in the tribal way of life (not to be an outsider who does not fit into the conventional framework) or stimulate competition with other “foreign” clans. this is fully in line with freud's views (2007; 2016) on the role of envy in establishing solidarity, "public spirit" and social identification. at the heart of the desire to consider good what others do is the original neurobiological need for reflection, resonance and a reliable social identity. what we observe in other people or experience together with them motivates us to have appropriate thoughts and impulses. nevertheless, it is us who decide whether to ignore these thoughts and motivations or make them real. indeed, people are driven by the desire for certain things because of the media and pressure from the social environment. to change a way of life, however, one should decide what exactly his or her inner self seeks. it may turn out to be very different from the target objects or things. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 169 conclusions envy as a mental reaction is a situational and short-term feeling of dissatisfaction aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities or luck, which is manifested in a strong desire to have them for oneself right away. this reaction can be caused by both unmet internal needs (e.g., hunger) and certain external influences (social comparisons, excessive advertising, others’ bragging) when what is considered valuable to others is perceived as a necessity. social comparison (not in one’s favour) causes a profound drop in self-esteem, which the brain perceives as physical pain. this triggers specific mechanisms of imaginary psychological compensation when someone else’s defeat is perceived as one’s victory. one can assume that people with low levels of endorphins (natural painkillers) are expected to be more prone to envy. increasing the level of this hormone is likely to help the envious person feel better. short-term envious reactions are based on the natural action mechanism of mirror neurons in the brain that come from “imitative desire”, important for survival. neuropsychologists have traced the overactivation of mirror neurons responsible for assessment and motivation in those people whose experience of envy is frequent and long-term. this may be evidence of one’s dependence on the opinions of others, unstable self-esteem and values-needs sphere, as well as of one’s unmet needs for approval, recognition, and self-realization. if there is no strong activation of mirror neurons or the evaluation system is not activated in response to this, the object that triggers impulsiveness will not be highly valued and will not obscure consciousness. in this regard, the mechanisms that can help decrease envy are the following: decreased visual perception of stimuli (especially in social networks); switching to something more useful for oneself (knowledge and realization of one’s needs, inclinations and abilities) and cognitive reconsideration of the stimulus (this process may be painful but conscious). as shown by international experience, neuropsychological experimental studies confirm the legitimacy of psychoanalytic views on the mechanisms of envy formation and allow one to justify hypotheses on the ways of its psychocorrection. neuropsychological fundamentals of envy anna lisovenko, et al. 170 references adler, a. (1997). ponyat prirodu cheloveka [understanding the human nature]. akademicheskiy proyekt. https://bookap.info/psyanaliz/adler_ponyat_prirodu_cheloveka berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 boyer, p., & lienard, p. (2006). why ritualized behavior? precaution systems and action parsing in developmental, pathological and cultural rituals. behavioral and brain sciences, 29, 595–650. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x06009332 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 deryabin, v. s. (2016). psikhologiya lichnosti i vysshaya nervnaya deyatelnost. psikhofiziologicheskiye ocherki [personality psychology and higher neural activity. some psychophysiological essays]. lki. dumouchel, p., & dupuy, j.-p. (1979). l‘enfer des choses: rené girard et la logique de l’économie [the hell of things: rené girard and the logic of the economy]. seuil. festinger, l. (1954). a theory of social comparison processes. human relations, 7(2), 117140. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872675400700202 foster, g. (1972). the anatomy of envy: a study in symbolic behavior. current anthropology, 13(2), 167198. https://doi.org/10.1086/201267 freud, s. (2007). vvedeniye v psikhoanaliz [introduction to psychoanalysis]. piter. freud, s. (2016). psikhologiya mass i analiz chelovecheskogo “ya” [mass psychology and ego analysis]. azbuka-klassika. fromm, e. (2003). begstvo ot svobody [escape from freedom]. harvest. fromm, e. (2012). imet ili byt [to have or to be]. big press. heider, f. (1958). the psychology of interpersonal relations. john wiley & sons inc. horney, k. (2019). nevroz i lichnostnyy rost. borba za samorealizatsiyu [neurosis and human growth: the struggle towards self-realization]. piter. karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., https://bookap.info/psyanaliz/adler_ponyat_prirodu_cheloveka https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x06009332 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1177/001872675400700202 https://doi.org/10.1086/201267 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 171 vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 kleef, g. a. (2010). the emerging view of emotion as social information. social and personality psychology compass, 4(5), 331343. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00262.x klein, m. (1997). zavist i blagodarnost. issledovaniye bessoznatelnykh istochnikov [envy and gratitude. exploring unconscious sources]. b.s.k. klein, m. (1999). early stages of the oedipus conflict. routledge. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lacan, j., & miller, j.-a. (1990). le séminaire, tome 11: les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychoanalyse [the seminar. volume 11. the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis]. seuil. lebreton, m., kawa, s., forgeot d’arc, b., daunizeau, j., & pessiglione, m. (2012). unraveling mimetic desires in the human brain. the journal of neuroscience, 32(21), 7146–7157. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.4821-11.2012 leontyev, a. n. (1971). potrebnosti, motivy, i emotsii [needs, motives, and emotions]. mgu. lisovenko, a. f. (2017). еnvy and perfectionism: the interrelationship of the concepts. nauka i osvita [science and education], 1, 6771. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-1-11 lisovenko, a. f. (2018). indyvidualno-psykholohichni osoblyvosti perezhyvannya pochuttya zazdroshchiv [individual psychological peculiarities of experiencing feeling of envy] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. south ukrainian national pedagogical university namd after k. d. ushynsky. http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/1199 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 ramachandran, v. s. (2000, may 29). mirror neurons and imitation learning as the driving force behind “the great leap forward” in human evolution. edge. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00262.x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.4821-11.2012 https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-1-11 http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/1199 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 neuropsychological fundamentals of envy anna lisovenko, et al. 172 rizzolatti, g., & sinigaglia, c. (2012). zerkala v mozge. o mekhanizmakh sovmestnogo deystviya i soperezhivaniya [mirrors in the brain — how our minds share actions and emotions]. yazyki slavyanskikh kultur. salovey, p., & rodin, j. (1984). some antecedents and consequences of socialcomparison jealousy. journal of personality and social psychology, 47(4), 780792. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.47.4.780 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 schwaerzel, m., heisenberg, m., & zars, t. (2002). extinction antagonizes olfactory memory at the subcellular level. neuron, 35(5), 951–960. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0896-6273(02)00832-2 smith, r., caitlin, a., & david, j. (2009). exploring the when and why of schadenfreude. social and personality psychology compass, 3(4), 530– 546. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00181.x suri, g., sheppes, g., & gross, j. j. (2013). emotion regulation and cognition. in m. d. robinson, e. watkins, & e. harmon-jones (eds.), handbook of cognition and emotion (pp. 195–209). the guilford press. takahashi, н., kato, м., matsuura, m., mobbs, d., suhara, т., & okubo, y. (2009). when your gain is my pain and your pain is my gain: neural correlates of envy and schadenfreude. science, 323, 937939. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1165604 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.47.4.780 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0896-6273(02)00832-2 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00181.x https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1165604 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 122-138 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/196 motivational effects of gamification apps in education: a systematic literature review yakubu bala mohammed¹, fezile ozdamli2 1 near east university, department of computer information systems, mersin 10, turkey; abubakar tatari ali polytechnic, bauchi, department of computer science, 0094, nigeria; fezile.ozdamli@neu.edu.tr 2 near east university, department of computer information systems, mersin 10, turkey, 20195398@std.neu.edu.tr abstract: gamification is considered by many scholars to be an effective tool for engaging individuals in teaching and learning process, organizational task, business environment, and other recreational activities. however, some students and tutors of various institutions of learning across the globe lack clear understanding on how gamification applications positively affect teaching and learning via intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. despites all its potential benefits as suggested by prior literatures with regards to flexibility and externalization of learning process, yet some colleges and universities are not fully convinced that use of gamification elements motivate students to engage more on their learning activities which in turns change attitudes and behaviours. hence, the need for study to extract these motivational effects of gamifications applications from the existing body of knowledge. therefore, this study utilized some of the comprehensive databases such as sciencedirect, web of science, ieee xplore, and springerlink, with the aims of identifying, extracting, analyzing and highlighting the motivational effects of gamification systems in education. out of the articles discovered, 37 were fully read and analyzed. the study results highlight the motivational effects of gamification applications in education, and found badges, levels, feedbacks, points, and leader-board to be the most pleasant elements of gamification applications that motivate individuals, as they increase participation and engagement in learning process. finally, the study suggests area of future work. keywords: gamification apps, motivational effects, elearning, students, teaching & learning process. how to cite: mohammed, y.b., & ozdamli, f. (2021). motivational effects of gamification apps in education: a systematic literature review. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 122-138. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/196 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/196 mailto:fezile.ozdamli@neu.edu.tr mailto:20195398@std.neu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/196 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 123 1. introduction nowadays, evolving technologies (ict), have changed the ways in which individuals carry out their task, how businesses conduct their business activities, how students receive lectures and relate with one another through online discussions, how knowledge/skills are being acquired and tested, and how competitions are becoming increasingly effective. (antonaci et al., 2019). in modern days, information systems are frequently been premeditated with their contributory aspects (hassan et al., 2019). information systems are designed to brand people to be more efficient than before via better delivery of communicable knowledge and informational response (toda et al., 2019). the world continue to witness the coming or emerging of new technologies (i.e., emerging technologies), information systems, human-communication services and their enabling infrastructure are becoming more different from the one we used to see in the past (hassan et al., 2019). hwang and choi (2020) stressed that the focus of modern technologies has since moved from the systems efficacy and tools to easing human life to be more diverse, through the creation and implementation of applications that entertain individuals. for example, games and social acquaintances such as places of social interaction & applications (schöbel et al., 2020; toda et al., 2019). individuals and organizations have begun to feel the impact through an extensive thoughtful of “gamification applications” on user’s reimbursements and the response provided by these applications to their users (jun et al., 2020). these include, but not limited to informational benefits, feedback and performance reports (mitchell et al., 2018), but also “affective benefits and constant feedback” such as entertainment and enjoyment (hassan et al., 2019), social benefits, feedback and social interaction via social networking sites (toda et al., 2019), to mention but few. similarly, majority of the modern information systems and services are making effort toward facilitating users’ engagement, not only by providing users with systems that supply accurate information but also through provision of an effective system that can bring social experiences (koivisto & hamari, 2019) to add support to both “usefulness and selfdetermination” of system usage (hassan et al., 2019). however, jun et al. (2020) stressed that gamification goes beyond usefulness through proficiency and self-determination, or pleasure, but also tried to merge both ideas and engagement in the design in order to increase users’ utility via increasing optimistic users’ motivation. thus, current information systems are motivational effects of gamification apps in education: a systematic … yakubu bala mohammed, & fezile ozdamli 124 considered by many as “motivational information systems” (matallaoui et al., 2017). the integration of gamification elements into modern information systems, helps brings extra motivation to individuals and organizations in achieving desired goals (çeker & özdamli, 2017). additionally, the entertainment erection of gamification apps also “motivates and improves” students’ engagement towards their lesson activity, which in turns affects their learning ability positively (çeker & özdamli, 2017; sanchez et al., 2020). similarly, the integration of modern technologies into our life has gotten to the schoolrooms, as tutors now utilize new high-tech resources such as gamification apps to aid classroom education (sanchez et al., 2020), e.g., use of videos in lecture notes which can be watched by students at anytime, anywhere (van roy & zaman, 2019). also, both students and instructors can utilize combination of the above-mentioned approaches within social networking sites designed for teaching and learning purposes (stuart et al., 2019). prior studies e.g., (çeker & özdamli, 2017; shpolianskaya & seredkina, 2020) have shown that students’ groups that utilize gamification apps perform academically better than those groups that do not use it. since the inception of gamification in the last decade, di pietro and distefano (2019) and gul and bilgin (2020) argued that the technology is increasingly receiving the attention of academics and other practitioners. the main idea behind gamification rudiments usage in schooling is to move the fun aspect of audio-visual games to non-game surroundings. however, marcu and danubianu (2019) argued that the transfer of game elements to non-game environment is not sufficient to describe the concept of “gamification” but rather to say that gamification produced an activity that bring game-like experiences. also, van roy and zaman (2019) and stuart et al. (2019) stressed that the use of game and gamification systems in education does not only motivate students to learn, but also supports their psychological needs sailer et al. (2017), as “ per self-determination theory” (sdt), which allows them to “internalize the outside guidelines that are game based in need of supporting contexts” (mitchell et al., 2018), and also fosters the feelings of independence, competency and relatedness among students. despite this credence and availability of different “gamification apps in education” which aims at motivating students (sailer et al., 2017), experimental validation of “gamification apps” is still needed in order to prove its valuableness (antonaci et al., 2019; kim et al., 2018; schöbel et al., 2020). furthermore, antonaci et al. (2019) stressed that there is absence of clear understanding of the main effects of gamification apps on “students, brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 125 tutors and learning process in general”. hence, the need for both exploratory and experimental studies to further assess the motivational effects of gamification apps in education, as the former technique will assist in getting more ideas on how the process takes place (di pietro & distefano, 2019), while the later will offer exhaustive opinion on how certain individuals’ emotional needs fulfilment develops through the implementation of various “gamification apps” (toda et al., 2019). therefore, this study will systematically review current literatures that are related to gamification apps, with the aims of identifying the benefits/importance of motivation, motivational effects of gamification apps on teaching and learning, and suggest how gamification apps can be linked with other variables such as individuals’ psychological needs. in order to achieve these objectives, the following research questions were asked; i) what are the benefits/importance of motivation? ii) what are the motivational effects of gamification apps in education? iii) how individuals’ psychological needs influence the use of gamification apps? 2. literature review 2.1. gamification çeker and özdamli (2017) stressed that gamification is a process which involves an exertion that attempts to combine numerous instruction and knowledge philosophies together in order to achieve certain tasks which are complex in nature. this is because in educational setting students usually face problems according to their psychological needs and interests. also, gamification is defined as the usage of actual game components in areas that have non game backgrounds in order to attain a chosen result or conduct. furthermore, shpolianskaya and seredkina (2020) described gamification as the consumption of game essentials in learning process for the purpose of achieving a desired result, via teamwork and rivalry among students. however, mitchell et al. (2018) stressed that gamification is different from game in that “games only aim at entertaining users”, while gamification on the other hand involves the use of these games components that entertain users in order to change their conduct and defiance towards a particular task. therefore, gamification is considered by many as a strategy or style of improving services and/or existing systems through “affordances for knowledge that are similar to the ones found in normal games” (hsieh & yang, 2020). in recent days literature, huotari and hamari (2017) have shown that the extensive existence of modern smartphones contributed positively to the growth and development of gamification apps across the globe by different motivational effects of gamification apps in education: a systematic … yakubu bala mohammed, & fezile ozdamli 126 fields of human endeavours, as the use of these gamified packages generate emotional results i.e., gameful knowledges (dietrich et al., 2019), which in return inspire explicit behavioural results. therefore, gamification from educational context is defined as an instrument for improving students’ attitudes and behaviours towards learning process, with the aim of increasing knowledge acquisition and sharing (ramadan et al., 2019). 2.2 motivation the idea of motivation was derived from the notion of “motive” (ryan, 2012). furthermore, koivisto and hamari (2019) stressed that to some degree, the term is considered by many to be the driver of peoples’ conduct, a view that eventually led to the thought of motive as another psychological procedure that interrelates with other psychological functions (forbes, 2011). this has led to the idea of depiction motive based on person’s action, thus making it of different kind e.g., motive of knowledge, motive of analysis, motive of leisure and motive of interpretation (ryan, 2012). however, stroianovska et al. (2021) in their work defined motivation as “the psychological creations of character which seems to be an explanation for “psychological notions” e.g., ethical principles, selfassessment and intent that were categorized as complex motivational structures (mitchell et al., 2018), assimilating collections of emotional desires which are facilitated by individuals’ mindfulness (bellemare et al., 2016; forbes, 2011). similarly, yang et al. (2020) argued that motivation is part of human and individual as character, is branded by the presence of a specific ideas, ethical values, and dynamic goals which such individual tries to achieve throughout his/her life. therefore, these psychological developments make people moderately steady in their positions and autonomous from other environmental inspirations that surround them (fokides et al., 2019). 2.3. motivational effects of gamification apps in education nowadays, gamification systems and other encoded computer systems are all over the places, are designed mainly with the resolve of indorsing users’ satisfaction (koivisto & hamari, 2019). additionally, information systems designed with games components are increasingly becoming part of our lives (van roy & zaman, 2019). these systems nowadays, turn out to be the source of entertaining people of different kinds (jang et al., 2018). for instance, a typical game is recognized for its capability to occupy and motivate individuals. furthermore, helmefalk et al. (2020) stressed that while playing games, people usually experience “supremacy, capability, pleasure and brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 127 involvement”, all of which intrinsically motivate individuals and change their behaviours towards a particular task (kirmizi & kirmizi, 2015). the important part of playing games is people’s desire for the imaginary scene of the game activity, as well as the get-together and pleasure of the action (mitchell et al., 2018). furthermore, fitz-walter et al. (2017) in their study stressed that the inclusion of game essentials into knowledge acquisition and sharing process via “gamification apps” in education have increased learners’ desires to learn, as the systems positively changed students’ behaviours towards learning process (antonaci et al., 2019). though, conducts change is just one portion of “gamification apps” with regards to users’ experience. majority of these gamified apps also have “usability goals”, (fitz-walter et al., 2017), such as efficacy, good learning ability, usefulness, and pleasantness. also, experience goals for pleasureseeking handlers also exist on these systems as well, e.g., “entertainment, amusing, and emotive fulfilment” (kivunja, 2015). literature hong and masood (2014) showed that the used of gamification apps in education, such as “gamified teaching methods (gtm)” have improved students’ engagement in learning process, as students who participated in “gamified teaching method (gtm)” displayed high level of competency and experienced an advanced stage of motivation to acquire knowledge compared to those students that passed through the traditional “conventional teaching methods (ctm)”. similarly, çeker and özdamli (2017) argued that gamified teaching method affords the needed learning atmosphere via its game procedure and subtleties which were extremely motivational and convincing in nature. its encourages students to engage more (hong & masood, 2014). furthermore, students that participated in gamified teaching method demonstrated advanced interest and pleasure in learning, as the use of videos into lecture notes which can be watched anytime, anywhere, provided them the opportunity to collaborate, acquire knowledge independently and test the knowledge acquired (fine & corte, 2017). again both students and instructors can utilize the gamified teaching method within social network sites designed for teaching and learning purposes (toda et al., 2019), as the use of “gamification apps” is increasingly becoming imperative in the educational sector. feng et al. (2018) argued that marks and responses were the two greatest unnoticeable 1omponents of “gamification apps” but are essentials for academic activities. marks and responses, or in other words “points and feedback” are basically given to individuals as a reward for effectively accomplishing a particular events in gamified setting (huotari & hamari, 2017). for instance, awarding marks or points to a particular student motivational effects of gamification apps in education: a systematic … yakubu bala mohammed, & fezile ozdamli 128 signifies his/her competency in relation to “gamification instrument” (högberg et al., 2019), which in turn increases his/her status and acknowledgement among other fellow students. summary of the articles included in the review is presented in table 1. table 1: summary of topics, aims and findings of the viewed articles on gamification apps, motivation and motivational effects of apps in education authors/year topic aims of the study findings çeker and özdamli (2017) what “gamification” is and what it’s not to elucidate what gamification is, how it differs from games and game-based learning, and to explain successful gamification applications in the education sector. gamification in education increases student’s curiosity to teachings and enhance competition spirit in lesson rooms, through instruments like points, badges, levels and league tables, feedbacks. that group who uses gamification engage more in lesson than those who do not use sanchez et al. (2020) gamification in the classroom: examining the impact of gamified quizzes on student learning to enhance the understanding of the circumstances under which gamification can improve learning outcomes provides tutors with insights on the possible effects of gamification in an online quiz and stressed that instructors need to be aware of certain students’ characteristics that may modest the effects of gamification. antonaci et al. (2019) the effects of gamification in online learning environments: a systematic literature review to investigate gamification effects in an online learning environment. such as students’ failure and lack of engagement due to the development of feeling of isolation. use of leader boards, points, experience points and levels improved students’ performance and reduce the feelings of self-isolation. also found badges to has no effects on lower schools. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 129 koivisto and hamari (2019) the rise of motivational information systems: a review of gamification research aim at comprehensively reviewing and synthesizing current literatures on the concept of game like apps field. exposed that gamification applications design is difficult because; of its complexity and multilayered, thus making it hard to transmit to other surroundings. that gamified instruments were often used to change behaviours, and this adds extra coating to gamifications design coverage. groening and binnewies (2019) “achievement unlocked! the impact of digital achievements as a gamification element on motivation and performance” to examine the performance and motivational aids of gamification in relation to digital learning. that achievements improve motivation compared to no achievements. while motivation increases commitments over time. hong and masood (2014) effects of gamification on lower secondary school students’ motivation and engagement to investigate the effects of gamification teaching methods on secondary school students in terms of engagement and motivation. discovered lack of knowledge between conventional and gamification teaching methods among students of lower secondary schools, as to what differentiate the two. fitz-walter et al. (2017) “driven to drive? investigating the effect of gamification on learner driver behaviour, perceived motivation and user experience” to design a gamified logbook application that can address usability and playability issues. exposed that gamified diary was more pleasant and more inspiring than the traditional methods of record keeping. motivational effects of gamification apps in education: a systematic … yakubu bala mohammed, & fezile ozdamli 130 van roy and zaman (2019) “unravelling the ambivalent motivational power of gamification: a basic psychological needs perspective” to explore students’ experience with game elements that are designed and implemented on digital platform in order to afford need satisfaction. found game strategy on a gamified instructive podium foster feeling of autonomy, competence and relatedness amongst students. hassan et al. (2019) “how motivational feedback increases user’s benefits and continued use: a study on gamification, quantified-self and social networking” to determine how feedbacks from gamified systems improved users’ satisfaction and lead to perceived benefits. discovered that majority of contemporary systems aid user participation, by providing accurate and effective information via social experience in order to support usefulness and the self-purposefulness of system use. modern information systems nowadays are considered as “motivational information systems”. as seen in table 1, majority of the articles included in the reviewed stressed that use of gamification apps in education really increases students’ motivation and engagement. furthermore, gamification apps elements such as “scores-points, badges, levels, league tables” and feedbacks also increases learners’ interest to teachings, enhances competitive lifeforce in lessonrooms, fosters feelings of autonomy and competence amongst students, and also inspires learners to partake more on learning processes (antonaci et al., 2019; çeker & özdamli, 2017; groening & binnewies, 2019). 3. methodology 3.1. research design the study adopted a four-phase systematic review approach as per (goksu & cavus, 2019). first, relevant articles were methodically acknowledged in the first phase, after which they were grouped together. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 131 thirdly, inclusion and exclusion activities took place in the third phase. lastly, the relevant articles were examined using the research background of motivational effects of gamification apps. the following subsections give details of our review process. 3.2. database search having identified our research topic, academic databases were searched for related literature. the literature search was carried out in some of the reputable databases. four scholarly databases were searched, sciencedirect, web of science, ieee xplore i.e., (ieee), and springerlink using keywords that best describe our research topic. 167 articles, conference papers, workshops and bulletin papers were found. fig. 1, described our search processes. fig. 1. literature search process 3.3. search criteria the study begun the search for relevant literature using keywords that best defined our research topic such as “gamification systems”, motivational effects of gamification apps in education: a systematic … yakubu bala mohammed, & fezile ozdamli 132 “gamification apps in education”, “motivation,” “motivational effects of gamification apps in education”, “importance of motivation”. 167 articles were discovered as seen in fig. 1. the articles were grouped together for further extraction. 3.4. inclusion and exclusion criteria for each of the discovered articles, introductory importance was determined by title. from the title, then abstract and if the title and abstract appeared to deliberate on the method of our systematic review procedure, then its full reference would be obtained, and grouped together for further evaluation in the second stage. however, articles whose title and abstract doesn’t seem relevant to the review topic, or are written in another language not english, and closed access articles were excluded in the third stage. similarly, duplicate articles were also excluded after further analysis. therefore, 37 articles were fully read and synthesized. 3.5. data extraction data from the selected studies were extracted and transferred into worksheet planned for this assessment. articles with motivational effects of gamification apps in education, secondary or higher education were grouped separate, while those with gamifications as a source of motivation and “students’ engagement via gamifications apps” were grouped together, and articles with motivation theories and importance of motivation were also grouped separately. furthermore, articles that are considered to be rationally relevant were examined again for the purpose of precision and obtaining a reliable result. 4. results and discussion the paper aimed at identifying the motivational effects of “gamification apps” in education. firstly, the study discovered that motivation is very important in education. nowadays, schools need to motivate students, in order to get them occupied with their learning activities which in turn increased their participation in teaching and learning process. this outcome appears to be in line with the findings of prior study. that “gamification systems” are becoming more relevant in education than before (koivisto & hamari, 2019). furthermore, used of gamification apps is becoming increasingly important and it’s yielding a positive result, as many schools, colleges and higher institutions of learning have begun to implement it on their “teaching and learning” process. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 133 secondly, the study discovered that gamified methods of teaching, nowadays allowed students to externalized the knowledge acquisition and sharing process (hassan et al., 2019), thus, changing their attitudes and behaviours toward learning activities due to the “game elements” that are associated with it and also improve their desire to learn. similarly, the study found that the pleasantness components of gamification apps such as entertainment, amusing and emotive fulfilment also inspire students to participate more in learning activities. this result is in line with the findings of sogunro (2015) that “modern methods of teaching” improved students participation in learning activities. furthermore, the study results discovered that “gamification apps” have the capability to occupy and motivate individuals, thus making “teaching and learning” more effective via “gamification methods” in terms of students participation çeker and özdamli (2017), as groups that participated in gamification method of teaching tend to be more competent and “experienced an advance level of motivation” compare to those that uses the traditional conventional methods of teaching. this outcome reinforce the findings of stuart et al. (2019), that groups that uses “gamification teaching methods” displays more competency than those groups that do not used it. similarly, the study discovered that used of gamification apps also affords the required learning atmosphere via its game procedures and intricacies that are extremely motivational and convincing in nature (hong & masood, 2014; sanchez et al., 2020). the study also found that both tutors and students that employs “gamification systems” established advanced curiosity and desire to teaching and learning, for instance used of videos as lectures note nowadays allowed students to collaborate, acquire knowledge independently and test the acquired skills, as these videos can be watch anytime, anywhere. this result also is in line with the findings of (sailer et al., 2017). hence, our results deliver an experimentally resulting evidence that used of “gamification apps” in education motivates both tutors and students to participate and engaged more on their teaching and learning processes. thirdly, the study also discovered that marks and responses or in other words “points and feedbacks” were the two most essentials components of gamification that motivates students, as it increases their rank and acknowledgement among their fellow students, and also makes others to work hard in order to get more marks. this result is in support of the findings of högberg et al. (2019), that given marks or points to someone in “gamification instruments”, signifies the person competency, thus, increasing the person status among fellow associates and in turn increases motivational effects of gamification apps in education: a systematic … yakubu bala mohammed, & fezile ozdamli 134 his/her learning ability. the study results are pretty meaningful in the field of game and gamification studies, simply because previous studies focused more on usage and effects of gamification elements which may either be harmful or helpful, with little emphasis on motivation and motivational benefits of gamification apps. 4.1. conclusion and future work gamification apps has become an important tool for education, as colleges and institutions of learning that successfully implemented gamification applications has begun to feel the positive impacts of the applications. “points, levels, badges, leader boards and feedbacks” were the most effective components of gamification apps that motivates students to engage and participate more on their learning activities. however, other individuals’ psychological requirements need to be integrated into “gamification applications elements”. as with every study, this study too has some limitations. the study is limited to highlighting the benefits and importance of motivation, and identifying the motivational effects of gamification apps in teaching and learning process, with much emphasis on student’s motivation from empirical data. therefore, future works should employ either a quantitative or qualitative approach to further investigate the motivational effects with much emphasis on tutors. furthermore, future studies should investigate the manner in which gamification systems are implemented in organizations, as suggested by prior study toda et al. (2019), that the success of gamification applications largely depends on how the systems were implemented and used in organizations. references antonaci, a., klemke, r., & specht, m. (2019). the effects of gamification in online learning environments: a systematic literature review. informatics, 6 (3), pp. 32. https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics6030032 bellemare, m., srinivasan, s., ostrovski, g., schaul, t., saxton, d., & munos, r. (2016). unifying count-based exploration and intrinsic motivation. advances in neural information processing systems, 5 (3), 777-797. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1606.01868.pdf çeker, e., & özdamli, f. (2017). what" gamification" is and what it's not. european journal of contemporary education, 6(2), 221-228. https://doi.org/10.13187/ejced.2017.2.221 di pietro, r., & distefano, s. (2019). an intelligent tutoring system tool combining machine learning and gamification in education. international https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics6030032 https://doi.org/10.13187/ejced.2017.2.221 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 135 conference on objects, components, models and patterns (pp. 218-226). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29852-4_18 dietrich, t., rundle-thiele, s., kubacki, k., durl, j., gullo, m. j., arli, d., & connor, j. p. (2019). virtual reality in social marketing: a process evaluation. marketing intelligence & planning, 37 (7), 806-820. https://doi.org/10.1108/mip-11-2018-0537 feng, y., ye, h. j., yu, y., yang, c., & cui, t. (2018). gamification artifacts and crowdsourcing participation: examining the mediating role of intrinsic motivations. computers in human behavior, 81, 124-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.12.018 fine, g. a., & corte, u. (2017). group pleasures: collaborative commitments, shared narrative, and the sociology of fun. sociological theory, 35(1), 64-86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735275117692836 fitz-walter, z., johnson, d., wyeth, p., tjondronegoro, d., & scott-parker, b. (2017). driven to drive? investigating the effect of gamification on learner driver behavior, perceived motivation and user experience. computers in human behavior, 71, 586-595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.08.050 fokides, e., atsikpasi, p., kaimara, p., & deliyannis, i. (2019). factors influencing the subjective learning effectiveness of serious games. journal of information technology education, 18. 437-466. https://doi.org/10.28945/4441 forbes, d. l. (2011). toward a unified model of human motivation. review of general psychology, 15(2), 85-98. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023483 goksu, m., & cavus, n. (2019). fake news detection on social networks with artificial intelligence tools: systematic literature review. in international conference on theory and application of soft computing, computing with words and perceptions, (pp. 47-53). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-35249-3_5 groening, c., & binnewies, c. (2019). “achievement unlocked!”-the impact of digital achievements as a gamification element on motivation and performance. computers in human behavior, 97, 151-166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.02.026 gul, a., & bilgin, c. u. (2020). gamification in adult learning. in handbook of research on adult learning in higher education (pp. 570-597). igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-1306-4.ch022 hassan, l., dias, a., & hamari, j. (2019). how motivational feedback increases user’s benefits and continued use: a study on gamification, quantified-self and social networking. international journal of information management, 46, 151162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.12.004 helmefalk, m., marcusson, l., & sell, a. (2020). “who cares about fireworks?”–a study on digital coaching, gamification and exercise motivation. in https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29852-4_18 https://doi.org/10.1108/mip-11-2018-0537 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.12.018 https://doi.org/10.1177/0735275117692836 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.08.050 https://doi.org/10.28945/4441 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023483 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35249-3_5 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35249-3_5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.02.026 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-1306-4.ch022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.12.004 motivational effects of gamification apps in education: a systematic … yakubu bala mohammed, & fezile ozdamli 136 proceedings of the 53rd hawaii international conference on system sciences. https://doi.org/10.24251/hicss.2020.156 högberg, j., shams, p., & wästlund, e. (2019). gamified in-store mobile marketing: the mixed effect of gamified point-of-purchase advertising. journal of retailing and consumer services, 50, 298-304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.07.004 hong, g. y., & masood, m. (2014). effects of gamification on lower secondary school students’ motivation and engagement. international journal of social, education, economics and management engineering, 8(12), 3483-3490. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54365-4_18 hsieh, h. c. l., & yang, h.-h. (2020). incorporating gamification into website design to facilitate effective communication. theoretical issues in ergonomics science, 21(1), 89-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/1463922x.2019.1645920 huotari, k., & hamari, j. (2017). a definition for gamification: anchoring gamification in the service marketing literature. electronic markets, 27(1), 2131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-015-0212-z hwang, j., & choi, l. (2020). having fun while receiving rewards?: exploration of gamification in loyalty programs for consumer loyalty. journal of business research, 106, 365-376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.031 jang, s., kitchen, p. j., & kim, j. (2018). the effects of gamified customer benefits and characteristics on behavioral engagement and purchase: evidence from mobile exercise application uses. journal of business research, 92, 250-259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.056 jun, f., jiao, j., & lin, p. (2020). influence of virtual csr gamification design elements on customers’ continuance intention of participating in social value co-creation. asia pacific journal of marketing and logistics. https://doi.org/10.1108/apjml-03-2019-0213 kim, s., song, k., lockee, b., & burton, j. (2018). what is gamification in learning and education? in gamification in learning and education (pp. 25-38). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47283-6_4 kirmizi, ö., & kirmizi, g. d. (2015). an investigation of l2 learners' writing self-efficacy, writing anxiety and its causes at higher education in turkey. international journal of higher education, 4(2), 57-66. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v4n2p57 kivunja, c. (2015). innovative methodologies for 21st century learning, teaching and assessment: a convenience sampling investigation into the use of social media technologies in higher education. international journal of higher education, 4(2), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v4n2p1 koivisto, j., & hamari, j. (2019). the rise of motivational information systems: a review of gamification research. international journal of information management, 45, 191-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.10.013 https://doi.org/10.24251/hicss.2020.156 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54365-4_18 https://doi.org/10.1080/1463922x.2019.1645920 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-015-0212-z https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.031 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.056 https://doi.org/10.1108/apjml-03-2019-0213 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47283-6_4 https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v4n2p57 https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v4n2p1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.10.013 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 137 marcu, d., & danubianu, m. (2019). learning analytics or educational data mining? this is the question. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/04 matallaoui, a., koivisto, j., hamari, j., & zarnekow, r. (2017). how effective is “exergamification”? a systematic review on the effectiveness of gamification features in exergames. in proceedings of the 50th hawaii international conference on system sciences. https://doi.org/10.24251/hicss.2017.402 mitchell, r., schuster, l., & jin, h. s. (2018). gamification and the impact of extrinsic motivation on needs satisfaction: making work fun? journal of business research, 106, 323-330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.11.022 ramadan, z. b., farah, m. f., & kassab, d. (2019). amazon's approach to consumers’ usage of the dash button and its effect on purchase decision involvement in the us market. journal of retailing and consumer services, 47, 133-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.11.018 ryan, r. m. (2012). motivation and the organization of human behavior: three reasons for the reemergence of a field. the oxford handbook of human motivation, 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195399820.013.0001 sailer, m., hense, j. u., mayr, s. k., & mandl, h. (2017). how gamification motivates: an experimental study of the effects of specific game design elements on psychological need satisfaction. computers in human behavior, 69, 371-380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.033 sanchez, d. r., langer, m., & kaur, r. (2020). gamification in the classroom: examining the impact of gamified quizzes on student learning. computers & education, 144, 103666. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103666 schöbel, s., janson, a., jahn, k., kordyaka, b., turetken, o., djafarova, n., saqr, m., wu, d., söllner, m., & adam, m. (2020). a research agenda for the why, what, and how of gamification designs results on an ecis 2019 panel. communications of the association for information systems, 46 (1), 30. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/258977/3/jml_776.pdf shpolianskaya, i., & seredkina, t. (2020). intelligent support system for personalized online learning. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 29-35. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/107 sogunro, o. a. (2015). motivating factors for adult learners in higher education. international journal of higher education, 4(1), 2237. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v4n1p22 stroianovska, o., dolynska, l., shevchenko, n., andriiashyna, n., melnyk, i., & tsybuliak, n. (2021). the influence of the professional orientation of https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/04 https://doi.org/10.24251/hicss.2017.402 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.11.022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.11.018 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195399820.013.0001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103666 https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/258977/3/jml_776.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/107 https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v4n1p22 motivational effects of gamification apps in education: a systematic … yakubu bala mohammed, & fezile ozdamli 138 students of different gender on their ideas of happiness. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 51-71. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/141 stuart, h., serna, a., marty, j.-c., & lavoué, e. (2019). adaptive gamification in education: a literature review of current trends and developments. in european conference on technology enhanced learning, (pp. 294-307). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29736-7_22 toda, a. m., do carmo, r. m., da silva, a. p., bittencourt, i. i., & isotani, s. (2019). an approach for planning and deploying gamification concepts with social networks within educational contexts. international journal of information management, 46, 294-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.10.001 van roy, r., & zaman, b. (2019). unravelling the ambivalent motivational power of gamification: a basic psychological needs perspective. international journal of human-computer studies, 127, 38-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.04.009 yang, c., ye, h. j., & feng, y. (2020). using gamification elements for competitive crowdsourcing: exploring the underlying mechanism. behaviour & information technology, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/141 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29736-7_22 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.10.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.04.009 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 183-201 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/178 stress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the context of the application of sanogenic health thinking nina yarosh¹, vladyslava artiukhova2, viktoriia panchenko3, svitlana fera4, dmytro prykhodko5 1 v. n. karazin kharkiv national university, ukraine, ninayarosh88@gmail.com 2 kharkiv national university of air force, ukraine, vlada.artyukhova@gmail.com 3 t.h.shevchenko national university «chernihiv colehium», ukraine, viktoriia.panch@gmail.com 4 t.h.shevchenko national university «chernihiv colehium», ukraine, svetlanafera@gmail.com 5 kharkiv national university of air force, ukraine, d.petrovich7971@gmail.com abstract: psychologists face an urgent task to teach a person to effectively deal with stressors, which he encounters every day. the aim is to investigate the features of sanogenic thinking as a factor of stresscoping behavior of the individual. the test-persons were of cadets in the amount of 345 people, of whom women 167 people and men 178 people. as a result of a formative experiment to teach the skills of sanogenic thinking, the article investigated the presence of changes in the degree of stress using the methods of "psychological stress scale psm-25" and the questionnaire "fatigue-monotony-satietystress". it is determined that the formation of sanogenic thinking skills as a result of the formative experiment, helps to reduce the level of fatigue, monotony, satiety and stress in the individual. relationships between the level of development of sanogenic thinking and coping strategies used by the individual are revealed. regression analysis showed that the study of personality theory and practice of sanogenic thinking allows you to expand awareness of emotional mental operations and acquire skills and abilities to introspect their own emotions, experiences in overcoming stress. that is, sanogenic thinking can be a factor in stressful behavior of the individual. keywords: coping with stress; level of fatigue; monotony and stress; coping strategies; introspection of own emotions; experience in stresscoping. how to cite: yarosh, n., artiukhova, v., panchenko, v., fera, s., & prykhodko, d. (2021). stress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the context of the application of sanogenic health thinking. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 183-201. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/178 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/178 mailto:ninayarosh88@gmail.com mailto:vlada.artyukhova@gmail.com mailto:viktoriia.panch@gmail.com mailto:svetlanafera@gmail.com mailto:d.petrovich7971@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/178 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 184 introduction society is currently experiencing socio-psychological difficulties, primarily related to the military conflict in the east of the country, the unstable financial and economic situation and socio-political unrest that affected every ukrainian family. all this creates a significant number of stressors for the population. the constant stay of a person in a state of stress causes difficulties in maintaining the psychological comfort of members of our society. psychologists face an urgent task to teach a person to effectively deal with stressors, which he encounters every day. after all, given the nature of stress and coping behavior, there is no better way to overcome a problematic, emotionally stressful situation than purposeful and systematic build-up for the moment of its occurrence. the problem of stress-coping behavior has long been the subject of study in both domestic and foreign psychological science. analysis of the literature shows that this issue remains relevant in light of the emergence of various psychological threats to the individual. coping behavior is a person's response to stressors, but is not always able to maintain his psychological health and comfort. as practice shows, a person in the vortex of stress is not able to control their own thinking. this is due to the fact that a person cannot comprehend the situation, apply reflection, as a result of which a negative experience of feelings is fixed. this type of thinking is pathogenic, which leads to psychological problems. in contrast to pathogenic thinking, there is sanogenic, which helps to cope negative emotions and psychological recovery. in addition, thinking is an inexhaustible important resource that a person can use to cope stress, and understanding problematic, stressful situations is done by understanding them. in the process of sanogenic thinking, the subject separates himself from his own experiences and seems to observe them. health-improving thinking is ensured through the use of sanogenic reflection by the individual, palamarchuk (2020); nerubasska (2020a); nerubasska (2020b); sheremet (2019); maksymchuk (2020a); maksymchuk (2020b); bezliudnyi (2019). it should be noted that the concept of "sanogenic reflection" has not been widely used so far in domestic research, but many scientists have pointed to this phenomenon and its functions. this concept was introduced into scientific circulation for experimental research, and was defined, first of all, as one that denotes a tool for achieving sanogenic thinking, s. morozyuk (2006), y. orlov (2006). in this article we use the definitions that have been stress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the … nina yarosh, et al. 185 introduced into scientific circulation in the theory and practice of sanogenic thinking, yu. orlov (2006) & s. morozyuk (2006). to date, many studies have confirmed the positive effects of sanogenic thinking on the psychological health of the individual, performance, adaptability and stress resistance. sanogenic thinking helps to cope negative emotions and psychological recovery. however, sanogenic thinking as a factor in stress-coping behavior of the individual was not the subject of psychological research. in the known studies of l. adamyan (2012), l. kananchuk (2010), y. kraynova (2010) only pointed out the possibilities of sanogenic reflection and its role in coping stress at the theoretical level. to date, there is also no scientific research that would reflect the peculiarities of the process of learning sanogenic thinking, which would allow a person in turn to effectively resist with stress. the interaction of the individual with the world around him, which has a negative impact on the psychological and physical health of man, is characterized by the concept of "stress". a characteristic response of the individual to the action of stressors is coping behavior. the phenomenon of "coping" in the work is considered as a dynamic phenomenon, which is influenced by cognitive, emotional and behavioral spheres of personality. coping behavior is the main form of overcoming efforts. the concepts of "coping with stress" and "coping behavior" are understood as various forms of human activity, covering all types of interaction of the subject with the tasks and problems of the external or internal plan. the choice of coping behavior strategies is primarily due to personal characteristics. the success of solving a complex situation, finding the optimal way to solve it largely depends on the analysis and the degree of human understanding of specific life situations. the individual's understanding of the situation depends, first of all, on the degree of development of reflexive abilities. through reflection, a person gets the opportunity to more fully assess events and their own resources. thus, coping a stressful situation is impossible without cognitive "processing", which becomes available through reflection. reflection is a process of conscious critical reflection of a person what is happening to him. the lack of such an ability in the individual may indicate the predominance of pathogenic thinking, which leads to disease, as well as generates negative emotions and creates emotional stress and adaptation problems, resulting in a person becomes vulnerable to his own mind. sanogenic thinking, in contrast to pathogenic, on the contrary, helps to overcome negative emotions and psychological recovery. sanogenic thinking is characterized by the dynamism of the connection of the brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 186 individual with the world of images, which reflects life situations. the theory and practice of sanogenic thinking is a special case of the theory of positive thinking and is focused on the positive reassessment of automatisms related to the affective sphere of personality. comparing the concept of positive thinking with sanogenic, we can note a common focus on solving internal problems of the individual, reducing the negative emotional charge. however, positive thinking is based on worldviews, features of ego-concept and personal narratives, as well as the development of optimism, while sanogenic thinking is aimed at adequate reflection and perception of images of this reality. that is, the most significant difference is in the mechanism of each type of thinking. in contrast to the traditional interpretation of thinking as a set of mental actions that solve a problem (basically external goals), the term "sanogenic thinking" reflects the solution of internal problems (eg, problems of alleviating suffering from resentment, failure, etc.). sanogenic thinking is one of the effective means of solving psycho-traumatic problems, which is based on their conscious formulation and consideration, conscious reflexive analysis of one's own emotions and emotional (stressful) factors. this type of thinking reduces internal conflict and psychological stress, prevents disease and improves health. the term "sanogenic reflection" was introduced for research in the field of sanogenic thinking. sanogenic reflection is the ability to be aware of oneself, one's thoughts, to identify one's emotions and problems, which allows a person to choose the right behavior programs in different situations. it is a means of achieving sanogenic thinking. thus, combining theoretical ideas about stress and coping behavior, as well as sanogenic thinking, it is possible to assume that a person who has mastered sanogenic thinking through the development of sanogenic reflection skills and has, as a result, sanogenic behavior, uses "sanogenic coping". it is determined that "sanogenic coping" is a general concept for those coping strategies of the individual, which are aimed at maintaining mental health, resolving stressful situations, establishing social contacts and positive reassessment of the situation, as well as self-confidence and control of emotional state. sanogenic coping includes, first of all, all the properties and characteristics of the actual sanogenic behavior, namely high activity, positive emotional experiences, motivation to succeed and solve problems, personal development, constructive ideas about one's own health, high quality of life , the presence of psychological support from society. in contrast to sanogenic coping, it is advisable to distinguish "pathogenic coping", which is not able to provide the individual with psychological wellstress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the … nina yarosh, et al. 187 being and causes such coping strategies that are aimed at avoidance, emotional response, confrontation, etc. as a result of the analysis of theoretical and experimental researches of a problem of stress and stress-coping behavior the model of features of influence of a stressful situation on the person in the context of the theory of sanogenic thinking is offered.. according to this model (see fig. 1), the stressor that affects a person is characterized by certain parameters of influence and has a psychological, social, material and physical origin. the course of stress is also influenced by personal factors that are in interaction with the peculiarities of external circumstances. being in a stressful situation, the individual performs a cognitive assessment of the situation. at the stage of cognitive assessment, the decisive factor is the type of personality thinking (sanogenic or pathogenic) and the presence of sanogenic reflection skills. in the process of cognitive assessment, the nature of stress-coping behavior is determined, i.e. the type of coping that will be used to overcome the stressful situation. if a person has developed sanogenic thinking and he actively uses sanogenic reflection, it will be a guarantee of productive coping and psychological health. if, on the contrary, the pathogenic type of thinking prevails in the person, then as a result unproductive coping is involved that leads both to psychological, and to physical troubles. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 188 figure 1. theoretical model of the impact of a stressful situation on the individual in the context of the theory of sanogenic thinking (developed by the authors) external factors of stress internal factors of stress stressors  psychologi cal;  social;  physical;  material interaction personality • physiological characteristics; • psychological characteristics sanogenic (health) reflection cognitive assessment of the situation () sanogenic type of thinking productive (sanogenic coping) psychologically healthy personality pathogenic type of thinking choice of coping () unproductive (pathogenic coping) psychologically unhappy personality stress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the … nina yarosh, et al. 189 given that at present the works devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the influence of sanogenic thinking on the effectiveness of the individual in stressful conditions are relevant, both at the theoretical and practical levels is a study that will promote the theory and practice of sanogenic thinking and introduction of its modernized forms in psychological care. at the same time, it will allow to actualize the issue of finding modern ways to prevent and cope stress that will meet the basic requirements of today. the aim is to investigate the features of sanogenic thinking as a factor of stress-coping behavior of the individual. materials & methods the test-persons were cadets of the kharkiv national university of the air force named after ivan kozhedub in the amount of 345 people, including women 167 people and men 178 people. the age of the persons is in the range from 20 to 27 years. the number of people experiencing stress was 116 cadets (women 63 people, men 53 people). the research was carried out during 2017-2020 in several stages. the study scheme is presented below in table 1. table 1. scheme of experimental study of the impact of learning the skills of sanogenic thinking on stress and stress-coping behavior of the individual (developed by the authors) theoretical analysis definition of approaches to understanding stress and stresscoping behavior of the individual; identification of factors and personal factors that affect the nature of coping, which is used by the individual in stressful situations; analysis of experimental studies of the impact of the development of sanogenic thinking in the individual; selection of diagnostic tools the statement stage of empirical research diagnosis of the sample for the presence of stress in order to form a control and experimental group; research of coping strategies, level of development of sanogenic thinking of control and experimental group the formative stage of empirical research development of a program for training sanogenic brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 190 thinking skills; conducting classes with an experimental group according to the curriculum the statement stage of empirical research re-diagnosis of the sample for the presence of stress in order to identify the results of the formative experiment; research of coping strategies, level of development of sanogenic thinking in sampling groups mathematical analysis and logical-semantic interpretation study of the differences between the control and experimental groups before and after the training of sanogenic thinking; study of the correlations between the indicators of the study of stress, stress-coping behavior and sanogenic thinking; research of features of connection of sanogenic thinking and level of stress, coping which chooses the person; testing the hypothesis of sanogenic thinking as a factor in stress-coping behavior of the individual results and discussion analysis of the sample (at the stage of the observational experiment) according to the methods of studying stress and coping behavior shows that the representatives of this group of test-persons are characterized by high rates of stress and non-adaptive nature of coping. the coping strategies used are not able to fully reduce the effects of stress. avoiding a stressful situation, not controlling emotions and reconciling with the problem is not a way out of stress, but, on the contrary, extend its effect on the human body and psyche. the individual becomes dependent on the circumstances and his own way of perception, he can not consciously control their own reactions, and also feels unable to break this circle. the characteristics described above are manifestations and symptoms of a pathogenic type of thinking. the study of the sample using the method of "cognitive-emotional test" confirms the low development of sanogenic thinking and the high frequency of psychological protection, yu. orlov (2006). as a result of a formative experiment to teach the skills of sanogenic thinking, the study investigated the presence of changes in the degree of stress using the methods "psychological stress scale psm-25" and the questionnaire "fatigue-monotony-satiety-stress", a. leonov (1988). it is determined that the formation of skills of sanogenic thinking as a result of a stress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the … nina yarosh, et al. 191 formative experiment, helps to reduce the level of fatigue, monotony, satiety and stress in the individual. the analysis of correlations of indicators of methods of studying of stress with methods of studying of stress-coping behavior of the person in experimental group (bilateral pearson's correlation coefficient) shows that increase in an indicator of sanogenic thinking leads to decrease in indicators of stress (r=-0,872, p≤0,01). an equally important result is that in this group, all indicators of stress are inversely correlated with the scale "avoidance of the situation." this indicates that this group does not use this coping strategy in stress, but, on the contrary, turns to strategies that are aimed at solving the problem. this vector of change, from the point of view of psychological health, is useful, because in the case of avoiding negative events and emotions associated with them, negative energy does not come out and thus destroys the personality. improving indicators on the "fatigue" scales (r=0,302, p≤0,05), "monotony" (r=0,335, p≤0,05), "satiety" (r=0,366, p≤0,05) leads to an increase in the amount of protective reflection when experiencing shame. that is, an increase in mental stress in humans causes a sense of shame, which is to reduce self-esteem and loss of activity. the study of the control group using methods to study the level of stress showed that the values of indicators decreased (on average by 8%) is not significant compared with changes in indicators in the experimental group (on average by 35%). figure 2 shows the changes in the indicators of the "cognitiveemotional test", yu. orlov (2006), which clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the acquired skills of sanogenic thinking in the experimental group before and after learning the theory and practice of sanogenic thinking in the formative experiment. the obtained result is expressed in reduction of frequency of use of protective reflection and psychological protection at experience of negative emotions by the person. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 192 figure 2. comparative analysis of indicators of the "cognitive-emotional test" in the experimental group before and after the formative experiment, yu. orlov (2006) the control group was also studied twice, but this group was not trained in the course of sanogenic thinking. the analysis of the control group showed that no significant changes occurred. indicators of protective reflection exceed the norm. the rate of sanogenic thinking and reflection is too low 17%. in the experimental group, after learning the skills of sanogenic thinking and reflection, they began to use a more coping strategy focused on solving problems (72%), which is a more effective and productive way to cope stress and crisis situations. there was a decrease in the average indicators of coping strategy "emotional response" (19%) and "avoidance" (9%). thus, learning leads to the fact that the individual begins to use not emotionally-oriented coping and avoidance to remove negative feelings, but involves problem-oriented strategies to change the real situation. this characterizes a person as psychologically mature and able to successfully adapt to a stressful situation. a repeated study of coping behavior in the control group showed that its representatives most often use coping strategy, focused on avoidance 43%, focused on emotions 37% and problem-solving only 20% (method of s. norman (2017) (adapted version of t. kryukova). stress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the … nina yarosh, et al. 193 analyzing the results of re-study of the experimental group according to the method for psychological diagnosis of coping mechanisms by e. heim (1986), we note an increase in the use of adaptive cognitive coping strategies (57%), such as "problem analysis", "self-control", "selfimportance" » and relatively adaptive strategies (35%). the percentage of use of adaptive emotional coping strategies increased to 43% ("protest" and "optimism") and relatively adaptive behavioral coping strategies to 26%. increase in the use of adaptive behavioral coping strategies (47%), such as "altruism", "cooperation", "appeal" and increase in the rate of adaptive coping strategies 42%. the results of the re-study do not reflect significant changes in the nature of stress-coping behavior of the control group their coping strategies remained unadaptive and ineffective. this group still has a low adaptability of cognitive coping strategies: non-adaptive cognitive strategies 75%, non-adaptive emotional coping strategies 71% and non-adaptive behavioral strategies 50%. a study of the differences between the indicators of the method of e. heim (1986) between the control and experimental groups after the experiment using x2 mcnemar test. the results of statistical analysis make it possible to argue that the practice of the ability to think sanogenically leads to a change in coping strategies of the individual from non-adaptive to adaptive. for a deeper understanding of the features and characteristics of stress-coping behavior of the experimental group of subjects, an additional study was conducted using the questionnaire "ways of coping behavior", s. folkman (1986), adapted by l. wasserman (2010). according to the authors of the questionnaire, the effectiveness of a strategy depends on the characteristics of the current situation, as well as on the personal resources that a person has. the predominant strategy in the experimental group of subjects is "positive revaluation". this strategy involves trying to overcome the negative feelings about the problem by positively rethinking it, looking at the problem and the stressful situation as an incentive for personal development. also characteristic is the focus on philosophical understanding of the situation, its inclusion in the broader context of the individual's work on self-development. in addition, the coping strategy "acceptance of responsibility" is expressed, which is to recognize the subject of his role in the problem facing the individual, and responsibility for its solution. the stress-coping behavior of the experimental group is characterized by the strategy "planning problem solving", which involves attempts to brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 194 overcome the problem through targeted analysis of the situation and possible behaviors, building a strategy for solving the problem, planning their own actions based on objective conditions, past experience and available resources. strategies such as "confrontational coping" and "escape-avoidance" are rarely used by the subjects of the experimental group. correlations with the “sanogenic thinking” scale were analyzed in accordance with the identified objectives of the study. the conducted correlation analysis indicates the feedback of the scale "sanogenic thinking" with the scales "confrontational coping" (r=-0,938, p≤0,01), "distancing" (r=-0,794, p≤0,01), "escape-avoidance" (r=-0,794, p≤0,01), indicating that the development of sanogenic thinking reduces the frequency of use of the above coping strategies of the individual and, conversely, increases the frequency of application of strategies "self-control" (r=0,933, p≤0,01), "task planning" (r=0,922, p≤0,01), "positive revaluation" (r=0,853, p≤0,01). it can be concluded that the individual's choice of these strategies is a factor in the successful psychological adaptation of man. the stress-coping behavior of the control group is characterized by such types of coping strategies as "confrontational coping", "distancing" and "escape-avoidance". these strategies do not involve resolving a stressful situation, but push the problem "into the background" and provide a temporary reduction in the tension of the emotional sphere of the individual. as practice shows, these strategies are not purposeful and rational enough. interpreting the data obtained in the experimental group (sacs method, s. hobfall (1996), whose subjects have the skills of sanogenic thinking, we can talk about a large number of effective models for coping complex (stressful) situations. this result is expressed in higher rates of assertive behavior, entering into social contact, seeking social support and lower rates of aggressive and antisocial behavior. behavioral patterns of the experimental group are characterized by activity, prosociality and flexibility. it is worth noting that patterns of behavior may contribute to or hinder the success of coping with stress, depending on the constructiveness of the strategy. the index of constructiveness of strategies of stress-coping behavior in the experimental group was 1.6 points, which indicates a high constructiveness of coping behavior. comparing the control group with the experimental group of the sample, we see that the results are at opposite poles: activity / passivity, prosociality / asociality. it is also worth noting that the index of constructiveness of stress-coping behavior strategy is different stress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the … nina yarosh, et al. 195 for both groups. thus, we can conclude that the sanogenic type of thinking affects the constructiveness of stress-coping behavior of the individual. there is a close two-way relationship between the scales "assertive action" and "sanogenic thinking" (r=0,679 at р≤0,05) and feedback with “fatigue” scales (r=-0,439 at р≤0,01), "monotony" (r=-0,428 at р≤0,05), "satiety" (r=-0,45 at р≤0,01), "stress" (r=-0,265 at р≤0,01). this means that the presence of sanogenic thinking in the individual causes the use of assertive, confident behavior, which also reduces stress. the low level of development of sanogenic thinking of the person correlates with high frequency of use of strategies "escape" (r=0,712 at р≤0,05) and "impulsive actions" (r=-0,627 at р≤0,05). that is, a person who is dominated by a pathogenic type of thinking, in the case of a stressful situation, resorts or to avoid, or to impulsive, illconsidered actions. the use of the "escape" coping strategy also affects the increase in the stress index according to the psm-25 method (r=0,384 at р≤0,05), and to increase the use of psychological protection against guilt (r=0,597 at р≤0,05) and shame (r=0,263 at р≤0,01). thus, summarizing the results of the formative experiment, it is possible to argue that there is a pattern of influence of sanogenic thinking on stress-coping behavior of the individual and the level of stress in general. to confirm this experimental hypothesis, the method of linear regression equations was used. analysis of the equations suggests that sanogenic thinking can be a factor in constructive, adaptive and effective stress-coping behavior. high levels of stress and a state of psychological fatigue, which may indicate maladaptation and mental discomfort, can be reduced and significantly reduced by the individual by changing the style of thinking from pathogenic to sanogenic. the reduction of stress is due to the fact that the individual begins to use proactive coping strategies: "positive reassessment", "self-control", "planning to solve the problem", "assertive action", "problem solving" as well as adaptive cognitive, emotional and behavioral strategy. in addition, stress reduction is also due to a reduction in the use of ineffective coping strategies ("confrontation", "distancing", "escape", "impulsive actions"). below is a description of the coping behavior of a person who is dominated by sanogenic type of thinking. the individual is able to control their own negative experiences that arise in connection with the problem, minimizing the impact of negative emotions on the assessment of the situation and the choice of behavioral strategy. the analysis of a stressful situation has a purposeful character, focused on development of strategies of the decision of problems and planning of own actions taking into account objective conditions, past brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 196 experience and available resources. the individual is able to constructively solve difficulties through a comprehensive analysis of their own emotional state and positive rethinking. negative events are seen as an incentive for personal growth. there is also the independence of the individual from external evaluations, independence in regulating their own behavior and responsibility for it. a person who thinks sanogenically is able to better assess their own resources in coping difficult situations, accompanied by an optimistic attitude to the future. there is also the ability to assess their own expectations, which a person attributes to a partner, events, circumstances and which, in case of disagreement, cause resentment, make it impossible to realize the unconscious. the individual perceives both himself and others as "real", refuses to compare himself, thereby reducing the stress of experiencing negative emotions, which, in turn, reduces the level of effort from stress. the analysis showed that the study of personality theory and practice of sanogenic thinking allows you to expand awareness of emotional mental operations and acquire skills and abilities to introspect their own emotions when experiencing stress. that is, sanogenic thinking can be a factor in stress-coping behavior of the individual. strategies that a person begins to use in stress, using in the process of coping sanogenic reflection and thinking, can be combined into one group sanogenic type of coping. this type of coping includes coping strategies, which are primarily aimed at solving problems and controlling emotions, as well as confident actions and a positive reassessment of the situation. sanogenic coping helps to reduce the level of stress experienced by the individual. thus, it should be noted that sanogenic thinking in this model of stress-coping behavior of the individual acts as a factor influencing the component of cognitive assessment of the situation. sanogenic reflection skills allow a person to think about a crisis situation and give it a new meaning, thus coping stress. in the framework of this work, under the "reflection" of the situation is meant a cognitive processing of information that allows individuals to successfully allocate their own resources to maintain health and use effective and adaptive coping strategies. the scientific novelty of the obtained results is that in the work for the first time:  the place of sanogenic thinking in the process of overcoming stress by a person is substantiated;  developed a theoretical model of the influence of sanogenic thinking on the choice of coping strategy of the individual; stress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the … nina yarosh, et al. 197  the influence of sanogenic thinking on stress-overcoming behavior of the person is proved; expanded and deepened:  provisions on sanogenic thinking, determines the style of psychological response of the individual to the action of external factors and is based on the mechanism of sanogenic reflection;  the concept of "sanogenic reflection", which is defined as a special type of systemic reflection, which consists in the possibility of identifying and "thinking" affective programs of personality behavior;  ideas about the types of existing coping strategies: sanogenic and pathogenic type of coping; specified:  the concept of sanogenic reflection in the context of stresscoping behavior of the individual. the results of the study can be recommended for use in the educational work of school teachers, high education institutions teachers, psychologists, social workers, deputy company commanders for moral and psychological support in the armed forces of ukraine. the main provisions and conclusions allow to enrich the curriculum in general psychology, social psychology, psychology of crisis situations, psychology of social work, psychology of emergency actions, psychotherapy, psychological counseling, psychodiagnostics on aspects of stress-coping behavior and its characteristics that affect efficiency and psychological health of the individual. the obtained data can be the basis for the development of trainings on the formation of effective coping behavior in stressful situations. practical psychologists receive a new tool in dealing with psychological stress and prevention of its further occurrence. thanks to the research, the practice of teaching sanogenic thinking in the mobile application "sanogenic thinking" by yu. orlov (2006) was scientifically substantiated, modernized and modified. conclusions based on the analysis of theoretical and methodological development of the problem, it is determined that one of the key components in the process of human response to stress is a cognitive assessment of the situation, which is determined by the peculiarities of human understanding of events that occur with it. coping a stressful situation is impossible without cognitive "processing", which becomes available through reflection. the role of the influence of reflection on the choice of coping strategy of brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 198 the individual is that reflective individuals choose more adaptive and effective strategies. the position on sanogenic reflection and sanogenic thinking is generalized and expanded. sanogenic reflection is defined in the work as a special type of systemic reflection, which consists in the ability to identify and "reflect" on negative affective behavior programs, which in turn leads to physical and psychological well-being. under "reflection" is understood the possibility of isolating in your own consciousness your own ego, emotion, and its reasons. sanogenic reflection is a means of achieving sanogenic thinking. sanogenic thinking is a style of psychological response of an individual to the action of external factors, which is based on the mechanism of sanogenic reflection. it is the presence of sanogenic reflection in the individual and determines the nature of his thinking sanogenic or pathogenic. taking into account the theoretical and methodological analysis of the psychological nature of stress and personal conditions of stress-coping behavior of the individual, a theoretical model of the influence of sanogenic thinking on the choice of coping strategy is organized. strategies that a person begins to use in stress, using in the process of coping sanogenic reflection and thinking, are combined into one group sanogenic type of coping. this type of coping includes coping strategies, which are primarily aimed at solving the problem and controlling emotions, as well as confident actions and a positive reassessment of the situation.. sanogenic coping helps to reduce the level of stress experienced by the individual. sanogenic thinking in this model of stress-coping behavior of the individual acts as a factor influencing the component of cognitive assessment of the situation. the diagnostic stage of the study of the control and experimental group allowed to determine that both groups are characterized by a manifestation of a high degree of mental stress, are pronounced components of stress, dominated by strategies "avoidance" and "emotional response"; cognitive, emotional and behavioral copings are ineffective and nonadaptive; stress-coping behavior of the subjects indicates the predominance of pathogenic type of thinking and protective reflection from shame, resentment, guilt and failure. analysis of the results of the formative experiment showed that the high level of stress and psychological fatigue is reduced by changing the style of thinking from pathogenic to sanogenic. the individual is able to control their own negative experiences that arise in connection with the problem, minimizing the impact of negative emotions on the assessment of the situation and the choice of behavioral strategy. the analysis of a stressful situation has a purposeful character, focused on development of strategies of stress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the … nina yarosh, et al. 199 the decision of problems and planning of own actions taking into account objective conditions, past experience and available resources. the individual is able to constructively solve difficulties through a comprehensive analysis of their own emotional state and positive rethinking. negative events are seen as an incentive for personal growth. there is also the independence of the individual from external evaluations, independence in regulating their own behavior and responsibility for it. a person who thinks sanogenically is able to better assess their own resources in overcoming difficult situations, accompanied by an optimistic attitude to the future. there is also the ability to assess their own expectations, which a person attributes to a partner, events, circumstances and which, in case of disagreement, cause resentment, make it impossible to realize the unconscious. the individual perceives both himself and others as "real", refuses to compare himself, thereby reducing the stress of experiencing negative emotions, which, in turn, reduces the level of effort from stress state. relationships between the level of development of sanogenic thinking and coping strategies used by the individual are revealed. regression analysis showed that the study of personality theory and practice of sanogenic thinking allows you to expand awareness of emotional mental operations and acquire skills and abilities to introspect their own emotions, experiences in coping stress. that is, sanogenic thinking can be a factor in stress-coping behavior of the individual. references adamyan l. i., (2012) sanogennaya refleksiya kak faktor psikhologicheskoy ustoychivosti lichnosti [sanogenic reflection as a factor of psychological stability of a person]: dissertation of a candidate of psychological sciences: specialty 19.00.01 "general psychology, personality psychology, history of psychology." moscow, 172 p. bezliudnyi o., kravchenko o., maksymchuk b., mishchenko m., maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19 (3), art 230 pp. 1585. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf folkman s., lazarus r. s., dunkelschetter c., delongis a., gruen r., (1986) the dynamics of a stressful encounter: cognitive appraisal, coping and encounter outcomes // journal of personality and social psychology. № 50. р. 992–1003. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 200 pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 heim e. , willi j. (1986). psychosoziale medizin: gesundheit und krankheit in biosozialer. sicht springer. № 1. р. 132–137. hobfoll s. e. social support: will you be there when i need you? //. a lifetime of relationships / n. vanzetti and s. duck (eds.). california: brooks/cole publishing co, 1996. p. 12. kananchuk l. a. (2010). sanogennaya refleksiya kak faktor adaptatsii studentov v polietnicheskoy srede vuza [sanogenic reflection as a factor of adaptation of students in the multiethnic environment of the university: dissertation of a candidate of psychological sciences: specialty 19.00.01 "general psychology, personality psychology, history of psychology." moscow, 174 p. kraynova yu. n. (2010). sanogennaya refleksiya v strukture emotsional'noy kompetentnosti budushchikh pedagogov [sanogenic reflection in the structure of emotional competence of future teachers: dissertation of the candidate of pedagogical sciences: specialty 19.00.07 "educational psychology". moscow, 166 p. leontiev a. n., (1988) deyatel'nost'. soznaniye. lichnost' [activity. consciousness. personality] // selected psychological works: in 2 volumes. moscow, volume 2. pp. 94–231. maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 morozyuk s. n., miroshnik e. v., (2006) sanogennyy stil' myshleniya. upravleniye emotsiyami. «obida» : modul'no-kodovoye uchebnoye posobiye v mobil'noy sisteme obucheniya kipm k tsiklu kursov po beskonfliktnoy adaptatsii i samorazvitiyu lichnosti [sanogenic style of thinking. emotion management. "resentment": a modular-code textbook in the kipm mobile training system for a cycle of courses on conflict-free adaptation and personality self-development]. moscow: prometheus, 102 p. nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020a). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 stress-coping behavior of the individual as a psychological problem in the … nina yarosh, et al. 201 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/ 2625 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020b). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 norman s. (2017) koping-povedeniye v stressovykh situatsiyakh [coping behavior in stressful situations] (d.f. endler, d.a.james, m.i. parker; adapted version by t.a. kryukova). url : http://www.gurutestov.ru/test/193 (date of the application:12.07.2017 ) orlov yu. m., (2006) ozdoravlivayushcheye (sanogennoye) myshleniye [health (sanogenic) thinking. book 1, moscow: sliding, 2nd edition, revised 90 p. (series: behavior management). palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 wasserman l.i., ababkov v.a., trifonova e.a., (2010) sovladaniye so stressom: teoriya i psikhodiagnostika [coping with stress: theory and psychodiagnostics]. st. petersburg: rech, 192 p. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 474-490 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/260 who wants to wash away their sins? guilt and shame proneness and behavioral moral cleansing endorsement: a pilot study alexandra maftei¹, ioan-alex merlici2 1 “alexandru ioan cuza” university, department of psychology and educational sciences, iasi, romania. https://orcid.org/00000001-9700-8794, psihologamaftei@gmail.com 2 alexandru ioan cuza university, iasi, romania, jimmy_alex_m@yahoo.com abstract: in our pilot cross-sectional study, we aimed to explore the associations between guilt and shame proneness and moral cleansing endorsement. our sample consisted of 484 adults (73.3% females), aged 18 and 53 (m=24.09, sd=7.32). we used a novel approach to explore moral cleansing mechanisms, i.e., a two-item scale assessing behavioral cleansing endorsement (one's agreement with the idea that people must "wash away" their immoral acts by acting in ethical ways that would "clean" their moral debt). in addition to the significant associations that we found between moral cleansing endorsement and the guilt and shame proneness dimensions (i.e., negative behavior evaluation, repair action tendencies, negative self-evaluation, and withdrawal action tendencies), results also suggested that moral cleansing endorsement was significantly predicted by overall guilt and shame proneness. more specifically, we found that higher levels of guilt and shame proneness might account for higher moral cleansing endorsement levels. we also found important associations with participants' age: our findings suggested that the higher the age, the higher the endorsement for moral actions aimed to "clean" immoral deeds. results are discussed in relation to cultural-related factors. keywords: guilt, shame, moral behavior, moral cleansing, age. how to cite: maftei, a., & merlici, i-a. (2021). who wants to wash away their sins? guilt and shame proneness and behavioral moral cleansing endorsement: a pilot study. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 474-490. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/260 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/260 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9700-8794 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9700-8794 mailto:psihologamaftei@gmail.com mailto:jimmy_alex_m@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/260 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 475 1. introduction how tempting is the opportunity to wash away your sins, following an immoral act? philosophers, theologists, and many psychologists tried to answer this question for a along the time. moral psychology, in particular, offers several pathways to understand the potential answer to the questions related to the psychological mechanisms that underlie people's need to restore their moral balance following unethical behaviors such as cheating or lying. the cognitive mechanisms associated with moral cleansing processes have been explored in a growing number of studies. most of them clearly differentiate between moral cleansing and moral licensing but also highlight the connection between them. for example, harkrider et al. (2013) explored the effects of incentives and consequences of one's actions on moral cleansing, suggesting that "although moral cleansing serves a positive role by reaffirming a person's moral identity, too much affirmation can actually cause people to relax their moral strivings and subsequently engage in even more unethical behavior, including cheating" (p.133). moral licensing (ml) is a cognitive reasoning by which less ethical or morally questionable behaviors are justified using previously performed moral actions (blanken et al., 2015). this specific effect was generally explored in various experimental designs that generally suggested that ml mechanisms generally relax one's moral standards and allow individuals to engage in subsequent unethical or morally ambiguous behaviors (e.g., ahmad et al., 2020; engel & szech, 2020; loi et al., 2020; mullen & monin, 2016; monin & miller, 2001). in contrast to moral licensing, moral cleansing (mc) outlines a similar rational mechanism, with the same goal of rebalancing the inner moral balance: a moral behavior is subsequently performed to compensate for previous immoral behavior (e.g., ding et al., 2016; gilchrist & schnall, 2018; harkrider et al., 2013; o'connor et al., 2020). mc describes the compensatory behavior people engage in to reaffirm one's core values and reduce the psychological discomfort following immoral deeds (ayal & gino, 2012; harkrider et al., 2013; sachdeva et al., 2009). moral cleansing is one of the central concepts of the moral balance model (nisan & horenczyk, 1990), which postulates that the individual's current moral status influences their moral decisions. recent moral actions may offer individuals a justification for future egoistic behavior, while recent egoistic behaviors may encourage the individual to perform an altruistic act to balance selfish and altruistic acts. individuals may strive for the highest achievable level of moral self-worth, although they may often engage in who wants to wash away their sins? guilt and shame proneness and … alexandra maftei & ioan-alex merlici 476 immoral, self-centered acts to recover specific losses. this self-regulation pattern reflects an interplay between two tendencies: being selfish after doing something altruistic and being altruistic after doing something selfish (brañas-garza et al., 2013). the former tendency is conceptualized in moral psychology as moral cleansing, while the latter is conceptualized as moral cleansing (mc). mc broadly refers to individuals' actions when their moral self-worth is under threat to reaffirm their identity as moral individuals. while moral licensing may be helpful for the individual but potentially harmful for others, since it encourages an individual to engage in immoral acts, mc may be beneficial for both parties since altruism restores one's selfworth and may also be helpful for society as a whole (sachdeva et al., 2009). west and zhong (2015) identified three types of mc: "restitution cleansing" represents an attempt to eliminate the direct cause of a perceived immoral threat; "behavioral cleansing" consists of a less direct approach through which individuals try to restore their moral self-worth by engaging in moral behaviors in unrelated domains; finally, "symbolic cleansing" defines the use of metaphorical actions and rituals (e.g., church confessions, physical punishments), in order to restore one's moral self-worth. in the current study, we will refer to behavioral cleansing endorsement, i.e., one's agreement with the idea that people must "wash away" their immoral acts by acting in ethical ways that would "clean" their moral debt (gneezy et al., 2014). a considerable number of studies examined mc mechanism and their interaction with other psychological variables. ding et al. (2016) identified recalled immorality as a significant predictor of prosocial behavior, the relation between the two variables being mediated by guilt. furthermore, the pathways between recalled immorality and the other variables were moderated by moral identity. in two other studies (e.g., liao et al., 2018), the perpetuation of abusive behaviors by supervisors led to an increased experience in guilt, which led to engagement in constructive leadership behaviors to compensate for the perceived loss of moral credits. inbar et al. (2013) reported that participants who wrote about a guilt-inducing memory inflicted stronger electric shocks on themselves, which in turn, led to lower levels of guilt. other studies (meub et al., 2016) suggest that the participants were most likely to cheat and least likely to resort to mc when cheating was done at the experimenter's expense. on the contrary, participants were least likely to cheat and most likely to resort to mc when cheating was done at other participants' expense. however, rotella and barclay (2020) failed to replicate mc in an online survey, although the experimental manipulation was successful. furthermore, their results suggested a pattern of moral brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 477 consistency rather than a pattern of alternation between moral and immoral acts, as the moral balance model would suggest. guilt and shame proneness guilt and shame are classified as negative legacy emotions, i.e., emotions that restrain the individual from performing specific actions or express certain emotions or thoughts (breggin, 2015). guilt and shame are considered self-conscious emotions, i.e., emotions that require selfawareness and self-representation. self-evaluation processes are activated when individuals become aware that they managed (or failed) to live up to a particular ideal that they endorse (tracy & robins, 2004). although the spectrum of self-conscious emotions draws us closer to the specifics of guilt and shame, this classification may also include other emotions (e.g., embarrassment or pride). therefore, we distinguish between shame and guilt and other self-conscious emotions by highlighting that individuals are negative emotions when they fail to meet specific moral or social standards (orth et al., 2006). however, guilt and shame involve a large spectrum of emotions and cognitions, generating various definitions and measurements. for example, in 2010, tilghman-osborne et al. identified twenty-three conceptualizations of shame and guilt. their overwhelming majority defined guilt as the result of one's actions or inactions that led to what the actors perceived as moral transgressions. furthermore, most conceptualizations associated guilt to specific situational contexts suggested that guilt is a trait-like feature. a consensus regarding guilt's role as an adaptive or maladaptive emotion has not yet been reached, and the current research literature offers results that further suggest this divergence. although several similarities between the two emotions were identified, guilt and shame elicit different responses and approaches to moral transgressions. guilt determines individuals to condemn specific immoral behaviors in which they engaged and attempt to repair the damage they caused. on the other hand, shame elicits self-condemnation that devalues the person as a whole (zhu et al., 2019). elison's (2005) conceptualized shame as a particular emotion elicited by perceived devaluation and guilt as an individual's responsibility for immoral action. shame seems to play a central role in people's understanding of their role as social agents, whose moral or immoral behavior may be observed, evaluated, rewarded, or punished by others. societies engage in altruistic punishment, i.e., sanctions that discourage individuals from defecting from altruistic norms. shame may who wants to wash away their sins? guilt and shame proneness and … alexandra maftei & ioan-alex merlici 478 appear as a consequence of such punishments, which adds additional costs for defection, thus, discouraging individuals from defecting in the future (jaffe, 2008). finally, the two primary approaches in the research of guilt and shame describe contrasting approaches. the social-adaptive perspective presents guilt as an adaptive emotion that motivates individuals to correct their wrongdoings, while shame is presented as a maladaptive emotion that pushes individuals towards evasion and concealment of immoral behaviors. the functionalist perspective states that both guilt and shame may be useful or maladaptive emotions, depending on different contexts (dempsey, 2017). furthermore, both guilt and shame may be evolutionary adaptive emotions. shame may be more purposeful for an individual's adaptation, considering its role in hiding unacceptable behaviors, while guilt may determine individuals to adhere to the group's moral norms and correct their transgressions from those norms (shen, 2018). carpenter et al. (2016) suggested that trait self-forgiveness may be positively associated with guiltproneness and negatively associated with shame-proneness. however, guiltproneness predicted self-forgiveness only by indirect means, through the activation of motivational tendencies. burmeister et al. (2019) identified significant positive associations between knowledge hiding and feelings of guilt and shame. furthermore, organizational citizenship behavior was positively predicted by guilt and negatively predicted by shame. regarding gender differences in levels of perceived guilt and shame, watson et al. (2016) reported no significant differences between males and females in levels of perceived guilt or shame. on the contrary, borelli et al. (2017) reported significantly higher levels of guilt due to work interfering with family life among women compared to men. additionally, gilchrist et al. (2020) suggested that physical self-concept as a significant predictor of anticipated shame and guilt, gender serving as a significant moderator only for anticipated shame, with women reporting significantly higher levels of anticipated shame. 2. the present study a growing number of studies investigated the role of self-conscious negative emotions in activating the mc mechanism. for instance, zhang et al. (2017) reported that upward moral comparison predicted a higher level of guilt, which led to a stronger motivation for prosocial behaviors. furthermore, moral identity internalization moderated the relationship between upward comparison and guilt and the indirect effect of upward brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 479 moral comparison on prosocial behavior intention through the level of guilt. in a field experiment conducted by ilies et al. (2013), awareness of high levels of negative behavior at work was associated with guilt, which subsequently led to higher organizational citizenship behavior levels to reduce the level of experienced guilt. the results of two experiments conducted by cougle et al. (2012) suggest that physical cleansing, in the form of handwashing, may be increased by a stronger sense of guilt, although this form of cleansing will not decrease the perceived guilt. cui et al. (2020) reported that physical cleansing was followed by a higher level of expected guilt across four experiments, which in turn led to a higher endorsement of pro-environmental travel choices. recent studies suggested that the mere observation of physical cleansing (such as physical punishment) may reduce someone's sense of guilt. bocian & baryla (2020) reported that the participants' sense of guilt decreased after they were however, in the present study, we focused on moral cleansing endorsement and guilt and shame proneness, investigating their potential association. contrary to previous findings from studies that generally used an experimental approach (e.g., zhong & liljenquist, 2006), we ought to examine these mechanisms using a two-item scale that directly addressed participants' endorsement for moral cleansing behavior, i.e., participants' approval towards the acts meant to "wash away" one's unethical behavior. our primary assumption was that we would find a strong and positive association between guilt and shame proneness and participants' moral cleansing endorsement, given previous findings that highlighted similar correlations (e.g., ding et al., 2016). 3. method 2.1. participants and procedure our sample consisted of 484 romanian adults (73.3% females), aged between 18 and 53 (m=24.09, sd=7.32). their participation was voluntary, following an informed consent that presented them with details related to their answers' anonymity and confidentiality and the fact that they can retire from the study at any time. data collection took place in the late fall of 2020, using an online survey advertised through different social media platforms. this study's protocol was designed in concordance with ethical requirements specific to the faculty where the authors are affiliated. all participants voluntarily participated in the study and gave written informed consent following the declaration of helsinki and the national laws from romania who wants to wash away their sins? guilt and shame proneness and … alexandra maftei & ioan-alex merlici 480 regarding the ethical conduct in scientific research, technological development, and innovation 2.2. measures we used the 16-item guilt and shame proneness scale (gasp) (cohen et al., 2011) to assess participants' guilt and shame proneness (gsp). each item of the scale contains a scenario describing a shameful or immoral. the participants are asked to indicate the likeliness that they would feel guilt or shame in each scenario, on a likert scale ranging from 0 (very unlikely) to 7 (very likely). the scale contains two dimensions, each of them including two factors. the guilt dimension contains the negative behavior evaluation factor (four items, e.g., "after realizing you have received too much change at a store, you decide to keep it because the salesclerk doesn't notice. what is the likelihood that you would feel uncomfortable about keeping the money?") and the repair action tendencies factor (four items, e.g., "you are privately informed that you are the only one in your group that did not make the honor society because you skipped too many days of school. what is the likelihood that this would lead you to become more responsible about attending school?"). the shame dimension contains the negative self-evaluation (four items, e.g., "you rip an article out of a journal in the library and take it with you. your teacher discovers what you did and tells the librarian and your entire class. what is the likelihood that this would make you would feel like a bad person?"), and the withdrawal action tendencies factor (four items, e.g., "after making a big mistake on an important project at work in which people were depending on you, your boss criticizes you in front of your coworkers. what is the likelihood that you would feign sickness and leave work?"). a higher overall score indicated a higher level of guilt/shame proneness. cronbach's alpha indicated high reliability (0.81) of the scale. we assessed behavioral moral cleansing endorsement using two items: "if someone committed a bad deed, they should do something good, to "wash away" their sins.", and "if someone committed a bad deed, they should search for occasions to do a good deed, to restore their moral balance". the participants were asked to indicate their agreement level with each statement on a likert scale from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree). higher scores indicated a higher level of moral cleansing endorsement. 2.3. results we used the 24.0 version of the ibm spss program to analyze our data. the descriptive statistics of each variable are reported in table 1. to provide a basic statistical summary of the data and proceed with subsequent brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 481 data analysis, we conducted descriptive analysis and normality tests (i.e., shapiro-wilk tests; 1965). following this analysis, we decided to conduct parametric analyses. table 1: descriptive statistics of the main variables (n=473) m sd mdn min max moral cleansing (mc) 7.31 2.51 83.00 2 10 guilt and shame proneness (gsp) 65.66 12.90 67.00 28 91 guilt 43.92 8.85 46.00 18 56 guilt negative behavior evaluation (nbe) 21.82 5.19 23.00 0 28 guilt repair action tendencies (rat) 22.09 4.56 23.00 8 28 shame 35.76 8.63 35.00 10 56 shame negative self-evaluation (nse) 21.19 5.22 22.00 2 28 shame withdrawal action tendencies (wat) 14.55 5.90 15.00 0 28 the pearson correlation results are summarized in table 2. we found significant correlations between moral cleansing endorsement and all main variables, including participants' age. for example, results suggested that the higher the age, the higher the mc endorsement. also, guilt proneness significantly and strongly correlated with one of the shame proneness factors (nse) and weakly correlated with wat. the negative behavior evaluation factor [guilt] had a medium correlation with shame proneness and a strong correlation with negative self-evaluation [shame]. furthermore, the repair action tendencies dimension [guilt] was significantly associated with both shame factors, i.e., negative self-evaluation and withdrawal action tendencies. interestingly, age was significantly and positively associated only with mc and negative behavior evaluation. table 2: pearson correlations between the main variables (n=473) m sd 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1.mc 7.31 2.51 2.gsp 65.66 12.90 .33** who wants to wash away their sins? guilt and shame proneness and … alexandra maftei & ioan-alex merlici 482 3.guilt 43.92 8.85 .29** .88** 4.nbe 21.82 5.19 .21** .79** .91** 5.rat 22.09 4.56 .32** .81** .89** .64** 6.shame 35.76 8.63 .26** .80** .49** .43** .45** 7.nse 21.19 5.22 .23** .79** .66** .62** .58** .74** 8.wat 14.55 5.90 .17** .47** .12** .08 .14** .80** .20** 9.age 24.03 7.45 .09* .03 .04 .09* -.02 .02 -.01 .04 *p<0.05; **p<0.01 (2-tailed); note: mc = moral cleansing; gsp = guilt and shame proneness; nbe= negative behavior evaluation; rat = repair action tendencies; nse = negative self-evaluation; wat = withdrawal action tendencies. to deepen our results, we also conducted a simple linear regression test, using guilt and shame proneness and age as predictors for moral cleansing. the proposed regression model was significant (f (2;481) = 30.92; p<0.001), though guilt and shame proneness was a significant predictor (β = .325, p<.001), while age was marginally significant (β =.07, p=.07). finally, t-test results suggested a significant difference between males and females on overall guilt and shame proneness, female participants (m=66.96) reporting higher gsp levels (t=-3.55; p<.001) than male participants (m=61.93). regarding the two factors of guilt proneness, female participants reported higher scores on both negative behavior evaluation and repair action tendencies. by further exploring the two factors of shame proneness, results suggested that female participants scored higher on both factors (negative self-evaluation and withdrawal action tendencies) (see table 3). table 3: independent sample t-test results gender male (n=122) female (n=351) m (sd) m (sd) t moral cleansing 7.25 (2.47) 7.33 (2.53) -0.310 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 483 guilt and shame proneness 61.93 (13.84) 66.96 (12.31) -3.550** guilt 42.03 (9.27) 44.58 (8.62) -2.761* guilt negative behavior evaluation 20.81 (5.74) 22.18 (4.95) -2.350 guilt repair action tendencies 21.22 (4.60) 22.40 (4.51) -2.475* shame 33.58 (9.96) 36.52 (8.00) -2.946** shame negative self-evaluation 19.47 (5.91) 21.79 (4.83) -3.904** shame withdrawal action tendencies 14.10 (6.85) 14.72 (5.53) -0.902 *p<0.05; **p<0.001; 3. discussion though the moral licensing effect has been explored in a growing number of studies, to our knowledge, investigations were only done by using experimental approaches, and none of them directly investigated people's explicit endorsement for such cleansing actions. in the current study, we proposed a novel approach, using a two-item scale that assessed participants' agreement to the idea that people must wash away their immoral acts by acting in ethical ways that would "wash away their sins". our results suggested significant associations between participants' overall guilt and shame proneness, as well as their subdimensions, and moral cleansing endorsement. interestingly, we found significant gender differences and important correlations with participants' age. more specifically, higher levels of guilt and shame proneness accounted for higher levels of moral cleansing endorsement, while female participants reported higher levels of guilt and shame, in line with previous similar results concerning gender differences in shame and guilt (e.g., borelli et al., 2017; gilchrist et al., 2020). our results suggested that people who generally scored higher on guilt and shame proneness might engage more in compensatory behaviors following immoral actions to reaffirm their core moral values and reduce the subsequent psychological discomfort following their unethical deeds (ayal & gino, 2012; harkrider et al., 2013; sachdeva et al., 2009). however, it is worth mentioning that both moral cleansing and guilt and shame proneness should be discussed in light of the cultural context of the present research. a series of studies previously explored these dimensions accounting for the potential cultural differences. for example, arli et al. (2016) identified significant negative associations between guilt-proneness and unethical who wants to wash away their sins? guilt and shame proneness and … alexandra maftei & ioan-alex merlici 484 consumer behaviors, and this pattern was consistent among both the australian and the indonesian participants. sznycer et al. (2018) reported that shame closely tracked local audiences' devaluation across fifteen smallscale communities worldwide, while durkee et al. (2019) reported that the status impact of specific personal characteristics was strongly intercorrelated across fourteen nations, and the american participants' reported level of anticipated shame closely tracked the status impact reported by the participants from the other thirteen nations. furthermore, sunar et al. (2020) reported that both english and turkish participants presented similar patterns of displaying moral emotions in different relational models across three studies. though it would appear that a reasonable number of studies reported little to no significant influence of culture over guilt and shame proneness, some studies offered seemingly conflicting results. grey et al. (2018), for example, reported higher levels of guilt-proneness and shame proneness characterized by negative selfevaluation among participants from the united arab emirates, compared to irish participants. furthermore, the irish participants reported significantly higher levels of shame characterized by withdrawal tendencies. onwezen et al. (2014) reported that, although there were no significant differences within collectivistic and individualistic cultures regarding anticipated guilt, and the effect of anticipated guilt on intentions was the same in both cultures, anticipated guilt was more strongly affected by attitudes in individualistic cultures. considering these findings, we find it reasonable to consider that our results might also be marked by cultural landmarks related to both guilt and shame proneness, as well as morality (and, implicitly, moral cleansing conceptualization), that future studies might want to further explore. though using a short scale (i.e., "if someone committed a bad deed, they should do something good, to "wash away" their sins.", and "if someone committed a bad deed, they should search for occasions to do a good deed, to restore their moral balance") to assess moral cleansing endorsement is one of the study's strengths, there are some aspects that need further exploration. for example, a bad deed might have different meanings depending on one's personal factors and experience. additionally, we might have suggested the idea of moral cleansing endorsement by framing participants with physical cleansing ("washing away"), and one's inner moral balance that needs to be restored. therefore, these aspects need further exploration in future studies for which the current exploratory findings might serve as an important starting point. as suggested by harkrider et al. (2013), future studies might also consider and explore other personal associated variables and recent events that might account for mc brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 485 endorsement. for example, future studies might want to use questions related to participants' personal recent moral or immoral behavior (e.g., when was the last time you acted in an immoral/unethical way?). despite the current research's limitations, we consider the present exploratory results important for future studies related to moral emotions and their relation with compensatory behaviors, such as those expressed within the moral cleansing framework. ethics statement this study's protocol was designed in concordance with ethical requirements specific to the faculty of psychology and educational sciences, ”alexandru ioan cuza” university (iasi, romania) before beginning the study and supervised by alexandra maftei. all participants voluntarily participated in the study and gave written informed consent following the declaration of helsinki and the national laws from romania regarding the ethical conduct in scientific research, technological development, and innovation. no animal studies are presented in this manuscript. author contribution: both authors equally contributed to the present paper. conflict of interest / disclosure statement the authors declare no financial interests/personal relationships, which may be considered as potential competing interests. data availability statement (das): the datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. funding statement this paper was co-financed from the european social fund, through the human capital operational program, project number pocu / 380/6/13/123623 ”doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers ready for the labor market”. references ahmad, m. g., klotz, a. c., & bolino, m. c. (2020). can good followers create unethical leaders? how follower citizenship leads to leader moral licensing who wants to wash away their sins? guilt and shame proneness and … alexandra maftei & ioan-alex merlici 486 and unethical behavior. journal of applied psychology, 106(9), 1374–1390. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000839 arli, d., leo, c., & tjiptono, f. (2016). investigating the impact of guilt and shame proneness on consumer ethics: a cross national study. international journal of consumer studies, 40(1), 2-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12183 ayal, s., & gino, f. (2012). honest rationales for dishonest behavior. in m. mikulincer & p. r. shaver (eds.), the social psychology of morality: exploring the causes of good and evil (pp. 149–166). american psychological association. https://doi.org/10.1037/13091-008 blanken, i., van de ven, n., & zeelenberg, m. (2015). a meta-analytic review of moral licensing. personality & social psychology bulletin, 41(4), 540–558. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215572134 bocian, k., & baryla, w. (2020). pain (less) cleansing: watching other people in pain reduces guilt and sadness but not shame. plos one, 15(12), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244429 borelli, j. l., nelson, s. k., river, l. m., birken, s. a., & moss-racusin, c. (2017). gender differences in work-family guilt in parents of young children. sex roles, 76(5-6), 356-368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0579-0 brañas-garza, p., bucheli, m., espinosa, m. p., & garcía-muñoz, t. (2013). moral cleansing and moral licenses: experimental evidence. economics & philosophy, 29(2), 199-212. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266267113000199 breggin, p. r. (2015). the biological evolution of guilt, shame and anxiety: a new theory of negative legacy emotions. medical hypotheses, 85(1), 17-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2015.03.015 burmeister, a., fasbender, u., & gerpott, f. h. (2019). consequences of knowledge hiding: the differential compensatory effects of guilt and shame. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 92(2), 281-304. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12249 carpenter, t. p., tignor, s. m., tsang, j. a., & willett, a. (2016). dispositional selfforgiveness, guilt-and shame-proneness, and the roles of motivational tendencies. personality and individual differences, 98, 53-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.017 cougle, j. r., goetz, a. r., hawkins, k. a., & fitch, k. e. (2012). guilt and compulsive washing: experimental tests of interrelationships. cognitive therapy and research, 36(4), 358-366. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-0119359-x cohen, t. r., wolf, s. t., panter, a. t., & insko, c. a. (2011). introducing the gasp scale: a new measure of guilt and shame proneness. journal of personality and social psychology, 100(5), 947-966. https://doi:10.1037/a0022641 https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000839 https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12183 https://doi.org/10.1037/13091-008 https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215572134 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244429 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0579-0 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266267113000199 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2015.03.015 https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12249 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.017 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-011-9359-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-011-9359-x https://doi:10.1037/a0022641 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 487 cui, y., errmann, a., kim, j., seo, y., xu, y., & zhao, f. (2020). moral effects of physical cleansing and pro-environmental hotel choices. journal of travel research, 59(6), 1105-1118. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287519872821 dempsey, h. l. (2017). a comparison of the social-adaptive perspective and functionalist perspective on guilt and shame. behavioral sciences, 7(4), 83. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs7040083 ding, w., xie, r., sun, b., li, w., wang, d., & zhen, r. (2016). why does the "sinner" act prosocially? the mediating role of guilt and the moderating role of moral identity in motivating moral cleansing. frontiers in psychology, 7, 1317. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01317 durkee, p. k., lukaszewski, a. w., & buss, d. m. (2019). pride and shame: key components of a culturally universal status management system. evolution and human behavior, 40(5), 470-478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.06.004 elison, j. (2005). shame and guilt: a hundred years of apples and oranges. new ideas in psychology, 23(1), 5-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2005.07.001 engel, j., & szech, n. (2020). a little good is good enough: ethical consumption, cheap excuses, and moral self-licensing. plos one, 15(1), e0227036. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227036 gilchrist, p. t., & schnall, s. (2018). the paradox of moral cleansing: when physical cleansing leads to increased contamination concerns. journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 61, 38–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.06.002 gilchrist, j. d., solomon-krakus, s., pila, e., crocker, p., & sabiston, c. m. (2020). associations between physical self-concept and anticipated guilt and shame: the moderating role of gender. sex roles, 763-772. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01137-x gneezy, u., imas, a., & madarász, k. (2014). conscience accounting: emotion dynamics and social behavior. management science, 60(11), 2645-2658. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1942 grey, i., daly, r., thomas, j., & marassas, w. (2018). the relationship between shame and guilt: cultural comparisons between ireland and the united arab emirates. mental health, religion & culture, 21(3), 221-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2018.1455651 harkrider, l. n., tamborski, m. a., wang, x., brown, r. p., mumford, m. d., connelly, s., & devenport, l. d. (2013). threats to moral identity: testing the effects of incentives and consequences of one's actions on moral cleansing. ethics & behavior, 23(2), 133–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2012.714246 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0047287519872821 https://doi.org/10.3390/bs7040083 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01317 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.06.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2005.07.001 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227036 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01137-x https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1942 https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2018.1455651 https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2012.714246 who wants to wash away their sins? guilt and shame proneness and … alexandra maftei & ioan-alex merlici 488 ilies, r., peng, a. c., savani, k., & dimotakis, n. (2013). guilty and helpful: an emotion-based reparatory model of voluntary work behavior. journal of applied psychology, 98(6), 1051. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034162 inbar, y., pizarro, d. a., gilovich, t., & ariely, d. (2013). moral masochism: on the connection between guilt and self-punishment. emotion, 13(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029749 jaffe, k. (2008). evolution of shame as an adaptation to social punishment and its contribution to social cohesiveness. complexity, 14(2), 46-52. https://doi.org/10.1002/cplx.20244 liao, z., yam, k. c., johnson, r. e., liu, w., & song, z. (2018). cleansing my abuse: a reparative response model of perpetrating abusive supervisor behavior. journal of applied psychology, 103(9), 1039–1056. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000319 loi, t. i., kuhn, k. m., sahaym, a., butterfield, k. d., & tripp, t. m. (2020). from helping hands to harmful acts: when and how employee volunteering promotes workplace deviance. the journal of applied psychology, 105(9), 944–958. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000477 meub, l., proeger, t., schneider, t., & bizer, k. (2016). the victim matters– experimental evidence on lying, moral costs and moral cleansing. applied economics letters, 23(16), 1162-1167. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2016.1139674 monin, b., & miller, d. t. (2001). moral credentials and the expression of prejudice. journal of personality and social psychology, 81(1), 33–43. https://doi.org/10.1037/00223514.81.1.33 mullen, e., & monin, b. (2016). consistency versus licensing effects of past moral behavior. annual review of psychology, 67, 363–385. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115120 nisan, m., & horenczyk, g. (1990). moral balance: the effect of prior behaviour on decision in moral conflict. british journal of social psychology, 29(1), 29-42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1990.tb00884.x o'connor, k., effron, d. a., & lucas, b. j. (2020). moral cleansing as hypocrisy: when private acts of charity make you feel better than you deserve. journal of personality and social psychology, 119(3), 540–559. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000195 onwezen, m. c., bartels, j., & antonides, g. (2014). environmentally friendly consumer choices: cultural differences in the self-regulatory function of anticipated pride and guilt. journal of environmental psychology, 40, 239-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.07.003 orth, u., berking, m., & burkhardt, s. (2006). self-conscious emotions and depression: rumination explains why shame but not guilt is https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0034162 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029749 https://doi.org/10.1002/cplx.20244 https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000319 https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000477 https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2016.1139674 https://doi.org/10.1037/00223514.81.1.33 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115120 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1990.tb00884.x https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000195 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.07.003 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 489 maladaptive. personality and social psychology bulletin, 32(12), 1608-1619. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167206292958 rotella, a., & barclay, p. (2020). failure to replicate moral licensing and moral cleansing in an online experiment. personality and individual differences, 161, 14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.109967 sachdeva, s., iliev, r., & medin, d. l. (2009). sinning saints and saintly sinners: the paradox of moral self-regulation. psychological science, 20(4) 523-528. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02326.x shen, l. (2018). the evolution of shame and guilt. plos one, 13(7), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199448 shapiro, s. s., & wilk, m. b. (1965). an analysis of variance test for normality (complete samples). biometrika, 52(3), 591–611. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2333709 sunar, d., cesur, s., piyale, z. e., tepe, b., biten, a. f., hill, c. t., & koç, y. (2020). people respond with different moral emotions to violations in different relational models: a cross-cultural comparison. emotion, 21(4), 693–706. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000736 sznycer, d., xygalatas, d., agey, e., alami, s., an, x. f., ananyeva, k. i., atkinson, q. d., broitman, b. r., conte, t. j., flores, c., fukushima, s., hitokoto, h., kharitonov, a. n., onyishi, i. e., romero, p. p., schrock, j. m., snodgrass, j. j., sugiyama, l. s., takemura, k., townsend, c., zhuang, j. y., aktipis, c. a., cronk, l., cosmides, l., & tooby, j. (2018). crosscultural invariances in the architecture of shame. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 115(39), 9702-9707. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805016115 tilghman-osborne, c., cole, d. a., & felton, j. w. (2010). definition and measurement of guilt: implications for clinical research and practice. clinical psychology review, 30(5), 536-546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.007 tracy, j. l., & robins, r. w. (2004). " putting the self into self-conscious emotions: a theoretical model". psychological inquiry, 15(2), 103-125. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1502_01 watson, s. d., gomez, r., & gullone, e. (2016). the shame and guilt scales of the test of self-conscious affect-adolescent (tosca-a): psychometric properties for responses from children, and measurement invariance across children and adolescents. frontiers in psychology, 7, 635. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00635 west, c., & zhong, c. b. (2015). moral cleansing. current opinion in psychology, 6, 221-225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.09.022 zhang, h., chen, s., wang, r., jiang, j., xu, y., & zhao, h. (2017). how upward moral comparison influences prosocial behavioral intention: examining the https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0146167206292958 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.109967 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02326.x https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199448 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2333709 https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000736 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805016115 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.007 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1502_01 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00635 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.09.022 who wants to wash away their sins? guilt and shame proneness and … alexandra maftei & ioan-alex merlici 490 mediating role of guilt and the moderating role of moral identity. frontiers in psychology, 8, 1554. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01554 zhong, c. b., & liljenquist, k. (2006). washing away your sins: threatened morality and physical cleansing. science, 313(5792), 1451–1452. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1130726 zhu, r., feng, c., zhang, s., mai, x., & liu, c. (2019). differentiating guilt and shame in an interpersonal context with univariate activation and multivariate pattern analyses. neuroimage, 186, 476-486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.11.012 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01554 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1130726 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.11.012 your paper's title starts here: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 62-80 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/156 preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in rhythmic gymnastics ştefania chiriac¹*, silvia teodorescu 2 , aura bota 3 1 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania, stefania.chiriac24@gmail.com * corresponding author 2 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania. 3 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania. abstract: the aim of the research is to establish the level of some psychomotor abilities by determining the rhythmic gymnasts’ capability to perform apparatus-specific technical skills within the composition of their routines, according to the provisions of the 2017-2020 code of points. the wireless training timer (witty) testing equipment was used to assess relevant types of speed in junior rhythmic gymnasts. the reaction time, execution time and travel speed time were measured in similar technical conditions or close to those encountered in training and competitions. the 14 gymnasts included in the research, aged between 13 and 15 years, are part of the national olympic centre for juniors in arad, all being enrolled in the preparatory stage of training. the analysis of the data from both static and dynamic tests established a referential for the forms of speed to be enhanced by means of apparatus-specific technical routines. results provide interesting information on the average values, interindividual differences and homogeneity-related issues (which are relevant especially for gymnasts performing in the group event). the key features of these data, as well as previous analysis of junior routines for the 20172020 olympic cycle, have led us to the conclusion that, in order to get a high score for apparatus difficulty/mastery, more difficulty elements should be added, which requires an increase in all kinds of speed involved by the technique of a specific event. keywords: rhythmic gymnastics; code of points; difficulty elements; witty test. how to cite: chiriac, ş., teodorescu, s., & bota, a. (2020). preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in rhythmic gymnastics. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 6280. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/156 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/156 mailto:stefania.chiriac24@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/156 preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in … ştefania chiriac, et al. 63 introduction rhythmic gymnastics is an olympic female sport in which athletes perform to music using different hand apparatus and following a predetermined composition of exercises (hashimoto, kida, & nomura, 2017). considering that sport competitions with choreography or routines require a combination of movement and music, they both play a major role in this regard, together with overall visual and audio aspects (chiat & ying, 2012, p. 1207). in the current context of high-performance sport and sport show, rhythmic gymnastics is going through a difficult transition period, facing major changes over the last decade, which have been transposed into the rules imposed at each new edition of the fig code of points (2018). this document developed by the technical committee of the international gymnastics federation undergoes changes every four years but can be updated anytime during an olympic cycle (trifunov & dobrijevic, 2013, p. 120) in order to increase the objectivity of the judges’ scoring and stimulate the development of this sport discipline (sierra-palmeiro et al., 2019). according to the study conducted by leandro et al. (2017) on the issue of judging in rhythmic gymnastics at different levels of performance, there are problems judging medium-level athletes (in the second part of the ranking) mainly due to the lack of clearness and precision of the 2013-2016 code of points. as a result, major changes have been made to the new edition of the regulation in 2017 as regards the judging criteria. in an attempt to turn gymnastics competitions into events as attractive as possible for the general public, the international gymnastics federation seeks to regulate these issues using an instrument specific to all branches of olympic gymnastics, namely the difficulty criterion. at the end of 2017, the technical committees decided to remove the maximum limit for this criterion, a change made after the first competitive year of this olympic cycle, which has led to substantial modifications in the related scores and therefore in the final score. this is illustrated in figure 1 that shows the final scores obtained by the world champion in the last three editions of the senior world championships for the individual all-around event. to note that the final score results from totalling the scores of each individual exercise performed with the following apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 64 figure 1. all-around final scores of the world champion, senior category, from 2017 to 2019 source: authors'own contribution opening the difficulty score in rhythmic gymnastics compels coaches to look for (solutions to increase the overall value of the routine and to focus on this judging criterion. leandro et al. (2016) believe that coaches need to analyse the success probability of the elements introduced in competition compositions and to optimise the training process for those groups of elements so as to ensure the athlete’s success in competition, while being careful to maintain good variation in the choice of elements. difficulty is divided into two components, one comprising the body technique elements (a sub-criterion named bd – body difficulty), and the other containing elements related to the apparatus handling technique (a sub-criterion named ad – apparatus difficulty) (figure 2). figure 2. components of the difficulty criterion source: authors'own contribution according to fig code of points 74,700 81,450 91,400 2017 2018 2019 individual all-around event final score preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in … ştefania chiriac, et al. 65 the fig requirements for difficulty are as follows (fig, 2018): minimum 3 and maximum 7 body difficulty elements for junior gymnasts and maximum 9 for senior gymnasts, while dance steps combinations do not have an upper limit (minimum 1 – unlimited) but must last minimum 8 seconds each. technical difficulty elements are divided into dynamic elements with rotation (maximum 4 for juniors and 5 for seniors) and apparatus difficulty. according to agopyan (2014), the effects of changes in the fig code of points can be identified by analysing the competition routines of elite gymnasts, even if very few studies have been conducted in this regard. this is also highlighted by a vila-carvalho et al. (2012), who have found that there are studies on the value of technical elements, but not on their number in competition compositions. analysing the routines of finalist gymnasts at the 2018 european junior championships held in guadalajara (spain) in the all-around event, we have found that leading gymnasts succeed to perform a higher number of apparatus difficulty elements, a maximum number of dynamic elements with rotations and body difficulty elements in the rotations group with increased values. this approach to compositions and technical training gives gymnasts a better chance of success in competition. the study mentioned above (agopyan, 2014) and the research by agopyan and serdil ors (2019) on the routines performed at the rio 2016 olympics highlight that gymnasts chose the same body difficulty elements for all 4 compositions, which has led to the lack of variation in body difficulty. the study conducted by leandro et al. (2017) reveals that judges also report an obvious lack of variation in difficulty elements for apparatus handling and want fig to introduce rules that restrict the repetitive use of the same elements. in order to achieve future sport performance, the current requirements of the code of points and its trends must be taken into account so as to provide good motor support and an optimum level of coordination abilities specific to rhythmic gymnastics, thus creating the prerequisites that will allow gymnasts to learn a large number of technical elements both in terms of body movement and a aratus handling os ovljevic et al., 2013). purenovic-ivanovic et al. (2016) consider that rhythmic gymnastics is a complex sport that requires increased spatial-temporal coordination between body movement and apparatus handling, thus making specific coordination a vital part of training in rhythmic gymnastics. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 66 according to iletic , atic and males (2004), coordination is the athlete’s ability to perform complex movements, concomitantly solve motor tasks in different planes and axes, show optimum adaptability to new and difficult elements, which is one of the determining factors of motor proficiency and sport success. the increased pace of development of rhythmic gymnastics has directly led to a continuous increase in technical abilities, which is why specific motor skills require a remarkable development of coordination ability (ability to direct and control movement, kinaesthetic differentiation ability, ability to control apparatus handling, anticipation ability, distance estimation ability, spatial-temporal orientation ability, rhythm, ability to control static and dynamic balance) (manos, 2008). according to jastrjembskaia and titov (1999, p. 137), specific coordination is a primordial element in rhythmic gymnastics training because it represents the gymnast’s su ort for learning various technical elements. given that the most important objective of the training is to increase the number of technical difficulty elements in competition compositions, in addition to increasing the level of coordination abilities, we must also consider some conditional abilities that underpin the high-level performance of the competition routine. speed plays an important role because there is a directly proportional relationship between the increase in speed and the increased value of the composition. in rhythmic gymnastics, the main characteristic of speed is the fast execution of body movements and apparatus handling in a perfectly coordinated manner. in rhythmic gymnastics, the forms of manifestation of speed are simple and complex reaction speed and execution speed, which are conditioned by the levels of body technique, ability and precision in the fast apparatus handling, as well as by optimal rapid strength in relation to external resistance and the level of specific coordination ability (manos, 2008, pp. 33-34). given these features, it can be assumed that the psychological pressure that the gymnast feels due to the increased number of difficulty elements is considerable. in these conditions, there are two important issues that are possible to increase the stress level of gymnasts. the first one refers to the fact that most difficulty elements, both the apparatus difficulty and dynamic elements with rotation, are considered as risk elements for the loss of the apparatus. the second aspect is the “agglomerated” composition, with effects on the higher level of concentration. preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in … ştefania chiriac, et al. 67 in rhythmic gymnastics, competition compositions are created in such a way that they provide continuity, avoiding the moments of interruption. each difficulty element is logically and fluidly connected to the others through transition movements and elements, and the failure of one of them leads to the invalidation of a considerable part of the exercise. exercise fluidity is analysed in light of the artistic component objectified by dynamic changes, the relation of movements with music, the use of space, expression and variation (kritikou et al., 2017). through the tests used to carry out the experiment, we aim to identify some aspects of coordination ability, as well as some characteristics of reaction speed, execution speed and travel speed, in conditions purposely designed to meet the apparatus difficulty sub-criterion, namely the apparatus handling technique. the proposal of the international gymnastics federation for the next olympic cycle is to create balance between the specific components of rhythmic gymnastics, namely body difficulty, apparatus difficulty, artistry and execution (precision) so as compositions can provide gymnasts with the opportunity to express the idea of the exercise as correctly as possible in technical terms and at a high level of difficulty. in parallel, coaches will constantly search for solutions to reach the highest possible scores with their gymnasts. currently, the code of points allows gymnasts to perform an unlimited number of apparatus difficulty elements, which creates an imbalance between difficulty and execution, thus affecting in particular the artistic sub-criterion. research questions will the improvement of execution speed, reaction speed and travel speed lead to an increased score for the difficulty component? will the identification of the levels of reaction speed and execution speed for each athlete help the coach to create optimum combinations of apparatus difficulty elements that can be introduced in competition compositions? purpose of the study this study aims to identify the levels of reaction speed, execution speed and travel speed, which will help gymnasts to perform apparatus difficulty elements as fast as possible, thus providing them with the opportunity to introduce a higher number of elements in competition brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 68 compositions. the final goal is to increase the overall score for the difficulty criterion. methodology measurement and assessment methods in this study, the measurement consisted in collecting motor and biomechanical information necessary to objectify some motor skills involved in the execution of apparatus difficulty elements. tests used in the research – assessment of (psycho)motor skills the following tests and equipment were used to assess motor skills: a) reaction speed, execution speed, travel speed. these forms of manifestation of speed were tested using the wireless training timer (witty) equipment that allowed the measurement of reaction speed and execution speed in a static position, as well as the measurement of travel speed in combination with the other forms, in a dynamic action. for test 1 (figure 3), the chosen position was standing on tiptoes because most rhythmic gymnastics exercises are performed in demi-pointe. athletes had the task to turn off 20 light signals that were displayed as soon as the gymnast has turned off the previous signal. figure 3. sensor configuration on tripods – test 1 source: original photo due to informed parental consent preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in … ştefania chiriac, et al. 69 in test 2 (figure 4), gymnasts had the task to quickly move over a distance of 3 m to turn off the visual signal with the letter “a” appearing on a single display out of the 10. athletes had to turn off 20 light signals that were displayed as soon as the gymnast has turned off the previous signal. figure 4. sensor configuration on tripods – test 2 source: original photo due to informed parental consent we present below some of the technical features of this equipment. witty is designed as a test equipment but also as a training system recommended for sports where speed, reaction time and speed-agility combination are essential. due to the timer and photocell-integrated radio system, the large colour display and the modern interface, the setup is relatively easy. the kit includes a free windows software program called witty manager for importing test data and viewing them on numerical tables and graphs, which will be presented in this paper. with the help of this equipment, individualised databases and types of customised tests can be created according to the specifics of the sport. contents of the kit: 1 timer; 10 photocells; 2 reflectors; 10 tripods; 1 usb-pc cable; 1 wall power supply for charging the timer and 2 photocells at once. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 70 figure 5. witty timer with colour display (witty user manual, 2020) statistical analysis statistical data were collected by testing the research subjects with the help of witty equipment. for each test, subject and repetition, as well as at group level, the following indicators of central tendency were measured: minimum and maximum values, mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation. using these statistical data, it was possible to calculate the spearman correlation coefficient in order to identify the connection between the resulting variables, namely: total duration of each (static and dynamic) test, height and weight of the tested subjects. research subjects and location the research subjects are gymnasts belonging to the following sports clubs: cs unefs bucharest, csm arad and csm ploiești – junior category, members of the individual and group national team. their centralised training has started in november 2017 at the junior national olympic centre in arad, under the coordination of coach daniela chiriac. the 14 gymnasts included in the research are aged between 13 and 15 years and have 7-10 years of experience in practicing rhythmic gymnastics. results and discussion as previously mentioned, motor skills were assessed using the wireless training timer (witty) equipment that allowed the measurement of reaction speed and execution speed in a static position, as well as the measurement of travel speed in combination with the other forms, in a dynamic action. in the first situation, the chosen position was standing on tiptoes without travelling or lowering the heel on the ground, and gymnasts had the preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in … ştefania chiriac, et al. 71 task to turn off 20 light signals in the shortest time possible. this task was created in order to simulate specific situations encountered when performing apparatus difficulty elements that require the use of handling techniques (especially small, medium or large throws) with fast action and no travel. it is important for gymnasts not to change their positions, not to make extra steps or lose their balance, because an apparatus difficulty is validated by judges only if performed without technical faults. analysing the routines of finalist gymnasts at the 2018 european junior championships held in guadalajara (spain) in the all-around event, we have found that, out of a total of 344 apparatus difficulty elements, 125 were based on a small throw and 55 of them were performed in the clubs event, being followed by elements performed with a large throw – 52 repetitions, and elements of rolling on minimum two large body segments – 36 repetitions. these difficulty elements are performed in limit situations such as: small throw without the hands outside the visual field and with rotation, catch from a small throw without the hands during a body rotation around the vertical axis, or a small throw with two clubs at a time outside the visual field during a body rotation on one leg around the vertical axis. all these handling actions require maximum concentration, fast reaction to the apparatus and quick spatial-temporal orientation in order to be performed safely, with low risk of failure. table 1. summary table of additional criteria for dynamic elements with rotation valid for all apparatus during throw and/or catch general criteria valid for all apparatus + 0.10 each time during throw of apparatus and/or during catch of apparatus symbol description of the criteria and requirements outside the visual control without the help of the hands (not valid for direct catch in rotation with the arm for hoop, or mixed catch for rope and clubs) catch during a rotation (only valid when erformed together with the “outside the visual field” criterion) under the leg/legs source: e deration internationale de gymnastique (2018) code of points brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 72 table 2. summary table of additional criteria for dynamic elements with rotation specified for each apparatus symbol specific criteria of the throw + 0.10 each time symbol specific criteria of the catch + 0.10 each time passing through the apparatus during a throw (for rope and hoop) passing through the apparatus during catch (for rope and hoop) throw after bounces on the floor/ throw after rolling on the floor direct re-throw/re-bound without any stops form different parts of the body or floor (for all apparatus) throw of the open and stretched rope (held by one end or the middle) catch of the open and stretched rope held by one end with continuous movement of the rope after the catch throw with rotation around its axis (for hoop), or rotation in the horizontal plane (for one or both clubs) direct catch with rolling of apparatus over the body throws of 2 unlocked clubs, simultaneously, asymmetric or “cascade” catch of the rope with one end in each hand without support on another part of the body throw on oblique plane (for hoop) catch of the ball with one hand direct catch of the hoop in rotation mixed catch of the rope or clubs source: fig (2018) code of points tables 1 and 2 are taken over from the code of points 2017-2020, chapter 5.2, “summary table of additional criteria for dynamic elements with rotation” . 24-25). figure 6 and table 3 show the results obtained by gymnasts for witty test, together with the indicators of central tendency – static test. experimental group gymnasts recorded an average of 12.23 seconds, with an average data spread and a difference of 8.85 seconds between minimum and maximum values. subject es, who recorded the best total time, achieved values below the group average for each repetition but had constant performance throughout the test, without moments of loss of concentration or onset of preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in … ştefania chiriac, et al. 73 fatigue. the same can be said about 5 of the athletes with the best values recorded, while subjects in the last 7 places recorded at least once the highest value for a repetition, and the last-ranked gymnast recorded 7 out of 19 repetitions with the highest value and a single value below the group average. using the observation method and test data, we noticed that 7 athletes had problems locating the visual stimulus, meaning that the development of their complex reaction speed was at a low level. figure 6 shows that the average value for each of the 19 repetitions has an upward trend, with the lowest average value in the 1st repetition – 0.54 seconds, while the highest average value is identified in the 15th repetition – 0.82 seconds, and values over 0.6 seconds are recorded until the 19th repetition. the maximum value for a repetition is 2.64 seconds also in the 15th repetition, while the minimum value is 0.32 seconds in the 13th repetition. regarding the coefficient of variation of total duration, it is noted that there is an average data spread, the arithmetic mean being representative for the group, while the standard deviation has a low value, which indicates a high homogeneity of the group. figure 6. witty – static test source: original figure resulting from research data 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 l9 l10 l11 l12 l13 l14 l15 l16 l17 l18 l19 static test es mc ve im ma ba bi bc mm ae na da lr md min max avg brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 74 table 3. raw values for witty – static test source: original data resulting from research design name initials l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 l9 l10 l11 l12 l13 l14 l15 l16 l17 l18 l19 total time es 0.5 1 0.4 7 0.4 1 0.5 4 0.6 3 0.6 0.5 2 0.4 1 0.4 4 0.5 3 0.5 5 0.4 7 0.5 7 0.4 7 0.4 4 0.5 4 0.7 0.5 2 0.5 9 9.91 mc 0.5 1 0.4 6 0.4 2 0.4 8 0.4 5 0.5 9 0.4 9 0.5 3 0.3 7 0.7 2 0.5 5 0.6 6 0.5 4 0.4 6 0.6 0.6 0.6 2 0.6 1 0.6 10.26 ve 0.5 0.5 8 0.5 7 0.4 6 0.8 2 0.5 6 0.4 2 0.4 9 0.5 2 0.6 4 0.5 4 0.5 0.6 7 0.5 5 0.4 8 0.5 1 0.8 2 0.6 0.5 4 10.77 im 0.5 1 0.4 6 0.8 7 0.7 6 0.5 1 0.5 6 0.5 0.4 3 0.4 6 0.5 2 0.5 3 0.4 5 0.4 6 0.4 7 0.5 6 0.4 4 1.3 0.5 7 0.5 1 10.87 ma 0.5 6 0.5 3 0.5 9 0.5 3 0.6 7 0.6 8 0.5 8 0.5 9 0.5 7 0.5 4 0.6 6 0.8 6 0.3 2 0.6 0.5 5 0.5 1 0.6 6 0.5 7 0.6 11.17 ba 0.4 4 0.5 2 0.5 6 0.5 3 0.5 2 0.4 7 0.5 9 0.8 4 0.6 0.5 5 0.4 7 0.9 9 0.5 3 0.5 6 0.6 1 0.5 3 0.8 8 0.2 2 0.8 3 11.24 bi 0.7 7 0.5 7 0.6 3 0.5 6 0.5 2 0.5 8 0.5 4 0.5 1 0.4 6 0.5 3 0.6 1 0.4 9 0.5 5 0.6 5 1.2 7 0.4 8 0.4 9 0.5 5 0.6 4 11.40 bc 0.5 7 0.5 5 0.6 7 0.7 0.6 6 0.7 7 0.5 8 1.2 1 0.3 3 0.5 4 0.7 0.4 7 0.5 0.5 5 0.4 8 0.5 8 0.5 2 0.5 9 0.5 5 11.52 mm 0.5 3 0.5 9 0.5 8 0.5 2 0.5 7 1.1 5 0.6 2 0.6 0.6 2 0.8 1 0.6 7 0.5 6 0.5 3 0.8 3 0.4 3 0.7 6 0.6 0.6 2 0.5 1 12.1 ae 0.5 0.5 3 0.5 8 0.8 1 0.5 3 0.5 5 0.5 0.6 5 0.6 0.6 6 0.5 7 0.4 5 0.6 5 0.6 8 1.1 3 0.6 1 0.8 7 0.7 8 0.5 2 12.17 na 0.5 3 1.1 0.5 4 0.8 4 0.5 2 0.6 1 0.5 7 1 0.6 2 0.5 9 0.7 2 0.8 6 0.5 2 0.5 0.4 8 0.9 1 0.5 6 0.4 9 0.5 7 12.53 da 0.5 3 0.8 5 0.5 9 0.5 9 1.2 7 0.8 1 0.6 8 0.6 5 0.7 2 0.5 5 0.5 5 0.5 9 0.4 2 0.6 3 0.9 4 1.1 7 0.7 2 0.5 4 0.6 7 13.47 lr 0.5 7 0.4 9 0.8 9 0.7 1 0.5 2 0.6 6 0.5 5 0.7 2 0.8 4 0.7 3 1.9 1 0.9 6 0.6 6 1.2 2 0.8 7 0.7 2 0.6 7 0.6 0.7 2 15.01 md 0.5 9 0.5 0.9 9 0.6 6 0.7 2 0.6 8 0.6 2 1.2 4 0.7 3 0.7 2 0.9 6 1.1 7 1.9 3 1.0 6 2.6 4 0.7 3 0.6 9 1.2 5 0.8 8 18.76 min 0.4 4 0.4 6 0.4 1 0.4 6 0.4 5 0.4 7 0.4 2 0.4 1 0.3 3 0.5 2 0.4 7 0.4 5 0.3 2 0.4 6 0.4 3 0.4 4 0.4 9 0.2 2 0.5 1 9.91 max 0.7 7 1.1 0.9 9 0.8 4 1.2 7 1.1 5 0.6 8 1.2 4 0.8 4 0.8 1 1.9 1 1.1 7 1.9 3 1.2 2 2.6 4 1.1 7 1.3 1.2 5 0.8 8 18.76 avg 0.5 4 0.5 9 0.6 4 0.6 2 0.6 4 0.6 6 0.5 5 0.7 1 0.5 6 0.6 2 0.7 1 0.6 8 0.6 3 0.6 6 0.8 2 0.6 5 0.7 2 0.6 1 0.6 2 12.23 std dev 0.0 8 0.1 8 0.1 7 0.1 2 0.2 1 0.1 7 0.0 7 0.2 7 0.1 4 0.1 0 0.3 6 0.2 4 0.3 9 0.2 3 0.5 9 0.2 0 0.2 0 0.2 2 0.1 2 2.30 cv (%) 13. 82 30. 24 26. 69 20. 11 32. 74 25. 17 11. 92 38. 44 25. 52 15. 57 51. 15 35. 82 60. 94 34. 68 71. 78 30. 48 28. 38 36. 08 18. 56 18.78 figure 7 and table 4 show the results obtained by gymnasts for witty test, together with the indicators of central tendency – dynamic test. experimental group gymnasts recorded an average of 1:14:81, therefore a homogeneous result, with a difference of 15.90 seconds between minimum and maximum values. the same subject es has the best values in the dynamic test too, with total duration of 1:07.99 and the best 7 values recorded for each repetition as minimum values. however, in the 12th repetition, the gymnast records 5.88 seconds, which is a maximum value at group level for that repetition and preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in … ştefania chiriac, et al. 75 above the average of 3.94 seconds. we can assume that the gymnast had a moment of loss of concentration in that repetition, excluding the possibility of fatigue because the next repetitions returned to previous values. regarding the minimum values recorded for each repetition, it is noted that 7 out of the 14 subjects have recorded a minimum value at least once, thus ranking on the top 8 positions. four of these athletes have never recorded a minimum value per repetition. subject md, who recorded the highest total value in the static test, shows a moment of lack of concentration in the 18th repetition, ranking the second last in the overall ranking for this test. figure 7 reveals that the average value does not show very large statistical variations between the 19 values recorded for each repetition. the lowest average value, 3.77 seconds, is recorded in the 1st (as in the static test) and 15th repetitions, while the highest average value, 4.20 seconds, is recorded in the 16th repetition. the highest value is recorded in the 18th repetition, 9.83 seconds, while the lowest value is recorded in the 1st repetition, 3.12 seconds. the value of the coefficient of variation is very good, so the experimental group is homogeneous, the data spread is very low, and the average is representative for the group. analysing the average minimum value and the lowest value recorded for a repetition, we notice that, in both tests, gymnasts have the lowest values in the 1st repetition. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 76 figure 7. whitty – dynamic event source: original figure resulting from research data table 4. raw values for whitty – dynamic test name initials l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 l9 l10 l11 l12 l1 3 l14 l1 5 l16 l1 7 l18 l19 total time es 3.12 3.3 3.5 3.37 3.32 3.86 3.6 2 3.42 3.71 3.59 3.62 5.88 3.4 1 3.35 3.6 3.54 3.4 3 3.18 3.17 1:07.99 mc 3.78 4.21 4.0 5 3.99 3.29 3.17 3.4 2 3.53 3.54 4.13 4.37 3.53 3.4 3.35 3.1 7 3.75 3.6 9 3.89 3.57 1:09.83 ba 3.48 3.65 3.7 6 3.67 3.8 3.79 3.6 2 3.75 4.16 3.92 3.71 3.6 3.9 1 3.72 4.0 1 3.53 3.9 3.81 3.65 1:11.44 bi 3.13 3.34 3.1 9 5.32 3.67 3.27 3.3 4 5.21 3.63 4.08 3.61 3.41 3.4 6 3.57 3.4 1 4.96 3.3 3.44 4.63 1:11.97 ma 3.29 3.39 3.7 6 3.33 3.43 3.87 4.7 9 3.88 3.62 3.86 3.51 3.57 4.0 1 4.01 3.6 3 5.29 3.7 2 3.62 3.49 1:12.07 lr 3.83 4.93 3.6 8 3.96 3.55 3.77 3.5 1 3.6 3.48 3.52 3.59 3.55 4.0 4 4.82 3.3 2 4.72 3.9 2 3.92 3.48 1:13.19 im 3.39 4.08 3.8 2 3.89 4.52 4.11 3.9 1 3.58 3.63 3.53 3.89 3.88 3.9 4 3.55 3.6 4 4.4 1 3.96 4.21 1:13.90 ae 3.83 3.51 3.7 9 4.17 4.26 3.76 3.9 1 3.64 3.8 3.67 3.64 3.71 4.4 5 4.22 4.0 1 3.83 3.6 9 3.85 4.18 1:13.92 ve 3.3 3.4 4.1 6 3.27 3.45 4.79 3.6 8 3.76 7.05 3.5 5.25 3.58 3.7 7 3.63 3.6 9 4.05 3.3 4 3.27 3.98 1:14.92 na 4.35 4.13 3.6 6 3.66 3.72 3.72 3.6 3.61 5.01 4.05 3.92 3.93 4.0 6 3.93 3.8 1 3.98 4.0 8 3.94 4.02 1:15.18 da 5.02 4.13 3.5 5 3.54 5.62 3.49 3.7 3.93 3.64 4.12 4.14 4.08 3.6 1 3.65 4.2 4 4.13 3.7 5 3.85 3.88 1:16.07 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 l9 l10 l11 l12 l13 l14 l15 l16 l17 l18 l19 dynamic test es mc ba bi ma lr im ae ve na da bc md mm min max avg preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in … ştefania chiriac, et al. 77 bc 4.37 4.56 4.3 4 4.29 3.92 4.27 4.0 4 4.11 4.58 4.24 4.16 3.96 4.0 4 4.09 4.1 1 4.27 4.0 4 4.05 4.09 1:19.53 md 3.9 3.98 4.3 7 3.87 3.91 4.07 3.6 6 3.74 3.57 4.08 4.34 4.14 3.8 7 4.42 3.8 6 5.61 4.0 7 9.83 4.17 1:23.46 mm 4.05 7.05 4.4 5 4.2 4.14 4.17 4.2 1 4.22 4.17 5.52 4.42 4.36 4.0 8 4.06 4.2 6 3.93 4.0 2 4.24 4.34 1:23.89 min 3.12 3.3 3.1 9 3.37 3.29 3.17 3.3 4 3.42 3.48 3.5 3.51 3.41 3.4 3.35 3.1 7 3.53 3.3 3.18 3.17 1:07.99 max 5.02 7.05 4.4 5 5.32 5.62 4.79 4.7 9 5.21 7.05 5.52 5.25 5.88 4.4 5 4.82 4.2 6 5.61 4.4 1 9.83 4.63 1:23.89 avg 3.77 4.12 3.8 6 3.90 3.90 3.87 3.7 9 3.86 4.11 3.99 4.01 3.94 3.8 6 3.88 3.7 7 4.26 3.8 1 4.20 3.92 1:14.81 std dev 0.55 0.98 0.3 7 0.53 0.61 0.42 0.3 7 0.45 0.96 0.51 0.48 0.65 0.3 0 0.42 0.3 4 0.64 0.3 1 1.65 0.40 4.67 cv (%) 14.4 6 23.7 0 9.4 7 13.4 9 15.7 1 10.7 4 9.8 7 11.6 3 23.2 3 12.8 6 11.9 2 16.4 4 7.8 0 10.8 2 8.9 5 15.1 4 8.2 4 39.1 7 10.2 0 6.2% source: original data resulting from research design spearman correlation between total duration per test and anthropometric parameters is shown in table 5. table 5. spearman correlation between total duration per test and anthropometric parameters source: original data resulting from research design parameters height weight total time – static test total time – dynamic test height 1 rs = 0.77058 p (2-tailed) = 0.00126 rs = 0.01128 p (2-tailed) = 0.96948 rs = 0.01353 p (2-tailed) = 0.96338 weight rs = 0.77058 p (2-tailed) = 0.00126 1 rs = 0.12182 p (2-tailed) = 0.67824 rs = 0.20156 p (2-tailed) = 0.48957 total time – static test rs = 0.01128 p (2-tailed) = 0.96948 rs = 0.12182 p (2-tailed) = 0.67824 1 rs = 0.64835 p (2-tailed) = 0.01214 total time – dynamic test rs = 0.01353 p (2-tailed) = 0.96338 rs = 0.20156 p (2-tailed) = 0.48957 rs = 0.64835. p (2-tailed) = 0.01214 1 height and weight by normal standards, the association between the two variables would be considered statistically significant. height and static test by normal standards, the association between the two variables would not be considered statistically significant. height and dynamic test by normal standards, the association between the two variables would not be considered statistically significant. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 78 weight and static test by normal standards, the association between the two variables would not be considered statistically significant. weight and dynamic test – by normal standards, the association between the two variables would not be considered statistically significant. static test and dynamic test by normal standards, the association between the two variables would be considered statistically significant. conclusion the key features of these data, as well as previous analysis of junior routines for the 2017-2020 olympic cycle, have led us to the conclusion that, in order to get a high score for apparatus difficulty/mastery, more difficulty elements should be added, which requires an increase in all kinds of speed involved by the technique of a specific event. ● in test 1 – for (psycho)motor skills, experimental group gymnasts recorded an average of 12.23 seconds, with an average data spread and a difference of 8.85 seconds between minimum and maximum values. ● in test 2 – for (psycho)motor skills, experimental group gymnasts recorded an average of 1:14:81, therefore a homogeneous result, with a difference of 15.90 seconds between minimum and maximum values. preliminary data obtained in this study represent a starting point for the experimental programme that will allow assessing the effectiveness of programmes aimed at increasing both the execution speed and reaction speed. analysing the international literature, we find that very few studies have been conducted on this topic, which makes it difficult to compare the development level of junior gymnasts. acknowledgements all authors have equally contributed to this paper. we express our thanks to all participants who had the courtesy to engage in this research endeavour. references agopyan, a. (2014). analysis of body movement difficulties of individual elite rhythmic gymnasts at london 2012 olympic games finals. journal of scientific research, 19(12), 1554-1565. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2014.19.12.81263 agopyan, a., & serdil ors, b. (2019). an analysis of variations in body movement difficulty of 2016 olympic games rhythmic gymnast candidates. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2014.19.12.81263 preliminary study on psychomotor abilities decisive for technical routines in … ştefania chiriac, et al. 79 international journal of performance analysis in sport, 19(9), 417-434. https://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2019.1617017 a vila-carvalho, l., klentrou, p., palomero, m., & levre, e. (2012). analysis of the technical content of elite rhythmic gymnastics group routines. open sports science journal, 5, 146-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1875399x01205010146 chiat, l. f., & ying, l. f. (2012). importance of music learning and musicality in rhythmic gymnastics. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 46, 3202-3208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.037 e dee ration internationale de gymnastique (fig). (2018). rhythmic gymnastics. gymnastics sport. , https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_rg%20cop%2020 17-2020%20with%20errata%20dec.%2017.pdf fédération internationale de gymnastique (fig). (2018). code of points 2017-2020. rhythmic gymnastics [updated version 1st of february 2018 , valid through 31 dec. 2021]. https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_rg%20cop%20 2017-2020%20with%20errata%20dec.%2017.pdf hashimoto, m., kida, n., & nomura, t. (2017). characteristics of women’s rhythmic gymnastics from the ers ective of “body difficulty” and performance time. advances in physical education, 7(3), 260-273. https://doi.org/10.4236/ape.2017.73021 jastrjembskaia, n., & titov, y. (1999). rhythmic gymnastics. human kinetics. kritikou, m., donti, o., bogdanis, g., donti, a., & theodorakou, k. (2017). correlates of artistry performance scores in preadolescent rhythmic gymnasts. science of gymnastics journal, 9(2), 165-177. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2313/4a31f898f087e2760cf57e7729cee4 5bd888.pdf eandro, c., a vila-carvalho, l., sierra-palmeiro, e., & bobo arce, m. (2017). judging in rhythmic gymnastics at different levels of performance. journal of human kinetics, 60, 159-165. https://dx.doi.org/10.1515%2fhukin-20170099 leandro, c., avila-carvașho, l., sierra-palmeiro, e., & bobo-arce, m. (2016). departure difficulty score vs final difficulty score. the effect of performance in elite rhythmic gymnastics. athens journal of sports, 3(3), 169178. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajspo.3-3-1 manos, m. (2008). gimnastică ritmică – capacitatea de performanță [rhythmic gymnastics – performance capacity]. bren. https://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2019.1617017 http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1875399x01205010146 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.037 https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_rg%20cop%202017-2020%20with%20errata%20dec.%2017.pdf https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_rg%20cop%202017-2020%20with%20errata%20dec.%2017.pdf https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_rg%20cop%202017-2020%20with%20errata%20dec.%2017.pdf https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_rg%20cop%202017-2020%20with%20errata%20dec.%2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.4236/ape.2017.73021 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2313/4a31f898f087e2760cf57e7729cee45bd888.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2313/4a31f898f087e2760cf57e7729cee45bd888.pdf https://dx.doi.org/10.1515%2fhukin-2017-0099 https://dx.doi.org/10.1515%2fhukin-2017-0099 https://doi.org/10.30958/ajspo.3-3-1 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 80 iletic , ., atic , r., & males , b. (2004). some anthropologic factors of performance in rhythmic gymnastics novices. collegium antropologicum, 28(2), 727-737. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15666605/ os ovljevic , l., radisavljevic , ., & abovic , m. (2013). the speed of progress in the apparatus handling technique in rhythmic gymnastics. fizička kultura, 67(1), 33-39. https://doi.org/10.5937/fizkul1301033m purenovic-ivanovic, t., popovic, r., stankovic, d., & bubanj, s. (2016). the importance of motor coordination abilities for performance in rhythmic gymnastics. facta universitas, 14(1), 63-74. http://casopisi.junis.ni.ac.rs/index.php/fuphysedsport/article/view/151 7/1108 sierra-palmeiro, e., bobo-arce, m., perez-ferreiros a., & fernandez-villarino, m. (2019). longitudinal study of individual exercise in elite rhythmic gymnastics. frontiers in psychology, 10(1496), 1-7. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2ffpsyg.2019.01496 trifunov, t., & dobrijevic, s. (2013). the structure of difficulties in the routines of the best world and serbian rhythmic gymnasts. physical culture, 67(2), 120129. https://doi.org/10.5937/fizkul1302120t [the english version retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d287/fdcfcd5502bb30352c6086b9175e8 7983606.pdf witty user manual. (2020). microgate wit005 witty sem user manual witty en. training microgate. https://training.microgate.it/sites/default/files/manuali/wittyusermanual-en.pdf https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15666605/ https://doi.org/10.5937/fizkul1301033m http://casopisi.junis.ni.ac.rs/index.php/fuphysedsport/article/view/1517/1108 http://casopisi.junis.ni.ac.rs/index.php/fuphysedsport/article/view/1517/1108 https://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2ffpsyg.2019.01496 https://doi.org/10.5937/fizkul1302120t https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d287/fdcfcd5502bb30352c6086b9175e87983606.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d287/fdcfcd5502bb30352c6086b9175e87983606.pdf https://training.microgate.it/sites/default/files/manuali/witty-usermanual-en.pdf https://training.microgate.it/sites/default/files/manuali/witty-usermanual-en.pdf the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 147-163 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/115 the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders liudmyla chepurna¹, svitlana fedorenko 2 , yevheniya kuzminska 3 , larysa sushchenko 4 , olena zharovska 5 , tetiana chyzhyk 6 , vitaliia prymakova 7 , larysa kozibroda 8 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, кyiv, ukraine, chepurnal@gmail.com 2 national pedagogical dragomanov university, кyiv, ukraine, fedorenkosvit@gmail.com 3 national pedagogical dragomanov university, кyiv, ukraine, o_kuzminsky@ukr.net 4 zaporizhzhia national university, zaporizhzhia, ukraine, zcpu@ukr.net 5 vinnytsya academy of continuing education, vinnytsya, ukraine, mova_m@ukr.net 6 pylyp orlyk international classical university, mykolaiv, ukraine, chizhikt@ukr.net 7 communal higher educational establishment «kherson academy of continuing education» of kherson regional councilа, kherson, ukraine, pran703@gmail.com 8 national university lviv polytechnic, lviv, ukraine, lora.kozibroda@gmail.com abstract: the implementation of reforms in education for children with cognitive development disorders requires that the historical aspect of the educational process should be reconsidered and scientifically justified, as well as the accomplishments of ukrainian defectology should be creatively used. the relevance of the research lies in the need to overcome the fragmentarity of historical and pedagogical knowledge about the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine to justify and determine its characteristics and roles in modern correctional pedagogy. the research aims to identify the prerequisites for the emergence and the features of such processes as the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine in the period under study, as well as to highlight the scientific and practical value of the available accomplishments in the field to further improve such books for these children under modern conditions. research methods include theoretical analysis; synthesis; comparison; systematization and classification of data from archival sources; historical-and-genetic, comparative, chronological, biographical methods; periodization; retrospective analysis. the research identifies and justifies the stages in the development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine, whose sequence is related to the development and reforms in the special education system, the elaboration of concepts, theoretical and methodological principles of education of children with cognitive development disorders, as well as the changes in organizational-and-pedagogical and scientific-and-pedagogical aspects. the research concludes that ukrainian researchers and practicians regularly work on the improvement of textbooks’ content. keywords: cognitive development; historical aspect; educational process; defectology; correctional pedagogy; stages of development. how to cite: chepurna, l., fedorenko, s., kuzminska, y., sushchenko, l., zharovska, o., chyzhyk, t., prymakova, v., & kozibroda, l. (2020). the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 147-163. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/115 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/115 mailto:chepurnal@gmail.com mailto:fedorenkosvit@gmail.com mailto:o_kuzminsky@ukr.net mailto:zcpu@ukr.net mailto:mova_m@ukr.net mailto:chizhikt@ukr.net mailto:pran703@gmail.com mailto:lora.kozibroda@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/115 the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive … liudmyla chepurna et al. 148 introduction the implementation of reforms in education for children with cognitive development disorders requires that the historical aspect of the educational process should be reconsidered and scientifically justified, as well as the accomplishments of ukrainian defectology should be creatively used. researchers are much interested in the education of these children and its creation in the 20th century since this period of time is characterized by an active search for the content, methods, techniques and forms of special education organization. during this period, ukrainian correctional pedagogy (oligophrenopedagogy) was attempting to elaborate conceptual principles for establishing a system of education for children with cognitive development disorders and ways of its implementation in state education standards, curricula, syllabi and textbooks. the main content of school education is disclosed in textbooks, whose historical analysis allows identifying the primary tendencies and characteristics of developing theory and practice of education of children with cognitive development disorders, especially the understanding of the essence and technologies of corrective work with them. both the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine are somewhat controversial and complex processes. their comprehension is possible only in the context of historical, economic and cultural conditions of ukraine’s development, as well as a practical study and analysis of changes that took place in ukraine in the 20th century. scientists and practitioners in the field of defectology recognized the need to create specialized textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders not only as a primary means of learning but also an important factor in the functioning of special educational institutions. it was related to the issue of creating ukrainian-language textbooks on reading and ukrainian, as well as other school subjects for all grades. during the period under study, ukrainian practicians wrote textbooks: abc books, textbooks on reading (grades 4-6) and textbooks on literary reading for pupils in grades 7-10, textbooks on ukrainian, math, science and other subjects. many ukrainian authors have worked on school textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders, including scholars k. chertkova (1937; 1939), m. hryshchenko (1954), o. smaliuha (1938), i. yeremenko (1967), school teachers t. nesmielova (1939; 1941), brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 149 n. popushoi, & o. rebizova (1954), m. yemelianenko (1948). thus, considerable material has been gathered for special historical analysis, although it now remains out of the focus of researchers in the field of correctional pedagogy. in general pedagogy, those authors who have studied the writing of school textbooks in the historical aspect (bai, 2005) are unanimous in their opinion that such an approach to developing modern schools and reforming school education in ukraine is relevant. in the context of ukrainian correctional pedagogy, this relevance is increasing concerning the development of inclusive education of children with special educational needs. the inclusion of children with cognitive development disorders in general education requires substantial individualization, which lies in independent work with sources of information, in particular, textbooks. methodical studies on such issues as the writing on textbooks for primary school and the reflection of ideas of developmental and pedagogical learning of children with normal development in these textbooks is of special interest to this research, given its relation to the characteristics of cognitive and educational activities of children with cognitive development disorders, the pronounced specificity of the main principles of oligophrenopedagogy and specific methods of teaching individual subjects, in particular concerning the content and technologies of educational work and its focus on correction (chosik, 1995; kodliuk, 2006; zankov, 1960). an analysis of general and specific psycho-pedagogical literature has made it possible to determine the chronology of the most important researches devoted to the problem of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders. it finds that international and ukrainian correctional pedagogy has accumulated some experience in writing textbooks for special needs schools. this is mostly true of abc books and textbooks on mother tongue and reading. many studies on the history of ukrainian oligophrenopedagogy in the 20th century have been devoted to various aspects of the development and education and children with cognitive development disorders (bondar, & zolotoverkh, 2007; odynchenko, 1996). however, there is no comprehensive study related to the creation and development of textbooks as a means of collective learning of children with cognitive development disorders in the scientific literature. it must be acknowledged that the history of the development of theoretical and methodological principles of correctional work with cognitive development disorders, in particular in ukrainian defectology, also requires in-depth monographic studies. the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive … liudmyla chepurna et al. 150 the establishment of the state system of special institutions caused the need to develop a formal and uniform programme for special needs schools (1927). it is built based on programmes for junior secondary level urban schools, whose basic principle is complexity. the complex material of the programme envisioned the development of sensors and motor skills, the correction of speech defects, the development of observation, the expansion of the range of interests, the transfer of basic every day and social skills, as well as the cultivation of the emotional sphere in children with cognitive development disorders. the programmes on language and math included life-practical materials and aimed to implement the principles of concentricity and repeatability during all the years of study. given that special needs schools were not provided with specific textbooks, they adjusted the content of textbooks for general education to the capacity of children with cognitive development disorders. indeed, various aspects of studying the history of school textbooks have been reflected in many studies. however, the theory and practice of correctional pedagogy require a comprehensive historical and pedagogical study to address the issues of creating and developing textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine. the relevance of the research lies in the need to overcome the fragmentarity of historical and pedagogical knowledge about the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine to justify and determine its characteristics and roles in modern correctional pedagogy. thus, the choice of the topic for the research is motivated by an insufficient elaboration of the problem under study, the importance of justifying the ukrainian historical experience in the field, as well as the need for further development of textbooks based on the creative use of the heritage of the past. the research aims to identify the prerequisites for the emergence and the features of such processes as the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine in the period under study, as well as to highlight the scientific and practical value of the available accomplishments in the field to further improve such books for these children under modern conditions. methods research methods are as follows: universal scientific methods: theoretical analysis, synthesis, comparison, systematization and classification of data from archival sources, which have contributed to the study and processing of archival and legal documents on the creation and development of brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 151 textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine; specific scientific methods: the historical-and-genetic method used to identify the prerequisites and factors in the development of textbooks; the comparative method used to analyze syllabi, programmes, textbooks and methodical manuals for children with cognitive development disorders at certain stages of their education development; chronological and biographical methods used to disclose research material in dynamics and time sequence; periodization used to identify the stages in the development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders and determine the correctionoriented focus of the content of these textbooks; the retrospective method used to identify the trends and characteristics of the development of such textbooks’ content at different stages. the conditions for the emergence of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine between 1917 and 1930 were created under the influence of socio-political (wars, political upheavals, ideologization, russification of school education), socio-economic (levels of economy’s development and financing of special education’s needs) and organizational-and-pedagogical (the creation of a system of special educational institutions; the improvement of the content, methods and forms of education; the organization of congresses, seminars; the publication of scientific and methodological literature; the improvement of educational facilities; advanced training of defectologists) factors. the periodization of the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine developed by the authors of the paper includes the four stages presented below. stage 1 (1917-1941) is the initial creation of textbooks for special needs schools. the psycho-pedagogical literature of the 1920s presents diverse studies aimed at studying the development of children with cognitive development disorders to elaborate specific methods of education, as well as the means of corrective influence on the development of such children in ukraine. prominent doctors, researchers and defectologists supervised a comprehensive psycho-pedagogical study of children with cognitive development disorders. after the establishment of the state system of special educational institutions, experts in the field developed a curriculum and unified official programmes for special needs schools based on the programmes for junior secondary level urban schools with a comprehensive system of education, designed for five years of study. o. graborov (1929) defined the complex material for each age period of teaching at special needs schools. besides, he developed tasks for each subject, complex topics and forms of studying the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive … liudmyla chepurna et al. 152 them. he referred to textbooks and didactic material as the school’s teaching equipment, which should be vital and accessible to children with cognitive development disorders. ukrainian special needs schools began to use the textbook under the title “i learn”, edited by e. norkina & ya. dernova-ermolenko in 1928, in the work with first-grade children with cognitive development disorders. this textbook was created based on complex programmes and consisted of two parts, one assigned to pupils and the other to teachers. it included tasks and drawings; material for writing, reading and calculation; exercises for developing manual dexterity and implementing mental orthopaedics. each topic contained instructions for using educational material, as well as expected learning outcomes for the topic. it envisioned the development of fundamental skills in writing, reading, numeracy and social skills due to the principle of concentric circles with a gradual expansion and complication of information. the authors defined the sequence of studying each topic and recommended to follow certain steps while studying the material. this textbook helped to develop pupils’ volitional capacities and replenish the range of their fundamental ideas and concepts. however, the overload of the complex programme, as well as the lack of sufficient methodological recommendations on the study of complex topics, somewhat negatively affected the quality of knowledge and skills of children with cognitive development disorders. people’s commissariat of state security of the ukrssr approved the production plan regarding the implementation of the resolution of the central committee of the communist party (bolshevik) of ukraine as of august 23, 1930 “on compulsory primary education”, which involved the introduction of general education for children with cognitive development disorders and the organization of work on the development of specific programmes and textbooks from the main sectors of educational work. in ukraine, the first textbook titled “listen, look and do” on manual labour for children with cognitive development disorders aged between 8 and 10 was developed and published by v. dankovska and a. ponomariova in 1931 based on the programme for special needs schools. both the content and methodological concepts of the textbook were based on the “chain” methodology. one of the main methodical methods of practical work was the division of tasks into separate sequential elements, which promoted the development of planning and self-control techniques in children. the introduction of curricula and programmes in the educational process initiated further theoretical and methodological studies on the brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 153 development of theoretical principles of correctional education and the publication of school textbooks on comprehensive subjects. the famous ukrainian defectologist m. tarasevych (1933) was the first who drew attention to the need to create specific abc books and textbooks on mother tongue and reading for children with cognitive development disorders and recommended taking into account the experience of german colleagues in the experimental study of children’s learning characteristics. the creation of stable school textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders occurred after the adoption of the resolution of the central committee of the communist party (bolshevik) of ukraine as of march 11, 1933 “on textbooks for primary and secondary schools”. however, the difficulties in further work on the creation and development of textbooks for special needs schools were related to the efforts of education authorities to adjust the content of learning at these schools to the one in secondary schools. according to m. tarasevych, textbooks on mother tongue for special needs schools were characterized by some specific essential aspects. a significant step in the development of textbooks for special needs school became the approval of a new curriculum and programmes in 1938. in the late 1930s, the first stable national textbooks on the ukrainian language and reading for all grades were developed and published by k. chertkova (1939), v. liubchenko (1956), t. nesmielova (1941), o. smaliuha (1938), v. tamarova, & v. liubchenko (1937) et al. other comprehensive subjects in ukrainian secondary schools were taught using textbooks developed in russia, translated into ukrainian and published by the soviet school publishing house. the textbooks of this stage had some drawbacks, such as the overload of content; the abundance of illustrations; the uniformity of questions and tasks for revision; a haphazard arrangement of texts for extra reading; the presence of difficult, unfamiliar words for perception and no explanations to them. at this stage, textbooks lacked the correctional focus. stage 2 (1943-1960) is the provision of specialized textbooks. an analysis of archival materials shows that given a very difficult economic situation in the country after the second world war, the main task of special needs schools was to create the conditions for the comprehensive education of children with cognitive development disorders. according to the resolution of the people’s commissariat of the ussr and the central committee of the communist party (bolshevik) of ukraine as of march 1, 1945, they announced a competition for the compilation of new textbooks on ukrainian and russian for ukrainian the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive … liudmyla chepurna et al. 154 primary schools, with the involvement of scholars and the most experienced educators of ukraine. during a scientific and methodological meeting on the creation of new textbooks, they initiated approaches to developing abc books for special needs schools in ukraine and prepared a draft of a publishing plan that envisioned the publication of school textbooks on all comprehensive subjects for these schools. archival data indicate that it was at this time that the soviet school publishing house received a manuscript of the abc book for special needs schools (yemelianenko, 1948), which was first published in ukraine in 1948. this textbook had withstood 10 reissues. in the post-war period, research activities began to be rather promoted in the field of special pedagogy and psychology, in particular, oligophrenopedagogy. besides, special attention was paid to the issues of the content, methods, forms of educational work, as well as methodical aspects of studying the basics of sciences, teaching literacy to children with cognitive development disorders. the defectologists of the scientific research institute of defectology of ukraine (hryshchenko, 1954; liubchenko, 1956; yeremenko, 1985 et al.) played an important role in this process since they were introduced new curricula, syllabi and promoted theoretical and methodological studies on the content of specialized textbooks. they highlighted the need to use special tasks and effective techniques for developing auditory attention, as well as analysis, generalization and selfcontrol skills in teaching children with cognitive development disorders since they helped to create the necessary basis for further educational work to strengthen the correctional role of textbooks. the ideas of specially organized educational and practical activities, introduced by well-known scholars of that time, were further refined in new textbooks for special needs schools. thus, m. horuzha (1958), m. hryshchenko (1954), v. liubchenko (1956) became authors of textbooks on reading and ukrainian for junior and senior grades of special needs schools. this had certainly contributed to reinforcing the correctional focus of special textbooks, but mainly by making their texts accessible to pupils, which was a rather one-sided understanding of the corrective influence on the educational and cognitive development of children with cognitive development disorders. there are rather limited findings on the issue of ensuring pupils’ consistent intellectual growth in textbooks of that time, although ukrainian defectologists conducted psychopedagogical research on the characteristics of cognitive development of pupils at special needs schools already in the 1950s (yeremenko, 1985; horuzha, 1958). they revealed some of the techniques that could facilitate brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 155 pupils’ conscious acquisition of information. they also found that the content of these textbooks promoted russification and politicization. stage 3 (1960-1990) is the development of scientific and methodological principles of developing textbooks for special needs schools. the order of the ministry of education of the ussr “on the conditions and measures to improve education and treatment of children with disorders of mental and physical development in the ukrssr” (1962) was the impetus for developing scientific and methodological principles for creating textbooks for special needs schools in the ukrssr. much attention was paid to the development of special methods and means of corrective learning at this stage. after the establishment of the national educational and methodical office of special needs schools at the ministry of education of the ussr (1963), new theoretical and methodological practices, which covered various methodological issues directly or indirectly related to the approaches to determining the content-related and methodological components of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders, were actively implemented. methodical newsletters with specific scientifically justified recommendations on the correctional focus of individual subjects, as well as the implementation of didactic principles and methods at special needs schools, were regularly issued (yeremenko, 1985). this research pays considerable attention to sinev’s findings (1988). he was first in ukrainian defectology, who studied the method of working with textbooks, focusing on which textbooks special needs schools might need to effectively promote the principles of accessibility, the objectivity of consciousness, independence, learning activity of pupils with cognitive development disorders, consolidation of knowledge, that is, to correct disorders in pupils’ thinking, speech, memory, emotions during the educational process and, thus, improve the development of their personality as a whole. i. yeremenko’s research (1985) contributed to improving textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders, as well as further recommendations on the conditions for adjusting the content and teaching modes to pupils’ reduced cognitive abilities. in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of textbooks and manuals for special needs schools somewhat increased. the quality of these textbooks’ content was enhanced due to a more systematic presentation of educational material, the improvement of pupils’ ability to acquire knowledge and skills, as well as a variety of illustrations. the ideologization and russification of textbooks intensified, too. the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive … liudmyla chepurna et al. 156 an essential step in the further development of school textbooks for special needs school became the study of v. sinev (1988), who first developed a comprehensive pedagogical concept of implementing corrective functions of the educational process. stage 4 (1990-2000) is the development of specialized textbooks in ukraine. after ukraine gained independence in 1991, the issue of developing and creating national textbooks for special needs schools became especially relevant not only concerning the language of educational material but also to its content. the content of all textbooks required fundamental changes, especially concerning textual material from all comprehensive subjects. theoretical and methodological principles of the national school are stated in relevant legal documents. de-politicization and national identity became the important tasks of updating the content of school textbooks. in 1994, they established the institute of defectology of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine to develop a state policy for updating the national education system for individuals with psychophysical disorders. under the guidance of academician v. bondar (1996), ukrainian defectologists developed a new strategy in the field of special education, which also influenced the updating of the content of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders. the leading trends in the content of these new textbooks were as follows: improving the content and design of textbooks; strengthening their corrective educational functions; organizing independent work of pupils with textbooks. scientific-practical conferences and seminars conducted by the institute of pedagogy of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, which discussed and studied the issues of new ukrainian textbooks for secondary and special needs schools in ukraine, also played an important role in the issues of new approaches and the content of modern school textbooks. ukrainian specialists in oligophrenopedagogy and psychology have conducted fundamental and internationally recognized studies that were partially taken into account when creating new generation textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders. moreover, they can be used while creating specialized textbooks. these studies are devoted to further elaboration of theoretical principles of specific didactics; the characteristics of lessons at special needs schools; a differentiated approach to pupils, taking into account their cognitive abilities and performance characteristics (yeremenko, 1985); the contentand activity-related personal correction of development and socialization of individuals with cognitive development disorders based on the cultivation of their higher mental functions and creative thinking (sinev, 1988); the possibilities of programmed learning at brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 157 special needs schools; teaching children with cognitive development disorders to apply their knowledge in practice; a heuristic focus of educational cognition; cultivating the reader’s culture in children with cognitive development disorders; understanding texts in the context of using the moral potential of fiction (tarasenko, 1973); implementing the functions of different visualization (tarasenko, & kapustin, 1980; lipa, 1982). the scientific achievements of ukrainian defectology are most fully reflected in the works prepared at the fourth stage of the development of specialized textbooks. at the same time, the prospects of an innovative approach to implementing educational, developmental and corrective functions of textbooks and other information sources for children with cognitive development disorders in the process of both specific and inclusive learning remain enormous and require coordinated fruitful work of modern scholars and practitioners in the field of oligophrenopedagogy. thus, stage 4 has introduced new curricula, whose practical value lies in the fact that each topic contains methodical recommendations to teachers about which mental processes and personal qualities of pupils can be corrected based on this educational material. a programme of a new subject “physics” was first developed in ukraine (bondar, 1996). an important component of the updated content of these programs became the development and publication of new national textbooks on all comprehensive subjects. the “alternative textbooks”, that is educational and methodological brochures created according to european standards and written in the so-called “simplified language”, also play a vital role in teaching children with cognitive development disorders. therefore, one can conclude that ukrainian researchers and practicians regularly work on the improvement of textbooks’ content. discussion & conclusions both the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine between 1917 and 1930 were influenced internal and external factors, including socio-political (wars, political upheavals, ideologization, russification of school education), socioeconomic (levels of economy’s development and financing of special education’s needs) and organizational-and-pedagogical (the creation of a system of special educational institutions; the improvement of the content, methods and forms of education; the organization of congresses, seminars; the publication of scientific and methodological literature; the improvement of educational facilities; advanced training of defectologists) ones. a the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive … liudmyla chepurna et al. 158 characteristic feature of the late 1930s was the development and publication of the first national textbooks on ukrainian and reading for all grades (chertkova, 1937; liubchenko, 1956; nesmielova, 1939; smaliuha, 1938; tamarova, & liubchenko, 1937). other comprehensive subjects in ukrainian secondary schools were taught using textbooks developed in russia, translated into ukrainian and published by the soviet school publishing house. the research also specifies an innovative role of ukrainian defectologists in the creation and development of textbooks for special needs school at all stages of these processes. besides, the research identifies and justifies the stages in the development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine, whose sequence is related to the development and reforms in the special education system, the development of concepts, theoretical and methodological principles of education and learning of these, as well as the changes in organizationally and scientifically pedagogical aspects. stage 1 (1917-1941) is the initial creation of textbooks for special needs schools. stage 2 (1943-1960) is the provision of specialized textbooks. stage 3 (1960-1990) is the development of scientific and methodological principles of developing textbooks for special needs schools. stage 4 (1990-2000) is the development of specialized textbooks in ukraine. the research highlights the importance of studying and tracking the development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders, depending on the reflection of the requirements for implementing a correctional focus of the educational process in its components, which is the main principle of oligophrenopedagogy, to improve the development and socialization of these children. also, the research discloses the contradictions and characteristics of developing the content of school textbooks at certain stages. oligophrenopedagogy between 1917 and 1941 was characterized by a mostly scientific search for effective approaches to developing the content of school textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders. certain psycho-pedagogical studies were conducted on pupils from special needs schools, as well as the development of specific educational methods and means of corrective influence on these pupils’ development. the content of textbooks showed a tendency for special needs schools to converge with comprehensive schools. there occurred some changes in the development of textbooks for special needs schools, including a transition from complex brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 159 programmes of educational material to the development and publication of the first stable textbooks on ukrainian and reading and, at the same time, a certain unification of curricula, an inconsistency of textbooks’ content with programme requirements and a lack of such textbooks at special needs schools. the main trends of the second stage in the development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders were strengthening the focus orientation of these textbooks’ content, specifying the requirements for pupils’ knowledge and skills, as well as intensifying the provision of special needs schools with relevant textbooks. this stage also witnessed a certain increase in contradictions regarding the intensification of ideologization, politicization and russification of these textbooks’ and, at the same time, a certain decrease in the number of ukrainian-teaching special needs schools. the centralization of education influenced the development of the content and structure of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders. the third stage is characterized by the elaboration of scientific and methodological principles of developing textbooks for special needs schools. for the first time, defectologists developed a system of tasks for developing pupils’ ideas, concepts and skills for a conscious identification of causal relationships, defined a system of verbal, visual and practical methods of teaching and justified the characteristics of corrective work while working with such textbooks. besides, special attention was paid to methodological experimental studies aimed at improving the content of school textbooks and defining the correctional focus of their tasks by defectologists. the fourth stage in the development of specialized textbooks in independent ukraine introduces a new strategy in the field of special education, which has influenced the updating of the content of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders. the research finds that the leading trends in the content of these new textbooks were as follows: improving the content and design of textbooks; strengthening their corrective educational functions; organizing independent work of pupils with textbooks. scientific-practical conferences and seminars conducted by the institute of pedagogy of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, which discussed and studied the issues of new ukrainian textbooks for comprehensive and special needs schools in ukraine, also played an important role in the issues of new approaches and the content of modern school textbooks. the implementation of a personalized approach to studying historical and pedagogical phenomena has made it possible to update the the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive … liudmyla chepurna et al. 160 history of ukrainian defectology with archival information on the life and activities of ukrainian theorists and practitioners in the field of oligophrenopedagogy, who significantly contributed to the creation and development of specialized textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders. the scientific value of the research consists in the following: for the first time, the dynamics of the creation and development of textbooks for ukrainian children with cognitive development disorders has been studied on the basis of the identified theoretical and methodological principles; the influence of socio-political, socio-economic and psychopedagogical factors on theory and practice of the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine at different historical stages has been revealed; the main stages of the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine have been identified and scientifically justified; the characteristics and trends in the theory of textbook development have been described; the content and approaches to developing such textbooks in the period under study have been studied; the views of defectologists and their incorporation in the content of textbooks in different periods of textbook creation and development have been scientifically and comparatively analyzed; individual theoretical views on teaching children with cognitive development disorders have critically reviewed; the areas in the use of the accumulated experience under modern conditions have been determined; many unknown and little-known archival documents related to the development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine have been introduced to scientific community; relevant data on the life and activities of ukrainian theorists and practitioners in the field of defectology, as well as the authors of such school textbooks, have been gathered and specified. the main theoretical and methodological foundations of this research can be incorporated in higher education textbooks on the history of oligophrenopedagogy, subsequent studies on the history of ukrainian defectology, teaching methodologies of such courses as “the history of correctional pedagogy”, “methods of teaching ukrainian language and literature to children”. besides, they can be used to create new textbooks and other modern information tools for the school education of children with cognitive development disorders. this research does not disclose all the issues related to the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders in ukraine. further research should study the criteria for selecting brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 161 educational material for textbooks designed for children with cognitive development disorders, as well as the contribution of individual defectologists in the development of textbooks for these children. references bai, i. (2005). pedagogical principles of compiling and illustrating ukrainian textbooks of galicia (the second half of the 19 th century  the early 20th century). vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk. http://www.disslib.org/pedahohichni-zasady-ukladannja-tailjustruvannja-ukrayinskykh-pidruchnykiv-halychyny.html bondar, v. i. (1996). a textbook for the 7th grade of special needs schools. perun. bondar, v. i., & zolotoverkh, v. v. (2007). the history of oligophrenopedagogy. knowledge. chertkova, k. (1937). the ukrainian language: a textbook for the 5th grade of special needs schools. soviet school. chertkova, k. (1939). the ukrainian language: a textbook for the 3rd grade of special needs schools. soviet school. chosik, l. y. (1995). a didactic organization of the textbook’s educational material as a means of developing cognitive activity in younger pupils. [unpublished phd thesis]. m. p. drahomanov ukrainian state pedagogical university. dankovska, v., & ponomariova, a. (1931). listen, look and do. soviet school. graborov, a. m. (1929). the special needs school (for children with cognitive development disorders). state publishing house. horuzha, m. (1958). the ukrainian language: a textbook for the 7th grade of special needs schools. soviet school. hryshchenko, m. (1954). a textbook on reading for 4th grade of special needs schools. soviet school. kodliuk, y. p. (2006). the theory and practice of textbook creation in primary education. our time. lipa, v. a. (1982). using symbolic visibility in teaching geography at special needs schools [unpublished phd thesis]. the research institute of pedagogy of the ukrssr. liubchenko, v. p. (1941). reading lessons in the elementary school's elementary schools. soviet school. liubchenko, v. p. (1956). reading lessons in junior grades of special needs schools. soviet school. http://www.disslib.org/pedahohichni-zasady-ukladannja-ta-iljustruvannja-ukrayinskykh-pidruchnykiv-halychyny.html http://www.disslib.org/pedahohichni-zasady-ukladannja-ta-iljustruvannja-ukrayinskykh-pidruchnykiv-halychyny.html the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive … liudmyla chepurna et al. 162 nesmielova, t. (1939). the ukrainian language: a textbook for the 7th grade of special needs schools. soviet school. nesmielova, t. (1941). a textbook on literary reading for the 7th grade of special needs schools (2nd ed.). soviet school. norkіna, e., & dernova-ermolenko, ya. (1928). i learn. state publishing house. odynchenko, l. k. (1996). establishing special education for pupils with cognitive development disorders in ukraine (1918-1941) [unpublished phd thesis]. the institute of defectology, kyiv. popushoi, n., & rebizova, o. (1954). the ukrainian language: a textbook for 5th grade of special needs schools. soviet school. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sinev, v. n. (1988). correcting intellectual disorders in pupils from special needs schools. [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. the research institute of defectology. smaliuha, o. m. (1938). a textbook on reading for the 2nd grade of special needs schools. soviet school. tamarova, t. i., & liubchenko, v. v. (1937). a textbook on literary reading for the 5th grade of special needs schools. soviet school. tarasenko, n. v. (1973). enriching oral speech in children in junior grades of special needs schools. [unpublished phd thesis]. the research institute of defectology. tarasenko, n. v., & kapustin, a. i. (1980). the characteristics of acquiring moral concepts and understanding the assessment of human actions by pupils from special needs schools. in v. g. petrova (ed.), a study on the personality and cognitive activity of pupils from special needs schools (pp. 6472). the academy of pedagogical sciences of the ussr. tarasevych, m. (1933). resolution of the central committee of the communist party (bolshevik) of ukraine as of march 11, 1933 “on textbooks for primary and secondary schools”. communist education, 7, 95101. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 163 yemelianenko, m. o. (1948). an abc book for special needs schools. soviet school. yeremenko, i. h. (1967). organizing educational activities of pupils from special needs schools based on enhancing their cognitive activity [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. the research institute of pedagogy of the ukrssr. yeremenko, i. h. (1985). oligophrenopedagogy. higher school. zankov, l. v. (1960). visualization and activation of pupils’ learning. state pedagogical publishing house of the mp rsfsr. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 326-334 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 looking into pandora's box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity? mioara grigoras¹, anamaria ciubara2 1 psychologist, private individual clinic (romania), grigoras_mioara@yahoo.com 2 md phd professor, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, 800216, galați, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract: this article seeks to give an overview of how the pandemic has affected society throughout this period, which can be a source of many mental health problems. as in the spanish influenza pandemic, the covid-19 pandemic and the imposition of measures of social separation, isolation and limitation of contact with other people were, and are still, a major stress factor. the stress associated with this period disrupted the functioning of people both individually and socially, being the main factor of the phenomenon called compensation. under the current circumstances, people have a predisposition for emotional disorders such as: anxiety, depression, stress, insomnia, anger, emotional depletion and including post-traumatic symptoms of disorder, according to recent studies by the lancet analyzing the psychological effects of quarantine. the covid-19 crisis has a wide range of effects on our mental and emotional health: from negative emotions with greater intensity and duration, such as anxiety and depression, to unfinished emotional mourning, linked both to the loss of loved ones and even to emotional and relational disconnection. also, all that has happened in recent times makes us live in “collective pain”, we have lost our right to travel without restrictions or the freedom to participate in sad events or family and community joy, we have lost family or friends. in many cases of these losses, the strands of the dollar are also being cut, which is why people need additional support. we need to find solutions to this, because we have to deal with the natural grief caused by human disappearance, as we know it, but also an isolation characteristic of the suffering process that now overlaps the physical isolation imposed by the epidemic. another important aspect is to prevent instability in the psycho-social element of the human community. it is clear that there is a need to impose safety measures both jointly and individually. psychological aspects should be addressed early, so that measures can be taken to reduce the psychological costs of pandemic, perceived isolation and to address uncertainties that can give rise to anxiety and depression. addressing psychological issues has effects not only in the short term, motivating adherence to pandemic measures, but also in the long term, through lower incidence of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, etc. the fastest change expected after this crisis will be the individual one, each crisis is a chance for every person to look further. keywords: covid-19, depression, loss psychotherapy – mourning. how to cite: grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora's box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326-334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 mailto:grigoras_mioara@yahoo.com mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 looking into pandora's box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain … mioara grigoras & anamaria ciubara 327 introduction at the individual psychology office (privat individual clinic) there was a high demand during this period, mainly for anxiety and depressive disorders. among them were patients who passed through covid-19, but also many who were afraid of the disease or who had a love person died because of the virus (yao et al., 2020). a study made by researchers at oxford university and nihr oxford health biomedical research center found that almost one in five people who had covid-19 were diagnosed with psychiatric disorder such as anxiety, depression or insomnia within three months of positive testing for sars -cov2 virus (cullen et al., 2020). the number of persons infected with covid 19 is potentially high and therefore any increase in risk could have effects at population level (luca et al.,2020). the emotional difficulties were present among the general population and before the pandemic, but now their effect is stronger, because the resources that we are able to cope with are limited by the pandemic context for each of us (barbore et al., 2020; fischer & riedesser, 2007; sandu, 2020a). the emotional load that many feel at this time also comes from the experiences we have in relation to the new context. a stage that some have experienced during this period, because of the losses they suffered, is called, in terms of psychology, a labor of mourning. it occurs when we lose something or someone important to us. we've lost all the predictable things in our lives, all we know and the plans we design, but also human lives. in freudiana psychology, this process is called “labor of mourning”. this phrase combines a concept of delivery (labor) and an end concept (dollar). thus, the mourning does not necessarily mean death, but also breaking up, separation from a person, place or even conviction. like any labor, this process is also painful. we are acting through a carousel of feelings: we can feel anger, sorrow and melancholy for what we have lost or fear of an unpredictable future. the mds-v (the manual of diagnostic and statistics of mental disorders, the 5th edition) specifies that the dollar and depression are distinct experiences, but that they can also co-exist: sometimes, trauma caused by loss can trigger a depressive episode, just like other stressful factors (bolos et al., 2012). the symptoms and duration of depression caused by loss depend on a number of factors, including the social circle of the suffering person, the brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 328 stressful factors in his life, their number, the general mood of the person (the less positive, or more optimistic person), identifying their own methods of dealing with the conditions of sadness and internal vacuum. mourning and depression often come "in a package" because the dollar is a reaction (the natural reaction resulting from a loss) and depression is the disease that occurs as a result of a loss. elisabeth kübler-ross has set out the 5 stages of the mourning in the following succession: negation, rage, negotiation, depression and acceptance, which are part of the framework that helps us live with what we lost. they are tools that help us think and identify what we feel. not everyone goes through them or goes in a prescribed order “our hope is that with these steps comes the knowledge of the terrain of pain, helping us cope with life and loss” (kübler & kessler, 2005). the experience pattern of the dollar has two components: one in which the survivor is witness to the course of the illness of the loved one until its death and the other which defines the process of loss at the time of death, through suffering and finally personal growth, which is evidenced by hope for a fulfilled life despite the loss. the superavior finds new meanings and purposes of life (vrasti, 2012). as indicators of complicated mourning can be better understood by a detail of the reactions specific to trauma/mental injuries in all the planes of human existence: in the physiological sphere: insomnia, crying, lack of appetite, neurodegenerative manifestations. in the field of emotions (here are the strongest reactions): state of shock, fears, terror, various anxiety, depression, despair, helplessness, helplessness, melancholy, regret, pain, loneliness, sorrow, rage, hatred. guilt, disapproval, disfulfillment and existential goal. in the cognizance sphere: memories, flash-backs, rumblings, culpatory thoughts, catastrophic, negative, nightmares, tendency to forget, to repress, to deny to stop feeling the pain, depersonation, deprecation, splitup, suicidal ideals. in the behavioral sphere: the person can isolate himself from others, become aggressive, give up some activities, to social life (sandu, 2020b; 2020c; 2020d; sandu & nistor 2020), appeal to abuse of alcohol, drugs, tobacco or can be forced into professional or family overstrain in order to no longer have the time and power to feel pain (vasile, 2012). the client i accompanied during the therapeutic journey had been diagnosed for the first time with depression (without history of mental looking into pandora's box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain … mioara grigoras & anamaria ciubara 329 problems), was the record of a psychiatrist who prescribed anti-depressant medication, and was recommended for psychotherapy sessions. in 2020 it was taken with covid virus, but there was also multipeted emotional loss: the loss of a post-covid burden, but also four other tasks lost before the pandemic (the 4 load losses occurred until the end of the first month of pregnancy, and the last post-covid loss occurred in the third month of pregnancy), the death of the mother (the person who had created her, to whom she was very attached) without taking part in the burial and knowledge due to infection with covid, the impossible to leave and be with her husband in ireland, job loss, both parents with sequelae post covid (luca et al., 2020). the arrival of the client in the pandemic was made on a more vulnerable background, beyond this difficult period, pre-existing mental conditions overlapped, intensified and triggered anxiety, depression and inability of the client to face these new challenges and the losses suffered (huremović, 2019). he was extremely concerned about several aspects of life, more than eight months since his grandmother died and the loss of post-covide pregnancy. the specificity of the case was that the trauma did not fall in intensity, the pain caused by the losses became a bottleneck in the course of everyday life and generated a series of reactions and behaviors of depressive symptoms (poor ability to pay attention and concentration, sad fatigability, lack of appetite, irritability, reduced mental energy level, feelings of guilt, isolation, crying, insomnia, nightmares, persistent culpability and a low selfesteem). methods and techniques during the 20 therapeutic sessions the methods and techniques used were structured on three levels: symptomatic, existential and transgenerational: active listening, techniques of reflection, reformulation, opening, body awareness, emotional and relational awareness of the empty seat, gene, metaphors work, use of therapeutic stories (necula et al., 2018), pyls, log technique, writing letters, i technique are, prescriptions from cognitibehavioral therapy (a b c depression model, monitoring of emotional states, list of preferred occupations, centering of patient interest on psychoemotional comfort area, desensitization by exposure). for psychological assessment the following psychological instruments were applied clinical interview anamnesis study of the brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 330 medical filebehavioral observation pdsq questionnaire psychiatric screening, dysfunctional-scale das, hamilton depression scale. in all 3 questionnaires (pdsq, das, hamilton) the scores obtained with high levels of dysfunctional attitudes, recorded significantly high levels of anxiety and also the presence of symptoms specific to a diagnosis of depression was found. the first part of the meetings devoted it to the initial assessment of the case and work with the therapeutic alliance. also in the first part of the "terror" the emphasis was on learning and adapting strategies to deal with depression and cognitive restructuring (analysis of reasons for lack of hope, proof for and against it, planning of activities and setting of graduated tasks, monitoring of activities, training, reward planning, reduction of frequency of automatic thoughts, lighting, etc.) the client has been assisted in connecting to what he feels, the problems presented and the specific symptoms of depression, psychoeducation and cognitive restructuring have been assessed: psychological intervention designed to help the client develop a realistic view of the symptoms, i have drawn up a list of shortand long-term purposes of the intervention. in the second part i went on with the internal map of the client, methods and techniques were applied that focused the client on its inner life. in the therapeutic approach i focused on the sink of mourning, for the losses suffered which implied the client's contact with pain, expressed and gave meaning to extremely intense and varied emotions. at this stage i accompanied my client when she discovered and expressed feelings such as: depression, despair, fear, resentment, abandonment. the customer has managed to pass through the pain and suffering of the memories of the circumstances of death of both his loved ones and those due to multiple losses of pregnancy, and finally the client has managed to reinvest the losses emotionally, understanding that he did not give up them and the relationship, but to establish a new relationship with all losses. the relationship of the genotype revealed emotional vulnerabilities originating in the basic family. it was important for her to be aware of them and to be able to integrate them into her life story. it is also clear from the genogram that there is a loss fear. transgenerational, by genotyping analysis on a maternal line it comes from a neam trying for multiple chain losses, both human and looking into pandora's box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain … mioara grigoras & anamaria ciubara 331 material lives, which made him understand it was even how some patterns would have been repeated. they also suffered from all sorts of robberies, from bankruptcy that caused them an uncertainty, offset by their tendency to keep agonies and to have a material well-being that would give them a certain social status. on a paternal line he had not much information, the father was raised by his maternal uncle following the mother's death, secrets of her death and the father's recognition, and was born out of an assumed relationship. the existence of messages (divorce, separation, abandonment, suicide) within the family was the nucleus of the formation of fears of abandonment, which were perceived indirectly, but with indisputable effect. results and discussions the first part of the therapy was carried out mainly on the emotional level, working with feelings of guilt, rage, regret aiming at the diminution of them. in the second part of the therapy, cognitive work was mostly carried out, with the aim of clear mental separation between "me" and "other", as well as awareness of the personal evolution, and toward the end of the therapy there was an existential work, in terms of the values and personal meaning of life until the end of therapy. through psychotherapy sessions, the healing of mental wounds was sought by stimulating compensatory resources, mechanisms for interadjusting them. the removal of the traces of mental trauma is impossible, but what was possible was the integration of the wounds into the personality structure, which allowed better physical and mental performance and a good adaptation to the reality of the client. the debugging of memories was also very important in a period of mourning, because, after all, “the purpose of the mourning is to teach you how to love a person in his absence.” the fact that psychotherapy has reached the stage of acceptance does not mean that the suffering has ended and there is no single moment of acceptance, but a lot of such sequences in which the customer has made peace with the losses suffered. the thing that held my client blocked was, on the one hand, his own thoughts (he kept repeating continuously that what happened is an injustice and that he no longer had any reason to live for), and, on the other hand, his behavior which was dysfunctional (he closed himself, he isolated himself brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 332 from the others around him because they all called him "but you haven't gone over yet…?!") all these behaviors have, over time, led to a fall in the quality of life and, instead of leaving the "vicious circle" of pain and suffering, in reality, it has become more frake. my role, as a psychologist, in this difficult situation was to help her find her own way to cope with the pain, but in an adaptive way that would help her close the pain loop and succeed in activating its resources, and continuing her life. the client became aware that it was a trauma of significant losses with all the above mentioned emotional implications and sleep, a "collection reservoir" of preand post-pandemic losses, as well as transgenerational anxiety (radu et al., 2014). conclusions there's no proper time to say "goodbye" to someone you love or to a loss, but the time we live seems to be in the most inappropriate register. at any time, irreplaceable losses break through us, and the internal reconstruction process only excels with slowness and difficulty. the pandemic, however, makes it difficult to pass through all stages of the mourning and makes us feel completely helpless. from my clinical experience i can say that the crisis generated by the covid-19 virus has had both beneficial and tragic consequences for people's lives. i wouldn't just paint everything in gloomy colors, because i had the opportunity to witness life stories in which the crisis was an opportunity for growth and transformation, even if this was not obvious from the very first moments. obviously, my client has been already in an emotional vulnerable place and with a history of psychological suffering, has presented an increased risk during this period. the context we are going through is so broad, complex and branched that any one of us can see a deterioration in our personal emotional health. in both of the life situations of the client, mourning and depression, psychotherapy has been extremely beneficial: in processing states and emotions, in learning and adapting strategies to deal with mourning or depression, in order to integrate this experience into the structure of their life, in finding/finding the meaning. looking into pandora's box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain … mioara grigoras & anamaria ciubara 333 finally, the way we relate to the various suffering in our lives is unique and requires continuous adaptation. just as death is part of every human life cycle, learning to deal with loss is a necessary and unavoidable aspect of life. we need to take time to manage the pain in a period of losses anyway. my client may represent metaphorically the representation of the end and beginning together, which has indeed implied a great creative energy that displaces and brings together other perspectives offered in her gift and future generations. in conclusion, it can be said that the importance of talking about loss was also recognized by shakespeare who, through macbeth, warned: "give it the voice. pain when it does not cry a breath that shatter it” (shakespeare, macbeth, act iv, stage 3). finally, however, the question arises: "when is a mourning considered to be over?" a mourning is complete when our emotions are reinvested in life and live on. "…everyone gains a little more strength to live his life and navigate through the challenges and obstacles of this journey called mourning”. references babore, a., lombardi, l., viceconti, m. l., pignataro, s., marino, v., crudele, m., & trumello, c. (2020). psychological effects of the covid-2019 pandemic: perceived stress and coping strategies among healthcare professionals. psychiatry research, 293, 113366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113366 bolos, a., ciubara, a. m., & chirita, r. (2012). moral and ethical aspects of the relationship between depression and suicide. revista romana de bioetica, 10(3), 71-79. cullen, w., gulati, g., & kelly, b. d. (2020). mental health in the covid-19 pandemic. qjm: an international journal of medicine, 113(5), 311-312. https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcaa110 fischer, g., & riedesser, p. (2007). treatise on psychotraumatology (2nd ed.). trei. huremović, d. (ed.). (2019). psychiatry of pandemics: a mental health response to infection outbreak. springer. kübler-ross, e., & kessler, d. (2005). on grief and grieving: finding the meaning of grief through the five stages of loss. scribner. luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3s1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113366 https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcaa110 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 334 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 radu, c., bulgaru-iliescu, d., rahota, d., 7 dumbrava, d. p. (2014). ethical notions in catastrophies. revista romana de bioetica, 12(2), 53-57. sandu, a. (2020a). the principles of bioethics and their use in ethical decisionmaking. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 9(1), 139154. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.1/39 sandu, a. (2020b). pandemic catalyst of the virtualization of the social space. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 115-140. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 sandu, a. (2020c). bioethics of public policies. ethical standards in crisis situations. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 141-160. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 sandu, a. (2020d). bioethics – philosophy or science?. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(1), 44-60. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/35 sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020b). individual versus social in psycho-sociology. the social construction of reality. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2), 44-49. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/21 necula m. r., sandu, a., & damian, s-i. (2018). the role of social assistance in therapeutic education. archiv euromedica, 8(2), 24-30. http://www.ewgboard.eu/archiv-euromedica/archiveuromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_1 2_2018-24_30.pdf vasile, d. (2012). family trauma and compensatory resources (2nd ed.). sper. vrasti, r., (2012). ghid practic de intervenție în criză [practical guide to crisis intervention]. vrasti.org. http://www.vrasti.org/ghid%20practic%20de%20interventie%20in%20c riza.pdf yao, h., chen, j. h., & xu, y. b. (2020). patients with mental health disorders in the covid-19 epidemic. the lancet psychiatry, 7(4), e21. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30090 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.1/39 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/35 https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/21 http://www.ewg-board.eu/archiv-euromedica/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf http://www.ewg-board.eu/archiv-euromedica/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf http://www.ewg-board.eu/archiv-euromedica/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf http://www.ewg-board.eu/archiv-euromedica/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf http://www.vrasti.org/ghid%20practic%20de%20interventie%20in%20criza.pdf http://www.vrasti.org/ghid%20practic%20de%20interventie%20in%20criza.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30090 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 18-37 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/189 motivative factors of professional selfrealization of the person viktoriia bedan¹, iryna brynza2, mykola budiianskyi3, iryna vasylenko4, olha vodolazska5, tetiana ulianova6 1 national university «odessa law academy», ukraine, beviko@gmail.com 2 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky, ukraine, brynza3691@gmal.com 3 odessa i.i. mechnikov national university, ukraine, nazarova1958@gmail.com 4 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky, ukraine, vasilirina5@gmail.com 5 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky, ukraine, 19olga55@gmail.com 6 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky, ukraine, ulikta@gmail.com abstract: neuropsychologists pay much attention to career guidance for young people who are faced with the challenge of choosing the profession. numerous studies on motivation and professional determination prove the need to identify individual features of the brain organization of mental functions in the context of psychological support for the educational process at school and career guidance. neuropsychological research indicates the links between the predominant activity of a certain hemisphere of the brain and professional realization in certain areas. the empirical study was conducted using reliable and valid psycho-diagnostic techniques (“questionnaire of professional self-realization” by o. m. kokun (2014; 2016); the “motivational profile” technique by s. richie, & p. martin (2004); correlation analysis). at the stage of qualitative analysis, two groups of subjects with different levels of professional self-realization were identified (using the «ace» method). a visual analysis of the motivational factors profile structure in groups with high and low levels of professional self-realisation demonstrated differences in the graphs configuration and their location, and also provided an opportunity to characterize the psychological motivation characteristics of representatives of each of the groups. against the general background of communicative self-sufficiency, adaptability and self-confidence, in a group of persons with a high level of professional self-realisation, the dominant motives are constant improvement, recognition by others. representatives of a group with a low level of the studied phenomenon are interested in the motives of good working conditions and high wages. it has been proved that persons with different levels of professional self-realization differ in the specificity of the dominance of motives. keywords: personality, self-realization, professional self-realization, non-psychological mechanisms of motivation, career guidance, motivational factors, correlation analysis. how to cite: bedan, v., brynza, i., budiianskyi, m., vasylenko, i., vodolazska, o., & ulianova, t. (2021). motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 18-37. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/189 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/189 mailto:beviko@gmail.com mailto:brynza3691@gmal.com mailto:nazarova1958@gmail.com mailto:vasilirina5@gmail.com mailto:19olga55@gmail.com mailto:ulikta@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/189 motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person viktoriia bedan, et al. 19 introduction the relevance of the problem of the professional self-realisation of an individual is conditioned, on the one hand, by the significant economic and, as a consequence, professional changes taking place in the modern world, and, on the other hand, by the subjective ideas of the individual about the specifics of self-change, self-realisation in a certain profession. the analysis of scientific research indicates that the gradual mastery of professional skills encourages a person to use not only psychophysiological resources, but also potential personal capabilities, selfachievement, self-change, self-transcendence, self-development, selfactualization, purposeful application of professional knowledge, skills and abilities that lay the foundations for further development subjectivity in the profession (kokun, 2015, p. 14; nerubasska et al., 2020; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020). from the point of view of maksimenko & osedlo (2011), the basis for effective professional activity of a person is the opportunity to realize oneself in creative work. but, unfortunately, the motives of a person's labor activity are often not the desire for self-actualization through creative work, but the desire to satisfy their biogenic and sociogenic needs of a lower order. therefore, it is very important to discover the psychological conditions for the professional self-realization of the individual, i.e., how much a person sees the personal meaning in his professional activity (maksimenko & osedlo, 2011, p. 3). solving professional tasks enables a person to satisfy the need for self-realization, self-actualization, to make the fullest use of personal potential, thereby increasing the prospects for professional self-realization (bolshakova, 2012, p. 104). it becomes vital for every future professional to constantly improve oneself, to search for new opportunities for realizing one's abilities and one's personal potential (lukina, 2006, p. 17). developing his professional skills and abilities, a person gradually realizes his own importance in the profession, sees himself as an initiative and responsible person, treats himself as a value, identifies and realizes the most important motives for himself. the totality of internal motivating elements of a person, such as needs, interests, values, constitutes a person's motivation in the profession. under the influence of hierarchically built motives, a person gradually forms an attitude towards the activity performed and a program of behavior in it. a person's motivation increases due to an increase in the ways of realizing his own motives in the profession, which leads to the possibility brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 20 of real influence on the reasonable organization of his further personal and professional self-realization. a neuropsychological approach follows the theory of systemic and dynamic localization of higher mental functions. it was developed by luriya (1973), the founder of national neuropsychology. nowadays, neuropsychology attempts to identify the brain factors shaping behaviour and facilitating understanding and motivation to achieve goals and ways to do it. both neuropsychology and psychophysiology have significantly enriched knowledge about the psychological foundations of motivation towards cognitive activity. early identification of neuropsychological causes behind learning difficulties allows psychologists and educators to determine levels of higher mental functions, identify strengths and weaknesses of mental development in the early stages (from early childhood) to elaborate the most effective strategy for further pedagogical support and correction. many scholars have made attempts to analyze the use of neuropsychological methods in educational institutions and determine assessment criteria and approaches to correcting learning difficulties (akhutina & pylaeva, 2015; semenovich, 2008; khokhlov & slovenko, 2020). their findings prove that neuropsychological methods are an adequate means of identifying strengths and weaknesses of functional systems and specify neuropsychological predictors affecting educational attainment. besides, some researchers (korsakova et al., 2017) claim that successful and unsuccessful children differ in levels of praxis, memory, acoustic gnosis, spatial functions, language, attention and thinking. at the same time, attention and mental activity disorders act as the most specific for underachieving pupils. insufficient development of other functions is individual in nature and cannot be considered as a natural combination of dysfunctions in case of academic failure. leading research covers both psychological and non-psychological mechanisms of motivation. indeed, gore & zweifel (2013) and trifilieff et al. (2013) reveal a neurobiological and neuropsychological understanding of motivation. others devote their studies to the purposeful selection of actions. at the same time, bailey et al. (2015) offer a strategy for disclosing purposeful actions and affecting components of motivated behaviour. neuropsychologists pay much attention to career guidance for young people who are faced with the challenge of choosing the profession. numerous studies on motivation and professional determination prove the need to identify individual features of the brain organization of mental functions in the context of psychological support for the educational process at school and career guidance. neuropsychological research indicates the motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person viktoriia bedan, et al. 21 links between the predominant activity of a certain hemisphere of the brain and professional realization in certain areas. for one, arshavskyi (2001) explains how pupils with the dominance of left or right hemispheres master exact sciences and humanities. in particular, pupils with the left hemispheric type response show great success in exact sciences and pupils with the right hemispheric type of response in humanities. in this context, stepanov (2008; 2013) believes that it is important to consider the style of perception and processing of information, typical of people with the dominance of left or right hemispheres when choosing the profession. left-hemispheric cognitive style is characterized by the predominance of the verbal and logical processing of information, analyticity, specification, succession and abstractiveness. at the same time, the right-hemispheric cognitive style involves similar processing of information, as well as syntheticity, integrity, simultaneity, specificity and intuitiveness. the researcher believes that “the stable dominance of righthemispheric cognitive style indicates natural inclinations to a wide class of humanities and left-hemispheric cognitive style to natural sciences and technologies” (stepanov, 2008, p. 305). khokhlov (2015) states that a timely consultation allows neuropsychologists to identify features of mental function development and offer a programme of correctional and developmental training. in turn, it significantly benefits the career guidance process (khokhlov, 2015, p. 28). provided that there are no developmental disorders, neuropsychologists can determine individual features of the brain responsible for certain activities and give recommendations for further development of cognitive abilities required by some professions. in this case, these specialists consider such indicators as development levels of individual mental functions, as well as the possibility of their integration when carrying out different activities. it especially applies to the development of three structural-functional blocks of the brain (the energy supply of the brain block; the reception, processing and storage block; the programming, regulation and control of complex activities block), functional interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain (khokhlov, 2015, p. 29). thus, neuropsychologists’ recommendations can prevent an erroneous choice of the profession. many prominent researchers have proposed technologies to increase the effectiveness of relevant learning motivation, taking into account the brain functioning principles (akhutina & pylaeva, 2008; miller & defina, 2010). in the conclusion, the knowledge of neuropsychological and psychological aspects ensures timely and correct development of cognitive brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 22 abilities, without violating the laws of mental functions development. consequently, it will boost motivation to choose an appropriate professional orientation, increase the range of professional motives and positively affect further personal and professional realization. the purpose of this article is to present the results of an empirical research aimed at studying the motivational factors of personality in individuals with different levels of professional self-realization. literature overview the personality is formed and develops throughout life to the extent that a person continues to be included in social and production activities (petrovsky & yaroshevsky, 1990, pp. 193194). a methodologically important characteristic of today's society is the need for interaction between both personal and professional development as complementary and interdependent processes. in turn, they become for each other either a means or a result contributing to the active transformation of one's inner and outer world. a fundamentally new vision of oneself after the manifestation of subjective life-long activity is based on the establishment, integration and implementation of significant personal qualities and abilities, as well as professional knowledge and skills, in one’s professional activities. as noted by mitina (2002), systematic attempts to optimize “self-creation” lie in modifying one’s motivational, intellectual, affective and behavioural structures, which leads to the transformation of external determination into internal (pp. 3238). current globalization makes it somewhat difficult to achieve one’s life goals, including professional well-being. this fact encourages various specialists to seek opportunities for full disclosure of their inner potential, professional success, professional self-fulfilment due to motivational characteristics. dynamic trends which are determined by goals and objectives of activities act as motivating factors affecting one’s determination and activity (rubinshtein, 2003, p. 519). however, it is impossible to meet all requirements of activities (including professional) without understanding the subject of activity as a source of motivational impulses to solve problems (petrovsky, & yaroshevsky, 1990, p. 197). according to kokun (2016), personal and professional phenomena of self-realization, self-change, self-development, self-achievement can be combined by one phenomenon called “professional self-realization”, which is one of the most important components, and for most people it is the main motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person viktoriia bedan, et al. 23 form of personal self-improvement (p. 292). kokun (2016) believes that this phenomenon is a form of self-realization characterized by high-level disclosure of one’s professional potential. the intensification of the most important moments of one’s professional growth at different life stages allows one to reveal his or her potential opportunities promoting professional mobility, competitiveness (zeer, 2005, p. 12) and professional productivity. professional realization is impossible without including angle of refraction in the consciousness of behaviours (rubinshtein, 2003, p. 521), as well as without intensifying motives as integrated psychological phenomena, caused by motivation to achieve the goal (ilyin, 2002, p. 115). the authors of the article believe that motivation as a set of motives plays the role of an important indicator of one’s professional realization. it is the driving force of one’s professional activities and determination to solve certain cognitive tasks (vorobeva, & pityukov, 2013, pp. 1011). motivation can be both internal and external, pushing a person to perform certain professional actions. intrinsic motivation is associated with a stable striving for a particular goal, with the presence of a dominant that ensures the priority of the profession. this type of motivation triggers the subject's activity in a specific direction, contributes to the creation of conditions in the social environment, which explains its significance. motivation external to a person is a control mechanism and determines the correction of the processes of self-government, self-regulation of a person (poletaeva, 2014, p. 30). the characteristics of motivation allow us to conclude that it is a reflection of the internal structure of the subject of professional activity. this is facilitated by the desire and readiness of the individual to perform certain actions in order to satisfy any professional needs. directly for our research, a circumstance that determines the fact of the relationship between motivation as a structural education and professional self-realization of an individual is quite significant. let's imagine it as follows. any person «enters» the profession as an already formed personality. he defines the attitude towards the profession and towards himself as a professional, self-satisfying the realisation of the necessary professional conditions. at the same time, the process of self-realization of a future professional presupposes a subjective solution to the tasks of a significant increase in personal potential using motives specific to him. it is the set of motives, as constituent elements of the human psyche that reveals the stable psychological formations of the personality and encourages the search for new ways that contribute to the development of subjective activity aimed at mastering new professional knowledge, skills and abilities. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 24 thus, taking into account the fact that self-realization, selfdevelopment, self-actualization in the profession is possible with the satisfaction of needs that contribute to a person's awareness of the complexity degree of solving professional problems, maintaining at the proper level the attitude towards himself as a professional, we assumed that a set of motivational factors induces a person to professional self-realization. materials & methods in an empirical study, psychometrically reliable and valid methods were used to study the structure specifics and motivational factors manifestations of the personality in persons of different professional selfrealization level. to study professional self-realisation, the methodology of kokun (2014) “questionnaire of professional self-realisation” was used. as the author of the method notes, the phenomenon of self-realization is a systemic phenomenon of a higher order and in the semantic content is very close to such concepts as self-realization, self-actualization, and selfdevelopment. under the concept of “professional self-realization” the questionnaire developer understands a high level of development of the personal potential of a specialist in a particular profession, the development of his abilities related to the profession, the widespread use of professional qualifications, experience, achievements of both his own and other professional specialists (kokun, 2014, p. 35). the questionnaire consists of two parts. the first part contains 30 questions and is intended both for measuring the general level of a specialist's professional self-realization, and for assessing the severity of its individual components, including professional self-improvement aimed at increasing professional competence, professionally important qualities. the second part of the questionnaire is aimed at measuring the external signs of professional self-realisation (significant achievements in professional activity). for this, a content analysis of the subject descriptions is used, which freely answer the question: “how does professional activity create opportunities for personal self-realization?” (kokun, 2014, pp. 3539). to study the motivational factors of personality, the test «motivational profile» was used, authors richie, & martin (2004). the proposed test construct is aimed at investigating the essence of motivation, which the authors consider as satisfying basic human needs in the process of work (richie & martin, 2004, p. 9). as conceived by the authors, the test contains 33 tasks, which are litmus for 12 motivational factors (the names of the factors are given below motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person viktoriia bedan, et al. 25 in the text of the article). for each task, four answer options are offered, each answer must be assessed so that the 11 points given by the test developers are distributed among the four given answer options, i.e. the total would be 11 points. based on the test results, a motivational profile of a professional's personality is built, which allows you to identify differences in attitude to work, answer the questions: “what motivates a person?”, “what aspects of professional activity are the main and secondary motivators?” (richie & martin, 2004, pp. 1627). the empirical base of the research was the south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky. the psycho-diagnostic survey was attended by full-time and part-time undergraduates of the social and humanitarian faculty of the retraining department in the specialty “psychology” in the amount of 115 people of both sexes. master's students, representatives of the personnel retraining department already have the first higher non-psychological education, including professional experience in their specialty. to achieve the stated goal of the study, quantitative (correlation) and qualitative (profile method) analysis was used. the study of correlations between indicators of professional selfrealisation and personal motivational factors was carried out according to the method of k. pearson (anastazi, & urbina, 2001). results & discussion the results of the correlation analysis are presented in the form of a constellation in tabl. 1. before proceeding to the obtained results interpretation, it is necessary to clarify the symbols of the indicators that are analyzed: 1) indicators of professional self-realisation: s1 – the need for professional improvement, s2 – the presence of their own professional development project, s3 – the prevailing pleasure in one's own professional achievements, s4 – the constant setting of new professional goals, s5 – the formation of one's own «vital professional space», s6 – the achievement of the set professional goals, s7 – the use of professional experience and achievements by others, s8 – disclosure of personal potential and professional abilities, s9 – definition of a high level of creativity in professional activities; 2) indicators of personal motivational factors: m1 – the need for reward, m2 – the need for good working conditions, m3 – the need for clear structuring of work, m4 – the need for social contacts, m5 – the need to form and maintain long-term stable mutual understanding, m6 – the need for recognition, m7 – the need for achievement, m8 – the need for brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 26 influence, the desire to lead others, m9 – the need for variety and change, m10 – the need to be creative, m11 – the need for self-improvement, growth and development, m12 – the need for a sense of demand and interesting work. the visual correlation analysis, presented in table. 1, clearly demonstrates ambiguous significant relationships (p≤0.01; p≤0.05) between most indicators of professional self-realisation and motivational factors of the individual. the indicator of professional self-realization s1 (the need for professional improvement) negatively correlates (p≤0.01) with the indicators of motivational factors m2 (the need for good working conditions), m3 (the need for clear structuring of work), m4 (the need for social contacts), m5 (the need to form and maintain long-term stable mutual understanding) and with the m6 factors (the need for recognition) at the level of p≤0.05 significance. table 1. significant correlations between indicators of professional self-fulfillment and motivational orientation source: authors’ own conception motivation indicators indicators of professional self-fulfillment s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 s7 s8 m1 -303** m2 -259** -247* -291** -208* m3 -262** -278* m4 -264** -341** -183* -274** m5 -348** -281** -274** -327** m6 -211* m7 289** m8 236* 219* 227* m9 303** 223* 238* 284** m10 258* 311** 336** 293** 321** 239* 291** 395** m12 385** 384** 420** 354** 398** 420** note. 1) commas and zeros are not specified; 2) mark ** p≤0.01; 3) * p≤0.05. also, this indicator positively correlates (p≤0.05) with motivational factors m8 (the need for influence, the desire to lead others) and m10 (the need to be creative). the data obtained can be interpreted as follows. professional self-realisation, in terms of the need for improvement as a professional, is not always dictated by the needs for good working conditions, a comfortable environment (m2); the need for structuring work, motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person viktoriia bedan, et al. 27 setting rules and directives for performing work (m3); the needs of communication with a wide range of people, close ties with colleagues (m4); needs to form and maintain long-term, close, stable relationships with colleagues at work (m5); needs for sympathy for others, attention from other people (m6). however, the need for professional self-realization directly (linearly) depends on the actualization of such needs as: assertiveness in influence and power, the desire to lead others, persistence in the pursuit of competition (m8); manifestation of inquisitiveness, curiosity, and not trivial thinking, the desire to be creative, analyzing, thinking worker, open to new ideas (10). self-realisation indicator s2 (having a project of one's own professional development) positively correlates (p≤0.01) with such motivational factors as: m9 (the need for variety and change), m10 (the need to be creative), m12 (the need for a sense of being in demand and interesting work) and at the level of p≤0.05 significance with a factor m8 (need for influence, desire to lead others). in addition, this indicator negatively correlates (p≤0.01) with the m5 factor (the need to form and maintain longterm stable mutual understanding). these results can be explained by the fact that professional self-realization always presupposes some kind of project, plan, scenario of actions regarding professional development, this requires certain motivators, namely: comparing oneself with other people to influence them, the desire to manage and lead them (m8); the need for variety, change, readiness for action (m9); need for work filled with meaning and meaning, with an element of social utility (m12). however, for a project of professional self-development, there is no need to actualize the need to form and maintain closer contacts with others (m5). self-realisation indicator s3 (prevailing pleasure in one's own professional achievements) positively correlates (p≤0.05) with the motivational factor m9 (the need for variety and change), as well as with factors (p≤0.01) the need to be creative (м10) and the need for feeling demand and interesting work (m12). in the process of professional selfrealization, in order to stimulate the enjoyment of one's own achievements, such motivators are needed as: avoidance of routine and boredom through diversity and the desire for change (m9); be a creative worker (m10); to be in demand in interesting socially useful work (m12). self-realization indicator s4 (constant setting of new professional goals) negatively correlates with motivational factors m4 (need for social contacts), m5 (need to form and maintain long-term stable mutual understanding) and positively (p≤0.01) with factors: m10 (need to be creative), m12 (the need for a sense of being in demand and interesting brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 28 work) and at the p≤0.05 level of significance with the m8 factor (the need for influence, the desire to lead others). indeed, for setting new professional goals, the most important motivators are: competitive assertiveness, the need for power (m8); creativity, openness to new ideas (m10); professional activity filled with meaning and value of usefulness to society (m12). along with this, for the setting and implementation of professional goals, motivation and desire to work with other people and have a wide range of social contacts are not so important (m4); form and maintain long-term stable relationships (m5). self-realisation indicator s5 (formation of one's own “vital professional space”) positively correlates (p≤0.01) with motivational factors m10 (the need to be creative), m12 (the need for a feeling of being in demand and interesting work) and negatively (p≤0.05) with factor m2 (the need for good working conditions). the results obtained empirically confirm the fact that in the process of professional self-realization, an important component is the formation of one's own vital professional space, and for this process, important motivators are: openness to new things, rejection of trivial thinking, creativity (m10); the need for work filled with meaning, meaning and utility (m12). the motive for good working conditions and a comfortable environment is leveled out and becomes insignificant (m2). the indicator of motivational self-realisation s6 (achievement of the set professional goals) negatively correlates (p≤0.01) with the motivational factors m1 (the need for reward), m2 (the need for good working conditions) and at the p≤0.05 level of significance with the factor m4 (need for social contacts). this indicator is also positively associated (p≤0.05) with the motivational factor m10 (the need to be creative). to achieve the set goals of the process of professional self-realization, the main motivator is the need to be creative, creative, to move away from the standard “flare” in professional activity (m10). it is also interesting that for the process of selfrealization in achieving the set professional goal, motivators become unimportant: the presence of high wages, i.e. material remuneration, to have a job with a good set of benefits and allowances (m1); good, comfortable working conditions (m2); professional environment, striving for a team, working with other people (m4). self-realisation indicator s7 (the use of professional experience and achievements by others) and motivational factors are only positively related. professional self-realisation correlates (p≤0.01) with motivational factors m7 (the need for achievement), m10 (the need to be creative), m12 (the need for a sense of being in demand and interesting work) and at the p≤0.05 significance level with the factor m9 ( the need for variety and change). in motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person viktoriia bedan, et al. 29 professional self-realization, it is very important to use the accumulated personal life and professional experience, as well as knowledge of the achievements of other specialists, therefore, the following become the dominant motivators: the need to set bold complex goals for oneself and achieve them, to conquer difficult, promising frontiers (m7); always be in a state of elation, readiness for action, change (m9); to produce new, creative and creative ideas acceptable for professional implementation (m10); feel in demand at work (m12). and finally, the indicator of professional self-realisation s8 (disclosure of personal potential and professional abilities) negatively correlates with motivational factors (p≤0.05) m2 (the need for good working conditions), m3 (the need for clear structuring of work) and with factors m4 (the need in social contacts), m5 (the need to form and maintain long-term stable mutual understanding) at p≤0.05 level of significance. this indicator of self-realisation also positively correlates (p≤0.01) with factors m9 (the need for variety and change), m10 (the need to be creative) and m12 (the need for a sense of being in demand and interesting work). as we can see from the results of the obtained correlations in the process of professional self-realization, the opportunity to reveal personal potential and professional abilities is important; important motivators that stimulate this process are: the need for diversity, changes (m9); the need for creativity, inquisitiveness, curiosity, creative thinking (m10); the need for interesting work, an element of social utility (m12). however, as we can see, at the stage of disclosing one's professional potential, such needs are leveled as: a comfortable professional environment and good working conditions (m2); clear structuring, i.e. the establishment of rules and directives for the performance of work, professional requirements, the presence of feedback, allowing you to judge the results of your work (m3); communication with a wide range of people, the presence of social contacts (close ties with colleagues) (m4); the need for stability and trust in relationships with colleagues (m5). thus, the discovered and analyzed both positive and negative correlations between the indicators of professional self-realisation and the motivational factors of the personality clearly demonstrate the statistical patterns in the manifestation of the properties of the studied phenomena. professional self-realization is activated by a certain set of motivational factors of the personality, in other words, for the effective development of the process of professional self-realisation, motivating forces are needed motivators, in our case, motivational factors of the personality. the obtained statistical data on the relationship of phenomena allow us to proceed to a discussion of the results of qualitative analysis. it is brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 30 important to note that this type of analysis makes it possible not only to single out groups of subjects differing in the level of severity of indicators of professional self-realisation, but to analyze the individual psychological characteristics of the motivational structure in each of the selected group. the percentile method was used to identify groups of subjects with high and low levels of professional self-realization (burlachuk, 2002). using this method, two groups of subjects were obtained; the results are presented in table 2. table 2. distribution of the surveyed according to the criterion of professional selfrealization source: authors’ own conception designations number of the surveyed (n=115) % group sr+ 16 13,9 group sr– 13 11,3 note: 1) group sr + surveyed respondents with high values of indicators of professional self-realization; 2) group sr – surveyed respondents with low values of indicators of professional self-realization. table 1 shows that the first group included 16 surveyed, which amounted to 13.9% of the total number of respondents. the second group included 13 people, which amounted to 11.3% of the total number of respondents. the remaining 86 participants in psycho-diagnostic testing did not participate in further analysis, since their results determine the “statistical norm corridor”. on the basis of the test results “motivational profile” in the selected groups of subjects, the profiles of the structure of the motivational factors of personality were built, which are shown in fig. 1. each value of a specific motivational factor is an arithmetic mean that indicates a high or low level of the parameter expressed in percentile. the results of statistical values of the reliability of differences according to the student's t-test in the groups that are analyzed are presented in table 3. visual analysis and the values of the student's t-test clearly demonstrate individual psychological differences in the configuration of the graphs and structures of the motivational factors of the personality of the analyzed groups. motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person viktoriia bedan, et al. 31 m1 m2 m3 m4 m5 m6 m7 m8 m9 m10 m11 m12 sr+ 49,6 38,9 38,8 41,2 40,6 68 55,2 41,9 52,1 55,9 78 82 sr60,6 57,7 54,3 60,3 58,7 47,9 51,6 42,6 49,6 41 35,8 36,4 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 p e rc tn ti le fig. 1. profiles of the personal motivational factors structure, group representatives with high and low levels of professional self-realization source: authors’ own conception note: 1) indicators group sr + surveyed respondents, with high values of indicators of professional self-realization; 2) srgroup surveyed respondents with low values of indicators of professional self-realization; 2) indicators of personal motivational factors: m1 – the need for reward, m2 – the need for good working conditions, m3 – the need for clear structuring of work, m4 – the need for social contacts, m5 – the need to form and maintain long-term stable mutual understanding, m6 – the need for recognition, m7 – the need for achievement, m8 – the need for influence, the desire to lead others, m9 – the need for variety and change, m10 – the need to be creative, m11 – the need for self-improvement, growth and development, m12 – the need for a sense of demand and interesting work. table 3. statistical values of student's t-test between the same motivational factors of personality source: authors’ own conception student's t-test indicators of professional self-realisation (n=115) м2 м4 м5 м6 м10 м11 м12 2,13** -2,1** -2,1** 2,27** 1,61* 6,06*** 6,81*** brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 32 the differences were revealed: between the motivational factors of the same type – the need for good working conditions (m2), the need for social contacts (m4), the need to form and maintain long-term stable mutual understanding (m5) towards the group of respondents with low values of indicators of professional selfrealization; between the motivational factors of the same type – the need for recognition (m6), the need to be creative (m10), the need for selfimprovement, growth and development (m11), the need for a sense of demand and interesting work (m12) towards the group of respondents with high values of professional self-realization. based on the empirical data obtained, psychological portraits of the surveyed respondents were compiled. so, for respondents, representatives of a group with high values of indicators of professional self-realization, the dominant motivators are the need to gain recognition from other people, in particular, that others appreciate the merits, achievements and successes of an individual. such respondents are concerned about the attention from colleagues, they are not indifferent to the sympathy of others and good social relationships and it is also important for them to realize a sense of their own worth. in addition, important motivators are the need for improvement, growth and development as a person, the need for a sense of demand for interesting socially useful work. for professional self-realization, such individuals are not important motivators such as having good working conditions and a comfortable environment, they are not picky in communication, there is no expressed need for a wide range of close, trusting contacts and relationships, they are communicatively self-sufficient and adaptive, and they already have perfected social skills. for respondents, representatives of the group with low values of indicators of professional self-realization, the dominant motivators are the need for high wages and material remuneration; desire to have a job with a good set of benefits and allowances. this need reveals a tendency to change in the process of working life; an increase in resource costs leads to an increase in the importance of this need (for example, the emergence of new family obligations, the presence of debts, additional or complex financial obligations). for a person with a low need for professional self-fulfillment, a significant motivator is also an urgent need for social contacts, the need to form and maintain long-term, stable relationships, which manifests itself in communication with a wide range of people, the desire to establish close contacts regardless of the system of relationships in the team (for example, conflict, enemy, frustrating), the most important thing for such people is to motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person viktoriia bedan, et al. 33 perform production operations, to work with others. for such respondents, the need for independence, improvement, growth and development as a person, professional relevance is uncharacteristic. conclusions in general, the results obtained indicate that the pivotal factor of professional self-realization is a combination of internal and external motives. statistical analysis confirmed that the quantitative and qualitative combination of the motivational factors of the personality determine the effectiveness of the process of professional self-realization. statistically significant differences were revealed in the structure of motivational factors in the groups of respondents, differing in the level of professional self-realization. in the group of respondents with a low level of professional self-realization, motivators dominate the need for reward and social contacts, the motivators of the need to be creative, to improve, to be in demand and to have an interesting job are not expressed. in the group of respondents with a high level of professional self-realization, motivators dominate the need to be creative, to improve oneself in the profession, to feel in demand, to have an interesting job, at the same time in this group, the motivators of the need for good working conditions and for clear structuring of work are reduced. the presented psychological portraits explain the individual psychological characteristics in the manifestation of motivational factors in the groups of respondents that are being studied. the results obtained do not exhaust all aspects of the problem under study. a prospect for further scientific research may be the search for a wider range of motivational properties of a person striving for professional self-fulfillment, as well as taking into account age and gender differences. references akhutina, t. v., & pylaeva, n. m. (2008). preodoleniye trudnostey ucheniya: neyropsikhologicheskiy podkhod [overcoming learning difficulties: a neuropsychological approach]. saint petersburg: piter. https://booksonline.com.ua/view.php?book=140450 anastazi, a., & urbina, s. (2001). psihologicheskoe testirovanie [phychological testing]. saint petersburg: piter. https://may.alleng.org/d/psy/psy113.htm arshavskyi, v. v. (2001). razlichiya, kotoryye nas obyedinyayut (etyudy o populyatsionnykh mekhanizmakh mezhpolusharnoy asimmetrii) [differences that unite us (studies https://booksonline.com.ua/view.php?book=140450 https://may.alleng.org/d/psy/psy113.htm brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 34 on population mechanisms of interhemispheric asymmetry)]. riga: eksperiment. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1237903/ bailey, m. r., jensen, g., taylor, k., mezias, c., williamson, c., silver, r., simpson, e. h., & balsam, p. d. (2015). a novel strategy for dissecting goal-directed action and arousal components of motivated behavior with a progressive hold-down task. behavioural neuroscience, 129, 269–280. https://doi.apa.org/doilanding?doi=10.1037%2fbne0000060 bolshakova, a. m. (2012). osobistіsna realіzovanіst і stavlennja studentіv do sebe u profesіjnіj sferі [particularly realizability and assignment of students to themselves in the professional sphere]. naukovij vіsnik lvіvskogo derzhavnogo unіversitetu vnutrіshnіh sprav. seriia psykholohichna [scientific journal of lviv state university of internal affairs. psychological series], 1, 103113. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvldu_2012_1_12 burlachuk, l. f. (2002). psihodiagnostika [psychodiagnostics]. saint petersburg: piter. http://sdo.mgaps.ru/books/k6/m2/file/8.pdf gore, b. b., & zweifel, l. s. (2013). genetic reconstruction of dopamine d1 receptor signaling in the nucleus accumbens facilitates natural and drug reward responses. journal of neuroscience, 33, 86408649. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/20/8640 ilyin, ye. p.(2002). motivatsiya i motivy [motivation and motives]. saint petersburg: piter. https://bookap.info/book/ilin_motivatsiya_i_motivy/ khokhlov, n. a. (2015). neyropsikhologicheskiy podkhod k proforiyentatsii shkolnikov [neuropsychological approach to career guidance of schoolchildren]. professionalnoye obrazovaniye i rynok truda [professional education and labour market], 1/2(14), 2830. https://proforientator.ru/publications/articles/n eyropsikhologicheskiy-podkhod-k-proforientatsii.html khokhlov, n. a., & slovenko, ye. d. (2020). neyropsikhologicheskiye prediktory shkolnoy neuspevayemosti [neuropsychological predictors of school failure]. vestnik moskovskogo universiteta. seriya 14. psikhologiya [moscow university journal. series 14. psychology], 3, 291313. https://istina.msu.ru/publications/article/320587754/ kokun, o. m. (2014). opituvalnik profesіjnogo samozdіjsnennja [professional selfdevelopment questionnaire]. praktichna psihologіja ta socіalna robota [practical psychology and social work], 7, 3539. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/6069/1/%d0%9a%d0%be%d0%ba%d1%83 %d0%bd_2014.pdf kokun, o. m. (2015). psihofіzіologіchnі zakonomіrnostі profesіjnogo samozdіjsnennja osobistostі [psychophysiological laws of professional self-development of specialties]. kyiv: pedagogіchna dumka. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1237903/ https://doi.apa.org/doilanding?doi=10.1037%2fbne0000060 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvldu_2012_1_12 http://sdo.mgaps.ru/books/k6/m2/file/8.pdf https://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/20/8640 https://bookap.info/book/ilin_motivatsiya_i_motivy/ https://proforientator.ru/publications/articles/neyropsikhologicheskiy-podkhod-k-proforientatsii.html https://proforientator.ru/publications/articles/neyropsikhologicheskiy-podkhod-k-proforientatsii.html https://istina.msu.ru/publications/article/320587754/ https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/6069/1/%d0%9a%d0%be%d0%ba%d1%83%d0%bd_2014.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/6069/1/%d0%9a%d0%be%d0%ba%d1%83%d0%bd_2014.pdf motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person viktoriia bedan, et al. 35 https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/712848/1/%d0%9c%d0%be%d0%bd%d0% be%d0%b3%d1%80_2018.pdf kokun, o. m. (2016). zagalnі chinniki profesіjnogo samozdіjsnennja osobistostі [head officials of professional self-development of specialties] aktualnі problemi psihologії [relevant issues of psychology], 9, 292301. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/84273871.pdf korsakova, n. k., mikadze, yu. v., & balashova, ye. yu. (2017). neuspevayushchiye deti: neyropsikhologicheskaya diagnostika mladshikh shkolnikov [unsuccessful children: neuropsychological diagnostics of primary schoolchildren]. moscow: yurayt. https://urait.ru/book/neuspevayuschie-detineyropsihologicheskaya-diagnostika-mladshih-shkolnikov-437414 lukina, e. a. (2006). osobennosti samoosushhestvlenija cheloveka v raznye periody vzroslosti [peculiarities of self-realization of a person in different periods of adulthood]. (phd thesis). saint petersburg state university, saint petersburg. https://www.dissercat.com/content/osobennostisamoosushchestvleniya-cheloveka-v-raznye-periody-vzroslosti luriya, a. r. (1973). osnovy neyropsikhologii [the fundamentals of neuropsychology]. moscow: izdatelstvo moskovskogo universiteta. https://gigabaza.ru/doc/225-pall.html maksimenko, s. d., & osedlo, v. i. (2011). subyektnyj podhod v izuchenii samorealizacii [subjective approach in the study of self-realization]. jelektronnyj zhurnal “psihologija i pravo” [electronic journal “psychology and law”], 1. https://psyjournals.ru/files/39330/psyandlaw_2011_1_maksimenko.pdf miller, d. c., & defina, p. a. (201). the application of neuroscience to the practice of school neuropsychology. in d. c. miller (ed.), best practices in school neuropsychology: guidelines for effective practice, assessment, and evidence-based intervention (pp. 141157). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. https://www.amazon.com/best-practices-school-neuropsychologyevidence-based/dp/0470422033 mitina, t. m. (2002). psihologija razvitija konkurentosposobnoj lichnosti [psychology of development of a competitive personality.] moscow: modjek. https://www.studmed.ru/mitina-lm-psihologiya-razvitiyakonkurentosposobnoy-lichnosti_c67bb08340b.html nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/ 2625 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/712848/1/%d0%9c%d0%be%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b3%d1%80_2018.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/712848/1/%d0%9c%d0%be%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b3%d1%80_2018.pdf https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/84273871.pdf https://urait.ru/book/neuspevayuschie-deti-neyropsihologicheskaya-diagnostika-mladshih-shkolnikov-437414 https://urait.ru/book/neuspevayuschie-deti-neyropsihologicheskaya-diagnostika-mladshih-shkolnikov-437414 https://www.dissercat.com/content/osobennosti-samoosushchestvleniya-cheloveka-v-raznye-periody-vzroslosti https://www.dissercat.com/content/osobennosti-samoosushchestvleniya-cheloveka-v-raznye-periody-vzroslosti https://gigabaza.ru/doc/225-pall.html https://psyjournals.ru/files/39330/psyandlaw_2011_1_maksimenko.pdf https://www.amazon.com/best-practices-school-neuropsychology-evidence-based/dp/0470422033 https://www.amazon.com/best-practices-school-neuropsychology-evidence-based/dp/0470422033 https://www.studmed.ru/mitina-lm-psihologiya-razvitiya-konkurentosposobnoy-lichnosti_c67bb08340b.html https://www.studmed.ru/mitina-lm-psihologiya-razvitiya-konkurentosposobnoy-lichnosti_c67bb08340b.html https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 36 potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 petrovsky, a. v., & yaroshevsky, m. g. (1990). psihologija. slovar [psychology. dictionary] (2nd ed.). moscow: politizdat. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1537172/ poletaeva, n. m. (2014). motivacija lichnostno-professionalnogo razvitija pedagoga [motivation of the teacher’s personal and professional development]. vestnik lgu im. a. s. pushkina [journal of a. s. pushkin leningrad state university], 4, 3039. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/motivatsiyalichnostno-professionalnogorazvitiya-pedagoga richie, s., & martin, p. (2004). upravlenie motivaciej [[management]. moscow: juniti-dana. https://www.twirpx.com/file/123426/ rubinshtein, s. l. (2003). osnovy obshchey psikhologii [the fundamental of general psychology]. saint petersburg: piter. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/rubinshteyn=osnovu_obzhey_psc.pdf semenovich, a. v. (2008). vvedeniye v neyropsikhologiyu detskogo vozrasta [introduction to the neuropsychology of childhood]. moscow: gnosis. http://childpsy.ru/lib/books/id/21685.php stepanov, v. g. (2008). proforiyentatsiya. funktsionalnaya asimmetriya mozga i vybor professii [career guidance. functional asymmetry of the brain and choice of the profession]. moscow: akademicheskiy proyekt. https://www.twirpx.com/file/554052/ stepanov, v. g. (2013). mozg i effektivnoye razvitiye detey i vzroslykh: vozrast, obucheniye, tvorchestvo, proforiyentatsiya [brain and effective development of children and adults: age, learning, creativity, career guidance]. moscow: akademicheskiy proyekt. https://www.yakaboo.ua/mozg-i-jeffektivnoe-razvitie-detej-ivzroslyh-vozrast-obuchenie-tvorchestvo-proforientacija.html trifilieff, p., feng, b., urizar, e., winiger, v., ward, r. d., taylor, k. m., martinez, d., moore, h., balsam, p. d., simpson, e. h., & javitch, j. a. (2013). increasing dopamine d2 receptor expression in the adult nucleus accumbens enhances motivation. molecular psychiatry, 18, 10251033. https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201357 vorobeva, m. v., & pityukov, v. yu. (2013). professionalnaja motivacija studentov turistskogo vuza [professional motivation of tourism students]. odintsovo: odincovskij gumanitarnyj institut. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://www.twirpx.com/file/1537172/ https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/motivatsiya-lichnostno-professionalnogorazvitiya-pedagoga https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/motivatsiya-lichnostno-professionalnogorazvitiya-pedagoga https://www.twirpx.com/file/123426/ http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/rubinshteyn=osnovu_obzhey_psc.pdf http://childpsy.ru/lib/books/id/21685.php https://www.twirpx.com/file/554052/ https://www.yakaboo.ua/mozg-i-jeffektivnoe-razvitie-detej-i-vzroslyh-vozrast-obuchenie-tvorchestvo-proforientacija.html https://www.yakaboo.ua/mozg-i-jeffektivnoe-razvitie-detej-i-vzroslyh-vozrast-obuchenie-tvorchestvo-proforientacija.html https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201357 motivative factors of professional self-realization of the person viktoriia bedan, et al. 37 https://mgimo.ru/library/publications/professionalnaya_motivatsiya_stud entov_turistskogo_vuza/ zeer, e. f. (2005). psikhologiya professiy [the psychology of professions]. moscow: akademicheskiy proyekt. https://www.twirpx.com/file/280671/ https://mgimo.ru/library/publications/professionalnaya_motivatsiya_studentov_turistskogo_vuza/ https://mgimo.ru/library/publications/professionalnaya_motivatsiya_studentov_turistskogo_vuza/ https://www.twirpx.com/file/280671/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 214-235 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/228 audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative leader olha vlasenko¹, vita pavlenko2, olha сhemerys3, oksana piddubna4, anna fedorchuk5, inna yashchuk6 1 zhytomуr ivan franko state university, zhytomyr, ukraine, wlasolia@gmail.com, orcid https://orcid.org/0000-0001-72582108 2 zhytomyr ivan franko state university, zhytomyr, ukraine, pavlenko-vita@meta.ua, orcid id https://orcid.org/ 0000-00018528-4054 3 zhytomyr ivan franko state university, zhytomyr, ukraine, chemeryswork@gmail.com, orcid id https://orcid.org/0000-0002-70991095 4 zhytomyr ivan franko state university, zhytomyr, ukraine, oksanapoddubnaja00@ukr.net, orcid id https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5937-0677 5 zhytomyr ivan franko state university, zhytomyr, ukraine, anna.l.fedorchuk@gmail.com, orcid id https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8227-3210 6 khmelnytskyi humanities and pedagogical academy, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, yashchuk.ip@gmail.com, orcid https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4028-3327 abstract: the article is dedicated to modern approaches to development of digital civic space of the modern school, in the context of the research results in modern neuroscience, which is a new phenomenon in ukraine. a brief analysis of results of recent scientific researches that raise the issue of digital citizenship in postmodern times is given. theoretical principles and practical experience of european countries to create a digital civic space are considered. definitions of “civic consciousness” and “digital citizenship”, “creativity”, “postmodernism” are given. the theoretical principles of research in neurosciencees in the system of pedagogical education are considered. modern approaches to development of digital competence of participants in the educational process are singled out. vision of the council of europe on the components of digital citizenship is considered, which is seen as empowering students and acquiring the necessary digital skills for successful self-realization in the postmodern era. a brief description of the conceptual model of digital citizenship education adopted by the council of europe is given, emphasizing the importance of systematicity and consistency in its implementation. prerequisites for achieving results of this conceptual model are generalized and highlighted. tools for auditing the digital civic space of a modern school are proposed, which allows to determine the level of development of basic skills of a digital citizen in all participants in the educational process on the basis of modern neuroscience research results. the main audit methods for this tool are surveys, audit of school records and determination of access to digital technologies. the importance of integrating the content of the conceptual model of education on digital citizenship into the content of subjects is emphasized, which should be reflected in the school documentation at different levels: from the educational program to the teacher’s lesson plan. criteria and indicators for auditing the school’s digital civic space are detailed. keywords: civic consciousness, creativity, digitalization of educational space, digital citizenship, leadership, neuropedagogy, postmodernism. how to cite: vlasenko, o., pavlenko, v., сhemerys, o., piddubna, o., fedorchuk, a., & yashchuk, i. (2021). audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative leader. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 214-235. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/228 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/228 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7258-2108 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7258-2108 https://orcid.org/%200000-0001-8528-4054 https://orcid.org/%200000-0001-8528-4054 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7099-1095 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7099-1095 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5937-0677 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8227-3210 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4028-3327 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/228 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 215 introduction globalization, as a unique phenomenon of the modern world, certainly affects all spheres of human life and society as a whole. it is globalization and its consequences that scientists associate all the major trends in education with. modern information and communication technologies (ict), new technologies of production and consumption, social technologies – all these are global signs of a new society, a new way of thinking and activity of people. we agree with scientists who argue that today society is at the stage of giving birth to a new form of cultural, better known as globalization culture (spring, 2008; mykolaienko, 2012). today we record the onset of this new mass culture in a new concept, corresponding to the spirit of globalization – postmodern. postmodernism as a mixture of concepts, values, attitudes, styles of thinking and activity is vigorously penetrating science, education, politics, economics. it is extremely important to realize the unity of the cultural phenomenon of postmodernism and modern digital, technological society of the fourth industrial revolution. globalization processes in the days of the fourth industrial revolution led to a change in values, which involves rethinking the nature of pedagogical interaction, which changes both the role of the teacher and the role of the student (nerubasska et al., 2020; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020). turning to the works of modern western philosophers shows that there are many unsolved problems in modern education, but the challenge of the philosophy of education does not go unanswered, the process of rethinking modern problems of education is quite intense. considering the reforms that have taken place in education in ukraine since 2014, we observe the same processes in ukraine. in general, the situation in both western and domestic philosophy of education can be described as criticism and “revision”, reconsideration and reconceptualization of ideas. the phenomenon of postmodernism in education is a radical revision and rethinking of the foundations on which all european culture is based. and although postmodernism over-relativizes moral values and norms, rejecting priorities and clear guidelines, on the other hand, the meaning of postmodern thinking is in recognizing cultural polyphony, which opens space for true dialogue, in freeing it from dogmatism, which is so relevant in globalization processes during the fourth industrial revolution (emovwodo et al., 2019; ivanova & ivanov, 2020; viktorova, 2021). audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative … olha vlasenko, et al. 216 today, there are a number of critical gaps in the education system: between how a student perceives the world inside and outside the classroom; between the skills that students acquire in school and the skills that will be needed in real life; between opportunities for students who have access to quality ict education and those who are denied such access. at present, during the fourth industrial revolution, we can state contradictions between the processes of digitalization of educational space and insufficient scientific and methodological support for the systemic development of digital civic space and tools for its audit at the level of secondary educational establishment. we believe that there is a significant gap between the current development of digital civic space in the modern school, the available tools for its audit and willingness of teachers to systematically develop the digital civic space in general. today, one of the main challenges facing education is the problem of teachers’ lack of awareness of the rapid pace of spread and penetration into all spheres of life of the trend of globalization, total informatization. the content and purpose of education today does not correspond to the real life for which this education should prepare. teachers are insufficiently prepared to use digital tools in their professional activities; they are unaware of the fundamental principles of digital citizenship, which today is the reality of an individual in the digital space. the problem is not so much the reluctance of teachers to use a set of ict tools, but rather awareness of a systematic approach to building a digital civic space in general, where ic competence is only part of the competence of a digital citizen. we believe that the practical application of digital citizenship by teachers and support of their students in this regard is the foundation for quality modern education that really prepares for the competitive, real, globalized world. we believe that the priority task of the system of professional training of teachers should be professional training of new generation teachers capable of effective professional activity in the conditions of active use of modern scientific researches, including neurosciences. in this context, there is an actual issue of the absence in the content training of future teachers of orientation on the use of modern research results of neurosciences in their professional activities. we are confident that digitalization processes may be more effective subject to their implementation with the use of results of neurosciences. the purpose of the article is coverage of conceptual approaches to issues of digital civic space development in the modern school and presentation of tools for conducting its audit in the context of modern neurosciences. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 217 literature review today, the concepts of digital citizenship and digital civic space in the modern school is not new and is used among the european and the world scientific community, as well as the domestic one. in ukraine, the works of bykov (2008) are devoted to the issues of standardization and assessment of ir competence, which considers standardization of ir competence of teachers as a prerequisite for successful digitalization of education kocharian & hushchyna (2011), who emphasizes the need to include in the structure of the ir competence of the teacher the competence to form in teenagers safe forms of behavior in the internet. conditions for development of ir competence in a teacher are studied by lytvynova (2012) and morze (2010). lytvynova (2012) focuses on improving the skills of teachers in application of cloud technologies. morze (2010), in turn, draws attention to the need to develop national policies, standards for the use of technology in the educational process, and in case of their absence in the need to develop and implement corporate policies and standards for the use of ict in the educational process. the phenomenon of an educational institution in the world order of postmodern globalization is studied by domestic scientists (korotkova et al., 2020), where globalization is seen as a driver of change in the values of society and a prerequisite for rethinking the purpose and objectives of educational work in the educational institution. among foreign scholars, the works of ribble (2017), jones and mitchell (2016) are devoted to general issues of the digital civic space. gastil and richards (2016) and roberts (2021) study the issues of law enforcement in the digital civic space. schwanholz et al. (2017) explore the issues of internet regulation, the use of social networks and public participation in the internet. the role and place of ngos in building a digital civic space is explored by gordon (2019). the works of gleason and von gillern (2018) and greenhow et al. (2009) are devoted to the issue of integration of digital civic space into the content of school education. goodwin’s research (2020) focuses on young people’s understanding and perception of globalization processes and their impact on teenage behavior. however, despite significant number of researches on the problems of digital civic space in the modern school, the issues of systemic and practical implementation of digital civic space concepts at the level of the secondary educational establishment and methods of substantiation and selection of tools for its audit have not been sufficiently studied in domestic audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative … olha vlasenko, et al. 218 pedagogical research and are insufficiently included in modern teacher training and development programs. furthermore, for the last ten years, studies of the neural mechanisms of adult learning in modern educational systems have become increasingly popular. on the basis of the conducted researches a new integrative direction of pedagogical education evolved – the neuropedagogy. the beginning of neuropedagogy is based on researches of hart (1992), who argued that creation of educational experience without understanding the brain functioning is ineffective and urged scientists to conduct researches on cognitive processes of the brain (hart, 1992). however, despite a significant number of studies devoted to the problems of digital civil space in modern school and research on neuropedagogy, these studies are separate, not combined together and do not have systemic and simultaneous use. problems of development of digital civil space in the context of neurosciences at the time of choosing tools for conducting its audit have not received a sufficient comprehensive study in domestic pedagogical researches and are not adequately included in modern teacher training and enhancement training programs. building a digital civic space at school the globalization processes that have taken place in recent years in the world are actively promoting emergence of new professions and, accordingly, require new competencies from labor market participants. in order to be competitive, labor market participants should quickly acquire new competitive knowledge and skills, be flexible and able to abandon previously formed competencies and react to global changes in a new way. transformation of the education system is a key condition for economic development of the country, one of the main indicators of its competitiveness. over the last decade, research has been actively conducted to determine the didactic potential of ict for transformation of national educational systems, forming the framework of ic competence of teachers and national policies and standards (bykov, 2008). as a result, all participants in the educational process acquire increasingly complex skills that are necessary not only for professional, but also for socio-cultural and economic development (komogorova et al., 2021; melnyk et al., 2021; onishchuk, 2020). that is why at the moment the problem of system digitalization of education is becoming more and more urgent: globalization processes and inevitability of active use of modern ict have led to reforms in the content brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 219 of general secondary education, the covid19 pandemic has updated the readiness of teachers to use distance learning technologies. according to article 12 of the law of ukraine on education, “information and communication competence” is defined as one of the key competencies (law of ukraine on education, 2017). however, despite a sufficient number of scientific studies of domestic scientists on formation, development of ic competence of teachers, their motivation to use ict tools in professional activities, at the same time there are no nationally approved indicators of ic competence. in order №2736 of 23.12.2020 of the ministry of economy, trade and agriculture of ukraine (ministry of economy (2020) “on approval of the professional standard for the professions “primary school teacher”, “general secondary school teacher”, “primary school teacher (with a junior specialist diploma)” separated information and digital competence as a component of professional competence of a teacher. this document lists the requirements for teachers regarding the information and digital competence of teachers, namely “the ability to navigate in the information space, search and critically evaluate information, operate it in professional activities”, “the ability to effectively use existing and create (if necessary) new electronic (digital) educational resources”, “ability to use digital technologies in the educational space” (ministry of economy of ukraine, 2020). at the same time, there are no indicators that can be used to monitor and / or assess the level of mastery and application of digital technologies by teachers. in addition, it should be noted that in the age of digitalization it is necessary not only to have a sufficient level of ir competence, but also to develop soft skills, eq, think creatively, be able to manage large amounts of information, work and study remotely. in the age of digitalization, it is not enough for a teacher to develop the third level of ir competence according to unesco standards. it will soon become the norm. today, in the era of the fourth industrial revolution, when technology is actively (and sometimes quite aggressively) entering the daily life of an individual, the problem of forming a digital citizen remains extremely relevant. the citizen and the citizenship are not identical concepts. formation of civic identity is determined not only by the fact of citizenship. this is especially important today, when in the context of digitalization of the world, physical borders of countries are dissolved in free virtual access, and cultural and educational contexts are seen as boundless, unlimited by physical borders and are an affordable asset for everyone. audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative … olha vlasenko, et al. 220 in our study the main concepts are civic consciousness, creativity, digitalization of educational space, digital citizenship, leadership, postmodernism. by creativity we mean the ability to create and find new original ideas that differ from usual patterns of thinking, to successfully solve problems in a non-standard way, as well as the ability to solve problems that arise within static systems (cachia et al., 2010). by civic consciousness we mean the state of consciousness of individuals, their informal attitude to their state, emphasizing that citizenship is granted, whereas civic consciousness is nurtured. application of the concept of “digital citizenship” is characterized by its multifaceted nature. one of the most common interpretations of this term is the interpretation related to implemented or planned practice of a number of countries aimed at acquiring the status of a citizen online. based on this interpretation, digital citizenship is understood as a digital procedure for obtaining a legal status. in addition, digital citizenship is treated as a cultural phenomenon that reflects socialization of new generations under the influence of digital communications in postmodern times. in this sense, the digital citizenship is filled with a value understanding and, therefore, capable of performing a number of regulatory functions. to realize themselves as a digital citizen, according to maksimova, l., grigorovich, l., kurenkova, m., it is necessary to possess digital skills that involve proper and responsible use of ict by users (maksimova, 2019). digital citizenship researcher mike ribble (2015) formulated three principles for such use: respect, education and protection. among foreign scientists in the eu, and we agree with them, there is a more widespread understanding of digital citizenship as an awareness of the impact of ict on society, community and each of its representatives; a digital citizen is not only able to use modern ict, but also aware of their systemic effects, advantages, disadvantages, opportunities and threats (ribble & park, 2019). digital citizenship includes a wide range of activities, from creation, consumption, exchange, gaming, communication, learning and professional activities. digital citizens are able to respond to new and everyday challenges related to education, work, employment, leisure, inclusion and participation in the life of a society, respect for human rights and intercultural differences. it is a process that should begin from the earliest childhood at home and at school, in formal, non-formal and informal education (ribble & park, 2019). the council of europe on democratic culture (cdc) offers a simplified overview of the competences that citizens should acquire if they brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 221 want to participate effectively in their country’s democratic processes using ict (council of europe, 2016). these competencies are not acquired automatically, on the contrary, they need to be mastered and practiced. and in this, the school education plays the key role. the following 20 competencies of democratic culture cover four key areas: sphere 1. values (appreciation of human dignity and their rights and freedoms; appreciation of cultural diversity; appreciation of democracy, justice, equality and the rule of law); sphere 2. attitudes (openness to cultures and religions of other citizens; respect; responsibility; tolerance for ambiguity); sphere 3. skills (analytical and critical thinking skills; listening and observation skills; empathy; flexibility and adaptability; collaboration skills; conflict resolution skills); sphere 4. critical thinking (critical understanding of the world: politics, law, culture, religion, history, media, economy). in order to form and develop these competencies of digital citizen (digital citizenship) in 2016, the steering committee for educational policy of the council of europe created an expert group on digital civic education and since 2019 the council of europe members have introduced “digital civic education” in the eu schools (council of europe, 2019). the conceptual model of education on digital citizenship is presented in fig. 1. fig. 1. conceptual model of education on digital citizenship (council of europe, 2019) policy stakehol ders strategies resources evaluation digital citizenship 10 digital spheres of citizenship competencies for the culture of democracy values, attitude, skills, critical thinking audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative … olha vlasenko, et al. 222 thus, agreeing with foreign researchers, we clarify the concept of “digital citizen” and understand them (digital citizens) as people who are able to actively, responsibly and constantly participate in community life using ict. such participation depends on the organizational criteria underlying educational progress towards digital citizenship. this progress will be facilitated or hindered by the level of consequences of a number of stakeholders, from parents to teachers at school, to decision-makers (access to the internet, restrictions on access to certain resources, etc.). according to ribble & park (2019), ovcharuk (2020) etc., in order to achieve results of implementation of the conceptual model of education on digital citizenship, the following prerequisites are required: 1. access to digital technology, which is an integral part of everyday life of modern society. despite the inequality of the internet access at home, the school, as a center for formation and development of digital citizenship, should be a place of permanent and free access to the internet. 2. digital competence. today it is impossible to get free, systematic and unhindered access to the tools of e-democracy, to participate in various sociological and other surveys, to obtain information from various sources without the use of ict. that is why the school at the level of educational policy goals forms and develops digital competence, which is not possible without the appropriate level of ir competence of teachers. this also includes the use of ict tools used in the educational process. 3. secure digital space, which is the responsibility of isps and the administration of the educational institution. this can also include development and compliance with one’s own corporate policies and corporate standards for implementation of a secure digital space. 4. knowledge of rights and responsibilities. it is a key factor for the active development of digital citizen competencies. this is not only knowledge that is formed by values and attitudes, and, of course, taught at home and at school, but also responsible behavior to respect the rights of others and protect one’s own. this includes netiquette – safe behavior on the internet (kocharian & hushchyna 2011). 5. flexible thinking and the ability to solve problems. these are higher cognitive skills that require a broader combination of all four areas of 20 competencies of democratic culture (council of europe, 2016). of course, the ability to solve problems requires understanding of current issues, their analysis, synthesis, but above all it depends on the educational activities at school, which promotes cognitive development through activities. therefore, the use of various ict tools at school is playing an increasing role in developing flexibility of thinking and problem-solving brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 223 skills. scenarios for using ict as ready-made answers, solutions and attitudes will not contribute to the development of this skill. however, learning scenarios, when ict is used as a tool to achieve a pedagogical goal of the lesson, will facilitate the search activity of the student – such scenarios will develop the skill to solve problems, rather than finding ready-made template solutions. 6. the skill of effective and safe communication. schools play an important role in supporting and enabling students to develop their communication skills to help them understand and apply their rights and responsibilities when using digital tools. it is not only the ability to find a common language, to adhere to netiquette and respect for the interlocutor. these are the rules of safe behavior on the internet when communicating with other students, friends, teachers, etc. this also includes respect for confidentiality of the interlocutor, respect and non-dissemination of unreliable, unverified or untrue information. 7. civic empowerment is a key principle without which digital citizens cannot improve their citizenship skills or exercise their rights and responsibilities. it is assumed that everyone has access to an open, neutral and safe system where algorithms are open, freely chosen and configured by users, where citizens can act without warrying for the consequences of their vote. ukrainian researchers of digital citizenship combine this premise with the problem of ensuring confidentiality and security, which mainly concerns personal protection of one’s own information from others (ovcharuk, 2020, p. 9). we agree with ovcharuk (2020), who proposes to combine security issues with ir competence in terms of setting up anti-virus programs, firewalls, using strong and reliable passwords, etc. however, we are more focused on ensuring the civic opportunity for free expression of the student’s will, rather than providing a technical component of preserving their personal and / or confidential data, or data that the student is afraid to disclose. ensuring technical safety, of course, must be implemented by all means, but the technical protection itself does not ensure the active civic position of a student. it is not enough to provide security; it is necessary to form the desire to be a “digital citizen”. we understand that the process of developing digital citizenship in educational establishments takes place due to efforts of teachers, who in their time were not prepared in educational establishments for this activity. moreover, the rapid pace of informatization leads to the fact that teachers almost constantly have to take enhancement courses to keep “in trend” and be able to implement modern technologies, methods and techniques of teaching. it is clear that at the present stage the basis for the development of audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative … olha vlasenko, et al. 224 the system of adult teacher education is their continuing professional education of adults, which contributes to rapid adaptation of people to fast pacing working conditions. however, having analyzed the educational programs of training and retraining of teachers in ukraine, we did not find a systematic implementation of the results of modern neurosciences (and neuropedagogy in particular) in this process. we are also aware that modern advances in neurosciences require training of specialists in the framework of new areas of neuropedagogy. we also realize that the brain activity research program needs to be built based on interdisciplinary approach using brain research methods adapted to pedagogy, psychology and andrology. at the same time, we are convinced that the use of following theoretical concepts and provisions of neurosciences will significantly influence effectiveness of teacher preparation for development of digital civil space: the concept of neuroplasticity the ability of the human brain to rebuild its neural connections in order to adapt to environmental factors (brault-foisy et al., 2020); provisions on the functions of limbic formations of the brain that provide motivational activity in acquisition of information (vovkanych, 2020); the concept of psychophysiological mechanisms of the dominant, which regulates intellectual activity and purposeful work of the higher mental functions (kushch, 2014); theory of self-organization of brain activity, which provides functions of active thinking, memory, attention, behaviour (kushch, 2014); provisions on formation of an individual profile of the hemispheric functional asymmetry, which includes a certain functional antagonism; identification of potential opportunities for child development through the interaction of genetically embedded development programs and social determinants (druzhilovskaya, 2020). audit of digital civic space of a modern school analyzing scientific literature of domestic and foreign researchers on the development of digital civic space, we can summarize the following: the problem is urgent and its significance in coming years will only grow; among the foreign studies mentioned in our publication, we observe a systematic approach to the development of digital competence brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 225 and digital citizenship, namely creation and active use of strategic documents (frameworks) related to digital and civic competence. in ukraine, teachers rely on the standard of ic competence of a student, which is laid down in the state standard of primary education (cabinet of ministers of ukraine, 2019), the state standard of complete general secondary education (cabinet of ministers of ukraine, 2020) and the ic standard of teacher competence based on the professional competence of the teacher. in ukraine, the use of methods for development of civic education using ict tools has not yet become widespread. there are no programs and frameworks at the national level that would regulate development of the digital civic space of educational institutions; forms and methods of their implementation, implementation tools, systems for monitoring and auditing the effectiveness of their implementation. that is why, on the basis of our scientific research, the results of which are given above, we have developed a checklist that would allow the head of a general education institution to conduct an audit of the digital civic space at the level of the educational institution. a checklist is a two-part document. the first part of the checklist provides an audit of the activities carried out in the institution for development of digital civic space. the second part identifies criteria and indicators for determining (diagnosing) the state of development of digital civic space in schools. we took as a basis the conceptual positions, approaches and methodology that were laid down during development of selfie and itl research. selfie is a free online tool that helps analyze state of digitalization, effectiveness of using digital technologies in educational institutions (european commission, 2021). these monitoring tools have been developed by experts from the european commission and are used in 74 countries around the world. itl research is an international study conducted in 2011 at the initiative and support of microsoft in 7 countries (european agency, 2011). thus, we propose the main methods of auditing the digital civic space of a school to determine the following: surveys of teachers and school administration, analysis of school documents and analysis of the results of students’ learning activities. regarding the content of the audit, we took as a basis the components of digital citizenship identified at the world economic forum (park, 2016), namely 8 basic skills that students should have in the era of the fourth industrial revolution (see table 1). audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative … olha vlasenko, et al. 226 table 1.basic skills of a digital citizen (park, 2016) skill skill description digital identity of citizens the ability to holistically create a sound identity both online and in everyday life (offline) screen time management ability to manage screen time, multitasking and participation in online games and social networks with one’s own self-control cyberbullying management ability to detect cyberbullying situations and get out safely in a cyberbullying situation managing own cybersecurity the ability to protect one’s own data using a variety of methods privacy management the ability to securely use personal information about oneself and others critical thinking the ability to distinguish between true and false information digital tracs the ability to understand the nature of digital tracs and their real consequences and to manage them responsibly digital empathy the ability to show empathy for one’s own and others’ needs and feelings on the internet table 2 presents the criteria and four target groups (administration, teachers, students and parents) for audit of digital civic space in schools. table 2.the structure of the checklist of the school head for the audit of the level of development of digital civic space at the school level (developed by the author) audit participants audit criteria school administration school teachers students parents 1. understanding digital citizenship implemented by conducting a survey 2. development of a digital citizen during educational activities implemented by auditing the following documents: minutes of meetings of pedagogical councils, educational program implemented by auditing the following documents: curriculum and lesson plan implemented by conducting a survey 3. implemented by implemented implemented brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 227 development of a digital citizen during educational work auditing the following documents: minutes of meetings of pedagogical councils, educational program by auditing the following documents: curriculum and lesson plan by conducting a survey 4. advanced training in the development of digital civic space implemented by auditing the following documents: minutes of meetings of pedagogical councils, educational program implemented by auditing existing documents confirming the completion of advanced training not applicable 5. access to digital technologies audit of access to digital technologies and the internet not applicable for example, we detail the indicators that we propose to use during the audit of criterion 1 “understanding digital citizenship” among school administration and teachers (table 3). table 3.audit indicators of the school’s digital civic space. understanding digital citizenship (developed by the author) audit criterion indicator understanding digital citizenship 1.1. knowledge of the digital civic space, its essence and benefits. ability to describe the overall purpose of the ideal digital civic space; 1.2. familiarity with international and national documents on digital civic space policy; 1.3. familiarity with school documents on the digital civic space (internal regulations, standards, corporate policies and procedures, etc.); 1.4. awareness of trends in the process of informatization of society and changes in lifestyles; 1.5. ability to analyze barriers that arise when using ict in one’s own actions, professional activities, daily life; 1.6. awareness and application of e-democracy and egovernment tools; 1.7. ability to be aware of various risks that may arise when using ict; 1.8. awareness of legal norms regarding activities in the digital civic space. audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative … olha vlasenko, et al. 228 here are some examples of indicators that we propose to use for the audit of criterion 2 “development of a digital citizen during learning activities” among teachers and school administration (table 4). table 4.audit indicators of the school’s digital civic space. learning process (developed by the author) audit criterion indicator 2. development of a digital citizen during educational activities 2.1. indication in the school curriculum of general provisions and principles of documents at the national level and the school level on development of digital civic space; 2.2. indication in the curricula of school teachers of the general provisions and principles of national and school documents on development of digital civic space; 2.3. application of ict tools during educational activities; 2.4. encouraging students to use ict tools to solve everyday tasks related not only to learning activities; 2.5. presence in the curricula of teachers of integration of disciplines with the use of various forms and methods, ict tools; 2.6. presence in the curricula of a definition of the content and essence of media literacy and information literacy. teaching students their practical application; 2.7. presence in the curricula of a definition of the content and essence of critical thinking. teaching students its practical application. 2.8. presence in the curriculum of a definition of the content and essence of safe online behavior. 2.9. use of ict tools for organizing educational projects and setting tasks. 2.10. ability to select appropriate ict tools to monitor and disseminate students’ performance; 2.11. use of ict tools for educational activities; 2.12. ability to assess reliability of data obtained from the internet; 2.13. ability to use search engines with ranking of search results, making use of keywords. indicators of criterion 3 – “development of a digital citizen during educational activities” may be identical to indicators of criterion 2. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 229 here are some examples of indicators that we propose to use for the audit of criterion 4 “advanced training in the development of digital civic space” (table 5). table 5.audit indicators of the school’s digital civic space. certification training (developed by the author) audit criterion indicator 4. advanced training in the development of digital civic space 4.1. understanding the benefits of using ict to improve quality and efficiency of one’s own professional activities; 4.2. understanding the opportunities, advantages and disadvantages of ict as a means of improving quality and efficiency of work during advanced training; 4.3. using ict to access, create and disseminate various resources needed for professional activities; 4.4. using ict to communicate with colleagues from other institutions; 4.5. ability to use ict to search, organize, analyze, integrate and evaluate information needed for professional development during advanced training; 4.6. ability to receive advanced training online. we are confident that achievement of these indicators of effective development of the digital civic space of a modern educational establishment is possible under the preconditions of effective and efficient training of teachers who will implement this space. training, in our opinion, will be effective provided an active use of the results of modern neurosciences. for example, within our study of selection of audit tools for the digital civic space of an educational establishment, we faced the problem of motivating teachers not to the audit process itself, but even to the process of their own professional training to build such space in the establishment. it is not enough to measure indicators of digital civic space it is necessary to build it; and “builders” are the teachers who must be prepared for such activities. that is why, based on the above analysis, taking into account theoretical positions and statements, taking into account the andrological approach in the context of modern neurosciences, we propose to use a separate course “modern neurosciences in education system” in the content component of professional teacher training programs. the aim of the course is specialized training of teachers for systematic and continuous application audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative … olha vlasenko, et al. 230 of the results of scientific researches in modern neurosciences in their professional activities, including during their own enhancement training. thus, audit of the digital civic space of school should provide highquality teacher training (which is possible provided that the results of scientific researches in modern neurosciences are applied) and include not only an audit of the development of digital citizenship of its participants, but also technological opportunities that would provide all participants with equal access to digital technologies (criterion 5 of the audit checklist listed in table 2). the toolkit should be comprehensive and adaptive, allowing to assess not only “hard” but also “soft” skills. in our opinion, the main purpose of conducting such audits should be to provide feedback that will help students better understand their strengths and weaknesses so that they can find their own ways of success and competitiveness in the postmodern era. a prerequisite for effective development is the position that each individual has a unique brain, which can be characterized by a large number of parameters (performance, dominant type of memory, level of flexibility, speed of information processing, etc.). conducting such audit will allow a modern creative teacher, in turn, to plan their teaching and educational work in line with development of digital citizens. conclusion according to the results of our research and results of other scientists, we can state a steady increase in attention to development of digital civic space. summarizing the experience of digital citizenship education, we came to the conclusion that it is necessary to conduct an audit, which we consider as an opportunity to provide dialogue and a feedback between participants in the educational process. in our opinion, the main issues of the audit of the digital civic space of a modern school should be issues of determining understanding of the digital civic space of all participants in the educational process, the state of development of the digital citizen during teaching and educational work. a separate issue is training of teachers in the development of digital civic space. the issue of auditing access to digital technologies by both students and teachers remains mandatory. the proposed tool allows us to systematically conduct audits and identify so-called “development zones” that need to be improved and developed. despite results of the audit, we believe that the prerequisite for a successful development of a digital citizenstudent is training of a modern digital citizen-teacher. at the same time, we realize that education on digital citizenship at school depends on modern teachers, because they implement the concept brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 231 developed by administrative structures and form the skills of digital citizenship in everyday practice. and if at the national level in ukraine there are no normative documents and standards that would regulate the content of digital citizenship and tools for its monitoring, then schools can develop them independently on the basis of normative documents of european countries. finally, the pedagogical community in postmodern times has to understand the importance of digital citizenship as a foundation of digital intelligence. and the beginning can be in school. there is no more time to think. students are already immersed in the digital world and it affects them. it is up to educators to support children so that they can use not only ict to meet their needs and satisfaction, but also be a full-fledged digital citizen who can change the world for the better. only such systematic approach to education of digital citizens, which involves solving tasks to be set in the educational programs of the institution, will help to achieve efficiency. it is crucial that teachers respond quickly to ever-changing digital content to ensure its comfort and accessibility for use by students. researches of modern neurosciences confirm effectiveness of their use in pedagogy. we believe that the effective development of digital civic space is possible provided there is high-quality training of teachers who will be implementing it. and application of the above provisions of neuropedagogy will allow us to quickly obtain the desired result and, as a result, successfully achieve these indicators and indicators of the audit of the school digital civic space. references brault foisy, l.-m., matejko, a. a., ansari, d., & masson, s. (2020). teachers as orchestrators of neuronal plasticity: effects of teaching practices on the brain. mind, brain, and education, 14(4), 415-428. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12257 bykov v. (2008). modeli orhanizatsiinykh system vidkrytoi osvity: monohrafiia [models of organizational systems of open education: monograph]. atika. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/9649/1/art105text-2.pdf cabinet of ministers of ukraine. (2019). pro vnesennia zmin do derzhavnoho standartu pochatkovoi osvity [on amendments to the state standard of primary education]. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/688-2019%d0%bf#text cabinet of ministers of ukraine. (2020). pro deiaki pytannia derzhavnykh standartiv povnoi zahalnoi serednoi osvity [on some issues of state standards of complete general secondary education]. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12257 https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/9649/1/art105text-2.pdf https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/688-2019-%d0%bf#text https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/688-2019-%d0%bf#text audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative … olha vlasenko, et al. 232 https://www.kmu.gov.ua/npas/pro-deyaki-pitannya-derzhavnihstandartiv-povnoyi-zagalnoyi-serednoyi-osviti-i300920-898 cachia, r., ferrari, a., ala-mutka, k., & punie, y. (2010). innovation and creativity in education and training in the eu member states: fostering creative learning and supporting innovative teaching. literature review. office for official publications of the ec. https://edu.lu.lv/pluginfile.php/74635/mod_resource/content/1/%21%2 1_creative%20learning%20and%20innovative%20teaching.pdf council of europe. (2016). competences for democratic culture – living together as equals in culturally diverse democratic societies. strasbourg. https://www.academia.edu/24945692/competences_for_democratic_cul ture_living_together_as_equals_in_culturally_diverse_democratic_soci eties council of europe. (2019). digital education. a conceptual model. https://www.coe.int/en/web/digital-citizenship-education/a-conceptualmodel druzhilovskaya, o.v. (2020). neurosciences as a source of formation of a new direction of modern pedagogical education. citise, 3(25), 314-321. http://doi.org/10.15350/2409-7616.2020.3.27 emovwodo, s., andriamalala, l., rizki, b.a., suwito, k., & laurent, a.(2019). defining lifestyle, consumer culture, and postmodernism in industry 4.0. in g. anggadwita & e. martini (eds.), digital economy for customer benefit and business fairness: proceedings of the international conference on sustainable collaboration in business, information and innovation (scbtii 2019), bandung, indonesia, october 9-10 (pp. 91-94). taylor & francis group. http://doi.org/10.1201/9781003036173-15 european agency (2011). innovative teaching and learning research (itl research).https://www.europeanagency.org/sites/default/files/itlresearh2011findings.pdf european commission. (2021). selfie education and training. https://ec.europa.eu/education/schools-go-digital_en gastil, j., & richards, r. c. (2017). embracing digital democracy: a call for building an online civic commons. ps: political science & politics, 50(3), 758-763. http://doi.org/10.1017/s1049096517000555 gleason, b., & von gillern, s. (2018). digital citizenship with social media: participatory practices of teaching and learning in secondary education. educational technology & society, 21(1), 200– 212.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1099&context=e du_pubs https://www.kmu.gov.ua/npas/pro-deyaki-pitannya-derzhavnih-standartiv-povnoyi-zagalnoyi-serednoyi-osviti-i300920-898 https://www.kmu.gov.ua/npas/pro-deyaki-pitannya-derzhavnih-standartiv-povnoyi-zagalnoyi-serednoyi-osviti-i300920-898 https://edu.lu.lv/pluginfile.php/74635/mod_resource/content/1/%21%21_creative%20learning%20and%20innovative%20teaching.pdf https://edu.lu.lv/pluginfile.php/74635/mod_resource/content/1/%21%21_creative%20learning%20and%20innovative%20teaching.pdf https://www.academia.edu/24945692/competences_for_democratic_culture_living_together_as_equals_in_culturally_diverse_democratic_societies https://www.academia.edu/24945692/competences_for_democratic_culture_living_together_as_equals_in_culturally_diverse_democratic_societies https://www.academia.edu/24945692/competences_for_democratic_culture_living_together_as_equals_in_culturally_diverse_democratic_societies https://www.coe.int/en/web/digital-citizenship-education/a-conceptual-model https://www.coe.int/en/web/digital-citizenship-education/a-conceptual-model http://ma123.ru/en/2020/09/druzhilovskaya/ http://doi.org/10.1201/9781003036173-15 https://www.european-agency.org/sites/default/files/itlresearh2011findings.pdf https://www.european-agency.org/sites/default/files/itlresearh2011findings.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/education/schools-go-digital_en http://doi.org/10.1017/s1049096517000555 https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1099&context=edu_pubs https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1099&context=edu_pubs brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 233 goodwin, a. l. (2020). globalization, global mindsets and teacher education. action in teacher education, 42(1), 6-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2019.1700848 gordon, e. (2019). civic organizations and digital technologies in an age of distrust. media and communication, 7(3), 54-56. http://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i3.2385 greenhow, c., robelia, b., & hughes, j. (2009). learning, teaching, and scholarship in a digital age web 2.0 and classroom research: what path should we take now? educational researcher, 38(4), 246-259. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x09336671 hart, l. a. (1992). human brain and human learning. books for educators. ivanova, s., ivanov, o. (2020). education in the era of the fourth industrial revolution: development vector, prospects and challenges for russia. space and culture, india, 7(5), 70-79. https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v7i5.703 jones, l, & mitchell, k. (2016). defining and measuring youth digital citizenship. new media & society, 18(9), 2063-2079. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815577797 kocharian a., & hushchyna, n. (2011). vykhovannia kultury korystuvacha internetu. bezpeka u vsesvitnii merezhi: navchalno-metodychnyi posibnyk [education of internet user culture. security in the world wide web: a textbook].onlandia. https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/1547/1/internet.pdf komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 korotkova, y., romanyuk, s., vysochan, l., shkleda, l., & kozlova, l. (2020). the phenomenon of the institution of education in the world order of postmodern globalization. postmodern openings, 11(3), 244-256. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.3/211 kushch, o. s. (2014). vzaiemodiia mekhanizmiv praksysu z tvorchym myslenniam v produktyvnii diialnosti osobystost [interaction of mechanisms of praxis with creative thinking in productive activity of the person]. pedahohichnyi protses: teoriia i praktyka [pedagogical process: theory and practice], 1, 159163. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pptp_2014_1_26 lytvynova, s. g. (2012). khmarni tekhnologhiji jak zasib rozbudovy innovacijnoji shkoly [cloud technologies as a means of building an innovative school]. https://virtkafedra.ucoz.ua/el_gurnal/pages/vyp14/litvinova.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2019.1700848 http://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i3.2385 https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x09336671 https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v7i5.703 https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815577797 https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/1547/1/internet.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.3/211 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pptp_2014_1_26 audit of digital civic space in the modern school: from teacher to creative … olha vlasenko, et al. 234 maksimova, l. (2019). specifity of social identity of all-girls boarding school adolescents. the european proceedings of social and behavioral sciences epsbs, moscow, april 22-23, 2019, 325–333. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.07.42 melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 ministerstvo rozvytku ekonomiky, torhivli ta silskoho hospodarstva ukrayiny [the ministry of economy, trade and agriculture of ukraine]. (2020). pro zatverdzhennya profesiynoho standartu za profesiyamy “vchytel pochatkovykh klasiv zakladu zahalnoyi serednoyi osvity”, “vchytel zakladu zahalnoyi serednoyi osvity”, “vchytel z pochatkovoyi osvity (z dyplomom molodshoho spetsialista)” [on approval of the professional standard for the professions “primary school teacher”, “general secondary school teacher”, “primary school teacher (with a junior specialist diploma)”] (№ 2736). https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/rada/show/v2736915-20#text ministry of economy of ukraine. (2020). reiestr profesiinyi standartiv [professional standards register]. https://www.me.gov.ua/documents/detail?lang=ukua&id=22469103-4e36-4d41-b1bf288338b3c7fa&title=restrprofesiinikhstandartiv morze, n. v. (2010). yak navchaty vchyteliv, shchob kompiuterni tekhnolohii perestaly buty dyvom u navchanni? [how to train teachers to computer technology ceased to be a miracle in education??] kompiuter u shkoli ta sim’i [computer at school and family], 6(86), 10-14. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/komp_2010_6_4 mykolaienko, i. (2012). hlobalizatsiina kultura yak alternatyva kulturnii identychnosti. geneza i perspektyvy rozvytku [globalization culture as an alternative to cultural identity. genesis and prospects of development]. naukovi zapysky natsionalnoho universytetu ostrozka akademiia. seria kulturolohiia [scientific notes of national university of ostroh academy. series culturology], 9, 59-69. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nznuoakl_2012_9_8 nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.07.42 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/rada/show/v2736915-20#text https://www.me.gov.ua/documents/detail?lang=uk-ua&id=22469103-4e36-4d41-b1bf-288338b3c7fa&title=restrprofesiinikhstandartiv https://www.me.gov.ua/documents/detail?lang=uk-ua&id=22469103-4e36-4d41-b1bf-288338b3c7fa&title=restrprofesiinikhstandartiv https://www.me.gov.ua/documents/detail?lang=uk-ua&id=22469103-4e36-4d41-b1bf-288338b3c7fa&title=restrprofesiinikhstandartiv http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=komp_2010_6_4 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nznuoakl_2012_9_8 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 235 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 ovcharuk, o. v. (2020). current approaches to the development of digital competence of human and digital citizenship in european countries. information technologies and learning tools, 76(2), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v76i2.3526 park, y. (2016, september 6). 8 digital life skills all children need – and a plan for teaching them. world economic forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/8-digital-life-skills-allchildren-need-and-a-plan-for-teaching-them/ ribble, m. (2015). digital citizenship in schools: nine elements all students should know (3rd ed.). international society for technology in education. ribble, m. (2017). digital citizenship. http://www.digitalcitizenship.net ribble, m., & park, m. (2019). digital citizenship handbook for school leaders: fostering positive interactions online. international society for technology in education roberts, t. (ed.) (2021). digital rights in closing civic space: lessons from ten african countries. institute of development studies. schwanholz, j., graham, t., & stoll, p.-t. (eds.). (2017). managing democracy in the digital age: internet regulation, social media use, and online civic engagement. springer. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61708-4 spring, j. (2008) research on globalization and education. review of educational research, 78(2), 330-363. https://doi.org/10.3102%2f0034654308317846 viktorova, l. (2021). zastosuvannia shtuchnoho intelektu ta chat-botiv pid chas vyvchennia inozemnoi movy [use of artificial intelligence and chatbots when learning a foreign language]. innovatsiina pedahohika [innovative pedagogy], 32(2), 166-173. i https://doi.org/10.32843/26636085/2021/32-2.33 vovkanych, l. (2020). fiziolohiia kintsevoho mozku: lektsiia №6 z navchalnoi dystsypliny “normalna fiziolohiia liudyny” [physiology of the final brain: lecture no. 6 on the subject “normal human physiology”]. vovkanys ls. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/24432?mode=full zakon ukrainy ‘pro osvitu’. vidomosti verkhovnoi rady. no. 38–39 stattia 380 [law of ukraine. about education no. 38-39, p.380] (2017). https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2145-19 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v76i2.3526 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/8-digital-life-skills-all-children-need-and-a-plan-for-teaching-them/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/8-digital-life-skills-all-children-need-and-a-plan-for-teaching-them/ http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/ http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61708-4 https://doi.org/10.3102%2f0034654308317846 https://doi.org/10.32843/2663-6085/2021/32-2.33 https://doi.org/10.32843/2663-6085/2021/32-2.33 http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/24432?mode=full https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2145-19 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 319-342 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/234 peculiarities of forming students' motivation to musicteaching activity in higher education institutions (hei) leonid khomenko¹, tetiana rastruba2, oleksandr parkhomenko3, lyudmyla shumska4, liudmyla kostenko5, oleksii pavlenko6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, homenkoleonid9@gmail.com 2 nizhyn mykola gogol state university, ukraine, rastruba_1510@ukr.net 3 nizhyn mykola gogol state university, ukraine, 380684043047@ukr.net 4 nizhyn mykola gogol state university, ukraine, choirsvitych@ukr.net 5 nizhyn mykola gogol state university, ukraine, lusy07@ukr.net 6 nizhyn mykola gogol state university, ukraine, pavlenkoaleksei1@gmail.com abstract: motivation is one of the most important factors (along with abilities, knowledge, skills and abilities) that ensures the success of music teaching. becoming a successful teacher of art disciplines is closely related to the internal needs of his self-realization in professional activities, selfawareness in this state. the pedagogical profession requires from the teacher the formed need for artistic and educational activity, awareness of its importance for the spiritual development of society; high level of ideological, humanitarian and aesthetic culture; developed professional and pedagogical abilities, deep professional knowledge and skills, experience of artistic and creative pedagogical activity. the artistic needs of students arise and develop in the process of music-educational activities, which should be based on their positive emotional attitude to it. it is proved that in the process of educational activity a system of mental actions of reproductive and productive nature is formed, which is selfregulated and self-organized by the individual. any activity, and in this case educational, is affected by certain incentives that become the driving force of student activity. such incentives are needs, interests, beliefs, values, ideals, forming the motivation to learn. along with the abilities, knowledge, and skills that ensure the success of teaching, motivation also includes emotional and value attitudes, sustained interest and inclination of the future teacher to pedagogical work; the need for active influence on the moral and emotional, intellectual and volitional spheres of the student's personality. keywords: category "activity", spiritual culture of personality, age features of students, factor of choice of profession, professional and personal self-improvement, human psyche. how to cite: khomenko, l., rastruba, t., parkhomenko, o., shumska, l., kostenko, l., & pavlenko, o. (2021). peculiarities of forming students' motivation to musicteaching activity in higher education institutions (hei). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 319-342. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/234 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/234 mailto:homenkoleonid9@gmail.com mailto:rastruba_1510@ukr.net mailto:380684043047@ukr.net mailto:choirsvitych@ukr.net mailto:lusy07@ukr.net mailto:pavlenkoaleksei1@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/234 peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 320 introduction in the process of becoming a personality of a future music teacher, the level of motivation formation determines his readiness to work as a teacher and musician. it combines psychological, pedagogical and social training, individual style of work and creative pedagogical interaction. the conscious desire to realize these individual components is ensured by taking into account that these processes for the future music teacher are, first of all, his development as a person who has a unique, dynamic relationship of values, aesthetic and emotional experiences. through the content orientation of aspirations, levels of assimilation and forms of implementation of activities, students should strive for learning, the result of which is high perseverance, purposefulness, initiative, intellectual flexibility, learning without "pressure" from teachers, as well as enjoying the learning outcomes. therefore, among the most important tasks of the teacher is to create conditions for the formation of positive motivation of the student and the maximum disclosure of his creative potential through meaningful, responsible, productive and creative work in the field of education. it is necessary to form in him pride for the chosen profession, confidence in its significance, to make it clear that the goal is not only to obtain the necessary professional knowledge and skills, but also to understand the way to acquire them, master the principles and methods of learning the theory and practice of teaching (gerasymova et al., 2019; nerubasska et al., 2020; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; onishchuk et al., 2020; sheremet et al., 2019). only under such conditions it is possible to educate a teacher who is able to think creatively, independently navigate in a variety of problematic situations of pedagogical reality, critically evaluate them and quickly find ways to overcome the contradictions that arise. literary review positive motivation for music-teaching activity as a formed component of personality does not arise spontaneously. in the scientific literature, these provisions have received thorough coverage in the works of such scientists as: e. abdullin (1990), v. yakonyuk (1993) et al. in the works of these scientists, this problem is highlighted from the standpoint of the unity of requirements for the content of training and professional activities of music teachers, the essence of music teaching, its distinctive features and personal qualities of performers in the context of practical training. thus, a pleiad of scientists a. kozyr (2008), o. morozova (2011) say that the competent training of comprehensively developed musicians in brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 321 the process of teaching and education is the responsibility of every teacher of higher education, and especially music teachers. they note that the profession of music teacher needs to reveal the peculiarities inherent only in it. this is due to the special characteristics of the art of music. in their opinion, these features are: the creative nature of the music teacher; poly-functionality of the musician's profession (accompanist, teacher, performer, musicologist, etc.); differences in approaches to the study of music, due to individual musical data, psychological characteristics, level of training, creative abilities, etc., morozova o. (2011). in particular, l. archazhnikova (1984) proposes such a variant of unification of professional characteristics of a successful music teacher: 1) formed worldview; 2) developed general pedagogical skills, as well as such personality traits as pedagogical vigilance and observation, pedagogical tact, demanding, balance, endurance, etc .; 3) a high professional level, which includes knowledge and skills in the theory and history of music, a certain level of development of musical hearing and thinking, as well as performing skills; 4) developed speech culture, ability to professionally evaluate and discuss musical works, their performance; 5) the culture of pedagogical communication, the ability to find the right approach to students with different levels of training and age (archazhnikova, 1984). the professional traits identified by b. asafiev (1973) and d. kabalevsky (1984) are extremely valuable. b. asafiev (1973) believed that a music teacher should be "a theorist and regent, as well as a music historian and music ethnographer, a performer who owns an instrument, in order to be ready to direct attention in one direction or another" (p .65). d. kabalevsky (1984) held a similar opinion, noting: “in addition to general pedagogical training, a qualified music teacher must be able to play the piano, have a clear and expressive conducting and choral technique, be able to sing, he must have training in the field of history and theory of music, be able to transpose from notes and by ear, choose a simple accompaniment to the melody. thus, a music teacher must be a musically educated teacher, otherwise he will be like a mathematics teacher who is not able to solve the problems he sets for his students. he must love music as a living art, he must treat music with excitement, never forget that it is impossible to arouse in children love for what you do not love yourself, to peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 322 capture them with what he is not fond of ", kabalevsky d. (1984, pp. 3031). the scientist says that a real music teacher should never be limited to a certain type of musical activity, such as learning to play an instrument, but also to educate students as active musicians, and all this is possible only if he himself felt on itself the miraculous influence of musical art in all its possible manifestations. in this regard, one of the most important criteria for the professional qualities of the future music teacher should be the ability to properly navigate and clearly determine the value of musical information, to explain their attitude to it. thus, scientists emphasize that students can never be brought up in a monophonic way. they should be developed in various ways, this will open more opportunities both for themselves and for their students in learning the multifaceted art of music. in our opinion, the process of forming a highly cultured, highly qualified teacher is greatly facilitated by taking into account the individual characteristics of each student, which in the future will be formed in him as an individual teacher. in this regard, famous musicians-teachers give not the last place, the individuality of the teacher in the educational process. this fact occupies a very important place, and in our opinion during the formation of motivation one of the key positions. thus, according to s. savshinsky (1950, p.93), "the individuality of the teacher can greatly affect the individuality of the student". he believed that teaching music was a two-way process in which the responsibility fell on the teacher; according to his definition, "individuality is not originality, but naturalness, truth of life, simplicity, kindness, which is radiated in the heavenly harmonies of the amazing and unique beauty of her majesty's music" (savshinsky, 1950). modern researchers g. padalka (2008), o. rostovsky (2007) distinguish the following basic qualities of a music teacher: pedagogical tact, objectivity, self-criticism, endurance, integrity, patience, justice, erudition, sincerity, a high level of general culture, humanism, sensitivity and sincerity, adequacy of self-esteem and level of demands, purposefulness, persistence, diligence, observation, contact. special emphasis is placed on the need for such quality as wit, as well as oratory, artistry. especially important are the qualities of the teacher such as readiness to understand the mental states of students empathy, as well as the need for social interaction. great importance is attached to researchers and pedagogical tact, in the manifestation of which the general culture of the teacher and high professionalism of his pedagogical activity is expressed.. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 323 music-teaching activity as a pedagogical process returning to the process of forming motivation, we note that studying in higher education for people who have to engage in music teaching, provides unique opportunities. from the first year students get into the middle of the pedagogical process, acting as an object and subject of pedagogical practice. the task of teachers is to make them want to learn on the basis of their own potential, and this leads to the formation of students' value motivation, encourages them to master the chosen profession" (gritsanov, 1996, p. 95). in turn, this creates a need for musical activity, which is the beginning of the process of motivating future music teachers. in this case, we pay attention to the category of "activity", which has been considered and continues to be studied by scientists from ancient times to the present. thus, the german philosopher and educator f. herbart (1940) put forward the theory of formal education, which was based on the idea of "learning to act." according to him, a person gradually develops skills to apply the acquired knowledge in practice. in the school of action, w. lai (1914) introduced the "pedagogy of action", which was based on the same sequence of all life processes, which had three main stages: perception, processing, expression (reproduction) or action. the successor of this theory was the american philosopher, psychologist and educator, the founder of the activity approach, d. dewey (2002). the basis of this theory of learning "was the idea of managing" through action "practical experience without training programs. it provided for a wide range of student and teaching activities, mykhailychenko o. (2004, pp. 147-150). assimilation of practical actions precedes the process of understanding the purpose, objectives, future results of the proposed actions, the conditions of their implementation, the principles of choosing methods of action. it follows that the ability of the future teacher to perform professional duties is formed during educational activities. however, according to a. kozyr and v. fedoryshyn, the professional activity of a musician-teacher can be interpreted as a personal category, as a process of creating new and the result of creative activity (2012, p. 72). clarifying the specifics of the training of teachers of art specialties, v. orlov (2003) defines professional art and pedagogical activity as a process of objectifying ideas aimed at providing the professional experience of teachers of art disciplines with their own contribution. dynamic system of interaction of the subject of educational process, teacher peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 324 (teacher) of art disciplines with other subjects (students, their parents, colleagues), aimed at meeting the needs of students, harmonious development of their culture, involvement in the knowledge of artistic and aesthetic experience of mankind , mastering the methods of communication with art, accumulation of individual experience of such communication (orlov, 2003, p. 245). such training involves the inclusion in aesthetic activities as a specific type of practical-spiritual (creation of works of art, folklore, design, etc.) and spiritual (aesthetic contemplation, aesthetic perception, aesthetic judgment, etc.) activities carried out in one form or another "creativity by law beauty "and gives a person the highest spiritual pleasure. the opinion of e. abdullin (1990), who says that a high level of teaching can only be achieved by a teacher who has a sufficiently developed dialectical style of thinking, capable of objectively and comprehensively comprehending musical and pedagogical reality, to its independent, critical evaluation and creative transformation in activities. this idea carries out an important scientific and methodological guideline, which aims to understand training as a phenomenon that exists only in an effective state and depends on practical development. that is, the more a student will be able to act in the educational process, the faster and deeper he will be able to immerse himself in his future professional activity. according to some researchers, pedagogical activity is a projective, predictable action based on understanding the purpose, means of implementation and principles of their choice (abdullina & kuzmin, 1984, pp. 19-20). in particular, according to (kuzmina & kukharev, 1976, p. 12), the structure of pedagogical activity includes constructive, organizational, gnostic, communicative, design components. in addition to them, scientists propose to include a creative component in the structure of activity, as it involves the formation of the need to analyze their own pedagogical experience and implement the pedagogical experience of others, taking into account their creative individuality. a person who has felt the joy of creativity, deepens his life experience and becomes different in psychological composition, telcharova r. (1991). the next derivative of pedagogical activity is musical activity, which is manifested in creativity, performance, perception of art. the concept of "musical activity" in musicological and music-pedagogical literature has received various justifications. it is considered a kind of aesthetic activity, which is aimed at artistic and aesthetic perception of musical values and is characterized by the discovery in the musical phenomenon of a new meaning of its experience. musicologists emphasize that the basis of musical brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 325 activity is musical perception. thus, nazaikinsky e. (1972) interprets it as a complex, multifaceted process of "comprehension and understanding of the meanings of music as art. this is a special form of reflection of reality, an aesthetic artistic phenomenon "," the process of complicity and co-creation, which includes, on the one hand, the programmed structure and direction of the work of art, and on the other involves the creative activity of the listener" (rostovsky, 2007). in particular, the famous musicologist a. sokhor (1988, p. 112), considering the general structure of the musical culture of society, identifies the following types of musical activities: creativity, performance, distribution and perception of music. these types of activity correspond to three stages of existence of a musical work: creation, reproduction, listening (rostovsky, 2007). among the types of musical activity in the lessons of musical art o. rudnytska (2002) and others name listening (music perception), performing, creative improvisation, critical judgments (musical educational activity). researchers identify the concept of "musical and educational activities". according to them, this is knowledge of music and knowledge related to various activities. in the system of music teacher training, they rightly determine the leading role of musical activity. r. telcharova (1991) holds a similar opinion, noting that musical activity is a prerequisite, condition, form, indicator of the manifestation of human musical culture. it includes the following elements in the structure of musical activity: – the subject of musical activity, characterized by the ability to musical activity, needs, artistic orientation, willingness to interact with the art of music, developed motivational sphere, musical-auditory and general aesthetic abilities; – subject of musical activity (various manifestations of musical reality and the world of sounding music); – means of musical activity of material or spiritual-practical nature; – product of musical activity, fitsula m. (2009, p.30). that is, mastering the methods of implementation of this activity includes a method of storing and analyzing the acquired knowledge, so that at any time they can be used again. if a person is not psychologically ready or does not possess at least general ways of solving a certain situation (let's call these situations atypical, non-standard), then its development, and ultimately the development of musical culture and social experience will simply stop. however, in the system of training a music teacher, the most important is the leading role, we consider the role of music teaching activity, since it is the final product of the professional training of a music teacher, it is clear that without a scientifically substantiated characteristic of music peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 326 teaching activity, its ideal model as a model, reference point and standard, it becomes it is impossible to fulfill the leading tasks facing the educational process in the issue of training high-level specialists. we emphasize that the readiness for different types of musical activity by researchers is determined, first of all, by the degree of development of a particular person's complex of abilities, which together determine its musicality. however, music teaching is broader and specific process. the complexity of this activity is that the volume of professional tasks combines at least three components general pedagogical, musicpedagogical with its own specifics and performance as a mandatory part of music-teaching activity. musical teaching activity includes the pedagogical process, and has a number of functions for the training of a young specialist. the first function that necessarily arises at the initial stage of the pedagogical process is goal-setting. it directs the process of work of the teacher and his students to the final result. in the course of the management the actions of the teacher and students are coordinated along the line of coincidence of the purpose with the result. the diagnostic function is aimed at studying the typological and individual features of the development of students' psyche, their potential. the forecasting function requires the teacher to anticipate the achievement of the results of their activities. from the above it follows that the specifics of music teaching is defined by us as: the desire of the individual to practical action, taking into account its semantic characteristics, procedural course and prediction of the expected result. that is, this concept defines a multifaceted structure, which contains a broad system of influences on the student's personality. this includes choirmaster, musicologist, music performer, research work based on the ability to independently summarize and synthesize the acquired knowledge and skills, and pass this knowledge to their students. formation of spiritual culture of personality in the context of motivation of music-teaching activity exploring the process of teaching art, which is education in pedagogical colleges with the direction of training "art", l. masol (2006) draws attention to the fact that the process of musical perception, artistic and creative and performing activities presupposes emotional, spiritual and energetic saturation (masol et al., 2006, p. 39). the need for creative activity is a necessary condition for the formation of a harmoniously developed personality. it involves all the mechanisms of the human psyche: it brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 327 contributes to the formation of personal qualities, independence of thought, their own positions, attitudes to art and life. at the same time, the current situation in our country requires a high level of spirituality in every citizen of our state. this is especially true for teachers, as they are responsible for the spirituality of students who will carry it throughout their lives. therefore, an important place in the motivation of music-teaching activity is occupied by the formation of the spiritual culture of the individual, which, according to i. ogienko, "creates from man the most perfect unit" (1918, p. 38; shevnyuk, 2003 p. 59). in this regard, i. bekh (2012) states: “rational culture, which dominates in determining the direction of modern civilizational processes, causes the dehumanization of the world. this trend is most relevant to education. that is why innovative theoretical and technological efforts are aimed at forming in young people a stable spiritual worldview, in which they will have the appropriate beliefs. the bearer of a spiritual worldview not only deeply understands his inner reality, since he is convinced of its practical effectiveness (to benefit another and to oneself), but is also confident in its undeniable value, sets the ideological vector of his life. this humanistic aim can be achieved with proper pedagogical management and self-government, which will determine the full worldview and spiritual development. this process should be implemented within a small group" (bekh, 2012, p. 22). that is, we can conclude that this influence in the school pedagogical process is most appropriate to exercise within the classroom, and given the possibilities of art, that is, the strength of its influence on the student, we can safely say that this type of influence on the child's worldview will be most effective in music lessons. in this regard, o. rudnytska (2002) notes that the worldview is a specific prism of spirituality, through which the surrounding life is perceived, evaluated and comprehended. it is a special form of emotional and value attitude to life, which focuses on the meaning and life attitudes and guidelines of man, expressed in works of art. the worldview content of art is manifested through two concepts: the artistic picture of the world and the artistic concept of man. the ability of art, in particular music, to express reality, its diversity, according to o. rudnytska (2002, p.138), is extremely important for the development of personality in all spheres of life. the scientist argues that spirituality is a specific need to know the world, oneself, the meaning and purpose of one's life, which is manifested in the richness of the inner world of the individual, his erudition, developed intellectual and emotional needs, morality, involvement in cultural values (rudnytska, 2002, p. 56). peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 328 as padalka g. (2008, p. 32) notes, "spiritual culture should be considered as a system of life meanings of man, associated with his inner mental life and aimed at realizing the humanistic values of activity". according to her, the need to develop the spiritual culture of future music teachers is due to a number of reasons. this is, firstly, the versatility of the problem, which arises at the intersection of different branches of scientific knowledge cultural, pedagogical, aesthetic, artistic, and requires the placement of new accents in accordance with modern discoveries in each of the sciences. secondly, the sharpness of the sound of the problem of forming the spiritual culture of the individual in our time is due to social conditions. market relations, the scientist notes, make us witness how spiritual values are devalued, mercantilism in many people prevails over spirituality, how consumer sentiments obscure the desire to know, act, create. therefore, in a significant part of student youth, there is an impoverishment of life and artistic priorities, a preference for commercialism, practicality, narrow views on the meaning of education, (padalka, 2008, p. 30). age characteristics of students: specific patterns that are important for their development speaking about the motivation for music and teaching activities of students of pedagogical colleges, we want to pay more attention to the age characteristics of this group of students. in this period there is a manifestation of specific patterns important for their development. there is a formation of the expert, formation of his world outlook, ideals, beliefs. student years for a young person should be considered not only as preparation for future professional activity, but also as the first step to maturity. k. ushinsky (1988, pp. 462–480) considered the period of human life from 16 to 22-23 years the most decisive. he noted: "this is where the period of formation of individual ideas ends, and if not all of them, then a large part is grouped into one network, wide enough to give a decisive advantage to a particular idea in the direction of human thoughts and character". one of the first characteristics of a student as a representative of a certain age belongs to s. rubinstein (1914). as early as 1914, he noted that “a student is already an adult, he is not a student of the junior classes of the gymnasium; before us a person who has already passed a large strip of life, to some extent determined and armed with his own independent will" (rubinstein, 1914, p. 42). o. marusenko (2006, p.253), point out that this is a period of direct preparation of the individual for life as an adult, to choose a profession and master it, the performance of social functions. i. zimnyaya brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 329 (1999) characterizes students as the central period of formation of the person, the person as a whole, display of the most various interests. she singles out students as a special youth group that reflects the transition stage from adolescence to adulthood, (zimnyaya, 1999, p. 174). in this regard, one may assume that the student as a person at this age can be considered in three guises: • social, which is due to the student's belonging to a certain social (academic) group and is manifested through the performance of his functions as a future specialist; • psychological, which is the unity of mental processes, states and such personality traits as character, temperament, orientation, abilities; on them, in fact, depends the course of mental processes and the emergence of mental states; • biological, which includes a certain type of nervous activity, the structure of the analyzers, unconditional reflexes, somatics, psychomotor skills, physical condition, etc. an important factor that strongly affects students is the process of socialization. the socialization of boys and girls is influenced by the conditions and the course of mental and personal development. depending on their individual psychological characteristics, the following types of socialization are distinguished: socialization, which is accompanied by serious behavioral problems, conflict situations, difficulties in mastering social roles, etc; smooth, measured socialization. during this course, the young person joins adult life relatively easily, without bothering parents and teachers; socialization, which is characterized by rapid abrupt changes that are effectively controlled by the individual. these points must be taken into account when working with students and be sensitive to situations that may arise in the process of working with them. otherwise, you can permanently lose the student's confidence in himself as a teacher and thereby irrevocably destroy all motivational processes in relation to future professional activities. the central point in the social formation of young men and women is self-awareness as a subject of self-knowledge and self-improvement, which, according to l. bozhovich (1976), is expressed through the need to be recognized by other people. a certain position in the system of social relations at different ages is understood in different ways. asserting themselves in their worldview, self-seeing and self-determining, striving for individual uniqueness, young men and women show significantly higher peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 330 levels of educational activity, communicativeness than in adolescence, begin to coordinate in their vision of the future, near and distant prospects, while often experiencing an identity crisis. yu. samarin (1962) singled out a number of characteristic features and contradictions of a socio-psychological nature as developing in this period. in his opinion, this is due to the fact that a young person chooses a profession, masters it and begins to test themselves in other areas of life, independently plans their activities and behavior, actively defends the independence of judgments and actions. educational activity in student age is leading, in comparison with adolescence. there is a growing interest in learning, the results of which students see as a basis for future professional activity. they are also interested in information, those disciplines that will be "useful" in the pedagogical activities of the future teacher. in his opinion, this should be taken into account by teachers, as the failure to implement the principle of connection between learning and life can lead to loss of motivation. students also have a need for justice, which, as n. rogova (1977) points out, many of them have already been formed in the period of primary school age. therefore, unfair treatment of them by the teacher also causes some damage to motivational processes. the student argues this: "why should i do this if others do not?". in his opinion, this or that fact may not be correct and useless, so it is not necessary to react to it. at the same time, the student actively defends his and others' rights in terms of justice. this position is explained by the fact that during the early adolescence of 15-18 years, the individual reaches the verge of relative maturity, during this period there is a rapid growth and development of her body, as well as primary socialization. therefore, the period of study at the college becomes a turning point in development, as there is a restructuring of its motivational and semantic sphere, which accumulates internal contradictions. in turn, it is important to attract “the transformation of motivation, the entire system of value orientations, on the one hand, and the intensive formation of special abilities in connection with professionalization, and on the other, highlight this age as a central period of character formation and intelligence ". expressing his position on this situation, l. golovey (1996) argues that young people aged of 14-15 show a tendency to greater formation of professional interests, their integration, inclusion in the overall structure of individual and personal characteristics. at the age of 16-17 years the integration of professional interests intensifies, there is a combination of brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 331 cognitive and professional interests, the links of the latter with individual psychological properties are strengthened. at this stage, the possibilities of cognitive activity are characterized by increased productivity and critical judgments. students form an individual style of mental activity, moral consciousness, values, choice of civic position. an important role belongs to personal reflection deepening into the world of their own actions, feelings, experiences, correlating them with the surrounding reality. reflection allows young people to analyze life, look at it from the side, which is an important point in their mental development. knowing life and its place in it requires a deep understanding of their connections, relationships with other people, rules, moral foundations of these relationships, awareness of the need for the spiritual. this age is also characterized by the manifestation of youthful maximalism in the critical evaluation of social processes and phenomena (shchotka, 2018, pp. 197199). if earlier the social situation of development and leading activity determined, basically, character of development of the person and character of personal new growths, now it is emphasized that the person on the basis of the formed new growths is capable more freely and independently to define, choose, build the social position and leading activity (tkacheva, 1983, p. 62). that is, this age period is characterized by self-determination of the individual which is realized through meaning-making, motivation, selfrealization and self-expression. physiological changes in the body of students during training at a teacher training college, which we have already mentioned above, have a significant impact on the personality in this period. these include the students' awareness of the actual attractiveness of their bodies, and later spiritual, moral-psychological, intellectual, volitional qualities. students undergo qualitative changes in the development of cognitive processes, “... the thought is finally combined with the word, as a result of which inner speech is formed as the main means of organizing thinking and regulating other cognitive processes. intellect becomes verbal, and speech becomes intellectualized”, which indicates the emergence of theoretical thinking (skripchenko et al., 2007, p. 215). thanks to the development of theoretical thinking, a person is able to analyze abstract ideas, look for contradictions in judgments. the factor of students' choice of the profession of music teacher having identified the most significant features of student age, we next highlight the factor of students' choice of the profession of music peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 332 teacher. in the pedagogical college at the initial stage of learning and formation of professional interests, students make a conclusion as to whether they have made the right choice in the direction of their future professional activity. we have statistical data according to which only 3045% of those who entered pedagogical educational institutions have a positive attitude to the teaching profession. about 40% enter the pedagogical college because of interest in a particular subject, not having an interest in teaching; from 13-22% of students do not have a positive attitude to the activities of the teacher or the profile subject, and the motives for entering the pedagogical college in this case is the desire to avoid any external factors or the prestige of higher education. often the motive for joining a particular institution is its proximity to the place of residence. unfortunately, this trend has persisted for many decades (ilyin, 2000, p. 269). another important factor in the existence of this problem is the low awareness of the profession during college. thus, o. stolbnikova (2006, p. 59) claims that according to numerous studies, up to 80% of entrants from different universities have weak or no adequate ideas about their future profession. therefore, the norm not only for students of pedagogical colleges, but also teachers has become such an external motivation as "learning for grades (scholarships, diplomas)". this tendency is categorically not the norm, because we are dealing with people's lives. with the wrong intervention on the part of adults, it can irreparably change and thereby cross out all dreams and hopes in achieving success for a student in a particular profession, in this case, in realizing himself as a teacher. questions of the formation of motivation for musical teaching activity requires an analysis of the situation that has developed in recent years in the quantitative composition of students of pedagogical colleges. we took the accreditation conclusions of certain educational institutions and highlighted some indicators. this, in our opinion, will allow for a more thorough understanding of the situation that developed during this period in colleges throughout ukraine, and not in a particular region or educational institution. we have developed table 1.2.1., which indicates the educational institutions, years of study, and the total number of students of music and pedagogical training. in it we have indicators from which we can conclude that the situation with students in educational institutions of the iii level of accreditation is not very optimistic. the dynamics associated with the change in the number of students is negative. the constant decrease in the number of students indicates the problem of low desire to enter art brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 333 specialties, and those entrants who have decided to enter the pedagogical college have a fairly low level of preparation and, accordingly, insufficient motivation for educational and, ultimately, music and teaching activities. given the above, we came to the conclusion that to improve the training of future teachers of music disciplines and the formation of their motivation for music teaching, it is advisable to overcome certain contradictions, namely: between the need for music teaching and the lack of knowledge of students about the peculiarities of the pedagogical work of a music teacher; between awareness of the prospects of their future activities and the inability to design (setting new goals, defining new content, criteria for its effectiveness) and the implementation of appropriate changes in their personality and behavior; between awareness of the need for dynamic professional development and self-doubt given the lack of the necessary psychological, pedagogical and professional training. table 1. dynamics of changes in the contingent of students in educational institutions in the direction of training "musical art" source: authors’ own conception № name of educational institution index years 2012-2013 20132014 2014-2015 1 "severodonetsk regional music school named after s.s. prokofiev » admitted to study 190 191 163 2 "college of culture and arts" 28 34 25 3 "uman humanitarian and pedagogical college named after t.g. shevchenko » 27 30 21 that is, the effectiveness of the formation of the motivation of the future music teacher for musical teaching activity is determined not only by external conditions the professional competence of teachers of art disciplines, the activation of various types of musical teaching activities of students, the creation of a favorable situation of pedagogical communication in the classroom, teaching methods, etc. but also by internal conditions, which are determined by the personality of the students themselves. these peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 334 include, first of all, the acquired life, artistic-associative and executive experience, tastes, assessments, the need for self-expression, a psychological attitude to fulfillment, the development of such psychological and professional qualities of a person as musical and pedagogical thinking, memory, associative imagination, auditory attention, emotional sensitivity, etc. development of students' need for professional and personal selfimprovement the ultimate goal of the process of forming motivation for music teaching is to develop the need for students of professional and personal self-improvement. in this regard, historical facts show that only those teachers who constantly and purposefully engaged in the development of their personality became prominent. we believe that achieving a high level of pedagogical skill is possible only through hard work. examining the professional self-improvement of students, we proceed from the fact that it is one of the types of their social activity. in our opinion, professional self-improvement, as well as all types of social activity, has substantive and socio-psychological aspects. the subject reflects the situation in the subsystem "man-profession", and the socio-psychological in the subsystems "man-man", "man-team". these interdependent characteristics are two components of a single, holistic process of professional self-improvement, which simultaneously complement and intensify one another. in this case, practically self-improvement acts as a strong foundation for professional growth, the formation of social-value, personal and professional qualities among future music teachers, the ability, as a result of all activities, to fulfill all professional duties, constantly improving their knowledge and skills. a. gritsanov (1996) argues that this process includes self-esteem and self-development. “personal self-realization is, first of all, a manifestation of a person's creative and formative attitude towards himself. it is a way of creative interaction of a person with himself, cultivating himself through active participation in the main spheres of social life" (gritsanov, 1996, p. 51). the complexity and dual nature of the teacher's self-improvement process necessitates the elucidation of the mechanisms of its origin. at the same time it is necessary to take into account that the process takes place step by step. at the first stage, self-awareness is formed, adjusted to selfimprovement, on the basis of which the decision is made on the need to engage in engagement. the second stage involves the planning and brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 335 implementation of self-improvement programs. the third stage is a practical activity, in the process of which the adopted plans and tasks are realized. and, finally, the fourth stage self-control and self-adjustment of activity (kurland et al., 2007, p. 412). the process of students' awareness of the need for self-fulfillment includes elements of moral regulation of desires that arise. motivation for future activities, preliminary preparation, all this is aimed at improving the ways to achieve goals depending on the specific conditions of music and teaching. acceptance and comprehension by students of important professional qualities that become personally important for them, determine the content and morality of professional self-improvement. in the music-teaching activity, based on the self-improvement of the teacher's personality, the semantic emphasis shifts from the educational to the educational side, as a result of which knowledge is known. selffulfillment directs the future music teacher to search for "hidden surnames" in himself to express his own individuality in relation to the phenomena of the surrounding world. v. sukhomlynsky (1997) paid great attention to the interrelation of upbringing, self-education, self-control and self-education. an outstanding pedagogue-humanist asserted that self-education is not something helpful in education, but its strong foundation. no one can educate a person if she does not educate herself. "pidlitok ctaye cppavzhnoyu lyudynoyu only todi, koly he umiye pylno vdyvlyatyc not only in navkolyshniy cvit, a in camoho himself in, koly he ppahne piznaty not only pechi i yavyscha navkolo himself in, a and cviy vnutpishniy cvit, koly cyly yoho soul cppyamovani na that , in order to make oneself better, more perfect” (sukhomlynsky, 1997, p. 229). according to e. ilyin (2000), in the implementation of the program of self-improvement of students, two groups of motivational techniques are used: self-stimulation and self-coercion. techniques of self-stimulation include self-belief, self-suggestion and self-encouragement. the need for self-belief arises due to the fact that on the way to the goal the student faces difficulties, doubts about the correctness and success of the chosen path. as a result, he may believe in the futility of the plan. in this case, for self-belief, he must use additional arguments that would convince him that the loss of faith in success is unfounded. this is facilitated by a technique called the comparison of evidence: a consistent comparison of evidence from the most significant to the least significant; assessment of the weight of each piece of evidence allows us to reach the desired conclusion, which becomes a motivation for self-improvement. peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 336 self-suggestion is used to strengthen a person's faith in their abilities and is associated with focusing on verbal formulas by which it convinces itself of the need for the desired: "should want can be" (for example, i must be restrained i want to be restrained i can be restrained i am restrained). self-encouragement is used to optimize your mental state to create a major mood, giving self-confidence. to this end, it is useful to mention other people who have overcome themselves in a similar situation. techniques of self-coercion include self-condemnation, selfprohibition, and self-command. self-condemnation is a sincere dissatisfaction with one's actions and deeds. the form of self-condemnation can be different. this is both self-criticism, which is carried out in the form of internal dialogue, it is both a rebuke of one's own conscience, and an angry monologue addressed to oneself through manifestations of cowardice, unprincipledness, etc. self-prohibition is the voluntary renunciation of one's own intentions with a strong desire to carry them out. the limiting function of this technique is to focus on the specific points of self-commitment. applying self-prohibition, a person seems to veto the temptations that lead him away from the intended path of self-improvement. self-prohibition makes it possible to resolve internal contradictions in the "struggle of motives." this technique helps to realize first of all those motivations which promote individual development. self-order is a decisive, categorical form of prohibiting oneself from doing so. the role of a stimulator of self-improvement is also played by the periodic use of self-report. self-report is a self-report of the lived time period associated with a self-improvement program. the purpose of selfreporting is to increase your responsibility for the exact and complete fulfillment of the undertaken obligation. self-reports can be intermediate and final. the task of intermediate self-reports is to timely eliminate defects in the program and on this basis to change the method of working on yourself. the task of the final self-reports is to summarize the results of the work done on oneself in order to compile a new program of selfimprovement (ilyin, 2000, p. 223). it follows that the self-improvement of future music teachers presupposes the acquisition by them of the skills of independent and creative work; striving for continuous improvement and expansion of knowledge; mastering a high cultural level, forming the ability to selfplanning, organization, control of one's own activities, goal-setting skills, self-esteem and self-control. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 337 professional self-fulfillment is a common and personally necessary condition for the formation of future music teachers. it is a set of interconnected and interdependent processes: professional self-promotion, as a purposeful active activity, focused on the formation and improvement of positive qualities and the elimination of negative qualities in oneself; professional self-promotion, as a purposeful active activity, focused on the formation and improvement of positive qualities and the elimination of negative qualities in oneself. therefore, to form motivation for music-teaching activity in future music teachers – means to put educational activity in such conditions of increase of their level of musical-theoretical and pedagogical readiness for which desirable motives will be developed. conclusions in the field of art education, the issue of motivation is actively considered in the studies of l. archazhnikova (1984), a. kozyr (2008), v. orlov (2003), g. padalka (2008), o. rostovsky (2007), and o. rudnytska (2002). it is established that motivation is one of the most important factors (along with abilities, knowledge, skills and abilities) that ensures the success of music teaching. it includes the emotional and value attitude of the teacher to his work, the need for active influence on the moral, emotional, intellectual and volitional spheres of the student's personality, the implementation of the educational process on the basis of humanism and cooperation that will effectively solve pedagogical problems; the teacher's desire for constant, purposeful pedagogical self-improvement. the structure of motivation of music-pedagogical activity includes such leading motives as musical needs and interests, aesthetic ideals and inclinations, artistic tastes, pedagogical beliefs and humanistic-pedagogical worldview. thus, the formation of a successful teacher of art disciplines is closely linked with the internal needs of his self-realization in professional activities, self-awareness in this position. thus, the pedagogical profession requires from the teacher a formed need for artistic and educational activities, awareness of its importance for the spiritual development of society; high level of ideological, humanitarian and aesthetic culture; developed professional and pedagogical abilities, deep professional knowledge and skills, experience of artistic and creative pedagogical activity. students' artistic needs arise and develop in the process of music-educational activity, which should be based on their positive emotional attitude to it. peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 338 based on the analysis of scientific works, the essence of the concept of "music-teaching activity" is actualized, which combines a set of special, psychological-pedagogical, general scientific, methodological knowledge, skills and abilities. this activity involves choir, musicology, music performance, research training, based on the ability to independently summarize and synthesize the acquired knowledge and pass it on to their students. it is proved that in the process of educational activity a system of mental actions of reproductive and productive nature is formed, which is self-regulated and self-organized by the individual. any activity, and in this case educational, is affected by certain incentives that become the driving force of student activity. such incentives are needs, interests, beliefs, values, ideals, forming the motivation to learn. along with the abilities, knowledge, and skills that ensure the success of teaching, motivation also includes emotional and value attitudes, sustained interest and inclination of the future teacher to pedagogical work; the need for active influence on the moral and emotional, intellectual and volitional spheres of the student's personality. references abdullin, e. b. (1990). metodologicheskiy analiz problem muzykal'noy pedagogiki v sisteme vysshego obrazovaniya: uchebnoye posobiye k spets. kursu [methodological analysis of the problems of musical pedagogy in the system of higher education]: a textbook for the special course]. in v.а. slastyoynin (ed.), osnovy metodicheskoy kul'tury uchiteley muzyki [fundamentals of the methodological culture of music teachers]. prometheus, moscow state university named after v. i. lenin. abdullina, o. a., & kuzmin, n. n. (1984). struktura, soderzhaniye i metodika formirovaniya sistemy obshchepedagogicheskikh umeniy i navykov u studentov pedagogicheskikh institutov [the structure, content and methods of forming a system of general pedagogical skills and abilities among students of pedagogical institutes]. in a.i. piskunov (ed.), struktura i soderzhaniye obshchepedagogicheskoy podgotovki studentov pedagogicheskikh institutov [the structure and content of general pedagogical training of students of pedagogical institutes] (pp. 18–34). moscow state pedagogical institute named after v.i. lenin. archazhnikova, l. g. (1984). professiya – uchitel' muzyki [profession a music teacher]: a book for a teacher. prosveshcheniye. asafiev, b. v. (1973). izbrannyye stat'i o prosveshchenii i obrazovanii [selected articles on enlightenment and education] (2nd ed.). music. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 339 bekh, i. d. (2012). osobystistʹ u prostori dukhovnoho rozvytku [personality in the space of spiritual development]. akademvydav. bozhovich, l. i. (1976). izucheniye motivatsii povedeniya detey i podrostkov [studying the motivation of behavior in children and adolescents]. psychology. dewey, j. (2002). filosofsʹkyy entsyklopedychnyy slovnyk [philosophical encyclopedic dictionary]. in v. i. shinkaruk, et al. (eds.), institute of philosophy of the national academy of sciences of ukraine named after hryhoriy skovoroda. abris. fitsula, m. m. (2009). pedahohika [pedagogy] (tutorial). akademvydav publishing center. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11 (4), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 golovey, l. a. (1996). psikhologiya stanovleniya sub'yekta deyatel'nosti v periody yunosti i vzroslosti [psychology of the formation of the subject of activity in the periods of adolescence and adulthood] [unpublished phd. thesis]. l. a. golovey. spb. gritsanov, a. s. (1996). organizatsiya i metodika mezhlichnostnogo dialoga v obrazovatel'nom protsesse [organization and methodology of interpersonal dialogue in the educational process]. vvmure. herbart, i. f. (1940). izbrannyye pedagogicheskiye sochineniya [selected pedagogical works] vol 1. state educational and pedagogical publishing house of the people's commissariat for education of the rsfsr. ilyin, e. p. (2000). motivatsiya i motivy [motivation and motives]. publishing house "piter”. kabalevsky, d. b. (1984). vospitaniye uma i serdtsa [education of the mind and heart]. prosveshcheniye. kozyr, a. v. & fedoryshyn, v. i. (2012). vstup do akmeolohiyi mystetsʹkoyi osvity [introduction to the acmeology of art education]. publishing house of the national pedagogical university named after m.p. drahomanov. kozyr, a. v. (2008). profesiyna maysternistʹ uchyteliv muzyky: teoriya i praktyka formuvannya v systemi bahatorivnevoyi osvity [professional skills of music teachers: theory and practice of formation in the system of multilevel education]. publishing house of the national pedagogical university named after m.p. drahomanov. kurland, z. n., khmelyuk, r. i., & semenova, a. v., bartyenyeva, i. o., & bohdanova, i. m. (2007). pedahohika vyshchoyi shkoly [higher school pedagogy (3rd ed., revised and supplemented)]. knowledge. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 340 kuzmina, n. v., & kukharev, n. v. (1976). psikhologicheskaya struktura deyatel'nosti uchitelya [the psychological structure of the teacher's activity]. gomel state university. lai, v. a. (1914). shkola deystviya : reforma shkoly soobrazno trebovaniyam prirody i kul'tury [school of action: reform of the school in accordance with the requirements of nature and culture]. publishing house "school and life". marusenko, o., pysmenna, n., brezhnyeva, o., & shklyarova, t. (2006). vyyavlennya dukhovno-moralʹnykh oriyentyriv ta tsinnisnykh priorytetiv suchasnoho studentstva [identification of spiritual and moral guidelines and value priorities of modern students]. bulletin of lviv university. pedagogical series, 21(1), 250–251. http://publications.lnu.edu.ua/bulletins/index.php/pedagogics/article/do wnload/6002/6013 masol, l. m., gaidamaka, o. m., byelkina, e.v., kalinichenko, o. v. & rudenko i. v. (2006). metodyka navchannya mystetstva u pochatkoviy shkoli [methods of teaching art in primary school]: a guide for teachers. ranok publishing house. morozova, o. o. (2011). metodyka formuvannya motyvatsiyi pedahohichnoyi diyalʹnosti u maybutnikh uchyteliv muzyky [methods of forming the motivation of pedagogical activity in future music teachers]. [unpublished phd. thesis]. national pedagogical university named after m.p. drahomanov. mykhailichenko, o. v. (2004). osnovy zahalʹnoyi ta muzychnoyi pedahohiky: teoriya ta istoriya [fundamentals of general and music pedagogy: theory and history]. nauka publishing house. nazaykinskiy, e. (1972). o psikhologii muzykal'nogo vospriyatiya [on the psychology of musical perception]. music. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 ogiyenko, i. (1918). ukrayinsʹka kulʹtura. korotka istoriya kulʹturnoho zhyttya ukrayinsʹkoho narodu [ukrainian culture. a brief history of the cultural life of the ukrainian people]. cherepovsky bookstore publishing house. onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru http://publications.lnu.edu.ua/bulletins/index.php/pedagogics/article/download/6002/6013 http://publications.lnu.edu.ua/bulletins/index.php/pedagogics/article/download/6002/6013 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 341 educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 orlov, v. f. (2003). profesiyne stanovlennya vchyteliv mystetsʹkykh dystsyplin [professional development of teachers of art disciplines]. scientific opinion. padalka, g. m. (2008). pedahohika mystetstva (teoriya i metodyka vykladannya mystetsʹkykh dystsyplin) [art pedagogy (theory and methods of teaching art disciplines)]. education of ukraine. rogova, r. n. (1977). zadachnik po ekonomike, organizatsii i planirovaniyu avtomobil'nogo transporta [problem book on economics, organization and planning of road transport]. vysshaya shkola. rostovsky, o. ya. (2007). metodolohichnyy analiz problemy formuvannya muzychnoho spryymannya shkolyariv. problemy mystetsʹkoyi osvity [methodological analysis of the problem of formation of musical perception of schoolchildren. problems of art education], vol 1. publishing house of the national state university named after m. gogol. rubinshtein, m. m. (1914). universitet i vospitaniye [university and education]. tipolit. creativity i.n. kushnerev and k. rudnytska, o. p. (2002). pedahohika: zahalʹna ta mystetsʹka [pedagogy: general and artistic]. institute of postgraduate education. samarin, yu. a. (1962). ocherki psikhologii uma. osobennosti umstvennoy deyatel'nosti shkol'nikov [essays on the psychology of the mind. features of the mental activity of schoolchildren]. apn rsfsr publishing house. http://infonarod.ru/info/samarin-yu-ocherki-psihologii-uma-osobennostiumstvennoy-deyatelnosti-shkolnikov-m-izd-vo-apn savshinsky, s. m. (1950). leonid nikolayev. pianist, kompozitor. pedagog [ leonid nikolaev. pianist, composer. educator]. muzgiz. shchotka, o. p. (2018). henderna psykholohiya liderstva ta karʺyery [gender psychology of leadership and career]. in o. shchotka (ed.), socio-psychological training of an education manager. nizhyn state university. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shevnyuk, o. l. (2003). kulʹturolohichna osvita maybutnʹoho vchytelya: teoriya i praktyka [cultural education of the future teacher: theory and practice]. national pedagogical university named after m.p. drahomanov. skrypchenko, o. v., dolynska, l. v., & ogorodniychuk, z. v. (2007). vikova ta pedahohichna psykholohiya [age and pedagogical psychology] (2nd edition). karavela. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 http://infonarod.ru/info/samarin-yu-ocherki-psihologii-uma-osobennosti-umstvennoy-deyatelnosti-shkolnikov-m-izd-vo-apn http://infonarod.ru/info/samarin-yu-ocherki-psihologii-uma-osobennosti-umstvennoy-deyatelnosti-shkolnikov-m-izd-vo-apn https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 peculiarities of forming students' motivation to music-teaching activity in … leonid khomenko, et al. 342 sokhor, a. m. (1988). ob"yasneniye v protsesse obucheniya. elementy didakticheskoy kontseptsii [explanation in the learning process. elements of a didactic concept]. pedagogy. stolbnikova, e. a. (2006). razvitiye kriticheskogo myshleniya studentov pedagogicheskogo vuza v protsesse mediaobrazovaniya (na materiale reklamy) [development of critical thinking of students of a pedagogical university in the process of media education (based on advertising material)]. kuchma publishing house. sukhomlynsky, v. o. (1997). vykhovannya i samovykhovannya [education and selfeducation], vol. 5. academy of pedagogical sciences. telcharova, r. a. (1991). uroki muzykal'noy kul'tury (iz opyta raboty) [lessons in musical culture (from work experience)]. prosveshcheniye. tkacheva, n. yu. (1983). professional'naya napravlennost' kak lichnostnoye novoobrazovaniye yunosheskogo vozrasta. [professional orientation as a personality neoplasm of adolescence] [unpublished phd. thesis]. academy of pedagogical sciences of the ussr, moscow. ushinsky, k. d. (1988). pis'ma// pedagogicheskiye sochineniya [letters // pedagogical works], vol. 2. pedagogy. yakonyuk, v. l. (1993). muzykant. potrebnost'. deyatel'nost' [musician. need. activity]. belarusian academy of music. zimnyaya, i. a. (1999). pedagogicheskaya psikhologiya [educational psychology] (2nd edition, supplemented, revised and revised). logos. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.2, pages: 35-43 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/36 the stigma of the medical personnel in psychiatry liliana luca¹, stefan lucian burlea 2 , mihaela carausu 3 , ana-catalina chirosca 4 , ioana maria marin 5 , petronela nechita 6 , ginel baciu 7 , anamaria ciubara 8 1 university of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania 2 university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania 3 university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania 4 university of medicine and pharmacy, bucharest, romania 5 university al. i. cuza, iasi, romania 6 socola institute of psychiatry iasi, romania 7 university of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania 8 university of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.co corresponding author abstract: this research was structured as a descriptive study based on a questionnaire with seven questions, addressed to the medical personnel involved in the medical assistance of the patient with mental disorders (psychiatrists, family doctors, physicians from other specialties, psychologists). this study refers to the relationship medical team – psychiatric patient from the point of view of the health professionals. the main appreciation criteria refer to the lack of knowledge or minimizing the importance of patients’ rights, aspect that can influence the voluntary addressability of psychiatric patients to treatment and therapeutic success. the lot of this study had a number of 217 subjects from which are part psychiatrists, family doctors, physicians from other specialties and psychologists, who work in therapy centers and hospitals from the following counties: iaşi, botoşani, suceava, vaslui. keywords: stigma; medical personnel; psychiatry; patient; health. how to cite: luca, l., burlea, s.l., carausu, m., chirosca, a.c., marin, i.m., nechita, p., baciu, g., & ciubara, a. (2020). the stigma of the medical personnel in psychiatry. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup2), 3543. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/36 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/36 mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.co https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/36 the stigma of the medical personnel in psychiatry liliana luca, et al. 36 introduction although multiple studies show that patients with mental disorders do not have a high number of antisocial acts, in comparison with individuals without mental disorders, these ones are unjustly rejected socially and stigmatized. stigmatization is a social process that begins with assigning intense character of humiliation, reject, libel of one’s or group’s status, character which is very hard to get rid of. this fact takes away one’s right of utterly social acceptance and brings prejudice against one’s persona, forcing them into hiding the reason which arouse this approach (perju-dumbravă et al., 2010; perju-dumbravă et al., 2019). the ones who received a psychiatric diagnostic are often stigmatized and become the victims of discrimination in the romanian society. the minimum capacity of comprehension and rational communication, naturally behavior and decision making regarding their own lives is being denied to them. sometimes auto-stigmatization appears. labeling and stereotypes regarding psychic disorders are associated in communities with the family members of the patient as well and sometimes even with the staff of the psychiatric hospitals (perju-dumbravă et al., 2013). on the other hand, the social environment’s actions that bring stigma, are adopted by the stigmatized person itself. self stigmatization refers to internalization of feelings like inferiority, guilt, shame (gray, 2002). the stigmatization existing in the social environment as much as auto-stigmatization, leads to the birth (development) of a stereotype regarding psychiatric disorders. external stigma refers to discrimination of others, engaging an unfair attitude towards the patient (stuart, 2005). internal stigma, but also external stigma results in social isolation (suciu & ardelean, 2007) and decrease in social support (gray, 2002). society’s perception concerning individuals with mental disorders imply fear, fury, disgust, hostility, negative emotional experiences, sometimes suicide (fulga et al, 2008) that materializes in social discrimination. likewise, in the opposite corner, feelings of stigma include: depression, anxiety, guilt, awkwardness, avoidance, fury with negative consequences for the mentally ill patients’ quality of life (dinos et al., 2004; evans-lacko, henderson & thornicroft, 2013; verhaeghe et al., 2008). brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 37 stigma linked to mental disorders is an important barrier in the quality psychiatric medical assistance (zalar et al., 2007) and it is seen as a form of social oppression (arboleda-flórez & stuart, 2012; evans-lacko et al., 2013). purpose the knowledge of psychiatric patients’ rights by the staff involved in therapy and the way these are perceived by personnel involved in the therapy of the mentally ill patient: psychiatrists, psychologists, family doctors, clinicians from other specialties, in medical centers from iaşi, suceava, botoşani, vaslui. methodology the study is prospective, descriptive, questionnaire-type and was realized during the period july 2012 – july 2013. the studied factor referred to the knowledge and respecting psychiatric patients’ rights and the ways of protecting them regarding legislation restrains. the main criteria of appreciation was the lack of knowledge or minimizing the importance of respecting patients’ rights that can influence the mentally ill patients’ voluntary addressing to psychiatric medical assistance and implicitly to admission and/or psychiatric care. the questionnaires followed all stages of pretesting, revising, validation and their application as final form. the results were statistically adapted for each item, having done after this also the correlation of answers to questions according to different characteristics of the studied lots. results study lots: psychiatrists lot – 57 psychiatry phisicians, other specialties physicians lot – 50 doctors physicians from other specialties (ex. – neurology, cardiology, emergency medicine) involved in the treatment of patients with mental disorders, family doctors lot – 50 physicians, psychologists lot – 60 psychologists. age distribution categorized by age and groups, the distribution emphasizes the significant differences of frequency, regarding the statistics of the questionnaires taken by different age groups (χ 2 =227,14; df=5; p=0,001): the stigma of the medical personnel in psychiatry liliana luca, et al. 38 question 3: “do you consider that the social attitude in relation with the mentally ill patient is that of:” a. acceptance and/or tolerance; b. discrimination and/or intolerance; c. other…….. answers to this question found significant ratio differences from the statistical point of view between the studied groups (chi-square = 8,01; df=3; p=0,046). answer distribution in question 3 by studied lots: brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 39 the share of answers regarding social attitude from the therapy personnel: a percentage of 56,1% of psychiatrists and 48% of physicians from other specialties, in comparison with 38% of family doctors; considered that the social attitude in relation with the mentally ill patient is that of acceptance and/or tolerance. question 7: “do you consider that the mentally ill patient, in comparison with other patients, are discriminated?” a. yes, they are discriminated; b. no, they are not discriminated; c. i can not appreciate. answers to this question highlighted significant statistical ratio differences between the analyzed lots (chi-square = 25,63; df=3; p=0,001): the stigma of the medical personnel in psychiatry liliana luca, et al. 40 the opinion of the medical personnel that the patient with mental disorders is discriminated in comparison with other patients is found in 93% of psychiatrists and 81,7% of psychologists, while only 52% of doctors from other specialties and 72% of family doctors answer affirmative to this question; 30% of physicians from other specialties can not appreciate the matter of discrimination of the mentally ill patients and 18% consider that patients with mental disorders are not discriminated in comparison with other patients; of family doctors, 14% can not appreciate the matter of discrimination of the mentally ill patients and 14% consider that the patients with mental disorders are not discriminated in comparison with other patients brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 41 in the physician lots, the analysis of the frequency distribution according to their specialty highlights the majority of the resident physicians (54%) in the lot of physicians from other specialties and of the specialist physicians (66%) in the family physicians lot, while in the psychiatrists lots one can underline the homogenous distribution according to each specialty. when put to practice the unparametric intergroup kruskall-wallis test, it is highlighted the significant statistical differences between the specialties of the doctors who answered to the questionnaire (chi-square = 15,22; df=2; p=0,001). the medical professionals’ opinion regarding the mentally ill patients is that of discrimination or intolerance. psychologists are the most convinced ones by this unethical attitude in regards to the patients with mental disorders. the social attitude in regards to the psychiatric patient, according to the literature, is one that can bring them major prejudice, leading in many cases to discrimination, intolerance, stigma, marginalize, labeling. to these one can add the coercive measures by involuntary admission in the psychiatry hospital, mandatory treatment (lepping et al., 2004), mechanical restraint and mentally ill patient isolation. discrimination (watson & corringan, 2002) of patients with mental disorders include, according to the field literature, difficulties at hiring, to a better health insurance, when buying a home, etc. the opinion that the mentally ill patient is discriminated in comparison with other patients is found in 93% of psychiatrists and 81,7% of psychologists, while only 52% of physicians from other specialties and 72% of family doctors answer affirmatively to this question. likewise, the patient with mental disorders is stigmatized by the members of society, the profile literature supports by other studies the social stigmatization attitude of these vulnerable category of patients. studies made in germany (seifert et al., 2002) and england have shown a negative perception of the medical personnel involved actively in the care of psychiatric patients (haglund, von knorring & von essen, 2003). as a conclusion of the characteristics of the lot studied made of medical representatives involved in therapy, one can find the dominance of young female persons, and as a profession the doctors are the majority. by age groups, the age category 30-39 years included half of the participants in the study. a high number of psychologists and psychiatrists consider that the social attitude towards the patient with mental disorders is of discrimination the stigma of the medical personnel in psychiatry liliana luca, et al. 42 and intolerance. this perception towards the discrimination of mentally ill patients versus other patients is high among all study participants. conclusions stigma is a phenomenon that being important prejudice to the individual, through discrimination and social exclusion. the patient with psychiatric disorders is stigmatized firstly by the medical personnel, reported to other patients. the subject of non-discrimination is an ambitious challenge in romania, a member of the europeans union, and regarding social services, stigma is an important issue. references arboleda-flórez j, & stuart, h. (2012). from sin to science: fighting the stigmatization of mental illnesses. the canadian journal of psychiatry, 57(8), 457-463. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371205700803 dinos, s., stevens, s., serfaty, m., weich, s., & king, m. (2004). stigma: the feelings and experiences of 46 people with mental illness. qualitative study. the british journal of psychiatry, 184(2), 176-181. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.184.2.176 evans-lacko, s., henderson, c., & thornicroft, g. (2013). public knowledge, attitudes and behaviour regarding people with mental illness in england 2009–2012. the british journal of psychiatry, 202(s55), s51–57. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.112.112979 evans-lacko, s., henderson, c., thornicroft, g., mccrone, p. (2013). economic evaluation of the time to change antistigma social marketing campaign in england 2009–2011. the british journal of psychiatry, 202(s55), s95–101. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.112.113746 fulga, i., perju-dumbrava, d., & crassas, r. (2008). suicide by "non-lethal" firearm. romanian journal of legal medicine 16(1), 23-26. gray, a. j. (2002). stigma in psychiatry. journal of the royal society of medicine, 95(2), 72-76. https://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.95.2.72 haglund, k., von knorring, l., & von essen, l. (2003). forced medication in psychiatric care: patient experiences and nurse perceptions. journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 10(1), 65–72. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2850.2003.00555.x lepping, p., steinert, t., gebhardt, r. d., röttgers, h. r. (2004). attitudes of mental health professionals and lay people towards involuntary admission and treatment in england and germany a questionnaire analysis. european psychiatry, 19(2), 91–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2003.11.001 https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371205700803 https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.184.2.176 https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.112.112979 https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.112.113746 https://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.95.2.72 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2850.2003.00555.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2003.11.001 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 43 perju-dumbravă, d., anitan, s., siserman, c., fulga, i., & opincaru, i. (2010). virtopsy – an alternative to conventional autopsy. romanian journal of legal medicine, 18(1), 75-78. https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2010.75 perju-dumbravă, d., fulga, i., chiroban, o., bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2013). ethical and diagnostic difficulties of the cohabitation tests in the forensic expertise. revista romana de bioetica, 11(4), 132-137. perju-dumbravă, d., radu, c. c., tabian, d., vesa, s. c., fulga, i., chiroban, o. (2019). the relation between suicide by chemical substances and the level of education. revista de chimie, 70(7), 2643-2646. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.7.7396 seifert, d., jahn, k., bolten, s., & wirtz, m. (2002). prediction of dangerousness in mentally disordered offenders in germany. international journal of law and psychiatry, 25(1), 51–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0160-2527(01)00096-6 stuart, h. (2005). fighting stigma and discrimination is fighting for mental health. canadian public policy analyse de politiques, 31(suppl.), 21-28. suciu, r, & ardelean, m. (2007). o perspectivă psihiatrică asupra stigmei. psihiatru.ro, 11, 30-33. verhaeghe, m., bracke, p., & bruynooghe, k. (2008). stigmatization and selfesteem of persons in recovery from mental illness: the role of peer support. international journal of social psychiatry, 54, 206-218. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764008090422 watson, a. c., & corringan, p. (2002). understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness. world psychiatry, 1(1), 16-20. zalar, b., strbad, m., & svab, v. (2007). psychiatric education: does it affect stigma? academic psychiatry, 31(3), 245-246. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ap.31.3.245 https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2010.75 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.7.7396 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0160-2527(01)00096-6 https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764008090422 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ap.31.3.245 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 230-242 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/85 developing critical thinking in younger pupils using ict oksana shkvyr¹, iryna haidamashko 2 , svitlana tafintseva 3 1 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, city khmelnytskyi, ukraine, shkvyr@ukr.net 2 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, city khmelnytskyi, ukraine, irahaid@ukr.net 3 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, city khmelnytskyi, ukraine, taffinceva@gmail.com abstract: a methodology for developing critical thinking in younger pupils using information and communication technologies (icts) has been developed based on the study of the pedagogical experience of o. diachuk, a teacher from m. ostrovsky comprehensive school no 1 (i-iii levels) in shepetivka (khmelnytskyi region), and o. svystak, a teacher from specialized school no 30 (i level) in khmelnytskyi. the paper determines its goals, objectives, stages (problem statement, information search, clear argumentation, decision-making) and results from using it. also, it presents the results obtained from the study of its effectiveness based on the observation of younger pupils’ educational and cognitive activities, their questionnaires, surveys of primary school teachers, as well as the study of pupils’ compositions. it states that the use of the developed methodology helps to enhance the activity of primary school pupils, their thinking skills and abilities to justify their decisions, search for new information using digital devices and develops their communication skills. at the same time, the paper points out the following disadvantages and difficulties in using the developed methodology: potential problems in using it due to technical bugs and slow internet connection; a long preparation for those stages of the lesson during which this methodology is applied; certain difficulties in supervising pupils’ search activities in case there are more than 30 pupils in the class. further research should aim to study the characteristics of implementing the methodology for developing critical thinking in younger pupils using icts during adaptation-and-gamerelated (grades 1 and 2) and main (grades 3 and 4) stages of pupils’ learning. keywords: three-way interaction; digital competence; pedagogical experience; primary school. how to cite: shkvyr, o., haidamashko, i., & tafintseva, s. (2020). developing critical thinking in younger pupils using ict. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 230-242. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/85 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/85 mailto:shkvyr@ukr.net mailto:irahaid@ukr.net mailto:taffinceva@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/85 developing critical thinking in younger pupils using ict oksana shkvyr et al. 231 introduction primary education is given a special place in the structure of general secondary education since this stage marks the beginning of children’s educational activities, as well as their acquisition of the necessary key competencies for further successful learning. o. savchenko (2008) indicates, “primary school is at the heart of the entire school education, and the more powerful it is, the more preconditions there are for children’s success in school life” (p. 1). however, the practice of modern primary school shows a significant decrease in the level of younger pupils’ motivation to study and their loss of interest in school as a source of knowledge. one of the significant reasons behind this is the use of outdated teaching methods and forms by teachers. nowadays, researchers have conducted numerous studies on the use of icts in education (androshchuk et al., 2014; morze, 2006); psychopedagogical and organizational principles of using icts (bykov, 2013; dolmatova, 2016; telezhinskaia & dudareva, 2016); the use of icts in primary school (pietukhova & spivakovskyi, 2007; ponomarenko, 2010; spivakovskyi et al., 2011). it must be noted that ukrainian (batrun, 2018; navolokova, 2014; o. pometun et al., 2010) and international (halpern, 2000; scriven & paul, 1987) scholars have paid much attention to the problem of developing critical thinking in schoolchildren. o. barabash and n. hlynianiuk (2018) and r. matonina (2013) have analyzed the technologies for developing critical thinking in younger pupils. in ukraine and worldwide, the so-called generation y, or “millennium children,” born between 1990 and 2000, whose views on lifestyles are fundamentally different from those of older generations, is gaining momentum (ministry of education and science of ukraine, 2016). critical thinking is one of the important 21st-century skills that should be developed in education, including primary school. today, it is vital to teach pupils to quickly manage the information flow, think independently and make informed decisions. the development of critical thinking should become the basis of learning, as well as the main prerequisite for acquiring key competences (ministry of education and science of ukraine, 2016). today’s reforms in ukrainian education focus on the search for innovative pedagogical technologies that can enhance educational and cognitive activities of pupils in general secondary education, in particular, primary school, and develop their critical thinking. such technologies include information and communication technologies (icts). brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 232 the introduction of icts in primary school is a natural and appropriate process. indeed, younger pupils think in images and are keen on gadgets. due to icts, an educational environment is complemented by sound, video and animation. all of this significantly influences the emotional sphere of younger pupils, enhancing their cognitive activity and reinforcing the educational process. besides, icts significantly expand the teacher’s opportunities. instead of being a knowledge transmitter, the teacher facilitates educational and cognitive activities of his or her pupils and can create a productive educational environment for younger pupils to develop critical thinking using icts. however, primary school practice shows that icts are seldom used to develop critical thinking in younger pupils. most frequently, these technologies only help to illustrate individual stages of the lesson. therefore, it is important to study the methodology for developing critical thinking in younger pupils using icts. moreover, the paper finds that there are not enough scientific findings on the use of icts to develop critical thinking in younger pupils. the paper aims to verify the validity of the methodology for developing critical thinking in primary school pupils using icts. material and methods a particular methodology for developing critical thinking in younger pupils using (icts) has been developed based on the study of the pedagogical experience of o. diachuk (2017), a teacher from m. ostrovsky comprehensive school no 1 (i-iii levels) in shepetivka (khmelnytskyi region), and o. svystak (2018a; 2018b; 2018c), a teacher from specialized school no 30 (i level) in khmelnytskyi. it covers certain ways of developing children’s intellectual and communication skills using icts, which are an organic element of the educational process. it can be used at different stages of the lesson and extracurricular activities. this methodology aims to develop younger pupils’ ability to solve problems using icts and digital devices (smartphones, tablets). the following tasks should be accomplished to achieve the main aim: 1. to teach pupils to find the information they need to solve a problem using technical devices. 2. to develop their ability to analyze, synthesize, compare, summarize and evaluate the obtained information. developing critical thinking in younger pupils using ict oksana shkvyr et al. 233 3. to teach them to make individual or collective decisions. 4. to teach them to justify their decisions. the role of a primary school teacher involves helping pupils solve problems and find the necessary information, manage the flow of information and three-way (pupil  teacher  environment) interaction. this methodology can be regarded as effective if pupils learn how to make informed decisions and are at sufficient levels of digital competence. the development of critical thinking includes raising a problem that needs to be addressed, searching and capturing information, building compelling arguments, making informed decisions to solve the problem (shkvyr, 2019). this research considers each stage of the methodology for developing critical thinking using icts. problem statement. pupils start to think critically, given that questions and problems are thought-provoking. a problem means those statements (thoughts) that can be doubted (ponomarenko, 2010, p. 30). at this stage, the teacher needs to prepare multimedia support (presentation) for lessons or extracurricular activities using microsoft powerpoint or other programmes that should include problematic situations (questions or tasks) that can encourage pupils to test their knowledge, search for new information, compare, analyze, synthesize, summarize and evaluate educational material. the teacher should not just pass on some knowledge to younger pupils but motivate them towards thinking. he or she includes problematic situations in the order of presenting educational material, complementing it with images, photos, animations, audio or video. for one, when primary school pupils study water properties (natural sciences), the teacher first talks about water, its importance in human life, using slides with pictures, photos, and then demonstrates a slide with such words as “fluid”, “colourless”, “transparent”. he or she asks pupils: “which word do these refer to?”; “what do they mean in general?”; what water properties are missing?”. during the interaction with pupils, the teacher can also question some statements, creating a problematic situation that involves all the pupils in the class. the teacher might say, “do you think that these water properties should also include such words as “tasteless”, “odourless”, “shapeless”? let’s check it”. besides, it is essential to encourage pupils to ask the teacher and formulate the problem on which everyone is going to work (shkvyr, 2019). information search. before one starts solving the problem, he or she needs to collect relevant information about it. knowledge creates the basis for critical thinking. pupils need to process (analyze, compare, summarize) brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 234 vast arrays of information (facts, ideas, theories, rules, life experiences), based on which they can prove and express their opinions (shkvyr, 2019, p. 30). at this stage of developing critical thinking, the teacher can instruct pupils to work with online guides, which should be carefully analyzed and selected by the teacher and downloaded to pupils’ smartphones or tablets. also, it is necessary to teach pupils to work with online resources to obtain the necessary information. gadgets enable children to quickly learn how to interpret different concepts, information about animals, plants, famous people, landmarks of history and culture. the mission of the primary school teacher is to encourage younger pupils to search for information and develop their ability to obtain and process educational material. independent work can be done in groups, pairs and individually. primary school teachers need to monitor how quickly and correctly younger pupils search for information and, if necessary, assist them. they can display the results of the search on the demonstration screen. if there is an interactive whiteboard in the classroom, the teacher can log in any computer application, open an online tutorial or web page and provide the necessary information. working with interactive whiteboards, pupils learn information not only through audio and visual channels of perception but also through a kinaesthetic one. a large screen on which information is displayed is visible to everyone and, thus, all pupils can review the results of the search. for one, the teacher can ask pupils to explain the meaning of such words as utility, digging, minerals (natural sciences). pupils can do it using their smartphones. after that, they can check their answers and results of the search using the teacher’s slides. clear argumentation. critical thinking needs cogent reasoning. there are several ways of solving one particular problem. therefore, the correctness of the decision should be proved by convincing and clear arguments (statements), formulated based on the information pupils found (shkvyr, 2019, p. 30). at this stage of developing critical thinking, primary school teachers need to teach pupils to prove their points of view. they can offer younger pupils to choose and prove which of the animal feed chains given on the slide is the right one (natural sciences). most practical and often conflicting questions can be answered using the multi-step problem-solving approach: 1. analyzing the problem (what happened? why? how can it be fixed? what information do i need to recall or find? where can i find it?). 2. searching for solutions (what are the ways to solve it? what are their pros and cons?). developing critical thinking in younger pupils using ict oksana shkvyr et al. 235 3. choosing one way to solve it (which solution is best in terms of practicality, effectiveness or simplicity?) (ponomarenko, 2010, p. 19). 4. here are some examples of conflicting questions for primary school pupils (language and literature): what would you do if you were a fairy-tale character?, why do you not like such an ending of the story? suggest your options”. decision-making. the stage of problem-solving ends in decisionmaking. it is determined not only by the information pupils found or recalled but also by their personal qualities, mental attitudes and, to a great extent, their beliefs, including a reflective attitude towards oneself, moral and social responsibility, respect for individual characteristics of other pupils (batrun, 2018, p. 10). therefore, primary school pupils should be taught to express their opinions regarding other children’s thoughts. decisions can be made by pupils individually, in pairs or a group. it should be expressed verbally or in writing (for example, in the form of an essay). here are some examples of essay topics for primary school pupils: what invention does humanity need?, should we do good deeds?, do smartphones pose a threat to children?. in the case of verbal communication, other pupils can either agree with such a decision or refute it or suggest another option. the authors of the paper have conducted this research at the premises of m. ostrovsky comprehensive school no 1 (i-iii levels) in shepetivka in khmelnytskyi region (grade 4a – 32 pupils; o. diachuk (2017) – their teacher) and khmelnytskyi specialized school no 30 (i level) (grade 4b – 33 pupils; o. svystak (2018a; 2018b; 2018c) – their teacher) to prove the effectiveness of the developed methodology. the research lasted from september (2019) to march (2020). research methods included the following: empirical methods (observations, questionnaires for teachers and pupils; a study of pupils’ compositions) and theoretical methods (analysis, generalization). results to begin with, the authors of the paper conducted a targeted pedagogical observation of educational and cognitive activities of primary school pupils (55 individuals). they found that using the developed methodology enhanced activity of primary school pupils and helped to develop their thinking, ability to justify their decisions, search for new information using digital devices, realize that gadgets could quickly find the information they needed and develop their communication skills. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 236 the questionnaires for pupils have confirmed the results of the observation. according to question 1 (do you often have to search for new information?), 67.3% of pupils answered yes (37 individuals), 25.4% of them were not sure how to answer (14 individuals) and only 7.3% of them answered no (4 individuals) (see figure 1). 67.3% 25.4% 7.3% do you often have to search for new infor mation? yes can’t answer no fig. 1. pupils’ evaluation of the need to find new information the analysis of answers to question 2 (if you need to find new information, you use or ask…?) has helped the authors of the paper to determine what devices pupils use to obtain new information. the results of the questionnaire indicate that 69.1% of primary school pupils (38 individuals) use the internet. the least popular among them are textbooks and other literary sources  only 7.3% (4 individuals). as an option, they suggest using an e-guide  3.6% of pupils (2 individuals). the summarized data are presented in figure 2. developing critical thinking in younger pupils using ict oksana shkvyr et al. 237 69.1% 10.9% 9.1% 7.3% 3.6% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% internet your parents your teacher textbooks or other literary sources your option if you need to find new infor mation, you use or ask …? fig. 2. what pupils do when they need to search for new information the answers to question 3 (how do you know that your decision is the right one?) shows that most children understand how to make decisions. indeed, 54.5% of pupils (30 individuals) chose the answer “i can explain it”, 38.2% of them (21 individuals)  “i consulted with others”; 7.3% of them (4 pupils)  “i can’t answer” (see figure 3). 54,5%38,2% 7,3% how do you know that your decision is the right one? i can explain it i consulted with others i can’t answer fig. 3 how primary school pupils understand the role of intellectual and communicative techniques for making the right decision. the authors offered pupils to write an essay on the following topic “svitiaz  is it a lake or a sea?” to check whether they could justify their decisions. they were allowed to use textbooks, online manuals and the brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 238 internet. the analysis of their essays shows that 80.0% of them (44 individuals) not only gave the correct answer but also proved their opinion using arguments they recalled or found using certain learning aids; 12.7% of them (7 individuals) gave the correct answer but failed to prove it; 7.3% of them (4 individual) gave the wrong answer. besides, the authors of the paper have surveyed those teachers whose teaching experience they studied to identify the disadvantages and difficulties in using the developed methodology. they included potential problems in using it due to technical bugs and slow internet connection; a long preparation for those stages of the lesson during which this methodology is applied; certain difficulties in supervising pupils’ search activities in case there are more than 30 pupils in the class. the teachers also note that using this methodology should take into account age characteristics of pupils during adaptation-and-game-related (grades 1 and 2) and main (grades 3 and 4) stages of pupils’ learning (ministry of education and science of ukraine, 2016). discussion and conclusions digital competence is one of the ten key competences which ukrainian schools should teach pupils. it implies a confident and critical use of icts to create, search, process and share information (ministry of education and science of ukraine, 2016). in pedagogy, information and communication technology is regarded as a type of modern pedagogical technology. the authors of the paper agree with those researchers (dubaseniuk, & ivanchenko, 2003; padalka et al., 1995; piekhota, kiktenko & liubarska, 2003; savchenko, 2002), who consider pedagogical technologies as a system of teachers’ and pupils’ actions aimed at achieving the set goal. therefore, they mean to clarify that ict is a system of teachers’ and pupils’ initiatives towards using didactic methods and technical devices based on computer networks aimed at achieving the set goal. icts can provide the visual learner with visual images necessary for his or her perception in the form of illustrations and diagrams, video clips and flash models; the kinaesthetic learner  with the opportunities to manipulate objects of cognition while using interactive models; the auditory learner  with audio associations while listening to audios, watching videos. all of this enhances the impact of icts on the effectiveness of the educational process at school. developing critical thinking in younger pupils using ict oksana shkvyr et al. 239 the use of icts requires the teacher to ensure a three-way interaction (pupil  teacher  environment), and the pupil should be an active participant in the educational process. the term “three-way didactics” is defined by l. pietukhova and o. spivakovskyi (2007) and o. spivakovskyi, l. y. pietukhova and v. v. kotkova (2011) as one of the areas of pedagogy on the most general patterns, principles and ways of organizing education, which ensures a conscious and strong acquisition of the knowledge, abilities and skills within equal relationships between the pupil, the teacher and the information and communication pedagogical environment. this research interprets ict as an effective way of developing younger pupils’ thinking. according to o. sukhomlynskyi (1976), making pupils thinkers implies teaching them to discover the truth independently (p. 454). the ukrainian pedagogical dictionary indicates that thinking is the highest form of reflecting reality in mind, an ideal activity, which results in objective truth (honcharenko, 1997, p. 200). critical thinking is one of the types of thinking which “exposes the difference between the computer and human brain” (barabash, & hlynianiuk, 2018, p. 3). the concept of “critical thinking” has been used in scientific and pedagogical literature since 1956. it was at this time that b. bloom developed a taxonomy of thinking and determined what operations the human brain could perform at each level of thinking (shkvyr, 2019). the study of the scientific and pedagogical literature shows that today, there are different approaches to clarifying the concept of “critical thinking”. the authors of the paper have defined critical thinking as logical thinking, aimed at making a decision using intellectual and communicative techniques, based on o. shkvyr’s previous research, which specified stable features of this concept using the content analysis (shkvyr, 2019, p. 30). in pedagogical mentality, the concept of “critical thinking” is associated with searching for certain disadvantages. when they say that “a person is thinking very critically”, they refer to his or her excessive suspiciousness and unwillingness to accept others’ views. however, it is necessary to distinguish critical thinking from the so-called “criticism”. critical thinking does not imply criticizing drawbacks but the ability to identify a problem and develop an optimal strategy for solving it (barabash, & hlynianiuk, 2018, p. 3). one of the main factors affecting the quality of life is one’s ability to make decisions under non-standard situations, that is one’s ability to find the necessary information, process it and make an informed decision (this is the result of critical thinking). only icts can help to do it at the speed required brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 240 in modern society and, therefore, primary school pupils should be taught using different methods. thus, the methodology for developing critical thinking in younger pupils using icts requires the teacher to ensure a three-way interaction (pupil  teacher  environment). the main stages of this methodology include problem statement, information search, clear argumentation and decision-making. this research proves the effectiveness of the developed methodology. indeed, it enhances pupils’ educational and cognitive activities, develops their intellectual and communication skills necessary for decision-making, as well as their digital competence. at the same time, the research reveals some difficulties and disadvantages which should be taken into account by the teacher in the preparation and implementation of this methodology in the educational process in modern primary school. further research should aim to study the characteristics of implementing the methodology for developing critical thinking in younger pupils using icts during adaptation-and-game-related (grades 1 and 2) and main (grades 3 and 4) stages of pupils’ learning. references androshchuk, o. v., kondratenko, yu. v., holovchenko, o. v., vorona, t. o. & petrushen, m. v. (2014). informatsiini tekhnolohii ta yikh vplyv na rozvytok suspilstva [information technologies and their influence on the development of society]. the collection of scientific papers of the center for military strategic studies of ivan cherniakhovskyi national defense university of ukraine, 1, 4247. barabash, o. & hlynianiuk, n. (2018). vchymosia mirkuvaty samostiino ta rozvazhlyvo [let’s learn how to think independently and reasonably]. primary school teacher, 11, 37. batrun, i. v. (2018). tekhnolohiia rozvytku krytychnoho myslennia i suchasnyi osvitnii protses [the technology for developing critical thinking and the modern educational process]. pedagogical workshop, 1, 916. bykov, v. y. (2013). mobilnyi prostir i mobilno oriientovane seredovyshche internet-korystuvacha: osoblyvosti modelnoho podannia ta osvitnoho zastosuvannia [mobile space and mobile-oriented internet user environment: the features of modelling and educational application]. information technologies in education, 17, 937. diachuk, o. o. (2017). ekolohicha hramotnist ta zdorovyi sposib zhyttia: rozrobky vykhovnykh zakhodiv z vykorystanniam ikt [ecological literacy and a healthy lifestyle: ideas for educational events with the use of ict]. shepetivka education department. developing critical thinking in younger pupils using ict oksana shkvyr et al. 241 dolmatova, n. v. (2016). ispolzovanie lichnykh mobilnykh ustroistv v obrazovatelnom protsesse [using personal mobile devices in the educational process]. proceedings of the all-russian scientific and methodological conference on “a modern lesson under the conditions of implementing federal state educational standards: the experience, problems, prospects. ospu. dubaseniuk, o. a. & ivanchenko, a. v. (2003). praktykum z pedahohiky [a course of practical classes on pedagogy]. zhytomyrdpu. halpern, d. (2000). psikhologiia kriticheskogo myshleniia [the psychology of critical thinking]. piter. honcharenko, s. (1997). ukrainskyi pedahohichnyi slovnyk [ukrainian pedagogical dictionary]. lybid. matonina, r. d. (2013). rozvytok krytychnoho myslennia uchniv pochatkovykh klasiv [developing critical thinking in primary school pupils]. osnova. ministry of education and science of ukraine. (2016). nova ukrainska shkola. kontseptualni zasady reformuvannia serednoi shkoly [new ukrainian school. conceptual principles of secondary school reform]. ministry of education and science of ukraine. https://www.kmu.gov.ua/storage/app/media/reforms/ukrainska-shkolacompressed.pdf morze, n. v. (2006). osnovy informatsiino-komunikatsiinykh tekhnolohii [the basics of information and communication technologies]. bhv. navolokova, n. p. (2014). tekhnolohiia rozvytku krytychnoho myslennia [the technology for developing critical thinking]. pedagogical workshop, 4, 2831. padalka, o. s., nisimchuk, a. s., smoliuk, i. o. & shpak, o. t. (1995). pedahohichni tekhnolohii [pedagogical technologies]. m. p. bazhan ukrainian encyclopedia. piekhota, o. m., kiktenko, a. z. & liubarska, o. m. (2003). osvitni tekhnolohii [educational technologies]. a.s.k. pietukhova, l. y. & spivakovskyi, o. v. (2007). do pytannia pro trysub’iektnu dydaktyku [on the issue of three-way didactics]. computer in school and family, 5, 79. pometun, o., pylypchatina, l., sushchenko, i. & diukov, v. (2010). osnovy krytychnoho myslennia. navchalna prohrama kursu za vyborom dlia uchniv profilnykh klasiv sotsialno-humanitarnoho napriamu [the basics of critical thinking. an educational programme of an elective course for pupils in social sciences and humanities classes]. native school, 9, 2436. ponomarenko, l. v. (2010). vykorystannia informatsiinykh tekhnolohii u praktytsi roboty pochatkovoi shkoly [using information technologies in the practice of primary school]. osnova. https://www.kmu.gov.ua/storage/app/media/reforms/ukrainska-shkola-compressed.pdf https://www.kmu.gov.ua/storage/app/media/reforms/ukrainska-shkola-compressed.pdf brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 242 savchenko, o. y. (2002). dydaktyka pochatkovoi shkoly [primary school didactics]. heneza. savchenko, o. (2008). poklykannia pochatkovoi shkoly [the mission of primary school]. primary school, 2, 13. scriven m. & paul, r. w. (1987). critical thinking as defined by the national council for excellence in critical thinking. the foundation for critical thinking. http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766 shkvyr, o. (2019). krytychne myslennia molodshykh shkoliariv: sutnist i osoblyvosti [critical thinking of younger schoolchildren: the essence and peculiarities]. youth and market, 4 (171), 2732. spivakovskyi, o. v., pietukhova, l. ye. & kotkova, v. v. (2011). informatsiinikomunikatsiini tekhnolohii u pochatkovii shkoli: navchalno-metodychnyi posibnyk dlia studentiv napriamu pidhotovky “pochatkova osvita” [information and communication technologies in primary school: an educational and methodical manual for students majoring in primary education]. kherson: khersondu. https://spivakovsky.info/wpcontent/uploads/2016/11/ikt-v-pochatkoviy-shkoli.-posibnyk.pdf sukhomlynskyi, o. (1976). problemy vykhovannia vsebichno rozvynenoi osobystosti. vybrani tvory (t. 1-5) [problems in educating a fully developed personality. selected works]. soviet school. svystak, l. o. (2018a). chytailyk-pomichnyk [abc reading practice]. abetca. http://abetka.in.ua/product/chitaylikpomichnik_navchalniy_posibnik_1_klasu_svistak_ol_nush_2018-295/. svystak, l. o. (2018b). ukrainska mova. bukvar. chastyna 1 [the ukrainian language. abc book. part 1]. abetca. http://abetka.in.ua/product/ukrainska_mova_bukvar_chastina_1-302/ svystak, l. o. (2018c). ya pyshu harno [i am good at writing]. abetca. http://abetka.in.ua/product/ukrainska_mova_bukvar_chastina_1_svistak_ ol-311/ telezhinskaia, e. l. & dudareva, o. b. (2016). mobilnoe obrazovanie – instrument sovremennogo pedagoga [mobile education as a tool of the modern teacher]. scientific support of the personnel training system, 2 (27), 8894. http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutct/define_critical_thinking.cfm http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutct/define_critical_thinking.cfm http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766 https://spivakovsky.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ikt-v-pochatkoviy-shkoli.-posibnyk.pdf https://spivakovsky.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ikt-v-pochatkoviy-shkoli.-posibnyk.pdf http://abetka.in.ua/product/chitaylik-pomichnik_navchalniy_posibnik_1_klasu_svistak_ol_nush_2018-295/ http://abetka.in.ua/product/chitaylik-pomichnik_navchalniy_posibnik_1_klasu_svistak_ol_nush_2018-295/ http://abetka.in.ua/product/ukrainska_mova_bukvar_chastina_1-302/ http://abetka.in.ua/product/ukrainska_mova_bukvar_chastina_1_svistak_ol-311/ http://abetka.in.ua/product/ukrainska_mova_bukvar_chastina_1_svistak_ol-311/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 56-63 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/94 coping strategies for overcoming stress in atypical situations olena yevdokimova¹, ivan okhrimenko2 1 doctor of psychological sciences, professor, head of the department of sociology and psychology, kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, e-mail: elena25eva@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000003-4211-7277 2 doctor in law, professor, professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, e-mail: ivango-07@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-8813-5107 abstract: the article analyzes the specifics of coping strategies for overcoming stress used by people who perceive the atypical situations of forced isolation, including the covid-19 pandemic, in a different way. an empirical study conducted with the use of corresponding psychodiagnostic techniques (extended life orientation test; sacs) found that people who are optimistic about restrictions and atypical life situations are prone to use assertive actions and enter into social contacts. whereas people who are pessimistic about the future have a less pronounced tendency to seek social support. the study confirmed that proactive coping in atypical life situations (including forced isolation) is associated with the relevant individual psychological characteristics, which are important for motivating social activities. such personality expressions can contribute to the implementation of proactive coping and they are key factors in the pre-actional phase of goal-setting because proactive people focus not on the obstacles, but on solving problems. it is also suggested that proactive instructions can be a resource that enhances an individual’s desire for a higher standard of living. keywords: coping strategies; overcoming stress; forced isolation; quarantine measures; optimism; pessimism; proactive coping. how to cite: yevdokimova, o., & okhrimenko, i. (2020). coping strategies for overcoming stress in atypical situations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 56-63. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/94 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/94 mailto:elena25eva@gmail.com mailto:ivango-07@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/94 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 57 1. introduction human is a social being. therefore, any long-term isolation from friends, family, professional community, etc. becomes a cause of deprivation (restriction or prevention from the opportunities to meet vital needs). any isolation of a person is a reason for stress. isolation during quarantine is one of the isolation types that can cause various types of deprivation sensory, motor, mental, informational, emotional, sexual, etc. a person in isolation either copes with the requirements of the environment, or suffers from various adaptive disorders from short-term depressive reaction to severe disorders of emotions and behavior (aleksandrov et al., 2017; ding, & kalashnyk, 2020). to a large extent, the way of dealing with quarantine depends on how a person perceives what is happening (optimistically or pessimistically). that is why the hypothesis of our empirical study was the assumption that the peculiarities of the strategies for overcoming stress that a person experiences in atypical situations, primarily quarantine isolation, are largely determined by a person's attitude to forced restrictions, namely the individual’s orientation on accepting current situation and the active transformation of a negative experience into a positive one, or vice versa. 2. literature review the term “optimism” has emerged relatively recently, as has the related term “pessimism”. considering optimism and pessimism as individual psychological characteristics, peterson notes that modern ideas about these phenomena have been significantly influenced by many approaches and theories, among which field theory (k. levin) and the theory of personality constructs (j. kelly) have the most important role. these theories provided the basis for modern ideas about the way how both optimistic and pessimistic expectations guide human behavior (peterson, 2000). this position may justify a particular strategy of behavior chosen by the individual in atypical situations of his life in some way. coping strategies are actions that allow a person to overcome a difficult life situation on the basis of the personal resources actualization and taking into account the conditions and environment in which it occurs. in addition, it can be argued that this kind of behavior is expressed in the individual’s readiness to solve any life problems, difficult situations, complex tasks, etc. in the conditions of atypical life situations, which include forced isolation, proactive coping, which is defined by some researchers as the coping strategies for overcoming stress in atypical situations olena yevdokimova & ivan okhrimenko 58 efforts taken before a potentially stressful event in order to prevent or change it before it occurs, becomes relevant (aspinwall, & taylor, 1997; greenglass, 2002). at the same time, schwarzer and taubert (2002) consider proactive coping as a method of assessing future goals and creating the conditions for their successful achievement. taking account of these positions, it can be noted that proactive coping is characterized primarily by the resources accumulation and the acquisition of skills that are designed to resist any stressor, including dealing with atypical life situations during the quarantine. therefore, the aim of the work is to analyze the peculiarities of the strategies, which are the response of the individual to stress in atypical situations of forced restrictions. 3. methodology the choice of psychodiagnostic techniques is conditioned by the need for a comprehensive study of people’s attitudes to atypical life situations, as well as strategies and models of coping behavior for the implementation of empirical research. taking into account the diversity of personality expressions, the tools of empirical study involved: 1) extended life orientation test (elot) by chang in the adaptation of zamyshlyayeva (kryukova, & zamyshlyayeva, 2007), aimed to determine a person’s predominantly optimistic or pessimistic attitude to life events (including atypical ones). 2) hobfoll’s strategic approach to coping scale (sacs), adapted by n. vodopyanova and o. starchenkova (2009), designed to determine the degree of predominance of certain coping behavior in a difficult (stressful) situation. the questionnaire contains 54 statements, which are divided into 9 scales: “assertive actions”, “social contacts”, “search for social support”, “cautious actions”, “impulsive actions”, “avoidance”, “indirect actions”, “asocial actions”, “aggressive actions”. the empirical basis of the study consisted of 2 groups of subjects provided with psychological assistance from december 2019 to february 2020. the first group consisted of 327 optimistic individuals; the second group included 309 subjects who had demonstrated a pessimistic attitude towards atypical and complex life situations. the processing and interpretation of the results were carried out at the department of sociology and psychology of kharkiv national university of internal affairs (kharkiv, ukraine) and the department of legal psychology of national academy of internal affairs (kyiv, ukraine). brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 59 the study was performed in accordance with the requirements and provisions of the ethics code of kharkiv national university of internal affairs (protocol no. 13 of 24 december 2019). informed consent was obtained from all participants who during the scientific process were guided by the principles of academic integrity, accountability, ethical norms, and rules required by law to establish confidence in the results of creative achievements. they were able to refuse participation in the study at any time. 4. results the research results of the coping strategies of optimistic and pessimistic respondents are presented in table 1. table 1. the indicators of coping strategies of optimistic and pessimistic respondents (mean±sd) the scales first group (optimists) second group (pessimists) t p1-2 assertive actions 21.35±0.71 17.98±0.84 3.06 ≤0.01 social contact 22.55±0.78 19.14±0.91 2.85 ≤0.05 search for social support 22.29±0.74 17.81±0.59 4.73 ≤0.001 cautious actions 18.31±0.94 17.39±1.09 0.64 impulsive actions 14.15±0.88 15.12±0,61 0.91 avoidance 16.01±0.79 16.69±0.46 0.74 manipulative actions 17.79±0.98 16.81±0.95 0.72 asocial actions 12.09±1.07 13.77±0.86 1.22 aggressive actions 12.91±0.66 13.18±0.70 0.26 legend: mean – arithmetical average; sd – standard deviation; t – meaning of t-test; р1-2 – significance of difference between the indicators of the first and the second groups source: n. vodopyanova and o. starchenkova (2009) as it was established, the indicators on the scale “assertive actions” in the second group (17.98±0.84) were lower than the indicators in the first group authentically (21.35±0.71), t=3.06. the identified differences allowed characterizing the subjects of the first group as more inclined to defend their interests actively and consistently, to declare their goals and intentions, respecting the interests of others. it was determined that the indicators on the scale “social contacts” in the first group (22.55±0.78) were higher than the indicators in the second group authentically (19.14±0.91), t = 2.85. thus, the representatives of the first group were characterized by a greater coping strategies for overcoming stress in atypical situations olena yevdokimova & ivan okhrimenko 60 propensity for social contacts necessary for a joint resolution of critical situations. a comparative analysis of the results obtained on the scale “search for social support” showed that optimists’ indicators (22.29±0.74) on this scale were higher in comparison with pessimists’ (17.81±0.59) authentically (t = 4.73). hence, it can be argued that the respondents of the first group had a greater tendency to seek social support and the desire to share their experiences with other people, discuss their condition with them, find compassion and understanding, etc. no authentic differences were found between the groups on the following scales: “cautious actions”, “impulsive actions”, “avoidance”, “manipulative actions”, “asocial actions”, and “aggressive actions”. the obtained indicators show that the respondents of both groups are characterized in a similar way in terms of the following coping strategies: cautious actions, which are expressed in the desire to avoid risk, to prepare for a long time before acting, to think for some time and consider carefully all possible solutions (at the edge of low and medium levels); impulsive actions, which are reflected in the actions at the first impulse under the influence of external circumstances or emotions without prior consideration of actions (the upper limit of the low level); avoidance, which implies a tendency to avoid decisive actions and seek to move away from the conflict situation (the middle level); manipulative actions, the content of which is behavior that makes it possible to motivate intentionally and covertly another person to experience certain states, make decisions and perform actions necessary to achieve the goal (on the verge of low and medium levels); asocial actions, the characteristic features of which are going beyond socially acceptable limits, egocentrism, the desire to satisfy one’s own desires without taking into account the circumstances and interests of others (a low level); aggressive actions, which are reflected in directing aggressive actions to others in case of failure or conflict with them, feelings of anger, internal tension, frustration, dissatisfaction (the upper limit of the low level). 5. limits and discussion the empirical study confirmed the ideas of nartova-bochaver (1995) that the psychological purpose of coping is to enable a person to master the situation, weaken its requirements, and thus relieve the stress. coping strategies as an individual way of interacting with a situation are often viewed by researchers in the context of viability (biron, 2014). hence, brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 61 the attitudes will set the specifics of the individual's coping response to stress, and this will apply not only to atypical life situations, intense experiences but also to the events of everyday stress. in addition, greenglass (2002) prefers proactive coping as a means of overcoming difficulties, which is multifaceted and combines the processes of the personal management of living standards with self-regulation to achieve the goal. this opinion is confirmed by the results of our empirical study. in addition, biron (2014) states that in the situational and dispositional continuum, the favorable coping strategy has a significant potential for the formation of a personal form of overcoming stress, primarily through special development activities. at the same time, there are studies that reveal the opposite relationship: proactive coping contains a wide range of phenomena that are expressed independently, such as the study of the situation and reflection, interpretation, explanation, attribution, etc. (aspinwall, & taylor, 1997; shvets, et al., 2020). thus, proactive coping is not limited to one reaction, which is a response to a negative event, but it is also able to influence the processes of perception that form the meaning of stress experience. these processes can be beneficial, as they can increase emotional self-control, and contribute to positive self-esteem and self-perception of the individual. 6. conclusions on the basis of the analysis, it was defined that individuals who are optimistic about any restrictions associated with atypical situations (including forced isolation) are more prone to the use of assertive actions and social contact in comparison with pessimists. the latter have a less pronounced tendency to seek social support. in addition, it was found that optimistic people are characterized by a more prominent propensity for reflexive overcoming, combined with preventive overcoming and search for instrumental support in atypical situations. in contrast, pessimists tend to use proactive coping less, but they are more likely to seek emotional support. the study confirmed that proactive coping in atypical situations is associated with the relevant individual psychological characteristics of the individual, which are important for motivating social activities. proactive coping has a resource nature, which turns out to be an important “target” in the formative and corrective training. negative influences on the personality are overridden by personal potential and realized by means of favorable coping in the form of positive results for the personality. coping strategies for overcoming stress in atypical situations olena yevdokimova & ivan okhrimenko 62 references aleksandrov, d., okhrimenko, i., & drozd, o. (2017). osoblyvosti profesiynopsykholohichnoyi adaptatsiyi pratsivnykiv natsionalʹnoyi politsiyi ukrayiny do pravookhoronnoyi diyalʹnosti [psychological adaptation of ukrainian national police officers for law enforcement activities]. science and education, 11, 35-45. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-11-4 aspinwall, l. g., & taylor, s. e. (1997). a stitch in time: self-regulation and proactive coping. psychological bulletin, 121, 417-436. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.121.3.417 biron, b. v. (2014). mistse proaktyvnoho kopinhu v systemi inshykh vydiv kopinhu, sytuatyvnykh ta dyspozytsiynykh chynnykiv [the place of proactive coping in the system of other types of coping, situational and dispositional factors]. visnyk natsionalʹnoho universytetu oborony ukrayiny, 5, 212-217. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vnaou_2014_5_41 ding, s., & kalashnyk, l. (2020). resocialization and readaptation as a social need of postcorona period. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2), 12-19. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/135 greenglass, e. r. (2002). proactive coping and quality of life management. in e. frydenberg (ed.), beyond coping: meeting goals, visions, and challenges (p. 37–62). oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/med:psych/9780198508144.003.0003 kryukova, t. l., & zamyshlyayeva, m. s. (2007). adaptatsiya metodiki izmereniya dispozitsionnogo optimizma/pessimizma. psikhologicheskoye issledovaniye: teoriya, metodologiya, praktika [adaptation of the methodology for measuring dispositional optimism / pessimism. psychological research: theory, methodology, practice]. sbornik materialov ii sibirskogo psikhologicheskogo foruma (30.11.2007) (pp. 548-552). tomskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet. nartova-bochaver, s. k. (1995). koping-povedeniye v sisteme ponyatiy psikhologii lichnosti [coping behavior in the system of concepts of personality psychology]. psikhologicheskiy zhurnal [siberian journal of psychology], 5, 19-24. peterson, c. (2000). the future of optimism. american psychologist, 55(1), 44-55. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.44 schwarzer, r., & taubert, s. (2002). tenacious goal pursuits and striving toward personal growth: proactive coping. in e. frydenberg (ed.), beyond coping: meeting goals, visions, and challenges (pp. 19–35). oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/med:psych/9780198508144.003.0002 shvets, d., yevdokimova, o., okhrimenko, i., ponomarenko, y., aleksandrov, y., okhrimenko, s., & prontenko, k. (2020). the new police training system: psychological aspects. postmodern openings, 11(1supl1), 200-217. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/130 https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-11-4 https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.121.3.417 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vnaou_2014_5_41 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/135 https://doi.org/10.1093/med:psych/9780198508144.003.0003 https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.44 https://doi.org/10.1093/med:psych/9780198508144.003.0002 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/130 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 63 vodopyanova, n. e., & starchenkova, e. s. (2009). sindrom vyigoraniya: diagnostika i profilaktika [burnout syndrome: diagnosis and prevention]. piter. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 247-253 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/203 the e-truth. changes in the perception of truth under the impact of cyberspace dan gabriel sîmbotin¹ 1 “gheorghe zane” institute for economic and social research, romanian academy, iasi branch, e-mail: dansimbotin@yahoo.com abstract: the changes regarding the perception of reality under the impact of the development of information technologies also determined the conceptual rethinking of the truth. in this article we briefly follow the limits of the epistemic integration of the cyberspace, the need to develop new methodological perspectives and introduce a new concept of synthesis: the e-truth. it is viewed from the perspective of seeking truth in relation to data processing, computational simulation, ai and vr development. this research must be performed from the perspective of the epistemic-ontic correspondence using a positivist methodology correlated to the cyberspace (e-positivism). finally, we briefly review the construction of the e-truth within the context of the pandemic caused by covid 19. keywords: e-truth, e-positivism, post-truth, cyberspace, covid19. how to cite: sîmbotin, d.g. (2021). the e-truth. changes in the perception of truth under the impact of cyberspace. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 247-253. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/203 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/203 mailto:dansimbotin@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/203 the e-truth. changes in the perception of truth under the impact of cyberspace dan gabriel sîmbotin 248 introduction the "truth" represented a cultural fascination being a central element for human thinking, inciting debates, developing theories, claiming wide areas from epistemology to metaphysics, from theology to science. this concept represented a marker of reality, as it was summed up by aristotle's formula from metafizica 1011b25: “to say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true” (barnes, 1995, p. 3438). the theory of correspondence in its primary form, adaequatio rei et intellectus, shows that there is an overlap between existence and thought, which is called truth. this simple perspective gives truth an aura that dominates knowledge in general and science in particular. but any critical step exponentially amplifies the problems of ontology and epistemology by introducing new variables such as: language e.g. (kermit scott, 1966), limits of correspondence (herzberger, 1975) degrees of correspondence (botezatu, 1981) deflationary perspectives (horwich 2010; engel (2019), adaptation to reality (tarski, 1944), relativization (boghossian, 2006), new realities (mcintyre, 2018) etc. the theory of correspondence remains the key landmark in the problematization of truth because it connects two levels: the ontic, through reality, and the epistemic, through knowledge. that is why any change in the perception of reality, any extension of it, any change in the tools by which we know the world determines changes in the way we relate to the truth. that is why we can see rapid changes in theorizing the truth today. one of the unique changes that occurred in the epistemology and ontology is based on the emergence of a new reality, the virtual one, developed by following the expansion of information technologies. this new reality also requires a reconsideration of the problem of truth by adapting it to new ontologies. we called this new type of truth e-truth to emphasize its characteristics, which are closely related to the cyberspace. cyberspace and epistemological changes the concept of "reality" requires a high level of complexity. the problems derived from its use within the context of knowledge highlighted the epistemic limits of man. in the face of the metaphysical ideal and through which we can develop a system of knowledge that accurately reproduces existence we can only introduce relative terms such as "appearance", accept the imperfection of correspondence and hope for a brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 249 gradual improvement (rescher 2018). even according to the new type of acceptance of the knowledge-reality relationship, the optimism associated with positivism and realism is still part of everyday activity in a deflationaryepistemic attitude according to the scientific practice. the development of information technologies has exponentially increased the complexity of the idea of "reality" by introducing a new level: cyberspace and virtual reality. they have parallelly developed on multiple levels: data processing and storage, communication, robotics, entertainment, etc. step by step the technology developed while becoming familiar, inserting itself in everyday life and eventually becoming ubiquitous. from an ontological point of view, we are not only talking about the reality of some artefacts, but also about a new type of intelligence, i.e. the artificial intelligence (ai), and of a new space, i.e. cyberspace. initially seen as a pure human construct, the virtual space transformed itself under the impact of ai and provided the emergence of socio-bio-physical existence. with the development of the augmented reality (ar) and virtual reality (vr), (tom dieck et al., 2021), one of the criteria for separating the socio-bio-physical from the virtual existence, i.e. immersion, disappears. to this, new technologies of mass communication that offer a space in which man immerses himself by replacing ordinary social reality are added. however, if from an ontic point of view, the differences can still be highlighted, from an epistemological point of view they become indistinguishable. for example, computer simulation not only provides data but builds possible alternative realities. although there are still uncertainties about the degree of similarity (morrison, 2015, primiero, 2014; symons & alvarado, 2019), the role in scientific development, (durán & formanek 2018; weisberg 2010; weisberg, 2013) and the social impact (symons & alvarado, 2016) cannot be denied. today, software development, computational modelling and reality analysis through big data, make today's science dependent on the cyberspace. under these significant conditions, the viability and veracity of scientific data and the way in which they can be verified become relevant. methodological adaptations and changes are needed under the impact of new realities. this is why a current of thinking inspired by scientific positivism has developed, which we call e-positivism. it adapts the idea of reality by introducing the specific elements of the cyberspace, keeping the deflationary attitudes and the methodological foundations. the e-truth. changes in the perception of truth under the impact of cyberspace dan gabriel sîmbotin 250 truth in cyberspace: the e-truth the ontological truth and epistemological changes under the impact of the development of cyberspace raise the issue of truth. starting from the idea of the connection between thought and reality, as the key stake on the truth, it is necessary to identify the criteria on the basis of which it retains its validity. therefore, following the steps of what we have called e-positivism, a series of rules must be established depending on the level of immersion in the cyberspace and the autonomy of ai. starting from the computational analysis of data and ending with the most complex forms of virtual reality, combined with artificial intelligence each step must develop its own system of evaluation and control so that the outcomes have a high degree of plausibility. let's summarize some examples. in the case of data analysis by systematizing automated programs, the initial algorithm is lost sight of and, thus, any inadequacy of the initial inputs determines the uncertain results. also, any virtual model carries within it the limits of the initial program and therefore the correspondence with reality is limited. new media-specific communication must have rules other than those of traditional media. fake news is so easily to be spreaded and multiply and therefore evaluating the sources must be done according to new criteria. in the case of artificial intelligence, this can always have initial or developed errors along the way. self-learning and self-control are limited even in the case of creating superintelligence, the evolution of ai is done in the absence of complete information and predictability which implies risky conditions, mainzer (2020). the new context does not relativize the truth but, on the contrary, introduces it into a better logically and algorithmically structured world. that is why the e-truth is easy to be followed and identified within the limits of one's own cyberspace. the errors occur during the transfer between the two realities having as source the differences of level, the degree of complexity, errors regarding the input, etc. under these conditions, the solutions to avoid errors and their consequences consist in constantly monitoring the way in which virtual reality integrates and adapts to existential constraints. some considerations to new-media info-obesity: post-truth vs. e-truth based on the information explosion, a perspective on truth has developed from post-fashion, in accordance with the principles of postmodernity: post-truth (mcintyre, 2018). following the media and new media phenomena, the means of mass manipulation specific to new technologies are highlighted. the possibility of amplifying information increases the persuasive efficiency of "fake news with the appearance of brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 251 truth". despite the fact that everything seems to be extremely new, in fact they are the same manipulative techniques developed throughout history which we find systematized and theorized even in the classical sophistication of ancient greece. technological novelty does not bring a logical or epistemic novelty. that is why decreeing a new epistemology, in order to relativize knowledge to the ability to spread information, is not a solution, but on the contrary an amplification of the problem. the development of evaluating the methods (not control) of information is a desirable solution, so the source tools of the problem contain the solution. the e-truth is an alternative that offers conceptual support adapted to the new technological context. conclusions: the truth, covid 19 and the invisible war the pandemic, which has not yet ended, has had the greatest socioeconomic impact of the last century. faced with a lack of information, in a world where the need for information is imperative, the authorities developed a real persuasive system to motivate actions to limit the disease. we make a synthesis of the most relevant and obvious support constructions for the transmission of the official "truth". as following this approach the role of information technology was fundamental we can talk about what we called e-truth. first of all, the official decisions were made on the basis of statistical processing and computer simulations. it was possible to observe the differences between the reproduction number ro (with simulations from 2.2-2.3 to 5.7) and the real reproduction number re (with much smaller figures). official channels have been built to transmit the information used in the ongoing war with alternative "truths" based on the media, especially new media. the construction of a scenario specific to war situations, an unconventional, invisible war with an atypical "enemy". the effect was to establish states of alert and necessity with the imposition of restrictive measures. to these, the simulations regarding the development of treatment and vaccine, medical communication, the initial fight on medical resources (protective masks, protective suits, devices for mechanical ventilation, etc.) are added. all took place as a simulated and disguised dynamics of truth, strategically motivated. the aim was to keep a high degree of truthfulness according to the information held without affecting the fight against covid-19. however, there were many errors (for example: who statements about the role of the mask in preventing the virus, the negative effect on the patient of ibuprofen use) and unexplained decisions (closing shops earlier leads to an increase in the number of people per hour, limiting access to the e-truth. changes in the perception of truth under the impact of cyberspace dan gabriel sîmbotin 252 created congestion during the period when access was allowed, restricting traffic in certain time slots that allowed to travel in safer conditions because the number of people on the street was much smaller). some errors were corrected by returns, other decisions were kept for strategic reasons related to the context of invisible war rather than disease. following the construction of the truth and the search for the truthfulness of the information, effective solutions for the future can be identified. these are not epistemological in nature, but are related to public policies with an epistemic impact. therefore, to sum up, we can state that the thematic focus of resources should not turn all researchers into experts in virology and epidemiology. the identification of experts must be rigorous and broad in accordance with the complex field and real interdisciplinary implications: doctors, statisticians mathematicians, sociologists, psychosociologists, biologists, chemists, pharmacists, experts in public policy, ethics, sociology, etc. decisions should not be made one-way and the strategic communication should be done professionally with communication experts bypassing the imperative of forced military language. we must not forget the well-being of the population and the effects that public policies have on people. in making these decisions, psychologists and psychosociologists are needed to avoid the post-traumatic effects. in conclusion, we must emphasize the key element related to the "truth" and the search for truth in relation to the new technologies: training the population, applying specific methods to lifelong learning and continuing education trends. references barnes, j. (eds.), (1995). the complete works of aristotle. princeton university press. boghossian, p. (2006). fear of knowledge: against relativism and constructivism. oxford university press. botezatu, p. (1981). dimensiunile adevărului [the dimensions of truth]. in p. botezatu, (ed.). adevăruri despre adevăr [truths about truth] (pp.3-48). junimea publishing house. durán, j. m., & formanek, n. (2018). grounds for trust: essential epistemic opacity and computational reliabilism. minds and machines, 28(4), 645-666. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-018-9481-6 engel, p. (2019). les vices du savoir. essai d’éthique intellectuelle. agone. herzberger, h.g. (1975). dimensions of truth. in d. hockney, w. harper, b. freeds, contemporary research in philosophical logic and linguistic semantics (pp. 71-92). springer . horwich, p. (2010). truth – meaning – reality. oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-018-9481-6 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 253 kermit s., th. (1966). john buridan: sophisms on meaning and truth. meredith publishing company. mainzer, k. (2020). artificial intelligence – when do machines take over? springer. mcintyre, l. (2018). post-truth. massachusetts institute of technology. morrison, m. (2015). reconstructing reality: models, mathematics, and simulations. oup usa. primiero, g. (2014). on the ontology of the computing process and the epistemology of the computed. philosophy and technology, 27(3), 485-489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-014-0174-7 rescher, n. (2018). understanding reality metaphysics in epistemological perspective. lexington books. symons, j., & alvarado, r. (2016). can we trust big data? applying philosophy of science to software. big data and society,3(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716664747 symons, j., & alvarado, r. (2019). epistemic entitlements and the practice of computer simulation. minds and machines, 29(1), 37-60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-018-9487-0 tarski, a. (1944). the semantic conception of truth: and the foundations of semantics. philosophy and phenomenological research, 3(4), 341–376. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2102968 tom dieck, m. c., jung, t. h. & loureiro, s. m. c. (eds.), (2021). augmented reality and virtual reality. new trends in immersive technology. springer. weisberg, m. (2013). simulation and similarity: using models to understand the world. oxford university press. winsberg, e. b. (2010). science in the age of computer simulation. university of chicago press. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-014-0174-7 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2053951716664747 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-018-9487-0 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2102968 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 81-88 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/124 social cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders in pediatric age francesca felicia operto¹*, grazia maria giovanna pastorino 2 , chiara padovano 3 , chiara scuoppo 4 , valentina vivenzio 5 , giangennaro coppola 6 1 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, opertofrancesca@gmail.com 2 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, graziapastorino@gmail.com 3 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, chiarapado@hotmail.it 4 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, chiara.scuoppo@gmail.com 5 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, valentina.vivenzio@libero.it 6 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, gcoppola@unisa.it abstract: objective: the purpose of our study was to assess social cognition in ad-olescents and children with epilepsy or specific learning disorder (sld) compared to typical individuals. it was verified whether the age of onset, duration and drug therapy of epileptics can influence this ability and if there is a correlation between social cognition, intelligence and executive functions. methods: this is an observational cross-sectional study that included a total of 125 subjects between 7 and 16 years (62 with focal epilepsy and 63 with sld). the control group included 32 healthy subjects. study sub-jects were evaluated with neuropsychological tools to evaluate executive functions (epitrack junior), social cognition (nepsy-ii), and intelli-gence; a nonverbal cognitive test (raven's matrices) was used in subjects with epilepsy, while wisc-iv was administered to slds. results: the groups of subjects scored significantly lower than the con-trols in social cognition. the results showed a positive correlation be-tween affect recognition scores and executive function in both groups. in patients with epilepsy the deficit in affect recognition appeared to be linked with early age of onset of epilepsy, long term of disease and lack of non-verbal intelligence; a high frequency of seizures, on the other hand, was related to poor performance in the theory of mind (tom). in the sld group there was no correlation between social cognition and in-tellectual level. conclusions: the results of our study suggest that individuals with focal epilepsy or sld have deficits in the recognition of facial emotions and tom compared to their peers. in epilepsy group, the social cognition deficit seems to be linked to characteristics of epilepsy, particularly the deficits in the recognition of facial emotions seems linked to problems in nonverbal intelligence and in executive function. in the sld group, however, the ability to recognize emotions was correlated only with executive functions. keywords: social-cognition; epilepsy; specific learning disorder; executive functions. how to cite: operto, f.f., pastorino, g.m.g., padovano, c., scuoppo, c., vivenzio, v., & coppola, g. (2020). social cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders in pediatric age. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 81-88. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/124 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/124 mailto:opertofrancesca@gmail.com mailto:graziapastorino@gmail.com mailto:chiarapado@hotmail.it mailto:chiara.scuoppo@gmail.com mailto:valentina.vivenzio@libero.it mailto:gcoppola@unisa.it https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/124 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 82 introduction a very important skill for a good adaptation and a good quality of life is social cognition, which allows us to define social stimuli giving them an appropriate interpretation and response. social cognition is made up of more basic skills like the ability of affect recognition and the theory of mind (tom) (frith & frith, 2007). the ability of affect recognition through facial expressions begins to develop early and becomes more precise and meticulous with age; some studies point up that happiness is the first emotion recognized, followed by emotions like disgust and fear (burlea et al., 2010). the subcortical structure that seems to play an important role in the recognition of emotions is the amygdala with other structures such as the insular cortex, the basal ganglia and the orbitofrontal cortex (nelson et al., 2003). tom allows to attribute to oneself and to people thoughts, beliefs, states of mind and emotions. as with the recognition of emotions, the theory of mind also develops very early, around 3-4 years, and improves with age; the neural structures involved in this ability appear to be the medial prefrontal cortex, temporo-parietal and mesolimbic cortex (xiao et al., 2019). since social cognition is a skill that develops during the course of life, some studies have tried to investigate how it evolves in children with developmental disorders, such as in specific learning disorder (sld) subjects or with childhood-onset diseases such as epilepsy (dimitrovsky et al., 1998; ivesdeliperi & jokeit, 2019). several studies have shown that subjects diagnosed with sld were not as good at recognizing emotions than subjects with typical development (bloom & heath, 2010). studies on epileptic patients have shown that these subjects had difficulties both in recognizing emotions and in theory of mind tasks, this pointing out that there might be a correlation between the brain structures affected by the epileptic focus and the impoverishment of social cognition skills, underlining however that there is no real difference between focal and generalized epilepsy (fusar-poli et al., 2009; meletti et al., 2009; stewart et al., 2018; stewart et al., 2019). another set of skills, called executive functions, appear to be related to social cognition, although this association is not yet clear (wade et al., 2018; zhang et al., 2018). the term executive functions means the set of skills including working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, problem solving and planning. this set of skills, as well as the ability to recognize emotions (theory of mind), develop during childhood and improve social cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders in pediatric age francesca felicia operto, et al. 83 in adolescence to adulthood, and their correct functioning allows a good quality of life (diamond, 2013; lupu et al., 2015). in this study, social cognition in subjects with sld and epilepsy was evaluated and the results were compared with a control group; it was evaluated if other factors, such as age of onset of epilepsy, duration and drug therapy, could influence this ability; lastly, the presence of a correlation between social cognition, executive functions and intelligence was investigated. methodology participants the clinical sample in this study consisted of 125 children and adolescents aged 7 to 16 years old, from the child neuropsychiatry unit of the university hospital of salerno. the first group includes 62 subjects with focal epilepsy; the second one includes 63 individuals with sld. the control group includes 32 heathy subjects and is homogeneous for age and sex. the diagnosis of epilepsy or sld was kept out in all control group subjects. all subjects signed informed consent after adequate description about the purpose of the study and about procedures involved. assessment study subjects were evaluated with standardized instruments to evaluate the executive functions (epitrack junior), the social cognition (nepsy-ii) and the intelligence: a nonverbal cognitive test (raven's matrices) was used in subjects with epilepsy, while wisc-iv was administered to slds. nepsy ii social cognition domain the developmental neuropsychological assessment 2nd edition battery (nepsy-ii) include 2 tests to evaluate social cognition: the identification of emotions through facial expressions (ar) and the ability to decode and interpret the intentions of others and their points of view and understand how these affect behavior (tm). epitrack junior epitrack junior includes activities aimed at attention, executive functions and working memory. this test is made up of 6 subtests: interference, inverted digit span, linking numbers, linking numbers and points, labyrinth and verbal fluency. children must be at least 6 years old to be able to read numbers '1' and '2' aloud and count from 1 to 20 to take this test. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 84 raven’s matrices progressive raven standard matrices (spm) were administered to participants with epilepsy to assess non-verbal cognitive abilities: this test consists of five series of 12 elements each and is characterized by an increasing order of difficulty of the items. wisc-iv. the wisc-iv (wechsler, 2003) is a clinical and diagnostic tool for the assessment of cognitive abilities for children aged 6 to 16. this test provides a total iq score and indices, which are the verbal comprehension index (vci), perceptual reasoning index (pri), working memory index (wmi) and processing speed index (psi). results in our study, for the data that had a normal distribution the student t test was used for those that did not have a parametric distribution, the mann withney u test was used to compare the means. student's t-test showed that the mean affect recognition score was more clinically lower in the epileptics than in the control group (p <0.05) (figure 1). analyzing individual emotions, using the mann-withney u test, it emerged that the epilepsy group showed a lower performance in recognizing emotions like sadness, happiness, fear and anger than the control group (p <0.05) (figure 2). poor performance in emotion recognition seemed to be related to some epilepsy-related variables: early age of onset of epilepsy, long term of disease, poor executive functions, and poor non-verbal intellectual profile. regarding the tom, the average score was clinically inferior in the epileptics than in the control group (p <0.05) (figure 3) and deficiencies in this ability appeared to be linked to a high seizure frequency. as for the sld group, the non parametric mann-withney u test for unpaired samples was used and it was found that the mean emotion recognition score was significantly lower than the control group (p <0.005) (figure 1). in particular, regarding to individual emotions, the slds do worse than the control group in the ability to recognize neutrality, sadness, happiness, fear and anger (p <0.005) (figure 2). scores in ar were positively related to scores of executive function, while with the level of iq no correlation was detected . social cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders in pediatric age francesca felicia operto, et al. 85 also in the subtest about nepsy-ii theory of mind, the sld group obtained a lower total score than subjects in the control group: specifically, the mean total scores on the subtest tm were at the lower than normal limits for the group of subjects with dls (less than 1 standard deviation) while the mean control score was normal (figure 3). figure 1: affect recognition score in sld, epilepsy and control group source: authors'own contribution figure 2: number of errors in sld, epilepsy and control group source: authors'own contribution brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 86 figure 3: theory of mind score in sld, epilepsy and control group source: authors'own contribution discussions in accordance with the previous studies (stewart et al., 2019, p. 106146; bloom & heath, 2010, p. 180-192) the results of our study highlights that subjects with focal epilepsy and those with sld had difficulties in the recognition of facial emotion and in tom confronted with their peers. specifically, both groups exhibited greater problematic in recognizing happiness, sadness, anger and fear, but the sld group also had a lower performance in recognizing neutral facial expressions. previous research has highlighted a correlation between executive functions and tom (wade et al., 2018): our study confirms this positive correlation between social cognition both tom and affect recognition and executive functions, which emerged in both the epileptic group and the sld group. furthermore, it should be added that the social cognition deficit present in subjects with epilepsy seems to be associated with specific characteristics of the disorder: in particular, difficulties in emotion recognition appeared to be linked to early age, long duration of disease, onset of epilepsy, poor nonverbal intelligence and poor executive functions. in fact, in these patients a lower non-verbal intelligence score corresponded to a worse performance in recognizing facial expressions (luca et al., 2019). on the other hand, in slds subjects a correlation between intellectual level and social cognition skills did not emerge. social cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders in pediatric age francesca felicia operto, et al. 87 deficiencies in tom appeared to be linked to a high seizure frequency in epileptics subjects. conclusions in conclusion, from the results obtained it can be affirmed that two aspects that are fundamental in social cognition, as they promote and favor social relations, are tom and ar. the latter ability also appears to be correlated with executive functions. therefore, all these skills should be evaluated in developmental age to provide specific interventions and ensure an optimal quality of life for children and adolescents. references bloom, e. & heath, n. (2010). recognition, expression, and understanding facial expressions of emotion in adolescents with nonverbal and general learning disabilities. journal of learning disabilities, 43, 180–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219409345014 burlea, g., burlea, a.m., milici, r.c. (2010). prevention and intervention in speech and language therapy for the success of lexicographical acquisitions. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 30, 86-100. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf diamond, a. (2013). executive functions. annual review of psychology, 64, 135-168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750 dimitrovsky, l., spector, h., levy-shiff, r., & vakil, e. (1998). interpretation of facial expressions of affect in children with learning disabilities with verbal and nonverbal deficits. journal of learning disabilities, 31(3), 286–292, 312. https://doi.org/10.1177/002221949803100308 frith, c.d., & frith, u. (2007). social cognition in humans. current biology, 17(16), 724–732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.05.068 fusar-poli, p., placentino, a., carletti, f., landi, p., allen, p., surguladze, s., benedetti, f., abbamonte, m., gasparotti, r., barale, f., perez, j., mcguire, p., & politi, p. (2009). functional atlas of emotional faces processing: a voxelbased meta-analysis of 105 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. journal of psychiatry and neuroscience, 34(6), 418-432. ives-deliperi, v. l., & jokeit, h. (2019). impaired social cognition in epilepsy: a review of what we have learnt from neuroimaging studies. frontiers in neurology, 10, 940. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2019.00940 luca, l, ciubara, a, ciubara, a. b, chirosca, a. c, & sarbu, f. (2019). youth perceptions towards psychiatry. european psychiatry, 56(supp. s), s464-s464. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219409345014 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750 https://doi.org/10.1177/002221949803100308 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.05.068 https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2019.00940 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 88 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., mihaila, d., burlea, m., ciubara, a. (2015). heterotopic gastric mucosa in the distal part of esophagus in a teenager case report. medicine, 94(42), p e1722. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 meletti, s., benuzzi, f., cantalupo, g., rubboli, g., tassinari, c.a., & nichelli, p., (2009). facial emotion recognition impairment in chronic temporal lobe epilepsy. epilepsia, 50(6), 1547-1559. https://doi.org10.1111/j.15281167.2008.01978.x nelson, e. e., mcclure, e. b., monk, c. s., zarahn, e., leibenluft, e., pine, d. s., & ernst, m. (2003). developmental differences in neuronal engagement during implicit encoding of emotional faces: an event-related fmri study. journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 44, 1015–1024. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00186 stewart, e., catroppa, c., gill, d., webster, r., lawson, j., mandalis, a., et al. (2018). theory of mind and social competence in children and adolescents with genetic generalised epilepsy (gge): relationships to epilepsy severity and antiepileptic drugs. seizure, 60, 96-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2018.06.015 stewart, e., lah, s., & smith, m. l. (2019). patterns of impaired social cognition in children and adolescents with epilepsy: the borders between different epilepsy phenotypes. epilepsy & behavior, 18, 106146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.01.031 wade, m., prime, h., jenkins, j.m., yeates, k.o., williams,t., & lee, k. (2018). on the relation between theory of mind and executive functioning: a developmental cognitive neuroscience perspective. psychonomic bulletin & review, 25(6), 2119-2140. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-018-1459-0 wechsler, d. (2003). wechsler intelligence scale for children (4th ed.) (wisc-iv). the psychological corporation. xiao, y., geng, f., riggins, t., chen, g., & redcay, e. (2019). neural correlates of developing theory of mind competence in early childhood. neuroimage, 184, 707-716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.09.079 zhang, t., chen, l., wang, y., zhang, m., wang, l., xu, x., xiao, g., chen, j., shen, y., & zhou, n. (2018). impaired theory of mind in chinese children and adolescents with idiopathic generalized epilepsy: association with behavioral manifestations of executive dysfunction. epilepsy & behavior, 79, 205-212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2017.12.006 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 https://doi.org10.1111/j.1528-1167.2008.01978.x https://doi.org10.1111/j.1528-1167.2008.01978.x https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00186 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2018.06.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.01.031 https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-018-1459-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.09.079 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2017.12.006 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 01-10 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/216 correlation between corpus callosum shape and craniometric measurements according to mri data olga boiagina¹, oleksandr stepanenko2, anastasiia lebedieva3 1 kharkiv national medical university, ukraine, olya-boiagina@ukr.net 2 kharkiv national medical university, ukraine, stepanenko@3g.ua 3 kharkiv national medical university, ukraine, an_lebedeva@ukr.net abstract: the correlation between the cranial height and the height of the corpus callosum trunk bulge, and the relationship between the corpus callosum shape and the cranial shape have not been studied. the purpose of the article was to determine the individual variability of the corpus callosum height and shape of adults, and their dependence on the cranial height and shape. the material was two samples from a series of mr scans of the head of men and women of the second period of adulthood (19 variations in each group) without the central nervous system pathology. magnetic resonance tomographic scanner magnetom c was used for obtaining mri images. morphometric study was conducted using radiant dicom viewer software on mr scans performed in the sagittal area in t1and t2weighted images modes. according to the findings, the height of the corpus callosum trunk bulge of men is on average – 26.1 ± 2.8 mm, women – 25.2 ± 2.6 mm, and the neurocranium height – 150.4 ± 6.9 mm and 140.2 ± 4.2 mm, respectively. wherein the aspect ratio of the neurocranium height to the corpus callosum trunk bulge height in men is 5.8 ± 0.7, in women – 5.6 ± 0.5. the aspect ratio of the corpus callosum longitudinal size along the constricting chord to its trunk bulge height in men is on average 2.8 ± 0.3, in women – 2.7 ± 0.3. the absence of correlation between the cranial height and the corpus callosum trunk bulge height, and the absence of correlation between the corpus callosum shape and cranial shape in people of the second period of adulthood have been concluded. keywords: brain, corpus callosum shape, corpus callosum trunk bulge height, morphometry, individual variability, neurocranium. how to cite: boiagina, o., stepanenko, o., & lebedieva, a. (2021). correlation between corpus callosum shape and craniometric measurements according to mri data. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 01-10. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/216 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/216 mailto:olya-boiagina@ukr.net mailto:stepanenko@3g.ua mailto:an_lebedeva@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/216 correlation between corpus callosum shape and craniometric measurements … olga boiagina, et al. 2 introduction the corpus callosum has been comprehensively studied for centuries (sigirl et al., 2012; van der knaap & van der ham, 2011; westerhausen et al., 2018), whereby it is now known that its function includes interhemispheric information exchange, integration of background information that reaches one or both hemispheres, as well as the facilitation of certain types of cortical activity and its suppression (aboitiz & montiel, 2003; bloom & hynd, 2005; buklina, 2005; roland et al., 2017). meanwhile, attempts were made to find the representation of the psychophysiological differences between men and women in the corpus callosum size, whereby ambiguous data were obtained (garel et al., 2011; roy et al., 2014; sullivan et al., 2001). for the achievement of this goal, it is necessary to have data on reliable quantitative criteria regarding its size and shape, which can be obtained by conducting familiar morphometric study, the essence of which is to choose conditional markings on the material, which are typically differently remote points and straight-line distances between them (farag et al., 2010; krause et al., 2019; miguelote et al., 2011). thus, in the patent for the invention no. 2396907 “method of lifetime determination of the corpus callosum size”, all measurements were made on brain median images obtained by magnetic resonance imaging. they include: 1) corpus callosum genu thickness – the distance between the anterior and posterior points of genu of corpus callosum; 2) the thickness of the anterior department of the corpus callosum – the distance between the upper and lower points of the anterior third of its trunk; 3) middle part thickness – the distance between the upper and lower points of the middle third of the corpus callosum trunk; 4) corpus callosum posterior part thickness – the distance between the upper and lower points of the posterior third of its trunk; 5) corpus callosum splenium thickness – the distance between the anterior and posterior points of its splenium; 6) corpus callosum length – the distance between the anterior and posterior points of the corpus callosum; 7) corpus callosum height – the distance between the line connecting the lower points of genu and splenium, and the upper point of the corpus callosum. other distances proposed by the author are used to determine the depth of location of the corpus callosum in the cerebrum. in the literature there are other attempts to conduct a corpus callosum morphometric study. hence, for quantitive evaluation of corpus callosum f. tomaiuolo et al. (2014) used a rectangular contour that encircles its boundaries on median mr images of the cerebral hemispheres and allows brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 3 to determine the angle of curvature of the corpus callosum by calculating the angle value at the apex of the isosceles triangle that has the same side and altitude as the rectangle circumscribed around the corpus callosum contour. based on such calculations, the authors were able to find out that the angle of curvature of the corpus callosum in blind people is more convex than in sighted people. some authors have used a multifactor mathematical apparatus which helps to simulate the corpus callosum shape by configuring conditional labels, which include: the center of the genu, the center of the splenium and 50 half-labels equally spaced in circles of double contour of the corpus callosum, starting from the posterior border of the genu (bruner et al., 2012) these configurations are recorded through a procrustes overlap, shifting the coordinate system to a single centroid by scaling them according to a single centroid size, as well as rotation in order to minimize the remainders of least squares between the corresponding labels. herewith the centroid size is calculated as the square root of the sum of the squares of the distance of all labels from their centroid. this geometric analysis method of the corpus callosum, in our opinion, is too labour-intensive. the results obtained therewith are not substantially different from those obtained by other researchers using simpler methods of morphometric study. therefore, despite repeated attempts by researchers to obtain and analyze statistically significant data on individual variability of the corpus callosum dimensional features, modern science has not yet completely solved this problem. in our previous work, a correlation was found between the neurocranium length and the corpus callosum longitudinal size along the constricting chord in men and women of the second period of adulthood (boyagina et al., 2017). but the correlation between cranial height and the corpus callosum trunk bulge height, and the relationship between the corpus callosum shape and cranial shape have not been studied. the purpose of the article was to determine the individual variability of the height and shape of the corpus callosum of adults and their dependence on the cranial height and shape. conducting of the morphometric study the material was two samples from a series of mr scans of the head of men and women of the second period of adulthood (19 variations in each group) without the central nervous system pathology, which were made on the basis of the european radiological center gemo medika kharkiv, llc. correlation between corpus callosum shape and craniometric measurements … olga boiagina, et al. 4 the age-dependent periodization adopted at the vii all-union conference on age morphology, physiology and biochemistry of the academy of pedagogical sciences of the ussr was used to classify the material. magnetic resonance tomographic scanner magnetom c was used for obtaining mri images. morphometric study was conducted using radiant dicom viewer software on mr scans performed in the sagittal area in t1 and t2-weighted images modes. when performing morphometric studies, three points of the corpus callosum were used: the most protrusive point of the genu, the most protrusive posterior point of the splenium, and the most protrusive upward point of the corpus callosum trunk bulge. after drawing straight lines through the mentioned points, we inscribe the corpus callosum contour profile within a scalene rectangle, the long sides of which are equal to its longitudinal size, which we call the corpus callosum constricting chord, and its short side are equal to its trunk bulge maximum height. the neurocranium length was determined between the points of the glabella and opisthocranion, and the neurocranium height – between the points of the basion and bregma. variational statistical and correlation analyses were used in the study. correlation between the corpus callosum shape and cranial shape according to the obtained quantitative data, the corpus callosum trunk bulge height in men falls within 20.4 to 31.3 mm (on average 26.1 ± 2.8 mm) (table 1), and the neurocranium height varies from 134.8 up to 166.1 mm (on average 150.4 ± 6.9 mm) (table 2). herewith the aspect ratio of the neurocranium height to the corpus callous, trunk bulge height falls within 4.7 to 7.4 (on average 5.8 ± 0.7). table 1. corpus callosum morphometric study results in men and women pf the second period of adulthood (m±m) source: authors’ own conception sex longitudinal size along the constricting chord (mm) trunk bulge height (mm) aspect ratio of the longitudinal size along the constricting chord to the trunk bulge height men 72.9±4.5 26.1±2.8 2.8±0.3 women 68.3±3.0 25.2±2.6 2.7±0.3 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 5 table 2. neurocranium morphometric study results in men and women pf the second period of adulthood (m±m) source: authors’ own conception sex cranial height (mm) neurocranium length (mm) correlation between the cranial length and height men 150.4±6.9 188.9±5.7 1.3±0.1 women 140.2±4.2 177.8±7.2 1.3±0.1 the corpus callosum trunk bulge measurements in women have almost no difference from that in men and are distributed in the range from 21.0 to 32.8 mm (on average 25.2 ± 2.6 mm). neurocranium height measurements in women are slightly less, they fall within 133.7 to 151.0 mm (on average 140.2 ± 4.2 mm). the ratio of the neurocranium height to the corpus callosum trunk bulge height falls within 4.6 to 6.4 (on average 5.6 ± 0.5), not being significantly different from the same measurement in men. the correlation between the cranial height and the corpus callosum height is slight and statistically insignificant in both men and women (fig. 1). women ––––––––– men fig.1. correlation between the cranial height (indicated on the ordinate axis, mm) and corpus callosum height (reflected on the the abscissa axis, mm) source: authors’ own conception correlation between corpus callosum shape and craniometric measurements … olga boiagina, et al. 6 as shown by the table 1, individual variability is attributable to the corpus callosum length and height. we calculated the aspect ratio of the aspect ratio of the corpus callosum longitudinal size along the constricting chord to its trunk bulge height. according to the obtained data (table 1), this aspect ratio in men varies from 2.3 to 3.5 (on average 2.8 ± 0.3). in women, this measurement falls within 2.1 to 3.2 (on average 2.7 ± 0.3). based on the found aspect ratio and the corpus callosum trunk bulge shape, it was proposed to divide the latter into low-bulged, medium-bulged and highly-bulged shapes (fig. 2) (boyagina, 2015). low-bulged shapes correspond to the ratio x > 2.8, medium-bulged – to the ratio 2.8 ≥ x ≥ 2.7, highly-bulged – to the ratio x < 2.7. it is noteworthy that the quantitative distribution of the above corpus callosum shapes is approximately the same in both men and women. low-bulged shape medium-bulged shape brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 7 highly-bulged shape fig. 2. mr scans of corpus callosum shapes of diverse bulge source: authors’ own conception it is well known about the high correlation between the brain development and neurocranium development, as well as the full correspondence of their shapes with each other. in the fetal period, it is the brain, developing first, is dominant in the formation of the chondrocranium, and then the osteocranium, which is entirely driven by the genetic programme. hereditary factor certainly becomes decisive for the further synchronous brain and cranium development, but after birth, during the period of active growth, their formation also depends on a whole range of external factors, including purely mechanical actions that impact the cranial shape and cause cerebral conformal changes. as is clear from the data shown in the table 2, the cranial linear size is variable (vovk & sukhonosov, 2016), and thus there is a variability in the length and height ratio, and, therefore, the variability of the cranial shape. the correlation between the corpus callosum shape and the cranial shape, which is determined by the ratio of its length and height, is shown in figure 3. according to these data, the corpus callosum shape does not depend on the cranial shape neither in men nor in women. correlation between corpus callosum shape and craniometric measurements … olga boiagina, et al. 8 fig. 3. correlation between the corpus callosum shape and cranial shape source: authors’ own conception conclusions 1. corpus callosum trunk bulge height in men falls within 20.4 to 31.3 mm (on average 26.1 ± 2.8 mm), in women – 21.0 to 32.8 mm (on average 25.2 ± 2.6 mm). aspect ratio of the neurocranium height to the corpus callosum trunk bulge height in men falls within 4.7 to 7.4 (on average 5.8 ± 0.7), in women – 4.6 to 6.4 (on average 5.6 ± 0.5). on evidence, the absence of correlation between the cranial height and the corpus callosum trunk bulge height, and the absence of correlation between the corpus callosum shape and cranial shape in people of the second period of adulthood have been concluded. 2. the aspect ratio of the corpus callosum longitudinal size along the constricting chord to its trunk bulge height in men falls within 2.3 to 3.5 (on average 2.8 ± 0.3), in women – 2.1 to 3.2 (on average – 2.7 ± 0.3). based on the found aspect ratio, it was proposed to divide the corpus callosum shapes into low-bulged, medium-bulged and highly-bulged shapes. the absence of correlation between the corpus callosum shape and cranial shape in men and women of the second period of adulthood have been concluded. references aboitiz, f., & montiel, j. (2003). one hundred million years of interhemispheric communication: the history of the corpus callosum. brazilian journal of brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 9 medical and biological research, 36(4), 409-20. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0100-879x2003000400002 bloom, j. s, & hynd, g. w. (2005). the role of the corpus callosum in interhemispheric transfer of information: excitation or inhibition? neuropsychol review, 15(2), 59-71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-0056252-y boyagina, o. d. (2015). individual variability of the corpus callosum shape in adult men and women according to mri data. annals of problems of biology and medicine, 4(2), 291-294. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vpbm_2015_4%282%29__60 boyagina, o. d. (2017). correlation between the corpus callosum shape in people of the second period of adulthood and craniometrics measurements of neurocraniaum. journal of education, health and sport, 7 (8), 797-807. http://repo.knmu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/18468 bruner, e., de la cuetara, j. m., colom, r., & martin-loeches, m. (2012). genderbased differences in the shape of the human corpus callosum are associated with allometric variations. journal of anatomy, 220(4), 417–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2012.01476.x buklina, s. b. (2005). the corpus callosum, interhemispheric interaction and functions of the right cerebral. journal of neurology and psychiatry named after s.s. korsakov, 104(5), 8–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-005-0082-5 farag, a., elhabian, s., abdelrahman, m., graham, j., farag, a., chen, d., & casanova, m. f. (2010). shape modeling of the corpus callosum [electronic resourse]. conf. proc. ieee eng. med. biol. soc. (pp. 4288–4291). ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/iembs.2010.5626169 garel, c., cont, i., alberti, c. josserand, e., moutard, m. l., & ducou le pointe, h. (2011). biometry of the corpus callosum in children: mr imaging reference data. american journal of neuroradiology, 32(8), 1436–1443. https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.a2542 krause, k. l, howard, d, pettersson, d. r, elstrott, s, ross, d, obayashi, j. t, barajas, r jr, bonde, a, pollock, j. m. (2019). defining the normal dorsal contour of the corpus callosum with time. american journal of neuroradiology, 40(1), 86-91. https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.a5886 miguelote, r. f., vides, b., santos, r. f., palha, j. a., matias, a., & sousa, n. (2011). the role of three-dimensional imaging reconstruction to measure the corpus callosum: сomparison with direct mid-sagittal views. prenatal diagnosis, 31(9), 875–880. https://doi.org/10.1002/pd.2794 roland, j. l, snyder, a. z, hacker, c. d, mitra, a, shimony, j. s, limbrick, d. d, raichle, m. e, smyth, m. d, leuthardt, e. c. (2017). on the role of the corpus callosum in interhemispheric functional connectivity in humans. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0100-879x2003000400002 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-005-6252-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-005-6252-y http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vpbm_2015_4%282%29__60 http://repo.knmu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/18468 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2012.01476.x https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-005-0082-5 https://doi.org/10.1109/iembs.2010.5626169 https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.a2542 https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.a5886 https://doi.org/10.1002/pd.2794 correlation between corpus callosum shape and craniometric measurements … olga boiagina, et al. 10 proceedings of the national academy of sciences usa, 114(50), 13278-13283. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1707050114 roy, e., hague, c., forster, b., colistro, r., & andrews, g. (2014). the corpus callosum: imaging the middle of the road. canadian association of radiologists journal, 65(2), 141–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carj.2013.02.004 sigirl, d., ercan, i., ozdemir, s. t., taskapilioglu, o., hakyemez, b., & turan, o. f. (2012). shape analysis of the corpus callosum and cerebellum in female ms patients with different clinical phenotypes. anatomical record, 295(7), 1202–1211. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.22493 sullivan, e. v, rosenbloom, m. j, desmond, j. e, pfefferbaum, a. (2001). sex differences in corpus callosum size: relationship to age and intracranial size. neurobiology of aging, 22, 603–611. https://doi.org/10.1016/s01974580(01)00232-9 tomaiuolo, f., campana, s., collins, d., fonov, v. s., ricciardi, e., sartori,g., pietrini, p., kupers, r., & ptito, m. (2014). morphometric changes of the corpus callosum in congenital blindness [electronic resourse]. plos one, 9(9), e107871. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107871 van der knaap, l. j., & van der ham, i. j. (2011). how does the corpus callosum mediate interhemispheric transfer? a review. behavioural brain research, 223(1), 211–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2011.04.018 vovk, o. y., & sukhonosov, r. a. (2016). individual anatomical variability of the main craniometric measurements in adults. morphologia, 10(3), 71-76. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/morphology_2016_10_3_13 westerhausen, r, friesen, c. m, rohani, d. a, krogsrud, s. k, tamnes, c. k, skranes, j. s, håberg, a. k, fjell, a. m, walhovd, k. b. (2018). the corpus callosum as anatomical marker of intelligence? a critical examination in a large-scale developmental study. brain structure and function, 223(1), 285296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-017-1493-0 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1707050114 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carj.2013.02.004 https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.22493 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0197-4580(01)00232-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0197-4580(01)00232-9 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107871 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2011.04.018 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/morphology_2016_10_3_13 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-017-1493-0 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 153-162 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/131 psychogenic seizures in adolescents: an “evergreen” diagnostic challenge francesca felicia operto¹*, grazia maria giovanna pastorino 2 , chiara padovano 3 , chiara scuoppo 4 , valentina vivenzio 5 , giangennaro coppola 6 1 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, opertofrancesca@gmail.com * corresponding author 2 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, graziapastorino@gmail.com 3 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, chiarapado@hotmail.it 4 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, chiara.scuoppo@gmail.com 5 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, valentina.vivenzio@libero.it 6 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, gcoppola@unisa.it abstract: psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (pnes) are not associated with abnormal brain eeg activity and cannot be explained by other neurological disorders. pnes are also defined as functional neurological disorders and are included among the conversion disorders in the fifth edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm-5). there is no doubt about the importance of an early and correct diagnosis of pnes. diagnostic process is first based on an accurate clinical history. video-eeg is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis, though it is often time consuming and it does not always allow to record an ictal event. when pnes is diagnosed, because it is not a seizure and no emergency treatment is required, the first goal is to ensure acceptance of the diagnosis. initially, putative precipitating stressors need to be identified and addressed so that pnes can be contained and managed. possible interventions for patients with pnes include psychotherapy, family counseling interventions, changes in the school environment and drug treatment. the latter may include anxyolytics and/or antidepressants; in case of a comorbid adhd disorder, methylphenidate may be also considered. keywords: psychogenic non-epileptic seizures; psychotherapy; family counseling; drug treatment. how to cite: operto, f. f., pastorino, g. m. g., padovano, c., scuoppo, c., vivenzio, v., & coppola, g. (2020). psychogenic seizures in adolescents: an “evergreen” diagnostic challenge. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 153-162. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/131 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/131 mailto:opertofrancesca@gmail.com mailto:graziapastorino@gmail.com mailto:chiarapado@hotmail.it mailto:chiara.scuoppo@gmail.com mailto:valentina.vivenzio@libero.it mailto:gcoppola@unisa.it https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/131 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 154 paroxysmal events with a focus on pnes paroxysmal events are classified as non-epileptic or epileptic symptoms. the first ones are distinguished in psychogenic and organic/physiological paroxysmal events (lüders et al., 2019). in organic and physiological disorders there are several symptoms: inattention, daydreaming, staring, sleep myoclonus, stereotyped movements, hypnotic spasms, tonic postures, parasomnia, movement disorders. psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (pnes) are not associated with abnormal brain eeg activity and cannot be explained by other neurological disorders. pnes are also defined as functional neurological disorders and are included among the conversion disorders in the fifth edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm-5) (american psychiatric association, 2013). this disorder is characterized by symptoms of impaired voluntary or sensorimotor function without the presence of other neurological or clinical conditions. since these non-epileptic paroxysmal events can be misdiagnosed by clinicians who do not have an in-depth knowledge of pnes, it is important that an immediate video-eeg evaluation is made to allow for rapid diagnosis and early and correct treatment. regarding subjects in developmental age, kim and colleagues (2012) confirmed that a significant number of children assessed for epileptic seizures may actually be diagnosed with other disorders. it is therefore important for pediatric neurologists to carry out a careful examination and assessment with various tests and tools when the diagnosis is doubtful, especially in the case of patients with developmental delay or very young age, so as to avoid misdiagnosing seizures in the presence of pnes. an incorrect diagnosis can have negative consequences, leading, for example, to the administration of antiseizure drugs, undue instrumental investigation. literature data on pnes are more available for adult patients with respect to pediatric age. in the latter, data are still scarse as for treatment options and long-term outcome in children (patel et al., 2007) and adolescents. as for pnes semiology, kotagal et al. (2002) distinguished two groups, the first with non-responsive events and the second with motor events (bizarre, irregular, jerky, or shaking movements of the extremities, not typical of any of the known types of seizures). the aforementioned study highlighted how video-eeg monitoring is essential for a correct diagnosis of pnes and to rule out epileptic seizures. in another study, verrotti et al. (2009) reported that prepubertal patients had mainly non-responsive events, psychogenic seizures in adolescents: an “evergreen” diagnostic challenge francesca felicia operto, et al. 155 while pubertal patients had mainly major motor events. in addition, this research highlighted the differences in pnes semiology, depending on psychiatric comorbidities and predisposing stressors, among prepubertal and pubertal patients with idiopathic epilepsy. children with psychogenic seizures showed more somatic problems compared with epilepsy children, as reported by salpekar et al. (2010). in this study, two groups of 24 children each affected by epilepsy or pnes, were compared by means of questionnaires testing behavior disorders. children with pnes showed higher scores on the childhood somatization inventory (csi; walker et al., 2009) and the functional disability inventory (walker et al., 1991) than children with epilepsy. parents of children with pnes reported as well more somatic problems on the cbcl (achenbach, 1991). both groups did not differ as for depression, anxiety, or alexithymia. in a turkish study (say et al., 2014), pnes were associated with parental conflicts, difficult interactions with peers and siblings, poor academic skills, and a history of stressful events/abuse. psychiatric disorders were higher in pnes patients (64.7%) with respect to the epilepsy group (47.8%). furthermore, adolescents with pnes had poorer self-esteem than their peers from other groups. in another study (yi et al., 2014) it was found that 72% of patients with pnes had other concomitant psychological disorders, depression being the most frequent (36%). in addition, family distress was the first predisposing factor (40%). several authors (reilly et al., 2013) have investigated on precipitating factors of pnes in children. academic skills and bullying, conflicts with familial/interpersonal context and physical/sexual abuse were more consistently compromised. about school bullying, there are not many reports that investigate the relationship between pnes in bullied patients. in the study by alhafez & masri (2019), two patients with pnes were associated with a psychological stress caused by the victimization of school bullying. this highlights the relevance of monitoring bullying in children with pnes. on a psychopathological point of view (reilly et al., 2013), children, adolescents and young adults with pnes have a high risk of developing psychopathology, especially depression and generalized anxiety disorder, followed by separation anxiety, school phobia, panic disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder (burlea et al., 2012). although psychogenic seizures often last longer than epileptic seizures and this feature may be particularly useful for differential diagnosis, some patients with long-lasting events may be misdiagnosed as having epilepsy. this is the case of two adolescent patients (coppola et al., 2020) brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 156 with a type of pnes not previously described in the literature, with overlapping symptoms characterized by a significant prolonged state of generalized hypertonic posture with low levels of consciousness, leading to heavy loads of anticonvulsant drugs and occasional endotracheal or endopharyngeal intubation in the emergency room. both patients had psychiatric comorbidities, including major depressive disorder, obsessivecompulsive symptoms, social withdrawal, difficulty in social interaction, and anxious-perfectionist personality traits. although pnes is not life-threatening even in a status-type situation, there can be a damage caused by "heavy" drug treatment. it is fundamental to consider and treat the psychiatric comorbidities in these patients. in these two patients pnes status recurrence gradually subsided within 18 months in both, after the correct diagnosis was given and the anticonvulsant drugs were stopped. spontaneous paroxysms of laughing similar to gelastic seizure, a particular form of focal epilepsy due to hypothalamic hamartoma or epilepsy of the frontal or temporal lobe, have only exceptionally been reported as a symptom of pnes. in a case report (mascia et al., 2015) are described the cases of two patients with a long story of laughter attacks mistaken for epilepsy and unresponsive to epileptic drugs. the report suggest that laughter may be a symptom of pnes in the context of a conversion disorder. establishing the causes of pnes, can help understand why they developed and what treatment might be effective. there are studies disclosing an abnormal cortical thickness in patients with functional disorders and somatoform and psychological dissociation, mainly in paralimbic cingular insula regions and in visual association areas (perez et al., 2017; perez et al., 2018). assessment and diagnosis in children with pnes there is no doubt about the importance of an early and correct diagnosis of pnes. diagnostic process is first based on an accurate clinical history. video-eeg is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis, though it is often time consuming and it does not always allow to record an ictal event. the interictal eeg may frequently show epileptic paroxysmal abnormalities which must be correctly interpreted. as for the diagnostic biomarkers, creatine kinase and serum prolactin levels are at list controversial. in a large study (ramanujam et al., 2018) regarding more than 700 patients, home videos resulted to efficiently endorse the video-eeg psychogenic seizures in adolescents: an “evergreen” diagnostic challenge francesca felicia operto, et al. 157 recordings in diagnosing pnes in about half the patients with a costeffective benefit and helping initiate an appropriate treatment. in this study, the authors indicate the criteria for labeling the home video recordings as pnes, for distinguishing non-convulsive and convulsive seizures, and for considering the five common semiological home video characteristics such as closing eyes, crying or screaming, difficult breathing and so on. in the diagnostic workup of psychogenic seizure, provocative techniques can be useful in some cases; they include intravenous saline infusion or a patch applied to the skin. it is also possible to consider verbal suggestion. while intravenous infusion can raise medico-legal concerns because they may be considered invasive, skin patch is much more appreciated. it is as well important to collect a detailed medical and clinical history of the patient that includes information from multiple sources (child, parents and school staff) (plioplys et al., 2007; valcea et al., 2016). immediately after completing the diagnostic process, some authors suggest to communicate the report first to the parents, in order to allow them to face their reactions before the information is given to the child (plioplys et al., 2007). clinicians should clearly explain the true nature of the symptoms and the role that stress or emotional factors may play in causing the events. when epilepsy is also present in children with pnes (kotagal et al., 2002) it is important that the symptoms of both disorders be communicated to the family. reviewing eeg videos can help diagnosing patients who have both conditions (wyllie et al., 1990). interventions for pnes in children when pnes is diagnosed, because it is not a seizure and no emergency treatment is required, the first goal is to ensure acceptance of the diagnosis. it is important that there is a transition from neurologist to psychologist and / or child psychiatrist and that there is no premature discharge of the patient as this could lead to greater resistance in accepting the diagnosis (kanner, 2003; plioplys et al., 2007; razvi et al., 2012). initially, putative precipitating stressors need to be identified and addressed so that pnes can be contained and managed. the short-term goals of treatment are to improve seizure severity, to cope with comorbid psychiatric disorders, to stop/change the use of the antiepileptic drugs (aeds) and to perform typical daily activities for the child. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 158 several studies suggest that pnes outcome may be better in children than in adults. this may be due to a shorter clinical history, to a less severe psychopathology and to a greater efficacy of early interventions (wyllie et al., 1990). possible interventions for patients with pnes include psychotherapy which aims to explain and discuss the problems associated with the origin of pnes, family counseling interventions, changes in the school environment and drug treatment. the latter may include anxyolytics and/or antidepressants; in case of a comorbid adhd disorder, methylphenidate may be also considered. the importance of psychotherapeutic intervention was demonstrated in a study by tolchin (2019) in which short-term psychotherapy, in more than 100 patients with pnes, wa associated with a significant clinical improvement in quality of life. another factor to consider is the coherence of the intervention which should involve families and all other professionals who care for the child, including pediatric, school and community services. a close cooperation between the medical team and the school teachers is essential to ensure the success of the intervention (plioplys et al., 2007) which should also be aimed at improving the child's academic performance and address relational difficulties with peers. any forms of bullying should also be prevented. conclusions pnes can be debilitating in childhood and lead to academic difficulties and significant psychopathological problems. furthermore, pnes can be harmful as well as epileptic seizures themselves. when epilepsy and pnes are comorbid, it is important to distinguish between them, even with the use of videotapes. for a greater likelihood of treatment success, it is important to have an early diagnosis of pnes followed by a psychoeducational intervention to the child, the family and the schoolteachers. psychotherapy should address previous co-occurring precipitating factors and, when necessary, a psychopharmacological treatment of concomitant mental and behavioral disorders should be considered. psychogenic seizures in adolescents: an “evergreen” diagnostic challenge francesca felicia operto, et al. 159 references achenbach, t. m. (1991). integrative guide for the cbcl/4-18, ysr and trf profiles. department of psychiatry, university of vermont. alhafez, l., & masri, a. (2019). school bullying: an increasinglyrecognizedetiology for psychogenic non-epilepticseizures: report of twocases. international journal of pediatrics and adolescent medicine, 6(4), 155-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpam.2019.05.007 american psychiatric association. (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifthedition. american psychiatric publishing. https:// doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 burlea, g., burlea, a. m., & milici, r. c. (2010). prevention and intervention in speech and language therapy for the success of lexicographical acquisitions. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 30, 86-100. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf coppola, g., pastorino, g. m. g., d’onofrio, f., morcaldi, l., & operto, f. f. (2020). psychogenic non-epileptic status as refractory, generalized hypertonic posturing: report of two adolescents. medicina (kaunas), 56(10), 508. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina561 00508 kanner, a. m. (2003). more controversies on the treatment of psychogenic pseudoseizures: an addendum. epilepsy & behavior, 4, 360–364. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1525-5050(03)00114-8 kim, s. h., kim, h., lim, b. c., chae, j.-h., kim, k. j., hwang, y. s., & hwang, h. (2012). paroxysmal nonepileptic events in pediatric patients confirmed by long-term video-eeg monitoring single tertiary center review of 143 patients. epilepsy & behavior, 24(3), 336– 340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2012.03.022 kotagal, p., costa, m., wyllie, e., &wolgamuth, b. (2002). paroxysmal nonepileptic events in children and adolescents. pediatrics, 110(4), e46. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.110.4.e46 lüders, h., fernandez-baca vaca, g., akamatsu, n., amina, s., arzimanoglou, a., baumgartner, c., benbadis, s. r., bleasel, a., bermeo-ovalle, a., bozorgi, a., carreño, m., devereaux, m., francione, s., losarcos, n. g., hamer, h., holthausen, h., jamalomidi, s., kalamangalam, g., kanner, a. m., knake, s., lacuey, n., lhatoo, s., lim, s. h., londoño, l. v., mani, j., matsumoto, r., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpam.2019.05.007 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina561%0b00508 https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina561%0b00508 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1525-5050(03)00114-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2012.03.022 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.110.4.e46 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 160 miller, j. p., noachtar, s., palmini, a., park, j., rosenow, f., shahid, a., schuele, s., steinhoff, b. j., ákos, szabó. c., tandon, n., terada, k., boas, w. v. e., widdess-walsh, p., & kahane, p. (2019). classification of paroxysmal events and the four-dimensional epilepsy classification system. epileptic disorders, 21, (1), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1684/epd.2019.1033 mascia, a., quarato, p. p., d’aniello, a., & di gennaro, g. (2015). psychogenic nonepileptic seizures mimicking gelastic seizures: a description of twocases. epilepsy & behavior case reports, 4, 67-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebcr.2015.06.003 patel, h., scott, e., dunn, d., & garg, b. (2007). non‐epilepticseizures in children. epilepsia, 48(11), 2086-2092. https://doi.org/10.1111/j. 1528-1167.2007.01200.x perez, d. l., matin, n., barsky, a., costumero-ramos, v., makaretz, s. j., young, s. s., sepulcre, j., lafrance, w. c. jr., keshavan, m. s., & dickerson, b. c. (2017). cingulo-insularstructuralalterationsassociated with psychogenicsymptoms, childhoodabuse and ptsd in functionalneurological disorders. journal of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry, 88(6), 491–497. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2016-3149 98 perez, d. l., matin, n., williams, b., tanev, k., makris, n., lafrance, jr., w. c., & dickerson, b. c. (2018). cortical thickness alterations linked to somatoform and psychological dissociation in functional neurological disorders. human brain mapping, 39(1), 428–439. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23853 plioplys, s., asato, m. r., bursch, b., salpekar, j. a., shaw, r., & caplan, r. (2007). multidisciplinary management of pediatric nonepileptic seizures. journal of the american academy of child & adolescent psychiatry, 46, 1491-1495. https://doi.org/10.1097/chi.0b013e31814dab98 ramanujam, b., dash, d., & tripathi, m. (2018). can home videos made on smartphones complement video-eeg in diagnos in psychogenic nonepileptic seizures? european journal of epilepsy 62, 95-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2018.10.003 razvi, s., mulhern, s., & duncan, r. (2012). newly diagnosed psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: health care demand prior to and following diagnosisat a first seizure clinic. epilepsy & behavior, 23(1), 7-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2011.10.009 https://doi.org/10.1684/epd.2019.1033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebcr.2015.06.003 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.%0b1528-1167.2007.01200.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.%0b1528-1167.2007.01200.x https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2016-3149%0b98 https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2016-3149%0b98 https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23853 https://doi.org/10.1097/chi.0b013e31814dab98 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2018.10.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2011.10.009 psychogenic seizures in adolescents: an “evergreen” diagnostic challenge francesca felicia operto, et al. 161 reilly, c., menlove, l., fenton, v., &das, k. b. (2013). psychogenic nonepileptic seizures in children: a review. epilepsia, 54(10), 1715174. https://doi.org/10.1111/epi.12336 salpekar, j. a., plioplys, s., siddarth, p., bursch, b., shaw, r. j., asato, m. r., lafrance, w. c. jr., weisbrot, d. m., dunn, d. w., austin, j. k., olson, d. m., & caplan, r. (2010). pediatric psychogenic nonepileptic crisi: a study of assessment tools. epilepsy & behavior, 17, 50-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2009.10.002 say, g. n., tasdemir, h. a., akbas, s., yuce, m., & karabekiroglu, k. (2014). self-esteem and psychiatric features of turkishadolescents with psychogenic non-epilepticseizures: a comparative study with epilepsy and healthy control groups. the international journal of psychiatry in medicine, 47, 41-53. https://doi.org/10.2190/pm.47.1.d tolchin, b., dworetzky, b., martino, s., blumenfeld, h., hirsch, l. j., &baslet, g. (2019). adherence with psychotherapy and treatment outcomes for psychogenic non epileptic seizures. neurology, 92(7), e675-e679. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000006848 valcea, l., bulgaru-iliescu, d., burlea, s. l., & ciubara, a. (2016). patient’s rights and communication in the hospital accreditation process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 55, 260-270. https://www. rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf verrotti, a., agostinelli, s., mohn, a., manco, r., coppola, g., franzoni, e., cerminara, c., parisi, p., iannetti, p., spalice, a., balestri, p., grosso, s., chiarelli, f., & curatolo, p. (2009). clinical features of psychogenic non‐epilepticseizures in prepubertal and pubertalpatients with idiopathicepilepsy. neurological sciences, 30(4), 319-323. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-009-0107-x walker, l. s., garber, j., & green, j. w. (1991). somatization symptoms in pediatric abdominal pain patients: relation to chronicity of abdominal pain and parent somatization. journal of abnormal child psychology, 19, 379–394. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00919084 walker, l. s., beck, j. e., garber, j., & lambert, w. (2009). children's somatization inventory: psychometric properties of the revised form (csi-24). journal of pediatric psychology, 34(4), 430–440. https://doi. org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsn093 wyllie, e., friedman, d., rothner, a. d., luders, h., dinner, d., morris, h. 3 rd , cruse, r., erenberg, g., & kotagal, p. (1990). psychogenicshttps://doi.org/10.1111/epi.12336 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2009.10.002 https://doi.org/10.2190/pm.47.1.d https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000006848 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-009-0107-x https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00919084 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 162 eizures in children and adolescents: outcome after diagnosis by ictal video and electroencephalographic recording. pediatrics, 85, 480–484. yi, y.y., kim, h.d., lee, j.s., cheon, k.a., & kang, h.c. (2014). psychologicalproblems and clinicaloutcomes of children with psychogenic non‐epilepticseizures. yonseimedical journal, 55(6), 1556– 1561. https://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2014.55.6.1556 https://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2014.55.6.1556 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 246-258 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/282 corrective support in the context of psychological assistance to children with psychophysical disorders hanna afuzova¹, zoya ogorodniychuk2, dmytro usyk3, iryna omelchenko4, vadym kobylchenko5, myroslav fedorenko6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, gvafuzova@gmail.com 2 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, zogorodniychuk@gmail.com 3 sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s.makarenko, ukraine, ysukdmitriy@gmail.com 4 mykola yarmachenko institute of special pedagogy and psychology, the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, iraomel210781@ukr.net 5 mykola yarmachenko institute of special pedagogy and psychology, the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, vadimvk@ukr.net 6 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, mf16@ukr.net abstract: the relevance of our research is due to the need to improve the system of training specialists in the field of special psychology, due to the fact that the applied tasks of special psychology is the training of highly qualified and competitive specialists to work with persons with psychophysical disorders. this will positively affect the quality of their future professional activities in correctional support in educational and rehabilitation institutions, especially in the conditions of the transition period to inclusive education. the leading place in the system of psychological assistance to children with psychophysical disabilities is occupied by psycho-correctional support, especially in the context of the transition of modern special education to social integration and inclusive education of persons with psychophysical disabilities. the effectiveness of psycho-correctional support will depend on the psychological readiness of future psychologists for professional interaction with this category of people. first of all, the immediate tasks of psychological correctional support for children with psychophysical disabilities are their psychosocial adaptation. at the stage of integration of a child with mental and physical disabilities through inclusion in the circle of peers with a normal level of development, the psychological support of families who upbringing such children is also especially important. the stimulating function of a professional orientation, which ensures professional and personal stability, is clearly actualized during corrective support for children with psychophysical disabilities, regardless of the negative impact of external factors. keywords: special psychology, psychophysical disorders, training, rehabilitation institutions, inclusive education, future psychologists, psychosocial adaptation. how to cite: afuzova, h., ogorodniychuk, z., usyk, d., omelchenko, i., kobylchenko, v., & fedorenko, m. (2022). corrective support in the context of psychological assistance to children with psychophysical disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 246-258. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/282 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/282 mailto:gvafuzova@gmail.com mailto:zogorodniychuk@gmail.com mailto:ysukdmitriy@gmail.com mailto:iraomel210781@ukr.net mailto:vadimvk@ukr.net mailto:mf16@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/282 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 247 introduction the un declaration on social development proclaimed new conceptual principles that emphasize the need for the development of modern society based on tolerance, forbearance, condemnation of discrimination, respect for personal identity, equality of opportunities, etc. these provisions are the basis of the main goal of social development the creation of such a society that will be able to provide protection and full integration into society of all segments of the population, including persons with disabilities. such integration into society opens the way for the realization of rights and opportunities for the above-mentioned persons on an equal basis with healthy people. since the 90s, the theory of inclusion inclusion has been defined as the leading model of modern public and social relations towards persons with disabilities, in particular, towards children with psychophysical disabilities (arkes h.r., 1982; д.андерс (2000), stroianovska o., 2020; sheremet, 2019; behas, 2019; bezliudnyi, 2019; et al.). this theory is based on the recognition and respect of individual human differences, and also assumes the preservation of the relative autonomy of each social group, and the ideas and style of behavior that inherent in the traditionally dominant group have to be modified based on the pluralism of customs and opinions (bondar v.i., 2007 ). the focus of this model of social behavior is autonomy, participation in social activities, the creation of a system of social binds and the acceptance of each individual by society without restrictions. at the present stage of development, society has come to recognize and affirm the right of persons with psychophysical development to full participation in public life and tries to realize the need to create conditions for the full realization of this right, a.a. kolupaeva (2007). m.k. sheremet (2007) believes that against the background of international discussions on topical problems of education and upbringing of children with psychophysical disorders, the acute and first of all the task is to "improve the quality of psychological and pedagogical assistance to this category of children, create services for early detection and early assistance (early intervention), ensuring inclusive education, organizing and training specialists who will work in new conditions and in a new system of values ". accordingly, today there is an urgent need for highly professional and competent specialists who are able to ensure the full social adaptation of such persons, to promote their integration into society by introducing an early intervention system and inclusive education. in difficult public and corrective support in the context of psychological assistance to children with … hanna afuzova, et al. 248 social realities, a child with impaired psychophysical development vitally needs psychocorrectional support from an educated specialist. the relevance of our research is due to the need to improve the system of training specialists in the field of special psychology, due to the fact that the applied tasks of special psychology is the training of highly qualified and competitive specialists to work with persons with psychophysical disorders. this will positively affect the quality of their future professional activities in correctional support in educational and rehabilitation institutions, especially in the conditions of the transition period to inclusive education. in modern conditions, the increase in the status and role of specialists in the field of special psychology is largely determined by the level of their professional competence. for the convenience of presenting the results of the study, we consider it necessary to call such specialists as special psychologists, although such a specialty is not indicated in the state classifier of professions of ukraine. in ukraine, only the institute of correctional pedagogy and psychology of the national pedagogical university named after mp drahomanov has been training a special psychologist since 2005. the main task of his professional activity is to conduct screening diagnostics and differential diagnosis of children both in secondary schools and in special educational and rehabilitation institutions in order to identify the current level of psychophysical abilities of the child, their specifics and make a forecast for further development. also an increase in a person's mental resources, his adaptive capabilities, aimed at harmonizing mental development, health protection, overcoming ailments and psychological rehabilitation. currently, at the stage of ukraine's formation as a state of the european level, an acute problem is to improve the system of training special psychologists in order to increase the level of their professional orientation, since for a long time the educational and rehabilitation system of ukraine, which served people with mental and physical disabilities, was provided by workers who did not always have had the appropriate specialized vocational training. it is clear that this negatively affected the quality and efficiency of the correctional and rehabilitation process. today the social need for the development of initiative, creative, business qualities of special psychologists is acutely aware, which involves strengthening the creative components of their training. a modern specialist in the field of special psychology needs new conceptual thinking, which will encourage him to contemplate the processes of mental ontogenesis and dysontogenesis, socialization and education of persons with psychophysical disorders and will provide a high quality of professional activity. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 249 psychological assistance to children with developmental problems as an important link in the system of their habilitation and rehabilitation psychological assistance to children with developmental problems as an important link in the system of their habilitation and rehabilitation. in modern conditions, the psychological support of the educational process in correctional education and rehabilitation institutions becomes especially important. such prominent scientists as v.i. bondar (2007), l.m. grechko (2008) and others draw the community's attention to this. i.i. mamaichuk (2001) considers psychological assistance to children with psychophysical disabilities as a complex system of psychological and rehabilitation influences which aimed at increasing social activity, developing independence, strengthening the social position of the personality of a child with developmental disabilities, the formation of a system of value attitudes and orientation, development intellectual processes that correspond to the mental and physical capabilities of the child. this complex multi-level system includes not only psycho-correctional and psycho-counseling work, but also psychological follow-up, psychological support, psychological prognostics aimed at effort both for the child and for his family as a whole and her social environment. the main goal of psychological assistance to children with psychophysical disabilities is the harmonization of their personal and intellectual potential, correction of existing disorders in mental development, prevention of possible developmental deviations caused by both the internal specifics of mental dysontonegesis and external conditions. it is important to solve such problems as the elimination of secondary personal reactions to an existing mental or physical defect, an inadequate style of family education, hospitalism, etc. (mamaichuk, 2001). in other words, psychological assistance to a disabled child should contribute to the development of such a child as a participant in a complex social space and ensure his readiness and the ability to live among people of different social communities, freely, actively and fully realizing himself. an important part of psychological assistance to children and adolescents with developmental problems is psychological correctional support. there are many approaches to understanding this concept, and the question of the need for psychological support within the psychotherapy, age-related psychological counseling, family counseling, medical psychology, etc. is also relevant. analysis of the literature allows us to highlight the following areas of its study. psychological support is considered as a determinant of personality development in culture (brushlinsky 1991; corrective support in the context of psychological assistance to children with … hanna afuzova, et al. 250 vygotsky 1982); as emotional and moral support (rogers, 1984; soloviov, 2010); as an element of psychosocial assistance (ailamazyan, 1999; abramova, 2000), etc. according to the research of t.o. bozhenko (2009) in the scientific literature, psychological support is understood as a certain system of scientifically based means and methods which lead to selfdetermination of the individual in the process of forming his abilities, value orientations and self-awareness. the implementation of psychological support occurs due to the optimization of the psychological state of a person in the development process due to the complete solution or decrease in the relevance of psychological problems that impede the process of socialization and self-realization at each stage of the life path. psychological support according to the law of ukraine “on rehabilitation of the disabled in ukraine” (№ 3235-iv of december 20, 2005) (http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?page=2&nreg= 2961-15, 2005) – it is "a system of socio-psychological, psychological and pedagogical means and methods of helping a person in order to optimize her psycho-emotional state in the process of forming abilities and selfawareness, promoting social and professional self-determination, increasing competitiveness in the labor market and direction a person's efforts to the realization of their own professional career ". according to the "regulations on vocational guidance and psychological support of the population in the russian federation" (www.humanities.edu.ru/db/msg/56885, 1996) psychological support is carried out by optimizing the psychological state of a person as a result of the complete resolution or reduction of the topicality of psychological problems, that prevent labor, professional, social selfrealization at each stage of life of an individual, small groups, groups, formal and informal associations of people. the main areas of psychological support are: 1) psychological prevention promoting the full mental development of the individual, small and large groups, prevention of possible personal and interpersonal problems of ill-being and socio-psychological conflicts, including the development of recommendations for improving the socio-psychological conditions for self-realization of the individual, small groups and collectives, taking into account the existing socio-economic relations; 2) psychological counseling providing assistance to the individual in his self-knowledge, adequate self-esteem and adaptation in real life, the formation of the valuemotivational sphere, overcoming crisis situations and achieving emotional stability, contributes to continuous personal growth and self-development; 3) psychological correction an active psychological and pedagogical http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?page=2&nreg=%0b2961-15 http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?page=2&nreg=%0b2961-15 http://www.humanities.edu.ru/db/msg/56885 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 251 influence aimed at overcoming deviations in mental and personal development, harmonization of personality and interpersonal relations. in modern society, psychological support is carried out in order to provide psychological support for the free and harmonious development of the personality at all stages of its formation and self-realization; preventing the development of negative trends in human psychology, overcoming the difficulties of personal growth, correcting behavior disorders, overcoming conflict situations in relationships. the main methods of psychological support include psychological education; psychological and psychotherapeutic counseling; psychological diagnosis; psychological training; psychological correction and other individual and group methods of psychological work. in modern science, the following leading directions of psychological support can be distinguishe which based on an understanding of its content: social adaptation, which includes adaptation to reality, the development of the ability to control one's life under various circumstances, both favorable and unfavorable (b. lenner-axelson 1995); determination together with the child of his own interests and goals, opportunities and ways to overcome obstacles that prevent his from maintain his own human dignity and independently achieving the desired results in self-education, communication, lifestyle (a.g. asmolov 1983, i.d.bekh 2003, o.s. gazman 1995, et al.); support of the individual in the learning process, based on the stimulation of cognitive activity, determining opportunities to independently achieve the desired results in learning (o.s. gazman 1995, a.a. kolupaeva 2007, et al.); socialization and personal growth, which provide for further favorable social and personal development (k. mclaughlin 2013, et al.); assistance in the formation and development of personality, self-realization and self-actualization (a.g. asmolov 1983, i.s. bulakh 2003, s.d. maksimenko 2003, et al.). psychological correctional support for children with mental and physical disabilities at the stage of integration of a child with mental and physical disabilities through inclusion in the circle of peers with a normal level of development, the psychological support of families who upbringing such children is also especially important. we consider it necessary to disclose in more detail these leading tasks of psycho-correctional support. an urgent problem of education and upbringing of children with psychophysical disabilities is their integration into society in accordance with corrective support in the context of psychological assistance to children with … hanna afuzova, et al. 252 certain international legislative documents and laws of ukraine (un convention "on the rights of the child", universal declaration "education for all", salaman declaration, un convention on persons with special needs, the law of ukraine "on education", "on child protection", "on the basics of social protection of disabled people in ukraine", "on the rehabilitation of disabled people in ukraine", etc.), as well as the rights of every child to life, protection, education, etc. but, as modern leading scientists in the field of defectology note, in the system of domestic special education today, the equality of the rights to education of persons with psychophysical disabilities is not fully satisfied, and existing educational services often do not correspond to the needs, personal and social needs of such persons (v.i. bondar 2007, v.v. zasenko 2007, a.a. kolupaeva 2007, et al.) taking this into account, modern correctional education is faced with the task of improving and developing new social and educational areas, among which inclusive education is promising. the problem of integration and socialization of persons with psychophysical disabilities and the issues of inclusion in education have been studied by many scientists: v.i.bondar (2007), v.v. zasenko (2007), yu.m. naida (2008), l.m. shipitsina ( 2004) and others. inclusive education is a form of social integration. according to the conclusion of n.z.sofyi (2007) and yu.m. naida (2008), inclusive education is a system of educational services that is based on the principle of ensuring the fundamental right of children to education, and also differentiates the educational process, responding to the needs of students of all groups and categories, including children with psychophysical disabilities in general educational institutions. in any form, inclusive education provides for the mandatory guidance of both a teacher-defectologist and the direct participation of a special psychologist, because in order to include children with psychophysical disabilities in the educational process with groups of healthy peers, it requires early diagnosis, special training, maximum correctional psychological and pedagogical support, parental assistance , as well as appropriate equipment and special methods of rehabilitation. the integration of children into a team of healthy peers contributes to their socialization, mastering the skills necessary for life in society. healthy children also gain new experiences: they learn to understand and accept other people, to empathize with children who have problems, to help them overcome difficulties. based on the research on inclusive education, l.m. grechko (2008) formulated criteria for assessing the possibility of a child with psychophysical disabilities staying in a general education school, namely: the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 253 child should feel comfortable and not be limited in satisfaction of their social and personal needs; the child must study according to the program available to him; the institution must ensure the optimal psychophysical development of the child; the institution must organize comprehensive psychological, medical and special pedagogical assistance to the child, aimed at eliminating or reducing the deficiency of psychophysical disabilities and preventing the occurrence of secondary and tertiary defects. in our opinion, focusing on the study of inclusive education aa kolupaeva (2007), psychological correctional support for children with mental and physical disabilities should focus on the following principles: guaranteed psycho-correctional support and rehabilitation assistance for children with mental and physical disabilities and their families; accessibility and equal rights of children to early support and education, regardless of the degree of disability, age, social status, etc.; individual approach to each child and differentiation of the provision of psycho-correctional support; cooperation of a family that is upbringing a child and specialists providing psychological correctional support. we agree with the opinion of ii mamaychuk (2001) that in working with such children, psychological correctional support should be provided in two main areas: first, it is the support of children and adolescents with developmental disabilities, and secondly, the support of parents and the immediate environment of such children. we consider psychological correctional support of parents and the entourage of a child with psychophysical disabilities as a system of measures aimed at reducing emotional discomfort in connection with the child's illness and the need to interact with such a child; strengthening confidence in the child's abilities; formation of an adequate attitude to the problems of the child; estimating adequate relationships and styles of family education. in our opinion, considering the correctional support of children with psychophysical disabilities, it is important to note that all nosological groups of disorders in psychophysical development have common regularity of mental development. this statement was put forward by famous scientists such as v.i. lubovsky (2005), v.m. sorokin (2003), o.m. usanova (2006) and others. the main ones are: reduction of the level of development (cognitive, personal, speech, motor, etc.); deformation of the social situation of development; difficulties of social adaptation; changes in personality development; reduction of tolerance to external stressors; limited compensatory personal and behavioral capabilities; violation of communication; slowing down the consolidation of life experience; the corrective support in the context of psychological assistance to children with … hanna afuzova, et al. 254 presence of potential development opportunities, but subject to the possibility of improving functions to a certain level; decreased activity, etc.. in the process of psychological correctional support for children with psychophysical disabilities, assistance is provided in compensating for existing deficiencies of psychophysical development, as well as in the formation of adequate self-esteem, the level of ambitions, communication skills, in overcoming personality disorders and disorders of the emotional sphere, etc. that is, psychological correctional support is an integral part of the process of socialization of children with psychophysical developmental disorders, their integration into society, especially at the stage of inclusive education among peers with normal development. psychological correctional support should provide children with psychophysical disabilities with conditions for overcoming and compensating for disabilities and should be aimed at creating opportunities for them to participate in the life of society, equal with other citizens. the process of implementation of psychological correctional support is long and requires a mandatory comprehensive approach, involving all professionals working with the child: a special psychologist, special education teacher, doctor, social worker, etc. however, the main role in this process belongs to the psychologist, who, depending on the existing problems, develops specific measures aimed at psychological correctional support for children with psychophysical disorders and their parents. the effectiveness of psychological correctional support largely depends not only on the level of professional qualification of the psychologist, but also on his personal characteristics (yefimova s. 2002; zabramnaya s. 2004). now in ukraine, a purposeful search is underway for ways to include children with psychophysical disabilities in the institutions of the general education system. as domestic scientists note, the relevance and significance of this work is very important, since psychological correctional support and rehabilitation of children with psychophysical developmental disorders, the creation of conditions for their successful social and psychophysiological adaptation, the development of their vital competence is a fundamental sign of democratic education and public life (v.i. bondar 2007, v.v. zasenko 2007, m.k. sheremet 2007, et al.) conclusions in the system of psychological assistance to children with psychophysical disabilities, psycho-correctional support occupies a leading place, especially in the context of the transition period of modern special brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 255 education to social integration and inclusive education of persons with psychophysical disabilities. the effectiveness of psycho-correctional support will depend on the psychological readiness of future psychologists for professional interactions with this category of persons. first of all, the tasks at hand of psychological correctional support for children with psychophysical disabilities are their psychosocial adaptation. psychological support for families upbringing such children is also important, especially at the stage of integration of a child with psychophysical disabilities through inclusion in the circle of peers with a normal level of development. when providing correctional support to children with psychophysical disabilities, the stimulating function of a professional orientation is clearly updated, which ensures professional and personal stability regardless of the negative impact of external factors and also determines its leading role in training psychologists to work with the above category of children. references abramova, g.s. (2000). psikhologicheskoye konsul'tirovaniye: teoriya i opyt [psychological counseling: theory and experience]: a textbook for students of higher pedagogical educational institutions. academia. https://www.studmed.ru/abramova-gs-psihologicheskoe-konsultirovanieteoriya-i-opyt_edb94124496.html ailamazyan, a.m. (1999). metod besedy v psikhologii [the method of conversation in psychology]. m. http://biblioteka.teatrobraz.ru/files/file/ritorika/metod_besedyi_v_psihologi.pdf andrews, j., lupart, j. (2000). the inclusive classroom: educating exceptional children (2nd edition). scarborough, on: nelson canada, 561 p. arkes, h.r. (1982). psychological theories of motivation. monterey. asmolov, a. g. (1983). o predmete psikhologii lichnosti [on the subject of personality psychology]. questions of psychology, 3, 119 125. https://asmolovpsy.ru/ru/publications/4 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v. maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf bekh, i. d. (2003). osobystisno-oriyentovanyy pidkhid : teoretyko-tekhnolohichni zasady) [personality-oriented approach: theoretical and technological principles]. lybid. http://www.library.univer.kharkov.ua/opacunicode/index.php?url=/not ices/index/idnotice:205014/source:default https://www.studmed.ru/abramova-gs-psihologicheskoe-konsultirovanie-teoriya-i-opyt_edb94124496.html https://www.studmed.ru/abramova-gs-psihologicheskoe-konsultirovanie-teoriya-i-opyt_edb94124496.html http://biblioteka.teatr-obraz.ru/files/file/ritorika/metod_besedyi_v_psihologi.pdf http://biblioteka.teatr-obraz.ru/files/file/ritorika/metod_besedyi_v_psihologi.pdf https://asmolovpsy.ru/ru/publications/4 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf http://www.library.univer.kharkov.ua/opacunicode/index.php?url=/notices/index/idnotice:205014/source:default http://www.library.univer.kharkov.ua/opacunicode/index.php?url=/notices/index/idnotice:205014/source:default corrective support in the context of psychological assistance to children with … hanna afuzova, et al. 256 bezliudnyi o., kravchenko o., maksymchuk b., mishchenko m., maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 230, 1585. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf bondar, v. i. (2007). istoriya olihofrenopedahohiky [history of oligophrenic pedagogy]: znannya. https://www.studmed.ru/bondar-v-zolotoverh-v-v-stor-ya-olgofrenopedagog-ki_90fe2a6b436.html bozhenko, t. a. (2009). ispol'zovaniye tekhnologii psikhologicheskoy podderzhki kak sredstva razvitiya doshkol'nikov v protsesse inoyazychnogo obrazovaniya [use of technology of psychological support as a means of development of preschoolers in the process of foreign language education]: thesis abstract for the degree of candidate of pedagogical sciences: specialty 13.00.02 "theory and methods of teaching and upbringing" / t.a. bozhenko. nizhny novgorod. http://www.dslib.net/teoria-vospitania/ispolzovanietehnologii-psihologicheskoj-podderzhki-kak-sredstva-razvitija.html brushlinsky, a.v. (1991). problema sub'yekta v psikhologii [the problem of the subject in psychology]. psychological journal, 12(6), 3-11. http://testmetod.ru/index.php/stati/136-problema-subekta-v-psikhologicheskojnauke-a-v-brushlinskij bulakh, i. s. (2003). psykholohiya osobystisnoho zrostannya pidlitka [psychology of personal growth of a teenager]: [monograph]. national pedagogical university named after m.p. dragomanov. http://journals.uran.ua/index.php/2227-6246/article/view/162014 gazman, o.s. (1995). ot avtoritarnogo obrazovaniya k pedagogike svobody [from authoritarian education to pedagogy of freedom]. novyye tsennosti obrazovaniya, 2, 16-45. grechko, l. m. (2008). psykholohichnyy suprovid ditey molodshoho shkilʹnoho viku z vadamy psykhofizychnoho rozvytku v umovakh intehrovanoho navchannya [psychological support of primary school children with defects of psychophysical development in terms of integrated learning: dissertation abstract for the degree of сandidate of psychological sciences: 19.00.08 "special psychology" / l.m. grechko. kamyanets-podilsky, p. 20. http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichnyi-suprovid-ditej-molodshohoshkilnoho-viku-z-vadamy-psykhofizychnoho.html kolupaeva, a. a. (2007) pedahohichni osnovy intehruvannya shkolyariv z osoblyvostyamy psykhofizychnoho rozvytku u zahalʹnoosvitni navchalʹni zaklady [pedagogical bases of integration of schoolboys with features of psychophysical development in general educational institutions]. pedahohichna dumka. http://www.disslib.org/pedahohichni-osnovy-intehruvannja-shkoljariv-zosoblyvostjamy-psykhofizychnoho-rozvytku.html http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf https://www.studmed.ru/bondar-v-zolotoverh-v-v-stor-ya-ol-gofrenopedagog-ki_90fe2a6b436.html https://www.studmed.ru/bondar-v-zolotoverh-v-v-stor-ya-ol-gofrenopedagog-ki_90fe2a6b436.html http://www.dslib.net/teoria-vospitania/ispolzovanie-tehnologii-psihologicheskoj-podderzhki-kak-sredstva-razvitija.html http://www.dslib.net/teoria-vospitania/ispolzovanie-tehnologii-psihologicheskoj-podderzhki-kak-sredstva-razvitija.html http://test-metod.ru/index.php/stati/136-problema-subekta-v-psikhologicheskoj-nauke-a-v-brushlinskij http://test-metod.ru/index.php/stati/136-problema-subekta-v-psikhologicheskoj-nauke-a-v-brushlinskij http://test-metod.ru/index.php/stati/136-problema-subekta-v-psikhologicheskoj-nauke-a-v-brushlinskij http://journals.uran.ua/index.php/2227-6246/article/view/162014 http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichnyi-suprovid-ditej-molodshoho-shkilnoho-viku-z-vadamy-psykhofizychnoho.html http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichnyi-suprovid-ditej-molodshoho-shkilnoho-viku-z-vadamy-psykhofizychnoho.html http://www.disslib.org/pedahohichni-osnovy-intehruvannja-shkoljariv-z-osoblyvostjamy-psykhofizychnoho-rozvytku.html http://www.disslib.org/pedahohichni-osnovy-intehruvannja-shkoljariv-z-osoblyvostjamy-psykhofizychnoho-rozvytku.html brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 257 law of ukraine “on rehabilitation of the disabled in ukraine”: october 6, 2005 / verkhovna rada of ukraine http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgibin/laws/main.cgi?page=2&nreg=2961-15. lenner-axelson b., tyulefors m. (1995). psikhosotsial'naya pomoshch' naseleniyu [psychosocial assistance to the population]. translated from swedish / b. lenner axelson, m. tyulefors. institute of social work. lubovsky, v. i. (2005). spetsial'naya psikhologiya [special psychology]: textbook [for students of higher pedagogical educational institutions]. academia. https://www.studmed.ru/lubovskiy-vi-specialnaya-psihologiya-uchebnoeposobie_7cf0f46cf63.html maksymenko, s. (2003). hotovnistʹ uchnya do profilʹnoho navchannya [readiness of the student for profile training]. mikros-svs. mamaichuk, i. i. (2001) psikhologicheskaya pomoshch' detyam s problemami v razvitii [psychological assistance to children with developmental problems]. rech. http://pedlib.ru/books/3/0332/3_0332-1.shtml mclaughlin, c. (2013). teachers learning: professional development and education. cambridge university press. naida, yu. m. (2008). inklyuzyvna osvita: pershyy krok do rozuminnya [inclusive education: the first step to understanding]. dytyachyy sadok., 39, 4 5. regulations on vocational guidance and psychological support of the population in the russian federation: september 26, 1996 / ministry of labor and social development of the russian federation www.humanities.edu.ru/db/msg/56885. rojers, k.r. (1984). empatiya. psikhologiya emotsiy [empathy. psychology of emotions]. moscow state university. https://www.psyoffice.ru/8/psichology/book_o255_page_20.html sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sheremet, m. k. (2007). problemy ta perspektyvy spetsialʹnoyi osvity / korektsiyna pedahohika [problems and prospects of special education. correctional pedagogy]. bulletin of the ukrainian association of correctional teachers, 1, 14. shipitsyna, l. m. (2004). integratsiya detey s ogranichennymi vozmozhnostyami zdorov'ya. l. m. shipitsyna. [integration of children with disabilities]. vospitaniye i obucheniye detey s narusheniyami razvitiya [education and training of children with developmental disorders], 2, 7 9. sofyi, n. z. (2007) kontseptualʹni aspekty inklyuzyvnoyi osvity [conceptual aspects of inclusive education] in n. z. sofyi, yu. m. nayda. inklyuzyvna shkola: osoblyvosti orhanizatsiyi ta upravlinnya. [inclusive school: features of http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?page=2&nreg=2961-15 http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?page=2&nreg=2961-15 https://www.studmed.ru/lubovskiy-vi-specialnaya-psihologiya-uchebnoe-posobie_7cf0f46cf63.html https://www.studmed.ru/lubovskiy-vi-specialnaya-psihologiya-uchebnoe-posobie_7cf0f46cf63.html http://pedlib.ru/books/3/0332/3_0332-1.shtml http://www.humanities.edu.ru/db/msg/56885 https://www.psyoffice.ru/8/psichology/book_o255_page_20.html https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 corrective support in the context of psychological assistance to children with … hanna afuzova, et al. 258 organization and management: educational-methodical manual] (p. 128). http://www.ussf.kiev.ua/iearticles/72/ soloviev, v. s. (2010). chteniya o bogochelovechestve [readings on god-manhood] / vladimir sergeevich soloviev / edition, introductory article and comments by s.p. zaikin. publishing group "azbuka-klassika". http://lib.ru/hristian/solowiew/chteniya.txt sorokin, v. m. (2003). spetsial'naya psikhologiya [special psychology]. v. m. sorokin / under the scientific editorship of l. m. shipitsyna. rech. stroianovska, o., dolynska, l., shevchenko, n., andriiashyna, n., melnyk, i., & tsybuliak, n. (2020) the influence of the professional orientation of students of different gender on their ideas of happiness. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 51-71. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/323 4 usanova, o.n. (2006). spetsial'naya psikhologiya [special psychology]. piter. vygotsky, l.s. (1982) sobraniye sochineniy: v 6-ti tomakh [collected works: in 6 volumes] / edited by a.r. luria, m.g. yaroshevsky. pedagogika, (academy of pedagogical sciences of the ussr). http://elib.gnpbu.ru/text/vygotsky_ss-v-6tt_t2_1982/fs,1/ yefimova, s. (2002). rolʹ shkilʹnoho psykholoha u protsesi zaluchennya ditey z osoblyvymy potrebamy do navchannya v zahalʹnoosvitnikh shkolakh / s. yefimova, o. olishevska // dydaktychni ta sotsialʹno-psykholohichni aspekty korektsiynoyi roboty u spetsialʹniy shkoli [the role of school psychologist in the process of involment children with special needs to study in secondary schools. s. yefimova, o. olishevska. didactic and socio-psychological aspects of correctional work in a special school: scientific and methodical collection]. v.i. bondar, v.v. zasenko (ed.), 4, (p. 99 – 105). zabramnaya, s. d. (2004). programma izucheniya rebenka razlichnymi spetsialistami [program for the study of a child by various specialists]. vospitaniye i obucheniye detey s narusheniyami razvitiya [education and training of children with developmental disabilities], 3, 63 66. zasenko, v. v. (2007). proekt polozhennya pro orhanizatsiyu intehrovanoho navchannya ditey z osoblyvymy potrebamy v zahalʹnoosvitnikh (doshkilʹnykh) navchalʹnykh zakladakh. v. v. zasenko. rozvytok modelʹnykh tsentriv inklyuzyvnoyi osvity dlya ditey z osoblyvymy potrebamy [regulations project on the organization of integrated education of children with special needs in secondary (preschool) educational institutions. v.v. zasenko. development of model centers of inclusive education for children with special needs: information collection]. zasenko, n.z. sophyi, (eds.). all-ukrainian foundation “step by step”. pe prydatchenko p. m. http://www.ussf.kiev.ua/iearticles/72/ http://lib.ru/hristian/solowiew/chteniya.txt https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/3234 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/3234 http://elib.gnpbu.ru/text/vygotsky_ss-v-6tt_t2_1982/fs,1/ microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 94 des résumés en français brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cerveau. recherche large en intelligence artificielle et neurosciences volume 1, numéro 3 juillet 2010: «un heureux été!!» www.brain.edusoft.ro sous la direction de: bogdan pătruţ 1. le moteur à rôle dynamique et le contrôle de formation pour les agents de coopération avec l’ algorithme de la prise de décision robuste s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei, mohsen taheri résumé robocup est une compétition internationale pour la recherche multi-agent et les sujets connexes comme: l'intelligence artificielle, le traitement d'image, l'apprentissage automatique, la planification de la trajectoire du robot, le contrôle et d'évitement d'obstacles. dans un jeu de football avec des robots, l'environnement est très compétitif et dynamique. afin de travailler dans un environnement variable du point de vue du dynamisme et de l’évolution, le système de prise de décision d'un système robotisé d’un footballeur devrait avoir les caractéristiques de flexibilité et d'adaptation en temps réel. dans cet article nous allons faire le point sur la middle size league soccer robot (la ligue des robots-joueurs de football de taille moyenne). on y expose de nouvelles méthodes floues concernant l’hybride hiérarchique pour la prise de décision et de sélection des actions d'un robot dans la middle size league soccer robot (msl). tout d'abord, les comportements d'un agent sont introduites, implémentés et classés sur deux niveaux, les comportements de niveau bas et les comportements de haut niveau . au deuxième niveau, on introduit un mécanisme en deux phases pour la prise de décision est introduite. dans la première phase, certaines méthodes utiles sont implementées et celles-ci contrôlent la disponibilité du robot pour réaliser les actions requises. dans la phase suivante on introduit la stratégie de l'équipe, sa formation, le rôle du robot et un système de positionnement du robot. on utilise une approche logique floue afin de reconnaître la stratégie de l'équipe et encore d’autres choses pour pouvoir ainsi dire au joueur la meilleure position à adapter. nous croyons qu’une équipe qui veut gagner a besoin d’un moteur à rôle dynamique. celui-ci, associé au contrôle de la formation pendant le jeu offensif ou défensif nous aident à prévenir les collisions entre les propres joueurs lors de « l' attaque » du ballon et à éviter les opposants. enfin, l’implementation du notre algorithme dans la robocup 2007 et 2008 a apporté des résultats qui montrent l'efficacité de la méthodologie introduite. les résultats sont satisfaisants et l’implementation a déjà été faite avec succès aussi au niveau de l’ équipe adro robocup. 2. extraction logique de la structure néo-cortex ronald j. swallow résumé le potentiel post-synaptique d'un neurone a été longtemps connu comme étant une corrélation qui existe entre un modèle de fréquence axonale d'entrée et de connexion du potentiel synaptique excitateur. pour que les corrélations soient utiles, elles doivent pouvoir être comparées et normalisées (la covariance des forces de connexion doit être constante pour toutes les corrélations). on a analysé un de neurones biologiquement faisable (réseau de n neurones excitateurs interagissant avec un neurone inhibiteur) et une règle pavlovienne très simple utilisé pour la variation de la force de connexion (même règle pour les neurones excitateurs et inhibiteurs). et on a des résumés en français 95 été surpris par le fait que les d’un tel réseau sont en mesure de comparer leurs corrélations de manière normalisée. en outre, le réseau a presenté une meilleure tendance vers l'apprentissage des nouveaux modèles d'entrée que vers les anciens modèles d'entrée, ce qui explique la curiosité du cerveau pour l’agrandissement et la réduction de la plasticité de la mémoire permanente avec l'âge. 3. la relation entre les personnes passant le test intelligences multiples et leurs performances dans les sections de lecture (reading) de toefl et de l’ielts minoo alemi, marzieh bagherkazemi résumé la présente étude vise à examiner la relation hypothétique entre les intelligences multiples des personnes qui passent ces épreuves et leurs performances dans les sections de lecture de toefl et de l’ielts. la théorie de howard gardner sur les intelligences multiples affirme que l'intelligence n'est pas une capacité unique et inné, mais plutôt une construction multiple qui n'est que partiellement génétique et qui peut être cristallisée ou paralysée au cours de la vie de quelqu’un. il y a huit types d'intelligence fondés sur cette théorie: linguistique, mathématique, musicale, corporelle, spatiale, intrapersonnelle, interpersonnelle et naturaliste, et la liste peut continuer. les intelligences multiples des personnes qui passent ces épreuves ont été estimés par le biais de midas, the multiple intelligences developmental assessment scales (échelles d'évaluation des intelligences multiples en suivant leur développement), expliqués par shearer (1994). par la suite, la détection bias portant sur la section de lecture de toefl a été menée sur 90 participants, et ce sous-test s'est avéré à corréler positivement avec les intelligences linguistiques et logiques. de même, 89 des 163 participants à l'étude ont été inclus dans l'analyse de la relation entre les intelligences multiples des personnes passant cette épreuve et leur performance dans la section de lecture de l'ielts, et ce test a prouvé des tendances vers les intelligences linguistiques et spatiales. les implications concernent l’insuffisance de la définition sur la maîtrise de la langue. en outre, les cours sur les instructions measurement-driven et le matériel de préparation des deux épreuves de compétences, toefl et ielts, peuvent bénéficier des résultats de l'étude en étant conçues ultérieurement de telle façon à représenter les intelligences qui sont corrélées positivement avec la performance aux épreuves en question. 4. ekg par carte son gheorghe blioju résumé ce papier décrit une méthode moins chère pour réaliser un système compact de surveillance ekg, en utilisant un dispositif et des logiciels électroniques. le dispositif pourra augmenter les biosignaux et les transmettre au pc par la carte son. elle aura aussi un logiciel destiné à la prise en charge des signaux reçus et leur affichage sur l'écran du pc. 5. conception et implémentation d’une structure robuste et un contrôleur du mouvement à base de règles floues pour un robot footballeur humanoïde s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri résumé ce papier décrit la conception matérielle et logicielle des systèmes de rbots humanoïdes de la taille d’un enfant pour l'équipe de la perse en 2009. le robot a 18 degrés de liberté actionnés sur hitec hsr898. on a essayé de mettre l'accent sur des secteurs tels que la structure mécanique, l’unité du traitement d'image, le contrôleur du robot, le robot ai et l'apprentissage à base de comportement. cette année, nos progrès en ce qui concerne le robot humanoïde de la taille d’un enfant comprennent: (1) la conception et la construction de nos nouveaux robots humanoïdes (2) la conception et la construction d'un nouveau contrôleur du matériel et du logiciel (hardware and software) à être utilisés pour nos robots. le projet est décrit en deux parties principales: matériel et logiciel (hardware and software). le logiciel est développé comme une application du robot qui brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 96 consiste en contrôleur de la marche, mouvement autonomes du robot, base propre de localisation dans la vision et filtre à base de particules (particle filter), ai local, planification de la trajectoire, contrôleur et réseau du mouvement. le matériel se compose de la structure mécanique et le circuit qui commande chaque mouvement (driver circuit). chaque robot est capable de marcher, marcher rapidement, passer, donner un coup de pied au ballon et dribbler lorsqu’il attrape le ballon. le projet est toujours en cours de développement et quelques nouvelles méthodes intéressantes sont décrites dans le présent rapport. 6. modélisation et implementation du robot footballeur omnidirectionnel avec le wide vision scope appliqué à la robocup-msl s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri résumé l’obectif de cet article est de concevoir et d’implementer un robot footballeur de taille moyenne pour la ligue robocup msl. tout d'abord, selon les règles de la robocup, nous concevons le robot footballeur de taille moyenne. ce robot autonome proposé se compose de la plate-forme mécanique, le module du contrôle du mouvement, le module de vision omnidirectionnelle, le module de vision avant, du traitement de l'image, le module de reconnaissance, du bon positionnement de l’objet cible, la planification de la trajectoire du robot, les stratégies de compétition, l’évitement des obstacles. et ce robot footballeur équipe le système d’un ordinateur portable et les circuits d'interface pour prendre des décisions. en fait, le capteur de vision omnidirectionnelle du système de vision porte sur le traitement de l'image, le positionnement afin d’éviter les obstacles et la poursuite des objectifs. l'algorithme boundary-following (bfa) a le rôle de trouver les caractéristiques importantes de cette section. nous utilisons la méthode de fusion des données à base de capteurs dans les paramètres du système de contrôle, l’auto-localisation et la modélisation du monde. une auto-localisation basée sur la vision et les systèmes classiques d'odométrie sont fusionnés pour l’auto-localisation robuste. l'algorithme de localisation inclut le filtrage, le partage et l'intégration des données pour des différents types d'objets reconnus dans l'environnement. dans les stratégies de contrôle, on présente trois modes officiels qui comprennent la stratégie d'attaque, celle de défense et la stratégie d'interception. les méthodes ont été testées dans de nombreuses compétitions robocup avec des robots de taille moyenne. 7. les maladies du cerveau dans les sociétés de la mésopotamie piedad yuste, ángel garrido résumé dans l'ancienne mésopotamie on ne pratiquait ni des autopsies ni des bisections, alors les organes internes du corps humain étaient connus seulement lors des inspections occasionnelles sur les plaies et les blessures. le cerveau était considéré comme faisant partie de la tête et n'était pas liée à l'activité mentale. 8. modulaire versus unitaire (non-modulaire). points de vue sur le cerveau et la raison minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard résumé cet article vise à délimiter ces deux paradigmes en ce qui concerne leurs points de vue sur l'apprentissage en général et le langage en particulier. en outre, il tente de discuter de différents perspectives sur les défauts et les éloges relevés par chacun de leurs partisans et opposants. par conséquent, l’objectif du présent article n'est pas de revendiquer quoi que ce soit en faveur de l’un ou de l’autre. à cette fin, cet article passe en revue les questions sur le cerveau et la raison ainsi que les points de vues sur la modularité et la non-modularité. des résumés en français 97 9. quelques remarques sur l'intelligence artificielle comme nouvel outil mathématique ángel garrido résumé les mathématiques sont un exemple simple de calcul des prédicats du premier ordre. par conséquent, ils appartiennent à la logique monotone appliquée. donc, nous avons découvert les limites du raisonnement de la logique classique et les avantages évidents de la logique floue et beaucoup d’autres nouveaux outils intéressants. on présente ici quelques-uns des outils de plus utiles de ce nouveau champ des mathématiques que l'on appelle l'intelligence artificielle. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 89-104 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/222 communicative competence as a component of the professional development of psychology students olga batsylyeva¹, irina puz2, volodymir astakhov3, svitlana yalanska4, nina аtamanchuk5, nataliia saiko6 1 d.sc. in psychology, professor, professor of department of psychology of the vasyl’ stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia, ukraine, olgawrh@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-8316-5956 2 phd in psychology, associate professor, associate professor of department of psychology of the vasyl’ stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia, ukraine, irina222@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0003-3697-1637 3 md, professor, professor of the obstetrics and gynecology department, head of scientific laboratory of reproductive sphere, prenatal and perinatal psychology of the donetsk national medical university, kramatorsk, ukraine, astvlad7@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0001-94929379 4 d.sc. in psychology, professor, head of the department of psychology and pedagogy of the national university «yuri kondratyuk poltava polytechnic», poltava, ukraine, yalanskasvetlana@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000003-3289-5331 5 phd in psychology, associate professor, associate professor of the department of psychology and pedagogy of the national university «yuri kondratyuk poltava polytechnic», poltava, ukraine, nina.atamanchuk@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0023-8332-0756 6 d.sc. in pedagogy, associate professor department of psychology and pedagogy of the national university «yuri kondratyuk poltava polytechnic», poltava, ukraine, natsayko@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-84596302 abstract: the paper analyzes the issue of communicative competence as an element of the professional development of students studying psychology. it is established that in order to become a professional psychologist, a person should possess a number of essential psychological skills, such as communicative competence realized in the possession of verbal and nonverbal means of communication, ability to initiate and maintain contact. based on this, the aim of the article was to conduct an empirical study on the communicative competence features as a component of the professional development of upcoming psychologists. a set of psychodiagnostic methods was selected, which helped to study the main parameters of communicative competence, features of professional orientation and motivation of future professional activity. the obtained results were subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis. the sample included 72 bachelor’s degree psychology students studying at vasyl’ stus donetsk national university. the research consisted of two stages. the first stage incorporated the assessment of communicative competence, based on which the sample of subjects was divided into 3 subgroups according to their level of communicative competence development. the second stage analyzed the features of professional motivation and attitude to one’s own professional development of psychology students with different levels of communicative competence development. the results demonstrate that students with a high level of communicative competence in comparison with students with medium and low levels of communicative competence in the structure of professional motivation are dominated by intrinsic motivation, which indicates that for such students their future profession itself is very important. moreover, these students have a clear idea of their future professional activity, are more professionally oriented, which will contribute to their successful professional development. keywords: communicative competence, communicative knowledge, communicative abilities, psychology students, professional development, professional training, professional motivation, professional orientation. how to cite: batsylyeva, o., puz, i., astakhov, v., yalanska, s., аtamanchuk, n., & saiko, n. (2021). communicative competence as a component of the professional development of psychology students. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 89-104. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/222 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/222 mailto:irina222@ukr.net mailto:astvlad7@gmail.com mailto:yalanskasvetlana@gmail.com mailto:nina.atamanchuk@gmail.com mailto:natsayko@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/222 communicative competence as a component of the professional development … olga batsylyeva, et al. 90 introduction the dynamic development of various spheres of modern society determines the qualitative transformation of professional training requirements for specialists in any field of activity. thus, the majority of employers are currently increasing the demand for such professionals who not only have a high level of professional knowledge, skills and abilities, which ensures the performance of activities at the required professional level, but who is also capable of actively developing and improving as a specialist and as an individual. it should be noted that this becomes especially relevant in cases where the resource for professional activities is the personality of a specialist. one of such fields is the professional activity of a psychologist, which requires not only a high level of professional training, but also a significant personal development (batsylieva & puz, 2017). in this regard, the issues related to the challenges of professional development in future psychologists while studying in higher education institutions are especially relevant, because it is well known that during this period a person not only masters his/her profession, but also defines one’s life and worldview, learns effective interaction forms and behavioral patterns (barchii, 2015; puz & shevchenko, 2018). in order to successfully implement various forms of professional psychological activity, a higher education student should meet a number of requirements helping to develop various personal qualities and capacities. among the latter, especially important is the formation of communicative competence, which involves mastering verbal and nonverbal means of communication, ability to initiate and maintain verbal contact. it is common knowledge that communication is a complex multifaceted process of establishing and developing verbal contacts between people, generated by the need for joint activities and including the exchange of information, forming a common interaction strategy, perception and understanding of another person (solovieva & anikeeva, 2012). it should be noted that the concept of "communicative competence" is not new in psychology, but unambiguous interpretation of it is still absent today. most often, communicative competence is seen as the ability to establish and maintain the necessary verbal communication with people; as a set of certain knowledge, skills and abilities ensuring the effective course of communicative process (nyzovets, 2007). analysis of scientific literature has shown that communicative competence is mostly understood as the ability to effectively interact with regard to the peculiarities of a communicative situation. person's brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 91 communicative competence is usually manifested through the interpretation of the concepts closest to it, particularly communicative abilities or communicative knowledge and skills (korniiaka, 2009, 2011). such scientists as o. o. arshavska, m. m. viatiutniev, d. i. izarenkov, d. kristel consider communicative competence as the ability to use language in one or another sphere of communication. according to m. m. viatiutniev, communicative competence is the ability of an individual to use language creatively, purposefully, normatively in interaction with interlocutors (cherezova, 2014). when considering the manifestation of communicative competence, one should note its connection with the cognitive processes, in particular perception and thinking, which was also mentioned by j. piaget, who noted that the inability to understand another person's point of view is conditioned by the exacerbation of subjectivism, inability to distinguish oneself from the environment, subjective unrealistic perception of reality, including the communicative situation, which is a real obstacle to effective communication. today, this issue has become extremely relevant in connection with the active development of neuroscience as an interdisciplinary field, consisting of many areas including the research of functional activity of the brain organization of higher mental functions, neurophysiological mechanisms of mental processes and states, social behavior, and communication. it is worthwhile to say that the low level of communicative competence may be due to the fact that communication partners possess ineffective cognitive processes and cognitive schemes of interpretation of the world picture, other people and their own personality. therefore, the study of cognitive processes becomes extremely promising. these processes are the basis of speech communication and its neuroanatomical substrate. along with the cognitive processes, analysis of functional interaction between local and general cognitive systems with the formation of appropriate cognitive schemes, as well as the study of general neural networks that support these processes are also perspective. when investigating the cognitive aspects of communicative competence, of particular interest to researchers becomes the issue of cognitive styles relationship and manifestation features of communicative competence. in the studies of m. o. kholodna, cognitive style is defined as an individual-unique way of processing (in the relevant brain structures) of information about their environment in the form of individual differences in perception, analysis, structuring, categorization of what is happening (kholodna, 2004). dominating cognitive styles form certain styles of communicative competence as a component of the professional development … olga batsylyeva, et al. 92 cognitive response, which is of great importance for the process of interaction and communication. according to such researchers as y. b. aleshina, r. s. abramova, r. kochiunas, communicative competence is "the professional core of psychologist's personality", as communication with people is the essence of this area of professional activity (puz & shevchenko, 2018). it should be emphasized that the formation of communicative competence allows psychologists to successfully initiate various verbal contacts for solving different communicative tasks, including transmission of information, establishing and maintaining communication, organizing and providing psychological assistance, etc. (ivanova, 2013; stetsenko, 2016). among the basic communicative knowledge and skills determining the communicative competence of a psychologist as a specialist, the following could be highlighted: 1) knowledge of the rules and regulations of various types of communication (business, interpersonal, everyday, etc.); 2) high level of speech development, which provides an opportunity to freely transmit and receive information during communication; 3) understanding nonverbal language; 4) ability to establish communication with people with regard to their gender, age, socio-cultural, and status characteristics; 5) ability to behave decently in any situation and use its specifics to achieve communicative goals; 6) ability to influence an interlocutor in such a way as to incline them to one’s side, convince them of the strength of one’s arguments; 7) ability to objectively assess an interlocutor or partner and choose one’s own effective communication strategy; 8) ability to evoke in a communication partner a positive perception of own personality (chuiko & serhiienko, 2017). based on the above mentioned, it becomes clear that issues related to the study of communicative competence as an important component of the professional development of future psychologists are of particular practical importance, because further professional and personal development of psychologists depends on it. thus, the aim of the article was to study the features of communicative competence as an element of professional development in future psychologists. materials and methods the analysis of scientific literature showed that studying in higher education institutions not only contributes to professional and personal development of future psychologists, but also serves as basis for the formation of communicative competence (korniiaka, 2011). it is at the stage brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 93 of professional training that future specialists actively acquire individual experience in professional communication, develop communicative and organizational skills and abilities in the field of educational and professional communication. to fulfill this task, the study was conducted in two stages. the first stage involved assessment of the development of communicative competence as a complex psychological personality formation. the evaluation was performed using a set of psychodiagnostic methods and techniques. considering the specifics of professional activity of future psychologists and the peculiarities of communicative competence in the context of professional development of specialists in this field, we have identified the following major parameters for assessing the development of communicative competence in psychologists: ability to self-control; ability to listen and express one’s thoughts; empathic abilities; communicative and organizational skills investigated by using appropriate psychodiagnostic techniques. in addition, we have evaluated the main criteria for the development of communicative competence of future psychologists in the context of business, motivational, cognitive, and instrumental communication. according to the results of the obtained data, the subjects were divided into 3 subgroups according to the identified level of communicative competence high, medium, low. the second stage identified professional motivation of future psychologists with different levels of communicative competence and their attitude to the process of their own professional development. to diagnose the parameters of communicative competence in future psychologists and the peculiarities of their professional development, we used the following methods and techniques: "diagnostic technique for assessing self-control in communication"; tests "ability to listen" and "ability to express one’s thoughts"; "diagnosis of the level of empathic abilities"; "study of communicative and organizational skills"; "diagnosis of communicative competence in the field of business communication"; "motivation of professional activity" modified by a. rean; "questionnaire" to determine the features of professional orientation and competence of by kokun (kokun, 2012). fisher's angular transformation criterion (φ*) was used for statistical analysis of the obtained results. the empirical study was conducted at the training laboratory of the department of psychology of vasyl’ stus donetsk national university. the study sample consisted of 72 psychology students seeking their bachelor’s communicative competence as a component of the professional development … olga batsylyeva, et al. 94 degree. all participants were informed about the purpose of the study and agreed to participate in it. results and discussion according to the purpose of our study, the concept of communicative competence was determined as a set of communicative knowledge, skills, and abilities through which a subject realizes the goals and objectives of communicative and professional activities and achieves mutual understanding in the process of interaction. analysis of the results of "diagnostic technique for assessing selfcontrol in communication" showed that a high level of communicative control, which indicates the ease of entering any role, ability to respond quickly to changes, feeling and even anticipating other people's impressions of oneself was diagnosed in 23.6% of subjects. the average level of communicative control, which is characterized by intemperance of emotional manifestations during communication, was found in 45.8% of students. low communicative control determined by the inability of communicator to change behavior in accordance with the new conditions of the situation, was characteristic of 30.6% of respondents. analyzing the results of the test "ability to listen" showed that the presence of a high development level of this skill, when interlocutor is always given the opportunity to speak, paying attention to the main facts during the conversation, there is no habit of interrupting, was diagnosed in 31.9% of the surveyed students. the average level of listening ability, at which an interlocutor is not always given the opportunity to speak fully and does not always pay attention to the subtext of the conversation, was found in 51.4% of respondents. a low level of listening skills, characterized by the habit of interrupting an interlocutor, irritation to any opposing views, imposing one’s thoughts and views was diagnosed in 16.7% of the respondents. assessing the results of the test "ability to express one’s thoughts", we found that characteristic of 22.2% of students was a low level of this skill, which indicates an immature ability to express their own opinions, draw conclusions and highlight the main points. characteristic for 43.1% of students was the presence of an average level of development of the ability to express thoughts, which is characterized by the ability to express own opinions and ask meaningful questions. a high level of development of the ability to express thoughts, which indicates the well-developed ability to fully express thoughts and make own statements was diagnosed in 34.7% of students. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 95 the results of the diagnosis level of empathic abilities according to this method indicate that a high level of empathy was found in 18.1% of students. the average level of empathic abilities development was seen in 33.3% of students. below average level of empathic abilities was characteristic for 27.8% of respondents. a very low level of empathic abilities was found in 20.8% of subjects. thus, the generalization of the obtained results showing the levels of empathic abilities development indicates a lack of future psychologists' ability to empathize with people around them, resulting in various difficulties in the process of mutual understanding with interlocutors. it should be noted that this fact necessitates the further development and correction of empathic abilities in those students, because, as it is known, they are one of the most relevant qualities of professional psychologists. having analyzed the results of diagnostics of the development of communicative and organizational skills according to the method of "study of communicative and organizational skills" (kokun, 2012), we have identified the following development features of the above components in future psychologists. thus, a very high and high level of communicative skills, which are characterized by easy establishment of various contacts with strangers, tendency to defend one’s opinion, unconstrained behavior in a group of strangers, ability to liven up any unfamiliar company was found in 11.1% and 15.3% of subjects, respectively. the average development level of communicative skills, which is determined by the desire to establish new contacts with others and expand the circle of acquaintances, was typical for 45.8% of psychology students. below average and low development levels of communicative abilities determined by the lack of the desire to establish contacts, social isolation, poor orientation in an unfamiliar situation, were found in 18.1% and 9.7% of students, respectively. very high and high levels of organizational skills characterized by an ability to organize and desire to take an active part in organizing and conducting public events, were found in 9.7% and 16.7% of the subjects. the average level of organizational capacities, which is manifested in the ability, if necessary, to organize and participate in various activities, was diagnosed in 50.0% of respondents. below average and low levels, characterized by the lack of own initiative to organize and participate in various activities, were found in 15.3% and 8.3% of students. having utilized the method "diagnosis of communicative competence in the field of business communication", we obtained empirical data on the general development level of communicative competence of future psychologists, as well as the degree of development of motivational, communicative competence as a component of the professional development … olga batsylyeva, et al. 96 cognitive, and instrumental criteria of communicative competence. thus, based on the results of this methodology, we found that a very high level of communicative competence in the field of business communication was not found in any of the study participants. among the respondents, high level of communicative competence was found in 15.3% of subjects, average level with a tendency to high – in 12.5% of surveyed students, the average level – in 41.6%, average level with a tendency to low – in 13.9%, low level – in 16.7%. a very low level of communicative competence was not detected. assessment of the motivational criterion of communicative competence shows that the development level of the motive of selfimprovement in the field of business communication and the interest level in this area has some differences among the students. a high development level of self-improvement motive, which is determined by a clear awareness of the direction of individual self-improvement and a strong desire for realization, was diagnosed in 19.4% of the students. the average level was typical for 52.8% of respondents. the obtained data show that such students are fully aware of the importance of self-improvement in the communicative sphere and strive to increase the level of their communicative development. low level of self-improvement, which is manifested in the fact that though a person is aware of the importance of self-improvement, he/she still does nothing for it, was found in 22.2% of the surveyed students. undeveloped self-improvement motive in the field of communication was characteristic of only 5.6% of respondents. interest in the field of business communication at a high level was found in 31.9% of students. characteristic of such students is the presence of a dominant interest in communication within the future professional activity. the average level of interest within the sphere of business communication, which is manifested in a steady interest in various types of business communications and relationships, as well as in the demonstration of communication skills during interaction, was diagnosed in 43.1% of respondents. low level of interest in the field of business communication, which is manifested in the lack of desire to engage in various business communications, lack of desire for individual growth in the professional communication sphere, was found in 25.0% of students. absolute lack of interest in the field of business communications was not found in any student among the study groups. having assessed the cognitive criterion of the development of communicative competence in future psychologists according to this method, we found the following features of the level of student knowledge about their own individual communicative features. thus, 26.4% of subjects brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 97 were diagnosed with a high awareness level of their own communicative potential, 40.3% – an average level of knowledge of individual communicative features, 33.3% – a low level. analysis of the level of building effective communication programs displays that a high level of communicative planning, in which a person is always clearly aware of the purpose of communication, has a clear communication plan, shows flexibility, empathy, easily changes their own communication programs, was typical for 23.6% of students. the average level of communicative planning, which is manifested in the fact that a person takes into account the peculiarities of the communicative situation and communicative features of interlocutors but has some difficulties in restructuring their own communicative program, was found in 48.6% of students. a low level of communicative planning, which is characterized by impulsiveness and inconsistency in the manifestation of communicative actions was found in 27.8% of students. the analysis of the instrumental criterion of the development of communicative competence, particularly communicative creativity and adequacy in the field of business communication, testifies to the following levels of formation of these components in psychology students. high level of communicative creativity, at which a person has significant creative potential, freely expresses it in business communication, strives for creative self-realization in professional communications, was diagnosed in 26.4% of students. the average level of communicative creativity is typical for 44.4% of respondents. a low level of communicative creativity, when a person constantly adheres to already tested ways of behavior and has almost no creative approach to business communication, was found in 29.2% of students. the results obtained in terms of adequacy in the field of business communication indicate that a high level of adequacy, at which communicative actions always meet the requirements of the communicative situation, verbal and nonverbal behavior always coincide, and a person responds quickly to any changes in the communicative process was established in 23.6% of students. the average level of adequacy, at which communicative actions meet the requirements of the communicative situation, but any change of conditions significantly complicates the communication process, was diagnosed in 44.4% of students. a low level of adequacy, which is characterized by difficulties in the manifestation of spontaneity and improvization during communication in a constantly changing environment, was found in 32.0% of respondents. communicative competence as a component of the professional development … olga batsylyeva, et al. 98 summarizing the presented results according to the method "diagnosis of communicative competence in the field of business communication", we can observe the uneven development of both individual criteria and the general level of communicative competence in the field of business communication among psychology students. in our opinion, this may be due to the fact that the subjects are at different stages of mastering the profession and they still lack the necessary communicative experience. however, the results indicate the need to create special conditions during the educational process that will promote the effective acquisition of professional communication knowledge, skills, and abilities. based on the analysis of the main parameters of communicative competence, we divided the study participants according to their levels of communicative competence, into three subgroups (table 1). table 1. levels of communicative competence development in psychology students (n = 72). high level of communicative competence average level of communicative competence low level of communicative competence 19 (26,4%) 31 (43,1%) 22 (30,5%) subgroup i, with a high level of communicative competence, included 26.4% of students. it should be noted that the characteristic features of these subjects are ample knowledge of situational communication norms, positive attitude to interlocutor, well-developed communication and organizational skills, ability to respond empathetically, ability to empathize, capacity to consistently express thoughts and listen, achieve mutual understanding during professional and interpersonal interaction. subgroup ii, with an average level of communicative competence, included 43.1% of respondents displaying presence of an ability to logically express their own thoughts, but insufficiently developed ability to listen, as well as an average level of self-control in communication. such subjects have an idea of the importance of empathy in the professional activities of psychologists but are not always able to respond empathetically during interpersonal and professional communication. subgroup iii, with a low level of communicative competence, included 30.5% of students who were diagnosed with insufficient communication skills, some difficulties in establishing communicative brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 99 contacts with people, low level of self-control in communication, inability to empathize and listen. the next stage of our study was to identify the characteristics of the attitude of psychology students with different levels of communicative competence to vocational training, and the features of their professional motivation. using the "questionnaire" (kokun, 2012), we identified the characteristics of the relationship of future psychologists with teachers and classmates, which reflect the interactive abilities of the subjects. thus, among students of subgroup i very good relations developed by 47.4% of respondents, good relations – 31.6%, mediocre – 21.0%. among the students of the second subgroup, very good relations were noted in 22.6% of participants, good – in 41.9%, mediocre – in 29.1%, bad – in 6.4%. among students of subgroup iii very good relations were observed in 13.6% of respondents, good – in 40.9%, mediocre – in 27.3%, bad – in 18.2% (φ* emp = 2.439, p <0.01). 52.6% of participants of subgroup i, 25.8% – subgroup ii, 18.2% – subgroup iii noted full self-compliance with the requirements of the profession. overall compliance of abilities with the requirements of the future profession was noted by 31.6% of students of subgroup i, 54.8% – of subgroup ii, 36.4% – of subgroup iii. insufficient compliance with the requirements of the profession was noted by 15.8% of students with a high level of communicative competence, 19.4% of students with a medium level of communicative competence and 45.4% of students with a low level of communicative competence (φ * emp = 2.369, p <0.01). a high level of interest in education was observed in 26.3% of students of subgroup i, 12.9% of students of subgroup ii and 9.1% of students of subgroup iii. 42.1% of students of subgroup i, 29.0% of students of subgroup ii, 13.6% of students of subgroup iii were found above the average level. the average level of interest in studying was typical for 31.6% of students with a high level of communicative competence, 38.7% of students with an average level of communicative competence and 36.4% of students with a low level of it. a low level of interest was found in 19.4% of participants in subgroup ii and 40.9% of participants in subgroup iii respectively (φ * emp = 1,482, p <0.05). presence of thorough knowledge about the conditions and features of the future profession was found in 73.7% of participants of subgroup i, 64.5% of participants in subgroup ii, and among 36.4% of students of subgroup iii (φ * emp = 2.459, p <0.01). communicative competence as a component of the professional development … olga batsylyeva, et al. 100 readiness to work in one’s field of occupation was seen in 78.9% of participants of the first subgroup, 67.7% of participants in the second subgroup and 31.8% of participants of the third subgroup (φ * emp = 3.158, p <0.01). assessment of current professional knowledge and skills indicates that their high level is inherent in 84.2% of students in subgroup i, 61.3% – students of subgroup ii and 45.4% of students in subgroup iii (φ * emp = 2.692, p <0.01). among the motives that determine the attractiveness of the chosen future profession, students of subgroup i most often indicated "getting satisfaction from it" (42.1%), "realize one’s abilities" (26.3%), and "make a career" (31.6%). subgroup ii students noted "realization of abilities" (25.8%), "having a prestigious job" (38.7%) and "making a career" (35.5%). students of subgroup iii noted "having a prestigious job" (27.3%), "earn a lot" (40.9%) and "not overstrain at work" (31.8%). thus, having analyzed the answers to the questions proposed by the questionnaire, we can note the fact that the student with different levels of communicative competence have characteristic differences in relationships with classmates and teachers, as well as in their attitude to their future professional activities. having investigated the motivation of professional activity in psychology students with different levels of communicative competence according to the method by k. zamfir (modified by a. rean) (kokun, 2012), we found the following results. among the proposed motives of professional activity, students with a high level of communicative competence (subgroup i) chose the motive of the most complete selfrealization in this field of activity (52.6%); second place was taken by the motive of satisfaction with the process and the result of work (26.3%); the motive of the desire for career growth took the third place (21.1%). students with an average level of communicative competence (subgroup ii) preferred such motives as the motive of satisfaction with the process and the result (41.9%), the motive of achieving social prestige and respect from others (32.3%), the motive of the most complete selfrealization within this activity (25.8%). characteristic of students with a low level of communicative competence (subgroup iii) was the choice of such motives as the desire to avoid criticism from management or colleagues (27.3%), the motive of "earning money" (40.9%) and the motive of "avoiding possible trouble or punishment"(31.8%). brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 101 the analysis of professional motivational complexes showed that among psychology students with a high level of communicative competence (i subgroup, n = 19) the average indicators of internal motivation (im) were equal to 4.2 points; average indicators of external positive motivation (epm) – 3.5 points; average indicators of external negative motivation (enm) – 2.8 points. the average professional motivational complex of the students with a high level of communicative competence can be represented in a following manner: im (4.2) ˃ epm (3.5) ˃ enm (2.8). the ratio of the presented values allows to conclude that there is an optimal motivational complex in which the structure of professional motivation is dominated by internal motivation indicating that for such students their future activities are important themselves. among psychology students with an average level of communicative competence (ii subgroup, n = 31), the average indicators of intrinsic motivation were equal to 3.5 points; average indicators of external positive motivation – 3.1 points; average indicators of external negative motivation – 2.9 points. the average professional motivational complex of the students with an average level of communicative competence can be represented as follows: im (3,5) ˃ epm (3,1) ˃ enm (2,9). the presented indicators for each type of motivation allow to conclude that there is an optimal type of professional motivation. however, it should be noted that the indicator of the degree of expression of internal motivation is not much higher than the indicator of external positive motivation, which indicates that importance for such students is not in the activity itself, but also in the desire to advance in work and attain social prestige. analysis of the types of motivation of professional activity in students with a low level of communicative competence (iii subgroup, n = 22) showed that the average indicators of intrinsic motivation were equal to 2.7 points; average indicators of external positive motivation – 3.3 points; average indicators of external negative motivation – 3.6 points. the average professional motivational complex of the students with a low level of communicative competence can be represented as follows: enm (3,6) ˃ epm (3,3) ˃ im (2,7). the obtained indicators for each type of professional motivation allow to make a conclusion that there is a nonoptimal type. at the same time, the dominance of external negative motivation indicates that for such students it is important to avoid criticism and various negative comments from others, as well as to focus on avoiding possible punishments or troubles. high values in terms of external positive communicative competence as a component of the professional development … olga batsylyeva, et al. 102 motivation should also be noted, which indicates the predominance of motives of social prestige, the desire for career growth. thus, summarizing the results of the study, it can be noted that students with high level of communicative competence compared to students with medium and low levels are more professionally oriented, which will certainly contribute to a more effective process of their professional development. conclusions 1. communicative competence is a complex integral personal feature of a future psychologist, which reflects the student's focus on professional tasks and attitude to the chosen profession, to oneself and to others. development of communicative competence in future psychologists at the stage of professional training involves not only the acquisition of a set of relevant communicative knowledge, skills and abilities, but also the willingness to use them adequately and effectively while performing professional tasks. 2. the results of the empirical study indicate an insufficient level of communicative competence development among the students in general, which may be due to a number of factors, including training duration, individual psychological characteristics, marriage, age, general and professional communication experience etc. analysis of the assessment of differences in the development of communicative competence and its components among the surveyed students demonstrates that there are significant differences between the level of communicative competence formation and professional orientation of upcoming psychologists. 3. given the importance of communicative competence in the professional activity of a psychologist, it is advisable to continue researching various aspects of the communicative competence formation in future psychologists, thereby taking into consideration current research in the field of neuroscience and introducing different socio-psychological trainings into the educational process that will help students master their communication skills, increase emotional sensitivity, empathy, create a favorable sociopsychological atmosphere in the group, which will obviously be of great importance for the development of not only the purely communicative competence of psychologists, but also their professional competence and personal growth. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 103 references barchii, m. s. (2015). do problemy profesiynoho stanovlennya maybutnikh psykholohiv [the issue of professional development of future psychologists]. bulletin of the national defense university of ukraine, 3(46), 1419. http://dspace.msu.edu.ua:8080/bitstream/123456789/ 294/1/барчій%20м.с.до%20проблеми%20професійного%20становл ення.pdf batsilieva, o. v., & puz, i. v. (2017, april 21-22). problema formuvannya hotovnosti do profesiynoyi diyalʹnosti u maybutnikh psykholohiv [the issue of forming readiness for professional activity in future psychologists]. psychological education in ukraine: traditions, modernity and prospects. proceedings of the all-ukrainian scientific-practical conference commemorating the celebration of the 50th anniversary of professional training of psychologists at taras shevchenko national university and psychology day, kyiv http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/26191/yevchenk o%20i.%20m.pdf;jsessionid=3dce6c70a703407908bd397df9f4b67e ?sequence=1 cherezova, i. o. (2014). komunikatyvna kompetentnistʹ yak intehralʹna yakistʹ osobystosti [communicative competence as an integral personal quality]. scientific bulletin of kherson state university. psychological science series, 1(1), 103107. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvkhp_2014_1%281%29__20 chuiko, o. y., & serhienko, n. p. (2017). osoblyvosti komunikatyvnoyi kompetentnosti studentiv-psykholohiv [features of communicative competence of psychology students]. problems of extreme and crisis psychology, 22, 284-291. http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/5295 ivanova, i. f. (2013). vplyv rivnya rozvytku komunikatyvnykh zdibnostey na formuvannya profesiynoyi spryamovanosti studentiv-psykholohiv [influence of the development level of communicative abilities on the formation of professional orientation of psychology students]. collection of scientific papers. psychological sciences, 2(10), 121-125. http://mdu.edu.ua/wpcontent/uploads/files/26_19.pdf kholodna, m. a. (2004). kognitivnyye stili. o prirode natural'nogo uma [cognitive styles. on the nature of the individual mind] (2nd ed.). st. petersburg. kokun, o. m. (2012). psykholohiya profesiynoho stanovlennya suchasnoho fakhivtsya [professional development psychology of a modern specialist]. monograph. korniiaka, o. m. (2009). suchasni pidkhody do vyvchennya komunikatyvnoyi kompetentnosti osobystosti [modern approaches to the study of individual’s communicative competence]. challenges of modern psychology: collection of scientific papers of ivan ohiienko national university of ukraine, g. s. http://dspace.msu.edu.ua:8080/bitstream/123456789/294/1/барчій%20м.с.до%20проблеми%20професійного%20становлення.pdf http://dspace.msu.edu.ua:8080/bitstream/123456789/294/1/барчій%20м.с.до%20проблеми%20професійного%20становлення.pdf http://dspace.msu.edu.ua:8080/bitstream/123456789/294/1/барчій%20м.с.до%20проблеми%20професійного%20становлення.pdf http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/26191/yevchenko%20i.%20m.pdf;jsessionid=3dce6c70a703407908bd397df9f4b67e?sequence=1 http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/26191/yevchenko%20i.%20m.pdf;jsessionid=3dce6c70a703407908bd397df9f4b67e?sequence=1 http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/26191/yevchenko%20i.%20m.pdf;jsessionid=3dce6c70a703407908bd397df9f4b67e?sequence=1 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nvkhp_2014_1%281%29__20 http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/5295 http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/5295 http://mdu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/files/26_19.pdf http://mdu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/files/26_19.pdf communicative competence as a component of the professional development … olga batsylyeva, et al. 104 kostiuk institute of psychology, academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, 3, 294316. https://www.twirpx.com/file/742607/ korniiaka, o. m. (2011). osoblyvosti rozvytku komunikatyvnoyi kompetentnosti fakhivtsiv na riznykh etapakh yikh profesiynoho stanovlennya [development features of communicative competence of specialists at different stages of their professional development]. psycholinguistics: collection of scientific papers of the hryhoriy skovoroda state pedagogical university, 8, 33-45. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/5389/1/корніяка_ел._бібл_%236.pdf nyzovets, o. a. (2007). rozvytok komunikatyvnoyi kompetentnosti u protsesi profesiynoyi pidhotovky maybutnikh psykholohiv [development of communicative competence in the process of professional training of future psychologists]. actual problems of professional activity of young specialists, 3(5), 355-362. https://ap.uu.edu.ua/article/252 puz, i. v., & shevchenko, o. m. (2018). znachennya komunikatyvnoyi kompetentnosti u profesiynomu stanovlenni maybutnikh psykholohiv [the importance of communicative competence in the professional development of future psychologists]. psychological journal, 4(14), 149-164. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/psch_2018_4_12 .l solovieva, o. v., & anikeeva, y. v. (2012). kommunikativnaya kompetentnost' psikhologa: podkhody i kontseptsii [communicative competence of a psychologist: approaches and concepts]. tsu science vector, 1(8), 267-270. https://edu.tltsu.ru/sites/sites_content/site1238/html/media69595/086_ solovijva.pdf stetsenko, n. m. (2016). komunikatyvna kompetentnistʹ yak skladova profesiynoyi pidhotovky suchasnoho fakhivtsya [communicative competence as a component of professional training of a modern specialist]. pedagogical almanac: collection of scientific papers, 29, 185-191. http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/handle/123456789/2187 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/psch_2018_4_12%20.l https://edu.tltsu.ru/sites/sites_content/site1238/html/media69595/086_solovijva.pdf https://edu.tltsu.ru/sites/sites_content/site1238/html/media69595/086_solovijva.pdf http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/handle/123456789/2187 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 01-07 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to re-silience liliana luca¹, liliana baroiu 2 , alexandru bogdan ciubara 3 *, razvan anghel 4 , andra irina bulgaruiliescu 5 , lucretia anghel 6 , anamaria ciubara 7 1 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania 2 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania 3 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania * corresponding author 4 university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania 5 university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania 6 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania 7 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania abstract: this paper is an overview of how the pandemic affected society during the spanish flu period and its impact on the psychiatric hospitals and asylums of that period. the continuous changes of situations in the context of the current pandemic and the attempt of individuals to adapt led to comparisons between covid-19 and the spanish flu of 1918-1919. the progress of medicine and intervention measures are still struggling with the strength of influenza viruses and their ability to spread around the world has grown exponentially. the study analyzes how this new pathology can influence the attitude of individuals towards the disease, their thoughts, emotions and behaviors so as to prevent the onset of symptoms in the field of mental health and contribute to the well-being of the population. keywords: covid-19; spanish flu; resilience; crisis; mental health. how to cite: luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to re-silience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 2 introduction crises are historical moments of human evolution, scientific progress, capitalization of creativity and human potential, difficulties but also successful situations, beyond the natural feeling of helplessness and fear. the spanish flu has changed the course of life for an extremely large number of people around the world. the spanish flu and the attitude of individuals towards the disease the name of the spanish flu was given in the historical context of that period. spain was neutral in the war, the press was uncensored. the first cases that appeared in the spring of 1918 were published in newspapers. in other countries, the news was not published. the flu did not start in spain (spiney, 2017). there had been cases in the us, the uk, france and possibly other european countries before spain, but the press did not mentioned them (eghigian, 2020). similar to the current pandemic, the phenomenon of xenophobia has led to the indication of a country as the main culprit, the starting point, the scapegoat, negligent/careless or malicious. in the short term, there was a sharp drop regarding life expectancy at that time. people who died also had other diseases and the healthiest survived (hilton, 2020). there was also an explosion of births in the 1920s following the return of soldiers from the war front. there is a pro-flu argument that the population was smaller and healthier and managed to reproduce in greater numbers. the social assistance network did not seem to have existed in rich countries either, so that many people who were dependent on others and did not have personal autonomy have been left without any means of support, with family financial supporters being killed by the flu. this aspect is one of the great tragedies of 1918. these people have disappeared without a trace in history. there is a study conducted in sweden that shows that many of the elderly went to live in the institutions or workshops where they worked, but also that many of the children were left homeless (soreff & bazemore, 2008). other studies show that, globally, although there were regional differences, the vulnerability of men was higher than that of women (love, 2020). vulnerable women were the ones who were pregnant. there existed an alarming abortion rate. one of the application was that, to fight the virus, covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to re-silience liliana luca, et al. 3 the body took resources from the uterus and from the fetus. it has been shown that some of the surviving children suffered repercussions throughout their lives, a concept called fetal programming. this generation was disadvantaged both somatically and cognitively, being more prone to heart attack, behavioral manifestations or antisocial acts. the same generation had to fight in world war ii. the progress of medicine after spanish flu in many western countries, there has been a shift in healthcare after the pandemic. starting from 1920, alternative medicine became widespread in america and later on spread throughout the world. there have also been countries where scientific methods have not been adopted and the consequences are easy to observe. states that have been concerned with preventing possible future pandemics have applied scientific methods regarding disease monitoring and health care data collection and have been successful in improving the quality of life. following this achievement was the development of the concept of social medicine and healthcare, which no country has organized yet. this was due to the awareness that the pandemic is a global health crisis that needed to be addressed at the population level there was no possibility of healing individuals and they could not be blamed for getting sick as anyone could be infected. russia was the first country, followed by western european countries, to build social care systems. epidemiology has emerged, the search for patterns, causes and effects and standards in healthcare and public health. at the population level, there is a very clear inequality. basically, the poorest, the most vulnerable, those with the least access to health care, those with a busy schedule, living in homes with many people were at greater risk. this happens in every pandemic and, unfortunately, it is very likely that developing countries will bear the consequences of this pandemic more dramatically. during the spanish flu period the population was about a quarter compared to the contemporary era. infectious diseases continue to be the main cause of the massive loss of life. before the outbreak of the spanish flu, virology was an unknown science. the first virus was detected at the end of the 19th century. the germ theory has emerged as the etiological agents of infectious diseases. unfortunately, almost all doctors around the world thought they could treat brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 4 any bacterial disease. as with any pioneer, there were cracks and gaps in diagnostic tests and treatments. spanish flue and and the issue of psychiatry after the end of the pandemic, the spanish flu was a topic of interest for psychiatric researchers. the state of psychiatric research at that time highlighted the fact that the flu caused delirium of persecution, agitation, violence, fear, depression, self-harm (bolos et al., 2012). in 1926, psychiatrist karl menninger of boston treated patients with flu but also with symptoms of severe mental disorders, including psychosis. up until the 1970s, historical research on the pandemic had been virtually non-existent. alfred crosby's (1976) book epidemic and peace, 1918 (republished in 1989 under the title america's forgotten pandemic: the influenza of 1918) paved the way for international research on the subject. compared to other aspects of the pandemic, little research has been done on the long-term impact of the spanish flu on mental health. svennerik mamelund studied the situation of asylums in norway between 1872 and 1929 and found that survivors of the spanish flu developed sleep disorders and attention, depression, difficulty adapting to the professional environment. public mental hospitals in the united states in 1918 were independent communities. they remained open to hospitalizations, providing a source of infection that temporarily lowered the prevalence by increasing the death rate of a large number of patients in asylums. there was also an increase in the death rate in the united states in the 1918-1920 period, mainly due to suicide but also to feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, anger, confusion and abandonment both in the general population and in the medical staff. pandemics and their risks to mental health and well-being of the population from 1918 to the present, huge advances have been made in the medical field for understanding and treating influenza. the world health organization was established. globally, there are health policies, the population has been informed and has become aware of the risks of the disease and the fact that through joint efforts and only together we can address and overcome periods of crisis (parmet & rothstein, 2018) covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to re-silience liliana luca, et al. 5 journalist laura spinney, in her book entitled pale rider: the spanish flu of 1918 and how it changed the world, includes the classic safety measures we have experienced since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, such as using a mask, physical distance, banning gatherings, closing borders, quarantine. and then, the same as now, the urban population was affected before the virus spread to rural areas. during the spanish flu, the fastest way to get around was by boat or train. cars and phones were rare and only the rich could afford them. access to education was limited, illiteracy was at a higher rate than now so information circulated much more slowly and often distorted because newspapers were the main way of transmitting news. a significant and beneficial difference in the modern era is given by the progress and use of technology (grosseck & malita, 2020). it has been known that in order to limit transmission, patients should be separated from healthy people. concepts such as isolation and quarantine are very old and precede microbial theory. therefore, it was not necessary to understand that diseases are spread by germs, to understand how to reduce the spread. in the midst of the pandemic, one can communicate through teleconferencing, social networks in the virtual environment, there is mobile telephony, the internet, the possibility of working from home and telemedicine. in addition, the natural way of approaching others is changing. there is a lack of physical closeness, the gestures of affection, the hugs are almost gone, but the individuals seem to communicate more often, more profoundly. one can see solidarity between peers and empathy. a study by researchers at oxford university and nihr oxford health biomedical research center found that nearly one in five people who had covid-19 were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder such as anxiety, depression or insomnia within three months of testing positive for the sars-cov2 virus. the number of people infected with covid 19 is potentially high and therefore any increase in risk could have effects at the population level. it is necessary to correctly assess the possible psychiatric symptoms in people who have had mild and more severe forms of covid-19 (luca et al., 2020). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 6 conclusions examples in human history have shown that every crisis has been an opportunity to test individual values and the resilience potential. if the foundations of individuals are resilient, they will be able to take responsibility for themselves and redefine their relationships in terms of security and respect (vlad, 2017). they will learn to manage anxiety, fear, stress, ignorance, fear, but also loss so that the next possible social crises are treated differently, more creatively and functionally (jauhar, 2020). change depends on decisions, attitudes, individual and collective actions, both on a personal and relational level. history has taught us that humans manage to overcome their limits even under the most difficult circumstances, learning what to do to survive. the crisis situation is an opportunity to mature, to accept the losses, to identify the weak links of the human psyche, but also to discover some abilities to find mental and psycho-emotional balance. the ability to overcome difficulties, to adapt, to recover in traumatic situations, to find meaning in existence can be activated in people from living these new experiences. theoretical models of the adjustment process after losses and traumas have emphasized the critical role of finding meaning. it is said that the pain felt is what creates the trauma, not the crisis itself. suffering in crisis is common to all people, but the way they experience it is unique. if individuals manage to get out of the vicious circle of victimization and take responsibility, to trust their own values, they will find ways to answer existential questions about uncertainty, the unknown, loneliness, loss, meaninglessness in life, death, and also will know what dignity, commitment, solidarity and respect for others mean. references bolos, a., ciubara, a-m., & chirita, r. (2012). moral and ethical aspects of the relationship between depression and suicide. revista romana de bioetica, 10(3): 71-79. crosby, a. (1918). epidemic and peace. greenwood. crosby, a. (1976). america's forgotten pandemic: the influenza of 1918. greenwood press. eghigian, g. (2020). the spanish flu pandemic and mental health: a historical perspective. psychiatric times, 37(5), 26. https://www. https://www.nationalelfservice.net/author/sameer-jauhar/ covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to re-silience liliana luca, et al. 7 psychiatrictimes.com/view/spanish-flu-pandemic-and-mentalhealth-historical-perspective grosseck, g., & malita, l. (2020). insights from romania’s reaction to coronavirus infodemic. towards an educational approach. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 9(1), 119-138. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.1/38 hilton, c. (2020). psychiatric care and the 1918 flu pandemic. royal college of psychiatrists. https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/ blogs/detail/history-archives-and-libraryblog/2020/04/07/psychiatry-during-1918-flu-pandemic jauhar, s. (2020). flu pandemics, schizophrenia and the immune system: could history repeat itself? mental elf. https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mentalhealth/schizophrenia/flu-pandemics-schizophrenia-and-theimmune-system/ love, s. (2020). the strange link between pandemics and psychosis. vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5x3gq/link-between-pandemicsand-psychosis-spanish-influenza-and-psychotic-disorders luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 parmet, e. w., & rothstein, a. m. (2018). the 1918 influenza pandemic: lessons learned and not—introduction to the special section. american journal of public health, 108(11), 1435–1436. https://doi. org/10.2105/ajph.2018.304695 soreff, s. m., & bazemore, h. p. (2008). the forgotten flu. psychiatry & behavioral health learning network. https://www.psychcongress. com/article/forgotten-flu spiney, l. (2017). pale rider: the spanish flu of 1918 and how it changed the world. publicaffairs. vlad, l. (2017). the faces of responsibility. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 1(1), 57-60. https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/04 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.1/38 https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/%0bblogs/detail/history-archives-and-library-blog/2020/04/07/psychiatry-during-1918-flu-pandemic https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/%0bblogs/detail/history-archives-and-library-blog/2020/04/07/psychiatry-during-1918-flu-pandemic https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/%0bblogs/detail/history-archives-and-library-blog/2020/04/07/psychiatry-during-1918-flu-pandemic https://www.nationalelfservice.net/author/sameer-jauhar/ https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/schizophrenia/flu-pandemics-schizophrenia-and-the-immune-system/ https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/schizophrenia/flu-pandemics-schizophrenia-and-the-immune-system/ https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/schizophrenia/flu-pandemics-schizophrenia-and-the-immune-system/ https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/schizophrenia/flu-pandemics-schizophrenia-and-the-immune-system/ https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/schizophrenia/flu-pandemics-schizophrenia-and-the-immune-system/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5x3gq/link-between-pandemics-and-psychosis-spanish-influenza-and-psychotic-disorders https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5x3gq/link-between-pandemics-and-psychosis-spanish-influenza-and-psychotic-disorders https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=parmet%20we%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=30303733 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=rothstein%20ma%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=30303733 https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/04 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.1, pages: 38-46 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society liliana luca¹, stefan lucian burlea 2 , ana-catalina chirosca 3 , ioana maria marin 4 , alexandru bogdan ciubara 5 , anamaria ciubara 6 1 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania. 2 grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania. 3 carol davila university of medicine and pharmacy, bucharest, romania, chiroscaliliana@gmail.com 4 al. i. cuza university, iasi, romania. 5 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania, abciubara@yahoo.com 6 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract: the development of social media and technological devices have led to a series of new events in the spectrum of mental illnesses. these manifestations are often unnoticeable, but they develop as a symptom of common psychological disorders, classified by worldwide mental health societies. a new pathology is described as “the fomo syndrome”. this disorder is in the same category as social anxiety, and the obsessive-compulsive component is probably the factor that contributes to the diminishing of the social circle of individuals and their personal autonomy, and also increases the risks of psycho-emotional and psychosomatic disorders. we intend to present the results of a study conducted on a group of 205 people, aged 21-45, regarding the use of the internet, the purpose being the creation of a clear image of individual particularities, which would be the basis for the implementation of a mental health program at community level. keywords: fomo; perception; adult; education; health. how to cite: luca, l., burlea, s.l., chirosca, a.-c., marin, i.m., ciubara, a.b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 mailto:chiroscaliliana@gmail.com mailto:abciubara@yahoo.com mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary … liliana luca, et al. 39 introduction social media has become an integrative component of the modern world (neofet, 2019), as many people cannot give up completely on them. this is one of the reasons why studies conducted (rodideal, 2018) in this regard mostly focused on the daily time spent by individuals on social media platforms. fomo (fear of missing out) is the fear and anxiety of people who are usually connected to and active on these platforms, manifested in situations when they cannot access them. the desire to be permanently connected to what others are doing outside social media is significantly lower. in other words, fomo is fuelled by technology, which makes the possibility of being permanently connected to what other people are doing and their lives. a study performed in the spring of 2012 has concluded that over 56% of the people felt the effects of this affliction, but the number of youth are even higher. most of the studies that have been conducted afterwards focused on this age group as compared to other demographical groups that could be less influenced by social pressure. the conclusion was different. for people with this syndrome, a high number of text messages and updated emails that gather up in case they do not check their social media platform, could be sometimes overwhelming (skierkowski & wood, 2012; bernicot et al., 2012). psychologically speaking, new disorders seem to have been reported. the specialists’ explanation (huidu, 2018a, 2018b) for these phenomena is that what our acquittances are doing makes us think of our own lives. the interesting things that take place in other people’s lives make our own seem more basic and lacking excitement. this way, our self-esteem decreases and feelings of displeasure, even jealousy, start to form towards the ones that seem to have far more fascinating lives. all this feeds into our fear of failure, fear of worthlessness, fear of not achieving what we wish for and that we will be left alone. from this point on, depression and antisocial behaviours can occur. out of the fear of not missing out on an event, a party, and the wish to be a witness to these types of moments, many people get to spend a lot of money, even if they cannot afford it, only to get to a certain place where their friends are (bardi & brady, 2010; thomée et al., 2007). social media platforms feed into these fears and displeasure that each one of us have on different levels. this fear usually extends to other brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 40 areas, not only to life events: a new gadget, a new movie, a new book. and the more often we check what others have posted on social media, the more anxious affected by it we become. for the people who work online and in promoting social media platforms, this phenomenon acquires ample implications. people are more and more interested in what is going on, what is new, and they want to be the first to know. people working in marketing fields need to know, before anybody else, what the new trends are, and they need to be trendsetters. advertising companies fight to gain permanent status that nobody can miss out on. all in all, the interest for this phenomenon has increased. this syndrome was first mentioned in 1996 by dr. dan herman (herman, 2000; 2011) and defined in 2004 by patrick james mcginnis from university of harvard (mcginnis, 2004). in 2012, a first study was conducted, and in 2013 the term was introduced in the oxford dictionary (grohol, 2018). today, more than ever before, our behavior is influenced by increasingly more factors. a sum of new aggressions appear and we discover their symptoms, give them a name, define them and search for solutions that are getting harder and harder to find. recent studies define this syndrome as a sensation of restlessness and fear that you might lose the contact with information about your acquittances, or that they know more than you do and would eventually be better. fomo is described as a type of anticipation of anxiety, associated with preoccupation to find alternative ways in which we could do, be or have something else. it is like thinking that the grass is always greener on the other side. experts say that the syndrome has been exaggerated by the internet itself, which makes it obvious about what we cannot achieve, cannot do or cannot have. for people with this syndrome, the avalanche of updates, emails and text messages that pile up while they haven’t been logged could be depressing. the fomo syndrome is a disorder that manifests through a ―pervasive perception that others might be having fulfilling experiences from which the patient might be excluded‖ (walsh et al., 2011). this disorder is classified in the category of social anxiety. the fomo syndrome is also defined as a state of anguish which can lead to the compulsive preoccupation not to miss any occasion of social interaction, profitable opportunity or other satisfying events. fomo supports the fear of having made a wrong decision regarding the way the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary … liliana luca, et al. 41 individual time is spend, so that the patient cannot be asked things like ―can you imagine how things would’ve evolved if...?‖ (ciubara, 2019). self-determination theory (sdt) affirms that the relatedness (the need to connect with others) is a legitimate psychological need that influences mental health. in this theoretical way, the fomo syndrome could be understood as a state of self-regulation that comes from a situational perception or, on a long term, that the needs of sad person are not met. on the one hand, modern technology, such as mobile phones, smartphones and the social media services, offer the opportunity of a unique experience of engaging in a social environment with a ―low cost admission‖. on the other hand, the mediated communication perpetuates an increased online/virtual social network dependency (ciubara, 2019). from the theoretical perspective, fomo could be attributed to situational deficiencies, or, on a long term, to the satisfaction of psychological needs of which prevalence contributes to a higher transparency of the social lives, and to an increased ―huger‖ for real time information. the dependency becomes evident, studies that describe it being more intense as people have lower levels of ability, autonomy and integrity. after a deep analysis of the syndrome, made by norwegian prof. trine syvertsen in 2019: ―in this article we sustain that the texts of digital detoxification showcase the increase of a self regulatory society, where it is expected of the individuals to assume the personal responsibility for the balance of the risks and pressure, as also to represent a shape of self modification of the authenticity and nostalgia.‖ (syvertsen & enli, 2019; ciubara, 2019). the conclusion is that the virtual space of the internet should be carefully handled, with responsibility and always in constructive manners. (ciubara, 2019). purpose our aim was the verification of the hypothesis that the use of mobile devices depends on the type of device used, age, gender and how it influences the consumer’s behavior. brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 42 methodology questionnaire applied to a group of 205 people aged 21-45, 40% male and 60% female, 80% from urban environment, 20% from rural environment. we identified the following categories: subjects that use the internet only for communication, others only for socializing, and some for both communication and socializing. another category includes subjects that use the internet as a method of self-expression – opinions, personal comments. another category is the use of internet strictly for professional, informative and cultural purposes. the indexes are: time spent on the internet, quality/reason for using the internet and browsing frequency. another index is the decision of some subjects of not having an internet connection. results the correlation of age and gender shows that: the most used social media platform is instagram, being the most popular among both male and female subjects; all participants to the study have an account on a social media platform; -most participants in group age 21 to 25 have a private account, while the majority in group age 31-45 have a public one; 75% of the subjects aged 35-45 have a tinder account, are married and live in a rural environment; the whatsapp social platform is used mostly for groups of communication between family members, even if they are living in different countries, but also for information regarding school or work groups – e.g., parents of children in the same class, students in the same university group. the time spent on internet activities: the highest frequency is represented by people spending 3 to 5 hours on the internet, respectively 75% of the participants. one subject declared that he spend ―the whole day‖ on the internet, two subjects declared ―over 15 hours connected to the internet‖. an explanation could be ―teens who believe they need to be available 24/7 to their friends, because, you know, someone might get dumped or into an argument with their parents. they need instant gratification and solace. nobody can wait anymore – not because they can’t – but because they don’t need to.‖ the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary … liliana luca, et al. 43 the mobile phone is used exclusively by 95% of the subjects. all the subjects have internet access on their mobile phone, and they are using internet subscriptions, some of which have modified theirs on the purpose of having more internet data. there is a 13% that use the videocall option for family members, and 5% that use the videocall with their partner. communication with family member and partner or friends is mostly done through the internet and not the classical phone call. asked if it is important for them to have permanent access to the internet, 100% of the subjects responded affirmatively. the reactions that they would have if there were no internet connection has been studied from two points of view: affective and behavioral. behaviorally, we found only answers that are active and not passive, such as ―i would access the mobile data, if i don’t have data, i look for places that have wi-fi access‖, or ―i couldn’t have no data, i have an unlimited access subscription to mobile data‖, or ―i don’t know what to say‖. the affective reactions of the subjects where insecurity, anxiety, but also indifference, but these cannot be interpreted because they do not correlate to other answers. a percentage of 70% of the subjects declared that they check daily what others have posted, while 35% of them do this every 30 minutes. another aspect is that 80% of the subjects do not personally know people in their online friend lists, but they check their activity, the criteria being that they are celebrities or people with public recognition. 35% of these subjects declared that they feel emotionally attached to these type of internet personalities, even if they do not know them in real life. ―connected to this fear of missing out on something better that’s going on without you are these fake personas we promote on websites like facebook. i say ―fake‖ because we often present only the best side of our lives on social networking sites. after all, who wants to be ―friends‖ with someone who’s always posting depressing status updates and who seems to be doing nothing interesting in their lives? so they are indeed fake, because instead of us being completely real, many (most?) of us censor what we post to our social media profile these days. the people on facebook are often simply their idealized selves — with a bit of misery thrown in from time to time to ―keep it real.‖ (ciubara, 2019). amongst the reasons for which they have created an account on at least one social media platform is ―the desire to be permanently connected to what others are doing‖, given by 65% of the subjects. brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 44 ―technology that we’re at one with and that promotes social balance and harmony wouldn’t require such obsessive checking behavior, would it? it would understand and complement natural human social behavior. it would differentiate for us what’s important and what’s not (the idea of ―smart agents‖ from a decade ago still resonates)‖ (turkle, 2011). teens think they ―get it‖ — that technology is a natural extension of their social lives. but they’re mistaken — they’re still crafting their lives around the technology and the social connections they entice us with, rather than the other way around. they stay up all night waiting for the next status update. they interrupt a face-to-face conversation to make sure whatever’s going on elsewhere isn’t better. i wonder how this is a good way to promote future, strong social connections?‖ (turkle, 2011). another important aspect of this study is that there are many positive answers to the questions concerning medical problems such as spinal pain and distal upper limb pain. the clinical symptoms progressively worsened until they involved motor deficit and upper limb disfunction. this means that the global function of those persons is compromised. conclusions the feeling of control and self-esteem results into a feeling of wellbeing and pride. the loss of these or the delegation of control towards somebody else, voluntarily or not, talking about known people or rolemodels, can lead to insecurity, shame, fear or doubt. ―as technology becomes ever more pervasive, our relationship to it becomes more intimate, granting it the power to influence decisions, moods and emotions. in a way, there’s an immaturity to our relationship with technology,‖ sherry turkle said, and ―it’s still evolving.‖ i think that succinctly summarizes the problem – our relationship with technology is still in its infancy, and we’re still feeling our ways around it. we don’t quite know how to interact wellmindfully, meaningfully – with it‖ (turkle, 2011). as a result, the fomo syndrome is perceived only by mental health specialists as having a negative influence over the mental balance of the individuals. the understanding of adequate measures to prevent anxiety and the persistence of self regarding the reality could enhance the ability to behave autonomously, on condition that the individual’s needs are known. this can be made possible through public information campaigns regarding the realities and the myths of the internet. the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary … liliana luca, et al. 45 references bardi, c. a., & brady, m. f. (2010). why shy people use instant messaging: loneliness and other motives. computers in human behavior, 26(6), 17221726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.06.021 bernicot, j., volckaert-legrier, o., goumi, a., & bert-erboul, a. (2012). forms and functions of sms messages: a study of variations in a corpus written by adolescents. journal of pragmatics, 44(12), 1701-1715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.07.009 ciubara, a., (2019) sindromul fomo sau teama de a nu rata nimic din ceea ce fac altii. evenimentul zilei. retrieved from https://evz.ro/psihiatrul-sindromulfomo-anamariaciubara.html grohol, j. (2018). fomo addiction: the fear of missing out. psych central. retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/blog/fomo-addiction-the-fearof-missing-out/ herman, d. (2000). introducing short-term brands: a new branding tool for a new consumer reality. journal of brand management, 7(5), 330–340. https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2000.23 herman, d. (2011). the fear of missing out. fear of missing out. retrieved from http://fomofearofmissingout.com/fomo huidu, a. (2018a). social acceptance of ethically controversed innovative techniques related to or derived from assisted reproductive technologies – a review of literature. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 2(2), 1-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/11 huidu, a. (2018b). the need for specific and unitary regulations regarding techniques in connection to or derived from medically assisted human reproduction in romania. logos universality mentality education novelty: law, 6(2), 14-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/09 mcginnis, p. j. (2004). social theory at hbs: mcginnis’ two fos. the harbus. retrieved from http://harbus.org/2004/social-theory-at-hbs-2749/ neofet, g. (2019). philosophy of science, technique and technology. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 7(2), 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/22 rodideal, a. a. (2018). emerging needs for minimizing negative effects of technology overuse among children. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 2(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/01 skierkowski, d., & wood, r. m. (2012). to text or not to text? the importance of text messaging among college-aged youth. computers in human behavior, 28(2), 744-756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.11.023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.06.021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.07.009 https://evz.ro/psihiatrul-sindromul-fomo-anamariaciubara.html https://evz.ro/psihiatrul-sindromul-fomo-anamariaciubara.html https://psychcentral.com/blog/fomo-addiction-the-fear-of-missing-out/ https://psychcentral.com/blog/fomo-addiction-the-fear-of-missing-out/ https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2000.23 http://fomofearofmissingout.com/fomo http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/11 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/09 http://harbus.org/2004/social-theory-at-hbs-2749/ http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/22 https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/01 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.11.023 brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 46 syvertsen, t., & enli, g. (2019). digital detox: media resistance and the promise of authenticity. convergence: the international journal of research into new media technologies. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856519847325 thomée, s., eklöf, m., gustafsson, e., nilsson, r. i., & hagberg, m. (2007). prevalence of perceived stress, symptoms of depression and sleep disturbances in relation to information and communication technology (ict) use among young adults – an explorative prospective study. computers in human behavior, 23(3), 1300-1321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.12.007 turkle, s. (2011). alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. basic books. walsh, s. p., white, k. m., cox, s., & young, r. mcd. (2011). keeping in constant touch: the predictors of young australians’ mobile phone involvement. computers in human behavior, 27(1), 333-342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.08.011 https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856519847325 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.12.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.08.011 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 54-71 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/109 socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons, who are located in places of imprisonment тetianaternavska¹, olena shaumian 2 , tetiana mishenina 3 , ilona voloshchuk 4 , yana raievska 5 , antonina hrys 6 1 private higher educational institution «kropyvnytskyi institute of state and municipal governance», ukraine, ternavskaya_20@ukr.net 2 private higher educational institution «kropyvnytskyi institute of state and municipal governance», ukraine, elena.shaumyan@gmail.com 3 kryvyi rih state pedagogical university, ukraine, t.mishenina@gmail.com 4 kryvyi rih state pedagogical university, ukraine, ilonavolosuk@gmail.com 5 institute of personnel training of the state employment service of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, raewskaya@ukr.net 6 private joint stock company «higher education institute «іnterregional academy of personnel management», ukraine, antoninasgris@gmail.com abstract: the psycho-pedagogical and social rehabilitation of individuals before dismissal from the places of imprisonment is currently relevant, as it is a qualitative return to normal life that becomes an acute problem for people who are preparing to leave the places of imprisonment. the purpose of the article is to analyze the pilot psychological and pedagogical research of persons who are in places of imprisonment. for introduction of the developed socialpedagogical directions of resocialization of persons who are in the places of detention or getting ready to leave these places, the diagnostics of psychological characteristics which will become key signs of efficiency of the applied directions became relevant, namely: orientation to changing of the social environment; social-pedagogical therapy; professional orientation during teaching and educational process. diagnostics of structure of intelligence, educational motivation, nonverbal creativity and level of self-assessment of persons who are in places of detention is performed. the analysis of results of motives of educational activity allows saying that educational activity of respondents is defined by motivation on achievement, cognitive motivation, and by motive of external stimulation. the highest indicator of the index of uniqueness that characterizes nonverbal creativity is met at most of respondents. the self-assured personality is guided by development of the his/her potential, he/she subordinates the existence to achievement of a condition of integrity, integration, spontaneity, humour, openness of experience. creative, motivated, intelligently flexible and selfassured personality can achieve the objectives, far from creativity, for the sake of prospects in his/her life. he/she can be attracted to the activity necessary from some reasons, important for him/her, as, for example, participation of creative people in technical activity, in organizational work, for explanation of his/her purposes for other people. keywords: educational motivation; nonverbal creativity; self-assessment; structure of intelligence. how to cite: ternavska, t., shaumian, o., mishenina, t., voloshchuk, i., raievska, y., & hrys, a. (2020). sociopsychological directions of resocialization of persons, who are located in places of imprisonment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 54-71. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/109 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/109 mailto:ternavskaya_20@ukr.net mailto:elena.shaumyan@gmail.com mailto:t.mishenina@gmail.com mailto:ilonavolosuk@gmail.com mailto:raewskaya@ukr.net mailto:antoninasgris@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/109 socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons… tetiana ternavska, et al. 55 1. introduction the psycho-pedagogical and social rehabilitation of individuals before dismissal from the places of imprisonment is currently relevant, as it is a qualitative return to normal life that becomes an acute problem for people who are preparing to leave the places of imprisonment. recognized to be innovative the sphere of providing socialpedagogical services to persons released from places of imprisonment, requires further structural and organizational registration and legislative regulation. resolving the issue of effective preparation of prisoners for releasing is one of the key tasks of penitentiary and post penitentiary theory and practice. for convicts who have served their sentence for a long time, and have lost socially useful connections and, for the most part, do not have a place for living, a profession and even a proper education, adaptation to life in freedom in modern conditions is very complicated. their successful social, psychological and pedagogical adaptation is one of the priority directions of state policy, since the difficulties in restoring their social status and returning to normal living conditions lead to the fact that those who have been released from penitentiary institutions are returning to the criminal way, because of which the level of relapse of crimes is increasing. there is practically complete lacking of the necessary number of trained social pedagogues-practitioners, psychologists, subject teachers which are able to work with different categories of convicts in a new way. the studies of psychological and pedagogical indicators, the analysis of the results of which will help to orient the specialists in choosing, developing, modifying the correct and effective psycho-pedagogical and social innovative technologies for the re-socialization of persons in detention are in the same deficit. psycho-pedagogical and social work with convicts is by itself a multidisciplinary type of activity. one of the most important directions of activity of social and pedagogical work with convicts is their personal preparation for release from places of imprisonment and social-pedagogical and psychological work with their families, which became the object of research of m. denysova (2010), v. druzhinin (2007), a. kapska (2017), a. makarenko (1997), v. nalyvaiko (2000), a. stepaniuk (2015). employees of correctional colonies (prisons) interact in solving issues of labor and household assistance to those persons which are being released from places of imprisonment. this is primarily assistance in the spheres of care, healthcare, education, social protection of the population, work with the commission on juvenile affairs and the protection of their rights. all these brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 56 types of social-pedagogical work are necessary and traditional, which need modern improvement and create conditions for our further research. the purpose of the article is to analyze the pilot psychological and pedagogical research of persons who are in places of imprisonment. 2. materials and methods among the specially developed educational forms and technologies successfully implemented in our country, the following have proved to be effective: the use of psychological and pedagogical training using the methods of persuasion and suggestion; organization of work of rooms of relaxation; involving convicts in various forms of creative activity of humanistic orientation; purposeful work on the selection, formation and training of the assets of convicts, the wider use of the elements of selfgovernment on the basis of involving the assets of convicted persons in the planning, preparation and implementation of educational activities, organization of pedagogically appropriate leisure; interaction of employees of various parts and services with the public, in particular with representatives of different religious denominations. under the resourcefulness of educational work, it is necessary to understand not only the availability of funds, technical means, and, above all, the staffing of institutions with highly skilled professional staff capable of implementing and realization of programs for the education and rehabilitation of convicts. thus, it is worth emphasizing the importance of the formation of positive interpersonal relations among convicts, which originate directly from the environmental conditionality of the correction of the personality of the prisoner who does not independently choose an environment. the forced stay in the department designated by the administration dramatically increases the value of the immediate social environment (microenvironment). it is very difficult to form positive interpersonal relationships among prisoners, but it is extremely necessary. the above principle is closely linked with the following the principle of adherence to the rule of law in the process of re-socialization. the peculiarity of the pedagogical process in places of imprisonment is its dependence on legal regulations, the necessity of subordination of educational actions to the requirements of the legal norms of criminalexecutive law, which regulate the relationship between the object and subject, educational influence, determine the main means of re-socialization and legal requirements for their implementation. specifies the specifics of socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons… tetiana ternavska, et al. 57 educational work, security and law and order, general and vocational education in the conditions of penitentiary institutions, the involvement of convicts in different types of labor activity, the legal aspects of the application of pedagogical methods and techniques, in particular means of encouragement and punishment are substantiated. educators, social workers involved in working with prisoners must fully and deeply understand the norms of the criminal-executive and other branches of law and strictly adhere to them in practice. of course, it should be emphasized that not always the existing legal norms regulating the activity of investigative isolation units are fully pedagogically expedient. but this is another aspect of the problem – it is necessary to scientifically substantiate the legal norms, which are accepted at the legislative level, taking into account the laws of psychology and pedagogy. and the officially accepted norm of the law should be mandatory for the activities and behavior of all – both convicted and those involved in working with them. correction of a minor naturally depends on the peculiarities of various types of his activity and those relations that arise in its process. in some pedagogical concepts of the past, the idea of verbal education prevailed: the educator influenced the upbringing only by means of explanation, persuasion, exhortation, etc. warning about the harm of only verbal education, a. makarenko (1997) repeatedly emphasized that consciousness is formed as a result of activity, that there is a “small groove” between consciousness and action, which must be filled with experience (p. 206). only activity puts the pupil in an active position relative to the surrounding reality, includes it in a variety of upbringing relationships. in investigative isolators, in conditions of isolation, sensory deficits, the creative activity of the personality acquires a special significance. it is worth reminding that, in addition to the labor and production activities, the concept of activity includes both educational and public, as well as communication and game. this should be especially taken into account in work with convicted of young age groups. from the specified pattern the following pedagogical principles follow: re-education of convicts is carried out in various types of their activities, forming a system of socially meaningful relationships with reality; the principle of unity of social value of activity and its subjective significance for convicts. this means that convicted person is being raised the most by such activity, which fully takes into account his personal brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 58 interests, provides activity and allows him to optimally demonstrate his abilities. the effectiveness of the re-socialization of the convicted persons naturally depends on the correspondence of content, forms and methods of educational impact on the personality as a holistic psychological phenomenon, in particular the attitude of the convicted person to the crime and the criminal punishment for it. practice shows that in the case when the convict considers himself completely innocent of the crime, does not feel repentance, and to the extent of criminal punishment is regarded as unfair, then, naturally, there is a negative attitude to pedagogical influence. correction of such and other prisoners can only be successful if we manage to form at them feelings of guilty for the crimes committed, repentance, the attitude towards punishment as fair, and to the profession of a prison officer as important, necessary and socially significant. it is also worth noting that each person is unique, for every juvenile one has to find his “key” and try to penetrate into the underlying interior of his inner world. in order to achieve a positive result, taking into account the abovementioned regularities, it is necessary to adhere to such principles as individual and differentiated approach to minors, an integrated approach to re-education, a combination of strictness of prisoners with respect for their personality, and humane and just attitude towards them. the principle of an individual and differentiated approach means taking into account in the educational work the individual features of convicts, as well as features common to their various categories. the concept of “subordinates”, “convicted” from psychological, demographic and other positions is very diverse. they can be differentiated according to the age, orientation of the personality, the nature of the crimes committed, the number of convictions, the degree of pedagogical neglect, the informal position in their community (“trump card”, “angular”, “torpedo”, “six”, etc.). differentiation of the prosecuted and convicted persons can become a unique tool in the hands of the investigator of detention center, which enables to optimally develop and implement “typical” programs of educational work with different categories of convicts, most accurately and subtly to find approaches to the personality as a unique individuality, and on this basis to specify such programs. the principle of a comprehensive approach to re-education involves understanding the person as a holistic psychological phenomenon and socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons… tetiana ternavska, et al. 59 means the need to study, develop and correct its intellectual, emotionalvolitional, value-orientation spheres, and behavior. these tasks are realized by the means of mental, moral, labor, legal, physical, valeological, aesthetic and other interrelated directions of the educational process in their unity and interdependence. a comprehensive approach requires the rational use of the entire range of forms, content, methods and means of upbringing, foresees the coherence and continuity of the actions of all subjects of the educational process, aimed at the re-socialization of convicts at different stages of serving the sentence, taking into account the dynamics of personal changes in consciousness and behavior of convicts throughout the process of reeducation in places of detention and after release. in the principle of combination of strictness to convicted persons with respect for personality, humane and just attitude to them the dialectic of the educational process reflects, which is complicated by the specifics of being in the detention center. to be humane for the convicts means to believe in the possibility of their correction, to pass this faith to themselves. to do this, one must be able to set reasonable and fair demands, as well as create conditions where compliance with them leads not to thoughtless obedience, but to conscious discipline, to the formation of readiness to work on himself. humanity and strictness are organically interconnected and form two sides of the same principle. for its proper implementation, investigative detention officers should be careful about prisoners, while avoiding the two extremes: on the one hand, it is a substitution for the strictness by administration, roughness, abuse, disciplinary punishment, and, on the other, a manifestation of a false sense of pity for criminals, connivance, flirting with them. requirements for convicts must be purposeful and realistic, have a certain structure, and are based on the basic criteria of socio-pedagogical work, according to which psycho-corrective effects on the convict will be carried out. (nedybalyuk, 2013, р. 169.) it should be borne in mind, however, that the low requirements (first of all, this applies to representatives of the council of assets of convicts) can lead to the “decay” of the asset, unhealthy relations between the convicts, undermining the authority of employees. the requirements to the personality of the convicted person, taking into account the dynamics of his correction, should not be weakened, but at the same time it is important to diversify their forms and techniques, using both direct (order, prohibition, command) and indirect claims (hint, warning of inevitable consequences and etc.). the requirements of educators should brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 60 be supplemented, and sometimes consistently replaced by the requirements of the team, the group to the convict and the demands of the convict to himself. the humanity of the employees of the investigative detention center is incompatible with the brutality and with suppression of the human dignity of the convicted person. every convicted person should be seen as a citizen of a society, which has, though limited, but established by law rights and obligations. the effectiveness of the correction of the convict objectively depends on his own active self-education activities. in recent years, new effective means of individual and group influence on convicts are constantly being implemented in the work of modern penitentiary institutions. however, only external conditions and actions concerning the personality can not ensure its development and correction, because their influence is mediated by the internal world of the convict, his views, his attitude to the surrounding reality, his personal activity. many years of practice show that the implementation of any number of educational activities will not produce the desired results if the prisoners themselves do not want to carefully examine the peculiarities of their character, critically treat themselves and consciously, systematically engage in self-education, restoration, formation and development of positive traits, habits and so on. the effectiveness of educational work in institutions of execution of sentences is determined by many factors, but they all act on the convicted person only through his activity, his attitude to all influences. in other words, a convicted person should become not only an object but also a subject of educational influences. it is difficult to achieve a result if the convict does not see expediency in changing the features of his character, or does not believe in the possibility of correction. consequently, from the above-mentioned regularity, the principle of stimulation and pedagogical leadership of the selfeducation of convicts follows. its realization is connected with the help for the convict to understand objectively his personality, to critically analyze the drawbacks and to define the saved positive features, with the motivation of him to work on himself and study methods and techniques of influence on himself. overcoming the negative qualities of the personality of the convict is naturally associated with the approach to it with an optimistic hypothesis, based on positive features and qualities. socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons… tetiana ternavska, et al. 61 sometimes all individual work with prisoners is directed only to fight his drawbacks. if the results can not be reached immediately, they say: "this person can not be re-educated." such mood is passed to a convict, he loses his faith in himself, and isn’t eager to work on himself. ignoring the abovementioned regularity can nullify all the efforts of the staff of the investigative detention center. taking this pattern into account, it is necessary in the penitentiary activity to consistently implement the principles of supporting the educational work on positive qualities, preserved social relations and personal relations, forecasting, identifying, forming and developing this positive. this principle reflects the most important psycho-pedagogical position, which emphasizes the need to take into account the needs of people in self-declaration and self-affirmation. the practice shows that the positive in the personality of a prisoner can be revealed in the features of his behavior associated with such a biopsychic property as balance, stability of the type of the nervous system (temperament), or, for example, in mature intellectual development, subtlety of emotional and sensual, or force of the volitional sphere (which is a substructure of mental processes). positive in the personality of the convict in many cases can be found in the development, preserving of his social experience, professional and general cultural knowledge, skills and habits, useful habits (at least, for example, sanitary-hygienic content). experienced employees of the investigative detention center are well aware that even with the general negative attitudes of criminals and in this substructure of personality, many of them have positive features associated with the development of social interests and inclinations, the presence of positive ideals in general, the preservation of civic convictions that characterize understanding and the personal acceptance by prisoners of such, for example, social values, as patriotism, mercy, justice, etc. it is known that one of the most important for the re-education of personality attitudes is the attitude towards oneself, his behavior, and hence to his crime, his past and future. if in this sphere of personality the penitentiary worker can identify such positive features as self-criticism or worry about the crime committed on the basis of true repentance, one can rely on the reality of achieving the goal of returning to a society of a lawabiding person. the most important field of finding the positive in the personality and supporting him – the abilities of the prisoner: organizing, professionally working, sports, creative, etc. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 62 there is a very important pedagogical tool – an opportunity to give a person a "do-it-yourself" (a kind of work or social activity, creative leisure activities), to give him/her a chance to positively show him/herself, earn other people's appreciation, or simply enjoy the success, "inner encouragement " it is also necessary to carefully and diligently identify the positive aspects in the social relationships of the prisoner: maintaining a happy relationship in the family, the group where he previously worked or studied, the informal groups he was a member of (circle of communication with friends, creative, self-employed, sports and other associations, groups and sections); obtaining a high social status in the system of informal interpersonal relationships with other prisoners. it is worth emphasizing that none of the above regularities works in itself, all the established regularities and principles form a single interacting system. the pilot psychological and pedagogical research was conducted by the department of social work of phei “kropyvnytskyi institute of state and municipal management”. the respondents were pupils of evening school №38 – people who are in the places of imprisonment in kropyvnytskyi city, there were 30 of them, aged from 16 to 47 years old. the study was conducted in november 2018. to study the structure of intelligence, self-esteem, creativity and motivational characteristics of the personality who are preparing to leave the places of imprisonment, the following methodologies were used: methodology “diagnostics of the structure of educational motivation” by m. fetiskin (fetiskin et al., 2005); methodology “diagnostics of non-verbal creativity (shortened version of the test of p. torrens)” by a. voronin (druzhinin, 2007); “method of diagnostics of the structure of intelligence”, the test of r. amthauer (shortened version developed by a. voronin and s. biryukov) (druzhinin, 2007); methodology “verbal diagnostics of self-esteem of the personality” by m. fetiskin (fetiskin et al., 2005). 3. results social-pedagogical work with convicts is a multidisciplinary type of activity by itself. one of the most important directions of activity of social and pedagogical work with convicts is their personal preparation for release from places of imprisonment, which is aimed at the resocialization of the prisoners themselves. the main purpose of re-socialization is to return to socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons… tetiana ternavska, et al. 63 the society a "socially healthy" person capable of intellectual selfimprovement, revealing of creative abilities, positive motivation for a qualitative professional and everyday life, with an adequate self-esteem; prepared for different living conditions that exist in society. to investigate creativity, the method of diagnostics of non-verbal creativity is used, which represents the 12 subtestes proposed by p. torrens. one of the subtests "completion of pictures." was used in the study. when using this test, special emphasis was placed on identifying non-verbal creativity as a certain ability to create a new, original product under minimal verbalization. in other words – the verbalization of the material with which the subject is working and the means of creating a new product is not necessary and secondary. with this test, we determined the level of originality and the level of uniqueness. after questioning a group of 30 respondents, we determined that the level of non-verbal creativity of the investigated prisoners (according to the index of originality) is below the average (18%). however, for its evaluation the index of uniqueness is more important: the result of the index of uniqueness (72%) suggests that the creation of a unique product of activity is possible for all respondents. the uniqueness of this category of people has high rates, indicating that there are remarkable creative abilities in the investigated personalities. self-confident personality focuses on the development of its potential, it submits its existence to the achievement of the state of integrity, integrity, spontaneity, humor, openness of experience. the creative person can achieve far from creativeness goals for the sake of the prospects in his life; he/she can be involved in activities necessary for some important reasons for him/her, such as the participation of creative people in technical activities, in organizational work, for explanation their goals to other people, etc. at a high level of creativity, confident in his/her strength and abilities, the person thoroughly approaches the tasks, faster and more qualitatively reaches the ultimate goal of cognitive activity and has a creative level of the latter. methodology "diagnostics of the structure of educational motivation" allowed to study the most significant motives of educational activity and their qualitative analysis in people of all ages. educational motivation is an appropriate indicator for professional self-determination and can be taken into account when getting education for people preparing for leaving places of imprisonment. the motive of the educational process is the driving force behind the process of vocational training. the motive for learning is the internal brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 64 motive force that provides the movement of the personality to cognitive activity, activates intellectual development in the process of activity. in the role of motives may be the needs and interests, aspirations and emotions, settings and ideals. from the psychological point of view, motives are the internal motive of educational activity, which determines the success and effectiveness of the latter. in our study, we identified several group motives for learning activities. we indicate in percents the quantitative characteristics of each motive at respondents. cognitive motive (46%) appears in the awakening of cognitive interests and is realized through the satisfaction of the process of cognition and its results. cognitive activity of a person is the leading sphere of his/her life. therefore, the formation of cognitive motifs in people is a leading factor in the success of cognitive activity, because through him the natural need of a person is realized. this is connected with the fact that evening school teachers adapt the teaching material from each discipline and use it according to the age-specific characteristics and intellectual abilities of each student. communicative motive is expressed in the desire for communication. like the need for activities, a person needs communication, the satisfaction of which is a necessary condition for normal mental and social development of personality and development of cognitive activity (39%). the motive for emotional satisfaction is the interest in a certain type of activity, the process of fulfilling this action, a positive emotional state during the educational activity, a sense of joy and satisfaction with learning (33%). the motive for self-development is the understanding of the importance of knowledge, the need for self-education, the dissatisfaction with the level of their knowledge, the desire and the wish to independently solve the problem, despite the fact that people are in places of imprisonment (34%). external stimulation – the desire to earn approval from comrades, the collective, the manifestation of selfishness and ambition, fear of a teacher (45%). the motive of achievement – the desire to be an educated member of society, responsibility, duty to the team, society, parents, the benefit of mastering the future profession, mercantile, material benefits, rapid career. for 58% of the respondents, the dominance of the motive of achievement is outstanding, and this is especially clearly seen in educational activities. socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons… tetiana ternavska, et al. 65 compared with other motifs, the motive of achievement is of the greatest importance in the educational activities of all the investigated. we assume that many of the respondents are guided by certain future creative achievements, success in their careers, and avoiding problems in finding employment, which depends on their current success in learning activities. this gives an opportunity to make a qualitative interpretation of the fact that the main motivation for the respondents is internal, including the motivation of the achievement. by means of the method of diagnostics of the structure of intelligence there were attempts to study the level of general intellectual abilities, the main group factors of the structure of intelligence and their qualitative analysis among respondents of different ages. the test diagnoses the general intelligence (g factor by spirman) and its main group factors, namely: spatial, numeric and verbal. the so-called "g-factor" is the general ability to study. the mark is obtained based on the compilation of indicators of three factors: verbal, numeric, and three-dimensional space perception testing. the total score for all factors determines the overall assessment of the level of intelligence. unfortunately, out of 30 respondents, only 25% at least tried to answer the test questions. only 1 respondent answered 16 questions of the test, giving correct answers. analyzing the results of the respondents' responses, it was found that the calculation-mathematical vector, that is, the numerical part of the test has suffered the greatest difficulties. only 13% of respondents answered one question of this block. three correct answers were given to the blocks for the study of spatial thinking and memory and concentration of attention. the analysis of the results of the diagnosis of the level of general intelligence revealed that the level of its indicators is determined predominantly by the experience of the subject of education and training in interaction with the surrounding society, the success and level of knowledge received, etc. using the method of verbal diagnosis of personality self-assessment, the following self-esteem indicators of respondents of different age groups were determined. the analysis of indicators shows that the overwhelming majority of the examined – 70% (the average score of self-esteem level is 44) has an average level self-esteem (respondents aged from 26 to 35 years old). only 15% of the respondents have a high level (respondents aged from 14 to 25 years old) and one has a low level (two respondents aged 47 and one aged 36 years old). brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 66 the data show that most of the people surveyed are people who rarely suffer from infertility, trying to adjust to the opinion of other people from time to time. respondents with high self-esteem are self-confident, responsive to comments, and rarely doubt the need for their actions. 3% of respondents are painfully tolerant of critical remarks, they are not selfassured. but let us note that, unlike other qualities of a personality, selfesteem is quite variable and in many cases depends on the situation, conditions and period of life, events. 4. discussion and conclusions psychological and pedagogical aspects of the problem of humanizing the socializing process in places of imprisonment are connected, first of all, with the implementation to the practice the productive ideas of cooperation pedagogy. pedagogy of cooperation is defined as a progressive concept that establishes a special style of dialogic communication between teachers and students, aimed at creating in the object of education the position of an active, conscious subject of personally significant and socially useful activities (yanova, 2020, p. 1). the main value components of cooperation pedagogy that can be considered as professional settings of the educator, which are essential for the implementation of this progressive concept, include the following: 1) an optimistic forecast in assessing the prospects of personality changes of a person in detention; 2) the acceptance (and not rejection) of every adolescent, boy or adult "as he is", with all his disadvantages, contradictions, etc., as well as the respectful attention to the person; 3) empathetic (and not only appreciated) sympathetic understanding of the personality of the prisoner, taking into account the complexity of his mental states; 4) providing the prisoner with the social-psychological and other assistance necessary for him to overcome the difficulties in various spheres of life (of course, within the law), to create and consolidate a psychotherapeutic (or, at the least, non-psychotropic) climate of the environment where he is in; 5) the search for positive aspects in the person who is in places of imprisonment for the use of these positive aspects in the pedagogical process; 6) in-depth study and disclosure of the actual motives and external circumstances that determine the behaviour and actions of the individual, socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons… tetiana ternavska, et al. 67 taking into account his/her characteristics, the main needs, mental states and the adoption of optimal, concrete individualized solutions on this basis; 7) activation of consciousness and selfconsciousness of lawbreakers with appeal to their intellectual powers and development of the latter; 8) critical introspection, correction by an employee of the institution, social worker of his own personality and pedagogical activity for the purpose of self-improvement (soloviev, 2012, p. 3). by organizing the process of re-socialization of the individual in conditions of imprisonment, it is necessary to understand his essence, the basic laws inherent in this process, and the principles of its implementation. knowledge of the regularities and principles of the pedagogical process in the conditions of imprisonment is necessary for employees to get deeper into the essence of the correction of the person of the prisoner, to ensure the scientific principles of management of this process. deep knowledge of the laws and principles of the pedagogical process helps to determine the most effective forms and methods of influencing the consciousness, feelings and behavior of prisoners. the regularities of the pedagogical process are reflected in the basic principles of penitentiary pedagogy regarding the resocialization of those who committed the crime. penitentiary pedagogy does not reduce the principles of re-socialization to the sum of some specific recipes and rules, but treats them as a set of guiding ideas, requirements for the implementation of social-pedagogical process in prison. principles of resocialization of the person, who is in places of imprisonment, are the leading key ideas arising from the regularities, essence and peculiarities of the process of resocialization. it should be emphasized that these principles derive from the essence of the goals of re-education and are conditioned by the nature of the social system, the objectivity of pedagogical laws, the peculiarity and specificity of the pedagogical process in the penitentiary institutions. the specificity of the principles is also due to the peculiarities of the prisoner's personality. it must be understood that the force of objective laws is that they operate in a society irrespective of our wishes or prohibitions, decisions of sessions, congresses or meetings of departmental boards. nobody can abolish the laws, it is an objectively existing reality. it is known that the system of education is determined the social structure of society, its spiritual culture. this is reflected in the definition of brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 68 goals and objectives, the social ideal of the individual, the model of those features and qualities that should be formed at the pupils. the development of social relations naturally left its imprint on the actually progressive for its time pennsylvanian system of punishment of the eighteenth century (in single cells of prisons the criminals were alone with themselves and the bible, in complete silence and isolation from the outside world, which often led to suicide, loss mental equilibrium), and on the oberon system of punishment of the nineteenth century (convicts were categorically forbidden to speak among themselves, they could apply to the administration only in extreme cases and only by whisper or using facial expressions and gestures). these systems have helped to completely restrict convicts from any involvement in solving their own destiny or even insignificant improvements in their state. totalitarian society has their own ideals, idols, ideas (denial of universal values in favor of mythical class morality), their own slogans ("the goal justifies the means"), which, of course, reflected on the goals and objectives of the re-socialization of the convicts. the level of social relations naturally predetermined the task of penitentiary institutions – the formation of an obedient, fanatically devoted to the communist idea of "cog" of the state machine (soloviev, 2012, p. 93). it becomes clear why in the 30-ies of the 20th century in our penitentiary institutions humanistic ideas and methodical advice of the outstanding teacher, the head of the poltava and the kuryag colonies, and then the deputy head of the labor colonies of the nkvs of ukraine a. makarenko (1997) (the combination of respect and demanding to the personality of the convicted person, the protection of him/her in the team, the system of responsible dependence as prevention of the "decay" of the active core, hypertrophy of the functions of self-government, etc.). the objectives and content of the system of a. makarenko significantly outstripped the level of social relations at that time (makarenko, 1997, p. 237). in the period of development of an independent democratic constitutional state the ideas of humanism, pedagogy of cooperation and respect for a person are naturally highlighted. on the basis of the consideration of the logical connection between the nature of social relations and the purpose, tasks, content of the pedagogical process in the practice of the staff of the penitentiary institutions, the principles that determine the main directions of work with the lawbreakers must be realized. this is, first of all, the principle of socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons… tetiana ternavska, et al. 69 purposefulness of the pedagogical process for the resocialization of young people. the objective basis of optimism in assessing the possibilities of correction of the convicted person is the doctrine of plasticity of the nervous system and the possibility of reorganizing a dynamic stereotype, of the leading role of social factors (primarily, targeted educational activities, including self-education) in the formation and correction of the personality. the next principle that follows from the mentioned laws is the close connection of the process of re-socialization with real life. in the detention center, this principle becomes of particular importance as a result of certain physical isolation and limited social status of a minor. an analysis of the thoughts of social workers, teachers, educators, and psychologists, personal observations of authors and interviews of individuals who are in prison, suggests that many of them are very poorly oriented in the problems of modern life, in the difficulties with which they can encounter in everyday life after being released. on implementing the principle of close connection of the process of re-socialization with real life, it is envisaged to renew and establish socially useful connections and relationships of prisoners, to constantly familiarize them with social-economic, political problems, to form positive social attitudes, to involve them in social useful and personally significant activity. to do this you need to use a variety of media; attract prisoners to read newspapers, magazines, listening to radio broadcasts, etc., with appropriate pedagogically expedient interpretation of the information provided. the effectiveness of re-socialization naturally depends on the quality of educational work and its resourcefulness, from the social environment (external and internal) of specific institutions (sitkovskaya, 1998, p. 55). a comprehensive analysis of the results of the study on the abovementioned methods suggests as the existence of similarities (approximately the same, by the values, level of general intelligence), but also some differences between respondents of different ages. for example, the predominant lack of performance of the subtest for the numerical factor in the structure of intelligence is the most common among respondents, which suggests a low level of intelligence structure, while the analysis of the subtest indicators for the verbal factor survey showed a high value only in 16% of respondents. analysis of the results of the motives of educational activities suggests that the educational activity of the respondents is determined by the motivation for achievement, cognitive motivation, and the motivation of external stimulation. the highest indicator of the uniqueness index characterizing the component of "creativity" occurs in brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 70 most of the respondents, while the index of originality is only 18% of the respondents. preparation of convicts for leaving the places of imprisonment is based on the diligent work in the system of measures for the preliminary solution of issues of social-psychological and intellectual development, labor and domestic sets of convicts, which foresee their pedagogical, psychological, ethical, legal preparation, effective provision of direct assistance in restoration and the development of socially useful ties between convicts. the next step in our study will be the introduction of developed social-pedagogical directions of re-socialization of persons preparing for leaving the places of imprisonment, namely: orientation towards changing social environment; social psychological therapy; professional orientation during the educational process. references denysova, m. o. (2010). sotsialna robota u penitentsiarnii systemi [social work in the penitentiary systemi]. http://archive.nbuv.gov.ua/portal/soc_gum/pedaim/lexts/20105z036.pd f. druzhinin, v. n. (2007). psikhologiya obshchikh sposobnostei [psychology of general abilities]. piter. https://urait.ru/book/psihologiya-obschih-sposobnostey427496 fetiskin, n. p., kozlov, v. v., & manuilov, g. m. (2005). sotsialno-psikhologicheskaya diagnostika razvitiya lichnosti i malykh grupp [social psychological diagnostics of personality development and small groups]. psychoterapy institute. https://www.twirpx.com/file/745514/ kapska, a. (2017). sotsialnyi suprovid riznykh katehorii simei ta ditei [social support for different categories of families and children]. center for educational literature. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1246679/ makarenko, a. s. (1997). tvory v 5-ty tomakh [works in 5 volumes]. radianska shkola. nalyvaiko, v. s. (2000). kryminolohichni problemy resotsializatsii osib, zvilnenykh z mists pozbavlennia voli [criminological problems of resocialization of persons released from places of imprisonment]. [ unpublished phd thesis]. the national academy of internal affairs of ukraine. nedybalyuk, o. (2013). teoretyko-metodolohichni pidkhody do vyvchennia protsesu resotsializatsii v umovakh vykhovnoi kolonii [theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the process of resocialization in an educational http://archive.nbuv.gov.ua/portal/soc_gum/pedaim/lexts/20105z036.pdf http://archive.nbuv.gov.ua/portal/soc_gum/pedaim/lexts/20105z036.pdf https://urait.ru/book/psihologiya-obschih-sposobnostey-427496 https://urait.ru/book/psihologiya-obschih-sposobnostey-427496 https://www.twirpx.com/file/745514/ https://www.twirpx.com/file/1246679/ socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons… tetiana ternavska, et al. 71 colony]. actual problems of psychology, 3(31), 169. http://appsychology.org.ua/data/jrn/v7/i31/22.pdf sitkovskaya, o. d. (1998). psykhologiya ugolovnoi otvetstvennosti [psychology of criminal responsibility]. norma. https://www.twirpx.com/file/587717/ soloviev, v. s. (2012). opravdanye dobra [the justification of good]. the institute of russian civilization. https://platona.net/load/knigi_po_filosofii/aksiologija/solovev_opravdan ie_dobra/70-1-0-2817 stepaniuk, a. kh. (2015). prava ta zakonni interesy zasudzhenykh do pozbavlennia voli v umovakh reformuvannia derzhavnoi kryminalno-vykonavchoi sluzhby ukrainy [rights and lawful interests of convicted prisoners in the conditions of reforming the state criminal execution service of ukraine]. pravo. https://dspace.vnmu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/3523/monogr af_prava_2015.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y yanova, v. m. (2020). pedahohika spivrobitnytstva: sutnist, kliuchovi idei, formy ta metody [pedagogy of cooperation: essence, key ideas, forms and methods]. osvita.ua. https://osvita.ua/school/lessons_summary/upbring/31097/ https://www.twirpx.com/file/587717/ https://platona.net/load/knigi_po_filosofii/aksiologija/solovev_opravdanie_dobra/70-1-0-2817 https://platona.net/load/knigi_po_filosofii/aksiologija/solovev_opravdanie_dobra/70-1-0-2817 https://dspace.vnmu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/3523/monograf_prava_2015.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://dspace.vnmu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/3523/monograf_prava_2015.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y paper title (use style: paper title) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 82-103 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/76 biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural network compared with metaheuristics methods habib dhahri1,2 1 college of applied computer sciences (cacs), king saud university, riyadh, saudi arabia; 2 faculty of sciences and techniques of sidi bouzid, university of kairouan, tunisia. abstract: in this paper, we present a learning algorithm for the elman recurrent neural network (ernn) based on biogeography-based optimization (bbo). the proposed algorithm computes the weights, initials inputs of the context units and self-feedback coefficient of the elman network. the method applied for four benchmark problems: mackey glass and lorentz equations, which produce chaotic time series, and to real life classification; iris and breast cancer datasets. numerical experimental results show improvement of the performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of accuracy and mse eror over many heuristic algorithms. keywords: biogeography-based optimization; time series predictions; classification. how to cite: dhahri, h. (2020). biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural network compared with meta-heuristics methods. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 82103. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/76 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/76 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/76 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 83 1. introduction among the varied types of neural nets, recurrent neural network (rnn) is able to forecast the most accurate results (senjyu et al., 2006). in case of the rnn, the fixed back-connections save a copy of the previous values of the hidden units in the context units. actually, the rnn was applied in various applications, such as, pattern recognition (hori et al., 2016), robotic control (sharma et al., 2016), and genetic data prediction (baldi & pollastri, 2003). therefore, rnn has been widely used as a tool in data classification (nawi et al., 2015) and time series prediction (chandra, 2015; koskela et al., 1996). in fact, there are two types of rnn; a fully rnn used by kechriotis zervas and manolakos (1994), and a partially rnn used by robinson and fallside (1991). concerning the fully rnn, each unit of the nn is connected to every other unit. bam (bidirectional associative memory) (kosko, 1988) and hopfield (1982) are examples of frnn. the recurrent networks are still complicated in dealing with complex problems. while the partially training is faster compared to globally recurrent nns. recent researches exhibit that prnn can be a highly effective forecasting method in fields like electricity consumption and wind speed (cao, ewing, & thompson, 2012; marvuglia & messineo, 2012). prnn offer both features. this topology is considered for non-linear applications and also to modulate time series data ( müller-navarra, lessmann & voß 2015). elman neural network (enn) (elman, 1990) is the most widely used prnn architecture. its structure chosen over the jordan network (jordan, 1997) thanks to its hidden layer being wider than the output layer. this wider layer allows more values to be feedback to the input, consequently authorizing more information to be available to the network (venayagamoorthy, welch & ruffing, 2009). optimisation can be performed by metaheuristic methods (yao & kim, 2014). this class of network could be trained with heuristics algorithms because of the inconveniences gradient-based algorithms such as suffering from the local minima. generally, it was three tasks for rnn optimization; weight and bias optimization, architecture optimisation and parameter gradient optimization. this work concerns the first optimization task in order to find the minimum training error. a metaheuristic is officially known as an iterative generation process, which guides a subordinate heuristic by combining rationally different concepts for exploring and exploiting the search space, and learning the strategies which are used for organizing information to find efficiently nearbiogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural … habib dhahri 84 optimal solutions (osman & laporte, 1996). in general, the nature inspired algorithms is mainly classified in three major’s groups: evolutionary algorithms, ecology-based algorithms and bio-inspired algorithm. the evolutionary computation algorithms are based on biological darwinian evolution to design a solution and it include the genetic algorithms (pham & karaboga, 1999), the differential evolution (storn & price, 1997) and evolutionary strategies (kawada, yamamoto, & mada, 2004). the ecology-based algorithms is based on the ecosystems to solve the problem. this group include biogeography-based optimization (bbo) and invasive weed colony optimization (iwo) algorithms (mehrabian & lucas, 2006). bio-inspired algorithm are inspired from the interactions between / with the species. based on the behaviours of species, different algorithms have been invented. this category includes particle swarm optimization (kennedy & eberhart, 1995), artificial bee colony (karaboga & basturk, 2007), fish swarm algorithm (li, shao & qian, 2002), firefly algorithm (yang, 2009), bacterial foraging algorithm (passino, 2002), ant colony optimization (zhipeng et al., 2012), cuckoo search optimization (yang, & deb, 2009), fruit fly algorithm (pan, 2012) and bat algorithm (yang, 2010). despite the generation of an evolving solution is common for the most of approaches, they have their distinctive way to exploit and explore the search space of the problem. bbo algorithm considered one of the powerful algorithms due to its exploration and exploitation strategies depend on the two bbo operators; migration and mutation. the main objective of the mutation operator is to enhance the diversity of the population. based on this operator, the solution with low hsi can improved as well as the solutions with high hsi. consequently, the probabilistic operator can be applied for any candidate solution. unlike the evolutionary algorithms, at each generation the solutions are the combination of the parents ‘solutions and their offspring. the rate of emigrations is evolved from one generation to another. the habitat with a high emigration rate can share the information with the one with low emigration rate. several techniques have been used to optimize elman rnn performance such as genetic algorithm (ga) (pham & karaboga, 1999), particle swarm optimization pso (xiao, venayagamoorthy, & corzine, 2007), ant colony optimization (aco) (zhipeng et al., 2012), evolutionary brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 85 strategies (es) (kawada, yamamoto, & mada, 2004) and population based incremental learning (pbil) (palafox & iba, 2012). both bbo and ga are evolutionary algorithm, but each of them has a specific characteristic. in (simon et al., 2011), the authors claim that bbo and ga have the same chances of finding the optimal solution, but bbo able to conserve this optimum once it found. thanks to immigration rate, which help to retain good solutions in the population and reduces with fitness. in addition, the use of mutation for each individual in a population enhances the exploitation capability of bbo compared to ga, which applies a single mutation for the entire population. in fact, (simon, ergezer & du, 2009) prove that the advantage of bbo compared to ga is more marked with larger and higher dimensional problems. pso is based on the behaviour of birds seeking their feeds while bbo uses the principle of migration to the islands, despite this difference, these two algorithms have similar characteristics as the sharing of information between populations but the strength of bbo is that it retains solutions from one iteration to another and ameliorate the solutions by the migration mechanism. bbo uses the mutation mechanism that represents a strong point compared to the swarm intelligence techniques (pso, aco). in (hordri, yuhaniz, & nasien, 2013), the author compares the performance of bbo, pso and ga, treating fourteen benchmark functions, and finds that bbo makes a success in the convergence time and a great performance in avoiding local minima. in this work, the used bbo algorithm is for optimizing the weight of the enn. we also examine the advantages of this algorithm on the training enn for the classification and prediction of benchmark problems. the performance of our algorithm will be compared also with other well-known heuristics algorithms. the results indicate that bbo algorithm proves its effectiveness on training elman neural network. the used methodology in our analysis is as follows: section ii presents a broad description of elman neural network (enn); section iii explains the basic concept of the bbo algorithm and its use for the design enn. the experimental results will be given in the fourth section. finally, the last section gives the conclusions. 2. elman neural network elman neural network (enn) proposed in (elman, 1990) designed with the input layer, the hidden layer, the recurrent link known as context biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural … habib dhahri 86 layer and the output layer. it is based on the context layer that contains a copy of the hidden layer, which are subsequently used as input. the main advantage of this layer is to store the information in the hidden layer and to preserve the memory, which gives more information entered as input. as is well known, this simple recurrent network has many advantages, such as faster convergence, more accurate mapping and nonlinear prediction capability (chandra, 2015). let assume xi( i = 1 .. m ) the input vector, yk the output of enn and zj( j = 1 .. n ) the output of hidden layer. bj and bk are the biases in the hidden layer and the output layer respectively. uj denotes the context layer neurons. wij is the weight that connects between the input nodes (i) and the hidden nodes (j). cj denotes the weight that connects between the hidden nodes and the context nodes. vjk is the weight that connects the node j in the hidden layer to the output nodes. (1) uj is the context node value, calculated by (2) 1) (2) the activation function selected in hidden layer is the sigmoid function defined as follows: (3) the output of enn is given as follows: (4) the architecture of enn is presented in figure 1. fig. 1. elman neural network architecture. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 87 3. bbo trained elman rnn biogeography-based optimization (bbo) proposed in (simon, 2008) is an evolutionary algorithm (ea), which is based on migration and immigration to the islands. recently bbo algorithm has proved its efficiency and success to supply global optimal solution in different problems such as (ma et al., 2015; mirjalili, mirjalili, & lewis, 2014; rodan, faris & alqatawna, 2016; zhang et al., 2019). the general idea of this algorithm is to get the relation between the species by emigration, immigration and mutation. similarly, to ga, bbo employs the habitats as chromosome. each habitat is assigned by a vector of habitants (genes in a ga), which are used as changeable variables to optimize the process problem. to achieve this objective, bbo offers habitat suitability index (hsi) as performance index. high hsi represents a good solution, so a large number of habitants, which are more likely to immigrate to other islands with low his. those poor solutions have a low hsi and a higher immigration rate. the bbo algorithm is characterised by emigration, immigration and mutation rates. the time complexity analysis of bbo depends on numbers of used resources. based on the o-notation the time complexity expressed as function describing the asymptotic upper bound. the big o notation is defined as follows: the computational complexity of the bbo algorithm depends on the number of species (habitats), the number of generations, the migration (selection of the solutions) and mutation operator and finding the best solution. therefore, at each iteration, the computational complexity of bbo is as follows o(bbo) = o(o(initialization) + o(migration) + o(mutation) + o (best habitat)) the time complexity of initialization is of o(nmd) where d is the dimension of habitats, m is the number of habitants and n is the number of habitats but in our implementation d is one dimension. in the migration operation, the roulette wheel selection is used to select of a candidate solution from which to immigrate so the computation complexity of migration is of o(mn2). for each habitant, the mutation operation has been applied, thus the computational complexity of the mutation is of o(nm). the selection of the best solution is based on the fitness value of each habitat. consequently, the computational complexity of best habitat is of o(n2). therefore, the final computational complexity of the proposed method is as follows: o(bbo)= o(g(mn2 +mn+ n2) where g is the number biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural … habib dhahri 88 of generations. in the expression of time complexity, all variables with zero space dimension are ignored because to their constant complexity time. generally, the main steps of bbo in (simon, ergezer & du, 2009) defined as follows: 1initialize habitats values and bbo parameters. 2calculate hsi for each island. 3update the immigration, emigration and mutation rates. 4modify habitats according to the last rates. 5mutate some habitants of different habitats, which selected randomly. 6save the best habitats as elites. 7replace the worst habitats with the elites. 8if satisfying condition, terminate, else, repeat from step 2. the bbo algorithm is used to an enn to finding the best combination of biases and weights based on two phases: i. encoding strategy: represent weights and biases in the proper scheme (habitats) for bbo. ii. fitness evaluation: calculate hsi as fitness function defined by the error of enn to evaluate habitats performance. encoding scheme of enn trained by bbo the optimization algorithm evolves the parameter of enns. thus, in bbo, a structure habitat is encoded based on vector scheme which is defined as follows enn = [ w12 w32 w24 b1 b2 ] fig. 2. enn with the structure of 1-1-1. in figure 2 example, each layer (input, hidden and output) is composed by only one node. w12 denotes the weight between input node and hidden node. w32 denotes the weight between context node and hidden node. w24 denotes the weight between hidden node and output node. b1 and b2 are the biases value of hidden node and output node respectively. so the encoding vector scheme contains the list of weights between input and hidden layer, the list of weights between the context and hidden layer, the list of weights between hidden and output layer and biases values. fitness function brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 89 the fact remains that training rnns is a challenging optimization problem. so each training set should be evaluated by a fitness measure. thus, for each individual, the hsi function should be assigned depending to the desired optimization. in this work, the mean square error (mse) is used to compute the output error as hsi function: (5) where s is the number of training samples, m denotes the number of output, is the obtained output of the ith input unit and d denotes the desired output. in this study, the proposed algorithm aims to minimize network performance. the computational complexity can have written as follows: o(bbo-enn) = o ( i( x(z+y) + hh2 + hh + h2 )) (6) where i is the number of iterations, x is the number of input training sets, z and y are the number of nodes in the hidden layer and the output layer respectively, h is the number of habitants (weights and biases) and h is the number of habitats (enns). denotes that h2 represent the elitism complexity, hh is the mutation complexity, hh2 is the migration complexity and x(z+y) is our enn complexity. the proposed model bbo-enn given in figure 3. fig. 3. bbo-enn model. biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural … habib dhahri 90 in fact, the first step of the proposed model is to generate a random set of enns as habitats and initialize randomly weights and biases values as habitants. the second step is to calculate mse for each enn by eq. (1) to distinguish between the best and the worst habitat. the third step is to update and modify the emigration, immigration and mutation rates. after having an idea about the good and poor solutions, we must make the combination between different islands then select some habitats to mutate various habitants. the last step is to select the good solution as elitism for future generations. these steps repeated until satisfaction of the stop condition, which can be the number of iterations or the error rate. figure 4 presents a conceptual picture of the bbo-enn. fig. 4. conceptual picture of bbo-enn model. as seen in this figure, there are three habitats (enns). habitat 1 provides a lower his, highest emigration and lower immigration. it presents the good solution, so it is more likely to share weights and biases with habitat 2 and habitat 3. whereas, habitat 2 provides a highest his, llower emigration and a highest immigration, it presents the poor solution, then, it is more likely to accept shared features (weights and biases) from habitat 1 and habitat 3. theoretically, the proposed bbo-enn model can improve the training phase according to the various advantages of emigration and immigration rates, which are evolutionary mechanisms for each habitat, which encourages exploration. thus, bbo forced not to fall in local optima. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 91 in addition, thanks to the migration of the better weights/biases towards the worse enns, the error rate mse (hsi) of enn (habitat) can be improved during the generation. not to forget that the mutation mechanism helps each habitat to show the various exploitations mechanisms. finally, elitism phase helps the proposed method to keep some of the best solutions, which are never lost. after having an idea about the theoretical functionality of the proposed method, in the following section, we will see the results of the practical handling, followed by a comparative study between different algorithms. 4. experiments to verify the performance of bbo algorithm for training elman nn, it’s necessary to compare it with pso, ga, aco, es and pbil over four benchmark problems: breast cancer (wolberg & mangasarian, 1990), iris (fisher, 1936) for classification and mackey and glass (1977), and lorenz attractor (1963) for time series prediction. the classification datasets based on two performance criteria: (a) mse value and (b) classification accuracy. in fact, the increase in population size and the number of iterations, could improve the performance of the algorithms, but in this work, we are interested on comparing the six algorithms during a fixed number of iterations. thus, we are not forced to find the best parameters. just use the same network parameters such as number of nodes, the value of weight initialization and size of population. in this architecture, the log-sigmoid is used as activation function. for all algorithms, we initialise the habitat randomly in the range [10, 10]. the population size is 200 for each dataset. for all the experiments, the performance was computed after 30 executed runs with 300 generations for all the used methods. according to (shamsuddin, 2004) there is no standard rule for determining the suitable number of hidden nodes. we fixed it based on this theorem "one hidden layer and 2n + 1 hidden neuron sufficient for n inputs". table 1 show the different number of input, hidden and output node of each datasets. biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural … habib dhahri 92 table 1. structure of each datasets classification datasets number of input nodes number of hidden nodes number of output nodes iris 4 9 3 breast cancer 9 19 1 mackey glass 4 9 1 lorenz 3 7 1 the initial parameters of meta-heuristics algorithms fixed in table 2; it shows various initialization settings for the optimization methods. all the parameters are chosen based on literature used value. table 2. parameters settings of algorithms method parameter value bbo max immigration/emigration mutation immigration bounds per gene 1 0.005 [0,1] aco initial pheromone (τ0) pheromone update constant (q) pheromone constant (q0) global pheromone decay rate (pg) local pheromone decay rate (pt) pheromone sensitivity (α) visibility sensitivity (β) 1e -06 20 1 0.9 0.5 1 5 ga selection mechanism crossover probability mutation probability roulette wheel 1 0.01 pso cognitive constant (c1) social constant (c2) inertia weight (w) 1 1 0.3 es λ σ 10 1 pbil learning rate elitism parameter mutation 0.05 1 0.1 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 93 a. breast cancer this dataset was obtained from the uci machine learning repository. this dataset contains 699 instances and 9 attributes with 458 benign and 241 malignant instances. the first 599 patterns are used for training phase, and remaining for testing. the outputs convergences of different algorithms are presented in figure 5. table 3 presents the experimental results of different algorithms. table 3. experimental results for breast cancer dataset algorithms mse error accuracy bbo 0.0024175 99.99 ga 0.0025149 98.45 pso 0.0043705 94.50 aco 0.0073633 76.25 es 0.0062843 73.00 pbil 0.032001 03.99 from the table 3, it can be seen that the mse value for our bboenn is less than pso, ga, aco, es and pbil algorithms, which demonstrates the efficacy of bbo-enn for data classification. the proposed algorithm achieves the small mse (0.0024175) and the highest accuracy with 99.99. meanwhile, the other methods (pso, aco, es, and pbil) converge with large mse and lower accuracy. whereas, the mse value of ga is closer to mse bbo. as shown in figure 5, the bbo technique has a faster and lower convergence curves among all the methods for breast cancer. from the simulation results, the bbo algorithm proves its superiority in terms of mse and accuracy. biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural … habib dhahri 94 fig. 5. convergence breast cancer elman rnn. b. iris dataset the iris plants data set contains 150 samples and four attributes (sepal length, sepal width, petal length, petal width). it has actually, three major classes: setosa, versicolour and virginica. in this experiment, we used four inputs, nine hidden nodes and three outputs . the first 150 patterns are selected for training phase, and remaining 150 for testing. table 4 presents the results of training algorithms. it illustrates the comparison between performances of bbo-enn with ga, pso, aco, es and pbil algorithms. from table 4, it can be easier to show that the proposed algorithm achieves with a lower mse (0.017371) and higher accuracy (93.96) table 4. experimental results for iris dataset algorithms mse error accuracy bbo 0.017371 93.96 ga 0.029781 91.22 pso 0.21166 66.53 aco 0.40017 38.56 es 0.30877 66.00 pbil 0.1116 57.66 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 95 fig. 6. convergence iris elman rnn. figure 6 shows the convergence of each algorithm, and illustrates the success of bbo compared to the other methods. from these results, the bbo algorithm achieves with higher performance. c. mackey–glass time series prediction the mackey-glass time series prediction is defined using the following equation: ( )( ) ( ) 1 ( ) c ax tdx t bx t dt x t   − = − + − (7) in our work, the input of enn with four data points: x(t), x(t-6), x(t-12) and x(t-18). the output is defined in equation 8: ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )( )6 , 6 , 12 , 18 x t f x t x t x t x t+ = − − − (8) the first 500 samples are selected for training phase, and remaining 500 for testing. after 300 generations of the training process, the outputs convergences of different algorithms are presented in figure 7. table 5 shows the comparison of mse error of the bbo-enn to the other used meta-heuristics algorithms. in this experiment, the bbo and ga algorithm achieves with the smallest mse error of 0.009702. in some implementation, the mse-ga equal to mse-bbo. however, bbo-enn is still promising in cases where the convergence to the best solution is faster than the other methods. biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural … habib dhahri 96 table 5. experimental results for mackey-glass dataset algorithms mse training error mse test error bbo 0.00925 0.009702 pso 0.01043 0.071985 ga 0.01130 0.009851 aco 0.04851 0.093598 es 0.04748 0.082876 pbil 0.02293 0.091885 fig. 7. convergence mackey-glass elman rnn. d. lorenz attractor the lorenz system was given by the following differential equations: ( ) ( )( ) ( ) ( ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ) z d dt y t x t t dt x t y t z t dt x t y t x t dy t x t dz t        − −   − −  = = = (9) where and are positive real parameters. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 97 in these three equations, the component x denotes the used time series. in this work, the input of enn is defined by x(t), x(t-1), x(t-2). the output is presented in equation 10: ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )( )1 , 1 , 2x t f x t x t x t+ = − − (10) the first 500 samples from 1000 simulation data points are chosen for training phase, and the remaining 500 for testing. the convergence curve of each algorithm summarized in figure 8. table 6 illustrates the mse training error and mse testing error of each algorithm. from this table, it can be seen that bbo achieves with a lower mse error for both training and testing phase (0.14278, 0.241291). however, the other algorithms: pso, ga, aco, es and pbil have mse of 0.21271, 0.48498, 1.27504, 0.29753, and 0.28753, quite larger than bbo. similarly, figure 8 represents the mse convergence for lorenz problem. this figure demonstrates that the proposed bbo-enn have better result than the other algorithms. the bbo-enn shows again its efficiency for the prediction of lorenz time series. table 6. experimental results for lorenz dataset algorithms mse training error mse test error bbo 0.14278 0.241291 pso 0.21271 0.253047 ga 0.48498 0.242105 aco 1.27504 0.962869 es 0.29753 0.293404 pbil 0.28753 0.283424 biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural … habib dhahri 98 fig. 8. convergence lorenz elman rnn. during the previous experiments, the bbo proves its good performances compared to the other applied algorithms. the obtained results can be explained based on the philosophy of the bbo technique over the other evolutionary algorithms. during the generation, the bbo solutions are maintained depending on their emigration rate. at each iteration, the bbo improves the habits by changing some features. the poor solutions can be improved from the good solutions by sharing theirs sivs (attributes). however, in ga, aco, pbil techniques, the worse solutions are discarded from the populations and only the best candidate’s solutions are maintained. thus, the population evolves using the elite solutions. bbo also clearly similar to pso and de approach in maintaining solutions. the solution learns from theirs neighbours and evolves based on the movements of the around particles. conclusion in this work, a biogeography-based optimization (bbo) algorithm proposed to train elman neural network (enn) for four benchmark problems. the experiment results show that the bbo-enn model can effectively classify the data such as breast cancer and iris data sets. the method applied to mackey glass and lorentz equations, which produce chaotic time series. statistical results show that the proposed algorithm brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 99 outperforms the ga, pso, ea, aco and pbil algorithms. performance and success of bbo-enn is mainly due to the use of the biogeographybased optimization (bbo) algorithm, which can successfully optimize the weight parameter of elman neural network. bbo-enn makes a success in the convergence time and a great performance in avoiding local minima. although, bbo has shown a good performance when being applied to classification and time series prediction, bbo inherently lacks exploration ability to increase the diversity of habitats, which lead to slow down the convergence of the algorithm. the expansion of applying bbo algorithms in many types of problems open several research areas. one suggested research for the future work is to automating parameter tuning. additional study is to apply the bbo algorithm for complicated problems. acknowledgment the authors extend their appreciation to the deanship of scientific research and rssu at king saud university for funding this work through research group no. rg-1438–071. references baldi, p. & pollastri, g. (2003). the principled design of large-scale recursive neural network architectures-dag-rnns and the protein structure prediction problem. journal of machine learning research 4(4), 575-602. https://doi.org/10.1162/153244304773936054 cao, q. ewinga, b. t. & thompson, m. a. (2012). forecasting wind speed with recurrent neural networks. european journal of operational research, 221(1), 148-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2012.02.042 chandra, r. (2015). competition and collaboration in cooperative coevolution of elman recurrent neural networks for time-series prediction. ieee trans neural netw learn syst, 26(12), 3123-3136. https://doi.org/10.1109/tnnls.2015.2404823 elman, j. l. (1990). finding structure in time. cognitive science, 4(2), 179-211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0364-0213(90)90002-e fisher, r. a. (1936). the use of multiple measurements in taxonomic problems. annals of human genetics, 7(2), 179-188. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14691809.1936.tb02137.x hopfield, j. j. (1982). neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america, 79(8), 2554–2558. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.79.8.2554 https://doi.org/10.1162/153244304773936054 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2012.02.042 https://doi.org/10.1109/tnnls.2015.2404823 https://doi.org/10.1016/0364-0213(90)90002-e https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-1809.1936.tb02137.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-1809.1936.tb02137.x https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.79.8.2554 biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural … habib dhahri 100 hordri, n. f., yuhaniz, s. s. & nasien, d. (2013). a comparison study of biogeography based. optimization for optimization problems. international journal of advances in soft computing and its applications, 5(1), 1-16. hori, t., hori, c., watanabe, s. & hershey, j. r. (2016). minimum word error training of long short-term memory recurrent neural network language models for speech recognition. ieee international conference on acoustics, speech and signal processing (icassp), shanghai, 5990-5994. https://doi.org/10.1109/icassp.2016.7472827 jordan. m. i. (1997). a parallel distributed processing approach. advances in psychology, 121, 471-495. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-4115(97)80111-2 karaboga, d., & basturk, b. (2007). a powerful and efficient algorithm for numerical function optimization: artificial bee colony (abc) algorithm. journal of global optimization, 39, 459–471. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10898-007-9149-x kawada, k., yamamoto, t., & mada, y. (2004). a design of evolutionary recurrent neural-net based controllers for an inverted pendulum. 5th asian control conference (ieee cat. no.04ex904), 3, 1419-1422. kechriotis, g., zervas, e. & manolakos, e. s. (1994). using recurrent neural networks for adaptive communication channel equalization. ieee transactions on neural networks, 5(2), 267-278. https://doi.org/10.1109/72.279190 kennedy, j. & eberhart, r. (1995). particle swarm optimization. proceedings of icnn'95 international conference on neural networks, perth, wa, australia, 4, 1942-1948. https://doi.org/10.1109/icnn.1995.488968 koskela, t., lehtokangas, m., saarinen, j. & kaski, k. (1996). time series prediction with multilayer perceptron, fir and elman neural networks. proceedings of the world congress on neural networks, 491-496. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/82c8/e5d0cd4a7467f7f54ad823b2136b9 73eeb6e.pd kosko, b. (1988). bidirectional associative memories. ieee transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, 18(1), 49-60. https://doi.org/10.1109/21.87054. li, x. l., shao, z. j. & qian, j. x. (2002). an optimizing method based on autonomous animats: fish-swarm algorithm. systems engineering theory & practice, 22(11), 32-38. https://doi.org/10.12011/1000-6788(2002)11-32 lorenz, e. n. (1963). deterministic nonperiodic flow. journal of the atmospheric sciences, 20, 130–141. https://doi.org/10.1175/15200469(1963)020<0130:dnf>2.0.co;2 ma, h., fei, m., simon, d., & chen, z. (2015). biogeography-based optimization in noisy environments. transactions of the institute of measurement and control, 37(2), 190–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142331214537015 https://doi.org/10.1109/icassp.2016.7472827 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-4115(97)80111-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10898-007-9149-x https://doi.org/10.1109/72.279190 https://doi.org/10.1109/icnn.1995.488968 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/82c8/e5d0cd4a7467f7f54ad823b2136b973eeb6e.pd https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/82c8/e5d0cd4a7467f7f54ad823b2136b973eeb6e.pd https://doi.org/10.1109/21.87054 https://doi.org/10.12011/1000-6788(2002)11-32 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1963)020%3c0130:dnf%3e2.0.co;2 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1963)020%3c0130:dnf%3e2.0.co;2 https://doi.org/10.1177/0142331214537015 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 101 mackey, m. c. & glass, l. (1977). oscillation and chaos in physiological control systems. science, 197(4300), 287-289. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.267326 marvuglia, a. & messineo, a. (2012). using recurrent artificial neural networks to forecast household electricity consumption. energy procedia, 14, 45-55. mehrabian, a. r., & lucas, c. (2006). a novel numerical optimization algorithm inspired from weed colonization. ecological informatics, 1(4), 355-366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2006.07.003 mirjalili, s., mirjalili, s. & lewis, a. (2014). let a biogeography-based optimizer train your multi-layer perceptron. information sciences, 269, 188-209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2014.01.038 müller-navarra, m., lessmann, s. & voß, s. (2015). sales forecasting with partial recurrent neural networks: empirical insights and benchmarking results. 48th hawaii international conference on system sciences, kauai, hi, 1108-1116. https://doi.org/10.1109/hicss.2015.135 nawi, n. m. & khan, a. & rehman, g., syed, m., chiroma, h. & herawan, t. (2014). weight optimization in recurrent neural networks with hybrid metaheuristic cuckoo search techniques for data classification. mathematical problems in engineering. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/868375 osman, i. h., & laporte, g. (1996). metaheuristics: a bibliography. annals of operations research, 63, 511–623. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02125421 palafox, l. & iba, h. (2012). on the use of population based incremental learning to do reverse engineering on gene regulatory networks. ieee congress on evolutionary computation, brisbane, qld, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1109/cec.2012.6256580 pan, w-s. (2012). a new fruit fly optimization algorithm: taking the financial distress model as an example. knowledge-based systems, 26, 69-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2011.07.001 passino, k. m. (2002). biomimicry of bacterial foraging for distributed optimization and control. ieee control systems magazine, 22(3), 52-67. https://doi.org/10.1109/mcs.2002.1004010 pham, d. t. & karaboga, d. (1999). training elman and jordan networks for system identification using genetic algorithms. artificial intelligence in engineering, 13(2), 107-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0954-1810(98)000132 robinson, t. & fallside, f. (1991). a recurrent error propagation network speech recognition system. computer speech & language, 5(3), 259-274. https://doi.org/10.1016/0885-2308(91)90010-n rodan, a., faris, h. & alqatawna, j. (2016). optimizing feedforward neural networks using biogeography based optimization for e-mail spam https://doi.org/10.1126/science.267326 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2006.07.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2014.01.038 https://doi.org/10.1109/hicss.2015.135 https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/868375 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02125421 https://doi.org/10.1109/cec.2012.6256580 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2011.07.001 https://doi.org/10.1109/mcs.2002.1004010 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0954-1810(98)00013-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0954-1810(98)00013-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0885-2308(91)90010-n biogeography-based optimization for weight optimization in elman neural … habib dhahri 102 identification. international journal of communications, network and system sciences, 9, 19-28. https://doi.org/10.4236/ijcns.2016.91002 senjyu, t., yona, a., urasaki, n. & funabashi, t. (2006). application of recurrent neural network to long-term-ahead generating power forecasting for wind power generator. ieee pes power systems conference and exposition, atlanta, ga, 1260-1265. https://doi.org/10.1109/psce.2006.296487 shamsuddin, m. (2004). lecture note advanced artificial intelligence: number of hidden neurons [unpublished doctoral thesis]. universiti teknologi malaysia. sharmaa, r., kumar, v., gaur, p. & mittal, a. p. (2016). an adaptive pid like controller using mix locally recurrent neural network for robotic manipulator with variable payload. isa transactions, 62, 258-267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2016.01.016 simon, d. (2008). biogeography-based optimization. 2009 ieee international conference on systems, man and cybernetics, san antonio, tx (702-713). https://doi.org/10.1109/tevc.2008.919004 simon, d., ergezer, m. & du, d. (2009). population distributions in biogeographybased optimization algorithms with elitism. 2009 ieee international conference on systems, man and cybernetics, san antonio, tx, 991-996. https://doi.org/10.1109/icsmc.2009.5346058 simon, d., rarick, r., ergezer, m. & du, d. (2011). analytical and numerical comparisons of biogeography-based optimization and genetic algorithms. information sciences,181(7), 1224-1248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2010.12.006 storn, r., & price, k. (1997). differential evolution – a simple and efficient heuristic for global optimization over continuous spaces. journal of global optimization, 11, 341–359. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1008202821328 venayagamoorthy, g. a., welch, r. l. & ruffing, s. m. (2009). comparison of feedforward and feedback neural network. architectures for short term wind speed prediction. ijcnn'09: proceedings of the 2009 international joint conference on neural networks pp. 3141–3146. https://doi.org/10.1109/ijcnn.2009.5179034 wolberg, w. h., & mangasarian, o. l. (1990). multisurface method of pattern separation for medical diagnosis applied to breast cytology. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america, 87(23), 9193–9196. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.87.23.9193 xiao, p., venayagamoorthy, g. k. & corzine, k. a. (2007). combined training of recurrent neural networks with particle swarm optimization and backpropagation algorithms for impedance identification. ieee swarm intelligence symposium, honolulu, hi, 9-15. https://doi.org/10.1109/sis.2007.368020 https://doi.org/10.4236/ijcns.2016.91002 https://doi.org/10.1109/psce.2006.296487 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2016.01.016 https://doi.org/10.1109/tevc.2008.919004 https://doi.org/10.1109/icsmc.2009.5346058 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2010.12.006 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1008202821328 https://doi.org/10.1109/ijcnn.2009.5179034 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.87.23.9193 https://doi.org/10.1109/sis.2007.368020 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 103 yang, x-s. (2009). firefly algorithms for multimodal optimization. international symposium on stochastic algorithms, 169-178. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3642-04944-6_14 yang, x. s. (2010). a new metaheuristic bat-inspired algorithm. in j. r. gonzález, d.a. pelta, c. cruz, g. terrazas, & n. krasnogor (eds.), nature inspired cooperative strategies for optimization (nicso 2010). studies in computational intelligence, vol 284. springer. yang, x-s. & deb, s. (2009). cuckoo search via levy flights. world congress on nature & biologically inspired computing (nabic), coimbatore, 210-214. https://doi.org/10.1109/nabic.2009.5393690 yoo, d. g., & kim, j. h. (2014). meta-heuristic algorithms as tools for hydrological science. geoscience letters, 1, 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/2196-4092-1-4 zhang, x., kang, q., tu, q., cheng, j. & wang, x. (2019). efficient and merged biogeography-based optimization algorithm for global optimization problems. soft computing, 23, 4483–4502. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500018-3113-1 zhipeng, y. minfang, p., hao, h. & xianfeng, l. (2012). fault locating of grounding grids based on ant colony optimizing elman neural network. 2012 third international conference on digital manufacturing & automation, guilin, 406-409. https://doi.org/10.1109/icdma.2012.97 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04944-6_14 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04944-6_14 https://doi.org/10.1109/nabic.2009.5393690 https://doi.org/10.1186/2196-4092-1-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-018-3113-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-018-3113-1 https://doi.org/10.1109/icdma.2012.97 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 250-262 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/248 neuropsychological support for teaching young school-age children annotation nataliya stepanchenko¹, neonila partyko2, petro rybalko3, svitlana bobrovytska4, nataliia serdiuk5, olena mudryk6 1 lviv state university of physical culture, ukraine, natalia.stepanchenko@gmail.com 2 lviv polytechnic national university, ukraine, voloshyna2010@ukr.net 3 sumy makarenko state pedagogical university, ukraine, petrorybalko13@gmail.com 4 sumy makarenko state pedagogical university, ukraine, onlyforme.yulia@gmail.com 5 odessa national medical university, ukraine, logos.nataliya@gmail.com 6 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, olenamudryk34@gmail.com abstract: the article is devoted to the problems of neuropsychological support of the educational process in elementary school, prevention possible disorders of primary school children’s mental processes and neuropsychological correction of difficulties in their learning. the neuropsychological causes of school failure are generalized (summarized). the methods of correctional and developmental education of elementary school children with specific neuropsychological features are analyzed. neuropsychological factors of educational failure, particulary left-handed children and psychophysiological principles of special children’s psychological and pedagogical support in an inclusive environment are described. organizational-didactic, diagnostic and correctional conditions of individual neuropsychological support of elementary school education are analyzed. a correctional and developmental program for neuropsychological diagnostics and correction of young schoolchildren’s educational failure is developed. the neuropsychological approach to the psychological and pedagogical supervision of first-grade pupils, taking into account their learning success, the level of communicative skills development and cognitive mental processes are come near. keywords: neuropsychological correction, neuropsychological diagnostics, neuropsychological methods, cognitive processes, academic performance, neuropsychological exercises. how to cite: stepanchenko, n., partyko, n., rybalko, p., bobrovytska, s., serdiuk, n., & mudryk, o. (2021). neuropsychological support for teaching young schoolage children annotation. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 250-262. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/248 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/248 mailto:natalia.stepanchenko@gmail.com mailto:voloshyna2010@ukr.net mailto:petrorybalko13@gmail.com mailto:onlyforme.yulia@gmail.com mailto:logos.nataliya@gmail.com mailto:olenamudryk34@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/248 neuropsychological support for teaching young school-age children annotation nataliya stepanchenko, et al. 251 introduction neuropsychology of childhood studies the peculiarities of formation of higher mental functions during ontogenesis. children of young school age continue to form psychophysiological structures of the brain and develop depending on its features of functioning mental processes, as a result of which there may be nervousness manifestation of higher mental functions, the dynamics of ontogenetic development of the child. peculiarities of children's mental activity are indirectly related to their adaptation to the new conditions of socialization at the initial stage of school education (komogorova, 2021; maksymchuk, 2020a, 2020b; melnyk, 2019, 2021). memory’s, thinking’s, attention’s individual peculiarities, perception of a young pupil are safely synchronized in one “melody” for learning the world in the process of school education, as evidenced by their educational success and adequate response to social requirements. the school life’s path can be asynchronous, maladaptive for actualization of any mental function due to the lack of neuropsychological support for children of this age category, a thorough neuropsychological diagnosis of their individual learning abilities with further correction, as well as parents’ neuropsychological education. the neuropsychological method occupies a special place in science, only it allows to estimate and describe those system-dynamic changes that accompany the child’s mental development from the point of view of its brain support. to describe means to understand the underlying mechanisms of her mental status and to plan a program of psychological and pedagogical support adequate to the ontogenesis of a particular child (semenovich, 2002). the neuropsychological concept of the cerebral organization of the higher mental functions was substantiated by luria (1962, 2003) when certain areas of the brain are impaired. modern neuropsychology investigates functions and mechanisms of high mental functions not only with disorders but also with their normal functioning and in situations of psychological disadaptation of people. applied aspects of the use of children's neuropsychology in school education for the correction of educational failure or the development of certain mental functions in schoolchildren are quite poorly investigated in ukraine. that’s why this issue is highly relevant for scientific study for successful socialization of first graders as well as graduates of the primary school for further successful education. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 252 theoretical analysis of neuropsychological support for primary school children the youngest school age is sensitive for the formation of such psychological innovations as mental processes’ controllability and plasticity, self-control, self-esteem, self-organization, internal plan of gradually formed mental actions, awareness of the learning’s purpose and methods, reflexion which ensure that the child is psychologically ready for school and learning, the world’s harmonious knowledge, educational success, and a long process of school socialization at the school education’s initial stage. neuropsychological factors are the main ones among all the causes of educational failure of young schoolchildren, because they are directly connected with morphofunctional readiness to learning, formation of high mental functions the basis for young schoolchildren’s mental and personal development. the study of neuropsychological determinants of primary school pupils’ success and failure in the russian educational system is based on the neuropsychological theory of the brain bases of mental activity (luria, 1962, 2003). it enables the detection of brain dysfunctions in young students with learning difficulties. for example, in today's primary schools a large number of left-handed children join the first grade. based on the works of chuprikov et al. (2011), khomskaya (2005), luria (2003), semenovich (2018), tarasun (2008) and trigub (2013), established that left-handedness is a consequence of structural and functional asymmetry of the brain and overtraining left-handed people can be interpreted as violent antipedagogical actions on them, interdiction of conditions of child’s natural development. sirotyuk's (2003) work is very important for studying neuropsychological technologies and teaching methods (success’s diagnostics, failure and development correction of higher mental functions) of young schoolchildren. the author investigated neuropsychological reasons and mechanisms of children’s attention deficit syndrome and their hyperactivity disorder, revealed the effectiveness of psychological and pedagogical work based on the author's program for forming and developing the neuropsychological space of a problem child and studied the differentiated education’s specifics for children with different brain structures. neuropedagogical factors of teaching hyperactive children with attention deficit by foreign neuroscience (gaddes & edgell, 1994; petitto & neuropsychological support for teaching young school-age children annotation nataliya stepanchenko, et al. 253 dunbar, 2004) and peculiarities of functional brain asymmetry (levy, 1988) are actively studied. individual peculiarities of children’s neuropsychological development were studied by chuprikov et al. (2011), khomskaya (2005), semenovich (2002, 2018), sirotyuk (2003), tarasun (2008, 2017), trigub (2013). in our opinion, no less important for initial school education is also the practical experience of educational psychologists (yarova, 2011). it directly provides neuropsychological support for the development of young school-age children and share their methodological tools. new foreign conceptual and methodological approaches study the problem of neuropedagogics influence on the innovative educational practices’ implementation, cognitive functions’ improvement of smart (cognitive) and educational schoolchildren’ activities, neuropsychological interconnection’s study of the cognition’s process, emotions and social interaction (pera, 2014). current technologies of educational and cognitive neuroscience are used in experimental studies to study disorders in the children’s mental development and the neuropsychological foundations of their successful adaptation to school requirements (berson, 1990; petitto & dunbar, 2004), the influence of brain functionality and its specific zones on learning success in the context of neuropedagogy (liu & chiang, 2014; vaninsky, 2017). from the point of educational neuroscience’s view, learning is the new and reshaping of existing biopotentials’ accumulation. they are regulated by the educational process, in connection with this, studies of the gifted children’s brains show that their brains have their own peculiarities in terms of tissues or othe brain structure’s peculiarities (vaninsky, 2017). in western pedagogy great attention is also paid to the development of primary school programs for intellectually handicapped children of young school age, taking into account the neuropedagogical mechanisms of selfperception, establishing positive social relationships, self-involvement in the social environment due to the cooperation of teachers and parents (demirel, 2010). children with disabilities are more likely to have neuropsychological disabilities and learning difficulties (berson, 1990), so the inclusive education practice for special children, in the foreign researchers’ opinion, must be established with respect for such requirements: positive attitude towards schoolchildren with disabilities, these children’s inclusion in the inclusive education of the general education school, clear strategies provision of behavioral intervention (mantey, 2014; yazçayır & pınar, 2014), we believe that the latter can be regarded as an effective neuropedagogical technology. neuropsychological causes of school failure are: deasontogenesis in the subcortical and cortical brain’s parts, lack of intercortical and subcorticalbrain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 254 cortical connections, brain dysfunctions due to local brain injuries, as a result of which children experience lack of writing’s, reading’s, and speaking’s development; there is decreased concentration of attention, inattention, autism, depression; lack of cognitive skills, which leads to changes in interests and needs; respectfulness’s and hyperactivity’s deficit. most first graders who experience learning difficulties have abnormal neuropsychological data: children with temporal-frontal dysfunction of the temporal-frontal divisions of the brain left pivot (they are characterized by deviations from the normal volume of auditory-motor memory, rundown, words replacement with words close to the sense); children with a posterior sections’ deficiency of the right pivulus (small volume of imaginative and auditory memory); children with a bilateral nature of changes in mental activity, when deviations from the norm are seen in the parameters of both the left and right pivulus. efficient is the training, which is focused not on the weak, but on the strong lines of mental activity, due to which the work of the new brain structures by new nervous impulses is ensured, impaired mental functions’ realization due to the change in the tasks’ complexity and their gradual performance, the child's performance of joint tasks with the adult and self-directed tasks (sirotyuk, 2003). in our opinion, for effective neuropsychological support of the educational process it is important to take into account the central statements of the neuropsychological rehabilitation’s concepts and development’s peculiarities of the of primary mental functions developed by russian psychologists: renewal or actualization of complex mental functions can be achieved by restarting the damaged functional systems, as a result of which the compensated mental function begins to be carried out with the help psychological tools’ “set”, which requires its new brain organization due to the fact that higher mental functions are plastic, have the ability to integrate, i.e. systemic and can be controlled with confidence; the individual peculiarities’ study of psychology in the context of the problem of interdirectional asymmetry and interdirectional interaction is connected with the individual psychological peculiarities’ typology. in particular, the emotional and specific characteristics, and the success in solving theoretical and verbal-logical tasks; in the process of ontogenesis higher mental functions exist as a form of interaction between people, after which they become internal processes (khomskaya, 2005). neuropsychological support of learning is especially required for left-handed children. in connection with this, semenovich (2018) notes a very strong dynamic’s formation and kinesthetic components of the higher mental functions in the left-handed, that is why they are liable to get bored neuropsychological support for teaching young school-age children annotation nataliya stepanchenko, et al. 255 in stress, disorders in speech and behavior, constant switching from one subject to another, experiencing fears, school disadaptation. the author provides specific recommendations and a set of exercises for the left-handed with the use of the substitutive ontogenesis’s method neuropsychological technology of educational failure’s prevention. the empirical study’s results of young schoolchildren's motivation and thinking activity according to their motives and needs allow us to make the following conclusions, right-handed children's motivation, which is distinguished by social activity and communication, is more favorable for learning a foreign language compared to left-handed children. this means that it is necessary to create appropriate psychological conditions for effective foreign language acquisition by left-handed young schoolchildren (trigub, 2013). chuprikov et al. (2011) in their monograph “brain asymmetry and handedness” bring physicians, psychologists, teachers, and other experts closer to understanding the handedness’s nature, the right recognition of it and the need to mobilize them to protect left-handed children from over-education, considering it violence against the lefthanded. tarasun (2008) states that learning leads to development and not and otherwise. perceptual aтв motor activity, language’s acquisition and speech and other learning types contribute to the establishment and strengthening of inter-neuronal connections. neuropsychological difficulties in teaching a child can be both viperadjustment and disordered development. thus, the pressure on the brain’s cortical parts (which cannot be avoided during teaching reading, writing, speech), due to its energy capacity, is wearing down those brain organisms which have already completed their development. early teaching of signs, lyrics, writing for some children can instigate dysontogenic development. such a child at school may, for example, demonstrate a good achievement in literature and mathematics, read encyclopedias with gusto remaining unmotivated in life (tarasun, 2008, pp. 48-50). new foreign conceptual and methodological approaches study the problem of neuropedagogics influence on the implementation of innovative educational practices, improvement of cognitive functions of cognitive and educational activities of schoolchildren, study of neuropsychological interconnection of the process of cognition, emotions and social interaction (pera, 2014). current technologies of educational and cognitive neuroscience are used in experimental studies to study disorders in the mental development of children and the neuropsychological foundations of their successful adaptation to school requirements (berson, 1990; petitto & brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 256 dunbar, 2004), the influence of brain functionality and its specific zones on learning success in the context of neuropedagogy (liu & chiang, 2014; vaninsky, 2017). from the point of view of educational neuroscience, learning is the accumulation of new and reshaping of existing biopotentials, which are regulated by the educational process, in connection with this, studies of the brains of gifted children show that their brains have their own peculiarities in terms of tissues or peculiarities of the brain structure (vaninsky, 2017). the author attaches special importance to the implementation of correctional-synapse training, which includes the supportive environment’s creation for the formation of higher mental functions through a tasks’ system (integrated use of speech breathing’s techniques, sensorimotor repertoire, massage, self-massage; exercises for development of perception, attention, memory, thinking, etc.), aimed at activity’s intensification of reticulatory and cerebral subcircuitry’s lymbic formation. as a result, this work will contribute to increasing the tone and energy capacity of the child's sensorimotor activity, activation his or her energy potential, support of the internal environment, brain tonal activation, formation of a generalized exhilarating active influence on the cerebral cortex, etc. it has been established that the ability of the brain to process information is determined by neuron contacts, and the strength of these contacts can change due to synapse training. since the structure of neuronal connections covers all knowledge and skills, a great number of nerve cells in different parts of the brain become active during any conscious activity. this affects the neurons responsible for performing clearly defined tasks. for example, the neural cells of the eyes’ cortex code the color, and the sound cortex’s neurons transmit the sounds’ quality (tarasun, 2008, p. 150-248). attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (adhd) is one of the neuropsychological causes of failure for elementary school children, especially first graders, the main symptoms of which are impulsiveness, excessive activity, low level of concentration on learning. as a result, the behavioral aspect must be dominated by the child's behavioral intervention program (building relationships based on changes in the adult's behavior toward the child, on trust and mutual understanding; and on the willingness to perform tasks challenging for the child; explaining to the child her or his problem using varied strategies for solving it with correction of negative behaviors), everyday cognitive correction in teaching children and taking into account an individual approach and the possibilities of drawing intellectual and physical activity, creating a positive motivation for success (sirotyuk, 2003). neuropsychological support for teaching young school-age children annotation nataliya stepanchenko, et al. 257 psychological and pedagogical support for special children is best provided in an inclusive environment, taking into account the neuropsychological diagnosis’s results and psychophysiological principles: classification of the defect; prevention of learning difficulties (requires taking into account the state of synthetic structures’ formation that ensure a sufficient level of children's general and specialized learning abilities’ development this approach focuses not only on the developmental disorderss correction, and on intensive development of sufficiently mature superior mental functioning functions and on preventing the transfer of these functions to other defects); the corrective and preventive orientation principle of the teaching points to the need for continuous adjustment to the individual characteristics of the process of mastering by students of the program material in order to, so their formed cognitive skills were implemented quickly, concurrently, simultaneously, i.e. passed into the skill; the principle of relying on the preserved analyzing systems, based on the theory of functions’ plasticity as well as on the children's well-developed mental processes (memory, attention, thinking, imagination); the control principle and feedback, based on the position about the activity’s comparison (results) performed with the achieved task and provides for a constant flow of feedback from the teacher to the pupil and vice versa (tarasun, 2017). neuropsychological approach to the diagnostics of educational success of young schoolchildren and the development of the program of psychological and pedagogical support for first-grader education the neuropsychological approach to the psychological and pedagogical supervision of teaching first-graders involved the study of their learning success and reasons for failure, motivation to learn, the level of development of communicative skills; diagnostics of peculiarities of the cognitive psychological processes and identification of the leading hand through the use of tests by luria (1962, 2003), «popoviya. luria's tests «splash in the long spoon», «keep your hands together», «rest on one foot», etc.; quantitative and qualitative interpretation of the level of development of primary mental functions and study of their peculiarities in relation to school adaptation. correction of the revealed mental disorders and low level of neuropsychological children’s development was carried out with the neuropsychological exercises’ help (corrective and developmental games; role-playing techniques with constructors; breathing techniques; art therapy brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 258 exercises; cognitive exercises; exercises for developing spatial perception, hand motor skills, and sensorimotor interactions; communication exercises; body and hand exercises; visualization exercises, etc.); trainings for forming communicative skills and educational motivation for children’ successful social interaction in an inclusive school environment; psychological and pedagogical support for left-handed children; psychological counseling of primary classes’ children's fathers and teachers on the development of young pupils' cognitive mental functions (verbal and logical, the main objective of the program is to develop the cognitive mental functions (verbal and logical, auditory, motor and auditory memory, controlling attention and verbal and logical thinking) with a sufficient resource of adults’ tolerance to the students’ failure. today's neuropsychological paradigm in applied school education is shaped by the implementation of experimental psychological and pedagogical neuropsychological support programs for young students. one of them is the program “skillful hands” as a neuropsychological correction of young pupils focused on the development of children's constant attention and self-regulation, alertness, formation of sensorimotor control, optimization of tonus. the aim of the program is to optimize the functional status of the brain's membranes and the interdisciplinary organization of the child's developmental processes at a young school age. the correction model based on the algorithm of the “method of substituted ontogenesis” is focused mainly on the correction and rehabilitation of the first brain’s functional block (according to the doctrine of (luria, 1962, 2003) about three brain’s functional blocks: the first is the block of tone regulation and active basic state, the second is the block of reception, processing and storage of information, the third is the programming, regulation and control block). neuropsychological correctional technology is the formation of the child's vertical and horizonal subcortical-cortical and intra-motor interactions by means of a complex method of psychomotor correction, neuropsychological, body-oriented and art-therapeutic psychotechniques (yarova, 2011). sirotyuk (2003) developed recommendations for teachers who work with low functional children: the format of information should be algorithmic, clear, concise; it should be played up; illustrate and draw up information as often as possible; training demonstrations should be short (23 minutes); the child must be praised; memorization is better when the child is not required to reproduce the material accurately; if a child is not able to read and write, then both of these skills will not be formed at the same time, neuropsychological support for teaching young school-age children annotation nataliya stepanchenko, et al. 259 as required by the educational program; reading should be a way to promote writing skills; the child must first understand the text and then read it; children are more productive when lessons are conducted in a playful way; children's strong negative as well as positive emotions must be avoided; if the same algorithm is repeated in class, the likelihood that all children will catch on to the content increases; the second phase makes comprehension, systematization and memorization of information difficult, because the brain activity is so disorganized that the established but unshackled nerve connections are destroyed; the work of teachers, psychologists and parents should be focused on the development of intellect, without deep training of memory, attention and self-control without normalization of the brain work increases the problems of the child. thus, the children’s difficulties in the process of schooling, without timely corrective work grow into chronic failure. it’s known, the state of long-term school failure contributes to the deviant behaviors formation, children’s social maladaptation in general. a teacher with a rich arsenal of methodological techniques and technologies of developmental learning, can build a didactic scheme allowing each child to find his or her own way to master complex school subjects (syrotyuk, 2003). conclusion the development of elementary school children’s higher mental functions is interconnected with their cognitive and educational activities. children’s nervousness in the individual development of primary mental functions of this age group can be connected on neuropsychological level with the syndrome of attention’s deficit and hyperactivity disorder, brain’s right-hand and left-hand functions domination, which inevitably affects the cognitive features of the child's cognition of the world, her self-control and behavior self-regulation in the social interactions’ system. neuropsychological support of primary school children characterized with learning failure is a complex teamwork of many specialists (medical worker neurologist or psychiatrist, clinical psychologist or school practical psychologist, social pedagogue, primary school teachers in cooper) and requires systematic application, methods, complex process of diagnostic, preventive, correctional integration and developmental procedures taking into account age and individual pupils’ features. our proposed neuropsychological technologies of psychological and pedagogical support for first-graders are characterized by systematic and comprehensive nature of their implementation (diagnostic-prognosticcorrectional-developmental) in order to ensure the children’s mental brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 260 development in an inclusive environment, using differential-individual, personality-oriented and competence-oriented activity approaches. in addition, the applied neuropsychological methods in teaching elementary school children make lessons interesting. they contribute the formation of children's cognitive interests and their motivation to succeed, stimulate their mental and business activity in communicative interaction with adults and peers. references berson, i. r. (1990). neuropsychology in the schools, implications for school psychology. university of toledo, 1-16. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed334471.pdf chuprykov, a. p., hnatiuk, r. m., & chuprykova, m. a. (2011). asymetriia mozku ta livorukist: monohrafiia [brain asymmetry and left-handedness: monograph]. kmm. http://www.komm.ltd.ua/images/levorukost.pdf demirel, m. (2011). primary school curriculum for educable mentally retarded children: a turkish case. us-china education review, 7(3), 79-91, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed511255.pdf gaddes, w. h., & edgell, d. (1994). learning disabilities and brain function, a neuropsychological approach (3rd ed.). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2255-0 khomskaya, e. d. (2005). neiropsykholohyia [neuropsychology] spb.: pyter. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/homskaya=neuropsychology.pdf komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 levy, j. (1988). the evolution of human cerebral asymmetry. in h. j. jerison & i. jerison (eds.), intelligence and evolutionary biology. (pp. 157-173). springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-70877-0_10 liu, c.-j., & chiang, w.-w. (2014). theory, method and practice of neuroscientific findings in science education. international journal of science and mathematics education, 12(3), 629-646. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10763-013-9482-0 luria, a. r. (1962). vysshye korkovye funktsyy cheloveka y ykh narushenyia pry lokalnykh porazhenyiakh mozgha [higher cortical person’s functions and their disturbances at local defeats of a brain]. universitet press. https://www.klex.ru/8u1 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed334471.pdf http://www.komm.ltd.ua/images/levorukost.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed511255.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2255-0 http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/homskaya=neuropsychology.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-70877-0_10 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10763-013-9482-0 https://www.klex.ru/8u1 neuropsychological support for teaching young school-age children annotation nataliya stepanchenko, et al. 261 luria, a. r. (2003). osnovy neiropsykholohyy. ucheb. posobye dlia stud. vyssh. ucheb. zavedenyi. [fundamentals of neuropsychology]. yzdatelskyi tsentr «akademyia». https://www.rulit.me/author/luriya-aleksandrromanovich/osnovy-nejropsihologii-get-368419.html maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 mantey, e. e. (2014). accessibility to inclusive education for children with disabilities: a case of two selected areas in ghana [dissertation for the award of philosophy of doctorate degree, university of siegen, germany].core.ac.uk. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/56726505.pdf melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46-93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 pera, a. (2014). the integration of cognitive neuroscience in educational practice. contemporary readings in law and social justice, 6(1), 70-75. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-integration-of-cognitiveneuroscience-in-pera/bd192e000277c5a3cd9993448330f985eb81bb78 petitto, l.-a., & dunbar, k. (2004, october 6-8). new findings from educational neuroscience on bilingual brains, scientific brains, and the educated mind. department of psychological and brain sciences, and department of education dartmouth college, hanover, new hampshire, 1-20. https://ideas.time.com/wpcontent/uploads/sites/5/2012/01/pettitodunbarip.pdf https://www.rulit.me/author/luriya-aleksandr-romanovich/osnovy-nejropsihologii-get-368419.html https://www.rulit.me/author/luriya-aleksandr-romanovich/osnovy-nejropsihologii-get-368419.html https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/56726505.pdf https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-integration-of-cognitive-neuroscience-in-pera/bd192e000277c5a3cd9993448330f985eb81bb78 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-integration-of-cognitive-neuroscience-in-pera/bd192e000277c5a3cd9993448330f985eb81bb78 https://ideas.time.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/01/pettitodunbarip.pdf https://ideas.time.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/01/pettitodunbarip.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 262 semenovych, a. v. (2002). neiropsykholohycheskaia dyahnostyka y korrektsyia v detskom vozraste [neuropsychological diagnosis and correction in childhood]. akademyia, http://www.economics.com.ua/writer/3896/textbook/11397/semenovic h_av/neyropsihologicheskaya_diagnostika_i_korrektsiya_v_detskom_vozr aste semenovych, a. v. (2018). ety neveroiatnye levshy. [these incredible left-handers]. henezys. https://litportal.ru/avtory/a-v-semenovich/kniga-etineveroyatnye-levshi-777157.html sirotyuk, a. l. (2003). neiropsykholohycheskoe y psykhofyzyolohycheskoe soprovozhdenye obuchenyia [neuropsychological and psychophysiological support of training]. tts sfera. https://klex.ru/ap6 tarasun, v. v. (2008). morfofunktsionalna hotovnist ditei z osoblyvostiamy u rozvytku do shkilnoho navchannia: diahnostyka i formuvannia: monohrafiia [morphofunctional children’s readiness with peculiarities in the development of school education: diagnostics and formation: monograph]. vydavnytstvo natsionalnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu imeni m. p. drahomanova. tarasun, v. v. (2017). osnovy teorii i praktyky lohodydaktyky: pidruchnyk dlia vyshchykh navchalnykh zakladiv [fundamentals of theory and practice of logodidactics: a textbook for higher educational institutions]. karavela. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/714740/ trigub, h. v. (2013). psykholinhvistychni osoblyvosti motyvatsiinoi determinatsii livorukykh ditei do ovolodinnia inozemnoiu movoiu [psycholinguistic features of motivational determination of left-handed children to master a foreign language]. naukovi zapysky. seriia: «psykholohiia i pedahohika», 25, 132-137. www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua›irbis_nbuv›cgiirbis_64 vaninsky, a. (2017). educational neuroscience, educational psychology and classroom pedagogy as a system. american journal of educational research, 5(4), 384-391. http://dx.doi.org/10.12691/education-5-4-6 yarova, o. n. (2011). neiropsykholohycheskoe soprovozhdenye protsessov razvytyia detei mladsheho shkolnoho vozrasta [neuropsychological support of the processes of elementary school age children’s development]. kazan. https://nsportal.ru/download/#https://nsportal.ru/sites/default/files/20 13/02/04/doklad_na_forum_kgu_2011.docx yazçayır, g. h., & pınar, g. (2014). the problems faced by primary school teachers about inclusive education in the teaching-learning process in multigrade classes. international journal of pedagogy and curriculum, 20(4), 2534. http://dx.doi.org/10.18848/2327-7963/cgp/v20i04/48976 http://www.economics.com.ua/writer/3896/textbook/11397/semenovich_av/neyropsihologicheskaya_diagnostika_i_korrektsiya_v_detskom_vozraste http://www.economics.com.ua/writer/3896/textbook/11397/semenovich_av/neyropsihologicheskaya_diagnostika_i_korrektsiya_v_detskom_vozraste http://www.economics.com.ua/writer/3896/textbook/11397/semenovich_av/neyropsihologicheskaya_diagnostika_i_korrektsiya_v_detskom_vozraste https://litportal.ru/avtory/a-v-semenovich/kniga-eti-neveroyatnye-levshi-777157.html https://litportal.ru/avtory/a-v-semenovich/kniga-eti-neveroyatnye-levshi-777157.html https://klex.ru/ap6 https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/714740/ http://dx.doi.org/10.12691/education-5-4-6 https://nsportal.ru/download/#https://nsportal.ru/sites/default/files/2013/02/04/doklad_na_forum_kgu_2011.docx https://nsportal.ru/download/#https://nsportal.ru/sites/default/files/2013/02/04/doklad_na_forum_kgu_2011.docx http://dx.doi.org/10.18848/2327-7963/cgp/v20i04/48976 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 335-341 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/211 metabolomics in pediatric neuropsychiatry roberta pintus¹, angelica dessi’2, alice bosco3, vassilios fanos4 1 department of surgical sciences, university of cagliari and neonatal intensive care unit, aou cagliari, cagliari, italy, gomberta@icloud.com 2 department of surgical sciences, university of cagliari and neonatal intensive care unit, aou cagliari, cagliari, italy, angelica.dessi@unica.it 3 department of surgical sciences, university of cagliari and neonatal intensive care unit, aou cagliari, cagliari, italy, alicebosco88@gmail.com 4 department of surgical sciences, university of cagliari and neonatal intensive care unit, aou cagliari, cagliari, italy, vafanos@tiscali.it abstract: metabolomics is one of the newest “omics” sciences that is being applied to date to investigate several aspects of pathologies and medical topics in general. it provides a snapshot of the metabolic state of an individual by the detection of metabolites in several biological fluids, such as saliva, blood and sweat. our research group has more than a decade of experience in this field and we ourselves applied this technology to investigate, for instance, every aspect of breast milk, different neonatal diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders. in this paper, which is adapted from the lecture given by professor fanos at the 5th edition of the galatia congress (2021), we discuss the usefulness of metabolomics in the investigation of paediatric neuropsychiatric disorders. we are convinced that this technique, in the future, will provide all the answer to the infinite questions concerning the paediatric brain and its disorders, in order to help the clinicians and families of these children to give the best life possible to these little patients. keywords: metabolomics, pediatrics, neuropsychiatry, perinatal programming, autism. how to cite: pintus, r., dessi’, a., bosco, a., & fanos, v. (2021). metabolomics in pediatric neuropsychiatry. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 335-341. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/211 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/211 mailto:gomberta@icloud.com mailto:angelica.dessi@unica.it mailto:alicebosco88@gmail.com mailto:vafanos@tiscali.it https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/211 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 336 what is metabolomics? metabolomics is one of the newest omics sciences that analyzes the metabolites present in several biofluids (urine, blood, plasma serum, saliva csf, etc..) through different techniques (lc/gc-ms or 1h-nmr). it provides a snapshot of the metabolic state of an individual in different conditions or under several treatments (mussap et al., 2013). there are 50591 papers on pubmed (june 2014) on metabolomics applied to investigate every aspect of medicine and diseases. moreover, the metabolomics market is project to reach usd 4.73 billion by 2027. it is the stethoscope for the 21 th century. our research group is performing metabolomics studies since 2011. we are interested in a wide spectrum of experimental and clinical topics starting from breast milk, sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis and neuropsychiatric disorders. why is it the medicine of the future? because now clinicians practice with protocols that are meant for a “mean” of patients, but a “means” of patients does not actually exist. every human being is unique and responds differently to treatment (fanos, 2018). furthermore, many pathophysiological mechanisms of several pathologies are still unclear. thanks to metabolomics and the subsequent investigation of metabolites in biological fluids we could be able to find the answers to the open questions in medicine and above all in pediatrics (bardanzellu & fanos, 2020). autism: the plague of 21 th century, could metabolomics be the cure? in the context of neuropsychiatric disorder in pediatrics, metabolomics could be very useful. especially in complex disorders such autism since many aspects of this neurodevelopmental alteration are still obscure. our research group has performed several metabolomics studies concerning autism and other neuropsychiatric disorders. what we learnt and what is being acknowledged in recent years is the concept of perinatal programming of adult (and children) diseases, including neuropsychiatric disorders and neurobehavioral problems (faa et al., 2016). it means that each and every adverse event that could happen during pregnancy can alter the development of the fetal brain leading to neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders in childhood and later in life. in case of autism, it seems that neuroimmune insults in pregnancy and in infancy could be one of the most relevant adverse events, together with the exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (ecds) (goyal & miyan, 2014; street et al., 2018). furthermore, thanks to metabolomics we were able to make and hypothesis of the alterations that could lead to autism spectrum disorder metabolomics in pediatric neuropsychiatry roberta pintus, et al. 337 (asd). we called it “the bad trio”, meaning: a mitochondrial disfunction/oxidative stress, dysbiosis and immune activation (panisi et al., 2021). indeed, in 2017 we performed a metabolomic study concerning autistic children and their unaffected siblings. we analyzed their urine metabolome and the asd group displayed a completely different metabolism compared to the healthy group (lussu et al., 2017). we found several metabolites related to the alteration of the gut microflora, especially hippurate, indicating an intestinal dysbiosis in asd children. many of these metabolites seems to be produced by clostridium spp. thus, metabolomics is able to tell whether there is a bacterial influence in the origins of neuropsychiatric disorders. moreover, some of our findings indicate an alteration of tca cycle that could be a biomarker of mitochondrial dysfunction. other authors correlated mitochondrial alterations with several neuropsychiatric disorder including autism (morris & berk, 2015). another key metabolite in our study was tryptophan, which was found altered in other studies as well (gevi et al., 2016). it is metabolized both by humans and bacteria. it is a precursor of serotonin which is in turn, very important for the neural function and neuronal plasticity especially during pregnancy (faa et al., 2016). excessive bacterial degradation of tryptophan may lead to a depletion in serotonin production that may lead to asd and other neuropsychiatric disorders (gevi et al., 2016). furthermore, altered tryptophan metabolism was found in individual with negative affectivity and social inhibition. author relates these alterations to mental retardation, depression and anxiety states as well (altmaier et al., 2013). other amino acids were modified in our study, in particular: glycine, serine, glutamate and valine. these results are in line with other studies that have also shown that asd children often suffer from dysregulated amino acid metabolism (lussu et al., 2017). then we performed another study in which we were able to correlate the urine metabolism of asd children with their clinical profile severity. indeed, different scores in repetitive behavior scale and social responsiveness scale were correlated to different metabolic profiles (mussap et al., 2020). this study was preceded by another study in which the urine metabolome of 2 groups of asd patients of different ages (toddlers and adolescents) with healthy controls. interestingly, they displayed the same metabolic alterations and these were related to the clinical parameters (noto et al., 2018). brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 338 metabolomics could also be used to investigate whether the diet and which particular food could improve the asd symptoms and why. there is only one paper concerning this topic so far in which asd subject improved after the administration of broccoli thanks to the presence of sulforaphane (bent et al., 2018). other neuropsychiatric disorders and metabolomics: where are we now? our group was involved in a project funded by the european union and aggression. aggressiveness is considered one of the biggest health issues in europe. we performed the urinary metabolomics analysis of 1347 twins with different aggressiveness profiles. the discriminant metabolites, thought to be the biomarkers of aggression, were amines and organic acids (hagenbeek et al., 2020). metabolomics is able to anticipate the occurrence of psychosis. indeed, individuals that experience a psychotic episode at 18 years of age, show metabolic abnormalities already at 12 years of age (madrid-gambin et al., 2019). metabolomics is useful even when the neurobehavioral problems are caused by infections. indeed, our group described a clinical case of a girl with pediatric acute onset neuropsychiatric syndrome after mycoplasma spp. infection. thanks to this technique we were able to verify her baseline metabolomics urinary profile and after treatment with subsequent symptoms improvement (piras et al., 2020). other authors studied the behavioral and cognitive modification due to other types of infections. it seems that the parasitic infection (helminths) modifies the microbiota composition in these children. thus, since the microbiota has a role in neurodevelopment due the production of several neuroactive molecules, the parasitic infection itself alters the cognitive parameters (guernier et al., 2017). furthermore, it appears that enteric infections in small children exert a peculiar role in cognitive development as well. there could be a relationship between chronic systemic inflammation and alterations of the cognitive abilities in children due to an abnormal blood brain barrier and microglia activation (orià et al., 2016). the microbiota is involved in other neuropsychiatric disorders such as attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder in which it seems that the affected pediatric population has lower abundance of fecalibacterium spp (jiang et al., 2018). in addition, another study analyzed the association between microbiota and cognitive development in children of 1-2 years of age. they metabolomics in pediatric neuropsychiatry roberta pintus, et al. 339 found that the 3 different microbial clusters discovered, matched with different cognitive outcomes, not in a pathological sense (carlson, 2018). conclusions metabolomics has proving to be exceptionally useful in the investigation of the neuropsychiatric disorders in pediatrics. it has provided unexpected link between the brain and the peripheral environment of an individual, highlighting the importance of several metabolites of different types. furthermore, it has highlighted the role of microbiota in neuropsychiatric disorders in a very precise way. even if the number of studies is limited, there is a growing interest of the application of this technique to investigate pediatric brain. we are convinced that in the future this technology could reach the patients bed and it will be a common tool to make diagnosis, prognosis and management of these small patients in order to give them the best life possible. references altmaier, e., emeny, r. t., krumsiek, j., lacruz, m. e., lukaschek, k., häfner, s., kastenmüller, g., römisch-margl, w., prehn, c., mohney, r. p., evans, a. m., milburn, m. v., illig, t., adamski, j., theis, f., suhre, k., & ladwig, k. h. (2013). metabolomic profiles in individuals with negative affectivity and social inhibition: a population-based study of type d personality. psychoneuroendocrinology, 38(8), 1299–1309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2012.11.014 bardanzellu, f., & fanos, v. (2020). how could metabolomics change pediatric health? italian journal of pediatrics, 46(1), 37. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052020-0807-7 bent, s., lawton, b., warren, t., widjaja, f., dang, k., fahey, j. w., cornblatt, b., kinchen, j. m., delucchi, k., & hendren, r. l. (2018). identification of urinary metabolites that correlate with clinical improvements in children with autism treated with sulforaphane from broccoli. molecular autism, 9, 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-018-0218-4 carlson, a. l., xia, k., azcarate-peril, m. a., goldman, b. d., ahn, m., styner, m. a., thompson, a. l., geng, x., gilmore, j. h., & knickmeyer, r. c. (2018). infant gut microbiome associated with cognitive development. biological psychiatry, 83(2), 148-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.06.021 faa, g., manchia, m., pintus, r., gerosa, c., marcialis, m. a., & fanos, v. (2016). fetal programming of neuropsychiatric disorders. birth defects research part c: embryo today: reviews, 108(3), 207–223. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdrc.21139 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2012.11.014 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052-020-0807-7 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052-020-0807-7 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-018-0218-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.06.021 https://doi.org/10.1002/bdrc.21139 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 340 fanos, v. (2018). medicina di precisione: cellule batteri metaboliti, energia [precision medicine: metabolite bacteria cells, energy]. hygeia press gevi, f., zolla, l., gabriele, s., & persico, a. m. (2016). urinary metabolomics of young italian autistic children supports abnormal tryptophan and purine metabolism. molecular autism, 7, 47. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-0160109-5 goyal, d. k., & miyan, j. a. (2014). neuro-immune abnormalities in autism and their relationship with the environment: a variable insult model for autism. frontiers in endocrinology, 5, 29. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2014.00029 guernier, v., brennan, b., yakob, l., milinovich, g., clements, a. c., & soares magalhaes, r. j. (2017). gut microbiota disturbance during helminth infection: can it affect cognition and behaviour of children? bmc infectious diseases, 17(1), 58. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-016-2146-2 hagenbeek, f. a., roetman, p. j., pool, r., kluft, c., harms, a. c., van dongen, j., colins, o. f., talens, s., van beijsterveldt, c., vandenbosch, m., de zeeuw, e. l., déjean, s., fanos, v., ehli, e. a., davies, g. e., hottenga, j. j., hankemeier, t., bartels, m., vermeiren, r., & boomsma, d. i. (2020). urinary amine and organic acid metabolites evaluated as markers for childhood aggression: the action biomarker study. frontiers in psychiatry, 11, 165. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00165 jiang, h. y., zhou, y. y., zhou, g. l., li, y. c., yuan, j., li, x. h., & ruan, b. (2018). gut microbiota profiles in treatment-naïve children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. behavioural brain research, 347, 408–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2018.03.036 lussu, m., noto, a., masili, a., rinaldi, a. c., dessì, a., de angelis, m., de giacomo, a., fanos, v., atzori, l., & francavilla, r. (2017). the urinary 1 h-nmr metabolomics profile of an italian autistic children population and their unaffected siblings. autism research: official journal of the international society for autism research, 10(6), 1058–1066. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1748 madrid-gambin, f., föcking, m., sabherwal, s., heurich, m., english, j. a., o'gorman, a., suvitaival, t., ahonen, l., cannon, m., lewis, g., mattila, i., scaife, c., madden, s., hyötyläinen, t., orešič, m., zammit, s., cagney, g., cotter, d. r., & brennan, l. (2019). integrated lipidomics and proteomics point to early blood-based changes in childhood preceding later development of psychotic experiences: evidence from the avon longitudinal study of parents and children. biological psychiatry, 86(1), 25–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.01.018 morris, g., & berk, m. (2015). the many roads to mitochondrial dysfunction in neuroimmune and neuropsychiatric disorders. bmc medicine, 13, 68. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-015-0310-y https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-016-0109-5 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-016-0109-5 https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2014.00029 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-016-2146-2 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00165 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2018.03.036 https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1748 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.01.018 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-015-0310-y metabolomics in pediatric neuropsychiatry roberta pintus, et al. 341 mussap, m., antonucci, r., noto, a., & fanos, v. (2013). the role of metabolomics in neonatal and pediatric laboratory medicine. clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry, 426, 127–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2013.08.020 mussap, m., siracusano, m., noto, a., fattuoni, c., riccioni, a., rajula, h., fanos, v., curatolo, p., barberini, l., & mazzone, l. (2020). the urine metabolome of young autistic children correlates with their clinical profile severity. metabolites, 10(11), 476. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo10110476 noto, a., fattuoni, c., mussap, m., barberini, l., siracusano, m., mazzone, l., francavilla, r., curatolo, p., & fanos, v. (2018). urinary gc-ms metabolomics comparison between two cohorts of toddler and adolescent subjects affected by autism spectrum disorder. in selected lectures of the 14th international workshop on neonatology. cagliari (italy); october 24-28 2018, 7(2):e070238. https://jpnim.com/index.php/jpnim/article/view/07023 8?articlesbysameauthorpage=8 oriá, r. b., murray-kolb, l. e., scharf, r. j., pendergast, l. l., lang, d. r., kolling, g. l., & guerrant, r. l. (2016). early-life enteric infections: relation between chronic systemic inflammation and poor cognition in children. nutrition reviews, 74(6), 374–386. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuw008 panisi, c., guerini, f. r., abruzzo, p. m., balzola, f., biava, p. m., bolotta, a., brunero, m., burgio, e., chiara, a., clerici, m., croce, l., ferreri, c., giovannini, n., ghezzo, a., grossi, e., keller, r., manzotti, a., marini, m., migliore, l., moderato, l., … fanos, v. (2021). autism spectrum disorder from the womb to adulthood: suggestions for a paradigm shift. journal of personalized medicine, 11(2), 70. https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm11020070 piras, c., pintus, r., pruna, d., dessì, a., atzori, l., & fanos, v. (2020). pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome and mycoplasma pneumoniae infection: a case report analysis with a metabolomics approach. current pediatric reviews, 16(3), 183–193. https://doi.org/10.2174/1573396315666191022102925 street, m. e., angelini, s., bernasconi, s., burgio, e., cassio, a., catellani, c., cirillo, f., deodati, a., fabbrizi, e., fanos, v., gargano, g., grossi, e., iughetti, l., lazzeroni, p., mantovani, a., migliore, l., palanza, p., panzica, g., papini, a. m., parmigiani, s., … amarri, s. (2018). current knowledge on endocrine disrupting chemicals (edcs) from animal biology to humans, from pregnancy to adulthood: highlights from a national italian meeting. international journal of molecular sciences, 19(6), 1647. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19061647 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2013.08.020 https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo10110476 https://jpnim.com/index.php/jpnim/article/view/07023%0b8?articlesbysameauthorpage=8 https://jpnim.com/index.php/jpnim/article/view/07023%0b8?articlesbysameauthorpage=8 https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuw008 https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm11020070 https://doi.org/10.2174/1573396315666191022102925 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19061647 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.2, pages: 44-50 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/37 parental stress in new-onset epilepsy and after therapy withdrawal francesca felicia operto¹, grazia maria giovanna pastorino 2 , giangennaro coppola 3 1 child and adolescent neuropsychiatry, salerno, italy, opertofrancesca@gmail.com 2 child and adolescent neuropsychiatry, salerno, italy 3 child and adolescent neuropsychiatry, salerno, italy abstract: objective: to assess maternal and paternal stress inparents of children with epilepsy, at the time of diagnosis, after one year of follow-up and after therapy withdrawal. methods: we investigated parental stress in a sample of 85 children aged 2-14 years, divided into two groups based on the diagnosis: group 1 (50 patients) with childhood absence epilepsy or idiopathic focal epilepsy with rolandic discharges; group 2 (35 patients) with different forms of drug-resistant epilepsy. every parent completed the parental stress index-short form at time 0, when they received the diagnosis and patients started therapy, at time 1, after 1 year of follow-up. only parents of group 1 completed the same questionnaire after 2 years therapy withdrawal. results: we found high levels of stress in both mothers and fathers at time 0, without statistically significant differences between the two groups.at time 1, stress values were unchanged in group 1 mothers; conversely, the levels of stress in group 1 fathers were reduced, with average values that fell within the “normal range”. in group 2, stress levels were reduced both in mothers and fathers at time 1, compared to time 0, but equally fell into the "clinical range", for both parents.in group1, even one and two years after therapy withdrawal, parental stress did not normalizeand all scores persisted in the “clinical range” in both mothers and fathers. conclusions: our study revealed that, the diagnosis of epilepsy itself tended to increase parental stress, apparently regardless of the severity of the disorder; even after a period of follow-up, when epilepsy was better controlled, overall parental stress remained high. parental stresslevels remained higher than expected, even 2 years after the suspension of therapy and the absence of seizures. this was probably due to concerns with the reappearance of new seizures or a more severe type of epilepsy with the suspension of drug(s), and feelings of inadequacy with their parental role(s). keywords: children; epilepsy; parental stress. how to cite: operto, f.f., pastorino, g.m.g., coppola, g. (2020). parental stress in new-onset epilepsy and after therapy withdrawal. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup2), 44-50. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/37 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/37 mailto:opertofrancesca@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/37 parental stress in new-onset epilepsy and after therapy withdrawal francesca felicia operto, et al. 45 introduction several recent studies showed that parental stress level is higher in the parents of children with severe chronic conditions than in the general population (lyons et al 2010, patton et al 2011, streisand et al 2005, powers et al 2002, chiou & hsieh 2008, reichman et al 2008, farrace et al 2013, rodenburg et al 2007, britner 2003). epilepsy, with a prevalence of about 1%, is one of the most common neurological pathologies in childhood and the parents of children with epilepsy can also show high levels of parental stress (cowan 2002, wirrell et al 2008, rodenburg et al 2005). there are many factors that can contribute to increasing parental stress and dysfunctional family relationships, such as a new diagnosis of epilepsy, the fear of seizures recurrence and of drugs adverse effects, the seizure effect on the development of cognitive functions (shore et al 2002, chapieski et al 2004, modi 2009, dumbrava et al 2019). parental stress can be particularly high in drug-resistant epilepsy, a condition that occurs in 20-30% of cases (wirrell et al 2008). psychiatric comorbidities, such as behavioral and mood disorders in children with epilepsy, can often also aggravate the stress of parents, who report an impairment of their social life and sleep disturbances. simptoms can evoluate tu suicide or para-suicide (fulga et al 2008). sometimes it is necesary a psychiatric expertize (dumbrava et al 2013). the purpose of our study is to evaluate stress levels in parents of children with different forms of epilepsy over time. methodology participants our study involves 85 children diagnosed with epilepsy(mean age = 9.2 ±2.6 years) and their parents, recruited from the child neuropsychiatry unit of the university of salerno (italy). we considered a group of children with different forms of drugresistant epilepsy (n=35) and a group of children with non drug-resistant epilepsy (n=50). all parents, both mother and father, underwent parental stress assessment through a standardized neuropsychological questionnaire, the parental stress index-short form (psi-sf).psi-sf was performed at the time of diagnosis and after 12 months (time0 and time1). in the group of controlled patients it was repeated even 12 months and 24 months after the suspension of therapy (time2 and time 3). brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 46 the parents were fully and clearly explained about the aims and methods of our study and provided their informed consent. the study was conducted according to good clinical practice, in compliance with the ethical principles of the helsinki declaration. parenting stress index – short form psi-sf is a self-administration questionnaire for parents which measures the following scales:  parental distress (pd): stress related to the mother/father role  dysfunctional parent-child interaction (p-cdi): stress associated with conflicting parent-child relationships  difficult child (dc): stress associated with the characteristics of child  total stress (ts): global stress level the scores <85 is normal, instead higher than 85 rank in "clinical range". results at baseline all parents, regardless of type of epilepsy (drug resistant or non-drug resistant) and other factors (e.g. number of seizures), had stress levels increased on three psi scales (pd, p-cdi and ts). after 12 months, in the non-drug resistant group, the mothers'stress scores were still the same, (pathological score) while the fathers' stress scores had decreased (normal score) with a statistically significant difference (p <0.05). in the drug-resistant group the levels decreased in both parents (p <0.05) but were still in the pathological range. (figure 1) in the non-drug resistant group, after 12 months and 24 months of antiepileptic therapy withdrawal, stress levels were not significantly reduced compared to baseline in both parents (p> 0.05) (figure 2). stress levels between mother and father were significantly correlated (p <0.05) parental stress in new-onset epilepsy and after therapy withdrawal francesca felicia operto, et al. 47 fig.1: mean stress scores in mothers and fathers at time0 and at time1. fig. 2: mean stress scores in mothers and fathers at time0, time3 and time 4. conclusions in keeping with other literature data, our study revealed that parental stress level of parents of children with epilepsy were high (reichman et al 2008, rodenburg et al 2007, britner et al 2003). in our study, the increase in parental stress is not linked to the characteristics of the disease (e.g. number brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 48 of seizures, monotherapy/politherapy).contrary to what has been reported by some previous studies, in our study the stress levels seem more related to the parent's role in managing the child than to the characteristics of the child himself (wirrell et al 2008, abidin 1995, shatla et al 2011). after 12 months in the non-drug resistant group, the stress levels of mothers are still high while those of fathers normalized (figure 1). this could mean that, while fathers are more easily reassured about the child's clinical condition, mothers are still concerned about child management, seizure recurrence and the side effects of therapy.this data is in agreement with the previous literature which reports high levels of stress in mothers of children with refractory epilepsy (wirrell et al 2008). in the non-drug-resistant group, after 12 and 24 months from therapy withdrawal, parental stress levels are unexpectedly still high, and do not normalize neither in fathers nor in mothers. some literature studies showed a reduction of parental stress after epilepsy surgery or vagus nerve stimulation, however there aren’t currently studies on parental stress after therapy withdrawal (braams et al 2015, li et al 2007, fan et al 2018). in conclusion our study revealed that epilepsy in children involves high parental stress levels, regardless of some characteristics of epilepsy itself (such asseizure number, seizure type or number of antiepileptic drug assumed). our study also shows that parental stress remains high, despite the the control of symptoms or the suspension of drug therapy. parents are probably always worried about seizure recurrence, therefore more support is needed for parents in managing children with epilepsy. references abidin, r. r. (1995). psi—parenting stress index (5th ed.). giunti o.s. braams, o., meekes, j., braun, k., shapping, r., van rijien, p. c., hendriks, m. p. h., jennekens-schinkel, a., van nieuwenhuizen, o. (2015). parenting stress does not normalize after child’s epilepsy surgery. epilepsy & behavior, 42, 147-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2014.10.034 britner, p. a., morog, m. c., pianta, r. c., & marvin, r. s. (2003). stress and coping: a comparison of self-report measures of functioning in families of young children with cerebral palsy or no medical diagnosis. journal of child and family studies, 12, 335–348. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1023943928358 chapieski, l., brewer, v., evankovich, k., culhane-shelburne, k., zelman, k., & alexander, a. (2004). adaptive functioning in children with seizures: impact of maternal anxiety about epilepsy. epilepsy & behaviour, 7(2), 246– 252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2005.05.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2014.10.034 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1023943928358 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2005.05.002 parental stress in new-onset epilepsy and after therapy withdrawal francesca felicia operto, et al. 49 chiou, h. h, & hsieh, l. p. (2008). parenting stress in parents of children with epilepsy and asthma. journal of child neurology, 23(3), 301–306. https://doi.org/10.1177/0883073807308712 cottrell, l., & khan, a. (2005). impact of childhood epilepsy on maternal sleep and socioemotional functioning. clinical pediatrics, 44, 613–616. https://doi.org/10.1177/000992280504400709 cowan, l. d. (2002). the epidemiology of the epilepsies in children. mental retardation and developmental disabilities research reviews, 8(3), 171–178. https://doi.org/10.1002/mrdd.10035 fan, h. c., hsu, t. r., chang, k. p., chen, s. j., tsai, j. d., & vns tcns. (2018). vagus nerve stimulation for 6to 12-year-old children with refractory epilepsy: impact on seizure frequency and parenting stress index. epilepsy & behaviour, 83, 119-123. farrace, d., tommasi, m., casadio, c., & verrotti, a. (2013). parenting stress evaluation and behavioral syndromes in a group of pediatric patients with epilepsy. epilepsy & behaviour, 29(1), 222–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.07.020 fulga, i., perju-dumbrava, d., & crassas, r. (2008). suicide by "non-lethal" firearm. romanian journal of legal medicine 16(1), 23-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-009-9323-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2017.12.009 li., s. t., chiu, n. c., kuo, y. t., shen, e. y., tsai, p. c., ho, c. s, wu, w. h., & chen, j. c. (2007). parenting stress in parents of children with refractory epilepsy, before and after vagus nerve stimulation implantation. pediatrics and neonatology, 58(6), 516-522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedneo.2017.03.001 lyons, a. m., leon, s. c., roecker phelps, c. e., & dunleavy, a. m. (2010). the impact of child symptom severity on stress among parents of children with asd: the moderating role of coping styles. journal of child and family studies, 19(4), 516–524. modi, a. c. (2009). the impact of a new pediatric epilepsy diagnosis on parents: parenting stress and activity patterns. epilepsy & behaviour , 14(1), 237–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2008.10.009 patton, s. r., dolan, l. m., smith, l. b., thomas, i. h., & power, s. w. (2011). pediatric parenting stress and its relation to depressive symptoms and fear of hypoglycemia in parents of young children with type 1 diabetes mellitus. journal of clinical psychology in medical settings, 18(4), 345–352. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-011-9256-1 perju-dumbravă, d., fulga, i., chiroban, o., bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2013). ethical and diagnostic difficulties of the cohabitation tests in the forensic expertise. revista romana de bioetica, 11(4), 132-137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0883073807308712 https://doi.org/10.1177/000992280504400709 https://doi.org/10.1002/mrdd.10035 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.07.020 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-009-9323-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2017.12.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedneo.2017.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2008.10.009 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-011-9256-1 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 50 perju-dumbravă, d., radu, c.c., tabian, d., vesa, s.c., fulga, i., & chiroban, o. (2019). the relation between suicide by chemical substances and the level of education. revista de chimie, 70(7), 2643-2646. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.7.7396 powers, s. w., byars, k. c., mitchell, m. j., patton, s. r., standiford, d. a., & dolan, l. m. (2002). parent report of mealtime behavior and parenting stress in young children with type 1 diabetes and in healthy control subjects. diabetes care, 25(2), 313–318. https://doi.org/10.2337/diacare.25.2.313 reichman, n. e., corman, h., & noonan, k. (2008). impact of child disability on the family. maternal and child health journal, 12, 679–683. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-007-0307-z rodenburg, h. r., meijer, a. m., dekovic,´ m., & aldenkamp, a. p. (2005). family factors and psychopathology in children with epilepsy: a literature review. epilepsy & behaviour, 6, 488–503. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2005.03.006 rodenburg, r., meijer, a. m., dekovic, m., & aldenkamp, a. p. (2007). parents of children with enduring epilepsy: predictors of parenting stress and parenting. epilepsy & behaviour, 11(2), 197–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2007.05.001 shatla, r., sayyah, h. s., azzam, h., & elsayed, r. m. (2011). correlates of parental stress and psychopathology in pediatric epilepsy. annals of indian academy of neurolology, 14(4), 252-256. https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-2327.91938 shore, c. p., austin, j. k., huster, g. a., & dunn, d. w. (2002). identifying risk factors for maternal depression in families of adolescents with epilepsy. journal for specialists in pediatric nursing, 7(2), 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6155.2002.tb00153.x streisand, b., swift, e., wickmark, t., chen, r., & holmes, c. s. (2005). pediatric parenting stress among parents of children with type 1 diabetes: the role of self-efficacy, responsibility, and fear. journal of pediatric psychology, 30(6), 513521. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsi076 wirrell, e. c., wood, l., hamiwka, l. d., & sherman, e. m. (2008). parenting stress in mothers of children with intractable epilepsy. epilepsy & behaviour, 13(1), 169–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2008.02.011 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.7.7396 https://doi.org/10.2337/diacare.25.2.313 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-007-0307-z https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2005.03.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2007.05.001 https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-2327.91938 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6155.2002.tb00153.x https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsi076 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2008.02.011 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 363-379 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/187 classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist olena tsilmak¹, iryna shcherbakova2, sofiia berezka3, yuliia formaniuk4, liliia rudenko5, nataliia mateiko6 1 national university «odessa law academy», ukraine, cilmalen@gmail.com 2 sumy state a. s. makarenko pedagogical university, ukraine, ishcherbakova@ukr.net 3 state higher educational institution “donbass state pedagogical university”, ukraine, berezka.sonya@gmail.com 4 national university «odessa law academy», ukraine, julia.formanyuk@gmail.com 5 m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university, ukraine, lilianic1962@gmail.com 6 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, mnm2807@ukr.net abstract: the article presents the results of theoretical and empirical research of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist. based on the analysis of scientific achievements and the results of anonymous questionnaires, the classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist by certain groups was carried out. professionally important abilities of a counseling psychologist are presented in four areas volitional, gnostic, speech and perceptual; and professionally important skills are presented in seven areas gnostic, communicative, perceptual, didactic, technological, organizational, control and evaluation. it is emphasized that professionally important abilities and skills should be classified separately. since the abilities are due to the natural inclinations of the individual and mental phenomena, and skills are developed, formed and improved during the life of the person. abilities and skills are interconnected and interdependent.classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist by certain groups provides opportunities: 1) to most systematically present the necessary professionally important characteristics of a counseling psychologist, 2) to review educational training programs for psychologists; 3) select the necessary methods and techniques for the diagnosis and verification of these professionally important characteristics of the candidate for the position of " counseling psychologist". according to the results of a scientific study on the expert assessment of the reference level of development of a counseling psychologist of professionally important abilities and skills, it was found that respondents believe that these abilities and skills should have a very high level of development. keywords: inclinations; reference abilities; reference skills; personality potential; opportunities; counseling psychologist; psychological counseling. how to cite: tsilmak, o., shcherbakova, i., berezka, s., formaniuk, y., rudenko, l., & mateiko, n. (2021). classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 363-379. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/187 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/187 mailto:cilmalen@gmail.com mailto:ishcherbakova@ukr.net mailto:berezka.sonya@gmail.com mailto:julia.formanyuk@gmail.com mailto:lilianic1962@gmail.com mailto:mnm2807@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/187 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 364 introduction at the present stage of development of psychological science there is a need for generalization, systematization and classification of scientific categories and phenomena. studying the scientific achievements in the field of psychological counseling, we came to the conclusion that a clear systematic understanding of such scientific categories as "professionally important skills of a counseling psychologist" and "professionally important abilities of a counseling psychologist" does not exist today. there is no clear, scientifically sound classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist by certain groups. scientists, in their scientific works, mainly described the professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist, revealing their substantive essence, bachmanova n.f. & stafurina n.l. (1985); podlasy i.p. (2004); bozadzhiev v.l. (2010); tolstaya s. (2015); tarasova o.v. & cheremukhin a.d. (2017); kristin m. vespia (2006); kristin m. vespia & eric m. sauer (2006) and others, or classifying them into groups, bozadzhiev v.l. (2010). some authors, describing the professionally important qualities of a counseling psychologist, included "skills" zyabreva a.a. (2018), "skills" anderson t., crowley m.j., himawan l., holmberg j. & uhlin b. (2015), “faith” schneider l.b. (2003). in our opinion, all scientific categories should be considered separately, determining their essence, structure and content. thus, to present the main results of our study, it is first necessary to determine the categorical-conceptual apparatus. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars palamarchuk, 2020; nerubasska, 2020a; nerubasska, 2020b; melnyk, 2019; sheremet, 2019; gerasymova, 2019; onishchuk, 2020; maksymchuk, 2020a; maksymchuk, 2020b. the abilities of a counseling psychologist are of great importance for the high-quality implementation of professional functions. because it depends on them the ability of a counseling psychologist to manage their actions, activities, their emotional processes and states; depends on the depth, strength, speed and ease of knowledge, skills and abilities. it should be emphasized that “... abilities are not in knowledge, skills and abilities, but in the dynamics of their acquisition, that is, in how quickly, easily and firmly they are acquired by people, other things being equal. abilities act only as some opportunity for acquiring knowledge and skills. possibility turns into reality only in such activity, which cannot be carried classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling … olena tsilmak, et al. 365 out without the presence of the necessary abilities ... ", lukashevich v.v., pronina e.n., (1999). in our research, we consider abilities (general, special, professional) as a biologically determined characteristic of man, which is based on its natural potential, on its capabilities. since this is an independent scientific category, we believe that when describing the psychological characteristics of a counseling psychologist they must be separately classified and described. it should also be noted that we fully agree that “... a skill is a way of performing an action mastered by a person, provided by a set of acquired knowledge and skills. it is formed through exercises and creates the ability to perform an action not only in familiar, but also in changed conditions. ... ", burmistrova m.m., vasilyeva l.l., petrova l.yu., kashcheeva a.v., (2016). therefore, in our study, classifying professionally important skills of a counseling psychologist by groups, we will adhere to the position that skills are a qualitative acquired characteristic of a person who develops, forms and improves through certain exercises. the purpose of our research is to classify professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist in certain groups, as well as to establish their reference level of development. to achieve this goal it is necessary to solve a number of such tasks: – analyze scientific research and establish a list of professionally important skills and abilities of a counseling psychologist; – to develop a questionnaire (based on selected professionally important skills and abilities of a counseling psychologist) and offer it to practicing counseling psychologists for expert assessment of their reference level of development; – systematize, classify and group professionally important skills and abilities of a counseling psychologist; – to establish a reference level of development of a psychologist-consultant of professionally important abilities and skills. classification of professionally important abilities of a counseling psychologist participants. a total of 53 practicing counseling psychologists took part in the research (ukraine odessa, kharkiv, kyiv). research procedure. based on the analysis of scientific works, we have selected professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist. then we developed a questionnaire, which consisted of a list of professionally important skills that should be developed in a counseling psychologist, and a list of professionally important skills. respondents were brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 366 asked to make an expert assessment (on a five-point scale) of the reference level of development of counseling psychologists offered professionally important abilities and skills. the survey was anonymous. research methods. in our research, the main methods were analysis and synthesis; questionnaires, mathematical statistics, ranking, classification and grouping. with the help of analysis and synthesis we have identified a list of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist. with the help of our questionnaire, we established professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist. using the method of mathematical statistics we statistically calculated the results, invented the average indicators for each ability and each skill. with the help of the ranking method, we selected the reference abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist with a medium, high and very high degree of development. using the method of classification we systematized scientific ideas about the list of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist, organized them on the basis of their similarity in certain essential substantive characteristics. using the grouping method, we combined (on the basis of general orientation) into separate groups professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist. ethical approval. the study was anonymous, conducted in accordance with ethical principles and with the voluntary consent of counseling psychologists. we believe that the professionally important abilities of a counseling psychologist should be classified into the following groups volitional, gnostic, speech and perceptual. volitional professionally important abilities provide the ability of a person to consciously control his psyche, his actions, states, deeds, behavior, activities, and so on. the willpower of the counseling psychologist should include: – ability to maintain self-control; – the ability to withstand psycho-emotional stress without reducing productivity; – ability to long-term stress of sensory systems in conditions of monogony, etc. according to the results of an anonymous survey of 53 counseling psychologists, we found that mainly a counseling psychologist should have a very high degree of development of volitional abilities (table 1). classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling … olena tsilmak, et al. 367 table 1. reference level of development of a counseling psychologistof volitional abilities volitional abilities of a counseling psychologist reference level of development (percentages) very low n=53 low n=53 medium n=53 high n=53 very high n=53 ability to maintain self-control 0 0 0 22,6 77,4 the ability to withstand psycho-emotional stress without reducing productivity 0 0 0 20,8 79,2 ability to long-term stress of sensory systems in conditions of monogony 0 0 0 30,2 60,8 gnostic abilities are determined by human inclinations and are developed and improved by mastering the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for professional activity. gnostic abilities are based on the natural potential of mental cognitive processes. in our opinion, the gnostic abilities of a counseling psychologist should be included: – ability to remember, store, reproduce, recognize, remember; – the ability to analyze, synthesize, compare, classify, summarize, specify, abstract, i.e. the ability to understand the essence of phenomena and objects, their patterns of development and relationships, etc.; – ability: a) to keep attention on some object; b) simultaneously cover several objects; c) deliberately shift attention from one object to another, from one activity to another; d) perform several activities in parallel or perform several different actions (listen to the client, analyze what is heard, record the main thing); e) simultaneously observe many characteristics of the object of observation, etc.; – the ability to evoke appropriate images, creatively and constructively process them, to carry out reconstruction, etc .; – the ability to reflect objects or phenomena, reproducing them from previous experience, but not perceiving them in real time, etc. according to the results of scientific research, we found that all respondents are 100% convinced that a counseling psychologist should have a very high degree of development of epistemological abilities. speech abilities of a counseling psychologist are individual psychological features that ensure the success and effectiveness of the communicative process during psychological counseling. they are based on the personal speech potential of the psychologist, acquired and improved in brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 368 the process of his life. the speech abilities of a counseling psychologist should include: – the ability to operate with language; – the ability to clearly, simply, understandably and concretely express their thoughts and feelings; – the ability to master the technique of contact and communication, etc. according to the results of scientific research, we found that all respondents are one hundred percent convinced that a counseling psychologist should have a very high degree of development of speech skills. perceptual abilities are based on the sensory side of personality sensory cognition and sensory interpretation. we believe that the perceptual abilities of a counseling psychologist should include: – "… ability to enjoy verbal exchange…", foster, f.d. and viswanathan, s, (1996); – the ability to enter the client's world without getting lost in it; – the ability to listen, hear and hear; – the ability to look, see and see, etc.. it is established that all respondents are 100% convinced that a counseling psychologist should have a very high degree of development of perceptual abilities. thus, volitional, gnostic, speech and perceptual groups of abilities are due to natural inclinations and mental phenomena. they are the basis for the development, formation and improvement of the necessary professionally important skills of a counseling psychologist. according to the results of an anonymous survey of 53 counseling psychologists, we found that respondents are convinced that the counseling psychologist benchmark professionally important abilities should generally have a very high and high degree of development. classification of professionally important skills of a counseling psychologist the skills of a counseling psychologist are developed, formed and improved during training and during counseling. in our opinion, professionally important skills of a counseling psychologist should be classified into the following groups gnostic, communicative, perceptual, didactic, technological, organizational, control and evaluation. the cognitive skills of a counseling psychologist should include: classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling … olena tsilmak, et al. 369 – ability to process, analyze, summarize, critically evaluate the received information; – the ability to understand the communicative situation, to navigate it correctly and accordingly to form a certain strategy of behavior, to choose psychotechnics; – ability to anticipate possible deviations, adverse events and consequences; – ability to collect information, analyze and summarize it; – ability to understand and interpret the internal state of the client according to the nuances of his behavior; – the ability to dissociate, i.e. to be above the situation, not in the situation; – ability to find the main problem, ways of its optimal solution, taking into account all the specific features and circumstances; – ability to vary the ways to solve the problem; – ability to identify in clients the features of mental states, processes and properties, socio-psychological attitudes and motives of behavior; – ability to identify in the life of the client his positive and negative socio-psychological phenomena, etc.. according to the results of scientific research, we found that respondents are one hundred percent convinced that the above cognitive skills should have a counseling psychologist very high level of development. the communicative skills of a counseling psychologist should include: – ability to establish contact, maintain it, get out of it; – ability to resist stereotypes of perception, barriers to communication; – ability to start, support and end a conversation; – ability to intercept and transmit initiative in communication; – ability to persuade, inspire, support the client; – ability to psychologically optimally build their language; – be able to skillfully and intelligently use appropriate verbal and nonverbal means of influencing the client, nelson-jones r., (2001); – the ability to choose and maintain the optimal psychological distance in communication with the client, bertisch meir, r., (2005); – ability to ask questions, ask closed and open questions, formulate and test hypotheses, translate general words into specific facts, kozlov n.i., (2013) brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 370 – ability to paraphrase the main points in the client's message, kashapov m.m., (2018); – the ability to check what is heard, asking the client clear and specific questions; – be able to reformulate the client's problem, shifting the emphasis of his view on the problem from another angle, adding alternatives and a positive outlook, kashapov mm, (2018); – the ability to summarize what was heard to highlight the main thing and see the situation as a whole, kashapov mm, (2018); – the ability to identify and "… emphasize the contradictions in the story of the client", kashapov mm, (2018), etc. respondents indicated that a counseling psychologist's communication skills should generally have a very high degree of development (table 2). table 2. the reference level of development of a counseling psychologist of communication skills communicative skills of a counseling psychologist reference level of development (percentages) very low n=53 low n=53 medium n=53 high n=53 very high n=53 ability to establish contact, maintain it, get out of it 0 0 0 18,9 81,1 ability to resist stereotypes of perception, barriers to communication 0 0 0 24,5 75,5 ability to start, maintain and end a conversation 0 0 0 13,2 86,8 ability to intercept and transmit initiative in communication 0 0 0 15,1 84,9 ability to persuade, inspire, support the client 0 0 0 11,3 88,7 ability to psychologically optimally build their language 0 0 0 5,7 94,3 be able to skillfully and intelligently use appropriate verbal and nonverbal means of influencing the client 0 0 0 9,4 90,6 classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling … olena tsilmak, et al. 371 ability to choose and maintain the optimal psychological distance in communication with the client 0 0 0 26,4 83,6 ability to ask questions, ask closed and open questions, formulate and test hypotheses, translate general words into concrete facts 0 0 0 20,8 79,2 ability to paraphrase the main points in the client's message 0 0 0 24,5 75,5 the ability to check what is heard by asking the client clear and specific questions 0 0 0 16,9 83,1 be able to reformulate the client's problem, shifting the emphasis of his view of the problem from another angle, adding alternatives and a positive outlook 0 0 0 15,1 84,9 the ability to summarize what is heard, to highlight the main thing and see the situation as a whole 0 0 0 22,6 77,4 the ability to identify and emphasize contradictions in the client's story 0 0 0 18,9 81,1 the perceptual skills of a counseling psychologist should include: – ability to feel and understand the mental state of the client; – ability to constructively perceive a traumatic situation, kashapov m.m., (2018); – ability to reflect the feelings of the client (ie to associate); – the ability to "join a client or family to create a working alliance", duncan, b. l., miller, s. d., wampold, b. e., & hubble, m. a. (eds.)., (2010); according to the results of scientific research, we found that respondents are one hundred percent convinced that the above perceptual skills should have a counseling psychologist very high level of development. the didactic skills of a counseling psychologist should include: – ability to choose adequate and appropriate forms, means, methods and techniques for consultative interaction; brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 372 – ability to use psychological techniques that will help the client to gather, gain a positive mood, kozlov n.i., (2013) – ability to adapt psychological technology to the client, etc.. assessing didactic skills, respondents generally agreed that the degree of development of didactic skills in a counseling psychologist should have a high degree of development (table 3). table 3. reference level of development of a counseling psychologist of didactic skills didactic skills of a counseling psychologist reference level of development (percentages) very low n=53 low n=53 medium n=53 high n=53 very high n=53 ability to choose adequate and appropriate forms, means, methods and techniques for consultative interaction 0 0 0 81,1 18,9 ability to use psychological techniques that will help the client to get together, to gain a positive mood 0 0 0 86,8 13,2 ability to adapt psychological technology to the client 0 0 0 83,1 16,9 the technological skills of a counseling psychologist should include: – ability to maintain stable visual contact with the client; – the ability to help the client feel that the psychologist can be trusted, novotney, a., (2013); – the ability to stimulate the client's positive motivation for change, transformation, problem solving; – the ability to merge the client's goal-setting with his motivation; – the ability to create such conditions for the client that he was able to independently choose the best course of action (or a way to solve a difficult situation); – the ability to remove the client “… from the state of the victim, to form the position of the author”, kozlov n.i., (2013); – ability to carry out "… reorientation of the client from search of the reasons to search of the decision, to translate language of states into classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling … olena tsilmak, et al. 373 language of actions, to translate a problem into tasks завдання", kozlov n.i., (2013); – the ability "…not to deprive the client of experiences, but to direct them in a constructive direction", bertisch meir, r., (2005), etc. according to the results of scientific research, it is established that the degree of development of technological skills in a counseling psychologist should have a very high degree of development (table 4). table 4. reference level of development of a counseling psychologist of technological skills technological skills of a counseling psychologist reference level of development (percentages) very low n=53 low n=53 medium n=53 high n=53 very n=53 ability to maintain stable visual contact with the client 0 0 3,8 52,8 43,4 ability to help the client feel that the psychologist can be trusted 0 0 0 0 100 ability to stimulate the client's positive motivation for change, for transformation, for solving the problem 0 0 0 0 100 ability to merge the client's goalsetting with his motivation 0 0 0 22,6 77,4 ability to create such conditions for the client that he was able to choose the best course of action (or a way to solve a difficult situation) 0 0 0 0 100 ability to remove the client from the state of the victim, to form the position of the author 0 0 0 0 100 ability to reorient the client from finding reasons to find solutions, translate the language of states into the language of action, translate the problem into tasks 0 0 0 0 100 ability "not to deprive the client of experiences, but to direct them in a constructive direction" 0 0 0 0 100 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 374 the organizational skills of a counseling psychologist should include: ability to organize a workplace for psychological counseling; the ability to allocate time, manage their time and the time of others; ability to plan the sequence of certain tasks, etc. according to the results of scientific research, we found that respondents are 100% convinced that the above organizational skills should have a very high degree of development of a counseling psychologist. the control and evaluation skills of a counseling psychologist should include: – ability to reflect on their experiences and their professional activities, etc. – ability to professionally assess people, problem situations, different ways to solve the problem; – ability to analyze the results of psychological assistance obtained during the control; – the ability to accept invaluable feelings, views, unique individual psychological qualities of clients, kociunas r., (1999); – the ability to "… control their own passions, while being able to listen, seek clarification and take into account the racial and cultural differences of people…", ford, harris, schuerger, (1993), etc. respondents are one hundred percent convinced that the above control and evaluation skills of a counseling psychologist should have a very high degree of development. thus, gnostic, communicative, perceptual, didactic, technological, organizational, control and evaluation skills of a counseling psychologist determine the psychologist's ability to conduct psychological counseling. according to practicing counseling psychologists, the proposed professionally important skills of a counseling psychologist should generally have a very high degree of development. conclusions at present, there is no clear classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist in psychological science. therefore, we made an attempt to classify empirically selected professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist in certain groups. this provides opportunities: 1) most systematically present the necessary professionally important characteristics of a counseling psychologist, 2) to classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling … olena tsilmak, et al. 375 review educational training programs for psychologists; 3) select the necessary methods and techniques for the diagnosis and verification of these professionally important characteristics of the candidate for the position of " counseling psychologist ". professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist are interconnected and interdependent. since "… abilities act only as an opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills", lukashevich v.v., pronina e.n., (1999), volitional, gnostic, speech and perceptual abilities act as a basis for development and formation of gnostic, communicative, perceptual, didactic, technological, organizational and control and evaluation skills. this classification of professionally important abilities and skills by certain groups is not final, it can be supplemented and improved. psychological science requires a clear statement of basic theoretical and empirical provisions. therefore, based on the analysis of scientific achievements and the results of anonymous questionnaires, we have classified professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist by certain groups. we grouped the professionally important abilities of a counseling psychologist in four areas volitional, gnostic, speech and perceptual; and we grouped professionally important skills in seven areas gnostic, communicative, perceptual, didactic, technological, organizational, control and evaluation. we believe that professionally important abilities and skills should be classified separately. since abilities are due to natural personality traits and mental phenomena, and skills are developed, formed and improved during a person's life. abilities and skills are interconnected and interdependent. abilities underlie the development, formation and improvement of the necessary professionally important skills of a counseling psychologist. according to the results of scientific research on the expert assessment of the reference level of development of a counseling psychologist of professionally important abilities and skills, we found that respondents are convinced that these abilities and skills should have a very high level of development. the prospect of further research is the comparison of real professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling psychologist with the reference, as well as the study of the reference level of development of a counseling psychologist of professionally important qualities. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 376 references anderson, t., crowley, m. e., himawan, l., holmberg, j. k., & uhlin, b. d. (2015). therapist facilitative interpersonal skills and training status: a randomized clinical trial on alliance and outcome. psychotherapy research, advance online publication. doi:10.1080/10503307.2015.1049671 bachmanova n. f., stafurina n. l., (1985) k voprosu o professional'nykh sposobnostyakh psikhologa // sovremennyye psikhologo-pedagogicheskiye problemy vysshey shkoly [to the question of the professional abilities of a psychologist // modern psychological and pedagogical problems of higher education]. l., issue 5.p. 76 bertisch meir, r. (2005). adopt a psychologist. american psychological association. international psychology reporter. washington, dc. bozadzhiyev v.l., (2010) professional'nyye sposobnosti psikhologa // sovremennyye naukoyemkiye tekhnologii [professional abilities of a psychologist // modern high technologies]. no. 7. p. 293-294 url: http://www.toptechnologies.ru/ru/article/view?id=25140 (date of the application: 10.12.2020). duncan, b. l., miller, s. d., wampold, b. e., & hubble, m. a. (eds.). (2010). the heart and soul of change: delivering what works in therapy (2nd ed.). american psychological association. https://doi.org/10.1037/12075-000 ford, d. y., harris, j. j., & schuerger, j. m. (1993). racial identity development among gifted black students: counseling issues and concerns. journal of counseling & development, 71(4), 409–417. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.15566676.1993.tb02657.x foster, f.d. and viswanathan, s. (1996), strategic trading when agents forecast the forecasts of others. the journal of finance, 51: 14371478. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1996.tb04075.x gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11 (4), 345-361. http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604 /pdf kashapov, m. m., (2018) psikhologicheskoye konsul'tirovaniye: uchebnik i praktikum dlya akademicheskogo bakalavriata [psychological counseling: textbook and workshop for an academic bachelor's degree] / m.m. kashapov. 2nd edition, revised and supplemented. moscow: yurayt publishing house, 157 p. (bachelor. academic course). isbn 978-5-534-06554-1. text: electronic // ebs yurayt [site].url: https://doi.org/10.1037/12075-000 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1993.tb02657.x https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1993.tb02657.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1996.tb04075.x http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling … olena tsilmak, et al. 377 https://studme.org/118988/psihologiya/konsultatsionnaya_rabota_psihol oga kochyunas r. (1999) osnovy psikhologicheskogo konsul'tirovaniya [fundamentals of psychological counseling]. m.: "academic project", 240 p.url: http://psylib.org.ua/books/kociu01/txt00.htm kozlov n.i. (2013) navyki psikhologa-konsul'tanta, sinton-podkhod [skills of a counseling psychologist, synthon approach]. url: https://www.psychologos.ru/articles/view/navyki-psihologakonsultantazpt-sinton-podhod kristin m. vespia & eric m. sauer (2006) defining characteristic or unrealistic ideal: historical and contemporary perspectives on scientist-practitioner training in counselling psychology, counselling psychology quarterly, 19:3, 229-251, doi: 10.1080/09515070600960449 kristin m. vespia (2006) integrating professional identities: counselling psychologist, scientist-practitioner and undergraduate educator, counselling psychology quarterly, 19:3, 265280, doi: 10.1080/095150706009605554 lukashevich v.v., pronina e.n.(1999) psikhologiya lichnosti [psychology of personality]: textbook for the course "psychology and pedagogy" m: moscow state university of food production, 188 p. 300 copiesurl: http://www.hi-edu.ru/e-books/xbook667/01/about.htm maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51 (1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf mileryan e. a., (1973) psikhologiya formirovaniya obshchetrudovykh politekhnicheskikh umeniy [psychology of the formation of general labor polytechnic skills] / e.a. mileryan. moscow: pedagogika, 299 p. https://studme.org/118988/psihologiya/konsultatsionnaya_rabota_psihologa https://studme.org/118988/psihologiya/konsultatsionnaya_rabota_psihologa http://psylib.org.ua/books/kociu01/txt00.htm https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070600960449 https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070600960555 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 378 nelson-jones r. (2001) teoriya i praktika konsul'tirovaniya [theory and practice of counseling]. spb .: piter, 2001. 464 p .: illustrations (series "golden fund of psychotherapy"). url: http://cl.rushkolnik.ru/navigate/7840/index53148.html nemov r. s. (2001) psikhologicheskoye konsul'tirovaniye [psychological counseling: textbook for universities]. m.: humanitarian publishing center vlados, 528 p.url: https://www.klex.ru/3a0 nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020a). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/ 2625 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020b). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 novotney a. (2013) the therapist effect // monitor on psychology. february 2013. vol. 44.№2. p-48. onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 podlasy i.p., (2004) pedagogika: 100 voprosov 100 otvetov [pedagogy: 100 questions 100 answers: textbook]. manual for universities / i.p. podlasy. moscow: vlados-press, 365 p.url: http://pedlib.ru/books/1/0221/index.shtml schneider l.b., (2003) posobiye po psikhologicheskomu konsul'tirovaniyu [a guide to psychological counseling]. m .: os-89, 272s. –17 pp.url: https://studfile.net/preview/2626965/ sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://cl.rushkolnik.ru/navigate/7840/index-53148.html http://cl.rushkolnik.ru/navigate/7840/index-53148.html https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 classification of professionally important abilities and skills of a counseling … olena tsilmak, et al. 379 socio-pedagogical dictionary (2016) burmistrova m.n., vasilyeva l.l., petrova l.yu., kashcheeva a.v. and others. url: http://elibrary.sgu.ru/uch_lit/505.pdf tarasova e. v., & cheremukhin a. d. (2017) professional'no vazhnyye kachestva lichnosti psikhologov-konsul'tantov kak prediktory zhiznesposobnosti professionala [professionally important personality traits of counseling psychologists as predictors of professional viability]. bulletin of the adyghe state university. series 3: pedagogy and psychology, (2 (198)). url: http://case.asu.ru/files/form_312-36981.pdf tolstaya s., (2015) effektivnyy psikholog-konsul'tant: model' lichnosti [effective counselor psychologist: a personality model]. / s. tolstaya. // studia universitatis moldaviae. 2015. stria “stiinte ale educatiei”. p. 183-193 / doi: 10.7256/2409-8736.2015.1.13878. zyabreva a.a., (2018) professional'no vazhnyye kachestva psikhologa-konsul'tanta: postanovka problemy./ eksperimental'nyye i teoreticheskiye issledovaniya v sovremennoy nauke: problemy, puti resheniya [professionally important qualities of a consultant psychologist: problem statement. / experimental and theoretical research in modern science: problems, solutions]: materials of the xvi all-russian scientific and practical conference: in 3 parts. s. 212216. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 88-103 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/172 developing students' psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme coaching situations oksana khurtenko¹, anatolii shuldyk 2 , maya zubal 3 , iryna raytarovska 4 , alla senyk 5 , kseniia bereziak 6 1 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, kseniaxyrtenko@gmail.com 2 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, shuldikav@meta.ua 3 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national universiti, kamianets-podilskyi, ukraine, zubal@kpnu.edu.ua 4 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, kamianets-podilskyi, ukraine, skaraita@gmail.com 5 west ukrainian national university, ternopil, ukraine, allisiya@gmail.com 6 lviv state university of life safety, lviv, ukraine xmber@meta.ua abstract: most prospective coaches are not fully ready to manage sports teams under extreme conditions and cannot make quick decisions in difficult situations. the article aims to develop students’ psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme coaching situations. the formative experiment involved 50 students (25 respondents in the experimental group; 25 respondents in the control group). it became possible to develop operational readiness in prospective coaches by conducting special classes on the development of decision-making skills, self-reflection, self-regulation (theoretical classes and a set of exercises aimed at developing the necessary qualities). the final stage of the experiment shows that the number of eg students with a high level of anxiety has decreased by 16%. at the same time, the expert assessment shows that their capacity for selfregulation in extremely competitive situations has increased by 20%. the group of students’ leading motives includes the following: to achieve the set goals; to win; to enjoy the team’s victory; to prove oneself and test one’s abilities as a coach in extreme situations. in extreme professional situations, the leading motives behind coaches’ decisions involve achieving the set goals and enjoying the team’s victory. there were no significant differences in decision-making motivation among students (both males and females). however, almost every third student has a low level of motivation for competition. keywords: prospective coaches; managing sports team; self-reflection; self-regulation; motives behind decisions; team’s victory. how to cite: khurtenko, o., shuldyk, a., zubal, m., raytarovska, i., senyk, a., & bereziak, k. (2021). developing students' psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme coaching situations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 88-103. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/172 mailto:kseniaxyrtenko@gmail.com mailto:shuldikav@meta.ua mailto:zubal@kpnu.edu.ua mailto:skaraita@gmail.com mailto:allisiya@gmail.com mailto:xmber@meta.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/172 developing students' psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme … oksana khurtenko, et al. 89 introduction many researchers have already studied psychological readiness of individuals for various activities in extreme conditions, scientists and revealed its structure, mechanisms and improvement pathways (bakhmat, et al., 2019; bezliudnyi, kravchenko, maksymchuk, mishchenko, & maksymchuk, 2019; chamata, 1960; diachenko & kandybovich, 1981; kandybovich, 2000; levitov, 1963; tomchuk, 2003). apart from studies by volianiuk (2006) and prokhorova (1998), a particular issue of coaches’ psychological readiness to organize sports activities has not been covered properly. nowadays, there is no research aimed at developing the psychological readiness of students (prospective coaches) and physical education teachers to make management decisions in extreme sport-related situations. the factors determining the extremity of coach’s activities are as follows: 1) sudden and unexpected occurrence and the manifestation of extreme situations during competitions; 2) disruption of normal life, a certain threat to health (injuries, health deterioration); 3) unusual and new situations during competitions, which were caused by the opponent; 4) uncertainty about the opponent’s behaviour and tactics; 5) excessive or inadequate information about the opponent’s behaviour; 6) high dynamics of competitions and lack of time to assess situations, make decisions and act accordingly; 7) coach’s high social responsibility for the results of competitions; 8) coach’s discomfort of certain restrictions during competitions. currently, various psychological schools are actively developing special techniques and training programmes on personality development (belova, 2004; halaidiuk, et al., 2018; maksymchuk, et al., 2018). however, it was american psychotherapist f. t. melges (1982) who developed the first most thorough programme of this type. melges (1982) actively used the future mode in contrast to the representatives of psychoanalytic and existentially humanistic areas, who mainly employ the categories of the past and the present when working with patients. he claimed that the future actively influenced the present and, therefore, developed psychotherapy focused on the reconstruction of the future. his psychotherapy is based mostly on the principles of futurization and temporal organization. he understood self-futurization as the visualization of future opportunities and transfer of expected pictures of the future into the psychological present of the individual. at the same time, a temporal organization can be corrected using feedback, connections with images with brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 90 the past, use of available environmental factors to remind about the images of the future, rehearsals of the future (rather close and distant). rehearsals of the future are carried out with the help of role-playing games or psychodrama of the future. one can also use the methods of active imagination in the professional development of prospective coaches, given an important role of images of the desired future and specific mechanisms of advanced regulation of life. constructing detailed images of one’s future and oneself as a specialist is considered to be one of the modern approaches to stimulating professionalization (belova, 2004). the use of self-futurization has some positive effect on the stages of professional training of prospective coaches in higher education institutions (heis). an independent inclusion of individuals in the professional space involves correcting professional ideas, assessing one’s capabilities and taking into account the compliance of one’s professional activities with personal interests (virna, 2003; poviakel, 2003; semychenko, 1992; maksymchuk, et al., 2020; melnyk, et al., 2019; sitovskyi, et al., 2019). if this inclusion is rather passive, it can lead to the distortion of professional ideas; the prevalence of pragmatic values over self-realization, as well as the development of various psychological defences (the devaluation of the profession, the transfer of interests to the sphere of non-professional activities and even students’ refusal to follow the chosen career path). the well-developed mechanisms of reflection and mental selfregulation are necessary for coaches’ successful decision-making in extreme situations. mental self-regulation implies coaches’ ability to manage mental states (anxiety, aggression, frustration) and resistance to various obstacles during competitions. it is important to note that the development of reflection, self-awareness and self-regulation mechanisms are one of the most important aspects in modern psychology of activity under special conditions. materials & methods research methods include the following: theoretical methods: comparison, analysis and generalization of the relevant psycho-pedagogical literature on professional training of prospective coaches; modelling used to justify theoretical approaches to the problem of one’s psychological readiness to work under extreme conditions; empirical methods: observations, oral and written surveys (conversations, interviews, developing students' psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme … oksana khurtenko, et al. 91 questionnaires), testing (eizenko’s self-assessment tests on mental states; milman’s tests on motivation and mental reliability in sports; spielbergerkhanin’s test on personal anxiety; tests on decision-making in extreme situations), experiment (ascertaining and formative stages), analysis of sports situations and expert assessment methods used to study the dynamics in the development of students’ psychological readiness to make decisions under extreme coaching conditions; mathematical methods, correlation analysis and methods for checking the reliability of differences in the studied indicators used to process, analyze and interpret the obtained results. the objects of the formative psychological influence are chosen the following: mental and personal characteristics of students who deviate from a model of a successful coach and makes effective decisions in extreme managerial situations. given this, the guideline for developing a professional coach is a certain norm, a system of indicators describing a fairly high level of cognitive, motivational and operational components of one’s psychological readiness to work in non-standard situations. it is possible to implement the formative experiment on the development and correction of certain indicators of this readiness only through the use of personalityoriented technologies of professional development. they include special classes on the development and self-development of psychological indicators inherent in a high level of such readiness; technologies for developing psychological competency in prospective coaches; designing and analyzing alternative scenarios, situations and algorithms of one’s professional behaviour in extreme situations; personality-oriented training sessions aimed at improving students’ professional psycho-pedagogical competency. it is important to note that the authors of the article monitored the process of students’ professionalization during all the stages of the experiment on the development of the qualities they will need in their future professional activities. such monitoring lies in tracking the development of empirical indicators of psychological readiness in prospective coaches. it has made it possible to identify and record results that are both positive and negative. thus, students have found out about their personality strengths or weaknesses and, subsequently, launched the processes of self-regulation, self-correction and self-reflection. one of the stages of the formative experiment implies using the selffuturization technique in professional coaching (volianiuk, 2006), as well as the methods for constructing students’ behaviour in extreme situations in the future. this technique allows one to actualize one’s activity in the construction and implementation of possible professional situations, events since the image of the desired future and individual acts of coaches’ brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 92 behaviour act as a stimulus for self-development and self-realization. the use of such technologies in professional training requires that students should make significant efforts to master this technique and restructure both professional self-awareness and consciousness in general. future activities and behaviour under extreme professional conditions were designed using the following procedures: interpreting emotional states, levels of experience; reconsidering past decisions; planning temporal organization of future extreme activities; practising in decisionmaking in similar situations with the help of role-playing elements. the programme of subject-oriented psychological development of futuristic skills and abilities is based on the experience of organizing psychological-technological activities aimed at shaping and designing professional intelligence in the search for adequate ways to solve the existing problems (badalova, 2003); active socio-psychological training in groups following the system of relevant methods (discussion, role-playing games) (yatsenko, 2004); the cultivation of semantic attitudes and values-based orientations towards innovative activity (bocheliuk, 2004). this programme consists of three stages and is aimed at expanding and enriching students’ professional self-awareness; creating the self-concept of a professional coach”; acquainting students with the basic life strategies: well-being, success, self-realization; motivating students to reconsider their views, concepts and understanding of a professional plan (volianiuk, 2006). the experiment also used the techniques facilitating the development of special skills and abilities, such as psychological competency (selfregulation, self-reflection, resistance to psychogenic factors and obstacles during competitions). in general, the formative experiment meant solving many problems, including the development of reflexive abilities, a meaningful analysis of coaches’ activities in extreme professional situations, the search for optimal solutions, the use of personal reserves, the promotion of the necessary professional characteristics, self-regulation, self-reflection. the experiment involved 50 third-year students (25 respondents  the experimental group (eg), which was divided into two subgroups of 12 and 13 respondents; 25 respondents  the control group (cg)). it was conducted during the academic year. it must be noted that the experimenters have chosen thirdyear students since they tend to demonstrate a certain decrease in the development level of most indicators of such psychological readiness. besides, third-year and fourth-year students, to a greater extent than younger students, study special sports courses, methods for conducting various developing students' psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme … oksana khurtenko, et al. 93 classes, competitions, which, together with experimental influence, has had a positive effect on their professional development. the eg students had the opportunity to correlate themselves and their capabilities with a variety of non-standard conditions, situations and determine solutions and their behaviour. the experimental verification of the programme for developing students’ psychological readiness for decision-making in extreme situations consisted of three stages. the first stage was preparatory. it involved compiling a data bank of specific extreme situations in professional activities. they were used during the organization of group analysis and discussions. also, it was essential to develop relevant methodologies to identify students’ level of psychological readiness to creatively solve extreme professional situations. they were employed at the beginning and end of the formative experiment. the second stage of the experiment was psychodiagnostic. it made it possible to determine the levels of professional readiness to solve professional problems in both the cg and eg students, as well as their characteristics related to the factors in the development of a certain level of psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme professional situations. the third stage is the formative experiment. it lies in studying the effectiveness of specially organized psycho-pedagogical influence aimed at increasing the level of students’ psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme coaching situations. it was essential to develop students’ professionally significant personality traits determining their psychological readiness to creatively resolve extreme situations within the developed psycho-pedagogical programme. the latter includes the following: measures aimed at developing and improving the motivational and cognitive component of such psychological readiness: theoretical classes conducted to deepen the knowledge about the management theory, psychopedagogical principles of team management in extreme activities, selffuturization psychotechnics, simulation of coaching activities in extreme situations, special seminars on the psychology of activities under difficult professional conditions, analysis of real sports situations, discussions on the algorithms of effective coaching activities under non-standard conditions; measures directed at developing the operational component of psychological readiness to make decisions under extreme conditions of sports activities: 1) practical classes conducted to develop students’ managerial skills in extreme situations to clarify the necessary tasks; choosing priority goals; assessing the situation, making logical management decisions; planning and setting appropriate tasks for subordinates; stimulating and brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 94 organizing subordinates’ activities under different conditions; controlling and correcting their performance; individual counselling; 2) role-playing management games with a wide range of management tasks and initiative to perform roles (the above-mentioned classes were conducted in the form of group discussions and “brainstorming” to resolve specific extreme sports situations with their subsequent discussion); 3) analyzing the bank of extreme situations typical for coaching activities; 4) socio-psychological training sessions on the development of mental self-regulation; 5) measures aimed at intensifying students’ independent work in terms of shaping and developing the skills needed to solve problems in the context of coaching activities under extreme conditions (they were organized together with psychologists and university teachers). consultations are an integral part of individual work with students. the authors of the article organized consultations in the form of a dialogue. in this case, they understand such interaction as the outwardly expressed equality of positions and internal content of both the psychologist and the listener. on the one hand, it was important not to put pressure on the listener and force them to make contact. on the other hand, it was vital for the authors of the article to adequately assess themselves, their psychological readiness for such dialogues and developed the corresponding skills. moreover, their activity implies that we were psychologically open to eg students (after removing their psychological defences and striving for natural behaviour). finally, they tried to be active during conversations: asking questions, creating permissible communicative provocations, denying or agreeing, admiring or expressing negative assessments. during the consultations, the authors of the article attempted to build their work in such a way that the responsibility was bilateral. from their side, this responsibility was measured by professional knowledge and experience, as well as a serious attitude towards psychological counselling. they encouraged students to feel responsible for the outcomes of these consultations and be willing to make some effort to resolve or regulate problematic situations. the leading principle of psychological counselling is considered to be the idea that the student must be internally ready to speak with a psychologist. therefore, it is undesirable to insist on consultations if the listener refuses to do so. if, after collecting preliminary socio-psychological information about the student, the authors of the article saw the need for consultations, they used their right to organize a consultation for some particular students. developing students' psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme … oksana khurtenko, et al. 95 influence measurements can be of various types: interpretation providing a new vision of the situation based on theories or personal experience of a psychologist; directive recommendations; self-disclosure; feedback; a logical sequence; an influential summary; open and closed questions; the reflection of feelings; resumes. the directed influence during individual psychological work is also implemented by such techniques as the reference to authority (familiar coaches and sportsmen), the appeal to literary sources, the reference to scientific data. besides, one needs to rely on the facts of everyday life. the authors of the article employed different interaction schemes, including 1) the interaction on equal terms  the best option in individual counselling, which means achieving congruence and compliance with the listener; 2) the interaction from the “top” position when one imposes one’s point of view on the listener; 3) the interaction from the “bottom” position when the listener imposes their point of view and openly tries to manipulate. total time of individual psychological work with one student amounts to 915 classes conducted once or twice a week. one class lasts from 1 to 1.5 hours. besides, individual psychological work consists of three stages (initial, main, final), each of which has its specific goals and specific means of achieving it. the initial stage lies in establishing emotional contact with students. its goals are as follows: to create stable relations between them and the psychologist for further effective work; to realize interpersonal problems, as well as problems in mastering the future profession and taking actions in extreme coaching situations. the main task of this stage is to establish emotional contact with students with average and low levels of psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme sports situations. the initial stage of individual psychological work with students includes 1-2 classes. during it, the authors of the article managed to collect the maximum information about each listener, their needs and interests, values and life orientations, professional awareness. also, they used the following techniques: empathic and active listening, invaluable acceptance, adjustment. the main stage implies psychological education of students and cultivation of their interest in the profession. the main tasks of this stage are as follows: to ensure psychological education of students; to identify the motives for behind the desire to become physical education teachers, coaches; to reorient them towards a personal state and behaviour; to simulate problematic situations and search for the optimal ways to solve brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 96 them; to encourage them to understand their needs to make effective decisions in extreme situations. the second stage lasts 3-5 classes. the final stage means consolidating students’ ability to constructively solve professional problems. its goals are the following: to analyze goals, select the patterns of behaviour and develop an ability to change them; to consolidate students’ ability to constructively solve problems which may occur during the performance of their professional duties by coaches; to change themselves positively. in general, the methodology of the formative experiment involved parallel activities with students, both individual and group ones. group work involved special classes (lectures, seminars) aimed at deepening students’ knowledge about the management theory, psychopedagogical principles of team management in extreme activities, selffuturization psychotechnics, simulation of coaching activities in extreme situations, analysis of real sports situations, discussions on the algorithms of effective coaching activities under non-standard conditions; practical classes aimed at developing students’ managerial skills in extreme situations; roleplaying (discussions, brainstorming) so that they can resolve specific extreme sports situations and discuss them; analysis of extreme situations typical for coaching activities; socio-psychological training sessions on the development of the skills needed to solve problems in the context of coaching activities. such work has provided students with the opportunity to master new concepts and terms of professional interaction, familiarize themselves with the rational ways of solving professional situations and acquire skills of effective professional communication within a sports team. the planned group work of developing psychological readiness for professional coaching activities also included group psychocorrection. group psychocorrection differs from the individual one in that it is characterized by the group effect ensured by the integration of relations in the group. in turn, group integration allows one to reach the deep levels of positive disintegration of the subject’s personal structure. the group effect is manifested imitation when the self-disclosure of some members of the group initiates the self-disclosure of others. it plays an essential role in group psycho-correctional work with students. after all, students can learn not only from their experience but also from the experience of their colleagues by developing the ability to analyze group material. in this case, one launches the mechanisms of imitation, identification and catharsis creating a special professional environment. the integration of the training group has helped the participants to reduce anxiety, tension and feelings of psychological threat. however, such integration played only a supporting role concerning developing students' psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme … oksana khurtenko, et al. 97 the goals of psychoprophylaxis and psychocorrection, and positive disintegration was directly related to personal changes in the participants. it must be noted that individual participants dealt with the problems of personal and professional identification, power and influence of people on each other, their goals and needs, mutual friendship and closeness throughout the whole cycle of the group’s development. professional identification is an integral part of one’s professional identity. it involves the adoption of leading professional roles, values and norms, as well as the presence of motivational structures encouraging one towards effective practice. at the same time, underdeveloped professional identification, despite a high level of theoretical training and practical skills, does not allow the specialist to feel confident when performing professional functions since it causes the mechanisms of psychological protection, which significantly interfere with the case. one should pay special attention to the organization of various types of socio-psychological training sessions with higher education students to enable the psycho-correction of each individual and their behaviour in extreme situations, as well as teach them complex types of professional activities. the contribution of such activities to solving the problems of the subject’s professional development consists of careful development and multilateral verification of their various forms. the most common forms of professional training sessions in psychology are 1) functional sessions  training mental processes and functions; 2) perceptual sessions  increasing the adequacy and multimodality of professional perception; intellectual sessions  developing creativity and strategic thinking; special sessions  developing professionally significant skills; reflexive sessions  developing a problematic vision of oneself, one’s activities; elaborating various forms and levels of a reflexive attitude towards the profession. results the results of the experiment show that 80% of eg students noted a positive effect on their knowledge, views on the content of professional coaching activities and the qualities needed to make decisions in extreme situations. relevant experts confirmed these changes in students. also, their motivation has changed rather positively, compared to cg since their views and attitudes towards coaching activities became more realistic. one can also observe more significant changes in all indicators of the operational component of psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme coaching conditions in eg compared to cg. indeed, eg students brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 98 demonstrate statistically significant differences at the final stage of the formative experiment (at p<0.01) in the following indicators: 1) ability to self-regulate behaviour and mental states  1emp1=3.983; 2) ability to act quickly and make decisions ”  1emp2=4.748; 3) ability to manage a sports team  1emp3=3.264; 4) ability to comprehend complicated situations creatively  1emp4=3.418; 5) ability to anticipate the consequences of decisions  1emp5=5.911; 6) speed, productivity and flexible thinking  1emp6-6.719. the formative experiment has had a positive effect on the development of eg students’ skills of mental self-regulation and behaviour under difficult conditions, as can be seen from tables 1 and 2. table1. the features of changes in the indicators of mental reliability of eg students and cg during the formative experiment, % groups of students indicators of mental reliability stages of the experiment levels of manifestations low average high cg competitive emotional and volitional stability start 76.0 24.0 0 finish 72.0 24.0 4.0 self-regulation start 44.0 36.0 20.0 finish 36.0 40.0 24.0 stability interference immunity start 32.0 68.0 0 finish 28.0 72.0 0 eg competitive emotional and volitional stability start 80.0 20.0 0 finish 32.0 48.0 20.0 self-regulation start 48.0 36.0 16.0 finish 20.0 44.0 36.0 stability interference immunity start 28.0 72.0 0.0 finish 24.0 48.0 28.0 developing students' psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme … oksana khurtenko, et al. 99 table 2. the manifestations of anxiety and aggression in eg and cg students in extreme situations (according to eizenko’s methodology), % groups stages anxiety levels of aggression no yes low average high cg start 40.0 56.0 16.0 56.0 28.0 finish 44.0 52.0 16.0 60.0 24.0 eg start 40.0 60.0 20.0 56.0 24.0 finish 56.0 44.0 40.0 52.0 8.0 compared to cg, eg students have improved their resistance to various obstacles in sports, as well as their ability to manage emotional states in extreme situations. relevant experts have also confirmed positive changes in these indicators in eg at the beginning and end of the experiment. finally, the formative experiment indicates a significant decrease in the level of students’ destructive mental states manifested in extreme coaching situations. the levels of anxiety and aggression in eg students have decreased significantly (see table 2). discussion & conclusions the scientific value of the obtained results is as follows: for the first time, the structure of prospective coaches’ psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme professional situations has been offered; the content of its components has been determined and the programme for developing such readiness in prospective coaches has been developed; the psychological features of coaching in extreme conditions, as well as the factors and levels of students’ psychological readiness for this activity, have been specified; the techniques and means of increasing the level of motivational, cognitive and operational readiness have been further developed; a set of relevant psychodiagnostic techniques has been arranged. regarding the practical value, the obtained results can be used by university teachers, psychologists and coaches to implement optimal support for professional training of prospective coaches, athletes. professional coaching includes extreme situations requiring prospective coaches to comprehend them creatively, make prompt decisions and have a capacity for mental self-regulation. the model of psychological readiness for decision-making in extreme situations consists of motivational, cognitive and operational components. such aspects as high dynamics of activity, uncertainty concerning the opponent’s behaviour, the lack of the brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 100 necessary information and high social responsibility constitute the development level of one’s psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme conditions. the article studies the motivation structure of students (years 1-4) and teachers motivating them to make decisions in extreme situations. the group of students' leading motives includes the following: to achieve the set goals; to win; to enjoy the team's victory; to prove oneself and test one's abilities as a coach in extreme situations. in extreme professional situations, the leading motives behind coaches' decisions involve achieving the set goals and enjoying the team's victory. there were no significant differences in decision-making motivation among students (both males and females). however, almost every third student has a low level of motivation for competition. concerning the structure of cognitive readiness, prospective coaches still have somewhat vague knowledge about the role of reflection and lack theoretical and methodological knowledge about decision-making under non-standard conditions. they do not know how to assess their professional capabilities as a coach. according to relevant experts, the level of their professional knowledge is between 3 and 4 points on a five-point scale. besides, the article proves that students (years 1-4) demonstrate low levels of the operational component of psychological readiness to make decisions under professional conditions. it is manifested in their inability to make managerial and operational decisions in extreme situations, low emotional and volitional resistance to overcome destructive mental states, obstacles and the lack of mental self-regulation skills. a high level of personal anxiety is inherent in the average of every third and aggression  in every fourth student. the programme developed and verified during the formative experiment is aimed at raising students’ awareness of the social significance of coaching, providing them with professionally important information, boosting their motivation and explaining them a system of adequate knowledge about professional activities in extreme situations. it must be noted that the operational readiness of prospective coaches was developed by conducting special classes on the development of decision-making skills, self-reflection, self-regulation (theoretical classes and a set of exercises aimed at developing the necessary professional qualities). compared to the beginning of the research, the number of eg students with a high level of anxiety has decreased by 16% and their capacity for selfregulation in extreme situations has increased by 20% at the final stage of the research. developing students' psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme … oksana khurtenko, et al. 101 future research should study the psychology of one’s readiness for decision-making in extreme coaching situations. the possible areas of study are the following: the influence of one’s typological traits on the success of the specified activity; the specified readiness of coaches in various kinds of sports; the dynamics of such readiness during further professionalization of university graduates. references badalova, m. v. (2003). trening intellektualnykh navykov konsultirovaniia: prakticheskoe rukovodstvo [developing intellectual consulting skills: a practical guide]. sevastopol: strizhak press. http://www.georgyball.com/methodolg/badalova/badalova.htm bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13231332. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf belova, d. e. (2004). smyslovoe budushchee v kontekste professionalnogo samoopredeleniia studentov-psikhologov [the semantic future in the context of psychology students’ professional self-determination of]. (abstract of phd thesis). ural state university, ekaterinburg. https://www.dissercat.com/content/smyslovoe-budushchee-v-konteksteprofessionalnogo-samoopredeleniya-studentov-psikhologov bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 15851590. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 bocheliuk, v. y. (2004). psykholohichni zasady hotovnosti uchasnykiv osvitnoi diialnosti do upravlinnia innovatsiinymy protsesamy v shkoli [the psychological principles of readiness of the participants in the educational activity for innovative processes management at school]. (abstract of postdoctoral thesis). h. s. kostiuk institute of psychology of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv. http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichni-zasady-hotovnostiuchasnykiv-osvitnoyi-dialnosti-do-upravlinnja.html chamata, p. r. (1960). psikhologicheskaia gotovnost detei k trudu i osnovnye puti ee formirovaniia [psychological readiness of children for labour and the main ways of its development]. soviet pedagogy, 4, 23–31. https://dnpb.gov.ua/ua/ http://www.georgyball.com/methodolg/badalova/badalova.htm http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf https://www.dissercat.com/content/smyslovoe-budushchee-v-kontekste-professionalnogo-samoopredeleniya-studentov-psikhologov https://www.dissercat.com/content/smyslovoe-budushchee-v-kontekste-professionalnogo-samoopredeleniya-studentov-psikhologov https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichni-zasady-hotovnosti-uchasnykiv-osvitnoyi-dialnosti-do-upravlinnja.html http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichni-zasady-hotovnosti-uchasnykiv-osvitnoyi-dialnosti-do-upravlinnja.html https://dnpb.gov.ua/ua/ brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 102 diachenko, m. i., & kandybovich, l. a., & kandybovich, s. l. (1981). psikhologiia vysshei shkoly [the psychology of higher education]. minsk: bgu. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1023406/ halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r. … maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284– 2291. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 kandybovich, s. l. (2000). psikhologo-akmeologicheskie osnovy upravlencheskoi deiatelnosti komandira voisk radiatsionnoi, khimicheskoi i biologicheskoi zashchity [psychological and acmeological principles of managerial activities of the commander of troops of radiation, chemical and biological protection]. (postdoctoral thesis). russian academy of public administration under the president of the russian federation, moscow. https://elar.urfu.ru/handle/10995/439?locale=en levitov, n. d. (1963). psikhologiia truda [the psychology of labour]. moscow: uchpedgiz. http://www.manybooks.org/auth/3956/book/11506/levitov_nd/psihologiya_truda/read maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., … maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i. … savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 melges, f. t. (1982). time and inner future: a temporal approach to psychiatric disorders. john wiley & sons. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m poviakel, n. i. (2003). kharakterystyka ya-kontseptsii yak chynnyka produktyvnosti samorehuliatsii profesiinoho myslennia u vyrishenni konfliktiv [describing self-concept as a factor in the productivity of professional thinking selfregulation in conflict resolution]. relevant problems of psychology, 1(10), 43–47. prokhorova, m. v. (1998). problema pedagogicheskoi kompetentnosti i otsenka vospitatelnoi deiatelnosti trenera [the problem of pedagogical competency https://www.twirpx.com/file/1023406/ https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 https://elar.urfu.ru/handle/10995/439?locale=en http://www.many-books.org/auth/3956/book/11506/levitov_nd/psihologiya_truda/read http://www.many-books.org/auth/3956/book/11506/levitov_nd/psihologiya_truda/read https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m developing students' psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme … oksana khurtenko, et al. 103 and assessment of the coach’s educational activities]. the optimization of pedagogical training of physical education students, sh, 13–18. semychenko, v. a. (1992). kontseptsyia tselostnosty y ee realyzatsyia v professyonalnoi podhotovke budushchykh uchytelei (psykholoho-pedahohycheskyi aspekt) [the concept of integrity and its implementation in professional training of prospective teachers (the psycho-pedagogical aspect)]. (abstract of postdoctoral thesis). m. p. drahomanov kyiv state pedagogical institute, kyiv. sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532–1543. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03222 tomchuk, m. i. (2003). psykholohichna hotovnist osobystosti do pravookhoronnoi diialnosti [psychological readiness for law enforcement activity]. polihrafist. virna, zh. p. (2003). motyvatsiino-smyslova rehuliatsiia u profesionalizatsii psykholoha [the motivational and semantic regulation in professionalization of a psychologist]. vezha. volianiuk, n. yu. (2006). psykholohiia profesiinoho stanovlennia trenera [the psychology of the coach’s professional development]. volynska oblasna drukarnia. yatsenko, t. s. (2004). teoriia i praktyka hrupovoi psykhokorektsii: aktyvne sotsialnopsykholohichne navchannia [the theory and practice of group psychocorrection: active socio-psychological learning]. vyshcha shkola. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03222 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 173-187 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/275 innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect victor reshetnyak¹, olena popadych2, nataliia korchakova3, olha shyshova4, dina shulzhenko5, viktoriia sichka6 1 oleksandr dovzhenko hlukhiv national pedagogical university, ukraine, reshetnyakvf@gmail.com 2 department of general and higher education pedagogy, faculty of social sciences, uzhhorod national university, ukraine, olena.popadych@uzhnu.edu.ua 3 rivne state university of humanities, ukraine, nataliia.korchakova@rshu.edu.ua 4 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, opavlenko2008@ukr.net 5 national pedagogical drahomanov university, ukraine, dinashulzhenko@gmail.com 6 zakarpattia institute of postgraduate pedagogical education, ukraine, viktoriasichka7@gmail.com abstract: the article is devoted to the influence of neuropsychology on the modern student. the concepts of "neuropsychology" and "neuropsychological research", research and publications of domestic and foreign scientists on the development of neuropsychology and the use of methods that improve the work of the right and left hemispheres of the brain are considered in the article. the scientific potential of neuropsychology is indicated. attention is drawn to the views of scientists who studied the neuropsychology of childhood. it has been found that there are many more books and periodicals in foreign literature that contain information on neuropsychology. a foreign project aimed at studying the brain is covered. it is emphasized that in modern educational institutions in spain, teachers pay special attention to the neuropsychological characteristics of each child. emphasis is placed on the difficulties of primary school children who need neuropsychological care. the focus is on the features of functional blocks of the brain and their mutual development. emphasis is placed on the need to use health-preserving and play technologies in the organization of the educational process for teachers working on the concept of the "new ukrainian school". the effectiveness of kinesiological exercises for brain function, which contribute to the harmonious development of personality, has been proven. the significance of moving activities for the body of a child of primary school age is revealed. the powerful influence of means of musical and fine arts which help to develop visual perception, difficult spatial abilities, visual attention, memory, verbal and visual-motor skills on overcoming of neuropsychological frustration is proved. a block of neuropsychological exercises to activate the brain is presented. samples of corrective exercises are highlighted: breathing exercises, massage, oculomotor exercises. keywords: neuropsychology, higher psychological functions, kinesiological exercises, junior high school student, game, art therapy. how to cite: reshetnyak, v., popadych, o., korchakova, n., shyshova, o., shulzhenko, d., & sichka, v. (2022). innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 173-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/275 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/275 mailto:reshetnyakvf@gmail.com mailto:olena.popadych@uzhnu.edu.ua mailto:nataliia.korchakova@rshu.edu.ua mailto:opavlenko2008@ukr.net mailto:dinashulzhenko@gmail.com mailto:viktoriasichka7@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/275 innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect victor reshetnyak, et al. 174 introduction according to the concept "new ukrainian school" now the priority in education should be personality-oriented learning, which aims to preserve the values of childhood, the need to humanize learning, personal approach, development of abilities of students, creating a modern educational environment that together provide psychological comfort and promote disclosure of children's creativity. of course, the child's feelings and emotions play an important role in the learning process, and interest, selfconfidence, job satisfaction are factors that increase motivation to learn. as known, a modern 6-year-old child gets tired quickly when doing monotonous work. in addition, every year in educational institutions there is an increase in children who need special and long-term psychological and pedagogical support, speech therapy. factors influencing the child's development include deteriorating socio-economic and environmental conditions, infections, alcohol and other harmful habits of parents, as well as an undifferentiated approach to learning, inflated educational requirements that outpace the pace of children`s brain development. currently, nus teachers are developing modern methods of teaching and working with children of primary school age. in addition, in their own experience, they feel the need in the importance to acquire knowledge exactly of neuropsychology, which will help teachers in the effective organization of educational activities. it should be noted that neuropsychology is a separate branch of psychological science and practice, which began to take shape on the border of psychology, medicine (neurology and neurosurgery) and physiology. it has its own subject and specific tasks that are transformed and expanded during its development (yatskiv, 2016). as known, the founder of neuropsychology is a psychologist o. luria, who worked in military hospitals, treated the wounded during world war ii. based on his own observations, the neuropsychologist identified new methods for studying disorders of higher mental functions in local brain lesions (luria, 2018). the term "higher mental functions" as a major factor in neuropsychology was introduced by l. vygotsky. in addition, lev semenovich singled out the elementary mental functions, which, in his opinion, arise in society, on the basis of elementary congenital functions. later, the psychologist asserted that elementary mental functions also brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 175 undergo qualitative changes in the process of social development (vygotsky, 1956). a neuropsychological examination is an examination of various mental processes (perception, attention, memory, speech, thinking, arbitrary movements and actions) followed by neuropsychological analysis of the data obtained. neuropsychological analysis is the study of neuropsychological syndromes regular combinations of disorders of mental functions in damage to various areas of the brain (cirkina, 2004). one of the sections of neuropsychology is childhood neuropsychology. it began its development in the 70-80's of the twentieth century thanks to o. luria`s student – e. semerytska (yatskiv, 2016). child neuropsychology a field in neuropsychology that studies the relationship of social functioning (behavior and learning) of the child with the formation of his/her mental functions and personality, with the development of normal brain and pathology, as well as a direction that explores the possibilities of using the acquired knowledge for correctional and developmental learning (glozman, 2009). the handbook of clinical child neuropsychology, which provides best practices for elucidating the causes of brain disorders and their effects on the behavior, emotions, and personality of children and adolescents (reynolds, 2000), deserves special attention. literature review: neuropsychological aspects an analysis of the literature that is dedicated to the concept of "neuropsychology" shows a large number of publications in regard with this research. in the manual, neuropsychologist j. glozman considers the concept of "thinking", analyzes in detail mental operations, offers a block of correctional and developmental exercises, advices, secrets for the development of thinking, memory improvement, attention, spatial imagery, speech, proves that children can be taught think independently and creatively (glozman, 2010). dr. david a. souse, an international consultant on neuropsychology, author of seven books published by corwin press, describes in detail the brain function of children with special needs, gifted children, separately analyzes the brain activity of the child during reading, mathematics. the most universal book is «the brain of leadership: effective strategies for modern schools», in which david a. souz proposes a new model of a holistic approach to educational leadership. this powerful guide provides innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect victor reshetnyak, et al. 176 information on understanding the differences in children's learning, characterizes the benefits of the right and left hemispheres, and proves that thinking plays an important role in solving problems and conflicts (david a. sousa, 2015). it is worth noting that the human brain is the most complex biological object (akhutyana, 2008). there are currently 2 global brain research programs in the world: the eu-funded «human brain project» involves hundreds of scientists from 135 institutes in 26 countries. this project aims to expand the capabilities of brain research to understand the human brain and its diseases to improve medicine and computing technology. it brings together neurologists, computer scientists and robotics engineers to create a unique infrastructure based on information and communication technology (ict) for brain research. a similar «brain initiative» project was launched in the united states of america (usa, 2020). an interesting strategy is brain-based learning (bbl) (authors e. jensen and d. kane), i.e. "learning strategy based on brain knowledge". this technology is based on a number of recent discoveries made by neurophysiologists, neurologists, neuropsychologists over the past 20-30 years. according to scientists, it’s possible to activate the brain when we take into account the following didactic principles: the teacher should remember that the brain can perform several activities, simultaneously perceive parts and the whole; information is stored in different parts of the brain and obtained in different ways; searching is the basis of brain activity; emotions affect memory and attention; intellectual development is improving when children interact. these didactic principles set the basic requirements for the teacher: motivation; use of different teaching methods, effective use of time in class; feedback teacher student (eric jensen, 2020). luria o. proposed a block diagram of ideas about the relationship of brain functions, their arrangement on a hierarchical principle, their relationship with the structures of the brain. according to the proposed theory, the brain can be divided into three interrelated structural and functional blocks: block i energetical (provides regulation of tone and vitality, so it acts as an accumulator of our behavior, satisfaction or dissatisfaction of needs the activity of "i want". in case of damage to this unit, the child is weak, tired quickly, emotionally and physically exhausted); block ii informational (visual, auditory, spatial perception, tactile brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 177 sensations. in case of damage to this block, the child develops poor speech, subject (visual acuity), auditory and spatial perception activities: "i can"; block iii – regulatory (activates active conscious mental activity, forms plans and programs of actions, monitors their implementation and regulates behavior. these are attention, understanding of the instruction, maintenance of the task, control over activity, and estimation of results activity: "i must"). each block is characterized by its structure and the role it plays in the implementation of mental functions. blocks are combined into so-called functional systems, which represent a complex dynamic, highly differentiated complex of chains located at different levels of the nervous system and involved in solving of various adaptive problems. о. luria (1965) believed that functional systems do not appear ready for the birth of a child and do not mature on their own, but are formed in the process of communication and objective activities of the child and are the material substrate of mental functions. thus, the various components of arbitrary mental activity are carried out with the obligatory participation of all brain blocks. dysfunction of any of the blocks is reflected in any mental activity, because it leads to a violation of its structure (rodnenok, 2013; melnyk, 2021; komogorova, 2021; melnyk, 2019; maksymchuk, 2020a; maksymchuk, 2020b). in the best schools in spain, educators are constantly acquainted with the latest research and development in the field of neuropsychology, as this is the basis that allows the use of innovative methods to improve the educational process and behavior of children. teachers believe that in the organization of the educational environment the main factor is motivation in learning. in order to get children interested, to make them want to learn, teachers systematically organize work "in pairs", "in groups", diversify classes with interesting games. educators believe that a child will feel capable and competent when he or she will be taught to control his or her own emotions (spain, 2020). it should be noted that the magazine "children & schools" contains articles in which the authors prove the opinion that the visual and musical arts have a powerful impact on the social and emotional state of children. during musical pauses, children perform rhythmic movements that increase brain activity (tredinnick l., 2020). kinesiology the science of brain development through movement. the founder of it in ancient greece was considered to be asclepiad, who lived more than 2000 years ago. fundamental works of a. luria prove the beneficial effects of hand manipulation on the functions of higher nervous activity and speech development. the neuropsychologist claims that both innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect victor reshetnyak, et al. 178 hemispheres of the brain can develop effectively through the performance of special movements kinesiological exercises (luria, 1965). it is known that the formation of a child`s verbal language begins when the movements of the fingers reach sufficient accuracy. in addition, the lack of motor coordination of the wrist and fingers of a hand create difficulties in mastering reading and writing. v. sukhomlinsky believed that the movement of the fingers promotes the activation of the speech centers of the brain and enhancement of activity of the speech zones. thanks to "brain gymnastics", the organism coordinates the work of the right and left hemispheres, develops the interaction of body and intellect (eisenbart, 2014). a set of exercises developed by paul e. and gail e. dennison in the 90's, is devoted to the natural development of man and the activation of certain mechanisms of the brain by means of certain movements. practicing kinesiological exercises, the american psychologist realized that there is a huge potential in the movements. classes according to the method of dennison allow the one to develop balance, reading and writing skills, improve hearing, memory, reaction speed, optimize the learning process, and help cope with stress and anxiety, allow you to succeed in learning, music and sports. and most importantly children begin to enjoy the learning process (dennison paul, 1998) scott cuthbert used kinesiology to treat a 10-year-old boy with developmental delay, asthma, and chronic neck and head pain. after a long time, the child's ability to read improved, neck and head pain disappeared (scott cuthbert, 2010). there is ample evidence that art therapy is associated with different children`s neuropsychological abilities. the american academy of clinical neuropsychology of child neuropsychology sees the overcoming of neuropsychological disorders by means of drawing, which helps to develop visual perception, complex spatial abilities, visual attention, memory, verbal and visual-motor skills (reynolds, 1989). noteworthy is the article (vincenzo, 2020) on the beneficial effects of drawing for the development of neuropsychological abilities in children: visual perception, visual-motor coordination and verbal abilities. use of health-saving and game technologies by teachers who are working according to the concept of "new ukrainian school" the concept of "new ukrainian school" proposed new principles of learning: inclusion, non-discrimination, partnership, humanism and creative approach to learning, child-centeredness, which take into account child's brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 179 abilities, needs and interests, age characteristics of physical, mental and intellectual development as much as possible. the main place among pedagogical technologies in the educational process is occupied by game and health-saving technologies. game technologies game technologies are one of the unique forms of learning that allow making the process of subjects studying interesting and exciting, activate attention, and increase interest in learning, force younger students to perform mental actions independently to achieve success, because there is a thought process that requires sufficient brain activity. v. sukhomlinsky wrote: “the game is a huge bright window through which the life-giving stream of ideas, concepts about the world around flows into the spiritual world of the child. the game is a spark that lights the fire of curiosity” (eisenbart, 2014, p.2). carl gross proved that game is important for a child's development, because it provides an opportunity to improve coherent speech (jointly solving game tasks, children learn to communicate with each other), develop cognitive processes (stimulates the child to achieve the goal, and find the way to achieve the goal), to feel the "situation of success" ("situation of success" provides emotional satisfaction, and failure is not perceived as defeat). (groos, 2018). health-saving technologies kinesiological exercises. the level of speech development of children is directly dependent on the degree of formation of movements. a person, who moves harmoniously and energetically, has excellent coordination, will have better developed logical processes; will be concentrating easier. modern kinesiologists believe that learning problems often arise due to the lack of integration of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. therefore, it is through movement that a child can find this balance, feel his or her own body and space, and even be aware of temporal ideas when it comes to rhythm. thus, kinesiology is a health-preserving technology that helps children to relieve emotional and physical stress, and at the same time can provide the following processes:  synchronization of the hemispheres of the brain;  visual and motor coordination improvement;  formation of spatial orientation;  stimulation of intellectual development, etc. innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect victor reshetnyak, et al. 180 kinesiological exercises have a positive effect on the neocortex the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for cognitive processes, rational information processing, language, logic and more. after all, when the newly formed cerebral cortex is working at full capacity, the effectiveness of training increases. visualization exercises. "ear-nose" with the left hand we take the tip of the nose, and with the right for the opposite ear. simultaneously release the ear and nose, clap your hands and change the position of the hands so that the right is held by the tip of the nose, and the left by the opposite ear. "ring" alternately and very quickly move the fingers, combining index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and pinky finger in the ring with the thumb. at first it is possible with each hand separately, then simultaneously with two hands. "fist edge of the palm palm" the child is shown three positions of the hand on the plane of the table, successively changing each other ("fist edge of the palm palm"), pronounced aloud or to oneself. moving activities. moving activities – such breaks during the lesson help to improve the functioning of the brain, restore tone of the muscles that maintain proper posture, relieve tension from the organs of sight and hearing, from fingers that are tired from writing. these exercises are necessary to maintain the health of students to lift their spirits, increase blood and lymph metabolism of stagnant areas in the child's body, and relieve static tension (nosko, 2018). moving activity "firewood cutting" children, we sat a lot, so we will try to have an active rest, we will "cut firewood". stay so as not to disturb anyone. imagine that you are cutting firewood. to show how big the log is in front of us. put it on a stump and raise the "ax" high above your head. every time you lower the "ax", shout out loud: "heh!". in a minute tell: how many logs are "cut"? how do you feel now? how is your mood? neuropsychological exercises to activate the work and functional block of the brain (level of stabilization, activation and energy supply of psychomotor skills and speech). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 181 complexes of exercises, which are focused on the optimization of the 1st functional block of the brain, can be included in the organizational moment of the lesson or the preparatory part of the lesson. the targets of correction are the subcortical and stem formations of the brain. to implement the corrective effect should be used: i. breathing exercises purpose: optimization of gas exchange and blood circulation, calming, development of concentration, self-control over behavior. "positive setting" put two fingers together on both hands. put on the bumps on the forehead, just above the middle, on the line between the eyebrows and the hairline. this helps to increase blood circulation, activation of the frontal lobes of the brain. іі. massage, self-massage (scalp, fingers and auricles, nose). "cap for thinking" gently pull back and press your auricles with your thumb and forefinger while massaging it. keep the thumb on the back side of the ear, the index finger on the front side. massage should start from the top and go down, along the "folded" areas of the auricle to the lobes. it is important to keep your head straight. repeat the exercise 3-4 times. blood circulation increases in the temporal areas. it helps short-term memory work, improves balance, allows you to concentrate. iii. oculomotor exercises purpose: spreading the field of view, visual perception, tracking the object with the eyes at different levels and in different directions: right, left, up, down, to the nose, from the nose, the elimination of synkinesis. "drawing with two hands" the purpose of this exercise is to adjust the hemispheres of the brain to a harmonious, coordinated cooperation by means of simultaneous creation of a drawing and of stroking lines with both hands. the child takes a pencil in each hand and, following dotted lines, simultaneously draws a picture with both hands. after drawing the contours, the picture should be painted with both hands. this unique drawing technique will promote better memorization, concentration, and quick analysis of information, active thinking, and development of mental and intellectual abilities. innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect victor reshetnyak, et al. 182 "reaching for the sun" rise up on your toes, reach for the sun, and get down on your heels. step vigorously on the floor with your heels while standing still. exercise helps to relieve stress, to feel support. neuropsychological exercises for the activation of the ii functional block of the brain complexes of exercises that focused on optimization of the second functional block of the brain can be used throughout the lesson. they affect the analytical system; allow the development of somatognosis, tactile, visual and auditory gnosis, spatial imagery and speech. an important task of correctional work with younger students who have disorders is the restoration of gnostic and plastic functions. didactic games with elements of distinction by ear of "loud-quiet", "fast-slow", musical fragments with different rhythmic and emotional structure contribute to the development of phonetic-phonemic level. an effective training here is a hide-and-seek game, which can be diversified with the full range of sounds. the next most important task is the formation of phonematic hearing, because there is no and cannot be a type of mental activity that would not be directly dependent on the formation of this psychological factor. there are many exercises that have repeatedly proven their necessity in the domestic defectology and neuropsychology for the process of implementation of the formation of non-speech and then speech sound distinction. you can highlight the sound by strokes, stomping, any movement, raising the color flag, etc., switch attention from one sound to another by changing the basic movements, with opened and closed eyes. "circle and paint" (development of fine motor skills of hands) children are asked to draw image on the dots and paint it. when painting, it is necessary to move fingers and wrist but not the whole hand with the shoulder. "unusual traces" (development of tactile sensitivity) "teddy bears are going " the child presses his or her fists and palms with force on the sand. "hares are jumping" the child's fingertips hit the surface of the sand, moving in different directions. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 183 "snakes crawl" the child with relaxed / tense fingers makes the surface of the sand wavy (in different directions). "spider-beetles are running" the child moves all fingers, imitating the movement of insects (they can completely immerse their hands in the sand, meeting their hands with each other under the sand "beetles are welcoming one another"). neuropsychological exercises to activate the work of the iii functional block of the brain all tasks must have clear rules, execution algorithms and methods of evaluation. it is formed in several stages: • joint performance of the task ("do as you want"); • verbal control, clear instructions for execution ("do exactly that"); • verbal control by the child ("throw the ball up"); • talking to oneself, automation of actions. "earth-fire-water" the participants of the game form a circle. the facilitator is in the center. the facilitator exclaims one of the four words: "earth", "water", "fire", and "air". if the facilitator says "ground" the children should quickly take the position of squatting; "water" "swim"; "air" – raise hands up and imitate the wind. if the facilitator shouts "fire" all participants of the game must quickly return around. exercises of neuropsychology are universal. they help both adults and children. being very easy to perform, they do not require special physical training. regular performance of these exercises relieves fatigue, increases concentration, increases physical and mental activity, and stimulates speech processes. they help children to concentrate, coordinate their activities, get rid of stress, overcome various defects; make correctional classes fun and interesting. neuropsychological correction is aimed at stimulation of development and formation of concordant, coordinated activity of various brain structures. with the help of specially designed motor exercises and developmental games the formation of certain components of mental activity is stimulated, namely: regulation and control of mental activity, motor skills, visual, auditory, spatial perception and many others. it should also be noted that the energetic potential of the brain increases if it can receive information from different analyzers. of course, learning is effective when the child uses different channels when perceiving new material: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, aesthetic, and so on. for innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect victor reshetnyak, et al. 184 example, if we want to learn something complex, we intuitively get up, can walk around the room or sit comfortably, and then read the text out aloud, take notes or draw icons on its content, trying to imagine a picture related to what has been learned. the brain needs a significant amount of energy that a child can get from proper nutrition, appropriate drinking regime, good sleep, balanced cardiovascular system and more. child's ability to memorize, hold arbitrary attention, thinking, and perception depends on these exact higher mental functions. it is known that brain activity is affected by the temperature in the room. if the children returned from a break and sat in a ventilated room, it gives them liveliness and stimulates the brain to work. when it's cold in the classroom, the body tries to conserve energy to keep warm. then the child becomes passive: he or she wants not to think, not to move, and there is a desire to sleep. thus, the development potential of innovative methods is very high, because in their complex they affect thinking, attention, memory, imagination, perception. it should be noted that when a student joins the implementation of joint projects, group tasks performance, he feels an active creator of his own experience, rather than a passive observer. awareness of the individual that he or she is important to others increases his or her energy level. conclusions so, today knowledge of neuropsychology is extremely necessary for primary school teachers in nus in ukraine, because teachers are concerned about the following factors: the number of children with memorization difficulties has increased as well as the number of children who find it difficult to understand the explanation of the material from the first time; the child cannot cope with the task of individual work; the student is distracted at lessons, climbs under a desk, plays, eats; the child leaves during the lesson and does not return for a long time; the student is constantly late for lessons; after the lesson it turns out that the child has no written work; does homework perfectly, but cannot cope with the task at school, etc. such difficulties in the acquisition of knowledge can occur due to the immaturity of some parts of the brain that are responsible for motor functions of the hands, language attention, visual and spatial orientation. all of the above methods claim that the use of health-saving and playful technologies in nus allow to make learning interesting, exciting, and, most importantly, to keep the child healthy. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 185 references aizenbart, m. (2014). ihrova diialnist u protsesi formuvannia sotsialno-komunikatyvnykh zdibnostei starshykh doshkilnykiv kriz pryzmu pohliadiv v. o. sukhomlynskoho . nova pedahohichna dumka, (2), 64-67. [game activity in the process of formation of social-communicative abilities of senior preschoolers through the prism of v. sukhomlinsky's views. new pedagogical thought, (2), 6467.] http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/npd_2014_2_20. applications of neuropsychology in education, (2020). best schools in spain. https://bestschoolsinspain.com/applications-of-neuropsychology-ineducation/. cuthbert, s. (2010). applied kinesiology methods for a 10-year-old child with headaches, neck pain, asthma, and reading disabilities. journal of chiropractic medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcm.2010.05.002. dennison, p. i., & dennison, g. (1995). brain gym (2nd ed.). https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/braingym/author/dennison-gail-e-dennison-paul-e/ groos, k. (2018). the play of man. new york. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58411/58411-h/58411-h.htm hlozman, z. (2009). neiropsykholohiia dytiachoho viku. moskva: akademiia. [neuropsychology of childhood. moscow: academy]. https://www.academiamoscow.ru/ftp_share/_books/fragments/fragment_21161.pdf hlozman, z. (2010). rozvyvaiemo myslennia. ihry, vpravy, porady fakhivtsia / [we develop thinking. games, exercises, expert advice.] https://alteravita.ru/nashy-publicazii/glozman-zh-m-kurdyukova-s-v-suntsova-a-vrazvivaem-myshlenie-igry-uprazhneniya-sovety-spetsialista-m/ human brain project, 2020. https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/about/overview/. iatskiv, o. (2016). neiropsykholohichnyi pidkhid u diialnosti praktychnoho psykholoha doshkilnoho navchalnoho zakladu / o. s. yatskiv. // problemy suchasnoi psykholohii, 31. [neuropsychological approach in the activity of a practical psychologist of a preschool educational institution. problems of modern psychology, 31.]. http://www.irbisnbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21db n=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt =asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=pspl_2016_3 1_51 jensen, e. p., mcconchie, l. (2020). brain-based learning: teaching the way students really learn (3rd ed.). https://www.amazon.com/brain-based-learningteaching-students-really-ebook/dp/b08678491c http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/npd_2014_2_20 https://bestschoolsinspain.com/applications-of-neuropsychology-in-education/ https://bestschoolsinspain.com/applications-of-neuropsychology-in-education/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcm.2010.05.002 https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/brain-gym/author/dennison-gail-e-dennison-paul-e/ https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/brain-gym/author/dennison-gail-e-dennison-paul-e/ https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58411/58411-h/58411-h.htm https://www.academia-moscow.ru/ftp_share/_books/fragments/fragment_21161.pdf https://www.academia-moscow.ru/ftp_share/_books/fragments/fragment_21161.pdf https://altera-vita.ru/nashy-publicazii/glozman-zh-m-kurdyukova-s-v-suntsova-a-v-razvivaem-myshlenie-igry-uprazhneniya-sovety-spetsialista-m/ https://altera-vita.ru/nashy-publicazii/glozman-zh-m-kurdyukova-s-v-suntsova-a-v-razvivaem-myshlenie-igry-uprazhneniya-sovety-spetsialista-m/ https://altera-vita.ru/nashy-publicazii/glozman-zh-m-kurdyukova-s-v-suntsova-a-v-razvivaem-myshlenie-igry-uprazhneniya-sovety-spetsialista-m/ https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/about/overview/ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=pspl_2016_31_51 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=pspl_2016_31_51 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=pspl_2016_31_51 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=pspl_2016_31_51 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=pspl_2016_31_51 https://www.amazon.com/brain-based-learning-teaching-students-really-ebook/dp/b08678491c https://www.amazon.com/brain-based-learning-teaching-students-really-ebook/dp/b08678491c innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect victor reshetnyak, et al. 186 komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 luriia, a. (1965). vidnovne navchannia i yoho znachennia dlia psykholohii i pedahohiky. moskva: pedahohika [restorative learning and its significance for psychology and pedagogy. moscow: pedagogy]. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/luriya=lekcii_po_ob_psc.pdf luriia, a. (2018). lobovi chastky i rehuliatsiia psykhichnykh protsesiv: neiropsykholohichni doslidzhennia. moskva: vydavnytstvo moskovskoho universytetu [frontal lobes and regulation of mental processes: neuropsychological research. moscow university publishing house]. http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/ index/idnotice:9501/source:default maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93 [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. proceedings of the institute for pedagogical research, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 nosko, y. (2018). efektyvnist vykorystannia rukhanok u protsesi navchannia uchniv zakladiv pochatkovoi osvity. molodyi vchenyi, 2, 108-111. [effectiveness of usage of https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/luriya=lekcii_po_ob_psc.pdf http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/index/idnotice:9501/source:default http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/index/idnotice:9501/source:default https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 187 moving activities in the process of teaching students of primary education institutions. young scientist, 2, 108–111.]. http://molodyvcheny.in.ua/files/journal/2018/2.1/28.pdf reynolds, c. & fletcher-janzen, e. (eds.). (1989). handbook of clinical child neuropsychology. a. puente. – texas. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780306428791 reynolds, c., fletcher-janzen, e. & strickland t. l. (2000). handbook of crosscultural neuropsychology. cecil r. reynolds. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4615-4219-3 rodnenok, m. (2013). naukovo-teoretychne obgruntuvannia metodyky neiropsykholohichnoi korektsii porushen piznavalnoi diialnosti doshkilnykiv z dytiachym tserebralnym paralichem zasobamy montessoriterapii. naukovyi chasopys. korektsiina pedahohika. [scientific and theoretical substantiation of the method of neuropsychological correction of disorders of cognitive activity of preschoolers with cerebral palsy by means of montessori therapy. scientific journal. correctional pedagogy]. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/7642/1/rodnenok.pdf. senese, p.v., zapullo, i., baiano, c., zaccolotti, p., monaco, m.& conson, m.(2020). identifying neuropsychological predictors of drawing skills in elementary school children. a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence 26(3). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09297049.2019.1651834 sousa, d. a. (2015). the leadership brain: strategies for leading today's schools more effectively. https://www.amazon.com/leadership-brain-strategies-leadingeffectively-ebook/dp/b00usbmg3k tredinnick, l. (2020). influencing social and emotional awareness and empathy with a visual arts and music intervention for adolescents. children & schools. https://doi.org/10.1093/cs/cdaa008. tsyrkina, s. (2004). dovidnyk z psykholohii i psykhiatrii dytiachoho i pidlitkovoho viku [handbook of psychology and psychiatry of children and adolescents (2nd ed.).]. http://childpsy.ru/lib/books/id/8442.php vyhotskiy, l. (1956). vybrani psykholohichni doslidzhennia. moskva: pedahohika. [selected psychological research. moscow: pedagogy]. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/76001762.pdf http://molodyvcheny.in.ua/files/journal/2018/2.1/28.pdf https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780306428791 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4615-4219-3 http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/7642/1/rodnenok.pdf https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09297049.2019.1651834 https://www.amazon.com/leadership-brain-strategies-leading-effectively-ebook/dp/b00usbmg3k https://www.amazon.com/leadership-brain-strategies-leading-effectively-ebook/dp/b00usbmg3k https://doi.org/10.1093/cs/cdaa008 http://childpsy.ru/lib/books/id/8442.php https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/76001762.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 38-52 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/190 neuropsychological peculiarities of studying future psychologists’ emotional intelligence sofiia berezka¹, ellina panasenko2, oksana zhukova3, halyna radchuk4, svitlana sobolyeva5, yana raievska6 1 state higher educational institution “donbass state pedagogical university”, ukraine, berezka.sonya@gmail.com 2 state higher educational institution “donbass state pedagogical university”, ukraine, ellinapanasenko@ukr.net 3 kharkiv national university named after v. n. karazin, ukraine, edu.pedagogika@gmail.com 4 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, galyna0123345@gmail.com 5 ivan kozhedub national air force university, ukraine, ssoboleva20@gmail.com 6 ukrainian state employment service training institute, ukraine, raewskaya@ukr.net abstract: the article considers emotional intelligence as a complex integrative formation, which includes cognitive, behavioural and emotional qualities. these qualities ensure awareness, understanding and regulation of their own and others’ emotions and effect on the success of interpersonal interaction and personal development. a review of relevant scientific sources has revealed the insufficient study of brain correlates and the specifics of future psychologists’ emotional intelligence. in turn, it has determined the purpose of the study, that is the neuropsychological study of features of future psychologists’ emotional intelligence. the parameters of emotional intelligence in the firstand second-year students majoring in specialty 053 psychology are received due to the test-questionnaire at simultaneous registration of electric activity of the brain. the neuron-spectrum 5 electroencephalograph was used for the eeg registration. the recording was performed monopolarly in 32 leads, using samples “eyes closed”, “eyes opened” and filling out the test-questionnaire to identify the levels of emotional intelligence. the obtained results have made it possible to determine that the levels of psychology students’ emotional intelligence are related to the activation indicators of different parts in the cortex of their brain. the students mostly are at average and initial levels of emotional intelligence, tend to show an interpersonal type of emotional intelligence and control their own and others’ emotions rather than to differentiate the emotions and establish the cause of their occurrence. keywords: brain organization of emotions, electroencephalography of the brain, training of students, specialty 053 psychology, higher education. how to cite: berezka, s., panasenko, e., zhukova, o., radchuk, h., sobolyeva, s., & raievska, y. (2021). neuropsychological peculiarities of studying future psychologists’ emotional intelligence. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 38-52. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/190 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/190 mailto:berezka.sonya@gmail.com mailto:ellinapanasenko@ukr.net mailto:edu.pedagogika@gmail.com mailto:galyna0123345@gmail.com mailto:ssoboleva20@gmail.com mailto:raewskaya@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/190 neuropsychological peculiarities of studying future psychologists’ emotional … sofiia berezka, et al. 39 introduction the military conflict in the east of ukraine significantly affects various aspects of the life of the entire ukrainian society. in this regard, the sphere of psychological services and, accordingly, the training of highly qualified psychologists are becoming especially relevant today. to prepare and train a competitive psychologist, it is not enough to equip him/her only with theoretical knowledge and practical skills. the psychologist’s personality is the main tool in his/her professional activities. accordingly, at the stage of professional training, it is necessary to develop personal competence in future psychologists. therefore, it is vital to find out which qualities are necessary for the psychologist’s successful professional activities. the authors of the article believe that the provision of psychological assistance by a specialist is impossible without the psychologist’s ability to recognize and analyze clients’ emotions, influence their emotional states, provide emotional support. in turn, it requires the psychologist to verbalize emotions, be emotionally open and empathetic, be able to control their experiences and realize the cause of certain emotional reactions. all these abilities together form the emotional intelligence of the specialist. emotional intelligence is included in the list of soft skills that ensure the success of self-realization and the success of professional activities for the psychologist. that is why it is important to study the peculiarities of forming emotional intelligence in future psychologists, as well as the specifics of purposeful influence on its development when obtaining higher education. thus, it is essential to study the peculiarities of forming emotional intelligence in psychology students. however, the study of only psychological features of emotional intelligence is insufficient for a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon. it is necessary to thoroughly study the brain organization of emotional intelligence to effectively organize the purposeful development of emotional intelligence as a leading competence in psychology students during their higher education study. in modern science, the physiological basis of emotions, methods of studying the emotional sphere, its features in the norm, as well as local brain damages or various mental disorders are widely covered. at the same time, emotional intelligence is a complex integral phenomenon and the understanding of the brain organization of emotions only cannot provide scientific reasoning of the biological basis of emotional intelligence itself. the brain correlates of emotional intelligence are insufficiently explored and, therefore, their study and is becoming increasingly relevant today. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 40 accordingly, the purpose of the article is a neuropsychological study of the features of future psychologists’ emotional intelligence. theory and predictions it is rather difficult to answer the question “what is emotional intelligence?”. this is primarily because psychological science does not have a single approach to interpreting the definition of emotional intelligence, its components and factors influencing its development. for the first time, the term “emotional quotient” is found in the works of bar-on (2011) in the context of a set of one’s non-cognitive abilities, knowledge, and competences. it is this interpretation of eq that formed the basis of his model of emotional intelligence. the model by baron (2011) includes five basic components of emotional intelligence which correspond to five spheres of competence:  the intrapersonal sphere (assertiveness, emotional introspection, independence, self-esteem, self-actualization);  the sphere of interpersonal relations (empathy, social responsibility, interpersonal relations);  the sphere of adaptability (ability to solve problems, assessment of reality, flexibility);  the sphere of stress management (stress tolerance, impulsivity control);  the sphere of general mood (life satisfaction, optimism). a similar vision of emotional intelligence as a set of certain skills and abilities is presented in the studies of salovey & mayer (1990). their model includes three basic categories of adaptive abilities:  assessing and expressing emotions;  regulating emotions;  using emotions in thinking and activities (salovey & mayer, 1990). however, they expanded their model afterwards. a significant difference in the new model was the emergence of a cognitive component associated with the processing of information about emotions. the presence of the cognitive component has given a new twist in defining emotional intelligence itself as the ability to perceive, understand and identify emotions, assimilate them in thoughts and exercise self-control and self-regulation of behaviour under the emotions of the individual and his/her environment. goleman (1995) refined the model by salovey & mayer (1990), adding enthusiasm, perseverance and social skills to it, thus combining cognitive abilities with personal characteristics. today, his model includes neuropsychological peculiarities of studying future psychologists’ emotional … sofiia berezka, et al. 41 four main components, namely, self-awareness, self-control, social sensitivity, and 18 skills. moreover, it is one of the most popular models in modern psychology. in his research, goleman (1995) emphasizes the importance of ei for human success in various spheres and provides advantages over iq. it was the works of goleman (1995) that popularized studying emotional intelligence, even outside of psychological science. liusin & ushakov’s (2004) approach to interpreting emotional intelligence is rather thought-provoking. their model includes intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional intelligence and assumes the ability to understand the person’s and other people’s emotions and manage them (liusin & ushakov, 2004). according to liusin & ushakov (2004), the formation of ei is influenced by many factors, and its development occurs throughout the life of the individual. in modern studies of emotional intelligence, the following main definitions of this phenomenon can be identified:  the set of mental abilities to identify, understand and manage emotions (andreeva, 2011);  the integral category in the structure of the intellectual and emotional-volitional sphere of the individual, which determines the success of his/her activities and relationships with other people (davydova, 2011);  the integral formation that provides awareness, understanding and regulation of the person’s emotions and the emotions of other people, and allows performing successful interpersonal interaction (meshcheriakova, 2011);  the inner emotional resource of emotional regulation which allows individuals to control their behaviour, keep emotions under control in difficult situations and achieve economic well-being (kiseleva, 2015). despite the differences, all the definitions of recent years have got common key positions. thus, emotional intelligence is a complex integral construct that includes:  the ability to perceive, identify and interpret one’s own emotions and the emotions of other people;  the ability to assimilate emotions in thoughts and stimulate thinking processes with the help of emotions;  the capacity for self-control and self-regulation of behaviour under the emotions experienced by the individual or his/her environment;  the ability to use all the above-mentioned abilities to build effective activities. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 42 the analysis of relevant scientific sources shows that most studies are devoted to socio-psychological aspects of emotional intelligence only. its biological basis, however, remains not enough studied. brain mapping with different types of tomography was performed mainly in investigated persons with brain damage or affective disorders and mental pathologies. it revealed the areas of the brain associated with emotional intelligence, including left posterior temporal cortex, left posterior superior temporal sulcus, left temporal-parietal node, left orbitofrontal cortex, left anterior lumbar cortex, anterior islet (barbey et al., 2012). also, the influence of the limbic parts, cerebellum, visual and dorsolateral frontal cortex on the indicators of emotional intelligence was revealed (gerasymova et al., 2019; krueger et al., 2009; maksymchuk et al., 2020a; 2020b; melnyk et al., 2019; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; nerubasska et al., 2020; onishchuk et al., 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020; sheremet et al., 2019). in a few studies, one can find a correlation between the frequency of brain oscillations when using different stimuli with the level of emotional intelligence (knyazev et al., 2013). in particular, high synchronization of gamma and theta rhythm of eeg and low desynchronization of alpha rhythm eeg in investigated persons with a high level of emotional intelligence when viewing the faces with different emotions are installed. however, the studies of brain organization are just beginning to appear in modern science, so it is important to study the neuropsychological basis of emotional intelligence. emotional intelligence is one of the top 5 universal skills and is an integral part of a successful career and personal life. the development of emotional intelligence depends on both genetic and socio-psychological factors. the sensitive period of its development is considered to be childhood. nevertheless, it is necessary to form emotional intelligence throughout life. the purposeful development of ei in an adult is a more complex process and requires a thorough in-depth study of the existing level of already formed abilities. material and methods this study involved 135 students in years 1 and 2 majoring in specialty 053 psychology at the state higher education institution “donbas state pedagogical university” (sloviansk, the donetsk oblast, ukraine). the students’ age was between 17 and 19 years old. gender differences were not taken into account during the experiment. all investigated persons had no significant health problems, voluntarily agreed to participate anonymously in neuropsychological peculiarities of studying future psychologists’ emotional … sofiia berezka, et al. 43 the experiment and had the opportunity to withdraw from it at any time of their choice. to achieve this purpose, the authors of the article analyzed the brain activity of future psychologists using electroencephalography and the “emin” questionnaire by liusin (2006). electroencephalography was chosen since it is one of the most accessible and informative methods of brain activity research and is safe for the investigated persons. liusin’s (2006) method provides a complex and comprehensive wide assessment of the features and level of emotional intelligence. the neuron-spectrum-5 electroencephalograph “was used for the eeg registration (32 channels; “ukrmedspectrum”, ukraine). this device can perform amplitude, spectral, bispectral, periodometric, correlation, cross-correlation, coherence, comparative, wavelet analysis, as well as analysis of independent components and epileptiform activities. the registration took place in an isolated room. eeg recording was performed according to the international standard of 10-20%, with a monopolar scheme using (in 32 leads with two auricular referents). the resistance did not exceed 20 kоm, the sampling frequency of the signal – 1000 hz. the functional tests were performed according to the following scheme: “open eyes”, “closed eyes”, “filling out a questionnaire aimed at diagnosing the level and features of emotional intelligence.” to diagnose the peculiarities of emotional intelligence in future psychologists, one used the (emin) test (questionnaire) of emotional intelligence (liusin, 2006). this questionnaire contains 46 statements concerning which the person under investigation is to express the level of his/her consent. all the statements are combined into five subscales, which are then added to four more general scales (intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional intelligence, ability to understand emotions and manage emotions). the questionnaire allows diagnosing both the general level of emotional intelligence and its components of the construct (liusin, 2006). results and discussion the data received by questionnaire by liusin (2006) were analyzed according to two subscales measuring interpersonal emotional intelligence (“understanding other people’s emotions”, “managing other people’s emotions”) and to three subscales measuring various aspects of intrapersonal emotional intelligence (“understanding the person’s own emotions”, “managing the person’s own emotions”, “personal expression”). the values by the scales were calculated by adding the number of points scored according to the corresponding sub-scales. the total number of points was brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 44 compared with the scale of the norm according to liusin (2006) (separately for each component) and related to the corresponding level of a certain component. the obtained results on the scales of comprehension (ce) and emotion management (me) are presented in table 1. table 1. levels of ce and me in the 1st and 2nd-year students majoring in specialty 053 psychology s ca le subscale “understanding and managing other people’s emotions” (ume) subscale “understanding and managing the person’s own emotions” (umpoe) low level initial level avera ge level sufficie nt level high level low level initial level average level suffici ent level high level cе 8,9 18,5 60 8,9 3,7 14,1 23,7 54,8 6 1,4 m е 7,4 11,8 63,7 11,1 6 9,6 18,5 59,3 8,9 3,7 systematized by the authors from table 1 it is seen that future psychologists are better able to understand and manage other people’s emotions, that is, the ability to understand the emotional states of others based on external manifestations (facial expressions, gestures, etc.), the ability to provoke emotional reactions in others, the ability to empathize with others, as well as willingness to support them. these subscales belong to interpersonal emotional intelligence. the indicators on the subscales “understanding the person’s own emotions”, “managing the person’s own emotions and controlling expression” are less expressed, which indicates that the students cannot always be aware of their own emotions, control their external manifestations, understand their causes. these subscales belong to intrapersonal emotional intelligence. thus, the students’ interpersonal emotional intelligence is more developed than the intrapersonal one. this fact is proved by the quantitative data presented in figure 1. neuropsychological peculiarities of studying future psychologists’ emotional … sofiia berezka, et al. 45 8,1% 14,8% 62,2% 10,4% 4,5% 11,9% 20,7% 57% 7,4% 3% 0 20 40 60 80 low level initial level average level sufficient level high level umi umpoe figure 1. levels of ume and umpoe in the 1st and 2nd-year students majoring in specialty 053 psychology systematized by the authors the scales “understanding emotions” and “managing emotions” also consisted of the sum of scores on the respective subscales (understanding the person’s own and other people’s emotions, managing the person’s own and other people’s emotions, respectively). both on the scale of intrapersonal and on the scale of interpersonal emotional intelligence, the obtained data (see table 1) indicate that the students of better control their own and other people’s emotions compared to the ability to distinguish emotions and understand the cause of their occurrence. it proves that the structure of emotional intelligence is homogeneous. the integral indicator of general emotional intelligence was calculated separately for each individual by adding the points scored by him/her on each subscale (understanding other people’s emotions, managing other people’s emotions, understanding the person’s own emotions, managing the person’s own emotions, controlling expression). the quantitative data on the levels of general emotional intelligence are shown in figure 2. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 46 9,6% 17,8% 60% 8,9% 3,7% low level initial level average level sufficient level high level figure 2. levels of general emotional intelligence in the 1st and 2nd-year students majoring in specialty 053 psychology systematized by the authors from figure 2 it is seen that the authors of the article divided the levels of general emotional intelligence into five levels. each level was established based on the ratio of the scored points of the student concerning the scales of the norm of development of the general ei according to liusin (2006) and included the following qualitative characteristics:  the high level (105 and more points): this group includes those students who can analyze their emotions and experiences and sensitive to the feelings and behaviour of other people; they can decode facial expressions and kinesthetic manifestations of emotions with high accuracy; they adequately (according to the situation) express their feelings and can control them; they do not admit of the negative impact of emotions on the process of communication and interaction with other people; they can evoke trust, inspire others, lead; they can also stimulate mental processes through emotions (the percentage of the students with a high level of ei development is shown in figure 2);  the sufficient level (93–104 points): the students of this group can easily recognize their own and other people’s emotions, can control them under common circumstances. at the same time, it is more difficult for them to understand the motivation for the emergence of certain emotional states (both their own and others’); such students may be negatively affected by emotions but can reflect on their feelings (the percentage of the students who form this group is presented in figure 2);  the average level (79–92 points): these students are more focused on people’s actions than on their ideas in interpersonal relationships; they can sometimes feel the mood of other people and navigate the situation but cannot always use such abilities; emotional attitudes can affect their reactions; they have an average level of awareness of their emotions; they neuropsychological peculiarities of studying future psychologists’ emotional … sofiia berezka, et al. 47 can successfully control their emotions in everyday life and yet, in the event of unusual situations, they temporarily lose control (the percentage of the students with an average level of ei s presented in figure 2);  the initial level (72–78 points): it is characteristic of those students who cannot productively use their emotional experience, cannot see and understand the emotional states of other people; they do not analyze the emotions and behaviour of others; they are not inclined to analyze their emotions and feelings; the control of emotions occurs through the process of their temporary suppression (the percentage of the students with an initial level of emotional intelligence is shown in figure 2);  the low level (0–71 points): this level is typical for those students who cannot differentiate and interpret their own and other people’s emotions; they do not know how to control their emotional states; their emotions dominate over cognitive processes, which causes incorrect behaviour concerning the situation (the percentage of the students with a low level of emotional intelligence is shown in figure 2). during the processing and analysis of the electroencephalogram, one studied such indicators as power (mkb2) of theta-, alphaand betarhythms in the anterior (averaging fp1, fp2, f3, f4, fl, f8, fz), central (averaging fc1, fc2, c3, cz, c4, cp1, cp2), temporal (averaging ft9, ft10, fc5, fc6, t3, t4, t5, t6, cp5, cp6, tp9, tp10) and posterior (averaging p3, pz, p4, o1, oz, o2) leads under three conditions: closed, open eyes and when filling the questionnaire by liusin (2006). the study of the power of eeg rhythms during the performing samples “eyes closed”, “eyes open”, as well as when filling the questionnaire by liusin (2006), has shown a significant increase in the spectral power of high-amplitude rhythms (theta-, alpha-) during the test “eyes closed”, the increase in beta-rhythm power when filling the questionnaire (p>0.05). it indicates the norm of the functioning of the brain structures in the students in question and makes it possible to transfer the results to the general totality. correlation analysis of psychometric indicators obtained from the results of the “emin” questionnaire by liusin (2006) was aimed at studying emotional intelligence. it also revealed that psychology students at high and sufficient levels of emotional intelligence had less cognitive stress when working with the text of the questionnaire. the students from these groups were inclined to think and operate with abstract categories and make decisions based on logical analysis (as evidenced by the presence of higher rates of beta-rhythms power in the frontal lobes of the brain). the students brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 48 with below-average levels of emotional intelligence were at high levels of beta-rhythm power in the occipital leads. eeg data have also made it possible to detect the weak left-hand desynchronization of alpha-rhythm and strong synchronization of thetarhythm of the students with a high level of emotional intelligence. these results coincided with existing studies on the features of emotional intelligence in the development norm (barbey et al., 2012; goleman, 1995; krueger et al., 2009). the scientific novelty of the obtained results is as follows: for the first time, theoretical approaches to studying emotional intelligence in scientific sources are systematized; the concept of “emotional intelligence” is deepened and specified; the criteria for development levels of emotional intelligence in the 1 st and 2 nd -year students majoring in specialty 053 psychology are defined; the neuropsychological features of future psychologists’ emotional intelligence are characterized. the practical value of the obtained results lies in developing the model for studying neuropsychological features of emotional intelligence in future psychologists. the obtained results can be incorporated in professional training of future psychologists in higher education institutions, correctional and developmental programmes for forming emotional intelligence, manuals for psychology students. conclusions the conducted study allows formulating the following conclusions. the main factor in the psychologist’s work is direct communication with clients, which is based on the psychologist’s ability to control himself/herself and the situation, adjust and effectively build interpersonal interaction through understanding and sensitivity to the dynamics of emotional states and reactions, the ability to adapt to them. these abilities act as components of emotional intelligence. emotional intelligence is a complex integral quality that includes a set of cognitive, behavioural and emotional qualities and abilities that ensure awareness, identification, differentiation and regulation of one’s own and other people’s emotions (intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional intelligence). a review of relevant scientific sources has identified areas of the brain involved in the activity related to emotional intelligence. however, the analysis of modern studies has shown that the biological basis, namely the brain correlates of emotional intelligence, are still insufficiently studied. neuropsychological peculiarities of studying future psychologists’ emotional … sofiia berezka, et al. 49 this article has shown that ei of the 1 st and 2 nd -year students majoring in specialty 053 psychology is mainly at average and initial levels. the peculiarities of developing ei in future psychologists at the beginning of their professional education are characterized by the following aspects:  identification and differentiation of emotions is mainly due to understanding one’s external manifestations, which determines the advantage of the development of interpersonal emotional intelligence over intrapersonal one;  there are complications in understanding the motives and causes of both one’s own and others’ emotional reactions;  insufficient understanding of one’s own emotions causes difficulties in one’s verbalization and formal reflection concerning emotions and feelings;  the development of emotion management prevails over the development of understanding emotions; however, in the event of emotional situations, one can quickly lose control over one’s emotional state. the use of the eeg method has allowed the authors of the article to record the fact that the students with a high level of emotional intelligence in the state of rest are characterized by stronger excitation of the left anterior brain; the synchronization of some rhythms of electroencephalogram tasks under the perception of emotionally coloured information is more pronounced, which may indicate the advantage of ei over iq. further research should involve the in-depth study of genetic correlates of emotional intelligence in future psychologists to further comprehensive programme created for forming and developing emotional intelligence in the 1 st and 2 nd -year students majoring in specialty 053 psychology. references andreeva, i. n. (2011). emotsionalnyi intellekt kak fenomen sovremennoi psikhologii [emotional intelligence as a phenomenon of contemporary psychology]. polotskiy gosudarstvennyi universitet. https://www.psu.by/images/stories/spf/personal/andreeva/emocionalnyj -intellekt-kak-fenomen-psihologii.pdf barbey, a. k., colom, r., & grafman, j. (2012). distributed neural system for emotional intelligence revealed by lesion mapping. social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 9(3), 265272. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss124 https://www.psu.by/images/stories/spf/personal/andreeva/emocionalnyj-intellekt-kak-fenomen-psihologii.pdf https://www.psu.by/images/stories/spf/personal/andreeva/emocionalnyj-intellekt-kak-fenomen-psihologii.pdf https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss124 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 50 bar-on, r. (2011). emotional intelligence: an integral part of positive psychology. south african journal of psychology, 40(1), 5462. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124631004000106 davydova, yu. v. (2011). emotsionalnyi intellekt: sushchnostnye priznaki, struktura i osobennosti proiavleniia v podrostkovom vozraste [emotional intelligence: essential features, structure and peculiarities of manifestation in adolescence]. [unpublished phd thesis]. peoples’ friendship university of russia, moscow. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b. m., bilozerova, m., chernetska, y., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4sup1), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 goleman, d. p. (1995). emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq for character, health and lifelong achievement. bantam books. kiseleva, t. s. (2015). emotsionalnyi intellekt kak zhiznennyi resurs i ego razvitie u vzroslykh [emotional intelligence as life resource and its development in adults] [unpublished phd thesis]. the institute of psychology of ras, moscow. knyazev, g. g., mitrofanova, l. g., & bocharov, a. v. (2013). emotsionalnyi intellekt i oscillyatornye otvety na emotsionalnye vyrazheniya lits [emotional intelligence and oscillatory responses to emotional facial expressions]. fiziologiya cheloveka [human physiology], 39(4), 4148. http://naukarus.com/emotsionalnyy-intellekt-i-ostsillyatornye-otvety-naemotsionalnye-vyrazheniya-lits krueger, f., barbey, a. k., mccabe, k., strenziok, m., zamboni, g., solomon, j., raymont v., & grafman, j. (2009). the neural bases of key competencies of emotional intelligence. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 106(52), 22486-22491. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0912568106 liusin, d. v., & ushakov, d. v. (2004). sotsialnyi intellekt: teoriia, izmerenie, issledovaniia [social intelligence: theory, measurement, research]. institut psikhologii ran. liusin, d. v. (2006). novaya metodika dlya izmereniya emotsionalnogo intellekta: oprosnik emin [a new technique for measuring the emotional intelligence: the emin questionnaire]. psikhologicheskaya diagnostika [psychological diagnostics], 4, 322. maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie https://doi.org/10.1177/008124631004000106 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 http://naukarus.com/emotsionalnyy-intellekt-i-ostsillyatornye-otvety-na-emotsionalnye-vyrazheniya-lits http://naukarus.com/emotsionalnyy-intellekt-i-ostsillyatornye-otvety-na-emotsionalnye-vyrazheniya-lits https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0912568106 neuropsychological peculiarities of studying future psychologists’ emotional … sofiia berezka, et al. 51 multidimensionala, 12(4), 310327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., &amp; maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, [proceedings of the institute for pedagogical research] 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m meshcheriakova, i. n. (2011). razvitie emotcionalnogo intellekta u studentov-psikhologov v protcesse obucheniia v vuze [development of emotional intelligence in studentspsychologists in the process of studying at university] [unpublished phd thesis]. voronezh state pedagogical university, kursk. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/ 2625 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 4465. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 52 salovey, p., & mayer, j. d. (1990). emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition and personality, 9(3), 185211. https://doi.org/10.2190/dugg-p24e-52wk6cdg sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://doi.org/10.2190/dugg-p24e-52wk-6cdg https://doi.org/10.2190/dugg-p24e-52wk-6cdg https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 the analysis of parents and pedagogues’ social attitude to education of disabled people brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 37-50 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/140 psycho-semantic reconstruction of psychological risk readiness perceptions by the national guard of ukraine servicemen ihor prykhodko¹, nataliia yurieva 2 , anastasiia lyman 3 , maksim bayda 4 , ihor bloshchynskyi 5 , viktoriia kuzina 6 1 doctor of science in psychology, professor, head of research center, national academy of national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, orcid id 0000-0002-4484-9781 prikhodko1966@ukr.net 2 phd in psychology, senior researcher of the research center, national academy of national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, orcid id 0000-0002-1543-3744, yureva_natali@ukr.net 3 researcher of research center, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, orcid id 0000-00015484-3378, dubyaga-nastya@ukr.net 4 senior researcher of research center, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, orcid id 0000-0001-7658-4709, maxbayda07@ukr.net 5 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, head of the foreign languages department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, orcid id 0000-0003-1925-9621, i.bloshch@gmail.com 6 phd in psychology, lecturer of the department of general military disciplines, ukrainian military medical academy, kyiv, ukraine, orcid id 0000-0002-9059-1611, 0960118847@ukr.net abstract: the article presents the results of a study of the views of military servicemen of the national guard of ukraine on psychological readiness to take risks. to achieve the goal of the study, the authors used the psycho-semantic method. the methods of the specialized semantic differential are chosen by the psychological tool of the psycho-semantic method. the semantic differential has been has made it possible to evaluate the subjective aspects of the meaning of the concept of “psychological readiness for risk” associated with the meaning, stereotypes, social attitudes. officers represent a soldier who is psychologically prepared for the risk, as follows. this person is trying to achieve a successful result under any circumstances, independent from management or subordinates, relying only on his own strength, showing determination and self-confidence, professionally trained, observant and emotionally stable. contract servicemen believe that a psychologically prepared for the risk of a soldier can make quick and deliberate decisions, has lots of stamina and strongwilled person, honest and patriotic. this soldier acts deliberately and carefully, not allowing his actions to harm others. servicemen of military conscription think that a soldier who is psychologically prepared for risk is resistant to extreme factors. he has a principle, he is reliable, outgoing person, always ready to offer the help of his comrades and people around him. this soldier is satisfied with his profession and proud that serves just in the national guard of ukraine. keywords: psycho-semantics method; semantic differential; psychological readiness for risk; military personnel; national guard of ukraine. how to cite: prykhodko, i., yurieva, n., lyman, a., bayda, m., bloshchynskyi, i., & kuzina, v. (2020). psycho-semantic reconstruction of psychological risk readiness perceptions by the national guard of ukraine servicemen. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 37-50. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/140 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/140 mailto:prikhodko1966@ukr.net mailto:yureva_natali@ukr.net mailto:dubyaga-nastya@ukr.net mailto:maxbayda07@ukr.net mailto:i.bloshch@gmail.com mailto:0960118847@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/140 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 38 1. introduction nowadays psychological science is characterized by the increase in the number of researches that address various peculiarities and manifestations of risk in human life and activities, its understanding, attitude towards it, its admission or avoidance. nevertheless, it is worthwhile to say that there is the lack of psycholinguistic elaboration of the issue of psychological risk readiness in the professional activities of extreme activity profile specialists. there is still no commonly accepted interpretation that would give a holistic view of this phenomenon, its nature and content. the semantics of the concept of “psychological risk readiness” form a whole spectrum in which the most probable, then affective peculiarities are put forward. these interpretations are quite numerous and significantly different. analysis of researches and publications on the issue and problem statement. studying the scientific sources on the selected problem testifies to the high interest of scientists in examining the peculiarities of psychological risk readiness of specialists of risky professions. in particular, attention was paid to the semantics of the notion of “risk” (berezhnaya et al., 2005; luhmann, 1993, and others), risk attitude peculiarities and risk readiness, including decision-making under risk conditions (absaliamova, 2009; habibulin, 2008, and others), the meaning of “risk” and “psychological risk readiness” in terms of the professional activities of risky professions specialists (dolhyi et al. 2002; khlon, 2011, and others). the enhanced studying of the nature and content of the notion of “psychological risk readiness” resulted in confusion with such categories as “risk appetite”, “risk perception”, “risk assessment”, “riskiness”, “orientation”, “risk acceptance”, “risk awareness” (zubkov, 2005; furedi, 1997). the above-mentioned notions are closely related and sometimes not sufficiently differentiated from one another in the contemporary scientific literature. what is common to these risk categories is that the content of each of them entails a person’s own understanding of the possibility of some particular threat to himself/herself. therefore, it is important for us to distinguish a separate and unified conceptual and operational content of the notion “psychological risk readiness” when exploring uniformed personnel professional activities characterized by their almost constant presence in risky, dangerous to health and life conditions during which it is necessary to successfully perform service and combat tasks. for example, risk readiness is understood as a psycho-semantic reconstruction of psychological risk readiness perceptions … ihor prykhodko, et al. 39 tendency to seek out strong feelings generated by a situation, or as a positive characterological component of “courage”, or such personal qualities as, for example, anxiety, aggressiveness, etc. (ilin, 2012). t. kornilova views risk readiness as a property of personal self-regulation, which is manifested by a person when making decisions and choosing strategies for action under uncertainty (kornilova, 2003). readiness of an individual for personal risk is interpreted as a dynamic formation, which is determined by the activity of the individual (petrovskyi, 1992). the enhanced studying of the semantics of the notion of “psychological risk readiness” by modern scientists allowed making attempts to determine the personal qualities and environmental factors that can influence the formation and maintenance of a normal level of risk psychological readiness in terms of uncertainty activities. thus, a high level of psychological risk readiness (as a multilevel personality trait) is characterized by a desire for high results, rationality, ability to act in incomplete certainty, responsibility; and a low level is characterized by situational motivation associated with the needs for thrills, impulsiveness, irrationality, irresponsibility (absaliamova, 2009). the author points out that the study of risk readiness as a systemic formation made it possible to distinguish structural components characterized by certain personality traits: motivational and personal component (self-confidence, risk acceptance, need for thrills); cognitive component (reflexivity, structural and communicative recognition, field independence); emotional component (general emotionality, uncertainty tolerance, general anxiety); regulatory component (general adaptability, general self-regulation, control). in turn, o. vdovichenko states the following: “… personality traits, such as originality of thinking, flexibility of mind, level of anxiety, independent behaviour, determination, extraversion/ introversion, selfishness/ altruism, etc. are important.” (vdovіchenko, 2003). so, having analyzed the semantics and meaningful content of the notion of “risk readiness”, it became known that it is quite variative one. it is impossible to distinguish individually accepted or agreed interpretation, its psychological conceptual and operational content. the goal of the article is to study the perceptions of the national guard of ukraine uniformed personnel about a psychologically risk-ready serviceman, which will allow distinguishing the meaningful content of this notion and distinguishing the component elements of psychological risk readiness. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 40 2. methods of the research a psychosemantic method was used to achieve this goal, which is based on the modelling of meaning systems as structures of representation of experience in consciousness (artemieva, 1999; stoklasa et al., 2018). the technique of specialized denotative semantic differential, which is a modified procedure of subjective multidimensional scaling was selected as the psychological instrument of psychosemantic method using (zasiekina & zasiekin, 2008). it was used to assess the subjective aspect of the meanings of the notion of “psychological risk readiness”, which are associated with the content, stereotypes, social attitudes and other structured and not well realised forms of generalization (petrenko, 2005; serkin, 2008). methodology of research the procedure of the research, actually the development of specialized semantic differential, was conducted in six stages: 1. review, theoretical description and definition of relevant notions for the development of differentiation instrumentarium. 2. specification of the first set of notions with the help of an expert group. 3. definition of the second set of notions and refinement of already compiled one in the previous stage. 4. processing of selected lists of signs and construction of a working variant of semantic differential. 5. specification of key qualities through expert assessment. 6. formation of the final version of the specialized semantic differential and summarizing the obtained results of perceptions by different categories of servicemen of the national guard of ukraine (ngu) the specification of peculiarities in a serviceman personality understanding who is ready to take risks in the line of duty. the research was conducted with the participation of servicemen of different military units of the ngu. all respondents had experience of being in stressful, healthand life-threatening conditions (participation in public order maintenance during the 2004 presidential election, cessation of mass riots in kyiv and kharkiv in november 2013 february 2014, anti-terrorist operation in the east of the country, etc.). such tasks are characterized by specific features: extremity and transience; the presence of armed resistance; work with people who are in an unbalanced mental state; constant real threat to health and life, lack or insufficiency of adequate logistical support, etc. (dubiaha, 2014; prykhodko, 2008). these realities have in some way psycho-semantic reconstruction of psychological risk readiness perceptions … ihor prykhodko, et al. 41 influenced the contemporary understanding of high-risk situations and the ngu servicemen’s readiness to act in the face of uncertainty. the analysis was based on the distribution of respondents into equal groups by the servicemen categories: commissioned officers, contract servicemen and conscripts. thus, the second stage of the research involved the ngu servicemen in the age from 20 to 44 years old according to different categories (commissioned officers and contract servicemen with different length of service, as well as senior classmen of the national academy of the ngu). the total number of respondents made 91 persons, all male respondents. at the third stage, experts’ ideas about the concept of "psychological risk preparedness" were clarified. at the fourth stage, the selected features were processed and a working version of the semantic differential of the studied concept was constructed. the fifth stage of the research envisaged the processing of the list of qualities by 79 experts (16 psychologists from the ngu, 13 scientists and higher-education teaching personnel of the national academy of ngu and other higher educational institutions of ukraine, 11 classmen of the graduate military course, 12 masters and 27 graduate class cadets of the national academy of ngu). the selection of experts was conducted taking into account the following criteria: success of professional activities in combination with authority in the environment of teammates; availability of psychological (legal, military) education; professional experience in the profession; availability of a scientific degree and academic title; experience in different extreme situations. the experts were asked to identify the qualities that are important to the notion of “psychological risk readiness”. to do this, each of the 89 characteristics had to be assessed on a ten-point scale. the sixth stage envisaged the involvement of 34 commissioned officers, 35 contract servicemen, and 37 conscripts. the total sample is 106 respondents. the selected categories are slightly different in terms of length of service: the length of service of a greater percentage of commissioned officers (41.2%) is from 6 to 10 years, the length of service of 48.6% of contract servicemen is up to 5 years, the length of service conscripts is absent as they have been in the service for 18 months, but due to the difficult situation in the east, their demobilization has been delayed. the respondents were to determine the most inherent ngu serviceman risk-ready characteristics during the sixth stage of the research. to do this, they were required to give one rating to each of the 35 presented characteristics and their opposite features using seven-point-scale. as a brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 42 result, the higher the rating was given, the less, according to the investigators, the quality is expressed by the risk-ready serviceman. 3. results of research/findings. a review, theoretical description and definition of relevant notions for the development of differentiation instrumentarium were conducted during the first stage of the research. with this in mind, and in order to obtain the most complete set of characteristics of the notion under study and its content, we have resorted to the available forms of description of different levels of generalization: from general definitions of risk in its various types (financial, entrepreneurial, psychological, military, social, legal, political, professional, etc.) to the description of its specific manifestations, as well as the definition of synonymous notions, such as “threat”, “danger”, “extreme situations”, “state of emergency”, “uncertainty”, “accident” and others. scientific literature on theoretical analysis of readiness for risk, riskiness, risk perception, risk inclination, decision making under high-risk conditions, etc. was also included in the terminological descriptions. in the second stage in order to clarify and formulate the content of the notion of the ngu servicemen “psychological risk readiness” we selected and used the projective method of unfinished sentences of the corresponding content filling i.e. the experts had to finish 16 sentences concerning different aspects of “psychological risk readiness” constituting this category in its entirety. it was suggested to provide one’s own definition of the notion of “risk”, readiness to act under healthor life-threatening situations, to identify the resources needed to form a psychological risk readiness and the factors that may lead to unwillingness to act under highrisk conditions, and to point out the basic personal and professional qualities of a serviceman ready to act under high-risk conditions, etc. here are some incomplete sentences: “risk for me is…”, “my readiness to risk depends on…”, “my confidence under the high-risk situation disappears when…”, “performing tasks under high-risk conditions requires me…”, “for me, the risk is justified if ...” and others. it is determined that the readiness to risk increases with the emergence of a real threat to life or health and depends on personal qualities such as prudence, determination, courage, confidence and self-control. factors affecting the servicemen readiness to act under high-risk conditions include physical and mental health; causes of high-risk situation; justification of risk; possible negative consequences, etc. thus, based on the experts’ answers, we were able to determine a set of adjectives, which were more psycho-semantic reconstruction of psychological risk readiness perceptions … ihor prykhodko, et al. 43 often used to characterize the notion under study. they formed a significant part of the ultimately compiled semantic differential technique. the third stage of the research envisaged the determination of the second set of notions and elaboration of already compiled one at the previous stage based on the analysis of scientific papers and publications on the subject of the research, questionnaires of similar content, psychological dictionaries, etc. the fourth stage is the processing of selected lists of traits (selection of acceptably best synonyms and their antonyms; structuring according to basic spheres of personality) and construction of a working variant of the semantic differential. all lists of descriptors, complementary to each other, made a significant contribution to creating an integral image of the notion under study. therefore, in order to establish the scope and content of the notion, we selected 89 word-terms that made up a working version of the author’s methodology. the goal of the research during the fifth stage was to reduce the number of notions, to exclude synonyms and “insignificant” units, as well as to design the final version of the specialized semantic differential. the frequency of use of a particular trait (quality) in the expert group was calculated based on the obtained data. the high frequency testified to the importance (not coincidence) of perceptions of this trait in the minds of experts. this made it possible to select the qualities most suitable to describing the personality of a serviceman psychologically ready for risk, and to determine the most important characteristics for such readiness. the sixth stage made it possible to develop a final version, which identified 35 scales (qualities and their antonyms), which were equally distributed in the following areas of personality: need-motivational, emotional-volitional, cognitive-educational, moral, existential-living, activitypractical and interpersonal-social (shevandrin, 2010). thus, a number of differences between different categories of the ngu servicemen regarding the meaningful content of the studied notion were identified by analysing the results of the research, taking into account average norms, standard deviations and statistical significance. the results obtained are shown in table 1. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 44 table 1. assessment of the personal characteristics of a risk-ready serviceman of the national guard of ukraine (in points) no scale officers, n=34 (group 1) contract servicemen, n=35 (group 2) conscript, n=37 (group 3) significance of differences t 1,2 t 1,3 t 2,3 1 proud of one’s profession 2.79±1.12 2.77±0.88 2.78±1.29 0.09 0.04 0.05 2 presence of leadership skills 2.65±0.92 3.09±1.20 3.08±1.26 1.71* 1.67* 0.02 3 motivation 2.38±0.85 2.60±1.01 3.08±0.86 0.97 3.43*** 2.17** 4 adherence to principles 2.29±1.38 2.66±1.03 2.70±1.31 1.24 1.28 0.17 5 material dependence 2.71±1.36 2.60±0.88 3.43±1.71 0.38 1.99** 2.62** 6 endurance 2.18±0.97 2.57±0.95 2.76±0.98 1.71* 2.50** 0.81 7 resoluteness 2.29±1.03 2.80±1.05 3.05±1.22 2.02** 2.84*** 0.95 8 emotional resilience 2.24±0.82 2.83±1.18 3.27±1.37 2.44** 3.91*** 1.47 9 courage 2.35±0.92 2.77±1.09 2.95±1.25 1.73* 2.29** 0.63 10 strong-will 2.38±0.95 2.51±1.10 2.68±1.03 0.53 1.25 0.64 11 quick in decisions 2.50±0.93 2.57±1.15 3.16±1.34 0.29 2.43** 2.01** 12 power of observation 2.27±0.99 3.17±1.04 2.89±1.39 3.69*** 2.20** 0.97 13 quick-wittedness 2.12±0.95 2.49±0.98 2.89±1.17 1.59 3.07*** 1.59 14 reasonableness 2.77±1.21 2.69±0.96 2.97±1.30 0.30 0.69 1.07 15 professional competence 2.71±0.94 2.60±1.17 3.11±1.31 0.42 1.49 1.74* 16 reliability 2.12±0.98 2.82±1.20 2.57±1.07 2.70*** 1.85** 0.97 17 public spirit 2.88±1.34 2.51±1.25 3.43±1.74 1.18 1.49 2.58** 18 honesty 2.24±0.99 2.49±0.95 3.11±1.33 1.07 3.16*** 2.29** 19 law abidance 2.50±1.05 2.83±1.10 3.11±1.45 1.27 2.04 0.93 20 social responsiveness 2.41±0.78 2.86±1.09 3.16±1.37 1.96* 2.87*** 1.05 21 self confidence 2.29±1.06 2.74±0.98 3.16±1.21 1.82* 3.22*** 1.66* 22 purposefulness 2.29±0.97 2.80±1.02 2.92±1.38 2.11** 2.22** 0.42 23 wideawakeness 2.94±1.72 2.51±0.82 3.38±1.52 1.31 1.13 3.03*** 24 independent behaviour 2.53±1.16 3.09±1.12 3.08±1.40 2.02** 1.81* 0.02 25 altruism 3.12±0.98 2.89±1.26 3.73±1.56 0.86 2.00** 2.54** psycho-semantic reconstruction of psychological risk readiness perceptions … ihor prykhodko, et al. 45 26 orderliness 2.79±1.25 3.29±1.43 3.49±1.64 1.52 2.01** 0.55 27 discipline state 2.68±0.95 3.23±1.48 3.14±1.42 1.86* 1.62 0.27 28 responsibility 2.29±1.03 3.03±1.22 3.08±1.01 2.69*** 3.24*** 0.19 29 initiativity 2.32±0.81 2.91±0.92 3.32±1.38 2.84*** 3.78*** 1.49 30 farsightedness 2.38±0.99 2.71±0.96 3.32±1.51 1.42 3.14*** 2.06** 31 confidence 3.06±1.69 3.03±1.29 3.51±1.66 0.08 1.14 1.39 32 companionship 2.56±1.26 2.62±1.22 2.62±1.48 0.23 0.19 0.02 33 resect of other’s interests 2.88±1.47 2.57±0.88 3.11±1.49 1.06 0.64 1.87* 34 credibility 2.50±0.96 2.97±0.99 3.22±1.29 2.01 2.66*** 0.91 35 outwardness 2.74±1.31 2.60±0.98 3.49±1.48 0.49 2.27** 3.01*** note: *р ≤0.01; ** р ≤0.05;*** р ≤0.1 based on the above data, commissioned officers perceive a riskready serviceman as such who is characterized by the following basic personal characteristics: “adherence to principles” related to the needmotivational sphere; “endurance”, “resoluteness” and “emotional resilience” (emotional-volitional sphere); “power of observation” and “quick-wittedness” (cognitive-educational sphere); “reliability” and “honesty” (moral sphere); “self-confidence” and “purposefulness” (existentially-living), as well as such trait of activity-practical sphere as “responsibility”. only the qualities characterizing the interpersonal-social sphere were not given a high rating by this category of servicemen. it should be noted, and this applies to all categories of respondents, that commissioned officers did not rate any quality with close rating to the opposite one according to the meaning of the personality trait content. such results may indicate high demands to the personality of the ngu serviceman, that is, in their opinion, such person should be comprehensively developed, professionally trained, emotionally stable, socially active in risky conditions, etc. commissioned officers’ perceptions of a risk-ready serviceman do not over-express such qualities as “wide-awakeness”, “altruism”, “public spirit”, “confidence” and “resect of other’s interests”. in turn, risk-ready contract servicemen being a representative of the ngu has such qualities as the ability to “strong-willed” effort and “endurance” (emotional-volitional sphere); “quick-wit-tedness” and “quick in decisions” (cognitive-educational), “honesty” and “public spirit” (moral), “resect of other’s interests” (interpersonal-social), “wide-awakeness” (existential-living). it should be noted that the lowest estimates of the contract servicemen’s qualities are given to the qualities that characterize the need-motivational and activity-practical spheres of personality. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 46 conscripts perceive a risk-ready serviceman, above all, as a serviceman with the following characteristics as “adherence to principles” and “satisfied with his profession” (need-motivational sphere), “reliability” (moral), “endurance” and “strong-willed” (emotional-volitional) and “companionship” (interpersonal-social). respondents in this category rated the qualities that characterize the activity-practical and cognitive-educational spheres somewhat lower. such results are due to the fact that because of their small military experience and possibly unwillingness to associate their professional careers with the ngu, the conscripts cannot objectively and differentially assess the qualities inherent in a risk-ready serviceman. according to table 1, the descriptions of the ngu risk-ready representative differ somewhat concerning the commissioned officers and contract servicemen. the respondents of these groups revealed statistical differences in the positions of “leadership skills”, “discipline state” (p≤0.01 in both cases), "independent behaviour” (p≤0.05), “responsibility”, “initiativity”, “reliability” (p≤0.1 in all specified positions). unlike the contractors, the commissioned officers believe that these qualities are more inherent in a risk-ready serviceman. the results obtained reflect, to a certain extent, the experience of contract servicemen in situations of uncertainty, who are more inherent in acting on orders and according to an early-drafted action plan, if any. in addition, under threatening critical circumstances, they try not to take responsibility for what is happening, and avoid responsibility for their subordinates. statistically significant differences between the estimates of contract servicemen and commissioned officers were found in the following qualities: “self-confidence”, endurance” (p≤0.01 in all cases), “purposefulness”, “emotional resilience”, “resoluteness” (at the level of p≤0.05), as well as “power of observation” and “courage” (differences at the level of p≤0.1 on the specified scales). the identified personal qualities of a risk-ready serviceman are significantly higher ranked by the commissioned officers than by the contract servicemen. the contract servicemen and commissioned officers differ significantly in the following assessments of personality traits related to the need-motivational sphere: “material dependence” (at the level of p≤0.05) and “motivation” (p≤0.1). the commissioned officers gave greater importance to personal traits, as in the case of differences in qualities that characterize the emotional-volitional sphere: “endurance” (at the level of p≤0.05), “emotional resilience”, “resoluteness”, “courage” (p ≤0.1 in all identified cases). psycho-semantic reconstruction of psychological risk readiness perceptions … ihor prykhodko, et al. 47 since the commissioned officers have much more responsibility and they need to make decisions that the lives of all subordinates sometimes depend on, they rated such qualities as “independent behaviour” (p≤0.01), “altruism”, “purposefulness”, “power of observation”, the ability of “quick decisions” (p≤0.05 in all specified cases), “quick-wit-tedness”, “selfconfidence” (p≤0.1 in both cases) significantly higher than the conscripts. there were also statistically significant differences between perceptions of the commissioned officers and the conscripts on such scales as “reliability” (p≤0.05), “social responsiveness”, “honesty” (p≤0.1 in both specified cases). these qualities of the moral sphere are the defining characteristics of the ngu risk-ready serviceman for the commissioned officers, in comparison to the conscripts. the certain rating of the qualities of the activity-practical sphere is a reflection of the servicemen’s attitude towards their own service as a professional activity, demonstration of their abilities, skills and habits in the conditions of performing their professional tasks in threatening, risky and dangerous situations. thus, the conscripts rated such positions as “orderliness” (p≤0.05), “farsightedness”, “initiativity”, “responsibility” (p≤0.1 in all specified cases) slightly lower than the commissioned officers. such results may indicate that, according to the conscripts, psychological risk readiness is defined as some situational characteristic of a person that does not require any particular in-depth training, so the characteristics of these spheres of personality are less significant for a risk-ready serviceman. let us now turn to the differences between the assessments provided by the contract servicemen and the conscripts. indeed, the contract servicemen, somewhat more than the conscripts, perceive a risk-ready serviceman as financially secure individual (p≤0.05). it turns out that it will be easier for the contract servicemen to be at risk, knowing that their efforts will be worthy of a material reward. in addition, the results of the “altruism” scale (2.89 ± 1.26 not too high indicator compared to other assessments in this group) indicate that, according to the contract servicemen’s perception, a risk-ready serviceman will not risk his own life disinterestedly. among other things the contract servicemen, compared to the conscripts, more believe that the ngu representative should be motivated to act under highrisk circumstances in order not to be frustrated (at the level of p≤0.05). in addition, the contract servicemen, unlike the conscripts, perceive a risk-ready serviceman as a person with such traits as ‘public spirit”, “honesty”, “altruism”, “farsightedness” (at the level of p≤0.05), more of “wide-awakeness” than riskiness (p≤0.1), “outwardness” (p≤0.1). brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 48 4. conclusions. through the psychosemantic method, it became possible to research and reconstruct (identify, describe and model) the structures of subjective experience (systems of meaning and content) in relation to the notion of a serviceman “psychological risk readiness”. certain features in relation to the different categories of servicemen concerning understanding the identity of a serviceman who is ready to take risks in the line of their duties have been specified. in the officers’ perceptions, such person tries to achieve a positive and successful outcome under all circumstances, is commander or subordinates independent, counts solely upon his forces, is determined and confident, many-sided personality, professionally trained, observant and emotionally resilient. the contract servicemen highly assess the ability of a risk-ready serviceman to make quick and deliberate decisions without paying attention to the high hazard of risky situations. under extreme circumstances, such a serviceman will act more deliberately and cautiously, trying not to harm others. the conscripts perceive a risk-ready ngu representative as resilient to emotional factors, while being able to control and restrain emotions, cautious but ready to take risks when necessary, to come to the rescue of comrades and other people. the conscripts also consider that pride in belonging to the ngu ranks is important. the respondents’ perceptions of a risk-ready serviceman are influenced by their professional training, length of service and past personal experience under high-risk conditions, as well as their past risky activities, ability to objectively assess high-risk situations, current needs and motivation for risky activities, etc. further study of the problem of servicemen psychological readiness for risk will allow to increase efficiency of professional activities of the ngu personnel under healthand life-threatening conditions. references absaliamova, l.m. (2009). psixologіchnі osoblivostі rozvitku gotovnostі do riziku u pіdlіtkovomu vіcі [psychological peculiarities of development of risk preparedness in adolescence]. (candidate’s dissertation). xarkіvs'kij nacіonal'nij pedago-gіchnij unіversitet. kharkiv https://mydisser.com/ua/catalog/view/252/807/18097.html artemieva, e.yu. (1999). osnovy psihologii subektivnoj semantiki [fundamentals of the psychology of subjective semantics]. moscow: nauka https://mydisser.com/ua/catalog/view/252/807/18097.html psycho-semantic reconstruction of psychological risk readiness perceptions … ihor prykhodko, et al. 49 https://bookap.info/book/artemeva_osnovy_psihologii_subektivnoy_sem antiki_1999/load/pdf.shtm berezhnaya, e.v., poroghnya, t.a., & kukota, s.i. (2005). analiz sushhestvuyushhix opredelenij riska i podxodov k ego klassifikacii [analysis of existing risk definitions and approaches to its classification]. sbornik nauchnyh trudov sevkav gtu: seriya e'konomika, 2, https://studbooks.net/2561677/ekonomika/osnovnye_ponyatiya_opredel eniya dolhyi, o.a., zadoianyi, m.t., & kroshko, v.p. (2002). profesіjnij rizik v dіyal'nostі pracіvnikіv podatkovoї mіlіcі [professional risk in the activities of tax police officers]. kyiv, ukraine: ataka-n. https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?hl=uk&user=zij_6xwaaaaj dubiaha, a. a. (2014). gotovnіst' do riziku u profesіjnіj dіyal'nostі v uyavlennyax vіjs'kovosluzhbovcіv nacіonal'noi gvardі ukrainy [readiness for risk in professional activity in representations of military personnel of the national guard of ukraine], vеsnyk natsіonalnoho universitetu oborony ukrayiny, 4(41), 205-210. http://books.ndcnangu.co.ua/konfertmcii/konf_nangu_29.11.2019.pdf furedi, f. (1997). culture of fear: risk-taking and the morality of low expectation. london, washington. cassel, wellington house habibulin, e.r. (2008). gotovnost' k risku kak faktor effektivnoj pedagogicheskoj deyatel'nosti v situaciyah neopredelennosti [readiness for risk as a factor in effective teaching activities in situations of uncertainty] (candidate’s dissertation). psixol. in-t ros. akad. obrazovaniya. moscow. https://www.dissercat.com/content/gotovnost-k-risku-kak-faktoreffektivnoi-pedagogicheskoi-deyatelnosti-v-situatsiyakh-neopred ilin, e. p. (2012). psikhologiya riska [risk psychology]. sankt-peterburg, russia: https://libs.ru/book/243115/ khlon, o.m. (2011). psixologіchnі osoblivostі profesіjnogo riziku pracіvnikіv krimіnal'noi polіcі [psychological peculiarities of professional risk of criminal police officers] (candidate’s dissertation). nac. akad. vnutrіshnіh sprav. kyiv. http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichni-osoblyvosti-profesiy-noho-ryzykupratsivnykiv-kryminalnoyi-militsiyi.html kornilova, t.v. (2003). psihologiya riska i prinyatiya reshenij [psychology of risk and decision making]. moscow, russia: aspekt press. https://www.twirpx.com/file/585810/ luhmann, n. (1993). risk: a sociological theory. berlin new york: walter de gruyter. petrenko, v.f. (2005). osnovi psihosemantiki [basics psychosemantics]. sankt-peterburg, russia: piter. https://studfile.net/preview/1792564/ https://bookap.info/book/artemeva_osnovy_psihologii_subektivnoy_semantiki_1999/load/pdf.shtm https://bookap.info/book/artemeva_osnovy_psihologii_subektivnoy_semantiki_1999/load/pdf.shtm https://studbooks.net/2561677/ekonomika/osnovnye_ponyatiya_opredeleniya https://studbooks.net/2561677/ekonomika/osnovnye_ponyatiya_opredeleniya https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?hl=uk&user=zij_6xwaaaaj http://books.ndcnangu.co.ua/konfertmcii/konf_nangu_29.11.2019.pdf https://www.dissercat.com/content/gotovnost-k-risku-kak-faktor-effektivnoi-pedagogicheskoi-deyatelnosti-v-situatsiyakh-neopred https://www.dissercat.com/content/gotovnost-k-risku-kak-faktor-effektivnoi-pedagogicheskoi-deyatelnosti-v-situatsiyakh-neopred https://libs.ru/book/243115/ http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichni-osoblyvosti-profesiy-noho-ryzyku-pratsivnykiv-kryminalnoyi-militsiyi.html http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichni-osoblyvosti-profesiy-noho-ryzyku-pratsivnykiv-kryminalnoyi-militsiyi.html https://www.twirpx.com/file/585810/ https://studfile.net/preview/1792564/ brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 50 petrovskyi, v.a. (1992). psihologiya neadaptivnoj aktivnosti [psychology of non-adaptive activity]. moscow, russia: gorbunok. https://klex.ru/bsk prykhodko, і.і. (2008). viznachennya stresostіjkostі u vіjs'kovosluzhbovcіv pіdrozdіlіv specіal'nogo priznachennya vnutrіshnіh vіjs'k mvs ukrainy pіd chas vikonannya specіal'nogo sluzhbovo-bojovogo zavdannya [determination of the stress resistance of military personnel of special units of internal troops of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine during the execution of a special service and combat task.] vіsnik nacіonal'noi akademі oboroni ukrainy, 4, 116-122. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_hls8ewaaaaj&hl=ru&aut huser=1 serkin, v.p. (2008). metody psihologii subektivnoj semantiki i psihosemantiki [methods of psychology of subjective semantics and psycho-semantics]. moscow, russia: psyhea. https://bit.ly/3r2uede shevandrin, n.i. (2001). psikhodiagnostika, korrektsiya i razvitiye lichnosti. [psychodiagnostics, correction and personality development]. moscow, russia: vlados, https://www.twirpx.com/file/15245/ stoklasa, j., talasek, t., & stoklasova, j. (2018). semantic differential for the twenty-first century: scale relevance and uncertainty entering the semantic space. quality & quantity, 53 (1), 435-448. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11135-018-0762-1 vdovіchenko, o.v. (2003). proyav ta korekcіya riziku u studentіv, yakі navchayut'sya za rіznimi osvіtn'o-profesіjnimi programami [manifestation and correction of risk for students studying under different educational and professional programs] (candidate’s dissertation). khark. nac. un-t іm. v.n.karazіna, kharkiv. http://www.disslib.org/projav-ta-korektsia-ryzyku-u-studentiv-jakinavchajutsja-za-riznymy-osvitno.html zasiekina, l.v., & zasiekin s.v. (2008). psykholinhvistychna diahnostyka [psycholinguistics diagnostics]. lutsk, ukraine: rvv vezha https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?user=2vsvqiiaaaaj&hl=ru zubkov, v.i. (2005). risk kak predmet sociologicheskogo analiza [risk as a subject of sociological analysis] (candidate’s dissertation). mosk. gos. un-t pishhevyh proizvodstv inst. e'konom. i predprinimatel'stva. moscow, https://www.dissercat.com/content/risk-kak-predmet-sotsiologicheskogoanaliza https://klex.ru/bsk https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_hls8ewaaaaj&hl=ru&authuser=1 https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_hls8ewaaaaj&hl=ru&authuser=1 https://bit.ly/3r2uede https://www.twirpx.com/file/15245/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11135-018-0762-1 http://www.disslib.org/projav-ta-korektsia-ryzyku-u-studentiv-jaki-navchajutsja-za-riznymy-osvitno.html http://www.disslib.org/projav-ta-korektsia-ryzyku-u-studentiv-jaki-navchajutsja-za-riznymy-osvitno.html https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?user=2vsvqiiaaaaj&hl=ru https://www.dissercat.com/content/risk-kak-predmet-sotsiologicheskogo-analiza https://www.dissercat.com/content/risk-kak-predmet-sotsiologicheskogo-analiza brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 139-156 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/100 peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children kateryna mannapova¹, ivan okhrimenko2, iuliia tverdokhvalova3, svitlana bychkova4, pavlo makarenko5, viktoriia меlnychuk6 1 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of the department of sociology and psychology, kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, e.mannapova@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000003-3754-4637 2 doctor in law, professor, professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, ivango-07@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-8813-5107 3 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of the department of sociology and psychology, kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, tverdohvalova.julia@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0001-8431-0943 4 doctor in law, professor, head of the department of civil law and procedure, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, civilkafedra@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-8227-2127 5 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, deputy dean of the faculty no. 4, kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, makarval96@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000002-9055-3287 6 candidate of philosophy, associate professor, associate professor of the department of social sciences, polissia national university, zhytomyr, ukraine, vikam1804@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000003-1569-3201 abstract: the paper reflects the content and forms of the sexual abuse of children and the features of incestuous abuse. it analyzes the impact of sexual abuse on a child’s life, including the immediate and long-term consequences of sexual violence. the paper determines the peculiarities of psychological assistance to sexually abused children, the goals of psychological support, the tasks and forms of conducting a psychological session with a child. the aim of the study is to identify the impact of psychological assistance on the dynamics and changes in the personal characteristics of sexually abused children. the empirical basis of the study consisted of 64 people (9 boys and 55 girls between the ages of 6 and 15) who had been sexually abused and received psychological assistance. the experimental study was conducted during 2019 and covered the results of observations, interviews with children who were the victims of violence, collecting formalized data using three multifactorial psychodiagnostic techniques. it was proved that psychotherapeutic work with this category of children contributes to changes in the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral spheres of personality. there were positive changes in mental states, gradual changes in the attitudes towards their body and assessment of their physicality, the development of sexuality, a correct idea of the body was formed, etc. the methodical complex used in the research confirmed its validity and it can be used as a psychological tool for diagnosing the mental trauma of abused children. keywords: child victims; violence; abuse; sexual assault; sexual abuse; psychological help; psycho-rehabilitation. how to cite: mannapova, k., okhrimenko, i., tverdokhvalova, i., bychkova, s., makarenko, p., & меlnychuk, v. (2020). peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 139-156. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/100 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/100 mailto:e.mannapova@gmail.com mailto:ivango-07@ukr.net mailto:tverdohvalova.julia@gmail.com mailto:civilkafedra@gmail.com mailto:makarval96@gmail.com mailto:vikam1804@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/100 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 140 1. introduction to date, the problem of violence and abuse of children is increasingly mentioned around the world. the situation is exacerbated by the constant reforming of the field in which children are brought up: the functioning of educational institutions, media, youth and children’s nongovernmental organizations, and the family institution is changing (aleksandrov et al., 2017). self-doubt, financial dependence, age characteristics of the minors’ mentality (immaturity, subordination to adults, the lack of life experience, inability to assess the situation fully and critically and predict possible consequences) lead to the fact that children are being abused more and more often in a violence-tolerant society (mannapova, 2019). the number of cases of the sexual violence of children is growing every year, although these cases are not always open to public analysis owing to non-disclosure, shame, and suppression of violence. any child or adolescent, regardless of age, gender, cultural or social background, can be a victim of sexual violence. these cases can be explained by the lack of experience, errors in the perception of reality, the children’s lack of necessary knowledge to understand or explain what is happening to them. all this determines the need for the existence and interaction of the system of “child-victim – psychological assistance – normal life”. 2. literature review the problem of sexual violence was studied by such scientists as ananenko (2002); bezpalʹko et al., (2010); cherepanova (1995); demirci (2018); dvoryanchykov & hutnyk (2012); gindin & dukhova (1997); hobbs et al., (1993); hunea et al., (2020); kempe et al., (1962); malkinapykh (2010); mikhanovsʹka et al., (2019); nambo (2019); platonova & platonov (2004); summit (1983); tsymbal (2007); volkovа (2011). thus, the violence and abuse of children have recently become the subject of empirical research; domestic works on this issue remain occasional. in particular, kochemirovs’ka (2008) explains that sexual abuse of children is the most covert form of abuse. at the same time, having studied the problems of child abuse within the family, cherepanova (1995) described the manifestations and symptoms that may reveal the fact of violence against a child by parents. she explored the social, physical, and psychological consequences of the sexual abuse of children within the family. in addition, safonova (2007) revealed the concept of child abuse within the family, its types and forms of manifestation, and the consequences of psychological, peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children kateryna mannapova, et al. 141 physical, and sexual violence against children within the family. the researcher developed a number of lessons for social educators and social workers to expand the concept of domestic violence and teach them to work with abused children, which included diagnostics and general recommendations for interviewing such children. thus, analyzing some scientific studies on the psychological assistance to sexually abused children, we can conclude that there is no clear understanding of the content of psychological assistance to such children; preventive work in this area is not systematic, the forms and methods of psychological assistance are insufficiently studied. gindin & dukhova (1997) note that most sexual assaults on children occur without the use of physical force or threat, i. e. without the use of violence in the traditional criminal sense. it is connected with the fact that the goal of an adult is to engage a child in sexual intercourse but not to cause physical or mental suffering, or demonstrate negative emotions, power, and control, as in the cases of physical or mental abuse. therefore, the term “sexual abuse” is more accurate than “sexual violence”. sexual violence or abuse is involving a child with or without consent to sexual activity with adults to get sexual pleasure or benefits. the child’s consent to sexual intercourse does not give grounds to consider it non-violent, as a child depends on the adult and may not be aware of the importance of sexual intercourse owing to functional immaturity, and is unable to predict all the negative consequences of these actions (gindin & dukhova, 1997). regarding the classification of sexual violence, it can be based on different characteristics and approaches. thus, hobbs et al. (1993) emphasize specific forms of the sexual abuse of children. they state that domestic violence is sexual violence by blood relatives (parents, brothers, and sisters); persons replacing parents (adoptive and foster parents); persons who perform the functions of parents (husband or cohabitant of the mother, wife or cohabitant of the father); close relatives (uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins) with whom a child lives or communicates frequently. all these adults affect a child, who depends on them. at the same time, domestic violence includes sexual violence by an adult who is well known to a child, such as family friends, neighbors, distant relatives, or educators. a child is familiar with these individuals, trusts them, and does not perceive them as a possible source of danger. besides, non-domestic gang sexual violence refers to the creation of a stable group of children by a pedophile, some of whom participate in sexual relations. as varied as the forms of such groups may be (public brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 142 organization, sports section, club, studio, etc.), the main purpose of their creation is sexual contact of adults with children, that is why all such groups have following common features: unconditional authority (power) of the charismatic group leader; a rigid hierarchical structure of the group, which connects the power and authority of any group member with its closeness to the leader; the secrets known only to the initiates that lead to the lack of information of the majority of group members about the nature of relations among the elect; strict discipline; older adolescents who do not appeal to the leader as a sexual partners anymore have the opportunity to engage younger members of the group in sexual relations; extensive use of rituals, the convictions about the sense of having been chosen, because of which the group is closed from external control; keeping the leader’s sexual contact with members of the group secret contributes not only to the leader’s authority but also to adolescents pressure; any dissemination of sexual information between the group members is considered treason and is condemned; emphasized kindness and love for children, which is demonstrated by the leader during public speeches and in the media; active participation in a group of children from disadvantaged families who do not have a trusting relationship with their parents and whose parents are not interested in the lives of their children; special relationships in the group (strict control, secrecy, the exaltation of the leader) are represented as pedagogical innovations. street violence is sexual violence by strangers or casual acquaintances. this form of violence is characterized by a sudden attack, the use of physical force, or threats to suppress the child’s resistance. finally, institutional abuse comprehends sexual violence, which is used to demonstrate power and control, to build hierarchical relationships within the team. this form of sexual violence is common in closed child groups (hobbs et al., 1993). the analysis of cases of the sexual abuse of children shows that the subject of sexual abuse is mostly a relative or acquaintance. the most serious form of sexual abuse is incest, i. e. when a child is sexually abused by a close relative. such sexual violence is a sign of a malfunctioning family. incest is not considered violent against a child, as it does not always involve force or direct coercion. in most cases, children voluntarily accept sexual activity (mannapova, 2019). there are many reasons for this, such as trust and love for the abuser, the fear of losing one’s attachment. however, child care workers must be aware that a child may not realize violence because of age or other reasons. therefore, platonova, and platonov (2004) point out that it is extremely important to understand that even when children are aware of peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children kateryna mannapova, et al. 143 the importance of their actions, they still do not have the experience to predict all the effects of such actions on their mental or physical health (öznacar et al., 2018). at the initial stage of incestuous relationships, they do not seem violent to a child, because they start with physical contacts, such as touching, stroking, and only then these actions become more sexualized. children may perceive such relationships between a loving adult and a child as normal and acceptable (platonova & platonov, 2004). in addition, kochemirovs’ka (2008) mentions that some victims report that they understood that everything that happened to them was wrong but did not want to lose the emotional warmth they received from the offender in exchange for consent and silence. gindin & dukhova (1997) explain this situation by the fact that communication disorders are common for such families – children and other family members are often aware of the violence but expect it to end on its own. besides, dvoryanchykov & hutnyk (2012) argue that there may be several sexually abused children in a family, and if it is not disclosed for a long time, all children may be victims consecutively or simultaneously. often children do not realize that their siblings are also victims because their experiences are self-centered. when only one child is a victim of violence, other children notice a special attitude towards one but cannot understand the reasons. the features of mechanisms that prevent disclosure are important in the analysis and diagnosis of child abuse cases. the main ones include isolation, a threat that leads to despair, demonstration of power, deception, or blackmail (dvoryanchykov & hutnyk, 2012). a child’s confession is a process in which a child is motivated to tell a specialist or significant adult that he or she is being abused. the recognition occurs when the motivation to report the event and change the situation is stronger than the motivation to keep everything secret, not to change the situation, and to avoid the possible negative consequences of disclosing violence. alekseyeva (2003) explains that the less a child understands the specifics of the actions happening to him, the more familiar is the environment in which they take place, the less important is the struggle of motives. the studies conducted by bezpal’ko et al. (2010); bridges et al. (2004) demonstrated that offenses, cruelty, and the lack of emotional warmth have a fatal effect on a child’s life. these children grow up distrustful and vulnerable. they perceive themselves and others inadequately, do not distinguish their own feelings they are unable to trust, prone to cruelty, as if they want to take revenge on others for their brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 144 experience of humiliation. the immediate consequences of abuse are emotional (low mood, anxiety), cognitive (obsessive memories of what happened), behavioral (self-destruction), and autonomic (sleep and appetite) disorders. according to the mechanism of occurrence, the direct psychological consequences of sexual violence are acute reactions to mental trauma (stress). summit (1983) notes that if sexual violence lasts a long time, a child develops a complex of psychological and behavioral disorders aimed at adapting to these conditions. this complex is a specific disorder of adaptation, which from the perspective of modern psychiatry, is called accommodation syndrome in english literature. the manifestations of the accommodation syndrome cannot be considered a mental norm, but it should be considered that this is a child’s natural reaction to extreme conditions, a reaction that allows minimizing the harm of sexual violence. the accommodation syndrome described by summit occurs only when sexual contact with an adult happens against the will of a child and the offender uses coercion, mental or physical violence to achieve the goals. however, if an adult makes a child receive sexual pleasure from one’s own actions using the child’s trust and commitment, it does not form the typical accommodation syndrome because there are no events perceived by a child as mental trauma (summit, 1983). pchel’nikova (2012) distinguishes the forms of abused children’s attitudes to themselves and others: 1) they feel different, unworthy of love, bad, “dirty”. this is often combined with the idea of being little, weak, not able to affect the life situation. a child feels helpless and insecure about one’s own abilities and skills (situation of the victim). it is also possible that teenager looks like a “strong guy” or a “cool girl” but a deep fear and the same feeling of helplessness, complicated by alienation from people, the desire for love and warmth is hidden behind this armor; 2) children do not trust others (especially adults). such victims of violence consider adults dangerous, hostile, and deprive themselves of the opportunity to seek help. often the motto of such children is “do not trust anyone, do not expect anything, and do not ask for anything”; 3) they have extremely weak contact with their body and true feelings. the suppression often results in dissociation. the most common form of dissociation is the separation of bodily sensations and awareness. at some point, the dissociation helped a child survive; cope with unbearable physical and/or mental pain. it seems to a child that this happened to someone else but not to her/him. a child learns to “freeze” his or her peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children kateryna mannapova, et al. 145 emotional and physical reactions, and then often tries to regain the lost intensity of feelings through alcohol or drugs; 4) such children have disorders of interpersonal interaction. they become either excessively rigid or indistinct (pchel’nikova, 2012). it should be noted that there is a difference between boys and girls in the way of dealing with psychological trauma after being abused. thus, according to a study by dvoryanchykov & hutnyk (2012), boys try to deal with memories of abuses through imprudent behavior in order to identify themselves, for example, from an attacker. this can lead to sexual behavior and an increased risk of violence from others. at the same time, girls often react as victims and are more vulnerable to traumatic experiences. they may feel that the abuse was their fault, feel self-loathing, with low self-esteem, which can lead to self-destructive risky behavior. that is why, platonova & platonov (2004) point out that the work on knowledge and memories should be gradual. a specialist should create trusting and stable emotional connections; move slowly and gently to warmth, trust, intimacy but without sharp movements that cause protective behavior. the intensive experience requires strong external borders, a stable and safe environment. the importance of favorable interpersonal relationships between a child and psychologist is considered by some researchers on this issue (mishchyk et al., 2003). the therapy with adults makes it possible to achieve positive results in both positive and negative transference; however, the work with children requires only positive transmission. this implies a tender affection, which resembles the child’s attitude towards the mother. thus, it can be argued that the loss of control and feeling helpless are very significant for the affected child. persecutors make their victims feel guilty for what happened to them: a child looked or acted in the way to provoke coercion or cruelty. children often talk about what happened with their relatives or teachers but they do not believe them. thus, it is no wonder that after such a reaction, the child’s sense of helplessness increases. the more the integrity of the ego of a sexually abused child is violated, the more supporting elements that promote integration and the restoration of integrity must be included in the work. in addition, some researchers (kempe et al., 1962; robins et al., 2012) indicate that after recognizing the fact of violence, a child may experience loneliness, neglect, and loss. a child often feels homesick if one has moved to another place of residence, sometimes he/she may lose the attention and warmth one received from the abuser. realizing that relatives and close people have failed to escape violence can make a child feel guilty brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 146 and sometimes depressed. the child’s sense of guilt becomes very acute after the violence is revealed, as he/she starts to reconsider one’s relationship with the abuser. when the fear begins to diminish, the sense of guilt becomes dominant. the guilt is often suppressed because of the taboo imposed on sexuality. a girl may believe that she has seduced a criminal, and this thought is exacerbated if she has sexual feelings. she may believe that she has ruined the mother’s relationship with a father or stepfather. a child takes responsibility for the breakup of the family, accusing herself of poor protection. the guilt is revealed in different ways. children with a relatively strong sense of dignity may react angrily to government intervention, aggressively to the abuser and the mother who failed to protect them. these negative feelings can lead to self-destructive behavior. aggression can contribute to imprudent behavior at home and at school and creates the conditions for delinquency. one form of guilt is depressed, closed, and silent behavior. the feeling of guilt and shame can be destroyed only through a consistent and thorough restoration of trust in the relationship with a child. the confession of shame is the first stage of self-help, as the possibility of destroying feelings of guilt and shame arises from verbalization and other ways of responding to a situation of violence. in the process of psychorehabilitation, it is important to show a child that feelings cannot be bad or good. the best way to respond to ambivalent feelings is a child’s natural activity (drawing, playing, i. e. using art therapy, play therapy, sand therapy, etc.). in the process of providing psychological assistance to children, the central point is the child’s story about the happened events (kempe et al., 1962; robins et al., 2012). in general, sexually abused children have a weak sense of dignity, thus, in our opinion, an important step of psycho-rehabilitation is working with the child's “self-concept”, which is often referred to as “bad-me”. as a result of violence, children are deprived of a sense of control over their psychological security, so they feel powerless and unable to protect their personal space. the following results should be achieved: strengthening the child’s independence, increasing self-confidence and a sense of dignity. these goals are achieved when teaching children the following skills: avoiding risky situations; setting borders and understanding of the need for self-defense in the future; feeling the borders and personal space of other people; saying “no” in different situations; communicating (orally and nonverbally); peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children kateryna mannapova, et al. 147 forming a distance in communication and distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable touching. thus, it becomes clear that all these positions have both advantages and disadvantages, so they should be taken into account in the complex. at the same time, the issues of identifying the dynamics of changes in the personality of an abused child after receiving psychological help are ignored. therefore, the aim of the study is to identify the impact of psychological assistance on the dynamics and changes in the personal characteristics of sexually abused children. 3. methodology the empirical basis of the study included the results of observations and interviews with 64 sexually abused children between the ages of 6 and 15, including 9 boys and 55 girls, who received appropriate psychological assistance. the study was conducted in three stages in 2019. at the initial stage, formalized data were collected using three multifactorial psychodiagnostic methodologies, including the method “pediatric symptom checklist”, adapted questionnaire of the mental states self-assessment by h. eysenck, questionnaire mbsrq-as ‒ the scales of the appearance assessment and orientation to appearance. the indicators on the methodologies scales obtained after statistical analysis are presented in table 1 (in the column “the 1st stage”). the methodology “pediatric symptom checklist” was developed by jellinek, murphy, and their colleagues (jellinek et al., 1988), and adapted by mikhanovsʹka et al. (2019). this methodology is aims at the identification of psychosocial dysfunction of children, designed to facilitate the recognition of their cognitive, emotional and behavioral problems. the issues of the questionnaire cover the features of psychosocial development of a child from 5 main areas of the daily life of school-age children: emotional mood, games, school, friends, and family relationships. the critical points (from 31 points and above) show that a child still has certain psychosocial disorders that require detailed analysis and the help of psychological and medical professionals. to find out which exactly problems a child has, the subscales of internalization and externalization can be applied. the questionnaire of the mental states self-assessment by h. eysenck is designed to diagnose the intensity level of such states as anxiety, frustration, aggression, rigidity (lemak & petryshche, 2012). the questionnaire involves 40 statements that allow determining the attitude on a trichotomous scale (the answer options are “suitable”, “suitable, but not too brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 148 much”, “not suitable”). the statements are grouped into 4 scales: anxiety, frustration, aggression, rigidity. the processing of the results is carried out by calculating the sum of points on each scale. the obtained result indicates the intensity level of the selected four states. the mbsrq questionnaire was developed by cash (1995). the study applies the short version of this questionnaire (mbsrq-as), adapted by tataurova (2009). the mbsrq-as consists of 34 items and contains five subscales that describe a person’s attitude to one’s own body, including twofactor subscales (the assessment of appearance and orientation to appearance) and three additional (the satisfaction with body parameters, concern for overweight and self-assessment of weight). the questionnaire items are the statements about various aspects of the attitude towards one's own body. the respondents are asked to assess the extent to which each of the statements relates to them, using a 5-point scale, where the number “1” means the lowest degree of agreement, and “5” – the maximum degree of agreement with each statement (tataurova, 2009). in the second stage, sexually abused children were provided with psychological support in the form of psycho-rehabilitation (minimum obligatory number of meetings was 30). the following goals of psychological assistance were identified: the formation of a positive self-concept; the development of abilities and skills, that allow a child to express thoughts, feelings, behavior, establish confidence in others; the restoration of self-esteem and positive attitude towards oneself; the development and improvement of social qualities of the child's personality; the correction of “sexualized” behavior; the formation of the ability to accept one’s own body. at the third stage, repeated psychodiagnostics was performed according to the mentioned methods (column “the 2nd stage” in table 1) to identify statistically significant differences in data that reflect the dynamics of personal indicators of this category of subjects received before and after providing psychological assistance. to compare the indicators before and after providing psychological assistance, the wilcoxon t-test, which is designed to compare two samples in terms of the features intensity, was used. the wilcoxon signed-rank test is significant at the level of 0.05, i. e. if the significance level is p≤0.05, the changes are authentic with a tolerance of 5%, and if the significance level p≤0.01, the changes are authentic with a tolerance of 1%. peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children kateryna mannapova, et al. 149 the research was carried out according to the requirements of the code of ethics of kharkiv national university of internal affairs. informed consent was received from all individuals who took part in this research and who could refuse participation at any time. 4. results the diagnostic work (the 1st stage) indicated a low level of psychosocial functioning ‒ 29.84±2.40, and increased levels of externalization and internalization (16.01±1.22 and 13.75±1.61 respectively). therefore, children directed the response to the psycho-traumatic situation both to their internal and external world. they spent more time alone, were less interested in school and friends, became more afraid of new situations, had bad sleep and appetite, hid their feelings, felt guilty and bad, did not understand the feelings of others, complained about various pain, getting tired quickly. they also had problems in relationships with parents, friends, teachers and others; took excessive and unjustified risk, resulting in injuries and damage. according to the results of the adapted questionnaire of the mental states self-assessment by h. eysenck (lemak & petryshche, 2012), a high level of anxiety (14.78±2.29) and frustration (16.00±2.14), and middle levels of rigidity (12.78±1.53) and aggression (9.07±1.71) were observed. the indicators of the mbsrq-as (tataurova, 2009) questionnaire revealed a distorted perception of one’s own body and a misunderstanding of normal sexuality. the general comparative analysis of the indicators of psychorehabilitation work with the children who experienced sexual violence showed statistically significant differences in the data (table 1), which reflect the dynamics of changes in the child’s personality after receiving psychological help. table 1. the comparative analysis of the results of psycho-rehabilitation work with sexually abused children (mean±sd), c.u. the indicators studied the stages of research the wilcoxon t-test significance value, p the 1st stage the 2nd stage “pediatric symptom checklist” (psc) (mikhanovsʹka et al., 2019) general index 29.84±2.40 28.18±1.73 850.00 internalization scale 13.75±1.61 12.81±1.11 431.00 0.001 externalization scale 16.01±1.22 15.18±1.55 439.00 0.05 the mental states self-assessment by h. eysenck (lemak & petryshche, 2012) anxiety 14.78±2.29 13.23±1.34 513.50 0.05 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 150 frustration 16.00±2.14 15.03±1.14 333.50 0.05 aggression 9.07±1.71 8.76±1.43 376.50 rigidity 12.78±1.53 11.82±3.24 555.00 0.05 the questionnaire mbsrq-as (tataurova, 2009) appearance assessment 8.04±0.80 9.35±0.53 555.50 0.05 orientation to appearance 9.58±2.30 12.48±0.91 713.00 mean – arithmetical average; sd – standard deviation; р – significance of difference between the indicators of the first and the second stages of research on the basis of the data in the table 1, it should be noted that the work has positive results. first, the level of psychosocial functioning on the scales “internalization” and “externalization” was improved (p≤0.001 and p≤0.05 respectively). the construct “psychosocial functioning” reflects the child's ability to perform daily activities and enter into relationships with other people in a way that satisfies them and others. the indicators of the integrated index demonstrate a low level, i. e. some “psychosocial dysfunction”. however, a comparative analysis shows statistically confirmed changes in cognitive, emotional, and behavioral areas, such as peer communication, well-being, sleep, anxiety and fears, behavior, and interaction with others. comparing the indicators according to the methodology “the mental states self-assessment” (lemak & petryshche, 2012), the dynamics was found on the scales “anxiety”, “frustration” and “rigidity” at p≤0.05. the most universal and severe response to any kind of violence is low selfesteem, which helps to maintain psychological disorders associated with violence. a child experiences feelings of guilt, shame, a constant belief in one’s own inferiority. as a result, it is difficult for a child to gain the respect of others and success, communication with peers also becomes difficult. such children and adolescents have depression very frequently which is revealed in attacks of anxiety, unconscious sadness, loneliness, and sleep disorders. in later years, adolescents may experience suicide attempts or commit suicide. they feel unhappy, wretched, adapt to abnormal living conditions, and try to find a way out. psycho-rehabilitation work has a positive impact on these areas. the children who have experienced violence can objectify their anxiety, anger, and fear, express their feelings, which have often been taboo by the abuser and relatives who did not help in overcoming the violence, in a safe atmosphere at sessions. such work helps a child to overcome feelings of guilt, shame, and responsibility for the peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children kateryna mannapova, et al. 151 violence, to accept oneself with those “wounds” that will remain “scars” and to integrate this self-perception into the structure of one’s personality. the formation of a new external self-image in adolescence is conditioned by physiological, social, and psychological determinants. the perception and acceptance of one’s own body and satisfaction (dissatisfaction) with one’s appearance affect not only the behavior, selfesteem, and self-attitude of the adolescent but also one’s self-concept. the external self-image is a much more important component of adolescence than adults usually think. the scale “appearance assessment” describes the feeling of physical attractiveness/unattractiveness. the high points on this scale mean general dissatisfaction with one’s own appearance. “orientation to appearance” characterizes the degree of contribution to one’s own appearance. the low scores mean indifference to one’s own appearance, a person does not spend much time to look good. in general, the study shows that in the process of psycho-rehabilitation work there are positive changes in the assessment of physicality (p≤0.05), a correct idea of the body and normal sexuality is formed. it is also important to prevent possible difficulties in future psychological and sexual life. realizing the impact of body image on self-awareness in general and on such an indicator as standards of living, it is necessary to recognize the importance of the work in this area. 5. limits and discussion the psychodiagnostic techniques used in our study (pediatric symptom checklist (psc), the mental states self-assessment by h. eysenck, questionnaire mbsrq-as) are not original. they are the adapted versions in russian and ukrainian, the use of which is authorized by ukrainian scientists on the basis of a cooperation agreement between g. s. kostiuk institute of psychology of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine and international public professional organization european federation of psychologists associations (efpa) (no. 27/134 dated 12.05.1997). despite the small number of research in this area, we are expanding the scope of the problem of the sexual abuse of children, which was outlined by ananenko (2002); bezpalʹko et al. (2010); cherepanova (1995); demirci (2018); dvoryanchykov & hutnyk (2012); gindin & dukhova (1997); hobbs et al. (1993); hunea et al. (2020); kempe et al. (1962); malkina-pykh (2010); mikhanovsʹka et al. (2019); nambo (2019); platonova & platonov (2004); summit (1983); tsymbal (2007); volkovа (2011), because it was established that psychological work with a child (a victim of sexual violence) brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 152 is aimed at overcoming the child’s alienation by establishing trusting contact and neutralizing the affective state, and subsequently, correcting the crisis and the behavior of the individual. bezpal'ko et al. (2010), karaca et al. (2011); hunea et al. (2020) note that the first step in working with a child is to accept him or her and assume that the child has a right to one’s own attitudes toward others. our study found that the driving force behind children’s development is their emotional relationships with people who care for them. it is especially important for the work with children who are the victims of violence. to help them change, it is necessary to understand them deeply and create an experience of corrective care, to compensate for the lack of warmth. a child can express one’s feelings only if there is a person who fully accepts, understands, and supports her/him. an important step in the psychological support of a child is overcoming the fears that arise as a result of exposing violence. this topic is dominant for the child from the first meetings with a specialist. therefore, according to geddes et al. (2000), it is worth talking about all stages of the jurisdictional process very clear and detailed, emphasizing the child’s role. the fears of being punished, neglected, and abandoned must be worked out with a child. the children who have been sexually abused often have a distorted view of their own bodies and a misunderstanding of normal sexuality. karaca et al. (2011); malkina-pykh (2010); nambo (2019); tsymbal (2007) point out the changes in the child victims’ self-perception of their body image; these children may get the impression that their body is “spoiled” – the so-called damaged goods syndrome. other children may have the idea that they are dirty; sometimes their attitude towards themselves is accompanied by an exaggerated need to wash (obsessive symptom). according to the results of our research, high-quality psychological assistance contributes to changes in self-perception. it is important to prevent possible difficulties in the future emotional and sexual life. on the basis of the position of al odhayani et al. (2013) in terms of the relevance of identifying the problems of an abused child, the results of our study developed the opinion that child victims of sexual violence have difficulty expressing their feelings in words or actions. sometimes hidden feelings and needs are expressed in undifferentiated aggression, which a child cannot understand and express in words. the difficulties in expressing feelings are mostly explained by the fact that they were the parts of the child’s strategies for psychological survival after trauma. therefore, in the peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children kateryna mannapova, et al. 153 process of counseling, a specialist should identify other problem areas of an abused child. 6. conclusions in the course of our empirical research it was proved that the efficient goals of providing psychological assistance to sexually abused children are the formation of a positive self-concept of such children; the development of abilities and skills that allow a child to express thoughts, feelings, behavior, establish confidence in others; the restoration of selfesteem and positive attitude towards oneself; the development and improvement of social qualities of the child’s personality; the correction of “sexualized” behavior; the formation of the ability to self-acceptance; the development of the ability to make independent decisions. this research is useful for building the competence of psychologists and social workers in providing psychological support and assistance to sexually abused children. the consequences severity of the sexual abuse of a child depends on many factors, including the circumstances of the violence, the characteristics of an abuser; duration, frequency and severity of violence; the reactions of others, etc. sexual abuse is the most traumatic for a child. the consequences of abuse are more serious if it is committed by a person who is close to the child. if family members are on the child’s side rather than the abuser’s after sexual abuse, the consequences for the child will be less serious than in the case when the child does not receive protection and support. in the process of clearly organized psycho-rehabilitation work with this category of children, there are positive changes in the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral areas of personality such as mood, features of the games, school life, relationships with friends and parents. this helps to reduce emotional indicators of guilt, shame, fear, and responsibility for violence, anxiety about the future, ambivalence, self-regulation disorders, and outbursts of aggression. gradually, there appear positive changes in the attitude to one’s own body, a correct idea of one’s own body and the development of sexuality is formed. therefore, it can be argued that the methodological set of tools that we used in the process of providing psychological assistance to sexually abused children confirmed its validity in the studied category of persons. the problem of sexual violence requires a comprehensive approach and joint efforts of psychologists, social educators, law enforcement officers and the public. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 154 references al odhayani, a., watson, w. j., & watson, l. (2013). behavioral consequences of child abuse. canadian family physician, 59 (8), 831-836. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3743691/ aleksandrov, d. o., okhrimenko, i. m., & serbyn, r. a. (2017). psykholohichni chynnyky skhylʹnosti ditey uchasnykiv boyovykh diy do poststresovykh psykhotravmatychnykh perezhyvan’ [psychological factors of post-stress psychotraumatic feelings susceptibility of combanants’ children]. science and education, 9, 16-25. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-9-3 alekseyeva, l. s. (2003). o nasilii nad det’mi v sem’ye [on domestic violence against children]. sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya [sociological studies], 4, 34-37. ananenko, a. a. (2002). pravo na schast’ye: preduprezhdeniye seksual’noy ekspluatatsii detey [the right to happiness: preventing the sexual exploitation of children]. adukacyja i vychavannie. bezpalʹko, o. v., zhuravelʹ, t. v., kochemyrovsʹka, o. o., & yasenovsʹka, m. e. (2010). poperedzhennya, vyyavlennya i podolannya vypadkiv nasylʹstva ta zhorstokoho povodzhennya z ditʹmy [prevention, detection and overcoming of cases of violence and abuse of children]. kyiv. https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/5039/1/t_zhuravel_o_kochemir ovska_m_yasenovska_pvpvnzpdpo_ksp&sr_il.pdf bridges, l. j., denham, s. a., & ganiban, j. m. (2004). definitional issues in emotion regulation research. child development, 75(2), 340-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00675.x cash, t.f. (1995). the development and validation of the body-image ideals questionnaire. journal of personal assessment, 64, 466-477. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6403_6 cherepanova, y. (1995). nasiliye rozhdayet monstrov [violence gives birth to monsters]. sim’ya ta shkola [family and school], 6, 14-17. demirci, e. (2018). non suicidal self-injury, emotional eating and insomnia after child sexual abuse: are those symptoms related to emotion regulation? journal of forensic and legal medicine, 53, 17-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2017.10.012 dvoryanchykov, n. v., & hutnyk, a. d. (2012). sotsial’nyye predstavleniya o seksual’nom nasilii nad det’mi [social views on child sexual abuse]. psikhologiya i pravo [psychology and law], 2(2). https://psyjournals.ru/psyandlaw/2012/n2/52075.shtml geddes, j. f., whitwell, h. l., & graham, d. i. (2000). traumatic axonal injury: practical issues for diagnosis in medicolegal cases. neuropathology and applied neurobiology, 26(2), 105-116. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365 2990.2000.026002105.x https://publons.com/publon/19127941/ https://publons.com/publon/19127941/ peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children kateryna mannapova, et al. 155 gindin, g. i., & dukhova, o. b. (1997). sotsial’no-psikhologicheskaya pomoshch’ detyamzhertvam seksual’nogo nasiliya v sem’ye [socio-psychological assistance to child victims of sexual violence in the family]. vologda. hobbs, c. j., hanks, h. g., & wynne, j. m. (1993). child abuse and neglect. a clinicans handbook. london: longman group. https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2380030314 hunea, i., ciocoiu, m., gîrlescu, n., & bulgaru iliescu, d. (2020). violence on minors in forensic medicine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 22-37. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/26 jellinek, m. s., murphy, j. m., robinson, j., feins, a., lamb, s., fenton, t. (1988). pediatric symptom checklist: screening school-age children for psychosocial dysfunction. journal of pediatrics, 112(2), 201–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3476(88)80056-8 karaca, h. n., gündüz, a., & aral, n. (2011). the investigation of social behaviors of preschool children. kuramsal egitimbilim, 4(2), 65-76. kempe, c. h., silverman, f. n., steele, b. f., droegemueller, w., & silver, h. k. (1962). the battered-child syndrome. the journal of the american medical association (jama), 181(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1962.03050270019004 kochemirovs’ka, o. o. (2008). mozhlyvosti vyyavlennya ta poperedzhennya nasylʹstva v simʺyi: osnovni ponyattya [possibilities for detecting and preventing domestic violence: basic concepts]. kharkiv. lemak, m. v., & petryshche, v. yu. (2012). psykholohu dlya raboty. diahnostychni matodyky: zbirnyk testiv [psychologist for work. diagnostic methods: a collection of tests]. uzhhorod. http://lib.khnu.km.ua/fond/nov/new_04_2018/454813.pdf malkina-pykh, i. g. (2010). viktimologiya. psikhologiya povedeniya zhertvy [victimology. psychology of the victim’s behavior]. eksmo. mannapova, k. r. (2019). rolʹ zhyttyestiykosti u podolanni skladnykh zhyttyevykh sytuatsiy [the role of resilience in overcoming complex life situations]. teoriya i praktyka suchasnoyi psykholohiyi [theory and practice of modern psychology], 1 (2), 75-78. http://www.tpspjournal.kpu.zp.ua/archive/1_2019/part_2/16.pdf mikhanovsʹka, n. h., shtryholʹ, d. v., lutsenko, o. l., & kuratchenko, i. ye. (2019). psykhodiahnostychnyy kompleks dlya otsinky naslidkiv domashnʹoho nasylʹstva u ditey [psychodiagnostic complex for assessing the consequences of domestic violence in children]. ukrsich. mishchyk, l. i., holovanova, t. p., & bilousova, z. h. (2003). suchasni tekhnolohiyi v roboti z sim’yeyu iz problem nasylʹstva: dosvid, perspektyvy brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 156 [modern technologies in work with family on problems of violence: experience, perspectives]. zaporizʹkyy derzhavnyy universytet. http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_id=1819 176 nambo, j. (2019). learning from violence: middle-school principals facing school violence prevention programs. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(3), 163-179. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/163 öznacar, в., güldal kan, ş., besim, s., & şensoy ş. (2018). assessment of the effects of tv programs containing violence on children in pre-school period through the views of parents. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 9(4), 77-82. https://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brain/article/view/866 pchel’nikova, о.а. (2012). psikhologicheskaya pomoshch’ detyam ‒ zhertvam nasiliya [psychological assistance to children victims of violence]. izhevsk. platonova, n. m., & platonov, yu. p. (2004). nasiliye v sem’ye: osobennosti psikhologicheskoy reabilitatsii [domestic violence: features of psychological rehabilitation]. rech’. robins, c. j., keng, s. l., ekblad, a. g., & brantley, j. g. (2012). effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on emotional experience and expression: a randomized controlled trial. journal of clinical psychology, 68(1), 117-131. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20857 safonova, t. y. (2007). zhestokoye obrashcheniye s det’mi: obucheniye navykam raboty s det’mi, postradavshimi ot zhestokogo obrashcheniya [child abuse: teaching skills to work with children affected by abuse]. praktichna psikhologíya ta sotsíal’na robota [practical psychology and social work], 3, 2636. summit, r. c. (1983). the child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome. child abuse and neglect, 7, 177-193. https://www.abusewatch.net/child%20sexual%20abuse%20accommoda tion%20syndrome.pdf tataurova, s. s. (2009). aktual’nyye problemy issledovaniya obraza tela [actual problems of studying the image of the body]. psikhologicheskiy vestnik ural’skogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [psychological bulletin of the ural state university], 8, 142-154. tsymbal, y. i. (2007). zhestokoye obrashcheniye s det’mi: prichiny, proyavleniya, posledstviya [child abuse: causes, manifestations, consequences]. moskva. volkovа, y. n. (2011). nasiliye i zhestokoye obrashcheniye s det’mi: istochniki, prichiny, posledstviya, resheniya [violence and child abuse: sources, causes, consequences, decisions]. knizhnyy dom. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 329-345 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/253 formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities in the conditions of inclusive education svitlana stebljuk¹, yuliia bondarenko2, kristina torop3, nataliia yarmola4, iryna kuzava5, dina shulzhenko6 1 state higher education establishment «uzhhorod national university», uzhhorod, ukraine, svetastebluk@gmail.com 2 sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s. makarenko, ukraine, bondarenkosspu@gmail.com 3 oles honchar dnipro national university, dnipro, ukraine, torop.kristina@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-23301960 4 mykola yarmachenko institute of special pedagogy and psychology, naps of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, nat.yar1978@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9374-5543 5 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, lutsk, ukraine, kutopir@gmail.com 6 national pedagogical drahomanov university, kyiv, ukraine, dinashulzhenko@gmail.com abstract: the article deals with pedagogical and psycho-correctional means of ensuring communicative interaction of junior schoolchildren with disabilities (with mild and moderate mental retardation) in the context of inclusive education. specifics of development of cognitive, emotional, personal-motivational, communicative and behavioural components of communication of a unique personality of a junior schoolchild under correctional and developmental influence and in the conditions of inclusive education are analysed. the definition of communication skills of children with special educational needs has been clarified. systematic neuropedagogical, competence, personality-oriented and communicativeactivity approaches to consideration of methodical tools for formation of communicative skills in junior schoolchildren taking into account their special needs and individual capabilities are applied. a model of formation of communicative-personal potential in children with intellectual disabilities and correction of their communicative individualpsychological properties has been developed. the program on formation of communicative competence and providing positive motivation for communicative interaction among students with intellectual disabilities, taking into account neuropsychological and pedagogical recommendations, is substantiated. keywords: communicative competence, neuropsychology, neuropedagogy, correction, training, special children, thinking, speech, intelligence, inclusive education. how to cite: stebljuk, s., bondarenko, y., torop, k., yarmola, n., kuzava, i., & shulzhenko, d. (2021). formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities in the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 329-345. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/253 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/253 mailto:svetastebluk@gmail.com mailto:bondarenkosspu@gmail.com mailto:torop.kristina@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2330-1960 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2330-1960 mailto:nat.yar1978@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9374-5543 mailto:kutopir@gmail.com mailto:dinashulzhenko@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/253 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 330 introduction neuropsychological analysis of the problem of communication of children with intellectual disabilities confirms the relationship between the work of their higher nervous activity with low levels of development of mental processes and emotional and volitional sphere, as well as insufficient needs for communication and social relations with peers and adults. the specifics of the communicative activity of special children with mental retardation affect manifestations of low self-esteem, self-doubt during communication and rejection by their classmates. conditions for inclusive education facilitate the process of communicative interaction of children with disabilities. a positive attitude to the special on an equal footing in many educational and life situations can determine their cognitive interests in others, to learning and an interesting world around. we believe that the communicative competence of children with disabilities is an important factor in their integration into the school community through a successful way of accepting their individual characteristics and further socialization in an inclusive learning environment. in consideration of the foregoing, the important objectives of our article are: a theoretical analysis of the problem of formation of communicative competence in primary school children with intellectual disabilities under conditions of inclusive education and coverage of applied aspects of correctional and developmental work with this age and special group of children the scientific novelty and theoretical significance of the researched problem lies in the fact that it is for the first time that the role and methods of correctional and developmental teaching as an innovative inclusive technology are revealed; the importance of the correctional and developmental program for the development of the communicative potential of special children and communicative training is indicated; psychological and pedagogical conditions for successful formation of communication skills in primary school children with intellectual disabilities are determined; some methodical recommendations for neuropsychologists, primary school teachers and parents on effective pedagogical strategies for formation of communication skills, taking into account the peculiarities of their intellectual disabilities have been highlighted. generalized conclusions can be used as recommendations taking into account their practical significance in neuroscience in the work of primary school specialists, which are focused on personal and professional self-development and partnerships in an inclusive environment. formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual … svitlana stebljuk, et al. 331 theoretical analysis of the problem of formation of communicative competence in junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities in the context of inclusive education according to the neurophysiological approach in correctional neuropsychology and neuropedagogy, disorders of intellectual development of children are associated with inertia of neuropsychological processes due to organic diffuse damage to the cerebral cortex, which causes pronounced specific features of the cognitive sphere of a special child. in turn, the consequences of dissociation between cognitive processes and the level of adequacy in the emotional response to communicative interaction in children with disabilities are social maladaptation, isolation, reduced selfcontrol, exceptional selectivity in communication, lack of cognitive interests, mismatching of emotional states to the requirements of real educational situations, insufficient development of thinking. modern ukrainian specialists in special psychology, correctional and inclusive education have developed recommendations for providing psychological and pedagogical, correctional and developmental services to children with special educational needs and providing their systematic qualified support taking into account peculiarities of their development and educational needs (poroshenko, 2018). the problem of formation of communicative skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities was studied within the study of the following issues: providing recommendations to teachers and parents on psychological and pedagogical services for children with disabilities (babich, 2016, bondar, 2019, boryak, 2019, kolupaeva, 2009, poroshenko, 2018, tsvetkov, 2017, light & drager, 2007, light et al., 2007; brinton & fujiki, 2017, gillam et al., 2018), and practical recommendations for inclusive education of children (azarova, 2018, bazhukova, 2016, kolupaeva & savchuk, 2011, fetalieva & zubailova, 2016, bakhshi et al., 2017, singal, 2008, deppler et al., 2011). the criteria for reviewing the literature we used are requirements for neuropedagogical, neuropsychological, competence, personality-oriented and communicative-activity approaches to the problem of formation of communicative skills in junior schoolchildren taking into account their special needs and individual abilities. integration of these approaches is inherent in the research of boryak (2019) in the proposed model of complex medical-logo-psycholinguistic-pedagogical study of the current state of speech activity of junior schoolchildren with mild and moderate degrees of mental retardation. the purpose of boryak’s work is to determine brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 332 conditionality of speech development disorders: the level of intelligence development, the state of analyzers, the state of the cns, the level of speech development, emotional and volitional sphere. the author presents a model of a complex differentiated system of formation and correction of speech activity of junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities. systematic and integrated analysis of technologies for formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren, taking into account the types of thinking, individual characteristics of the nervous system functioning, the level of speech development are most fully covered in this scientific work. the value of babich’s (2016) scientific work lies in the competence approach as a personality-oriented, activity and technologically important conceptual basis for finding effective means of developing communication skills and studying the state of development of communication potential of children with visual and intellectual disabilities with a combination of these disorders. careful diagnosis of the level of communicative competence of special children enabled a rational selection of correctional and developmental methods and development of algorithms for formation of the communicative potential of the personality of a special child. undoubtedly, special educational needs of children are successfully addressed in an inclusive learning environment. conceptual provisions of inclusive educational practice are most fully presented in the works of kolupaeva (2009), bondar (2019). in the work of kolupaeva (2009), in particular, some aspects of the personal-activity approach to correctional and developmental teaching and application of a multidisciplinary approach in the organization of student support within the theoretical and experimental modelling of inclusive education of children with special educational needs were covered. in the theory and practice of inclusive education according to bondar (2019), features of personality-oriented teaching are more fully revealed, in addition, features of communication ethics and communication with individuals with disabilities, the specifics of the support team work and steps of individual educational route for children with special needs and making individual plan for the child’s development, as well as recommendations on teaching methods in an inclusive primary school class are considered. much attention is paid to behavioral technologies and competencies of teachers in inclusive education. the advantages of educational technologies in inclusive education may have the most optimal success for formation of communicative competence of primary school children were outlined. no less important for implementation of the objectives of our article are the data on differentiation and specifics of mental development of formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual … svitlana stebljuk, et al. 333 children with intellectual development disorders and correctional and educational work with them are reflected in the work of kolyshkin (2013). compared with other works, it provides a sufficient psychological and pedagogical characteristic of children with intellectual development disorders, communication and behaviour necessary for implementation of theoretical and experimental modelling of formation of communicative competence of children with intellectual disabilities. the work is of practical value due to its connection with neuroscience, as it analyses the clinical and pathogenetic approach to mental retardation, which is associated with severe neurodynamic disorders, which are reflected in the process of developing speech skills. the researchers provided the following recommendations for development of the speech and communication sphere: to develop in children with disabilities the ability to establish and maintain contact with others; learn to control their own behavior during communication; teach to properly initiate the process of interaction, to maintain communication; to expand the circle of communication, to establish rules of interaction through imitation of skills of the adult; learn to make optimal use of verbal and nonverbal communication tools; to develop observation skill, the ability to evaluate their relationships with people; in primary school to develop reading skills using the method of memorizing written words (global reading), to voice their own desires by composing a sentence from cards with individual words, etc.; to form communication skills through development of speech, language comprehension (verbal or visual means, with the help of specific concepts or figurative symbols; with the help of gestures or writing; use of auxiliary communication means) (poroshenko, 2018, p. 184). we define formation of communication skills in junior school children with intellectual disabilities as their mastery of the experience of communicative interaction with the use of speech tools-functions (formulate an opinion, clearly support dialogue, answer, ask, choose intonation, agree or refuse) and appropriate to the situation. mastering the communicative potential is possible in a favorable environment for a special child with partnership relations. such an environment is the inclusive education. inclusive education, taking into account individual developmental deviations, is based on the fact that each child is worthy of respect because of its uniqueness. the scientific and theoretical basis for inclusive education is the “concept of special education for people with physical and mental disabilities in ukraine for the coming years and prospects”, “the concept of the state standard of special education for children with special needs”. the brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 334 main tasks of inclusive education are: ensuring the right of children with special needs to receive general secondary education in the conditions of general educational institutions in a complex combination with correctional and rehabilitation measures; all-round development of the child’s personality on the basis of its talents and abilities, formation of interests and needs; preservation and strengthening of health of children; providing in the process of training and education of qualified psychological, medical and pedagogical assistance, taking into account the child’s state of health (kolupaeva, 2009, pp. 172 173). the word inclusion originates from latin include and means inclusion. inclusive education is a term used to describe inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities in the educational process of a secondary school and providing them with equal learning conditions in an inclusive classroom, self-esteem, social partnership with peers and adults, equal inclusion in communicative interaction with the school environment. under such conditions, all children receive equal opportunities in their development, regardless of their physical or mental disabilities, supported by competent pedagogical professionals to work on inclusive education programs. inclusion is an attempt to instill self-confidence in children with intellectual disabilities, motivating them to learn together with others. children with special needs require not only support, but also development of their abilities and success in school. as they enter school, children with intellectual disabilities begin to realize the importance of communicating with each student as an individual. a good result is given by completing project tasks in pairs, when special children can learn examples and receive support and encouragement by making mistakes. working in a small group gives children opportunity to open up and share their experiences (fetalieva & zubailova, 2016; melnyk, 2021; komogorova, 2021; melnyk et al., 2019). the researchers analysed technologies of implementation of individual educational route of children with special educational needs, considered specifics of drawing up an individual plan of a child development and provided recommendations on teaching methods in an inclusive classroom of a primary school. in their opinion, teaching methods in inclusive education are correctional and developmental, they stimulate children with special educational needs to work independently, be proactive. means of providing the correctional component of inclusive education are: realization of correctional goals in the process of teaching and educating children (in class, during homework, at educational activities); conducting correctional and developmental classes by specialists (correctional teacher, psychologist, occupational therapist, etc.); fulfillment formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual … svitlana stebljuk, et al. 335 by parents of the requirements and recommendations of specialists regarding the corrective effect on the child (bondar, 2019, p. 99). the results of many foreign studies describe practical recommendations for inclusive education of children with disabilities, the most important of which are: 1) training of teachers in the specialty “inclusive pedagogy” to work with special children, their support (bakhshi et al., 2017; singal, 2008); 2) exclusion from education of children with disabilities is consolidation of the status quo of low expectations and failure, and the attitude of teachers and parents to children with disabilities affects their development, so in a school inclusive environment it is necessary to apply pedagogical technologies and assessment criteria for this group (world bank group, 2019). in inclusive education, an important role is played by encouragement of positive behavior in communicative interaction, manifestation of social competence, partnership with all children in an inclusive environment (deppler et al., 2011). to organize accessibility and effectiveness of an inclusive educational environment, comprehensive and adequate assistance to special children is needed. in this regard, for each child doctors, psychologists and teachers of educational institutions develop an individual educational route taking into account medical-psychological-pedagogical diagnostics, dynamics and prognosis of mental development of children with various forms of intellectual disability, which should be taken into account when organizing inclusive educational space (bazhukova, 2016; maksymchuk, 2018; onishchuk et al., 2020; sheremet, 2019). kolupaeva, a.a. and savchuk, l.o. identified the benefits of inclusive education for students with special educational needs: improving learning results; providing age-appropriate role models in the face of peers; creating opportunities for learning in a realistic / natural environment; assistance in formation of communication, social and academic skills; equal access to education; increase self-esteem; development of independence; expanding opportunities for establishing new friendly relations (kolupaeva & savchuk, 2011, p. 10). peculiarities of development of communicative activity of children with intellectual disabilities, which are covered in the works, do not lead to leveling of the need to communicate with other people and to learn about the world around them. instead, due to the pronounced ability to imitate behavior of others, the model of their own behavior forms a whole system of clichés that children use in appropriate situations, which has a positive impact on formation of communication skills (babich, 2016). brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 336 of course, children’s communication skills reflect the culture of their family. the process of developing communication skills in children with intellectual disabilities will be effective if: parents are aware of the importance of this process and work comprehensively, namely consolidate the skills acquired in classes with teachers and transfer them to different activities of a child with intellectual disabilities; this takes into account peculiarities of child's development, the “zone of immediate development”, gradual complication of non-verbal and verbal components of communicative activity; parents in collaboration with specialists work on gradual formation of communication skills: starting from understanding and using simple non-verbal means of communication to gradual transition to verbal communication (babich, 2016). trainings for development of communicative skills in students with mild and moderate degree of mental retardation (intellectual disabilities) are developed by teachers of special classes in the conditions of inclusive training on the basis of current knowledge of communicative potential of such children in real educational situations. thus, makoveeva, s.v., a teacher, describes a correctional and developmental program based on cognitive (formation of adequate ideas about friendly relationships between people), emotional-motivational (analysis of needs and motives for communication and understanding, manifestation and control of emotions, reducing the level of negative emotions) and behavioral (how to build adequate and conflict-free relationships) components of communication. the methodical means and methods of correction of the set tasks to influence the main areas of the student’s personality were: observation, communicative training exercises, thematic drawing, story-role games, situational tasks, group discussion, nonverbal interaction, relaxation techniques, psycho picture, role play, psychogymnastics, elements of art therapy, psychodrama (makoveeva, 2017). in the context of modern correctional pedagogy, correctional and educational work with mentally retarded children should be comprehensive and carried out on the basis of both differentiated (based on the typological features of different forms of mental retardation, different degrees of cognitive impairment) and individual approaches. when carrying out correctional work with mentally retarded children, a teacher should adhere to the sequence of pedagogical requirements for children; to teach children self-control of behavior, to involve them in comparisons, assessments, causal justifications of acts of behavior; consistently increase requirements for children’s behavior; build the educational process on specific positive examples; to preserve and develop a child’s sense of self-respect, to protect formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual … svitlana stebljuk, et al. 337 them from ridicule and humiliation from others; to involve students in the work of self-education, but with setting of the most specific and realistic goal, ensuring constant control and enhanced pedagogical guidance in this process; to carry out any educational event with a high emotionally positive background; to prevent conflicts between children, and in case of their occurrence to promote their quick and positive resolution, to teach mentally retarded children the correct behavior in conflict situations, to predict the consequences of incontinence (kolyshkin, 2013: pp. 132 136). neuropsychological research allows to identify a neuropsychological factor that underlies certain dysfunctions associated with intellectual disabilities and to develop an appropriate correctional program. corrective and developmental work consists both in training of conducting separate mental operations, and in organization of integral, meaningful communicative activity of the child and the adult. this can be only formed in a game. game partners (child child, child teacher, psychologist, father, etc.) have a unifying feeling: they are in some exceptional situation, together they do something important, different from others and going beyond the general norms of life. this contributes to formation of the feeling “me – others”, “me – you”, “i” (yurov, 2006). foreign researchers gina conti-ramsden, pearl mok, kevin durkin, andrew pickles argue that children with communication and speech difficulties are emotionally vulnerable in personal and social adaptation, especially in the process of communicating with peers. social communication skills play an important role in their mental development, and emotional self-regulation affects the adequate behavior during communication, so the psychocorrection and family approach to therapy should take into account emotional problems of children with frustrated communication needs, their breadth, resilience (contiramsden et al., 2019). in turn, matthew p. spackman, martin fujiki & bonnie brinton confirm that communication and speech disorders cause learning failure (brinton & fujiki, 2017), as well as affect children’s ability to understand emotional reactions of others, so they also suggest including in the main classes tasks for formation of skills of social and emotional interaction (spackman et al., 2009). the results of research by foreign researchers also confirm the fact that children with speech disorders may have impaired understanding of emotions (fujiki et al., 2011). for effective communicative interaction, it is important to develop linguistic, operational and strategic skills in children with complex communication needs, using transactional techniques – an interactive process in which participants of the process agree, interact, choosing optimal brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 338 actions (light & drager, 2007) and complex strategies together with communication: innovative names and popular topics in communication, color, light, humor, interesting tasks – taking into account age and individual approach (light et al., 2007). azarova (2018) has developed an effective method of corrective work with training of communication skills in the inclusive education for first-graders with special educational needs and a low level of communicative competence revealed by her. the methodology included the following areas of work of a correctional teacher: formation of a favorable socio-psychological climate in an inclusive classroom; development of communication skills in children with disabilities in communication with peers with normal psychophysical development during training; formation of ideas among teachers about the structure of defect in children with special educational needs and specifics of their socialization in the context of inclusive education (azarova, 2018). the main purpose of our study is to develop a correctional and developmental program for formation of communicative competence in students with intellectual disabilities in an inclusive learning environment. the purpose defined the following tasks: to analyze ways of development of communicative competence in children with special educational needs taking into account a comprehensive (personality-oriented, competence and communicative-activity) approaches to development of correctional and developmental technologies, including communicative training and pedagogical principles of inclusive training; to develop a method of developing cognitive, emotional, personal-motivational, communicative and behavioral components of communication of the unique personality of a junior schoolchild under the correctional and developmental influence and in an inclusive learning environment. model of formation of communicative and personal potential in junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities in an inclusive learning environment system-integrated technologies of formation of communicative skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities and methods of correctional and developmental education of special children are considered by us as a complex of innovative inclusive technologies within the program developed by us for development of communicative potential of special children taking into account personality-oriented, neuropedagogical, competence, communicative-activity and clinical-pathogenetic approaches. formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual … svitlana stebljuk, et al. 339 the model of formation of communicative skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities in an inclusive learning environment has been developed by us in accordance with the following tasks: to diagnose communication and speech skills and motivational, cognitive and emotional attributes of children with intellectual disabilities to identify their level of development; on the basis of collected empirical data to develop a program on development of communicative potential of special children and its correction and to check efficiency of the chosen pedagogical technology on the basis of results of experimental research; to carry out correctional and developmental influence on the basis of communicative training (active formation of communicative skills in an inclusive group) and communicative-speech exercises (on development of coherent dialogic and monologue speech, phonetic-phonemic hearing, vocabulary and formation of grammatically correct speech); to develop methodical recommendations for neuropsychologists, primary school teachers and parents on effective pedagogical strategies for formation of communication skills and motivational and personal attributes of children with disabilities. in correctional and developmental work on formation of communication skills in junior high schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities, we consider the following principles are important: individualization (taking into account age and individual-personal characteristics), inclusive partnership (involvement of all specialists of educational institution and parents in formation of communicative potential in a special child), personality-socially-oriented communication (through admitting the child into real educational or extracurricular situations, reinforcing positive communicative experience), consistency and systematicity (complication of communicative tasks in proportion to formation of communicative skills), respect for another person and sincere acceptance of their experience (teaching students a successful communicative-interpersonal interaction). the results of research of modern domestic psychologists are interesting for development of communicative training and communicativespeech exercises for this category of children. thus, boriak, o.v. developed a comprehensive differentiated system of formation and correction of communicative and speech activity of junior schoolchildren, taking into account age, degree of mental retardation, concomitant developmental disorders, the terms of correctional and developmental work (boriak, 2019). the researcher proved that effectiveness of the process of formation and correction of communicative-speech activity of junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities is possible under the following conditions: brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 340 introduction of individual and differentiated-individual assessment of students’ achievements, in accordance with the indicators of development of speech competencies; development of individual correctional and developmental programs of work taking into account cognitive abilities and individual dynamics of progressive development of a junior schoolchild with a mild degree of mental retardation (for institutions of inclusive education); mutual interaction of the teaching staff and practical psychologist (if necessary, medical professionals – psychiatrist, psychoneurologist); successful adaptation of students through bilateral emotional contact of a teacher-speech therapist (defectologist): tactful, friendly attitude to the child, a positive emotional assessment of any of their achievements; increasing effectiveness of correctional and developmental work, by reporting on the current and potential capabilities of each child, involving parents in joint work in the framework of cooperation “teacher-speech therapist – child – parents” (boriak, 2019). foreign researchers bonnie brinton, martin fujiki (2017) offer for children with disabilities a technology of social communication using children’s literature. sandra l. gillam, abbie olszewski, katie squires, katie wolfe, timothy slocum, ronald b. gillam (2018) believe that encouraging children with language disorders to narrative stories has an effect on their socialization, expands their vocabulary, improves language skills and works on formation of communication skills. sandra laing gillam, daphne hartzheim, breanna studenka, vicki simonsmeier, ronald gillam (2015) confirmed the effectiveness of the narrative method in working with autistic children. thus, in the communicative-activity and competence approaches of foreign and domestic correctional teachers on formation of communicative competence the aspects of communicative activity are present in all activities of the child. optimal actualization of this type of activity in children with intellectual disabilities can be done only with a person-centered approach, taking into account the real level of development of communicative competence and mental development of the student. under this condition, children develop a positive attitude to communicative interaction, and therefore, there are stable motives for communication and the need for affiliation. positive emotions accompany the optimistic thinking of the child with confidence in the acts of communication in the social environment. in the context of neuropedagogy, in teaching communicative activities, as in any other activity of children, a teacher should follow certain rules: the adult gives examples, and the student selects independently the algorithm (existence of a problem situation); if a certain number of students https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=gillam+sl&cauthor_id=25837265 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=hartzheim+d&cauthor_id=25837265 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=hartzheim+d&cauthor_id=25837265 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=studenka+b&cauthor_id=25837265 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=simonsmeier+v&cauthor_id=25837265 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=gillam+r&cauthor_id=25837265 formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual … svitlana stebljuk, et al. 341 actively absorb the material, this may become interesting to others (a teacher should turn complex material or abstraction into a language of material that can motivate, interest students); in case of developmental arrest it is necessary to apply a formative learning, but without excessive subject overload (energy support of the psyche is weak in most children, regardless of disorders); to form a motive for behavior (the ability to answer the questions “what i want” and “why”); acquisition of knowledge by a child should be meaningful and timely, consistent and intrinsically logical (in the unity of emotional and cognitive operations, taking into account sensitive periods) (tsvetkov, 2017). conclusion modern correctional pedagogy carries out a systemic (neurophysiological, competence, personality-oriented and communicativeactivity) approaches to development of correctional and developmental technologies for formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities. according to their theoretical and theoreticalmethodological conceptual provisions, the model of formation of communicative-personal potential on the basis of communicative training and communicative-speech exercises with junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities in the inclusive education environment proved to be effective. the problem of developing communication skills in children with intellectual disabilities is extremely important to ensure their psychological and social welfare. the process of acquiring communicative competence by them should be based on differentiation (for diagnosis and prognosis) and unity (for correctional and developmental effect) of cognitive, emotional, personal-motivational, communicative and behavioral components of communication as an important condition for personal integration of junior schoolchildren. the correctional and developmental core of such work is to take into account neuropsychological, pedagogical and medical recommendations for development of a program for formation of communicative competence of students with intellectual disabilities. the main factor in the integration of children with special educational needs is partnerships in an inclusive classroom. the success of children’s communication always depends on a favorable psychological atmosphere for communication in an inclusive group, which is influenced by the professional competence of the partner – the teacher, correctional teacher. in partnership conditions, under the corrective and developmental influence of inclusive education, a unique personality of a junior schoolchildbrain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 342 communicator with the skills of accepting individual features of one’s inner world is formed. in such a class, students are sensitive to the needs of their classmate and are able to understand and be willing to accept his distinctive and at the same time unique features. references azarova, m. b. (2018). formirovanie kommunikativnykh navykov detey s ogranichennymi vozmozhnostyami zdorov’ya v inklyuzivnom obrazovanii [formation of communication skills of children with disabilities in inclusive education. bulletin of the dagestan state pedagogical university]. izvestiya dagestanskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta. psikhologopedagogicheskie nauki [dagestan state pedagogical university bulletin. psychological and pedagogical sciences], 12(3), 11-15. https://doi.org/10.31161/1995-0659-2018-12-3-11-15 babich, m. n. (2016). formuvannia komunikatyvnykh navychok u starshykh doshkilnykiv z porushenniamy zoru ta intelektu. (dysertatsiia kandydata pedahohichnykh nauk. korektsiina pedahohika) [formation of communication skills among older preschoolers with impaired dawn and intellect (dissertation candidate of pedagogical sciences. correction of pedagogical sciences)] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, institute of special pedagogy. kyiv. bakhshi, p., babulal, g.m., & trani, j-f. (2017). education of children with disabilities in new delhi: when does exclusion occur? plos one, 12(9), e0183885. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183885 bazhukova, o. a. (2016). psikhologicheskaya praktika pomoshchi detyam s intellektualnymi narusheniyami v sistemakh spetsialnogo i inklyuzivnogo obrazovaniya [psychological practice of helping children with intellectual disabilities in the systems of special and inclusive education]. vedomosti dagestanskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo ugniversiteta [bulletin of the dagestan state pedagogical university], 4. bondar, k. m. (2019). teoriia i praktyka inkliuzyvnoi osvity: navchalnometodychnyi posibnyk. [theory and practice of inclusive education: guidance manual]. (2nd ed., add.). proekt “pidtrymka inkliuzyvnoi osvity u m. kryvyi rih” [“support for inclusive education in kryvyi rih city” project]. chernyavsky publisher. boryak, o. v. (2019). teoriya i praktyka formuvannya movlennyevoyi diyalʹnosti rozumovo vidstalykh ditey molodshoho [theory and practice of speech activity formation mentally disabled children of primary school age] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. drahomanov national pedagogical university. https://doi.org/10.31161/1995-0659-2018-12-3-11-15 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183885 formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual … svitlana stebljuk, et al. 343 brinton, b., & fujiki, m. (2017). the power of stories: facilitating social communication in children with limited language abilities. school psychology international, 38(5), 523–540. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034317713348 conti-ramsden, g., mok, p., durkin, k., pickles,a., toseeb, u. & botting, n. (2019). do emotional difficulties and peer problems occur together from childhood to adolescence? the case of children with a history of developmental language disorder (dld). european child & adolescent psychiatry, 28, 993–1004. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-018-1261-6 deppeler, j., harvey, d., & loreman, t. (2011). inclusive education: a practical guide to supporting diversity in the classroom. routledge. fetalieva, l. p, & zubailova, p. f. (2016). priemy obucheniya mladshikh shkolnikov s narusheniem intellekta [teaching methods of junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities]. vestnik sotsialno-pedagogicheskogo instituta [bulletin of the social pedagogical institute], 4(20), 63-68. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/priemy-obucheniya-mladshihshkolnikov-s-narusheniem-intellekta fujiki, m., spackman, m. p., brinton, b., & illig, t. (2011). ability of children with language impairment to understand emotion conveyed by prosody in a narrative passage. international journal of language & communication disorders, 43(3), 330-45. https://doi: 10.1080/13682820701507377. gillam, s. l. olszewski, a., squires, k., wolfe, k., slocum, t., & gillam, r. b. (2018). improving narrative production in children with language disorders: an early-stage efficacy study of a narrative intervention program. language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 49(2), 197-212. https://doi:10.1044/2017_lshss-17-0047. gillam, s.l., hartzheim, d., studenka, b., simonsmeier, v., gillam, r. (2015). narrative intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (asd). journal of speech, language, and hearing research, 58(3), 920-933. https://doi: 10.1044/2015_jslhr-l-14-0295. kolupaeva, a. a. (2009). inkliuzyvna osvita: realii ta perspektyvy: monohrafiia [inclusive education: realities and prospects: monograph]. summit book. kolupaeva, a. a., & savchuk l. o. (2011). dity z osoblyvymy osvitnimy potrebamy ta orhanizatsiia yikh navchannia: naukovo-metodychnyi posibnyk [children with special educational needs and organization of their education: scientific and methodical manual]. publishing group “atopol”. kolyshkin, o. v. (2013). korektsiina osvita. vstup do spetsialnosti : navchalnyi posibnyk [correctional education. introduction to the specialty: textbook] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. sumy universytetska osvita. komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034317713348 javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; https://link.springer.com/journal/787 https://link.springer.com/journal/787 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-018-1261-6 https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2017_lshss-17-0047?url_ver=z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3arid%3acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed& https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2017_lshss-17-0047?url_ver=z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3arid%3acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed& https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2017_lshss-17-0047?url_ver=z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3arid%3acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed& https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2017_lshss-17-0047?url_ver=z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3arid%3acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed& https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2017_lshss-17-0047?url_ver=z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3arid%3acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed& https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2017_lshss-17-0047?url_ver=z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3arid%3acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed& https://pubs.asha.org/journal/lshss https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=gillam+sl&cauthor_id=25837265 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=hartzheim+d&cauthor_id=25837265 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=studenka+b&cauthor_id=25837265 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=simonsmeier+v&cauthor_id=25837265 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=gillam+r&cauthor_id=25837265 https://pubs.asha.org/journal/jslhr brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 344 consolidation of pupil-athletes? knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 light, j., & drager, k. (2007). aac technologies for young children with complex communication needs: state of the science and future research directions. augmentative and alternative communication, 23(3), 204-216. https://doi:10.1080/07434610701553635 light, j., page, r., curran, j., & pitkin, l. (2007). children's ideas for the design of aac assistive technologies for young children with complex communication needs. augmentative and alternative communication, 23(4), 274-287. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434610701390475 makoveeva, s. v. (2017). programma razvitiya kommunikativnykh navykov i umeniy u podrostkov s ovz: metodicheskie rekomendatsii [program for the development of communication skills and abilities in adolescents with disabilities: guidance manual]. raduzhnyy. maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., &amp; maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 poroshenko, m. a. (ed.) (2018). orhanizatsiino-metodychni zasady diialnosti inkliuzyvnoresursnykh tsentriv: navchalno-metodychnyi posibnyk [organizational and methodical bases of activity of inclusive resource centers: educational and https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi:10.1080/07434610701553635 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a779725466~db=all http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a779725466~db=all http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a779725466~db=all http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a779725466~db=all https://doi.org/10.1080/07434610701390475 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 formation of communication skills in junior schoolchildren with intellectual … svitlana stebljuk, et al. 345 methodical manual]. poroshenko charitable foundation all-ukrainian charitable organization. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 singal, n. (2008). working towards inclusion: reflections from the classroom. teaching and teacher education, 24(6), 1516-1529. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.01.008 spackman, m. p., fujiki, m., & brinton, b. (2006). understanding emotions in context: the effects of language impairment on children's ability to infer emotional reactions. international journal for language & communication disorder, march-april, 41(2), 173-188. https://doi: 10.1080/13682820500224091 tsvetkov, a. v. (2017). neyropedagogika dlya uchiteley: kak ubuchat po zakonam mozga [neuropedagogy for teachers: how to teach according to the laws of the brain]. publishing house “sport and culture-2000”. world bank group. (2019). every learner matters : unpacking the learning crisis for children with disabilities. world bank. http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/756811560851384787/pdf /every-learner-matters-unpacking-the-learning-crisis-for-childrenwith-disabilities.pdf yurov, yu. v. (2006). osnovy neyropsikhologii: uchebno-metodicheskoe posobie [fundamentals of neuropsychology: teaching aid] [unpublished doctoral dissertation, voronezh state pedagogical university]. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.01.008 https://o4iklcmgzzfeh2g7355bwkwgu4-jj2cvlaia66be-www-tandfonline-com.translate.goog/author/spackman%2c+matthew+p https://o4iklcmgzzfeh2g7355bwkwgu4-jj2cvlaia66be-www-tandfonline-com.translate.goog/author/fujiki%2c+martin https://o4iklcmgzzfeh2g7355bwkwgu4-jj2cvlaia66be-www-tandfonline-com.translate.goog/author/brinton%2c+bonnie http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/756811560851384787/pdf/every-learner-matters-unpacking-the-learning-crisis-for-children-with-disabilities.pdf http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/756811560851384787/pdf/every-learner-matters-unpacking-the-learning-crisis-for-children-with-disabilities.pdf http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/756811560851384787/pdf/every-learner-matters-unpacking-the-learning-crisis-for-children-with-disabilities.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, pages: 201-230 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/149 the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram¹*, saba noor 2 , awais manzoor 3 1 comsats university islamabad, pakistan, imwaseem.khan@yahoo.com corresponding author 2 lahore garrison university, lahore, pakistan 3 comsats university islamabad, pakistan abstract: agent-based computing and multi-agent systems are important tools in the domain of smart grid. various properties of agents like self-organization, co-operation, autonomous behavior, and many others allow researchers to well represent the smart grid applications and models. from past few decades, various research attempts have been made in the smart grid domain by adopting the agent-based computing technology. the research publications are growing in number which makes it difficult to locate and identify the dynamics and trends in the research. scientometric analysis is a useful tool to perform a comprehensive bibliographic review. it allows not only to understand the key areas of research but also provide visual representation of each entity involve in the research. in this study, we provide a detailed statistical as well as visual analysis of agentbased smart grid research by adopting complex network-based analytical approach. the study covers all scientific literature available online in web of science database. we are interested in identification of key papers, authors, and journals. furthermore, we also investigate core countries, institutions, and categories. keywords: smart grid; multi-agent systems; network modelling; scientometric analysis. how to cite: akram, w., noor, s., & manzoor, a. (2020). the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 201-230. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/149 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/149 mailto:imwaseem.khan@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/149 the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 201 introduction from past few decades, agent-based computing has received a great deal of attentions in the smart grid domain. the agents have various behaviors like atomicity, communication, self-organization, co-operation etc. by developing agent-based models, one can easily represent any complex adaptive systems where the agent’s features are main concerns. in scientific literature, a number of studies have been done on the smart grid by making use of agent-based computing technology. some of the key examples are as following. for example it is applied for demand response in (kim, zhang, van der schaar, & lee, 2016; siebert, sbicca, aoki, & lambert-torres, 2017), smart home management (dusparic, harris, marinescu, cahill, & clarke, 2013; g. wang et al., 2017), electric vehicle chagrining and discharging (golpayegani, dusparic, taylor, & clarke, 2016; jannati & nazarpour, 2017; yao, lim, & tsai, 2017). the agent-based smart grid systems can also be noted for appliance scheduling (muralitharan, sakthivel, & shi, 2016), storage management (ju et al., 2018; lamedica, teodori, carbone, & santini, 2015; shirzeh, naghdy, ciufo, & ros, 2015). these studies have shown the importance and utility of agent-based computing technology in the domain of smart grid. one key problem in scientific literature is that the research is growing very fast. from different countries and organization researchers make their contribution in the smart grid domain. in literature of smart grid, there are also several surveys and reviews papers, which provide a detailed analysis of the domain, available techniques, and tools. some of the examples of surveys can be seen in (rehmani, davy, jennings, & assi, 2019; risteska stojkoska & trivodaliev, 2017; siano, 2014). although there are numerous surveys and reviews in the domain, there exist one key problem that researchers are unable to understand and locate trends and dynamic of the domain. another problem with these surveys is that they are outdated and target a specific requirement of the study. these surveys are unable to cover all the published work. a network modeling approach is a useful tool for bibliographic reviews. it allows not only the visual analysis but also a detailed statistical analysis of the domain. however, to the best of our knowledge, currently there exists no study on bibliographic analysis of the agent-based smart grid research. in this paper, we provide a detailed survey of the smart grid domain from agent-based perspective. we cover all studies currently available in the brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 202 domain on web of science database. this study adopts the network modeling approachan approach of cognitive agent-based computing framework. the approach allows developing a network model, thus allows better understanding the domain in the form of network. our key focus is on the analysis of key papers, journals, authors. we are also interested in the analysis of core countries, institutions, and categories. methodology data collection: the dataset was collected from the thomson reuters web of knowledge database in the period of 1992 to 2019. the input data was retrieved on 7 november 2019, by using extended topic search of smart grid domain from agent technology perspective. the following search key words were used in data collection. ● agent-based modeling of smart grid ● multi-agent systems in smart grid ● modeling and simulation of smart grid we performed bibliographic search in different web of science databases included sci-expanded, ssci, and a&hci. our results included different documents types such as articles, reviews, letters, and other editorial materials published in english language. each record includes full information as document titles, author names, abstracts, and cited references. our dataset contains a total of 3884 records. by addition of cited references, a total of 36317 nodes were counted. tools and method: in this paper, we have adopted citespacea scientometrics analysis tool (chen, 2014, 2016). the tool allows visual analysis of the citation network. it uses different colors that highlight details information about nodes and links of the citation network. citespace offers tools and techniques for developing various complex networks based on years, time slice, centrality, and clustering. the developed network can be analyzed and various details information can be collected about a research domain. for example, based on the extracted network, we can get information about core authors, documents, and journals. additionally, we can also analyze the top country, institutions, and category of a specific research topic and domain. the research method followed in our study is adapted from (m. a. k. niazi, 2017). the methodology diagram is shown in figure 1. first, we start by collecting bibliographic data of marketing domain from the web of science. for visual analysis, we use the citespace network modeling tool. the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 203 our analysis starts by developing network clusters. it is followed by an analysis of journals in order to identify core journals of marketing domain. our next research objective is to identify top articles, and most cited authors in marketing research studies. additionally, our next focus is on the identification of core country, category, and institutions. figure 1: research method for bibliographic analysis of marketing research adopted from (farooq, khan, niazi, leslie, & hussain, 2018) results we start with a basic look at the overall picture of bibliographic data retrieved from web of science. figure 2 shows total publications by year. as we can see here, the use of agent technology in smart grid starts primarily in 2007. the research gradually was rising and in the period of 2015 to 2019 the research achieved a great attention from research community in the domain. in this period, more than 550 different research publications were observed. figure 2: total publications by year (authors analysis on collected data from wos) brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 204 the popularity of any research domain is based on number of citation of documents. thus, we also needed to observe the citation phenomena in the domain in order to get deep insights of the domain advancement. figure 3 shows total citations by year in smart grid domain using agents’ technology. here, we can see that the citation starts with a very small number and gradually rising to almost 1000 citations in the year of 2018. figure 3: total citations by year (authors analysis on collected data from wos) 1. identification of the largest cluster in this section, we present our first analysis to observe the big picture of the domain. in figure 4 top clusters are displayed is a visual form. these clusters are formed using citespace analysis tool. each cluster is named based on index terms. in agent-based smart grid research, researchers work on different aspects of the domain. here, we can see that the hottest area of research is “demand response management in the smart grid”. next, machine learning techniques and agent-based systems are adopted in the domain. these techniques are utilized to develop an energy efficient system. other research topics are voltage regulations and electric vehicles management. the detailed analysis of the largest clusters is given in the following. in table 5, frequency-based document analysis is given. here, we notice that the article (mohsenian-rad, wong, jatskevich, schober, & leongarcia, 2010) has the highest frequency among all cited articles. next, (fang, misra, xue, & yang, 2012) is the most cited article in the domain. following the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 205 by (palensky & dietrich, 2011), (farhangi, 2010), (gungor et al., 2013) and (siano, 2014). these are top documents based on frequency in the smart grid domain. the detailed summary of the top clusters can be found in brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 206 table 1. cluster #0 contains 80 nodes in the year 2011. the mean silhouette score of this cluster is 0.626 indicate high homogeneity in the cluster. cluster #1 has 50 node and 0.861 silhouette score in 2009. the mutual terms of this cluster are electric vehicles, charging and discharging. cluster #2 has 49 nodes with 0.807 silhouette score which indicates homogeneity in the cluster. the average year of this cluster is 2014. cluster #3 has 42 nodes and 0.784 silhouette score in the year 2009. this cluster shares research mostly on power line communication. cluster #4 has 40 nodes and 0.719 silhouette score which indicate the homogeneity in the cluster in the year 2010. the terms controllable and smart home are used in this cluster. the next top cluster contains 23 nodes along with 0.764 silhouette score. the average year of this cluster is 2008. mostly papers in this cluster share noise reduction term. figure 4: top clusters by index terms (authors analysis on collected data from wos) the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 207 table 1: summary of top clusters (authors analysis on collected data from wos) clusterid size silhouette mean(year) label (llr) label (mi) 0 80 0.626 2011 demand response home energy management, smart energy hub, appliance scheduling ,demand-side management distributed storage, scheduling problem, bacteria foraging optimization 1 50 0.861 2009 electric vehicle, smart charging double control, ev group, coordinated charging and discharging 2 49 0.807 2014 machine learning, power markets, smart contract electric power network, accuracy, cybersecurity, incentive-based demand response 3 42 0.784 2009 multi agent system, microgrid power system automation, power line communication 4 40 0.719 2010 zigbee, smart home grid controllable load 5 23 0.764 2008 voltage regulators powerline, noise reduction table 2: top document based on citations (authors analysis on collected data from wos) citation counts reference 164 mohsenian-rad ah, 2010, ieee t smart grid, 1, 320 118 fang x, 2012, ieee commun surv tut, 14, 944 115 mohsenian-rad ah, 2010, ieee t smart grid, 1, 120 96 palensky p, 2011, ieee t ind inform, 7, 381 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 208 95 farhangi h, 2010, ieee power energy m, 8, 18 89 gungor vc, 2011, ieee t ind inform, 7, 529 85 siano p, 2014, renew sust energ rev, 30, 461 74 zimmerman rd, 2011, ieee t power syst, 26, 12 66 ipakchi a, 2009, ieee power energy m, 7, 52 65 mcarthur sdj, 2007, ieee t power syst, 22, 1743 table 3: top document based on bursts (authors analysis on collected data from wos) bursts references 12.66 mcarthur sdj, 2007, ieee t power syst, 22, 1743 12.44 dimeas al, 2005, ieee t power syst, 20, 1447 11.68 siano p, 2014, renew sust energ rev, 30, 461 10.46 olivares de, 2014, ieee t smart grid, 5, 1905 9.25 kempton w, 2005, j power sources, 144, 268 9.05 deng rl, 2015, ieee t ind inform, 11, 570 8.78 kempton w, 2005, j power sources, 144, 280 8.38 vardakas js, 2015, ieee commun surv tut, 17, 152 8.33 eddy ysf, 2015, ieee t power syst, 30, 24 8.26 albadi mh, 2008, electr pow syst res, 78, 1989 table 4: top document based on centrality centrality references 0.16 mohsenian-rad ah, 2010, ieee t smart grid, 1, 320 0.12 pipattanasomporn m, 2009, pow syst c exp 2009, 0, 1 0.10 zimmerman rd, 2011, ieee t power syst, 26, 12 0.09 farhangi h, 2010, ieee power energy m, 8, 18 0.08 fang x, 2012, ieee commun surv tut, 14, 944 0.08 clement-nyns k, 2010, ieee t power syst, 25, 371 0.08 moslehi k, 2010, ieee t smart grid, 1, 57 0.06 ipakchi a, 2009, ieee power energy m, 7, 52 0.06 galli s, 2011, p ieee, 99, 998 0.06 palensky p, 2011, ieee t ind inform, 7, 381 the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 209 table 5: top document co-citation based on frequency in agent-based smart grid research (authors analysis on collected data from wos) frequency author year source 164 mohsenian-rad ah 2010 ieee t smart grid 118 fang x 2012 ieee commun surv tut 115 mohsenian-rad ah 2010 ieee t smart grid 96 palensky p 2011 ieee t ind inform 95 farhangi h 2010 ieee power energy m 89 gungor vc 2011 ieee t ind inform 85 siano p 2014 renew sust energ rev 74 zimmerman rd 2011 ieee t power syst 66 ipakchi a 2009 ieee power energy m 65 mcarthur sdj 2007 ieee t power syst 2. analysis of journals our next analysis is to identify the core journals of the domain. this can be noticed in figure 4. the pink ring around the nodes in the network shows that there one node in the network with more than 0.1 centrality. “ieee transaction on smart grid” has the largest number of highly cited publications. the second largest number of publications is associated with the “ieee transaction on power systems”. table 6 shows the list of top ten journals based on citation counts. we can note here that the top venue for smart grid research is ieee transaction on smart grid and ieee transaction on power systems. these journals are mostly relevant to the research topic of “agent-based smart grid”. other journals like ieee transaction on power delivery, renewable sustainable energy review, ieee industrial electronic, and applied energy are also representing relevance in the research of “agent-based smart grid”. table 6: top journals based on citation (authors analysis on collected data from wos) citation abbreviated title 1868 ieee t smart grid 1776 ieee t power syst 774 ieee t power deliver 700 renew sust energ rev brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 210 677 ieee t ind electron 654 appl energ 649 p ieee 647 electr pow syst res 631 ieee t ind inform 576 int j elec power figure 5: top journals based on centrality (authors analysis on collected data from wos) table 7 shows top journals based on centrality. “nature” has the highest centrality value of 0.26 among all the other journals in the domain. “ieee transaction on smart grid”, and “ieee transaction on power systems” have same centrality value of 0.17 and listed at second and third position respectively. we also noticed that “renewable and sustainable energy review”, “lecture notes in computer science”, and “ieee transaction on power systems” are also some of the top journals of the “agent-based smart grid” research. the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 211 table 8 shows the list of top journals based on frequency. here, the results are sorted according to the frequency of the publications and show different set of key journals. by frequency analysis of top journals, it can be noticed that “ieee transaction on smart grid” is at the top having 1868 frequency value. “ieee transaction power systems” and “ieee transaction power delivery” follow with 1776 and 774 frequency values respectively. this is followed by “renewable sustainable energy review”, “ieee transaction industrial electronic” and “applied energy” with frequencies 700, 677, 654 respectively. next “power ieee” has published 649 articles. “electric power system research”, “ieee transaction industrial informatics”, “int. journal of electrical power” and “energy” journals are also top venues of “agent-based smart grid” research. table 7: top journals based on centrality centrality journal name 0.26 nature 0.17 ieee t smart grid 0.17 ieee t power syst 0.11 renew sust energ rev 0.10 lect notes comput sc 0.10 ieee t power systems 0.10 p ieee int c syst ma 0.09 ieee t power deliver 0.09 ieee j sel area comm 0.09 p ieee pow en soc ge table 8: top journals based on frequency (authors analysis on collected data from wos) frequency source 1868 ieee t smart grid 1776 ieee t power syst 774 ieee t power deliver 700 renew sust energ rev 677 ieee t ind electron 654 appl energ 649 p ieee 647 electr pow syst res 631 ieee t ind inform brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 212 576 int j elec power 542 energy 3. analysis of categories our next focus is on the analysis of different categories in the “agent-based smart grid” research. figure 6 shows the network of top categories. the detailed analysis of the subject categories is shown table 9, the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 213 table 10 and table 11. the top ranked category by centrality is “engineering”, with centrality of 0.40. the second one is “engineering, electrical and electronic, with centrality of 0.22. the third and fourth are “computer science and information systems” and “science and technology”, with centrality of 0.11. the fifth is “physics” with centrality of 0.10. it is followed by “computer science”, “energy and fuels”, “computer science and artificial intelligence”. it is observed that the category “computer science and interdisciplinary applications” has the lowest value of centrality among all other categories. next, we present an analysis of burst in subject categories. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 214 table 10 shows top categories based on burst. here, it is noticed that “computer science, theory and methods have the highest burst in 2009. next, there are two categories related in different time span that are “engineering, environmental”, and “computer science, hardware and architecture”. it is followed by “environmental science and ecology”, with bursts of 3.66. the last one is “mathematics and interdisciplinary applications”, with bursts of 3.57. we also analyzed top categories based on frequency. it is shown in table 11. through frequency analysis of different categories, we come up with the almost same set of results. here, again “engineering” has topped the list with 2744 articles. it is followed by “engineering, electrical and electronics” with 2397 published articles. it is noticed that “energy and fuels”, and “computer science” have close frequency value. through frequency and centrality analysis, it is observed that the smart grid research is mostly related to the engineering, mathematics, and computer science. figure 6: top categories network (authors analysis on collected data from wos) table 9: top categories based on centrality (authors analysis on collected data from wos) the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 215 centrality category 0.40 engineering 0.22 engineering, electrical and electronics 0.11 computer science and information systems 0.11 science and technology 0.11 physics 0.10 computer science 0.08 energy and fuels 0.08 engineering and mechanical 0.07 computer science and artificial intelligence 0.06 computer science and interdisciplinary applications brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 216 table 10: top category based on burst (authors analysis on collected data from wos) bursts category year 14.04 computer science, theory and methods 2009 5.86 engineering and environmental 2013 5.57 computer science, hardware and architecture 2009 3.66 environmental science and ecology 2010 3.57 mathematics and interdisciplinary applications 2014 table 11: top category based on frequency (authors analysis on collected data from wos) frequency category 2744 engineering 2397 engineering, electrical and electronics 1150 energy and fuels 1081 computer science 475 telecommunication 359 automation and control systems 338 computer science, theory and methods 335 computer science and information system 241 computer science, hardware and architecture 238 computer science and artificial intelligence 4. analysis of countries: in this section, we present an analysis of the agent-based smart grid research across different countries. figure 7 shows network of top countries based on centrality. here, different countries are shown in a visualized form that is involved with agent-based smart grid research. thus the network shows the top country is united states of america. this is followed by some other countries such as germany, england, france, canada, and china. the top ranked item by citation counts is usa in 2000, with citation counts of 856. the second one is china (2010), with citation counts of 709. the third is canada (2010), with citation counts of 243. the 4th is germany (2000), with citation counts of 231. the 5th is italy (2012), with citation counts of 211. next, india, iran, england, australia, and france are also listed top in countries based on citation. the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 217 table 12: top countries based on citation (authors analysis on collected data from wos) citation counts references cluster # 856 usa, 2000, so, 0, 0 3 709 peoples r china, 2010, so, 0, 0 2 243 canada, 2010, so, 0, 0 1 231 germany, 2000, so, 0, 0 0 211 italy, 2012, so, 0, 0 0 185 india, 2012, so, 0, 0 2 165 iran, 2013, so, 0, 0 1 155 england, 2011, so, 0, 0 1 149 australia, 2010, so, 0, 0 1 126 france, 2010, so, 0, 0 0 table 13 shows the list of top countries based on centrality. the top ranked item by centrality is usa, with centrality of 0.32. the second one is germany with centrality of 0.15. the third is england, with centrality of 0.15. the 4th is france with centrality of 0.14. the 5th is canada with centrality of 0.12. it is followed by china with centrality of 0.11. the 7th is australia with centrality of 0.07. figure 7: network of top countries (authors analysis on collected data from wos) brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 218 table 13: top countries based on centrality (authors analysis on collected data from wos) centrality country year 0.32 usa, 2000 2000 0.15 germany 2000 0.15 england 2011 0.14 france 2010 0.12 canada 2010 0.11 china 2010 0.07 australia 2010 0.07 portugal 2010 0.07 turkey 2012 0.06 italy 2012 table 14: top countries based on frequency (authors analysis on collected data from wos) frequency author 856 usa 709 china 243 canada 231 germany 211 italy 185 india 165 iran 155 england 149 australia 126 france 5. analysis of institutes in this section, we present visual analysis of top institutions on agent-based smart grid research. figure 8 shows top institutions in a visual form. here, we can see that tsuinghua university is the most central as well as highly cited node among all other institutions. north china electric power university, delft university of technology, chinese academy of science, and comsats university islamabad, pakistan are also among top institutions in the agent-based smart grid research. the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 219 figure 8: network of top institutions (authors analysis on collected data from wos) a visual analysis of the history of the burstness of top institutions is shown in figure 9. this shows the list of those universities that are active in the agent-based smart grid research. here, we see that pecific nw natlab has the strongest and longest citation burst among all other institutes from 2010 to 2016. it is followed by university of auckland and university of tennesse. it is found that national university of singapor and sherif univeristy of technology have shortest citation burst. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 220 figure 9: citation burst of top institutions (authors analysis on collected data from wos) next, we present an analysis of top institutions based on centrality. this has been shown in table 15. the top ranked item by centrality is tsinghua university with centrality of 0.13. the second one is delft university of technology, with centrality of 0.12. the third is tech university denmark, with centrality of 0.09. the 4th is university alberta with centrality of 0.09. the 5th is chinese academy of science, with centrality of 0.08. the 6th is islamic azad university with centrality of 0.07. the aalborg university, southeast university, politecn milan and nanyang technology university have centrality of 0.06 and lowest positions on the list. table 15: top institutions based on centrality (authors analysis on collected data from wos) centrality institutions 0.13 tsinghua university 0.12 delft university technology 0.09 tech university denmark 0.09 university alberta 0.08 chinese academy science 0.07 islamic azad university 0.06 aalborg university 0.06 southeast university 0.06 politecn milan 0.06 nanyang technology university the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 221 our next focus is on the analysis of institutions based on frequency of publications. this has been shown in table 16. it can be noted that north china electrical power university has the highest rnaking with the frequency of 63 publications. tsinghua university is followed by technical university of denmark with the frequency of 43 and 37 respectively. next, comsats institutes of information technology has 35 published articles. next, the list shows university of alberta and aalto university. it is observed that tianjin university has lowest publication frequency among others. table 16: top institutions based on frequency (authors analysis on collected data from wos) frequency institutions 63 north china elect power univ 43 tsinghua univ 37 tech univ denmark 35 comsats inst informat technol 33 univ alberta 32 aalto univ 31 delft univ technol 29 chinese acad sci 29 aalborg univ 27 tianjin univ 6. analysis of co-author in this section, we present an analysis of author co-citation network. in figure 10, the co-author network has been shown. the detailed analysis is given in table 17 and table 18. the top ranked item by citation counts is nadem javaid (javaid et al., 2015) with citation counts of 47. the second one is zita vale (silva et al. 2012) with citation counts of 26. the third is zahoor ali khan (javaid, ilyas, et al., 2015) with citation counts of 21. the 4th is tiago pinto (barreira et al., 2013) with citation counts of 17. the 5th is valerity vyatkin (chia-han yang et al., 2013) with citation counts of 16. the 6th is zhu han (saad et al., 2012) with citation counts of 15. the 7th is sebastian lehnhoff (hinrichs et al., 2014) with citation counts of 13. next, gulnara zhabelova (zhabelova & vyatkin, 2012) and hugo morais (silva et al., 2012) have citation counts of 11. the top ranked item by bursts is jamil y. khan (nafi & khan, 2012) in 2012, with bursts of 5.31. the second one is gulnara zhabelova (zhabelova & vyatkin, 2012) with bursts of 4.38. the third valerity vyatkin (chia-han yang et al., 2013) with bursts of 4.29. the 5th is husheng li brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 222 (meng et al., 2011) with bursts of 4.15. the 6th is jason brown (brown & khan, 2012) with bursts of 3.46. table 17: top author by citation count (authors analysis on collected data from wos) citation counts author 47 nadeem javaid 26 zita vale 21 zahoor ali khan 17 tiago pinto 16 valeraity vyatkinv 15 zhu han 13 sebastian lehnhoff 11 umar qasim 11 gulnara zhabelova 11 hugo morais table 18: top authors by burst (authors analysis on collected data from wos) bursts references year 5.31 jamil y khan 2012 4.38 gulnara zhabelova 2010 4.34 umar qasim 2015 4.29 valerity v. yatkin 2010 4.15 husheng li 2011 3.46 jason brwon 2012 figure 10: network of top co-authors (authors analysis on collected data from wos) the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 223 7. analysis of cited authors this section presents analysis of the cited-authors network. figure 11 shows network of cited-authors in the domain. this network consists of 394 cited authors along with 7203 links. it is important to note here that there is a problem in the dataset. the citespace identified a cited-author named as “anonymous”. in terms of frequency it is a most cited and central node in the network. however, on searching online we found no such author with this name. the detailed analysis is discussed as following. figure 11: network of top cited authors (authors analysis on collected data from wos) the top ranked item by centrality is (c. wang & mahadevan, 2011) with centrality of 0.16. the second one is (amin, 2011) with centrality of 0.15. the third is (rahimi & ipakchi, 2010) with centrality of 0.14. the 4th is (shao, zhang, pipattanasomporn, & rahman, 2010) with centrality of 0.13. the 5th is (kersting & green, 2011) with centrality of 0.12. the 6th is (bouxsein et al., 2010) with centrality of 0.12. the 7th is (rudd, mcarthur, & judd, 2010) with centrality of 0.11. the 8th is (dimeas & hatziargyriou, 2010) with centrality of 0.09. the 9th is (lopes, soares, & almeida, 2011) with centrality of 0.09. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 224 table 19: top cited-authors based on centrality (authors analysis on collected data from wos) centrality references cluster # 0.16 wang c, 2011, so, 0, 0 5 0.15 amin sm, 2010, so, 0, 0 1 0.14 ipakchi a, 2010, so, 0, 0 2 0.13 pipattanasomporn m, 2010, so, 0, 0 1 0.12 kersting wh, 2011, so, 0, 0 3 0.12 boyd s, 2010, so, 0, 0 2 0.11 mcarthur sdj, 2010, so, 0, 0 1 0.10 [anonymous], 2010, so, 0, 0 0 0.09 hatziargyriou n, 2010, so, 0, 0 1 0.09 lopes jap, 2010, so, 0, 0 2 table 20 shows the list of top cited-authors based on frequency. as discussed above, there exists a problem in the dataset. the tool identified a cited-author with the name “anonymous” with the most 1030 citations. however, by searching on internet, we found no such author. next, mohsenian-rad (mohsenian-rad & leon-garcia, 2011) is on second number with 273 citations. gungor vc (supriya, magheshwari, sree udhyalakshmi, subhashini, & musthafa, 2015) is on third position with 169 citations. this is followed by logenthiran t (logenthiran, srinivasan, khambadkone, & aung, 2010) with 151 citations. next, mcarthur sdj (rudd et al., 2010), pipattanasomporn m (shao et al., 2010), feng x (huang, cui, yin, zhang, & feng, 2017), samadi p (samadi, schober, & wong, 2011), and palensky p (palensky & dietrich, 2011) are also listed as top cited-authors based on frequency. table 20: top cited-authors based on frequency (authors analysis on collected data from wos) freq author 1030 [anonymous] 273 mohsenian-rad ah 169 gungor vc 151 logenthiran t 149 mcarthur sdj 146 pipattanasomporn m 143 fang x 134 samadi p 126 palensky p the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 225 summary of results in this paper, we have adopted citespace (a scientometric analysis tool) for different of analysis on the agent-based smart grid research. the key focus of this review was to give an overview of the emerging trends and dynamic of the domain over time. in the following section, we discuss our key findings. firstly, through cluster analysis, we found that cluster #0 was the largest cluster containing 80 nodes in the average year of 2011. the mutual index terms in this cluster were demand response, smart home and appliance scheduling. the articles by mohsenian-rad ah, 2010 fang x, 2012, are the key turning points in the domain. our next analysis was to identify key journals, authors, countries, institutions, and subject’s categories. our analysis produced various interesting results. next, we discuss these analyses. in the analysis of key journals, we noted that the “ieee transaction on smart grid” has the largest number of highly cited papers in this domain. this journal also has most number of published articles in the domain. the journal “nature” is the most central journal in the list. in the top cited-author analysis, we noted that “wang c., 2011” has the strongest burst among all authors in the list. we also performed analysis of most cited authors and found that “wang c, 2011” is mostly cited authors in the research of agent-based smart grid. his area of research is smart grid, physical system, wireless sensor network, and security. in the top countries analysis, we noted that “usa” is top country among all others based on frequency as well as citation. others countries like china, canada, germany, and france are also actively work in the domain. on the analysis of top institutions, we noted that “pacific nw natlab” has strongest and longest citation burst in the duration of 2010 to 2014. based on frequency, “north china elect. power university” is on the top among all other institutes. based on centrality score, “tsinghua university” has top the list. the analysis of top categories showed that the category “engineering” leads over other categories with frequency 2744 and 0.40 centrality value. category analysis showed that the work on agent-based computing of smart grid is multi-discipline. engineer, computer scientist, physician, and environmental scientists all are working the domain. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 226 conclusions in this paper, we have presented a detailed bibliographic review on agent-based smart grid research. the bibliographic data was collected from wos database during the period of 1992 to 2019. the dataset was contained all journals, conferences, and workshop research work. our review showed various interesting results. the analysis showed that the domain gain significant research interest in 2007. wang c, 2011 is most cited author in the domain. from journal perspective, the most cited journal is ieee transaction on smart grid. it contributed highest number of publications in the domain. the usa is most productive country in the domain while pecific nw natlab is most cited institute among all other institutions. in the category analysis, we found that this domain is multidisciplinary domain. researchers from engineering, computer science, and environmental science are working the smart grid research by using agentbased computing technology. the possible extension of this work can be to explore the demand response, smart home, electric vehicles research topics of the domain. references amin, s. (2011). u.s. grid gets less reliable [the data]. ieee spectrum, 48(1), 80– 80. https://doi.org/10.1109/mspec.2011.5676396 barreira, d., garganta, j., pinto, t., valente, j., & anguera, t. (2013). do attacking game patterns differ between first and second halves of soccer matches in the 2010 fifa world cup? in science and football vii: the proceedings of the seventh world congress on science and football (pp. 193–198). https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203131879 bouxsein, m. l., boyd, s. k., christiansen, b. a., guldberg, r. e., jepsen, k. j., & müller, r. (2010, july). guidelines for assessment of bone microstructure in rodents using micro-computed tomography. journal of bone and mineral research, vol. 25, pp. 1468–1486. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.141 brown, j., & khan, j. y. (2012). performance comparison of lte fdd and tdd based smart grid communications networks for uplink biased traffic. 2012 ieee 3rd international conference on smart grid communications, smartgridcomm 2012, 276–281. https://doi.org/10.1109/smartgridcomm.2012.6485996 chen, c. (2014). the citespace manual version 0.77. college of computing and informatics, 103(3), 1–84. retrieved from http://cluster.uschool.drexel.edu/~cchen/citespace/citespacemanual.pdf the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 227 chen, c. (2016). citespace : a practical guide for mapping scientific literature. in novinka. retrieved from http://cluster.cis.drexel.edu/~cchen/citespace/books/ chia-han yang, gulnara zhabelova, chen-wei yang, & valeriy vyatkin. (2013). cosimulation environment for event-driven distributed controls of smart grid. ieee transactions on industrial informatics, 9(3), 1423–1435. https://doi.org/10.1109/tii.2013.2256791 dimeas, a. l., & hatziargyriou, n. d. (2010). multi-agent reinforcement learning for microgrids. ieee pes general meeting, pes 2010. https://doi.org/10.1109/pes.2010.5589633 dusparic, i., harris, c., marinescu, a., cahill, v., & clarke, s. (2013). multi-agent residential demand response based on load forecasting. 2013 1st ieee conference on technologies for sustainability, sustech 2013, 90–96. https://doi.org/10.1109/sustech.2013.6617303 fang, x., misra, s., xue, g., & yang, d. (2012). smart grid the new and improved power grid: a survey. ieee communications surveys and tutorials, vol. 14, pp. 944–980. https://doi.org/10.1109/surv.2011.101911.00087 farhangi, h. (2010). the path of the smart grid. ieee power and energy magazine, 8(1), 18–28. https://doi.org/10.1109/mpe.2009.934876 farooq, k., khan, b. s., niazi, m. a., leslie, s. j., & hussain, a. (2018). clinical decision support systems: a visual survey. informatica (slovenia), 42(4), 485– 505. https://doi.org/10.31449/inf.v42i4.1571 golpayegani, f., dusparic, i., taylor, a., & clarke, s. (2016). multi-agent collaboration for conflict management in residential demand response. computer communications, 96, 63–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comcom.2016.04.020 gungor, v. c., sahin, d., kocak, t., ergut, s., buccella, c., cecati, c., & hancke, g. p. (2013). a survey on smart grid potential applications and communication requirements. ieee transactions on industrial informatics, 9(1), 28–42. https://doi.org/10.1109/tii.2012.2218253 hinrichs, c., lehnhoff, s., & sonnenschein, m. (2014). a decentralized heuristic for multiple-choice combinatorial optimization problems. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00795-3_43 huang, x., cui, y., yin, g., zhang, b., & feng, g. (2017). preparation and thermal properties of capric-palmitic-stearic acid/expanded graphite composite phase change material for energy storage. cailiao daobao/materials review, 31(7), 52–56. https://doi.org/10.11896/j.issn.1005-023x.2017.014.011 jannati, j., & nazarpour, d. (2017). optimal energy management of the smart parking lot under demand response program in the presence of the electrolyser and fuel cell as hydrogen storage system. energy conversion and brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 228 management, 138, 659–669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2017.02.030 javaid, n., ahmad, a., nadeem, q., imran, m., & haider, n. (2015). im-simple: improved stable increased-throughput multi-hop link efficient routing protocol for wireless body area networks. computers in human behavior, 51, 1003–1011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.10.005 javaid, n., ilyas, n., ahmad, a., alrajeh, n., qasim, u., khan, z. a., … khan, m. i. (2015). an efficient data-gathering routing protocol for underwater wireless sensor networks. sensors (switzerland), 15(11), 29149–29181. https://doi.org/10.3390/s151129149 ju, l., zhang, q., tan, z., wang, w., xin, h., & zhang, z. (2018). multi-agentsystem-based coupling control optimization model for micro-grid group intelligent scheduling considering autonomy-cooperative operation strategy. energy, 157, 1035–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.06.097 kersting, w. h., & green, r. k. (2011). the application of carson’s equation to the steady-state analysis of distribution feeders. 2011 ieee/pes power systems conference and exposition, psce 2011. https://doi.org/10.1109/psce.2011.5772579 kim, b. g., zhang, y., van der schaar, m., & lee, j. w. (2016). dynamic pricing and energy consumption scheduling with reinforcement learning. ieee transactions on smart grid, 7(5), 2187–2198. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsg.2015.2495145 lamedica, r., teodori, s., carbone, g., & santini, e. (2015). an energy management software for smart buildings with v2g and bess. sustainable cities and society, 19, 173–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2015.08.003 logenthiran, t., srinivasan, d., khambadkone, a. m., & aung, h. n. (2010). multi-agent system (mas) for short-term generation scheduling of a microgrid. 2010 ieee international conference on sustainable energy technologies, icset 2010. https://doi.org/10.1109/icset.2010.5684943 lopes, j. a. p., soares, f. j., & almeida, p. m. r. (2011). integration of electric vehicles in the electric power system. proceedings of the ieee, 99(1), 168– 183. https://doi.org/10.1109/jproc.2010.2066250 meng, j., yin, w., li, h., hossain, e., & han, z. (2011). collaborative spectrum sensing from sparse observations in cognitive radio networks. ieee journal on selected areas in communications, 29(2), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1109/jsac.2011.110206 modeling and simulation of complex communication networks. (2019). in m. a. niazi (ed.), modeling and simulation of complex communication networks. https://doi.org/10.1049/pbpc018e the state of the art in smart grid domain: a network modeling approach waseem akram, et al. 229 mohsenian-rad, a. h., & leon-garcia, a. (2011). distributed internet-based load altering attacks against smart power grids. ieee transactions on smart grid, 2(4), 667–674. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsg.2011.2160297 mohsenian-rad, a. h., wong, v. w. s., jatskevich, j., schober, r., & leon-garcia, a. (2010). autonomous demand-side management based on gametheoretic energy consumption scheduling for the future smart grid. ieee transactions on smart grid, 1(3), 320–331. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsg.2010.2089069 muralitharan, k., sakthivel, r., & shi, y. (2016). multiobjective optimization technique for demand side management with load balancing approach in smart grid. neurocomputing, 177, 110–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2015.11.015 nafi, n. s., & khan, j. y. (2012). a vanet based intelligent road traffic signalling system. australasian telecommunication networks and applications conference, atnac 2012. https://doi.org/10.1109/atnac.2012.6398066 niazi, m. a. k. (2017). towards a novel unified framework for developing formal, network and validated agent-based simulation models of complex adaptive systems. arxiv, p. 275. palensky, p., & dietrich, d. (2011). demand side management: demand response, intelligent energy systems, and smart loads. ieee transactions on industrial informatics, 7(3), 381–388. https://doi.org/10.1109/tii.2011.2158841 rahimi, f., & ipakchi, a. (2010). demand response as a market resource under the smart grid paradigm. ieee transactions on smart grid, vol. 1, pp. 82–88. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsg.2010.2045906 rehmani, m. h., davy, a., jennings, b., & assi, c. (2019). software defined networks-based smart grid communication: a comprehensive survey. ieee communications surveys and tutorials, 21(3), 2637–2670. https://doi.org/10.1109/comst.2019.2908266 risteska stojkoska, b. l., & trivodaliev, k. v. (2017). a review of internet of things for smart home: challenges and solutions. journal of cleaner production, vol. 140, pp. 1454–1464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.006 rudd, s., mcarthur, s. d. j., & judd, m. d. (2010). a generic knowledge-based approach to the analysis of partial discharge data. ieee transactions on dielectrics and electrical insulation, 17(1), 149–156. https://doi.org/10.1109/tdei.2010.5412013 saad, w., han, z., poor, h. v., & başar, t. (2012). game theoretic methods for the smart grid: an overview of microgrid systems, demand-side management, and smart grid communications. ieeexplore.ieee.org. retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6279592/ brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 230 samadi, p., schober, r., & wong, v. w. s. (2011). optimal energy consumption scheduling using mechanism design for the future smart grid. 2011 ieee international conference on smart grid communications, smartgridcomm 2011, 369–374. https://doi.org/10.1109/smartgridcomm.2011.6102349 shao, s., zhang, t., pipattanasomporn, m., & rahman, s. (2010). impact of tou rates on distribution load shapes in a smart grid with phev penetration. 2010 ieee pes transmission and distribution conference and exposition: smart solutions for a changing world. https://doi.org/10.1109/tdc.2010.5484336 shirzeh, h., naghdy, f., ciufo, p., & ros, m. (2015). balancing energy in the smart grid using distributed value function (dvf). ieee transactions on smart grid, 6(2), 808–818. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsg.2014.2363844 siano, p. (2014). demand response and smart grids a survey. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, vol. 30, pp. 461–478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.10.022 siebert, l. c., sbicca, a., aoki, a. r., & lambert-torres, g. (2017). a behavioral economics approach to residential electricity consumption. energies, 10(6), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3390/en10060768 silva, m., morais, h., & vale, z. (2012). an integrated approach for distributed energy resource short-term scheduling in smart grids considering realistic power system simulation. energy conversion and management, 64, 273–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2012.04.021 supriya, s., magheshwari, m., sree udhyalakshmi, s., subhashini, r., & musthafa. (2015). smart grid technologies: communication technologies and standards. international journal of applied engineering research, 10(20), 16932– 16941. retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6011696/ wang, c., & mahadevan, s. (2011). heterogeneous domain adaptation using manifold alignment. ijcai international joint conference on artificial intelligence, 1541–1546. https://doi.org/10.5591/978-1-57735-516-8/ijcai11-259 wang, g., zhang, q., li, h., mclellan, b. c., chen, s., li, y., & tian, y. (2017). study on the promotion impact of demand response on distributed pv penetration by using non-cooperative game theoretical analysis. applied energy, 185, 1869–1878. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.01.016 yao, l., lim, w. h., & tsai, t. s. (2017). a real-time charging scheme for demand response in electric vehicle parking station. ieee transactions on smart grid, 8(1), 52–62. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsg.2016.2582749 zhabelova, g., & vyatkin, v. (2012). multiagent smart grid automation architecture based on iec 61850/61499 intelligent logical nodes. ieee transactions on industrial electronics, 59(5), 2351–2362. https://doi.org/10.1109/tie.2011.2167891 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 175-181 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/133 a mania that is not mania: a case of frontotemporal dementia with early onset vlad dionisie¹, mirela manea 2 , mihnea costin manea 3 *, andreea crăciun 4 1 assistant professor, ”carol davila” university of medicine and pharmacy, department of psychiatry and psychology, bucharest, romania, vlad.dionisie@gmail.com 2 professor, ”carol davila” university of medicine and pharmacy, department of psychiatry and psychology, bucharest, romania, mirelmanea2003@yahoo.com 3 lecturer, ”carol davila” university of medicine and pharmacy, department of psychiatry and psychology, bucharest, romania, mihnea.manea@live.com, corresponding author 4 assistant professor, ”carol davila” university of medicine and pharmacy, department of psychiatry and psychology, bucharest, romania, dr.andreeacraciun@gmail.com abstract: the clinical picture of the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia can be very similar to a manic episode. paying a careful attention to memory and attention problems and assessing the cognitive status of a patient with mania-like symptoms and no previous psychiatric history should be a standard procedure in order to distinguish mania from behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia. sometimes, imaging techniques are revealing important aspects that are essential for a correct diagnosis and treatment plan. here, we present a case of frontotemporal dementia with early onset that had a manic like clinical presentation. also, we shortly discuss the available pharmacological approaches and outline the importance of thorough differential diagnosis. keywords: frontotemporal dementia; mania; bipolar disorder; behaviour disorder; frontal lobe. how to cite: dionisie, v., manea, m., manea, m.c., & crăciun, a. (2020). a mania that is not mania: a case of frontotemporal dementia with early onset. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 175-181. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/133 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/133 mailto:vlad.dionisie@gmail.com mailto:mirelmanea2003@yahoo.com mailto:mihnea.manea@live.com mailto:dr.andreeacraciun@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/133 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 176 1. introduction mania is an emotional state where an elevated, expansive, or unusually irritable mood exists. people can also experience other symptoms, including: high level of energy and activity, but in an unproductive way, sometimes with unwanted consequences; decreased need for sleep, the person usually awakens several hours earlier than usual, feeling full of energy; grandiosity, an exaggerated sense of importance which may be in power, knowledge or identity; rapid or pressured speech; rapid thinking; tendency to be easily distracted, “clang” associations; increase in risky behaviours, like overspending money; false beliefs (delusions) or false perceptions (hallucinations). the symptoms can last for a week or more and can be a medical emergency. the median age of onset of mania is around age 25. men and women are equally likely to be affected, but men typically have an earlier age of onset than women (dailey & mania, 2020). alzheimer’s dementia is the most common type of dementia. frontotemporal dementia (ftd) is an uncommon type of dementia but it is the second most common type in people under 65 years old. dementia is caused by gradual changes and damage in the brain. ftd is caused by progressive nerve cell loss in the brain’s frontal lobes or temporal lobes due to hyperphosphorylated tau proteins that affect axonal transport and microtubule formation. all these histopathological changes determine neuronal apoptosis. symptoms of ftd, alongside memory and language problems, problems with mental abilities, can include dramatic personality and behaviour changes like: acting inappropriately or impulsively, losing inhibitions (making rude comments about someone appereance, stealing, making sexual gestures in public), overeacting, neglecting personal hygiene, increased interest in sex. these signs are often the first noticeable, therefore diagnosing this type of dementia can be a challenge. the aim of this paper is to present a case of behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvftd) that has a similar clinical presentation to a manic episode. also, our purpose is to raise awareness of the importance of differential diagnosis at the initial evaluation of a first manic episode, including cognitive and neuroimaging testing. moreover, we provide a short overview of the current available treatments for bvftd. 2. case presentation a 48-year-old female, mrs. a, was brought to the psychiatric emergency unit by her son for the following complaints: childish behaviour, a mania that is not mania: a case of frontotemporal dementia with early onset vlad dionisie, et al. 177 various and repeated verbal and physical conflicts with different people (especially when the patient is contradicted), dromomania, excessive spending (the son complains that his mother spent the entire last salary on second-hand clothes or odds and ends), inappropriate and disinhibited behaviour (the patient is very friendly with strangers). these behaviours were reported by her son to be uncharacteristic for the patient’s personality baseline. at the moment of admission, the patient was under treatment with valproic acid 1000mg/day and quetiapine 400mg/day for the last month, being diagnosed with a manic episode in an outpatient setting. under this treatment, the patient’s mental state did not improve, on the contrary, the collateral information provided by her son suggested that the mental state deteriorated in the last month. the patient worked as a high school teacher, was divorced and living alone and had two sons. the patient had no previous history of psychiatric disorders and did not report having somatic diseases. also, the patient had no family history of psychiatric disorders. she smoked approximately 15 cigarettes/day and denied using recreational drugs or drinking excessive alcohol. 2.1. mental state examination the patient appeared well dressed and well-groomed with a moderate psychomotor agitation state. she was fully oriented in time and space at the moment of admission. the patient initiated and maintained good eye-contact, had hypermobile mimics and extensive gestures. the patient denied experiencing hallucinations. she reported having concentrations problems and a moderate level of distractibility was observed. at the moment of admission the patient appeared to have good memory function and she did not report any memory complaints. during hospitalization, the patient had numerous episodes of disorientation in time and space and retrograde and anterograde memory deficits. the patient had a fluent, coherent, rapid, and pressured speech. her thought process was coherent but circumstantial, with flight of ideas and episodic loosening of associations. overall, mrs. a thought process was dominated by stereotypy. mrs. a. denied any delusional ideation or suicidal or homicidal thoughts. she has numerous mnestic confabulations and high self-esteem. the patient reported ”happy” mood with episodes of irritability and her affect was expansive. her behavior was inappropriate at admission being characterized by excessive familiarity (the patient breached personal limits with the medical stuff several times). she maintained this behavior during brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 178 hospitalization but also the patient had numerous moments of disorganized behavior (she pulled out her iv perfusion, wanted to leave the room without any reason during the computer tomography examination). the patient reported high physical energy. mrs. a.’s sleep was normal with approximately 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night. her food appetite was within normal limits. the patient’s insight into illness was absent. mrs. a. scored 19/30 points in the mini-mental state examination, with zero points in attention, calculation and remote memory domains. 2.2. course during admission mrs. a. vital signs were within normal limits and the complete physical examination was unremarkable. a complete blood count, liver and renal tests, tests of thyroid-stimulating hormone, free thyroxine, vitamin b12 were performed. the blood tests were in normal range. moreover, the patient was screened for hiv infection and b and c hepatitis viruses infection, all with negative results. the ecg showed no specific changes. an emergency computed tomography (ct) brain scan was performed and revealed significant global cerebral atrophy. a magnetic resonance imaging (mri) brain scan revealed significant bilateral temporal and frontal cortical atrophy, the temporal lobes being more affected than the frontal lobes. based on mri brain scan result and the psychiatric symptoms, the diagnose of frontotemporal dementia – behavioural variant was formulated. mrs. a was initially treated with a combination of valproic acid, clonazepam and medium to high dose olanzapine (15mg/day) without any substantial improvements. this led to a change of antipsychotic, from olanzapine to risperidone. also, memantine was added to the treatment plan. low dose risperidone (3mg/day) and memantine combination led to significant symptom control, managing the disorganized or inappropriate behaviour, the physical aggressive outbursts and other mania-like symptoms. during hospitalization, the social and personal functioning of the patient was improved over roll. the patient was discharged home with recommendation for close monitoring from her caregivers and family, given that she relied on others for planning and carrying out activities of daily living. a mania that is not mania: a case of frontotemporal dementia with early onset vlad dionisie, et al. 179 3. discussion this case detailed about the importance of excluding an organic cause for any acute psychiatric presentation with no psychiatric history. these patients require a neurological examination, neuroimaging and other selected tests. behavioural symptoms in ftd are characterized by disinhibition that produces impulsive actions and a socially embarrassing behaviour, changes in eating behaviour, hoarding, repetitive or stereotypic behaviour, blunting of affect, mental rigidity, loss of empathy, apathy (piguet & hodges, 2013). mrs. a symptoms of elevated mood, irritability, racing thoughts, pressure to keep talking, inappropriate and disinhibited behaviour, dromomania, excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (unrestrained spending money) all suggested mania. clues that the patient had a neurodegenerative disease included the lack of a psychiatric history, a progressive nature of her symptoms despite appropriate anti-manic treatment and the changes on mri (bilateral temporal and frontal cortical atrophy). cognitive test helped the diagnostic process, even if the presence of cognitive deficits would not necessarily excluded a diagnosis of mania. a degree of cognitive deficit is a part of a manic episode, like difficulties with executive function, with linguistic working memory, problems with retention of what’s been read or listened to. for example, accelerated thought is a common experience in mania, the consequence can manifest as impaired focus and faulty memory. also, an unusually volume of thoughts can flood a person’s awareness, making difficult to prioritize effective responses. sometimes, mania comes with the experience of being too focused. experiencing hyperprosexia can also result in a failure to attend things that really need attention. in terms of treatment, there are currently no evidence based pharmacological interventions that can change the course of frontotemporal dementia. at this moment, used pharmacological treatments are prescribed off-label and with the scope to manage some symptoms, especially the behavioural ones (tsai &boxer, 2014). cholinesterase inhibitors and n-methyl-d-aspartic acid (nmda) receptor antagonists are indicated for the treatment of alzheimer’s disease. a recent paper reviewing the pharmacological treatment of cognitive symptoms in frontotemporal dementia outlined that neither cholinesterase inhibitors (donepezil, rivastigmine, and galantamine) nor nmda receptor antagonist had an impact on the cognitive decline (tsai &boxer, 2014). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 180 moreover, tsai and boxer (2014) concluded that cholinesterase inhibitors could worsen the behavioural symptoms. memantine was first thought that could have a role in preventing neuronal cell loss induced by glutamate excitotoxicity and apoptosis. regarding the benefit of memantine use in ftd, conflicting data is reported in the literature. some studies assessing the potential positive effect of memantine failed to provide strong evidence in this direction (tsai & boxer, 2014). on the other hand, there is some evidence supporting the beneficial effect of memantine in patients with ftd (kishi et al., 2015). further research is needed in order to be able to draw conclusive statements regarding the use of memantine in bvftd. several studies indicate selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors to be effective in alleviating the behavioural symptoms present in patients with behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (young et al., 2017). of all selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, sertraline, paroxetine, citalopram, and fluoxetine have been studied and might mitigate some of the behavioural symptoms of bvftd (young et al., 2017; tsai & boxer, 2014). we were cautious in using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors due to the concern that these drugs could worsen the expansive mood and high energy experienced by our patient. for managing the behavioural symptoms of bvftd several antipsychotics have been studied. quetiapine, olanzapine, risperidone and aripiprazole seem to have a potential role in mitigating behavioural symptoms (curtis & resch, 2000; fellgiebel et al., 2007; reeves & perry, 2013; moretti et al., 2003). in our case, neither olanzapine nor quetiapine improve the behavioural symptoms. low-dose risperidone (3mg/day) managed successfully the patient’s clinical symptoms. psychological therapy, including occupational, speech, and language therapy, can be recommended for patients with bvftd even though controlled evidence is lacking in this area (warren et al., 2013). the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia can present with marked changes in a patient’s personality and behaviour, that may be misdiagnosed. ftd must be distinguished from a non-degenerative illness and from other neurodegenerative diseases. it is very important to rule out medical causes in the case of a new-onset mania. our case highlights that ftd can present in an acute manner that mimics a manic episode and the importance of a correct diagnosis. a mania that is not mania: a case of frontotemporal dementia with early onset vlad dionisie, et al. 181 references curtis, r., & resch, d. (2000). case of pick's central lobar atrophy with apparent stabilization of cognitive decline after treatment with risperidone. journal of clinical psychopharmacology, 20(3), 384-385. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004714-200006000-00018 dailey, m. w, & mania, s. a. [updated 2020 nov 20]. treasure island (fl). statpearls publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/nbk493168/ fellgiebel, a., müller, m., hiemke, c., bartenstein, p., & schreckenberger, m. (2007). clinical improvement in a case of frontotemporal dementia under aripiprazole treatment corresponds to partial recovery of disturbed frontal glucose metabolism. the world journal of biological psychiatry, 8(2), 123-126. https://doi.org/10.1080/15622970601016538 kishi, t., matsunaga, s., & iwata, n. (2015). memantine for the treatment of frontotemporal dementia: a meta-analysis. neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 2883. https://doi.org/10.2147/ndt.s94430 moretti, r., torre, p., antonello, r., cazzato, g., griggio, s., & bava, a. (2003). olanzapine as a treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders of alzheimer's disease and other dementias: a 24-month follow-up of 68 patients. american journal of alzheimer's disease & other dementiasr, 18(4), 205-214. https://doi.org/10.1177/153331750301800410 piguet, o., & hodges, j. (2013). behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia: an update. dementia & neuropsychologia, 7(1), 10-18. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-57642013dn70100003 reeves, r., & perry, c. (2013). aripiprazole for sexually inappropriate vocalizations in frontotemporal dementia. journal of clinical psychopharmacology, 33(1), 145-146. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.jcp.0000426190.64916.3b tsai, r., & boxer, a. (2014). treatment of frontotemporal dementia. current treatment options in neurology, 16(11). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11940-0140319-0 warren, j., rohrer, j., & rossor, m. (2013). frontotemporal dementia. bmj, 347(aug12 3), f4827-f4827. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f4827 young, j., lavakumar, m., tampi, d., balachandran, s., & tampi, r. (2017). frontotemporal dementia: latest evidence and clinical implications. therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology, 8(1), 33-48. https://doi.org/10.1177/2045125317739818 https://doi.org/10.1097/00004714-200006000-00018 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/nbk493168/ https://doi.org/10.1080/15622970601016538 https://doi.org/10.2147/ndt.s94430 https://doi.org/10.1177/153331750301800410 https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-57642013dn70100003 https://doi.org/10.1097/01.jcp.0000426190.64916.3b https://doi.org/10.1007/s11940-014-0319-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11940-014-0319-0 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f4827 https://doi.org/10.1177/2045125317739818 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 89-97 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/125 schizophrenia and the family burden during the pandemic ioana-maria marin¹, maria petropolou 2 , liliana baroiu 3 *, ana-catalina chirosca 4 , lucretia anghel 5 , liliana luca 6 , 1 jm mcgill ltd., doncaster, united kingdom, ioanamariamarin@yahoo.com 2 general hospital of karditsa, pharmacy department, greece, gmei5@hotmail.com 3 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania, lilibaroiu@yahoo.com * corresponding author 4 university of medicine and pharmacy, bucharest, romania, anacatalina2666@gmail.com 5 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania, anghel_lucretia@yahoo.com 6 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania, chiroscaliliana@gmail.com abstract: this article focuses on the issue of the burden that families with people with schizophre-nia in care are confronted with. the pandemic caused significant disruption to the family dynamics of people caring for individuals with schizophrenia due to their higher risk of infection and worse outcomes. families with patients with schizophrenia should pay close attention to detect both res-piratory and psychiatric symptoms as early as possible. they may need health care pro-fessional support, guidance and help to prevent covid-19 infection among people di-agnosed with schizophrenia. however, the issue of the difficulties that families with people diagnosed with schizophrenia face remains a serious matter. keywords: family burden; pandemic; schizophrenia. how to cite: marin, i.-m., petropolou, m., baroiu, l., chirosca, a.-c., anghel, l., & luca, l. (2020). schizophrenia and the family burden during the pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 89-97. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/125 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/125 mailto:ioanamariamarin@yahoo.com mailto:gmei5@hotmail.com mailto:lilibaroiu@yahoo.com mailto:anacatalina2666@gmail.com mailto:anghel_lucretia@yahoo.com mailto:chiroscaliliana@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/125 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 90 introduction the phrase family burden is associated with how relatives perceive their own emotional and physical health, social life and financial status resulting from their care for a sick relative (sales, 2003). the symptoms of schizophrenia affect the family members who care about the diagnosed person. the family of individuals with schizophrenia should think about changes that occurred as a result of the disease. the strange symptoms of schizophrenia and the unpredictability of the diagnosed patient's behavior lead to feelings of uncertainty in traditional families, the disease being often seen as an undeserved punishment (rhee & rosenheck, 2019). discussions specialized studies divide this burden into two categories: objective and subjective (lippi, 2016). the subjective burden of a family with a person diagnosed with schizophrenia is the result of permanent feelings of worry, pain, despair due to the behavior with increased potential for aggression of the sick person, his limited capacity for autonomy and self-control, but also the feeling of insecurity for the sick person, family members and society (manao & pardede 2019). moreover, the emergence of the pandemic brings an additional cause for concern, fear or panic for these people. the parents of persons with schizophrenia or those who care about them often express their concern about the future and the trajectory of the individual's life after their death (chen et al., 2019). patients in this category, already in a constant struggle with the depressive mood due to the "burden" of careless, may now face a growing feeling that no one really understands them and can help them, in addition to them already feeling powerless, socially isolated and stigmatized (luca et al., 2020). the objective burden of families in this category also consists of two aspects. the first one includes neglection of other family members, the occurrence of intra-family conflicts and secondly, the deterioration of family and marital relationships, especially of social relationships due to loss of contact with close relatives and friends. schizophrenia and the family burden during the pandemic ioana-maria marin, et al. 91 family members of people diagnosed with schizophrenia feel ashamed of the sick person's symptoms and behavior and avoid inviting other people home. the self-stigmatization of family members is also present, often in the case of the sick person. social distancing measures can be an additional factor in increasing family conflict situations due to additional mental pressure and the fact that they have to stay together most of the time (ciubara et al., 2015). social isolation and the lack of community support are other real problems that have existed even since the pre-pandemic period, which may be now felt more strongly (lupu et al., 2017). the caregivers of an individual with schizophrenia are required to find out from reliable sources about the vulnerability of the loved one suffering from schizophrenia, given that the classic medical consultation has been replaced by telemedicine (deluca et al., 2020). an additional complication is the way they have to explain to the patient what a pandemic is, knowing that suspicion, overor mis-interpretation and delusional ideation are part of the psychopathological picture of schizophrenia, therefore the risk of exacerbation of symptoms is increased. another problem is the constant concern for the patient to comply with additional hygiene measures, given that the ability to understand, the elements of psycho-cognitive impairment and negligence of personal hygiene of a patient with schizophrenia is often diminished (chirita et al., 2012). they may have difficulties in understanding the explanation of the need and obligation to wear a protective mask, given that the volitional function and the anchoring in reality of patients with schizophrenia are also frequently present. the reactions of relatives to schizophrenia symptoms are based on the way the family interprets them. families often attribute negative symptoms, outbursts of anger and behavioral manifestations to the sick person; other family members sometimes feel that the individuals with schizophrenia intend to provoke and even make them feel upset (ciobotea et al., 2016). most often, family members are not aware of the symptoms and the role of this medical condition and tend to accuse the sick person of bad will (flattened affect, ambivalence, lack of pleasure in life, lack of personal motivation and aptitude deficit are misinterpreted by family members). it is difficult for them to accept situations like this or they may even forget that these attitudes are consequences of the disease (ciubara et al., 2016). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 92 in addition, parents, spouses and relatives are often unable to manage their individual or family needs due to the fact that their attention is focused on the sick person and the consequences of this condition. on the other hand, there are situations in which the family with a diagnosed with schizophrenia person tends to overprotect them, or not to insist due to the fear of reaction of the sick person (ornell et al., 2020). there is a risk that the relatives themselves may neglect, reducing their vigilance regarding their own health and delaying the referral to specialists even if they do not feel well. these families may also be in a permanent state of stress at the thought that someone in their family might get covid-19. belonging to a family with patients with schizophrenia also means facing constraints in carrying out relaxation activities. these difficulties can lead to states of exhaustion or overwork during this period. job loss or declining incomes, rising absenteeism from work, and the occurrence of financial problems caused by medical expenses were prepandemic problems exacerbated by the pandemic (fonseca et al., 2020). nowadays, the objective burdens mostly felt by families of individuals with schizophrenia are financial obligations related to medical costs, transportation to mental health care providers, procuring the necessary prescriptions and medication, and providing basic necessities for a decent living. families of people diagnosed with schizophrenia experience feelings of increased concern or frustration during this period, in close connection with the limitations and restrictions imposed on them and on the sick person. the whole family, both relatives and people with schizophrenia may be concerned about the current situation and the occurrence of relapses given that accessibility to psychiatric hospitals is limited on the grounds that there is a great number of infections in hospitals. family members caring for people diagnosed with schizophrenia assume guilt for not recognizing the symptoms earlier, and can feel it even more profoundly during this pandemic period when psychiatric hospitals are operating differently, and hospitalizations are made only in an emergency. there is a higher risk of recurrence, given the emotional suffering of those diagnosed with schizophrenia due to the fact that they are already vulnerable to the onset of the pandemic, their limited access to community and the risk of discontinuation of medication. the exhaustion of relatives, caused by the behavior of individuals with schizophrenia, the occurrence and management of psychotic symptoms schizophrenia and the family burden during the pandemic ioana-maria marin, et al. 93 and the lack of treatment compliance of people diagnosed with schizophrenia associated with pandemic problems could be increased. the need to seek medical and social services is certainly increased during this period. in addition to the early detection of the first signs of exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms, the relatives of the individuals who suffer from schizophrenia also care for the detection of respiratory symptoms and careful monitoring of the general condition of health of patients with schizophrenia. another problem that these families frequently face is the increase of the workload within the household, especially in the conditions in which it is possible that all family members are permanently at home. on the other hand, the relatives must find alternatives for spending their free time in a family-friendly way. the obligation to accompany the sick person outside the house is now cumulated with additional worries due to protection and hygiene measures that the individuals with schizophrenia can hardly accept. the covid-19 pandemic may have consequences for the quality of care for families with patients with schizophrenia. specialized research conducted before the outbreak of the pandemic shows that families caring for a person with schizophrenia face stronger feelings of burden than those caring for people diagnosed with other chronic diseases. negative experiences and their dissatisfaction, feelings of anxiety, fear, stress or shock, confusion, lack of control, despair and frustration are feelings that these people face more intensely. the caregivers often choose not to talk about the burden and exhaustion they feel, and the specialists they address have difficulty in establishing an effective therapeutic relationship, gaining the trust of these people so that they can express themselves, be able to explain the emotional states they go through, so that specialists understand the impact that this burden has on them. personal skills and the application of the principles of psychoeducation by mental health specialists and those in social work play the role of helping their relatives to express feelings and recognize the importance and meaning of the psychopathological signs. explanations accessible to everyone's understanding can lead to both self-knowledge and understanding behavior and drama of the loved one in the family, diagnosed with schizophrenia. the expression of emotions is closely related to their management, prevents the experimentation of negative feelings of sadness, frustration, helplessness, anger, guilt, despair. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 94 understanding the depression, frustration, difficult situation of the person diagnosed with schizophrenia is closely correlated with optimizing the family environment and thus the well-being of all members of the family the need for the family members to confess have always existed, although their defense and adaptation mechanisms led them to be reserved about their personal lives. one of the reasons for the reduced capacity for communication and self-disclosure could be the internalization of the stigma associated with the diagnosis of schizophrenia of a loved one, but also of social stigma and labeling (untu et al., 2015). these people may not feel support from social psychiatric services in the conditions in which there were no centers before the pandemic period specialized in managing family crises, support groups or therapy sessions for both them and the sick, and the restrictions imposed by the pandemic make it difficult to set them up. the uncertain course of the disease, disturbing behavior, self-stigma, loneliness, lack of help from outside or other family members, lack of reciprocity from the sick person and fear of unpredictable changes in behavior, reduced ability to adapt to new situations and last but not least, suicide risk are identified by families with individuals with schizophrenia as problems they face which may be added to the insecurity of the pandemic (sher, 2020). the importance of involving members in the healing process of a sick person is recognized, but their task to manage the continuous care of a person is extremely difficult in the conditions imposed by the pandemic. recent pandemic studies show that patients with schizophrenia include a higher risk of infection and poorer recovery outcomes, especially if they have clinical comorbidities (fonfana et al., 2020). they are also vulnerable to exacerbation of psychoticism and relapses due to fear of illness, stress and boredom associated with compulsory isolation. the caregivers need to be helped to find internal resources but also financial support to be able to adapt to the pandemic situation, in order to be able to manage the burden of schizophrenia care. psychoeducational programs help families improve their problemsolving, communication and coping skills (ciubara et al., 2015). provided in the format of multifamily groups, psychoeducation sessions help families develop social support. both the diagnosed person and family members feel the need for psychological support, counseling and guidance by the psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker to regain their lost social status with labelschizophrenia and the family burden during the pandemic ioana-maria marin, et al. 95 ing and stigmatization (valcea et al., 2016). once they regain confidence due to their own strengths, those people are more likely to implement actions that lead to the optimization of social integration. on the one hand, there is the need for people to confess, although their defense and adaptation mechanisms have led them to be hesitant concerning their personal lives. on the other hand, awareness of the de facto reality can lead to the possibility of finding viable solutions and increasing the motivation to act constructively in order to manage one's own feelings in a different way and to improve the relationship with the sick person. changing the perspective on mental health could have the immediate effect of supporting the person diagnosed with schizophrenia in finding their own anchors and mobilizing them to succeed in socio-professional rehabilitation. nowadays, the recovery of people diagnosed with schizophrenia is the subject of social action to promote mental health. there are institutions all over the world, organizations and specialists who make considerable effort to tackle with the psycho-social reintegration of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. however, the issue of the difficulties of families with patients with schizophrenia remains a challenge. conclusions mental health and addiction concerns affect a great number of people around the world. they are the leading cause of the global burden of disease and are the leading causes of disability worldwide. the pandemic could be an opportunity to improve mental health and social care services, to create a multidisciplinary monitoring, intervention and care system of psycho-emotional, socio-professional and financial support networks. references chen, l., zhao, y., tang, j., jin, g., liu, y., zhao, x., chen, c., & lu, x. (2019). the burden, support and needs of primary family caregivers of people experiencing schizophrenia in beijing communities: a qualitative study. bmc psychiatry, 19(1), 75. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2052-4 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2052-4 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 96 chirita, r., sacuiu, i., burlea, a., & chirita, v. (2012). the role of nitric oxide inhibitors in treatment on symptom severity and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15, 113-113. ciobotea, d., vlaicu, b., ciubara, a., duica, c.l., cotocel, c., antohi, v., pirlog, m.c. (2016). visual impairment in the elderly and its influence on the quality of life. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 54, 66-74. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis54_05.pdf ciubara, a-m., burlea, s. l., sacuiu, i., radu, d. a., untu, i., & chirita, r. (2015). alcohol addiction a psychosocial perspective. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 187, 536-540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 ciubara, a., cartas, n., burlea, l. s., chirita, r., ciubara, b. a., untu, i., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2015). the relationship between schizophrenia and criminality. european psychiatry, 30 (supp.1), 0763. https://doi.org/10.1016/s09249338(15)30603-9 ciubara, a., chirita, r., burlea, l.s., lupu, v.v., mihai, c., moisa, s. m., & untu, i. (2016). psychosocial particularities of violent acts in personality disorders. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 52, 265-272. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis52_17.pdf deluca, j. s., andorko, n. d., chibani, d., jay, s. y., rakhshan rouhakhtar, p. j., petti, e., klaunig, m. j., thompson, e. c., millman, z. b., connors, k. m., akouri-shan, l. a., fitzgerald, j., redman, s. l., roemer, c., bridgwater, m. a., devylder, j. e., king, c. a., pitts, s. c., reinblatt, s. p., & schiffman, j. (2020). telepsychotherapy with youth at clinical high risk for psychosis: clinical issues and best practices during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of psychotherapy integration, 30(2), 304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/int0000211 fofana, n. k., latif, f., sarfraz, s., bashir, m. f., & komal, b. (2020). fear and agony of the pandemic leading to stress and mental illness: an emerging crisis in the novel coronavirus (covid-19) outbreak. psychiatry research, 291, 113230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113230 fonseca, l., diniz, e., mendonca, g., malinowski, f., mari, j., & gadelha, a. (2020). schizophrenia and covid-19: risks and recommendations. brazilian journal of psychiatry, 42(3), 236-238. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-44462020-0010 lippi, g. (2016). schizophrenia in a member of the family: burden, expressed emotion and addressing the needs of the whole family. south african journal of psychiatry, 22(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v22i1.922 luca, l. ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis54_05.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0924-9338(15)30603-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0924-9338(15)30603-9 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis52_17.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/int0000211 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113230 https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2020-0010 https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2020-0010 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v22i1.922 schizophrenia and the family burden during the pandemic ioana-maria marin, et al. 97 covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 lupu, v.v., ignat, a., stoleriu, g., ciubara, a.b., ciubara, a., lupu, v., burlea, m., stratciuc, s. (2017). vaccination of children in romania between civic obligation and personal choice. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 56, 123-132. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis56_10.pdf manao, b. m., & pardede, j. a. (2019). correlation of family burden of the prevention of recurrence of schizophrenia patients. mental health, 4(1), 31-42. ornell, f., schuch, j. b., sordi, a. o., & kessler, f. h. p. (2020). “pandemic fear” and covid-19: mental health burden and strategies. brazilian journal of psychiatry, 42(3), 232-235. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2020-0011 rhee, t. g., & rosenheck, r. a. (2019). does improvement in symptoms and quality of life in chronic schizophrenia reduce family caregiver burden?. psychiatry research, 271, 402-404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.12.005 sher, l. (2020). the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on suicide rates. qjm: an international journal of medicine, 113(10), 707-712. https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcaa202 untu, i., chirita, r., bulgaru-iliescu, d., chirila, b. d., ciubara, a., & burlea, s. l. (2015). ethical implications of bio-psycho-social transformations entailed by the aging process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 48, 216225. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis48_16.pdf valcea, l., bulgaru-iliescu, d., burlea, s. l., & ciubara, a. (2016). patient’s rights and communication in the hospital accreditation process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 55, 260-270. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf sales, e. (2003). family burden and quality of life. quality of life research, 12(1), 33-41. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1023513218433 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis56_10.pdf https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2020-0011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.12.005 https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcaa202 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis48_16.pdf https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1023513218433 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 491-508 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/261 harmonious upbringing of preschoolers: physical and neuropsychological aspects alla chagovets¹, iryna aprielieva2, maryna pyvovarenko3, yuliia syrova4, svitlana kolosova5, kateryna dmytrenko6 1 municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarianpedagogical academy», ukraine, chagoalla@gmail.com 2 municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarian-pedagogical academy», ukraine, apreleva555@ukr.net 3 municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarianpedagogical academy», ukraine, marinapivovarenko.19@gmail.com 4 municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarian-pedagogical academy», ukraine, yuliya_syrovaya@ukr.net 5 municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarianpedagogical academy», ukraine, kolosova.svetlanavik@gmail.com 6 municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarianpedagogical academy», ukraine, dm_kat@ukr.net abstract: the article shows that the cultivation of spirituality in preschoolers is closely related to their physical and neuropsychological development, as well as moral and aesthetic education. the article aims to determine the effectiveness of the implemented programme for harmonious upbringing of children in cultural and educational space of preschools by comparing levels of physical and neurophysiological components. given the neurophysiological indicators inherent in this age, the control group (cg) included 178 children and the experimental group (eg) 180 children. the pedagogical experiment followed certain diagnostic methods, such as control tests on physical fitness and rhythmoplasty. importantly, age-related neuropedagogical factors made it possible to use the following organizational forms of work based on rhythmoplasty: traditional (morning exercises, physical education classes, entertainment activities) and alternative (fairy-tale therapy, finger gymnastics, dance and movement therapy, health aerobics classes). all forms of work were previously tested for compliance with neuropsychological and neurophysiological parameters for the specified age. the programme aimed to form children’s positive attitude towards themselves and their bodies, introduce various forms of physical activity, general physical culture, and, most importantly, cultivate “self-concept” that maximally corresponds to preschoolers’ neuropsychological status. the obtained data prove that indicators of eg children are higher than in those of cg children due to the implementation of the proposed programme. the novelty of the article is as follows: for the first time, the above-mentioned indicators of children’s harmonious upbringing in cultural and educational space of ukrainian preschools have been comprehensively formed and measured. finally, the article closely correlates with the leading trends in scientific-educational discourse. keywords: program, neuropsychology, neurophysiology, self-concept, value-bodily criterion, conditions, physical activity, conditions, motor activity. how to cite: chagovets, a., aprielieva, i., pyvovarenko, m., syrova, y., kolosova, s., & dmytrenko, k. (2021). harmonious upbringing of preschoolers: physical and neuropsychological aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 491-508. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/261 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/261 mailto:chagoalla@gmail.com mailto:apreleva555@ukr.net mailto:marinapivovarenko.19@gmail.com mailto:yuliya_syrovaya@ukr.net mailto:kolosova.svetlanavik@gmail.com mailto:dm_kat@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/261 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 492 introduction the issue of physical component in children’s upbringing remains globally relevant. current political and cultural development of society requires one to focus upbringing on personality, creativity, and culture. consequently, this prioritizes a healthy lifestyle, spiritual and moral values and creates conditions for holistic human development. it affirms the superiority of childhood as the most responsible period of personality development. in turn, it implies forming a healthy personality of a child, fully capable of realizing his or her physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual capabilities in cultural and educational space of preschools. preschoolers’ spirituality is closely related to their physical development, as well as moral and aesthetic education. a special neuropsychological prerequisite for preschoolers’ development is their sensitivity to learning. therefore, the child’s attitude to the world around him or her becomes important evidence of forming his or her physical and spiritual sphere. french (2004) claims that it is natural for children to want to know the world. in this regard, it is essential to create a special educational space. ways to solve issues related to one’s harmonious upbringing within the interaction of the physical and the spiritual convince that human consists of neuropsychological, spiritual-aesthetic, physical-aesthetic and external artistic essences. a study by larimore (2020) on education reforms reveals the importance of natural sciences starting from preschool age. this will enable one to use a holistic approach to forming a child’s personality, i.e., physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development. therefore, one of the priority objectives society puts forwards before teachers and parents today is the formation and development of a harmonious personality. the harmonious development of preschoolers’ personality is viewed as positive changes corresponding to individual abilities and needs, as well as neurophysiological and neuropsychological indicators of this age. the initial and main period of forming a harmonious personality is preschool age, so this objective is leading one in the system of preschool education. according to the international and state legal framework, one of the main objectives of preschools is to preserve and strengthen physical, mental, and spiritual health of the child. in the practice of the global educational system, some preschools focus on innovative technologies and alternative methods of teaching and learning. the educational process of today’s preschools is defined as a set of material, spiritual and emotionalpsychological conditions in which the educational process continues, as well harmonious upbringing of preschoolers: physical and neuropsychological aspects alla chagovets, et al. 493 as the factors contributing or hindering its effectiveness. özer and polat (2019) single out socio-economic conditions among various groups of factors ensuring the educational process. they also highlight the importance of involving parents in the educational process. the study by karademir et al. (2020) substantiates the importance of the correct selection of methods, tools, and forms to organize the educational process in preschools. it involves the use of child-centred activities through the integration of educational material, which will improve the quality of education. according to zamora (2019), play activity is the most favourable for the neuropsychological status of children aged between 3 and 5. the researcher proves that games allow one to feel different life situations and develop creativity when dealing with them. zych et al. (2016) consider play activity as common to preschool age. they reveal the influence of games, including movement games, on the formation of various aspects of the child’s personality. as noted by ernst and burcak (2019), creating an educational environment based on games rather contributes to forming a harmonious personality. obee et al. (2020) focus on physical component of personality development when analyzing the impact of high-risk games on physical development in preschool age. they used deductive data analysis to justify ways of using the surrounding environment to solve problems of children’s physical development. play activity is mostly consistent with the lateral profile of children of preschool and primary school age, which can be proved by relevant empirical evidence. it is also important to note that the first neuropsychological and neuropedagogical observations date back to the 18 th century when natural conformity was a topical issue of pedagogy (medical aspects of education were considered). however, close interaction between pedagogy and neurosciences was established only in the early 2000s. becker (2014) claims that there is a common categorical and methodological apparatus for these areas. researchers have been studying the organization of cultural and educational space in preschools to optimize harmonious upbringing since the establishment of today’s preschool education system (melnyk, 2019; melnyk et al., 2021). this is due to the need to arrange educational and developmental space to form a harmonious personality of the child (halaidiuk et al., 2018; komogorova et al., 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020a; maksymchuk, 2020b; palamarchuk et al., 2020; sitovskyi et al., 2019). a child’s holistic development is considered as the integration of his or her development, upbringing, and self-development. together they enable harmonious upbringing, manifested in values and interest in the world of people, nature, art, and culture. cutcher brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 494 and boyd (2018) believe it necessary to create an educational space that will form aesthetic awareness, creativity, and critical thinking in children. according to the neuropsychology of preschool age, there are aspects contributing to a child’s development (a game-based approach, spontaneity, curiosity). besides, there are those which can cause resistance (coercion, afternoon sleep, daily routine). however, this resistance can be explained by low awareness of a child's neurophysiological needs. in most studies, physical component of harmonious upbringing is justified by physical activity level. in particular, yamaguchi et al. (2019) study the impact of a properly created educational environment in preschools on a child’s psychomotor development. as found by ng et al. (2020), creating the necessary conditions to boost physical activity prevents the risk of morbidity in children. although the issue of forming physical component in harmonious upbringing of preschoolers has practical significance, it remains insufficiently studied both theoretically and experimentally. the research hypothesis is that the use of proposed organizational forms of work with preschoolers based on rhythmoplasty (during one academic year) should significantly improve physical and neurophysiological indicators of their development. the article aims to determine the effectiveness of the implemented programme for harmonious upbringing of children in cultural and educational space of preschools by comparing levels of physical and neurophysiological components. materials & methods research methods include theoretical analysis and generalization of scientific, methodical, pedagogical, and psychological sources, pedagogical experiment, methods of mathematical statistics. the experiment involved 358 children aged between 4 and 6 who live in kharkiv (ukraine) and attend the following preschools: preschool educational institutions (day nursery and kindergarten combined) no 78, 441, 114 and 266 of kharkiv city council. the control group (cg) included 178 children and the experimental group (eg) 180 children. all ethical principles regarding the participants in the experiment were observed and followed. the children’s parents agreed on their participation in the experiment. it must be noted that the experiment was also approved by the ethics committee of family and youth department of kharkiv regional state administration. it was conducted between 2018 and 2020. harmonious upbringing of preschoolers: physical and neuropsychological aspects alla chagovets, et al. 495 the participants of the experiment were selected by continuous sampling method with random division into experimental and control groups (based on groups formed within the mentioned preschools) research methods are divided into three groups following the experiment stages: theoretical (preliminary determination of harmonious upbringing levels in children aged between 4 and 6 in cultural and educational space); formative (implementation of traditional and alternative organizational forms of educational work based on rhythmoplasty) and diagnostic (measurement of physical parameters and neurophysiological tests at the beginning, during and at the end of the experiment). the comparative method, quantitative in nature, was used at the beginning and the end of the experiment. at the beginning of the experiment, it was necessary to determine the axiological-physical criterion, as integral physical and neurophysiological, to study physical component of harmonious upbringing. experimental data were collected by measuring physical and evaluating neurophysiological (by observation) indicators at the initial, current, and final stages. the indicators of the axiological-physical criterion involve motor skills (speed, agility, endurance, strength, flexibility); movement skills (physical and dance movements). when testing changes in the child’s development, some experts in preschool and primary school neuropsychology suggest comparing the response to numerous and various stimuli and determining the so-called “performance profile”. they prove the significant advantage of learning new things in the mode of relationships and interpersonal interaction (witt et al., 2020). in addition to measuring physical performance under the standards for this age, a group of these specialists used pedagogical observation on the following neurophysiological criteria: speed of response to stimuli; levels of looseness; interaction with the group; natural behaviour when playing; dynamics of adaptation to proposed activities. these indicators were evaluated subjectively by teachers on a 10-point criterion at the beginning, during and at the end of the experiment. at these stages, the formed and reflexive “selfimage” of each child was tested neurophysiologically. it became possible by synthesizing the above-mentioned observed and fixed data and forming performance profiles in the form of questionnaires with specified levels of neurophysiologically relevant indicators. subsequently, these indicators were quantitatively integrated with physical ones by deriving the average score as integral (a complex physical and neurophysiological indicator). relevant diagnostic methods were employed to identify levels of physical component in harmonious development of eg and cg children in cultural and educational space. control tests were conducted on children’s brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 496 physical fitness to identify levels of their motor skills (speed, agility, endurance, strength, flexibility). they were asked to perform several tasks that showed levels of their physical activity and movements. it allows one to determine the “nearest zone” to form vital motor skills and physical qualities. the experimenters also examined physical fitness of eg and cg children to study initial levels of dexterity, accuracy, coordination of movements, and flexibility during exercises. the following indicators of physical fitness of 6-year-old preschoolers were considered: 10and 30metre dash; 4x9 shuttle run test; long jump, high jump; throwing 100-g sandbags; prone and angle position exercises. teachers must know the peculiarities of children’s motor development to plan and organize physical activities, considering their characteristics. accordingly, it was important to form motor skills and harmonize neurophysiological parameters of preschoolers along with the implementation of the proposed rhythmoplasty complex during one academic year. both pedagogical monitoring and measurement of appropriate physical indicators allowed one to trace the dynamics of forming physical component in harmonious upbringing of children in cultural and educational space of preschools and justify positive qualitative changes. the control stage of the experiment showed the levels of complex component of eg and cg children’s harmonious upbringing. it became possible due to similar diagnostic techniques used at the initial stage of the experiment with further comparative analysis of their changes and dynamics. thus, the experimenters used a comprehensive approach to studying all its components based on certain criteria to determine positive dynamics in levels of physical and neurophysiological components of children’s harmonious upbringing in cultural and educational space of preschools. also, they employed relevant diagnostic techniques to obtain data which were subsequently mathematically and statistically processed using pearson’s chi-squared test, student’s t-test, and correlation coefficient. both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the obtained results was conducted by comparing experimental and control groups (see results). results a study of theoretical sources and initial indicators has made it possible to identify levels of physical component in harmonious upbringing of children in cultural and educational space of preschools. a high level is harmonious upbringing of preschoolers: physical and neuropsychological aspects alla chagovets, et al. 497 characterized by well-developed motor skills and abilities characteristic of this age. such qualities as dexterity, coordination, and flexibility, endurance and strength are at high levels. the child’s posture is correct, too. a sufficient level is characterized by sufficient development of physical qualities and motor skills, characteristic of this age. physical qualities, such as agility, accuracy, coordination, strength, speed, endurance, and flexibility reach a sufficient level. the child’s posture is correct. an average level is characterized by a slightly reduced level of physical qualities and motor skills, emotional reaction to music, interest in new sounds, musical instruments, and toys. the child distinguishes the tempo and rhythm of music, its nature. coordination of movements is developed not enough. also, the child partially performs the simplest elements of gymnastics, shows interest in rhythmoplasty classes, and gladly participates in movement games and dancing. it must be noted that the above-mentioned levels also imply a high or sufficient level of social and gender self-identification. neuropsychological research proves that, under the age of 3, the child has a relatively stable “self-concept” and acquires approximately 50% of practical adaptation skills. a low level is characterized by low development of motor skills (the child stumbles while walking and running and clings to obstacles, not trying to get around or run around them). the child shows interest in new objects and wishes to perform actions with them and yet cannot repeat these movements after an adult. physical qualities (agility, speed, strength, endurance) are poorly developed since the child cannot freely navigate in space. besides, the child does not show an emotional and motor reaction to musical accompaniment, interest in exercises, games and rhythmoplasty classes. the results of both qualitative and quantitative analysis of all indicators of physical and neurophysiological components are shown in table 1. table 1. levels of physical component in harmonious upbringing of preschoolers based on the neurophysiological criterion (the ascertaining stage) levels results experimental group (eg) (180 respondents  100%) control group (cg) (175 respondents  100%) % respondents % respondents high level sufficient level 42.2 76 41.1 72 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 498 average level 46.7 84 45.7 80 low level 11.1 20 13.2 23 therefore, a comparison of physical component levels in children’s harmonious upbringing based on the neurophysiological criterion shows that no respondent reached a high level. only 42.2% of eg respondents and 41.1% of cg respondents are at a sufficient level of physical component. an average level is characteristic of 46.7% eg respondents and 45.7% cg respondents; a low level  of 11.1% of eg respondents and 13.2% cg respondents (see fig. 1). fig. 1. analysis of initial levels of physical component after analyzing the obtained data, the experimenters proposed to organize activities provided for by the programme to increase levels of physical component. the formation of physical component in harmonious upbringing in preschools is based on systematic development of physical qualities in children by using methods, forms and means of educational influence on personality adapted to cultural and educational space of preschools and neurophysiological indicators of preschool age. in particular, the following organizational forms of work based on rhythmoplasty were proposed: traditional (morning exercises, physical education classes, entertainment activities) and alternative (fairy-tale therapy, finger gymnastics, dance and movement therapy, health aerobics classes). the program aimed to form children’s positive attitude towards themselves and their bodies, harmonious upbringing of preschoolers: physical and neuropsychological aspects alla chagovets, et al. 499 introduce various forms of physical activity, general physical culture, and, most importantly, cultivate “self-concept” that maximally corresponds to preschoolers’ neuropsychological status. a comparison of respondents’ results has allowed one to determine an average value of physical component levels in the structure of respondents’ harmonious upbringing in cultural and educational space of preschools before and after the formative experiment (see table 2). table 2. analysis of physical component levels in harmonious upbringing of eg and cg children in cultural and educational space of preschools levels before the experiment after the experiment eg (100%  180 children) cg (100%  178 children) eg (100%  180 children) d y n am ic s (% ) cg (100%  178 children) d y n am ic s (% ) % number of respondents % number of respondents % number of respondents % number of respondents high 30.2 55 +30.2 sufficient 42.2 76 41.1 72 51.2 92 +9 41.7 74 0.6 average 46.7 84 45.7 80 10.6 19 -36.1 45.4 81 -0.3 low 11.1 20 13.2 23 8 14 -3.1 12.9 23 -0.3 the results of eg and cg indicate changes in levels of the complex (physical and neurophysiological) component. in particular, 30.2% of eg children reached a high level, even though this indicator was not available to any respondent at the ascertaining stage. a sufficient level increased by 9%. also, there is a significant decrease in an average level of the axiologicalphysical component (by 36.1%) and a low level (by 3.1%). there are almost no changes in the control group. one can observe no signs of a high level for complex component by the axiological-physical criterion. a sufficient level increased by 0.6%, whereas average and low levels decreased by 0.3%. complex component levels are shown in figure 2. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 500 fig. 2. physical component levels in eg and cg at the control stage of the experiment the results of the control experiment show changes in the complex (physical and neurophysiological) component of harmonious upbringing in eg and cg. there was a significant increase in the number of eg children with high and sufficient levels of harmonious upbringing, as well as some minor changes in cg. thus, most eg preschoolers showed a fairly high level of physical component of upbringing due to the implemented programme. thus, the research hypothesis has been confirmed. the calculations prove that the difference in experimental data in eg and cg is caused by the experimental factor. in turn, this fact proves the effectiveness of the developed programme for preschool education in relevant cultural and educational space, as well as that of pedagogical conditions for its implementation. it must be noted that eg results were influenced by the fact that the formative experiment with children adhered to the author’s programme of preschool education in relevant cultural and educational space. thus, its novelty can be considered proven. the reliability of the obtained results lies in theoretical substantiation of conceptual provisions and systemic analysis of relevant sources; quantitative and qualitative analysis of the obtained data regarding the effectiveness of the author’s programme; reproducibility of results and representativeness of experimental data obtained by methods of mathematical statistics. harmonious upbringing of preschoolers: physical and neuropsychological aspects alla chagovets, et al. 501 discussion the international significance of the obtained results is determined by a) the first attempt to consider complex (physical and neurophysiological) criterion when modifying harmonious upbringing of children aged between 4 and 6 in cultural and educational space of ukrainian preschools, which may encourage the implementation of such techniques in the country; b) the correlation of the considered issue with the latest trends presented below. nowadays, leading educators and psychologists warn against the thoughtless use of neuroscientific achievements in the educational process. many neuropsychological studies have already led to the fact that the achievements of classical psychology and pedagogy are frequently neglected. when it comes to preschool age, however, neuropsychological and neurophysiological factors come first since it is the initial formation of personality (up to 3 years old). in the future (middle classes, adolescence) neuroscience can be effectively applied in such aspects as coaching and counselling (voigt, 2019, p. 339). in this regard, this article applies neurophysiological and physical indicators integratively. nowadays, scientific justification of physical education and clarification of its role in the holistic development of preschoolers is seen as the specification of provisions on social conditionality of motor skills and their ability to influence a child’s physical development. bago et al. (2020) highlight the need to create appropriate conditions for preschool education. they highlight the importance of preschoolers’ complex social and physical development under these conditions. delaney et al. (2019) also prioritize the influence of specially created pedagogical conditions on physical activity. tandon et al. (2019) study the influence of specially created and improvised conditions for increasing physical activity among preschoolers. it is proven that folk traditions (some games, entertainment, folklore elements) largely influence the upbringing of preschool children. therefore, it is essential to select appropriate traditional methods and forms. neuropsychological diagnoses show that ethnocultural factors can have both positive and negative influence. thus, one should rely on such facts as sensitivity to innovations, acceleration, delayed physical development when selecting development factors. berti et al. (2019) analyze the two leading thematic areas of the issue in question. the first one involves problem perception by adults and children. the second one covers behavioural, cognitive, and emotional aspects of development. walker and archibald (2006) note the role of motor skills in the development of communication skills. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 502 it is possible, by implementing comprehensive and multifaceted methods of physical education, to form a healthy personality of a child with well-developed physical and volitional qualities, intellectual skills, and an adequate emotional-axiological attitude to life. it is organized forms of physical education and independent physical activities that meet children’s biological need for movement and motivate them to lead a healthy lifestyle. indeed, kolk et al. (2019) view physical activity in close connection with a healthy lifestyle, which was partially implemented within the formative experiment. most researchers pay considerable attention to various factors affecting children’s physical activity in the context of forming physical component in their harmonious upbringing. tabacchi et al. (2020) disclose the interdependence between indicators of interactive ability and physical activity in preschoolers. jones et al. (2019) indicate a growing trend in the study of preschoolers’ physical activity over the past two decades, which proves the relevance of this article. however, most research is aimed at children attending additional exercise classes. the justification of psycho-pedagogical conditions for forming preschooler’s personality using physical activity in this article correlates with the views of panhelova et al. (2020). they distinguish the complex development of cognitive, communicative, and physical activity of preschoolers, which depends on the created thematicspatial environment. thus, it is essential and promising to create a comprehensive environment to improve physical component of children’s harmonious upbringing in cultural and educational space of preschools, considering neuropsychological indicators, as noted by toussaint et al. (2020). it is also viable to use the orff system to create a special educational space that affects both physical and mental development of preschoolers (kayili & kuşcu, 2020; “orff schulwerk”, 2021). finally, the article proves that one of the main functions of neurosciences (neuropedagogy and neuropsychology) is a significant potential for forming self-identification, namely self-concept, in preschoolers. subsequently, self-concept turns into one’s awareness of subjectivity when interacting with the world and other people. according to all neurosciences, a person is a neuropsychological actor with a certain but not fully known potential. as a result, the revelation of this potential helps the child to change themselves and the surrounding world (della sala & anderson, 2012). harmonious upbringing of preschoolers: physical and neuropsychological aspects alla chagovets, et al. 503 the obtained results confirm existing views of researchers and provide new experimental data. they show that compliance with all the conditions defined by the proposed programme helps increase the level of physical component in harmonious upbringing of children in cultural and educational space of preschools. conclusions given the topicality of the issue, the authors of the article suggest considering the formation of physical component in harmonious upbringing of 4 children in cultural and educational space of preschools. for this purpose, they define integral physical and neurophysiological criteria for such indicators as motor skills (speed, agility, endurance, strength, flexibility); movement skills (physical and dance movements) and, consequently, physical component levels (high, sufficient, average, low). research methods include theoretical analysis and generalization of scientific, methodical, pedagogical, and psychological sources, pedagogical experiment, methods of mathematical statistics, diagnostic methods (control tests, rhythmoplasty complex). the results of the ascertaining experiment have encouraged the authors of the article to organize the measures provided by the programme to increase the level of physical component in harmonious upbringing of children and the level of self-concept, which is of neuropsychological nature. they are the following: traditional (morning exercises, physical education classes, entertainment activities) and alternative (fairy-tale therapy, finger gymnastics, dance and movement therapy, health aerobics classes). besides, the programme aims to form children’s positive attitude towards themselves and their bodies, introduce various forms of physical activity, general physical culture, and, most importantly, cultivate “self-concept” that maximally corresponds to preschoolers’ neuropsychological status. the control stage of the experiment shows that levels of physical component in harmonious upbringing of children in cultural and educational space of preschools have increased after the introduction of the pedagogical model with a set of educational activities. at the same time, the experimental group demonstrates better results than the control group due to the implementation of the proposed programme. further research should aim to study the peculiarities of ensuring the integration of motor, musical-rhythmic and artistic-aesthetic activities of preschoolers within the pedagogical process. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 504 acknowledgements the research was conducted in the framework of the academy’s topic “cultivating spiritual culture in preschoolers” developed by the department of theory and methods of preschool education (state registration number 0117u007460). the authors’ participation in the preparation of the article lies in the following: alla chagovets and kateryna dmytrenko studied neuropsychological aspects of play activity and natural behaviour of children aged between 4 and 5; iryna aprielieva selected rhythmoplasty exercises in accordance with psychophysical needs and capabilities of preschoolers. maryna pyvovarenko organized the experiment and recorded the obtained results. yuliia syrova thematically evaluated and analyzed the obtained data. svitlana kolosova organized the discussion in the context of modern research on children’s motor activity. she also formulated the final results of the research. conflict of interest. the authors report that there is no conflict of interest. references bago, j. l., ouédraogo, m., akakpo, k., lompo, m. l., & ouédraogo, e. (2020). early childhood education and child development: new evidence from ghana. children and youth services review, 108, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104620 becker, n. (2014). mehr verstehen, besser handeln? zum verhältnis von pädagogik und neurowissenschaften [understand more, act better? on the relationship between education and neuroscience]. in r. fatke & j. oelkers (eds.), das selbstverständnis der erziehungswissenschaft: geschichte und gegenwart [the self-image of educational science: past and present] (pp. 208-225). beltz juventa. https://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2014/9095/pdf/becker_2014_mehr_ve rstehen_besser_handeln.pdf berti, s., cigala, a., & sharmahd, n. (2019). early childhood education and care physical environment and child development: state of the art and reflections on future orientations and methodologies. educational psychology review, 31, 991-1021. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648019-09486-0 cutcher, a., & boyd, w. (2018). preschool children, painting and palimpsest: collaboration as pedagogy, practice and learning. international journal of art & design education, 37(1), 53-64. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jade.12113 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104620 https://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2014/9095/pdf/becker_2014_mehr_verstehen_besser_handeln.pdf https://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2014/9095/pdf/becker_2014_mehr_verstehen_besser_handeln.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-019-09486-0 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-019-09486-0 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jade.12113 harmonious upbringing of preschoolers: physical and neuropsychological aspects alla chagovets, et al. 505 delaney, t., jackson, j. k., jones, j., hall, a., dives, a., wedesweiler, t., & lum, m. (2019). a cluster randomised controlled trial of an intervention to increase physical activity of preschool-aged children attending early childhood education and care: study protocol for the ‘everybody energise’ trial. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(21), 114. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31689905/ della sala, s., & anderson, m. (2012). neuroscience in education: the good, the bad, and the ugly. oxford university press. ernst, j., & burcak, f. (2019). young children’s contributions to sustainability: the influence of nature play on curiosity, executive function skills, creative thinking, and resilience. sustainability, 11(15), 1-22. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4212 french, l. (2004). science as the center of a coherent, integrated early childhood curriculum. early childhood research quarterly, 19(1), 138-149. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2004-14093-009 halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284–2291. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf jones, r. a., sousa-sá, e., peden, m., & okely, a. d. (2019). childcare physical activity interventions: a discussion of similarities and differences and trends, issues, and recommendations. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(23), 1-13. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2fijerph16234836 karademir, a., kartal, a., & türk, c. (2020). science education activities in turkey: a qualitative comparison study in preschool classrooms. early childhood education journal, 48(3), 285-304. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-019-00981-1 kayili, g., & kuşcu, ö. (2020). the effects of orff-based attention-enhancing music education programme on impulsive preschool children’s cognitive tempo. early child development and care, 190(3), 390-399. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-24413-001 kolk, i. van de, gerards, s. m., harms, l. s., kremers, s. p., & gubbels, j. s. (2019). the effects of a comprehensive, integrated obesity prevention intervention approach (superfit) on children’s physical activity, sedentary behavior, and bmi z-score. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), 1-15. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2fijerph16245016 komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31689905/ https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4212 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2004-14093-009 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2fijerph16234836 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-019-00981-1 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-24413-001 https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2fijerph16245016 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 506 stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes? knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 larimore, r. a. (2020). preschool science education: a vision for the future. early childhood education journal, 48, 703-714. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs10643-020-01033-9 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 halaidiuk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46-93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 ng, m., rosenberg, m., thornton, a., lester, l., trost, s. g., bai, p., & christian, h. (2020). the effect of upgrades to childcare outdoor spaces on preschoolers’ physical activity: findings from a natural experiment. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020468 obee, p., sandseter, e. b. h., & harper, n. j. (2020). children’s use of environmental features affording risky play in early childhood education and care. early child development and care, 5, 1-19. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03004430.2020.1726904 orff schulwerk. (2021, september 20). [orff approach]. in wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/orff_schulwerk. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs10643-020-01033-9 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020468 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03004430.2020.1726904 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/orff_schulwerk harmonious upbringing of preschoolers: physical and neuropsychological aspects alla chagovets, et al. 507 özer, m., & polat, a. y. (2019). investigation of different socioeconomic levels parental experience to improve creativity in preschool period. journal of qualitative research in education-egitimde nitel arastirmalar dergisi, 7(3), 13091327. https://acikerisim.iku.edu.tr/handle/11413/6234 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 panhelova, n., krutsevych, t., panhelova, m., pyvovar, a., ruban, v., trotsenko, t., kravchenko, t., & bazylevych, n. (2020). complex development of cognitive processes and physical abilities of children of preschool age in the process of motor activity. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(1), 73-84. http://ephsheir.phdpu.edu.ua/xmlui/handle/8989898989/4618 sitovskyi a., maksymchuk b., kuzmenko v., nosko y., korytko z., bahinska, o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtehnko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532-1543. https://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20222.pdf tabacchi, g., battaglia, g., alesi, m., paoli, a., palma, a., & bellafiore, m. (2020). food literacy predictors and associations with physical and emergent literacy in pre-schoolers: results from the training-to-health project. public health nutrition, 23(2), 356-365. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980019002404 tandon, p. s., downing, k. l., saelens, b. e., & christakis, d. a. (2019). two approaches to increase physical activity for preschool children in child care centers: a matched-pair cluster-randomized trial. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(20), 1-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16204020 toussaint, n., streppel, m. t., mul, s., fukkink, r. g., weijs, p. j., & janssen, m. (2020). the effects of the playtod program on children’s physical activity at preschool playgrounds in a deprived urban area: a randomized controlled trial. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1), 1-13. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2fijerph17010329 voigt, t. h. (2019). beratung, coaching und neurowissenschaft – produktive zusammenarbeit oder geschickte vermarktung? [consulting, coaching and neuroscience productive cooperation or skilled marketing?]. organisationsberatung, supervision, coaching, 26, 339–350. https://acikerisim.iku.edu.tr/handle/11413/6234 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 http://ephsheir.phdpu.edu.ua/xmlui/handle/8989898989/4618 https://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20222.pdf https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980019002404 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16204020 https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2fijerph17010329 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 508 https://www.soziologie.rwthaachen.de/cms/soziologie/forschung/publikationen/~mlnx/details/?fil e=765331&lidx=1 walker, j. f., & archibald, l. m. (2006). articulation rate in preschool children: a 3‐year longitudinal study. international journal of language & communication disorders, 41(5), 541-565. https://doi.org/10.1080/10428190500343043 witt, a., comblain, a., & thibaut, j.-p. (2020). do typically and atypically developing children learn and generalize novel names similarly: the role of conceptual distance during learning and at test. research in developmental disabilities, 104, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103720 yamaguchi, b., silva, a. z., araujo, l. b., guimarães, a. t. b., & israel, v. l. (2019). psychomotor evaluation of children attending child education centers in the south of brazil. early child development and care, 19(2), 150163. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03004430.2019.1672165 zamora, e. j. a. (2019). el juego y el desarrollo de la creatividad de los niños/as del nivel inicial de la escuela benjamín carrión [games and the development of creativity in children of the initial level at benjamin carrion school]. revista conrado [conrado journal], 16(66), 209-213. http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=s199086442019000100209&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=en zych, i., ortega-ruiz, r., & sibaja, s. (2016). el juego infantil y el desarrollo afectivo: afecto, ajuste escolar y aprendizaje en la etapa preescolar [children’s play and affective development: affect, school adjustment and learning in preschoolers]. infancia y aprendizaje, 39(2), 380-400. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5411713 https://www.soziologie.rwth-aachen.de/cms/soziologie/forschung/publikationen/~mlnx/details/?file=765331&lidx=1 https://www.soziologie.rwth-aachen.de/cms/soziologie/forschung/publikationen/~mlnx/details/?file=765331&lidx=1 https://www.soziologie.rwth-aachen.de/cms/soziologie/forschung/publikationen/~mlnx/details/?file=765331&lidx=1 https://doi.org/10.1080/10428190500343043 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103720 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03004430.2019.1672165 http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=s1990-86442019000100209&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=en http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=s1990-86442019000100209&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=en https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5411713 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 42-60 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/268 communication training of future sports coaches in the context of neurophysiological patterns yuliia nenko¹, serhii medynskyi2, borys maksymchuk3, lidiia lymarenko4, larysa rudenko5, serhii kharchenko6, andriy kolomiets7, iryna maksymchuk8 1 national university of civil defence of ukraine, julia18016@ukr.net 2 bogdan xmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, sermedyn@ukr.net 3 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, 0674256781@ukr.net 4 kherson state university, ukraine, lilimarenko55@gmail.com 5 lviv state university of life safety of the state emergency service of ukraine, lararudenko@gmail.com 6 sumy national agrarian university, ukraine, kharchenko-inna@ukr.net 7 sumy national agrarian university, ukraine, andrey.k67inf@gmail.com 8 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, 0963113686@ukr.net abstract: the article presents experimental verification of improving communicative training for future sports coaches in the context of neurophysiological patterns by expedient changes in pedagogical conditions, namely, forming a value attitude of students towards future professionally-oriented communicative activity; enhancing interactive learning methods; improving educational and methodical support; optimizing the subject-subject interaction of participants in the educational process in simulated situations of professional communication. the research aims to experimentally verify the abovementioned pedagogical conditions and identify levels of indicators in future sports coaches’ preparedness for professionally oriented communicative activity. the research involved 105 students of the experimental group and 106 students of the control group, who voluntarily agreed to participate in the experiment. research methods include the elaboration of the author’s didactic material, modelling of new pedagogical conditions and diagnostic methods. diagnosis of levels of indicators in future sports coaches’ preparedness for professionally oriented communicative activity is carried out with the help of the diagnosed complex of both standard and adapted and modified or specially developed following criteria and indicators of the investigated phenomenon of author’s methods. after the formative experiment, the number of students with high and average levels of preparedness for professionally oriented communication activities has increased in eg (by 12.4% and 13.3%, respectively) and at the same time, the number of low-level students has decreased (by 25.7%). the results of the experimental work provide an opportunity to approve the effectiveness of the introduced pedagogical conditions of professionally-oriented communication training for future sports coaches. keywords: information, pedagogical conditions, value attitude, interactive methods, interaction, communication activity. how to cite: nenko, y., medynskyi, s., maksymchuk, b., lymarenko, l., rudenko, l., kharchenko, s., kolomiets, a., & maksymchuk, i. (2022). communication training of future sports coaches in the context of neurophysiological patterns. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 42-60. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/268 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/268 mailto:julia18016@ukr.net mailto:sermedyn@ukr.net mailto:0674256781@ukr.net mailto:lilimarenko55@gmail.com mailto:lararudenko@gmail.com mailto:kharchenko-inna@ukr.net mailto:andrey.k67inf@gmail.com mailto:0963113686@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/268 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 43 introduction communication is the information link of a subject with this or that object (a person, an animal, a car) for the sake of giving specific information (knowledge, ideas, messages, actual data, instructions, orders). a receiver, that is a consumer of information, must accept, understand, learn and take it to achieve results. therefore, “communicative activity” is considered as a set of consistent, communicative actions, acts of activity, the support of which is the natural neurophysiological mechanism of communication and contact among actors of interaction, which provide for the activity of such actors, the development of a standard view and are marked by the presence of a purposeful aim, a motive (a need) and a specific result. a separate type of communicative activity is professionally oriented communicative activity. therefore, the activities aimed at achieving specific conscious aims, the content of which is mutual knowledge and exchange of information through different means of communication to establish relationships necessary for professional activity and to obtain high results in sports, come to the fore in the process of training future sports coaches. until now, the post-soviet countries mainly focused on developing narrow professional qualities in future coaches, which is possible through theoretical, tactical and strategic training. however, one could enhance the communicative component independently or in the process of gaining experience and one’s pedagogical style. this led to different efficiency of the training process regarding specialists with different individual communication skills. comprehensive consideration of all communication aspects in experimental training of coaches in the post-soviet region constitutes the relevance of this research (maksymchuk et al., 2020b; bakhmat et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; halaidiuk et al., 2018; maksymchuk et al., 2018; sitovskyi et al., 2019). research relevance. as noted by gorman et al. (2016), “when people work together as a team, they develop neural, cognitive, and behavioral patterns that they would not develop individually”. it means that neuronal effects during the training process are seen at different levels (neural, psychotic, cognitive, behavioural) and often become latent for the visual observer. at the same time, one should consider the aspects of sport communication, both in the professional training of coaches and practical training of the team (demchenko, 2021; prots, 2021; kosholap, 2021). the research aims to experimentally verify pedagogical conditions of purposeful improvement and productive organization of the effective system of professionally oriented communicative training for future sports communication training of future sports coaches in the context of … yuliia nenko, et al. 44 coaches. professionally oriented communicative training of future sports coaches took place for the introduction of such pedagogical conditions: forming a value attitude of students towards future professionally-oriented communicative activity; enhancing interactive learning methods; improving educational and methodical support; optimizing the subject-subject interaction of participants in the educational process in simulated situations of professional communication. also, it is vital to identify levels of indicators in future sports coaches’ preparedness for professionally oriented communicative activity is carried out with the help of the diagnosed complex of both standard and adapted and modified or specially developed following criteria and indicators of the investigated phenomenon of author’s methods: “teaching methodology of motives when choosing a profession”; “study of professional motivation”, a test to determine communication needs, “need for self-improvement”, special tests, modular control works, knowledge tests, expert assessment method, socio-communication competence test, method of assessing methods of response during the conflict, method of self-evaluation, that is a questionnaire “self-test regarding the conformity of knowledge, skills in the field of informationcommunication technologies to modern requirements of the information society and the labour market”, questionnaires, withdrawal from the place of internship. the article proves that professional training of future sports coaches should be aimed, among others, at the formation of their preparedness to timely overcome moral, psychological and situation crisis difficulties which regularly arise, to development of necessary individually psychological qualities. literature review the following review of international sources on the research topic proves the relevance of communicative training for future sports coaches and demonstrates the multifaceted nature of coaching communication. to begin with, scholars also believe that appropriate communication between coaches and the team can serve as a guarantee of injury prevention. training practices stimulate both team activities and safety-related autonomy for which athletes, bear collective and personal responsibility. coaches need to feel the boundaries between the requirements of athlete’s maximum efficiency and self-preservation. it requires coaches to communicate variably and flexibly and discover an individual channel of communication with each athlete. when surveyed, more than 40% of coaches agreed that after a micro-injury the athlete should be encouraged to leave the game, although brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 45 most would be encouraged to continue it (kroshus еt al., 2017; palamarchuk et al., 2020; onishchuk et al., 2020; maksymchuk et al., 2020a). these data indicate the prospects for developing humanistically and personally oriented communication in future sports coaches, even when working with a team. another aspect of coaching communication is the relationship between the coach’s leadership, his or her authority and athletes’ satisfaction with a two-way act of communication. sarı et al. (2012) studied the communication skills of athletes and coaches and participants’ satisfaction with training communication by interviewing 250 respondents and found a lack of communicative competency. indeed, they point out a negative correlation between the need for kinship and positive feedback behaviour, the need for competency and positive feedback behaviour, the need for competency and social support behaviour, the need for competency and behaviour in teaching and coaching (sarı et al., 2012). the biggest problem is the dissonance between athletes’ need for autonomy and coaches’ autocratic style of communication. however, this dissonance is facilitated by the lack of communicative competencies in athletes themselves. the professional aspect of coaching communication is the ability to coordinate the team, not only in words but also in facial expressions and gestures. this applies to both communication participants: the coaching staff and the team. as noted by eccles & tran (2012), effective communication between team members, including coaches, regarding the game plans and roles and responsibilities of team members, is a prerequisite for achieving team coordination. at the same time, the team in the game must communicate in a coordinated manner and respond accordingly to the coach’s signals. pedersen (2013) studied strategic management and communication in sports and argued the importance of such research by the growth of the sports industry, and hence communication in it. in particular, he singles out the category of “strategic sports communication model (sscm)” (pedersen, 2013). in the context of this three-component category, coaching communication is not only internal team interaction but also the presentation of the team, its brand and achievements, communication with the media, participation in the promotion of sports information products. all this requires a broader approach to the concept of the coach’s communicative competency. kassing et al. (2004) similarly justify the content and volume of communication skills in coaches and other participants in sports as a form of public consciousness. they consider the sports community, although relatively limited, still accessible and pervasive and include coaches, referees, communication training of future sports coaches in the context of … yuliia nenko, et al. 46 spectators, media representatives, fan clubs, professional sports organizations in communication. they claim that membership and participation in the sports community are carried out communicatively and supported by its members, and communication functions make up and give meaning to the sports experience. for this reason, they argue that the sports community is a communicatively rich region that deserves the attention of communications professionals (kassing et al., 2004). given that sport is not a communication process itself and is complicated by many factors of context, situation, rules, regulations, participation of unequal participants in communication, one can consider burleson’s (2009) theory of “direct and interactive factors” of such interaction as valid. the author defends the theory of the double process of communication and its auxiliary results (results of auxiliary interactions). these aspects need further development in the field of sports communication. turman & schrodt (2004) explored the correlation between coaches’ behaviour and athletes’ affective learning behaviour. they proved that social support and positive feedback from the coach had a more positive effect on the emotional component of the training process than democratic or autocratic leadership (turman & schrodt, 2004). the studies on the impact of coaches’ communication skills show that “the climate of skills is a positive predictor of athletes’ satisfaction with training, while the climate of efficiency and verbal aggression of coaches act as negative ones” (bekiari & syrmpas, 2015). bekiari & syrmpas (2015) conclude that the coach’s verbal aggression during training negatively affects the feelings of athletes and, as a result, their achievements, so the coach should care primarily about the emotional climate, not performance. today, neurosciences can confirm the presence and nature of crucial cognitive processes that manifest themselves in the psychosocial effects of activity (communication, interaction, reflection). however, for this research, it is important to identify those patterns that are most correlated with the coach’s professional behaviour. being educators, the authors of the article cannot measure and control the communicative and activity-related characteristics of the object of study neurophysiologically. nevertheless, they can select pedagogically relevant aspects justified by neurosciences. it must be noted that the coach’s communication is rather specific. this specificity lies in at least two aspects: a) by professional-subjective nature, a coach is always a leader, a charismatic personality, who reacts to any changes instantly and constructively; b) a coach always deals with a group consisting of autonomous subjects but acts by rules. this specificity brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 47 requires special educational conditions for developing communicative competency in future coaches. to form and implement coach communication practically, one should pay particular attention to the neurophysiological mechanism which operates based on subjective assessment of social consequences for the communicator and the recipient, their expectations from the exchange and the corresponding behaviour change (falk et al., 2015). one must admit that coach communication with athletes is unequal. it relies on hierarchical values and agreements which corresponds to subconscious mechanisms operating in nature (a flock, a pride). both the recognition of the leader and clear agreement of team members with them follows the relic mechanisms of communication that can be used in organizing the coaching process. given that sports communication is often implicit, reduced and based on hints, signals and conventional non-verbal cues, the important neurophysiological mechanism of the brain is its predictive, intuitive and anticipatory functions. besides, it is essential to form conventional and then automatic predictors of communication results that determine the neurophysiological specificity of implicit professional coach communication (falk et al., 2015). it is possible to develop and consolidate a neurophysiologically complex system of signals, stimuli, predictors and reactions in a particular only over time. according to blaser & seiler (2019), “one of the psychological mechanisms that contribute to effective and efficient team actions is team cognition, defined either as shared knowledge states about game situations, teammates’ skills, and action probabilities or direct communication processes in the team action itself”. therefore, researchers justify the principles of teaching communication with the participation of the coach and the team, which over time reduces both time-related and cognitive costs of such communication. also, this research relies on two other important neuroscientific positions, which are relevant to the chosen subject. first, neurophysiological (subjective) and psychological (an internal picture of the world) components of personality are built and function in “the correlation of corporeality (soma), psyche and environment” (pickersgill et al., 2011). at the same time, corporality and non-verbality are of great importance in sports. second, the solutions to problems related to leadership, charisma and management of group activities directly depend on one’s integrity which is neurophysiologically dual. as noted by schechter (2015), “the hemispheres operate independently of each other insofar as they interact via the mediation of effection and transduction  via behavior and sensation, communication training of future sports coaches in the context of … yuliia nenko, et al. 48 essentially”. when elaborating educational conditions, the authors of the article strived to take into account the above-mentioned factors as much as possible. material & methods research methods include modelling of hypothetically valid conditions for selecting and developing the author’s didactic material focused on profession-oriented communicative training of future sports coaches; applied diagnostic methods (questionnaires, tests, surveys). the results of the experiment are presented by graphic figures. diagnosis of levels of indicators in future sports coaches’ preparedness for professionally oriented communicative activity is carried out with the help of the diagnosed complex of both standard and adapted and modified or specially developed following criteria and indicators of the investigated phenomenon of author’s methods: teaching methodology of motives when choosing profession”; “study of professional motivation” (moskalenko, 2019), a test to determine communication needs (orlov, 1989), “need for self-improvement” (holovatyi, 2005), special tests, modular control works, knowledge tests, expert assessment method, sociocommunication competence test, method of assessing methods of response during conflict (grishina, 2000), method of self-evaluation, that is a questionnaire “self-test regarding conformity of knowledge, skills in the field of information-communication technologies to modern requirements of the information society and the labour market”, questionnaires, withdrawal from the place of internship. to assess the preparedness of future sports coaches for professionally oriented communicative activities, empirical data obtained in cg and eg at the stated stage were compared with the results of the forming stage of the experiment, which made it possible to assess the development dynamics according to the selected indicators. to compare the dynamics in the levels of forming criteria and their indicators, methods of mathematical statistics were used: changes in statistical characteristics of eg and cg on specific criteria of significance was analyzed. the developed methodology of professionally oriented communicative training of future coaches was implemented during three successive stages: preparatory, main, final. the first stage (course 1) – preparatory – is aimed at forming the positive attitude and persistent interest of students in the chosen profession, stimulating the need for communication and the desire for selfbrain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 49 improvement. at this stage, such a pedagogical condition was implemented: value attitude formation towards the future profession. the meaningful line of tasks implementation of the first stage provided for activation of out-ofschool work with dialogue interaction, namely: educational talks, round tables, thematic meetings with specialists in practical subsections, veterans of sports and known personalities; production of the student newspaper, excursions, sports schools and public institutions, participation in sports, social, cultural and educational activities. the second stage (courses 2-3) – main – is aimed at mastering students of basic concepts, types and functions, moral and ethical norms and rules of professionally oriented communicative activity of sports coach, learning of professional terminological apparatus and information-communicative technologies, acquisition by students of the ability to establish and maintain contacts with subjects of professional activity, development of their ability to resolve conflicts. such pedagogical conditions were implemented at the second stage: intensification of interactive methods of training and improvement of educational and methodological support. the arsenal of modern learning technologies proposed in the study are technologies of collective mental activity implemented through interactive learning methods (“learning discussions”, “brainstorming”, “open discussions”, “learning partners”, situational, business games, discussions, work in groups, interactive lectures (lecture – “conference”, “lecturediscussion”). the main stage covered the use of the game method and communication internet technologies, the development of terminology dictionaries and other professionally oriented literature, revision of video releases. in addition to the methods mentioned above of the study, the second stage of professional communication training (course 3) included “communication workshop” aimed at mainstreaming the problem of professional communication training, awareness of future coaches’ behaviour in different communication situations and rational use of personal resources. the purpose of the third (course 4) – final – stage of implementation of the technique of professionally oriented communicative training of future sports coaches was to consolidate knowledge, skills and acquisition of stable skills of professionally oriented communicative activity. this stage of professionally oriented communicative training of future sports coaches realized such pedagogical conditions as optimizing the subject-subject interaction of participants in the educational process in simulated situations of professional communication. communication training of future sports coaches in the context of … yuliia nenko, et al. 50 it is planned at the final stage to carry out various types of individual tasks: preparation of materials for meetings, newspapers, television and radio broadcasting; replies to applications, appeals of citizens; the processing of official documents by the state language; “playing” participation in the acceptance of citizens; preparation for public speech, conversation, presentation on the chosen topic; writing article, theses, essay, characteristics, request, response to the request, business letter; preparations for the discussion on a specific topic; scheduling of the subsection’s work (annual, quarter). at the stage of the forming experiment in cg, the process of professional training of future sports coaches took place according to the usual regulations, did not stand out from the general scheme of educational work and did not have a particular focus on the formation of preparedness for professionally indicative communicative activity. the particular methodology defined the basis of professionallyoriented communication training of all eg, organically combined with traditional educational disciplines. the field for the formation of future sports coaches’ preparedness for professionally oriented communicative activities includes the chosen educational disciplines “the ukrainian language (on the professional direction)”, “basics of management”, “basics of information technologies”, “organization of sports competitions”, “communicative workshop”. systematization, generalization and analysis of the obtained results of experimental professionally-oriented communicative training of future coaches; comparison of the experimental results with the projected results; description of the progress and results of the study based on statistical data processing methods; formulation of general conclusions of the work and outline the prospects for further scientific research were carried out at the generalizing stage. the experimental work was carried out at the premises of national university of civil defence of ukraine, lviv state university of physical culture, lviv state university of life safety of the state emergency service of ukraine, sumy makarenko state pedagogical university, pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, vasyl stus donetsk national university. the intentions of entrance and initial levels of forming the investigated phenomenon, namely communication training were made in eg (105 students) and cg (106 students) to determine the efficiency degree of the introduction of pedagogical conditions of professionally-oriented communication training of future sports coaches. all participants in the experiment voluntarily agreed to participate in it. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 51 results the generalization of results of the analysis of scientific methodological literature on the problem of professionally oriented communicative training of specialists, highlighting the peculiarities of the educational process, taking into account the data of the final stage of the experiment and the found factors of positive influence on the investigated process served as a basis for the statement. therefore, professionallyoriented communicative training of future sports coaches will be valid under such pedagogical conditions: forming a value attitude of students towards future professionally-oriented communicative activity; enhancing interactive learning methods; improving educational and methodical support; optimizing the subject-subject interaction of participants in the educational process in simulated situations of professional communication. the first pedagogical condition (forming a value attitude of students towards future professionally-oriented communicative activity) provides for the introduction of information on the significance and value of the future profession into the content of traditional educational disciplines; professional orientation of extra-curricular activities. the second pedagogical condition (enhancing interactive learning methods) covers the active use of such methods of study as “working in pairs”, “educational discussions”, “microphone”, “brainstorming”, “role-playing”, “debate”, “discussion in the style of the television talk show”, internet technologies, interactive lectures, modelling of real professionally-oriented communicative situations. the third pedagogical condition (improving educational and methodical support) determines updating and development of educational and methodical complexes of educational disciplines, creation of textbooks and manuals, reference literature, teaching and methodical support of carrying out practical classes on separate modules of educational disciplines of the cycle of professional (mandatory) training. the fourth pedagogical condition (optimizing the subject-subject interaction of participants in the educational process in simulated situations of professional communication) determines the activation of educational activity in students by updating their motivational resources, reflection; saturation of professionally-oriented communication training with tasks of a problematic and search nature, dialogue, game and other forms of group interaction with the change of role positions, experienced work; creation of a favourable emotional environment as a result of the organization of https://translate.academic.ru/extra-curricular%20activities/ru/en/ communication training of future sports coaches in the context of … yuliia nenko, et al. 52 situations of choice and success, a climate of trust and cooperation between all participants of pedagogical interaction. the comprehensive vision of pedagogical support of the forming process of the student’s preparedness for professionally oriented communicative activity shows the assumption of ensuring, as a result of compliance with the above-mentioned pedagogical conditions, a combination of objective possibilities of keeping the study, methods, organizational forms and material resources of their implementation, system, continuity of such an implementation throughout the whole term of study. the above-mentioned results can be represented mathematically and graphically. thus, the number of students with high and average levels of preparedness for professionally oriented communication activities have increased (by 12.4% and 13.3%, respectively). at the same time, the number of students with a low level of preparedness formation has decreased (by 25.7%) after the formative experiment in eg (see fig. 1). fig. 1. dynamics of levels of preparedness formation in eg students for professionally oriented communication activities it was recorded that the increase in indicators in cg was less significant in comparison with the significant increase in the quality indicators of eg: after the formative experiment, the number of students with high and average levels of preparedness for professionally oriented communication activities has increased (by 3.8% and 5.7%, respectively), but 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 before the experiment after the experiment 11,4% 23,8% 36,2% 49,5% 52,4% 26.7 high average low brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 53 the number of students with the low level of preparedness has decreased (by 9.5%) (see fig. 2). fig. 2. dynamics of levels of preparedness formation in cg students for professionally oriented communication activities generalization of results of the forming experimental work gives grounds to approve about positive dynamics increase of the level of preparedness in future sports coaches on the selected criteria in eg students and less significant dynamics of such level in cg. comparison of qualitative characteristics of control and experimental groups allowed one to trace the development dynamics of communicative abilities in future sports coaches, in particular, tangible improvement of talking skills, stress resistance, preparedness to establish contact, organizational skills. discussion and conclusions the authors’ contribution to the research in question lies in the fact that, for the first time, empirical material of the post-soviet region has made it possible to show an increase in future sports coaches’ readiness under the selected criteria within appropriate pedagogical conditions. the analysis of modern scientific content gives the grounds to claim that, despite a broad representation of the concepts “communication” and “contact”, the category status and the maintenance of these concepts are not single specified. it was found out that individual scientists (kislov, 2013; 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 before the experiment after the experiment 13,2% 17,0% 35,8% 41,5% 51,0% 41,5% high average low communication training of future sports coaches in the context of … yuliia nenko, et al. 54 yakovliva et al., 2002) consider synonymous the concepts “communication” and “contact”, namely, the process of transmitting information from one person to another, as well as transferability and exchange of information to influence social processes. communication can also be considered as the process of interaction between several persons, which consists in the exchange of information among them of cognitive and emotionally appreciative character and communication is explained as “message”, “transferability of information”, stressing its one-sided, narrow nature. the third approach to the problem of the ratio of concepts is based on the idea that “contact” appears as a form of communicative activity. we agree with drahomyretska (2005), lomov (1981) in understanding the concept of “communicative activity” as broader, more significant in comparison with the concepts of “communication” or “contact” taking into account the possibility of considering them as separate types of communicative activity and in interpreting communicative activity as a process of mutual exchange of information, which predetermines mutual understanding and provides feedback between participants. this research has confirmed the following: coaching activities are characterized by rapid variability of the emotional component of communication, as well as by frequent interspersion of rational and irrational reactions and stimuli (hastings, 2008). despite the team’s reactive profile and multi-modal feedback, the coach must be able to exclude empathy and maintain a left-hemisphere rational dominant, especially during team games. the authors of the article have also proved the importance of neurosocial and neuropsychological aspects of coaches’ subjective reflection, reaction to feedback, emotional and stress resilience as the basis of their professionalization (kazlauskiene & barabanova, 2020). furthermore, this research highlights the importance of developing teacher’s neurophysiological and psychological potential, subjective reflection, organization and perception of verbal and non-verbal feedback (kazlauskiene & barabanova, 2020). these parameters have proved to be especially relevant for developing coach communication as a specific activity that requires the ability to make quick decisions and produce adequate responses in situations of cognitive or activity-related uncertainty. it is rather obvious that the core of a future coach’s communicative personality should be not so much speech skills as leadership skills, psychological stability, emotional and volitional maturity (effendi rustan et al., 2020). such qualities are fully developed in life and practice, rather than at the stage of university education. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 55 the definition of professionally oriented communicative activity of sports coaches as an activity aimed at the achievement of specific conscious aims is formulated, the content of which is mutual knowledge and exchange of information through different means of communication to establish relations necessary for professional activity. as a result of the analysis of the problem of the expert’s professional training, the concept “professional training of a sports coach” is defined as the purposeful process of mastering a set of world outlook, shared cultural and specialized knowledge, abilities, skills and experience for the successful performance of tasks to destination. by the results of the scientific search the author’s position on the concept “professionally-oriented communicative preparation of future sports coach” as a set of forms, methods and means of study and education of future sports coaches in higher education institutions, which ensure the development of integrative state of the personality of the future specialist, expressed in preparedness for professionally oriented communicative activity. it is noted that the result of professional training of the specialist should be preparedness of the person for professional activity, long, wellestablished, ground-breaking, easily updated without the necessity of resumption through the atypical or emergency professional situation. we consider promising the introduction of additional training disciplines of communication direction, an increase in the number of hours for the study of language disciplines. it was confirmed that it is advisable to adjust the content of the curricula of compulsory cycle disciplines and to expand their content by introducing additional modules, which will strengthen the practical communicative component of the general professional training and will contribute to the students’ preparation for professionally oriented communicative activities. it is justified theoretically and confirmed experimentally that practical professional communication training of students in higher education institutions is possible as a result of the combination realization of such pedagogical conditions: forming a value attitude of students towards future professionally-oriented communicative activity; enhancing interactive learning methods; improving educational and methodical support; optimizing the subject-subject interaction of participants in the educational process in simulated situations of professional communication it was stated that the significant growth of quality indicators in eg is predetermined by the creation of pedagogical conditions and their introduction into the educational process of professionally oriented communication training of future sports coaches in the context of … yuliia nenko, et al. 56 communicative training of future sports coaches in institutions of higher education. research limitations. a characteristic neurophysiological specificity of coaches’ professional communication is the conventionality and automaticity of interaction. this is due not only to sports’ rules but also to conditionally fixed signals and reactions needed in sports because of the lack of time and resources for explicit communication. this correlates with cappella’s (1991) views on the biological origin of automated models of intersubjective interaction, which often becomes a priority in the sports environment. in the course of group training or after the coach’s tips during the game, one can observe a rapid change in neuroprocesses (regulation  stimulation  emotional reaction) which prompts specific studies on reflective communication. references bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), p. 13231332. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf bekiari, a., & syrmpas, i. (2015). coaches’ verbal aggressiveness and motivational climate as predictors of athletes’ satisfaction. journal of education, society and behavioural science, 9(4), p. 318329. https://doi.org/10.9734/bjesbs/2015/17757 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), p. 15851590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf blaser, m. a., & seiler, r. (2019). shared knowledge and verbal communication in football: changes in team cognition through collective training. frontiers in psychology, 10, art. 77. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00077 burleson, b. r. (2009). understanding the outcomes of supportive communication: a dual-process approach. journal of social and personal relationships, 26, p. 21– 38. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0265407509105519 cappella, j. n. (1991). the biological origins of automated patterns of human interaction. communication theory, 1(1), p. 435. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.1991.tb00002.x http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf https://doi.org/10.9734/bjesbs/2015/17757 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00077 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0265407509105519 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.1991.tb00002.x brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 57 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 drahomyretska, n. m. (2005). teoretychnyi analiz komunikatyvnoi diialnosti derzhavnoho sluzhbovtsia [theoretical analysis of the communicative activity of civil servant]. odesa: astroprynt. https://vadnd.org.ua/ua/members/ eccles, d. w., & tran, k. b. (2012). getting them on the same page: strategies for enhancing coordination and communication in sports teams. journal of sport psychology in action, 3, p. 3040. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21520704.2011.649229 effendi rustan, y., вafadal, i., sudana degeng, i. n., & arifin, i. (2020). the construction model of inculcating principal humanistic values in forming a characteristic school environment. preprints. https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202011.0068/v1 falk, e. b., cascio, c. n., & coronel, j. c. (2015). neural prediction of communication-relevant outcomes. communication methods and measures, 9(12), 3054. https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2014.999750 gorman, j. c., martin, m. j., dunbar, t. a., stevens, r. h., galloway, t. l., amazeen, p. g., & likens, a. d. (2016). cross-level effects between neurophysiology and communication during team training. human factors, 58(1), p. 181199. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720815602575 grishina, n. v. (2000). psikhologiya konflikta [the psychology of conflict]. saintpeterburg: piter. http://www.law.vsu.ru/structure/criminalistics/books/ grishina_psy_conf.pdf halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284–2291. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf hastings, w. (2008). i felt so guilty: emotions and subjectivity in school-based teacher education. teachers and teaching: theory and practice, 14, 497513. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540600802583655 holovatyi, m. f. (2005). navchy sebe sam [teach yourself]. maup. http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_i d=1092132 kassing, j. w., billings, a. c., brown, r. s., halone, k. k., harrison, k., krizek, b., mean, l. j., & turman, p. d. (2004). communication in the community of sport: the process of enacting, (re)producing, consuming, and https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://vadnd.org.ua/ua/members/ http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21520704.2011.649229 https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202011.0068/v1 https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2014.999750 https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720815602575 http://www.law.vsu.ru/structure/criminalistics/books/%0bgrishina_psy_conf.pdf http://www.law.vsu.ru/structure/criminalistics/books/%0bgrishina_psy_conf.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/13540600802583655 http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_id=1092132 http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_id=1092132 communication training of future sports coaches in the context of … yuliia nenko, et al. 58 organizing sport. in p. j. kalbfleisch (ed.), communication yearbook 28, 373– 409, routledge. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23808985.2004.11679040 kazlauskiene, a. k., & barabanova, i. (2020). neuropedagogy: preconditions for application of neuroscience results in the education process while providing feedback. technium: romanian journal of applied sciences and technology, 2(5), 112122. https://doi.org/10.47577/technium.v2i5.1246 kislov, d. v. (2013). terminolohiia komunikatsii: teoretychnyi dyskurs ta yoho praktychne vykorystannia [communication terminology: theoretical discourse and its practical use]. derzhavne upravlinnia: udoskonalennia ta rozvytok [public administration: improvement and development], 3, 12– 18. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/duur_2013_3_5 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kroshus, e., kerr, z. y., de freese, j. d., & parsons, j. t. (2017). concussion knowledge and communication behaviors of collegiate wrestling coaches. health communication, 32(8), 963969. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27462963/ lomov, b. f. (1981). osobennosti poznavatelnykh protsessov v usloviyakh obshcheniya [the peculiarities of cognitive processes under communication conditions]. psikhologicheskiy zhurnal [psychological journal], 5, 23–45. https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=21205173 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23808985.2004.11679040 https://doi.org/10.47577/technium.v2i5.1246 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/duur_2013_3_5 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27462963/ https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=21205173 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 59 education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf moskalenko, d. a. (2019). pytannia motyvatsii do navchalnoi diialnosti studentiv ekonomichnykh spetsialnostei [the issue of motivation towards learning activities of economics students]. sotsialno-humanitarnyi visnyk [socialhumanitarian journal], 28, 4849. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/sochumj_2019_28_20 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 4465. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 orlov, a. b. (1989). razvitiye teoreticheskikh skhem i ponyatiynykh sistem v psikhologii motivatsii [developing theoretical schemes and conceptual systems in the psychology of motivation]. voprosy psikhologii [issues of psychology], 5, 34–42. https://publications.hse.ru/articles/78499028 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 pedersen, p. m. (2013). reflections on communication and sport: on strategic communication and management. communication and sport, 1, 55–67. https://publichealth.indiana.edu/research/facultydirectory/profile.html?user=ppederse pickersgill, m., cunningham-burley, s., & martin, p. (2011). constituting neurologic subjects: neuroscience, subjectivity and the mundane significance of the brain. subjectivity, 4(3), 346365. https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2011.10 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 sarı, i̇., soyer, f., & yiğiter, k. (2012). the relationship among sports coaches’ perceived leadership behaviours, athletes’ communication skills and satisfaction of the basic psychological needs. international journal of academic research, 4(1), 112119. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/sochumj_2019_28_20 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://publications.hse.ru/articles/78499028 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://publichealth.indiana.edu/research/faculty-directory/profile.html?user=ppederse https://publichealth.indiana.edu/research/faculty-directory/profile.html?user=ppederse https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2011.10 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 communication training of future sports coaches in the context of … yuliia nenko, et al. 60 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ihsan_sari/publication/271507019 _the_relationship_among_sports_coaches'_perceiv ed_leadership_behaviours_athletes'_communicatio n_skills_and_satisfaction_of_the_basic_psychologi cal_needs_a_study_on_athletes/links/54c94f150cf2807dcc 258c3a.pdf schechter, e. (2015). the subject in neuropsychology: individuating minds in the split‐brain case. mind & language, 30(5), 501525. https://www.academia.edu/34631691/the_subject_in_neuropsychology _individuating_minds_in_the_split_brain_case sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532–1543. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 turman, p. d., & schrodt, p. (2004). new avenues for instructional communication research: relationships among coaches’ leadership behaviors and athletes’ affective learning. communication research reports, 21, 130–143. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08824090409359975 yakovliva, o. p., yakovliv, v. l., & yakovliv, ye. v. (2016). rol komunikatyvnoi kompetentnosti u rozvytku psykholoho-pedahohichnoi maisternosti [the role of communicative competence in the development of psychopedagogical skills]. suchasni informatsiini tekhnolohii ta innovatsiini metodyky navchannia v pidhotovtsi fakhivtsiv: metodolohiia, teoriia, dosvid, problemy [modern information technologies and innovative teaching methods in training: methodology, theory, experience, problems], 46, 359362. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/sitimn_2016_46_92 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ihsan_sari/publication/271507019_the_relationship_among_sports_coaches'_perceived_leadership_behaviours_athletes'_communication_skills_and_satisfaction_of_the_basic_psychological_needs_a_study_on_athletes/links/54c94f150cf2807dcc258c3a.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ihsan_sari/publication/271507019_the_relationship_among_sports_coaches'_perceived_leadership_behaviours_athletes'_communication_skills_and_satisfaction_of_the_basic_psychological_needs_a_study_on_athletes/links/54c94f150cf2807dcc258c3a.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ihsan_sari/publication/271507019_the_relationship_among_sports_coaches'_perceived_leadership_behaviours_athletes'_communication_skills_and_satisfaction_of_the_basic_psychological_needs_a_study_on_athletes/links/54c94f150cf2807dcc258c3a.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ihsan_sari/publication/271507019_the_relationship_among_sports_coaches'_perceived_leadership_behaviours_athletes'_communication_skills_and_satisfaction_of_the_basic_psychological_needs_a_study_on_athletes/links/54c94f150cf2807dcc258c3a.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ihsan_sari/publication/271507019_the_relationship_among_sports_coaches'_perceived_leadership_behaviours_athletes'_communication_skills_and_satisfaction_of_the_basic_psychological_needs_a_study_on_athletes/links/54c94f150cf2807dcc258c3a.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ihsan_sari/publication/271507019_the_relationship_among_sports_coaches'_perceived_leadership_behaviours_athletes'_communication_skills_and_satisfaction_of_the_basic_psychological_needs_a_study_on_athletes/links/54c94f150cf2807dcc258c3a.pdf https://www.academia.edu/34631691/the_subject_in_neuropsychology_individuating_minds_in_the_split_brain_case https://www.academia.edu/34631691/the_subject_in_neuropsychology_individuating_minds_in_the_split_brain_case http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08824090409359975 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/sitimn_2016_46_92 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 107-138 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/241 cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova¹, olha b. kiz2, nataliia a. dobrovolska3, kateryna o. chyzhyk4, tamara v. hovorun5 1 doctoral student, department of social psychology, faculty of psychology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, kyiv, ukraine, innaleonova983@gmail.com 2 associate professor, department of the psychology, faculty pedagogics and psychology, ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ternopil, ukraine, olgakiz57@ukr.net 3 head of physical education, sports and human health department, v. i. vernadsky taurida national university, kyiv, ukraine, dobrovolsk75@ukr.net 4 postgraduate student, department of pedagogical and age-old psychology, faculty of psychology, lesya ukrainka volyn national university, lutsk, ukraine, katerynachyzhyk675@gmail.com 5 assistant professor, jindal institute of behavioural sciences of op jindal global university, haryana-131001, india, tethovorun6@yahoo.com abstract: the problem of loneliness is caused by a disunity and alienation of modern society, dissatisfaction with the basic social needs for acceptance and support. the fact that the subjective feeling of loneliness does not coincide with the real degree of social isolation determines the need to study the cognitive aspects. the aim of this study is to show the role of cognitive structures in loneliness in women. a survey of 144 women aged 26-55 years was conducted. using the ucla loneliness scale and the differential loneliness experience questionnaire, loneliness was measured as a global experience, positive and negative attitudes towards it. cognitive models were studied using the dysfunctional attitude scale, young schema questionnaire, the author’s questionnaire that reveals cultural myths and gender stereotypes about loneliness. a comparative analysis of the groups showed no differences in the perception of loneliness among women with different family situations; it also does not depend on having children and their number. age was found to be a significant determinant of perceptions of loneliness and family circumstances. cognitive models influence women’s loneliness to a greater extent than family situation. the publication describes correlations between perceived loneliness and individual dysfunctional attitudes, and builds regression models of predictors of loneliness in different age groups. the study shows the prevalence of cultural stereotypes about the need for marriage and motherhood, and a special female vulnerability in relationships. the construct “tolerance to loneliness” is proposed and described, which reveals the positive potential of this experience for selfknowledge and self-development. keywords: loneliness tolerance, gender bias, emotional deprivation, positive loneliness, gender stereotypes, dysfunctional beliefs, early maladaptive schemes. how to cite: leonova, i.m., kiz, o.b., dobrovolska, n.a., chyzhyk, k.o., & hovorun, t.v. (2021). cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 107138. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/241 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/241 mailto:innaleonova983@gmail.com mailto:olgakiz57@ukr.net mailto:dobrovolsk75@ukr.net mailto:katerynachyzhyk675@gmail.com mailto:tethovorun6@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/241 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 108 1. introduction the problem of loneliness is the seamy side of human social nature. a collective lifestyle promotes survival in difficult situations, and social isolation is one of the most difficult challenges. for a long time, expulsion has been used as a punishment: sending a small child into a nursery, boycott and neglect in teenage groups, solitary confinement, etc. but isolation (an objective measurable phenomenon) is not identical with loneliness — the subjective psychological discomfort people experience when their network of social relationships is significantly deficient in either quality or quantity (perlman & peplau, 1998). some people may be content with limited social contacts and, being physically distant from others, exist quite comfortably, even make scientific discoveries, creative breakthroughs and spiritual insights. at the same time, a person can lead an active social life, have a family, but feel lonely. in contrast to isolation, loneliness reflects an internal disorder in the relationship of the individual with society and his own self. this experience arises from inadequate satisfaction of the social needs of a person, the absence of a reliable object of attachment, which leads to the feeling of oneself as abandoned, unnecessary (weiss, 1973). it can take place both in a situation of isolation (voluntary or forced), and in different types of relationships — in the presence of other people, but without psychological contact with them. alienation in thoughts, needs and actions from other people, awareness of their non-identity are accompanied by dissatisfaction, stress and other painful conditions. loneliness can be a natural reaction of a person to certain life situations (such as moving, divorce of spouses, separation of a child from parents, loss of loved ones, etc.) or a stable personality characteristic. the loss of emotional connections, rejection of generally accepted traditions, norms, values, launch the process of marginalization and destruction of the personality (filindash, 2015). thus, loneliness is an indicator of non-integration, non-adaptability of a person to the social world. one should distinguish the temporary voluntary solitude — being alone — from loneliness, as well as the solitude lifestyle filled with existential meaning. conceptual diversity reflects the perception of a phenomenon in a particular culture. it is interesting that in the ukrainian language the variety of definitions of single, lone, solitary is semantically reduced to a single word “lonely”, which in turn is associated with the characteristic of “selfcontained”. in the course of historical development different cultures create cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 109 specific forms of loneliness and ways to overcome them (rokach, 2018; rokach et al., 2000). let us note that the mentality of the inhabitants of post-soviet countries is still experiencing the delayed influence of the collectivist ideology, the values of which were opposed to the “alienating” individualism of capitalist society. this influenced the long lack of social and scientific discussions around the topic of loneliness. an active study of the psychological aspects of loneliness began in the 80’s of the 20 th century, when data were obtained on the discrepancy between the actual number of social ties (the degree of social isolation) and the subjective experience of loneliness. moreover, the most severe forms of loneliness turned out to be typical for situations when a person did not lack communication, was among friends or family members. subsequent studies have shown links of loneliness with emotional distress, anxiety, depression, poor sleep, obesity, rapid aging, risk of cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment (hawkley & cacioppo, 2010); decreased immunity (pressman et al., 2005); hostility, suicidal behaviour, alcohol and drug abuse, unhealthy lifestyles (holt-lunstad at al., 2015; napryeyenko et al., 2019; richard at al., 2017). today, social isolation and the experience of loneliness are generally recognized risk factors for physical and mental health problems. there is evidence that subjectively judged loneliness is a more important predictor of negative outcomes than actual isolation (cacioppo & patrick, 2008). large-scale national polls show an increase in perceived loneliness, especially among young people: from 16 to 30% of respondents in different age and gender groups reported pronounced dissatisfaction with their social relations, the quality and volume of communication, a sense of alienation (barreto et al., 2021; hawthorne, 2008; hysinga et al., 2020). the rise of loneliness in modern society is triggered by many factors. urbanization, migration, and the acceleration of the pace of life intensify social mobility, which is accompanied by a weakening of ties in traditional groups, primarily family and intergenerational ones. people who are passionate about their careers and self-realization prefer not to get married and have children as long as possible; and numerous superficial contacts do not satisfy the basic need for intimacy. individualism which is based on the principle of “every man for himself” led to a decrease in interpersonal trust, and the need for constant self-determination caused an identity crisis. loss of established values, economic and political instability increase the state of alienation and loss. the influence of social forces is exacerbated if there are factors of personal ill-being (korchagina, 2008). communication virtualization has brought new meanings to loneliness. today, more and brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 110 more young people say that they feel more comfortable alone than in society. this can be considered as a spontaneous adaptation of the individual to global social disunity. it is important to understand that any person, regardless of social status, needs the acceptance, approval and support of other members of the group. even in individualistic western culture, the lonely lifestyle is a sharp deviation from conventional wisdom and is therefore often stigmatized (fisher & sakaluk, 2020). in the public mind, loneliness is filled with negative connotations attaching epithets while “crying for help”: helpless, suppressed, hopeless, abandoned, desperate, lost, terrible, dreary, deadly, etc. (kagan, 2000). lonely people are perceived as unhappy, inferior or unsuccessful (except in cases of hermitism associated with religious and spiritual quests). thus, the fear of loneliness is acquired in the process of socialization. it is not surprising that the awareness of one’s loneliness can cause an individual to feel anxiety, guilt, and shame. although the problem of loneliness affects almost all categories of the population, there are especially many stereotypes around the loneliness of women, not only in the everyday life, but also in psychological publications. the blog of a popular russian psychologist begins with the words: “women want to be in a relationship more than men, and they often experience lack of a loved man as loneliness and inferiority”. the author urges readers to keep an eye on their figure and be always attractive (kozlov, 2013). glossy magazines intend to cheer up single women, but they actually escalate the problem: “those who are not married have always been perceived as somewhat flawed: being unmarried means a failure” (kiseleva, 2013). in scientific research, female loneliness is often interpreted narrowly — as the experience of the absence or lack of an intimate relationship with an important man (tsvetkova, 2014). this led to the development of gender-oriented models of loneliness and corresponding methods of psychological support (shitova, 2009). it is generally accepted that women are more willing than men to recognize themselves as lonely and are more likely to seek psychological help. the influence of social role leads to stigmatization and rejection of single men (borys & perlman, 1985). at the same time, women are more socialized, have better communication and emotional skills, and cope better with loneliness. that said, empirical data on gender differences of loneliness are ambiguous. in a number of studies, the influence of gender showed very little or no effects (kahan & žiaková, 2019; richard et al., 2017); other cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 111 works have revealed gender differences only in certain groups: among college students (russell, 1996), married people aged 20 to 49 years (tornstam, 1993). these samples of russian students aged 16-28 demonstrate the predominance of the subjective feeling of loneliness in women (manakova, 2018). in contrast, in a survey of polish students, women reported lower levels of loneliness and a higher level of perceived social support compared to men (adamczyk, 2016). according to an online survey (osin & leontyev, 2013), men more often reported about the absence of loved ones, lack of communication and feelings of alienation; women more often talked about their rejection of loneliness as a phenomenon more often. in a cross-cultural study by barreto et al. (2021), men also reported loneliness, although the gender effect was weaker for older participants. in general, the empirical data accumulated to date do not clarify the issue of the peculiarities of male and female loneliness. most of the publications translate a negative view of loneliness, emphasizing its destructive impact on the quality of life. at the same time, more and more studies present loneliness as an integral part of making up of individuality, a necessary element of self-knowledge, self-determination and self-sufficiency, as well as a positive resource for personal development that needs to be cultivated (guseinova, 2014; long & averill, 2003; osin & leontyev, 2013; storr, 2005; zavorotnykh, 2009). such reflections are based on the idea of moustakas (1972) that loneliness is a challenge for a person, coping with which makes him more holistic, sensitive and human. failure to cope with this challenge leads to painful loneliness, which is a source of anxiety. the fear of loneliness leads to the denial of it as a fact, the repression of the corresponding experiences, the constant search and establishment of superficial social contacts, as a result — to alienation from oneself. time spent alone can be used for internal dialogue, self-discovery, creativity and other necessary activities that allow you to value relationships with other people. the positive potential of loneliness also includes the functions of self-regulation, stabilization of psychophysical states, protection of the self from external destructive influences (neumoeva, 2005). in the context of the above, the cognitive aspect requires special attention, which emphasizes the importance of personal beliefs and social attitudes in determining the subjectively experienced loneliness. this phenomenon fits well into the classical theory of the influence of cognitive structures on individual perception of reality (beck, 1976). it is known that cognitive schemes that arrange and process incoming information (patterns of perception and evaluation, patterns of thinking, attitudes, representations, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 112 prejudices, automatic thoughts, etc.) are acquired at an early stage of personality development and develop as experience is accumulated. deformation of these structures — cognitive distortions — leads to distorted perception, inappropriate emotional responses, erroneous decisions, behavioural disorders and personality disorders. young (1982) described early maladaptive schemas — protective emotional-cognitive patterns that are formed in childhood, guiding reactions throughout life. “fundamental underlying assumptions” about ourselves, others, and the world determine the behaviour of lonely people, making it difficult to establish and maintain satisfactory social relationships (young, 1982). maladaptive schemas are usually the result of traumatic events, frustration of important needs, attachment disorders; overprotection and care, lack of reasonable restraint, selective identification with the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of an influential adult can also be causes (young et al., 2003). identifying and correcting maladaptive social cognition underlies the provision of effective psychological care for loneliness problems (cacioppo et al., 2015; käll et al., 2020). the cognitive component is invariably present in the definitions of loneliness as a result of a person’s assessment of the system of his relationships with other people, social groups, himself and the world as a whole: the discrepancy between the desired and achieved level of contacts (perlman & peplau, 1998); the perceived deficit of relationships, which the subject defines as unsatisfying his needs (kryukova, 2016); subjective reflection of one’s position in the “i-others” system, the dominant form of identifying oneself with others: identification or isolation (oleinik, 2018), the meaning with which a person endows isolation, communication and connections with other people (osin & leontyev, 2013). sadler and johnson (1980) described the cognitive moment of loneliness as a “sign of selfhood”: it informs a person who he is in this life. this is a special acute form of self-perception and self-awareness, showing a split in the real network of relationships and connections of the inner world. the experience is built on the basis of the individual’s life world — an intentional structure that sets a framework within which events become meaningful. loneliness positions a person on the scale “i am alone i am not alone” using a number of criteria: subjective assessment of the manifestation of loneliness, the degree of its recognition (the nature of psychological defence) and the emotional colouring of loneliness. each person experiences this state in his own way and has his own “comfortable level” of loneliness cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 113 (zavorotnykh, 2009), as well as ideas about social activity (shamionov & grigoryev, 2019). the cognitive aspect of self-diagnosis of loneliness also includes ideas about a certain type of relationship that is currently absent, as well as an analysis of disagreements between individual experience of a person and generally accepted standards (korchagina, 2008). an individual who has clearly identified himself as a lonely person experiences loneliness even more strongly (perlman & peplau, 1998). recent research by oleinik (2018) showed that in a situation of awareness of their loneliness (the image of a lonely person), adult respondents are dominated by the idea of the absence of significant people with whom they can share thoughts and feelings, the desire to isolate from others increases, and a mechanism of alienation is formed in their experiences. the cognitive component determines subsequent emotional and behavioural reactions. the works of kryukova (2016) made an important contribution to the development of a cognitive approach to coping with loneliness. studies in different samples have shown that an individual assessment of loneliness is accompanied by a number of cognitive distortions and thinking errors: towards denial, exaggeration or understatement of its level. the higher the level of subjective loneliness and the more distorted its assessment, the more unproductive coping strategies a person chooses (kryukova, 2016). thus, the subjectively perceived deficit in relationships distorts the real picture of a person’s social life. loneliness is a complex, heterogeneous and ambiguous phenomenon that requires scientific understanding and practical study. identification of cognitive schemes and models that provoke loneliness is useful primarily in practical terms, since it will allow developing effective programs for the socio-psychological support of lonely people, and in theoretical terms — to better understand the binary human nature, combining both the needs for autonomy and joining, and also explain the problems of social exclusion in modern society. the aim of this article is to show the role of cognitive structures in experiencing loneliness in women. in previous studies (hovorun et al., 2019; kiz, 2017), we have shown the prevalence of loneliness among women from different social groups, including socially vulnerable people in forced isolation: migrants, prisoners of a correctional colony, deaf and dumb. it was found that the experience of loneliness does not depend on having children (leonova, 2020). this time we expanded the sample and traced the impact of the family situation in more detail. in addition, we focused on studying the brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 114 intrinsic factors of loneliness, namely cognitive distortions and social stereotypes. 2. materials and methods the sample consisted of 144 healthy, socially well-off women with different family status, aged from 26 to 55 (average age 39.67±6.12). at the time of the survey 25% of the participants had no children; 21.5% were not in a family or romantic relationship and did not have a permanent partner (including unmarried, divorced women and widows), that is, they fell in the “single” category. 2.1. diagnostic tools the main criterion for the subjective experience of loneliness was the ucla loneliness scale (version 3; russell, 1996). it is a onedimensional tool that measures loneliness as a global experience and experience of a wide range of people. the scale contains 20 questions reflecting feelings of isolation and alienation, lack of satisfactory interpersonal contacts, and lack of support. the respondent chooses one of four answer options: never, rarely, sometimes, always (1-4 points). the total indicator of the scale is from 20 to 80 points without a set threshold; its increase indicates the severity of the experience of loneliness. the tool is actively used in scientific research, empirical data of different national, age and social groups have been accumulated; its russian-language adaptation has proven to be reliable and valid (ishmukhametov, 2006). in a sample of adult women, the ucla loneliness scale scores were obtained in the range from 20 to 70 points, the mean was 38.80±9.75 (m±sd). the indicator in the sample was distributed normally, with a small “tail” on the right (kolmogorov-smirnov z = 0.98 at p=0.287). to validate the data, the differential loneliness experience questionnaire (dopo-3k) by osin and leontyev (2013) was used, which allows assessing the attitude of a person to loneliness, its subjective meaning and possible consequences for the person. according to the author’s model, the acceptance of loneliness as an existential fact opens up a person the opportunity to find in him a positive resource for self-development, autocommunication, and the establishment of deeper and more meaningful connections with people. rejection of loneliness, on the contrary, leads to avoidance of "meeting with oneself" and hinders personal growth, in the course of which a person faces the challenge of recognizing his separateness. the short version of the questionnaire consists of 24 statements with cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 115 4 possible answers: disagree, rather disagree, rather agree, agree. the scores are grouped into three scales: a) general experience of loneliness (meaningful equivalent of the ucla scale); b) positive loneliness — a joy and a resource of solitude; c) dependence on communication — negative and dysphoric perception of loneliness as a problem, the need for company. the reliability and validity of dopo-3 were confirmed in a study of a large sample of internet users (osin & leontyev, 2013). when interpreting the data, we divided the sum of points by the number of points in the subscale, thus obtaining average scores that are convenient to compare with each other. the results obtained in the sample corresponded to the criteria of normal distribution: the kolmogorov-smirnov z statistic is 0.84; 1.10 and 1.15, the significance in all cases is greater than 0.05. cognitive models were studied using the author’s questionnaire and two enquirers. dysfunctional attitude scale (das) by beck (1976) was used for the study of cognitive distortions, adapted and standardized in russian by zakharova (2013). the contracted version contains 40 statements, which are rated on a scale from 1 “strongly agree” to 7 “strongly disagree”. the total amount of assessments reflects the severity of maladaptive errors in the perception of reality automatic irrational and dysfunctional attitudes that determine the assessment of oneself, other people, the world around them and thereby affect the system of emotional and behavioural reactions of the individual, provoking the onset of neurotic disorders. the sample obtained an average of 115.45±21.34 in the range from 51 to 202 points; the distribution of the data significantly differed from the normal and had a pronounced assimilation with a predominance of low values (z kolmogorov-smirnov 2.82 at p=0.000). additionally, 10 positive and negative statements were formulated, reflecting the stereotypes about "female loneliness", replicated in psychological publications (we did not invent them ourselves, but cited from various publications). we used a 7-point likert scale to assess agreementdisagreement. analysis of the answers for each statement allowed revealing the severity of individual attitudes that accompany the experience of loneliness. young schema questionnaire (ysq-s3r) was developed in line with schema therapy synthesizing cognitive behavioural approach, early attachment theory, gestalt therapy, and a number of other areas (young, 1982). the short russian-language form of ysq measures 18 early maladaptive schemas using 90 statements that the respondents rate brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 116 according to their experience and perceptions on a 6-point likert scale from “not at all about me” to “completely describes me”. the score for each schema varies from 5 to 30 points, a high score indicates the severity of the cognitive attitude (kasyanik & romanova, 2016). the resulting profile of values demonstrates the dominant cognitive patterns that guide the perception and reactions of a person. according to the results of checking the distribution in the female sample, the values of all ysq – s3r scales significantly differed from the normal (z. kolmogorov-smirnov statistics from 1.48 to 2.03, all significant at p<0.05), positive asymmetry indicates the prevalence of low ratings. we grouped some of them into 5 domains in accordance with frustrated developmental needs: impaired connection and rejection (unmet need for secure attachment, love), impaired autonomy (unmet need for self-sufficiency, success, and efficiency), broken boundaries (unmet need for adequate boundaries with other people), focus on others (unmet need for self-esteem and self-acceptance), over-vigilance and rigid standards (an unmet need for the free expression of needs and emotions) (young et al., 2003). the data were collected from june to october 2020. participation in the study was entirely voluntary. the survey was conducted online, instructions and forms were sent to the participants upon receiving informed consent. the study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the apa and the declaration of helsinki. the research program was preliminarily approved at the methodological seminar of the taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, kyiv, ukraine, ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ternopil, ukraine, v. i. vernadsky taurida national university, kyiv, ukraine, lesya ukrainka volyn national university, lutsk, ukraine and jindal institute of behavioural sciences of op jindal global university, india. 2.2. data analysis the obtained results were processed using descriptive statistics and frequency analysis. groups of different ages, with different status of relationships and having/not having children were identified in the general sample of women. since the parameters of loneliness are normally distributed, the groups were compared using parametric criteria — one-way and multivariate analysis of variance. the correlations between indicators of loneliness and parameters of cognitive attitudes were calculated; spearman’s rank correlation coefficient cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 117 was applied. an analysis of the scores for each statement allowed identifying specific cognitive biases that accompany the experience of loneliness. linear regression was also used to compare loneliness and cognitive patterns. the dependent variables were the indicators of ucla loneliness scale and dopo-3k. initially, a complete model was built for each parameter, including all measures of cognitive attitudes as predictors. a model with the largest information criterion was selected for each scale using the stepwise algorithm method. 3. results 3.1. the severity of loneliness in groups of women of different ages and marital status: a comparative analysis the results of the ucla survey showed the prevalence and intensity of feelings of loneliness in a sample of adult women. only 9% of those surveyed indicated that they have never had the experience of alienation and isolation. women who often acutely feel lonely have been found among both married mothers and those living alone. when analysing the data obtained, we were interested in the influence of the family situation on the subjective experience of loneliness. two grouping factors were identified for multivariate analysis of variance: 1) having a husband or a permanent partner in a relationship; and 2) having children and their number (table 1). we traced the influence of the family situation of women with the help of the dependent variable was the ucla indicator; marital status (the presence of a permanent partner or husband) and having children were considered as the determining grouping variables. table 1. average figure for ucla loneliness scale and comparative analysis for groups of women with different marital status. grouping variables n mean std. deviation test of homogeneity anova 1. having partner: do not have a permanent partner 31 39.30 10.19 levene’s statistic 0.168 sig.= 0.846 f = 0.167 sig. = 0.847 are in a stable relationship 47 37.42 9.82 married 66 39.54 10.24 2. having children: brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 118 do not have children 36 39.91 9.98 levene’s statistic 0.320 sig.= 0.726 f = 1,602 sig. = 0.205 one child 70 39.37 10.45 two or more children 38 36.21 9.09 we see that having a permanent partner does not significantly affect the level of perceived loneliness in women. the average rate of loneliness among married women is only slightly higher than that of a group of single women. the lowest rates on the ucla scale are observed in mothers with two or more children, but the differences are not statistically significant. the combination of the two grouping factors also did not reveal a significant effect on the overall variability of the loneliness indicator. tests of betweensubjects effects showed f=1.41 with sig=0.234. the value of adjusted r squared — 0.078 — shows that only 7.8% of the variance of the loneliness scale can be predicted using this factor model. among the nine clusters formed by a combination of grouping variables, we noted a high vulnerability to feelings of loneliness in married women without children (9 people, mean 43.89±10.80) and in single mothers who do not have a permanent partner (11 people, mean 42.55±10.97). mothers with many children who have a permanent romantic partner (5 people, mean 32.40±6.50) feel loneliness to the least degree (figure 1). despite the observed difference in the mean, the results obtained do not provide grounds to confirm the thesis (stereotype) that the feeling of loneliness prevails in women who do not have children or a regular partner. our practical experience explains that women compensate for the lack of communication in the family sphere by activity in other areas of social life. one-way analysis of variance confirmed the statistical significance of differences in the experience of loneliness in groups of different ages (f=2.33 with sig.=0.045). looking at the 5-year ucla means, two peaks at the age of 26-30 and 41-45 are noticeable. after 55 years, the severity of loneliness significantly decreases — the older group had the lowest rate in the sample. the relationship between feelings of loneliness and age has a complex nonlinear nature, which leads to the lack of correlations — figure 2. cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 119 figure 1. mean ucla loneliness scale scores when grouping variables are combined. figure 2. average trends and variation in loneliness in groups with a 5-year age interval no partner in a relationship married 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 45.00 no childrenone child two and more children 36.43 42.55 39.67 40.92 37.66 32.40 43.89 39.87 36.15 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 120 it is important that with age, not only severity of the experience of loneliness in women changes, but also the nature of its perception. the indicator of dependence on communication is highest at the stage of early maturity up to 35 years (f=2.37 with sig.=0.042); a positive perception and understanding of loneliness (f=3.42 with sig.=0.006) is more typical for the older groups (table 2). table 2. means of loneliness experience (m±sd) in groups of different ages age 26-30 n=25 31-35 n=23 36-40 n=24 41-45 n=25 46-50 n=25 51-55 n=22 ucla loneliness scale 41.13±9.44 38.17±10.55 37.42±9.51 43.16±10.84 37.57±8.81 34.87±7.44 differential loneliness experience questionnaire dopo-3k general experience 2.38±0.71 2.21±0.67 2.17±0.58 2.51±0.70 2.16±0.71 2.02±0.62 dependence on communication 2.36±0.74 2.06±0.72 2.03±0.66 2.16±0.74 1.84±0.76 1.81±0.65 positive loneliness 2.61±0.55 2.87±0.51 3.12±0.63 3.06±0.54 3.39±0.53 3.55±0.48 age also mediates the perception of the family situation. the combined effect of age and having a partner accounted for 14.5% of the total variance in the ucla loneliness scale (tests of between-subjects effects showed f=3.60 with sig=0.031; r squared=0.145). the combined effect of age and having children accounted for 11.3% of the total variance in the loneliness indicator (f=4.96 with sig=0.008; r squared=0.113). young girls under 30 who do not have a permanent partner, as well as women over 40 who have no children were the most vulnerable to loneliness. 3.2. cognitive distortions, their correlation with the subjective experience of loneliness in women the assessments of experiencing loneliness according to the ucla and dopo-3k scales directly correlate with the general indicator of the severity of dysfunctional attitudes (r=0.225 and r=0.231 at p≤0.01). at the same time, more than half of the items on the das questionnaire turned out to be significantly interrelated with measures of loneliness — they are noted in table 3 (the correlations of the “general experience of loneliness” cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 121 subscale of dopo-3k were not included in the table, since they are similar to the indicators of the ucla scale, which is explained by similar content of the questionnaires). table 3. dysfunctional attitudes which significantly correlate with indicators of loneliness das: ucla loneliness scale dopo-3k positive loneliness dependence on communication general indicator 0.225** -0.246** 0.239** separate statements (installations): 3. people are likely to think amiss of me if i make a mistake. 0.203* -0.146 0.183* 4. if i am not good all the time, others will not respect me. 0.151 -0.245** 0.125 6. you can gain the respect of another person without being gifted in anything. -0.177* 0.188* -0.097 7. i'm only happy when other people admire me. 0.168 -0.147 0.283*** 8. when a person asks for help, it is a sign of weakness. 0.041 -0.194* 0.066 11. if a person cannot do something correctly and perfectly, there is no point in starting this business. 0.157 -0.207* 0.139 12. it’s useful to make mistakes so i can learn from them. 0.160 0.259** 0.097 13. if someone does not share my opinion, this apparently means that he does not love me. 0.228** -0.094 0.225 19. my value as a person largely depends on how other people think of me. 0.136 -0.243** 0.125 20. if i don’t make the highest demands on myself, i will probably end up being a second-rate person. 0.192* 0.089 0.175* 22. people who have good ideas are more valuable than those who do not. 0.167* -0.174* 0.044 24. my own opinion of myself is more important than the opinion of others about me. -0.114 0.237** -0.159 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 122 27. it’s terrible when you are criticized by people who are important to you. 0.211* 0.030 0.162 28. if you do not have a person who can be a support for you, you inevitably become unhappy. 0.106 -0.227** 0.183* 31. i cannot trust other people because they may be cruel to me. 0.170* -0.063 0.165* 32. you cannot be happy if others do not love you. 0.275*** -0.248** 0.199* 33. it’s good to give up your own interests in order to please other people. 0.004 -0.247** 0.056 34. my happiness depends more on other people than on myself. 0.199* -0.200* 0.127 35. i do not need recognition from others to be happy. 0.074 -0.259** 0.017 38. it is very important what other people think of me. 0.123 -0.227** 0.179* 39. isolation from others invariably leads to feelings of unhappiness. 0.371*** -0.104 0.218** 40. i can be happy without being loved by others. 0.056 -0.213* -0.073 notes: * values exceeding the critical value of spearman’s correlation coefficient for this sample (0.164 at p≤0.05), ** correlations significant at p≤0.01; *** correlations significant at р≤0.001. the analysis of correlations shows that women who are seriously experiencing their loneliness are characterized by a critical attitude towards themselves and others, a sense of “obligation”, and dependence on the recognition of other people. they are convinced that the value of a person depends on his abilities and achievements, that special efforts must be made in order to gain the sympathy and recognition of others. they are afraid to make mistakes, overestimate the importance of the opinions of other people, while they do not trust others. the strongest correlations were obtained with respect to dysfunctional attitudes: “you cannot be happy if others do not love you” and “isolation from others invariably leads to a feeling of unhappiness” (p≤0.001). we should note that these views are not dominant in the sample. the women surveyed most often agreed with the opposite, adaptive statements: “happiness is something related to the attitude towards oneself, rather than the feelings that other people have for you” (mean=2.7) and “i can be happy not being loved by others” (mean=2.9). cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 123 attitudes that correlate with a positive attitude toward loneliness are of particular interest. this part of table 3 presents mostly negative values. the strongest correlations relate to denying beliefs about the importance of other people’s opinions and recognizing that happiness requires the presence and love of another person. besides, such women do not agree to give up their own interests in order to please someone. they accept their own mistakes and weaknesses, are ready to ask other people for help when it is needed. they also do not associate the value of a person with his “goodness” or productivity, this belief concerns both themselves and others. this list provides a guideline for building a tolerance for loneliness in cognitive behavioural therapy. ysq results in the female sample indicate the severity of response patterns caused by: a) strict standards and captiousness — perfectionism, striving for unrealistically high standards of behaviour (professional, moral, cultural, religious, etc.) in order to avoid criticism, which leads to a feeling of pressure and energy exhaustion, extreme captiousness towards oneself and people; b) abandonment/instability — subjective perception of the behaviour of loved ones as unreliable, fickle, unpredictable; fears that they will abandon or be unable to provide support; c) seeking approval — excessive striving to gain recognition and attention from other people, adjusting at the cost of ignoring “self”; dependence of self-esteem on the reactions of other people, and not on their own feelings, hypersensitivity to rejection. the described attitudes are expressed in more than 30% of the women surveyed. observed behaviour in interpersonal relationships is guided by maladaptive patterns and is a response to them. as table 4 shows, they are closely related to the feeling of loneliness. table 4.the severity of early maladaptive schemes and their correlation with measurements of loneliness young schema questionnaire: mean in the sample ucla loneliness scale dopo-3k positive loneliness dependence on communication i. breaking ties and rejection emotional deprivation 9.76 ± 5.02 0.125 0.037 0.169* abandonment/instability 14.26 ± 4.45 0.221* 0.033 0.178* mistrust/abuse 12.77 ± 0.107 0.037 0.104 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 124 5.24 social isolation/alienation 10.92 ± 4.71 0.270** -0.063 0.166* defectiveness/shame 8.08 ± 5.39 0.005 -0.169* 0.032 2. lack of autonomy and fear of proving oneself (to assert oneself) dependence/incompetence 9.11 ± 4.07 0.203* -0.200* 0.188* vulnerability to harm or illness 10.28 ± 4.56 0.108 -0.055 0.064 enmeshment/undeveloped self 9.62 ± 3.93 0.043 -0.229** 0.109 failure 10.35 ± 5.01 0.262* -0.114 0.117 3. violation of boundaries entitlement/grandiosity 12.17 ± 5.47 0.081 -0.094 0.085 insufficient selfcontrol/self-discipline 13.31 ± 4.80 -0.104 0.113 -0.131 4. orientation towards others subjugation 10.95 ± 4.44 0.066 0.017 0.065 self-sacrifice 12.06 ± 4.37 0.193* -0.144 0.195* approvalseeking/recognition-seeking 14.50 ± 5.29 0.209** -0.248** 0.247** 5. hypervigilance and suppression of emotions negativity/pessimism 12.02 ± 5.62 0.156 -0.215* 0.082 emotional inhibition 11.67 ± 5.63 0.125 -0.150 0.188* unrelenting standards/hypercriticalness 15.45 ± 5.13 0.151 -0.184* 0.036 punitiveness 10.64 ± 4.05 0.153 -0.170* 0.049 notes: * correlations significant at p≤0.05, ** correlations significant at p≤0.01; *** correlations significant at р≤0.001. besides, an important factor in perceived loneliness was learned helplessness, a belief in one’s own inability to competently cope with daily duties and solving new problems, to make sound decisions without the help of others. cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 125 3.3. the prevalence of the cultural myth of “female loneliness” the following attitudes, in contrast to the cognitive biases discussed above, are culturally conditioned and support the existing distribution of gender roles. stereotypical beliefs about the special social vulnerability of women were quite common among the survey participants. they are present in all age groups and are more pronounced in young married women. although 74.3% of the respondents agreed that a woman is able to live fully and happily without a permanent male partner, there are strong ideas about the need to be a mother and build a family before reaching a certain age. the severity of gender stereotypes is significantly interconnected with the subjective experience of loneliness (table 5). table 5. stereotypes about “female” loneliness: sample prevalence and correlation. content of the cognitive attitude: average trends (on a scale of 1 to 7) ucla loneliness scale dopo-3k positive loneliness dependence on communication 1. any woman needs someone who can show care and emotional support, a sense of security, confidence, reliability and support in life. 4.89±1.03 0.206* 0.009 0.190* 2. a woman feels lonely when she cannot realize her maternal instinct. 4.65±0.92 0.081 0.007 0.059 3. a lonely woman is more vulnerable than a man, it is more difficult for her to survive loneliness. 4.44±1.12 0.104 -0.091 0.168* 4. a woman is left alone when she has a bad character (hysterical, scandalous), unable to adapt and get along with a man. 3.12±1.07 0.088 0.192* 0.173* 5. it is hardly possible to call adult woman without children successful and happy. 5.31±0.84 0.026 -0.268** 0.106 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 126 6. a woman is able to live fully and happily without a man nearby. 5.43±0.84 0.023 0.177* 0.082 7. if a woman has not married and has not had children before a certain age, it is hardly possible to call her life prosperous. 4.85±1.28 0.224** -0.081 0.088 8. being a good wife and mother is the main responsibility of a woman to society, as well as to her parents and loved ones. 3.86±1.16 0.151 -0.089 0.004 9. having a family is not a criterion for the success or failure of a woman’s life as a whole. 3.37±1.26 -0.083 0.314*** 0.003 10. it is easier for a woman to cope with her loneliness than a man. 3.28±1.47 -0.032 0.312*** -0.056 notes: * correlations significant at p≤0.05, ** correlations significant at p≤0.01; *** correlations significant at р≤0.001. 3.4. cognitive predictors of loneliness in the process of searching for the most informative linear regression models, we found that in groups of different ages, the set and significance of predictors changes. for example, after 40 years, the strength of the influence of the attitude about “female happiness” decreases almost twice (β<40=0.65 compared to β>40=0.34, p≤0.05), the early maladaptive schemes “abandonment/instability”, “defectiveness/shame” become less significant, the significance of the “punitiveness” factor is completely lost; at the same time, the importance of seeking approval and a sense of success is growing (figure 3). such “cognitive shifts” reflect the formation of women’s tolerance to experiencing feelings of loneliness. cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 127 figure 3. cognitive predictors of women’s propensity to experience loneliness: linear regression equations in different age groups. at the same time, the set of predictors for the “positive loneliness” parameter is stable in groups of different ages and marital status: positive loneliness = – woman age (β=0,37, р=0,008) – general severity of dysfunctional attitudes (β=0,96, р=0,000) – approval-seeking/recognition-seeking (β=0,91, р=0,000) – negativity/pessimism (β=0,37, р=0,008) – enmeshment/undeveloped self (β=0,35, р=0,010) – dependence/incompetence (β=0,31, р=0,012) – unrelenting standards/hypercriticalness (β=0,18, р=0,035) – defectiveness/shame (β=0,16, р=0,036). the results obtained open the way to building programs for the development of tolerance to loneliness, which is useful to start as early as possible: during the student period up to 25 years. 4. discussions the statistics of loneliness in the female sample is generally consistent with the results obtained earlier in various socio-demographic loneliness as a negative experience= 25.50 (constant) + general severity of dysfunctional attitudes (β=1.29. р=0.000) + approval/recognition-seeking (β=0.88. р=0.000) + dependence/incompetence (β=0.84. р=0.000) + attitudes about “female happiness” (β=0.65. р=0.000) + abandonment/instability (β=0.45. р=0.001) + social isolation/alienation (β=0.32. р=0.011) + self-sacrifice (β=0.19. р=0.027) + punitiveness (β=0.18. р=0.035) 22.64 (constant) + general severity of dysfunctional attitudes (β=1.32. р=0.000) + dependence/incompetence (β=1.16. р=0.000) + approval/recognition-seeking (β=0.80. р=0.000) + failure (β=0.39. р=0.005) + social isolation/alienation (β=0.36. р=0.008) + attitudes about “female happiness” (β=0.31. р=0.013) + abandonment/instability (β=0.27. р=0.034) + self-sacrifice (β=0.17. р=0.036) under 40 (adjusted r square = 0.918): after 40 (adjusted r square = 0.881): brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 128 groups. according to russell (1996) the ucla loneliness scale declines even more, to 31.51±6.92, after 65. it is known about the high severity of subjective loneliness in young people: according to the data of numerous surveys of student samples, the average result ranges from 39.5 to 40.1 (hysinga et al., 2020; ishmukhametov, 2006; russell, 1996). these data allow expanding the tendencies we have found in graph 1 and to shift the first peak of the experience of loneliness to the age of 18-25 years. in their studies, osin and leontyev (2013) showed that indicators of loneliness and dependence on communication decrease with age. the authors explained this by the fact that people learn to establish relationships and become more autonomous. indicators of positive loneliness are high in adolescence, decrease by the age of 25, but then grow again oleinik (2018) found that the respondents of middle adult age, compared with younger people under 25, is more likely to experience a lack of interaction and emotional closeness with other people, but despite this, they more often want to remain in a situation of loneliness. our sample is somewhat older than that considered by the authors, but on the whole confirms the tendency towards an increase in positive loneliness at the stage of 30-50 years. the results confirming the absence of a significant effect of the family situation on perceived loneliness were quite expected. scientists have repeatedly stated the prevalence of “loneliness in relationships” and “family loneliness” (kryukova & ronch, 2012; perlman & peplau, 1998; shitova, 2009). dissatisfaction with the quality of communication and support in the family is characteristic not only of women, but also of men, adolescents and the elderly. in general, the family as a stable social network does not save a person from stress and tension in interpersonal relationships and from loneliness as a consequence of these experiences (kryukova, 2016). at the same time, support from family and/or significant people is known to mitigate the negative impact of prolonged loneliness among students (adamczyk, 2016). research by essex and nam (1987) showed differences determined by marital status: the quality of marital relations dominates in the perception of loneliness among married women, while the quality of close friendship and their health — in divorced women. in the data obtained, attention is drawn to the factor of age, which mediates the perception of a person’s social relations. the revealed mutual influence of factors of age and family situation (having a partner and children) on perceived loneliness in women is obviously due to the existence of unspoken social norms and stereotypes governing the age of marriage and childbirth. the emphasis on romantic cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 129 relationships in western culture is known to increase the level of loneliness in people who are not in stable relationships (seepersad et al., 2008). the survey confirmed that having a family is still a criterion for the success or failure of a woman’s life as a whole. a qualitatively specific type of attitude towards the problem of loneliness is typical for older women; we called it tolerance towards loneliness. almost one third of the respondents in the age groups of 46-50 and 51-55 years old showed high rates of positive loneliness in the absence of painful or negative experiences of it (in younger groups, the same indicator does not exceed 12-16%). this is evidence of accepting loneliness as an existential fact and finding a positive resource in solitude. earlier, in the research of shitova (2009), women noted a number of positive effects of loneliness: communication with oneself, comprehension of their “self”, autonomy of planning and realization of life goals. the emerging resource of time can be used in different ways: the positive-active type is engaged in a career, creativity, self-development, additional education, etc.; the positive-passive type experiences psychological fatigue from people, therefore, enjoys peace and the opportunity to use free time for rest. until the age of 35-40, women generally prefer to avoid or overcome the experience of loneliness by immersion in active social contacts, family relationships, and closeness with a romantic partner. this can be both the result of really significant and deep connections with the world and other people, and the manifestation of protective mechanisms (osin & leontyev, 2013). all this allows considering the age between 38-40 and 46-48 years as a kind of transitional period, during which the subjective ideas of women about loneliness and its role in life are transformed. this is quite consistent with the traditional ideas about the transformation of values in the midlife crisis, which usually coincides with a family crisis — the separation of maturing children and the restructuring of marital relations. the results obtained expand the scientific understanding of the passage of these normative crises, taking into account the restructuring of the cognitive structures that determine social behaviour. tolerance to loneliness is formed in women gradually with age and indicates personal maturity. this, in turn, helps to reduce dependence on communication as a condition of social and psychological well-being. therefore, even with an objective decrease in social activity, they do not form the self-image of a lonely person devoid of significant connections. acceptance of loneliness leads to positive emotions in a situation of solitude; as well as the ability to use own productive resources for self-knowledge and brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 130 self-development. tolerance to loneliness is associated with the denial of dysfunctional attitudes, first of all, beliefs about the determination of selfesteem by external assessments and opinions. the results obtained convincingly confirm that perceived loneliness in women is associated with the automatic irrational and dysfunctional attitudes that determine the assessment of themselves, other people, and the world around them, thereby provoking the emergence of a sense of social alienation. dependence on communication causes a cognitive distortion, which consists in the fact that any, even a temporary decrease in social activity, is interpreted as isolation and a lack of meaningful connections with others. this results in constructing the image of the self of a lonely person, which is associated with personal failure and vulnerability. accordingly, being alone (solitude) is perceived negatively, causes dysphoric emotions and protective behavioural reactions. cognitive attitudes were rarely studied in the context of the problem of loneliness before. melnichuk et al. (2018) carried out a similar work on samples of students. a subjective feeling of social isolation and a negative attitude towards loneliness turned out to be directly related to the severity of irrational beliefs about interpersonal relationships: about the obligatory approval of others and the determination of self-esteem by external assessments (which completely coincides with our results), as well as about the selfishness of others, the responsibilities of loved ones “to understand each other without words”, and so on. the subjective problematic nature of loneliness is also associated with the belief that emotional self-disclosure is undesirable. our work has confirmed the importance of cognitive beliefs about interpersonal relationships, and also revealed additional aspects — perfectionist attitudes, fear of mistakes and failures, etc. in general, dysfunctional attitudes and early maladaptive schemas are insignificant in healthy adults. their greatest severity is characteristic of the period of early adulthood; the severity of cognitive distortions decreases with age due to the acquisition of life experience and the development of healthy adaptive responses (galimzyanova et al., 2016). in particular, with the acquisition of maturity, the tendency to feel abandoned, distrust and expect ill-treatment, experience feelings of shame, failure, dependence and helplessness, suppress emotions and seek the approval of others significantly decreases (compared to the period of 18-25 years). after 40 years, the severity of the “entitlement/grandiosity" and "unrelenting standards/hypercriticalness" schemas also decreases. these data may cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 131 explain the decrease in the propensity to experience loneliness in older women. the obtained results of the study are important for identifying cognitive distortions and the formation of new adaptive attitudes during therapy. we must understand that early maladaptive schemas usually cannot be erased completely, since they are based on an unconsciously remembered traumatic or frustrating childhood experience. these are rigid self-sustaining mechanisms that force a person to reflect only information that corresponds to the schemas and are perceived as factual, reliable knowledge about himself and the world around him.” they exist in an implicit form and in most cases are not realized, do not manifest themselves until some "trigger" event occurs that activates the scheme. this is often accompanied by a high level of affect and a low level of criticality towards one’s state (galimzyanova et al., 2016; young et al., 2003). bedan (2018) clarified that the tendency to loneliness is manifested in the unconscious attachment of the individual to certain emotional, cognitive and behavioural activity in situations that are perceived as "self-generated"; in such conditions, a person is internally mobilized and ready to react with feelings of loneliness. the study touches upon the problem of gender-oriented stereotypes that affect the perceived loneliness of women. although numerous scientific theories and empirical data refute the idea of a special female vulnerability to loneliness (and even indicate that men are more problematic), this idea persistently presents in the minds of modern women. this can be explained by the fact that the myth of female loneliness performs important socially regulating and controlling functions, therefore it is cultivated in society. as a result, women speak relatively more about the problem and seek help more often than men, who tend not to complain for fear of the negative social consequences of such recognition (borys & perlman, 1985). at the same time, unmarried and childless women feel the social pressures associated with unfulfilled family roles. although objectively there are more single women at an older age than men, they are most often socially and psychologically well-off: they lead an active social and professional life, communicate closely with relatives and friends, and meet with married partners without advertising their relationship. however, the influence of social stereotypes on individual consciousness complicates the experience of loneliness. stereotypes affect women themselves, their environment, as well as helping professionals and make it difficult to provide psychological support. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 132 regardless of the source of occurrence (early traumatic or frustrating experience, socio-cultural conditioning), cognitive distortions prevent a person from satisfying his social needs and lead to adverse consequences for both the individual and the people around him. in the process of cognitive therapy, you cannot go deep into the search for early sources of this experience, but, more importantly, become aware of the specific stimuli that set the schema in action and begin to control own emotional and cognitive reactions. in practical terms, you also need to understand that any training in social skills will be ineffective without preliminary correction of maladaptive cognitive attitudes about interpersonal relationships. 5. conclusions the conducted theoretical and empirical research allows drawing conclusions about loneliness as a state of mind: the experience of loneliness is widespread in the sample of adult women, which does not depend on family circumstances (having children, a regular partner or husband), but is reliably associated with age; there are two pronounced peaks of perceived loneliness at the age of 26 and 41-45; tolerance to loneliness increases after 55, this experience acquires a more positive connotation; age also mediates the perception of the family situation; among women, cultivated gender stereotypes about the obligatory family role and social vulnerability of women are widespread, which enhance the subjective perception of loneliness; negative and positive assessments of the experience of loneliness closely correlate with indicators of the severity of dysfunctional attitudes and maladaptive schemas due to early experience; cognitive factors regulate the experience of loneliness to a greater extent than the real family situation; the most influential predictors of vulnerability to loneliness are feelings of abandonment, feelings of self-dependence and incompetence, and seeking social approval; the role of cognitive biases depends on the age of women; tolerance to loneliness, the ability to use its developmental potential are accompanied by the denial of beliefs that the presence and love of another person is necessary for personal happiness, acceptance of one’s shortcomings and a decrease in the importance of the opinions and assessments of other people for the formation of self-esteem, as well as the denial of cultural stereotypes about the importance of the family as criteria for the success and well-being of a woman. cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 133 thus, in line with the cognitive approach, it is advisable to consider loneliness as a subjective assessment of the degree of one’s non-involvement in contacts with other people, as well as its potential positive or negative impact on the quality of life. this includes cultural norms and rules of interaction, beliefs about the importance of various social roles (in particular, marital and maternal), regulating principles of building relationships, selfidentification and assessment of one’s social skills. a set of cognitive schemas acquired during life in the form of attitudes, stereotypes, automatic thinking models, assessments, ideals, etc. cause the experience of loneliness as a dysfunctional or potentially resource state. reference adamczyk, k. (2016). an investigation of loneliness and perceived social support among single and partnered young adults. current psychology, 35, 674–689. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9337-7 barreto, m., victor, c., hammond. c., ecclesd, a., richinsa, m. t., & qualterd, p. (2021). loneliness around the world: age, gender, and cultural differences in loneliness. personality and individual differences, 169, 110066. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110066 beck, a. t. (1976). cognitive therapy and emotional disorders. meridian. bedan, v. b. (2018). indyvidualno-typolohichni osoblyvosti skhylnosti osobystosti do perezhyvannia samotnosti [individual typological features of the individual's tendency to experience loneliness] [phd thesis, south ukrainian national pedagogical university n. a. k. d. ushynsky, odesa, ukraine]. dspace. http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/1595 borys, s., & perlman, d. (1985). gender differences in loneliness. personality and social psychology bulletin, 11(1), 6374. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167285111006 cacioppo s., grippo a. j., london s., goossens l., & cacioppo j. t. (2015) loneliness: clinical import and interventions. perspectives on psychological science, 10(2), 238-249. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615570616 cacioppo, j. t., & patrick, w. (2008). loneliness: human nature and the need for social connection. w.w. norton & co. essex, m. j., & nam, s. (1987). marital status and loneliness among older women: the differential importance of close family and friends. journal of marriage and family, 49(1), 93-106. https://doi.org/10.2307/352674 filindash, e. v. (2015). fenomenolohyia sotsyalno-psykholohycheskoho odynochestva v srede studencheskoi molodezhy [phenomenology of socio-psychological loneliness among student youth] [phd thesis, the state university of management, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9337-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110066 http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/1595 https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167285111006 https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615570616 https://doi.org/10.2307/352674 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 134 moscow, russia]. https://guu.ru/files/dissertations/2016/01/filindash_e_v/dissertation.pdf fisher, a. n., & sakaluk, j. k. (2020). are single people a stigmatized ‘group’? evidence from examinations of social identity, entitativity, and perceived responsibility. journal of experimental social psychology, 82, 208216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103844 galimzyanova, m. v., romanova, e. v., & kasyanik, p. m. (2016). early maladaptive schemas and schema modes of men and women in different stages of adulthood. the bulletin of the st. petersburg university. series 12: psychology, sociology, pedagogy, 3, 109-125. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vyrazhennost-rannih-dezadaptivnyhshem-i-rezhimov-funktsionirovaniya-shem-u-muzhchin-i-zhenschin-vperiod-ranney-sredney-i-pozdney/viewer guseinova, n. o. (2014). samotnist yak resurs osobystisnoho rozvytku [loneliness as a personal development resource]. international chelpanov’ psychological and pedagogical reading, 9, 132-138. https://chelpanov.eeipsy.org/index.php/eeip/article/view/868 hawkley, l. c., & cacioppo, j. t. (2010). loneliness matters: a theoretical and empirical review of consequences and mechanisms. annals of behavioral medicine, 40(2), 218-227. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-010-9210-8 hawthorne, g. (2008). perceived social isolation in a community sample: its prevalence and correlates with aspects of peoples’ lives. social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 43, 140-150. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-0070279-8 holt-lunstad, j., smith, t. b., baker, m., harris, t., & stephenson d. (2015). loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review. perspectives on psychological science, 10(2), 227-237. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691614568352 hovorun, t. v., kiz, o. b., & kikinezhdi, o. m. (2019). genderna terapiia yak innovatsiia u roboti psykholoha z molodym podruzhzhiam [gender therapy as innovation in the work of a psychologist with a young couple]. in n. i. tavrovetskaya (ed.), innovatsiini tekhnolohii rozvytku psykholohichnykh resursiv osobystosti: kolektyvna monohrafiia [innovative technologies for the development of psychological resources of the individual: collective monograph] (pp. 7-27). vyshemyrsky v. s. hysinga, m., petrie, k. j., bøe, t., lønningcd, k. j., & sivertsenefg, b. (2020). only the lonely: a study of loneliness among university students in norway. clinical psychology in europe, 2(1), e2781. https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v2i1.2781 ishmukhametov, i. n. (2006). psykhometrycheskye kharakterystyky shkalы odynochestva ucla (versyia 3): yzuchenye studentov vuza [psychometric characteristics of the ucla loneliness scale (version 3): a study of https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103844 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vyrazhennost-rannih-dezadaptivnyh-shem-i-rezhimov-funktsionirovaniya-shem-u-muzhchin-i-zhenschin-v-period-ranney-sredney-i-pozdney/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vyrazhennost-rannih-dezadaptivnyh-shem-i-rezhimov-funktsionirovaniya-shem-u-muzhchin-i-zhenschin-v-period-ranney-sredney-i-pozdney/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vyrazhennost-rannih-dezadaptivnyh-shem-i-rezhimov-funktsionirovaniya-shem-u-muzhchin-i-zhenschin-v-period-ranney-sredney-i-pozdney/viewer https://chelpanov.eeipsy.org/index.php/eeip/article/view/868 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-010-9210-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-007-0279-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-007-0279-8 https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691614568352 https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v2i1.2781 cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 135 university students]. computer modelling and new technologies, 10(3), 89-95. http://www.tsi.lv/sites/default/files/editor/science/research_journals/c omputer/2006/v3/9.pdf kagan, v. (2000, november 5). metafyzyka odynochestva [metaphysics of loneliness]. nezavysymyi bostonskyi almanakh “lebed” , 194. http://lebed.com/2000/art2334.htm kahan, j., & žiaková, e. (2019). social workers’ competence metatheory in the context of working with addicts at risk of loneliness due to social isolation. journal of interdisciplinary research, 9(2), 107-113. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346905605_social_work ers'_competence_metatheory_in_the_context_of_ working_with_addicts_at_risk_of_loneliness_due_ to_social_isolation käll, a., jägholm, s., hesser, h., andersson, f., mathaldi, a., tiger, b. et al. (2020). internet-based cognitive behavior therapy for loneliness: a pilot randomized controlled trial. behavior therapy, 51(1), 54-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2019.05.001 kasyanik, p. m. & romanova, e. v. (2016). dyahnostyka rannykh dezadaptyvnykh skhem [diagnostics of early maladaptive schemes]. polytechnic university publishing. https://doi.org/10.18720/spbpu/2/i17-183 kiseleva, k. (2013). kohda vybyraiut odynochestvo [when people choose loneliness]. psychologies.ru https://www.psychologies.ru/articles/kogda-vyibirayutodinochestvo kiz, o. b. (2017). gender correlation of family being as a condition of the life realization of future married couple. sciences of europe 2(22), 43-55. http://www.europe-science.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/vol-2no-22-22-2017.pdf korchagina, s. g. (2008). psykholohyia odynochestva [psychology of loneliness]. the psychological-social institute of moscow. kozlov, n. i. (2013). zhenskoe odynochestvo [women’s loneliness]. psychologus. https://www.psychologos.ru/articles/view/zhenskoe-odinochestvo kryukova, t. l, & ronch, a. m. (2012). determynanty odynochestva y sovladanyia s nym v supruzheskykh otnoshenyiakh [determinants of loneliness and coping with it in marital relationships]. the bulletin of the kostroma state university named after n. a. nekrasov. series: pedagogy, psychology, social work, 18(4), 129-135. https://vestnik-pip.ksu.edu.ru/archive-ru.html kryukova, t. l. (2016). kohnytyvnaia psykholohyia sovladanyia s odynochestvom [cognitive psychology of coping with loneliness]. psikhologicheskie issledovaniya, 9(49), 1. http://www.psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2016v9n49/1338kryukova49.html http://www.tsi.lv/sites/default/files/editor/science/research_journals/computer/2006/v3/9.pdf http://www.tsi.lv/sites/default/files/editor/science/research_journals/computer/2006/v3/9.pdf http://lebed.com/2000/art2334.htm https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346905605_social_workers'_competence_metatheory_in_the_context_of_working_with_addicts_at_risk_of_loneliness_due_to_social_isolation https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346905605_social_workers'_competence_metatheory_in_the_context_of_working_with_addicts_at_risk_of_loneliness_due_to_social_isolation https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346905605_social_workers'_competence_metatheory_in_the_context_of_working_with_addicts_at_risk_of_loneliness_due_to_social_isolation https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346905605_social_workers'_competence_metatheory_in_the_context_of_working_with_addicts_at_risk_of_loneliness_due_to_social_isolation https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2019.05.001 https://doi.org/10.18720/spbpu/2/i17-183 https://www.psychologies.ru/articles/kogda-vyibirayut-odinochestvo https://www.psychologies.ru/articles/kogda-vyibirayut-odinochestvo http://www.europe-science.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/vol-2-no-22-22-2017.pdf http://www.europe-science.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/vol-2-no-22-22-2017.pdf https://www.psychologos.ru/articles/view/zhenskoe-odinochestvo https://vestnik-pip.ksu.edu.ru/archive-ru.html http://www.psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2016v9n49/1338-kryukova49.html http://www.psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2016v9n49/1338-kryukova49.html brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 136 leonova, i. m. (2020). specific features of experiencing the feeling of loneliness by women from different social groups. ukrainian psychological journal, 1(13), 139-156. https://doi.org/10.17721/upj.2020.1(13).9 long, c. r., & averill, j. r. (2003). solitude: an exploration of benefits of being alone. journal for the theory of social behaviour, 33(1), 21-44. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00204 manakova, e. a. (2018). oprosnyk perezhyvanyia odynochestva [questionnaire of experiencing loneliness]. siberian journal of psychology, 69, 149-171. https://doi.org/10.17223/17267080/69/9 or http://journals.tsu.ru/psychology/&journal_page=archive&id=1743&artic le_id=38896 melnichuk, a. s., kozlovskaya, s. n., & nikiforova, o. y. (2018). vzaymosviaz perezhyvanyia odynochestva y yrratsyonalnykh ubezhdenyi o mezhlychnostnykh otnoshenyiakh u studentov [the relationship between the experience of loneliness and irrational beliefs about interpersonal relationships among students]. akmeologiya, 4, 13-18. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vzaimosvyaz-perezhivaniyaodinochestva-i-irratsionalnyh-ubezhdeniy-o-mezhlichnostnyhotnosheniyah-u-studentov moustakas, c. (1972). loneliness and love. prentice-hall. napryeyenko, o., napryeyenko, n., marazziti, d., loganovsky, k., mucci, f., loganovskaja, t., & tsekhmister, y. (2019). depressive syndromes associated with alcohol dependence. clinical neuropsychiatry, 16(5-6), 174180. http://doi.org/10.36131/clinicalnpsych2019050603 neumoeva, e. v. (2005). odynochestvo kak psykhycheskyi fenomen y resurs razvytyia lychnosty v yunosheskom vozraste [loneliness as a mental phenomenon and a resource for personality development in adolescence] [phd thesis, tyumen state university, tyumen, russia]. dissercat. https://www.dissercat.com/content/odinochestvo-kak-psikhicheskiifenomen-i-resurs-razvitiya-lichnosti-v-yunosheskom-vozraste oleinik, n. o. (2018). spetsyfika funktsionuvannia struktury perezhyvannia samotnosti v rannomu ta serednomu doroslomu vitsi [the specifics of the function of the structure of experiencing self-reliance in the early and middle adulthood]. in v. o y. blynova (ed.), sotsiokulturni ta psykholohichni vektory stanovlennia osobystosti [socio-cultural and psychological vectors of the personality formation] (pp. 253-278). vyshemyrsky v. s. osin, e. n., & leontyev, d. a. (2013). dyfferentsyalnyi oprosnyk perezhyvanyia odynochestva: struktura y svoistva [differential questionnaire of feelings of loneliness: structure and properties]. psychology. journal of the higher school of economics, 10(1), 55-81. https://psy-journal.hse.ru/2013-101/78931776.html https://doi.org/10.17721/upj.2020.1(13).9 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00204 https://doi.org/10.17223/17267080/69/9 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vzaimosvyaz-perezhivaniya-odinochestva-i-irratsionalnyh-ubezhdeniy-o-mezhlichnostnyh-otnosheniyah-u-studentov https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vzaimosvyaz-perezhivaniya-odinochestva-i-irratsionalnyh-ubezhdeniy-o-mezhlichnostnyh-otnosheniyah-u-studentov https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vzaimosvyaz-perezhivaniya-odinochestva-i-irratsionalnyh-ubezhdeniy-o-mezhlichnostnyh-otnosheniyah-u-studentov http://doi.org/10.36131/clinicalnpsych2019050603 https://www.dissercat.com/content/odinochestvo-kak-psikhicheskii-fenomen-i-resurs-razvitiya-lichnosti-v-yunosheskom-vozraste https://www.dissercat.com/content/odinochestvo-kak-psikhicheskii-fenomen-i-resurs-razvitiya-lichnosti-v-yunosheskom-vozraste https://psy-journal.hse.ru/2013-10-1/78931776.html https://psy-journal.hse.ru/2013-10-1/78931776.html cognitive models of loneliness in women in early and middle adulthood inna m. leonova, et al. 137 perlman, d., & peplau, l. (1998). loneliness. in h. s. friedman (ed.), encyclopedia of mental health, vol. 2 (pp. 571-581). academic press. pressman, s. d., cohen, s., miller, g. e., barkin, a., rabin, b.s., & treanor, j. j. (2005). loneliness, social network size, and immune response to influenza vaccination in college freshmen. health psychology, 24(3), 297-306. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.24.3.297 richard, a., rohrmann, s., vandeleur, c. l., schmid, m., barth, j., & eichholzer, m. (2017). loneliness is adversely associated with physical and mental health and lifestyle factors: results from a swiss national survey. plos one, 12(7), e0181442. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181442 rokach, a. (2018). the effect of gender and culture on loneliness: a mini review. emerging science journal, 2(2), 59-64. https://doi.org/10.28991/esj-201801128 rokach, a., bacanli, h., & ramberan, g. (2000). coping with loneliness: a crosscultural comparison. european psychologist, 5(4), 302-311. http://doi.org/10.1027//1016-9040.5.4.302 russell, d. w. (1996). ucla loneliness scale (version 3): reliability, validity, and factor structure. journal of personality assessment, 66(1), 20-40. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6601_2 sadler, w., & johnson, t. b. (1980). from loneliness to anomie. in j. hartog, j. audy, & y.a. cohen (eds.), the anatomy of loneliness (pp. 34-64). international university press. seepersad, s., choi, m.-k., & shin, n. (2008). how does culture influence the degree of romantic loneliness and closeness? the journal of psychology, 142(2), 209-216. https://doi.org/10.3200/jrlp.142.2.209-220 shamionov, r. m., & grigoryev, a. v. (2019). the image of socially active individual in the representations of student youth. international journal of cognitive research in science, engineering and education, 7(1), 15-20. https://doi.org/10.5937/ijcrsee1901015s shitova, n. v. (2009). sotsyalno-psykholohycheskye osobennosty odynokykh zhenshchyn [socio-psychological features of single women] [phd thesis, kursk state university, kursk, russia]. dissercat. https://www.dissercat.com/content/sotsialno-psikhologicheskieosobennosti-odinokikh-zhenshchin storr, a. (2005). solitude: a return to the self. free press. tornstam, l. (1993). loneliness in marriage. journal of social and personal relationships, 9(2), 197-217. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407592092003 tsvetkova, n. a. (2014). personal characteristics of single women seeking psychological help. woman in russian society, 3(72), 61-72. https://womaninrussiansociety.ru/article/tsvetkova-n-a-personalcharacteristics-of-single-women-seeking-for-psychological-help-pp-61-71/ https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.24.3.297 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181442 https://doi.org/10.28991/esj-2018-01128 https://doi.org/10.28991/esj-2018-01128 http://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.5.4.302 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6601_2 https://doi.org/10.3200/jrlp.142.2.209-220 https://doi.org/10.5937/ijcrsee1901015s https://www.dissercat.com/content/sotsialno-psikhologicheskie-osobennosti-odinokikh-zhenshchin https://www.dissercat.com/content/sotsialno-psikhologicheskie-osobennosti-odinokikh-zhenshchin https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407592092003 https://womaninrussiansociety.ru/article/tsvetkova-n-a-personal-characteristics-of-single-women-seeking-for-psychological-help-pp-61-71/ https://womaninrussiansociety.ru/article/tsvetkova-n-a-personal-characteristics-of-single-women-seeking-for-psychological-help-pp-61-71/ brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 138 weiss, r. s. (1973). loneliness: the experience of emotional and social isolation. the mit press. young, j. e. (1982). loneliness, depression and cognitive therapy: theory and application. in l. a. peplau & d. perlman (eds.), loneliness: a sourcebook of current theory, research and therapy (pp. 1-18). wiley. young, j. e., klosko, j. s., & weishaar, m. e. (2003). schema therapy: a practitioner’s guide. guilford press. zakharova, m. l. (2013). shkala dysfunktsyonalnykh otnoshenyi kak metod yssledovanyia kohnytyvnykh yskazhenyi [the dysfunctional relationship scale as a method for studying cognitive biases]. in a. g. berdnikova, n. v. dmitrieva, s. y. ivanova, t. n. levan, t. v. pavlovets, & s. d. yakusheva (eds.), lychnost, semia y obshchestvo: voprosy pedahohyky y psykholohyy: sbornyk statei po materyalam xxix mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-praktycheskoi konferentsyy [personality, family and society: the questions of pedagogy and psychology: the collection of materials of the xxix international scientific practical conference] (pp. 68-76). sibak. zavorotnykh, e n. (2009). sotsyalno-psykholohycheskye osobennosty odynochestva kak subektyvnoho perezhyvanyia [socio-psychological features of loneliness as a subjective experience] [phd thesis, st. petersburg state university, st. petersburg, russia] dissercat. https://www.dissercat.com/content/sotsialno-psikhologicheskieosobennosti-odinochestva-kak-subektivnogo-perezhivaniya https://www.dissercat.com/content/sotsialno-psikhologicheskie-osobennosti-odinochestva-kak-subektivnogo-perezhivaniya https://www.dissercat.com/content/sotsialno-psikhologicheskie-osobennosti-odinochestva-kak-subektivnogo-perezhivaniya brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 254-264 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 assessment of depression in patients with covid-19 liliana baroiu¹, elena dumea2, florentina năstase3, elena niculeţ4, silvia fotea5, alexandru bogdan ciubara6, ioana anca stefanopol7, aurel nechita8, lucreţia anghel9, anamaria ciubara10 1 lecturer, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, galați, romania, lilibaroiu@yahoo.com 2 lecturer, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”ovidius” university, constanta, romania, elenadumea@yahoo.com 3 doctor, department of neuropsychomotor rehabilitation, ‘sf. ioan’ emergency clinical hospital for children, galati, romania, florentina34ro@yahoo.com 4 assistant professor, department of morphological and functional sciences, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, ‘dunarea de jos’ university, galati, romania, helena_badiu@yahoo.com 5 lecturer, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, galați, romania, silvia_ghimpu@yahoo.com 6 assistant professor, surgical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, galați, romania, alexandru.ciubara@ugal.ro 7 lecturer, surgical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, galați, romania, ancaflorea1969@yahoo.com 8 professor, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, galați, romania, nechitaaurel@yahoo.com 9 lecturer, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, galați, romania, anghel_lucretia@yahoo.com 10 professor, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, galați, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract: the covid-19 pandemic is probably the greatest natural disaster of our generation and the 21st century with a great impact on mental health. the present study aims to quantify, with the help of the beck questionnaire, the degree of depression in a group of 109 patients with moderate forms of covid-19, hospitalized in the second clinic of the clinical hospital for infectious diseases st. cuv. parascheva galati during the period: 1.01-30.03.2021. of these, 35 patients (32.11%) had varying degrees of depression, and had an age and body mass index statistically significantly higher than those without depression. these patients also had statistically significantly higher charlson scores of cumulative comorbidities and required longer hospitalization than patients without depression. the severity of covid-19 and the percentage of favorable prognosis did not show statistically significant differences between the two groups. our study reveals a lower incidence of depression among patients with covid-19 compared to existing studies in the literature. this can be explained by the fact that our study is conducted at the end of the first year of the pandemic when antiviral therapy schemes stabilized and population vaccination began. the high genetic variability of the virus, which can determine at any time the appearance of new strains with greater aggression, contagion or with mutations on the spike protein, maintains the need to keep non-specific preventive measures and the mental tension related to this pathology. thus, intrapandemic psychiatric disorders remain a major public health problem and require strong government prevention and control measures. keywords: covid-19, depression, beck questionnaire, prophylaxis, control. how to cite: baroiu, l., dumea, e., năstase, f., niculeț, e., fotea, s., ciubara, a.b., stefanopol, i.a., nechita, a., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2021). assessment of depression in patients with covid-19. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 254264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 mailto:lilibaroiu@yahoo.com mailto:elenadumea@yahoo.com mailto:florentina34ro@yahoo.com mailto:helena_badiu@yahoo.com mailto:silvia_ghimpu@yahoo.com mailto:alexandru.ciubara@ugal.ro mailto:ancaflorea1969@yahoo.com mailto:nechitaaurel@yahoo.com mailto:anghel_lucretia@yahoo.com mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 assessment of depression in patients with covid-19 liliana baroiu, et al. 255 introduction the covid19 pandemic is a new and traumatic experience for the whole society. being a new virus for which no organism had immunity, the disease was a threat to all individuals. the illness and even the death of great personalities have shown that we are all susceptible to this disease. thus, the fear of death or severe physical harm has impacted the mental health of the population. until the arrival of the vaccine, social isolation, and increased attention to hygiene measures were the only methods of disease prevention. the impact of this social isolation on the mental health of the population is important and being quantified by clinical trials (luca, baroiu et al. 2020; marin et al., 2020). the economic impact of these disease prevention measures, together with the loss of jobs or a significant decrease in family income has further altered the fragile mental balance of these people. prepandemic studies have shown that social isolation is accompanied by an unfavorable prognosis of mental health and an increased risk of mortality, especially from cardiovascular disease (anghel et al., 2011; leighhunt et al., 2017). also before the pandemic, it was observed that job loss is associated with depression and anxiety as well as an increased risk of suicide (luca, ciubara et al., 2020; paul & moser, 2009; sandu, 2020a). in 2017, there were an estimated 264 million people with depression globally, a proportion of 3.44% of the general population (ritchie & roser, 2018). a meta-analysis of population studies from the beginning of the pandemic (until may 2020) observed prevalence rates of depression ranging from 7.45% to 48.30%. the cumulative prevalence of depression was 25% (95% ci: 18% -33%). thus, compared to the estimated global prevalence of depression, of 3.44%, in 2017, this meta-analysis notes an increase associated with the pandemic, 7 times higher, of the prevalence of depression in the general population, thus suggesting an important impact of covid-19 on people's mental health (bueno-notivola et al., 2021). a study in bangladesh, on 1002 adult patients with covid-19, of which 21% were hospitalized, found, using the patient health questionnaire (phq-9), that 48% of participants reported symptoms of moderate and severe depression and 22% symptoms of mild depression. the study also notes that depression is associated with decreased family income, poor health status, sleep disorders, reduced physical activity, hypertension, brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 256 chronic respiratory pathology, fear of reinfection with sars-cov-2 and persistence of covid-19 symptoms (islam et al., 2021). the present study aims to quantify, with the help of the beck questionnaire, the degree of depression in a group of 109 patients with medium and mild forms, of covid-19, hospitalized in the second clinic of infectious diseases, clinical hospital for infectious diseases st. cuv. parascheva galați, between 1.01.2021-30.03.2021. material and method a prospective observational study was performed on a group of 109 patients with medium forms of covid-19 hospitalized in the second clinic of infectious diseases of the clinical hospital of infectious diseases st. cuv. parascheva galati in the period 1.01-30.03.2021, where the evolution of covid-19 was monitored and the beck questionnaire was applied to assess the degree of depression of patients with covid-19. we mention that none of the patients included in the study were diagnosed with depression before the episode of covid-19. criteria for inclusion in the study: adults with sars-cov-2 rapid positive antigen test or pcr positive; patients who have given written informed consent (sandu, 2020b) to participate in the study, staff in full knowledge of the facts. exclusion criteria from the study patients who are unconscious or unable to sign informed consent; patients who refused to participate in the study; pregnant or breastfeeding women. patients under 18 years of age. patients who had extreme values (“outliers”) at the usual laboratory tests (d-dimer, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (esr), c-reactive protein (crp), serum glycemia, alanyl aminotransferase (alt), aspartate aminotransferase (ast), bilirubin (br), prothrombin concentration, creatine kinase (ck), troponin, serum creatinine). the 109 patients with confirmed covid-19 were divided into 2 groups: group a (n = 74) consisting of patients with a score between 0 and 9 on the beck questionnaire, considered without depression, and group b (n = 35) consisting of patients with a score between 10 and 57 on the beck questionnaire, considered to have mild, moderate and severe depression. it should be noted that not all patients had full data available. medcalc, version 15.8, was used for statistical analysis. assessment of depression in patients with covid-19 liliana baroiu, et al. 257 statistical analysis of demographic data was performed on the group of patients without depression (group a) and was compared to the group with depression (group b). the presentation is in the form of mean ± d.s (standard deviation) for the continuous variables and in the form of absolute frequency (relative frequency) for the categorical variables. results the beck questionnaire includes 21 questions with a score between 0 and 4 points. this questionnaire was handed to patients on the second or third day of hospitalization and collected after 2 hours. the results of the questionnaire processing were: 74 normal patients (67.88%), with a score between 0 and 9 points, 22 patients (20.18%) with mild depression, with a score between 10 and 15 points, 9 patients (8.25%) with moderate depression, with a scores between 16 and 23 points and 4 patients (3.66%) with severe depression, with a scores between 24 and 57 points. thus, 35 patients were detected with various degrees of depression that appeared or were exacerbated by the fear of severe disease, death or oxygen dependence. the group with depression was statistically compared to the group without depression and the following were observed (table 1, table 2): -in both groups, women and the urban environment predominated. -the average age of the group with depression (62.17 years) was statistically significantly higher than that of the group without depression (50.32 years). age over 65 years is recognized as a risk factor for the severe course of covid-19 and this may contribute to depression in elderly patients. -the average body mass index was statistically significantly higher in the group that was depressed than in the group without depression. in the group with depression there were 6 overweight patients (19.35%) and 16 (51.61%) with obesity and in the group without depression there were 28 overweight patients (40.57%) and 16 patients (23.18%) with obesity. obesity is recognized as a risk factor for the severe course of covid-19 and this may contribute to depression. patients' comorbidities were studied from 3 points of view, namely: --comorbidities at risk for severe evolution of covid-19 (hypertension, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases) did not show statistically significant differences between the 2 groups. --neuropsychiatric comorbidities were anxiety syndrome, psychoinvolutive syndrome and stroke sequelae in 4 patients in the group with depression (11.42%) and moderate mental retardation, alzheimer's disease, stroke sequelae in 5 patients without depression (6.75%). these brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 258 comorbidities predispose to depression and are more common in the depressed group. the accumulation of comorbidities, quantified by the charlson score that assesses life expectancy according to comorbidities is statistically significantly higher in the group with depression which may justify the increased fear of these patients of unfavorable evolution of covid-19. -the clinical evolution of covid-19 towards cure or transfer in intensive care units, as well as the curb 65 score of pneumonia severity did not have statistical differences between the two groups. -the number of days of hospitalization was statistically significantly higher in patients with depression. the biochemical parameters for quantifying inflammation, coagulation, renal, hepatic and pancreatic function did not show statistically significant differences between the 2 groups except for the average total bilirubin which was statistically significantly higher in the group with depression compared to the group without depression. table 1. comparative statistical analysis of demographic data and comorbidities variable group a (covid-19 without depression) group b (covid-19 with depression) p value (ttest) age– mean ± d.s 50.32 ± 17.52 62.17 ± 15.18 0.0008 bmi – mean ± d.s 27.39± 5.12 29.90± 4.76 0.0226 sex m –no (%) f – no (%) 32 (42.66) 42 (57.33) 17(48.57) 18(51.42) 0.7090 medium of origin urban–no(%) rural–no(%) 44(59.45) 30(40.54) 25 (71.42) 10 (28.57) 0.3184 hypertension yes–no(%) no–no (%) 26 (35.13) 48 (64.86) 14 (40) 21 (60) 0.7797 diabetes yes–no(%) no–no (%) 9 (12.16) 65 (87.83) 5 (14.28) 30 (85.71) 0.9982 chronic respiratory diseases yes – no (%) no – no (%) 2 (2.70) 72 (97.29) 3 (8.57) 32 (91.42) 0.3801 chronic neuropsychiatric diseases yes – no (%) no – no (%) 5 (6.75) 69 (93.24) 4(11.42) 31 (88.57) 0.6494 charlson score – mean ± s.d. 1.51 ± 1.52 2.51 ± 1.91 0.0039 curb 65 score– mean ± s.d. 1.25 ± 0.62 1.47 ± 0.66 0.0931 assessment of depression in patients with covid-19 liliana baroiu, et al. 259 number of hospitalization days – mean ±s.d. 10.05±3.53 11.54±3.50 0.0415 unfavorable evolution-no (%) of patients transferred to intensive care) 1(1.35) 3(8.57) 0.1847 source: authors’ own conception table 2. comparative analysis of paraclinical parameters in the two studied groups (mean values ± standard deviation) variable group a (covid-19 without depression) group b (covid-19 with depression) p value (t-test) d dimer mean±s.d. 731.33 ±698.77 1103.35±1236.04 0.0598 esr mean±s.d. 39.41±28.16 46.36±27.42 0.2508 crp mean±s.d. 40.60 ± 62.43 47.23±58.62 0.6568 serum glycemiamean±s.d. 124.69 ±42.14 130.14±55.16 0.5834 alt mean±s.d. 55.28 ±7.08 50.19±47.69 0.6925 ast mean±s.d. 43.28 ±39.55 48.93±33.80 0.4744 bilirubin– mean±s.d. 0.53±0.37 0.81±0.56 0.0093 prothrombin concentration mean± s.d. 93.62±24.46 87.20±34.40 0.3357 ck mean± s.d. 159.36±304.75 170.81±227.16 0.8499 troponin mean± s.d. 14.76±24.36 15.08±13.82 0.9567 creatinine mean± s.d. 0.93 ±0.23 0.98±0,29 0.3460 number of days oxygen needed mean± s.d. 2.12±3.51 3.21±3.67 0.1535 minimum oxygen saturation mean± s.d. 92.87±4.42 91.38±5.04 0.1227 source: authors’ own conception conclusions a significant percentage (32.11%) of the studied group, with patients with covid-19, presented different degrees of depression, quantified by the beck questionnaire. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 260 these patients had a medium age and body mass index statistically significant higher than those without depression. also, these patients with depression had, a statistically significant higher, charlson score of cumulative comorbidities and required longer hospitalization than patients without depression. the severity of covid-19 and the percentage of favorable evolutions did not show statistically significant differences between the two groups. discussions most clinical studies in the literature have quantified the occurrence of depression after the outbreak of the pandemic in the population not infected with sars-cov-2 and our study brings data on the presence of depression in patients with covid-19 at the end of the first year of the pandemic. for example, a dutch study compared the impact of a pandemic on mental health in patients to a pre-existing psychiatric pathology and those without pre-pandemic psychiatric impairment. the results of the study were surprising in the sense that people without depressive, anxious or obsessivecompulsive disorder showed a greater increase in symptoms during the covid-19 pandemic, while people with prepandemic psychiatric impairment tended to have a mild decrease in symptoms. this conclusion draws attention to the need to establish global measures to prevent and monitor psychiatric alarm symptoms that may impact the prognosis and quality of life of all individuals (berbinschi et al., 2014; pan et al., 2021). vulnerable groups for psychiatric impairment, such as low-income people, single people and people with pre-existing psychiatric disorders, are described in the literature (sandu et al., 2019; sandu, 2020c; sandu & nistor, 2020; the lancet, 2020; yao et al., 2020). the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on mental health and the fear of covid-19 are more strongly perceived among patients with prepandemic psychiatric impairment, with these individuals declaring a much greater effort than the general population to cope with the covid-19 pandemic (pan et al., 2021). however, the levels of intensity of symptoms of depression, anxiety, worry and loneliness remained higher in people with pre-existing psychiatric disorders than in those without pre-pandemic psychiatric impairment, which suggests an increased need for care among people with mental health disorders (pan et al., 2021). assessment of depression in patients with covid-19 liliana baroiu, et al. 261 patients with multiple comorbidities when they develop covid 19 have a higher risk of depression, as evidenced by our study that observed a higher charlson score in patients with depression. clinical studies note a correlation between the increased risk of severe infections in patients with multiple comorbidities, which may explain their mental fragility (baroiu et al., 2021; cambrea et al., 2013; halichidis et al., 2013; sandu, 2019). regarding the depression in the general population, which appeared during the pandemic, most studies give higher figures than the prepandemic ones, between 7.45% and 48.30% (bueno-notivola et al., 2021; ettman et al., 2020; shader, 2020). in patients with covid-19, clinical trials note figures up to 70% of patients, associating various degrees of depression, figures that require the introduction in the covid-19 therapy protocol of interventions for prevention and treatment of depression and the need to introduce a psychiatrist in the multidisciplinary team who treat these patients (islam et al., 2021; perlis et al., 2021). complex treatment of covid-19 and comorbidities should take into account possible drug interactions and the addition of adverse reactions (niculet et al., 2020; tiutiuca et al., 2017; ziaul-hag et al., 2014). our study notes the occurrence of depression in 32.11% of patients with moderate and mild forms of covid-19, treated in our clinic for infectious diseases. this is a worrying figure for us clinical infectionists but it is lower than the figures in the literature and it can be explained by the fact that our study was conducted one year after the outbreak of the pandemic, after the start of vaccination and after the stabilization of antiviral treatment regimens. the possibility of the sars-cov-2 virus having high genetic variability with the rapid emergence of new strains and the confrontation with this third pandemic wave, however, it overshadows the enthusiasm that emerged after the start of vaccination. thus, intrapandemic psychiatric disorders remain a major public health problem and require strong government prevention and control measures. references anghel, l., ghiuru, r., & gavrilescu, c. m. (2011). depression and cardiovascular diseases in the elderly. medical-surgical journal, 115(2), 331-336. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21870719/ baroiu, l., dumitru, c., iancu, a., leșe, a. c., drăgănescu, m., baroiu, n., & anghel, l. (2021). covid-19 impact on the liver. world journal of clinical cases, 9(16), 3814-3825. https://www.wjgnet.com/23078960/full/v9/i16/3814.htm https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21870719/ https://www.wjgnet.com/2307-8960/full/v9/i16/3814.htm https://www.wjgnet.com/2307-8960/full/v9/i16/3814.htm brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 262 berbinschi, s., baroiu, n., teodor, v., & oancea, n. (2014). profiling method of side mill for threading screw for dental implants. advanced materials research, 837, 22-27. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.837.22 bueno-notivola, j., gracia-garcíaa, p., olayab, b., lasherasd, i., lópez-antónc, r., & santabárbarac, j. (2021). prevalence of depression during the covid19 outbreak: a meta-analysis of community-based studies. international journal of clinical and health psychology, 21(1), 100196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2020.07.007 cambrea, s., ilie, m., dantes, e., arghir, i., halichidis, s., & arghir, o. (2013). pulmonary complications in last measles outbreak among unvaccinated children from nomad collectivities, in constanta county, romania. chest, 144(4), 759a. https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.1704230 ettman, c. k., abdalla, s. m., cohen, g. h., sampson, l., vivier, p. m., & galea, s. (2020). prevalence of depression symptoms in us adults before and during the covid-19 pandemic. jama netw open, 3(9), e2019686. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.19686 halichidis, s., dumea, e., & cambrea, c. s. (2013). seroclearence of hepatitis b surface antigen after entecavir treatment. journal of gastrointestinal and liver diseases, 22(2), 236-236. islam, m. s., ferdous, m. z., islam, u. s., mosaddek, a. s. m., potenza, m. n., & pardhan, s. (2021). treatment, persistent symptoms, and depression in people infected with covid-19 in bangladesh. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4), 1453. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041453 leigh-hunt, n., bagguley, d., bash, k., turner, v., turnbull, s., valtorta, n., & caan, w. (2017). an overview of systematic reviews on the public health consequences of social isolation and loneliness. public health, 152, 157 – 171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2017.07.035 luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3s1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 marin, i. m., petropolou, m., baroiu, l., chirosca, a. c., anghel, l., & luca, l. (2020). schizophrenia and the family burden during the pandemic. brain. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.837.22 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2020.07.007 https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.1704230 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.19686 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041453 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2017.07.035 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 assessment of depression in patients with covid-19 liliana baroiu, et al. 263 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3s1), 89-97. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/125 niculet, e., radaschin, d., nastase, f., draganescu, m., baroiu, l., miulescu, arbune, m., & tatu, a. (2020). influence of phytochemicals in induced psoriasis (review). experimental and therapeutic medicine, 20(4), 3421-3424. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2020.9013 pan, k. y., kok, a. a. l., eikelenboom, m., horsfall, m., jörg, f., luteijn, r. a., rhebergen, d., van oppen, p., giltay, e. j., & penninx, b. w. j. h. (2021). the mental health impact of the covid-19 pandemic on people with and without depressive, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorders: a longitudinal study of three dutch case-control cohorts. lancet psychiatry, 8(2), 121–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30491-0 paul, k. i., & moser, k. (2009). unemployment impairs mental health: metaanalyses. journal of vocational behavior, 74(3), 264-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.01.001 perlis, r. h., ognyanova, k., santillana, m., baum, m. a., lazer, d., druckman, j., & volpe, j. d. (2021). association of acute symptoms of covid-19 and symptoms of depression in adults. jama network open, 4(3), e213223. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.3223 ritchie, h., & roser, m. (2018). mental health. https://ourworldindata.org/mentalhealth sandu, a. (2019). chronic illness and self-care management. a perspective of diabetic patients. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 3(1), 20-37. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.18 sandu, a. (2020a). from pandemic to infodemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 277-289. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/88 sandu, a. (2020). autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 260-276. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 sandu, a. (2020c). bioethics of public policies. ethical standards in crisis situations. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 141-160. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 sandu, a., crițan, m. i., & damian, s-i. (2019). equity in public health policies. the perspective of diabetic patients. archiv euromedica, 9(1), 10-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2019/9/1/10 sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). individual versus social in psycho-sociology. the social construction of reality. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2), 44-49. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/21 shader, r. i. (2020). covid-19 and depression. clinical therapeutics, 42(6), 962-963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2020.04.010 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/125 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2020.9013 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30491-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.3223 https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.18 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/88 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 http://dx.doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2019/9/1/10 https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/21 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2020.04.010 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 264 the lancet. (2020). redefining vulnerability in the era of covid-19. the lancet, 395(10230), 1089. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30757-1 tiutiuca, c., drăgănescu, m., iancu, a., chesaru, b. i., arbune, m., maftei, n., & popescu, e. (2017) resistence profile of the isolated bacterial stems in invasive infections in three hospitals from the south-east of romania. revista de chimie, 68(5), 1122-1125. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.5.5625 yao, h., chen, j. h., & xu, y. f.(2020). patients with mental health disorders in the covid-19 epidemic. lancet psychiatry, 7, e21. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30090-0 zia-ul-hag, m., riaz, m., ahmad, s., barbes, l., velter, v., badiu, d., & halichidis, s. (2014). anticonvulsivant and sex enhancing effects of ipomoea hederacea seeds extract. farmacia, 62(4), 737-742. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282946816_anticonvulsant_an d_sex_enhancing_effects_of_ipomoea_hederacea_seeds_extract https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30757-1 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.5.5625 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30090-0 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282946816_anticonvulsant_and_sex_enhancing_effects_of_ipomoea_hederacea_seeds_extract https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282946816_anticonvulsant_and_sex_enhancing_effects_of_ipomoea_hederacea_seeds_extract brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer application of t-cherry junction trees in pattern recognition tamás szántai and edith kovács abstract. pattern recognition aims to classify data (patterns) based either on a priori knowledge or on statistical information extracted from the data. in this paper we will concentrate on statistical pattern recognition using a new probabilistic approach which makes possible to select the so called ’informative’ features. we develop a pattern recognition algorithm which is based on the conditional independence structure underlying the statistical data. our method was succesfully applied on a real problem of recognizing parkinson’s disease on the basis of voice disorders. keywords: pattern recognition, probabilistic modeling, h-uniform hypertree, t-cherry junction tree 2000 mathematics subject classification: 05c65, 62h30, 68t10, 62p10. 40 tamás szántai and edith kovács application of t-cherry junction trees 1. introduction in this paper we propose a probabilistic approach for statistical pattern recognition. the classifier will be achieved by supervised learning. the classification uses bayes decision rule. in our approach we estimate the underlying multi-variate probability distribution, by the exploitation of the conditional independencies between the variables (features). this is achieved by fitting to the training data a t-cherry junction tree (see [4], [8]). this represents the novelty of the approach introduced here. a problem that occurs is that databases often contain redundant data, which mean a great number of features that may lead to overfitting of the model. this may cause poor generalization (the performance of the model on a new test data). we use the t-cherry junction tree approach to discover the markov random field (mrf) underlying the variables. in an mrf each random variable depends on all others through the variables of its neighbourhood (see for example in [5]). throughout this paper we shall use the term of ’pattern’ to denote a ddimensional data vector x = ( x1, . . . , xi, . . . , xd ) of measurements, where xi is the value of the feature denoted by xi. we assume that there exist m groups or classes that can be associated with each pattern. the categorical variable which takes values in {1, . . . , m} is denoted by y . the variables contained in the neighbourhood of y are called informative variables for y . our method can be used for discovering those variables (features) which are informative for the categorical variable y . in the second section we describe how the t-cherry junction tree approach can be applied to the classification problem. in the third section we deal with a real world problem. we use our approach for selecting features of voice that are able to predict whether a patient has parkinson’s disease or not. 2. the classification method based on t-cherry junction tree a classifier is constructed on the basis of a training set (x1, y1) , . . . , (xn, yn) and is denoted by gn. for a given x ∈ rd the value y ∈ {1, . . . , m} of y is guessed by gn (x; (x1, y1) , . . . , (xn, yn)). the construction of gn in this way is called supervised learning. we assume that (x1, y1) t , . . . , (xn, yn) t is a sequence of independent identically distributed random vectors having the same distribution as (x, y ) t . 41 tamás szántai and edith kovács application of t-cherry junction trees the training dataset may be the result of experimental observation (metheorological data, ecg data...) the yi’s could be obtained through measurements or through expert who filled yi’s after having xi’s. in order to find the best fitting k-width junction tree, we search in the class of k-width t-cherry junction trees. we intend to find the approximation which minimizes the kullback-leibler divergence of the approximation and the true probability distribution. the method for finding a k-th order t-cherry junction tree, using this criterion is presented in [8]. on the basis of the constructed t-cherry junction tree we select the informative features by the following algorithm. algorithm. selection of the informative features. 1. give as input the training data set in discretized form. 2. from the empirical probability distribution determine all the k-th order marginals (it is favorable if k is not to large (less than 7, say). 3. find the heaviest weighted tree, in sense (see [8]): ∑ (xi1 ,...,xic )∈c i ( xi1 , . . . , xic ) − ∑ (xj1 ,...,xjs )∈s (νj1,...,js − 1) i ( xj1 , . . . , x js ) → max, where i (xi1 , . . . , xic ) is the information content (see [1]) of p (xi1 , . . . , xic ) . 4. output : the set of clusters c and the set of separators s. 5. select those clusters which contain the variable y . 6. select those variables which occur in the clusters selected in step 5 as informative variables. for the set of informative features we introduce the notation xinf = {xi1 , . . . , xir}. the joint probability distribution of the random vector (xinf , y )t can be expressed using those marginals only, which correspond to the clusters that contain y . for the classifier gn we give a formula which depends on the probability distribution of (xinf , y ) t . this way for classifying a new d-dimensional vector we use the informative features only. 3. recognizing parkinson’s disease from voice disorders voice disorders can be premonitory of different diseases. this observation makes possible new ways of investigations and diagnosis. the idea to check up our method in discovering the connection between voice disorders and having 42 tamás szántai and edith kovács application of t-cherry junction trees parkinson’s disease (pd) came from [6]: ”research has shown that approximately 90% of people with pd exhibit some form of vocal impairment [3], [7]. vocal impairment may also be one of the earliest indicators for the onset of the illness [2]”. the dataset was created by max little of the university of oxford, in collaboration with the national center for voice and speech, denver, colorado, who recorded the speech signals, and provided by uci machine learning repository on the internet: http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/parkinsons. this dataset is composed of a range of biomedical voice measurements from 195 voice recording of 31 people, 23 with parkinson’s disease (pd). the main aim of the data is to discriminate healthy people from those with pd. we choose randomly from the data a test set which contains 10 recordings of healthy people and 20 from ill ones. the rest of 165 vectors remained the training data set. only the cluster (x1, x10, x17 = y, x19, x20) was informative. the informative features are: fo, shimmer, dfa, spread1. using the probability distribution p (x1, x10, x19, x20, y ), we obtained a 93% correct classification performance for the classifier. the authors of paper [6] got 91.4 % correct classification performance using ten features and a kernel support vector machine. 4. conclusions in this paper we approximate the multivariate probability distribution by exploiting the conditional independencies between the features. the construction is based on the fitting of a t-cherry junction tree to the training data set. the advantage of the method presented is that it makes possible the selection of informative features. then we define a classifier which uses just the informative features. this way we can reduce the dimensionality of the problem and get a good generalization. the numerical results presented confirm the efficiency of our approach. references [1] t.m. cover and j.a. thomas, elements of information theory, wiley interscience, new york, (1991) 43 tamás szántai and edith kovács application of t-cherry junction trees [2] j. r. duffy ”motor speech disorders: substrates differential diagnosis, and management , 2nd ed. st louis, mo: elsevier, 2005. [3] a. k. ho, r. iansek, c. marigliani, j.l. bradshaw, and s. gates, speech impairment in a large sample of patients with parkinson’s disease, behav. neurol., 11, (1998), 131-137. [4] e. kovács and t. szántai, on the approximation of discrete multivariate probability distribution using the new concept of t-cherry junction tree, lecture notes in economics and mathematical systems, 633, proceedings of the ifip/iiasa/gamm workshop on copyng with uncertainty, robust solutions, 10-12 december, 2007, iiasa, laxenburg, springer verlag, heidelberg, 2010, 39–56. [5] e. kovács and t. szántai, some improvements of t-cherry junction trees, in: 2008 first international conference on complexity and intelligence of the artificial and natural complex systems. medical applications of the complex systems. biomedical computing, cans 2008, marosvásárhely, romania, 2008.11.08-2008.11.10, eds. iantovics b., enachescu c., filip f. g., ieee computer society, los alamitos, 2009, 117-129. [6] m. a. little, p. e. mcsharry, e. j. hunter, j. spielman, l. o. ramig, suitability of dysphonia measurements for telemonitoring of parkinson’s disease, ieee transactions on biomedical engineering, 56, no. 4, april, (2009), 1015-1022. [7] j.a. logemann, h.b. fisher, b. boshes, e. r. blonsky, frequency and co-ocurrence of vocal-tract disfunctions in speech of a large sample of patients with parkinson’s disease, j. speech, hear. disord., 43, (1978) 47-57. [8] t. szántai and e. kovács, hypergraphs as means of discovering the dependence structure of a discrete multivariate probability distribution, proc. conference applied mathematical programming and modelling (apmod), 2008, bratislava, 27-31 may, 2008, annals of operations research, to appear. 44 tamás szántai and edith kovács application of t-cherry junction trees tamás szántai institute of mathematics budapest university of technology and economics műegyetem rkp. 3, budapest, 1111 hungary email:szantai@math.bme.hu edith kovács department of methodology budapest college of management villányi út 11-13, budapest, 1114 hungary email:kovacs.edith@avf.hu 45 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 139-160 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/197 organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of didactics and neuroscience olena tonne¹, olena varetska2, olena khaustova3, victoria tarasova4 1 municipal institution «zaporizhzhia regional institute of continuing pedagogical education» of zaporizhzhia regional council, ukraine, center33nm@gmail.com 2 municipal institution «zaporizhzhia regional institute of continuing pedagogical education» of zaporizhzhia regional council, ukraine, olena22varetska@gmail.com 3 municipal institution «zaporizhzhia regional institute of continuing pedagogical education» of zaporizhzhia regional council, ukraine, alenahau@gmail.com 4 bogdan khmelnytsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, marsetka11@gmail.com abstract: the article substantiates that in the context of organizing the independent cognitive activity of teachers in the post-soviet space, the process of improving their qualifications, which takes place on the basis of their free choice of forms of education, programs and educational institutions, is of particular importance. at the heart of this choice, decision-making on independent cognitive activity and emotional-motivational resource are not only external stimuli, but also neurophysiological and psychological mechanisms. the purpose of the study is a scientific substantiation of the necessary and sufficient psychological and pedagogical conditions and models of organization of independent cognitive activity of teachers of secondary schools in the process of competence development. the analysis of the experimental data showed a noticeable difference between samples b3 and b4 at the end of the experiment for each of the defined criteria, as well as for the general indicator of the organizing of independent cognitive activity. the results obtained during the pedagogical experiment proved that the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers on the basis of the author's model helped to increase the effectiveness of this activity. during the discussion, it was proved that an important component of a person's professional training for any activity, especially in educational, is the development of neurophysiological and psychological potential for subjective self-determination of self-learning, self-improvement, and in micro-development for independent choice and decision-making in a situation of cognitive or activity-related uncertainty. therefore, decision-making is a basic component of any constructive activity. keywords: psychological and pedagogical conditions; andragogic process; neuroscience; author's model; postgraduate education institutions. how to cite: tonne, o., varetska, o., khaustova, o., & tarasova, v. (2021). organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of didactics and neuroscience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 139-160. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/197 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/197 mailto:center33nm@gmail.com mailto:olena22varetska@gmail.com mailto:alenahau@gmail.com mailto:marsetka11@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/197 organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 140 introduction today, the strategic task of the post-soviet states in the field of education is to create a new cultural and educational space through the development and implementation of state standards of general secondary education, standard curricula and study programs for primary, basic and high schools. the success of the reform depends on the extent to which secondary school teachers meet the new requirements of professional activity, according to which they should not be executors of regulated actions aimed at forming students' abstract knowledge in a particular subject, but creative subjects who form, in addition to knowledge, stable skills and creative attitude to the world around. since any educational or cognitive process involves the modification or creation of neural connections for a new model of thinking and behavior, the nature of the teacher's self-educational activities can be holistically objectified only taking into account the data of neuropsychology and neuropedagogy. in addition, human subjectivity is one of the main biosocial functions that are determined neurophysiologically and are of exceptional importance in educational and self-educational activities. in the context of the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers, the process of raising their competence, which takes place on the basis of their free choice of forms of education, programs and educational institutions, acquires special significance. the problem of choosing, making behavioral and activity decisions on self-development is based on natural and acquired neural connections, which is psychologically manifested in the sense of meaning, motivation and emotional and volitional qualities of the teacher. preliminary analysis of the experience of in-service training of teachers in institutions of postgraduate pedagogical education allows us to state that the organization of their independent cognitive activity has a number of shortcomings. in particular, it is the lack of motivational, bright guidelines for such activities for students of advanced training courses, imperfect mastery of information technology by teachers, lack of order in the exchange of electronic information between the subjects of the andragogy process, etc. hypothetically, the main problem lies in the imperfection of the process of professional development, which does not arouse interest, motivation and vivid emotions in educational entities with already firmly established neural connections and responsible professional competencies. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 141 li, gow, & zhou (2018) proved the key role of emotions in cognitive activity and education. according to these authors, in didactics, unfairly little attention is paid to the emotional component, which is actually the most important educational condition. emotions affect attention, memory and motivation, and as a result  academic results (li et al., 2018). based on the fact of the presence of emotional-cognitive brain mechanisms, a direct relationship between the nature of emotions and the quality of cognitive processes has been established, which should form the basis for creating more positive learning environments in educational institutions. overcoming shortcomings by institutions of postgraduate pedagogical education is associated with the purposeful improvement of the content of regulatory documentation, methodological support of the process of teacher training. however, in this way there are a number of contradictions, in particular between: socially conditioned need for permanent internally motivated increase of the level of professional competence of teachers during life and their lack of personal motivation to improve the quality of their professional activity; the realities of professional activity, which require a high level of cognitive activity and independence of the teacher, due to the constant need for new information that arises in the context of professional situations, and traditions of postgraduate pedagogical education, according to which students' assimilation of information is passive and dependent on external stimuli nature (activity in response to managerial actions of andragogues); the importance of independent work of teachers for the formation of professional subjectivity and the insufficient level of its methodological support in advanced training courses and in the inter-certification period. the basis for resolving these contradictions is laid in scientific works devoted to the development of the theory of adult education (jarvis, 2004; sysoyeva, 2011), as well as theoretical and methodological foundations of postgraduate pedagogical education (gerasymova et al., 2019; kovalchuk, 2014; kuzminsky, 2003; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; nychkalo, 2009; kaletnik et al., 2011; oliynyk, 2015; melnyk et al., 2019; sheremet et al., 2019; onishchuk et al., 2020; maksymchuk et al., 2020). the works of these authors substantiate the conceptual foundations of postgraduate education of teachers, as well as lay the foundation for improving the algorithms for organizing their independent cognitive activity in the process of competence development. ideas on the essence of independent cognitive activity and mechanisms of its organizing in applicants for higher pedagogical education organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 142 are presented in the works of korohod (2013), pereyaslavska (2011), ryabchenko (2011), soldatenko (2012). useful in the context of this study, the proposals are presented in publications that highlight the organization of independent cognitive activity of students of secondary schools (genkal, 2008; savosh, 2017). promising ideas are offered in the researches devoted to preparation of future teachers for the organizing of independent cognitive activity of pupils (kovtonyuk, 2013). a review of sources on this issue gives grounds to state that today scientists have substantiated and experimentally tested the pedagogical conditions for the organization of independent cognitive activity of subjects of study in general and higher education. the scientific works describe the issue of andragogical stimulation of professional self-improvement of teachers in the process of postgraduate education, but there is no analysis of the organization of independent cognitive activity of secondary school teachers as a system of orderly actions on advanced training courses and in the inter-certification period, directed on processing by them of various information sources, generalization of results of this work with the subsequent objectification in professional activity. in fact, neuropedagogical and neuropsychological aspects of the problems of educational motivation and independent educational activity began to be actively developed only in the late 1990s early 2000s. neuropsychologists have now shown that all participants in the educational process are by nature subjects in which social, psychological, and neurophysiological mechanisms act simultaneously in the direction of selfcreation, della sala, & anderson (2012). therefore, the neuroscientific approach involves the use of methods of humanities and natural sciences and the expansion of interdisciplinary terminology. neuroscience is currently studying a person's self-control in connection with his personal activities and social behavior (bagozzi & lee, 2017), the neurophysiological nature of the influence of social factors (fashion, advertising, brands) on unconscious behavior and decision-making (camerer & yoon, 2015). neurophysiology also studies changes in activity and behavior (dependent, compulsive, deviant) due to pathology. the neurophysiological nature of the correlation of thinking, memory, motivation and activity as a result of personal decision-making is directly related to the independent cognitive activity of teachers (baddeley, 2017). the purpose of the study scientific substantiation of the necessary and sufficient pedagogical conditions and models of organization of independent cognitive activity of teachers of secondary schools in the process of brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 143 professional development based on neurophysiological mechanisms of motivation, choice (forms of independent activity) and decision making. materials and methods hypothetically valid psychological and pedagogical conditions in the experiment were developed based on neuropsychological principles, which are based on subjectivity, interaction, emotional coloring. they chose the principles: the subjective role of a teacher of a secondary school, according to which, the management of independent cognitive activity is based on the subjective activity of students, their personal interest; feedback, which is that the teacher should receive a reaction to the results of their independent cognitive activity from teachers and tutors of the institution of advanced training, and andragogues should constantly receive information about this activity from students; pragmatism, according to which, independent cognitive activity should be aimed at solving real problems of professional activity of teachers and promote the fastest use of knowledge and skills acquired during training; consistency of emotional, cognitive and practical components of the joint activities of andragogues and teachers, according to which, the actions of andragogues should be subject to the rule "heart-head-hand". in other words, the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers must go through stages: "feelings", "awareness" and "practical actions". based on the above principles, a number of educational and psychological conditions for building an andragogical process based on the author's model of organization of independent cognitive activity, which integrates normative-target, procedural and effective blocks, were chosen. the conditions were subject to experimental verification, the provision of which, hypothetically, should increase the effectiveness of the organization of independent cognitive activity, namely: selection of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the certification process as an indicator of the success of their professional development; motivating teachers to independent cognitive activity; directing the content of refresher courses and short-term formal and informal types of andragogical interaction to teach teachers the basics of organizing independent cognitive activity; step-by-step methodical support of independent cognitive activity in the inter-certification period; organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 144 supplementation of certification measures with recommendations for teachers for the next cycle of competence development on the organizing of their independent cognitive activity. it is proved that the creation of these conditions in compliance with the principles described above becomes possible when building an andragogical process according to the author's model of organizing of independent cognitive activity, which integrates normative-target, procedural and effective blocks. the normative-target block of the model reflects the links between public demand, multilevel normative documents, principles, conditions, as well as methodological support, which together determine the direction and regulate the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the process of competence development. the procedural block of the model represents the gradual nature of the organizing of independent cognitive activity (hereinafter ica) of teachers. the resulting block of the model reflects the links between the components of the author's idea regarding the end results of the andragogy process, as well as ways to record these results. according to the model of organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the process of competence development, this process integrates five stages, including: preparatory, the task of which is to develop and implement an algorithm for comprehensive assessment of professional activities of teachers in the inter-certification period, as well as training of andragogues to organize independent cognitive activity of teachers in the process of professional development; reflexive and stimulating, which involves strengthening the motivation of teachers to independent cognitive activity through the creation of reflective-stimulating environment; cognitive, the tasks of which are the objectification and development of cognitive-analytical properties of teachers, as well as training in their skills and algorithms for processing, changing, synthesis and presentation of information; distant and search, on which there is a movement of cognitive activity of teachers to perform specific methodological and scientific tasks; assessment and recommendation, which summarizes the five-year period of professional activity of the teacher in terms of independent cognitive activity, as well as provides recommendations for the next cycle of training. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 145 at the pre-experimental stage, it is assumed that measuring the level of organization of independent cognitive activity will be informative, based on the following criteria: procedural, which allows to assess the information competence of the teacher as the ability to perform intellectual operations, as well as his computer literacy and inclusion in the network community; educational, aimed at assessing the intensity of self-educational activities of teachers in the inter-certification period (indicators of this criteria: advanced training in the main subject; specialization courses in additional subjects; obtaining a degree, title; obtaining a second higher education; postgraduate studies; participation in various forms educational activities); effective, which allows to evaluate the results obtained in the intercertification period of scientific and methodological and research activities (indicators the number of own methodological developments; the number of methodological developments in co-authorship; the number of published articles and abstracts; the presence of a personal site; the number of other prepared materials). it is substantiated that the appropriate means of assessing the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers of secondary schools in the author's methodology are: test-questionnaire on information competence; self-assessment form by the teacher of the quality of independent cognitive activity. qualimetric tool for assessing the quality of independent cognitive activity based on excel. in this case, the organization of independent cognitive activity of teachers should be assessed at four levels, corresponding to a certain qualification category: low ("specialist"); basic ("specialist of the second category"); high ("specialist of the first category"); creative ("specialist of the highest category"). in the course of the pilot study the norms of the author's methodology were established, as well as its expediency and informativeness were tested. during the experiment, special attention was paid to identifying the characteristics of the teacher, which have a clear neuropsychological correlation: motivation, independence, position of choice, activity, creativity (non-standard problem solving). to test the effectiveness of the model of organization of independent cognitive activity of teachers, an experiment was conducted, the duration of which is determined by the duration of the inter-certification period. during the experiment, independent samples of teachers, similar in composition and structure were analyzed. organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 146 in particular, on the basis of certification lists, four samples were formed (b1, b2 2015 and b3, b4 2020), aligned by the frequency distribution of such features as: gender, age, subject taught, category. the number of teachers in each sample was the same 25 people (7 men and 18 women). a total number of 100 teachers took part in the experiment, who improved their skills at the zaporizhzhya regional institute of postgraduate pedagogical education. appropriate means of assessing the organization of independent cognitive activity of teachers of secondary schools in the author's methodology were: test-questionnaire on information competence; selfassessment card by the teacher of the quality of independent cognitive activity. at the beginning of the experiment, samples b1 and b2 included teachers, whose organizing of independent cognitive activity took place traditionally. at the end of the experiment, sample b4 differed from sample b3 in that in the latter the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers took place in accordance with the model developed by us. the organizing of independent cognitive activity of b3 teachers was carried out in the tradition of advanced training without the use of the author's theoretical and methodological achievements. the differences between these groups are due to: the amount of independent work aimed at organizing of independent cognitive activity in the inter-certification period (teachers b3 had less than teachers b4); the content of methodical work in this period (its volume and intensity in b4 were higher). the organizing of independent cognitive activity was measured during the certification of teachers. the first measurement was conducted in 2015/16; the second in 2019/20. results as a result of pre-experimental research and analysis of data from the formative-diagnostic experiment, the following generalized results were obtained: 1. the approval of a new format of professional activity of teachers is associated with their ability to continuous professional development, which is impossible without purposeful, orderly, intrinsically motivated independent cognitive activity, which allows them to respond to constant changes in content, technology, imperatives of teaching. 2. direct responsibility for informational and motivational support for the professional development of teachers in general and their brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 147 independent cognitive activity in particular is overly relied by the state on the institutes of postgraduate pedagogical education, which are traditionally centers of advanced training, specialized training and retraining of teachers in the regions of the country. 3. the organization of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the process of professional development is at a low level. in particular, for refresher courses and methodological support of self-educational activities in the inter-certification period are characterized by superficiality and formality, which gives grounds for violation of the relevant scientific problem. the data obtained in the experiment are shown in table. 1. table 1. the level of organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the process of competence development,% (systematized by the authors) sample stage experiment the level of organization of the ica low standard high creative procedural criteria в1 beginning 8 52 36 4 в2 beginning 20 48 28 4 в3 ending 0 32 40 28 в4 ending 8 48 36 8 educational criteria в1 beginning 48 40 8 4 в2 beginning 56 28 12 4 в3 ending 16 32 32 20 в4 ending 44 40 8 8 effective criteria в1 beginning 4 76 16 4 в2 beginning 0 68 32 0 в3 ending 0 52 20 28 в4 ending 4 64 20 12 total в1 beginning 24 48 28 0 в2 beginning 28 52 20 0 в3 ending 8 24 40 28 в4 ending 20 48 28 4 analysis of the data given in table. 1, showed: the absence of a significant difference in the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers by procedural, educational, performance criteria and general indicators at the beginning of the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 148 experiment, which indicates the homogeneity of the contingent of samples b1 and b2; noticeable dynamics of the general indicator of the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers under the influence of introduction of author's model, and also dynamics of organizing of independent cognitive activity on each of the defined criteria; a noticeable difference between samples b3 and b4 at the end of the experiment for each of the defined criteria, as well as for the general indicator of the organizing of independent cognitive activity. in addition, the comparison of the general indicator of the organizing of independent cognitive activity in b1 and b2 at the beginning of the experiment, (2013) according to the mann – whitney test did not reveal significant differences in the level of significance (p <0.05). thus, the experimental study proved that the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers on the basis of the author's model helps to increase the effectiveness of this activity. discussion today, the organizing of cognitive activity of teachers by the system of domestic postgraduate pedagogical education in the post-soviet space is provided by the following activities: advanced training, short-term training (conferences, trainings, seminars, meetings, master classes, etc.). traditionally, in the system of management of postgraduate pedagogical education the key factor in the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers is the next certification. unfortunately, subjective selforganization by teachers of their cognitive activity, the results of which are reflected in educational, methodical, scientific work, is considered secondary and is organized without taking into account neuropsychological factors. the article proves that independent work, compared to organized from the outside, especially mobilizes the neuropsychological potential of man, as it forces him to make choices and make non-standard decisions in uncertain conditions. the neurophysiological mechanisms of such aspects of independent work (as well as independent learning) were elucidated at the beginning of the third millennium and made them an interdisciplinary object of study (kahneman & tversky, 2000). neuropsychological relevant characteristics of independent decision-making and choice are adequacy, time consumption (time deficit, deadline), uncertainty of markers, responsibility, heterogeneity of selection criteria. all these parameters are associated with the activation of neuropsychiatric mechanisms of subjectivity. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 149 after analyzing the relevant sources and checking the author's model of the organization of the independent cognitive activity of teachers in the course of professional development, it became clear that independent cognitive activity has a common neurophysiological and individual psychological nature and is conditioned by the interests, motives and desires of a person, the consequence of which is the acquisition of knowledge about the objective and subjective reality. it is a sequence of conscious, freely chosen, internally motivated cognitive operations and objective actions aimed at forming in the mind of the subject of certain images through the processing of information sources, communication, and generalization of their own and others' experiences. it is substantiated that the impact on the quality of cognitive activity of teachers should be denoted by the conceptual construct "organizing of independent cognitive activity", which means the system of actions of postgraduate pedagogical education to regulate the interaction between andragogues, students and other components of the andragogical system, development of their cognitive-operational competencies in order to systematically improve the quality and effectiveness of professional activities. observations and experimental testing have shown that independent cognitive and educational activities of professionals (self-education, training, improvement) are associated with neuropsychological motivational mechanisms, self-reflection and individual professionally oriented qualities. based on these psychological and neurophysiological factors, it is necessary to transform the distance learning process of the xxi century on the basis of creativity and innovation. this will provide a closed system of selfeducational activities at all levels: "in order for the education system to ensure purposeful and effective acquisition of students' self-education skills, it is necessary to promote the motivation and skills of teachers' selfeducation in the learning process, and thus improve the form of pedagogical competencies of students during the university process" (samuseviča & striguna, 2017). it is determined that the theoretical basis for the organization of independent cognitive activity in institutions of pedagogical training, in addition to taking into account the neurophysiological basis, is the provision: humanistic psychology and pedagogy, relating to independence as an attribute of a mature person and a tool for its formation as a social subject; epistemology for understanding the processes of cognition as a function of the higher nervous system associated with figurative thinking; activity approach, which allows to consider independent cognitive activity as a sequence of conscious actions aimed at achieving a specific professional organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 150 result; socio-cognitive theory of bandura (1986) that an effective factor in the professional development of teachers is the need to resolve the contradictions between the current state of personal development and the requirements of the social (professional) environment, which are growing; reflective approach, according to which, the key to professional growth is based on daily practice, a continuous process of analysis by the subject of its activities, identifying problems and correcting shortcomings; andragogy that advanced training will be effective only in the case of interaction of the formed personalities of the andragogue and the teacher, in which they are adopted as subjects of professional activity; competence approach, which makes it possible to determine clear parameters of the end result of the andragogic process; pedagogical management, which allows to justify the need to adjustment the interaction between the subjects and components of the andragogical system in order to form in the imagination of teachers effective models of cognition. based on the analysis of scientific sources (klyasen, 2014; kravchenko, 2010; kapustyan, 2012) it is proved that the provisions of the defined theoretical basis for improving the efficiency of independent cognitive activity of teachers are most fully realized in the experience gained by systems improving their skills outside of the post-soviet countries. in particular, in such countries as great britain, canada, china, germany, new zealand, poland, usa, sweden, sufficient attention is paid to the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers, which takes place in an extensive and differentiated system of special institutions of postgraduate pedagogical education. among the promising concepts of the organization of independent cognitive activity are the following: group training of teachers on the basis of schools without separation from the workplace; systematic implementation of measures to improve the information and communication competence of teachers on the basis of schools; providing each teacher with a personal computer in the workplace; creating conditions for professional interaction of teachers; encouraging teachers to achieve professional achievements, etc. study of scientific works, which outline some ideas for organizing independent cognitive activity of different categories of people who receive education in different specialties at different levels (adamiv, 2002; benera, 2003; vashchuk, 2001), testified that in the didactic experience of postsoviet countries the traditional means of organizing independent cognitive activity are: communication in network professional communities with the use of information and communication technologies; verification and self verification of cognitive achievements; pedagogical support and support of brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 151 independent cognitive activity; independent work with the subsequent presentation of its results; development of information competence; use of information technologies for the purpose of search, processing and systematization of professional information; stimulating reflection through methods of quasi-professional training; implementation of individual educational projects and educational modeling; organization of "success situations"; use of advanced learning methods, etc. however, the identified areas for improving the effectiveness of independent cognitive activity of students do not take into account the neuropsychological specifics of andragogical interaction in the process of teacher training and do not cover all aspects of independent cognitive activity of formed individuals, which they are. it is proved that in order to increase the level of educational services of postgraduate pedagogical education institutions of the post-soviet countries, as well as the entry of the their system of postgraduate pedagogical education into the european educational space it is necessary to develop methodological bases for organizing independent cognitive activity of teachers in the process of professional development also to carry out their practical implementation. the article confirms the possibility of optimizing educational conditions to improve the professional competencies of teachers by strengthening the neuropsychological mechanisms of motivation, emotional brightness and formation of culture and techniques of independent work, which has already been described in methodical works on culture of selfeducation (culture of self-education) (dyganova & yavgildina, 2016). the scientific novelty of the obtained results is that: for the first time the neurophysiological and psychologicalpedagogical factors of independent educational activity of teachers are theoretically substantiated, namely consideration of motivational, emotional-volitional, reflexive and other subjective factors of decisionmaking, choice and organization of independent cognitive activity. also, a model of organizing of independent cognitive activity of secondary school teachers was theoretically substantiated and developed, which reflects the purpose, tasks, psychological and pedagogical conditions, stages (preparatory, reflexive-stimulating, cognitive, distance-searching, assessmentrecommendation) and expected result of andragogical activity ; the andragogical conditions of the organizing of independent cognitive activity (allocation of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the certification process as an indicator of success of their professional development; motivation of teachers to independent cognitive activity; direction of the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 152 content of advanced training courses on training of teachers of organizing of independent cognitive activity; inter-certification period, supplementing certification activities by providing teachers with recommendations for the next cycle of professional development on the organizing of their independent cognitive activity); a method for assessing the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers has been developed; the definition of the construct “organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers” has been clarified, according to which it is a system of postgraduate teacher education to adjustment the interaction between andragogams, students, and other components of the andragogical system aimed at increasing the intensity of teachers’ self-education, developing their cognitive-information competencies with the aim of systematically improving the quality and effectiveness of professional activities; the target orientations of the process of professional development of teachers of general educational institutions in the aspect of independent cognitive activity on the basis of the defined criteria (procedural, educational, effective) of its efficiency are improved; the scientific provisions of neuropedagogy, pedagogical management, competence, andragogical and activity approaches in postgraduate education of teachers have been further developed. the practical significance of the obtained results lies in the fact that the following teachers have been developed and implemented in the process of competence development: methodical seminar for andragogues, aimed at explaining the neurophysiological and psychological features of independent cognitive activity of students of advanced training courses, as well as coverage of methods of its activation and management; events aimed at stimulating the neurophysiological mechanisms of teachers' reflection by presenting the best examples of independent cognitive activity (seminars with doctors of sciences, "round tables"); special course "information competence of the teacher", the content of which involves the formation of students' advanced training courses, providing them with information about the sources of knowledge, methods of systematizing the results of independent cognitive activity, as well as computer testing of knowledge with analysis of its results; seminar for teachers on the use of educational platforms, individual digital devices and cloud technologies for cognitive purposes; methods of qualimetric assessment of the level of organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the cycle of advanced training; brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 153 methods of methodological support of independent cognitive activity of teachers in advanced training courses and in the inter-certification period. conclusions the professional activity of teachers can meet the rapidly changing social requirements only in the case of constant internally motivated professional development, which has general neurophysiological and individual psychological preconditions. this process of teacher training today is characterized by superficiality and formality of the organization, which causes low efficiency of independent cognitive activity of teachers, as well as difficulties in trying to acquire new and improve existing competencies. the study of authoritative sources on the neuropsychological and neurophysiological nature of independent activity allows us to distinguish general neurophysiological and individual (psychological, phenotypic) patterns. among the general aspects of clarifying the neuropsychological picture of independent educational activity are the following: 1. usefulness, definition of subjective meaning (value) in a new activity or its results. 2. formation of individual (subjective) image of the process and result of decision-making (choice) in educational activities. 3. personal arguments in favor of choosing a strategy. 4. identification of external factors influencing the process (social environment, educational environment). 5. internal factors (emotional and volitional characteristics of the individual, the ability to self-organize, proactivity, etc.). one of the promising areas for improving the efficiency of independent cognitive activity of secondary school teachers in the process of competence development in the post-soviet space is the development of appropriate principles, conditions and models, the implementation of which in practice will meet both public demands and needs of teachers. independent cognitive activity is defined as a sequence of conscious, freely chosen, internally motivated cognitive operations and objective actions aimed at forming certain images in the mind of the subject through the processing of information sources, communication, and generalization of their own and others' experiences. the organization of independent cognitive activity of teachers is considered as a system of actions of the institution of postgraduate pedagogical education to adjustment the interaction between andragogues, students and other components of the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 154 andragogical system aimed at increasing the intensity of teachers' selfeducation, development of cognitive and operational competencies activities. theoretical principles of the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the process of competence development determine: the position of humanistic psychology; provisions of epistemology; leontiev’s (2005) theory of activity socio-cognitive theory of (bandura, 1986); reflective approach in pedagogy; andragogy; competence approach in higher education; pedagogical management. the following principles are based on these theoretical principles: the subjective role of the teacher, feedback, pragmatism and coherence of the emotional, cognitive and practical components of the joint activities of andragogues and teachers. these principles are embodied in the following conditions for the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers of secondary schools in the process of competence development: the allocation of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the certification process as an indicator of the success of their competence development; motivating teachers to independent cognitive activity; directing the content of advanced training courses and short-term formal and informal types of andragogical interaction to teach teachers the basics of organizing independent cognitive activity; step-by-step methodical support of independent cognitive activity in the inter-certification period; supplementation of certification measures with recommendations for teachers for the next cycle of competence development on the organizing of their independent cognitive activity. the creation of these conditions is ensured by the introduction of a model of organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers, which represents the content of the preparatory, reflexive-stimulating, cognitive, distance-searching, assessment-recommendatory stages. at the preparatory stage the algorithm of complex estimation of professional activity of the pedagogical worker in the inter-certification period is created, which is based on the indicators of efficiency of independent cognitive activity substantiated by the author. at the reflexive-stimulating stage, the motivation of teachers to independent cognitive activity is strengthened through the creation of a reflective environment, which allowed to realize their own positives and shortcomings in the aspect of independent cognitive activity, as well as to obtain results of independent cognition and use them in professional activities. at the cognitive stage there was an objectification and development of cognitive-analytical properties of teachers, as well as their improvement of techniques and algorithms for processing, changing, synthesis and presentation of information. the distance-searching stage is devoted to the direction of cognitive activity of teachers to perform specific brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 155 methodological and scientific tasks. at the assessment and recommendation stage, the results of the five-year period of professional activity of a teacher in terms of his independent cognitive activity are summed up, as well as recommendations are provided, focused on the next cycle of competence development. procedural, educational and effective criteria are the basis of the methodology for assessing the effectiveness of the organization of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the process of competence development. the procedural criterion makes it possible to assess the information competence of the teacher as the ability to perform intellectual operations, as well as his computer literacy and inclusion in the network community. educational aimed at assessing the intensity of self-educational activities of teachers in the inter-certification period. effective evaluates the results of scientific-methodical and research activities obtained in the intercertification period. a three-component diagnostic complex is based on certain criteria and indicators, which includes: a test-questionnaire on information competence; self-assessment form by the teacher of the quality of independent cognitive activity; qualimetric tool for assessing the quality of independent cognitive activity based on excel. the result of using the diagnostic complex is to determine the organizingof independent cognitive activity of teachers at low, standard, high and creative levels. the experiment showed that the introduction of the author's model significantly affects the level of organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the process of competence development. in particular, the obtained data show that at the beginning of the experiment, (2015) there were no differences between the level of organization of independent cognitive activity and the sample of teachers. at the same time, at the end of the experiment, (2020) in the sample of teachers whose in-service training was based on the use of author's methodological achievements, the level of organization of independent cognitive activity by all criteria, as well as the general indicator. this conclusion was confirmed by comparing the data in b1 and b2 at the beginning of the experiment, (2013) according to the mann – whitney test, which did not reveal significant differences in the level of significance (p <0.05), as well as the comparison made at the end of the experiment, (2018), which indicated the presence of statistically significant differences between b3 and b4 at the accepted level of significance. organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 156 thus, the results obtained during the pedagogical experiment proved that the organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers on the basis of the author's model helped to increase the effectiveness of this activity. the study does not cover all aspects of the problem of organizing independent cognitive activity of teachers of secondary schools in the process of competence development. we see prospects for further research in the scientific substantiation of methods of organizing independent cognitive activities related to the use of individual digital devices. in addition, we consider it expedient and timely to create a common electronic database of individual trajectories of professional development of teachers. references adamiv, g. s. (2002). formuvannya u studentiv pedahohichnoho uchylyshcha piznavalnoyi samostiynosti (na materiali vyvchennya psykholoho-pedahohichnykh dystsyplin) [formation of students of pedagogical school of cognitive independence (on the material of studying of psychological and pedagogical disciplines)]. [abstract of phd thesis]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university, kyiv. http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/35568.html baddeley, a. (2017). working memory, thought, and action. oxford, uk: oxford university press. https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/ 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528012.001.0001/acprof-9780198528012 bagozzi, r. p., & lee, n. (2017). philosophical foundations of neuroscience in organizational research: functional and nonfunctional approaches. organizational research methods, 22(1), 299331. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428117697042 bandura, a., (1986). social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-98423-000 benera, v. e. (2003). formuvannya piznavalnoyi samostiynosti v maybutnikh vykhovateliv doshkilnykh navchalnykh zakladiv zasobamy intelektualnoyi hry [formation of cognitive independence in future educators of preschool educational institutions by means of intellectual game]. [abstract of phd thesis]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university, kyiv. http://www.lib.uaru.net/diss/cont/35576.html camerer, c., & yoon, c. (2015). introduction to the journal of marketing research special issue on neuroscience and marketing. journal of marketing research, 52, 423 – 426. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/0022-243752.4.423 della sala, s., & anderson, m. (2012). neuroscience in education: the good, the bad, and the ugly. oxford: oxford university press. http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/35568.html https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/%0b10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528012.001.0001/acprof-9780198528012 https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/%0b10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528012.001.0001/acprof-9780198528012 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428117697042 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-98423-000 http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/35576.html http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/35576.html https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/0022-2437-52.4.423 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/0022-2437-52.4.423 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 157 https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/ 9780199600496.001.0001/acprof-9780199600496 dyganova, e. a. & yavgildina, z. m. (2016). culture of self-education of the teacher-musician. rupkatha journal on interdisciplinary studies in humanities, 8(2), 79–90. http://rupkatha.com/teacher-musician/ genkal, s. e. (2008). orhanizatsiya samostiynoyi piznavalnoyi diyalnosti uchniv profilnykh klasiv na osnovi indyvidualnykh osvitnikh proektiv. [organizing of independent cognitive activity of students of profile classes on the basis of individual educational projects]. (abstract of phd thesis). the institute for pedagogy of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv. https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=90761 91778350663241 gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345–361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 jarvis, p. (2004). adult education and lifelong learning. theory and practice. london: routledge. https://www.routledge.com/adult-education-and-lifelonglearning-theory-and-practice/jarvis/p/book/9780415494816 kahneman, d., & tversky, a. (eds.). (2000). choices, values, and frames. cambridge: cambridge university press. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-16067000 kaletnik, g. m., zabolotnyi, g. m., & kozlovskyi, s. v. (2011). innovatsiyni modeli upravlinnya stratehichnym ekonomichnym potentsialom suchasnykh ekonomichnykh system [innovative models of strategic management economic potential within contemporary economic systems]. aktualni problemy ekonomiky [actual problems of economics], 4(118), 311. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298002657_innovative_models _of_strategic_economic_potential_management_within_contemporary_ec onomic_systems kapustyan, i. i. (2012). shvedskyy dosvid rozvytku ikt u systemi neperervnoyi pedahohichnoyi osvity [swedish experience in the development of ict in the system of continuing pedagogical education]. poltava: poltava national pedagogical university. https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=58694 93470362719034 klyasen, n. (2014). pislyadyplomna pedahohichna osvita: zarubizhnyy dosvid ta suchasna praktyka [postgraduate pedagogical education: foreign experience and modern practice]. nova pedahohichna dumka [new pedagogical thought], 2, 187–190. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/npd_2014_2_56 https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600496.001.0001/acprof-9780199600496 https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600496.001.0001/acprof-9780199600496 http://rupkatha.com/teacher-musician/ https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=9076191778350663241 https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=9076191778350663241 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://www.routledge.com/adult-education-and-lifelong-learning-theory-and-practice/jarvis/p/book/9780415494816 https://www.routledge.com/adult-education-and-lifelong-learning-theory-and-practice/jarvis/p/book/9780415494816 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-16067-000 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-16067-000 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298002657_innovative_models_of_strategic_economic_potential_management_within_contemporary_economic_systems https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298002657_innovative_models_of_strategic_economic_potential_management_within_contemporary_economic_systems https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298002657_innovative_models_of_strategic_economic_potential_management_within_contemporary_economic_systems https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=5869493470362719034 https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=5869493470362719034 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/npd_2014_2_56 organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 158 korohod, t. o. (2013). kompetentnisnyy pidkhid do orhanizatsiyi samostiynoyi piznavalnoyi diyalnosti studentiv nemovnykh spetsialnostey u protsesi navchannya inshomovnoho profesiynoho spilkuvannya [competence approach to the organizing of independent cognitive activity of students of non-language specialties in the process of learning foreign language professional communication]. visnyk chernihivskoho natsionalnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu. pedahohichni nauky [bulletin of chernihiv national pedagogical university. pedagogical sciences], 108(2). http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vchdpup_2013_2_108_40. kovalchuk, v. i. (2014). teoretychni i metodychni zasady rozvytku pedahohichnoyi maysternosti maystriv vyrobnychoho navchannya profesiyno-tekhnichnykh navchalnykh zakladiv u pislyadyplomniy osvity [theoretical and methodical bases of development of pedagogical skill of masters of industrial training of vocational and technical educational institutions in postgraduate education]. (abstract of phd thesis). classic private university, zaporizhzhia. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=uk&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=9253672 880475747962 kovtonyuk, h. m. (2013). formuvannya profesiynoyi hotovnosti maybutnikh uchyteliv fizykomatematychnykh dystsyplin do orhanizatsiyi samostiynoyi piznavalnoyi diyalnosti shkolyariv [formation of professional readiness of future teachers of physical and mathematical disciplines to the organize of independent cognitive activity of schoolboys]. [phd thesis]. mykhailo kotsubynskyi vinnytsia state pedagogical university, vinnytsia. http://library.vspu.net/handle/123456789/4080?show=full kravchenko, k. a. (2010). osoblyvosti istorychnoho rozvytku vyshchoyi pedahohichnoyi profesiynoyi osvity nimechchyny [features of historical development of higher pedagogical professional education of germany]. zbirnyk naukovykh prats umanskoho derzhavnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu imeni pavla tychyny [the collection of scientific works of pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university], 2, 315323. http://library.udpu.org.ua/library_files /zbirnuk_nayk_praz/2010/2010_2_40.pdf. kuzminsky, a. i. (2003). teoretyko-metodolohichni zasady pislyadyplomnoyi pedahohichnoyi osvity v ukrayini [theoretical and methodological principles of postgraduate pedagogical education in ukraine]. (abstract of phd thesis). the institute of pedagogy and psychology of professional education of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv. http://www.disslib.org/teoretykometodolohichni-zasady-pisljadyplomnoyi-pedahohichnoyi-osvity-vukrayini.html leontiev, a. n. (2005). deyatelnost. soznaniye. lichnost [activity. consciousness. personality]. moscow: smysl. http://www.psy.msu.ru/people/leontiev/dsl/index.html http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vchdpup_2013_2_108_40 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=uk&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=9253672880475747962 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=uk&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=9253672880475747962 http://library.vspu.net/handle/123456789/4080?show=full http://library.udpu.org.ua/library_files%20/zbirnuk_nayk_praz/2010/2010_2_40.pdf http://library.udpu.org.ua/library_files%20/zbirnuk_nayk_praz/2010/2010_2_40.pdf http://www.disslib.org/teoretyko-metodolohichni-zasady-pisljadyplomnoyi-pedahohichnoyi-osvity-v-ukrayini.html http://www.disslib.org/teoretyko-metodolohichni-zasady-pisljadyplomnoyi-pedahohichnoyi-osvity-v-ukrayini.html http://www.disslib.org/teoretyko-metodolohichni-zasady-pisljadyplomnoyi-pedahohichnoyi-osvity-v-ukrayini.html http://www.psy.msu.ru/people/leontiev/dsl/index.html brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 159 li, l., gow, a.d.i., & zhou, j. (2018). the role of positive emotions in education: a neuroscience perspective. mind, brain, and education, 14(3), 220234. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12244 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalijameljnik.pdf nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nychkalo, n. h. (2009). andrahohika v systemi pedahohichnykh nauk [andragogy in the system of pedagogical sciences]. osvita doroslykh: teoriya, dosvid, perspektyvy [adult education: theory, experience, prospects], 1, 7–20. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/160006964.pdf oliynyk, l. m. (2015). zastosuvannya bazovykh servisiv google u systemi pislyadyplomnoyi pedahohichnoyi osvity [application of basic google services in the system of postgraduate pedagogical education]. informatsiyni tekhnolohiyi v osvity [information technology in education], 22, 93–102. http://ite.kspu.edu/webfm_send/815 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 4465. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 pereyaslavska, s. o. (2011). orhanizatsiya samostiynoyi piznavalnoyi diyalnosti maybutnikh uchyteliv informatyky v umovakh zastosuvannya mulʹtymediynykh elementiv dystantsiynoho navchannya [organization of independent cognitive activity of future teachers of informatics in the conditions of application of multimedia elements of distance learning]. (abstract phd thesis). taras shevchenko luhansk national university, luhansk. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12244 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/160006964.pdf http://ite.kspu.edu/webfm_send/815 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 organizing of independent cognitive activity of teachers in the context of … olena tonne, et al. 160 https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=30932 98391668050476 ryabchenko, l. o. (2011). upravlinnya samostiynoyu piznavalnoyu diyalnistyu maybutnikh ekonomistiv [management of independent cognitive activity of future economists]. [phd thesis]. classic private university, zaporizhzhia. http://catalog.library.tnpu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=4 39016 samuseviča, a., & striguna, s. (2017). the development of teachers’ pedagogical competence in the process of self-education at the university. international journal on lifelong education and leadership, 3(2), 39–46. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/551098 savosh, v. (2017). rozvytok hotovnosti maybutnikh vchyteliv fizyky do orhanizatsiyi samostiynoyi piznavalnoyi diyalnosti starshoklasnykiv zasobamy modelyuvannya [development of readiness of future physics teachers to organize independent cognitive activity of high school students by means of modeling]. [abstract phd thesis]. pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman. https://nauka.udpu.edu.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2017/09/savosh-avtoreferat.pdf sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 soldatenko, m. m. (2012). samoosvitnya diyalnist yak zasib profesiynoho stanovlennya ta samorozvytku [self-educational activity as a means of professional development and self-development]. naukovyi visnyk mykolaivskoho derzhavnoho universytetu imeni v. o. sukhomlynskoho. seriia: pedahohichni nauky [v. o. sukhomlynsky scientific bulletin of mykolayiv state university. series: pedagogical sciences], 1(36), 39–42. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvmdup_2012_1. sysoyeva, s. o. (2011) interaktyvni tekhnolohiyi navchannya doroslykh [interactive technologies of adult learning]. kyiv: borys hrinchenko kyiv university. https://kubg.edu.ua/images/stories/departaments/osvitology/book_siso eva-internet.pdf vashchuk, o. v. (2001). aktyvizatsiya piznavalnoyi diyalnosti uchniv 5-7 klasiv u protsesi samostiynoyi roboty na urokakh trudovoho navchannya zasobamy novykh informatsiynykh tekhnolohiy [activation of cognitive activity of pupils of 5-7 classes in the course of independent work at lessons of labor training by means of new information technologies]. [abstract of phd thesis]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university, kyiv. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/15670 https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=3093298391668050476 https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=3093298391668050476 http://catalog.library.tnpu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=439016 http://catalog.library.tnpu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=439016 https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/551098 https://nauka.udpu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/savosh-avtoreferat.pdf https://nauka.udpu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/savosh-avtoreferat.pdf https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvmdup_2012_1 https://kubg.edu.ua/images/stories/departaments/osvitology/book_sisoeva-internet.pdf https://kubg.edu.ua/images/stories/departaments/osvitology/book_sisoeva-internet.pdf http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/15670 your paper's title starts here: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 200-222 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/165 somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social exclusion in western romania virgil tudor¹*, florin pelin 2 , gabriel iulian ghitescu 3 , alina-daniela moanta 4 , vasilica grigore 5 , iozsef hidi 6 , ana-maria mujea 7 , daniel harcau 8 , robert nosal 9 , dinu onita 10 , costinel dorian vasilica 11 , ionut bogdan radoi fulga 12 , martian-flavius lepa 13 , artur schvaner 14 , dezideriu bogdan stetz 15 , marius leon muthi 16 1 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania, virgiltro@yahoo.com * corresponding author 2 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania 3 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania 4 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania abstract: this paper aims to identify the somatic and functional profile of middle-school students from three areas of romania (south-west, west and north-west). a group of 364 students (173 girls and 191 boys) aged between 10 and 16 years (12.75 ± 1.2) from 6 different schools in mehedinti, caras-severin and bistrita-nasaud counties took part in this study. the target group category includes roma ethnic students, students from disorganised families and students at high risk of early school dropout, from both urban and rural areas. the calculated statistical indicators were: arithmetic mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and pearson coefficient. the anthropometric measurements made to identify the somatic and functional profile of students were height, weight, bmi, arm span and ruffier test. the results show an upward trend in the height of boys aged between 10 (1.44 m) and 16 years (1.67 m), the maximum value recorded for girls aged 14 years being 1.59 m. the highest value of body weight was identified in boys aged 15 years (58.91 kg) and girls aged 14 years (52.63 kg). the highest value for arm span was found for 15-years-old boys (167 cm) and 14-years-old girls (158.83 cm). bmi values for both boys and girls were between 17.22 and 21.52 points. in ruffier test, the scores obtained by students ranged between 9.95 and 13.4. this research is part of the “sustainable social and education integration through sport activities” project (pnp001). keywords: physical development; assessment; development region; romania. how to cite: tudor, v., pelin, f., ghitescu, g. i., moanta, a. -d., grigore, v., hidi, i., mujea, a. -m., harcau, d., nosa, r., onita, d., vasilica, c. d., radoi fulga, i. b., lepa, m. -f., schvaner, a., stetz, d. b., & muthi, m. l. (2020). somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social exclusion in western romania. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 200222. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/165 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/165 mailto:virgiltro@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/165 somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 5 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania 6 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania 7 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania 8 mehedinti county school inspectorate, romania 9 caras-severin county school inspectorate, romania 10 bistrita-nasaud county school inspectorate, romania 11 floresti middle school, mehedinti, romania 12 hinova middle school, mehedinti, romania 13 “romulus ladea” middle school, oravita, caras-severin, romania 14 middle school no. 8, resita, carasseverin, romania 15 “mihai eminescu” middle school, nasaud, bistrita-nasaud, romania 16 “nicolae draganu” middle school, zagra, bistrita-nasaud, romania somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 202 introduction in the contemporary era, educational and social exclusion has become a topic of interest, which attracts the attention of many specialists from all over the world. tarabini, jacovkis and montes (2017) mention that the processes of educational exclusion are multiple and diverse. research has shown that exclusion from school goes far beyond access. it is associated with crucial issues related to educational processes (belonging, recognition or representation) and outcomes (knowledge or certificates). educational exclusion can lead to absenteeism and later to school dropout, which is inevitably conducing to social exclusion. social exclusion is a complex and multifaceted process that “involves the lack or denial of resources, rights, goods and services, and the inability to participate in the normal relationships and activities, available to the majority of people in a society” (levitas et al., 2007, p. 9). social exclusion entails “inadequate social participation, lack of social integration and lack of power” (room, 1995, p. 5). in romania, children at risk of educational and social exclusion have started being part of national programmes aimed to integrate them both educationally and socially. numerous publications indicate that vulnerable young people are increasingly monitored (coussée et al., 2009). in order to assess them as accurately as possible, researchers in social sciences generally use several indicators such as socioeconomic status or family influence (batista-foguet et al., 2004). however, the reflection of socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health has been little studied until recently, partially due to the lack of appropriate measures (currie et al., 2008). one of the most delicate periods in ontogenesis, during which the social exclusion phenomenon is susceptible to appear, is adolescence. adolescence is thought to be a period of changes and challenges, which has an influence on behaviour control, psychological orientation and social interaction (due et al., 2005). specialists mention that negative social interactions may have effects on adolescent health in this period (due et al., 1999). marmot (2005) and berry et al. (2010) have identified that people at risk of social exclusion face inadequate access to food, housing and other basic resources, as well as adversity from other people, which culminates in poor health. the aforementioned specialists state that these people are often in a downward spiral. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 203 in contrast, bambra, netuveli and eikemo (2010) claim that access to services such as education, sport and preventive health care, but also healthy living and working conditions, improve the ability of socially excluded people to cope with their situation. in this context, education and sport are important factors that can promote social inclusion. however, according to european statistics, romania ranks modestly in this regard. this is also true for other issues, for example, social innovation, whose main directions are social inclusion, health and education (stănescu et al., 2020). the basic idea emerging from those presented above reveals that physical activity is among the measures of social integration. in this respect, many specialists have argued, through their own research studies, the major importance of sport for the social integration phenomenon. lawson (2005) also highlights that the potential of sport and physical education professionals contributes to the development of collective identities, which facilitates social integration. currently, sport is recognised as an educational environment that can contribute to solving various social problems (stănescu et al., 2020). physical education and sport essentially involve social integration, more precisely, by practicing specific group activities. physical education and sport are the best way to come into contact with various people and establish new relationships, which induces relaxation and represents a valuable means of restoring energy (badea, 2019). sport-for-development programmes can contribute to social integration through the proposed inclusive actions (van der veken et al., 2020). in order to design programmes aimed at social integration, a comprehensive assessment is recommended, which identifies the profile of potential subjects at risk of educational and social exclusion. as regards physical activity, it is important to identify the somatic, functional and motor profile of subjects to achieve an integration action relating to their needs. therefore, through this research, we aimed at paying more attention to physical development. monitoring physical development is a complex action focused on the level of somatic and functional indices. pietiläinen et al. (2002) state that growth and development processes depend on several factors whose genetic and environmental effects are difficult to clarify. however, there are numerous publications in the literature that assess the physical development of children of different ages according to gender (szabo et al., 2013), genetic inheritance (delemarre van waal, 1993) somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 204 and various environmental factors (cojocaru et al., 2015; delemarre van waal, 1993; pietiläinen et al., 2002; stănescu et al., 2018; szabo et al., 2013). rexhepi, brestovci and krasniqi (2011) mention that the development process is influenced by endogenous factors (genetic factors, endocrine glands, nervous factors) and external factors (socioeconomic conditions, mental health, culture, climate and seasons, various diseases, physical activities, etc.). this constellation consists of prenatal, psychosocial, climatic and socioeconomic factors, nutrition, urbanisation and physical activity (delemarre van haal, 1993; pietiläinen et al., 2002). studies conducted in romania show that child development is influenced by several internal and external (biological and social) factors, highlighting a downward trend in children’s motor ability concomitantly with an overweight trend. all these issues have major social and economic implications at national level (stănescu et al., 2016). the term secular trend has emerged in the literature and “traditionally indicates the attainment of larger adult body dimensions than in previous generations and the progressively earlier onset of menarche in adolescents in industrialised countries during the last 150 years” (danubio & sanna, 2008, p. 91). basically, in establishing the secular trend, the social conditions are of interest, but the underlying biology is also important (cole, 2003). in romania, the secular trend enjoys constant interest from specialists in the field, given its importance for public health and its selection potential for performance sport (stănescu et al., 2018). a commonly studied and assessed somatic index is height, as an important indicator of the secular trend. genetic and environmental factors, but also their interaction, determine the adult height. in arguing the influence of socioeconomic and environmental factors on height, floud, wachter and gregory (1990) state that they do not have a direct effect, but act through biological factors such as nutrition and infection. the influence of infection is also suggested in studies conducted by ulijaszek (2006). proos (1993) mentions that these two factors, nutrition and infection, seem to be the main causes of the differences in growth and maturation between ethnic and social groups. in romania, badea (2019) conducted a study on the assessment of somatic indices for people at risk of social exclusion in bucharest and ilfov county. the study reveals that the roma population has lower values of the central tendency compared to the romanian population. the same study brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 205 indicates a population with moderate somatic development in terms of height and an optimal ratio of body weight to height in the case of girls. in boys, the somatic development is also moderate, roma boys having values below the profile of the male population. another relevant study was conducted by three specialists from unefs bucharest. they have concluded that students aged 10 to 11 years, girls and boys living in urban plain areas, as well as girls living in rural mountain areas, are taller than other children of the same age from other geographical areas (stănescu et al., 2018). a study by the same specialists reveals that students in urban areas are taller than those in rural areas (stănescu et al., 2016). another indicator of the secular trend is body weight, which provides important data on health status (stănescu et al., 2016). physical activity and sport interventions can reduce the social and economic burden of non-communicable diseases and improve the wellbeing of the population (gosselin, boccanfuso, & laberge, 2020). methodology participants this study involved 364 middle-school students, of whom 173 girls and 191 boys aged 10 to 16 years (12.75 ± 1.2) from 6 different education units in the western development region of romania. the counties involved were mehedinti, caras-severin and bistrita-nasaud. the research was possible with the help of specialised inspectors and physical education and sport teachers. therefore, we collaborated with daniel harcau, robert nosal, dinu onita, costinel dorian vasilica, ionut bogdan radoi fulga, martian-flavius lepa, artur schvaner, dezideriu bogdan stetz, marius leon muthi. in mehedinti county, the floresti middle school and hinova middle school were part of the research. the study included 59 students from floresti middle school and 67 students from hinova middle school. gender distribution was not equal for mehedinti county, the research involving 68 boys and 58 girls, therefore 126 students. in caras-severin county, the “romulus ladea” middle school in oravita and middle school no. 8 in resita were part of the research. the study included 75 students from “romulus ladea” middle school in oravita and 75 students from middle school no. 8 in resita. gender distribution was not equal for caras-severin county, the research involving 80 boys and 70 girls, therefore 150 students. somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 206 in bistrita-nasaud county, the “mihai eminescu” middle school and “nicolae draganu” middle school in zagra were part of the research. the study included 48 students from “mihai eminescu” middle school and 40 students from “nicolae draganu” middle school in zagra. gender distribution was approximately equal for bistrita-nasaud county, the research involving 43 boys and 45 girls, therefore 88 students. the target group category includes students with learning difficulties, roma students, students from single-parent families, disorganised families or with parents abroad, students at risk of early dropout, students in foster care, commuting students – from urban and rural areas. the distribution by geographic area for the three counties shows that there are 96 boys and 82 girls in urban areas, and 95 boys and 91 girls in rural areas. all participants in this study are included in the main target group of the “sustainable social and education integration through sport activities” project (pnp001) coordinated by unefs in partnership with the norwegian school of sport sciences funded under the eea and norwegian grants 2014-2021, “local development and poverty reduction, enhanced roma inclusion” financial mechanism programme. testing procedures to outline the somatic and functional profile of children at risk of social exclusion, we used anthropometric measurements unanimously known in our field of research. for somatic indices, the height, weight, body mass index (bmi) and arm span were measured. for bmi, the who nutritional status was used: below 18.5 (underweight); 18.524.9 (normal weight); 25.0-29.9 (pre-obesity); 30.0-34.9 (obesity class i); 35.0-39.9 (obesity class ii), above 40 (obesity class iii) (who, 2020). for functional indices of physical development, the ruffier test was used. to apply the tests, subjects first needed to get used to their protocols. physical education teachers presented the protocols for them, and then applied the tests based on the instructions provided by the project implementation team. the tests involved identifying the anthropometric landmarks and using instruments such as stadiometer, scale, tape measure, stopwatch and pulse oximeter. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 207 the tests were applied between october and november 2019 during the activities carried out within the “sustainable social and education integration through sport activities” project (pnp001). to identify the functional profile of students from the western development region of romania through the ruffier test, we used the interpretation provided by cordun (2009, pp. 266-267), horghidan as cited by tudor (2013, pp. 172-173) and based on the obtained values: < 0 (very good adaptation to effort), 0.1 5 (good adaptation to effort), 5.1 10 (moderate adaptation to effort), 10.1 15 (insufficient adaptation to effort), 15.1 20 (poor adaptation to effort). statistical analysis the spss program allows interpreting the obtained results and outlining, with the help of descriptive statistics (arithmetic mean and standard deviation), the somatic and functional profile of students at risk of educational and social exclusion from middle school. the coefficient of variation, minimum value and maximum value were calculated. the result interpretation allowed us to highlight:  the somatic and functional profile of boys from the western region, by age;  the somatic and functional profile of girls from the western region, by age;  the somatic and functional profile of boys from the western region, by residence area;  the somatic and functional profile of girls from the western area, by residence area;  the somatic and functional profile of boys from mehedinti county, by age;  the somatic and functional profile of girls from mehedinti county, by age;  the somatic and functional profile of boys from bistrita-nasaud county, by age;  the somatic and functional profile of girls from bistrita-nasaud county, by age;  the somatic and functional profile of boys from caras-severin county, by age;  the somatic and functional profile of girls from caras-severin county, by age. somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 208 results according to table 1, boys aged 10 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.45 m, an average weight of 36.25 kg and an average arm span of 142.50 cm. the average bmi value is 17.23 kg/m 2 (underweight), and the average score in ruffier test is 17.23 points (poor adaptation to effort). boys aged 11 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.48 m, an average weight of 45.22 kg and an average arm span of 148.33 cm. the average bmi value is 20.21 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 13.12 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 12 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.54 m, an average weight of 46.67 kg and an average arm span of 154.14 cm. the average bmi value is 19.66 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.77 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 13 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.59 m, an average weight of 53.5 kg and an average arm span of 155.83 cm. the average bmi value is 20.47 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.75 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 14 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.64 m, an average weight of 56.15 kg and an average arm span of 165.05 cm. the average bmi value is 20.53 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.8 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 15 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.66 m, an average weight of 58.91 kg and an average arm span of 167 cm. the average bmi value is 21.52 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.55 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). table 1. descriptive data for the western region, boys, by age somatic tests arithmetic mean standard deviation coefficient of variation minimum maximum boys aged 10 years (n = 2) height (m) 1.45 .021 1.5% 1.43 1.46 weight (kg) 36.25 6.718 18.5% 31.50 41.00 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 209 arm span (cm) 142.50 .707 0.5% 142.00 143.00 bmi (kg/m2) 17.23 2.793 16.2% 15.25 19.20 ruffier test (points) 12.40 .000 0.0% 12.40 12.40 boys aged 11 years (n = 36) height (m) 1.48 .084 5.7% 1.32 1.64 weight (kg) 45.22 12.978 28.7% 26.10 76.00 arm span (cm) 148.33 8.485 5.7% 131.00 168.00 bmi (kg/m2) 20.21 4.291 21.2% 13.87 29.94 ruffier test (points) 13.12 3.147 24.0% 7.70 20.80 boys aged 12 years (n = 49) height (m) 1.54 .099 6.5% 1.34 1.83 weight (kg) 46.67 11.964 25.6% 24.60 81.00 arm span (cm) 154.14 10.612 6.9% 138.00 191.00 bmi (kg/m2) 19.66 3.800 19.3% 13.70 28.50 ruffier test (points) 10.77 2.469 22.9% 4.80 16.80 boys aged 13 years (n = 49) height (m) 1.59 .088 5.6% 1.39 1.75 weight (kg) 53.50 14.434 27.0% 30.00 100.00 arm span (cm) 155.83 24.379 15.6% 1.57 178.00 bmi (kg/m2) 20.47 4.625 22.6% 12.20 36.73 ruffier test (points) 10.75 2.197 20.4% 3.40 15.30 boys aged 14 years (n = 43) height (m) 1.64 .086 5.3% 1.38 1.80 weight (kg) 56.15 13.305 23.7% 29.40 95.00 arm span (cm) 165.05 8.824 5.3% 141.00 185.00 bmi (kg/m2) 20.53 3.895 19.0% 15.20 33.66 ruffier test (points) 11.80 2.813 23.8% 6.20 19.20 boys aged 15 years (n = 10) height (m) 1.66 .122 7.4% 1.35 1.78 weight (kg) 58.91 12.952 22.0% 40.00 80.00 arm span (cm) 167.00 11.499 6.9% 140.00 180.00 bmi (kg/m2) 21.52 4.786 22.2% 15.43 30.18 ruffier test (points) 11.55 1.990 17.2% 9.00 15.20 boys aged 16 years (n = 2) height (m) 1.67 .021 1.3% 1.65 1.68 weight (kg) 48.00 4.243 8.8% 45.00 51.00 arm span (cm) 162.50 3.536 2.2% 160.00 165.00 bmi (kg/m2) 17.30 1.090 6.3% 16.53 18.07 ruffier test (points) 9.95 1.061 10.7% 9.20 10.70 source: original data resulting from research somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 210 according to table 2, girls aged 11 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.5 m, an average weight of 43.64 kg and an average arm span of 148.63 cm. the average bmi value is 19.21 kg/m2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.38 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 12 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.54 m, an average weight of 48.11 kg and an average arm span of 152.22 cm. the average bmi value is 20.01 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.34 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 13 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.58 m, an average weight of 52.03 kg and an average arm span of 157.93 cm. the average bmi value is 20.24 kg/m2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.74 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 14 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.59 m, an average weight of 52.63 kg and an average arm span of 158.83 cm. the average bmi value is 20.34 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.43 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 15 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.58 m, an average weight of 48.58 kg and an average arm span of 156.63 cm. the average bmi value is 19.37 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 13.4 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 16 years from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.55 m, an average weight of 42.57 kg and an average arm span of 153.29 cm. the average bmi value is 17.69 kg/m 2 (underweight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.39 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). table 2. descriptive data for the western region, girls, by age somatic tests arithmetic mean standard deviation coefficient of variation minimum maximum girls aged 11 years (n = 26) height (m) 1.50 .067 4.5% 1.37 1.63 weight (kg) 43.64 9.698 22.2% 31.00 62.00 arm span (cm) 148.63 6.746 4.5% 135.00 160.00 bmi (kg/m2) 19.21 3.533 18.4% 13.60 26.14 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 211 ruffier test (points) 11.38 3.058 26.9% 5.60 19.00 girls aged 12 years (n = 45) height (m) 1.54 .092 6.0% 1.28 1.70 weight (kg) 48.11 12.634 26.3% 26.00 96.00 arm span (cm) 152.22 9.273 6.1% 128.00 170.00 bmi (kg/m2) 20.01 3.821 19.1% 14.74 33.22 ruffier test (points) 11.34 1.928 17.0% 5.00 14.50 girls aged 13 years (n = 55) height (m) 1.58 .069 4.4% 1.40 1.70 weight (kg) 52.03 11.672 22.4% 27.70 87.80 arm span (cm) 157.93 7.581 4.8% 141.00 174.00 bmi (kg/m2) 20.24 4.143 20.5% 12.20 32.35 ruffier test (points) 11.74 2.335 19.9% 6.50 20.80 girls aged 14 years (n = 36) height (m) 1.59 .066 4.1% 1.44 1.69 weight (kg) 52.63 9.450 18.0% 35.40 74.30 arm span (cm) 158.83 8.244 5.2% 135.00 173.00 bmi (kg/m2) 20.34 3.019 14.8% 16.10 28.13 ruffier test (points) 11.43 1.948 17.0% 7.00 14.80 girls aged 15 years (n = 4) height (m) 1.58 .041 2.6% 1.52 1.61 weight (kg) 48.58 6.898 14.2% 38.30 53.00 arm span (cm) 156.63 2.136 1.4% 153.50 158.00 bmi (kg/m2) 19.37 2.002 10.3% 16.45 21.00 ruffier test (points) 13.40 4.010 29.9% 9.40 17.60 girls aged 16 years (n = 7) height (m) 1.55 .075 4.9% 1.45 1.63 weight (kg) 42.57 8.182 19.2% 32.00 51.00 arm span (cm) 153.29 7.455 4.9% 145.00 163.00 bmi (kg/m2) 17.69 2.615 14.8% 14.22 21.40 ruffier test (points) 11.39 1.984 17.4% 8.10 14.20 source: original data resulting from research table 3 shows the somatic and functional profile of both boys and girls, by residence area. boys aged 10-16 years in urban areas from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.59 m, an average weight of 52.22 kg and an average arm span of 157.31 cm. the average bmi value is 20.44 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.73 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 212 boys aged 10-16 years in rural areas from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.54 m, an average weight of 49.43 kg and an average arm span of 155.83 cm. the average bmi value is 19.99 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 12.25 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 11-16 years in urban areas from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.57 m, an average weight of 50.13 kg and an average arm span of 154.43 cm. the average bmi value is 20.21 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.48 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 11-16 years in rural areas from the western region of the country have an average height of 1.55 m, an average weight of 48.76 kg and an average arm span of 155.55 cm. the average bmi value is 19.66 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.61 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). table 3. descriptive data for the western region, boys and girls from urban and rural areas somatic tests arithmetic mean standard deviation coefficient of variation minimum maximum boys from urban areas (n = 96) height (m) 1.59 .095 6.0% 1.35 1.79 weight (kg) 52.22 11.974 22.9% 30.00 80.00 arm span (cm) 157.31 19.006 12.1% 1.57 179.00 bmi (kg/m2) 20.44 3.890 19.0% 12.80 32.05 ruffier test (points) 10.73 1.985 18.5% 4.80 15.80 boys from rural areas (n = 95) height (m) 1.54 .114 7.3% 1.32 1.83 weight (kg) 49.43 15.444 31.2% 24.60 100.00 arm span (cm) 155.83 12.163 7.8% 131.00 191.00 bmi (kg/m2) 19.99 4.429 22.2% 12.20 36.73 ruffier test (points) 12.25 3.118 25.4% 3.40 20.80 girls from urban areas (n = 82) height (m) 1.57 .086 5.5% 1.28 1.70 weight (kg) 50.13 11.212 22.4% 26.00 96.00 arm span (cm) 154.43 9.274 6.0% 128.00 174.00 bmi (kg/m2) 20.21 3.503 17.3% 13.60 33.22 ruffier test (points) 11.48 1.497 13.0% 8.10 14.50 girls from rural areas (n = 91) height (m) 1.55 0.074 4.8% 1.37 1.69 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 213 weight (kg) 48.76 11.623 23.8% 27.70 87.80 arm span (cm) 155.55 8.275 5.3% 137.00 173.00 bmi (kg/m2) 19.66 3.812 19.4% 12.20 31.50 ruffier test (points) 11.61 2.855 24.6% 5.00 20.80 source: original data resulting from research in outlining the somatic and functional profile of middle-school students, the data by county, gender and age were analysed separately. boys aged 10 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.46 m, an average weight of 41 kg and an average arm span of 142 cm. the average bmi value is 19.2 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 12.4 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 11 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.46 m, an average weight of 42.08 kg and an average arm span of 146 cm. the average bmi value is 19.57 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 13.39 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 12 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.52 m, an average weight of 44.08 kg and an average arm span of 154.35 cm. the average bmi value is 19.26 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 12.04 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 13 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.55 m, an average weight of 46.73 kg and an average arm span of 156.38 cm. the average bmi value is 17.27 kg/m 2 (underweight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.02 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 14 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.65 m, an average weight of 59.43 kg and an average arm span of 166.44 cm. the average bmi value is 20.94 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 13.2 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 15 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.74 m, an average weight of 70 kg and an average arm span of 178.5 cm. the average bmi value is 23.05 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.65 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 11 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.51 m, an average weight of 45.26 kg and an average arm span of 150.85 cm. the average bmi value is 19.79 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.52 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 12 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.55 m, an average weight of 47.94 kg and an average arm span of 156 cm. the average bmi value is 19.36 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.68 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 214 girls aged 13 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.59 m, an average weight of 55.43 kg and an average arm span of 160.38 cm. the average bmi value is 20.3 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.64 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 14 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.58 m, an average weight of 53.2 kg and an average arm span of 159.83 cm. the average bmi value is 20.43 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.97 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 15 years from mehedinti county have an average height of 1.6 m, an average weight of 52.5 kg and an average arm span of 157.5 cm. the average bmi value is 20.55 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 14.1 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 11 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.56 m, an average weight of 55.25 kg and an average arm span of 152.75 cm. the average bmi value is 22.84 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.88 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 12 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.55 m, an average weight of 48.24 kg and an average arm span of 153.81 cm. the average bmi value is 20 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.8 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 13 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.59 m, an average weight of 56.82 kg and an average arm span of 153.73 cm. the average bmi value is 22.26 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.19 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 14 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.64 m, an average weight of 58.56 kg and an average arm span of 165.75 cm. the average bmi value is 21.59 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.34 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 15 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.62 m, an average weight of 58 kg and an average arm span of 161.8 cm. the average bmi value is 22.4 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 12.28 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 16 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.67 m, an average weight of 48 kg and an average arm span of 162.5 cm. the average bmi value is 17.3 kg/m 2 (underweight), and the average score in ruffier test is 9.95 points (moderate adaptation to effort). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 215 girls aged 11 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.51 m, an average weight of 44.44 kg and an average arm span of 146.44 cm. the average bmi value is 19.39 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.51 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 12 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.54 m, an average weight of 50.19 kg and an average arm span of 151.42 cm. the average bmi value is 20.92 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.54 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 13 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.57 m, an average weight of 52.73 kg and an average arm span of 157.27 cm. the average bmi value is 21.22 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.69 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 14 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.6 m, an average weight of 54.8 kg and an average arm span of 157.9 cm. the average bmi value is 21.3 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.85 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 16 years from bistrita-nasaud county have an average height of 1.49 m, an average weight of 38.33 kg and an average arm span of 147.67 cm. the average bmi value is 17.29 kg/m 2 (underweight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.97 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 11 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.48 m, an average weight of 42.93 kg and an average arm span of 149.33 cm. the average bmi value is 19.24 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 13.64 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 12 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.55 m, an average weight of 47.69 kg and an average arm span of 154.45 cm. the average bmi value is 19.61 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 8.76 points (moderate adaptation to effort). boys aged 13 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.65 m, an average weight of 52.86 kg and an average arm span of 162.25 cm. the average bmi value is 19.41 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 8.78 points (moderate adaptation to effort). boys aged 14 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.61 m, an average weight of 47.88 kg and an average arm span of somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 216 162 cm. the average bmi value is 18.38 kg/m 2 (underweight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.43 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). boys aged 15 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.66 m, an average weight of 53.03 kg and an average arm span of 168 cm. the average bmi value is 19.04 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.93 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 11 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.46 m, an average weight of 36.58 kg and an average arm span of 146.38 cm. the average bmi value is 16.9 kg/m 2 (underweight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.63 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 12 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.53 m, an average weight of 42.86 kg and an average arm span of 150.9 cm. the average bmi value is 18.24 kg/m 2 (underweight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.43 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 13 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.58 m, an average weight of 47.92 kg and an average arm span of 156.47 cm. the average bmi value is 18.9 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.91 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 14 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.6 m, an average weight of 48.64 kg and an average arm span of 157.75 cm. the average bmi value is 18.92 kg/m 2 (normal weight), and the average score in ruffier test is 11.96 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 15 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.56 m, an average weight of 44.65 kg and an average arm span of 155.75 cm. the average bmi value is 18.19 kg/m 2 (underweight), and the average score in ruffier test is 12.7 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). girls aged 16 years from caras-severin county have an average height of 1.59 m, an average weight of 45.75 kg and an average arm span of 157.5 cm. the average bmi value is 18 kg/m 2 (underweight), and the average score in ruffier test is 10.95 points (insufficient adaptation to effort). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 217 conclusion the average height of children from the western region of the country is between 1.45 m at the age of 10 years and 1.67 m at the age of 16 years for boys, and between 1.50 m at the age of 11 years and 1.59 m at the age of 14-15 years for girls. the average height of children from mehedinti county is between 1.46 m at the age of 10 years and 1.74 m at the age of 15 years for boys, and between 1.51 m at the age of 11 years and 1.60 m at the age of 15 years for girls. the average height of children from bistrita-nasaud county is between 1.55 m at the age of 11-12 years and 1.67 m at the age of 16 years for boys, and between 1.51 m at the age of 11 years and 1.60 m at the age of 14 years for girls. the average height of children from caras-severin county is between 1.43 m at the age of 11 years and 1.66 m at the age of 16 years for boys, and between 1.46 m at the age of 11 years and 1.59 m at the age of 16 years for girls. the average weight of children from the western region of the country is between 36.25 kg at the age of 10 years and 58.91 kg at the age of 15-16 years for boys, and between 45.22 kg at the age of 11 years and 48.58 kg at the age of 14 years for girls. the average weight of children from mehedinti county is between 41.0 kg at the age of 10 years and 70.00 kg at the age of 15 years for boys, and between 45.26 kg at the age of 11 years and 53.20 kg at the age of 14 years for girls. the average weight of children from bistrita-nasaud county is between 48.24 kg at the age of 11-12 years and 58.00 kg at the age of 15 years for boys, and between 44.44 kg at the age of 11 years and 54.80 kg at the age of 14 years for girls. the average weight of children from caras-severin county is between 31.50 kg at the age of 10 years and 53.03 kg at the age of 15 years for boys, and between 36.58 kg at the age of 11 years and 45.75 kg at the age of 16 years for girls. the average arm span of children from the western region of the country is between 142.50 cm at the age of 10 years and 167 cm at the age of 15 years for boys, and between 148.63 cm at the age of 11 years and 156.63 cm at the age of 15 years for girls. the average arm span of children from mehedinti county is between 142.00 cm at the age of 10 years and 178.50 cm at the age of 15 years for somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 218 boys, and between 146.00 cm at the age of 11 years and 160.38 cm at the age of 13 years for girls. the average arm span of children from bistrita-nasaud county is between 152.75 cm at the age of 11 years and 165.75 cm at the age of 14 years for boys, and between 146.44 cm at the age of 11 years and 157.90 cm at the age of 14 years for girls. the average arm span of children from caras-severin county is between 143.00 cm at the age of 10 years and 168 cm at the age of 15 years for boys, and between 146.38 cm at the age of 11 years and 157.75 cm at the age of 14 years for girls. the average bmi of children from the western region of the country is between 17.22 kg/m 2 (underweight) at the age of 10 years and 21.52 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 15 years for boys, and between 19.21 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 11 years and 20.34 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 14 years for girls. the average bmi of children from mehedinti county is between 19.20 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 10 years and 23.05 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 15 years for boys, and between 19.79 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 11 years and 20.43 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 14 years for girls. the average bmi of children from bistrita-nasaud county is between 19.39 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 11 years and 22.40 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 15 years for boys, and between 19.39 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 11 years and 21.30 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 14 years for girls. the average bmi of children from caras-severin county is between 15.25 kg/m 2 (underweight) at the age of 10 years and 19.61 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 12 years for boys, and between 16.90 kg/m 2 (underweight) at the age of 11 years and 18.92 kg/m 2 (normal weight) at the age of 14 years for girls. the average score in ruffier test for children from the western region of the country is between 13.12 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 11 years and 9.95 (moderate adaptation to effort) at the age of 16 years in the case of boys, and between 11.34 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 12 years and 13.40 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 15 years in the case of girls. the average score in ruffier test for children from mehedinti county is between 13.39 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 11 years and 10.65 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 15 years in the case of boys, and between 11.52 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 11 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 219 years and 14.10 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 14 years in the case of girls. the average score in ruffier test for children from bistrita-nasaud county is between 11.88 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 11 years and 9.95 (moderate adaptation to effort) at the age of 15 years in the case of boys, and between 11.51 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 11 years and 11.97 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 16 years in the case of girls. the average score in ruffier test for children from caras-severin county is between 13.64 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 11 years and 8.76 (moderate adaptation to effort) at the age of 12 years in the case of boys, and between 10.63 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 11 years and 12.70 (insufficient adaptation to effort) at the age of 15 years in the case of girls. acknowledgments this paper is an integral part of the “sustainable social and education integration through sport activities” project (pnp001) funded under the eea and norwegian grants 2014-2021, “local development and poverty reduction, enhanced roma inclusion” financial mechanism programme coordinated by the national university of physical education and sports in bucharest in partnership with the norwegian school of sport sciences in oslo. authors’ contributions all authors have equally contributed to this study and should be considered as main authors. references badea, d. (2019). somatic and motor profile of the population at risk of social exclusion. discobolul – physical education, sport and kinetotherapy journal, supplementary issue, 6-11. https://doi.org/10.35189/iphm.icpesk.2019.2 bambra, c., netuveli, g., & eikemo, t. a. (2010). welfare state regime life courses: the development of western european welfare state regimes and agerelated patterns of educational inequalities in self-reported health. international journal of health services, 40(3), 399-420. https://doi.org/10.2190/hs.40.3.b batista-foguet, j. m., fortiana, j., currie, c., & villalbii, j. r. (2004). socioeconomic indexes in surveys for comparisons between countries. social https://doi.org/10.35189/iphm.icpesk.2019.2 https://doi.org/10.2190/hs.40.3.b somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 220 indicators research, 67(3), 315-332. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:soci.0000032341.14612.b8 berry, c., gerry, l., hayward, m., & chandler, r. (2010). expectations and illusions: a position paper on the relationship between mental health practitioners and social exclusion. journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2009.01538.x cojocaru, v., stănescu, m., tudor, v., ciolcă, c., stoicescu, m., & mujea, a.-m. (2015). comparative study about the particularities of motricity in children from the development regions of romania. in m. stanescu, & m. paunescu (eds.), 4th international congress of physical education, sport and kinetotherapy, bucharest 11-13 june 2014 (pp. 579-585). medimond – monduzzi editore international proceedings division. cole, t. j. (2003). the secular trend in human physical growth: a biological view. economics & human biology, 1(2), 161-168. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1570677x(02)00033-3 cordun, m. (2009). kinantopometrie. [kinanthropometry]. cd press. coussée, f., roets, g., & de bie, m. (2009). empowering the powerful: challenging hidden processes of marginalization in youth work policy and practice in belgium. critical social policy, 29(3), 421-442. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0261018309105178 currie, c., molcho, m., boyce, w., holstein, b., torsheim, t., & richter, m. (2008). researching health inequalities in adolescents: the development of the health behaviour in school-aged children (hbsc) family affluence scale. social science & medicine, 66 (6), 1429-1436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.11.024 danubio, m. e., & sanna, e. (2008). secular changes in human biological variables in western countries: an updated review and synthesis. journal of anthropological sciences, 86, 91-112. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/47a4/ f5738a0a7c14f5626fc3ce821970e68ce413.pdf?_ga=2.187254568.18271162 43.1590327616-1720258790.1588164446 delemarre van waal, h. a. (1993). environmental factors influencing growth and pubertal development. environmental health perspectives, 101(suppl 2), 39-44. retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.1289%2fehp.93101s239 due, p., holstein, b. e., lund, r., modvig, j., & avlund, k. (1999). social relations: network, support and relational strain. social science & medicine, 48(5), 661673. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00381-5 due, p., holstein, b. e., lynch, j., diderichsen, f., gabhain, s. n., & scheidt, p., currie, c. (2005). bullying and symptoms among school-aged children: international comparative cross-sectional study in 28 countries. european journal of public health, 15(2), 128-132. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cki105 https://doi.org/10.1023/b:soci.0000032341.14612.b8 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2009.01538.x https://doi.org/10.1016/s1570-677x(02)00033-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1570-677x(02)00033-3 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0261018309105178 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.11.024 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/47a4/f5738a0a7c14f5626fc3ce821970e68ce413.pdf?_ga=2.187254568.1827116243.1590327616-1720258790.1588164446 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/47a4/f5738a0a7c14f5626fc3ce821970e68ce413.pdf?_ga=2.187254568.1827116243.1590327616-1720258790.1588164446 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/47a4/f5738a0a7c14f5626fc3ce821970e68ce413.pdf?_ga=2.187254568.1827116243.1590327616-1720258790.1588164446 https://dx.doi.org/10.1289%2fehp.93101s239 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00381-5 https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cki105 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 221 floud, r., wachter, k., & gregory, a. (1990). height, health and history: nutritional status in the united kingdom, 1750-1980. cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511983245 gosselin, v., boccanfuso, d., & laberge, s. (2020). social return on investment (sroi) method to evaluate physical activity and sport interventions: a systematic review. international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 17(1): 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-00931-w lawson, h. a. (2005). empowering people, facilitating community development, and contributing to sustainable development: the social work of sport, exercise, and physical education programs. sport, education and society, 10(1), 135-160. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357332052000308800 levitas, r., pantazis, c., fahmy, e., gordon, d., lloyd, e., & patsios, d. (2007). the multidimensional analysis of social exclusion. bristol institute for public affairs university of bristol. https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/6853/1/multidimensional.pdf marmot, m. (2005). social determinants of health inequalities. lancet, 365(9464), 1099-1104. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(05)71146-6 pietiläinen, k. h., maija, k., rissanen, a., & rose, r. j. (2002). genetic and environmental influences on the tracking of body size from birth to early adulthood. obesity research, 10(9), 875-884. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2002.120 proos, l. a. (1993). antropometry in adolescence – secular trends, adoption, ethnic and environmental differences. hormone research, 39(suppl 3), 18-24. https://doi.org/10.1159/000182781 rexhepi, a. m., brestovci, b., & krasniqi, a. (2011). physical characteristics at different ages. international journal of morphology, 29(1), 105-111. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0717-95022011000100018 room, g. (ed.). (1995). beyond the threshold: the measurement and analysis of social exclusion. the policy press. stănescu, m., bota, a., bejan-mureşan, r., & corlaci, i. (2020). sport activities in romania – a tool for social innovation. revista românească pentru educaţie multidimensională, 12(1), 320-333. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/216 stănescu, m., ciolcă, c., & stoicescu, m. (2016). comparative analysis of the biological and motor potential of school population from romania (urban and rural areas). the european proceedings of social and behavioural sciences, 15, 922-934. http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2016.09.115 stănescu, m., stoicescu, m., & bejan, l. b. (2018). secular trend of students’ somatic development from different romanian geographical regions. the european proceedings of social and behavioural sciences, 36, 1-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.03.1 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511983245 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-00931-w https://doi.org/10.1080/1357332052000308800 https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/6853/1/multidimensional.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(05)71146-6 https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2002.120 https://doi.org/10.1159/000182781 https://doi.org/10.4067/s0717-95022011000100018 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/216 http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2016.09.115 http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.03.1 somato-functional profile of children at risk of educational and social … virgil tudor, et al. 222 szabo, e., keczeli, d., farmosi, i., gaál, s., & keresztesi, k. (2013). somatic development and some motor performances of young girls based on age and birth season. applied studies in agribusiness and commerce, 1, 117-123. https://doi.org/10.19041/apstract%2f2013%2f1%2f20 tarabini, a., jacovkis, j., & montes, a. (2017). factors in educational exclusion: including the voice of the youth. journal of youth studies 21(6), 836-851. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2017.1420765 tudor, v. (2013). măsurare şi evaluare în sport [measurement and evaluation in sport]. discobolul. ulijaszek, s. (2006). the international growth standard for children and adolescent project: environmental influences on preadolescent and adolescent growth in weight and height. food and nutrition bulletin, 27(suppl 4), 279-294. https://doi.org/10.1177/15648265060274s510 van der veken, k., lauwerier, e., & willems, s. (2020). ”to mean something to someone”: sport-for-development as a lever for social inclusion. international journal for equity in health, 19, 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1119-7 world health organization (who). (2020). body mass index (bmi). world health organization. http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/diseaseprevention/nutrition/a-healthy-lifestyle/body-mass-index-bmi https://doi.org/10.19041/apstract%2f2013%2f1%2f20 https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2017.1420765 https://doi.org/10.1177/15648265060274s510 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1119-7 http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/nutrition/a-healthy-lifestyle/body-mass-index-bmi http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/nutrition/a-healthy-lifestyle/body-mass-index-bmi the analysis of parents and pedagogues’ social attitude to education of disabled people brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 243-259 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/86 monitoring and usage of project technologies in vocational (vocationaltechnical) education institutions natalia kulalaieva¹, tetiana gerliand 2 , andrii kalenskyi 3 , hanna romanova 4 , valentyna miroshnichenko 5 1 ph.d. in chemistry, associate professor, head of the laboratory of professional training technologies, institute of vocation education and training of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine. e-mail: culture2016@ukr.net, orcid.org/00000002-8613-1495 2 ph.d. in pedagogical sciences, researcher of the laboratory of professional training technologies, institute of vocation education and training the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine. e-mail: alfina_g@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-00027991-0431 3 doctor of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, head of the laboratory for scientific-methodological support of specialists training in colleges and technical schools, institute of vocation education and training of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine. e-mail: kalenskyandrii@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9034-5042 4 doctor of pedagogical sciences, abstract: the article reveals the main results of the ascertaining phase of the experiment of the research project "methodical principles of developing the project technologies for the professional training of future qualified workers of agrarian, construction and motor transport industries", which consist in the diagnostic analysis of educational project activities in the institutions of vocational (vocational-technical) education. the analysis of the responses of teaching staff of vocational (vocationaltechnical) education institutions conducted by the authors showed the need to facilitate their readiness to develop project technologies in the training of future qualified workers, the creation of educational and methodological support for project activities in the professional training of students, namely: developing the corresponding methodological recommendations, textbooks etc. the obtained results showed that the teachers are aware of the essence of the project activity in the training of future qualified workers, but not all of them have mastered effective methods and techniques for the application of project technology. some contradictions were found when teachers noticed the positive influence of such technologies on students’ motivation and performance, and at the same time, they argued that these technologies are limited in use. it is determined that the rational application of educational project technologies in vocational (vocational-technical) education institutions promotes the development of the professional competence of the future qualified workers. keywords: project technology; educational project activity; professional training; vocational (vocational-technical) education institutions; readiness. how to cite: kulalaieva, n., gerliand, t., kalenskyi, a., romanova, h., & miroshnichenko, v. (2020). monitoring and usage of project technologies in vocational (vocationaltechnical) education institutions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 230-242. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/86 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/86 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/86 professor, deputy director of the institute of vocation education and training of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine. e-mail: romanania@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-23886997 5 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, head of pedagogics and socialeconomic disciplines department, faculty of foreign languages and humanities, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine. e-mail: valentynadpsu@meta.ua, orcid.org/0000-0002-3931-0888 monitoring and usage of project technologies in vocational (vocational… natalia kulalaieva et al. 245 1. introduction the modern orientation of society on sustainable development and a balanced economy places essential requirements for a qualified worker as an active subject who has wide general educational, general technical and professional knowledge, skills and abilities, high qualification, easily orientates oneself in production, is professionally mobile and capable for employment in the labour market. technological and scientific innovations change our life and direct the receiving knowledge process into industry one which is aimed at developing learning ability of students accordingly, the use of effective modern technologies is actualized with the aim of forming the key and professional competences of future qualified workers, among which the important place belongs to the project training. this issue of modern education requires methodological substantiation. the analysis of recent studies and publications. due to the rapid development of the information and communication technologies, there has been a significant increase of literature regarding their use in teaching activities. some details on these issues, namely can be also found in the works of m. karpushyna, i. bloshchynskyi, a. nakonechna, and k. skyba (2019) dealing with the enhancement of ukrainian border guards’ training, and using some computer programs to intensify the learning process of these military specialists (bloshchynskyi, 2017a). such scholar as i. bloshchynskyi also revealed the significance of informational and communication technologies usage during independent foreign language professional training of future border guard officers who study on specialty «state border security and protection» according to the first (bachelor) level of training of higher education for passing state examinations. special attention is given to working out of teaching material (vocabulary decks and cards) for the future border guard officers` training according to the following sections of anki program: studying of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, word combinations, expressions for interviewing of foreign citizens, etc. (bloshchynskyi, 2017b). besides, network technologies should not be considered as a purely technical phenomenon. today, they have entered the person’s world quite deeply and organically, penetrating into both all socio-cultural practices, up to the everyday life, and his physiological nature. the researcher a.i. diaconu (2019) presents interesting ideas about changes in a person’s professional sphere. regarding changes in the network space of education, we should pay attention to the influence of information and network technologies on the participants of the educational interaction because brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 246 according to i. melnychuk, l. rebukha, t. zavgrodnia and i. bloshchynskyi (2018), education helps the people “to successfully implement their expertise both in the changing conditions of the modern world and in future professional activities” as it broadens their outlook. some scholars also consider that “information exchange and communication media allow us to cover long distances ….”. (hanaba, miroshnichenko, shumovetska, makohonchuk, halimov, bloshchynskyi, 2019). the issues of creating warm-up as a means of fostering targetlanguage performance in a particular english class at its initial stage in the form of an interview based on quasi-professional communication have been revealed in the research of (karpushyna et al., 2019). some scholars such as i. melnychuk, i. drozdova, i. savchak, and i. bloshchynskyi (2019) emphasise that higher school instructors’ pedagogical skills need certain improvement according to the changes of the 21 st century and its demands in order to become a “basis of educational strategy for development of students’ professional training. of a particular interest are the research works of the last years of (ball, 2012; kobernyk, 2011; stepaniuk, 2012), in which are reflected the essence and structure of the educational project activity, the conditions of its introduction into the educational process, namely of the vocational education are revealed. regarding neuropedagogical issues some authors examined chinese students’ intercultural adaptation experience in foreign universities that depends on effective interpersonal communication, which improves language proficiency, motivation, and promotes students’ interaction with representatives of foreign cultures. they state that developed by them interviews and questionnaires with the international students were compiled and processed to determine the main problems of adaptation from physiological, socio-psychological, sociocultural, academic points of view (bilotserkovets et al., 2020). other significant study which underlines the principles of online pedagogy and enriches abilities of orthopedically disabled learners including family members provide an example of open resources education within a frame of counseling and guidance. it shows how open education resources could be motivation for social learning within the life as part of the life-long learning philosophy (altinay et al., 2018). the study by v. marinescu presents the opinions and attitudes towards on-line set of courses for romanian students who were enrolled in an on-line learning project in “area studies” namely, east asia studies (marinescu, 2017). concerning neuropsychological researches some authors investigated differences in the formation of personality traits for children with various language disorders monitoring and usage of project technologies in vocational (vocational… natalia kulalaieva et al. 247 and children who do not have language disorders from a neuropsychological perspective in urban areas (panisoara et al., 2019). the objective of this paper is to monitor the use of project technology by teachers in vocational (vocational-technical) education institutions during the professional training of future qualified workers. 2. research methods in this study a mixed method approach has been employed: analytical, pedagogical projection, modelling, diagnostic (questioning, testing, expert evaluation); empirical; statistical, pedagogical experiment with different methods of mathematical statistics. 3. results providing high quality professional training for graduates of vocational (vocational-technical) education institutions (v(vt)ei) requires the involvement of each student in productive educational and cognitive activities, the formation in future professionals of such competencies as research, informational, communicative, the ability to independently acquire the latest knowledge and effectively apply it in practice. project activity as a practical implementation of the idea of productive learning corresponds exactly to such requirements. taking into account the relevance and expediency of project training in vocational (vocational-technical) education, in the institute of vocational education and training of the national academy of education sciences of ukraine the staff of the laboratory of technology for vocational education during the years 2016-2018 has been carrying out the research work "methodical principles of developing the project technology for professional training of future qualified workers of agrarian, construction and motor transport industries". the following methods were used in the research: analysis of philosophical, psychological and pedagogical, educational-methodical literature, normative-legal documents, educational documents and results of educational and production activity of students, synthesis, comparison, classification, systematization and generalization of theoretical and experimental data, simulation, empirical methods (conversation, questioning, method of expert evaluation, pedagogical experiment with quantitative and qualitative analysis of results); statistical methods (frequency analysis, computer tools for statistical processing of experimental data (spss statistical package, microsoft excel program). brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 248 during the theoretical analysis of modern scholarly works on the problem, the essence of the definitions used in the study was formulated and refined. namely, we view methodical principles of developing the project technology as a complex of interconnected and interdependent methods, forms and means of planning, organization, motivation, control, analysis and adjustment of project vocational training aimed at increasing the effectiveness of vocational training of students of v(vt)ei. educational project activity in the v(vt)ei is an educational and cognitive independent activity of students with the participation of the teacher as a coordinator, aimed at the result achieved through the solution of a professional task theoretically or practically meaningful for them. the types of project technology include the following (by type of training projects): web quests, research, practice-oriented, creative, role-based projects, etc. the focus of our research on the development and application of project technology by teaching staff in the training of future qualified workers led to the statement of the problem of the readiness of the teachers and the formation of students' readiness for the project activity. the readiness of the teaching staff of vocational-technical education institutions for the project activity is considered as a coherent internal personal formation, which includes motives, values, professional i-concept, professionally important qualities, professional knowledge, abilities, skills, methods of activity that ensure the effectiveness of this activity. in the structure of the specified readiness, we distinguish the following components: motivationalvalue (motives and values of this activity, professional orientation of teachers); personal (professional i-concept, personal qualities, selfmanagement ability); cognitive (knowledge about effective technology of project training for vocational (vocational-technical) education, knowledge of the main categories and concepts of project vocational training, knowledge of psychological and pedagogical conditions of application of project professional training technology); activity component (the ability to determine the objectives of the project professional training; to develop project objectives, to motivate and stimulate the students to the project activity in vocational training; to apply various types, methods and forms of project professional training; to establish feedback in the project professional training and to make the appropriate adjustment; form the technological map of the project). the readiness of the students of vocational-technical education institutions for the project activity is defined as a coherent internal personal formation, characterized by their ability to independently acquire the necessary monitoring and usage of project technologies in vocational (vocational… natalia kulalaieva et al. 249 knowledge, individual and group fulfilment of cognitive, research, design and other tasks that result in the creation of educational products. we have substantiated the structure of such readiness, and determined that it consists of motivational (awareness of the goals, motives of the project activity in professional training); content (knowledge of the essence of the project activity, methods and forms of group interaction) and personality-activity (informational-analytical, organizational, communicative, technological skills, reflexive abilities, etc.) components. in order to study the readiness of teachers and students for the project activity, the staff of the laboratory of vocational training technologies of the institute of vocational education and training of the national academy of education sciences of ukraine developed an appropriate instrumentarium (questionnaires for teachers and students). to ensure greater objectivity, the surveys were conducted anonymously. to explain the rules of the questionnaire, the participants were offered an instruction. the questionnaires included both open and closed questions, as well as their combination (in closed questions, it was also suggested to indicate, optionally, their own answer). taking into account that the research had to cover a large sample of respondents, an on-line survey form was selected using the google forms web service. this service makes it possible to place an electronic version of the questionnaire, collect and quickly process the survey results, and also copy the collected material for further processing in special statistical programs, namely spss. in the survey of pedagogical staff of v(vt)ei about the state of using the project technology in teaching activities, took part 2184 teachers from all regions of ukraine. among them: 814 teachers of v(vt)ei who train motor transport industry specialists, 1220 v(vt)ei teachers who train construction industry specialists, and 891 v(vt)ei training specialists in the agrarian sector. given that it is considered enough to engage 400 people for conducting mass surveys (for a tolerance of 5 %), this sample can be considered fully representative. among the respondents there were persons of different ages and sexes. most of the questioned teachers work in professional lyceums (50.4 %), the smallest number (5.1 %) – are in vocational education centres. among the respondents, the largest part is of those who teach subjects of vocational-practical training (40,83 %), then – vocational-theoretical – (31,2 %), social-humanitarian – (16,1 %), scientific-mathematical – (15,8 %), general vocational – (11,4 %) and physical training – (3,9 %). the survey was attended by teaching staff who have different qualification categories, brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 250 pedagogical title/status and work experience, which also confirms the representativeness of the sample of the research. in the course of the survey, we determined what experience of implementation of the project activity in the training of future qualified workers the teachers of v(vt)eis have. the summary of the obtained results is presented on fig. 1. 0 10 20 30 40 50 p e rs e n t 1 2 3 4 fig. 1. distribution of teachers v(vt)eis by experience of project activity implementation in training of future qualified workers therefore, for the majority of teachers the use of project technology is not of a systematic nature. the percentage of teachers who are characterized by a stable successful practice of using such technologies is slightly higher than the number of those who tried to implement project technology in the training of future qualified workers, but did not obtain any positive results. almost 14 % of the questioned teachers have never used project technology. among those pedagogical workers who actively develop, constantly and successfully implement project technology in the training of future specialists, the majority are those who prepare future qualified construction workers (fig. 2). by their numbers, the teachers who prepare the future qualified workers of the motor transport sector differ insignificantly, and the least significant this indicator is for teachers who train future qualified workers of the agrarian sector. 1 – never used; 2 – tried to use, but not very successfully; 3 – successfully used one or several times; 4 – constantly and successfully used 13.9 % 19.7 % 45.4 % 21 % monitoring and usage of project technologies in vocational (vocational… natalia kulalaieva et al. 251 0 5 10 15 20 25 p e rs e n t 1 2 3 profiles of education 21,9 % 18,9 % 16,5 % fig.2. comparison of the number of teachers v(vt)eis (in %), who constantly use the project technology according to training specialization of future qualified workers: 1 – construction; 2 – motor transport; 3 – agriculture. there is a significant divergence in the use of technology of project professional training by teachers of various subjects (fig. 3). fig. 3. comparison of the number of teachers of v(vt)eis, who constantly use project technology, by professional training (in %) p e rc e n ta g e brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 252 much more often, project technology is used by teachers of generalvocational subjects (30.6 %) and scientific-mathematical training (29.7 %), and much less – by physical training teachers (10.5 %). first of all, it is connected with the scope of these subjects, the presence of certain teaching and methodical provision (support). interviews with methodologists of the educational (scientific) methodical centres (cabinets) of vocational-technical education gave the opportunity to make a rating of project technologies by the frequency of their development and use by the teachers of v(vt)eis: 1 – information projects; 2 – research projects; 3 – practice oriented projects; 4 – creative projects; 5 – role-based projects; 6 – web-quests. therefore, most often during the training of future qualified workers, teachers are turning to the development of information projects, the product of implementing which is the educational information that can have a diverse presentation (summary, composition, essay, dictionary, multimedia presentation, etc.). also, teachers develop research projects, which involves students studying certain phenomena using empirical methods (for instance, questionnaires, interviewing). a lot less frequently during the training of future qualified workers, teachers develop web-quests that involve students solving problems with elements of the role-playing game, for the completing of which internet resources are used. teachers also use research projects in which students study certain phenomena using empirical methods (eg, questionnaires, interviews). teachers use practice-oriented, social and creative design technologies much less during the professional training of future skilled workers. especially difficult for them was the use of web-quests, which involve students completing a problem task with elements of a role-playing game, for which the internet resources are used. 4. discussion during the study, we found out the teachers' opinions about the benefits (opportunities) and disadvantages (constraints) of project technologies in the training of future qualified workers. to do this, the questionnaire included open questions. the answers received were grouped monitoring and usage of project technologies in vocational (vocational… natalia kulalaieva et al. 253 into several categories, which are based on the frequency of such responses (table. 1). table 1. advantages and capabilities of project technologies in the training of future qualified workers (according to teachers' assessment) № / categories of answers examples of answers 1. formation of research skills of students, capability of self-education independent research and search activity of students. developing in students the ability to use research techniques: gathering information, analysing from different points of view, putting forward hypotheses, ability to draw conclusions. students do not only receive the sum of knowledge. they also learn to acquire knowledge on their own, applying them to solve new cognitive and practical tasks. students develop cognitive skills and creative thinking; the teacher has the opportunity to rationally distribute his/her time. students have an ambitious, independent and proactive position in their studies. development of research, technological and informational competencies in students. 2. promoting the professional development of students students are better developing thanks to individual work. students develop critical thinking. development of students' creativity; advanced learning; opportunity to explore the issue. students have the opportunity to study some of the discipline issues more deeply, to show initiative. 3. teamwork better cooperation with students. group activities. development of communicative skills, ability to work in a team. provide an opportunity for students to see the result of team work, to unite through solving the problem at hand. 4. increase of the practical orientation of the professional training acquisition of practical experience by students. improvement of vocational and practical training of students. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 254 № / categories of answers examples of answers 5. ensuring the effectiveness of professional training increasing the effectiveness of theoretical and practical vocational training. 6. achieving a better mastery of the content of the training material promote better perception and memorization by students of learning material. opportunity for the students to acquire more information. 7. motivation, actuation of educational activity increase of the motivation of students to study. students perform feasible and interesting tasks. the students' interest in learning is increasing. 8. providing an individual approach opportunity to implement an individual approach in teaching the students. 9. opportunity for creative activity of teachers possibility of use in distance learning. variety of learning forms. availability and versatility, time saving. the best opportunity in teaching subjects. 10. negative answers difficult to answer. i do not use it. i do not see the benefits. no benefits. therefore, the teachers of v(vt)eis stated the following advantages of project technology in professional training of future qualified workers: promotion of professional development of students, formation of their professionally important qualities. there are quite a lot of those who paid attention to the greater effectiveness of these technologies in comparison with others, their practical orientation, provision with their help of better mastering of the content of the educational material, the possibility of increasing the individualization of training. at the same time, there were opinions that these technologies have no advantages, although there were few such responses. the disadvantages of project technology in the training of future qualified workers in general were fewer than advantages, and they were less diverse. they are grouped by frequency of use as follows (table. 2). monitoring and usage of project technologies in vocational (vocational… natalia kulalaieva et al. 255 table 2. disadvantages and restrictions of project technologies in the training of future qualified workers (according to teachers' assessment) № / categories of answers examples of answers 1. insufficient level of material and technical base lack of internet resources. lack of computer equipment in the classrooms. insufficient capability of implementation. problems in access to the internet. limited financial security. insufficient amount of computer, multimedia equipment. 2. time limits not enough time at the lesson/class. excessive time consuming. the preparation of the project requires a lot of time (1 – 1,5 months). it takes more time to study a particular topic. 3. students' unreadiness student's passivity. weak motivation of students. lack of interest of students. v(vt)eis’ students need more control from the teacher, so some will simply not perform the task. students do not always like this teaching method. possible unequal contribution of students to work. it is difficult to objectively evaluate the work of each student. 4. additional complications, teacher's unreadiness it takes a lot of time to (individually) train students, to prepare them for a new kind of activity, not everyone manages to do it as it should be done. it is necessary to take into account the level of preparation of students and skills of independent work. the need for continuous training and control by the teacher. it is difficult for the teacher to control the learning process, and the result is not always effective. preparing a project takes a lot of time, and the result does not always justify itself. students need to adjust to the mutual-learning mechanism. lack of experience with application of project technology. not everyone has access to project technology, little awareness. 5. features of the the load of curriculum. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 256 № / categories of answers examples of answers organization of the learning process, special conditions some teachers believe that project technology can be used when teaching only certain subjects, for example, special disciplines. it is difficult for teachers to plan actions related to the project activity. 6. negative answers difficult to answer. no disadvantages. it was also noted in future skilled workers that a positive attitude towards project technologies is interrelated with cognitive processes, because the key is the ability to manage emotions so that they not only influence but also guide the learning process. this is facilitated by neuropedagogy (klementovich, levanova & stepanov, 2016). students need to be taught to be aware of and control their feelings and behavior. it is important that they understand when they are negative or sad and do not know how to control their emotions. in addition, high levels of stress complicate the learning process, so it is very important to create a favorable learning atmosphere, without stress, and teach students to manage their anxiety. however, to increase the productivity of learning helps not only the ability to manage negative emotions, but also the study of material that can evoke positive emotions. this material is remembered better and for a long time. this is called conscious learning. 5. conclusions and prospects for further research the analysis of the answers of the teachers of the v(vt)eis about the experience of using the project technologies testifies to the need for the readiness of the teaching staff of v(vt)eis for the project activity in the training of future qualified workers, the development of teaching and methodical support for project training in the professional training of v(vt)eis students, namely: methodical recommendations, textbooks etc. most teachers considered as a disadvantage of project technology in the training of future qualified workers the insufficient level of material and technical base (computers, multimedia, internet access). the problem of inefficient use of these technologies in terms of time constraints is also identified. a significant number of respondents noted the lack of readiness of v(vt)eis students for the project activity in vocational training, first of all, due to their differences in cognitive, intellectual capabilities, levels of monitoring and usage of project technologies in vocational (vocational… natalia kulalaieva et al. 257 theoretical and empirical knowledge. teachers expressed fears that the implementation of the technology, in particular, in aspects of control, organization of work of students, will increase the intensity of their work. it was also mentioned that there is a lack of available competencies of teachers for the implementation of project activities in professional training. in general, the results indicate that teachers are aware of the essence of the project activity in the training of future qualified workers, but not all employ methods and techniques that can increase the productivity of project technology. we also found some contradictions when teachers noticed the positive influence of such technologies on students' motivation and performance, and at the same time, they argued that these technologies are limited in terms of students’ interest. it is determined that most teachers develop and use project technologies in the training of future specialists non-systematically; only one fifth of the questioned teachers is constantly and successfully developing and using such technologies, among which prevail the ones that train future specialists in the construction industry. it is established that the most active in the development of project technologies for the training of future qualified workers are the teachers, who teach subjects of general vocational and scientific-mathematical training. it is revealed that the potential of project technologies for the training of qualified workers in the motor transport, construction, and agrarian sectors is not fully exploited: preference is given to certain types of projects, in particular informational; insufficient attention is paid to the development and application of interdisciplinary projects, and it capabilities are not fully used. to the directions of further research, we adhere educational and methodological support of the project activity in the v(vt)eis, the training of teachers for it, as well as the spread of the successful experience of its implementation in the system of vocational (vocational-technical) education in ukraine. references altinay, z., altinay, f., ossianilsson, e., & aydin, c. (2018). open education practices for learners with disabilities. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 9(4), 171-176. ball, s. (2012). global education inc., new policy network and the neoliberal imaginary. routledge. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 258 bilotserkovets, m., fomenko, t., gubina, o., berestok, o., shcherbyna, y. & krekoten, o. (2020). multifaceted problems of intercultural adaptation: a case study of chinese students in ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 178-188. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/22 bloshchynskyi, i. (2017a). enhancement of cadets’ practical training at the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi. science and education, 4, 5-10. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-4-1 bloshchynskyi, i. h. (2017b). usage of anki specialised program application during future border guard officers’ independent foreign language professional training for passing state examination. information technologies and learning tools, 58 (2), 49–58. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v58i2.1605 diaconu, a-i. (2019). challenges for the workforce in the fourth industrial revolution. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 8(1), 4960. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/16 hanaba, s., miroshnichenko, v., shumovetska, s., makohonchuk, n., halimov, a., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2019). strategies for treating the other in the methodological focus of intersubjectivity. postmodern openings, 10(4), 168181. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/101 karpushyna, m., bloshchynskyi, i., nakonechna, a., & skyba, k. (2019) creating meaningful foreign language environment by means of content-based starters. universal journal of educational research, 7(12), 2710 2716. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2019.071219 karpushyna, m., bloshchynskyi, i., zheliaskov, v., chymshyr, v., kolmykova, o., & tymofieieva, o. (2019). warm-up as a means of fostering targetlanguage performance in a particular english сlass. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(2), 141-159. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/122 klementovich, i., levanova, e. & stepanov, v. (2016). neuropedagogy: a new branch of scientific knowledge. pedagogics and psychology of education, 2, 8–17. kobernyk, o. m. (2011). teoretyko-metodolohichni pidkhody do obgruntuvannia kontseptsii tekhnolohichnoi osvity. [theoretical and methodological approaches to the concept of technological education substantiation]. teoretyko-metodolohichni zasady tekhnolohichnoi ta profesiinoi osvity. naukovi zapysky. seriia: pedahohika, 3, 15–23. marinescu, v. (2017). teaching area studies through two different on-line platforms. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 8(3), 38-46. melnychuk, i., drozdova, i., savchak, i. & bloshchynskyi, i. (2019). higher school instructors’ pedagogical skills improvement as a basis of educational https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/22 https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-4-1 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v58i2.1605 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/16 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/101 https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2019.071219 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/122 monitoring and usage of project technologies in vocational (vocational… natalia kulalaieva et al. 259 strategy for development of students’ professional training. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4 supl. 1), 170-184. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/184 melnychuk, i., rebukha, l., zavgorodnia, t. & bloshchynskyi, i. (2018). strategic significance of english in self-education of the students of sociohumanitarian specialities for fundamentalization of university education. modern journal of language teaching methods, 8(11), 712–720. panisoara, g., ghita, c., lazar, i. & fat, s. (2019). study on the development of personality traits in children with language disorders and children without language disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(2), 37-46. stepaniuk, k. i. (2012). sutnist poniattia „proektna diialnist” ta yoho stanovlennia v systemi osvity. [the essence of the notion “project activity” and its development in education system] visnyk cherkaskoho natsionalnoho universytetu: seriia „pedahohichni nauky”, 3 (216), 116–119. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/184 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 11-24 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/217 neuropsychological approach to the problem of aggressive manifestations of personality inna chukhrii¹, anna zaplatynska2, tetiana komar3, yuliia melnyk4, nina liesnichenko5, liliia nemash6 1 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynsky state pedagogical university, ukraine, chukhriiinna@gmail.com 2 national pedagogical drahomanov university, ukraine, ortonpu@ukr.net 3 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynsky state pedagogical university, ukraine, tanykomar1234@gmail.com 4 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynsky state pedagogical university, ukraine, yuliia.melnyk@vspu.edu.ua 5 h. s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, ukraine, nakaznjuk@gmail.com 6 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynsky state pedagogical university, ukraine, lili.nemash@gmail.com abstract: the article presents a neuropsychological analysis of aggressive manifestations of normal personality and aggression of persons with brain dysfunction. theoretical analysis of foreign and domestic works on neuropsychological correction of aggressive behavior is carried out. the neuropsychological program on correctional and prophylactic work for persons with affective-personal disorders is offered, considering the peculiarities of determination of aggressive manifestations of personality. the essence of the concept of "aggression" is specified. the types and functions of aggression of personality of different nature are considered: positive, ambivalent, negative. the neuropsychological causes of aggression in connection with the conditionality of aggression by situational and individual and psychological personal factors according to the scheme "personality aggressive reaction situation neuropsychological factor" are clarified. the multifactorial (combination of neuropsychological and social conditions of a formation of aggression) genesis of aggressive behavior in personality disorders, the basis of which is the destructive level of anxiety, which originates from childhood, is analyzed. the integration of neuropsychological and socio-psychological approaches to the study of the problem of aggression is presented. keywords: neuropsychological correction, neuropsychological prophylaxis, brain dysfunction, aggressive behavior, biological and social factors, personality disorders, neuropsychological features of aggression. how to cite: chukhrii, i., zaplatynska, a., komar, t., melnyk, y., liesnichenko, n., & nemash, l. (2021). neuropsychological approach to the problem of aggressive manifestations of personality. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 11-24. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/217 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/217 mailto:chukhriiinna@gmail.com mailto:ortonpu@ukr.net mailto:tanykomar1234@gmail.com mailto:yuliia.melnyk@vspu.edu.ua mailto:nakaznjuk@gmail.com mailto:lili.nemash@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/217 neuropsychological approach to the problem of aggressive manifestations of … inna chukhrii, et al. 12 introduction manifestations of aggression of personality are among the most important components in its structure, a natural manifestation of human life, an adequate psychological property of the subject-creator of his border living space provided a high level of his psychological culture, motivation and ability to turn aggression (and not only his own but also other people's) into an optimal personal resource or successful solution of a psychological or social problem. however, not everyone, unfortunately, manages to use the energy of human aggression in a positive way with useful, above all, peaceful goals. one of the reasons in the ratio of social and biological neurobiological factors are dominant for the manifestation of aggressive behavior. undoubtedly, lack of psychological knowledge of conflictology, increased personal predisposition to conflict or proactive aggression as a personality trait, desire for power, chronic stress on the background of psychosomatic disorders, reactive aggression under the influence of frustrational situations, lack of psychological culture in general and many other internal psychological factors can cause manifestations of uncontrolled aggression. regardless of the phenomenology of aggression as a property of normal personality or with a tendency to deviant behavior, neuropsychological prophylaxis of aggression in children or adults will always be highly effective, because neuropsychological methods, taking into account the identified psychophysiological factors and neural circuits of the brain, are usually used to restore functionality and stabilization of the nervous system as the most important factor for human social, physical, mental and psychological health. it is known that psychological methods of self-regulation are not able to effectively affect the exhausted nervous system; a comprehensive approach will always be more effective, and the leading approach is neuropsychological. neuropsychological approach to aggressiveness of personality: domestic and foreign experience in neuropsychology, aggression is studied mainly in two aspects: as a neuropsychological resource (constructive aggression associated with the self-actualization of personality, moreover, without taking into account the dominant role of the cerebral hemispheres, because for left-handed creative strategies of self-actualization positively correlate with optimally adequate manifestation of aggression) and caused by neural complexity, with brain dysfunctionality, destructive personal aggressiveness. the ambivalent https://context.reverso.net/перевод/английский-русский/aggressiveness brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 13 function of aggression can be neutral for other people and internally conflictive for the individual. neuropsychological study of aggressive manifestations of personality is possible through the integration of neuropsychological, mental, socio-psychological and socio-cultural approaches to the problem of aggression. consideration of the relationship between the concepts of "aggression" and "aggressiveness" by domestic and foreign researchers reveals the specifics of their objective understanding: aggression as a psychological phenomenon, form of behavior, biological mechanism of selfpreservation, mental state, emotional reaction to a critical situation, innate human reaction to "protect the occupied territory" or to the hostile surrounding reality, the process of interaction with certain functions and organization, the fact of causing violence or psychological discomfort to others and aggressiveness as an innate instinctive or acquired mental personality trait, personal feature of a perception and understanding of the world, system of stable emotional, motivational and semantic, instrumental and stylistic characteristics. neuropsychology takes into account the conditioning of aggressive manifestations of personality by the simultaneous interaction of biological (genes) and social (environment) factors. aggressiveness is a personality trait associated with a tendency to rapidly develop an affective state of aggression with a low threshold of its occurrence, which leads to its incomprehension, breach of self-control, maladaptive mental manifestations, and destructive behavior. biological, social and psychological causes of aggressive manifestations of personality as a complex factor have been studied by many foreign and domestic scientists (baron & richardson, 2003; berkowitz, 2001; nerubasska et al., 2020; rudenko, 2012; tkach, 2017). neuropsychological and socio-psychological prophylaxis and correction of aggression of persons with affective and personal disorders are considered by foreign and domestic researchers (beley, 2019; chapin & russell-chapin, 2013; dyachuk, 2008; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; tkach, 2018; tomchuk, 2013). in the neurobiological approach, each act of aggressive behavior is a complex manifestation of the neuroanatomical structure and a special neurophysiological process. according to many researchers, aggressiveness, as a personal disposition, is a system of interrelated neurophysiological and psychological variables. neurotransmitters (serotonin, noradrenaline, dopamine, and acetylcholine) are increasingly associated with aggressive behavior, depending on the effects of the hormonal system and genetic differences. in addition, the level of testosterone in the blood is correlated https://context.reverso.net/перевод/английский-русский/noradrenaline neuropsychological approach to the problem of aggressive manifestations of … inna chukhrii, et al. 14 with individual differences in aggressiveness and low frustration resistance, and seasonal fluctuations in serotonin concentration with changes in emotional lability, manifestations of protective aggressive reactions, suicide rates. along with this, the frequency of aggressive behavior depends on culture (heckhauzen, 2003). genetic predisposition to aggressive behavior and its neurobiological factors are successfully studied by modern foreign experts (bortolato et al., 2011; delprato et al., 2018). like most biological factors, hormones do not act independently of the social context, which has a significant impact on the manifestation of aggressiveness. most likely, to cause aggression hormones must interact with social factors (baron & richardson, 2001). thus, the peculiarities of social interaction are often the causes of aggressive behavior of a child raised in a family without punishment, so he or she has no personal boundaries of normative behavior in adulthood, and tends to be cruel and unempathetic to others (bandura, 1973). we believe that aggression can be considered as a protective psychological mechanism formed in childhood and mainly in adolescence. the emergence of aggressive manifestations of the individual as selfprotection is possible against the background of hormonal rearrangement in the body, and requires the strengthening of hormonal levels in relation to subjectively significant trigger situations, people and their relationships, which, of course, in adulthood requires long-term psychotherapy and neuropsychological correction. b. tkach (2017) argues that in the system of subject-object relations aggression can be: territorial, of defense, of attack and of competition. in the context of the individual-society relationship, aggression is divided into protoaggression, congenital dissocial behavior disorder, pathological aggression/autoaggression, reflexive aggression, instrumental aggression (acquired actively and passively), unsocialized aggressive behavior, addiction of aggressive behavior, psychopathological aggression, non-impulsive aggression. according to the scientist, it is important to take into account the genetic vulnerability to the aggressiveness of carriers of the 7r variant of the drd4 gene and with the allele of the 3r mao-a gene, which fall into the destructive environment. when we take as a basis disorders in the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, tonsil, aggression occurs in personality disorders of organic origin, dissocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, hypobulia, acquired psychopathological personality type, ataraxia, ease of processing of emotionally negative information and hostile attribution (tkach, 2017, p. 127). violation of higher mental functions leads to the experience of brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 15 hostility and the assessment of situations and events as hostile, which leads to manifestations of aggression (foster et al., 1993). l. berkowitz believed that aggression can have different origins, under the influence of biological and psychological mechanisms, and biological factors should not be ignored. it is necessary to differentiate instrumental and affective, or emotional aggression. frustration leads to aggression only to the extent that it generates negative feelings. discomfort may or may not lead to aggression, as determined by a number of psychological and situational factors. each of these factors, considered as a separate one, will not have much power in causing aggression, they should be considered in a complex (berkowitz, 2001). m. zilmann in the "excitation-transfer theory" noted that physiological excitation does not disappear instantly, but fades gradually, so the combination of previous excitation and anger can increase the likelihood of aggressive behavior with greater force. the transfer of excitation from one situation to another is most likely when a person does not realize that he or she retains some excitation from a previous situation in a new situation unrelated to the first (zilmann, 1979). aggressiveness is associated with cognitive, emotional, volitional qualities of the individual, the features of his or her unconscious sphere, which are formed in the process of socialization at the level of the separate individual. cognitive factors include, first of all, a certain way of thinking that mediates aggressive behavior, inadequately inflated self-esteem. in clinical cases, cognitive factors include mental retardation of a shallow severity caused by morbid process of reduce of intelligence. among the emotional factors are considered the tendency to anger and rage, which motivate aggressive actions; increased affective excitability in a situation of frustration, anxiety, affective disorders (mania, depression, and dysphoria), emotional instability. aggression can be a function of the pharmacological state caused by alcohol and situational factors that disrupt complex cognitive processes: there happens a lack of memory, occurs a slowdown of central brain processes etc. recognition of the determinism of aggression by external stimuli, by conditions and upbringing should not lead to the denial of biological factors in the emergence and development of this phenomenon (rudenko, 2012). in the modern literature, the origin of aggression in personality disorders is considered in two ways: the search for biological predictors of aggressive behavior and disorders of adaptation in psychopathic individuals and the social origin of psychopathic aggression. one of the modern is the model of psychology of motivation of aggressive behavior, therefore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/excitation-transfer_theory neuropsychological approach to the problem of aggressive manifestations of … inna chukhrii, et al. 16 interesting, in our opinion, is a complex study of biological, social and psychological characteristics exactly in the motivation of aggressive manifestations of personality. aggressive behavior in personality disorders has a complex multifactorial genesis, which is based on a destructive level of anxiety, which originates in childhood and is fixed in the family and then in the social life of a disharmonious personality. instability of positions, motives, personality orientation, incorrect legal and moral assessments of one’s own behavior are the result of personality immaturity, disharmony of emotional and volitional qualities of personality, mood instability, increased irritability and low threshold of frustration resistance. researchers are pointing to the predominant role of disorders of the volitional process, without denying that this process is also due to the motivational sphere. thus, a. dyachuk empirically confirmed that convicts with personality disorders and the maximum level of aggression are characterized by psychopathic selfactualization, dominant affectogenic and selfish motives, anxiety symptoms, systematic alcohol consumption and suicide attempts, mostly demonstrative in nature (dyachuk, 2008). in foreign works, the influence of a low level of volitional regulation and control of mental activity at the level of personal disorders in offenders is also noted (becerra-garcía, 2015). in a. raine's biosocial theory (2002), numerous facts confirm that greater manifestations of violent behavior cause a simultaneous combination of biological and social factors, especially neuropsychological factors of aggression and adverse family influence on the upbringing of children, future offenders. a.v. morgan and s. o. lilienfeld (2000) empirically researched the relationship of antisocial behavior with brain dysfunction, personality disorders and substantiated the beneficial effect of neuropsychological methods on its correction. recently, the idea of the connection of depressive disorder with various manifestations of aggression has been repeatedly expressed. aggression, which includes: irritability, dysphoria, anger, hostility, consisting of a triad of emotions (contempt, disgust and anger), and anger as an independent emotion can be directed by a person to the outside world as well as to himself (guilt, self-harm, self-torture up to suicidal thoughts and actions the risk of suicide in depression is approximately 15%). in reactive depression, aggressive manifestations are closer to normal than in endogenous depression. endogenous depression is associated with a more pronounced tendency to suppress the need for warm, emotional contacts, while reactive depression, on the contrary, is associated with a predominance of emotions, focus on people, which may indicate a pronounced need for brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 17 emotional attachment (abramova et al., 2004). it is clear that neuropsychological correction, along with cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, is more needed by people with a genetic predisposition to depression. to develop a program for the psychocorrection of destructive manifestations of anger and aggression in the norm, it is also appropriate to consider a three-dimensional model of anger and aggression management, which includes and combines neuropsychological, cognitive and behavioral components. the systemic structure of higher mental functions is that there are three components of the symptom complex: primary defect dysfunction directly related to the affected part of the brain (manifestations of impulsivity, uncontrolled aggression, difficulties in emotional control); secondary defect disorders caused by the systemic consequences of the primary defect (inability to adequately assess the complexity of a stressful situation or the ability of one’s own personal resource to overcome frustration, here it is more important for a neuropsychologist to identify the cause of aggression than diagnosing mental personality traits); tertiary symptoms compensatory readjustments positive and negative (with a positive compensatory neuropsychological mechanism, successful external motivational influences of upbringing or a prosperous environment contribute to effective emotional self-regulation). there are a huge number of theoretical justifications for the emergence of aggression, its nature and factors influencing its manifestation. however, they all necessarily fall into the following four categories, which reduce (or see), aggression in the following: 1) innate motives and inclinations; 2) needs that are activated by external incentives; 3) cognitive and emotional processes; 4) current social conditions in combination with previous training (beley, 2019). aggressive manifestations of personality are the result of virtually simultaneous interaction of individual psychological (temperament, character), socio-psychological (specifics of social, communicative interaction) and biological (genes) characteristics. in our opinion, the neuropsychological specifics of aggression in combination with psychological and social manifestations of aggression, especially in terms of psychopathological ontogenesis, are among the important issues to consider regarding the choice of methods of correction by a competent specialist. neuropsychological approach to the problem of aggressive manifestations of … inna chukhrii, et al. 18 neuropsychological prophylaxis and correction of aggressiveness in people with affective personality disorders neuropsychological approach to the prevention and correction of aggressiveness of normal personality and of a psychological predisposition to aggressive behavior of persons with low or high self-esteem, with affective or personality disorders, takes into account the use of such techniques and technologies: training exercises on the formation of a responsible attitude to a healthy lifestyle, solving of psychological problems, in particular, on the formation of behavioral skills, altruism and the development of empathy; psychotherapeutic techniques to actualize the work of the left hemisphere of the brain (which is typical for people who often experience emotions of pleasure, happiness) and to work with situational manifestations of destructive aggressiveness; relaxational to relieve emotional stress and restore energy; rules of psychohygiene of adequate manifestation of aggression; complex technologies of recovery of an organism a healthy sleep, a full-fledged nutrition, an optimum ratio of physical activities and rest, etc. from the point of view of neuropsychology, aggression can also be often accompanied by narcissistic, borderline, dissocial, mental disorders of persons with specific anatomical and physiological specifics of the brain, some of them – asymmetric hippocampus and reduced tonsils, volume of the anterior singular cortex and gray matter in the prefrontal cortex. a complex neuropsychocorrective program for working with aggressive behavior in children and adults with brain dysfunctions was developed by b. tkach (2018). thus, for people with dysfunction of the orbitofrontal part of the prefrontal cortex (dissocial personality disorder; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) it is recommended to learn to keep attention on the course of own mental processes and to actualize selflimitation (yoga, oriental martial arts, tennis, throwing of objects; tasks "find the differences in the pictures", mazes, puzzles; the introduction of the rule "count to 10 before you act"). individuals with dysfunction of the ventromedial part of the prefrontal cortex (narcissistic personal disorder) need to return the ego and conscience, to form awareness of their own emotions and feelings of others, to develop empathy (meditative practices and role-playing games with reflection of frustrational situations "aggressor" and "victim", writing of works about emotions, drawing and sculpting of emotional faces, normalization of self-esteem). dysfunction of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (hypobulia; bigotry; attention deficit syndrome). individuals with this disorder need to increase self-esteem, selfbrain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 19 awareness, self-confidence and a positive perception of their own image of "i". exercises to strengthen the positive in the self-concept are best suited for this: "success card" (pie chart with different areas of personality); "diary of success", involvement in clubs, practicing of meditation to realize their condition. for the persons with dysfunction of the lateral (convexital) part of the prefrontal cortex activity to reduce arbitrariness in the motor sphere is indicated (yoga, meditation on proprioception, the formation of a "conscious map of the body", which is presented in the neocortex; transformation of destructive actions into a verbal plane, in particular the rule "stop and think about what you want to do and consider whether it is expedient"). individuals with normal or slightly increased hippocampal function should be taught to evaluate all manifestations of their own aggression, strengthen guilt in the case of targeted aggression against others, learn to take responsibility for their actions, increase empathy (meditation on "empathy"), to form skills of social competence (to expand the repertoire of solving of problem situations; to provide knowledge of social roles and their patterns of behavior). hellinger constellations are very effective. instead, those with reduced hippocampal function need to reduce their excessive sensitivity to negative attitudes to themselves, to carry out emotional desensitization to the perception of situations as hostile to themselves, to overcome the attitude that others have only hostile intentions, to develop awareness of the full range of their emotions and control over them (relaxation techniques: muscle relaxation, deep breathing, visual images), meditations, work with fears (verbalization of fears), role-playing games and hellinger constellations (tkach, 2018). based on neuropsychological analysis, it can be assumed that hyperactivation of the right hemisphere inhibits the anterior-associative parts of the left hemisphere, as well as the weakness of the hippocampal disturbance of formation of time perspective and disappearance of feeling of habitual fluidity of time that occurs to veterans. whereas a good orientation in space allows the formation of a time perspective based on spatial gnosis, and the return of social time becomes the first step towards resocialization. timing and correction of cognitive distortions are achieved due to the preserved ability to understand complex logical and grammatical constructions. reduced ability to plan activity in time is secondary and is easily corrected by time management training. s. tomchuk’s (2013) training program on psychocorrection of aggressiveness of personality takes into account the physiological aspect (relaxation), cognitive aspect (identification and correction of irrational neuropsychological approach to the problem of aggressive manifestations of … inna chukhrii, et al. 20 cognitive interpretations) and behavioral aspect (improvement and formation of new social skills). in the physiological direction of the psychologist's correctional work, by improving self-control and somatovegetative self-regulation, an aggressive person can realize that he or she has misinterpreted the physical sensations that preceded the attacks of anger and aggression. gradual training of aggressive individuals of relaxation significantly improves their level of tolerance and stimulates them to realize the difference between anger, automatic processes and processes that can be controlled by relaxation. the most effective turned out to be the method of progressive muscle relaxation (modified version), the technique of abdominal breathing, and visualization techniques for relaxation. the cognitive direction in the psychocorrection of aggressiveness of personality provided for formation of motivation for change using the technique of "search for gain and loss". by focusing on episodes of manifestation of aggression, a person can use this technique to consider the advantages and disadvantages of his or her behavior. in order for an aggressive person to become aware in general of the mechanisms and triggers (modifiers) that lead him to maladaptive behavior, some specific anger attacks need to be analyzed in detail (situations, sequence of provocations, tone, posture, content, consequences) by keeping diaries of anger attacks, role-playing games and socratic conversation. one of the main approaches in the correction of aggressiveness of personality is the cognitive restructuring of "hot" thoughts, irrational rules and assumptions, formation of the skill of cognitive self-monitoring to the smallest initial deviation towards the appearance of a state of anger and aggression, graduated cognitive rehearsals in the imagination in combination with already formed skills of selfrelaxation, creation of cognitive coping cards, etc. behavioral direction of psychocorrection of aggressiveness of personality involves the development of social skills and abilities in order to replace aggressive behavior with assertive or to form the skills of constructive aggressive response. achieving the result of reducing the behavioral manifestations of aggression is possible only when the training conditions will determine a very clear and specific model of the desired, new behavior, considering ways to encourage and to strengthen it. in the implementation of this direction, the methods of role-playing games, planning and implementation of a new model of behavior in significant frustration situations for the individual, consolidation of new skills using the methods of positive reinforcement are used. demonstration of anger in different situations is recommended. demonstration of anger can be used in non-interference in social situations: maintaining contact with others, not brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 21 participating in the discussion, but with an internal self-analysis of maladaptive thoughts and misinterpretations; as well as demonstration of anger by participating in discussions in which the individual puts into practice his or her already realized new social skills expresses and listens to criticism, uses active listening, expresses rejection, different opinions, etc. (tomchuk, 2013). foreign researchers are actively using neuropsychological correction, in particular mental trainings with meditative practices. the fields of neurobiology and neuropsychology are growing rapidly, and neurologists now understand that the human brain has the ability to adapt and develop new living neurons, which is facilitated by new tasks (with elements of novelty), essentially allowing the brain to transform itself. thus, t.j. chapin and l.a. russell-chapin (2013), experts in the field of neurotherapy, confirm in practice that the brain can be taught to self-regulate and become more efficient due to neurofeedback. richard j. davidson, sharon begley (2012), in particular, proved the healing properties of neuropsychological technologies that are effective for providing a person with a feeling of emotional well-being. in the process of performing their professional functions, a practical psychologists must be able to diagnose indicators of aggressiveness and propensity to it, as well as to distinguish between different forms of its manifestations: from socially acceptable to antisocial; from constructive to destructive; from personally expedient to personally deforming. wherein every specialist must remember that aggressive behavior is caused not just by a complex of various external (frustrating or conflict situations) and internal factors (the subject's sensitivity to these situations, the presence of experience learning, etc.), but their system, which realized in the process of forming a motive (motivation) in the relevant patterns of behavior (beley, 2019). conclusions modern neuropsychological theory of aggression and aggressiveness and aggressology tend to be integral, as they apply the methodological principles of analysis of these phenomena in an interdisciplinary approach – from the standpoint of not only medical but also socio-humanitarian sciences, which undoubtedly contributes to the study of factors of effective adaptation of the individual in unstable socio-psychological living conditions. in human aggression and personal aggressiveness there is always a measure of the ratio of mental, social and biological, which causes the complexity of the phenomenological assessment of aggressive neuropsychological approach to the problem of aggressive manifestations of … inna chukhrii, et al. 22 manifestations, in particular the neuropsychological features of aggressiveness of personality. individual aggressive manifestations of personality have their etiology and specific features, which explains the use of a complex individual approach by clinical psychologists or neuropsychologists in each case of diagnosis of a high level of aggression. given the pathological homeostasis associated with complex brain dysfunctions and neuropsychological mechanisms of aggression, it is appropriate to prevent aggressive behavior with a systematic application of neuropsychological approach to create such neuropsychological conditions of correction, when weak characteristics of higher mental functions are compensated by strong ones due to tertiary symptoms, i.e. positive compensatory rearrangements. on the one hand, the brain with the dominant centers of aggression is very difficult to correct, on the other its plasticity at a young age, a prosperous socio-psychological atmosphere, professional support of people with inadequate aggressive behavior by competent professionals can be positive factors in reducing aggression or converting its energy in constructive manifestations. modern social requirements are associated with neuropsychological factors of manifestations of constructive aggressiveness of the individual, in particular emotional intelligence: understanding and acceptance of emotional shades of one's own and another's aggression, emotional self-regulation, management of one's own and another's emotions as cortical mechanisms of assertive behavior. according to age psychology, genetic psychology and neuropsychology, the mental development of the individual and the formation of brain structures, the development of its functionality are interrelated and depend on the conditions of the social environment. therefore, it is important to create favorable conditions for the development of neuropsychological mechanisms of assertive behavior of a self-sufficient individual through successful social interaction, meditative practice, a culture of positive thinking. references abramova a., dvoryanchikov n., enikolopov s., iznak a., & chayanov n. (2004). osobennosti proyavleniya agressii pri depressivnyih sostoyaniyah [specifics of the manifestation of aggression in depressive states]. scientific center for mental health, russian academy of medical sciences. www.researchgate.net/publication/258205548_osobennosti_proavlenia_a gressii_pri_depressivnyh_sostoaniah/link/55f55e2f08ae1d980395218f/do wnload http://www.researchgate.net/publication/258205548_osobennosti_proavlenia_agressii_pri_depressivnyh_sostoaniah/link/55f55e2f08ae1d980395218f/download http://www.researchgate.net/publication/258205548_osobennosti_proavlenia_agressii_pri_depressivnyh_sostoaniah/link/55f55e2f08ae1d980395218f/download http://www.researchgate.net/publication/258205548_osobennosti_proavlenia_agressii_pri_depressivnyh_sostoaniah/link/55f55e2f08ae1d980395218f/download brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 23 bandura, a. (1973). aggression a social learning analysis. prentice-hall. baron, r., & richardson, d. (2001). agressiya [aggression]. piter. becerra-garcía, j. a. (2015). neuropsychology of domestic violence: a comparative preliminary study of executive functioning. medicine, science and the law, 55(1), 35–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0025802414525148 beley, m. (2019). psykholohichna sutnist ahresii ta yii vplyv na deviantnu povedinku pidlitkiv: metodychni rekomendatsii dlia studentiv spetsialnostei "praktychna psykholohiia v haluzi osvity" [psychological essence of aggression and its influence on deviant behavior of teenagers: methodical recommendations for students of specialties "practical psychology in the field of education"]. ivanofrankivsk. berkovits, l. (2001). agressiya: prichinyi, posledstviya i kontrol [aggression: causes, consequences and control]. primeeuroznak. bortolato, m., floris, g., & shih, j. c. (2018). from aggression to autism: new perspectives on the behavioral sequelae of monoamine oxidase deficiency. journal of neural transmission (vienna, austria : 1996), 125(11), 1589–1599. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-018-1888-y chapin, t. j., & russell-chapin, l. a. (2013). neurotherapy and neurofeedback: brainbased treatment for psychological and behavioral problemshttps. routledge. davidson, r. j., & begley, s. (2012). the emotional life of your brain: how its unique patterns affect the way you think, feel, and live--and how you can change them. hudson street press. delprato, a., bonheur, b., algéo, m. p., murillo, a., dhawan, e., lu, l., williams, r.w., & crusio, w. e. (2018). a quantitative trait locus on chromosome 1 modulates intermale aggression in mice. genes, brain and behavior, 17(7), e12469. https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12469 dyachuk, a. (2008). kliniko-psykhopatolohichni ta psykholohichni osoblyvosti motyvatsii ahresyvnoi povedinky pry rozladakh osobystosti [clinico-psychopathological and psychological specifics of motivation of aggressive behavior in personality disorders] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. the institute of neurology, psychiatry and addiction of the academy of medical sciences of ukraine. https://repo.dma.dp.ua/119/ foster, h. g., hillbrand, m., & silverstein, m. (1993). neuropsychological deficit and aggressive behavior: a prospective study. progress in neuropsychopharmacology & biological psychiatry, 17(6), 939–946. https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-5846(93)90021-j hekhauzen, h. (2003). motivatsiya i deyatelnost [motivation and activity]. piter. morgan, a. b., & lilienfeld, s. 0. (2000). a meta-analytic review of the relation between antisocial behavior and neuropsychological measures of executive function. clinical psychology review, 20(1), 113–136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0025802414525148 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-018-1888-y https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12469 https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-5846(93)90021-j neuropsychological approach to the problem of aggressive manifestations of … inna chukhrii, et al. 24 https://scottlilienfeld.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/01/morgan2000.pdf nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 raine, a. (2002). biosocial studies of antisocial and violent behavior in children and adults: a review. journal of abnormal child psychology, 30(4), 311– 326. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015754122318 rudenko, l. (2012). protsesualni kharakterystyky ahresyvnoi povedinky [procedural characteristics of aggressive behavior]. naukovyi chasopys npu imeni m. p. drahomanova. seriia 19 : korektsiina pedahohika ta spetsialna psykholohiia [scientific journal of npu named after m. drahomanov. series 19: correctional pedagogy and special psychology], 21, 418424. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ nchnpu _019_2012_21_108 tkach, b. (2017). neiropsykholohichnyi pidkhid do problemy liudskoi ahresii v umovakh suchasnoho suspilstva [neuropsychological approach to the problem of human aggression in modern society]. visnyk kyivskoho natsionalnoho un-tu imeni tarasa shevchenka. – k., seriia (psykholohiia) [bulletin of the taras shevchenko national university of kyiv. series psychology], 1(6)/2(7), 124–127. ]http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/host/10.23.10.100/db/ftp/visnyk/p syhologiya_6-7_2017.pdf tkach, b. (2018). neiropsykholohichna korektsiia osnovnykh form deviantnoi povedinky [neuropsychological correction of the main forms of deviant behavior]. psychological journal, 4(14), 15 https://doi.org/10.31108/2018vol14iss4pp234-248 tomchuk, s. (2013). pokhodzhennia i korektsiia ahresyvnosti osobystosti u teorii ta praktytsi kohnityvno-povedinkovoi terapii [the origin and correction of aggression of personality in the theory and practice of cognitive behavioral therapy]. visnyk asotsiatsii psykhiatriv ukrainy [bulletin of the association of psychiatrists of ukraine], 4. http://www.mifua.com/archive/article/36922 zilmann, d. (1979). hostility and aggression. erlbaum. https://scottlilienfeld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/morgan2000.pdf https://scottlilienfeld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/morgan2000.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1023/a:1015754122318 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2012_21_108 http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/host/10.23.10.100/db/ftp/visnyk/psyhologiya_6-7_2017.pdf http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/host/10.23.10.100/db/ftp/visnyk/psyhologiya_6-7_2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.31108/2018vol14iss4pp234-248 http://www.mif-ua.com/archive/article/36922 http://www.mif-ua.com/archive/article/36922 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 236-254 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/229 formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of neuropedagogy oksana hnoievska¹, inna babii2, iryna kalynovska3, anna cherednyk4, alona nikitenko5, antonina minenok6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kyiv, ukraine, nmcio@ukr.net 2 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, in77na77@ukr.net 3 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, kalunovska@gmail.com 4 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, anytaleo2507@gmail.com 5 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, alena.nikitenko.84@ukr.net 6 t. h. shevchenko national university “chernihiv colehium”, chernihiv, ukraine, antonina_mok@ukr.net abstract: since any psychological and pedagogical correction involves the modification or creation of neural connections for a new model of thinking and behavior, such activities of the teacher is impossible without taking into account the data of neuropsychology and neuropedagogy. the purpose of the study is to develop and theoretically substantiate the method of formation of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers in the process of professional retraining on the basis of a neuropedagogical approach. the study involved 142 respondents primary school teachers (70 testing group and 72 experimental group). for effective formation of correctional and pedagogical competence of teachers on the basis of neuropedagogy in the process of professional retraining used technologies of contextual learning a. verbytsky (2006), which allowed to form a holistic structure of professional activity of teachers by optimal combination of reproductive and active methods and reproduction of neurosocial context of pedagogical activity. the number of teachers with a high level of formation of the cognitive component increased by 53.7%, motivational 52%, reflective 50.7%, operational 49.2%. the necessity of applying contextual teaching technology has been proved, which allows creating an integrated structure of professional activity of primary school teachers by using the optimal combination of reproductive and active teaching methods and reproducing the neurosocial context of professional activity using the content potential of pedagogical disciplines for positive motivation for the implementation of inclusive education. keywords: indicators of correctional competence, neuropedagogy, lateral profile, neurosocial context, professional competence, neurophysiological features. how to cite: hnoievska, o., babii, i., kalynovska, i., cherednyk, a., nikitenko, a., & minenok, a. (2021). formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of neuropedagogy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 236-254. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/229 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/229 mailto:nmcio@ukr.net mailto:in77na77@ukr.net mailto:kalunovska@gmail.com mailto:anytaleo2507@gmail.com mailto:alena.nikitenko.84@ukr.net mailto:antonina_mok@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/229 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 237 introduction global trend in the field of social policy of the late xx century is characterized by the introduction of integration into special education and the fight against various manifestations of segregation. in the theory of correctional pedagogy, this was embodied in the development of conceptual provisions that contribute to the creation of conditions for equality in the development of children with special needs of psychophysical development of different levels of educational standard. the concept of "school for all" was introduced in the salamanca declaration, adopted in 1994 by 92 countries, including ukraine. this document identifies the priority of educational policy as the need to create an approach that maximally provides conditions for the education of children in institutions with inclusive education. however, the problem in the full embodiment of inclusion remains the neuropsychological difference of children with special needs, such as neurotic, psychopathic or autistic accentuations of the nervous system, clear homolateral accentuation of the brain, low or high neuroreactivity, and so on. teachers of ordinary secondary schools often lack the necessary knowledge of neuroscience, nor sufficient neuropedagogical tools, which makes research to improve neuropedagogical competencies relevant. the main problematic aspects of neuropedagogical, neuropsychological and neurophysiological correction of children with mental disorders are given below. thus, an individual neurophysiological characteristic of people with cognitive, emotional or other mental disorders is the inability to adequately respond to a rapidly changing situation, as well as to make environmental decisions. at the same time, it is much easier to determine the mechanisms of such processes in pathology for neurophysiologists. first, modern equipment allows one to determine typical zones of excitation under recurrent (repetitive) deviant or, at least, nonstandard behavior. particularly relevant patients are those who are capable of adequate reactions and behaviour “in the light intervals” of the underlying disease (beszterczey et al., 2013). this provides promising prospects at least for diagnostics. another correctively valid aspect is risky behaviour (including sexual) since its neurophysiological mechanisms allow one to understand milder forms of deviations (dependent, compulsive, hyperactive behavior) (ross et al., 2016). teachers with basic neuropsychological skills can indirectly determine the predisposition to such behaviour and decide on the appropriateness of pedagogical or psychiatric correction. formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of … oksana hnoievska, et al. 238 however, the main problem of neurophysiology in its application to humans is ethical. by the end of the 20 th century, serious neurophysiological studies had been performed only on animals. modern humanization of society and all spheres of its consciousness (including medicine and correctional pedagogy) does not allow one to radically interfere in the course of brain processes. this is especially true for people whose psyche is within the norm or on the borderline psychiatric framework (small psychiatry). radical psycho-correction and neurophysiological intervention are applicable only clinical cases (bush, 2015). although, it is still essential to consider the research problem in the context of pedagogy. in modern world educational practice, special educational institutions and institutions with an inclusive form of education function simultaneously (bondar et al., 2012; chebotaryova, 2007; gerasymova et al., 2019; kolupayeva, 2009; maksymchuk et al., 2020; malofeev, 1996; melnyk et al., 2019; nechyporenko, 2013; nerubasska, & maksymchuk, 2020; onishchuk et al., 2020; sheremet, 1997; sheremet et al., 2019). in ukraine until the mid-90's of xx century the education of children with special needs was carried out mainly in boarding schools, which led to the social isolation of these children and the removal of parents from their upbringing. as a result, graduates of educational institutions experienced difficulties in integration into society. at the same time, some children with mental and physical disabilities had the opportunity to study in secondary schools, which contributed to the development of alternative educational institutions (equalization classes, training and rehabilitation centers, etc.) together with peers who develop normally, the process of their integration and inclusion. on the other hand, this period (90's) coincided with the socalled "decade of the brain", which was proclaimed by us scientists, who introduced the widespread practice of studying psychological, mental and psychophysiological problems in the neuroscience. this practice has been especially fruitful in the field of working with people with special needs. in this area (correctional pedagogy and special education) there are two areas cognitive and affective, which is associated with rightor left-lateral accentuation in the brain. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (gerasymova et al., 2019; nerubasska, & maksymchuk, 2020; melnyk et al., 2019; sheremet et al., 2019). the introduction of the concept of inclusive education in secondary schools of ukraine at the beginning of the xxi century largely depends on the professional skills of teachers, which requires changes in the process of retraining and advanced training. in this regard, the problem of formation of brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 239 correctional and pedagogical activity of a teacher taking into account the neuropedagogical component of professional competence becomes especially important (bystrup et al., 2018). most publications of recent years (bobienko, 2005; nechyporenko, 2013; nikitina, 2005) reveal the content and structure of key competencies or competencies. despite the fact that the study of professional competence and key competencies of specialists in the psychological and pedagogical literature is given much attention, the problem of formation of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers has not been studied. instead, in the western tradition of training for inclusive work and in the methods of coaching, social support and correction, the term "pedagogy" is irrelevant. psychological sciences, in particular neuropsychology, are widespread there (voigt, 2019). data from neurophysiology and neurobiology are sporadically used in secondary schools. for example, in the form of a neuropedagogical experiment in polish schools about 10 years ago, equipment for biologically feedback therapy was installed, which brought positive results in terms of psychocorrection (studzińska, 2012). however, such systems require, firstly, significant financial investments, and secondly, non-pedagogical neurospecialists. so far, the most accessible form of application of neuroscience in the correctional and rehabilitation work of secondary school is the retraining of existing teachers in the direction of modern achievements of neuropedagogy. the purpose of the study is to develop and theoretically substantiate the method of formation of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers in the process of professional retraining. material and methods the following methods were used to diagnose the initial state of correctional and pedagogical activity of teachers: testing, questionnaires, interviews, analysis of lessons, author's pedagogical developments, solving pedagogical problems and situations, test and creative tasks, which made it possible to determine the main priorities classes with an inclusive form of education, installation and correctional orientation of the educational process. modern scholars have proven the subjectivity of all participants in the educational process, as well as the fact that the neuroscientific approach involves methods and terminological systems and non-pedagogical areas (expansion and interdisciplinary, mostly psychologically and physiologically formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of … oksana hnoievska, et al. 240 oriented terminology) (della sala, & anderson, 2012). therefore, during the experiment, special attention was paid to identifying neuropsychologically relevant characteristics of the teacher his motivation, activity, independence, creativity and purposefulness in the activities of the teacher. during the ascertaining stage of the research, a survey of primary school teachers was conducted in order to identify the most important professional skills and competencies needed by a modern specialist. among the selected indicators were the development of key competencies: professional development, mastery of new educational technologies, ability to work with a variety of information, study and summarize their experience and the experience of other colleagues, work in a team, avoid conflicts, communicate with different people and etc. 311 primary school teachers took part in the survey, of which 127 were primary school teachers with up to 5 years of work experience and 184 were primary school teachers with more than 5 years of work experience from different regions of ukraine. using the author's diagnostic methods, monitoring was organized using criteria to identify the level of formation of individual components of the correctional and pedagogical competence of a teacher in a system of continuing professional education. in the structure of correctional and pedagogical competence were identified general pedagogical components (motivational and operational) and neuropedagogical (cognitive and reflexive). since both in the mind of the individual and in pedagogical practice, these components, as well as the corresponding mental mechanisms, act simultaneously, when collecting experimental data, general pedagogical and non-pedagogical indicators and criteria were not separated and recorded in the complex. thus, the criteria of neuropedagogical aspects of teacher competencies determine: the amount and completeness of theoretical and methodological knowledge on the problems of correctional and developmental learning of children with psychophysical disorders (cognitive component); perception and evaluation of one's own actions, exercising control over one's professional development, adequate assessment of students' judgments, ability to self-realize, self-develop in correctional and pedagogical activity (reflexive component). the criteria of general pedagogical aspects are the motivational component awareness of the value and significance of innovative educational technologies and the need for their implementation in the context of joint education of children of different categories and operational mastery of the basic methods of organizing the educational process on the basis of differential diagnostic, brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 241 prognostic and educational-correctional tasks, their rational application in the process of joint learning of students with different cognitive abilities to improve correctional and pedagogical activities. based on the analysis of research results and the experience of teaching children in inclusive classes, three levels of formation of neuropedagogical aspects of correctional and pedagogical competence are identified high, medium and low. the high level includes teachers who clearly understand the importance of integration of children with special needs; recognize the right to choose an educational institution and form of education; define integrated and (or) inclusive education as an effective means of their socialization; have complete, deep and systematic knowledge necessary to work in new conditions; have neuropsychological diagnostic tools to determine the characteristics of development and behavior of children (left-hand / right-hand orientation of the brain, the individual nature and stability of foci of neural excitation, etc.); take these data into account in practice; critically evaluate and effectively use scientific and pedagogical literature for correction; use the necessary methods, techniques and means of child development to solve correctional problems. the middle level includes specialists with theoretical and practical competencies in neurosociology, namely: recognize their right to choose the educational route; identify integrated and (or) inclusive education as the most appropriate and effective means for children's socialization; generally use correct, but insufficiently systematized knowledge in working with different categories of children; are aware of the lack of knowledge, skills and abilities, see their shortcomings in the work, but are not always able to independently find a way to solve specific correctional problems that model professional activities in an integrated and (or) inclusive learning. the low level includes teachers who are not sensitive to non-integrative markers manifested by children in general education; low-sensitivity to their learning; insufficiently actively and independently replenish knowledge of neuropedagogy and acquire skills and abilities to implement them; at a low level learn ways to solve professional problems (teaching, education and development of students) in the learning process. the purpose of the formative experiment was to substantiate and experimentally prove that it is possible to form the correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers based on mastering the basic principles of neuropedagogy and implement it in the process of retraining through correctional and educational activities, including content, forms, methods and means. formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of … oksana hnoievska, et al. 242 the molding experiment was conducted on the basis of the institute of correctional pedagogy and psychology of the national pedagogical university named after m.p. drahomanov of the educational and methodological center for educational integration, the kiev regional institute of postgraduate education of teachers and the kirovograd city psychological, medical and pedagogical consultation. the study involved 142 respondents primary school teachers (72 testing group and 70 experimental group). for effective formation of correctional and pedagogical competence of teachers in the process of professional retraining technologies of contextual learning were used by verbytsky (2006), which allowed to form a holistic structure of professional activity of teachers by optimal combination of reproductive and active methods and reproduction of neurosocial context of pedagogical activity. the sources of the theory of contextual learning are: the concept of context as a condition for understanding the content-forming influence of the teacher's professional activity on the process and results of his educational activity; activity theory of learning, developed in psychology; theoretical generalization of various experiences in the use of forms and methods of active learning, taking into account the neuropsychological nature of the subjectivity of each individual. in particular, the key is the provision on the neurohumoral, neuropsychological and neurosociological potential of the individual to expand their own subjectivity, develop and assimilate sociocultural experience in accordance with the neurobiological inclinations of their own subjectivity (become the highest result of natural and social interaction) (glozman, 2012). thus, during the experiment, the neuropsychological and non-pedagogical principle of dominance of subjectivity as the main energy-motivational driver of development applied to both teachers and students. neuropedagogical principles of subjectivity, which were implemented in the preparatory process are as follows: the subject of study is placed in the position of active activity, the subject of which is gradually transformed from a purely educational to almost professional; requirements for professional activity are system-forming, set the contextual principle of construction and study not only of individual disciplines, but also the content of all retraining. in contextual learning of verbytsky (2006), three educational stages are used, in which three basic forms of students' activity are realized. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 243 the first stage is a work with theoretical information and involves educational activities of the academic type, in which the leading role belongs to the academic lecture, and the nature of the educational activities of the specialist is mainly reproductive. the results of the teacher's activity within this stage are the reproduction of the received information and the demonstration of the mastered skills of solving standard tasks (algorithms). the algorithm in the neuropsychological sense was considered as an internalized and automated in terms of activity manifestation neuropsychological and operational phenomenon. the second stage is a specially modeled situation of professional activity, which requires analysis and decision-making on the basis of theoretical information, involves quasi-professional activity (business games and other game forms), the nature of such activity partial search, reproductive and creative. the results of the activity are substantive actions, the main purpose of which is the practical transformation of simulated professional situations. neuropsychological mechanisms of this stage are to develop stable and positive patterns of cognitive and transformational activities, and quasi-professionalism promotes the penetration of neuropsychological mechanisms in all activities, not only in pedagogically appropriate acts of interaction. the third stage is a problem situation or a fragment of professional activity, analyzed and formed in the forms of joint activity of teachers which is mainly creative (production practice, diploma project). the neuropsychological mechanism of this stage is the emergence of cognitive dissonance, which requires the formation of new neural connections and, accordingly, a new model of decision-making to relieve stress. the effectiveness of the formation of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers was ensured by compliance with a set of the following requirements: development of the content, forms, methods and means of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers; saturation with the corrective content of the disciplines taught in primary school; compliance with the conditions aimed at enhancing the cognitive abilities of children with mental and physical disabilities; maximum use in the educational process of correctional and educational opportunities implemented in the secondary school; diversification of types of educational and correctional activities of students; formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of … oksana hnoievska, et al. 244 formation of key teaching and correctional competencies of the teacher; active involvement of "healthy" children in educational work together with children with mental and physical disabilities and their parents. the formative experiment used reproductive methods that promote the development of neuropsychological talents of the basic cognitive properties of the subject: perception, memory and reproduction of information, the acquisition of a significant amount of knowledge and practice of skills and abilities to solve standard problems in the shortest possible time. these methods are used in the first stage of training; active, which maximize the level of cognitive activity. their essence is to create didactic and psychological conditions that enhance the intellectual, personal and social activity of professionals. among the active teaching methods there were non-imitation (problem lectures and seminars, discussions, round tables) and imitation (training, analysis of pedagogical situations, business and role-playing games). these methods were mainly used in the second and third stages of contextual learning. the main unit of content in contextual learning was the "problem situation", and the usual tasks and tasks were its elements. with the help of a system of problem situations, learning problems and tasks, a story line of mastering the leading aspects of professional activity was built. results it is established that the majority of respondents are at the average level of formation of correctional and pedagogical competence and have mediocre neuropedagogical competencies (mainly on experience and intuitive understanding). this level includes: in terms of cognitive development 58.1% of primary school teachers with up to 5 years of experience and 52% of teachers with more than 5 years of experience; according to the indicator of the motivational component respectively 41.9% of primary school teachers with work experience up to 5 years and 33.1% of teachers with work experience over 5 years; according to the indicator of the reflexive component respectively 68.5% of primary school teachers with work experience up to 5 years and 70% with work experience over 5 years; in terms of the operational component 24.4% of primary school teachers with up to 5 years of experience and 62.2% of teachers with more than 5 years of experience. the rest of the subjects are classified as low. at the same time, it was established that none of the primary school teachers was referred to the high level of formation of neuropedagogical components of professional readiness. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 245 the data obtained during the observational experiment indicate that the formation of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers, taking into account neuropedagogical patterns and achievements, has not yet been given due attention. working teachers do not have enough ideas about the inclusive education of children with different neuropsychological abilities in secondary school, the peculiarities of its organization and methods of construction. the concept of "correctional and pedagogical competence" is formed in them at a fairly low level, there is an unconscious need for correctional and pedagogical education, no interest in self-education and self-realization of advanced knowledge and skills, and the importance of correctional and pedagogical work which based on neuropsychological and neurophysiological individual profiles. it is established that the leading role in the process of formation of correctional and pedagogical competence is played by the teacher's ability to self-analysis and self-development of the main components of correctional and pedagogical activity, independent replenishment of knowledge in correctional pedagogy, special psychology, psychophysiology, neurophysiology. the most typical difficulties and mistakes that arise in the process of joint learning of children with different cognitive abilities are identified. the reasons for their occurrence are various factors, including the use in teaching principles, methods and tools that are effective in teaching "healthy" children and do not take into account the neurophysiological features (mostly accentuations) of development of students with mental and physical disabilities, stereotypes of teachers in different situations of failure completeness and quality of knowledge, inconsistency of the pace of work in the classroom with their potential and educational performance. analysis of the results of the statement revealed a lack of awareness of teachers about the peculiarities of mental development of such children, the causes of their psychophysical disorders, the area of current development and features of the educational process in various forms of their education, lack of clear ideas about the structure, content, methods and techniques pedagogical activity. the study does not determine the appropriate level of assimilation of theoretical and methodological knowledge of the phenomenon under study, awareness of its importance for correctional and pedagogical activities, interest and desire to fully master the knowledge, skills and abilities of its effective implementation. the above results indicate a weak professional reflectivity of the teachers themselves and mainly a lack of information about their own neuropsychological profile and the specifics of the subject. formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of … oksana hnoievska, et al. 246 the results obtained at the end of the experiment show that the number of teachers with a high level of formation of the cognitive component increased by 53.7%, motivational 52%, reflexive 50.7%, operational 49.2%. prior to the experiment, no participant in the study reached a high level of formation of all components. instead, there is a steady downward trend in the number of teachers who have reached a medium and especially low level of formation of key components of correctional and pedagogical activities. thus, before the experiment, its participants were attributed to a low level of formation of 44.7% cognitive, 47.7% motivational, 53.7% reflexive and 55.3% of the operational components. at the end of the experiment, the number of teachers with a low level of formation of operational, reflexive, motivational and cognitive components decreased to 12%, 12%, 13.5% and 12%, respectively. the analysis of the results of the formative experiment showed positive changes in the formation of basic neuropedagogical components of correctional competence. it is proved that under the influence of various forms of training of students of advanced training courses (lectures, seminars, practical classes, trainings, pedagogical practice, diploma and course projects) on special curricula and programs the interest in neuropedagogical reorientation of most forms of training grew. conditions for exercising the right to equal access to quality education for all children at their place of residence, the need to replenish the theoretical and methodological foundations of correctional education and the experience of their use in practical work (motivational component). the volume and completeness of knowledge about the peculiarities of children's mental and neurophysiological development, the essence, structure and specifics of correctional work in terms of joint learning of children with different neuropsychiatric abilities, features of individual and differentiated approach in the learning process, formed the ability to apply them in practice (cognitive component). there was a tendency to increase the indicators of the reflex component, as the main marker of neuropedagogical activity. the positive aspects include the expansion of reflexive abilities (analysis, self-assessment, self-development, self-realization), increased activity and creative attitude to the same operation, actions in different learning conditions (operational component), increased values of the attitude to correction. pedagogical activity in all components. this is evidenced by quantitative indicators of the formation of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers with an inclusive form of education, presented in table 1. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 247 the dynamics of the formation of correctional and pedagogical competence are presented in table 1. table 1.comparative dynamics of the formation of components of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers (%) source: authors’ own conception levels cognitive motivational reflexive operating at the beginning of the experiment after experi ment at the beginning of the experiment after experi ment at the beginning of the experiment after experi ment at the beginning of the experiment after experi ment high 0 53,7 0 52 0 50,7 0 49,2 mediu m 55,3 34,3 52,3 36 46,3 35,8 44,7 38,8 low 44,7 12 47,7 12 53,7 13,5 55,3 12 to obtain statistically important results of comparing data before and after the formative experiment, a nonparametric mann-whitney test was used for two independent samples, which makes it possible to establish differences between two independent samples according to the severity of the ordinal variable. the application of the mann-whitney test revealed statistically significant differences in indicators (components) of the formation of correctional and pedagogical and neuropedagogical competence in the two groups of teachers. comparison of teachers of the testing group with teachers of the experimental group showed significant differences in all components cognitive (p≤0.001), motivational (p≤0.01), reflexive (p≤0.001), operating (p≤0.05) (spss 15.0) was used for statistical calculations.) discussion analysis of different approaches of scientists to determine the structure of professional competence of a teacher showed that most scientists, considering professional competence as a structural and functional formation, include a set of knowledge and skills of a teacher and his professionally significant qualities manifested in purposeful activity. the core of competence is the qualities of the teacher's personality, its orientation, motives, values, ability to reflect (lobanova et al., 1997; slastenin, 2000; zaprudsky, 1993). nevertheless, a separate problem is the low scientific quality and pedagogical applicability of neurosciences available formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of … oksana hnoievska, et al. 248 on the internet, so leading methodologists on neuropedagogical transformation of education support the idea of introducing simple and practical training on neurological improvement of secondary education for teachers (goswami, 2008). from the point of view of the competence approach as the purpose and result of training formation of key competences of various level which are shown further in professional activity as competence is provided. thus, a specialist who has key competencies (professional, personal, etc.) is competent in a particular field of professional activity, including neuropedagogical (lomakina, 1998; nikitina, 2005; serikov, 1998). the holistic structure of the teacher's competence as a set of general, basic, special and private competencies provides: general human competence: key semantic and functional competencies; professional competence of a teacher: basic professional competence of a primary school teacher; private professional competencies of the teacher, ensuring the implementation of a specific pedagogical action, solving a specific pedagogical task (bobienko, 2005). the results of the study confirmed the need to strengthen the neuropedagogical and neuropsychological aspects of subjective reflection, as well as all types of feedback, which are a prerequisite for neurocorrection in the process of education and self-education (kazlauskiene, & barabanova, 2020). the results of the experiment were confirmed by chojak’s (2018) position, which indicates that for the effective implementation of neuropedagogy in school education it is necessary that qualified teachers in this field receive regular data on neuroimaging, which is not yet possible. therefore, teachers need to be retrained to have more formal but standardized methods for determining the effectiveness of neuropedagogical innovations (chojak, 2018). however, according to the scientist's observations, in europe the competences of teachers to master the laws of brain function and methods of its psychocorrection are still too low. the scientific novelty of the research results is that: for the first time, the essence and structure of correctional and pedagogical competence as an integration personal education are analyzed, determines the ability of a teacher to carry out correctional functions in the process of inclusive education, taking into account the achievements of modern neuropedagogy and related neurosciences; brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 249 general pedagogical and neuropedagogical criteria and levels of formation of the correctional and pedagogical competence of the teacher are defined, presented as the basis for the selection of diagnostic tools; substantiated the methodology for the formation of the components of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers in a comprehensive school; clarified the content, forms, methods and means of forming corrective and pedagogical competence based on the neuropedagogy. the practical significance of the obtained research results is that the developed and experimentally tested method of formation of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers on the basis of neuropedagogical principles contributes to the effectiveness of its preparation for the implementation of inclusive education. the developed and tested set of methods makes it possible to diagnose primary school teachers actually pedagogical and neuropedagogical levels of formation of correctional and pedagogical competence. prepared and tested educational and methodological developments in the organization of the educational process aimed at forming the correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers in the process of professional retraining, can be used in the development of curricula (basic educational programs and specialization programs) and neuropedagogical practices in higher, secondary and additional professional pedagogical education. conclusions based on the analysis of modern psychological, pedagogical and neuropedagogical sources and the results of experimental research, the most typical difficulties and mistakes made by a teacher of a mass school in the process of joint education of children with different neurophysiological abilities are revealed. the reasons for their occurrence are various factors, in particular, the use in teaching principles, content, methods and tools that are not available to students in this category, stereotyped actions in different situations of failure, overestimation of the volume, completeness and quality of knowledge, low teacher culture, his unpreparedness. to such training, the lack of clear ideas about the structure, content, methods and techniques of providing correctional care to the child using neuropedagogical tools. it is established that increasing the effectiveness of teaching people with neurophysiological development in secondary school is possible if the teacher develops a system of special knowledge: creative abilities, personal qualities mainly reflexive and empathic plan: the ability to observe the child, formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of … oksana hnoievska, et al. 250 to study individual features of neurophysiological and mental development, cognitive needs and interests of children. thus, the teacher must be competent in the specifics of the organization of inclusive education, the peculiarities of psychophysical development of children with different neurophysiological capabilities; content, methods and techniques of providing correctional care to such students using the methodological achievements of neuropedagogy. thus, it turned out that the majority of respondents are at a low level of formation of such competencies, and the rest of the respondents are classified as average level of formation of cognitive (53.5% of teachers) and motivational component (33.6% of teachers), which are part of general pedagogical and neuropedagogical aspects of the correctional competence. correctional and pedagogical competence is considered as an integrative neuropsychological characteristic of the level of readiness of the teacher for joint learning of children with different neuropsychological properties in the conditions of secondary school, based on a set of theoretical and methodological knowledge, skills and experience necessary for correctional and pedagogical activities, ability to analyze and predict its effectiveness to achieve a pedagogically significant result. the necessity of applying contextual teaching technology has been proved, which is the basis of a quasi-professional neurosociological approach, allows creating an integrated structure of professional activity of primary school teachers with the help of the optimal combination of reproductive and active teaching methods and reproducing the social context of professional activity using the potential of the content of pedagogical disciplines for positive motivation for implementing inclusive teaching, improving knowledge about developmental features , training and education of various categories of children with special needs of neurophysiological development and the specifics of professional activity of a teacher of a comprehensive school in an inclusive education. experimental verification of the method of formation of correctional and pedagogical competence of primary school teachers with an inclusive form of education proved the effectiveness of such a system based on a neuropedagogical approach, efficiency and expediency of use in the process of professional retraining. it is proved that under the influence of various forms of training of students according to the developed method the interest in innovative activity has increased, the necessity and importance of replenishment of special knowledge on the basics of correctional training and experience of its practical realization was realized. the volume and completeness of knowledge about the features of the neuropsychiatric brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 251 development of the included students, the essence, structure and specificity of correctional work have grown. at the end of the experiment, there were significant qualitative changes in the indicators of the formation of key components in comparison with the indicators of the ascertaining experiment. in particular, the number of teachers with a high level of cognitive component formation increased by 53.7%, motivational 52%, reflective 50.7%, and operational 49.2%. prior to the experiment, not a single teacher reached a high level of formation of all components. at the same time, there is a clear tendency to reduce the number of studied teachers with an average and especially low level of formation of all neuropedagogical components of professional readiness. in particular, the number of teachers with a low level at the beginning of the study was: cognitive 44.7%, motivational 47.7%, reflexive 53.7%, operational component 55.3%. at the end of the experimental study, these figures were 12%, 12%, 13.5% and 12%, respectively. references beszterczey, s., nestor, p. g., shirai, a., & harding, s. (2013). neuropsychology of decision making and psychopathy in high-risk ex-offenders. neuropsychology, 27(4), 491–497. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033162 bobienko, o. m. (2005). klyuchevyye kompetentsii lichnosti kak obrazovatelnyy rezultat sistemy professionalnogo obrazovaniya [key competencies of the personality as an educational result of the vocational education system] [unpublished phd. thesis]. kazan state technology university. bondar, v., sinyov, v., & tishchenko, v. (2012). chy pryzhyvetsya pivnichnoamerykanska model inklyuziyi v ukrayini? [will the north american model of inclusion take root in ukraine? ridna shcola [native school], 8/9, 2027. http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_ id=1499646 bush, s. s. (2015). ethical decision making in clinical neuropsychology. oxford university press. bystrup, l. k., hindhede, p. h., aadal, l., & feiring, m. f. (2018). outline of a history of neurorehabilitation in denmark – a sociological perspective. praktiske grunde. tidsskrift for kultur og samfunnsvitenskab, 12(3-4), 528. https://oda.oslomet.no/handle/10642/7572 chebotaryova, o. v. (2007). navchannya ditey z porushennyamy oporno-rukhovoho aparatu v umovakh zahalnoosvitnoyi shkoly [teaching children with musculoskeletal disorders in secondary school]. in proceedings of the all-ukrainian scientific-practical conference in the framework of the project “creation of https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033162 http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_%0bid=1499646 http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_%0bid=1499646 https://oda.oslomet.no/handle/10642/7572 formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of … oksana hnoievska, et al. 252 resource centers for parents of children with special educational needs” with the support of the european commission. prydatchenko p. m. chojak, m. (2018). neuropedagogy as a scientific discipline: interdisciplinary description of the theoretical basis for the development of a research field. international journal of educational and pedagogical sciences, 12(8), 1084–1087. https://zenodo.org/record/1474341#.x9nwnwqzaai della sala, s., & anderson, m. (2012). neuroscience in education: the good, the bad, and the ugly. oxford university press. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 glozman, zh. m. (2012). o subyektnosti luriyevskoy neyropsikhologii lurieva [on the subjectivity of luriev’s neuropsychology]. vestnik moskovskogo universiteta. seriya 14. psikhologiya [bulletin of moscow university. series 14. psychology], 2, 3136. http://msupsyj.ru/articles/detail.php?article=1550 goswami, u. (2008). principles of learning, implications for teaching: a cognitive neuroscience perspective. journal of philosophy of education, 42(3-4), 381399. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2008.00639.x kazlauskiene, a. k., & barabanova, i. (2020). neuropedagogy: preconditions for application of neuroscience results in the education process while providing feedback. technium: romanian journal of applied sciences and technology, 2(5), 112122. https://doi.org/10.47577/technium.v2i5.1246 kolupayeva, a. a. (2009). inklyuzyvna osvita: realiyi ta perspektyvy [inclusive education: realities and prospects]. sammit-knyha. lobanova, n. n., kosarev, v. v., & kryuchatov, a. p. (1997) professionalnaya kompetentnost pedagoga [professional competence of the teacher]. samven. lomakina, o. e. (1998). formirovaniye professionalnoy kompetentnosti budushchego uchitelya inostrannykh yazykov [formation of professional competence of a future teacher of foreign languages] [unpublished phd. thesis]. volgograd state pedagogical university, volgograd. maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 malofeev, n. n. (1996) spetsialnoye obrazovaniye v rossii i za rubezhom [special education in russia and abroad]. pechatnyi dvor. https://zenodo.org/record/1474341#.x9nwnwqzaai https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 http://msupsyj.ru/articles/detail.php?article=1550 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2008.00639.x https://doi.org/10.47577/technium.v2i5.1246 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 253 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m nechyporenko, v. v. (2013). systemnyy rozvytok navchalno-reabilitatsiynoho tsentru yak vidkrytoyi innovatsiynoyi sotsialʹno-osvitnʹoyi instytutsiyi [system development of the educational and rehabilitation center as an open innovative social and educational institution]. publishing house of the khortitsa national training and rehabilitation multidisciplinary center. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nikitina, g. v. (2005). pedagogicheskiye usloviya razvitiya klyuchevykh pro-fessionalnykh kompetentsiy budushchego uchitelya v pedagogicheskom kolledzhe [pedagogical conditions for the development of key professional competencies of a future teacher in a teacher training college] [unpublished phd. thesis]. irkutsk institute for educators’ advanced training, irkutsk. onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 4465. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 ross, j. m., duperrouzel, j., vega, m., & gonzalez, r. (2016). the neuropsychology of risky sexual behavior. journal of the international neuropsychological society, 22(6), 586594. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355617716000400 serikov, v. v. (1998). lichnostno-oriyentirovannoye obrazovaniya: poisk novoy paradigmy [personality-oriented education: in search of a new paradigm] [unpublished phd. thesis]. volgograd state pedogogical university. sheremet, m. k. (1997). psykholoho-pedahohichni osnovy pidhotovky slabochuyuchykh ditey do navchannya v shkoli [psychological and pedagogical bases of preparation of hearing-impaired children for training at school] [unpublished phd. thesis]. the institute of defectology of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355617716000400 formation of correctional competence of teachers on the basis of … oksana hnoievska, et al. 254 implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 slastenin, v. a. (2000). pedagogika [pedagogy]. shkola-press. studzińska, a. (2012). eeg biofeedback w szkole [eeg biofeedback at school]. biofeedback. http://www.biofeedbackwszkole.pl/eeg-biofeedback-wszkole.php verbytsky, a. a. (2006). sovershenstvovaniye kachestva podgotovki pedago-gicheskikh kadrov s pozitsii teorii kontekstnogo obucheniya [improving the quality of training of teaching staff from the position of the theory of contextual education]. in proceedings of the vii all-russian scientific and practical conference on integration of methodological (scientific and methodical) work and systems for advanced training of personnel. obrazovaniye. voigt, t. h. (2019). beratung, coaching und neurowissenschaft – produktive zusammenarbeit oder geschickte vermarktung? organisationsberatung, supervision, coaching, 26, 339–350. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613-01900612-z zaprudsky, n. i. (1993). nauchno-pedagogicheskoye obespecheniye povysheniya kvalifikatsii uchiteley yestestvenno-matematicheskikh predmetov [scientific and pedagogical support for advanced training of teachers of natural and mathematical subjects] [unpublished phd. thesis]. the national institute of education, minsk. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://www.biofeedbackwszkole.pl/eeg-biofeedback-w-szkole.php http://www.biofeedbackwszkole.pl/eeg-biofeedback-w-szkole.php https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613-019-00612-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613-019-00612-z microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 110 rezumate in limba română brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience creier. cercetări ample în inteligenţă artificială şi neuroştiinţe issn 2067 – 3957 volumul 1, numărul 3 iulie 2010: „o vară frumoasă, 2010!” www.brain.edusoft.ro editor şef: bogdan pătruţ 1. motor cu rol dinamic şi controlul formaţiei pentru agenţi colaboratori cu algoritm robust de luare a deciziilor s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei mohsen taheri rezumat robocup este o competiţie internaţională de cercetare multi-agent şi alte subiecte legate de acesta, precum: inteligenţa artificială, procesarea imaginii, ȋnvăţarea de către calculator, planificarea traiectoriei unui robot, controlul şi evitarea obstacolelor. într-un joc de fotbal al roboţilor, mediul este extrem de competitiv şi dinamic. pentru a funcţiona ȋntr-un mediu schimător şi dinamic, sistemul de luare a deciziilor al unui robot fotbalist ar trebui să aibă trăsăturile de flexibilitate şi adaptare ȋn timp real. în lucrarea de faţă ne vom axa pe liga roboţilor fotbalişti de talie mijlocie. lucrarea de faţă prezintă o nouă ierarhie a metodelor fuzzy hibride de luare a deciziilor şi de selecţie a acţiunilor unui robot din liga roboţilor fotbalişti de talie mijlocie. mai ȋntâi se introduc şi se implementează comportamentele agentului, clasificate ȋn două nivele, comportamente de nivel scăzut şi comportamente de nivel ȋnalt. apoi, se introduce un mecanism ȋn două faze pentru luarea deciziilor. în prima fază, se implementează nişte metode folositoare ce verifică situaţia robotului ȋn vederea realizării comportamentelor cerute. în faza următoare, se introduc strategia de echipă, formarea echipei, rolul robotului şi sistemul de poziţionare al robotului. se utilizează o abordare de logică fuzzy pentru recunoaşterea strategiei echipei şi pentru a transmite robotului cea mai bună mutare de pozitie. considerăm că un motor cu rol dinamic este necesar pentru succesul unei echipe. motorul cu rol dinamic şi controlul formaţiei ȋn timpul jocului ofensiv sau defensiv, ne ajută să prevenim ciocnirea ȋntre jucătorii aceleiaşi echipe ȋn timpul urmăririi mingiei şi evitarea obstacolelor adversarilor. în sfârşit, am introdus algoritmul nostru implementat ȋn robocup 2007 si 2008, şi rezultatele au dovedit eficienţa metodologiei introduse. rezultatele satisfăcătoare au fost deja implementate cu succes ȋn echipa adro robocup. 2. extracţia logică a structurii neo-cortexului ronald j. swallow rezumat potenţialul post-sinaptic a unui neuron a fost mult timp considerat a fi o intercorelare a unui model de impuls de frecvenţă axonală şi modelul intensităţii unei conexiuni sinaptice excitatorii. pentru ca aceste corelaţii să fie folositoare, ele trebuie sa poată fi comparate şi normalizate (covarianţa pentru intensitatea conexiunii trebuie să fie constantă pentru toate corelaţiile). s-a studiat o reţea de neuroni fezabilă din punct de vedere biologic (reţeaua de n neuroni excitativi ce interacţionează cu un neuron inhibitor) si o regula pavlov foarte simplă folosită pentru variaţiile de intensitate a conexiunii (aceeaşi regulă atât pentru neuronii excitativi cât şi pentru cei inhibitori). surpriza a fost rezumate in limba română 111 faptul că neuronilor unei astfel de reţele li se pot compara corelaţiile ȋntr-un mod normalizat. de asemenea, reţeaua a manifestat o capacitate mai mare de ȋnvăţare pentru modele noi de impuls decât pentru modele vechi de impuls, explicând astfel evoluţia curiozităţii creierului şi reducerea maleabilităţii memoriei permanente odată cu vârsta. 3. relaţia dintre inteligenţele multiple ale respondenţilor şi performanţa lor la secţiunile de citire din cadrul testelor toefl şi ielts minoo alemi, marzieh bagherkazemi rezumat studiul de faţă investighează relaţia ipotetică dintre inteligenţel multiple ale respondenţilor şi performanţa lor la secţiunile de citire din cadrul testelor toefl şi ielts. teoria inteligenţelor multiple a lui howard gardner sugerează faptul că inteligenţa nu este o capacitate unică şi exclusiv ȋnnăscută ci este, mai degrabă, o construcţie multiplă, doar parţial genetică, ce poate fi cristalizată sau paralizată de-a lungul vieţii. pe baza acestei teorii există opt tipuri de inteligenţă: lingvistică, matematică, muzicală, trupească, spaţială, intrapersonală, interpersonală şi naturalistă, dar lista nu este exhaustivă. inteligenţele multiple ale celor testaţi au fost estimate prin midas, grile de evaluare a dezvoltării intelegenţelor mnultiple, elaborat de shearer (1994). ulterior, identificarea separată pentru secţiunea de citire din toefl a fost efectuată pe 90 de participanţi, şi s-a constatat că acest sub-test a corelat pozitiv cu inteligenţele lingvistică şi logică. tocmai de aceea, 89 din cei 163 de participanţii la studiu au fost incluşi ȋn analiza relaţiei dintre inteligenţele multiple ale celor testaţi şi performanţa acestora la sectiunea de citire din ielts, iar acest test s-a dovedit ȋnclinat spre inteligenţele lingvistică şi spaţială. implicaţiile vizează caracterul inadecvat al definiţiei competenţei lingvistice. în plus, cursuri de instruire pentru testare şi materialele pregătitoare pentru cele două teste de competenţă, toefl şi ielts, pot beneficia de pe urma rezultatelor studiului, fiind concepute astfel ȋncât să reprezinte inteligenţele ce sunt corelate pozitiv cu performanţa la testele respective. 4. ekg prin placă de sunet gheorghe blioju rezumat lucrarea descrie o metodă ieftină de a realiza un sistem de monitorizare ekg prin folosirea unui software şi aparat electronic. aparatul va putea amplifica semnale biologice electrice pe care le trasmite calculatorului prin placa de sunet. sistemul va include şi softawre de preluare a semnalelor primite şi de afişare a acestora pe monitorul calculatorului. 5. proiectarea şi implementarea unei structuri robuste şi a unui controlor de mişcare bazat pe o regulă fuzzy ȋntr-un robot umanoid jucător de fotbal s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri rezumat lucrarea de faţă descrie modelul de hardware şi software al sistemului de robot umanoid de marimea unui copil al echipei persia din 2009. robotul dispune de 18 grade de libertate activate, bazate pe hitec hsr898. am ȋncercat să ne concentrăm pe astfel de aspecte cum ar fi structura mecanică, unitatea de procesare a imaginii, controlorul robotului, inteligenţa artificială a robotului şi comportamentul de ȋnvăţare. în acest an, progresul nostru ȋn legătură cu robotul umanoid de mărimea unui copil include: (1) proiectarea şi construirea noilor noştri roboţi umanoizi; (2) proiectarea şi construirea unui nou controlor de hard şi soft pentru a fi folosit la roboţii noştri. proiectul este descris ȋn două părţi principale: hard şi soft. soft-ul este o aplicaţie robotică avansată ce conţine controlor de deplasare, mişcarea autonomă a roboturlui, auto localizare pe bază de imagine şi filtru de particule, inteligenţă artificială locală, planificarea traiectoriei, controlor de mişcare şi de reţea. hard-ul conţine structura mecanică şi placa de circuite. fiecare robot poate brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 112 merge, poate merge ȋn pas alert, poate pasa, lovi şi dribla mingea atunci când o prinde. proiectul este încă în lucru şi câteva metode interesante sunt descrise în raportul de faţă. 6. modelarea robotului fotbalist omnidirecţional şi implementarea unei vederi cu câmp larg, aplicată ȋn robocup-msl s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri rezumat scopul acestei lucrări este de a proiecta şi implementa un robot fotbalist de talie mijlocie care să se conformeze cerinţelor ligii robocup msl. mai ȋntâi, conform regulilor de la robocup, vom proiecta robotul fotbalist de talie mijlocie. acest robot fotbalist autonom este alcătuit din platforma mecanică, modulul de control al mişcării, modulul de vedere omni-direcţională, modulul de vedere frontală, modulul de procesare şi de recunoaştere a imaginii, poziţionarea obiectului ţintă investigat şi reconstruirea coordonatelor reale, planificarea traiectoriei robotului, stratetigii de competiţie şi evitarea obstacolelor. şi acest robot fotbalist este echipat cu un sistem de laptop şi circuite de inetrfaţă pentru a lua decizii. de fapt, senzorul de vedere omnidirecţională al sistemului de vedere răspunde de procesarea imaginii şi a poziţionării ȋn vederea evitării obstacolelor şi a depistării ţintei. se aplică algoritmul de urmărire a limitelor pentru a se identifica proprietăţile importante ale terenului. utilizăm metoda fuzionării datelor senzoriale ȋn controlul parametrilor sistemului, auto localizarea şi modelarea lumii. o auto localizarea bazată pe vedere şi sistemele convenţionale de odometrie sunt fuzionate pentru o auto localizare robustă. algoritmul de localizare include filtrarea, ȋmpărtăşirea şi integrarea datelor pentru diferite tipuri de obiecte recunsocute din mediu. în strategiile de control, vom prezenta trei moduri de stări care includ strategia de atac, strategia de apărare şi strategia de interceptare. metodele au fost testate ȋn mulţi roboţi de teren, de talie mijlocie din competiţia roboup. 7. boli ale creierului ȋn societăţile din mesopotamia piedad yuste, ángel garrido rezumat în mesopotamia antică nu se practicau nici autopsii nici biopsii, aşa că organele interne ale corpului omenesc erau cunscute doar din inspecţii ocazionale asupra rănilor şi leziunilor. creierul era considerat a fi o parte din cap şi nu era corelat cu activitatea mentală. 8. perspective modulare versus unitare (non-modulare) asupra creierului şi minţii minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard rezumat lucrarea de faţă vizează delimitarea celor două paradigme diferite ȋn ceea ce priveşte perspectiva acestora faţă de ȋnvăţare ȋn general şi faţă de limbaj ȋn special. în plus, se discută pe marginea diferitelor perspective asupra defectelor şi laudelor ridicate de către susţinătorii şi adversarii lor. prin urmare, scopul acestei lucrări nu este acela de a afirma ceva ȋn sprijinul uneia dintre aceste perspective. astfel, lucrarea de faţă trece ȋn revistă atât probleme legate de creier şi minte, cât şi perspectivele modulară şi non-modulară. 9. câteva observaţii despre inteligenţa artificială ca nou instrument matematic ángel garrido rezumat matematica este doar un simplu exemplu de calcul cu predicate de ordinul ȋntâi. aşadar, ea aparţine logicii monotone aplicate. astfel, am identificat limitările raţionamentului de logică clasică şi avantajele evidente ale logicii fuzzy, şi a multor altor instrumente noi interesante. vom prezenta, ȋn lucrarea de faţă, câteva dintre cele mai folositoare unelte din acest nou domeniu al matematicii numit inteligenţa artificială. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 20-30 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/118 medical, forensic and social quandaries of sudden infant death syndrome today tatiana iov¹, cristina furnică 2 *, sofia mihaela david 3 , diana bulgaru-iliescu 4 1 institute of legal medicine of iasi, romania, iovtatiana@yahoo.com 2 “gr. t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania, cristina.furnica@gmail.com 3 “gr. t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania, ddavid.sofia@yahoo.com 4 “gr. t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania, bulgarudiana@yahoo.com abstract: sudden infant death syndrome (sids) is described as the sudden, unexplained death (with no attributable cause, during sleep) of a seemingly healthy child before reaching the first year of life. statistically, sids is recognized today as a leading cause of death in infants aged 1 to 12 months. in the present article the authors have analyzed known risk factors, classifications and current standards of forensic investigation while highlighting the necessity of detailed clinical history, autopsy, scene of death examination and lab findings (radiology, metabolic anomalies, infectious diseases and toxicology) in sids diagnosis. for an infant death to be considered sids, all other possible causes of death must be first excluded, the diagnosis requiring detailed collection and analysis of antemortem patient data and a complete autopsy. although the forensic methods of today are more exact, the distinction between sids and other causes of death (e.g. unintentional asphyxiation, infanticide) remains very difficult in some cases. keywords: sudden infant death syndrome; risk factors; diagnosis; differential diagnosis; autopsy. how to cite: iov, t., furnică, c., david, s. m., & bulgaruiliescu, d. (2020). medical, forensic and social quandaries of sudden infant death syndrome today. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 20-30. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/118 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/118 mailto:iovtatiana@yahoo.com mailto:cristina.furnica@gmail.com mailto:ddavid.sofia@yahoo.com mailto:bulgarudiana@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/118 medical, forensic and social quandaries of sudden infant death syndrome today tatiana iov, et al. 21 during the second international conference of sudden infant death held in 1969 in seattle, sids was defined as “the sudden death of any infant or young child which is unexpected by history, and in which a thorough post-mortem examination fails to demonstrate an adequate cause of death” (krous et al., 2004). in 1986, the u.s national institute of health coined the term alte “apparent life-threatening event” for a sudden state of apnea with change in skin color (pallor/cyanosis), muscle tonus and sensation of suffocation or drowning (mcgovern & smith, 2004; mueller-nordhorn et al., 2020). although sometimes viewed as a precursor to sids, urgent medical intervention in cases of alte can prevent death. subsequent studies of the american academy of pediatrics have dispelled the notion that alte precedes sids (rini et al, 2016): approximatively 50% of alte cases happen during periods of wakefulness, while sids is known to appear during sleep (mcgovern& smith, 2004; rini et al., 2016); alte is more common in infants of asian descent while sids has a higher incidence in african american populations (farrell et al., 2002); alte, manifesting with apnea and bradycardia is less frequent during the second part of the night as opposed to sids; sids favors infants born to young mothers while alte is more common in infants with older mothers; alte has an equal distribution among sexes while sids is more frequent in males (mcgovern& smith, 2004; rini et al., 2016); common risk factors are smoking during pregnancy and a prone sleeping position (kiechl-kohlendorfer et al., 2004; luijerink et al., 2020; mcgovern& smith, 2004; rini et al., 2016; sontag et al., 2020). statistically, this syndrome is a leading cause of death in infants aged 1 to 12 months (8 days to 1 year), with a peak at 2 to 4 months (mahatshamir, 2020). about 90% of the cases are under 6 months of age, the incidence decreasing after 8 months. death occurs most frequently in winter, during sleep, and is more common in males (american academy of pediatrics, 2005; lavista ferres et al., 2020, lupu et al., 2017; vennemann et al., 2007). a number of risk factors are acknowledged for sids (de faria et al., 2020), including the prone sleeping position (and lateral), soft bedding, overheating during sleep, sleeping in the same bed with the parents, exposure to cigarette smoke, toxic/drug abuse during pregnancy, young age brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 22 of the mother and short periods between pregnancies (sanchez et al., 2020; shipstone et al., 2020). social risk factors include lack of monitoring of infant during sleep, lack of attention (goian & breaz, 2020) and parents that are uninterested/uneducated in childcare (ruiz-botia et al., 2020). children with a history of alte/brue, complications before/during/after birth, premature births (esp. with bronchopulmonary dysplasia) and a family history of sids (prior sibling death due to sids increases the risk up to 10 times depending on the study) are correlated with a higher risk of sids. genetics is one of the various possible risk factors. a study has shown that about 10% of the 321 infants admitted to an icu at rady children’s hospital died (kingsmore et al., 2020). among them, 10 cases were diagnosed with genetic diseases (kingsmore et al., 2020; koeffer et al., 2020). the anatomic and forensic pathology classification of sids consist of: classic sids: unexpected infant death, no pathological findings after complete examination after death (exception being pleural and thymus petechiae, cerebral edema or glial cell hyperplasia); borderline sids: unexpected infant death with some findings (ear infection, bronchitis, inflammatory bowel disease, etc.) during autopsy, but no conclusive cause of death; no autopsy; the sids definition in use was established in 2004 in san diego, california, and describes a sudden and unexpected death of an infant younger than 1 year, that takes place during sleep and remains without known cause after complete autopsy and analysis of patient history and circumstances of death. other names for this diagnosis are sudden death, crib death and unexpected infant death. during the 2004 meeting, experts including forensic pathologists, pediatricians and pediatric pathologists agreed on a classification that is still in use worldwide (shipstone et al, 2020; luijerink et al., 2020). category ia sids includes cases that subscribe to the 2004 definition and all the following: clinical: age 21 days-9 months, normal patient history, normal growth and development, no family history of sids; circumstance of death: no explanation found after scene investigation, death occurred in safe environment, no evidence of accidents; autopsy: no fatal findings, no unexplained abuse, trauma, neglect, no thymic stress effect, moderate bronchial and/or lung tissue medical, forensic and social quandaries of sudden infant death syndrome today tatiana iov, et al. 23 lymphoid infiltrates, less than 10 neutrophils per alveola in less than 10 alveoli, negative toxicology, chemistry, metabolic, radiology, microbiology reports; category ib sids includes cases that subscribe to the 2004 definition and all criteria for ia but without death scene investigation and/or one or more of the following was not performed: radiology, toxicology, microbiology, metabolic screening, biochemistry. category ii sids includes cases that subscribe to i but lack one or more of: clinical: other age than category i, positive family history, pathological conditions resolved by time of death; circumstances of death: possible mechanical asphyxia or suffocation during sleep; autopsy: growth and development variations and marked inflammation (lymphoid infiltrate in more than one lung section, more than 10 inflammatory cells per alveoli in more than 10 alveoli) not considered cause of death; unclassified sids: cases that do not subscribe to category i or ii but for which other causes of death cannot be diagnosed or cases with no autopsy. post-resuscitation cases “temporarily interrupted sids” the american academy of pediatrics changed in 2016 the term alte with esir/brue “brief resolved unexplained event”, underlying the transient nature of the episode and its unknown cause (arane et al., 2017; tieder et al., 2016). the event involves an infant younger than 1 year, is sudden, short and must contain at least one of the following: cyanosis and/or pallor, irregular breathing, muscle hyper/hypotonicity, decreased alertness and reaction to stimuli. the esr/brue diagnosis is chosen when the patient history and physical exam reveal no pathological causes for the event. investigating a case of sids requires close collaboration between health professionals with experience in the syndrome such as pediatricians, the forensic pathologists, and pathologists and the family/caregiver (jorch et al., 2007; krous et al., 2004; shipstone et al., 2020). a large number of factors must be taken into account when dealing with a case of sids from the health of the mother during pregnancy, details on before/during/after birth, the environment, position in which the infant brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 24 was found (prone, supine, lateral, fowler), ambient temperature, clothing of infant and bedding. the autopsy protocol was standardized by the global strategy task force of sids international (bajanowski et al., 2007). the macroscopic examination consists of an external overview of the body, weight and size measurements, cranial and thoracic circumferences, organ weights as well as procuring samples for further tests. the following criteria can help support the sids diagnosis: watery, serous, hematic fluid or mucous secretions or foam from mouth and/or nose; marble-like skin, change in color of skin to red/blue; marks on pressure points; no traumatic lesions, appearance oh healthy infant; environment with no apparent relation to death; if intoxication, suffocation, hypo/hyperthermia, neglect or abuse can be inferred from the autopsy and subsequent tests, the sids diagnosis is excluded (kon et al., 2020). the following criteria support infanticide: appearance of neglected infant, malnourished; traumatic lesions; clues indicating a change in position after death or that death occurred in another position than stated; lesions around mouth/nose; bite marks, contusions; lesions in different stages of healing; scars; fractures (esp. different stages); altered pupils. during autopsy the organs known to have a role in sids (brain, lungs and heart) must be thoroughly examined in order to correctly differentiate between sudden and unexpected infant death and other possible causes. in 2003, at the state-of-the-art conference on the stratification of sudi, a neuropathological examination protocol was accepted, involving procuration of tissue from the hippocampus, the frontal and parietal lobes, the corpus striatum of the thalamus, mesencephalon, pons, cerebellum and the cervical part of the spinal cord for histopathological investigations. immuno-histochemistry can be used to evaluate gliosis, neurons, axons and microglial cells as well as traumatic injury. after examination, the pathologist can differentiate between brains medical, forensic and social quandaries of sudden infant death syndrome today tatiana iov, et al. 25 with potentially or conclusively lethal changes and brains with nonspecific lesions. lung tissue is procured from the central section and the periphery of each lobe and from the tracheal branching in order to differentiate between age dependent features, specific and non-specific changes (minor inflammatory infiltrate, hemorrhagic petechiae, alveolar bleeding). it has been demonstrated that alveolar bleeding does not correlate with hemorrhage of the nose/mouth or with intrathoracic hemorrhagic petechiae in cases of sudden infant death with adequate sleeping conditions (krous et al., 2007; lavezzi et al., 2020; osawa et al., 2020). heart tissue samples obtained from the left ventricle show t cell infiltrates that require further immunochemistry and/or biomolecular testing to diagnose acute fatal myocarditis (bajanowski et al., 2007). if family history is positive then metabolic and genetic investigations are required (ferrante et al., 2020). blood, bile and urine samples are also taken for genetic/molecular tests while fibroblast cultures are used to diagnose chromosome anomalies (hashiyada et al., 2019). bacteriologic and virus tests are done when histology has revealed an infection (bajanowski et al., 2007). toxicology reports are obtained from ventricle or femoral artery blood, brain fluid, vitreous humour, urine, stomach content and liver tissue to determine alcohol/drug levels. post-mortem examination can reveal a cause of death in approximately 3% of cases based on clinical findings, 5-25% after reevaluation of death circumstances, 5-13% after macroscopic examination of the body, 12-15% after histology, 1-5% after microbiology, 1% after metabolic testing and 1% after toxicology (jorch et al., 2007). sids has a number of differential diagnoses that must be excluded first amongst which are pathologies of the central nervous system (hemorrhage, meningitis, tumor, congenital defects, etc.), respiratory system (pneumonia, laryngitis, aspiration, etc.), digestive tract (dehydration), metabolic anomalies, accidents in bed (asphyxia) or in the car seat (posture asphyxia), infanticide. even if medicine evolved tremendously to where almost any diagnosis can be delivered in short time, uncertainty still conduct to cases when the cause of death is difficult to be settled. in case of infants, is even more difficult based on the lack of the subjective response from the patient. given that, early screening might prevent this sudden infant death syndrome in certain cases (de visme et al., 2020; merino et al., 2020) and even decrease the number of such occurrences (goldwater et al., 2020). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 26 conclusions whenever the cause of death in an infant is unknown and there is a strong suspicion of sudden death, a complete autopsy alongside thorough patient history and histology testing must be observed. the forensic pathologist in charge must correlate the clinical data of the infant, the social context and the place of death with the oftentimes subtle autopsy findings in order to correctly diagnose sids. post-mortem lab tests help exclude other pathologies, while the family history can reveal cases of unexplained infant death, sudden cardiac arrest, genetic or metabolic disorders. a detailed image of the scene of death obtained through interviewing the parents/family members/caregivers (sandu, 2020) and through careful analysis might support the diagnosis. despite careful and complex medical investigations, sometimes differentiating between sids and other causes of death (e.g. unintentional suffocation, infanticide) can be particularly difficult, even today. references american academy of pediatrics (2005). the changing concept of sudden infant death syndrome: diagnostic coding shifts, controversies regarding the sleeping environment, and new variables to consider in reducing risk; task force on sudden infant death syndrome. pediatrics, 116(5), 12451255. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2005-1499 arane, k., claudius, i., & goldman, r. d. (2017). brief resolved unexplained event: new diagnosis in infants. canadian family physician medecin de famille canadien, 63(1), 39–41. bajanowski t, vege, a., byard, r.w., krous, h. f., arnestad, m., bachs, l., banner, j., blair, p. s., borthne, a., dettmeyer, r., fleming, p., gaustad, p., gregersen, m., grøgaard, j., holter, e., isaksen, c. v., jorgensen, j. v., de lange, c., madea, b., moore, i., morland, j., opdal, s. h., råstenalmqvist, p., schlaud, m., sidebotham, p., skullerud, k., stoltenburgdidinger, g., stray-pedersen, a., sveum, l., & rognum, t. o. (2007). sudden infant death syndrome (sids) – standardized investigations and classification: recommendations. forensic science international, 165, 129-143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.05.028 de faria oliveira, a. m., de andrade, p. r., pinheiro, e. m., avelar, a. f., m., costa, p., & belela-anacleto, a. s. c., (2020). risk and protective factors for sudden infant death syndrome. revista brasileira de enfermagem, 73(2), e20190458. https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2019-0458 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2005-1499 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.05.028 https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2019-0458 medical, forensic and social quandaries of sudden infant death syndrome today tatiana iov, et al. 27 de visme, s., chalumeau, m., levieux, k., patural, h., harrewijn, i., briandhuchet, e., rey, g., morgand, c., blondel, b., & gras-le, g. c. (2020). national variations in recent trends of sudden unexpected infant death rate in western europe. journal of pediatrics, 226, 179-185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.06.052 farrell, p. a., weiner, g. m., lemons, j. a. (2002). sids, alte, apnea, and the use of home monitors of pediatrics. pediatrics in review 23(1), 3-9. https://doi.org/10.1542/pir.23-1-3 ferrante, l., opdal, s. h., & nygaard, v. (2020). no association to sudden infant death syndrome detected by targeted amplicon sequencing of 24 genes. acta paediatrica, 109(12), 2636-2640. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.15295 goian, c., & breaz m. a. (2020). children's opinion on conditions in day care centers. revista universitară de sociologie, xvi(1), 71-82. http://www.sociologiecraiova.ro/revista/wpcontent/uploads/2020/06/00.-full-version-71-82.pdf goldwater, p. n., kelmanson, i. a., & little, b. b. (2020). increased thymus weight in sudden infant death syndrome compared to controls: the role of subclinical infections. american journal of human biology, 145(1), e23528, https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23528 hashiyada, m., obayashi, m., matsumoto, t., yoshimura, s., & akane, a. (2019). epigenome-wide association study for sudden unexpected infant death. forensic science international genetics supplement series, 7(1), 818-819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2019.10.188 jorch, g., jorch, g., tapiainen, t., bonhoeffer, j., fischer, t. k., heininger, u., hoet, b., kohl, k. s., lewis, e. m., meyer, c., nelson, t., sandbu, s., schlaud, m., schwartz, a., varricchio, f., & wise, r. p. (2007). unexplained sudden death, including sudden infant death syndrome (sids), in the first and second years of life. vaccine, 25(31), 5707-5716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2007.02.068 kiechl-kohlendorfer, u., hof, d., peglow, u. p., traweger-ravanelli, b., & kiechl, s. (2005). epidemiology of apparent life threatening events. archives of disease in childhood, 90(3), 297–300. https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2004.049452 kingsmore, s. f., henderson, a., owen, m. j., clark, m. m., hansen, c., dimmock, d., chambers, c. d., jeliffe-pawlowski, l. l., & hobbs, c. (2020). measurement of genetic diseases as a cause of mortality in infants receiving whole genome sequencing. npj genomic medicine, 5, 49. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41525-020-00155-8 koeffer, j., scheiper-welling, s., verhoff, m. a., bajanowski, t., & kauferstein, s., (2020). post-mortem genetic investigation of cardiac disease-associated https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.06.052 https://doi.org/10.1542/pir.23-1-3 https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.15295 http://www.sociologiecraiova.ro/revista/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/00.-full-version-71-82.pdf http://www.sociologiecraiova.ro/revista/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/00.-full-version-71-82.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23528 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2019.10.188 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2007.02.068 https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2004.049452 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41525-020-00155-8 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 28 genes in sudden infant death syndrome (sids) cases. international journal of legal medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02394-x kon, f. c., vazquez, r. z., lang a., & cohen m. c. (2020). hippocampal abnormalities and seizures: a 16-year single center review of sudden unexpected death in childhood, sudden unexpected death in epilepsy and sids. forensic science medicine and pathology, 16(3), 423-434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-020-00268-7 krous, h. f., beckwith, j. b., byard, r. w., rognum, t. o., bajanowski, t., corey, t., cutz, e., hanzlick, r., keens, t. g., & mitchell, e. a. (2004). sudden infant death syndrome and unclassified sudden infant deaths: a definitional and diagnostic approach. pediatrics, 114(1), 234-238. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.114.1.234 krous, h. f., haas, e. a., masoumi, h., chadwick, a. e., & stanley, c. (2007). a comparison of pulmonary intra-alveolar hemorrhage in cases of sudden infant death due to sids in a safe sleep environment or to suffocation. forensic science international, 172(1), 56-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.12.005 lavezzi, a. m., mehboob, r., alfonsi, g., & ferrero, s. (2020). substantia nigra abnormalities provide new insight on the neural mechanisms underlying the sleep-arousal phase dysfunctions in sudden infant death syndrome. american society for neurochemistry, 0, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1759091420962695 lavista ferres, j. m., anderson, t. m., johnston, r., ramirez j-m., mitchell, e. a. (2020). distinct populations of sudden unexpected infant death based on age. pediatrics, 145(1), e20191637. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.20191637 luijerink, l. l. m., vivekanandarajah, a., waters, k. a., & machaalani, r. (2020). the alpha 7 and beta 2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits regulate apoptosis in the infant hippocampus, and in sudden infant death syndrome (sids). apoptosis, 25(7-8), 574-589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10495020-01618-0 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., stoleriu, g., ciubara, a. b., ciubara, a., lupu, v., burlea, m., & stratciuc, s. (2017). vaccination of children in romania between civic obligation and personal choice. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 56, 123-132. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis56_10.pdf mahat-shamir, m. (2020). neither here nor there and a little bit of both: the ambiguous loss experience of parents who lost a baby to sudden infant death syndrome. death studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1802629 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02394-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-020-00268-7 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.114.1.234 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.12.005 https://doi.org/10.1177/1759091420962695 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-1637 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-1637 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10495-020-01618-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10495-020-01618-0 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis56_10.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1802629 medical, forensic and social quandaries of sudden infant death syndrome today tatiana iov, et al. 29 mcgovern, m. c., & smith, m. b. h. (2004). causes of apparent life-threatening events in infants: a systematic review. archives of disease in childhood, 89(11), 1043–1048. https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2003.031740 merino, a. m., oliva-navarro, j., naranjo-castresana, m., aguilar, a-p. m. j., herraez-sanchez, e., pastor-romero, b., sanchez-tornero, m., martinezbermejo, a. (2020). could polysomnography identify potential sids/brue victims? subtle changes in arousability during sleep in healthy infants (sids: sudden infant death syndrome, brue: brief resolved unexplained event). journal of sleep research, 29 (supplement 1), 113. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13181 müller-nordhorn, j., schneider, a., grittner, u., neumann, k., keil, t., willich, s. n., & binting, s. (2020). international time trends in sudden unexpected infant death, 1969–2012. bmc pediatr, 20, 377. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-020-02271-x osawa, m., ueno, y., ikeda, n., ikematsu, k., yamamoto, t., irie, w., kozawa, s., kotani, h., hamayasu, h., murase, t. shingu, k., sugimoto, m., nagao, r., & kakimoto, y. (2020). circumstances and factors of sleep-related sudden infancy deaths in japan. plos one, 15(8), e0233253. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233253 rini, s., dhruv, g., & deepak, k. (2016). apparent life-threatening events: an overview. clinical pediatrics, 55(1), 5–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/0009922815591890 ruiz-botia, i., cassanello-peñarroya, p., díez-izquierdo, a., martínez-sánchez, j. m., & balaguer-santamaria, a. (2020). sudden infant death syndrome: do the parents follow the recommendations? anales de pediatria, 92(4), 222228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anpede.2019.06.009 sanchez, t., peirano, d., pipino, c., & brockmann, p. e. (2020). bad sleeping habits in infants: risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome. pilot study. revista chilena de pediatria-chile, 91(4), 529-535. https://doi.org/10.32641/rchped.vi91i4.1400 sandu, a. (2020). bioethics – philosophy or science?. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(1), 44-60. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/35 shipstone, r. a., young, j., kearney, l., & thompson, j. m. d. (2020). prevalence of risk factors for sudden infant death among indigenous and nonindigenous people in australia. acta paediatrica, 109(12), 2614-2626. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.15274 shipstone, r. a., young, j., thompson, j. m. d., & byard, r. w. (2020). an evaluation of pathologists' application of the diagnostic criteria from the san diego definition of sids and unclassified sudden infant death. https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2003.031740 https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13181 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-020-02271-x https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233253 https://doi.org/10.1177/0009922815591890 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anpede.2019.06.009 https://doi.org/10.32641/rchped.vi91i4.1400 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/35 https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.15274 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 30 international journal of legal medicine, 134(3), 1015-1021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-019-02126-w sontag, j. m., singh, b., ostfeld, b. m., hegyi, t., steinberg, m. b., & delnevo, c. d., (2020). obstetricians' and gynecologists' communication practices around smoking cessation in pregnancy, secondhand smoke and sudden infant death syndrome (sids): a survey. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(8), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082908 tieder, j. s., bonkowsky, j. l., etzel, r. a., franklin, w. h., gremse, d. a., herman, b., katz, e. s., krilov, l. r., merritt ii, j. l., norlin, c., percelay, j., sapien, r. e., shiffman, r. n., & smith, m. b. h. (2016). brief resolved unexplained events (formerly apparent life-threatening events) and evaluation of lower-risk infants. pediatrics, 137(5), e2 0160590. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-0591 vennemann, m. m. t., hoffgen, m., & bajanowski, t., & mitchell, e. a. (2007). doimmunizations reduce the risk for sids? a meta-analysis. vaccine, 25, 4875-4879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2007.02.077 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-019-02126-w https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082908 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-0591 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2007.02.077 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.1, pages: 47-56 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/28 pharmacotherapy in autism spectrum disorder: how, when and why grazia maria giovanna pastorino¹, francesca felicia operto 2 , giangennaro coppola 3 1 child and adolescent neuropsychiatry, salerno, italy, graziapastorino@gmail.com 2 child and adolescent neuropsychiatry, salerno, italy 3 child and adolescent neuropsychiatry, salerno, italy abstract: psychiatric comorbidities are more frequent in asd population if compared to neurotypical development peers. several studies reported that nearly three-quarters of children and adolescents with asd also have another psychiatric condition that contributes to worsen their clinical condition and has a negative impact on the quality of life of the entire family. the treatment of asd symptoms and comorbidities is based on a multimodal approach of behavioural, educational and pharmacological treatments. pharmacotherapy is employed when other therapies are unable to control the symptoms and are often useful to increase the patient’s compliance with other psychoeducational treatments. about 50% 60% of children with asd undergo drug therapy to reduce behaviour problems and comorbidities, and polypharmacy is common in about 30%-40%. the use of drug therapy increases with age and antipsychotics, psychostimulants and antidepressants are among the most widely used drugs. despite the high frequency of psychotropic medication in this population, there is scarce evidence in the literature, supported by studies often limited by a low sample size, a heterogeneous population and without a control group. large rct on more commonly prescribed psychotropic drugs in asd children are needed for a better evaluation of risks and benefits in asd pediatric patients. keywords: asd; comorbidities; pharmacotherapy. how to cite: pastorino, g.m.g., operto, f.f., & coppola, g. (2020). pharmacotherapy in autism spectrum disorder: how, when and why. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 47-56. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/28 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/28 mailto:graziapastorino@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/28 brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 48 introduction: autism spectrum disorder, prevalence and dsm-5 classification autism spectrum disorder (asd) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, characterized – according to dsm-5 criteria – by persistent deficits in social interaction and communication, and a limited and stereotypical pattern of interests (american psychiatric association, 2013). the causes of this condition, which currently has a prevalence of 1 in 59 children (baio et al, 2018) are still under study. genetics play a key role in its aetiology, together with environmental factors affecting early neurodevelopment (yenkoyan et al., 2017). given their atypical neuronal development, asd patients may present peculiar cognitive profiles, characterized by aspects of executive dysfunction and changes in perception and information processing (lai et al., 2014). developmental atypia lead to compromised communicative, socio-relational, and behavioral skills often independent from one another -, with different levels of complexity and severity, and variable clinical presentation (carter et al., 2005). the word “spectrum” emphasizes the idea that the symptoms in the clinical presentation of asd are distributed based on a continuous severity gradient, allowing us to group together very different clinical cases (ring et al., 2008). with this in mind, we can include that high-functioning autism (hf-asd) and asperger syndrome (as) (american psychiatric association, 2000) – currently both classified as asd with severity level 1, according to the dsm-5 – are among the most complex and multifaceted phenotypes. these two forms are characterized by fluent but pragmatically defective language, and normal cognitive development (iq≥70). even with normal linguistic and cognitive skills, these individuals show deficits in social functioning (covalciuc, 2019) due to difficulties with theory of mind (tom), identification and interpretation of emotions, and empathy (baron-cohen et al., 1985; tine & lucariello, 2012; peterson et al., 2016). psychiatric comorbidities in autism spectrum disorder psychiatric comorbidities are more frequent in asd population if compared to neurotypical development peers. several studies reported that nearly three-quarters of children and adolescents with asd also have another psychiatric condition that contributes to worsen their clinical condition and has a negative impact on the quality of life of the entire family (joshi et al., 2010; hansen et al., 2018). there are extremely heterogeneous neuropsychiatric conditions that can be found in association with asd, pharmacotherapy in autism spectrum disorder: how, when and why grazia maria giovanna pastorino, et al. 49 including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd), anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, gender dysphoria, non-verbal learning disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd), schizophrenia, sensory problems, sleep disorders, and tourette syndrome and tic disorders (sharma et al., 2018). moreover, several studies reported an association between asd and internalizing symptoms, in particular, emotional dysregulation, mood deflection, worries and anxiety. another documented association is with ocd symptoms, although it is difficult to discriminate whether the obsessive-repetitive behaviours are more likely to be the expression of a separate comorbidity, or rather should be addressed as an integral part of the core symptoms of asd. an association between asd externalizing symptoms such as irritability, aggressiveness, disruptive behaviour and conduct disorders (cd) have been also frequently reported. (bauminger et al., 2010). all these conditions may be present from the early years of life; externalizing symptoms such as hyperactivity-impulsivity, irritability, self and hetero-aggressiveness, oppositional and problematic behaviours are very common in preschool children, and seem particularly associated with a severe level of autism. the subjects with high functioning asd may instead experiment frequently internalizing symptoms, with the development of anxiety and depression because of the severe impairment of social, individual and interpersonal development, difficulties in communication, language, empathy, emotion recognition and management of personal autonomy, all affecting interpersonal relationships (morie et al., 2019; orinstein et al., 2015). especially during preadolescence and adolescence, asd individuals can incur a worsening of the issues caused by the disorder due to normative stress-inducing factors associated to this specific developmental stage. adhd with the new dsm-5 revision of diagnostic criteria, it is now possible to diagnose asd and adhd in comorbidity. the two disorders have a comorbid rate from 30% to 50% based on different studies. patients with asd are frequently associated with attention problems, impulsivity and hyperactivity, and also subjects with a diagnosis of adhd have a higher frequency of autistic traits than the general population. diagnosis is usually made in preschool with prevalence in males compared to females (leitner et al., 2014). brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 50 tic disorders and tourette syndrome tourette syndrome and other tic disorders have been found in comorbidity with asd. a study found that 22% of a children with asd showed chronic motor tic symptoms (canitano & vivanti, 2007). the diagnosis is often difficult, given the presence of clinical overlap between tics and motor stereotypies. anxiety disorders anxiety disorder is reported in up to 80% of subjects with asd especially in adolescents with asperger syndrome or high functioning asd (van steensel et al., 2011). a recent study reported that in a pediatric population with asd, the prevalence of separation anxiety disorder was 38%, generalized anxiety was 35% and social phobia was 30%. (leyfer et al., 2006). the presence of an anxiety disorder can have a negative impact on the quality of life in children and adolescents, and further reduces relationship with peers and school attendance. depression the presence of a depressive disorder was reported in 10% -50% of young patients with asd and it seems that the depressive symptomatology is more intense and prolonged as well as more frequent than in the general population. it can often be underdiagnosed for masking depressive symptoms with the typical social withdrawal of individuals with asd. the prevalence of comorbid depression seems to correlate with higher functioning forms of asd and increasing age (simonoff et al., 2008; de filippis, 2018). pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies despite the advances in early diagnosis and intervention, no therapy has proven effective in completely reducing the core symptoms of autism. the treatment of asd symptoms and comorbidities is based on a multimodal approach of behavioural, educational and pharmacological treatments. among non-pharmacological treatments, cognitive-behavioural therapy is the one that has shown more evidence on the reduction of both behavioural problems and psychiatric comorbidities. greater benefits of behavioural therapy occur when started early and if accompanied by adequate psycho-educational support to parents. other types of intervention include speech therapy, psychomotor therapy, occupational therapy and pharmacotherapy in autism spectrum disorder: how, when and why grazia maria giovanna pastorino, et al. 51 alternative treatments such as music therapy and others art therapies. pharmacotherapy is employed when other therapies are unable to control the symptoms and are often useful to increase the patient compliance with other psychoeducational treatments (rossignol et al., 2009; lamy & erickson, 2018). about 50% 60% of children with asd undergo drug therapy to reduce behaviour problems and comorbidities, and polypharmacy is common in about 30%-40%. the use of drug therapy increases with age and antipsychotics, psychostimulants and antidepressants are among the most widely used drugs. despite the high frequency of psychotropic medication in this population, there is scarce evidence in the literature, supported by studies often limited by a low sample size, a heterogeneous population and without a control group. irritability and aggression – second generation antipsychotic medications antipsychotic medications are among the most studied and used in children with asd and are frequently employed to reduce behavioural symptoms such as irritability and aggression and for treatment of comorbid schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. the most prescribed are risperidone, aripiprazole, ziprasidone, quetiapine and olanzapine but only risperidone and aripiprazole are fda approved. several rct and subsequent open-label extension studies showed improvements in externalizing behaviour such as aggression and irritability. a large multicenter rct trial, conducted by rupp autism network, showed a greater reduction in irritability in asd children with respect to control (57% versus 14%). in addition, treatment with risperidone is associated with significant improvements in tantrums, aggressive episodes and self-injurious behaviours (mccracken et al., 2002). risperidone was fda approved in 2006 for irritability in children and adolescents with asd aged 5-17 years. adverse events associated with risperidone treatment included rapid weight gain, appetite increase, fatigue, dizziness, anxiety, cardiac effects, hyperprolactinemia and gynecomastia. several randomized double blind placebo-controlled trials showed improvements in irritability in asd children with aripiprazole. a large rct trial in asd children aged between 6-17 years, aripiprazole therapy reduce irritability compared with placebo (marcus et al., 2009). aripiprazole was fda approved in 2009 for irritability in asd children aged 6-17 years. brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 52 for risk increase of cardiovascular and metabolic side effects, metabolic screening and monitoring are strongly recommended for all the patients who received antipsychotic medication. mood disorders, anxiety and repetitive behaviour – ssri antidepressant drugs, such as fluoxetine, sertaline, fluvoxamine, citalopram and escitalopram, specifically ssri, are widely prescribed to asd children and adolescents (nadeau et al., 2011). several rct clinical studies have been conducted to compare fluoxetine with placebo in asd children with anxiety symptoms and repetitive behaviours, with contrasting and inconclusive results (hollander et al., 2005; autism speaks, 2009). only one open label study was conducted for sertraline, fluvoxamine and escitalopram therapy that showed some benefits. a rct study for citalopram therapy showed no efficacy over placebo, and also revealed a higher incidence of side effects. attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd) psychostimulants methylphenidate has been well studied in children with asd in comorbidity with adhd. a large crossover rct (ruppa network, 2005) showed a reduction in hyperactivity and impulsivity in patients with asd and adhd (50% of 72 patients aged 5-14 years). this improvement remains, nonetheless, lower than in children with adhd only. methylphenidate showed no benefit in other symptoms such as irritability and repetitive behaviors. conclusions children and adolescents with asd frequently exhibit behavioural symptoms and psychiatric comorbidities that impact their quality of life. currently, no medication is fda approved for core symptoms of asd. among antipsychotic drugs only risperidone and aripiprazole are fda approved for asd-related irritability and aggression. there is also evidence for ziprasidone, olanzapine, paliperidone and clozapine in reducing irritability. for significant metabolic side effects a strongly monitoring is required of all patients on antipsychotic drugs. methylphenidate is commonly used for adhd treatment in asd children with proven effect in reducing symptoms; however, the efficacy is lower with respect to adhd only. evidence for use of ssri in children and adolescents with asd is limited. the use of ssri may be associated with side effects such as behavioural activation. currently, the literature on pharmacological therapy pharmacotherapy in autism spectrum disorder: how, when and why grazia maria giovanna pastorino, et al. 53 in asd children is often limited by studies with a low sample size, a heterogeneous population and without a control group, and there are no large placebo-controlled trials. large rct on more commonly prescribed psychotropic drugs in asd children are needed for a better evaluation of risks and benefits in asd pediatric patients. references american psychiatric association. (2000). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.152.8.1228 american psychiatric association. (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 autism speaks (2009, feb 18). autism speaks announces results reported for the study of fluoxetine in autism (sofia), first industry-sponsored trial for the autismclinical trials network (actn). retrieved from https://www.autismspeaks.org/news baio, j., wiggins, l., ... dowling, n. f. (2018). prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 11 sites, united states. surveillance summaries, 67(6), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss6706a1 baron-cohen, s., leslie, a. m., & frith, u. (1985). does the autistic child have a "theory of mind"? cognition, 21(1), 37-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/00100277(85)90022-8 bauminger, n., solomon, m., & rogers, s. j. (2010). externalizing and internalizing behaviors in asd. autism research, 3(3), 101-112. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.131 canitano, r., & vivanti, g. (2007). tics and tourette syndrome in autism spectrum disorders. autism, 11(1), 19–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361307070992 carter, a. s., davis, n. o., klin, a. & volkmar, f. r. (2005). social development in autism. in f. r. volkmar, r. paul, a. klin & d. cohen (eds.), handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (3rd ed., vol.1, pp. 312-334). john wiley & sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470939345.ch11 covalciuc, s. (2020). key issues of medical research ethics. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 3(1), 11-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.17 de filippis, m. (2018). depression in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. children, 5(9), 112. https://doi.org/10.3390/children5090112 hansen, b. h., oerbeck, b., skirbekk, b., petrovski, b. é., & kristensen, h. (2018). neurodevelopmental disorders: prevalence and comorbidity in children https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.152.8.1228 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 https://www.autismspeaks.org/news https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss6706a1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8 https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.131 https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361307070992 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470939345.ch11 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.17 https://doi.org/10.3390/children5090112 brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 54 referred to mental health services. nordic journal of psychiatry, 72(4), 285-291. https://doi.org/10.1080/08039488.2018.1444087 hollander, e., phillips, a., chaplin, w., zagursky, k., novotny, s., wasserman, s., & iyengar, r. (2005). a placebo controlled crossover trial of liquid fluoxetine on repetitive behaviors in childhood and adolescent autism. neuropsychopharmacology, 30(3), 582–589. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1300627 joshi, g., petty, c., wozniak, j., henin, a., fried, r., galdo, m., kotarski, m., walls, s., & biederman, j. (2010). the heavy burden of psychiatric comorbidity in youth with autism spectrum disorders: a large comparative study of a psychiatrically referred population. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 40(11), 1361-1370. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-0996-9 lai, m. c., lombardo, m. v., & baron-cohen, s. (2014). autism. the lancet, 383(9920), 896-910. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(13)61539-1 lamy, m., & erickson, c. a. (2018). pharmacological management of behavioral disturbances in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care, 48(10), 250-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cppeds.2018.08.015 leitner, y. (2014). the co-occurrence of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children what do we know? frontiers in human neuroscience, 8, 268. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00268 leyfer, o. t., folstein, s. e., bacalman, s., davis, n. o., dinh, e., morgan, j., tager-flusberg, h., & lainhart, j. e. (2006). comorbid psychiatric disorders in children with autism: interview development and rates of disorders. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 36(7): 849–861. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0123-0 marcus, r.n., owen, r., kamen, l., manos, g., mcquade, r. d., carson, w. h., & aman, m. g. (2009). a placebo-controlled, fixed-dose study of aripiprazole in children and adolescents with irritability associated with autistic disorder. journal of the american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry, 48(11), 1110–1119. https://doi.org/10.1097/chi.0b013e3181b76658 mccracken, j. t., mcgough, j., ... mcmahon, d. (2002). risperidone in children with autism and serious behavioral problems. the new england journal of medicine, 347(5), 314–321. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa013171 morie, k. p., jackson, s., zhai, z. w., potenza, m. n., & dritschel, b. (2019). mood disorders in high-functioning autism: the importance of alexithymia and emotional regulation. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 49(7), 2935-2945. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04020-1 https://doi.org/10.1080/08039488.2018.1444087 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1300627 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-0996-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(13)61539-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cppeds.2018.08.015 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00268 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0123-0 https://doi.org/10.1097/chi.0b013e3181b76658 https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa013171 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04020-1 pharmacotherapy in autism spectrum disorder: how, when and why grazia maria giovanna pastorino, et al. 55 nadeau, j., sulkowski, m. l., ung, d., wood, j. j., lewin, a. b., murphy, t. k., may, j. e., & storch, e. a. (2011). treatment of comorbid anxiety and autism spectrum disorders. neuropsychiatry, 1(6), 567–578. https://doi.org/10.2217/npy.11.62 orinstein, a., tyson, k. e., suh, j., troyb, e., helt, m., rosenthal, m., barton, m. l., eigsti, i. m., kelley, e., naigles, l., schultz, r. t., stevens, m. c., & fein, d. a. (2015). psychiatric symptoms in youth with a history of autism and optimal outcome. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 45(11), 3703-3714. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2520-8 peterson, c., slaughter, v., moore, c., & wellman, h. m. (2016). peer social skills and theory of mind in children with autism, deafness, or typical development. developmental psychology, 52(1), 46–57. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039833 research units on pediatric psychopharmacology autism network/ruppa. (2005). randomized, controlled, crossover trial of methylphenidate in pervasive developmental disorders with hyperactivity. archives of general psychiatry, 62(11), 1266-1274. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.11.1266 ring, h., woodbury-smith, m., watson, p., wheelwright, s, & baron-cohen, s. (2008). clinical heterogeneity among people with high functioning autism spectrum conditions: evidence favoring a continuous severity gradient. behavioral and brain functions, 4(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-90814-11 rossignol, d. a. (2009). novel and emerging treatments for autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review. ann clin psychiatry, 21(4), 213-236. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19917212# sharma, s. r., gonda, x., & tarazi, f. i. (2018). autism spectrum disorder: classification, diagnosis and therapy. pharmacology & therapeutics, 190, 91– 104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2018.05.007 simonoff, e., pickles, a., charman, t., chandler, s., loucas, t., & baird, g. (2008). psychiatric disorders in children with autism spectrum disorders: prevalence, comorbidity, and associated factors in a population-derived sample. journal of the american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry, 47(8), 921–929. https://doi.org/10.1097/chi.0b013e318179964f tine, m., & lucariello, j. (2012). unique theory of mind differentiation in children with autism and asperger syndrome. autism research and treatment, 2012, 1– 11. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/505393 van steensel, f. j. a., bögels, s. m., & perrin, s. (2011). anxiety disorders in children and adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders: a meta-analysis. clinical child and family psychology review, 14(3), 302–317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-011-0097-0 https://doi.org/10.2217/npy.11.62 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2520-8 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039833 https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.11.1266 https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-4-11 https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-4-11 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19917212 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2018.05.007 https://doi.org/10.1097/chi.0b013e318179964f https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/505393 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-011-0097-0 brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 56 yenkoyan, k., grigoryan, a., fereshetyan, k., & yepremyan, d. (2017). advances in understanding the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders. behavioural brain research, 331, 92-101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2017.04.038 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2017.04.038 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 64-81| https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/95 developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the context of a neuropedagogical approach yuliya zhurat¹, larysa lipshyts 2 , mariia soter 3 , larisa chumak 4 , halyna tarasenko 5 , oksana valchuk-orkusha 6 , iryna melnyk 7 1 yuri fedkovich chernivtsi national university, chernivtsi, ukraine, y.zhurat@chnu.edu.ua 2 kherson state maritime academy, kherson, ukraine, larysalipshic2015@gmail.com 3 pervomaisk branch of admiral makarov national university of shipbuilding, pervomaisk, ukraine, sotermariia@gmail.com 4 communal higher educational establishment «kherson academy of continuing education» of kherson regional council, kherson, ukraine, larisaks2008@ukr.net 5 communal higher educational institution (chei) “vinnytsia academy of continuing education”, vinnytsia, ukraine, tarasenkogal@gmail.com 6 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, valchykorkysha@gmail.com 7 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, iramelnyk@i.ua abstract: future primary school teachers can feel their subjectivity and dive into the culture of learning activity as a basis for developing the main features of learning and professional subjectivity starting from the first classes in higher pedagogical educational institutions. the paper aims to scientifically and theoretically justify and experimentally verify some pedagogical conditions and methodologies for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers, taking into account a neuropedagogical approach. also, it substantiates the main pedagogical condition, that is, professional training should imply mastering the psychological structure of pedagogical activity in primary school and cultivating creative personality as the subject of this activity. it requires full compliance with certain pedagogical conditions. the latter should comply with neurophysiological characteristics of the participants in the educational process. the paper proves the effectiveness of these pedagogical conditions based on the questionnaire aimed at determining the effectiveness criteria for professional self-determination in higher education institutions, the diagnostic-related professional readiness methodology, the motivation towards higher education study methodology, the diagnostic of the structure of work motives methodology. the paper experimentally proves that their educational subjectivity is a manifestation of one’s capacity for subjective self-transformation in the learning activity, and pedagogical subjectivity represents the final stage of professional training and completion of pedagogical education, which acts as both synthesis and transformation of many invariant and variant subjective personality traits of students in the professionally important quality of the teacher, among which professional subjectivity is an integral one. eg respondents have shown better results in terms of levels of subjective qualities than cg respondents. keywords: pedagogical conditions; higher pedagogical education institution; methodology; subjective self-transformation; personality traits of students; neuropedagogy; neuropsychology. how to cite: zhurat, y., lipshyts, l., soter, m., chumak, l., tarasenko, h., valchuk-orkusha, o., & melnyk, i. (2020). developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the context of a neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 64-81. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/95 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/95 mailto:y.zhurat@chnu.edu.ua mailto:larysalipshic2015@gmail.com mailto:sotermariia@gmail.com mailto:larisaks2008@ukr.net mailto:tarasenkogal@gmail.com mailto:valchykorkysha@gmail.com mailto:iramelnyk@i.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/95 developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the … yuliya zhurat et al. 65 introduction one of the leading goals of pedagogical education is to develop students as the subjects of learning and future pedagogical activity. however, an analysis of scientific sources on the problems of psychology and pedagogy of higher education and relevant research findings show that university teachers and students are still perceived as both the subjects and objects of the educational process in higher pedagogical educational institutions. this situation is unacceptable concerning future primary school teachers, who need to feel their subjectivity and dive into the culture of learning activity as a basis for developing the main features of learning and professional subjectivity starting from the first classes in higher pedagogical educational institutions. the subjectivity of future primary school teachers as their integral professionally important quality is developed during higher education study. according to the subjectand activity-oriented approach to professional training, it is related to their learning activity, comprehension of its goals and results, as well as the meaningful perception of values and means of future pedagogical activity. as evidenced by the achievements of neuropsychology, the acquisition of subjectivity lies in the fact that a person is understood as a neuropsychological subject who has the potential to act, develop himself or herself and incorporate socio-cultural experience in natural data, namely, become a product of natural and social progress (glozman, 2012, p. 31). thus, the acquisition of subjectivity and the consolidation of the subject of activity becomes the leading methodological principle of modern psycho-pedagogical concepts, neuropedagogical and neuropsychological research. an analysis of psycho-pedagogical theses shows that the theory and practice of higher pedagogical education accumulate considerable experience which can become the basis of the pedagogical system for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers. in this regard, one should rely on theoretical and methodical principles of their professional training (bondar, 1996; husak, 1999; khomych, 1999; kucheriavyi, 2002; lytvynenko, 2005). luriya’s neuropsychological theory, which is thoroughly subjective, seems to be the leading one. moreover, the subjectivity of a person is represented as his or her natural activity and socialization, as a result of which he or she acquires a social “self”, without detaching from nature (luriya, 2003). different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (bakhmat et al., 2019; behas et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; gerasymova et al., 2019; halaidiuk et al., 2018; kaletnik, et al., 2011; maksymchuk et al., 2018; brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 66 melnyk et al., 2019; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; petrova, 2017; podlinyaev & mornov, 2015; sheremet et al., 2019; sitovskyi et al., 2019). at the same time, an analysis of professional training of future primary school teachers shows that the process of developing their professional competency is characterized by certain contradictions between the need for well-developed professionally important qualities of future primary school teachers (autonomy, creativity, tolerance, accurate selfesteem, the objective professional self-concept, self-reflection, selfdetermination and self-regulation of their pedagogical activity in primary school) required for successful pedagogical activity and insufficient attention to their development while studying psychological and pedagogical courses; certain fragmentation of subjective knowledge in the content of psychological and pedagogical courses in relation to pedagogical activity of future primary school teachers and the need for their comprehensive and systematic use in future pedagogical activity; the decisive influence of primary school teachers’ professional subjectivity on pupils and insufficient attention to its develop while solving psycho-pedagogical problems. if one should generalize these contradictions, one reduces them to the conflict of phenomena analyzed in the framework of classical didactic (knowledge, influence, cultivation) and neuropedagogy (special identification, selfdevelopment, motivation). consequently, there appears to be a need to introduce personal natural needs and values, as well as the values of humanistic philosophy of education in the system of professional training of future primary school teachers, which will be based on the perception of teachers’ and students’ subjectivity in the educational process and its purposeful promotion using organizational-and-managerial and psycho-pedagogical measures. therefore, it is essential to methodologically reconsider the theory and practice of their training, clarify its goals, content, methodologies, technologies and results, reinforce them with the real subjective meaning based on the neuropedagogical and neuropsychological phenomena of activities in primary school (the specifics of teacher’s and student’s subjectivity), provide the methodological system of such training with the subjectand activityoriented methodologies and technologies, justify neuropedagogical and neuropsychological principles of developing their leading subjective qualities. thus, the topic of the research has been chosen, taking into account the relevance of developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers during professional training, its importance for neuropedagogical theory and practice and the presence of significant contradictions in their training. developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the … yuliya zhurat et al. 67 the paper aims to scientifically and theoretically justify and experimentally verify the pedagogical conditions and methodologies for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers, taking into account neuropsychological views on the personality of the primary school teacher and pupil. material and methods neuropedagogical conditions for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the process of studying psycho-pedagogical courses are those conditions consciously created in the educational process and ensuring the establishment, development, formation, natural activity and higher neural activity of participants in the educational process, under which they develop as specialists. this paper substantiates the main pedagogical condition, that is, professional training should imply mastering the neuropsychological structure of pedagogical activity in primary school and cultivating creative personality as the subject of this activity. it requires the following: to develop their motivational sphere of professional self-determination within pedagogical education; to enhance the system of professional selection of applicants for pedagogical degrees; to develop their professional orientations towards pedagogical activity in the system of primary education; to update the content and improve methodologies of their professional training following the requirements of the humanistic philosophy of education, subject-, activityoriented and competency-based approaches, as well as primary school teachers’ vocation; to focus their psycho-pedagogical training on developing professional subjectivity and other professionally important qualities; to prepare future primary school teachers for the subject-subject pedagogical interaction in the educational environment of primary school. these conditions ensure the sequence of developing subjectivity in future primary school teachers: first, the subject of learning activity, which results in educational subjectivity and, second, professional subjectivity as the subject of pedagogical activity in primary school. the justified methodology for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers is aimed at realizing such its neuropsychological components as professional identity, professionalism, praxeological and subjective components, which determine the nature of its subjective-and-pedagogical development as a prospective subject of pedagogical activity. this methodology involves certain stages, which starts from the axiological-and-motivational stage and ends with the acquisition of professional subjectivity. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 68 given the understanding of professional training as a combination of neuropsychological (both the process and results of biosocial development) and technological (the use of didactic tools) factors, one distinguishes the following stages of developing subjectivity during the diagnostic-and-formative experiment. stage 1 (professional identity) regulates how future primary school teachers obtain pedagogical education, determines its meaning and contributes to developing their “professional image as a primary school teacher”. according to neuropsychological theories, a person acquires a number of natural, natural-and-social and social identities throughout life. professional self-identity as a biosocial component of personality is developed due to such courses as “introduction to the profession”, “general psychology”, “general principles of pedagogy”, “developmental psychology”, “theory of education”. this stage results in the development of positive ideas about the teaching profession, the specifics and goals of teaching in primary school, as well as the realization of the need to comprehend the culture of learning activity for personal and professional development. stage 2 is devoted to developing educational subjectivity, that is, creating a system of psycho-pedagogical knowledge about the educational process in primary school and primary school pupils as the main subjects of this process. this process is facilitated by the study of such courses as “didactic of primary school”, “methods of educational work”, “pedagogical psychology”, “the history of pedagogy”, “teaching placement in primary school” and “methods of teaching mathematics”. at this stage, students learn the basic neuropsychological aspects of development and mental activity of primary school pupils, which are dominated by age-related biosocial factors. the result of the first two stages is the well-developed educational subjectivity of students. stage 3 is directed at creating the image of primary school teachers’ actions. its result implies developing the system of psycho-pedagogical knowledge and practical skills and abilities for educational work with primary school pupils, professionally important qualities and introducing the system of research activities in higher education. the main methods include solving quasi-professional tasks, business games, teaching placements, termpapers within such courses as “school studies”, “fundamentals of scientific and pedagogical research”, “methods of teaching ukrainian in primary school”, “methods of teaching mathematics in primary school”, “psychopedagogical problems of the modern lesson”, “the human and the world, (including teaching methods)”, “method of expressive reading”, developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the … yuliya zhurat et al. 69 “methods for developing coherent speech”. quasi-professionalism is one of the main neuropedagogical phenomena in working with pupils who acquire their first skills of socialization and do not completely separate learning from playing, conscious activity from spontaneous one. stage 4, developing thought-patterns in future primary school teachers, results in the well-developed professional skills and abilities required for practical work with primary school pupils and readiness to use methods of teaching some specific subjects in primary school, namely, the practical formation of the i am a primary school teacher image and the early expression of the i myself as the subject of pedagogical activity in primary school image. the following applied courses are studied for this purpose: “methods of teaching natural history in primary school”, “methods of teaching handicrafts in primary school”, “methods of teaching calligraphy in primary school”, “methods of teaching fine arts in primary school”, “teaching placement “mock lessons”, “music teaching methods”, “valeology teaching methods”, “assessing educational attainment in primary school”, “pedagogical skills”, “methods of physical education in primary school”, “methods of teaching mother tongue in a multicultural environment”. these courses help to develop practical skills and abilities required for the organization and implementation of the basic methods, technologies and forms of pedagogical activities in primary school, which are incorporated in teaching placements (e.g., “children’s first days at school”), continuing teaching placements and term-papers on teaching methods in primary school. the results of all four stages can be checked during the state complex exam on teaching pedagogy in primary school. stage 5 which seeks to create the self-image as the subject of pedagogical activity in primary school is targeted at fostering professional self-determination of primary school teachers and developing their styles of pedagogical activity. it covers such courses as “professional and personal development of teachers”, “organizing the educational process in afterschool centres”, “organizing the educational process with six-year-olds”, “methods of social and educational work under modern conditions”, “managing the educational process in secondary school”, “methods of teaching christian ethics”. the practical results of this stage are consolidated during pedagogical pre-degree practice and defence of dissertations. this is a stage of the relatively final development of professional self-image and skills in the subject-subject interaction. it corresponds to the key position of neuropedagogy: the organization of optimal acts and processes of mutual assistance and interaction between the subjects based on a personality-oriented approach. the teacher, and later the brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 70 pupils, start to realize that they are the subjects and the main resource of their development. a total of 472 students participated in the ascertaining and formative experiments. the ascertaining experiment was conducted at yurii fedkovych chernivtsi national university (103 respondents), vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university (41 respondents), kherson state maritime academy (125 respondents), pervomaisk branch of admiral makarov national university of shipbuilding (148 respondents), communal higher educational institution (chei) “vinnytsia academy of continuing education”, vinnytsia, ukraine (55 respondents). the formative experiment was conducted at: “junior school teacher” (communal higher educational establishment “kherson academy of continuing education” of kherson regional council) and “primary school teacher” (yurii fedkovych chernivtsi national university), including students in year 1 (14 respondents), year 2 (66 respondents), year 3 (51 respondents) and year 4 (32 respondents). the following indicators have been accepted as the main ones to prove the effectiveness of the neuropedagogical pedagogical conditions for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the process of studying psycho-pedagogical courses: motivation in choosing the teaching profession (the motivational criterion); awareness of the existing professions and ability to correlate this information with one's aptitudes, professional prospects, potential and real opportunities (the cognitive criterion); ability to decide on pursuing the teaching profession; ability to implement the decision on pursuing the teaching profession; ability to plan one’s professional life as the subject of pedagogical activity in primary school (the activity-related criterion); emotional involvement in the decision-making (the emotionaland-volitional criterion); autonomy in professional activity (the activityrelated and behavioural criterion). these indicators can be measured using the questionnaire aimed at determining the effectiveness criteria for professional self-determination in higher education institutions, the diagnostic-related professional readiness methodology, ilina’s methodology (klochko, 2003), the motivation towards higher education study methodology (klochko, 2003) and the diagnostic of the structure of work motives methodology (ilyin, n.a.). developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the … yuliya zhurat et al. 71 results the systematized and summarized results obtained during a theoretical analysis and experimental work, as well as the processed experimental data, are given in tables 1 and 2. table 1. the dynamic of developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers (%) before the experiment after the experiment cg eg cg eg levels high average low high average low high average low high average low autonomy 38.6 19.5 41.9 34.8 24.0 41.2 38, 0 28.9 33.1 50.8 38.9 10.3 awareness 32.2 25.8 42.0 25.8 27.5 41.9 41, 9 38.9 19.2 49.7 41.3 9.0 decision-making 44.7 44.5 10.8 41.4 42.8 15.8 47, 7 48.3 4.0 52.0 45.3 2.7 planning 28.8 39.3 31.9 23.7 39.3 37.0 35, 9 48.7 15.4 40.2 52.2 7.6 an emotional attitude 30,7 40.6 28.7 31.3 40.4 28.3 36, 6 42.3 21.1 39.6 41.1 19.4 the results of the formative experiment prove the validity of neuropedagogical and neuropsychological approaches and confirm the research hypothesis since the respondents of experimental groups (eg) are at higher levels of subjective qualities than the respondents of control groups (cg). indeed, the data on the motivational sphere of eg students obtained after the formative experiment indicate significant positive changes (see table 2). the importance of internal motives (gaining relevant knowledge, acquiring a valuable profession, developing) for students’ learning activity significantly increases, whereas the indicators of external motives (completing a degree) decrease. the main motivation is to acquire a valuable profession and gain knowledge. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 72 table 2. the dynamic of motivation towards obtaining pedagogical education by future primary school teachers in higher education institutions (%) h ig h e r e d u c at io n i n st it u ti o n s before the experiment after the experiment cg eg cg eg g ai n in g k n o w le d g e ac q u ir in g a v al u ab le p ro fe ss io n c o m p le ti n g a d eg re e g ai n in g k n o w le d g e ac q u ir in g a v al u ab le p ro fe ss io n c o m p le ti n g a d eg re e g ai n in g k n o w le d g e ac q u ir in g a v al u ab le p ro fe ss io n c o m p le ti n g a d eg re e g ai n in g k n o w le d g e ac q u ir in g a v al u ab le p ro fe ss io n c o m p le ti n g a d eg re e yurii fedkovych chernivtsi national university 30.8 31.4 37.8 29. 5 32.4 38. 1 34.7 37. 2 28.1 39.1 50. 0 10.9 communal higher educational establishment “kherson academy of continuing education” of kherson regional council 34.6 33.3 32.1 28. 2 38.3 33. 5 37.0 43. 3 19.7 44.4 47.0 8.6 total 32.7 32.4 34.9 28. 9 35.3 35. 8 35.8 40. 2 23.9 41.7 48.5 9.8 the experimental research has allowed implementing a hierarchy of goals for their training; verifying the main stages of developing professional subjectivity in primary school teachers and proving the effectiveness of the pedagogical conditions. developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the … yuliya zhurat et al. 73 discussion the scientific value of the obtained results is as follows: – for the first time, the neuropedagogical conditions for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the system of pedagogical education (developing their motivational sphere of professional self-determination within pedagogical education; enhancing the system of professional selection of applicants for pedagogical degrees; developing their professional orientations towards pedagogical activity in the system of primary education; updating the content and improving methodologies of their professional training in accordance with the requirements of the humanistic philosophy of education, subject-, activity-oriented and competency-based approaches, as well as primary school teachers’ vocation; focusing their psycho-pedagogical training on developing professional subjectivity and other professionally important qualities; preparing future primary school teachers for the subject-subject pedagogical interaction in the educational environment of primary school) has been justified; – the content of the “professional subjectivity of future primary school teachers” concept has been improved, which lies in justifying it as an integral professionally important quality, clarifying the main manifestations of professional subjectivity (understanding the essence, requirements and specifics of pedagogical activity in primary school and their perception; the professional self-concept in pedagogical activity; the subjective position at all stages of acquiring pedagogical education and professionalization; recognizing the teaching profession as the main way of self-actualization) and specifying its essential characteristics (activity, productivity, integrity and systematicity of primary school teachers’ subjective properties, qualities and manifestations in pedagogical activity, awareness and perception of not only of their social and professional subjectivity but primary school pupils’ subjectivity); – the goals, functions and content of primary school teachers’ pedagogical activity, taking into account its main feature, which lies in directing the pupil’s activity towards developing his or her educational subjectivity through gaining educational autonomy during learning activity and teaching him or her to consciously and purposefully manage and regulate their learning activity, have been enhanced; – the methodology for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the process of studying psycho-pedagogical courses, which allows developing them as the subjects of their mental activity, the subjects of learning activities, the subjects of quasi-pedagogical brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 74 activity and the subjects of pedagogical activity in primary school, has been further developed. it ensures the subject-subject interaction between university teachers and students, stimulating students’ subjective manifestation in the learning activity through the subjectand activityoriented and problem-based methods, methodologies and technologies of professional training, the subjective focus of psycho-pedagogical courses, as well as the actualization and development of their professional subjectivity as future primary school teachers. the practical value of the obtained results lies in implementing the main provisions of the research in professional training of future primary school teachers and textbooks, titled “the fundamentals of psychology and pedagogy” and “seminars on the course on the fundamentals of psychology and pedagogy”. the findings can also be used by university teachers when developing educational and methodical textbooks and didactic materials for studying psycho-pedagogical courses. the main ideas and provisions of this research primarily relate to a neuropsychological nature of the student’s personality in higher pedagogical education institutions, who must first become the subjects of learning activity since it is impossible to develop their professional subjectivity as teachers without it. an analysis of relevant scientific sources shows that one of the main features of students as the subject of learning activity is his striving for self-awareness, conscious self-changes and improvement of cognitive motives while perceiving the goals and content of learning activity, as well as the knowledge and purposeful actualization of their intellectual abilities during this activity. in turn, it requires that they should be able to reflect and self-reflect on their learning activity and its developed culture which are necessary to solve the contradiction between the available opportunities of students and those necessary for their successful learning activity. such a conscious activity is important for any student, and it is extremely essential for primary school teachers since understanding the goals, content, methods and results of their learning activity helps them to organize learning activity of primary school pupils, develop their culture of learning and, most importantly, teach them to learn and develop its motivational component for the future. a study of the problems of the subject and subjectivity in philosophical, neuropsychological and neuropedagogical sciences allows drawing the following conclusions: 1) the subjective concerning primary school teachers means what belongs to them as the subjects of pedagogical activity; 2) accordingly, the teacher’s personality is the bearer of the developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the … yuliya zhurat et al. 75 subjective, whose identity is manifested in creativity and professional subjectivity  in the original professional “self”, uniqueness and creativity in teaching and his or her creative style. professional subjectivity of primary school teachers is their integral and professionally important quality, whose main manifestations are professional self-determination as the subject of pedagogical activity in primary school, ability and readiness for pedagogical activity and autonomy in it, as well as the subjective behaviour and activities when performing professional functions. it can be developed in the following areas: the subject of his or her mental activity; the subject of learning activity; the subject of quasi-pedagogical activity; the subject of pedagogical activity in primary school. nowadays, the primary school teacher should act as an instructor, teacher and organizer of the educational process in the classroom and pupils’ activities, as an active subject of interpersonal interaction and communication with pupils and their parents, colleagues, as a researcher of the educational process, an enlightener and a public figure. his or her main feature is the result of his or pedagogical activity, that is, the subjectivity of pupils in the learning activity and a high level of social subjectivity. in this regard, the main specifics of primary school teachers’ pedagogical activity are related to children and their age characteristics since primary school pupils are directly dependent on adults at home and teachers at school. consequently, the hierarchy of primary school teachers’ tasks is as follows: to focus their activities on developing educational subjectivity in pupils by their gaining educational autonomy while learning the basics of learning culture and teaching them to manage and regulate their learning consciously and purposefully. the next specific feature of primary school teachers’ pedagogical activity consists in the fact that their functions are much broader than those of subject teachers. they act as class managers, familiarize pupils with the educational environment, teach various subjects, develop the meaning and motivation towards learning and their positive attitude to school and learning activity. therefore, their professionally important qualities, which include intellectual, emotional, volitional, communicative, universal, personal and specific ones, should be well-developed. their specific qualities include the following: the focus on pedagogical work with primary school pupils; the ability to make learning material accessible to them; imaginative and, at the same time, practical thinking; empathy and pedagogical intuition; pedagogical observation and pedagogically expedient immediacy and emotionality; special warmth and parental kindness in their attitude to pupils. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 76 both the peculiarities and specifics of primary school teachers’ neuropedagogical activity are manifested in its structure. the requirements for their personality are defined as follows: self-reflection, self-determination and self-regulation of one’s behaviour, autonomy in pedagogical activity; general cultural, general scientific, general professional and professional competencies; accurate self-esteem; mental stability and endurance; high general and professional intelligence, well-developed theoretical and practical thinking; capacity for development, self-development and self-improvement in pedagogical activity and proactivity; the positive professional self-concept; ability to purposefully prove and defend one’s subjectivity, realize and perceive the subjectivity of primary school pupils who need to defend their self. both the understanding of these requirements and their perception form the basis for their professional subjectivity, which can be defined as a complex functional autonomous system. it is formed at the stage of acquiring pedagogical education and is developed, improved and transformed during pedagogical activity. professional subjectivity as selfdevelopment, self-determination and self-organization is realized through an active conscious attitude to oneself, various objects, other people, pedagogical activity and, most importantly, primary school pupils. the essential characteristics of primary school teachers as the subjects of creative pedagogical activity are activity, productivity, integrity, integrity and systematicity of subjective properties, qualities and manifestations, as well as awareness and perception of not only their social and professional subjectivity but, primarily, of their pupils. conclusions analyzing the coverage of the problem under study in the philosophical, psychological and pedagogical literature, one can conclude that it is a multifaceted problem, which has not been properly studied in the neuropedagogical aspect. an analysis of developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers indicates a gap between theory and practice of studying subjectivity and individual levels, subjective properties and traits of personality, their interconnection and interdependence with teachers in modern pedagogy and psychology. indeed, the subjective of primary school teachers means what belongs to them as the subjects of the neuropedagogical activity, which is manifested in their individuality, whereas professional subjectivity is manifested in the professional self, the original professional “self”, uniqueness and creativity in teaching and autonomy in it. developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the … yuliya zhurat et al. 77 professional subjectivity of primary school teachers is their integral and professionally important quality, whose main manifestations are professional self-determination as the subject of pedagogical activity in primary school, ability and readiness for pedagogical activity and autonomy in it, as well as the subjective behaviour and activities when performing professional functions. it can be developed in the following areas: the subject of his or her mental activity; the subject of learning activity; the subject of quasi-pedagogical activity; the subject of pedagogical activity in primary school. it is realized through an active conscious attitude to oneself, various objects, other people, pedagogical activity and, most importantly, primary school pupils. the essential characteristics of primary school teachers as the subjects of creative pedagogical activity are activity, productivity, integrity, integrity and systematicity of subjective properties, qualities and manifestations, as well as awareness and perception of not only their social and professional subjectivity but, primarily, of their pupils. the paper proves that the 21 st century urges the primary school teacher to act as an instructor, teacher and organizer of the educational process in the classroom and pupils’ activities, as an active subject of interpersonal interaction and communication with pupils and their parents, colleagues, as a researcher of the educational process, an enlightener and a public figure. his or her main feature is the result of his or pedagogical activity, that is, the subjectivity of pupils in the learning activity and a high level of social subjectivity. the main specifics of primary school teachers’ pedagogical activity are related to children and their age characteristics, which determines the following hierarchy of primary school teachers’ tasks: to focus their activities on developing educational subjectivity in pupils by their gaining educational autonomy while learning the basics of learning culture and teaching them to manage and regulate their learning consciously and purposefully. therefore, primary school teachers should have specific qualities (the focus on neuropedagogical work with primary school pupils; the ability to make learning material accessible to them; imaginative and, at the same time, practical thinking; empathy and pedagogical intuition; pedagogical observation and pedagogically expedient immediacy and emotionality; special warmth and parental kindness in their attitude to pupils) and professional subjectivity (self-reflection, self-determination and self-regulation of one’s behaviour, communication and pedagogical activity; autonomy in pedagogical activity; accurate self-esteem; pedagogical proactivity; the positive professional self-concept; ability to purposefully prove and defend one’s subjectivity, realize and perceive the subjectivity of primary school pupils). brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 78 the paper proves that the neuropedagogical conditions for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the process of studying psycho-pedagogical courses are those conditions consciously created in the educational process and ensuring its development. besides, it justifies the main neuropedagogical condition, that is, professional training should imply mastering the psychological structure of pedagogical activity in primary school and cultivating creative personality as the subject of this activity. it requires the following: to develop their motivational sphere of professional self-determination within pedagogical education; to enhance the system of professional selection of applicants for pedagogical degrees; to develop their professional orientations towards pedagogical activity in the system of primary education; to update the content and improve methodologies of their professional training following the requirements of the humanistic philosophy of education, subject-, activityoriented and competency-based approaches, as well as primary school teachers’ vocation; to focus their psycho-pedagogical training on developing professional subjectivity and other professionally important qualities; to prepare future primary school teachers for the subject-subject pedagogical interaction in the educational environment of primary school. the methodology for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the process of studying psycho-pedagogical courses as a set of the main goals, objectives and stages of developing professional subjectivity based on subject-, activity-oriented and competency-based approaches has been improved. it is aimed at developing professional identity, professionalism, praxeological and subjective components of professional subjectivity of future primary school teachers as the main stages of their “self-image in teaching”, which gradually moves from the ideal sphere of consciousness and sub-consciousness to the practical sphere: the professional image as a primary school teacher → the image of the profession → the image of the action → the image of thinking → the self-image as the subject of pedagogical activity in primary school. the neuropedagogical conditions and methodology for developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the process of studying psycho-pedagogical courses have been experimentally verified. the formative experiment has made it possible to check the influence of these pedagogical conditions and methodology on the motivational, cognitive, activity-related, emotional-and-volitional and activity-related and behavioural criteria for assessing the level of professional subjectivity. the conducted experiment confirms that the educational subjectivity of future primary school teachers manifests the capacity for subjective selfdeveloping professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the … yuliya zhurat et al. 79 transformation in the learning activity. at the same time, pedagogical subjectivity is the final stage of professional training and acquisition of pedagogical education, which is a synthesis and transformation of many invariant and variant subjective properties of the student’s personality in professionally important qualities of the teacher, including integral professional subjectivity. it must be noted eg respondents showed better results in the level of students’ subjective qualities than cg respondents. references bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, m., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i.,maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1323-1332. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, o., dychok, t., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf bezliudnyi o., kravchenko o., maksymchuk b., mishchenko m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1585-1590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf bondar, v. i. (1996). dydaktyka: efektyvni tekhnolohii navchannia studentiv [didactic: the effective technologies of student learning]. veresen. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, y., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4sup1), 345-361. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 glozman, zh. m. (2012). o subieektnosti lurievskoi neiropsikhologii [on the subjectivity of luriya’s neuropsychology]. journal of moscow university. series 14. psychology, 2, 31–36. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/o-subektnostilurievskoy-neyropsihologii halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., yaroslav syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/o-subektnosti-lurievskoy-neyropsihologii https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/o-subektnosti-lurievskoy-neyropsihologii brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 80 physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284–2291. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf husak, p. m. (1999). teoriia i tekhnolohiia dyferentsiiovanoho navchannia maibutnikh uchyteliv pochatkovykh klasiv [the theory and the technology of differentiated instruction of future primary school teachers] [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. ilyin, e. p. (n.a.). metodika «diagnostika struktury motivov trudovoi deiatelnosti [the diagnostic of the structure of work motives methodology]. https://psy.wikireading.ru/65077 kaletnik, g. m., zabolotnyi, g. m., & kozlovskyi, s. v. (2011). innovative models of strategic management economic potential within contemporary economic systems. actual problems of economics, 4(118), 3-11. khomych, l. o. (1999). systema psykholoho-pedahohichnoi pidhotovky vchytelia pochatkovykh klasiv [the system of psycho-pedagogical training for primary school teachers] [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. the institute for pedagogy and psychology of professional education of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. klochko, v. (2003). vozrastnaya psikhologiya [developmental psychology]. vladospress. kucheriavyi, o. h. (2002). teoretychni i metodychni osnovy orhanizatsii profesiinoho samovykhovannia maibutnikh vykhovateliv doshkilnykh zakladiv i vchyteliv pochatkovykh klasiv [theoretical and methodical principles of organizing professional self-education of future preschool and primary school teachers] [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. the institute for pedagogy and psychology of professional education of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. luriya, a. r. (2003). osnovy neiropsikhologii [the fundamentals of neuropsychology]. akademiya. https://www.twirpx.com/file/95079/ lytvynenko, s. a.(2005). teoretyko-metodychni zasady pidhotovky maibutnikh uchyteliv pochatkovykh klasiv do sotsialno-pedahohichnoi diialnosti [theoretical and methodical principles of training future primary school teachers for sociopedagogical activities] [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i. tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18 (2), 810–815. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. matviciuk, t, solovieov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf https://psy.wikireading.ru/65077 https://www.twirpx.com/file/95079/ http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf developing professional subjectivity in future primary school teachers in the … yuliya zhurat et al. 81 models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja [journal of institute for educational research], 51(1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 petrova, i. v. (2017). renesansna kontseptsiia dozvillia za tvoramy petrarky [the renaissance concept of leisure in the works of petrarch]. national academy of managerial staff of culture and arts herald, 3, 3 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vdakkkm_2017_3_3 podlinyaev, o. l., & mornov, k. a. (2015). aktualnye problemy neiropedagogiki / aktualnye problemy neiropedagogiki [relevant problems of neuropedagogy. journal of kemerovo state university, 3 (63), 126–129. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnye-problemyneyropedagogiki/viewer sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., & maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education (2019). information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sitovskyi a., maksymchuk b., kuzmenko v., nosko y., korytko z., bahinska o., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532 – 1543. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vdakkkm_2017_3_3 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnye-problemy-neyropedagogiki/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnye-problemy-neyropedagogiki/viewer https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf dental fear – prevalence and ways to combat it brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.2, pages: 51-56 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/38 dental fear – prevalence and ways to combat it dorina stan¹, dragos f. voicu 2 1 faculty of medicine and pharmacy, „dunarea de jos” university galati, romania, dragosfvoicu@yahoo.com 2 faculty of medicine and pharmacy, „dunarea de jos” university galati, romania, dorina.stan72@yahoo.com abstract: the fear of the dentist, dental anxiety and dental phobia continue to concern the medical world, seeking to elucidate the causes, calculate the prevalence and its implications on the oral health of the population, as well as identify the most effective methods to combat it. the survey included 208 patients, who were treated and investigated, in the period 2018-2019. the questionnaire consisted of 15 questions, structured in 3 sections: socio-demographic data, oral hygiene habits and past experience, during dental treatment, with analysis of dental anxiety, using modified mdas. the mean value of mdas in the study group was 11.7 ± 4. most of the respondents (80%) had medium or low dental anxiety. high levels of anxiety were observed in 20% of patients, including 12% with dental phobia. a statistically significant correlation was found between the mean values of the mdas and sex (p = 0.030), age (p <0.0005), place of residence (p = 0.016), socioeconomic status (p = 0.040), subjective assessment of oral health (p <0.0005), frequency of dental appointments (p <0.0005) and negative dental experiences in the past (p <0.0005). no correlation was observed between anxiety, education, or habits related to oral hygiene. as methods of combating dentist fear, it resorted, somehow differentiated and personalized, to progressive muscle relaxation techniques, desensitization and cognitive behavioral therapy, the therapeutic act being carried out in a "tell-show-do" manner. these applied methods have meant the extension of the working time, but without additional costs. we consider our experience in using them as positive, with stable results and with increasing efficiency over time. our study shows that most of the respondents were without any special fear of dental treatment, one in five patients had a high level of anxiety, and one in ten suffered from dental phobia. middle-aged women seem to have higher rates of dental anxiety, compared to men. practitioners need to be aware of the common occurrence of fear, in order to combat it being required knowledge of behavioral psychology and, first of all, establishing a relationship based on trust with the patient, from the beginning. keywords: dental fear; prevalence; cognitive behavioral therapy. how to cite: stan, d., & voicu, d.f. (2020). dental fear – prevalence and ways to combat it. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup2), 51-56. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/38 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/38 mailto:dragosfvoicu@yahoo.com mailto:dorina.stan72@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/38 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 52 introduction dental fear can be defined as a normal emotional reaction to specific threatening stimuli, under the conditions of a dental treatment, otherwise necessary. dental anxiety indicates a state of agitation, in the idea that something terrible is going to happen, related to dental treatment, usually accompanied by an imminent loss of control. similarly, dental phobia is a severe dental anxiety, with marked and persistent anxiety, in relation to specific situations or objects (eg drilling, local anesthetic injections) or the dental environment in general. the more comprehensive term dental fear and anxiety (dfa) is used for strong negative feelings associated with dental treatment, both among children, adolescents and adults, regardless of whether the diagnosis of dental phobia can be based on objective criteria. dental phobia can also include fear of dental tools and procedures, of the dental environment or even fear of the dentist, as a person (moore 1991; seligman et al., 2017). dental phobia causes people with this problem to avoid dental treatments, neglecting their oral health. only the problems of serious dental pathology determine them to visit the dentist. the urgency of this visit can aggravate the phobia, in this way closing a vicious circle (fulga, perjudumbrava & crassas, 2008). also, dental anxiety, can start from childhood. thus, it can have a negative impact on social relations and in the workplace. in terms of etiology, research shows that people with a high level of fear and dental anxiety usually attribute anxiety to a past traumatic dental event, directly or indirectly, usually on the first visit to the dentist's office. thus, the first traumatic dental episode was suspected to have occurred in childhood, but its anxiety-generating effect extended over time to adulthood (armfield & heaton 2013, locker, thomson & poulton, 2001). there is a significant relationship between the dental fear of the child and his parents. dental fear also has, of course, a genetic component, heriabity being more evident in girls than in boys (de jongh, adair & meijerink-anderson, 2005; ray et al., 2010). material and methods the present study included 208 patients, aged 25-65 years, 108 women, 100 men, who were investigated and treated during the period 20182019. the prevalence of dental fear was assessed through a survey, carried out with the help of a questionnaire, consisting of 15 questions, structured in 3 sections, involving, in addition to socio-demographic data, elements of dental fear – prevalence and ways to combat it dorina stan, et al. 53 oral hygiene habits and past experiences during dental treatment. the analysis of the results was done using modified dental anxiety scale (mdas). as methods of combating dentist fear, it resorted, somehow differentiated and personalized, to progressive muscle relaxation techniques, desensitization and cognitive behavioral therapy, the therapeutic act being carried out in a "tell-show-do" manner. results for the study group, mdas had a mean value of 11.7 ± 4. analysis of responses showed that the majority (80%) had moderate to low forms of dental anxiety. on the other hand, 20% patients, showed a high level of anxiety, including 12% with dental phobia. the mean values of mdas were in a statistically significant correlation with female gender (p = 0.030), mean age 30-45 years (p <0.0005), urban environment (p = 0.016), poor socioeconomic status (p = 0.040), subjective assessment of oral health (p <0.0005), high frequency of dental appointments (p <0.0005) and negative dental experiences in the past (p <0.0005). the level of education and oral hygiene habits do not seem to be correlated with anxiety. our results are similar to those of other dental fear prevalence studies (sopińska & bołtaczrzepkowska 2016). the diagnosis was also analyzed in the seattle system: type 1: simple conditional phobia (fear of dental procedures) 147 cases (70%) type 2: fear of disaster (lipothymia, heart attack, panic attack) during dental treatment 6 cases (3%) type 3: generalized anxiety 35 cases (17%) type 4: a priori distrust in dentists (dental fear) 20 cases (10%)the applied methods of combating the dental fear have meant the extension of the working time, but without additional costs. we consider our experience in using them as positive, with stable results and with increasing efficiency over time. discussions the fear of the dentist varies constantly, from a very slight fear to severe forms. therefore, in a dental practice, patient management should be applied differentially and customized (stan & voicu 2019). in the management of dental fear cases, momentary, timeinoperative methods (hypnosis, general anesthesia) or longer-term methods brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 54 (cognitive behavioral therapy and the development of coping skills) can be used. psychological approaches are more effective in maintaining regular dental care, but require additional knowledge for the dentist and, of course, patient motivation (moore, 1991). similarly, distraction techniques can be used (video projections, focusing on another region of the body) that divert the patient's attention, in order to cancel the negativity and ensure comfort (ciubara et al., 2016). the progressive muscle relaxation technique for certain muscle groups can be applied in a sitting position, even in the waiting room. relaxation begins with the pelvic limbs, continues with the thoracic limbs, then the muscle groups of the trunk and, finally, the head, neck and shoulders. these steps have been described by edmund jacobson (appukuttan, 2016). behavioral control is a technique that involves the patient giving a signal, chosen before the start of treatment (eg raising the hand) to the clinician when he will have to stop the procedure. in this way, people feel that they have control over the session and, as such, gain confidence in the dentist (stan & voicu 2019). cognitive behavioral therapy (cbt) is effective in reducing fear and increasing the frequency of visits to the dentist. other useful measures could be distraction, guided images, relaxation techniques and music therapy. behavioral techniques are considered to be effective, but sufficient only in cases of mild anxiety (armfield & heaton 2013; stan & voicu, 2019). tell-show-do is another common non-pharmacological practice, used to manage a dentist's fear behavior. the purpose of this intervention is to promote a positive attitude towards dentistry and to build a friendly relationship with the patient. the patient is gradually introduced to treatment. first, the dentist "tell", explains in words, the patient which will be the dental procedure. in the "show" phase, the patient is familiar with the dental treatment, using demonstrations. finally, in the "do" phase, the dentist continues the treatment itself, following the same procedure and the same demonstrations, previously illustrated for the patient (stan & voicu, 2019). desensitization in dentistry refers to the gradual exposure of a new procedure to the patient, in order to relieve anxiety (chitescu et al., 2018; perju-dumbrava et al., 2019). it is based on the principle that a patient can overcome his anxiety, if he is gradually exposed to the dreaded, imagined or real stimuli, in a controlled and systematic way. exposure to stimuli or fear situation is recognized as a central treatment component for specific phobias (locker, thomson & poulton, 2001; moore 1991). dental fear – prevalence and ways to combat it dorina stan, et al. 55 conclusions in our study, most respondents had no special fear of dental treatment. 1/5 of the patients had a high level of anxiety and about 1/10 suffered from dental phobia. the most affected by dental anxiety seem to be middle-aged women, compared to men of the same age. dentists must be aware of the usual appearance of fear. to combat it, it is necessary to know the behavioral psychology. what matters a lot, however, is the initial establishment of based on trust relationship with the patient. references appukuttan, d. p. (2016). strategies to manage patients with dental anxiety and dental phobia: literature review. clinical, cosmetic and investigational dentistry, 8, 35–50. https://doi.org/10.2147/ccide.s63626 armfield, j. m., & heaton, l. j. (2013). management of fear and anxiety in the dental clinic: a review. australian dental journal, 58 (4), 390–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/adj.12118 chiţescu, c. l., radu, a. d., aciu, f., moraru, m., & fulga, i. (2018). new psychoactive substances (npss) abuse in romania: analytical strategies for drug screening in biological samples using high resolution mass spectrometry, romanian journal of legal medicine, 26(2), 173-182. http://dx.doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2018.177 ciubara, a., chirita, r., burlea, l.s., lupu, v.v., mihai, c., moisa, s.m., & untu, i. (2016). psychosocial particularities of violent acts in personality disorders. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 52, 265-272. de jongh, a., adair, p. & meijerink-anderson, m. (2005). clinical management of dental anxiety: what works for whom? international dental journal, 55(2), 73– 80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1875-595x.2005.tb00037.x fulga, i., perju-dumbrava, d., & crassas, r. (2008). suicide by "non-lethal" firearm. romanian journal of legal medicine 16(1), 23-26. locker, d., thomson, w. m., & poulton, r. (2001). psychological disorder, conditioning experiences, and the onset of dental anxiety in early adulthood. journal of dental research, 80(6), 1588– 1592. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00220345010800062201 moore, r. (1991). the phenomenon of dental fear studies in clinical diagnosis, measurement and treatment [unpublished ph.d. thesis]. fællestrykeriet, aarhus universit. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.1.3647.5363/1 perju-dumbravă, d., radu, c.c., tabian, d., vesa, s.c., fulga, i., & chiroban, o. (2019). the relation between suicide by chemical substances and the https://doi.org/10.2147/ccide.s63626 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/adj.12118 http://dx.doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2018.177 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1875-595x.2005.tb00037.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00220345010800062201 http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.1.3647.5363/1 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 56 level of education. revista de chimie, 70(7), 2643-2646. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.7.7396 ray, j., boman, u. w., bodin, l., berggren, u., lichtenstein, p., & broberg, a. g. (2010). heritability of dental fear. journal of dental research, 89(3), 297–301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022034509356918 seligman, l. d., hovey, j. d., chacon, k., & ollendick, t. h. (2017). dental anxiety: an understudied problem in youth. clinical psychology review, 55, 25–40 . http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.04.004 sopińska, k., & bołtacz-rzepkowska , e. (2016). dental fear and its effect on health behaviour of adult patients in lodz region. journal of stomatology, 69(3), 310-324. https://doi.org/10.5604/00114553.1217127 stan, d. & voicu, d. f. (2019). the value of cognitive therapy in the treatment of dental phobia. in proceedings of the european conference of psychiatry and mental health (pp. 180-183). filodiritto ph bologna. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.7.7396 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022034509356918 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.04.004 https://doi.org/10.5604/00114553.1217127 your paper's title starts here: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 101-112 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/158 optimising the validity of shoulder range of motion evaluation: a comparative study alexandra-camelia gliga¹*, nicolae neagu 2 , dan-alexandru szabo 3 1 “george emil palade” university of medicine, pharmacy, science, and technology, târgu mureş, romania, alexandra.gliga@umfst.ro * corresponding author 2 “george emil palade” university of medicine, pharmacy, science, and technology, târgu mureş, romania. 3 “george emil palade” university of medicine, pharmacy, science, and technology, târgu mureş, romania. abstract: during the assessment process diachronically conceived in the initial, dynamic, and final stages, data recording is often performed by instrumental measurement using the goniometer. in romania, the logistics equipment hardware and software has a very low or even absent incidence in the conceptual and applicative design of kinetic rehabilitation programmes. some disadvantages of universal goniometry are revealed by relatively accurate measurements, given that the testing instrument may provide erroneous data when the specific rules are not followed. moreover, the tester’s interpretation of angular values may vary; therefore, in order to objectify and validate the specific assessment and evaluation, we propose a precise angular motion measurement device called kinesimeter, assisted by specific labview software designed at the human movement science discipline of “george emil palade” university of medicine, pharmacy, science and technology of târgu mureş. our purpose was to compare the results and interpret the differences arising from the use of two specific assessment methods for the shoulder range of motion. thus, the values recorded by two physiotherapists using the manual goniometer were compared with the values recorded with the kinesimeter. in order to validate the results, we calculated statistical parameters such as correlation and significance. we strongly believe that the proposed hardware and software device for measuring, controlling, and analysing shoulder movements can become a modern performing tool needed by each rehabilitation institution, having a dual role investigative and monitoring of a rehabilitation programme both extremely important, additional to current measurements with the goniometer. keywords: goniometry; shoulder; proprioception; kinesimeter. how to cite: gliga, a.-c., neagu, n., & szabo, d.-a. (2020). optimising the validity of shoulder range of motion evaluation: a comparative study. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 101-112. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/158 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/158 mailto:alexandra.gliga@umfst.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/158 optimising the validity of shoulder range of motion evaluation: a … alexandra-camelia gliga, et al. 102 introduction many daily activities, such as eating, hair combing, placing an object on the shelf or other activities, are highly dependent on the range of motion of the shoulder (engdahl & gates, 2018; klemt et al., 2018; miura & fukushima, 2008; norkin & white, 2016). just like the elbow or any other joint, restricted active shoulder range of motion (arom) leads to serious disability (van rijn et al., 2018; oosterwijk et al., 2018; raiss et al., 2007). a healthy person’s values for shoulder flexion lie between 160 o and 180 o , extension between 50 o and 60 o , abduction between 170 o and 180 o , internal rotation between 60 o and 100 o , and external rotation between 80 o 90 o (balint et al., 2007; chiriac, 2000; magee, 2002; sbenghe, 1987). a research carried out by namdari et al. (2012) has highlighted that, for the accomplishment of daily living activities, a person needs approximately 121 o of flexion, 46 o extension, 128 o abduction and 59 o external/internal rotation. similar research has shown that a person only needs approximately 108 o for flexion, 105 o for abduction, and 79 o for internal rotation (gates et al., 2016). a decrease in active range of motion can be an indicator of tendinitis, bursitis, contusion, fractures, arthritis, sprains, strains, adhesive capsulitis, and other pathologies (tveitå et al., 2008). of course, after different traumatic injuries, we can find a degree of limitation in shoulder active range of motion (bullock et al., 2018; gillet et al., 2017). regarding the start of a kinetic programme, we can say that after taking over the medical history, the patient must be physically and functionally examined, being recorded measurable data (longo, 2014; bailey et al., 2017; sbenghe et al., 2019). for choosing the most appropriate physical therapy interventions, it is mandatory to examine joint integrity and mobility (kolber & hanney, 2012). during the assessment process diachronically conceived in the initial, dynamic, and final stages, data recording is often performed by instrumental measurement using the goniometer (hongmin et al., 2018; keijsers et al., 2018; reissner et al., 2019). the universal goniometer (ug) is a simple measuring tool used by physiotherapists, orthopaedic surgeons, rheumatologists, and other physicians (keogh et al., 2019; norkin & white, 2016). besides this universal goniometer, there are also some other tools used for shoulder active range of motion assessment, which includes inclinometry, photography or a smartphone application, and visual estimation (blonna et al., 2012; clarkson, 2005; dent et al., 2020; ferriero et al., 2013; kolber & hanney, 2012; milanese et al., 2014; mullaney et al., 2010; ockendon & gilbert, 2012; brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 103 werner et al., 2014; roldán-jiménez et al., 2019). the coach’s eye is another instrument to assess the range of motion (krause et al., 2015). in romania, the logistics equipment hardware and software has a very low or even absent incidence in the conceptual and applicative design of evaluation during kinetic rehabilitation programmes. some disadvantages in universal goniometry are revealed by relatively accurate measurements, given that the testing instrument may provide erroneous data when the specific rules are not followed (bashardoust tajali et al., 2016; garcía-rubio et al., 2019; lee et al., 2015; martins ferreira de carvalho et al., 2012). moreover, the tester’s interpretation of angular values may vary (rettig et al., 2015). when referred to intraand inter-rater reliability, a smartphone application (drg) had values > 0.86 (otter et al., 2015), and the inclinometer reported 0.65 (werner et al., 2013). there is an old general assumption that higher reliability is reached when the universal goniometer is used by an experienced tester (armstrong et al., 1998; fish & wingate, 1985). therefore, in order to objectify and validate the specific assessment and evaluation, we propose a precise angular motion measurement device called kinesimeter, assisted by specific labview software designed at the human movement science discipline of “george emil palade” university of medicine, pharmacy, science and technology of târgu mureş, romania. our purpose was to compare the results and interpret the differences arising from the use of two specific assessment methods of the active range of motion of the shoulder joint. thus, the values recorded by two physiotherapists using the universal goniometer were compared with the values recorded with the kinesimeter. the hypothesis from which we have started this research is that inter-tester differences are lower and some errors can be avoided when the kinesimeter is used, instead of the universal goniometer. methodology in this ascertaining research, we used the following methods: the bibliographic study method, the observation method, the questionnaire method, the measurement and recording method, the mathematical and statistical processing method, and the graphical method. six testers, split into three groups of two (group a, b, and c), used a universal goniometer and a kinesimeter to measure shoulder flexion, extension, abduction, internal and external rotation on a total of 270 subjects, asymptomatic patients from the country emergency clinical optimising the validity of shoulder range of motion evaluation: a … alexandra-camelia gliga, et al. 104 hospital of târgu mureş, romania, during a period of nine months (may 2019 january 2020). an informed consent form was completed by all the subjects and also a questionnaire. in the questionnaire, subjects were asked about their age, profession, arm dominance, health status and state of fitness. exclusion criteria consisted of frozen shoulder and recent shoulder surgery. our measurements were conducted on the dominant arm. the left arm was dominant in 25 of the 270 subjects (9.26%). the mean age of the subjects was 54.6 years. 31.48% of them had a job involving physical work in a field of distribution, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, etc., while 41.48% had a static workplace in the field of technology, online sales, law, human resources, public administration, finance, etc. 27.04% of the subjects were retired. the mean age of the testers was 37.6 years, and the mean of their years of experience was 6.2. before the measurements, all subjects performed an approximately five-minute standard warm-up supervised by one tester. at the same time, the test mechanism was explained to the subjects. subjects were informed that they must be mentally and physically relaxed, comfortably seated and that contracture, fear or non-cooperation may limit their range of motion. in this research, we used a blinded repeated-measures design. each subject was measured by two physiotherapists with at least two years of experience through both goniometry and kinesimetry methods. subjects were asked to move their arm to the end-range and maintain the position until the measurement was performed. each tester measured all 270 subjects, noted their results, and did not communicate them to the other tester. group a (tester a1 and a2) measured flexion and extension of the shoulder, group b (tester b1 and b2) measured internal and external rotation of the shoulder, and group c (tester c1 and c2) measured abduction of the shoulder. the instruments that we used were the elite medical instruments plastic 12" goniometer with the international standards of measurement system and the kinesimeter designed at the human movement science discipline of “george emil palade” university of medicine, pharmacy, science and technology of târgu mureş, romania. the kinesimeter consists of a vertical stable stand with a horizontal movable arm, which can rotate around an axis. the kinesimeter can be connected to a laptop via a n. i. 6008 transducer, and based on a software interface, can reproduce the movements of the mobile arm in the form of a real-time oscillogram. the active range of motion for flexion and extension was assessed with the subject sitting, holding the arm in anatomical position. the centre brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 105 of the goniometer and the axis of the kinesimeter were placed on the lateral part of the scapulohumeral joint. the fixed arm followed the lateral humeral epicondyle, parallel to the mid-axillary line of the trunk, while the movable arm was parallel to the midline of the lateral face of the arm, following the humeral lateral epicondyle. the active range of motion for the abduction was assessed with the subject sitting, holding the arm in anatomical position. the centre of the goniometer and the axis of the kinesimeter were placed on the back face of the scapulohumeral joint, in its centre. the fixed arm was on the lateral line of the trunk, while the movable arm was parallel to the midline of the posterior face of the arm, following the middle phalanges. in the case of elbow valgus, the olecranon was followed. the active range of motion for external and internal rotation was assessed with the subject in dorsal decubitus, with the shoulder in abduction of 90 o , elbow flexed at 90 o , arm in pronation, and the palm looking towards the head. the centre of the goniometer and the axis of the kinesimeter were placed on the back of the elbow joint. the fixed arm followed the middle phalanges (perpendicular to the arm), while the movable arm was parallel to the midline of the posterior face of the forearm, also following the middle phalanges. results comparative analysis (statistically processed using the graphpad prism 8 for windows) of the statistical significance of differences between the results obtained by testers with the help of two specific assessment methods for shoulder active range of motion (universal goniometer and kinesimeter) and the t-test calculation show the following: when talking about shoulder flexion assessed by group a at a probability threshold of p < 0.05, the difference between the two rows of data (tester a1 and a2) recorded by a goniometer is statistically significant, the calculated t-value being 5.343 and that of r 2 = 0.05038, with a 95% confidence interval ranging between 1.379 and 2.984, while the difference between the two rows of data (tester a1 and a2) recorded by the kinesimeter is not statistically significant, the calculated t-value being 1.933 and that of r 2 = 0.006895, with a 95% confidence interval ranging between 0.0126 and 1.546. (table 1) group a also assessed shoulder extension where, at a probability threshold of p < 0.05, the difference between the two rows of data (tester a1 and a2) recorded by a goniometer is statistically significant, the optimising the validity of shoulder range of motion evaluation: a … alexandra-camelia gliga, et al. 106 calculated t-value being 4.887 and that of r 2 = 0.04251, with a 95% confidence interval ranging between 1.183 and 2.773, while the difference between the two rows of data (tester a1 and a2) recorded by the kinesimeter is not statistically significant, the calculated t-value being 1.3070 and that of r 2 = 0.003474, with a 95% confidence interval ranging between 0.2381 and 1.334. (table 1) table 1. comparative analysis of assessment results measured by group a – shoulder flexion and extension statistical indicators flexion extension goniometer kinesimeter goniometer kinesimeter significantly different? (p < 0.05) yes no yes no t, df t = 5.343, df = 538 t = 1.933, df = 538 t = 4.887, df = 538 t = 1.3070, df = 538 mean of column a 174.4 174.9 54.64 56.04 mean of column b 176.6 175.7 56.61 56.59 difference between means 2.181 ± 0.4083 0.7667 ± 0.3967 1.978 ± 0.4047 0.5481 ± 0.4002 95% confidence interval 1.379 to 2.984 -0.0126 to 1.546 1.183 to 2.773 -0.2381 to 1.334 r-squared 0.05038 0.006895 0.04251 0.003474 source: results from the statistical processing of data arising from original research regarding shoulder external rotation assessed by group b at a probability threshold of p < 0.05, the difference between the two rows of data (tester b1 and b2) recorded by a goniometer is not statistically significant, the calculated t-value being 1.765 and that of r 2 = 0.005687, with a 95% confidence interval ranging between -0.08652 and 1.531, while the difference between the two rows of data (tester b1 and b2) recorded by the kinesimeter is not statistically significant, the calculated t-value being 0.2937 and that of r 2 = 0.006895, with a 95% confidence interval ranging between 0.6954 and 0.9398. (table 2) group b also assessed shoulder internal rotation where, at a probability threshold of p < 0.05, the difference between the two rows of data (tester b1 and b2) recorded by a goniometer is statistically significant, the calculated t-value being 3.266 and that of r 2 = 0.01944, with a 95% confidence interval ranging between 0.5578 and 2.242, while the difference between the two rows of data (tester b1 and b2) recorded by the kinesimeter is not statistically significant, the calculated t-value being 0.6614 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 107 and that of r 2 = 0.0008125, with a 95% confidence interval ranging between -1.117 and 0.5545. (table 2) table 2. comparative analysis of assessment results measured by group b – shoulder external and internal rotation statistical indicators external rotation internal rotation goniometer kinesimeter goniometer kinesimeter significantly different? (p < 0.05) no no yes no t, df t = 1.765. df = 538 t = 0.2937. df = 538 t = 3.266. df = 538 t = 0.6614. df = 538 mean ± sem of column a 83.40 83.70 85.63 86.93 mean ± sem of column b 84.12 83.82 87.03 86.64 difference between means 0.7222 ± 0.4117 0.1222 ± 0.4162 1.400 ± 0.4287 -0.2815 ± 0.4256 95% confidence interval -0.08652 to 1.531 -0.6954 to 0.9398 0.5578 to 2.242 -1.117 to 0.5545 r-squared 0.005687 0.0001603 0.01944 0.0008125 source: results from the statistical processing of data arising from original research when talking about shoulder abduction assessed by group c at a probability threshold of p < 0.05, the difference between the two rows of data (tester c1 and c2) recorded by a goniometer is statistically significant, the calculated t-value being 2.471 and that of r 2 = 0.01122, with a 95% confidence interval ranging between 0.1930 and 1.689, while the difference between the two rows of data (tester c1 and c2) recorded by the kinesimeter is not statistically significant, the calculated t-value being 0.9721 and that of r 2 = 0.001753, with a 95% confidence interval ranging between 0.3743 and 1.108. (table 3) table 3. comparative analysis of assessment results measured by group c – shoulder abduction statistical indicators abduction goniometer kinesimeter significantly different? (p < 0.05) yes no t, df t = 2.471. df = 538 t = 0.9721. df=538 mean ± sem of column a 172.7 173.1 mean ± sem of column b 173.7 173.4 difference between means 0.9407 ± 0.3807 0.3667 ± 0.3772 95% confidence interval 0.1930 to 1.689 -0.3743 to 1.108 r-squared 0.01122 0.001753 source: results from the statistical processing of data arising from original research optimising the validity of shoulder range of motion evaluation: a … alexandra-camelia gliga, et al. 108 conclusion a first general conclusion that emerges from our investigation, such as an interpretation and analysis of recorded results, is that our hypothesis has been confirmed as follows: ● statistically significant differences occurred between testers’ results during the assessments of the shoulder active range of motion when the goniometer was used in 4 out of 5 measurements (flexion, extension, abduction, and internal rotation). ● when the kinesimeter was used, thanks to the assistance of the hardware device by its specific software and to data recording in a digital form, inter-tester differences were lower and no statistically significant differences were found between testers in 5 out of 5 measurements of the shoulder active range of motion (flexion, extension, abduction, internal and external rotations). the current findings conclude that our device is a valid and reliable instrument to measure shoulder active range of motion. the kinesimeter provides, with the help of its software, information on angles and degrees in real-time and can be used to monitor rehabilitation programmes due to its real-time feedback. the possibility to adapt the kinesimeter makes its use possible in the assessment of proprioception or motor suggestibility. we strongly believe that the proposed hardware and software device for measuring, controlling and analysing shoulder movements can become a modern performing tool needed by each rehabilitation institution, having a dual role investigative and monitoring of a rehabilitation programme both extremely important, additional to current measurements with the universal goniometer. acknowledgments our thanks go to the management staff and the physiotherapists from the country emergency clinical hospital of târgu mureş for their support in conducting our research on a considerable sample of subjects (n = 270). references armstrong, a. d., macdermid, j. c., chinchalkar, s., stevens, r. s., & king. g. j. (1998). reliability of range-of-motion measurement in the elbow and forearm. journal of shoulder and elbow surgery, 7(6), 573-580. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1058-2746(98)90003-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1058-2746(98)90003-9 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 109 bailey, l. b., thigpen, c. a., hawkins, r. j., beattie, p. f., & shanley, e. (2017). effectiveness of manual therapy and stretching for baseball players with shoulder range of motion deficits. sports health: a multidisciplinary approach, 9(3), 230-237. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1941738117702835 balint, t., diaconu, i., & moise, a. (2007). evaluarea aparatului locomotor [assessment of the musculoskeletal system]. tehnopress. bashardoust tajali, s., macdermid, j. c., grewal, r., & young, c. (2016). reliability and validity of electro-goniometric range of motion measurements in patients with hand and wrist limitations. the open orthopedics journal, 10, 190-205. http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874325001610010190 blonna, d., zarkadas, p. c., fitzsimmons, j. s., & o’driscoll, s. w. (2012). validation of a photography-based goniometry method for measuring joint range of motion. journal of shoulder and elbow surgery, 21(1), 29-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2011.06.018 bullock, g. s., faherty, m. s., ledbetter, l., thigpen, c. a., & sell, t. c. (2018). shoulder range of motion and baseball arm injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. journal of athletic training, 53(12), 1190-1199. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-439-17 chiriac, m. (2000). testarea manuală a forței musculare [manual testing of muscle strength]. editura universității din oradea. clarkson, h. m. (2005). joint motion and function assessment: a research-based practical guide. philadelphia, pa: lippincott williams & wilkins. dent jr, p. a., wilke, b., terkonda, s., luther, i., & shi, g. g. (2020). validation of teleconference-based goniometry for measuring elbow joint range of motion. cureus, 12(2): e6925. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.6925 engdahl, s. m., & gates, d. h. (2018). reliability of upper limb and trunk joint angles in healthy adults during activities of daily living. gait & posture, 60, 41-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2017.11.001 ferriero, g., vercelli, s., sartorio, f., munoz lasa, s., ilieva, e., brigatti, e., ruella, c., & foti, c. (2013). reliability of a smartphone-based goniometer for knee joint goniometry. international journal of rehabilitation research, 36(2), 146-151. https://doi.org/10.1097/mrr.0b013e32835b8269 fish, d. r., & wingate, l. (1985). sources of goniometric error at the elbow. physical therapy, 65(11), 1666-1670. https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/65.11.1666 garcía-rubio, j., pino, j., olivares, p. r., & ibáñez, s. j. (2019). validity and reliability of the wimutm inertial device for the assessment of joint angulations. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1): 193. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010193 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1941738117702835 http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874325001610010190 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2011.06.018 https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-439-17 https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.6925 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2017.11.001 https://doi.org/10.1097/mrr.0b013e32835b8269 https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/65.11.1666 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010193 optimising the validity of shoulder range of motion evaluation: a … alexandra-camelia gliga, et al. 110 gates, d. h., walters, l. s., cowley, j., wilken, j. m., & resnik, l. (2016). range of motion requirements for upper-limb activities of daily living. american journal of occupational therapy. 70(1): 7001350010p1-7001350010p10. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2016.015487 gillet, b., begon, m., sevrez, v., berger-vachon, c., & rogowski, i. (2017). adaptive alterations in shoulder range of motion and strength in young tennis players. journal of athletic training, 52(2), 137-144. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050.52.1.10 hongmin, c., seongsu, j., jinyoung, k., jae kyoun, k., cheolhyun, k., jihye, s., dae gill, k., ho sub, l., kang-keyng, s., & sangkwan, l. (2018). validity and reliability of pom-checker in measuring shoulder range of motion: protocol for a single center comparative study. medicine, 97(25): e11082. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000011082 keijsers, r., zwerus, e. l., van lith, d. r. m., koenraadt, k. l. m., goossens, p., the, b., van den bekerom, m. p. j., & eygendaal, d. (2018). validity and reliability of elbow range of motion measurements using digital photographs, movies, and a goniometry smartphone application. journal of sports medicine, 7906875. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7906875 keogh, j. w. l., cox, a., anderson, s., liew, b., olsen, a., schram, b., & furness, j. (2019). reliability and validity of clinically accessible smartphone applications to measure joint range of motion: a systematic review. plos one, 14(5): e0215806. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215806 klemt, c., prinold, j. a., morgans, s., smith, s. h. l., nolte, d., reilly, p., & bull, a. m. j. (2018). analysis of shoulder compressive and shear forces during functional activities of daily life. clinical biomechanics, 54, 34-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2018.03.006 kolber, m. j., & hanney, w. j. (2012). the reliability and concurrent validity of shoulder mobility measurements using a digital inclinometer and goniometer: a technical report. international journal of sports physical therapy, 7(3), 306-313. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3362980/ krause, d. a., boyd, m. s., hager, a. n., smoyer, e. c., thompson, a. t., & hollman, j. h. (2015). reliability and accuracy of a goniometer mobile device application for video measurement of the functional movement screen deep squat test. international journal of sports physical therapy, 10(1), 37-44. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25709861/ lee, s. h., yoon, c., chung, s. g., kim, h. c., kwak, y., park, h. w., & kim, k. (2015). measurement of shoulder range of motion in patients with adhesive capsulitis using a kinect. plos one, 10(6): e0129398. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129398 longo, d. l. (2014). harrison: manual de medicină [harrison’s manual of medicine]. all. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2016.015487 https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050.52.1.10 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000011082 https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7906875 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215806 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2018.03.006 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3362980/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25709861/ https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129398 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 111 magee, d. (2002). orthopedic physical assessment. elsevier. martins ferreira de carvalho, r., mazzer, n., & barbieri, c. h. (2012). analysis of the reliability and reproducibility of goniometry compared to hand photogrammetry. acta ortopédica brasiliera, 20(3), 139-149. https://dx.doi.org/10.1590%2fs1413-78522012000300003 milanese, s., gordon, s., buettner, p., flavell, c., ruston, s., coe, d., o’sullivan, w., & mccormack, s. (2014). reliability and concurrent validity of knee angle measurement: smart phone app versus universal goniometer used by experienced and novice clinicians. manual therapy, 19(6), 569-574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.math.2014.05.009 miura, y., & fukushima, h. (2008). function of the shoulder joint for activities of daily living (adl). journal of kansai physical therapy, 8, 25-34. https://doi.org/10.11354/jkpt.8.25 mullaney, m. j., mchugh, m. p., johnson, c. p., & tyler, t. f. (2010). reliability of shoulder range of motion comparing a goniometer to a digital level. physiotherapy theory and practice, 26(5), 327-333. https://doi.org/10.3109/09593980903094230 namdari, s., yagnik, g., ebaugh, d. d., nagda, s., ramsey, m. l., williams jr, g. r., & mehta, s. (2012). defining functional shoulder range of motion for activities of daily living. journal of shoulder and elbow surgery, 21(9), 11771183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2011.07.032 norkin, c. c., & white, d. j. (2016). measurement of joint motion – a guide to goniometry (5th ed.). davis company. ockendon, m., & gilbert, r. e. (2012). validation of a novel smartphone accelerometer-based knee goniometer. journal of knee surgery, 25(4), 341345. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0031-1299669 oosterwijk, a. m., nieuwenhuis, m. k., schouten, h. j., van der schans, c. p., & mouton, l. j. (2018). rating scales for shoulder and elbow range of motion impairment: call for a functional approach. plos one, 13(8): e0200710. https://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0200710 otter, s. j., agalliu, b., baer, n., hales, g., harvey, k., james, k., keating, r., mcconnell, w., nelson, r., qureshi, s., ryan, s., st john, a., waddington, h., warren, k., & wong, d. (2015). the reliability of a smartphone goniometer application compared with a traditional goniometer for measuring first metatarsophalangeal joint dorsiflexion. journal of foot and ankle research, 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13047-015-0088-3 raiss, p., rettig, o., wolf, s., loew, m., & kasten, p. (2007). range of motion of shoulder and elbow in activities of daily life in 3d motion analysis. zeitschrift fur orthopadie und unfallchirurgie, 145(4), 493-498. http://doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-965468 https://dx.doi.org/10.1590%2fs1413-78522012000300003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.math.2014.05.009 https://doi.org/10.11354/jkpt.8.25 https://doi.org/10.3109/09593980903094230 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2011.07.032 https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0031-1299669 https://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0200710 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13047-015-0088-3 http://doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-965468 optimising the validity of shoulder range of motion evaluation: a … alexandra-camelia gliga, et al. 112 reissner, l., fischer, g., list, r., taylor, w. r., giovanoli, p., & calcagni, m. (2019). minimal detectable difference of the finger and wrist range of motion: comparison of goniometry and 3d motion analysis. journal of orthopaedic surgery and research, 14(1), 173. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018019-1177-y rettig, o., krautwurst, b., maier, m. w., & wolf, s. i. (2015). definition of anatomical zero positions for assessing shoulder pose with 3d motion capture during bilateral abduction of the arms. bmc musculoskeletal disorders, 16, 383. https://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2fs12891-015-0840-7 roldán-jiménez, c., martin-martin, j., & cuesta-vargas, a. i. (2019). reliability of a smartphone compared with an inertial sensor to measure shoulder mobility: cross-sectional study. jmir mhealth and uhealth, 7(9): e13640. https://doi.org/10.2196/13640 sbenghe, t. (1987). kinetologie profilactică, terapeutică, de recuperare [prophylactic, therapeutic, recovery kinesiology]. editura medicală. sbenghe, t., berteanu, m., & săvulescu, s. e. (2019). kinetologie [kinesiology]. editura medicală. tveitå, e. k., ekeberg, o. m., juel, n. g., & bautz-holter, e. (2008). range of shoulder motion in patients with adhesive capsulitis; intra-tester reproducibility is acceptable for group comparisons. bmc musculoskeletal disorders, 9, 49. https://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2f1471-2474-9-49 van rijn, s. f., zwerus, e. l., koenraadt, k. l., jacobs, w. c., van den bekerom, m. p., & eygendaal, d. (2018). the reliability and validity of goniometric elbow measurements in adults: a systematic review of the literature. shoulder & elbow, 10(4), 274-284. https://doi.org/10.1177/1758573218774326 werner, b. c., holzgrefe, r. e., griffin, j. w., lyons, m. l., cosgrove, c. t., hart, j. m., & brockmeier, s. f. (2014). validation of an innovative method of shoulder range-of-motion measurement using a smartphone clinometer application. journal of shoulder and elbow surgery, 23(11): e275-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2014.02.030 werner, b. c., kuenze, c. m., griffin, j. w., lyons, m. l., hart, j. h., & brockmeier, s. f. (2013). shoulder range of motion: validation of an innovative measurement method using a smartphone. orthopaedic journal of sports medicine, 1(4). https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2325967113s00106 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018-019-1177-y https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018-019-1177-y https://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2fs12891-015-0840-7 https://doi.org/10.2196/13640 https://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2f1471-2474-9-49 https://doi.org/10.1177/1758573218774326 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2014.02.030 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2325967113s00106 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 343-362 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/235 anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in ukraine marianna shvardak¹, oleksandr halus2, oksana popovych3, victoria ivanova4, tetiana molnar5 1 candidate of pedagogical sciences, mukachevo state university, mukachevo, ukraine, e-mail: anna-mari_p@ukr.net 2 doctor of pedagogical sciences, khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, ukraine, email: aleks.halus@ukr.net 3 candidate of pedagogical sciences, mukachevo state university, mukachevo, ukraine, e-mail: ksysha31071984@ukr.net 4 candidate of psychological sciences, doctor of pedagogical sciences, mukachevo state university, mukachevo, ukraine, e-mail: vikaivanova@ukr.net 5 candidate of pedagogical sciences, mukachevo state university, mukachevo, ukraine, e-mail: tetjana_molnar@ukr.net abstract: the article reveals the essence of the concept "mobbing" and its classification in the context of pedagogical management. an empirical study has been conducted to identify the presence, frequency, causes, features of manifestations and consequences of mobbing processes in the teaching staff of general secondary education in ukraine. methods of randomized experiment, correlation analysis, scaling and ranking were used to process the research results. the results of the correlation analysis revealed causal relationships between some causes, manifestations, consequences of mobbing and certain statistical characteristics. the results of the empirical study prove the presence and prevalence of cases of mobbing in the teaching staff of secondary schools in ukraine. the results of the study allow us to conclude that in general secondary education institutions, depending on the status of the persons involved, all three types of mobbing are implemented. vertical prevails 41.5%. horizontal 27.7% of respondents, mixed 11.8%. 19% of respondents did not face mobbing. depending on the specifics of harassment, there are different variations of mobbing processes, which sometimes overlap in their manifestations. bosing prevails 41.5%. 27.7% indicated bullying, social isolation 15.8%, staffing 14.7%, sandwich mobbing 11.8%, gaslighting 8.4%, outing 7.7%, ageism 6.8%, stalking 5.9%, cyber mobbing 4.7%. also, based on the results of the survey, we can conclude that in educational institutions there are manifestations of obstruction 3.1% of respondents. the general bases of anti-mobbing technology have been developed a system of measures of the head and pedagogical workers to prevent, detect and combat harassment, moral pressure, psychological terror in an educational institution. keywords: educational institution; head; mobbing; pedagogical management; pedagogical workers. how to cite: shvardak, m., halus, o., popovych, o., ivanova, v., & molnar, t. (2021). anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 343-362. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/235 mailto:anna-mari_p@ukr.net mailto:aleks.halus@ukr.net mailto:ksysha31071984@ukr.net mailto:vika-ivanova@ukr.net mailto:vika-ivanova@ukr.net mailto:tetjana_molnar@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/235 anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in … marianna shvardak, et al. 344 1. introduction in modern conditions of increasing stratification of society, nonobservance of generally accepted norms of relationships in work collectives has become widespread, accompanied by moral persecution and pressure in the workplace. therefore, a serious problem that has been actively discussed in recent years by scientists and personnel managers is the problem of mobbing as a form of regular bullying, humiliation, pressure, terror, demonstration of neglect, isolation of an employee by a head, colleague or team. to date, this problem has reached global proportions. studies conducted in different countries indicate that many workers in various fields suffer from moral humiliation, psychological terror, harassment and bullying in the workplace. according to the american scientist g. namie (2014), 27% of workers have experienced psychological terror in the workplace, 72% confirm the fact that harassment in the workforce occurs regularly. international research by g. macassa et al. (2013) showed that 29.7% of swedes, 27.1% of germans, 24.6% of lithuanians and 21.9% of portuguese experienced psychological terror. significantly lower results of the mobbing phenomenon (11.6% of respondents) were shown by a survey of turkish researchers e. yelgecen-tigrel, & o. kokalan (2009). however, in nigeria and oman, the rate is very high at 77% (ogunsemi et al., 2010), and in some cases up to 97% (al-shafaee, et al. 2013). as for ukraine, according to the results of a survey conducted by l.v.shchetinina, s.h.rudakova, & k.o.drobynska (2018) 77% of ukrainians in the workplace have personally encountered this negative phenomenon. at the same time, k.h. rekosh (2002) confirms that the prevalence of mobbing in education is much higher than in other areas of activity. in addition, in 90% of occasion, according to the scientist, the moral persecution is initiated by the head of the educational institution. and this indicates that the problem of mobbing in the educational environment in today's conditions is particularly acute. effective management of teaching staff will provide a safe, free from violence and harassment educational environment, comfortable interpersonal and professional relationships between the head and teachers. therefore, the priority factors that contribute to the effective management of teaching staff are the established corporate culture and a favorable moral and psychological climate in the staff of the educational institution. accordingly, this problem needs a thorough study in the context of effective management of teachers. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 345 2. literature review mobbing is one of the hotly debated problems in psychology, pedagogy, management, sociology, law, and medicine. significant contributions to the research of this phenomenon have been made by such foreign researchers as: d. chappell & v. di martino (2006), m. duffy & l. sperry (2013), c. kolodej (2005), h. leymann (1996), k. lorents (1994), d. olweus (2002), l. waniorek & a. waniorek (1994), d. zapf (1999). in the book violence at work, published by the international labor organization, mobbing is listed on a par with murder, rape and robbery, indicating its far-reaching negative and devastating consequences for the worker (chappell & martino, 2006). for ukraine, mobbing is a relatively new phenomenon that scientists have only begun to research since the second decade of the 21st century. in ukrainian scientific sources, softer phrases "psychological pressure", "moral humiliation", "discrimination against an employee", "harassment in the workplace" are more often mentioned, but there are also more severe ones "psychological terror", "psychological violence" (serdyuk & shupta, 2013). among ukrainian scientists, the problem of mobbing was investigated by: o. v. adamchuk (2014), n.o. alyushina (2019), t. m. dzyuba (2017), o.v. kachmar (2016), h. leshchuk (2015), a.i. marenich &vovk (2015), o.b. oros (2020), o.i. serdyuk & i.m. shupta (2013), o.t. smuk (2018), l.v. shchetinina (2018), etc. the purpose of this research was to study the mobbing processes in the system of interpersonal and professional relationships of the head and teachers of the general secondary education institution of ukraine; outlining the general foundations of anti-mobbing technology in the context of pedagogical management. 3. theoretical basis in the modern sense, the term "mobbing" was first used by the swedish scientist h. leiman, who in the early 80's of the twentieth century studied the peculiarities of human behavior in the team. the scientist described this phenomenon as psychological terror, which includes the systematic repeated hostile and unethical behavior of one or more people directed against another person. he believed that mobbing existed when at least once a week the victim was oppressed in any form of discrimination for six months or more. he called the main manifestations of mobbing: information concealment, mudslinging, social isolation, continuous criticism, gossip, ridicule, etc. (leymann, 1996). anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in … marianna shvardak, et al. 346 having carried out an interdisciplinary analysis of the definitions of the key concept of this study and adapting it to pedagogical management, we consider mobbing as causing moral harm in the workplace; destructive strategy of behavior of pedagogical staff of an educational institution, which leads to a sharp interpersonal conflict with colleagues, head or other entities, which differs in its specificity, systematicity and duration, and is directed against an individual pedagogical employee. the object of mobbing is the victim of harassment, the subject is the mobster a person who commits mobbing actions against a particular employee. a young specialist, an experienced professional, and a woman of retirement age can become a victim of educational mobbing. thus, mobbing in an educational institution is possible both vertically (the head the subordinate), and horizontally (workers of one rank). in the modern scientific literature, mobbing in the system of social and labor relations is classified according to various characteristics, which we have adapted to educational institutions. accordingly, mobbing is classified as: 1) depending on the status of the persons involved: horizontal psychological terror, moral humiliation by colleagues; vertical psychological terror, which is carried out in the plane of "head-staff"; mixed simultaneous harassment of an employee by a manager and a colleague. 2) depending on the specifics of harassment: bossing pressure of the head of the educational institution on the subordinate, systematic unfair criticism of the pedagogical worker with an indication of his/her professional incompetence, humiliation of his/her dignity; staffing collective pressure on the leader from subordinates; sandwich mobbing parallel pressure on the employee from both the manager and colleagues; cyber mobbing (trolling) harassment of a colleague using modern information and communication technologies (through a global or local network of an educational institution, social networks, phone calls, personal messages); stalking obsessive, undesirable and constant harassment of one employee by another; outing public disclosure of information compromising the victim, which may eventually lead to harassment; brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 347 ageism the creation of stereotypes and discrimination against individual employees on the basis of age; gaslighting manipulation, the purpose of which is to make the victim doubt the adequacy of their perception of the surrounding reality, questioning their own sanity, professionalism; obstruction counteraction to the normal work of the pedagogical council, methodical meeting, etc.; social isolation of the employee a social phenomenon in which there is a removal of a teacher or several employees from a group of colleagues or the team as a whole as a result of termination or sharp reduction of social contacts and interactions, ignoring. 3) depending on the number of entities that carry out mobbing actions: individual, group, collective. 4) depending on the subject's awareness of mobbing actions: conscious, unconscious, controlled. 5) depending on the form of manifestation: latent, open (soroka, 2013). regarding the causes, forms of manifestations and consequences of mobbing processes in general secondary education institutions of ukraine, their variability was determined by us in the course of experimental research. 4. methodology and research methods we conducted research on mobbing in the teaching staff of general secondary education institutions of ukraine during october-december 2020. the research method is an anonymous online survey through the google forms cloud service. questionnaires were distributed through the social network facebook, namely through 46 educational communities (groups). we believe that online questioning of this extremely complex problem is the most appropriate, as direct, face-to-face contact directly with respondents in educational institutions would not give proper openness in the answers. the collection and analysis of such anonymous information will help to understand how often and under what circumstances a pedagogical worker of ukraine gets into a mobbing situation. methods of randomized approach, correlation analysis (pearson's correlation coefficient), scaling and ranking were used in processing the survey results. statistical and mathematical calculations were automated using microsoft excel spreadsheet and google sheets cloud service. anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in … marianna shvardak, et al. 348 5. results an empirical study was conducted to identify the presence, frequency, causes, features of manifestations and consequences of mobbing processes in the teaching staff of general secondary education in ukraine. the general population of the study were pedagogical staff of general secondary education institutions of ukraine (without disclosing the name of the institution). the total number of respondents is 1000 respondents. the representativeness of the sample was determined by random sampling. the error with a probability of 0.95 depending on the sample size is 3.1%. the study used the author's questionnaire "mobbing in the teaching staff" (2020). respondents who took part in the survey were divided into three categories: "a" heads (directors) of general secondary education institutions (7.4%); "b" deputies for educational, upbringing or educational work (16.1%); "b" teachers, teaching assistants, educators, teachersorganizers, practical psychologists, social educators, leaders of clubs, sections, studios, etc. (76.5%). according to the geographical location, the participants were divided into five regions of ukraine: central (29.8%), western (24.5%), eastern (15.7%), northern (11%) and southern (19%). by gender, 89.3% of women and 10.7% of men took part in the survey. such gender inequality in the teaching staff in general secondary education institutions of ukraine is an established norm. work experience of respondents: 0-2 years 2.5%, 3-10 years 20.5%, 11-20 years 28.3%, 2130 years 31.5%, 31 and more years 17 , 2%. these results are specific to the educational sphere: the vast majority of women with 11-30 years of experience (55.6%). regarding qualification categories, the respondents were: 12.6% specialists, 13.3% category ii employees, 23.4% category i employees, 50.7% higher category. 32.6% of respondents have pedagogical titles. as a result of the survey, it was found that the vast majority of teachers have sufficient (53.9%) and average (23.7%) levels of awareness about the phenomenon of mobbing. according to the results of the analysis of the obtained data, it was revealed that 81% (810 people) of pedagogical workers encountered mobbing in an educational institution, and 19% did not encounter. at the same time, 490 respondents (49% of the total number of respondents) indicated that they acted as victims in mobbing processes. 18.3% (183 people) of respondents appeared as defenders of the victim, and 10.4% (104 people) passively watched the mobbing process and did not take any brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 349 action. only 3.3% (33 people) admitted to acting as mobsters (or mobsters' accomplices). the latter data are considered by us to be obviously false. because the aggressors themselves cannot always admit that they are carrying out psychological terror against someone. it is clear that in reality this figure is many times higher. frequency of teachers’ bullying was: every day (35%), once a week (24%), once a month (16%), rarely (6%), never (19%). regarding the main subjects (mobsters) of mobbing actions, the results of the survey are as follows: 10,60% 17,10% 41,50% 4,80% 1,90% 3,60% 1,50% 19,00% colleague a group of colleagues head (deputy) head (deputy) and colleagues schoolchildren parents of schoolchildren the whole team did not face mobbing fig. 1. subjects of mobbing actions in general secondary education institutions of ukraine, (source: calculated by the authors on the basis of data) it is projected that in the vast majority of cases the subject of mobbing was the head of the educational institution or one of his/her deputies (41.5%), much less often together with colleagues (4.8%). quite a high percentage of mobbing processes in the teaching staff is implemented by a group of colleagues (17.1%) and a single colleague -10.6%. it is rare for mobbing actions against the victim to be carried out by the entire teaching staff (1.5%). the specificity of mobbing in the education system lies in the fact that not direct opponents, but also other people (applicants for education, their parents, etc.) can be drawn to it. in addition, they directly and indirectly negatively affect the perception of teaching staff by those around them, that is, they have anti-educational consequences. there are relatively few such cases: students (1.9%) and parents of students (3.6%). anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in … marianna shvardak, et al. 350 to solve the problem of the mobbing process, to identify the reasons that led to its emergence, is the primary task of the head of the educational institution. respondents identified objective and subjective reasons for mobbing, which determine its belonging to a destructive conflict. the variation of causes is quite large. table 1 lists the reasons most debated by the respondents, which we ranked in descending order of the frequency of their mention in the questionnaires. table 1. diagnosis of the frequency of causes of mobbing in general secondary education institutions of ukraine the cause of mobbing % number of respondents the need for leadership or dominance of a person over colleagues 56,7% 567 envy 45,0% 450 personal rejection of a person 35,5% 355 ambitions, aspirations for career growth 28,4% 284 competition 24,2% 242 free up space "for cronies" 24,0% 240 restriction of status, manipulation in the team 23,4% 234 the desire for revenge 21,4% 214 professional incompetence 21,2% 212 corruption 15,2% 152 change of management (violation of the established rules of the team) 14,7% 147 weakness, emotional instability of the individual, inability to defend their interests, constructively resolve the conflict 13,2% 132 extraordinary personality 12,0% 120 fears 7,1% 71 discrimination against individual employees on the basis of age 6,8% 68 boredom 2,8% 28 do not know the reason 2,7% 27 (source: calculated by the authors on the basis of data) the reasons for the use of mobbing actions in the complex determine its specific type and form of manifestation in relation to the victim. manifestations of mobbing actions encountered by teachers in general secondary education are presented in table 2. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 351 table 2. diagnosis of the frequency of mobbing in general secondary education institutions in ukraine manifestations of mobbing % number of respondents constant unsubstantiated criticism and unsatisfactory assessment of work by management, excessive meticulousness and checking of current work 52,5% 525 attribution of success to other employees, nonrecognition of achievements and successes, blocking the opportunity to move up the career ladder 45,2% 452 verbal aggression (shouting, deliberate statements of others aimed at causing negative feelings, insults, threats, blackmail) 42,6% 426 dissemination of rumors and unreliable information among the teaching staff, damage to the professional and business reputation of the employee 38,6% 386 bullying in front of the whole staff 37,7% 377 special communication with the victim of mobbing (e.g. interruption, not listening) 31,5% 315 deliberate overburdening in comparison with other teachers and / or delegation of powers that do not correspond to the level of competence 29,2% 292 unreasonable change or deterioration of working and leisure conditions (postponement of vacation to an inconvenient time, constant inclusion in the duty schedule, giving the worst classroom, deterioration of the conditions of material and technical support) 22,7% 227 intentional restriction of access to necessary information 19,9% 199 systematic deliberate bringing to tears 19,7% 197 manipulating premiums 18,0% 180 obscene jokes, comments 17,6% 176 social isolation in the team, ignoring (are not invited to meetings, councils, corporate events, do not communicate, etc.) 15,8% 158 systematic setting of the deadline, which prevents the proper execution of the order (tasks come with an unreasonably short deadline or after the deadline or at the end of the last day of the deadline) 9,8% 98 public disclosure of compromising information 7,7% 77 physical harassment during working and non-working hours (including by telephone) 5,9% 59 damage to documents, working property, etc. 5,9% 59 anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in … marianna shvardak, et al. 352 cyber mobbing (harassment on social networks) 4,7% 47 suggestion of guilt and fear 3,8% 38 opposition to the normal work of the pedagogical council, methodical meeting 3,1% 31 (source: calculated by the authors on the basis of data) employees perceive mobbing differently in relation to themselves, tolerate and compensate for their pain in different ways. the consequences for the object (victim) of mobbing-actions, which the respondents observed in their pedagogical team or felt on themselves, can acquire such types, which are presented in table 3. table 3. diagnosis of the frequency of consequences of mobbing processes in general secondary education institutions of ukraine consequences of mobbing processes % number of respondents deterioration of the microclimate in the team 70,0% 700 increased anxiety, stress, phobias, depression, neurosis, sleep problems 69,1% 691 inadequate perception of one’s own individuality (low selfesteem, inferiority complex, insecurity) 44,6% 446 social self-isolation within the educational organization (avoidance of colleagues) 38,4% 384 dismissal 24,0% 240 reduction in position, reduction of pedagogical load, removal of surcharges 23,0% 230 aggressiveness 19,3% 193 professional burnout 18,0% 180 conformist behavior (adaptive acceptance of ready-made standards in behavior, unequivocal recognition of the existing state of affairs, laws, norms, rules, unconditional admiration for authorities) 16,1% 161 inadequate perception of reality 8,4% 84 addictive behavior (behavioral disorders resulting from the abuse of various substances that alter the mental state of a person) 3,9% 39 suicidal behavior 1,8% 18 (source: calculated by the authors on the basis of data) brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 353 it has been found that respondents who acted as victims (49%) still sought protection of their rights in the context of bulling of such individuals and legal entities (51.4%). 490 people who answered this question are considered as 100%. table 4. diagnosis of the frequency of appeals from victims of mobbing processes to protect their rights to individuals and legal entities individuals and legal entities % number of respondents they did not apply anywhere 48,6% 486 to colleagues 12,2% 122 to the head (administration) of the educational institution 11,6% 116 to higher governing bodies in the field of education and science (city or district department of education, department of education and science of the region, ministry of education and science of ukraine, education ombudsman service, etc.) 11,4% 114 to the primary trade union organization 6,5% 65 to the psychologist 4,1% 41 to other human rights organizations 1,6% 16 wrote a post about mobbing in their team in social networks 1,6% 16 to court 1,4% 14 to the police 0,8% 8 to the mediator 0,2% 2 (source: calculated by the authors on the basis of data) of those who sought help in resolving the conflict, only 9.6% received it, and 34.9% received it in part. unfortunately, in ukraine, at the legislative level, there are no clear mechanisms for regulating mobbing. 6. discussion the results of the correlation analysis revealed causal relationships between some causes, manifestations, consequences of mobbing and certain statistical characteristics. it has been found that regional affiliation, availability of qualification categories or pedagogical titles do not affect the frequency of mobbing processes. instead, we cut the opinions by job category and found a correlation. thus, out of 490 respondents who indicated that they acted as victims in anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in … marianna shvardak, et al. 354 mobbing processes, they belong to: category "a" 12 respondents, which is 16.2% of the respondents in this category (74 took part in the survey); category "b" 51, which is 31.7% of respondents in this category (161 took part in the survey); category "b" 427, which is 55.8% of respondents in this category (765 took part in the survey). figure 2 shows the frequency of the victim's role in the mobbing process by job category. 0,00% 20,00% 40,00% 60,00% category "a" category "b" category "c" fig. 2. diagnosis of the frequency of mobbing actions in relation to the victim by job category, (source: calculated by the authors on the basis of data) thus, there is a clear correlation between the position and the role of the victim in the mobbing process (-0.7). the higher the position, the less likely you are to be a victim of mobbing in an educational institution. that is, there is a higher risk of harassment for teachers who hold positions in category "b" and less in category "a". it has been also found that the longer the teaching experience, the higher the risk of mobbing "intentional overwork compared to other teachers and / or delegation of powers that do not correspond to the level of competence" (0.5). correlation analysis showed that women are more likely to be bullied in the teaching staff than men. that is, there is a positive correlation between gender and the role of the victim in mobbing processes (0.5). it has also been found that mobbers use mobbing more often to teachers who work in an educational institution for up to three years than to others (out of 25 respondents from the category "0-2 years of teaching experience" 20 victims, which is 80% of this category) . correlation analysis revealed a negative correlation (-0.7) between the use of mobbing and the continuation / termination of work in an educational institution. thus, it has been statistically proven that mobbing is one of the factors in the turnover of teachers. in addition, the risk of dismissal of a teacher after mobbing increases if it is carried out by the head. there is also a positive correlation between mobbing and envy among staff members (0.8); unhealthy competition (0.6); the need for leadership or dominance of a certain person over colleagues (0.85); brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 355 deterioration of the microclimate in the team (0.65); increased anxiety, stress, phobias, depression, neurosis, sleep problems (0.7), burnout (0.5). close correlations have been found between the causes and consequences of mobbing. in particular, the reason for "freeing up space for " insiders" correlates with the consequence of "dismissal" (-0.7); the reason "restriction of status, manipulation in the team" with the consequence of "demotion, reduction of pedagogical workload, removal of surcharges" (0.6); the reason is "weakness, emotional instability of the individual, inability to defend ones interests, constructively resolve the conflict" with the consequence of "conformist behavior" (-0.55). positive correlations have been established between individuals and legal entities, to which teachers turn for protection of their own rights and some manifestations of harassment (0.6). this indicates that, depending on the manifestations of harassment, respondents choose to turn to the relevant individuals and legal entities. the identified correlates prove that mobbing, stretched over time, is a special type of professional destruction, which causes a violation of the mechanisms of self-regulation, deformation of the internal picture of the health of the specialist, a negative impact on professional productivity. the results of the study (in particular, the subjects, causes and manifestations of mobbing) allow us to conclude that in general secondary education institutions, depending on the status of the persons involved, all three types of mobbing are implemented. vertical prevails 41.5%. horizontal 27.7% of respondents, mixed 11.8%. 19% of respondents did not face mobbing. depending on the specifics of harassment, there are different variations of mobbing processes, which sometimes overlap in their manifestations. bosing prevails 41.5%. 27.7% indicated bullying, social isolation 15.8%, staffing 14.7%, sandwich mobbing 11.8%, gaslighting 8.4%, outing 7.7%, ageism 6.8%, stalking 5.9%, cyber mobbing 4.7%. also, based on the results of the survey, we can conclude that in educational institutions there are manifestations of obstruction 3.1% of respondents. depending on the number of subjects who carry out mobbing actions: 52.1% of respondents indicated individual, 27.4% group, collective 1.5%. depending on the subject's awareness of mobbing, the results of statistical analysis indicate the advantage of deliberate harassment 52.4%. depending on the form of manifestation latent (hidden) psychological pressure prevails 61%. anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in … marianna shvardak, et al. 356 it is certain that the existence of mobbing in the teaching staff is the reason for the decline in the effective operation of any educational institution. almost every second victim of mobbing (41.5%) suffers from the actions of the head (deputy) of the educational institution. in this case, it is quite difficult to help eliminate mobbing, and usually this process does not end in favor of the victim. but when the head acts as a subject of prevention and overcoming of mobbing, the chances of achieving justice increase many times over. to do this, one must have the technology to combat mobbing in the teaching staff (marenych, 2015). heads must constantly improve their leadership skills by introducing a high level of communication culture in the team, and under no circumstances allow inappropriate behavior towards colleagues or students. the ability of a manager to be a subject of prevention and overcoming of mobbing among subordinate personnel depends on ones readiness for such actions. unfortunately, managers (deputies) do not always contribute to the elimination of mobbing. most of them look for a rational excuse, hide, underestimate or worse just ignore. and only a small percentage of managers try to recognize, punish and eliminate this destructive phenomenon in their team. with this in mind, we have developed anti-mobbing technology for the prevention of moral and psychological pressure in the team, which should be owned by the head of the educational institution. accordingly, this technology is an important component of the author's course for future managers in the field of education "pedagogical management technologies" (m.shvardak), which is implemented under the master's educational program "management of educational institutions" at mukachevo state university (ukraine). we consider anti-mobbing technology as a system of consistent actions and instrumental support of management activities to prevent and combat mobbing in the teaching staff. preventing and overcoming mobbing among pedagogical staff of an educational institution is the direct responsibility of the head. first of all, it depends on the creation of an atmosphere in the team that promotes freedom and respect for the individual, initiative, fair remuneration for work, prevention of negative consequences of any conflicts, especially those arising from dissatisfaction with working conditions and communication (sergienko, 2012). the leader must understand the influence of different psychological states of a person on the work process; understand and be able to manage brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 357 conflicts in the team, which is necessary primarily to provide assistance to teachers who are in a state of stress and nervous crisis (adamchuk, 2014). the manager's ignorance of the essence of this issue, as well as the algorithm of actions, ways of solving it, causes the problem of the manager's unpreparedness to prevent and overcome mobbing among subordinates. therefore, anti-mobbing technology in general secondary education institutions is implemented according to the following algorithm: 1. creating a safe educational environment in the educational institution, free from pressure, violence and harassment, creating conditions to prevent mobbing processes: introduction of a democratic style of leadership, humane managerial position of the leader-democrat; providing teachers with a real opportunity to openly express their views to management; adjusting teachers to independence and improving their level of professional competence; transparency of decision-making; emphasis on joint responsibility; application of a unified approach in incentives and penalties for teachers, regardless of subjective attitude; clarification of the undesirable nature of mobbing and the application of sanctions if detected. 2. diagnosis of interpersonal and professional relationships of pedagogical staff of an educational institution (anonymous questionnaire, personal interview face-to-face). 3. preventive work with the teaching staff: speeches at the pedagogical council on favorable interpersonal and professional relationships of pedagogical staff of the educational institution; "round tables" and workshops aimed at discussing the problem of mobbing in teaching staff; dialogue, restorative and mediation practices, anti-mobbing trainings. 4. detection of mobbing in the teaching staff. identification of active participants in mobbing actions (mobster, victim). 5. finding out the reasons, identifying the manifestations of mobbing, a detailed study of the pressure situation from different angles. 6. individual conversations with a mobster. 7. prompt and competent separation of the victim with the corresponding stress effects. anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in … marianna shvardak, et al. 358 8. organization of psychological and corrective work with the victim of mobbing and the team in which the phenomenon arose to minimize the negative consequences: creating a climate of favorable moral and psychological comfort for the victim of mobbing to get a positive experience of support and trust; assistance in the formation of skills of confident behavior, adequate self-esteem, positive self-perception; promoting the development of constructive communication skills; minimization of the employee's feeling of loneliness by developing a sense of belonging to the team; increase the level of emotional comfort by reducing anxiety (adamchuk, 2014). 9. development and application of regulatory support for the regulation of relationships in the process of professional activity (additional provisions to the employment agreement). development of rules that will ensure mutual respect between pedagogical staff of the educational institution. destructive and antisocial behavior of any member of the team must be firmly and constantly condemned. studies of mobbing processes in general secondary education institutions in ukraine provided an opportunity to formulate methodological advice to managers on preventing and combating mobbing: maintaining a favorable moral and psychological climate in the teaching staff; setting up constructive feedback "subordinates-manager"; tough leadership position on gossipers and instigators of conflicts; clear formulation of job responsibilities of each employee, indicating the limits of their personal responsibility; formation of a system of personnel promotion and providing employees with career opportunities; exclusion of family or intimate ties between subordinates and management; the inadmissibility of the principle of dividing workers into "insiders" and "strangers"; openness and transparency of information flows in the educational institution; formation of a transparent mechanism for making managerial decisions. effective tools for prevention and counteraction to mobbing in the conditions of general secondary education are: individual prevention of mobbing by the head and pedagogical workers; institutionalization of the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 359 problem of mobbing (workshops aimed at discussing the problem of mobbing in teaching staff; development and implementation of organizational agreements); methods of intervention (psychological counseling, mediation, use of coping strategies, development of corporate culture of employees, psychological training, legal intervention, providing comprehensive assistance in dismissal). 7. conclusions mobbing is a complex destructive phenomenon that causes stagnation of personal resources in an educational institution, is a sign of negative impact of the working atmosphere on the individual, causes regression of professional duties and increased turnover of teachers, creates unhealthy competition, worsens the health of teachers. the results of the empirical study prove the presence and prevalence of cases of mobbing in the teaching staff of secondary schools in ukraine (81% of teachers faced harassment in the workplace, of which 49% of respondents felt like victims). from the analysis of statistical data it can be concluded that the most common types of this negative phenomenon are bossing (41.5%) and bullying (27.7%). the first occurs when the head of an educational institution, through abuse of power, puts pressure on an individual pedagogical worker or on the whole team. the latter consists in cruelty, humiliation of honor and dignity, unreasonable indication of professional incompetence on the part of the teaching staff. in order to combat mobbing, we have developed anti-mobbing technology for heads of educational institutions, training with future heads of educational institutions "antimobing as an effective technology for creating a positive microclimate in the teaching staff." the study does not cover all aspects of the problem. the direction of further scientific research may be the study of individual characteristics of objects and subjects of mobbing, the development of a model of combating mobbing in general secondary education institutions of ukraine. references adamchuk, o. v. (2014). porady kerivnyku shchodo poperedzhennia ta podolannia mobinhu sered pidlehlykh [tips for the leader to prevent and overcome mobbing among subordinates]. visnyk natsionalnoi akademii derzhavnoi prykordonnoi sluzhby ukrainy [bulletin of the national academy of the state anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in … marianna shvardak, et al. 360 border guard service of ukraine], 2. https://kipt.sumdu.edu.ua/pdf/buling/vnadps_2014_2_15.pdf aliushyna, n. o. (2019). doslidzhennia proiaviv tskuvannia na derzhavnii sluzhbi [efficiency of public administration], efektyvnist derzhavnoho upravlinnia [effectiveness of sovereign management], 2(59), 149-162. https://doi.org/10.33990/2070-4011.59.2019.178431 al-shafaee, m., al-kaabi, y., al-farsi, y., white, g., al-maniri, a., & al-sinawi, h. (2013). pilot study on the prevalence of abuse and mistreatment during clinical internship: a cross-sectional study among first year residents in oman. bmj open, 3(2), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2012002076 chappell, d., & martino, v. di (2006). violence at work (third edition). geneva, international labour office. http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2006/106b09_110_engl.pdf duffy m., & sperry l. (2013). overcoming mobbing: a recovery guide for workplace aggression and bullying. oxford university press. dziuba, t. m. (2017). profesiine zdorovia yak umova uspishnoi sotsializatsii pratsivnyka v sytuatsii mobinhu [professional health as a condition for successful socialization of a worker in a mobbing situation]. orhanizatsiina psykholohiia. ekonomichna psykholohiia [organizational psychology. economic psychology], 1, 7-13. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ophep_2017_1_3 kachmar, o. v. (2016). mobinh yak riznovyd psykholohichnoho nasylstva u trudovomu kolektyvi [mobbing as a kind of psychological violence in the workforce]. aktualni problemy filosofii ta sotsiolohii [current issues of philosophy and sociology], 14, 58-61. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/aprfc_2016_14_16 kolodej, c. (2005). mobbing. psychoterror am arbeitsplatz und seine bewältigung. mit zahlreichen fallbeispielen [mobbing. psychological terror in the workplace and coping with it. with numerous case studies]. vienna, wuv-verlag (in german]). leshchuk, h. (2016). sotsialni aspekty proiaviv mobinhu u profesiinomu seredovysh [social aspects of mobbing manifestations in a professional environment]. naukovyi visnyk uzhhorodskoho natsionalnoho universytetu. seriia: pedahohika. sotsialna robota [scientific herald of the uzhhorod national university. series: pedagogy. social work], 1, 165-167. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvuuped_2016_1_41 leymann, h. (1996). the content and development of mobbing at work. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 5(2), 165–184. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414853 lorents, k. (1994). agressiya (tak nazyivaemoe «zlo») [aggression (so-called «evil»)]. izdatelskaya gruppa «progress». https://kipt.sumdu.edu.ua/pdf/buling/vnadps_2014_2_15.pdf https://doi.org/10.33990/2070-4011.59.2019.178431 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002076 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002076 http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2006/106b09_110_engl.pdf http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ophep_2017_1_3 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/aprfc_2016_14_16 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvuuped_2016_1_41 https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414853 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 361 macassa, g., viitasara, e., sundin, o., barros, h., torres gonzales, f., ioannidikapolou, e., gabriella, m. m., lindert, j., stankunas, m., & soares, j. j. f. (2013). psychological abuse among older persons in europe: a crosssectional study. journal of aggression, conflict and peace research, 5(1), 16-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/17596591311290722 marenych, a. i., &vovk, yu. a. (2015). destruktyvni elementy sotsialnopsykholohichnykh aspektiv upravlinnia personalom [destructive elements of socio-psychological aspects of personnel management]. visnyk universytetu bankivskoi spravy [bulletin of the university of banking], 2, 230238. https://doi.org/10.18371/2221-755x2(23)201569857 namie, g. (2014). wbi u.s. workplace bullying survey. https://icos.umich.edu/sites/default/files/lecturereadinglists/wbi-2014us-survey.print_.pdf ogunsemi, o. o., alebiosu, o. c., & shorunmu, o. t. (2010). a survey of perceived stress, intimidation, harassment and well-being of resident doctors in a nigerian teaching hospital. nigerian journal of clinical practice, 13(2), 183-186. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/njcp/article/view/53502/42071 olweus, d. (2002). mobbing i skolen: nye data om omfang og forandring over tid [mobbing in school: new data on scope and change over time]. research centre for health promotion (hemil center). bergen, norway. oros, o. b. (2020). mobinh v osvitnomu seredovyshchi [mobbing in the educational environment]. habitus, 11, 78-82. https://doi.org/10.32843/2663-5208.2020.11.13 rekosh, k. h. (2002). mobbing i problema ego preodoleniya vo frantsii [mobbing and the problem of overcoming it in france]. trud za rubezhom [labor abroad], 2, 97-105. https://mgimo.ru/library/publications/108019/ serdiuk, o.i., & shupta, i.m. (2013). mobinh yak destruktyvne yavyshche v kreatyvnomu kolektyvi, shcho halmuie innovatsiinyi rozvytok pidpryiemstva [mobbing as a destructive phenomenon in the creative team that inhibits the innovative development of the enterprise]. naukovi pratsi derzhavnoi ahrarnoi akademii. [scientific works of state agrarian academy], 1(6), 2. http://www.pdaa.edu.ua/sites/default/files/nppdaa/6.2/269.pdf serhiienko, t. i. (2012). konflikty v kolektyvi i rol kerivnyka u yikh vyrishenni [conflicts in the team and the role of the leader in their solution]. humanitarnyi visnyk zdia [humanitarian bulletin of zdia], 48, 236-242. https://old-zdia.znu.edu.ua/gazeta/visnik_48_236.pdf shchetinina, l.v., rudakova, s. h., & drobynska, k. o. (2018). mobinh: sutnist ta instytutsiini zasady zakhystu pratsivnykiv [mobing: essence and institutional principles of protection of workers]. problemy ekonomiky [problems of economy], 1, 315–320. https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=gloria%20macassa https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=eija%20viitasara https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=%c3%96rjan%20sundin https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=henrique%20barros https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=francisco%20torres%20gonzales https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=elisabeth%20ioannidi%e2%80%90kapolou https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=elisabeth%20ioannidi%e2%80%90kapolou https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=melchiorre%20maria%20gabriella https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=jutta%20lindert https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=mindaugas%20stankunas https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=joaquim%20j.f.%20soares https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/1759-6599 https://doi.org/10.1108/17596591311290722 https://doi.org/10.18371/2221-755x2(23)201569857 https://icos.umich.edu/sites/default/files/lecturereadinglists/wbi-2014-us-survey.print_.pdf https://icos.umich.edu/sites/default/files/lecturereadinglists/wbi-2014-us-survey.print_.pdf https://www.ajol.info/index.php/njcp/article/view/53502/42071 https://doi.org/10.32843/2663-5208.2020.11.13 https://mgimo.ru/library/publications/108019/ http://www.pdaa.edu.ua/sites/default/files/nppdaa/6.2/269.pdf https://old-zdia.znu.edu.ua/gazeta/visnik_48_236.pdf anti-mobbing technology in the conditions of an educational institution in … marianna shvardak, et al. 362 https://ir.kneu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/2010/26099/schetinina_315.pdf ?sequence=1&isllowed=y smuk, o. t. (2018). mobinh yak naslidok zloiakisnoi ahresii [mobing as a consequence of malignant aggression]. naukovyi visnyk uzhhorodskoho natsionalnoho universytetu. seriia: pedahohika. sotsialna robota [scientific herald of the uzhhorod national university. series: pedagogy. social work], 2, 260-264. https://doi.org/10.24144/25240609.2018.43.260-264 soroka, o. v. (2013). sutnist, naslidki ta profi laktika mobingu u trudovih kolektivah [essence, aftermath and prevention of mobbing in the workforce]. modern directions of theoretical and applied researches, 1(32), 3238. https://www.sworld.com.ua/konfer30/1051.pdf waniorek, l., & waniorek, a. (1994). mobbing: wenn der arbeitsplatz zur holle wird [mobing: when the workplace turns into hell]. muenchen, mvg-verlag. yelgecen-tigrel, e., & kokalan, o. (2009). academic mobbing in turkey. world acedemy of engineering, science and technology, 55, 963–971. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.190.4904&rep =rep1&type=pdf zapf, d. (1999). organisational, work group related and personal causes of mobbing/bullying at work. international journal of manpower, 20(1/2), 70-85. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437729910268669 https://ir.kneu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/2010/26099/schetinina_315.pdf?sequence=1&isllowed=y https://ir.kneu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/2010/26099/schetinina_315.pdf?sequence=1&isllowed=y https://doi.org/10.24144/25240609.2018.43.260-264 https://www.sworld.com.ua/konfer30/1051.pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.190.4904&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.190.4904&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=dieter%20zapf https://doi.org/10.1108/01437729910268669 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 197-206 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/135 the issue of dentophobia among young adults during the pandemic dorina stan¹, liliana luca 2 *, dragos cristian voicu 3 , ana-catalina chirosca 4 , stefan lucian burlea 5 1 university of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania 2 university of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania, chiroscaliliana@gmail.com, corresponding author 3 university of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania 4 university of medicine and pharmacy, bucharest, romania 5 university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania abstract: we intend to present the results of an on-going study started in pandemic concerning dentophobia as a health problem. our aim was to correlate the level of health education with the feeling of fear of dentistry and anxiety in young population during the pandemic. we used an anonymous online questionnaire on a group of 45 subjects aged 18-55. the results of this on-going study up to this stage show that despite the pandemic, there is a concern of young adults about about oral hygiene and dental issues as part of the overall health of the subjects investigated. the need to implement psycho-educational dentistry programs still exists. keywords: dentistry; dentophobia; psycho-education; pandemic. how to cite: stan, d., luca, l., voicu, d.c., chirosca, a.-c., & burlea, s.l. (2020). the issue of dentophobia among young adults during the pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 197-206. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/135 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/135 mailto:chiroscaliliana@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/135 the issue of dentophobia among young adults during the pandemic dorina stan, et al. 198 introduction dental pathology can be associate with many organic disfunctions like pain, anxiety, speech disorders, digestive disorders and so on (burlea et al., 2010, lupu et al., 2015) the fear of the dentist, also called dentophobia or odontophobia, remains a reality, regardless of the age of the people who develop this disorder (saatchi et al., 2015). dentophobia is a type of phobia that can have particularly serious effects on the general health of affected individuals (nikka, 2020). dental phobia is a pathological, excessive and irrational fear of the dentist, caused by a certain procedure or dental instrument, it can start at any time in childhood, adolescence, adulthood or even later (ravishankar, 2020). dentophobia can be sensitized, but cannot be controlled without specialist help. people suffering from dentophobia avoid visiting the dentist's office even if they suffer from serious gum disease, minimizing suffering being part of the avoidance process, although oral health is affected (alyami et al., 2020). dental phobia is based on a particularly strong fear, and specific reactions can be triggered in the absence of physical stimulus (cebotari & tohati, 2019). individuals feel more than just the inconvenience of going to the dentist because dentophobia involves severe anxiety and fear of the dental chair (macleavy, 2020). for many of these people, this leads to the avoidance of routine check-ups (loue & lamb, 2020; sandu, 2019), endangering their oral health. purpose the working hypothesis was the analysis of young adults’perception of dentophobia during the period of restrictions imposed by the pandemic and to see if the pandemic could prevent addressability to the dentist. methodology this ongoing study consisted of investigating a number of 45 subjects aged between 18 and 55 years regarding dentophobia during the pandemic. the working method used was the anonymous online questionnaire. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 199 results of the total number of subjects participating in this study, those aged between 21 and 30 years old represented a significant percentage, 66.6%. source: authors'own contribution the gender distribution showed that out of the total number of subjects investigated, 68,9% were female. source: authors'own contribution distribution of subjects by environment of origin shows that of the 45 subjects, 84,4% said they were from the urban environment the issue of dentophobia among young adults during the pandemic dorina stan, et al. 200 source: authors'own contribution of the 45 subjects investigated, 40% said they have dental problems. source: authors'own contribution a percentage of 91,1% of those investigated stated that they have been to a dental office at least once. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 201 source: authors'own contribution of the 45 subjects investigated, when asked how many times a year they go to the dentist's office, 33.3% stated that they go as many times as needed, 24, 4% said that they go once a year, 17,8% stated that they only go when they have an emergency and 2,2% said they never go to the dentist. source: authors'own contribution at the question ‘do they consider it regular for health to consult a dentist for prevention?’ 95.6% of the subjects answered affirmatively. the issue of dentophobia among young adults during the pandemic dorina stan, et al. 202 source: authors'own contribution all of the 45 participants in this study considered that oral hygiene is important for health. source: authors'own contribution asked how would they feel if they were to go to the dentist, 55,6% of them said they would feel relaxed and 28,9% satisfied that they will solve a problem. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 203 source: authors'own contribution asked how do they think they would feel if they were in the waiting room before the consultation, a percentage of 60 % of the investigated subjects would feel calm and 40% of them said that they would be satisfied solving a health problem. source: authors'own contribution at the question ‘imagine that you are in the dental chair before the local anesthesia. how do you think you would react?’ 66,7% of those investigated said that would be cooperative, 46,7% they said they would realize it was the only solution for the problem. the issue of dentophobia among young adults during the pandemic dorina stan, et al. 204 source: authors'own contribution asked how would they react if they if you should have a tooth extraction, 28,9% said that they would accept the procedure calmly, 42,2% of the subjects said that they would feel uneasy but they would accept the procedure, 26,7% declared that they would be afraid but they would accept the procedure. source: authors'own contribution the responses of the question ‘if you were in the dentist's office for a routine checkup, how would you feel?’ showed that 66,75% of the answers was that they would feel calmly and 22,25 of the investigated subjects said that they would feel satisfied that they behave responsibly towards themselves, brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 205 source: authors'own contribution conclusions a significant percentage of the young adults investigated are responsible for oral hygiene. the percentage of subjects who stated that they would feel scared or would refuse the dental consultation is small. the fact that all those investigated consider that oral hygiene is important for health shows that the issue of dentophobia would have a chance to reduce its impact at the community level so that young adults can contact the dentist in time. the pandemic does not seem to minimize the importance of oral health for the investigated group. psychoeducation programs on dentophobia and oral health are still a challenge for mental health professionals. references alyami, y., alzahrani, k., masmali, a., abulaban, a., qahwaji, j. a., faqehi, w. h., & alqahtani, e. (2020). dental anxiety & phobia: prevalence and most frequent causes among dentists and public in saudi arabia. international journal of diabetes in developing countries, 4, 325-30. https://doi.org/10.24911/ijmdc.51-1575237865 burlea, g., burlea, a. m., & milici, r. c. (2010). prevention and intervention in speech and language therapy for the success of lexicographical acquisitions. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 30, 86-100. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf https://doi.org/10.24911/ijmdc.51-1575237865 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf the issue of dentophobia among young adults during the pandemic dorina stan, et al. 206 cebotari, c., & tohati, c. (2019). the influence of an external interaction with younger patients in preventing several oral and psihological disorders. acta medica marisiensis, 65(s1), 47. loue, s., & lamb, e. . (2020). retraumatized: covid-19, the specter of hiv/aids, and reorienting responsibility. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/31 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., mihaila, d., burlea, m., & ciubara, a-m. (2015). heterotopic gastric mucosa in the distal part of esophagus in a teenager case report. medicine, 94(42), e1722. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 macleavy, c. (2020). communicating with phobic patients–a dental nurse's role. dental nursing, 16(3), 136-138. nikka, c. (2020). dentophobia: why are we afraid of the dentist? clinical psychology. https://www.psychreg.org/why-are-we-afraid-of-thedentist/ ravishankar, r. k. s. (2020). anxiety and pain management in dental office. international journal of scientific development and research, 5(2), 2020-226. https://www.ijsdr.org/papers/ijsdr2002036.pdf saatchi, m., abtahi, m., mohammadi, g., mirdamadi, m., & binandeh, e. s. (2015). the prevalence of dental anxiety and fear in patients referred to isfahan dental school, iran. dental research journal, 12(3), 248–253. sandu, a. (2019). chronic illness and self-care management. a perspective of diabetic patients. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 3(1), 20-37. https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.18 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/31 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 https://www.psychreg.org/why-are-we-afraid-of-the-dentist/ https://www.psychreg.org/why-are-we-afraid-of-the-dentist/ https://www.ijsdr.org/papers/ijsdr2002036.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.18 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 202-228 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/179 augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi¹, hanife falyali 2 , fezile ozdamli 3 1 research assistant, curriculum and instruction, cyprus, duriye_onbasi@hotmail.com 2 research assistant, curriculum and instruction, cyprus, hanife_falyali@hotmail.com 3 prof. dr., computer information systems near east university, cyprus, fezile.ozdamli@neu.edu.tr abstract: the purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of augmented reality (ag) and the flipped learning model on the attitude of 4th-grade students towards the science and technology course and to determine the opinion of students concerning videos presented through ag. another objective of the study is to determine parents' opinions concerning ag and fl in science and technology courses. a pre-test / post-test quasi-experimental design was used with the control group to obtain quantitative data. qualitative data were also included in the analysis to support quantitative data obtained from a case study pattern. in the study, the science and technology attitude scale was used to measure students' attitudes. the opinion scale for experimental videos was used to evaluate video usage opinions in science and technology courses. besides, parents' opinions concerning ag applications and the fl model were collected through the researchers' interview form. independent sample t-test and ancova tests were conducted to interpret the quantitative data of the study. qualitative data were evaluated with the content analysis method. the results showed that the ar and fl model's application provides students with a positive attitude towards science and technology; it also helped them solve problems. besides, families have also expressed positive opinions about ar and fl applications. keywords: augmented reality; experiment practices; flipped applications. how to cite: onbasi, d., falyali, h., & ozdamli, f. (2021). augmented reality applications in science experiment practices. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 202-228. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/179 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/179 mailto:duriye_onbasi@hotmail.com mailto:hanife_falyali@hotmail.com mailto:fezile.ozdamli@neu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/179 augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 203 introduction especially in the field of education, the usage of technology integration has increased. with these developments, several different applications in learning environments are being employed. parallel to the results in data processing technologies, multimedia technologies such as animation, sound, graphics, and text in the education environment increase (daşdemir and doymuş, 2012; bicen and arnavut, 2020). in recent years augmented reality and flipped learning concepts have been highly preferred in learning environments within data processing technologies. an examination of the literature shows that augmented reality is defined as a derivative of virtual reality (azuma, 1997). gonzato, arcila, and crespin (2008) described augmented reality as the technology which ensures that a user can see the world as developed or expanded through text, sound, and other additional information. another definition given by özarslan (2011) emphasizes that augmented reality refers to the environments where the real-world comes together with the virtual world on a real-time basis and reaches the user in the same sensory area. another popular concept is flipped learning environments nowadays. the flipped learning approach is a learning model where learners prepare at home using previously installed videos and presentations before coming to class and internalizing the topic through activities inside the class. thus, it is a learning model that operates in the opposite direction of the traditional education process (doğan, 2015). abeysekera and dawson (2014) define flipped classrooms as a learning approach that shifts the time and place of classroom lecturing and homework differently from traditional lecturing structure and provides the students with more cooperative studying opportunities. briefly, in flipped learning, the topics targeted for education are given to students in an online environment; homework, projects, and activities are performed in the classroom with the teacher. besides, using augmented reality and flipped learning applications in education-teaching environments is defined as elements that support learning. using augmented reality and flipped classroom approach in science teaching is beneficial for increasing the quality of science education, improving the reasoning abilities of students in science classes, helping them explore knowledge, increasing their problem-solving skills, and transferring hardly observable and dangerous situations in real life to students (karamustafaoğlu, çakır and topuz, 2012). brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 204 one of the objectives of science and technology courses today is to ensure that students use technology in the best manner, to teach them how to learn, to ensure that their thinking abilities are improved, and to educate them as researching and inquiring individuals (lind, 2005). it is believed that to realize practical science and technology teaching at schools, information technologies such as augmented reality and flipped learning should be utilized. students face several challenges in science and technology classes. students see especially the concepts in this course as abstract and difficultto-understand. when covering these concepts, augmented reality applications must be utilized in the learning process, and learning activities are extended in visual and intellectual terms. richer learning environments are prepared for students. besides, such information technologies should be employed at a certain level to perceive and interpret the events presented in science classes in a multi-faceted manner. their attention to the course can be kept alive (akpınar and others, 2005). real models are specially used for concretizing the abstract concepts for younger students whose concrete thinking abilities are not developed. in this age group, individuals can make sense of information more efficiently by concretizing knowledge (mcneil and uttal, 2009). bruner (1966) mentions that using real objects is suitable and economical for individuals at every age who encounter abstract contexts for the first time. nevertheless, kaminski, sloutsky, and heckler (2009) state that while learning abstract concepts, using a limited number of 3d real objects will not be adequate. mcneil and uttal (2009) claim that real objects can be useful only by providing students with practical guidance to use them. sarama and clements (2009) state that in computerized environments, students' advice while learning concepts could be provided by the system instantly by offering visuals concerning their circumstances. ag is an environment that includes 3d, animation, video, etc., support and establishes instant contact with the user (ozdamli and karagozlu, 2018). bruner (1966) emphasizes that several objects should be used so that different abstract concepts pose some limitations in terms of economy and practicality of applications. although computers, cameras, and software are needed in the beginning to create an ag environment (furio, gonzalez-gancedo, juan, seguí and costa, 2013), once they are established, adding and presenting new materials will ensure economy and convenience. besides, today, some augmented reality applications do not require any technical knowledge and can be used merely by transferring the content to the media. sırakaya and seferoğlu (2016) stated that making mistakes and performing experiments in ag environments that otherwise could be augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 205 dangerous is costless and safe. di serio, ibáñez, and kloos (2013) emphasized that using ag provides a fun and enjoyable environment. contrary to these positive features, there are results in the literature that indicate that using ag in crowded classrooms is difficult (yoon, elinich, wang, steinmeier, and tucker, 2012). in addition to this, problems can be witnessed when suitable media is not designed, and excessive cognitive loading can result (munoz-cristobal et al., 2015; dunleavy et al., 2009). an examination of the literature shows that considering that the most effective method in science and technology laboratory applications is the employment of virtual and real equipment, mobile-assisted ag applications have the unique feature of presenting virtual and real experiences together (akçayır, 2016). thanks to flipped learning environments, students can use these technologies whenever they want. a flipped learning environment is defined as a learning model that shifts responsibility for the time spent inside and outside the classroom from teacher to student. it is focused not on the teacher but the learner (bergmann and sams, 2012; johnson, becker, estrada and freeman, 2014). a student-centered approach is followed in science teaching in today's education, bergmann and sams (2012) stated that flipped learning students had such responsibilities as watching videos, asking appropriate questions, and completing and sharing their studies. in contrast, the teacher is responsible for helping them and providing expert feedback. flipped learning involves content presentation in science and technology not by the student in classtime but by watching videos of the topic and discussing them with their peers in online communities. learners can access these comprehensive resources whenever they want. thus, a teacher can spare more time to contact each individual. the main objective is to allow learners to reach the information they need any time they want using the flipped learning model, an information technology (johnson, becker, estrada, and freeman, 2014). sams and bergmann (2013) claim that the flipped learning classroom approach's most essential feature is perceived as learners watching the videos at home that were previously produced by the teacher. teaching the events that occur in science and technology class by supporting concrete teaching auxiliaries to recreate them in their minds helps the abstract information be shaped as concrete concepts (atılboz, 2004). however, colagrande, martorano, and arroio (2016) indicate that ideas are usually presented in science books as "ready-made," "finished," and "true." therefore, the teachers fail to adequately give students the nature of scientific knowledge and that sciences could be misunderstood as they only share what is readybrain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 206 made. an examination of the literature on sciences shows that one of the most striking topics is how science education should be performed (abdüsselam, 2014). holstermann, grube, and bögeholz (2010) state that teachers have one of the most critical roles in these researches, which should provide interactive learning environments for students to learn with fun and explore their skills and abilities, and work in teams. besides, by using suitable education-teaching materials in science courses, students must be equipped with real-life experiences by applications such as animations. it must be ensured that they concretize abstract events to perform permanent learning (karagozlu and ozdamli, 2017). videos are among the technologies which can be used for this purpose. studies have displayed several advantages of covering the classes using videos in a teaching environment (güvercin, 2010; tekdal, 2002). these can be listed as (i) cognitive benefits (more and better learning, keeping in memory, remembering), (ii) psychological benefits (motivation, the pleasure of education), and (iii) ease of visualizing the information (pekdağ, 2010). despite the several advantages of videos, the inadequacy of using videos in science and technology classes at the elementary level is noticeable (güvercin, 2010). while organizing the learning environment, working with laboratories is a beneficial teaching strategy (demir, böyük, and koç, 2011). students can realize such acquisitions as developing psychomotor behaviors through experimentation, interpreting what they see, problem-solving, acquiring scientific process skills, etc. (ergin et al., 2005). it is believed that if the students in videos watch experiments that will be performed in class in advance, their laboratory practices will improve. when they encounter a laboratory environment for the first time, students can be uneasy about experimenting with testing kits. for this reason, it is believed that students watching how to test using the flipped learning model are essential. although there is not a single way of applying fl, the general wisdom is that recording the course content as a video and providing the students with that video as well as performing classroom activities under the guidance of the teacher relevant to the topic during class is appropriate (tucker, 2012). literature search shows that activities and experiments performed at the laboratory suffer from time constraints (akyıldız, aydoğdu, and şimşek, 2012; onbaşı, 2015). one of the flipped classroom approaches' essential advantages is that they provide students with learning environments suitable for their speed, independent from time and space (davies, dean, & ball, 2013; bergman & sams, 2012). studies in the literature revealed that fl reduced students' anxiety levels (marlowe, 2012) and increased their cooperative studying abilities (strayer, 2012). considering all these augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 207 advantages, using fl in elementary classes and revealing possible positive and negative effects is essential. this study is critical because it is one of the first studies on fl supported with augmented reality application and aims to increase science teaching effectiveness at the elementary level. as a result, it is necessary to determine students' and parents' attitudes and opinions regarding the method and process during home learning to benefit from the fl potential supported by augmented reality. this paper aims to explore the impact of augmented reality and flipped classroom applications on science and experiment class. another objective of the study is to determine the attitudes of 4 th -grade students towards the course and contents and parents' opinions concerning ag and fl applications in science and technology classes. 1.1. related researches the literature search revealed many studies on ag applications and flipped learning environments, especially in recent years. some of these studies are presented below. abdüsselam (2014) revealed that teachers could benefit from visualizing and concretizing magnetic fields when teaching physics, especially magnetism. visualizing magnetic fields with three-dimensional shapes in an augmented reality environment could make students explain the difference between covered cases and facilitate comprehending the topic. çakır, solak, and tan (2015) conducted a semi-experimental study on the impact of teaching english words through augmented reality technology on student performance and determined that the classes covered with ag technology displayed higher academic achievement compared to types covered by the classical method. another conclusion of this study is that it revealed that students' motivation towards used material is higher in the classes covered with ag technology. sırakaya (2015) concluded in his study that students believed that augmented reality learning material concretized abstract topics, facilitated comprehension of subjects, and ensured more active participation in classes. besides, according to the study's results, it is found out that students believed that augmented reality learning material increased their attention and motivation for the course, made it more exciting and entertaining, and increased their communication with peers and teachers during class. it is also concluded that students could easily use augmented reality learning material and use it again. sırakaya (2015) conducted a study on the flipped classroom model's impact on academic success, self-managed learning preparedness, and brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 208 motivation. sırakaya concluded that the experiment group's scores on general academic success, motivations, and permanence were higher than the control group, meaning that there was a significant difference in favor of the experiment group. finally, it was concluded that the students in the experiment group, in general, had positive opinions on the flipped classroom model. taşkıran, koral, and bozkurt (2015) stated that augmented reality applications in foreign language teaching were fun materials for students. also, it increased motivation, allowed learning by doing and living, and permitted active participation by learners in the learning process. another conclusion of the study was that augmented reality applications concretized the abstract topics in foreign language teaching, made remembering the learned items more comfortable and allowed for high interaction and communication. however, research results also indicate that ag applications are time-consuming, although they are fun and motivating. akçayır and akçayır (2016) explained that ag applications made an essential contribution to foreign language teaching. besides, considering that ag applications can be used as assisting tools for students in learning words and today most students possess mobile devices, it has been found out that ag could be used in education environments without requiring any additional cost. akçayır (2016) studied the impact of augmented reality applications in science laboratories on the laboratory skills, attitudes, and workloads of university students and determined that experiment group students completed their experiments in a shorter period. according to the researcher, the possible reason experiment group students conducted their investigation in a shorter time is that they finished the experiment mechanism faster with the supporting materials. thus, more time is left to students to discussing experiment results, which allowed them to make more measurements related to the experiment and contribute to developing their laboratory skills. also, ag technology contributed to students' laboratory skills; it also ensured that they display a positive attitude towards the physics laboratory. in this paper, the interviews held with experiment group students revealed that they were delighted with using ag technology. aydın (2016) found no significant difference between flipped classroom students and traditional classroom students on academic success, attitude towards programming, and self-efficacy perception. nevertheless, there was a considerable difference between the attitudes of the two groups towards e-learning. augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 209 karaman (2016) examined the impact of flipped classroom application on academic success and experiences. he concluded that students' academic success scores in the experiment and the control group were not different. besides, it was displayed that students liked the model and thought it should be used in other courses and increased motivation. kocabatmaz (2016) examined the opinions of pre-service teachers. as a result, teacher candidates explained the flipped classroom as a model that allows for endless repetition. besides, this study concluded that in addition to several positive features, pre-service teachers emphasized such negative parts of the flipped classroom model as the fact that the necessity of watching videos before class consumes too much time and problems are experienced in the internet connection. sağlam (2016) analyzed the impact of the flipped classroom model on students' academic success and attitudes in english class and found out that the flipped classroom model had a significantly positive effect on students' success and perspective traditional method. akgün and atıcı (2017) researched the impact of flipped classrooms on students' academic success, and the results showed that the success of experiment group students increased with the flipped classroom application. güç (2017) studied the impact of flipped classroom application on rational numbers and operations with rational numbers; his examination of the data obtained from the pre-test application found out that both groups were equal in academic success. also, an analysis of the data obtained from the post-test application displayed that the experiment group's test score was significantly higher than the control group's test score. this difference was in favor of the experiment group. another finding of the study is that when the change in groups' attitude towards mathematic class is examined, a flipped classroom model's attitude towards maths did not constitute a statistically significant difference. şahin (2017) conducted a study on the impact of augmented reality on success and attitude. as a result, there is a significant difference between success and attitude towards students who covered the science and technology class in ag technology-supported learning environments and covered the course with the traditional method. besides, at the end of this study, it was found out that students in the experiment group were satisfied with using ag applications, willing to use them, and did not suffer from anxiety while using these applications. another conclusion of this study was that there are a medium level and significant relation positively between success and attitude towards students who used ag applications. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 210 sırakaya (2017) examined the gamified flipped classroom model and concluded that students usually had favorable opinions about the gamified flipped classroom model. another finding of this study was that students came to the class prepared with this application, showed active participation, learned by having fun, and enjoyed increased interaction and motivation. augmented reality and flipped classroom applications were studied and examined in various fields recently. based on the studies in the literature, it is seen that ag applications and the fl model have a positive impact on education. an examination of the literature showed that conducted studies are only on ag applications or only on the fl model. there are no studies in the literature that examine two applications together. for this reason, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of augmented reality (ag) and flipped learning model (fl) on the attitude of 4 th -grade students towards the course, to determine the opinions of students towards videos presented with ag and parent opinions towards ag and fl applications in science and technology class. 2. methodology a semi-experimental pattern with a pre-test / post-test control group was employed to reach quantitative data in the study. qualitative data were also included in the analysis to determine parent opinions and support quantitative data obtained through a case study pattern. 2.1. participants the study was conducted with 59 4 th -grade students at a private elementary school in a district of the turkish republic of northern cyprus and their parents. the case sampling method was used for the experimental group (patton, 1987). the experimental group consisted of 30 students, and the control group consisted of 29 students. based on voluntarism, the opinions of 15 parents of the students in the experiment group were obtained. 2.2. data collection tools you may need to insert a page break to keep a heading with its text. in the study, the "science and technology attitude" scale was used to measure students' attitudes. the "opinion scale towards experiment videos" was used to measure their opinions concerning using videos as augmented reality content in science and technology. also, student parents' opinions concerning ag applications were collected through the researcher's parent interview form to support quantitative data. augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 211 the attitude scale for the science and technology course was developed by kenar and balcı (2012) for 4 th grade and 5 th -grade students. the scale consists of 12 items and three dimensions in total. the measuring tool designed to determine students' attitudes towards science and technology class is a 5 likert-type scale. the answering options in the scale are "strongly agree," "agree," "neither agree nor disagree," "disagree," and "strongly disagree." the scale scores are between 1.00 and 5.00, indicating that as they approach 5.00, students' agreement level with the proposition is high. individuals who received below 2.60 from the attitude scale towards the science and technology course accepted a negative attitude. those who received 2.60 and higher scores were assumed to have a positive attitude. opinion scale towards using experiment videos was developed by daşdemir and doymuş (2012) for elementary school students. the scale consists of 18 items. opinion scale towards using experiment videos (dvkygo) uses a 5 likert type scale. the expressions used in the scale are "strongly agree, " agree," "neither agree nor disagree," "disagree," and "strongly disagree." the interview form for ag applications used in the same study was developed for 4 th -grade parents using the literature and obtaining expert opinion. the interview form consists of two open-ended questions. 2.3. general guidelines for the preparation of your text avoid hyphenation at the end of a line. symbols denoting vectors and matrices should be indicated in bold type. scalar variable names should normally be expressed using italics. weights and measures should be expressed in si units. please title your files in this order conferenceacrynom_authorslastname.pdf 2.4. development of materials before the application, videos were prepared concerning the experiments used experiment kits in the laboratory and were uploaded to the channel created on youtube. videos were integrated into the augmented reality application. in that way, it was ensured that any mobile device with the augmented reality application could access these videos. an examination of the literature on educative videos shows that complicated subjects could be given with 1-2-minute short videos to avoid cognitive overload (sood, 2016). opinions of field experts and information technologies were obtained on the prepared videos. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 212 the steps of the process of material development: 1. provision of experiment kits and recording of experiment videos 2. obtaining the opinions of field experts and faculty members 3. reorganization and improvement of materials in line with suggestions 4. uploading experiment videos on youtube channel 5. creating tags for experiment videos using augmented reality software 6. sticking the tags on experiment books researchers used experiment kits to support science and technology subjects' lecturing in the control group during the application. for example, magnets were brought to the classroom, and the magnets' poles were shown, and figures drawn on the board to indicate that the same poles pushed each other while opposite poles pulled each other. in the experiment group, experiment videos were used as ag material in addition to real objects. the prepared experiment videos gave information to students on how the experiments would be made using experiment kits. tags were stuck on experiment books of students in the experiment group concerning the five different experiments created with the augmented application's help (see figure 1). figure 1 experiment books augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 213 students requested that they watch the videos at home with their parents three days before the experiments were applied in the laboratory. in addition to the videos, information about experiment books and experiments was shared with parents through the social network group. the purpose here was to ensure that students learned the experiment's objectives and how it should be done before they come to the classroom. students chose suitable experiment kits in line with the experiment videos they watched and performed the experiments themselves under teacher supervision in a laboratory class. also, in the laboratory environment, teachers and students served question-answer activities to the purpose of the investigation and how it should be done, etc. (see figure 2). the application continued for almost eight weeks. at the end of the application attitude towards course, the scale was applied as a post-test, and opinion scale towards videos prepared as ag content was used. besides, the opinions of parents were obtained through opinion forms on these applications. figure 2 inflatable balloon experiment 2.5. analysis of data for analyzing quantitative data, kolmogorov-smirnov, skewness, and levene tests were conducted first to determine if the distribution was normal and homogeneous. it was found out that the data were conforming to the parametric tests. independent sample t-test and ancova tests were conducted through spss 25.0 program. the qualitative data of the research were evaluated using the content analysis method. before analyzing qualitative data, a general conceptual structure was formed, and the main themes and sub-themes were created after the analysis. two of the brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 214 researchers coded data separately, and another researcher, who is an expert in the field, performed a double-check. at the end of this process, the "reliability = disagreement/agreement + disagreement" formula was applied to coding. the harmony between the two coders was calculated as 93 percent—categories created after coding were tabulated as frequencies. besides, obtained qualitative data were supported by making direct citations from the opinions of parents. 3. results this study explores the impact of experiments supported with ag technology and flipped learning environment on the attitude of 4 th -grade students towards the science and technology course, determining students' opinion concerning videos presented via ag and the opinion of student parents on these applications. the obtained findings are shown below in line with this objective. 3.1. pre-test results for experiment and control groups students were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. a pre-test was applied to determine whether the attitudes of students towards science and technology were equal. t-test was used for an independent sample to examine the attitude of 4 th -grade students towards the course. pre-test results for the experiment, and control groups are given in the table below. table 1 pre-test results for experiment and control groups groups n x s t p experiment 30 2.44 .42 control 29 2.61 .44 -1.47 0.15 it is seen that the pre-test success score of control group students (x = 2.61) is close to the pre-test score mean value of experiment group students (x = 2.44). according to the t-test results for independent groups, it can be seen that there is no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). this result shows that the previous attitude level of experiment and control group students is equal, which means they are suitable for the application. augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 215 3.2. findings concerning gender of students in experiment and control groups findings concerning the gender of students in the experiment and control groups are given in table 2. as shown in the table, 43.33% of the experiment group students are females, and 56.66% are males. on the other hand, 44.83% of students in the control group are females, and 55.17% are males. table 2 findings concerning the gender of students in experimental and control groups groups gender f % experiment female 13 43.33 male 17 56.66 control female 13 44.83 male 16 55.17 as shown in the table, it can be claimed that gender distribution is similar to each other in both groups. 3.3. science and technology attitudes in the study, experimental and control group results were compared to assess whether there was any difference between their science and technology attitudes levels after the application. the kolmogorov-smirnov test was conducted to perform the ancova analysis, and it was found that the data showed normal distribution, as the significance level was higher than 0.05. later, the levene test was used to check variance homogeneity, and it was determined that groups were homogeneous (p>0.05). table 3 science and technology attitudes of the experimental and control groups groups pre-test post-test n ̅ s n ̅ s experiment 30 2.44 .42 30 4.43 .42 control 29 2.61 .44 29 3.69 .60 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 216 an examination of table 4 shows that the attitudes for the science and technology course for the experimental group (x=2.44; s=.42) increased after augmented reality and flipped classroom application (x=4.30, s=.45). similarly, the control group's science and technology course attitude (x=2.61; s=.44) marginally increased at the end of the application (x=3.70, s=.59). during analysis, the pre-test scores of groups were kept under control to eliminate any impact of pre-test scores on post-test scores. table 4 science and technology attitude scores and corrected average scores as can be seen in table 4, when the corrected average scores obtained from the attitudes are examined, it can be said that the attitudes of the experimental group are higher compared to the control group. ancova results concerning whether the difference between the corrected technology and science attitude scores of the two groups is significant are presented in table 5. table 5 science and technology covariance analysis results source sum of squares df mean square f p pre-test attitude .02 1 .02 .26 .61 group .55 1 .55 29.61 .00 error 15.81 55 .29 total 969.88 59 according to the covariance analysis results in table 6, when the test scores of the experimental and control groups are controlled, it can be seen that the difference between the scores is significant (f(1,55)=2944.61, p<0.05). eta square value for determining the size of this impact in favor of the experimental group was calculated as 0.35. the impact value indicates a small effect at .01 level, medium impact at .06 level, and an enormous impact when it is higher than .14. according to this result, it can be said that science groups n ̅ ̅ (d) experiment 30 4.43 4.44 control 29 3.69 3.68 augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 217 and technology experiments conducted with augmented reality and flipped learning affected the attitudes of students towards science and technology classes. 3.4. determining student opinions on experiment videos presented through ag and fl environment descriptive statistical results performed to examine the opinions of 4 th -grade students concerning experiment videos supported by ag technology and fl environment in science and technology teaching are given in table 6. table 6 experimental group statistics results opinions x s 1.subjects covered in experiment videos attracted my attention more. 4.37 0.99 2.experiment videos helped me solve problems about the subject. 4.67 0.66 3.usage of experiment videos made me think about the subject in more detail. 4.67 0.66 4. usage of experiment videos urged me to do research. 4.53 0.94 5. the experiment videos made me feel like i was in the science and technology classroom. 4.73 0.58 6. experiment videos should always be used in science and technology classes. 4.50 0.94 7. experiment videos should be used in other courses, too. 3.87 1.41 8. usage of experiment videos made me concentrate on the subject. 4.27 1.26 9. i liked the topics covered in the experiment videos. 4.53 0.78 10. covering the class with experiment videos is very nice. 4.53 0.89 11. usage of experiment videos helped me think creatively. 4.20 1.19 12. i was not able to learn the subjects as experiment videos were very complicated. 2.33 1.64 13. usage of experiment videos in courses is very 4.30 0.99 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 218 beneficial. 14. experiment videos helped me understand the subject better. 4.30 0.95 15. covering the class with experiment videos is boring. 2.00 1.36 16. usage of experiment videos caused disorder in the classroom. 1.40 0.93 17. usage of experiment videos made comprehension of subjects more difficult. 1.43 0.77 18. experiment videos should not be used in science and technology classes. 2.03 1.38 as can be seen in table 6, it is found out that the answers given by students concerning the experiment videos supported by ag technology and fl environment are in a positive direction. it is also revealed that these applications mostly helped students solve problems related to the subject and ensured that they think in more detail about the issue and like the class. the students' most positive attitude was witnessed in the expression "experiment videos made me like science and technology class." this finding is parallel to the reason for the increase in attitudes towards science and technology. on the other hand, a minority of students stated that covering classes with experiment videos was boring and that these applications were too complicated. according to these findings, it can be claimed that the attitude of 4 th -grade students on experiment videos supported with ag technology and fl environment is favorable. 3.5. examination of parent opinions on ag applications and fl environment under this title, parents of students’ opinions in the experiment group concerning ag applications and the fl environment were used as an independent variable in this study, and researchers’ comments researchers based on these opinions will be provided. the repeated common points were identified in answers given to the parents' questions to determine the advantages and limitations of using ag applications and fl model together in 4 th -grade science and technology classes, shown in the form of frequency tables. it was followed by an interpretation of the situation which occurred according to this table. augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 219 table 7 opinions and frequencies on ag applications and fl environment positive opinion f negative opinion f ensuring visuality addressing multiple sense organs permanent learning easy and effective learning interesting and intriguing attention-grabbing motivating learning by doing-living providing ease of learning active participation fun learning environment reducing anxiety level 10 9 8 8 7 7 7 7 5 5 5 3 inadequate class hours the intensity of the course curriculum lack of hardware 1 1 1 according to the frequencies in table 7, parents thought that using ag application and fl environment in 4 th -grade science and technology classes was affirmative. they stated that especially visuality ensured more permanent, easy, and effective learning. expressions of some parents concerning this opinion are presented below: "using ag applications and fl model ensured that students see the practical side of theoretical knowledge and led to more permanent learning. also, i think that students will be more conscious of what to do in the classroom if they watch the experiment at home in advance." (parent 1) "if experiments are supported by repetition, ag applications, and fl model, more permanent learning occurs." (parent 2) "depending on the intensity of subjects, i think that supporting the course with ag applications and fl model and enriching it in terms of visuality increases the interest of children in the course. besides, i believe that when children watch videos about science and technology courses at home and then perform application at a laboratory, more permanent learning occurs." (parent 11) "supporting experiments with ag applications and fl model provides ease of learning and helps the student be in interaction." (parent 13) besides, parents expressed that supporting experiments with ag applications and fl environment would help students actively participate in the class and interact with others. they also stated that these applications served to attract the attention of and develop students' curiosity, were fun brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 220 and attractive in content formation, and helped reduce students' anxiety level before the experiment. expressions of some parents concerning this opinion are presented below: "these applications ensure that the student is active and in interaction." (parent 14) "when they watch an experiment with ag applications, they become more curious and interested." (parent 13) "performing experiments by supporting with ag applications and fl model reduces the anxiety in students before the experiment and guides them in how they should do the experiments." (parent 8) "i believe that supporting experiments with ag applications and fl model has several positive aspects. thanks to multimedia elements, permanent learning is ensured, and content becomes fun and interesting. this method provides convenience in learning; it also saves time and money." (parent 11) "i think that watching the experiments that they will make in science and technology class in advance and obtaining information, and using ag applications and fl model for this purpose, is very beneficial. these applications address multiple sense organs, and thus learning becomes more permanent. with flipped learning, students learn subjects at home, and they can have more time to contact the teacher to ask about the points that they did not understand." (parent 6) "experiment courses should involve learning by doing and living, and ag applications minimize the loss of time in these classes." (parent 9) "multimedia tools such as visuality and sound address multiple sense organs of children; thus, learning is more permanent, and motivation sources such as attention, curiosity, and interest are developed in the child. due to the flipped learning model, my son began to ask more questions after watching the video, researching the internet, and using encyclopedias. (parent 4) some parents also indicated that these applications were cost-saving, served as supporting tools, increased success, ensured intense concentration and convenience to the teacher, added practicality. did as a guide and helped cognitive-emotional development psychomotor developments, provided focusing, and added researching-inquiring abilities. "my daughter scanned stickers on her book through tablet and read the information about the experiment they would do every week, watched the experiment performed by her teacher, and prepared questions about the subject. she searched for the points that she wondered about the experiment before she entered the class. i think that with this application, researching-inquiring abilities and technology-usage skills of my daughter improved." (parent 5) augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 221 "i noticed that reading course notes about experiments at home and starting to watch the experiment at home in advance increases the interest of the child for the course, that the child focuses on the subject, asks questions to us, and begins to research on the internet." (parent 10) there was only one parent who stated a negative opinion in the study. the parent complained about the intensity of the curriculum and time constraints. the expressions of the parent with a negative opinion are presented below: "the fact that the course is 4 hours a week negatively affects these applications. also, the course curriculum's intensity and the teacher's haste to cover all topics restrict the usage of ag applications and the fl model in science classes. hardware deficiencies in classrooms can also affect these applications negatively. also, i think that performing experiments with ag applications has some negative aspects. these are loss of time, high costs, hardware deficiencies, and inadequacy of both students and teachers in using technology." (parent 15) besides, one parent recommended that laboratory class hours should be increased so that supporting laboratory classes with ag applications and fl model could be more effective: "laboratory class is only once a week. i believe that experiments supported with ag applications and fl model should be increased and children should be given more opportunity to perform applications." (parent 12) 4. discussion and conclusion the study results reveal that science and technology experiment applications performed with ag and fl environment positively affected students' attitude towards the course. similarly, akçayır (2016) concluded in his interview with students that ag technology ensured that students display a positive attitude towards the physics laboratory. besides, several studies in the literature concluded that ag applications and the fl model positively affected students' perspectives (aydın, 2016; sağlam, 2016; şahin, 2017). at the end of the conducted study, students' opinions on experiment videos supported by ag technology and fl environment indicated that these applications helped solve questions and ensured that they think on the subject in more detail and like the course. similarly, abdüsselam (2014) revealed several positive aspects of ag applications in his study. he concluded that using these applications helped students concretize the subjects, explain the differences between cases covered in activities more efficiently, and find easier ways to comprehend the subject. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 222 when the parent opinions concerning usage of ag applications and fl environment in the context of 4 th -grade science and technology class is examined, it is seen that they stated that especially visuality ensured more permanent, convenient, and practical education. studies in the literature concluded that ag applications made learning (abdüsselam, 2014) and remembering subjects more comfortable (taşkıran, koral and bozkurt, 2015; akgün and atıcı, 2017), that these applications contributed to permanence (akçayır and akçayır, 2016; kocabatmaz, 2016) and that fl teaching increased permanence (sırakaya, 2015). besides, according to the study's findings, parents stated that these applications address multiple sense organs and are attractive and intriguing for students. it was also concluded that these applications effectively attracted students' attention, motivating them, providing ease of learning and active participation, and creating an entertaining learning environment. an examination of the literature shows that several studies have been conducted which could support these results. it was concluded that ag applications increased the motivation of students (tan and lui, 2004; barreira et al., 2012; di serio, ibanez, and kloos, 2013; mahadzir and phung; 2013; çakır, solak and tan, 2015; sırakaya, 2015; taşkıran, koral, and bozkurt; 2015; karaman, 2016; sırakaya, 2017). therefore, that it made the course interesting and entertaining (sırakaya, 2015; taşkıran, koral, and bozkurt; 2015; sırakaya, 2017), and the fl model and ag applications ensured active participation (akgün and atıcı, 2017; sırakaya; 2017). according to the study results, parents stated that these applications helped reinforce what is learned, raise awareness concerning the subjects, create a positive attitude, increase success, generate low-cost environments and ensure active listening in the classroom environment. likewise, in his study, şahin (2017) revealed that ag applications positively impacted students' success and attitude in science teaching. also, akgün and atıcı (2017) concluded that the fl model increased the success of students. besides, it was supposed that the fl model reinforced what is learned (kocabatmaz, 2016). it was concluded that ag applications increased academic success (barreira et al., 2012; perez, lopez and contero, 2013) and that ag applications did not impose any additional cost due to the high ratio of possessing mobile devices among students today (akçayır and akçayır, 2016). likewise, atasoy, gün, and karoğlu (2017) stated in their study that ag materials could be beneficial in carrying to classroom environment the applications which could be costly in education environments. augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 223 in the study, few parents remarked that this application had negative aspects. they mentioned that these applications could have detrimental effects on teaching due to insufficient class hours, the course curriculum's intensity, and some hardware deficiencies. when the literature is examined, taşkıran, koral, and bozkurt (2015) concluded that ag applications were time-consuming, whereas akçayır (2016) found out that these applications helped create time to discuss experimental results. in this paper, parents emphasized that these applications ensured time-saving in experiments. another conclusion of the study is that parents stated that these applications allowed learning by doing and living and help students enjoy reduced anxiety levels before experiments. likewise, taşkıran, koral, and bozkurt (2015) concluded that ag applications allowed learning by doing and living. besides, şahin (2017) concluded that students did not suffer from anxiety while using ag applications in science teaching conducted with ag technology. parents who provided a negative opinion in the research mentioned that these applications could negatively affect education due to hardware deficiencies and inadequacy of teachers' and students' technology usage. in his study, kocabatmaz (2016) explored that the fl model requirement that videos should be watched before the class took too much time and problems arose in internet access. karaman (2016) concluded that teachers and students had to be informed accurately in applying the fl model. such an information activity could contribute to the elimination of student and teacher inadequacy in these applications. ag applications and fl environment should be covered as subjects in teacher education and on-thejob training programs. in summary, according to this study's conclusions, it has been concluded that ag and fl model applications helped 4 th -grade students develop a positive attitude in science and technology experiment classes, think in detail on the subject, and like the course and solve problems. besides, it is revealed that parents feel that ag and fl environment applications ensured visuality in learning, effectively addressed multiple sense organs, provided comfortable, permanent, and practical knowledge, and were time-saving. future studies can include 5 th -grade students in the research. another limitation is that in the application, which was performed with a flipped learning model, students were only provided with experiment videos and lecture notes. future studies can offer students learning activities that can be performed at home. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 224 research findings have displayed that students are willing to use different applications. accordingly, different learning environments and applications should be offered to students in teaching. students' and teachers' education needs concerning ag and fl environment applications should be determined, and studies should be prepared on different designs to reflect the classroom environment. large-scale studies on ag and fl environment applications should be conducted with broader participation. references abeysekera, l., & dawson, p. (2014). motivation and cognitive load in the flipped classroom: definition, rationale, and a call for research. higher education research and development, 34(1), 1–14. abdüsselam, m. s. (2014). fizik öğretiminde artırılmış gerçeklik ortamlarının kullanımlarına ilişkin öğretmen ve öğrenci görüşleri 11 sınıf manyetizma konusu örneği. pegem eğitim ve öğretim dergisi, 4(1), 59-74. akçayır, m. (2016). fen laboratuvarında artırılmış gerçeklik uygulamalarının üniversite öğrencilerinin laboratuvar becerilerine, tutumlarına ve görev yüklerine etkisi. (yayımlanmamış doktora tezi). gazi üniversitesi, ankara. akçayır, m., & akçayır, g. (2016). yabancı dil öğretiminde arttırılmış gerçeklik uygulamalarının kelime öğrenimine ve kalıcılığa etkisi. kafkas üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi, 18, 331-345. akgün, m., & atıcı, b. (2017). ters-düz sınıfların öğrencilerin akademik başarısı ve görüşlerine etkisi. kastamonu eğitim dergisi, 25(1), 329-344. akpınar, e., aktamış, h., & ergin, ö., (2005). fen bilgisi dersinde eğitim teknolojisi kullanılmasına ilişkin öğrenci görüşleri. the turkish online journal of educational technology, 4(1), 93-100. akyıldız, t., aydoğdu, c., & özdemir, ş. p. (2012). fen ve teknoloji öğretim programının laboratuvar kullanma becerisi kazandırma yeterliliği hakkında öğretmen görüşleri. x.ulusal fen bilimleri ve matematik eğitimi kongresi, 27-30 haziran 2012, niğde. atasoy, b., gün, t. e., & karoğlu, k. a. (2017). i̇lköğretim öğrencilerinin artırılmış gerçeklik uygulamalarına karşı tutumlarının ve güdülenme durumlarının belirlenmesi. ahi evran üniversitesi kırşehir eğitim fakültesi dergisi (kefad), 18(2), 435-448. atılboz, n. g. (2004). lise 1. sınıf öğrencilerinin mitoz ve mayoz bölünme konuları ile ilgili anlama düzeyleri ve kavram yanılgıları, gü gazi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 24(3), 147-157. aydın, g. (2016). ters yüz sınıf modelinin üniversite öğrencilerinin programlamaya yönelik tutum, öz-yeterlilik algısı ve başarılarına etkisinin incelenmesi. (yayımlammamış yüksek lisans tezi). dokuz eylül üniversitesi, i̇zmir. augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 225 azuma, r. t. (1997). a survey of augmented reality. in presence: teleoperators and virtual environments, 6(4), 355-385. barreira, j., bessa, m., pereira, l.c., adao, t., peres, e., & magalhaes, l. (2012). augmented reality game to learn words in different languages: case study: learning english names of animals in elementary school. 7th iberian conference on information systems and technologies (cisti). bergmann, j., & sams, a. (2012). flip your classroom: reach every student in every class every day. washington, dc: internal society for technology in education. bicen, h., & arnavut, a. (2020). google ai approach and statistical results of using google applications in mobile learning. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 121-130. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/18 bruner, j. (1966). toward a theory of instruction. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. clements d. h., & sarama j. (2009). learning and teaching early math: the learning trajectories approach. new york: routledge colagrande, a. e., martorano, a. a. s., & arroio, a. (2016). assessment on how pre-service science teachers view the nature of science. journal of turkish science education, 13(4), 293-307. çakır, r., solak, e., & tan, s. s. (2015). artırılmış gerçeklik teknolojisi ile ingilizce kelime öğretiminin öğrenci performansına etkisi. gazi eğitim bilimleri dergisi, 1(1), 45-58. daşdemir, i̇., & doymuş, k. (2012). fen ve teknoloji dersinde animasyon kullanımının öğrencilerin akademik başarılarına, öğrenilen bilgilerin kalıcılığına ve bilimsel süreç becerilerine etkisi, pegem eğitim ve öğretim dergisi, 2(3), 34-42. demir, s., böyük, u., & koç, a. (2011). fen ve teknoloji dersi öğretmenlerinin laboratuvar şartları ve kullanımına ilişkin görüşleri ile teknolojik yenilikleri izleme eğilimleri. mersin üniversitesi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 7(2), 66-79. di serio, a., ibanez, m. b., & kloos, c. d. (2013). impact of an augmented reality system on students' motivation for a visual art course. computers and education, 68, 586–596. doğan, t.g. (2015). sosyal medyanın öğrenme süreçlerinde kullanımı: ters-yüz edilmiş öğrenme yaklaşımına ilişkin öğrenen görüşleri. açıköğretim uygulamaları ve araştırmaları dergisi (auad), 1(2), 24-48. ergin, ö., şahin, p. e.& öngel, e. s. (2005). kuramdan uygulamaya deney yoluyla fen öğretimi. i̇zmir: dinazor kitapevi. falyalı, h. (2015). ortaöğretim 6., 7. ve 8. sınıflarda fen öğretiminde problem çözme becerilerinin kazandırılmasına yönelik öğretmen uygulamalarının incelenmesi. (yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi). doğu akdeniz üniversitesi, mağusa. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 226 furio, d., gonzalez, g. s., juan m.c, seguí, i., & costa, m. (2013.) the effects of the size and weight of a mobile device on an educational game. computers and education, 64, 24–41. gonzato, j.c., arcila, t., & crespin, b. (2008). virtual objects on real oceans, graphicon, russie, moscou, 49–54. güç, f. (2017). rasyonel sayılar ve rasyonel sayılarda işlemler konusunda ters yüz sınıf uygulamasının etkileri. (yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi). amasya üniversitesi, amasya. güvercin, z. (2010). effect of simulation assisted software in physics course on academic achievement, attitude and retention of the students. (unpublished master's thesis). çukurova university social sciences institute, adana. holstermann, n., grube, d., & bo geholz, s. (2010). hands-on activities and their influence on students' interests. research in science education, 40(5), 743-757. johnson, l., adams becker, s., estrada, v., ve freeman, a. (2014). nmc horizon report: 2014 higher education edition. austin, texas: the new media consortium. kaminski, j. a., sloutsky, v. m., & heckler, a. f. (2009). the cost of concreteness: the effect of nonessential information on analogical transfer. journal of experimental psychology: applied, 19(1), 14-29. karagozlu, d. & ozdamli, f. (2017). student opinions on mobile augmented reality application and developed content in science class. technology education management informatics, 6(4), 660-670. karamustafaoğlu, o., çakır, r.& topuz, f. (2012). fen öğretiminde öğretmenlerin derslerinde materyal ve teknoloji kullanımına yönelik tutumlarının incelenmesi., x. ulusal fen bilimleri ve matematik eğitimi kongresi, 2012, niğde. kocabatmaz, h. (2016). ters yüz sınıf modeline ilişkin öğretmen adayı görüşleri. eğitim ve öğretim araştırmaları dergisi, 5(4), 14-24. lind, k. k., (2005). exploring science in early childhood. a development approach. thomson delmar learning, usa. mahadzir, n., & phung, l. (2013). the use of augmented reality pop‐up book to increase motivation in english language learning for national primary school. journal of research and method in education, 1(1), 26‐38. marlowe, c. (2012). the effect of the flipped classroom on student achievement and stress. (unpublished master's thesis), montana state university. mcneil, n. m., & uttal, d. h. (2009). rethinking the use of concrete materials in learning: perspectives from development and education. child development perspectives, 3(3), 137-139. munoz-cristobal, j. a., jorrin-abellan, i. m., asensio-perez, j. i., martinez-mones, a., prieto, l. p. & dimitriadis, y. (2015). supporting teacher orchestration augmented reality applications in science experiment practices duriye onbasi, et al. 227 in ubiquitous learning environments: a study in primary education. learning technologies, ieee transactions on learning, 8(1), 83-97. onbaşı, d.(2015). ortaöğretim fen ve teknoloji öğretmenlerinin öğretme-öğrenme süreçlerinde uyguladıkları bilişsel farkındalık stratejilerinin incelenmesi. (yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi). doğu akdeniz üniversitesi, mağusa. ozdamli, f. & karagozlu, d. (2018). teacher opinions on the use of augmented reality application in pre-school science education. croatian journal of education 20 (1),43-74. özarslan, y. (2011). öğrenen içerik etkileşiminin genişletilmiş gerçeklik ile zenginleştirilmesi. 5. international computer & instructional technologies symposium (icits 2011), fırat üniversitesi, elazığ, 22-24 september 2011. patton, m. q. (1987). how to use qualitative methods in evaluation. newbury park, ca: sage. pekdağ, b. (2010). alternative methods in learning chemistry: learning with animation, simulation, video and multimedia. journal of turkish science education, 7(2), 79-110. perez‐lopez, d., & contero, m. (2013). delivering educational multimedia contents through an augmented reality application: a case study on its impact on knowledge acquisition and retention. the turkish online journal of educational technology, 12(4), 19‐28 r.s. davies, d.l., & dean, nick ball (2013). flipping the classroom and instructional technology integration in a college-level information systems spreadsheet course, educational technology research and development (etr&d), 61(4), pp. 563-580 sağlam, d. (2016). ters yüz sınıf modelinin i̇ngilizce dersinde öğrencilerin akademik başarılarına ve tutumlarına etkisi. (yayimlanmamiş yüksek lisans tezi). bülent ecevit üniversitesi, zonguldak. sams, a., & bergmann, j. (2013). flip your students' learning. educational leadership, 7, 16-20. sırakaya, d. (2015). tersyüz sınıf modelinin akademik başarı, öz-yönetimli öğrenme hazırbulunuşluğu ve motivasyon üzerine etkisi. (doktora tezi). gazi üniversitesi, ankara. sırakaya, d. (2017). oyunlaştırılmış ters yüz sınıf modeline yönelik öğrenci görüşleri. ondokuz mayıs üniversitesi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 36(1), 114-132. sırakaya, m. (2015). artırılmış gerçeklik uygulamalarının öğrencilerin akademik başarıları, kavram yanılgıları ve derse katılımlarına etkisi. (yayımlanmamış doktora tezi). gazi üniversitesi, ankara. sırakaya, m., & seferoğlu, s., s. (2016). öğrenme ortamlarında yeni bir araç: bir eğitlence uygulaması olarak artırılmış gerçeklik, eğitim teknolojileri okumaları tojet sakarya üniversitesi, 417-438. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 228 sood, i. (2016). 5 essentials of video-based learning retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/5-essentials-video-based-learning strayer, j. f. (2012). how learning in an inverted classroom in fluences cooperation, innovation and task orientation. learning environments research, 15(2), 171– 193. şahin, d. (2017). artırılmış gerçeklik teknolojisi ile yapılan fen öğretiminin ortaokul öğrencilerinin başarılarına ve derse karşı tutumlarına etkisi. (yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi). atatürk üniversitesi, erzurum. tan, t., & liu, y. (2004). the mobile‐based interactive learning environment (mobile) and a case study for assisting elementary school english learning. proceedings of the ieee international conference on advanced learning technologies. taşkıran, a., koral, e. & bozkurt, a.(2015). arttırılmış gerçeklik uygulamasının yabancı dil öğretiminde kullanılması. akademik bilişim 2015. anadolu üniversitesi, eskişehir. tekdal, m. (2002). development of interactive physics simulations and its active use. national science and mathematics education congress, ankara tucker, b. (2012). the flipped classroom. education next, 12(1), 82. retrieved from http://educationnext.org/ the-flipped-classroom/ yavuz, m. (2016). ortaöğretim düzeyinde ters yüz sınıf uygulamalarının akademik başarı üzerine etkisi ve öğrenci deneyimlerinin incelenmesi. (yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi). atatürk üniversitesi, erzurum. yıldız, d., kıyıcı, g., & altıntaş, g. (2016). ters yüz edilmiş sınıf modelinin öğretmen adaylarının erişileri ve görüşleri açısından incelenmesi. sakarya univercity journal of education, 6(3), 186-200. yoon, s. a., elinich, k., wang, j., steinmeier, c., & tucker, s. (2012). using augmented reality and knowledge-building scaffolds to improve learning in a science museum. international journal of computer-supported collaborative learning, 7(4), 519-541. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer mapping between semantic graphs and sentences in grammar induction system laszlo kovacs abstract. the proposed transformation module performs mapping between two different knowledge representation forms used in grammar induction systems. the kernel knowledge representation form is a special predicate centered conceptual graph called ecg. the ecg provides a semantic-based, language independent description of the environment. the other base representation form is some kind of language. the sentences of the language should meet the corresponding grammatical rules. the pilot project demonstrates the functionality of a translator module using this transformation engine between the ecg graph and the hungarian language. keywords: statistical learning, conceptual graph, word grammar, semantic anotation 2000 mathematics subject classification: 68t50 natural language processing . 100 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs 1. introduction the application of statistical learning methods is a very intensively investigated area of soft computing. the key question of this problem domain is how far the human intelligence can be modelled with statistical methods. the goal of the paper is to investigate a characteristic phenomena of human beings namely the usage of a natural language, the induction of grammar using statistical methods. the term of grammar induction denotes here a system that assigns description sentences to ontology models. most of the research activities on this field relate to natural language processing (nlp). in nlp, a large family of methods is based on statistical algorithms [16]. most of the related grammar induction methods use either free text without any annotation [18] or free text with grammatical annotation [19]. as the experiences show [14], the syntax, the free text alone is not enough to learn the grammar at acceptable high level. on the other hand, the grammatical annotation requires a large amount of preprocessing and restricts the training pool. our approach is based on a model where the free text is annotated with a semantic, ontology description. the main benefit of this kind of semantic annotation over grammatical annotation is a greater efficiency of mapping semantics into syntax and it resembles more the human way of learning. in the literature, there is only few research works in this field, the interest of researchers for this topic raises only in the recent years [11]. the paper describes a system model how the semantic model can be mapped to sentences. within this frame, an important stage is to find an appropriate formalism of the semantic model. according to our analyses, the traditional semantic modelling languages are not sufficient enough for reflect the process of conceptualization. another important point is to determine the border between semantic and grammatical elements. the proposed system uses a two phase conversion model. in the first phase, the semantic graph is mapped into a word graph. this word graph has some common characteristics with the word dependency graph and it is an intermediate step between syntax and semantic. in the second phase, the word graph is converted into a sequence of words, where the conversion rules are related to a given grammar. the main benefit of the proposed model is to provide a flexible structure for mapping of semantic graph into sentence where the modular structure can provide a clear separation of syntactical and semantic elements. 101 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs 2. extended conceptual graph the goal of the investigation is to develop a conceptual modelling language that can be used to describe the semantics of an agent’s internal conceptual model. the model language should support a formal specification that enables the mapping of semantics into a symbolic representation of the entire conceptualization process. the analysis of existing conceptual models shows that they all have some shortcomings from the aspects of our requirements. in order to provide a model language with rich set of specific features, a specific knowledge representation model was developed. it contains beside the usual modelling elements, like the specialization relationship, additional elements to enable a more efficient and powerful description of the conceptualization process. the proposed extended conceptual graph (ecg) model contains three primitive-types: concept, relationship and container. based on the behaviours, the following concept subtypes are defined: 1. according to their grade of identification • (n) noname concept: is a primary concept that has no contextunique identification name. • (r) permanent-named concept: is a concept having a contextunique name. a permanent concept is associated with an implicit definition that enables the identification of its instances in the environment. • (t) temporary-named concept: is a concept occurring in some previous snapshot(s) of the history as a noname concept 2. categories on a logical basis • (p) predicate concept: is a concept that is used to denote predicates that are usually given by verbs in sentences. predicate concepts are the kernels of the model fragments. • (c) category concept: is the term covering all non-predicate concepts. category concepts can denote various attributes for example. each category concept defines a subset of instances that match this category concept. 102 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs 3. according to the model level • (f) primary concept: is a concept at the instance level. primary concepts correspond to instances of the agent’s environment. • (a) abstract (derived) concept: a higher level concept in the agent’s extended knowledge model. the derivation rule is defined with a sequence of snapshots. 4. categories on cardinality • (i) single instance concept: only one object is identified by this concept • (m) group concept: several instances can belong to the concept. there are different types of group defined, like and or or groups. due to the semantic integrity constraints, only the following concept types are allowed: ficn, fict, ficr, fmcr, fmpr, amcr and ampr. regarding the relationship type, it has the following categorization: 1. according to the model level: • (f) primary relationship: is a relationship that can be recognized by the agent. it is detected usually in the environment. • (a) abstract (derived) relationship: is a relationship that is based on primary relationships. the derivation rule is defined with a sequence of snapshots. 2. according to the logical level • (i) specialization relationship: is equivalent to the usual isa relationship. it provides inheritance. a concept may have multiple parents. • (r) role relationship: arbitrary attribute of a predicate concept 3. categories on cardinality • (s) single instance relationship: only one object cluster is identified by this relationship 103 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs figure 1: the ecg model • (m) class relationship: several instances can belong to the relationship. the allowed relationships types are fmi, fsr, fmr, amr. the group of container elements includes structure modules, like model fragment, model history. beside the mentioned semantic elements that refer to the state the environment to be observed, some other such elements can be included into the model that are related to the agent itself. these semantic elements describe internal state of the agent. the state of these internal attributes is also converted into the output sentence. the following parameters are used to describe the internal state: • mode (or indent): statement, open question, closed question, imperative, • timestamp: it denotes the time of the snapshot. the following figure 1 shows a sample semantic graph that describes a simple test world. during the processing of the ecg, the base units of the graph are the ecg atoms. an ecg atom corresponds to a primitive statements related to one predicate. it has a structure of one-level deep tree, where the root of the tree is the predicate and the concepts linked to it are the leaves. the child concept of the root predicate may be not only a single concept but it can be another ecg atom. thus, the ecg atoms can be linked into a hierarchy of ecg 104 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs atoms. our model is based on the assumption that at words at a sublevel do not contain words from the upper level. the whole sublevel is considered as an atom at the parent level. this assumption improves significantly the modularity and the efficiency of the grammar system. 3. structure of the grammar system the purpose of the semantic graph is to describe the meaning of the statements about the problem domain. the grammar covers the rules how to convert the meaning into sentences. the sentence is defined as sequence of words. it is assumed here that the meaning of the statement is encoded into the following grammatical elements: • set of the stem words; • inflection of the words (the suffixes and prefixes alter the meaning of the stem); • order of the words (there may be a fixed order between the words belonging to different semantic or grammatical units); • decomposition rules of grammatical units (the chain of derivation rules assigns a sequence of words to a semantic unit). the resulted sentence reflects the mixture of the applied grammatical encoding rules, so it is important to have a clear layering of the rules in order to have an efficient separation of the different grammatical units. one of the main difficulties of the grammar system is that very different semantic elements may affect the same syntactical unit. for example, the inflection rule of a verb in the hungarian language may depend on the subject, on the object, on the timestamp and on the mode. another difficulty is the fact, that a semantic unit may be mapped not only to a single word but into a word set. for example, some verb have prefix that are in some situation separated from the stem and in other situations it is merged with the stem. the proposed grammar system should contain elements to decode the required conversion rules. the main components of the grammar system are: • a set of stem words that are assigned to abstract concepts with a specialization graph (like: peter, read, book, evening,..). the concepts may be either semantic concepts or grammatical concepts (car or subject). 105 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs • decomposition rules that describe the components of an abstract concepts. the components may be abstract or atomic, word level concepts. (sentence: subject, predicate, object,..). • set of inflection rules where different grammatical units may have different transformation rules (accusative: rule1, dative: rule2). a rule is represented here as a string transformation function, where the basic string operations are the followings: – concatenation with a given suffix – substitution with a given infix where both arguments may be an empty string – concatenation with a given prefix. – a set of ordering rules where the nodes refer to grammatical units and the edges are directed and labelled. the label denotes the type of precedence rule. in this investigation, the grammar rules are known and defined. the grammar is embedded in a module, so a semantic graph can be pressed with different grammar modules. in the proposed system, the ecg model of the agent is converted into a sentence of the symbolic language. the base model of the conversion includes the following steps: 1. ecg network is converted into a rooted tree of concepts, where the root node is the primary predicate in focus. this transformation generates a hierarchy of ecg atoms. 2. from the ecg hierarchy a word-tree is generated where the words at a node corresponds to the set of words assigned to the concept at that node. 3. the word symbols of the nodes are transformed into inflected forms that reflect the syntactical and semantic roles of the nodes. 4. for the pool of generated words the ordering is determined, resulting in a sentence. the ordering of the words is generated in a top down manner. 106 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs the generated sentence reflects both the semantic and the grammar syntax. the translation module contains several sub-modules to solve the different transformation steps. in the next chapter, a special module, the word graph manager is analyzed in detail. 4. word graph and dependency grammar grammars, and theories of grammar, can be classified according to whether the basic unit of sentence structure is the phrase, or the dependency between two words. a dependency-based linguistic approach to the description and analysis of natural language syntax is constituted by distinguishing a headdependent asymmetry, and describing the relations between a head and its dependents in terms of semantically motivated dependency relations. dependency grammar (dg) is a class of syntactic theories developed by the french linguist lucien tesnire [1]. his model is based on the stemma, a graphical representation of the grammatical dependencies between the words in a syntactic construction. in the sentence, the verb is seen as the highest level word, governing a set of complements, which govern their own complements themselves. tesnire has had a major influence on linguistic theories that place more emphasis on semantics than on syntax (see [2] for a review). klein and simmons [3] adopted dependency grammar for a machine translation system. valency theory [4] and meaning-text theory [5], [6] are two ongoing developments of the dependency approach. schank adopted the dependency approach in his conceptual dependency graph, but he shifted the emphasis to concepts rather than words [7]. for a recent survey on dependency models see [8]. dependency theories have also been strongly influenced by case grammar [9] which provides a convenient set of labels for the arcs of the graphs. extensible dependency grammar [10] and word grammar [11] are two general frameworks for dependency grammar which aim at modelling not only the syntactic but also the semantic and phonological levels of linguistic representations. the main reason why we turn our attention towards dependency structures is that in a phrase structure tree, discontinuous constructions can not be represented. this restriction poses problems for the analysis of word order variation, even for rigid word order languages. on the other hand, dependency grammars are not defined by a specific word order, and are thus well suited to languages with freer word order, such as hungarian, as well as scandinavian and slavic languages. the modelling of other european languages where dis107 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs continuous constructions are frequent, such as german, french and dutch can also benefit from a dependency-based approach. dependencies are widely accepted in theories of semantic structure. in fact, one of the main attractions of traditional dg is its close correspondence to meaning: • syntactic dependencies are meaningful, i.e. they usually carry semantic relations; and • syntactic dependencies are more abstract than surface order. nevertheless syntactic dependencies are distinct from semantic dependencies. the usual problem is how to map syntactic dependency structure to a semantic one. a distinguishing feature of our project is the aim of finding a mapping from semantic (conceptual) dependency structure to a syntactic one, where consequently the elements among which dependencies are examined are not words but concepts and syntactic units, respectively. hence, our model got the name conceptual dependency grammar (cdg) the word graph is used to describe the words and the dependency between the words. a word w1 depends on w2, if w1 can occur in the sentence only if w2 also occurs. the dependency is denoted with w2 ⇒ w1. taking a sample sentence ’the cat is sitting in a chair.’ the dependency graph has the following elements: • is, sitting ⇒the, cat, in, a. chair • cat ⇒ the • chair ⇒ in, a for the detection of dependency relationships, the sentence reduction method is applied. this means, that some word or words are omitted from the sentence. the meaning of the altered sentence is evaluated by a teacher. the new sentence may be judged as • c: correct, but it has a reduced meaning compared with the original sentence, or as 108 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs • u: grammatically not correct, but understandable with a modified, reduced meaning and or as • n: the sentence is not correct and not understandable. some test sentences with their evaluations are given here for demonstrations purposes: • the cat is sitting in a : n • the is sitting in a chair :n • the cat is sitting : c • cat is sitting chair : u the algorithm proposes a dependency relation between such words where the reduced sentences have different evaluation levels. the w2 ⇒ w1 dependency is valid if w2 ∈ s, w1 /∈ s, l(s) = l1 and w1 ∈ s, w2 /∈ s, l(s) = l2 ⇒ l1 > l2 where the ordering of levels is given as c > u > n. 5. structure of the translator module the translator module described in the previous chapters can be used not only to transform the semantic graph into a sentence but it can work in the reverse way too. thus a sentence can be mapped to semantic graph that denotes the meaning of the sentence. the main steps of the mapping function can be summarized as follows: • parsing the input sentence into words • performing a morpheme analysis on the words 109 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs • determining the stems and the inflection classes for each words • matching the annotated words to the nodes of the word graph • checking the ordering constraints given in the graph • calculating the similarity value between the sentence and the word graph • selection of the winner graph • returning the corresponding conceptual graph as meaning descriptor of the sentence in this processing a new key element is the morpheme analyzer that contains a grammar specific engine to determine the stems and inflection parts. in the frame of the project a morpheme analyzer module for the hungarian language was developed. for a given sentence, the analyzer returns the list of possible morpheme spectrums of the words. with coupling of two directions a translator module can be developed. the grammars of the input and output channels may be different. thus, a sentence in the first grammar is translated into a sentence of the second grammar. in the project, the goal was to develop a natural language interface for a service provider. the server module has an application programming interface, a set of functions that should be invoked to start the required service. the front end of the pilot system uses the hungarian language and the output contains the predicates symbolizing the function calls. the engine selects the best fitting conceptual graph for the incoming sentence and returns the predicate representation of the selected conceptual graph. the fig 1 shows the input form with the input sentence (mit olvas peter?, what is reading peter?) and the output form with the generated formula (read(peter,?)) 6. conclusions the goal of the project was to develop a translation system between two knowledge representation forms. one of the representation forms is a new kind of abstract predicate oriented conceptual graphs called ecg. the second representation form is a set of sentences of a given language. while the ecg is a general, language independent tool, the sentences belong to a language and a specific grammar. 110 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs figure 2: the intput and output forms of the transformation engine references [1] l. tesnire, lments de syntaxe structurale, paris: klincksieck, 1959. [2] j. f. sowa, ’semantic networks,’ in encyclopedia of artificial intelligence, s. c. shapiro ed., 2nd ed., wiley, 1992. [3] s. klein and r. f. simmons, ’syntactic dependence and the computer generation of coherent discourse,’ mechanical translation 7, 1963. [4] d. j. allerton, valency and the english verb, new york: academic press, 1982. [5] i. a. mel’cuk, ’towards a linguistic ”meaning text’ model,’ in trends in soviet theoretical linguistics, f. kiefer ed., dordrecht: reidel, pp. 35-57, 1973. [6] j. steele ed., meaning-text theory, ottawa: university of ottawa press, 1990. [7] r. schank ed., conceptual information processing, amsterdam: northholland publishing co., 1975. [8] r. hudson, ’recent developments in dependency theory,’ in syntax. ein internationales handbuch zeitgenssischer forschung, j. jacobs, a. v. stechow, w. sternefeld and t. vennemann eds., pp. 329-338, berlin: walter de gruyter, 1993. 111 laszlo kovacs mapping between semantic graphs [9] c. j. fillmore, ’the case for case,’ in universals in linguistic theory, e. bach and r. t. harms eds., new york: holt, rinehart and winston, pp. 1-88, 1968. [10] r. debusmann, ’extensible dependency grammar: a modular grammar formalism based on multigraph description,’ phd thesis, 2006. [11] r. hudson, language networks: the new word grammar, oxford university press, 2007. [12] d. jurafsky and j. h. martin, speech and language processing: an introduction to nlp, computational linguistics, and speech recognition, prentice hall, 2nd ed., 2007. [13] m. ross quillian, ’word concepts: a theory and simulation of some basic semantic capabilities”, in behavioral science, vol. 12, pp. 410-430, 1967. [14] g. b. varile, a. zampolli, r. a. cole, j. mariani, h. uszkoreit, a. zaenen and v. zue, survey of the state of the art in human language technology, cambridge university press, 1997. [15] e. charniak, statistical language learning, mit press, cambridge, ma, 1996. [16] c.d. manning and h. schtze, foundations of statistical natural language processing, mit press, cambridge, ma, 1999. [17] a. clark, unsupervised language acquisition: theory and practice, phd dissertation, cogs, university of sussex, 2001. [18] a. roberts and e. atwell, unsupervised grammar inference systems for natural language, research report 2002.20, university of leeds, school of computing, 2002. [19] a. mcenery, r. xiao and y. tono, corpus-based language studies: an advanced resource book, in ser. routledge applied linguistics, routledge, 2005. laszlo kovacs department of information technology university of miskolc, hungary h-3515 miskolc-egyetemvaros e-mail:kovacs@iit.uni-miskolc.hu 112 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 259-275 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/283 creating the correctional environment for personality development of children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma¹, olena mamicheva2, larysa korhun3, yuliia krykunenko4, iryna rozina5, tetiana dehtiarenko6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-76513812, bazymanataliia@gmail.com 2 state higher educational institution «donbas state teacher’s training university», ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5299-7939, lena_sk_74@ukr.net 3 "south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k.d.ushynsky", ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-01106264, lkorgun49@gmail.com 4 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0736-001x, kja23@ukr.net 5 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k.d ushynsky, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6565-728x, rozinai.vi@gmail.com 6 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7153-9706, dehtiarenkosspu@gmail.com abstract: a sign of the humanization of the modern pedagogical process is a profound change in its organization, primarily in creating conditions for the formation of a holistic personality of the child. the method of forming speech activity of children with autistic disorders of senior preschool age can act as an organizational and pedagogical system, which includes the functioning of specific conditions: organizational and pedagogical (the main of which the creation of educational and corrective and communicative environment); general didactic (continuity, stages, system in the content of the formation of speech activity); technological (pedagogical and speech therapy diagnosis starting and finishing of the child as a basis for organizing the formation of speech activity of children with autistic disorders of older preschool age). among the auxiliary conditions can be distinguished cognitive, creative, and communicative. taking into account the peculiarities of mental, emotional, communicative, and speech development, we anticipate that the level of speech activity in children with autistic disorders will increase under the conditions of implementation of our methodology, and providing selected psychological and pedagogical conditions will accelerate and optimize this process. keywords: observation of the child, corrective influence, organized environment, emotional state, use of self-stimulation, oversaturation of impressions, stimulation of speech activity. how to cite: bazyma, n., mamicheva, o., korhun, l., krykunenko, y., rozina, i., & dehtiarenko, t. (2022). creating the correctional environment for personality development of children with autistic disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 259275. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/283 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/283 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7651-3812 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7651-3812 mailto:bazymanataliia@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5299-7939 mailto:lena_sk_74@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0110-6264 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0110-6264 mailto:lkorgun49@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0736-001x mailto:kja23@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6565-728x mailto:rozinai.vi@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7153-9706 mailto:dehtiarenkosspu@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/283 creating the correctional environment for personality development of … nataliia bazyma, et al. 260 introduction this article is a follow-up of the previous papers (bazyma et al., 2020; 2021). the analysis of the general and special psycho-pedagogical literature (behas et al., 2019; melnyk et al., 2019; 2021; sheremet, et al., 2019; yanushko, 2004), summary of the data obtained during the diagnostic and modeling phase of the experiment and direct observation of children with autistic disorders of older preschool age have made it possible to identify the conditions of a corrective approach to the formation of speech activity in children of this category. they are the following:  observation of the child and direct interaction with him and an objective assessment of the dynamics of speech activity;  structuring of corrective influence based on the account of the information received during inspection and supervision of the child;  creation of an adequately organized environment for corrective action (structuring of mode, time, and space);  correlation of the child's emotional state to form the motivation to learn new speech material and increase speech activity;  use of self-stimulation as an integral part of the behavior of a child with autistic disorders to fill it with a new meaning, which will be the basis for the formation of speech activity;  use of the appropriate number of tasks, the change of which would precede the oversaturation of impressions;  gradual presentation of tasks with the obligatory use of stimulation as a method of forming motivation for interaction and direct speech activity;  the relationship in the work of specialists and parents of children with autistic disorders.  stimulation of speech activity taking into account the peculiarities of communicative-speech activity of a child with autistic disorders (bazyma et al., 2020; 2021). let's try to follow and reveal the selected conditions in more detail. observation of the child and direct interaction with him and an objective assessment of the dynamics of speech activity considerable attention in the preparation and classes conducting requires analysis of the situation and careful observation of the child's behavior and reactions during independent activities and interaction with people to understand the logic of its actions, focusing on repetitive patterns of behavior, as well as to identify individual behaviors, determining how brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 261 comfortable or uncomfortable the child feels in a given situation (for example, outside the child, motor stereotypes and self-stimulations, voice intonation, etc.). the obtained data can provide important material about the mood and condition of the child, even if he is not able to report it himself. knowing what manifestations of the condition and mood are the appropriate actions of the child, we can focus on them, and we can make the lesson more productive and meaningful. also of great importance in the success of correctional work is the correct assessment of the dynamics of the child's development, because often new ways of responding to a situation, new behaviors are difficult to assess unambiguously. to increase the accuracy of assessment of changes in verbal, communicative, and behavioral manifestations of the child, yanushko (2004) advises establishing a "starting point", namely the initial level of opportunities for its interaction with the environment, and considers the novations in comparison with this point". by noting the changes taking place with the child, it is possible to find out how well the interaction with him was organized and how well the correctional process takes place, as well as to build new guidelines, directions, and tasks of further educational and correctional work. thus, we emphasize the importance of constant analysis of the situation in the process of monitoring the child and direct interaction with him, and an objective assessment of the dynamics of speech activity in a child with autistic disorders (bazyma et al., 2020; 2021). structuring the corrective effect based on the information obtained during the examination and observation of the child of course, the provision of correctional care is impossible without accurately determining the level of interaction with the environment available to a child with autistic disorders, because its excess can cause her to avoid possible contact, unwanted protest reactions such as negativity, aggression or self-aggression, and, most undesirably, negative communication experiences. after all, according to research by many scientists (lebedynskyi, & bardyshevskaya, 2006; оstrovska, 2013; yanushko, 2004), children with autism tend to perceive information about the environment in blocks, strongly linking some a situation or event with a feeling or emotion, which in the future, in the event of such a situation, can associatively cause the full range of feelings and emotions experienced by the child when he first encountered it. therefore, there is no doubt about the need to establish the most adequate level of contact with the world and creating the correctional environment for personality development of … nataliia bazyma, et al. 262 people at the moment on the appropriate parameters of the most acceptable distance of communication, research and examination of objects, the duration of focus on interesting subjects, favorite activities when the child is alone, use of toys, ways to calm down when aroused, attitude to the inclusion of adults in the classroom, the presence of stereotypes and their quality, the use of speech, its nature and purpose. observations of the child's behavior can provide information about the child's ability to interact spontaneously with the environment and people around him in everyday life, and in specially created situations of interaction. social relationships are difficult for people with autistic disorders, and even more so for preschoolers since they have little ability to model behavior depending on the situation. even after developing a certain behavioral set, a child with autistic disorders is not always able to choose between a more effective and less effective way to achieve the goal. reducing the severity of behavioral stereotypes is possible only with help, and this is due to certain emotional experiences. it is difficult for a child with autistic disorders to be in a state of change that can cause effective fluctuations. constantly changing environment can be traumatic, but at the same time resourceful for increasing one's social effectiveness. the data revealed during the observation allow concluding the possibilities of interaction of a child with autistic disorders of older preschool age with others and the level of endurance in contact with the environment at present to structure the corrective effect based on information obtained during examination and observation for the child. creating an adequately organized environment for corrective action it is known that children with autistic disorders are characterized by a desire for consistency and permanence of the daily routine, in clothing, food, etc. therefore, it is very important to be supported the sequence and regularity of regime moments of each day, and it is recommended to prepare the child in advance for the necessary innovations and changes. it is known that people with autism have an underdeveloped sense of time (zyumalla, 2005), so it is difficult for them to track its course, which affects the inability to change some activities during the day, especially given the passion for some actions and intolerance or reluctance to perform others and sometimes reduced sensitivity to hunger, cold, pain. therefore, in most cases, it is proposed to develop a daily schedule that repeats the passion of children with autistic disorders to recurrence and stereotyping, reduces the number of unexpected events that can cause anxiety, fear, or stress, and achieve the ability to anticipate, plan, however, due to "looping" and limiting brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 263 the possibility of gaining new experience. the most accessible stereotypical behavior for some children with autistic disorders may be used to some extent for correctional or educational purposes. first, the usual stereotypes for the child help to protect he/she from an emotional breakdown, to start more likely his/her activity inadequate contact with the environment, to consolidate the achievements by repeated (albeit initially stereotypical) repetition. we mean not only the formation of the skill of following the rules and following the regime moments but also regularly talking about what is happening, commenting on all the details, explaining the functional and emotional meaning of each of them, releasing patterns and relationships. even if a child with autism does not respond actively, this does not mean that he or she does not perceive or assimilate information. but, on the other hand, the excessive tendency to repeat the established order and the predominance of stereotypical reactions to any stimuli can be an obstacle to the development of more natural and flexible ways of interacting with the environment. just as it is important to allocate time by appropriate intervals, each of which has its content (sleep, food, study, games, walks, etc.), it is also desirable to mark the space in which the child lives. such marking can occur due to the constant emotional commenting by adults of what usually happens in this place: food, clothing, games, training, etc. the design of the room should facilitate orientation and give the child unambiguous information about the functions of each zone. the game and work areas must be separated from each other. knowing what she is asked to do, the child can anticipate and plan their actions in some way (zyumalla, 2005), and confusion and lack of orientation in the situation can increase the level of anxiety. features of rigid and inconvenient adherence of children with autistic constancy of place and time can be used to help the child understand their meaning. even when the already established rigid stereotype of the child includes seemingly meaningless ritual actions, they should also try to fill them with a general semantic context. in this case, the child makes them less stressed. for example, if a child needs to open and close the door several times when entering the room, you can ask him: "check if the door closes well." it is known how children with autistic disorders can be dependent on the surrounding sensory field. on the one hand, this creates enormous difficulties in their arbitrary organization, because random impressions distract them, they may be too immersed in the selective feelings or to avoid interaction if there is a negative stimulus. on the other hand, a well-thoughtcreating the correctional environment for personality development of … nataliia bazyma, et al. 264 out sensory organization of the environment avoids impressions that negatively affect the child's interaction with the environment and fills the environment with stimuls that will motivate the child to certain actions planned by the teacher and giving them the desired sequence. based on the above, we recommend adhering to the conditions of creating an adequately organized environment for corrective action (structuring mode, time, and space). correlation of the child's emotional condition to form the motivation to learn new speech material and increase speech activity rapid saturation, even with pleasant impressions, leads to the fact that sometimes children really cannot wait for the promised; need time to experience the received impression or information; independently helpless in a situation of choice. all of the above provokes delayed reactions to certain stimuli and the desire to stereotype the interaction with the outside world. children with autistic disorders are very sensitive to the intonation with which they are addressed, the emotional state of loved ones especially easily transmitted to them anxiety, insecurity they suffer from discomfort. but due to the immaturity of the emotional sphere, feelings can often be expressed not by empathy, but by the deterioration of their condition, increased fears, aggressive behavior. it is important to teach a child not only to control their emotional manifestations, but also to be able to "read", understand the emotional manifestations of others first loved ones, and then everyone with whom you have to communicate. this can be done by commenting on the emotional states of the child, the people she interacts with, cartoon characters, movies, fairy tales, and stories. it is desirable to name the emotion and its manifestation and explain when and why it can occur. in some cases, the tasks suggested in class may cause an affective reaction. in such cases, this reaction must not be very strong, as negative impressions of the lesson may cause a refusal to continue the interaction. in addition, it is better than the tasks that can provoke negative emotions to fall on the first part of the lesson, and in the second half, you can do activities that will calm the child and create a positive color. karvasarskaya (2003) notes that in the case when the child is in a temporary insanity, it is better to slightly increase the duration of the lesson and allow the child to do what gives him/her pleasure so that the end of the lesson was on a positive note. in addition, in general pedagogy and psychology is known that in order to memorize new material better, especially for children of senior preschool and primary school age, it is recommended to reinforce the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 265 process of assimilation of positive emotions. in addition, emotional uplift is often accompanied by speech manifestations, the desire to express their feelings, which can increase the speech activity of children with autistic disorders. a child with autistic disorders due to the peculiarities of their development lacks basic trust in the environment, in others. often negatively emotionally colored personal experience of interaction with the environment further undermines the child's abilities and self-belief. therefore, in our opinion, the formation of a personal positive experience of communication is especially important. thus, the condition of the corrective approach can be determined by the implementation of the correlation of the child's emotional state to form the motivation to learn new speech material and increase speech activity (bazyma et al., 2020; 2021). use of self-stimulation as an integral part of the behavior of a child with autistic disorders such pathological conditions of development, as weakness of a tone and sensory-muscular hypersensitivity, cause the creation of individual ways of auto stimulation for each child with autistic disturbances which will increase its mental tone and will reduce constantly arising discomfort, a chronic state of anxiety, and fears and phobias (khvorova, 2010; morozova, 2007). the child, again and again, seeks to repeat self-stimulation, thereby limiting the possibility of forming mechanisms of real adaptation to constant changes in the world around and, above all, successful communication with loved ones. a child's particular fascination with sensory experiences can interfere with interaction with the outside world and block an important mechanism of emotional exchange of information with others, limiting the emergence of emotional communication based on speech activity and the desire to communicate through speech. this can be prevented by following the conditions under which self-stimulation occurs, and using them or artificially creating such conditions, during self-stimulation to repeat the child's movements, saying words or phrases (depending on the level of speech of a child with autistic speech disorders) that correspond to the situation. connection to the child's self-stimulation can be used to establish contact with him/her, increase his/her activity and focus on the world around him/her, organize and complicate ways of interacting with the environment. methods of self-stimulation of children with autistic disorders can be creating the correctional environment for personality development of … nataliia bazyma, et al. 266 quite diverse and the level of connection to them can also be different. it is important to remember that there are some manifestations of it, the connection to which will be unproductive: trains tied to the experience of strong bodily sensations (in particular, various oral manipulations such as sucking the tongue, cheeks, gnashing teeth, etc.), search special tactile stimuli (causing pain by pressing and pressing on different parts of the body, fixation of certain sensations in the foot, masturbation, etc.); sorting out the texture of objects (stratification of the rope, tearing the paper into small pieces, etc.) (nikolskaya, 2000; shulzhenko, 2010). much more productive is the connection to self-stimulation, which can be like immersion after the child in the flow of his/her enchanting impressions and provide the help he/she needs at the moment to stretch the detail of the designer, put a piece of the puzzle, mark the movement outside the window, voice, how the car drove, etc. rhythmic tapping with a toy or an object, spinning the wheel of a car, watching a spinning top, or swinging can be accompanied by sounding and adding emotional content to the activity. this is a very careful and unhurried work: too many words at once, too short a distance of communication, or a loud voice or a sharp movement can disrupt the emerging moments of joint activities with the child and lead to loss of attention. therefore, based on this, the condition of an effective corrective approach can be defined as the use of self-stimulation as an integral part of the child's behavior to fill it with new meaning, which will be the basis for the formation of speech activity. using the appropriate number of tasks, the change of which would precede the oversaturation of impressions rapid oversaturation with new impressions, on the one hand, and the tendency to defensively reproduce persistent behavioral stereotypes, on the other hand, leads to a reduction in the time to absorb new information. the effectiveness of classes will be much higher if you organize the learning and correction process in such a way that, fed up with one type of activity, the child can immediately change activities, rather than immerse them in the usual stereotypical action. the use of different types of tasks in one lesson will take into account the individual interests of the child, maintain motivation, constantly create a variety of emotional experiences and problem situations, etc. in our opinion, this will help teach children with autistic disorders to transfer previously acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities to new situations, which is an indicator of the development of not only speech but also mental function. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 267 when offering a child a task that may be too difficult, it is recommended to divide it into stages or components, each of which the child can be taught separately. it can master small units at first, but gradually combine them into a more complex system. the point is to start with the elements that she will cope with successfully so that there is an opportunity to encourage the child in some way. this will not only teach the child to perform a task but also lead to increased self-esteem and self-confidence because the child will see the results of his/her activities. a prerequisite is to focus on the child's progress. but, following the principle of optimism, one should not praise the child and exaggerate his/her achievements, because this can lead to a child not understanding whether he/she succeeds. if the task is not completed, despite the efforts of the child, you can break the task into elements or stages to praise the child for the correct execution of a particular element (stage). this, on the one hand, will be the foundation for creating a situation of success and a positive emotional atmosphere, and on the other will be an impetus to create additional motivation to perform all the elements (stages) of the proposed task. awareness of the child's success, in our opinion, will help to avoid possible psychological problems associated with speech disorders reluctance to speak, logophobia (fear of speech). the teacch program offers (mesibov et al., 2004; zyumalla, 2005), given the predisposition of children with autism to routine, the tasks prepared for classes should always be placed in the same sequence: most often from left to right: from left there are always unfinished tasks, and from the right completed. it is recommended to select the number of tasks in such a way that they can be performed in one step. thus, by the number of uncompleted tasks, the child can understand how much is left to do. when all the tasks are on the right the lesson ends. according to the daily routine, the child can decide what to do next. this approach can be used for any activity. that is, we are talking about the use in the process of educational and correctional activities of the appropriate number of tasks, the change of which would precede the oversaturation of the impressions of a child with autistic disorders (bazyma et al., 2020; 2021). gradual presentation of tasks with the obligatory use of stimulation as a method of forming motivation for interaction and direct speech activity peculiarities of autistic development cause unpredictability in the child's manifestations (mental, behavioral, communicative, emotional, and social). often, it would seem, simplified exercises and tasks that do not cause creating the correctional environment for personality development of … nataliia bazyma, et al. 268 difficulties in children with normal development can be extremely difficult for children with autistic disorders. it is important to find pleasure in small steps forward and rejoice in the achievement of small goals, rather than hoping and fighting for often unattainable and completely inappropriate ideals. sichkarchuk (2011) and sheremet (2011) see the development of psychophysiological mechanisms of speech activity in the need to form a motive in the process of organizing speech situations and stimulating emotional speech communication. according to the concept of creating situations of success by belkin (1991), the main meaning of the teacher (in our case a correctional teacher and a special psychologist) is to create a situation of success for each student. focusing on the research of shulzhenko (2009), we define the concept of "socio-ecological environment" as a psychological factor in the successful formation of the content component of social and communicative activities of the child, which will be the foundation for the formation of speech activity. children with autism need to be able see, understand and to be aware of their results. every step forward, every correctly performed task, every successful attempt should be positively supported and encouraged. in the initial stages of work, encouragement can be quite noticeable and specific like a favorite treat or kiss, but in later work, the encouragement should become more inconspicuous, for example, expressed through a look or other minimal approval of the child's behavior. when verbally encouraging a child with autism, we suggest praising, distinctly, and loudly. these can be the words "good", "excellent", "correct", "well done", etc. almost everything a child wants and can get whether it is food, verbal approval, activity, or a favorite subject can be used as an incentive, and the more incentives a child has the opportunity to offer, the more effective learning and upbringing will be. when using incentives and positive incentives to work with children with autistic disorders, it is important to achieve the greatest possible contrast between "negatives" and "positives", especially at the stage of introduction of this technique. if "well done" or "good" sounds the same as "no" or "wrong", then these words have no lexical or emotional content. if the child does not feel a significant difference it will remain unclear the reason why he receives or does not receive encouragement. that is, the encouragement itself loses its meaning of reinforcing positive behavior (in our case speech activity). getting rid of negatives can also be a form of encouragement. normally, a child with normal development is concerned about his/her failure and seeks to avoid failure situations. as the number of situation can brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 269 be associated with potential failure decrease, the child's anxiety decreases, and the feeling of discomfort disappears. lovaas (1987) suggests trying to get the most out of the economic use of incentives. that is, at first, when the child does not yet know or does not fully understand what is required of him, it is recommended to encourage every time the child behaves correctly. later, as speech activity becomes more frequent and conscious, there is a transition from permanent to partial encouragement, ie the child is encouraged not every time he uses speech, but, for example, only when he initiates speech. this operation of reducing the number of incentives is called "refinement of the schedule of incentives." it is important to note that for each child with autistic disorders, the schedule should be selected individually. if after the "refinement of the schedule of incentives" the child's speech activity decreases, it is necessary to re-introduce more frequent incentives. if the necessary speech activity is fixed again, you can proceed to reduce the number of incentives. when using incentives and positive stimulates, it is important to remember that encouragement, whatever it may be, should be immediate. as soon as the child has done the task correctly or done what was required of him, he should receive encouragement within a second. the corrector expected behavior of the child and the reward for it (encouragement) should almost coincide in time. in addition, it is important to move as early as possible and naturally from edible (taste) incentives to social (for example, verbal such as "well done", "good", "right", etc.). if the termination of the child's usual stimuli and the transition to another type of stimuli provokes a decrease in speech activity it is desirable to return to the use of the type of stimuli that the child perceives best to gradually reduce and replace it later. it is important to gather as much information as possible about the child's habits, interests, and passions before determining the incentive and not to use with all children the methods, techniques, and incentives that have been effective with a particular child. thus, the gradual presentation of tasks to children with the obligatory use of stimulation as a method of forming motivation for interaction and direct speech activity is an important condition for the development of speech activity (bazyma et al., 2020; 2021). the interaction between specialists and parents of children with autistic disorders note that the specialist should not replace parents in attempts to establish interaction with a child with autistic disorders. the mother or the creating the correctional environment for personality development of … nataliia bazyma, et al. 270 person replacing the child and the relatives of children with autism should learn to understand all the manifestations of the child, to manage its behavior, to cope with its states of increased anxiety and aggression. and a correctional teacher and a special psychologist should only help in this. to unite the efforts of the specialist and the parents, we recommend that you spend some time discussing the results of the lesson. it is recommended to discuss with the child's mother (or with relatives who spend most of the time with the child) the following points (yanushko, 2004): the content of the lesson (new knowledge, skills, and abilities that the child gained in class; knowledge, skills, and abilities, which require consolidation at home and in subsequent classes); "incomprehensible" moments (finding out the possible causes of certain verbal or behavioral manifestations understanding the meaning of words and actions of the child allowed to support his attempt to make contact or communicate and use them in the future to develop new opportunities for communication: as verbal, and nonverbal); the daily life of the child (taking into account the child's regime, family atmosphere, changes in daily routine, interests, passions, and preferences in the construction of classes); new behavioral reactions (statement of moments of progress in the child's development and planning of further corrective actions). the desire to understand a child with autistic disorders in all the subtleties of its manifestations can be defined as one of the main tasks of correctional work. after all, such an understanding makes it possible not only to explain some features of the child (such as fears, phobias, fantasies, auto stimulations, stereotypes, echolalia, and words and phrases-stamps, etc.) but also to predict possible negative reactions to certain stimuli of the environment, to provoke the necessary reactions for the development of appropriate skills and abilities, to individually select effective games and tasks with educational, educational and corrective content. in addition, passive behavior does not always indicate a lack of interest in other people but may indicate an inability to transform interest into appropriate successful actions (zyumalla, 2005). we emphasize the need for the active participation of all family members and relatives in the upbringing of a child with autistic disorders to form various forms of contact. after all, such a child can come into contact usually in a rigidly stereotypical form, strict adherence to which it often requires from everyone around him/her, and, having the opportunity to communicate with all family members, the child, first, expands the arsenal of forms of interaction, and, secondly, enriches the social-communicative experience. the specialist can help to interpret the child's behavioral and emotional manifestations, suggest brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 271 methods and techniques of communication with him/her, and advise on how to organize correctional and developmental classes at home, which will complement the work of correctional educators and special psychologists. therefore, we focus on the mandatory condition of communication in the work of specialists and parents of children with autistic disorders. stimulation of speech activity taking into account the peculiarities of communicative and speech activity of a child with autistic disorders according to the research of pakhomova (2006), the improvement of communicative competence requires the formation of the motive of speech activity; development of the initiative in communication; stimulation of non-verbal and verbal means of communication; ability to maintain a conversation on various topics. all these indicators cannot be developed without a sufficient level of speech activity. according to the results of the experiment (bazyma et al., 2020; 2021), children with autistic disorders are usually not able to fully communicate, in particular speech communication. decreased level of speech activity requires stimulation of speech activity taking into account the peculiarities of communicative and speech activity of a child with autistic disorders. for this purpose, methods of forming speech activity were developed:  creating and maintaining a speech environment;  constant speech support of the child's activity;  learning to express opinions in any available way;  application of incentives and incentives to increase motivation for speech activity;  use of available vocalizations of the child;  use of echolalia and tendency to a stereotypical repetition of actions;  stimulation of speech activity against the background of emotional uplift;  development of speech activity by imitation;  activation of passive vocabulary and its gradual transfer to active;  education of initiative and desire for self-realization. in addition, it is important to establish and maintain emotional contact with the child, creating a trusting atmosphere of safety and friendliness. simultaneously with the development of speech activity, the prerequisites for further development of speech are created: the creating the correctional environment for personality development of … nataliia bazyma, et al. 272 development of auditory perception, speech breathing, the development of facial and articulatory motility, general and fine motor skills, the accumulation of passive vocabulary, etc. let's dwell in more detail on the methods of formation of speech activity. creating and maintaining a speech environment involves constant maintenance of conversation with the child (even when the child does not respond); the only requirements for speech communication with the child of all adults who most often interact with it; compliance with the speech requirements of the surrounding adults; gradual complication of speech communication; organization of special speech games and exercises. it is also important to develop an understanding of speech, which occurs both in everyday situations and in the course of specially organized games and exercises. thus, the work of creating a speech environment for the child is carried out by a speech therapist, educators, psychologist, and parents, because it is important and necessary to use any situation for the development of the child's speech. conclusions a sign of the humanization of the modern pedagogical process is a profound change in its organization, primarily in creating conditions for the formation of a holistic personality of the child. the method of formation of speech activity of children with autistic disorders of senior preschool age can act as an organizational and pedagogical system, which includes the functioning of specific conditions: organizational and pedagogical (the main of which the creation of educational and corrective and communicative environment); general didactic (continuity, stages, system in the content of the formation of speech activity); technological (pedagogical and speech therapy diagnosis starting and finishing of the child as a basis for organizing the formation of speech activity of children with autistic disorders of older preschool age). among the auxiliary conditions can be distinguished cognitive, creative, and communicative. taking into account the peculiarities of mental, emotional, communicative, and speech development, we assume that the level of speech activity in children with autistic disorders will increase under the conditions of implementation of our methodology, and providing selected psychological and pedagogical conditions will accelerate and optimize this process. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 273 references bazyma, n., zdanevych, l., kruty, k., tsehelnyk, t., popovych, o., ivanova, v., & cherepania, n. (2020). formation of speech activity in older preschool children with autistic disorders formation of speech activity in older preschool children with autistic disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 107121. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/112 bazyma, n., koropatova, o., bondarenko, y., forostian, o., sokolova, h., & kovylina, v. (2021). characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with autistic disorders: theoretical aspect. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 0118. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/167 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, m., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13331340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 belkin, a. s. (1991). situacyya uspekha: kak ee sozdat: kniga dlya uchitelya [a situation of success: how to create it: a book for a teacher]. education. karvasarskaya, i. v. (2003). v storone. iz opyta raboty s autichnymi detmi [aside. from the experience of working with autistic children]. terevinf. khvorova, h. m. (2010). kompleksna psykholoho-pedahohichna tekhnolohiia korektsii rozvytku aktyvnosti dytyny z autyzmom [complex psychological and pedagogical technology for the development of the activity of children with autism] [doctoral dissertion]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. lebedynskyi, v. v., & bardyshevskaya, m. k. (2006). psikhologiya anomalnoho razvitiya rebenka (t. 1-2) [psychology of abnormal child development (vol. 1-2)]. publishing house of moscow state university. lovaas, o. i. (1987). behavioral treatment and normal intellectual and educational functioning in autistic children. journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 55, 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.55.1.3 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/112 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/167 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-006x.55.1.3 creating the correctional environment for personality development of … nataliia bazyma, et al. 274 [proceedings of the institute for pedagogical research], 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 mesibov, g. b., shea, v., schopler, e., adams, l., merkler, e., burgess, s., mosconi, m., chapman, s. m., tanner, ch., & bourgondien, m. e. van (2004). the teach approach to autism spectrum disorders. springer morozova, s. s. (2007). autizm: korrektsyonnaya rabota pri tiazhelykh i oslozhnennykh formakh [autism: correctional work in severe and complicated forms]. vlados. nikolskaya, o. s. (2000). autichnyi rebenok. puti pomoshchi [autistic child. ways of help]. terevinf. оstrovska, k. o. (2013). psykholohichni osnovy formuvannia sotsialnykh kompetentsii ditei z autustychnymy porushenniamy [psychological bases of formation of social competencies of children with autistic disorders] [postdoctoral dissertation]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. pakhomova, n. g. (2006). formuvannia movlennievoi hotovnosti ditei starshoho doshkilnoho viku z dyzartrieiu do navchannia v shkoli [formation of modern preschool education with disarticulation before school in schools]. [doctoral dissertation]. the institute of special pedagogy of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. sheremet, m. k. (2011). osoblyvosti formuvannia vyshchoi formy peredachi informacii [particularities of the form of information transmission]. naukovyy chasopys npu imeni m. p. drahomanova. seriya 19: korektsiyna pedahohika ta spetsialna psykholohiya [scientific journal of m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. series 19: correctional pedagogy and special psychology], 18, 291293. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21i d=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21 com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2011_18_78 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). riven rozvytku intelektualnoho informaciinoho kryteriiu hotovnosti fakhivciv do vprovadzhennia v osvitu [the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education]. informatsiyni tekhnolohiyi i zasoby navchannya [information technologies and learning tools], 72, 273285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 275 shulzhenko, d. i. (2009). osnovy psykholohichnoi korektsii autystychnykh porushen u ditei [fundamentals of psychological correction of autistic disorders in children]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. shulzhenko, d. i. (2010). autyzm – ne vyrok [autism is not a sentence. calvary. sichkarchuk, n. d. (2011). formuvannia emotsiino-otsinnoi leksyky u ditei starshoho doshkilnoho viku z motornoiu alalieiu zasobamy khudozhnio-movlennievoi diialnosti [formation of emotional and evaluative vocabulary in children of senior preschool age with motor allele by means of artistic and speech activity][doctoral dissertation]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. yanushko, е. а. (2004). igry s autichnym rebenkom. ustanovlenie kontakta, sposoby vzaimodeistviya, razvitie rechi, psikhoterapiya [games with an autistic child. establishing contact, ways of interaction, speech development, psychotherapy]. terevinf. zyumalla, r. (2005). obuchenie i soprovozhdenie lyudei s autizmom po programme teacch [training and support of people with autism under the teacch program]. public association belarusian association for assistance to children and young people with special needs. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 157-164 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/101 stress prevention and management during the quarantine ivan okhrimenko¹, nina lyhun2 1 doctor in law, professor, professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, e-mail: ivango-07@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-8813-5107 2 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the department of public and administrative management, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, e-mail: nvl2111@i.ua, orcid.org/0000-0002-3575-4350 abstract: the paper analyzes factors of quarantine measures influencing an individual during the covid-19 epidemic. it mentions that during the quarantine, it should be considered that some individuals are especially vulnerable in crisis situations and they may need additional psychological assistance. the work presents a set of tools, recommended for specialists providing remote psychological assistance to prevent and overcome stress. preventive and rehabilitation measures (counseling methods; the change in strategies and patterns of behavior; the involvement of rational psychodiagnostic and self-regulation techniques, etc.) are aimed at reducing the risks of stress and its impact on the individual during quarantine under threat of the covid-19 epidemic. they should result in an increase in communicative openness, emotional stability, social courage, self-confidence, etc. keywords: stress prevention; quarantine measures; crisis situations; psychological assistance; remote work; psychological counseling. how to cite: okhrimenko, i., & lyhun, n. (2020). stress prevention and management during the quarantine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 157-164. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/101 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/101 mailto:ivango-07@ukr.net mailto:nvl2111@i.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/101 stress prevention and management during the quarantine ivan okhrimenko & nina lyhun 158 1. introduction today, society has faced a completely new situation: the covid-19 pandemic and the quarantine, enforced around the world, have brought new challenges, which humanity may have experienced before, but not to this extent, both to professional activity and to everyday life. first of all, it concerns stability loss, anxiety, panic, and the risks of the loss of income and material stability in the close future. although similar events affect everyone in the same way, people's possible reactions and emotions can vary. many people feel stunned, confused, or do not understand what is happening. people may experience fear, anxiety, consternation, alienation, etc. some people react to similar atypical situations moderately, while others react much more sharply. it depends on many factors that can determine the course of such a reaction, in particular: the nature and complexity of the issue faced; previous experience of stressful situations; the support people receive from others; the state of physical health; the cases of personal or family history of mental health problems; cultural roots and established traditions; age (for example, children of different age groups react differently) (aleksandrov et al., 2017). in addition, it should be taken into account that some individuals are especially vulnerable in a crisis environment and they may need additional psychological assistance. first of all, it concerns people who belong to risk groups or need additional support because of their individual psychological characteristics. 2. literature review as a result of the covid-19 outbreak, appropriate quarantine restrictions were imposed on citizens in many countries around the world (the introduction of distance learning at educational institutions, social contacts reduction, self-isolation, attending public places only when absolutely necessary, etc.). such quarantine measures have a significant impact on the living environment of common people and determine its peculiarities. in particular, sharing the opinion of specialists (ding & kalashnyk, 2020), separation from close people, the loss of the freedom of movement, insecurity, and boredom can eventually lead to negative consequences, namely, increased rates of suicide, depression, violent behavior, lawsuits, divorces, etc. besides, scientists (nerubasska & lopuha, 2020) noted that pandemic panic increases the possibilities of post-traumatic stress symptoms of both parents and children who are under quarantine. at the same time, other researchers (brooks et al., 2020) mentioned depression, brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 159 stress, low mood, irritation, insomnia, the symptoms of post-traumatic stress, anger, emotional exhaustion as prominent psychophysiological personality expression during quarantine (low mood (73%) and irritation (57%) are highly prevalent). according to their observations, quarantine measures make people keep clear of those who cough or sneeze, avoid people indoors, or avoid all public places. hence, it can be argued that being under quarantine for a long time can provoke by far higher post-traumatic stress. this situation may be intensified by the low level of social and information interaction, the use of outdated approaches in public administration (kalashnyk & krasivskyy, 2020), which is often combined with a negative psychological effect. hence, the peculiarities of stress symptoms under quarantine determine the interest in this problem and define the relevance of providing psychological assistance by specialists. therefore, the aim of the work is to substantiate the recommendations on providing remote psychological assistance by psychologists under quarantine in order to prevent and manage stress. 3. methodology to achieve this aim, a set of theoretical methods, including analysis, synthesis, comprehension, and generalization of the provisions of psychological, socio-psychological literature, and internet resources on this issue, was used. this made it possible to expand the understanding of the problem and determine the features of the remote work of a psychologist (psychodiagnostic and psychological counseling). in addition, etymology clarification of stress symptoms under quarantine identified self-regulatory techniques that are most relevant in terms of emotional conflict states, provoked by the covid-19. the research was conducted in accordance with the requirements of the regulations on academic integrity at the national academy of internal affairs, which was developed on the basis of ukrainian and world experience of ethical rule-making. this document was approved by the academic council of the national academy of internal affairs (protocol no. 5 of 27 march 2018) and put into effect by the order of the president of the academy (order no. 422 of 30 march 2018). according to its provisions, the members of the scientific community are guided by the norms and rules of ethical behavior and professional communication, take into account the principles, values, norms, rules, and conditions of academic integrity in their activities. stress prevention and management during the quarantine ivan okhrimenko & nina lyhun 160 4. results owing to the introduction of quarantine, psychologists are switching to remote work with the help of internet technologies. working online has a number of peculiarities in contrast to traditional tete-a-tete therapy; online counseling can be practiced through a variety of alternative communication channels. however, priority is given to consultative methods instead of corrective ones, as the correction is time-consuming and sometimes there is a need to use techniques that involve tactile techniques. hence, it is worth noting that the main advantages of online counseling are the ability to receive psychological assistance when it is not possible to hold a meeting. there is a large number of means for remote work to overcome stress under quarantine. in particular, when a person loses control over some life circumstances, one should intensify the transition from the model of “victim” to the model of “responsible person”. getting stuck on the first model leads to fixation on the loss and consumer life position in the ideal case. and only the transition to a strategy of a person who is able to take responsibility for one’s own life and for the lives of close people allows considering forced quarantine and related changes as a complicated life task that requires a creative solution and is focused on achieving a positive result. the promotion of responsibility formation should begin with resource work. this can be done with the help of a “resource map” that outlines the relevant criteria for researching a particular individual’s resources: family support; support of close people; support of outsiders; real material resource; ideal plans; realistic plans and a positive attitude towards oneself (hrydkovetsʹ et al., 2018). considering these criteria, the resource map will provide a possibility to analyze the available material, psychological, social and spiritual resources and to help a person see the situation not only from the standpoint of traumatic experience but also from the perspective of responsibility for life and adaptation prospects and self-development in new life conditions. to prevent and overcome stress, motivational interviewing, which can be used in various situations of interaction with a person in a crisis situation (in particular, under quarantine), becomes relevant (hrydkovetsʹ et al., 2018), as this approach allows activating internal motivation to change. in our opinion, the advantages of this approach include determining the level of person’s motivation to change in general and to continue interaction with a specialist or to visit a group, in particular; the orientation of the work brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 161 on facilitating a person's decision to change one’s own behavior (which involves the work on internal and external actions); psychological support of a client in accordance with the stages of one’s readiness for changes. an important requirement of psychodiagnostics in general, and remote one in particular, is the use of standardized, reliable and valid methods of diagnostic research (halyan, 2011), primarily to assess the level of stress (table 1). table 1. psychodiagnostic techniques for assessing the stress level during a quarantine the methodology the aim methodology for determining stress resistance and social adaptation (holmes, rage) to determine the degree of stress resistance and the degree of stress questionnaire of nervous and mental tension (nemchin) to define the degree of mental stress methodology for determining the prevalent state (kulikov) to identify mood and other characteristics of the individual level of mental states questionnaire determining the propensity for stress (nemchin, taylor) to detect anxiety levels and stress resistance source: halyan, 2011 the use of these techniques involves the preservation and restoration of the resource state of a person counseled, because situations with high emotional saturation, the complexity of interpersonal communication, the detection of which requires a psychologist to take significant organizational efforts at the stage of establishing trust and direct psychological assistance, can significantly affect the life. it should also be noted that during a long-standing stressful situation, it is important for people to master the skills of the psychological state stabilization. every psychologist has one’s own proven effective methods for providing help in a crisis situation, which can be modified to a specific situation, but the thing stabilizing the situation in one case may not be useful in another one. moreover, the thing used to be helpful may not help or even have a negative effect after some time. the previously studied issue of the mental stability (alexandrov et al., 2019; robins et al., 2012) enables us to identify self-regulatory techniques that are rational under quarantine: “tapping”, “emotion freedom technics”, “anxiety breathing technics”. stress prevention and management during the quarantine ivan okhrimenko & nina lyhun 162 5. limits and discussion taking account of rather a serious problem of the covid-19 spread around the world and the consequences of different quarantine measures, we promote the idea of providing qualified psychological assistance (including remote one) in crisis situations, which is considered in scientific sources (bridges et al., 2004; gratz et al., 2010). starting with the analysis of the current state of “social withdrawal” and “isolation” accompanied by fear and uncertainty, the idea of understanding the causes of this situation is related to the biological laws of nature (livytska, 2020). in addition, material losses caused by quarantine create serious socio-economic problems (brooks, et al., 2020) which, in our opinion, can be considered a risk factor for psychological disorders. therefore, in conditions of a pandemic, individual psychological components of this issue should not be ruled out because the risk of the neurotic disorders of the most vulnerable individual psychological factors, including emotional instability, anxiety, timidity, etc. increases under quarantine. in addition, the covid-19 pandemic is increasing the number of sleep and eating disorders in the context of increased anxiety in society. thus, it is not surprising that quarantine has a negative psychological effect, but there is evidence that the psychological effect can be improved by the possibility of remote (excluding the use of traditional tete-a-tete therapy) psychological assistance. 6. conclusions on the basis of the analysis conducted, the recommendations on providing psychological assistance to people under quarantine were presented and substantiated. in addition, it becomes clear that preventive and rehabilitation measures (the use of counseling methods; the change in strategies and patterns of behavior; the involvement of valid psychodiagnostic and self-regulation techniques, etc.) are oriented on reducing the risks of stress and its impact on the individual during quarantine under threat of the covid-19 epidemic. the outlined tools of professional psychological assistance should be focused primarily on increasing communicative openness, emotional stability, social courage, selfconfidence, etc. references aleksandrov, d. o., okhrimenko, i. m., & serbyn, r. a. (2017). psykholohichni chynnyky skhylʹnosti ditey uchasnykiv boyovykh diy do poststresovykh brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 163 psykhotravmatychnykh perezhyvan’ [psychological factors of post-stress psychotraumatic feelings susceptibility of combanants’ children]. science and education, 9, 16-25. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-9-3 alexandrov, d., okhrimenko, i., luta, l., zhukevych, i., okhrimenko, s., & prontenko, k. (2019). formation of future policemen’ nervous and mental stability by means of special physical training. revista dilemas contemporáneos: educación, política y valores, vii(edición especial), artículo 78. https://dilemascontemporaneoseducacionpoliticayvalores.com/_files/200 00625424b7f24b81/ee%2019.11.78%20formaci%c3%b3n%20de%20la%20esta bilidad%20nerviosa%20y%20mental%20de....%20(2).pdf bridges, l. j., denham, s. a., & ganiban, j. m. (2004). definitional issues in emotion regulation research. child development, 75(2), 340-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00675.x brooks, s. k., webster, r. k., smith, l. e., woodland, l., wessely s., greenberg, n., & rubin, g. j. (2020). the psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. the lancet, 395 (10227), 912-920. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 ding, s., & kalashnyk, l. (2020). resocialization and readaptation as a social need of postcorona period. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2), 12-19. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/135 gratz, k. l., rosenthal, m. z., tull, m. t., lejuez, c. w., & gunderson, j. g. (2010). an experimental investigation of emotional reactivity and delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder: the role of shame. comprehensive psychiatry, 51(3), 275-285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.005 halyan, i. m. (2011). psykhodiahnostyka [psychodiagnostics]. akademvydav. hrydkovetsʹ, l., veber, t., zhuravlʹova, n. (2018). osnovy reabilitatsiynoyi psykholohiyi: podolannya naslidkiv kryzy [fundamentals of rehabilitation psychology: overcoming the consequences of the crisis] kyiv. kalashnyk, n., & krasivskyy, o. (2020). interaction in society – new approaches to state and international administration in the post-covid-19 period. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2), 49-58. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/139 livytska, i. (2020). turning back to nature: perspectives of biosemiotics in a postpandemic humanity. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2), 07-11. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/134 nerubasska, a., & lopuha, o. (2020). pandemic panic in information space: the fact and its ladennes. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2), 93-99. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/144 https://publons.com/publon/19127941/ https://publons.com/publon/19127941/ https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-9-3 https://dilemascontemporaneoseducacionpoliticayvalores.com/_files/200006254-24b7f24b81/ee%2019.11.78%20formaci%c3%b3n%20de%20la%20estabilidad%20nerviosa%20y%20mental%20de....%20(2).pdf https://dilemascontemporaneoseducacionpoliticayvalores.com/_files/200006254-24b7f24b81/ee%2019.11.78%20formaci%c3%b3n%20de%20la%20estabilidad%20nerviosa%20y%20mental%20de....%20(2).pdf https://dilemascontemporaneoseducacionpoliticayvalores.com/_files/200006254-24b7f24b81/ee%2019.11.78%20formaci%c3%b3n%20de%20la%20estabilidad%20nerviosa%20y%20mental%20de....%20(2).pdf https://dilemascontemporaneoseducacionpoliticayvalores.com/_files/200006254-24b7f24b81/ee%2019.11.78%20formaci%c3%b3n%20de%20la%20estabilidad%20nerviosa%20y%20mental%20de....%20(2).pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00675.x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/135 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.005 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/139 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/134 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/144 stress prevention and management during the quarantine ivan okhrimenko & nina lyhun 164 robins, c. j., keng, s. l., ekblad, a. g., & brantley, j. g. (2012). effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on emotional experience and expression: a randomized controlled trial. journal of clinical psychology, 68(1), 117-131. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20857 https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20857 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 346-357 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/254 using moodle in an information educational environment of heis under distance learning iryna subashkevych¹, vira korniat2, viktoriya loboda3, ihor sihetii4, magdalyna opachko5, nelya sirant6 1 ivan franko national university of lviv, ukraine, irasub@ukr.net 2 ivan franko national university of lviv, ukraine, hodzinska@ukr.net 3 ivan franko national university of lviv, ukraine, vita.loboda@gmail.com 4 zakarpattia institute of postgraduate pedagogical education, ukraine, sig.igor@gmail.com 5 state university «uzhhorod national university», ukraine, magdaopachko@gmail.com 6 ivan franko national university of lviv, ukraine, nelya.sirant@lnu.edu.ua abstract: the article dwells upon the problem of distance learning using the moodle learning management system (lms). importantly, the article analyzes the use of lms or virtual learning environments (vle) at universities, designed to store learning materials, conduct automatic testing of students’ knowledge, support remote communication, generate information on progress and reports on working with distance learning courses. the most well-known paid systems (according to google trends service) include blackboard learning system, edmodo, glow, ning, sharepoint lms. at the same time, the most popular free lms is moodle, as evidenced by both the results of google trends statistics and the data obtained from the listedtech resource. the article determines the features of using this system in the professional training of pedagogy students. it describes the challenges (problems) faced by students when taking distance learning courses, the time frame of students’ work on this learning platform and students’ assessment of the quality of distance learning courses developed in the moodle system. it shows that the use of this system saves time spent on training, freeing it up for personal life, self-education, hobbies and entertainment. students with higher academic performance spend more time working in the moodle system. indeed, they intend to acquire knowledge, obtain a diploma of higher education and further pursue their professional careers. more than half of the respondents rate distance learning courses positively. in their opinion, such courses are creative, valuable, exciting, effective, clear, innovative, meeting expectations, unconventional, innovative, easy to learn and enjoyable. keywords: distance learning, pedagogical degree programmes, moodle, students, professional training. how to cite: subashkevych, i., korniat, v., loboda, v., sihetii, i., opachko, m., & sirant, n. (2021). using moodle in an information educational environment of heis under distance learning. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 346-357. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/254 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/254 mailto:irasub@ukr.net mailto:hodzinska@ukr.net mailto:vita.loboda@gmail.com mailto:sig.igor@gmail.com mailto:magdaopachko@gmail.com mailto:nelya.sirant@lnu.edu.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/254 using moodle in an information educational environment of heis under … iryna subashkevych, et al. 347 introduction the educational process in higher education institutions (heis) is enabled by the latest information technologies that improve the quality of higher education. the present poses new challenges for both teachers and students, especially during the lockdown period caused by the covid-19 pandemic. therefore, distance learning has become a necessary condition for the continuous learning of students. as part of distance education, distance learning is special pedagogical technology in the organization of educational space characterised by the use of specific strategies and tactics of students’ interaction with new carriers and sources of knowledge. this involves the creation of an information educational environment covering computer-based information sources, digital libraries, video and audio materials, teaching aids and tutorials. such an educational environment enables students to gain knowledge both independently and under the guidance of a teacher (tutor) and to carry out two-way communication with an unlimited number of users whose activities are monitored and controlled (pysanko & martynenko, 2020). many ukrainian and international scholars focus on practical aspects of applying information, communication and web-based technologies in education. specifically, the facilities provided by the moodle are analyzed by bakhmat et al. (2019), bodnenko (2015), buhaichuk (2013), chourishi et al. (2011), garbin et al. (2012), gerasymova et al. (2019), komogorova et al. (2021), kulynych (2015), palamarchuk et al. (2020), pysanko & martynenko (2020), sheremet et al. (2019), spirin & kolos (2020), syara et al. (2020), trius et al. (2017). given the existing practical experience in the use of distance learning technologies in education, there is a lack of comprehensive studies reviewing the role of the moodle lms, in particular, in the professional training of pedagogy students. an analysis of relevant scientific sources shows that despite the introduction of innovative technologies in the educational process, the role of moodle in enhancing the learning process of future teachers has sufficiently justified yet. the article aims to determine the features of using moodle in professional training of pedagogy students. assuring high quality of the educational process today, most heis use learning management systems (lms) or virtual learning environments (vles) to assure the high quality of the educational process. they are designed to store learning materials, conduct brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 348 automatic testing of students’ knowledge, support remote communication and generate information and reports on students’ progress in distance learning courses, i.e., the number of accesses, time invested in the different activities (syara et al., 2020). the most well-known paid systems (according to google trends) include blackboard learning system, edmodo, glow, ning, sharepoint lms. at the same time, the most popular free lms (under open-source licensing) is moodle (modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment), as evidenced by the results of google trends statistics and the data obtained from the listedtech resource (syara et al., 2020). quite often, when a hei chooses moodle for constructing its vle, it is usually motivated based on the simplicity of this distance learning platform, its adaptability and open-source configuration under general public license (gpl) (garbin et al., 2012). due to the moodle lms facilities, it is possible to fully implement the electronic component of teacher training by providing interactive and stimulating learning experiences (chourishi et al., 2011). this can be done through the moodle lms since: it has a modular design, including “social constructionist” principles; it includes the user authorization mechanism; it has powerful tools for planning the educational process; it allows one to integrate various types of educational content (text, photos, videos, audio); it has tools for organizing group work and collaboration of participants in distance learning course, as well as for measuring levels of knowledge, skills and abilities; it saves the history of students’ work in a distance learning course; it supports the learning management function (trius et al., 2017). the key opportunities provided by moodle to its users are the following: all resources and activities are gathered in a single space; all participants tackle common training tasks/problems, although they can choose individual learning trajectories; the quality of learning is constantly under the control of the tutor; it is also possible for users (students) to group by roles for carrying out specific activities (spirin & kolos, 2020). in moodle, one can perform all possible learning management tasks. if there is no ready-made solution yet, or if it is imperfect, the functionality of the system can be easily expanded (buhaichuk, 2013). using moodle in an information educational environment of heis under … iryna subashkevych, et al. 349 verifying moodle effectiveness in the educational process a survey was conducted among students of the faculty of pedagogical education at ivan franko national university of lviv (ifnul) to check the effectiveness of using moodle in the educational process. the respondents were asked to fill out a questionnaire, which consists of 23 questions on the features of their work and attitude to this system. the questions of the questionnaire are conditionally divided into two blocks. the first block is aimed at determining the motivational component of student’s learning. the second block focuses on the student’s work in the moodle system. due to statistical reporting of the distance learning system, it is possible to observe the work of students and tutors in the distance learning course. analyzing the responses of students to the question/statement “moodle simplifies learning for students”, it can be argued that the use of the system saves time spent on learning, freeing it up for personal life, selfeducation, hobbies and entertainment (see fig. 1 and 2). fig. 1. moodle simplifies learning for students (in %) brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 350 fig. 2. studying online in moodle stimulates self-education (in %) according to the majority of students (52.4%), working in moodle does not provide more opportunities for engaging in communication between the student and the tutor (see fig. 3). students have more opportunities for communication during face-to-face work in a classroom. when questions arise during distance learning, students usually avoid asking and solving them, which in turn can lead to lower academic performance. fig. 3. studying online in moodle encourages communication between the student and the tutor (in %) using moodle in an information educational environment of heis under … iryna subashkevych, et al. 351 figure 4 shows data on what are the biggest challenges (problems) that students face when taking distance learning courses) in moodle one of such challenges is primarily the lack of time for training (19%) since many students work starting from the 3-4 th year of study. lack of time can be one of the reasons that prevent students from fully understanding how the website on which the distance learning course is hosted works (19%). also, the same percentage of students (14.3%) deal with the problems in studying and understanding the course material, performing tasks (tests/quizzes, practical assignments, workshops), especially meeting the deadlines. interestingly, 10% of students do not have constant and reliable access to a computer or the internet, which greatly complicates the timely completion of tasks. some students tend to encounter difficulties in posting their completed tasks in the moodle system. fig. 4. challenges (problems) faced by students while taking distance learning courses in moodle (in %) given the problem of lack of time to study, it is relevant to consider in detail how much time students spend on work in the moodle system (see fig. 5). brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 352 fig. 5. time spent by students for studying online in moodle (in %) more than 60% of the surveyed students work in the moodle system for at least an hour and a half each time they enter the course. the quantitative data analysis allows one to clarify the relationship between the timespan of studying in the moodle system and other parameters using the linear correlation according to pearson (the obtained results were processed using the statistica package (version 11.0)). the following direct correlations (p≤0.01) were recorded between the “timespan of studying in the moodle system”  “realization that it is difficult to achieve anything in life without a diploma of higher education” (r = 0.57), “desire to gain knowledge, learn new things” (r = 0.65), “good progress in studies, academic performance” (r = 0.79). therefore, high-achieving students spend more time studying in the moodle system. they intend to acquire knowledge, obtain a diploma of higher education and further pursue their professional career. also, the students were offered to choose between pairs of opposite definitions used to describe distance learning courses. the numbers between the paired definitions indicate the ranking between them (1 – excellent, 2 – good, 3 – satisfactory, 4 – unsatisfactory). the data for these parameters are shown in table 1. using moodle in an information educational environment of heis under … iryna subashkevych, et al. 353 table 1. students assessing the quality of courses in the moodle system (based on the ranking from 1 to 4) definitions used to describe the course impressions of the e-course definitions used to describe the course excellent good satisfactor y unsatisfactor y positive 1 2 3 4 negative enjoyable 46.5% 44.8% 5.3% 3.4% annoying understandable 68.9% 26.3% 4.8% 0% not understandable creative 37.3% 12.9% 43% 6.8% dull easy to learn 49.4% 28.2% 18.1% 4.3% difficult to learn valuable 37.8% 43.2% 12.4% 6.6% inferior exciting 41.1% 26.8% 27.2% 4.9% boring inventive 39.2% 24.8% 13.6% 22.4% conventional meets expectations 43.9% 36.5% 11.4% 8.2% not meeting expectations efficient 39.6% 42.1% 9.3% 9% inefficient clear 51.3% 38.4% 9.1% 2.2% confusing innovative 61.7% 33.1% 5.2% 0% conservative the analysis of averages, based on students’ impressions of the effectiveness of courses in the moodle system, indicates that more than three-fourths of respondents (79.5%) rated the online courses positively. of these, 47% consider such courses as excellent and 32.5% as good. in their opinion, distance learning courses are understandable, creative, valuable, exciting, efficient, clear, innovative, meeting expectations, inventive, easy to learn and enjoyable. only 14.4% of the respondents consider them satisfactory, while 6.1% of them give a negative assessment (consider them unsatisfactory) (see fig. 5). to be of high quality, moodle courses should contain the following information materials (content) used in online courses: a textbook or lecture notes; methodological materials for laboratory and practical work; computerbased and web-based training programmes (e-textbook, control testing systems, training programmes, laboratory work, reference books, encyclopaedias, subject-oriented space); instructional materials. besides, it is necessary to follow all the structural components that such courses include: brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 354 1) introductory information, which sets out the goals and objectives of the course, learning schedule, recommendations; 2) preliminary self-testing, which allows students to assess the level of their preparation and adapt the course to their needs; 3) recommendations for studying the course; 4) theoretical materials usually presented in the form of modules; 5) laboratory and practical work with a preliminary testing system (admission). 6) a list of frequently asked questions and answers to them; 7) a glossary; 8) a list of links to other websites to broaden and deepen knowledge on the subject (kulynych, 2015). fig. 6. students’ level of satisfaction with the teaching of moodle courses (based on average values) thus, the constructivism of the moodle system assumes that the student is an active subject who independently creates his/her system of knowledge using the available resources. the role of the teacher (tutor) is to motivate and support learners, accompanying their independent work on mastering the educational material. as a result of such work, skills and abilities for self-educational activities are developed, and the knowledge of using moodle in an information educational environment of heis under … iryna subashkevych, et al. 355 students in a particular field is expanded and updated. according to the foundations of social constructivism, constructed knowledge is most effective when one learns in collaboration. this is possible when students work in a group, sharing their experiences and ideas and are open to the experiences and opinions of others. conclusions today, the efforts of heis (universities) are aimed at supporting independent work of students in the context of distance learning, due to the introduction of the lockdown. distance learning courses in all subjects have been developed on the moodle platform. the conducted study indicates the effectiveness and features of using moodle in professional training of pedagogy students. indeed, the use of this system saves time spent on learning, freeing it up for personal life, self-education, hobbies and entertainment. students with high academic performance spend more time studying in the moodle system. they intend to acquire knowledge, obtain a diploma of higher education and further pursue their professional careers. more than half of the respondents evaluate distance learning courses positively. in their opinion, such courses are understandable, creative, valuable, exciting, efficient, clear, innovative, meeting expectations, inventive, easy to learn and enjoyable. one should pay considerable attention to the selection of educational information so that it is up-to-date, perfect, facilitates its motivated processing in activities and requires communication between the participants in the educational process to enrich the involved information resources and improve the results. thus, training materials should form a special complex that will provide all the above-mentioned requirements for educational information. the conducted research does not claim to be the final solution to the problem under study, and the results obtained indicate the advisability of further theoretical and practical research of the outlined problem. references bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1323-1332. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 356 bodnenko, t. (2015). vykorystannya v lms moodle u protsesi navchannya dystsyplin z avtomatyzatsiyi vyrobnytstva maybutnikh fakhivtsiv kompyuternykh system [using moodle lms in the process of teaching subjects on production automation to future specialists in computer systems]. naukovi zapysky. seriya: problemy metodyky fizyko-matematychnoyi i tekhnolohichnoyi osvity, 2(7), 21-26. https://phm.cuspu.edu.ua/ojs/index.php/nzpmfmto/article/viewfile/519/495 buhaichuk, k. l. (2013). napryamy vykorystannya lms moodle v systemi profesiynoyi pidhotovky ta pidvyshchennya kvalifikatsiyi naukovo-pedahohichnoho skladu vnz mvs ukrayiny [areas of using moodle lms in the system of professional training advanced training of scientific and pedagogical staff of universities at the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine]. retrieved from http://2013.moodlemoot.in.ua/course/view.php?id=5 chourishi, d., buttan, ch. k., chaurasia, a., & soni, a. (2011). effective distance learning through moodle. international journal of advance technology & engineering research, 1(1), 34-38. https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/40261855/effective-elearning-through-moodle-ijater garbin, m. c., amaral, s. f. do, mendes, c. o. s., ogasawara, e., & soqueria rocha, j. m. de. (2012). adaptation of the moodle for application in distance education course at the state university of campinas. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 46, 2514-2518. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.05.513 gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345-361. http://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes? knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 kulynych, m. (2015). zastosuvannya tekhnolohiydystantsiynoho navchannya pid chasvykladannyaoblikovo-analitychnykh dystsyplin [the application of distance learning in teaching of accounting and analytical cycle disciplines]. ekonomichnyy chasopys volynskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni lesi ukrainky, 3(3), 79-85. https://echas.vnu.edu.ua/index.php/echas/article/view/255/210 https://phm.cuspu.edu.ua/ojs/index.php/nz-pmfmto/article/viewfile/519/495 https://phm.cuspu.edu.ua/ojs/index.php/nz-pmfmto/article/viewfile/519/495 http://2013.moodlemoot.in.ua/course/view.php?id=5 https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/40261855/effective-e-learning-through-moodle-ijater https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/40261855/effective-e-learning-through-moodle-ijater http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.05.513 http://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://echas.vnu.edu.ua/index.php/echas/article/view/255/210 using moodle in an information educational environment of heis under … iryna subashkevych, et al. 357 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 pysanko, m. l., & martynenko, o. y. (2020). moodle yak zasib dystantsiynoho navchannya maybutnikh perekladachiv audiyuvannya anhliyskoyumovoyu [moodle as a means of teaching prospective interpreters via e-course on listening comprehension in english]. informatsiyni tekhnolohiyi i zasoby navchannya, 75(1), 237-252. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2644 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 spirin, o. m., & kolos, k. r. (2020). tekhnolohiya orhanizatsiyi masovoho dystantsiynoho navchannya uchniv v umovakh karantynu na bazi platformy moodle [technology for organization of distance learning for students in quarantine conditions on the basis of the moodle platform]. informatsiyni tekhnolohiyi i zasoby navchannya, 79(5), 29-58. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/4090/1705 syara, y., anggoro, b. s., handoko, a., haka, n. b., kesumawardani, a. d., & hidayah, n. (2020). the use of moodle-based learning management system (lms) on mate (media ajar teori evolusi). journal of physics conference series, 1467, 1-11. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/17426596/1467/1/012016/pdf trius, y. v., herasymenko, i. v., & v. m. franchuk. (2017). systema elektronnoho navchannya vnz na bazi moodle [distance learning system of heis on the basis of moodle]. chstu. https://vfranchuk.fi.npu.edu.ua/images/files/statty/37_sen_vnz.pdf.p df https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2644 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/4090/1705 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1467/1/012016/pdf https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1467/1/012016/pdf https://vfranchuk.fi.npu.edu.ua/images/files/statty/37_sen_vnz.pdf.pdf https://vfranchuk.fi.npu.edu.ua/images/files/statty/37_sen_vnz.pdf.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 105-126 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/223 neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary school age children with special educational needs larysa sushchenko¹, liudmyla lysohor2, olena pavlyk3, oksana shvets4, myroslava kulesha-liubinets5, vita pavlenko6 1 zaporizhzhia national university, ukraine, zcpu@ukr.net 2 kryvyi rih state pedagogical university, ukraine, lisogor.1981@gmail.com 3 kryvyi rih state pedagogical university, ukraine, pavlikelena540@gmail.com 4 kremenets regional humanitarian and pedagogical academy named after taras shevchenko, ukraine, super.oksana7@ukr.net 5 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, myroslava.kulesha@pnu.edu.ua 6 zhytomyr ivan franko state university, ukraine, pavlenko-vita@meta.ua abstract: it was analyzed that theoretical bases of the realization process of the neuropsychological approach in the correction of the children's development who have difficulties in training based on needed complex diagnostics in the conditions of constant monitoring of a condition in their development, constant improvement of methods and receptions of inclusive training of primary school age pupils. it is determined that the application of corrective neuropsychological influence on the damaged development of personality is one of the important areas of correctional pedagogy, which uses the compensatory capabilities of the child's brain. the article describes the content and features of neuropsychological features of developmental correction of primary school age children who have learning difficulties (psychomotor skills, speech, cognitive processes, visual-objective perception, emotional disorders, etc.). means of neuropsychological correction are presented, which are represented by two blocks: formation and development of a sensorimotor component of higher mental functions and development and correction of cognitive functions and components that are part of them. the organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of junior schoolchildren's creativity with special educational needs have been developed and experimentally tested, in particular: the creation of a creative development environment through the introduction of game teaching methods; intensification of subject to subject interaction of participants of the educational process in the conditions of inclusive education based on partnership pedagogy; maximum enrichment of subjects with creative content to increase the experience of creative selfexpression of students in lessons and extracurricular activities successfully tested during the formative stage of the experiment. keywords: developmental correction, neuropsychological approach, mental development, correctional pedagogy, learning difficulties. how to cite: sushchenko, l., lysohor, l., pavlyk, o., shvets, o., kulesha-liubinets, m., & pavlenko, v. (2021). neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary school age children with special educational needs. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 105-126. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/223 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/223 mailto:zcpu@ukr.net mailto:lisogor.1981@gmail.com mailto:pavlikelena540@gmail.com mailto:super.oksana7@ukr.net mailto:myroslava.kulesha@pnu.edu.ua mailto:pavlenko-vita@meta.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/223 neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 106 introduction the development of inclusive education in ukraine requires changes both at the state level and in the practice of modern schools, which consist in neuropsychological support of a child with learning difficulties based on comprehensive diagnostics in terms of constant monitoring of their development, continuous improvement of methods and techniques of inclusive education for children of primary school age (komogorova et al., 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020b; melnyk et al., 2021; sheremet et al., 2019). scientific and theoretical understanding and substantiation of the stages of application of corrective neuropsychological influence on the damaged development of personality is one of the important areas of correctional pedagogy, which uses the compensatory capabilities of the child's brain. neuropsychology, as a branch of psychological science and practice that studies the brain mechanisms of mental functions of man, provides answers to the laws of psychomotor, cognitive, emotional development of the child; substantiation of methods used in pedagogical and rehabilitation practice. therefore, the purpose of this material is a neuropsychological substantiation of features of correction of development of primary school age children who have difficulties in learning (psychomotor skills, speech, cognitive processes, visual-objective perception, emotional disorders, etc.). child rehabilitation neuropsychology has made it possible to modernize the understanding of various forms of anomalies in the mental development of children and to outline new ways to compensate for defects. the basis of neuropsychological support is the child's life in any manifestation, the creation of opportunities and favorable conditions, its full participation (involvement) in typical situations and procedures. it should be emphasized that the development of certain aspects of the child's psyche, above all, depends on whether a sufficiently mature and full of appropriate brain substrate. for each stage of mental development of the child first of all potential readiness of a complex of certain brain formations for its maintenance is necessary. but, on the other hand, there must be a demand from the outside (from the outside world, from society) to the constant increase in maturity and strength of a psychological factor. if it is absent there is a distortion and inhibition of psychogenesis in different variants, which causes secondary functional deformities at the level of the brain. neuropsychological techniques in pedagogy are bound to succeed in correcting the child's development because the developing psyche and brain brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 107 are unusually malleable and ready for the development of basal (basic) neuropsychological factors that are the supporting components for further improvement of cognitive and emotional processes. on them, the complex multilevel construction of individuality of the person is further built and kept. the group of basal factors includes modal-specific; kinesthetic; kinetic; spatial; arbitrary regulation of mental activity; energy supply; interhemispheric interaction, etc. (shevtsov & ilina, 2015, p. 352). children with learning difficulties may have impaired development of both sensorimotor and cognitive components of educational and cognitive activities. therefore, the means of neuropsychological correction are very important, which are usually divided into two blocks: the formation and development of a sensorimotor component of higher mental functions (breathing, articulation exercises; the development of fine motor skills; stretching, etc.) and the development and correction of cognitive functions and components that are part of them (specially developed methods "school of attention", "school of multiplication; methods aimed at developing the functions of programming and control; exercises" coding "; kogan tables; game forms of correction of programming and control, etc.). the research highlights the importance of studying and tracking the development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders, depending on the reflection of the requirements for implementing a correctional focus of the educational process in its components, which is the main principle of oligophrenopedagogy, to improve the development and socialization of these children (chepurna, 2020, p. 158). thus, methods of neuropsychological correction of delayed or damaged development of psychophysical functions in children are a harmonious and comprehensive program that promotes the comprehensive development of the child through the personal capabilities of the child. as a result, the child will be motivated to actively perform independent cognitive activities, skills will be improved, gradually gaining a sense of independence and confidence in their abilities (behas, 2019; melnyk et al., 2019; maksymchuk et al., 2020a). for example, scientific research on the problems of attention-deficit / hyperactivity in children, which is one of the most common and controversial conditions, has shown that this aspect of the issue is based on genetic and environmental factors and should be thoroughly covered in neuropsychology. studies have shown that signs of hyperactivity, manifestations of attention deficit in children were not associated with comorbidities (castellanos et al., 2002, martinussen et al., 2005). neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 108 another type of approach in child neuropsychology is based on the concept of a. luria and l. vygotsky on historical and cultural development (luria, 2003; vygotsky, 2005). the neuropsychological approach in the correction of the development of children with learning difficulties the analysis of modernization actualities of the new ukrainian school gives grounds for the statement: the society needs another school more than ever open, comfortable, attractive, and safe. one of the fundamental vectors of modernization and renewal of the educational sector is the development and implementation of the concept of the new ukrainian school, several innovations in which it is of strategic importance for a future society to support children with special needs who can get education together with other children. therefore, the concept of the new ukrainian school, today, is one of the largest and most in-depth educational projects in ukraine, which focuses on the modern graduate, able to quickly and effectively adapt to changing life situations, defining priorities and goals, thinking creatively, justifying position, identifying and formulate problems and look for ways to solve them, cooperate in a team, etc. one of the ways to solve the fundamental goal of general secondary education is to introduce a playful approach to learning, which will promote the development of emotional intelligence, personality creativity, the formation of driving forces, and providing support for mental development on sensory-emotional cognition of reality. one of the ways to solve the fundamental goal of general secondary education is the organization of the correctional and pedagogical process of education and upbringing of children of primary school age who have disorders of psychophysical development. extremely relevant today is the problem of rational use of resources of the correctional and educational process in working with children with learning difficulties, not due to the limitations of opportunities, that form in schools the largest group among students with special educational needs. therefore, the issue of introducing a playful approach to learning, which will promote the development of emotional intelligence, personality creativity, the formation of driving forces of learning, providing support for mental development on sensory-emotional cognition of reality, starting from primary school. thus, the relevance of the topic and the practical significance of the problem led to the choice of the chosen research topic. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 109 the purpose of the article is to substantiate the scientific basis of the problem of neuropsychological support of learning and creative activities of children of primary school age in the educational process of primary school; introduction of game teaching methods as a means of developing the creativity of junior schoolchildren with special educational needs; development and experimental verification of the effectiveness of organizational and pedagogical conditions for the implementation of this process. since special educational needs, in particular learning difficulties, are very multifaceted and due to various factors, it is important to understand the patterns of the child's functioning both in terms of regulatory development and adverse conditions of varying severity. characterizing the development of a child with learning difficulties, it should be noted its compliance with both general and specific patterns of mental development. general patterns determine the features of development, which are manifested both in terms of normative ontogenesis and development with deviations. these include continuity and irreversibility of the development process; implementation of mental development in the process of various forms of activity; active communication process. specific these are the patterns that are inherent in children with learning difficulties due to different types of dysontogenesis, in particular: slowing the pace of age development; difficulties in receiving, processing, storing, and using information; general decrease in mental and cognitive activity; disproportion between directed and spontaneous aspects of development; violation of verbal mediation of behavior and mental activity in general; deformation of the social situation of development. it should be emphasized: correctional and developmental work, which has a neuropsychological focus, aimed at the formation of basic invariant actions and operations that underlie educational and cognitive activities, and are underdeveloped in primary school children with specific disorders of learning skills. the use of neuropsychological techniques in working with children with learning difficulties requires consideration of some features of its organization and conduct. this category of primary school students may have disorders in the development of both sensory-motor and cognitive components of educational and cognitive activities. it is a well-known fact that the basic principle of systems thinking is to consider the object of study in a holistic system, so we will build the author's vision of the problem on a solid theoretical foundation, based on certain categories that form its basis. neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 110 with this in mind, we will consider the personality from an ontogenetic perspective, because a person shows an indispensable affiliation to the game activity. the game is inherent not only in every child but also in every adult at any stage of their development. game-dynamic activity, so this aspect of the study requires a thorough theoretical analysis. according to the philosophical and psychological concept of s. rubinstein (1989, p. 248), personality is manifested and formed in interaction with the outside world, in its activities and behavior. in this regard, the opinion of a prominent psychologist that "the mental properties of the individual should be studied in inseparable unity with the mental activity of man, and, conversely, the study of mental activity, patterns of mental processes should take into account their dependence on mental properties of personality. by this, scientists have a reasonable position that "mental activity is the "building material" of which are the mental properties and abilities of man." thus, it becomes clear that according to s. rubinstein's theory, personality and its mental properties are both a prerequisite and a result of its activity. carrying out a psychological analysis of the activity by the concept of an outstanding psychologist, we found that the above concept is considered by the author as a unit of life, as a system that has its structure, and the main characteristic of the activity is objectivity. and objectivity, in turn, extends not only to the characteristics of images but also to the characteristics of needs, emotions, feelings, and so on. summing up, we note: the activity approach in learning is based on the psychological principle of unity of activity and consciousness (consciousness is formed in the process of activity, and is manifested in the process of activity and behavior). in the activity approach, the main attention is paid to the active, versatile, productive, maximally independent educational and cognitive activity of students. for primary school students, such activities can be implemented through game teaching methods. thanks to the game, the child becomes motivated, actively involved in the educational process, feels comfortable and happy (zubtsova & roma, 2020). domestic scholars in the field of didactics of primary school link the play activities of primary school students with the formation of the driving forces of learning. as noted by o. savchenko (2002), in the period of change of leading activities, the child simultaneously gravitates to two of them: play and learning. the peculiarity of this situation is that the underdeveloped cognitive abilities of children of this age are supported by brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 111 their strong play motives, the need for emotional contact, and adult support. we can say that the more developed the child's play activities before school, the more pronounced the desire of a young student to establish himself in a new social role the role of the student. thus, educational activity matures in the depths of the game and only gradually becomes leading. researcher d. elkonin (1999) proved that weak brain mechanisms should be included in psychological actions aimed at objective and based on the internal motivation of the child. as you know, children's social roleplaying games are the most important part of play activities. before starting the creation of an interventional program for children with attention deficit disorder, it is necessary not only to consider the types of games but also the level of acquisition of playing activity. a cultural and historical approach, based on periodization of psychological development, normally considers the level of manipulative games, games with toys and objects, simple symbolic games, complex symbolic games, and complex games with social roles (solovieva & quintanar, 2019; veraksa & veraksa, 2014). thus, these considerations allow us to say that the psychological, pedagogical essence, developmental, educational, and other possibilities of the game as a multifaceted phenomenon are embodied in its features: the game is an active form of cognition; each game has a meaningful goal for the child; the game is aimed at developing creativity, ingenuity, initiative, intelligence, imagination, critical thinking, etc. creativity has become increasingly important in the twenty-first century as creative and knowledge-based economies demand creative products that bring benefits and happiness to people. people with creative skills are a key resource for the development of these economies (brady & edelman, 2012). the educational system should encourage primary school children to keep on generating original and new ideas that foster their creative-thinking abilities. an expressive peculiarity of stimulating creativity is based on scientific research, which is reflected in creative thinking and creative problem solving (rotaru, 2020, р. 434). these competencies – though innate can be developed throughout life, the fact that determined me to make a point by this study, about the impact that, the creativity stimulation methods, techniques, and procedures presented here, have on the divergent thinking, imagination, and the pupils' creative attitudes. it has to be stated, however, that the formative-educative effects of the presented strategies are directly related to the level of neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 112 engagement and both individual and collective participation in the learning and development process (clipa & iorga, 2013). the development of a creative idea is a result of simultaneous processes of exploration, imagination, and creative thinking and stimulated by individual emotions and motivations (tran et al., 2016, р. 1026). no less relevant is the research position of the domestic student v. molyaka (2006, p. 25), showing creativity as an ability that reflects the deep ability of people to create original values by making non-standard decisions. he identifies seven signs of creativity: originality, heuristics, imagination, activity, concentration, quality, sensuality. globally, the importance of creativity for primary school children is becoming a primary interest of the educational system and generally stems from the need for distinct fields of the actual society to train future people in the work position, who will generate original issues, and to create solutions. these issues solutions will represent a vital part of the global society's future and the importance of creativity for social development is progressively emphasized (wolska-długosz, 2015). the chances that the pupils become creative people increase, by the discovery from the first years of school of the special skills and orient them to additional activity; the use of creativity stimulating methods; the use of creative exercises and games; interdisciplinary and learning by cooperation (langa, c, 2014). from this perspective, the pupils must be well prepared, achieve competencies and abilities to help them be creative, active, competitive, therefore performing within educational activities and then, in the society (cameron & lively, 2013, pp: 129–134). in the case of small scholars, it is considered that a product is original, creative if it is new and valuable to him. a creative act can be considered an act that requires the child to think divergently and leads him to novel conclusions, resulted from an individual effort (clipa, 2017). in pedagogy, such constructs as "game teaching methods", "game learning technologies" are also used, which provide for such an organization of the educational process, during which learning is carried out in the process of including students in the game. examining the problem of implementing game teaching methods in the new ukrainian school, we concluded that interesting, useful, and effective conceptual provisions are presented in the project "education promotion" (launched in 2010, after signing a memorandum of understanding between the ministry of education and science of ukraine and lego foundation). brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 113 the project aims to promote the quality of education through the comprehensive development of the child, including the competencies needed for lifelong learning and becoming a facilitator who seeks to move away from the pedagogy of copying, stereotyping, practicing one answer, and imposing his vision on the child. the interaction of adult and child is based on the approach of "learning through play". the documents emphasize that the "learning through play" approach provides an opportunity to feel the power of game pedagogy as a system, method, and tool of learning, practically and deeply understand why play is the best tool to prepare children for the challenges of the future. playing for children is a way of learning about the world. in the game, children develop important competencies that they will need throughout life. becoming a part of the game, the child is fully immersed in the process, takes responsibility, becomes purposeful, feels comfortable, happy, and most importantly has the opportunity to initiate activities and develop their idea, actively interact with other participants, and thus learn. and as a result children who develop through play experience, have welldeveloped communication skills, teamwork, the ability to generate new ideas, show initiative, think critically, and operate with information. learning, studying, and understanding the world around you through play and action on your own experience is much more interesting than just getting theoretical information about it. when children learn through play, they are motivated, confidently try to solve complex problems, experiment, explore, ask questions, think creatively, create something new, and most importantly are not afraid to make mistakes, because in the game you can always try again and again. thus, these considerations allow us to say that the psychological, pedagogical essence, developmental, educational, and other possibilities of the game as a multifaceted phenomenon are embodied in its features: the game is an active form of cognition; each game has a meaningful goal for the child; the game is aimed at developing creativity, ingenuity, initiative, intelligence, imagination, critical thinking, etc. thus, the introduction of game techniques and methods in the educational process of the modern school helps to increase the freedom of the younger student as a subject of learning; acquisition by the child on a creative and activity basis of unique experience; formation of creative personality; improving children's communication skills and abilities, their ability to work in a team; the development of creative abilities, working memory, self-control and mental flexibility, which are essential for learning in school and throughout life. neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 114 the new ukrainian school is a center of inspiration, uniqueness, appreciation, support, and creativity. according to the priority idea of the authors of the concept, the new ukrainian school will work on the principles of partnership pedagogy, taking into account the abilities of each child who can think outside the box, be inquisitive, react quickly to changes, experiment, and more. neuropsychological support of a child with learning difficulties in an inclusive educational space at the same time, it should be borne in mind that the education and upbringing of primary school students with special educational needs should be organically interconnected and complementary, which an inclusive education involves the use of general education and correctional and developmental programs; taking into account the peculiarities of each child's development, individual psychological approach to it; implementation of the correctional and developmental component by the leading deviation in the development of the specialist (typhlopedagogue, deaf pedagogue, correctional teacher, speech therapist) and neuropsychological support of the educational process by specialized teachers. given the specific patterns of development of primary school students with special educational needs, teachers should follow these recommendations: give preference to methods that help to gain access to a more complete perception, retain and process educational information visual and practical; taking into account the high prevalence of speech disorders in children with special educational needs, verbal methods (narration, explanation) should be supported by clarity and demonstration of actions; to direct attention, first of all, to the nearest, concrete purposes of training, formation of the skills necessary for mastering of new material, and only then to remote correctional, developmental and educational tasks; to promote the consolidation of knowledge and skills of students with special educational needs through repetition, concentric presentation of educational material, their introduction into everyday activities; involve children in group activities and group work, which will overcome communication barriers and difficulties. it should be emphasized that the early school age is an appropriate stage of mental development of the subject, characterized by significant accelerated personality changes. as a result, learning and upbringing are more important than in past historical periods of personality ontogenesis. it is a question of the pedagogical influence of the personality of the teacher of the initial classes on the child in general, and the creation of certain brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 115 conditions for the development of its critical thinking, initiative, emotional intelligence, and also creativity, in particular. the teacher must make the primary school student a true subject of educational activity, behavior, and communication. in the context of solving the research problem, the subjective approach in the new ukrainian school involves directing the educational process to the free, individual, creative development of the child, the formation of an active life position, emphasizing the creative and transformative aspect of personal development. therefore, subjectivity is a fundamental psychological neoplasm of the modern child of primary school age, and also determines the priority dominant changes of the new ukrainian school through the implementation of the conceptual triad: "personality choice freedom". in our opinion, the prerequisites for the development of students' creativity are the following provisions: creating a positive, comfortable environment at school, an atmosphere of kindness and respect, aimed at establishing the dignity of each child, for its self-disclosure; optimization of subject-subject interaction as equal partners (teachers and students), through the creation of a creative development environment, which, in turn, will provide the appropriate effect of pedagogical influence; organization of a personality-oriented educational process aimed at the acquisition of creative experience by students through play activities. demonstration of the subjective position of primary school students, which is directly reflected in the manifestation of a high level of creativity, is impossible without the influence of external mechanisms, where an important component is the organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of this phenomenon. if the conditions are understood as a set of circumstances that contribute to the transformation of opportunities into reality, the development of creativity of primary school children with special educational needs through the implementation of game teaching methods should, in our opinion, contribute to external circumstances that will help realize the nature of this process to reveal the pedagogical influence on him. consider them in more detail. 1. creating a creative development environment through the introduction of game teaching methods the process of developing the creativity of younger students through the implementation of game teaching methods, which would be the real subjects of creative activity in the modern school, looks very promising in neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 116 the appropriate development environment, which creates conditions for the creative activity of students and at the same time is a set of content components, building creative relationships between participants. it should be emphasized that the fundamental figure of such an environment is a creative, talented personality of a primary school teacher, who through a system of game teaching methods can create such conditions that children become part of the game, fully immersed in it, take responsibility, feels comfortable, happy, have the opportunity to initiate activities, develop their creative ideas, actively interact with other participants, respond quickly to challenges, agree, think logically, observe, analyze, make decisions, substantiate their opinions, summarize, draw conclusions, etc. an important factor in the methodological support of the game will be the emotionality of the teacher, which is the sensory-spiritual sphere of man. after all, the internal condition for the development of emotions is that they potentially contain aspirations, desires, directed to or from the object. with this in mind, we came to the conclusion that the emotions transformed as a result of teacher-student interaction are emotions transformed into feelings (ie, those that have acquired stability, content orientation), and feelings are an important unit of moral and spiritual development. this combination will lead to a close emotional connection and contact between the participants in the educational process. 2. activation of subject-subject interaction of participants of educational process in the conditions of inclusive training based on a pedagogy of partnership the productivity of the development of creativity of junior schoolchildren through the implementation of game teaching methods, first of all, depends on the strategy of interaction in communication, determining the success of learning the latter as a whole. numerous studies on the interaction of subjects in the educational process show that pedagogical dialogue is considered as a subject-subject interaction and acts primarily as an interaction of the moral and value positions of the interlocutors expressed in words. it is worth noting that to achieve creative and developmental results, the interpersonal dialogic interaction of the teacher and the child must be mutually active, and a productive dialogue would give each of its participants deep satisfaction. such an educational dialogue will gradually be transformed into certain value-semantic formations, turning into a stable internal position (system of personal values). from our point of view, the organization of game activity in various forms has not only great educational value but also developmental. the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 117 result of the intensification of subject-subject interaction of participants in the educational process based on partnership pedagogy will be that each student will respect others and themselves, their thoughts, interests, positions, as well as the interests, opinions, and positions of their classmates, adults, even if they contradict her own; the student's behavior will be determined by the desire for self-realization with a personal focus on the principles of humanity; such a child is friendly, open to contact with the team, shows a certain responsibility, faith in their strengths, abilities, and capabilities. in search of a solution to the problem, we concluded that these characteristics are designed to form the content of spiritual and cultural communication between the participants of the interaction, which will be the basis for the development of creativity of primary school students. 3. maximum enrichment of subjects with creative content to increase the experience of creative self-expression of students with special educational needs in lessons and extracurricular activities an important role in the implementation of the third organizational and pedagogical condition will be played by strengthening the focus on the amplification of elements of the educational process with creative content through play and non-traditional interactive-reflective teaching methods. the functioning of such a model of learning should lay the foundation for the development of creative self-expression and self-development of students. the priority dominants in the organization of such an educational process are two provisions: the first is to take into account the uniqueness and uniqueness of each student; second productive creative forms of organization of creatively oriented learning will promote the development of their skills to imagine and think creatively, fantasize, experiment, generate original ideas; compare, analyze, summarize; classify, highlight the main thing; work in teams; logically substantiate their point of view; look for a common solution, defend their ideas, complement each other; critically analyze information, evaluate it; argue their attitude to the problem; awareness of their own activity, their own game experience; development of initiative; ability to be aware of one's own mistakes, etc. it should be noted that the result of creatively oriented learning will be a persistent need for primary school students with special educational needs in their free activity, self-knowledge, self-analysis, and self-evaluation. thus, the choice of the proposed organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of creativity of primary school students through the implementation of game teaching methods is justified by the neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 118 fact that their practical implementation contributes to the subject-subject educational interaction of participants, disclosure of creative potential students, acceptance of each other as unique and valuable individuals, creative self-development of each child. the creativity of junior schoolchildren with special educational needs in the context of the implementation of game methods in the conditions of inclusive education the study of the state of development of creativity of junior schoolchildren with special educational needs through the implementation of game methods in inclusive education was carried out at the ascertaining stage of the pedagogical experiment, which covered 79 students of 3-4 grades school of i-iii degrees "of vasylivka district council of zaporizhia region. the experimental group (eg) consisted of 41 students, the control (cg) 38 people. the purpose of the ascertaining stage of the pedagogical experiment was to diagnose the state and levels of creativity of junior schoolchildren with special educational needs through the implementation of game methods in inclusive education according to our criteria: motivational-target, operational-activity, reflexive. note that the teaching of primary school students in experimental groups was carried out based on the author's methodology, in control groups according to the traditional scheme. the objects of the study were compared both before and after the experiment. this made it possible to compare the initial and final characteristics of the development of creativity of junior students through the implementation of game teaching methods and, thus, to prove the effectiveness and efficiency of the introduction of organizational and pedagogical conditions of the research process. diagnosis of the motivational-target criterion of the study required several such indicators: meta motivation; awakening interest in creativity; formation of interest in creative activity; stimulating creative activity; active position in creative activity. diagnosis of the operational-activity criterion required the study of such indicators as the productivity of divergent thinking; ability to compare facts, phenomena, find logical connections; ability to observe, generalize, compare, associate; see different approaches to solving the problem in nonstandard ways. diagnosis of the reflexive criterion required the study of several indicators such as the completeness of the manifestation of creative activity; adequate self-assessment of creative activity and behavior. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 119 according to the results of the arithmetic mean of all indicators, the value of three criteria was calculated. to obtain the results of the study according to certain criteria for the identified indicators, the diagnosis was carried out by testing, surveys, questionnaires, interviews; recording facts; processing, and generalization of the obtained results. in each of the areas of research, the results obtained were supplemented by pedagogical observations in everyday life and specially organized situations of creative and moral, and value choice. the obtained data were differentiated by levels (high, medium, and low). the high level of development of creativity of primary school students is characterized by the presence of a personally significant goal; active-positive attitude to creative activity; productivity of divergent thinking; ability to compare facts, phenomena, find logical connections, different approaches to solving the problem in non-standard ways; ability to express themselves, full of determination and focused on high results. the average level of creativity is inherent in students who have insufficient motivation for creative activity; developed signs of creativity, but do not make full use of them; this level is characterized by the absence of a personally significant goal; episodic expression of independence in solving creative search tasks, but without showing the appropriate persistence in case of difficulties; it is easier for such a group of students to work according to a certain pattern than to compare facts, phenomena, to find logical connections. the low level of development of creativity of junior schoolchildren belongs to children who seldom show themselves creatively; there is no motivation for creative self-expression; they do not interact with other participants in group work; do not know how to observe, generalize, compare, associate; do not show initiative, do not fantasize; prone to apathy; perform mainly reproductive tasks; introspection is completely absent; the habit of doing everything for the sake of assessment dominates, which, in turn, generates passivity towards learning in general. thus, the systematic approach reflected in the level analysis allowed us to consider in more depth the process of developing the creativity of junior students with special educational needs through the implementation of game teaching methods. generalized numerical values are shown in table 1. neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 120 table 1 . levels of development of creativity of junior schoolchildren with special educational needs according to the ascertaining stage of experiment,% source: authors’ own conception № s/n criteria levels high medium low 1 motivationaltarget 18,75 37,28 43,97 2 operating activities 17,64 32,48 49,88 3 reflexive 21,36 37,09 41,55 4 the total result is 19,25 35,62 45,13 thus, the generalization of the research results showed: a high level of creativity of junior schoolchildren with special educational needs was found in 19.25%, medium in 35.62% of students, low in 45.13% of participants in the statement stage of the pedagogical experiment. summing up, we note that the results of the ascertaining stage of the pedagogical experiment showed a low level of creativity of junior students with learning difficulties. the above results of the study allow us to talk about the need for experimental testing of the system of activities, which provides targeted pedagogical impact on the development of creativity of primary school children with special educational needs through the implementation of game teaching methods in the educational process of primary school. pedagogical conditions of the studied phenomenon. the purpose of the formative stage of the pedagogical experiment, which was carried out taking into account the results of the statement stage, was to introduce organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of creativity of primary school children with special educational needs through the implementation of game teaching methods in primary school. the implementation of certain organizational and pedagogical conditions took place through a system of activities: a series of integrated lessons (creative tasks, exercises, problem solving lessons through a system of problems, formulating conclusions, definitions, solutions, modeling (graphic, symbolic, etc.) learned content), problem solving situations, brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 121 introduction to the course of classes, sections of such techniques as roleplaying and simulation games, exchange of ideas, solving practical situations of a creative nature; assembly of syncveins, diamond, "word clouds", "timelines", "decision trees", "generation of ideas"; making laptops; use of game techniques in lessons, introducing situations with game motivation "zoo", "supermarket", "forest tale", "school"; organization of intellectual games, performing several cognitive tasks, cryptograms, crossword puzzles. during the formative stage of the experimental study, we also used the method of competence training "six bricks" as an effective tool that allows you to implement game teaching methods in primary school (exercises "artists", "skilled fishermen", "non-existent animal", "createdraw", "color tasks", etc.). each game task is an open system that stimulates students to observe, explore new phenomena, hypothesize, prove and substantiate their ideas, developing working memory, creative abilities, emotional intelligence, respond quickly to challenges, cooperate in a team, experiment, show initiative, etc. it should also be noted that common in school practice game forms of organization of extracurricular developmental and creative work are plotcognitively complexes, organized like creative games on an imaginary plot: "brain ring", "festival of ideas", "wheel of fortune", "fabulous mathematics", "forum" and others. also the organization and carrying out of quizzes, competitions, tournaments, holidays, competitions directed on increase of efficiency of development and education of the child as the unique creative person. it should be emphasized that special journals of observation and accounting for creative growth allow the teacher to analyze the results of creative activities and determine the level of the creative potential of primary school students. conclusions summing up, we note that this work was built on the principles of human-centric pedagogy: intellectual co-creation is facilitated only by a pleasant atmosphere of interpersonal relationships, spiritual comfort, and openness. at the control stage of the experiment, the results of the study were processed, compared with the tasks and the corresponding analysis. as a result of the experimental formative influence in eg, there were positive changes in the levels of creativity of junior schoolchildren with special educational needs through the implementation of game teaching methods in the educational process of primary school according to three neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 122 criteria. the results of the experimental work, shown in table 2, show that during the control phase of the pedagogical experiment, the levels of development of this phenomenon in eg students underwent significant changes in contrast to students of cg education, where they were insignificant. the dynamics of the levels of creativity of junior students are shown in table 2 (at the ascertaining and control stages of the pedagogical experiment). table 2. dynamics of levels of creativity development of junior schoolchildren with special educational needs,% source: authors’ own conception levels the ascertaining stage of the experiment (79 people) control stage of the experiment kg eg 38 41 high 19,25 21,63 37,05 average 35,62 36,19 54,81 low 45,13 42,18 8,14 thus, developed and scientifically substantiated organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of creativity of primary school children with special educational needs through the implementation of game teaching methods, in particular: creating a creative development environment through the introduction of game teaching methods; intensification of subject-subject interaction of participants of the educational process in the conditions of inclusive education based on partnership pedagogy; maximum enrichment of subjects with creative content to increase the experience of creative self-expression of students in lessons and extracurricular activities successfully tested during the formative stage of the experiment. as a result of the experimental formative influence in eg, there were positive changes in the levels of creativity of primary school children with special educational needs through the implementation of game teaching methods in the educational process of primary school according to three criteria. qualitative and quantitative analysis of the obtained results confirmed the effectiveness of the introduced organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of creativity of junior schoolchildren with learning difficulties. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 123 references behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, t., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 brady, r., & edelman, l. a. (2012). stan stvorennya hlobal'noho bazovoho doslidzhennya [state of create global benchmark study]. global benchmark study on attitudes and beliefs about creativity at work, school and home. https://www.dexigner.com/images/article/22456/adobe_state_of_cr eate.pdf cameron, j., & lively, e. (2013). cum să cultivi creativitatea copiilor. exerciții pentru stimularea inventivității și stimei de sine. editura polirom. castellanos, f. x., lee, p. p., sharp, w., jeffries, n. o., greenstein, d. k., clasen, l. s., blumenthal, j. d., james, r. s., ebens, c. l., walter, j. m., zijdenbos, a., evans, a. c. c, giedd, j. n., & rapoport, j. l. (2002). trayektoriyi rozvytku anomalij obemu mozku u ditej ta pidlitkiv z defitsytom uvahy/hiperaktyvnistyu [developmental trajectories of brain volume abnormalities in children and adolescents with attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder]. journal of the american medical association, 288, 1740-1748. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.288.14.1740 chepurna, l., fedorenko, s., kuzminska, y., sushchenko, l., zharovska, o., chyzhyk, t., prymakova, v., & kozibroda, l. (2020). stvorennya ta rozrobka pidruchnykiv dlya ditej z porushennyamy kognityvnoho rozvytku [the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 147–163. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/115 clipa, o. (2017). rozvytok tvorchosti v pochatkoviy shkoli – vyklyk ta mozhlyvosti [development of creativity in primary school – challenge and possibilities]. european proceedings of social and behavioural sciences, 23, 17241732. https://doi/org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.05.02.211 clipa, o., & iorga, a. m. (2013). rol' shkil'no-simejnoho partnerstva u moral'nomu rozvytku ditej [the role of school-family partnership in moral development of children]. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 76, 197–203. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.04.098 elkonin, d. b. (1999). ihrova psykholohiya [game psychology] (2nd ed.) vlados. komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://www.dexigner.com/images/article/22456/adobe_state_of_create.pdf https://www.dexigner.com/images/article/22456/adobe_state_of_create.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.288.14.1740 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/115 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/otilia-clipa https://doi/org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.05.02.211 neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 124 consolidation of pupil-athletes? knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 langa, c. (2014). vplyv sotsial'nykh media na tsykl pochatkovoyi osvity seredn'oyi sotsializatsiyi ditey [social media impact on primary education cycle children’s secondary socialization]. the international scientific conference elearning and software for education, 3, 256–261. https://search.proquest.com/openview/a8450d4fe0e3514ca709cf4e41581 5d3/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1876338 tran, l. t. b., ho, n.t., & robert j. (2016). vykladannya dlya rozvytku kreatyvnosti: uroky, otrymani z poperednioho doslidzhennya spryjnyattya ta planuvannya urokiv vetnams'kykh ta mizhnarodny kh vyshchykh (vyshchykh)shkil [teaching for creativity development: lessons learned from a preliminary study of vietnamese and international upper (high) secondary school teachers’ perceptions and lesson plans]. creative education, 7, 1024-1043. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2016.77107 luria, a. r. (2003). osnovy neiropsykholohiyi [fundamentals of neuropsychology].publishing center "academy". maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 martinussen, r., hayden, j., hogg-johnson, s., & tannock, r. (2005). meta-analiz porushen' robochoyi pamyati u ditej z defitsytom uvahy/hiperaktyvnistyu [a meta-analysis of working memory impairments in children with attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder]. journal of the american academy of child & adolescent psychiatry, 44 (4), 377-384. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.chi.0000153228.72591.73 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://search.proquest.com/openview/a8450d4fe0e3514ca709cf4e415815d3/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1876338 https://search.proquest.com/openview/a8450d4fe0e3514ca709cf4e415815d3/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1876338 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2016.77107 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 javascript:void(0) javascript:void(0) javascript:void(0) https://doi.org/10.1097/01.chi.0000153228.72591.73 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 125 some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 molyako, v. o. (2006). zdibnosti, kreatyvnist', talent: teoriya, metody, rezul'taty doslidzhennya [abilities, creativity, talent: theory, methods, research results]. ruta. rotaru, r. e. (2020). stymuliuvannya tvorchosti ditej pochatkovoji skoly [stimulating primary school children’s creativity]. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 431-439. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/355 rubinstein, s. l. (1989). problemy zahal'nykh psykholohiv [problems of general psychologists]. pedagogy. savchenko, o. ya. (2002). dydaktyka pochatkovoyi shkoly : pidruchnyk dlya studentiv pedahohichnykh fakul'tetiv [primary school didactics: a textbook for students of pedagogical faculties]. genesis. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 shevtsov, a., & ilina, o. (2015). neiropsykholohichnyj pidkhid dlya korektsiji rozvytku ditej z porushennyamy rukhovoyi systemy. [neuropsychological approach for the correction of the development of children with the motor system disorders]. in v. m. synjov, o. v. havrilov. (eds.), aktual'ni problem korektsijnoyi osvity [actual problems of the correctional education], (pp. 347−360). medobory. http://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/231/210.pdf/ solovieva, yu., & quintanar, l. (2019). igrovaya deyatel'nost' s oriyentatsiyej kak metod razvitiya doshkol'nogo vozrastsa [playing activity with orientation as a method for preschool development]. psikhologopedagogicheskie issledovaniya [psychological-educational studies], 11(4), 49–66. https://doi.org/10.17759/psyedu.2019110404 veraksa, n., & veraksa, a. (2014). vplyv roboty luriji na vykorysyannya vizual'noho modeliuvannya v doshkil'nij osviti [the influence of luria’s work on the use of visual modeling in preschool education]. psychology & neuroscience, 7(4), 475-479. https://doi.org/10.3922/j.psns.2014.4.06 vygotsky, l. s. (2005). psykholohiya rozvytku liudyny [psychology of human development]. smysl publishing house. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/355 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 http://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/231/210.pdf/ https://doi.org/10.17759/psyedu.2019110404 https://doi.org/10.3922/j.psns.2014.4.06 neuropsychological support of education and creative activity of primary … larysa sushchenko, et al. 126 wolska-długosz, m. (2015). stymulyuvannya rozvytku tvorchosti ta prystrasti u ditey ta pidlitkiv u simeynomu ta shkil'nomu seredovyshchi – inhibitory ta mozhlyvosti yikh podolannya [stimulating the development of creativity and passion in children and teenagers in family and school environment inhibitors and opportunities to overcome them]. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 174, 2905-2911, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1027 zubtsova, yu. ye., & roma, o. yu. (2020). organizaciyno-metodychni zasady pidhotovky maybutnikh vchyteliv do zaprovadzhennya diyal'nisnoho pidkhodu v pochatkoviy shkoli. pedahohika formuvannya tvorchoyi osobystosti u vyshchiy i zahal'noosvitniy shkolakh [organizational and methodological principles of training future teachers to implement an activity approach in primary school]. pedagogy of creative personality formation in higher and general education schools: coll. science, 2(69), 155–158. http://www.pedagogyjournal.kpu.zp.ua/archive/2020/69/part_2/692.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1027 computational methods in medicine brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, pages: 231-243 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/150 morphometry of the foramen magnum for sex estimation in romanian adult population madalina maria diac¹, iuliana hunea 2 , nona girlescu 3 , anton knieling 4 , simona irina damian 5 , diana bulgaru iliescu 6 1 department of forensic sciences, faculty of medicine, university of medicine and pharmacy “grigore t. popa” iasi, romania, institute of legal medicine, iasi, romania, madalina-maria.diac@umfiasi.ro 2 department of morpho-functional sciences ii, faculty of medicine, university of medicine and pharmacy “grigore t. popa” iasi, romania, institute of legal medicine, iasi, romania, iuliana.hunea@umfiasi.ro 3 department of morpho-functional sciences i, faculty of medicine, university of medicine and pharmacy “grigore t. popa” iasi, romania, institute of legal medicine, iasi, romania, nonagirlescu@umfiasi.ro 4 department of forensic sciences, faculty of medicine, university of medicine and pharmacy “grigore t. popa” iasi, romania, institute of legal medicine, iasi, romania, anton.knieling@umfiasi.ro 5 department of forensic sciences, faculty of medicine, university of medicine and pharmacy “grigore t. popa” iasi, romania, institute of legal medicine, iasi, romania, simona.damian@umfiasi.ro 6 department of forensic sciences, faculty of medicine, university of medicine and pharmacy “grigore t. popa” iasi, romania, institute of legal medicine, iasi, romania, diana.bulgaru@umfiasi.ro abstract: the foramen magnum makes the transition between the cephalic extremity and the spine, which is an anatomical element of the skull. so, there are multiple situations when the skull is the only skeletal element available for anthropological analysis. in this respect, the foramen magnum can provide valuable information in terms of skeletal anthropological expertise. according to the literature, the foramen magnum provides, from a morphometric and morphological point of view, individual and population characteristics. the study aims to evaluate the morphometry of the foramen magnum for establish the sex of an unknown person, specific for romanian adult population. the authors analyzed morphometrically the foramen magnum of 50 cranio-cerebral computer tomographic images. measurements of the foramen magnum were taken anteroposterior diameter, transverse diameter, based on the two being calculated the anthropometric index and the area of the foramen magnum. statistical analysis was carried out using spss 23. discriminant function analysis was applied, and discriminant formulas were created for sex determination of romanian adult population. the results of the analysis are impressive and have a good applicability in a forensic anthropological context. the data used in this paper provides reliable results with a large applicability in the future for estimating the sex from foramen magnum for romanian adult population. keywords: sex determination; foramen magnum; anthropometric measurements; forensic anthropology. how to cite: diac, m.m., hunea, i., girlescu, n., knieling, a., damian, s.i., bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2020). morphometry of the foramen magnum for sex estimation in romanian adult population. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 231-243. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/150 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/150 mailto:madalina-maria.diac@umfiasi.ro mailto:iuliana.hunea@umfiasi.ro mailto:nona-girlescu@umfiasi.ro mailto:nona-girlescu@umfiasi.ro mailto:anton.knieling@umfiasi.ro mailto:simona.damian@umfiasi.ro mailto:diana.bulgaru@umfiasi.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/150 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 232 1. introduction forensic identification is an essential and difficult procedure and, at the same time, a legal and ethical obligation. the main steps in the forensic identification process are the determination of gender, race, height and, last but not least, age of unidentified individuals. study materials that can be subjected to forensic analysis for the correct identification of an individual may comprise of cranial and postcranial skeletons, teeth (implanted in the alveoli or disparate), cadaver fragments, etc. the study of the cranial and postcranial skeletons is the main activity of anthropologists, the bones that make them up being the ideal source for establishing the biological profile (estimation of gender, race, height and age) of an individual with unknown identity (francesquini junior et al., 2007; iscan & steyn, 2013). morphological and morphometric analysis of the skull and its components provide the most important clues for the estimation of gender and race. these two parameters are essential in working through all the stages leading to a positive identification and so forensic anthropologists are required to apply all available methods for the highest possible accuracy in determining them. the third parameter useful in identification and which helps shape the biological profile of an individual with unknown identity is represented by age. estimating age from human skeleton analysis is a continuous challenge in the field of forensic anthropology, as it is particularly difficult to obtain an accurate estimation for it based solely on skeletal analysis (iscan & steyn, 2013; cattaneo, 2007). as mentioned above, it becomes essential in the field of forensic anthropology to investigate a multitude of bone fragments and their components, using as many different methods as possible. foramen magnum is an anatomical element of the skull, making the transition between the cranial region and the spine. since there are numerous situations when the skull is the only skeletal element available for anthropological analysis, it is essential to investigate all its anatomical landmarks from both morphological and morphometrical standpoint. in this respect, foramen magnum can provide valuable information in a skeletal anthropological expertise. according to the literature, the foramen magnum has specific individual and population characteristics, from both morphometric and morphological point of view. these features can be used as valuable indicators in the estimation of gender, both qualitatively and quantitatively [vinutha et al., 2018; standring, 2008; sharma et al. 2019). morphometry of the foramen magnum for sex estimation in romanian adult … madalina maria diac, et al. 233 the objective of the study was to morphologically and morphometrically analyze the foramen magnum and determine its role in establishing gender for the adult population of romania. 2. material and methods this research is based on a retrospective study of ct (computer tomographic) head scans of 51 living people aged 24 to 90 years old (m = 58.02, sd = 17.10), of which 24 were women (47.1%) and 27 men (52.9%). the ct images were selected from the archives of a regional neurosurgery hospital. as inclusion criteria, we only used the ct images which allowed the analysis of the basal region of the skull, i.e. the foramen magnum. the cases in which ct scans did not include the full occipital region, showed fractures of the foramen magnum, or resulted in images of poor quality (i.e., overexposed), were excluded from the study. for this study group, regarding personal data, we only collected the sex and age; no other details as to the identity of the persons were recorded. measurements of the foramen magnum were also recorded. all the data above were included in a database. work methodology during the study, the authors used cranio-cerebral ct scans as working material that allowed the analysis of the shape of the foramen magnum and the measuring of its anthropometric dimensions. the ct images were analyzed using the radiant dicom viewer software, through which a series of anthropometric measurements of the foramen magnum were performed for the antero-posterior (longitudinal) and the transverse diameters. the aforementioned measurements were taken using the integrated dicom viewer measurement function (integrated ruler). the antero-posterior diameter was defined as the distance between the craniometric points basin and opisthion, while the transverse diameter as the maximum distance between the most lateral points located on the edges of the foramen magnum. (figure 1) brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 234 figure 1 representation of measurements made on the foramen magnum (apd – anteroposterior diameter, td – transversal diameter) based on the two measurements, the anthropometric index and the area of the foramen magnum were calculated. the anthropometric index was calculated using the formula transversal diameter x 100 (standring et al., 2008) antero-posterior diameter the area of the foramen magnum was calculated using radinsky's formula 1/4 x ap x dt, (moodley et al., 2019) where ap stands for antero-posterior diameter, and dt for transversal diameter. all data was included in a database and analyzed using spss 33.0. statistical analysis was carried out in several stages to check the normality of the study, to carry out correlational and mathematical (discriminatory) analyses, in order to develop formulas for gender estimation. 3. results the research included 51 cases with ages between 24 and 90 years (m = 58.02, sd = 17.10), 24 of which were women (47.1%) and 27 men (52.9%), respectively. morphometry of the foramen magnum for sex estimation in romanian adult … madalina maria diac, et al. 235 verification of the normality of statistical distribution the kolmogorov-smirnov test indicated a normal distribution of age, area and anthropometric index variables (p > 0.05). the age is between 24 and 90 years (m = 58.02, sd = 17.10), the area varies between 1.68 and 3.56 (m = 2.71, sd = 0.36), while the anthropometric index varies between 73.82 and 109.98 (m = 87.75, sd = 7.95) (table 1). table 1 descriptive statistics for age, area and anthropometric index n min max mean sd age 51 24 90 58.02 17.10 area 51 1.68 3.56 2.71 0.36 anthropometric index 51 73.82 109.98 87.75 7.95 the t test did not indicate significant differences between women and men for age and anthropometric index (p > 0.05). according to the t test, males (m = 2.82, sd = 0.24) have a significantly greater area than females (m = 2.58, sd = 0.43, t (49) = -2.456, p = 0.019 < 0.05) (figure 2). 2.45 2.5 2.55 2.6 2.65 2.7 2.75 2.8 2.85 males females m e a n area figure 2 differences between males and females for area brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 236 discriminatory functions for determining gender in order to determine the gender of cases by predictors such as area and anthropometric index, discriminant analysis was carried out in order to obtain discriminatory functions (equations). these are calculated by multiplying the non-standardized coefficients with the corresponding predictor to which the constant is added. code 1 for male and code 0 for female were used in the analyses. according to the box's m test, the condition of homogeneity of the covariance matrix is observed. all conditions of discriminant analysis are respected. a. discriminatory function assessing only the variable: area of the foramen magnum according to the results, the area of the foramen magnum significantly predicts the gender of the participants [f (1;49) = 6.425, p = 0.014 < 0.05] and explains 11.56% of the variance of participants' gender (rc = 0.340). using non-standardized coefficients, the following discriminatory function is created: gender = 2.945* area 7.967 regarding case classification, the results show that 62.7% of cases are classified correctly. (figure 3) the percentage of 11.56% is calculated by raising the rc coefficient to square and multiplying it by 100%. figure 3 statistical analysis case classification morphometry of the foramen magnum for sex estimation in romanian adult … madalina maria diac, et al. 237 b. discriminatory function assessing only the parameter: anthropometric index according to the results, the anthropometric index does not significantly predict gender (f (1;49) = 0.015, p = 0.902 > 0.05] explaining only 0.03% of participants' sex variance (rc = 0.018). however, using only non-standard coefficients the following discriminatory function is created: gender = 0.124 * anthropometric index 10.923 regarding case classification, the results show that 52.9% of cases are correctly classified (figure 4). figure 4 statistical analysis case classification c. discriminatory function with both known parameters (area and anthropometric index) according to the results, for the model that includes both area and anthropometric index, only the area significantly predicts the gender of the participants (area f (1;49) = 6.425, p = 0.014 < 0.05; anthropometric index f (1;49) = 0.015, p = 0.902 > 0.05] and explains 11.77% of participants' gender variance (rc = 0.343). using non-standardized coefficients, the following discriminatory function is created: brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 238 gender = 2.987 * area + 0.016 * anthropometric index 9.482 regarding case classification, the results show that 68.6% of cases are correctly classified (figure 5). figure 5 statistical analysis case classification discriminatory functions can be found in table 2. if the discriminant scores obtained through the discriminatory functions are lower than the sectioning point, then the case is female. table 2 discriminatory functions, f and statistical significance predictors exact f df discriminatory function sectioning point 1. area 6.425* 1;49 2.945* area 7.967 0.021 2. anthropometric index 0.015 1;49 0.124* anthropometric index -10.923 0 3. area (a) anthropometric index (b) 6.425* (a) 0.015 (b) 1;49 2.987 * area + 0.016 * anthropometric index 9.482 -0.021 * indicates significance at the 0.05 level ** indicates significance at the 0.01 level table 3 shows the accuracy of case classification and crossvalidation. morphometry of the foramen magnum for sex estimation in romanian adult … madalina maria diac, et al. 239 table 3 accuracy of the participants' classification foramen magnum discriminatory function predicted group membership male female total n % n % % 1. area original 17/27 63% 15/24 62.5% 62.7% crossvalidated 17/27 63% 15/24 62.5% 62.7% 2. anthropometric index original 27/27 100% 0/24 0% 52.9% crossvalidated 24/27 88.9% 0/24 0% 47.1% 3. area and anthropometric index original 20/27 74.1% 15/24 62.5% 68.6% crossvalidated 18/27 66.7% 15/24 62.5% 64.7% 4. discussions estimating gender from skeleton or bone fragments involves identifying and evaluating all characteristics that succeed in demonstrating both morphological and metric sexual differences. metric methods are generally considered to be the most objective, but the macroscopic analysis of the pelvis is the most accurate for gender approximation. sexual dysmorphism is offered primarily by the postcranial skeleton, especially the pelvis, due to the process of parturition (iscan & steyn, 2013; cattaneo, 2007; burdan et al., 2012) there are multiple situations when the forensic anthropologist has only with a skeleton or bone fragments at his disposal for analysis. in such situations, it is vital to have a large database that allows the assessment of all useful parameters, under any and all circumstances, in order to shape the biological profile of an individual with unknown identity. for gender estimation, morphometric methods involve measuring certain maximum or minimum diameters or taking measurements based on osteological (anthropological) landmarks in order to quantitatively or qualitatively assess the dimensional differences between genders. some metric methods also involve the evaluation of certain individual dimensions or of an index of two measurements and their mathematical analysis. according to the literature, the metric methods applied for gender estimation from morphometric analysis of the skull are considered less accurate compared to the postcranial skeleton but are widely applicable especially when the skull is the only anthropological material available for study (cattaneo, 2007). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 240 discriminatory functions are the most used for estimating gender within morphometric methods. such discriminatory functions were first applied as early as the 1960’s by gilles and elliot (1963), the method developed by the two resulting in the correct classification of an individual's gender in 85% of cases (cattaneo, 2007; raxter & ruff, 2018). over time, more and more such methods have been researched leading to a multitude of discriminant functions. an important aspect to note is that there should be as many methods as possible for anthropological analysis of as many anatomical landmarks as possible, either individual or as a whole. the previous statement is justified by the fact that forensic anthropologists, and not only them, are compelled to always use a combination of metric and morphological methods to achieve a positive identification with the highest possible degree of accuracy. it is also imperative for each population to have a broad variety of such methods. in our study we initiated a research on the ct-scans for the examination of the foramen magnum, an anatomical element of the skull, in order to develop discriminant functions based on certain anthropometric measurements. in this paper, we used the anthropometric index of the foramen magnum, as well as its area. the ct-scans are important data which can be use at any time. in order to perform discriminatory analyses, the box's m test is used, verifying the validity of the selected sample. in the current research, no problems are reported (p > 0.001), which means that the sample is optimal for developing discriminatory formulas for gender estimation. this aspect certainly does not exclude the possibility of extending the number of cases. the percentages of 11.56%, 0.03%, respectively 11.77% are calculated by raising to square the coefficient rc = 0.340 and multiplying it by 100%. the coefficient rc refers to the canonical correlation, which is defined by the linear relationships between two sets of variables describing the same group of individuals. unlike multiple linear regression which studies the link between a dependent variable (explained) and a lot of independent variables (explanatory), canonical analysis does not treat the two groups of variables differently. the role played by the two sets of variables is identical. canonical analysis determines the extent to which two phenomena, each described by a group of variables, are linked together. regarding the discriminatory functions (function 1 – predictor: area, function 2 – predictor: anthropometric index, function 3 – predictors: both area and anthropometric index) we remark that they are similar to regression formulas. in this respect, by entering a participant's data morphometry of the foramen magnum for sex estimation in romanian adult … madalina maria diac, et al. 241 anthropometric measurements resulting from morphometric analysis of the foramen magnum (area, anthropometric index or both), we can obtain a score based on which we learn the gender. this score is being compared to the cutting or sectioning point. in our case, if the discriminant scores obtained by applying discriminatory functions are lower than the cut-point then the case is female. the results show that 62.7% (for area), 52.9% (for anthropometric index), and 68.6% (for both predictors) of cases are correctly classified, which means that after applying the formula, spss classifies each participant based on the result in order to verify if the formula is effective, and if the case fits into the correct group. therefore, it is found that of all participants only 62.7% are correctly classified when we use the area of the foramen magnum as predictor. regarding case classification, for function 1, where the predictor is the area of the foramen magnum, 63% of men and 62.5% of women are correctly classified. for function 2, using as predictor the anthropometric index, 100% of men and 0% of women are correctly classified. in the case of function 3, where both anthropometric measurements are used as predictors (area and anthropometric index), 74.1% of men and 62.5% of women are correctly classified. following the above analysis, it was found that the classification of cases is carried out with greater accuracy for men than for women. in the studies we found in the literature, the anthropometric index was used to correctly classify 63.6% of cases for men, respectively 66.6% for women, with a total of about 63% of cases correctly classified (burdan et al., 2012; jain et al., 2013). by comparison with the aforementioned study, in our research on the adult population of romania, following the morphometric analysis of the foramen magnum and considering, as a predictive parameter, only the anthropometric index, we were able to correctly classify 52.9% of all cases; differentiated by gender, men were correctly classified in a percentage of 100%, while for women the percentage was 0%. performing a critical analysis, we consider the differences between our study and the ones in the literature to be primarily the result of the size of the study group (the literature studies were carried out on much larger batches over 100 cases), and, secondly, of the fact that the aforementioned studies also considered as predictive parameters, besides the area and anthropometric index, the antero-posterior and transverse diameters of foramen magnum. in our research, the two anthropometric parameters were used only to calculate the area and anthropometric index, not being analyzed individually (samara et al., 2017; jain et al., 2013) brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 242 our study is a preliminary one, the number of cases constituting the study group being relatively small. according to statistical tests however, it was carried out on a sufficient lot to create discriminatory functions for the determination of gender, but compared to the literature, it is nonetheless a small one. thus, we believe that it is necessary to expand the study group in order to carry out future research on metric methods for the foramen magnum, and to also take individual anthropometric measurements into account. to all of the above, we add the fact that, in this study, cranial ctscans were used as material for the assessment of the needed parameters. these images are stored in hospital databases and can be accessed at any time by the competent bodies, and then evaluated and compared with skeletal remains with unknown identity, resulting in the expansion or, on the contrary, the narrowing of the circle of possible persons (raxter & ruff, 2018; natsis et al., 2013). 5. conclusions this study aims to complement the literature on individual identification, with reference to age and gender, using computer tomographic (ct) images. using ct-scans, morphological and morphometric data were recorded on a case-by-case basis, with various accurate measurements of the foramen magnum. we believe that the results of this research underline once again the fact that the use of a combination of measurements results in an increased accuracy of the results compared to the use of unique parameters. also, in terms of sexual dysmorphism, through the parameters used, we achieved significantly better results for men than for women. references burdan, f., szumito, j., walocha, j., klepacz, l., madej, b., dworzanski, w., klepacz, r., dworzanska, a., czekajska-chehab, e., drop, a. (2012). morphology of the foramen magnum in young eastern european adults. folia morphologica, 71(4), 205-216. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23197139/ cattaneo, c. (2007). forensic anthropology: developments of a classical discipline in the new millennium. forensic science international, 165 (2-3) 185-193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.05.018 francesquini junior, l., francesquini de la cruz, b.m., pereira, s.d.r., ambrosano, g.m.b., barbosa, c.m.r., daruge junior, e., del bey cury, a.a., daruge, e. (2007). identification of sex using cranial base measurements. the journal https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23197139/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.05.018 morphometry of the foramen magnum for sex estimation in romanian adult … madalina maria diac, et al. 243 of forensic odonto-stomatology, 25(1), 7-11. https://europepmc.org/article/med/17577972 iscan, m.y., steyn, m. (2013). the human skeleton in forensic medicine. (3rd ed.). illinois, charles c thomas, usa, 493 pp. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22754 jain, s.k., choudhary, a.k., mishra, p. (2013). morphometric evaluation of foramen magnum for sex determination in a documented north indian sample. journal of evolution of medical and dental sciences, 2(42), 8093-8098. https://jemds.com/abstract.php?at_id=2274 moodley, m., rennie, c., lazarus, l., satyapal, k.s. (2019). the morphometry and morphology of the foramen magnum in age and sex determination within the south african black population utilizing computer tomography (ct) scans. international journal of morphology, 37(1), 251-257. http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/s0717-95022019000100251 natsis, k., piagkou, m., skotsimara, g., piagkos, g., skandalakis, p. (2013). a morphometric anatomical and comparative study of the foramen magnum region in a greek population. surgical and radiologic anatomy, 35(10), 925934. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-013-1119-z raxter, m. h, ruff, c. b. (2018). full skeleton stature estimation. in k., lathmam, e., barteling, finnegan, m. (eds.). new perspectives in forensic human skeletal identification. (pp. 105-114). elsevier, london, uk samara, o. a., amarin, j. z., badran, d. h., al-khayat, o. w., suradi, h. h., shatarat, a. t., hadidi, m.t. (2017). morphometric analysis of the foramen magnum. international journal of morphology, 35(4), 1270-1275. http://www.intjmorphol.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/01/art_13_354.pdf sharma, a., ramandeep, k., sharma kumar, m. (2019). foramen magnum: morphometry, possible variation in the shape and its clinical implication. int j scientific study, 6(10), 13-16. https://www.ijsssn.com/uploads/2/0/1/5/20153321/ijss_jan_oa03_-_2019.pdf standring, s. (2008). gray's anatomy: the anatomical basis of clinical practice. (40th ed.). churchill livingstone elsevier vinutha, s.p., suresh, v., shubha, r. (2018). discriminant function analysis of foramen magnum variables in south indian population: a study of computerized tomographic images. anatomy research international, 1(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/2056291 https://europepmc.org/article/med/17577972 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22754 https://jemds.com/abstract.php?at_id=2274 http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/s0717-95022019000100251 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-013-1119-z http://www.intjmorphol.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/art_13_354.pdf http://www.intjmorphol.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/art_13_354.pdf https://www.ijss-sn.com/uploads/2/0/1/5/20153321/ijss_jan_oa03_-_2019.pdf https://www.ijss-sn.com/uploads/2/0/1/5/20153321/ijss_jan_oa03_-_2019.pdf https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/2056291 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 53-66 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/191 pre-service teachers' readiness levels for mobile learning huseyin bi̇cen¹, burak demi̇r2, zohre serttas3 1 near east university, turkey, huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr 2 near east university, turkey, burak.demir@neu.edu.tr 3 near east university, zohre.serttas@neu.edu.tr abstract: the purpose of this research is to determine how active the students are participating in the mobile learning process, as well as how active the distance education mobile learning and technological tools are in education due to the covid-19 epidemic in today's world. determination. with this, the mobile learning readiness scale adapted by şata, çorbacı and koyuncu (2019) was used in this study. the scale consists of three dimensions: optimism towards mobile learning, self-directed learning and self-efficacy. the participants of the study, on the other hand, consist of 25 primary education students and 42 special education students who are continuing their education life in the northern cyprus. it was concluded that their readiness for mobile learning was high. keywords: education, online education, mobile learning. how to cite: bicen, h., demir, b., & serttas, z. (2021). pre-service teachers' readiness levels for mobile learning. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 53-66. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/191 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/191 mailto:huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr mailto:burak.demir@neu.edu.tr mailto:zohre.serttas@neu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/191 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 54 1. introduction the effects of technological developments are increasing day by day in the universe that human beings have lived in. these effects are seen in the field of education as in every field and ensure the restructuring of education systems. technology has shortened the speed of accessing information and the reconstruction period, and has begun to replace traditional methods (çakır, 2019). these developments both increased the importance given to education and led to the emergence of new insights to be included in education (yılmaz, 2017). education has been around since the first time people set foot on earth. of course, education has experienced changes until it reaches today's level, but these changes have emerged as a result of developments in technology and other fields (ayas, 2013). it can be said that the quality of education has increased with the increase in the number of tools and materials in the learning environment together with the changes in the educational content with the technological developments (uras & kurşunoğlu, 2019; bicen & demir, 2020). with technology being a part of human life, it is inevitable that it reaches the field of education. with this interaction, the concept of educational technology has emerged widely used today (çakır, 2019). educational technology is the functional structuring of learning or training processes by employing relevant knowledge and skills in order to dominate education in general and learning situation in particular. in other words, it is the design, implementation, evaluation and development of learning-teaching processes (alkan, 2011). it can be said that together with educational technology, technology enables individuals to be more creative in the field of education, the roles of their teachers are expanded, as well as the motivation of students to the lessons (uşun, 2000). the intertwining of technology and education and the increase in learning activities have revealed new learning styles (yılmaz, 2011; danju et all., 2020). one of the most popular of these styles today is mobile learning. more than one definition can be made today about mobile learning. some of these definitions are as follows; mobile learning is the learning environment that emerges with the use of mobile technologies in education (keengwe & bhargava, 2014). according to behera (2013), it is an idea that students can learn wherever and whenever they want by using portable technological devices. in ocak and topal (2013), mobile learning is a distance education model that meets the educational needs of the individual with mobile devices. based on the definitions made, if it is considered in a general way, mobile learning means that an education or training activity is performed by mobile devices at any time and place as long as technological opportunities pre-service teachers' readiness levels for mobile learning huseyin bi̇cen, et al. 55 allow (çakır, 2019). mobile learning can take place in the same way as other learning systems, as well as in distance learning and lifelong learning. for this reason, various different perspectives have been formed for mobile learning. these perspectives consist of 4 main topics (sharples, 2007). these headings are respectively e-learning, learner, technology and formal educationoriented perspectives. the e-learning-oriented perspective states that elearning is inclusive and mobile learning is an extension of e-learning. the learner-oriented perspective, on the other hand, is a point of view that states that the learner, whose student is at the center of the process, is responsible for his own learning. the technology-oriented perspective states that technological tools are at the forefront and learning takes place with the effectiveness of technological tools (nacak et al., 2020). the perspective that focuses on the development of formal education is a perspective that enables mobile learning to take place on a specific program and improve education. certain tools and materials are required for mobile learning to take place. with the technological developments in today's digital age, there are multiple devices to support mobile learning. these devices; devices such as mobile phones, tablet computers, notebook computers, pocket computers, e-book readers, smart watches, virtual reality glasses support mobile learning with these devices, mobile learning takes place in 3 ways as online, offline and mixed (aydoğdu, 2019). it is a method that occurs continuously connected to a specific online network and ensures that information is constantly kept up to date. offline, on the other hand, is a mobile learning method that does not require a specific network connection, but is installed on the devicemixed, on the other hand, is the method in which both online and offline mobile learning methods are used together, and local content is used in certain areas where network connectivity is required (aydoğdu, 2019). the strengths and disadvantages of mobile learning, in which the studies on mobile learning were examined, were determined (vatansever 2016). the strengths of mobile learning can be given as follows; 1. ensuring that education takes place independent of the learning environment and time 2. ensuring that learners increase their motivation for learning. 3. it allows learning in a different way in life 4. awareness of learners' abilities and providing an individualized learning. 5. it is easy to use and easy to access, as well as combining with gamification. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 56 6. by supporting activities outside of the learning environment, it ensures that time is used more effectively. if we talk about the negative and disadvantages, mobile learning; 1. considering continuous training, the battery life of the device to be used is a problem 2. the emergence of technology-based failures such as network connectivity problems and memory 3.learners experiencing difficulties in their social lives due to the fact that it may cause technology addiction 4. the emergence of security, privacy and cost problems (saraç, 2014). mobile learning is a learning area with many studies in the relevant literature, although it has advantages as well as disadvantages with the development of technology that does not have a certain standard space and time concept. however, when the literature was examined, there was no study that measured pre-service teachers' readiness for mobile learning. learning with portable mobile devices is a relatively new trend today. in this respect, it is important to determine the opinions of teacher candidates about learning about portable devices and their level of readiness. the main purpose of this research is to measure pre-service teachers' readiness for mobile learning. with this general purpose, teacher candidates'; 1. what are the optimism levels towards mobile learning? 2. what are the self-directed learning levels for mobile learning? 3. what are the mobile learning self-efficacy levels for mobile learning? answers to questions will be sought. 2. method 2.1. research model the scanning method, which is one of the quantitative research types, was used in the research. although the scanning method is a model that describes and explains a phenomenon from the past to the present, it is a model that describes and explains the student, situation and objects in the studies in its simplest form. (karasar, 2020). 2.2. sample the universe of the study consists of 25 classroom teachers and 42 special education teacher candidates studying at universities in nicosia, in the northern cyprus, in the 2019-2020 academic year. teacher candidates pre-service teachers' readiness levels for mobile learning huseyin bi̇cen, et al. 57 3.-4. it consists of classes. the participation of the teacher candidates was done on a voluntary basis. 2.3. data collection tools within the scope of the research, the mobile learning readiness scale adapted by şata, çorbacı and koyuncu (2019) was used. although the scale is 7-point likert type, '' 1 '' strongly disagree, '' 2 '' disagree, '' 3 '' somewhat disagree, '' 4 '' undecided, '' 5 '' somewhat agree, '' 6 ' the answer is "i agree," "7", "absolutely agree." in line with the scale, the averages of the pre-service teachers' adaptation to the mobile learning process and the answers they gave to the scale were interpreted as a table. 2.4. data analysis the data obtained in the study were analyzed with spss 17 statistical program and reliability validity tests were performed. pearson correlation was used in the analysis of the data. results frequency (n) distribution is presented in summary tables consisting of means. each item in the scale was scored from 1 to 7, and the answers given to the options were calculated as points and averaged accordingly. in all analyzes, the significance level was taken as 5% (p = 0.05). 3. findings 3.1. what are the pre-service teachers' optimism levels towards mobile learning? table 1 the answers that the classroom teacher candidates given to the dimension of mobile learning optimism n minimum maximum mean std. deviation mobile learning systems give people more control over their working hours. 25 1,00 7,00 3,6 1,73205 the latest mobile learning system is more suitable for use. 25 2,00 7,00 4,2 1,36260 i like working with mobile learning systems because i can work whenever i want. 25 2,00 7,00 4,4 1,55456 i like mobile learning systems. 25 2,00 7,00 4,9 1,48549 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 58 i like mobile learning systems that allow me to operate according to my own needs. 25 1,00 7,00 4,8 2,07525 mobile learning systems enable me to be more efficient while working. 25 2,00 7,00 5,0 1,58114 mobile learning systems give me more freedom to work. 25 1,00 7,00 5,3 1,46856 valid n (listwise) 25 source: authors’ own conception when table 1 is examined, when the answers given to the questions measuring the optimism level of the classroom teacher candidates for mobile learning are examined, it is seen that the highest score per question in the scoring of the scale is 7, so that the item with the highest average scores is almost above the average of 5.3. '' while mobile learning systems give me more freedom to work '', it was concluded that the item with the lowest average was "mobile learning systems give people more control over working hours" with a rate of 3.6 table 2 responses of special education teacher candidates to the dimension of optimism towards mobile learning n minimum maximum mean std. deviation mobile learning systems give people more control over their working hours. 42 1,00 7,00 4,1 2,06892 the latest mobile learning system is more suitable for use. 42 1,00 7,00 4,2 1,91497 i like working with mobile learning systems because i can work whenever i want. 42 1,00 7,00 4,8 1,68090 i like mobile learning systems. 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,69750 i like mobile learning systems that allow me to operate according to my own needs. 42 1,00 7,00 5,1 1,72262 mobile learning systems enable me to be more efficient while working. 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,64980 mobile learning systems give me more freedom to work. 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,61978 pre-service teachers' readiness levels for mobile learning huseyin bi̇cen, et al. 59 n minimum maximum mean std. deviation mobile learning systems give people more control over their working hours. 42 1,00 7,00 4,1 2,06892 the latest mobile learning system is more suitable for use. 42 1,00 7,00 4,2 1,91497 i like working with mobile learning systems because i can work whenever i want. 42 1,00 7,00 4,8 1,68090 i like mobile learning systems. 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,69750 i like mobile learning systems that allow me to operate according to my own needs. 42 1,00 7,00 5,1 1,72262 mobile learning systems enable me to be more efficient while working. 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,64980 mobile learning systems give me more freedom to work. 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,61978 valid n (listwise) 42 source: authors’ own conception when table 2 is examined, it is seen that there is no significant difference according to the responses of the special education teacher candidates to the elementary teacher candidates' optimism towards mobile learning dimension.according to this, when the answers given by the special education teacher candidates are examined, the items with the highest average are 'i love mobile learning systems' with 5.2. '', '' mobile learning systems enable me to be more efficient while working '' and '' mobile learning systems give me more freedom to work ''. it appears to be. according to the answers given by the special education teacher candidates, the item with the lowest average was "mobile learning systems give people more control over working hours" with a ratio of 4.1. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 60 3.2. self-directed learning levels of pre-service teachers for mobile learning table 3 primary teacher candidates' answers given to the items regarding self-directed learning n minimum maximum mean std. deviation during my learning, study and (workrelated) study, is it disciplined and it is easy for me to devote time to learning 25 2,00 7,00 4,9 1,57903 i set goals in my work and have a high degree of initiative 25 3,00 7,00 5,5 1,47535 i implement my own study plan 25 2,00 7,00 4,8 1,83303 i manage time well 25 2,00 7,00 5,0 1,44338 i can direct my own learning process 25 1,00 7,00 4,6 1,89033 valid n (listwise) 25 source: authors’ own conception when the responses of elementary teachers' mobile learning readiness to self-directed learning were examined, the item `` i set goals in my studies and i have a high level of initiative '' received the highest rate, and the item `` i can direct my own learning process' ' it was concluded that there were the answers with the lowest average among the answers given with a ratio of 4.6. table 4 responses of special education teacher candidates to the items for self-directed learning n minimum maximum mean std. deviation during my learning, study and (workrelated) study, is it disciplined and it is easy for me to devote time to learning 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,73505 i have a high degree of assertiveness and setting goals in my work 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,76682 i implement my own study plan 42 1,00 7,00 5,1 1,62592 i manage time well 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,81356 i can direct my own learning process 42 1,00 7,00 5,3 1,82438 pre-service teachers' readiness levels for mobile learning huseyin bi̇cen, et al. 61 n minimum maximum mean std. deviation during my learning, study and (workrelated) study, is it disciplined and it is easy for me to devote time to learning 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,73505 i have a high degree of assertiveness and setting goals in my work 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,76682 i implement my own study plan 42 1,00 7,00 5,1 1,62592 i manage time well 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,81356 i can direct my own learning process 42 1,00 7,00 5,3 1,82438 valid n (listwise) 42 source: authors’ own conception when the answers given by special education teachers to selfdirected learning are examined, it can be said that the average is parallel to the answers given by the elementary teacher candidates.according to the answers given by the special education teacher, the highest average was given by the teacher candidates with 5.3 ratio. i can direct my process ''. the lowest rate was "i apply my own work plan" with a rate of 5.1. " 3.3 what are the pre-service teachers' mobile learning self-efficacy for mobile learning? table 5 classroom teacher candidates' mobile learning self-efficacy dimension n minimum maximum mean std. deviation i am confident in using mobile learning systems while working 25 3,00 7,00 5,5 1,35769 i am confident to know all the special keys and functions in a mobile learning system 25 1,00 7,00 5,0 1,67033 i am confident to know how a mobile learning system works 25 2,00 7,00 5,4 1,58325 i am confident in applying the basic functions of mobile learning systems 25 1,00 7,00 5,0 1,83666 i trust my knowledge and skills about mobile learning systems 25 3,00 7,00 5,3 1,57374 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 62 source: authors’ own conception when the answers given by the elementary teacher candidates to the items in the self-efficacy dimension for mobile learning were examined, it was concluded that the item with the highest rate was `` i am confident in using mobile learning systems while working '' with an average of 5.5. and "i have confidence in knowing all the special keys and functions in a mobile learning system and" i trust myself in applying the basic functions of mobile learning systems ". table 6 responses of private teacher candidates to the dimension of mobile learning selfefficacy n minimum maximum mean std. deviation i am confident in using mobile learning systems while working 42 1,00 7,00 5,4 1,60703 i am confident to know all the special keys and functions in a mobile learning system 42 1,00 7,00 5,3 1,55263 i am confident to know how a mobile learning system works 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,69082 i am confident in applying the basic functions of mobile learning systems 42 1,00 7,00 5,4 1,61489 i trust my knowledge and skills about mobile learning systems 42 1,00 22,00 5,7 2,50779 i am confident in using the internet (google, yahoo) to gather or find information for mobile learning 42 1,00 7,00 5,4 1,57992 i am confident in using mobile learning systems to communicate effectively with others 42 1,00 7,00 5,4 1,59899 i am confident in using the internet (google, yahoo) to gather or find information for mobile learning 25 2,00 7,00 5,2 1,69017 i am confident in using mobile learning systems to communicate effectively with others 25 2,00 7,00 5,2 1,30000 valid n (listwise) 25 pre-service teachers' readiness levels for mobile learning huseyin bi̇cen, et al. 63 n minimum maximum mean std. deviation i am confident in using mobile learning systems while working 42 1,00 7,00 5,4 1,60703 i am confident to know all the special keys and functions in a mobile learning system 42 1,00 7,00 5,3 1,55263 i am confident to know how a mobile learning system works 42 1,00 7,00 5,2 1,69082 i am confident in applying the basic functions of mobile learning systems 42 1,00 7,00 5,4 1,61489 i trust my knowledge and skills about mobile learning systems 42 1,00 22,00 5,7 2,50779 i am confident in using the internet (google, yahoo) to gather or find information for mobile learning 42 1,00 7,00 5,4 1,57992 i am confident in using mobile learning systems to communicate effectively with others 42 1,00 7,00 5,4 1,59899 valid n (listwise) 42 source: authors’ own conception when examining the answers given for the mobile learning selfefficacy dimension of the special education teacher candidates, it is seen that it is above the average as given by the classroom teacher candidates and the highest rate is 5.7, unlike the answer given by the elementary teacher candidates. and i trust my skills. '' the lowest rate was 5.2, unlike the answer given by the elementary teacher candidates, "i trust myself in knowing how a mobile learning system works". 4. conclusion and discussion according to the results obtained in the light of the responses of the pre-service teachers, which is the first sub-problem of the study, to the optimism dimension of mobile learning, it was concluded that pre-service teachers answered closer to the average level of only one item in which the optimism rates for mobile learning were above the average, but their readiness for mobile learning was generally optimistic. it was concluded that the answers regarding the size of the study were above average. when examining the answers given to the optimism dimension of the mobile brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 64 learning readiness scale, it was concluded that there was no significant difference in parallel with the answers given by the primary school teacher candidates who generally gave answers to all items above the average, and the 2 departments 'pre-service teachers' optimism dimension was also observed. it was concluded that he gave above average answers. arslan (2019). in his study, which examined the readiness of vocational school students for mobile learning, he measured the readiness of vocational school students for mobile learning in terms of various variables, and according to the results he found that the demographic environment of the students and the answers they answered on the scale differ significantly from each other in contrast to this study. considering the answers given to the teacher candidates 'selfdirected learning levels towards mobile learning, the second sub-problem of the study, it was found that the classroom teacher candidates' attitudes towards the items in the self-directed learning dimension of the scale were above average and it was seen that they did not have a low average answer in any way. special education teacher candidates answered all of the items in a way that is above the average, but the primary education teacher candidates gave the lowest average answers to the item "i can direct my own learning process", while the special education teacher candidates gave the highest average answers to this item. artsın, koçdar, and bozkurt (2020) examined students' self-directed learning skills in mass open online courses in terms of various variables in their study, investigating self-directed learning skills of learners in the context of mass open online courses. they reached the conclusion that they differed significantly. when the results obtained regarding the levels of mobile learning self-efficacy for mobile learning, the last sub-problem of the study, were examined, it was found that the answers given by the classroom teacher candidates to all the items were generally above the average, as in the first two sub-problems. as in the first two sub-problems, in parallel with the preservice teachers of special education, it is concluded that the answers given in general are above the average, but it can be said that the answers given are parallel to the two branch teacher candidates and the results are almost the same. elçiçek and karal (2019) examined how pre-service teachers are ready for mobile learning from their perspective, and they concluded that the preservice teachers' self-efficacy supports the result of this study despite mobile learning and their self-efficacy is high. as a general result of the study, it was determined that the results given by the pre-service teachers of two departments for all parts of the scale were above average and their readiness level for mobile learning was above average. pre-service teachers' readiness levels for mobile learning huseyin bi̇cen, et al. 65 references alkan, c. (2011). eğitim teknolojisi.[ educational technology] anı yayıncılık. arslan, a. (2019, october). meslek yüksekokulu öğrencilerinin mobil öğrenmeye yönelik hazırbulunuşluklarının i̇ncelenmesi.[ investigation of vocational school students' readiness for mobile learning] in 8th eurasian conference on language and social sciences (p. 277). artsın, m., koçdar, s., & bozkurt, a. öğrenenlerin öz-yönetimli öğrenme becerilerinin kitlesel açık çevrimiçi dersler bağlamında i̇ncelenmesi.[an investigation of learners' self-managed learning skills in the context of massive open online courses] anadolu üniversitesi eğitim bilimleri enstitüsü dergisi, 10(1), 1-30. ayas, a. (2013). eğitim bilimine giriş. in h. özmen & d. ekiz (ed.), eğitimle ilgili temel kavramlar [basic concepts of education] (s. 2-12). pegem akademi. aydoğdu, h. (2019). mobil öğrenme i̇le i̇lgili araştırma eğilimleri: bir i̇çerik analizi.[ research trends in mobile learning: a content analysis.] yayımlanmış yüksek lisans tezi, fırat üniversitesi, eğitim bilimleri enstitüsü, elazığ. behera, s. k. (2013). eand m-learning: a comparative study. international journal on new trends in education and their implications, 4(3), 9. http://www.ijonte.org/fileupload/ks63207/file/09._pirgon.pdf bicen, h., & demir, b. (2020). a content analysis on articles using augmented reality technology and infographic in education. postmodern openings, 11(1sup1), 33-44. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/121 çakır, y. (2019). i̇lköğretim matematik derslerinde mobil öğrenmenin kullanımına i̇lişkin öğrenci tutumlarına yönelik ölçek geliştirme çalışması.[a scale development study on student attitudes regarding the use of mobile learning in elementary mathematics lessons] yayımlanmış yüksek lisans tezi, aydın adanan menderes üniversitesi, sosyal bilimler enstitüsü, aydın . danju, i̇., demir, b., çağlar, b. b., özçelik, c. d., coruhlu, e. k., & özturan, s. (2020). comparative content analysis of studies on new approaches in education. laplage em revista, 6(extra-c), 128-142. elçiçek, m., & karal, h. (2019). mobil öğrenmeye ne kadar hazırız? öğretmen adayları perspektifinden bir i̇nceleme.[ how ready are we for mobile learning? a review from the perspective of pre-service teachers.] journal of instructional technologies & teacher education, 8(1), 1-9. karasar, n. (2020) bilimsel araştırma yöntemi: kavramlar i̇lkeler teknikler. [scientific research method: concepts principles techniques] nobel akademik yayıncılık eğitim danışmanlık. keengwe, j., & bhargava, m. (2014). mobile learning and integration of mobile technologies in education. education and information technologies, 19(4), 737746. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-013-9250-3 http://www.ijonte.org/fileupload/ks63207/file/09._pirgon.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/121 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-013-9250-3 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 66 nacak, a., bağlama, b., & demir, b. (2020). teacher candidate views on the use of youtube for educational purposes. online journal of communication and media technologies, 10(2), e202003. https://doi.org/10.29333/ojcmt/7827 ocak, m. a., & topal a. d. (2013). bilgisayar ve öğretim teknolojileri eğitimi i-ii. in s. şahin(ed.) öğretimde yeni yaklaşımlar ve bilişim teknolojileri öğretimi [new approaches in teaching and teaching information technologies] (s.139-169). pegem akademi yayıncılık. saraç, a. (2014). yeni bir eğitim platformu olarak mobil öğrenme ortamları i̇çin uygulama geliştirmenin önemi ve öğretim teknoloğu adaylarının algıları üzerine bir araştırma.[a research on the importance of application development for mobile learning environments as a new education platform and perceptions of instructional technologist candidates.] yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi, marmara üniversitesi, sosyal bilimler enstitüsü, i̇stanbul. sharples, m. (ed.). (2007). big issues in mobile learning: a report of a workshop by the kaleidoscope network of excellence mobile learning initiative. learning sciences research institute, university of nottingham, i̇ngiltere. şata, m., çorbacı, e.c., & koyuncu, m. s. (2019). mobil öğrenmeye hazırbulunuşluk ölçeği’ nin uyarlanması: geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması [adaptation of mobile learning readiness scale: a validity and reliability study]. gazi üniversitesi eğitim fakültesi dergisi [gazi university journal of gazi educational faculty], 39(3), 1513-1533. http://www.gefad.gazi.edu.tr/en/download/article-file/898559 uras, m., & kurşunoğlu, a. (2019). eğitim bilimine giriş. in a. tanrıöğen & r. sarpkaya (ed.), eğitim açısından toplumsal değişme ve yenileşme [social change and innovation in terms of education] (pp. 263-290). anı yayıncılık. uşun, s. (2000). dünyada ve türkiye’de bilgisayar destekli öğretim. [computer-assisted teaching in the world and in turkey ]. pegem a yayıncılık. vatansever, ş. (2016). mobil öğrenmenin öğrencilerin akademik başarılarına etkisi.[ the effect of mobile learning on students' academic success]. yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi, marmara üniversitesi, fen bilimleri enstitüsü, i̇stanbul. yılmaz, f. (2017). eğitim bilimine giriş. in f. susar kırmızı & n. duban (ed.), eğitime ilişkin temel kavramlar[basic concepts of education] (pp. 1-27). anı yayıncılık. yılmaz, y. (2011). mobil öğrenmeye yönelik lisansüstü öğrencilerinin ve öğretim elemanlarının farkındalık düzeylerinin araştırılması[investigation of the awareness levels of postgraduate students and instructors for mobile learning] (yüksek lisans tezi) yök tez merkezi veri tabanından ulaşılmıştır. (sıra no:286491) https://doi.org/10.29333/ojcmt/7827 http://www.gefad.gazi.edu.tr/en/download/article-file/898559 title of your paper, capitalize first letter brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 263-277 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/249 psycholinguistic preconditions of speech formation of children with general speech retardation iryna brushnevska¹, julia ribtsun2, liudmyla stasiuk3, nataliia ilina4, iryna vasylehko5, viktoriia kolodiazhna6 1 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, brush-ira@ukr.net 2 mykola yarmachenko institute of special pedagogy and psychology, national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, logojuli@i.ua 3 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, lust.stasuk1991@gmail.com 4 kherson state university, ukraine, asha@ksu.ks.ua 5 oles honchar dnipro national university, ukraine, irina.vasilenko.7@ukr.net 6 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, kolviktoria1@gmail.com abstract: the article addresses psycholinguistic preconditions for development of the communicative component of speech activity in 5-yearolds with general speech retardation (gsr). the development of speech activity is analyzed through the lens of psycholinguistic motivation for the emergence of speech units. the authors for the first time identified psychological mechanisms that underlie disorders in the development of the communication component of speech activity in 5-year-olds with gsr and suggested effective interventions. the research involved a study of probability prediction within the structure of the communicative component of speech activity of 5-year-olds with gsr. the author-developed classification of non-verbal and verbal probability prediction formed the basis for a theory-based diagnostic tool to assess the communicative component of speech activity in 5-year-olds with gsr. the research demonstrated the importance of probability prediction as a dynamic process and indicator of practical realization of utterance and holistically developed coherent speech. the analysis of disorders in cognitive and speech operations and functions identified in the study points to the dominant role of weak probability prediction function at non-verbal and verbal levels. weak probability prediction was defined as the cause of poorly developed communication component of speech activity in 5-year-olds with gsr. keywords: communicative interaction, 5-year-old children, research, probability prediction, diagnostic complex, psychotechnology. how to cite: brushnevska, i., ribtsun, j., stasiuk, l., ilina, n., vasylehko, i., & kolodiazhna, v. (2021). psycholinguistic preconditions of speech formation of children with general speech retardation. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 263277. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/249 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/249 mailto:brush-ira@ukr.net mailto:logojuli@i.ua mailto:lust.stasuk1991@gmail.com mailto:asha@ksu.ks.ua mailto:irina.vasilenko.7@ukr.net mailto:kolviktoria1@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/249 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 264 introduction current research in speech and language therapy is driven by activitybased, child-centered, neuropsychological, psycholinguistic and synergetic approaches. the psycholinguistic approach considers speech activity as an integrated unity of linguistic and communication components, and, therefore, enables the most holistic and comprehensive diagnosis of speech disorders and related speech interventions. the specific nature of the development of speech activity in preschoolers has been described by numerous scholars (behas et al., 2019; kalmykova, 2009; leontyev, 1990; melnyk et al., 2019; melnyk et al., 2021; sheremet et al., 2019; sobotovych, 1997; vyhotsky, 1983; zhynkin, 1958; zimnyaya et al., 1977 and others) who highlight its complex function, polystructuralism, mobility and the relationship between speech activity and all other mental functions. meanwhile, both ukrainian (akhutina et al., 2017; kalmykova, 2009) and international (mandak & light, 2018; mathisen et al., 2016; rao, 2011; wakita, 1976) academics are predominantly guided by linguo-didactic views, which tend to overlook psycholinguistic motivation for the development of speech units that arises from the child’s need to communicate. research studies into speech development in preschoolers in the context of ontogenesis and dysontogenesis mostly refer to 6-year-olds and focus on the linguistic component, whereas the communicative component of speech activity that underlies verbal interaction has received only cursory attention. at the same time, potential maturity of key linguistic and communicative paradigms has been recorded already for children of 5 years of age. their need for communicative interactions reaches its maximum, which stimulates intensive development of elements of the communication component of speech activity. however, in the case of children with speech development disorders within this age group, speech activity is exposed to deformative influence of adverse factors leading to secondary communication challenges. the relevance of the selected research topic is explained by this contradiction between the need for strategies to develop the communicative component as early as in 5-year-olds, and particularly those with speech development disorders, on the one hand, and the lack of such strategies, on the other. modern trends of research into speech delays of 5-year-olds are enabled by the integration of psychological, psycholinguistic and neuropsychological approaches to defining pathological mechanisms and psycholinguistic preconditions of speech formation of children with general … iryna brushnevska, et al. 265 structure of this form of speech dysontogenesis. to create a comprehensive psychotechnological method to support the development of speech activity in children with general speech retardation (gsr), it is necessary to move away from studying linguistic phenomenology of weaknesses and to finding deficient and preserved links and levels of mental activity, identifying the proportions of speech and non-speech components in the structure of speech-and-mental activity; and designing psychological and linguistic mechanisms for propaedeutical intervention. since the probability prediction function related to the development of psycholinguistic structure of speech activity in children with gsr, and specifically its communication component, has not been sufficiently studied (ribtsun, 2011, 2017; romanenko, 2011, 2015; tyschenko, 2012), the authors believe it is important to analyze and explore it in this work. therefore, the purpose of this paper is to look at psycholinquistic preconditions for the development of communication component of speech activity in 5-year-olds with gsr. literature review in line with the current psycholinguistic theory, the mechanisms leading to general speech retardation may be understood and related methods to address it may be found only based on a clear understanding of the essence of speech activity, its structure, and the specific nature of its development in ontogenesis. speech is one of the most complex forms of higher mental functions (akhutina, 2003; leontyev, 1990; vyhotsky, 1983; werner & keller, 1994 and others). according to a number of well-known academics (leontyev, 1990; zhynkin, 1958; zimnyaya et al., 1977) and others), it should be considered from the point of its linguistic functioning. scholars in the area of special education (ribtsun 2011, 2017; sobotovych, 1997; tyschenko, 2012) study speech in terms of its multiaspect nature, i.e. as combining linguistic, psychological and psycholinguistic aspects. the design of the psycholinguistic model of development in ontogenesis and dysontogenesis mainly has been led by sobotovych. she suggested a holistic framework of systemic speech development disorders, their analysis and differentiation, and a theory of intervention work based on the structure of speech activity and its psychological mechanisms (sobotovych, 1997, p. 23). brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 266 according to her framework, the linguistic component of speech activity is about mastering a language, whereas the communication component is responsible for using it in communicative acts. the scholar notes, that the linguistic component of speech activity may be seen as a certain body of language knowledge, language competence, which emerges in the process of learning a language and the lack of which renders language mastery impossible. according to sobotovych’s theory (1997), the linguistic component of speech activity supports child’s language learning and includes language comprehension, phonetic-phonematic and lexical-grammatical elements, and coherent speech. however, even complete acquisition of the linguistic component of speech activity is insufficient to enable a full use of language features. therefore, sobotovych (1997) identifies a second component of speech activity which is required for communication, i.e. the communication component. it refers to the process of maintaining a complex and multioperational structure of speech acts that include the operations of probability prediction, forward synthesis, analysis and control (self-control) at different levels. zimnyaya et al. (1977) argues that a key to speech activity of 5-yearolds with gsr is a two-dimensional mechanism of forward mapping, which operates differently in perception and production. zhynkin (1958) points out that in perception forward mapping takes the form of probability prediction, while in production it is exhibited as forward synthesis. anticipation of the next action combines the processes of speech reception and realization. in a way, the forward synthesis mechanism regulates the specific aspects of building structural components of speech units. it covers all communication elements, such as syllable, word, phrase, sentence, and thus influences on how they are combined. in his research, zhynkin (1958) indicates that this mechanism leads to an integral formation “where the next link should be anticipated by the preceding impulse in order to form the next link”. he highlights the inter-connectedness, interdependence and complementarity of forward synthesis and probability prediction. this is demonstrated in the unity of two elementary links of any speech chain as “the following links in this chain influence the preceding ones in the same way as the preceding links influence the next ones” (zhynkin, 1958, p. 81). the concept of probability prediction (anticipation) has been considered by scholars and practitioners in multiple fields (philosophy, psycholinguistic preconditions of speech formation of children with general … iryna brushnevska, et al. 267 psychology, biology, pedagogy, linguistics, etc.). anticipation (from latin anticipatio – i foresee) refers to a notion about an object, phenomenon, or consequences of an action before they are really perceived or carried out (tyschenko, 2012). the ideas for using anticipation in different areas of life were covered in the concepts of akhmetzyanova (2013, 2014), gardner (2006), goodman (1992), schroder et al. (2001) and other international authors. multiple aspects of anticipation were explored by russian and ukrainian researchers (bernshtein, 1990; brushlinskyi, 1979; nichiporenko & mendelevich, 2006, regush, 2003; sergienko, 1997; tyschenko, 2012). it was established that the processes of foresight and prediction that underpin anticipation are fundamental to the development of child’s psyche. in other words, the developmental level of probability prediction is an indicator of the developmental level of perception as a whole. in speech activity, the probability prediction mechanism means anticipating a grammatically, lexically and syntactically correct future utterance. such anticipation draws on the probabilistic structure of prior experience. it is known to serve as a means to intensify the processes of production and comprehension of speech utterances, which enables anticipating individual elements of speech chain based on its preceding elements and individual’s experience (chabanna & kubrychenko, 2010; tyschenko, 2012). probability prediction is evident at all speech levels, i.e. from syllable to text; and the broader the context and the more complex the structure of the whole message, the more dependent is perception from probability evaluation of the entire message. probability prediction has a two-tier structure: (1) the level of content hypotheses, i.e. anticipating how the communicative message will unfold, development of content links; and (2) the level of verbal hypotheses, i.e. anticipating specific realization (verbalization) of such content links (zimnyaya et al., 1977). thus, as the communicative message is unfolding, its content and verbal form are being predicted simultaneously. given the lack of systemic analysis of probability prediction, apart from identification of its structural, linguistic and content types, we designed our own classification of probability prediction in speech activity: non-verbal: visual, auditory, motor, grammatical, syllabic, lexical, morphological, syntactical; brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 268 verbal: phonological, phonetic, syllabic, lexical, morphological, grammatical, syntactical. in view of the important role of the communicative component in multi-faceted formation of speech activity, based on its psychological structure, considering current academic knowledge about multi-dimensional interaction between cognitive and speech functions and operations, drawing on the review of the existing strategies to support cognitive and speech development of preschoolers, and taking into account the structure of speech defect in general speech retardation, we rationalized, developed and piloted a diagnostic toolkit to assess the communicative component of speech activity in 5-year-olds with gsr (brushnevska, 2018; ribtsun, 2017). it focuses on diagnosing variations of probability prediction in different types of compensatory and developmental interventions. the toolkit relies on communicative-cognitive, emotionalbehavioural criteria and the criterion of cognitive independence, and utilizes indicators and scales for assessing the performance on diagnostic tasks to differentiate the developmental levels − high, sufficient and low − of the main elements of the communicative component of speech activity in 5year-olds with gsr, determine the nature of speech disorders, and identify the underlying psychological mechanisms. the key to our research was understanding that speech activity is enabled by complex speech mechanisms, such as speech utterance programming; mechanisms related to transition from the program plan to grammatical structure of the sentence; mechanisms for finding the right word by its semantic and auditory characteristics; phonemic choice mechanisms; mechanisms that enable actual vocalization of speech, but are formed differently in children with typical and atypical speech development. psychological approaches to analysis and compensation of preschoolers’ speech development disorders the study was based on the psycholinguistic approach to analysis and compensation of speech development disorders in preschoolers (leontiev, 1990; ribtsun, 2011; sobotovych, 1997; tyschenko, 2012 and others), and activity-based approach to systemic research (akhutina et al., 2017; kalmykova, 2009; regush, 2003; vyhotsky, 1983 and others). a review of psychological and pedagogical literature was performed to determine theoretical positions and key concepts of the study to enable scientific analysis, synthesis, comparison, interpretation and systematization psycholinguistic preconditions of speech formation of children with general … iryna brushnevska, et al. 269 of data from relevant academic sources and to outline a conceptual framework for designing diagnostic and compensatory strategies. logical and analytical (deductive and inductive) methods were used to verify the research assumptions and predictive conclusions. the authors utilized bibliography methods to identify developmental levels of the communication component of speech activity, including collection of anamnestic data and review of medical, psychological and pedagogical assessment records; psycholinguistic analysis within activitybased paradigm; psycholinguistic method of indirect psycho-semantic assessment; qualitative and quantitative data analysis followed by their discussion; psycholinguistic modeling of speech production. further, a teaching study was conducted to determine how the communicative component of speech activity is formed in 5-year-olds with general speech retardation. the authors used kolmogorov-smirnov λ-test to evaluate the validity of changes observed in the developmental levels of individual indicators and the communication component of speech activity in 5-yearolds with gsr. to develop a rationale for and design a diagnostic toolkit to assess the communication component of speech activity in 5-year-olds with gsr, the authors reviewed the methodological foundations of psychodiagnostic strategies used to evaluate child’s cognitive activity (nemov, 2002; paliy, 2010; zabramnaya, 1995 and others) and special strategies used to assess speech development in preschoolers in the context of ontogenesis and dysontogenesis (ribtsun, 2017; sobotovych, 1997; somova, 2002 and others). the study was carried out starting from 2015 through 2017 at kindergartens no. 5, 9, 28, and 39 operated by lutsk municipal council, combined nursery and kindergarten no. 611 in kyiv, combined kindergarten and school ‘harmonia’ operated by kamyanske municipal council, dnipropetrovsk region, and denyshy education and rehabilitation centre under zhytomyr regional council. group i included 158 subjects, i.e. 5-yearolds with general speech retardation of 3 rd degree, who were educated at those settings. for the purposes of comparative analysis, similar diagnostic assessments were conducted with 107 5-year-olds with typical speech development at kindergarten no. 5 of lutsk municipal council (group ii). the study of the developmental level of the communication component of speech activity in 5-year-olds with gsr used two diagnostic brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 270 blocks: (1) assessment of cognitive development; and (2) assessment of speech development. each of the assessment blocks comprised original diagnostic tasks to determine the level of probability prediction in verbal and non-verbal communication based on the author-designed classification. the study followed a number of stages, i.e. diagnostic-preventive, communicationand activity-based, and communication and analysis. each stage had a differentiated aim, objectives, methods and techniques, while also including common dominant activities to develop probability prediction as the most ‘sensitive’ and indicative element of the communication component of speech activity. diagnostic outcomes based on the diagnostic assessment, it was determined that 5-yearolds with gsr (group i) had complex variable combinations of disorders related to cognitive and speech development, unlike typically developing preschoolers (group ii). differences in cognitive development may be accounted by specific features that are characteristic of children with organic central nervous deficiency. specifically, we recorded insufficiently developed prediction skills on phonological level (i −12.6%, іі – 60.9%); impaired operations of non-verbal and verbal elements of probability prediction (і – 3.4%, іі – 52.2%); poorly developed lexical (і – 0.5%, іі – 61.5%), grammatical (і – 0.3%, іі – 72.1%), morphological (і – 0%, іі – 55.3%), and syntactic types of probability prediction (і – 0.2%, іі – 54.3%). it was established that the totality of these factors negatively affects the development of the communication component of speech activity in 5-year olds with gsr. the analysis of disorders in cognitive and speech operations and functions observed in our research demonstrated the prevailing role of a low developmental level of probability prediction at non-verbal and verbal levels. furthermore, the authors define lacking probability prediction as the main cause of the poorly developed communicative component of speech activity in 5-year olds with gsr. in view of these factors, we designed a psychotechnological approach to nurture the communication component in 5-year-olds with gsr. it builds on key criteria and indicators of well-developed communication component of speech activity. in practical terms, the main elements of this approach are planned and implemented to help 5-year-olds with gsr acquire a robust system of cognitive skills, speech knowledge, psycholinguistic preconditions of speech formation of children with general … iryna brushnevska, et al. 271 communication experience, improve their skills of using probability prediction operations at non-verbal and verbal levels. another vital element in this process is broadening the range of communicative interactions, which include the ability to analyze own actions and those of others and to transfer earlier acquired skills to similar situations. the distinctive nature of the suggested approach is explained by the fact that its content, methods and strategies of compensatory interventions are tailored to work on specific weaknesses in the elements of the communication component, i.e. probability prediction processes. among the current programmes for compensatory interventions with children with gsr, only the package “teaching and learning interventions to develop speech in younger preschoolers with general speech delay” by ribtsun (2011) highlights the development of specific prediction skills at different levels of child’s speech activity. thus, this is the first psychotechnological approach to develop the communication component, as a determinant of speech activity in 5-year-olds with gsr. in our research we suggested an algorithm to develop probability prediction as a vital element of the communication component of speech activity in 5-year-olds with gsr. it involves strengthening cognitive functions and encouraging intentional communication based on acquired speech experience. following the formative stage of the study, the control assessment of visual and auditory perception indicated an increase in the number of group subjects who demonstrated a high level of performance on the suggested tasks – from 10.2% to 25.9%. the developmental level of attention processes also notably improved: 12.5% of children demonstrated high performance at the start of the first six months, whereas at the end of the second 6-month period 29.9% of them did. quantitative indicators of the development of memory processes grew from 10.5% to 29.3%. the overwhelming majority of children in the experimental group demonstrated improvements in visual logical reasoning: at the start high performance was demonstrated by 6.4% of subjects, whereas towards the end of the study this number grew to 28.0%. sizeable positive changes were also recorded for speech development indicators. the developmental level of phonematic processes continue to be a challenge in the speech of 5-year olds with gsr, despite positive dynamics indicating a growth from 7.3% to 28.9%. more extensive communication experiences encouraged a diverse use of suggested words in their different grammatical forms. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 272 however, correct agreement between nouns, adjectives and verbs in gender, number and case remained fragmental, which points to an incomplete process of understanding grammar categories: the respective indicators increased from 0% to 20.9%. in our research we prioritized the assessment of the resulting skills of 5-year-olds with gsr to produce phonetically, lexically and grammatically correct coherent speech. it was determined that communicative utterances were richer in content, indicated a broader range of cognitive interests and diverse use of lexical units, had better grammatical and syntactical structure and were oriented at communicative interaction with peers and adults. the evidence demonstrated growth of the relevant indicators from 0% to 17.6%. the benefits of the developmental psychotechnological approach used in the study was proved by an analysis of the resulting probability prediction operation in its different modalities as an indicative element of the communication component of speech activity, i.e. significant growth was achieved at high and sufficient levels – from 3.3% to 24.1% (see figure 1). fig. 1. developmental levels of probability prediction skills of 5-year-olds with general speech retardation (%). a comparative analysis of resulting developmental levels of the communication component of speech activity in all sub-groups (numbers of children who performed on the high level grew from 6.1% to 25.5%) points to the effectiveness of the proposed psychotechnological approach designed psycholinguistic preconditions of speech formation of children with general … iryna brushnevska, et al. 273 to strengthen the communication component of speech activity in 5-yearolds with gsr. conclusions based on an inter-disciplinary theoretical review of research and theoretical literature (psycho-pedagogical, linguistic, psycholinguistic, speech therapy) and modern traditional approaches to interventions with 5-yearolds with general speech retardation, it may be argued that efforts to enhance the development of the communication component of speech activity in this group call for designing new meaningful approaches to increase the effectiveness of interventions intended to overcome disorders in the development of the communication component of speech activity, thereby improving the developmental indicators of speech activity of 5-yearolds with gsr. drawing on psycholinguistic analysis, the authors identified for the first time psychological mechanisms (visual functions and operations, mnestic processes, different modalities of attention) that make up the core of a disorder in the communicative component of speech activity in 5-yearolds with gsr. a theoretical and methodological rationale was provided for a structural-and-psycholinguistic model designed to support the development of this component closely linked with other components of speech activity. this research demonstrates the importance of probability prediction as a dynamic process, indicator of practical realization of the utterance and holistically formed coherent speech. it also points to the need for structural analysis of psycholinguistic preconditions to design an effective psychotechnological approach to enhance the communicative component of speech activity in 5-year-olds with gsr. finally, it details the main areas for team-based psycholinguistic interventions delivered by different professionals to meet educational needs of this group of children. the promising avenues for future research may include designing special methods to assess and develop other elements of the communication component of speech activity in older preschoolers with general speech retardation. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 274 references akhmetzyanova, a. (2013). the specifics of anticipatory consistency of children with speech pathology. middle-east journal of scientific research, 16(7), 927931. https://www.idosi.org/mejsr/mejsr16(7)13/8.pdf akhmetzyanova, a. (2014). spatial and temporal elements of anticipation consistency of children with general speech retardation. american journal of applied sciences, 11(7), 1031-1035. http://dx.doi.org/10.3844/ajassp.2014.1031.1035 akhutina, t. (2003). the theory of verbal communication in the works of m. bakhtin and l. vygotsky. journal of russian & east european psychology, 5(1), 96-114. http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/rpo1061-040541030496 akhutina, t. v., zasypkina, k. v., & romanova, a. a. (2017). predposylky i rannie etapy razvitiia rechi: novye dannye [background and early stages of speech development: new evidence]. voprosy psikholyngvistiki, 1(17), 26–43. https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=19087073 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, t., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf bernshtein, n. а. (1990). fiziologiia dvizhenyi i aktivnost [essays on physiology of movements and physiology of activity]. moscow. http://elib.gnpbu.ru/text/bernshteyn_fiziologiya-dvizheniy_1990/fs,1/ brushlynskyi, a. v. (1979). myshlenie i prognozirovanie (logyko-psykhologicheskyi analiz) [thinking and prediction (logical-psychological analysis)]. mysl`. https://rusneb.ru/catalog/000199_000009_003344743/ brushnevska, i. m. (2018). formuvannia komunikatyvnogo komponenta movlennievoi diialnosti ditei piatogo roku zhyttia iz zagalnym nedorozvytkom movlennia [development of the communication component of speech activity in 5year-olds with general speech delay] [extended abstract of candidate’s thesis, national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, institute of special pedagogy, kiev]. http://ispukr.org.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/%d0%90%d0%b2%d1%82%d0%be%d1 %80%d0%b5%d1%84%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%82%d0%91%d0%a0%d0%a3%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%95%d0%92% d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%98%d0%9d%d0%90%d0%9c%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%90%d0%87%d 0%92%d0%9d%d0%90.pdf https://www.idosi.org/mejsr/mejsr16(7)13/8.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.3844/ajassp.2014.1031.1035 http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/rpo1061-040541030496 https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=19087073 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf http://elib.gnpbu.ru/text/bernshteyn_fiziologiya-dvizheniy_1990/fs,1/ https://rusneb.ru/catalog/000199_000009_003344743/ http://ispukr.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/%d0%90%d0%b2%d1%82%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b5%d1%84%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%82-%d0%91%d0%a0%d0%a3%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%95%d0%92%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90-%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%98%d0%9d%d0%90-%d0%9c%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%90%d0%87%d0%92%d0%9d%d0%90.pdf http://ispukr.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/%d0%90%d0%b2%d1%82%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b5%d1%84%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%82-%d0%91%d0%a0%d0%a3%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%95%d0%92%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90-%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%98%d0%9d%d0%90-%d0%9c%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%90%d0%87%d0%92%d0%9d%d0%90.pdf http://ispukr.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/%d0%90%d0%b2%d1%82%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b5%d1%84%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%82-%d0%91%d0%a0%d0%a3%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%95%d0%92%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90-%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%98%d0%9d%d0%90-%d0%9c%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%90%d0%87%d0%92%d0%9d%d0%90.pdf http://ispukr.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/%d0%90%d0%b2%d1%82%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b5%d1%84%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%82-%d0%91%d0%a0%d0%a3%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%95%d0%92%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90-%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%98%d0%9d%d0%90-%d0%9c%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%90%d0%87%d0%92%d0%9d%d0%90.pdf http://ispukr.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/%d0%90%d0%b2%d1%82%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b5%d1%84%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%82-%d0%91%d0%a0%d0%a3%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%95%d0%92%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90-%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%98%d0%9d%d0%90-%d0%9c%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%90%d0%87%d0%92%d0%9d%d0%90.pdf http://ispukr.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/%d0%90%d0%b2%d1%82%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b5%d1%84%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%82-%d0%91%d0%a0%d0%a3%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%95%d0%92%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90-%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%98%d0%9d%d0%90-%d0%9c%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%90%d0%87%d0%92%d0%9d%d0%90.pdf http://ispukr.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/%d0%90%d0%b2%d1%82%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b5%d1%84%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%82-%d0%91%d0%a0%d0%a3%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%95%d0%92%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90-%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%98%d0%9d%d0%90-%d0%9c%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%90%d0%87%d0%92%d0%9d%d0%90.pdf http://ispukr.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/%d0%90%d0%b2%d1%82%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b5%d1%84%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%82-%d0%91%d0%a0%d0%a3%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%95%d0%92%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90-%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%98%d0%9d%d0%90-%d0%9c%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%90%d0%87%d0%92%d0%9d%d0%90.pdf psycholinguistic preconditions of speech formation of children with general … iryna brushnevska, et al. 275 chabanna, h. p., & kubrychenko, t. v. (2010). henderni osoblyvosti antytsypatsiinoi ta refleksyvnoi diialnosti [gender features of anticipatory and reflexive activity]. visnyk dnipropetrovskoho universytetu, 16. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/192712521.pdf gardner, h. (2006). multiple intelligences: new horizons in theory and practice. basic books. goodman, j. (1992). when slow is fast enough: educating the delayed preschool child. the guilford press. kalmykova, l. o. (2009). psykholingvistychni pryntsypy rozvytku movlennievoi diialnosti v starshykh doshkilnykiv [psycholinguistic principles of development of speech activity in senior preschool children]. psykholinhvistyka, 4, 51-56. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21i d=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21 com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=psling_2009_4_7 leontyev, a. а. (1990). psykholyngvystycheskyi analyz semantiki i grammatiki: na materiale ontogeneza rechi [psycholinguistic analysis of semantics and grammar: on the material of ontogenesis of speech]. nauka. mandak, k., & light, j. (2018). family-centered services for children with asd and limited speech: the experiences of parents and speech-language pathologists. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 48(4), 1311–1324. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3241-y. mathisen, b., bennett, s., lockett, c., beazley, k., howlett, j., charlesworth, m., lees, h., & read, j. (2016). talking matters bendigo: engaging parents early to prevent long-term speech, language and communication needs in preschool-aged children. children australia, 41(4), 258–264. https://doi.org/10.1017/cha.2016.34 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46-93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 nemov, r. s. (2002). psykholohyia [psychology]. vlados. nichiporenko, n. p., & mendelevich, v. d. (2006) fenomen anticipacionnyh sposobnostej kak predmet psihologicheskogo issledovanija [the phenomenon https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/192712521.pdf http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=psling_2009_4_7 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=psling_2009_4_7 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=psling_2009_4_7 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=psling_2009_4_7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3241-y https://doi.org/10.1017/cha.2016.34 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 276 of anticipatory abilities as a subject of psychological research]. psihologicheskij zhurnal, 5, 50-59. https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=9281866 paliy, a. a. (2010). dytiacha psykhodiahnostyka [child psychodiagnostics]. akademvydav. https://skaz.com.ua/psihologiya/10230/index.html rao, k. s. (2011). role of neural network models for developing speech systems. sadhana, 36, 783–836. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12046-0110047-z regush, l. a. (2003). psihologija prognozirovanija: uspehi v poznanii budushhego [psychology of prediction: advances in cognition of the future]. rech. https://studfile.net/preview/7157618/ ribtsun, y. v. (2011). korektsiine navchannia z rozvytku movlennia ditei molodshoho doshkilnoho viku iz znm [teaching interventions to support speech development in junior preschoolers with general speech delay]. osvita ukrayiny. https://logoped.in.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2018/02/znm_ribtsun.pdf. ribtsun, y. v. (2017). skhodynkamy pravylnoho movlennia [steps to correct speech]. mandrivets. https://logoped.in.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2018/11/shodinki.pdf romanenko, o. v. (2011). osoblyvosti proiavu subiektyvnoho prohnozu v movlenni ditei z tserebralnym paralichem [features of the manifestation of subjective prognosis in the speech of children with cerebral palsy]. naukovyi chasopys natsionalnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu imeni m. p. drahomanova. k. : vyd-vo npu imeni m. p. drahomanova, 18, 212-216. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/25900 romanenko, o. v. (2015). typolohizatsiia poniattia «antytsypatsiia» v suchasnii psykholohichnii nautsi [typology of the concept of "anticipation" in modern psychological science]. legal psychology, 17(2), 40-50. https://scientbul.naiau.kiev.ua/index.php/psychped/article/view/464/46 6 schroder, m., cowie, r., douglas-cowie, e., westerdijk, m., & gielen, s. (2001). acoustic correlates of emotion dimensions in view of speech synthesis. eurospeech. proceedings of the 7th european conference on speech communication and technology, 87-90. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221481168_acoustic_correlate s_of_emotion_dimensions_in_view_of_speech_synthesis sergienko, e. a. (1997). anticipacija v rannem ontogeneze cheloveka [anticipation in early human ontogenesis] [doctoral dissertation institute of psychology of the russian academy of sciences]. http://irbis.gnpbu.ru/aref_1997/sergienko_e_a_1997.pdf sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=9281866 https://skaz.com.ua/psihologiya/10230/index.html https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12046-011-0047-z https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12046-011-0047-z https://studfile.net/preview/7157618/ https://logoped.in.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/znm_ribtsun.pdf https://logoped.in.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/znm_ribtsun.pdf https://logoped.in.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/shodinki.pdf https://logoped.in.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/shodinki.pdf http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/25900 https://scientbul.naiau.kiev.ua/index.php/psychped/article/view/464/466 https://scientbul.naiau.kiev.ua/index.php/psychped/article/view/464/466 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221481168_acoustic_correlates_of_emotion_dimensions_in_view_of_speech_synthesis https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221481168_acoustic_correlates_of_emotion_dimensions_in_view_of_speech_synthesis http://irbis.gnpbu.ru/aref_1997/sergienko_e_a_1997.pdf psycholinguistic preconditions of speech formation of children with general … iryna brushnevska, et al. 277 implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sobotovych, e. f. (1997). psykholingvisticheskaia struktura rechevoi deiatelnosti i mekhanyzmy ee formirovaniia [psycholinguistic structure of speech activity and mechanisms to develop it]. y`zmn. https://studfile.net/preview/3966322/page:62/ somova, n. l. (2002) diagnostika sposobnosti k prognozirovaniju (metodika i ee standartizacija) [diagnostics of the predictive ability (methodology and its standardization)] [dissertation]. dslib.net. http://www.dslib.net/obwajapsixologia/diagnostika-sposobnosti-k-prognozirovaniju.html tyschenko, v. v. (2012). metodyka formuvannia ymovirnogo prognozuvannia v movlennievii diialnosti doshkilnykiv iz znm [a method to develop probability prediction in speech activity in preschoolers with general speech delay]. naukovyi chasopys npu im. m. p. drahomanova, 21, 266–271. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/23199 vyhotsky, l. s. (1983). istoriia razvitiia vysshykh psikhicheskikh funktsyi [genesis of higher mental functions]. «smysl» http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/vugotskiy-psc_razv_chel-4istoriya_razvitiya_vysshyh_psih_funkciy.pdf wakita, h. (1976). residual energy of linear prediction to vowel and speaker recognition. ieee. transactions on acoustic, speech and signal process, 24(3), 270-271. https://doi.org/10.1109/tassp.1976.1162797 werner, s., & keller, e. (1994). prosodic aspects of speech. in. e. keller (ed.), fundamentals of speech synthesis and speech recognition (pp. 23-40). wiley. zabramnaya, s. d. (1995). psykholoho-pedahohycheskaia dyahnostyka umstvennoho razvytyia detei [psychological and pedagogical diagnostics of the mental development of children.]. vlados. https://www.twirpx.com/file/173650/ zhynkin, n. y. (1958). mekhanyzmy rechy [speech mechanisms]. apn rsfsr.https://lehrerraum.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/mehanizmy_rec hi.pdf zimnyaya, y. a. alinina, f. m., & tolkacheva, s. d. (1977). k voprosu o psikhologicheskikh mekhanizmakh retseptivnykh vidov rechevoi deiatelnosty. [on psychological mechanisms of receptive types of speech activity] inostrannye jazyki v vysshej shkole sbornik, 12, 106-115. https://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/hemodanovob/text.pdf https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://studfile.net/preview/3966322/page:62/ http://www.dslib.net/obwaja-psixologia/diagnostika-sposobnosti-k-prognozirovaniju.html http://www.dslib.net/obwaja-psixologia/diagnostika-sposobnosti-k-prognozirovaniju.html http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/23199 http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/vugotskiy-psc_razv_chel-4-istoriya_razvitiya_vysshyh_psih_funkciy.pdf http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/vugotskiy-psc_razv_chel-4-istoriya_razvitiya_vysshyh_psih_funkciy.pdf https://doi.org/10.1109/tassp.1976.1162797 https://www.twirpx.com/file/173650/ https://lehrerraum.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/mehanizmy_rechi.pdf https://lehrerraum.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/mehanizmy_rechi.pdf https://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/hemodanovob/text.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 104-123 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/77 didactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in graphic training of future technology teachers ivan nyshchak¹, liliia martynets 2 , mykola kurach 3 , galyna buchkivska 4 , valentyna greskova 5 , nataliia nosovets 6 1 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, nyshchak@gmail.com 2 vasyl’ stus donetsk national university, ukraine, liliamart7@gmail.com 3 taras shevchenko regional humanitarian-pedagogical academy of kremenets, ukraine, kurachnick@meta.ua 4 khmelnitskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, ukraine, buchkivska1810@gmail.com 5 khmelnitskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, ukraine, valyagreskova@gmail.com 6 t. h. shevchenko national university «chernihiv colehium», ukraine, tala2774@gmail.com abstract: purposeful use of information and communication technologies (ict) in drawing lessons provides an opportunity for the complex attraction of various forms of sensual and rational cognition for comprehensive study and thorough assimilation of the essence of the studied objects and phenomena; formation of the scientific style of thinking of students; development of creative abilities of future specialists; improving the efficiency of the educational process, etc. the purpose of the article is to explore the didactic capabilities of ict tools in the process of graphic training of future technology teachers in drawing lessons. it is established that the effectiveness of using ict in the process of graphic preparation of students is achieved only with the use of special software. in this regard, according to various classification features (didactic goals; basic architecture; branches of scientific knowledge; functional purpose) the analysis and systematization of the software the tools that can be used in the process of graphic training of future technology teachers in drawing lessons. it presents the practical experience of systematic use of didactic capabilities of software of various types in graphic preparation of students (educational presentations, electronic databases, electronic directories, controlling software) as well as the general characteristics of modelling software, including computer-aided design systems (archicad, autocad, solidworks, t-flex cad, compass), which have become the most widespread in graphic preparation of students. the authors reveal functional possibilities and didactic significance of the compass program in the process of studying geometrical, projection, machine-building, schematic and construction drawings. the article presents the results of the implementation of ict tools (including the compass program) in the process of graphic training of future teachers of technologies. keywords: information and communication technologies; software; practical experience; educational process; drawing lessons; development of creative abilities. how to cite: nyshchak, i., martynets, l., kurach, m., buchkivska, g., greskova, v., & nosovets, n. (2020). didactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in graphic training of future technology teachers. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 104-123. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/77 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/77 mailto:nyshchak@gmail.com mailto:liliamart7@gmail.com mailto:kurachnick@meta.ua mailto:buchkivska1810@gmail.com mailto:valyagreskova@gmail.com mailto:tala2774@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/77 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 105 introduction the defining feature of modernization of the education system is the development of new educational tools that integrate the achievements of pedagogical science with the modern didactic potential of information and communication technologies (ict). the didactic capabilities of icts and the global computerization of educational institutions determine the objective prerequisites for the systematic use of e-learning in domestic educational practice. the use of ict in the educational process, in particular in higher education, determines the revision of its main components (goals, content, forms and methods of educational activities), puts forward new requirements for the training of teaching staff and their role in this process. theoretical and methodological foundations of creation and use of electronic learning tools are covered in scientific works of v. volynskyi (2005), y. zhuk, & o. sokoliuk (2004), l. zabrodska (2004), v. lapinskyi (2004) et al. in their scientific and methodical works r. hurevych, & m. kademiia (2006), m. zhaldak (2004), e. mashbits (1988), y. ramskyi (2013) and yu. shpylovyi (2015) highlighted didactic possibilities of using ict for the realization of actual educational tasks in educational institutions of different level. the scientists set the requirements for the initial software, explore the psychological features of the creation of educational software, highlight the issues of how to use ict in the study of different disciplines. various aspects of professional training of future technology teachers using ict were researched by i. halahan (2015) (use of electronic educational and methodological complexes) (2015), m. marhitych (2015) (formation of information and technological competences), o. torubara (2007) (formation of readiness for use of information technologies), m. yashanov (2010) (use of electronic educational resources) and others. the problem of using ict in graphic training of university students was covered in the scientific works of a. hedzyk (2011) (preparation of the future technology teachers for the course of the technical drawing), g. raikovska (2011) (graphic training of technical students ), s. kovalenko (2011) (formation of graphic competence of the future civil engineers), m. koziar (2012) (graphic training of future engineers in the field of water management) (2012), m. yusupova (2010) (interactive teaching graphic disciplines in higher technical education) et al. among foreign researchers, it is necessary to distinguish the works of t. burton, g. bertoline & s. wiley (1992) – development of visual didactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in … ivan nyshchak et al. 106 perception using computer engineering graphics, m. omar, d. ali, m. mokhtar & a. abdullah (2018) – use of the virtual environment and augmented reality to support engineering education and enhance visualization skills, c. reffold (1998) – computer-oriented teaching of engineering technical drawing, o. shteymark (2008) – improving the quality of pedagogical university students’ knowledge of digital educational resources et al. at the same time, in practice, the didactic capabilities of ict are not always properly taken into account and used, in particular in the process of graphic training of future teachers of technologies. extra research is required for the problem of the didactically expedient use of functional capabilities of various types of software, including computer-aided design systems (archicad, autocad, solidworks, t-flex cad, compass, etc.) to solve the educational tasks of graphic preparation of students at the lessons of technical drawing. the purpose of the article is to explore the didactic capabilities of ict tools in the process of graphic training of future technology teachers in drawing lessons. materials & methods achieving this goal was ensured by the systematic use of a complex of scientific and pedagogical methods of research. in particular, the following were used: analysis of scientific, educational and methodological literature, dissertation works – to establish the degree of elaboration and prospects of the studied problem; comparison – to compare alternative scientific views on the problem under study; synthesis, generalization and systematization of practical experience of using ict in the process of graphic training of future technology teachers in higher educational institutions. characterization of didactic capabilities of ict tools in the educational process an important feature of the ict use in the educational process is the provision of opportunities to manage the educational and cognitive activities of all subjects. accordingly, there are the following types of management and their stages: 1. direct management of the students’ educational and cognitive activities by the teacher: a) the teacher offers the student a choice of the educational task; b) student requests are only allowed for a solved study brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 107 assignment; c) the nature and amount of assistance that a student can receive using a computer are determined by the teacher based on an analysis of the results of his / her activities to accomplish this task. 2. indirect management by the teacher: a) the teacher sets the student with a problem based on which he independently formulates the educational task; b) modelling tasks for different systems are used with the limitless number of solutions allowed to solve them; c) educational influences are presented in the form of heuristic recommendations and generalized evaluations of the student's activities. 3. dynamic management by the teacher and the student: a) the educational task is formulated by the teacher or student; b) the student solves the problem, using a computer to perform only certain (clearly defined by the teacher) stages of the solution; c) the nature and extent of assistance in solving the problem can be determined either directly by the student or the teacher (depending on the educational situation). didactically justified use of ict in the educational process makes it possible to intensify the intellectual abilities of the subjects of learning, exercising significant influence on the course of thinking processes of the individual (memory, imagination, attention, thinking, etc.), as well as emotional and motivational spheres of activity (holiver, 2005, р. 47). also, the use of ict from the neurophysiological side is consistent with the principle of broad involvement of the gnostic units of the highest levels of the nervous system (cerebral hemispheres) in the acquisition of new knowledge, that is, in this process simultaneously involving visual, auditory and kinesthetic analyzers against the backdrop of attracting general attention interest with a clear motivation for learning. such simultaneous expansion of the range of irritations of the analyzer systems increases the volume of those specific (speech) links of human memory, which ensure the functioning of higher levels of thinking (berezan, & berezan, 2006, pp. 4–5). the use of computer graphics provides visual support for the training material. the combination of on-screen text, audio and graphical information contributes to the formation of stable representations of the studied objects, processes and phenomena, which makes them easier to memorize. graphic dialogue in the system «man – computer», allowing to manipulate not only values, but also arbitrarily constructed dynamic images of situations and processes, develops not only the imagination, but also the thinking of the person, as the latter learns to compare sign and figurative representations of situations, to form generalizations of the highest order (mashbits, andrievskaya & komissarova, 1989). didactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in … ivan nyshchak et al. 108 ict tools enable the development of students’ abstract thinking, as they enable them to gain a holistic view of the content of vocational training, and by facilitating the symbolic representation of objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality, facilitate the development of logical and imaginative thinking of future professionals (kondratova, 2005). classification of software and the possibility of their use in the process of graphic training of future technology teachers at the lessons of technical drawing many software products on the software market can be used successfully in the process of graphical training for future job training teachers for the technical drawing lessons. let us briefly dwell on their classification. for didactic purposes, v. volynskyi (2005) proposes to classify the software with their distribution into information-explanatory, educational-training, controlling and combined. at the same time, according to the specifics of the presentation of the educational material and its educational value, the software is divided into electronic reference books, electronic textbooks, electronic tutors, electronic educational-methodical complexes, etc. by feature, the software is classified according to the fields of scientific knowledge and academic subjects for which they are intended, e.g., the software for the study of chemistry, geography, technical drawing (volynskyi, 2005). according to the didactic functions, the software is distinguished (nyshchak, 2008): 1. software tools for assimilation of theoretical information – issued in a measured amount and orient the educational process following the students’ intellectual abilities. 2. controlling software tools allows the teacher to organize and carry out pedagogical control aimed at identifying the level of academic achievement of students, as well as to carry out a statistical analysis of the success of the subjects of learning. 3. demonstration software provides a refinement of the educational process, supplementing the educational information with illustrative material of static or dynamic nature. 4. training software is focused on the formation, refinement and consolidation of relevant students' skills, including graphics. 5. game software enables the organization of students’ educational and cognitive activity in a game form and provides control over its progress. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 109 6. simulation and modelling software is designed to model (simulate) real processes and phenomena of objective reality. such software includes a wide range of tools for comprehensive study (exploration) of virtual models that can provide educators with ample opportunity to manage the learning activities of the learning subjects. 7. diagnostic software provides the teacher with the opportunity to diagnose the individual abilities and psychological characteristics of students, identify the causes of erroneous activities (decisions) of the subjects of learning, establish the degree of intelligence, awareness in a particular field, etc. many years of practical experience of systematic use of software in the graphic training of future technology teachers(especially at technical drawing classes) at drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university proves their broad didactic possibilities for activating students' cognitive activity. thus, theoretical material from the course of technical drawing, in parallel with the explanation of the teacher is periodically accompanied by the demonstration of educational presentations (video materials), aimed at familiarizing students with technology and modern production, the design process (creation of technological and design documentation). when using multimedia tools, future technology teachers can watch the technological processes on the screen including the processing of structural materials, the process of manufacturing parts, the operation of machines and mechanisms. in particular, when studying kinematic circuits students see in dynamics the process of transmission of motion using belt, chain, gear, friction, rail and other types of gears, get acquainted with the construction of their elements (stars, chains, gears, gears, worms, rails, worms, rails, gears. shafts, axles, etc.). this activates the thinking activity of students as they operate in the imagination of spatial images of kinematic elements, matching them with the corresponding symbolic (conditional) notation, reproducing in their memories the basic information, modelling the dynamics of their work. such educational activity of students promotes a better understanding of the principles of functioning of technical systems, allowing them to expand knowledge about the basics of modern material production. in the process of graphic training of future technology teachers in drawing classes, work with electronic databases containing samples of student graphic works, images of typical parts of machines and mechanisms, drawings of structural elements of details (chamfers, grooves, tumbles, stiffeners, ledges, centre holes, etc.), standards, directory information (thread tables, surface roughness, tolerances and landings, etc.). the use of digital artwork samples is an effective visual material in the study of machinedidactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in … ivan nyshchak et al. 110 building drawing, helps students to better understand the technological processes of manufacturing parts, their purpose and principle of work in complex technical systems. working with electronic directories provides students with proper study of the main sections of the drawing course (geometric, projection, machine-building, schematic, construction), allows to organize the more effective independent activity of future teachers of technologies, aimed at search, mastering and practical application of the necessary theoretical knowledge, expanding the range of their engineering and graphic knowledge. controls (ktcnet, mytest, test reader) are used to detect the level of graphic knowledge of students, the strength of mastering the theoretical provisions of the drawing course, the requirements of the standards for creation and design of graphic documentation. the controls can test a large number of participants (students) in quite a short time. in this case, the results of the audit can be stored as separate accounting files, information from which can be recalled at any time on the monitor screen or printed on paper. in the process of graphic training of future technology teachers at the lessons of technical drawing, the most widespread were modelling software means, including computer-aided design systems (archicad, autocad, solidworks, t-flex cad, compass, etc.), the systematic use of which promotes the development of spatial and students' imaginative thinking, especially in the study of projection drawing, when the process of creating visual images of depicted spatial objects and their interpretation and image on the plane cause significant difficulties of thinking nature. by operating on the monitor screen a three-dimensional image (model) of a spatial object, students can view it from all sides (angles) to become fully acquainted with the geometric shape and to form representations of the corresponding spatial images with their subsequent image on the format plane. using computer-aided design, students create three-dimensional models of technical objects of any complexity. this provides the possibility to create associative drawings of modelling objects that can instantly reflect any changes in the design or shape of the model. let us give a general description of the most common modelling software – computer-aided design systems that can be used at the technical drawing classes: 1. archicad is a professional graphical software package for architects used for construction work. the functionality of the program provides the design of architectural and building structures, elements of the landscape, the development of project documentation, as well as drawings brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 111 and three-dimensional models of buildings and structures. as experience shows, the archicad program can be partially and fairly successfully used in the process of acquaintance with future construction teacher training in construction drawing. when working with the software, students easily create typical building drawings, in particular floor plans, sections of buildings, facades (main, yard), drawings of individual building structures (eaves, ceilings, floors, etc.); get the necessary information about the premises (area, height, location of sanitary equipment, etc.). productive is the work of students with the archicad library, which has more than 600 parametric elements of building structures, which, if necessary, can be easily modified according to the set design tasks. 2. autocad is a popular multifunctional 2d and 3d computer-aided design and technical drawing system that allows all kinds of design work to be done – from concept development to working documentation. autocad makes it easy and simple to perform 3d models of technical details of any complexity. this provides the opportunity to create appropriate associative drawings of the model, which can automatically react to any changes in its shape or size. in the process of graphic training of future teachers of technologies, autocad can be successfully used to familiarize students with an engineering drawing. in particular, it is advisable to use a software tool to analyze the structural design of technical objects, represented in the form of virtual 3d models, the execution of work drawings, sketches, drawings of assembly units, etc. 3. solidworks – a software complex for automation of the industrial enterprise at the stages of design and technological preparation of production. solidworks is a powerful tool for 3d modelling and computeraided design of complex products for various purposes. in essence, it is a complete set for designing products in digital form, which contains a large number of additional tools for implementation of the model of virtual technical tests. among the main features of solidworks, we should single out the following possibilities: hybrid parametric modelling (solid-state modelling, surface modelling, frame modelling) of any complexity; designing of products taking into account specificity of their production (details from plastic, sheet material, molds and dies of metal construction, etc.); design of three-dimensional assemblies of assembly units (technical structures); ability to work with circuits; availability of design libraries (library of typical structural elements, standard parts and units; a library of physical properties of materials, etc.); the possibility of animation of finished products, etc. didactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in … ivan nyshchak et al. 112 4. t-flex cad – an innovative hybrid parametric design system that combines the functionality of 2d and 3d design; has powerful tools for creating parametric and non-parametric drawings of parts and assemblies, as well as design documentation. the software has extensive functionality in 3d modelling, which makes it possible to design a variety of technical objects. in this 3d model, one can easily draw and design respective drawings, create views, sections and sections of the modelling object. as the shape and size of the 3d model are changed, the drawings created on its base are automatically updated. similarly, when the original images are resized, the 3d model itself will be updated on the model drawing. in the t-flex cad, all elements of the virtual model are linked by their corresponding parameters and geometric relationships (parallelism, perpendicularity, tangency, etc.). due to its wide range of tools, the t-flex cad has been successfully used to solve any design challenge in various industries (engineering, instrumentation, machine tools, construction, etc.). 5. compass – a powerful system of automated three-dimensional design, which is used to automate various types of design and construction work in the field of mechanical engineering, architecture and construction. the main components of the program are a parametric 3d modelling system, a drawing editor, and a special module for designing specifications. a key feature of the software product is to provide end-to-end design process from the implementation of the idea in 3d to the preparation of a complete set of documentation. compass is a multi-window and multi-document computer-aided design system. it can simultaneously process different types of documents – three-dimensional models, drawings, fragments of drawings, text-graphic documents and specifications. through the use of the compass tools, students can create threedimensional models of technical parts and units, assembly units containing both typical and non-standard structural elements. at the same time, information about the geometry of 3d models can be transferred to various software packages, as well as to be used to create the appropriate design and graphic documentation. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 113 practical experience of using the compass program for the realization of educational tasks of graphic training of future technology teachers at the lessons of technical drawing due to its powerful functionality, simple and clear interface, accessibility in development and free license (for educational version), the compass software has become widely used in the process of graphic training of future technology teachers at drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university. in the process of studying geometric drawing students use the compass program for automated execution of the simplest geometric constructions (dividing segments, angles and circles into an equal number of parts; contouring of objects with elements of conjugation; drawing tangent lines; constructing a slope and taper, etc.). fig. 1 presents fragments of drawings of technical details, made in the compass using tools that provide automated separation of circles into an equal number of parts (fig. 1, a) and the construction of smooth transitions (conjugations) between the lines of the contour of the object (fig. 1, b). а) b) fig. 1. the result of the students performing graphic tasks in geometric drawing in the compass environment studying the topic «marking dimensions in the drawing», students use special compass tools for drawing linear, angular, radial and diametric dimensions, as well as special symbols. in this case, all dimensions are automatically calculated taking into account the scale of the drawing and dimensional numbers together with the dimensional and outline lines placed in the image of the object following the current requirements of the didactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in … ivan nyshchak et al. 114 standards. it speeds up the process of marking sizes, improves the accuracy and quality of graphic work of students. in the process of the acquaintance of future technology teachers with the basics of rectangular projection and varieties of images of objects in the drawing, it is advisable to use the tools of compass to automate the construction of basic views (frontal, horizontal, profile), cuts (simple and horizontal, full and vertical; and inclined) and cross-sections (rendered, superimposed) of spatial objects on the plane. fig. 2 shows a complex drawing containing three projections of the object and its visual image (rectangular isometry) with a cutout of a fourth part. the main image (front projection) contains a combination of half of the view and half of the corresponding section of the object. fig. 2. comprehensive drawing of the object and its visual image, made in the compass it is advisable to use compass software when the students study the basic types of connections. the use of the library manager, in particular the library of fasteners, allows the presetting (setting of diameter, length, thread parameters, etc.) and the automatic cutting out of any fastener (bolt, nuts, screws, washers, pins, etc.), used in mechanical engineering. this speeds up the execution of the design and graphic documentation, especially the assembly drawings. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 115 in the process of studying machine-building drawing, the students have the opportunity to use the means of parametric modelling of the compass program, which provide the possibility of automated creation (generation) of images of technical objects (assembly units) of any complexity based on their three-dimensional models, previously developed in the 3d editor. at the same time, to create working or assembly drawings, the generated images of the three-dimensional model must be refined: additionally applied dimensions with marginal deviations, surface roughness symbols, other information necessary for the manufacture, control or operation of the technical object. fig. 3 depicts a three-dimensional model of the roller and a fragment of a working drawing generated on its basis and supplemented with the necessary information. fig. 3. three-dimensional model and a fragment of the working drawing of the roller, created using the compass program the compass program can also be successfully used as visual aids training material at the lessons of technical drawing. in particular, based on previously created three-dimensional models of technical details didactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in … ivan nyshchak et al. 116 (mechanisms, machines), it becomes possible to acquaint students with their purpose, structure and conditions of operation. fig. 4 shows a three-dimensional model of the guide block in the assembled and «spaced» views, demonstrating its structure and method of combining parts of the product. fig. 4. the three-dimensional model of the block of the guide, created using compass when introducing students to the schematic drawing, it is advisable to use the standard compass libraries that allow one to automate the process of creating technical schemes of different kinds (kinematic, hydraulic, electrical, etc.) and types (structural, functional, principle, etc.). in particular, with the help of the library of elements of kinematic circuits, it becomes possible to automatically cross out the notations of mechanical gears (gears, belt, chain, friction), mechanisms (ratchet, malta), kinematic pairs, links, couplings, bearings, etc. the use of a standard pneumatic and hydraulic circuit library facilitates the process of delineating the pneumatic and hydraulic fittings (valves, throttles, valves, pumps, etc.). at the same time, the standard library of elements of electrical devices automates the process of creating electrical and radio circuits. during the execution of construction drawings (facades, plans, sections of buildings and structures) students actively use instrument tools of the standard library «construction, engineering networks and communications», which allow the automatic drawing of elements of architecture (doors, windows, partitions, stairs, etc.), sanitary equipment, systems of ventilation, heating, air-conditioning, etc. due to the systematic use of ict tools (including the compass program) in the process of graphic training of future technology teachers at drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, vasyl’ stus donetsk brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 117 national university, taras shevchenko regional humanitarian-pedagogical academy of kremenets, khmelnitskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, t. h. shevchenko national university «chernihiv colehium», chernihiv during 2015-2018, a gradual improvement in the quality of students' academic achievement was recorded, especially the intermediate stage of pedagogical diagnosis (2016-2017 years). results the diagram (fig. 5) shows the dynamics of qualitative changes in the level of graphic training of future technology teachers who studied the course of technical drawing using ict tools, including the compass program. fig. 5. dynamics of qualitative changes in the level of graphic training of students, implemented by ict discussion and conclusions the leading tendency of informatization of the education system is the introduction of new learning tools and methods, focused on the active use of information and communication technologies. modern icts have a strong didactic potential with a wide range of opportunities for organizing and implementing the educational process. they cause changes in learning technologies making it possible to improve the level of education of employees in the educational sector. according to n. holiver (2005), information and communication technologies of training are a set of techniques and tools of computer didactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in … ivan nyshchak et al. 118 engineering used for educational purposes, as well as a set of educational and methodical materials necessary for their successful use in the educational process. this scientific position is shared by s. ovcharov (2003), who understands ict as a set of hardware, software and information tools needed for the implementation of educational activities. in our opinion, the most complete interpretation of the definition of «information and communication learning technologies» was proposed by m. zhaldak (2004). the scientist believes that ict in class is a system of modern methods of creation, editing, storage, processing and transmission of educational and cognitive information using modern information and technical means, aimed at improving the educational process and increasing its effectiveness (zhaldak, 2004). the introduction of ict in the educational process causes the restructuring of the cognitive activity of the individual and enhancing his intellectual capacity. according to y. mashbits (1988), icts have become a fairly effective tool for teaching in the arsenal of modern educators, as they allow: – significant expansion of the ability to present educational information, in particular through the use of colour, graphics, animation, sound, video equipment; – increase of the motivation of learning, which provides the ability to regulate the complexity and difficulty of learning tasks, atypical presentation of a learning problem, timely obtaining the necessary assistance with additional clarification of the correct solution of the problem, «tolerance» of the computer to possible failures in learning, etc.; – active involvement of students in the educational process, conditioned by the possibility of individualization of educational and cognitive activity, establishing feedback, choosing the optimal pace of work, etc.; – expansion of the system of training tasks related to modelling of various production situations, troubleshooting, planning of educational actions. it provides the opportunity to evaluate the optimality of the solution found and the effectiveness of the chosen strategy of action, constant control over the educational activities of students (students), etc.; – the flexibility of management of the educational process, which is ensured by a clear fixation and analysis of the nature of possible mistakes of students (students), forecasting ways of their elimination and corresponding adjustment of educational activity; – formation of reflection of own educational and cognitive activity, conditioned by the possibility of visual presentation of its results. in this brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 119 case, computer training systems can not only report the correctness of the task but also predict the positive and negative moments of the selected action strategies with the characteristic of the most common mistakes. didactically justified use of ict in the learning process, according to v. zhukova (2013), contributes: – to optimize the study time required for the study of the discipline; – to establish feedback between all participants in the educational process; – to organize the students' extra-curricular activity aimed at assimilation of educational information using the necessary information resources; – to make a shift towards individualization of learning, which is ensured by managing completeness and the way of presentation of the educational material and the rate of its assimilation depending on the individual capabilities of each student; – to intensify the educational and cognitive activity of students, which is conditioned by an unconventional approach to presentation and ways of solving educational tasks; – to form the skills of analysis and decision-making in non-standard (non-typical) educational situations; – to organize a quick, objective and impartial review of students' educational achievements; – to assist teachers to solve topical tasks of didactic and organizational-methodical character. the effectiveness of the use of ict in the educational process is achieved only with the availability of specialized software, focused on solving specific didactic tasks. therefore, from a pedagogical point of view, for successful implementation of ict in the process of graphic training of future teachers of technologies, it is necessary to dwell on the functions of the respective software rather than the functions of the hardware component. thus, in the course of the scientific and pedagogical research, we have identified, studied and substantiated didactic possibilities of using ict in the process of graphic training of future teachers of technologies. the purposeful use of ict tools at the lessons of technical drawing provides an opportunity for comprehensive involvement of various forms of sensual and rational cognition to comprehensively study and thoroughly assimilate the nature of the objects and phenomena under study; formation of a scientific style of thinking of students, focused on the knowledge of the laws of objective reality, in particular in the process of working with didactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in … ivan nyshchak et al. 120 information tools that allow simulation of processes and phenomena; developing creative abilities of future professionals, in particular in the process of research and development using ict; improving the effectiveness of the educational process, in particular by increasing the degree of individualization of students' educational activities, etc. due to its wide functionality and considerable didactic potential to provide graphic training for future technology teachers at the lessons of technical drawing, it is advisable to systematically use simulation software – the computer-aided design system compass. the prospect of further scientific research is the study of the problem of creation and use of narrowly-targeted pedagogical software in the educational process, focused on the complex implementation of didactic tasks of graphic training of future teachers of technologies. references berezan, v. i., & berezan, o. i. (2006). rozkryttia kreatyvnoho potentsialu vykladacha vyshchoho zakladu osvity cherez multymediini tekhnolohii [revealing creative potential of university teachers through multimedia technology]. journal of v. korolenko poltava state pedagogical university, 3, 47. burton, t., bertoline, g., & wiley, s. (1992). technical graphics as a catalyst for developing visual literacy within general education. in j. clark-baca, d. g. beauchamp, & r. a. braden (eds.), visual communications: bridging across cultures (pp. 243258). ivla. halahan, i. (2015). metodychna systema navchannia informatychnykh dystsyplin maibutnikh uchyteliv tekhnolohii z vykorystanniam elektronnykh navchalno-metodychnykh kompleksiv [a methodical system of teaching information courses to future technology teachers with the use of online educational-and-methodical complexes] [unpublished phd thesis]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university, kyiv. hedzyk, a. (2011). systema pidhotovky maibutnoho vchytelia tekhnolohii do vykladannia kursu kreslennia v zahalnoosvitnikh navchalnykh zakladakh [the system of training future technology teachers for teaching the drawing course in comprehensive schools] [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. the national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, kyiv. holiver, n. o. (2005). dydaktychni umovy vykorystannia kompiuternykh tekhnolohii u protsesi navchannia studentiv vyshchykh tekhnichnykh navchalnykh zakladiv [didactic conditions of using computer technologies in teaching students at higher technical education institutions] [unpublished phd thesis]. lesia ukrainka volyn state university, lutsk. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 121 hurevych, r. & kademiia, m. (2006). informatsiino-telekomunikatsiini tekhnolohii v navchalnomu protsesi ta naukovykh doslidzhenniakh [information and telecommunication technologies in the educational process and scientific research]. ukraine’s education. kondratova, v. v. (2005). dydaktychni umovy zastosuvannia kompiuternoi hrafiky v navchanni uchniv 5-7 klasiv zahalnoosvitnoi shkoly [didactic conditions of using computer graphics in teaching 5-7 grades in comprehensive schools] [unpublished phd thesis]. h. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, kharkiv. kovalenko, s. (2011). formuvannia hrafichnoi kompetentnosti maibutnikh inzhenerivbudivelnykiv zasobamy informatsiino-komunikatsiinykh tekhnolohii [developing graphic competency in future civil engineers using information and communication technologies] [unpublished phd thesis]. taras shevchenko chernihiv national pedagogical university, chernihiv. koziar, m. (2012). teoretychni i metodychni osnovy hrafichnoi pidhotovky maibutnikh inzheneriv u haluzi vodnoho hospodarstva zasobamy innovatsiinykh tekhnolohii [theoretical and methodological principles of graphic training of future engineers in the field of water management using innovative technologies] [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. kyiv. lapinskyi, v. (2004). dydaktychni vymohy do kompiuterno-oriientovanykh zasobiv navchannia [didactic requirements for computer-aided learning tools]. http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/6717/1/дидактичні_вимоги_до_комп %27ютерно-орієнтованих_засобів_навчання.pdf marhitych, m. (2015). metodyka formuvannia informatsiino-tekhnolohichnykh kompetentnostei maibutnikh uchyteliv tekhnolohii [methodologies for developing information technology competencies in future technology teachers] [unpublished phd thesis]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university, kyiv. mashbits, e. i. (1988). psikhologo-pedagogicheskie problemy kompiuterizatsii obucheniia [psycho-pedagogical problems of education computerization]. pedagogy. https://www.twirpx.com/file/52867/ mashbits, e. i., andrievskaya, v. v. & komissarova, e. y. (1989). dialog v obuchaiushchei sisteme [a dialogue in the training system]. higher education. nyshchak, i. d. (2008). analiz prohramnykh zasobiv z pozytsii rozvytku tekhnichnoho myslennia maibutnoho vchytelia trudovoho navchannia [analyzing software in the context of developing technical thinking in future technology teachers]. journal of kherson state university, 48, 288293. omar, m., ali, d., mokhtar, m. & abdullah, a. (2018). the use of virtual environment and augmented reality to support engineering education and enhance visualization skills. journal of fundamental and applied sciences, 10 (6s), 977988. http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/6717/1/дидактичні_вимоги_до_комп%27ютерно-орієнтованих_засобів_навчання.pdf http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/6717/1/дидактичні_вимоги_до_комп%27ютерно-орієнтованих_засобів_навчання.pdf https://www.twirpx.com/file/52867/ didactic opportunities of information and communication technologies in … ivan nyshchak et al. 122 ovcharov, s. m. (2003). problemy ta perspektyvy vykorystannia informatsiinykh tekhnolohii navchannia u suchasnii osviti [problems and prospects of using information technologies of learning in modern education]. journal of v. korolenko poltava state pedagogical university, 1-2, 154158. raikovska, h. (2011). teoretyko-metodychni zasady hrafichnoi pidhotovky maibutnikh fakhivtsiv tekhnichnykh spetsialnostei zasobamy informatsiinykh tekhnolohii [theoretical and methodological principles of graphic training for future specialists in technical specialties using information technologies] [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. the national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, kyiv. ramskyi, y. (2013). formuvannia informatsiinoi kultury maibutnikh vchyteliv matematyky [developing information culture in future mathematics teachers] [unpublished phd thesis]. kyiv: m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. reffold, c. (1998). teaching and learning computer-aided engineering drawing. international journal of engineering education, 14(4), 276281. shpylovyi, y. (2015). metodyka navchannia system avtomatyzovanoho proektuvannia v protsesi pidhotovky maibutnikh uchyteliv tekhnolohii [methods for teaching computer-aided design systems in the process of training future technology teachers] [unpublished phd thesis]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university, kyiv. shteymark, o. (2008). pedagogical conditions for the effective use of computer technology in the pedagogical process. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/pedagogicheskieusloviya-effektivnogo-ispolzovaniya-kompyuternyh-tehnologiy-vpedagogicheskom-protsesse torubara, o. (2007). vykorystannia zasobiv novitnikh informatsiinykh tekhnolohii v systemi rozvytku tvorchykh zdibnostei uchniv [using the latest information technologies in the system of developing students’ creative skills. educational horizons: realities and prospects, 1, 429–431. volynskyi, v. p. (2005). klasyfikatsiia prohramnykh zasobiv navchalnoho pryznachennia [the classification of educational software]. computer in school and family, 1, 19-20. yashanov, m. (2010). systema informatychnoi pidhotovky maibutnikh uchyteliv trudovoho navchannia [the system of informative training of future technology teachers]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. yusupova, m. (2010). metodyka interaktyvnoho navchannia hrafichnykh dystsyplin u vyshchykh tekhnichnykh navchalnykh zakladakh [methods for interactive teaching of graphic disciplines in higher technical education institutions] [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. the institute of pedagogy of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%a0%d0%b0%d0%bc%d1%81%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9%20%d0%ae$ https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/pedagogicheskie-usloviya-effektivnogo-ispolzo%1fvaniya-kompyuternyh-tehnologiy-v-pedagogicheskom-protsesse https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/pedagogicheskie-usloviya-effektivnogo-ispolzo%1fvaniya-kompyuternyh-tehnologiy-v-pedagogicheskom-protsesse https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/pedagogicheskie-usloviya-effektivnogo-ispolzo%1fvaniya-kompyuternyh-tehnologiy-v-pedagogicheskom-protsesse http://catalog.odnb.odessa.ua/opac/index.php?url=/auteurs/view/55005/source:default brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 123 zabrodska, l. (2004). pryntsypy vidboru zmistu prohramnykh zasobiv navchalnoho pryznachennia [the principles of selecting content for educational software]. computer in school and family, 7, 79. zhaldak, m. i. (2004). pedahohichnyi potentsial kompiuterno oriientovanykh system navchannia matematyky [pedagogical potential of computeroriented systems of teaching mathematics]. means and technologies of a single information educational space, 7, 6173. zhuk, y. & sokoliuk, o. (2004). pedahohichni prohramni zasoby yak rynkovyi produkt [educational software as a marketable product]. in v. y. bykov (ed.), means and technologies of a single information educational space (pp. 154158). attack. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=zgvmyxvsdg rvbwfpbnxwzxjzb25hbg5pannhanr2y2l0zwxhfgd4ojewzdlhmzr jytvkmmmwodm zhukova, v. m. (2013). vykorystannia elektronnykh navchalnykh kompleksiv u profesiinii pidhotovtsi ta samostiinii diialnosti maibutnikh inzheneriv [using e-learning systems for professional training and independent activities of future engineers]. journal of taras shevchenko luhansk national university, 18, 6876. http://dspace.luguniv.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/2352/1/zhuko va_2.pdf https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=zgvmyxvsdgrvbwfpbnxwzxjzb25hbg5pannhanr2y2l0zwxhfgd4ojewzdlhmzrjytvkmmmwodm https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=zgvmyxvsdgrvbwfpbnxwzxjzb25hbg5pannhanr2y2l0zwxhfgd4ojewzdlhmzrjytvkmmmwodm https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=zgvmyxvsdgrvbwfpbnxwzxjzb25hbg5pannhanr2y2l0zwxhfgd4ojewzdlhmzrjytvkmmmwodm http://dspace.luguniv.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/2352/1/zhukova_2.pdf http://dspace.luguniv.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/2352/1/zhukova_2.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 104-117 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/173 research on the experience of users of political slogans in ukraine bohdan tkach¹, lesia lytvynchuk 2 , ihor popovych 3 , olena blynova 4 , larysa zahrai 5 , liybomyra piletska 6 1 doctor of psychological sciences, g. s. kostiuk institute of psychology of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, bohdan.tkach@gmail.com 2 doctor of psychological sciences, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bogdan khmelnitsky, khmelnitsky, ukraine, lutol@ukr.net 3 doctor of psychological sciences, kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, ihorpopovych999@gmail.com 4 doctor of psychological sciences, kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, ihorpopovych999@gmail.com 5 doctor of psychological sciences, vasyl stefanyk prekarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, todoriv_larisa@i.ua 6 doctor of psychological sciences, vasyl stefanyk prekarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, piletskalybomyra@gmail.com abstract: the study partly reveals “zelenskyi’s phenomenon”, when a person without any political experience confidently won a victory over an experienced politician at the presidential and parliamentary elections. the paper considered neuropsychological understanding of a brand as a multimodal image with emotional connection and as an artificial addiction. specific features of the perception of political slogans were studied with emotiv epoc+ 14-channel mobile neurointerface and emotivpro and emotiv brain activity map software. the ranking of slogans in terms of the efficiency of perception of the individuals of 40-60 years old was carried out on the basis of eeg and the cognitive and emotional indexes: obtained stress, interaction, interest, excitement, concentration, relaxation. the study involved 30 men and 30 women who intended to vote in the presidential elections of 2019. it was established which slogans are the best, good, average, ambiguous, with little effect, ineffective, with a negative effect. it was determined that the most effective and at the same time efficient slogan that evokes emotions and really encourages to support is president is people’s servant. the best slogan that appeals to support it is “we are ukraine”, “new policy of ukraine”, “country of strong people!” the basic cognitive and emotional indexes that would contribute to the creation of effective psychological impact on voters’ behavior are the presence in the slogan of the word “ukraine”, the avoidance of the so-called “stop words” (for women it is “army” and everything related to violence and death, and for men it is everything related to the provision of material benefits), the use of religious sentimentality in women and gender differences in slogans targeting. the value of the studied phenomenon and the efficiency of slogans and other media products before launching them into mass advertising has been proved. keywords: cognitive and emotional indexes; subconscious reactions; neuropsycholinguistics; electorate; motivation for action. how to cite: tkach, b., lytvynchuk, l., popovych, i., blynova, o., zahrai, l., & piletska, l. (2021). research on the experience of users of political slogans in ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 104117. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/173 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/173 mailto:bohdan.tkach@gmail.com mailto:lutol@ukr.net mailto:ihorpopovych999@gmail.com mailto:ihorpopovych999@gmail.com mailto:todoriv_larisa@i.ua mailto:piletskalybomyra@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/173 research on the experience of users of political slogans in ukraine bohdan tkach, et al. 105 1. introduction a striking event of 2019, attracting attention of experts in political sciences is “zelenskyi’s phenomenon”, when the actor of a satirical genre, without any political experience confidently (73.0%) won a victory over an experienced politician – the incumbent president of ukraine at that time – at the presidential elections. moreover, zelenskyi’s party – “people’s servant” obtained 43.0% of the electors’ support and formed a majority at the parliamentary elections in the same year. it is unprecedented case in the country history when one political force has absolute power. this research reveals the mystery of the president volodymyr oleksandrovych zelenskyi’s success to some extent. the issue of political ideas’ perception by the electorate has always been extremely relevant, especially in the pre-election period. political ideas are kind of “products” a politician or his/her team produces and distributes among the electorate. to be successful in political activities, they need to be distributed in a quick manner, in a large amount and to everyone. it is obvious that for this purpose there should be a certain range for each ‘consumer of political ideas’. as we know, political ideas are reflected in media products, slogans, and mottos, in particular. a slogan is an appeal or addressing in a concise form containing a leading idea or requirement. a motto is a laconic phrase that catches the eye, is easy to remember and expresses the essence of the message. political ideas, slogans, and mottos are divided into “positive” – to give something to someone; “negative” – to take something away from someone; “combined” – to take something away from someone and give it to someone else or give it, but not to all, or take away not all; “impressive” – to cause a stir; “unimpressive” – trigger emotions; “effective” – motivate to action; “non-ineffective” – do not motivate to action. there are also “new”, “old’ and “forgotten” ones. depending on the copyright, there are ‘own’ and ‘others’ slogans. also, there are “basic” ones – general for all, in particular, reflecting the concept of a party, as well as “operational” ones – those developed for a specific event and a specific region to obtain the maximum political dividends. for this purpose, as a rule, a whole team of myth designers, marketing experts, psychologists, philosophers, and psycholinguists try to create slogans to stand out among others, attract attention and motivate a voter to vote for a specific politician or party. sometimes, this function of an expert team called political strategists is carried out by one person engaged in the ideological activities of a party. there are also commercial companies brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 106 specializing in psychological consulting, which provide services in development of slogans and mottos. everyone seeks to create impressive and effective slogans relying on the existing analytics in terms of the electorate, previous election expertise, global trends, the “illusion of omniscience” provided by political strategists, epistemological approach and good luck. the most important issue of identifying the effectiveness of slogans is the lack of fast, reliable and cheap communication with voters. the results of the effectiveness of an election campaign, in particular its slogans and mottos, will be known exactly after the announcement of elections results by the central electoral commission. some parties believe in the “halo of an eminent political strategist”, and they do not verify slogans efficiency. but they should do it, as an expert is a person and as a person, he or she is able to predict the behavior of other people in the medium term only by 8.0%, and even less in the long term. after all, the behavior of a voter depends on the individual and typological features, current emotional condition and context circumstances (tkach, 2018). though it is possible to adjust to individual and typological features, it is quite difficult and financially costly for social engineers to control the current emotional state of the electorate and current context circumstances (blynova et al., 2020; isaienko, 2020; khmiliar et al., 2020). it is also quite difficult to predict the tactics and strategy of competitors, it costs much money to organize and conduct research on social expectations of main opponents (khmiliar et al., 2020; khmil & popovych, 2019; popovych, 2017). even if you have some kind of a “hyperbrain” expert (multiple brains integrated into one system) whose predictive ability was true by 50.0%, his predictions will not have value anyway. nevertheless, part of candidates and parties, check the developed media products before they spend a vast amount of money for their own advertising (television, off-line advertising, online advertising, electioneerers...). for this purpose, they apply sociological research. the problem with their validity is not representativeness of selection, but the fact that people do not fully realize what they like and often give socially positive answers, especially when it is being recorded. for example, if you ask men: “how do you feel about wealthy people?”, they would say: “neutral, positive”, but psychologists will notice manifestations of aggression, envy and so on. if you ask men the following question: “how do you feel about women of loose morals?”, they will say: “this is a negative phenomenon of our society”. but in fact, there will be signs of lustful joy and pleasure manifested. here are the results of the survey and true attitude of research on the experience of users of political slogans in ukraine bohdan tkach, et al. 107 respondents. others use technology of the last century 70-ies that is focus groups. however, focus groups are attended by a certain category of people (people who were engaged in it, understand the situation very well), rhetorical exercises of participants resulting in the level of falsehood starting with 30.0% and above. the results are still inaccurate, but they allow to adjust at least a little bit the results of the creativity of political strategists to the realities. needless to say, that the semantic differential is necessary for the construction of subjective semantic spaces in studies related to the perception of political slogans, with the analysis of pragmatic and connotative meanings of words and personalized meanings (zasekina & zasekin, 2008). however, we doubt that it can answer the question: “do the studies provide frank or socially acceptable answers consistent with the ideology, dominant in society?”. the content-analysis of the texts of five speeches of the president of the republic kazakhstan nursultan nazarbayev of 1991–2015 (abdiman, 2018) is of great interest from a scientific point of view. there is research applied for objective evaluation of media production effectiveness, which is mandatory for the developed countries, that is user experience. this is a recording by high-precision equipment of the subconscious reactions of people to audio, visual and other stimuli with the aim of identifying what a person actually feels when using the product/information (absher & cloutier, 2016). the main objects of research are attention, impressions, emotions, and benefits derived from the interaction with the product/information (nobre & kaster, 2014). although the user experience has a strong methodological basis, we should note that it is subjective and may change over time with changing context circumstances and the emergence of new competing products/information. this method is not popular among ukrainian election campaigns, perhaps, due to the lack of adequate knowledge in election team managers. although for the sake of objectivity, impartiality, and completeness of the issue review, we should remember that in ukraine there is a company capable of carrying out such research, that is “the first neuromarketing company of ukraine neuro psy tech group”. this indicates reflection of scientific knowledge about brain, human psyche, neuroimaging and in general about the positive trend of the neuroculture development in ukraine. maksymenko (2015) notes that the choice of a method is a decisive condition for the theoretical construction of reality and external validity. each science in its development reaches its culmination point, gets brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 108 suspended, and with the advent of new methods of knowledge, makes qualitative progress. with the advent of high-precision nanotechnology in psycholinguistics, a fundamentally new stage of the development of this science starts – neuropsycholinguistics. the main difficulty of this situation is the fundamental difference of psycholinguistics and neuropsycholinguistics in the approach to the analysis of mental activity of an entity/a person in learning and use of language. we had similar situation in the logic of the approach to the analysis of reasoning. traditional logic analyses thinking, in particular, its forms such as concept, judgment and reasoning. while symbolic logic, which arose later, explores what we operate, namely, the semantic content of speech, that is, the terms and statements of speech (maksymenko, 2015). in neuropsycholinguistics, it is not an “entity” that uses the language, but a “person”, it is not a person as it is, but a “specific person”. each person possesses his/her own connectome, the brain, a very inconsistent and variable organ (maksymenko et al., 2019; maksymenko & orap, 2018). therefore, a method of neuroimaging the neuropsycholinguistics like so much such as functional magnetic resonance imaging that allows to record changes in a brain blood flow. based on the analysis of hemodynamic reactions, it is possible to assume participation of a particular brain part in certain mental process connected with speech. indeed, this method allows to detect significant objects and changes in skull space, but due to low resolution, it cannot distinguish a particular part of brain and what kind of cytoarchitectonic field or subfield it is. after all, brain variability in some areas varies by 40 times (kolb & whishaw, 2015). for example, in some people, the ventromedial part of the prefrontal cortex can be the size of a tangerine, which makes these people very empathetic and loving. in other people, it may be the size of a brussel sprout making these people understand, feel the pain of others and be able to sympathize. and there are some people who do not have this part at all, and these people possess charisma, a constant striving to dominate over others, a frantic desire to get to the top of hierarchical social formations. these people are guided exclusively by economic benefit, they cannot be satisfied by resources and influence, they do not have moral principles. besides, it is an incredible pleasure for them to watch other people manifest obedience and acquiescence towards them. in addition, this method poorly captures the beginning of reaction that does not allow to carry out accurate correlation with psychological events. https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/суб'єкт https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/мови research on the experience of users of political slogans in ukraine bohdan tkach, et al. 109 therefore, at this stage of neuroimaging development, we should rely not on anatomical reference to functions, but on integral indices reflecting cognitive and emotional indicators in each period of the study. the process of creating slogans and the ideas their “creators” are guided by in this process is not our subject of research. we are to highlight how voters perceive ready-made political slogans. the aim is, first, recording unconscious reactions of voters on the visual representation of political slogans; second, ranging due to the effectiveness of the most common slogans; third, the establishment of neuropsycholinguistic means of the reorganization of basic cognitive and emotional indicators to create an effective psychological impact on a voter’s behavior. the slogans of the presidential election campaign have a strong affinity to the identity of a presidential candidate. the task of slogans is to form a personality brand. the understanding of the brand in the neuropsychological paradigm should be explained more clearly. a brand is a product/information for which a person is ready to overpay voluntarily. for a neuropsychologist, a brand is a multimodal image (spindle-shaped twist) with emotional affinity (limbic system) (tkach, 2018). at a meeting with a brand, the eeg fixes in the frontal leads negative generated potential n100 after the start of stimulus, complex n100-p200 and wave p300. this indicates that a learned pattern has been recognized, very important in everyday life. moreover, if the prolongation of the p300 wave in the p400 and p500 is recorded, it indicates certain actions (including speech) or a real intention to act, caused by this “brand” (bors, 2019); yadava et al., 2017). there are many brands with new ones constantly arising, and the number of neurons is limited (the brain’s capacity to perceive information has not increased). that is why corporations, public figures and various “isms” are engaged in a fierce struggle for neurons to create and maintain their own multimodal brand image (tkach, 2018). presidential candidate branding is essentially a process of uniquelization and idealization of a politician’s image. according to psychological mechanisms, branding is identical to artificial additive behavior (lytvynchuk, 2017). thus, the results of the theoretical understanding of the issue of identifying the effectiveness of political slogans allow to determine the objective psychologistic evaluation, distinguishing slogan words that have a certain emotional color for a voter and motivate to action. user experience (ux) – is what a user feels when using a product, service or information immediately. the main objects of the research are impressions, emotions and benefit, obtained while using a product (service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stimulus_(physiology) brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 110 or information). user experience is subjective in nature because it is related to individual feelings and thoughts) and can change in time when there are changes in circumstances and social events. 2. research of methodology in order to see the invisible and analyze the slogans based not on assumptions, but on facts, we have applied emotiv epoc+ mobile 14channel neurointerface and emotivpro, emotiv brain activity map software. this allowed us to obtain raw eeg data, conduct eeg brain mapping and get transformed eeg indicators as basic cognitive and emotional indicators studied 128 times per second. psychologists of the past could only dream of such neurotechnologies that really allow to record subconscious reactions of people. information about the date, location, conditions of the study and selection. date: 12.11.2018. location: kyiv, kherson and ivano-frankivsk. the study was conducted in a psychologist’s office. selection of 60 people with equal gender distribution. respondents are aged 40-60. selection was conducted among passers-by by stochastic method. it concerns only those people who will come to the elections. the way to identify intentions to come to the elections is an affirmative answer and the presence of a high level “interaction”. information about the stimulus material and presentation form. demonstration of slogans was carried out without reference to some politicians or parties. all slogans were presented in black color and calibri font on a white background. all political slogans from outdoor advertising (big boards, city-lights) were represented in the research. clarifications regarding the slogan: “we are ukraine”. it contained a fairly long text made in small print and people could not read it from a distance. therefore, we tested only those slogans, which were readable for people in real conditions. the exposition of slogans lasted for 10 seconds. the research is held according to the ethical standards of the committee on the rights of experiments of the helsinki declaration (2013). 3. results and discussion analytical table 1 presents the results of the study. in particular, key cognitive and emotional indicators, the effect according to scale “the maximum effect – +5, no effect – 0 and the maximum negative effect – -5”. significance level concerns gender differences. in general, the slogans are arranged in descending order of effectiveness. research on the experience of users of political slogans in ukraine bohdan tkach, et al. 111 briefly about the key cognitive and emotional indicators from the emotiv biometric company, which are formed on the basis of specific eeg patterns (insight, 2017): stress shows the level of comfort a person feels. engagement determines the extent a person is focused on what he or she is doing or experiencing at the moment. interest reflects a person’s level of interest in respect of an object. excitement reflects the level of emotional excitement. focus reflects how much a person has focused on this task. relaxation indicates the level of mental peace. table 1. cognitive and emotional indexes of political slogans slogan basic cognitive and emotional indicators effe ct stress interacti on intere st excitem ent concentra tion relaxati on m w m w m w m w m w m w m w we are ukraine 30.0 27.4 59.2* 52.9* 49. 1 49. 4 41.0 54.3 32.4 22.7 22.1 27.5 + 5 +4 president is people’s servant 37.6* 39.5* 44.1* 51.4* 53. 7 52. 1 62.2 * 73.0 * 40.1 30.8 39.0 * 28.2* + 4 +5 new policy of ukraine 29.2 25.9 49.5* 42.2* 49. 5 49. 3 38.7 40.6 36.3 28.1 21.1 27.4 + 4 +4 state of strong people! 26.2 29.3 54.2 41.6 53. 0 52. 2 39.1 28.7 21.2 20.4 23.8 26.3 + 4 +4 army! language! faith!’ away from moscow! 25.7* * 46.0* * 42.8* * 45.8* * 51. 2 51. 5 38.8 31.3 24.5 36.0 21.1* * 17.9* * + 4 +2 honest people prevail 38.2* 34.5* 52.8* 41.8* 50. 6 49. 7 14.8 14.4 35.2 24.2 26.4 22.0 + 3 +3 energy independ ence of ukraine 26.8 25.4 37.3 40.7 51. 4 51. 2 16.2 17.9 29.6 33.0 24.5 24.2 + 2 +2 faith protects our souls 30.2 27.5 30.0* 44.9* ** 50. 2 50. 1 15.8 14.7 29.1 23.6 24.4* ** 32.3* ** + 1 +3 jobs or imf slavery? 36.3* * 33.8* * 53.7* * 38.5* * 52. 6 51. 2 28.7* * 47.6 ** 16.2 14.7 26.6 25.0 + 2 +2 powerful economy 26.5 29.2 47.0* 34.9* 51. 4 52. 4 27.4 18.8 29.2 18.7 24.5 26.5 + 2 +2 advance 2019 27.8* ** 48.4* ** 48.2* ** 40.3* ** 50. 2 50. 5 33.5 25.7 37.8 27.2 24.7* ** 16.8* ** + 4 2 army! language! faith!' we 24.5* ** 44.9* ** 44.8* ** 35.2* ** 54. 0 51. 7 26.9 21.4 27.5 26.9 26.1* ** 18.7* ** + 4 2 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 112 go our own way! army protects our land 26.1* ** 42.7* ** 42.7* ** 38.0* ** 51. 4 49. 8 27.8 22.2 35.1 33.8 27.2* ** 18.1* ** + 4 2 high wages or high tariffs? 34.6* ** 25.7* ** 48.1* ** 40.0* ** 53. 7 51. 5 16.0* ** 41.4* ** 22.8 22.4 17.8* ** 29.7* ** -1 +4 language protects our hearts 23.9 24.1 40.2* ** 43.8 50. 7 49. 8 13.8 15.7 30.8 30.5 18.5 23.6 + 1 +1 we stopped default in 2014 29.5 28.0 38.2 37.8 51. 4 51. 7 18.4 15.2 31.2 24.2 23.6 25.6 0 0 minimum wages under the military contract to increase up to uah 10.000 32.3 30.2 31.3 35.4 52. 2 51. 5 20.8 18.5 21.0 24.6 28.5 28.8 0 0 financial aid to keep your houses warm to grow to 2 billion uah 38.8* * 27.0* * 47.2* * 39.4* * 53. 4 51. 1 18.7 25.1 31.3 18.0 16.5* * 27.4* * -1 0 they fought for us to win 28.6* * 47.8* * 29.5 25.3 51. 1 51. 3 16.5 26.3 36.2 14.3 27.6* * 16.2* * 0 -1 note: * – р=.05; ** – р=.01; *** – р=.001; the loadings of the significant indicators are given in bold type. as the analytical table shows, none of the slogans is interesting or effective. speechwriters and myth designers do not know how to create slogans that attract attention and how to reflect through language components of the image and the world of a contender for the position of president anticipated by electorate. however, the existing slogans allow to distinguish leaders from outsiders. the best slogans to trigger support are “we are ukraine”, “new policy of ukraine”, “state of strong people!”. by the way, p300-500 waves research on the experience of users of political slogans in ukraine bohdan tkach, et al. 113 arose on the word “ukraine”. the slogan “we are ukraine” shifted activeness from left hemisphere to right hemisphere to a small degree. the most impressive and at the same time effective slogan that evokes emotions and really encourages to support is “president is people’s servant”. we believe that this slogan’s success is primarily due to not just skillfully selected words and semiotics, but to awareness and professional entertainment activities of v. zelensky. in fact, this slogan is both political and advertising one, it announces a new series of a very popular same name film, where the actor plays a part of an honest and uncorrupted president, a common man. it is the only slogan which extremely activated left hemisphere, and it is an evidence of a certain relation to positive emotions (hypomania). good slogans are “army! language! faith! away from moscow!”, “honest people prevail”. the first slogan, due to the concept of “staying away from the threat, the aggressor”, encourages to support it both men and women. however, the word “army” makes women feel anxious. the latter slogan encourages to support but is slightly stressful for all respondents. apparently, this is due to the fact that in the existing 'dishonest” circumstances of the deviant context, people have to break the far-fetched value and normative standards that are now adopted in society for the sake of survival. neither good nor bad slogans are “energy independence of ukraine” – it is neutral to positive for all, “faith protects our souls” – neutral to positive for men and at the same time encourages to support women “jobs or imf slavery?”– slightly stressful for all respondents, but encourages support in men and causes emotions in women, “powerful economy” – neutral to positive for all and especially encourages men to support. ambiguous slogans are “advance 2019”, “army! language! faith!”, “we go our own way!”, “army protects our land”, “high wages or high tariffs?”. the first three slogans encourage everyone to support them, but they make women feel considerably anxious. this is due to the army and the very likely death of their own children in the war. the last slogan motivates everyone to support it, but men feel anxious, and women relax. we believe it is due to the difficulty for men of this age to find a job with a decent salary being a real problem. but women carrying on a line have an innate tendency to live in luxury and comfort. the word “army” causes strong activation of right hemisphere, and it is an evidence of its depressive effect. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 114 ineffective slogan “language protects our hearts” encourages to support all respondents, but it is ineffective. most often, there is a reaction to the words “heart” and “language”. non-effective slogans are “we stopped default in 2014”, “minimum wages under the military contract to increase up to uah 10.000”. the most “indifferent” word among all slogans is “default”. people under study did not know this word's semantics. marketing trick “discount up ...” caused aversion, whereas the word “wages” caused increased attention of respondents. therefore, the last slogan neutralized itself with its inconsistency. from the economic point of view, the funds spent on advertising these slogans would be better deposited. it is obvious that the election teams spent someone's money on these slogans irrationally. “financial aid to keep your houses warm to grow to 2 billion uah” and “they fought for us to win” slogans have a negative effect. the first slogan is neutral for women and at the same time rather stressful for men. the latter is neutral for men and stressful for women. as you can see, this is an anti-propaganda at “own” expense. 4. conclusions 1. ux research allows finding out exactly a voter's preferences and what exactly in the slogan encourages a voter to support a candidate for the presidency. this allows adjusting the political advertising content, choosing the right words and competently building media planning. 2. ux research allows election teams to allocate funds rationally and, most importantly, achieve success easily. 3. the main objective of the empirical study is to establish neuropsycholinguistic means of reorganization of the key cognitive and emotional indicators to create an effective psychological impact on a voter’s behaviour. thus, in the western part of ukraine, the presence of the word “ukraine” clearly increases the effectiveness of slogans, as this word causes positive emotions and patriotic feelings that motivate people to act. “stopwords” that cause anxiety and discomfort in women are “army” and everything related to violence and death. but for men, “stop-word” has everything to do with providing material goods. women have a significant religious sentimentality, which can be skillfully used to encourage them to desired action. we have also noticed that one team creates slogans both effective and rather weak. marketing experts and psychologists are well research on the experience of users of political slogans in ukraine bohdan tkach, et al. 115 aware that one negative slogan neutralizes the positive one. therefore, we emphasize that we have studied the impact of each slogan separately without reference to a politician. after the election, it will be appropriate to consider integral impact of all slogans from one team on a voter in media planning. 4. it was established that in a consumer society’s electorate a victory is won not by ideologies or views, but by a public image of a person and a virtual image of the president from the movie “president is people’s servant”. 5. in order to win in elections in ukraine it is necessary to place strong emphasis mainly on emotions – to give positive impressions, and not on a rational component of ideology or a political program. acknowledgments the research was conducted within the framework of fundamental scientific practical themes of the g. s. kostiuk institute of psychology of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine (kyiv, ukraine), the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bogdan khmelnitsky (khmelnitsky, ukraine), the vasyl stefanyk prekarpathian national university (ivano-frankivsk, ukraine) and kherson state university (kherson, ukraine), the state registration number is 0119u101096. references abdiman, z. (2018). “inaugural address of the president of the republic of kazakhstan nursultan nazarbayev (1991-2015): genre peculiarities of inaugural discourse”, astra salvensis, 6(12), 19-33. https://astrasalvensis.eu/2018-2/ absher, j. r., & cloutier, j. (2016). neuroimaging personality, social cognition, and character. amsterdam: elsevier. https://www.elsevier.com/books/neuroimaging-personality-socialcognition-and-character/absher/978-0-12-800935-2 blynova, o., lappo, v., kalenchuk, v., agarkov, o., shramko, i., lymarenko, l., & popovych, i. (2020b). corporate culture of a higher education institution as a factor in forming students’ professional identity. revista inclusiones, 7(especial), 481-496. http://www.archivosrevistainclusiones.com/gallery/41%20vol%207%20 num%20especial%20euroasia.pdf bors, c. (2019). the importance of image when developing a powerful political brand. postmodern openings, 10(3), 72-85. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/82 https://astrasalvensis.eu/2018-2/ https://www.elsevier.com/books/neuroimaging-personality-social-cognition-and-character/absher/978-0-12-800935-2 https://www.elsevier.com/books/neuroimaging-personality-social-cognition-and-character/absher/978-0-12-800935-2 http://www.archivosrevistainclusiones.com/gallery/41%20vol%207%20num%20especial%20euroasia.pdf http://www.archivosrevistainclusiones.com/gallery/41%20vol%207%20num%20especial%20euroasia.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/82 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 116 insight. (2017). emotive. https://www.emotiv.com/insight/ isaienko, i. (2020). the crisis of power as a problem of the development of public administration in the postmodern world. postmodern openings, 11(3), 231243. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.3/210 khmiliar, o., popovych, i., hrys, a., pavliuk, m., zavatska, n., lytvynenko, o., & blynova, o. (2020). spatial regulation of personality behavior in the conditions of progression of the covid-19 pandemic. revista inclusiones, vol: 7 num especial, 289-306. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/gallery/23%20vol%207%20num%2 0octdic%20especial2020%20revisinclusiii.pdf khmil, v. v., & popovych, i. s. (2019). philosophical and psychological dimensions of social expectations of personality. anthropological measurements of philosophical research, 16, 55-65. https://doi.org/10.15802/ampr.v0i16.187540 kolb, b., & whishaw, i. q. (2015). fundamentals of human neuropsychology (7th ed.). new york: worth publishers. lytvynchuk, l. m. (2017). psychology of drug addict’s rehabilitation: monograph. zhytomyr: zhytomyr ivan franko state university. maksymenko, s. d. (2015). genesis of personality existence: monography. montreal: accent graphics communication. maksymenko, s., & orap, m. (2018). psycholinguistic predictors of health. psycholinguistics, 24(1), 252-268. https://doi.org/10.31470/23091797-2018-24-1-252-268 maksymenko, s., tkach, b., lytvynchuk, l., & onufriieva, l. (2019). neuropsycholinguistic study of political slogans in outdoor advertising. psycholinguistics, 26(1), 246-264. https://doi.org/10.31470/23091797-2019-26-1-246-264 nobre, k., & kaster, s. (2014). the oxford handbook of attention. new york: oxford university press. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/978019967 5111.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199675111 popovych, i. s. (2017). psychological dimensions of social expectations of personality. kherson: ktph. http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/handle/123456789/6466 tkach, b. m. (2018). neuropsychology of deviant behavior. lviv: atb ukrainian scientific educational consortium. http://odnb.odessa.ua/vnn/book/2975 world medical association declaration of helsinki. (2013). ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, 310(20), 2191-4. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281053 https://www.emotiv.com/insight/ https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.3/210 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/gallery/23%20vol%207%20num%20octdic%20especial2020%20revisinclusiii.pdf http://www.revistainclusiones.org/gallery/23%20vol%207%20num%20octdic%20especial2020%20revisinclusiii.pdf https://doi.org/10.15802/ampr.v0i16.187540 https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2018-24-1-252-268 https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2018-24-1-252-268 https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2019-26-1-246-264 https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2019-26-1-246-264 https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199675111.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199675111 https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199675111.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199675111 http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/handle/123456789/6466 http://odnb.odessa.ua/vnn/book/2975 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281053 research on the experience of users of political slogans in ukraine bohdan tkach, et al. 117 yadava, m., kumar, p., saini, r., roy, p. p., & dogra, d. p. (2017). “analysis of eeg signals and its application to neuromarketing”. multimedia and applications, 76(18), 19087-19111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-0174580-6 zasekina, l. v., & zasekin, s. v. (2008). psycholinguistic diagnostics. lutsk: vezha. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-017-4580-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-017-4580-6 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 114-126 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/127 the role of formative intervention in diabetes in primary and secondary school teachers maria-melania lica¹, annamaria porkolab 2 , irina muntean 3 *, adriana mihai 4 1 phd student, george emil palade” university of medicine, pharmacy, science and technology of tirgumures umfst, romania, melaniacozma76@gmail.com 2 phd student george emil palade” university of medicine, pharmacy, science and technology of tirgumures umfst, romania, annamariaporkolab@yahoo.com 3 primary physician diabetes and metabolic diseases, ascotid association of children and youth with diabetes, tirgu-mures, romania, irinagauca@yahoo.com 4 associate professor phd, department of psychiatry, ippd institute of psychotherapy and personal development, tirgu-mures, romania, dradrianamihai@yahoo.com abstract: the children with diabetes mellitus have often difficulties regarding school adaptation and integration, generated largely by the special conditions of the disease. on the other hand, how the child succeds in this adaptation, interferes with the management of chronic disease and the quality of his life. an important role for the child with diabetes in school is played by the head teachers.the informations about this disease and the attitude towards the children affected by this disease are important variables in this direction. the objective of our study is improving the teachers knowledge and attitude toward diabetes in children by providing quality information and practical intervention techniques. 86 head teachers from elementary and secondary schools were interviewed regarding their knowledge about diabetes in children, and participated to a formative course about this disease. after their participation in a theoretical and practical training course, their knowledge and their attitude have been improved considerably and the follow-up evaluation (after 3 months) indicated a stability of informations and practical techniques for granting first aid, over time. the conclusion is that formative intervention of teachers is an important step in helping children with diabetes to better school adaptation and, also in improving the quality of their life. keywords: diabetes mellitus; adaptation; quality of life; formative intervention. how to cite: vashdi, e., avramov, a., falatov, s., yi-chen, h., pei-ru, j., & mamina-chiriac, p.t. (2020). the role of formative intervention in diabetes in primary and secondary school teachers. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 114-126. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/127 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/127 mailto:melaniacozma76@gmail.com mailto:annamariaporkolab@yahoo.com mailto:irinagauca@yahoo.com mailto:dradrianamihai@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/127 the role of formative intervention in diabetes in primary and secondary … maria-melania lica, et al. 115 1. introduction the diabetes is a global problem that concerns not only medical systems and families, but societies from all the countries (international diabetes federationidf, 2019). the pathogenesis of diabetes appears to be due to an autoimmune mechanism of beta cells destruction, as the studies demonstarted (smeltzer & bare, 2008, pp. 1398-1401). even if this chronic disease is known already from a very long time and the medical technology has grown, the society is still not enough prepared to find solution for social problem regarding the children and adolescents with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (iddm). being a chronic disease, every new case means another life with special needs. the international society for pediatric and adolescent diabetes (ispad, 2000) proposed a guidelines to help health professionals in the corect care of young people with diabetes, and sustain the right to have a normal life. one of the most important arguments was that the quality of current disease management will be reflected on the adults’with iddm future health. the percentage of t1dm in childhood and adolescent is about 90%, of all patients with diabetes in this age group, and half of them are diagnosed before the age of 15 years (aanstoot et al., 2007, pp.1-44; lowes & lyne, 2000). in general, in this age range, children live and depend in many ways on their families (streisand & monaghan, 2014, p.520). the management of diabetes in children, especially the adherence to treatment and quality of life are two of the goals that both clinicians and the families of children with insulin dependent diabetes (iddm) have to take care (blood sugar level between 100-200 mg/dl, measured fourtime/day. (desroche & rovet, 2004) this fact is closely dependent on the neuro-cognitive, behavioral and emotional development level (aanstoot et al., 2007). in particular, he has referred about children under 6 years of age who have difficulty recognizing the symptoms of glycemic imbalance, with negative consequences on the management of the disease (hypoglycemic coma, ketoacidosis, retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, neuro-cognitive disorders, or even death). also, all age groups are exposed to the same risk. the responsibility of the diabetes daily management belongs to the parents and consists in blood glucose measurement, insulin dosing and administration, calculation of carbohydrates in the diet, close connected with blood sugar level and insulin units administrated, and also regular physical exercises (american diabetes association, 2013, pp. 11-66). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 116 northam et al. (1996) studied how children and their parents are affected by the disease and which are the variables involved in better adapting to the disease and to treatment. along with psychological and family factors, the social factors have an important role; those includes both health system policies, economic facilities and access to health services, as well as the general and specific attitude of society towards children and young people with diabetes. social perception and attitude have the power to influence the feeling of self-efficacy (hanson et al., 1990; hilliard et al., 2011). guthrie et al. (2003) considers that children with diabetes feels that they are different, and this observation an overlap with the perception of the people around, which deeppens the belief of non-belonging. in the last decade, has been highlighted the need for good practices that facilitate the integration in the mass schools children with different medical conditions or/and disabilities and increase their social insertion. the objective of the organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd, 2006) is to facilitate equal rights for all the children and same opportunities to education. this rights are also provided in the romanian education law number 84/1995. since the onset of the disease, children and their parents are facing challenges related to accepting the disease and adapting to the new condition, without giving up the old life either. when the children have to go to school, the most important concern of them, but especially of their parents is hypoglycemia (herbert et al., 2015; linda et al., 2015). this situation is characterized by an excessive decrease in glycemic value of 60-70 mg/dl and has symptoms as sweating, hunger, pale skin, irritability, shakiness, irregular heartbeat. sometimes the symptoms include confusion, visual disturbance or loss of consciousness (smeltzer et al., 2008, p. 1432). the immediate intervention is important by taking sugar or, in case of severe hypoglicaemia, medication (glucagon) (ada, 2013). parents’ fear is in relation with the quality of life, and, most of the time, it is fueled by awareness of the limited condition that the school is prepared to respond to the real needs of children with diabetes. the identified problems for which the research was carried out were that many children with iddm encounter difficulties and barriers at school to test their blood sugar, to administer insulin under hygienic conditions, to correct hypoglycemia during class hours, to have help from the assistant or school doctor, under the conditions of autonomy insufficiently developed, to participate in sports activities and trips, all these with negative consequences on the management of the disease and the quality of life. on the other hand, diabetes is often the theme of bullying in children in schools. the role of formative intervention in diabetes in primary and secondary … maria-melania lica, et al. 117 2. material and method our research is a descriptive study on the impact of teachers’ education on diabetes in children through a basic theoretical and practical course, provided by a specialist. sample, (n=86) was taken from accessible teachers from elementary and secondary schools from mures county, who agree to participate to our study. the inclusion criterion was to work as a teacher in elementary or secondary school. the participants offered consent and no personally identifiable data was collected or published. there were no material benefits or conflict assigned for the participants. the risk factor that was considered was to have reduced response rates, or no sincerely answers. research hypothesis: through the participation of primary and secondary school teachers in a training course, they will improve their knowledge about iddm and acquire a positive attitude towards children affected by this chronic disease. objective: ● to evaluate the teachers knowledge / conceptions of about the disease and illness in iddm ● to evaluate the knowledge about diet in insulin-dependent diabetes ● to evaluate practical recognition and intervention skills in case of hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia ● to evaluate the teachers involvement / responsibility in supporting children with iddm ● to increase the degree of teachers involvement and responsibility towards students with iddm a semi structured interview consisting of 18 structured questions and one question with open answer was applied, to evaluate the level of teachers' knowledge and attitude towards diabetes in children (pupils) (t1) (figure 1.). all teachers participated in 3 sessions of a 2-hour training course (1 session/month) designed and coordinated by a specialist in diabetes. follow-up: one month after the last session, a retest was performed, using the same questions to verify the knowledge acquired through learning (course), as well as the attitude towards children with iddm and their special condition and the stability of informations. (t2). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 118 figure 1. issues pursued in the interview’s questions source: authors'own contribution 1) the cause of diabetes in children 10) children’s participation in trips /camps 2) the role of insulin attention 11) the ability of children with iddm to focus 3) diet in iddm diabetes 12) blood glucose measurement 4) intervention in hypoglycemia 13) sports and physical activity 5) carbohydrates 14) the role of emotional balance 6) intervention in hyperglycemia 15) informing others about diagnosis 7) carbohydrate intake after insulin 16) the importance of knowing about iddm 8) the symptoms of hypoglycemia 17) child’s behavioral at school 9) the symptoms of hyperglycemia 18) child with iddm in class four variants of helpful answers were made available to teachers in order to facilitate the participation and the quantitative and qualitative processing and discussion of the results. the answer were grouped in ,,a”, ,,b”,, wrong answers”, ,,c”good answer and ,, d”-,, i don’t know”/ ,, i refuse to answer”. 3. results before intervention (t1) (figure 2), the percentage of those who had erroneous knowledge about the cause of diabetes were 72%; the role of insulin was known only by 17.4 % of total of teacher ( n=86). 66% thought that children with diabetes cannot eat normal food, just like other people, and 23.2 % thought that they were forbidden to eat carbohydrates. about the attitude to have when a child has hypoglycemia, 51.1 % decided to,, call child’s parents to decide what to do “, and 23,2 % ,,don’t know what to do”. 44.1 % affirmed that,, there are just one type of carbohydrates. the question nr.7 investigates teachers’ attitude regarding,, when and if the child did eat after insulin administration”; 32.5 % believes that children with diabetes don’t have to be observed, 11.6% doesn’t consider to be their responsibility and 25.5 doesn’t know. almost double was the percentage of teacher who doesn’t know or not enough about symptoms of hypoglycemia. 27.9 % confused the symptoms of hypoglycemia with those of hyperglycemia. 45.2 % doesn’t consider that a child with diabetes can go in a school trip, unless accompanied by his parents (10.4%). 26.6% doesn’t believes that hypo-/ hyper-glycemia could influence the ability to focus attention. 44,1 % claim that blood glucose measurement have to be done just in the morning or when taking insulin, and only 46 % believes that a child with diabetes can do physical exercises. regarding the relationship between emotional balance and glycemia, 32.4 thought that,, there is no relation between the role of formative intervention in diabetes in primary and secondary … maria-melania lica, et al. 119 them”. only 55.8 % affirmed that other teacher and classmates have to know about the diagnosis if a child has diabetes. figure 2. source: authors'own contribution legend: 1) the cause of diabetes in children 10) children’s participation in trips/ camps 2) the role of insulin 11) the ability of children to focus attention 3) diet in iddm diabetes 12) blood glucose measurement 4) intervention in hypoglycemia 13) sports and physical activity 5) carbohydrates 14) the role of emotional balance 6) intervention in hyperglycemia 15) informing others about diagnosis 7) carbohydrate intake after insulin 16) the importance of knowing about iddm 8) the symptoms of hypoglycemia 17) child’s behavioral at school 9) the symptoms of hyperglycemia 18) child with iddm in class ite m1 ite m2 ite m3 ite m4 ite m5 ite m6 ite m7 ite m8 ite m9 ite m10 ite m11 ite m12 ite m13 ite m14 ite m15 ite m16 ite m17 ite m18 a 33.7 50.0 66.2 6.98 44.1 18.6 32.5 2.33 2.33 10.4 10.4 29.0 1.16 16.2 6.98 4.65 1.16 34.8 b 38.3 17.4 23.2 51.1 11.6 11.6 11.6 25.5 27.9 34.8 16.2 15.1 19.7 16.2 30.2 3.49 15.1 31.4 c 16.2 17.4 8.14 18.6 29.0 43.0 30.2 44.1 45.3 53.4 47.6 29.0 46.5 45.3 55.8 88.3 73.2 27.9 d 11.6 15.1 2.33 23.2 15.1 26.7 25.5 27.9 24.4 1.16 25.5 26.7 32.5 22.0 6.98 3.49 10.4 5.81 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 % distribution of the values of the answers to the interview questions before intervention t 1 (%) brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 120 after the 3 session of course (two theoretical courses, and one consisting in practical applications), the teachers were interviewed again (t2), using the same semi-structured interview. the results were grouped in figure 3. the results at this stage indicates that the percentage of good answers increased significantly in almost all questions, except for items 16,10,18, problems regarding the teachers’ attachment attitude towards the problems of children with iddm , respectively the confidence that they perceive with the management of crises situations in diabetes (hypoglycemia /hyperglycemia). also, the percentage of those who refused to answer or stated that they,, did not know” was very low after intervention. figure 3. source: authors'own contribution legend: 1) the cause of diabetes in children 10) children’s participation in trips/ camps 2) the role of insulin 11) the ability of children to focus attention 3) diet in iddm diabetes 12) blood glucose measurement 4) intervention in hypoglycemia 13) sports and physical activity 5) carbohydrates 14) the role of emotional balance item 1 item 2 item 3 item 4 item 5 item 6 item 7 item 8 item 9 item 10 item 11 item 12 item 13 item 14 item 15 item 16 item 17 item 18 a 0.00 6.98 31.4 0.00 52.3 0.00 34.8 4.65 10.4 0.00 1.16 0.00 0.00 5.81 4.65 0.00 0.00 18.6 b 34.8 4.65 18.6 11.6 0.00 1.16 5.81 0.00 2.33 36.0 24.4 27.9 27.9 22.0 6.98 0.00 2.33 36.0 c 65.1 87.2 50.0 88.3 47.6 98.8 59.3 94.1 84.8 63.9 74.4 72.0 70.9 72.0 88.3 100. 97.6 31.4 d 0.00 1.16 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.16 2.33 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.16 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10.4 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 % distribution of the values of the answers to the interview questions after intervention t2 (%) the role of formative intervention in diabetes in primary and secondary … maria-melania lica, et al. 121 6) intervention in hyperglycemia 15) informing others about diagnosis 7) carbohydrate intake after insulin 16) the importance of knowing about iddm 8) the symptoms of hypoglycemia 17) child’s behavioral at school 9) the symptoms of hyperglycemia 18) child with iddm in class there are a lot of differences between the teachers’ answers from the first interview (t2) and the second one (t2), presented in figure 4. the values of,, good answers” were increased significantly. the differences, in descending order, could be better observed in figure 5. on the first place are the knowledge about insulin, followed by interventions and symptoms in case of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia, blood glucose measurement and what the children with iddm could eat, carbohydrate intake after insulin. these items are specifically important for defining the ability to intervene in glycemic management. the ability to focus attention and understand the relationship between emotion and glycemia balance, and how behavior could be influenced by all this variables, are important in define the relationship between teachers and children with iddm, and in teachers’ intervention rate in crises. figure 4. the percentage off the correct answers before and after the intervention source: authors'own contribution 16.28 17.44 8.14 18.60 29.07 43.02 30.23 44.19 45.35 53.49 47.67 29.07 46.51 45.35 55.81 88.37 73.26 27.91 65.12 87.21 50.00 88.37 47.67 98.84 59.30 94.19 84.88 63.95 74.42 72.09 70.93 72.09 88.37 100.00 97.67 31.40 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 it e m 1 it e m 2 it e m 3 it e m 4 it e m 5 it e m 6 it e m 7 it e m 8 it e m 9 it e m 1 0 it e m 1 1 it e m 1 2 it e m 1 3 it e m 1 4 it e m 1 5 it e m 1 6 it e m 1 7 it e m 1 8 % axis title procentul răspunsurilor corecte după intervenție procentul răspunsurilor corecte înainte de intervenție brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 122 figure 5. source: authors'own contribution legend: 2)the role of insulin 15) informing others about diagnosis 4)intervention in hypoglycemia 7) carbohydrate intake after insulin 6)intervention in hyperglycemia 11) the ability to focus attention 8)the symptoms of hypoglycemia 14) the role of emotional balance 1)the cause of diabetes in children 13) sports and physical activity 12)blood glucose measurement 17) child’s behavioral at school 3)diet in iddm diabetes 5) simple carbohydrates -examples 9)the symptoms of hyperglycemia 16)the importance of informations about dm to find out the number of subjects who have changed their opinions / knowledge about the diabetes mellitus tip 1 (iddm) after the participation in the course / intervention, and if this change is statistically significant we applied and processed the mcnemar test. in each table (according to item no.) the number of subjects who changed their opinion / knowledge appears, in the sense that they initially gave incorrect answers (a, b, d) and after the course they opted for the correct answer (c). the table below shows the total number of subjects who participated in the intervention (n = 86), the chi-square value for each comparison and the related value of the significance level (sig.). because the values are less than 0.05 in almost every situation (except items 10 and 18), it turns out that item 2 item 4 item 6 item 8 item 1 item 12 item 3 item 9 item 15 item 7 item 11 item 14 item 13 item 17 item 5 item 16 item 10 item 18 series1 69.7 69.7 55.8 50.0 48.8 43.0 41.8 39.5 32.5 29.0 26.7 26.7 24.4 24.4 18.6 11.6 10.4 3.49 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 graph regarding the distribution of the values of the differences of the answers before and after the intervention in descending order (%) the role of formative intervention in diabetes in primary and secondary … maria-melania lica, et al. 123 the data obtained are statistically significant (figure 6.), which confirms the hypothesis that through the participation of primary and secondary school teachers in a training course, they will improve their knowledge about iddm and acquire an active and positive attitude towards children affected by this chronic disease. figure 6. source: authors'own contribution 4. discutions there were important changes in teachers knowledge about diabetes in children, after they have participate to the course, learn about interventions in case of hypo-or hyperglycemia, and experimented how to make their intervention in critical moments; they had, also, the possibilities to ask questions and receive professional answers to unclear issues, express their fears and inabilities, describe school issues and how prepared they are to receive and to help a child with diabetes in school. the insignificant difference observed in both test statistics a (1 )t 1 & t 2 (3 ) t 1 & t 2 (4 ) t 1 & t 2 (5 ) t 1 & t 2 (7 ) t 1 & t 2 (8 ) t 1 & t 2 (9 ) t 1 & t 2 (1 0 ) t 1 & t 2 (1 1 ) t 1 & t 2 (1 2 ) t 1 & t 2 & (1 3 ) t 1 & t 2 (1 4 ) t 1 & t 2 (1 5 ) t 1 & t 2 (1 6 ) t 1 & t 2 (1 7 ) t 1 & t 2 (1 8 )t 1 & t 2 n 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 chisquare b 38,20 5 32,23 7 58,01 7 19,86 2 41,02 3 30,25 0 1,93 9 35,02 7 16,69 0 24,30 0 1,24 1 asym p. sig. ,000 ,000 ,000 ,000 ,000 ,000 ,164 ,000 ,000 ,000 ,265 exact sig. (2tailed) ,002 c ,000 c ,000 c ,002 c ,000 c a. mcnemar test b. continuity corrected c. binomial distribution used. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 124 item 10 and item 18, suggests the persistence of a concern related to the management of a child (pupil) with diabetes. they justify this fear through as an important responsibility, associated with problems in the romanian education system, such as the obligation to serve more schools in the same didactic norm ( same day, many times), lot of ,,papers” (bureaucratization), complicated curriculum, to many children in every class, insufficient medical staff, school structures with inadequate spaces. the primary and secundary school teachers declared that they have to cope with lot of problems and challenges in daily work, by organizing and teaching curricular activities, because overcrowded classes, busy curriculum in all subjects. in the primary and secondary school in romania, the emphasis is on the acquisition of information and less on the curricular adaptation for special needs, or formation of life skills in children. our study does not intend to burden the teachers with other responsabilites, but to highlight the importance of continuing education in order to better integrate the children with iddm in schools. 5. conclusions there are many problems that concern both families of children with diabetes, and the school teachers, too. the children and their families are concerned about the difficulties of managing the disease, but also about the social barriers that make it difficult to achieve goals and meet personal needs, respect for the right to harmonious development and personal succes. the difficulties related to the insertion in the school and its adaptation to the special needs of some children are often translated by lack of communication, marginalization, absenteeism. in this context, it is important to train teachers not only to improve knowledge and acquire higher degrees in education, but above to acquire knowledge and practical skills to facilitate the acces of all children to education and social integration. also the confidence of children with diabetes to ask for help when they need and, in the same time, to live a normal life in their age group are two important goals of autonomy training in children with chronic disease. the teacher attitude could be a possitive model for children development relationships. references aanstoot, h. j., anderson, b., daneman, d., danne,t., donaghue, k., kaufman, f.,et al. (2007). the global burden of youth diabetes: perspectives and the role of formative intervention in diabetes in primary and secondary … maria-melania lica, et al. 125 potential. pediatric diabetes, 8(suppl 8), 1-44. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-5448.2007.00326.x american diabetes association (ada) (2013). standards of medical care in diabetes.. diabetes care, 36(1),s11–s66. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc13-s011 desrocher, m., & rovet, j. (2004). neurocognitive correlates of type 1 diabetes mellitus in childhood. child neuropsychology, 10(1),36– 52. https://doi.org/10.1076/chin.10.1.36.26241 guthrie, d. w., bartsocas, c., przemyslawa jarosz-chabot, p., & konstantinova, m. (2003). psychosocial issues for children and adolescents with diabetes: overview and recommendations. diabetes spectrum, 16(1), 7-12. https://doi.org/10.2337/diaspect.16.1.7 hanson, c. l., rodrigue,j. r., henggeler, s. w., harris, m. a., klesges, r. c., & carle, d. l. (1990). the perceived self-competence of adolescents with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus: deficit or strength? journal of pediatric psychology, 15,605–618. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/15.5.605 herbert, l. j., clary, l., owen, v., monaghan, m., alvarez, v., & streisand, r. (2015). relations among school/daycare functioning, fear of hypoglycaemia and quality of life in parents of young children with type 1 diabetes. journal of clinical nursing, 24(9-10), 1199–1209. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12658 hilliard, m. e., monaghan, m., cogen, f. r., & streisand, r. (2011). parent stress and child behaviour among young children with type 1 diabetes. child: care, health and development, 37(2), 224–232. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.13652214.2010.01162.x international diabetes federation. (2019). idf diabetes atlas (9th ed.). brussels, belgium. https://www.diabetesatlas.org/en/ ispad. (2000). consensus guidelines for the management of type 1 diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents. http://www.diabetesguidelines.com/health/dkw/ pro/guidelines/ispad/ispad/asp linda, j., herbert, l. c., owen, v., monaghan, m., alvarez, v., & streisand, r. (2015). relations among school/daycare functioning, fear of hypoglycaemia and quality of life in parents of young children with type 1 diabetes. journal of clinical nursing, 24(9-10), 1199-1209. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12658 lowes, l., & lyne, p. (2000). chronic sorrow in parents of children with newly diagnosed diabetes: a review of the literature and discussion of the implications for nursing practice. journal of advanced nursing, 32, 41–48. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01418.x northam, e., anderson, p., adler, r., werther, g., & warne, g. (1996). psychosocial and family functioning in children with insulin-dependent https://www.researchgate.net/journal/1399-543x_pediatric_diabetes https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-5448.2007.00326.x https://doi.org/10.2337/dc13-s011 https://doi.org/10.1076/chin.10.1.36.26241 https://doi.org/10.2337/diaspect.16.1.7 https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/15.5.605 https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12658 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2214.2010.01162.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2214.2010.01162.x https://www.diabetesatlas.org/en/ http://www.diabetesguidelines.com/health/dkw/pro/guidelines/ispad/ispad/asp http://www.diabetesguidelines.com/health/dkw/pro/guidelines/ispad/ispad/asp https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=herbert+lj&cauthor_id=25047499 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=owen+v&cauthor_id=25047499 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=monaghan+m&cauthor_id=25047499 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=alvarez+v&cauthor_id=25047499 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=streisand+r&cauthor_id=25047499 https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12658 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01418.x brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 126 diabetes at diagnosis and one year later. journal of pediatric psychology, 21, 699–717. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/21.5.699 oecd. (2006). education policies for student at risk and those with disabilities in south eastern europe: bosnia-herzegovina, bulgaria, croatia, kosovo, fyr of macedonia, moldova, montenegro, romania and serbia. oecd publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264036161-en smeltzer, s. c., bare, b. g., hinkle, j. l., & cheever, k. h. (2008). brunner & suddarth’s textbook of medical-surgical nursing, 11th ed. lippincott williams & wilkins usa. streisand, r., & monaghan, m. (2014). young children with type 1 diabetes: challenges, research, and future directions. current diabetes reports, 14(9), p. 520. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-014-0520-2 https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/21.5.699 https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264036161-en https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=streisand%20r%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=25009119 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-014-0520-2 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 188-201 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/276 neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among university students olha yadlovska¹, yuliia formaniuk2, yuliia chystovska3, leonid nikolaiev4, liliia boiaryn5, nataliia mateiko6 1 dnipropetrovsk state university of internal affairs, ukraine, yadlovska54@ukr.net 2 national university “odesa law academy”, ukraine, julia.formanyuk@gmail.com 3 bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, ukraine, j.chystovska@ukr.net 4 hryhorii skovoroda university in pereiaslav, ukraine, leonid.nikolaiev@gmail.com 5 institute of postgraduate pedagogical education of chernivtsi region, ukraine, lvm.cv.ua@ukr.net 6 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, mnm2807@ukr.net abstract: the article is dedicated to the problem of theoretical study and development of methodical recommendations on neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among students of higher education establishments. the concept of neuropsychological symptom complex of emotional burnout syndrome at the emotional, cognitive and behavioral levels associated with the rigidity of psychological defense mechanisms and psychosomatic disorders has been clarified. neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout is described, taking into account scientific data on the structural and functional organization of the cerebral hemispheres, which affect individual psychological differences in overcoming the syndrome of physical exhaustion. the phases and factors of emotional burnout development among students are indicated. neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among students is presented as a set of measures, with complication of the proposed techniques, taking into account an individual approach and personal resources, motivation to overcome stress, interests and needs of students. recommendations for normalization of emotional exhaustion among students by modern foreign and domestic researchers are summarized. keywords: stress resistance, emotional and physical exhaustion, neuropsychological techniques, hemispheric asymmetry, academic progress, emotional response to stress, professional burnout, psychophysiological features of a person. how to cite: yadlovska, o., formaniuk, y., chystovska, y., nikolaiev, l., boiaryn, l., & mateiko, n. (2022). neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among university students. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 188-201. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/276 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/276 mailto:yadlovska54@ukr.net mailto:julia.formanyuk@gmail.com mailto:j.chystovska@ukr.net mailto:leonid.nikolaiev@gmail.com mailto:lvm.cv.ua@ukr.net mailto:mnm2807@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/276 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 189 introduction so far in ukraine the influence of pandemics and reforms in education is noticeable not only in social transformations, but also on essential changes of social-psychological and emotional-personal characteristics of students. learning conditions with information and psychophysiological stress, psychological crises at the stages of professional development in a stressful educational environment require from future professionals a high level of emotional resilience and cause psychological trends in their stress resilience – in the form of constant self-training and neuropsychological activation of mental health defense mechanisms, health consciousness that is in the priority of self-sufficient, active, harmonious student personality. psychological analysis of scientific research on stress resistance as a factor of preventing and overcoming the primary phase of emotional burnout of ukrainian youth allows successful development and implementation of neuropsychological projects to preserve the mental health of future professionals as a factor in ensuring their successful professional development and educational process at higher education establishments. an important criterion for the success of these projects is human resources, in particular students’ awareness of the importance of developing emotional resilience in the educational and professional environment through their cooperation with senior partners. unfortunately, the scientific literature does not sufficiently cover the issue of neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among students at higher education establishments. instead, there is a large number of them about issues studied in detail of the psychophysiological characteristics of people who are prone to emotional exhaustion and development of stress resilience among students, which is specifically related to understanding the neuropsychological causes of the origins and overcoming emotional burnout among students (bakhmat, 2019; bezliudnyi, 2019; maksymchuk, 2020b; nerubasska et al., 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020). modern researchers consider stress resistance as the ability to withstand stress – a frequent cause of emotional burnout; as a complex integral property of personality, which is interconnected with a set of intellectual, cognitive, emotional and personal qualities that provide an individual with the ability to withstand significant mental, physical, volitional and emotional stress, while maintaining effective functionality in stressful situations. all of them are manifested through individual experience of the neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among … olha yadlovska, et al. 190 student’s personality, the ability to overcome the state of emotional excitement when performing complex tasks, the ability to control emotional response to stressors, psychophysiological parameters, neuropsychological competence in overcoming stress as a response to emotional burnout (gerasymova et al., 2019; nerubasska & maksymchuk 2020b; maksymchuk et al., 2020a; onishchuk et al., 2020; sheremet et al., 2019). in adolescence, along with educational crises, a natural phenomenon is the normative identity crisis, when social and biological factors are included in determination of personality of the future specialist. young people try to apply certain strategies and use personal resources to reduce psycho-emotional tension and restore emotional balance in a crisis situation. not always the chosen cognitive or behavioral strategies have an adaptive result, especially for freshmen. moreover, the launched mechanism of maladaptation from a number of chronic stresses can turn into a syndrome of “emotional burnout”, which in the phase of psychosomatic disorders is extremely capable of depleting the nervous system, therefore it is very important to carry out neuropsychological preventive treatment of this condition among students of higher education establishments which is undoubtedly an urgent applied problem in neuropsychological science and in the work of psychological services at higher education establishments. theoretical and methodological analysis of the study of neuropsychological means of preventive treatment and overcoming emotional burnout among students it can be predicted that physical and intellectual stress of technical and medical professionals, the intensity of psycho-emotional communication among socio-humanitarian professionals in combination with neuropsychological features of their temperament, excessive introversion or psychological unpreparedness for unexpected emotional and cognitive stress will cause manifestations of occupational psychological syndrome of emotional burnout. in our opinion, the risk group with symptoms of this condition includes those individuals who have a neuropsychological predisposition (with psychophysiological and individual psychological characteristics and their corresponding cognitive styles in the assessment of stressful situations and emotional disorders, etc.) to the development of the syndrome of professional burnout. emotional exhaustion can be caused by a set of reasons that have a negative impact on the human organism and psychological health: neurotic traits, internal conflicts with exacerbation of internal personality contradictions, chronic stress under the simultaneous action of several stressful social stimuli from different spheres of life, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 191 absence of protective biological hormonal, psychophysiological and mental mechanisms to counteract depletion of vital forces. neuropsychological preventive treatment of this phenomenon among students is especially important for overcoming emotional exhaustion and preventing the occurrence of possible depressive conditions against the background of emotional burnout syndrome. the term “burnout” has appeared in the psychological literature relatively recently. it was proposed by the american psychiatrist h. froudenberger in 1974. with this term the author defined psychological state of healthy people who are in intensive and close communication with patients (clients) and emotionally charged atmosphere performing their professional rounds. in the scientific psychological literature, the emotional burnout syndrome is considered as a mechanism of psychological protection in the form of partial or complete exclusion of emotions to traumatic events; or in response to chronic stress, which contains three components: performance impairment, dehumanization or depersonalization of interpersonal relationships, and cognitive, physical, and emotional exhaustion as a leading factor in all other symptoms. prolonged stress and mental overload can cause disintegration of various areas of mental activity, especially emotional. emotional exhaustion is the main component of “professional burnout”, which manifests itself in experiencing low emotional tone, loss of interest in others, dissatisfaction with oneself and activities on the background of anxiety and depression, indifference or emotional oversaturation, aggressive reactions, outbursts of anger. as a dynamic process, this phenomenon occurs in stages, in accordance with consistent development of increased nervous tension (chemali et al., 2019; ilyin, 2013; kokun, 2013; kustova, 2016; vodopyanova & starchenkova, 2011). empirical studies of the symptoms of emotional burnout among students by modern domestic scientists have identified those factors that are really stressful for students and can cause serious violations in the professional life of students, in particular to the development of emotional burnout among students of psychology lead to: inadequate selective emotional response; expanding the scope of saving emotions, emotional and moral disorientation, reduction of professional responsibilities, selfdissatisfaction, social frustration, psychomatic and autonomic disorders, anxiety and depression, emotional alienation (mudryk, 2013). empirical studies of the symptoms of emotional burnout among students by modern domestic scientists have identified those factors that are really stressful for students and can cause serious violations in the professional life of students, in particular to the development of emotional burnout among students of neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among … olha yadlovska, et al. 192 psychology lead to: inadequate selective emotional response; expanding the scope of saving emotions, emotional and moral disorientation, reduction of professional responsibilities, self-dissatisfaction, social frustration, psychomatic and autonomic disorders, anxiety and depression, emotional alienation (mudryk, 2013). also interesting is the study of emotional burnout among students conducted by boni et al. (2018). according to the researchers, freshmen are more prone to emotional exhaustion due to beliefs and the motivational attitudes and expectations they received in school. these findings reinforce the need to establish preventive measures focused on the personal qualities of the first-year students, providing better performance, motivation, optimism and empathy in subsequent courses. phases of development of emotional burnout among students: 1. tension, which is formed due to chronic intense psycho-emotional atmosphere of learning, a high level of demands and complications in interaction with the environment. the student experiences chronic dissatisfaction with one’s own learning activities and oneself as a subject, anxiety and depression become a constant emotional accompaniment to learning. 2. resistance, during which student tries to protect oneself to some extent from unpleasant impressions, external influences, to spend as little time as possible on educational duties. 3. exhaustion as a global loss of student’s mental resources, decreased emotional tone, automatism, devastation in performance of educational duties, emotional alienation and depersonalization as a protective barrier in educational communications, psychosomatic disorders (deterioration of physical well-being, sleep disorders, headache, problems with blood pressure, gastric disorders, exacerbation of chronic diseases, etc.). in addition, normative crises of vocational training among certain students can also transform into a syndrome of emotional burnout. the most dangerous consequences of emotional burnout are the student’s devaluation of their educational and professional achievements, self-disappointment, decreased efficiency and vitality, depressive experiences. typical means of preventing emotional burnout of students are use of mastering behavior during crises of professional training, harmonization of life and professional values, harmonization of academic and professional self-esteem, level of demands, proper organization of recreation and leisure (boyko, 1996; serhieienkova & stoliarchuk, 2017). the emergence of psycho-emotional stress in an individual is associated with the mechanisms of interaction of brain hemispheres, the lower parts of the brain structure, especially the hypothalamus. the urgency brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 193 of this issue is important for organization of cognitive and educational activities of students and its study is essentially one of the main neuropsychological factors in prevention of emotional burnout. psychoemotional stress is accompanied mainly by activation of the right hemisphere of the brain, so left-handed students need special attention. it can be predicted that they may be prone to neurotic experiences of stressful events against the background of hormonal metabolic disorders. disturbances in the regulatory function of emotions, psychophysiological characteristics, stress of the body’s adaptive systems are associated with the emergence of neurotic reactions of individual, which under the influence of his individual psychological qualities are modified into variable responses as reactions to stress and reflect in the symptom complex of emotional burnout mostly among the “right hemispheric” individuals. thus, the symptom complex of emotional burnout of individuals with respective functional asymmetry of the brain is a neuropsychological cause of maladaptation of students, which requires development of socio-psychological training with neuropsychological exercises by psychological services of higher education establishments. of course, the program of neuropsychological prevention treatment of emotional burnout for students of higher education establishments should be developed on the basis of conceptual theoretical and methodological principles of studying this issue. thus, in domestic and foreign psychology, neuropsychology and psychophysiology, the relationship between hemispheric brain asymmetry with cognitive and individual psychological characteristics of individuals was studied by kenneth hugdahl (2005), chuprykov et al. (2011), semenovich (2018), antropova et al. (2011), and with emotional self-regulation – allen and kline (2004), davidson et al.,(2007), neurodynamic features of professional development of specialists in professions such as “person-person” – kokun (2013), optimization of stress resistance of higher education establishments’ students in the process of their professional development – afanasenko et al. (2018), models of emotional burnout and technologies of its prevention and overcoming, mainly with techniques of self-recovery and neuropsychological exercises (vodopyanova & starchenkova, 2008), phases of deployment of emotional burnout among students (boyko, 1996), crises of professional training as a basis for emotional burnout among students (serhieienkova & stoliarchuk, 2017). hemispheric asymmetry of the brain in adults is a complex product of psychosocial mechanisms. the basics of functional specialization of the hemispheres are innate, but in the process of ontogenesis their complication neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among … olha yadlovska, et al. 194 occurs, which leads to the development of a certain profile of hemispheric asymmetry and hemispheric interaction (laterality). functional asymmetry of the brain is one of the factors of adaptation in the conditions of effective organization of educational activity. the analysis of the conducted scientific researches has shown that regular connections of lateral profiles with some mental processes (cognitive, regulatory, styles of emotional reaction) are established. in this regard, the results of an empirical study of the relationship between functional asymmetry and creativity of antropova et al. (2011) showed that the indicators of the right hemisphere related to intuition, which can be considered as an indicator of creative thinking; the left hemisphere is associated with high adaptability, emotional comfort and internality, stress resistance, optimism, self-confidence, consistency and perseverance in achieving goals, a high level of subjective control over significant events. analysis of scientific data shows that individuals with dominance of the right hemisphere are characterized by high anxiety of the emotional-vegetative type, so the right hemisphere is associated with negative emotions, a high tendency to depression. individuals with a rightsided profile in conflict situations choose unconstructive tactics of avoidance, competition, adaptation, with a left-sided profile cooperation, compromise, positive change in a stressful situation (antropova et al., 2011). vodopyanova and starchenkova (2008) also claim that the higher the creative potential, the lower the level of emotional burnout and greater satisfaction with the quality of life (vodopyanova and starchenkova, 2008, p. 79). from this fact it follows that for the preventive treatment of emotional burnout among students, in our opinion, it is appropriate to apply not only the correct alternation of workloads with rest, but also relaxation selftraining and affective correction training with introduction of practical professional tasks of creative content, attract young people by creative projects and competitions taking into account their professional level. involving them in the cultural activities of a higher education establishment will also be important for the emotionally rich life of students. according to vasconcelos et al. (2019) and tomaschewski-barlem, et al. (2013) in the preventive treatment of emotional burnout among students, especially graduates of both private and public educational establishments it is necessary to promote their professional education, competently taking into account the methodology of teaching disciplines at university, integrated combination of theory and practice, stressful emotional situations with empathy for suffering people and individual psychological characteristics of future professionals in order to help them manage stress during study for bachelor’s and master’s degrees. schaufeli et al. (2002) brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 195 suggest paying special attention to the factors of emotional burnout among students: selective emotional response to stress, especially in manifestations of cynicism as dehumanization, emotional exhaustion, excessive desire to achieve efficiency in activities. researchers describe in detail the methods (psychotechnics) of selfregulation according to the tasks of correction of mental state of neuropsychological orientation as prevention treatment and overcoming of emotional burnout: reduction of excitement (relaxation physical exercises, distraction or switching of attention, breathing exercises); resource mobilization (ideomotor training, recollection of feelings about one’s confidence, means of sensory and mental stimulation, heterosuggestion); mental desensitization (self-suggestion of confidence and neutral attitude to stressors, the formula of intentional passive attitude); elimination of emotional stress (hetero-musical psychoregulation, methods of relaxation and psychological protection); recovery (inspired by sleep and rapid revival, meditation); “toning” (representation of psychophysiological state that excites certain body functions heart rate, blood pressure, motor, sensory and other functions; ideomotor training as a figurative representation of motor actions that increase physical and emotional tone; figurative representations of situations that can cause an increase in psychophysical tone); regulation of autonomic processes (autogenic training, hetero regulation, breathing exercises to manage mental stress and mood). to expand the resource of “anti-burnout” it is appropriate to detect irrational thoughts and beliefs in oneself and master the principles and techniques of positive thinking, to conduct self-analysis of internal dialogue and eliminate self-abasement and self-flagellation, use problem-oriented coping as cognitive and behavioral efforts to solve stressful situations (vodopyanova & starchenkova, 2008). neurobiological mechanisms of emergence and development of positive emotions have been studied by the western researchers jeffrey burgdorf and jaak panksepp (2006). in their study, they point to the connection of parts of the limbic system, cortex and subcortical formations with the system of cognitive evaluation of one’s emotions, psycho-emotional stress and its relaxation and describe how emotional phenomena are carried out through systemic brain mechanisms. undoubtedly, systematic scientific ideas about the relationship of emotions contribute to effective application of the neuropsychological approach in the work of educators to study individual characteristics of the emotional sphere, which opens up new opportunities for introduction of innovative technologies in the neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among … olha yadlovska, et al. 196 development of programs for neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among students. the purpose of developing measures to optimize adaptation of freshmen at the initial stage of professional development and increase their stress resistance may be neuropsychological support, in particular development of skills for keeping in the psychological comfort zone: 1) scanning one’s own feelings (awareness of uncomfortable bodily sensations, heart rhythm, breathing, state of tension or relaxation that occurs inside; as a person focuses on neutral or more comfortable places of his body, he can begin to breathe deeper, the pulse slows down and muscle relaxation appears) – the basis that helps stabilize the nervous system. 2. creation of resources, their search and activation – as one thinks about one’s resource, or describes it, changes take place in one’s body (breathing and pulse slow down, muscles relax), new feelings, thoughts, meanings arise. 3 search for supports (grounding) – full presence in the present moment, when the past or future do not worry. 4. gestures and spontaneous movements – the conscious use of protective and calming movements to calm the nervous system. 5. strategies for returning to the comfort zone (taking care of one’s health): drink a glass of water, name a few colors inside or outside the room; pay attention to surrounding objects, sounds, movements of one’s legs and arms, etc. (afanasenko et al., 2018). almeida et al. (2016) suggest that educational support centers in educational establishments develop recommendations for students to apply constructive strategies to overcome stress in order to increase their emotional and personal stress resistance, forming discussion groups among students based on their aspirations and needs, and expanding their environmental resources to ensure quality of life, which can be contributed by cooperation and social support networks for students. recommendations for neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among students neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among students is a set of measures aimed at preventing emergence of emotional, cognitive and physical exhaustion, maintaining and strengthening mental health, developing competence in maintaining personal psychohygiene, constructive overcoming psychotraumatic situations, learning crises. preventive technologies should be applied with complexity and taking into account an individual approach, depending on whether students are prone to anxiety and depression, or have low academic performance, high anxiety and psychosomatic disorders, ignore themselves brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 197 and the demands of the learning environment, not interested in professional or personal growth, learning in general. neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout should be carried out taking into account the results of neuropsychological diagnosis, which indicate the level of emotional maturity as the ability of the subject to understand their negative emotions or dissatisfaction with themselves and the ability to accept them, the specificity of emotional reactions to stress and specifics of cognitive analysis of the impact of stressful situations on the mental inner world of an individual, the causes of apathy and emotional detachment in stressful situations. we believe that neuropsychological preventive treatment of the manifestation and development of emotional burnout among students should be carried out using the methods of cognitive-behavioral therapy to work with neurotic reactions, high anxiety and worry; neuropsychological, self-regulatory and self-relaxation anti-stress techniques; technologies for developing motivation to overcome the emotional burnout syndrome, expanding neuropsychological competence in caring for one’s health and raising the level of mental hygiene culture; psychological correction techniques in changing attitudes to traumatic situations with the use of constructive mechanisms of psychological protection, in particular rationalization and sublimation and strategies of flexible behavior; conducting informational education on dependence of indicators of the neuropsychological level of emotional burnout syndrome on psychophysiological, biological and individual psychological characteristics of an individual. it is advisable that the neuropsychological program for the preventive treatment of emotional burnout among students be supported by additional methods of harmonization of psychophysical condition, which involves development of skills of psychoemotional self-regulation using music therapy and art therapy, daily and self-performed exercises to realize one’s negative emotions and allow oneself to overcome them; reducing fatigue and improving psychophysical tone, relieving emotional tension and reducing the effects of stress through mastering autorelaxation techniques of deep breathing, muscle and mental relaxation (techniques of ideomotor recovery – “from rubbing the palms to doing fitness exercises”, visual concentration on colors, basically green shades, etc.), proper diet and sleep, moderate exercise, sports and hobbies, water treatments, massage. neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among … olha yadlovska, et al. 198 conclusion the neuropsychological symptom complex of emotional burnout syndrome is a complex dynamic process that covers first the emotional sphere, reducing the manifestation of volitional efforts and emotional stress resistance, and then become involved mental triggers for energy loss at the personal and behavioral levels, associated with neurotic stress reactions, manifestation of rigid mechanisms of psychological protection, psychosomatic disorders, deformations in professional self-consciousness. development of emotional burnout syndrome among students begins at the stages of their professional development under the influence of stress in educational and professional situations, frustrating the development of their professional self-awareness, in which future professionals, usually with negative attitudes including negative attitudes to the educational and professional environment or difficult learning tasks, experience emotional exhaustion and inability to solve unexpected psychological problems in a way that is acceptable or effective for them. emotional, informational and communicative stresses can emotionally disorganize and professionally maladapt the student and negatively affect his psychological well-being, academic success. lack of personal resources to withstand psycho-emotional stress in subjectively significant educational and professional situations of adaptation to the requirements of the professional environment or situations of educational crises leads the future specialist to emotional exhaustion. in critical living conditions, it is important for anyone to maintain contact with oneself to choose a constructive coping strategy, but not everyone has the resources to unconditionally accept oneself and understand one’s psychological capabilities. rehabilitating students with emotional burnout and successfully adapting them to the learning environment is more difficult than preventing the development of emotional and physical exhaustion, which can reduce the academic performance of the future specialist, his health and quality of student life in general. that is why it is so important for practical psychologists, social educators and teaching staff of higher education establishments to have the competence to implement programs on neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional exhaustion of the young generation. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 199 references afanasenko, l., martyniuk, i., omelchenko, l., shamne, a., shmarhun, v., yashnyk, s. (eds.). (2018). psykholohiia stresostiikosti studentskoi molodi [psychology of stress resistance of student youth]. nuolae publishing center of ukraine. allen, j. j. b., & kline, j.p. editorial. (2004). frontal eeg asymmetry, emotion, and psychopathology: the first, and the next 25 years. biological psychology, 67(1-2), 1-5. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2004.03.001 almeida, g.de c., souza, h. r. de, almeida, p. c. de, almeida, b. de c., & almeida, g. h. (2016). the prevalence of burnout syndrome in medical students. archives of clinical psychiatry, 43(1), 6-10. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-60830000000072 antropova, l. k., andronnikova, o. o., kulikov, v. y., kozlova, l. a. (2011). funktsionalnaya assimetriya mozga i individualnye psikhofiziologicheskie osobennosti cheloveka [functional brain asymmetry and individual psychophysiological characteristics of a person]. medicine and education in siberia, 3. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/funktsionalnaya-asimmetriya-mozga-iindividualnye-psihofiziologicheskie-osobennosti-cheloveka bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19 (4), 1323-1332. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko o., maksymchuk b., mishchenko m., maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19 (3), 1585. http://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 boni, r. a. d. s., paiva, c. e., de oliveira, m. a., lucchetti, g., fregnani, j. h. t.g., paiva, b. s. r. (2018). burnout among medical students during the first years of undergraduate school: prevalence and associated factors. plos one, 13(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191746 boyko, v. v. (1996). diagnostika emotsionalnogo vygoraniya [diagnostics of emotional burnout]. https://www.bsmu.by/page/6/5657/ burgdorf, j., & panksepp, j. (2006). the neurobiology of positive emotions. neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 30, 173–187. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.06.001 chemali, z., ezzeddine, f. l., gelaye, b., dossett, m. l., salameh, j., bizri, m., dubale, b., & fricchione, g. (2019). burnout among healthcare providers http://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2004.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-60830000000072 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/funktsionalnaya-asimmetriya-mozga-i-individualnye-psihofiziologicheskie-osobennosti-cheloveka https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/funktsionalnaya-asimmetriya-mozga-i-individualnye-psihofiziologicheskie-osobennosti-cheloveka https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 http://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191746 https://www.bsmu.by/page/6/5657/ http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.06.001 neuropsychological preventive treatment of emotional burnout among … olha yadlovska, et al. 200 in the complex environment of the middle east: a systematic review. bmc public health, 19, 1337. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7713-1 chuprykov, a. p., gnatyuk, r. m., chuprykova, m. a. (2011). asymetriya mozku ta livorukist [brain asymmetry and left-handedness]. кмм. davidson, r. j., fox, a., & kalin, n. h. (2007). neural bases of emotion regulation in nonhuman primates and humans. in j. j. gross (ed.), handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 47–68). the guilford press. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345-361. http://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 hugdahl, k. (2005). symmetry and asymmetry in the human brain. european review, 13(2), 119-133. http://doi.org/10.1017/s1062798705000700 ilin, y.p. (2013). psikhofiziologiya sostoyaniy cheloveka [psychophysiology of human states]. st. petersburg. kokun, o. m. (2013). psykhofiziolohichne zabezpechennia stanovlennia fakhivtsia u profesiiakh typu «liudyna-liudyna» [psychophysiological support of becoming a specialist in professions such as "man-man"]. imex-ltd. kustova, v. v. (2016). fenomen sindroma emotsionalnogo vygoraniya pedagogov [the phenomenon of the emotional burnout syndrome of teachers]. istu. maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 mudryk, a. b. (2013). osoblyvosti rozvytku ta proiavu syndromu emotsiinoho vyhorannia u studentiv-psykholohiv [features of the development and manifestation of emotional burnout syndrome among students of psychology]. open international university of human development. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020b). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020a). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7713-1 http://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 http://doi.org/10.1017/s1062798705000700 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 201 potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 schaufeli, w. b., martínez, i. m., pinto a. m., salanova, m., bakker, a. b. (2002). burnout and engagement in university students: a cross-national study. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 33(5), 464–481. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022102033005003 semenovich, a. v. (2018). eti neveroyatnye levshi. [these incredible left-handers]. genezis. serhieienkova, o. p., & stoliarchuk, o. a. (2017). kryza fakhovoho navchannia yak pidgruntia emotsiinoho vyhorannia studentiv [crisis of professional training as a basis for emotional burnout of students]. pedagogical education: theory and practice. psychology. pedagogy, 27, 77-81. https://pedosvita.kubg.edu.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/273/ 368/1164 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 tomaschewski-barlem, j. g., lunardi, v. l., ramos, a. m., da silveira r. s., barlem, e. l. d., ernandes, c. m. (2013). signs and symptoms of the burnout syndrome among undergraduate nursing students. texto e contexto enfermagem, 22(3), 754-762. http://doi.org/10.1590/s010407072013000300023 vasconcelos, e. m., trindade, c. o., barbosa, l. r, de martino, m. m. f. (2020). predictive factors of burnout syndrome in nursing students at a public university. revista da escola de enfermagem da usp, 54. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220x2018044003564%20 vodopyanova, n. y., & starchenkova, y. s. (2008). sindrom vygoraniya: diagnostika i profilaktika [burnout syndrome: diagnosis and prevention]. piter. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022102033005003 https://pedosvita.kubg.edu.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/273/368/1164 https://pedosvita.kubg.edu.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/273/368/1164 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 http://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-07072013000300023 http://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-07072013000300023 https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220x2018044003564 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 265-278 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/205 emotional exhaustion and professional satisfaction during covid-19 pandemic at the level of emergency department staff cosmina-alina moscu¹, mihaela anghele2, liliana dragomir3, sorina munteanu4, aurelian anghele5, aurel nechita6, anamaria ciubară7 1 md, phd student, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, , 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania; cosmina_caluian@yahoo.com 2 md, phd student, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, , 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, anghele.mihaela@yahoo.com 3 md, phd student, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, , 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, pletea.lili@yahoo.com 4 md, phd student, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, , 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, sorinanicoleta.munteanu@yahoo.com 5 md, phd student, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, , 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, aurelian.anghele@ugal.ro 6 md, phd, hab. professor, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, , 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, aurel.nechita@ugal.ro 7 md phd, hab. professor at head of psychiatry department, senior psychiatrist, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract: introduction: burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as result of the chronic stress at the work place which was not successfully managed. the possible negative effects on the medical staff, the patients and the health institutions have generated interest and motivated the research to understand the possible causes, these effects also influence the burnout predictors. the medical services suppliers within the emergency department have had one of the greatest exhaution occurences even before the pandemic. being in the first line in contact with the suspected patients or confirmed with covid-19 infection intensifies this fact. both the working factors (working hours, years of practice, number of treated patients, professional development activities) and the sociodemographic factors (age, sex, civil status, income, education) are associated with the exhaustion at the work place. material and methods: i have studied a total of 120 participants, receiving 115 valid questionnaires, the answering ratio being 95,83%. this was a descriptive, multicentre, transversal study of the medical and the auxiliary staff within the department upusmurd of the county clinic emergency hospital “sf. ap. andrei” galați. the staff gave their consent and attended a combined interview which consisted of a pilot questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire. results and discussions: the average score of exhaustion at the staff level was 3.25, a great percentage of the doctors within the ed (45.8%), (n=24) indicates an increased level of exhaustion, only 26.8% (n=80) of nurses show an increased level of exhaustion. the average score of the stress level shown by the staff is 3.1, 66.6% (n=24) among which the doctors with an increased stress level 9.1% (n=9) auxiliary staff, 23.8% (n=80) of nurses. conclusions: the results show us a high exhaustion, stress and depression ratio at the emergency doctors in comparison with the other professional categories within the ed. a high level of professional satisfaction is accompanied by an increased level of stress and of self-esteem. keywords: emergency medicine, professional exhaustion, stress, empathy, professional environment. how to cite: moscu, c.-a., anghele, m., dragomir, l., munteanu, s., anghele, a., nechita, a., & ciubară, a. (2021). emotional exhaustion and professional satisfaction during covid-19 pandemic at the level of emergency department staff. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 265-278. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/205 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/205 mailto:cosmina_caluian@yahoo.com mailto:anghele.mihaela@yahoo.com mailto:pletea.lili@yahoo.com mailto:sorinanicoleta.munteanu@yahoo.com mailto:aurelian.anghele@ugal.ro mailto:aurel.nechita@ugal.ro mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/205 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 266 1. introduction according to the last revision of the international classification of diseases (who, n.d.), the concept of burnout is included as professional phenomenon. this is described in the chapter: "factors that influence the health or the contact with the health services" – that includes the reasons for which people reach the health services, but are not classified as diseases or health affections (who, n.d.). burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as result of the chronic stress at the work place which was not successfully managed. the three dimensions of this result are an overwhelming exhaustion, cynicism and detachment sentiments at the work place, and an inefficiency and lack of accomplishment sentiment. the signification of this tridimensional pattern is that it places clearly the individual stress experience in a social context and it involves the person’s conception of himself or of the others (maslach & leiter, 2016). the burnout concept relates specifically to the phenomena in professional context (sandu et al., 2020) and should not be applied to describe the experiences in other life domains (who, n.d.). the possible negative effects on the medical staff, the patients and the health institutions have generated interest and motivated the research to understand the possible causes, these effects also influence the burnout predictors (schooley et al., 2016). the medical services suppliers within the emergency department have had one of the greatest exhaution occurences even before the pandemic (lin et al., 2019; schooley et al., 2016; verougstraete & idrissi, 2020; sandu, 2020a). the professional exhaustion in the emergency department (ed) was associated with the need to make critical decisions, without complete information, the repeated exposure to traumatic events (diac et al., 2021), the high complexity of the disease combined with the necessity to make fast decisions, the interests regarding the litigation risk, and also the pressure concerning the work quality, the patient’s safety and the performance (peckham, 2017). being in the first line in contact with the suspected patients or confirmed with covid-19 infection intensifies this fact (chavez et al., 2021; luca, baroiu et al., 2020). the peculiarity of the medical act within the emergency department is strongly manifested due to a wide range of psycho-traumatic factors, increased both by the patient’s vulnerable status and by the paroxysmal emotional exhaustion and professional satisfaction during covid-19 pandemic … cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 267 status of the medical act. also, within the emergency medicine field it was recognized that the level of physical stress is the highest of all the other medical fields (popa et al., 2010). both the working factors (working hours, years of practice, number of treated patients, professional development activities) and the socio demographic factors (age, sex, civil status, income, education) (sandu & nistor 2020) are associated with the exhaustion at the work place (luca, ciubara et al., 2020; madhavappallil & kohli, 2014; panagopoulou et al., 2006; sandu, 2020b; 2020c; senter et al., 2010). the purpose of this study is to better understand the relationship between these factors and the professional exhaustion. our assumption is that different professional categories within the emergency department will show various levels of exhaustion, of professional satisfaction and of emotion management. more specific, the level of exhaustion will be different among the emergency doctors, the nurses and the auxiliary staff working in the same emergency department. 2. materials and methods 2.1. study population and study protocol we have studied a total of 120 participants, receiving 115 valid questionnaires, the answering ratio being 95,83%. this was a descriptive, multicentre, transversal study of the medical and the auxiliary staff within the department upu-smurd of the county clinic emergency hospital “sf. ap. andrei” galați. the professional categories included were the doctors with training in emergency medicine field, nurses working in the emergency department and in the pre-hospital and the auxiliary staff of the department: porters and orderlies (tabel 3). a face-to-face interview method was used to collect data from each employee, and the participants have generated identification codes to insure the anonymity. the interviews were made in november 2020. there were no other foreclosure criteria. 2.2. instruments the participants gave their consent (sandu, 2020d) and attended a combined interview which consisted of a pilot questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire. the investigation instrument was divided in 2 parts. the first part consisted of questions regarding the socio-demographic information, opened and close to the age, sex, civil status, professional category, working experience, working hours, education level, the number of brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 268 patients. the second part consisted of 10 questions concerning the exhaustion level, highlighting the stress generating professional elements, the relationship with the people around them and emotions management in the professional activity within the emergency department during the pandemic. to assess the level of professional satisfaction two questions were used: ‘how do you assess the level of professional satisfaction in your institution?’ and ‘are you pleased by the present safety equipment and devices needed to carry out your activity?’ the answers being quantified on a range from 1 to 5, ‘1’ for ‘very unpleased’ and ‘5’ for ‘very pleased’. the level of empathy, stress, exhaustion and of self esteem were assessed with the help of a single corresponding item, for example ‘how often do you feel affected by your patients’ health status?’ quantified on a range from 1 to 5, ‘1’ for ‘very rarely’ and ‘5’ for ‘ very often’. the relationship with the family / the team work and the emotional exhaustion were measured with other two sets of questions, for example ‘regarding the pandemic evolution, how would you describe the near future?’ or ‘do you consider that your work influences the time spent with your family in a negative way?. at the end the participants have noted what elements enhance their professional exhaustion. this tool was conceived instead of the multiple-choice questionnaires in order to shorten the survey material and to increase the answering ratio at the medical staff. 2.3. data analysis the registered data have been listed in sampling lists and then summary tables were made. the final analysis of the data was made in ibm spss statistics version 20.0 and microsoft excel 2007, and the significance was considered at level p < 0.05 and a confidence interval of 95% 3. results and discussions the average age of the staff working in the ed is 38 years old with a deviation standard of 6.68 years, which confirms that the emergency medicine is a field of the ‘youth’. assessing the sample depending on the professional experience, it is seen that the average value is 8.8 years. the values deviate from the average upwards or downwards with 5.68 years. the average number of working hours per week of the staff in ed is 49,19 hours with a deviation standard of 13.11 hours. the distribution of the number of working hours per week of each professional category shows that the doctors work an average of 68.45 hours per week, with a maximum of 100 hours per week (table 1). according to studies, the increased number emotional exhaustion and professional satisfaction during covid-19 pandemic … cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 269 of working hours is an exhaustion element at the work place. (ashton-james et al., 2021; basu et al., 2016), table 1. the distribution of the working hours /week of the ed staff a du table 1. the distribution of the working hours /week of the ed staff a du n minimum maximum average std. deviation hours week ed staff 115 30.00 100.00 49.1913 13.11614 hours week nurses 80 35 48 44.7125 4.31129 hours week doctors 24 30 100 68.4583 16.68371 source: authors’ own conception the distribution of the ed staff depending on the sex was 75.7% for female and 24.3% for male (graph 1). the distribution of the ed staff depending on the civil status (graph 2) shows that the majority of the medical and auxiliary staff is married (76%), single17%, and divorced 7%. graph 1. the distribution of the ed staff depending on the sex source: authors’ own conception male, 24.34% female, 75.65% the distribution of the ed staff depending on the sex brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 270 graph 2. the distribution of the ed staff depending on the civil status source: authors’ own conception the average number of patients on a shift in the care of ed staff is 27.31 patients with a standard deviation of 12.65 patients. the distribution of the number of patients on the shift of each professional category shows that the doctors are responsible for more patients that the other professional categories. (table 2). table 2. the distribution of patients in the care of ed staff table 2. the distribution of patients in the care of ed staff n minimum maximum average std. deviation patients / shift ed staff 115 10 70 27.31 12.65 patients / shift nurses 80 10 60 25.68 11.59 patients / shift doctors 24 11 70 31.08 13.48 source: authors’ own conception the professional categories from the ed are represented by doctors having training in the emergency medicine field, nurses and the auxiliary staff consisting of porters and orderlies. the distribution of the studied staff married 77% single 17% divorced 7% the distribution of ed staff depending on the civil status emotional exhaustion and professional satisfaction during covid-19 pandemic … cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 271 depending on their professional category presents a high coverage for nurses and auxiliary staff related to their prevalence within the system (graph 3). table 3. distribution or er staff depending on the professional category table 3. distribution or er staff depending on the professional category frequency percent consultant 14 12.2% primary physician 2 1.7% resident physician 8 7.0% nurse 80 69.6% orderly 7 6.1% porter 4 3.5% total 115 100.0% source: authors’ own conception graph 3. the distribution of the ed staff depending on the professional category source: authors’ own conception the average score of exhaustion of the staff was 3.25, a high percent of the ed doctors (45.8%)(n=24) show an increased level of exhaustion, 12% 2% 7% 70% 6% 3% the distribution of ed staff depending on the professional category primary orderly nurse resident physician porter brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 272 only 26.8%(n=80) of the nurses show an increased level of exhaustion. the average level of stress of the staff is 3.1, 66.6% (n=24) doctors show a high level of stress, 9.1% (n=9) auxiliary staff, 23.8% (n=80) of nurses. the average score of depression of the staff is 2, 25% among which the emergency medicine doctors show a high level of depression, the auxiliary staff 18.2% and the nurses 32,5% (table 4). table 4. the average scores of the exhaustion, stress, depression scales depending on the professional categories table 4. the average scores of the exhaustion, stress, depression scales depending on the professional categories doctors nurses auxiliary staff exhaustion 4.20 2.93 3.45 stress 3.79 2.95 2.72 depression 2.12 2.02 1.54 source: authors’ own conception the results indicate a high ratio of exhaustion, stress and depression at the emergency medicine doctors in comparison with the other professional categories within the ed. thus, our theory that the various professional categories within the emergency department will present different levels of exhaustion, professional satisfaction and emotions management is confirmed. table 5. the distribution of the correlations between stress, professional satisfaction, patients / shift, self esteem at doctors table 5. the distribution of the correlations between stress, professional satisfaction, patients / shift, self esteem at doctors patients _shift stress _doctors satisfaction _doctors esteem patients _shift pearson correlation 1 .429* -.052 .257 sig. (2tailed) .037 .808 .226 n 24 24 24 24 stress _doctors pearson correlation .429* 1 -.412* .246 sig. (2tailed) .037 .045 .246 n 24 24 24 24 emotional exhaustion and professional satisfaction during covid-19 pandemic … cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 273 satisfaction _doctors pearson correlation -.052 -.412* 1 -.427* sig. (2tailed) .808 .045 .037 n 24 24 24 24 esteem pearson correlation .257 .246 -.427* 1 sig. (2tailed) .226 .246 .037 n 24 24 24 24 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). source: authors’ own conception the results of the lot of doctors were not correlated to age, sex, civil status or experience, in exchange it was identified through analysis of bivariate correlation, based upon the pearson correlation coefficient, an indirect connection of average intensity and significance between the two variables was seen r = -0.412, n = 24, p < 0,05. thus, a high level of stress is accompanied by a high level of professional satisfaction. also, a correlation between the stress level and the number of patients to take care of on a shift was identified r=0.42, n=24, p<0.05. the correlation between the professional satisfaction and the esteem r=-0.427, n=24, p<0.05 at a high level of satisfaction, the self esteem is influenced to a small extent. (table 5) table 6. the distribution of the correlation between the working hours and the depression level of the nurses table 6. the distribution of the correlation between the working hours and the depression level of the nurses depression _nurses working _hours depression _nurses pearson correlation 1 .267* sig. (2-tailed) .017 n 80 80 working _hours pearson correlation .267* 1 sig. (2-tailed) .017 n 80 80 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 274 the results of the lot of nurses were not correlated to age, sex, civil status or experience, in exchange it was identified through analysis of bivariate correlation, based upon the pearson correlation coefficient, an indirect connection of average intensity and significance between the two variables was seen, r =0.267, n = 80, p < 0,05. the level of depression is in correlation with the working hours (table 6). the factors associated with the increase of the professional exhaustion for the studied group are represented by: the large amount of work (79.10%), the lack of respect manifested by the patients (39.10%), taking care of covid-19 patients ( 33.91), bureaucracy (27.82%), the lack of respect manifested by the colleagues(18.26%), fears regarding the exposure to the virus (13.04%) and the difficult cooperation with the other medical fields / medical units (15.65%). other connected were the lack of sleep elements (21.73%) and the increased number of working hours (24.34%) (graph 4). graph 4. factors that contribute to professional exhaustion of the ed medical staff source: authors’ own conception even if the large amount of work, the bureaucracy and taking care of the patients infected with covid-19 are important elements of exhaustion for 39.10% 18.26% 33.91% 79.10% 13.04% 27.82% 15.65% 21.73% 24.34% factors contributing at exhaustion increased number of working hours lack of sleep difficult cooperation whith the other medical fields bureaucracy fears regarding the exposure to the virus large amount of work taking care of covid 19 patient emotional exhaustion and professional satisfaction during covid-19 pandemic … cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 275 the ed staff, the possible influence of other factors should not be underestimated. here must be included both the relationship with the managers and the colleagues and the degree of appreciation they receive for the decisions made at the work place and how are they seen by the others at the work place. (hoboubi et al., 2017). graph 5. the histogram corresponding to the empathy levels of the ed medical staff source: authors’ own conception the statistical analysis was continued with the determination of the empathy level of the ed staff. at the studied lot an average level of empathy 3.03 was seen with a standard deviation of 0.96. the histogram corresponding to the empathy levels shows a distribution curve with normal aspect gaussian, deviated toward right, which means a high level of empathy towards the patients (graph 5). 4. conclusions the results indicate a high ratio of exhaustion, stress and depression at the emergency medicine doctors in comparison with the other professional categories within the ed. thus, our theory that the various professional categories within the emergency department will present brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 276 different levels of exhaustion, professional satisfaction and emotions management is confirmed. a high level of professional satisfaction is accompanied by a high level of stress and self esteem. the level of depression is in correlation with the working hours. the bureaucracy, the large amount of work, taking care of the patients infected with sars cov-2 and also the factors connected with interpersonal relationships are associated with exacerbation of emotional exhaustion of the emergency department medical staff during the pandemic. nevertheless the level of empathy towards the patients is increased. references ashton-james, c. e., mcneilage, a. g., avery, n. s., robson, l., & costa, d. (2021). prevalence and predictors of burnout symptoms in multidisciplinary pain clinics: a mixed-methods study. pain, 162(2), 503– 513. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002042 basu, s, yap., c., & mason, s. (2016). examining the sources of occupational stress in an emergency department. occupational medicine, 66(9), 737-742. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqw155 chavez, s., long, b., koyfman, a., & liang, s. y. (2021). coronavirus disease (covid-19): a primer for emergency physicians. the american journal of emergency medicine, 44, 220–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2020.03.036 diac, m., oprea, r., iov, t., damian, s-i., knieling, a., & bulgaru iliescu, a. (2020). finite elements models of the head in craniocerebral trauma – review. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 08-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/25 hoboubi, n., choobineh, a., kamari ghanavati, f., keshavarzi, s., & akbar hosseini, a. (2017). the impact of job stress and job satisfaction on workforce productivity in an iranian petrochemical industry. safety and health at work, 8(1), 67–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2016.07.002 lin, m., battaglioli, n., melamed, m., mott, s. e., chung, a. s., & robinson, d. w. (2019) high prevalence of burnout among us emergency medicine residents: results from the 2017 national emergency medicine wellness survey. annals of emergency medicine, 74(5), 682-690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2019.01.037 luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002042 https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqw155 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2020.03.036 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/25 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2016.07.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2019.01.037 emotional exhaustion and professional satisfaction during covid-19 pandemic … cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 277 neuroscience, 11(3s1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 madhavappallil, t., & kohli, v. (2014). correlates of jobs burnout among human services workers: implication for workforce retention. journal of sociology and social welfare, 41(4), 69–91. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3983&conte xt=jssw maslach, c., & leiter, m. p. (2016). understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. world psychiatry: official journal of the world psychiatric association (wpa), 15(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311 panagopoulou, e., montgomery, a., & benos, a. (2006). burnout in internal medicine physicians: differences between residents and specialists. european journal of internal medicine, 17(3), 195-200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2005.11.013 peckham c. (2017). medscape lifestyle report 2017: race and ethnicity, bias and burnout. medscape. https://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/lifestyle/2017/overview popa, f., arafat, r., purcarea, v. l., lală, a., & bobirnac, g. (2010). occupational burnout levels in emergency medicine--a nationwide study and analysis. journal of medicine and life, 3(3), 207-215. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20945809/ sandu, a. (2020a). bioethics of public policies. ethical standards in crisis situations. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 141-160. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 sandu, a. (2020b). from pandemic to infodemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 277-289. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/88 sandu, a. (2020c). pandemic catalyst of the virtualization of the social space. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 115-140. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 sandu, a. (2020d). autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 260-276. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3983&context=jssw https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3983&context=jssw https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2005.11.013 https://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/lifestyle/2017/overview https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20945809/ https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/88 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 278 sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). the dynamic perspective versus the cognitivebehavioral perspective in counselling. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/22 sandu, a., huidu, a., & frunză, a. (2020). social perception of ethical values in the romanian post-secular society. journal for the study of religions and ideologies, 19(55) 18-32. http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/1187/838 schooley, b., hikmet, n., tarcan, m., & yorgancioglu, g. (2016). comparing burnout across emergency physicians, nurses, technicians, and health information technicians working for the same organization. medicine, 95(10), e2856. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000002856 senter, a., morgan, r. d., serna-mcdonald, c., & bewley, m. (2010). correctional psychologist burnout, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction. psychological services, 7(3), 190–201. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020433 verougstraete, d., & idrissi, s. h. (2020). the impact of burn-out on emergency physicians and emergency medicine residents: a systematic review. acta clinica belgica , 75(1), 57-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/17843286.2019.1699690 world health organization (who). (n.d.). international classification of diseases (icd-11). https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classificationof-diseases https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/22 http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/1187/838 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000002856 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020433 https://doi.org/10.1080/17843286.2019.1699690 https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 31-40 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/119 social media use and mood, suicidal ideation and selfharm in adolescents grazia maria giovanna pastorino¹*, francesca felicia operto 2 , roberto buonaiuto 3 , giuseppe diaspro 4 , giangennaro coppola 5 1 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, graziapastorino@gmail.com corresponding author 2 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, opertofrancesca@gmail.com 3 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, buonaiuto.roberto@libero.it 4 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, peppedias28@gmail.com 5 child neuropsychiatry unit, department of medicine, surgery and dentistry, university of salerno, salerno, italy, gcoppola@unisa.it abstract: objective: the aim of our observational study was to evaluate depressive symptoms in adolescent population, focusing on suicidal ideation and intentionality, and to establish the relationship between depressive symptoms/self-harm and the average time spent in social media. methods: our study was an observational cross-sectional study that involved three middle schools and three high schools in the campania region of italy. one thousand three hundred sixty-five students 11-19 years of age were recruited (mean age=15 years; female=51%, male=49%). percentage of adhesion was 95%. all the subjects were administered three self-report questionnaires, filled out anonymously and in the presence of the teachers after illustrating their validity and purpose. results: in 23% females and 18% males, depressive symptoms were above the norm, with a slight increase in the prevalence of depressive symptoms in high school students compared to middle school ones. suicidal intentionality was expressed in 4% of the total sample, with no differences between males and females. suicidal ideation was present in 14% of the total sample, with a higher prevalence in females than in males (17% vs 10%). we found a significant positive relationship between the depressive symptoms and the hours spent on social media, in both males and females. a significant relationship was also found between hours on social media and suicidal ideation/intentionality. conclusions: our study showed a high prevalence of depressive symptoms in adolescents, in keeping with previous studies. our study also showed a significant association between the use of social networks and the development of depressive symptoms, as well as suicidal ideation and intentionality. further studies are needed to investigate the nature of this relationship. keywords: adolescents; depression; self-harm; social media. how to cite: pastorino, g. m. g., operto f. f., buonaiuto, r., diaspro, g., & coppola g. (2020). social media use and mood, suicidal ideation and self-harm in adolescents. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 31-40. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/119 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/119 mailto:graziapastorino@gmail.com mailto:opertofrancesca@gmail.com mailto:buonaiuto.roberto@libero.it mailto:peppedias28@gmail.com mailto:gcoppola@unisa.it https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/119 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 32 introduction depression is a disabling and recurrent disorder, with high prevalence in the general population, that affects 10-25% of women and 512% of men in adulthood. in the last years, in industrialized countries, there has been a trend towards an increase in the prevalence of this disorder and a decrease in the average age of its onset. according to a study of last years, mood disorders was present in 0.3% of preschooler, in 2-3% of children and in 6-8% of adolescents (avenevoli et al., 2008). many studies also show a continuity of depression throughout the life span; in fact, about 80% of children and adolescents with depressive disorder tend to present the same condition even in adulthood (burlea et al., 2012; luca et al., 2019). according to who, psychiatric disorders, such as mood disorders and depression will be the main reason for mortality and morbility in adolescence, and can lead to poorer psychosocial functioning, lower quality of life and school achievements, more interpersonal difficulty, more comorbid psychiatric conditions, and increased risk of self-injurious behaviors and suicide (world health organization, 2001). depression is a multifactorial etiology disorder in which biological, genetic, environmental and psychological factors contribute. in more recent years researchers investigated the possible association between increasing depressive disorders in children and adolescents and the increased use of digital tools, including the internet, social networks sites and video games (evans et al., 2005; costello et al., 2006). in recent decades the use of the internet and social media increased exponentially, especially among teenagers. on average, 50-75% of teenagers have online connectivity and 73% of them use social networks regularly (luca et al., 2020; rideout et al., 2005). social media can have a positive impact on teenagers in terms of increasing social contacts, developing new ideas and creativity, greater sharing of knowledge. the negative effects are related to physical problems such as obesity and sleep problems but also to privacy violation, cyberbullying, addiction and psychiatric problems such as mood disorders (augner & hacker, 2012; huang, 2017). social media use and mood, suicidal ideation and self-harm in adolescents grazia maria giovanna pastorino, et al. 33 in a recent review by schou andreassen et al. (2016), a significant correlation was found between symptoms of addictive technology use and psychiatric disorder symptoms. another recent review (hussain & griffiths, 2018) reported the simultaneous presence of psychiatric symptoms and problematic social networking site use among adolescents. boers at al. (2019), in a study of the past year that included 3826 adolescents, reported the correlation between hours of social media exposure and mood disorders symptoms. the upward social comparison that social media users experience could be a factor related to the development of depressive feelings. this phenomenon gave rise to the so-called “facebook depression” (yoon et al., 2019). despite some evidence, the exact nature of the association between depressive symptoms and social media use could further be investigated. individuals with greater problematic use of social media may develop social withdrawaland depressive feelings; on the other hand, it is also possible that individuals with depressive feelings find refuge in social media (shensa et al., 2017). in two nationally representative surveys of u.s. adolescents it was reported that in a population approximately 500.000 young people aged 1315, symptoms of depression and suicides were on the rise from 2010 to 2015, and young people who spent more time on social media had more psychiatric problems than those who spent more time in social activities (twenge et al., 2018). in the study of sampasa-kanyinga et al. (2015) emerged that daily social networking site use (over two hours per day) was related to decreased psychological well-being and increased suicidal thoughts. memon et al. (2018) found that young people with self-harm and suicidal thoughts sought support from other users via social media. furthermore, social media could encourage emulation among young people by sharing self-harming messages. authors concluded that greater time spent on online social media promotes self-harm behavior and suicidal ideation in vulnerable adolescents. the aim of our observational study was to evaluate depressive symptoms in adolescent population, focusing on suicidal ideation and intentionality and to establish the relationship between depressive symptoms/self-harm and the average time spent in social media use. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 34 methodology participants our study was an observational cross-sectional study that involved three middle schools and three high schools in the campania region of italy. one thousand three hundred sixty-five students aged 11-19 years were recruited (mean age=15 years; female=51%, male=49%). the percentage of adhesion was 95%. all the subjects were administered three self-report questionnaires, filled out anonymously and in the presence of the teachers, after illustrating their validity and purpose. the parents of all participants provided their written informed consent. social media questionnaire self-report non standardized questionnaire assessing the modality of use of new technologies in adolescents. the evaluation was both quantitative (daily hours dedicated to the social media) and qualitative (motivation to the use of social media, sharing information and personal photos, cyberbullying). children depression inventory (cdi-2) kovacs self-report standardized questionnaire assessing current cognitive, affective, and behavioral signs of depression in children and adolescents (kovacs, 2004). youth self-report (ysr) – achenbach & rescorla self-report standardized questionnaire for the assessement of emotional-behavioral problems in adolescents, along internalizing scale, externalizing scale and total problems scales (achenbach & rescorla, 2001). results the scores obtained at cdi-2, which assessed depressive symptoms, were in the normal range in 77% females, while they were above the norm in 23%. more specifically: in 10% were above the average, in 6% were high and in 7% very high (figure 1). in males the scores obtained at cdi-2 were in the normal range in 82%, while they were above the norm in 18%. more specifically, in 7% were above the average, in 6% were high and in 5% very high (figure 2). the comparison by age showed a slight increase in the prevalence of depressive symptoms in high school students compared to middle school ones. suicidal intentionality (i want to kill myself) was expressed in 4% of the total sample, with no differences between males and social media use and mood, suicidal ideation and self-harm in adolescents grazia maria giovanna pastorino, et al. 35 females. suicidal ideation (i’m thinking of killing myself) was present in 14% of the total sample, with a higher prevalence in females than in males (17% vs 10%). the comparison by age revealed an increase in both components in high school students compared to middle school ones. analyzing the association between cdi-2 scores and time spent on social media, we found a significant positive relationship between the depressive symptoms and the hours spent on social media in both males and females (figure 3). in males the percentage of scores above the norm ranged from 12% to 24% of boys who spent less than an hour/day on social media compared to those who spent more than 3 hours/day (p value <0.05); in females this percentages ranged from 18% to 28% (p value <0.05). in the total sample also, suicidal ideation and suicidal intentionality were significantly related with hours spent on social media, ranging from 9% to 16% and from 2% to 6% respectively (p value<0.05) (figure 4). fig.1: cdi-2 scores in females source: authors'own contribution fig.2: cdi-2 scores in males brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 36 source: authors'own contribution fig. 3: depression symptoms and number of hours on social media source: authors'own contribution fig. 4: suicidal ideation/intentionality and hours on social media source: authors'own contribution discussions in keeping with previous studies, 20% of our sample reported depressive symptoms, with a higher prevalence in females than in males (sampasa-kanyinga & lewis, 2015; twenge et al., 2018); 14% and 4% of the social media use and mood, suicidal ideation and self-harm in adolescents grazia maria giovanna pastorino, et al. 37 total sample reported suicidal ideation and suicidal intentionality respectively (sampasa-kanyinga & lewis, 2015; sampasa-kanyinga et al., 2017). the data should be interpreted with caution because cdi-2, like other self-report questionnaires for depression, does not allow to formulate a clinical diagnosis as it represents a screening tool to be integrated with other medical investigations and psychic examination of the patient. our study also confirmed a positive relationship between time spent on social media and depressive symptoms/suicidal ideation (bolos et al., 2012; memon et al., 2018). another result of our study was the correlation between suicidal ideation/intentionality with the level of depressive symptoms correlated in line with what reported by previous studies, in which it is shown that depressive symptoms are an important mediator of suicidal ideation (gutierrez, 2006; sun et al., 2006). there appears to be several mechanisms underlying the relationship between social media use and depressive symptoms in adolescents: the deprivation of hours of sleep that often accompanies the excessive use of social media (twenge et al., 2018). the silent imposition by the media of idealized and unreachable models, which lead in the young a feeling of inadequacy, frustration, depressive tendencies and food disorders; this would explain the higher incidence in females due to the greater attention to the physical aspect, comparing to stereotyped models imposed by the network (lin et al, 2016; pantusa et al, 2006). the development of anxiety and rejection of interpersonal relationships (vannucci et al, 2017). conclusions our study showed a high prevalence of depressive symptoms in adolescence, in keeping with previous studies. our study also showed a significant association between the use of social networks and the development of depressive symptoms, as well as suicidal ideation and intentionality. evidence suggests that depression symptoms and self-harming are more frequent in youth who are more active on online social networks. further studies are needed to investigate the nature of this relationship. the results obtained certainly open up new clinical and therapeutic scenarios in which the internet could be a new tool for identifying and supporting adolescents at risk of developing psychiatric disorders. it would also be useful to sensitize young people on the risks related to the incorrect use of social media and to discourage mass emulation phenomena. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 38 references achenbach, t. m., & rescorla, l. a. (2001). manual for the aseba school-age forms & profiles. university of vermont, research center for children, youth, & families. augner, c., & hacker, g. w. (2012). associations between problematic mobile phone use and psychological parameters in young adults. international journal of public health, 57, 437–441. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-0110234-z avenevoli, s., knight, e., kessler, r. c., & merikangas, k. r. (2008). epidemiology of depression in children and adolescents. in j. r. z. abela & b. l. hankin (eds.), handbook of depression in children and adolescents (p. 6–32). the guilford press. boers, e., afzali, m. h., newton, n., & conrod, p. (2019). association of screen time and depression in adolescence. jama pediatrics, 173(9), 853-859. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.1759 bolos, a., ciubara, a-m, & chirita, r. (2012). moral and ethical aspects of the relationship between depression and suicide. revista romana de bioetica, 10(3), 71-79. burlea, a., sacuiu, i., chirita, v., & chirita, r. (2012). teen depression prevention an issue of great social impact. international journal o neuropsychopharmacology, 15 (supp. 1), 176-176. meeting abstract: p-12-002. costello, j. e., erkanli, a., & angold, a. (2006). is there an epidemic of child or adolescent depression? journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 47, 1263– 1271. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01682.x evans d. l., beardslee, w., biederman, j., brent, d., charney, d., coyle, j., craighead, w. e., crits-christoph, p., findling, p., garber, j., johnson, r., keller, m., nemeroff, c., rynn, m. a., wagner, k., weissman, m., & weller, e. (2005). depression and bipolar disorder: commission on adolescent depression and bipolar disorder. in evans, d. l., foa, e. b., gur, r. e., hendin, h., o'brien, c. p., seligman, m. e. p., & walsh b. t. (eds.), treating and preventing adolescent mental health disorders: what we know and what we don't know: a research agenda for improving the mental health of our youth. oxford university press. gutierrez, p. m. (2006). integratively assessing risk and protective factors for adolescent suicide. suicide and life-threatening behavior, 36(2), 129-135. https://doi.org/10.1521/suli.2006.36.2.129 huang, c. (2017). time spent on social network sites and psychological well-being: a meta-analysis. cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 20(6), 346– 354. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2016.0758 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-011-0234-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-011-0234-z https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.1759 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01682.x https://doi.org/10.1521/suli.2006.36.2.129 https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2016.0758 social media use and mood, suicidal ideation and self-harm in adolescents grazia maria giovanna pastorino, et al. 39 hussain, z., & griffiths, m. d. (2018). problematic social networking site use and comorbid psychiatric disorders: a systematic review of recent largescale studies. front psychiatry, 9, 686. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00686 kovacs, m. (2004). children’s depression inventory (cdi). multi-health systems. lin, l.y., sidani, j. e., shensa, a., radovic, a., miller, e., colditz, j. b., hoffman b. l., giles, l. m., primack, b. a. (2016). association between social media use ande depression among u.s young and adults. depress anxiety, 33(4), 323-31. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22466 luca, l, ciubara, a, ciubara, a. b, chirosca, a. c, & sarbu, f. (2019). youth perceptions towards psychiatry. european psychiatry, 56 (supp. s), s464s464. luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a-c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 memon, a. m., sharma, s. g., mohite, s. s., & jain, s. (2018). the role of online social networking on deliberate self-harm and suicidality in adolescents: a systematized review of literature. indian journal of psychiatry, 60(4), 384-392. https://doi.org/10.4103/psychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_414_17 pantusa, m. f., berardi, m., paparo, s., & scornaienchi, c. (2006). differenze di genere e sintomatologia depressiva in adolescenza: relazioni tra autostima, sintomi depressivi e ideazione suicidaria [gender differences in depressive symptoms during adolescence: the relationships between self-esteem, depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation]. giornale italiano di psicopatologia journal of psychopathology, xii(4), 407-414. https://www.jpsychopathol.it/issues/2006/vol12-4/pantusa.pdf rideout, v., roberts, d., & foehr, u. (2005). generation m: media in the lives of 8-18 year-olds. kaiser family foundation. sampasa-kanyinga, h., & lewis, r. f. (2015). frequent use of social networking sites is associated with poor psychological functioning among children and adolescents. cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 18(7), 380385. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2015.0055 sampasa-kanyinga, h., dupuis, l. c., & ray, r. (2017). prevalence and correlates of suicidal ideation and attempts among children and adolescents. international journal of adolescent medicine and health, 29(2), 20150053. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh-2015-0053 schou andreassen, c., billieux, j., griffiths, m. d., kuss, d. j., demetrovics, z., mazzoni, e., & pallesen, s. (2016). the relationship between addictive use of social media and video games and symptoms of psychiatric disorders: a https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00686 https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22466 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/10.4103/psychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_414_17 https://www.jpsychopathol.it/issues/2006/vol12-4/pantusa.pdf https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2015.0055 https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh-2015-0053 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 40 large-scale cross-sectional study. psychology of addictive behaviors, 30(2), 252-262. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000160 shensa, a., escobar-viera, c. g., sidani, j. e., bowman, n. d., marshal, m. p., & primack, b. a. (2017). problematic social media use and depressive symptoms among u.s. young adults: a nationally-representative study. social science & medicine, 182, 150-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.061 sun, r. c., hue, e. k., & watkins, d. (2006). toward a model of suicidal ideation for hong kong chinese adolescents. journal of adolescence, 29(2), 209-224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.05.005 twenge, j. m., rogers, m. l., joiner, t. e., & martin, g. n. (2018). increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among u.s. adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time. clinical psychological science, 6(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376 vannucci, a., flannery, k. m., & ohannessian, c. m. (2017). social media use and anxiety in emerging adults. journal of affective disorders, 207,163-166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.08.040 world health organization. (2001). mental health: a call for action by world health ministers. world health organization. 1-21. https://www.who.int/ mental_health/advocacy/en/call_for_action_moh_intro.pdf yoon, s., kleinman, m., mertz, j., & brannick, m. (2019). is social network site usage related to depression? a meta-analysis of facebook-depression relations. journal of affective disorders, 1(248), 65-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.01.026 https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000160 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.061 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.08.040 https://www.who.int/%0bmental_health/advocacy/en/call_for_action_moh_intro.pdf https://www.who.int/%0bmental_health/advocacy/en/call_for_action_moh_intro.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.01.026 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.1, pages: 57-69 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/29 self-imagined inertia and the construction of consciousness cleavages dan gabriel sîmbotin¹ 1 gheorghe zane institute of economic and social research of the romanian academy, iaşi branch (romania) abstract: self-image synthesizes the external and internal cumulative factors where memory, affective context, awareness and the reinterpretation of facts / phenomena play a fundamental role. within daily activities following the cognitive processing of information, there is a distance between immediate events and realities, their awareness and selfimage. depending on the context this may be less or higher, each situation generating adaptive effects that can gradually turn into psychic issues that require a psychologist or psychiatrist intervention. in this paper we will describe the way in which the self-image is built up from the phenomenological and the new theories of the imaginary perspective and we will make a critical analysis of the inappropriate use of the correlated language of the phenomenon. later we will explain how conscientious cleavages may occur, highlight the levels of proceedings of psycho-social intervention. keywords: self-image; conscientious cleavages; psycho-social intervention; imaginary. how to cite: sîmbotin, d.g. (2020). self-imagined inertia and the construction of consciousness cleavages. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 57-69. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/29 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/29 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/29 brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 58 forming the image of the world and the self image within the expanding complex context of the therapeutic intervention and theoretical developments, the cooperation between sciences which can provide technical, methodological or knowledge support has become an imperative. however, the development of the theoretical and methodological trends within the psychology or the sciences directly involved in psycho-social interventions (psychiatry, psychology, psychosociology, sociology, social assistance) is difficult. when we talk about merging other fields (epistemology, ethics, cognitive sciences, etc.), the barriers that appear seem insensitive. it can even support the existence of a phobia to philosophy (kafka, 1989). overcoming it can be accomplished by tightening relationships and imports from areas such as epistemology. through the theoretical development and the description of some mechanisms of human thinking functioning, a real support can be provided for the understanding of man as a whole and of psychosocial intervention. we started from the hypothesis of psychosocial interventions as opposed to natural sciences, where the “image” plays a fundamental role, and the reality becomes its related phenomenon. during previous theoretical developments (sîmbotin, 2016) 1 we analyzed the relationship between the development of the world’s image and the evolution of the natural sciences, considering them an integral part of the whole imaginary. in this case, the problem is punctual. we cut the sequence of the individual imaginary of the vast dimension of the entire imaginary, thus dividing the self-analysis and the self-image within it. we define the individual imagination as a set of simple or compound images which formed as an external impulse having what we call generically “reality”, each image being accompanied by an appropriate “emotional footprint”. the formation of their images is a dynamic, complex and continuous process in direct relation to what is around us and internally decoding. the individual imaginary is the basis of the personality, the distorted mirror that occurs between the outside and everyone’s answer. from this new perspective, the human personality becomes a building image where the individual structures interact with the general; they are combined to afford a unique conglomerate to each of us. 1 the imaginary theories that we describe in this paper have been developed extensively in sîmbotin, d. g. (2016). imaginarul: constructia si deconstructia lumii. editura institutului european. self-imagined inertia and the construction of consciousness cleavages dan gabriel sîmbotin 59 in order to be able to follow the development of the personality, it is necessary to analyze multiple interactive variables. among these are those derived from the ontic triad, matter-energy-information, which at the human level is reflected in: knowledge (developed in our case as an image structure), energy (which is a source of imaginary activation originating in the relationship with the outer or inner side as a way of triggering behaviors) and chorus checker (which is the support material of all manifestations). by interacting with them, the psychic processes occur within ample imaginary structures. there are continuous interactions that become the dynamics of each person’s imagination and which are reflected externally as personality / ego between these three components (represented in figure 1). placement of the ego in the center of the two triangles represents the ideal state of equilibrium in which sensitiveness will interact harmoniously with the conscious and unconscious area. fig. 1. representing the individual imaginary as a form of psychic interactions in accordance with the cognitive processes involved and with the internal or external interaction structures, we consider that the individual imaginary can be divided into the following component elements: perceptive imaginary is the basic image that is formed as a result of the direct interaction between the outside and the human knowledge. motivated by the fact that perception is an active process, and the image we have of the outside world is realized by the subject’s intervention, we can support the existence of several stages until the formation of the overall picture: the taking over of the information by the sense organs, the decoding brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 60 of the information and image calibration through an interactive response process. perceptual imagery (perception) is a dynamic process in which the subject and subject equally matter, making it unique to each person. social imaginary is formed behind continuous interaction between people. this leads to the construction of large common images in order to base communication, starting from a common point. it is developed as a synthesis of individual imaginations by coagulating varied structures of image, creating a dominant that is transmitted from one person to another and from one generation to the next. its borders are the socio-cultural spaces and it is also fundamental for the construction of the value universe. the social imagery is projected on personal terms such as “reality” or “objectivity”. linguistic imaginary is a special form of collective imagination that developed as a continuous necessity of communication efficiency, manifested through language. the rational imaginary is the most complex form of the imaginary, and it develops as a result of the awareness of its own ontological status and the world. it constitutes what we call generic consciousness and develops through processes at a rational level. an important component of this type of imaginary is self-consciousness as a result of self-reflective analysis. the pulsating imaginary (a name inspired by s. freud’s unconscious theories and the continuation of c.g. jung) represents the “shadowy imaginary”, the part in relation to fantasy, the imagination without a direct relationship with the im-mediator. it is a form of maximizing imagination, and awareness while control is difficult to do. even if the degree of complexity of the imaginary is extensive and we can talk about its classification in several categories, the ego (ego) is unitary and indivisible. as the main creator of images (wunenburger, 1997) 2 he is like a wide structure that we presented it as individual imaginary. the activation of the development area is performed under the pulse energy which may be external (electrically decoded while transmitted in the form of perceptual images, complex information and pulsating images) or inside (energy which primarily activates the shadowy areas of the pulsating imaginary, thus reactivating information). 2 in our earlier works, we have argued that there is a quasi-total identity between image and knowledge, considering that image takes, arranges, processes and transmits information. other parts of the cognitive universe, abstract concepts, and language are forms and intermediate image [wunenburger, jean-jacques (1997). philosophie des images. presses universitaires de france, pp. 45-69) integrating elements belonging to the verbal, matricial (ciphered) unconscious. self-imagined inertia and the construction of consciousness cleavages dan gabriel sîmbotin 61 the construction of the ego is continuous and is achieved through the participation of all cognitive processes by structuring various forms of the individual imaginary. the perceptual imaginary stands at the interface between the environment and the individual, while the sensation and perception in their active form stand at its foundation. aware or not the relationship between this and the rational imagination is made through simple or complex causal relationships. it is the context in which information takes on the “affective mark” that has a fundamental role in integrating and structuring the imaginary. sorting images inside the “class of objects” of the knowledge pyramid and image of the world is the next step. for this cognitive mechanisms such as image analysis (identifying the details on their existing images), comparing and positioning the image within the individual imaginary, associating and taking pictures unit (made on the similarities between the image and the “affective umbrella”) generalization, abstracting for image removal of the media, division and re-association, etc. occur. heuristic processes, problem solving, scientific discovery are in turn ways to get new images that are not in structures existing image. the unused active information tends to turn into processing information. by the new process the amount of information decreases but it increases in density, a process that we call compression. the image is restructured by synthesizing itself by determining the symbolic structures. symbolic development takes over and the “affective fingerprint” that accompanies the image or image structures. new symbolic information can be activated but, often, the details that accompany it are lost. therefore, the symbol image based on the activation brings the entire load of the image achieved by performing these re-routings of the symbol. the transformation of information could be represented as follows: fig. 2. developing the self as imaginary brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 62 consciousness and its cleavage. conceptual delimitations it is necessary to conceptually clarify what consciousness represents and how it intervenes in the development of the image structures within this new context. as a general delimitation, consciousness can be considered the essence of the ego by its mediating role in the third subject, the world, and the alter ego. a first hue to be punctuated is the distinction between “being conscious”, its noun “conscious being” (ey, 1978) and the generalization of the term by “consciousness” “to be conscious” in relation to “focus gap” is an activation process and placement of internal and external information to the forefront of individual imagination. the gap of attention is very narrow, and the amount of information in the space delimited by it is too small compared to the need to support the human being from a biological or psychological point of view. to support our own existence a multitude of information that we are not aware activates genetically transmitted automatisms (breathing, motility, external impulse reactions, etc.) or learning during life (motility, external pulse reactions, unconcealed behaviors, etc.). they are part of their own imaginary structure and they are determined for each personality. within this context, consciousness represents, in its rational discourse form, a small part of the information we use. the process of being conscious and consciousness are interdependent, both being correlative, not existing without each other. the occurrence of three types of memories (short-term memory, which retains an image for a very short time, the working memory which uses the information that can be easily activated and passive memory being forgotten or unconscious information that can be reactivated with difficulty) are related to three types of information found in individual imagination: working information (images which can easily be activated), reactive or reaction information (schemes, image structures involved during skills or reflective gestures) and passive information (images that cannot be activated due to forgetfulness, compression or symbolization, as a part of pulsating imaginary) self-imagined inertia and the construction of consciousness cleavages dan gabriel sîmbotin 63 fig. 3. consciousness the last type of information is what psychoanalysis has called unconscious, in opposition to consciousness. it is necessary to overcome the psychiatric perspective and consciousunconscious opposition must be rethought. passive information is part of the individual imagination with an important role in building personality, in potency and which, through natural cannons, can be reactivated. the unconscious as information cannot be the source of psychic problems, but the correlation of information (image) – affective impression – energy (internal or external) can generate instability. of all types of information, active information is the only one that can be controlled naturally by will. it is the conscious area, but it gradually associates, structures, and then merges with other images. these processes determine unique complex correlations in active memory that vary over time. it is the area where consciousness cleavage develops through the construction of derived imaging structures that break with active information and immediate memory, directly affecting all types of imaginary. motivated by the way the human psyche works there is always a temporal brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 64 break between what happens in the environment, the perception of the phenomenon, the awareness, the transfer in the immediate memory area and, subsequently, the active memory. all these psychic processes are subjective and the image where individual consciousness is blocked at some point influences them. therefore, for the well-being of the person and an efficient responsiveness to external impulses, the temporal cleavage should be as small as possible. the deepening of cleavages and the development of blockages in a certain image can cause psychic problems, lack of responsiveness to external impulses, or social disintegration, etc. consciousness, self-image, and well-being awareness process is not an instantaneous process. in case of perception and reactive behavior it develops during a period of time which can vary from a few milliseconds, to hours, days, or years in case of pitching. in case of setting up the individual imaginary these temporal variations can cause ruptures / cleavages among the images they encompass. in most cases, they are colluded in due course by completing information. ruptures and image completions are continuous processes. there are exceptional situations where image completions are no longer done in a timely manner, or not at all. causes can be multiple. the easier to identify are those related to the affective fingerprint that blocks and re-codes the information by directing it to other imaginary areas than usual. the construction of the self image is similar to any imaginary structure. it is built under the impact of perception, social image, personal reflection and profound pulsing structures. each causes a part of the imaginary’s own image reflecting structures being simple or extensive, with a direct connection or removed from the im-mediate. these images should converge, correlate, and project a unitary image without internal cleavages. but in reality, caused by temporal cleavages, affective or non-convergent imaginary structures appear imaging concentrations, blockages and ruptures within the self image. the forms of cleavages vary depending on the source, and may be related to perceptual, social, rational or puzzled images, increasing in depth and complexity. depending on the complexity they affect the well-being of the person, creating internal imbalances, inappropriate behavior, and affective blockages in the form of an amplified vicious circle. cleavages that develop in relation to perceptual image (fig. 4) are the simplest influencing, first, how we perceive the physical level, not grasping the transformations occurring fast enough time. this is how we change self-imagined inertia and the construction of consciousness cleavages dan gabriel sîmbotin 65 weight, aging, changing body position, etc. even though perceptually things have changed, awareness and acceptance of these changes can be accomplished with difficulty over a longer period of time. the biggest problems arise when talking about disease-specific symptom, which, despite perceptual transmitted messages, are not conscious and accepted at the conscious level. the effect consists in delaying repairs, and what could be simply solved changes while requiring complex interventions. fig. 4 consciousness corresponding to perceptive imaginary given that a self-image has accumulated images derived from the past truncated or currently desirable, but inconsistent with perception consciousness corresponding to perceptive imaginary is built. this derived image subjectively solves the conflict caused by the break between perception and self-image, recreating an apparent balance. the new image strengthens over time and projects a perceived “new reality” in the perceptual image trying to corrupt it. the derived cumulative image is routinely built but as long as it is related to perceptual image and it is stored in its proximity, the cleavages do not deepen but they stabilize. in order to maintain the balance and the well-being it is necessary to become aware of the physical and physiological changes and acceptance by psychosomatic self-analyzes. brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 66 fig. 5 consequences of consciousness related to social imagery cleavages that develop in relation to the social imaginary (fig. 5) structurally develop similarly to those above, having a higher degree of complexity. the self-image is formed in relation to the opinions of others, projections of the collective or individual views of what constitutes a personal alter-ego. conflicts between self-image and decoded image as views of your alter ego can cause blockages and emotional problems. whether image differences are positive (superior) or negative (exaggerated modesty) relative to the person, the social response of the person may become inadequate; causing changes in his/her personal balance. the degree of complexity of this type of cleavage is high, because there is a form of indeterminacy of the social imagery that amplifies the individual uncertainties about decoding the message. how can you approach the cumulative image of the social image if you do not have an objective benchmark to report to? as a symptom, we identify inappropriate feedback to the social impulse, but it must also be related to the individual subjective component and social context. we identify multiple causes of the cleavage: the transfer of the person into a new social environment, internal changes of the social environment caused by social evolutions, incorrect decoding of the social imagery. solving the problems caused by changing the social environment can also be achieved by self-analysis or individual adaptation to the new environment. the most difficult thing is when decoding messages self-imagined inertia and the construction of consciousness cleavages dan gabriel sîmbotin 67 from the social environment is erroneous. in this situation, only the intervention of another person which must be based on trust can help. fig. 6 conscious cleavages corresponding to rational imaginary consciousness cleavages corresponding to the rational imaginary (figure 6) occur as inconsistencies between different moments of analysis, incompatibilities between various structures, or interpretations of one’s own image. the degree of their complexity is very high and can be found in mental dysfunctions such as: bipolar, schizophrenic or personality dysfunctions (american psychiatric association, 2013). the degree of difficulty of interventions increases with stabilizing alternative images that provide the person with the certainty of the normality of their own decisions and behaviors. there is a possibility that self-image and derivative imaging may interfere with image compression and symbolizing processes that can allow “myths” and “fictions” about oneself. they are a new source of a new rational imaginary and turn into conscientious cleavages corresponding to pulsating imaginary (figure 7). the new rational imaginary is divided from the desirable one, its proximal possibilities being difficult or impossible to be achieved. brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 68 fig. 7 consciousness cleavages corresponding to pulsing imaginary conclusions according to previously developed theories on the imaginary the idea of consciousness cleavages can provide a coherent explanation support for multiple disorders from simple ones such as accepting contextual situations regarding psychosomatic personal to serious conditions requiring complex therapeutic interventions. identifying the type of the cleavage of consciousness can allow adequate intervention, in different ways, from selfanalysis and personal development to complex therapies in order to change personal imagination and to reduce the blockages and tears between images. in this paper i have only achieved a theoretical contextualization pointing out the typology of the cleavages of consciousness. each of these can be developed and supplemented with forms of intervention to specific case law. references american psychiatric association. (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm-5 (r) (5th ed.). american psychiatric association. ey, h. (1978). consciousness: a phenomenological study of being conscious and becoming conscious (p. 2). indiana university press. kafka, j. s. (1989). multiple realities in clinical practice (pp. 5-15). yale university press. self-imagined inertia and the construction of consciousness cleavages dan gabriel sîmbotin 69 sîmbotin, d. g. (2016). imaginarul: constructia si deconstructia lumii. editura institutului european. wunenburger, j-j. (1997). philosophie des images (pp. 45-69). presses universitaires de france. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 51-71 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/141 the influence of the professional orientation of students of different gender on their ideas of happiness olena stroianovska¹, liubov dolynska 2 , nataliia shevchenko 3 , nataliia andriiashyna 4 , iryna melnyk 5 , natalia tsybuliak 6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kiev, ukraine, ccstroya@ua.fm 2 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kiev, ukraine, lbvdolinska@gmail.com 3 zaporizhzhia national university, zaporizhzhia, ukraine, shevchenkonf.20@gmail.com orcid 0000-0002-5297-6588 4 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kiev, ukraine, andriyanv@gmail.com 5 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, iramelnyk@i.ua 6 berdyansk state pedagogical university, berdyansk, ukraine, nata.tsibulyak@gmail.com abstract: in the conditions of unstable political, economic and social development of society the problem of quality of life, well-being, satisfaction of each citizen of the country acquires special importance. research has shown that happiness is determined by various factors (age, marital, social and financial status, physiological status, social relations, personal characteristics), its level changes throughout life and can be corrected by certain psychological methods of influence. the purpose of our study was to study the state of development of the problem of happiness and study the content of the ideas of young people about happiness, their characteristics depending on gender and professional orientation. in order to study the peculiarities of the young generation's ideas about happiness, we studied 250 third-year students aged 20 to 22 years of various specialties. the researched questionnaire was asked to answer the questions, the analysis of which helped to make generalized conclusions about their ideas about happiness. the most of students rate their level of happiness as high or medium. but their level of happiness is much higher than their level of success, which can lead to a contradiction between the desire for success and happiness. this state of affairs requires correction of the content of ideas about happiness in adolescence by providing educational information about awareness of success as a process of selfrealization and a component of happiness, the desire for integrated satisfaction of both material and spiritual needs for full personal development. keywords: success; psychological well-being; subjective well-being; life satisfaction; personal identity; self-actualization; meaning of life; emotional comfort; harmony. how to cite: stroianovska, o., dolynska, l., shevchenko, n., andriiashyna, n., melnyk, i., & tsybuliak, n. (2020). the influence of the professional orientation of students of different gender on their ideas of happiness. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 51-71. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/141 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/141 mailto:ccstroya@ua.fm mailto:lbvdolinska@gmail.com mailto:shevchenkonf.20@gmail.com mailto:andriyanv@gmail.com mailto:iramelnyk@i.ua mailto:nata.tsibulyak@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/141 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 52 introduction in the conditions of unstable political, economic and social development of society the problem of quality of life, well-being, satisfaction of each citizen of the country acquires special importance. research has shown that happiness is determined by various factors (age, marital, social and financial status, physiological status, social relations, personal characteristics), its level changes throughout life and can be corrected by certain psychological methods of influence. the issue of detailed study of the content of the young generation's ideas about happiness, research of their features depending on gender and professional orientation, preliminary formation of personal qualities, values, behavioral patterns, skills and abilities of awareness of their own needs for successful social satisfaction and achieving permanent experience state of happiness. the solution of the above problems remains promising and requires detailed study. the problem of happiness as a psychological phenomenon has been studied mainly within the framework of humanistic, existential and positive psychology, for example, in the works of rogers (1997) on "fully functioning personality", erickson (1996) on "personal identity", maslow (1997) on "self-actualization", waterman (1990) on "personal expressiveness", diener (2000), kahneman, & krueger (2006), ryff (1995) on “subjective wellbeing”, seligman (2012) on“ authentic happiness”, frankl (1987) on“ the meaning of life ”. this diversity of approaches indicates the importance and relevance of studying this issue, its complexity and diversity. particular attention of modern scientists is attracted not only by the definition of the content, structure, factors of "happiness" (argyle, 1991; kahneman, & krueger, 2006; lyubomirsky, 2008), but also the possibility of selecting diagnostic techniques for its measurement (diener et al., 1985; kahneman, & krueger, 2006), specific psychological methods of its optimization (brewer & gardner, 1996; gran & dutton, 2012), which indicates the relevance of the applied component of this issue. happiness is a psychological phenomenon, which according to many psychologists, in particular diener (2000), king & napa (1998), lambert (2007), layard (2005) and lyubomirsky (2008), contributes to the prolongation life, improving health and appearance, optimizing working conditions, achieving success, as well as improving some personal qualities. each of the researchers understands the meaning of happiness depending on their belonging to a certain approach. the influence of the professional orientation of students of different … olena stroianovska, et al. 53 for example, the representative of humanistic psychology maslow (1997) interprets happiness as the satisfaction of all levels of needs, from physiological to self-actualization, tatarkevich (1981) adds that happiness should be defined as full and lasting satisfaction with life in general, ryff (1995) as the degree of realization of human potential, king & napa (1998) as the experience of life meanings, gulyas (2019) as the emotional state of inner satisfaction with the conditions of their existence, fullness and meaningfulness of life, fulfillment of their purpose, awareness of the positivity of the context of their own existence, diener et al. (1985) and other representatives of positive psychology as a subjective well-being that depends on current events and the tendency of individuals to certain affective reactions, argyle (1991) as a state of joy or other positive emotions, satisfaction life and the absence of depression, anxiety and other negative emotions. it should be noted that along with the concept of happiness in the scientific literature often use other phenomena, such as: psychological, subjective, emotional, personal, general well-being, quality of life, life satisfaction, meaning of life, emotional comfort, social well-being and more. all of these concepts, on the one hand, are different, and on the other hand, they are based on the subjective attitude of the individual to different aspects of his life. recently, researchers most often use the concept of psychological well-being (bradburn & caplovitz, 1965; ryff, 1995; cho et al., 2011) and subjective well-being (diener, 2000; kahneman & krueger, 2006). the concept of "psychological well-being" was introduced into psychology by bradburn & caplovitz (1965), who understood it as a subjective feeling of happiness and general satisfaction with life. he pointed to the need for balance, which is achieved by the constant interaction of two types of affect positive and negative, which lead to satisfaction or dissatisfaction with life. deci (1985) and ryff (1995) considered psychological well-being as a result of personality development through the transformation of the surrounding world and the achievement of inner harmony. diener (2000) identified six indicators of positive personality functioning (psychological well-being): selfacceptance, positive relationships with others, autonomy, environmental management, goals in life and personal growth. researchers have identified various components of psychological well-being, including physical, spiritual, personal, social, subjective, material, economic, existential, and so on. diener (2000) and ryff (1995) point out that the component of psychological well-being is subjective well-being, because to achieve the first person must comprehend and experience the pleasure of their own lives. it brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 54 is subjective well-being that is closest in content to the concept of "happiness". according to kargina (2015), subjective well-being is an integration phenomenon that systematically affects various parameters of a person’s mental state, leads to successful behavior and effective interpersonal interaction. according to gorbal (2015), subjective well-being is a person’s attitude to the world around him and himself at two levels: emotional and cognitive. in order to feel prosperous, positive feelings over negative ones should dominate in a person and the idea of their own life should prevail, as close as possible to the ideal. so, subjective well-being is characterized by the content of emotions and judgments, on the basis of which a general attitude and understanding of a person about his life is formed, while psychological well-being covers the possibilities for further development, the choice of methods for its positive functioning, characteristics of the value-motivational, cognitive and behavioral areas, its results growth. various factors influence the level of happiness. the american psychologist lyubomirsky (2008) presented them in the form of a circle divided into three parts: 50% is the influence of temperament and personality; 10% the influence of external circumstances (place of residence, income level, quality of education, belonging to a certain social circle), 40% how people themselves build their lives (their goals, the people with whom they communicate, activities and lifestyle). seligman (2012), analyzing the phenomenon of happiness, also speaks of an individual range a genetically determined level of happiness, external circumstances and factors that can be controlled characterful. argyle (1991) believes that personal qualities (self-esteem, selfconception, extraversion, meaningfulness of life) to a greater extent determine the level of happiness than external circumstances. researchers have proved the correlation of subjective well-being with such aspects of personality as internal control and optimism, integrated identity, ego strength, mental maturity, social ability, activity, openness of experience perception. diener (2000) points out the influence of friendships on the level of happiness, which proves the importance of a person’s communicative abilities in the growth of subjective well-being, or the relative absence of intrapsychic conflicts. headey and wearing (1986) demonstrate a correlation between high levels of extraversion, low rates of neuroticism, openness to experience, a sense of strong social support and happiness. researcher the influence of the professional orientation of students of different … olena stroianovska, et al. 55 knyazeva (2011) adds to the existing personal factors of happiness the ability to take responsibility for their actions and feelings of internal control over events in life, gorbal (2015) a high level of optimism. the influence of external circumstances, although it is not of paramount importance in achieving happiness, but still affects it. levenson and gottman (1985) emphasize the importance of having friends, family (especially for men), satisfaction with family life, a high level of education, financial security, and physical attractiveness. gorbal (2015) is consistent with the results of a study by ryff (1995) on the importance of social status, level of education, objective and subjective health status. knyazeva (2011) indicates that people who do not have a high level of education more often demonstrate their satisfaction with life than those who have a high level, which, in her opinion, is associated with the fact that higher education contributes to setting more complex goals that are harder to achieve. argyle (1991) insists on the importance of close social ties in this matter, job satisfaction (the diversity and independence of work, its awareness, social value, background, nature of business relations), health, and free time for leisure. according to diener (2000), the most significant factors for happiness are friends and family. less significant, in his opinion, is material security. kahneman and krueger (2006) point out an interesting fact that the material situation of people is growing rapidly, but almost does not affect the level of happiness, which, in his opinion, is associated with a quick adaptation to pleasure and the desire to have more than it is. a study conducted in more than 58 countries shows that the amount of money, namely the relative status in society makes a person happy (those who are at the top of the social hierarchy have a balance of happiness-unhappiness 51%, and at the lowest level of the social hierarchy 27%). factors hardly affect the level of happiness, according to argyle (1991), is age, gender and religious joy. but some researchers insist on the importance of age in experiencing happiness the happiest people feel in youth and old age, and the least in middle age, as well as the presence of religiosity or belief in something more than themselves among those who consider themselves non-religious, the balance of happiness-unhappiness is lower (+ 27%) compared with those who have religious beliefs (+ 54%). as noted above, an important factor in increasing the level of happiness is that it lends itself to volitional control of people (their goals, activities and lifestyle). some researchers (argyle, 1991; diener, emmons et al., 1985) consider the existence of life goals that give meaning to the chosen work, activity and enjoyment of life the most influential factor of happiness. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 56 given the above, it can be concluded that subjective well-being to a greater extent does not depend on external circumstances, but on personal characteristics and volitional regulation, which indicates the possibility of the active use of various psychological methods to increase the level of happiness. gran and dutton (2012) indicate a positive impact on the person’s level of happiness of high-quality relationships, kindness and helping each other, brewer and gardner (1996) on the daily use of meditation of love and kindness, keeping an imaginary diary about positive things in own life or writing a letter of thanks to a loved one, aknin et al.(2012) daily allocation of hours in any sport, kober and ochsner (2011) the combination of meditation, keeping a diary and physical exercises to improve the emotional state, dunn and norton (2013) daily awareness of their goals and aspirations, kasser (2015) focusing on personal development, increasing attractiveness and communication skills. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars: sheremet et al. (2019); melnyk et al. (2019); nerubasska & maksymchuk (2020); gerasymova et al. (2019). from the point of view of neuropsychology, the occurrence of any mental phenomenon is caused or associated with the processes in the central nervous system, changes in vegetative functions and the cortical parts of the brain. indeed, happiness is a feeling and a state of total satisfaction. schachter and singer (1962) claim that the formation of emotions and feelings requires two factors, such as physiological activation and cognitive assessment (i.e. an interpretation of some event in terms of one’s personal experience and control over the situation). berridge and kringelbach (2008) identify the importance of satisfaction (positive affect) and cognitive assessment of life satisfaction, emphasizing social interactions between people as one of the main factors in experiencing pleasure and hence happiness. studying the phenomenon of pleasure, many researchers (blood & zatorre, 2001; small et al., 2001; george et al. 1995; lane et al., 1997) point to the importance of the interaction between the limbic system (animal brain), several structural components of the brain stem (reticular formation) and the cerebral cortex (frontal and temporal lobes), as well as nerve connections between them. nerve signals from all sense organs, travelling through the neural pathways of the brain stem to its cortex, pass through one or more limbic structures, including the amygdala, hippocampus or part of the hypothalamus. at the same time, signals sent from the cortex also pass through the same structures. one should pay particular attention to the leading role of the cortex of the larger hemispheres in this process, as well as the influence of the professional orientation of students of different … olena stroianovska, et al. 57 to the importance of the subcortical centres controlling the vegetative nervous system and the functioning of internal organs. it determines the close relationship between emotions, feelings and various changes in body functions: the activity of the heart, blood vessels, respiratory organs, changes in the activity of skeletal muscles and glands of external and internal secretion. davidson and irwin (1999) demonstrate that the left frontal cortex plays an essential role in positive affect (happiness), while the prefrontal cortex of the right hemisphere has the opposite effect. it means that people whose left frontal cortex is more active are usually happier and more optimistic than those with the right frontal cortex more active. besides, people whose amygdaloid body is more active, particularly the tonsils of the right hemisphere, are more likely to be at risk for depression. thus, it is essential to study the interaction between cortical, subcortical structures of the brain and the nerve connections which connect them and other parts of the nervous system, as well as their impact on the experience of happiness, more in detail. thus, the aforementioned scientists studied various aspects of the problem of happiness: its content, structure, factors, phenomena close to it, methods for its diagnosis and enhancement. in our opinion, a more detailed study is required by the topic of people's ideas about their own happiness, because it is they that are the driving force for achieving what the person desires. an important period of awareness of the performance of ideas about happiness is adolescence, the period of active development of selfawareness, the definition and establishment of basic life guidelines, the manifestations of maximum efforts to find and realize their claims. it is during this period of age development that a person is able to show maximum flexibility, activity and courage to change his own life trajectory in order to achieve success in various areas and satisfaction from it. the content of ideas about happiness can also be actively corrected precisely at this age by providing educational information about the mechanisms and patterns of achieving happiness, that is, increasing the psychological culture of a person. in connection with the social significance of the problem and the insufficiency of relevant systematic scientific developments, the aim of our research was to study the state of development of the problem of happiness and to study the content of representations of young people about happiness, their characteristics depending on gender and professional orientation. https://www.multitran.com/m.exe?s=amygdaloid+body&l1=1&l2=2 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 58 materials and methods in order to study the peculiarities of the young generation's ideas about happiness, we studied 250 third-year students of kyiv national university of culture and arts aged 20 to 22 years of various specialties (89.6% female, 10.4% male). the researched questionnaire was asked to answer the questions, the analysis of which helped to make generalized conclusions about their ideas about happiness. the questionnaires were developed by the authors. in accordance with the recommendations of cohen (1988), in our work, the value of the probability of an error of the first kind (1-alpha), traditional for psychological, social, and behavioral studies, is 0.05. the study group consisted of 250 people, which with p = 0.05 and the expected average statistical effect allows us to achieve the power of statistical methods (beta) greater by 0.99. to achieve a power level that can be considered high (beta = 0.9) at p = 0.05, and the expected average effect level, enough people in the study are 191 people. the number of subjects exceeded the recommended sample size, which significantly improved the quality of our research. results the results of the empirical study are presented below in figures 1-3 and table 1. systematized by the authors fig. 1. the main components of female students' perceptions of happiness (%) the influence of the professional orientation of students of different … olena stroianovska, et al. 59 as can be seen from figure 1, girls (89.6%) the main components of ideas about happiness are love (17.6%), harmony (14.4%), family (12.8%), health (10.4%), close people and friends nearby (9.6%). among other components, female students often mention life satisfaction (8%), money (6.4%), children and positive emotions (5.6%). based on the analysis of the results, it can be concluded that students, thinking about happiness, mainly focus on love and family, which is a common desire and necessity at this age, when girls are actively looking for a worthy partner to create a harmonious relationship. harmony is in second place after love, which may be related to understanding the importance of awareness of their own desires for their successful realization, the peculiarities of their own character to build effective relationships, being in a calm and balanced state, which is promoted in society. last but not least is health, which may indicate the presence of problems in this area, both their own health and the health of the loved ones, the desire to get rid of them. money is not often associated with happiness, but it is present in girls' perceptions, and favorite work remains in the last positions, which indicates the prevalence of social stereotypes about the main function of women, which is to create a family and motherhood. as can be seen from figure 2, boys (10.4%) have family (4%), love (3.4%), peace, favorite work and freedom (2.4%) as the main components of their notions of happiness. this state of affairs indicates a positive trend of men's commitment to starting a family and understanding the importance of love in the experience of happiness. despite the above fact, they would like to have freedom and peace, which may indicate their desire for a partnership in the family and the desire to understand their needs and desires on the part of women. an interesting phenomenon is that, despite today's world orientation towards money, they are not the primary component of happiness for men (1.6%), although they indicate independence, adulthood and masculinity. we can assume that this is due to the ukrainian mentality, where caring for the soul is a priority. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 60 systematized by the authors fig. 2. the main components of male students' perceptions of happiness (%) the general results of the survey on students' perceptions of happiness are presented in figure 3. as can be seen from figure 3, a significant number of students, regardless of gender, present happiness as the presence of love (20.8%), family (16.8%) and harmony (15.2%), which proves the understanding of the importance of harmonious relationships between partners. for a high level of life satisfaction and personal development. due to environmental problems and the low level of healthy living among the population, the problem of health becomes relevant at a young age. that is why students pay enough attention (11.2%) to the availability of health to fully experience happiness. students mention money in 9.6% of cases. based on the above results, we can conclude that young people clearly distinguish between spiritual and material components in the understanding of happiness, giving preference to the former, which may indicate a sufficient level of psychological culture of students and a high level of awareness of their own higher needs, through the creation of love and family relationships. the influence of the professional orientation of students of different … olena stroianovska, et al. 61 systematized by the authors fig. 3. the main components of students' ideas about happiness (%) in our opinion, it is very important from these positions that the young generation chooses the right course of life, which will allow it to fully realize the desire for both success and happiness. there is a certain threat in the predominance of youth's focus on success, which is often positioned by society as the best way to realize the individual. based on the analysis of psychological research on the problem of success (wilson, 2013; goto & connie, 2009); koekemoer & visagie, 2013); raabe et al., 2007), as well as our study of the characteristics of ideas about the life success of students of different specialties by us it was concluded that they represent success as achieving their own goals (24%), the availability of money and selfrealization (18.4%), respect for loved ones and other people (12%), recognition and fame (10.8%), good work (9%) and career (8%), which proves the importance of material achievements of students regardless of their gender. this state of affairs can lead to a contradiction between the desire for success and happiness. if success is chosen as the primary life aim due to the influence of social stereotypes, it can contribute to the satisfaction of mostly material needs and temporary satisfaction, and in the future lead to existential crisis, loneliness, postponement of creation or loss of important emotional relationships, emotional burnout and low level of frustration brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 62 tolerance, which means, most likely, a low level of happiness. thus, the prospect and practical significance of our study may be the development of methods to encourage young people to realize their own needs in the field of success and happiness and their integrated implementation for the full material and spiritual development of the individual. the results of the analysis of the influence of students' professional orientation on their perception of happiness are presented in table 1. as can be seen from table 1, harmony and love as components of happiness often occupy the first place in the minds of students of such specialties as translators, lawyers, directors. only representatives of some specialties (tv journalists, directors, photographers, actors) in the analysis of happiness put forward the family, which, in our opinion, is due to the specifics of these professions, frequent business trips and emotional exhaustion, and hence the importance of stable family relationships, understanding that despite their long absence, they are waiting for loved ones. for the same reasons, only tv journalists and actors mention children. sociologists and economists believe that the most important thing is the pleasure of life, which can contain both material and spiritual components. it should be noted that only for the actors favorite work is the most important in the experience of happiness, which proves the need for them just professional self-realization. table 1. the main components of students' perceptions of happiness in different specialties (%) specialty the main components of happiness importance for students % interpreters 1) harmony; 2) love; 3) health 4,8 3,2 1,6 sociologists 1) life satisfaction, loved ones; 2) harmony; 3) peace, self-realization 2,4 1,6 0,8 lawyers 1) harmony; 2) love; 3) health, loved ones 4 3,2 2,4 economists 1) life satisfaction; 2) love; 2,4 1,6 the influence of the professional orientation of students of different … olena stroianovska, et al. 63 3) self-realization, harmony, health 0,8 tv journalists 1) family; 2) material goods; 3) children; positive emotions 6,4 5,6 4 journalists 1) health, love; 2) self-sufficiency; 3) the opportunity to create 2,4 1,6 0,8 directors 1) love; 2) family; 3) mindfulness 2,4 1,6 0,8 photographers 1) family; 2) inspiration; 3) love 3,2 2,4 1,6 actors 1) favorite job; 2) family, children, harmony; 3) health, love 2,4 1,6 0,8 systematized by the authors in the vast majority of specialties, one of the most important components of happiness is health (except for such specialties as sociologists, television journalists, directors, and photographers, in our opinion, is associated with a high level of their emotional load at work and their preoccupation with it). only sociologists pay attention to peace for a sense of happiness, which is most likely associated with high emotional tension at work and burning out. thus, based on the above results of empirical research, we can conclude that gender and choice of professional specialization significantly affect the content of students' perceptions of happiness, which proves our assumption. an empirical study also examined the level of self-assessment of students of different genders (see figure 4), which has almost the same representation of happiness levels regardless of gender. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 64 systematized by the authors fig. 4. assessment by students of different genders of their own happiness (%) to check the equality of the average values of two samples (female and male), we used the student t-test for independent samples, which indicated a statistical similarity in the distribution of happiness levels among girls and boys (t <p, t = 0.778), which suggests that the level of assessment of their own happiness by students is not dependent on gender. as can be seen from figure 4, the vast majority of students, regardless of gender, rate their level of happiness as high (66.9% for women and 66.7% for men) or medium (29.4% and 20.8%). this trend, in our opinion, is quite positive. it is interesting and prognostic to compare the results of an empirical study of the level of their own happiness and success of students of different genders (see fig. 5). as figure 5 shows, happy people may not always be successful, which may be due to their identification of success primarily with careers and the availability of material goods. it should be noted that the level of happiness is rated by students much higher than their level of success (women a high level of happiness occurs in 65.9% of respondents, and success in 25.3%; men a high level of happiness in 66.7%, and success in 33.3%). the influence of the professional orientation of students of different … olena stroianovska, et al. 65 systematized by the authors fig. 5. assessment by students of different genders of the level of their own happiness and success (%) in our opinion, this state of affairs is connected with the perception of life success not as a constant process, but as an end result in the form of achieving one's own goals, career growth and money. from these positions it is very important to develop means of psychological influence of optimization of awareness of success as a process of self-realization and a component of happiness. in our opinion, the equal presence of the desire to meet material and spiritual needs, tracking and adequate assessment of today's success, based on the real situation of life and opportunities, praise and encouragement to further achievements will best contribute to maximum personal development and well-being. discussion the scientific novelty and theoretical significance of the study is that the in-depth and refined essence of the concept of "happiness" and related concepts, in particular, psychological and subjective well-being as an integrative phenomenon that has a systematic impact on various parameters of mental state, leads to successful behavior and effective interpersonal interaction, for the first time substantiated the importance of the content of young people's ideas (students) about their own happiness as an important motivating force for achieving the desired future, which due to age features brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 66 of this period (active development of self-awareness, wishes, flexibility and reflection) can be effectively and quickly regulated in the direction necessary for the individual. psychologists mainly studied the factors that determine the immediate level of happiness, but did not pay attention to the conditionality of the younger generation's ideas about happiness by their age, gender and professional characteristics. as a result of our study, we concluded that gender and choice of professional specialization significantly affect the content of students' perceptions of happiness, but not its level, because regardless of these factors, the younger generation evaluates their level of happiness as high or medium, which is positive phenomenon. in addition, young people clearly distinguish the spiritual and material components in the understanding of happiness, giving preference to the former, which may indicate a sufficient level of psychological culture of students and a high level of awareness of their own higher needs. an important result of the study is a comparative analysis of the level of their happiness and success of students of different genders. the level of happiness is assessed by students much higher than their level of success, which requires the development of means of psychological influence to optimize the awareness of success as a process of self-realization and a component of happiness. the practical significance of the study is that the results can be used to develop a program to optimize students' perceptions of happiness and success, as its component, in order to integrate both material and spiritual needs for the full development of personality. conclusions happiness is a psychological phenomenon that helps to prolong life, improve health and personal appearance, optimize work, achieve success, and improve some personal qualities. along with the concept of "happiness" often use the concepts of psychological, subjective, emotional, personal, general well-being, quality of life, life satisfaction, meaning of life, emotional comfort, social well-being, which are based on the subjective attitude of the individual to various aspects of his life. the most common is the concept of psychological and subjective well-being (integration phenomenon, which has a systematic impact on various parameters of the mental state of man, leads to successful behavior and effective interpersonal interaction). people's perception of their own happiness is a motivating force for achieving what a person wants, and adolescence an important period of their awareness through the active development of self-awareness, definition the influence of the professional orientation of students of different … olena stroianovska, et al. 67 and formation of basic life goals, maximum effort to find and implement their demands. it should be noted that gender and the choice of professional specialization significantly affect the content of students' perceptions of happiness. girls, thinking about happiness, mainly focus on love and family, which is a common desire and necessity at this age, harmony is the second only to love, not least health, which may indicate problems in in this area, both their own and loved ones, the desire to get rid of them. money is not often associated with happiness, but is present in the minds of girls, and a favorite job remains in last place. for boys, the main components of ideas about happiness are family, love, peace, favorite work and freedom, which indicate a positive trend of men's commitment to starting a family and understanding the importance of love in the experience of happiness. thus, young people clearly distinguish the spiritual and material component in the understanding of happiness, giving preference to the former, which may indicate a sufficient level of psychological culture of students and a high level of awareness of their own higher needs. students' professional orientation also influences their perception of happiness. harmony and love as components of happiness often occupy the first place in the ideas of students of such specialties as translators, lawyers, directors. only representatives of some specialties (tv journalists, directors, photographers, actors) in the analysis of happiness put the family first, due to the specifics of these professions, frequent business trips and emotional exhaustion, and hence the importance of stable family relationships. sociologists and economists believe that the most important thing is the pleasure of life, which can contain both material and spiritual components. and only for actors favorite work is the most important in the experience of happiness, which proves the need for them just professional self-realization. in the vast majority of specialties, one of the important components of happiness is health. only sociologists pay attention to peace for the feeling of happiness, which is most likely associated with high emotional tension at work and burning out. the vast majority of students, regardless of gender, rate their level of happiness as high or medium. but their level of happiness is much higher than their level of success, which is due to the perception of success in life as the end result in the form of achieving their own goals, career progress and money. this state of affairs can lead to a contradiction between the desire for success and happiness, which requires correction of the content of ideas about happiness in adolescence by providing educational information about the awareness of success as a process of self-realization and happiness, the brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 68 desire for integrated satisfaction of material and spiritual needs for the full development of personality. the prospect of further research on the problem of happiness is the development of specific psychological tools to optimize the process of active awareness of students of ideas about happiness and planning their effective implementation throughout life, as well as studying the dynamics of personal ideas about happiness during other ages. references aknin, l. b., hamlin, k., & dunn, e. (2012). giving leads to happiness in young children. plos one, 7(6), e39211. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039211 argyle, m., & martin, m. (1991). the psychological causes of happiness. in f. strack, m. argyle, & n. schwarz (eds.), international series in experimental social psychology, vol. 21. subjective well-being: an interdisciplinary perspective (p. 77–100). pergamon press. berridge, k. c., & kringelbach, m. l. (2008). affective neuroscience of pleasure: reward in humans and animals. psychopharmacology, 199, 457–80. doi: 10.1007/s00213-008-1099-6. blood, а., & zatorre, r. (2001). intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 98 (20), 1181811823. doi: 10.1073/pnas.191355898 bradburn, n. m., & caplovitz, d. (1965). reports on happiness. a pilot study of behavior related to mental health. aldine publishing company. brewer, m. b., & gardner, w. (1996). who is this “we”? levels of collective identity and self-representations. journal of personality and social psychology, 71(1), 8393. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.71.1.83 cho, j., martin, p., margrett, j., macdonald, m., & poon, l. w. (2011). the relationship between physical health and psychological well-being among oldest-old adults. journal of aging research, article 605041. doi: 10.4061/2011/605041 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). lawrence erlbaum. davidson, r. j., & irwin, w. (1999). the functional neuroanatomy of emotion and affective style. trends in cognitive sciences, 3(1), 11–21. doi: 10.1016/s13646613(98)01265-0 deci, e. (1985). the general causality orientations scale: self-determination in personality. journal of research in personality, 19, 109–134. doi: 10.1016/00926566(85)90023-6. the influence of the professional orientation of students of different … olena stroianovska, et al. 69 diener, e. (2000). subjective well-being: the science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. american psychologist, 55(1), 3443. doi: 10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.34 diener, e., emmons, r. a., larsen, r. j. & griffin, sh. (1985). the satisfaction with life scale. journal of personality assessment, 49(1), 71–75. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 dunn, e., & norton, m. (2013). happy money: the science of smarter spending. simon & schuster; later printing edition erikson, e. (1996). identichnost: yunost i krizis [identity: youth and crisis]. moscow: progress. frankl, v. (1987). logotherapie und existenzanalyse. piper. george, m. s., ketter, t. a., parekh, p. i., horwitz, b., herscovitch, p., & post, r. m. (1995). brain activity during transient sadness and happiness in healthy women. american journal of psychiatry, 152(3), 341351. doi: 10.1176/ajp.152.3.341. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345-361. doi: 10.18662/rrem/195 gorbal, i. (2015). yak vymiryaty shchastya? suchasni metody doslidzhennya subʺyektyvnoho blahopoluchchya. psykholohichni problemy suchasnosti: [how to measure happiness? modern methods of research of subjective well-being]. psychological problems of modernity: conference papers of the xii scientific-practical conference of students and young scientists (pp. 11-13), may 14-15, lviv. https://filos.lnu.edu.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2015/06/tezi_psyhol_zbirnik_2015.pdf goto, t. s., & connie, m. (2009). psychology of success: overcoming barriers to pursuing further education. the journal of continuing higher education, 57, 10–21. doi: 10.1080/07377360902810744 gran, a., & dutton, j. (2012). beneficiary or benefactor, are people more prosocial when they reflect on receiving or giving. psychological science, 23, 10331039. doi: 10.1177/0956797612439424 gulyas, i. (2019). podiynyy zmist zhyttyevoho shlyakhu osobystosti [event content of the life path of the individual]. problems of modern psychology, 43, 81103. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pspl_2019_43_6. headey, b., & wearing, a. (1986). chains of well-being, chains of ill-being. international sociological association conference, new delhi. https://worlddatabaseofhappinessarchive.eur.nl/common/desc_study.php?studyid=862 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 https://filos.lnu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/tezi_psyhol_zbirnik_2015.pdf https://filos.lnu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/tezi_psyhol_zbirnik_2015.pdf http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pspl_2019_43_6 https://worlddatabaseofhappiness-archive.eur.nl/common/desc_study.php?studyid=862 https://worlddatabaseofhappiness-archive.eur.nl/common/desc_study.php?studyid=862 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 70 kahneman, d., & krueger, a. b. (2006). developments in the measurement of subjective well-being. journal of economic perspectives, 20(1), 324. http://scienceandeducation.pdpu.edu.ua/doc/2015/jrn_3/pdf/10.pdf kargina, n. (2015). osnovni pidkhody do vyvchennya psykholohichnoho blahopoluchchya osobystosti: teoretychnyy aspekt [basic approaches to the study of psychological well-being of the individual: the theoretical aspect]. science and education, 3, 4855. http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ujrn&p21dbn =ujrn&image_file_download=1&image_file_name=pdf/ni o_2015_3_10.pdf kasser, t. (2015). byt ili imet? [to be or to have?] mann. https://www.yakaboo.ua/mif-byt-ili-imet-psihologija-kul-turypotreblenija.html#tab-attributes king, l., & napa, ch. k. (1998). what makes a life good? journal of personality and social psychology, 75, 156165. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.156 knyazeva, e. (2011). udovletvorennost zhyznyu kak sotsyalnyy fenomen [life satisfaction as a social phenomenon]. bulletin of v. n. karazin kharkiv national university, 941, 160165. http://www.sociology.kharkov.ua/ images/docs/magazine/vesnik_soc/941.pdf kober, h., & ochsner, k. (2011). regulation of emotion in major depressive disorder. biological psychiatry, 70, 910-911. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.09.019 koekemoer, e., & visagie, s. (2013). exploring the attainment of career success. journal of psychology in africa, 23(4), 601–608. doi: 10.1080/14330237.2013.10820673 lambert, c. (2007). the science of happiness: psychology explores humans at their best. harvard magazine. http://harvardmagazine.com/2007/01/thescience-of-happiness.html lane, r. d., reiman, e. m., ahern, g. l., schwartz, g. e., & davidson, r. j. (1997). neuroanatomical correlates of happiness, sadness, and disgust. american journal of psychiatry, 154(7), 926933. doi: 10.1176/ajp.154.7.926 layard, r. (2005). happiness: lessons from a new science. the penguin group. levenson, r., & gottman, j. (1985). physiological and affective predictors of change in relationship satisfaction. journal of personality and social psychology, 49, 8594. https://bpl.berkeley.edu/docs/28-physiological%20and%20affective%20predictors85.pdf lyubomirsky, s. (2008). the how of happiness: a scientific approach to getting the life you want. penguin press. maslow, a. (1997). psykholohyya bytyya [psychology of being]. wakler. http://scienceandeducation.pdpu.edu.ua/doc/2015/jrn_3/pdf/10.pdf http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ujrn&p21dbn=ujrn&image_file_download=1&image_file_name=pdf/nio_2015_3_10.pdf http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ujrn&p21dbn=ujrn&image_file_download=1&image_file_name=pdf/nio_2015_3_10.pdf http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ujrn&p21dbn=ujrn&image_file_download=1&image_file_name=pdf/nio_2015_3_10.pdf http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ujrn&p21dbn=ujrn&image_file_download=1&image_file_name=pdf/nio_2015_3_10.pdf https://www.yakaboo.ua/mif-byt-ili-imet-psihologija-kul-tury-potreblenija.html#tab-attributes https://www.yakaboo.ua/mif-byt-ili-imet-psihologija-kul-tury-potreblenija.html#tab-attributes http://www.sociology.kharkov.ua/%0bimages/docs/magazine/vesnik_soc/941.pdf http://www.sociology.kharkov.ua/%0bimages/docs/magazine/vesnik_soc/941.pdf http://harvardmagazine.com/2007/01/the-science-of-happiness.html http://harvardmagazine.com/2007/01/the-science-of-happiness.html https://bpl.berkeley.edu/docs/28-physiologi-cal%20and%20affective%20predictors85.pdf https://bpl.berkeley.edu/docs/28-physiologi-cal%20and%20affective%20predictors85.pdf the influence of the professional orientation of students of different … olena stroianovska, et al. 71 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organiza-tional characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51 (1), 46–93. doi: 10.2298/zipi1901046m nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. doi: 10.18662/po/11.2/172 raabe, b., frese, m., & beehr, t. a. (2007). action regulation theory and career self–management. journal of vocational behavior, 70 (2), 297–311. doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2006.10.005 rogers, c. (1997). kliyentotsentrirovannaya terapiya [client-centered therapy]. wakler. ryff, c. c. (1995). the structure of psychological well-being revisited. journal of personality and social psychology, 69(4), 719–727. http://www.midus.wisc.edu/findings/pdfs/830.pdf. schachter, s., & singer, j. (1962). cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. psychological review, 69(5), 379–399. doi: 10.1037/h0046234 . seligman, m. (2012). put k protsvetaniyu. novoye ponimaniye schastya i blagopoluchiya. [the path to prosperity. a new understanding of happiness and well-being]. mann, ivanov and ferber. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. doi: 10.33407/itlt. v72i4.2561 small, d. m., zatorre, r. j., dagher, a., evans, a. c., & jones-gotman, m. (2001). changes in brain activity related to eating chocolate. brain, 124 (9), 17201733. doi: 10.1093/brain/124.9.1720 tatarkevich, v. (1981). o schastye i sovershenstve cheloveka [about the happiness and perfection of man]. progress. waterman, a. (1990). personal expressiveness: philosophical and psycholo-gical foundations. the journal of mind and behavior, 11(1), 4774. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43853486?seq=1 wilson, t. (2013). the psychology of success: helping students achieve. livescience. https://www.livescience.com/38164-psychological-interventions-forkids.html http://www.midus.wisc.edu/findings/pdfs/830.pdf https://www.jstor.org/stable/43853486?seq=1 https://www.livescience.com/38164-psychological-interventions-for-kids.html https://www.livescience.com/38164-psychological-interventions-for-kids.html brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.2, pages: 67-74 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/70 quality of life and mood disorders in patients with hashimoto thyroiditis olga vasovic¹, marina nikolicdjurovic 2 , vladimir djukic 3 1 university hospital dr dragisa misovic-dedinje, belgrade, serbia. olga.vasovic@gmail.com 2 clinic for endocrinology, diabetes and diseases of metabolism, university clinical centre of serbia, belgrade, serbia. 3 university hospital dr dragisa misovic-dedinje, belgrade, serbia. abstract: aim: it is well known that hypothyroidism is associated with poorer quality of life. still, there are more studies nowadays that also report low health-related quality of life (hrqol), more depression, and anxiety in euthyroid hashimoto thyroiditis (ht). we hypothesized that autoimmunity itself is associated with low hrqol and a high prevalence of mood disorders in euthyroid ht. patients and methods: we examined 130 euthyroid patients with ht (90% females) and 111 matched euthyroid, healthy controls. the groups were subdivided per age: 20-49 yrs. and 50 years. we conducted a cross-sectional analysis. we took blood samples for thyroid hormone levels and thyroid autoantibodies. we examined hrqol via the health questionnaire (sf-36) short-form version 1 and the presence and degree of mood disorders with the hospital anxiety and depression scale (hads) questionnaire. significant associations between variables were examined with anova analysis and partial correlations. results: patients were significantly more depressed than control subjects (p 0.001), and have had more anxiousness, but only in the younger group (p 0.05). quality of life was significantly better in the older control group comparing to patients with hashimoto (p 0.01). the overall sf-36 score was in a significant negative correlation with antibodies (tpoab, tgab). depression was positively associated with tsh and tpoab levels. conclusion: our study indicated that euthyroid patients with ht had worse hrqol and showed more symptoms of anxiety and depression. we also have found that levels of thyroid antibodies were crucial in terms of neuropsychological wellbeing. more studies with longitudinal observations could explain a possible causal relationship. keywords: research project; hashimoto thyroiditis; thyroid; autoimmunity; quality of life; mood disorders. how to cite: vasovic, o., nikolic-djurovic, m., & djukic, v. (2020). quality of life and mood disorders in patients with hashimoto thyroiditis. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup2), 67-74. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/40 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/70 mailto:olga.vasovic@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/40 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 68 introduction hashimoto thyroiditis (ht) is autoimmune thyroiditis (ait) and is the major cause of decreased thyroid hormone secretion in adult patients. the diagnosis of ht is made by a combination of positive circulating antibodies against thyroid with typical clinical signs, and special thyroid ultrasound characteristics (caturegli, de remigis & rose, 2014). ht may lead to hypothyroidism, but there is a euthyroid stage of ht, too. in the united states, the prevalence of ait is approximately 4 % to 13 % (canaris et al., 2000; hollowell et al., 2002). the prevalence rates are higher in females than males, and rises with age, even up to 20% in elderly females (surks et al., 2004). in addition, depression and anxiety disorders are also frequent in the general population (siegmann et al., 2018). it is very important to be aware of associations between these three conditions because early diagnosis and adequate treatment are of public interest. it is well known that hypothyroidism is associated with poorer quality of life (winter et al., 2016). still, there are more studies nowadays that also report low hrqol, more depression, anxiety, sometime suicide in euthyroid ht (fulga, perju-dumbrava & crassas, 2008; ott et al., 2011; perju-dumbrava et al., 2019). these findings were the starting point for our research. we hypothesized that autoimmunity itself is associated with low hrqol and a high prevalence of mood disorders in euthyroid ht. patients and methods the study was conducted at the outpatient clinic for endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolic diseases, clinical centre of serbia. we examined 130 patients (mean age 50.12 ±13.93 years, 90% females) with ht. the inclusion criteria were that all patients were well controlled, namely, they had tsh in the reference range (0.27-4.20 miu/l). in addition, we included 111 matched euthyroid, healthy controls. two groups (patients with ht and the control group) were subdivided per age: 2050 years. we conducted a cross-sectional analysis. we took blood samples for ft3, ft4, tsh, anti-tg, anti-tpo, and other standard biochemical measurements. from a neuropsychological point of view, among other tests, we used the short form health questionnaire (sf-36) version 1 and the hospital anxiety and depression scale (hads). we performed anova analysis and partial correlations to find significant associations. all tests were performed using spss software (version 17.0, spss inc., chicago, il) quality of life and mood disorders in patients with hashimoto thyroiditis olga vasovic, et al. 69 results neuropsychological outcome: patients were significantly more depressed than controls (p 0.001) in both age groups. nevertheless, only in the younger group of patients with ht were found significantly more anxiousness (p0.05) comparing to the control participants at the same age. total sf-36 scores were significantly higher in the older group of control participants comparing to older patients with ht (p 0.01). table 1. table 1. hrqol and hads in the subject subgroups groups age grou ps hadsa p hadsd p hrqol p hashimo to (n=59) 2049 yrs. 11.07±3. 17 0.03 6* 9.31±3.7 9 0.003 ** 69.79±16. 44 0.08 4 controls (n=79) 9.65±3.0 7 7.10±2.8 2 76.42 ±14.13 hashimo to (n=71)  50 yrs. 10.11±4. 30 0.08 6 10.76±4. 13 0.005 ** 57.59±21. 07 0.00 9* controls (n=32) 8.20±3.2 6 7.30±2.2 1 73.70±14. 17 hadsa, hospital anxiety and depression scale – anxiety; hadsd, hospital anxiety and depression scale – depression; hrqol , health-related quality of life (sf-36) scores. anova: *p<0.05; **p<0.01 we examined whether there are significant connections between thyroid hormone levels (tsh, ft4, ft3, ft4 / ft3) and the presence of antibodies (tpoab, tgab) with neuropsychological outcome measures. the overall sf-36 score was significantly negatively associated with antibodies (tpoab, tgab). depression was positively associated with tsh and tpoab levels. table 2. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 70 table 2. association of hrqol, anxiety and depression with hormonal status and thyroid autoantibodies (partial correlations adjusted for age, education, bmi) antibodies partial correlation hadsa hadsd hrqol tsh correlation (r) 0.053 0.238 0.069 sig. (p) 0.557 0.007* 0.535 tgab correlation (r) 0.008 0.151 0.233 sig. (p) 0.926 0.090 0.034* tpoab correlation (r) 0.166 0.248 0.218 sig. (p) 0.063 0.005** 0.048* tgab, thyroglobulin antibodies; tpoab, thyroid peroxydase antibodies; hadsa, hospital anxiety and depression scale – anxiety; hadsd, hospital anxiety and depression scale – depression; hrqol, health-related quality of life; *p<0.05; **p<0.01 discussion in our study of 130 euthyroid patients with ht and 111 matched controls, we found a significant association between high antibodies levels and poor quality of life and depression independently of thyroid hormone levels. our results are in agreement with other studies. there is a study from dardano and colleagues where they hypothesized that thyroid autoimmunity is responsible for the presence of symptoms in euthyroid ht (dardano et al., 2012). they found that patients on adequate levothyroxine replacement therapy with normal tsh showed the poorer quality of life. consequently, some studies have implicated that thyroidectomy would make sense in terms of improving the quality of life in patients with ht (zivaljevic et al., 2015). in a study by mussig et al. (2012) high anti-tpo antibodies were associated with worse hrqol, although all patients with ht were under levothyroxine treatment and were euthyroid (mussig et al., 2012). ott et al. (2011) examined female patients undergoing thyroid surgery for benign thyroid diseases. euthyroid female patients with high anti-tpo levels had unfavorable hrqol scores compared to euthyroid female patients with low anti-tpo levels. some parts of hrqol scores were significantly reduced in euthyroid female patients with high anti-tpo levels, for example, general health, role physical, vitality, social functioning, and mental health scores. they accentuated that patients with ht have reduced hrqol scores quality of life and mood disorders in patients with hashimoto thyroiditis olga vasovic, et al. 71 independently from hypothyroidism. moreover, in another study by yalcin and colleagues (2017), euthyroid patients with ht had worse hrqol scores compared to the control group in particular segments of physical functioning, general health, and mental health (perju-dumbrava et al., 2013). there was a negative correlation between mental health, emotional scores, and anti-tpo levels. watta et al. examined thypro qol scores from 199 outpatients with autoimmune hypothyroidism (2012). they hypothesized that physiological dysfunction through specifically related symptoms, was the cause of bad functioning and well-being, and consequently low qol. in univariate regression analysis thyroid volume and hormone levels had no significant relationships with the thypro qol scales. on the contrary, tpoab levels were related to symptoms and scales measuring wellbeing and function. in the multivariate analysis, tpoab levels were related to goiter symptoms, depression, and anxiety. they concluded that the relationship between tpoab and the thypro qol scales was probably associated with depression. blanchin and colleagues showed that antibodies against tpo bind to human cerebellar astrocytes in patients with hashimoto's encephalopathy (2007). consequently, the presence of high thyroid autoantibodies may lead to some changes in the brain which may lead to poorer quality of life if compared with subjects without thyroid autoimmunity. marquez et al. found microvascular changes in the skeletal muscle of patients with autoimmune thyroiditis, independently of thyroid function (marquez et al., 2001). they hypothesized that the same microvascular changes might be present in other tissues as well, including the central nervous system. that could be an explanation of the associations between autoimmunity and mental health. there are studies that have examined the association between thyroid and brain function using positron emission tomography (marangell & callahan 1998), as well as studies that have found an association between therapy-resistant depression and hypothyroidism (hendrick, altshuler, l. & whybrow, 1998). nevertheless, in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis, no changes were found in certain regions of the brain that would be responsible for depressive disorder. a recent study by leyhe and müssig suggested some explanations (2014). antibodies against tpo bind to human astrocytes and, presumably, may play a direct role in the pathogenesis of cognitive and affective disorders. antibodies against the central nervous system were also found to be significantly increased in patients with ht. these antibodies disrupt myelinogenesis in vitro and, therefore, may impair the integrity of the myelin sheath. the production of inflammatory cytokines significantly brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 72 increases in patients with ht. inflammatory cytokines negatively affect the synthesis, release, and reuptake of multiple neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate, resulting in changes in various brain pathways. on the contrary, the study by saravanan, visser, and dayan on more than 500 patients with ht on hormone replacement therapy found an association between psychological wellbeing and thyroid function, but not antibodies against tpo (2006). however, tpoab was analyzed as a dichotomized, not a continuous variable, as revealed by our study, which could explain the observed difference. conclusions many studies have exposed that autoimmune thyroiditis is associated with depression and anxiety disorders. therefore, it is important to increase the doctor's awareness of this connection in order to speed up the diagnostic process. in patients with depression and anxiety disorders, a test for ht should be performed, and in patients with ht, screening for psychiatric symptoms is recommended. patients with autoimmune thyroiditis must be aware of the vulnerability to develop mood disorders. an appropriate and early treatment leading to better wellbeing and qol would be a huge advantage for patients. references blanchin, s., coffin, c., viader, f., ruf, j., & carayon, p., potier, f., portier, e., comby, e., allouche, s., ollivier, y., reznik, y., & ballet, j. j. (2007). antithyroperoxidase antibodies from patients with hashimoto’s encephalopathy bind to cerebellar astrocytes. journal of neuroimmunology, 191(1-2), 13-20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroim.2007.08.012 canaris, g. j., manowitz, n. r., mayor, g. & ridgway, e. c. (2000). the colorado thyroid disease prevalence study. archives of internal medicine, 160(4), 526534. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.160.4.526 caturegli, p., de remigis, a., & rose, n. r. (2014). hashimoto thyroiditis: clinical and diagnostic criteria. autoimmunity reviews,13(4-5), 391-397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autrev.2014.01.007 dardano, a., bazzzichi, l., bombardieri, s., & monzani, f. (2012) symptoms in euthyroid hashimoto’s thyroiditis: is there a role for autoimmunity itself? thyroid, 22(3), 334-335. https://doi.org/10.1089/thy.2011.0100 fulga, i., perju-dumbrava, d., & crassas, r. (2008). suicide by "non-lethal" firearm. romanian journal of legal medicine 16(1), 23-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroim.2007.08.012 https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.160.4.526 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autrev.2014.01.007 https://doi.org/10.1089/thy.2011.0100 quality of life and mood disorders in patients with hashimoto thyroiditis olga vasovic, et al. 73 hendrick, v., altshuler, l. & whybrow, p. (1998). psychoneuroendocrinology of mood disorders: the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis. psychiatric clinics of north america, 21(2), 277-292. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0193953x(05)70005-8 hollowell, j. g., staehling, n. w., flanders, w. d., hannon, w. h., gunter, e. w., spencer, c. a. & braverman, l. e. (2002). serum tsh, t (4), and thyroid antibodies in the united states population (1988 to 1994): national health and nutrition examination survey (nhanes iii). the journal of clinical endocrinology & metabolism, 87(2), 489-499. https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.87.2.8182 leyhe, t., & müssig, k. (2014). cognitive and affective dysfunctions in autoimmune thyroiditis. brain, behavior, and immunity, 41, 261-266. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2014.03.008 marangell, l. b., & callahan, a. m. (1998). mood disorders and the thyroid axis. current opinion in psychiatry, 11(1), 67-70. marquez, a., finol, h. j., de blanco, m. c., adjounian, h., & pulido-mendez, m. (2001). skeletal muscle microvascular alterations in euthyroid and hypothyroid patients with autoimmune thyroid disease. journal of submicroscopic cytology and pathology, 33, 425–432. müssig, k., künle, a., säuberlich, a-l., weinert, c., ethofer, t., saur, r., klein, r., häring, h-u., klingberg, s., gallwitz, b. & leyhe, t. (2012). thyroid peroxidase antibody positivity is associated with symptomatic distress in patients with hashimoto’s thyroiditis. brain, behavior, and immunity, 26, 559563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2012.01.006 ott, j., promberger, r., kober, f., neuhold, n., tea, m., tea, m., huber, j. c. & hermann, m. (2011). hashimoto’s thyroiditis affects symptom load and quality of life unrelated to hypothyroidism: a prospective case-control study in women undergoing thyroidectomy for benign goiter. thyroid, 21(2), 161167. https://doi.org/10.1089/thy.2010.0191 perju-dumbravă, d., fulga, i., chiroban, o., bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2013). ethical and diagnostic difficulties of the cohabitation tests in the forensic expertise. revista romana de bioetica, 11(4), 132-137. perju-dumbravă, d., radu, c.c., tabian, d., vesa, s.c., fulga, i., & chiroban, o. (2019). the relation between suicide by chemical substances and the level of education. revista de chimie, 70(7), 2643-2646. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.7.7396 saravanan, p., visser, t. j., & dayan, c. m. (2006). psychological well-being correlates with free thyroxine but not free 3,5,3-triiodothyronine levels in patients on thyroid hormone replacement. the journal of clinical endocrinology & metabolism, 91, 3389–3393. http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/jc.2006-0414 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0193-953x(05)70005-8 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0193-953x(05)70005-8 https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.87.2.8182 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2014.03.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2012.01.006 https://doi.org/10.1089/thy.2010.0191 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.7.7396 http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/jc.2006-0414 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 74 siegmann, e. m., müller, h., luecke, c., philipsen, a., kornhuber, j., & grömer, t. w. (2018). association of depression and anxiety disorders with autoimmune thyroiditis. a systematic review and meta-analysis. jama psychiatry, 75(6), 577-584. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.0190 surks, m. i., ortiz, e., daniels, g. h., sawin, c. t., col, n. f., cobin, r. h., franklyn, j. a., hershman, j. m., burman, k. d., denke, m. a., gorman, c., cooper, r. s. & weissman, n. j. (2004). subclinical thyroid disease: scientific review and guidelines for diagnosis and management. jama, 291(2), 228-238. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.291.2.228 watta, t., hegedüse, l., bjornerb, j. b., groenvoldb, m., bonnemae, s. j., rasmussen, a. k., & feldt-rasmussen, u. (2012). is thyroid autoimmunity per se a determinant of quality of life in patients with autoimmune hypothyroidism? european thyroid journal, 1(3),186–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000342623 winter, k. h., cramon, p., watt, t., bjorner, j. b., ekholm, o., feldt-rasmussen, u., groenvold, m., rasmussen, å. k., hegedüs, l., & bonnema, s. j. (2016). disease-specific as well as generic quality of life is widely impacted in autoimmune hypothyroidism and improves during the first six months of levothyroxine therapy. plos one, 11, e0156925. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156925 yalcin, m. m., altinova, a. e., cavnar, b., bolayir, b., akturk, m., arslan, e., ozkan, c., cakir, n., & toruner, f. b. (2017). is thyroid autoimmunity itself associated with psychological well-being in euthyroid hashimoto’s thyroiditis? endocrine journal, 64(4), 425-429. https://doi.org/10.1507/endocrj.ej16-0418 zivaljevic, v. r., bukvic bacotic, b. r., sipetic, s. b., stanisavljevic, d. m., maksimovic, j. m., diklic, a. d., & paunovic, i. r. (2015) quality of life improvement in patients with hashimoto thyroiditis and other goiters after surgery: a prospective cohort study. international journal of surgery, 21, 150155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2015.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.0190 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.291.2.228 http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000342623 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156925 https://doi.org/10.1507/endocrj.ej16-0418 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2015.08.001 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 342-348 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/212 the evolution of mental health in patients with psoriasis during the covid-19 pandemic roxana-cristina oltenacu¹, alexandru bogdan ciubara2, alexandru nechifor3, stefan lucian burlea4, anamaria ciubara5 1 dunarea de jos university of galati, romania, rcoltenacu@gmail.com 2 dunarea de jos university of galati, romania, bogdan.ciubara@ugal.ro 3 dunarea de jos university of galati, romania, alexandrunechiformed@yahoo.com, corresponding author 4 university of medicine and pharmacy “grigore t. popa” iasi, romania, lucianburlea@yahoo.com 5 dunarea de jos university of galati, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract: introduction: the aim of this study was to assess the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on mental health on a sample of 37 patients with psoriasis in brăila county. methods: a crosssectional study on a sample of 37 patients with psoriasis was conducted by questionnaires e-mailed to patients. the study was conducted between november 20th, 2020 january 15th, 2021. mental health was measured using the hamilton anxiety assessment scale (has). data collected on predictors included, but were not limited to, sex, age, background, marital status, level of education, smoking, alcohol consumption, comorbidities, period of self-isolation, severity of psoriasis, and type of treatment for psoriasis. results: there were 37 participants included. factors associated with poor mental health were: place of origin (54% from urban areas), sex (62.1% women), age (67.5% between 65 and 80 years old), period of self-isolation (81% in self-isolation for more than 14 days), comorbidities (75.6% with multiple comorbidities) and form of treatment for psoriasis (48.6% are systemically administered treatment for psoriasis). conclusions: in this sample of patients with psoriasis from brăila county who isolate or socially distance themselves, urban patients, women, elderly, those with comorbidities and those who are systemically administered treatment for psoriasis were associated with a high score on the hamilton anxiety assessment scale. however, we have to admit that our research has some limitations. first, the number of participants included in the study was small. secondly, we used an online way to conduct the study. thirdly, we used a selfassessment scale to assess the anxiety symptoms of psoriasis patients, which might have some deviation from the outcome. looking beyond the current situation, it is essential to evaluate and restructure the way we think about patient’s care. keywords: anxiety, psoriasis, pandemic, covid-19. how to cite: oltenacu, r.-c., ciubara, a.b., nechifor, a., burlea, s.l., & ciubara, a. (2021). the evolution of mental health in patients with psoriasis during the covid-19 pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 342-348. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/212 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/212 mailto:rcoltenacu@gmail.com mailto:bogdan.ciubara@ugal.ro mailto:alexandrunechiformed@yahoo.com mailto:lucianburlea@yahoo.com mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/212 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 343 1. introduction psoriasis is a major socio-medical problem that affects approximately 125 million people worldwide (karam et al., 2017, parisi et al., 2013). most often, psoriasis is associated with anxiety, depression and sleep disorders (fleming et al., 2017; koo et al., 2017; jensen et al., 2018; ljosaa et al., 2010). covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by the recently discovered coronavirus sars-cov-2. the number of covid -19 cases in romania from the beginning of the pandemic until the end of march 2021 is 952,803 infected people (worldometer, march, 2021). the current situation has changed the approach regarding patients who require direct contact during the medical visit, including dermatological consultations. the health system was overwhelmed, and many hospitals could not cope with the large number of patients (sandu & damian 1018). psoriasis patients having limited access to necessary medical services. home isolation and quarantine orders issued by authorities to limit the spread of the infection were another reason why many patients avoided outpatient services. the covid-19 pandemic continues to affect millions of people worldwide (sandu, 2020a; 2020b). while the immediate health consequences are the main goal, the indirect impact of the virus remains unseen (sandu, 2020c; 2020d; sandu & nistor 2020). 2. material and methods this cross-sectional study was conducted between november 20, 2020 january 15, 2021. the purpose of this study was to assess, at some point during the pandemic, the mental health of psoriasis patients in brăila county. the inclusion criteria were: 1) age over 18 years; 2) cooperative; 3) under topical or systemic treatment for psoriasis; 4) with internet access; 5) agreed to participate in the study. the exclusion criteria were: 1) age under 18; 2) uncooperative; 3) no treatment for psoriasis; 4) no internet access; 5) did not agree with the inclusion in the study. finally, 37 patients with psoriasis were included in the study. mental health was measured using the hamilton anxiety assessment scale (has) (hamilton, 1959) sent by e-mail or telephone to patients. data collected on the variables included sex, age, background, level of education, alcohol consumption, comorbidities, period of self-isolation / quarantine, severity of psoriasis and type of treatment for psoriasis. the evolution of mental health in patients with psoriasis during the … roxana-cristina oltenacu, et al. 344 the score obtained after completing the hamilton anxiety assessment scale was the one that divided the patients into four categories: a total score between 0-4 ranks patients as normal patients, a total score between 5-10 ranks patients as being patients with mild anxiety, a total score between 11-16 rates patients as patients with moderate anxiety and a total score above 17 rates patients as patients with severe anxiety. 3. results 3.1. gender of patients of the 37 patients included in the study, 23 were female and 14 were male. of the group of female patients, following the completion of the hamilton anxiety assessment scale, 12 are normal, 7 have mild anxiety, 3 have moderate anxiety and one patient has severe anxiety. of the male patients, 8 are normal, 4 have mild anxiety and 2 have moderate anxiety. 3.2. age the patients were divided into three age categories: the age category under 45 years, the age category between 45 years and 65 years and the age category between 65 years and 80 years. in the age group under 45, which includes 4 patients, 3 patients are normal, and one patient has mild anxiety. in the age category 45 years 65 years, which includes 8 patients, 4 are normal, 3 have mild anxiety and one patient has moderate anxiety. in the age category between 65 and 80 years, which includes 25 patients, 13 are normal, 7 have mild anxiety, 4 patients have moderate anxiety, and 1 patient has severe anxiety. 3.3. marital status of the 34 married patients included in the study, 17 are normal, 11 have mild anxiety, 5 have moderate anxiety and 1 patient has severe anxiety. all 3 unmarried patients are normal. 3.4. background from the total of 20 urban patients included in the study, 11 are normal, 6 have mild anxiety, 2 have moderate anxiety and 1 patient has severe anxiety. of the 17 patients in rural areas, 9 patients with psoriasis are normal, 5 patients have mild anxiety, and 3 patients have moderate anxiety. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 345 3.5. alcohol consumption 27 patients stated that they did not consume alcohol. of the group of psoriasis patients who do not consume alcohol, 15 are normal, 6 have mild anxiety and 3 patients have moderate anxiety. of the 10 patients who consume alcohol, 5 are normal, 2 have mild anxiety, 2 have moderate anxiety and 1 patient has severe anxiety. 3.6. smoking there are 8 patients in the category of smoking patients. 7 are normal and 1 patient has mild anxiety. of the 29 non-smokers included in the study, 13 are normal, 10 have mild anxiety, 5 have moderate anxiety and 1 patient has severe anxiety. 3.7. the severity of psoriasis the severity of psoriasis was determined using the psoriasis area and severity index (pasi) criteria (naldi & gambini, 2007), who specified that a pasi score < 10 defines the mild form, between 10 20 the moderate form and > 20 the severe form. thus, patients were divided into three categories, namely, patients with mild form psoriasis, patients with moderate form psoriasis and patients with severe form psoriasis. of the 14 patients with a mild form of psoriasis, 10 are normal and 4 have mild anxiety. of the 17 patients with moderate psoriasis, 8 are normal, 5 have mild anxiety, 3 have moderate anxiety and 1 patient has severe anxiety. 6 patients have severe psoriasis, of these, 2 are normal, 2 have mild anxiety and 2 have moderate anxiety. 3.8. comorbidities 28 patients included in the study have multiple comorbidities, of these, 13 are normal, 9 have mild anxiety, 3 have moderate anxiety and 1 patient has severe anxiety. 9 patients do not have comorbidities, of these, 7 are normal and 2 have mild anxiety. 3.9. psoriasis treatment administration within the group of those who systemically administer their psoriasis treatment, there are 21 patients, of whom 11 are normal, 6 have mild anxiety, 3 have moderate anxiety and one patient has severe anxiety. 16 patients are receiving topical treatment for psoriasis, of whom 9 are normal, 5 have mild anxiety and 2 have moderate anxiety. the evolution of mental health in patients with psoriasis during the … roxana-cristina oltenacu, et al. 346 3.10. self-isolation and quarantine out of a total of 37 patients included in the study, 30 stayed in selfisolation and quarantine for more than 14 days. this is due, in particular, to the orders imposed by the authorities. of these, 16 are normal, 9 have mild anxiety, 3 moderate anxiety and 1 patient has severe anxiety. of the 7 patients who were in self-isolation and quarantine for 14 days or less, 4 are normal, 2 have mild anxiety and 1 patient has moderate anxiety. 4. discussions in this study we assessed the impact of the pandemic on the psychic of patients with psoriasis. the current situation has forced us to choose an online way to conduct the study. following this study, we obtained the following conclusions: prone to developing anxiety during the pandemic are: women, patients over the age of 65, those in urban areas, alcohol users, nonsmokers, those with moderate forms of psoriasis, those with multiple morbidities, those who systemically administer their treatment for psoriasis and those who have been in isolation or quarantine for more than 14 days. we must however admit that our research has some limitations. firstly, the sample size of patients included in the study was small and has, therefore, reduced the credibility of the study. secondly, we used an online way to conduct the study, so that, those in urban areas, those who are retired or who do not have a job, were able to respond affirmatively to our invitation to participate in the study. thirdly, we used a self-assessment scale to assess the anxiety symptoms of psoriasis patients, which might have some deviation from the outcome. one of the questions asked to patients was whether they were infected with covid-19 during this pandemic, and most refused to answer, which is why the degree of infection with covid-19 could not be included in the list of variables. 5. conclusions most patients with psoriasis will not develop significant mental health problems during the pandemic, even those who have a severe form of the disease, but the widespread impact could be considerable. looking beyond the current situation, it is essential to evaluate and restructure the way we think about patient’s care. this pandemic teaches us that digital solutions are indispensable to minimizing the psychological consequences of self-isolation and quarantine, brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 347 but also the lack of access to medical services. maximizing the psychosocial support available to patients with psoriasis during a pandemic can play a significant role in controlling disease activity. references fleming, p., bai, j. w., pratt, m., sibbald, c., lynde, c., & gulliver, w.p. (2017). the prevalence of anxiety in patients with psoriasis: a systematic review of observational studies and clinical trials. journal of the european academy of dermatology & venereology, 31(5), 798–807. https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.13891 hamilton, m. (1959). the assessment of anxiety states by rating. british journal of medical psychology, 32(1), 50-55. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.20448341.1959.tb00467.x jensen, p., zachariae, c., skov, l., & zachariae, r. (2018). sleep disturbance in psoriasis: a case-controlled study. british journal of dermatology, 179(6),1376– 84. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.16702 karam, r. a., zidan, h. e., & khater, m. h. (2014). polymorphisms in the tnf and il-10 gene promoters and risk of psoriasis and correlation with disease severity. cytokine, 66(2),101105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cyto.2014.01.008 koo, j., marangell, l. b., nakamura, m., armstrong, a., jeon, c., bhutani, t., bhutani, t., & wu, j. j. (2017). depression and suicidality in psoriasis: review of the literature including the cytokine theory of depression. journal of the european academy of dermatology & venereology, 31(12),1999-2009. https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.14460 ljosaa, t.m., rustoen, t., mork, c., stubhaug, a., miaskowski, c., paul, s.m., wahl, a.k. (2010). skin pain and discomfort in psoriasis: an exploratory study of symptom prevalence and characteristics. acta dermato-venereologica, 90(1), 39–45. https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-0764 naldi, l., gambini, d. (2007). the clinical spectrum of psoriasis. clinics in dermatology, 25(6), 510-518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clindermatol.2007.08.003 parisi, r., symmons, d. p., griffiths, c. e., & ashcroft, d. m. (2013). global epidemiology of psoriasis: a systematic review of incidence and prevalence. journal of investigative dermatology, 133(2), 377– 385. https://doi.org/10.1038/jid.2012.339 sandu, a. (2020a). bioethics of public policies. ethical standards in crisis situations. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 141-160. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.13891 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8341.1959.tb00467.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8341.1959.tb00467.x https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.16702 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cyto.2014.01.008 https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.14460 https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-0764 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clindermatol.2007.08.003 https://doi.org/10.1038/jid.2012.339 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 the evolution of mental health in patients with psoriasis during the … roxana-cristina oltenacu, et al. 348 sandu, a. (2020b). bioethics – philosophy or science?. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(1), 44-60. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/35 sandu, a. (2020c). pandemic catalyst of the virtualization of the social space. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 115-140. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 sandu, a. (2020d). autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 260-276. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 sandu, a., & damian, s-i. (2018). perceived quality of life and responsibility for own health condition. micro-research. archiv euromedica, 8(2), 18-23. http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiveuromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_1 2_2018-18_23.pdf sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). digital dementia. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 4(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/4.1/22 worldometer (march, 2021). worldometer. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/35 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/ejmh/index https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/ejmh/index https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/4.1/22 https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 197-206 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/136 anxiety and fear in cancer patients marius ionuţ paduraru¹, diana paduraru 2 *, teodora alexastratulat 3 , anca neagu 4 , marius neagu 5 , vlad afrasanie 6 , lucian miron 7 , alexandru bogdan ciubara 8 , magda antohi 9 , anamaria ciubara 10 1 university of medicine and pharmacy grigore t. popa, iasi, romania, pad_marius89@yahoo.com corresponding author 2 hyperclinca medlife galati, romania 3 university of medicine and pharmacy grigore t. popa, iasi, romania 4 university “dunarea de jos” of galati, galati romania 5 university “dunarea de jos” of galati, galati romania 6 emergency county hospital suceava, suceava, romania 7 university of medicine and pharmacy grigore t. popa, iasi, romania 8 university “dunarea de jos” of galati, galati romania 9 university of medicine and pharmacy grigore t. popa, iasi, romania 10 university “dunarea de jos” of galati, galati romania abstract: anxiety is a highly prevalent disorder in cancer patients, but it is often underdiagnosed in this setting. receiving diagnosis of cancer leads the establishment of several psychological dynamics: fear of dying, uncertainty, loss of control, change in interpersonal relationships and selfimage. several clinically significant studies have supported the belief that cancer patients are more apt to suffer from anxiety, stress, depression and other emotional challenges. the study focuses on anxiety among cancer patients. it aims at investigating cancer and symptoms the disease has on the anxiety level of patients. keywords: anxiety; cancer; fear; patients. how to cite: paduraru, m.i., paduraru, d., alexa-stratulat, t., neagu, a., neagu, m., afrasanie, v., miron, l., ciubara, a.b., antohi, m., & ciubara, a. (2020). anxiety and fear in cancer patients. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 197-206. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/136 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/136 mailto:pad_marius89@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/136 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 introduction cancer patients may frequently have psychological problems compared to other patients with chronic diseases. many studies have shown that anxiety and depression are the most frequents psychological manifestations in cancer patients (donoyama et al., 2018; pitman et al., 2018; wu & harden, 2015). many of these patients have symptoms of anxiety because receiving the diagnosis of cancer induces a number of feelings such as fear of treatment and side effects, worry over losing independence, fear of cancer spreading after treatment, fear of death. anxiety disorders in oncological diseases may exacerbate symptoms such as pain, nausea and vomiting, may cause sleep disorders and interfere with the patients quality of life. in this article we review recent research into anxiety at patients with cancer. factors with a role in inducing of anxiety in cancer patients a number of factors can influence the development of anxiety (huidu, 2020) in cancer patients. increased anxiety disorders are common upon diagnosis and in patients with advanced cancer, but are similar to those of the general population in cancer survivors 5 years after diagnosis (linden et al., 2012; smith, 2015). anxiety disorders can be caused and exacerbated by a number of individual risk factors, common to those in the general population and include demographic factors such as age and gender, social and economic factors such as lack of social support and unemployment, low educational attainment (phuong 2014; thao & dung 2016). also, psychological factors are very important. a role in high rates of anxiety in cancer patients is the presence of pre-existing mental health diseases and their severity. various researchs has demonstrated that patients experience excessive anxiety if they have been treated for mental health conditions before a cancer diagnois (klaassen et al., 2019; musuuza et al., 2013). in one study was found to increase the odds of anxiety at patients how have experienced a severe adverse life event, either prior to or soon after cancer diagnosis (saboonchi et al., 2014). a number of factors related to the cancer, such as the type of cancer, stage, prognosis, its treatment and side effects are likely to a role in the development high rates of anxiety in these patients. anxiety on patients with cancer may have a negative impact. for example, anxiety may have a role in development to functional disorders, low treatment efficiency and longer hospitalization (pitman et al., 2018). anxiety and fear in cancer patients marius ionuţ paduraru, et al. given the harmful negative effects of anxiety on cancer patients, identifying these risk factors is essential. anxiety in cancer patients patients' anxiety disorders can worry them so much that it can leads to a poorer quality of life. anxiety can be assessed as an overwhelming event associated with the illusion of imminent danger, which is just a normal reaction for cancer patients. patient anxiety increases or decreases at different times, may increase in patients with severe symptoms, functional disorders, low family and social support. anxiety may worsen as the cancer spreads or the treatment becomes more toxic (bolos et al., 2012). the prevalence of anxiety among patients with cancer varies widely in the published literature. this is the result of a combination of factors associated with the type of cancer, the recommended treatment and the procedure used to identify the symptoms (mitchell et al., 2013; maass et al., 2015). the consequences for mental health are also important in addition to the type of cancer. anxiety tended to be lower before treatment (19%) and was higher during treatment (26%) and following treatment (27%), in a systematic review and meta-analysis study in patients with ovarian cancer (watts et al., 2015). a similar systematic review of depression and anxiety showed that anxiety tended to be highest before treatment (27%) and lowered during treatment (15%) and following treatment (18%) in patients with prostate cancer (watts et al., 2014). a study indicated that 77% of patients within 2 years of treatment showed symptoms of anxiety (ashbury et al., 1998). some studies suggest high rates of anxiety even years after diagnosis (burgess et al., 2005; korfage et al., 2006). fear of recurrence is one of the most commonly reported issues for cancer survivors (simard et al., 2013). to a national survey of cancer survivors, almost 80 percent of respondents, reported some level of fear of recurrence as a concern (beckjord et al., 2014). massie m. l. (2004) concluded in a review article that a series of cancers including oropharyngeal, pancreatic, breast and lung cancers are associated with high levels of anxiety and 13%–25% of colorectal cancer patients. the symptoms and the effects of anxiety in cancer patients compared to the general population, cancer patients present higher rates of anxiety and depression (hinz et al., 2010). the most common brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 symptoms, which may be physical or psychological in nature, are reported by cancer patients during and after treatment. the patient with cancer experience the most common symptoms like fatigue, nausea and pain, also digestive symptoms, such as vomiting or diarrhea (thao & dung 2016). in cancer patients, symptoms of the disease, such as fatigue and pain, can overlap with anxiety by delaying the diagnosis of anxiety (lupu et al., 2015). therefore, the quality of life can be improved and the feeling of anxiety can be reduced (bochis & sandra, 2018) by treating cancer. cancer diagnosis, treatment and side effects can cause various negative emotional reactions (kennifer et al., 2009). depression and anxiety in cancer patients often result in reduced treatment compliance, greater healthcare costs, longer hospitalization and decreasing chances of survival (arrieta et al., 2013; falagas et al., 2007). an increased number of cancer patients who have symptoms of depression and anxiety may follow specific psychological or medical treatment. baker‐glenn et al. (2011), in a study of cancer patients concluded that 36% of patients would have accepted treatment for mental health problems. mols et al. (2013), in a study concluded that cancer survivors had a 2‐fold risk for all‐cause mortality if they associated anxiety and depressive symptoms. the scientific evidence is limited and of varying quality in the treatment of anxiety and depression in cancer patients (rodin et al., 2007). a number of studies concluded that specific treatments, such as psychotherapy, psychoeducation and relaxation techniques may reduce anxiety symptoms and improve patients' quality of life (faller et al., 2013). discussion cancer patients react differently to mental health problems and how they cope with the anxiety. anxiety in cancer survivors can be caused by altered body image, reproductive problems and sexual dysfunction. other risk factors for cancer survivors are fear of follow-up examinations and fear of cancer recurrence. some studies have shown the persistence of high rates of anxiety in cancer survivors (burgess et al., 2005; korfage et al., 2006). the characteristic symptoms of cancer, such as fatigue and physical pain, overlap with the symptoms of psychological illness, making it difficult to differentiate and diagnose anxiety in these patients. the quality of life in cancer patients is strongly influenced by the presence of increased rates of symptoms of depression and anxiety. knowledge of the risk factors associated with psychological distress among anxiety and fear in cancer patients marius ionuţ paduraru, et al. in cancer patients can help clinicians to systematically identify patients and provide targeted psychosocial interventions to improve these patients mental health outcomes and quality of life. addressing patients with cancer to mental health specialists is warranted because cancer survivors had a 2‐fold risk for all‐cause mortality (mols et al., 2013) and low quality of life if they associated anxiety and depressive symptoms. in conclusion, paying particular attention to the presence of anxiety in patients cancer will allow health workers can provide them with proper psychological support as early as possible with impact on response to treatment and the evolution of cancer. references arrieta, o., angulo, l. p., núñez-valencia, c., dorantes-gallareta, y., macedo, e. o., martínez-lópez, d., alvarado, s., corona-cruz, j-f., & oñate-ocaña, l. f. (2013). association of depression and anxiety on quality of life, treatment adherence, and prognosis in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. annals of surgical oncology, 20, 1941–1948. https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-012-2793-5 ashbury, f. d., findlay, h., reynolds, b., & mckerracher, k. (1998). a canadian survey of cancer patients’ experiences: are their needs being met? journal of pain and symptom management, 16, 298–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/s08853924(98)00102-x baker‐glenn, e. a., park, b., granger, l., symonds, p., & mitchell, a. j. (2011). desire for psychological support in cancer patients with depression or distress: validation of a simple help question. psychooncology, 20(5), 525-531. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.1759 beckjord, e. b., reynolds, k. a., van londen, g. j., burns, r., singh, r., arvey, s. r., nutt, s. a., & rechis, r. (2014). population-level trends in posttreatment cancer survivors' concerns and associated receipt of care: results from the 2006 and 2010 livestrong surveys. journal of psychosocial oncology, 32(2), 125–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/07347332.2013.874004 bochis, l., & sandra, f. (2018). intervention program to reduce the level of test anxiety in a primary school class. a pilot study. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 10(4), 23-31. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/69 https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-012-2793-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0885-3924(98)00102-x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0885-3924(98)00102-x https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.1759 https://doi.org/10.1080/07347332.2013.874004 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/69 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 bolos, a., ciubara, a-m., & chirita, r. (2012). moral and ethical aspects of the relationship between depression and suicide. revista romana de bioetica, 10(3), 71-79. burgess, c., cornelius, v., love, s., graham, j., richards, m., & ramirez, a. (2005). depression and anxiety in women with early breast cancer: five year observational cohort study. bmj, 330, 702. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38343.670868.d3 donoyama, n., satoh, t., hamano, t., ohkoshi, n., & onuki, m. (2018). effects of anma therapy (japanese massage) on health-related quality of life in gynecologic cancer survivors: a randomized controlled trial. plos one, 13(5), e0196638. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196638 falagas, m. e., zarkadoulia, e. a., ioannidou, e. n., peppas, g., christodoulou, c., & rafailidis, p. i. (2007). the effect of psychosocial factors on breast cancer outcome: a systematic review. breast cancer research, 9, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1186/bcr1744 faller, h., schuler, m., richard, m., heckl, u., weis, j., & küffner, r. (2013). effects of psycho-oncologic interventions on emotional distress and quality of life in adult patients with cancer: systematic review and metaanalysis. journal of clinical oncology, 31(6), 782–793. https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2011.40.8922 hinz, a., krauss, o., hauss, j., höckel, m., kortmann, r., stolzenburg, j., & schwarz, r. (2010). anxiety and depression in cancer patients compared with the general population. european journal of cancer care, 19, 522–529. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2354.2009.01088.x huidu, a. (2020). the social responsibility of researchers in combating fake news and conspiracy theories during a pandemic. postmodern openings, 11(1, s2), pp. 39-48. disponibil la adresa: https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/138 kennifer, s. l., alexander, s. c., pollak, k. i., jeffreys, a. s., olsen, m. k., rodriguez, k. l., arnoldf, r. m., & tulskyabd, j. a. (2009). negative emotions in cancer care: do oncologists’ responses depend on severity and type of emotion? patient education and counseling, 76, 51–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2008.10.003 klaassen, z., wallis, c. j. d., goldberg, h., chandrasekar, t., sayyid, r. k, williams, s. b., moses, k. a., terris, m. k., nam, r. k., urbach, d., austin, p. c., kurdyak, p., & kulkarni, g. s. (2019). the impact of psychiatric utilisation prior to cancer diagnosis on survival of solid organ malignancies. british journal of cancer, 120, 840–847. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-019-0390-0 korfage, i. j., essink-bot, m. l., janssens, a. c. j. w., schroder, f. h. , de koning, h. j. (2006). anxiety and depression after prostate cancer https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38343.670868.d3 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196638 https://doi.org/10.1186/bcr1744 https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2011.40.8922 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2354.2009.01088.x https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/138 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2008.10.003 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-019-0390-0 anxiety and fear in cancer patients marius ionuţ paduraru, et al. diagnosis and treatment: 5-year follow-up. british journal of cancer, 94, 1093– 1098. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6603057 linden, w., vodermaier, a., mackenzie, r., & greig, d. (2012). anxiety and depression after cancer diagnosis: prevalence rates by cancer type, gender, and age. journal of affective disorders, 141, 343–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2012.03.025 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., mihaila, d., burlea, m., & ciubara, a-m. (2015). heterotopic gastric mucosa in the distal part of esophagus in a teenager case report. medicine, 94(42), e1722. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 maass, s. w., roorda, c., berendsen, a. j., verhaak, p. f., de bock, g. h. (2015). the prevalence of long-term symptoms of depression and anxiety after breast cancer treatment: a systematic review. maturitas, 82(1), 100–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2015.04.010 massie, m. l. (2004). prevalence of depression in patients with cancer. journal of the national cancer institute, 32, 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1093/jncimonographs/lgh014 mitchell, a. j, ferguson, d. w., gill, j., paul, j., & symonds, p. (2013). depression and anxiety in long-term cancer survivors compared with spouses and healthy controls: a systematic review and meta-analysis. the lancet oncology, 14(8), 721–732. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(13)70244-4 mols, f., husson, o., roukema, j. a., & van de poll‐franse, l.v. (2013). depressive symptoms are a risk factor for all‐cause mortality: results from a prospective population‐based study among 3,080 cancer survivors from the profiles registry. journal of cancer survivorship, 7, 484‐492. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-013-0286-6 musuuza, j. s., sherman, m. e., knudsen, k. j., sweeney, h. a., tyler, c. v., & koroukian s. m. (2013) analyzing excess mortality from cancer among individuals with mental illness. cancer, 119(13), 2469–2476. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.28091 phuong, t. t. (2014). axiety in cancer patients at k hospital. hanoi medical university. pitman, a., suleman, s., hyde, n., & hodgkiss, a. (2018). depression and anxiety in patients with cancer. bmj, 361, k1415. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k1415 rodin, g., lloyd, n., katz, m., green, e., mackay, j. a., & wong, r. k. (2007). supportive care guidelines group of cancer care ontario program in evidence-based care: the treatment of depression in cancer patients: a systematic review. support care cancer, 15(2), 123–136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-006-0145-3 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6603057 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2012.03.025 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2015.04.010 https://doi.org/10.1093/jncimonographs/lgh014 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(13)70244-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-013-0286-6 https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.28091 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k1415 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-006-0145-3 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 saboonchi, f., petersson, l-m., wennman-larsen, a., alexanderson, k., brannstrom, r., & vaez, m. (2014). changes in caseness of anxiety and depression in breast cancer patients during the first year following surgery: patterns of transiency and severity of the distress response. european journal of oncology nursing,18(6), 598–604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejon.2014.06.007 simard, s., thewes, b., humphris, g., dixon, m., hayden, c., mireskandari, s., & ozakinci, g. (2013). fear of cancer recurrence in adult cancer survivors: a systematic review of quantitative studies. journal of cancer survivorshi, 7(3), 300–322. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-013-0272-z smith, h. r. (2015). depression in cancer patients: pathogenesis, implications and treatment (review). oncology letters, 9, 1509–1514. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2015.2944 thao, t. p., & dung, t. v. (2016). study on the anxiety among cancer patients at the center for oncology, bach mai hospital. j pract med (in vietnamese), 4, 85–92. watts, s., prescott, p., mason, j., mcleod, n., & lewith, g. (2015). depression and anxiety in ovarian cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence rates. bmj open, 5(11), e007618. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-007618 watts, s., leydon, g., birch, b., prescott, p., lai, l., eardley, s., & lewith, g. (2014). depression and anxiety in prostate cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence rates. bmj open, 4(3), e003901. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003901 wu, h. s., & harden, j. k. (2015). symptom burden and quality of life in survivorship: a review of the literature. cancer nursing, 38, e29–54. https://doi.org/10.1097/ncc.0000000000000135 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejon.2014.06.007 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-013-0272-z https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2015.2944 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-007618 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003901 https://doi.org/10.1097/ncc.0000000000000135 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 113-124 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/159 the importance of kinetic treatment for integrating children with sen into education oana ionescu¹*, mariana cordun 2 , mario di carlo 3 1 national university of physical education and sport, faculty of kinetotherapy, bucharest, romania, oana_cristiana2000@yahoo.com * corresponding author 2 national university of physical education and sport, faculty of kinetotherapy, bucharest, romania. 3 university of pisa, italy. abstract: any child may encounter learning difficulties at some time, but they are usually overcome due to the support and encouragement provided by parents and the educational establishments where children are enrolled depending on their age (kindergarten, school). the notion of children with special educational needs (sen) is used to describe a category of people with learning problems in relation to age or with a handicap/ a disability/ an impairment compared to most of the population. for children with sen, the intervention through kinetic means represents an effective therapy that can be equally used by parents and teachers in order to facilitate the integration of these children into mainstream education. the purpose of this paper is to carry out a bibliographic study regarding the improvement of the quality of life in children with sen by applying specific kinetic means that consist of physical exercise and massage, but also by the intervention of other types of therapy, depending on the disability of each subject. individualisation of physical activities is a general principle applicable to all participants and especially to people with sen who suffer from various conditions. in conclusion, we claim that the beneficial effects of the movement performed in any form and in any context are undeniable for any child but particularly for those with sen. keywords: special educational needs; kinetotherapy; physical activity. how to cite: ionescu, o., cordun, m., & di carlo, m. (2020). the importance of kinetic treatment for integrating children with sen into education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 113-124. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/159 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/159 mailto:oana_cristiana2000@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/159 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 113 introduction the term “special educational needs” (sen) is used to describe any set of pedagogical measures that are applied to compensate for any difficulty that makes it hard for children to learn the curricular content corresponding to their age. according to the european commission (2019), child inclusion into the category of special educational needs must take into account the following aspects: ● the child has learning difficulties compared to most children of the same age; ● the child has a handicap that hinders their enrolment in mainstream education because the response to educational facilities would be difficult. the categories of children with special educational needs include visual, hearing, mental, physical and language impairments, but also gifted children. this is also the opinion of borca (2010, p. 4325), who states that the typological categories of sen include: emotional and behavioural disorders, failure/delay, mental/ physical/motor disabilities, visual impairments, hearing impairments, language disorders, learning difficulties, as well as gifted children. the world health organization (who) reports 1 billion people worldwide with various types of disabilities. currently, the educational policy of european countries is focused on the integration of children with special educational needs into mainstream education. van der veen et al. (2010, p. 15) highlight that all children, “regardless of any perceived difference, disability or other social, emotional, cultural or linguistic difference”, must be provided the right to education. international educational policies and practices are based on the measures adopted in salamanca (spain) since 1994 and contained in the international salamanca statement of 1994 by unesco, which emphasises “the importance of regular schools with inclusive orientation as the best means of building an inclusive society and achieving education for all” (bines & lei, 2011, p. 421). the document is based on the idea that “every child has the fundamental right to education and must be given the opportunity to achieve and maintain an acceptable level of learning”, considering their “unique characteristics, interests, abilities and learning the importance of kinetic treatment for integrating children with sen into … oana ionescu, et al. 114 needs”. it has established that it is imperative for regular schools to adopt an inclusive orientation and grant access to children with sen. this decision has entailed the adoption of a policy focused on the difficulties of children and represented the most effective way to combat discriminatory attitudes. taking into account the philosophy in this document, but also in other international documents (united nations convention, amsterdam treaty, etc.), romania developed in 2010 the national strategy on the education of people with special educational needs in the context of inclusive education. the measures are planned in the short term (2012), medium term (2015) and long term (2020), depending on the priorities, and aim to bring the country, as a member state of the european union, into line with the european directions of action in the field of education. according to the developed strategy, children with sen in romania can be guided towards special schools or can be integrated into mainstream education. in special schools, children will have to follow the curriculum adapted to their specific disabilities, while their integration into mainstream education involves either meeting all curricular requirements of regular education or learning in purposely created classrooms integrated into mainstream education. these legislative provisions are complemented by home schooling for a specified period if the person with sen has a disability or schooling in a healthcare establishment if hospitalization is needed for a period longer than 4 weeks. the european commission (2019) states, in the article “special education needs provision with mainstream education”, that, in 2019, romania has taken specific supportive measures for the education of children with sen in mainstream schools. as a result, every romanian county currently has at least two establishments that ensure the education of these children. the recommendations for our country are to further develop all conditions (be they human or environmental resources) that provide inclusive education to children with special educational needs. the identification of children with special educational needs is important to be done as early as possible because the intervention must be applied from the very moment of including the person into this category. according to heiskanen et al. (2018, p. 827), the identification of sen is “a basis for planning effective educational support and meeting the individual educational needs of children”. in the united states, people with special educational needs are grouped into 4 categories: ● mental disabilities – include: down syndrome, autism, etc.; ● physical disabilities – include: muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, etc.; brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 115 ● emotional/behavioural disorders – include: bipolar disorder, etc.; ● sensory impairments – include visual, hearing problems and more. in romania, the child is first assessed and included into a category of disability (mild, moderate or severe) and only then is enrolled either in special or mainstream education. children with moderate disabilities (socioemotional or behavioural disorders, learning difficulties or language disorders) can be integrated into mainstream education, and those with motor, mental, visual, hearing or associated impairments can be enrolled in special schools. according to sices et al. (2007, p. 531), people with sen also need to be provided educational services, like all other members of the community, but, in their case, special education engages a group with increased utilization of educational and medical services. people with sensory impairments need to receive guidance to perform both physical activities and daily activities, with or without the involvement of a supportive person. in the article “physical activity and school-age individuals with visual impairments: a literature review”, it has been emphasised that visually impaired people have a low level of physical activity, which might be the consequence of “perceived participation barriers including the availability of appropriate opportunities rather than visual acuity or educational setting” (haegele & porretta, 2015, p. 68). in another article, “hearing impaired children and youth: a review of psychomotor behavior”, goodman and hopper (1992, p. 214) state that studies in the field have found that people with hearing impairments have poor balance compared to visually impaired people. regarding the level of physical activity in people with motor disabilities, it depends on the degree of existing (mainly neurological) and associated conditions; therefore, ensuring intervention through the means of kinetotherapy is essential to improve their living conditions and thus increase their quality of life. for people with mental disabilities, research points out that a high level of physical activity can have positive effects on brain function by increasing blood flow. this issue is also addressed in the article “impact of physical exercise on reactive time and cognitive function in mentally deficient adolescents” by ridha et al. (2015, p. 206). children with special educational needs enjoy practicing physical activities in both mainstream and special schools, “although issues were raised in mainstream schools regarding bullying and the appropriateness of activities in physical education lessons” (coates & vickerman, 2010, p. 1517). the importance of kinetic treatment for integrating children with sen into … oana ionescu, et al. 116 physical activity for people with special educational needs during physical education lessons is highlighted by smith (2004, p. 37) in the article “the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs in secondary school physical education”, where the author suggests that the tendency of teachers to prioritize traditional team games within physical education classes “serves to exclude, rather than facilitate the full inclusion of many pupils with sen”. we think that physical activity adapted to children with sen requires paying more attention to the means used because all students participating in the physical education lesson must complete the tasks proposed by the teacher. we also believe that, in mainstream schools with mixed classrooms (made up of students with and without special educational needs), it is difficult for the physical education teacher to change the perception of healthy students about those with sen so that they are not excluded from the activity carried out. however, we appreciate the constant effort of teachers, who, through persevering work, manage to instil empathy in normal students for their peers with special educational needs. the integration of children with sen into mainstream education involves: ● providing education for both healthy children and children with sen; ● providing both categories with specialized services, such as psychological counselling or medical care, as part of the rehabilitation treatment; ● developing competences in the teaching and managerial staff; ● providing access for children with sen to institutional facilities (library, gym, computer lab, etc.); ● providing supportive programmes for children with sen; ● changing the mentality of both the classroom’s students and the parents of healthy children so as they accept children with sen. to better understand the integration of children with sen in education, a multidisciplinary team is needed, which consists of: 1. an itinerant teacher – deals with the educational activity carried out in the mainstream establishment where children with sen are enrolled; 2. a supportive teacher – deals with the educational and rehabilitative activities for children with sen both at school and outside it. kinetotherapy sessions must be performed in the therapist-patient couple, because one of the basic kinesiology principles to be observed is treatment individualisation. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 117 kinetotherapy involves using all means of medical kinesiology to achieve the functional somatic, motor and mental recovery of the individual. in the case of partially reversible or irreversible conditions, the therapeutic intervention aims at retraining secondary (compensatory) functions. kinetotherapy has as purpose to ensure functional independence by restoring diminished or absent functions, thus helping the individual to carry out daily activities. the main means used in kinetotherapy sessions is physical exercise. it is a means for maintaining and improving health but also a movement therapy for various disorders affecting the human body. it can also be considered as a means for learning/re-learning movements, for recreation or physical and/or mental recovery. any form of movement has positive effects on the human body by reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, degenerative brain disease (alzheimer’s), etc. the purpose of this paper is to carry out a bibliographic study regarding the improvement of the quality of life in children with sen by applying specific kinetic means that consist of physical exercise and massage, but also by the intervention of other types of therapy, depending on the disability of each subject. topic addressed movement therapy for children with sen uses different forms of bodily activities based on exercises and games adapted to their abilities. epuran (2013, p. 379) believes that these bodily activities are compensatory and aim to recover the physical, motor and mental potential of those with various conditions resulting from injury or illness, professional dysfunction or genetical background. each means selected and proposed in the kinetotherapy session must comply with the general principles of both kinetotherapy and pedagogy. the applicability of kinetic treatment starts from the principle issued by the “father of medicine”, hippocrates: primum non nocere (first, do not harm). the observance of this principle requires each kinetotherapist to have appropriate (theoretical and practical) training in order to deal with any situation that may arise during the session. the kinetotherapist must also inform the patient or legal guardians about the benefits of the therapy applied. moreover, the kinetotherapist must maintain in permanent dialog with the patient in order to gather information on treatment tolerance, but the importance of kinetic treatment for integrating children with sen into … oana ionescu, et al. 118 also to watch the patient’s mimicry because it can express various states (acceptance of therapy/specialist intervention, pain, resignation, etc.). to obtain satisfactory results, the kinetotherapist must be part of a multidisciplinary team and collaborate with the school physician, family physician, psychologist, speech therapist, etc. kinetic treatment will be initiated as soon as the physician establishes the diagnosis. early diagnosis allows the kinetotherapist to set the objectives of the proposed intervention and select the most appropriate means. any delay in establishing the diagnosis aggravates the existing pathology, which will result in a longer period for therapy, the emergence of complications or the permanence of vicious postural attitudes. another principle that must be treated with responsibility by the kinetotherapist is that of progressive effort; the individual motor level is aimed here, and the kinetotherapist should not overestimate the patient’s physical capability. according to cordun (1999, p. 24), treatment individualisation is particularly important because kinetotherapy is intended for the patient, not the pathology; the above author states that each patient has specific reactivity to disease, therefore diseases are not identical in two or more people, which means that the treatment applied cannot be identical either. the patient benefits from complex treatment due to the fact that, besides the kinetic one, medication-based, orthopaedic-surgical treatment and not only can also be provided. any kinetotherapist must respect the principles of psycho-pedagogy. they involve the therapist-patient conversation focused on informing the patient about how the session will be conducted (duration, purpose, usefulness of the selected means), because in this way the patient will actively and confidently participate in the application of treatment. on the other hand, the patient has the obligation to perform the activity proposed by the kinetotherapist in their leisure time to obtain the expected results. the pedagogical principles that must be respected in any kinetotherapy session are: from easy to difficult, from simple to complex, from known to unknown. any exercise proposed to the patient will be based on the previously performed ones and will be adapted to the motor level or the momentary capability of the patient. for the integration of children with special educational needs into mainstream education, the kinetotherapeutic intervention will also aim at their neuromotor development, which is delayed in most of them. at the same time, the most appropriate means will be selected to stimulate the involvement, socialisation and group emulation of students. pratt and brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 119 peterson (2015, p. 47) state that “the physical therapist may provide direct service to children receiving related services, indirect service to teachers and other staff by providing instruction or recommendations for children within the classroom setting, and consultation for staff and administration addressing issues that affect the student population as a whole”. the casuistry of children with special educational needs is diverse, and the kinetotherapeutic approach must be complex and supported by the use of specific, non-specific and complex kinetic means. regarding the sensory impairments of children with sen, we propose some particular approaches to the therapeutic intervention during the kinetotherapy session as follows: ● for children with visual impairments ○ avoiding the hyper-protective tendency during the kinetotherapy session; ○ guiding the body segment/segments through the tactilekinaesthetic intervention of the kinetotherapist in order to perform the required movement; ○ compensatory use of valid analysers (mainly the auditory one) in order to decode the orders given by the kinetotherapist; ○ using objects with acoustic signals (for example, bell balls); ○ using verbal cues to facilitate the spatial orientation of children; ○ avoiding activities that involve sudden changes of direction. ● for children with hearing impairments ○ exercise demonstration by the kinetotherapist and explanations given through mimetic gestural language; ○ using the entire area of the kinetotherapy room to perform the therapeutic programme; ○ performing exercises for the development of balance (which is poor in children with hearing impairments); ○ using percussion instruments during physical activity classes. ● for children with mental disabilities ○ practicing movement games based on simple and clear rules; ○ repetition of simple exercises; ○ exercise demonstration without long and complex explanations; ○ development of coordination abilities. for successful kinetotherapy sessions, children with special educational needs will be encouraged and praised so that they become the importance of kinetic treatment for integrating children with sen into … oana ionescu, et al. 120 confident, actively participate in the programme and attend therapy lessons with pleasure instead of feeling compelled to do this. it is also very important to select the kinetic means depending on the established therapeutic objectives, which must comply with the diagnosis and individual abilities of the child and consist in: ● stimulating motor development; ● improving coordination ability; ● increasing muscle tone; ● increasing muscle strength; ● stimulating proprioception; ● preventing or correcting disorders of the musculoskeletal system (kyphosis, lordosis, scoliosis, genu varum, genu valgum, flat foot, etc.); ● developing body schema; ● improving balance, etc. in addition to physical exercise, massage is another means specific to kinetotherapy, which can be applied to children with special educational needs; it involves the methodical mechanical handling of the soft body parts through a set of manual and/or instrumental procedures that are manually or electrically performed (cordun, 2016, p. 13). massage can be prophylactic, hygienic or therapeutic, and its purpose depends on the techniques used. nowadays, besides the kinetic therapy applied by specialists, children with sen also benefit from the direct support of their parents. after special training, parents joined the therapeutic intervention team and turned from passive participants into active participants, becoming co-therapists, which led to increased effectiveness of the therapeutic intervention. obviously, information, permanent dialog with specialists, knowledge of parents’ possibilities and limitations, all of this must be constantly taken into account. parent training can begin since the first kinetotherapy session with some simple movements, initially performed under the direct guidance of the kinetotherapist. the kinetotherapist will provide parents with information about the programme applied, the means used and will plan with them a balanced programme in which the effort made by the child with sen is progressive, and the objectives of kinetic treatment are found in both rehabilitation sessions and daily activities performed at home. the global policy of parent training and participation in the kinetic therapy of their children is also highlighted in the article “parental experience of participation in physical therapy for children with physical disabilities” by jansen et al. (2003, p. 58), who state that this practice has started being implemented as early as the 1980s and they describe it as follows: “parents became a sort of co-therapist, meaning that while brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 121 therapists decided on the treatment goals and methods, parents were expected to perform the treatment activities at home in cooperation with the treatment activities of the therapist in the clinic”. lately, unconventional therapies have been commonly used in the rehabilitation of children with special educational needs, for instance animal therapy (horse-assisted therapy, dolphin therapy or pet therapy, especially canine therapy). trained horse-assisted therapy (hippotherapy) is beneficial for children with special educational needs, mainly for those with down syndrome, autism spectrum disorders and not only. the effects consist in increasing self-confidence as well as affection for both pets and people around them. this therapy also contributes to developing motor, emotional and cognitive abilities of the child with sen. dolphin therapy is an uncommon form of therapy used for more than 30 years in various countries around the world (spain, mexico, united arab emirates, etc.). dolphins help children with special educational needs regain self-confidence and better react to environmental stimuli (they show curiosity and interest in exploring the environment). the beneficial effect of this therapy is thought to be induced by the waves emitted by the dolphin’s sonar (they improve the activity of the nervous system, stimulate attention and self-control). the therapy is indicated for children with neuropsychomotor disease (spastic tetraparesis, autism spectrum disorders, down syndrome and other severe genetic disorders). dolphin therapy is an aquatic therapy that should not be confused with dolphin swimming packages for tourists. in addition to the positive effects presented above, we also mention: improved communication and verbal and nonverbal language, increased social interaction ability, muscle tone regulation, cognitive ability stimulation, etc. for best results, dolphin therapy sessions should take place over a period of at least two weeks. another form of animal therapy applicable to children with special educational needs is canine therapy. as we know, the dog is man’s best friend, which is why this animal can be found in almost any home. however, the dog must be specially trained to be used in therapeutic activities. in the first assisted-therapy sessions, a connection must be established between the dog and the child, which will act as a motivating element in the sessions to come. the benefits of canine therapy consist in increasing the child’s degree of autonomy, socialisation ability, responsibility, self-esteem and even creating some team spirit. the importance of kinetic treatment for integrating children with sen into … oana ionescu, et al. 122 we believe that the various animal therapies (with horses, dolphins or dogs) should complement the kinetic treatment for the motor, mental and social development of children with special educational needs. national policies for the integration of children with special educational needs into mainstream education should go forward through the implementation of continued training programmes for teachers and support staff. only in this way can discriminatory attitudes be combated, welcoming communities can be created, and an inclusive society providing education for all can be built. conclusion the european union promotes a europe without barriers, which means equal opportunities and access for people with disabilities to any activity, as in the case of healthy people. people with special educational needs should be accepted by all members of the community as a result of eliminating biases and discriminatory attitudes. the development of national and international strategies can lead to promoting the economic, social, political and cultural integration of these people into society. the integration of children with special educational needs into mainstream education complies with the european directive on the right to equal opportunities. we believe that the beneficial effects of the movement performed in any form and in any context are undeniable for any child but particularly for those with sen. kinetotherapy aims to restore optimal functioning of the body systems through various means of rehabilitation that are intended to increase self-confidence in children with special educational needs, because most often they feel different from and inferior to their peers, and even more, they consider themselves a burden to their families. the importance of kinetic treatment for people with special educational needs lies in promoting, maintaining and optimising their health status at any stage of life through the selection and adaptation of the therapeutic intervention to individual abilities. parent involvement in the kinetic programme applied to children with sen should be promoted because the therapeutic decision of the parent-kinetotherapist couple has maximum efficiency. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 123 animal therapies (horses, dolphins or dogs), together with kinetic treatment, contribute to improving the living conditions of people with sen. to facilitate the integration of people with special educational needs into mainstream education, the existing infrastructure should be adapted to the specificities of these children, thus opening a door to special education in inclusive schools. we believe that, in order to stimulate the collaboration between teachers and kinetotherapists, each romanian school should work with a kinetotherapist, whether we talk about mainstream education or special education. currently, kinetotherapists are employed only in special schools. the advantage of having kinetotherapists in all educational establishments will reflect on the entire population because bad posture can thus be detected in time, and children with special educational needs will benefit from additional treatment, apart from the classes provided in the curriculum. increased attention should be paid to this category of children who need facilitated access to any form of physical activity in order to ensure equal opportunities for all, regardless of individual differences or difficulties. thus, the quality of life increases and the principle of social inclusion of people with special educational needs is promoted. improving educational systems should be a political and budgetary priority for all european states in order to facilitate the inclusion of all children (any child has the right to education) and support the development of special education as an integral part of all curricula. references bines, h., & lei, p. (2011). disability and education: the longest road to inclusion. international journal of educational development, 31, 419-424. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.04.009 borca, c. v. (2010). the school inclusion of children with special educational needs in romania. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 4325-4329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.687 coates, j., & vickerman, p. (2010). empowering children with special educational needs to speak up: experiences of inclusive physical education. journal of disability and rehabilitation, 32(18), 1517-1526. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638288.2010.497037 cordun, m. (1999). kinetologie medicală [medical kinesiology]. axa. cordun, m. (2016). ghidul masajului clasic. tehnici şi aplicaţii în sport şi în recuperare medicală [a guide to classic massage. techniques and applications to sport and medical rehabilitation]. discobolul. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.04.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.687 https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/idre20/current https://doi.org/10.3109/09638288.2010.497037 the importance of kinetic treatment for integrating children with sen into … oana ionescu, et al. 124 epuran, m. (2013). motricitate şi psihism în activităţile corporale [motricity and psyche in bodily activities]. fest. european commission. (2019). special education needs provision with mainstream education. eacea national policies platform. eurydice. https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/specialeducation-needs-provision-within-mainstream-education-56_en goodman, j., & hopper, c. (1992). hearing impaired children and youth: a review of psychomotor behavior. adapted physical activity quarterly, 9(3), 214-236. https://doi.org/10.1123/apaq.9.3.214 haegele, j. a., & porretta, d. (2015). physical activity and school-age individuals with visual impairments: a literature review. human kinetics journal, 32(1), 68-82. https://doi.org/10.1123/apaq.2013-0110 heiskanen, n., alasuutari, m., & vehkakoski, t. (2018). positioning children with special educational needs in early childhood education and care documents. british journal of sociology of education, 39(6), 827-843. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2018.1426443 jansen, l. m. c., ketelaar, m., & vermeer, a. (2003). parental experience of participation in physical therapy for children with physical disabilities. developmental medicine & child neurology, 45(1), 58-69. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8749.2003.tb00861.x pratt, b., & peterson, m. (2015). the role of physical therapists in advancing special education. in obiakor, f. e., & bakken, j. p. (eds.), interdisciplinary connections to special education: key related professionals involved. advances in special education, vol. 30b (pp. 47-66). emerald group publishing limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/s0270-40132015000030b010 ridha, a., nawi alanazi, h. m., & tim, g. (2015). impact of physical exercise on reactive time and cognitive function in mentally deficient adolescents. journal of clinical trials, 5(1), 206-212. https://doi.org/10.4172/21670870.1000206 sices, l., harman, j. s., & kelleher, k. j. (2007). health-care use and expenditures for children in special education with special health-care needs: is dual classification a marker for high use? public health reports, 122(4), 531-540. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177%2f003335490712200415 smith, a. (2004). the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs in secondary school physical education. journal of physical education and sport pedagogy, 9(1), 37-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/1740898042000208115 van der veen, i., smeets, e., & derriks, m. (2010). children with special educational needs in the netherlands: number, characteristics and school career. educational research, 52(1), 15-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881003588147 https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/special-education-needs-provision-within-mainstream-education-56_en https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/special-education-needs-provision-within-mainstream-education-56_en https://doi.org/10.1123/apaq.9.3.214 https://doi.org/10.1123/apaq.2013-0110 https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cbse20/current https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cbse20/current https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2018.1426443 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8749.2003.tb00861.x https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=brenda%20pratt https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=melissa%20l.%20peterson https://doi.org/10.1108/s0270-40132015000030b010 https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-0870.1000206 https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-0870.1000206 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17639657 https://dx.doi.org/10.1177%2f003335490712200415 https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cpes20/current https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cpes20/current https://doi.org/10.1080/1740898042000208115 https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881003588147 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 72-87 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/110 the main factors and personality characteristics to predict the risk of suicide by military personnel in hostilities ihor prykhodko¹, yanina matsehora2, olexander kolesnichenko3, anastasiia bolshakova4, olena bilyk5, andriy v. haydabrus6 1 doctor of science in psychology, professor, research center, national academy of national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, prikhodko1966@ukr.net 2 phd in psychology, senior researcher, research center, national academy of national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, yanina_gora@ukr.net 3 doctor of science in psychology, senior researcher, research center, national academy of national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, alex_kolesnichenko@ukr.net 4 doctor of science in psychology, professor, psychology and pedagogy department, kharkiv state academy of culture, kharkiv, ukraine, bolshakova777@ukr.net 5 doctor of science in pedagogy, associate professor, psychology and pedagogy department, kharkiv state academy of culture, kharkiv, ukraine, bilikle@gmail.com 6 md, phd in medical science, associate professor, department of clinical neurology, psychiatry and narcology, kharkiv national university, kharkiv, ukraine, gaydabrusandriy@gmail.com abstract: the problem of non-combat losses due to suicides of military personnel is relevant for most of the armed forces of states participating in local armed conflicts. the posthumous pathopsychological study of materials from the investigation of suicides by ukrainian military personnel made it possible to identify the main factors of committing suicides during the period of participation in hostilities in eastern ukraine in 2014-2019: problems of adaptation to combat conditions; insufficient level of professional and psychological training to perform missions in combat conditions; acute stressful reactions to participation in hostilities; physical and mental exhaustion, demotivation; dysfunctional families; loneliness or breakup with a beloved woman; offenses and disciplinary actions; alcohol abuse. the main types of personality who committed suicide in different periods of hostilities were: in 2014-2016 “demonstratively-dependent”, having two subtypes “demonstrativelymaladaptive” and “demonstratively-masked”; in 2017-2019 “asthenic-depressive”, which has two subtypes “constitutionallyweak” and “exhausted-demotivated”. the manifestation of ptsd symptoms, physical and mental exhaustion, demotivation, indifference of society to the problems of veterans can significantly increase the risk of suicide in the post-war period. the division into periods of suicidal activity of servicemen suggests that the identified types (subtypes) of personality become suicidal only in extreme conditions with impaired adaptation and self–realization. the identified reasons for committing suicides and the typification of military personnel-suicides associated with different periods of participation in hostilities are not exhaustive. keywords: suicide; hostilities; military personnel; personality characteristics, ukraine. how to cite: prykhodko, i., matsehora, y., kolesnichenko, o., bolshakova, a., bilyk, o., & haydabrus, a, v. (2020). the main factors and personality characteristics to predict the risk of suicide by military personnel in hostilities. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 72-87. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/110 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/110 mailto:prikhodko1966@ukr.net mailto:yanina_gora@ukr.net mailto:alex_kolesnichenko@ukr.net mailto:bolshakova777@ukr.net mailto:bilikle@gmail. mailto:gaydabrusandriy@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/110 the main factors and personality characteristics to predict… ihor prykhodko et. al. 73 1. introduction the problem of non-combat losses due to suicides of military personnel is relevant for most of the armed forces of states participating in various armed conflicts. increases in military and veteran suicide have been reported over the past decade in the us, uk, germany and other countries (bryan & rudd, 2015; smith et al., 2019; willmund et al., 2019a). the significance of this problem and the desire to solve it are evidenced by the fact that the us department of defense initiated large-scale studies: a metaanalysis of scientific literature on the problem of suicide prevention among military personnel; the search for a conceptual model that can be used as the basis for understanding suicide in military units; development of postventive strategies with the implementation of clinical and practical guidelines (pak et al., 2019). in addition, specialists in the study of aspects of military suicide were asked to analyze archival information from 1819 to 2017 about the circumstances and reasons for committing suicide by us military personnel (smith et al., 2019). researchers of suicide among u.s. military personnel suggested joining forces to solve this problem with specialists from germany, canada, and great britain (willmund et al., 2019b). a large number of studies on the suicidality of military personnel in 2018-2020 were carried out within the framework of the interpersonal psychological theory of suicide, which put namely acquired capability for suicide, thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness as components explaining the commission of suicide. when studying suicidal risks in military personnel participating in hostilities, studies of thwarted belongingness and namely acquired capability for suicide seemed promising. the loss of connection with their families, the perception of oneself as a burden on the family as factors of suicidal risk were attractive for constructing veterans' studies (hom et al., 2017). baer et al. (2019) studied the relationship of emotional dysregulation and impulsivity with perceived severity and thwarted belongingness to military personnel in a military hospital due to a suicidal crisis. martin et al. (2019) in a study of us national guard personnel who had unique experience of transitions from military to civilian life, determined that tolerance to distress has a significant indirect effect on the relationship between ptsd and constructs of interpersonal psychological theory of suicide. relevant topics among military suicide researchers are still defining the role of ptsd in suicide risk (o'donnell et al., 2019), psychoactive substance use (anestis et al., 2019), predictors of repeated suicide attempts brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 74 in military personnel (bryan & rudd, 2015), reasons why military personnel do not seek professional help (applegarthet al., 2019). given that military personnel often hide their suicidal thoughts and intentions, researchers began to search for objective and non-stigmatized signs that could be markers of an increased suicidal risk in military personnel. the possibility of using suicidal risk markers such as insomnia and positive screening for traumatic brain injury (soberay et al,, 2019) has been tested. the possibility of using indirect signs of suicidal behavior to clarify suicide risk indicators for veterans with and without ptsd (barnes et al., 2019). the problem group for the risk of suicide is military personnel dismissed for negative reasons (barr et al., 2019). the authors concluded that veterans dismissed for negative reasons had higher average scores for all predictors of suicide risk (ptsd, depression, alcohol use, somatic symptoms, and physical disability) than military personnel dismissed for valid reasons. adler et al. (2019) have studied the difficulty of obtaining psychological support when deploying military personnel with a history of suicidal thoughts and attempts. the authors brought that these difficulties are associated with both stigma and logistical problems, difficulties in organizing a reception, a long waiting time, etc. common ways of providing support to servicemen who have experienced a suicide crisis (family support, crisis hotlines, help from priests and commanders) do not have a unanimous positive assessment among them. the need to take into account historical content when studying suicidal activity is reflected in the publications of american and ukrainian scientists. trying to determine the specific content specifically for military suicides, american researchers turned to an unprecedented in its scope analysis of information about military suicides published from 1819 to 2017 (smith et al., 2019). the authors found that starting in 1843, the overall trend in annual suicide rates among military personnel serving in the u.s. army increased and reached its peak at 118.3 per 100 000 in 1883. out of this historic maximum, the suicide rate among military personnel decreased in three successive waves, each of which corresponded to the end of the war: the spanish–american (1898), the first world war (1914-1918) and the second world war (1939-1945). after the second world war, a historical minimum was set – 5 per 100 000 (in 1944-1945). during the cold war (from 1945 to 1991), this figure stabilized at 10–15 per 100 000. nevertheless after the wars in afghanistan and iraq, this figure increased, reaching 29.7 per 100 000 in 2012. from 2008 to the present, the annual rate the main factors and personality characteristics to predict… ihor prykhodko et. al. 75 remains in the range of 20.2–29.7 per 100 000. the study authors showed that this long-term historical approach to suicide among us army personnel provides subsequent researchers with a new analytical tool and additional perspective with which to better differentiate between long-term and historical trends (smith et al., 2019). in peacetime, among the population in ukraine, it was proposed to distinguish four periods of the dynamics of suicidal mortality: a decrease in suicidal activity against the background of the anti-alcohol campaign in 1981-1988; sharp growth after the collapse of the ussr (1991-1996); stabilization of suicidal mortality at a high level (1997-2000) and its gradual decrease (2000-2013), but did not reach the level during the anti-alcohol campaign (yuryeva et al., 2019). the authors argue that in 2014 (the first year of hostilities) among the ukrainian population, there was a gradual decrease in suicidal mortality, which reached a minimum in 2015 and lasted until 2016. however, among the military personnel of the national guard of ukraine (ngu), with the beginning of the armed conflict in the east of ukraine, already in the first year (2014), the number of completed suicides increased several times compared with the peace period (prykhodko et al., 2018). the authors proved that in the period from 2014 to 2016 this was due to the problems of insufficient professional and psychological preparedness of mobilized servicemen to participate in hostilities. since 2017, other suicidogenic factors have come to the fore – mental and physical exhaustion of personal resources due to the prolonged action of combat stress factors (prykhodko et al., 2020). this contradiction between the all-ukrainian dynamics of suicidal mortality, where there was a tendency to decrease it, and an increase in suicide cases among ngu servicemen associated with the outbreak of hostilities in 2014, was the reason for the study. the aim of the study is to determine the main factors and personality characteristics of ngu military personnel who committed suicide at different stages of participation in hostilities in the east of ukraine in 20142019. 2. materials and methods 2.1 participants due to the limitations existing in the documents of the ngu, data on the number of suicides and generalized values based on the complex results of psychodiagnostic studies in the control sample of military personnel will not be presented in the article. to compare the results brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 76 obtained in the process of analyzing the materials of the psychological selection of servicemen who committed suicide, a control group of ngu servicemen (n = 983) who served in the same period (2014-2019) was compiled. the indicators of their personal characteristics according to these questionnaires were used for comparison with the results that persisted when persons who committed suicide in the future entered the military service in 2014-2019. 2.2 instruments posthumous pathopsychological study of materials from the official investigation of suicides by ukrainian ngu servicemen during the period of hostilities in 2014-2019 was used to systematize the main factors and causes of suicide. the results of the psychological selection of servicemen prior to their conscription into military service (by mobilization or contract) were used to determine the personality types of suicides. the battery of psychological tests included 6 questionnaires. they were implemented in electronic form for testing and processing the results obtained in the automated psychodiagnostic complex (apc) “psychodiagnostics” (vorobyova et al., 2016). peculiarities of motivation for choosing a profession of a serviceman of ngu was determined using the “questionnaire for studying the motivation of professional choice” (moskalenko & kobzin, 2004, as cited by vorobyova et al., 2016, pp. 216218). to determine the character traits that worsen adaptation to new conditions and circumstances of life, the “determination of the type of accentuation of character traits and temperament” questionnaire was used schmieschek (1970, as cited by vorobyova et al., 2016, pp. 219-222) used the theory of personality accentuations by k. leonhard (as cited by vorobyova et al., 2016, pp. 219-222) to develop the questionnaire. to determine the characteristics of the temperament of servicemen, the “selfassessment of the structure of temperament” questionnaire was used (smirnov, 1989, as cited by vorobyova et al., 2016, pp. 210-211). the definition of a defect in the emotional-volitional sphere, the risk of committing suicide, ways to overcome difficulties, obstacles facing a serviceman, was used “questionnaire of suicidal risk” (shmelev, 2008, as cited by vorobyova et al., 2016, pp. 223-224). features of mental resilience, adaptation of the personality to new conditions, its tolerance to changes were studied using the “multilevel personality questionnaire ‘adaptability’” (maklakov & chermyanin, 1992, as cited by vorobyova et al., 2016, pp. 264276). a generalized characteristic about the formed personality traits in the the main factors and personality characteristics to predict… ihor prykhodko et. al. 77 process of human life was obtained using the sixteen personality factor questionnaire (16-pf questionnaire, cattell as cited by vorobyova et al., 2016, pp. 254-263). these questionnaires have positively proven themselves in the practice of psychological selection of military personnel in eastern europe and made it possible to present an overall assessment of all spheres of personality. 2.3 procedure all procedures carried out in the study conformed to the ethical standards of the 1964 helsinki declaration and its later amendments. the cluster analysis was used to correlate the data of psychodiagnostic studies to a homogeneous group, significantly different from one another. to represent the data, we used the main descriptive statistics (arithmetic mean m, standard deviation sd). to reliably detect significant differences between comparative groups the t-student criterion was used (significance level p <0.1, p <0.05, p <0.01); for the different groups studied – the fisher criterion. mathematical data processing was carried out using spss 17.0. 3. results since 2014, servicemen of the armed forces of ukraine, ngu and other formations have been participating in hostilities in the east of ukraine. at the beginning of the war (2014-2016), mobilized, volunteers took part in the hostilities, who significantly differed in professional experience and training from military contract servicemen. analysis of the sociodemographic data of servicemen who committed suicide showed that all of them in 2014-2016 served for less than three months, the vast majority of them were mobilized or volunteers. analysis of psychodiagnostic data preserved in the apc showed that over 90% of suicides had similar indicators, according to which they significantly differed from the control group of military personnel. the suicide servicemen had a low level of mental resilience and adaptive abilities according to the “adaptability” questionnaire. according to the “determination of the type of accentuation of character traits and temperament” questionnaire, they significantly differed from the control group in the vast majority of scales describing the types of character and temperament accentuations: “demonstrative” (17.50 ± 3.66, t = 3.31, p≤0.01), “pedantic” (12.50 ± 1.77, t = 4.09, p≤0.01), “stuck” (14.00 ± 1.51, t = 5.25, p≤0.01), “cyclothymic” (12.00 ± 3.21, t = 2.86, p≤0.01), “unbalanced” (8.63 ± 4.37, t = 2.25, p≤0.05), “dysthymic” (7.13 ± 2.75, t = 2.45, p≤0.05). according to the “suicide risk questionnaire”, all suicides brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 78 resorted to controlled reactions regarding the questions concerning the “maximalism” scale, and the average score in the group on this scale was 0. according to the 16-pf questionnaire, no statistically significant differences were found with the control group. the results of the analysis of the investigation materials showed that the mobilization servicemen and volunteers who committed suicide in 20142016 did not have enough mental resilience and personal adaptive potential to overcome problems during the period of participation in hostilities. thus, the accentuated character traits of these servicemen potentially formed the risk of more frequent getting into problem and conflict situations. they were unable to let go of control over the situation, even if for objective reasons it could not be controlled. they reflected on their own failures, as a result, periods of depressed mood appeared and increased, melancholy manifested itself, and also other depressive symptoms appeared. analysis of the materials of the investigations showed that the majority of suicides were committed against the background of the “debut” of the first prolonged (over a day) alcohol abuse. based on the results of psychodiagnostic materials and official investigations, a generalized socio-psychological portrait of a ukrainian serviceman who committed suicide in 2014-2016 was compiled. this is a soldier volunteer or called up for mobilization, who signed the first military contract service to improve the material situation and conditions of service, arrogantly believing that over the next three years he will be able to serve in combat conditions on an equal basis with professional military personnel. his idea of military service and combat operations was far from reality, he hoped that the physical and mental resources available to him would be sufficient to maintain control over the situation. and even having received a combat stress trauma, he continued to be guided by idealized notions of “unworthy behavior” for a serviceman (demonstrating his weakness) – he excluded the possibility of seeking help from comrades or specialists, hiding his feelings and fears from them. spending his last mental resources on bravado, he completely depleted himself, and the decrease in fear of death and physical pain due to participation in hostilities allowed him to choose suicide as the only correct way to get rid of suffering and maintain “selfesteem”. since 2017, for military personnel (mobilized, volunteers, military contract service), a prerequisite for participation in hostilities has become the conduct of enhanced special professional and psychological training in the field, including using the acquired combat experience in ukraine and the experience of foreign specialists. it included both the improvement of the main factors and personality characteristics to predict… ihor prykhodko et. al. 79 professional skills and psychological techniques of self-regulation, adaptation to combat stressors and other activities. it should be noted that since that period, the overwhelming majority of ngu servicemen were not involved in active combat operations and continued to perform law enforcement functions in the combat zone. nevertheless, the number of suicide soldiers in 2017-2019 did not decrease. using psychodiagnostic data preserved in the apc, and materials from investigations of suicides of servicemen, we determined the personality characteristics of servicemen-suicides in the period 2017-2019. in the sample of suicides of the second period (2017-2019), two groups are distinguished. the first is quite similar to the group identified in the first period (20142016), however, the indicators of accentuations in the servicemen of this group are smoother – they are between the indicators of the control group and the indicators of the suicide group 2014-2016 with the preservation of the leading genus demonstrative accentuation. the control of answers to the questions of the “suicidal risk questionnaire” already extended not to one scale, but to half of the scales: thus, the scales “demonstrativeness”, “affectivity”, “uniqueness” were added. the military service experience of persons who committed suicide increased and became more than one year; they were all military contract servicemen. most of them had a long history of alcohol abuse and committed suicide while intoxicated. we point out that these servicemen could not have been identified as a separate group if it had not been for the selection of the first group of persons who committed suicide in 2014-2016, in which the suicidal portrait was more prominently presented. these servicemen had more favorable conditions for adaptation to combat conditions; the accumulation of stress factors in the development of the suicidal crisis was much slower. however, in spite of the external manifestations of adaptation, these servicemen did not actually have a significant positive change in their personal adaptive potential. such problems in psychological preparation may have been associated with insufficient psychological intervention. thus, the psychologists of ngu at that time focused on the psychological informing of the military personnel about the stress factors of the combat situation, the development of productive coping-strategies for overcoming combat stress in servicemen, etc. (prykhodko et al., 2019). however, psychologists did not test the destructiveness of the very structure of adaptation of servicemen; the behavior of the servicemen who committed suicide did not differ from others, and they did not complain about their negative mental state. although psychologists had to pay attention to the increase in alcohol abuse by the servicemen of this group (they told those around them that it was brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 80 necessary to “relieve constant tension”). nevertheless, both the 2014-2016 suicide servicemen and persons of this type who committed suicide in 20172019, despite their mental suffering, tried to the last to play the role of “courageous servicemen” who could endure all difficulties and successfully cope with combat stress (melnyk et al., 2019). for the second group of servicemen-suicides of the period 20172019, a decrease in almost all indicators of motivation was characteristic, according to which they differed at a statistically significant level from the control group: “motives associated with objective socially set goals and the content of the profession” (19.25 ± 3, 86; t = 1.91, p≤0.1), “independent choice of profession” (14.75 ± 4.35; t = 3.07, p≤0.01), “non-independent choice of profession” (7, 25 ± 4.35; t = 3.79, p≤0.01), “motives associated with the external prestige of the profession and material well-being” (15.50 ± 4.36; t = 2.01, p≤0.05), “motives associated with the romantic attractiveness of the profession” (12.25 ± 6.24; t = 1.72, p≤0.1) and “motives associated with the desire to compensate for characterological shortcomings” (16.50 ± 3 , 32; t = 1.81, p≤0.1). this decrease in motivation was interpreted as evidence of energetic weakness or exhaustion. in addition, the servicemen of this group had the lowest indices among all compared groups on such scales of the “self-assessment of the structure of temperament” questionnaire as “activity” (16.50 ± 5.68; t = 1.85, p≤0.1), “rate of reaction” (9.88 ± 3.94; t = 1.73, p≤0.1) and “extraversion-introversion” (14.63 ± 5.93; t = 1.93, p≤0.1). these low rates suggested that these soldiers were unable to respond in a timely manner to changes in situations and the environment. in this group, indicators on the scale “hyperthymic” (15.00 ± 3.46; t = 2.03, p≤0.05), “demonstrative” (11.14 ± 2.54; t = 3.23, p ≤0.01) were also significantly smaller than in the control group, and higher on the scales “dysthymic” (12.86 ± 6.41; t = 1.87, p≤0.1), “cyclothymic” ( 12.00 ± 5.48; t = 1.77, p≤0.1) and “unbalanced” (9.00 ± 3.87; t = 2.98, p≤0.01) types of accentuation. such indicators suggested that in these servicemen, the hyperthymic phases (periods of forced activity) were replaced by irritation and dysthymic phases, which may indicate the presence of asthenic-depressive symptoms. in confirmation of depressive symptoms, there are significantly higher indicators on such scales of the “suicidal risk questionnaire” as “helplessness” (32.73 ± 13.48; t = 2.27, p≤0.05), “social pessimism” (53.18 ± 9.05; t = 2.90, p≤0.01) than in the control group. in addition, this group showed significantly lower indicators on the scale of “hourly perspective” than in the control group. the main factors and personality characteristics to predict… ihor prykhodko et. al. 81 comparing the personal characteristics obtained using the 16-pf questionnaire, we note that the servicemen of this group significantly differ from the control group in less sociability (“a” (isolation-sociability) 7.55 ± 1.86; t = 1.92, p≤0.1), courage (“h” (timidity-courage) 6.45 ± 1.97; t = 2.87, р≤0.01), greater sensitivity (“i” (stiffness-sensitivity) 6.00 ± 1.41; t = 2.29, p≤0.05) and gullibility (“l” (gullibility-suspiciousness) 3.45 ± 1.81; t = 1.71, p≤0.1). they have lower indicators on self-control scales (“q3” (low-high self-control) 6.55 ± 1.51; t = 2.09, p≤0.05), are more tense (“q4” (relaxation-tension) 4.36 ± 1.21; t = 2.57, p≤0.01) and fit worse into group interaction (“q2” (conformism-non-conformism) 5.36 ± 1.29; t = 2.36, p≤0.05). an analysis of socio-demographic data and the results of investigations showed that the second group is not homogeneous and, according to similar indicators, it contains a different psychological content. the overwhelming majority in the second group (approximately 75%) are solders who, having no contraindications in terms of mental and physical health, were called up for military service. however, during the first weeks or 1-2 months of services committed suicide or attempted suicide. according to the materials of investigations, most of the servicemen were brought up in dysfunctional (destructive) families (incomplete, needy, there were conflicts with their parents or were subjected to violence by their parents). some of the servicemen in their inner circle showed an intention to commit suicide; some of them had demonstrative attempts at suicide before serving in the army. these servicemen reacted to alcohol consumption with relaxation, drowsiness or lethargy; therefore it was unusual for them to commit suicides while intoxicated. the completed suicides in this group were unexpectedly violent, but without the use of weapons. a third of the second group are military personnel with significant experience of military contract service, some of them had up to 8 rotations in the combat zone, all of them committed suicide while on vacation at home. most were single with a long history of alcohol abuse, although they were sober at the time of committing suicide and had no obvious reason (acute problem) to commit suicide. 4. discussion the study allows us to assert that the suicides of servicemen committed in combat conditions are not a homogeneous phenomenon. they are interconnected both with the stage of the conduct of hostilities in which the military unit took part, and with professional and psychological training, as well as with the social and personal characteristics of servicemen. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 82 the overwhelming majority of suicides among military personnel in the first period of hostilities (2014-2016) should not have occurred if it were not professionally and psychologically sufficiently trained and the volume of conscription for military service has not increased. as shown by the results of our study, in positional and defensive warfare, the number of suicides among professional military personnel was zero in the first two years and gradually began to increase over the next 3-4 years of hostilities due to an increase in the number of people with depletion of physical and mental resources. american researchers also point to a small number of military suicides during the “just war”, they found after the second world war the historically minimal number of suicides in the us military at 5 people per 100 000 (smith et al., 2019). german researchers have determined that military personnel with no deployment experience are at twice the risk of committing suicide compared to those with more than one deployment experience (willmund et al., 2019a). in addition, authors found that at risk among military personnel were single men older than 45 years old with a short service life (up to two years) and a low level of education. the revealed features are quite similar to the general characteristics of ukrainian servicemen mobilized for military service in connection with the hostilities in the east of ukraine – older age, insufficient military experience and low educational level. the features of the “demonstratively-maladaptive” subtype of suicides are to a certain extent similar to the results of other researchers. in a study by krafft, hicks, mack, & levin (2019), it was determined that psychological inflexibility is a predictor of suicidal thoughts with an increase in their intensity and they are interconnected with distress, cognitive synthesis and the progress of values. in contrast to the “demonstrativelymaladaptive” subtype, whose representatives almost immediately fell into the stressful conditions of hostilities, persons with a “demonstrativelydisguised” subtype served in the army for more than one year before their conditions of service became stressful and led to an exacerbation of the suicidal crisis. having served for a long time, the servicemen of the second subtype no longer had a romantic idea of military service and tried to avoid or delay the time of a business trip to the combat zone. in such conditions, the development of a suicidal crisis was rendered not only by combat stress, physical overload, and constant tension from the expectation of being sent to the combat zone, but also by the accumulation of negative experiences about the feeling of one's own inconsistency with the expectations of one's reference group. these servicemen committed suicide both immediately the main factors and personality characteristics to predict… ihor prykhodko et. al. 83 before being sent to the combat zone and while waiting for it for a long time. the cause of mental and physical exhaustion with further demotivation in combatants could be symptoms of ptsd. alcohol abuse, identified in the study, can both enhance these processes and become an independent factor in physical and mental exhaustion, as well as leveling the motivational sphere, especially when there is a tradition of relieving stress with alcohol in a soldier's environment. all these processes led not only to demotivation, but also to the loss of a close environment, as a result of which the soldier became lonely, which is also an established fact of our study. someone had a reason for suicide, a slight display of disrespect from others, which, probably, in a sober state became the impetus for experiencing shame. this conclusion is supported by a study by cameron, shea, & randall (2020), in which the authors found that in veterans who used psychoactive substances and showed signs of depression and hopelessness, acute feelings of shame can increase the suicidal risk. post-deployment studies of u.s. national guard personnel have found that good intimate relationships are associated with all mental health indicators – ptsd, depression, and anxiety (blow et al., 2019). therefore, interventions that promote the strengthening of intimate interpersonal relationships have the potential to reduce military suicide rates. the loneliness identified in our study is one of the factors of suicidal risk in military personnel who took part in hostilities and during deployments (willmund et al., 2019a). o'donnell et al. (2019) using data from the national violent death reporting system of 1362 veteran suicides between the ages of 18 and 34 between 2005 and 2014, the researchers found that 15% of the veterans had signs of ptsd. individuals who were 25-34 years old had a 30-fold increase in reported ptsd, but younger people did not. in their findings, the researchers emphasize that the presence of ptsd in veterans aged 25-34 is a significant risk factor that should be considered by health care professionals, regardless of the presence (absence) of other risk factors. 5. conclusions the main factors of committing suicides by ukrainian military personnel during the period of participation in hostilities in the east of ukraine in 2014-2019 were: problems of adaptation to combat conditions; insufficient level of professional and psychological training to perform missions in combat conditions; acute stress reactions to participation in brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 84 hostilities; physical and mental exhaustion; demotivation; dysfunctional families; loneliness or breakup with a beloved woman; offenses and disciplinary actions; alcohol abuse. the main types of personality of servicemen who committed suicide in different periods of hostilities were: in 2014-2016 “demonstrativelydependent”, which has two subtypes “demonstratively-maladjusted” and “demonstratively-disguised”; in 2017-2019 “asthenic-depressive”, which has two subtypes “constitutionally-weak” and “exhausted-demotivated”. manifestation of ptsd symptoms, physical and emotional exhaustion, demotivation, indifference of society can significantly increase the risk of suicide by military personnel and veterans in the postwar period. the division into periods of suicidal activity of servicemen suggests that the identified types (subtypes) of personality become suicidal only in special (extreme) conditions with impaired adaptation and self-realization. in fact, they are a specific variant of the manifestation of a person's psychological instability to stress. therefore, to understand the prediction of suicide by servicemen, it is important not only to determine belonging to the type of personality, but also to determine the situation in which it is: as a crisis, conflict, extreme with a great risk to life and health. note that the reasons for committing suicides and the distinguished typification of servicemen-suicides associated with different periods of participation in hostilities are not exhaustive. however, the results obtained prove that there is a list of the main factors that can be predictors of the risk of committing suicide in combat conditions, and military suicides are not a homogeneous group. references adler, a., jager-hyman, s., brown, g. k., singh, t., chaudhury, s., ghahramanlou-holloway, m., & stanley, b. (2019). a qualitative investigation of barriers to seeking treatment for suicidal thoughts and behaviors among army soldiers with a deployment history. archives of suicide research, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2019.1624666 anestis, m. d., tull, m. t., butterworth, s. e., richmond, j. r., houtsma, c., forbes, c. n., & gratz, k. l. (2019). the role of opioid use in distinguishing between suicidal ideation and attempts. suicide and lifethreatening behavior, 49(6), 1680–1692. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12557 applegarth, d. m., wood, d. s., bryan, a. o., & bryan, c. j. (2019). examining help-seeking among national guard service members. military behavioral health, 7(2), 198–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2018.1526143 https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2019.1624666 https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12557 https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2018.1526143 the main factors and personality characteristics to predict… ihor prykhodko et. al. 85 baer, m. m., lacroix, j. m., browne, j. c., hassen, h. o., perera, k. u., weaver, j., soumoff, a., & ghahramanlou‐holloway, m. (2019). lack of emotional awareness is associated with thwarted belongingness and acquired capability for suicide in a military psychiatric inpatient sample. suicide and life-threatening behavior, 49(5), 1395–1411. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12530 barnes, s. m., monteith, l. l., forster, j. e., nazem, s., borges, l. m., stearns‐ yoder, k. a., & bahraini, n. h. (2019). developing predictive models to enhance clinician prediction of suicide attempts among veterans with and without ptsd. suicide and life-threatening behavior, 49(4), 1094–1104. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12511 barr, n., kintzle, s., alday, e., & castro, c. (2019). how does discharge status impact suicide risk in military veterans? social work in mental health, 17(1), 48–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2018.1503214 blow, a. j., farero, a., ganoczy, d., walters, h., & valenstein, m. (2019). intimate relationships buffer suicidality in national guard service members: a longitudinal study. suicide and life-threatening behavior, 49(6), 1523–1540. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12537 bryan, c. j., & rudd, m. d. (2015). demographic and diagnostic differences among suicide ideators, single attempters, and multiple attempters among military personnel and veterans receiving outpatient mental health care. military behavioral health, 3(4), 289–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2015.1093978 cameron, a. y., shea, m. t., & randall, a. b. (2020). acute shame predicts urges for suicide but not for substance use in a veteran population. suicide and life-threatening behavior, 50(1), 292–299. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12588 hom, m. a., stanley, i. h., gutierrez, p. m., & joiner, t. e. (2017). exploring the association between exposure to suicide and suicide risk among military service members and veterans. journal of affective disorders, 207, 327–335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.09.043 krafft, j., hicks, e. t., mack, s. a., & levin, m. e. (2019). psychological inflexibility predicts suicidality over time in college students. suicide and life-threatening behavior, 49(5), 1488–1496. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12533 martin, r. l., bauer, b. w., ramsey, k. l., green, b. a., capron, d. w., & anestis, m. d. (2019). how distress tolerance mediates the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder and the interpersonal theory of suicide constructs in a u.s. military sample. suicide and life-threatening behavior, 49(5), 1318–1331. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12523 https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12530 https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12511 https://doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2018.1503214 https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12537 https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2015.1093978 https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12588 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.09.043 https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12533 https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12523 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 86 melnyk, y. b., prykhodko, i. i., & stadnik, a. v. (2019). medical-psychological support of specialists’ professional activity in extreme conditions. minerva psichiatrica, 60(4). https://doi.org/10.23736/s0391-1772.19.02025-9 o’donnell, j., logan, j., & bossarte, r. (2019). ten‐year trend and correlates of reported posttraumatic stress disorder among young male veteran suicide decedents—results from the national violent death reporting system, 16 u.s. states, 2005–2014. suicide and life-threatening behavior, 49(5), 1473–1487. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12536 pak, k., ferreira, k. e., & ghahramanlou-holloway, m. (2019). suicide postvention for the united states military: literature review, conceptual model, and recommendations. archives of suicide research, 23(2), 179–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2018.1428704 prykhodko, i. i., bielai, s. v., hrynzovskyi, a. m., zhelaho, a. м., hodlevskyi, s. o., & kalashchenko, s. i. (2020). medical and psychological aspects of safety and adaptation of military personnel to extreme conditions. wiadomości lekarskie, lxxiii(4), 679–683. https://doi.org/10.36740/wlek202004110 prykhodko, i. i., matsehora, y. v., & kolesnichenko, o. (2018). typizatsiya indyvidualʹno-psykholohichnykh osoblyvostey u viysʹkovosluzhbovtsiv, skhylʹnykh do suyitsydalʹnoyi povedinky [typification of individual psychological characteristics in servicemen prone to suicidal behavior]. zbirnyk naukovykh pratsʹ natsionalʹnoyi akademiyi derzhavnoyi prykordonnoyi sluzhby ukrayiny, 1, 174–203. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/znpnapv_pn_2018_1_16 prykhodko, i., matsehora, y., bielai, s., hunbin, k., & kalashchenko, s. (2019). classification of coping strategies influencing mental health of military personnel having different combat experience. georgian medical news, 12(297), 130–135. smith, j. a., doidge, m., hanoa, r., & frueh, b. c. (2019). a historical examination of military records of us army suicide, 1819 to 2017. jama network open, 2(12), e1917448. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.17448 soberay, k. a., plant, e. a., hanson, j. e., dwyer, m., & gutierrez, p. m. (2019). improving military readiness and reducing suicide risk: the role between positive tbi screens, severe insomnia, and suicidal outcomes. military behavioral health, 7(4), 448–458. https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2019.1608877 vorobyova, i. v., prykhodko, i. i., poltorak, s. t., rutin, v. v., timchenko, o. v., lipatov, i. i., … pobereznyi, a. a. (2016). avtomatyzovanyy psyhodiahnostychnyy kompleks vyznachennya profesiynoyi prydatnosti kandydativ na viysʹkovu sluzhbu u vnutrishni viysʹka mvs ukrayiny i navchannya u vyshchykh https://doi.org/10.23736/s0391-1772.19.02025-9 https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12536 https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2018.1428704 https://doi.org/10.36740/wlek202004110 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.17448 https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2019.1608877 the main factors and personality characteristics to predict… ihor prykhodko et. al. 87 viysʹkovykh navchalʹnikh zakladakh mvs ukrayiny [automated psychodiagnostic complex for determining the professional suitability of candidates for military service in the internal troops of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine and training in higher military educational institutions of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine ]. national academy of the national guard of ukraine. http://books.ndcnangu.co.ua/knigi/monografija_psikhoduagnost_komple ks_2016.pdf willmund, g., heß, j., helms, c., wertenauer, f., seiffert, a., nolte, a., wesemann, u., & zimmermann, p. l. (2019a). suicides between 2010 and 2014 in the german armed forces—comparison of suicide registry data and a german armed forces survey. suicide and life-threatening behavior, 49(5), 1497–1509. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12534 willmund, g.-d., waechter, h., helms, c., wesemann, u., heß, j., seiffert, a., bambridge, d., zimmermann, p. l., & himmerich, h. (2019b). german research perspectives on suicidality and the rationale for future multinational suicide prevention projects among military service personnel. international review of psychiatry, 31(1), 60–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2019.1581146 yuryeva, l., pyliagina, g., & yuryev, a. (2019). gender and regional dynamics of suicide rate in ukraine during military conflict. psychiatry, psychotherapy and clinical psychology, 10(1), 69–77. http://psihea.recipe.by/ru/?editions=2019tom-10-n-1&group_id=item_0&article_id=line_5 http://books.ndcnangu.co.ua/knigi/monografija_psikhoduagnost_kompleks_2016.pdf http://books.ndcnangu.co.ua/knigi/monografija_psikhoduagnost_kompleks_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12534 https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2019.1581146 http://psihea.recipe.by/ru/?editions=2019-tom-10-n-1&group_id=item_0&article_id=line_5 http://psihea.recipe.by/ru/?editions=2019-tom-10-n-1&group_id=item_0&article_id=line_5 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 255-269 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/230 psychophysiological mechanisms of grammatical structuring in the speech activity of a preschool child kateryna kruty¹, tetiana bohdan2, marharyta kozyr3, oleksandra sviontyk4, tetiana shvaliuk5, yuliia pinchuk6 1 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, katerina.krutiy@gmail.com 2 t. h. shevchenko national university "chernihiv colehium", ukraine, bogdantanya@gmail.com 3 borys hrinchenko kyiv university, ukraine, m.kozyr@kubg.edu.ua 4 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, lesyadudnyk@gmail.com 5 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, shvaluktm@ukr.net 6 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, yulia.pinchuk@gmail.com abstract: language as a means of implementing the speech process is an independent system with its own structure. in the context of our research, the concept of m.i. zhynkin (1958) on the grid distribution of information in the grammatical space, which explains the mechanism of perception and awareness of speech. it is important for us to conclude that the sooner a direct connection is formed between the conceptual system and the basal ganglia, the better the child's awareness, assimilation and use of grammatical categories. to organize the normal functioning of speech requires a complex coordinated work of millions of neural elements of the brain, which are included in its various parts. it is proved that after ten years the ability to develop neural networks necessary for the construction of speech centers it disappears. the problem of forming grammatically correct speech in preschool children can be solved quickly and efficiently if you intensify the interaction of different analyzers. it is proved that the sensory information complex consists of auditory, visual and tactile images, which, complementing, amplifying each other, increase the number of useful signals, expand the speech space, which, in turn, limits the choice of adequate speech pattern during acquisition, perception and oral awareness. children's learning of the elements of the grammatical system of language is influenced by two main factors, namely: the dependence on the simplicity or complexity of the language phenomenon and the degree of its communicative significance. the formation of grammatically correct speech (morphology, word formation, syntax) is based on a certain cognitive development of the child. keywords: neural elements of the brain, neural networks, psycholinguistic mechanism of speech, informative sounds, stages of ontogenesis, interaction of signaling systems, brain structure. how to cite: kruty, k., bohdan, t., kozyr, m., sviontyk, o., shvaliuk, t., & pinchuk, y. (2021). psychophysiological mechanisms of grammatical structuring in the speech activity of a preschool child. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 255-269. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/230 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/230 mailto:katerina.krutiy@gmail.com mailto:bogdantanya@gmail.com mailto:m.kozyr@kubg.edu.ua mailto:lesyadudnyk@gmail.com mailto:shvaluktm@ukr.net mailto:yulia.pinchuk@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/230 psychophysiological mechanisms of grammatical structuring in the speech … kateryna kruty, et al. 256 introduction based on numerous studies in the field of neuropsychology and neurolinguistics, o.o. leontiev (1969), i.o. zymnya (2001) developed a model of speech generation. using linguistic analysis and a number of personal neuropsychological studies (luria, 1975, pp. 39-48) developed the foundations of a related discipline neurolinguistics. the psycholinguistic mechanism of speech finds its explanation in terms of a functional system and an action acceptor (anokhin, 1997), anticipating reflection of the necessary future (bernstein, 1966), orienting research activities and instance (galperin, 1985), code transitions, the surface principle of processing speech information (zhinkin, 1958). scientists such as vygotsky (1956), leontiev (1969, pp. 106-144), melnyk et al. (2021), melnyk et al. (2019), sheremet et al. (2019), behas et al. (2019) and others proved that the word (its generalizing meaning) is a unit of speech abstract thinking. vygotsky (1956) and others bring the fact of the development of the meaning of the word with the fact of the development of consciousness: if the meaning of the word changes with the development of the child, the relationship of those connections that reflect the features of his consciousness changes (leontiev, 1969). these provisions, first, allow scientists to use the study of speech function (especially the child's assimilation of semantic units of speech) as an important means of categorical analysis of human mental activity. secondly, in the context of the outlined problem, these provisions make it possible to use the study of the level of formation of the generalizing function of speech in preschool children to determine their readiness for school as a condition necessary for the development of abstract speech thinking. thus, "engaging" in the practical activities of the child, speech is able "from within" to gradually restructure the process of his thinking and turn the practical action into a complex structure of mental action. such mental action begins to unfold at the level of generalization of knowledge and is carried out by means of use of more generalized ways of operation by them. accordingly, the type of thinking changes: from the active it gradually becomes concretefigurative, and later verbal-logical. the results of psycholinguistic analysis of the genesis of children's speech show that the generalizing function goes through a number of stages of successive development. this staging is expressed in the child's assimilation of meanings of the same word, different in terms of the level of generalization nominative, phraseological conditioned, generalizing meaning of a word (verbal concept), its logical relationship and abstractly brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 257 generalizing lexical meaning. on the basis of control the state of development of mental operations with lexical units of speech, it was proved that the levels of formation of the generalizing function of the word are the standards that allow using specially designed techniques to objectively assess the level of speech development. l.p. fedorenko (1984) identifies several degrees of generalization of words in meaning: zero (from 1 year to 2 years), the first when the child learns the generalized meaning of the names of homogeneous objects, actions, qualities (from 2 years to 3 years), the second when the words are learned generalization of generic concepts (at the age of 3 years), and the last, the third, at the age of about 5-6 years, when the child learns generic concepts. according to n.m. danilova (1999, p. 261), it is necessary to distinguish the stages of word formation as a "signal of signals". showing a child an object and naming it gradually leads to the formation of an association, then the word begins to replace the object that was called. this replacement occurs at the end of the first and at the beginning of the second year of life. at this stage of the child's development, the word is a first-order integrator. the conversion of a word into a second-order integrator, or into a "signal of signals" occurs at the end of the second year of life. n.m. danilova (1999, p. 261) argues that it is necessary to work out a group of connections (at least 15 associations) in order for a child to learn to operate with different objects that are denoted by one word. if the number of used connections is less, the word will remain a symbol that replaces only one specific object. between the third and fourth years of life, concepts are formed integrators of the third order. stages of ontogenesis of interaction of signal systems in the process of ontogenesis, the interaction of two signaling systems goes through several stages. firstly, the child's conditioned reflexes are realized at the level of the first signal system: the direct stimulus is associated with direct autonomic and motor reactions. these are connections of type d-d (direct stimulus direct reaction). thus, physiological, genetically inherited reflex motor manifestations are protosigns, which together create, according to o.i. isenina (1986), protolanguage, i.e. the primary verbal system of communication. proto-speech has a non-verbal paralinguistic basis (use of gestures, facial expressions, manipulation of objects, non-speech sounds, etc.). in the second half of the first year of life, the child begins to respond to verbal stimuli with direct autonomic and somatic reactions, as a result, psychophysiological mechanisms of grammatical structuring in the speech … kateryna kruty, et al. 258 conditional connections such as v-d are added (verbal stimulus direct reaction). k.v. anokhin (1997) and others argue that at the end of the first year of life, namely after 8 months, the baby begins to imitate the speech of an adult, using individual sounds to denote individual objects, phenomena occurring nearby, as well as his condition, g.l. rozengardt-pupko (1963) and others. m.m. koltsova (1967, pp. 39-58) proved that the word gets the role of a conditioned stimulus for 8-9 months of life. however, according to gorelova & sedov (1998, p. 173), nonverbal proto-signs create the basis for the child's speech activity in the first two years of life. in the word, a small child seeks a literal reflection of reality, which is why in his nominations he unconsciously uses the laws of phonosemantics, i.n. gorelova (1998, p. 167). according to l.s. vygotsky (1956), already at the second stage of the formation of functions, namely in infancy, a special type of consciousness "pre we" arises, as well as a special complex of communication means, called "proto-language" or " mother tongue" (the last term was proposed by l. s. vygotsky (1956). modern psychologist zinchenko & meshcheryakov (2000, p. 91) proposes to consider the problem of a special form of activity, which can be terminologically expressed as "pre-activity", which is formed and developed within the total activity. note that the scientist does not oppose the term "collective activity" to the term "joint activity", because the former refers to earlier forms of interaction between child and adult, when it is not yet possible to talk about the symmetry of their relationship in the process of joint activities. zinchenko & meshcheryakov (2000), after analyzing the approaches to the category of activity, came to the conclusion that the identification of pre-activity with the activity of communication is erroneous, although preactivity really has the features of communicativeness.. thus, the speech development of a child in the first year of life takes place under the sign of building a linguistic personality that will use language as a multilevel system. in addition to phonetics and vocabulary, the grammatical structure of the language is intensively formed. orientation to the word, attempts to operate on its meaning lead the child to the need to distinguish and recognize words in the speech flow. these points pose the need to master the phonemic perception, which is based on the ability to recognize phonemes. some specialists in children's phonetics (salakhova, 1973) proposed to consider the period from the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 259 pronunciation of the first word to the last learned sound as the period of mastering the sound basis of speech. it is known that at the end of the second year of life phonemic hearing in a normally developed language personality is fully formed. it is due to the fact that the child begins to recognize stressed syllables, she pronounces, first of all, them, that is, complex words appear in speech. along with complex words can be formed a set of quasi-words (allegedly words), the sound composition of which is motivated by random consonances (gorelov & sedov, 1998, p. 177). according to psycholinguists i.n. gorelov, and k.f. sedov (1998) and other complex words and quasi-words are the only verbal component of the utterance and are adjacent to the pointing gesture towards any object. consequently, it can be argued that an object with a gesture creates in the child's utterance what linguists call a "theme," "known," namely a complex word or quasi-word "rheme", that is, new in speech, that "is said about topic" (gorelova & sedov , 1998, p. 178). later, at the age of 1.5-2 years, the baby in one word indicates not only the subject, but also the actions and experiences associated with it. then there is a differentiation of words into categories denoting objects, actions, feelings. with the appearance of "normal" verbal speech, the nonverbal proto-sign does not disappear at all, but go deep into the linguistic consciousness of the individual (isenina, 1986). it is the proto-language that forms the basis for the formation of a special language of intelligence, which m.i. zhynkin (1958) called the universal subject code. individual features in the use of words by preschool children the names of objects, actions are quite noticeable. the reason for speech passivity is pedagogical neglect at this age, the reluctance of parents to communicate with the child. thus, a new type of d-v connection appears (direct stimulus verbal reaction). at the end of the third year of life there is a new type of communication v-v (verbal stimulus verbal reaction) the child learns to speak. according to psychophysiologists k.v. anokhin (1997), n.p. bekhterev et al. (1996) and others, with the development of speech in a child (age three to four years) complicates the integrative activity of the brain: there are conditioned reflexes to the ratio of quantities, distances , colors, etc. scientists l.s. vygotsky (1956), j. piaget (1969, pp. 15-39), o.o. leontiev (1969) and others proved that verbal forms of thinking in a child occur first in the form of simple judgments, in operations of comparison of objects, in conclusions and questions that are asked by it first to the adult, and then to himself. judgments and reasoning first take the form of a psychophysiological mechanisms of grammatical structuring in the speech … kateryna kruty, et al. 260 statement of a fact or connection established by a child with the help of an adult, and then independently, j. piaget (1969, p. 59). thus, from the clearly given, concrete, single fact the child passes to operation of representations about it, and then and to more generalized conceptual knowledge. at the same time there is a development of both individual operations and methods of action (comparison, classification, generalization), and analytical and synthetic activities in general (sukhodolsky, 1976). to organize the normal functioning of speech requires a complex coordinated work of millions of neural elements of the brain, which are included in its various parts. it was proved that brain mechanisms "remember and actualize" words and grammatical forms, "see" reality in words, "can embody thought in a word and extract it from a word", "know ”, in which position to put the articulatory organs to pronounce sounds, etc. certain approaches to solving the problem of speech research were proposed by i.p. pavlov (1952) in his development of ideas of the second signal system. unfortunately, even in the manuals you can read statements about the ways of forming children's speech, where the main way is to imitate the speech of adults. the concept of text generation proposed by m.i. zhynkin (1958), who explained in detail the process of selecting elements of the text and the limitations that intelligence imposes on this process. e. zhynkin (1958) believes that selection is the universal operation that goes through the entire chain of the mechanism of speech from speech sound to thought. the author of this concept put forward a hypothesis: words are not stored in memory in full form, but are stored in a certain way in an organized form as "lattices of phonemes" and "lattices of morphemes" of their elements, from which, according to certain rules, the full form of a word is supposedly removed at the time of choosing the construction of an utterance. during decoding, the words are arranged in a line, ie follow each other in time. reflecting on the need to integrate words into memory, m. i. zhynkin (1958, p. 44) came to the conclusion that there is an operational, iconic speech memory. the mechanism of language is built in such a way that anyone who learned it in childhood, even with disabilities, will receive speech exactly in the course of its time.. the research results of m. i. zhynkin (1958, p. 32) made it possible to conclude that the composition is a pronounced unit, and the word is semantic. that is why "words can be accepted and understood without skipping. composition and word are units of different plans. composition is a speech unit, and a word is a linguistic unit", m. i. zhynkin (1958, p. 32). brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 261 and although speech implements language, the motor speech code is primary, and speech, letter secondary. language is created in speech and is constantly reproduced in it. thus, according to m. i. zhynkin (1958), the word must be mastered in the dynamics of syllable distribution before it becomes a letter code. from the above considerations, significant conclusions can be drawn: 1) on the basis of dynamic temporal connections, the child has the possibility of a fundamentally different compared to the reflex way of learning new words of the language; 2) with the help of dynamic specializations can be distinguished not only words that denote the realities of the environment, but also others, including the most abstract and formal elements of speech that can not be explained by instructions (word roots, prefixes, suffixes, endings, etc.). apparently, on the basis of these processes and formed "lattice of morphemes", the existence of which insisted m. i. zhynkin (1958), emphasizing the role of this chain in the general system of speech communication. the importance of informative sounds for the correct perception of words in the process of speech perception, learning grammatical space can significantly reduce the time of receiving information, compress the zigzag of grammatical moves and reveal an opinion. according to m.i. zhynkin (1958, p. 45), the listener does not try to make a grammatical analysis, but only perceives the opinion contained in the message. thus, the grammatical analysis by the speaker was made at the time when the grammatical structure was developed in the brain. using the rules of the subject code laid down in this structure, the listener understands the thought, isenina e. i. (1986). as evidenced by the results of the experimental work of p. orleron & danset (1963, p. 8), not all elements of the word are equally informative in perception. scientists have proven that the beginning of a word is the most important for recognition. e.i. isenina (1986, p. 162) found that the most informative for speech recognition are signs that indicate the method of creation, rather than the place of formation of sounds. the same data give p.b. denes (1963) and other authors. research has shown that the most important informational sounds for the correct perception of words have been proven: a) the first sound of the word and several root sounds, if they are under the voice, are informative; psychophysiological mechanisms of grammatical structuring in the speech … kateryna kruty, et al. 262 b) the sound of the word is importantly marked; c) the consonant of the suffix can be informative; d) in short words, all the sounds of a word have a large informational load, isenina e. i. (1986, p. 165). scientists also distinguish the levels of word selection by the speaker composing words from sounds and composing a message from words. the first level of selection is composing words from sounds. the fact that in mastering the word change the child focuses on the sound outline of morphemes, is confirmed by the fact that the primary clarity of pronunciation is manifested in the endings. to learn grammatical forms, a child must form an orientation to the sound form of the word. this orientation is part of the selection activity as a specific component (aksarina, 1964, pp. 31-59). simple accumulation of experience, as evidenced by special studies of a.v. zakharova (1975), do not give tangible results without the activity of the child. the second level is composing a message from words. it is at this level that special semantic rules apply, which have nothing to do with the sound structure of a word or the syntactic connection of words. according to m.i. zhynkin (1958), these rules are a kind of filter that passes into the intellect only conscious language expressions. the concept of m.i. zhynkin (1958, p. 45) suggests that in the first phase of integration the original (zero) words from the speech of the speaker "fall in the field of speech on word forms (microwords)", and this is the analysis needed by the speaker to get the material to integrate numerous full words that can be combined with each other. grammatical space comes into force only in the second phase of integration of language units. the previous step in each phase is the analytical step. the main material for "contraction" (term of m.i. zhynkin 1958, p. 46) of words in grammatical space are inflections, word-forming suffixes, postfixes, and also forms of the verb "to be". just as phonemes differ binary in differential features and are binary opposed in words, so do binary different word forms in words that are binaryly integrated in grammatical space. sharing the opinion of a prominent scientist, we believe that in order for the dynamics of change of words in their connection was natural, there must be an accurate account of the actual material of word forms and their changes. it is under such conditions that it will be possible to predict the appearance of word forms in perception, as well as to wait for the appearance of certain forms. thus, this is the compression of time in grammatical space. the material of word forms is quite voluminous, therefore, classification is brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 263 needed to take into account the dynamics of word forms. according to m.i. zhynkin (1958), binary word forms constitute a system called a paradigm that cannot be imagined as a sequence of phonemes. the scientist proposes to imagine the system of paradigms in the grid as a table, which indicates the admissibility of the compatibility of forms in the process of speech development. it is the fact of the existence of grid processing of information contained in word forms, indicates the uniqueness of the second phase of integration of the speech process. in the context of our research, the concept of m. i. zhynkin (1958) on the grid distribution of information in the grammatical space, which explains the mechanism of perception and awareness of speech. language as a means of realization of the speech process is an independent system that has its own structure. but the functioning of language is inextricably linked to speech, because speech itself is the sphere of its use. that is why, m. i. zhynkin (1958) notes, it is impossible to sufficiently adequately and effectively learn a language apart from speech. only in the living process of speech is it possible to realize such phenomena as polysemy, synonymy, meaning, etc. (bugrov, 1996). conversely, it is impossible to study the patterns of the speech process apart from language. even the well-known psychologist sl rubinstein (1946 pp. 48, 90) in his early works noted the separation of two leading functions of speech communicative and significant, and later the scientist calls only one function of speech to serve as a means of communication, specifying that speech communication is quite specific, because it is communication thoughts. о. r. luria (1975) names the nominative and predicative functions of language / speech as the main ones. but from the point of view of linguistic research, these functions are the semantic characteristics of the cognitive (cognitive) function of language, not speech. in other classical works on neuropsychology, special attention is not paid to the basic function of speech. unlike psychologists and neuropsychologists, psychophysiologists n. n. danilova (1999), khomska & batova (1998) and others distinguish three main functions of speech: communicative, regulatory and programming. the communicative function of speech provides communication between people through language. speech is used to transmit information and awaken to action, n. n. danilova (1999, p. 262). the motivating force of speech significantly depends on its emotional expressiveness, e. d. khomska (1998). a person learns a language throughout his life, but there is also a critical period for learning. it is proved that after ten years the ability psychophysiological mechanisms of grammatical structuring in the speech … kateryna kruty, et al. 264 to develop neural networks necessary for the construction of speech centers disappears. the regulatory function of speech realizes itself in higher mental functions conscious forms of mental activity. the concept of higher mental function was derived by l. s. vygotsky (1956, p. 512), developed by o. r. luria (1975) and their followers. a distinctive feature of higher mental functions is their arbitrary nature. speech plays an important role in the development of arbitrary behavior of the child. the results of research of o. r. luria (1975) and e. d. khomska (1998) proved the connection between the regulatory function of speech and the anterior hemispheres. the important role of convex departments of the prefrontal cortex in the regulation of arbitrary movements and actions, various intellectual processes is also clarified. the programming function of speech has its expression in the construction of semantic schemes of speech utterance, grammatical structures of sentences, as well as in the transition to external expanded utterance, n. n. danilova (1999, p. 265). the basis for this process is internal programming, which is carried out using internal speech. according to the views of o. r. luria, neuropsychologists distinguish two groups of brain structures with different functions of speech activity. the anterior divisions of the left hemisphere are “responsible” for the dynamic organization of speech utterance, and the posterior divisions of the left hemisphere are responsible for speech codes (phonemic, articulatory, semantic, etc.). the anterior parts of the speech zones of the cortex include the brock center, located in most people in the lower parts of the third frontal gyrus. it is this zone that controls the implementation of speech reactions. the wernicke center refers to the posterior sections of the speech cortex. it is located in the temporal lobe and provides speech comprehension. violation or underdevelopment of the wernicke center affects the awareness, first of all, of logical and grammatical structures. the study of the structure of the brain allows suggesting that speech can be considered as a three-component system the creation of words, the formation of concepts and intermediate processes that play the role of an intermediary between the first two. further research by these scientists has shown that the brain structures that provide the naming function should be considered as a system of intermediaries in which concepts are presented with structures that form words and sentences. the authors of this approach proved that the naming function for general concepts is localized in the posterior left temporal lobes, and for special in the anterior, near the left temporal pole. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 265 modern neuropsychologists and neurophysiologists as n. n. danilova (1999), e.d. khomska (1992) and others, proved that the posterior speech system is connected with the motor and premotor areas of the cortex both directly and through the subcortical pathway. the latter covers the left basal ganglia and the nucleus of the anterior thalamus. it is through these pathways that the double pronunciation of speech sounds is controlled. the analysis of brain lesions, which lead to certain complications in mastering verbal codes, is thoroughly presented in the classic works of o. r. luria (1975). developing the fruitful ideas of i. filimonov (1974) about simultaneous and successive syntheses and structural organization of language (respectively paradigmatic and syntagmatic by r. jacobson (1975, pp. 193-230), o. r. luria (1975) made a discovery about the various brain mechanisms that ensure the functioning of these forms speech communication. note that at the present stage of development of psychophysiology of speech, the problem of brain responsibility for synthetic structures does not have a single consistency in the scientific literature. thus, if traditionally it is a question of providing simultaneous systems with temporal and occipital departments of bark mainly of the left hemisphere, the data of modern neurophysiology testify to their providing with back departments of the right hemisphere, (dubrovinskaya et al., 2000). conclusions thus, the subcortical pathway is activated during the formation and performance of speech skills, while the cortical pathway is associated with more conscious control of the speech act. empirically, scientists predict that during the speech act, the cortical and subcortical systems operate in parallel with each other. in the context of our study, this conclusion is of conceptual significance. thus, in the process of learning the word "white" or "blue" in a child simultaneously activates the area responsible for color concepts and the system of word formation and motor control (through the cortical and subcortical pathways). over time, there is a direct connection between the conceptual system and the basal ganglia, of course, and the role of intermediary will decrease. if an adult suggests the words "whitish" or "bluish", it will obviously be necessary again to actively involve the intermediary's system to find out the coincidence of auditory, kinesthetic and motor phonemes (white – whiteness whitish whitish blond white white, etc.). the following conclusion is important for us: the sooner a direct connection is formed between the conceptual system and the basal ganglia, psychophysiological mechanisms of grammatical structuring in the speech … kateryna kruty, et al. 266 the better the child's awareness, assimilation and use of grammatical categories. the problem of grammatically correct speech formation in preschool children can be solved quite quickly and efficiently if you activate the interaction of different analyzers. it is proved that the sensory information complex is made up of auditory, visual and tactile images, complementing, reinforcing each other, increasing the number of useful signals, expanding the speech space, contributing, in turn, limiting options when choosing an adequate speech pattern during perception, recognition and awareness of the oral speeches. our approach is based on the doctrine of the multifunctional property of cortical functions, the result of which is the successive and simultaneous provision of different types of cerebral activity. according to this doctrine, all types of human activity (both internal and external) are provided by two plans of activity (successive and simultaneous), which presents the sequence of any acts and their simultaneous combination. in the context of the research we are interested, first of all, in the internal program of the speech process and its implementation in language means. however, there is no doubt that the stages of this process are quite complex and can be divided into smaller processes that occur in a certain sequence: one after another (successively) or simultaneously, in parallel). thus, at each stage, at each particular moment there is a different probability of the speaker's choice of certain language units. classical and modern neuropsychological research of or luria (1975), e.i. simernytska (1985) and others it is proved that the level of development of various mental functions depends on the state of their formation and maturity: constructive praxis, visual thinking, awareness of inverse logical and grammatical structures, etc. loss or underdevelopment of this factor leads to underdevelopment, violation or disintegration of these functions. it is important for our study that a sufficient level of formation of successively simultaneous operational processes contributes to the formation of two groups of operations that underlie speech activity. thus, the first group operations that provide the compilation of internal schemes of varying degrees of specificity, resulting in an internal plan and build schemes of expression. this group of operations forms the basis of the next speech activity and is a combination of elements in a sequential complex. the formation of combining operations is ensured by sufficient maturity of successive activities. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 267 the second group of operations is the selection of elements for speech activity. their formation is provided by a sufficient level of development of simultaneous operational processes. thus, mastering the grammatical structure of the language requires placing the elements in a simultaneous scheme and synthesizing them in successive series and ensuring their integration. the idea of the famous psychologist p.ya. galperin (1999) on the similarity of operations of simultaneous recognition and cognitive mental action, which is formed in the learning process. this conclusion gives us reason to consider successivesimultaneous operational processes as basic and universal for various forms of language learning of preschool children. their systematic and purposeful development will create not only the necessary prerequisite, but also the basis for the formation of grammatically correct speech in children. references aksarina, n. m. (1964). vazhneyshiye faktory razvitiya rechi detey rannego vozrasta // voprosy pedagogiki rannego detstva [the most important factors in the development of speech in young children. questions of early childhood pedagogy]. prosveshcheniye. anokhin, k. v. (1997). molekulyarnyye stsenarii konsolidatsii dolgovremennoy pamyati [molecular scenarios for the consolidation of long-term memory]. journal of higher nervous activity, 47(2), 261-279. https://present5.com/molekulyarnye-scenarii-konsolidaciidolgovremennoj-pamyati-konstantin-anoxin-laboratory/ behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, t., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 bernshtein, n. a. (1966). ocherki po fiziologii dvizheniy i fiziologii aktivnosti [essays on physiology of movements and physiology of activity]. nauka. bugrov, v. a. (1996). mova ta symvol v konteksti problem usvidomlennya [language and symbol in the context of problems of awareness] [unpublished phd. thesis]. kyiv university named after taras shevchenko. danilova, n. n. (1999). psikhofiziologiya [psychophysiology]. aspect press. denes, p. b. (1963). on the statistics of spoken english. journal of the acoustic society of america, 35, 6-8. https://doi.org/10.1524/stuf.1964.17.16.51 https://present5.com/molekulyarnye-scenarii-konsolidacii-dolgovremennoj-pamyati-konstantin-anoxin-laboratory/ https://present5.com/molekulyarnye-scenarii-konsolidacii-dolgovremennoj-pamyati-konstantin-anoxin-laboratory/ https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://doi.org/10.1524/stuf.1964.17.16.51 psychophysiological mechanisms of grammatical structuring in the speech … kateryna kruty, et al. 268 dubrovinskaya, n. v., farber d. a., & bezrukikh, m. m. (2000). psikhofiziologiya rebenka: psikhofiziologicheskiye osnovy detskoy valeologii [psychophysiology of a child: psychophysiological foundations of pediatric valeology]. vlados. fedorenko, l. p. (1984). zakonomernosti usvoyeniya rodnoy rechi [regularities of assimilation of native speech]. prosveshcheniye. filimonov, i. n. (1974). izbrannyye trudy [selected works]. medicine. galperin, p. ya. (1999). vvedeniye v psikhologiyu [introduction to psychology]. university” book house. gorelova, i. n., & sedov, k. f. (1998). osnovy psikholingvistiki [fundamentals of psycholinguistics]. labirint. isenina, e. i. (1986). doslovesnyy period razvitiya rechi u detey [pre-verbal period of speech development of children]. publishing house of saratov university. jacobson, r. (1975). lingvistika i poetika [tekst] / strukturalizm: “za” i “protiv” [linguistics and poetics [text] / structuralism: “pro and con”]. progress. khomska, e. d., & batova, n. ya., (1998). mozg i emotsii (neyropsikhologicheskoye issledovaniye) [the brain and emotions (neuropsychological research)]. russian pedagogical agency. koltsova, m. m. (1967). obobshcheniye kak funktsiya mozga [generalization as a function of the brain]. nauka. leontiev, o. o. (1969). yazyk, rech', rechevaya deyatel'nost' [language, speech, speech activity]. nauka. luria, o. r. (1975). osnovnyye problemy neyrolingvistiki [basic problems of neurolinguistics]. nauka. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 oléron, p., & danset, a. (1963). données sur l’appréhension des mots. le role des diverses parties des mots dans leur identification [data on the perception of words: the role of various parts of words in their identification]. psychologie française, 8(1), 28–35. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/196404959-001 . https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1964-04959-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1964-04959-001 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 269 pavlov, i. p. (1952). lektsiyi pro robotu velykykh pivkulʹ holovnoho mozku [lectures on the work of the cerebral hemispheres]. publishing house of the academy of sciences of the ukrainian ssr. piaget, j. (1969). priroda intellekta // izbrannyye psikhologicheskiye trudy [the nature of intelligence] // selected psychological works]. nauka. rozengardt-pupko, g. l. (1963). formirovaniye rechi u detey rannego vozrasta [formation of speech in young children]. pedagogika. rubinshtein, s. l. (1946). osnovy obshchey psikhologii [fundamentals of general psychology]. publishing house of the academy of sciences of the ussr. salakhova, a. d. (1973). razvitiye zvukovoy storony rechi rebenka [development of the sound side of a child's speech] pedagogika. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 simernitskaya, e. g. (1985). mozg cheloveka i psikhicheskiye protsessy v ontogeneze [human brain and mental processes in ontogenesis] publishing house of moscow state university. sukhodolsky, g. v. (1976). strukturno-algoritmicheskiy analiz i sintez deyatel'nosti [structural-algorithmic analysis and synthesis of activity]. leningradsky state university. vygotsky, l. s. (1956). myshleniye i rech' // izbrannyye psikhologicheskiye proizvedeniya [thinking and speech // selected psychological works]. pedagogika. zakharova, a. z. (1975). opyt lingvisticheskogo analiza slovarya detskoy rechi [experience of linguistic analysis of the dictionary of children's speech] [unpublished doctoral thesis]. novosibirsk state university. https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01006925337 zhynkin, n. i. (1958). mekhanizmy rechi [mechanisms of speech]. publishing house of the academy of pedagogical sciences of the rsfsr. zimnya, i. a. (2001). lingvopsikhologiya rechevoy deyatel'nosti [linguopsychology of speech activity]. publishing house of the scientific and production association modek. zinchenko, v. p., & meshcheryakov, b. g. (2000). sovokupnaya deyatel'nost' kak geneticheskaya iskhodnaya yedinitsa psikhicheskogo razvitiya [aggregate activity as a genetic initial unit of mental development]. psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovaniye [psychological science and education], 2, 86-95. https://psyjournals.ru/files/2419/psyedu_2000_n2_zinchenko.pdf https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01006925337 https://psyjournals.ru/files/2419/psyedu_2000_n2_zinchenko.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 509-531 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/262 iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică¹, mircea ovidiu mitucă2 1 ph.d. student, university of craiova, romania, andreea.badica121@yahoo.com 2 ph.d. student, university of economic studies, bucharest, romania, mircea.mituca@gmail.com abstract: the research proposed in this paper regards the appropriateness and possibility of enhancing digital marketing with iot technologies. the contribution of this paper is a novel digital marketing conceptual framework based on the ubiquitous and pervasive iot technologies, empowered by the synergies of edge, fog and cloud computing. our proposal is grounded into the general framework of digital marketing research proposed by kannan and li, as well as on the comprehensive agent-based iot paradigm, thoroughly analysed by savaglio et al. this framework is capable to seamlessly support the emergent marketing approaches including: contextual marketing, intelligent marketing, and omniscient marketing. on the other hand, this proposal can also benefit from the techniques and methodologies for building secure and robust iot systems that were recently proposed by pešić et al, for increasing the security and trust of iot-based digital marketing ecosystems. keywords: digital marketing; internet of things; smart products; edge, fog and cloud computing; agent-based computing. how to cite: bădică, a.l., & mitucă, m.o. (2021). iotenhanced digital marketing conceptual framework. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 509-531. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/262 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/262 mailto:andreea.badica121@yahoo.com mailto:mircea.mituca@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/262 iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 510 1. introduction the development of digital technologies for the global interconnection of computers through the internet, followed by the emergence and spread of the web as a global platform for dissemination of digital information using modern web browsers capable of running on an unlimited variety of devices and widgets, have led to the evolution of traditional marketing towards modern digital marketing. the application of digital technologies in this process of digital marketing transformation has known several stages, from the initial emphasis placed only on the development of capabilities to transmit marketing information through interaction with consumers using digital channels, to an all-encompassing concept involving humans, institutions and processes supported by digital technologies in order to create, communicate and deliver value to marketers and consumers. digital marketing has grown enormously during the last decade, benefiting from the latest results and achievements in the field of digital technologies, such as: big data, artificial intelligence (ai) (including machine learning), the internet of things (iot in what follows), multimedia, virtual reality and digital standards. among the current challenges of digital marketing we mention contextual, smart, omniscient, touch-point, and integrated marketing, as well as neuromarketing (rawnaque et al., 2020). usually they assume the synergetic combination of several digital marketing technologies including online, mobile, social and location-based marketing. although the iot concept was coined 20 years ago, it is actually related to older concepts that emerged in the area of distributed systems, including “smart device” (and later on “smart object”) to describe devices capable of smart functions, as well as “ubiquitous” and “pervasive computing” as special types of distributed computing. it is interesting to note that probably the first smart device connected to the internet was a coca cola vending machine developed at the start of 80s at carnegie mellon university from us, providing very basic marketing functions like stock details and coke product status. according to (rouse, 2019), iot is “a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-tocomputer interaction.” the number of interconnected iot devices will be above 38 billion by the end of 2025, being expected to reach 50 billion by brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 511 the end of 2030 (tankovska, 2020), thus creating a huge network of interconnected devices using standardized internet technologies and protocols. the availability of this massively interconnected network of devices provides unparalleled opportunities, raising also unique challenges for the digital marketing ecosystem. iot is one of technologies with disruptive potentials of the current century that, along with blockchain and machine learning, are expected to have disruptive impacts felt across the global economy. from the digital marketing perspective, iot can be understood as “the interconnectivity of digital devices that provides endless opportunities for brands to listen and respond to the needs of their customers with the right message, at the right time on the right device”. iot is expected to impact digital marketing as follows:  iot enhances data-driven marketing by providing real-time customer data for service and advertising. therefore, iot generated data is often described as a “gold mine” for marketers, by providing abundant, richer and timely data for analytics processes. moreover, iot emphasizes the possibility to analyze customer buying habits and gaining deeper insights into the customer buying journey.  iot is an opportunity for marketers to bridge and coordinate the consumer’s physical, social and cyber worlds. the “hyperconnected consumer” empowered with iot devices becomes a richer data source for marketing, thus enabling better contextbased customization of marketing messages.  iot in marketing should go beyond the pure aspect of personalized messaging by focusing on end-to-end customer experience, emphasizing real-time customer engagement and optimization. iot facilitates touch-point marketing (lourens, 2020) by mapping customer-brand interactions over the course of the customer buying journey, helping the brand to provide the right experience for its customers across several communication channels.  iot in marketing enables and requires “out of the box” thinking for offering valuable services in the most accessible ways for the “real customer” in “real life” by creating a holistic, customercentric and integrated marketing environment. taking into account the opportunities created by this huge potential iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 512 of iot technologies in support to digital marketing, in this paper we investigate the suitability and possibility of extending digital marketing by seamless integration of iot networks and devices. from this ambitious research goal, several research questions can be immediately derived.  does current status of development of iot appropriately support the enhancement of digital marketing functions?  how can we expand the conceptual framework of digital marketing to seamlessly incorporate iot functions? as a byproduct of answering these research questions, the main research outcome of our research endeavor can be formulated as a novel digital marketing conceptual framework based on the ubiquitous and pervasive iot technologies, empowered by the synergies of edge, fog and cloud computing. our paper is structured as follows. after setting up the context and the motivation for our work, we follow in section 1 with a brief review of related works, mainly focusing on the conceptual background of digital marketing, iot technologies and their business adoption. section 2 introduces our research methodology that is conceptually and technologically grounded in some of the most recent advances in the field. section 3 discusses our results using a relevant set of use cases, serving also as qualitative evaluation of our proposal. the last section summarizes our achievements and points to future works. 2. review of the scientific literature there is very large body of recent literature that is relevant for various aspects of digital marketing and iot technologies. doing an allencompassing review of these areas is far beyond the declared scope of our paper. nevertheless, we selected for a brief review only a few works that we appreciated as being highly relevant for our own research. the state-of-theart review is structured according to the most relevant topics of concern for the proposed research. 2.1. digital marketing throughout the short history of digital marketing, digitization and automatic processing of marketing data have gone through several stages of transformation and evolution. each stage contributed to the transformation and expansion of the field and role of the marketing function within an organization. based on the analysis of the historical evolution of data-driven brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 513 marketing (shah & murthi, 2020) propose a decomposition of this process into five stages. each stage describes how data-driven applications supported by digital technologies were influenced by the business environment and technological advancements at that stage, and how this ultimately contributed to expanding the role and scope of marketing within an organization.  the pioneering stage. it emerged in the early twentieth century highlighting the importance of data-driven marketing applications for the better management of creation of meaningful content for consumers.  the customer-centric stage. as the importance of marketing has increased over time, in the second half of the twentieth century, we are witnessing the highlighting of the relevance of marketing for a company's business practices. from a data perspective, marketers have begun to better focus on collecting and analyzing customer transaction data on: “which” customer bought “what” product / service “when” by capturing this information in customer databases, over time. this trend of research and marketing practices can be characterized as strongly customercentric.  the rich data-driven stage. in the early 2000s we are witnessing an explosion of data that fundamentally changed the way the marketing function was performed within an organization. the rapid penetration of the internet, the proliferation of smartphones and the increasing use of social platforms has led to the generation of an unprecedented volume of digital data. as this volume increased, marketers adopted advanced statistical modeling techniques to analyze increasingly complex customerlevel data. in addition to traditional transaction data, it also included unstructured data in the form of digital conversations, pictures, videos, audio and video files obtained from digital and social media. a direct consequence of these transformations was that the marketing function evolved more as a science than as an art. moreover, because the flow of information and transactions have been greatly facilitated by the development of the internet, the analytical capacity has greatly improved the company's ability to engage in individual marketing by creating personalized content and directing correct price offers to customers. iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 514  the financially responsible stage. at the beginning of the 21st century, the marketing function faces a new challenge. thus, a lack of responsibility in marketing was perceived, which diminished the credibility of marketing, threatening both the positioning of the marketing function within the company, as well as the existence of marketing as a discipline. marketing research has reacted by associating the consequences of marketing efforts with data on the financial outcomes of a company. the overall purpose of these studies was to quantify the extent to which marketing significantly influenced performance at the firm level. such results have strongly contributed to establishing the financial responsibility of marketing efforts and, therefore, to further expanding the general scope of marketing within an organization.  the digital disruption stage. we are currently witnessing an era of digital disruption that is causing an unprecedented leap in companies of various industries. marketing research is profoundly transformed by new marketing practices supported by information and communication technologies such as: artificial intelligence, mixed reality (virtual and augmented, i.e. enriching the real world by combining elements of physical and virtual reality with digital artifacts) and blockchains based on secured decentralized peer-to-peer distributed databases. marketing practices are now embracing more and more other technologies with disruptive potentials, such as the iot and socio-cyber-physical systems. 2.2. iot technologies and their business adoption the iot brings together physical and digital worlds through a network of interconnected devices using standardized hardware and software interfaces. the iot applications have unbounded possibilities in virtually any socio-economic area, being only limited by the human imagination and creativity. currently we are experiencing a technological diversification of various computing paradigms emerging from network and distributed computing that are supporting the development of iot ecosystems. modern iot infrastructure is strongly grounded into the most recent advances of computer networks and distributed systems technologies represented by the emergent mobile, edge, fog, cloud, and related computing paradigms (like brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 515 for example mobile edge computing and mobile cloud computing). cloud computing is providing convenient on demand serviceoriented access to virtualized it infrastructure, platforms and applications to individuals and organizations, via internet. cloud computing is the current standard for securely storing and heavyweight processing of iot-generated data on multiple remote servers, while having immediate access to it from multiple devices, anytime, anywhere. edge computing is a distributed computing model in which computing power and storage capacity are situated as close as possible to the location where they are needed, thus improving response time and saving communication bandwidth. edge computing can be described as computing that is performed outside the cloud domain, as close as possible to the "network edge". edge computing includes iot systems composed of interconnected devices of low computing power that generate lots of data that are usually stored and processed in cloud data servers. fog computing refers to computing, storage and network services that are located between the edge and the cloud. thus the fog represents an intermediate level that offers an average computing power, usually provided by local decentralized servers. its role is to take over part of the processing and communication between the edge and the cloud, but closer to the edge level. mobile computing is a distributed computing paradigm that is applicable to all programmable, portable, wireless, and conveniently held devices including, but not limited to, tablets, pads, smartphones, laptops, and various types of wearable devices (elazhary, 2019). typical smartphones are nowadays equipped with many embedded sensors (e.g., gps, accelerometers, gyroscopes, rfid readers, cameras, and microphones) along with different communication interfaces (e.g. cellular, wifi, bluetooth), thus acting as veritable providers of sensory data in the iot ecosystem (alturjman, 2019). throughput and latency requirements of iot systems can vary, thus requiring flexible storage and processing architectures based on innovative combinations of edge, fog and cloud computing that are part of iot-enabled digital marketing ecosystems. the economist intelligence unit's "internet of things business index" (eiu-iot-bi) represents probably the most accurate global measure of the commercial implementation of iot technologies. the index is determined using a global and cross-industry executive survey. the 2020 iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 516 edition shows that during the last three years, a significant leap in iot adoption took place (eiu, 2020). the findings revealed that this progress is also reflected by the increased investments that delivered returns for some of the respondents. companies agreed that a path to iot business value has been identified. a crucial aspect in this direction is the use of iot data strategically, in particular the use of ai to valorize iot data. however, security, privacy and trust were recognized as very important issues still hindering iot adoption at its full speed. while broad in scope, the eiu-iot-bi carries also few specific outcomes that we found directly relevant for the digital marketing domain. first note that the possible values of this index score are: 0-2 (non-existent), 2-4 (in-research), 4-6 (in-planning), 6-8 (early-implementation), and 8-10 (extensive). as such, iot global adoption in the products and services sector is in incipient early-implementation stage (score 6.12). in consumer good and retail industry (directly relevant to digital marketing), iot adoption is in incipient early-implementation stage as concerning internal operations, and in late in-planning stage as concerning products and services (score 5.44). very interesting are also the figures concerning the applications of iot data. for example, between 33% and 48% of the respondents confirmed the adoption of iot data analytics for product and process optimization, as well as for operational and strategic decision making. moreover, 37% of respondents confirmed that customer service and support benefitted from iot data management and analysis adoption. finally, 87% of respondents recognized security threat as a major issue of iot adoption, confirming the use of internal and external expertise and resources to deal with this aspect. it is worth noting that 9% of the respondents declared that the primary industry of their organization is consumer goods and retails. moreover, 7% of the respondents declared marketing and sales and other 7% of the respondents declared customer service as their main functional role in their organization. (caro & sadr, 2019) show that iot plays a fundamental role for channel integration in omnichannel retailing, by allowing companies to rebalance supply and demand. a classification of iot initiatives based on an opportunity map, by distinguishing them based on the value they create and by their area of impact, is proposed in that work. iot adoption is justified in terms of its enabling capabilities, either immediately achievable by deploying iot sensor data or by its enhanced capabilities resulting from the unanticipated benefits following iot adoption, within the interaction of brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 517 supply with demand. jabbar et al. (2020) address real-time big data processing for supporting instantaneous marketing decisions. the processing workflow of such large datasets for real-time decision raises new challenges for marketing organizations. this work proposes interdisciplinary dialogues that overlay software engineering frameworks within marketing viewpoints, as well and their implications for current marketing practices. vasiljević, et al. (2019) propose the design and experimentation with an iot infrastructure for neuromarketing research. arthmann & li, (2017) analyze the possibilities opened by iot technologies to study consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli. such technologies comprise: i) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri) to detect activity changes in the “pleasure center” of the brain; ii) electroencephalography (eeg) and steady state topography (sst) to quantify brain electrical activity that decode motivation and cognitive load; iii) biometrics sensors to quantify changes in the physiological state (e.g. heart rate, respiratory rate and galvanic skin response); iv) motion tracking for eye movement to identify focal attention, and facial coding to classify the physical expression of emotion. a more systematic review of the current technological advancements and opportunities in neuromarketing is introduced in rawnaque et al. (2020). the trends and advancements in neuromarketing were categorized as follows: i) utilized marketing stimuli; ii) activation of the brain regions due to marketing stimuli; iii) neural response recording techniques; iv) brain signal processing; and v) machine learning applications. a review of iot support for marketing activities was proposed in (taylor et al., 2020). according to this review, iot support for marketing activities is materialized as: i) data available from iot devices; ii) iot data analytics; and iii) communication channels with owners of iot devices. this work also proposes a preliminary framework for iot enhanced marketing, comprising: customer relationship management, iot business intelligence, and iot support for new product design. although similar in goal with our own work, our proposal offers a considerably deeper insight into the design of a new conceptual framework for iot-enhanced digital marketing. in particular, we highlight the value of a layered architecture focused on smart product management and coupled with an agent-oriented modeling approach, while also recognizing the need of incorporating a sound security and trust analysis framework. iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 518 3. research methodology our research methodology is based on a constructive approach grounded into the most recent theoretical and practical developments in the fields of digital marketing and iot. constructive research aims at producing novel solutions comprising both practical and conceptual approaches (oyegoke, 2011). following this proposed approach, the development of our iotenhanced digital marketing conceptual framework is theoretically grounded into core conceptual foundations of marketing research including: i) marketing mix (mccarthy, 1960, p.45), ii) set of generic marketing tasks (kotler & keller, 2016, pp. 49-50), and iii) general framework of digital marketing research (kannan & li, 2017), as well as technically grounded into: i) comprehensive agent-based iot paradigm (savaglio et al., 2020) and ii) caavi-rics modeling of secure distributed iot systems (pešić et al., 2020). our proposed research methodology follows three steps:  a convergence analysis of current conceptual frameworks of digital marketing with state-of-the-art iot technologies, to address the first research question.  the design of a new iot-enhanced conceptual framework for digital marketing, thus addressing the second research question.  the qualitative evaluation of our proposal based on a theoretical investigation of several hypothetical use cases, serving as validation step of our research results. 3.1. enhancing digital marketing with iot systems the term marketing mix was introduced by mccarthy in (1960, p.45) to describe the most important activities in marketing management. this model specifies four major levels of marketing decision: “product, price, place, and promotion” being known in the literature as the 4p model. this model is also promoted by (ama, 2014). the 4p model was later adapted and extended to conceptualize other various decision-making perspectives in marketing management. some examples are: the modern 4p model: “people, processes, programs, and performance”, the 4c model: “consumer, cost, convenience / channel, and communication”, the 5c model: “customers, collaborators, competitors, context, and company”, the 4a model: “acceptability, affordability, accessibility, and awareness”, the 7p model by extending the 4p model with brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 519 other 3 dimensions: “process, people, and physical evidence”, respectively the 8p model by extending the 7p model with the “performance” dimension. the common element of all these abstract marketing mix models is the identification of a set of types of generic tools that an organization can use to achieve its marketing objectives. kotler and keller complemented this by proposing in (2016 pp. 49-50) a set of generic tasks that can lead to a successful management of an organization's marketing:  development of marketing strategies and plans.  acquisition of detailed marketing information.  connecting with beneficiaries.  building strong product brands.  creating value.  value delivery.  communicating value.  responsible marketing for long-term success. on top of that, (kannan & li, 2017) proposed a general framework for scientific research in marketing starting from the conceptual model of the 5c: “customers, collaborators, competitors, context, and company”. all these elements designated by c together with the classic 4p marketing mix are incorporated into this framework, but grouped differently and expanded with new elements. thus, according to figure 1, the components of this framework are:  marketing strategy  marketing environment  company  marketing outcomes  digital technologies iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 520 figure 1: digital marketing research framework adapted from (kannan & li, 2017) customers represent the focal element of the marketing environment, next to which we find: context, competitors and collaborators. emerging concepts, interactions and structures in relation to customers include: digital platforms, consumer behavior, search engines, social spaces (including social media and user-generated content), and respectively contextual interactions. all these are inputs processed by the company's marketing function, defined by marketing research and analysis on the one hand, and the marketing mix (4p model) on the other. on the right-hand side in figure 1 we find the results of marketing actions and strategies, materialized in the overall impact of digital technologies on value creation:  customer value: value equity, brand equity, relationship capital, consumer satisfaction, and customer lifecycle value.  company value: sales, profits, growth rate, and customer equity (customer acquisition and retention strategies, as well as higher profit margin, respectively). the main idea of our proposed framework is to identify and highlight the possible enhancements that can be brought by iot to consumers and products, that represent in our opinion the core elements of marketing strategy digital technologies company environment outcomes 4p model market research customers collaborators context competitors consumer behavior platforms search engines contextual interactions social spaces company value customer value brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 521 any marketing (digital or not) campaign. in particular, the customer-product and customer-brand interactions are now becoming the focal elements of the iot-enabled marketing platform. these elements will then be mapped to the general framework of (kannan & li, 2017) that represents the state-of-theart in the field. the central element of our proposed framework is an iot-enhanced smart products platform. smart products are defined as products augmented with digital capabilities of some sort to support iot integration, including for example products with tags and connectible products. the range and number of smart products are expected to massively explode during this decade, taking into account the falling costs of supporting digital technologies (davies, 2015). product tags represent information attached to products to facilitate their management including description, classification, organization and tracking during their lifecycle stages (manufacturing, supply-chain, warehousing, in-store selling, and consumption). examples of state-of-theart tagging technologies are: radio-frequency identification (rfid), near field communication (nfc), barcode, smart packaging, quick response (qr) code, beacons, image recognition, and electronic product code (epc). tags are digitally encoded such that they can be automatically read and interpreted by specialized digital devices, and the resulting information can be fed into the iot platform for further processing and analytics. the technology of smart connectible products is made possible by the recent progress in computing, device miniaturization, and ubiquitous interconnectivity. the smartness of connectible products is conveyed by their enhancement with hardware, sensors, data storage, processing power, connectivity, and software capabilities in so many ways (porter & heppelmann, 2014). smart connectible products have three core layers: physical layer, smartness layer, and connectivity layer. the core functions of the product are conveyed by its physical parts (mechanical and electrical) that are embedded in its physical layer. the smartness layer comprises hardware and software digital artifacts including sensors and processing units, as well as system and application software. examples include: i) hardware: raspberry pi, arduino, intel, arm, freescale, and texas instruments; ii) system software: nucleus rtos, amazon freertos, windows 10 iot, wind river vxworks, and tinyos. the connectivity layer comprises external interconnectivity ports based on networking protocols. examples are: i) wireless protocols: ieee iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 522 802.15.4 (zigbee), ieee 802.11 (wi-fi), iot sim card, and bluetooth low energy (ble); ii) wired protocols: constrained application protocol (coap), websockets, representational state transfer / hypertext transfer protocol (rest/http), and message queuing telemetry transport (mqtt). according to (porter & heppelmann, 2014), smart connectible products have various capabilities that can be structured as layered functionalities, in increasing order: monitoring, control, optimization, and autonomy. as one can notice, iot devices for smart products are highly heterogeneous, requiring a high integration overhead. this effort can be reduced by developing standardized meta-models based on semantic representations, to describe the semantics of iot components independently of their operational specifications (charpenay et al., 2015), (ganzha et al., 2017). a key element of our proposal is to facilitate the customer-product and customer-brand interactions through the development of social iot empowered by 5g technologies, as well as advanced interaction capabilities based on advanced technologies such as gesture and speech recognition. this can be achieved by social space services provisioning enhanced user interfaces. social space services can provide user’s identity and personal information, location and time information, relevant to the situation or activity the user is currently involved in, as well as the most relevant services in the form of a space as a service (spaas) smartphone mobile cloud application, adaptable to the user’s profile (al-turjman, 2019). human-device interaction in iot can be also improved by seamless adoption of natural language interfaces based on speech recognition, beyond the limited interfaces provided by the device manufacturers (rubio-drosdov et al., 2017). in what follows we examine the updated components of the general framework proposed by (kannan & li, 2017), addressing their envisioned enhancements with iot technologies and their impact to novel marketing functions. consumer behavior studies how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and give up goods, services, ideas, and experiences to meet their needs and desires. consumers equipped with 5genabled mobile computing devices engaged in highly contextualized interactions with smart products and brands, as well as with other customers brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 523 and digital services in smart social spaces, are generating by far larger and richer amounts of real-time data than ever before. more detailed and accurate determinants of cultural, social, personal, and psycho-emotional factors of consumer buying behavior, like for example factors related to neuromarketing (arthmann & li, 2017) are now promptly available to marketers for operational and strategic decisions, enabling end-to-end customer experience optimization. dynamic smart social spaces together with space discovery services enable highly contextualized interactions with digital services (for example search engines, digital ads, and content sharing networks) and platform markets, taking into account user emotions, location, time and current needs. they will strongly impact the identification and assessment of: customer trust and risk perceptions, dynamics of electronic word-of-mouth (ewom) (babić et al., 2016), influencers, impact of competitors, as well as effects of geographical location, region and culture. it can be observed that our proposal mostly influences the “product” p from the 4p model shown figure 1. according to (porter & heppelmann, 2014), iot-enabled smart connected products provide a new taxonomy of key functionalities, strongly impacting corporate strategies and requiring hard strategic choices. for example, successively adding smartness and connectivity layers to a given core product can attractively result in far smarter products that might change industry and competition boundaries with dramatic and risky consequences on the business itself, while on the other hand this kind of enthusiastic expansion requires careful thinking and rational business decisions, before its adoption and implementation. according to (kannan & li, 2017, p.37), there is scientific evidence that online customer interaction, ewom, as well as consumer and firmgenerated online content can directly impact marketing outcomes, in particular company sales, as well as individual customer purchases in and across product categories. taking into account that our proposal diversifies and widens online interactions across time and space by enrolling iot devices and networks, we have reasons to believe that it will have a stronger impact on marketing outcomes, requiring a more careful examination. this is an interesting research question for a deeper and more focused investigation. 3.2. iot-enhanced conceptual framework for digital marketing in this subsection we follow a constructive approach by proposing a layered framework of our iot-enhanced platform for digital marketing, focusing mainly on the conceptual elements underlying the iot-based digital iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 524 technologies that actually detail the “digital technologies” component of the (kannan & li, 2017) framework shown in figure 1. on one hand, this provides an answer to our second research question, while on the other hand it represents a clear research outcome of our work. our framework is illustrated in figure 2. it is structured into 3 nested layers and 1 extra layer, as follows:  core layer is represented by the iot-enhanced smart product platform that constitutes the kernel of our framework. this layer mainly resides in the cloud. however it may also contain fog components that mediate the load balancing and optimization of the interactions between iot edge devices and the cloud.  mid layer is represented by the caavi-rics security model. note that caavi-rics is not a technological solution. rather, caavi-rics helps us to explore and understand the credibility, authentication, authorization, verification, and integrity of iot systems through explaining the rationale, influence, concerns and security solutions that accompany them, thus being able to incorporate the plethora of technological solutions for building secure and robust iot systems (pešić et al., 2020). the aim of this layer is to increase the security and trust of iot-based digital marketing ecosystems built around our conceptual framework, which is seen of crucial importance for the credibility of our approach.  external layer is represented by the agent-based model. this layer is not necessary a strictly technological layer, although technological solutions based on agent middleware are possible (bădică et al, 2011). agent-based computing paradigm is based on the agent software abstraction defining an autonomous, situated, social, reactive and proactive computational entity. agents are not isolated entities. rather, they form multi-agent systems representing ensembles of agents, which interact and cooperate in distributed and self-steering societies with welldefined organizational relationships (savaglio et al., 2020). in particular, the agent-oriented approach allows us to model the digital marketing ecosystem through multi-agent systems.  extra layer includes heterogeneous actors representing business applications, smart products and smart consumers that interact to achieve their personal and business objectives, either directly brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 525 or indirectly via the platform. business applications support the business actors of the platform, including for example: stores, manufacturers and brands. smart products represent products enhanced with iot capabilities. smart consumers represent consumers equipped with 5g mobile and wearable devices. each actor is represented in the system by a suitable agent. for example smart products can be represented as agents incorporating smart objects (savaglio et al., 2020). smart consumers can be represented using personalized agents, while business applications can be conceptualized as business agents (bădică et al., 2016) of various granularities, depending on their specific requirements. figure 2: iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework source: kannan & li, 2017 4. results and discussion in this section we emphasize the generality of our proposal, by iot-enhanced smart product platform agent-based model caavi-rics security model business application store manufacturer brand smart product product with tag connectible product smart consumer smartphone wearable devices iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 526 outlining few convincing use cases that can be structurally and functionally mapped to our proposed conceptual framework. in this way, they will support the qualitative evaluation of our proposal, thus validating our work. 4.1. smart products as media carriers once activated, products enhanced with smart tags can trigger actions onto a data-driven, owned media platform to launch personalized digital experiences and content, thus engaging in one-to-one consumer relationships. a media-enhanced product can use our iot-enhanced digital marketing platform to let consumers virtually interact with the products using smart tags and mobile devices. for example: i) consumers can personalize a product by associating to it personalized or contextualized multimedia messages that can be visualized during the virtual interaction with the product (for example, via a smartphone); ii) consumers can be incentivized with loyalty points for interacting with the product in smart trading locations and environments; and iii) products can be tracked across the supply chain to improve logistics and operations. 4.2. smart appliances iot-enabled smart appliances are programmable connectible appliances that can be used to implement various iot scenarios. one example is the virtual dash button, an iot-enabled smart button that implements a form of frictionless shopping. the smart button can use the local network to link to the e-commerce app via our proposed platform, thus allowing customers to automatically order products when they are running low. for a good overview of iot-enabled smart appliances, including the aws iot example of smart button (amazon, 2020), the reader is invited to consult reference (aheleroff et al., 2020). 4.3. autonomous retail autonomous retail is expected to change how people perceive and engage in shopping. autonomous stores empowered by the services provided by our proposed platform can provide the following benefits: convenient 24/7 and frictionless operation (e.g. checkout and queuing free shopping), finding and locating products in-store, real-time stock monitoring and more accurate understanding of human shopping behavior. automated retail technologies are based on iot-enabled devices and systems, including: video cameras inside the store, 3d position readers of all persons inside the store, weight sensors on the shelves, and counting sensors for persons brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 527 entering and exiting the store. 4.4. brand-customer interaction in social media brands are usually interested to ask their customers to post something good about them in social media. however, most often such requests are not so intensely served, unless the customer is incentivized by getting something in return. using our proposed iot-enabled smart platform, a social media hash-tag can connect to product promotions and giveaways. the brand can randomly select users (or perceived influencers and opinion leaders) to be rewarded with a product, as they tweet or post a particular hash-tag or on a specific channel. 4.5. print advertisements enhanced with iot technology print advertisements may be combined with iot technology in our proposed smart platform to convey value to the users in an innovative way. for example, print advertisements can offer bracelet strips that users could peel off and put on their children’s wrists or on their pet’s neck. the bracelets are endowed with built-in locators, which, with the help of a mobile app and platform’s location services, allow users to configure and track their children or their pets wandering around. 4.6. brand teaming brands can team up with the help of our smart platform to create more enjoyable and seamless experiences for their users. for example, a music streaming brand can team up with a taxi company. users will be able to connect their music account to the taxi app such that when they get in a taxi, they can use their taxi app to automatically play their preferred music soundtracks through the car’s speakers. similarly, a fitness tracker can offer contactless nfc terminal payment in combination with a mobile payment service, while a card company can team up with a car brand and user’s preferred restaurant to enable in-car voice-activated booking, menu ordering and payment. brand can also improve their customer experience by involving in data partnerships in the context of iot-enabled digital marketing. for example, two different brands could have each either a broader or respectively a deeper understanding of the customer base. therefore, their data partnership can produce a more holistic view of the customers. for example a car manufacturer can partner to a telecommunications company by integrating more 5g technology into their vehicles. together they can iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 528 deliver a better user experience by sharing live journey data, occupancy status and road conditions gathered by in-car sensors. such partnerships between brands create ecosystem-connected products that undoubtedly will improve the customer experience, which will also likely lead to longer-term customer retention. 4.7. smart product integration with customer daily experiences our iot-enabled smart platform has the potential to seamlessly improve the brand’s products and services by diversifying and deepening their integration with the customers’ daily experiences. this will highlight the brand’s innovation and uniqueness, thus increasing the efficacy of the marketing strategy. for example, a car brand can provide an in-car ecommerce platform allowing drivers to order and pay for their favorite coffee-shop drinks and treats, book dinner, and locate the closest gas station from the dashboard touchscreen. 5. conclusions based on a thorough analysis of the current trends in digital marketing and iot technologies, we have investigated the appropriateness of iot enhancement of current digital marketing conceptual frameworks. then we have proposed a novel conceptual framework of iot-enhanced digital marketing. the framework is grounded into a comprehensive conceptualization of digital marketing research, a sound security analysis model for iot and edge computing systems, as well as an agent-oriented modeling approach. the framework is structured into 3 nested layers and 1 extra layer: i) core layer representing an iot smart product platform; ii) mid layer represented by the caavi-rics security model; iii) external layer represented by the agent-based model; iv) extra layer comprising actors representing business applications, smart products and smart consumers. the framework was discussed and qualitatively evaluated by proposing few prototypical use cases in the area of iot-based digital marketing. interesting future research directions are: i) deeper and more focused investigation of the impact of iot-mediated online interactions onto marketing outcomes; ii) evolving our conceptual framework towards the more detailed design of an iot-enhanced architecture for digital marketing grounded into the most recent developments in mobile, edge, fog, cloud, and agent computing; iii) enhancing our framework with conceptualization of business intelligence functions based on artificial intelligence advances. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 529 references aheleroff, s., xu, x., lu, y., aristizabal, m., velásquez, j.p., joa, b., & valencia, y. (2020). iot-enabled smart appliances under industry 4.0: a case study. advanced engineering informatics, 43, 101043, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2020.101043 al-turjman, f. (2019). 5g-enabled devices and smart-spaces in social-iot: an overview. future generation computer systems, 92, 732-744. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2017.11.035 amazon. (2020). aws iot button [online]. amazon https://aws.amazon.com/iotbutton/ american marketing association (ama), (2014). american marketing association [online]. american marketing association. https://www.ama.org/ arthmann, c., & li, i-p. (2017). neuromarketing the art and science of marketing and neurosciences enabled by iot technologies. iic journal of innovation [online]. https://www.iiconsortium.org/pdf/2017_joi_neuromarketing_iot_tech nologies.pdf babić, r. a, sotgiu f., de valck, k, & bijmolt, t. h. a. (2016). the effect of electronic word of mouth on sales: a meta-analytic review of platform, product, and metric factors. journal of marketing research, 53(3), 297-318, https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.14.0380 bădică, a., bădică, c., leon, f., & buligiu, i. (2016). modeling and enactment of business agents using jason. in n. bassiliades, a. bikakis, d. vrakas, i. vlahavas, & g. vouros (eds.), proceedings of the 9th hellenic conference on artificial intelligence (setn '16) (pp. 1-10). association for computing machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2903220.2903253 bădică, c., budimac, z., burkhard, h-d., & ivanović, m. (2011). software agents: languages, tools, platforms. computer science and information systems, 8(2), 255-298. https://doi.org/10.2298/csis110214013b caro, f., & sadr, r. (2019). the internet of things (iot) in retail: bridging supply and demand. business horizons, 62(1), 47-54, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2018.08.002 charpenay, v., käbisch, s., anicic, d., & kosch, h. (2015). an ontology design pattern for iot device tagging systems. in ieee (ed.), 5th international conference on the internet of things (iot) (pp. 138-145). ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/iot.2015.7356558 davies, e. (2015). the rise of the smart product economy [online]. cognizant. https://www.cognizant.com/insightswhitepapers/the-rise-of-the-smartproduct-economy-codex1249.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2020.101043 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2017.11.035 https://aws.amazon.com/iotbutton/ https://www.ama.org/ https://www.iiconsortium.org/pdf/2017_joi_neuromarketing_iot_technologies.pdf https://www.iiconsortium.org/pdf/2017_joi_neuromarketing_iot_technologies.pdf https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.14.0380 https://doi.org/10.1145/2903220.2903253 https://doi.org/10.2298/csis110214013b https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2018.08.002 https://doi.org/10.1109/iot.2015.7356558 https://www.cognizant.com/insightswhitepapers/the-rise-of-the-smart-product-economy-codex1249.pdf https://www.cognizant.com/insightswhitepapers/the-rise-of-the-smart-product-economy-codex1249.pdf iot-enhanced digital marketing conceptual framework andreea liliana bădică & mircea ovidiu mitucă 530 eiu. (2020). the iot business index 2020: a step-change in adoption [online]. rfid journal. https://www.rfidjournal.com/whitepaper/the-iot-businessindex-2020-a-step-change-in-adoption elazhary, h. (2019). internet of things (iot), mobile cloud, cloudlet, mobile iot, iot cloud, fog, mobile edge, and edge emerging computing paradigms: disambiguation and research directions. journal of network and computer applications, 128, 105-140, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2018.10.021 ganzha, m., paprzycki, m., pawłowski, w., szmeja, p., & wasielewska, k. (2017). semantic interoperability in the internet of things: an overview from the inter-iot perspective. journal of network and computer applications, 81, 111-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2016.08.007 jabbar, a., akhtar, p., & dani, s. (2020). real-time big data processing for instantaneous marketing decisions: a problematization approach. industrial marketing management, 90, 558-569, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2019.09.001 kannan, p. k., & li, h. a. (2017). digital marketing: a framework, review and research agenda. international journal of research in marketing, 34(1), 22-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.11.006 kotler, p., & keller, k. l. (2016). marketing management. 15th edn. pearson education limited. lourens, m. (2020 july 01). touch-point marketing explained [online], auditeers. https://auditeers.net/blog/what-is-touch-point-marketing mccarthy, e. j. (1960). basic marketing. a managerial approach. richard d. irwin, inc. oyegoke, a. (2011). the constructive research approach in project management research. international journal of managing projects in business, 4(4) 573-595. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371111164029 pešić, s., ivanović, m., radovanović, m., & bădică, c. (2020). caavi-rics model for observing the security of distributed iot and edge computing systems. simulation modelling practice and theory, 105, 102125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.simpat.2020.102125 porter, m. e., & heppelmann, j. e. (2014, january 22). how smart, connected products are transforming competition [conference presentation]. annual meeting of the world economic forum. harvard business review private breakfast davos, switzerland. https://www.tcs.com/content/dam/tcs/pdf/discovertcs/about-us/analystreport/smart-connected-products-transformingcompetition-0115.pdf rawnaque, f. s., rahman, k. m., anwar, s. f., vaidyanathan, r., chau, t., sarker, f., & al mamun, k. a. (2020). technological advancements and opportunities in neuromarketing: a systematic review. brain informatics, 7(1), 10, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40708-020-00109-x https://www.rfidjournal.com/whitepaper/the-iot-business-index-2020-a-step-change-in-adoption https://www.rfidjournal.com/whitepaper/the-iot-business-index-2020-a-step-change-in-adoption https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2018.10.021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2016.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2019.09.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.11.006 https://auditeers.net/blog/what-is-touch-point-marketing https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371111164029 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.simpat.2020.102125 https://www.tcs.com/content/dam/tcs/pdf/discover-tcs/about-us/analystreport/smart-connected-products-transforming-competition-0115.pdf https://www.tcs.com/content/dam/tcs/pdf/discover-tcs/about-us/analystreport/smart-connected-products-transforming-competition-0115.pdf https://www.tcs.com/content/dam/tcs/pdf/discover-tcs/about-us/analystreport/smart-connected-products-transforming-competition-0115.pdf https://doi.org/10.1186/s40708-020-00109-x brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 531 rouse, m. (2019). internet of things (iot). iot agenda. https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/internet-ofthings-iot rubio-drosdov, e., díaz-sánchez, d., almenárez, f., arias-cabarcos, p. & marín, a. (2017). seamless human-device interaction in the internet of things. ieee transactions on consumer electronics, 63(4), 490-498, https://doi.org/10.1109/tce.2017.015076 savaglio, c., ganzha, m., paprzycki, m., bădică, c., ivanović, m., & fortino, g. (2020). agent-based internet of things: state-of-the-art and research challenges. future generation computer systems, 102, 1038-1053. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2019.09.016 shah, d., & murthi, b. p. s. (2020). marketing in a data-driven digital world: implications for the role and scope of marketing. journal of business research, 125, 772-779. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.062 tankovska, h. (2020, october 26). number of internet of things (iot) connected devices worldwide in 2018, 2025 and 2030. statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/802690/worldwide-connecteddevices-by-access-technology taylor, m., reilly, d., & wren, c. (2020). internet of things support for marketing activities. journal of strategic marketing, 28(2), 149-160, https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2018.1493523 vasiljević, t., bogdanović, z., rodić, b., naumović, t., & labus, a. (2019). designing iot infrastructure for neuromarketing research. in á. rocha, h. adeli, l. reis, & s. costanzo, (eds.), new knowledge in information systems and technologies. worldcist'19. advances in intelligent systems and computing, 930 (pp. 928-935). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-161811_87 https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/internet-of-things-iot https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/internet-of-things-iot https://doi.org/10.1109/tce.2017.015076 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2019.09.016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.062 https://www.statista.com/statistics/802690/worldwide-connected-devices-by-access-technology https://www.statista.com/statistics/802690/worldwide-connected-devices-by-access-technology https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2018.1493523 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16181-1_87 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16181-1_87 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 251-264 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/181 stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of adaptive ability of medical personnel andriy halian¹, ihor halian2, ihor popovych3, yurii zavatskyi4, oleksandr semenov5, nataliia semenova6 1 ph. d. in psychology, doctor pediatric anesthesiologist of the department of anesthesiology and intensive care lviv regional children’s clinical hospital “okhmatdyt”, lviv, ukraine, andriyhalian@gmail.com 2 doctor of psychological sciences, full professor, full professor of the department practical psychology, drogobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, drogobych, ukraine, halyan@ukr.net 3 doctor of psychological sciences, full professor, full professor of the department of psychology, kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, ihorpopovych999@gmail.com 4 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, head of the department of human health and physical education, volodymyr dahl east ukrainian national university, ukraine, urijzavackij3@gmail.com 5 doctor of pedagogical sciences, full professor of the department of general pedagogy and preschool education, volyn national university named after lesia ukrainka, ukraine, os7284292@gmail.com 6 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of the department of pedagogy, volyn national university named after lesia ukrainka, ukraine, os7284292@gmail.com abstract: aim. the aim of the study is to perform psychological and psychophysiological analysis of the features of stress resistance that provide adaptation of medical personnel in the situation of uncertainty. materials and methods. the study involved: 125 students of iii and iv years of study majoring in “treatment” and “nursing”; 95 internship doctors 2-3 years of training in various specializations. 36.84% of the total numbers of studied internship doctors were those whose specialization is characterized by an increased level of stress. methods: correlation analysis, tests with standardized questionnaires. result. it was found that the manifestation of open, direct aggression by respondents is an acceptable strategy of interaction, which does not significantly affect adaptability. it has been studied that hostility, as an internal directive of the personality, is often not observed externally and determines the decrease in emotional comfort and violation of adaptation. conclusions. it is proved that adaptive activity as a system-forming factor is accompanied by a number of psychological, biological and social processes and collectively forms the stress resistance of the personality. it is indicated that the immune system is an important part of the functional systems that form the biological factor of functional diagnosis at the stage of low stress resistance and borderline disorders. it is noted that it is appropriate to use functional diagnosis as a basis for diagnosing a person’s mental state in the development of stress resistance. keywords: stress; homeostasis; immune system; functional diagnosis; adaptation. how to cite: halian, a., halian, i., popovych, i., zavatskyi, y., semenov, o., & semenova, n. (2021). stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of adaptive ability of medical personnel. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 251-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/181 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/181 mailto:andriyhalian@gmail.com mailto:halyan@ukr.net mailto:ihorpopovych999@gmail.com mailto:urijzavackij3@gmail.com mailto:os7284292@gmail.com mailto:os7284292@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/181 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 252 1. introduction in a situation of instability, uncertainty, poor predictability of social processes, mental stress on a person increases (khmiliar et al., 2020; tomaszek, & muchacka-cymerman, 2020). this problem is especially relevant during the pandemic “coronavirus” (covid-19 disease caused by sars-cov-2 virus). the lack of medicaments, vaccines and generally objective information about this viral infection creates a mass psychosis of the earth’s population, driving it to a state of hopelessness. in this situation, a matter of time is the emergence of emotional disorders, stress. the matter of person’s adaptive capabilities, their determinacy by stress resistance is actualized. in psychology, psychophysiology, biology, medicine, stress resistance and its impact on the ability to adapt is considered from different positions. the basic nature of adaptation is revealed through the specific correlation of the multilevel properties of the integral individuality. it is believed that the consequence is biological, physiological, psychological homeostasis of the system and the optimal interaction of the subject with the environment in different living conditions (subbotin, 1992). the authors of the article believe that biological homeostasis is manifested through psychoneuroimmune interaction, which is a component of functional systems. the dynamics of this interaction could be an indicator of predisposition to endogenous mental disorders. however, this predisposition will depend on the constitutional and biological characteristics of the individual and the states of mental dysfunction, which, although they appear, do not reach the psychotic level. biological adaptation, reflecting the interplay of functional systems of metabolic, homeostasis and behavioral levels, depends on nos nonspecific changes in neuroimmune interactions. these are both innate and acquired immunity, and glioneuronal interactions in the central nervous system. the authors agree with b. butoma that the variability of cellular, humoral immunity and sensitization reactions to neurospecific antigens characterize the stability and reactivity of the system according to the relevant indicators (butoma, 2008). of scientific interest is an empirical study which identifies the dynamics of adaptation resources of respondents (blynova et al., 2020; halian et al., 2020a; prykhodko et al., 2020), the level of psychological security and the impact on strengthening of moral and volitional efforts (blynova & kruglov, 2019; shevchenko et al., 2020a). today, the issue of professional stress resistance is on the agenda. however, pandemic uncertainty should shift the priority of occupational stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of … andriy halian, et al. 253 stress research towards the medical field. the need for such research is determined by the essentiality of the medical profession. moreover, in a pandemic situation, doctors are the first to contact patients. their emotional stability will be the key to successful treatment of patients. in addition, the situation of uncertainty, the lack of proper medical equipment contributes to the development of maladaptation in physicians (in the worst case – the pathogenesis of various systems). this can be expressed in various forms of aggression. therefore, there is a need to turn to personal resources that would help tame the aggressive state and the development of stress. this explains the relevance and essentiality to study this problem. hypothesis the authors assume that adaptive activity as a system-forming factor is accompanied by a number of psychological, biological and social processes, collectively forming the stress resistance of the personality. the aim the aim is to conduct an empirical study of psychological and biological features of stress resistance, which determines the adaptive capacity of future medical personnel in a situation of uncertainty. 2. materials and methods methodological initial principles of the empirical study of adaptability and stress resistance of medical personnel are based on conceptual provisions related to the issues of adaptability and stress resistance of the personality (shevchenko et al., 2020; striletska, 2017; wang et al., 2009). this methodology has been tested by researchers in the study of the theory of functional diagnosis, which is based on the adaptivecompensatory capabilities of the subject (broker et al., 1989; reich et al., 1975), adaptation and motivation of the specialist to professional activity (halian, 2016; 2019; halian et al., 2020b; 2020c), resourcefulness of medical personnel (lunov, 2016), as well as the assessment of mental expectations in various activities (khmil & popovych, 2019; popovych et al., 2020). all these experimental and empirical studies contained an element of adaptation, emotion, motivation, stress resistance, functional diagnosis. participants the study involved: 125 students of iii and iv years of study majoring in “treatment” and “nursing”; 95 internship doctors 2-3 years of brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 254 training in various specializations. 36.84% of the total numbers of studied internship doctors were those whose specialization is characterized by an increased level of stress (surgeons of various directions, anesthetists, infectiologists, and burn physicians). all subjects under study represented different regions of ukraine. the research is conducted according to ethical standards of committee on the rights of experiments of helsinki declaration (2013). organization of research during the academic semester, psychodiagnostic methods were used to measure the studied parameters. the test “self-assessment of the personality stress resistance” (“spsr”) was used to diagnose stress resistance (shamionov, 2004). the content of the stimulant material was events related to young people receiving vocational education. the method determines the levels of stress resistance. the indicator of adaptation was determined by “methods of diagnostics of social and psychological adaptation” (“dspa”) (rogers & daymond, 2002): adaptability – maladaptation, acceptance of oneself – nonacceptance of oneself, acceptance of others – rejection of others, emotional comfort – emotional discomfort, internal control – external control, domination – subordination, escapism, scale of openness. the diagnostic part of the diagnosistic and preventive system “integrated diagnosis and correction of occupational stress” (“idcos”) was used for integrated assessment of occupational stress in respondents (leonova, 2007). the diagnostic part of this system takes the form of a questionnaire-type psychometric test. it contains six main scales: “working conditions and organization”; “subjective assessment of difficulties in the work situation”; “remuneration for work / social climate”; “experiencing acute stress”; “experiencing chronic stress”; “personal / behavioral deformations”. differential and evaluative indicators of the methodology are standardized indices for all these scales and subscales. a general indicator of the test is the index “overall stress level” – a consolidated score on six main scales. the method identifies five criteria ranges: low, moderate, pronounced, high and very high stress. the indexes of reliability obtained with cronbach’s alpha made: αspsr = 0.747; αdspa = 0.791; αіdcos = 0.821). the indexes of reliability of the methods used and the tests of cronbach’s alpha were within a sufficient 0.7 and high 0.9 levels. stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of … andriy halian, et al. 255 procedures the study was organized according to the scheme of the ascertaining experiment. the obtained results were interpreted separately for each method. this was followed by a search for a causal link between the diagnosed mental phenomena. the depth of the interconnection between the individual features of the phenomenon under study was measured by correlation analysis. statistical analysis statistical processing of empirical data and graphical presentation of results was carried out using statistical programs “spss” v. 26.0 and “ms excel”. a nonparametric t-criterion kendall was used. 3. results a statistically significant correlation (t-criterion kendall) of aggressive and hostile manifestations according to the “adaptability” scale was established (see table 1). table 1. correlation values of the indicator of adaptability and manifestations of aggression of future medical personnel scale hostility irritability suspiciousness feeling of guilt adaptability –0.205** –0.18** –0.214** –0.145 notes: * – the correlation is significant at the level p<0.05 (two-way); ** – the correlation is significant at the level p<0.01 (two-way). there was a negative correlation with hostility, irritability, suspiciousness, and feeling of guilt. we state: the higher the rate of hostility, the lower the level of adaptability of students. correlation (t-criterion kendall) connections of hostility with individual scales of the “dspa” method have been established (see table 2). there is a negative correlation between “hostility” and scales such as “acceptance of others”, “internality”, “self-acceptance”, “emotional comfort” and a positive correlation with the scale of “escapism” (escape from problems). brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 256 table 2. intercorrelation of indicators of adaptability and hostility of future medical personnel kendall t-criterion components of adaptability selfacceptance acceptance of others emotional comfort internality escapism hostility –0.126 –0.181** –0.199** –0.22** 0.194** adaptability 0.481* 0.311* 0.460* 0.437* –0.134 notes: * – the correlation is significant at the level p<0.05 (two-way); ** – the correlation is significant at the level p<0.01 (two-way). according to the results of the “spsr” test, future medical personnel showed an average level of stress resistance (35.7 points). there is a tendency to a possible decrease in stress resistance with increasing stressful situations. the difference in stress resistance of the respondents with different levels of adaptability is not significant. the lowest, within the average, stress resistance indicator is characteristic of respondents with a low level of adaptability, the average – with medium adaptability and the highest – in respondents with a high level of adaptability. at the same time, this correlation indicates a tendency for subjects with low stress resistance to adapt more difficult to the environment. it is shown that internship doctors of specializations with increased level of stress resistance are inferior in all parameters of the scale (see fig. 1). stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of … andriy halian, et al. 257 fig. 1. the ratio of stress resistance in physicians specializing in high and relatively low levels of stress according to the results of the interlocution with internship doctors of different specializations, the outcomes were obtained on the factors of stressful situations (see fig. 2). brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 258 fig. 2. factors that cause internship doctors anxiety and distress in the workplace the main cause of stress at work, internship doctors called high work intensity due to a combination of high intellectual and emotional amount of work to be done, as well as irrational mode of work and rest due to extremely high workload. internship doctors whose specializations can be attributed to a high level of stress (future surgeons, anesthesiologists) showed significant differences in the indicators of the criteria that generate stress. stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of … andriy halian, et al. 259 4. discussion there are not many studies of stress resistance of future medical personnel. it is of scientific interest to study the features of the motivational sphere of future doctors (borysiuk et al., 2019). another scientific study revealed the issues of psychological correction of the emotional burning out syndrome of nurses (tanasiichuk et al., 2019). however, the study of psychological and biological factors of stress resistance and their impact on adaptive capacity in conditions of uncertainty is no less interesting. we state the lack of influence on the adaptability of such forms of aggression as physical aggression, indirect aggression, negativism, verbal aggression, insult. the level of adaptability reduces irritability, suspiciousness, feeling of guilt and hostility. hostility as a setting, due to its “closeness” increases the aggression that cannot get out. increasing hostility in respondents correlates with a decrease in the level of acceptance of others and self-acceptance, internality and emotional comfort, spontaneity in social contacts, as well as an increase in the desire to “escape” from problems, internal tension, and isolation. ultimately, this reduces their adaptability. in a situation of uncertainty, the operation of functional subsystems of the human organism is accompanied by shifts that go beyond the optimal functioning of the adaptation system. as a result, there is a feeling of discomfort. this suggests that no matter from which positions the mechanisms of stress are explained, the leading issues remain about nervous and endocrine regulation (apchel & cygan, 1999). at the same time, the action of stressors on the body causes the reaction of all systems involved in the process of adaptation: immune (cellular and humoral immunity, specific and nonspecific), neurohumoral (sympathoadrenal, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, reproductive) and adaptive (normal and pathological adaptive reactions and conditions) (kryzhanovskij, 2000). one of the first to respond to changes in the external and internal environment of the human organism is the immune system, promoting its homeostasis. thus, adaptive activity is a system-forming factor. proper state of the immune system is a key factor in stress resistance. in the process of adaptation to stress is the mobilization of: energy resources of the body to perform certain functions; plastic reserve of an organism and strengthening of adaptive synthesis of enzymatic and structural proteins; protective capabilities of the organism (viru, 1995). brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 260 over time, chronic stress becomes a constant companion of the doctor’s work, which, according to the modern medical-physiological model, determines the violation of homeostasis. this is manifested in imbalance of adaptive forces of the organism, resulting in the appearance of a complex of changes in coordinated biochemical, neurohumoral and cellular processes, as well as immunological reactions (kocjubinskij et al., 2005; schnall et al., 1990). in addition, doctors can develop the so-called burning out syndrome, due to which various psychosomatic illnesses appear in the later stages of development. such diseases are able to induce metabolic disorders in the body, including dyslementosis. the presented considerations encourage us to find ways to reduce the stress of the external environment and increase the body’s stress resistance. observation of impaired immune homeostasis will be a leading factor in this process. in this context, it is beneficial to use functional diagnosis as a basis for diagnosing a mental condition (urata et al., 1990). we agree with the opinion of experts that the functional diagnosis of compensatory capabilities of the personality can be represented by blocks that contain extra-nosological features: biological block of adaptive potential; psychological block of mental adaptation; social block of mental adaptation; social support block (broker et al., 1989; kocjubinskij et al., 2005; luca et al., 2020; rebegea et al., 2019; urata et al., 1990). it will also be appropriate to study the psychophysiological mechanisms of human stress for the psychophysiological support of various activities. improving the individual stress resistance of both future and current health care workers should be based on a number of mandatory measures. first of all, these are career guidance measures at the stage of choosing the profession of a doctor in general, and medical specialization in particular. during the professional activity, a set of treatment and rehabilitation measures should be carried out in accordance with the actual doctors’ state of health, especially with low and very low resistance to stress. particular attention should be paid to medical personnel of the most “stressful” specializations. 5. conclusions 1. we state that the manifestation of open, direct aggression by respondents is a fairly acceptable strategy of interaction and does not significantly affect adaptability. hostility, as an internal directive of the personality and often not seen from the outside, determines a decrease in emotional comfort and impaired adaptation. stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of … andriy halian, et al. 261 2. it is revealed that emotional satisfaction with the situation and its position in it can determine the feeling of pseudo-adaptation. the reason for this is the low level of reflexion and the low need to change adaptive strategies. the reason for the emergence of aggressive and hostile tendencies, among others, is the low stress resistance of the subject of professional activity, which to some extent affects the adaptability of the subject. 3. adaptive activity as a system-forming factor is accompanied by a number of psychological, biological and social processes, collectively forming the stress resistance of the personality. the immune system is an important part of the functional systems that form the biological factor of functional diagnosis at the stage of low stress resistance and borderline disorders. it is emphasized that the use of functional diagnosis as a basis for diagnosing a person’s mental state is appropriate in the work on the development of stress resistance. 4. the study of the relation between certain types of dysfunctional disorders and impaired immunological parameters can serve as a basis for a differentiated approach in the psychoprophylaxis of personality stress resistance. the obtained results of the research contribute to the solution of the tasks of educational and professional training of future medical personnel. it is obvious that the application of research results will contribute to the effective organization of the educational process of students of this specialty. the question of identifying patterns of stress resistance formation within future medical personnel in a pandemic of infectious diseases remains open. acknowledgments the article is executed according to the theme of research work of the department of practical psychology of drogobych ivan franko state pedagogical university and the department of psychology of kherson state university: “psychological technologies of personality adaptation” (state registration number is 0119u101096). references apchel, v., & cygan, v. (1999). human stress and stress resistance. st. petersburg: вма. blynova, o., popovych, i., semenova, n., kashyrina, ye., ursulenko, o., & kononenko, o. (2020). personality factors of choosing adaptation brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 262 strategies in a different cultural environment by labor migrants from ukraine. revista amazonia investiga, 9(32), 45-54. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.34069/ai/2020.32.08.5 blynova, o. ye., & kruglov, k. o. (2019). the value of social capital for the psychological well-being of employees”. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 1, 72-78. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.32999/2663970x/2019-1-11 borysiuk, а. (2019). research of the peculiarities of the motivation sphere of future doctors. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 1, 102-109. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2019-1-16 broker, w., brenner, h. d., & wurgler, s. (1989). vulnerability-linked deficiencies, psychopathology and coping behavior of schizophrenics and their relatives. british journal psychiatry, 155(5), 128-135. butoma, b. (2008). psychoneuroimmune disorders in patients with endogenous mental diseases. extended abstract of doctor’s thesis. st. petersburg: vma. halian, a., halian, i., burlakova, i., shevchenko, r., lappo, v., zhigarenko, i., & popovych, i. (2020a). emotional intelligence in the structure of adaptation process of future healthcare professionals. revista inclusiones, 7(3), 447-460. retrieved from http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1347 halian, a. (2016). personal resources of adaptation of future medical personnel to professional activity. extended abstract of candidate’s thesis. lutsk: snu named after lesia ukrainka. halian, i., machynska, n., lozynska, s., nos, l., derkach, yu., prots, m., & popovych, i. (2020b). tolerance of uncertainty as a component of the process of life-creation of future educators. revista inclusiones, 7(especial), 512-528. retrieved from http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1307 halian, i. m., halian, o. i., gusak, l. ye., bokshan, h. i., & popovych, i. s. (2020c). communicative competence in training future language and literature teachers. revista amazonia investiga, 9(29), 530-541. retrieved from https://amazoniainvestiga.info/index.php/amazonia/article/view/1417 halian, і. м. (2019). personal determinants of responsibility of future educators. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 1, 15-21. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2019-1-2 khmiliar, o., popovych, i., hrys, a., pavliuk, m., zavatska, n., lytvynenko, o., & blynova, o. (2020). spatial regulation of personality behavior in the conditions of progression of the covid-19 pandemic. revista inclusiones, http://dx.doi.org/10.34069/ai/2020.32.08.5 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2019-1-11 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2019-1-11 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2019-1-16 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1347 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1307 https://amazoniainvestiga.info/index.php/amazonia/article/view/1417 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2019-1-2 stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of … andriy halian, et al. 263 vol: 7 num especial, 289-306. retrieved from http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1760 khmil, v. v., & popovych, i. s. (2019). philosophical and psychological dimensions of social expectations of personality. anthropological measurements of philosophical research, 16, 55-65. https://doi.org/10.15802/ampr.v0i16.187540 kocjubinskij, a., shejnina, n., & penchul, n. (2005). functional diagnosis in psychiatry. social’naja i klinicheskaja psihiatrija, 15(4), 67-71. retrieved from http://mniip.serbsky.ru/assets/uploads/2018/01/scp_2005-4-16.pdf kryzhanovskij, g. (2000). pathological systems in the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric disorders. rossijskij psihiatricheskij zhurnal, 6, 20-23. leonova, a. (2007). methods of integrated diagnosis and correction of occupational stress (idasc). st. petersburg: imaton. luca, l., burlea, s. l., carausu, m., chirosca, a.-c., marin, i. m., nechita, p., baciu, g., & ciubara, a. (2020). the stigma of the medical personnel in psychiatry. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup2), 35-43. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/36 lunov, v. (2016). psychology of cognitive formation of a professional (on the example of specialists of the “man-man” system”). kyiv: interservis. popovych, i., zhigarenko, i., losiyevska, o., dovbenko, s., kashyrina, ye., shevchenko, r., & piletska, l. (2020). research of achievement motivation’s impaction the career orientations of future managers of organization. revista inclusiones, 7(especial), 247-263. retrieved from http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1231 prykhodko, i. i., bielai, s. v., hrynzovskyi, a. m. et al. (2020). medical and psychological aspects of safety and adaptation of military personnel to extreme conditions. wiadomości lekarskie, lxxiii (4), 679-683. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.36740/wlek202004110 rebegea, l., firescu, d., baciu, g., & ciubara, a. (2019). psycho-oncology support. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(3), 77-88. retrieved from https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/216 9 reich, w. (1975). the spectrum concept of schizophrenia. archives general psychiatry, 32(4), 489-498. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1975.01760220101010 rogers, c., & daymond, p. (2002). diagnostics of socio-psychological adaptation. in: fetiskin, n., kozlov, v., manujlov, g. (eds.). social and psychological diagnostics of personality and small-group development (pp.136-139). moscow: the publishing house of the institute of psychotherapy. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1760 https://doi.org/10.15802/ampr.v0i16.187540 http://mniip.serbsky.ru/assets/uploads/2018/01/scp_2005-4-16.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/36 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1231 https://doi.org/10.36740/wlek202004110 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2169 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2169 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1001/archpsyc.1975.01760220101010 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 264 schnall, p. l., pieper, c., schwartz, j. e. et al. (1990). the relationship between “job strain”, workplace, diastolic blood pressure, and left ventricular mass index. american medical association, 263, 1929-1935. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1990.03440140055031 shamionov, r. (2004). psychology of subjective well-being of the personality. saratov: ssu. shevchenko, r., hrys, a., pavliuk, m., stynska, v., babiak, o., zavatskyi, v., & popovych, i. (2020). a research of post-traumatic stress and adaptation disorders of servicemen after being in a combat situation at the hospitalization stage. revista inclusiones, vol: 7 num 4, 74-87. retrieved from https://revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1539 shevchenko, r., popovych, i., spytska, l., nosov, p., zinchenko, s., mateichuk, v., & blynova, o. (2020). comparative analysis of emotional personality traits of the students of maritime science majors caused by long-term staying at sea. revista inclusiones, 7(especial), 538-554. retrieved from http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1309 striletska, i. i. (2017). peculiarities of the relationship between anxiety and social intelligence of students. science and education, 1, 21-28. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-1-4 subbotin, s. (1992). resistance to mental stress as a characteristic of the teacher’s meta individuality. extended abstract of candidate’s thesis. permian: pgpi. tanasiichuk, о. (2019). psychological correction of nurses’ emotional burnout syndrome. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 1, 41-46. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2019-1-6 tomaszek, k., & muchacka-cymerman, a. (2020). thinking about my existence during covid-19, i feel anxiety and awe – the mediating role of existential anxiety and life satisfaction on the relationship between ptsd symptoms and post-traumatic growth. int. j. environ. res. public health, 17, 7062. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197062 urata, h., kinoshita, a., misono, k. s. et al. (1990). identification of a highly specific chymase as the major angiotensin ii-forming enzyme in the human heart. journal biological chemistry, 265, 22348-22357. retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2266130/ viru, а. (1995). adaptation in sport training. london: crc press. wang, l., shi, s., & li, h. (2009). neuroticism, extraversion, emotion regulation, negative affect and positive affect: the mediating roles of reappraisal and suppression. social behavior and personality, 37(2), 193-194. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2009.37.2.193 wma declaration of helsinki. (2013). ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281053 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1990.03440140055031 https://revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1539 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1309 https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-1-4 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2019-1-6 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197062 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2266130/ http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2009.37.2.193 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281053 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 161-177 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/198 graph theory applications to comprehend epidemics spread of a disease yegnanarayanan venkatraman¹, krithicaa narayanaa y2, valentina e. balas3, dana rad4 1 member, board of advisors, rnb global university, bikaner, rajasthan 334601, india, prof.yegna@gmail.com 2 department of biomedical sciences, sri ramachandra institute for higher education and research (deemed to be university), chennai, tamil nadu 600116, india krithi121095@gmail.com 3 prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, faculty of engineering, arad, romania, balas@drbalas.ro 4 assoc.prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, faculty of educational sciences, psychology and social sciences, arad, romania, dana@xhouse.ro abstract: theory of graphs could offer a plenty to enrich the analysis and modelling to generate datasets out of the systems and processes regarding the spread of a disease that affects humans, animals, plants, crops etc., in this paper first we show graphs can serve as a model for cattle movements from one farm to another. second, we give a crisp explanation regarding disease transmission models on contact graphs/networks. it is possible to indicate how a regular tree exhibits relations among graph structure and the infectious disease spread and how certain properties of it akin to diameter and density of graph, affect the duration of an outbreak. third, we elaborate on the presence of a suitable environment for exploiting several streams of data such as genetic temporal and spatial to locate case clusters one dependent on the other of a disease that is infectious. here a graph for each stream of data joining all cases that are created with pairwise distance among them as edge weights and altered by omitting exceeding distances of a cut-off assigned that relies on already existing assumptions and rate of spread of a disease information. fourth we provide an overview of epidemiology, disease transmission, fatality rate and clinical features of zoonotic viral infections of epidemic and pandemic magnitude since 2000. fifth we indicate how the clinical data and virus spread data can be exploited for the creation of health knowledge graph. graph theory is an ideal tool to model, predict, form an opinion to devise strategies to quickly arrest the outbreak and minimize the devastating effect of zoonotic viral infections. keywords: virus, epidemics, pandemics, graph, regular tree. how to cite: venkatraman, y., narayanaa y, k., balas, v.e., & rad, d. (2021). graph theory applications to comprehend epidemics spread of a disease. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 161-177. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/198 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/198 mailto:prof.yegna@gmail.com mailto:krithi121095@gmail.com mailto:balas@drbalas.ro mailto:dana@xhouse.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/198 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 162 1. introduction it is easy to notice a lot of sheep and cattle while travelling along the countryside of any country. a vast amount of data is collected and recorded regarding their management including its routine of movements from farms to markets and vice-versa. epidemiologists as a group realized that cattle movements can be thought of as a graph and this visualization could help to detect and control among them the possibility of a disease spread. it is usual to record cattle movements from one agricultural holding to another and are reported to government build a central database to mathematically model infectious disease spread of cattle and to monitor the operation of the agriculture industry as a wholesome. due to pertinence of animal loitering in common disease outbreaks such as mouth-foot disease a huge amount of modeling work is done from the perspective of network science regarding how one can incorporate temporal information into such a graphical representation. 1.1. graph as a model for movements the dataset about cattle roam record register maintain roam records for each animal, including their births and deaths. a graph evolves by taking each farm as a vertex and an edge is introduced from one farm to another if there is trade or animal loiter among them within a given time span. this graphical formulation way gives huge information concerning their contact time, weight, and direction. such a graph can be thought of as a directed, weighted, or temporal graph. if only a small number of auction markets are involved in cattle trade business, then the graph representing it will have farms and markets alone in the vertex set. so, number of vertices (the markets) is less but some of the vertices may have high degree, and some of them may have comparatively low degree. this structure will resemble a hub-and-spoke-like graph. such structures provide quick easy solutions to many computationally difficult problems but not necessarily apt for each setting of a disease. a disease that is propagating at a slower rate may require close contact to spread and hence market may not be required. in that case one considers a market-san version of the graph in which an edge from one vertex to another shows only an animal loiter. however, ignoring the information that is temporal while forming a cattle loiter data induced graph, may result in distorted view of transmission pathways of disease. the cattle trade timing is pertinent in disease modelling. for instance, consider p3 (a path of length 2 on 3 vertices), with all possible edge ordering. that is, let us deem that first in the path x-y-z, the edge (x, y) graph theory applications to comprehend epidemics spread of a disease yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 163 occurs first and then the edge (y, z) and in the second case the edge (y, z) occurs first and the edge (x, y) occurs next. in the case of former we deem an infection spread from x to z, and a path, x-y-z is temporally admissible, in the case of the latter it is not. so, in a time-neglecting scenario with dataset of more than a cattle loiter data record for a week, half of the p3’s is temporally feasible when time factor is included. this aspect has resulted in the wide knowhow of graphs that are dynamic and temporal in the context of graph algorithmic treatment and in the science graphs/networks. by a graph in temporal sense we mean, g = (v, e, ∆), a triple with vertex set v and edge set e and ∆: e → t, a function with t a set of time steps. here ∀ e ∈ e, ∆(e) denotes time steps. one can allow a weighted/temporal graph by letting g as so. as there are several tools available to deal static graphs, attempts are made to make it dynamic in static graphs. one can see (vernon & keeling, 2008) for more. in kim and anderson, 2012 a static & directed network is suggested in which v(g) is multiple copies of vertices, with appropriate vertex duplication at all appropriate time step, and edges pointing forward in time. in (heath et al., 2008) the authors made quick use of a line graph model to catch information concerning a disease’s infection period to form a graph that is static which provides vital information that is dynamic. in this graph, the vertex set comprise trade and days at which they happened and an edge is introduced between two vertices if disease spreads from one trade/time pair to another in the first instance and could move over to the second subsequently. mathematically, from a given digraph g = (v, e, ∆) that is temporal along with δi (period of infection), a new digraph h = (u, e1) is formed with u = {(e, t), e ∈ u and t ∈ ∆(e)}, and e1 = {((e, te)→ (f, tf )) where e = (u, v) and f = (v, w)} ↔ te < t(f ), tf −te ≤ δi. here the static representation brings out the directionality of the original graph as well as time. 2. how to reduce the disease spread? a high volume of previous research available in literature has indicated that the strategic omission of pertinent high degree vertices representing dealers or markets or the edges with several measures is more productive in lowering the size in a simulated disease outbreak. this act is preferred more to omission of farms that is random. the authors in (gates & woolhouse, 2015) provide supporting document by indulging in edge centrality, measure that is simple. they pick a high potential disease spread edges from a graph/network and rebuild by employing a process that is matching specific and heuristic and the one that preserves in/out degree. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 164 this method provides networks with reduced prevalence of endemic disease compared to real-data networks. that is, when a graph with a budget provision is given for vertex/link omission, what could be a wise option? the reference (enright &, meeks, 2018) concentrates on omitting edges to reduce the size of a maximum connected component so that it serves as a maximum allowed limit for a huge outbreak. 2.1. contact networks we have huge responsibility to prepare societies and spare further harm through mathematical models of different disease scenarios and contribute to better knowhow of disease dynamics and develop course of action like quarantine or vaccinations that is effective control specific (just et al., 2015). contact networks can be thought of as graphs that stands for disease interaction are deemed as contact networks. here nodes indicate to persons and two nodes are joined when there is a chance them to communicate. for instance, a crop field could be a grid shaped graph that acts as a model for swarms (due to insect) affecting the crop (keeling & eames, 2005). a better representation for contact networks is through regular tree graphs (ie, graphs that are connected and acyclic with same number of edges for all its vertices). tree graphs due to san of loops are sought after representation for sars like outbreaks (riley et al., 2003). for improving the reliability criteria of such networks one can refer to (beiu et al., 2017; rohatinovici et al., 2018). instances of trees like structure are seen in systems such as the cardiovascular. disease analysis is a first forward step on this type of graph to deeper and natural knowhow of it spread. it is important to keep in mind that a tree graph with equal number of incident edges for all its vertices gives a type of made easy structure to notice outbreak spread pattern on a network of disease contact. pathogens and infectious hosts are mostly the cause for the dangerous outbreak that agrees aptly with network of disease contact. for instance, consider the information drift in an organization, where the ceo acts as the root and hence has links to various standalone divisions. each division head passes the conveyable through his subordinate. an ‘outbreak’ of an order could trigger at the root and possess high probability of spreading. one can identify a human/rat infection spread via land route through various means. genetic disorders akin to color blindness or cystic fibrosis that are hereditary can also cause outbreaks on networks that are tree structured. the height of the graph also plays a crucial role in finding the outbreak duration. we define the height λ of a tree as the farthest distance from the root vertex to any other vertex. it is easy to observe that if t is a regular tree graph theory applications to comprehend epidemics spread of a disease yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 165 with p vertices then and d stands for degree of a vertex. moreover, the parameters λ and d of graphs behave in a specific manner based on the size of the threshold (seibold & callender, 2016) found that d has slight effects when λ improves the chance of spread of an infection required for causing a disaster at a deceasing rate. this paves way for not only to foresee the threshold for tree graphs with equal number of incident edges for all its vertices, but also to foresee the threshold on tree graphs with unequal number of incident edges for all its vertices. irregular graphs are apt to mimic contact type networks that lack the symmetry. irregular trees with unequal number of incident edges for all its vertices have a smaller number of vertices than a regular tree with equal number of incident edges for all its vertices with equal λ and d. with lesser vertices and edges, the infection spread rate on an irregular tree are more prone to follow infection spreading rate on a regular tree graph with given λ and d. the behavior of a regular tree with equal number of incident edges for all its vertices could be of the maximum duration and final size of an outbreak on a graph structure with equal number of incident edges for all its vertices. the authors in (seibold & callender, 2016) did a matching work of the knowing the differences in vertex set size and the imminent outbreak duration and among the two types of graphs the final size. 3. detecting outbreak clusters disease outbreaks that are infectious form a repeating menace both to animals and humans. it has devastating effect on all aspects of biodiversity, health and economy. major epidemics like the influenza pandemic of 2009 (fraser et al., 2009), mers-the middle-east respiratory syndrome (bauch & oraby, 2013; cauchemez et al., 2014) and the evdebola virus disease of west-africa outbreak (kreuels et al., 2014) reiterated the pertinence of early stage outbreak assessment. the best strategy to contain it is fast determination of cases forming clusters and mitigation follow up of the strategy to contain the epidemic spread. the bringing out of cases forming clusters is an adopted tactics to defeat the ongoing slaughter of epidemics. a fair valuation of benefactions of local transmission vs importation of case is irredundant for designing apt intercession plan of action. for example, an outbreak of nosocomial type may be due to transmissions in a hospital or from the community induced instigations, asking for control measures (harris et al., 2013; chung et al., 2015; cauchemez et al., 2013). likewise, local transmissions and magnitude of cases from other places/nations demand control measures of varying brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 166 nature, such as anticipation and social distancing vs closing of borders (cauchemez et al., 2016; koopmans et al., 2004). if occurrence of zoonotic infections take place then locate the compass to which channelling withinspecies and reservoir divulge accord to the descry prevalence, as explained in the case of avian influenza (koopmans et al., 2004; ferguson et al., 2004), bovine tuberculosis (donnelly & nouvellet, 2013) or mers (cauchemez et al., 2013; cauchemez et al., 2016). we now see a framework for adjoining different provenance of information to locate cases leading to cluster formation of a disease. this approach based on corroboration coalescence can put forth into one numerous data stream like the prearrange and locale of the cases and wgs of the pathogen to point clusters forming outbreak. this way anticipates on the fact that persons in an outbreak who infect each other possess fair chance of being closely related with known characteristics. for example, the onset of their symptom happens within the identical period and in neighbouring locale and exhibit genetically identical pathogen strains. one can deem it to belong to same cluster of outbreaks, closely matching in all apposite data streams. these data origins narrate links between cases in varying spaces such as genetic, spatial and profane but all be put forth to determine pairwise distances between cases like number of days elapsed between various dates of onset, geographic distance between locations, number of mutations between pathogen wgs etc. one can define for each such data stream a weighted graph where vertices correspond to cases and the edge between two cases is weighted by the brace distance between two cases so that noticeable edges denote brace of cases with no chance to have infected one another. then to consider only apropos links every graph is sheared by deleting identified edges whose weight is greater than a preset check distance. setting the ample check is crucial to locate related cases forming clusters. cori et al, 2018 introduced a skeleton for setting check depending on the contemplated distance distributions among perceived cases in an outbreak. this enabled them to consider pre-living counsel about a disease. that is, the prorating of its ensuing time elapsed from onset of symptoms in a person and his/her infector, its spatial kernel, and its rate of mutation. this counsel is available for thoroughly checked outbreaks which is not possible in practice to be the case. to resolve this underreporting is a right approach to be followed. they gave answer to the anticipated distances among watched cases for a pre-set level of announcing as well as some inquisitive results for common issuance wielded to describe distances among cases in time and space. every trimmed graph point to epidemiological links among graph theory applications to comprehend epidemics spread of a disease yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 167 cases for assumed data origin. to amalgamate these pieces of counsel, they merged the trimmed graphs through intersection. this makes the resulting connected components of the eventual graph mark clusters of cases corroborated for all data type. the ensuing clusters point to all possible cases dappling to the same channelling tree. mainly the sizes of the clusters also comprise counsel about the underlying channelizing (cauchemez et al., 2013). the authors in (cori et al., 2018) exploited this counsel by deriving reckons of the duplication number, r given the factual issuance of the cluster sizes and the surmised reporting rate. 4. viral infections of epidemic magnitude since 2000 in what follows we are going to give a bird’s eye view of different zoonotic viral infections since 2000 and how they blossomed into epidemic proportion. in figure 1 we give a flow chart view of zoonotic animal-borne and vector-borne viral transmission to human species causing disease outbreaks. in table 1 we provide the details of epidemiologic features, disease transmission and fatality rate of emerging viral infections. in table 2 we give a comparison of common clinical features of all the viral epidemics. in table 3 we bring forth explicitly other cautioning symptoms of clinical nature. one can see who ebola response team, 2015; world health orhanization, 2018b; hamidouche, 2020; world health orhanization, 2018a; world health orhanization, 2020a; 2020b; world health orhanization, 2018c; centers for disease control and prevention, 2019; 2015 indian swine flu outbreak, 2020; bennett & domachowske, 2020; noor & ahmed, 2018; paho & who data”, 2019; world health orhanization, 2017; 2020c) for a very crisp informative literature on various viral infections that assumed epidemic spread and some of it even became pandemic. although a number of calculus centric mathematical methods are available in literature to mathematically model the virus spread, a mathematical model which discrete in nature and still serve as a good model like any other is available with graph theory. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 168 figure 1. flow chart of zoonotic animal-borne and vector-borne viral transmission to human species causing disease outbreaks source: authors’ own conception table 1. details of epidemiologic features, disease transmission and fatality rate of emerging viral infections (authors' own contribution). viral infection s family natura l reservo irs intermed iate host origin perio d of outbr eak outbr eak status total number of reporte d case fatal ity rate sars coronovirid ae chinese rufous horsesh oe bat palm civets, raccoon dogs foshan, china 20022003 epide mic 8,096 9.6% mers coronovirid ae bats camels jeddah, saudi arabia 20122018 epide mic 2,229 35.5 % covid-19 coronovirid ae bats, pangoli ns unknown wuhan, china 2019presen t pande mic 1,773,08 4* 2.55 % nipah virus paramyxoviri dae flying foxes, infected food kerala, india 2018 epide mic 700 4070% graph theory applications to comprehend epidemics spread of a disease yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 169 fruit bats, pigs ebola virus filoviridae fruit bats monkeys, pigs, bats infected surfaces west africa democr atic republic of congo 20142016 2020 epide mic 28,616 3,453 50% 66% marburg virus filoviridae fruit bats egyptian rousettes equator ial africa 20072017 endem ic 26 100% swine flu (h1n1) orthomyxov iridae swine contamin ated environm ent, poultry united states india 20092010 20142015 pande mic epide mic 60.8 million 33,761 1-4% 6.03 % avian flu (h5n1) (h7n9) orthomyxov iridae aquatic birds, pigs contamin ated environm ent, poultry hong kong china 2003 20132017 epide mic 844 631 60% 30% zika virus flaviviridae aedes mosquit oes mosquito -monkeymosquito brazil 20152016 epide mic 976,235 8.3% chikung unya togaviridae aedes mosquit oes africa 2014presen t epide mic 1.8 million <1% dengue flaviviridae aedes mosquit oes asian and latin america 2014 presen t epide mic 100-400 million/ year <1% *data obtained as of 13th april 2020 published by who; superscript numbers denote the references. table 2. comparison of common clinical features of all the viral epidemics source: authors’ own conception clinical characterist ic co vid -19 sa rs me rs eb ola mar burg swi ne flu avi an flu ni pa h den gue chiku nguny a zi k a fever ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + +++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ + ++ ++ +++ + + brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 170 + cough ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ + +++ ++ + ++ + sneezing ++ + ++ + sore throat ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ + +++ ++ ++ diarrohea ++ ++ + ++ ++ + +++ ++ + ++ + vomiting and nausea ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ + ++ + ++ ++ + decreased appetite ++ + ++ + weakness & weight loss ++ ++ ++ + ++ + ++ ++ + + headache ++ + +++ ++ + ++ + ++ + drowsiness & mental confusion ++ + ++ + ++ ++ ++ + shock ++ + ++ + ++ skin rashes ++ ++ ++ + +++ conjuctiviti s ++ ++ + + +++ + + pain in joints and back ++ ++ + ++++ + + + body pain + + ++ + ++ + + ++ + abdominal pain ++ ++ ++ + ++ + shortness of breath /breathing difficulty ++ + ++ + ++ ++ ++ ++ + + + + here +/denotes the presence / absence of the symptoms for each viral infections. the double or triple ’+’ signs indicate the frequency of symptoms source: authors’ own conception graph theory applications to comprehend epidemics spread of a disease yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 171 table 3. other cautioning clinical ailments source: authors’ own conception viral infections diseases covid-19 sars mers icu admission ventilator support acute respiratory distress syndrome pneumonia kidney injury thrombocytopenia leukopenia lymphopenia nipah virus coma encephalitis ebola virus marburg virus maculopapular rash severe bleeding in the eyes and mucus membranes, gastrointestinal tract, stools hematoma low blood pressure swine flu avian flu severe pneumonia acute respiratory distress syndrome encephalitis multiorgan dysfunction hypoxemic respiratory failure dengue chikungunya zika virus accumulation of fluid with respiratory insufficiency severe bleeding dengue shock syndrome polyarthralgia arthritis maculopapular rashes hepatomegaly seizures in children periarticular edema microcephaly guillain-barre syndrome 5. knowledge graphs on clinical data network the flourishing graph model has shown its significance as a diagnostic measure by creating a link between disease and its set of symptoms. exploiting google as an information retrieval gateway, the brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 172 google health knowledge graphs can be created for every kind of contagion by retrieving medical records and related information online. this google health knowledge graph was developed in 2015 through a multi-step procedure fastening techniques of data mining with the help of manual curators to assist patients with their medical conditions. this graph is intended for patients who are looking for health related queries from google which strictly appears only to the users of us, brazil and india. one can see (rotmensch et al., 2017) for more. knowing the knowledge graph comprises three critical steps. 1] compilation of reports from positively tested disease and its symptoms from structured and unstructured inputs, 2] construction of statistical models for developed disease and symptoms, 3] development of knowledge graphs from the conceived data of statistical models. one may build a pertinence measure for every model to find out if an edge should be drawn between vertices denoting disease and symptom as this pertinence measure specifically tags the model’s relative confidence that an edge must exist or not. based on this pertinence measure one can group the symptoms of the disease. hence, we suggest that the clinical data given here in section 4 could be exploited for the creation of a health knowledge graph. one has to keep in mind the following eight uphill tasks while forming a health knowledge graph based on clinical data. a) understanding the impact of diversity on parameter estimation and epidemic outcome, (b) developing analytical methods for studying epidemics based on static un-weighted knowledge graph, (c) establishing analytical methods for modelling weighted and dynamic knowledge graph and epidemics thereon, d) incorporating diminishing immunity in knowledge graph epidemic models, e) developing and validating approximation schemes for epidemics on knowledge graphs, f) illustrating the influence of knowledge graph properties on the outcome of an epidemic, g) reinforce the correlation between knowledge graph modelling and epidemiologically available data, and h) design knowledge graph-based interventions. to explore the spread and management of contagious diseases in a closed population the authors introduced a new knowledge graph (ancel meyers et al., 2003). as the outbreaks occur in a closed or semi-closed environment, such epidemic conditions are hard to contain or manage due to delays in disease spotting and the long incubation period of the bacterium. one such case is the pneumonia caused by mycoplasma pneumonia. this model clearly describes the dynamics of interactions between patients and caretakers. despite the reduced incidence of mycoplasma pneumonia found amongst caretakers, this health knowledge graph suggests the degree to which these caretakers are secured against infections which are central to the management of mycoplasma epidemic. graph theory applications to comprehend epidemics spread of a disease yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 173 6. conclusion through graph theory plays a pivotal role in exploring and understanding the procedures that generates statistics. graphs that result out of modelling from geographical nearness are mostly planar. one can do a plenty of work on optimization problems linked to agriculturally derived graphs. we could see a spike in the development of the algorithmic studies of temporal graphs in the literature. a regular tree graph is a good model to probe trends in the evolution and progression of epidemic outbreaks on a contact network. hereditary genetic disorders like colour blindness, cystic fibrosis or als on a contact network can be represented as tree networks to describe an outbreak. as the human species are susceptible to the infections and can be infested at several points of time generating several loops, the tree network generates a clear, uncomplicated structure for observed sets of symptoms. a standard graph is an excellent parameter to determine the duration of an outbreak. to conclude, each animal is a host of various virus strains, and the virus richness varies between different species. since the outbreak of novel corona virus, zoonotic viruses that cause 60-80% deadly infections in humans and animals has been a greater importance of research in medical science. these newly arising and resurfacing viral infections insist a great risk to global public health. some of the zoonotic animal-borne viral epidemics that caused world-wide menace include avian influenza virus (h5n1, h7n9), swine influenza virus (h1n1), corona virus (sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome), mers (middle east respiratory syndrome) and the novel covid-19), henipa virus (nipah), ebola virus, marburg virus and some zoonotic vector-borne viral infections include zika virus, chikungunya and dengue. ever since the discovery of coronavirus, scientists have been cautioning that some of them are uniquely related to cause human pandemics and today we find such a case, the novel covid-19. graph theory is really a good tool to model, predict, form an opinion to devise strategies to quickly arrest the outbreak and minimize the devastating effect of zoonotic viral infections. the authors in (rotmensch et al., 2017) noted that a good quality health knowledge graph can be built from the medical records achieved electronically from the health care providers. this ideal health knowledge graph proved to be an exactitude model with their two-step methods just by correcting a few of the edges as proposed by the model. reviewing the outcomes of the clinical assessment, one may conclude that if a correcting phase were implemented to the procedure, professionals would have had to eliminate some of the proposed edges to obtain complete precision with 60%. when this method is included in the procedure, the brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 174 coming graph model would indeed be completely reliable compared to that of a health knowledge graph developed by google making it an experiential model for the physical world. acknowledgement this research was supported by the european union through the european regional development fund under the competitiveness operational program (biocell-nanoart = novel bio-inspired cellular nano-architectures, poc-a1.1.4-e-2015 nr.30/01.09.2016) references 2015 indian swine flu outbreak (2020). wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_indian_swine_flu_outbreak ancel meyers, l., newman, m. e., martin, m., & schrag, s. (2003). applying network theory to epidemics: control measures for mycoplasma pneumoniae outbreaks. emerging infectious diseases, 9(2), 204–210. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid0902.020188 bauch, c. t., & oraby, t. (2013). assessing the pandemic potential of mers-cov. lancet (london, england), 382(9893), 662–664. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(13)61504-4 beiu, v., rohatinovici, n. c., dăuş, l., & balas, v. e. (2017). transport reliability on axonal cytoskeleton. in 2017 14th international conference on engineering of modern electric systems (emes), (pp. 160-163). ieee. bennett, n. j. & domachowske, j. (2020, feb 12). avian influenza (bird flu). medscape. https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2500029-overview#a4 cauchemez, s., fraser, c., van kerkhove, m. d., donnelly, c. a., riley, s., rambaut, a., enouf, v., van der werf, s., & ferguson, n. m. (2014). middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus: quantification of the extent of the epidemic, surveillance biases, and transmissibility. the lancet infectious diseases, 14(1), 50-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(13)70304-9 cauchemez, s., nouvellet, p., cori, a., jombart, t., garske, t., clapham, h., moore, s., mills, h. l., salje, h., collins, c., & rodriquez-barraquer, i. (2016). unraveling the drivers of mers-cov transmission. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 113(32), 9081-9086. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519235113 cauchemez, s., van kerkhove, m. d., riley, s., donnelly, c. a., fraser, c., & ferguson, n. m. (2013). transmission scenarios for middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (mers-cov) and how to tell them apart. euro surveillance: bulletin europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_indian_swine_flu_outbreak https://doi.org/10.3201/eid0902.020188 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(13)61504-4 https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2500029-overview#a4 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(13)70304-9 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519235113 graph theory applications to comprehend epidemics spread of a disease yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 175 european communicable disease bulletin, 18(24), 20503. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.18.24.20503-en centers for disease control and prevention, (2019 june 11). 2009 h1n1 pandemic (h1n1pdm09 virus). cdc.gov http://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemicresources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html chung the, h., karkey, a., pham thanh, d., boinett, c. j., cain, a. k., ellington, m., baker, k. s., dongol, s., thompson, c., harris, s. r., jombart, t., le thi phuong, t., tran do hoang, n., ha thanh, t., shretha, s., joshi, s., basnyat, b., thwaites, g., thomson, n. r., rabaa, m. a., … baker, s. (2015). a high-resolution genomic analysis of multidrug-resistant hospital outbreaks of klebsiella pneumoniae. embo molecular medicine, 7(3), 227– 239. https://doi.org/10.15252/emmm.201404767 cori, a., nouvellet, p., garske, t., bourhy, h., nakouné, e., & jombart, t. (2018). a graph-based evidence synthesis approach to detecting outbreak clusters: an application to dog rabies. plos computational biology, 14(12), e1006554. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006554 donnelly, c. a., & nouvellet, p. (2013). the contribution of badgers to confirmed tuberculosis in cattle in high-incidence areas in england. plos currents, 5. https://doi.org/10.1371/currents.outbreaks.097a904d3f3619db2fe78d24b c776098 enright, j., & meeks, k. (2018). deleting edges to restrict the size of an epidemic: a new application for treewidth. algorithmica, 80(6), 1857-1889. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00453-017-0311-7 ferguson, n. m., fraser, c., donnelly, c. a., ghani, a. c., & anderson, r. m. (2004). public health risk from the avian h5n1 influenza epidemic. science, 304(5673), 968-969. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1096898 fraser, c., donnelly, c. a., cauchemez, s., hanage, w. p., van kerkhove, m. d., hollingsworth, t. d., griffin, j., baggaley, r.f., jenkins, h. e., lyons, e. j., & jombart, t. (2009). pandemic potential of a strain of influenza a (h1n1): early findings. science, 324(5934), 1557-1561. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1176062 gates, m. c., & woolhouse, m. e. (2015). controlling infectious disease through the targeted manipulation of contact network structure. epidemics, 12, 1119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2015.02.008 hamidouche m. (2020, march 25). covid-19 outbreak in algeria: a mathematical model to predict cumulative cases [preprint]. bull world health organ. http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/blt.20.256065 harris, s. r., cartwright, e. j., török, m. e., holden, m. t., brown, n. m., ogilvystuart, a. l., ellington, m. j., quail, m. a., bentley, s. d., parkhill, j., & peacock, s. j. (2013). whole-genome sequencing for analysis of an outbreak of meticillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus: a descriptive https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.18.24.20503-en http://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html http://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html https://doi.org/10.15252/emmm.201404767 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006554 https://doi.org/10.1371/currents.outbreaks.097a904d3f3619db2fe78d24bc776098 https://doi.org/10.1371/currents.outbreaks.097a904d3f3619db2fe78d24bc776098 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00453-017-0311-7 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1096898 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1176062 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2015.02.008 http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/blt.20.256065 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 176 study. the lancet. infectious diseases, 13(2), 130–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(12)70268-2 heath, m. f., vernon, m. c., & webb, c. r. (2008). construction of networks with intrinsic temporal structure from uk cattle movement data. bmc veterinary research, 4(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-4-11 just, w., callender, h., & lamar, m. d. (2015). disease transmission dynamics on networks: network structure versus disease dynamics. in r. s. robeva (ed.), algebraic and discrete mathematical methods for modern biology (pp. 217235). academic press. keeling, m. j., & eames, k. t. (2005). networks and epidemic models. journal of the royal society interface, 2(4), 295-307. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2005.0051 kim, h., & anderson, r. (2012). temporal node centrality in complex networks. physical review e, 85(2), 026107. koopmans, m., wilbrink, b., conyn, m., natrop, g., van der nat, h., vennema, h., meijer, a., van steenbergen, j., fouchier, r., osterhaus, a., & bosman, a. (2004). transmission of h7n7 avian influenza a virus to human beings during a large outbreak in commercial poultry farms in the netherlands. the lancet, 363(9409), 587-593. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(04)15589-x kreuels, b., wichmann, d., emmerich, p., schmidt-chanasit, j., de heer, g., kluge, s., sow, a., renné, t., günther, s., lohse, a. w. & addo, m. m. (2014). a case of severe ebola virus infection complicated by gramnegative septicemia. new england journal of medicine, 371(25), 2394-2401. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa1411677 noor, r., & ahmed, t. (2018). zika virus: epidemiological study and its association with public health risk. journal of infection and public health, 11(5), 611-616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2018.04.007 pan american health organization(paho), & world health orhanization (who) (2019, jan 17). weekly report. paho.org. https://www3.paho.org/data/index.php/en/?option=com_content&view =article&id=524:zika-weekly-en&itemid=352 riley, s., fraser, c., donnelly, c. a., ghani, a. c., abu-raddad, l. j., hedley, a. j., leung, g.m., ho, l.m., lam, t.h., thach, t.q. & chau, p. (2003). transmission dynamics of the etiological agent of sars in hong kong: impact of public health interventions. science, 300(5627), 1961-1966. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1086478 rohatinovici, n. c., proştean, o., & balas, v. e. (2018). on reliability of 3d hammock networks. in 2018 ieee 12th international symposium on applied computational intelligence and informatics (saci), (pp: 000149-000154), ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/saci.2018.8441003 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(12)70268-2 https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-4-11 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2005.0051 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(04)15589-x https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa1411677 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2018.04.007 https://www3.paho.org/data/index.php/en/?option=com_content&view=article&id=524:zika-weekly-en&itemid=352 https://www3.paho.org/data/index.php/en/?option=com_content&view=article&id=524:zika-weekly-en&itemid=352 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1086478 https://doi.org/10.1109/saci.2018.8441003 graph theory applications to comprehend epidemics spread of a disease yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 177 rotmensch, m., halpern, y., tlimat, a., horng, s., & sontag, d. (2017). learning a health knowledge graph from electronic medical records. scientific reports, 7(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-05778-z seibold, c., & callender, h. l. (2016). modeling epidemics on a regular tree graph. letters in biomathematics, 3(1), 59-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/23737867.2016.1185979 vernon, m. c., & keeling, m. j. (2008). representing the uk's cattle herd as static and dynamic networks. proceedings of the royal society b: biological sciences, 276(1656), 469-476. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.1009 who ebola response team (2015, july 24). summary of probable sars cases with onset of illness from 1 november 2002 to 31 july 2003. summary of probable sars cases with onset of illness from 1 november 2002 to 31 july 2003. who.int. http://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/table2004_04_21/en/ who ebola response team, agua-agum, j., ariyarajah, a., aylward, b., blake, i. m., brennan, r., cori, a., donnelly, c. a., dorigatti, i., dye, c., eckmanns, t., ferguson, n. m., formenty, p., fraser, c., garcia, e., garske, t., hinsley, w., holmes, d., hugonnet, s., iyengar, s., … wijekoon kannangarage, n. (2015). west african ebola epidemic after one year--slowing but not yet under control. the new england journal of medicine, 372(6), 584–587. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc1414992 world health orhanization (2017, apr 12). chikungunya. who.int. http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/chikungunya world health orhanization (2018a, aug 7). nipah virus – india. who.int. http://www.who.int/csr/don/07-august-2018-nipah-virus-india/en/ world health orhanization (2018b, aug 8). mers-cov summary updates. who.int. http://www.who.int/csr/disease/coronavirus_infections/archive_updates /en/ world health orhanization (2018c, may 17). marburg virus disease – uganda and kenya. who.int. http://www.who.int/csr/don/15-november-2017marburg-uganda-kenya/en/ world health orhanization (2020a, feb 10). ebola virus disease. who.int. http://www.who.int/health-topics/ebola/#tab=tab_1 world health orhanization (2020b, apr 9). ebola virus disease – democratic republic of the congo. who.int. http://www.who.int/csr/don/09-april2020-ebola-drc/en/ world health orhanization (2020c, mar 2). dengue and severe dengue. who.int. http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dengue-and-severedengue https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-05778-z https://doi.org/10.1080/23737867.2016.1185979 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.1009 http://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/table2004_04_21/en/ https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc1414992 http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/chikungunya http://www.who.int/csr/don/07-august-2018-nipah-virus-india/en/ http://www.who.int/csr/disease/coronavirus_infections/archive_updates/en/ http://www.who.int/csr/disease/coronavirus_infections/archive_updates/en/ http://www.who.int/csr/don/15-november-2017-marburg-uganda-kenya/en/ http://www.who.int/csr/don/15-november-2017-marburg-uganda-kenya/en/ http://www.who.int/health-topics/ebola/#tab=tab_1 http://www.who.int/csr/don/09-april-2020-ebola-drc/en/ http://www.who.int/csr/don/09-april-2020-ebola-drc/en/ http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dengue-and-severe-dengue http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dengue-and-severe-dengue brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 165-174 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/102 covid-19 challenges over mental health public policy nadiia kalashnyk¹, oleksandra khudoba 2 1 doctor sciences in public administration, associate professor, lviv regional institute for public administration, lviv, ukraine, kalashnykn@ukr.net 2 phd in public administration, associate professor, lviv regional institute for public administration, lviv, ukraine, lesia.khudoba@gmail.com abstract: the research shapes sharp issues as to changes in healthcare system of preserving mental health of people in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and the quarantine period. the article analyzes the reasons that determined the world community to study actively psychological, mental and psychological-social consequences as to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on a person and society in general. special attention in the article is payed to the peculiarities of maintaining and saving psychological health of public healthcare workers in conditions of chronic fatigue, overwork and situations of ongoing stress. based on the existing strategies` analysis and through the prism of the covid-19 determinants, the main directions of changes in the public healthcare system as to preserving mental health of people in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and during the period of quarantine are proposed. keywords: mental health; public health policy; healthcare workers; mental health factors; society; covid-19. how to cite: kalashnyk, n., & khudoba, o. (2020). covid19 challenges over mental health public policy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 165-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/102 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/102 mailto:kalashnykn@ukr.net mailto:lesia.khudoba@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/102 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 166 introduction the ongoing covid-19 pandemic that still lasts raised up new challenges for society in general and for the health system in particular, as well as strenthened barriers to the well-being of the population. during its existence, mankind has repeatedly faced several large outbreaks of various infectious diseases, and the number of people dying from these diseases was equal to the number of lives lost in wars (thoughts on healthcare management in an epidemic). over the backdrop of the growing economic crisis and the many uncertainties associated with the pandemic, the mental health crisis intensifies significantly. this crisis to one degree or another applies to all countries without exception, and especially countries with low economic development. reforming of their local health systems is a necessary reality for all countries today. maintaining mental health of population is seen nowadays as a complete part of the healthcare structure at any state. healthcare system’s structural parts` goal and aim of work as to mental health is traditionally determined as the following: comprehensive and balanced analysis of the entire population and individual groups` existing needs; ensuring social integration of risk groups and people with mental problems; achievement of positive results of the various mental health services ` activities intended over the entire population, as well as over certain highrisk groups and people with mental problems. the relevance of the study is based on the statement that mental health is one of the most important components of human, social and economic capital of each state and therefore mental health should be considered as an integral and necessary component of the country's social policy in other areas (human rights development and protection, social security, education, ensuring employment, public safety, etc.). the article analyzes modern mental health protection systems` problems that arose or aggravated because of the covid-19 pandemic, as well as outlines possible directions for improving and reforming these systems. scientific research analysis in the field of counteracting the covid19 pandemic shows the rapid dynamics of research since the beginning of 2020. several main directions of research in the field of reforming health care systems can be identified: health system management (renda & castro, 2020), pandemic control measures (ferretti et al., 2020), work of medical personnel during covid-19, etc. mental health in the context of covid19 as the research subject is only gaining activity. as to protecting mental covid-19 challenges over mental health public policy nadiia kalashnyk & oleksandra khudoba 167 health of the population in the era of covid-19, scientists and practitioners have so far focused on the challenges that covid-19 has created for public mental healthcare systems (campion et al., 2020), psychological influence of quarantine over people and how to reduce it and level up (brooks et al., 2020), resocialization of people after quarantine isolation and self-isolation (ding & kalashnyk, 2020), negative effects of covid-19 on mental health of different groups of people (izaguirre-torres & siche, 2020), psycho-social effects of covid-19 (dubey et al., 2020), psychological impact of covid-19 on healthcare system workers (tan et al., 2020) etc. the article presented focuses its attantion upon possible strategies for reforming health systems in the field of preserving the mental health of the population. the main sources of information used for the research are: accessible scientific developments, morbidity statistics on covid-19 in the world and some countries in particular, official statements made by heads of state, top-level officials of international organizations. the methodology for studying the problems of changes in the healthcare system in the field of preserving mental health of population in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and the quarantine withdrawal period was identified as follows: methods of theoretical analysis (studying the content of psychological health and decision theory under conditions of unpredictable results), analogies (based on the patterns of human development, population groups and society), studying regulatory acts of international organizations from open official sources of information (we will rely on official data from government bodies and international organizations), analysis of statistics, situational modeling (to predict changes). mental health: a person and society as a research problematic, the need for changes in the healthcare system in the field of preserving mental health of population in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and the quarantine period, based on analysis of open sources, was selected for the study for several reasons: • the covid-19 pandemic determined fundamentally new conditions for states`, communities` and each person`s functioning ; • disease prevalence (for 12.06.2020, the total number of cases in the world is 7 410 510, deaths rate 418 294) (who, 2020, june 12); • the pandemic demonstrated problems in health systems and epidemiological safety, and proved the need for reforms in this area; • after the first wave of problems associated with the emergency care provision, anti-epidemiological control and diagnosis, the problems of life in https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/piis2215-0366(20)30240-6/fulltext https://www.researchgate.net/profile/benjamin_tan4 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 168 new conditions are becoming increasingly relevant. these conditions include: self-restraint, changes in habits, prolonged stress, insecurity (physical, economic, social), fear, etc. all these negative affects mental health of a person and the population of all states.; • information hysteria as to particular issues related to covid-19, stigma, ambiguity of public opinion; • the need to quick changes in life vectors due to influence factors that change rapidly. all these factors mentioned affect negatively public mental health as well as individual mental one. in reforming health systems, these areas of change as to preserving mental health of population are to be taken into account. according to who statistics, before the covid-19 pandemic, mental, neurological and narcological disorders accounted for 10% of the total burden of disease and 30% of the burden of life-threatening diseases. the damage to the global economy caused by a decline in labor productivity due to depression and anxiety disorders is about $ 1 trillion per year (who, 2019). it is predicted that this amount will increase due to the social situation, which is provoked by the covid-19 pandemic. as early as march 2020, who focused on the need to maintain mental health and psychosocial state of people during the covid-19 pandemic. the who department of mental health has developed a document in the form of information messages to support the mental wellbeing of various groups of population during the pandemic. these groups include: the civil population in general, healthcare system workers, administration of healthcare institutions and facilities, those who take care for and look after children or the elderly, who are in isolation (who, 2020, march 18). with the beginning of the weakening of quarantine measures in different countries and regions, the situation is gradually changing. awareness of the danger of the disease fades into the background compared to economic and social threats. many people are "tired" of the danger and are not aware of its real threat. the aim of our study is to attract greater attention of decisionmakers and society to the importance of mental health analysis and highlight these issues as part of public health policy in the process of adapting to new conditions of existence during and after the quaratine period. this will contribute to improving the effectiveness of managerial decision-making in the process of maintaining both physical and mental health, reducing the incidence of the population in general, and will also make social and security policies more effective. covid-19 challenges over mental health public policy nadiia kalashnyk & oleksandra khudoba 169 the current fight against covid-19 is a unique situation: our generation has not experienced anything like it. this is a test not only for economies of the countries or for the healthcare systems, but also a serious challenge for everyone. it shows and demonstrates itself in the intensification of the existing mental health crisis. in general, the load on the psyche arises immediately through three factors: local shock (at the level of problems of a particular person loss of work, uncertainty of the future, severity of quarantine experience); massive shock (it’s difficult for everyone, it is impossible to find a support outside); invisibility and non-specificity of danger. these factors should be taken into account when formulating possible directions for reforming the global health system and local ones as to preserving mental health of population. mental health of healthcare system's workers: a personal problem or a public policy? the psychological tension in society also changes the behavior of those who provide medical and social services. health workers themselves are not immune from psychological consequences through covid-19. the most affected by the psychological impact are those who are directly involved in the taking care of processes as to patients with covid-19. the reasons for such unfavorable psychological results can be explained by excessive physical exertion, changes in working habits and schedules, inadequate provision of personal protective equipment, a feeling of inadequate support, etc. one more important reason for this psychological impact is the level of infection among medical and healthcare personnel. according to the public health center of ukraine, on june 4, in ukraine there have been confirmed 25,411 covid-19 cases. in total 4,888 cases among healthcare workers were recorded. це наближається до 20 % (19,2). out of spain’s 40,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, 5,400 — nearly 14 percent — are medical professionals (heneghan, oke, & jefferson, 2020). in china, more than 3,300 healthcare workers were infected (4% of the 81,285 reported infections). on average, 6% of all confirmed cases of covid-19 are among healthcare workers, with a range from 0% to 18% (same). we emphasize the importance of maintaining and saving the mental health of healthcare workers for several reasons. first, medical workers like all other people have the right to health (including the mental one). secondly, health workers have an additional pressure over their psychological and mental health sphere. to the three factors that influence people’s psychological and mental health in the period of social stress (the https://www.businessinsider.com/healthcare-workers-getting-coronavirus-500-infected-2020-2?r=us&ir=t brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 170 covid-19 quarantine belongs to) that we already mentioned above, for medical and healthcare workers it also should be added the factor of professional duty and professional responsibility. thirdly, the quality of services to the population provided by medical and healthcare workers depends directly on their quality of life (including mental health). conclusions an important tool which can help to overcome crises such as the covid-19 pandemic and achieve specific public health goals is a consciousness and planned public health policy. according to who, such a policy is seen as a set of decisions, plans and actions regarding the vision of the future, setting priorities, achieving consensus in the activities of various groups, setting goals and benchmarks in the short and medium terms (who, 2020, april 4). modern conditions of existence encourage and force the decision-makers to observe public health policies and search for new managerial approaches in the process of their implementation. it is already becoming obvious that managing mental health issues requires a different strategy than the modern society provides now, and this process should be built upon the latest and most actual information based decisions. based on an analysis of the maintaining and saving mental health in society strategies that are used today possibilities, taking into account the european declaration on mental health (who, 2005) requirements, as well as the starting points of our study, the following changes as to mental health and public health in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and the quarantine period can be offered: • development of information and educational policies that would aim at maintaining the mental well-being of the population in general, and also take into account the interests of certain groups, such as health workers, healthcare institutions` administration, those who take care for and look after children or elderly people who are in isolation, family members of a person sick or deceased with covid-19, educational institutions, working collectives, representatives of public authorities and government agencies, etc.; • public policy at different levels of state governing aimed at preventing and combating stigma and discrimination, including those affected by covid-19; • local and state public policies of re-socialization of people after a long self-isolation or observation to bring them back to full and adequate social life; covid-19 challenges over mental health public policy nadiia kalashnyk & oleksandra khudoba 171 • studying the potential impact of all areas of social policy, migration policy, collective security policy, as well as forecasting (including psychological effects on the mental health of people) when making managerial decisions. paying special attention to groups of people with special needs; • providing targeted support and taking measures adapted to different stages of life of people at risk, in difficult conditions, especially in areas such as caring for children, people who need constant care, elderly people, people with covid-19, medical social assistance; • any strategy should necessarily provide the necessary support and protection for health workers both participants in the fight against covid-19 and specialists who ensure the restoration and provision of standard health services. particular attention should be paid to social support (in financial and other forms) and the protection of mental health (for example, creating hotlines for psychological support) of health workers involved in the fight against covid-19; • in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, the provision of medical services of the standard list has narrowed. it is necessary to expan the potential and capabilities of general practitioners and primary health care providers before the pre-quarantine period. to ensure effective access and the provision of medical and diagnostic assistance to people with mental health problems, this list of services should be expanded; • the formation of a comprehensive multi-faceted approach to the development of structures and institutions of all forms of governance (state and non-state institutions) that can affect the mental health and social integration of individuals, families, groups of people and local communities; • development of recruitment programs, their training and advanced training in order to provide services with a sufficient number of qualified personnel of various profiles, including in the field of maintaining mental health; • continuous monitoring of mental health and the needs of the population in general, as well as target groups and risk groups in particular. comparison of statistics at local, national and international levels; • health systems need to be helped to overcome the stress of medical and social workers by monitoring reactions and effectiveness, changing tasks and schedules on local, regional and sase levels, and by creating mechanisms to provide psychosocial support if necessary. • initiating research and supporting assessments and scaling ups as to the above mentioned actions. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 172 we believe that with the participation of the whole society in shaping the response to the covid-19 pandemic, the desired results can be achieved. and taking into account by the decision-makers’s the directions as to changes in the healthcare system presented in this article over preserving the mental health of population in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and the quarantine period, will help to avoid catastrophic consequences for the whole world. references brooks, s. k., webster, r. k., smith, l. e., woodland, l., wessely, s., greenberg, n., & rubin, g. j. (2020). the psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. the lancet, 395(10227), 912-920. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 campion, j., javed, a., sartorius, n., & marmot, m. (2020, june 9). addressing the public mental health challenge of covid-19. the lancet. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/piis22150366(20)30240-6/fulltext ding, s., & kalashnyk, l. (2020). resocialization and readaptation as a social need of postcorona period. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2),1219. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/135 dubey, s., biswas, p., ghosh, r., chatterjee, s., dubey, m. j., chatterjee, s., lahiri, d., & lavie, c. j. (2020). psychosocial impact of covid-19. diabetes & metabolic syndrome, 14(5), 779–788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.05.035 ferretti, l., wymant, c., kendall, m., zhao, l., nurtay, a., abeler-dörner, l., parker, m., bonsall, d., & fraser, c. (2020). quantifying sars-cov-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing. science , article eabb6936. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb6936 heneghan, c., oke, j., & jefferson, t. (2020). covid-19 how many healthcare workers are infected? cebm. the centre for evidence-based medicine develops, promotes and disseminates better evidence for healthcare. https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-how-many-healthcare-workersare-infected/ izaguirre-torres, d., & siche, r. (2020). covid-19 disease will cause a global catastrophe in terms of mental health: a hypothesis. medical hypotheses, 143, 109846. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2020.109846 renda, a., & castro, r. j. (2020, april 9). towards stronger eu governance of health threats after the covid-19 pandemic. european journal of risk regulation . https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridgehttps://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/piis2215-0366(20)30240-6/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/piis2215-0366(20)30240-6/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/piis2215-0366(20)30240-6/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/piis2215-0366(20)30240-6/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/piis2215-0366(20)30240-6/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/piis2215-0366(20)30240-6/fulltext https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/135 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.05.035 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb6936 https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-how-many-healthcare-workers-are-infected/ https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-how-many-healthcare-workers-are-infected/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2020.109846 https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?filters%255bauthorterms%255d=andrea%2520renda&eventcode=se-au https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?filters%255bauthorterms%255d=rosa%2520julieta%2520castro&eventcode=se-au https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-risk-regulation/article/towards-stronger-eu-governance-of-health-threats-after-the-covid19-pandemic/ffa7ddf7964f94ff3bdccf5e9d7271a1 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-risk-regulation/article/towards-stronger-eu-governance-of-health-threats-after-the-covid19-pandemic/ffa7ddf7964f94ff3bdccf5e9d7271a1 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-risk-regulation https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-risk-regulation https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/ffa7ddf7964f94ff3bdccf5e9d7271a1/s1867299x20000343a.pdf/towards_stronger_eu_governan covid-19 challenges over mental health public policy nadiia kalashnyk & oleksandra khudoba 173 core/content/view/ffa7ddf7964f94ff3bdccf5e9d7271a1/s18672 99x20000343a.pdf/towards_stronger_eu_governan tan, b., chew, n., lee, g., jing, m., goh, y., yeo, l., zhang, k., chin, h-k., ahmad, a., khan, f., shanmugam, g., chan, b., sunny, s., chandra, b., ong, j., paliwal, p., wong, l.,sagayanathan, r., chen, j., & sharma, v. (2020). psychological impact of the covid-19 pandemic on health care workers in singapore. annals of internal medicine. https://doi.org/10.7326/m20-1083 thoughts on healthcare management in an epidemic. (n.d.). deioitte.com. https://www2.deloitte.com/cn/en/pages/risk/articles/thoughts-onconstruction-of-large-health-management-system-under-2019-ncov.html world health organization (who), (2005, january 12-15). mental health declaration for europe facing the challenges, building solutions. in who european ministerial conference on mental health facing the challenges, building solutions, helsinki, finland, 12–15 january 2005. https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/88595/e85445.p df?ua=1 world health organization (who), (2019, october 2). mental health. world health organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/facts-inpictures/detail/mental-health world health organization (who), (2020, april 4). health policy. world health organization.https://www.who.int/topics/health_policy/en/#:~:text=an %20explicit%20health%20policy%20can,builds%20consensus%20and%20 informs%20people world health organization (who), (2020, june 12). coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) situation report – 144/ the 12-th june 2020 situation report, which is published daily by the world health organization. world health organization. https://www.who.int/docs/defaultsource/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200612-covid-19-sitrep144.pdf?sfvrsn=66ff9f4f_2 world health organization (who), (2020, march 18). mental health and psychosocial considerations during the covid-19. interim guidance. world health organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-2019-ncovmentalhealth-2020.1 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/ffa7ddf7964f94ff3bdccf5e9d7271a1/s1867299x20000343a.pdf/towards_stronger_eu_governan https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/ffa7ddf7964f94ff3bdccf5e9d7271a1/s1867299x20000343a.pdf/towards_stronger_eu_governan https://doi.org/10.7326/m20-1083 https://www2.deloitte.com/cn/en/pages/risk/articles/thoughts-on-construction-of-large-health-management-system-under-2019-ncov.html https://www2.deloitte.com/cn/en/pages/risk/articles/thoughts-on-construction-of-large-health-management-system-under-2019-ncov.html https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/88595/e85445.pdf?ua=1 https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/88595/e85445.pdf?ua=1 https://www.who.int/news-room/facts-in-pictures/detail/mental-health https://www.who.int/news-room/facts-in-pictures/detail/mental-health https://www.who.int/topics/health_policy/en/#:~:text=an%2520explicit%2520health%2520policy%2520can,builds%2520consensus%2520and%2520informs%2520people. https://www.who.int/topics/health_policy/en/#:~:text=an%2520explicit%2520health%2520policy%2520can,builds%2520consensus%2520and%2520informs%2520people. https://www.who.int/topics/health_policy/en/#:~:text=an%2520explicit%2520health%2520policy%2520can,builds%2520consensus%2520and%2520informs%2520people. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200612-covid-19-sitrep-144.pdf?sfvrsn=66ff9f4f_2 https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200612-covid-19-sitrep-144.pdf?sfvrsn=66ff9f4f_2 https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200612-covid-19-sitrep-144.pdf?sfvrsn=66ff9f4f_2 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-2019-ncov-mentalhealth-2020.1 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-2019-ncov-mentalhealth-2020.1 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 174 biodata nadiia kalashnyk. lviv, ukraine. doctor sciences in public administration, associate professor, professor of regional management and local self-government department of the lviv regional institute for public administration of the national academy for public administration under the president of ukraine. research interests cover issues of interaction between state and civil society institutions (also the health care sphere), mechanisms managerial decisionmaking, collective security, human rights, human rights’ education (formal, non-formal, informal, self-education). author of practical trainings for officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations on the formation of civic and life competences. scientific studies are related to the practice of public administration, the author has more than 10 years of practical experience in steam management bodies. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0814-0246 oleksandra khudoba. lviv, ukraine. phd in public administration. associate professor of regional management and local self-government department of the lviv regional institute for public administration of the national academy for public administration under the president of ukraine. oleksandra khudoba is a postgraduate researcher who is developing the dementia strategy in ukraine. within these activities, she focuses on developing a dementia policy and a service delivery mechanism to answer several simple questions: who? what? why? and how? her aim is to receive evidence-based and practical advice for developing dementia-related activities at the government and ngo levels. having medical education, substantial academic and administrative background, she researches innovative ideas and approaches for managing mental health issues in ukraine. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6944-2163 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0814-0246 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6944-2163 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 01-18 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/167 characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with autistic disorders: theoretical aspect nataliia bazyma¹, oksana koropatova2, yuliia bondarenko3, olga forostian4, hanna sokolova5, veronika kovylina6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, bazymanataliia@gmail.com 2 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, potapenko_o@ukr.net 3 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, bondarenkosspu@gmail.com 4 south ukrainian national pedagogical university nemed after k.d. ushynsky, ukraine, forostan@ukr.net 5 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky, ukraine, absokolova@ukr.net 6 odessa south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k.d. ushynsky, ukraine, veronikaapnea@gmail.com abstract: speech development of a child with autism does not always take place at the appropriate age and does not always obey the laws of development of speech functions. according to the analysis of literature sources, the direct study of speech activity of children with autistic disorders requires a more detailed study. according to our predictions, a child with autistic disorders of older preschool age due to the peculiarities of communicative and behavioral spheres will show a low level of speech activity, which can be explained directly by the specificity of speech development along with limited language experience and insufficient knowledge of language and its use in communication. language behavior consists of two complementary and interrelated processes: psychological formation (generation) of speech utterance and perception of the expanded speech of the interlocutor. the model of speech utterance generation includes five consecutive, interconnected stages (phases) identified by o.o. leontiev (1967): the motive of utterance; the idea of expression; internal programming; lexical and grammatical development of the utterance; implementation of speech expression in external speech. speech activity is one of the many forms of general activity, a reflection of the needs that arise in accordance with specific communication situations, a prerequisite and an important component of language behavior. the term "speech activity" is considered by us in the sense of the presence of a motive for speech utterance and direct speech utterance, which may occur as a reaction-response to the interlocutor's remark or as a desire to inform the interlocutor of their own thoughts, experiences, emotions, needs. keywords: speech development of the child; patterns of development of speech functions; senior preschool age; features of communicative and behavioral spheres; limited language experience; psychological formation of speech expression; perception of detailed speech of the interlocutor. how to cite: bazyma, n., koropatova, o., bondarenko, y., forostian, o., sokolova, h., & kovylina, v. (2021). characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with autistic disorders: theoretical aspect. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 01-18. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/167 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/167 mailto:bazymanataliia@gmail.com mailto:potapenko_o@ukr.net mailto:bondarenkosspu@gmail.com mailto:forostan@ukr.net mailto:absokolova@ukr.net mailto:veronikaapnea@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/167 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 2 introduction after analyzing the scientific and methodological literature, we came to the conclusion that to assess the level of development of speech function in children with autistic disorders, it is important to know the features of speech formation in the process of normal ontogenesis. unfortunately, the speech development of a child with autism does not always take place at the appropriate age and does not always obey the laws of development of speech functions. the problem of speech development and the importance of communication in the development of speech were studied by b.g. ananiev (2001), o.m. gvozdev (1961), and others. the issue of formation of communicative function in children with autistic disorders was studied by y.v. bessmertna (2008), i.p. logvinova (2011), behas (2019), melnyk (2019), sheremet (2019), onishchuk (2020), maksymchuk 2020) and others. the results of pedagogical and psychological research and observations on the development of children with autism in general and their speech development in particular, indicate that deviations in speech development is one of the most characteristic manifestations of this syndrome. in autism, the very ability to use speech as such is impaired. the reason for deviations in the speech development of children with autism can be determined by the lack of formation of the communicative function, manifested both in the inability to fully perceive verbal information and in the inability to adequately form the speech utterance and interact with the surrounding people in accordance with the situation. children in this category are characterized by specific difficulties in perceiving information and understanding the situation of communication, which may be the result of reduced need for communication and increased desire to avoid contact. analysis of the literature on the topic shows that the development of speech function is carried out by the integrative activity of the brain and is closely related to the formation of all mental processes, which means that any disturbances, delays or distortions in the development of mental processes, respectively, will cause or other speech disorders. it is clear that no complex form of mental activity is formed and realized without the direct or indirect participation of speech. speech begins to form only when the child's brain, hearing, vision, articulatory apparatus reach a certain level of development, and this largely depends on the environment beltyukov v.i. (1977); pavlov i.p. (1949). for the timely formation of the ontogenesis of speech function, the normal functioning of all parts of the central nervous system, especially the cerebral cortex is important. characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with … nataliia bazyma, et al. 3 speech acquisition is a complex, multifaceted mental process. speech in a child, whose development takes place in favorable conditions, is formed gradually, along with its growth and development. if you protect the child from receiving new vivid impressions, if you do not create conditions that will promote the development of motor and speech systems, it will cause a delay in his physical and mental development. it is known that oral speech and oral speech utterance are formed in children with normal speech development up to 2-3 years old (they are accompanied by an enhanced development of adult speech understanding). stages of formation of speech communication of the child are accompanied by improvement of auditory perception, mastering of arbitrary auditory memory, use for the purpose of communication of intonational means of speech, and also formation of phonemic hearing, sheremet m.k. (2008). it was at this time in children with autism that a gradual lag in the development of speech becomes more and more noticeable, because, according to the research of o.r. baenska (2001), the formation of this syndrome is already finally completed by the age of 2.5-3, nikolska o.s. . (2000). at the age of 5-7 years the formation of internal speech begins. the social function of speech, according to m.k. sheremet (2008), is a means of communication, and in terms of intellectual development a mechanism of abstraction and generalization, which forms the basis of categorical thinking. that is we can conclude that the sensitive period of speech development in children with autistic disorders occurs at the time of formation of the pervasive nature of the syndrome in motor, mental, intellectual, emotional, communicative, and, consequently, speech, complicating, inhibiting and distorting the natural process. active development of certain functions. speech acquisition occurs on the basis of imitation, which has both cognitive and creative character, o.v. zaporozhets (1972); v.s. mukhina (1975); m.k. sheremet (2008), etc. imitation in language behavior is a prerequisite for both the activation of children's speech and purposeful learning of language behavior, naumenko t.i. (1991). m.k. sheremet (2008) sees the decisive condition for the emergence of a child's speech in the presence of a need for a new, that is, speech, method of communication and in mastering the means necessary for this. but to master speech communication it is not enough to simply give the child words as role models, but it is necessary to form in him the need to use words, the need for purposeful communication, m.k. sheremet (2008). defining the motive of communication of the communication partner and asserting activity in the process of communication of all participants of interaction, m.i. lisina (2009) identifies three main groups of motives that motivate a child to communicate with adults and appear in the period of communicative activity brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 4 almost simultaneously, associated with its three main needs: 1) cognitive, where the adult acts as a source of information and as an organizer of new experiences for the child (arise on the basis of the need for new experiences); 2) business, where the adult plays the role of a partner in a joint practical (subject or game) activity, assistant and a sample of correct actions (arise on the basis of the need for active activity); 3) personal, where the adult appears as a person, as a member of society, a representative of a certain group (arise on the basis of the need for recognition and support). we anticipate that these needs will not be sufficiently developed in children with autistic disorders, which may directly affect speech activity and communication in general. m.i. lisina (2009), noting the simultaneous appearance of groups of communication motives, also speaks about the leading motives of communication according to different age periods: in the first half of life the leading motive of communication between children and adults is personal, from the second half to 2.5 years business, in preschool age in the formation of communication motives there are three periods: first the leading place is occupied by business motives of communication, then cognitive and, finally, personal, as in infants. it is at this time that the formation of the autistic syndrome, m. yu. vedenina (1998) is finally completed, that is, the formation of a business motive for communication with the predominance of joint practical subject or play activities coincides with it in time. it can be assumed that this may cause impaired speech activity in children with autistic disorders. according to the analysis of research by o.v. zaporozhets (1972), m.i. lisina (2009), m.k. sheremet (2008) and others, speech in children with normal development of preschool age is marked by rapid development with quantitative and qualitative indicators. already between the second and third years, phrasal speech is actively formed. by the age of three, a child, whose speech develops in accordance with age norms, has formed all the main grammatical categories, an active growth of vocabulary occurs. in the fourth year of life, the child knows the names of many surrounding objects and summarizes them, uses simple and complex common sentences. in five years, the vocabulary reaches 1500-2000 words. almost all parts of speech are used in utterances. there is an intensive development of the grammatical structure of speech, but mistakes can still be made: incorrect coordination of words, not always correct use of case endings. a child of this age begins to express his own opinion, to think about the surrounding objects and phenomena, bogush a.m. (2003); halperin p. ya. (1976). by the end of the sixth year of life under conditions of normal psychophysical development, the active vocabulary of the child is 2500-3000 words. expressions become characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with … nataliia bazyma, et al. 5 more complete and accurate, complex sentences appear, and synonyms and antonyms are used. children master monologue speech at a sufficient level. qualitative and possessive adjectives, complex prepositions appear in speech, nouns are already correctly coordinated with other parts of speech. most children already pronounce all sounds correctly, but sometimes there may be substitutions of certain complex sounds or distortion of their correct pronunciation, bogush a.m. (2003); tkacheva v.v. (2005). the speech development of a senior preschooler reflects the development of his competence in social interaction. n.v. gavrysh (2005) sees the most important task of speech development at the stage of preschool childhood in the development of coherent speech. after all, for his own personal development and successful socialization, the child must learn to communicate with others, learn to know the world through language and speech. at the same time, in children with autistic manifestations, the formation of all forms of preverbal and verbal communication is disturbed, nikolska o.s. (2000); shulzhenko d.i. (2011), and the older the child, the more pronounced the difficulties in its interaction with people around and with the environment. variants of speech development of autistic children o.r.baenska (2001), o.s.nikolska (2000) identified four variants of speech development of autistic children in accordance with the depth of autistic manifestations and the degree of curvature of mental development and providing the child with access to certain ways of interacting with the environment and people next to the quality of the forms of protective hypercompensation of autism developed by it. in children of the first group, there is an almost complete absence of expressive speech in the presence of vocalizations and rumbling, although the understanding of the speech of others may not be impaired. individual words or short phrases that the child pronounces quite cleanly and clearly in a state of passion or in an emotionally significant situation for her, suggest that she understands speech (at least partially). usually, spoken words and phrases are not aimed at communication, o.s. nikolska (2000). the second group of children is characterized by severe delay in speech formation, low speech activity, lack of motivation for active speech, the presence of echolalia, a set of stereotypical short phrases (acquired in a situation of affect) or quotes from favorite books to comment on real situations, using infinitive verbs to shouting or directly pointing to the desired object. speech, as a rule, consists brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 6 of the same type of language stamps commands addressed to any of those present, o.s. nikolska (2000). children of the third group are distinguished by the presence of a significant vocabulary, the use of "adult" speech (often literary), pronunciation disorders in the form of blurred and indistinct speech, replacement of sounds and inconsistency of intonation of the content. excessive enthusiasm for one's own stable interests, which are manifested in a stereotypical form, translates into speech into an obsessive appeal to the interlocutor in the form of an emotionally colored long monologue on one topic that interests (often worries or frightens) the child most of all, without the desire to receive an answer with little focus on communication, with possible verbal aggression. the peculiarity of these monologues is that it is important for a child to simply speak and have passive listeners, and not to share information, impressions, experiences and receive feedback from the interlocutor, o.s. nikolska (2000). the mildest degree of autism is manifested in children of the fourth group, which may be characterized by a significant delay in speech development (sometimes regression of speech at the age of 2-2.5 years), quiet, slurred speech with delayed echolalia, possible lack of understanding of instructions along with rapid response on a complex fairy-tale image or an emotionally attractive situation. children in this group are able to communicate, but do not know how to choose the right forms of interaction with others, so their communication is limited to close and well-known people. agrammatisms, inconsistency in the use of pronouns, and blurred speech are distinguished in speech. in the course of development both improvement of communication skills and regression is possible, o.s. nikolska (2000). thus, according to the analysis of the scientific literature, baenska o.r. (2001); bashina v.m. (1993), among the most characteristic disorders of speech development in autism are: mutism; autonomy of speech ("speech for oneself", "egocentric", "autistic" speech according to l.s. vygotsky (1999); phonographic speech (unconscious reproduction of the speech of others), which often with a good memory creates the illusion of developed speech; extensive use of neologisms (self-invented words); echolalia (repetition of heard words and phrases) are often torn off in time; wordsstamps, phrases-stamps; lack of treatment; inability to engage in dialogue; insufficiency of monologue speech; late appearance in speech of personal pronouns, especially "i", and their misuse; absence of the words "yes" and "no"; violation of the semantic side of speech (metaphorical substitutions, extensions or excessive, to the literal, narrowing of the interpretation of the meaning of words); inability to form words; violation of the syntactic structure of speech; violation of the grammatical structure of speech; speech characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with … nataliia bazyma, et al. 7 disorders; speech melody disorder (voice too quiet or too loud); violation of prosodic components of speech (deviation of tonality, speed, rhythm, intonation emphasis). in addition, there are elements of chanting, raising the tone at the end of a phrase or word, fragmentary nature of the phrase, the tendency to recite, rhyme, sing, occasional pronunciation of words that do not matter in this situation. along with mutism and lack of communicative speech, some children with autistic disorders may exhibit early and rapid speech development. they listen with pleasure, read to them, memorize large passages of text; expressive speech gives the impression of childishness through the use of expressions inherent in the speech of adults. however, even such children (most of them have asperger's syndrome) are not able to understand the indirect meaning of the statement, the subtext, the metaphor; limited ability to conduct productive dialogue. t.i. morozova (1997) notes that in the general violation of the development of purposeful communicative speech may capture certain speech forms, constant play with sounds, syllables and words, distortion of words, but when the need for communication is used only a limited set of speech stamps. in our opinion, spontaneous statements of children with autistic disorders who do not fully use speech for communication purposes, which is sometimes perceived as inappropriate, inappropriate to the situation (words-stamps, phrase-stamps, echolalia, recitation of excerpts from poems, songs, fairy tales or advertisements), are in fact extremely important for a child with autistic disorders and have their own content, which, due to specific mental, communicative, social, emotional and volitional behavioral disorders, is not always clear to others. we believe that in this way a child with autistic disorders tries to establish communication, communicate their feelings and emotions, without having in their experience more effective and appropriate means of communication, in the only way available to them. it is necessary to emphasize the heterogeneity of speech disorders and the variability of their manifestations depending on the depth of the lesion and the degree of distortion of the child's mental development. but, regardless of the level of speech development, autism first of all suffers from the opportunity to actively use it to communicate. speech activity as one of the many forms of general activity it is known that one of the factors of any activity of a child (including speech) is his mental activity as the body's need to know the environment, social relationships and himself. the question of the essence brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 8 of activity is quite complex and multifaceted. "activity" can be considered as a general category, and as a biological, psychological, physiological feature, etc. according to scientists b.g. ananiev (2001), s.l. rubinstein (2000), and others, activity reflects the objectively existing relationships of the individual, which are manifested in the process of human interaction with the social environment and are realized in its activities. v.e. kagan (1991) notes that activity a conscious, purposeful activity of the individual, its holistic sociopsychological quality. activity correlates with activity, is defined through it, develops as its qualitative characteristic, v.e. kagan (1991); s.l. rubinstein (2000). outside activity, activity loses its meaning. v.v. tusheva (1997) argues that activity determines the quality of activity through the subject's attitude to the process of activity. it finds its expression in a sociopsychological state, which, in turn, takes place in a specific activity. that is, human interaction with the environment is possible precisely under the condition of its own activity. activity is an instinct, a desire that needs satisfaction. therefore, we can conclude that activity is preceded by a certain motive or stimulus, that is, a necessary condition for activity is the desire, motivation, desire to do something. and since children with autistic disorders have difficulties in the formation of the motivational sphere, v.m. bashina (1993), o.b. bogdashina (1999), and others, it is possible to link the decrease in mental and speech activity with the absence or decrease in the level motivation for activity. speech activity is one of the many forms of general activity, a reflection of the needs that arise in accordance with specific communication situations. considering speech activity as a prerequisite and an important component of speech activity, we turn to the research of scientists. speech as a higher mental function, which is one of the components of intellectual activity, and language as the main means of speech activity and realization of thought processes, has long been the subject of special attention of scientists, v.o. glukhova (2005), t.i. naumenko (1991) and others. speech and language constitute a complex dialectical unity in human speech activity. language becomes a means of communication, verbal communication and at the same time a means, an instrument of thinking only in the process of speech (performed speech activity). in turn, speech (as a psychophysiological process of generation and perception of speech utterances) is carried out according to the rules of language and on the basis of the use of appropriate language signs, v.o. glukhova (2005). speech activity is known to be motivated and purposeful. characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with … nataliia bazyma, et al. 9 l.s. vygotsky (1999) argues that speech should be considered in connection with the general human activity aimed at active interaction with the environment, ie as an activity that at a certain stage of child development becomes leading and occupies a central place in the process of mental development. o.o. leontiev (1967) considers speech activity as an independent type of human activity: active, purposeful, mediated by the language system and due to the situation of communication process of transmission or reception of messages; a kind of intellectual act that contains two interdependent processes speaking and listening, which are carried out at any level of communication. k.d. ushinsky (1991) emphasizes that the mental development of a child is carried out in unity with its speech development. communicative activity, as we know, begins with the activation of the need for communication, i.e. the specific adjustment of the individual to contact with others. according to researchers, this contact is due to the innate instinct of communication, interpersonal attraction, which underlies the communicative potential of the individual, nemov r.s. (2003); l.e. orban-lembrik (2003). this concept is closely related to those communicative skills that determine the success and effectiveness of communication. communication potential is a psychological and individual characteristics of man, expressing a desire to contact other people, manifested in the selective attitude to them and in the use of various forms and means of communication during interaction with them, i.e. communicative abilities, nemov r.s. (2003), to which o.o. leontiev (1967) refers personal communicative properties and technical abilities. personal communicative properties relate primarily to the individual's ability to control their behavior in communication, understand and take into account the psychological characteristics of other participants, establish and maintain contact, regulate its depth, receive, retain and transmit initiative in communication, adequately complete communication. technical communication skills include mastery of communication techniques, building contact, include skills such as the ability to psychologically enter into the process of interaction, maintain communication, stimulating their own activity and the activity of interlocutors, the ability to predict communication, overcome psychological barriers, optimally use verbal and nonverbal means of communication, o.o. leontiev (1967). l.e. orbanlembrik (2003) also distinguishes perceptual-reflexive abilities: observation, an individual's assessment of his relations with people, subjective ideas about his own role and the role of other participants in communication. communication abilities, general abilities, skills, the need for communication, specific communicative motives form the communicative potential of a person and constitute the communicative structure of a person, is the basis of communicative activity as such. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 10 focusing on the analysis and generalization of theoretical research of many scientists and their own observations of children with autistic disorders of older preschool age, we assumed that they will have some specific features of the formation and functioning of the abilities identified by scientists, in particular: establish and maintain contact with others, regulating its depth, manage their behavior in communication, understand and take into account the psychological characteristics of other participants in communication, accept, retain and transmit initiative in communication, adequately complete communication; psychologically correct to enter into the process of interaction, maintain communication, stimulating their own activity and the activity of interlocutors, predict the situation of communication, overcome psychological barriers, make optimal use of verbal and nonverbal means; show observation, evaluate their relationships with people, form subjective ideas about their own role and the role of other participants in communication. for the first time a scientifically based theory of speech generation, which was further developed in the works of many scientists, was proposed by l.s. vygotsky (1999), based on the concept of the unity of thought and speech. it is known that language behavior consists of two complementary and interrelated processes: the psychological formation of a speech utterance from the inception of thought through the internal scheme of utterance and internal speech to the expanded external broadcasting, which constitutes speech communication (the generation of a speech utterance) and the perception of the expanded speech of the interlocutor, and, along a series of smoothly flowing stages into each other, highlighting the essential thought, and then the whole meaning of the perceived utterance (understanding of the speech utterance) v.p. glukhov (2005), i.o. zimnya (2001). based on numerous experimental data and analysis of theoretical studies of the world's leading psycholinguists, leontiev (1967) developed a holistic concept of the structure of the act of speech activity, where the main place is occupied by the model of speech expression, which we consider as one of the manifestations of speech activity. o.o. leontiev (1967) identified five consecutive, interconnected stages (phases) of the model: the motive of expression; the idea of the statement; internal programming; lexical and grammatical development of the utterance; implementation of speech expression in external speech. it can be assumed that children with autistic disorders at each of the stages (phases) identified by o.o. leontiev (1967), laid down in the structure of speech activity, will have certain difficulties associated with the peculiarities of communicative and speech development. it is well known that any activity includes a motive (motivation), which is the root cause of activity. focusing on speech activity, we can determine that the source for any speech utterance is a motive, that is, the characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with … nataliia bazyma, et al. 11 need to express in a speech utterance a certain meaning. i.o. zimnya (2001) believes that the objectified motive turns into a head, which serves as an internal motive for speaking or writing, is "the launch of the entire process of generating speech." in children with autistic disorders, as observations show, it is often the need for communication that is lacking, the motive that will force the child to express his own opinion is not formed. the motive can be considered as the starting point of the statement. motivation generates speech intention, i.e. the orientation of consciousness, will, feelings of the individual to a particular subject, in our case to the subject of speech activity. b.f. skinner (1957) identifies three main types of motives: "-mand" (demand) a requirement to perform a certain action, "tact" (contact) any informational request related to contact, " -cept "(concept) the desire to express in a detailed speech form and more clearly articulate their own opinion. the motive itself does not have a clearly defined meaning. if none of the listed motives arises, the speech message will not be carried out, glukhov v.p. (2005). that is, even despite the ability to speak and the ability to communicate verbally, children with autistic disorders do not always need (desire) to formulate and express in a detailed speech form their opinion or do not know how to adequately express opinions. the idea of a speech utterance, caused by a motive, generalizes the semantic scheme of utterance, o.o. leontiev (1967). o.o. leontiev (1967), based on the theoretical concept of o.r. luria (1998), believes that it is at the stage of the conception of a speech utterance that the "theme" (subject, topic of the statement) and "rheme" (situation, fact, phenomena of the surrounding reality) of the future speech utterance. children with autistic disorders, sometimes it is difficult to determine what and how to say in order to get the desired item or satisfy a need and how to arrange your message, o.b. bogdashina (1999); k.s. lebedinska (1990), and others. at the stage of speech utterance conception, these two main structural-semantic components of utterance (theme and rhyme) under the condition of normal speech development are realized "globally", simultaneously, integrally, inseparably and form the initial thought, ie the system of connections that potentially should to appear in future speech utterances, glukhov v.p. (2005); leontiev o.o. (1967). in children with autistic disorders, taking into account the peculiarities of their speech development, in our opinion, the course of the stage of speech expression will be different from how it occurs in normal development. o.o. leontiev (1967) considers the stage of internal programming of a speech utterance as a process of constructing a certain semantic scheme, brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 12 which is the basis of generating a speech utterance, which is realized by means of appropriate operations: selection of basic semantic elements of the subject content in the "context" of future speech utterance and determination of the sequence of reflection of semantic elements in speech utterance, glukhov v.p. (2005); leontiev o.o. (1967). o.o. leontiev (1967) notes that internal programming can be developed either in external or in internal speech. we assume that the course of internal programming of speech in children with autistic disorders takes place in specific conditions. after all, the process of constructing speech will take place under the influence of autistic features and will reflect the individual characteristics of perception and processing of information caused by autistic disorders of each individual child. the stage of lexical and grammatical development of the utterance can be correlated (according to o.o. leontiev (1967)) with the transition from the plan of internal speech utterance to the semantic plan (proposed by l.s. vygotsky (1999)). there are linear (creation of the appropriate grammatical structure of the sentence based on the selection of the original predicative pair subject and predicate, i.e. subject and predicate) and nonlinear (selection of words (phrases)) stages of lexical and grammatical structuring, glukhov v.p. (2005); leontiev o.o. (1967). the created variant of speech utterance is correlated with its program, the general "context" of speech and the situation of speech communication. based on the results of the analysis, the subject of language behavior decides to move to the final stage of creating a speech utterance external implementation, which has three possible options: "sounding" speech utterance, making adjustments to the content or language design of speech utterance and cancellation of speech action. the above features of speech development, along with the selectivity of perception, in our opinion, complicate the course of this stage of speech expression in children with autistic disorders. lack of knowledge about language and speech norms, limited vocabulary, low level of knowledge about grammatical design of speech, along with the characteristic violations of syntactic and grammatical aspects of speech become an obstacle to the normal course of this stage. the implementation of a speech utterance in external speech, described by o.o. leontiev (1967), is provided by the process of phonation, sound formation, reproduction of sequential sound combinations (warehouses), the operation of developing whole "semantic" sound complexes (words), the operation of providing rhythmic-melodic and melodic-intonation organization of broadcasting in accordance with the semantic program and speech norms. the above-mentioned features of the characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with … nataliia bazyma, et al. 13 speech development of children with autistic disorders significantly complicate the final stage of generating a speech utterance. it is known that without communicative speech practice it is impossible to master language as a means of communication. scientists interpret speech activity as the ability of a subject of a certain communicative act to express himself and at the same time to perceive (understand) the speech of another subject, a.m. bogush (2003), l.s. vygotsky (1999). and these abilities, respectively, depend on the degree of language proficiency and ways of using it. according to s.l. rubinstein's research, understanding speech already includes its active use. speech activity is determined by the degree of mastery of the speech act and the degree of understanding of speech, naumenko t.i. (1991). after analyzing the data on the study of speech activity, we took as a working version of the term "speech activity" in the sense of the presence of a motive for speech utterance and direct speech utterance that may occur as a reactionresponse to the interlocutor's remark or as a desire to inform the interlocutor about their own thoughts, experiences, emotions, needs, bogush a.m. (2003); naumenko t.i. (1991). the formation of speech activity is possible if the child needs emotional communication with adults, and the establishment of positive emotional contact affects the success and activity of preschoolers' mastery of speech, both active and passive. we believe that the emergence of the need for emotional communication with adults and motivation for speech communication can be a stimulus to increase speech activity in children with autistic disorders of older preschool age. k.s. lebedynska (1990) notes that the state of speech formation at the end of preschool age is an important indicator of further favorable development and that children who have not mastered speech before 5 years and who have shown low intellectual abilities, more difficult to adapt to social development. understanding the importance of quality diagnosis, we note that despite the statements of k.s. lebedynska (1990) and o.s. nikolskaya (2005) that preschool age is a period of the most pronounced classical manifestations of childhood autism, in particular in speech development, provided timely corrective work can achieve positive changes in the development of speech and in the development of mental processes and functions, which will be the key to faster adaptation and socialization of children in this category. the appearance of active speech in a child largely depends on the timeliness of the child's transition to a new level of cooperation with adults. therefore, there is a need to stimulate the priorities of the child, in particular with autistic disorders, in communication with brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 14 adults, in creating special conditions aimed at enhancing its speech development. conclusions according to the analysis of literature sources, the direct study of speech activity of children with autistic disorders requires a more detailed study. according to our predictions, a child with autistic disorders of older preschool age, due to the peculiarities of the communicative and behavioral spheres, will demonstrate an underestimated level of speech activity, which can be directly explained by the specificity of speech development along with limited language experience and insufficient knowledge of language and its use in the communication process. it is known that speech activity consists of two complementary and interconnected processes: the psychological formation (generation) of speech expression and the perception of the expanded speech of the interlocutor. the model of speech utterance generation includes five consecutive, interconnected stages (phases) identified by o.o. leontiev (1967): the motive of utterance; the idea of the statement; internal programming; lexical and grammatical development of the utterance; implementation of speech expression in external speech. speech activity is one of the many forms of general activity, a reflection of the needs that arise in accordance with specific communication situations, a prerequisite and an important component of speech activity. the term “speech activity” is considered by us in the meaning of the presence of a motive for a speech utterance and a direct speech utterance, which may arise as a response to the interlocutor's remark or as a desire to inform the interlocutor about his own thoughts, experiences, emotions, needs. references ananiev, b. g. (2001). chelovek kak predmet poznaniya [man as a subject of cognition]. peter. bashina, v. m. (1993). k osobennostyam korrektsii rechevykh rasstroystv u bol'nykh s rannim detskim autizmom [to the peculiarities of the correction of speech disorders in patients with early childhood autism]. almanac "healing". bayenska, o. r. (2001). osobennosti rannego affektivnogo razvitiya autichnogo rebenka ot 0 do 1,5 let [features of early affective development of an autistic child from 0 to 1.5 years old]. almanac no. 3. behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with … nataliia bazyma, et al. 15 of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education, 19(4), 1333-1340 beltyukov, v. i. (1977). vzaimodeystviye analizatorov v protsesse vospriyatiya i usvoyeniya ustnoy rechi (v norme i patologii) [interaction of analyzers in the process of perception and mastering of oral speech (in health and disease)], p. 175. bessmertnaya, yu. v. (2008). osobennosti razvitiya kommunikativnykh sposobnostey doshkol'nikov s rasstroystvami autisticheskogo spektra [features of the development of communicative abilities of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders]: dissertation of the candidate of psychological sciences: 19.00.10. ekaterinburg, 239 p. bogdashina, o. b. (1999). autizm: opredeleniye i diagnostika [autism: definition and diagnosis]. llc "lebed". bogush, a. m. (2003). kul'tura rechevogo obshcheniya detey doshkol'nogo vozrasta [the culture of speech communication of preschool children: a methodological guide for teachers of preschool educational institutions with the russian language of instruction]. agency for advanced scientific research, 251 p. galperin, p. ya. (1976). vvedeniye v psikhologiyu [introduction to psychology] / petr yakovlevich galperin. publishing house of moscow university, 150 p. gavrysh, n. v. (2005). metodyka rozvytku zv'yaznoho movlennya ditey doshkilʹnoho viku [methods of development of coherent speech of preschool children]: educational and methodical manual / natalia vasylivna gavrysh. lugansk: alma mater, 438 p. glukhov, v. p. (2005). osnovy psikholingvistiki: ucheb. posobiye dlya studentov pedvuzov [fundamentals of psycholinguistics: textbook. manual for students of pedagogical universities] / victor pavlovich glukhov m.: astrel, 351 p. gvozdev, a. n. (1961). voprosy izucheniya detskoy rechi: [questions of studying children's speech]: a textbook for teachers and lecturers. academy of pedagogical sciences of the rsfsr. kagan, v. e. (1991). diagnostika i lecheniye autizma u detey [diagnosis and treatment of autism in children], 40 p. lebedinsky, v. v. (1990). emotsional'nyye narusheniya v detskom vozraste i ikh korrektsiya [emotional disorders in childhood and their correction: scientific publication]. publishing house of moscow state university. leontiev, o.o. (1967). vnutrennyaya rech' i protsessy grammaticheskogo porozhdeniya vyskazyvaniya / voprosy porozhdeniya rechi i obucheniya yazyku [inner speech and processes of grammatical generation of utterances / questions of speech generation and language learning]. m. lisina, m. i. (2009). formirovaniye lichnosti rebenka v obshchenii [formation of the child's personality in communication]. piter. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 16 logvinova, i. p. (2011). navychky neverbalʹnoyi sotsialʹnoyi vzayemodiyi u doshkilʹnykiv z rozladamy spektru autyzmu [skills of nonverbal social interaction in preschoolers with disorders of the autism spectrum] / i.p. logvinova // scientific journal of the national pedagogical university named after m.p. drahomanov. series 19. correctional pedagogy and special psychology: a collection of scientific papers. k .: national pedagogical university named after m.p. drahomanov, № 18. p. 137-141. luria, a. r. (1998). yazyk i soznaniye [language and consciousness] / a.r. luria; edited by e. d. chomska. rostov on don: publishing house "phoenix", 416 p. maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51 (1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf morozov, s. a. (1997). mir za steklyannoy stenoy [the world behind a glass wall] / s.a.morozov, morozova t.i. // motherhood. no. 1 p. 6-9. mukhina, v. s. (1975). psikhologiya doshkol'nika [psychology of a preschooler]: a textbook for students of pedagogical institutes and students of pedagogical schools. / v. s. mukhina; edited by l.a. wenger. m., " prosveshcheniye". 239 p. naumenko, t. i. (1991). aktivizatsiya rechi detey rannego vozrasta v doshkol'nom uchrezhdenii [activation of speech of young children in a preschool institution]: the abstract of the dissertation of the candidate of pedagogical sciences .: 13.00.01 / t.i. naumenko. k., 20 p. naumenko, t. i. (1991). aktivizatsiya rechi detey rannego vozrasta v doshkol'nom uchrezhdenii [activation of speech of young children in a preschool institution]: abstract of the dissertation of the candidate of pedagogical sciences: 13.00.01 / t.i. naumenko. k., 20 p. nemov, r. s. (2003). psikhologiya [psychology]. book 1. general foundations of psychology / robert semenovich nemov. 4th ed., m.: vlados, 688 p. nikolska, o. s. (2000). autichnyy rebenok. puti pomoshchi [autistic child. ways of help] / o.s.nikolska, o.r.baenska, m.m.libing m.: terevinf, (special child). 336 p. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf characteristics of language behavior and speech activity in children with … nataliia bazyma, et al. 17 nikolska, o. s. (2005). deti i podrostki s autizmom. psikhologicheskoye soprovozhdeniye [children and adolescents with autism. psychological support] / o.s. nikolska, o. r. baenska, m. m. liebing, i. a. kostin, m. yu. vedenina, a. v. arshatsky, o. s. arshatska. m.: terevinf, 224 p. onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 orban-lembryk, l. e. (2003). spilkuvannya yak sotsialʹno-psykholohichnyy fenomen [communication as a socio-psychological phenomenon] / lydia ernestivna orban-lembrik // collection of scientific works: philosophy, sociology, psychology. ivano-frankivsk: issue. 8. part 1. –– p. 3-10. pavlov, i. p. (1949). polnoye sobraniye sochineniy [complete collection of works] / ivan petrovich pavlov. m.: publishing house of the academy of sciences of the ussr, vol. 3. 476 p. rubinshtein, s. l. (2000). osnovy obshchey psikhologii [fundamentals of general psychology] / compilers, authors of comments and afterwords a. v. brushlinsky, k. a. abulkhanova-slavska. spb.: publishing house "piter". 550 p. sheremet, m. k. (2008). movlennyeva diyalʹnistʹ v systemi pidhotovky doshkilʹnykiv z tyazhkymy porushennyamy movlennya do shkoly [speech activity in the system of preparation of preschoolers with severe speech disorders to school] / m.k. sheremet // collection of scientific works of kamyanets-podilsky national university: socio-pedagogical series. issue viii / ed. by o.v. gavrilov, v.i. spivak. kamyanets-podilsky: pe moshinsky v.s. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shulzhenko, d. i. (2011). korektsiynyy rozvytok autychnoyi dytyny: (knyha dlya batʹkiv ta pedahohiv) [correctional development of an autistic child: (book for parents and teachers)]. keydun, 344 p. tkacheva, v. v. (2005). psikhologo-pedagogicheskoye izucheniye autichnykh detey [psychological and pedagogical study of autistic children]. correctional pedagogy, 1(7). p. 16-21. tusheva, v. v. (1997). formirovaniye tvorcheskoy aktivnosti uchashchikhsya mladshikh klassov v protsesse vypolneniya zadaniy khudozhestvennoesteticheskoy napravlennosti (na materiale muzykal'nogo iskusstva) [formation of creative activity of junior schoolchildren in the process of performing tasks of artistic and aesthetic https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 18 orientation (based on the material of musical art)]: dissertation of the candidate of pedagogical sciences: 13.00.01. kh., 239 p. ushinsky k. d., (1991) rodnoye slovo [mother word]: a book for students / konstantin dmitrievich ushinsky. m.: prosveshcheniye, 230 p. vedenina m. yu., (1998) autichnyy rebenok: problemy v bytu : metod. rekomendatsii po obucheniyu sotsial'no-bytovym navykam autichnykh detey i podrostkov [autistic child: problems in everyday life: methodical recommendations for teaching social and everyday skills to autistic children and adolescents]. society for aid to autistic children "dobro", 73 p. vygotsky l. s., (1999) myshleniye i rech' [thinking and speech] / lev semenovich vygotsky. edition 5, revised. publishing house "labyrinth", 352 p. zaporozhets a. v., (1972) pedagogicheskiye i psikhologicheskiye problemy vsestoronnego razvitiya i podgotovki k shkole starshikh doshkol'nikov [pedagogical and psychological problems of all-round development and preparation for school for senior preschoolers]. preschool education, 4, 2-3. zimnya, i. a., (2001) lingvopsikhologiya rechevoy deyatel'nosti [linguopsychology of speech activity]. moscow psychological and social institute. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 260-276 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic antonio sandu¹ 1 professor ph.d., stefan cel mare university of suceava, romania; lumen research center in social and humanistic sciences, iasi, romania; antonio1907@yahoo.com abstract: in this article we discuss respect for autonomy as a bioethical principle correlated with the idea of informed consent. we situate this in the context of challenges related to emergencies such as the coronavirus pandemic we are currently experiencing, which has affected all of humanity. it is important to emphasize that autonomy is a key to modernity, a perspective on the world that is in fact one of the constitutive values of modern society. autonomy is given by the fact that we are human beings, but not all human beings have the same degree of autonomy. keywords: authonomy; informed consent; pandemic; bioethics. how to cite: sandu, a. (2020). autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 260-276. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 mailto:antonio1907@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic antonio sandu 261 introduction respect for autonomy, as it appears in the kantian tradition (kant, 2007; 2010), is based on our confidence that the individual can decide for themselves in a political, ethical, and cognitive sense. of course, in this context we are talking about situations of autonomy in which the individual manifests him or herself as autonomous. from a bioethical perspective, we can speak of decisional autonomy (sandu, 2011) or the individual's ability to make decisions regarding their state of health and their general existence. of course, there are people who have limited autonomy. however, this decisional autonomy, based on reason, informed consent, and the presumption of the capacity to consent, can also be thought of as expressive autonomy. this refers to the individual's ability to express himself (caras & sandu, 2014). we do not have the inner capacity to express our will in every situation – it depends on our psychological frame of mind, various anxieties, inner states, fears, and so on and the ability to express our ideas. for example, in medical situations, patients may prefer a certain treatment or, conversely, wish to give it up, but in expressing autonomy the patient takes into account the opinions of others, especially those close to them. when making a health-related decision, patients often say, "my decision will affect my family's situation." for instance, the decision to undergo a particularly expensive treatment will place the family in a situation of financial risk. thus, when manifesting decision-making autonomy, the patient takes into account not only their rational understanding of the situation, but also the emotional situation, in which their level of emotional load limits their ability to express their consent or opinion regarding desirable or undesirable situations. furthermore, not all categories of people have a high level of awareness on their condition. people affected by certain mental pathologies and those who are elderly may have a limited level of autonomy due to their reduced ability to understand their situation. children also have a limited ability in this regard and, as such, decisions concerning them should be made by close relatives or legal guardians, who express delegated consent. autonomy is a concrete and practical expression of the idea of freedom. as long as i am a free being who can decide for oneself, i must express this freedom through my ability to make my own choices. if freedom is a philosophical, legal, and metaphysical foundation, autonomy is the concrete expression of the idea of freedom, of the idea of a decision, because having freedom is a potential situation; it signifies my potential to decide. authonomy is precisely the effective expression of this freedom to brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 262 decide with respect to my own situation or, in the case of delegated consent, to decide on behalf of those i care for, be they children, elderly, or people unable to decide due to certain mental limitations (funză, & sandu, 2017). autonomy must be concretely expressed and this raises the issue of what we in bioethics call informed consent. an autonomous decision must be correctly communicated to the decision makers, the therapist, the doctor, the one who performs an experiment etc., because a decision left unexpressed does not always have consequences, or has consequences related to following or not following a treatment, that are direct expressions of autonomy. in order for consent to be informed and for the autonomy of the consenting person to be respected, therapists must ensure that they have provided that person with the information necessary to be able to make the decision, and have done so in a language that the person understands. it is fruitless for the therapist to express himself very briefly or at length if this is couched in terms the patient does not understand and is thus unable to make an informed decision. indeed, one limitation of consent concerns the patient's ability to understand, hence the importance of educating the person whose consent is required. it is important for the therapist to give explanations about the patient's condition and treatment on a level they can comprehend. the therapist must ensure, through dialogue with the patient, that they have understood the situation they are in, and that the decision they have taken is a result of conscious and rational deliberation regarding their health condition, the risks to which they are subjected, and potential developments in their health. there are two ways in which informed consent is generally understood. the first, the correct one from a bioethical point of view, starts with beauchamp and childress’s (2001) understanding that obtaining informed consent is a process that continues from the moment a person is consulted and a diagnosis is made, when he/she is presented with an analysis of his/her condition, to the point when they agree with the therapeutic act. we are talking about informed consent not only in the medical field, but also in areas such as psychology, social work, nutrition or physical therapy. in each of these cases, the therapist must ensure that communication is real and effective, not superficial and vitiated by various forms of incorrect communication. careful attention must be paid to doctor-patient communication in the process of obtaining informed consent (gavrilovici & oprea 2013). autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic antonio sandu 263 1. informed consent as a process the trust we have in the therapist fundamentally influences our autonomy because, if we trust that the person who provides us with information does so in good faith and with a high degree of professionalism, then we are able to make an easier decision or a more informed one, one that is closer to what we really want. of equal importance in the process of obtaining informed consent is the stage in which the patient reflects on their situation in accordance with their level of knowledge and understanding. the decision-making process regarding health is complex because rational factors intervene. however, informed consent is an act that also involves emotional, or affective, spiritual factors. all the considerations made by the individual when deciding on their own state of health that influence them constitute, in the end, the limits of their own freedom and expressive autonomy. expressive autonomy often refers to relational elements, which lead on to another form of autonomy, relational autonomy. in this respect we are referring to trust in the doctor-patient relationship and how this trust influences decisions. a social entourage exists that is important to us. there is a scale of social distances, important in terms of the trust we have in people and, accordingly, the importance they have for us and for our decision-making process. there are situations when we have more trust in people who have demonstrated competence, hence the different levels of trust in doctors, teachers or other professional categories. returning to bioethics in the scenario of a pandemic, we emphasize the special role of family doctors during this period, of the medical staff who have direct connections with the patient. direct and trusting relationships between physician and patient can be of particular importance in combating the impact of rumors that affect trust in public institutions. the church and the messages it sends to the believers can play an extremely important role in these times. if the church acts responsibly and sends messages of respect for security measures, of trust in state institutions, then believers will tend to place greater emphasis on those messages. in my opinion, it is important that in these situations we bring into discussion the idea of bioethics in extreme situations in order to understand how we can make decisions and what are the best decisions to make; to understand the ethical, social, and medical reasons that led to a series of decisions and how we can react to them. thus, ethics is both a science and a philosophy. accordingly, there are philosophical and scientific models that brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 264 allow us to live ethically and morally, and there are ethical values such as respect, solidarity, responsibility, and autonomy that must be learned, primarily in bioethics and medical ethics courses along with notions of patients' rights and associated health legislation. it is important to talk about the ethics of emergencies from several perspectives. the first of these is related to respect for autonomy and the practice of obtaining informed consent (frunză & sandu, 2017), specifically regarding alteration of the limits of autonomy (gavrilovici & oprea, 2013) in such situations. 2. authonomy in stressful contexts stress can be as destructive, or sometimes more destructive, than the virus, without minimizing the risks that such diseases can pose to human health given that thousands of people have already lost their lives. it is a serious mistake to minimize the risks and not follow the instructions on hygiene, travel, limiting unnecessary travel, and restricting one’s autonomy. the approach proposed by the who and accepted by most governments was the drastic limitation of contact between infected people, including potentially infected people, and the rest of the population. this reduces the risk of transmitting the disease by asymptomatic infected people. because there are people who have contracted the virus but do not show symptoms, social distancing measures should be as broad as possible, addressing first people who enter the country from places where there have been outbreaks and then, ideally, the entire population. a complete cessation of all activities is, however, impossible; public order, health services, the supply of food, medicine, and other products of strict necessity must be ensured. therefore, blocking the transmission of the virus through complete isolation is simply not possible. transmission of the virus can only be slowed, not annihilated. another perspective on stopping the pandemic is that most people will develop immunity. this happens when they have been infected with or are vaccinated against the virus. in the absence of a vaccine, health policies in some states have been based on what is called herd immunity (regalado, 2020; iftikhar, 2020) which, until recently, has formed the basis for health policies in the uk and the netherlands. given the virulence rate, it has been calculated that between 60% and 70% of the population need to be infected (o'grady, 2020; boseley, 2020) to stop the epidemic. infected people, once recovered, are assumed to develop immunity. it has also been found that most people who contract the virus either manifest symptoms that are not autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic antonio sandu 265 very severe or develop no symptoms at all (insp, 2020, april 3; rothe et al., 2020). if a large number of people who have been infected and subsequently developed immunity is reached, transmission becomes impossible and the pandemic practically stops. of course, there will be isolated cases, even the return of symptoms when immunity is still low, but we can no longer speak of a pandemic. however, such an approach is risky as it involves allowing a high number of deaths. as a compensatory measure, states that apply the concept of herd immunity should also ensure the complete isolation of people at increased risk of developing an aggressive form of this disease. those most at risk of death from coronavirus infection are generally the elderly and people with associated comorbidities diabetes, neoplasm, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and so on (***, 2020, april, 4; guan et al., 2020). some models of the pandemic response focus on the idea of isolating such high-risk people very carefully, while leaving other people free to develop immunity by subjecting them more aggressively to the risk of illness so that they acquire herd immunity as soon as possible. this would eventually allow even people at higher risk to return to a normal life (kluge, 2020). however, using quarantine to prevent infection cannot be the only measure employed, it must be accompanied by large-scale testing to identify as many people as possible who carry the virus, albeit within existing health resources. this involves conducting epidemiological surveys that identify who has had contact with those infected, and who then should be more drastically isolated than the rest of the population. this policy consists of taking specific measures of isolation and self-isolation at home, i.e., limiting contacts and socially isolating people. this is termed social distancing and aims to avoid peaks of the epidemic that will exceed the capacity of health care systems to provide care to people with more severe forms of the illness who need mechanical ventilation or other forms of support. such people are also problematic because they put medical staff working directly with patients at risk of infection. this health policy, which romania also applies, aims to extend the period in which people will develop natural immunity and contract the virus, and thus enables the health system to theoretically deal with serious illnesses that require hospital care, as opposed to people who develop a mild form of the disease and can be cared for and isolated at home, which will prevent further transmission of the virus and enable them to recover. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 266 the stressful situation this pandemic invokes is caused not only by the fear of illness but by the alarmist news (schulman & siman-tov, 2020; tasnim, hossain & mazumder, 2020) that are circulating which create uncertainty and confusion in terms of knowing what to think about infection, what the mortality rate is, what risks we all face, and what the real dangers are. stress is inevitable because. suddenly we became aware of the imminence of death, the fact that there is an immediate and conscious risk. the imminence of death therefore exists but it becomes increasingly salient in pandemic situations and then, inevitably, the perception of fatality, that we are in immediate danger, affects us, it concerns those close to us and, in the opinion of many, it is somewhat inevitable that we will become sick, even though this can be avoided by applying very strict self-isolation measures. sudden awareness of the risks makes us vulnerable and thus puts us in a stressful situation. beyond the stress generated by this threat, this anguish of death – which philosophers have spoken about at least since heidegger (2002), but also before, as philosophy was thought, among other things, to be a preparation for death has been an object of study, of philosophizing, that has been important for a multitude of thinkers. we are also experiencing a lifestyle anxiety. we are acustomed to having an active, social lifestyle in which we meet each other, and suddenly we have to distance ourselves, to remain (self)isolated as much as possible at home. the stress of limiting daily activities, of limiting social relations, to occasional short meetings or virtual meetings, is accentuated by an awareness of the lack of meetings with others, especially in the current context where most public meeting places are visibly closed. on top of these concerns people are having to face the specter of unemployment, sometimes immediate, because many companies are in a perilous financial situation and even entire industries, such as the book industry and cultural institutions, are at risk of immediate bankruptcy. inevitably, people are asking about their jobs and their income, and each of us feels at risk concerning the lifestyles we have become accustomed to and the changes we will have to deal with. there is also stress regarding the future, the security of tomorrow, because we live in a society where we are used to having a certain level of social security and comfort. suddenly this is being threatened and therefore it is very important for the state to take immediate action to reduce these risks. an example might be a measure that greece has taken, which is to support the salaries of employees who are laid off or are technically unemployed, or to subsidize the salaries of employees that companies do not autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic antonio sandu 267 dismiss. similar measures have been taken in germany and in the netherlands. we are also used to living in a globalized society, accustomed to the fact that we can travel, we are used to the freedom of movement yet we are suddenly faced with the fact that a large number of people have been unable to return to their country because the vast majority of european countries have closed their borders to foreign nationals and limited the possibilities of movement. this has happened in a europe in which freedom of movement is a fundamental right that european citizens have acquired through the supranational construction called the european union. freedom of movement is one of the founding values of this union. limiting freedom of movement at an individual and group level therefore creates additional stressors. 3. long-term side-effects of the pandemic on personal authonomy the long-term effects will be increased risks of mental illness, of more or less severe forms of asthenia, and also of neuroses. most important in overcoming stress is solidarity and a sense of belonging, the feeling that you are not alone even if you are restricted, that you are with others, even if this is more or less virtual. in my opinion this is one of the most important things that can lead to a decrease in psychological risks, because in difficult situations psychological stress can lead to the development of psychopathologies. psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors in general, and social workers, must strive to find ways to eliminate stress, to eliminate its negative effects and, of course, take precautionary measures. for medical staff especially, who are in the front line in the fight against this virus, this can be a very difficult situation because they are aware they are taking huge risks. in countries with high levels of infection, large numbers of members of the medical staff have been positively diagnosed, including doctors and some, for example in china, have died, such as the first doctor to publicize the epidemic (li, 2020; yu, 2020). the risk factor to which medical staff are subjected is increasing and they need to be supported, first with sanitary material so that they have what they need to carry out their duties, such as masks and protective equipment. in the case outlined above, stress is also increased by the worries for one's own family, by the risk they have to face, by the fact that medical staff should remain isolated from their own family so as to avoid putting them at risk of infection, all these elements serve as additional stressors. in such brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 268 circumstances, of course, psychological support is absolutely necessary, and this can come primarily from psychologists, social workers, and doctors. however, it is important that this also comes from society, and we have seen manifestations of this in various cities; for example, from balconies in italy, doctors and medical staff have been applauded at certain hours and various songs of encouragement have been sung. 4. criteria for making deliberate ethical choices during crisis situations it is important to understand the ethical dilemmas we all face in the current pandemic situation: herd immunity versus almost total isolation; who is entitled to life-saving therapies or medical equipment in situations where supplies are insufficient; building trust in the medical act and in health policies; the conflict between the principles of charity and autonomy; the possibility of violating the principle of social justice; derogation from quality standards in order to obtain the best possible care for as many people as possible, and so on. assuming that more people will need to be infected to obtain herd immunity and that this risk is real is an ethical decision, that should not be neglected. on the other hand, extending the duration of the pandemic generates other risks. we have been talking about stress at an extreme level, which can lead to a wave of suicides among various categories of vulnerable populations. there must be coherent social policies aimed at avoiding and limiting stress risks not only those caused by health inequities arising as a result of the pandemic but also the economic and social risks to which various categories of vulnerable populations will be subjected. these public policies must be obvious and immediate (ministry of internal affairs, 2020). however, no policy can limit the suffering a family feels when it loses one or more members, nor the situations of vulnerability in which such a family is placed (ministry of internal affairs, 2020). basically, in terms of bioethics, in pandemic situations the issue arises of establishing criteria on which to make a deliberate choice as to who is more entitled to live and who is not, a choice that is dramatic in any situation whatever the criteria. any criteria ultimately leads to a public health policy that emphasizes the strict isolation of all people, with long-term risks to the economy and thus the quality of life of the entire population. conversely, strict isolation for vulnerable groups with more relaxed mobility than other population categories diminishes the economic risks, but increases the immediate risks of suffering and death. the risks associated with a period of autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic antonio sandu 269 economic depression – as indicated in the dramatic fall of stock markets and the bankruptcy of many companies – can be expected to generate a traumatic situation after the end of the pandemic that will probably last for years and bring with it a wave of suicides or at least severe depression, along with an increase in the incidence of mental illness due to post-traumatic shock caused by the trauma experienced during this period. furthermore, from a bioethical point of view, we must also talk about the risks associated with the dramatic change in people's way of life as a result of the severe limitations imposed by the pandemic, such as those on freedom of movement which were previously discussed. confidence in medical institutions, and also in state institutions, is also deeply impaired when measures to restrict individual freedoms are taken, especially when it seems that some states – spain and italy for example – have been abandoned by the rest of the european union. although measures taken at the level of the european union – such as risk compensation policies and the allocation of increasing funds for social protection – are absolutely necessary, they must also be clearly expressed and communicated (euractiv.com & euractiv network, 2020; fra european union agency for fundamental rights fra, 2020; european commission, 2020). social communication is also fundamentally important, especially when we talk about social distancing. physical social distancing must be compensated for by eliminating distances in communication. it is also of great importance, from an ethical point of view, to communicate the real situation, so that public institutions – such as the national committee for special emergency situations communicate correctly and credibly the number of people infected, the number of deaths, the number of people in quarantine, and also the number of people who have recovered. there are countries in which suspicions have arisen that the real situation regarding the evolution of the pandemic has not been correctly and completely communicated (putz, 2020). for example, china has been accused of not communicating the risk of a pandemic during the first few days in which initial cases were identified (wadhams, jacobs, & bloomberg, 2020). when the first cases occurred in wuhan, the idea that circulated was that the virus was transmitted from animals to humans and that human-to-human transmission was not possible. china also accuses the united states in claiming that carrier 0 was not chinese but an american, an athlete who was present at the wuhan military olympics in november 2019, and that the pandemic started in november and not in december (digi sport, 2020; vacaru, 2020). whether or not this is the case, there may be considerable justification for the fact that the first few cases brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 270 were not communicated in advance – the nature of the virus was unknown and it could not be imagined that we were dealing with a dangerous pandemic. this explains the reluctance of local communist authorities to communicate the situation before obtaining the consent of the central authorities – although if it had been communicated in advance and the measures had been applied earlier, the situation could have been kept under control in the same way that the sars epidemic in 2001-2002 was kept under control. public communications from russia (rettman, 2020; de haldevang, 2020) or iran are also accused of limiting the declared number of deaths. other accusations even relate to the situation in romania (insp, april 15), as the relatively small number of infected may have been greatly underestimated by the fact that not all people who have symptoms, or who are at risk of being infected, have actually been tested. furthermore, the triaging of people who are tested is not very strict and most people who are carriers but do not show symptoms remain untested for the virus. 5. crisis situations as tests of personal authonomy every situation that humanity goes through teaches us something. we cannot live our lives without learning any lessons. there can be two perspectives of a believer in god on the origin of the pandemic: the first is to consider the idea that such a misfortune is the result of a divine punishment, that the sins accumulated by humanity, a kind of collective karma, are those that generate such a situation and make it necessary. we are talking about a karma of humanity that makes necessary, from time to time, the appearance of suffering, or, if we speak in european terms, a destiny that accumulates such negative elements at the level of all humanity and that ultimately makes such a divine correction necessary. another religious spiritual thought is that in the end, such a manifestation has come to bring on and demonstrate divine power and, as such, must be rather understood in the positive sense that a divine intervention will be the one that will end such situations. there is an extremely important topic of study in bioethics the bioethics of the end of life and research we have undertaken in this field shows that, for those people who are in terminal situations where they have a few months left to live, if they show confidence in the divinity, they live much more serenely in these terminal stages (damian et al., 2013; necula, damian, caras, sandu, & vicol, 2013). after all, when the end is imminent, the quality of life of patients in terminal stages, in what is called palliation, matters a great deal. it is one thing to go through the terminal stages autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic antonio sandu 271 accompanied by pain and anguish, with a fear that generates even more suffering, and another to trust god to limit your suffering, at least psychologically if not physically. it is important to be aware of our condition as temporary beings, that we are subject to the effects of time, aging, death a limited condition that can be understood by giving it meaning through an experience of religiosity. i do not think we should go too far in interpreting such a situation as a kind of punishment that humanity receives, rather we should consider it a step in the development of society. for example, we can see that the level of pollution of the environment, of the air in the big cities, has decreased on a global level. it is a lesson in how we can work more from home and pollute the planet less, because i think that will maybe change our lives the most after the end of the pandemic. i think this is because, once companies have moved most of their business to telework, many will continue to do so because it involves low costs, for example in terms of space rents, and because it is easier to manage from certain points of view. this will lead in the long run to a greater social distance not just the one imposed in the current period and we will have a situation where social distancing is a habitus. in this quarantine period we will get used to the idea that social distance is a good thing and we will tend to practice social distancing even when these measures are no longer mandatory. however, if they are not accompanied by clear elements of social solidarity and individual and social responsibility, there will be a tendency to slide towards an increasingly distant society and the social distance will be an emotional distance first of all, then a decrease in social cohesion, which, from an ethical point of view, can mean a state of risk for society and the profound transformation or even disappearance of society as we know it today. conclusions social distancing will leave traces that will irrevocably change our way of life and the way we understand communication with others. one of my theories, expressed from a sociological and philosophical perspective, is related to the virtualization of social space (sandu, 2003; sandu, cojocaru, & ponea, 2010; sandu 2019a, 2019b). this refers to the fact that for a long time humanity has transferred many of its social interactions to the virtual environment. long before this pandemic, we were talking about virtual ubiquity (sandu & vlad, 2018), about the fact that distances have become spiritualized along with borders. now physical boundaries have reappeared while virtual ones have not. basically, this virtualization of the social space will be accentuated, we will have a social space that will become another brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 272 dimension of our communication space. consequently, we will interact even more in the virtual world, we will distance ourselves socially, we will reduce our face-to-face interactions and, possibly, a new form of solidarity will appear. it appears thus far that virtualization of the social space seems to have led to a series of inconveniences related to the superficialization of social interactions. increased virtualization, which we are now witnessing, may also intensify virtual interactions although previous experience suggests that the more intense these interactions are from an emotional point of view, the more superficial real relationships or even reality becomes. a research study i conducted many years ago regarding erotic interaction at a distance through video chat (sandu, 2003) shows that there is a significant relational mutation towards the other person, namely a transformation of the other's body into an object of amplification and satisfaction of certain desires. this superficiality is accentuated by moving to a virtual corporeality, a kind of phantom game, because the sensation of "the other" and the corporeality of the other disappears, which usually leads to the annihilation or at least limiting of emotions felt toward the other as a real person. the "other" acquires an avatar body and even an avatar identity. through the virtual relationship with the other, the individual builds their own avatar reality, transferring their fantasies to this new identity-surrogate and identifying with it. nevertheless, the transfer of many interactions from the physical environment to the online environment means that, for many young people, especially digital natives, virtual space is considered a fourth dimension, is considered real, is reified and we live without realizing it in a universe (sandu, 2018; 2019c) that did not exist when we were children, a universe dominated by the virtual world. this merits further investigation sociologically, philosophically, economically, politically and bioethically because such virtualization will eventually lead to lives increasingly lived in the virtual world, where to have a second life means to have an avatar life that surpasses real life. references beauchamp, t. l., & childress, j. f. (2001). principles of biomedical ethics (5th ed.). oxford university press. boseley, s. (2020, march 13). herd immunity: will the uk's coronavirus strategy work? the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/herd-immunity-willthe-uks-coronavirus-strategy-work https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/herd-immunity-will-the-uks-coronavirus-strategy-work https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/herd-immunity-will-the-uks-coronavirus-strategy-work autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic antonio sandu 273 caras, a., & sandu, a. (2014, july 4-9). relational autonomy – connections between moral agent theory and supervision of ethics. al x–lea congres mondial isud, fiinţa umană: natura şi funcţiile sale, craiova, românia. https://isudialogue.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/isud-program-2014final1.pdf damian, s., sandu, a., necula, r., bizgan, m., & ioan, b. (2013). death in the vision of doctors. an anthropological perspective. postmodern openings, 4(3), 73-97. de haldevang, a. (2020, march 21). russia has reported few coronavirus cases but a sharp spike in pneumonia. quartz. https://qz.com/1822523/russiareports-few-coronavirus-cases-but-sharp-spike-in-pneumonia/ digi sport (2020, march 15). china dă vina pe sua pentru pandemia de coronavirus! totul din cauza jocurilor militare mondiale. acuzaţii grave! [china blames us for coronavirus pandemic! all because of the world military games. serious accusations!]. digi sport. https://www.digisport.ro/special/chinezii-dau-vina-pe-americani-pentrupandemia-de-coronavirus-totul-din-cauza-jocurilor-militare-mondiale811893 . euractiv.com & euractiv network (2020, april 20). coronavirus: what’s happening in europe. euractiv. https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/linksdossier/coronaviru s-whats-happening-in-europe/ european commission (2020). coronavirus response. https://ec.europa.eu/info/livework-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response_en fra european union agency for fundamental rights (2020). coronavirus pandemic in the eu fundamental rights implications. bulletin 1. https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2020coronavirus-pandemic-eu-bulletin_en.pdf frunza, a. & sandu, a. (2017). values grounding the informed consent in medical practice. theory and practice. sage open, 7(4), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017740397 gavrilovici, o. & oprea, l. (2013). comunicarea în relaţia medic-pacient [communication in the doctor-patient relationship]. in l. oprea., c. gavrilovici, m. c. vicol, & v. astărăstoae (coord.), relaţia medic-pacient [doctor-patient relationship] (pp. 201-231). editura polirom. gîrlescu, n., hunea, i., diac, m., damian, s., knieling, a., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2020). cerebral oedema in diabetic ketoacidosis. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 32-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/13 guan, w-jie, liang, w-hua, zhao, y., liang, h-rui, chen, z-sheng, li, y-min, liu, x-qing, chen, r., tang, c-li, wang, t., ou, c-quan, li, l., chen, p-yan, https://isudialogue.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/isud-program-2014-final1.pdf https://isudialogue.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/isud-program-2014-final1.pdf https://qz.com/1822523/russia-reports-few-coronavirus-cases-but-sharp-spike-in-pneumonia/ https://qz.com/1822523/russia-reports-few-coronavirus-cases-but-sharp-spike-in-pneumonia/ https://www.digisport.ro/special/chinezii-dau-vina-pe-americani-pentru-pandemia-de-coronavirus-totul-din-cauza-jocurilor-militare-mondiale-811893 https://www.digisport.ro/special/chinezii-dau-vina-pe-americani-pentru-pandemia-de-coronavirus-totul-din-cauza-jocurilor-militare-mondiale-811893 https://www.digisport.ro/special/chinezii-dau-vina-pe-americani-pentru-pandemia-de-coronavirus-totul-din-cauza-jocurilor-militare-mondiale-811893 https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/linksdossier/coronavirus-whats-happening-in-europe/ https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/linksdossier/coronavirus-whats-happening-in-europe/ https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response_en https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response_en https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2020-coronavirus-pandemic-eu-bulletin_en.pdf https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2020-coronavirus-pandemic-eu-bulletin_en.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2158244017740397 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/13 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 274 sang, l., wang, w., li, j-fu, li, c-chen, ou, l-min, cheng, b., xiong, s., ni, z-yi, xiang, j., hu, y., liu, l., shan, h., lei, c-liang, peng, y-xiang, wei, l., liu, y., hu, y-hua, peng, p., wang, j-ming, liu, j-yang, chen, z., li, g., zheng, z-jian, qiu, s-qin, luo, l., ye, c-jiang, zhu, s-yong, cheng, l-ling, ye, f., li, s-yue, zheng, j-ping, zhang, n-fu, zhong, n-shan, & he, j-xing (2020). comorbidity and its impact on 1590 patients with covid-19 in china: a nationwide analysis. european respiratory journal, 55(4), in press. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00547-2020 heidegger, m. (2002). fiinţă şi timp [being and time]. humanitas. iftikhar, n. (2020). what is herd immunity and could it help prevent covid19? healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/herd-immunity national institute of public health. (2020, april 3). metodologia de supraveghere a sindromului respirator acut cu noul coronavirus (covid-19). actualizare 03.04.2020 [methodology for surveillance of acute respiratory syndrome with the new coronavirus (covid-19). update 03.04.2020]. https://www.cnscbt.ro/index.php/info-medical/1623-metodologia-desupraveghere-a-covid-19-actualizare-03-04-2020/file kant, i. (2007). întemeierea metafizicii moravurilor [groundwork of the metaphysic of morals]. humanitas. kant, i. (2010). critica raţiunii practice [critique of practical reason]. univers enciclopedic. kluge, h. h. p. (2020, april 2). statement – older people are at highest risk from covid-19, but all must act to prevent community spread. world health organization. regional office for europe. http://www.euro.who.int/en/healthtopics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/statements/statementolder-people-are-at-highest-risk-from-covid-19,-but-all-must-act-toprevent-community-spread li, w. (2020, february 7). li wenliang: coronavirus death of wuhan doctor sparks anger. bbc. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51409801 ministry of health. (2020). ce trebuie să ştiţi despre noul coronavirus (covid-19) [what you need to know about the new coronavirus (covid-19)]. http://www.ms.ro/coronavirus-covid-19/ necula, r., damian, s., caras, a., sandu, a., & vicol, m. (2013). the role of spirituality in the construction of the autonomy and responsibility of chronic diabetic patients. an orthodox priests’ perspective. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 92, 617-626. o'grady, c. (2020, march 20). the u.k. backed off on herd immunity. to beat covid-19, we’ll ultimately need it. widespread immunity is essential for a successful vaccine, but establishing it could be difficult for the new coronavirus. national geographic. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00547-2020 https://www.healthline.com/health/herd-immunity https://www.cnscbt.ro/index.php/info-medical/1623-metodologia-de-supraveghere-a-covid-19-actualizare-03-04-2020/file https://www.cnscbt.ro/index.php/info-medical/1623-metodologia-de-supraveghere-a-covid-19-actualizare-03-04-2020/file http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/statements/statement-older-people-are-at-highest-risk-from-covid-19,-but-all-must-act-to-prevent-community-spread http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/statements/statement-older-people-are-at-highest-risk-from-covid-19,-but-all-must-act-to-prevent-community-spread http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/statements/statement-older-people-are-at-highest-risk-from-covid-19,-but-all-must-act-to-prevent-community-spread http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/statements/statement-older-people-are-at-highest-risk-from-covid-19,-but-all-must-act-to-prevent-community-spread https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51409801 http://www.ms.ro/coronavirus-covid-19/ autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic antonio sandu 275 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/03/uk-backed-offon-herd-immunity-to-beat-coronavirus-we-need-it/ putz, c. (2020, april 3). where in the world are there no coronavirus cases? what should we make of the countries that have not reported cases? are they unable to test? are they lying? are they that isolated? the diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/where-in-the-world-are-there-nocoronavirus-cases/ redefining vulnerability in the era of covid-19. editorial. (2020 april 4). the lancet, 395(10230), p1089. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)307571 regalado, a. (2020, march 17). what is herd immunity and can it stop the coronavirus? once enough people get covid-19, it will stop spreading on its own. but the costs will be devastating. mit technology review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/03/17/905244/what-is-herdimmunity-and-can-it-stop-the-coronavirus/ rettman, a. (2020, march 19). is russia lying to who on virus data? euobserver. https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/147798 rothe, c., schunk, m., sothmann, p., bretzel, g., froeschl, g., wallrauch, c., zimmer, t., thiel, v., janke, c., guggemos, w., seilmaier, m., drosten, c., vollmar, p., zwirglmaier, k., zange, s., wölfel,r., & hoelscher, m. (2020). transmission of 2019-ncov infection from an asymptomatic contact in germany [letter]. new england journal of medicine, 382, 970-971. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc2001468 sandu, a. & vlad, l. (2018). beyond technological singularity-the posthuman condition. postmodern openings, 9(1), 91-108. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/07 sandu, a. (2003). sexul pe internet – formă de virtualizare a spaţiului social [internet sex a form of virtualization of social space]. revista de cercetare şi intervenţie socială, 2, 154-161. sandu, a. (2011, september 22–25). conceptul de autonomie în bioetică şi etică aplicată. un review de literatură [the concept of autonomy in bioethics and applied ethics. a literature review]. [conference presentation]. national conference on bioethics, 7th edition, bucharest, romania. sandu, a. (2018, august 18). towards a phenomenology of the digitalization of the consciousness [conference presentation]. world congress of philosophy, beijing, china. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=temxmlfwwfi&list=pl38iupbuba _-1b3jadwor2tenwcxnmsdd&index=2&t=35s sandu, a. (2019a). towards a phenomenology of the digitalization of consciousness. the virtualization of the social space. postmodern openings, 10(2), 155-161. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/77 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/03/uk-backed-off-on-herd-immunity-to-beat-coronavirus-we-need-it/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/03/uk-backed-off-on-herd-immunity-to-beat-coronavirus-we-need-it/ https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/where-in-the-world-are-there-no-coronavirus-cases/ https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/where-in-the-world-are-there-no-coronavirus-cases/ https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30757-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30757-1 https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/03/17/905244/what-is-herd-immunity-and-can-it-stop-the-coronavirus/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/03/17/905244/what-is-herd-immunity-and-can-it-stop-the-coronavirus/ https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/147798 https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc2001468 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=temxmlfwwfi&list=pl38iupbuba_-1b3jadwor2tenwcxnmsdd&index=2&t=35s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=temxmlfwwfi&list=pl38iupbuba_-1b3jadwor2tenwcxnmsdd&index=2&t=35s http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/77 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 276 sandu, a. (2019b). new patterns of media consumption. tv series on demand as a form of virtualizing the social space. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 7(1), 96-105. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/21 sandu, a. (2019c). towards a phenomenology of the digitalization of consciousness. the virtualization of the social space. postmodern openings, 10(2), 155-161. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/77 sandu, a., cojocaru, ş., & ponea, s. (2010). appreciative evaluation of training programs. case study: lumen consulting and training center. social research reports, 8, 3-76. schulman, r., & siman-tov, d. (2020). from biological weapons to miracle drugs: fake news about the coronavirus pandemic. institute for national security studies insight, 1275. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep23529.pdf tasnim, s., hossain, m., & mazumder, h. (2020, march 29). impact of rumors or misinformation on coronavirus disease (covid-19) in social media. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/uf3zn . vacaru, a. (2020, march 13). un oficial chinez acuză armata americană că ar fi răspândit coronavirusul în china [a chinese official accuses the us army of spreading the coronavirus to china]. mediafax.ro. https://www.mediafax.ro/ coronavirus/un-oficial-chinez-acuza-armata-americana-ca-ar-fi-raspanditcoronavirusul-in-china-18980038. wadhams, n., jacobs, j., & bloomberg (2020, april 1). china intentionally underreported total coronavirus cases and deaths, u.s. intelligence says. fortune. https://fortune.com/2020/04/01/china-coronavirus-cases-deaths-totalunder-report-cover-up-covid-19/ yu, v. (2020, february 18). senior wuhan doctor dies from coronavirus as authorities start to 'round up' patients. the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/18/seniorwuhan-doctor-dies-from-coronavirus-as-authorities-start-to-round-uppatients http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/21 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/77 https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep23529.pdf https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/uf3zn https://www.mediafax.ro/coronavirus/un-oficial-chinez-acuza-armata-americana-ca-ar-fi-raspandit-coronavirusul-in-china-18980038 https://www.mediafax.ro/coronavirus/un-oficial-chinez-acuza-armata-americana-ca-ar-fi-raspandit-coronavirusul-in-china-18980038 https://www.mediafax.ro/coronavirus/un-oficial-chinez-acuza-armata-americana-ca-ar-fi-raspandit-coronavirusul-in-china-18980038 https://fortune.com/2020/04/01/china-coronavirus-cases-deaths-total-under-report-cover-up-covid-19/ https://fortune.com/2020/04/01/china-coronavirus-cases-deaths-total-under-report-cover-up-covid-19/ https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/18/senior-wuhan-doctor-dies-from-coronavirus-as-authorities-start-to-round-up-patients https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/18/senior-wuhan-doctor-dies-from-coronavirus-as-authorities-start-to-round-up-patients https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/18/senior-wuhan-doctor-dies-from-coronavirus-as-authorities-start-to-round-up-patients brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 25-43 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/218 psychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal development of adolescents with depressive disorders nelia bihun¹, olena malyna2, maksym doichyk3, ihor hoian4, nina harkavenko5, svitlana symonenko6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, nelabigun@gmail.com 2 zaporizhzhia national university, ukraine, lenamalina1975@gmail.com 3 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, maksimdoichyk@ukr.net 4 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, ivigoian@gmail.com 5 yuriy fedkovych chernivtsi national university, ukraine, n.harkavenko@chnu.edu.ua 6 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k.d.ushynsky, ukraine, si38mon@ukr.net abstract: the article presents a theoretical generalization and a new solution to a scientific problem, expressed in the application of an innovative personal approach to solving the problem of adolescent depressive disorders, the basis of which is the scientific and methodological interpretation of personal development as a defining construct of the system of psychological conditions for the onset of depressive disorders, models of their diagnosis and psychological conditions for overcoming , which ensures the formation of adolescents' ability to effective personal self-regulation and an arbitrary choice of constructive ways of self-realization. the methodological foundations of the study of the personal properties of adolescents with depressive disorders are disclosed, a program for the diagnosis of personal symptoms of depressive disorders of various forms of severity in adolescent schoolchildren is presented; carried out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results of the ascertaining experiment on the psychological conditions of the onset of depressive disorders in adolescent schoolchildren and the personality traits of adolescents with depressive disorders; the description of personal phenomenology and symptomatology of depressive disorders in adolescents has been carried out. theoretical substantiation of the formative experiment is given, the program of correction and optimization of personal development of teenagers as a means of overcoming their depressive disorders is presented, the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results of its approbation is carried out. a profound restructuring of the structure and qualitative characteristics of the psychological conditions of the personal development of adolescents, their system of personal selfregulation, optimizes the functioning of the mechanism of personal sensitivity "ego" -tolerance to destructive influences, is, as the results of the application of the experimental correctional and developmental program, an effective way to overcome depression in adolescents’ disorders. keywords: personality development interpretation, personal selfregulation, constructive self-realisation ways, diagnostics of personal symptoms, adolescent secondary school students, correction program. how to cite: bihun, n., malyna, o., doichyk, m., hoian, i., harkavenko, n., & symonenko, s. (2021). psychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal development of adolescents with depressive disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 25-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/218 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/218 mailto:nelabigun@gmail.com mailto:lenamalina1975@gmail.com mailto:maksimdoichyk@ukr.net mailto:ivigoian@gmail.com mailto:n.harkavenko@chnu.edu.ua mailto:si38mon@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/218 psychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal … nelia bihun, et al. 26 introduction the modern trends to the education reform are centralised in the idea to develop and implement the latest psychological and pedagogical techniques that are primarily oriented to the development of the school student`s personality. ensuring the conditions for an independent, harmonious, active personality to grow, to be able to creatively program his or her life and to individually realise his or her full potential, the ukrainian scientists determine the tasks of the contemporary general education school as prioritised (behas et al., 2019; bekh, 1998; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; bulakh, 2003; nerubasska & maksymchuk 2020; nerubasska et al., 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020; sitovskyi et al., 2019). in the system of these conditions, the psychological conditions have a special place, as they directly serve as general mechanisms of the human being`s personality development and mechanisms of his/her development in some specific crisis states, particularly in the situations of appearing and progressing depressive disorders. prevention of neuropsychiatric disorders, providing conditions for maintaining the mental health of children and young students occupies a special place in the system of current issues of modern domestic school. according to statistics, the number of schoolchildren with mental and behavioral disorders has increased by 16.7% over the last decade. the danger of depressive disorders both in adults and adolescents is first and foremost associated with a higher suicidal risk: depression takes the second place (17,3%) among the reasons of suicidal deaths. smulevych (2015) indicates that suicidal thoughts and attempts are registered in 61.9% young people and teenagers with depressive disorders. the justification of the relevance of studying the problem of depressive disorders in adolescents requires that its age-related aspect should be taken into consideration, in particular, the analysis of adverse effects of the origin and progression of depression namely at the age of adolescence when dramatic changes happen in the structure of the personality of a young human being. immaturity of the adolescents` personality causes their vulnerability to the destructive influence of depression by provoking the hazard of a depressive deformation of the mindfulness development processes, formation of personality new traits, social adaptation and integration. futhermore, the risk of formation of premorbid traits of the personality as one of the psychological conditions for dysthymic disorders and chronic depressions to occur at a juvenile and mature age increases in the midst of adolescent depressive disorders. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 27 thus, in the context of the analysis of the problem of adolescent depression, it becomes necessary to study the psychological conditions of the personal development of adolescents with depressive disorders, in particular, the identification of depressogenic internally personal and externally personal conditions for the development of depression, as well as modeling the psychological conditions for the correction and optimization of the personal development of adolescents as a means of preventing and overcoming it. however, it should be pointed out that the research of adolescent’s depressions is mostly performed in terms of the psychomedical and psychotherapeutic approaches. the underdevelopment of the problem in the realm of psychological science and practice causes that insufficient consideration of the specifics of teen depressions, i.a. in their genesis of such fundamental psychological conditions as domination in the structure of the teenager`s personality development, crisis of an individual`s personality development at a teen age; personal symptoms and signs are underused in revealing depressive disorders; a limited arsenal of special programs and methods of assistance for adolescents with depressive disorders which are available for psychologists at educational institutions. the social significance of the problem and its incomplete study made us choose such a subject of our research. objective: to theoretically prove the psychological conditions of the personality development of adolescents with depressive disorders, to assess their personal traits empirically, to elaborate and to test correction methods for treating depression in secondary school students at a teen age. review of literature depression has been known to mankind since ancient times. the first traces to study the nature of depression are found in the works of the ancient greek philosophers (hippocrates, 1936; aristotle, 2000), who called this disorder as melancholy. the term “depression” was recognised in the medical science in the second half of xix century when the science began studying this affective disorder. over a long period of study of depressive disorders, scientists have proposed a large number of hypotheses and theories designed to explain the causes of depression. generally, they present two approaches to the study of depressive disorders: psychiatric-biological and psychological-sociological. the representatives of the first school (asberg et al., 1976; davis, 1970) accentuate the role of biological factors of appearing depressive disorders; psychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal … nelia bihun, et al. 28 the advocates of the second school (ellis, 1999; freud, 1968; horney, 1997) substantiate the ideas of their advanced psychological and sociocultural nature. the recognised conceptual position is such one, according to which biological, psychological and social factors interact and have a complex impact on a human being (biopsychosocial approach by engel, 1962; integrative approach by hell, 1999). it is believed that the initial factors are biological (original disposition to depression, physiological and hormonal changes in the organism, lasting and severe somatic diseases etc.). psychological factors form on their basis (fear of loss, psychological dependence on parents, self-distrust, narcissist vulnerability, mental fatigue and burnout etc.). social factors (deformations of the educational influence, family discords, death of close people, conflict peer relationships, political and socio-economic instability in the country) serve as stimuli that actualise the effect of biological and psychological reasons of depression. the model of psychological conditions of progression of depressive disorders, which is the first in the global science, is a model of the origin of melancholy (hippocrates-galenus), the fundamentals of which consist in the aggregation of specific personality traits forming on the basis of the melancholic temper and uniting in such personality traits as propensity for sadness and psychological vulnerability. the mentioned model provided a basis for the personal approach particularly evident as initiation of the scientific tradition to interpret depression as personal issue and personal determined phenomenon. the most important psychological conditions among the personal determinants of depressive disorders discovered in the studies are: personality conflicts (freud, 1968; horney, 1997), specific personality traits (sensitivity, emotional lability, high anxiety, low self-esteem, self-distrust, modesty, sensitivity to opinions and estimating viewpoints of surrounding people, socio-psychological dependence, asthenic constitution and so forth), depressogenic personal traits of parents (personality weakness, personality constriction, personality closeness, personality proneness to conflict); psychological conditions of the strict family education with the child`s ego suppression. the analysis of the results of the research of depressive disorders attests that the sphere, which is ineluctably affected notwithstanding the specifics of the origin and progression of depressive disorders, is namely the personality self-regulation system. the proportion of personal factors in the depressogenesis is so high that defining depression as personality disorder does not look like exaggeration. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 29 from our point of view, depression is depersonalisation (ego disorders, issues with the personality self-regulatory functioning) dependent on tendencies, loss of life productivity causing the deployment of internal and external destructive processes in an individual`s life activities and related thereto emotional tolls and involutions. the beginning of the studies of depressions in children and teenagers started approximately in the first half of xx century (bowlby, 1961; spitz, 1945). the problem of teen depressive disorders remains to be a subject of studies of the contemporary researchers (antropov, 2001). the studies are carried out in various aspects: detection of reasons, determination of symptoms and signs, description of different forms of depression, elaboration of methods and ways of its treatment, amelioration. according to the research outcomes, depressive disorders in children and teenagers are specific and differ in particular aspects from similar states in adults (for instance, propensity for particular forms of depression, agerelated peculiarities of factors of the origin of depressive disorders, polymorphism and atypicality of their signs). basing on the theoretical-methodological analysis of the scientific studies of the problem of teen depressions, we designed a model of psychological conditions of the personality development of teenagers suffering depressive disorders. this model represents a structure of macro and micro-levels of psychological conditions that can be interpreted, with reference to the depression core, as external personal and internal personal conditions. the macro-level of depressogenic psychological conditions of the individual`s personality development at a teen age comprises: present teen dichotomy (dichotomy “childhood-adulthood”), situations of the personal choice of an external and internal orientation in the attitude of adequacy; natural organic aptitude and readiness for sensitivity and influence, as a product of the specifics of the higher nervous system and temper; imbalance of the constructive and dominating destructive orientations in the system of personality self-regulation; psychological conditions of crisis life situations as a result of the effect from the aggregation of destructive influences and their continuous presence in the form of potential threats. no self-sufficiency or its low level creates a core of the macro-level of depressogenic psychological conditions, where the main ones are: deformations and imbalance of the personality self-regulatory system – low or blocked productivity of the self-attitude function, self-defence, selfexpression, self-control, self-realisation (self-depreciation, non-valid tendencies in feelings about yourself; imbalance of the self-defence and selfpsychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal … nelia bihun, et al. 30 expression functions); deformations of the subsystem of personal relevance and personal sensitivity – producing exaggerated patterns of influence and their personal value, protective expectations regarding destructive influences; transformations of the personal significance of influence into the destructive, psychologic production of a virtual depressive environment; low “self”-tolerance to destructive influences as integral form of internal personal preconditions and conditions for the progression of depressive disorders. the model of psychological conditions of the progression of depression in teenagers elaborated on grounds of the theoretical generalisation justifies the conclusion that the approach adequate to the problem of treatment of teen depressive disorders is a personal approach, the fundamentals of which consist in the research and methodological interpretation of the personality development as determinative construct of the system of psychological conditions of the origin of depressive disorders, their diagnostic models and treatment, which provide an opportunity for developing the ability of teenagers to the productive personal self-regulation and optional choice of constructive ways of self-realisation. materials & methods for determining the peculiarities of the origin and progression of depression at an adolescent age and personality traits of teenagers with depressive disorders, the following diagnostic methods are used: beck`s depression scale (1974, cited in davis, 1980), zhmurov`s technique of differential diagnostics of depressive states (2002) adapted by us for adolescence; self-esteem scale; technique for studying the level of aspiration, as modified by kurek (1997), anxiety scale (gelikon, 1995), inventory of eysenck (1999), pathocharacterological diagnostic questionnaire of lichko (1999), kettel`s personal 16-pf-questionnaire (akhmedzhanov, 1996). the experimental sample made 392 secondary school students aged 11 to 16. one of the main tasks of the research was to experimentally assess the influence of psychological conditions of the personality development of teenagers on the origin and progression of their depressive disorders. for the experimental proof of the determinant bounds and bondages detected by the method of theoretical modelling, one selected the indices of the personality development of teenagers, which could be detected with the help of the reliable standardised techniques, and which could concurrently represent depressogenic psychological conditions. these indices included the phenomena of self-esteem, levels of aspiration, anxiety, temper, brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 31 accentuations of personality traits, personality properties, and productivity in different spheres of life. the worked-out program of correctional-developmental work with teenagers suffering depressive disorders is oriented at renewing and developing their personal self-regulatory system, mainly such its functions as self-treatment, self-protection, self-expression, self-control and selfrealisation. the optimisation of the said basic functions of the personal selfregulatory system produces a wholistic effect of the rise and evolution of some constructive tendencies including the following for removing depressive disorders:  tendency for curing teen dichotomy (enhanced inner orientation of the adequacy feeling, increasing level of independence, selfsufficiency, self-regulation, lower social dependence and conformity);  lower level of the personal sensitivity (lower propensity for exaggeration of the personal significance of destructive influences, lower level of anxiety, uncontrollableness of fears, tension, vulnerability, emotional instability, bashfulness, self-distrust);  tendency to enhance the positive self-attitude (higher selfesteem, lower inferiority complex, coping with despair from an own ego);  tendency to increase “self”-tolerance to destructive influences (increased level of self-control, independence, self-consistency, emotional balance, emotional resilience, confidence, overcoming constraint, increased level of self-protection and self-expression, overcoming the supressed ego);  tendency to renew the vital productivity (returning the feeling of perspective of an own existence, feeling of success and satisfaction in the main life spheres of a teenager);  tendency of lowering and disappearing of personal and external symptoms of depressive disorders. thus, the treatment of teen depressive disorders was carried out through the deep restructuring and reform of the qualitative properties of psychological conditions of the personality development of teenagers by optimising their self-regulatory systematic functions. in order to approbate our designed program for prevention and treatment of depressive disorders in adolescents, an experimental and control group was formed. the experimental group included 16 secondary school students with a light form of depression, 16 with a moderate one; the control group included 17 subjects in a state of light depression, 15 – moderate depression. psychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal … nelia bihun, et al. 32 results & discussion the analysis of the research results shows that almost a half of the teenagers examined (42.09%) suffers different forms of depressive disorders. we note that 28.06% subjects have light depression, 12.50% teenagers are in a state of moderate depression, and 2.04% secondary school students are diagnosed with severe depression. the numerical relation of boys and girls suffering depressive disorders is 1:2. the research results make it possible to state that the period of the highest risk of appearing depression is 13-14 years of age: most of adolescents (69.09%) suffering depression are secondary school students who go through the so called “crisis of 13 years”. deep qualitative changes of the mental growth process go right at this age phase and cause a teenager`s high responsiveness, vulnerability and sensitivity, his defencelessness to slings and arrows of life. the results of studying the indices of the personality development of teenagers with depressive disorders are provided in table 1. table 1. indices of the relation of personality traits of teenagers and depressive disorders n = 165 parameters studied forms of depression light medium high % rxy % rxy % rxy self-esteem inadequate, inflated adequate with an uprising trend 1.82 0.42 adequate 64.54 0.81* 36.17 0.52 12.50 adequate with a downward trend 21.82 0.52 34.04 0.94* 25.00 0.95* inadequate, low 11.82 0.50 29.79 0.89* 62.50 0.99* level of aspiration high 18.19 0.42 – – medium 44.54 0.88* 38.30 0.38 25.00 0.44 low 37.27 0.53 61.70 0.97* 75.00 0.99* anxiety high 48.18 0.37 53.19 0.96* 62.50 0.98* medium 51.82 0.69* 46.81 0.45 37.50 0.38 low temper melancholic 33.64 0.39 57.44 0.98* 62.50 0.99* brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 33 choleric 36.36 0.49 27.66 0.50 25.00 0.50 sanguineous 28.19 0.97* 14.90 0.86* 12.50 phlegmatic (lymphatic) 1.81 0.99* – – notes: 1. rxy – value of pirson`s correlation ratio 2. strong correlation if rxy > 0.6 relying on the experimental data, the psychological traits of adolescents suffering depressive disorders were determined. most of them are secondary school students with low self-esteem, high anxiety, melancholic or choleric temper, accentuated traits according to the psychastenic, sensitive, asthenoneurotic or cycloid type (14.90% secondary school students in a state of moderate depression had an asthenoneurotic type of the accentuated temper; 17.02% a sensitive type; 19.15% a psychastenic type; 23.40% a cycloid type; the group of test subjects comprised 25.00% with a psychastenic type of the accentuated temper, 25.00% with a mixed type of the accentuated temper, 12.50% with a cycloid type of the accentuated temper, 12.50% with an asthenoneurotic type of the accentuated temper). there is a two-sided concatenation of depression and the level of aspiration, self-esteem and anxiety of teenagers. low self-esteem, marked anxiety and an outstanding level of aspiration cause depressive disorders. concurrently, depression cause lower self-esteem, aspiration level and higher anxiety. absent personal traits detected in teenagers with depressive disorders in the structure of the personality of adolescents justify a generalisation being fundamental for the research: depression – a phenomenon of the personality sphere, problem of the teenager`s personality development in general, personality self-regulatory mechanisms in particular. the processing of the results received by the procedure of control testing gave a comprehensive sense of those changes happened in the personality and psychoemotional spheres of the both groups studied during the experiment, an opportunity to assess the efficiency and strength of the designed program for treatment of depressive disorders of teenagers (table 2). table 2. results of the examination of test persons in the experimental (eg) and control (cg) groups according to the method of diagnostics of depressive states n = 64 forms of depression number of test persons in % examination 1 examination 2 examination 3 examination 4 examination 5 psychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal … nelia bihun, et al. 34 eg cg eg cg eg cg eg cg eg cg absent – – 18.75 3.13 31.25 – 75.00 – 87.50 – light 50.00 53.13 43.75 50.00 56.25 50.00 25.00 50.00 12.50 46.875 medium 50.00 46.87 37.50 46.87 12.50 50.00 – 46.87 – 46.875 high – – – – – – 3.13 – 6.25 the figures provided in table 2 show the positive dynamics of the psychoemotional state of the test persons in the experimental group. in particular, 18.75% teenagers had no depressive disorders in two months after the beginning of the psychocorrectional process. according to the results of the last control diagnostic examination, the portion of teenagers without depression made 87.50%. summing up the results of the diagnostics of depressive states of the experimental group, we noticed a shift in the quantitative ratio of teenagers with different forms of depression at each experiment stage (see fig.1). fig.1. dynamics of the ratio of test persons (experimental group) with different forms of depression in the forming experiment the analysis of the dynamics of the psychoemotional state of test persons in the control group shows a negative trend as reducing number of teenagers with light depression (from 53.13% to 46.87%) and moderate depression turning into the severe one that was noted in 6.25% of the teenagers. it should be pointed out that a worse psychoemotional state of secondary school students in the control group was registered mainly in the period of completion of the school term or year. it provides insight that the intensiveness of depressogenic factors as higher school load, higher requirements and summative assessment increases towards the end of the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 35 study year. hence, the number of stressful situations stimulating depressive reactions in emotionally sensitive teenagers increases too. the statistical analysis of the experimental material according to student`s t-test showed the veracity of differences of the indices of depressive disorders between the first and second diagnostic check-ups: t = 2.96 and statistically significant when ρ ≤ 0.01 in the experimental group and statistically insignificant in the control group, where t = -1.57 when ρ ≤ 0.05. to verify the hypothesis provided and to determine whether it is true that positive changes in the psychological state of the teenagers with depression are a consequence of an increased level of development of their personality functions, we studied the dynamics of personal changes in test persons in the control and experimental groups during the forming experiment. for this purpose, we used kettel`s personal 16-pfquestionnaire (akhmedzhanov, 1996) (table 3). table 3. results of the examination of test persons in the experimental (eg) and control (cg) groups according to kettel`s personal 16-pf-questionnaire (akhmedzhanov, 1996) n = 64 factor number of test persons in % examination 1 examination 2 eg cg eg cg eg cg eg cg eg cg eg cg c 37.50 34.375 62.50 65.625 15.625 62.50 34.375 21.875 65.625 e 43.75 46.875 56.25 53.125 3.13 62.50 46.875 34.37 53.125 g 40.625 34.375 37.50 40.625 21.875 25.00 46.875 34.375 37.50 40.625 15.625 25.00 h 50.00 43.75 50.00 56.25 18.75 68.75 43.75 12.50 56.25 o 75.00 78.125 25.00 21.875 15.625 75.00 65.625 25.00 18.75 q3 15.625 21.875 37.50 43.75 46.875 34.375 28.125 21.875 46.875 43.75 25.00 34.375 q4 46.875 50,00 53.125 50,00 18.75 50.00 81.25 50.00 md 6.25 6.25 31.25 28.125 62.50 65.625 25.00 6.25 53.125 28.125 21.875 65.625 factors assessme ent high average low high average low the results of the analysis of the experimental data obtained in the summative and control assessments show the positive dynamics in the personality sphere of test persons from the experimental group. some significant changes in the indices of expressiveness of the factors c – “emotional instability – emotional stability”, h – “bashfulness – boldness”, o – “assertiveness – bashfulness”, q4 – “slackness – tension”, md – “selfesteem adequacy” and others (see table 3). there is no positive dynamics of the personality development detected while exanimating test persons of the control group. psychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal … nelia bihun, et al. 36 the comparative analysis of the diagnostic data obtained according to kettel`s personal 16-pf-questionnaire (akhmedzhanov, 1996) shows that the carried out the psychocorrective work stimulated the positive personality changes in test persons of the experimental group manifesting in a strengthened emotional stability and development of self-regulation of emotions of teenagers; a lower level of anxiety, exaltation, weakening depressiveness and inner tension; developing skills of self-control of behaviour; an increased feeling of self-confidence and refocusing from the search of support and reliance in the group to self-reliance; weakening bashfulness, constraint and adequate increase of self-esteem. thus, the results of the forming experiment confirm the efficiency of a designed model of psychological conditions of correction and optimisation of the personality development of teenagers with depressive disorders (the model is schematically presented in fig.2). in designing the model described above, we were motivated by the methodological insight about the productivity of the model construction method consisting in finding key solutions of research challenges. by applying to the problem of adolescent depressive disorders, it manifested in discovering means of a proposed model of ways to research psychological factors and mechanisms of development of depressive disorders of teenagers, discovery of their symptoms and signs and ways of treatment. scientific novelty and theoretical significance of the results obtained consist in the following: firstly, the scientific-theoretical justification of the systematic nature of determination, through psychological conditions, of the processes of origin, progression and treatment of depressive disorders in teenagers. the structure of psychological conditions of the personality development serving as mechanisms of origin of depressive disorders (psychological conditions of teen dichotomy, natural-organic influence-dependence, external orientation of the conformity attitude, deformation of the personal self-regulatory functions, high personal sensitivity, low “self”-tolerance to destructive influences, supressed “ego”) as well as the structure of psychological conditions of correction and optimisation of readiness to the personality self-regulation, creation and development of the trend of treatment of teen dichotomy, lowering of the personal sensitivity level and influence-dependence, progression of the positive self-attitude, increase of “self”-tolerance to destructive influences, life productivity optimisation were determined. the author enhanced and extended the phenomenology and symptomatology of depressive disorders of various manifestation forms by describing personal features of their manifestation at an adolescent age, designed a model of brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 37 correction and optimisation of the personality development of teenagers as psychological basis for treating their depressive disorders. fig.2. psychological conditions of correction and optimisation of the personality development of teenagers with depressive disorders correction of the emotional state correction and development of the personal competence optimization of readiness for personal development stimulation of constractive changes of personal development awareness of the need and possibility of transition to profound change in personal development correction, reconstruction and development of the system of personal selfregulation correction and developmen t of selfesteem correction and development of the function of personal selfdefense correction and development of self-expression function correction and development of self-rule function correction and development of selfrealization function integrated effect of origin and development of constructive tendencies of personal development t h e t e n d e n c y t o so lv e t h e a d o le sc e n t d ic h to m e d e c re as e d t h e l e v e l o f p e rs o n al se n si ti v it y t h e t e n d e n c y t o in c re as e a p o si ti v e re la ti o n t o w ar d s y o u rs e lf in c re as in g t h e l e v e l o f “ e g o ” – to le ra n c e t o d e st ru c ti v e in fl u e n c e s o p ti m iz at io n o f v it al p ro d u c ti v it y t h e t e n d e n c y f o r th e w e ak e n in g a n d d is ap p e ar an c e o f p e rs o n al it y a n d e x te rn al s y m p to m s o f d e p re ss iv e d is o rd e t psychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal … nelia bihun, et al. 38 the scientific representation of the phenomenon of depressive disorders, role of the personality development factors in their genesis, progression and amelioration, information of psychological means to handle depressive disorders at an adolescent age are further elaborated. the practical importance of the obtained results consists in the designed and approbated program for detection of personal symptoms and signs of different depressive disorders in secondary school students-teenagers, psychocorrection program for treatment of depressive disorders in teenagers. on grounds of the research results, the author elaborated the practical recommendations, which can be used by school psychologists, counsellors, rehabilitation therapists, teachers, parents for developing the personality of depressed teenagers, preventing and treating their personalitydepressive disorders. the obtained data about psychological conditions of origin and treatment of depressive disorders in school students-teenagers can be used for improving the content and management of comprehensive school institutions, for extending (specifying, enriching) the content of educational-professional training programs for psychologists at higher educational institutions, academic levels “bachelor”, “specialist”, “master”, particularly in teaching such subjects as “clinical psychology”, “psychopathology”, “psychocorrection”, “psychological counselling”. conclusions this article provides the theoretical generalisation and new solution of the scientific problem manifested in applying an innovative personal approach to the resolution of the problem of adolescent depressive disorders, the fundamentals of which consist in the research and methodological approach as determinative construct of the system of psychological conditions of origin of depressive disorders, their diagnostic models and psychological conditions of their amelioration providing for a forming propensity of teenagers for efficient personal self-regulation and optional choice of constructive ways of self-realisation. the approaches formed in studying adult depressions prevail in the studies of adolescent depressions. it results in such consequences: the specifics of teen depressions is deficiently considered; there is a rote transfer of the methods of diagnostics and treatment of teen depressions that results in disregarding such fundamental psychological conditions of the process of development of teenagers as the personality development dominating in its structure, teen age sensitivity to the individual`s personality development, depressogenic nature of the teenager crisis; personal symptoms of depressive disorders are incompletely used; the arsenal of programs and methods of brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 39 psychological aid to teenagers extends slowly; there is no special approach created for solving the problem of adolescent depressive disorders. resolving the problem of teen depressive disorders is an important component of the movement for constructivism, implementation of the humanistic principle of fighting for life and mature self-realisation of every person. the following was ascertained in the research: adolescent depressive disorders are noted for their high destructive potential and consequently constitute a menace to an individual`s life at an adolescent age and at further stages of existence: depressive issues, which were not shed in the period of their appearance, turn into the chronic ones and transform into the system of depressogenic personality traits – a so called depressive personality that becomes an inner source of life threats. the range of such threats is wide: from deformation of personality functions, for instance, disorder of the function of positive self-attitude and related anguish of mind to the phenomenon of “broken life” and even its physical destruction as suicide; the nature of adolescent depressive disorders poses the necessity of forming professional-ethical imperative predominantly addressed to the psychological science and practice, the content of which uncovers itself in such requirements: to adhere to the enhanced concept of the group of risk of appearing depressive disorders by using the personal approach symptomatology therefor; not to leave the problem of a detected depressive disorder unsolved; to provide teenagers with depressive disorders with urgent systematic psychological aid. psychological conditions of the personality development and depressive disorders have a staged dependence level, the nature of which is reflected by the formula “the more destructive influence of psychological conditions of the personality development, the more advanced depressive disorders: the more advanced depressive disorders, the more destructive respective psychological conditions of the personality development.” this common pattern, as we can note in the correlation analysis data, is manifested in the relations of components of these phenomena: the lower self-esteem, the more advanced depressive disorder and the higher anxiety level; the lower personality adaptive potential, the more sever depressive disorder; the more severe depressive disorder, the lower adaptive potential of personality traits. determining these and other dependences has become a key conclusion of the research that makes it possible to detect advanced inner symptoms and signs of depression, as opposed to the traditional methods of diagnostics of adolescent depressions, its phenomenological core providing for an opportunity of not only qualitative diagnostics of psychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal … nelia bihun, et al. 40 depressive disorders in their formed full-blown state, but anticipation of their origin and early detection. the psychological condition serving as a central regulator of the personal self-regulatory system as a functional core of the personality development is personal sensitivity – functional characteristics of the personal self-regulatory system defining the level of “ego”-tolerance, which is a mechanism of stabilisation, integrity and self-sufficiency of an individual`s personality functioning in the situation of perception and influence. according to the data obtained in the experimental research, interpersonal psychological conditions that determine high personal anxiety; unstable self-esteem with a downward trend; a non-uniform level of aspiration tending to be inadequately outsized or downgraded; components of personal lack of balance in the structure of the melancholic and choleric types of temper; accentuation according to the psychastenic, sensitive, asthenoneurotic, cycloid, labile types of temper. sensitivity, “ego”-tolerance and depressive disorder have regular dependence of the two types – unilateral dependence: the higher degree of personal sensitivity, the lower “ego”-tolerance to destructive influences, the higher probability of an appearing depressive disorder; and bilateral dependence – the higher degree of personal sensitivity, the lower “ego”-tolerance to destructive influences, the more severe depressive disorder; the more severe depressive disorder, the higher degree of personal sensitivity and the lower “self-“tolerance to destructive influences. the in-depth reforming of the structure and qualitative properties of psychological conditions of the teenagers` personality development, their system of personal self-regulation optimising the personal sensitivity mechanism – “self”-tolerance to destructive influences is, as evidenced by the results of the applied experimental correction-development program, a productive way to remove depressive disorders of teenagers. the application of the valid reliable standardised techniques and advanced observation attest the accuracy of the data of the teenagers` personality development in the experimental group, positive adaptive changes in the functions of the selfregulatory system: the more positive adaptive changes of the functions of self-attitude, self-defence, self-expression, self-control, self-realisation, the lower degree of symptoms of depressive disorders. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 41 references akhmedzhanov, e. r. (1996). psihologiceskie testy [psychological tests]. list. antropov, y. f. (2001). nevroticheskaia depressiia u detei i podrostkov [neurotic depression of children and teenagers]. medpraktika. aristotle. (2000). polytics (o. kysliuk, trans.). osnovy. asberg, m., thoren, p., traskman, l. (1976). serotonin depression – a biochemical subgroup within the affective disorders ? science, 191(422), 478-480. http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1246632478-480 . behas l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19 (4), 13331340. http://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 bekh, i. d. (1998). osobystisno zorientovane vykhovannia [personality-oriented education]. izmn of the ministry of education of ukraine. http://nbuv.gov.ua/j-pdf/znppo_2012_11_8.pdf bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1585-1590. http://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 bowlby, j. (1961). childhood mourning and its implications for psychiatry. american journal of psychiatry, 118(6), 481-498. http://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.118.6.481. bulakh, i. s. (2003). psykhologia osobystisnoho zrostannia pidlitka [psychology of personality growth of a teenager][master thesis, m.p. dragomanov national pedagogic university]. electronic national pedagogical dragomanov university repository. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/6085 davis, j. (1970). theories of biological etiology of affective disorders. international review of neurobiology, 12, 145-175. http://doi.org/10.1016/s00747742(08)60060-4 davis, s. a. (1980). cognitive processes in depression [dissertation, lsu historical dissertations and theses]. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/3521 ellis, a. (1999). psichotrening po metodu alberta ellisa [psychotrening according to albert ellis`s method]. piter kom. engel, g. (1962). anxiety and depression withdrawal: the primary affects of unpleasure. j. psychoanal, 43, 82-97. http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1246632478-480 http://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 http://nbuv.gov.ua/j-pdf/znppo_2012_11_8.pdf http://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 http://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.118.6.481 http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/6085 http://doi.org/10.1016/s0074-7742(08)60060-4 http://doi.org/10.1016/s0074-7742(08)60060-4 https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/3521 psychological conditions for correction and optimization of personal … nelia bihun, et al. 42 https://www.proquest.com/openview/337d06af2fd75189447ab75289436 73b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1818729 eysenck, h. j. (1999). struktura lichnosti [personality structure], translated from english. uventa. freud, s. (1968). mourning and melancholia. in w. gaylin (ed.), the meaning of despair (pp. 50–69). science house. gelikon, m. (1995). psikhologiia lichnosti [psychology of personality] tests, questionnaires,techniques. gelikon. hell, d. (1999). landschaft depressii [welchen sinn macht depression?] (i. y. sapozhnikova, trans.). aleteia. hippocrates (1936). izbrannye knigi [selected books] (vp karpov, trans.). ogiz biomedgiz. https://sheba.spb.ru/vuz/gippokrat-1936.htm horney, k. (1997). nashy vnutrennie konflikty. konstruktivnaia teoriia nevroza [our inner conflicts. constructive theory of neurosis]. lan. kurek, n. s. (1997). emotsionalnoe obschenie materi i docheri kak faktor formirovaniia addiktivnogo povedeniia v podrostkovom vozraste [emotional communication of a mother and a daughter as factor of formation of an addictive behaviour at an adolescent age]. problems of psychology, 2, 48-60. http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1997/972/972048.htm lichko, o. (1999). tipy aktsentuatsii kharaktera i psikhopatii u podrostkov [types of temper and personality disorder accentuations in teenagers]. ooo aprel press, zao izd-vo eksmo-press. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020a). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o, marchenko, o., nikolaienko , v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different https://www.proquest.com/openview/337d06af2fd75189447ab7528943673b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1818729 https://www.proquest.com/openview/337d06af2fd75189447ab7528943673b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1818729 https://sheba.spb.ru/vuz/gippokrat-1936.htm http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1997/972/972048.htm https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 43 speed of biological development (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532 – 1543. http://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03222 smulevych, a. b. (2015). depressii pri somaticheskikh zabolevaniiakh [depressions in somatic diseases]. medical information agency. spitz, r. a. (1945). hospitalism: an inquiry into the genesis of psychiatric conditions in early childhood. psychoanalytic study of the child, 1, 53-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/00797308.1945.11823126 zhmurov, v. a. (2002). psichopatologiia [psychopathology]. meditsynskaia kniga. http://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03222 https://doi.org/10.1080/00797308.1945.11823126 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 276-291 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/284 psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during polygraph examination viacheslav blikhar¹, olga zaiats2, nataliia pavliuk3, nataliya kalka4 1 doctor of philosophical science, professor, director of the institute of management, psychology and security, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, blikharv@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7545-9009 2 candidate of juridical sciences, associate professor of the department of civil law disciplines, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, zaiatsolha777@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2872-5567 3 candidate of juridical sciences, associate professor of the department of civil law and procedure, national university «lviv polytechnic», lviv, ukraine, nataliiapavliuk2020@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6108-9713 4 senior lecturer at the department of practical psychology, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, nataliyaiupb@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6989-4909 abstract: the article examines the features of verification and detection of lies and the definition of their features in the process of polygraph examination. detection of lies is associated with the experience of certain emotions, the mechanisms of functioning of which ensure the organization of the relationship between true and false answers during testing using the technical means of computer polygraph and are accompanied by physiological reactions. in a computerized polygraph test, a test taker analyzes and evaluates the risks of concealing false information or the possibility of confirming it and exposing it as false. the effectiveness of information concealment depends on its ability to reveal and control a specific picture of one’s own physiological reactions when answering the questions, which are then evaluated by a polygraph examiner. instrumental detection during polygraph testing should aim to obtain information, avoiding ambiguity, doubt, assumptions, and subjective association with an adequate reflection of reality. undoubtedly, there is information that characterizes certain actions performed by a person, which he/she interprets and submits in the form of a true or false answer to a question evaluated by a polygraph examiner. the effectiveness of methods of detection and verification of lies depends on the qualification of the polygraph specialist, taking into account the individual characteristics of each test case, as well as the subtleties and details of the event being studied, features of psychophysiological reactions of the person being examined, namely the type of nervous system, external and internal factors that significantly influence the result of the examination. the conducted empirical research made it possible to describe the features of the group of people in whom lies were detected during polygraph testing. such individuals showed high rates of adaptability, but low rates of neuropsychological stability. among the personal qualities a high level of manifestation on such scales as "reactive aggression", "spontaneous aggression", "irritability", "shyness", "openness", "extraversion-introversion" can be distinguished. keywords: lie; deception; detection; verification; lawyer; advocacy; polygraph examination. how to cite: blikhar, v., zaiats, o., pavliuk, n., & kalka, n. (2022). psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during polygraph examination. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 276-291. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/284 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/284 mailto:blikharv@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7545-9009 mailto:zaiatsolha777@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2872-5567 mailto:nataliiapavliuk2020@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6108-9713 mailto:nataliyaiupb@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6989-4909 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/284 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 277 introduction timely receipt of information and its reliability is one of the important conditions for successful prevention, investigation and detection of crimes. in modern conditions of organization of operative-search activity the use of reliable, fast and economical ways of increase of efficiency of their detection and reduction of number of judicial errors becomes more and more popular. recently, a polygraph (lie detector) has been used quite often in criminal proceedings and forensic examinations as a device that successfully helps in lie detection by recording human psychophysiological reactions (respiration, pressure, pulse, vascular tone, skin galvanic reactions, etc.). conducting specialized psychophysiological research and examinations using a polygraph allows to achieve high results in verifying the accuracy of information and contribute to the effectiveness of criminal proceedings. the basis for the application and conduct of polygraph examinations by law enforcement agencies of ukraine is the law "on operational and investigative activities" of 18.02.1992 №2135-xii. article 8 of this law enshrines the right of bodies carrying out operational and investigative activities to interrogate persons with their consent (paragraph 1, part 1, article 8) (on operative-search activity, 1992). however, the information obtained during the polygraph examination cannot be used as evidence in the case, but only as a guide for gathering official evidence. also, in accordance with the scientific and methodological recommendations on the preparation and appointment of forensic examinations and expert studies (order of the ministry of justice of 08.10.1998 №53 / 3) a survey using a special technical means – a computer polygraph is provided (instruction on the appointment and conduct of forensic examinations and expert research …, 1998; application of computer polygraphs in …., 2017). the conclusion of the expert (polygraph examiner) has in this case all the necessary attributes of independent proof. the purpose of the article is to study the psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during polygraph examinations. study of the recent research on the problem made it possible to put forward the hypotheses: effective use of a polygraph, detection and verification of lies in the process of polygraph psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during … viacheslav blikhar, et al. 278 examination will help in solving the problem of involvement / noninvolvement of persons in the commission of crimes. ultimately, information disseminated in the process of communication is always characterized by reliability or unreliability. its unreliability is characterized by untruthfulness, distortion and falsification of information reflected in various kinds of lies. all kinds of lies are aimed at building trust and belief in the veracity of the information provided. literature review on the whole, the process of verification and detection of lies is multifactorial and affects a large number of verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication. a large number of lawyers and psychologists try to scientifically investigate and confirm the exact criteria for assessing and the relationship between such phenomena as the emotional response to the desire to hide information, changes in psychological state caused by certain stimuli and psychological state in the process of hiding information. in particular, researchers and scientists who have studied various aspects of the declared in the article scientific and applied problem, it is advisable to divide into groups, and therefore: the issues of ontological definition of lies, misleading and dishonesty are examined in the works of j. adler (adler, 2015), a. barber (barber, 2020), n. marsili (marsili, 2020), b. neubauer, c. witkop and l. varpio (neubauer, witkop & varpio, 2019); yu. boiko-buzyl (boiko-buzyl, 2021), t. brennen and s. magnussen (brennen & magnussen, 2020), b. depaulo, j. lindsay, b. malone, l. muhlenbruck, k. charlton and c. harris (b. depaulo & c. harris, 2003), b. khomulenko (khomulenko, 2012), m. kuzmenko and i. sitkar (kuzmenko & sitkar, 2020), b. neubauer, c. witkop and l. varpio (neubauer & varpio, 2019), c. de rollero and n. piccoli (de rollero & piccoli, 2017) devoted their works to the issue of psychological determination of deception and lies; after all, m. acklin and j. velasquez (acklin & velasquez, 2021), i. hamlin, p. taylor and l. cross (hamlin & cross, 2020), l. hammarstrom, d. andreassen, o. hellzen and m. haggstron (hammarstrom & haggstron, 2020), w. iacono and g. benshakhar (iacono & ben-shakhar, 2019), j. kamorowski, karl ask and m. jelícic (kamorowski & corine de ruiter, 2021), s. samuel, h. thapliyal and p. kacker (samuel & kacker, 2019), k. shapoval (shapoval, 2020), o. tsilmak (tsilmak, 2019, pp. 201-209) conducted their research on the psychological and legal aspects of the study of lie detection including the use of a polygraph. despite the fact that much has already been devoted to work and scientific research on this topic, but the issues of verification and detection of lies using a polygraph have not yet been fully explored. all this brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 279 justifies the relevance and purpose of the article, which is to study the psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during polygraph examinations. methodology the methodological component of the study is formed on the basis of general and special methods of scientific knowledge. thus, the system method made it possible to identify a number of scientific problems of studying the multidimensionality of verification and lie detection using a polygraph as a whole. in turn, the logical-semantic method helped to reveal the conceptual apparatus of research as much as possible, in particular to consider such terms as: "lie", "deception", "polygraph examination", "advocacy", "citizen", "person", "law", "psychological examination", "detection", "verification" and others. documentary analysis as a method of scientific knowledge is used in the study to formulate practical recommendations for the study of psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during polygraph research. the method of comparison made it possible to learn international experience in studying the psychological and legal aspects of detecting lies in research using a polygraph and other aspects identified in the scientific article, as well as the possibility of implementing this experience in ukrainian realities. in addition, the study used the features of the statistical characteristics of the studied phenomena, in our case the verification and detection of lies during polygraph studies results verification means confirmation of compliance of information and data with the standard requirements. with regard to statements, all standard requirements for statements must comply with four basic rules: watch, listen, memorize; observe and compare; analyze all points of view; do not accept contradictions (adler, 1997, pp. 435-452; barber, 2020, pp. 141-164; brennen & magnussen, 2020). lie detection is the assessment of a verbal statement in order to detect possible deliberate deception. detection of lies is a cognitive process of recording deception, assessing the content of the message, including nonverbal cues (kalka, tsyvinska & zubach, 2017, p. 63). according to the emotional model of instrumental lie detection, n. marsili and r. moreton identifies verbal messages that are lies if they meet the following criteria: 1. information possessed by a person, is subjectively psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during … viacheslav blikhar, et al. 280 assessed by him/her as true, that is such that corresponds to reality; 2. verbally reproduced information is subjectively perceived by a person as not corresponding to reality; 3. the transfer of information by a person is initiated with the aim of deliberately creating in the interlocutor an incorrect, distorted view of reality (marsili, 2020; moreton, 2020). thus, in the context of this model, a lie is defined as a verbal message, intentionally distorted truth known to a person, which he/she deliberately conceals by misleading the interlocutor. thus, yu. boiko-buzyl believes that in the detection of lies one should rely on the activity or passivity of the liar and the forms of lies that each type "produces". thus, depending on the individual-typological features of the personality, "false denial" is used by melancholy, apathetic, calm people, that is they mostly focus on denying or hiding false information. individuals who focus on inventing and misrepresenting false accusations are usually distinguished by active cognitive activity, flexibility, etc. (boiko-buzyl yu., 2021, p. 28-37). also the following facts can be characteristic signs of lying of the interlocutor: reporting by a person of different facts on one occasion; uncertainty, vagueness of information contained in the voiced version of the narrator; the presence of coincidences of the smallest details in the stories of different people about the same thing; "letting out" in statements that indicate the denial of the voiced details of the narrator's version; the presence of sound gaps and an increase in the number of word-parasites; accompanying the story with a poor emotional background (schematicity, facelessness); persistence of the narrator in the truth of his words; evasion of answering direct questions; concealment of obvious facts that could not be unknown (hamlin, et al., 2020; hammarstrom, et al., 2020; rollero, 2017; shaw, 2020; khomulenko, 2012). there are two approaches to detecting lies – direct and indirect. the direct approach is to compare the content of the received information with the established reality. based on the results of such a comparison, it is possible to draw a conclusion about the presence or absence of distorted information. the direct approach is expressed in comparing the content of the received information with the knowingly established reality. based on the results of this comparison, we can conclude that there is or is no distorted information. the indirect approach is based on the presence or absence of lies through the analysis of indirect diagnostic signs in a person's reactions. the use of a direct approach involves the possession of true information with which to compare. for a specialist, this method facilitates obtaining a positive result of polygraph examination. there are often cases brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 281 of lack of primary information, which limits the use of a direct approach (kalka, tsyvinska & zubach, 2017; rollero, 2017). the use of an indirect approach is beyond comparison, it requires qualification and strict adherence to rules and requirements, but with a high probability of the results obtained it may indicate the presence or absence of deliberately hidden information. to prevent misinterpretation of the identified signs of lies, it is important to create a "holistic model of behavior" of a particular subject, to establish his/her background emotional state, individual characteristics of reactions, communication style, and the specifics of the event and stress effect on the psychoemotional state of a person being examined. depaulo points out the importance in the detection and verification of lies of verbal and nonverbal signs, including: restraint of speech and behavior, excessive control (reactions are slow, speech is clear and balanced); stories are less convincing; signs of anxiety and danger (distancing, lack of immediacy); high tension; false information is characterized by fewer details, shortcomings, and is excessively correct (depaulo, malone & harris, 2003). an important aspect in the detection and verification of lies are the peculiarities of establishing contact, individual psychological characteristics of the person, the peculiarities of response and general emotional state. all this can be successfully traced in the process of polygraph examination during the discussion of neutral topics. the defined "background" zone is perceived as neutral. deviation from this "background" is considered a reaction and is part of the "control" or "significant" zone. a significant zone refers to the discussion of the directly studied event, and the control zone involves a conversation on a topic that is not related to this event, but is dangerous for the subject being examined, and is accompanied by distortion of information that may confirm psychophysiological reactions on the polygraph. in addition to the above features, the following characterizes a person who hides the truth: ‒ strong denial, which, unlike true interlocutors, tends to weaken over time. ‒ often a person suspected of lying changes the title and form of address to the interlocutor. ‒ instead of explaining the details, the subject often makes general statements, such as "i was raised wrong!", "why should i do something like that?". psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during … viacheslav blikhar, et al. 282 ‒ he/she often begins the story of the situation with the following phrases: "you will not believe me, but…", "understand me correctly…", "i do not intend to mislead you…", etc. ‒ in the content of the answer there are syntactic changes, or the structure of the sentence is broken, the connection between words is broken. ‒ there is a series of indirect answers to questions such as, "i don't remember this," "basically, i should remember this if it happened," and so on. ‒ the subject often interrupts the question with an answer without waiting for the question to end. ‒ there are repetitions of the question, which allows a person to come up with a more plausible answer (samuel, chatterjee, thapliyal & kacker, 2019; widacki, 2019; barber, 2020, pp. 141-164). in a polygraph examination, the person being examined always assesses the risks of concealing true information or the possibility of confirmation. the success of assessing the presence or absence of a lie depends on the ability to show the physiological picture of reactions when answering questions evaluated by a polygraph examiner. the main task facing the specialist in the testing process is to qualitatively and quantitatively assess changes in registered psychophysiological indicators and formulate an objective conclusion. analyzing the above, we can conclude that instrumental detection with a polygraph should aim to obtain information, avoiding ambiguity, doubts, assumptions, impartiality in interpretation and subjective association with adequate reflection of reality. however, the effectiveness of lie detection and verification methods depends on the qualification level of the specialist, individual approach to each examination, taking into account the smallest details of the event, psychophysiological characteristics of persons, which include not only the type of nervous system but also external and internal factors influencing the effectiveness of the examination. the empirical study involved individuals of different ages and occupations. the sample consisted of individuals aged 24 to 46. with regard to professional orientation, among the subjects were both candidates for positions (of different professional orientation: drivers, managers, accountants, economists, etc.), who were selected by polygraph testing, and persons engaged in professional activities and passed scheduled polygraph testing. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 283 the following methods were chosen as psychodiagnostic tools: methods of diagnosis of socio-psychological adaptation of k. rogers – r. diamond; freiburg personality inventory questionnaire (fpi), methods for determining the level of subjective control (lsc); coping-test of k. lazarus; test for self-assessment of personality stress resistance; multi-level personal questionnaire "adaptability" (mpq am) (verigin, meijer, bogaard & vrij, 2019; widacki, 2019, pp. 203-222; boiko-buzyl, 2021, pp. 28-37; hamlin et al., 2020). all subjects were conditionally divided into 2 groups according to the results of processing the results of polygraph examination: group i – persons in whose answers to most of the test questions lies were found; group ii – persons, who were mostly characterized by truthful answers during the test. if we compare the indicators of adaptability by the method of "adaptability", it should be noted that in the persons being examined some of the scales have significant differences (fig. 1). fig.1. indicators according to the method of "adaptability" in the first group (with a predominance of lies in the answers) the highest scores are on the scales "adaptive abilities" (aa), and the lowest – "neuro-psychological stability" (nps). undoubtedly, people who demonstrate the manifestations of lies during the examination on the polygraph, show the mobilizing capabilities of the body and psyche, which is reflected in higher rates of stability and adaptability. thus, in the second group (persons with the majority of truthful answers) the highest indicators are on the scales "reliability" and "moral norms" (mn), and the lowest on the scales "suicide risk" (sr). such persons psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during … viacheslav blikhar, et al. 284 are sincere in their answers, so the indicator related to moral norms is higher, because by demonstrating a truthful answer they are not in conflict with their own moral and ethical principles. according to the results of the freiburg personality inventory questionnaire (fpi), the personal profile of the subjects who showed lies during the polygraph examination is characterized by the manifestation of the following features (fig. 2): fig. 2. the results of the study by the method of fpi (persons with manifestations of lies in the answers) 1) high indicators on the scale "neuroticity" were recorded only in 15% of subjects, low indicators – 20%. this shows that these individuals in the group do not focus on their own feelings and problems and, as a result, do not express a nervous response. however, the ability to regulate emotions that do not manifest externally, still has its own version of the manifestation in the psychophysiological aspect during the examination on the polygraph. 2) high indicators on the scale "spontaneous aggression" were recorded in 45% of subjects, low indicators – 25%. this suggests that most members of the group are characterized by an increased level of psychopathization, which creates the conditions for impulsive behavior and may be an option for a situational response to the desire to hide false information. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 285 3) high indicators on the scale "depression" are observed in a small number of subjects (25%), that is signs of depressive syndrome, which manifests itself in emotional state, behavior, in relation to oneself and the social environment are absent. 4) high scores on the scale "irritability" were recorded in 60% of subjects, which indicates that individuals who show false answers during polygraphg examination are characterized by emotional instability and a tendency to react affectively to avoid tension that arises in the testing situation. 5) high indicators on the scale "communicability" are observed in 15% of subjects, low indicators – 25%. most indicators of this group of subjects show the average level of need for communication, can use communication as a way to influence the polygraph examiner in the process of interaction with him. 6) high indicators on the scale "balance" were recorded in 40% of subjects, which indicate good protection against the stressors of ordinary life situations, which are based on self-confidence, optimism and activity. 7) high rates are observed on the scale of "reactive aggression" in 65% of subjects, which indicates the predominance of conflict in individuals of this subgroup. they have a high level of psychopathization, which is characterized by an aggressive attitude to the social environment and a pronounced tendency to dominance. 8) high scores on the scale "shyness" were recorded in only 40% of subjects, low scores – in 15%. these indicators show that some people are characterized by self-doubt, awkwardness and timidity. during polygraph examination it may be associated with uncertainty and fear of being exposed, so such traits may be more common. 9) high indicators on the scale of "openness" are observed in 35% of subjects, low – in 35%. these indicators show that only a few people seek to trust and open interaction with others with a high level of self-criticism. however, most are selective in their communication and cautious in making contacts. during polygraph examination, the need for defensive reactions increases, so the majority of respondents, especially those who lie, often show secrecy and isolation. 10) high indicators on the scale "extraversion – introversion" were found in 40% of subjects, which indicate the expression of extroverted personality, low indicators – 10%, which indicate introverted personality. 11) high rates of emotional lability are observed in 35% of subjects, which indicates emotional instability, which manifests itself in frequent mood swings, irritability, lack of self-regulation, which often becomes an psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during … viacheslav blikhar, et al. 286 emotional marker of hiding information or its falsity in communication with polygraph examiner, especially such reactions are indicative in conversations during polygraph testing. 12) high indicators on the scale "femininity-masculinity" are observed in 35% of subjects, which indicate the course of mental activity by the male type, namely rationality, aggression and desire for results, focus on the task in his/her favor. thus, according to the indicators identified as a result of our study, it should be noted that all individuals have the highest score on the scale "reactive aggression". this indicates the predominance of conflict and dissatisfaction, which can be a protective personal strategy, which is manifested in the course of polygraph examination. that is, most people in the subgroup, where there is the predominance of false information, have a high level of psychopathization, which is characterized by aggressive attitudes to the social environment and a strong tendency to dominance, as well as the predominance of emotional instability and tendency to affective response to avoid tension in conflict situations. the results of the comparison of indicators in the two groups confirm the following (fig. 3): fig.3. comparison of indicators by fpi method the first group, represented by individuals with a predominance of false answers, shows a significant manifestation of reactive aggression, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 287 spontaneous aggression and irritability, which is undoubtedly an indicator of defensive emotional reactions in the case of polygraph testing and may be a manifestation of individual psychological characteristics of the emotional sphere and accordingly, by the manifestation of false answers. in contrast to the first group in the second group, such qualities as femininity, openness and communicability are expressed, which characterizes the individual qualities of persons who found themselves in a situation of polygraph testing, as optimistic, sociable, involved in a situation without hostile and negative attitudes, which is undoubtedly explained by truthful answers and the lack of excessive tension associated with the testing situation. based on the results of the empirical study, a correlation galaxy was constructed, which reflects the direct and inverse relationships between the factors of the empirical research methodology (fig. 4). fig.4. correlation galaxy "stress resistance" thus, stress resistance is characterized by direct correlations with the scales of methods "acceptance of responsibility", "escape-avoidance", "self-control", "problem solving planning", "positive reassessment". the following correlations were found. the "problem solving planning" factor contains direct links with adaptive abilities (r = 0.409395). the factor "search for social support" contains a direct relationship with neuro-psychological stability (r = 0.404712). with the increase in search for social support the manifestation of neuro-mental stability increases. psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during … viacheslav blikhar, et al. 288 the generalized results of correlations for the group under study are the dependence of stress resistance on self-control and factors of coping strategies. the growth of these indicators, respectively, affects the growth of stress resistance and resilience in situations of psycho-emotional stress, especially in connection with the situation of polygraph examination. it should be noted that distancing reduces the manifestation of suicide risk and suspicion, that is, it acts as a certain characteristic that ensures the safety of the individual in unfavorable situations. social support also makes it possible to reduce selfishness and, accordingly, establish effective interpersonal relationships based on cooperation and mutual understanding. with increased problem solving planning, the manifestation of stress resistance increases, and with increased positive reassessment, the manifestation of stress resistance in the group under study increases. since the situation of polygraph examination is undoubtedly stressful for each of the subjects, but it acquires a special emotional tension in people who seek to hide false information, so there are many personal, emotional and behavioral markers that clearly signal this desire and are reflected in the overall strategy of the organization of interaction, communication and behavior during polygraph examination. limits and discussions prospects for further research are to study the characteristics of the fixed installation on polygraph research, because in the mental activity of the individual it acts as a mechanism for stabilization, stability and purposefulness of mental processes in changing situations and thus frees the subject from decision-making and control over situation. empirical research in the study of the impact of a fixed installation will be aimed at a comparative analysis of the two groups (one with a view to the impossibility of deceiving the polygraph, and the other on the contrary setting the possibility of deceiving the polygraph). conclusions features of the manifestation of lies, its verification and detection are always associated with the experience of certain emotions in people who try to hide false information. the mechanisms for detecting true and false responses are determined using a computer polygraph, which is responsible for instrumental lie detection and assists in recording physiological responses to verbal and nonverbal stimuli. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 289 in a computerized polygraph test, the person being tested assesses the risks in order to conceal false information. the success of this assessment by a polygraph examiner is reflected in the ability to assess the picture of psychophysiological reactions in the process of answering questions, as well as analysis of a set of emotional, behavioral and individual personality characteristics that may indicate concealment of false information. instrumental detection during polygraph testing should aim to obtain information, avoiding ambiguity, doubt, assumptions, and subjective association with an adequate reflection of reality. undoubtedly, there is information that characterizes certain actions performed by a person, which he/she interprets and submits in the form of a true or false answer to a question evaluated by a polygraph examiner. also, the effectiveness of the methods of verification and detection of lies depends on the qualification level of the specialist, individual approach to each test, taking into account the details of the event, psychophysiological features of the person, which include not only the type of nervous system but also external and internal factors that influence the results. the conducted empirical research made it possible to describe the characteristics of persons who underwent polygraph examination and showed false answers to polygraph questions and accordingly showed certain emotional reactions (irritability, aggression (spontaneous and reactive)), personal (adaptability, stress resistance, etc.) and behavioral characteristics which testified to false information. references adler, j. (1997). lying, deceiving or falsely implicating. journal of philosophy, 94(9), 435-452. https://doi.org/10.2307/2564617 acklin, m. w., & velasquez, j. p. (2021). improving criminal responsibility determinations using structured professional judgment. frontiers in psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700991 barber, a. (2020). lying, misleading, and dishonesty. the journal of ethics, 24, 141164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-019-09314-1 boiko-buzyl, y. (2021). psychological aspects of lie detection in studies using a polygraph. psychological journal, 7(3), p. 28-37. https://doi.org/10.31108/1.2021.7.3.3 brennen, t., & magnussen, s. (2020). research on non-verbal signs of lies and deceit: a blind alley. frontiers in psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613410 https://doi.org/10.2307/2564617 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700991 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-019-09314-1 https://doi.org/10.31108/1.2021.7.3.3 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613410 psychological and legal aspects of verification and detection of lies during … viacheslav blikhar, et al. 290 depaulo, b. m., lindsay, j. j., malone, b. e., muhlenbruck, l., charlton, k., & harris, c. (2003). cues to deception. psychol. bull, 129, 74-112. hamlin, i., taylor, p.j., cross, l. et al. (2020). a psychometric investigation into the structure of deception strategy use. journal of police and criminal psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-020-09380-4 hammarstrom, l., andreassen, d., hellzen, o., haggstron m. (2020). the path of compassion in forensic psychiatry. archives of psychiatric nursing, 34(6), 435441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.07.027 iacono, w. g., & ben-shakhar, g. (2019). current status of forensic lie detection with the comparison question technique: an update of the 2003 national academy of sciences report on polygraph testing. law and human behavior, 43(1), 86-98. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000307 instruktsiia pro pryznachennia ta provedennia sudovykh ekspertyz ta ekspertnykh doslidzhen ta naukovo-metodychnykh rekomendatsii z pytan pidhotovky ta pryznachennia sudovykh ekspertyz ta ekspertnykh doslidzhen [instruction on the appointment and conduct of forensic examinations and expert research and scientific and methodological recommendations on the preparation and appointment of forensic examinations and expert research]. http://search.ligazakon.ua/l_doc2.nsf/link1/ed_2009_06_01/ an/445644/reg3145.html kalka, n., tsyvinska, m., & zubach, i. (2017). detektsiia brekhni u spilkuvanni: sotsialno-psykholohichnyi aspekt: navch.-metod. posibnyk [detection of lies in communication: socio-psychological aspect: teaching-methodical manual]. osvita ukrainy. kamorowski, j., de ruiter, c., schreuder, m., ask, k., & jelícic, m. (2021). forensic mental health practitioners’ use of structured risk assessment instruments, views about bias in risk evaluations, and strategies to counteract it. international journal of forensic mental health. https://doi.org/10.1080/14999013.2021.1895377 khomulenko, b. (2012). veryfikatsiia brekhni cherez interpretatsiiu neverbalnykh vizualnykh markeriv v konteksti komunikatsii [lie verification through the interpretation of nonverbal visual markers in the context of communication]. visnyk kharkivskoho natsionalnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu imeni h. s. skovorody. psykholohiia [bulletin of kharkiv national pedagogical university named after h.s. skovoroda. psychology.], 42(1), 228-235. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vkhnpu_psykhol_2012_42(1)__26 kuzmenko, m., & sitkar, i. (2020). suchasnyi stan ta perspektyvy otsinky dostovirnosti povidomlenoi informatsii [the current state and prospects for assessing the reliability of the reported information]. visnyk natsionalnoho universytetu oborony ukrainy [bulletin of the national university of defense of ukraine], 3(56), 40-46. https://doi.org/10.33099/26176858-2020-56-3-40-47/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-020-09380-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.07.027 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/lhb0000307 http://search.ligazakon.ua/l_doc2.nsf/link1/ed_2009_06_01/%0ban/445644/reg3145.html http://search.ligazakon.ua/l_doc2.nsf/link1/ed_2009_06_01/%0ban/445644/reg3145.html https://doi.org/10.1080/14999013.2021.1895377 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vkhnpu_psykhol_2012_42(1)__26 https://doi.org/10.33099/2617-6858-2020-56-3-40-47/ https://doi.org/10.33099/2617-6858-2020-56-3-40-47/ brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 291 marsili, n. (2020). lying, speech acts, and commitment. synthese, 199, 3245–3269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02933-4 moreton, r. (2020). forensic face matching: procedures and application. psyarxiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/kf7ez neubauer, b. e., witkop, c. t., & varpio, l. (2019). how phenomenology can help us learn from the experiences of others. perspectives on medicsl education, 8(2), 90-97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-019-0509-2 pro operatyvno-rozshukovu diialnist. [on operative-search activity]. zakon ukrainy vid № 2136-xii vid 18.02.92. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2135-12#text rollero, c., & de piccoli, n. (2017). self-objectification and personal values. an exploratory study. frontiers in psycholjgy, 8, 1055. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01055 samuel, s. g., chatterjee, t., thapliyal, h., & kacker, p. (2019). facial psychophysiology in forensic investigation: a novel idea for deception detection. journal of forensic dental sciences, 11(2), 90-94. https://doi.org/10.4103/jfo.jfds_49_19 shapoval, k. (2020). the use of a polygraph during the investigation of murders involving domestic violence. theory and practice of forensic science and criminalistics, 21(1), 66-78. https://doi.org/10.32353/khrife.1.2020_04 shaw, j. (2020). do false memories look real? evidence that people struggle to identify rich false memories of committing crime and other emotional events. frontiers in psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00650 tsilmak, o.m. (2019) osnovni zavdannia slidchoho dlia veryfikatsii pokazan svidka [the main tasks of the investigator to verify the testimony of a witness]. kryminalistyka i sudova ekspertyza [criminalistics and forensic expertise], 64, 201-209. https://doi.org/10.33994/kndise.2019.64.17 verigin, b. l., meijer, e. h., bogaard, g., & vrij, a. (2019). lie prevalence, lie characteristics and strategies of self-reported good liars. plos one, 14, 12, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225566 widacki, j. (2019). "first attempts at practical use of instrumental lie detection". european polygraph, 13(4), 203-222. https://doi.org/10.2478/ep-2019-0014 zastosuvannia kompiuternykh polihrafiv pry profesiinomu kadrovomu vidbori v pidrozdily ministerstva vnutrishnikh sprav ta natsionalnoi politsii ukrainy [application of computer polygraphs in professional personnel selection in the units of the ministry of internal affairs and the national police of ukraine]. metodychnyi posibnyk / za red. motliakh o.i., korzh ye.m. kyiv: osvita, p. 104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02933-4 https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/kf7ez https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-019-0509-2 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2135-12#text https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01055 https://doi.org/10.4103/jfo.jfds_49_19 https://doi.org/10.32353/khrife.1.2020_04 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00650 https://doi.org/10.33994/kndise.2019.64.17 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225566 https://doi.org/10.2478/ep-2019-0014 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 139-163 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/242 psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere of real and ideal self-image denys aleksandrov¹, ivan okhrimenko2, liliia rudenko3, svitlana sprynchuk4, olena tyshchenko5 1 doctor of psychology, professor, professor of the department of social work, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, kyiv, ukraine, denisaleks73@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-9307-2585 2 doctor in law, professor, professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, ivango-07@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-88135107 3 doctor of psychological sciences, professor, head of the department of special psychology and medicine, national m.p. dragomanov pedagogic university, kyiv, ukraine, lilianic1962@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-00031655-5708 4 phd in psychology, associate professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, scvetav@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0001-60528964 5 phd in pedagogy, associate professor, associate professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, kv_ua@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0003-4715-7235 abstract: adolescence is characterized by contradictions of role behaviours and perceptions caused by age adjustment of adolescents. this is reflected in the system of self-attitudes of adolescents, which can lead to intrapersonal conflicts due to the dissonance of conceptions about their own real and ideal self-image. such dissonances can hinder the construction of one’s own social roles. therefore, timely detection of risks of personal dissonance emergence in the sphere of subjective perceptions of one’s own real and ideal self-images becomes one of the leading tasks of providing psychological and psychotherapeutic aid to adolescents, aimed at harmonizing their formation in the process of socialization. the aim of the research is to study the factors that determine the psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere of real and ideal selfimage. the research is based on the use of psychodiagnostic methods of leary (2004) and pantileev (1993) for the survey of 303 adolescents of both sexes at the age of 14-17, who recognize the presence of discrepancies between real and ideal self-images. empirical data has shown a relationship between a constellation of psychological factors that determine the emergence of personal dissonances in the sphere of authoritarianism, dominance, suspicion, aggression, subordination, dependency, friendship and altruism. the research will help to understand the psychological factors of the emergence and functioning of personal dissonances of adolescents, which affect both the system of their self-attitude and the building of their social ties. this opens up prospects for improving psychoprophylactic measures aimed at preventing personal dissonances in adolescents. keywords: personal dissonance; adolescents; self-image; selfattitude; individual and psychological qualities; psychological factors. how to cite: aleksandrov, d., okhrimenko, i., rudenko, l., sprynchuk, s., & tyshchenko, o. (2021). psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere of real and ideal self-image. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 139163. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/242 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/242 mailto:denisaleks73@gmail.com mailto:ivango-07@ukr.net mailto:lilianic1962@gmail.com mailto:scvetav@ukr.net mailto:kv_ua@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/242 psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 140 1. introduction the problem of adolescence has always attracted the attention of scientists because of the complex and intense transformations of the individual during the transition from childhood to adulthood. the crisis phenomena that occur during this period are associated with the restructuring of both socio-role statuses and the relevant conceptions of the adolescent. radical changes in adolescents’ perceptions of themselves as they enter the adult world often accompany the emergence of complex psychological problems. such problems can interfere with adequate sociopsychological adaptation, socialization, as well as the emergence of various deviations, ranging from self-destructive behaviour and ending with delinquent manifestations. changes in perceptions of oneself, as well as rethinking one’s own current and desirable self-images in the future can occur relatively harmoniously. in this case, maturation occurs without crisis shifts. conversely, significant discrepancies between real and ideal self-images can lead to dissatisfaction, intrapersonal conflicts, and, as a consequence, violations in the sphere of self-attitude (tsilmak et al., 2020). such discrepancies between the ideal and real self-image in the adolescent’s imagination create personal dissonance both on the cognitive and emotional levels. that is why, it is necessary to understand the factors that may affect the emergence of personal dissonance in order to effectively provide psychological aid to adolescents in cases of crisis experiences in the process of moving into adulthood. many researchers have studied the phenomenon of dissonance from different angles since the work of festinger, who first introduced this concept into scientific circulation, explaining intrapersonal conflict situations that arise in the mind of an individual (festinger, 1962). the works, which conceptually try to highlight the origins of this psychological phenomenon take attention analysing the main approaches, in the context of the topic of our research. for example, cooper tries to analyse the relationship between personal dissonance and socio-psychological phenomena (cooper, 2019). from our point of view, this approach is important, because the formation of conceptions about oneself and its role in adolescents in the process of socialization becomes the basis for the development of characterological psychological qualities. at the same time, the significant transformations of the self-image that occur in the process of socialization are related to the correlation on the one hand, of external expectations from the reference brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 141 environment of the adolescent, and on the other hand – their own formed conceptions and priority expectations of themselves. this is where, firstly, the formation of reflection takes place, due to which the adolescent’s selfesteem develops his own present image, and secondly, the conception of the image he seeks to approach in the future. and this is where the reason for the possible dissonance lies. if the image of the self-real and the self-ideal do not have fundamental discrepancies, then the person is formed more harmoniously. if there are significant discrepancies between the real and the expected desirable images of oneself, it can cause intrapersonal conflict due to the dissonance of these conceptions. the age characteristics of adolescents are determined by the fact that they come out of childhood and enter adulthood. in such a case, some roles inherent in a child die out, and a young person must master the roles inherent in adult life in their place. as maziar points out, the process of internalization, i. e. the assimilation of new behavioural patterns, is always associated with the process of exteriorization, as the ability to actualize these acquired behavioural patterns, knowledge, skills and abilities in one’s own life (maziar, 2020). therefore, it is important for a teenager to not only learn certain forms of adult behaviour, but also the ability to restructure himself so that they do not remain declarative, but become immanent to him. there may also be a source of dissonance, if the assimilation of images of adult roles and the corresponding psychological qualities and character traits, leads to a contradiction of too stable conservative images of children’s behaviour. such an inability to moving into adulthood causes a conflict between the current adolescent and the desirable personal image, which may be the cause of infantilism. a similar position is taken by hagège and colleagues, who prove that the presence or absence of the ability to reconcile images can be a source of dissonance in the individual (hagège et al., 2018). and due to the fact that adolescence is the most controversial period of life, when age crises occur and the demands of moving into adulthood meet with the capabilities of the adolescent, it is natural that the risk of personal dissonance increases during this period due to inconsistencies in social roles and self-images. the process of transformation of old self-images with new ones, in the context of reorganization of personal constructs was considered in detail by naccache, el karoui and other scientists who studied personal dissonances through the prism of human ability to subjectively correlate different, including contradictory, conceptions and images (naccache et al., 2015). it can be assumed that this ability is directly related to the adaptability of the individual, and more adaptive adolescents are easier to adapt to the psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 142 new requirements of the self-image of an adult in the future, internalizing them in the relevant neoplasms of their own personal constructs. in addition, less adaptive adolescents face the difficulties of such a restructuring, as a result of which there are significant contradictions between real and desirable self-images, resulting in the risk of personal dissonance. at the same time, defects of adaptability block the ability to overcome personal dissonance, which deepens the crisis on the background of intrapersonal conflicts. this situation, according to harmon-jones, is a negative reinforcement, which further exacerbates the level of personal dissonance (harmon-jones, 2000). no less important is the role of adolescent self-attitude. thus, overestimated or underestimated self-esteem, violation of self-identification, loss of self-worth also complicate a teenager’s self-acceptance. and, according to stone, the reflexive potential of the individual plays an important role in this process, which allows him to build adequate selfesteem, correlating it with his own standards and conceptions (stone, 2003). otherwise, the defects of reflection create an even greater inconsistency of perceptions of oneself, and, as noted by klein and mccoll, trigger even greater cognitive distortions of self-image against the background of the inclusion of psychological mechanisms of unproductive self-defence (klein & mccoll, 2019). therefore, we will pay special attention in our research to the analysis of the relationship between the dissonance of self-images and the system of self-attitudes of adolescents. the emergence of dissonance due to the violation of the adaptive potential of the individual can lead to the inability of the adolescent to learn the social norms that must be followed by every adult. according to van der velden and colleagues, this leads to social maladaptation, which, due to the lack of moral standards, results in antisocial behaviour of adolescents (van der velden et al., 2010). similar dysfunctionality may be associated with adolescent empathy shortcomings. as a result, as laughey and co-authors emphasize, there is a so-called empathic dissonance, which disrupts the process of adequate socialization and building productive relationships with others (laughey et al., 2021). the inability to correlate one’s own real and ideal self-images causes significant stress in the adolescent. according to the research by davis, panksepp and normansell, they increase the vulnerability of adolescents to destructive psychological phenomena acquiring a negative affective colouration (davis et al., 2014). in addition, such a discrepancy of selfimages, as noted in the work of aleksandrov and okhrimenko increases the brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 143 risk of neurotic disorders in adolescents on the background of personal dissonance and intrapersonal conflict (aleksandrov & okhrimenko, 2020). conversely, the adolescent’s ability to harmoniously construct the vector of transformation of the current real self-image into the expected desirable ideal image of himself in the future adult life gives him confidence. such confidence is accompanied by positive emotional reinforcement, which, as robins and co-authors point out, increases the adolescent stress resistance and, consequently, minimizes the risk of dissonance emergence (robins et al., 2012). however, considering adolescence, alessandri and colleagues emphasize that personal dissonances can have not only a negative connotation, as they can also stimulate personal growth (alessandri et al., 2008). in this case, they can encourage the adolescent to revise his own conceptions about the self-image, and, as e. harmon-jones and c. harmonjones emphasize, activate the adaptive potential in the direction of finding ways or approaching the real self-image to the ideal one, or approximation of the idealized image to a more realistic one (harmon-jones & harmonjones, 2020). in addition, as we noted above, the readiness to overcome internal crises that have arisen due to the dissonance of self-images, inspires a person to self-change. as a result, there is an increase in self-confidence, which turns out, as evidenced in the studies by cancino-montecinos and colleagues, to be a factor in reducing the severity of personal dissonance (cancino-montecinos et al., 2018). and, as braun, schmidmaier and other scientists note in their works, it becomes possible to build psychotherapeutic and preventive programs on this basis in order to provide psychological aid to adolescents (braun & schmidmaier, 2019; cancino-montecinos et al., 2020). of course, these scientific developments do not exhaust all the variety of modern approaches to the study of the nature of personal dissonances, but allow us to determine the vector of our empirical research. in view of the above, to study the psychological peculiarities of personal dissonances in adolescents it is necessary to investigate the relationship of conceptions about real and ideal self-images, which determine, on the one hand, strategies for building interpersonal relationships, and on the other hand – the system of the adolescent’s self-attitudes and his self-image. the aim of the research is to study the factors that determine the psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere of real and ideal self-image. psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 144 2. methodology to solve the tasks in hand we have selected relevant psychodiagnostic tools, which made it possible to investigate the manifestation of personal dissonance and the corresponding changes in the system of self-attitudes in adolescents, which arose due to mismatch of conceptions about their real and ideal self-image. 1) the method of the interpersonal diagnosis of personality of leary (leary, 2004). this methodology is designed to study the conceptions of the individual about his real and ideal “self”, and contains the following scales aimed to diagnose: 1) authoritarianism; 2) egocentrism; 3) aggression; 4) suspicion; 5) subordination; 6) dependency; 7) friendship; 8) altruism. 2) the method of the study of self-relationships (the attitudes towards oneself) “mss” of pantileev. this methodology was used to determine the deformation of the adolescents’ perceptions of their own “self-image”, and contains the following scales aimed to diagnose: 1) sincerity; 2) self-confidence; 3) self-control (self-management); 4) demonstrated self-attitude; 5) self-worth; 6) self-perception; 7) selfattachment; 8) intrapersonal proneness to conflict; 9) self-blame (pantileev, 1993). the psychodiagnostic techniques used in our study are not original. they are adapted versions in russian and ukrainian, the use of which is authorized by ukrainian scientists on the basis of a cooperation agreement between g. s. kostiuk institute of psychology of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine and international public professional organization european federation of psychologists associations (efpa) (no. 27/134 dated 12.05.1997). the empirical basis of the research consisted of 303 adolescents at the age of 14-17 (164 males and 139 females), the preliminary results of whose study revealed signs of dissonance and corresponding changes in the system of self-attitude. the research was conducted in secondary schools and psychological centres of kyiv (ukraine) in 2020-2021, processing and interpretation of the results was conducted at the department of social work, faculty of psychology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv (kyiv, ukraine) and the department of legal psychology of the national academy of internal affairs (kyiv, ukraine). based on the tasks of the research, we conducted a mathematical and statistical analysis of the main correlation relationships of indicators of manifestation level of personal dissonance of the real and ideal self-images in adolescents according to the method of leary (2004) and indicators of selfbrain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 145 attitude system according to the method of pantileev. in the course of processing, the existing relationships were determined by calculating spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. this is due to the fact that the metrics obtained are not subject to the law of normal distribution. it should be noted that concerning the sample size (n = 303), the statistical value of rs is not less than 0.113 with р ≤ 0.05, the high value of rs is not less than 0.149 with р ≤ 0.01, and the maximum value of rs is 0.189 with р ≤ 0.001. the study was approved by the ethics commission in accordance with the university community code of ethics, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv (3.1). informed consent was obtained from all participants; they were able to withdraw the study at any time. also, the research was performed according to the requirements of the regulations on academic honesty at the national academy of internal affairs, which were developed on the basis of ukrainian and world experience of ethical rulemaking. this document was approved by the academic council of the national academy of internal affairs (protocol no. 5 of 27.03.2018 and implemented by the order of the rector of the academy (order no. 422 of 30.03.2018. according to its provisions, the members of the scientific community are guided by the rules of ethical conduct and professional communication; respect the principles, values, norms, rules, and conditions of academic honesty in their activities. the consent to participate in the study was obtained from all subjects. 3. results let’s start our research with the analysis of the average values of the self-real and self-ideal indicators according to the leary method (2004). this allows us not only to describe subjective perceptions of our current and expected future priority personal characteristics, but also to identify discrepancies between these images. and it is precisely these discrepancies that point to the non-coincidence between the real self-image and the one the adolescent would like to have. these discrepancies cause the presence of more or less pronounced dissatisfaction with the self-image, and, accordingly, personal dissonance (table 1). psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 146 table 1. average indicators of the self-real, the self-ideal and differences between them according to the leary method (2004) researched indicators self-real self-ideal the discrepancy between the real and the ideal selfimage authoritarianism 9.47 11.30 +1.83 egocentrism 7.42 8.16 +0.74 aggression 8.05 7.16 -0.89 suspicion 7.27 4.82 -2.45 subordination 7.23 5.32 -1.91 dependency 7.84 6.64 -1.2 friendship 8.63 9.16 +0.53 altruism 8.99 9.31 +0.32 as it can be seen from the table, authoritarianism, as the desire for a certain dominance, occupies the leading place in adolescents in real selfesteem. the second and the third places are taken by altruism and friendship, as conscious humanistic values. the fourth place is occupied by aggression, but due to the insignificant expressiveness of the scoring weight, it can be argued that it is important for assertiveness in defending one’s own interests and willingness to resist external dangers and obstacles. a moderately distinguished indicator of dependence occupies the fifth place, which can be pronounced in the form of obedience and caution due to lack of life experience and the preservation of the principles of child discipline instilled in the upbringing of parents and teachers. a we can see the sixth place is taken by a weakly pronounced egocentrism, which is a natural phenomenon in adolescence associated with building one’s own boundaries in the process of emancipation. the seventh place is occupied by a weakly pronounced indicator of suspicion, which may be associated with a certain distrust of the new adult life and adult interactions within the system of social relations in which the adolescent is gradually immersed. and the last eighth place is occupied by the indicator of subordination, which indicates the gradual emancipation of the adolescent from the adults’ dictate. as for the assessment of the desirable ideal self-image, adolescents have a similar situation, but some qualities are wanted by them as more pronounced, and others, on the contrary, less pronounced. thus, the first three positions in the desirable image of adolescents are preserved for authoritarianism, altruism and friendship, and it should be emphasized that they would like to have them even more pronounced. they would also like to have a more pronounced manifestation of egocentrism in their own brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 147 character as an element of self-affirmation. instead, adolescents would like to reduce indicators of aggression, dependency, subordination, and suspicion as interfering with normal self-perception. on the basis of comparative analysis, we can observe those characterological peculiarities that cause some adolescents’ dissatisfaction with themselves and can lead to personal dissonance. in particular, the greatest discrepancy between the real and the desired ideal self-image is observed in the indicators of suspicion, subordination, authoritarianism and dependency. this is where a significant source of dissonance can lie, because it is these qualities that adolescents want to change the most in themselves. less pronounced are the discrepancies between the real and the desirable self-image in terms of aggression and egocentrism. these qualities, although weak, but are still pronounced, and therefore can also be considered a potential source of self-dissatisfaction, and, consequently, albeit small, but still, the risk of dissonance. and the least pronounced are the discrepancies in the field of friendship and altruism, which indicates sufficient satisfaction of adolescents with the current level of development of these qualities. the next step in our research is to analyse the average profile of the system of self-attitudes of adolescents, which may indicate harmony or disharmony of the individual in the system of adolescents’ self-satisfaction or self-dissatisfaction (table 2). table 2. average indicators of self-attitudes according to the pantileev method r e se ar c h e d in d ic at o rs s in ce ri ty s el fc o n fi d e n c e s el fm an ag e m e n t d e m o n st ra te d s e lf at ti tu d e s el fw o rt h s el f p e rc e p ti o n s el fat ta ch m e n t in tr ap er so n al p ro n e n es s to c o n fl ic t s el fb la m e average score 5.98 7.53 6.46 6.45 8.08 6.89 6.09 5.02 4.65 it should be noted that according to the pantileev method (1993), the optimal indicators are in the range of 3-6 stens. the indicators that deviate significantly towards the minimum scores indicate the problem of self-attitudes due to the insufficient manifestation of this quality. conversely, the indicators that deviate to a greater extent show the problems of selfattitudes due to excessive aggravation of these qualities. it is excessively low psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 148 self-attitude or hypertrophied self-attitude that becomes a sign of personal disharmony, which is associated with personal dissonance. therefore, we will start from those qualities that deviate more from the norm in the sequence of the description. based on the expressiveness, it is possible to state a significant excess of the norm in terms of self-worth indicator, which indicates a tendency of adolescents to overestimate the value of their own personality. the indicator of self-confidence is the next most expressively growing one, which can be explained by inflated self-confidence in terms of one’s own strengths and capabilities due to the lack of real life experience, which would allow adolescents to realistically and more adequately assess their potential. next, it is worth noting the moderate increase in selfperception indicator, which may be associated with insufficient self-criticism due to underdeveloped reflexive abilities, as a result of which the adolescent tends to accept himself and even justify his shortcomings. however, a moderate overestimation of self-management indicates a certain tendency to hyper control, which may be associated with self-affirmation in the eyes of others as a person with developed self-possession. the indicator of demonstrated self-attitude indicates this desire for self-affirmation, which is also slightly overestimated in the life of the adolescent, and can be explained by the desire to create a favourable impression of himself in the eyes of others. these tendencies in some way correspond to the tendencies to a certain egocentrism we have identified above, which accompanies adolescent emancipation against the background of tendencies to self-affirmation. other indicators (self-attachment, interpersonal proneness to conflict and tendencies of self-blame) are within the norm and therefore do not require special attention, because we have described the indicators that deviate, and thus may be associated with disharmonious tendencies of personal dissonance of adolescents. however, the description of the average profile of psychological factors of personal dissonance of adolescents does not allow to fully identify those of them that are directly related and in some way cause this destructive phenomenon. therefore, the next step of our research will be a correlation analysis of the discrepancy indicators between the perceived real and desirable self-images, as a source of personal dissonance of adolescents, with their other psychological characteristics (table 3). the table presents the correlations that show the significant relationships between each of the possible manifestations of personal dissonance of adolescents with other psychological factors. given the rather large number of significant correlations that can be seen in the table, when brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 149 describing the results, we will refer only to the most significant ones, which correspond to the maximum levels of reliability p ≤ 0.001 and p ≤ 0.01. we determine the sequence of description based on the assessment of the significance of discrepancies between the real and desirable self-images of adolescents, which we presented above when interpreting the results of table 1. it should be noted that correlation analysis showed the greatest number of significant relationships in dissonance indicators within the sphere of suspicion (17), subordination (18), authoritarianism (15) and dependency (13). this confirms our assumption that these spheres of personal dissonance have the greatest impact on other psychological constructs of adolescents. therefore, let us start with the dissonance indicator in consequence of suspicion due to the desire of the adolescent to reduce it. thus, the greatest relationship was found with the indicator of suspicion of the perceived current real self-image (rs = 0.623, p ≤ 0.001), which means the adolescent’s dissatisfaction with his problems associated with excessive mistrust. next in importance is the indicator of propensity to self-blame (rs = 0.282, p ≤ 0.001), which shows the adolescent’s feeling of distrust to himself. table 3. correlations of dissonance indicators with indicators of the self-real, the self-ideal and discrepancies between them according to the leary method (2004), as well as indicators of self-attitudes according to the pantileev method (1993) researched indicators indicators of dissonance a u th o ri ta ri an is m e g o ce n tr is m a g g re ss io n s u sp ic io n s u b o rd in at io n d e p e n d e n c y f ri en d sh ip a lt ru is m in d ic at o rs o f se lf -r e al authoritarianism 0.552 0.194 0.063 0.140 0.310 0.146 0.185 0.035 egocentrism 0.246 0.311 0.008 0.087 0.217 0.173 0.010 0.009 aggression 0.160 0.057 0.237 0.088 0.017 0.012 0.116 0.007 suspicion 0.118 0.222 0.161 0.623 0.222 0.154 0.031 0.098 subordination 0.300 0.167 0.047 0.279 0.589 0.278 0.074 0.111 psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 150 dependency 0.125 0.045 0.036 0.205 0.200 0.425 0.019 0.102 friendship 0.019 0.046 0.158 0.015 0.088 0.186 0.199 0.066 altruism 0.009 0.030 0.084 0.086 0.076 0.099 0.197 0.111 in d ic at o rs o f se lf -i d ea l authoritarianism 0.044 0.146 0.086 0.075 0.061 0.054 0.210 0.078 egocentrism 0.110 0.010 0.088 0.081 0.058 0.075 0.074 0.112 aggression 0.073 0.022 0.287 0.097 0.048 0.019 0.107 0.032 suspicion 0.065 0.115 0.072 0.188 0.038 0.018 0.019 0.005 subordination 0.020 0.043 0.042 0.051 0.196 0.006 0.069 0.059 dependency 0.019 0.098 0.062 0.021 0.078 0.112 0.040 0.030 friendship 0.040 0.117 0.072 0.021 0.026 0.040 0.114 0.002 altruism 0.012 0.100 0.082 0.070 0.004 0.036 0.084 0.018 in d ic at o rs o f d is so n an ce authoritarianism 0.205 0.095 0.231 0.354 0.177 0.212 0.165 egocentrism 0.205 0.089 0.198 0.257 0.245 0.098 0.070 aggression 0.095 0.089 0.218 0.139 0.053 0.194 0.128 suspicion 0.231 0.198 0.218 0.265 0.225 0.258 0.247 subordination 0.354 0.257 0.139 0.265 0.393 0.173 0.254 dependency 0.177 0.245 0.053 0.225 0.393 0.104 0.220 friendship 0.212 0.098 0.194 0.258 0.173 0.104 0.377 altruism 0.165 0.070 0.128 0.247 0.254 0.220 0.377 in d ic at o rs o f se lf -a tt it u d e sincerity 0.062 0.051 0.087 0.057 0.049 0.069 0.028 0.079 self-confidence 0.228 0.172 0.156 0.184 0.176 0.139 0.093 0.192 selfmanagement 0.091 0.169 0.080 0.177 0.197 0.148 0.081 0.122 demonstrated self-attitude 0.183 0.139 0.110 0.253 0.258 0.180 0.130 0.169 self-worth 0.210 0.139 0.093 0.112 0.090 0.119 0.065 0.110 self-perception 0.120 0.162 0.040 0.110 0.067 0.059 0.065 0.029 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 151 self-attachment 0.190 0.145 0.044 0.181 0.181 0.163 0.037 0.022 intrapersonal proneness to conflict 0.134 0.077 0.011 0.221 0.233 0.178 0.054 0.040 self-blame 0.174 0.087 0.041 0.282 0.272 0.232 0.027 0.082 next indicator is the indicator of subordination of the real self-image (rs = 0.279, p ≤ 0.001), which determines the adolescent’s awareness of distrust of his social status due to excessive susceptibility to influence from others and adults in particular. this corresponds to the following significant correlation with the indicator of personal dissonance in the manifestation of subordination (rs = 0.265, p ≤ 0.001), which is also a source of internal dissatisfaction. similarly, suspicion is associated with the indicator of dissonance in the manifestation of friendship (rs = 0.258, p ≤ 0.001), when the adolescent is worried about possible failures in close social ties. the relationship between suspicion and the indicator of demonstrated selfattitude (rs = -0.253, p ≤ 0.001) can be explained by the fact that attempts to position oneself in a favourable image become a protective reaction to others, who may pose a potential threat to his status. this mistrust can be explained by the following important relationship with the indicator of dissonance in the manifestation of altruism (rs = 0.247, p ≤ 0.001), when the adolescent may fluctuate between the manifestation of openness and altruism and distrustful distance. this causes a feeling of insecurity, which causes fluctuations in the manifestations of one’s own protective dominance, as indicated by a strong correlation with the indicator of dissonance in the manifestation of authoritarianism (rs = 0.231, p ≤ 0.001). such excitement is determined by the internal dissonance of the feeling of self-dependency, as indicated by the following important relationship (rs = 0.225, p ≤ 0.001), which corresponds to discomfort due to the adolescent’s awareness of such excessive dependency and in his own real self-image (rs = 0.205, p ≤ 0.001). such suspicion against the background of uncertainty leads to contrasting tendencies, which gives rise to an increase in intrapersonal proneness to conflict (rs = 0.221, p ≤ 0.001), which can lead to feelings of dissonance due to dissatisfaction with one’s own aggression (rs = 0.218, p ≤ 0.001) and egocentrism (rs = 0.198, p ≤ 0.001), which can cause a violation of productive and meaningful for the adolescent social ties. attempts to get rid of such suspicion are confirmed by the next most important correlation with the indicator of suspicion of the ideal self-image (rs = -0.188, p ≤ 0.01), the psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 152 inverse nature of which indicates a desire to reduce it in himself. also, dissonance on the background of suspicion causes a decrease in the indicator of self-confidence (rs = -0.184, p ≤ 0.01), self-attachment (rs = 0.181, p ≤ 0.01) and self-management (rs = -0.177, p ≤ 0.01), which makes the adolescent vulnerable to the risks of neuroticism and other destructive psychological consequences. however, on the other hand, trying to reduce self-suspicion will lead to increased self-confidence, self-attachment on the ground of self-esteem, and self-control, as indicated by the inverse nature of these correlation relationships. the factors of potential risk of personal dissonance due to the desire of adolescents to lose subordination will be considered next. first of all, significant correlations indicate that the risk of dissonance emergence in the manifestation of subordination is associated with the stated level of selfsubordination in one’s own real self-image (rs = 0.589, p ≤ 0.001), and, accordingly, the inverse significant correlation with the desired level in the ideal self-image (rs = -0.196, p ≤ 0.001). the following significant relationship of dissonance due to the level of subordination with a similar risk of possible dissonance due to the feeling of dependency (rs = 0.393, p ≤ 0.001) is also natural, which corresponds to self-dissatisfaction due to the stated current level of dependence manifestation in the real self-image (rs = 0.200, p ≤ 0.001). similarly, the risk of personal dissonance emergence due to feelings of subordination is influenced by a significant relationship with the potential threat of dissonance emergence in the sphere of authoritarianism (rs = 0.354, p ≤ 0.001), which is also related to the adolescent’s assessment of his level of authoritarianism (rs = -0.310, p ≤ 0.001), the inverse value of which indicates the desire to get rid of excessive subordination and dependency by increasing his own authoritarianism. uncertainty about the ability to get rid of excessive subordination creates the adolescent’s dissatisfaction with himself, which acquires signs of a tendency to self-blame (rs = 0.272, p ≤ 0.001). such selfdoubt and potentially threatening or dominant others due to the protective mechanism of projection also causes dissonance due to exacerbation of suspicion (rs = 0.265, p ≤ 0.001), which is confirmed by the excessive level of suspicion stated in the real self-image (rs = 0,222, р ≤ 0,001). as a compensatory mechanism, such vulnerability causes a desire to enhance demonstrative self-attitude (rs = -0.258, p ≤ 0.001) in the eyes of others, the inverse correlation with which indicates a desire to mask internal uncertainty and vigilance by positioning a more favourable image. at the same time, dissatisfaction due to one’s own excessive suspicion carries the risk of personal dissonance emergence in the sphere of egocentric defence of one’s brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 153 own boundaries (rs = 0.257, p ≤ 0.001), which corresponds to the assessment of egocentricity of the current real self-image (rs = 0.217 ≤ 0.001), the inverse indicator of which shows the instrumental nature of egocentrism not as an end in itself, but as a tool to promote one’s own interests, goals and values. attention is also drawn to the significant correlation with the risk indicator of personal dissonance in adolescents due to defects of altruism (rs = 0.254, p ≤ 0.001). this state of affairs can generate significant exacerbations of intrapersonal conflict against the background of personal dissonance (rs = 0.233, p ≤ 0.001). in such a case, there is a danger of weakening self-control due to reduced ability to selfmanagement (rs = -0.197, p ≤ 0.001), violation of self-acceptance due to reduced self-attachment (rs = -0.181, p ≤ 0.01). as a result, the risk of losing self-confidence increases (rs = -0.176, p ≤ 0.01). this jeopardizes the adolescent’s perception of the ability to build harmonious and successful friendly relations, as indicated by the important relationship with the risk indicator of personal dissonance occurrence in the sphere of friendship (rs = 0.173, p ≤ 0.01). the next sphere of potential threat of personal dissonance emergence in adolescents is the sphere of authoritarianism, due to the inability, in consequence of its insufficient level, to confidently defend one’s own life priorities. first of all, this is confirmed by the inverse correlation with the indicator of the existing level of authoritarian development of the real self-image (rs = -0.552, p ≤ 0.001), which indicates dissatisfaction with its too low level. as a natural result, this raises fears about being subordinated to more dominant people, which also raises the risk of personal dissonance occurrence in the sphere of subordination (rs = 0.354, p ≤ 0.001), which is confirmed by the adolescent’s feeling of excessive levels of subordination (rs = 0.300, p ≤ 0.001) in the current self-image. similarly, the threat of violating one’s own boundaries due to flaws in authoritarianism leads to adolescent’s dissatisfaction with his own egocentrism (rs = -0.246, p ≤ 0.001), the inverse value of which indicates a feeling of fear of satisfying his own interests at a sufficient level. this is confirmed by the threat of personal dissonance occurrence due to defects of egocentrism (rs = 0.205, p ≤ 0.001). this situation can also lead to an exacerbation of the risk of personal dissonance emergence due to exacerbation of suspicion (rs = 0.231, p ≤ 0.001), as a projection of internal self-doubt (rs = -0.228, p ≤ 0.001). such suspicion against the background of uncertainty causes the risk of exacerbation and dissonance in the manifestation of friendship (rs = 0.212, p ≤ 0.001) in the adolescent, when he begins to fear that he will not be able to successfully build close social ties. as a result, there is a decrease in the psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 154 sense of self-worth as an individuality (rs = -0.210, p ≤ 0.001) and selfattachment (rs = -0.190, p ≤ 0.001). such uncertainty prevents the adolescent from positioning a favourable image in the eyes of others, as indicated by the inverse correlation with the indicator of demonstrated selfattitude (rs = -0.183, p ≤ 0.01). this unproductive position of uncertainty exacerbates the risk of personal dissonance emergence in the sphere of selfdependence (rs = 0.177, p ≤ 0.01), which fully corresponds to the abovementioned dissatisfaction of the adolescent with his own excessive subordinate position in life. the inability to productively resolve the consequences of such personal dissonance causes tendencies to painful selfblame (rs = 0.174, p ≤ 0.01). the growing anxiety about the problems of satisfying one’s own personal and, in particular, social needs, causes the risk of personal dissonance emergence in the sphere of altruism (rs = 0.165, p ≤ 0.01), which may explain the excessive aggression that adolescents observe in the real self-image (rs = -0.160, p ≤ 0.01) for the time being. another sphere of risk of personal dissonance emergence in adolescents is the subjective feeling of self-dependency, which prevents the assertion of their own autonomy in the process of emancipation. this is confirmed by a significant correlation with the indicator of the currently stated and present feeling of his own dependent state of the self-real image (rs = 0.425, p ≤ 0.001) in the adolescent. as a natural result, this exacerbates the risk of concomitant personal dissonance occurrence in a close sphere, namely in subordination (rs = 0.393, p ≤ 0.001), which is confirmed by the excessive level of subordination (rs = 0.278, p ≤ 0.001) in adolescents’ stated real self-image. this feeling of dependency and subordination creates a feeling of threat to independence, which can lead to personal dissonance emergence in the sphere of egocentrism (rs = 0.245, p ≤ 0.001), as the inability to defend one’s own interests against external circumstances and hindering influence of more dominant others. this feeling of selfdependency and weakness generates destructive tendencies to unproductive self-blame (rs = 0.232, p ≤ 0.001). the consequence of this may result in the emergence of personal dissonance in the sphere of suspicion (rs = 0.225, p ≤ 0.001) against the background of exacerbation of distrust of oneself and others, which is confirmed by the stated level of acute self-suspicion in the current real self-image (rs = 0,154, p ≤ 0,01). due to such a watchful attitude towards oneself and others, there is also a risk of exacerbation of dissonance in the consequence of the inability to build harmonious altruistic relationships with the close social environment (rs = 0.220, p ≤ 0.001), which is confirmed by the stated existing level of friendship in the real selfimage of adolescents (rs = 0.186, p ≤ 0.01). the inverse correlation of the brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 155 demonstrated self-attitude (rs = -0.180, p ≤ 0.01) indicates difficulties in building a favourable self-image in the eyes of others. such a feeling of selfdissatisfaction, coming into conflict with real ambitions and aspirations, increases the level of intrapersonal proneness to conflict (rs = 0.178, p ≤ 0.01). obsessive thoughts about one’s own problems, which arise as a result of excessive dependence, threaten the risk of personal dissonance emergence in the sphere of authoritarianism (rs = 0.177, p ≤ 0.01), as a means of defending one’s own life boundaries. this situation creates a feeling of outsiderism in the adolescent, which leads to self-deprecation, neglect of one’s own interests, and, as a consequence, reduces selfattachment (rs = -0.163, p ≤ 0.01). the factors of personal dissonance having the lowest risks based on their rating follow then. thus, in particular, the risk of dissonance due to the desire of adolescents to reduce their level of protective aggression is associated primarily with the discrepancy between the ideal self-image of the adolescent (rs = -0.287, p ≤ 0.001), the inverse correlation with which determines the desire to reduce this quality. instead, the feeling of excessive manifestation of aggression in the real self-image (rs = 0.237, p ≤ 0.001) becomes an obstacle to the harmonious socialization of the adolescent. the increase in assertiveness is associated with a natural increase in the risk of relevant personal dissonances in the field of suspicion (rs = 0.218, p ≤ 0.001), which is explained by the adolescents’ feeling of excessive suspicion in the real self-image (rs = 0.161, p ≤ 0.01). these problems with aggression are reflected in the problems of feelings of friendship (rs = 0,194, p ≤ 0,001) in relations with the immediate social environment, which is confirmed by the inverse correlation with the indicator of feeling of the current level of friendship development in the adolescent’s real self-image (rs = -0.158, p ≤ 0.01). as a natural result, such dissonance results in a decrease of self-confidence (rs = -0.156, p ≤ 0.01) due to feelings of insecurity (or inability to defend one’s own boundaries). the next risk of danger is personal dissonance due to adolescents’ subjective feeling to satisfy their egocentric desires as a form of defending their independence. such dissonance, first of all, correlates with the feeling of unrealization of the possibility of defending one’s own present time interests, which is indicated by a significant correlation with the egocentrism indicator of the real self-image (rs = -0.311, p ≤ 0.001). this can be explained by the feeling of vulnerability due to the risk of dissonance emergence in the feeling of subordination (rs = 0.257, p ≤ 0.001) and dependency (rs = 0.245, p ≤ 0.001), which explains the feeling of inability to defend one’s own interests and aspirations. this rueful feelings corresponds psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 156 to the indicator of the feeling of existing subordination (rs = 0.167, p ≤ 0.01) to the external dominant circumstances of life situations. this situation of feeling vulnerable causes a risk of personal dissonance due to feelings of distrust of oneself and others as well as suspicion (rs = 0.198, p ≤ 0.001), the growth of which is supported by the stated level of excessive distrust in the real self-image (rs = 0.222, p ≤ 0.001). uncertainty in one’s own ability to defend one’s own boundaries is associated with the risk of adolescents’ personal dissonance emergence in the manifestation of authoritarianism (rs = 0.205, p ≤ 0.001) as a tool of self-affirmation, confirmed by unsatisfactory, from the point of view of the adolescents, level of self-affirmation current status, as indicated by the inverse correlation with the indicator of authoritarianism of the real self-image (rs = -0.194, p ≤ 0.001). such a wobbly position reduces the level of self-confidence (rs = -0.172, p ≤ 0.01), prevents the adolescent from accepting himself (rs = -0.162, p ≤ 0.01), and impairs the ability to effectively and adequately self-control due to defects in the ability to self-management (rs = -0.169, p ≤ 0.01). now let’s move on to the least dangerous, in terms of the risks of personal dissonance emergence, which include spheres of friendship and altruism. these risks may be derived from the above factors, however, can not be ignored, because they determine the productivity of social adaptation of adolescents. thus, the risk of personal dissonance emergence due to adolescents’ dissatisfaction in the sphere of friendship corresponds to the desire to increase it from the existing level of real self-image (rs = -0.199, p ≤ 0.001), due to fears about its underdevelopment. such destructive tendencies are associated with the risk of personal dissonance emergence in the sphere of altruism (rs = 0.377, p ≤ 0.001), which is confirmed by the inverse correlation with the current level of its manifestation (rs = -0.197, p ≤ 0.001). this indicates the desire of the adolescent to get rid of the problems of establishing friendly relations with a significant close social environment by increasing altruistic behavioural tendencies. the inability to build one’s own friendly relations creates anxiety, which can result in the risk of personal dissonance emergence in the sphere of mistrust and suspicion (rs = 0.258, p ≤ 0.001). the risk of destruction of friendly relations can create a danger of personal dissonance emergence in the sphere of authoritarianism, as a deprivation of the ability to build one’s own comfortable life boundaries, as indicated by a strong correlation with the indicator of authoritarianism (rs = 0.212, p ≤ 0.001). this tendency is confirmed by dissatisfaction with the existing capacity for emancipation, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 157 which is manifested in the statement by the adolescent of an unsatisfactory level of opportunity to actualize his desirable self-image (rs = -0.210, p ≤ 0.001). the threat of exacerbation of personal dissonance in the sphere of aggression increases (rs = 0.194, p ≤ 0.001) in the case of psychotraumatic conditions emergence, not as a destructive tendency, but as a fear of inability to defend one’s own aspirations without the inner circle support. and the last, in terms of the risk of personal dissonances emergence in adolescents, is the danger of their emergence in the sphere of altruistic inclinations, which are generally assessed as in need of development. in particular, personal dissonance in the sphere of altruism is directly related to the risk of a number of interrelated personal dissonances emergence, which should include violations of friendship (rs = 0.377, p ≤ 0.001). the adolescent, therefore, is wary of establishing close relations of trust on the principle of “peer-to-peer”, the reason for which may be the possibility of personal dissonance emergence in the manifestation of subordination (rs = 0.254, p ≤ 0.001). such fears can form intolerance to uncertainty, which results in the threat of personal dissonance emergence against the background of exacerbation of suspicion (rs = 0.247, p ≤ 0.001). this situation can cause the adolescent to feel dissatisfied with his own inability to build harmonious relations on the basis of equality, which can lead to the risk of personal dissonance emergence against the background of feelings of one’s own dependency (rs = 0.220, p ≤ 0.001). a loss of self-confidence may be the consequence of this, as indicated by the inverse correlation (rs = -0.192, p ≤ 0.001), as well as the weakening of the ability to present oneself in a favourable reputation, as indicated by the inverse correlation with the demonstrated self-attitude (rs = -0.169, p ≤ 0.01). this situation of subjective feeling of abandonment can lead to personal dissonance emergence against the background of inability to defend one’s own aspirations, as indicated by the correlation relationship of the risk of dissonance in the manifestation of authoritarianism (rs = 0.165, p ≤ 0.01). 4. limits and discussion based on the research, it can be stated that the emergence of personal dissonances in different spheres of adolescents are interrelated and have a negative impact on the components of the system of their selfattitude. the risk of personal dissonance in the sphere of suspicion due to the adolescent’s desire to reduce it is associated with the indicators of suspicion psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 158 of perceived real and ideal self-images, propensity to self-blame, the indicator of subordination in the real self-image, the indicators of risk of personal dissonance by manifestations of subordination, friendship, altruism, authoritarianism, dependency, aggression and egocentrism, the indicator of demonstrated self-attitude, the indicator of the dependency in the real selfimage, intrapersonal proneness to conflict, decreased self-confidence, selfattachment and self-management. the risk of personal dissonance due to the desire of the adolescent to get rid of excessive subordination is associated with the indicators of subordination in one’s own real and ideal self-images, the indicators of risk of personal dissonance in terms of manifestation of dependency, authoritarianism, suspicion, egocentrism, altruism and friendship, manifestation of dependency in the real self-image, the indicator of the authoritarianism in the real self-image, tendency to self-blame, the indicator of suspicion in the real self-image, the desire to increase demonstrated selfattitude in the eyes of others, the indicator of egocentrism in the real selfimage, increased intrapersonal proneness to conflict, weakened self-control and self-management, decreased self-attachment, loss of self-confidence. the risk of personal dissonance in the field of authoritarianism, due to the inability and in the consequence of its insufficient level, to confidently defend one’s own life priorities is associated with the indicator of authoritarianism in the self-real image, the indicators of risk of personal dissonances in terms of the manifestations of subordination, egocentrism, suspicion, friendship, dependency and altruism, the level of subordination in the real self-image, the manifestation of egocentrism in the real self-image, self-doubt, decreased self-worth and self-attachment, weakened demonstrated self-attitude, increased tendency to self-blame, the indicator of aggression in the real self-image. the risk of personal dissonance due to the adolescent’s feelings of self-dependence, which prevents the assertion of his own autonomy in the process of emancipation, is associated with the indicator of dependent state in the real self-image, the indicators of risk of personal dissonances in terms of the manifestation of subordination, egocentrism, suspicion, altruism and authoritarianism, the indicator of subordination in the real self-image, tendency to unproductive self-blame, the indicator of suspicion in the real self-image, the indicator of friendship in the real self-image, decreased demonstrated self-attitude, increased interpersonal proneness to conflict, decreased self-attachment. the risk of personal dissonance due to the desire of the adolescent to reduce his level of protective aggression is associated with decreased brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 159 aggression in the ideal self-image against the background of its inflated level in the real self-image, the indicators of risk of personal dissonance in terms of the manifestation of suspicion and friendship, the indicator of excessive suspicion in the real self-image, the indicator of friendship in the real selfimage, decreased self-confidence. the risk of personal dissonance due to the subjective feeling of adolescents’ inability to satisfy their egocentric desires as forms of defending their independence, is associated with the indicator of egocentrism in the real self-image, the indicators of risk of personal dissonances in terms of the manifestations of subordination, dependency, suspicion and authoritarianism, the indicator of subordination in the real self-image, the indicator of suspicion in the real self-image, decreased manifestation of authoritarianism in the real self-image, decreased self-confidence, difficulties in self-acceptance, deterioration of self-management. the risk of personal dissonance due to the adolescents’ dissatisfaction in the sphere of friendship is associated with weakened level of friendship in the real self-image, the indicators of risk of personal dissonances in terms of the manifestation of altruism, suspicion, authoritarianism and aggression, reduced altruism in the real self-image, manifestation of aggression in the ideal self-image. the risk of personal dissonance of the adolescent in the field of altruistic inclinations is associated with the indicators of risk of personal dissonances in terms of the manifestations of friendship, subordination, suspicion, dependency and authoritarianism, loss of self-confidence, weakened demonstrated self-attitude. the results of our research complement the findings of many scientists (aleksandrov, et al., 2017; boriak et al., 2021; bridges et al., 2004; ding & kalashnyk, 2020; gratz et al., 2010; mannapova et al., 2020) and expand them. 5. conclusions on the basis of the comparative analysis of the profiles of the ideal and the real self-images of adolescents it was found that the greatest discrepancy between self-images is observed in terms of suspicion, subordination, authoritarianism and dependency. it should be noted that the correlation analysis also showed the largest number of significant relationships in the indicators of dissonance in the sphere of suspicion (17), subordination (18), authoritarianism (15) and dependency (13). this is where a significant source of dissonance can lie, because it is these qualities that psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 160 adolescents want to change the most in themselves. less pronounced are the discrepancies between the real and the ideal self-image in terms of aggression and egocentrism. these qualities, although weak, but are still pronounced, and therefore can also be considered a potential source of selfdissatisfaction, and, consequently, albeit small, but still, the risk of dissonance. and the least pronounced are the discrepancies in the sphere of friendship and altruism, which indicates sufficient satisfaction of adolescents with the current level of development of these qualities. the correlation analysis confirmed that the emergence of dissonances in different spheres of adolescents are interrelated and have a negative impact on the components of their self-attitude system. therefore, these factors require priority attention in the implementation of psychoprophylaxis and psychological correction of personal dissonances of adolescents in the process of psychological care organization. acknowledgements there are no acknowledgements. funding there was no outside funding provided for this study. disclosure statement no author has any financial interest or received any financial benefit from this research. conflict of interest the authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest. references aleksandrov, d. o., okhrimenko, i. m., & serbyn, r. a. (2017). psykholohichni chynnyky skhylʹnosti ditey uchasnykiv boyovykh diy do poststresovykh psykhotravmatychnykh perezhyvan’ [psychological factors of post-stress psychotraumatic feelings susceptibility of combanants’ children]. science and education, 9, 16-25. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-9-3 https://scienceandeducation.pdpu.edu.ua/doc/2017/9_2017/3.pdf aleksandrov, d., & okhrimenko, i. (2020). psychological risk factors of the neurotization of adolescents under the conditions of quarantine measures of the covid-19 epidemic. brain. broad research in artificial https://publons.com/publon/19127941/ https://publons.com/publon/19127941/ https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-9-3 https://scienceandeducation.pdpu.edu.ua/doc/2017/9_2017/3.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 161 intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2 sup 1), 29-36. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/91 alessandri, j., darcheville, j. c., & zentall, t. r. (2008). cognitive dissonance in children: justification of effort or contrast? psychonomic bulletin & review, 15(3), 673-677. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/pbr.15.3.673 boriak, o., pakhomova, n., okhrimenko, i., odynchenko, l., usyk, d. (2021). psycholinguistic research of speech activity of junior students with intellectual disorders. applied linguistics research journal, 5(6), 104-112. https://dx.doi.org/10.14744/alrj.2021.03360 braun, l. t., & schmidmaier, r. (2019). dealing with cognitive dissonance: an approach. medical education, 53(12), 1167-1168. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.13955 bridges, l. j., denham, s. a., & ganiban, j. m. (2004). definitional issues in emotion regulation research. child development, 75(2), 340-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00675.x cancino-montecinos, s., björklund, f., & lindholm, t. (2018). dissonance reduction as emotion regulation: attitude change is related to positive emotions in the induced compliance paradigm. plos one, 13(12), e0209012. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209012 cancino-montecinos, s., björklund, f., & lindholm, t. (2020). a general model of dissonance reduction: unifying past accounts via an emotion regulation perspective. frontiers in psychology, 11(11), 3184. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.540081 cooper, j. (2019). cognitive dissonance: where we’ve been and where we’re going. international review of social psychology, 32(1), 1-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/irsp.277 davis, k. l., panksepp, j., & normansell, l. (2014). the affective neuroscience personality scales: normative data and implications. neuropsychoanalysis, 5(1), 57-69. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/15294145.2003.10773410 ding, s., & kalashnyk, l. (2020). resocialization and readaptation as a social need of postcorona period. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2), 12-19. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/135 festinger, l. (1962). cognitive dissonance. scientific american, 207, 93-102. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1062-93 gratz, k. l., rosenthal, m. z., tull, m. t., lejuez, c. w., & gunderson, j. g. (2010). an experimental investigation of emotional reactivity and delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder: the role of shame. comprehensive psychiatry, 51(3), 275-285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.005 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/91 https://link.springer.com/journal/13423 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/pbr.15.3.673 https://dx.doi.org/10.14744/alrj.2021.03360 https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.13955 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00675.x https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209012 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.540081 http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/irsp.277 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/15294145.2003.10773410 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/135 https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1062-93 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.005 psychological peculiarities of personal dissonance of adolescents in the sphere … denys aleksandrov, et al. 162 hagège, j., chammat, m., tandetnik, c., & naccache, l. (2018). suggestion of self(in)coherence modulates cognitive dissonance. plos one, 13(8), e0202204. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202204 harmon-jones, e. (2000). cognitive dissonance and experienced negative affect: evidence that dissonance increases experienced negative affect even in the absence of aversive consequences. personality and social psychology bulletin, 26(12), 1490-1501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01461672002612004 harmon-jones, e., & harmon-jones, c. (2020). cognitive dissonance processes serve an action-oriented adaptive function. behavioral and brain sciences, 43, e38. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x19002176 klein, j., & mccoll, g. (2019). cognitive dissonance: how self-protective distortions can undermine clinical judgement. medical education, 53(12), 1178-1186. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.13938 laughey, w. f., brown, m. e. l., palmer, e. g., & finn, g. m. (2021). when i say empathic dissonance. medical education, 55(4), 428-429. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14441 leary, t. (2004). interpersonal diagnosis of personality : a functional theory and methodology for personality evaluation. resource publications. mannapova, k., okhrimenko, i., tverdokhvalova, i., bychkova, s., makarenko, p., & меlnychuk, v. (2020). peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 139-156. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/100 maziar, o. v. (2020). osobystisnyi dysonans: systemnyi analiz [personal dissonance: system analysis: monograph]. vydavets o. o. yevenok. naccache, l., el karoui, i., salti, m., chammat, m., maillet, m., & allali, s. (2015). comment notre cohérence subjective se construit-elle? le modèle de la dissonance cognitive [how our subjective coherence is built? the model of cognitive dissonance]. bulletin de l’académie nationale de médecine, 199(2-3), 253-259. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-4079(19)30968-9 pantileev, s. r. (1993). metodika issledovaniya samootnosheniya [self-relationship research methodology]. smysl. robins, c. j., keng, s. l., ekblad, a. g., & brantley, j. g. (2012). effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on emotional experience and expression: a randomized controlled trial. journal of clinical psychology, 68(1), 117-131. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20857 stone, j. (2003). self-consistency for low self-esteem in dissonance processes: the role of self-standards. personality and social psychology bulletin, 29(7), 846-858. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203029007004 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202204 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01461672002612004 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x19002176 https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.13938 https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14441 https://archive.org/details/interpersonaldia00learrich https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/100 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-4079(19)30968-9 https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20857 https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203029007004 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 163 tsilmak, o., okhrimenko, i., barko, v., protsenko, o., & gerashchenko, o. (2020). psychological profile of unsuccessful university students. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(2), 267-289. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2/278 van der velden, f., brugman, d., boom, j., & koops, w. (2010). moral cognitive processes explaining antisocial behavior in young adolescents. international journal of behavioral development, 34(4), 292-301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0165025409343705 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2/278 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0165025409343705 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 67-77 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/192 structure of the upper and lower surfaces of human corpus callosumg olga boiagina¹ 1 kharkiv national medical university, ukraine, olya-boiagina@ukr.net abstract: the corpus callosum in the interval between the cerebral hemispheres is a plate of white matter, uneven in thickness, in which two surfaces are distinguished the upper and lower ones, bent according to its lateral profile. the objective of the study was to study the individual variability of location of the lateral and medial longitudinal strips on the upper surface of the corpus callosum, as well as structural features of its lower surface. the material was the brain of men and women (10 specimens each) of the second period of adulthood, who died for the causes not related to the pathology of the central nervous system. after two weeks of fixation in a 10% formalin solution, the brain was prepared by separating the cerebral hemispheres and other parts of the brain from the corpus callosum, resulting in exposure of its upper and lower surface, which was photographed using a digital camera. as evidenced by the obtained data, the width of the trunk of the corpus callosum in men varies from 9 to 16 mm, whereas in women the difference between the minimum (11.0 mm) and the maximum (20.0 mm) values is greater than in men, when in fact there is only small difference of the arithmetic mean value. thus, we offer to consider the lateral longitudinal strips to be the boundaries of the corpus callosum hemispherical part and the distance between them determines the width of this formation, which in average is 13.0 ± 2.5 mm in men and 14.4 ± 2.7 mm in women. in the meantime, the nature of the individual variability of the width of the corpus callosum trunk in women is more diverse than in men. keywords: lateral and medial longitudinal strips, indusium griseum, surface of the corpus callosum, sagittal plane, plating in epoxy resin, dissection. how to cite: boiagina, o. (2021). structure of the upper and lower surfaces of human corpus callosum. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 67-77. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/192 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/192 mailto:olya-boiagina@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/192 structure of the upper and lower surfaces of human corpus callosum olga boiagina 68 introduction according to the information contained in the manuals of human anatomy, published at different times, including recent years, the corpus callosum located between the cerebral hemispheres is an uneven (in terms of thickness) plate of white matter, comprised of two surfaces – the upper and lower ones, bent to its side profile (salvolini et al., 2010; ardekani et al., 2012; raybaud, 2010). on the upper surface there are some transverse strips (striae transversalis) that are visible in some places through a thin layer of induseum griseum. they are the outer reflection of the bundles of interhemispheric (cortico-cortical) nerve fibers transiting through the corpus callosum. the induseum griseum, according to the literature, has been studied quite superficially. in addition, the upper surface of the interhemispheric part of the corpus callosum attracts attention due to the presence of longitudinally stretched eminential strips, two of which are medially close (striae longitudinalis medialis) and there is a pair of lateral ones (striae longitudinalis lateralis) bordering the cingulate gyrus (gyrus cinguli). in the anterior part these strips, girdling the genu of corpus callosum, reach the subcallosal gyrus, and in the posterior part, they continue under the splenium of corpus callosum, reaching the hippocampal zone in the form of a dentate gyrus showing the annular arrangement in the limbic brain structures (luders et al., 2010; battal et al., 2010). according to the literature, these strips are represented by bundles of nerve fibers that provide associative interactions between distant ancient formations of the pallium. the lower surface of the corpus callosum is remarkable because of the fact that, slightly posteriorly from the middle of corpus callosum trunk, it is coalesced with the body of the fornix, also belonging to the limbic brain. but the consideration of the morphological connections of the corpus callosum does not end at this point. it should be noted that the space between the anterior part of the trunk, the genu and rostrum of the corpus callosum, on the one hand, and the columns of the fornix, on the other, are tightened by two, medially located thin plates of brain matter, which are separated by a narrow space called the septum pellucidum (prakash et al., 2010). the above brief sketch of the outer structure of the corpus callosum aims to show how it is described in the literature. the objective of the study was to study the individual variability of location of the lateral and medial longitudinal strips on the upper surface of the corpus callosum, as well as structural features of its lower surface. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 69 applying the dissection of the corpus callosum the material obtained at kharkiv regional bureau of forensic medical examination was the brain of men and women (10 specimens each) of the second period of adulthood, who died for the causes not related to the pathology of the central nervous system. after two weeks of fixation in a 10% formalin solution, the brain was prepared by separating the cerebral hemispheres and other parts of the brain from the corpus callosum, resulting in exposure of its upper and lower surface, which was photographed using a digital camera. morphometric analysis of the upper surface of the corpus callosum was performed by means of adobe photoshop cs6 extended software. some of the preparations were examined using routine histological methods with van gieson staining. some plates, about 0,5 mm thick, were cut from part of the corpus callosum preparations. then they were subjected to epoxy resin lamination applying the well-known method (kostilenko et al., 2008) according to the following scheme: 1 – substitution of alcohol in tissues with acetone; 2 – substitution of acetone in the tissues with epoxy resin and immersion of the preparations into pure, immediately prepared, epoxy resin. the next step was to remove the preparations from the still unpolymerized epoxy resin and place them on the pre-prepared plastic sheeting, which were covered with the same size sheetings. after that, each such layered block was individually placed between two evenly sized glasses that were tightly clamped. after complete polymerization, polished sections of different thickness were made from the obtained epoxy plates with the preparations of corpus callosum. then they were painted with 1% solution of methylene blue on 1% borax solution. the study of the obtained preparations, as well as their photographic documentation were carried out with the help of binocular magnifier mbs-9 and a light microscope "konus, equipped with a digital photo set-top box. the research methods described in the publication were applied in compliance with human rights in accordance with the legislation in force in ukraine, meet international ethical requirements and do not violate ethical norms in science and standards of biomedical research. studying the upper surface of the corpus callosum as a result of the study of the upper surface of the corpus callosum, we can say that the name "strips" can be applied with a bit of a stretch to the longitudinally oriented by the outer surface of the corpus callosum "strips", the pair of which in the contralateral position occupies a boundary position structure of the upper and lower surfaces of human corpus callosum olga boiagina 70 between the free part of the corpus callosum and the medial parts of the gyrus cinguli although in terms of appearance they have the shape of a rounded cord (about 1.5 mm thick) passing across a rough uneven outer surface. therefore, by retaining this name (lateral longitudinal strips), we must refer it to the string-shaped conducting (i.e., comprised of nerve-fiber bundles) cords, which are separated from the corpus callosum, connecting the opposing distal centers of the limbic brain. it should be noted that in some cases there are individual variants in the form of small branches, which are immersed in the medial direction in the thickness of the corpus callosum. in other cases, the lateral longitudinal strips do not have the form of continuous strands, but resemble a suture line due to the wavy bending of their transverse rollers (fig. 1, 2). however, these lateral strands (lateral longitudinal strips) can be considered as lateral boundary orientations of the latitudinal boundary of the free (interhemispheric) part of the corpus callosum, and therefore we have the opportunity to determine its width by simply measuring the transverse distance between them. these metrics are indicative only, since only 10 preparations of the corpus callosum of men and women were taken to obtain them. however, by the mean of the random sampling error, they are quite reliable. it should be noted that these results are limited only to the trunk section of the corpus callosum. according to them, the width of the trunk section of the corpus callosum in men varies from 9 to 16 mm (arithmetic mean value is 13.0 ± 2.5 mm), whereas in women the variation between the minimum (11.0 mm) and the maximum (20, 0 mm) values is greater than in men, with a virtually small difference in the arithmetic mean of 14.4 ± 2.7 mm. in other words, the nature of the individual variability of the width of the corpus callosum trunk in women is more diverse compared to men. in the intermediate position between these nerve fibers (longitudinal lateral strips) along the upper surface of the corpus callosum, according to the literature, there is a pair of similar formations called medial longitudinal strips. however, according to our observations, they are not in all cases different in terms of parity of location, that is, their shape varies individually. often this formation looks like a single longitudinal strand corresponding to the median plane of the brain (fig. 1, 2), in other cases it splits in some places. but along with this, in our small sample, there were also variants of its relatively wide split. in such cases, on the upper surface of the trunk section of the corpus callosum there were four strands, approximately equally spaced from each other, that is, two medial and two lateral ones (fig. 2). but in no case we came across such a formation in the classic version, that is, in the form of two parallel medial longitudinal strips. of course, this brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 71 does not mean that there are no such options. probably, they did not get into our sample of preparations, which testifies to the possibility of the existence of many other individual forms of the outer contour of the obligate formations connected with the upper surface of the corpus callosum, which are closely soldered to subjacent part and therefore are inseparable. additional individual evidence of this is the local immersion of longitudinal strips, which occur periodically along their length, into the thickness of the corpus callosum. this, as noted above, sometimes gives them the appearance of a suture. besides, their shape depends largely on the relief of the surface where they are longitudinally laid; and this is already the case with another type of upper body surface formation, that is called transverse strips (i.e., at right angles to the longitudinal ones) in the literature. fig. 1. the trunk section of the corpus callosum 55-year-old woman. a – the upper surface, b – the lower surface. 1 – lateral longitudinal strips, 2 – medial longitudinal strip, 3 – transverse roller-shaped convexities (transverse strips), structure of the upper and lower surfaces of human corpus callosum olga boiagina 72 4 – lower transverse roller-shaped convexities, 5 – remains of septum pellucidum, 6 – remains of the body of the fornix. fig. 2. the upper surface of the trunk section of the mature adults corpus callosum. а – men, b – women. 1 – lateral longitudinal strips, 2 – medial longitudinal strip, 3 – transverse roller-shaped convexities (transverse strips). in addition, the literature does not pay much attention to the study of the lower surface of the corpus callosum. it is only known that in its trunk part it is the upper wall of the central department of the lateral ventricles, separated from each other by the median plane, fused with the lower surface of the corpus callosum, a transparent septum supplemented at the back by the body of the fornix. it is pertinent to recall that the fornix begins with columns from the mammilary bodies (corpus mamillare), which then merge into the body, which fuses with the lower surface of the corpus callosum (at the border between the posterior department of the trunk and the splenium). from here they split up, heading for the anterior poles of the temporal lobes, where they continue into the right and left hippocampus. given that fused part of fornix is adhered from below with the corpus callosum, its indirect role of switching interactions between the limbic brain and the neopallium through the corpus callosum collector system becomes apparent. not to be overlooked is the fact that the space between the anterior part of the trunk, the genu and the rostrum of the corpus callosum, on the one hand, and the columns of the fornix, on the other, is tightened brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 73 by two medially spaced thin plates of the brain matter, which are separated by a narrow space of approximately 1 mm. it is the so-called septum pellucidum. it is easy to be convinced in all of the above during the process of corpus callosum preparation in order to gain access to its lower surface. thus, when removing the septum pellucidum and fornix, the remnants of the described formations can be clearly seen on its lower surface. in this case, the septum pellucidum looks like a double medially located rim that splits up back to the location of the adhesion of the fornix (fig. 1). note that this double rim from the septum pellucidum exactly coincides with the projection of the medial longitudinal strip located on the upper surface of the corpus callosum. it may seem that the septum pellucidum, passing through the corpus callosum, protrudes on its upper surface. further studies have shown that this is not the case. in terms of our consideration of the outer structure of the corpus callosum itself, its lower surface is interesting because under the ependymus there are quite clearly visible transversely placed roller-like elevations, similar to the same elevations on its upper surface with the only difference being that they are more monotonously wide without any presence of dichotomous division. these elevations form orderly rows on either side of the mid-point attachment of the septum pellucidum (fig. 1). it is in this order that they extend into the thickness of the white matter of the cerebral hemispheres. based on the above data, we can conclude that the corpus callosum itself, in the sense that it provides a predominantly commissural connection between the contralateral cortical centers of the neopallium, consists of a certain number of cord formations that are visualized at the macroscopic level (the naked eye). due to the fact that they are not mentioned in the literature, we propose to call them commissural cords of the corpus callosum or its funicular components, which can be considered as first-order subcutaneous units. the surface of the corpus callosum it is necessary to pay attention to the surface layer of the upper surface of the corpus callosum – the so-called indusium griseum (fig. 3). to get clearer visualization of the microscopic structure of the surface, we made extremely thin epoxy resin plates of corpus callosum, the thickness of which did not exceed 0.5 mm. as a result, they could be viewed in a passing microscope at relatively high magnifications (with 10 and 20 х lenses). structure of the upper and lower surfaces of human corpus callosum olga boiagina 74 fig. 4 shows that this indusium griseum generally has a predominantly pileous structure, which is a close set of double-loop fibers extending from the thickness of the commissural cords at right angles to the upper surface of the corpus callosum. on their apical parts in the surface plane there are star-shaped (due to the numerous, radially directed apophyses) cells located in a regular order. although they are very similar to dendrites of neurons, these nerve cells do not belong to nerve cells, which is confirmed by the literature devoted to the study of the structural organization of the outer surface of the brain. according to these sources, the central nervous system, as a whole, is completely covered with glial cells along the entire surface, both internal (from the ventricles) and outer ones (from the soft, vascular membrane). on the outer surface of the brain (the corpus callosum is no exception) there is a limiting glial membrane (membrana limitans gliae superficialis), represented by lamellar apophyses of astroglia, which overlap each other, and the bodies of astrocytes themselves. this membrane is separated from the superimposed soft, vascular membrane by the basal membrane only. fig. 3. histotopography of the corpus callosum of a mature man. paraffin section in the transverse section of the corpus callosum. van gizon, 4x lens. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 75 1 – outer limiting glial membrane (indusium griseum); 2 – corpus callosum proper (its thickness is indicated by a straight vertical line); 3 – inner limiting glial membrane; 4 – ependymal layer; 5 – venous vessels. the curved line shows the trajectory of the interfascicular connective tissue layer. fig. 4. indusium griseum of the corpus callosum. epoxy plate, 0.5 mm thick. methylene blue, 20х lens. a – at the top of the transverse roller-shaped elevation; b – on its slope. 1 – astroglia cells are circled in white; 2 – arcuate brackets indicate the columnar assemblages of double-loop fibrous structures of indusium griseum. therefore, our own data concerning the surface coverage of the corpus callosum are consistent with the ideas about the nature of the terminal limitation of the outer surface of the brain substance itself. so, like everywhere, the corpus callosum is covered with the thinnest layer of astroglia. but we still do not know exactly what the main thickness of the indusium griseum located below the corpus callosum is. let's just mention that, as noted above, it consists of a close set of double-loop fibers coming out of the thickness of the commissural cords, are directed at right angles to the limiting glial membrane. careful examination of the preparations reveals that in this continuous fibrous coating of the corpus callosum upper surface there are some assemblies having a columnar shape; in figure 4, they are structure of the upper and lower surfaces of human corpus callosum olga boiagina 76 marked with arcuate brackets. it was found out that the width of these columnar assemblies is commensurate with the width of the fascicular portions, as subunits of commissural cords. conclusions 1. we propose to consider the lateral longitudinal strips that run along the corpus callosum upper surface to be the marginal boundaries of its free (interhemispheric) part. the distance between them determines the width of this formation, which in males varies from 9 to 16 mm individually (on average – 13, 0 ± 2.5 mm), whereas in women the difference between the minimum (11 mm) and the maximum (20 mm) values is slightly larger with a virtually small difference of the mean value that equals to 14.4 ± 2.7 mm. in other words, the nature of the individual variability of the width of corpus callosum trunk section in women is more diverse than in men. 2. our research results are consistent with the literature and confirm the current knowledge concerning the nature of the terminal limitation of the corpus callosum outer surface, which is covered by a layer of astroglia. compliance with ethics requirements: „the authors declare no conflict of interest regarding this article“ „the authors declare that all the procedures and experiments of this study respect the ethical standards in the helsinki declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008(5), as well as the national law. informed consent was obtained from all the patients involved in the study“ „no funding for this study“ references ardekani, b. a., figarsky, k., & sidtis, j. j. (2012). sexual dimorphism in the human corpus callosum: an mri study using the oasis brain database. cerebral cortex, 23(10), 2514–2520. https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/23/10/2514/296735 battal, b., kocaoglu, m., akgun, v., bulakbasi, n., & tayfun, c. (2010). corpus callosum: normal imaging appearance, variants and pathologic conditions. journal of medical imaging and radiation oncololgy, 54(6), 541549. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21199431/ kostilenko, yu. p., bojko, i. v., & starchenko, i. i. (2008). a method for making histological preparations, equivalent to semithin sections with large examination areas for multi-purpose morphological studies. neuroscience and https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/23/10/2514/296735 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21199431/ brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 77 behavioral phisiology, 38(9), 897899. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18975113/ luders, e., thompson, p m., & toga, a. w. (2010). the development of the corpus callosum in the healthy human brain. journal of neuroscience, 30(33), 10985–10990. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20720105/ prakash, k. n., & nowinski, w. l. (2006). morphologic relationship among the corpus callosum, fornix, anterior commissure, and posterior commissure mri-based variability study. academic radiology, 13(1), 24–35. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16399030/ raybaud, c. (2010). the corpus callosum, the other great forebrain commissures, and the septum pellucidum: anatomy, development, and malformation. neuroradiology, 52(6), 447–477. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20422408/ salvolini, u., polonara, g., mascioli, g., fabri, m., & manzoni, t. (2010). functional topography of the human corpus callosum. bulletin de l’academie nationale de medicine, 194(3), 617–631. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21171254/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18975113/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20720105/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16399030/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20422408 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20422408/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21171254/ deri̇n  öğrenme yöntemi̇yle i̇ntrakrani̇yal kanama tanisi brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 01-27 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/236 hybrid convolutional neural networkbased diagnosis system for intracranial hemorrhage sezin barin¹, murat saribaş2, beyza gülizar çi̇ltaş3, gür emre güraksin4, utku köse5 1 afyon kocatepe university, department of biomedical engineering, afyonkarahisar, turkey, sbarin@aku.edu.tr 2 afyon kocatepe university, department of biomedical engineering, afyonkarahisar, turkey, muratsaribas97@gmail.com 3 afyon kocatepe university, department of biomedical engineering, afyonkarahisar, turkey, gciltaas@gmail.com 4 afyon kocatepe university, department of computer engineering, afyonkarahisar, turkey, emreguraksin@aku.edu.tr 5 suleyman demirel university, department of computer engineering, isparta, turkey, utkukose@sdu.edu.tr abstract: early diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage significantly reduces mortality. hemorrhage is diagnosed by using various imaging methods and the most time-efficient one among them is computed tomography (ct). however, it is clear that accurate ct scans requires time, diligence, and experience. computer-aided design methods are vital for the treatment because they facilitate early diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage. at this point, deep learning can provide effective outcomes through an automated diagnosis way. however, as different from the known solutions, diagnosis of five different hemorrhage subtypes is a critical problem to be solved.this study focused on deep learning methods and employed cranial computed tomography scans in order to detect intracranial hemorrhage. the diagnosis approach in the study aimed to detect five subtypes of hemorrhage. in detail, efficientnet-b3 and resnetinception-v2 architectures were used for diagnosis purposes. eventually, the study also proposed a two-architecture hybrid method for the diagnosis purpose. the obtained findings by the hybrid method were evaluated in terms of a comparative perspective.results showed that the newly designed hybrid method was quite effective in terms of increasing classification rates of detecting intracranial hemorrhage according to the subtypes. briefly, an accuracy of 98.5%, which is higher than those of the efficientnet-b3 and the inception-resnetv2, were obtained thanks to the developed hybrid method. keywords: deep convolutional neural network; intracranial hemorrhage; computer tomography; inception-resnet-v2; efficientnet-b3. how to cite: barin, s., saribaş, m., çiltaş, b.g., güraksin, g.e., & köse, u. (2021). hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial hemorrhage. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 01-27. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/236 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/236 mailto:sbarin@aku.edu.tr mailto:muratsaribas97@gmail.com mailto:gciltaas@gmail.com mailto:emreguraksin@aku.edu.tr mailto:utkukose@sdu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/236 hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 2 1. introduction intracranial hemorrhage is a type of bleeding, which is caused by the rupture of a blood vessel in the brain. that situation results to the leaking of blood into the brain tissue or the space between the cortex and the skull. so, it is a serious health problem that requires rapid and intensive treatment as there may be different reasons (trauma, stroke, aneurysm, vascular malformations, high blood pressure, illegal drugs, and blood clotting disorders) for that and may result in serious health problems and even death (gardner et al., 2012). there are five different subtypes of intracranial hemorrhage as intraventricular (bleeding into the ventricles inside the brain), intraparenchymal (bleeding into the brain tissue), subarachnoid (bleeding into the space between two of the membranes surrounding the brain), subdural (bleeding into the space between the outermost meninx and the arachnoid), and epidural (bleeding into the space between the outermost meninx and the skull) (gardner et al., 2012). intracranial hemorrhage correspond to approximately ten percent of all strokes in the u.s. stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death in the u.s, as resulting 129,000 deaths each year (jauch et al., 2013). essential imaging methods used in the diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage are positron emission tomography (pet), cerebral angiography, computed tomographyangiography (ct-a), magnetic resonance imaging (mri), and magnetic resonance angiography (mra) (muir et al., 2006). although there is a remarkable variety of imaging methods as it can be seen, all of them take considerably long time to be processed. for example, cerebral angiography takes about three hours. therefore, cranial computed tomography is the best method for the diagnosis of acute intracranial hemorrhage because it takes only 1 to 5 minutes (phong et al., 2017). computed tomography can detect hemorrhage for more than 98% of patients, as considering the first two days of hemorrhage. however, the duration of diagnosis depends on how long it takes the expert to complete and interpret a cranial ct scan (medicine hospital, n.d.). in recent years, deep learning has been very popular in classification and segmentation of medical images. since its first appearance in the context of artificial intelligence field, it has been proven to be very effective in medical image oriented applications. therefore, there is also a growing body of research on the use of deep learning in classification of intracranial computed tomography scans (web of science, n.d.). arbabshirani et al. (2018) used 46,583 non-contrast head ct scans of 31,256 patients and proposed a convolutional neural network (cnn) architecture (employing brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 3 five convolutional and two fully-connected layers) for intracranial hemorrhage detection. arjun majumdar et al. (2018) classified 4300 scans of 134 cases into six groups, which are respectively no hemorrhage, epidural, subdural, subarachnoid, intraparenchymal, and intraventricular. they designed a cnn model of nine blocks with one convolution layer in each block and used maximum pooling (for data reduction) and a 2x2 nearest neighbor augmentation method (after the first four blocks). phong et al. (2017) focused on a dataset of 2000 ct scans (20 scans of each case in 115 hospitals in vietnam) and developed a system in order to distinguish ct scans as normal or abnormal (presence of intracranial hemorrhage). they used the cnn methods of lenet, googlenet, and inception-resnet-v2 and reached to the accuracy values of 99%, 98%, and 99% respectively. helwan et al. (2018) used a dataset of 2.527 ct scans (2,142 training and 385 tests) and developed an algorithm, which classified head ct scans as hemorrhage and no hemorrhage. they used an auto-encoder (ae) model with one hidden layer, a stacked auto-encoder (sae) model with two hidden layers, and a cnn model to conclude that the sae model had the highest accuracy (90.9%). al-ayyoub et al. (2013) developed a computer-aided diagnostic system to determine the presence of hemorrhage and three subtypes of hemorrhage (epidural, subdural, intraparenchymal). they used a data set of 76 ct (25 normal, 17 epidural hemorrhage, 20 subdural hemorrhage, and 14 intraparenchymal hemorrhages) scans from king abdullah university hospital. the system employed image preprocessing, image segmentation, feature extraction, and classification stages respectively. they used otsu's method for segmentation and extracted the regions of interest (roi) for classification. with the applications done via bayesnet, j48, logistic, mlp (multi-layer perceptron), and svm (support vector machine) classifiers in weka, they achieved 100% accuracy in hemorrhage detection and 92% accuracy in hemorrhage subtype classification (alayyoub et al. 2013). chilamkurthy et al. (2018) developed a deep learning method for head ct scans to classify the presence of hemorrhage, hemorrhage subtypes, calvarial fractures, midline shift, and mass effect. for the verification purpose, they used some scans, which were randomly selected from the qure25k data set (with 313318 scans) and employed the remaining scans for developing an algorithm. for the testing phase, they used the cq500 dataset collected in two batches. the qure25k dataset consists of 21095 scans, while the cq500 dataset consists of 491 scans (first batch 214, second batch 277). in the qure25k dataset, they achieved an accuracy of 92%, 90%, 96%, 92%, 93%, 90%, 92%, 93%, and 86% for intracranial, intraparenchymal, intraventricular, subdural, extradural, and hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 4 subarachnoid hemorrhage, and calvarial fractures, midline shift, and mass effect respectively. in the cq500 dataset, they achieved an accuracy of 94%, 95%, 93%, 95%, 97%, 96%, 96%, 97%, and 92% for intracranial, intraparenchymal, intraventricular, subdural, extradural, and subarachnoid hemorrhage, and calvarial fractures, midline shift, and mass effect respectively. salehinejad et al. (2021) developed a machine learning model by using seresnext-50 and seresnext-101 that was trained with a total of 21,784 scans from the rsna intracranial hemorrhage ct dataset. they tested their model for 3528 scans from the rsna intracranial hemorrhage ct dataset and achieved an accuracy of 98.3%, sensitivity of 98.8%, specificity of 98%, for five classes. objective of this study is to develop an alternative, effective deep learning method to diagnose hemorrhage, by considering detection of five subtypes. moving from that, the study focused on a dataset of 752.803 head ct scans [an open dataset on kaggle kaggle (rsna intracranial hemorrhage detection, n.d.)] collected by the radiology society of north america (rsna). the size of the dataset increased the reliability of the trained architectures. the study used the latest efficientnet-b3 (tan & le, 2019) and resnet-inception-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017) deep learning architectures for intracranial hemorrhage detection and its five subtypes. the study compared the high-dimensional dataset and the latest deep neural network architectures and eventually, proposed a two-architecture hybrid method. the developed hybrid method was compared with alternative archictures and the results showed that this newly designed method / architecture was more successful than the latest deep neural network architectures. 2. methodology 2.1. dataset the dataset employed in this study was derived from kaggle, which is an open-source database provided by the rsna. the dataset consists of 752.803 head ct scans of six labels, which are respectively no hemorrhage and five subtypes of hemorrhage (subdural, epidural, subarachnoid, intraparenchymal, and intraventricular) (rsna intracranial hemorrhage detection, n.d.). figure 1 shows some ct scans from the dataset and the distribution state according to the classes. the dataset was divided into two groups: training (90%) and test (10%). however, as seen in figure 1, the dataset has imbalanced distribution. epidural images are very few. for this reason, another test was conducted by reducing the number of images of brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 5 other classes. five hundred images from each class except the epidural and 314 images from the epidural class were taken for this test. however, one image contains multiple hemorrhages; therefore, test dataset2 values in figure 1 are different. train dataset test dataset1 test dataset2 epidural 1516 314 314 intraparenchymal 32506 3612 964 intraventricular 23584 2621 811 subdural 32107 3568 929 subarachnoid 42431 4785 893 non-hemorrhage 580382 64488 2500 total 677522 75281 4871 figure 1. ct scans from kaggle dataset and distribution of examination labels according to hemorrhage subtypes hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 6 2.2. image preprocessing image processing phase had several steps to prepare the images for better diagnosis. in this context, the scans were pretreated several times to train the deep learning architectures. first, they were resized to 300x300 for efficientnet-b3 (tan & le, 2019) and 299x299 for inception-resnet-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017) models, as considering the input layer dimensions of the deep neural network architectures. following to that, as suggested by chilamkurthy et al. (2018), the entire dynamic range of ct densities was defined as three separate windows, which are brain (length: 40 weight: 80), subdural (length: 80 weight: 200), and soft tissue (length: 40 weight: 380). that is because a fracture in a bone window indicates the presence of an extra hemorrhage in a brain window, or a fracture in a subdural window indicates the presence of a hemorrhage, which is indistinguishable in a skull and normal brain window. before the architectures were trained, the training images were flipped horizontally and vertically for the data augmentation. 2.3. deep learning with transfer learning deep learning is a branch of machine learning that is run with algorithms similar to the deep hierarchical architecture of the brain. deep learning is based on deep artificial neural networks (şeker et al., 2017). neural networks have numerous layers and even layers within layers, hence owning the name of deep. there is a growing body of research on deep learning methods in the field of biomedicine (figure 2) because they are more timeand cost-effective and also better in the detection and diagnosis of diseases than state-of-the-art methods (web of science, n.d.). figure 2. distribution of studies on deep learning methods in biomedical field, by years (web of science, n.d.) brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 7 in the context of this study, two ready-to-use cnn-based deep neural network models were trained with imagenet (n.d.) and eventually made ready accordingly for object classification. these deep cnn architectures were used to solve the problem characterized by a transfer learning method. by allowing for faster training and better performance, transfer learning has much better results because of the size of the dataset. transfer learning is a solution that focuses on storing knowledge gained while solving a problem and applying that knowledge to a different but related problem. in other words, transfer learning is a deep learning method by which an artificial neural network model trained for a task is redesigned for a different but related task. in order to classify brain ct scans, this study employed two most recent cnn models trained with the imagenet (n.d.), which is one of the largest image databases. the two cnn models employed in this context were efficientnet-b3 (tan & le, 2019) and inception-resnet-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017) respectively. after the training phase, the classification performance of the two models was separately compared, and the class-based average values of their classification probabilities were compared. 2.3.1. efficientnetb3 at the international conference on machine learning (icml) in 2019, google introduced a cnn-based efficientnet neural network architecture with a new structural approach (tan & le, 2019). a convolutional neural network (cnn) is known as a powerful class of deep neural networks, especially in image processing applications. a cnn architecture consists of input and output layers and intermediate layers, which are also known as hidden layers, as located between them. the main intermediate layers in a cnn architecture are convolution, pooling, and fully connected layers. essential functions of these layers are as follows: the convolution layer is the layer where an activation map is generated by addition and multiplication operations via filters from the input data. in other words, it is the layer where feature extraction takes place (stanford.edu, 2018). the pooling layer is the layer where nonlinear subsampling is performed, and the number of parameters is reduced for ensuring a simpler output (stanford.edu, 2018). the fully connected layer converts the data from the previous layer into a one-dimensional matrix, in order to make the data fully connected to all neurons in the next layer (stanford.edu, 2018). the fully connected layer generally precedes the classification layer, which is the last layer of a cnn architecture. to date, the depth, that is, the number of layers has been increased to improve the hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 8 performance of all architectures. however, that situation increased the cost of computing. so, because the accuracy reached saturation after a certain point, there was no increase in the success level. the proposed efficientnetb3 structure is much better than other cnn architectures in increasing success without increasing the depth. however, the main feature of the architecture is that the model referred to as compound scaling increases not only the depth but also the parameters of width and resolution (tan & le, 2019). figure 3 compares the proposed architecture with the other cnn architectures and shows that the efficientnet (tan & le, 2019) performed better despite having fewer parameters. figure 3. accuracy comparison of imagenet top-1 (tan & le, 2019) the efficientnet (tan & le, 2019) consists of eight models from b0 to b7, with each subsequent model number indicating higher accuracy. figure 4 shows the efficientnet-b0 (tan & le, 2019) architecture. the model of choice in this study has been efficientnet-b3(300x300) (tan & le, 2019) because it has input dimensions similar to those of the other cnn architecture: inception-resnet-v2 (299x299) (szegedy et al., 2017), as allowing us to ignore the effect of resolution while comparing the architectures. due to its input size and number of parameters, the efficientnet-b3 (tan & le, 2019) model is different from the b0 model. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 9 both models have seven blocks, each of which has a different number of mobile inverted bottleneck convolution (mbconv). therefore, the parameter size of the b0 model is 5.3m while that of the b3 model is 12m. figure 4. the architecture of efficientnet-b0 (tan & le, 2019) in the training phase of the efficientnet-b3 (tan & le, 2019) model, different parameters were used, and the most successful values were chosen accordingly. here, the adam was used as the optimization algorithm with a learning rate of 0.0001, batch size of 16, and binary cross-entropy as the loss function, whereas the sigmoid function was the activation function in the final classification layer. 10-fold cross-validation was also used within the related process. 2.3.2. inception-resnet-v2 the inception-resnet-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017) is a cnn architecture based on the combination of inception structure and the residual connection, as trained with more than a million images in the imagenet (n.d.) database. the network employs 164 layers deep and comes with the learned rich feature representations for different images, thanks to the diversity of the training set. the input image size for the model is 299x299. figure 5 shows the basic architecture of the inception-resnet-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017). in the inception-resnet-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017) blocks, multi-dimensional convolution filters are combined with residual connections. residual connections do not only prevent distortion caused by deep structures but also shorten the training time. hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 10 figure 5. main architecture of inception-resnet-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017.) parameters, which were selected for the training of the inceptionresnet-v2 model, were similar to those in the efficientnet-b3 model. the adam was used as the optimization algorithm with a learning rate of 0.0001, and batch size of 32, with binary cross-entropy as the loss function, and the sigmoid as the activation function in the final classification layer. 10-fold cross-validation was also used within the process. 2.3.3. recommended inception-resnet-v2 and efficientnet-b3 based hybrid model both architectures were trained separately with the same training set. the mean probability values for each class in the final sigmoid classification layer of both architectures were calculated for obtaining new probability values. figure 6 shows the flow chart for the proposed hybrid architecture. additionally, figure 7 shows the block diagram for the proposed hybrid model. as seen in figure 7, efficientnet-b3 has seven blocks, by also having a different number of mobile inverted bottleneck convolution. the inception-resnet-v2 has 3 inception blocks and 2 reduction blocks. on the other hand, input size of the efficientnet-b3 is 300x300 while the inception resnet-v2 ensures the input size of 299x299. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 11 figure 6. recommended inception-resnet-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017) and efficientnet-b3 (tan & le, 2019) based hybrid model hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 12 figure 7. recommended inception-resnet-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017) and efficientnet-b3 (tan & le, 2019) based hybrid model block diagram brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 13 3. findings and discussion table 1 compares the obtained results for the three methods of the study. 10-fold cross-validation was used, therefore the related results are the lowest, highest, and average accuracy values for 10-fold of each model. the success criteria of f1 score (equation 5), precision (equation 4), sensitivity (equation 3), specificity (equation 2), and accuracy (equation 1) were used to measure the success of the proposed hybrid architecture. ( ( ) ) (1) ( ) (2) ( ) (3) ( ) (4) (5) the value of tp (true positive) is used when a person with a disease is classified as a patient. fp (false positive) is used when a healthy person is classified as a patient. additionally, the value of tn (true negative) indicates the healthy person classified as healthy, and the fn (false negative) is used when a person with a disease is classified as healthy. accuracy is the ratio of the number of correctly classified images to the total number of images. precision refers to whether images classified belong to the class to which they are referred. specificity is the correct classification rate of ‘no hemorrhage’ images. sensitivity is the correct classification rate of ‘hemorrhage’ images. based on these criteria, the deep learning models were applied to 75280 ct scans of six labels; no hemorrhage and subdural, epidural, subarachnoid, intraparenchymal, and intraventricular hemorrhage. table 1 shows the three models' results, while figure 8 and figure 9 show the results' bar graph. information in figure 8 belongs to test dataset 1, and information in figure 9 belongs to test dataset2. hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 14 table 1. results of deep learning architectures model precision sensitivity specificity f1 score accuracy efficientnet-b3 0.8596 0.7983 0.9922 0.8494 0.9812 min efficientnet-b3 0.8838 0.7931 0.9937 0.8569 0.9824 (max) efficientnet-b3 0.8680 0.8061 0.9926 0.8531 0.982 (avg) inception-resnet-v2 0.8446 0.8171 0.9910 0.8379 0.9811 (min) inception-resnet-v2 0.8585 0.8201 0.9919 0.8493 0.9822 (max) inception-resnet-v2 0.8627 0.8106 0.9922 0.8441 0.9819 (avg) recommended hybrid model 0.9068 0.8164 0.9950 0.8648 0.9848 (min) recommended hybrid model 0.9119 0.8314 0.9952 0.8732 0.9859 (max) recommended hybrid model 0.9057 0.8269 0.9948 0.8676 0.9853 (avg) brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 15 figure 8. bar graph of cnn architecture results for test dataset 1 figure 9. bar graph of cnn architecture results for test dataset 2 the efficientnet-b3 (tan & le, 2019) and inception-resnet-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017) models had similar results (table 1, figure 8, and figure 9). however, the efficientnet-b3 (tan & le, 2019) and inceptionresnet-v2 (szegedy et al., 2017) based hybrid model provided the best results with accuracy, f1 score, specificity, sensitivity, and precision of 0.9859, 0.8732, 0.9952, 0.8314, and 0.9119, respectively for test dataset 1 and had the best results with accuracy, f1 score, specificity, sensitivity, and 86.8 80.6 99.3 85.3 98.2 86.3 81.1 99.2 84.4 98.2 90.6 82.7 99.5 86.8 98.5 75.0 78.0 81.0 84.0 87.0 90.0 93.0 96.0 99.0 precision sensitivity specificity f1 score accuracy b a r g ra p h o f d e e p l e a r n i n g a r c h i t e c t u r e s ' re s u l t s f o r d a t a s e t 1 efficientnet-b3 inception-resnet-v2 recommended hybrid model 93.92 81.88 [değer] 87.49 94.97 93.69 84.4 98.44 88.8 95.43 95.53 83.97 98.92 89.38 95.71 75 78 81 84 87 90 93 96 99 precision sensitivity specificity f1 score accuracy ba r g ra p h o f deep lea r n i n g arc h i tec t u res ' res u l t s fo r da t a s et 2 efficientnet-b3 inception-resnet-v2 recommended hybrid model hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 16 precision of 0.9571, 0.8938,0.9892,0.8397,0.9553, respectively for test dataset 2. sensitivities were lower than the other values, which was expected because there are five hemorrhage subtypes, and an image in the dataset has more than one kind of hemorrhage. the bar graph in figure 11 could support these results. the lower non-hemorrhage accuracy value in figure 11 indicates that the sensitivity value is low. specificities were higher than the other metrics because the sizes of the classes in the dataset were not equal. there were quite small differences between the minimum and maximum values, indicating that the models are consistent. furthermore, in test dataset 2, sensitivity, f1 score and precision increased while accuracy and specificity decreased. no-changes have been made except balanced data distribution in test dataset 2. this result shows that this value change is due to the balanced data distribution. a c tu a l la b e l 0 tn fp 1 fn tp 0 1 predicted label figure 10 confusion matrix confusion matrixes were created for each class to analyze the classbased performance of the hybrid model, which was proposed in the study. a confusion matrix is a table that reports the ‘actual’ and ‘predicted’ class labels (presented in figure 10). the results of the proposed hybrid model are presented separately for each class in table 2, and the bar graph showing the accuracy values for each class is illustrated in figure 11. the confusion matrix values in table 2 correspond to the average of 10 folds. table 2. hybrid model confusion matrix for test dataset 1 non-hemorrhage epidural intraparenchymal a c tu a l la b e l 0 9401 1392 a c tu a l la b e l 0 74940 27 a c tu a l la b e l 0 71373 296 1 710 63776 1 88 226 1 609 3003 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 17 0 1 0 1 0 1 predicted label predicted label predicted label intraventricular subarachnoid subdural a c tu a l la b e l 0 72418 241 a c tu a l la b e l 0 71270 443 a c tu a l la b e l 0 70149 415 1 371 2250 1 954 2614 1 946 3771 0 1 0 1 0 1 predicted label predicted label predicted label figure 11. bar graph of the hybrid model's classification results for test dataset 1 the results of test dataset1 in table 2 and figure 11 show that the hybrid model shows a lower performance in patients without hemorrhage while the hybrid model makes the estimation of patients with epidural hemorrhage close to 100%. this can be interpreted as the number of images without hemorrhage is much higher than the others, while the number of epidural test images is low. if the model created is evaluated in general for test dataset1, the model can diagnose non-hemorrhage images with 97.2% accuracy (figure 11). when we examine the hemorrhage classes' success, epidural has the best accuracy. however, since the number of epidural images is low, it will not be correct to put the epidural performance in this 97.2 99.8 98.8 99.2 98.1 98.2 96 96.5 97 97.5 98 98.5 99 99.5 100 accuracy hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 18 comparison. the non-epidural hemorrhage classes have a more balanced data distribution. therefore, when an evaluation is made between them, the accuracy and sensitivity values are descending order intraventricular, intraparenchymal, subdural, and subarachnoid. the fact that all the obtained accuracy value is over 98% is a remarkable indicator of success. table 3. hybrid model confusion matrix for test dataset 2 non-hemorrhage epidural intraparenchymal a c tu a l la b e l 0 2122 249 a c tu a l la b e l 0 4555 2 a c tu a l la b e l 0 3848 59 1 28 2472 1 88 226 1 147 817 0 1 0 1 0 1 predicted label predicted label predicted label intraventricular subarachnoid subdural a c tu a l la b e l 0 4030 30 a c tu a l la b e l 0 3879 63 a c tu a l la b e l 0 3913 65 1 117 694 1 223 706 1 183 710 0 1 0 1 0 1 predicted label predicted label predicted label brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 19 figure 12. bar graph of the hybrid model's classification results for test dataset 2 the results in table 3 and figure 12 show hybrid model performance for test dataset 2. as was mentioned above, test dataset 1 has imbalanced distribution. this situation prevents objective evaluation. for this reason, the system was tested again by creating a dataset with more balanced distribution. test dataset 2 consists of 314 epidural, 500 nonepidural hemorrhage, and 2500 non-hemorrhage images. test dataset 2 results show an average %2.8 fewer accuracies. however, when we compare the performance among classes, the same ranking is obtained with test dataset1. when we sort according to the highest to the lowest accuracy values, it is again epidural, intraventricular, intraparenchymal, subdural, subarachnoid, and non-hemorrhage. the best estimation is epidural hemorrhage with %98.15 accuracy. on the other hand, testing with a more balanced data set increased sensitivity values. 94.31 98.15 95.77 96.98 94.13 94.91 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 accuracy hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 20 table 4. comparison with the literature references output size sensitivity specificity recall precision accuracy auc prevedello et al. (2017) subarachnoid space non-subarachnoid space 90% sensitivity 85% specificity auc of 0.91 grewal et al. (2018) hemorrhage non-hemorrhage 88.64% recall 81.25% precision 81.82% accuracy jnawali et al. (2018) hemorrhage non-hemorrhage 77% sensitivity 80 % precision auc of 0.87 chilamkurthy et al. (2018) the cq500 dataset non-hemorrhage intraparenchymal intraventricular subdural extradural subarachnoid 94.63% sensitivity 90.21% specificity auc of 0.94 chilamkurthy et al. (2018) qure25k dataset 90.06% sensitivity 90.04% specificity auc of 0.92 arbabshirani et. al. (2018) hemorrhage non-hemorrhage 73% sensitivity 80% specificity auc of 0.85 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/cerebral-hemorrhage brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 21 ye et al. (2019) non-hemorrhage intraparenchymal intraventricular subdural extradural subarachnoid 98% sensitivity 99 % precision auc of 1 shahangian et al. (2016) intracerebral intraventricular subdural extradural subarachnoid 92.4694.13% accuracy chang et al. (2018) hemorrhage non-hemorrhage 95.1% sensitivity 97.3% specificity 97% accuracy auc of 0.98 lee et al. (2019) non-hemorrhage intraparenchymal intraventricular subdural extradural subarachnoid 92.4-98% sensitivity 94.9-95% specificity auc of 0.960.99 cho et al. (2019) non-hemorrhage intraparenchymal intraventricular subdural extradural subarachnoid 97.91% sensitivity (binary classification) 98.76% specificity (binary classification) 82.15% recall (multi classification) 80.19% precision (multi classification) 98.28% accuracy (binary classification) https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/cerebral-hemorrhage https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/cerebral-hemorrhage https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/cerebral-hemorrhage hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 22 phong et al. (2017) hemorrhage non-hemorrhage 100% recall 99.3% precision 99.7% accuracy auc of 1 al-ayyoub et al. (2013) non-hemorrhage intraparenchymal subdural extradural 92.2% recall 92.5% precision auc of 0.961 salehinejad et al. (2021) non-hemorrhage intraparenchymal intraventricular subdural extradural subarachnoid 98.8% sensitivity 98.0% specificity 98.3% accuracy burduja et al. 2020 non-hemorrhage intraparenchymal intraventricular subdural extradural subarachnoid 75.6% sensitivity 97.2% specificity 94.7% accuracy proposed method non-hemorrhage intraparenchymal intraventricular subdural extradural subarachnoid 83.1% sensitivity 99.5% specificity 91.2% precision 98.6% accuracy auc of 1 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/cerebral-hemorrhage https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/cerebral-hemorrhage brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 23 in some aspects, this study is superior to previous ones (table 4). for example, many classification studies use images for the diagnosis of only intracranial hemorrhage. very few studies focus on diagnosing different subtypes of hemorrhage. most of these studies have used a different dataset than ours. therefore, it would not be correct to compare the performance results of all studies directly. however, salehinejad et al. (2021) and burduja et al. (2020) used the same data set in the context of their proposed studies. salehinejad et al. (2021) developed a machine learning model using seresnext-50 and seresnext-101. they achieved 98.3%, 98.8%, and 98.0% for accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, respectively. when the results are compared with the method we propose, it is seen that our accuracy and specificity values are better than theirs. burduja et al. (2020) developed a hybrid model using seresnext-101 and bidirectional lstm. their created model achieved average performance values of 94.7% accuracy, 75.6% sensitivity, and 97.2% specificity. class-based performance values in the study were averaged for comparison. when the results are compared with the method we propose, it is seen that our accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity values are better than theirs. if we evaluate the proposed model in general, we can say that this study's proposed hybrid model is one of the leading values in diagnosing brain hemorrhage. 4. conclusion intracranial hemorrhage is an important public health problem, which is leading to high rates of death all over the world. therefore, early detection of that health problem is too critical for reducing the mortality rate. analysis of ct scans plays a crucial role in the diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage. this study, therefore, proposed a system that uses ct scans to detect intracranial hemorrhage and subtypes of intracranial hemorrhage. the system has a hybrid model consisting of efficientnet-b3 and inceptionresnet-v2 and their combination. the proposed hybrid model has an accuracy of 98.5%, which is higher than those of the efficientnet-b3 and inception-resnet-v2. the size of the dataset (752.803 images) was also instrumental in the success of the cnn architectures. the literature comparison also shows that the proposed method has great success. in sum, the proposed deep learning method is successful and consistent, and the dataset used for its training is large. therefore, it is a promising emergency diagnostic tool that could help healthcare professionals easily overcome clinical problems. this can be an essential step hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 24 in solving the problem of early detection of intracranial hemorrhage and can take the burden of ct reporting away from specialists. on the other, the related positive results have encouraged the authors to think about some future works to see if the study can open new doors. in this context, there will be some works to search for any alternative hybrid model formations improving the obtained results. also, the current method will be used in alternative datasets to have deeper analyze of the solution. finally, possibility of including the method in an internet of health things (ioht) system setup will be considered in the context of a wider medical project. compliance with ethical standards funding: funding information is not applicable / no funding was received. conflict of interest: author murat saribas declares that he has no conflict of interest. author beyza guluzar ciltas declares that she has no conflict of interest. author sezin barin declares that she has no conflict of interest. author gur emre guraksin declares that he has no conflict of interest. author utku kose declares that he has no conflict of interest. ethical approval: this article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. the used dataset is an open-source material provided in the context of rsna intracranial hemorrhage detection | kaggle. references al-ayyoub, m., alawad, d., al-darabsah, k., & aljarrah, i. (2013). automatic detection and classification of brain hemorrhages. wseas transactions on computers, 12(10), 395-405. http://www.wseas.us/journal/pdf/computers/2013/b065705-365.pdf anevrizma yırtılması ve beyin kanamasına dikkat. (n.d). medicine hospital. retrieved march 31, 2020, from https://www.medicinehospital.com.tr/blog/anevrizma-yirtilmasi-ve-beyinkanamasina-dikkat arbabshirani, m. r., fornwalt, b. k., mongelluzzo, g. j., suever, j. d., geise, b. d., patel, a. a., & moore, g. j. (2018). advanced machine learning in action: identification of intracranial hemorrhage on computed tomography scans of the head with clinical workflow integration. digital medicine, 1, 9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-017-0015-z buduruja, m., ionescu, r. t., verga, n. (2020). accurate and efficient intracranial hemorrhage detection and subtype classification in 3d ct scans with http://www.wseas.us/journal/pdf/computers/2013/b065705-365.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 25 convolutional and long short-term memory neural networks. sensors, 20(19), 5611. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20195611 chang, p., kuoy, e., grinband, j., weinberg, b., thompson, m., homo, r., chen, j., abcede, h., shafie, m., sugrue, l., filippi, c. g., su, m.-y., hess, c., & chow, d. (2018). hybrid 3d/2d convolutional neural network for hemorrhage evaluation on head ct. american journal of neuroradiology, 39(9), 1609-1616. https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.a5742 chilamkurthy, s., ghosh, r., tanamala, s., biviji, m., campeau, n. g., venugopal, v. k., mahajan, v., rao, p., & warier, p. (2018). deep learning algorithms for detection of critical findings in head ct scans: a retrospective study. the lancet, 392(10162), 2388-2396. https://www.mlgdansk.pl/wpcontent/uploads/2019/06/mlgdansk63_27.05.19_piis014067361831645 3.pdf gardner, m. a., li, b. c., wu, y. w., & slavotinek, a. m. (2012). intraparenchymal hemorrhage in a neonate with cleidocranial dysostosis. pediatric neurology, 47(6), 455-457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2012.08.009 grewal, m., srivastava, m. m., kumar, p., & varadarajan, s. (2018, april). radnet: radiologist level accuracy using deep learning for hemorrhage detection in ct scans. in 2018 ieee 15th international symposium on biomedical imaging (isbi 2018) (pp. 281-284). ieee. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.04934.pdf helwan, a., el-fakhri, g., sasani, h., & uzun ozsahin, d. (2018). deep networks in identifying ct brain hemorrhage. journal of intelligent & fuzzy systems, 35(2), 2215-2228. http://doi.org/10.3233/jifs-172261 imagenet. (n.d.). retrieved march 31, 2020, from http://www.image-net.org/ jnawali, k., arbabshirani, m. r., rao, n., & patel, a. a. (2018, february). deep 3d convolution neural network for ct brain hemorrhage classification. in medical imaging 2018: computer-aided diagnosis, 10575, (p. 105751c). international society for optics and photonics. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2293725 jauch, e. c., saver, j. l., adams, h. p., bruno, a., connors, j. j. b., demaerschalk, b. m., khatri, p., mcmullan, p. w., qureshi, a. i., rosenfield, k., scott, p. a., summers, d. r., wang, d. z., wintermark, m., & yonas, h. (2013). guidelines for the early management of patients with acute ischemic stroke: a guideline for healthcare professionals from the american heart association/american stroke association. stroke, 44(3), 870-947. https://doi.org/10.1161/str.0b013e318284056a lee, h., yune, s., mansouri, m., kim, m., tajmir, s. h., guerrier, c. e., ebert, s.a., pomerantz, s. r., romero, j. m., kamalian, s., gonzalez, r. g., lev, m. h., & do, s. (2019). an explainable deep-learning algorithm for the detection of acute intracranial haemorrhage from small datasets. nature http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20195611 https://www.mlgdansk.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/mlgdansk63_27.05.19_piis0140673618316453.pdf https://www.mlgdansk.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/mlgdansk63_27.05.19_piis0140673618316453.pdf https://www.mlgdansk.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/mlgdansk63_27.05.19_piis0140673618316453.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2012.08.009 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.04934.pdf http://doi.org/10.3233/jifs-172261 https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2293725 https://doi.org/10.1161/str.0b013e318284056a hybrid convolutional neural network-based diagnosis system for intracranial … sezin barin, et al. 26 biomedical engineering, 3, 173-182. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-0180324-9 majumdar, a., brattain, l., telfer, b., farris, c., & scalera, j. (2018). detecting intracranial hemorrhage with deep learning. 2018 40th annual international conference of the ieee engineering in medicine and biology society (embc), 583-587. http://doi.org/10.1109/embc.2018.8512336 muir, k. w., buchan, a., von kummer, r., rother, j., & baron, j. c. (2006). imaging of acute stroke. lancet neurology, 5(9), 755-768. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(06)70545-2 phong, t. d., trong, n. t., duong, h. n., nguyen, v. h., snasel, v., nguyen, h. t., & van hoa, t. (2017). brain hemorrhage diagnosis by using deep learning. acm international conference proceeding series, 34-39. https://doi.org/10.1145/3036290.3036326 prevedello, l. m., erdal, b. s., ryu, j. l., little, k. j., demirer, m., qian, s., & white, r. d. (2017). automated critical test findings identification and online notification system using artificial intelligence in imaging. radiology, 285(3), 923-931. https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/pdf/10.1148/radiol.2017162664 rsna intracranial hemorrhage detection. (n.d.). retrieved march 31, 2020, from https://www.kaggle.com/c/rsna-intracranial-hemorrhage-detection salehinejad, h., kitamura, j., ditkofsky, n., lin, a., bharatha, a., suthiphosuwan, s., lin, h.-m., wilson, j. r., mamdani, m., & colak, e. (2021). a realworld demonstration of machine learning generalizability: intracranial hemorrhage detection on head ct, 1-15. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2102/2102.04869.pdf şeker, a., diri, b., & balik, h. (2017). derin öğrenme yöntemleri ve uygulamaları hakkında bir i̇nceleme [a review of deep learning methods and applications]. gazi mühendislik bilimleri dergisi (gmbd), 3(3), 47-64. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/394923 shahangian, b., & pourghassem, h. (2016). automatic brain hemorrhage segmentation and classification algorithm based on weighted grayscale histogram feature in a hierarchical classification structure. biocybernetics and biomedical engineering, 36(1), 217-232. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbe.2015.12.001 stanford.edu. (2018). convolutional neural networks for visual recognition [class course]. http://cs231n.stanford.edu/ szegedy, c., ioffe, s., vanhoucke, v., & alemi, a. a. (2017). inception-v4, inception-resnet and the impact of residual connections on learning. proceedings of the thirty-first aaai conference on artificial intelligence (aaai17), 4278-4284. http://doi.org/10.1109/embc.2018.8512336 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(06)70545-2 https://doi.org/10.1145/3036290.3036326 https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/pdf/10.1148/radiol.2017162664 https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2102/2102.04869.pdf https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/394923 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbe.2015.12.001 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 27 https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/aaai/aaai17/paper/view/14806 /14311 tan, m., & le, q. v. (2019). efficientnet: rethinking model scaling for convolutional neural networks. 36th international conference on machine learning, icml 2019, 2019-june, 10691-10700. http://proceedings.mlr.press/v97/tan19a/tan19a.pdf web of science [v.5.34] web of science core collection results. (n.d.). retrieved march 31, 2020, from http://proxy.afyon.deepknowledge.net/musesessionid=0210h3diw/museprotocol=http/museh ost=apps.webofknowledge.com ye, h., gao, f., yin, y., guo, d., zhao, p., lu, y., wang, x., bai, j., cao, k., song, q., zhang, h., chen, w., guo, x., & xia, j. (2019). precise diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage and subtypes using a three-dimensional joint convolutional and recurrent neural network. european radiology, 29(11), 6191-6201. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-019-06163-2 https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/aaai/aaai17/paper/view/14806/14311 https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/aaai/aaai17/paper/view/14806/14311 http://proceedings.mlr.press/v97/tan19a/tan19a.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-019-06163-2 computational methods in medicine brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 01-20 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/89 the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19 mustafa ababneh¹, aayat aljarrah 2 , damla karagozlu 3 1 faculty of computer information system, near east university, mersin 10, turkey, 20194017@std.neu.edu.tr 2 faculty of computer information system, near east university, mersin 10, turkey, 20194007@std.neu.edu.tr 3 faculty of computer information system, near east university, mersin 10, turkey, damla.karagozlu@neu.edu.tr abstract: the big rise in the existence of digital data contributed to creating many good chances, especially related to corporations, institutions and firms. also, it gives the capability to scrimp data regarding its major or area, where the countries have benefited from the analysis of big data (bd) greatly in the face of epidemics and diseases, especially covid-19 since bd is now available everywhere around us, from official reports and scientific studies related to virology and epidemiology. the general aim of this study is to clarify how the conjunction among both bd and machine learning (ml) created huge differences in data science and a big influence on the applications related to a lot of fields chiefly in covid-19. the method which is used in this study ‘relevance tree’ by identifying papers related to ml and bd, especially in covid-19. the results have been shown that the use of reinforcement learning in analyzing bd provides effective and tremendous results, although it faces many challenges and restrictions that have been explained in detail in this study. in addition, the results showed that most of the countries in the time of corona turned into smart cities, totally dependent on smart applications based on the analysis of bd using ml, and one of the most important applications that were circulated around the world global positioning system. in addition to the results that have been found, data privacy is one of the most important challenges facing data analysis. consequently, it recommended future researchers to focus on studying the challenges faced by ml in analyzing medical data in the covid-19 era. keywords: big data; machine learning; artificial intelligence; covid-19. how to cite: ababneh, m., aljarrah, a., & karagozlu, d. (2020). the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 01-20. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/89 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/89 mailto:20194017@std.neu.edu.tr mailto:20194007@std.neu.edu.tr mailto:damla.karagozlu@neu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/89 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 2 1. introduction in today’s era of information and technology, the rapid explosion of data is quickly spreading everywhere, such as websites, social applications and smartphones in general. this huge role of data enforces us to think about the algorithms related to online learning and its frameworks. however, to pick an appropriate tool is something very sensitive and hard. for example, this new learning system needs a lot of preparations and requires many methods. this new globe has depended on data which became the main source to acquire knowledge and experience among people and countries. this new type of information has caused a digital war, especially when it comes to organizing information and protecting it. therefore, the concept of big data (bd) becomes very popular to show both the arrangement of data and its big existence at random. the complexity of this bd obligates us to face all the difficulties. relying on four kinds of vs: velocity, variety, volume and veracity, we can consider them as the basic characteristics. compared to other approaches such as traditional ways of computing, the method faces many problems where some examples are de mauro et al. (2016) and barker and ward (2013). it is undeniable that this topic took the attention of researchers, although it has some problems such as access, process and storage. for instance, to know more about this method, researchers can use some works related to the works by gandomi and haider (2015), khan et al. (2014) and oussous et al. (2018). the new technological devices create new types of developed approaches, such as machine learning (ml) and other file systems. to illustrate, hadoop makes it easy to spread ml in outer libraries like the library of the scikit teaching resulting in controlling and mastering data (shvachko et al., 2010). in these libraries, the methods of ml mostly depend on being classified in specific algorithms that are not suitable for bd. nevertheless, other methods are used very well for bd in order to enhance the teaching such as deep learning that proved its skills. the perfect field for bd is its participation in ml research (aljarrah et al., 2015; ma et al., 2014; zhou et al., 2017). both fields share the same major in computer science and data science. both fields work side by side and combine their usefulness. the main goal of bd is to collect data, store it and analyze it. it aims to discover the invisible patterns and to help in making decisions. however, ml is done with the help of bd by analyzing it with algorithms that help in computing, and taking into consideration the the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19 mustafa ababneh et al. 3 previous experiments as mentioned by zhou et al. (2017); many interests are shown towards ml by the support of bd. the catastrophe of covid-19 is considered as an emergency case that needs help from both national and international sectors. according to world reports, it caused more than 5 million infected cases with about 300,000 dead people almost in a hundred cities, precisely over may 2020 (nhc, 2020; who, 2020). this epidemic had a dangerous impact on both fields: social and economic improvements. in addition, on the 28th of february, the un secretary-general guterres asked the governments, all over the world, to take steps towards controlling this virus, especially by making bd analysis (new. cn, 2020). therefore, to keep the life moving, a lot of companies, universities and research teams tend to build many information systems, for instance, ‘fever clinical queries’, ‘passenger information queries’ and ‘epidemic map displays’. they were built relying on a commercial kind of software that provided significant contributions to stop this virus, basically by depending on the artificial intelligence like ml (caict, 2020). the huge increase in making data digitally participated is creating a huge number of chances. firms and institutions can minimize data regardless of its area or field. the integration between ml and bd has caused a big difference in data science which was easier to work a lot of applications in many majors. this paper is presented in order to get a full reflection of the new research papers related to this topic. the aim of this review to clarify the difficulties faced by many ml methods in order to produce an affordable framework that can easily fit in the sector of bd analysis. in addition, it clarifies the role of bd and the importance of using ml in its analysis in defeating the covid-19. we wish that the study can present the significance of ml in bd analysis in order to pass all the difficulties that it faced. 2. related studies to solve problems in artificial intelligence, especially teaching without programming, ml is the best choice (goodfellow et al., 2016; murphy, 2012; shalev-shwartz & ben-david, 2014). this multi major has dominated our life from all aspects. many algorithms were put in ml in order to be precisely presented in three types: supervising, half-supervising, non-supervising and reinforcing learning. the methods of this major are depending on bd to participate in completing other sciences like engineering (yi et al., 2014). it took the attention of most of the researchers increasingly from 2012, especially in science such as mathematics and brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 4 computer science in addition to statistics where its publishing has increased in the year 2016. the scientific research studies use tools that were provided by the bibliometric (cadez, 2013; sweileh et al., 2017; van eck & waltman, 2009). this new method proved its efficiency in helping decision-makers, researchers, and other jobs to find a good view of all the wanted sides. some useful research was done especially related to the bibliometrics specialized in big data (singh et al. 2015; mishra et al. 2016; sivarajah et al. 2017). also, some other majors too got use of the big data like; industry 4.0 (muhuri et al., 2019), iot publishing (nobre & tavares 2017), technological maps (gerdsri et al., 2013), cloud computing (heilig & voß 2014), it (khaparde & pawar, 2013), data mining or a big one (tseng et al., 2016), and other fields like cybersecurity and machine learning (makawana & jhaveri 2018). several studies and research studies have worked to clarify the importance of using ml of all kinds in analysing bd in all health, scientific, economic and political fields, and to develop our paper, many previous studies and research studies will be shown related to both bd analysis and ml. table 1 provides a summary of the existing studies regarding ml for data analysis in bd. table 1. the aims and results of articles related to ml for data analysis in bd. authors and year aim of the study results of the study alloghani et al. (2020) the main aim of the methodical revision was analysing the research papers which had been published differently during the years 2015 to 2018. it was done to achieve the perfect application for the ml strategies related to finding solutions for many issues in the models. it can be seen from the research papers, the decision making, the machine of supporting vectors, besides the algorithms of naïve bayes that they are considered as the most applied, augmented, constructed and observed in bd for learners. in addition, k_means, clustering hierarchy and the analysis of principal components are also considered as the most popular tools for learners in an uncontrolled or unobserved way. qiu et al. (2020) the se schemes are given a new definition in a practical shape with the help of safe outer resources of the electrocardiogram (ecg) data these se schemes are not considered as the right models where they must be designed relying on a specific ranking of protecting the ecg data. this the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19 mustafa ababneh et al. 5 in which the mistrust atmosphere of bsn is relying on the ml. must be done in order to save it from any unlawful attack. this kind of protection is much required for saving the privacy of the sick person. thus, many exams and tests were done to prove the efficiency and the practicability of the se model. calderón et al. (2019) in this study, the relatedness of analysis for both: observed sentimentality and the flow of communicating in public studies are discussed. also, it reveals the application for the analysis of divided watched sentimentality. this tool tackles the cons of any other principles related to the computational management of small data, especially in the digital environment such as social media. also, it gives both communicating processes and public research a just view of the cutting-edge technology that can be applied in the field of social computation. cavalcante et al. (2019) in this study, a crossbred method was created, besides applying the ml technique and mimicry. this applying is checked on the data drivers used in supporting decisionmakers precisely in soft selecting providers. the main result of this study is increasing awareness about both ml and simulation in order to know the way of combining them and the right time to do such a thing. this combination is done to make digital equipping the gemini series where it works to develop this softness or resilience. sughasiny & rajeshwari (2018) this study provides a full understanding of the significance of the feature selection techniques, the observed ml tools, the unobserved ml tools, and the bd for the healthiness' fields. relying on the exploration of many research papers, a recent model is created in order to expect the strictness and the rigidity of the illnesses through bd, data science, and the ml method. mohammadi & al-fuqaha (2018) this paper highlights the difficulties of applying bd produced by ml in smart cities. also, it describes the process of wasting the unclassified data. as a result, the study aims on creating a half observed profound learning model that aims to present the difficulties and spotlight on the different fields' applications. also, many challenges were presented to be brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 6 supported by the most trending fields which can be worthy to make research studies that contain lm for the goal of creating a new smart city serving. kibria et al. (2018) this paper contains the basic drivers for bd analysis by revealing the application process of ml, computational intelligence and al. they play a very significant role, especially in the data analysis and precisely for the recent models of wireless networks. the advantages and difficulties of operating the al, lm and wireless networks in the bd analysis are all discussed in these results. chang et al. (2018) this paper was created for the ml techniques in order to increase their solitude capacity. as a result, numerical studies were done to describe the various performances that can probably be verified. 3. the method in this section, the literature was reviewed in order to achieve the purpose of this paper, and this was done by identifying papers related to ml and bd in order to identify challenges and obstacles for further studies and research. the method which is used in this study ‘relevance tree’ (saunders et al., 2009). this method assists to determine which keywords are relevant to the objectives and research question (saunders et al., 2009). the following databases were researched: google scholar, scopus, web of science and wiley. when searching in databases, the search keywords option was chosen by using advanced search related to research questions and research goals. the applied terms are ‘ml’ combined with the words ‘bd’, ‘artificial intelligence’, ‘unsupervised ml’, ‘supervised ml’, ‘reinforcement ml’ and ‘covid-19’. during the search, the terms used were ‘title, abstract and keywords’ search in scientific journal papers. the last year has presented a plethora of studies on ml and bd that debate definitions, scopes, advantages, disadvantages and challenges. when studying the research, the focus was on the following group of topics: the first one is the definition of ml and bd and the second one is bd analysis and finally kinds of ml. the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19 mustafa ababneh et al. 7 4. results in this section, the research questions were answered in detail. 4.1 machine learning and big data analysis the term bd was defined in many steps starting from being defined as ‘volume’. then, the words ‘velocity’ and ‘variety’ were put to express it. however, later on, it was known as ‘veracity’ (fan & bifet, 2012), and the term ‘value’ (fan & bifet, 2012; demchenko et al., 2013) was also added. the definition is not an easy point where it really takes a huge effort, especially that it needs some processes such as making the visibility of detection easier and helping in also making decisions besides helping in data processing. however, the word ‘value’ has properties related to the wanted point which is mainly domineering the bd (uddin et al., 2014). the goal behind the use of bd became well known, but its results rely on the development of the old ways or the new ones to control this data. as a part of artificial intelligence, ml includes two steps: ‘practicing’ and ‘experimenting’ (al-jarrah et al., 2015). the main step presents the learning methods relying on the famous properties of the datasets. in addition, the second step tends to create some new expectations for the unknown properties relying on the information that was obtained in step number 1. both the above-mentioned processes, ‘practicing and experimenting’ became known as ‘learning’ and ‘expecting’. in fact, the job of ml aims to use a specific algorithm for learning through creating a specific sample to be exercised in predicting. thus, this whole process becomes a matter of prediction (kolisetty & rajput, 2020). recently, a lot of researchers explained the ml difficulties related to bd (najafabadi et al., 2015; qiu et al., 2016), whereas others explained that are due to a specific technique (najafabadi et al., 2015). the algorithms of ml are capable to enhance many types of learning strategies, such as ‘rule learning’, ‘instance-based learning’, ‘decision tree learning’ and ‘collective learning’ (qiu et al., 2016). the whole concept of algorithms is considered a reflection of the advancement. 4.1.1 big data analysis business intelligence is defined as a tool that is used basically for getting advantage of the bd strategies. these new strategies have already affected our current utilization. for instance, its suitability in realizing its classes' lineaments, the features of the parameters and the observing. all these aspects can help to address any problem facing this new technique. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 8 in this research, assunção et al (2015) tried to show the enhancement of this strategy and to express the best area to apply the bd in the cloud computing platform. they classified bd analysis’ solutions depending on the previous models of customers relying on the existing data models besides other models resulting in helping the decision-making. both personalized and no agreements may create many challenges in bd. every agreement will extremely affect bd which creates some troubles in the acceptance through using three spaces of dimensions. however, improving the bd in classes asks for dividing some categories, which means that the process of enhancement will be very complicated. therefore, any rise in the shapes of these levels or classes relies on users’ learning and experience. as a result, dividing the bd into classes cannot be expected which makes the application of ml very hard, especially when it comes to the algorithms (kolisetty & rajput, 2020). in addition, the agreement of properties participates in the bd hardiness. it is built by dividing the class forms in order to drop down the hardiness, especially in the area of data increase of dimensions. thus, they are extremely basic found principles that can solve issues related to scalability of bd forms besides its conformity which participates in controlling the data and analyzing it. it will contribute to increasing the size of data and increase the hardness in processing it precisely with all the modern technology used forms (kolisetty & rajput, 2020). however, methods for bd processing data are summarized in some points: some algorithms have done based on the uci ml repository that aims to make enhancements like having a very elastic algorithm for having fast unobserved data learning. this algorithm was done by xiang et al. (2018) using the approach of a two-stage unobserved multiple kernel learning machine. however, this experiment faced many difficulties like the high computational needed overhead (xiang et al., 2018). on the contrary, using the uci and biomedical repositories, algorithms can build a true computational form with high efficiency, especially by using the approach of ‘predictive modelling, decision tree, bayesian and instance-based’ (liu et al., 2017). however, its limits are recorded by creating a big variability in data presentation and a huge variety in performances and honesty. also, some of the algorithms required solutions, especially for the hard categorized data with relationships of coupling classification and frequency such as the one that was done by zhu specialized in harmonious metrical learning with couplings classification relying on 30 datasets taken from various fields (zhu et al., 2018). on the other hand, this kind of the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19 mustafa ababneh et al. 9 algorithm has faced some limitations too such as its disability towards some data properties and controlled the knowledge. finally, other algorithms may work in this area like one done by reading using a strategy of deep learning (read et al., 2015). this algorithm used real-world types of datasets. they were applied to improve the truthiness of famous existing shapes of data. unfortunately, it has no obvious explanation of the higher dimensions of datasets when it comes to the properties of both reducing and division of labels. 4.2 types of machine learning ml is considered as a minor form of artificial intelligence that concentrates on learning methods on computers. this process of learning is classified into three main classes: supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement. in the next texts, those three basic tools are explained in detail besides some famous and common techniques in every division: 4.2.1 supervise learning referring to its title, in this type of learning, there must be an observer or a supervisor who gives the algorithms of learning their ideas precisely on good or bad decision-making or even actions. in this type, data are completely straining where the tools of learning can know if a specific tool action or decision is right or not with a correct percentage. the common algorithms related to this type are discussed in the following. ● first, the support vector machine: this tool contributes to finding a volume of n-dimensional hyper inside the n space of dimension in order to divide the whole data sets in a group of n properties (al-zoubi et al., 2018). ● second, the random forest: this tool consists of multi decision trees that were made and mixed by using a factor of merit in order to provide a true division with the expected percentage (alian et al., 2014). ● third, the neural network: this tool was done from unpretentious neurons organised inside many classes and related to each other through a group of weights. it mimics the way that the natural and biological neurons normally work in a full imitation (azzini & tettamanzi, 2011). 4.2.2 unsupervised learning this kind of learning is not categorized which indicates that the algorithm needs to work hard in order to identify itself. the algorithms in this type must know the structures and shapes of data and their relations besides their shapes and properties. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 10 first, the k-means clustering (barabasi & albert, 1999) is defined as the process of dividing the data to many groups by algorithms where these clusters have some related properties in common. • self-organizing neural networks (chawla, 2009): this is the nn type. this strategy works to arrange neurons for the goal of decreasing any mistake or error in their function designing for each trouble and problem. 4.2.3 reinforcement learning this tool contains an algorithm that distinguishes between both cases correct or wrong, to be awarded in case correct and published in case of being a false one. such a kind of learning mimics the same way that creatures or humans precisely get knowledge depending on two types of processes: rewarding and punishing. here are some examples to make my point crystal clear. first, the q learning (chen & chen, 2014), which depends on bellman balance and reduces the q-rate. second, the deep q network (dqn) (chen et al., 2005), similar to the previous one, has the same process but with some differences such as the capability of being generalized. third, deep deterministic policy gradient (ddpg) (chowdhury, 2010) is the same as dqn, unlike it can find solutions for troubles that have a continuous space of actions. 4.3 the restrictions of big data analytics applying the bd can include many looking forward wishes. unfortunately, it is not a method that has indefinite features because to make a lot of analysis means that the limits of such data abilities can be known and taken into considerations (wang et al., 2015). here are some limits for done experiments of some users with a data explorer used for the first time. first, data misinterpretation where this data can discover the behaviors of the users. on the other hand, it may not know the reason behind these actions and behaviors. however, the way the data are represented in a wrong way can lead the users in a very wrong direction, especially when it comes to their way of making their jobs and business-like getting used of the beneficial information in business areas. also, relying on the current data to create a new formula of possibilities can probably lead firms to take steps against the right actions relying on a miss-taken relevance. thus, to clarify the expected engagement and aiming to find solutions for the true troubles with a highlight of the data supporting can be much different in collecting and explaining the data (kolisetty & rajput, 2020). second, security limitations where bd has some challenges related to the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19 mustafa ababneh et al. 11 security. firms that gather data hold a really important responsibility to secure and save this data. the results of the data breaking can contain lawsuits, paying fines or gaining a bad reputation. the issues related to security and protection can affect the capability of processing data. for instance, the analysis of data done by any other organization may be very complicated because the data can be affected by a firewall to hide it or any other private server of the cloud ones. this creates many problems, especially related to involving and moving data to be processed in a reliable way (kolisetty& rajput, 2020). third, the outlier effect is considered to be the third main part which is common in processing data, especially if the user failed or if he/she searched for something new in the searching engine which makes some partial results. in fact, technology is incapable to gather data fully and truly. nevertheless, the algorithms related to google and its limited expectations for research and their results contributed to making this project a failure one (kolisetty & rajput, 2020). fourth, organizations that possess huge data facing a big challenge, which is the extent to which these organizations are able to control the diverse and unorganized bd, as storing, managing and utilizing these data in an optimal way is a real problem (sharma et al., 2020). 4.4 the importance of machine learning in big data ml hires an algorithm in order to reveal the undiscovered knowledge but without any programming. using ml includes having frequent combinations where these new forms and samples aim to highly and separately adapt any insecure or opening to bd. thus, with the help of technology, especially computers, ml now developed a modern shape better than the past one. nowadays, ml algorithms have become capable of doing many complicated and hard performances related to computation in order to handle the bd analysis. to illustrate, the focus of ml in bd is capable of being discovered in: ‘google's self-driving car’. in addition, the ml apps using bd can figure out some recommendations and other systems of business online, such as netflix and amazon (kolisetty & rajput, 2020). moreover, it is used in the process of the text data especially in many social media inputs, such as fb and twitter. finally, ml is able to process bd in order to expect the discovery of faking processes in specific majors like the financial one and in the privacy or security system (kolisetty & rajput, 2020). brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 12 4.5 the importance of big data and machine learning in the face of covid-19 the world nowadays faces huge threats because of virus covid-19 all over the world. this virus is a danger that threatens the whole of humanity. thus, to stop it, all countries must cooperate. also, to conquer this epidemic, it was very significant to transform many overpopulated cities to be ‘smart’ ones such as china, kuria, and other cities by using the smart applications in most fields to keep going in this period (allam & jones, 2020). the use of these applications reduces overcrowding which contributes to limiting the spread of this virus. in addition, it must be mentioned that beating this epidemic can be achieved not only by abolishing it but also by maintaining the continuity of the countries’ different fields, such as economic, education and trading (pandey et al., 2020). thus, the significance of bd, its analysis, the apps of artificial intelligence and ml has appeared, where the analysis of bd can be used by ml in many cities around the world to stop the spreading of the virus. for instance, one application that was activated is the tracking systems via gps which works to stabilize people to avoid the places that contain infected persons (green, 2020). in addition, these applications can observe the suspected people that are put in a compulsory home quarantine to ensure their commitment (engle et al., 2020; wang et al., 2020). moreover, ml is used to expect the places where the epidemic has spread in (mccall, 2020). therefore, because of the importance of investing data and data analysis, the ostp, office of science and technology policy, in the white house has launched a huge open-source data centre (cord19). many academic and governmental institutions have participated in it, besides many other organizations specialized in artificial intelligence, national health and dozens of other institutions (lo et al., 2020). one of these companies that are specialized in analyzing and studying medical data using artificial intelligence, precisely the ml, is the company of bluedot. it is located in the canadian city: toronto (tuite et al., 2020). eventually, we notice the significance of bd that the world produces every day. also, it is obvious that ml is important in analyzing this data and in getting advantages from it, especially in providing better medical services and conquering this catastrophe as well. moreover, analyzing this data correctly will help presidents and leaders to make correct and reasonable decisions in a suitable time to slow the spread of this virus. the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19 mustafa ababneh et al. 13 5 conclusion the bd analysis was defined as a process of explaining and practicing examining huge datasets. the unstructured data provide a very important chance for most aspects and fields. nevertheless, a lot of this flatness is not efficient computing: scalable or practical. these study findings showed first that analyzing data using ml is of great importance and represents a great reflection of progress in the future since it contributes greatly to decision-making and second it clarified the role of the algorithms used in each type of ml in data analysis. third, it showed that of the most common constraints faced data analysis using ml is the wrong analysis or erroneous prediction of data as it produces many major problems. fourth, the results illustrate the most important ml applications that use bd, and last but not least, bd and ml are able to make a lot of efforts to combat the covid-19, such as creating interactive dashboards, analyzing epidemiological models and suggesting the best vehicles to help access virus treatments. the most important future recommendations proposed by this research are to find good solutions to the challenges and obstacles faced by ml in analyzing bd such as facilitating the process of accessing the data to be analyzed and reducing the time it takes to retrieve data, finding ways to maintain data privacy and also attention to data quality, governance and management. also, the focus should be on activating the role of ml more in confronting the covid-19 epidemic, because of its great effectiveness. references alian, s., & ghatasheh, n. (2014). multi-agent swarm spreading approach in unknown environments. international journal of computer science issues (ijcsi), 11(2), 160.‏ al-jarrah, o. y., yoo, p. d., muhaidat, s., karagiannidis, g. k., & taha, k. (2015). efficient machine learning for big data: a review. big data research, 2(3), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bdr.2015.04.001 ‏.87-93 allam, z., & jones, d. s. (2020, march). on the coronavirus (covid-19) outbreak and the smart city network: universal data sharing standards coupled with artificial intelligence (ai) to benefit urban health monitoring and management. healthcare, 8(1), 46. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8010046 ‏ alloghani, m., al-jumeily, d., mustafina, j., hussain, a., & aljaaf, a. j. (2020). a systematic review on supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms for data science. in m. berry, a. mohamed, & b. yap (eds.), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bdr.2015.04.001 https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8010046 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 14 supervised and unsupervised learning for data science (pp. 3-21). springer, cham.‏ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22475-2_1 al-zoubi, a. m., rodan, a., & alazzam, a. (2018, november). classification model for credit data. in 2018 fifth hct information technology trends (itt), dubai, united arab emirates, 2018 (pp. 132-137). https://doi.org/10.1109/ctit.2018.8649549 assunção, m. d., calheiros, r. n., bianchi, s., netto, m. a., & buyya, r. (2015). big data computing and clouds: trends and future directions. journal of parallel and distributed computing, 79, 3-15.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpdc.2014.08.003 azzini, a., & tettamanzi, a. g. (2011). evolutionary anns: a state of the art survey. intelligenza artificiale, 5(1), 19-35.‏ https://doi.org/10.3233/ia-20110002 barabási, a. l., & albert, r. (1999). emergence of scaling in random networks. science, 286(5439), 509-512.‏ https://doi.org/10.1126/science.286.5439.509 cadez, s. (2013). social change, institutional pressures and knowledge creation: a bibliometric analysis. expert systems with applications, 40(17), 6885-6893. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2013.06.036 china academy of information and communications technology (caict). (2020). research report on data and intelligent application in epidemic prevention and control (1.0). http://www.caict.ac.cn/kxyj/qwfb/ztbg/202003/p0202003054950054857 29.pdf calderón, c. a., álvarez, m., & mariño, m. v. (2019). distributed supervised sentiment analysis of tweets: integrating machine learning and streaming analytics for big data challenges in communication and audience research. empiria: revista de metodología de ciencias sociales, 42, 113 https://doi.org/empiria.42.2019.23254 ‏.136 cavalcante, i. m., frazzon, e. m., forcellini, f. a., & ivanov, d. (2019). a supervised machine learning approach to data-driven simulation of resilient supplier selection in digital manufacturing. international journal of information management, 49, 86-97.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.03.004 chang, z., lei, l., zhou, z., mao, s., & ristaniemi, t. (2018). learn to cache: machine learning for network edge caching in the big data era. ieee wireless communications, 25(3), 28-35.‏ https://doi.org/10.1109/mwc.2018.1700317 chawla, n. v. (2009). data mining for imbalanced datasets: an overview. in o., maimon, & l. rokach, (eds.), data mining and knowledge discovery https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22475-2_1 https://doi.org/10.1109/ctit.2018.8649549 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpdc.2014.08.003 https://doi.org/10.3233/ia-2011-0002 https://doi.org/10.3233/ia-2011-0002 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.286.5439.509 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2013.06.036 http://www.caict.ac.cn/kxyj/qwfb/ztbg/202003/p020200305495005485729.pdf http://www.caict.ac.cn/kxyj/qwfb/ztbg/202003/p020200305495005485729.pdf https://doi.org/empiria.42.2019.23254 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1109/mwc.2018.1700317 the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19 mustafa ababneh et al. 15 handbook (pp. 875-886). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-25465x_40 chen, b., & chen, l. (2014). a link prediction algorithm based on ant colony optimization. applied intelligence, 41(3), 694-708.‏ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-014-0558-5 chen, h., li, x., & huang, z. (2005). link prediction approach to collaborative filtering. proceedings of the 5th acm/ieee-cs joint conference on digital libraries (jcdl '05), denver, co, 2005, pp. 141-142. https://doi.org/10.1145/1065385.1065415 . chowdhury, g. g. (2010). introduction to modern information retrieval (3rd. ed.). facet publishing. de mauro, a., greco, m., & grimaldi, m. (2016). a formal definition of big data based on its essential features. library review, 65(3), 122-135. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr-06-2015-0061 demchenko, y., grosso, p., de laat, c., & membrey, p. (2013). addressing big data issues in scientific data infrastructure. in 2013 international conference on collaboration technologies and systems (cts), san diego, ca, 2013, 48-55. https://doi.org/10.1109/cts.2013.6567203 engle, s., stromme, j., & zhou, a. (2020). staying at home: mobility effects of covid-19 (april 3, 2020). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3565703 . fan, w., & bifet, a. (2013). mining big data: current status, and forecast to the future. acm sigkdd explorations newsletter, 14(2), 1-5.‏ gandomi, a., & haider, m. (2015). beyond the hype: big data concepts, methods, and analytics. international journal of information management, 35(2), 137-144.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2014.10.007 gerdsri, n., kongthon, a., & vatananan, r. s. (2013). mapping the knowledge evolution and professional network in the field of technology roadmapping: a bibliometric analysis. technology analysis & strategic management, 25(4), 403-422.‏ https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2013.774350 goodfellow, i., bengio, y., & courville, a. (2016). deep learning. mit press.‏ green, k. (2020). how gps can contribute to the challenge of covid-19. bmj, 369:m1829.‏ https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1829 heilig, l., & voß, s. (2014). a scientometric analysis of cloud computing literature. ieee transactions on cloud computing, 2(03), 266-278. https://doi.org/10.1109/tcc.2014.2321168. khan, n., yaqoob, i., hashem, i. a. t., inayat, z., ali, a. k. m., alam, m., shiraz, m., & gani, a. (2014). big data: survey, technologies, opportunities, and https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-25465-x_40 https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-25465-x_40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-014-0558-5 https://doi.org/10.1145/1065385.1065415 https://doi.org/10.1108/lr-06-2015-0061 https://doi.org/10.1109/cts.2013.6567203 http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3565703 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2014.10.007 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2013.774350 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1829 https://doi.org/10.1109/tcc.2014.2321168 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 16 challenges. scientific world journal, 712826. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/712826 ‏ khaparde, v., & pawar, s. (2013). authorship pattern and degree of collaboration in information technology. journal of computer science & information technology, 1(1), 46-54.‏ kibria, m. g., nguyen, k., villardi, g. p., zhao, o., ishizu, k., & kojima, f. (2018). big data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in next-generation wireless networks. ieee access, 6, 32328-32338.‏ https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2018.2837692 kolisetty, v. v., & rajput, d. s. (2020). a review on the significance of machine learning for data analysis in big data. jordanian journal of computers and information technology (jjcit), 6(01).‏ https://doi.org/10.5455/jjcit.711564729835 liu, h., gegov, a., & cocea, m. (2017). unified framework for control of machine learning tasks towards effective and efficient processing of big data. in w. pedrycz, & s-m. chen (eds.), data science and big data: an environment of computational intelligence (pp. 123-140). springer, cham.‏ lo, k., wang, l. l., neumann, m., kinney, r., & weld, d. s. (2020). s2orc: the semantic scholar open research corpus. in proceedings of the 58th annual meeting of the association for computational linguistics (4969–4983).‏ https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2020.acl-main.447 ma, c., zhang, h. h., & wang, x. (2014). machine learning for big data analytics in plants. trends in plant science, 19(12), 798-808.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2014.08.004 makawana, p. r., & jhaveri, r. h. (2018). a bibliometric analysis of recent research on machine learning for cyber security. in intelligent communication and computational technologies (pp. 213-226). springer.‏ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5523-2_20 mccall, b. (2020). covid-19 and artificial intelligence: protecting health-care workers and curbing the spread. the lancet digital health, 2(4), article e166e167.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30054-6 mishra, d., gunasekaran, a., papadopoulos, t., & childe, s. j. (2018). big data and supply chain management: a review and bibliometric analysis. annals of operations research, 270(1-2), 313-336.‏ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479016-2236-y mohammadi, m., & al-fuqaha, a. (2018). enabling cognitive smart cities using big data and machine learning: approaches and challenges. ieee communications magazine, 56(2), 94-101.‏ https://doi.org/10.1109/mcom.2018.1700298 https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/712826 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2018.2837692 https://doi.org/10.5455/jjcit.71-1564729835 https://doi.org/10.5455/jjcit.71-1564729835 https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2020.acl-main.447 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2014.08.004 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5523-2_20 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30054-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-016-2236-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-016-2236-y https://doi.org/10.1109/mcom.2018.1700298 the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19 mustafa ababneh et al. 17 muhuri, p. k., shukla, a. k., & abraham, a. (2019). industry 4.0: a bibliometric analysis and detailed overview. engineering applications of artificial intelligence, 78, 218-235.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engappai.2018.11.007 murphy, k. p. (2012). machine learning: a probabilistic perspective. mit press.‏* najafabadi, m. m., villanustre, f., khoshgoftaar, t. m., seliya, n., wald, r., & muharemagic, e. (2015). deep learning applications and challenges in big data analytics. journal of big data, 2(1), 1.‏ https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537014-0007-7 national health commission of the prc (nhc). (2020). covid-19 epidemic situation up to 24:00 on march 8th. http://www.nhc.gov.cn/xcs/yqtb/202005/%20f2c83db9f73d4be5be0dc9 6af731813c.shtml new.cn. (2020, may 22). covid-19 is urged by the un secretary general to do everything possible to contain the outbreak. new.cn. http://www.xinhuanet.com/2020-02/29/c_1125642849.htm/. nobre, g. c., & tavares, e. (2017). scientific literature analysis on big data and internet of things applications on circular economy: a bibliometric study. scientometrics, 111(1), 463-492.‏ https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-0172281-6 pandey, r., gautam, v., bhagat, k., & sethi, t. (2020). a machine learning application for raising wash awareness in the times of covid-19 pandemic. arxiv preprint arxiv:2003.07074.‏ oussous, a., benjelloun, f. z., lahcen, a. a., & belfkih, s. (2018). big data technologies: a survey. journal of king saud university-computer and information sciences, 30(4), 431-448.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuci.2017.06.001 qiu, h., qiu, m., & lu, z. (2020). selective encryption on ecg data in body sensor network based on supervised machine learning. information fusion, 55, 59-67.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inffus.2019.07.012 qiu, j., wu, q., ding, g., xu, y., & feng, s. (2016). a survey of machine learning for big data processing. eurasip journal on advances in signal processing, article 67.‏ https://doi.org/10.1186/s13634-016-0355-x read, j., perez-cruz, f., & bifet, a. (2015, april). deep learning in partially-labeled data streams. in r. l. wainwright, j. m. corchado, (eds.), sac '15: proceedings of the 30th annual acm symposium on applied computing (pp. 954959). association for computing machinery.‏ https://doi.org/10.1145/2695664.2695871 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students (5th edition). perntice hall.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engappai.2018.11.007 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-014-0007-7 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-014-0007-7 http://www.nhc.gov.cn/xcs/yqtb/202005/%20f2c83db9f73d4be5be0dc96af731813c.shtml http://www.nhc.gov.cn/xcs/yqtb/202005/%20f2c83db9f73d4be5be0dc96af731813c.shtml https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2281-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2281-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuci.2017.06.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inffus.2019.07.012 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13634-016-0355-x https://doi.org/10.1145/2695664.2695871 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 18 shalev-shwartz, s., & ben-david, s. (2014). understanding machine learning: from theory to algorithms. cambridge university press.‏ sharma, a., singh, g., & rehman, s. (2020). a review of big data challenges and preserving privacy in big data. in m. kolhe, s. tiwari, m. trivedi, k. mishra (eds.), advances in data and information sciences (pp. 57-65). springer.‏ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0694-9_7 shvachko, k., kuang, h., radia, s., & chansler, r. (2010, may). the hadoop distributed file system. in 2010 ieee 26th symposium on mass storage systems and technologies (msst), incline village, (pp. 1-10). https://doi.org/10.1109/msst.2010.5496972 ‏ singh, v. k., banshal, s. k., singhal, k., & uddin, a. (2015). scientometric mapping of research on ‘big data’. scientometrics, 105(2), 727-741.‏ https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1729-9 sivarajah, u., kamal, m. m., irani, z., & weerakkody, v. (2017). critical analysis of big data challenges and analytical methods. journal of business research, 70, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.08.001 ‏.263-286 sughasiny, m., & rajeshwari, j. (2018, august). application of machine learning techniques, big data analytics in health care sector–a literature survey. 2018 2nd international conference on i-smac (iot in social, mobile, analytics and cloud) (i-smac)i-smac (iot in social, mobile, analytics and cloud) (i-smac), 2018 2nd international conference on, palladam, india, 2018, (741-749). https://doi.org/10.1109/i-smac.2018.8653654 ‏ sweileh, w. m., al-jabi, s. w., abutaha, a. s., zyoud, s. h., anayah, f., & sawalha, a. f. (2017). bibliometric analysis of worldwide scientific literature in mobile health: 2006-2016. bmc medical informatics and decision making, 17(1), 72. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-017-0476-7 ‏ tseng, s. f., won, y. l., & yang, j. m. (2016). a bibliometric analysis on data mining and big data. international journal of electronic business, 13(1), 38-69.‏ https://doi.org/10.1504/ijeb.2016.075333 tuite, a. r., ng, v., rees, e., fisman, d., wilder-smith, a., khan, k., & bogoch, i. i. (2020). estimation of the covid-19 burden in egypt through exported case detection. the lancet infectious diseases.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(20)30233-4 uddin, m. f., & gupta, n. (2014, april). seven v's of big data understanding big data to extract value. in proceedings of the 2014 zone 1 conference of the american society for engineering education, bridgeport, ct, 2014, (pp. 1-5). https://doi.org/10.1109/aseezone1.2014.6820689 van eck, n., & waltman, l. (2010). software survey: vosviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. scientometrics, 84(2), 523-538.‏ https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0694-9_7 https://doi.org/10.1109/msst.2010.5496972 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1729-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1109/i-smac.2018.8653654 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-017-0476-7 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijeb.2016.075333 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(20)30233-4 https://doi.org/10.1109/aseezone1.2014.6820689 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3 the role of big data and machine learning in covid-19 mustafa ababneh et al. 19 wang, l. l., lo, k., chandrasekhar, y., reas, r., yang, j., eide, d., burdick, d., eide, d., funk, k., katsis, y., kinney, r., li, y., liu, z., merrill, w., mooney, p., murdick, d., rishi, d., sheehan, j., shen, z., ..., & kohlmeier, s. (2020). cord-19: the covid-19 open research dataset. arxiv preprint arxiv:2004.10706. wang, l., wang, g., & alexander, c. a. (2015). natural language processing systems and big data analytics. international journal of computational systems engineering, 2(2), 76-84.‏ https://doi.org/10.1504/ijcsyse.2015.077052 ward, j. s., & barker, a. (2013). undefined by data: a survey of big data definitions. arxiv preprint arxiv:1309.5821.‏ world health organization (who). (2020, may 22). coronavirus disease (covid2019) situation reports. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus2019/situationreports/ xiang, l., zhao, g., li, q., hao, w., & li, f. (2018). tumk-elm: a fast unsupervised heterogeneous data learning approach. ieee access, 6, https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2018.2847037 ‏.35305-35315 yi, x., liu, f., liu, j., & jin, h. (2014). building a network highway for big data: architecture and challenges. ieee network, 28(4), 5-13.‏ https://doi.org/10.1109/mnet.2014.6863125 zhou, l., pan, s., wang, j., & vasilakos, a. v. (2017). machine learning on big data: opportunities and challenges. neurocomputing, 237, 350-361.‏ https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2017.2696365 zhu, c., cao, l., liu, q., yin, j., & kumar, v. (2018). heterogeneous metric learning of categorical data with hierarchical couplings. ieee transactions on knowledge and data engineering, 30(7), 1254-1267.‏ https://doi.org/10.1109/tkde.2018.2791525 biodata mustafa ababneh, received his b.sc computer information system at jordan university of science and technology, m.sc. in computer science at amman arab university in amman, jordan and now. he is ph.d. student in computer information system at near east university in mersin 10, turkey. my research interests focus on big data, social media, cloud computing and information retrieval. email: 20194017@std.neu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.1504/ijcsyse.2015.077052 https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-%20reports/ https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-%20reports/ https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2018.2847037 https://doi.org/10.1109/mnet.2014.6863125 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2017.2696365 https://doi.org/10.1109/tkde.2018.2791525 mailto:20194017@std.neu.edu.tr brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 20 ayat al-jarrah, received her b.sc biomedical engineering at yarmouk university, m.sc. in computer science at amman arab university in amman, jordan and now she is ph.d. student in computer information system at near east university in mersin 10, turkey. my research interests focus on big data, social media, cloud computing and information retrieval. email: 20194007@std.neu.edu.tr assist. professor dr. damla karagozlu received her m.sc. in information technology at bournemouth university and ph.d. in computer education and instructional technology at near east university. she is currently an assistant professor at the department of computer information systems at near east university in mersin 10, turkey. her research interests focus on augmented reality, cloud computing and cybersecurity. email: damla.karagozlu@neu.edu.tr mailto:20194007@std.neu.edu.tr mailto:damla.karagozlu@neu.edu.tr brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 82-98 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/96 is freedom compatible with moral neuroenhancement? alexandru gabriel cioiu¹ 1 phd student, faculty of philosophy, university of bucharest, romania, alexandru.cioiu@yahoo.com abstract: new discoveries in the fields of genetics and neurobiology from the last decades have offered scientists more understanding regarding the way in which our biology can influence our behavior and have made more appealing the idea of moral neuroenhancement (or bioenhancement), but one of the main objections to this way of enhancing moral motivation is a hypothetical threat to freedom. critics argue that our freedom would be in jeopardy if we allowed interventions at our genetical level to predispose us to a certain kind of behaviour, even if that behaviour would be moral. my paper wishes to explore the relation between freedom and moral neuroenhancement in order to see if there really is an incompatibility between these 2 concepts and if freedom is indeed undermined by moral neuroenhancement. i will argue for the idea that not only does moral neuroenhancement not imperil our freedom, but that freedom itself could be enhanced with the aid of biomedical techniques, so that the enhanced individual could have more options at his disposal and make better use of his freedom. if moral neuroenhancement can lead to a moral life by improving moral character and predisposing the individual towards being more virtuous, while also improving our freedom and autonomy, then we have strong reasons to enhance our moral behaviour with the aid of neurotechnology. in this paper i will try argue for the idea that this is the case and that the bioconservative objection against moral neuroenhancement regarding the fact that it might undermine our freedom is vastly exaggerated and unjustified. keywords: moral neuroenhancement; freedom; moral bioenhancement; oxytocin; serotonin; tcds; lithium; omega-3; freedom to fall; mental freedom; empathy; moral responsibility; moral sensitivity; moral motivation; counter-moral emotions; racial bias; aggression. how to cite: cioiu, a.g. (2020). is freedom compatible with moral neuroenhancement?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 82-98. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/96 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/96 mailto:alexandru.cioiu@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/96 is freedom compatible with moral neuroenhancement? alexandru gabriel cioiu 83 1. introduction in the past few decades there have been significant discoveries made in genetics and neurobiology opening the door for the possibility of moral neuroenhancement. at the same time, this idea has attracted fierce opposition and heavy criticism from many sides regarding the fact that such an enhancement might negatively impact our freedom. moral neuroenhancement or bioenhancement is a wide term and it is very hard or even impossible to give an exhaustive definition of this term because there is no general consensus regarding the difference between therapy and enhancement as well as regarding the dispositions which would lead to a moral outcome in all contexts. unfortunately, the objections against enhancement usually refer to a hypothetical impairment of freedom by the use of biomedical means, without referring to specific methods of moral bio-enhancement which may threaten our freedom. in this way, the objections against neuroenhancement are usually vague and abstract and they don’t consider the use of biomedical means which are at our disposal today, but rather they tend to refer loosely to some invasive forms of radically changing our behavior or to some form of mind control so that the authors could express their deepest fears about biological manipulations. i will try to show in this paper the fact that the currently available moral neuroenhancement methods don’t justify this fear. i will first start by examining what moral neuroenhancement is and how it might affect our behavior by analyzing several available biomedical methods of enhancement which are non-invasive, safe and available to the general public at the moment. it is very important to refer to the current available methods of moral neuroenhancement because in this way we can reject the main objections against the fact that enhancement undermines freedom by showing that there’s no way in which the current methods of bioenhancement could do that, and that the critics of enhancement usually avoid discussing available methods of moral neuroenhancement because they prefer raising abstract objections without referring to a specific method, which in turn creates an unspecific fear and suspicion of bioenhancement in general. then, i will analyze the relation between moral neuroenhancement and freedom and some of the main objections regarding the threat to freedom that it entails. in doing this, i will argue that moral neuroenhancement is theoretically compatible with both deterministic and indeterministic theories of human action and i will then analyze the main objections brought to moral neuroenhancement: that it restricts our freedom to commit immoral acts (freedom to fall) and that it impairs our freedom of brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 84 mind and i will try to show that these objections to moral neuroenhancement don’t stand and that they are neither justified, nor strong enough to give us reasons to disregard currently available methods of neuroenhancement or to stop pursuing research in this area. i will argue for the idea that moral neuroenhancement actually has a positive impact on our freedom and that we have a moral obligation to pursue such research. 2. methods of moral neuroenhancement one of the latest definitions of moral neuroenhancement given by its main proponents is the following: any change in a moral agent, a, effected or facilitated in some significant way by the application of a neurotechnology, that results, or is reasonably expected to result, in a’s being a morally better agent (earp et al., 2017, p. 168). they consider this the agential conception of moral enhancement in the sense that it requires an active and conscious participation from the individual during the enhancement process, and that it’s not just an augmentation of a specific function of the body, as in the the functional-augmentative approach to enhancement (earp et al., 2017, p. 168). this definition allows for a broad classification of methods to be considered, at least partially, as representing some form of moral neuroenhancement, but the problem is that most of them depend heavily on the context in which each individual finds himself and it can’t be guaranteed that they will always lead to a moral outcome. it is very difficult, if not impossible, to point out all the methods which would count as genuine moral neuroenhancement and the same applies for trying to show what exactly moral neuroenhancement would consist in. does taking a pill which helps us sleep better and consequently gives us good reasons to be more inclined to act morally the next day would count as moral neuroenhancement? that seems to be the case with this broad definition, which is probably a good thing since not all the methods can have the same efficiency. thomas douglas, one of the legitimate parents of moral bioenhancement claims that there are at least 2 ways in which we could become more moral through moral bioenhancement (conan, 2020), that is by diminishing the effects of what he calls counter-moral emotions, such as a strong aversion to certain racial groups and the impulse towards violent aggression (douglas, 2008, p. 231). douglas (2008) is wise to propose these 2 characteristics as genuine moral bioenhancement, since there is little controversy regarding the fact that racial bias and aggression are undesirable predispositions and are still widespread even in very developed societies, such as the us, where violent behavior is actually even more is freedom compatible with moral neuroenhancement? alexandru gabriel cioiu 85 widespread than in europe. even though not everybody would agree that the reduction of these counter-moral emotions would amount to genuine moral enhancement, they are considered to do so in all plausible moral theories. one of the most encountered examples in the scientific literature about moral enhancement is the use of oxytocin, also known as the cuddle hormone (persson & savulescu, 2012, p. 118) or the moral molecule (zak, 2012), which has been shown to improve altruism, cooperation, trusting behavior and promote pro-social attitudes in general (kosfeld et al., 2005; zak et al., 2004; zak, 2012). it is true that oxytocin has its critics and detractors, who claim that it can lead to discrimination towards out-groups (de dreu et al., 2010; de dreu et al., 2011), but in general its use should improve our behavior and give us reasons to behave more morally. another class of pharmaceuticals with proven effects on our motivation are the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (ssris), which can alleviate anxiety and depressed moods, promote cooperation and a sense of justice and even increase harm aversion (crockett et al., 2010; crockett, 2014; tse & bond, 2002). even if many studies seem to be contradictory and we don’t exactly know how to interpret certain effects, the main idea is that it might influence behavior in a positive manner under certain circumstances and could help us keep under control bad moods as well as to motivate us better towards overcoming our lack of motivation. one of the main reasons for which people commit immoral acts is because they lack the motivation to act according to their values and moral principles. weakness of will or lack of motivation is an old problem which has baffled philosophers since plato and aristotle. commonly known as akrasia in ancient greece, it was considered by aristotle to be one of the moral states that we need to avoid (aristotle, vii, 1145b-1152b) and it remains a widespread feature of our moral psychology to this day. it is true that the philosophers from ancient greece didn’t have the understanding of human biology that we have today, so they weren’t able to overcome akrasia other than with the aid of their natural motivation, but doesn’t the fact that we have the power today to overcome akrasia via artificial means should be a sufficient reason to use them? if we accept artificial means as a way to cure diseases it’s hard to see why we wouldn’t also accept them in order to enhance our moral dispositions. there are other examples than oxytocin and ssris which could reduce our counter-moral emotions. one of them is the use of lithium and omega3, which has been shown to reduce violent instincts and temperate individuals with impulsive behavior (gajos & beaver, 2016; goldstein & brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 86 mascitelli, 2016; müller-oerlinghausen & lewitzka, 2010). this is good news, because these substances are available to a larger population than it is the case with oxytocin and serotonin. in the case of lithium, its effects on aggression are well-known for over 70 years, but because a high dose can have adverse side-effects, it wasn’t promoted on a larger scale. it used to be promoted in the ‘40s, when the company 7up put lithium in its drinks, but nowadays it doesn’t seem to be very promoted, even though in small doses it proved to be quite safe and to have beneficial effects. omega3 acids are even more widespread and don’t have adverse side-effects at all, so their use should be promoted as much as possible without the fear of any risk. of course, we must understand the fact that these substances don’t work like magic and they won’t turn all people into moral agents overnight, with a tireless urge to commit moral acts. what they do is simply to reduce the number of violent aggressions and crimes committed out of an impulsive and violent behavior. it is wrong to assume that moral neuroenhancement would completely eradicate immoral acts from society. that’s an unrealistic approach which shows a misunderstanding regarding the way in which biomedical methods work. this scenario wouldn’t be possible even with the most effective biotechnologies, firstly because we don’t have them, secondly because they couldn’t be employed globally even if we had them and thirdly because they couldn’t causally determine individuals to behave morally in all circumstances. their role is much more modest because they can only alleviate some moods and negative tendencies, so they can be nothing more than a brake on aggression (baron-cohen, 2003, p. 35). their modest role should be a sufficient argument against the idea that they would endanger our freedom or make us less free. another example of moral neuroenhancement which is safe, noninvasive and beneficial is the use of transcranial current direct stimulation (tcds), which many bioconservatives might find suspicious. this method refers to the use of low-intensity electrical current delivered via electrodes in order to stimulate the activity of specific brain areas and has been proven to reduce both impulsive behavior and racial bias (choy et al, 2018; raine, 2014; sellaro et al., 2015). the method is quite safe and doesn’t have adverse side-effects which makes it a good candidate for a successful neurotechnology with desirable effects on our moral psychology. bioconservatives might be tempted to disapprove of it because it uses external stimuli in order to affect our biology, but there’s no qualitative difference regarding the way in which tdcs modifies our brain chemistry in comparison with omega3 substances, for example. this shows why a drug we would ingest and which could affect our behavior shouldn’t be seen as is freedom compatible with moral neuroenhancement? alexandru gabriel cioiu 87 less invasive than a method using a machine, as it is the case with tdcs, since the effects of both methods are safe and prove to be the same. 3. moral neuroenhancement and freedom one of the main concerns of the critics of moral neuroenhancement is a hypothetical threat to freedom. more precisely, critics usually argue that biomedical methods could presumably undermine our notion of freedom, restrict our freedom to commit immoral acts or even turn us in some kind of robots who would act morally in a compulsive manner, without considering the reasons we might have for behaving in that specific manner (bublitz 2016; harris, 2011; 2013; 2014; president’s council on bioethics, 2003). but can the current methods of moral neuroenhancement which are available to us today really jeopardize our freedom? theoretically, freedom is required for us to be considered moral agents, since moral responsibility presupposes it. so freedom and moral neuroenhancement are interconnected and without freedom we couldn’t be talking about genuine moral enhancement, because that would mean that the moral agent would be controlled by some external force against his will or that he would perform a moral act in an automatic manner, as if he would be some kind of machine. that doesn’t seem to be the case with the current methods of moral neuroenhancement, fortunately. 3.1. determinism and indeterminism there is an old conservative fear of moral neuroenhancement, in the sense that the growing knowledge regarding the functioning of our genes would undermine our notion of freedom because it may prove that we are determined by our genes to behave in the way we do, which would have the unwanted effect of absolving us of our responsibility for committing immoral acts and therefore erode our freedom. this thesis is generally know as the incompatibilist determinismthe thesis that everything that happens has a cause and that universal causation excludes freedom (buchanan et al., 2000, p. 91). this thesis has in fact been shown to be false, because the increase in knowledge regarding the interaction of our genes and the behavior they influence can only show that there is a cause for everything, not that universal causality excludes freedom completely: no increase in knowledge of causation can do more than establish the first part of the incompatibilist determinist thesis that everything has a cause (buchanan et al., 2000, p. 91).the knowledge of how our genes determine our behavior could prove to have no negative impact on our freedom, on the contrary, it could help us improve our freedom by improving our motivational state, so that we could overcome some urges brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 88 which are biologically based and correct some defective genes, so we have strong reasons to promote the research in this area and put aside the bioconservative aversion for this type of research as being misguided. but where does this powerful aversion regarding biomedical methods comes from in the first place? a partial explanation can be what nick bostrom and toby ord call the status-quo bias, which is an inappropriate (irrational) preference for an option because it preserves the status quo (bostrom & ord, 2006, p. 658). the conservative bioethicists from the president’s council of bioethics seem to act precisely according to this type of bias when they suggest that they can’t really express their objections to the use of biomedical means: the subject being relatively novel, it is difficult to put this worry into words. we are in an area where initial revulsions are hard to translate into sound moral arguments (president’s council on bioethics, 2003, p. 286). today we possess the means to improve our motivation and moral character, but there’s a widespread concern that neurotechnology might restrict our freedom. the concern itself is not irrational, since we don’t know in detail how exactly neurotechnology can lead to a specific behavior and there could be adverse side-effects which may raise valid safety concerns, but usually the fear that it would invade and undermine our freedom is vastly exaggerated and very unspecific. the available methods which currently exist don’t give us enough reasons to consider that there’s any potential threat to freedom, especially since they are non-invasive, voluntary and safe. the irrational aversion towards these methods could at least partially be explained by the so-called status quo bias, the idea that people prefer the current state of affairs to changing to a new one, especially when that concerns changing our behavior through biotechnology. moreover, savulescu and persson (2012) have already shown that moral bioenhancement is compatible with determinism as well as with the indeterminist conception of freedom. if determinism were to be true, then moral bioenhancement could not make us less free, because it will simply make it the case that we are more often, perhaps always, causally determined to do what we take to be good. it will do so by amplifying those biological factors that by nature are strong in those of us who are morally better (persson & savulescu, 2012, p. 112). on the other hand, if indeterminism would govern our behavior, then moral bioenhancement couldn’t cancel it, but it would instead be limited by it, which means that irrespective of whether causal determinism or indeterminism reigns in the realm of human action, moral bioenhancement will not curtail human freedom and responsibility. biomedical manipulation cannot change the basic laws of our behaviour by making us more (or less) causally determined; it simply uses knowledge of those laws to influence our behaviour (persson & savulescu, 2012, p. 112). moral is freedom compatible with moral neuroenhancement? alexandru gabriel cioiu 89 neuroenhancement couldn’t, therefore, make us less free without being selfcontradictory, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t give us more freedom or help us to better enjoy the freedom that we already possess. to see how that could happen, we need to consider some non-invasive methods of moral neuroenhancement. it seems that we have sufficient reasons to consider that we should enhance with the aid of these methods, even when the chance that things would improve, all things considered, is very small. a slight change for the better should be preferred to no change at all when it comes to improving our moral character. as levy et al. put it: small changes in the degree to which large segments of the population are concerned about the long-term future, are inclined toward out-group aggression, or are altruistic toward spatially and temporally distant strangers might massively aggravate or mitigate these problems (2014, p. 122). could any of these methods pose a threat to our freedom in any way? it is hard to see why that should be the case. these methods could influence our behavior in such a way that we might feel more satisfied about ourselves at the end of the process because we’ve been able to reduce akrasia. if we are even slightly more inclined to behave more morally after being the subject of one of these methods, then it doesn’t follow that the procedure itself has seized a part of our freedom in exchange for our moral improvement. on the contrary, it means rather that it helped us behave more morally by giving us more control over our emotions and dispositions and by providing us with more options that arise once we get rid of some unconscious urges or addictions. we have no reason to believe that people who behave morally are less free than the people who don’t. as persson and savulescu claim: just as naturally virtuous people do not compulsively do what they regard as right, so morally enhanced people will not compulsively do what they regard as right (2012, p. 113). being more moral should mean being freer, given the fact that these 2 concepts are so intertwined and they can’t really work separately. in order to illustrate this better, we should consider the studies which show the fact that women are, generally speaking, more empathetic and less aggressive than men, which makes them more inclined to behave morally (baron-cohen, 2003; brunner et al., 1993; morell, 1993; terao, 2008). this is for sure a strong proof for the fact that these dispositions are, at least partially, based in our biology. but this doesn’t mean that we consider women to be less free than men for the simple reason that they have a natural propensity towards a moral behavior and it would indeed be very odd to see it in such a way. in the end, this is how biology works whether we like it or not and some people are more motivated than others to do what they consider to be right for them and for those around them. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 90 this is a fact of life and because we are now in possession of biological means which could help decrease or increase our motivation this should be seen as a blessing rather than a curse. moral neuroenhancement can give us strong reasons and motivation to behave morally in instances where we already know the difference between right and wrong, but fall short to do so. when we fail to donate to charity or when we ignore a starving non-human animal whom we pass by on the street, we already have the idea of what the moral thing to do would be, but we might lack the determination to pursue our thoughts. this lack of determination is what moral neuroenhancement would help us improve and this would be a moral thing to do not just from an objective point of view, the point of view of the universe (lazari-radek et al., 2014), but also for us as human beings because it would help us act according to what we already consider to be the right thing. not only wouldn’t this restrict our freedom, but it would actually improve it by not leaving us with a guilty conscience and help us go all the way to the end and act according to what we already take to be the moral course of action. this is a strong reason to consider that moral people are freer than immoral ones because they are more in control of their moods and motivations, which allows them to act in the way which they think is best suited in a given context. the immoral man might act immorally because of akrasia and not because he rationally and consciously chooses to act immorally, at least in some cases. from this it would follow that not only women aren’t less free than men, but that they can actually be regarded as having more freedom than men given their moral dispositions, so in this way we have reasons to believe that immoral men are less free than moral women. this can be seen also if we take an example regarding people who have a strong addiction. do we consider that heroin addicts are freer because they are free to act according to their addiction than people who don’t have this addiction? it is hard to see how such a view could be plausible. the fact that we would restrict the freedom of heroin addicts to take the drug should be overcome by the greater freedom they would have were they permanently cured from this addiction with the aid of biomedical methods. a lighter example would be the one concerning people who try to quit smoking, but fail to do so because they have a strong nicotine addiction which overpowers their will to let go of this addiction. in all these cases and many others there is a greater freedom that we can reach with the aid of biomedical technologies which would make us less predisposed to act according to unconscious bias and prejudices and offer us more freedom over our own bodies. as persson and savulescu argue: this is a point that should be emphasized: when we influence the motivational states of people, is freedom compatible with moral neuroenhancement? alexandru gabriel cioiu 91 this could be liberating rather than constraining. it could be influence of a sort that they have reason to welcome rather than to eschew (persson & savulescu, 2012, p. 114). 3.2. the freedom to fall there are critics, such as john harris, who claim that moral neuroenhancement wouldn’t be able to reduce to reduce the counter-moral emotions that douglas speaks of, because the emotions are too complex and intertwined: the sorts of traits or dispositions that seem to lead to wickedness or immorality are also the very same ones required not only for virtue but for any sort of moral life at all (harris, 2011, p. 104). he is convinced, in fact, that we would never have the sophisticated technologies to accomplish this and in this regard he seems to be disposing a priori of the possibility of moral neuroenhancement: i for one am sceptical that we would ever have available an intervention capable of targeting aversions to the wicked rather than the good (harris, 2011, p. 105). we can agree that the current methods of moral neuroenhancement are today very limited and we don’t yet possess the sufficient knowledge for a successful moral neuroenhancement on a large scale, but this is no reason to disregard moral neuroenhancement or to consider that we won’t have access to even more performant techniques of biomedical techniques in the foreseeable future. in his critique against moral bioenhancement, harris first presents his view on the notion of freedom by referring to john milton’s paradis lost, when god says about man: . . . whose fault?/whose but his own? ingrate, he had of me/all he could have; i made him just and right,/sufficient to have stood, though free to fall (milton, 1667, book iii, line 96ff). the freedom to fall is therefore the freedom to commit immoral acts by exercising his free will and it is, in harris’s view, essential to us as moral agents: the space between knowing the good and doing the good is a region entirely inhabited by freedom. knowledge of the good is sufficiency to have stood, but freedom to fall is all. without the freedom to fall, good cannot be a choice; and freedom disappears and along with it virtue. there is no virtue in doing what you must (harris, 2011, p. 104). harris is afraid that moral neuroenhancement could have adverse side-effects and that it could make the freedom to do immoral things impossible, rather than simply making the doing of them wrong and giving us moral, legal and prudential reasons to refrain (harris, 2011, p. 105). but, as we saw earlier, it can actually be desirable to restrict an irrational urge or addiction in the present in order to benefit from a larger freedom in the future, and people who act morally shouldn’t be considered less free than immoral people. currently available techniques of moral bioenhancement don’t restrict our freedom to fall in the way that harris fears and have a more modest role: they simply make us more inclined to brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 92 behave in ways that we already consider to be moral, but for some reason lack the motivation to act upon. people are less violent and racist today than they used to be in the middle age in or in pre-state societies, but that doesn’t mean that they are less free. in fact, it is rather the opposite. the majority of people have today far more rights and freedom than those from previous centuries and we have strong reasons to believe that this is so especially because they have radically changed and learned how to better control their emotions and wild impulses and to have more consideration regarding the consequences of their actions. for example, b.w. tuchman analyzes the behavior of the average medieval man, writing about the childishness noticeable in medieval behavior, with its marked inability to restrain any kind of impulse (tuchman, 1978, p. 52) would we claim that such people were freer than most of the people today? the freedom to fall has indeed been more restricted today than in the past, but this isn’t a bad thing and it surely doesn’t mean that freedom itself has been trampled on, but rather that it has expanded and become available to a larger number of people. harris is certain that racism and violent behavior can be fixed with the aid of traditional moral enhancement, but history has showed us that moral progress regarding these 2 countermoral emotions is very slow and, as we have already seen, they don’t just stem out from our lack of information, but most likely have a strong biological component and the tcds experiments show this very well since they don’t influence our knowledge about racism, but our biology by reducing the power of unconscious racial bias over us. critics of moral neuroenhancement often try to create tension and make things more dramatic by opposing traditional moral enhancement to moral neuroenhancement when in fact there’s no opposition between them, since both of them are means to the same end. it is worth mentioning that by employing moral neuroenhancement in order to fight these shortcomings we wouldn’t dispose at all of traditional methods of moral enhancement, such as education and moral training, but we would boost them and make them more effective. moral neuroenhancement should be seen as a complementary method to traditional enhancement and not something that would magically improve our behavior and make us always act morally as if we were programming a machine to clean our house. it would just be a useful tool which would simply make it so that we would be more inclined to behave morally in some uncontroversial instances when doing so wouldn’t cost us much or it would cost us very little. restricting the freedom to fall in this way would turn out to be a good thing because it would lead to is freedom compatible with moral neuroenhancement? alexandru gabriel cioiu 93 more freedom in the long term and would unlock more options for us. tcds, for instance, helps us fight racial bias not by giving us more information about the fact that racism is bad, which we already know, but by working at our biological level and reducing the effects of unconscious bias and prejudices on our actions. if we were to stick just to cognitive enhancement, our chances of success would diminish a lot since, as harris himself recognizes: it is racist behaviour, not racist beliefs that are the problem, or the main problem (harris, 2011, p. 105). 3.3. mental freedom another objection to moral neuroenhancement is the fact that it might negatively impact our mental freedom. this objection is raised by christoph bublitz who defines mental freedom as being the freedom of a person to use her mental capacities as she pleases, free from external interferences and internal impediments (bublitz, 2016, p. 94). he gives the example of pharmaceuticals given to us unknowingly which could alter our state of mind in such a way so as to make us less (not completely) responsible for our actions: these newly induced mental states are not of a kind that undermines free will or resolves you from responsibility. still, you may legitimately complain about some detrimental effect to your mind, and normatively, about the infringement with some protected interest. the interest in question is not free will — but freedom of mind (bublitz, 2016, p. 95). it is true that certain drugs might have this kind of effect, for example if we took high doses of lithium (pachet & wisniewski, 2003), but if this was the case they would stop being moral neuroenhancement and it would clearly be an abuse and irrational to use drugs in such an irresponsible way. as long as drugs are used according to the prescription and in a medical setting with the assistance of professionals, then we would have no reason to worry about such side-effects. also, what bublitz fears when he is talking about mental freedom sounds more like mind control rather than genuine enhancement. for example, if a hypnotizer would use drugs on us in order to manipulate us into doing what he wants, then this would have nothing to do with moral neuroenhancement, even though he might use our moral dispositions in order to control us. moreover, a reduction of aggressive behavior can lead to more freedom of mind by getting rid of those negative impulses which can cloud our judgement, and this is a fact that bublitz himself admits when he says that it supposedly has beneficial effects on mental control (bublitz, 2016, p. 96). however, bublitz seems to exaggerate the way genuine moral neuroenhancement works, because he considers that enhanced persons would be less free than naturally moral women. he claims, for example, that feminized men and women may have the same mental and moral properties, yet women are brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 94 responsible whereas manipulated men are not (bublitz, 2016, p. 94). bublitz’s view strikes me as implausible here, since he seems to understand moral neuroenhancement as being mind control and consequently drawing the conclusion that enhanced persons wouldn’t be as morally responsible as the non-enhanced. that is not the case, however, since we’ve seen that moral neuroenhancement is not a form of mind control and the enhanced person is not manipulated by an outside force who is imposing their own moral views on his will. the enhanced person would simply be more motivated to act according to his own moral principles and there is nobody hiding in the shadows trying to manipulate him and control his mind. degrazia makes a good point here when he tries to show that the effects of moral bioenhancement on our body are less dramatic than the bioconservatives would want us to believe: so suppose that i render help to someone in need in a case where it is inconvenient to do so yet wrong not to help; and mb made me more inclined to help in such a case. the ‘boost’ provided by mb does not rob my behaviour of freedom any more than the caffeine in my tea robs me of any personal credit for writing this paper (degrazia, 2014, p. 366). there is also another way in which moral neuroenhancement could extend our freedom. it is probable that a morally enhanced person would have an improved moral sensitivity which could help her to see more options to solve a difficult situation which she couldn’t solve when she was unenhanced. as antonio diéguez and carissa véliz put it: her more developed and sophisticated sensitivity for moral nuances might permit her to realize that the remaining possibilities of action are more diverse and numerous than it could be thought if given less attentive consideration. in a fractal image, it is possible to lose a part of the whole structure while keeping all its complexity in a more detailed view of the remaining parts (2017, p. 6). this is an interesting point on which it is good to insist because, generally speaking, we have many reasons to consider moral persons as being freer than immoral ones: they have a better understanding of themselves as moral agents and better pro-social attitudes which helps them enjoy more the freedom that they already possess. moral sensitivity is an important part of our human psychology upon which we should reflect more and seek to improve, because it might turn out to be the most important element in our effort to construct a more moral society. 4. conclusion i have tried to show in this paper that the main objections to moral neuroenhancement regarding its hypothetical threat to freedom are exaggerated and misguided because they usually use abstract and vague is freedom compatible with moral neuroenhancement? alexandru gabriel cioiu 95 terms to express their fear of altering our biology without referring to specific forms of moral neuroenhancement which are today at our disposal. i have tried to show the fact that the methods of bioenhancement which are currently available to us, such as pharmaceutical drugs or transcranial direct current stimulation are safe and non-invasive methods which don’t threat our freedom and that, on the contrary, they can extend our freedom by improving our moral character and moral sensitivity. critics of moral neuroenhancement seem to understand it as some form of mind control when claiming that it can undermine our freedom, but the fact is that mind control is not a form of moral neuroenhancement and we need to emphasize this distinction. i have argued that moral neuroenhancement is different from mind control and that an enhanced person is not someone who doesn’t respond to reasons or is manipulated by an outside force like a robot, so in the end enhancement via biomedical means can actually improve our mental freedom rather than impair it. all things considered, we can better see at the end of this analysis that not only is freedom compatible with the process of moral neuroenhancement, but that these 2 concepts are closely related and moral neuroenhancement presupposes freedom in order to function correctly, while mind control would be indeed an impairment of our freedom. furthermore, genuine moral neuroenhancement can actually augment our freedom by giving us more control over our genetic urges and unconscious biases, by improving our moral sensitivity as well as by providing us with more motivation in order to behave morally, which can give us a sense of achievement and joy as opposed to a guilty conscience that we have when we know we didn’t act in a moral manner in a specific situation. the fact that we would get rid of this guilty conscience would help us feel and be freer because in this way we have been able to act according to our own moral principles. currently available moral neuroenhancement techniques are indeed very modest and it may well prove in the end that we won’t be able to find, as john harris thinks, performant methods in order to control those dispositions which lead to immoral behavior, but we at least have the duty to try our best and pursue research into this topic with an open and unbiased mind for even the smallest changes in our moral behavior can prove to have a huge impact in the global village in which we live today. i have also argued for the idea that our counter-moral emotions have a strong biological basis and that it is unlikely that we might reduce them by appealing solely to traditional means of moral educations and to this effect we have a moral obligation to pursue and employ biomedical methods which don’t threat our freedom. we should not allow biases and prejudices to keep us from brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 96 pursuing the most effective methods of biomedical enhancement, because it may prove to pay off in the end and improve not only our understanding of ourselves as moral agents who act for reasons, but also our sense of autonomy and freedom. in this regard, i believe that we have a moral obligation to enhance if safe, effective and non-invasive means of moral neuroenhancement are at our disposal. if we play well the game of enhancement and don’t succumb to conservative biases against it, we may discover that neurotechnology can actually have desirable effects on our freedom that we ought to pursue. references aristotle. (2000). nicomachean ethics, roger crisp (ed./trans.). cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511802058 baron-cohen, s. (2003). the essential difference: male and female brains and the truth about autism. basic books. bostrom, n. & ord, t. (2006). the reversal test: eliminating the status quo bias in applied ethics. ethics, 116, 656–679. brunner, h. g., nelen, m., breakefield, x. o., ropers, h. h. & van oost, b. a. (1993). abnormal behaviour associated with a point mutation in the structural gene for monoamine oxidase a. science, 262(5133), 578-580. bublitz, c. (2016). moral enhancement and mental freedom. j ournal of applied philosophy, 33(1), 88–106. buchanan, a., brock, d. w., norman, d., & winkler, d. (2000). from chance to choice: genetics and justice. cambridge university press. choy, o., raine. a., & hamilton, r. h. (2018). stimulation of the prefrontal cortex reduces intentions to commit aggression: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, stratified, parallel-group trial. journal of neuroscience, 38(29), 6505–6512. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.3317-17.2018 conan, g. m. (2020). frequently overlooked realistic moral bioenhancement interventions. journal of medical ethics, 46(1), 43–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2019-105534 crockett, m. j. (2014). moral bioenhancement: a neuroscientific perspective. journal of medical ethics 40(6), 370–371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics2012-101096 crockett, m., clark, l., hauser, m., & robbins, t. (2010). serotonin selectively influences moral judgment and behavior through effects on harm aversion. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 107, 17433 17438. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1009396107 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511802058 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.3317-17.2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2019-105534 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2012-101096 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2012-101096 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1009396107 is freedom compatible with moral neuroenhancement? alexandru gabriel cioiu 97 de dreu, c. k. w., greer, l. l., handgraaf, m. j. j. shalvi, s., gerben a. van kleef, g. a., baas, m., femke s. ten velden, f. s., van dijk, e., & feith, s. w. w. (2010). neuropeptide oxytocin regulates parochial altruism in intergroup conflicts among humans. science, 328, 1408–1411. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1189047 de dreu, c. k. w., greer, l. l., van kleef, g. a., shalvi, s., & handgraaf, m. j. j. (2011). oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 108, 1262–1266. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1015316108 degrazia, d. (2014). moral enhancement, freedom, and what we (should) value in moral behavior. journal of medical ethics, 40, 361–368. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2012-101157 diéguez, a., & véliz, c. (2017). would moral enhancement limit freedom? topoi 38, 29-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11245-017-9466-8 douglas, t. (2008). moral enhancement. journal of applied philosophy, 25(3), 228–245. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5930.2008.00412.x earp, b. d., douglas, t., & savulescu, j. (2017). moral neuroenhancement. in s. johnson and k. rommelfanger (eds.), routledge handbook of neuroethics. routledge. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/nbk493126/ gajos, j. m., & beaver, k. m. (2016). the effect of omega-3 fatty acids on aggression: a meta-analysis. neuroscience & biobehavioral reviews, 69, 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.07.017 goldstein, m. r., & mascitelli, l. (2016). is violence in part a lithium deficiency state? medical hypotheses, 89, 40–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2016.02.00 harris, j. (2011). moral enhancement and freedom. bioethics, 25(2), 102–111. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2010.01854.x harris, j. (2013). moral progress and moral enhancement. bioethics, 27(5), 285–290. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12592 harris, j. (2014). taking liberties with free fall. journal of medical ethics, 40(6), 371– 374. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2012-101092 kosfeld, m., heinrichs, m., zak, p. j., fischbacher, u., & fehr, e. (2005). oxytocin increases trust in humans. nature, 435(2), 673–676. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03701 lazari-radek, katarzyna de, singer, p. (2014). the point of view of the universe: sidgwick and contemporary ethics. oxford scholarship online: june 2014. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199603695.001.0001 levy, n., douglas, t., kahane, g., terbeck, s., cowen, p. j., hewstone, m., & savulescu, j. (2014). are you morally modified? the moral effects of widely https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1189047 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1015316108 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2012-101157 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11245-017-9466-8 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5930.2008.00412.x https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/nbk493126/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.07.017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2016.02.00 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2010.01854.x https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12592 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2012-101092 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03701 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199603695.001.0001 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 98 used pharmaceuticals. philosophy, psychiatry, & psychology, 21(2), 111-125. https://doi.org/10.1353/ppp.2014.0023 milton, j. (2000) [1667]. paradise lost. in j. leonard, (ed.), paradise lost. penguin books. morell, v. (1993). evidence found for a possible aggression gene. science, 260, 1722-1723. müller-oerlinghausen, b., & lewitzka, u. (2010). lithium reduces pathological aggression and suicidality: a mini-review. neuropsychobiology, 62(1), 43–49. pachet, a. k., & wisniewski, a. m. (2003). the effects of lithium on cognition: an updated review. psychopharmacology, 170(3), 225–234. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-003-1592-x persson, i., & savulescu, j. (2012). unfit for the future: the need for moral enhancement, oxford scholarship online, september 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199653645.003.0010 . president’s council on bioethics. (2003). beyond therapy: biotechnology and the pursuit of happiness. regan books. raine, a. (2014). the anatomy of violence: the biological roots of crime. penguin books. sellaro, r., derks, b., nitsche, m. a., hommel, b., van den wildenbergde, w. p. m., van dam, k., & colzato, l. s. (2015). reducing prejudice through brain stimulation. brain stimulation, 8(5), 891–897. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2015.04.003 terao, t. (2008). aggression, suicide, and lithium treatment. american journal of psychiatry, 165(10), 1356–1357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.08040565 tse, w. s. & bond, a. j. (2002). serotonergic intervention affects both social dominance and affiliative behaviour, psychopharmacology, 161, 324–330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-002-1049-7 tuchman, b. w. (1978). a distant mirror: the calamitous 14th century. knopf. zak, p. j. (2012). the moral molecule: the source of love and prosperity. dutton. zak, p., kurzban, r., & matzner, w. (2004). the neurobiology of trust. annals of the new york academy of sciences, 1032, 224–227. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1314.025 https://doi.org/10.1353/ppp.2014.0023 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-003-1592-x https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199653645.003.0010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2015.04.003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.08040565 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-002-1049-7 https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1314.025 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 61-87 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/269 physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal plane and its relation to neurophysiology liliia voichyshyn¹, nataliya golod2, oleksandr marchuk3, olha zastavna4, liudmyla chepurna5, petro rybalko6, serhii khomenko7, valentyna kuzmik8, serhiі kolisnyk9, inna babii10 1 ukrainian state higher education institution “vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university”, ukraine, liliavojch2017@gmail.com 2 ivano-frankivsk national medical university, ukraine, n.golod@ukr.net 3 national pirogov memorial medical university, ukraine, medredaktor@gmail.com 4 ukrainian state higher education institution “vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university”, ukraine, zastavnaom@gmail.com 5 national pedagogical dragomanov university, chepurnal@gmail.com 6 sumy makarenko state pedagogical university, ukraine, petrorybalko13@gmail.com 7 sumy national agrarian university, ukraine, homenko.symu@gmail.com 8 мykhailo kotsiubynskyi vinnytsia state pedagogical university, ukraine, valentina777808@gmail.com 9 national pirogov memorial medical university, ukraine, s.p.kolisnyk@vnmu.edu.ua 10 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, in77na77@ukr.net abstract: the adolescents aged between 15 and 17 with postural disorders in the sagittal plane, who live in mountainous regions in the carpathians, achieve less than their peers with similar postural disorders, who live in plain regions. the research aims to develop the comprehensive programme for correcting postural disorders in the sagittal plane among pupils, who live in mountainous regions in the carpathians, using physical rehabilitation, and establish the links between empirical data of the experiment and neurosciences to develop methods of complex psychophysical and neurophysiological diagnostic and rehabilitation of adolescents with such disorders in further research. the research is based on a detailed observation of 319 adolescents aged between 15 and 17 from mountainous regions of the ukrainian carpathians and 94 pupils from plain regions with postural disorders in the sagittal plane. the research methods are the following: an analysis of the scientific and specialized literature; surveys and questionnaires; pedagogical tests; methods for determining the indicators of physical development, functional readiness and functions of the spine; methods of mathematical statistics, namely, the ruffier-dickson test, otto test, schober test, thomayer test, fleischmann test, sedin test and spinal index, inclinometer measurements. the pupils who suffer from the stoop and round spine have shown a decrease in average values in the angles of lordosis and kyphosis curves; pupils who suffer from flat back – an increase in the angles of the sacral bone, lordosis and kyphosis curves; pupils who suffer from the round and concave back – a decrease in the angles of the sacral bone, lordosis and kyphosis curves. the implementation of the author’s programme for physical rehabilitation has made it possible to achieve a statistically significant improvement in most of the analyzed indicators. finally, the article extrapolates the results of the experiment to their neurophysiological and neuromedical application in terms of enhancing anamnesis and taking into account post-correction data in subsequent medical treatment. keywords: mountainous regions, pilates, therapy exercise, the kinetic mode, aerobic training, strength training. how to cite: voichyshyn, l., golod, n., marchuk, o., zastavna, o., chepurna, l., rybalko, p., khomenko, s., kuzmik, v., kolisnyk, s., & babii, i. (2022). physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal plane and its relation to neurophysiology. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 6187. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/269 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/269 mailto:liliavojch2017@gmail.com mailto:n.golod@ukr.net mailto:medredaktor@gmail.com mailto:zastavnaom@gmail.com mailto:chepurnal@gmail.com mailto:petrorybalko13@gmail.com mailto:homenko.symu@gmail.com mailto:valentina777808@gmail.com mailto:s.p.kolisnyk@vnmu.edu.ua mailto:in77na77@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/269 physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 62 introduction as evidenced by the official data, the proportion of adolescents aged between 15 and 17 with chronic diseases has changed during the past 50 years. thus, the number of chronically diseased children has increased by 72%, whereas the number of healthy individuals has decreased by 16 times. the first five ranks in the structure of morbidity among high school pupils (approximately 70% of all diseases) are respiratory, musculoskeletal, digestive, ophthalmological and endocrine diseases. the assessment of adolescent physical development has shown an increase in the number of obese (up to 17.53%) and underweight children, as well as children with disharmonious physical development (between 10 and 15% of mainly underweight adolescents) (batrshin, sadovoy, mikhaylovskiy, & sadovaya 2006; behas et al., 2019; sitovskyi et al., 2019; vladzymyrskyi, & popova, 2010; vovkanych, & hrynkiv, 2003; zhylka, 2007). the postural disorders among pupils from mountainous regions in the carpathians have not been studied properly yet. specific living conditions and unsatisfactory social conditions significantly affect any programmes for schoolchildren’s rehabilitation, since they require simple and economically accessible methods, which should take into account the natural factors of the carpathians (byvalkevych, yefremova, & hryshchenko, 2020; hrytsuliak, hrytsuliak, & bohachuk, 2007; kaletnik, zabolotnyi, & kozlovskyi, 2011; koziuk, hayda, dluhopolskyi, & kozlovskyi, 2020; kozlovskyi, 2010; makoviichuk et al., 2020; mykolaiskyi, 2006; sebalo & teslenko, 2020). at the same time, neurophysiological indicators of the analyzed disorders should be taken into account during physical rehabilitation. indeed, there is an assumption about the difference between the main and accompanying symptoms of postural disorders in the sagittal plane, which should be confirmed by both functional indicators and medical diagnostic. based on the results of epidemiological studies conducted in different areas of ivano-frankivsk region, it has been found that adolescents aged between 15 and 17, who live in mountainous regions, are more expected to have postural disorders in the sagittal plane than their peers, who live in plain regions (72.5% vs. 42, 9%, p<0.05). the most common postural disorders among pupils from mountainous regions are the stoop and sway back (55.6% of pupils), round and concave back (22.7% of pupils), flat back (20,5 % of pupils). however, the approaches to correcting postural disorders among pupils from mountainous regions in the carpathians have not been developed yet. therefore, this problem should be studied, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 63 scientifically and experimentally justified. the risk factors, which contribute to the occurrence and progression of these disorders, can be insufficient physical strength, chronic diseases, improper daily routine, poor nutrition, kinetic skill disorders, bad habits. it is also essential to take into account the neurophysiological specifics of motor activity of pupils living in mountainous and plain regions (differences in atmospheric pressure, loads during frequent ascents or descents from the mountain). pupils with postural disorders in the sagittal plane from mountainous regions achieve less than their peers from plain regions with similar postural disorders in terms of physical development (male and female pupils have different body weight, bmi, chest circumference, chest excursion, muscle strength in both hands and back, strength and dynamic endurance of abdominal muscles), functional (higher respiratory rate at rest, lower average indicators of inspiratory and expiratory breath-holding time and peak expiratory flow, higher heart rate at rest; 40.9% and 42.9% of male pupils in the main groups have poor physical ability, 8.6% – in the cg; 38.1% and 33,3% of female pupils have poor physical ability in the main groups, 14.7% – in the cg; p <0.05) and physical strength (male pupils from mountainous regions achieve considerably less than their peers from plain regions in terms of strength and endurance; female pupils from mountainous regions achieve less than their peers from plain regions in terms of strength, endurance and flexibility; p<0,05). the reliable differences in a range of analyzed parameters between the groups of pupils with postural disorders (sway back, flat back, round and concave back; the state of the cardiovascular system; characteristics of vegetative reflexes) have been determined. postural disorders not only negatively influence appearance and body aesthetics but also the functional and physiological state of individual organs and systems. as a result, adolescents may suffer from disorders in physical development or the musculoskeletal system overload, which may cause various neurophysiological diseases, in particular visceral disorders (aloshyna, aloshyn, & petrovych, 2009; kashuba, & zharova, 2006). based on the results of many studies, the violations of spine biomechanics can initiate various visceral disorders (falameeva, 2009; khabirov, 2001; kolisnyk, 2002; slavik, 2008). those children, who suffer from postural disorders, are characterized by reduced physiological reserves of respiration and blood circulation, failed adaptive reactions, which makes them susceptible to lung and heart diseases. for instance, increased thoracic kyphosis changes costal angle, which leads to decreased chest circumference and, consequently, decreased lumen capacity and cardiac disorders (kolisnyk, 2002; yarovoy, 1999). due to increased lumbar lordosis, the physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 64 spine curves inward toward the abdomen, which leads to irregular diaphragm movements and, consequently, respiratory disorders. besides, the location of internal organs in the abdominal cavity changes, which causes subsequent diseases. constant spine congestion diminishes its physiological functions and causes chronic pathological conditions. these disorders are traditionally diagnosed when measuring neurophysiological and visceral parameters, rather than physical and functional ones, during a medical examination (filak, 2009; kashuba, & zharova, 2006; słoniak, & tittinger, 2012). the analyzed innovative technologies in physical education of pupils rarely focus on the formation of correct posture and prevention of its violations. in our opinion, such a situation can lead to further progression of the above-mentioned pathology among pupils and young people, which inevitably will affect their health in the future. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (bezliudnyi, kravchenko, maksymchuk, mishchenko, & maksymchuk, 2019; gerasymova et al., 2019; halaidiuk, et al., 2018; maksymchuk, et al., 2018; melnyk, 2019; sheremet, leniv, loboda, & maksymchuk, 2019). the programmes for correcting postural disorders in the sagittal plane should be reconsidered and significantly improved, as well as adapted to particular living conditions of pupils, their lifestyle, nutrition, socioeconomic conditions and other factors. the combination of these factors is extremely specific in mountainous regions of the carpathians. materials & methods the research methods are the following: an analysis of the scientific and specialized literature; surveys and questionnaires; pedagogical tests; methods for determining the indicators of physical development, functional readiness and functions of the spine; methods of mathematical statistics, namely, the ruffier-dickson test, otto test, schober test, thomayer test, fleischmann test, sedin test and spinal index, inclinometer measurements (boichuk, holubieva, levandovskyi, & voichyshyn, 2010; boichuk, & voichyshyn, 2012; krutsevych, vorobiov, & bezverkhnia, 2011; voichyshyn, 2011; 2012). the obtained data were verified to further include them in the complex neurophysiological and general therapeutic diagnostics of a musculoskeletal and cerebrovisceral nature and prevent neuropsychological and psychosomatic disorders. the research consisted of four stages. during the first stage, ukrainian and foreign literary sources were studied and analyzed, two questionnaires were designed to identify health disorders and reveal pupils’ brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 65 harmful habits, an epidemiological study was conducted, which included questioning and inclinometer measurements of 659 pupils aged between 16 and 17 in five mountainous (verhovynskyi, kosivskyi, nadvirnianskyi, bohorodchanskyi and rozhniativskyi) and three plain (rohatynskyi, tysmenytskyi, tlumatskyi) regions. based on the results of questioning and inclinometer measurements, pupils were randomly divided into groups for further observation. these groups included pupils with postural violations in the sagittal plane from both mountainous and plain regions. thus, the research is based on a detailed observation of 319 adolescents aged between 15 and 17 from mountainous regions of the ukrainian carpathians, namely, 171 male pupils and 148 female pupils, and 94 pupils from plain regions (37 male pupils and 57 female pupils) with postural violations in the sagittal plane. the pupils from plain regions formed the control group (cg), involved in the programme of physical education for comprehensive schools. their peers from mountainous regions were divided into two groups – the main group 1 (also involved in the programme for comprehensive schools) and the main group 2 (involved in the author’s programme of physical rehabilitation). during the second stage, anthropometric and physiological parameters were studied, as well as parameters of physical development, physical strength, functional state of the body, angular parameters of the spine and indicators of its functional state were identified. based on the received data and their statistical processing, the results were evaluated and the programme of physical rehabilitation for adolescents aged between 15 and 17 with postural disorders in the sagittal plane in the carpathian region was developed. during the third stage, the developed programme of physical rehabilitation was verified based on the type of posture violation in the sagittal plane, and its correction was carried out based on individual characteristics of the body. the author’s programme has been tested during an academic year. after the programme was implemented, anthropometric and physiological parameters, parameters of physical development, physical strength, angular parameters and functional state of the spine were restudied. during the fourth stage, the results of retesting were thoroughly evaluated and compared with the initial parameters. besides, it became possible to take into account neurophysiological indicators to expand medical history and use them when planning individual neurophysiological correction and rehabilitation. physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 66 while developing the comprehensive programme for correcting postural violations in the sagittal plane, the authors of the article adhered to several requirements, namely, adequacy; regulation and proper distribution of physical loads; systematicity of physical activities; gradual expansion of those means required to ensure comprehensive influence on different muscle groups, joints and internal organs; selection of general and special corrective exercises according to a particular type of postural disorders in the sagittal plane and accompanying deformities; use of exercises required to strengthen and develop small muscle groups; organization of special training modes; improvement of student mental health. the comprehensive programme of physical rehabilitation has been adapted to the current physical education curriculum for comprehensive schools and implemented into curricular and extracurricular activities. the programme has taken into account individual student characteristics (a type of postural disorder, accompanying diseases, test results, psychological peculiarities), as well as individual psychological (temperament, motivation) and neurophysiological (a lateral profile, a type of nervous system) features. besides, it has been adapted to socioeconomic conditions of mountainous regions and, unlike most of the existing programmes of this kind, aims to correct postural disorders, develop physical skills, improve health level in general and mental health in particular, enhance motivation towards a healthy lifestyle. thus, the methods of the author’s programme on physical rehabilitation have influenced three components of human nature, namely, physical, mental and social ones. they should contribute to general neurobiological perspectives of this disorder (neuropsychological, neurophysiological and neurosocial) in further research. a comparative pedagogical experiment has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of the proposed comprehensive programme for correcting postural disorders in pupils from mountainous regions in the carpathians. the comprehensive programme lasted the school year (9 months) and consisted of three stages, namely, the preparation stage, the main stage and the supporting stage. before the introduction of the programme, as well as after the completion of each stage, the basic functional systems of the pupils should be monitored. also, it is essential to compile a neuropsychological profile for each pupil. the control group includes pupils from plain regions, who participate in the programme of physical education for comprehensive schools. their peers from mountainous regions were divided into two brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 67 groups – the main group 1 (also involved in the programme for comprehensive schools) and the main group 2 (involved in the author’s comprehensive programme of physical rehabilitation). before the experiment, physical education teachers from mountainous regions in the carpathians were familiarized with the peculiarities of the comprehensive programme, as well as the methods of pedagogical control. the september-october period covered the preparatory stage of rehabilitation, the november-march and the april-may periods – the main and supportive stages of rehabilitation. the preparatory stage of rehabilitation lasted two months and was characterized by a gentle mode. its main tasks included mastering the proposed methods of posture correction in the sagittal plane, adjusting the cardiovascular and respiratory systems of the body to physical load, developing the pupils’ physical skills, improving the pupils’ endurance. the main stage of rehabilitation lasted five months. it was characterized by a gentle training mode. its tasks involved unloading the spine, strengthening the pectoral muscle sling, increasing the volume of movement in vertebral segments, correcting the existing postural disorders in the sagittal plane, correcting the associated deformities, improving the functional state of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, further developing physical skills (strength, endurance, flexibility, coordination), mastering special kinetic skills adapted to living conditions. the supportive stage of rehabilitation lasted two months. training sessions were conducted based on the training kinetic mode. its main tasks implied improving the functions of the systems reflecting the neurophysiological state (cardiovascular and respiratory systems); increasing physical activity and maintaining the reached level of physical performance; enhancing general and muscular endurance, coordination and flexibility; correcting the neuropsychological and psycho-emotional state; fixing the obtained results of rehabilitation. the exercises incorporated in training sessions are aimed at forming a definite feeling in pupils about the individual body segments for all positions, as well as the tension of muscles if the posture is correct. the morning hygienic exercises. every day, the pupils did the morning hygienic exercises for 15-20 minutes before breakfast. it included simple exercises affecting all major muscle groups and joints. all exercises were performed at a slow and medium pace, with a gradually increasing range of movements, involving small, medium and large muscle groups. the morning hygienic exercises do not include static exercises since they cause physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 68 muscle tension and shortness of breath. according to each stage of rehabilitation, the pupils did a certain complex of the morning hygienic exercises. exercise therapy. three times per week, the pupils did 10-15-minute general and special corrective exercises according to a type of postural disorders in the sagittal plane. the pupils with flat back did the exercises for deep back muscles, hip flexors and shoulder blades. the pupils with a sway back did the exercises to reduce the pelvic tilt. for this purpose, abdominal muscles were strengthened, flexor muscles were stretched, hip flexors were strengthened, posterior ligaments of the lower thoracic and lumbar spine and psoas muscles were stretched. the pupils with round and concave back did the exercises to strengthen the muscles of the extensors, stretch the muscles of the flexors of hip joints and the muscles of the front part of the thorax, strengthen the muscles of the lumbar spine and correct the position of shoulder blades. by increasing the angle of the pelvis, physical exercises helped to stretch the thigh muscles (the anterior muscle group), the paravertebral muscles of the lumbar spine, the quadratus lumborum muscle and the iliopsoas muscle and strengthen abdominal muscles and the back part of the hip. by reducing the angle of the pelvis, the muscles of the lumbar spine and the front part of the thighs were strengthened. the following was done to lessen the excessive and intensify the moderate spinal curvatures and to create a natural correlation between them during training sessions: the weight of the head, the upper limbs and the torso causing postural defects at the excessive angle of the pelvis have been excluded; the influence of the angle of the pelvis on physiological curves of the spine has been eliminated; the local mobility of the spine has been improved for the next correction; those parts of the spine, in which curvatures are most apparent, have been especially influenced (local correction). these requirements are met by the exercises done in the initial lying position, with emphasis on the knees. the winged shoulder blades were corrected using the isotonic and isometric exercises (trapezius and rhomboid muscles), as well as the exercises aimed at stretching the pectoral muscles. the descent of the shoulder girdle was corrected through strengthening the neck muscles and the scapular compartment. besides, the pupils did the complex of asymmetric and static low-amplitude exercises for the upper trapezius, rhomboid and subclavian muscles, as well as for the muscle raising the shoulder blade (on the side of the shoulder). in the case of chest disorders, the back muscles, the muscles holding the shoulder blades in the corrected position and the respiratory muscles brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 69 have been primarily strengthened, taking into account that the violations of chest shapes are combined with postural disorders. the shape of the chest cannot be corrected unless the deviations of the spine have been corrected. therefore, the authors of the article have chosen the simultaneous correction of the chest and spine shapes. the effectiveness of using special exercises largely depends on the initial positions. the most effective positions for developing the pectoral sling and correct postural defects are the ones which minimize the load on the spine along the axis and the influence of the angle of the pelvis on the muscle tone. these include the position of lying on one’s back, stomach, standing or resting on one’s knees. the complex of exercise therapy pays much attention to neurophysiological correction, namely, breathing exercises, which not only increase the functionality of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems but also contribute to the active correction of the spine and chest. such exercise facilitates the educational effect and consolidates the skill of the correct posture. to cultivate the feeling of the proper posture, one should stand at the wall, touching it with the occipital hump, shoulder blades, buttocks, shins and feet. after that, one should take a step forward without changing the position of the body and stand for 1-2 minutes. the moving mode. below are the basic rules of the moving mode, which were followed by the pupils of the second main group. the proposed mode aims to correct pathological curvatures of the spine and develop a feeling of the proper posture not only during training sessions but also in everyday life, as well as to consolidate the achieved effect. it was suggested that the following recommendations should be followed: one should sleep on a hard bed with a small pillow; in the case of round and concave back, one should properly use the objects from everyday life such as a vacuum cleaner, brush or mop with a long handle; household appliances (a food processor, a microwave oven, a cooker, etc.) should be placed no lower than the belt; one should lift heavy objects by crouching and straightening one’s back; when standing up, one should extend legs in the hip and knee joints; if one has a bag in one’s hands, one should change hands at regular intervals (20-30 minutes); one should replace bags with a backpack or a cart with wheels; in the case of the excessive spinal curvatures in the sagittal plane, one should put on socks and shoes after putting one leg, bent at the hip and knee joints, onto the armchair, and lean forward without bending the thoracic spine; one should sit on rigid chairs, resting on the entire back, keeping one’s feet on the floor, bent at the knee joints at an physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 70 angle of 90º; in the sitting position, one should strain abdominal muscles for 2-3 minutes; one should write, read and eat at the table, with one’s elbows on it, with the straight back and the slightly tilted head (more importantly, the distance between the table and the body should be about 8-10 cm); the desk should be well lit; when talking on the phone or working on the computer, one should lean on the back of the chair or straighten one’s back; in case of the round and round concave back, one should wash, brush one’s teeth in the correct position, leaning forward without bending one’s back in the chest; one should keep one’s head straight when walking. pilates. the methodologies of pilates in the complex programme of rehabilitation for postural disorders in the sagittal plane were used to strengthen the stabilizing spine muscles, namely, abdominal muscles, pelvic floor muscles and deep back muscles. they form a natural muscular torso. the pilates training lies in observing the following eight principles: relaxation, concentration, alignment, breathing, centring, coordination, smooth movements, endurance. the main neuropsychological aspect of correcting postural disorders in the sagittal plane was the use of the relaxation principle. in turn, the essence of the relaxation principle lies in the conscious release of unnecessary stress in certain parts of the body to further actively involve these parts in active work. the concentration principle aims to develop the kinaesthetic sensation of both the whole body and its parts and help to understand every movement and the processes taking place in the body. the alignment principle implies the gradual restoration of the muscular balance and, therefore, the correct position by consciously taking the correct posture of the body while standing, sitting, lying and especially, moving. pilates uses chest breathing as well. all exercises are done in the following sequence: one inhales before doing the exercise, exhales holding one’s stomach and performs the movement, after which the breath is relaxed and returns to the starting position. the centring principle involves creating a force belt by lifting the pelvic floor muscles to the spine from top to bottom. the coordination principle should be understood as the ability to perform the correct movements and control the posture and breathing at the same time. this skill is developed due to repetitions with a constant focus on the tasks. pilates exercises are characterized by the obligatory smoothness of movements, whose essence implies the correct and graceful performance of quite ordinary mind-driven movements. almost all movements are performed slowly, away from the strong centre. the endurance principle intends to gradually increase the intensity of training and move from the beginner programme to intermediate and higher than intermediate levels. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 71 pilates classes were conducted 3 times per week, with musical accompaniment, and lasted for 45-50 minutes initially and 50-60 minutes at the main and supporting stages. at each stage of rehabilitation, the pilates exercises were changed to prevent the habituation effect. aerobic training. this type of rehabilitation, along with relaxation exercises, is extremely essential for changes in the neurophysiological state since there is a direct link between respiration, cardiovascular activity and neurophysiological regulation of the body. during aerobic training, the experimenters attempted to adhere to certain methodical rules: 1) to gradually increase the intensity and duration of loads; to gradually increase the exercise load (3-5% at each stage of training) by increasing the duration of training sessions (gradually increasing the duration of aerobic exercise from 30-40 minutes at the preparatory stage to 40-50 minutes at the main and supporting stages of rehabilitation); to increase the effectiveness of training sessions. during the first training sessions, the kinetic density corresponded to 45-50%; to the extent of the body's adaptation to physical activity, the experimenters increased it to 70-75% of the total training time. it was expedient to increase the intensity of training sessions; to gradually widen the range of the means to ensure a comprehensive influence on different muscle groups, all joints and internal organs; to increase the complexity and amplitude of movements; 2) to ensure the variety of tools. during the wellness training, the experimenters used aerobic exercises (walking, jogging, skiing) in combination with strength exercises for large muscle groups (flexing-extending hands in the lying position, pull-ups, pressups, hyperextension, sit-ups, etc). aerobic training sessions included walking, jogging and skiing. loads were determined based on the following three indicators: duration, distance length and movement speed. strength training. the comprehensive programme of physical rehabilitation involved dosed dynamic loads after aerobic exercises once a week. the duration of strength training was gradually increased from 15 minutes initially to 20-30 minutes at the main and supporting stages. the exercises were done using the repetition method, namely 2-3 sets of exercises up to 10 repetitions. physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 72 results based on the results of epidemiological studies conducted in different districts of ivano-frankivsk region, it has been found that the adolescents aged between 15 and 17, who live in mountainous regions, are more expected to suffer from postural disorders in the sagittal plane than their peers, who live in plain regions (72.5% vs. 42,9%). however, pupils from both regions did not differ statistically by age or gender. the most common postural disorders among pupils from mountainous regions are stoop, sway back, round and concave back, flat back. the risk factors, which contribute to the occurrence and progression of these disorders, can be insufficient physical strength, chronic diseases, improper daily routine, poor nutrition, kinetic skill disorders, bad habits, etc. the pupils with postural disorders in the sagittal plane from mountainous regions achieve less than their peers from plain regions with similar postural disorders in terms of physical development (male and female pupils have different body weight, body mass index, chest circumference, chest excursion, muscle strength in both hands and back, strength and dynamic endurance of abdominal muscles). the pupils from mountainous regions tend to have more pronounced deviations of neurophysiological and functional indicators, which characterize the respiratory system (the higher respiratory rate at rest, lower average indicators of inspiratory and expiratory breath-holding time and peak expiratory flow, p<0.05), as well as the cardiovascular vascular system (higher heart rate at rest, p<0.05). based on apanasenko & popova’s (1998) evaluation of somatic health, it has been found that most male and female pupils with postural disorders in the sagittal plane from mountainous regions are characterized by low levels of somatic health and neurophysiological indicators. it must be noted that none of these pupils has approached higher levels. male and female pupils with postural disorders, who live in plain regions, have different levels of somatic health. more than half of male pupils have average level, while almost half of female pupils have a low level. also, 8,6% of male pupils tend to have an average level of somatic health, while none of the female pupils has eventually reached this level. moreover, the ruffierdickson test (amosov, & benet, 1989) indicates moderate neuropsychological deficiency (apathy, slow reaction, sluggish movements) in pupils living in mountainous regions. indeed, the physical ability level of pupils from mountainous regions is much lower than that of their peers, who live in plain regions. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 73 male pupils, who live in mountainous regions, are considered inferior to their peers from plain regions in strength and endurance. one can observe quite a similar situation among female pupils from both regions. besides, female pupils from mountainous regions are inferior to their peers from plain regions in flexibility. postural disorders in the sagittal plane cause significant functional disorders of the spine, namely, its limited mobility in the sagittal plane in both thoracic (based on otto test) and lumbar (based on schober test) sections, limited spinal flexion in general (based on thomayer test), as well as its lateral (based on fleischmann test) and overall mobility (based on sedin test and spinal index) (kashuba, 2002). the results of inclinometer measurements prove that postural disorders in the sagittal plane (stoop, sway back, flat back, round and concave back) are more pronounced in the eg pupils. these changes are combined with significant chest deformity, pronounced decrease in strength of abdominal muscles, pelvic floor muscles, upper and lower back muscles, postural disorders stability with symptoms of its degenerative changes. such data are valid for neurovisceral medical studies and serve as indicators for medical intervention. the reliable differences in a range of analyzed parameters between the groups of pupils with postural disorders have been determined. they include sway back, flat back, round and concave back. pupils of both sexes with flat back were characterized by larger stature (male pupils – 178.72±1.33 cm, female pupils – 164.31±1.12 cm, p<0.05), lower body mass index (bmi) (male pupils – 18,13±0.37 kg/m2, female pupils – 17.92±0.47 kg/m2, p<0.05) and higher shoulder index (male pupils – 93.27±1.13 cm, female pupils – 91.18±0,76 cm; p<0.05). based on the parameters of functional strength, a reliable difference between the group of pupils with a flat back and that with a stoop, sway back, round and concave back has been set for the parameter of shtange test (male pupils – 35.14±1.39 cm, female pupils –31.51±1.18 cm; p<0.05). taking into account the indicators of physical strength, pupils with a flat back (male pupils – 5.3±0.8 cm, female pupils – 8.6±0.5 cm) have achieved less in flexibility test compared to their peers with a stoop, sway back, round and concave back (p<0,05). based on the parameters of flexibility, pupils of both sexes with flat back are more likely to suffer from limited spine flexion and extension (sedin test), as well as limited thoracic (otto test) and overall spine mobility (thomayer test and spinal index). the only indicator by which all three groups of pupils with different posture violations significantly differed (p<0,05) is the results of the schober test. according to it, pupils with round and concave back are physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 74 more expected to suffer from limited mobility of lumbar spine than their peers with a flat back and stoop or sway back. thus, these pathological changes in the pupils from mountainous regions in the carpathians have proved the need to develop the programme for correcting postural disorders in the sagittal plane. after implementing the comprehensive programme, one could observe positive changes in the indicators of physical development (the percentage of male and female pupils with normal bodyweight has increased up to 85.7±4.1% and 90.5±4.1% respectively; that with low bodyweight has decreased down to 9.5±1.1% and 4.8±0.5% respectively; chest circumference, chest excursion and shoulder index have increased, too), neurofunctional strength (respiratory and heart rate at rest have decreased; inspiratory and expiratory breath-holding time has increased up to 51.71±1.35 sec and 27.81±1.50 sec respectively in male pupils, up to 50.52±1.92 sec and 35.71±1.17 sec in female pupils; peak expiratory flow and the level of physical ability significantly have increased, too). thus, the programme has enhanced the functions of the respiratory system, as evidenced by the absence of bronchial obstruction syndrome and the created prerequisites for improving pulmonary ventilation and lung capability. the above-mentioned positive changes have influenced pupils’ level of physical strength. thus, the indicators have been optimized, which proves significant improvement of all physical skills of those pupils involved in the author’s programme. a prerequisite for improving physical skills of pupils was a stable increase in the indicators of stationary and carousal dynamometry, muscular endurance of abdominal press and back (p<0,05). positive dynamics of physical skills of those pupils who were involved in the traditional programme of physical education for comprehensive schools has not been recorded. optimizing the indicators of physical development and body functions after prolonged training by the programme proposed, it was possible to enhance pupils’ somatic health. thus, the percentage of male and female pupils with low levels of physical health has decreased considerably due to their transition to the average level gradation. indeed, 4.8% of female pupils and 9.5% of male pupils involved in the author’s programme have reached the above-average level of somatic health after the experiment. at the first stage, none of the pupils showed such results. the traditional programme of physical education does not provide an opportunity to positively influence the indicator of pupils’ distribution according to the levels of physical health. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 75 the pupils from the second main group were efficiently redistributed based on the results of ruffier-dickson test since they managed to significantly increase their neurophysiological and neuropsychological indicators (motivation; working capacity; stabilization of mental reactivity; decrease in the frequency of apathetic-depressive states). it must be noted that the above-mentioned positive changes have influenced their level of physical strength, too. thus, the indicators have been optimized, which proves significant improvement of all physical skills of those pupils involved in the author’s programme. positive dynamics of physical skills of those pupils who were involved in the traditional programme of physical education for comprehensive schools has not been recorded. the comprehensive programme has positively affected angular parameters of the spine in the examined pupils with various postural disorders based on the follow-up inclinometer measurements. thus, pupils who suffer from the stoop and round spine have shown a decrease in average values in the angles of lordosis and kyphosis curves; pupils who suffer from flat back – an increase in the angles of the sacral bone, lordosis and kyphosis curves; pupils who suffer from the round and concave back – a decrease in the angles of the sacral bone, lordosis and kyphosis curves. the correction of spinal curves in pupils with postural disorders in the sagittal plane also included improving the functions of back and abdominal muscles (krause-weber test), eliminating the symptoms of asymmetrical blades, increasing the percentage of male and female pupils with normal posture (mathias postural stability test), improving spinal movements in general (sedin, thomayer tests, spinal index calculation), as well as cervical spine movements (chest – chin test, chin – jugular notch test), thoracic spine movements (otta test) and lumbar spine movements (schober test). besides, one could observe a significant increase in lateral spine mobility and an increase in the range of spinal movements when rotating about a vertical axis (fleischmann test). discussion the process of conducting this research has taken into account relevant ethical rules. first, all ethical requirements were considered before the implementation of this research. next, the authors obtained approval from the ethical committee of the university. then, the respondents were informed about the goals and objectives of the research and were interviewed. most importantly, they were assured that the participation in physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 76 the research was voluntary, and they were entitled to leave it at any time so that they should not feel under pressure. the article presents theoretical generalization and new solutions to the problem related to the correction and prevention of postural disorders in the sagittal plane in pupils who live in mountainous schools in the carpathians. it proves the prevalence of postural disorders in the sagittal plane and peculiarities of angular spinal parameters of pupils who live in mountainous schools in the carpathians, as well as compares them with the corresponding indicators of their peers who live in plain regions. the article studies the indicators of physical development, functional and physical fitness, the level of somatic health and the peculiarities of functional spinal conditions of pupils with postural disorders in the sagittal plane. besides, it compares the results with similar indicators of pupils with postural disorders in the sagittal plane, which who live in plain regions of ivano-frankivsk oblast. the article presents the author’s complex rehabilitation programme for correction of postural disorders in the sagittal plane in pupils who live in mountainous regions, theoretically justifies the expediency of incorporating the elements of pilates, athleticism and wellness tourism aimed at optimizing functional conditions of the spine, developing muscular corsets, physical skills and improving functional readiness of pupils. it confirms the effectiveness of the author’s complex of rehabilitation measures to improve functional conditions of the spine, physical development, functional and physical readiness, as well as the level of somatic health of pupils who live in mountainous regions. the obtained results show close links between pedagogical and physical rehabilitation and medicine and neurosciences. thus, an important neurophysiological indicator is the number of heartbeats. on the one hand, it is determined by the specifics (an increased respiration rate) in adolescents living in mountainous regions and, on the other hand, by the development of cerebral hypoperfusion activating the sympathetic system. in this regard, some scientists claim that such disorders are caused by the syndrome of postural tachycardia, which is the result of orthostatic intolerance in postural disorders in the sagittal plane (cutsforth-gregory, & sandroni 2019, p. 429). such disorders can be detected by measuring the heart rate when standing still for 10 minutes. if this frequency increases relative to the typical postural position by 30 beats or more, one can detect the symptoms of cerebral hypoperfusion, which indicates the complex neurosomatic nature of postural disorders in the sagittal plane. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 77 another neurophysiological indicator of postural disorders in the sagittal plane is ongoing postural-perceptual dizziness. researchers from the university hospital centre in zagreb studied about 150 patients with such symptoms (the median duration is 2 years). they found that 40% of patients suffered from vestibular neuritis and more than 10.5% of them from nonpathological dizziness (depending on a postural position) (adamec et., 2020). these data indicate that adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal plane need a complete and regular neurophysiological examination of their vestibular apparatus to identify complex (combined, concomitant) pathologies. the practical value of the obtained results implies the development of the author’s complex rehabilitation programme for correction of postural disorders in the sagittal plane in pupils living in mountainous regions, which can improve the level of physical development and functional and neurophysiological indicators by improving functional conditions of the spine. the programme can serve as the basis for providing effective corrective and preventive work among pupils with postural disorders in the sagittal plane who live in mountainous regions. it can be introduced in professional activities of physical rehabilitation specialists, physical education teachers in schools and universities, coaches, as well as in the practice of rehabilitation centres, specialized institutions for children with postural disorders. the problem of preserving and improving the health of the population continues to be one of the priority areas of ukraine’s social policy. the latter applies to young people, especially pupils. indeed, the incidence rate of schoolchildren has increased by 1.8 times in the last 10 years (popova, & vladzymyrskyi, 2010). according to some statistics, the second place out of the five ranked ones in the structure of the incidence among high school students is occupied by musculoskeletal diseases, being second only to respiratory pathology. the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders in schoolchildren in secondary schools, especially in mountainous regions, remains an urgent problem of modern medicine (apanasenko, & popova, 1998; batrshin, sadovoy, mikhaylovskiy, & sadovaya, 2006; popova, & vladzymyrskyi, 2010), as well as physical education and physical rehabilitation (aloshyna, aloshyn, & petrovych, 2009; kashuba, 2002; lazareva, 2012; petrovych, aloshyna, & bychuk, 2007). most programmes on physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal plane are quite complex, requiring special equipment that is impossible to implement given the logistics of mountainous regions. the physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 78 solution to this problem is to further improve and develop new programmes of physical rehabilitation that will be adapted to the conditions of mountainous regions in the carpathians. the research has verified the existing scientific views that the dissemination of musculoskeletal diseases among pupils in comprehensive schools, particularly in mountainous regions, remains an urgent problem of modern medicine (apanasenko, 2005; apanasenko, & popova, 1998; batrshin, sadovoy, mikhaylovskiy, & sadovaya, 2006; popova, & vladzymyrskyi, 2010) and physical rehabilitation (aloshyna, aloshyn, & petrovych, 2009; lazareva, 2012; petrovych, aloshyna, & bychuk, 2007). the importance of preventing and correcting postural disorders among pupils from mountainous regions in the carpathians has been justified (hulbani, & kosa, 2010; mykolaiskyi, 2006). the main conceptual approaches to enhancing the influence of physical rehabilitation on physical development (potapchuk, 2006), functional (sedliar, 2011; slavik, 2008) and physical strength (furman, 1994; plakhtii, mukhin, yevminov, & kudel, 2006), the functions of the spine (epifanov, & epifanov, 2008; doroshenko, 2009; dubchuk, 2011) in case of posture violations in the sagittal plane have been further developed. the article proves the views of such scholars as lynets (2007), miliukova & evdokimova (2003), plakhtii, mukhin, yevminov, & kudel (2006), ryzhenko (2006). they believe that the transformation of the ability to take the right position into the skill is achieved by the systematic repetition of exercises, constant control over holding the correct position and adherence to a special kinetic mode. specificity in angular parameters of the spine among pupils of the carpathian region compared to the corresponding indicators of their peers from schools located in plain regions have been identified and described for the first time. the per cent correlation of various spinal disorders in the sagittal plane among pupils from mountainous regions in the carpathians has been determined. the comprehensive rehabilitation programme for correcting posture violations in the sagittal plane has been developed for pupils from mountainous regions. the expediency of introducing the elements of pilates and athleticism into the programme has been theoretically justified. the programme has been adapted to educational and living conditions of pupils from mountainous regions, as well as economic, natural and social conditions in ivano-frankivsk region. also, the findings of the experiment can deepen neurophysiological aspects of rehabilitation for patients with postural disorders in the sagittal plane, including therapeutic and rehabilitation measures (calmels, 2019) and brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 79 methods of neurostimulation of motor motility using electronic physiotherapy by (jeunet, glize, mcgonigal, batail, & micoulaud-franchi, 2019). finally, they can contribute to creating neuropathological anamnesis in the medical context of studying this particular problem and complement clinical studies associated with paired impulses and the so-called “virtual” (psychosomatic) damage to the cerebral system. such synergy of data (combining the methods used in the article and neurofunctional measurements of motor control in patients with postural disorders in the sagittal plane) can generalize the role of parietal ligaments and ventral premotors of the cerebral cortex with postural disorders in the sagittal plane (allart, devanne, & delval, 2019). conclusions based on inclinometer measurements, it has been found that postural disorders in the sagittal plane, such as stoop, sway back, flat back, round and concave back are more pronounced in pupils from mountainous regions compared with those in the cg. these changes also include severe chest deformity, a considerable decrease in strength of abdominal muscles, pelvic floor muscles, upper and lower back muscles, impaired postural stability with symptoms of degenerative changes, severe functional spinal disorders – limited mobility in the sagittal plane of thoracic (based on otto test) and lumbar (based on schober test) sections, limited spinal flexion in general (based on thomayer test), as well as its lateral (based on fleischmann test) and overall mobility (based on sedin test and spinal index). such changes act as symptoms for identifying a neuroand somatopathological pattern of the underlying and accompanying diseases and, in extreme cases, medical correction or therapy. the comprehensive rehabilitation programme for correcting postural disorders in the sagittal plane among pupils from mountainous regions, which includes some elements of pilates, athleticism and health tourism, is aimed at optimizing the functions of the spine, building muscular corset, developing physical skills and improving physical and functional strength of pupils, their somatic health. the programme is adapted to educational and living conditions of pupils from mountainous regions, as well as economic, natural and social conditions in ivano-frankivsk region. the programme is based on the differentiated approach to correcting various postural disorders in the sagittal plane. the complex nature of physical rehabilitation methods included in the author’s programme is associated with simultaneous physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 80 influence on three components of the human nature, namely, physical, mental and social ones, which takes into account the neurophysiological profile of each individual. based on the comparison of the groups of pupils with different postural disorders, it has been proved that the author’s programme has a differential influence on individual indicators of physical development (body weight, bmi, chest circumference, chest excursion), functional (shtange test) and physical strength (flexibility and strength indicators test). one can observe the most pronounced optimization of these indicators among pupils with a stoop, sway back, round and concave back. the reliable differences between the above-mentioned groups of pupils and those pupils with flat back have been determined. the results of the tests for identifying the functional state of the spine indicate that the author’s programme has a differential influence on the mobility of individual sections of the spine (otto, schober tests) and its overall mobility (sedin, thomayer tests, spinal index). pupils who suffer from round and concave back, stoop and sway back have managed to make more progress in improving the functional state of the spine compared to their peers, who suffer from flat back. so, the conducted studies on the effectiveness of the programme for correcting postural disorders in the sagittal plane involving a sufficient number of adolescents aged between 15 and 17 from mountainous regions in the carpathians have turned out to be rather successful. therefore, they can serve as the basis for the practical application of this programme, which ensures multi-aspect influence on the body. the prospects for further researches consist in developing comprehensive programmes on inclinometer physical rehabilitation aimed at preventing and correcting various posture violations among pupils of different age groups adapted for mountainous conditions, as well as schools located in plain regions. the obtained data also show a direct correlation with neurophysiological and neuropsychological features of individuals with postural disorders in the sagittal plane. it is confirmed by the analysis of international neurophysiological discourse. besides, it requires further research at the cross-section of correctional pedagogy, medicine and neuroscience. references adamec, i., juren, s., meaški, m., skorić, k., jažić, k., crnošija, l. … habek, m. (2020). persistent postural-perceptual dizziness: clinical and neurophysiological study. journal of clinical neuroscience, 72, 2630. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31948878/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31948878/ brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 81 allart, e., devanne, h., & delval, a. (2019). contribution of transcranial magnetic stimulation in assessing parietofrontal connectivity during gesture production in healthy individuals and brain-injured patients. neurophysiologie clinique, 49(2), 115123. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30600138/ aloshyna, a., aloshyn, a., & petrovych, v. (2009). vykorystannia biomekhanichnykh tekhnolohii u diahnostytsi ta profilaktytsi porushen postavy shkoliariv [using biomechanical technologies in diagnosing and preventing posture violations among schoolchildren]. the collection of scientific works of lesia ukrainka volynskyi national university, 4, 3–6. https://sport.eenu.edu.ua/index.php/sport/article/view/1243/1222 amosov, n. m., & bendet, ya. a. (1989). fizicheskaia aktivnost i serdtse [physical activity and heart]. health. https://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/fizaktivn/index.html apanasenko, g. l. (2005). izbrannye stati o zdorove [selected articles on health]. zdorovia. http://irbis.vnmu.edu.ua/cgibin/irbis64r_15/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=book &p21dbn=book&s21fmt=fullwebr&s21all=%28%3c%2e%3ea %3d%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0% b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%2c%20%d0%93%2e%20%d0%9b %2e%24%3c%2e%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=god&s21srd=&s2 1stn=1&s21ref=5&s21cnr=10 apanasenko, g. l., & popova, l. a. (1998). meditsinskaia valeologiia [medical valeology]. zdorovia. https://www.books.ru/books/meditsinskayavaleologiya-6373/ batrshin, i. t., sadovoy, m. v., mikhaylovskiy, & sadovaya, t. n. (2006). sovremennye printsipy dispanserizatsii detei s deformatsiiami pozvonochnika v otdalennykh regionakh strany [modern principles of clinical examination of children with spinal deformities in remote regions of the country]. spine surgery, 4, 70–74. https://www.spinesurgery.ru/jour/article/view/1181 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13331340. https://search.proquest.com/openview/ 6f1b28be0b5c628046c88f43c029b8ae/1?pqorigsite=gscholar&cbl=1006394 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 15851590. https://search.proquest.com/openview/b46af7bc5f0886d93e0a068b7e712 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30600138/ https://sport.eenu.edu.ua/index.php/sport/article/view/1243/1222 https://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/fizaktivn/index.html http://irbis.vnmu.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_15/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=book&p21dbn=book&s21fmt=fullwebr&s21all=%28%3c%2e%3ea%3d%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%2c%20%d0%93%2e%20%d0%9b%2e%24%3c%2e%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=god&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=5&s21cnr=10 http://irbis.vnmu.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_15/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=book&p21dbn=book&s21fmt=fullwebr&s21all=%28%3c%2e%3ea%3d%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%2c%20%d0%93%2e%20%d0%9b%2e%24%3c%2e%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=god&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=5&s21cnr=10 http://irbis.vnmu.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_15/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=book&p21dbn=book&s21fmt=fullwebr&s21all=%28%3c%2e%3ea%3d%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%2c%20%d0%93%2e%20%d0%9b%2e%24%3c%2e%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=god&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=5&s21cnr=10 http://irbis.vnmu.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_15/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=book&p21dbn=book&s21fmt=fullwebr&s21all=%28%3c%2e%3ea%3d%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%2c%20%d0%93%2e%20%d0%9b%2e%24%3c%2e%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=god&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=5&s21cnr=10 http://irbis.vnmu.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_15/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=book&p21dbn=book&s21fmt=fullwebr&s21all=%28%3c%2e%3ea%3d%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%2c%20%d0%93%2e%20%d0%9b%2e%24%3c%2e%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=god&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=5&s21cnr=10 http://irbis.vnmu.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_15/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=book&p21dbn=book&s21fmt=fullwebr&s21all=%28%3c%2e%3ea%3d%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%2c%20%d0%93%2e%20%d0%9b%2e%24%3c%2e%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=god&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=5&s21cnr=10 http://irbis.vnmu.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_15/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=book&p21dbn=book&s21fmt=fullwebr&s21all=%28%3c%2e%3ea%3d%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%2c%20%d0%93%2e%20%d0%9b%2e%24%3c%2e%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=god&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=5&s21cnr=10 https://www.books.ru/books/meditsinskaya-valeologiya-6373/ https://www.books.ru/books/meditsinskaya-valeologiya-6373/ https://www.spinesurgery.ru/jour/article/view/1181 https://search.proquest.com/openview/%0b6f1b28be0b5c628046c88f43c029b8ae/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1006394 https://search.proquest.com/openview/%0b6f1b28be0b5c628046c88f43c029b8ae/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1006394 https://search.proquest.com/openview/%0b6f1b28be0b5c628046c88f43c029b8ae/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1006394 https://search.proquest.com/openview/b46af7bc5f0886d93e0a068b7e712cf5/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1006394#:~:text=the%20programme%�20of%20burnout%20syndrome,and%20increasing%20their%20emotional%20stability physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 82 cf5/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1006394#:~:text=the%20programme% 20of%20burnout%20syndrome,and%20increasing%20their%20emotional %20stability. boichuk, t., holubieva, m., levandovskyi, o., & voichyshyn, l. (2010). osnovy diahnostychnykh doslidzhen u fizychnii reabilitatsii. [the fundamentals of diagnostic research in physical rehabilitation]. zukts. http://lib.khnu.km.ua/fond/nov/new_11_2011/442055.htm boichuk, t. v., & voichyshyn, l. i. (2012). rezultaty inklinometrychnoho obstezhennia uchniv hirskykh shkil z porushenniamy postavy u sagitalnii ploshchyni pislia tryvaloho zastosuvannia prohramy korektsii porushen postavy [results of inclinometer measurements of pupils with posture violations in the sagittal plane from mountainous regions after prolonged participation in the programme for correcting posture violations]. young sports science of ukraine, 3, 42–46. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/1276 byvalkevych, l., & yefremova, o., & hryshchenko, s. (2020). developing technical creativity in future engineering educators. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(1), 162175. http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/v iew/2398/pdf calmels, c. (2019). beyond jeannerod’s motor simulation theory: an approach for improving post-traumatic motor rehabilitation. neurophysiologie clinique, 49(2), 99107. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/ s0987705318302399 cutsforth-gregory, j. k., & sandroni, p. (2019). chapter 29 – clinical neurophysiology of postural tachycardia syndrome. handbook of clinical neurology, 161, 429445. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/b9780444641427000667#! doroshenko, v. v. (2009). efektyvnist vykorystannia zasobiv fizychnoi reabilitatsii dlia shkoliariv 10-11 rokiv z porushenniamy postavy v umovakh navchalnoho zakladu [effectiveness of using physical rehabilitation facilities for schoolchildren aged between 10 and 11 with posture violations within an educational institution]. the bulletin of zaporizhzhia national university, 2, 29–35. dubchuk, o. (2011). orhanizatsiia zaniat fizychnoho vykhovannia v hrupakh fizychnoi reabilitatsii pry porushenniakh postavy v studentiv iz zastosuvanniam kallanetyky [organizing physical education classes in groups of physical rehabilitation in case of pupils’ posture violations due to callanetics]. physical education, sports and health culture in modern society: the collection of scientific works of lesia ukrainka volynskyi national university, 1(13), 65–68. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/fvs_2011_1_19 https://search.proquest.com/openview/b46af7bc5f0886d93e0a068b7e712cf5/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1006394#:~:text=the%20programme%�20of%20burnout%20syndrome,and%20increasing%20their%20emotional%20stability https://search.proquest.com/openview/b46af7bc5f0886d93e0a068b7e712cf5/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1006394#:~:text=the%20programme%�20of%20burnout%20syndrome,and%20increasing%20their%20emotional%20stability https://search.proquest.com/openview/b46af7bc5f0886d93e0a068b7e712cf5/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1006394#:~:text=the%20programme%�20of%20burnout%20syndrome,and%20increasing%20their%20emotional%20stability http://lib.khnu.km.ua/fond/nov/new_11_2011/442055.htm http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/1276 http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/2398/pdf http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/2398/pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/%0bs0987705318302399 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/%0bs0987705318302399 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/b9780444641427000667#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/b9780444641427000667#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/%0bpii/b9780444641427000667 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/%0bpii/b9780444641427000667 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/fvs_2011_1_19 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 83 epifanov, v. a., & epifanov, a. v. (2008). vosstanovitelnoe lechenie pri zabolevaniiakh i povrezhdeniiakh pozvonochnika [restorative treatment for spinal diseases and injuries]. medpress-inform. https://www.mmbook.ru/catalog/newrologija/neurologyo/102901-detail falameeva, o. v. (2009). scientific principles of preventing osteoporosis in children, adolescents and youth at the population level. the international endocrinology journal, 1(19), 56–67. https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=15871047 filak, ya. (2009). prystrii dlia diahnostyky stanu khrebta pry porushenniakh postavy [device for diagnosing spine in case of posture violations]. the bulletin of taras shevchenko chernihiv state pedagogical university, 64, 530–532. http://uapatents.com/4-90815-pristrijj-dlya-diagnostiki-stanu-khrebta-priporushennyakh-postavi.html furman, yu. m. (1994). fiziologiia ozdorovitelnogo bega [physiology of recreational running]. zdorovia. https://rusneb.ru/catalog/004191_000025_donpbdgpb%7c%7c%7cretro5%7c%7c%7c0000000859/ gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23903 halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r. … maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284– 2291. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330656993_teaching_ approaches_in_extracurricular_physical_activities_for_12-14-yearold_pupils_under_environmentally_unfavourable_conditions hrytsuliak, b., hrytsuliak, v., & bohachuk, s. (2007). osoblyvosti demohrafichnoi sytuatsii ta stan zobnoi endemii v uchniv hirskykh shkil rakhivskoho raionu zakarpatskoi oblasti [features of demographic situation and state of endemiс goitre in pupils from rakhiv schools in zakarpatska region]. school in mountainous region of the ukrainian carpathians, 2(3), 113–117. http://www.ecatalog.name/x/x/x?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=iounb&p21db n=iounb&s21fmt=&s21all=(%3c.%3ek%3d%d0%93%d0%86 %d0%a0%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90%20%d0%a8%d0% 9a.,%20%d0%9e%d0%a1%d0%92%d0%86%d0%a2%d0%90%20 %d0%a1%d0%95%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9d%d0%af.$ %3c.%3e)&z21id=&s21srw=avhead&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s2 1ref=&s21cnr=20 https://www.mmbook.ru/catalog/newrologija/neurologyo/102901-detail https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=15871047 http://uapatents.com/4-90815-pristrijj-dlya-diagnostiki-stanu-khrebta-pri-porushennyakh-postavi.html http://uapatents.com/4-90815-pristrijj-dlya-diagnostiki-stanu-khrebta-pri-porushennyakh-postavi.html https://rusneb.ru/catalog/004191_000025_donpb-dgpb%7c%7c%7cretro5%7c%7c%7c0000000859/ https://rusneb.ru/catalog/004191_000025_donpb-dgpb%7c%7c%7cretro5%7c%7c%7c0000000859/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330656993_teaching_%0bapproaches_in_extracurricular_physical_activities_for_12-14-year-old_pupils_under_environmentally_unfavourable_conditions https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330656993_teaching_%0bapproaches_in_extracurricular_physical_activities_for_12-14-year-old_pupils_under_environmentally_unfavourable_conditions https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330656993_teaching_%0bapproaches_in_extracurricular_physical_activities_for_12-14-year-old_pupils_under_environmentally_unfavourable_conditions http://www.e-catalog.name/x/x/x?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=iounb&p21dbn=iounb&s21fmt=&s21all=(%3c.%3ek%3d%d0%93%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90%20%d0%a8%d0%9a.,%20%d0%9e%d0%a1%d0%92%d0%86%d0%a2%d0%90%20%d0%a1%d0%95%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9d%d0%af.$%3c.%3e)&z21id=&s21srw=avhead&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21cnr=20 http://www.e-catalog.name/x/x/x?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=iounb&p21dbn=iounb&s21fmt=&s21all=(%3c.%3ek%3d%d0%93%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90%20%d0%a8%d0%9a.,%20%d0%9e%d0%a1%d0%92%d0%86%d0%a2%d0%90%20%d0%a1%d0%95%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9d%d0%af.$%3c.%3e)&z21id=&s21srw=avhead&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21cnr=20 http://www.e-catalog.name/x/x/x?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=iounb&p21dbn=iounb&s21fmt=&s21all=(%3c.%3ek%3d%d0%93%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90%20%d0%a8%d0%9a.,%20%d0%9e%d0%a1%d0%92%d0%86%d0%a2%d0%90%20%d0%a1%d0%95%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9d%d0%af.$%3c.%3e)&z21id=&s21srw=avhead&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21cnr=20 http://www.e-catalog.name/x/x/x?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=iounb&p21dbn=iounb&s21fmt=&s21all=(%3c.%3ek%3d%d0%93%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90%20%d0%a8%d0%9a.,%20%d0%9e%d0%a1%d0%92%d0%86%d0%a2%d0%90%20%d0%a1%d0%95%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9d%d0%af.$%3c.%3e)&z21id=&s21srw=avhead&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21cnr=20 http://www.e-catalog.name/x/x/x?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=iounb&p21dbn=iounb&s21fmt=&s21all=(%3c.%3ek%3d%d0%93%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90%20%d0%a8%d0%9a.,%20%d0%9e%d0%a1%d0%92%d0%86%d0%a2%d0%90%20%d0%a1%d0%95%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9d%d0%af.$%3c.%3e)&z21id=&s21srw=avhead&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21cnr=20 http://www.e-catalog.name/x/x/x?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=iounb&p21dbn=iounb&s21fmt=&s21all=(%3c.%3ek%3d%d0%93%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90%20%d0%a8%d0%9a.,%20%d0%9e%d0%a1%d0%92%d0%86%d0%a2%d0%90%20%d0%a1%d0%95%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9d%d0%af.$%3c.%3e)&z21id=&s21srw=avhead&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21cnr=20 http://www.e-catalog.name/x/x/x?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=iounb&p21dbn=iounb&s21fmt=&s21all=(%3c.%3ek%3d%d0%93%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90%20%d0%a8%d0%9a.,%20%d0%9e%d0%a1%d0%92%d0%86%d0%a2%d0%90%20%d0%a1%d0%95%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9d%d0%af.$%3c.%3e)&z21id=&s21srw=avhead&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21cnr=20 http://www.e-catalog.name/x/x/x?lng=&c21com=s&i21dbn=iounb&p21dbn=iounb&s21fmt=&s21all=(%3c.%3ek%3d%d0%93%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%a1%d0%ac%d0%9a%d0%90%20%d0%a8%d0%9a.,%20%d0%9e%d0%a1%d0%92%d0%86%d0%a2%d0%90%20%d0%a1%d0%95%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9d%d0%af.$%3c.%3e)&z21id=&s21srw=avhead&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21cnr=20 physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 84 hulbani, r. sh., & kosa, a. o. (2010). korektsiia postavy studentiv 18-19 rokiv shliakhom zmitsnennia «m’iazovoho korsetu» [correcting posture of pupils aged between 18 and 19 by strengthening muscular corset]. pedagogy, psychology and medical and biological problems of physical education and sports, 5, 40–42. https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/201005/10grsmsf.pdf jeunet, c., glize, b., mcgonigal, a., batail, j. m., & micoulaud-franchi, j. a. (2019). using eeg-based brain computer interface and neurofeedback targeting sensorimotor rhythms to improve motor skills: theoretical background, applications and prospects. neurophysiologie clinique, 49(2), 125136. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30414824/ kaletnik, g. m., zabolotnyi, g. m., & kozlovskyi, s. v. (2011). innovative models of strategic management economic potential within contemporary economic systems. actual problems of economics, 4(118), 311. http://socrates.vsau.org/repository/card.php?lang=uk&id=24702 kashuba, v. a. (2002). byomekhanyka osanky [the biomechanics of the posture]. scientific world. https://www.twirpx.com/file/2605226/ kashuba, v., & zharova, i. (2006). vplyv zasobiv fizychnoi reabilitatsii na pokaznyky stiikosti tila osib z ortopedychnoiu patolohiieiu [influence of physical rehabilitation on endurance indicators in individuals with orthopaedic pathologies]. theory and methodology of physical education and sports, 2, 46–50. http://reposit.uni-sport.edu.ua/handle/787878787/2838 khabirov, f. a. (2001). klinicheskaia nevrologiia pozvonochnika [clinical neurology of spine]. meditsina. https://www.twirpx.com/file/237891/ kolisnyk, p. f. (2002). alhorytm likuvannia vertebrohennykh zakhvoriuvan vnutrishnikh orhaniv ta system [algorithm for treating vertebrogenic diseases of internal organs and systems]. galician doctor bulletin, 1, 52–54. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn= &s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a0458.195.5$ %3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=dz&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21re f=10&s21cnr=20 koziuk, v., hayda, y., dluhopolskyi, o, & kozlovskyi, s. (2020). ecological performance: ethnic fragmentation versus governance quality and sustainable development. problemy ekorozwoju – problems of sustainable development, 15(1), 5364. http://ekorozwoj.pol.lublin.pl/no29/h.pdf kozlovskyi, s. v. (2010). economic policy as a basic element for the mechanism of managing development factors in contemporary economic systems. actual problems of economics, 1(103), 1320. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293721347_economic_policy_ https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2010-05/10grsmsf.pdf https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2010-05/10grsmsf.pdf https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30414824/ http://socrates.vsau.org/repository/card.php?lang=uk&id=24702 https://www.twirpx.com/file/2605226/ http://reposit.uni-sport.edu.ua/handle/787878787/2838 https://www.twirpx.com/file/237891/ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a0458.195.5$%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=dz&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a0458.195.5$%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=dz&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a0458.195.5$%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=dz&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a0458.195.5$%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=dz&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a0458.195.5$%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=dz&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 http://ekorozwoj.pol.lublin.pl/no29/h.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293721347_economic_policy_as_a_basic_element_for_mechanism_of_managing_development_factors_in_contemporary_economic_systems brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 85 as_a_basic_element_for_mechanism_of_managing_development_factors_i n_contemporary_economic_systems krutsevych, t. yu., vorobiov, m. i., & bezverkhnia, h. v. (2011). kontrol u fizychnomu vykhovanni ditei, pidlitkiv i molodi [control in physical education of children, adolescents and young people]. olympic literature. http://reposit.uni-sport.edu.ua/handle/787878787/1171 lazareva, e. b. (2012). metodicheskie osobennosti fizicheskoi reabilitatsii bolnykh s krugloi spinoi pri khirurgicheskom lechenii vertebrogennoi patologii [methodical features of physical rehabilitation for patients with a sway back in case of surgical treatment of vertebrogenic pathology]. physical education of pupils, 2, 50–54. https://www.sportedu.org.ua/html/journal/2012n2/html-ru/12lobpwk.html lynets, m. m. (1997). osnovy metodyky rozvytku rukhovykh yakostei [the fundamentals of the methodology for developing kinetic skills]. stabur. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/7237 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i. … savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/11806?mode=full makoviichuk, o., shulha, a., shestobuz, o., pits, i., prokop, i., & byhar, h. (2020). training future primary school teachers in the context of developing constructive skills in younger pupils. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12, 1(1), 232250. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=843076 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/article.aspx?id=057964311901046m#.x32xz5mzyzu miliukova, i. v., & evdokimova, t. a. (2003). lechebnaia gimnastika pri narusheniiakh osanki u detei [exercise therapy in case of posture disorders in children]. exmo. https://www.labirint.ru/books/129676/ mykolaiskyi, m. (2006). osoblyvosti fizychnoho rozvytku silskykh uchniv hirskoi shkoly ukrainskykh karpat [features of physical development of rural pupils from mountainous regions in the ukrainian carpathians]. school in mountainous region of the ukrainian carpathians, 1, 110–114. http://lib.pnu.edu.ua/files/visniki/gsh11.pdf petrovych, v., aloshyna, a., & bychuk, o. (2007). somatychna korektsiia sahitalnoho profiliu postavy zasobamy fitbol-himnastyky [somatic https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293721347_economic_policy_as_a_basic_element_for_mechanism_of_managing_development_factors_in_contemporary_economic_systems https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293721347_economic_policy_as_a_basic_element_for_mechanism_of_managing_development_factors_in_contemporary_economic_systems http://reposit.uni-sport.edu.ua/handle/787878787/1171 https://www.sportedu.org.ua/html/journal/2012-n2/html-ru/12lobpwk.html https://www.sportedu.org.ua/html/journal/2012-n2/html-ru/12lobpwk.html http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/7237 http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/11806?mode=full https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=843076 http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/article.aspx?id=0579-64311901046m#.x32xz5mzyzu http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/article.aspx?id=0579-64311901046m#.x32xz5mzyzu https://www.labirint.ru/books/129676/ http://lib.pnu.edu.ua/files/visniki/gsh11.pdf physical rehabilitation of adolescents with postural disorders in the sagittal … liliia voichyshyn, et al. 86 correction of posture in the sagittal plane using fitball gymnastics]. young sports science of ukraine, 2, 281–286. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/4201 plakhtii, p. d., mukhin, v. m., yevminov, v. v., & kudel, i. o. (2006). profilaktor yevminova yak zasib korektsii porushen postavy u shkoliariv [yevminov prophylactic device as a means of correcting posture violations in schoolchildren]. kamianets-podilskyi: abetka. https://soncesad.ub.ua/goods/view/12899915/all/profilaktor-evminovayak-zasib-korekciyi-porushen-postavi-u-shkolyariv/ popova, t. v., & vladzymyrskyi, a. v. (2010). suchasnyi pohliad na problemu diahnostyky porushen postavy u ditei ta pidlitkiv [modern views on the problem of diagnosing posture violations in children and adolescents]. injury, 11(5). http://www.mif-ua.com/archive/article/20069. potapchuk, a. a. (2006). bodriashchaia gimnastika kak sredstvo korrektsii narushenii oporno-dvigatelnogo apparata u doshkolnikov [invigorating gymnastics as a means of correcting musculoskeletal disorders in preschool children]. adaptive physical culture, 2, 30–32. ryzhenko, v. i. (2006). ispravlenie osanki u detei: lechenie, masazh, gіmnastika, vanny [correcting the posture in children: treatment, massage, exercise, baths]. onyx. https://www.labirint.ru/books/110582/ sebalo, l., & teslenko, t. (2020). future teacher training for self-education activity in physical education at elementary school. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(1), 105119. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/ index.php/rrem/article/view/2314 sedliar, yu. v. (2011). analiz sredstv, metodov i form fizicheskogo vospitaniia, napravlennykh na profilaktiku i korrektsiiu narushenii osanki studentov [analysis of means, methods and forms of physical education aimed at preventing and correcting posture violations in pupils]. physical education of pupils, 1, 114–117. https://www.sportedu.org.ua/html/journal/2011n1/11syvosp.pdf sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532–1543. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 slavik, m. (2008). postava yak faktor vidobrazhennia zdorovia liudyny [posture as a reflection of human health]. physical education, sports and health culture in http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/4201 https://soncesad.ub.ua/goods/view/12899915/all/profilaktor-evminova-yak-zasib-korekciyi-porushen-postavi-u-shkolyariv/ https://soncesad.ub.ua/goods/view/12899915/all/profilaktor-evminova-yak-zasib-korekciyi-porushen-postavi-u-shkolyariv/ http://www.mif-ua.com/archive/article/20069 https://www.labirint.ru/books/110582/ https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/%0bindex.php/rrem/article/view/2314 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/%0bindex.php/rrem/article/view/2314 https://www.sportedu.org.ua/html/journal/2011-n1/11syvosp.pdf https://www.sportedu.org.ua/html/journal/2011-n1/11syvosp.pdf https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 87 modern society: the collection of scientific works of lesia ukrainka volynskyi national university, 3, 116–119. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/fvs_2008_3_41 słoniak, r., & tittinger, t. (2012). wpływ tapingu rehbilitacyjnego na ruchomość kręgosłupa [the effects of rehbilitation taping on the mobility of the spine]. materiały of iv międzynarodowe dni rehabilitacji “potrzeby i standardy rehabilitacji w chorobach i po urazach ośrodkowego układu nerwowego”. rzeszow: fizjoterapia rafał słonia. vladzymyrskyi, a. v., & popova, t. v. (2010). indyvidualizatsiia preventyvnykh ta likuvalno-diahnostychnykh zakhodiv dlia ditei ta pidlitkiv z porushenniamy postavy shliakhom realizatsii modeli postiinoho ortopedychnoho sposterezhennia [individualization of preventive and diagnostic measures for children and adolescents with posture violations by implementing a model of permanent orthopaedic monitoring]. ukrainian journal of surgery, 2, 81–87. http://193.107.106.27/cgibin/irbis64r_01/cgiirbis_64.exe?p21dbn=statti&i21dbn=statti_ print&s21fmt=fullw_print&c21com=f&z21mfn=141981 voichyshyn, l. i. (2011). osoblyvosti prohramy fizychnoi reabilitatsii pidlitkiv 1517 rokiv hirskykh shkil karpatskoho rehionu z porushenniamy postavy u sahitalnii ploshchyni [features of the physical rehabilitation programme for adolescents aged between 15 and 17 with posture violations in the sagittal plane from mountainous regions in the carpathians]. young sports science of ukraine, 3, 71–74. voichyshyn, l. i. (2012). vplyv prohramy korektsii porushen postavy na stan funktsionalnoi pidhotovlenosti uchniv z porushenniamy postavy u sagitalnii ploshchyni [influence of the programme for correcting posture violations of functional strength of pupils with posture violations in the sagittal plane]. physical education, sports and health culture in modern society: the collection of scientific works of lesia ukrainka volynskyi national university, 1(17), 78–81. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/fvs_2012_1_18 vovkanych, l. s., & hrynkiv, m. ya. (2003). metodychni vkazivky dlia otsinky stanu zdorov’ia shkoliariv [methodical guidelines for assessing schoolchildren’s health]. lviv: spolom. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/6545 yarovoy, v. k. (1999). osnovy manualnoi terapii [fundamentals of manual therapy]. ekosi – hidrofizika. https://www.twirpx.com/file/479394/ zhylka, n. ya. (2007). zdorovia ditei i ukraini [children’s health in ukraine]. proceedings of the pan-ukrainian forum on children’s health – the future of ukraine. kyiv: osnovy zdorovia ta fizychnoi kultury. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/fvs_2008_3_41 http://193.107.106.27/cgi-bin/irbis64r_01/cgiirbis_64.exe?p21dbn=statti&i21dbn=statti_print&s21fmt=fullw_print&c21com=f&z21mfn=141981 http://193.107.106.27/cgi-bin/irbis64r_01/cgiirbis_64.exe?p21dbn=statti&i21dbn=statti_print&s21fmt=fullw_print&c21com=f&z21mfn=141981 http://193.107.106.27/cgi-bin/irbis64r_01/cgiirbis_64.exe?p21dbn=statti&i21dbn=statti_print&s21fmt=fullw_print&c21com=f&z21mfn=141981 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/fvs_2012_1_18 http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/6545 https://www.twirpx.com/file/479394/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer optimization problems on threshold graphs mihai talmaciu and elena nechita abstract. during the last three decades, different types of decompositions have been processed in the field of graph theory. among these we mention: decompositions based on the additivity of some characteristics of the graph, decompositions where the adjacency law between the subsets of the partition is known, decompositions where the subgraph induced by every subset of the partition must have predeterminate properties, as well as combinations of such decompositions. in this paper we characterize threshold graphs using the weakly decomposition, determine: density and stability number, wiener index and wiener polynomial for threshold graphs. keywords: threshold graph, weakly decomposition, wiener index, wiener polynomial. 2000 mathematics subject classification: 05c99, 68r10. 61 m.talmaciu and e.nechita optimization problems on threshold graphs 1.preliminary results 1.1. weakly decomposition at first, we recall the notions of weakly component and weakly decomposition. definition 1. ([5], [18], [19]) a set a ⊂ v (g) is called a weakly set of the graph g if ng(a) 6= v (g) − a and g(a) is connected. if a is a weakly set, maximal with respect to set inclusion, then g(a) is called a weakly component. for simplicity, the weakly component g(a) will be denoted with a. if a is a weakly set, then the partition {a, n (a), v − a ∪ n (a)} is called a weakly decomposition of g with respect to a. below we remind a characterization of the weakly decomposition of a graph. the name of ”weakly component” is justified by the following result. theorem 1. ([6], [18], [19]) every connected and non-complete graph g = (v, e) admits a weakly component a such that g(v − a) = g(n (a)) + g(n (a)). let a ⊂ v . then a is a weakly component of g if and only if g(a) is connected and n (a) ∼ n (a). the next result, that follows from theorem 1, ensures the existence of a weakly decomposition in a connected and non-complete graph. corollary 1. if g = (v, e) is a connected and non-complete graph, then v admits a weakly decomposition (a, b, c), such that g(a) is a weakly component and g(v − a) = g(b) + g(c). theorem 1 provides an o(n + m) algorithm for building a weakly decomposition for a non-complete and connected graph. algorithm for the weakly decomposition of a graph ([18]) input: a connected graph with at least two nonadjacent vertices, g = (v, e). output: a partition v = (a, n, r) such that g(a) is connected, n = n (a), a 6∼ r = n (a). begin a := any set of vertices such that a ∪ n (a) 6= v n := n (a) r := v − a ∪ n (a) while (∃n ∈ n , ∃r ∈ r such that nr 6∈ e ) do begin a := a ∪ {n} 62 m.talmaciu and e.nechita optimization problems on threshold graphs n := (n − {n}) ∪ (n (n) ∩ r) r := r − (n (n) ∩ r) end end 1.2. threshold graphs in this subsection we remind some results on threshold graphs. a graph g is called threshold graph if ng(x) ⊆ ng[y] or ng(y) ⊆ ng[x] for any pair of vertices x and y in g. threshold graphs were first introduced by chvátal and hammer ([3]). in [16], ortiz and villanueva-ilufi give a structural characterization of threshold graphs for solving the following two difficult problems: enumeration of all maximal independent sets and the chromatic index problem. theorem 2. ([3]) a graph g is a threshold graph if and only if g does not contain a c4, c4, p4 as an induced subgraph. chvátal and hammer also showed that threshold graphs can be recognizing in o(n2) time. in [1], babel showed that if g is a threshold graph then the algorithms that determine ω(g), χ(g), α(g) and θ(g) are o(n + m) time. theorem 3. ([3]) a graph g is a threshold graph if and only if g is a cograph and g is a split graph. in [4] (as well as in [10] and [14]) linear algorithms for recognizing a cograph can be found. hammer and simeone [11]) give an o(n + m) algorithm for recognizing a split graph. therefore, an algorithm that recognizes a threshold graph is o(n(n + m)). in [15] a linear algorithm for recognizing a threshold graph can be found. 2.new results on threshold graphs 2.1. characterization of a threshold graph using the weakly decomposition in this paragraph we give a new characterization of threshold graphs using the weakly decomposition. also, we determine the stability number and the clique number for threshold graphs. theorem 4. let g=(v,e) be a connected graph with at least two nonadjacent vertices and (a,n,r) a weakly decomposition, with a the weakly component. g is a threshold graph if and only if: i) a ∼ n ∼ r; 63 m.talmaciu and e.nechita optimization problems on threshold graphs ii) dg(n) = |v | − 1, dg(r) = |n|, ∀n ∈ n , ∀r ∈ r; iii) g(a) is threshold graph. the above results lead to a recognition algorithm with the total execution time o(n(n + m)). 2.2. determination of clique number and stability number for a threshold graph the threshold graphs is a graph class of bounded clique-width ([2]). theorem 5. let g=(v,e) be connected with at least two non-adjacent vertices and (a,n,r) a weakly decomposition with a the weakly component. if g is a threshold graph then α(g) = α(g(a)) + |r| and ω(g) = ω(g(a)) + |n|. as a consequence of the above theorem, we give an algorithm that leads to a stable set of maximal cardinal and to a clique of maximal cardinal in a threshold graph. input: a threshold, connected graph with at least two nonadjacent vertices, g = (v, e) output: determination of α(g) and ω(g) begin s = ∅; q = ∅; s := 0; q := 0; i := 1; gi := g; while |v (gi)| ≥ 4 do determine a weakly decomposition (ai, ni, ri) of gi, with ri stable, ni clique and g(ai) threshold if (gi is complete) then s := s ∪ {v}, s := s + 1, ∀v ∈ v (gi); q := q ∪ v (gi), q := q + |v (gi)| else s := s ∪ ri, s := s + |ri|; q := q ∪ ni, q := q + |ni|; i := i + 1; h := gi; α(g) := s + α(h); ω(g) := q + ω(h) end remark 1. the most time consuming operation inside the while loop is the determination of the decomposition (a, n, r), namely o(n + m). as the 64 m.talmaciu and e.nechita optimization problems on threshold graphs while body executes at most n times, it follows that the total execution time is o(n(n + m)). the characterization theorem of threshold graphs leads to the following result that is useful in the next section. corollary 2. let g=(v,e) be connected with at least two non-adjacent vertices and (a,n,r) a weakly decomposition with a the weakly component. if g is a threshold graph then if after k steps in the weakly decomposition algorithm of g we get |ak| ≤ 3 then ak ' k3 or ak ' k2 or ak ' k1. 3.some applications in optimization problems in this section we point some applications of threshold graphs in optimization problems. facility location analysis deals with the problem of finding optimal locations for one or more facilities in a given environment [13]. location problems are classical optimization problems with many applications in industry and economy. the spatial location of the facilities often takes place in the context of a given transportation, communication, or transmission system. a first paradigme for location is based on the minimization of transportation cost. according to their objective function, we can consider two types of location problems. the first type consists of those problems that use a minimax criterion. for example, if we want to determine the location of a hospital the main objective is to find a site that minimizes the maximum response time between the hospital and site of a possible emergency. more generally, the aim of the first problem type is to determine a location that minimizes the maximum distance to any other location in the network. the second type of location problems optimizes a ”minimum of a sum” criterion, which is used in determining the location for a service facility like a shopping mall, for which we try to minimize the total travel time. the following centrality indices are defined in [13]. the eccentricity of a vertex u is eg(u) = max{d(u, v)|v ∈ v }. the radius is r(g) = min{eg(u)|u ∈ v }. the center of a graph g is c(g) = {u ∈ v |r(g) = eg(u)}. we consider the second type of location problems. suppose we want to place a service facility such that the total distance to all customers in the region is minimal. the problem of finding an appropriate location can be solved by computing the set of vertices with minimum total distance. 65 m.talmaciu and e.nechita optimization problems on threshold graphs we denote the sum of the distances from a vertex u to any other vertex in a graph g=(v,e) as the total distance s(u) = ∑ v∈v d(u, v). if the minimum total distance of g is denoted by s(g) = min{s(u)|u ∈ v }, the median m(g) of g is given by m(g) = {u ∈ v |s(g) = s(u)} . the wiener index was introduced in 1947 by horold wiener ([20]) and is defined as the sum of distance between all pairs of vertices in g: w (g) = ∑ u,v∈v dg(u, v). we wish to point out that the theoretical framework is especially well elaborated for the wiener index of trees ([7]). the distance-counting polynomial was introduced [12] as: h(g, x) = ∑ k d(g, k)x k, with d(g, 0) = |v (g)| and d(g, 1) = |e(g)|, where d(g, k) is the number of pair vertices lying at distance k to each other. this polynomial was called wiener, by its author hosoya, in the more recent literature [9], [17]. our result concerning the center of a threshold graph is the following. theorem 6. let g=(v,e) be a connected graph with at least two nonadjacent vertices. if g is threshold and if after k steps in the algorithm weakly decomposition of g we get |ak| ≤ 3 , then the center and the median are equal to n , the radius is 1, while the excentricity is 1 for the vertices in n and 2 for the others. also h(g, x) = [ 1 2 (α(g) − 1)2 + |ak|(α(g) − 1)]x2 + |e(g)|x + |v (g)| and w (g) = |e(g)| + (α(g) − 1)2 + 2|ak|(α(g) − 1). references [1]l. babel, on the p4-structure of graphs, habilitationsschrift, tu munchen 1997. [2]a. brandtstead, f.f. dragan, h.o. le, r. mosca, new graph classes of bounded clique-width, wg2002, lecture notes in compute science 2573, 57-67 (2002), zmath 1022.68090 [3]v. chváatal and p.l. hammer, agregation on inequalities in integer programming, ann. disc. maths. 1977. i. 145-162. 66 m.talmaciu and e.nechita optimization problems on threshold graphs [4]d.g. corneil, y. perl and l.k. stewart burlinham, a linear recognition algorithm for cographs, siam j. computing 14 (4), 1985, pp. 926-934. [5]c. croitoru, m. talmaciu, a new graph search algorithm and some applications, presented at rosycs 2000, univ. ”al.i.cuza” iaşi,2000. [6]c. croitoru, e. olaru, m. talmaciu, confidentially connected graphs, the annals of the university ”dunarea de jos” of galati, suppliment to tome xviii (xxii) 2000, proceedings of the international conference ”the risk in contemporany economy”. [7] a.a.dobrynin, r.entringer and i. gutman, wiener index of trees: theory and applications, acta appl. math. 66(2001), 211-249. [8] m.c.golumbic, algorithmic graph theory and perfect graph. academic press, new york, 1980. [9] i. gutman, s. klavzar, m. petkovsek and p. zigert, on hosoya polynomials of benzenoid graphs. match commun. math. comput. che. 43(2001), 49-66. [10] m.habib and c.paul, a simple linear time algorithm for cograph recognition, discrete applied mathematics, 145:183-197, 2005. [11] p.l.hammer and b.simeone, the splitance of a graph, combinatorica 1(1981), 275-284. [12] h.hosoya, on some couting polynomials in chemistry. discrete appl. math. 19(1988), 239-257. [13] d. koschutzki, k. lehmann, l. peeters, s. richter, d. tenfelde-podehl and o. zlotowski, ”centrality indices”, lecture notes in computer sciences, springer berlin / heidelberg, network analysis, 16-61, 2005. [14] r.lin and s.olariu, an nc recognition algorithm for cograph, journal of parallel and distributed computing, 13, 76-91 (1991). [15] n.v.r.mahadev, u.n.peled, threshold graph and related topics, annals of discrete mathematics, vol. 56, elsevier, north-holland, amsterdam, 1995. [16] c.ortiz z, m.villanueva-ilufi, difficult problems in threshold graphs, electronic notes in discrete mathematics 18(2004) 187-192. [17] d. stevanovic, hosoya polynomial of composite graphs. discrete math., 235 (2001), 237-244. [18]m. talmaciu, decomposition problems in the graph theory with applications in combinatorial optimization ph. d. thesis, university ”al. i. cuza” iasi, romania, 2002. [19]m. talmaciu, e. nechita, recognition algorithm for diamond-free graphs, 67 m.talmaciu and e.nechita optimization problems on threshold graphs informatica, 2007, vol. 18, no. 3, 457-462, issn 0868-4952. [20]h. wiener, structural determination of paraffin boiling points, j. am. chem. soc. 69 (1947), 17-20. mihai talmaciu and elena nechita department of mathematics and informatics ”vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea marasesti, 157, postal code 600115, bacău, romania e-mail:mtalmaciu@ub.ro, enechita@ub.ro 68 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 218-228 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/279 the effects of the pandemics on ethnic roma margareta hertanu¹ 1 phd student at doctoral school of psychology and educational sciences from the faculty of psychology, alexandru ioan cuza university iasi, romania, margaretahertanu@yahoo.com abstract: this article shows aspects captured in the research conducted at the beginning of 2021 with roma ethnics from iasi county and refers to the effects of the pandemic on roma ethnics. for a start, the paper presents a short history of the roma, their origins, their migrations around the world, the way they arrived on romanian territory. the period of slavery of the roma, their liberation, carried out by the ruler alexandru ioan cuza around 1860, the period of the holocaust in the second world war, when due to a racist doctrine adopted by the romanian state, the roma were deported and subjected an extermination program, overcoming these unfortunate periods. the article also includes a brief description of the roma from iasi county and from the city of iasi, continuing with the representation of the disease in the roma; what does the disease mean for the roma, how can they avoid it, what measures do they take to defend themselves against the disease, what kind of practical medicine. the article presents the research method used, the most suitable for the research group, this being the focus group. the subjects that were chosen for research are described and then the effects of the pandemic on roma ethnics are presented, on a social, personal and psychological level. what they experienced from a social point of view during the pandemic, how social events unfolded for them, how they related socially; personally, how they managed this challenge from a personal point of view, what changes or improvements caused the pandemic; psychologically the feelings they had, the feelings they tried, the psychological struggle that took place inside them. the conclusions conclude this article by showing what the pandemic meant for the roma ethnics and how they overcame it. keywords: roma; pandemic; psychological; effects; romania. how to cite: hertanu, m. (2022). the effects of the pandemics on ethnic roma. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 218-228. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/279 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/279 mailto:margaretahertanu@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/279 the effects of the pandemics on ethnic roma margareta hertanu 219 1. roma people from iaşi area to better understand the mentality of the minority, their culture and attitudes towards diseases, we shall present a short history. 2. the history of roma people the roma people come from and indian region called panceab where they were known as roma. rom in romanian language signifies people and man and designates this different caste of hindus; it also means accomplished craftsman, as all roma were considered gifted in metal processing, wood carving, music performing etc. as well as sorcery. the last aspect did not bring them much advantage, as they were perceived as filthy, or untouchables, which you should not come near, respectively atiganos (gypsies in greek). that’s how they were called by the clergy from greece when they saw that the roma were hindus: they were not yet christened, they greeted in a different way, they stayed away from people when saluting, they acknowledged all from the distance and, above all, they made spells. the priests thought they were impure and this is why they were called atiganos, namely gypsies (unicef, 2007). the roma people migrated to every corners of the world as the region from which they came, panceab, has long been haunted by wars. some of them arrive in europe as free people, with the caravans, others were enslaved. on the romanian territory the roma arrived as slaves and the first documentary attestation is from 1385 when the prince dan 1st bequeathed to vodita monastery 40 gipsy dwelling places. a donation, at that time, was considered beneficial for the salvation of the soul. the roma people endured a period of slavery on the romanian soil for over 500 years, when they had no rights whatsoever, there was no question of literacy, they were considered and treated as animals. the prince, the noblemen and the monasteries held slaves. radu rosetti (1925) makes a comprehensive description of the aristocratic courts as well as of the slaves dwellings. unfortunately the monasteries, according to the documents from the archives, had the most slaves of all. this situation persisted until 1860 when prince alexandru ioan cuza is deciding for the liberation of the roma people. during this process the owners of the slaves were compensated with sums between 6 and 12 gold coins for each gipsy they let free. roma people were chased from the estates or monasteries and abandoned under the stars, without any protection, without a home, without brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 220 anything. thus they started to settle on the outskirts of different regions and perform, with their own hands, different crafts, in order to earn their living. however the roma people were permanently vulnerable before the authorities or the majority population, as they were not welcomed (banica, 2019). thus it was perpetuated the family care as well as towards their close ones, a feeling of being always close to each other in order to protect themselves from any outside attacks. unfortunately the state did not initiate any program for their socioprofessional integration, although their work has been used for hundreds of years. although at the beginning of the 20th century and during the interwar period a roma elite become visible and took care of their rights, helping with the integration of this ethnic group, the ’40s were another hard blow for the roma people. romania, under the leadership of the marshal antonescu, who embraced the nazi doctrine for the race purity and the biological determinism, thought that roma were good-for-nothing and the country had to “get rid of them”. thus the roma were deported together with the jews in trasnistria to be exterminated. some testimonies claim that the german army together with the gendarmerie gathered the roma from the villages and sometimes were so impatient with their train boarding so they choose to shot them at the edge of the villages. however many roma managed to hide and avoided deportation, but for many years were hunted and during the world war ii had to live in inappropriate conditions. a significant number of roma died in transnistria, others have succeeded to come back at the end of the war, on foot, and most of them were orphan children (herțanu, 2020). those who returned managed to integrate, as best they could, as the communist period that followed, even if it succeeded to incorporate all of them, was in fact a forced assimilation. 3. how the roma overcame these difficult periods? first of all it was the love constantly expressed to each other, the care for your neighbor, the unconditioned support permanently granted to their peers, a feeling of brotherhood manifested even to the roma who was not directly related to them. the roma people do not agree with the idea of unintelligent or ungifted roma. all of them are good, smart, resourceful and all of them are worthy. this appreciation shown to the other had created a high self-esteem, as the family is the support and the comfort which they the effects of the pandemics on ethnic roma margareta hertanu 221 needed and where they could discover themselves. as they have always stayed together and knew each other, everyone’s need and support which was promptly granted, had helped to overcome all circumstances. this way of living persists even nowadays. roma are less interested in job positions, career or school. for them the family prevails, and the most important aspect is to live close to each other. it is enough to make a living. another way the roma managed to overcome the hard time was cheerfulness. roma always sang and rejoiced, no matter the storms they had to encounter. this manner of smiling in the face of adversity helps them to eschew the importance of the situation, or to minimize it and trust for the better. in iaşi county there are approximately 30 roma communities and 16 of them are quite large. in three of them the roma population exceeds 50% of the total. for example in lungani commune, respectively within the villages zmeu and crucea, roma people represent 98% of the total population and this is not accidental. in the 19th century, the nobleman lungu freed the roma in his possession and estate them with a piece of land sufficient to build a house. thus they remained in the two nearby localities and developed the same occupations: zootechnics and music. in dagata, the village zece prajini and dolhesti, village pietris, roma people exceeds 50% of the total population. most of the roma from these last two communities are musicians. according to the census from 2011, there were declared 11,288.00 roma people in iaşi county, but the real number is much bigger, we suppose rather triple. roma people refused to declare the family component as they were afraid of the possible repercussions, as they faced back in time, during the ’40s. before the deportation there was a local census, and later they were forcibly taken and deported. in iaşi there are 1,376.00 declared roma. this figure is not real either, as only one third of them are declared, from the same reasons mentioned above. roma people are scattered in all the neighborhoods of the city, and the areas where they prevail are tatarasi, başceauş, metalurgie, dancu, pacureţ, ses bahlui and alexandru cel bun. although most of the roma live in apartments, they have maintained the same manner of living close to each other from a zonal point of view. there are whole families living in the same condominium or even in the same neighborhood. if they have to live in different neighborhoods, they take good care and try to see each other as often as possible, almost daily. compared with the communities outside the city, who are more traditional, we cannot deny that the in the city, the urbanization broke some of the roma customs. however brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 222 the roma communities from the city are mostly maintaining their tradition and still resist change. 4. representation of the disease in roma people the diseases are categorized as evil. roma people consider that something unclean had determined the disease, such as a spell, a curse or a sin. they are avoiding naming the disease specifically to avoid its persistence. for example the cancer is named the bad/ugly disease (rebegea et al., 2019). in order to protect their children from diseases, roma are giving them other identities, such as a secret name or nickname, in an attempt to make the disease overlook them. this is why most of the roma have in their birth certificates a first name, and in the family and community they are called differently, with another first name. roma are practicing a so-called traditional medicine, such as enchantments for evil eye, incantations for the protection of the newly born, the substitution magic – the alleged sale of the ill child over the window or the modification of the first name, in the idea that it is exchanged for a healthy child, the sacrifice magic which implies the slaughter of the lamb for the tinker easter, aiming for the recovery of the ill people from the house and for the protection of the family (sandu, 2010). when an adult or a child is getting ill, roma considers that the most important aspect is to give him/her a special state of mind which can help overcome the disease. the ill person will have the attention of all the whole family, everybody is taking good care, they are speaking as nicely as they can, they are trying to cheer him/her up, are trying for all sorts of solutions. they are aiming to convey a powerful optimism, are certain that he/she will get better and that the disease is a transient state, “will be over soon” and the person will become healthy, healthier than before, a fulfilled human being! this is the why when roma people are visiting somebody hospitalized they go in large groups, just to show them their care, to make them feel safe, protected and loved by all of them, to prove their participation to the healing process. 5. the research methods we have chosen the focus-group as roma are agreeing with the research methods which entail a dialogue face to face. the questionnaires are considered to be boring, are not taken very seriously and are treated in a superficial manner. the interview is accepted to some extent, but if they comprehend it is about a group discussion, roma are willing to participate, the effects of the pandemics on ethnic roma margareta hertanu 223 to take their time, especially because it is a gathering. the focus-group is perceived as a roma meeting which is quite pleasant. a focus-group is the most adequate tool in the case of a research with roma people, as they not only respond easily to all the requests, but also generate debates, which roma enjoys best, and this is an adequate technique to find out more information about what interests us. the focus-group was accomplished on age distribution as follows: the first one with people aged 18-25 years old, the second one with people aged 25-40 years old and the third one with people aged 40-55 years old. 6. the description of the subjects the subjects are roma ethnic people with residence in the city of iaşi, yet most of them are originated from the roma communities in the county. all of them are, at least, high scholl graduates (some of them are seniors in high school) are employed or have their own business. they come from generations of fiddlers or merchants, according to the distinct community they come from. most of them are married, less those aged 1825 years old. 7. the research methods if for most of the people the pandemic was translated into a closer connection with the family, for the roma it meant family distancing. for what reason? the roma family is what we may call an extended family, in accordance to the criteria of the other people. roma family is not limited to parents and children; it includes aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, second cousins etc. the extended family is in fact for them their family. • social from a social point of view roma people argued that they encountered a compelling isolation. most of them have liberal jobs such as singing or working in commerce. as long as there were not events and the commercial centers and trade fairs were closed the roma people, collectively with the imposed “social distancing”, have encountered some type of seclusion in their activities. roma have perceived it as an aggressive blockage, as most of them, dealing with lifetime activities have never foreseen that a change may occur; a sudden and prolonged alteration which forced them to reaffirm. the reinvention meant an adaptation to the communication via the modern technology, something that the roma people are less accustomed and agreed. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 224 to use a computer, to communicate online, to transmit an online event, called for a substantial effort. another aspect is that although they were habituated with a specific activity, they had to perform different jobs for which they were not trained or ready. for example the musicians (most of the sole family contributors) who had a life filled with events, in very elegant environments, pleasant settings, homogenous teams, had to work in constructions or carpentry, in order to provide for their families. some of them accepted for their wives to work, as only one income was not enough. this imposed social distancing meant family distancing, as both spouses had to work and they had less time available for their children; others had to leave the country and work abroad, or were employed quite far from home, as they had to provide for their families. the imposed restrictions were almost unbearable for the roma as the meetings with the extended family were quite difficult to achieve. the issues of each couple, which normally were settled within the family, were decelerated due to the restrictions. the constraints were very hard to comply with for the roma. some of them didn’t take it seriously, or considered that nothing bad is going to happen if they will get out buying something. most of them stated that they defied the restrictions because they wanted to experience the joy with the extended family and searched by various means to satisfy that need of gathering with the loved ones. most of the interviewed roma have blamed the lack of socialization with their friends and acquaintances, and affirmed that this had hit them a lot. it was not only the financial loss, but the lack of relationships; maintaining the connection with some people and later reconnecting with them, required substantial efforts from all of them. in addition to these issues, the most important aspect mentioned by all roma was the limitation of freedom. this constraint was perceived not only socially but also personally and psychologically. • personal most of the roma who participated in this research have asserted that together with the limitation of freedom they have experienced: a bigger responsibility for the others, meaning a thorough mobilization to ensure the necessities for their families, a permanent protection, avoiding to travel long distances, and the need to remain with their loved ones; the effects of the pandemics on ethnic roma margareta hertanu 225 the care for all those close; the concern to offer all the necessities, expressing the feelings of affection even more than before, leading to some sort of indulgence articulated towards all the members of their families; approaching some delicate subjects with their families, which was never done before, which helped them even more to dive into more personal awareness, attempting to solve some past issues, untold or closed for some time. • psychological from a psychological point of view the pandemics, mainly due to the limitation of freedom had some effects such as: experiencing feelings of uselessness, monotony, panic, anguish and disorientation (gilia, 2020; nutas, 2021; steti, 2021; tataru, 2020). these were the most assertions expressed by the roma people who had participated in the focus-groups. the restriction of freedom had strong effects in roma people and this can also explain the negative status they have experienced. the idea that they cannot do anything, they cannot move or communicate freely, had created a powerful feeling of hopelessness as well as depressive moods (baroiu et al., 2021). most of the roma people have said that the pandemic was not about the fear of getting ill or something bad happening (matache & bhabha, 2020). the evil was perceived in a different manner: the restriction of freedom had induced in their souls a lot of tension and heartache. the roma people were not afraid of the disease; they were more afflicted because they were not able to meet, because the link with their family was cut off. during the interview they confirmed that they were shocked by the fact that everybody was more and more panicked, suffered more restrictions due to social distancing and were commented on for the compliance with the limitations. all participants to the focus-groups have agreed that they were not afraid of the pandemics, especially at the beginning, they did not take it seriously. to their big surprise they saw how the panic gathered all around them; they saw people giving up, under psychic terror, panicked, on the brink of despair. they have all said that the disease was not a threat, but a psychological battle they had to fight with, and they considered to have won this combat. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 226 8. conclusions roma is a nomad people and for them it is essential both the family and the liberty of movement. if for other people the importance is given by the job, the position in the society or the professional rise, for the roma people these are less significant. the family, the extended family is being together with the loved ones, it stands for joy, psychological comfort, solving all issues, it all signifies a fulfilled live. liberty of movement, another essential aspect for the roma people, represents not only the means of providing for their families, but yet another psychological relief and a permanent relationship with the world, a thorough comprehension of the others, it is a way to adapt to all changes. throughout history the roma people have travelled extensively worldwide. although they are originally from india they have reached other continents in various forms (servants or free merchants), they have survived to all social storms and to all challenges, because they had a simple and extremely efficient method in their defense: family and freedom. the families were always close to them and have developed a way to support each other permanently and unconditionally. the rules, conditions and claims to the family were avoided or eliminated, especially in the face of danger. what is fundamental for roma people is the respect, the woman cleanliness (chastity) and the concern for others. liberty was ensured even if in many circumstances they were slaves, as they reached an understanding with their master and they could travel freely throughout the country, provide that periodically to bring an income. therefore liberty offered them some sort of training of their abilities to communicate, comprehending the culture of others and adapting to new circumstances. family and freedom were maintained until nowadays, and in the context of globalization and the modernization of the 21st century xxi the roma people are still holding on to all these social strains. even if we cannot see roma caravans, carriages used for travelling that confirmed that they were free, although they are sedentary they have maintained their liberty of movement in another form: the voyage by car, they have jobs involving travelling, frequent moves etc. year 2020 was a challenge for the roma people because they were touched in their very deep structure. roma are breathing through the others: by their families and the liberty of movement. the effects of the pandemics on ethnic roma margareta hertanu 227 roma have considered that the isolation affected them considerably just because being accustomed with large gatherings, with permanent networking, were even more distressed than the other people. they have sustained that the isolation had affected them psychologically, because all issues are solved by the roma within large gatherings, enjoying a lot of pleasure. they had to overcome all these fighting with loneliness, and avoiding giving up. they tried to eliminate the feelings of uselessness, panic and confusion experienced at the beginning, with all the methods at hand: fear – was sublimated taking care of their family and fighting for it. isolation – was sublimated talking more with the loved ones and developing subjects never approached before, thus harmonizing the relationships with the members of their families. panic – they made use of joy with the small family and even tried to identify new ways to meet with their extended family. confusion, blockage – they keep on speaking with the loved ones, with their acquaintances about the experienced financial issues, and they tried to discover different means to earn their living. they have answered to all requests and received without any further details or conditions, they had to do something, they had to avoid inertia. freedom restriction – even if roma had to accept the imposed isolation, they travelled more than the rest of the people. they identified different methods to travel without being obstructed. the extended family – as they had to meet less that usually, the sense of appreciation and gratitude for the family was even stronger, expressing more love and care towards their members. in conclusion, even if the pandemic was for the roma a terrible storm, a rough test, they have succeeded to accentuate their positive experiences towards their families doubled by an even greater desire for freedom. they have trained their abilities or tendencies which were “asleep” for some of the such as: roma more attracted to the modern life, less traditional, have become more aware of their need for family and the utility of the roma tradition. others coming from families of craftsmen have started to try again the craft of their grandparents etc. this pandemic which came overnight had triggered a bigger sense brotherhood in roma people. a brotherhood that was threatened by the school of thought of the 21st century had succeeded to eliminate this terrible threat and to maintain the traditional values so deeply held by the roma people: family and freedom. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 228 references banica, m. (2019). bafta, devla si haramul. editura polirom. baroiu, l., dumea, e., năstase, f., niculeţ, e., fotea, s., ciubara, a. b., stefanopol, i. a., nechita, a., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2021). assessment of depression in patients with covid-19. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 gilia, c. (2020). covid-19 pandemic a determining factor in the increase of violence against women. case study: france. journal for ethics in social studies, 4(1), 70-82. https://doi.org/10.18662/jess/4.1/29 herţanu, m. (2020). values and education in the roma communities. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(1), 20-58. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.1/13 matache, m., & bhabha, j. (2020, 7 april). anti-roma racism is spiraling during covid-19 pandemic. health and human rights journal. https://www.hhrjournal.org/2020/04/anti-roma-racism-is-spiralingduring-covid-19-pandemic/ nuţaş, a. (2021). what can the eu’s response to the covid crisis tell us about our values? . journal for social media inquiry, 3(1), 32-49. https://doi.org/10.18662/jsmi/3.1/15 rebegea, l., firescu, d., baciu, g., & ciubara, a. (2019). psycho-oncology support. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(3 (special issue), 77-88. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/ index.php/brain/article/view/2169 rosetti, r. (1996). amintiri. ce am auzit de la altii [memories. what i heard from others]. editura fundatia culturala romana. sandu, i. (2010). originea romilor. in sarau g. (coord.), romanipen educational (suport de curs) (pp. 3-5). ministerul educaţiei, cercetării, tineretului şi sportului. direcţia generală învăţământ în limbile minorităţilor, relaţia cu parlamentul şi sindicatele. şteţi, a. (2021). the effects of using technology in the human-nature relationship, in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. journal for social media inquiry, 3(1), 78-89. https://doi.org/10.18662/jsmi/3.1/18 tataru, s. r. (2020). body temperature personal data concerning health. legal aspects in a pandemic approach. logos universality mentality education novelty: law, 8(1), 24-34. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/8.1/33 unicef. (2007). romii… in cautarea stimei de sine [roma… in search of self-esteem]. editura vandemonde. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 https://doi.org/10.18662/jess/4.1/29 https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.1/13 https://www.hhrjournal.org/2020/04/anti-roma-racism-is-spiraling-during-covid-19-pandemic/ https://www.hhrjournal.org/2020/04/anti-roma-racism-is-spiraling-during-covid-19-pandemic/ https://doi.org/10.18662/jsmi/3.1/15 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/%0bindex.php/brain/article/view/2169 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/%0bindex.php/brain/article/view/2169 https://doi.org/10.18662/jsmi/3.1/18 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/8.1/33 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/8.1/33 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 127-136 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/128 a tale of two frontal lobes. clinical perspectives of cortical interconnectivity alina – ioana voinea¹*, mirona letitia dobri 2 , codrina moraru 3 , petronela nechita 4 , anamaria ciubara 5 1 las ct, hertfordshire partnership university nhs foundation trust, st. albans, united kingdom, alina_ioana92@yahoo.com 2 iiird year psychiatry resident, “socola” institute of psychiatry, iasi, romania 3 iind year psychiatry resident, “socola” institute of psychiatry, iasi, romania 4 md, phd, senior psychiatrist, “socola” institute of psychiatry, iasi, romania 5 md, phd, professor of psychiatry, “dunarea de jos” university, galati, romania abstract: even through centuries passed, while neurosciences were mistaken only for phrenology, and neuronal mapping did not exist as a self-sustained science, structural changes of the brain were associated, at various degrees, with reoccurring activities or behavioural patterns of the patient. an extraordinary neuroplasticity was therefore described, meant to complete the cerebral network, which sustained superior cognitive functioning and played an essential role in adapting to the environment. most of this web of electrical impulses has its nodes inside the frontal system, in such a way that no one lobe can be identical to another, structurally or when considering informational content. cortical interconnectivity observed in frontal lobes may be a measure of physiological variety, but also an aid in understanding linked psychopathology. the first case we will focus our attention on is phineas gage, the railway worker who marked the history of neuroscience through his bizarre accident and unexpected outcome. beyond the myth, this famous patient amended the understanding of the brain’s organization and revolutionized functional cerebral mapping. from here on, we will follow the evolution of neuronal connectivity studies and their implications in psychiatric pathology, as they are known today. neuroimaging studies on obsessive compulsive disorders, cerebral lesions masked by different psychiatric phenomena, as well as correlations between certain affected tracts and symptoms of psychotic disturbances, are all scientific events which may offer new directions in clinical psychopathology and can invoke different therapeutic resources. in conclusion, to follow studies of neuronal mapping and use the understanding we already have, might be the answer to more complex case management, improving a patient’s outcome and helping us choose treatment plans more effectively. as a story unfolding from two opposing perspectives, the science behind cortical interconnectivity stands witness to different principles acting in conjunction for better results, should one only use it. keywords: frontal systems; neuronal interconnectivity; cortical mapping; clinical psychopathology. how to cite: voinea, a.-i., dobri, m.l., moraru, c., nechita, p., & ciubara, a. (2020). a tale of two frontal lobes. clinical perspectives of cortical interconnectivity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 127136. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/128 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/128 mailto:alina_ioana92@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/128 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 128 main character – the frontal lobe system the genius of italian renaissance artist michelangelo buonarroti remains one of the essential topics of the history of art. alongside da vinci, he is elementary to the discovery of the human mind, as we now know it. he painted magnificent frescoes on the ceiling of the vatican’s sistine chapel, laboring from 1508 to 1512. commissioned by pope julius ii, michelangelo performed this work himself, without assistance, and revealed the grandiose layout in its entirety, withstanding the pressure of christian figures of importance during those 4 years. scholars debate whether he had any guidance from the church in the selection of the scenes, and what meaning the scenes were to convey. neuroscientists though, have proclaimed over time numerous findings of absolute importance in those images. in the fresco traditionally called the „creation of adam”, but which might be more aptly titled the endowment of adam, michelangelo encoded a hidden message. it is a message consistent with thoughts he expressed in his sonnets. supreme in sculpture and painting, he understood that his skill was in his brain and not in his hands. he believed that the “divine part” we “receive” from god is the “intellect”, this bringing with itself a power higher than any other could be. below god’s hand pointing towards adam, the pink cloak has a fold that may be recognized as the sylvian fissure as shown in the pictures above. similarly, following anticlockwise, the cherub’s knee assumes the shape of the optic chiasm and the back of the angel below god takes the shape of the pons. the sulcus cinguli extends along the hip of the angel in front of god, across his shoulders and over eve’s forehead. the flowing green textured robe stand in place for the vertebral artery, in it’s rapport to the spinal cord as represented by the intertwined legs. the pituitary stalk and gland are depicted by the foot of the angel that go beyond the base of the picture. most importantly thoug, is not to identify detailed neuroanatomical structures, but better yet to understand the larger image of the creator as being compatible with cognitive and high functioning commands yielded by the cerebral cortex. god gives to adam, a mere mortal, the power of knowing and learning the world around him, and by spearing with his hand the prefrontal area of the brain, he endowes adam with personality and archetypal traits (meshberger, 1990). beyond all neuroscientific stories (bamijoko-okungbaye, 2018; sandu, 2017), the frontal lobe is one of the most important anatomical areas of the brain, in dimensions as well as in functionality. it is considered the a tale of two frontal lobes. clinical perspectives of cortical interconnectivity alina – ioana voinea, et al. 129 largest, macroscopically, the cortical layer of the lobe accounting for approximately 37–39% of the cerebral cortex, where part of this structure is composed of the prefrontal cortex (pfc). this cortical region forms part of an extensive connective network involved in socioemotional abilities and in the executive function of humans and other primates. comparative studies suggest that the characteristic differentiation of the prefrontal lobe of humans compared to that of other primates lies more in circuit organization than mere size of the structure. from a phylogenetic perspective, it is believed that the relatively recent reorganization of the frontal cortical circuitry has been pivotal to the emergence of the specific cognitive functions of the frontal lobe in humans (burlea et al., 2010). functionality of the highest importance at a first glance towards indepth anatomy of the brain, the prefrontal areas are devouted to specific functionalities. the higher cognitive expressions are linked moreso to the dorsolateral parts of the frontal lobe (broadmann 9, 10, 4), while social abilities are related to the orbitofrontal cortex within broadmann areas 10, 11, 13, 47 (joão & filgueiras, 2018). few distinctive circuits are considered of major significance throughout the frontal gray matter, mainly the dorsolateral circuit, orbitofrontal circuit, and the circuit including the front cingulate parcels of the frontal projection. these connective pathways begin and end within the prefrontal cortex, whereas their direction can extend them to particular structures, such as the caudate, globus pallidus, thalamus, and other neocortical areas. the dorsolateral circuit (dlc) fundamentally advances organizational capacity and decision weighing. taking the clinicians stand, harm to these pathways can cause hyperperseveration, diminished capacity for deliberation, lack of moral and social etiquette, disabled verbal output, and destitute execution on complex figure replicating. according to burruss et al., brodmann areas 9 and 10 contain neuron cellular bodies that correspond to the start and end of the dorsolateral circuitry. the neurons of this region project to the dorsolateral portion of the caudate nucleus, from which juncture they develop direct and indirect pathways which appear to have a reciprocal modulation mechanism via excitatory and inhibitory stimuli. with respect to the orbitofrontal circuit, it takes on the work of balancing satisfactory social behavior and is principal for keeping up sympathy. disturbances within the pathways of this framework lead to certain neuropsychiatric admittances such as impulsivity, passionate lability, brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 130 shifts in personality, unstable behavioral tendencies, and need of interpersonal affectability. like the dorsolateral circuit, the orbitofrontal begins in the tenth and eleventh brodmann regions. their axons project to the ventromedial parcel of the caudate nuclei, where they veer into a direct and an indirect path. the coordinate pathway enters the dorsomedial globus pallidus and the medial rostral area of the pars reticulata, where they proceed to the anterior parcel of the thalamus, after which coming back to the prefrontal. the circuitous pathway of the orbitofrontal circuit enters a feedback loop by connecting to the dorsal part of the external globus pallidus and to the sidelong subthalamic nucleus. the indirect track of the orbitofrontal regulates the direct one through the association to the dorsal part of the external globus pallidus and the horizontal subthalamic core. both pathways go up next to each other next to dorsolateral circuitry (mega & cummings, 1994). remotely to this, the horizontal parcel of the orbitofrontal inputs afferences primarily from the temporal grey matter, the amygdala, and ventral tegmental region. thus, the associations to the distal collateral ranges are also complementary, as it happens with comparative integrator pathways within the dorsolateral circuits. the anterior cingulate and its connections control incentive by tweaking downregulated input within the supplemental motor zone, using its own signals for keeping up the awake and alert state. the foremost apparent shortfalls of stops in the circuitry arranged within the prefrontal cortex are related with respective injuries of the front cingulate, the clinical signs being akinetic mutism, lack of concern, abulia, and no response to sensorial stimulation. business enough phineas gage, a seemingly healthy man aged 25 was a head railroad worker coordinating others who were building the train line from rutland to burlington in the united states of america. they were handling the clearing and leveling of the landscape when the gruesome mischance took place, on the 13th of september 1848, close to cavendish. as they had done numerous times until then, gage made a hole in the stone and packed gunpowder inside of it with a tamping iron. this is exactly the rod you can see in the picture next to this paragraph, as by mistake an explosion was caused by the friction inside the rock and the metallic object hit phineas in the head. it passed through his left hemifacies and penetrated the front side a tale of two frontal lobes. clinical perspectives of cortical interconnectivity alina – ioana voinea, et al. 131 of his skull. he was urgently taken to a hotel in the city by his coworkers, at which point he was fully conscious and able to move without support of any kind. he retold the mindboggling story of the accident to edward higginson williams, the first doctor to see him, and greeted him by way of: „doctor, here is business enough for you”. under dr john martyn harlow’s attentive medical care, gage was able to survive his injuries. what needed to be done firstly was to stop the massive haemorrhage and remove the remaining bone fragments from the affected area. in addition, by elevating gage's head, harlow allowed drainage at the sight of the wound. in the weeks after, the primary course of action was to treat the infection that followed the accident. based on 19th century medical beliefs, harlow made use of colchicum and mercury chloride for their cathartic properties as he tried to stop the inflammatory process from progressing. almost 3 months afterwards, phineas gage’s physical state had improved significantly and he was declared cured. two decades from the accident, dr harlow managed to rebuild the chronology of what happened to his stellar patient between the fateful spring of 1849 and his demise. following statements from his mother, it seemed that gage had moved and found work in chile for a long time, but eventually returned to his birthplace, where he ended up dying after a string of previously undiagnosed tonico-clonic convulsions and their complications. in november 1848, the same clinician that had helped gage at the time of his impressive accident wrote a letter for the boston medical and surgical journal in which he described everything that happened and the medical challenges overcome. what followed after, as far as behavior and personality disorders go, was highlighted through a presentation entitles „recovery from the passage of an iron bar through the head”made by dr harlow in front of the massachusetts medical society”, in 1868: “the balance between his intellectual faculties and animal propensities, seems to have been destroyed. he is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (…), manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint of advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operation, which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible” (harlow, 1868). in the years of phineas gage’s sustained wound, the brain was though to be a homogenous jelly-like substance with no specific capabilities. this have only later and gradually shifted, as advances in the understanding of functionality and anatomy of the cortex were made at quite a fast pace. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 132 paul broca was one of the most prominent scholars with an avid interest in this topic, and he wrote his contribution in 1861, when he put brain areas and their targeted function under the limelight. his anatomy focused studies were carried on two patients with loss of verbal acuity and expressivity, and it was demonstrated this was in connection to injuries sustained of the left frontal lobe, on the third ridge. the link between cognitive exercise and a specific cerebral region was thereafter widely accepted and acknowledged by the scientific community. david ferrier was one of the frontrunners studying cortical localisation fo function. he managed to draw a precise motor and sensory map of the cortical processes through the removal of some cerebral tissues and by using alternate electricity as stimulus. at the same time, ferrier surgically extirpated a substantial part of the prefrontal cortex of 3 monkeys. not even a single one presented with changes in their motricity, sensory or perceptual process (bolos et al., 2012; macfall et al., 2001). the story of how neuroscience began to delevop starts therefore in the functional consequences of frontal cortex injury, as phineas gage and his medical revolution shows. the frontal lobe amidst psychotic symptoms an essential symptom of schizophrenia is represented, as we all know, by the delusions and hallucinations progressively lowering an individual’s quality of life. this is a form of functional mishap of the frontal cortex which, according to recent studies, has been negatively correlated with the gray matter volume of the lobe. the decreased dopamine release activation in the dorsal and lateral prefrontal part has been noted in connection to this (chirita et al., 2012). the behavioral pattern this lobe is heavily involved in is that of suicidal ideation, which is a severe symptom of psychotic disturbances and can be unequivocally attributed to the dysfunctionality of prefrontal circuitry. patients suffering from this perceptual disorder have decreased controlling feedback in their premotor cortex, and lowered response to goaldriven actions in multiple areas, but usually on the same side with the primary motor cortex. fractional anisotropy is another guidance in schizophrenic symptoms’ correlation to functional neuroanatomy. this is reduced in the left anteromedial orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and bilateral a tale of two frontal lobes. clinical perspectives of cortical interconnectivity alina – ioana voinea, et al. 133 posterior projections. higher percentages of abulia, apathy or anhedonia were seen in cases with changes in the left posterior cortical connections. a smaller volume of grey matter in the prefrontal region has been shown to relate to impaired advanced functioning and the duration of the disorder has a direct proportionality relationship to the area modified. with this comes a lowered metacognitive insight as well as changes to the putamen, insula, the left ventrolateral prefrontal and right dorsal prefrontal cortex. the white matter fasciculi suffer shifts as well, being decreased in volume as well, especially in the corona radiata, forceps minor and superior longitudinal pathways. on the cellular level, schizophrenia leads to a smaller number of spinal radiations and shorter length of each dendrite. at the same time there appears a turnover of pericapillary oligodendrocytes in the prefrontal cortex of patients, which might as well highlight new study directions in the pathophysiology of neuronal psychotic disturbances. in recent years, neuroscientists have tried various ways of focusing on the connections between executive functionality and psychosis in the detailed cortical sense, and so made use of any means possible to understand the disturbances found (mubarik & tohid, 2016). for example, using a technique called bold rm (blood oxygen level dependent), it was noted that the blood supply to the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenic patients is significantly lower than in healthy controls, with oxyhb standing proof to the progression of illness. this has a positive proportionality relation to the degree in severity of the psychotic symptoms and shows a greater measure of hypofrontality (lim et al., 1999). loss of control mirrored by the frontal systems even in the 19th century reports were given that frontal lobe injuries could lead to an acute onset of antisocial traits in the patient, being associated with impulsivity, explosive outbursts, inappropriate actions or verbal cues, while the basic functioning of cognition, and motricity remain relatively spared. in adult age there was a term coined for individuals suffering from prefrontal lesions – „acquired sociopathy” – showcasing a minimum of impaired executive functionality but important inability towards palpable tasks requiring judgement calls, being morally and socially aware and having the capacity to predict outcomes before taking actions (o'driscoll & leach, 1998). in almost the same manner, patients who suffered frontal circuitry damage at a young age, report recurrences of impulsivity, aggresiveness and comitting antisocial acts, as well as a dysfunctionality of primary cognitive functions, poor abstract or brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 134 conceptualized thinking, lacking in empathy and moral naivety to a variable extent upon reaching adulthood. frontal abnormal findings were brought up by both the morphometric and brain imaging studies of impulsive individuals. one study focusing on volumetry on mri brain scans compared an antisocial behavior individuals group with substance abusers, psychiatric and healthy control groups. the most important differences could be structured into three tiers: more aggressive antisocial actions, better highlighted psychopathic traits, and low overall prefrontal grey matter volume (goghari et al., 2015). these were much more accentuated in the antisocial personality disorder group than in any of the others. with regards to the substance misusers, it was shown that alcohol dependent subjects who also displayed personality traits of abuse and impulsivity had comparatively greater frontal hypoperfusion than those with no antisocial tendencies (haukvik et al., 2013). forensic patients were paralleled to a healthy control group throughout a number ot pet brain scan studies. the positron emission tomography showed a decrease in the bloodflow and metabolic reactions brought on by thoughtless abusive behaviors repeated a number of times. the lower anteromedial and left orbitofrontal metabolism in individuals with personality disorders such as narcissistic or border, was connected to higher levels of aggressive actions using standardized scales (slifstein et al., 2015). when evaluating violent patients, the neuropsychiatrist should pay attention to the clinical findings on frontal lobe impairment and assesing of their high executive functionality, especially when the situation surrounds a pattern of recurrent impulsivity and abuse. in order to advance in this field of study, need arises for a multidisciplinary approach that can bring together psychological techniques, neurology issues, and physiological changes for the in depth understanding of localised functionality of the brain, especially in areas such as emotion processing, social adaptability and higher cognitive capabilities. conclusions the human brain was built indeed to tell stories. what kind of stories, and for how long will we go on without understanding them is anyone’s question. if one sits still enough, one can decipher the going ons inside their mind. this is a precious but fleeting sensation we should struggle to explain more clearly. a tale of two frontal lobes. clinical perspectives of cortical interconnectivity alina – ioana voinea, et al. 135 as psychiatrists we are indebted to the world of neurosciences and obliged to measure our strength in front of technologically advanced systems that can guide us and bring us valuable information on the state of functionality of the cerebral cortex. ct scans, mri with added bold contrast techniques, tractography, are but a few of the widely used tools that aid us in gathering pivotal data to research the mind wavelength. in keeping up with advancements in the field, while understanding where we came from, we explore innovative trajectories that not only shade new light on cognitive functionality, but improve outcomes in the clinical setting. whether we try to understand the phase of the psychotic narrative our patient finds himself in, or adjust medications accordingly to the state of receptoral disponibility, imaging techniques and metabolic measurements are the new musts for a better quality of life. references bamijoko-okungbaye, a. (2018). neuroimaging and the limits of brain imaging techniques. postmodern openings, 9(3), 64-75. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/36 bolos, a., ciubara, a-m, & chirita, r. (2012). moral and ethical aspects of the relationship between depression and suicide. revista romana de bioetica, 10(3), 71-79. burlea, g., burlea, a. m., & milici, r. c. (2010). prevention and intervention in speech and language therapy for the success of lexicographical acquisitions. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 30, 86-100. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf chirita, r, sacuiu, i, burlea, a, & chirita, v. (2012). the role of nitric oxide inhibitors in treatment on symptom severity and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology,15,113-113. goghari, v. m. truong, w., & spilka, m. j. (2015). a magnetic resonance imaging family study of cortical thickness in schizophrenia. american journal of medical genetics, 168, 660-668. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.32354 harlow, j. m. (1868). recovery from the passage of an iron bar through the head. publications of the massachusetts medical society, 2(3). reprinted by david clapp & son, 1869. 22 pages. haukvik, u. k., hartberg, c. b., & agartz, i. (2013). schizophrenia--what does structural mri show? tidsskr nor laegeforen, 133, 850-853. https://doi.org10.4045/tidsskr.12.1084 joão, r. & filgueiras, r. (2018). frontal lobe: functional neuroanatomy of its circuitry and related disconnection syndromes, prefrontal cortex, 41. in https://doi.org/10.18662/po/36 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.32354 https://doi.org10.4045/tidsskr.12.1084 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 136 starcevic, a., & filipovic, b. (eds.), prefrontal cortex. intechopen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79571 lim, k. o., hedehus, m., moseley, m., decrespigny, a., sullivan, e. v., pfefferbaum a. (1999). compromised white matter tract integrity in schizophrenia inferred from diffusion tensor imaging. archives of general psychiatry, 56(4), 367–374. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.56.4.367 macfall, j. r., payne, m. e., provenzale, j. e., & krishnan, k. r. (2001). medialorbital frontal lesions in late-onset depression. biological psychiatry, 49(9), 803–806. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-3223(00)01113-6 mega, m. s., & cummings, j. l. (1994). frontal-subcortical circuits and neuropsychiatric disorders. the journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 6(4), 358-370. https://doi.org/10.1176/jnp.6.4.358 meshberger, f. l. (1990). an interpretation of michelangelo's creation of adam based on neuroanatomy. jama, 264(14), 1837–1841. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1990.03450140059034 mubarik, a., & tohid, h. (2016). frontal lobe alterations in schizophrenia: a review. trends psychiatry psychother, 38(4), 198-206. https://doi.org/10.1590/2237-6089-2015-0088 o'driscoll, k., & leach, j. p. (1998). "no longer gage": an iron bar through the head. early observations of personality change after injury to the prefrontal cortex. bmj, 317(7174), 1673-1674. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.317.7174.1673a sandu, a. (2017). neurological programming techniques (nlp). suggestions for practice. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 1(1), 41-45. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/2017.0101.05 slifstein, m., van de giessen, e., van snellenberg, j., thompson, j. l., narendran, r., gil, r., hackett, e., girgis, r., ojeil, n., moore, h., d'souza, d., malison, r. t., huang, y., lim, k., nabulsi, n., carson, r. e., lieberman, j. a., & abi-dargham, a. (2015). deficits in prefrontal cortical and extrastriatal dopamine release in schizophrenia: a positron emission tomographic functional magnetic resonance imaging study. jama psychiatry, 72(4), 316–324. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.2414 https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79571 https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.56.4.367 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-3223(00)01113-6 https://doi.org/10.1176/jnp.6.4.358 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1990.03450140059034 https://doi.org/10.1590/2237-6089-2015-0088 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.317.7174.1673a https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/2017.0101.05 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.2414 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 349-357 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/213 dynamics of ethanolic intoxications between the 15th of march 2020 to the 15th of march 2021 in the context of the covid-19 pandemic mihai terpan¹, anamaria ciubara2 1 phd student, 'dunărea de jos' university, galați, romania, terpan.mihai@yahoo.com 2 university professor, head of the department of psychiatry, 'dunărea de jos' university, galați, romania; primary psychiatrist, 'elisabeta doamna' psychiatric hospital galați, romania, anamaria.ciubara@ugal.ro abstract: in romania, the consumption of alcoholic beverages has been and still is a cultural mechanism for socializing and reducing anxiety, regardless of age and gender. this paper evaluates the trends related to people diagnosed with acute intoxication (f10.0) and harmful use (f10.1) at the 'elisabeta doamna' psychiatriy hospital in galati, during the pandemic, in the period between the 15th of march 2020 and the 15th of march 2021. we analysed the data base of discharges from the 'elisabeta doamna' psychiatry hospital from the 15th of march 2020 to the 15th of march 2021. icd-10 (classification of mental and behavioural disorders) was used for diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. we selected outpatients with the codes for acute intoxication (f10.0) and harmful use (f10.1) and excluded all patients with other psychiatric diagnoses. the data were statistically processed using: microsoft office-excel, the jamovi project (2021) jamovi (version 1.6) [computer software]. during the analysed period, there were 7614 discharges from the 'elisabeta doamna' psychiatriy hospital of which 1465 (20.08%) disorders were related to alcohol consumption. disorders related to intoxication and alcohol use represent 13.14% (957 cases) of the total discharges and 65.46% of the total number of disorders related to alcohol. disorders related to harmful use (f10.1) represent 30.31% (442 cases), and a percentage of 35.15% (515 cases) with disorders due to acute intoxication (f10.0) out of the total cases were related to alcohol consumption. from the view of the dispersion of the number of cases, there is a fluctuation in the tendency to follow the restrictions imposed by the authorities. keywords: alcohol, covid-19, pandemic, psychiatry, intoxication, harmful use. how to cite: terpan, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). dynamics of ethanolic intoxications between the 15th of march 2020 to the 15th of march 2021 in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 349-357. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/213 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/213 mailto:terpan.mihai@yahoo.com mailto:anamaria.ciubara@ugal.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/213 dynamics of ethanolic intoxications between the 15th of march 2020 to the … mihai terpan & anamaria ciubara 350 1. introduction in romania, the consumption of alcoholic beverages has been and still is a cultural mechanism for socializing and reducing anxiety, regardless of age and gender (luca, baroiu et al, 2020). this is due to the easy use of beverages (accepted in the social context) (sandu, 2020a), alcohol being found among the substances that are legally accessible at this time, alongside with nicotine and caffeine (ciubara et al., 2015; ciubara et al., 2018). excessive consumption affects the normal functioning of the body, generating a multitude of diseases (sandu 2020b; 2020c), including mental disorders (luca, ciubara et al., 2020). 2. objective this paper tries to evaluate the trends related to people diagnosed with acute intoxication (tabian et al. 2021) code (f10.0) and harmful use code (f10.1) (american psychiatric association. 2013) hospitalized at the 'elisabeta doamna' psychiatriy hospital in galati, during the covid-19 pandemic in the period between the 15 th of march 2020 and the 15 th of march 2021. the two diagnoses of acute ethanolic intoxication code (f10.0) and harmful alcohol use code (f10.1) were chosen from alcohol-related disorders, because they reflect acute consumption and associated dissociative behavioural disorders that cause a social reaction. 3. method we analysed the database of discharges from the 'elisabeta doamna' psychiatriy hospital using the temporary selection criteria in the period between the 15 th of march 2020 and the 15 th of march 2021. we selected the discharged persons with the codes acute ethanol intoxication (f10.0) and harmful alcohol use (f10.1) and we excluded all patients with other psychiatric diagnoses. icd-10 (classification of mental and behavioural disorders) was used for diagnosis of psychiatric disorders (world health organization. 2016). the data were statistically processed using: microsoft office-excel, the jamovi project (2021). jamovi (version 1.6) [computer software] sofa – statistics open for all version 1.5.4 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 351 4. results 4.1. distribution according to location and diagnosis table 1. distribution by location and diagnosis environment f10.0 f10.1 freq col % row % freq col % row % rural 177 34.4% 55.5% 142 32.1% 44.5% urban 338 65.6% 53.0% 300 67.9% 47.0% total 515 100.0% 53.8% 442 100.0% 46.2% source: authors’ own conception out of the total of 757 cases in the analysed period, for the diagnosis of acute intoxication (f10.0), urban area cases represent a majority of 338 cases (65.6%) compared to rural areas that present a total of 177 cases (34.4%). for the diagnosis of harmful alcohol use (f10.1), the urban environment represents a percentage of 67.9% compared to the rural environment which represents only 32.1%. out of the total of 319 cases (33.3%) from the rural area who were hospitalized in the mentioned period, 55.5% presented the diagnosis of f10.0 and 44.5% presented the diagnosis of (f10.1). on the other hand, in relation to patients from urban areas, and out of a total of 628 cases (66.7%), the diagnosis of f10.0 was present at a percentage of 53.0%, and the diagnosis of (f10.1) was present at a percentage of 47%. the number of patients from urban area were twice the number of patients coming from rural areas, as was observed in hospitalizations in the period of the pandemic, but the distribution according to the diagnosis between them being almost the same in both urban and rural areas. 4.2. gender and diagnosis distribution table 2. distribution by gender and diagnosis gender f10.0 f10.1 total freq col % row % freq col % row % freq col % f 60 11.7% 57.7% 44 10.0% 42.3% 104 10.9% m 455 88.3% 53.3% 398 90.0% 46.7% 853 89.1% total 515 100.0% 53.8% 442 100.0% 46.2% 957 100.0% source: authors’ own conception during the analysed period, out of the total number of cases, 853 (89.1%) were males and only 104 (10.9%) were females. this confirms the dynamics of ethanolic intoxications between the 15th of march 2020 to the … mihai terpan & anamaria ciubara 352 increased consumption of alcohol among men and their ignorance of the imposed measures during the quarantine period. among males, 455 patients (53.8%) had a diagnosis of f10.0 and 398 patients (46.7%) had a diagnosis of (f10.1). among females, 60 patients (57.7%) had a diagnosis of f10.0 and 44 patients (42.3%) had a diagnosis of (f10.1). regarding these percentages, we can observe an increasing tendency of females to present at the psychiatry services for acute intoxication. 4.3. distribution according to environment and gender table 3. distribution by environment and gender environment f m total freq col % row % freq col % row % freq col % rural 23 22.1% 7.2% 296 34.7% 92.8% 319 33.3% urban 81 77.9% 12.7% 557 65.3% 87.3% 638 66.7% total 104 100.0% 10.9% 853 100.0% 89.1% 957 100.0% source: authors’ own conception in urban areas, males represent 87.3% (557 patients) compared to females 12.7% (81 patients). in rural areas, although the absolute number of cases was lower (319 patients), the male gender predominates in a higher percentage with 92.8% (296 patients) compared to the female gender with a percentage of 7.2% (23 patients). there is a predominant percentage of males over females, both in urban areas 557 (87.3%) and in rural areas 296 (92.8%). in the case of females, with only 104 cases, there is a strong predominance of the urban environment with 81 (77.9%) compared to the rural area 23 (22.1%). in men, there is a lower predominance of urban 557 (65.3%) than in rural areas with 296 (34.7%). 4.4. distribution by month and gender table 4. distribution by month and gender month f m total freq col % row % freq col % row % freq col % january 10 9.6% 9.7% 93 10.9% 90.3% 103 10.8% february 6 5.8% 7.4% 75 8.8% 92.6% 81 8.5% march 8 7.7% 7.8% 94 11.0% 92.2% 102 10.7% april 6 5.8% 10.7% 50 5.9% 89.3% 56 5.9% may 11 10.6% 15.9% 58 6.8% 84.1% 69 7.2% june 17 16.3% 23.0% 57 6.7% 77.0% 74 7.7% july 7 6.7% 10.1% 62 7.3% 89.9% 69 7.2% brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 353 august 11 10.6% 14.7% 64 7.5% 85.3% 75 7.8% september 4 3.8% 5.9% 64 7.5% 94.1% 68 7.1% october 10 9.6% 10.5% 85 10.0% 89.5% 95 9.9% november 9 8.7% 11.4% 70 8.2% 88.6% 79 8.3% december 5 4.8% 5.8% 81 9.5% 94.2% 86 9.0% total 104 100.0% 10.9% 853 100.0% 89.1% 957 100.0% source: authors’ own conception compared to the total number of cases in the examined period, it is noted that the months with the highest number of cases are: january with 103 (10.8%), march with 102 (10.7%) and october with 95 (9.9%), and the months with the lowest number of cases are: april with 56 (5.9%), september with 68 (7.1%) and july with 69 (7.2%). a model correlated with governmental measures related to the covid-19 pandemic could not be established. regarding the female gender, we can see that the months with the highest number of cases are: june with 17 (16.3%), august with 11 (10.6%) and may with 11 (10.6%), and the months with the lowest number of cases are: september with 4 (3.8%), april and february with 6 (5.8%). a model correlated with governmental measures related to the covid-19 pandemic could not be established. compared to the male gender, it is observed that the months with the highest number of cases are: march with 94 (11.0%), january with 93 (10.9%) and october with 85 (10.0%), and the months with the lowest number of cases were: april with 50 (5.9%), june with 57 (6.7%) and may with 58 (6.8%). 4.5. distribution by month and environment table 5. distribution by month and environment month rural urban total freq col % row % freq col % row % freq col % january 34 10.7% 33.0% 69 10.8% 67.0% 103 10.8% february 22 6.9% 27.2% 59 9.2% 72.8% 81 8.5% march 33 10.3% 32.4% 69 10.8% 67.6% 102 10.7% april 19 6.0% 33.9% 37 5.8% 66.1% 56 5.9% may 22 6.9% 31.9% 47 7.4% 68.1% 69 7.2% june 28 8.8% 37.8% 46 7.2% 62.2% 74 7.7% july 25 7.8% 36.2% 44 6.9% 63.8% 69 7.2% august 31 9.7% 41.3% 44 6.9% 58.7% 75 7.8% september 16 5.0% 23.5% 52 8.2% 76.5% 68 7.1% dynamics of ethanolic intoxications between the 15th of march 2020 to the … mihai terpan & anamaria ciubara 354 october 43 13.5% 45.3% 52 8.2% 54.7% 95 9.9% november 23 7.2% 29.1% 56 8.8% 70.9% 79 8.3% december 23 7.2% 26.7% 63 9.9% 73.3% 86 9.0% total 319 100.0% 33.3% 638 100.0% 66.7% 957 100.0% source: authors’ own conception in relation to the urban area patients, it was observed that the months with the highest number of presentations were: january with 69 patients (10.8%), march with 69 patients (10.8%) december with 63 patients (9.9%), and the months with the lowest number of presentations were: april 37 (5.8%), july with 44 (6.9%) and august with 44 (6.9%). in the urban environment, there is an association between the lowest number of presentations and the onset of the pandemic, we also notice the association between the highest number of presentations and the relaxation of measures before wave 2 of the pandemic. in rural areas, the months with the highest number of presentations were: october with 43 patients (13.5%), january with 34 patients (10.7%) and march with 33 patients (10.3%). while the months with the least presentations are: september with 16 (5.0 %), april with 19 patients (6.0%) and may with 22 patients (6.9%). the model that was marked in the rural areas seems to be a model related to the harvest and the specific holidays. 4.6. distribution by gender and day of the week table 6. distribution by gender and day of the week week day f m total freq col % row % freq col % row % freq col % monday 23 22.1% 12.9% 155 18.2% 87.1% 178 18.6% thursday 15 14.4% 13.9% 93 10.9% 86.1% 108 11.3% wednesday 8 7.7% 6.3% 118 13.8% 93.7% 126 13.2% tuesday 17 16.3% 13.5% 109 12.8% 86.5% 126 13.2% friday 21 20.2% 13.7% 132 15.5% 86.3% 153 16.0% saturday 11 10.6% 8.3% 121 14.2% 91.7% 132 13.8% sunday 9 8.7% 6.7% 125 14.7% 93.3% 134 14.0% total 104 100.0% 10.9% 853 100.0% 89.1% 957 100.0% source: authors’ own conception for the female gender, it was observed that the days with the highest number of presentations were: monday with 23 patients (22.1%) and friday with 21 patients (20.2%), and the days with the least presentations were: wednesday with 8 patients (7.7%) and sunday with 9 patients (8.7%). brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 355 for males, the days with the highest number of presentations were: monday with 155 patients (18.2%) and friday with 132 patients (15.5%), and the days with the least presentations were tuesday with 93 patients (10.9%) and thursday with 109 patients (12.8%). we notice a concordance related to mondays and fridays in both genders. 4.7. distribution by month and diagnosis table 7. distribution by month and diagnosis month f10.0 f10.1 total freq col % row % freq col % row % freq col % january 62 12.0% 60.2% 41 9.3% 39.8% 103 10.8% february 35 6.8% 43.2% 46 10.4% 56.8% 81 8.5% march 57 11.1% 55.9% 45 10.2% 44.1% 102 10.7% april 27 5.2% 48.2% 29 6.6% 51.8% 56 5.9% may 39 7.6% 56.5% 30 6.8% 43.5% 69 7.2% june 48 9.3% 64.9% 26 5.9% 35.1% 74 7.7% july 33 6.4% 47.8% 36 8.1% 52.2% 69 7.2% august 51 9.9% 68.0% 24 5.4% 32.0% 75 7.8% september 33 6.4% 48.5% 35 7.9% 51.5% 68 7.1% october 39 7.6% 41.1% 56 12.7% 58.9% 95 9.9% november 43 8.3% 54.4% 36 8.1% 45.6% 79 8.3% december 48 9.3% 55.8% 38 8.6% 44.2% 86 9.0% total 515 100.0% 53.8% 442 100.0% 46.2% 957 100.0% source: authors’ own conception the months with the highest number of presentations for the diagnosis of acute intoxication (f10.0) were: january with 62 patients (12.0%) and march with 57 patients (11.1%), and the months with the lowest presentations were: april with 27 patients (5.2%) and july and september with 33 patients (6.4%). for the diagnosis of (f10.1), the months with the highest number of presentations were: october with 56 patients (12.7%) and february with 46 patients (10.4%), and the months with the least presentations were: august with 24 patients (5.4%) and april with 29 patients (6.6%) april had the lowest number of hospitalizations regarding both diagnoses, most likely, due to the measures imposed in relation to covid19. dynamics of ethanolic intoxications between the 15th of march 2020 to the … mihai terpan & anamaria ciubara 356 5. conclusions during the analysed period, there were 7614 discharges from the 'elisabeta doamna' psychiatriy hospital, of which 1465 patients (20.08%) diagnosed with disorders related to alcohol consumption. disorders related to intoxication and alcohol use represent a percentage of 13.14% (957 cases) of the total discharges, and 65.46% of the total disorders related to alcohol. harmful use disorders (f10.1) represent a percentage of 30.31% (442 cases) of the total alcohol-related disorders. on the other hand, disorders due to acute intoxication (f10.0), represented a percentage of 35.15% (515 cases). after analysing the data, the following points were observed: those in urban areas predominate by a percentage of 66.7% cases with (f10.0) predominate by a percentage of 53.8% male predominates by a percentage of 89.1% from the view of the dispersion of the number of cases, there is a fluctuation in the tendency to follow the restrictions imposed by the authorities. references american psychiatric association. (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). american psychiatric publishing. ciubara, a. b., tudor, r. c., nechita, l., tita, o., ciubara, a., turliuc, s., & raftu, g. (2018). the composition of bioactive compounds in wine and their possible influence on osteoporosis and on bone consolidation. revista de chimie, 69(5), 1247-1253. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.18.5.6300 ciubara, a., burlea, s. l., sacuiu, i., radu, d. a., untu, i., & chirita, r. (2015). alcohol addiction a psychosocial perspective. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 187, 536-540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3s1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.18.5.6300 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 357 sandu, a. (2020a). bioethics – philosophy or science?. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(1), 44-60. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/35 sandu, a. (2020b). bioethics of public policies. ethical standards in crisis situations. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 141-160. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 sandu, a. (2020c). pandemic catalyst of the virtualization of the social space. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 115-140. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 sofa. (n.d.). statistics open for all, version 1.5.4. https://www.sofastatistics.com/home.php tabian, d., drochioiu, g., damian, s-i., girlescu, n., toma gradinaru, o., toma, s. i., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2021). toxic blood hydrogen cyanide concentration as a vital sign of a deceased room fire victim—case report. toxics, 9(2), 36. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics9020036 the jamovi project. (2021). https://www.jamovi.org world health organization. (2016). international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (10th ed.). world health organization. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/35 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/147 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 https://www.sofastatistics.com/home.php http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics9020036 https://www.jamovi.org/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 358-373 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/255 psychological strategies for overcoming the life crisis of the individual in postmodern practical psychology nataliia trofaila¹, nataliia mateiko2, iryna melnyk3, nataliia maksymova4, oksana vdovichenko5, svitlana vaskivska6 1 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, trofaila_09@i.ua 2 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, mnm2807@ukr.net 3 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, iramelnyk@i.ua 4 taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, ukraine, 3481160@gmail.com 5 the state institution "south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky", ukraine, werta4877@gmail.com 6 taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, ukraine, vasswet17@gmail.com abstract: the article talks about the personality-oriented approach of postmodern practical psychology to counseling a crisis client. coping strategies for overcoming a life crisis by a person at the cognitive, emotional and behavioral levels are analyzed. based on the consideration of practical work with crisis clients, algorithms for overcoming a crisis situation in the form of stages and phases of its experience are highlighted. the important role of neuropsychological correction at the first stage of work with the client is emphasized. theoretical and methodological provisions of postmodern psychotherapy and practical psychology on the features of psychological support of a crisis client, taking into account his personal resource. the variability of the personality as one of its fundamental properties and the psychological mechanism providing a flexible choice of coping strategies, process of adaptation to conditions of crisis situation are considered. it is revealed that in the conditions of overcoming the life crisis there are personal transformations as expression and development of specific personal characteristics and properties. the model of overcoming a life crisis situation by an individual in the context of postmodern practical psychology is presented. in the presented author’s model of overcoming the personal crisis the postmodernist, personality-oriented and phenomenological approaches are applied. keywords: crisis situations, coping strategies, personal crisis, adaptation, postmodernism, personal resources, crisis, psychological assistance. how to cite: trofaila, n., mateiko, n., melnyk, i., maksymova, n., vdovichenko, o., & vaskivska, s. (2021). psychological strategies for overcoming the life crisis of the individual in postmodern practical psychology. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 358-373. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/255 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/255 mailto:trofaila_09@i.ua mailto:mnm2807@ukr.net mailto:iramelnyk@i.ua mailto:3481160@gmail.com mailto:werta4877@gmail.com mailto:vasswet17@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/255 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 359 introduction at its core, postmodern practical psychology is reflexive, dialogical, subjective and creative in a subject-personality-oriented approach to the optimal actualization of the client's potential resource in a situation of his unique life crisis. the study of the problem of personal growth under the influence of unpredictability, chance, unexpectedness, abrupt life changes is the main task of practical postmodern psychology. undoubtedly, the most common cause and onset of life crisis is the exacerbation of intrapersonal contradictions: between "real ego" and "ideal ego", between ideas about their resource potential, subjective expectations of other people and real circumstances and their assessment environment, between ideas about human values and the impossibility of realizing them in the realities of social crises. all these conflicts are transformed through the frustration of goals, needs, values of human life in the inner world of man as a subjectively significant psychological problems. personal contradictions against the background of unpredictable crises can become a source of professional or individual development, new strategies for life, provided a sufficient level of personal resources to resolve complex crisis situations. instead, the consequence of unconstructive strategies of life crisis is a wide range of psycho-emotional disorders, psychosomatic diseases, manifestations of social maladaptation. classical psychological positions require a somewhat structured model of solving complex crisis situations by the individual, integrity and completion in theoretical constructions of the description of human crisis states and ways to overcome them. postmodern practical psychology relies on the client's acceptance of unpredictable and continuous strategies for changing the social environment and his own inner world, his identity simultaneously filled with a “game” process, accepted “shadow” emotions, freedom of choice and creativity in behavior and thoughts. the urgency of the problem of choosing a strategy for resolving a crisis situation by the individual in the context of postmodern practical psychology is associated with individual unique living and development of life crisis difficulties by each person, actualization of its subjective abilities and creative life potential in a postmodern format unique, dialogical, creative, inclusive-partner, classical psychological and post-social at the same time. the essential goal of the article is a theoretical analysis of constructive strategies for overcoming the life crisis in the context of the postmodern practical psychology. in the unique individual experience of psychological strategies for overcoming the life crisis of the individual in … nataliia trofaila, et al. 360 algorithms for solving a crisis problem of an assertive personality, the creative level of its supersituational subjective activity, the ability to successfully construct life in an environment with new conditions are significant. however, most crisis clients need neuropsychological correction of their crisis mental states in the first stage of counseling before resolving a psychological problem associated with the situation of uncertainty. the individual features of the choice of life-building strategies in a changing environment are the subject of study of postmodern practical psychology. therefore, the next, and no less important goal of the article is a theoretical consideration of the psychological conditions for choosing constructive strategies for overcoming the crisis by an individual in the context of postmodern practical psychology, as well as highlighting the main tasks and methodological foundations of organization of the counseling process, that contributes to the successful overcoming of life crisis by a client. the scientific novelty of the researched problem is due to the fact that for the first time psychological coping strategies of overcoming crises by an individual in the context of postmodern practical psychology are determined and psychological conditions of choosing a constructive life crisis recovery by an individual are substantiated. scientific ideas about the relationship of postmodern tendencies in the vision of crisis recovery by an individual in an unexpected situation have been deepened. it is noted that in a situation of absent or weak personal resources recovery from the life crisis is recommended at the initial stage of work with a client neuropsychological correction of his crisis state to restore and optimize functioning of the nervous system. the practical significance of the article lies in the facty that the generalized conclusions on the theoretical study of psychological coping strategies for overcoming crises by an individual in the context of postmodern practical psychology can be used in existential and cognitivebehavioral psychotherapy, neuropsychology and psychology of life crises. theoretical analysis of scientific research of psychological copingstrategies for overcoming personal crises in the context of postmodern practical psychology ukrainian citizens are constantly in crisis situations (economic inflation, war, environmental and political cataclysms, viral pandemics), as a result of which everyone has experienced a "traumatic neurosis" that can trigger internal conflicts in any unpredictable and subjectively significant situation and become the beginning of chronic crises. many works have been devoted to the issue of psychological strategies for overcoming the life brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 361 crisis by personality in psychology (bezliudnyi et al., 2019; bukovska et al., 2019; bushuyeva, 2018; cherezova, 2016; kisarchuk et al., 2015; nerubasska et al., 2020a, 2020b; palamarchuk et al., 2020; panasenko & voitovych, 2016; panok, 2019; tytarenko, 1998, 2014; vasyliuk, 1984). the criteria for reviewing the specified literature are postmodern and creative personality-oriented approaches to the variative constructive overcoming of life crises by an individual through creative identification of the resources of his/her inner subjective world. actualization of resources by an individual, depending on the degree of importance of the situation of life crisis, may be manifested through internal changes (subjective coping strategies) or more focused on social change, communicative interactions of an individual with the social environment. strategies for the construction of personality in a changing social environment in the postmodern context are most successfully revealed in the work of tytarenko et al. (2014). however, social aspects alone are not enough to understand the internal mechanisms of the crisis state, disharmonious strategies for overcoming crisis with low personal resources, internal conflicts and psychotraumatization of an individual who requires primarily neuropsychological assistance and rehabilitation. they are most fully covered in the works of titarenko (1998), kisarchuk et al. (2015), robinson et al. (2013), robinson & stell (2014). creative expression both in more social and more psychological strategies of personality interaction with the new social environment in the postmodern vision, with new ways of thinking about social roles and values in it is sufficiently reflected in the work of adam blatner (1997). at the same time, creativity is the main value that helps an individual to carry out supersituational activity, to resort to reflection on the crisis situation and to harmonize the contact between the inner and outer worlds. adam blatner’s work (1997, 2005) is harmoniously complemented by views of vasyliuk (1984) on the creative potential of the inner world of an individual experiencing a life crisis and variability of personality in each specific life situation. psychological coping strategies for overcoming life crises by an individual in practical postmodern psychology are described as an individual's search for ways to renew his identity, manifestations of flexible behavior in situations of social change, an adequate emotional response to new experiences with a minimum energy resource and successful construction of life despite age or abnormal crises. thus, in the understanding of vasyliuk (1984), life crisis is a search for a new value system, a complex and multidimensional state that mobilizes the creative psychological strategies for overcoming the life crisis of the individual in … nataliia trofaila, et al. 362 potential of the individual, a turning point in human life, which arises in a situation of impossibility of life. translated from the greek, the word "crisis" means a choice, change of direction, decision. according to the study of t.m. tytarenko (1998, p. 14), a crisis can be called such a turn in life, when the life plan, the project of the future universe is threatened. the old world of life is being partially or almost completely destroyed. man has to abandon the usual ideas about values, ideals, meanings, goals. there are usually three types of crisis: neurotic crisis, developmental crisis and traumatic. neurotic crises are caused by the inner preconditions of the individual and are related to his experience. developmental crises (or age crises) occur during the transition from one age period to another. traumatic crises occur in response to a traumatic situation. some authors distinguish between the crisis of loss and the biographical crisis. the cause of the crisis, as a rule, is a crisis situation caused by a significant stress factor and destroys the usual ways of overcoming adverse life circumstances, kisarchuk et al. (2015). in practical psychology, the study of personal dynamics, which accompanies the rapid process of building a person himself and his life, is becoming increasingly important, mostly in a situation of chance the main "favorite" of postmodernism. from antiquity to the present, chance is interpreted as cognitive deficiency, and in the postmodernist vision as a bold improvisation, an unpredictable creative beginning, far from something cyclical, linear and consistent. personality becomes a process of dialogue, autonomy, identification, practice. the desire to transgress through what it is and is not at the same time, through reality, testifies to the variability, the development of the individual as a creative process, rather than to its rigid structure. in addition, the classical personality tries to approach the most important meaning of its existence, while the postmodern personality finds in its own depths many contradictory meanings, expanding its creative potential (tytarenko et al., 2014, pp. 45-62). according to vasyliuk (1984), coping strategies include everything that a person does to overcome a crisis. the actualization of cognitive, emotional and behavioral strategies for overcoming crises is influenced by the presence of needs and the possibility / impossibility of meeting them in different life worlds: internal (presence and degree of satisfaction of needs or one need) and external (ability to meet needs or obstacles). if a person evaluates the problem cognitively, he analyzes it and looks for ways out of life crisis. as a rule, few people immediately manage to adequately approach the analysis of what is happening and go to the actual coping. most researchers adhere to a single classification of copings and brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 363 styles of crisis response: coping, aimed at assessing the problem (overcoming a difficult situation involves analyzing the problem, its causes and consequences, finding possible solutions to the situation); coping aimed at the problem (exit from stress occurs as a result of reducing or eliminating the source of stress, ie the causes of a difficult life situation); emotionfocused coping (cognitive and behavioral efforts to reduce emotional discomfort and maintain emotional balance) (panasenko & voitovych, 2016). zaika (2015) concluded that the multidimensionality of initiating personal transformations in overcoming the crisis of personal autonomy and crisis states of personality is characterized by the expression of typological features that are manifested in the development of specific personal characteristics and properties: socially dependent, situationally dominant, creative -voluntary and rationally independent types. in the absence of initiation of change, low self-actualization and external locus of control prevail, which demonstrates the shrinking of its potential, the tendency of self-preservation or even regression of the current status and level of development. in general, domestic and foreign scientists and practitioners refer to the basic coping strategies as strategies of “solving problems”, “seeking social support” and “leaving”, constructive and non-constructive strategies; adaptive, relatively adaptive and non-adaptive strategies. constructive strategies for overcoming crisis situations were proposed by l. perlin and s. schuler: a strategy to change the problem (by eliminating or changing the conditions that created the problem); strategy to change the way of seeing the problem (by perceptually managing the content of experiences in such a way as to neutralize their problematic nature); strategy of managing emotional distress (by keeping the emotional consequences of the problem that arose within reasonable limits) (cherezova, 2016). most people get out of the crisis thanks to their personal resources, which is reflected in the multidimensional basic ph model, using 6 main channels: i. belief (b) belief and values (the way to overcome the crisis is based on the ability to believe in god, people, a miracle or by myself) ii. emotions (a) affect and emotion (the ability to express your various emotions and feelings and be aware of them) iii. communication (s) social (overcoming the crisis through social contacts, professional help from psychologists, communication with loved ones) iv. imagination (i) imagination (a way to overcome the crisis through creativity, fantasy, intuition) v. prudence (p) cognition and thought (analysis of the problem and its solution through mental abilities) vi. physical activity (ph) psychological strategies for overcoming the life crisis of the individual in … nataliia trofaila, et al. 364 physiology and activities (activities, physical activities, walks, hikes) (panasenko & voitovych, 2016). in turn, lahad, in the basic ph model, considers a psychotherapeutic way of overcoming a crisis traumatic event using the methods of self-storytelling, psychodrama, and reflection practice (vettraino et al., 2019). postmodern practical psychology in counseling crisis clients oriented them towards expanding their individual consciousness. in this regard, a. blatner considers the postmodern monopoly on “worldview production” as a set of “cultural myths” and invites the client to obtain “personal mythology”, putting forward the following tasks of psychotherapy and practical psychology in the postmodern era: welcome clients in creating “personal mythology”, at the same time, make creativity the main value, help form a transpersonal (that goes beyond the personality) perspective as the basis of the worldview and accept a pluralistic image of your i, make wider use of the metaphor of a diverse ego, develop the ability for metacognition, flexible thinking (blatner, 1997, 2005; pătroc & perţe, 2011). postmodern psychological practice, as already mentioned, is focused on psychological assistance to the client, especially in unforeseen situations of life crisis. the set practical tasks require reconsideration of conformity of methodology of postmodern practical psychology to possibilities of psychologists and psychotherapists who also work in modern social and crisis conditions and need its expansion and qualitatively new conceptual and methodological provisions for psychological support. in this regard, modern researchers have described the requirements for expanding the theoretical and methodological provisions of postmodern psychotherapy and practical psychology: 1. the eclectic approach and styles come to the fore. competition between approaches disappears, concepts and methods of different psychological schools, scientific directions are borrowed and successfully combined. 2. a psychologist or therapist is dethroned as the bearer of the criteria of the norm and its imposition on others, as an expert in great theories, becoming a caring creator of therapeutic relations. 3. the psychologist is required to sensitively cooperate with the client, when it is the client and not the therapist who determines what goals should be achieved. 4. the psychologist is called to tolerate differences, seeing them only as a source of information, and to help the client tolerate the diversity of the world and problems. this approach and its methods have been and remain debatable. however, in such a discussion there is an attempt to find solutions that meet modern requirements (mykolaichuk, 2013, p. 157). postmodern psychotherapy from the standpoint of modernity focuses on the creative discovery of resources of brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 365 the inner subjective world, not ignoring the emotions of human sadness, dissatisfaction, etc. and accepting them against the background of new opportunities for freedom of choice (pătroc & perţe, 2011). as noted by kisarchuk et al. (2015), on the basis of practical work with crisis clients the algorithm of overcoming of a crisis situation is allocated: a phase of collision with a crisis situation (the person is temporarily disoriented, loses the integrity, is confused, the crisis condition develops at it); phase of actualization of experiences (living of actual emotions, without resorting to their exaggeration, suppression or displacement from consciousness); phase of mastering the crisis (a person is aware of the crisis as a whole, understands his role in its development and the role of others, does not blame anyone, and consciousness works towards expanding horizons of vision, ways to adapt to the situation and search for development prospects); phase of integration of experience (a person enriches the idea of himself, others and the world around him, his own experience is integrated and he moves on). such an algorithm for overcoming crisis circumstances is rare. as a rule, it is built together with a psychotherapist or psychologist. the most typical for domestic clients is stuck in the first or second phase of a crisis, as a result of which a person feels helpless, may have depression, psychosomatic diseases, consciousness narrows so much that a person realizes only the negative side of any life situation, loses meaning in life. and justifies its way of life through the search for culprits (kisarchuk et al., 2015, pp. 17 18). we believe that it is in the phase of confrontation with the crisis situation that it is appropriate to apply correction of psycho-emotional disorders and manifestations of psychological maladaptation, definitely with neuropsychological recovery of functionality and stabilization of the nervous system, optimal mental self-regulation. foreign researchers, as well as domestic, believe that the psychological features of overcoming the crisis of life are influenced by age and gender characteristics. thus, o. c robinson and a.j. stell explored the main areas of the crisis of old age (life events and relationships, self and personality, motivation and goals, cognition and affect) and identified effective strategies to overcome them: actualization of personal resources, combating ego integrity, increasing awareness of mortality, scaling of goals, activities, and social roles (robinson & stell, 2014). robinson et al. (2013) developed a model of early adulthood crisis, which examines the main stages of this crisis: blocking (there is a feeling of helplessness and falling into a trap, relationships and activities are undesirable, career path causes psychological strategies for overcoming the life crisis of the individual in … nataliia trofaila, et al. 366 dissatisfaction, often accompanied by compulsive actions drug or alcohol use, increased feeling of lack of control, especially in men, concealment of suppressed affect), division and expectations (a person begins to distance himself mentally and physically from obligations, there may be internal conflict between optimistic self-confidence and self-loathing, loss of responsibilities and roles, increasing motivation for change and escape, there is a cognitive-affective separation; formation of a new identity), intelligence (search and development of new life strategies, their coordination with their own values, aspirations and inner identity, experimentation in new relationships, testing new career paths and retraining options, clear identity change), restoration (relationship restoration, commitments and clear plans, the presence of intrinsic motivation and meaning of life, expressed identity, strengthening the sense of authenticity). each of these stages has variable characteristics in the psychological analysis of the environment of a person experiencing a crisis, in its identity, motivation, emotions and perception of the crisis situation (robinson et al., 2013). v.g. panok also considers the variability of personality as one of its fundamental properties (variability, lability, variability) as the main mechanism that ensures the process of human adaptation to the conditions of a crisis situation. at the same time, variability acts as a mechanism that ensures the development of personality in ontogenesis, gradually forming and improving the qualitative neoplasms of a particular age period and a mechanism that ensures the process of human adaptation to changing conditions of social and natural environment. restructuring of ambiguous connections between the properties of various levels of integral individuality under the influence of the requirements of the external environment in the form of social roles, expectations, values, beliefs, tasks of activity, etc. is the psychological mechanism that provides personality variability in each specific life situation (panok, 2019). the internal characteristics of variability, analyzed by panok (2019), are capable of being exteriated into external manifestations as ways of overcoming life's difficulties. tytarenko et al. (2014) propose to consider variable strategies for constructing life in the conditions of postmodern sociality as ways of personal life constructing, contributing to the search for renewed identities, provide a person's awareness of his continuity, give her the ability to flexibly respond to social changes, move towards new experience. based on the results of an empirical study of personal resources to overcome the psychological crisis of youth, modern domestic researchers have established their leading coping strategies: "cognstion", which reflects brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 367 the appeal to mental abilities, the ability to analyze the situation and their resources to solve it; "belief" involves faith in higher powers, faith in yourself and people; "imagination" the solution of crisis situations through creativity, imagination (this strategy is quite similar to the protective mechanism of the psyche sublimation, and allows you to relieve stress in socially receptive ways); "social", which reflects the tendency to resolve crisis situations through relationships with others, communication with loved ones, professionals who can help. less relevant for today's youth are the strategies of "physiologi" (reflects the use of their own physical resources to overcome crisis situations) and "affect" respondents with such results, overcoming life crises, try to understand their feelings and express them constructively (bukovska et al., 2019). according to stavytska and ulko (2018), the analysis of past injuries and past crises affects the effectiveness of the method of psychoanalytic therapy to address the psychological problem of the client associated with the current crisis situation. the experience of an actual traumatic situation is renewed by old infantile conflicts, which in a normative situation are supplanted by sublimation or reactive formations, and this can lead to "traumatic neurosis". in itself, a complex life situation, including a crisis, is not unambiguously and equally traumatic, it is made by the very perception and interpretation of a life event as such. age and gender characteristics of the individual are important for the interpretation of the crisis situation as traumatic. in psycho-correctional work, the psychologist can speak to those who will help the "victim of crisis" to find a new "spiritual-semantic definition" and assure (convince) that the choice is, but, accordingly, is from the future life and actions. such psychotherapeutic help in a crisis situation will become a new resource for many people not only for further life, but also for their own individual and personal development (stavytska & ulko, 2018). modern domestic researchers describe psychological strategies for overcoming crisis situations, which psychologists offer their clients. thus, m.y. variy offers a psi-program approach in overcoming the crisis, based on the provisions of the psychoenergetic concept of the psyche and mental pro (resource) of the unconscious, subconscious, conscious and superconscious as the formation of psi-programs in conditions where people are constantly busy , and his thinking works in a positive mode, constantly replenishing its positive psycho-energetic potential and displacing the negative (variy, 2018). the greatest role in choosing behaviors in a stressful situation is played by the processes of personal reflection. they have a significant positive connection with strategies of cognitive adaptation to stress and various psychological strategies for overcoming the life crisis of the individual in … nataliia trofaila, et al. 368 psychological constructs (dispositional or situational), the search for informational, emotional and effective support through interaction with other people, (myroshnyk, 2019). certain personal characteristics can also be considered as predictors of coping, determining the age dynamics of personal determinants of coping in different periods of adulthood and developing psychotechnologies to prevent maladaptation of different age groups. for example, personal determinants for women's choice of coping to overcome the crisis are self-confidence, optimism, activity, friendliness (bushueva, 2018). we believe that in experiencing a life crisis, a person receives a unique existential experience, resorted to semantic reflection, assessing their own life story as a chance for personal renewal and integrates relationships with the environment on cognitive, emotional and behavioral levels. this is how individual psychological strategies for overcoming a personal crisis with a variable adaptive type are formed. maladaptive or non-constructive psychological strategies for overcoming a life crisis can be associated with a lack of experience in using the mechanisms of psychological defense of the optimal degree, that is, without their rigid inclusion in a critical life situation, with insufficient potential of personal resources for solving it and preventing painful experiences. psychological conditions for the choice of constructive strategies for overcoming the crisis in the context of postmodern practical psychology classical practical psychology, due to its directive methods of professionalization, has trained a large staff of specialists inclined in their work to "descriptive psychology", as a result of which most of the psychological counseling with an active position in the conversation is psychologist, not a client. moreover, the professionalism of a psychologist is often evaluated by others as the ability to explain, analyze, talk about different strategies for overcoming the crisis for a long time. postmodern practical psychology recommends collegial interaction, when the client and the practical psychologist cooperate as partners, each of whom takes an adequate degree of responsibility for the case. in this cooperation there is the same transition from individual consciousness to partnership, as integration and search of optimum receptions of creative rethinking by the individual of crisis realities of the internal and external world, according to individual psychological features of the personality. the model of constructive overcoming of life crises by personality in postmodern practical psychology contains a creative personality-oriented brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 369 approach to variable analysis by psychologist and client as the situation itself, moving it in imaginary space and time to expand individual consciousness of psychological counseling and acceptance of crisis reality and variants resources to deal with the crisis. in such a model, the ability or formation of the crisis client's ability to distinguish between primary and secondary, to identify key and subjectively relevant elements as part of the crisis problem and to solve it in stages is important. under these conditions, a person in a situation of psychological counseling gains experience in the manifestation of subjective activity in a life crisis as a person responsible for their fate, able to make successful decisions. the creative level of subjective activity is a constructive criterion for managing a crisis situation, which is typical for frustration stable individuals. for a postmodern practical psychologist, the manifestation of the professional cognition of crisis counseling as criteria for the effectiveness of their activities are: not the speed of providing psychological assistance, but assisting the client in the gradual resolution of the layered traumatic conflicts that caused the crisis; in-depth study by the client of one’s own experiences of the past and present with their integration and awareness of the existential context of the crisis; mandatory use of neuropsychological exercises to restore and optimize functioning of the client’s nervous system; variable expansion of the client’s personal resources, use of crisis experience for one's own development. dialogic partnership between the psychologist and the client takes place at the stages of crisis support: attentive listening; talking about possible behavioral strategies in crisis and overcoming it, finding previously unknown ways to solve the crisis situation using the methods of free verbal associations, psychodrama, gestalt therapy, cognitivebehavioral therapy and normalization of crisis states in art therapy. from the standpoint of a phenomenological approach in the work of a practical psychologist with the problem of personal crisis is to identify, above all, the phenomenological features of the client's analysis of their experiences, the level of reflexive self-awareness and individual perception of life crisis and the ratio of individual opportunities to overcome it. their research requires an in-depth and phenomenological interview, analysis of a diary of records of experiences or emotional response to the events that caused the crisis and related feedback to build an individual map of personal and existential strategies to overcome the crisis of life. in the context of postmodern practical psychology, the criteria for overcoming a life crisis by an individual is their psychological readiness to variative acception of the crisis recovery, with the awareness of freedom of choice and possible change of values in the crisis period of life and creative psychological strategies for overcoming the life crisis of the individual in … nataliia trofaila, et al. 370 approach to overcoming it. realization of the personal resource of overcoming crisis states, with the adaptive transformation of the crisis reality is within the powers of an assertive person who knows how to take care of their mental health in the deprived conditions of existance. such cases are quite rare in consultative practice. in our opinion, increased anxiety, deteriorating mood, possible sleep problems and impaired productivity are characteristic of most people experiencing a crisis, who primarily need neuropsychological correction. neuropsychologist is the first specialist whose professional task is to normalize the nervous system of a crisis client, in the form of “emergency aid”. any specialist, providing psychological support to a person in an acute crisis is obliged to use neuropsychological exercises to optimize their mental state and improve performance. as a result, the client becomes more able to objectively determine their psychological problem and the goals of counseling before discussing the contract for counseling practice. conclusion the psychology of personal crisis is associated with important issues of postmodern practical psychology: the formation of personal identity, the development of reflection, creative search, expansion of consciousness and creative potential for a variative recovery from a life crisis, changes in life. for the manifestation of oversituational subjective activity in a personality situation, it is very important to be psychologically ready for a new life construct in an environment with new conditions and to be able to maintain internal balance, which is the key to its creative adaptation to situational surprise in the absence of algorithms for solving the problem with strategies for overcoming it in individual experience. postmodern practical psychology has formed a methodology of partnership dialogue, in which the individual independently chooses numerous alternatives for the creative transformation of unexpected life circumstances with elements of life crisis, tries them through social roles and changes according to their demands, values, needs. postmodernism excludes direct interference in the client's choice of psychological strategies for overcoming the crisis, its important principle is to create such a personal space for which the counselor himself develops rules to protect its boundaries and coping strategies in a difficult crisis situation. the main task of the postmodern practical psychologist is to transform the consultative dialogue into a creative process, through which the client learns to analyze their internal changes, crises, personal potential to update psychological coping strategies and rethink new life experiences as brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 371 opportunities for development, worldview, and, perhaps as a chance or a gift of fate. reference blatner, a. (1997). the implications of postmodernism for psychotherapyby. individual psychology, 53(4), 476-482. https://www.blatner.com/adam/level2/pmodpsy198.htm blatner, a. (2005, july 11). postmodernism: frequently asked questions. blatner.com. https://www.blatner.com/adam/level2/pmod.html bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1585-1590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf bukovska, o. o., gyrchenko, o. l., & naumenko, o. p. (2019) osobystisni resursy podolannya psykholohichnoyi kryzy moloddyu [personal resources for overcoming the psychological crisis of youth]: in n. i. tavrovetska (ed.), innovatsiyni tekhnolohiyi rozvytku psykholohichnykh resursiv osobystosti [innovative technologies for the development of psychological resources of the individual] (pp. 141-153). publishing house of ep v.s. vyshemirsky. http://eprints.mdpu.org.ua/id/eprint/3606/1/інноваційні%20технологі ї%20розвитку%20%282%29.pdf bushuyeva, t. v. (2018) osobystisni predyktory kopinh-povedinky u rizni periody doroslosti [personal predictors of coping behavior in different periods of adulthood]. osobystistʹ u kryzovykh umovakh ta krytychnykh sytuatsiyakh zhyttya [personality in crisis conditions and critical situations of life: proceedings of the iv international scientific-practical conference] (pp. 22-24). amounts. http://eportfolio.kubg.edu.ua/data/conference/3557/document.pdf cherezova, i. o. (2016). psykholohiya zhyttyevykh kryz osobystosti [psychology of life crises of the individual: a textbook for students of higher educational institutions]. berdyansk state pedagogical university. kisarchuk, z. g., omelchenko, y. m., lazos, h. p., lytvynenko, l. i., tsarenko l. h. (2015). psykholohichna dopomoha postrazhdalym vnaslidok kryzovykh travmatychnykh podiy [psychological assistance to victims of crisis traumatic events]. publishing house of llc “logos”. mykolaichuk, m. i. (2013). mozhlyvosti postmodernist·sʹkoyi metodolohiyi v suchasniy praktytsi psykholohichnoyi dopomohy [possibilities of postmodernist methodology in modern practice of psychological assistance] psykholohichni perspektyvy, 22, 50-158. https://er.ucu.edu.ua/handle/1/716?localeattribute=en https://www.blatner.com/adam/level2/pmodpsy198.htm https://www.blatner.com/adam/level2/pmod.html http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf http://eprints.mdpu.org.ua/id/eprint/3606/1/інноваційні%20технології%20розвитку%20%282%29.pdf http://eprints.mdpu.org.ua/id/eprint/3606/1/інноваційні%20технології%20розвитку%20%282%29.pdf http://eportfolio.kubg.edu.ua/data/conference/3557/document.pdf psychological strategies for overcoming the life crisis of the individual in … nataliia trofaila, et al. 372 myroshnyk, o. h. (2019). refleksyvnistʹ yak moderator vplyvu na dopinh-stratehiyi yunakiv v sytuatsiyi stresu [reflexivity as a moderator of the impact on the doping strategy of young people in a situation of stress]. osobystistʹ u kryzovykh umovakh ta krytychnykh sytuatsiyakh zhyttya [personality in crisis conditions and critical situations of life: materials of the v international scientific-practical conference] (pp. 70-73). sumy. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/715403/1/кризи-2019%20%3d03-21.pdf nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020a). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020b). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 panasenko, n. m., & voitovych, m. v. (2016). psykholohichni osoblyvosti podolannya osobystistyu zhyttyevykh kryz [psychological features of overcoming the personality of life crises]. aktualʹni problemy psykholohiyi, v(16), 126-135. http://www.appsychology.org.ua/data/jrn/v5/i16/16.pdf panok, v. g. (2019). variatyvnistʹ yak yakistʹ osobystosti [variability as a quality of personality]. osobystistʹ u kryzovykh umovakh ta krytychnykh sytuatsiyakh zhyttya [personality in crisis conditions and critical situations of life: materials of the v international scientific-practical conference] (pp. 83-85). sumy. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/715403/1/кризи-2019%20%3d03-21.pdf pătroc, d., & perţe, a. (2011). boredom and the illusions of postmodern psychotherapies. international journal of education and psychology in the community 1(1), 63-75. http://www.marianjournals.com/files/ijepc_articles/vol_1_no_1_2011 /patroc_and_perte.pdf robinson, o. c., & stell, a. j. (2014). later-life crisis: towards a holistic model. journal of adult development, 22(1), 38-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10804-014-9199-5 robinson, o. c., wright, g. r. t., & smith, j. a. (2013). the holistic phase model of early adult crisis. journal of adult development, 20(1), 27-37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-013-9153-y https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/715403/1/кризи-2019%20%3d03-21.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 http://www.appsychology.org.ua/data/jrn/v5/i16/16.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/715403/1/кризи-2019%20%3d03-21.pdf http://www.marianjournals.com/files/ijepc_articles/vol_1_no_1_2011/patroc_and_perte.pdf http://www.marianjournals.com/files/ijepc_articles/vol_1_no_1_2011/patroc_and_perte.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10804-014-9199-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-013-9153-y brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 373 stavytska, s. o., & ulko, n. m. (2018). psykhoterapevtychna dopomoha osobystosti u kryzovo-travmatychnykh zhyttyevykh sytuatsiyakh [psychotherapeutic help of the person in crisis-traumatic life situations]. osobystistʹ u kryzovykh umovakh ta krytychnykh sytuatsiyakh zhyttya [personality in crisis conditions and critical situations of life: materials of the iv international scientific-practical conference.] (pp. 297-298). sumy. http://eportfolio.kubg.edu.ua/data/conference/3557/document.pdf tytarenko, t. m. (ed.). (1998). psihologіja zhittєvoї krizi [psychology of life crisis]. agropromvydav of ukraine. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/721217/ tytarenko, t. m., kochubeinyk, o. m., & cheremnykh, k. o. (2014). psykholohichni praktyky konstruyuvannya zhyttya v umovakh postmodernoyi sotsialʹnosti [psychological practices of constructing life in the conditions of postmodern sociality]. millennium. http://www.ispp.org.ua/backup_ispp/1423061573.pdf variy, m. y. (2018). psi-prohramnyy pidkhid u podolanni kryzy, povʺyazanoyi z utratoyu [psi-program approach in overcoming the crisis associated with loss]. osobystistʹ u kryzovykh umovakh ta krytychnykh sytuatsiyakh zhyttya [personality in crisis conditions and critical situations of life: proceedings of the iv international scientific-practical conference] (pp. 233-235). sumy. http://eportfolio.kubg.edu.ua/data/conference/3557/document.pdf vasyliuk, f. e. (1984). psikhologiya perezhivaniya (analiz preodoleniya kriticheskikh situatsiy) [psychology of experience (analysis of overcoming critical situations)]. publishing house of moscow university. vettraino, e., linds, w. & downie, h. (2019). embodied reflexivity: discerning ethical practice through the six-part story method. reflective practice: international and multidisciplinary perspectives, 20(2), 218-233. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2019.1575197 zaika, v. m., (2015) typolohichni modeli initsiyuvannya osobystisnykh transformatsiy v umovakh podolannya kryzovykh staniv osobystosti [typological models of initiation of personal transformations in the conditions of overcoming of crisis states of the person]. [ doctoral dissertation, eastern european national university, ukraine].vnu.edu.ua. https://vnu.edu.ua/sites/default/files/docs/avtoreferat_zaika_10v.pdf http://eportfolio.kubg.edu.ua/data/conference/3557/document.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/721217/ http://www.ispp.org.ua/backup_ispp/1423061573.pdf http://eportfolio.kubg.edu.ua/data/conference/3557/document.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2019.1575197 https://vnu.edu.ua/sites/default/files/docs/avtoreferat_zaika_10v.pdf somatic complications of alcoholism in the surgical patient brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.1, pages: 78-89 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/31 somatic complications of alcoholism in the surgical patient dragos f. voicu¹, alexandru bogdan ciubara 2 , dorina stan 3 , anamaria ciubara 4 1 faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university, galati – romania; county emergency hospital braila, romania, dragosfvoicu@yahoo.com 2 faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university, galati – romania. 3 faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university, galati – romania. 4 faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university, galati – romania. abstract: background. alcoholism is a public health problem. chronic ethanol consumption determines physiological and morphological changes, reflected by an abnormal response to regular medication and nutrients, with consequences on the efficiency of anesthesia and the surgical act. material and methods. a retrospective study was conducted on the latest 1750 cases (2016-2018), hospitalized and operated, in which the preoperative identification of alcohol abuse was made by dosing biochemical markers (gamma-glutamyl transferase, poor carbohydrate transferrin and medium erythrocytic corpuscular volume), by standard questionnaires and, of course, by preanesthetic exam. results and discussions. the study showed a rate of 8% (140 cases) of alcohol abuse among these surgical patients. the paper reviews the somatic complications of alcoholism: neurological, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, metabolic, hematological, immunological and hormonal, and discusses the effectiveness of the study method. conclusions. it is proposed to implement a preoperative identification protocol for patients with alcoholism to prevent postoperative withdrawal. keywords: alcoholism; surgical patient. how to cite: voicu, d.f., ciubara, a.b., stan, d., & ciubara, a. (2020). somatic complications of alcoholism in the surgical patient. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 78-89. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/31 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/31 mailto:dragosfvoicu@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/31 somatic complications of alcoholism in the surgical patient dragos f. voicu, et al. 79 introduction alcoholism is a public health problem (mihók-géczi & hatos, 2019). chronic ethanol consumption determines physiological and morphological changes (damian et al., 2019), reflected by an abnormal response to regular medication and nutrients, with consequences on the efficiency of anesthesia and the surgical act (clero, 2018). fortunately, in some cases, the stoppage of alcohol is followed by physiological restitution, whether or not passing through withdrawal (osaki et al., 2016; schuckit, 2009). material and methods a retrospective study was conducted on the latest 1750 patients (2016-2018), aged between 42 and 75, hospitalized and operated in 1 st surgery unit of the county emergency hospital braila, in which the preoperative identification of alcohol abuse was made by dosing biochemical markers (gamma-glutamyl transferase – ggt and carbohydrate deficient transferrin cdt), by standard questionnaires [fig.1] and, of course, by preanesthetic exam (de meneses-gaya et al., 2009; rumpf et al., 2002). positive value for cdt was considered ≥ 20 u/l, and for ggt was ≥ 45 u/l in females and ≥ 65 u/l in males. as far as the questionnaire is concerned, it was considered positive to a value of at least 8 points. brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 80 fig. 1 alcohol use disorders identification test (audit) results and discussions the study showed a rate of 8% (140 cases) of alcohol abuse among these surgical patients, most men (137), average age 53. all patients (100%) presented various neurological complications in terms of type and intensity, 84 (60%) had gastrointestinal co-morbidities associated with alcohol abuse (in 2 cases, gastric hemorrhagic ulcer was the reason for hospitalization), 69 (50%) were diagnosed from the beginning with neoplasia, 35 (25%) had cardiovascular suffering induced by alcohol somatic complications of alcoholism in the surgical patient dragos f. voicu, et al. 81 consumption, and in 104 cases (78%) metabolic, nutritional and hematological disorders were reported. 73 patients (52%) with positive cdt and ggt values, with or without significant audit testing, were considered at risk of alcohol withdrawal. prophylaxis used benzodiazepine, their internship in icu was 3 days on average, and the treatment lasted at least 5 days. although all patients had severe postoperative evolutions, with significant associated morbidity and prolonged hospitalization, the immediate surgical outcome was favorable in all cases. it is considered useful to review the somatic complications of alcoholism encountered in the studied surgical patients. neurological complications of alcohol consumption (sullivan et al., 2010; noble & weimer, 2014) alcoholic dementia is produced both by the direct toxic effect of alcohol and by the multiple nutritional and vitamin deficiencies, induced by chronic alcoholism, as well as by repeated cerebral traumas. it is manifested in chronic alcoholics, after many years of degradation and social marginalization. haemorrhagic or thromboembolic stroke occurs due to hypertension, dyslipidemia, atherosclerotic disease and/or coagulopathy. coagulopathy induced by chronic alcohol consumption may explain the increased incidence of subdural hematomas, in the case of craniocerebral trauma. alcohol-related symptomatic epileptic seizures are usually generalized, they do not have the aura and appear shortly (6-8 hours) after discontinuing their use, and they may have the withdrawal removed. the chronic use of alcohol and its repeated interruptions lower the threshold of epileptic seizures. the risk of crises is proportional to the amount of administered alcohol. cerebellar manifestations (coordination, equilibrium disorders) are also the causes of ethanol intoxication. peripheral alcoholic neuropathy appears to be produced both by direct action on the nerve fiber (including vegetative), and as a consequence of deficient nutrition. symptomatology may include: paraesthesia, limb pain, hypotonia and muscle cramps, heat intolerance (after exercise), impotence in men, urinary incontinence/dysuria, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, etc. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=noble%20jm%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24893238 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=weimer%20lh%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24893238 brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 82 alcoholic amblyopia, consisting of visual disturbances, including scotomas, and decreased visual acuity, starting with the central portion of the visual field, is caused by the toxic effect of alcohol on the optic nerve, with the induction of optical neuropathy. because alcohol generates depletion of the entire body of nutrients, alcoholic amblyopia is clearly linked to thiamine deficiency. alcoholic amblyopia is reversible if treated with proper diet and multivitamins, especially vitamin b1. ignoring it leads to irreversible lesions of the optic nerve and cecity. alcohol influences sleep as it is a stimulant that leads to insomnia, as well as fatigue, primarily at the psychological level, during the day. paradoxically, many people with chronic alcohol use require alcohol to reduce activation of the sympathetic system, coupled with withdrawal, in order to fall asleep. in a middle-aged non-alcoholic person, even moderate use of alcohol at dinner reduces the rem (rapid eye movement) sleep period. after cessation of alcohol consumption, symptoms occur which are manifested by living dreams that usually awaken the person thus forming a vicious circle, by disrupting the rem phase, which ultimately leads to sleep deprivation. the appearance of obstructive apnea during sleep may be caused or aggravated by alcohol, due to the inhibitory effect of alcohol on breathing and the relaxation of the upper respiratory tract. gastrointestinal complications of alcohol consumption (rehm et al., 2010; engen et al., 2015) the effect of alcohol on the liver. liver cells preferentially use alcohol as fuel in energy metabolism. alcohol, even in small quantities, disrupts gluconeogenesis and leads to the metabolic shunting of some carbohydrate into lipids. hepatic impairment begins with liver steatosis (which occurs with the presence of constant levels of alcohol in the blood above 80 mg%), followed by alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis and, finally, cirrhosis of the liver. chronic alcohol use exacerbates postnecrotic infectious hepatitis by stimulating viral replication, and implicitly interfering with therapeutic success. the combination of alcoholism and hepatitis c increases the toxic effect on the liver even more than just the additive effect of the two. the effect of alcohol on the stomach. alcohol favors the colonization of the stomach with helicobacter pylori. this bacillus, by the production of ammonia, promotes bacterial multiplication with the occurrence of gastritis and ulcers (a fact particularly found in wine and beer consumers). alcohol can cause acute hemorrhagic gastritis, but is not somatic complications of alcoholism in the surgical patient dragos f. voicu, et al. 83 directly responsible for the development of ulcer disease; it acts concurrently with helicobacter pylori, in the genesis, worsening and delaying gastric ulcer healing. chronic ethanol consumption increases the incidence of gastroesophageal reflux by disrupting normal peristalsis, secondary to autonomic neuropathy. increased alcoholism leads to a delayed gastric emptying of the solid bowl and to an acceleration in the discharge of the liquid portion of the food bowl. the effect of alcohol on the small intestine. the small intestine is exposed to high alcohol concentrations during alcohol consumption. this leads to changes in the cellular structure, metabolism and vascularization of the small intestine. alcohol predisposes to hemorrhagic erosion of intestinal villi and the appearance of duodenitis. combined with accelerated motility, this prevents the absorption of important nutrients, which over time may be the cause of a variety of medical sufferings. the effect of alcohol on the colon. it is reduced to the appearance of hemorrhoids, secondary to portal hypertension, due to liver dysfunction. alcohol also lowers the non-propulsive activity of the colon, along with the increase in propulsive motility, which exacerbates hemorrhoidal disease. the effect of alcohol on the pancreas. alcohol interferes with the exocrine secretion of the pancreas by fragilizing cellular storage structures; thus, there is inflammation of the ductal wall, which blocks the pancreatic duct and leads to the stimulation of enzymatic production. the combination of these processes leads to the occurrence of chronic and/or acute pancreatitis. by recurrent episodes of pancreatitis, manifested by exocrine and endocrine insufficiency, diabetes mellitus and hypovitaminosis can be developed by poor absorption (a, d, e, k, f). cardiovascular complications of alcohol consumption (gardner & mouton, 2015; ren & wold, 2008) alcohol-related cardiac changes. chronic alcoholic patients may develop a form of cardiovascular disease. pathogenesis is primarily due to the toxicity of alcohol on the striated muscle fiber that leads to cardiac inflammation, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias and left ventricular abnormalities. in addition to the direct toxic effect, there is secondary damage, through alcohol induced arterial hypertension and dyslipidemia, which contributes significantly to cardiovascular morbidity. cardiac response to alcohol reflects physical individuality, consumption rate and quantity of ingested alcohol. in patients with left ventricular dysfunction, the effects of alcohol inhibitors, with decreasing the ejection fraction, prevail. alcohol also brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 84 alters the loco-regional circulation of blood, increasing the cutaneous, splanchnic and myocardial flow, reducing the cerebral, pancreatic and striated muscular ones. alcoholic cardiomyopathy involves myocardial damage. alcohol dependence can lead to two types of cardiac dysfunction: thiaminedependent (alcoholic beriberi disease) and thiamine-independent (alcoholic cardiomyopathy). the pathophysiology of alcoholic cardiomyopathy is still unclear. those with chronic alcohol use (usually more than 10 years of consumption) frequently experience myocardial hypertrophy and varying degrees of myocardial and perivascular fibrosis. echocardiography reveals dilated cardiomyopathy, and electrocardiographic changes are not specific. alcoholic cardiomyopathy is generally irreversible, although an improvement in symptoms can be achieved by abstinence. beriberi disease is a rare cause of heart disease in alcoholics; it is characterized by cardiomegaly, hyperdynamic circulation, circulatory congestion and thiamine reversibility. alcohol-related cardiac toxic syndrome consists of disturbing the rhythm or cardiac conduction (especially supra-ventricular tachycardias), associated with massive alcohol consumption in people without pre-existing cardiac diseases. the most common arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation that spontaneously converts to sinusal rhythm within a 24-hour period. the syndrome is recurrent but its evolution is benign, and anti-arrhythmic treatment is usually not necessary. the mechanism of cardiac toxic syndrome is not fully elucidated, but hypotheses include excessive secretion of epinephrine and nor-epinephrine, increased levels of fatty acid blood and indirect action of acetaldehyde (the primary metabolite of alcohol). hypertension often occurs in withdrawal, even in patients without a history of hypertension, and may lead to serious complications. the type of alcoholic beverage consumed (beer, wine, whiskey) and age (over 50 years) can influence the impact of alcohol consumption on blood pressure. metabolic complications due to alcohol consumption the effect of alcohol on cholesterol. hyperlipidemia is the result of lipogenesis, accentuated by alcohol oxidation. the liver cells preferentially use alcohol instead of lipids, which leads to the accumulation of lipids in the liver and their subsequent secretion in circulation. as alcohol use leads to hepatic impairment, secretor dysfunction of the liver can lead to the opposite effect, respectively malnutrition and cachexy. glucose. alcohol leads to abnormalities in regulating carbohydrate metabolism through hepatic and pancreatic dysfunctions. decreasing tissue somatic complications of alcoholism in the surgical patient dragos f. voicu, et al. 85 sensitivity to insulin, during alcohol withdrawal, and decreasing insulin response, during acute alcohol consumption, can lead to extreme levels of glucose in the blood. alcoholic ketoacidosis may occur as a result of disturbing the hydroelectrolytic balance by decreasing na, k, mg, ca and p. proteins. alcohol leads to cerebral atrophy by decreasing cerebral protein synthesis. although the effects on hepatic protein synthesis have not been elucidated, alcohol is known to interfere with hepatic secretion of proteins and this phenomenon underlies the hepatocyte “ballooning effect”, seen in cellular necrosis, from alcoholic liver dysfunction. nutrition. alcohol is a non-nutritional source of calories. factors contributing to nutritional deficiency are direct toxicity to tissues, disruption of nutrient absorption and metabolism. lack of thiamine leads to wernikekorsakoff syndrome (wks), beriberi disease and polyneuropathy. lack of pyridoxine produces neurological, hematological and dermatological dysfunctions. decreasing the amount of folic acid and cyanocobalamin is manifested by megaloblastic anemia and neurological deficits associated with it. decreased zinc is associated with dry and rough skin, mental lethargy, impaired taste and low appetite. improved nutrition and abstinence are needed to correct these deficits, as well as supplements with thiamine, folic acid and multivitamins for at least 3 months. severe cases of malnutrition should be treated by intramuscular administration of thiamine, as its poor absorption is frequently present. hematological complications due to alcohol consumption hematological complications due to alcohol consumption include anemias (iron deficiency, vitamin b12 deficiency, occult chronic upper gastrointestinal bleeding, chronic inflammation in tissue level), leucopenia and thrombocytopenia. immunological complications due to alcohol consumption (ratna & mandrekar, 2017; bagnardi et al., 2015) alcohol-induced immune system dysfunction leads to an increased risk of infections and neoplasms. infections. alcohol use predisposes to infections, through malnutrition, splenic dysfunction, leucopenia, granulocytic dysfunction and impaired pharyngeal reflex. aspiration pneumonia, empyema, hiv, sexually transmitted diseases, cerebral abscesses, meningitis, spontaneous bacterial brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 86 peritonitis and tuberculosis are common in chronic alcohol users and have an increased mortality rate. neoplasms. people with chronic alcohol use are at increased risk of respiratory and digestive cancer (lips, oral cavity, tongue, pharynx, larynx, lung, esophagus, stomach, liver and bile duct, colon), and hepatocellular breast cancer. this risk remains high, even when other factors such as diet, smoking and lifestyle are excluded. alcohol deteriorates immunological function, potentiates the carcinogenic effect of other factors and causes irritation. hormonal complications due to alcohol consumption alcohol consumption alters the plasma levels of parathormone, insulin, prolactin, cortisol, somatotropic hormone and adenocorticotropine. in men, the decrease in testosterone production leads to decreased sperm quality, sexual dysfunction and infertility. in the case of advanced liver dysfunction, with abnormal estrogen secretion, testicular atrophy and gynecomastia occur. premature menopause, infertility, dysmenorrhea and metrorrhagia, due to malnutrition and coagulopathy, may occur in women. conclusions the prevalence of chronic alcoholism in surgical patients is significant (8%), especially for men. the somatic complications of alcoholism are varied, the most common ones being neurological (100%), metabolic and haematological (78%), gastrointestinal (60%), neoplastic (50%) and cardiovascular (25%). their pathophysiology must be known for correct, individualized, application of the treatment and therapeutic success (sandu, 2018). alcohol withdrawal syndrome, which is a serious complication with increased morbidity and mortality, occurred in over 50% of these patients in the absence of appropriate prophylaxis. benzodiazepine prophylaxis significantly decreases the incidence and intensity of this syndrome, decreases the rate of postoperative complications, and implicitly, the duration of hospitalization (mirijello et al., 2015; mo et al., 2018). the best way to identify alcohol abusers among surgical patients is the combined use of cdt and ggt biomarkers (jastrzębska et al., 2016; andresen-streichert et al., 2018; torrente et al., 2019). questionnaires to identify alcoholism need to be further refined (kummer et al., 2016; chitescu et al., 2018). somatic complications of alcoholism in the surgical patient dragos f. voicu, et al. 87 references andresen-streichert, h., müller, a., glahn, a., skopp, g., & sterneck, m. (2018). alcohol biomarkers in clinical and forensic contexts. deutsches aerzteblatt online, 115(18), 309–315. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2018.0309 bagnardi, v., rota, m., botteri, e., tramacere, i., islami, f., fedirko, v., scotti, l., jenab, m., turati, f., pasquali, e., pelucchi, c., galeone, c., bellocco, r., negri, e., corrao, g., boffetta, p., & la vecchia, c. (2015). alcohol consumption and site-specific cancer risk: a comprehensive dose–response meta-analysis. british journal of cancer, 112(3), 580-593. https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2014.579 chitescu, c. l., radu, a. d., aciu, f., & moraru, m. (2018). new psychoactive substances (npss) abuse in romania: analytical strategies for drug screening in biological samples using high resolution mass spectrometry. romanian journal of legal medicine, 26(2), 173-182. clero, j. (2018). medicine, robot and intimacy. journal for ethics in social studies, 2(1), 1-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/jess/06 damian, s., diac, m., iov, t., hunea, i., & bulgaru iliescu, d. (2019). particularities of medical education in the field of forensic toxicology. studying dangerous chemical agents in forensic research. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4sup1), 337-344. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/194 de meneses-gaya, c., zuardi, a. w., loureiro, s. r., & crippa, j. a. s. (2009). alcohol use disorders identification test (audit): an updated systematic review of psychometric properties. psychology & neuroscience, 2(1), 83-97. http://dx.doi.org/10.3922/j.psns.2009.1.12 engen, p. a., green, s. j., voigt, r. m., forsyth, c. b., & keshavarzian, a. (2015). the gastrointestinal microbiome: alcohol effects on the composition of intestinal microbiota. alcohol research, 37(2), 223-236. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26695747 gardner, j. d., & mouton, a. j. (2015). alcohol effects on cardiac function. comprehensive physiology, 5(2), 791-802. https://doi.org/10.1002/cphy.c140046 jastrzębska, i., zwolak, a., szczyrek, m., wawryniuk, a., skrzydło-radomańska, b., & daniluk, j. (2016). biomarkers of alcohol misuse: recent advances and future prospects. gastroenterology review, 11(2), 78–89. https://doi.org/10.5114/pg.2016.60252 kummer, n., lambert, w. e., samyn, n., & stove, c. p. (2016). alternative sampling strategies for the assessment of alcohol intake of living persons. clinical biochemistry, 49(13-14), 1078-1091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2016.05.007 https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2018.0309 https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2014.579 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/jess/06 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/194 http://dx.doi.org/10.3922/j.psns.2009.1.12 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=engen%20pa%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26695747 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=green%20sj%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26695747 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=voigt%20rm%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26695747 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=forsyth%20cb%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26695747 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=keshavarzian%20a%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26695747 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26695747 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26695747 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=gardner%20jd%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=25880513 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=mouton%20aj%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=25880513 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25880513 https://doi.org/10.1002/cphy.c140046 https://doi.org/10.5114/pg.2016.60252 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2016.05.007 brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 88 mihók-géczi, i., & hatos, a. (2019). the risk of relapse following abstinence in case of alcohol abuse disorder: the importance of relational and normative support. postmodern openings, 10(2), 28-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/70 mirijello, a., d'angelo, c., ferrulli, a., vassallo, g., antonelli, m., caputo, f., leggio, l., gasbarrini, a., & addolorato, g. (2015). identification and management of alcohol withdrawal syndrome. drugs, 75(4), 353–365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40265-015-0358-1 mo, y., thomas, m. c., laskey, c. s., shcherbakova, n., bankert, m. l., & halloran, r. h. (2018). current practice patterns in the management of alcohol withdrawal syndrome. pharmacy and therapeutics, 43(3), 158–162. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29491698 noble, j. m., & weimer, l. h. (2014). neurologic complications of alcoholism. neurology of systemic disease, 20(3), 624-641. https://doi.org/10.1212/01.con.0000450970.99322.84 osaki, y., kinjo, a., higuchi, s., matsumoto, h., yuzuriha, t., horie, y., kimura, m., kanda, h., & yoshimoto, h. (2016). prevalence and trends in alcohol dependence and alcohol use disorders in japanese adults; results from periodical nationwide surveys. alcohol and alcoholism, 51(4), 465–473. https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agw002 ratna, a., & mandrekar, p. (2017). alcohol and cancer: mechanisms and therapies. biomolecules, 7(3), 61. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom7030061 rehm, j., taylor, b., mohapatra, s., irving, h., baliunas, d., patra, j., & roerecke, m. (2010). alcohol as a risk factor for liver cirrhosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. drug and alcohol review, 29(4), 437-445. https://doi.org/10.1212/01.con.0000450970.99322.84 ren, j., & wold, l. e. (2008). mechanisms of alcoholic heart disease. therapeutic advances in cardiovascular disease, 2(6), 497–506. https://doi.org/10.1177/1753944708095137 rumpf, h.-j., hapke, u., meyer, c., & john, u. (2002). screening for alcohol use disorders and at-risk drinking in the general population: psychometric performance of three questionnaires. alcohol and alcoholism, 37(3), 261-268. https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/37.3.261 sandu, a. (2018). a philosophical rethinking of medical ethics. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 6(1), 28-31. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/03 schuckit, m. a. (2009). alcohol related disorders. in: b. j. sadock, v. a. sadock, p. ruiz (eds.), kaplan and sadock s comprehensive textbook of psychiatry (9th ed., vol. 1, pp. 1268 – 1288). wolters kluwer/lippincott williams & wilkins. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/70 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40265-015-0358-1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29491698 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=noble%20jm%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24893238 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=weimer%20lh%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24893238 https://doi.org/10.1212/01.con.0000450970.99322.84 https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agw002 https://doi.org/10.3390/biom7030061 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=rehm%20j%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=20636661 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=taylor%20b%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=20636661 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=mohapatra%20s%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=20636661 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=irving%20h%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=20636661 https://doi.org/10.1212/01.con.0000450970.99322.84 https://doi.org/10.1177/1753944708095137 https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/37.3.261 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/03 somatic complications of alcoholism in the surgical patient dragos f. voicu, et al. 89 sullivan, e. v., harris, r. a., & pfefferbaum, a. (2010). alcohol's effects on brain and behavior. alcohol research & health, 33(1-2), 127–143. retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-23622-013 torrente, m. p., freeman, w. m., & vrana, k. e. (2019). protein biomarkers of alcohol abuse. expert review of proteomics, 9(4), 425–436. https://doi.org/10.1586/epr.12.38 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-23622-013 https://doi.org/10.1586/epr.12.38 microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 102 resumen en español brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cerebro. investigación amplia en inteligencia artificial y neurociencia volumen 1, número 2 julio 2010: ¡feliz verano 2010! www.brain.edusoft.ro editor jefe: bogdan patrut 1. motor de papel dinámico y control de formación para agentes cooperativos con algoritmo robusto de toma de decisiones s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei, mohsen taheri resumen robocup es una competición internacional para investigación multi-agente y sobre temas relacionados, como son: la inteligencia artificial, el procesamiento de imágenes, el aprendizaje automático, la planificación de caminos para robots, el control, y la evitación de obstáculos. en el caso de un robot para jugar al fútbol, el entorno es altamente competitivo y dinámico. para trabajar con el entorno dinámicamente cambiante, el sistema de toma de decisiones del robot debería tener las características de flexibilidad y de adaptabilidad en tiempo real. en este artículo, nos centramos en la “middle size soccer robot league” (msl). en el artículo, unos métodos difusos, híbridos, jerárquicos, para la toma de decisiones y la selección de acciones de un robot msl son presentados. primero, se introducen los comportamientos de un agente, implementados y clasificados en dos capas, los comportamiento de bajo nivel, o low_level_behaviors, y los comportamientos de alto nivel, o high_level_behaviors. en la segunda capa, se introduce un mecanismo para la toma de decisiones en dos fases. en la primera fase, son implementados algunos métodos que comprueban la situación del robot, en orden a lograr los comportamientos esperados. en la siguiente fase, la estrategia del equipo, la formación del equipo, el papel del robot, y el sistema de posicionamiento del robot, son todos ellos introducidos. una aproximación basada en lógica borrosa es empleada para reconocer la estrategia del equipo y además, decirle al jugador la mejor posición para seguir jugando. creemos que un motor de papel dinámico es necesario para un equipo ganador. el motor de papel dinámico y el control de la formación durante la jugada ofensiva o defensiva, nos ayuda a evitar colisiones entre los propios jugadores, y asimismo contra los jugadores rivales. finalmente, presentamos nuestro algoritmo implementado en las robocup de 2007 y de 2008, cuyos resultados demuestran la eficiencia de la metodología empleada. los resultados han sido tan satisfactorios que ya han sido implementados con éxito en “adro robocup team”. 2. extracción lógica de la estructura del neo-cortex ronald j. swallow resumen el potencial post-sináptico de una neurona desde hace largo tiempo sabemos que tiene una relación transversal entre un patrón de entrada de la frecuencia axonal y un patrón de la fuerza de conexión sináptica excitatoria. en lo relativo a que dichas correlaciones sean útiles, deben ser comparadas y estabilizadas (la covarianza de la fuerza de la conexión debe ser constante sobre todas las correlaciones). una red posible de neuronas fue estudiada (red de n neuronas excitatorias, interactuando con una neurona inhibitoria) y una muy simple regla pavloviana usada para la variación de la fuerza de la conexión (la misma regla tanto para neuronas excitatorias como para resumen en español 103 inhibitorias). la sorpresa fue que las neuronas de dicha red son capaces de comparar sus correlaciones de una manera normalizada. también la red exhibe mayor capacidad de aprendizaje para los nuevos patrones de entrada que para los antiguos, explicando así la curiosidad que guía nuestros cerebros y la reducción de la plasticidad en la memoria permanente con el paso de los años. 3. las relaciones entre “test takers” de diversas inteligencias, y su ejecución sobre las “reading sections” de toefl e ielts minoo alemi, marzieh bagherkazemi resumen el presente estudio se dedica a investigar la hipotética relación entre las múltiples inteligencias de “test takers” y su ejecución sobre las “reading sections” (secciones de lectura) de toefl y de ielts. la teoría de howard gardner sobre “multiple intelligences” sugiere que la inteligencia no es una sola y aislada capacidad innata, sino más bien un múltiple constructo que sólo es en parte genético, y que puede ser cristalizado o paralizado a lo largo de la vida de una persona. basándonos en esta teoría, existen ocho tipos de intelligencia: linguística, matemática, musical, corporal, espacial, intrapersonal, interpersonal y naturalista, pero tal lista no es exhaustiva. las múltiples inteligencias de los “test takers” fueron estimadas por medio de midas, el “multiple intelligences developmental assessment scales”, desarrollado por shearer (1994). subsecuentemente, la detección del sesgo (bias) para la sección de lectura del toefl fue llevada a cabo sobre 90 participantes, y este sub-test se vio que tenía una correlación positiva con las inteligencias linguística y lógica. para la misma muestra, 89 de los 163 participantes en el estudio fueron incluidos en el análisis de la relación las múltiples inteligencias de los “test takers” y su ejecución sobre la sección de lectura de ielts, y este test se muestra sesgado hacia inteligencias linguísticas y espaciales. las implicaciones conciernen a la inadecuación de la definición de “language proficiency”. además, los cursos measurement-driven instruction y los materiales preparatorios de los dos proficiency tests, toefl e ielts, pueden beneficiarse de los resultados del estudio, siendo diseñados de modo que representen las inteligencias que son correladas positivamente con la ejecución de dichos test en cuestión. 4. ekg a través de la tarjeta de sonido gheorghe blioju resumen este artículo describe un método simple y económico para llevar a cabo una monitorización compacta en sistema ekg, utilizando para ello un recurso electrónico y software. el recurso puede también aumentar bio-señales, y transportarlas hasta el pc mediante la tarjeta de sonido. también existe software dedicado a transportar las señales, desplegándolo sobre la pantalla del pc. 5. diseño e implementación de una estructura robusta y de un controlador de movimiento basado en reglas difusas para un robot humanoide que juega al fútbol s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri resumen este artículo describe el diseño del hardware y del software de los sistemas del robot humanoide del persia team en 2009. el robot tiene 18 grados de libertad basados sobre hitec hsr898. hemos intentado focalizar sobre áreas tales como la estructura mecánica, la unidad de procesamiento de imagen, el controlador del robot, la robot ai y el aprendizaje del comportamiento. este año, nuestros desarrollos para este robot humanoide incluyen: (1) el diseño y construcción de nuestros nuevos robots humanoides; (2) el diseño y construcción de un nuevo controlador de hardware y software para ser utilizado en nuestros robots. el proyecto está descrito en dos partes principales: hardware y software. el software desarrolla una robot-aplicación que consiste en el control para caminar, el movimiento autónomo del robot, la auto-localización basada brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 104 sobre visión y el “particle filter”, la ai local, la planificación de trayectorias, el controlador de movimientos y la red. el hardware consiste en una estructura mecánica y el circuito que permite conducirlo. cada robot es capaz de caminar, andar deprisa, pasar la bola, disparar y driblar cuando tiene la pelota. el proyecto está aún en progreso y algunos nuevos e interesantes métodos son descrito aquí. 6. modelización e implementación de un robot omnidireccional para fútbol con visión de largo alcance aplicada en robocup-msl s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri resumen el propósito de este artículo es diseñar e implementar un robot de tamaño medio para formar parte de la liga robocup msl. primero, de acuerdo con las reglas de robocup, diseñamos dicho robot. el robot autónomo propuesto consiste en una plataforma mecánica, un módulo de control del movimiento, un modulo de visión omnidireccional, un módulo de visión frontal, un módulo de procesamiento y de reconocimiento de imágenes, etc. y este robot-futbolista incorpora el “laptop computer system”, y los circuitos de interfaz para la toma de decisiones. de hecho, el sensor omnidireccional del sistema de visión se ocupa del procesamiento de imágenes y del posicionamiento para la evitación de obstáculos. el algoritmo “siguiendo la frontera”, o boundaryfollowing algorithm (bfa), es aplicado para encontrar las características importantes del campo. utilizamos el método de fusión de datos del sensor en el control de parámetros del sistema, la autolocalización y el modelado del mundo. una “vision-based” auto-localización y los convencionales sistemas de odometría son fusionados para la auto-localización robusta. el algoritmo de localización incluye filtrado, compartir e integrar los datos para diferentes tipos of objetos reconocidos en el entorno. en las estrategias de control, presentamos tres modos de estados, que incluyen la estrategia de ataque, la estrategia de defensa, y la estrategia de interceptación. los métodos han sido probados en las muchas robocup, competiciones de los robots de tamaño medio. 7. enfermedades del cerebro en las sociedades de mesopotamia piedad yuste, ángel garrido resumen en la antigua mesopotamia no se practicaban ni autopsias ni disecciones. por tanto, los órganos internos del cuerpo humano sólo eran conocidos a partir de ocasionales inspecciones realizadas sobre heridas y lesiones. el cerebro era considerado una parte del cuerpo que no estaba relacionada con la actividad mental. 8. visiones modular versus unitaria (no-modular) de cerebro y mente minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard resumen este artículo pretende delinear los dos paradigmas notables, así como sus visiones acerca del aprendizaje en general y del lenguaje en particular. además, intenta discutir los diferentes puntos de vista sobre las ventajas y desventajas argumentadas por cada uno de sus partidarios y detractores. por tanto, el propósito de este artículo no es reclamar nada en favor de una u otra vía. para terminar, este artículo pasa revista tanto a cuestiones del tipo de mente y cerebro, como también sobre modularidad y no-modularidad. 9. algunas notas acerca de la intelligencia artificial como una nueva herramienta matemática ángel garrido resumen la matemática es una mera instancia (esto es, un simple caso particular, o un ejemplo) del cálculo resumen en español 105 de predicados de primer orden. por tanto, pertenece a la lógica monótona aplicada. así, nos encontramos con las limitaciones del razonamiento de la lógica clásica, y eso demuestra las claras ventajas de la lógica borrosa, así como de muchas otras interesantes y nuevas herramientas para la representación del conocimiento. presentamos aquí por ello algunas de esas nuevas herramientas del que es un campo nuevo de las matemáticas: el de la inteligencia artificial. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 160-177 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/80 psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice in primary schools oleksandr bezliudnyi¹, maryna bevzyuk 2 , iryna demchenko 3 , svitlana tsymbalslatvinska 4 , inna babii 5 , olga kozii 6 , vita bezliudna 7 , olha butenko 8 , nataliia dudnyk 9 , alona nikitenko 10 , olha riaboshapka 11 , lyudmila kolesnik 12 1 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, bezludniy_oi@ukr.net 2 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, m.s.bevzyuk@gmail.com 3 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, irynadi67@gmail.com 4 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, lanatsimbal@gmail.com 5 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, in77na77@ukr.net 6 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, olgakozii19@gmail.com abstract: the concept of the new ukrainian school is aimed at organizing effective inclusive education for students, in particular younger students with special educational needs, and their cooperation with healthy peers. the paper aims to theoretically justify and experimentally verify psycho-pedagogical conditions for teaching future primary school teachers how to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice. the experimental group (eg) involved 203 respondents and the control group (cg) 215 respondents, as well as 12 university teachers, 36 primary school teachers and 115 students’ parents of students with/without special educational needs. the psycho-pedagogical conditions are determined as follows: developing future primary school teachers’ motivational, values-based and responsible attitude to acquiring knowledge, abilities and skills needed for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice; using the opportunities of an educational environment in higher education institutions to develop future primary school teachers’ certain competencies by improving and integrating the content of professional and specialized academic courses, applying innovative and traditional technologies of teaching and learning; focusing academic training and teaching placement towards improving the experience of future primary school teachers in interacting with students’ parents in inclusive practice). the paper employs some author’s methodologies (adapted to raven’s (1991) socio-pedagogical methodologies): surveys, interviews, student questionnaires, tests, assignments. the ratio between the levels of future primary school teachers’ readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive learning is the following: the experimental group – a high level 45.32%, an average level 41.87%, a low level 12.81%; the control group a high level 16.74%, an average level 36.75%, a low level 41.51%. the obtained results indicate some dynamic positive changes in the levels of eg respondents’ readiness under the influence of the proposed psychopedagogical conditions. keywords: future teacher; primary school students; responsible attitude; educational environment; innovative technologies. how to cite: bezliudnyi, o., bevzyuk, m., demchenko, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., babii, i., kozii, o., bezliudna, v., butenko, o., dudnyk, n., nikitenko, a., riaboshapka, o., & kolesnik, l. (2020). psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice in primary schools. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 160-177. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/80 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/80 mailto:bezludniy_oi@ukr.net mailto:m.s.bevzyuk@gmail.com mailto:irynadi67@gmail.com mailto:lanatsimbal@gmail.com mailto:in77na77@ukr.net mailto:olgakozii19@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/80 7 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, vitabz@ukr.net 8 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, butenko.olha11@gmail.com 9 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, dunaar@ukr.net 10 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, alena.nikitenko.84@ukr.net 11 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, lifeisgood81@ukr.net 12 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, kolisnyk_liuda@ukr.net mailto:vitabz@ukr.net mailto:butenko.olha11@gmail.com mailto:dunaar@ukr.net mailto:alena.nikitenko.84@ukr.net mailto:lifeisgood81@ukr.net mailto:kolisnyk_liuda@ukr.net brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 162 introduction the global criterion for a highly developed society today is the level of accessibility and quality of multidisciplinary services to individuals with special needs. ukraine’s integration in the european area and adherence to global living standards implies a fundamental revision to the national system of education for individuals with special needs. however, it is essential to comprehend the specifics of the all-round development of individuals with special needs, follow democracy and social justice and take into account moral principles and traditional values of ukrainian society, aimed at strengthening family as a centre of the state, to improve the system of national education by introducing inclusive education. the concept of the new ukrainian school (2017) is aimed at organizing effective inclusive education for students, in particular younger students with special educational needs, and their cooperation with healthy peers. the core of the concept is the activities of educational institutions based on partnerships relationships and constructive interaction between school administration, teachers, students and their students’ parents. these aspects highlight the problem of professional training of highly qualified specialists, in particular primary school teachers, aimed at realizing the goals, content, objectives and technologies of inclusive education in the context of partnership interaction between its participants in general secondary schools. today’s trends in professional training of future primary school teachers have been analyzed by n. bibik (2010), o. bida, v. honcharuk, & v. honcharuk (2016), i. demchenko (2016), l. koval (2009), o. komar (2010), l. krasiuk (2008). they all point to the need to update theoretical and practical training of future primary school teachers under the innovative requirements of education reforms. such scholars as o. alieko (2016), n. andrushchenko (2017), n. dudnyk (2016), o. hnoievska (2016), a. kolyshkina (2014) and l. zinchenko (2013) emphasize the exceptional role of interaction with students’ parents in creating effective learning conditions in primary school. teacher training in the context of inclusive education is one of the most pressing problems today (chopik, 2014; fedorenko, 2015; fert, 2014; kuzava, 2010; malik, 2015; perkhun, 2017; sophii, 2017; volkova, 2017). however, the problem of preparing future primary school teachers for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice has not been properly studied yet. psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their … oleksandr bezliudnyi et al. 163 the paper aims to theoretically justify and experimentally verify psycho-pedagogical conditions for teaching future primary school teachers how to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice. material and methods a theoretical analysis of some studies on the preparation of future primary school teachers to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice has made it possible to determine the following components of their readiness for this interaction: motivation and values, cognition and activities. it is also vital to reformulate and distribute specific (professional) competencies future primary school teachers need to interact with students’ parents in the context of inclusive practice according to the components of their readiness for such an activity and identify the relevant criteria. the motivation and values component consists of certain criteria (stimulation, tolerance, initiative) and their indicators (awareness, attitude, needs, aspirations, orientation, recognition, interests). the criteria of the cognition component are determined by both basic and special knowledge, whose indicators cover respective levels of these two types of knowledge. the activities component includes communicative-and-organizational, prognostic-and-corrective, instructional-and-educational, health-promotive and evaluative criteria with such indicators as skills, quality, speed and number. the readiness of future primary school teachers for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice can be at high, average and low levels. the experiment was conducted at volodymyr vynnychenko central ukrainian state pedagogical university, pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, khmelnytskyi national university, mykhailo kotsiubynskyi vinnytsia state pedagogical university and lesia ukrainka eastern european national university. the experimental group (eg) involved 203 respondents and the control group (cg)  215 respondents, as well as 12 university teachers, 36 primary school teachers and 115 students’ parents of students with/without special educational needs. some author’s methodologies (adapted to raven’s (1991) sociopedagogical methodologies) were employed to determine the levels of future primary school teachers’ readiness for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice: surveys, interviews, student questionnaires – according to the motivation and values component; tests – according to the brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 164 cognition component; assignments (for classroom activities and industrial practice)  according to the activities component. the author’s programme of the formative experiment includes the following objectives: to correct the syllabus of the course on fundamentals of inclusive education / pedagogy; to use active forms and methods of teaching and learning (traditional and interactive lectures, practical classes, conversations, discussions, debates, motivational workshops, educational work, club activities, volunteering); to improve teaching aids in accordance with the structure of the course on fundamentals of inclusive education / pedagogy (extracts and full texts of lectures; materials for didactic case studies; plans for seminars, practical classes and laboratory work; formative and summative assessment, exam questions and assessment criteria; tasks for independent work, individual research tasks, tasks for teaching placement); to elaborate guidelines for university teachers on the methods of formulating educational tasks, working on case studies, planning and conducting organizational forms of cooperation with students, as well as the methods of reflection while implementing the model of preparing future primary school teachers for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice. the psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future primary school teachers for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice were justified. they were realized during the formative experiment. pedagogical condition 1 (developing future primary school teachers’ motivational, values-based and responsible attitude to acquiring knowledge, abilities and skills needed for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice) was implemented during the preparatory stage and aimed to prepare future primary school teachers for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice based on the motivation and values component. the implementation of this condition implies cultivating empathy and a humane attitude in them, as well teaching them to understand and accept students with/without special educational needs and their parents and identify the need to interact with students’ parents. the following forms, methods, techniques and means of such preparation were applied: motivational workshops (“the role of interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice”); charity actions; educational projects (recording a video on the topic of interacting with students’ parents in inclusive practice”); volunteering (assisting teachers in interacting with parents of students’ with/without special educational needs in inclusive practice). pedagogical condition 2 (using the opportunities of an educational environment in higher education institutions to develop future primary school teachers’ certain competencies by improving and integrating the psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their … oleksandr bezliudnyi et al. 165 content of professional and specialized academic courses, applying innovative and traditional technologies of teaching and learning in the context of training future primary school teachers for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice) implied influencing the development of future primary school teachers’ readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice through the cognitive component during the theoretical stage of the formative experiment. this pedagogical condition is realized through improving the content of professional courses (pedagogy; methods of educational work; pedagogical technologies in primary school; fundamentals of pedagogical skills) and optional courses (fundamentals of inclusive education / pedagogy; inclusive education in primary school). besides, it involved using the technologies of interactive, contextual and peer learning, as well as the following forms and methods of teaching and learning: traditional and interactive lectures, seminars; cognitive training, webinars and coaches (by teaching, we learn); educational projects (recording a video on the topic of effective forms, methods, techniques and means of interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice); theoretical competitions, quizzes and olympiads (according to the content of academic courses); creative and interactive teaching and learning methods (case studies; “public hearings”; “take a stand”; “judge for yourself”; “1  2  4  all together”; “carousel”; “clusters”; “semantic maps”). pedagogical condition 3 (focusing academic training and teaching placement towards improving the experience of future primary school teachers in interacting with students’ parents in inclusive practice) was implemented during the practical stage and aimed to develop future primary school teachers’ readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice based on the activities component. its realization covers the following areas: theoretical area – improving the content of teaching placement in the context of strengthening the interaction with students' parents in inclusive parents; practical area – ensuring the completion of teaching placements by future primary school teachers in general secondary schools that is focused on the interaction with students' parents in inclusive parents; methodical area – summarizing the results of teaching placements using portfolios and case studies; preparing presentations (photo presentations), video reports; organizing webinars; creating specific educational websites and online resources (viber); elaborating guidelines for interacting with students’ parents in inclusive practice. after completing teaching placement, future primary school teachers needed to prepare methodical recommendations, namely a report and presentation materials brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 166 (interacting with students’ parents in inclusive practice through pedagogy of partnership: based on practical experience). results the analysis of the ascertaining experiment shows that future primary school teachers are at a low level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice. it points out to certain inefficiency of their training for developing the components under study in higher education institutions. at the same time, the monitoring of future primary school teachers’ readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice (the ascertaining experiment) shows that they do not realize the need and importance to strengthen their interaction with parents of students with/without special educational needs in inclusive practice. besides, they do not show any interest in interacting with students’ parents in inclusive learning and cannot choose effective forms, methods, techniques and means of such interaction. it must be noted that future primary school teachers are aware that their readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice depends on professional competency of university teachers who prepare future specialists for such professional activities, innovative technologies of teaching and learning, goals of teaching placement, as well as appropriate academic methodological support. the results of the ascertaining experiment indicate the need to update their professional training. the results of the formative experiment prove that future primary school teachers in cg are at an average level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice, whereas future primary school teachers in eg  at a high level. the ratio between the levels of future primary school teachers’ readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive learning is the following: the experimental group – a high level  45.32%, an average level  41.87%, a low level  12.81%; the control group  a high level  16.74%, an average level  36.75%, a low level  41.51%. due to experimental work in cg, the number of future primary school teachers with a high level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice has increased by 3.25% compared to that at the ascertaining stage; the number of future primary school teachers with an average level – by 1.87%. it must be noted that the number of future psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their … oleksandr bezliudnyi et al. 167 primary school teachers with a low level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice has decreased by 5.12%. in eg, the number of future primary school teachers with a high level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice has increased by 32.02%; the number of future primary school teachers with an average level – by 7.39%. the number of future primary school teachers with a low level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice has decreased by 39.41%. based on the results of experimental work, the difference in high levels of cg and eg respondents’ readiness is equal to 28.58%; the difference in average levels  to 5.12%; the difference in average levels  33.70%. the dynamics of levels of future primary school teachers’ readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice is presented in table 1. table 1. the dynamics of levels of future primary school teachers’ readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice (based on the results obtained from ascertaining and formative experiments) levels ascertainin g experiment formative experiment growt h ascertaining experiment formative experimen t growt h cg (215 respondents) eg (203 respondents) high 29 (13.49 %) 36 (16.74 %) 3.25 27 (13.30 %) 92 (45.32 % ) 32.0 2 average 75 (34.88 %) 79 (36.75 %) 1.87 70 (34.48 %) 85 (41.87 % ) 7.39 low 111 (51.63 %) 100 (46.51 %) -5.12 106 (52.22 %) 26 (12.81 % ) 39.4 1 the following methods of mathematical statistics were used to process empirical data: pearson’s chi-squared test, student’s t-test and fisher’s f-test. the obtained results indicate that cg and eg respondents were approximately at the same level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice before the experiment; however, eg respondents showed higher results after the experiment. it proves that the level of future primary school teachers’ readiness to interact with students’ parents can increase significantly due to a purposeful process of developing such quality. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 168 discussion today’s approaches to professional training of future primary school teachers prove the need to improve their theoretical and practical training under the areas of national and global reforms in education. it has made it possible to identify certain research trends in the elaboration of this particular scientific problem which can be divided in the following groups: the interaction between subjects (professional training for pedagogical interaction with students’ parents provided by higher education institutions (buzduhan, 2013), student behaviour during group interaction (liakisheva, 2015), pedagogical interaction in primary school (matviienko, 2010), some ways of developing pedagogical culture in younger students’ parents in the context of the interaction between family and school (tsurkan, 2018), some ways of developing culture of interpersonal interaction in future primary school teachers (yastrub, 2016), the interaction between social and family education (alieko, 2016), the interaction between preschool and family (andrushchenko, 2017; dudnyk, 2016), the interaction between family, school and public (zinchenko, 2013), the interaction between school and family (kolyshkina, 2014)); working with students’ parents (socially oriented training of future primary school teachers for working with students’ parents (flegontova, 2008), specific training of future primary school teachers for working with students’ parents in higher education institutions (shanskova, 2000)); inclusion (pedagogical principles of activities of public organizations in the field of inclusive education policy in ukraine and canada (firth, 2014), some ways of developing a child’s personality in the system of inclusive education in france (perkhun, 2017), training future education managers for professional activities in inclusive practice (malik, 2015), organizational and psycho-pedagogical conditions of integrated support for students with special educational needs in inclusive practice (sophii, 2017), theoretical and methodological principles of inclusive ducation of pre-schoolers in need of psychophysical development correction (kuzava, 2010)); inclusive learning (cultivating relationships between children with musculoskeletal disorders and healthy peers in inclusive practice (chopik, 2014), pedagogical support of younger students with hearing problems (fedorenko, 2015); training future primary school teachers for working in inclusive practice (developing correction competency in future primary school teachers who work in educational institutions with integrated inclusive learning (hnoievska, 2016), developing future primary school teachers’ readiness to evaluate educational attainment in inclusive practice (volkova, 2017), theoretical and methodological principles of training future primary school teachers for professional psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their … oleksandr bezliudnyi et al. 169 activities in inclusive practice (demchenko, 2016). besides, the researchers point to specific training of future teachers in organizing and delivering inclusive teaching. however, they do not purposely address this very problem. foreign studies are mostly focused on the problem of organizing inclusive learning or psycho-pedagogical conditions for the interaction between students with special educational needs and their teachers (efthymiou & kington, 2017; мasud, sharma & deppeler, 2012; mukhopadhyay, nenty & okechukwu, 2012; rouse, 2008). still, this particular problem can be considered differently due to various ethnic and mental factors, legal support and socio-economic status of countries all over the world. given the peculiar nature of inclusive education in every country, the problem of training future primary school teachers for inclusive education and interaction with students’ parents has not been properly studied yet. ukrainian and foreign researchers view teacher training as the main condition for organizing inclusive learning in primary school, although they do not consider this problem in detail. it must be noted that such an aspect as the interaction between primary school teachers with students’ parents in inclusive practice has been covered in some studies. nevertheless, the problem of training future primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive learning (parents of students with /without special educational needs) has not been holistically and systemically studied yet. this research interprets the interaction with students' parents as targeted and constructive cooperation between primary school teachers and students’ parents which is aimed at coordinating their actions to achieve successful educational outcomes. the term “inclusive learning” is regarded as a system of educational services guaranteed by the state and implemented by primary school teachers based on the principles of humanity and tolerance, taking into account their psychophysical characteristics with a view to their unlimited, productive involvement and inclusion in the educational process. professional training of future primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice is understood as the process of obtaining generic and specific (professional) competencies necessary for ensuring constructive communication with parents of students with/without special educational needs based on the principles of pedagogy of partnership with the aim of achieving successful educational outcomes following the principles of humanity and tolerance and taking into their brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 170 psychophysical characteristics with a view to their unlimited, productive involvement and inclusion in the educational process. the scientific value of the obtained results lies in the following: – for the first time, relevant psycho-pedagogical conditions for training future primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice (developing future primary school teachers’ motivational, values-based and responsible attitude to acquiring knowledge, abilities and skills needed for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice; using the opportunities of an educational environment in higher education institutions to develop future primary school teachers’ certain competencies by improving and integrating the content of professional and specialized academic courses, applying innovative and traditional technologies of teaching and learning; focusing academic training and teaching placement towards improving the experience of future primary school teachers in interacting with students’ parents in inclusive practice) have been justified; the model of professional training for future primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice has been developed; the components, criteria, indicators and levels of readiness for such professional activities have been determined; – such concepts as “the interaction with students’ parents”, “inclusive learning” and “professional training of future primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice” have been specified; – the forms and methods of training future primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice have been improved; – the content of theoretical and practical training of future primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice has been generalized and further developed. the practical value of the obtained results consists of developing and implementing the methods for identifying levels of future primary school teachers’ readiness for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice in the educational process of higher education institutions, improving the content of the course on fundamentals of inclusive education/pedagogy and teaching aids under the structure of the course (extracts and full texts of lectures; materials for didactic case studies; plans for seminars, practical classes and laboratory work; formative and summative assessment, exam questions and assessment criteria; tasks for independent work, individual research tasks; tasks for teaching placement, as well as methodological guidelines for university teachers on the methods of psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their … oleksandr bezliudnyi et al. 171 formulating educational tasks. the obtained results can be used by university teachers in professional training of future primary school teachers, in the elaboration of typical training programmes, manuals, textbooks, as well as in the system of postgraduate teacher training courses. the main findings and results can serve as the basis for further research on the pedagogy of higher education. conclusions the paper analyzes the coverage of the problem under study in scientific literature and educational practice. it shows that ukrainian and foreign researchers have laid the methodological basis and determined general theoretical principles of training primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice. the analysis of today’s approaches to training future primary school teachers proves that they are mainly focused on revealing the characteristics of the interaction between primary school teachers and students’ parents in inclusive practice; the role of the teacher who works with students with special educational needs and the requirements for him or her; the behaviour of parents of students with special educational needs. most researchers agree on the fact that future primary school teachers should be specifically trained in various aspects of inclusive practice. however, the problem of training future primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice has not been properly studied yet. besides, the paper monitors the readiness of future primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice based on the analysis of current curricula, syllabi, textbooks and teaching aids used to train future primary school teachers for such interaction. it finds that the content of psycho-pedagogical and professional courses refers to the interaction with parents of students with special educational needs. still, there is no comprehensive coverage of fundamental training for such interaction, and academic methodological support is generally targeted at teachers and parents of pupils with special educational needs. at the same time, professional training of future primary school teachers for the interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice can be complicated by the fact that they cannot always interact with parents of students with/without special educational needs during teaching placement (students’ parents do not always attend educational institutions where their children study). thus, the urgent and complex problems of developing future primary school teachers’ readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 172 practice have been solved slowly, without the necessary organizational and methodological support, which affects the quality of professional training for future primary school teachers. the ascertaining experiment has confirmed the results of the monitoring. it shows that future primary school teachers are mostly at a low level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice. it points out to certain inefficiency of their training for developing the components under study in higher education institutions. the results of the formative experiment prove the effectiveness of the identified psycho-pedagogical conditions: eg respondents are at higher levels of such readiness compared to cg: the number of future primary school teachers with a high level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice has increased by 32.02%; the number of future primary school teachers with an average level – by 7.39%; the number of future primary school teachers with a low level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice has decreased by 39.41%. in cg, the number of future primary school teachers with a high level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice has increased by 3.25% compared to that at the ascertaining stage; the number of future primary school teachers with an average level – by 1.87%; the number of future primary school teachers with a low level of readiness to interact with students’ parents in inclusive practice has decreased by 5.12%. the obtained results indicate some dynamic positive changes in the levels of eg respondents’ readiness under the influence of the proposed psychopedagogical conditions. acknowledgement such a large number of authors is due to the large number of the research sample (the experimental group (eg) involved 203 respondents and the control group (cg) 215 respondents, as well as 12 university teachers, 36 primary school teachers and 115 students’ parents of students with/without special educational needs) and the broad geography of the research. the experiment was conducted at volodymyr vynnychenko central ukrainian state pedagogical university, pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, khmelnytskyi national university, mykhailo kotsiubynskyi vinnytsia state pedagogical university and lesia ukrainka eastern european national university). the research involved the cooperation of 12 authors with 6 universities and 36 primary school teachers and 115 parents of pupils with / without special educational needs. psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their … oleksandr bezliudnyi et al. 173 the authors conducted significant methodological work. in this regard, each of the authors worked on their technical task. in particular, the author’s programme of the formative experiment includes the following objectives: to correct the syllabus of the course on fundamentals of inclusive education / pedagogy; to use active forms and methods of teaching and learning (traditional and interactive lectures, practical classes, conversations, discussions, debates, motivational workshops, educational work, club activities, volunteering); to improve teaching aids in accordance with the structure of the course on fundamentals of inclusive education / pedagogy (extracts and full texts of lectures; materials for didactic case studies; plans for seminars, practical classes and laboratory work; formative and summative assessment, exam questions and assessment criteria; tasks for independent work, individual research tasks, tasks for teaching placement); to elaborate guidelines for university teachers on the methods of formulating educational tasks, working on case studies, planning and conducting organizational forms of cooperation with students, as well as the methods of reflection while implementing the model of preparing future primary school teachers for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice. references alieko, o. a. (2016). formuvannia pervynnoho sotsialnoho dosvidu dytyny u protsesi vzaiemodii suspilnoho i rodynnoho vykhovannia [developing a child’s primary social experience during the interaction between social and family education] [unpublished phd thesis]. donbas state pedagogical university, sloviansk. andrushchenko, n. v. (2017). vykhovannia zdoroviazberezhuvalnoi povedinky starshykh doshkilnykiv u vzaiemodii doshkilnykh navchalnykh zakladiv i simi [cultivating health-promoting behaviour in older pre-schoolers during the interaction between pre-schools and families] [unpublished phd thesis]. pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman. bibik, n. (2010). kompetentnist i kompetentsii u rezultatakh pochatkovoi osvity [competency and competences in the results of primary education]. primary school, 9, 1–4. bida, o., honcharuk, v. & honcharuk, v. (2016). tolerantnist – kompleksna osobystisna ta profesiina yakist maibutnoho vchytelia pochatkovykh klasiv [tolerance as a complex personal and professional quality of future primary school teachers]. journal of cherkasy university. series: pedagogical sciences, 9, 145–148. buzduhan, o. a. (2013). pidhotovka maibutnikh uchyteliv pochatkovykh klasiv do pedahohichnoi vzaiemodii z batkamy uchniv [preparing future primary school brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 174 teachers for pedagogical interaction with students’ parents] [unpublished phd thesis]. k. d. ushynskyi south ukrainian national pedagogical university, odesa. chopik, o. v. (2014). formuvannia vzaiemyn ditei z vadamy oporno-rukhovoho aparatu iz zdorovymy rovesnykamy v umovakh inkliuzyvnoho navchannia [cultivating relationships between children with musculoskeletal disorders and their healthy peers in inclusive practice] [unpublished phd thesis]. m. p. national pedagogical university, kyiv. demchenko, i. i. (2016). teoretychni i metodychni zasady pidhotovky maibutnoho vchytelia pochatkovykh klasiv do profesiinoi diialnosti v umovakh inkliuzyvnoi osvity [theoretical and methodological principles of training future primary school teachers for professional activities in inclusive practice] [unpublished phd thesis]. pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman. dudnyk, n. a. (2016). ekonomichne vykhovannia starshykh doshkilnykiv u vzaiemodii doshkilnoho navchalnoho zakladu i simi [economic education of older preschoolers during the interaction between preschool and family] [unpublished phd thesis]. pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman. efthymiou, e. & kington, a. (2017). the development of inclusive learning relationships in mainstream settings: a multimodal perspective. cogent education, 4(1), 1.23. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2017.1304015 fedorenko, o. f. (2015). pedahohichnyi suprovid molodshykh shkoliariv zi znyzhenym slukhom v umovakh inkliuzyvnoho navchannia [pedagogical support for younger students with hearing problems in inclusive practice] [unpublished phd thesis]. the institute of special pedagogy, kyiv. fert, o. h. (2014). pedahohichni zasady diialnosti hromadskykh orhanizatsii u sferi formuvannia inkliuzyvnoi osvitnoi polityky v ukraini i kanadi [pedagogical principles of activities of public organization in the field of inclusive education policy in ukraine and canada] [unpublished phd thesis]. ivan franko zhytomyr state, zhytomyr. firth, r. (2014). disciplinary knowledge and task design in geography. in i. thompson, (ed.), designing tasks in secondary education enhancing subject understanding and student engagement (pp. 70-85). routledge. flehontova, n. m. (2008). slovnyk-dovidnyk terminiv pedahohichnoho marketynhu [a reference dictionary of pedagogical marketing terms]. osvita ukrainy. hnoievska, o. yu. (2016). formuvannia korektsiinoi kompetentnosti vchytelia pochatkovykh klasiv zahalnoosvitnoho zakladu z inkliuzyvnoiu formoiu navchannia [developing correctional competency in primary school teachers who work in educational institutions with integrated inclusive learning] [unpublished phd thesis]. m. p. national pedagogical university, kyiv. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2017.1304015 psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their … oleksandr bezliudnyi et al. 175 kolyshkina, a. p. (2014). formuvannia ekolohichno dotsilnoi povedinky uchniv pochatkovykh klasiv u vzaiemodii shkoly i simi [cultivating environmentally friendly behaviour in primary school students during the school-family interaction] [unpublished phd thesis]. the institute of problems in character building of the national academy of pedagogical sciences, kyiv. komar, o. a. (2010). systema vzaiemodii pidrozdiliv pedahohichnoho vnz u pidhotovtsi maibutnoho vchytelia pochatkovoi shkoly do zastosuvannia interaktyvnoi tekhnolohii [the system of the interaction between department of pedagogical universities in the training of future primary school teacher for applying interactive technologies]. journal of cherkasy university. series: pedagogical sciences, 191, 58–62. koval, l. v. (2009). profesiina pidhotovka maibutnikh uchyteliv pochatkovoi shkoly: tekhnolohichna skladova [professional of future primary school teachers: the technological component]. yuho-vostok. krasiuk, l. v. (2008). formuvannia osnov profesionalizmu maibutnikh uchyteliv pochatkovykh klasiv u protsesi modeliuvannia pedahohichnykh sytuatsii [developing the principles of professionalism in future primary school teachers while modelling pedagogical situations] [unpublished phd thesis]. the institute for higher education of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv. kuzava, i. b. (2010). problema profesiinoi pidhotovky maibutnikh pedahohiv do roboty z ditmy z osoblyvymy potrebamy v umovakh inkliuzyvnoho navchannia [the problem of future teachers’ professional training for working with children with special needs in inclusive practice]. scientific journal of lesia ukrainka volyn national university, 14, 40–43. liakisheva, a. v. (2015). teoretyko-metodychni zasady formuvannia sotsialnoi povedinky studentiv u protsesi hrupovoi vzaiemodii [theoretical and methodological principles of developing students’ social behaviour during group interaction] [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. the institute of problems in character building of the national academy of pedagogical sciences, kyiv. malik, m. v. (2015). pidhotovka maibutnikh menedzheriv osvity do upravlinnia zahalnoosvitnim navchalnym zakladom v umovakh inkliuzii [preparing future education managers for professional activities in inclusive practice] [unpublished phd thesis]. k. d. ushynskyi south ukrainian national pedagogical university, odesa. matviienko, o. (2010). teoretyko-metodychni zasady pidhotovky maibutnikh uchyteliv do pedahohichnoi vzaiemodii u navchalno-vykhovnomu seredovyshchi shkoly pershoho stupenia [theoretical and methodological principles of training future teachers for pedagogical interaction in primary school] [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. m. p. national pedagogical university, kyiv. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 176 mukhopadhyay, s., nenty, h. j. & okechukwu, a. (2012). inclusive education for learners with disabilities in botswana primary schools. sage open, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244012451584 perkhun, l. v. (2017). formuvannia osobystosti dytyny u systemi inkliuzyvnoi osvity frantsii [developing a child’s personality in the system of inclusive education in france] [unpublished phd thesis]. i. franko drohobych state pedagogical university, drohobych. raven, j. (1991). the tragic illusion: educational testing. trillium press. rouse, m. (2008). developing inclusive practice: a role for teachers and teacher education? education in the north, 16(1), 613. shanskova, t. i. (2000). analiz suchasnykh tendentsii rozvytku simi yak osnova sotsialno-oriientovanoi pidhotovky maibutnikh vchyteliv pochatkovykh klasiv do roboty z batkamy uchniv [analyzing current trends in family development as a basis for socially-oriented training of future primary school teachers for working with students’ parents]. the problems of education, 22, 104–114. sophii, n. z. (2017). orhanizatsiino-pedahohichni umovy intehrovanoho suprovodu uchniv z osoblyvymy osvitnimy potrebamy v inkliuzyvnomu navchalnomu zakladi [organizational and pedagogical conditions of integrated support for students with special educational needs in inclusive practice] [unpublished phd thesis]. the institute of special pedagogy, kyiv. tsurkan, t. h. (2018). formuvannia pedahohichnoi kultury batkiv molodshykh shkoliariv u vzaiemodii simi i shkoly [developing pedagogical culture in younger students’ parents in the context of the interaction between family and school]. [unpublished postdoctoral thesis]. pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman. volkova, k. s. (2017). formuvannia hotovnosti maibutnikh uchyteliv pochatkovykh klasiv do otsiniuvalnoi diialnosti v umovakh inkliuzyvnoi osvity [developing readiness in future primary school teachers to evaluate educational attainment in inclusive practice] [unpublished phd thesis]. a. s. makarenko sumy state pedagogical university, sumy. yastrub, o. o. (2016). formuvannia kultury mizhosobystisnoi vzaiemodii u maibutnikh uchyteliv pochatkovoi shkoly u pozaaudytornii roboti [developing future primary school teachers’ culture of interpersonal interaction during extracurricular activities] [unpublished phd thesis]. pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman. zinchenko, l. v. (2013). vzaiemodiia simi, shkoly ta hromadskosti u vitchyznianii pedahohichnii teorii i praktytsi (1946–1991 rr.) [the interaction between family, school and the public in the national pedagogical theory and practice (1946-1991)] [unpublished phd thesis]. crimean university for the humanities, yalta. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244012451584 psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their … oleksandr bezliudnyi et al. 177 мasud, a., sharma, u. & deppeler, j. (2012). variables affecting teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education in bangladesh. journal of research in special educational needs, 12(3), 132–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14713802.2011.01226.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-3802.2011.01226.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-3802.2011.01226.x brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 207-219 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/137 oral rehabilitation therapies in a patient with facial dysmorphia and psychiatric profile clinical case report laura elisabeta checheriţă¹, lucian ştefan burlea 2 *, liana aminov 3 , raluca elena baciu 4 , bogdan petr bulancea 5 , ioana rudnic 6 , iulian costin lupu 7 , ovidiu stamatin 8 1 department of odontology, periodontology and fixed prosthesis, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universităţii street, 700115, iasi, romania 2 public health and management department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universităţii street, 700115, iasi, romania; e-mail: lucianburlea@yahoo.com * corresponding author 3 department of odontology, periodontology and fixed prosthesis, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universităţii street, 700115, iasi, romania 4 department of oral-implantology, dental prostheses technology, removable dentures, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universităţii street, 700115, iasi, romania. 5 department of oral-implantology, dental prostheses technology, abstract: this article describes rehabilitation of one case, complex psychiatric treatment, facial asimetry, with mandibular and maxilla missing teeth and dental disharmony, with a fixed and also removable hybrid prosthesis. rehabilitation with fixed or removable prosthesis is even more challenging when the edentulous span is long and the ridge is irregular deformities and unfavorable biomechanics encountered at the prosthetic field for complex rehabilitation. in such situation, a fixed-removable prosthesis allows favorable biomechanical stress distribution along with restoration of esthetics, phonetics, comfort, hygiene, and better postoperative care and maintenance. keywords: fixed dental prosthesis; fixed-removable partial denture; mandibular and maxilla edentation; removable partial denture; psychiatric treatment. how to cite: checheriţă, l. e., burlea, l. ş., aminov, l., baciu, r. e., bulancea, b. p., ioana, r., lupu, i. c., stamatin, o. (2020). oral rehabilitation therapies in a patient with facial dysmorphia and psychiatric profile clinical case report. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 207-219. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/137 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/137 mailto:lucianburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/137 removable dentures, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universităţii street, 700115, iasi, romania. 6 department of odontology, periodontology and fixed prosthesis, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universităţii street, 700115, iasi, romania 7 public health and management department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universităţii street, 700115, iasi, romania 8 department of oral-implantology, dental prostheses technology, removable dentures, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universităţii street, 700115, iasi, romania. oral rehabilitation therapies in a patient with facial dysmorphia … laura elisabeta checheriţă, et al. 209 introduction facial dysmorphisms are a complex clinical entity with profound facial implications the picture of this is even more complex given the facial echo of dental imbalances caused by edentation and their complications and also general disease influences (agarwal et al., 2011; chronopoulos et al., 2008; munot et al., 2017; roumanas, 2009). in general, the facial asymmetry of adult patients are candidates for surgical correction therefore, patient assessment and selection remain major issues in diagnosis and treatment planning. it depends very much on the degree of asymmetry so mild to moderate facial asymmetry can be managed by orthodontic treatment. severe skeletal asymmetry most often requires a management protocol surgery (chan, 2008; itoh et al., 2008; ishizaki et al., 2010; oh & basho, 2010). minor facial asymmetry is common and can be observed in every individual there is a normallity in the aesthetic norms, facial asymmetry affects the lower half of the face more than the upper face. such dysmorforpholgychal facial aspects, are, in general, due to congenital, traumatic, or developmentaldeformities. developmental deformities may be associated with idiopathic causes which might gradually progress into definite facial asymmetry (emami & feine 2010; olthoff et al., 2007; weber & sukotjo, 2007). facial asymmetry is the condition in which one half side of the face does not resemble to the other in shape and dimensions and can be from dental origin or be caused by a different type of occlusal imbalances, general affectation that can induced the idee of assimetry or some kind ofocclusal conditions such as unilateral cross-bite, forced lateroocclusion, discrepancy of the midlines of the upper and lower dental arch present extraoraly with facial asymmetry. prosthetic dentistry train the restoration and maintenance of oral functions, comfort, stability, appearance, and health of the patient by the substitution of missing teeth and contiguous tissues with artificial substitutes (brown et al., 2016; nur et al., 2016; gharechahi et al., 2008; jackson et al., 2013). our clinical case is representedby c.m., from iasi, 52 years old male patient, builder, divorced, with accentuated profile of depression (fig. 1. a), facial assimetry objectified by facial measurements, facial index 118, leptoprosop (fig. 2. b, c, d), and psychiatric treatment for depression. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 210 fig.1. a,b,c,d,e, f.face and profile examination and anthropometricmeasurements. reasons for presentation were: masticatory and physiognomic disorders, gingival bleeding, halitosis. history of the disease: chronology and etiology of tooth losstooth loss began 37 years ago and has continued until today, due to the complication of tooth decay. the patient does not received previous prosthetic treatment, and the dental treatments performed were in an emergency. general and dental hereditary-collateral antecedents: his mother: hypertension; multiple cariouslesions and periodontal disease. general and dental personal history: depression, hypertension, hypertyroidism and at dental level: multiple carious lesions, periodontal disease, radicular chist. living and working conditions: hightlevel of stress, physicalwork also accentuated family misunderstandings. at tmj also muscular subjective clinical examination: absence of pain but a tmj disorder (fig 2. a, b, c, d, e). fig. 2. a, b, c, d, e. tmj and muscle clinical examination. objectivetmj exam: static inspection: left latero-deviation 2mm; dynamic inspection: lateral deviation of the chin to the left at the maximum opening of the mouth; in profile the step movement of the chin. palpation: asymmetrical, asynergic movements, of increased amplitude on the right side. listening: right joint crack. oral rehabilitation therapies in a patient with facial dysmorphia … laura elisabeta checheriţă, et al. 211 tmj mobility: opening4 cm; right laterality7mm; left side8mm; propulsion10 mm; retropulsion1 mm. the examination of the maxillary and mandibular dental arches as well as the examination of the static and dynamic occlusion we notice important imbalances and the presence of the potential prosthetic divides but also the functional irregularity of the ridges and the existing disharmonies (fig. 3. a, b, c). fig. 3. a, b, c. intraoral examinationmaxillar, mandibylar and occlusal initial aspects. in order to obtain a complete and solid diagnosis, we are accompanied by the presence of paraclinical examinations oropantomography and the study model that objectifies us and offers us important suggestions in the subsequent therapeutic approach (fig. 3, 4). fig. 3. paraclinical examination orthopantomography. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 212 fig. 4. model study executed after surgical intervention– extraction of radicular rests (14, 24, 25, 26, 34, 45, 47) and 1.2, 2.3 frontal cystectomy. after all the investigations we can focus on the case diagnosis. diagnosis i. general health status diagnosis-general status allows the dental treatment. ii. loco-regional diagnosis: 1. dental integrity diagnosis: abrasion: at the teeth level: 13, 23, 33, 31, 41, 42, 43 (2nd class broca), 35 (1st class broca), of functional etiology, affecting physiognomic and masticatory function and stationary evolution, without local complications, favorable prognosis, untreated. 2. coronary odontal lesions: to the level of the teeth: 28, 44, (class 1 black), 35, 22, 32 (class 4 black), of microbial etiology, with the affect of the physiognomic functions, the masticatory ones, with slow evolution, without local complications, favorable prognosis, untreated. 3. pulpal lesions: simple pulpalgangrene, located at the level of tooth 48, of microbial etiology, with impaired masticatory, physiognomic and phonetic function with slow evolution, without local complications, favorable prognosis, untreated. chronic periodontitis, located at the level of teeth: 12, 32, 22 bacterial etiology, with impaired masticatory and physiognomic function, with slow evolution, without local complications, favorable prognosis, untreated. 4. periodontal integrity diagnosis: generalized chronic marginal periodontitis, maxilla and mandibular, medium, of microbial etiology, with chewing and physiognomic disorders, with slow evolution in time, with local complications (dental migration) and loco-regional (tmj dysfunction), with favorable prognosis by treatment, untreated. 5. arch integrity diagnosis: oral rehabilitation therapies in a patient with facial dysmorphia … laura elisabeta checheriţă, et al. 213 extended, maxillary partial edentation, kennedy class ii, with 2 changes, subclass c lejoyeux, of carious etiology, with masticatory, physiognomic, swallowing, phonetic disorders, slow evolution with local (dental migration) and loco-regional (tmj) complications, with favorable prognosis by treatment, untreated. extended, mandibular partial edentation, kennedy class ii, with a modification, subclass b lejoyeux, of carious etiology, with masticatory, phonetic disorders, physiognomy, swallowing, slow evolution with local (dental migration) and loco-regional (tmj) complications, with favorable prognosis by treatment, untreated. tmj diagnosis: articular dysfunction, tmj impairment through asymmetric, asynergic and left lateral deviation of the 3 mm chin in the opening movement, the etiology given by malocclusion, with masticatory functional disorders, swallowing with slow evolution, with local and locoregional complications, prognosis, untreated. 6. muscular dysfunction: muscular dysfunction, muscular hypotonia on elevators and orofacials (orbicularia of the lips; buccinator) of the etiology given by the joint dysfunctions and malocclusion, with functional masticatory disorders, swallowing, physiognomic, phonetic, with slow evolution, with local-regional and prognostic complications, favorable in case of treatment, untreated. 7. homeostasis dysfunction dysfunctional, maxilla and mandble, compensating dishomeostasis, clinically manifest (laterodeviation, malocclusion, malposition, asymmetrical muscular contraction), odontal and periodontal etiology, with impaired physiognomic, masticatory and self-sustaining functions, with slowly progressive local evolution,abrasion degree, frontal mandibular and superior canine ) and loco-regional (muscular, joint), prognosis reserved, untreated. 8. mucosa, tongue, salivary gland integrity diagnosisnormal. 9. surgical diagnosis: irrecoverable root residues, at the level of teeth: 14, 24, 25, 26, 34, 45, 47, of carious etiology, affecting the masticatory and physiognomic functions, with local complications, unfavorable prognosis, untreated. hygiene diagnosis: unsatisfactory oral hygiene. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 214 in order to complete the treatment plan, we organize ourselves in management for the complex oral rehabilitation of the patient with the restoration of the occlusion plan, the cranio-mandibular repositioning with the help of temporary acrylic partial dentures as well as therapeutic situation. treatment plan: 1. health education: • patient awareness on its oral health; • explanation of sanitation methods for oral hygiene (a correct brushing technique, encouraging the use of dental floss and mouthwash); • convincing the patient about the utility of the treatment; • proposing and establishing the optimal treatment plan and treatment stages. 2. general preparation of the body: • physical: correct diet; • psychological: creating a good psychological tonus with a fair, serious and understanding attitude of the dental team. 3. pre-prosthetic treatment plan: cariestreatment at 28, 44, (class 1 black), 35, 22, 32 (class 4 black) and for abrasion of frontal area group. pulpartreatment at 12, 32, 22. periodontal component: scaling; professional brushing. surgical treatment cystectomy and extraction. 3. pro-prosthetic treatment plan: preparation of organic substructures at maxilla and mandibular and ios rebuiling structure of 1.2,and 2.2(fig.5.a,b,c). fig 5. a, b, c. preparation of dental substructure and ios dental rebuild. provisory acrilic crown and removable partial denture for maxxila and also mandibular. oral rehabilitation therapies in a patient with facial dysmorphia … laura elisabeta checheriţă, et al. 215 the intermediate stages of the fixed prosthetic treatment of the extraoral and intraoral skeletal sample as well as the temporary prosthesis and the occlusal adaptation of the fixed prosthesis part in the context of the unveiled palate of the occlusion but recovered with the temporary prosthesis (fig. 6. a, b, c). fig 6. a, b, c. extraoral and intraoral aspects of skeletal frame-model study and oral cavity. maxillatherapeutical solution: 6 metallo-ceramic elements,fixed prosthesis (fig. 7. a, b, c ) and flexible therapeutical solution.  class 1 kennedy extended with 1 modifications;  flexible palatal denture composed of: a flexible main connector palatine plate in contact with remaining teeth; 2 acrylic saddle bearing 8 artificial acrylic anatomorphic medium height cusp teeth with emss,at 1.3, 2.3. mandibletherapeutical solution • physiognomic metallo-ceramic bridge 3.5 to 4.4 composed of: crowns– 3.5, 3.3, 4.1, 4.4pontics– 3.4, 3.2 and 3.1; • flexible denture. fig. 7. a, b, c. extaroral and intraoral aspects of metallo-ceramic crowns structures. removable treatment aspects: brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 216 some aspects regarding the treatment with partially adjuvant prostheses and the use of the articulator in achieving an occlusion (fig. 8. a, b,c) as close as possible to our desideratum as well as their adaptation in the hybrid context of the articulated joint prosthesis with the adjuvant for optimal occlusal and temporary stage prosthesis (fig. 9.a,b,c). fig. 8. a, b, c. articulator presentation of removable intermediare etape and extraoral presentation. fig. 9. patient with treatment appliedface and profile. discussions management of cases with facial asymmetry psyhiatric disease, depends on the severity of the discrepancy, the treatment needs of acase, and the esthetic awareness of the patient. facial asymmetry involves a combination of dental, skeletal, and soft tissue factors. a comprehensive diagnosis is important in patients with facial asymmetry so as to formulate a treatment plan suited for each patient. a clinician has to keep in consideration thetreatment needs and desire of the patient before deriving the treatment plan for a case. paraclinical examination, opg, provides three-dimensional details of the craniofacial skeleton and has been used for evaluating disarmony of arches asymmetry also model study and clinical examination inspection. the facial asymmetry is a major aesthetic deficiency, but thanks to modern dentistry it can be successfully resolved through a contemporary prosthetic approach (cristache et al., 2019; zegan et al., 2017; zegan et al., oral rehabilitation therapies in a patient with facial dysmorphia … laura elisabeta checheriţă, et al. 217 2017) in our case not from all points of view (loue & sattar, 2020; popa & dobrescu, 2017) but trying to draw attention to other aspects and thus improving the general appearance in correlation with the treatment of existing general pathologies (jeyavalan et al., 2012; maroulakos et al., 2017). conclusions in our case the treatment with a hybrid denture is an affordable choice to fulfill the patient's esthetic demands together with providing a good prognosis for the prosthesis and preservation the compromise situation. in the context of the complex oral rehabilitation of the solved clinical case we can observe a way forward and motivations of the well-being of the physiognomic masticatory comfort marking an increase of the patient's quality of life. acknowledgments all authors contributed equally to this paper. references agarwal, s., praveen. g., agarwal, s. k., & sharma, s. (2011). twin occlusion: a solution to rehabilitate hemi-mandibulectomy patient-a case report. the journal of the indian prosthodontic society, 11, 254–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13191-011-0091-8 brown, j. s., barry, c., ho, m., & shaw, r. (2016). a new classification for mandibular defects after oncological resection. the lancet oncology, 17(1), e23–e30. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(15)00310-1 chan, c. a. (2008). bite-management considerations for the restorative dentist. dent today, 27(1), 108-113. chronopoulos, v., sarafianou, a., & kourtis, s. (2008). the use of dental implants in combination with removable partial dentures: a case report. journal of esthetic and restorative dentistry, 20(6), 355-364. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1708-8240.2008.00209.x cristache, c. m., totu, e. e., beuran, i. a., cărăuşu, e. m., totu, t, & burlibasa, l. (2019). virtual models obtained via intraoral scanning as alternated to clinical evaluation and betahemihidrate plaster models. revista de chimie, 70(10), 3753-3758. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.10.7640 emami, e., & feine, j. s. (2010). resin-bonded cantilever partial dentures are effective in terms of patient satisfaction in the restoration of the https://doi.org/10.1007/s13191-011-0091-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(15)00310-1 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1708-8240.2008.00209.x https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.10.7640 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 218 mandibular shortened dental arch. journal of evidence-based dental practice, 10(1), 64-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebdp.2009.11.021 gharechahi, j., sharifi, e., aghdaee, n. a., & nosohian, s. (2008). finite element method analysis of the stress distribution to supporting tissues in a class iv aramany removable partial denture. (part i: the teeth and periodontal ligament). the journal of contemporary dental practice, 9(6), 65-72. https://doi.org/10.5005/jcdp-9-6-65 ishizaki, k., suzuki, k., mito, t., tanaka, e. m., & sato, s. (2010). morphologic, functional, and occlusal characterization of mandibular lateral displacement malocclusion. american journal of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics, 137(4), 454.e1-454.e9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2009.10.031 itoh, h., baba, k., aridome, k., okada, d., tokuda, a., nishiyama, a., miura, h., & igarashi, y. (2008). effect of direct retainer and major connector designs on rpd and abutment tooth movement dynamics. journal of oral rehabilitation, 35(11), 810-881. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.13652842.2008.01868.x jackson, t. h., mitroff, s. r., clark. k., proffit. w. r., lee, j. y., & nguyen, t. t. (2013). face symmetry assessment abilities: clinical implications for diagnosing asymmetry. american journal of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics, 144, 663-671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2013.06.020 jeyavalan, m. i., narasimman, m., venkatakrishnan, c. j., & philip, j. m. (2012). management of long span partially edentulous maxilla with fixed removable denture prosthesis. contemporary clinical dentistry, 3(3), 314-316. https://doi.org/10.4103/0976-237x.103625 loue, s., & sattar, a. (2020). visioning inclusion in an academic medical center. postmodern openings, 11(2 supl 1), 79-92. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2sup1/180 maroulakos, g., nagy, w. w., ahmed, a., & artopoulou, i. i. (2017). prosthetic rehabilitation following lateral resection of the mandible with a long cantilever implant-supported fixed prosthesis: a 3-year clinical report. journal of prosthetic dentistry, 118, 678–685. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prosdent.2017.01.019 munot, v. k., nayakar, r. p., & patil, r. (2017). prosthetic rehabilitation of mandibular defects with fixed-removable partial denture prosthesis using precision attachment: a twin case report. contemporary clinical dentistry, 8(3), 473-478. https://doi.org/10.4103/ccd.ccd_117_17 nur, r. b., çakan, d. g., & arun, t. (2016). evaluation of facial hard and softtissue asymmetry using cone-beam computed tomography. american journal of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics, 149, 225-237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2015.07.038 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebdp.2009.11.021 https://doi.org/10.5005/jcdp-9-6-65 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2009.10.031 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2842.2008.01868.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2842.2008.01868.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2013.06.020 https://doi.org/10.4103/0976-237x.103625 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2sup1/180 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prosdent.2017.01.019 https://doi.org/10.4103/ccd.ccd_117_17 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2015.07.038 oral rehabilitation therapies in a patient with facial dysmorphia … laura elisabeta checheriţă, et al. 219 oh, w. s, & basho, s. (2010). esthetic removable partial denture design in replacing maxillary anterior teeth. general dentistry, 58(6), e252-e256. olthoff, l. w, van der glas, h. w., & van der bilt, a. (2007). influence of occlusal vertical dimension on the masticatory performance during chewing with maxillary splints. journal of oral rehabilitation, 34(8), 560-565. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2842.2007.01730.x popa, c. e, & dobrescu, t. (2017). the effectiveness of therapeutic physical exercises in improving balance and coordination in children with down syndrome. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 9(3), 89-102. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0903.06 roumanas, e. d. (2009). the social solution-denture esthetics, phonetics, and function. journal of prosthodontics, 18(2), 112-115. weber, h. p., & sukotjo, c. (2007.) does the type of implant prosthesis affect outcomes in the partially edentulous patient? the international journal of oral & maxillofacial implants, 22(suppl), 140-147. zegan, g., anistoroaei, d., golovcencu, l., cernei, e. r, dascălu, c. g., & cărăuşu, e. m. (2017). physicochemical properties of advanced nanostructured materials for dental microimplant coatings. revista de chimie, 68(9), 2052-2054. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.9.5820 zegan, g., cărăuşu, e. m., golovcencu, l., sodor botezatu, a., cernei, e. r., anistoroaei, d. (2017). nanoparticles deposition on mini-implants for osseointegration and antibacterial properties improvement. revista de chimie, 68(12), 2929-31. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.12.6009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2842.2007.01730.x https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0903.06 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.9.5820 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.12.6009 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances mirela mitu, teodora balaci, eleonora mircia andreea stănescu, anca nicoară, ancuţa fiţa abstract. photoprotective products are considered borderline between cosmetics and pharmaceuticals due to physiological implications they have on skin health considering the environmental changes (radiations, global warming, and the diminished ozone layer) and due to the high demands regarding the balance between the efficacy and the safety of the consumer. the studies we have carried out in this paper consist in the following: selection of the excipients and active ingredients (organic and inorganic filter and/or screen substances, natural products, antioxidants) and the use of a proper technological process for obtaining a dermo-cosmetic product having a good physical and chemical stability, as well as suitable organoleptic and rheological properties in order to ensure the innocuity and pleasant administrating features. keywords: photoprotective dermo-cosmetic product, inorganic ad organic screen photo protective substances, complex photo protective filter 2000 mathematics subject classification: 92c99 46 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances 1. introduction photoprotective products are considered borderline between cosmetics and pharmaceuticals due to physiological implications they have on skin health considering the environmental changes (radiations, global warming, and the diminished ozone layer) and due to the high demands regarding the balance between the efficacy and the safety of the consumer. if the early 1990’s the main purpose was to obtain products with higher photoprotective rates (in some countries the spf reached 100), with the passing of time there was seen an increased demand concerning the consumer safety. this is the reason for which it was considered necessary to impose a limit regarding the maximum spf value and it was admitted a limited concentration of filter and screen substances in the formulation of dermo-cosmetic products. the new trends in research and development of photoprotective products are pursuing the goal of decreasing, down to the elimination if it’s possible, of the negative influences on the skin (high allergenic potential, risk of tissue accumulation, hyperpigmentation) throughout the accomplishment of complex formulations. these formulations have the role of obtaining a targeted action of the pharmaceutical form and to incorporate natural bioactive substances witch can increase the efficiency of the synthetic photoprotective compounds. the studies we have carried out in this paper consist in the following: selection of the excipients and active ingredients (organic and inorganic filter and/or screen substances, natural products, antioxidants) and the use of a proper technological process for obtaining a dermo-cosmetic product having a good physical and chemical stability, as well as suitable organoleptic and rheological properties in order to ensure the innocuity and pleasant administrating features. 2.results and discussions we have used the following ingredients: • one organic filtering photo protective substance: ethylhexyl p-metoxycinamate; • two inorganic screen photo protective substances, insoluble in water and oil: titanium dioxide consisting in particles (having a mean size of 15nm 47 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances and a specific surface of 80m2/g) coated with alumina and silicon (titanium dioxide m170) for improving the stability of the emulsion. we have added in composition zinc oxide which is usually associated with titanium dioxide, who acts on the entire uva and uvb spectrum (table 1, 2); • vegetal extracts having a well determined content in active principles: arnica montana extract, chelidonium majus extract. based on the content in bioactive principles and on the therapeutic effects mentioned by the traditional and modern medicine, we have selected two vegetal products having a well defined content in active principles. the extraction of bioactive principles from selected plants was made by cold maceration method to avoid altering the thermosensitive principles; • one proteic substance: collagen used for the skin elasticity improvement and also known for having an intense skin hydration, firmness and revitalizing effect. collagen is given much attention today by biologists, chemists, physicists, doctors and pharmacists due to his special qualities in the treatment of burns, in cosmetics, in various activities of restoration and regeneration of old leather. the collagen is found manly in the dermis, which is subject to aggressive environmental factors (especially temperature and uv radiation) as well as to the substances used in the current activity. the collagen was proved to have a medium antioxidant activity under peroxidase conditions. adding the vitamins to the system is increasing the protective activity with 5-30%, depending on the type of vitamin used; • natural antioxidants: vitamin a, e and c and synthetic phenolic antioxidants (butylated hydroxy anisole-bha); • natural products having a slight photoprotective effect (inferior to synthetic organic substances) and a hydrating and emollient effect like hippophae rhamnoides oil (sea buckthorn oil), cacao butter and olive oil; • viscosity modifying agents which are providing the requested consistency, and by this increasing the stability; • preservatives which prevent the development of microorganisms during the storage period; 48 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances • natural perfumed composition which ensures the desired organoleptic characteristics of the final product. qualitative and quantitative composition is shown in table( 3). description of the obtaining process: in the oily phase (wax, cholesterol, olive oil, cacao butter, hippophae rhamnoides oil) melted on the water bath on a temperature around 60-70◦c is dispersed the zinc oxide. the water phase in which we have dispersed the titanium dioxide is separately heated at a slightly higher temperature than the oily phase and then is gradually added under continuous stirring over it. the mixture is prepared in a laboratory emulsifying device equipped with a double mixing system which ensures the supply of necessary energy for a strong mixing and makes it possible to avoid the turbulent flow. then we added the organic compound previously fine pulverized and dispersed in a small amount of oily phase and vigorously stirred for 15 minutes until homogenisation. the emulsion obtained in the first part of the technological process, has to be cooled down to 30◦c to allow the incorporation of collagen, the plant extracts and vitamins. throughout the preparation, stirring has an important role, which ensures obtaining a stable and homogeneous preparation and an uniform dispersion of insoluble photoprotective components. the physical and chemical methods used to characterize the row materials and the final products are as following: • to find out the amount of inorganic substances (with screening role) the samples were incinerated for two hours at 800◦c; • the quantity of organic substance (with the uv filtering role) was determined by an uv-vis spectrophotometric method; • vitamins identification was done according to the european pharmacopoeia vi-th edition; • the photoprotective ability was tested by applying a standard amount of emulsion on a synthetic skin device (0,2g/cm2); • to test the microbial stability were applied the european pharmacopoeia vi-th edition stipulations; • to estimate the compatibility with the human skin a standard quantity of sample (0,2g/cm2) was laid under an occlusive patch. the test was 49 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances table 1: the characteristics of the titanium dioxide used characteristics results apearance white powder particle size 14 nm specific surface 80 m2/g tio2 content 99 superficial treatment alumina+silicon spf 25 table 2: the characteristics of the titanium dioxide used characteristics results apearance white powder particle size 60 nm specific surface 17 m2/g zio content 99 superficial treatment stearic acid spf 4,6 made on a 25cm2 surface, on healthy volunteers. after 30 minutes the color intensity of the produced erythema was determined; • the hydrating effect was evaluated through instrumental methods, after applying a sample on a test skin area located on the forearm; • to determine the consistency were performed viscosity and spreadability determinations; • for finding out the stability characteristics, a sample was exposed to stable destructive conditions in order to determine if there are significant changes in the physical and chemical characteristics. 3.results and discutions the preliminary tests have allowed us to establish the necessary quantities of substance for obtaining a homogenous product, pleasant after application 50 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances table 3: qualitative and quantitative composition component quantity ethylhexyl p-metoxycinamate 1g titanium dioxide(m170) 3g zinc oxide 1g arnica montana extract 1g chelidonium majus extract 1g collagen 0.5g vitamin a 300.000 u i vitamin e 0.3g vitamin c 0.5g hippophae rhamnoides oil 3g olive oil 15g cacao butter 5g wax 10g cholesterol 1g sodium hydrogen carbonate sol. 2% 10 g methylcellulosis 0.4g p-hydroxymethylbenzoate 0.05g vitamin c 0.5g buthylhydroxyanisole 0.05g parfumed composition q.s distillated water q.s.ad 100g 51 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances table 4: the physical and chemical characteristics of the product obtained characteristics results appearance homogenous colour white or slightly yellow odor pleasant parfumated ph 6,3 stability at constant temperature stabile, with no segregation of phases volatile substances content 65% oily phase content 15% photoprotective organic substances content 1% photoprotective value 15 which can form a uniform film and assure optimal photoprotective characteristics. the physical and chemical characteristics of the final product are shown in table(4). in order to create an uniform film on the skin surface the forms for dermal application must present the rheological behavior of a liquid. this means that during the contact with the skin the two phases of the emulsion must separate and this separation leads to the decrease of the viscosity down to values that characterize the aqueous solutions. spreading the emulsion on the skin makes it possible to evaporate the aqueous phase and to obtain a uniform film of photo protective substances. the tixotropic structure of the emulsion ensures an optimal distribution of the photo protective film on the skin’s surface. the viscosity returns to high values in a short time after the friction stops (table5 and figures1,2,3). microbiological characteristics the total number of aerobic germs and fungi was determined by the decimal dilution method or the multiple tube test. for identifying pathogenic species we have used specific tests (table6). the evaluation of photodegradation was carried out through the variation of photoprotective factor of the studied product kept 60 minutes under uv radiation at 65◦c. the tests revealed the preservation or even a slight increase in the spf. the use of screen substances in the formulation of photoprotective products results in undesirable sensory characteristics: visible white film on the skin surface, unpleasant sensation, dry or oily skin after application. therefore we considered necessary to evaluate the cosmetic characteristics after applica52 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances table 5: the viscosity of the product stage alfa tensile strength dr viscosity 1 12 346.8 0.33 105090.91 2 13 375.7 0.6 62616.66 3 14 404.6 1 40460 4 16 462.4 1.8 25688.88 5 18 520.2 3 17340 6 20 578 5.4 10703.70 7 24 693 9 7706.66 8 29 838.3 16.2 5173.45 9 38 982.1 27 3639.25 10 42 1213 48.6 2497.53 11 50 1445 81 1783.95 12 43 1820 145.8 1248.76 11 52 1502 81 1855.30 10 42 1213 48.6 2497.53 9 34 982.1 27 3639.25 8 30 867.2 16.2 5351.85 7 24 693 9 7706.66 6 19 549.5 5.4 10168.51 5 15 433 3 14450 4 13 375.2 1.8 20872.22 3 11 317.6 1 31790 2 10 289 0,6 48166.66 1 10 289 0.33 87575.75 53 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances figure 1: spreadability (plasticity) figure 2: variation of the shear stress depending on the speed rate 54 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances figure 3: viscosity variation depending on speed rate table 6: microbiological characteristics of the studied product characteristics results total number of aerobic germs (cf u/g) max. 1000 colour white or slightly yellow odor pleasant parfumated ph 6,3 stability at constant temperature stabile, with no segregation of phases volatile substances content 65% oily phase content 15% photoprotective organic substances content 1% photoprotective value 15 55 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances figure 4: determination of hydration of the skin before applying the product tion of the obtained product. the volunteers who applied the product on the skin appreciated the sensory characteristics such as: easiness of use, pleasant texture, easy absorption without oily traces, appearance, odor and pleasant color (figures 4, 5). the values of the erythema are relatively low, which indicates that the product is compatible with the skin and has no sensitizing potential (figure6). having a complex composition of ingredients with varying degrees of unsaturation, with the major organic structure, the product is subjected to destructive processes at the impact of uv radiation and atmospheric oxygen. as a result this organic substances undergo structural changes, embodied in the initial color change, division of chain, forming oxidizing action groups and oxygen free radicals that continue the destructive process. because of these features, the product was subjected to accelerated tests of thermal and photo destruction. as a result of these tests, the product’s characteristics have not changed significantly. 4.conclusions the aim of the study was to obtain a complex photoprotective, dermocosmetic pharmaceutical form. the first phase was to sort out the natural products that contain bioactive compounds and to find the best associations 56 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances figure 5: determination of skin hydration after 30 minutes after application figure 6: erythema values before and after 10 minutes from application 57 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances with photo protective (filtering and screen) substances. after the formulation stage, we studied the physical, chemical and biological features of the final product, and then its cosmetic efficiency. references [1] merica, e. tehnologia produselor cosmetice, vol i, substanţe active şi aditivi, ed. corson, 2000 [2] carreras, e., ”fh sunscreens protection against erythema and immunosuppression”, scientific dossier, barcelona, 2002 [3] iftimie n., giurginca m., meghea a, revista de chimie, 55, 1, 18 21, 2004 [4] arteel, g. e. a., sies, h., environmental toxicology and pharmacology, 10, 153 158, 2001 [5] halliwell b, nutrition reviews, 8, 253 265, 1994; [6] inchuk, i., lichtenberg, d., progress in lipid research, 41, 279 314, 2002; [7] iftimie, n., herdan, j. m., giurginca, m., meghea, a., revista de chimie, 55, 512 514, (2004); [8] iordăchescu d., dumitru, i. f., biochimie practică, ed. a 2 -a, ed. universităţii bucureşti, 1988 ; [9] birghilă s., popescu v., dobrinaş s., matei n., rev. chim., 54, 3, p. 289, 2003; [10] bungău s., bâldea i., copolovici l., rev. chim., 54, 3, p. 213, 2003; [11] young, a. r., walter, s. l., photodermatol photoimmunol photomed, 15, 221 225, 1999; [12] boldeman, c., breitner, h., jansson, b., nilsson, b, ullen, h., br j. dermatol 135, 712 716, 1996; 58 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances [13] autier p., dore f. f., cattruzz m. s., et all, , j. natl. cancer inst, 90, 1873 1880, 1998; [14] azurdia, r. m., pagliaro, j. a., diffey , b. l., rhodes, l. e., br. j. dermatol, 140, 255 258, 1999. [15] li gy, fukunaga s, takenouchi k, nakamura f. comparative study of the physiological properties of collagen, gelatin and collagen hydrolysate as cosmetic materials. research group of animal product science, graduate school of agriculture, hokkaido university, japan. int j cosmet sci. 2005, apr;27(2):101-6. [16] ţăranu, t., zbranca, a. ”dermatologie generală şi estetică”, ed.gr.t.popa, iaşi 7-10, 2003 [17] elias, j.j. ”handbook of cosmetics science and tehnology”, marcel dekker inc., new york, 19-27, 2001 [18] eckert, r.l., crish, j.f., banks, e.b., welter, j.f., j invest. dermatol., 109, 501-509, 1997 [19] krutman, j., j dermat.sci., 23 suppl. 1, s22-s26, 2000 [20] riley, p.a. international journal of radiation biology, 65, 2733, 1994 [21] ciulei, i., grigorescu, e., stănescu, u. ”plante medicinale. fitochimie şi fitoterapie”, vol.ii, ed.medicală, bucureşti, 1993 [22] knowlton, j. pearce, s. ”handbook of cosmetics science and tehnology”, section 2 ”legislation”, 1st edition, ed. elsevier advanced technology, oxford, 52 63, 1993 [23] *** romanian pharmacopoeia, xth edition, bucharest, ed. medicală, 1993. [24] *** european pharmacopoeia vith edition, 2006. 59 m. mitu, t. balaci, e. mircia a. stănescu, a. nicoară, a. fiţa studies towards obtaining a photoprotective dermo-cosmetic complex product with natural extracts of inorganic and organic substances mirela mitu, teodora balaci, andreea stănescu, anca nicoară, ancuţa fiţa department of pharmaceutical technology faculty of pharmacy university of medicine and pharmacy ”carol davila”, bucharest e-mail:aastanescu@gmail.com eleonora mircia department of organic chemistry, faculty of pharmacy, university of medicine and pharmacy, târgu-mureş, romania 60 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 118-135 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/174 cognitivebehavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy oleksandra kuzo¹, anzhela posokhova 2 , liubov kuzo 3 1 ph. d. in psychology, assistant professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, lesyabasyuk@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7028-7180 2 ph. d. in philology, assistant professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, posokh3006@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3330-0195 3 ph. d. in psychology, associate professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, kuzolyubov09@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-3262 abstract: among the variations of anxiety disorders, generalized anxiety disorder is considered to be one of the most problematic. in times of intense social transformation, the issue of mental health of the youth, in particular the prevalence of tendencies to generalized anxiety disorder among young people arises. for this reason, the purpose of the article is to investigate the propensity of young students to excessive experiences and propose a model of understanding and treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. cognitive-behavioral methodology is used while the study for understanding generalized anxiety disorder, pswq experience questionnaire, wws-ii experience value scale, and two survey items. the results of the study show that 18% of the youth surveyed have a high level of anxiety. such young people can be considered a risk group for generalized anxiety disorder. the results of the study indicate that respondents with a high level of worry are statistically more likely to perceive worries as those helping them to solve problems, motivate them to act and are able to prevent negative results. such positive beliefs about the experience may reduce the perceived need to seek help from psychologists and psychotherapists. a description of the clinical case is given and the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions is demonstrated. an algorithm for working with clients is proposed, which is based on a modern protocol for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. it includes: qualified examination; reassessment of the usefulness of the worry; assistance in a realistic understanding of ambiguous situations as such that are not clearly threatening; rethinking attitudes to situations of uncertainty; use of exposures for the purpose of deeper processing of the stimulus in a nonverbal way; skills of overcoming negative emotions without avoiding them. an attempt to combine the clinical paradigm and the scientific position is made in the article. nowadays there are very few studies based on cognitive-behavioral methodology in ukraine. keywords: generalized anxiety disorder; the youth; excessive worries; meaning of experiences; cognitive-behavioral therapy; description of a clinical case. how to cite: kuzo, o., posokhova, a., & kuzo, l. (2021). cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 118-135. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/174 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/174 mailto:lesyabasyuk@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7028-7180 mailto:posokh3006@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3330-0195 mailto:kuzolyubov09@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-3262 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/174 cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy oleksandra kuzo, et al. 119 1. introduction one of the most common causes of reduced quality of life is anxiety. however, in such cases it is difficult for people to get oriented which specialists (fortune tellers, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, somatic doctors and priests) are necessary and helpful. on the other hand, excessive propensity to experience is often not seen at all as a problem to be addressed. among the many variations of anxiety disorders (social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic attacks, etc.), generalized anxiety disorder (gad) is considered to be one of the most problematic anxiety disorders (simona, 2019; timulak, 2018). clients often do not seek psychological help, considering gad as their "character trait", or may have a belief that it is necessary to worry in order to prevent danger. this disorder is considered the most resistant to psychotherapy compared to other anxiety disorders. scientific sources (kreih, 2017) indicate the period when the risk of gad is the greatest (11-20 years). this age stage covers the college days as well, the age when the image of a successful person is rapidly formed, but a society dictates the requirements high enough for professional and personal realization. however, there is not much research on the mental health of young people, including students. so, the issue of epidemiological study of the tendency to excessive feelings among young students and the expediency of timely and professional psychotherapy is relevant. therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate the tendency to excessive experiences among young students and to propose a model of understanding and psychotherapy of gad. such an integrative approach can help to reduce the distance between researches and daily practice. the following tasks are set: 1) to analyze the prevalence of trends in gad among young students by identifying the level of their experiences. 2) to trace the attitude of students to their own excessive worries and their willingness to cope with them. 3) to offer an algorithm of psychotherapeutic interventions when working with gad in the model of cognitive-behavioral therapy (cbt). 2. literature review clinicians view gad as an excessive experience that is difficult to control. experience can be defined as an attempt to mentally solve a problem that is uncertain and potentially threatening (borkovec, robinson, pruzinsky & depree, 1983). these worries can affect various spheres of life, brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 120 including the health of loved ones, work, study, domestic situations, etc. to diagnose gad, such worries should cause psychological distress and impair normal functioning. this article does not aim to provide all the diagnostic criteria for gad, but they can be found in dsm-5 and icd-10. empirical studies indicate the effectiveness of implying cognitivebehavioral therapy (cbt) in dealing with many anxiety disorders, including gad (wells, 2006; borkovec, 1993; craske, 1992; barlow, 2008; dugas, 2007). however, conducting literature review it was found out that there are a number of studies that indicate no differences in the effectiveness of interventions of various kinds, which devalues attempts to find the most effective mechanism of psychotherapeutic effects (butler & booth, 1991). there are also data on behavioral therapy as one that has had minimal effect compared to cognitive interventions (borkovec & costello, 1993). the notion of the nature of gad (borkovec & costello, 1993; jandaghi, 2020) suggests an exposure approach as a potentially effective component of intervention (craske, barlow & o’leary, 1992; king, 2020). successful psychotherapy has reduced the need for medication. the combination of cognitive and exposure therapy more often attracts the attention of researchers and indicates its effectiveness (aziz, 2020; barkowski, 2020;). different models of gad in cbt are singled out, in particular, t. borkovec believes that experience is only a superficial mechanism that a person uses to avoid anxiety at a deeper level and negative emotions (borkovec & inz, 1990). michel dugas, o'connell kent, ren, lei among other scholars examined the intolerance of uncertainty and, as a result, devotion to experiences in order to gain more certainty (dugas, 2007; o'connell kent, 2020; ren, 2020). a number of empirical studies suggest that people with gad interpret events as more threatening than they actually are (borkovec & inz 1990; butler, 1991; dugas 1998). adrian wells and gerald matthews proposed a meta-experience model where people with gad believe that worry is something that can drive you crazy (kreih, 2017). a cognitive model of gad (westbrook, 2014) given below, helps to better understand this disorder (fig. 1). having analyzed most of the described models, it can be stated that these models cover 3 main components of worry: 1) tendency to anxiety (intolerance of uncertainty and positive beliefs about the experience); 2) perception of threat (biased information processing); 3) reinforcement of experience (experience as cognitive avoidance and meta-experience) (kreih, 2017). http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=41056383 cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy oleksandra kuzo, et al. 121 fig. 1. cognitive model of gad according to westbrook d. it is worth mentioning that the cbt method is a rather recent phenomenon in the ukrainian psychological theory and practice, therefore, the researches based on its methodology are insufficient in the domestic scientific literature. in this context, the issue of modern research to improve the quality of mental health care is particularly relevant. the problem of prevalence of tendencies to gad among young people in the period sensitive to personal transformations remains essential and needs profound examination. it should be noted that in this study we deal only with trends, certain pre-nosological forms, excessive levels of anxiety, but not the final diagnosis of gad. 3. research methodology the study involved 125 students of lviv state university of internal affairs and 25 students of the ukrainian catholic university majoring in psychology. most of them were women (120 women and 5 men) of 19-24 age group. the average age of the persons under research was 20 years. the brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 122 respondents were asked to answer the questions of 2 techniques adapted by the ukrainian institute of cognitive-behavioral therapy. 1) pennsylvania experience assessment questionnaire (the penn state worry questionnaire, pswq; (meyer, miller, metzger & borkovec, 1990) the technique allows to identify the tendency to excessive experiences. this is the first technique that mental health professionals in the uk suggest using in the case of gad. the persons under study must evaluate each of the 16 statements on a 5-point likert scale (where 1 stands for not typical for me at all, 5 very typical for me). here are some examples of the statements: "my worries overwhelm me", "it's easy for me to get rid of anxious thoughts", "i worry about projects until they are completely fulfilled", etc. this technique allows to detect low (16-39 points), medium (40-59 points) and high (60-80 points) levels of experiences. it has been proven that this is a reliable and valid tool that allows to assess the intensity of worries. 2) the why worry scale (ww-ii; (freeston et al., 1994) assesses the perceived positive effects of the experience and the reasons for involving people in the experience. it is necessary to evaluate statements from 1 (not typical for me at all) to 5 (very typical for me) by the likert scale. these are the examples of the statements: "if i were not worried, i would be frivolous and irresponsible", "i worry beforehand to be less upset if something really serious happens", "what i am worried about means that i am a sensible person" and etc. in this study, the positive values of experiences were used, because they can eliminate the feeling of need to seek help from a specialist, which makes the process of psychotherapy more complicated. as a result of data processing, it is possible to receive the results on the following subscales: worries help to solve problems; experiences help to motivate; experiences protect a person from heavy emotions if something negative happens; worries in themselves prevent negative results; propensity to experience is a positive quality of a personality. 3) the respondents (people under study) were also asked to answer 2 authors’ questions: 1. if you were experiencing life and personal difficulties, you would most likely turn to: a) a friend; b) a priest; c) a psychologist; d) parents; e) would be left alone with your problems; f) another answers. 2. now i feel that i need psychological help: a) yes; b) no; c) difficult to say. cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy oleksandra kuzo, et al. 123 the results of the survey were subjected to mathematical and statistical data processing. the second part of the article describes the clinical case and proposes an algorithm for working with gad in the cbt model. 4. results the results of the study show that 18% of surveyed students are characterized with a high level of worry (hlw), which is much higher than that mentioned in the scientific psychological sources. according to kreih the incidence of lifelong gad is 4-7% (kreih, 2017). this difference, on the one hand, may be due to the fact that the technique used determines the level of excessive anxiety, rather than certifying the final diagnosis of gad, but, on the other hand, the group under survey meets the age risk of this disorder developing (kreih, 2017). 64% of the surveyed youth have a medium level (mlw) and 18% a low level of worry (llw). the comparative analysis did not reveal statistically significant differences between the surveyed groups (hlw, mlw and llw) in terms of the perceived need to seek psychological help (the authors’ question № 2: "now i feel that i need psychological help"). however, the percentage distribution of the results of the study still has some differences, which are presented in the table 1. based on the results given in the table 1, it can be argued that despite the high level of worry, only 41% of respondents with gad express a conscious need for psychological help. however, interestingly, only 29, 4% could seek such help from a psychologist. most gad respondents prefer to address their parents (65%), friends (41%) or would like to be alone with their experiences (29%). table 1. awareness of the need to seek psychological help among the student youth (the authors’ question № 2) groups of respondents yes no difficult to answer hlw 41 % 35 % 24 % mlw 30 % 30 % 40 % llw 0 % 65 % 35 % it would be interesting to know the reason for the lack of feeling the need for psychological help (59%) among young people if the level of worry is still high enough. in this context, it may be appropriate to hypothesize that experiences help a person to anticipate and plan for the future. this brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 124 hypothesis is consistent with current gad research: "among people with gad, superstitious belief in the effectiveness of experiences is enhanced if the solution they fear does not occur or they successfully cope with the stimulus that "triggers" their experiences" (kreih, 2017). therefore, this pattern can be an important factor in weakening the motivation for treatment. it has been proven that the methods of treatment which take into account the effects of positive assurance about experiences on the maintenance of worry have successfully reduced anxiety and worry (as a result, 75% of individuals met the recovery criteria 12 months after followup) (wells & king, 2006). the results of the correlation study in the general group show that there are correlations between the level of experiences and the attitude to the worries as those helping to solve problems (e.g.: “the fact that i experience helps me to plan my actions in order to solve the problem"(r = 0.25; p <0.05), motivate (e.g.:" experiences stimulate me and make me more effective" (r = 0.28; p <0.05) and protect from heavy emotions if something negative happens (e.g.: "i'm worried in advance to be less upset if something serious really happens" (r = 0.27; p <0.05). these figures are low but statistically significant. while considering respondents exclusively from the hlw group, it was found that in this group there is a correlation between the level of experiences and the attitude to their worries as those that can prevent negative results (e.g.: "excitement itself can prevent failure" (r = 0.76, p <0.05). such a correlation is not observed in the mlw group. the mann-whitney u-test (statistica 8.0) was used to assess the differences between the two independent samples. the smaller is the area of intersection values, the more likely it is that the differences are reliable. table 2. statistically significant differences between groups of respondents with high and low levels of worries on the indicator "experiences help to solve problems." variable mann-whitney u test marked tests are significant at p <.05000 rank sum high level rank sum low level u z p-level z adjuste d p-level vali d n high level vali d n low level 2*1side d exact level pswq 442,000 0 153,000 0 0,0000 4,97709 0 0,00000 1 4,98624 1 0,00000 1 27 27 0,00000 0 solving problem s 360,500 0 234,500 0 81,500 0 2,16994 3 0,03001 2 2,19920 2 0,02786 4 27 27 0,02867 0 cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy oleksandra kuzo, et al. 125 comparative analysis by the mann-whitney test confirms the differences in hlw and llw groups in terms of "problem solving", namely, in the hlw group the respondents are statistically more likely to perceive experiences as those helping them to solve problems and motivate to action (as opposed to mlw). the results of the conducted analyses are presented in table 2, fig. 2 and table 3. table 3. statistically significant differences between groups of respondents with high and medium levels of worries on the indicator "experiences help to motivate". variable mann-whitney u test marked tests are significant at p <.05000 rank sum high level rank sum mediu m level u z p-level z adjuste d p-level vali d n hig h leve l valid n mediu m level 2*1side d exact level pswq 1173,0 00 1830,0 00 0,0000 6,2634 47 0,0000 00 6,2697 96 0,0000 00 27 96 0,00000 0 solving problems 774,50 0 2228,5 00 398,50 00 1,3693 61 0,1708 87 1,37704 9 0,1684 98 27 96 0,17244 2 motivati on 822,00 0 2181,0 00 351,00 00 1,9527 22 0,0508 53 1,96260 1 0,0496 93 27 96 0,05098 4 fig. 2. comparison of the indicator "worries help to solve problems" in the group with high and low levels of experiences brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 126 thus, the worries in the hlw group are perceived egosyntonistically, which complicates the process of awareness of gad and reduces the motivation for psychotherapy. a description of a clinical case of a client’s treatment who has had excessive anxiety is presented in the study. the cbt was held within 27 sessions, once a week. a female, 26 years old, married, has 1 child (3 years old), is on maternity leave, a psychologist by profession. she lives in the village with her husband, son and parents. description of the main complaints (disorders) or problems with which the client applied for therapy, the history of this problem: the client addressed with a complaint "i have a lot of feelings: anxiety, guilt, low self-esteem, panic about my own health, the child's health, rigidity, selfishness, dependence on the others’ opinions, fear of self-expression… i do not know how i came to this way of life. i was always anxious, but this condition worsened when i was forced to wean the 6 months baby because of taking medication incompatible with feeding. i often hesitate whether i dress the child warmly enough, whether or not he eats harmful food ". initially, a thorough survey was conducted (clarifying questions were used to diagnose situational triggers: "in what situations do you notice that you are experiencing more / less? are you managing your experiences?"; ways of processing information: “do you think you are overly worried about insignificant things? do you worry about world events or what you see in the news? "; cognitive avoidance strategies: "does it happen you switch over from worry to worry; behavioral avoidance: "are you doing something to be safe when you are worried about something? are there any situations that you avoid because you are worried that something might happen?”. at first, olha's cognitive model of problems was as follows: cognitions ("i'm bad" / "i'm incompetent", "life is a disaster", "if i don't worry, i’ll not be able to control anything, i'll be a bad mother") emotions (anxiety) physiology (rapid heartbeat, tremors) behavior (avoidance of information related to children's diseases; excessive control; inconsistent behavior; problems in interaction with relatives). related disorders / problems no other possible comorbid disorders (including depression) have been identified, although depressed mood is observed. low self-esteem and perfectionism significantly affect the quality of olha's life and were mentioned by her as problems. diagnosis: a generalized anxiety disorder was diagnosed based on a clinical interview with olha. case definition: on the basis of this survey, which lasted 2 sessions, the following case definition was constructed together with olha (fig. 3). cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy oleksandra kuzo, et al. 127 based on the main problems and goals of olha’s therapy, as well as on the modern protocol of gad therapy, an appropriate treatment plan has been developed (wells, 2006; borkovec, 1993; craske, 1992; barlow, 2008; dugas, 2007), which is close to the below described chronology of sessions. brief history of sessions and description of applied interventions: stage-i sessions 1-2: diagnostic (examination + installation of hope). the client described her problems openly and in detail, was a little embarrassed ("it's a shame to tell how i’ve got to such a life"), it was obvious that the intensity of worries negatively affects her quality of life, but helps to make these problems ego-dystonic. fig. 3. formulation of olha's case. at the end of the sessions, olha constantly asked if psychotherapy could help her, seeking assurances from a psychotherapist. upon completion of the examination she agreed to psychotherapy. sessions 3-4: joint work on formulation of the case was carried out. simultaneously, psychoeducational work on anxiety (3 components of brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 128 anxiety: physiological, cognitive and behavioral), its possible origin (nature of adaptive and non-adaptive anxiety), the role of childhood in shaping patterns of perception of the world and self and the relevant rules of life (lr) was conducted. attention was paid to the lately experienced by the client case. this psychologized understanding of relationships complemented the understanding of collaborative support cycles. socialization was also carried out into the cbt model, where olha easily grasped the situation-thoughtemotion mechanism. when the client expressed her emotions and worries to the full extent, it became evident that the cbt corresponds to olha greatly; she easily accepted its structure and goal orientation. as a hometask, olha had to recognize her inherent cognitive distortions. according to olha’s point of view, almost all of cognitive distortions were familiar for her (catastrophization, selective attention, emotional thinking, reading thoughts, self-blaming, etc.). she mentioned that recognition and understanding of these distortions brought relief. thus, an acquaintance with the model of gad therapy has taken place at this stage. it became possible to understand that frequent prayers were a form of protective behavior. normalization and motivational work were important components of the initial stage of psychotherapy. sessions 5-8 (awareness of symptoms, tolerability of uncertainty, metacognition of worries, problem solving): during these sessions olha learned to notice the symptoms of intensified experiences, the common theme of worries (assess their usefulness-uselessness, examined current or probable danger). olha wrote down the results of homework twice a day in her diary ("what am i thinking / experiencing at the moment?"). (a) situation: premature weaning. (b) and what if: the child will be sick more often (low immunity), will lag behind in development, etc. (c) anxiety: tension, rapid heartbeat, hot flushes / exhaustion, fatigue, depressed mood. (source: authors’ own contribution) olha realized that due to the high level of anxiety she avoids a lot of situations in life or conducts frequent rehearsals (attempts to control everything, searching for information on the internet, etc.). however, this does not deprive her of the feeling that her decision is not the right one. cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy oleksandra kuzo, et al. 129 it was not difficult to notice that the client's anxieties were nourished by deep convictions (dc) "i am bad" (mother, daughter, wife…). however, we planned to work in this direction in the subsequent stages of therapy. an important task of therapy was to understand the process, not just the content of experiences. the next step was to work on understanding the difficulties of tolerance of uncertainty ("allergy to uncertainty"). olha already knew that most of her experiences concerned hypothetical situations of the future and that catastrophic predictions are especially intensely produced in situations of uncertainty. olha's task was to notice (between sessions) situations of uncertainty, to observe what is happening with anxiety at these moments and to hunt for such situations ("long live uncertainty !!!"). such situations included potential illnesses of the child, the possibility of transmitting a throat infection to a child, husband’s working long hours, etc. olha avoided talking about children's illnesses or, conversely, searched the internet for the necessary information, visited doctors, changed the child's clothes several times, doubted whether she gave food of the right temperature, called back to her husband several times. she often changed her mind depending on who said what, for which she blamed herself (there was a feeling that she was ready to live the lives of strangers, but not her own). subsequently, a hierarchy of situations of uncertainty was built, psychoeducational work on exposure and specific steps in this direction was conducted. the client did her homework systematically and bravely, but sometimes continued to look for assurances: "is there a guarantee that my son will not get sick more often than he should?" in the process of therapy, we were forced to return to the fact that there are no guarantees and 100% assurances in life and that "it is impossible to control the weather." it became less scary for her to hear such information, and the "muscle of uncertainty" became stronger. the belief "for nothing bad to happen, everything must be controlled" (90%) has reduced its strength (up to 30%) and undergone transformation. belief in a new persuasion has strengthened (70%): “there are things i can influence, and there are things i can't influence. it is not possible to control everything. the health of the child does not always depend on me. sessions 9-12 the next module addressed the isolation of metacognitions about experiencing and solving problems that olha had accumulated due to disbelief in her own ability to solve them. olha was aware that she needed excessive feelings and largely believed that "if you worry in advance, you can at least avoid unpleasant surprises," "a good mother should worry." with brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 130 the help of socrates' questions, after writing the "advantages" and "disadvantages" of constant experiences, olha's positive beliefs about experiences began to acquire an ego-dystonic character. the client began to understand that not all benefits are achieved only through worries, but the negative impact of experiences is more significant. it has become clear for the client that when solving problems it is very important how you perceive them: as a threat or as an opportunity; how much you believe in your own abilities and what results you expect (catastrophization). the client got acquainted with problem-solving techniques. stage-ii sessions 13-15 (exposure to the worst case scenario / overcoming cognitive avoidance). olha continued to show a strong motivation for psychotherapy, which was supported by previous successful steps. the most disturbing situations for her were the child's potential illness and her own operation to remove the tonsils. at the 2nd exposition session, olha herself expressed a desire to raise concerns about the possible transmission of the infection to a child. the client imagined the cosequences of the situation: “what are the worst consequences of this event? if this still happens, then what's next? why is it so awful? what is the probability that this will happen? what are the possible ways out of this situation?” on non-verbal grounds, it was noticeable how unpleasant it was to see all this (lack of avoiding and protective behavior). olha showed a very rich imagination and an extraordinary level of trust. at the beginning of the work the anxiety reached 90%, and at the end 40%. at home, olha listened to a conversation recorded on a dictaphone, which lowered her anxiety level. under a similar scenario, exposure was performed in the preoperative period (for tonsillectomy). life itself created natural exposures as well (e.g.: the child got sawdust in the eye), and the client, in turn, allowed them to happen (did not run immediately for help, tried to realistically assess the situation and track the dynamics of the level of anxiety). she gladly shared her success at the sessions. stage-iii sessions 16-25 were aimed at working with intermediate and deep convictions), but their analysis is beyond the scope of this article. sessions 26-27 (summarizing and focusing on relapse prevention): therapy was coming to an end, however, olha needed further support because she was waiting for surgery. some detailed work on self-esteem and perfectionism had to be completed, that is expressed in more in-depth study cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy oleksandra kuzo, et al. 131 of profound conviction. it has been singled out that therapy is a finite process and in the end the main task is to become a therapist for yourself; what has been achieved at this stage, and what else is worth working on was cleared out. periodically techniques that have been mastered were recalled and possible ways for their application were distinguished. further task was outlined as follows: to strengthen the belief that the expositions could be conducted independently, and not only under the guidance of a therapist; the awareness that "life is a set of experiences" was gradually integrated, and no one gives 100% guarantees, and so on. it is worth paying attention to individual personal components, such as hyperresponsibility, hyper-control, the need for 100% certainty in future. the result of therapy: although therapy is still considered incomplete, the intermediate results at its final stage are worth discussion. olha often says: "it seems that i am completely different: i do not panic as it used to be, i can more confidently defend my own position, be myself." although the relationship with the husband was not the direct focus of therapy, it can be considered a good marker of positive process: "i began to think about how my husband feels in all this" (a way out of neurotic egocentrism), and thus a relationship with him improved. uncertainty tolerance "muscle" works well, making anxiety manageable. olha made an independent decision about the operation, although her position is different from her mother's. the number of points according to the pswq method has changed from 70p. (at the beginning of the survey) to 59p. (10th session), 42p. (25th session), which indicates a significant reduction in the level of anxiety; according to the beck anxiety scale, the dynamics are as follows: 30p. (2nd session), 19p. (10th session), 15p. (average level of anxiety / 25 session), respectively, according to the method of rapid diagnosis of neurosis by k. heck and h. hess (34p. – 20p.), which indicates a significant reduction in the likelihood of neurosis. although the beck depression questionnaire showed a lower limit of the average level of depression (20 points), at the time of the survey it dropped to 10 points. (absence of depression as such) (fig. 4). measurements on the neurosis scale and the beck depression scale were performed twice, in the initial and final stages, because these scales were used in the study as an aid in assessing the effectiveness of the results of psychotherapy. whereas measurements of the results by the pswq method and the beck anxiety scale have their intermediate results in tracking the level of anxiety, which is a direct subject of research interest. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 132 fig. 4. dynamics of psychotherapeutic results of client olha. note: row1 – session 2; row 2 session10; row 3 – session 25. (source: authors’ own contribution) at the end of therapy on a subjective scale of anxiety from 0 to 10, olya pointed to 3 p. (beginning-9p., with max-10p.), and on the subjective scale of faith in profound conviction "i'm bad" / "life is a catastrophe" 20% (beginning-85%, with max-100%). many changes have taken place in self-esteem, the rules of life have been reformatted and now olha believes in 85% that "i am good enough in myself, i can express my own thoughts and feelings the way i feel", "there are things in this life that should not be controlled." 5. discussion the percentage of respondents who are prone to excessive anxiety in the study is slightly higher than indicated in the psychotherapeutic literature (wells, 2005). the possible reasons for such results were mentioned above. a comparative analysis of the data obtained with the results of other scientists (purdon, 2000) on positive beliefs about anxiety confirms that the presence of such beliefs may be associated with low motivation to get rid of these experiences. in such cases, people may be less likely to seek professional help. in addition, existing empirical studies suggest that if cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy oleksandra kuzo, et al. 133 anxiety is reinforced by various mechanisms, such as cognitive avoidance or negative reinforcement, then positive beliefs about anxiety are also reinforced (kreih, 2017). however, treatments that have taken into account the effects of positive beliefs about experience have been shown to be successful (wells & king, 2006). checking the effectiveness of the results of psychotherapy in this case shows the feasibility of using the proposed protocols for the treatment of gad in cbt, but also requires a flexible approach to each individual client. 6. conclusions the results of the study show that 18% of young people have a high level of anxiety, which may be associated with age, genetic predisposition, social situation in ukraine, high levels of stress in times of shortage, etc. such a group of student youth is a potential risk group for generalized anxiety disorder. the presence of a qualified psychological aid in educational institutions is essential. the results of the study indicate that in the group with a high level of anxiety (hla), respondents are statistically more likely to perceive anxiety as helping them to solve problems, motivate them to action and are able to prevent negative results. such positive beliefs about the anxiety may reduce the perceived need to seek help from psychologists and psychotherapists. only 41% of respondents with a high level of anxiety express the need for psychological help, 59% – do not express such a need. the algorithm of work with clients having generalized anxiety disorder in the cognitivebehavioral therapy model is based on: 1) reassessment of the usefulness of anxiety as a strategy and awareness of the problems that come with excessive worries; 2) assistance in a realistic understanding of ambiguous situations as such that are not clearly threatening; 3) assistance in rethinking the client's attitude to situations of uncertainty; 4) use of exposures for the purpose of deeper processing of the stimulus in a nonverbal way; 5) learning that clients can overcome negative emotions and that they can cope with difficult situations without avoiding them. cognitive and behavioral strategies help to change the way of thinking through the study of objective data and the change of thoughts that provoke worries to more realistic and balanced thoughts. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 134 references barkowski, s., schwartze, d., strauss, b., et al. (2020). efficacy of group psychotherapy for anxiety disorders: a systematic review and metaanalysis. psychotherapy research, 30(8), 965-982. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2020.1729440 barlow, kh., braun, a., & o’leary a. (2008). heneralyzovannoe trevozhnoe rasstroistvo [generalized anxiety disorder]. klynycheskoe rukovodstvo po psykhycheskym rasstroistvam – clinical manual of mental disorders. (pp. 236-307). saint petersburg: piter [in russian]. borkovec, t. d., & costello, e. (1993). efficacy of applied relaxation and cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 61(4), 611–619. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.61.4.611 borkovec, t. d., & inz, j. (1990). the effect of worry on cardiovascular response to phobic imagery. beahaviour research and therapy, 28, 69-73. borkovec, t. d., robinson, e., pruzinsky, t., & depree, j. (1983). preliminary exploration of worry: some characteristics and processes. behaviour research and therapy, 21, 9-16. brittany, r., king, j., boswell, f., schwartzman, c.m., lehrbach, k., castonguay, l.g., & newman, m.g. (2020). use of common and unique techniques in the early treatment phase for cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal/emotional, and supportive listening interventions for generalized anxiety disorder. psychotherapy theory research & practice, 57(3), 457-463. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000277 butler, g., fennell, m., robson, p., & gelder, m. (1991). comparison of behavior therapy and cognitive behavior therapy in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 59(1), 167– 175. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.59.1.167 craske, barlow, & o’leary (1992). mastery of your anxiety and worry. san antonio, tx: psychological corporation/graywind. dugas, m. j., & robichaud, m. (2007). cognitive-behavioral treatment for generalized anxiety disorder: from science to practice. new york: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203891964 freeston, m. h., rheaume, j., letarte, h., dugas, m. j., & ladouceur, r. (1994). why do people worry? personality and individual differences, 17, 791-802. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(94)90048-5 jandaghi, g., firoozi, m., & zia-tohidi, a. (2020). psychological interventions for depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis of iranian chronic pain trials. health promotion perspective, 10(3), 180-191. doi: 10.34172/hpp.2020.31 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=4244917 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=2290417 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=29983569 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=6&doc=55 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=6&doc=55 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=6&doc=55 javascript:; https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2020.1729440 https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-006x.61.4.611 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=king+br&cauthor_id=31944804 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=boswell+jf&cauthor_id=31944804 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=schwartzman+cm&cauthor_id=31944804 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=lehrbach+k&cauthor_id=31944804 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=castonguay+lg&cauthor_id=31944804 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=newman+mg&cauthor_id=31944804 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=1&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=1&doc=4 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=1&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=1&doc=4 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=1&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=1&doc=4 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=1&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=1&doc=4 https://www.researchgate.net/journal/0033-3204_psychotherapy_theory_research_practice https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000277 https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-006x.59.1.167 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203891964 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(94)90048-5 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=1871911 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=3640441 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=40757337 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=7&doc=69&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=7&doc=69&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=7&doc=69&cacheurlfromrightclick=no https://doi.org/10.34172/hpp.2020.31 cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety disorder psychotherapy oleksandra kuzo, et al. 135 kreih, d., & eilvord, e. (2017). heneralizovanyi tryvozhnyi rozlad [generalized anxiety disorder]. lviv: svichado [in ukrainian]. aziz, m.o., mehrinejad, s.a., hashemian, k., & paivastegar, m. (2020). integrative therapy (short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy & cognitive-behavioral therapy) and cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder: a randomized controlled trial. complementary therapies in clinical practice, 39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2020.101122 meyer, t. j., miller, m. l., metzger, r. l., & borkovec, t. d. (1990) development and validation of the penn state worry questionnaire. biheviour research and therapy, 8, 487-495. o'connell, k., anne, j., jackson, a., & robinson, m., et al. (2020). emotionfocused therapy for symptoms of generalised anxiety in a student population: an exploratory study. counselling & psychotherapy research. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12346 purdon, c. (2000) metacognition and the persistence of worry. paper presented at the annual conference of the british association of behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy, london. ren, l., yang, z., wang, y., et al. (2020). the relations among worry, meta-worry, intolerance of uncertainty and attentional bias for threat in men at high risk for generalized anxiety disorder: a network analysis. bmc psychiatry, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02849-w stefan, s., cristea, i. a., tatar, a., szentagotai, et al. (2019). cognitive-behavioral therapy (cbt) for generalized anxiety disorder: contrasting various cbt approaches in a randomized clinical trial. journal of clinical psychology, 75(7), 1188-1202. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22779 timulak, l., keogh, d., chigwedere, c., et al. (2018). a comparison of emotionfocused therapy and cognitive-behavioural therapy in the treatment of generalised anxiety disorder: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. trials, 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-018-2892-0 westbrook, d., kennerley, h., kirk, j. (2014). vstup u kohnityvno-povedinkovu terapiiu [an introduction to cognitive behavioral therapy]. lviv: svichado [in ukrainian]. wells, a. the metacognitive model of gad: assessment of meta-worry and relationship with dsm-iv generalized anxiety disorder. cogn ther res 29, 107–121 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-005-1652-0 wells, a., & king, p. (2006). metacognitive therapy for generalized anxiety disorder: an open trial. journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 37, 206-212. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=orvati+aziz+m&cauthor_id=32379661 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=mehrinejad+sa&cauthor_id=32379661 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=hashemian+k&cauthor_id=32379661 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=paivastegar+m&cauthor_id=32379661 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=5&doc=44&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=5&doc=44&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=5&doc=44&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=5&doc=44&cacheurlfromrightclick=no javascript:; javascript:; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2020.101122 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=41625278 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=1598421 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=9599764 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=2&doc=16&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=2&doc=16&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=2&doc=16&cacheurlfromrightclick=no https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12346 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=41056383 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=41608617 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=1872311 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=2&doc=19&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=2&doc=19&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=2&doc=19&cacheurlfromrightclick=no https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02849-w http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=30303274 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=581708 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=6327540 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=12&doc=117&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=12&doc=117&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=12&doc=117&cacheurlfromrightclick=no https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22779 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=966430 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=35912320 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&lang=en_us&daisids=9237427 http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=18&doc=173&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=18&doc=173&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=18&doc=173&cacheurlfromrightclick=no http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=wos&search_mode=generalsearch&qid=3&sid=e1dkr6v9jafoedbpk19&page=18&doc=173&cacheurlfromrightclick=no https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-018-2892-0 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, pages: 244-264 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/151 methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form inna taran¹, nataliia vasylieva 2 , antonina gurova 3 , yuliia karpukhina 4 , arkadii konkov 5 , tetyana koziy 6 , anastasiia kolomyichuk 7 , tetiana biriukova 8 1 kherson state university, ukraine, inna.recovery@gmail.com 2 kherson state university, ukraine, nataliavasileva85@gmail.com 3 kherson state university, ukraine, agurova2904@gmail.com 4 kherson state university, ukraine, yuliakarpyhina75@gmail.com 5 kherson state university, ukraine, arkadiy.konkov@mail.ru 6 kherson state university, ukraine, tanyakoziy030974@gmail.com 7 kherson state university, ukraine, vertebnaanastasiia@gmail.com 8 kherson state university, ukraine, wwwisdom777@gmail.com abstract: today there is a need to develop a method of hydrokinesis therapy as a means of gradual formation of motor skills in children with spastic diplegia of cerebral palsy of the chronic-residual stage of the disease in a comprehensive program of physical rehabilitation. the purpose of the study is to develop a method of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form. the main novelties of the developed technique of hydrokinesis therapy: development of application of complexes of exercises in hydrokinesis therapy, which differs in structure from the generally accepted methods for patients with cerebral palsy of spastic form in the chronic-residual stage of the disease; combination of means of physical rehabilitation with the technique of hydrokinesis therapy during the annual cycle. the study involved 24 children 3-5 years of age with a diagnosis of "cerebral palsy, spastic diplegia" of the chronic-residual stage of the disease of moderate severity. to achieve this goal, theoretical analysis and generalization of data from scientific and methodological literature were used; pedagogical experiment and observation; medical and biological methods (used anthropometry and pinier index; goniometry, assessment of basic motor functions (abmf) on the likert scale, muscle tone on the ashfort scale, muscle strength on the lovett scale; assessment of manipulative activity and speed response of the hands on trappingthe test made it possible to determine the level of development of fine motor skills); sociological methods (surveys of parents on questionnaires of social and emotional state and level of children's play activities); methods of mathematical statistics were used to process the actual experimental material, assess the reliability of the data. there were significant (p <0.01) changes in the indicators of social and emotional state in children with main group (mg) by 15.5%, in comparative group (cg) by 11.7%, and there was a slight improvement in play activity in children with mg by 9.6%, in cg by 5.75%. the developed method of hydrokinesiotherapy is effective and helps to improve the functions of general and fine motor skills, socio-emotional state and the level of activity of play activities of children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form. keywords: gradual formation; motor skills; physical rehabilitation; therapeutic physical culture; chronic-residual stage of the disease; socioemotional state. how to cite: taran, i., vasylieva, n., gurova, a., karpukhina, y., konkov, a., koziy, t., kolomyichuk, a., & biriukova, t. (2020). methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 244-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/151 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/151 mailto:inna.recovery@gmail.com mailto:nataliavasileva85@gmail.com mailto:agurova2904@gmail.com mailto:yuliakarpyhina75@gmail.com mailto:arkadiy.konkov@mail.ru mailto:tanyakoziy030974@gmail.com mailto:vertebnaanastasiia@gmail.com mailto:wwwisdom777@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/151 methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of … inna taran, et al. 245 introduction disability is a social phenomenon that no society can avoid. according to who experts, the number of children with disabilities and social functions is about 10% of the world's population. in ukraine, children with disabilities average 2-3% of the total number of children (kachan, 2010). among the causes of disability in children in the first place are diseases of the nervous system 18.2% (vashchenko et al., 2012), the prevalence of which has almost doubled over the past 10 years, children with cerebral palsy are leading place 2.6% (khozbey, mishchenko, golik, & gondulenko, 2011; korneev et al., 2012). the problem of cerebral palsy (cp) has not only medical and social (mysula, & vakulenko, 2005), but also universal significance. cerebral palsy is primarily manifested by a violation of movements, balance and body position (badalyan et al., 1988), the inability to distribute muscular effort causes significant difficulties in manipulative activity (mastyukova, 1991). mental retardation is manifested by speech disorders, limited communication with healthy peers, there are difficulties in concentration and attention, reduced emotionality and motivation to play. the variety of clinical manifestations and pathophysiological mechanisms of their development create certain difficulties in the formation of the gradual development of motor skills in the process of long-term rehabilitation (semenova, 2007). different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (sheremet at al., 2019; maksymchuk et al., 2020). many scientists have worked on the problem of organic lesions of the nervous system, in particular cerebral palsy (mastyukova, 1991; kozyavkin et al., 1999). according to these authors, an important component of the treatment process is physical rehabilitation, which currently involves the use of various types of massage, physical therapy (pt), balneotherapy and physiotherapy, mechanotherapy, non-traditional methods (hippotherapy, dolphin therapy, etc.). one of the important forms of exercise therapy is hydrokinesis therapy. as scientists have already noted (bulgakova, 2002; kopchak, 2002; hlazyrin, 2006), the beneficial effects of water on the human body are determined by its physical, chemical and biological properties. hydrokinesiotherapy has a positive effect on the functional state of the body (odynets, 2012), it is successfully used to achieve certain therapeutic objectives in the practice of exercise therapy. due to its effectiveness and brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 246 availability, hydrokinesiotherapy is used in the rehabilitation of patients with cerebral palsy (porshneva, & shchedrina, 2004; avramenko, & kuznetsov, 2006; shmakova, nikitushkina, & skripak, 2011). many scientists worked on the method of hydrokinesis therapy to solve the problem of motor disorders of children with cerebral palsy (zholus, 1980; mosunov, & sazykin, 2002). methods of hydrokinesis therapy provides for the formation of motor skills in infants, without taking into account the specific form of cerebral palsy. according to mosunov, & sazykin (2002), the purpose of hydrokinesis therapy is to teach a child to swim with the consequences of cerebral palsy. isolated foreign studies have focused on the use of water exercises to reduce muscle tone, increase joint amplitude, muscle strength, and overcome pathological attitudes (zwich, leistritz, & milleit, 2004). according to many authors (martyniuk & zinchenko, 2005) and others, the vast majority of patients with cerebral palsy are observed with spastic forms, namely with spastic diplegia. the basis of all elements of human motility is the development of normal tonic and adjusting reflexes, the formation of motility of a healthy child occurs in stages (kozyavkin, & shestopalova, 1999). in children with cerebral palsy of spastic form, the pathological activity of tonic reflexes remains for many years, which is one of the most important factors in the formation of stable pathological postures and attitudes. insufficient experience of movements not only increases motor disorders, but also impairs sensorimotor development (katz, & rymer, 1989). physical rehabilitation of cerebral palsy should be comprehensive, which will contribute to much better results in rehabilitation treatment (voronin, & trach, 2008). the leading methods of physical rehabilitation of cerebral palsy (semenova, 2007) and others are focused on the use of exercise therapy and massage, all of which have many positive features. however, hydrokinesis therapy, due to the properties of water (bulgakova, 2002; kopchak, 2002; hlazyrin, 2006; shulha, 2008) has priority over physical exercises performed on land (odynets, 2012) and is one of the leading means of physical rehabilitation of children with injuries of the nervous system (shmakova et al., 2011). however, in the identified methods of hydrokinesis therapy (zholus, 1980); mosunov, & sazykin, 2002; shpak, 2002) insufficiently developed guidelines for the gradual formation of motor skills in children with cerebral palsy according to the form and stage of the disease. today there are no methodological developments in hydrokinesis therapy for the gradual formation of motor skills in the program of physical methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of … inna taran, et al. 247 rehabilitation of children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form, because in the chronic-residual stage of the disease arbitrary motility is sharply delayed in its development, pathological synergies increase, formed motor stereotype and organic contractures of joints (semenova, 2007), which complicates the process of formation of neuropsychological functions of the child. it can be assumed that the development and implementation of rehabilitation of patients with this severe pathology techniques of hydrokinesis therapy as a means of gradual formation of motor skills of children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy spastic form will allow to more effectively influence the correction of motor functions, suppress the suppression of pathological disorders. the purpose of the study is to develop a method of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form. materials & methods the following research methods were used: theoretical analysis, generalization of data from scientific and methodological literature; pedagogical experiment and observation; medico-biological methods (anthropometry to determine body length (cm), body weight (kg), chest circumference (cm), pinier index, assessment of basic motor functions on a 4-point likert scale, which in turn was divided into five tasks) groups (lying and turning, sitting, crawling, standing, walking, running and jumping), goniometry of the lower extremities (°), assessment of muscle tone of the upper and lower extremities on a 5-point scale of asfort and muscle strength for 6lovet score; evaluation of manipulative activity (grabbing a pencil on a 5-point scale); determining the speed of reaction of the hands on the trapping test (the number of points applied in 5 seconds)); sociological methods (analysis of medical histories, surveys of parents of sick children on questionnaires of social and emotional state and level of play activity in points); methods of mathematical statistics (arithmetic mean, standard deviation, arithmetic mean error were processed by statistical programs microsoft excel and statistica 6.0, for unrelated samples used mann whitney test (p <0,05), for related samples wilcoxon test (p <0,01). at the first stage of the study (november 2017 april 2018) the analysis and generalization of information from scientific and methodological sources was conducted, which allowed to substantiate the goal, to formulate the objectives of the study. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 248 at the second stage (may 2018 july 2018) the place of the study was determined kherson regional center for social rehabilitation of disabled children (kherson). the study involved 24 children 3-5 years of age with a diagnosis of "cerebral palsy, spastic diplegia" of the chronicresidual stage of the disease of moderate severity. two groups of 12 people each were created by random sampling main group (mg) and comparative group (сg). the scheme of individual examination of a child with cerebral palsy was made and the initial study was conducted, which allowed us to determine the functional state of the musculoskeletal system, stages of development of motor skills (lying and turning, sitting, crawling and standing, standing, walking), assess socio-emotional state. and the level of activity of patients' play activities. a method of hydrokinesis therapy as a means of gradual formation of motor skills of children 3-5 years old with cerebral palsy of spastic form has been developed. the third stage (august 2018 august 2019) was to experimentally test the effectiveness of hydrokinesis therapy in the program of physical rehabilitation. the scheme of the rehabilitation process consisted of the following components: rehabilitation examination to determine the functional state of the motor sphere and socio-emotional disorders; formation of tasks of physical rehabilitation; development of hydrokinesis therapy exercise complexes; implementation of rehabilitation intervention; evaluation of the effectiveness of the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy in the program of physical rehabilitation. the experiment lasted one year, the physical rehabilitation programs in both groups differed only in the methods of hydrokinesis therapy, the purpose of which is the formation of motor skills. in the cg, the goal was achieved by using the method of hydrokinesis therapy, which was used in the kherson regional center for social rehabilitation of children with disabilities and which provided for teaching the child to be able to swim, and in the mg, the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy using physical exercises in water to suppress pathological muscle reactions and stimulate the development of set rectifying reflexes. the authors of the study carried out exercises in the pool in the mg and cg. children from mg and cg under the same conditions underwent a physical rehabilitation program. during the year, during the working week, the children attended three exercises in exercise therapy and twice in hydrocolonotherapy, which lasted 30-40 minutes. additionally, 4 times a year for 10 days, courses on physical rehabilitation were intended, involving the use of physiotherapy, massage, kinesitherapy, mechanotherapy. methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of … inna taran, et al. 249 the study scheme is as follows: the indicators of basic motor functions assessment (ibmfa) were measured before, after 6 months and after the experiment, since the development of motor skills is slow and very difficult, due to the immaturity of nervous processes and the influence of tonic muscle reactions, which is confirmed by many years of scientific practice (kozyavkin, shestopalova, & podkorytov, 1999; mastyukova, 1991) determination of indicators of joint mobility, muscle tone and strength, speed of hand reaction and manipulative activity was carried out before, after 4 months, after 8 months and after a one-year course of rehabilitation to track the dynamics of development of indicators of the functional state of the musculoskeletal system; assessments of the influence of hydrokinesis therapy on the social-emotional state and activity of playing activity were determined before and after rehabilitation, since the main task of the work is to overcome tonic muscular reactions, pathological attitudes and, on this basis, to form step-by-step motor skills. the fourth stage (september 2019 july 2020) was the analysis of the results of the study of the main and comparative groups. at this stage, it was proved that the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy as a means of stage-by-stage formation of motor skills more effectively affects the development of the motor sphere, social-emotional state and the level of activity of playing activity than the generally accepted method of hydrokinesis therapy. the main novelties of the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy: the development of the use of exercise complexes with hydrokinesis therapy, which differs in structure from the generally accepted methods for patients with spastic cerebral palsy in the chronically residual stage of the disease; a combination of physical rehabilitation means of hydrokinesis therapy during the annual cycle the developed methodology is based on the general principles of physical rehabilitation, it is built taking into account the results of preliminary research and consists of stages in accordance with the reflex development of the general motor skills of a healthy child. the first stage of the technique contains the following tasks: the formation of an installation reflex from the neck to the head, which makes it possible to hold the head vertically while moving; the development of hand support makes it possible to improve orientation in space, forms the interaction of fixing vision on an object with movements of the hands to this object. the second stage provides for the development of a symmetric cervical chain reflex, promotes the child's mastering the skills of turning and brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 250 turning the body, reducing the pathological attitudes of the lower extremities. at the third stage of the development of the asymmetric chain cervical reflex, with the help of consolidating the achieved skills at the first and second stages, the child begins to form complex motor skills, such as sitting, crawling on all fours, knees, developing support, balance, straightening the body and walking. according to the data of the primary study, the majority of children with mg began to develop motor skills characteristic of the third stage, but the ability to hold the head position for a longer time, to master turns and turning the body required consolidation, since in the chronically residual stage of the disease, joint contractures, defective postures and the attitudes become stable, so we continued to perform the exercises of the first and second stages of the hydrokinesis therapy method. each new movement was formed by repeated repetition, therefore, the exercise was explained and shown to the child in more detail, paying attention to symmetrical and coordinated performance, learning to self-control over the actions performed. an important element in the formation of motor skills was outdoor play, since in many people the motivation for activity was violated, to a large extent determines the difficulties of the formation of each new movement that is absent in the child's motor stereotype. with the help of games, they trained, formed and consolidated certain motor skills for the purpose of the lesson: to help the child to adapt in the water, to feel its resistance, to cope with the water resistance; develop reciprocity of movements and overcoming the drive position of the lower extremities; teach a child to move in water, train a high-speed reaction of movements; train the support reaction of the lower limbs, develop muscle strength, body balance, and the like. during the training, time was allotted for exercises to develop fine motor skills and training the speed response of the hands (grab stones or toys, boil water, catch water, perform splashing), as children with cerebral palsy at the age of 3-5 years are just beginning to appear manipulative activity, which is insufficient and may not be formed in the future. sound and speech stimuli were widely used during the exercises. emotional and clear language instruction was important, which had a positive effect on the child's mental activity, improved perception of tasks, and developed purposefulness. exercises on the water were performed from different starting positions: lying on your chest, back, sitting and standing. the main support methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of … inna taran, et al. 251 for the children was provided by a specialist. inflatable circles, armbands, a rubber ball, a swimming board, and handrails were auxiliary supports for keeping lying and sitting. a rubber ball, a swimming board, a gymnastic stick, a gymnastic rope and a hoop were offered to the child to maintain body balance when learning standing and walking skills. supports not only helped to get used to the water and exercise faster, but also insured and guaranteed safety. classes with hydrokinesis therapy in an individual form during the year took place 2 times a week for 30-40 minutes. the air temperature was 22-24 ° c, the water temperature was 30 ° c. before each lesson, the children were necessarily explained the course of action, they tried to set the child up for active participation in order to achieve the goal of the lesson. each lesson consisted of preparatory, main and final parts. at the beginning of the lesson, the child was emotionally prepared for active work in the aquatic environment. in the preparatory part of the lesson, the child and a specialist gradually immersed themselves in the water, began to perform passive exercises, passive with the help and exercises for muscle relaxation. the main part of the lesson was aimed at overcoming the pathological attitudes of the lower extremities, performing exercises for stretching muscles, strength and speed-strength exercises, the formation of motor skills in accordance with the stage of development and the capabilities of the child, training of coordination abilities and body balance, stimulation to independent active movements. in the final part of the lesson, a significant place was devoted to breathing exercises, exercises for relaxation, swimming movements in a free style were performed, so they freely rested in any stable position that does not cause muscle tension and negative emotions in the child. when performing the exercises, a special training was used aimed at the development of the impaired function, taking into account the duration of the exercise, the intensity, the duration of the rest intervals between exercises, the nature of the rest, the number of repetitions of the exercises. hydrokinesis therapy was used in a comprehensive physical rehabilitation program for children with cerebral palsy. during the year, classes in the pool were held twice, and pt three times a week. additionally, 4 times a year, physical rehabilitation courses were intended, which consisted of certain means: amplipulse therapy no. 10; paraffinozokerite applications and hydromassage every other day according to no. 5; general therapeutic massage daily no. 10; passive development of joints, verticalization in the dynamic parapodium and mechanotherapy daily at no. 10; treatment by position twice a day. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 252 the program of physical rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy of spastic forms of mg and cg for the period of the experiment differed only in the methods of hydrokinesis therapy. children from the mg were trained according to the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy as a means of gradual formation of motor skills, presented above. patients with cg continued to work according to the method of hydrokinesis therapy, which was used in the kherson regional center for social rehabilitation of disabled children. in both study groups, the main goal of hydrokinesis therapy was the formation of motor skills. in the mg, we achieved the set goal mainly through repeated repetition of the developed physical exercises in the water, and in the cg mainly through teaching the child to be able to swim, which also helps suppress pathological tonic reflexes, stimulates the development of chain adjusting rectifying reflexes. for the successful implementation of the method of hydrokinesis therapy in the organization of the process of physical rehabilitation of centers of social and medical rehabilitation, practical recommendations have been developed for specialists in physical rehabilitation. results the results of the analysis of the indicators of the primary examination of ibmfa indicate a delay in the development of motor skills in children with cerebral palsy. indicators were lower than the norm in the performance of skills "lying and turning" in the mg by 21.4%, in cg by 20%; "sitting" in the exhaust by 37.7%, in the cg by 34.4%; "creeping and crawling" in mg by 44.1%, in cg by 38.1%; "standing" in the mg by 71.2%, in the cg by 69.9%; "walking, running and jumping" in the mg by 78.7%, in the cg by 75.7%. such data indicate the presence of unreduced pathological reflexes, which interferes with the correct formation of corrective reactions, significant disturbances of statics and locomotion, which is associated with pathological mechanisms of reciprocal inhibition of antagonist muscles, which complicates coordinated movements. when measuring goniometry, there were restrictions on movement in the joints of the lower extremities: flexion of the right hip joint in children with mg by 52.5 ° (43.7%), in cg by 56.5 ° (43.5%), left in children with mg by 51.9 ° (43.2%), in cg by 57.1 ° (47.5%); removal of the right hip joint in children with mg by 27 ° (60%), in cg by 27.5 ° (61.1%), the left in mg similar to the right, in cg 27.4 ° (61.3%) ; flexion of the right knee joint in children with mg by 66.1 ° (49%), in cg by 68 ° (50.7%), left in children with mg by 65.9 ° (48.4%), in cg similarly to the right; flexion methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of … inna taran, et al. 253 of the right ankle joint in children with mg 28 ° (56%), in cg by 29.9 ° (59.8%), left in children with mg by 27.6 ° (55.2%), in cg 29.8 ° (59.6%); removal of the right ankle joint in children with mg by 11.9 ° (59.5%), in cg 12.2 ° (61%), left in children with mg by 12 ° (60%), in cg similarly to the right. indicators of increased muscle tone of the triceps are less pronounced (in mg by 40%, in cg in the right hand by 32.5%, left by 35%) than in the quadriceps muscle of the thigh (in mg) by 67.5%, in cg by 70%). such data indicate a violation of the mechanisms of central regulation of muscle tone in patients with cerebral palsy. the recorded indicators of the strength of the triceps in the exhaust were lagging behind in development by 36%, in cg in the right by 32%, left by 34%, quadriceps in the exhaust by 48%, in cg by 50% . insufficiency of development of manipulative activity is revealed: capture of a pencil by a brush at children of mg by 61,2%, at cg by 57,5%. the trapping test revealed a significant delay in the rapid reaction of the hand in children with mg by 90.8%, in cg by 89.7%. such indicators indicate a decrease in muscle strength and the speed of nerve processes. at the beginning of the experiment, a decrease in the social and emotional state of the children of the contingent was observed in the mg by 40.4%, in the cg by 39.4%, and the lack of activity of the game activity in the mg by 22.5%, in the cg by 12.5%, which manifested itself in a decrease in the ability to control their emotions and purposefulness of behavior, inadequacy of the nature of play actions with a toy and inability to take part in the organizational moments of the group. the results of the conducted studies indicate significant disorders in the development of the motor sphere, social-emotional state and the level of activity of playing activity in 3-5 year old children with spastic cerebral palsy. analysis and comparison of the results of the primary examination of children with mg and pg according to the mann whitney test (p <0.05) did not reveal statistically significant differences, which indicates the homogeneity of the composition of the groups and allows further comparison and assessment of the results of the application of hydrokinesis therapy techniques in the physical rehabilitation program. the results of the final rehabilitation examination. the dynamics of the indicators of ibmfa is the main criterion for assessing the effectiveness of the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy as a means of gradual formation of motor skills (table 1). after the course of rehabilitation, children with spastic cerebral palsy showed significant (p brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 254 <0.01) changes in the development of general motor skills. indicators in the mg developed more than in the “lying and turning over” by 1.9%; "sitting" by 3.8%; "crawling" by 6.4%; "standings" by 14.2%; "walking, running and jumping" by 7.2%. the final score of the mg relative to the initial state increased by 16.2 points (12.7%), in the cg by 10.4 points (7.7%). table 1. dynamics of indicators of assessment of basic motor functions in children with cerebral palsy of spastic form of the main and comparative groups, x ± m item s main group, n=12 comparative group, n=12 norm (point ) і іі ііі і іі ііі «а» 40,1±2,1 41,2±2,1 * 43,8±2,1* 40,8±2,1 41,7±2,1* 43,8±2,1* 51 «b» 37,4±2,5 38,3±2,5 * 40,8±2,4 * 39,4±2,5 39,8±2, 5 41,5±2,4* 60 «c» 23,5±2,1 25,1±2,1 * 26,8±2,1* 26,0±2,1 26,3±2, 1 28,0±2,0* 42 «d» 11,25±2, 3 13,2±2,2 * 15,1±2,1* 11,7±2,3 12,25±2,3 14,1±2,2* 39 «e» 15,35±3, 0 15,9±3,0 * 17,3±3,0* 17,2±3,0 17,4±3,0 18,15±3,0 * 72 total point 127,6±2, 4 133,8±2, 4 143,8±2,3 135,1±2, 4 137,4±2,4 145,5±2,3 264 notes: i to the rehabilitation course; ii in 6 months; iii after the rehabilitation course; "a" lying down and turning over; "b" crawling; "b" sitting; "g" standing; "d" walking, running, jumping; * p <0,01 according to the initial state. indicators of goniometry of the joints of the lower extremities of mg and cg tended to increase, by the end of the rehabilitation course in children mg improved by 3.4 ° (10% at p <0.01), in cg by 2 ° (6.4% at p <0.01). the greatest changes occurred in children with mg when performing flexion of the left hip joint, the rate of which after the course of rehabilitation was 75.0 ± 6.2 (p <0.01), i.e. increased by 6.9% according to the initial state, which is with a decrease in muscle tone of the quadriceps femoris. the use of the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy had an effect on the improvement of muscle strength indicators more in the mg methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of … inna taran, et al. 255 than in the cg: the triceps muscle of the shoulder in the right hand by 13.4%, in the left by 12.9%, and the quadriceps femoris muscle by 7%. the muscle tone of the upper and lower extremities in patients of this contingent is increased, but due to the properties of water, the indicators relative to the initial state in children with mg decreased more than in the cg: the triceps brachii muscle in the right arm by 15.8%, in the left by 16,9%, quadriceps femoris by 7.9%. the process of function is associated with an increase in the rate of biochemical processes in muscles, an improvement in intersystem coordination and an improvement in the mechanisms of central regulation. after the course of rehabilitation, a significant improvement in the indicators of the speed of the hand was noted (fig. 1). the greatest changes occurred in children with mg when applying points with the right hand; the indicator after the rehabilitation course was 3.9 ± 0.9 with p <0.01, that is, increased by 1.8 times. indicators of cg children began to change only after 4 months of rehabilitation. fig. 1. changes in the indicators of the speed of reaction of hands during the course of rehabilitation relative to the initial state (%): n right upper limb; l left upper limb; after 4 months; after 8 months after the rehabilitation course the insignificant receipt of positive results of indicators of manipulative activity in children with cerebral palsy indicates an improvement in nervous processes. thus, the indicators of gripping a pencil with a brush improved in the mg in the right hand by 0.3 points (18.7%), in the left by 0.2 (13.3%); in cg the indicators began to increase only after 8 months of rehabilitation and by the end of the rehabilitation course they increased equally in the right and left hands by only 0.1 points (6.2%). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 256 under the influence of the aquatic environment and thanks to motor games on the water, they were actively used in the classroom according to the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy, there were significant (p <0.01) changes in the indicators of the social-emotional state (table cg by 11.7%, and there was also a slight improvement in the activity of play activity in children from mg by 9.6%, in cg by 5.75%. so, the children of the mg began to better fulfill the requirements of teachers, achieve the goal of the task, regulate their emotions, their play activity improved. table 2. changes in indicators of social-emotional state and activity of play activity in children with spastic cerebral palsy in the main and comparative groups, х ± m indicators main group, n=12 comparative group, n=12 before the course after the course before the course after the course socio-emotional state 15,5±1,9 17,9±1,9* 15,75±1,9 17,6±1,7* game activity 6,2±0,8 6,8±0,7 7,0±0,8 7,4±0,6 note. * p <0,01 according to the initial state. thus, the presented research materials show that the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy is effective and contributes to the improvement of the functions of general and fine motor skills, socialemotional state and the level of play activity in 3-5 years old children with spastic cerebral palsy. discussion for the first time, the necessity of the gradual formation of motor skills in children of 3-5 years old with cerebral palsy of the spastic form by the method of hydrokinesis therapy in the program of physical rehabilitation has been scientifically substantiated. the positive effect of hydrokinesis therapy on the development of motor functions (rolling, sitting, crawling, standing, walking), improving the manipulative activity, social-emotional state and the level of play activity in 3-5 year old children with spastic cerebral palsy has been scientifically proven. methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of … inna taran, et al. 257 supplemented with theoretical information on the use of means and methods of physical rehabilitation to reduce muscle tone and prevent the development of joint contractures. in-depth knowledge of the use of hydrokinesis therapy to overcome tonic muscle reactions in children with spastic cerebral palsy in the chronic residual stage of the disease. the practical significance of the results obtained is in the development of a card for rehabilitation examination of patients 3-5 years old with cerebral palsy of a spastic form, helps to establish the stage of the formation of motor skills, allows to assess the presence of pathological damage to the joints, the state of muscle tone and muscle strength of the upper and lower extremities, the development of manipulative activity of the hands , as well as the social-emotional state and the level of activity of the game activity. the data obtained make it possible to individualize the approach to physical rehabilitation and determine the effectiveness of the developed methodology. the results of the study were introduced at kherson state university in the process of training third-year students in human health in the disciplines "methods of physical rehabilitation" and "physical rehabilitation for diseases of the nervous system" cycle of professional and practical training; at the lviv state university of physical culture in the process of training 5th year students majoring in "physical rehabilitation" in the discipline "physical rehabilitation in pediatrics"; in the practice of the kherson regional center for social rehabilitation of disabled children, lviv city rehabilitation center "djerelo", odessa center for rehabilitation of children with disabilities "maybutne”. the research results can be used in medical, treatment-andprophylactic and rehabilitation institutions for physical rehabilitation of patients with spastic cerebral palsy, as well as training, retraining and advanced training of physical rehabilitation specialists in educational institutions. practical recommendations for physical rehabilitation specialists on the use of hydrokinesis therapy in work with a certain contingent have been developed. it was confirmed by the researchers' data that among the causes of disability in the child population in the first rank places are diseases of the nervous system (vashchenko et al., 2012), among which cerebral palsy has a leading place (kachan, 2010) and the overwhelming number of patients is observed with spastic forms, namely with spastic diplegia (martynyuk, & zinchenko, 2005). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 258 the results of the study confirm (badalyan et al., 1988; kozyavkin et al., 1999; semenova, 2007) that movement disorders in children with cerebral palsy are a kind of deviation of motor development, without appropriate correction affects the formation of neuropsychic functions of the child. information has been confirmed that the success of the application of physical rehabilitation measures depends on the timing of application, the appropriateness of the selection of funds, the observance of the principles of physical education (efimenko & sermeev, 1991) and should be of a complex nature (voronin, & trach, 2008). it has been determined that there are no methodological developments in hydrokinesis therapy as a means of gradual formation of motor skills in complex physical rehabilitation of persons with a spastic form aged 3-5 years. the results of the research supplement information about the features of the pathological development of the nervous system and the musculoskeletal system (semenova, 2007; badalyan, zhurba, & timonina, 1988; mastyukova, 1991; kozyavkin et al., 1999). the data (badalyan et al., 1988) on the psychoemotional state of patients of this contingent have been supplemented. some information (zholus, 1980) has been proven about the positive effect of exercise in water on reducing muscle tone, increasing the range of motion in the joints and muscle strength in children with cerebral spastic paralysis. for the first time scientifically substantiated, developed, tested and proved the effectiveness of the hydrokinesis therapy method in the program of physical rehabilitation of children with spastic cerebral palsy in the chronically residual stage of the disease, based on an individual approach to each child, involves overcoming the identified disorders, taking into account the phased reflex development of general motor skills, manipulative activities, a positive impact on the social-emotional state and activity of play activity of sick children. we can see prospects for further research in the development of a physical rehabilitation program for children with organic lesions of the central nervous system of various age groups and in the study of the peculiarities of the influence of physical rehabilitation measures on the physical state of the body of children of this contingent. conclusions the analysis of literature sources showed that physical rehabilitation remains the main method of treating infantile cerebral palsy. the available methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of … inna taran, et al. 259 methods relate mainly to young children with the use of therapeutic exercises and massage, however, the method of hydrokinesis therapy for patients with cerebral palsy in the chronically residual stage of the disease has not been sufficiently developed and processed, while they do not contain systematic rehabilitation examinations, guidelines for the implementation of exercises, allowed to individualize the process of physical rehabilitation. at the beginning of the study, functional disorders of the musculoskeletal system in children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form were delayed development of motor skills ("lying and turning" in the mg by 21.4%, in the cg by 20%; "sitting" in the mg by 37.7%, in the cg by 34.4%," crawling " in the mg by 44.1%, in the cg by 38.1%," standing " in the mg by 71 , 2%, in the cg by 69.9%, "walking, running and jumping" in the mg by 78.7%, in the cg by 75.7%), increased muscle tone, decreased mobility of the lower joints limbs, muscle strength and manipulative activity in accordance with age norms. it was found that children with cerebral palsy of spastic form lag behind their peers in social and emotional development in the mg by 40.4%, in the cg by 39.4% and in play activities in the mg by 22.5%, in the cg by 12.5%. the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy provided for the formation of the gradual development of motor skills in children with spastic cerebral palsy in the physical rehabilitation program, which consisted of stages in accordance with the reflex development of the motor skills of a healthy child. the methodology was built taking into account the results of a preliminary examination, it contained a combination of special exercises for relaxation and stretching of muscles, an increase in joint mobility, strength and speed-strength exercises, exercises for balance and coordination of movements, breathing exercises using various initial positions, using inflatable circles, swimming boards, gymnastic sticks, rings, rubber ball ropes and toys. classes were held in a playful way. the results of the ibmfa showed that the final score, according to the initial state, in the mg increased by 16.2 points (12.7%), and in the cg by 10.4 points (7.7%). the greatest changes took place in the mg children in the development of the "standing" skill, that is, the indicator after the rehabilitation course increased by 3.8 points (34.2% p <0.01). the motor skills of the mg children developed better than the skills of the pg children, by 5% in accordance with the initial state and approached the norm by 2.3% more observed in the performance of the skills of rolling over, sitting, crawling, standing and walking. the indices of the range of motion in the joints of the lower extremities in children with mg, according to the initial state, improved on brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 260 average by 3.4 ° (10%), and in cg by 2 ° (6.4%). the greatest changes occurred in children with mg when performing flexion of the left hip joint, the index of which after the rehabilitation course was 75.0 ± 6.2 (p <0.01), that is, increased by 6.9% in accordance with the initial state, which is associated with a decrease in the muscle tone of the quadriceps muscle of the thigh. the level of muscle spasticity, due to the properties of water and exercise, tended to decrease. after the course of rehabilitation, the indicators of the triceps brachii muscle and quadriceps femoris muscle, in accordance with the initial state, decreased in the mg by 22.2%, and in the cg in the right arm by 15.4%, in the left arm, lower limbs by 14. 3%. the results of the final testing of muscle strength in children with cerebral palsy in mg showed that the strength of the triceps brachii muscle and quadriceps femoris muscle during the experiment changed towards improvement. muscle strength indicators increased: in the exhaust gas in the right hand by 28.1%, in the left by 25%, in the lower limbs by 23%; in the cg in the right hand by 14.7%, in the left by 12.1%, in the lower limbs by 16%. hand response rates tended to improve more than pencil grip rates. thus, the frequency of drawing dots increased maximally in children with mg in the right hand by 85.7% (3.9 ± 0.9 with p <0.01), that is, the indicator approached the norm by 11.3%. cg indicators began to increase only after eight months of rehabilitation. under the influence of the aquatic environment and thanks to motor games on the water, they were actively used in the classroom according to the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy, there were positive changes in the indicators of social and emotional state in the mg by 15.5%, in the cg 11.7%. there was an improvement in the indices of activity of gaming activity in the mg by 9.7%, in the cg by 5.75%. the developed method of hydrokinesis therapy as a means of gradual formation of motor skills is effective and can be recommended for use in medical and preventive institutions involved in the rehabilitation of patients with this nosological group. references avramenko, m. l., & kuznetsov, d. a. (2006). orhanizatsiya hidrokinezoterapiyi v umovakh tsentriv profesiynoyi reabilitatsiyi invalidiv [organization of hydrokinesiotherapy in the conditions of centers of professional rehabilitation of invalids]. vestnik fizioterapii i kurortologii [bulletin of physiotherapy and balneology], 4, 62–63. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgimethods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of … inna taran, et al. 261 bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=re f&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr =20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21 str=%d0%9a%d1%83%d0%b7%d0%bd%d1%94%d1%86%d0% be%d0%b2%20%d0%94$ badalyan, l. o., zhurba, l. t., & timonina, o. v. (1988). detskiye tserebralnyye paralichi [cerebral palsy in children]. kyiv: zdorovye. https://www.twirpx.com/file/182144/ bulgakova, n. zh. (2002). poznakomtes – plavaniye [meet us – this is swimming]. moscow: ast. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1085232/ efimenko, n. n., & sermeev, b. v. (1991). soderzhaniye i metodika zanyatiy fizkulturoy z detmi, stradayushchimi tserebralnym paralichom [the content and methods of physical education for children suffering from cerebral palsy]. moscow: soviet sport. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1119110/ hlazyrin, i. d. (2006). plavannya [swimming]. kyiv: condor. http://books.zntu.edu.ua/book_info.pl?id=130499 kachan, t. a. (2010). znachennya reabilitatsiynykh zakhodiv dlya poperedzhennya pervynnoyi invalidnosti pry perynatalnykh urazhennyakh tsentralnoyi nervovoyi systemy [significance of rehabilitation measures for the prevention of primary disability in perinatal lesions of the central nervous system]. proceedings of scientific-practical conferences of students, young scientists, doctors and teachers on current issues of theoretical medicine and clinical medicine. sumy: sumy state university. https://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/6286 katz, r. t., & rymer, w. z. (1989). spastic hypertonia: mechanisms and measurement. archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 70(2), 144–155. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2644919/ khozbey, n. k., mishchenko, t. s., golik, v. a., & gondulenko, n. a. (2011). osobennosti epidemiologii invalidnosti pri zabolevaniyakh nervnoy sistemy v ukraine [features of the epidemiology of disability in diseases of the nervous system in ukraine]. mezhdunarodnyy nevrologicheskiy zhurnal [international neurological journal], 5(43), 1519. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osobennosti-epidemiologii-invalidnostipri-zabolevaniyah-nervnoy-sistemy-v-ukraine kopchak, s. k. (2002). gidrokinezoterapiya v lechenii i profilaktike zabolevaniy: metodicheskiye rekomendatsii [hydrokinesis therapy in the treatment and prevention of diseases: guidelines]. kyiv: state academy of housing and communal services. http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn= ec&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3ei%3d%21nbuv$%3c. %3e%29%2a%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a0354.41%3c.%3e%29&z21 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 262 id=&s21srw=avhead&s21srd=up&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s2 1cnr=20 korneev, n. m., tolmacheva, s. r., peresypkina, t. v., sidorenko, t. p. (2012). detskaya invalidnost v ukraine [children’s disability in ukraine]. z turbotoiu pro dytynu [taking care of the child], 5, 3–6. https://extempore.info/component/content/article/9-joornal/1431detskaya-invalidnost-v-ukraine.html?itemid=357 kozyavkin, v. i., shestopalova, l. f., & podkorytov, v. s. (1999). detskiye tserebralnyye paralichi: mediko-psikhologicheskiye problemy [cerebral palsy: medico-psychological problems]. lviv: ukrainian technologies. https://www.twirpx.com/file/848894/ maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 martyniuk, v. yu., & zinchenko, s. m. (2005). osnovy medyko-sotsialʹnoyi reabilitatsiyi ditey z orhanichnymy urazhennyamy nervovoyi systemy [fundamentals of medical and social rehabilitation of children with organic lesions of the nervous system] kyiv: intermed. https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&clust er=266342735885875154 mastyukova, e. m. (1991). fizicheskoye vospitaniye detey s tserebralnym paralichom [physical education of children with cerebral palsy]. moscow: prosveshcheniye. https://www.twirpx.com/file/642796/ mosunov, d. f., & sazykin, v. g. (2002). preodoleniye kriticheskikh situatsiy pri obuchenii plavaniyu rebenka-invalida [overcoming critical situations in teaching swimming to a disabled child]. moscow: soviet sport. http://urss.ru/cgibin/db.pl?lang=ru&blang=ru&page=book&id=179011 mysula, i. r., & vakulenko, l. o. (2005). medychna ta sotsialna reabilitatsiya [medical and social rehabilitation]. ternopil: ternopil national medical university. http://lib.khnu.km.ua/fond/nov/new_04_2018/454904.pdf odynets, t. e. (2012). zastosuvannya hidrokinezoterapiyi u fizychniy reabilitatsiyi zhinok 55-65 rokiv pislya radykalnoyi mastektomiyi: avtoreferat dysertatsiyi kandydata nauk z fizychnoho vykhovannya ta sportu [application of hydrokinesiotherapy in physical rehabilitation of women aged between 55 and years after radical mastectomy]. (abstract of phd thesis). lviv state university of physical culture, lviv. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/7905 porshneva, s. e., & shchedrina, t. g. (2004). vosstanovitelnoye lecheniye detey s porazheniyem tsentralnoy nervnoy sistemy i oporno-dvigatelnogo apparata https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of … inna taran, et al. 263 [rehabilitation treatment of children with lesions of the central nervous system and musculoskeletal system: a teaching aid]. saint-petersburg: st. petersburg medical academy of postgraduate education. https://rusneb.ru/catalog/010003_000061_a30519a5e22805e5732ae59633 26750d/ semenova, k. a. (2007). vosstanovitelnoye lecheniye detey s perinatalnym porazheniyem nervnoy sistemy i detskim tserebral'nym paralichom [rehabilitation treatment of children with perinatal lesions of the nervous system and infantile cerebral palsy]. moscow: zakon i poryadok. https://www.fkbook.ru/prod_show.php?object_uid=2227052 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shmakova, i. p., nikitushkina, v. n., & skripak, e. v. (2011). effektivnost gidrokinezoterapii detey invalidov po spetsialno razrabotannoy metodike [the effectiveness of hydrokinesis therapy for children with disabilities according to a specially developed technique]. vestnik fizioterapii i kurortologii [bulletin of physiotherapy and balneology], 4, 6266. http://tests.ifnmu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=50701 shpak, s. l. (2002). individualnoye obucheniye plavaniyu detey s posledstviyami tserebralnogo paralicha [individual training in swimming for children with the consequences of cerebral palsy]. (abstract of phd thesis). saint-petersburg research institute of physical culture, saint-petersburg. https://rusneb.ru/catalog/000200_000018_ru_nlr_bibl_552788/ shulha, l. m. (2008). ozdorovche plavannya [health swimming]. kyiv: olympic literature. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1326439/ vashchenko, l. v., khitrik, a. l., rubashnaya, o. f., vakulenko, l. i., badogina, l. p., vakulenko a. v. (2012). sostoyaniye problemy detskoy invalidnosti [state of the problem of child disability]. zdorove rebenka [child’s health], 6(41). retrieved from http://www.mifua.com/archive/article_print/34721. voronin, d. m., & trach, v. m. (2008). tserebralnyy paralich ta reabilitatsiya yoho spastychnykh form: metod. vkazivky do vykonannya praktychnykh robit z kursu “fizychna reabilitatsiya pry zakhvoryuvannyakh nervovoyi systemy” dlya studentiv spetsialnosti “fizychna reabilitatsiya” [cerebral palsy and rehabilitation of its spastic forms: method. instructions for performing practical work on the course “physical rehabilitation in nervous system diseases” for students majoring in “physical rehabilitation”]. khmelnytsky: khmelnytsky national university. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/10240 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 264 zholus, o. v. (1980) metodika lechebnogo plavaniya, stradayushchikh detskim tserebral'nym paralichom [methodology of therapeutic swimming, suffering from infantile cerebral palsy]. moscow: medicine. https://vseosvita.ua/library/avtorskimetodiki-vidnovnoi-terapii-osib-z-urazennam-centralnoi-nervovoi-sistemi280980.html. zwich, e. b., leistritz, l., & milleit, b. (2004). classification of equines in ambulatory children with cerebral palsy – discrimination between dynamic tightness and fixed contracture gait posture, 20(3), 273–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2003.10.002 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 278-296 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/250 neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children emotional intelligence development tetiana kotyk¹, viktoriia sichka2, viktoriia ragozina3, svetlana vasilieva4, nataliia havrysh5, tatyana ponomarenko6 1 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, kotyktetiana974@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8213-8318 2 zakarpattia institute of postgraduate pedagogical education, department of pedagogy and psychology, uzhhorod, ukraine, viktoriasichka7@gmail.com 3 institute of problems on education of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, vlavian@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-00023694-2054 4 institute of problems on education of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, vasilievasa@i.ua, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-00020452-4835 5 institute of problems of education of the national academy of pedagogical sciences, kyiv, ukraine, n.rodinaga@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9254-558 6 borys grinchenko kyiv university, kyiv, ukraine, ponomarenko.tet5@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-00026801-0403 abstract: the discussion of psychologists and physiologists on the work of the brain as the center for the formation of emotions and feelings, the center of memory and planning of future actions has been highlighted. taking into account the main provisions of neuroscientists’ works, the gender characteristics of the emotional reactions of boys and girls have been revealed in accordance with differences in the structure and work of their brains. this gave the grounds for the conclusion that in order to form the correct behavior of the child in society, it is necessary to enhance his interaction experience in it, develop strong-willed efforts and ensure the full development of a rational brain. of the vast majority of junior schoolchildren need to have their level of emotional intelligence to be corrected. the main source of intellectual, moral and aesthetic feelings as components of the emotional intelligence of preschool and primary school children is gaming and educational activities, during which all kinds of feelings that affect the children’s adaptation to the new living conditions are being developed. if a child does not reach a sufficient level of emotional development by the age of 10-11, which is distinguished by the greatest plasticity of the cerebral cortex and almost unlimited intellectual capabilities, then at the later age his life cannot be successful and comfortable due to numerous misunderstandings with himself and others, close and strangers. keywords: emotional intelligence, physiological mechanisms of emotions, brain as the head of emotional behavior, conditions for the intellectual activity development, gender characteristics of emotional reactions, congenital makings of emotional sensitivity, features of junior students emotional intelligence. how to cite: kotyk, t., sichka, v., ragozina, v., vasilieva, s., havrysh, n., & ponomarenko, t. (2021). neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children emotional intelligence development. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 278-296. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/250 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/250 mailto:kotyktetiana974@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8213-8318 mailto:viktoriasichka7@gmail.com mailto:vlavian@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3694-2054 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3694-2054 mailto:vasilievasa@i.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0452-4835 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0452-4835 mailto:n.rodinaga@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9254-558 mailto:ponomarenko.tet5@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6801-0403 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6801-0403 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/250 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 279 introduction each person can succeed in life, but not everyone uses all his natural potential for this. everyone understands that in order to be successful, you need to learn, but nowadays it is not so important to gain knowledge, as to acquire the ability to apply them quickly and creatively, adapting to new fleeting conditions. in the new ukrainian school, the ability to learn is stated as one of the most important skills obtained in the educational process, which must be formed during the years of study in elementary school (ministry of education and science of ukraine, 2016). therefore, teachers drew attention to the related sciences research, in particular physiology and neuropsychology, on increasing the activation and performance of the human brain in order to use more effectively this most important organ for the production of intelligence and transfer the obtained knowledge to the practical application area (komogorova, 2021; kotyk, 2020; kucher & hrishchenko, 2020; maksymchuk, 2020a, 2020b; melnyk et al., 2019, 2021; sheremet, 2019). in the twentieth century, much attention was paid to the study of intelligence and its varieties, which made it possible to realize the huge human abilities potential. thus, the specialist in age psychology gardner (1983), the founder of the theory of multiple intelligence, described a dozen different types of intelligence that provide the ability to interact effectively with practical life challenges. therefore, the brain was studied not only to understand the causes of brain diseases, but also to found out the answers to the question how the brain affects the intellectual development and human life as a whole. the physiological mechanisms of emotions were studied by psychologist william james (1893), who concluded that emotions are a mental reflection of physiological changes in the activity of blood vessels, glands, muscles, etc., which occur in the body under the influence of external stimuli, and a direct understanding of that excitement at the moment of its realization is an emotion. according to the researchers all organic changes realized by man as emotions associated with changes in peripheral blood circulation, and feelings arising in this state, are a manifestation of spiritual principles. in return, physiologist cannon (1915) refuted this theory, experimentally proving that internal organs are insensitive structures and are not able to reflect all those differences observed in various emotions that neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children … tetiana kotyk, et al. 280 arise quickly and develop very rapidly, that is, there is no causal relationship between the feeling of internal body reactions of the and experiences of emotions. as a result of p. bard's physiological experiments (1928), it was found out that emotional processes determine and regulate human behavior depending on the nature and intensity of emotional experiences and that emotions can be controlled by involving the central nervous system. there are localized centers in the brain that control emotional reactions. in the process of human development they have hardly changed and are not much different from the corresponding areas of the animal brain. the brain as a physiological center for the formation of emotions the brain is an extremely complex mechanism responsible for human survival. it not only controls all processes in the body: the work of internal organs, movements, perception of information, but also corresponds by emotions and feelings on external stimuli and is a memory and future acts planning center (svaab, 2017). nowadays the three human brains coexistence theory,which simultaneously interact during decision-making process, action planning is popular. according to the three human brains theory, the lower part of the brain is the base for all human instincts: the stem and the cerebellum. this brain is called old, or sensory. it is responsible for the main functions of the body: heartbeat, breathing, balance, vascular tone, blood pressure, bodily sensations and controls survival instincts (safety and fears), continuation of the genus (love, family creation), division of all into one's own and others. the middle part of the brain historically developed later. this brain part is called emotional, since the result of its work is an emotionbased decision making. this part contains short and long memories that help understanding and perception, and this is the exact place where intuition is born. the cerebral cortex is called the new or rational brain, responsible for comprehension, pondering information. this is the center of control over actions. thanks to the work of the rational brain emotions do not prevail over the mind which makes it possible to make balanced and meaningful decisions in different situations of interpersonal interaction. to activate this part of the brain, unlike the previous two ones, it is necessary to make strong-willed efforts that is, to get out of the comfort zone of brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 281 automatic actions controlled by an emotional state. such action automatism on emotions "without brakes" creates preconditions for the occurrence of conflicts and social sensitivity blunting, which is just dangerous for human life success. each part of the brain in its own way, according to its functional purpose, helps to make a decision, to plan the sequence of actions. thus, the first reaction to the stimulus occurs at the level of basic instincts of "stand", "fight", "run away", accompanied by basic emotions of joy, anger or fear. in parallel, almost simultaneously, the emotional part of the brain is activated, analyzing emotions. the lack of experience, memories and digested models of interaction makes it difficult to make the right decisions regarding the following actions, which causes the child’s misconduct in society. to comprehend and think about the received information, the child needs to activate a rational brain that is not yet developed enough, and make strong-willed efforts that do not arise without positive stimulation. since the brain is extremely flexible, its formation transpires under the influence of experience and training. considering this human brain feature, the wellknown neurophysiologist marian diamond (webcast-legacy departmental, 2007) noted that the physical mechanism of child genius can be created by means of mental exercises, that is, the brain needs constant tension to solve complex problems in order to reach the peak of its capabilities. so, in order to form the correct behavior of the child in society, it is necessary to form the interaction experience, develop strong-willed efforts and ensure the full development of a rational brain. the brain, as a conductor of emotional behavior, responding to information from the environment and subjective experiences, sends signals to the endocrine, cardiovascular, respiratory systems about the need for reconfiguration in work and the urgent production of vital substances. any emotion is accompanied by universal signs for all people: activation of the nervous system and the appearance of biologically active substances in the blood that change the internal organs activity and cause an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, etc. thus, increasing blood pressure can be a consequence of person’s inability to master their negative emotions and their manifestations, unwillingness to focus on a constructive problem solution, again and again experiencing anxiety, panic, fear. owing to high blood pressure, cognitive abilities are reduced in the arteries: perception, attention, memory, decision-making. under the action of adrenaline, the neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children … tetiana kotyk, et al. 282 work of the heart, muscles increases, vascular tone increases, glucose level increases which either increases the overall person’s activity, or stops it completely. such conditions can be dangerous to human life and health, so the body launches self-regulation mechanisms from stress. if this is enough, then the anxiety subsides and the person goes out of stress. if the stress factor continues to act, then all body systems are activated as much as possible: mental, muscular, strong-willed, which contributes to the gradual normalization of the post-stress state. the subsequent action of a negative stimulus leads to the stage of depletion of the body reserves, which can cause numerous diseases. the brain processes all signals acting on humans in the environment, recognizes threats and dangers, gives the appropriate body systems commands to develop the necessary chemicals and thus activates all reserves to avoid danger. it exhibits extraordinary adaptive qualities, redistributing the performance of the necessary functions from damaged areas to healthy ones, that is, it has huge reserves to ensure human vital activity. the brain always works, but not all of its areas are involved at the same time. even during sleep, the brain processes and sorts information received throughout the day. during the day the separate nerve centers unite to perform a certain task and work in concert, until the task changes to another type of activity and the brain prioritizes the work of other centers. instead, in order to effectively use all the reserves, it is necessary for brain to learn to analyze what is happening and make appropriate decisions in time. the intellectual activity development conditions various psychological schools cannot agree on determining the optimal natural conditions for the development of the child's intellectual activity to answer the questions: "in what human state is the brain best able to learn to give the necessary commands to the body?" according to the scientists’ research at the university of chicago, it is possible even in situations of physical inactivity of a person who only monitors events, say, in front of a tv that was tested during the training of militaries, firefighters, guards, athletes. instead, the passive monitoring of events on a tv screen by the children slows their brain development, since the brain activity decreases under the action of only one stimulus on the nervous system. so, the more time children spend at tvs, the worse they learn. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 283 most scientists are convinced, however, that the brain develops best in different types of practical activities, and to reach the peaks in professional intellectual activity you need to exercise at least 10,000 hours. this rule applies to all areas of activity. the "10,000 hours rule" was formulated on the basis of neurophysiological anatomical studies, which showed that mental development depends not on the number of neurons in the brain, which remains sustainable after human birth, but on the number of connections between them. up to 90% of brain neurons are formed after birth, and their number and structure directly depend on the nature of information coming to the child from the environment. consequently, the effectiveness of brain work depends on the number of connections between neurons. the more of them, the higher the probability is that the brain will be able to find the optimal way out of any situation (kharisova, 2011). the more actively the child learns, the more such compounds arise. conversely, if the brain is immersed in congestion without training or the nervous system is too excited, the connecting cells begin to die off. if the brain is used correctly, the number of neural connections may increase throughout life. the more the brain develops in youth, the better it will work in old age. at preschool and junior school age, regular intellectual and physical activity contributes to the fact that the contacts between centers responsible for the perception and reproduction of oral and written speech are intensively formed in the cerebral cortex. reading, solving logical problems, crosswords, puzzles, when children "break their heads", meeting with new, unknown things to solve the problem, as well as aerobic exercises, running and swimming are the most useful for the brains of children. neurophysiologist-innovator marian diamond’s recent research (webcast-legacy departmental, 2007) confirmed a long-known fact: the development of intellectual centers of the brain depends not on genetic factors and external stimuli, but on feedback on spontaneous and expressive activity of a person. thus, unlike passive contemplation of tv shows, working on a computer involves an active feedback between making a decision, for which the brain is responsible, and acting with a mouse click, which leads to the corresponding results. the brain is not multitasking. it cannot perform more than two processes simultaneously involving concentration and attention because it lacks energy resources. two tasks can be completed only with the automated neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children … tetiana kotyk, et al. 284 skill of one of them and the ability to switch quickly from one action to another. however, there are more errors in activity in this case than those who focus on the implementation of one task. gender characteristics of emotional intelligence. in the course of the development of emotional intelligence, it is necessary to take into account the gender characteristics of emotional reactions, since there is some difference in the girls’ and boys’ brains. thus, girls have slightly enlarged brain structures responsible for emotions and their memorization, so they have the ability to express emotions verbally earlier than boys. girls are more focused on the moral content of behavior and are able to differentiate emotional states more finely. they are more accurate than boys in expressing their feelings and replace physical emotional reactions with verbal ones. unlike girls, the boys’ language centers are not developed and coordinated within them in the same way, so they use fewer words to describe their emotional state. under the age of 10, boys and girls do not differ significantly in the manifestations of aggressive behavior: if they feel the emotion of anger, they demonstrate aggression physically. already at the age of 12-13, girls acquire much better skills in verbal and non-verbal expression of emotions, and boys continue to use physical acts as a means of expressing anger. the researchers of gender differences in emotional reactions (andreeva, 2011; nosenko & kovryga, 2003) note that the differences between boys and girls in behavior and perception are caused not so much by physiological features, but by education and advanced ideas about the essence of male and female. for example, boys are taught that crying, fearing, showing tender feelings is not suitable for men, because they should only be courageous in showing righteous anger and aggression towards those who offend; and girls are taught that to show anger and aggression, to laugh out loud, to treat boys nicely is indecently, to control their feelings and to have endurance. in public opinion, it seems that this style of education will best help children adapt in society. development of children emotional intelligence the problem of developing the emotional intelligence of the individual since the emergence of primary emotions in a child is one of the most difficult in modern psychology, since emotional processes are distinguished by short-term course, almost elusiveness, which makes it difficult to diagnose and study them. at the same time, this problem is one brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 285 of the most relevant, because emotions are the basis for a person’s mental development, his spiritual and social life. in the child mental life, the first connections with the social environment are carried out precisely due to emotions, on the basis of which mental development occurs. the emergence of primary emotions psychologists explained by the person’s physiological reaction to the changes in the body as a result of the internal organs work, individual centers of the brain, central nervous system. therefore, the primary and main function of emotions is the assessment and adaptation to certain circumstances, phenomena, events. under certain living conditions, under the influence of education, when a child learns social values, norms and requirements, emotions acquire richer content and more complex forms of manifestation and serve as an indicator of the child's internal state. the indexes of the development of junior students’ emotional intelligence are influenced by both biological and social factors. american psychologist william james (1893) proved that emotions arise under the influence of physiological processes in the body, therefore, the child’s emotional susceptibility is partially hereditary: congenital makings of emotional sensitivity are directly related to the properties of temperament. according to the results of an empirical study, andreeva (2011) found out that the level of child’s emotional intelligence is influenced mainly by the similar quality of his mother and not the father, on the basis of which it was concluded about the non-genetic nature of the emotional intelligence transfer, because genes are inherited from parents equally. hence, it was noted that the emotional intelligence of the child is absorbed, brought up and developed in the nearest environment and without the influence of social factors emotional sensitivity remains poorly developed, with immature feelings. the knowledge, skills and emotional competence necessary for social adaptation the child acquires only in the environment, where the parents are the most significant factor in the emotional impact. according to d. goleman (1998), the children inherit indirectly the level of parents’ emotionality. the heirs are always more developed emotionally and intellectually in educated and wealthy parents than in the ignorant as well as in low-income families. the researcher affirmed that poverty destroyed children's brains and programmed a person to live in poverty. when a family loses paramount importance for a child to develop, a neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children … tetiana kotyk, et al. 286 group of peers, friends, classmates become a developing environment for him. at school age not only the family but also the school is the closest environment of the child, which serves as a guide for realistic self-perception and self-assessment, which also affects the formation of mechanisms of selfregulation and self-control, gives the child confidence in interpersonal interaction. emotional interaction with society helps to cognize the world around us, to determine a safe and dangerous environment, patterns of manifestation of phenomena and events in it. the child’s emotional manifestations become deep and prolonged, if associated with his vital needs. the emotional development of preschool and primary schoolchildren age was studied by l. vigotsky, d. elkonin, o. zaporozhets, g. kostyuk and other psychologists, which made it possible to distinguish the appearance of special emotional neoplasm in children of 7-10 years: the transition from children's emotional spontaneity to the formation of the logic of feelings. the active child’s emotional formation continues at junior school age, which is characterized by high sensibility and flexibility of all mental processes. he begins to realize the meaning of feelings, gradually acquires the ability to manage them, and therefore increases restraint, a sense of responsibility. he shows interest, trust and kindness towards other people, although he does not always interpret other people's feelings correctly. healthy children are dominated by cheerful, joyful moods. in the school environment of interactions with peers and adults such social emotions as selfishness and the ability to empathize develop in students. through comprehension of one's own emotions and actions, there is a formation of self-awareness, the ability to reflect and decentralize, that is, the ability to understand the feelings of another and take into account his needs for joint activities is formed. there is hypersensitivity and vulnerability expressed in painful experiences and sincere expression of joy or sadness, pleasure or dissatisfaction. for example, students of 1-2 grades react violently and emotionally to novelties in the design of the class, new textbooks, ict technologies. on the background of general vigor, cheerfulness, joyfulness there is a tendency to short-term and unexpected changes in mood, since in the cerebral cortex of children there are still insufficiently developed areas responsible for inhibitory processes. junior brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 287 schoolchildren as well as preschoolers quickly get excited and quickly calm down. features of junior schoolchildren emotional intelligence and didactic aspects of its development. according to the results of empirical studies (test, without date; shpak, 2016; 2017) it was determined that only a small part of 6-9-year-old children are able to recognize and understand their own and other people's emotions, establish causal relationships between experiences and their displays, control emotions, restraining or manifesting them in accordance with the situation and norms of behavior. such children establish emotional contact with peers and adults easily and naturally, show their empathy during communication, often acquire the status of a leader, adapt well to new conditions, contribute to the improvement of the sociopsychological climate in the team. instead, most junior schoolchildren have the following features of emotional intelligence: children are not able to identify their own and other people's emotions and do not understand the causes of their occurrence, and therefore react inadequately to the other people’s emotional manifestations, with the exception of basic emotions of fear and joy; are not able to control their own emotions, especially negative ones, therefore they are not prone to interpersonal communication; are distinguished by emotional ignorance, the lack of selfmotivation, empathy (shpak, 2018). the main source of emotions for children of preschool and primary school age is cognitive and gaming activities, communication with peers. strong emotional genic factors for them are also the results of training and evaluation of children by the teacher, parents, and classmates. the main source of intellectual, moral and aesthetic feelings as components of the emotional intelligence of preschool and primary school children is gaming and educational activities, during which all kinds of feelings develop. during active cognitive activity children face problems, difficulties that they learn to overcome, making strong-willed efforts, as a result there is a new range of intellectual feelings: interest, surprise, doubt, joy, curiosity, feeling of new, etc. in older preschoolers and first-graders, such feelings arise from facts and events that can be seen and observed, so before submitting new knowledge, it is necessary to cause children's emotional attitude to it so that new knowledge is associated with positive emotions. neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children … tetiana kotyk, et al. 288 children learn this knowledge better and keep it in memory longer. for the development of intellectual feelings it is important to rely on vivid ideas, visuals, which will help to establish and show cause-and-effect relationships. for students of 1-2 grades, the introduction of game situations into the learning process helps to create a slight excitement and emotional exaltation, which will motivate them to overcome difficulties on the way to solving educational problems and achieving success. the lower the age of students, the greater value becomes a positive emotional background in the learning process to motivate students to discover new knowledge. during joint gaming or educational activities with peers, children choose among them comrades, in cooperation with whom moral feelings of respect, support, understanding, sympathy and favor develop. under the influence of school education, students develop a special strong-willed act, focused on meeting the interests of close ones a moral act. for the sake of family and friends a student can give up some of his interests, so he expects recognition from others, and therefore painfully reacts to humiliation on the part of adults and bullying on the part of other schoolchildren, showing emotional unbalance, rudeness, stubbornness, behavioral disorders. emotional disorders of junior schoolchildren often arise due to disadaptation to a new social situation, where the conflicts of self-esteem or interpersonal type can erupt because of uncertainty, fear or misunderstandings between students. aggression as a protective form of behavior can occur in the form of a reaction to emotional feelings such as anxiety, anger and fear. despite the high emotional sensitivity of younger students, it is very important from the first days of a child's stay at school to teach him to adhere to clear requirements and rules of behavior, to create a positive socio-psychological climate that will develop students’ emotional and strongwilled character traits, will contribute to the formation of purposefulness, organization, discipline and perseverance. in the curse of study, the learned social norm of behavior becomes a guideline in situations of choosing the right action. friendly relations are unstable amidst junior schoolchildren, friends change in random and subjective characteristics, among which common interests prevail in gaming activities, spending free time, selfish interest. forming moral feelings in preschoolers and younger schoolchildren, it is necessary to focus on their life experience, unusual events that they have experienced, vivid memories and feelings. educational events that do not brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 289 involve examples from children's life experiences and that are not filled with their emotional experiences will not have an appropriate positive effect. thus, educational and training matters should be based on the life experience, emotional and sensory sphere of children. during acquaintance with new works of art aesthetic feelings continue to develop, especially under the influence of poetic works. rhythmic poetry, its sonority, expressiveness, figurativeness evoke emotional attitude to poems. it is in poetic works that children better capture the emotional mood of nature descriptions, the attitude of the author to the depicted paintings and events. under the conditions of specially organized learning, when the teacher singles out and emphasizes the aesthetic and emotional aspects of musical works and painting, children begin to understand the artistic value of works of art, can emotionally appreciate them. without special training, children of preschool and primary school age are interested only in the plot of an art work. in junior school, the life circumstances of a child who for the first time finds himself in an unfamiliar environment among strangers, where he/she needs to act independently, in accordance with the acquired skills and abilities, change dramatically. it is during this period that intensive emotional and strong-willed development of the child occurs. if in the preschool period children showed maximum emotional reactions and strong-willed efforts in the game and communication, then in the school the main efforts of teachers are directed to the process and result of educational activities that cause students’ emotional exaltation or dissatisfaction and apathy. in preschool the child constantly interacted with his peers, and at school a first-grader feels lonely and alien, does not communicate with anyone but the teacher and very rarely, so the relationship with him is restrained and strained. in the new ukrainian school the collective morning meetings, communication situations, paired and group teaching methods were introduced to overcome the contrast during the transition from preschool childhood to school, to facilitate the process of establishing contacts between students and the teacher, which will help relieve tension, allow to show emotions from new experiences, but within the established school rules. in the preschool period the child directly satisfied all his desires and needs and in the process of studying at school he/she should constantly make strong-willed efforts, acting in accordance with the rules or on demand neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children … tetiana kotyk, et al. 290 or a sample of the teacher. such arbitrary actions during the assimilation of knowledge, skills and abilities, which requires overcoming various obstacles in order to achieve the goal, improves the strong-willed qualities of students. studies of ukrainian psychologists (karpenko, 2017; zarytska, 2011, etc.) have proved that elementary school students have already formed psychophysiological prerequisites for the formation of arbitrary behavior, manifestations of self-control over their own actions, deterrence of impulsive actions. it explains that the first-graders have such a mental neoplasm, as the formation and development of arbitrary behavior and mastery of the ability to subordinate direct motives to remote, and personal ones to social. the strong-willed development of younger students is accompanied by a deterrent of sharp emotional manifestations, students stop shouting during lessons, try not to cry after failures in learning or joint activities. young school children gradually learn to control their behavior. they try to restrain desires that do not relate to the educational process, obey the rules of the class and the teacher’s requirements. an important component in the formation of junior schoolchildren’s arbitrary behavior is the education of such a character trait as endurance. at first, it appears as the ability to obey the parents’ requirements, and then there is the ability to subordinate their desires to the school routine and extracurricular life. at the same time the child’s increased emotionality can develop as an expression of excessive impulsivity which prevents the steady and systematic development of endurance. without the correct pedagogical support for the child’s emotional development, impulsivity will become its individual feature, which will prevent the child to achieve the goal in any activity. for the first-grade students, unlike fourth-graders, the low level of almost all parameters of emotional and strong-willed development is typical, namely: discipline, perseverance, endurance, independence, courage, organization, diligence, self-control, motivation. only the first-graders’ diligence is stronger than the fourth-graders’ one. endurance and perseverance have a more noticeable impact on the behavior of third-grade students, which enables them to overcome minor obstacles in the course of learning success. this ability is clearly manifested during homework, in depiction art lessons, in labor. it is worth noting that such emotional and strong-willed qualities as endurance, organization and brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 291 diligence do not yet receive a clearly defined development during their studies in elementary school, and remain at a low level from the first to the fourth grade. the emotional and strong-willed efforts of younger students contribute to social adaptation during their studies in elementary school, increase motivation for learning, and therefore they gradually improve the conscious regulation of behavior and actions. consequently, the level of emotional intelligence of the vast majority of junior schoolchildren needs to be corrected. the presence of individual emotionally gifted children in junior school age indicates that primary school students can achieve a high level of emotional intelligence under certain conditions. such conditions should be aimed at familiarizing students with emotions and their types, that is, the formation of emotional awareness, the ability to analyze the emotional state, their own and other people, the development of the ability to create self-motivation to manage negative emotions and the development of empathy. the emotional and strong-willed development of younger students directly affects their adaptation capabilities and depends on them. the transition of the child to schooling, a new, unusual social situation, which also limits direct emotional manifestations, is accompanied by systematic micro-stresses, which requires the child to adapt to new conditions and requirements of life. revealing the peculiarities of the process of studying in elementary school, psychologist jean piaget (1947) noted that learning takes place through assimilation and adaptation, when a student assigns valuable and important information obtained from various sources and imposes it on his own existing experience, which accordingly changes his behavior. by the end of the first half of an academic year, first-graders should already adapt to schooling. the positive emotional attitude to school, the ability to independent educational activities without the help of adults and the ability to overcome obstacles to achieve the goal, low level of school anxiety, positive interaction with classmates and teachers, participation in school activities are the indicators of successful social adaptation. instead, too often at the end of first grade, most students are still at a low level of adaptation to school life, experience high levels of school anxiety, and tend to perceive most school events as threatening. the presence of aggression or slowing down, a feeling of fear, unwillingness to go to school testify the level of increased school anxiety. neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children … tetiana kotyk, et al. 292 the first-graders who have a low level of school adaptation do not take themselves as schoolchildren, make learning difficult, and, of course, therefore do not want to go to school. they are worried not only about this, but also of the fact that it is necessary to communicate with parents and teachers about it. therefore, the teacher should pay special attention to expressing his attitude to students, using not official business, but an intimate-maternal style of communication, which means taking the position of the child in difficult situations. the authoritarian style, which separates the teacher from the child, is an obstacle in the child’s adaptation to school, reducing the level of success and cognitive motivation. the fourth-grade students are positive about the school, although they like it not because of participation in the educational process, but only because it is possible to communicate with classmates and teachers, feel like a student and have good school supplies. they are alarmed only by situations of communication and establishing contacts with individual classmates. the fourth-graders experience the optimal level of school anxiety, which psychologists call useful because it is a necessary condition for personal development (starling et al., 2019). thus, learning in primary school is a difficult and important period in a child's life, as the daily routine, social role and social environment change abruptly, a new type of activity appears, it is learning that requires concentration, willpower, which is still underdeveloped in 6-7-year-old students. therefore, in primary school, especially in the first and second grades, during the adaptation-play period at the lessons it is necessary to introduce game situations, use didactic games; in addition, since children still have a great need for physical activity, it is advisable not to limit it during lessons but to subordinate it to the didactic purpose. the game and motor activity of students will help awaken interest in learning, facilitate the course of adaptation to educational activities. by the end of primary school age, the structure of emotional representations is almost completely formed, covering a generalized system of knowledge about emotions and an individual value-emotional color of each unit of knowledge acquired during the gaining their own emotional experience. conclusions consequently, the task of developing emotional intelligence is an important component of the content of primary education. mastering it by brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 293 primary school pupils as a means of successful social interaction and cognition of themselves and others should become the most important attainment of the child in junior school age, which is especially sensitive to the assimilation of norms and rules of public communication. if the child does not reach a sufficient level of emotional development by the age of 1011 years, which is distinguished by the greatest pliability of the cerebral cortex and almost unlimited intellectual capabilities, then at later age stages his life path cannot be successful and comfortable due to numerous misunderstandings with himself and other close people and strangers. primary school teachers are called not only to teach young children to read and write, but also to lay the foundation for the future formation of a holistic personality in adolescence who understands himself and others and can succeed in both independent and group collective activities. the effectiveness of work on the development of emotional intelligence depends on a well-thought-out system of pedagogical influence, the emotional competence of the teacher and taking him into account the neuropedagogic principles of the development of emotional intelligence. references andreeva, y. n. (2011). эmotsyonalnыi yntellekt kak fenomen sovremennoi psykholohyy [emotional intelligence as a phenomenon of modern psychology]. phu. https://docplayer.ru/25849235-i-n-andreeva-emocionalnyy-intellekt-kakfenomen-sovremennoy-psihologii.html bard, p. (1928). a diencephalic mechanism for the expression of rage with special reference to the sympathetic nervous system. american journal of physiology, 84, 490-515 https://doi.org/10.1152/ajplegacy.1928.84.3.490 cannon, w. b. (1915). bodily changes in pain, hunger, fear and rage: an account of recent researches into the function of emotional excitement. d appleton & company. https://archive.org/details/cu31924022542470/page/n4/mode/2up?ref= ol&view=theater gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences, basic books. goleman, d. (1998). working with emotional intelligence. bantam books. james, w. (1893) psychology: briefer course. henry holt & company. https://archive.org/details/psychologybriefe00willuoft/page/n9/mode/2 up karpenko, e. v. (2017). emotsiinyi intelekt yak faktor osobystisnoho zhyttiezdiisnennia [emotional intelligence as a factor of personal life]. psykholohichni perspektyvy, 30, 50-63. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ppst_2017_30_7 https://docplayer.ru/25849235-i-n-andreeva-emocionalnyy-intellekt-kak-fenomen-sovremennoy-psihologii.html https://docplayer.ru/25849235-i-n-andreeva-emocionalnyy-intellekt-kak-fenomen-sovremennoy-psihologii.html https://doi.org/10.1152/ajplegacy.1928.84.3.490 https://archive.org/details/cu31924022542470/page/n4/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater https://archive.org/details/cu31924022542470/page/n4/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/basic_books https://archive.org/details/psychologybriefe00willuoft/page/n9/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/psychologybriefe00willuoft/page/n9/mode/2up http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ppst_2017_30_7 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ppst_2017_30_7 neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children … tetiana kotyk, et al. 294 kharisova, t. i. (2011). hrani intelektu [the facets of intelligence]. lviv. komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 kotyk, t. (2020). nova ukrainska shkola. teoriia i praktyka formuvannia emotsiinoho intelektu v uchniv pochatkovoi shkoly: navchalno-metodychnyi posibnyk dlia vchyteliv pochatkovoi shkoly [new ukrainian school. theory and practice of the formation of emotional intelligence in primary school students: a textbook for primary school teachers]. aston. https://lib.imzo.gov.ua/wadata/public/site/books2/navchalno-metodychny-posibnyky/dlyapedpraytsivnykiv/nus-teoriya-i-praktyka-form-emots-intelekt-kotyk.pdf kucher, o. m., & hryshchenko t. v. (2020). teoriia i praktyka formuvannia emotsiinoho intelektu v uchniv pochatkovoi shkoly [theory and practice of emotional intelligence formation in primary school students]. kharkiv. maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46-93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 ministry of education and science of ukraine. (2016). kontseptsiia novoi ukrainskoi shkoly. [the concept of the new ukrainian https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://lib.imzo.gov.ua/wa-data/public/site/books2/navchalno-metodychny-posibnyky/dlya-pedpraytsivnykiv/nus-teoriya-i-praktyka-form-emots-intelekt-kotyk.pdf https://lib.imzo.gov.ua/wa-data/public/site/books2/navchalno-metodychny-posibnyky/dlya-pedpraytsivnykiv/nus-teoriya-i-praktyka-form-emots-intelekt-kotyk.pdf https://lib.imzo.gov.ua/wa-data/public/site/books2/navchalno-metodychny-posibnyky/dlya-pedpraytsivnykiv/nus-teoriya-i-praktyka-form-emots-intelekt-kotyk.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 295 school].https://decentralization.gov.ua/uploads/library/file/280/konczep cziya.pdf nosenko, e. l., & kovryha, n. v. (2003). emotsiinyi intelekt: kontseptualizatsiia fenomenu, osnovni funktsii: monohr [emotional intelligence: conceptualization of the phenomenon, main functions: monograph]. vyshcha shkola. http://distance.dnu.dp.ua/ukr/nmmateriali/documents/em_intellekt.pdf piaget, j. (1947). la psychologie de l’intelligence [the psychology of intelligence]. a. colin. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shpak, m. m. (2016). emotsiinyi intelekt yak osobystisnyi resurs zabezpechennia psykholohichnoho blahopoluchchia molodshykh shkoliariv [emotional intelligence as a personal resource for ensuring the psychological well-being of primary school children]. nauka i osvita, 5, 266-270. http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/id/eprint/23285 shpak, m. m. (2017). empirychne doslidzhennia psykholohichnykh osoblyvostei rozvytku emotsiinoho intelektu v molodshomu shkilnomu vitsi [empirical study of psychological features of emotional intelligence development in primary school age]. psykholohichni perspektyvy. 29, 234–244. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ppst_2017_29_22 shpak, m. m. (2018). vikovi osoblyvosti rozvytku emotsiinoho intelektu molodshykh shkoliariv [age features of development of emotional intelligence of junior schoolchildren]. science and education a new dimension. pedagogy and psychology, vi(68), 71-77 https://seanewdim.com/uploads/3/4/5/1/34511564/httpdoi.org10.3117 4send-pp2018-164vi68-17.pdf starling, n. r., elias, e. m., & coleman, m. s. (2019). concentrations in school psychology: can specialization empower the evolution of the profession?. contemporary school psychology, 25, 546-553. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688019-00264-x svaab, d. (2017). my – tse nash mozok [we are our brain]. kharkiv. test shkilnoi tryvozhnosti filipsa meta. (bez daty) [no date] [test of school anxiety by phillips meta]. http://www.irkliivzosh.edukit.ck.ua/files/downloads/%d1%82%d0%b5%d1%81%d1%8 2%20%d1%84%d1%96%d0%bb%d1%96%d0%bf%d1%81%d0%b 0.docx https://decentralization.gov.ua/uploads/library/file/280/konczepcziya.pdf https://decentralization.gov.ua/uploads/library/file/280/konczepcziya.pdf http://distance.dnu.dp.ua/ukr/nmmateriali/documents/em_intellekt.pdf https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/id/eprint/23285 http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/id/eprint/23285 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ppst_2017_29_22 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ppst_2017_29_22 https://seanewdim.com/uploads/3/4/5/1/34511564/httpdoi.org10.31174send-pp2018-164vi68-17.pdf https://seanewdim.com/uploads/3/4/5/1/34511564/httpdoi.org10.31174send-pp2018-164vi68-17.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-019-00264-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-019-00264-x http://www.irkliiv-zosh.edukit.ck.ua/files/downloads/%d1%82%d0%b5%d1%81%d1%82%20%d1%84%d1%96%d0%bb%d1%96%d0%bf%d1%81%d0%b0.doc http://www.irkliiv-zosh.edukit.ck.ua/files/downloads/%d1%82%d0%b5%d1%81%d1%82%20%d1%84%d1%96%d0%bb%d1%96%d0%bf%d1%81%d0%b0.doc http://www.irkliiv-zosh.edukit.ck.ua/files/downloads/%d1%82%d0%b5%d1%81%d1%82%20%d1%84%d1%96%d0%bb%d1%96%d0%bf%d1%81%d0%b0.doc http://www.irkliiv-zosh.edukit.ck.ua/files/downloads/%d1%82%d0%b5%d1%81%d1%82%20%d1%84%d1%96%d0%bb%d1%96%d0%bf%d1%81%d0%b0.doc neuro pedagogical fundamentals of preschool and primary school children … tetiana kotyk, et al. 296 webcast-legacy departmental [username]. (2007, august 21). integrative biology 131-lecture 01: organization of body [video].youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9wtbrnydso&t=241 zarytska, v. v. vikovi peredumovy rozvytku emotsiinoho intelektu osobystosti (doshkilnyi i shkilnyi periody) [age prerequisites for the development of emotional intelligence of the individual (preschool and school periods)]. visnyk kharkivskoho natsionalnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu imeni h. s. skovorody. psykholohiia, 38, 35-53. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vkhnpu_psykhol_2011_38_6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9wtbrnydso&t=241 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vkhnpu_psykhol_2011_38_6 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vkhnpu_psykhol_2011_38_6 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 127-148 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/224 future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development hanna afuzova¹, liliia rudenko2, nataliya stepanchenko3, veronika shkrabiuk4, oksana martsyniak-dorosh5, olena dubovyk6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, gvafuzova@gmail.com 2 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, lilianic1962@gmail.com 3 lviv state university of physical culture, ukraine, natalia.stepanchenko@gmail.com 4 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, veronika.shkrabiuk@pnu.edu.ua 5 lviv polytechnic national university, ukraine, m0678119901@gmail.com 6 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, dubovykom@ukr.net abstract: the practice of the integrated techniques of teaching children with impaired development of various nosological categories in comprehensive schools together with children with normal development is becoming increasingly extensive alongside with a series of researches in this direction. as it follows, in this complicated process a mentally correctional support of an educated specialist is essential for a child with impaired mental and physical development. the findings of the theoretical analysis of the role and place of the orientation phenomenon in the personality's professional activity have been given. particular attention is focused upon the content, structure and formation levels of the personality's professional orientation in adolescence; as well as on the peculiarities of the correctional support in the context of the psychological assistance to the children with alternative abilities. the specificity of the empirical research of the peculiarities of future psychologists' professional orientation at the correctional support of alternatively able children has been described. the qualification characterization of a future special psychologist's support has been presented, the techniques and methods of the investigation of the psychological peculiarities of the professional orientation at correctional support have been outlined, the findings of the empirical research have been analyzed. the theoretical and methodological foundations of the psychological provision of the formation process of the future psychologist's professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with alternative abilities have been discussed. the organization of the activity aimed at the development of the future special psychologists' professional orientation has been described, methodological apparatus has been worked out and the approbation results have been adduced. on the basis of the findings the conclusion may be drawn that the suggested methodology is correct, the tasks have been successfully performed, the objective has been achieved, the efficiency of the methodological recommendations has been verified. keywords: integrated teaching techniques, nosological categories, mental correctional support, psychological assistance, adolescence, qualification characterization. how to cite: afuzova, h., rudenko, l., stepanchenko, n., shkrabiuk, v., martsyniak-dorosh, o., & dubovyk, o. (2021). future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 127-148. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/224 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/224 mailto:gvafuzova@gmail.com mailto:lilianic1962@gmail.com mailto:natalia.stepanchenko@gmail.com mailto:veronika.shkrabiuk@pnu.edu.ua mailto:m0678119901@gmail.com mailto:dubovykom@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/224 future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 128 introduction in the focus of the national education development doctrine among the other directions of its further improvement there is constant increase in education quality, content and educational process upgrading, development of continuous education system and lifetime learning. the ukrainian system of teaching and educating people with impaired mental and physical development is on the stage of evolution, defined as the transitional stage from the equal rights recognition to the equal opportunities provision, from institutionalization to integration. due to the low social security of the population of ukraine, the decrease in the quality of life level as well as the complicated ecological state, low level of health care the number of children with impaired mental and physical development is rapidly increasing. the main task of the modern science is to contribute to the full-fledged social adaptation of such children, their integration into the society by the introduction of the inclusive education system. the practice of the integrated techniques of teaching children with impaired mental and physical development of various nosological categories in comprehensive schools together with children with normal development is becoming increasingly extensive and the researches in this field are more recurrent. as it follows, in this complicated process a mentally correctional support of an educated specialist is essential for a child with impaired mental and physical development. for a long time the psychological support of the people with impaired mental and physical development in the system of the special education was given in ukraine by specialists without the proper professional background. it goes without saying that this influenced the quality and efficiency of the educational-correctional process. the system of special educational institutions and rehabilitation centers in ukraine requires from the higher educational institutions the vocational training of well-qualified and competitive specialists for working with children with impaired mental and physical development. while providing correctional support to the children with impaired mental and physical development there is distinctly actualized the stimulating function of professional orientation providing personal professional tenacity regardless the negative effect of the outer factors. the crucial role in training psychologists for working with the above-mentioned category of children is also distinguished. orientation is the crucial component of the inner personality's mental structure, which to a certain extent predetermines all the person's actions and the ways of manifesting his/her other mental features and qualities. orientation is interpreted as the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 129 system of impulses determining both the selectiveness in the personality's attitudes to the environment and the objects this orientation is directed at. the personality's professional orientation is revealed in his/her attitude to professional activity and presupposes understanding and inner acceptance of the objectives and tasks of this activity, expresses interests, ideals, settings, convictions, opinions which characterize it. at this stage needs, interests, values acquire entirely new sense in the personal development of a future professional. the changes in the role and status of the specialists in the today's special psychology filed is greatly dependent on the level of their professional orientation and competence. this, in its turn, explains the necessity of the professionals training system improvement in the special psychology field aimed at changing the level of their professional orientation, which will positively affect the quality of their professional activity of correctional support of the above-mentioned category of children in educational rehabilitation institutions. the choice of the topic of the research was determined by the task to reform education in the direction of humanitarization and humanization and the objective of the overall harmonious personality development, as well as by the need to improve the future psychologists training system due to the underdeveloped issue of the professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development. the objective is to theoretically grounding and experimental research of the mental peculiarities of the future psychologists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development. literature review it has been concluded on the basis of the scientific literature review that the issue of orientation is viewed in modern psychology chiefly in the context of the two global scientific approaches: personal and active. from the point of view of the representatives of the personal approach (asmolov, 1983; palamarchuk et al., 2020 etc) orientation is interpreted as the system of relations, formed and evolving in the process of the person's social and mental development and reflected in the attitude to himself/herself, to other people, to the environment etc. these attitudes in the personality's orientation structure are in the hierarchic dependence according to the content-value parameter. orientation is viewed as the basis of the personality, determining its social and mental characteristic, subduing to future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 130 itself all the forms of person's activity and favoring his/her self-regulation and self-realization. the supporters of the active approach treat orientation as the system of motives, determining the performance of some certain types of activity (bozhovych, 1972; leontyev, 1977; sheremet et al., 2019). it's worth mentioning that the personal and active approaches are not mutually exclusive because they are often united in dealing with specific challenges. as it follows, the majority of scholars (lomov, 1984; nerubasska & maksymchuk 2020; nerubasska et al., 2020; zeyer, 2006) distinguish in the orientation structure the personal component, containing needs, desires, interests, ideals, persuasions, world outlook, level of aspirations, self-esteem, human values) and the procedural component which lies in being active in one particular type of activity, necessity to acquire and enrich knowledge in particular field, need for self-cognition and self-development in a certain type of activity and positive attitude to it. it follows from the stated above that the personality orientation is the main and multidimensional quality of the personality, uniting the inner mental conditions predetermining the person's social activity which is inseparable from the person's participation in social processes. professional orientation is viewed as the manifestation of the general personality's orientation. personality's professional orientation has been investigated by many psychologists and educators in the last decades (behas et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; iaremchuk, 1999; potykha, 2000), nevertheless the complexity of the challenge is conditioned by the absence of the unanimous opinion about the understanding of the professional orientation essence. from the psychological point of view, professional orientation is viewed as the leading, integral, socially conditioned feature of a personality and it mostly often is displayed as the selective positive attitude to the occupation (seyeteshev, 1990; slastyonin, 1976); particular kind of attitude: to the occupation, to himself/herself as a professional; interest and inclination to the occupation (derkach, 1993; kuzmina, 1990); the system of the motives of the occupation advantages (bozhovych, 1972; leontyev, 1977); personal orientation at the employment of the knowledge, experience, skills in the field of the chosen vocation (dyachenko & kandybovych, 1976); the specific type of the values; settings for the given type of activity or as a complex of the several enumerated features (mytyna, 2003; zeyer, 2006). summing up the findings of the theoretical analysis of the literary sources, professional orientation is understood as mental preparedness of a personality for the chosen occupation, revealed in the cognitive interest, needs, values, persuasions, world outlook, professional inclinations and views. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 131 in literature on psychology there are certain discrepancies as to the structural components of professional orientation, because it comprises two aspects: firstly, these are the peculiarities of the personality orientation; secondly – characteristic, connected with vocation and occupation. the professional orientation has been in the focus of the research of many scholars, most of which considered motivational tendencies its central component (kostuk, 1977; lomov, 1984), but quite a number of psychologists didn't limit the definition of the professional orientation components by the boundaries of the system of impulses (andreyeva, 2004; gubayidullina, 2000 etc). on the basis of the findings of the conducted theoretical analysis of the scientific sources, professional orientation structure is viewed as the combination of the three components: motivating-focusing, represented by the vector «motive – objective»; emotive-gnostic, represented by sensualinformational products; regulatory, formed by the volitional and estimating components. depending on the degree of the correspondence between the dominating motive, the advantages of the occupation and its sense there are traditionally differentiated three levels of professional orientation: high, average and low. in case, professional orientation is absent or is only on the initial stage of its formation, its non-formation is diagnosed. regarding the tree-component structure of the professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, it's worth remarking that all the components of the future psychologists' professional orientation may be on the different levels of formation. mental correctional support is of great importance in the system of psychological assistance to the children with impaired mental and physical development, especially in the conditions of the transition of modern special education to integrated and inclusive teaching of people with impaired mental and physical development. the efficiency of the mental correctional support will depend on the mental readiness of future psychologists for professional interaction with the above mentioned category of people. the direct tasks of the mental correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development. is first and foremost their psychological and social adaptation. no less important is also psychological support of the families with such children, especially on the stage of integrating a child with impaired mental and physical development by means of inclusion into the environment of peers with normal level of development. future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 132 when providing correctional support to the children with impaired mental and physical development the stimulating function of the professional orientation is distinctly actualized. it contributes to the professional-personal tenacity irrespective of the influence of the outer factors. the crucial role in training psychologists for the work with such category of children is also taken into consideration. materials & methods in the conditions of the state system of special education reformation and transfer from institutionalization to integration practical and personal unpreparedness of postgraduates for the due mental correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development is vividly revealed. there arises the issue of special vocational training, formation and development of certain professionally oriented personal features, providing full-value of mental correctional support, clearly admitting the necessity of the qualified correctional support while including the children with impaired mental and physical development into the environment of peers with normal level of development. the data, obtained by means of theoretical analysis of the scientific sources on issues of personality's professional orientation, specificity of psychological assistance to the children with impaired mental and physical development, as well as the findings of the empirical study of the psychological peculiarities of the professional orientation on the mental correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development and mechanism of its formation in future psychologists have proved the necessity of the targeted influence upon the process of future professionals training, starting from their first academic year. the development of the future psychologists' professional orientation at mental correctional support of children with impaired mental and physical development as the crucial component of future professionals preparedness for vocational activity is predetermined by the following conditions: 1) the entity of the theoretical and practical approaches in teaching medical and psychological disciplines, displayed in the balance of the theoretical and technological components of future special psychologists' vocational training; 2) the optimization of the process, content, forms and techniques of vocational training; 3) the introduction of the psychological coordination of future special psychologists into the educational process, comprising the worked-out system of training activities for the students of 1-4 years, by modeling the structure, content and technology of the professional activity of providing mental correctional support to the children with impaired brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 133 mental and physical development; 4) the activation of the students' practical activity, which consists in the realization of the professional knowledge and skills as well as the personality's potential. the understanding of the professional orientation as the personality's mental preparedness for the chosen professional activity, revealed in the cognitive interest, needs, values, persuasions, world outlook, professional settings and views, has determined the main goals of the strategy of future special psychologists' professional orientation formation psychological provision: 1) to assist students in specifying, enriching and actualizing the views of professional activity and vocational professional and personal features in the field of special psychology; 2) to contribute to the acquisition by students of their professional settings and aspirations; 3) to help future special psychologists discern the factors of their preparedness for the chosen professional activity, that is to reveal the professionally relevant features, challenging development zones and potential opportunities. to develop future special psychologists' professional orientation at mental correctional support of children there has been worked out the program of the psychological provision of future special psychologists' formation process on all the stages of students' education in a higher institution. the program is based upon the characteristic of special psychologists' professional activity and on the outlined stages of the professional orientation at mental correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development (fig. 1). from the point of psychological and pedagogical approach this program may be considered personally oriented, as it presupposes the tandem of the experienced specialist with a group of students as well as with each student separately to ensure the experience acquisition. future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 134 fig. 1. the scheme of the psychological influence upon the development of professional orientation at correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development source: authors’ own conception future psychologists' psychological support program module іі. objective: the formation of the conscious attitude to the process of the personal professionalizatio n in the future professional activity of providing mental correctional support to the children with impaired mental and physical development module ііі. objective: contribution to understanding possibilities of self-realization in the future professional activity of correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development module іv. objective: development of a future specialist professional identity in the field of special psychology locally professional orientation adaptation development stage the improvement of the level of professional orientation at correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development system-professional orientation adaptation development stage emotive-gnostic component of professional orientation professional orientation adaptation development stage motivating-targeted component of professional orientation regulatory component of professional orientation module і. objective: the formation of the views of future special psychologists' professional orientation brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 135 the program is based upon the individual-creative approach, oriented at the transformation of the conscience and self-conscience of a future specialist, as well as at the reformation of his/her values, persuasions, ideals, which would contribute to self-realization and self-actualization of a future special psychologist's personality, as well as the development of his/her creativity, reflection, individual activity style etc. the worked-out program of psychological support of the process of the formation of future psychologists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development consists of the following main activity directions. psychological diagnostic activity: 1) to diagnose students' individual psychological and personal professional peculiarities; 2) to study personality's professional orientation, to understand the current development level of the motivational field, settings, values, personal students' professional orientation development model; 3) to perform psychological testing aimed at efficient employment of the personality's inner potential; 4) to have an interview on the basis of the testing results, to discuss the results, to draw conclusions based on the results; 5) to perform additional psychological testing in case of unfavorable prognosis. consulting activity: 1) to work out recommendations on the basis of the results of psychological diagnostic testing; 2) to give a professional consultation on the basis of the findings of the psychological diagnostic research aimed at improving the level of the personality's professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, efficient employment of the personality's potential; 3) to give individual consultation on the basis of applications, to work out individual models of future psychologists' professional orientation development. educating-correctional activity: 1) to provide psychological training to lower the level of alarm, relieve excessive nervous and psychic tension, to correct negative mental states; 2) to work out individual mental correctional program on the basis of students' applications; 3) to arrange events contributing to the acquisition of professional identity, to teach students self-control, self-regulation, self-development, self-realization (training, business games, round tables etc). informative-orientation activity: 1) to work out and distribute events aimed at creating the favorable social psychological and creative atmosphere in an academic group, at the department, at the institution on the whole; 2) to arrange events (conferences, workshops etc) which allow to outline the challenges in the field of special psychology and correctional-rehabilitation future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 136 support of the children with impaired mental and physical development; 3) cooperation with the student government bodies in arranging meetings with specialists from educational and rehabilitation institutions, which will contribute to the acquisition of experience and the full scope of information about future professional activity of mental correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, its perspectives, formation of adequate perception of the future professional tasks etc. according to the form of organization the following program is a professional psychological training of the personality development and stimulation of the professional orientation at mental correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development. this strategy has been chosen as it simultaneously contributes to the personality's selfconscience development, value system comprehension, motivation amplification, professionally relevant features improvement and conduct peculiarities formation, the most prominent being the ability to efficiently deal with other people and set solid interpersonal relationship. the program structure presupposes the combination of theoretical informational knowledge and gaming tasks with further psychological analysis and interpretation, in which professional and psychological orientation is relevant, due to which fact the forecast changes in the personality may be predicted (quantitative, qualitative, structural) and the essential activity components may be transformed into the corresponding personality traits. the intersystem interrelation between the motivation-targeted, emotive-gnostic and regulatory professional orientation components result in singling out the determinants, which allow to characterize the specificity of its formation. the motivation-targeted component is represented by the dominant motives of occupation selection and mastering, their reliability; the humanistic orientation formation;essential personality orientations and the existence of the personal vocational plan. the emotive-gnostic component of future specialists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development is determined by the views about the future professional activity, its requirements for a specialist's personality; attitude to the future occupation, the process of mastering it; the presence of professional identification; ability for empathy, tolerance, altruism, attraction; professional reflection. the regulatory component of future specialists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development preconditions professional self-assessment brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 137 formation and development; professional self-preservation; professional prediction and anticipation, as well as the mechanism of facilitation and responsibility for the results of the professional activity. the specific methodology has been worked out to investigate the above-mentioned determinants. thus, to define the level of professional orientation at the moment of entering a higher educational institution there has been elaborated the methodology, comprising two tests, an interview and the techniques of studying professional identity statuses (azbel, 2005). when researching the motivation-targeted future specialists' professional orientation component, the following methodology has been employed: testquestionnaire «the educational activity motivation» (ilyina, 2006) in order to study the key motives of vocational educating activity; test-questionnaire to investigate motivation-meaningful products of students' personality (orlov, 1981); as well as the technique of activity results analysis – essay «why i have chosen the occupation of a special psychologist» to define the motives of special psychologist occupation choice. the emotive-gnostic component of professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development has been studied by means of the following techniques: the test of color oppositions (bazhyn & etkind, 1985) to define future special psychologists' emotional attitude to the chosen professional activity, to the children with impaired mental and physical development, to themselves as special psychologists; techniques of communicative setting diagnostics aimed at defining the level of average communicative tolerance, enabling to follow the tendencies of personality formation on the whole, conditioned by the experience, settings, temperament, morality, mental health; modified test-questionnaire to study empathic tendencies (mekhrabian, 2002), as well as the author's complex questionnaire «my future occupation», aimed at defining the formation level of the views of special psychologists' future occupation, acquaintance with the tasks of the tasks of the professional activity in this field, professionalism criteria, urgent and forecast challenges of the future occupations, as well as the degree of the satisfaction with the chosen vocation and the aspiration for professional self-improvement in the field of special psychology. to study the determinants of the regulatory component of the professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development the following techniques have been chosen: the technique of professional self-assessment study by means of ranging, the technique of the multifactor personality research (16pf – p. kettell's) to achieve professionally relevant individual and psychological future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 138 peculiarities of the personality, connected with the professional activity regulation; the analysis of the activity products by means of content-analysis (essay «my professional plans») aimed at defining the preparedness for professional forecasting. the experimental research was done on the basis of the institute of the correctional pedagogy and psychology at the national pedagogical dragomanov university. the research was carried out in 2015  2020 years. the sampling of the experiment participants was represented by 200 people (students і-iv years of the specialties «psychology (special)», «speech therapy and practical (special) psychology», « deaf-and-dumb pedagogy and practical (special) psychology», «typhlopedagogy and practical (special) psychology»). on the first stage (2015-2016 years) scientific literature on this topic was studied and analyzed; object, subject, objective and tasks were formulated; the framework was worked out and the techniques were defined, ascertaining experiment was carried out to study the issue at the institute of the correctional pedagogy and psychology and outline the directions of the further research. on the second stage (2016-2018 years) there was performed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the ascertaining experiment findings, on this basis the framework of the research and the procedure of the forming experiment was worked out; the program of professional orientation development in the students of the specialty «psychology (special)» was approbated. the third stage (2018-2020 years) was dedicated to the further realization of the program of psychological support of the development of future special psychologists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, analysis and summing up of the experimental activity findings; the formulation of the general conclusions. results on the basis of the findings it has been concluded that about 48% of the enrollees at the moment of their admission to higher educational institutions on the specialty «psychology (special)» are not oriented at the work with the children with impaired mental and physical development. this indicates insufficient awareness of the peculiarities of the chosen professional activity, the lack of psychological preparedness for interrelation with this category of people and unwillingness to work with them in the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 139 future. thus one of the tasks was to increase the level of future special psychologists' professional orientation. the prevailing in the structure of future special psychologists' professional orientation is motivation not to provide psychological support to the children with impaired mental and physical development, but to assist self-development in the boundaries of psychological occupation and higher education acquisition. it has been found out that the psychological occupation choice was predominantly motivated by cognitive interests in 55% students, in 19% future special psychologists it was motivated by utility. at the same time 15% young people have chosen special psychology field due to the social meaningfulness of the future occupation, 7% students have relied on the background of the respectable adults or due to the personal relationship with the people with impaired mental and physical development; while 4% of the experiment participants regard future occupation to be a possible solution of many personal challenges. the findings reveal the urgency of the issue of special psychology specialists' professional preparation and efficiency of their activity in the future, aimed at psychological correctional support of the people with impaired mental and physical development, as well as proved i-centrism in the activity. the system of future special psychologists' views on the peculiarities of the chosen professional activity, as well as on the professionally relevant features in the field of special psychology is mostly under-formed or subjective due to a group of factors, in particular: the stereotypical image of a psychologist which was formed both on the basis of the personal background and due to the data from mass media; unawareness of the specific peculiarities of the professional activity as well as vocational requirements etc. on the average only 20% students-psychologists at the institute of correctional pedagogy and psychology (hereinafter – icpp) 2d year and 40% future special psychologists 3d year have proved the required level of the formation of the views on the special psychologists' professional activity peculiarities. it should be remarked that in the process of training these professional views become more objective, there occurs slight differentiation between the professional activity of practical and special psychologists, however the majority of senior courses students (about 40%) face challenges connected with tasks formulation and future professional activity problems in psychological support provision, which fact proves the lack of professional identification. the part of students-psychologists icpp are not satisfied with the chosen occupation(for 2d year that indicator reached 23%,while already 34% 4th year future professionals denied the possibility of the repeated choice of future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 140 special psychologist occupation), approximately one quarter of students 2d4th years have unidentified attitude to the chosen professional activity. the research have revealed in the majority of students-special psychologists the absence of distinct professional plans, concerning psychological support to the children with impaired mental and physical development, as well as inadequate (approximately in 50% heightened and in 25% lowered) professional self-esteem of oneself as a special psychologist. it's worth noting that future special psychologists at the icpp face the critical moment in their professional formation in their third year, when due to the increased dissatisfaction or unidentified attitude to the future professional activity there arises the risk of the decrease in professional interests, professional intentions, increase in anxiety level and uncertainty etc. at the end of vocational training in higher educational institutions only one fifth of students-special psychologists is professionally oriented at psychological support of the people with impaired mental and physical development. the high level of the formation of professional orientation at correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, which presupposes distinct humanistic orientation, formed professional motives of the social value of professional activity; welldeveloped altruistic tendencies, ability for empathy in its active form (sympathy), high level of communicative tolerance, real optimism; adequate professional self-assessment, formed on the basis of the formed objective occupation and psychologists' personality images; high level of self-control and self-regulation, which is displayed in the increased stress resistance and responsibility for the professional activity. this was revealed only in 7% of the first year students, 21% of the second year students, 19% of future special psychologists of the third course and 28% of the fourth year students at the icpp. the average level of formation of professional orientation at the psychological support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, distinguished by the focus on the sphere of interpersonal relations, cognitive professional motives predominance; presence of altruistic tendencies, ability for empathy in the form of sympathy, the satisfactory level of communicative tolerance, heightened or lowered professional self-esteem, formed on the basis of the simplified occupation and psychologists images; the required level of stress resistance and the unidentified attitude to the professional future, was displayed by 45% future special psychologists of 1st year; 51% students of 2nd year; 49% studentsspecial psychologists of 3d year and 63% of 4th year. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 141 the low level of the formation of professional orientation at correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, revealed in the predominance of the utilitarian professional motives, presence of i-centrism, low level of the ability for empathy, lowered communicative tolerance; lack of formation of professional orientation due to false or slight views of images of occupation and specialists' personality; inclination to frustration tendencies and absence of the willing for selfrealization in the chosen vocational field, was revealed in 48% 1st year students at the icpp, in 28% 2nd year future special psychologists, in 32% young people in 3d year and 9% students-special psychologists in 4th year. there are three stages in the dynamics of the development of professional orientation at correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development in the educational process: adaptive, locally professional and systematically professional. the obtained results evidenced that future special psychologists' professional orientation at the adaptive stage of its development (1st year – first term of 2d year) is characterized by certain lack of formation of emotive-gnostic component, revealed in the low competence of the chosen professional activity, the requirements of the future occupation; underdeveloped professionally relevant features; lack of psychological preparedness for the interaction with the children with impaired mental and physical development. at the locally professional stage (second term of 2d year – 3d year) in the process of their practical interaction with the children with impaired mental and physical development future special psychologists face challenges of option and introduction of theoretical knowledge into practical activity, resulting in the lowered self-assurance as to their potential, fear of interaction with such children. in the centre of the attention there is first and foremost the regulatory component of students' professional orientation. future special psychologists should be assisted in mastering professional inclinations, becoming aware of possible obstacles of professional development and factors of successful professional activity of providing correctional support to the children with impaired mental and physical development. on the systematically professional stage (from 4th year up to the vocational training graduation) there arise challenges in regard to the development of the motivating-evaluating component of the 4th year future psychologists' professional orientation. the latter results in contributing to students' awareness of their professional identification, its interrelation with the peculiarities of professional orientation at the correctional support of the future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 142 children with impaired mental and physical development; assisting senior students in their choice of the specific field of psychological activity, as well as forecasting individual direction of professional development. the analysis of the findings has proved the urgency of the introduction into the educational process of the psychological support system focused at the peculiarities of each development stage of the future special psychologists', professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, aimed at stimulating the development of professional preparedness for psychological correctional support of the people with impaired mental and physical development and in-time prevention of the professional deformation to avoid inefficient psychological activity of future professionals in the field of special psychology. as a result of the activity on the development of the professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development there has been reasonably increased the level of such important determinants as professional views about the specialist psychologists' activity peculiarities and requirements for the personality; objective professional self-assessment of one's abilities as special psychologist; professional identity with the subjects of the future professional activity as well as ability for empathy and tolerance to the children with impaired mental and physical development (table1). table 1. the dynamics of the determinants of the future special psychologists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development in the process of the psychological assistance program realization source: authors’ own conception determinants of po professional views professional selfassessment empathy, tolerance findings % t-criterion relevance level % t-criterion relevance level % tcriterion relevance level 1st year before 11 7,25 0,000** ** р≤0,001 10 2,60 0,010* * р≤0,05 46 8,69 0,000** ** р≤0,001 after 25 24 51 2nd year before 28 8,66 0,000** ** р≤0,001 18 2,04 0,047* * р≤0,05 49 14,78 0,000** ** р≤0,001 after 48 29 56 3d year before 46 7,67 0,000** ** р≤0,001 21 2,37 0,023* * р≤0,05 52 2,43 0,020* * р≤0,05 after 64 37 64 4th year before 67 2,30 0,032* * р≤0,05 41 2,19 0,041* * р≤0,05 67 10,3 0,000** ** р≤0,001 after 79 59 73 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 143 orientation at the findings of the employed techniques and methodology, which have proved statistically deviant, as well as on the criterion of the students' satisfaction from the participation in the program, increase in the efficiency of the practical activity and students' interest both to the knowledge and future professional activity of the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, made it possible to consider the program approbation results positive. discussion the scientific novelty of the findings lies in the fact that: – for the first time the future special psychologist's professional orientation problem has been researched; psychological peculiarities of the future special psychologists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development have been outlined and justified; – theoretical grounding for the complex program of psycho-diagnostics of the professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development of enrollees and future special psychologists has been supplied; – the development of the program with the well-defined contents, devices and techniques of psychological support of the evolution of the psychological orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development on all the stages of their education at higher educational institutions. the relevance of the findings lies in the development of the complex program of psycho-diagnostics of the professional orientation of enrollees at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, its implementation and employment as a basis for professional orientation support due to improve their personal and professional self-identification; in working out methodological recommendations as to the psychological support of the evolution of the psychological orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development; in the arrangement of enlightening and consultative assistance of students in self-identification and self-development of the complex of professionally relevant features in the process of education. the developed complex program of psycho-diagnostics will result in the qualitative improvement of the professional selection of enrollees for future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 144 education on condition of its employment by admissions boards in higher educational institutions and lecturers in teaching. methodological recommendation concerning psychological support of the evolution of the psychological support of the future psychologists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development may be employed by curators of academic groups, practice leaders and scientific consultants (aimed at professional orientation enlightenment). the perspective of the research is seen in the further study of the efficiency of psychological correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development in the field of professional activity of professionals-special psychologists, participating in socialpsychological personal growth training while studying in higher educational institutions. conclusions the theoretical basis outline of the personality's professional orientation and the qualitative analysis of the findings of the carried out empirical research of the psychological peculiarities of the future psychologists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development have allowed to draw the following conclusions: personality's orientation is a basic and multisided structure of the personality, preconditioning its individuality and uniqueness; it is a source of activity; it unites the inner psychological conditions determining human social activity, and it is inseparable from the participation in social processes. professional orientation is studied as a system concept, the manifestation of the common personality's orientation in the activity. professional orientation is understood as personality's psychological preparedness for the chosen professional activity, revealed in the cognitive interest, values, convictions, world outlook, professional inclinations and views. professional orientation structure is represented as the combination of the motivating targeted; emotive gnostic and regulatory components. in regards to the degree of the correspondence of the dominant motive of occupation attractiveness to its objective content there are distinguished three levels of formation: high, average and low. considering the three components of the structure of professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development, it's worth noting that all the components of future brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 145 psychologists' professional orientation may also be on different levels of formation. it has been concluded that the psychological peculiarities of future special psychologists' professional orientation, characterizing high level of its formation, are distinct humane orientation, formed professional motives of the social benefit of the activity; well-developed altruistic tendencies, ability for empathy in its active form (sympathy), high level of communicative tolerance, real optimism; adequate professional self-assessment, formed on the basis of the existing objective occupation and specialists personality image; high level of self-control and self-regulation, revealed in increased stress resistance and responsibility for professional activity. in the course of the research the high formation level of the professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development has been evidenced in 7% first-year students, 21% second-year students, 19% future special psychologists at the 3d course and 28% fourthyear students at the icpp. in the dynamic development of future special psychologists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development in the educational process at the higher educational institution there have been distinguished three stages: adaptive, locally professional and systematically professional, on each stage there arise certain challenges. on the adaptive stage of development future special psychologists' professional orientation is characterized by certain lack of formation of the emotive-gnostic component (there is evidenced low awareness of the peculiarities of the chosen occupation; insufficiently developed professionally relevant features; absence of psychological preparedness for interaction with children with impaired mental and physical development). on the locally professional stage there are faced challenges as to the students' professional orientation regulatory component formation (ill-formed ability to select and transmit theoretical knowledge into practical activity provokes lowered confidence in one's potential, fear of communicating with children etc). on the systematically professional stage there arise problems of the development of motivating-targeted component of future psychologists' professional orientation (incomplete competence of professional identification, its inconsistency with the characteristics of the professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development; absence of the ability to predict individual trajectory of professional development etc). to raise the level of the future specialists' professional orientation in the field of special psychology at the correctional support of the children future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 146 with impaired mental and physical development there has been worked out and grounded the program of the psychological support of the process of students-psychologists' professional orientation formation on all the stages of education at the higher institution. according to the form of organization this program is a social psychological personal growth training of special psychologists, consisting of four modules, each characterized by the clearly defined objective and compliance with the stages of future psychologists' professional orientation at the correctional support of the children with impaired mental and physical development. on the basis of the obtained findings it may be concluded, that the initial methodology is correct, the set tasks have been fulfilled, the objective has been achieved, the efficiency of the suggested methodological recommendations have been proved. references andreeva, y. (2004). psikhologo-akmeologicheskiye osobennosti razvityia professionalnoi napravlennosti lichnosti studentov vuzov [psychological acmeologic peculiarities if the higher institutions students' personality's professional orientation] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. i. n. ulyanov ulyanovsk state pedagogical university. http://www.dslib.net/psixologiarazvitja/psihologo-akmeologicheskie-osobennosti-razvitija-professionalnojnapravlennosti.html asmolov, a. (1983). o predmete psikhologii lichnosti [on personality psychology subject]. voprosy psikhologii [issus of psychology], 3, 119125. https://asmolovpsy.ru/ru/publications/4 azbel, a. (2005). osobennosti formirovanyia statusov professionalnoi identichnosti starsheklassnikov [the peculiarities of the professional identity status formation in high school pupils] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. a. i. gertsen russian state pedagogical university. https://www.dissercat.com/content/osobennosti-formirovaniya-statusovprofessionalnoi-identichnosti-starsheklassnikov/read . bazhyn, e., & etkind, a. m. (1985). tsvetovoi test otnoshenyi [relations color test]. v. m. bekhterev leningrad research psychoneurological institute. behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, t., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 http://www.dslib.net/psixologia-razvitja/psihologo-akmeologicheskie-osobennosti-razvitija-professionalnoj-napravlennosti.html http://www.dslib.net/psixologia-razvitja/psihologo-akmeologicheskie-osobennosti-razvitija-professionalnoj-napravlennosti.html http://www.dslib.net/psixologia-razvitja/psihologo-akmeologicheskie-osobennosti-razvitija-professionalnoj-napravlennosti.html https://asmolovpsy.ru/ru/publications/4 https://www.dissercat.com/content/osobennosti-formirovaniya-statusov-professionalnoi-identichnosti-starsheklassnikov/read https://www.dissercat.com/content/osobennosti-formirovaniya-statusov-professionalnoi-identichnosti-starsheklassnikov/read https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 147 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 230. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 bozhovych, l. (1972). yzuchenie motivatsiyi povedenyia deteh i podrostkov [the study of motivation of children's and teenagers' behavior]. pedagogika. derkach, a. (1993). akmeologiia: puti dostizheniia vershyn professionalizma [acmeology: ways of supreme professionalism achievement]. rau. dyachenko, m., & kandybovych, l. (1976). psykhologicheskiye problemy gotovnosti k deiatelnosti [psychological problems of the preparedness for the activity]. publishing house of belarusian state university. gubaidullina, a. (2000). didakticheskiye uslovyia formirovanyia professionalnoi napravlennosti lichnosti studentov–bilingvov [didactical conditions of the bilingual students' personality's professional orientation]. [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. kazan state university. iaremchuk, s. (1999). formuvannia profesiino-psykholohichnoi spriamovanosti osobystosti maibutnoho vchytelia [future teacher's personality's professional psychological orientation] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/6147/yaremchuk .pdf;jsessionid=57a16f4c029b96e640d1a4e7b2a245c6?sequence=1 ilyina, e. (2006). motivatsyia i motivy [motivation and motives]. piter. kostuk, h. (1977). rol profesiinoho samovyznachennia u formuvanni osobystosti [the role of professional self-identification in personality formation]. radianska shkola. kuzmina, n. (1990). professionalizm lichnosti prepodavatelia i mastera proizvodstvennoho obuchenyia [lecturer's and vocational teacher's personality's professionalism]. vysshaya shkola. leontyev, a. (1977). deiatelnost. soznanye. lychnost [activity. conscience. personality]. politizdat. lomov, b. (1984). metodologicheskiye i teoreticheskiye problemy psykhologiyi [the methodological and theoretical psychology problems]. nauka. mekhrabian, a. (2002). diagnostika motivatsyiy dostyzhenyia [the diagnostics of the achievement motivation]. publishing house of the institute of psychotherapy. mytyna, l. (2003). psikhologicheskoye soprovozhdeniye vybora professyiy [psychological support of the professional choice]. moscow psychological and social university. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/6147/yaremchuk.pdf;jsessionid=57a16f4c029b96e640d1a4e7b2a245c6?sequence=1 http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/6147/yaremchuk.pdf;jsessionid=57a16f4c029b96e640d1a4e7b2a245c6?sequence=1 future psychologist's mental orientation at the correctional support of the … hanna afuzova, et al. 148 nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemicphilosophicalanalysisofthecontemporarysocietyandthehuman: newpotential. postmodernopenings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 orlov, a. (1981). sklonnost i professyia [inclination and occupation]. znaniye. palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovations the factorin professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 potykha, v. (2000). formirovaniye professionalnoi napravlennosti lichnosti studentov kolledzha [college students' personality's professional orientation formation] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. i. n. ulyanov ulyanovsk state pedagogical university https://www.dissercat.com/content/formirovanieprofessionalnoi-napravlennosti-lichnosti-studentov-kolledzha . seyteshev, a. (1990). professionalnaia napravlennost lichnosti: teoryia i praktika vospitanyia [personality's professional orientation: theory and practice of education]. nauka kazssr. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 slastyonin, v. (1976). formirovaniye lichnosti uchitelia sovetskoi shkoly v protsesse professionalnoi podgotovki [soviet school's teacher's personality's formation in the process of vocational training]. prosveshcheniye. zeyer, ye. (2006). psikhologyia professyi [occupation psychology]. akademicheskiy proekt. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://www.dissercat.com/content/formirovanie-professionalnoi-napravlennosti-lichnosti-studentov-kolledzha https://www.dissercat.com/content/formirovanie-professionalnoi-napravlennosti-lichnosti-studentov-kolledzha https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 532-542 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/263 the modern approach to rapport building with children affected by crisis events yanina ovsiannikova¹, svitlana liebiedieva2, diana pokhilko3, nataliia onishchenko4, liydmila gontarenko5, yurii shyrobokov6 1 national university of civil defence of ukraine, ovsyannikova@nuczu.edu.ua 2 national university of civil defence of ukraine, lebedeva@nuczu.edu.ua 3 national university of civil defence of ukraine, pohilko@nuczu.edu.ua 4 national university of civil defence of ukraine, onishchenko@nuczu.edu.ua 5 national university of civil defence of ukraine, lgontarenko910@gmail.com 6 kharkiv national university of air force named after ivan kozhedub, ukraine, shirobokovyuri@gmail.com abstract: the article is dedicated to the problem of providing an opportune psychological aid to children who were affected by crisis events. observation, surveys, conservation were used as the methods of the study. the article emphasizes that the rapport building with children and their parents is one of the first and basic steps to provide psychological help. in order to develop the effective psychological methods and techniques of working with children who were affected by crisis events, scientific works of ukrainian and foreign scientists were analysed. therefore, the positive regard, emergence of interest and topic of conservation were determined as essential aspects of any rapport establishing. as well as, the main goals of the rapport building are the abatement of emotional tension and mutual trust development. as a consequence of the study, two stages of the child-psychologist interaction were determined. the first is providing the sense of safety and the second is direct interaction with a child. also, some rapport building techniques for children of different ages were proposed in the article. these techniques should be used only individually for each specific case. in addition, the rapport building is determined as an inalienable condition of any effective further treatment. keywords: psychological aid, rapport, psychotraumatic factors, crisis events, psychological trauma. how to cite: ovsiannikova, y., liebiedieva, s., pokhilko, d., onishchenko, n., gontarenko, l., & shyrobokov, y. (2021). the modern approach to rapport building with children affected by crisis events. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 532-542. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/263 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/263 mailto:ovsyannikova@nuczu.edu.ua mailto:lebedeva@nuczu.edu.ua mailto:pohilko@nuczu.edu.ua mailto:onishchenko@nuczu.edu.ua mailto:lgontarenko910@gmail.com mailto:shirobokovyuri@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/263 the modern approach to rapport building with children affected by crisis … yanina ovsiannikova, et al. 533 introduction nowadays, the psychotraumatic events are an inherent part of our usual life, consequently, the issue of providing psychological and social aid to people, especially to children, is becoming a topic of current interest. the serious illnesses in children or relatives, death of relatives or pets, traffic collisions, a loose of a dwelling, terrorist acts can be considered as psychotraumatic events. however, according to our practical experience, we emphasize that children’s traumas might be caused not only by direct influences, but also by situations of witnessing. generally, children cannot realize what has happened to them, since they aren’t socialized individuals who can choose their behaviour conforming to a great number of social, religious norms and rules, own life experience etc. in addition, a child, who was affected, does not have an ability to evaluate those events (onishchenko, 2014; onishchenko et al., 2014). usually, they memorize just situations with feelings, which are associated with those situations. for instance, they retain sounds of impacts, explosions, fire heat. it is important to notice that the reaction to psychotraumatic events takes various forms, sometimes, the intensity of feelings contributes to emotional vulnerability. as a consequence of the vulnerability, a child can feel helpless and unsafe. therefore, crisis events have a great impact on children that makes them more sensitive to emergence of psychotrauma, as a result, their need for psychological aid is greater than one of adults. for comprehensive examination the problems of opportune psychological aid to children who were affected by crisis events, we analysed scientific works of ukrainian and foreign authors (abramova, 2001; alekseeva & novoselskii, 2013; chufarovskii, 1999; dulov, 1975; garmezy, 1986; gubin & chufarovskii, 2002; kisarchuk et al., 2015a, 2015b; onishchenko, 2014; onishchenko et al., 2014; porubov, 1998; rogers, 1975). there studies are devoted to first psychological aid to affected population, psychological features of victims, methods of psychologcial aid to children affected by traumatic events, as well as psychologcial rehabilitation of children. also, the works of enikeev (2010), gubin & chufarovskii (2002), onishchenko et al. (2014) and rogers (1975) were analysed in order to dig into the problem of rapport building between a psychologist and a client, because that process is one of the most significant moments of providing psychological aid. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 534 the purpose of the research is to study the problem of rapport building with children who were affected by traumatic events. specialists of laboratory of crisis and disaster psychology, which is a department of national university of civil defence of ukraine, conducted a large-scale research. one of the aims of that research was to develop some effective methods and techniques of rapport establishing with children who were influenced by traumatic events. the study was being held during 20142017 years, children from different kharkiv’s kindergartens, schools, boarding schools, gymnasiums were involved in the study. children of preschool (3-6 years old), junior school ages (6-9 years old) were divided into two experimental groups according to their age. as methods of the study, observations, conversations and surveys were used. observation is one of the bacis methods of visual psychodiagnostics (abramova, 2001). this method was used during whole study and allowed us to identify the dynamics of children’s psychological states, key features of their behaviour and personality while they performed different tasks. peculiarities of the observation were: the method was used for individual and group examination; a specific scheme was used for the method (specific marks of states were tracked); the method was comprehensive and systematic. conservations were used for clarifying some information (thoughts, emotional statements and attitudes) within the considered issue (abramova, 2001). surveys gave an opportunity to examine a great number of children according to the developed plan of the study (abramova, 2001). we used two surveys which were created for this research. each survey had 14 basic questions and 5 additional questions which were aimed at examination of the problem. approaches to building the rapport with children analysis of scientific works by kisarchuk et al. (2015b) and garmezy (1986) has shown that providing psychological aid to children who have psychotraumatic experience should be particularly comprehensive and systematic. according to our experience, providing psychological aid to children who were affected by traumatic events always starts from rapport building between psychologists and children, as well as their parents. we need to notice that every detail is significant for rapport establishing with a child, affected by traumatic events, for instance, face expression, sight, the modern approach to rapport building with children affected by crisis … yanina ovsiannikova, et al. 535 intonation, distance between a psychologist and a child etc. moreover, such complexity makes the rapport building one of the most important stages of providing psychological aid which demands a great deal of the psychologist’s attention. so, organisation of the interactions “psychologist-child” and “psychologist-parents” on this stage determines the result of psychological aid. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars ivanchenko (2020), komogorova et al. (2021), melnyk et al. (2019, 2021), palamarchuk et al. (2020), sheremet et al. (2019). it is important to emphasize, the rapport building is an inalienable part of communication. to illustrate our words, let us refer to the publication by onishchenko et al. (2014), which states that the rapport building was the first stage of communication. enikeev (2010) divided the concept of rapport into two different categories. one of those categories is the psychological rapport and the other the communicative rapport. rogers (1975), one of the prominent psychologists, determined the main components and conditions of the rapport building. he considered such components as mutual openness, warmness, empathy and support. gubin & chufarovskii (2002) discussed procedural aspects of rapport building. they noticed that the rapport building has three stages, each of those stages has own peculiar characteristics. the first stage of rapport building is a mutual evaluation, the second – a mutual interest, the last one – a dyad formation (chufarovskii, 1999). as we can see, there is a great number of different approaches to the rapport building and various definitions of that term. consequently, we determined the rapport building as a complex system, which consists many elements. we believe that the main components of the rapport building are readiness to communication, mutual understanding and emotional trust. additionally, the rapport building needs positive regard, mutual interest and also a topic for conversation. however, those elements are related to the rapport building with adults. the process of rapport building with children has some differences. we supposed that the main differences of rapport building with children, who were affected by traumatic events, are abatement of emotional tension and development of mutual emotional trust between a psychologist and a child. such idea is based on our practical experience, because we noticed that a child, first of all, needs a sense of safety and feeling of calm. those feelings and sensations can be provided by psychologist’s actions. for instance, psychologist should be at the same level with a child in order to make an eye contact, as well as to track child’s face expression; in addition, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 536 psychologist should explain all her or his actions. if a child allows, psychologist should make a bodily contact, e.g. hugs, hold his or her hand etc. also, psychologist should use simple and understandable phrases, especially, at the beginning. in addition, there are some requirements to the place where a psychologist will provide psychological aid to children who were affected by traumatic events. firstly, it should be a spacious room, secondly, in that room psychologist should have all stuff that can be useful for providing psychological aid to children (alekseeva & novoselskii, 2013). thirdly, the room should be airy and warm and it is advisable to have soft lightning in there. important to mention, a psychologist who provides psychological aid to children affected by crisis events should be enduring, attentive and he or she should appreciate the needs of a child. the next stage of the rapport building is the direct interaction with a child. definitely, psychologist should take into account the uniqueness of each traumatic experience, as well as, emotional state and age specifics. in addition, they should draw attention to child’s gender. for instance, a psychologist should understand that consciousness and self-awareness start from the age of 3. at the same stage of development, children want to become more independent. the major activity of that age period is a game, consequently, the rapport building should be based on different games with a child (onishchenko, 2014; onishchenko, et al., 2014). according to our practical experience of work with preschool children, a stuffed toy can be the most effective to build a rapport between a child and a psychologist. better to use toy gloves and finger puppets, because a child gets an opportunity to interact more openly and express their feelings through a game. as we mentioned above, we conduct the research in order to develop effective methods of providing psychological aid to children who were affected by traumatic events. the results of that research allow us to say that cat, dog, hare or rabbit, mouse, elephant, pig, sheep toys are more effective, as well as, sparrow, titmouse, dove or pigeon, woodpecker, goose, hen toys. to illustrate our words, we want to tell you about one method that we use in our practice. a psychologist takes a stuffed toy, for instance, a rabbit, and proposes a child to introduce himself or herself to the toy. the child takes a paw of the toy and says “hi, rabbit, my name is…”. in addition, we determined some cartoon characters that can be useful for rapport building (table 1), because they symbolize safety. toys the modern approach to rapport building with children affected by crisis … yanina ovsiannikova, et al. 537 and images of those characters are proposed to use in order to establish rapport with children. table 1. rating of cartoons characters of preschool children № girls boys 1. doc mcstuffins 1. shreck 2. luntic 2. characters of robocar poli cartoons 3. winx club characters 3. fixics 4. lego ninjago 4. lego ninjago 5. fixics 5. kung fu panda 6. sofia the first 6. bogatyrs 7. pinky pie (my little pony) 7. chip ‘n’ dale 8. chip ‘n’ dale 8. characters of paw patrol 9. amber (robocar poli) 9. bayblade characters 10. alice (alice knows what to do) 10. lego nexo knights source: authors’ own design it is important to notice, if a child gives or shows hir or her own toys to anybody, it means that the child trusts this person. therefore, child’s toys can be very useful to indicate the level of trust and rapport. considering children 6-9 years old, a child of that age usually understands what happens. children become more independent, the major activity changes (from game to education), as well as, style of thinking (becomes abstract-logical). onishchenko (2014) noticed that children of that age can express their feelings without difficulties. we also recommend psychologists to use cartoon characters in order to build rapport. as well as, fairy tales characters, special cards and small toys. for successful interaction with children of junior school age, according to our results, the following cartoon characters can be effective: table 2. rating of cartoon characters of junior school children № girls № boys 1. harry potter 1. transformers 2. monster high characters 2. spiderman 3. winx club characters 3. fixics 4. lego ninjago 4. lego ninjago 5. fixics 5. kung fu panda brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 538 6. rapunzel 6. bogatyrs 7. alice (alice knows what to do) 7. harry potter 8. ivan the rescuer 8. characters of paw patrol 9. toothless (how to train your dragon) 9. bayblade characters 10. lego nexo knights 11. zack storm all mentioned above can be considered as a resource in order to overcome children’s traumatic experience, because they have strong positive attitude towards those characters. as a result, the use of such attitude causes significant decrease in psychologists’ efforts and time. building the rapport with adolescents also, as an instrument for rapport building can be used the method “magic tricks”. usually, that method is useful if we want to shift child’s attention, as well as, make interaction more interesting for children. according to our experience, the question “do you want to see magic tricks” produces great interest among children. for “magic tricks”, a psychologist does not need a lot of time. moreover, this method needs only a few minutes at the beginning of the session. especially, the method can be useful for children who do not draw a large number of attention to interaction with psychologist, after magic tricks becomes more attentive to their environment and events that happen around them. among children with high level of anxiety, usually, the technique decreases that level, as well as, increases the level of openness. therefore, “magic tricks” method is very useful for children involvement to common activity and deepens an interaction between psychologists and children. moreover, according to our practical experience, positive and active attitudes towards psychological aid helps children to alleviate from negative psychotraumatic effects. due to the fact that the 10-years-old children orientate more towards referent groups, the rapport building with this group of children has some peculiarities. for instance, their need to reach adulthood makes them more sensitive, especially, to sense of guilt. it happens because they might think that there can be responsible for traumatic events (onishchenko, 2014). after analysing our practical experience, we can notice that the process of rapport building with 10-years-old children can be very tense, moreover, that process, usually, is very arduous. the reason of those difficulties is that children try to overcome psychotrauma by themselves, without any help of psychologists. usually, children’s parents or relatives ask the modern approach to rapport building with children affected by crisis … yanina ovsiannikova, et al. 539 for help and the first meeting with psychologist is very gruelling. for instance, a child can resist psychologist’s efforts. they usually say that they do not understand why they are here, that they are not insane, and moreover, psychological aid can be refused, because they want to hide their psychological problems. in that case, psychologists can use the technique “small person” at the beginning of interaction. for that technique, a psychologist draw a human figure, then the psychologist proposes a child to describe that person (kisarchuk et al., 2015a). for instance, the psychologist can say: “look! it is your peer, his name is … now, we will discuss some of his problems, but i do not know a lot about those problems and i think that you can help me. so, tell me about him and his problems”. after that, the psychologist and the child create a small tale about imagined person, during this procedure, child’s tension decreases. usually, a child understands all symbolism of that technique, but a conversation becomes more open. in addition, during the conversation, a child realizes that his problems are not unique and that his peers have the same problems, as a result, his or her anxiety decreases. one of the negative moments is initial total refuse from interaction. often, a child defends himself against adults, so he or she also defends against psychologist. he or she usually says that they do not want to answer psychologist’s question and propose to ask the same question to his or her mother and/or father, because they have brought him to psychologist. sometimes, they can give one answer to all questions, for instance, they can say that they do not know anything. as usual, the reason of such behaviour is the wish to avoid a conversation. if psychologist observes such behaviour, he or she can use the technique “reflection”. in order to use this technique, psychologist should tell a child a story about a peer of this child whose situation is very similar to child’s problems. importantly, the gender, age, traits of the character should cause the feeling of affinity, as well as, psychologist should use actual information that relates to the child’s problems. the story should provoke a child to participate in storytelling. furthermore, he or she should add some information to the story, some information should be declined by a child etc. this technique can help a child to realize what he or she feels, to alienate his or her problem. it is important to notice that psychologists should use neutral questions in order to build rapport with 10-years-old and elder children. e.g., psychologist can ask questions about new model of ipad, new games, movies etc (alekseeva & novoselskii, 2013). from the beginning psychologist should help children to understand their psychological equality. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 540 as we can see, the process of rapport establishing is quite difficult and has some peculiarities. conclusions nowadays, when consequences of disasters and emergencies become more extensive and tragic, high professional level of psychologist who provides psychological aid to citizens is required. as experience shows, most psychologists do not pay enough attention to the rapport building with children who were affected by traumatic events. as well as, they often ignore children’s world outlook and their traits and peculiarities. in order to overcome that phenomenon, the large-scale research was conducted. according to the results of this research, the modern approach to rapport building with children who were affected by traumatic events was proposed. after analysis of the problem of rapport building with children, we came to some conclusions. the basic requirements to rapport building are positive regard, interest emergence and topic of conversation. however, providing psychological aid to children has some features, especially, rapport building. the key moment of rapport building with a child is abatement of emotional tension, as well as, development of emotional trust between a psychologist and a child. the rapport building has two stages, the first is to provide of feeling of safety and the second is direct interaction with a child. important to notice, psychologist should avoid fast shifting from the first stage to the second. a reason of such behaviour is that a child, who was affected by traumatic events, can refuse all psychologists’ efforts. the proposed techniques and methods should be used only individually for each specific case. will be better if psychologist evaluates each technique or method before using it in order to provide psychological aid to children who were affected by traumatic events. moreover, psychologists should keep in mind that he or she should use all known techniques and methods to provide psychological aid to children. however, the main rule of providing aid is “do no harm”. considering everything, we can say that the rapport building is a condition for efficient results of treatment. references abramova, g. (2001). prakticheskaia psikhologiia [practical psychology]. akademicheskii proekt. the modern approach to rapport building with children affected by crisis … yanina ovsiannikova, et al. 541 alekseeva, i., & novoselskii, i. (2013). reabilitatsionaia rabota s detmi, perezhivshimi travmu [rehabilitation work with children who survived the trauma]. natsionalnii fond zashchity detei ot zhestokogo obrashcheniia. chufarovskii, y. v. (1999). yuridicheskaia psikhologiia [legal psychology]. novyi yurist. dulov, a. v. (1975). sudebnaia psikhologiia [psychology of trial judging]. vysheishaia shkola. = enikeev, m. (2010). obshchaia i sotsialnaia psikhologiia [general and social psychology]. norma (infra-m). garmezy, n. (1986). stress-resistant children: the search for protective factors. journal of psychology and psychiatry, 4, 213-233. https://www.scirp.org/(s(i43dyn45teexjx455qlt3d2q))/reference/referenc espapers.aspx?referenceid=1581535 gubin, a., & chufarovskii, v. y. (2002). obshchenie v nashei zhizni [communication in our life]. economica. ivanchenko, a. (2020). positive impact of recreational techniques for the selfhealing of the body. estudos de psicologia (campinas), 37, 1-13: e190082). https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-0275202037e190082 kisarchuk, z. g., omelchenko, y. m., bila, i. m., & lazos, h. p. (2015b). psykhologichna dopomoga ditiam u kryzovykh sytuatsiiakh: metody i tekhniky [psychological help to children in crisis situations: methods and techniques]. logos. http://psychology-naesua.institute/files/pdf/1_1447345103.pdf kisarchuk, z. g., omelchenko, y. m., lazos, g. p., lytvynenko, l. i., & tsarenko, l. g. (2015a). psykhologichna dopomoga postrazhdalym vnaslidok kryzovykh travmatychnykh podii [psychological aid to victims of crisis traumatic events]. logos. komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes’ knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46-93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://www.scirp.org/(s(i43dyn45teexjx455qlt3d2q))/reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=1581535 https://www.scirp.org/(s(i43dyn45teexjx455qlt3d2q))/reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=1581535 https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-0275202037e190082%c2%a0 http://psychology-naes-ua.institute/files/pdf/1_1447345103.pdf http://psychology-naes-ua.institute/files/pdf/1_1447345103.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 542 melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 onishchenko, n. (2014). ekstrena psykhologichna dopomoga postrazhdalym v umovakh nadzvychainoi sytuatsii: teoretychni ta prykladni aspekty [first psychological aid to victims in emergencies: theoretical and appliance aspects]. onishchenko, n., timchenko, o. v., & tsitsey, r. m. (2014). osoblyvosti vstanovlennia psyhologichnogo kontaktu psyhologa dsns ukrainy z postrazhdalymy v umovakh nadzvychainoi sytuatsii [pecularities of rapport establishing between psychologists of emergency services of ukraine and victims affected by emergency situations]. miska drukarnia. palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 porubov, n. i. (1998). taktika doprosa na predvaritelnom sledstvii [the tactics of interrogation during the preliminary investigation]. bek. rogers, c. (1975). empathy: an unappreciated way of being. the counseling psychologist, 5(2-10), 1-16. http://www.sageofasheville.com/pub_downloads/empathic_an_un appreciated_way_of_being.pdf sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 http://www.sageofasheville.com/pub_downloads/empathic_an_unappreciated_way_of_being.pdf http://www.sageofasheville.com/pub_downloads/empathic_an_unappreciated_way_of_being.pdf https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 99-106 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/97 adapting crispdm for social sciences mihaela cazacu¹, emilia titan2 1 the bucharest university of economic studies, romania, czc.mihaela@gmail.com 2 the bucharest university of economic studies, romania, emilia_titan@yahoo.com abstract: the growth of available data in the social sciences led to numerous knowledge discovery projects being launched over the years. even if the volume and the speed of data are increasing, in social sciences data has an important limitation in terms of methodological process that drives the conceptual and analytical questions posed to the data. social sciences domain experiences several challenges in their desire of extracting useful and implicit knowledge due to its inherent complexity and unique characteristics, as well as the lack of standards for data mining projects. the aim of this research is to bring cross-industry standard process for data mining (crisp-dm) methodology as a standardization in analyzing large volumes of unstructured data to generate analytical insights for wellbeing and social sciences topics in general. also, taking into consideration that for a data scientist, the most time-consuming activity is data preparation step, we are trying to make more efficient this process using a clear methodology and tasks. conclusion is that using a strong methodology with well-defined steps in research can increase productivity in terms of time and enhance the quality of the research. keywords: crisp-dm; predictive modelling; quality of life; social sciences; analytics. how to cite: cazacu, m., & titan, e. (2020). peculiarities of providing psychological assistance to abused children. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 99-106. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/97 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/97 mailto:czc.mihaela@gmail.com mailto:emilia_titan@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/97 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 100 introduction big data is mainly related to two general concepts: data mining (dm) and knowledge discovery in databases (kdd), concepts that are interchangeably within projects and the specialists that are using them. sagiroglu and sinanc's (2013) defined big data as “massive data sets having large, more varied and complex structure with difficulties of storing, analysing and visualizing for further processes or results”. main difficulty comes from velocity, data complexity and variability for data storage, analysis and visualization (azevedo and santos, 2008). the borders of using big data sets for social sciences research were opened by electronic sns. they used some advanced data management systems as apache hadoop or other technologies, in order to help social scientists to access very easy big sets of data and generate useful insights, but the main issue in this approach remained the methodological process. another major challenge was to adapt the methods to analyze the data, sns providing big amount of data, since such research has traditionally relied on small samples of data using established methodologies (dubitzky et al. 2007). problem statement data mining processes such as the cross industry standard process for data mining (crisp-dm) have been developed as a guideline for data mining projects (shearer, 2000; wirth, 2000). however, such processes, developed prior to the ‘data boom’ age are without due cognizance to the amount and multi-structured nature of data generated by modern information systems (karisik, e. (2018). the golden value of data is created when insights are derived from it to enable meaningful knowledge generation (bosnjak, grljevic and bosnjak (2009)). in 1989, appeared the term knowledge discovery in databases, referring to a complex process of finding meaningful information and knowledge in data, and to emphasize the “high-level” application of specific data mining methods (fayyad et al, 1996). from fayyad’s perspective, data mining is just one phase of knowledge discovery process, basically data patterns discovery. the knowledge discovery process (fayyad et al, 1996) is the process of using data mining methods to extract what is knowledge according to the specification of measures and thresholds by using a database with any required pre-processing, sub-sampling, and transformation of the database adapting crisp-dm for social sciences mihaela cazacu & emilia titan 101 using five major steps: data selection, pre-processing, transformation, data mining and evaluation. figure 1. fayyad’s kdd methodology source: fayyad et al., 1996 another methodology for knowledge discovery data, semma, was developed on a later stage by the sas institute and it’s an acronym which stands for sample, explore, modify, model, and assess. as well as fayyad methodology, semma contains a list with sequential steps, guiding in this way the data mining projects development. figure 2. semma methodology by using semma methodology steps to be followed are: data sampling as an optional step, explore, model and modify the data, and the last one, asses the data. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 102 in addition to the existing two methodologies, crisp-dm is bringing something new: an overview of the life cycle of a data mining project that contains the corresponding phases of a project, their tasks, and relationships between these tasks (chapman, et al., 2000). figure 3. crisp-dm methodology source: chapman et al., 2000 as previous methodologies, also crisp-dm comes with some general steps and more, tasks for each step: business understanding, data understanding, data preparation, data modelling, results evaluation and deployment (vleugel, spruit and daal, 2010). now, the question is: how can crisp-dm can help in social sciences from methodologically point of view? can this methodology bring value in data knowledge discovery process and if yes, how? aims of the research the main contribution of the crisp-dm methodology adapted to social sciences, consists in defining clear steps and tasks specialized and to validate this we have built a data mining system and the entire system was applied to happiness related indicators provided by world happiness report adapting crisp-dm for social sciences mihaela cazacu & emilia titan 103 that supports the un high level meeting on happiness and human wellbeing (moreira, de carvalho, horvath, 2018). the happiness scores and rankings use data from the gallup world poll, where happiness is defined based on six factors economic production, social support, life expectancy, freedom, absence of corruption, and generosity. crisp-dm methodology was adapted to this research exercise and enhanced with specific steps and tasks: step 1. happiness, part of social sciences area, domain understanding this step is referring to a very well understanding of happiness and wellbeing area (oecd, 2013). mainly in the specialized literature are described two ways to evaluate the quality of life: subjective and objective (frey and luechinger ,2007). between the two approaches are a lot of discussions which one is better and bring more insights in social research. quantitative methods are referring to objective approach and had been developed a lot. in present this type of researches are dominating social sciences research landscape. the major tasks for this step are: • the researcher should understand the domain to ask the right questions • very well-understanding of world happiness report, how the data is collected, spatial and temporal dimension, major social phenomena that might influence the results of the survey step 2. data understanding to understand the data, we must do a simple analysis of the data sets like descriptive statistics for each feature included and to compute simple statistics like central tendency indicators, missing values in order to detect at first sight problematic features and anomalies. specific tasks might include: • feature type: nominal, numeric, etc. • score meaning: respondents need to rate their life from zero to ten. ten is the best life possible and zero is the worst • basic statistics for anomaly detection • conceptual correlations between features step 3. dataset preparation at this step it is very important to create trust for data. in this direction, we are looking for completeness, consistency and accuracy in our data. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 104 in our dataset we have no missing values and the values that we have are consistent. so, basic steps are: • data cleaning using different methods: custom substitution value, in the case of numeric features, replacing missing values with mean, remove entire column if needed • defining threshold filters like less than, in range, out of range, etc. step 4. data modelling at this step, we need to look again at our dataset and to decide if it is the case to reduce the number of feature and delete some columns or to define new columns by merging others (sarkar, dipanjan & bali, raghav & sharma, tushar, 2018). also, we need to define which will be our target variable for our happiness rank, and it will be the score, because score contains the cumulative information for the dimensions and rank it’s just the consequence of the score. specific tasks might be: • data manipulation: create new columns based on computation of two or more columns already present in dataset • filter based feature creation based on predictive power • split the rows into two datasets: test and train data and the proportion is following pareto principle (20 – 80) or 30-70 • train the regression model based on our target column: happiness score • score the model: scores predictions step 5. model evaluation and results interpretation model evaluation is the essential part of any analysis even if we are talking about social sciences or other domain. now there are generated some standard metrics based on model choose at previous step. specific tasks are: • interpreting the metrics generated by the model • if the results are not the expected ones, we have to go again to step 4 and refine the model used or features selected step 6. overall model analysis at this step is important to look again to the model and if something else can be added now it is the moment having the model big picture. adapting crisp-dm for social sciences mihaela cazacu & emilia titan 105 conclusion to conclude, in social sciences area especially, data started to be the gold for the complex analysis part. in order to fulfil the objective, we must ensure that data is correct and vey well structured, otherwise we fail. in our experiment, the results were good, we have noticed how a step by step approach with properly defined tasks can reduce time consuming research and on the other hand the potential patterns found in data. for the researcher the process using a clear methodology and tasks enhance the work and time. references azevedo, a., & santos, m. f. (2008, january). kdd, semma and crisp-dm: a parallel overview. iadis european conference data mining, 182–185. http://recipp.ipp.pt/handle/10400.22/136 bosnjak, z., grljevic, o., & bosnjak. s. (2009). crisp-dm as a framework for discovering knowledge in small and medium sized enterprises' data. in 2009 5th international symposium on applied computational intelligence and informatics, timisoara (pp. 509-514). https://doi.org/10.1109/saci.2009.5136302 chapman, p., clinton, j., kerber, r., khabaza, t., reinartz, t., shearer, c. & wirth, r. (2000). crisp-dm 1.0 step-by-step data mining guide (). the crispdm consortium . dubitzky, werner & granzow, martin & berrar, daniel. (2007). fundamentals of data mining in genomics and proteomics. 10.1007/978-0-387-47509-7. fayyad, u., piatetsky-shapiro, g., & smyth, p. (1996). from data mining to knowledge discovery in databases. ai magazine, 17(3), 37. https://doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v17i3.1230 frey, b. & luechinger, s. (2007). concepts of happiness and their measurement. metropolis verlag. karisik, e. (2018). a standardized data mining method in healthcare – a pediatric intensive care unit case study. utrecht university, information and computer science. moreira, j., de carvalho, a., & horvath, t. (2018). what can we do with data? in j. m. moreira, a. c. p. l. f. de carvalho, & t. horváth (eds.), a general introduction to data analytics (chapter 1). wiley online library. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119296294.ch1 organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd). (2013). oecd guidelines on measuring subjective well-being. paris, france: oecd publishing. 10.1787/9789264191655-en http://recipp.ipp.pt/handle/10400.22/136 https://doi.org/10.1109/saci.2009.5136302 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119296294.ch1 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 106 sagiroglu, s. and sinanc, d. (2013) big data: a review. 2013 international conference on collaboration technologies and systems (cts), san diego,20-24 may 2013, 42-47. https://doi.org/10.1109/cts.2013.6567202 sarkar, dipanjan & bali, raghav & sharma, tushar. (2018). building, tuning, and deploying models. https://doi.org10.1007/978-1-4842-3207-1_5 vleugel, a., spruit, m., & daal, a. (2010). historical data analysis through data mining from an outsourcing perspective: the three-phases model. international journal of business innovation and research, 1, 42-65. https://doi.org/10.4018/jbir.2010070104 https://doi.org/10.1109/cts.2013.6567202 https://doi.org10.1007/978-1-4842-3207-1_5 https://doi.org/10.4018/jbir.2010070104 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 175-185 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/103 extracurricular activities as a form of development of social competence of adolescents with intellectual disorders yan utosov¹, оlena utosovа2, lidiia drozd3, nataliia vasylieva4, oksana lavrykova5, nataliia butenko6 1 kamianets-podilskyi national ivan ohiienko university, kamianets-podilskyi, ukraine, arnst99@gmail.com 2 zakarpattia institute of postgraduate pedagogical education, uzhgorod, ukraine, elenautiosova88@gmail.com 3 kherson state university, kherson, ukraine country, drozdlidiya301091@gmail.com 4 kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, nataliavasileva85@gmail.com 5 kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, o.lavrykova@ukr.net 6 kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, butenkoni@online.ua abstract: the formation and development of social competence of adolescents with intellectual disabilities is a priority of special educational institutions, because it is the key to successful socialization of these students. the main goal is to reveal the psychological and pedagogical conditions for the formation of social competence of adolescents with intellectual disabilities through their engagement into the extracurricular activities. the method involves considering the capabilities of each teenager in extracurricular activities at any age. extracurricular activities that are based on each individual case of every student are used to form specific competencies that are especially important for him at the next level of learning and socialization. the experiment involved 114 adolescents aged 12-16 years studying in special educational institutions. based on the components of social competence, the following methods were selected and diagnostics were performed: projective technique “incomplete sentences”, projective drawing “my friends”, observation, exploratory technique “my orientations”, exploratory technique “nonverbal characteristics of communication”, observation, saul rosenzweig test, exploratory technique “an island”, projective technique “joint drawing”, drama game “the turnip”, exploratory technique “assess the behavior”, a discussion based on short stories “the hero’s character and his actions”. the number of adolescents with intellectual disabilities who have cognitive-related competencies has increased significantly (t=5,01; p=0,001); ; competencies of motivational and value sphere (t=4,7; p=0,01). increased was the number of adolescents who adequately assess themselves and their abilities and capabilities (33, 85%), use socially acceptable behavior and understand moral norms (39, 47%). the level of control over students’ own actions has significantly increased, as well as their ability to evaluate their own actions and self-reflect (t = 5.3; p = 0.05). the diagnostic results obtained after the introduction of the method testified to the effectiveness of its use for adolescents with intellectual disabilities in the conditions of special educational institutions. keywords: method of cases; psychological and pedagogical conditions; educational process; special education institutions; psychophysical disorders. how to cite: utosov, y., utosovа, o., drozd, l., vasylieva, n., lavrykova, o., & butenko, n. (2020). extracurricular activities as a form of development of social competence of adolescents with intellectual disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 175185. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/103 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/103 mailto:arnst99@gmail.com mailto:elenautiosova88@gmail.com mailto:drozdlidiya301091@gmail.com mailto:nataliavasileva85@gmail.com mailto:o.lavrykova@ukr.net mailto:butenkoni@online.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/103 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 176 introduction current changes in the educational paradigm of the new ukrainian school provide new requirements for the training of the graduates of special education institutions, particularly, the development and formation of a competent personality in order to successfully socialize and integrate into society. the new ukrainian school normative documents determine the social standards for graduates of educational institutions, particularly special educational institutions – students’ mastering social competencies by establishing the interrelationship between classroom and extracurricular activities, the further based on the above formation of the new personal qualities and norms of behavior. ukrainian scientists, while highlighting the priority issues of education and upbringing of children with intellectual disabilities, have determined that half (56.4%) of students of special education institutions and of training and rehabilitation centers have problems with communication with adults and peers, difficulties in assimilating moral norms (shishmentsev, 2017). 38% of students do not know how to make independent decisions and resolve conflict situations by themselves (bystrova, 2007). 45.7% of students with intellectual disabilities are not able to control their own behavior, prone to aggression and impulsive actions, cannot establish social connections (rudenko, 2013). therefore, the formation of social competence of adolescents with intellectual disabilities is an urgent problem of modern ukrainian education, which, in our opinion, is advisable to solve in the process of organizing the extracurricular activities of the students. social competence is considered by us in pedagogical, psychological and defectological (special education) aspects. the essence of the competence approach in pedagogical science was addressed by popovych (2019), khokhlina (2018) and others. scientists of psychological and pedagogical direction consider the phenomenology of social competence as an individual quality of personality, which allows a person to integrate into society, to form value and moral norms of personality, its attitude to oneself and others (popovych, 2019). social competence allows individuals to evolve and be successful at the household, professional, socio-economic, family and other levels of social life (khokhlina, o., 2018; synyov et al., 2008). in special education, competence is viewed as a set of personal qualities and skills of socially approved behavior acquired in the process of correctional and educational measures, as a component of successful socialization of people with psychophysical disorders (khokhlina, 2018; extracurricular activities as a form of development of social competence of … yan utosov, et al. 177 synyov et al., 2000; synyov et al, 2008); formation of professional skills and abilities of people with intellectual disorders (bystrova, 2007; shishmentsev, 2017). the works of v. synyov, o. pometun, v. kryvusha, m. suprun, (2000) are devoted to the question of the influence of the content and forms of extracurricular activities on the development of social competence of adolescents. in our study we consider the extracurricular activities as the main area of interaction in the teacher-student system, which is based on the needs and interests of students, their own choice of different activities, except educational, in various areas of possible integration of adolescents into society (sports, arts, health, leisure, entertainment community work), which can be implemented in development programs, competitions, excursions, art clubs, sports sections and patriotic events, creates a comfortable environment for the student and provides him with a situation of success in the significant for adolescents activities. success in the leading activities provides, in turn, the development of personality (gerasymova, 2019; melnyk, 2019; nerubasska, 2020; sheremet, 2019; synyov et al., 2000). the objective of the study is to reveal the psychological and pedagogical conditions for the formation of social competence of adolescents with intellectual disabilities during extracurricular activities. material & methods the study was conducted during 2017-2019 and included 2 stages. the experiment involved 114 adolescents studying in special educational institutions of kherson, cherkasy, zakarpattia, luhansk and ternopil regions, respondents aged 12-16 years. at the first stage (2017-2018) the author's method of formation and development of social competence of adolescents with intellectual disabilities was introduced and tested on the basis of real situations (cases) during extracurricular activities, preliminary diagnostics was carried out in experimental and control groups. at the second stage (2018-2019) the results of the implementation of the methodology were analyzed, the ways of further research were outlined. the method of forming the social competence of adolescents with intellectual disabilities in extracurricular activities using the method of cases was presented by three blocks, which, in our opinion, should be exploited brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 178 within the framework of competence-based, personality-oriented, systemically-active and axiological approaches: 1. motivation and value block is represented by methodological principles, which are the main conditions for the formation of social competence of adolescents: the principle of the interrelation between lessons and extracurricular activities; the principle of systematization, consistency and continuity of the educational process in a special educational institution; the principle of personality-oriented learning. 2. activity block is represented by the method of formation of social competence on the basis of real cases. the implementation of the method depends on the following factors (educational institution, family circle, educational environment, peers, personal experience of each student, his individual personal qualities) and the main mechanisms of formation of social competencies (internalization, identification, self-reflection, imitation, motivation, etc.). types of extracurricular activities real social situations, cases, social trainings, drama plays, collective holidays, festivals, competitions, thematic decades, sports contests, interesting meetings, creative workshops, educational clubs, flash mobs, etc. 3. evaluation and summarizing block – diagnostics of the efficiency of social and pedagogical conditions of the introduction of the method and level of formation of social competence of teenagers after its introduction (summative and final diagnostics). at the ascertaining stage of experimental work the basic components of social competence were defined: motivational and value component – a teenager is able to cooperate, recognizes the value of constructive strategies for resolving situations, able to cooperate with adults and peers; comprehends his own worthiness, is able to establish social connections, is motivated to communicate; cognitive component – the teenager is able to work in a team and under direction, shows socially acceptable behavior, knows ways to resolve conflict situations, understands and experiences different emotions, understands the facial expressions of the opponent, uses nonverbal communication, distinguishes what are mood, feelings and emotions; activity component – a teenager is able to present his own achievements and interests, shows responsibility, is able to control mistakes in his activities, is able to listen to adults and peers, is able to control his own behavior and emotional state, knows and does sport exercises, is capable to lead a healthy lifestyle; extracurricular activities as a form of development of social competence of … yan utosov, et al. 179 assessment component – a teenager is able to provide a correct assessment of the situation, evaluate the behavior of others, choose a behavior having considered the situation. based on the components of social competence, the following methods were selected and diagnostics were performed: motivational and value component – rene gille (1959) film test, philip projective method in bystrova's (2007) adaptation “incomplete sentences”, projective drawing “my friends” (kolodna et al., 2017), observations, method “my orientations” ( kolodna et al., 2017); cognitive component – method of v. labunskaya (1986) “nonverbal characteristics of communication”, observation, saul rosenzweig test (lukin & suvorov, 1993); activity component –bystrova (2007) method “an island”, projective technique “joint drawing” (bystrova, 2007), drama game “the turnip” (kudryashova, 2017); assessment component – exploratory technique “assess the behavior” (kurganova & karabanova, 2004), an author’s structured discussion based on short stories “the hero’s character and his actions” (shishmentsev, 2017). among the others the following methods were used: theoretical analysis of psychological, pedagogical and special literature in order to determine the state of development of the problem and perspective areas for its solution. empirical methods observation, pedagogical projection, method of cases, situation modeling, method of expert assessments. statistical methods: quantitative and qualitative processing of research results, comparative analysis by student's t-test to prove the significance of differences between results before and after the implementation of the method. analysis of the results of the ascertaining experiment showed low indicators of social competence of adolescents in both groups in all components. particularly low level of the assessment component (5.92% in the experimental group (eg), and 5.77% in the control group (cg). 9.47% of eg adolescents and 9.65% of cg adolescents had a low level of development of moral norms, behavioral disorders and troubles in the interpersonal relationships. on the basis of the received initial diagnostic data on the suggested components we have defined the social and psychological conditions to introduce the method of formation of social competence of the teenagers with intellectual disabilities. the effectiveness of the method during the extracurricular activities was ensured by its systematic, gradual, continuous brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 180 and consistent implementation; creating an interconnection between lessons and extracurricular activities; creation of a unified developmental and educational space in the system “family – school”; creation of a “parent university” of social competencies; taking into account the age, psychophysical and individual characteristics of adolescents; creating individual cases with specific social situations to solve and consolidate the knowledge gained at school and educational classes, in order to form their social competencies. at the second stage, taking into account the obtained diagnostic data, the method of formation of social competencies of adolescents in extracurricular activities was implemented. on the basis of real cases, students were provided with knowledge about the organization of group work, resolving conflicts, difficult life situations and situations of frustration. adolescents learned to talk about themselves, present their own achievements and abilities, share their own interests, be responsible for their own actions and behavior, analyze the results of their own activities and activities and behavior of their peers, learned to control their own emotional state; to plan and project the future with the help of teachers, make over time action plans. implementation of the methodology included: teachers creating the cases for extracurricular work on the material studied at school and supported by practical activities in author's specially created trainings for small groups; the connection between classroom work and extracurricular activities; actualization of basic knowledge before solving cases; exploitation of different methods of communication in the systems consisting of studentstudent and student-teacher; individual motivation for each adolescent, taking into account his interests and aptitudes; independent work of students during the process of resolving the problematic situation; demonstration of algorithms for solving complex problems (conflict situations, situations of creating social ties); creation by teachers of a model of communication and interpersonal cooperation while performing tasks. areas of work with cases for methodical councils of teachers: natural sciences council – correction of the child's specific perception of the environment, social adaptation of the child among peers, the formation of normative behavior and competence necessary for independent living; aesthetic and human sciences council – the development of speech activity in the system of social relations, the formation of nationally conscious morality, spirituality; extracurricular activities as a form of development of social competence of … yan utosov, et al. 181 mathematics council – practical focus on the use of knowledge in everyday life, self-determination, the formation of informational, communicative and creative competencies. cases of real situations were implemented according to the chapters of the methodology: chapter 1 – “me and my world” (the tasks in this case created the conditions under which adolescents can best learn about their own world, their own feelings); chapter 2 – “ my friends and i” (in the tasks for this case we created the conditions in which adolescents could best learn about interpersonal relationships, communication skills, conflict resolution, and social networking) chapter 3 – “me in the adult world” (the tasks of the case created conditions under which adolescents can best learn about relationships and features of communication with adults teachers, parents, the assimilation of socially acceptable behavior). trainings on case studies were organized for teachers of special secondary schools. results to determine the level of formation of social competence of adolescents with intellectual disabilities after the introduction of the method at the summative stage in the experimental group and the control group we compared the figures before and after the introduction of the method through the main components: motivational and value component, cognitive component, activity component and self-assessment component. this allowed us to identify the percentage of adolescents who have mastered the competencies according to certain criteria. the results of the implementation of the methodology the formation of the following social competencies of adolescents at the summative stage are shown in table 1. table 1. the effectiveness of formation of social competencies of adolescents with intellectual disabilities before and after the implementation of the methodology groups before the implementation of the methodology after the implementation of the methodology t/p experimental group motivational and value component 8,77 % 39,47 % 4,7/0,01 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 182 systematized by the author therefore, after the implementation of the methodology we received a significantly increased level of the stated competencies of adolescents with intellectual disabilities in the experimental group. the number of adolescents with intellectual disabilities who obtained cognitive competencies increased significantly (t = 5.01; p = 0.001); motivational and value sphere (t = 4.7; p = 0.01); the number of adolescents who adequately evaluate themselves and their abilities and capabilities (33, 85%), use socially acceptable behavior and understand moral norms (39, 47%); significantly increased the level of control over their own actions, the ability to evaluate their own activities, self-reflections (t = 5.3; p = 0.05). in the control group, the indicators of social competence in the described spheres have not changed. discussions similar studies are presented in the works of ukrainian defectologists. accordingly, in the work of i. shishmentsev (2017) described is the method of formation of moral competencies of teenagers with intellectual disabilities during ukrainian literature classes. the author uses interactive methods of working with adolescents, introduces elements of theatrical performances (shishmentsev, 2017). in the research of y. bystrova (2012) the methods of formation of professional-labor competence of students of special educational institutions within the framework of vocational guidance work and training of mild technologies are presented. the author introduces into practice the work with adolescents with intellectual disabilities, drama games, trainings, discussion of situations after cognitive component 9,65 % 55,26 % 5,01/0,001 activity component 15,26 % 36,85% 3,95/0,01 self-assessment component 5,77 % 33,85 % 5,3/0,05 control group motivational and value component 8,61 % 9,47 % 0,99/0,05 cognitive component 9,48 % 11,51 % 1,8/0,05 activity component 15,54 % 17,85 % 1,1/0,05 self-assessment component 5,92 % 7,63 % 1,7/0,05 extracurricular activities as a form of development of social competence of … yan utosov, et al. 183 watching movies on a given topic (bystrova, 2012). the method of cases has not yet been the subject of special education research in terms of the formation of competencies of people with intellectual disabilities. our author's method of using specific social situations to form the social competencies of adolescents with intellectual disabilities differs from traditional methods presented in the research of ukrainian scientists. the particular difference is that while the students are solving cases, the teachers have the opportunity to simultaneously form any social competence and to control the level of its formation in the adolescent. moreover, for the first time in practice of correctional education, we have declared that the developmental environment for the formation of competencies is not going to be the correctional classes, but the extracurricular activities. conclusions thus, in this article on the basis of the theoretical analysis of the last researches within the limits of the competence approach we have defined the basic criteria of social competence. we have substantiated the method of its formation in adolescents with intellectual disabilities during the extracurricular activities. also, we have revealed the phenomenology of the concept of “extracurricular activities”. a method of forming social competencies based on the creation of cases during the extracurricular activities has been developed and implemented. it is proved that the effectiveness of the method is ensured by its systematic, gradual, continuous and consistent implementation; creating the interconnection of classroom activities, extracurricular activities and parental influence; creation of a unified developmental and educational space; taking into account the age, psychophysical and individual characteristics of adolescents; creation of individual cases with specific social situations in order to form social competencies of adolescents. the diagnostic results obtained after the introduction of the method testified to the effectiveness of its application to adolescents with intellectual disabilities in special educational institutions. the results obtained in the study do not claim to be a comprehensive review of the problem. the accumulated data should be used in creating a methodology for the formation of social competencies of primary school students with special educational needs. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 184 references bystrova, y. (2007). osoblyvosti konfliktnoi povedinky rozumovo vidstalykh pidlitkiv. [the peculiarities of conflict behavior of mentaly retarted teenagers] [unpublished phd thesis]. academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. bystrova, y. (2012). psychological and pedagogical support of integrated education of persons with special needs in the institution for high education. aktualne problemy nowoczesnych nauk, 26, 73-77. https://pj.journal.kspu.edu/index.php/pj/article/view/1072 gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11 (4), 345-361. http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/ pdf khokhlina, o. (2018). psykholoho-pedahohichni osnovy korektsiinoi spriamovanosti trudovoho navchannia uchniv z vadamy rozumovoho rozvytku [psychological and pedagogical foundations of the correctional orientation of labor education of students with intellectual disabilities]. kyiv. http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/asua/0002771 kolodna, n., murenets, l., & prymak o. (2017). navchalno-reabilitatsiinyi tsentr yak pedahohichna systema sotsializatsii ditei z osoblyvymy osvitnimy potrebamy [educational and rehabilitation center as a pedagogical system of socialization of children with special educational needs]. dyrektor shkoly: dlia kerivnykiv navchalnykh zakladiv. kyiv. shkilnyi svit, 19(20), 85-104. http://ek.kubg.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_17/cgiirbis_64.exe kudryashova, v. (2017). konspekt vospitatel`nogo zanyatiya «repka». korrekczionnaya rabota v shkole viii vida [synopsis of the educational lesson "the turnip". correctional work at school of the viii type]. urok rf. https://xn--j1ahfl.xn-p1ai/library/konspekt_vospitatelnogo_zanyatiy__%c2%abrepka%c2%bb __forma_t_200208 kurganova, e., & karabanova, o. (2004) anketa «oczeni postupok». metodika «differencziacziya konvenczional`nykh i moral`nykh norm po e.turielyu [questionnaire "evaluate the act." methodology “differentiation of conventional and moral norms by e. turiel]. moscow. https://xn--j1ahfl.xnp1ai/library/metodika_differentciatciya_konventcionalnih_i_moral_194809. html labunskaya, v. (1986). neverbal`noe povedenie (soczial`no-perczeptivnyj podkhod) [nonverbal behavior (socio-perceptual approach)] (pp. 121-126). rostov university. https://cutt.ly/nyxscjh https://pj.journal.kspu.edu/index.php/pj/article/view/1072 http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/asua/0002771 http://ek.kubg.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_17/cgiirbis_64.exe https://урок.рф/library/konspekt_vospitatelnogo_zanyatiy__%c2%abrepka%c2%bb__forma_t_200208 https://урок.рф/library/konspekt_vospitatelnogo_zanyatiy__%c2%abrepka%c2%bb__forma_t_200208 https://урок.рф/library/konspekt_vospitatelnogo_zanyatiy__%c2%abrepka%c2%bb__forma_t_200208 https://урок.xn-p1ai/library/metodika_differentciatciya_konventcionalnih_i_moral_194809.html https://урок.xn-p1ai/library/metodika_differentciatciya_konventcionalnih_i_moral_194809.html https://урок.xn-p1ai/library/metodika_differentciatciya_konventcionalnih_i_moral_194809.html https://cutt.ly/nyxscjh extracurricular activities as a form of development of social competence of … yan utosov, et al. 185 lukin, s., & suvorov, a. (1993). test risunochnoj assocziaczii rozenczvejga (rukovodstvo po ispol`zovaniyu) [association drawing test by rosenzweig (usage guide)]. saint petersburg. https://cutt.ly/kyxdqn6 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51 (1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/26 25 popovych, i. (2019). psykholohiia sotsialnykh ochikuvan osobystosti: metodolohiia, teoriia i praktyka: navch.-metod. posib [the psychology of social science: methodology, theory, and practice]. kherson. http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/xmlui/handle/123456789/8892 rene, g. (1959) le test-film. https://cutt.ly/gyxds8y rudenko, l. (2013). osnovni pidhody do psihokorekciyi agresyvnoyi povedinki u rozumovo vidstalyh ditej [the main approaches to psychological correction of aggressive behavior in mentally retarded children]. scientific journal of national pedagogical dragomanov university. series 19: correctional pedagogy and special psychology. 23. 379-384. https://cutt.ly/8yxdbui sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shishmentsev, i. (2017). vihovannya kultury lyudskyh vzayemyn u rozumovo vidstalyh starshoklasnykiv zasobamy ukrayinskoyi literatury [upbringing culture of human relations of mentally retarded senior students by means of ukrainian literature] [unpublished phd thesis]. national pedagogical dragomanov university. synyov, v., matveeva, m., & khokhlina, o. (2008). psihologiya rozumovo vidstaloyi dytyny [psychology of a mentally retarded child]. knowledge. https://cutt.ly/lyxdris synyov, v., pometun, a., kryvusha, v., suprun, m. (2000). osnovy teoriyi vihovannya [fundamentals of education theories]. rv kivs. http://www.enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/22706/1/pedagogika _2018.pdf https://cutt.ly/kyxdqn6 https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/xmlui/handle/123456789/8892 https://cutt.ly/gyxds8y https://cutt.ly/8yxdbui https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://cutt.ly/lyxdris http://www.enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/22706/1/pedagogika_2018.pdf http://www.enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/22706/1/pedagogika_2018.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 265-277 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/182 the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of stress resistance olga batsylyeva ¹, irina puz 2 , volodymir astakhov 3 , iuliia budas 4 1 d.sc. in psychology, professor, professor of department of psychology of the vasyl’ stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia, ukraine, olgawrh@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-8316-5956 2 phd in psychology, associate professor of department of psychology of the vasyl’ stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia, ukraine, irina222@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0003-3697-1637 3 md, professor, head of the obstetrics and gynecology department, the donetsk national medical university, kramatorsk, ukraine, astvlad7@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0001-9492-9379 4 associate professor, department of methods of foreign languages teaching, vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, busyulya@bigmir.net abstract: physicians’ communicative competence is of immense importance for their professional activity. the current study presumes that future doctors’ communicative competence correlates with their stress resistance which influences their professional performance of duties. the specific aim of our research was to conduct a thorough study of the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of stress resistance. according to the analysis of the level of their stress resistance, seventy-seven senior students of the donetsk national medical university of the ministry of health of ukraine were divided into three groups. further, applying a set of appropriate psychodiagnostic methods and techniques, their communicative competence was evaluated. the results have proved that the research participants with a high level of stress resistance are more communicatively competent compared to the participants with average and low-level stress resistance. our findings suggest that future physicians’ communicative competence, as it is closely connected with their stress resistance, needs more considerable attention of authorities in medical education. so, we speculate that introducing sociopsychological training sessions both to the curriculum and to the process of current physicians' professional development will contribute to the successful performance of future doctors’ professional duties under pressure, and their interaction with colleagues, patients, and their relatives. keywords: physicians’ communicative competence; stress resistance; future doctors; mental stress; medical activity. how to cite: batsylyeva, o., puz, i., astakhov, v., & budas, i. (2021). the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of stress resistance. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 265-277. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/182 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/182 mailto:olgawrh@ukr.net mailto:irina222@ukr.net mailto:astvlad7@gmail.com mailto:busyulya@bigmir.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/182 the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of … olga batsylyeva, et al. 266 introduction professional medical activity is determined by various complex situations that require qualified emergency care, as well as appropriate choice of communication and interaction both with colleagues and patients and their relatives. in this regard, the formation of doctors’ communicative competence is of particular importance. firstly, the communicative competence is a necessary condition for positive influence on a personality of a sick person; secondly, it is one of the efficient means of prevention and treatment of various diseases; thirdly, it is the basis of effective doctor cooperation during diagnostic and treatment processes (chizhkova, 2020; filonenko,2015). it is worth noting that doctors’ communicative competence is as significant as their other professional competencies, namely basic medical knowledge, clinical thinking, practical skills and abilities (mikhailyuket al, 2015). being a complex notion, the communicative competence is manifested in the communicative knowledge, skills, and qualities necessary not only to transmit and receive various kinds of information, but also to interact with other people, to perform various social roles in groups and teams (puz, astakhov, 2019). physician communicative competence includes expert skills of establishing and maintaining the necessary contacts, understanding the interlocutor’s nonverbal communication cues, appropriately solving various difficulties that may arise when interacting with patients, their relatives, and colleagues. it is important for a doctor to choose the proper way of personalized communication with each patient. it should suit both the current psychoemotional state of the sick person, and his individual psychological characteristics in general. many researchers believe that positive, reassuring interaction between the doctor and the patient significantly increases treatment effectiveness and patient satisfaction with health care delivery (humenna, 2013; kakhno, 2014). physician communicative competence helps establish a trusting relationship with patients. the patients who trust the doctor do not have any doubts about the correctness of a diagnosis and the consistency of a suggested treatment; they have a more responsible attitude towards therapy, which will certainly be favourable for the disease treatment (chizhkova, 2020). in the structure of physician communicative competence they distinguish motivational, cognitive, emotional, behavioral and personal components (mikhailyuket al, 2015). thus, the motivational component brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 267 consists of the person’s individual needs for positive interaction and values associated with communication with others. the cognitive component comprises reflective, analytical, and evaluative abilities, as well as knowledge of interpersonal communication and interaction. the emotional component is manifested in the ability to perceive and estimate interlocutors accurately, to understand their psycho-emotional state, to display empathy. the behavioral component determines the individual system of suitable interpersonal interaction, as well as the ability to subjectively control one’s own behavior during the communication. the personal component includes a set of qualities, among which we will lay particular emphasis on high motivation for successful communication, emotional stability, affiliation, tolerance. it is worth noting that communicative competence complements other important components of physician professional competence. it is a core part of successful professional adaptation. future doctors’ modern professional training involves not only the acquisition of the necessary medical knowledge but also the development of professionally significant personality traits, among which special importance is given to communicative competence as it ensures future doctors’ effective integration into educational and further professional community. the professional activity of modern doctors is characterized by their work intensification, increasing requirements for job suitability, and emotional stability while coping with various medical and diagnostic tasks. it involves their ability and readiness to overcome stress in everyday disturbing situations which is largely due to specific conditions of their work. among them they distinguish high intellectual load; psycho-emotional stress; exceptional level of responsibility; the need to make decisions in a shortage of time and information; constant communication with a large number of people who differ in temper and character, emotional state, educational background, health state (filonenko,2015). taking the above mentioned into account, we should note that doctors are extremely vulnerable to various stress factors, and therefore this job requires a constant update of the cognitive, emotional, reflective, and other personality capabilities. it is well known that in most cases, when professional conditions and requirements for work exceed internal and external personal resources, the human body reacts correspondingly, and that affects the whole health. therefore, it becomes clear that, together with communicative competence, stress resistance should be considered as another important component of the physician professional competence. stress resistance is regarded as the ability to withstand various stress factors, including intense professional pressure. the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of … olga batsylyeva, et al. 268 as many researchers state, stress resistance can be defined as a personality trait that complements other components of mental activity in an emotional situation, and thus contributes to the successful performance of activities (vodopyanova, 2009; dubchak, 2017). the literature review has shown that stress resistance can be considered from two main aspects. first, it characterizes how successful the activity is and demonstrates the ability to maintain the necessary performance and efficiency under stress. secondly, it affects the result of an activity (success-failure) and ensures the equilibrium of the individual as a system. so, stress resistance is treated as a performance and personality indicator (shcherbatykh, 2006). we believe that the high level of doctors’ stress resistance will influence the successful performance of their professional duties under pressure, together with their effective communication and interaction with colleagues, patients, and their relatives. overall, it is clear that issues related to the formation of future doctors’ practical skills are becoming of great relevance and importance, in particular the ability to resist various stress factors, establish rapport, obtain and provide information using effective techniques and methods of communication, verbal and nonverbal communication channels, as well as successfully work in a team. thus, the principal objective of our work was to study and analyse the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of stress resistance. materials and methods the remote experiment was undertaken using internet technologies at the laboratory of health psychology, department of psychology, vasyl’ stus donetsk national university. the study involved 77 senior students of the donetsk national medical university (dnmu) of the ministry of health of ukraine, who were selected at random. the mean age of the participants in the sample was 22.7 ± 2.4 years. among the respondents there were 30 male and 47 female students. all the participants were informed about the purpose of the study and agreed to take part in it. the study proceeded in two stages. at the first stage, we determined the level of future doctors’ stress resistance. subsequently, we divided the participants into three groups according to the level of their stress resistance, in particular high, medium, and low. during the second stage, we brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 269 investigated the specific features of the communicative competence of future physicians with different levels of stress resistance. taking into account future doctors’ professional activity background, as well as the peculiarities of their professional communicative interaction, we have identified the following main features of future physicians’ communicative competence: ability to self-control while communicating; active listening and ability to express their thoughts; empathic abilities; developed communication and organizational skills. we applied a set of appropriate psychodiagnostic methods and techniques to assess future doctors’ stress resistance and communicative competence. the stress audit, developed by lyle h. miller and alma dell smith, the psychological stress scale psm-25 (lemyr, tessier, fillion, translated and adapted in russian by n. vodopyanova), and the selfdiagnostic questionnaire of behaviour type (v. boyko) were used to determine the level of participants’ stress resistance. to define the specific features of future doctors’ communicative competence we employed the diagnostic technique for assessing self-control in communication by m. snyder, "diagnosis of the level of empathic abilities" by v. boyko, "communicative and organizational skills (cos)" by v. sinyavsky and b. fedoryshyn, "listening skills" and "expressing your thoughts" tests. statistical analysis was performed by using fisher's angular transformation criterion (φ*), student's t-test coefficient, as well as ms excel for windows xp and spss 10.0.5. results doctors, as representatives of socionomic professions, are under the influence of both universal stress factors typical for any professional activity, and under the influence of specific stressors, due to the peculiarities of their ‘person-person’ professional relationships which require such an important quality as stress resistance. the first stage of our empirical study had to investigate the level of future physicians' stress resistance. the boston stress test results indicated that 18 participants (or 23.4%) had a high level (hl) of stress resistance (7.05±1.47), which pointed to excellent resistance to various stress factors; 33 participants (42.8%) displayed a moderate level (ml) of stress resistance (23.5±2.8), which corresponded to sufficient resistance to a stressful life. 26 research participants (33.8%) demonstrated a low level (ll) of stress resistance (41.1±3.5), which may indicate certain difficulties in overcoming stressful situations, some vulnerability even to the minor stressors, which may harm their health and well-being. there were no future the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of … olga batsylyeva, et al. 270 physicians with an insufficient level of stress resistance among the participants. according to the questionnaire "psychological stress scale" psm-25, 21 (27.3%) research participants had low-level mental stress (78.52±2.89), which indicated a state of psychological adaptation to various types of stress. the moderate level of mental stress (121.03±2.93) was detected in 32 participants (41.5%). we found that 24 (31.2%) participants had high level mental stress (158.45±1.69). it is a sign of poor adaptation and mental discomfort, which requires psychological care employing a wide range of methods to reduce anxiety and nervosity, and provide emotional reassurance. the data revealed the correlation between mental tension and psychological stress levels: the psychological stress level increases with the mental tension. we presented the results of the boston stress test and the "psychological stress scale" in table 1. table 1: students' stress resistance and mental stress, % stress resistance (the boston stress test) mental stress ("psychological stress scale" psm-25) hl ml ll hl ml ll 23,4% (7,05±1,4 7) 42,8% (23,5±2, 8) 33,8% (41,1±3, 5) 31,2% (158,45±1,6 9) 41,5% (121,03±2,9 3) 27,3% (78,52±2,8 9) the data analysis of the self-diagnostic questionnaire of behaviour type (v. boyko) provided us with the behavior stereotypes which are typical for future doctors in stressful situations. (figure 1). brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 271 figure 1: distribution of the subjects by their behaviour type in stressful situations according to the self-diagnostic questionnaire of behaviour type (v. boyko), % thus, 25 participants (32.5%) relate to type a, which indicates they have personality traits and attitudes that may be the major cause of stress symptoms as well as the predisposition to various diseases. the distinguishing characteristics of the studied of this type are high competitiveness, aggressiveness, and hyperactivity. they are impatient, willing to succeed at any cost, which may cause various problems when interacting with others. 22 research participants (28.5%) possessed type b features. among type b features we mention a calm, balanced temper, the absence of aggression in interpersonal relationships, a lack of ambition. 30 participants (39.0%) had a mixed behavior type (a / b) in stressful situations. according to their stress resistance levels, we divided the participants into three groups. thus, in group 1 there were 20 people with high-level stress resistance, which corresponded to low-level psycho-emotional tension, the resistance to various stressors, the ability to possess oneself in stressful situations. the second group included 32 people who had moderate level of stress resistance, which related to an average level of mental stress, adequate behavior in stressful situations. group 3 (25 participants) had a low-level 32.5 28.5 39 behaviour type in a stressful situation behaviour type а behaviour type в behaviour type а/в the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of … olga batsylyeva, et al. 272 stress resistance, which signified a high level of mental stress, poor ability to withstand the stressors, insufficient adequacy of behavioral responses in stressful situations. the next step of our study was to identify the distinguishing features of communicative competence of participants with different stress resistance levels. for this purpose we compared and analyzed the research results of participants with different levels of stress resistance. "assessment of self-control in communication" (by m. snyder) results showed that 12 participants (60.0%) of group 1, 8 participants (25.0%) of group 2, and 5 participants (20.0%) of group 3 had a high level of communicative control. such people role-play easily, respond to changing situations quickly, feel good, and even anticipate others' impressions. the moderate level of communicative control was witnessed in 6 participants (30.0%) of group 1, 16 participants (50.0%) of group 2, 8 participants (32.0%) of group 3. these subjects often succumb to emotions during the interactions. low-level communicative control was observed among 2 participants (10.0%) of group 1, 8 participants (25.0%) of group 2, 12 participants (48.0%) of group 3. such participants are unable to change their behaviour in accordance with the new conditions of the interaction, remaining sincere and open in communication. the statistically significant differences of the results obtained by "assessment of self-control in communication" (by m. snyder) indicate that there is the statistical significance between the indices of the studied groups 1 and 2 (φ*= 2,543 (p˂0,01)) and groups 1 and 3(φ* = 2,817 (p˂0,01). the "listening skills" test results signify that 14 (70.0%) participants (group 1), 9 (28.1%) participants (group 2), and 4 (16.0%) participants (group 3) displayed a high level of active listening. such subjects always focus on the main facts during the conversation, they do not have the habit of interrupting, and the interlocutor is always given the opportunity to speak. the moderate level of active listening ability was detected in 5 (25.0%) participants (group 1), 15 (46.9%) participants (group 2), and 9 (36.0%) participants of group 3. the results show that these research participants do not usually give interlocutors the opportunity to express themselves completely, and they do not seem to be concentrated on the message expressed indirectly during the conversation. 1 (5.0%) participant of group 1, 8 (25.0%) participants of group 2, and 12 (48.0%) participants of group 3 manifested low-level listening skills. they have a tendency to be irritated by the interlocutors who express any opposing views, often interrupt and impose their thoughts and views. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 273 according to the "listening skills" test results, evaluation of the statistical significance of differences indicates that statistical significance between the indicators of group 1 and group 2 is φ* = 3.035 (p˂0.01), and between group 1 and group 3 is φ* = 3.863 (p˂0.01). "expressing your thoughts" test results demonstrate that 15 (75.0%) participants of group 1, 7 (21.9%) participants of group 2, and 6 (24.0%) participants of group 3 possess the high-level ability to articulate their ideas. it marks the acquired ability to express the opinions effectively, to plan the utterances. the moderate level ability to express their own opinion and to ask interlocutors meaningful questions was noticed among 5 subjects (25.0%) of group 1, 15 subjects (46.8%) of group 2, and 8 subjects (32.0%) of group 3. the low-level ability, which is regarded as insufficient for expressing the opinions, drawing conclusions, and highlighting the main points, was present in 10 subjects (31.3%) of group 2 and 11 subjects (44.0%) of group 3. there were no research participants of group1 with the low-level ability to articulate their ideas. the statistically significant differences in the results obtained by the test "expressing your thoughts" indicate that there is statistical significance between the indicators of group 1and group 2 (φ*=3.929 (p ˂ 0.01)), and group 3 (φ*=3.567 (p˂0.01)). the testing of communicative and organizational skills by the method of "cos-2" (by v. sinyavsky and b. fedoryshyn) indicates that future physicians with different levels of stress resistance markedly differ in these characteristic features. thus, there were no research participants with a supremely high level of communicative skills in any of the three study groups. 13 participants (65.0%) of group 1, 8 participants (25.0%) of group 2 and 4 participants (16.0%) of group 3 have high-level skills which can be described as feeling at ease among strangers and establishing a rapport with them easily, defending their opinion; cheering up any unfamiliar company. the moderate level of communicative skills which manifests itself in the desire to establish a rapport with people and make new acquaintances, was present in 7 participants (35.0%) of group 1, 14 participants (43.7%) of group 2 and 9 participants (36.0%) of group 3. the low-level communicative skills, characterized by difficulty in establishing a rapport and poor ability to cope with an unfamiliar situation, were observed in 10 (31.3%) subjects of group 2 and 12 (48.0%) subjects of group 3. no participants of group 1, who had been marked by a high level of stress resistance, had low-level communicative skills. the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of … olga batsylyeva, et al. 274 the statistically significant differences in the results according to the testing of communicative skills indicate that there is statistical significance between the indicators of group 1and group 2 (t =4.4 (р˂0,01)), and group 3 (t=5.5(р˂0,01)). the high-level organizational skills, which is the ability to organise and the desire to take an active part in arranging and holding various activities, were present in 11 research participants (55.0%) of group 1, 8 participants (25.0%) of group 2, and 5 participants (20.0%) of group 3.the average level of organizational skills, which is the ability to arrange and participate in various activities if needed, was present in 7 participants (35.0%) of group 1, 13 participants (40.6%) of group 2, and 8 participants (32, 0%) of group 3.the low-level organizational skills, which are characterized by the lack of own initiative to arrange and participate in various activities, were present in 2 participants (10.0%) of group 1, 11 participants (34.4%) of group 2, and 12 participants (48.0%) of group 3. the statistically significant differences in the organizational skills test results indicate that there is statistical significance between the indicators of group 1and group 2 (t = 3.2 (р˂0,01)), and group 3 (t = 4.1(р˂0,01)). according to the empathic abilities test results (after v. boyko), 11 research participants (55.0%) had high-level empathic abilities; 7 participants (35.0%) had normal or average empathic abilities, 2 participants (10.0%) had low-average empathic abilities. none of the research participants with a high level of stress resistance had an extremely low level of empathic abilities. in group 2 we observed 7 participants (21.8%) with high-level empathic abilities, 11 participants (34.4%) with average empathic abilities, 9 participants (28.1%) with low-average empathic abilities, and 5 participants (15.7%) had a very low level of empathic abilities. in group 3 we detected 4 subjects (16.0%) with high-level empathic abilities; 5 subjects (20.0%) had average empathic abilities; 10 subjects (40.0%) had low-average empathic abilities, and 6 subjects (24.0%) had a very low level of empathic abilities. the statistically significant differences in the results obtained by "diagnosis of the level of empathic abilities" by v. boyko indicate that there is statistical significance between the indicators of group 1and group 2 (t = 4.4 (р˂0,01)), and group 3 (t = 5.4(р˂0,01)). the summing up of the empathic abilities test results indicates that future doctors with moderate and low levels of stress resistance do not possess sufficient empathic abilities necessary to sympathize and to respond to others effectively, which results in experiencing various difficulties while interacting with patients and patients' relatives. it should be noted that this brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 275 requires the further development of future physicians' empathic abilities, as the ability to empathize helps establish a trusting relationship between a doctor and a patient, which impacts the diagnostic and treatment processes positively. discussion according to the obtained empirical data, which coincide with the results of other studies (filonenko, 2015; humenna, 2013), future physicians with different levels of stress resistance have certain differences in their communicative competence. in particular, we have found that most research participants with high-level stress resistance (group 1) have a sufficient level of communicative competence, which has been proved by particular communication skills, the ability to respond empathetically, to sympathize; besides, they are able to express their own opinions clearly, to listen actively, and to achieve mutual understanding in professional and interpersonal interaction. meanwhile, most future physicians with low-level stress resistance (group 3) have demonstrated insufficient communication skills, which manifests in low-level communicative knowledge, considerable difficulties in establishing a rapport with people, minor self-control while communicating, inability to display sufficient empathy with the interlocutor. the majority of the research participants with an average level of stress resistance (group 2) have an ordinary level of communicative competence, which is characterized by the ability to express their own thoughts logically and consistently whereas these participants' ability to listen actively is insufficient and their self-restraint is average. such students understand the importance of empathy in the medical profession but they are rarely able to respond empathically during interpersonal and professional communication. realising the importance of communicative competence and stress resistance in the medical profession, and taking into account the ideas of other scientists, we consider introducing a number of socio-psychological training sessions as one of the most effective means for the formation and development of professionally important qualities. (kaidalova, 2014; mitina, 2016) these training sessions should be aimed at developing effective communication skills, interaction, and self-restraint skills, which will result in an increase in the level of stress resistance. during such training sessions simulation games, discussions, certain psychotherapy techniques, case study, and problem-solving tasks can be used. these methods of interaction and teaching impact future physicians' stress resistance by recovery, stabilization of their psycho-emotional background, strengthening the inner resources. as the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of … olga batsylyeva, et al. 276 a result, future physicians' stress resistance together with their communicative skills increases which has a positive impact on the personal and professional development of specialists. conclusions 1. at present the development of current medical science and practice, when a medical process is getting highly specialised and more and more technological, the formation of future physicians' communicative competence and increasing of their stress resistance are becoming especially important during the course of training. physicians' communicative competence clearly indicates the formation of a system of professional communicative knowledge, communicative skills, values, overall culture, and constitutes a necessary professional activity component. stress resistance is a complex integrative characteristic that determines a person's ability to withstand the pressure and the effects of stressors, behave sensibly and appropriately in stressful situations, whether transforming them actively or adapting to them without any damage to the health and/or quality of activities. 2. according to the results of the empirical study, we found certain statistically significant differences in the manifestation of communicative competence of future physicians with different levels of stress resistance (p˂0.01). we discovered that the research participants with a high level of stress resistance, having a low level of mental stress and behaving effectively in stressful situations, are more communicatively competent compared with the participants with average and low-level stress resistance. 3. we support the idea that it is mandatory to include sociopsychological training sessions both to the future physicians' curriculum and to the process of current physicians' further professional development. socio-psychological training aiming to develop future physicians’ communicative skills is not only an effective tool for professional development but it also contributes to future physicians' job satisfaction, contentment, and life. it reduces the risk of developing emotional burnout, which certainly has a positive impact on promoting well-being and health. prospects for further research. it is necessary to determine the impact of future doctors' individual psychological features on the professional development process and communicative competence formation. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 277 references chizhkova, m. b. (2020). doctors’ communicative competence and its formation in the views of residents: to the problem statement.current problems of science and education, №2. http://science-education.ru/ru/article/view?id=29727 dubchak, h.m. (2017). psychological bases of future specialists’ professional stress resistance. kyiv, talkom. filonenko, m. m. (2015). psychology of future doctors' personal development. kyiv, center for educational literature. humenna, i. r. (2013). communicative competence as one of the components of the future doctors' professional culture. scientific notes of uzhhorod national university. series: pedagogy, social work. issue 29, 4245http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvuuped_2013_29_14 kaidalova, l. h. (2014). pedagogical technologies as a means of forming future health service professionals' competence. pedagogical education: theory and practice, 17, 49-53. kakhno i. v. (2014). components influencing the formation of speech culture of the future physician.collection of scientific works of the g.s. kostyuk institute of psychology naps of ukraine. volume 7. environmental psychology. current problems of psychology. issue 36,172-182 http://appsychology.org.ua/data/jrn/v7/i36/19.pdf mikhailyuk, yu. v., khriptovich, v. a., &manulik, v. a. (2015). formation of medical students’ communicative competence (theoretical and practical aspects). minsk bsmu. mitina, s. v. (2016). socio-psychological training as a means of forming the interns' communicative competence. scientific notes of kherson state university. series: psychological sciences.issue 3, vol.2, 55-60 puz, i. v.,&astakhov, v. m. (2019). communicative competence as modern professionals' successful professional development background. proceedings of international scientific-practical conference 16-17 may. vinnytsia tov “tvory”, vol 1, 195-197. shcherbatykh, yu.v. (2006).psychology of stress and methods of correction. spb, piter. vodopyanova, n.e. (2009). psychodiagnostics of stress. spb, piter. http://science-education.ru/ru/article/view?id=29727 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvuuped_2013_29_14 http://appsychology.org.ua/data/jrn/v7/i36/19.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 147-159 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/79 experience in the application of cognitive techniques in the field of physical education and sports svitlana kryshtanovych¹, olha bilostotska 2 , viktoriia ulianova 3 , nataliia tkachova 4 , artem tkachov 5 1 phd of public administration, associate professor, state university of physical culture named after ivan bobersky, lviv, ukraine, education_univer21@yahoo.com 2 phd in pedagogics, associate professor, municipal establishment ―kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy‖ of kharkiv regional council, kharkiv, ukraine, bilostotska_oolga@i.ua 3 doctor of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, municipal establishment ―kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy‖ of kharkiv regional council, kharkiv, ukraine, olianovaa_viktory11@i.ua 4 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, g. s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, kharkiv, ukraine, tkachova6565@i.ua 5 doctor of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, g. s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, kharkiv, ukraine, tkachov9090@i.ua abstract: improving the professional training of managers in the field of physical education and sports today requires the need to use foreign experience in their preparation, especially for the experience of using cognitive psychology techniques in professional and personal training. the study of international experience training of future managers of physical education and sports is of great importance for the implementation of positive trends in higher education in terms of the quality of their training and the formation of their professional competence. and this requires a critical analysis of the achievements of the educational systems of foreign countries and the adaptation of these achievements to national needs. the relevance of the study of world experience is due to the possibility of using the achievements and practices in the context of the establishment of a new paradigm of professional education for managers of physical education and sports, in which the cognitive-contextual goals of forming the professional competence of these specialists should become priorities. the importance of studying international experience in the application of cognitive teaching methods in the training of managers of physical education and sports is also due to insufficient information on relevant studies conducted in this area. unfortunately, the study of the individual components of the cognitive-oriented education system in higher education institutions of the world space is characterized by the lack of a holistic view of its functioning in modern conditions. keywords: education; cognitive application; physical education; sports; managers how to cite: kryshtanovych, s., bilostotska, o., ulianova, v., tkachova, n., & tkachov, a. (2020). experience in the application of cognitive techniques in the field of physical education and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 147-159. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/79 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/79 mailto:education_univer21@yahoo.com mailto:bilostotska_oolga@i.ua mailto:olianovaa_viktory11@i.ua mailto:tkachova6565@i.ua mailto:tkachov9090@i.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/79 experience in the application of cognitive techniques in the field of physical … svitlana kryshtanovych et al. 148 1. introduction in modern pedagogy, cognitive learning, along with recognized and well-known areas of learning, such as developmental, programmed, problematic and others, is becoming widespread in many countries. however, the tasks of cognitive learning in these countries are solved differently in accordance with their internal socio-economic and culturaleducational problems. cognitive approaches in teaching are aimed at the formation of critical thinking: the ability to distinguish between factual information and value judgments; the ability to distinguish between facts and assumptions; the ability to distinguish logical types of communication; the ability to highlight specific subject types of relationships; the ability to detect factual and logical errors in reasoning; the ability to distinguish material arguments from irrelevant; the ability to distinguish between reasonable and unfounded estimates, etc. the main goal of cognitive learning is, according to researchers (shepard, 2005), the development of the entire set of mental abilities and strategies that make learning and adaptation to new situations possible. in our view, cognitive learning is not a combination of various techniques, methods of learning, but a dynamic system based on a model of the individual's biopsychosocial organization. such a learning system uses not only intellectual cognitive mechanisms that are implemented in traditional verbal teaching methods aimed at developing the reflective activity of students and the formation of intellectual skills necessary for solving educational problems, but primarily sensory-perceptual channels of various modalities, as well as sensually -intuitive ways to gain new knowledge. the use of cognitive learning methods in our understanding allows us to combine the natural (subjective), subjective-mental and rational principles of the personality into a single whole through interconnected actions, discussions, thoughts and self-control, contributes to an increase in the effectiveness of cognitive development and the intellectual system as a whole. a distinctive feature of training is that the leading role is given to sensory-perceptual and emotionally-intuitive ways of acquiring knowledge. these methods are active, allow you to reveal the procedural aspects of intelligence, contribute to the identification and development of hidden individual abilities of future managers of physical education and sports. the current field of creative professions has expanded significantly. uncertainty, a constant change of conditions and an increase in risks, brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 149 together with an increase in the requirements for productivity and labour efficiency, made all professions related to intellectual activity demanding on technology able to secure the development of a space of reliability and effectiveness of intellectual efforts. but the field of higher education is extremely sensitive to the technologicalization of cognitive processes. the variety of cognitive processes involved in this area provides for a diverse multiplicity of cognitive technologies aimed at: • the implementation of training; • mental processes providing • mastering new material; • development of memory; • the formation of cognitive experience of the personality of a specialist; • cognitive development of personality and its self-improvement; • the formation of cognitive mechanisms of control of intellectual activity; • cognitive interactions in interactive and communication processes; • cognitive technologies of joint cognitive and other (decisionmaking) project activities. now in most countries there is an integration of the sphere of physical education and sports in the market environment. this is due to factors such as the transition to a new form of modern society information, when information is not only an important unit, but also the ability to operate and use it for one’s own development, to consistently introduce high standards in education. this is required by the labor market, which sets new requirements for the academic disciplines taught in higher education institutions and, in general, for the quality of educational services. to a large extent, this is also associated with the opening of borders between countries and the integration of educational systems in the global educational space and, accordingly, the growing mobility of students. the leading trend in the process of formation of professional competence of managers of physical education and sports in the world is that a modern manager must have a sufficient level of education for effective professional activity, be able to use the knowledge and information gained in practice, see real problems and find ways to overcome them, be able to think critically and in a non-standard way, project training, analyse professional activities and anticipate its consequences, be prepared for organizational and managerial work. in addition, he must have certain moral qualities formed: the ability to work with people, solve conflict situations, experience in the application of cognitive techniques in the field of physical … svitlana kryshtanovych et al. 150 take responsibility for managerial decisions, be active, independent, ready to change his professional profile. the requirements for the manager of physical education and sports are considered, the tasks and principles of training these personnel are determined in accordance with the needs of the international labor market. theoretical analysis of pedagogical experience in improving the training of managers of physical culture and sports using cognitive training techniques in countries that have achieved some success in this field will allow it to be taken into account in the process of upgrading the vocational education system of the relevant profile. it is as a result of a comprehensive analysis of the system of training sports managers within the higher professional education of foreign countries, a real opportunity to use this experience to improve the training of these professionals and their professional competence in higher education institutions. the basis of our work was the scientific achievements of leading scientists in the field of improving the psychological component of the professional training of sports students and sports managers. in particular, sushchenko (2018) in her work described in detail the system for implementing cognitive techniques in the context of developing a professional and personal component. the experience of introducing methods of cognitive psychology was studied on the basis of the works of such scientists as dereka (2016), jacobs (2013), xiaoyan & xiaohong (2007) and other. 2. main research 2.1. the main prerequisites and features of improving the professional competence of future managers of physical education and sports in the context of the use of cognitive techniques the development of cognitivism in education as an object cognitive psychology actualizes the consideration of the relationship of human activity with manifestations of empirical and theoretical and reveals its role in the development of new knowledge-based formations of cognitive technologies as tools for cognitive, mental and other activities (flavell, 1979; 1997). the growth of demand in cognitive psychology techniques leads to the formation of a utilitarian-pragmatic point of view on understanding the effectiveness of cognitive technologies, limited only by its effectiveness. the validity of this approach is understandable in the face of constant challenges, reducing resources and increasing requirements for the formation of competitiveness. at the same time, it is the consideration of cognitive psychology techniques brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 151 in higher education that reveals their connection with research and pedagogical innovations, the appearance of which is impossible without the comprehensive development of the holistic personality of specialists involved in educational, knowledge, communicative and other processes. at the world economic forum in davos 2016 (klein, 2004), experts voiced important skills that can be mastered using the cognitive techniques necessary for a successful career, the acquisition of which will guarantee the competitiveness of physical education and sports managers in modern conditions. therefore, the competence of these specialists is determined in professional knowledge, the level of success of the use of cognitive psychology techniques, readiness to perform the upcoming work, namely: the ability to make decisions on troubleshooting, critical thinking, creativity, the presence of organizational skills and the ability to manage people, sociability, developed emotional intelligence, skill take responsibility, focus on the client, master the art of communication, be adaptive to modern realities and the like. it is advisable to immediately note that today in most countries of the world cognitive psychology techniques of the formation of professional competence of managers in physical education and sports complement each other, and also give reason to state the following (ferkins, 2012): university (academic) training of sports managers covers a reasonable combination of fundamental theoretical education and professional practice at various stages of training; training of sports managers take place with the priority of special humanitarian disciplines over disciplines related to the natural sciences; multilevel training of managers in physical education and sports provides for the presence of basic and specialized stages, the content of training on which are methodologically and methodologically different; basic training covers the assimilation by students of the whole range of disciplines that directly relate to future professional activities, including organizational, managerial and economic disciplines; specialized training is focused on studying the disciplines necessary for future professional activity and, on the contrary, exempts from studying auxiliary disciplines that are not directly related to the chosen specialty. so, the formation of professional competence of future managers of physical education and sports, mainly in the context of improving cognitive skills, is considered as an important goal of education, the result of professional training, characterizing the future specialist about his readiness to carry out professional activities. this, in fact, confirms the dynamism of this process, the sequence of its development and to determine the level of experience in the application of cognitive techniques in the field of physical … svitlana kryshtanovych et al. 152 formation of the professional competence of these specialists at each stage of the educational process. 2.2. uk experience of using cognitive techniques in the formation of professional competence of future managers of physical education and sports the leader in europe in the field of sports management education is the united kingdom. in this country, you can get a master of business administration in sports management (master of business administration in sports management) both in business schools and in the relevant departments of physical education in the existing 11 institutions of higher education. a two-tier education is characteristic of the uk higher education: after passing the first level, graduates receive the qualification "bachelor"; passing the second level "master". we examined the experience of cardiff university of cardiff, cardiff (osadcha, 2018), and the university of football business campus (ucfb) of wembley (maxcy, 2013) in the preparation of masters in sports management (winn, 2002). cardiff university is associated with a number of high-level partner universities both in the uk and abroad. the university was founded 1865 in cardiff. it is known as a powerful student-oriented educational institution that has been using cognitive psychology techniques in the arsenal of educational technologies for many years, contributes to their employment, and is also known as an active participant in the economic, social and cultural life of cardiff and southeast wales and etc. (michuda, 2020). the master of sports management & leadership program is available for both full-time and part-time studies at the cardiff school of sports & healthcare sciences. training lasts 1-4 years. this master's program is aimed at professionals and practitioners working in the field of sports and leisure, who want to develop their leadership skills and / or are looking for new opportunities. the program is attractive both for undergraduate graduates and for foreign students (who have received an educational level of a bachelor) and who wish to develop their knowledge for further employment (through controlled employment or a consulting internship) in the field of sports (vosniadou et al., 2001). masters study under the guidance of mentors who conduct interactive lectures, seminars, workshops, etc., as well as independently. in this master's program, the priority is the skills of increased independence and critical reflection, contributing to the promotion of a positive attitude towards learning throughout life. masters effectively collaborate with a brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 153 mentor (in particular, their software mentor) throughout their studies at the cardiff school of sport & health sciences. the university uses the virtual learning environment (the university's virtual learning environment (vle)), this allows masters to communicate with teachers via e-mail face-to-face, provides free access to educational materials, various teaching methods and assessment, etc. methods for conducting classes that solve practical problems and master assessment methods help masters to feel reality, to form knowledge and skills related to the practical environment of a modern sports manager or leader, in a controlled and safe learning environment. university football campus (ucfb), wembley uk has the highest level of training in physical education in the world, providing a bachelor's degree and advanced training in football and sports. there are two campuses with modern facilities in london and manchester, namely wembley stadium and etihad stadium (vosniadou & verschaffel, 2004). the university football business campus (ucfb) has developed innovative undergraduate and graduate programs in the strategic, operational and commercial areas of football and various sports and sporting events. post-graduate qualification courses have been created here for specialists in the field of football and various fields of sports and sporting events that promote career growth and guarantee competitiveness to graduates in this multi-billion-dollar world market industry. in modern conditions, the specifics of sports, which are covered in the media, the popularity of participants in the field of sports and sports events will require managers to have a high level of cognitive skills and indepth knowledge about the principles of sports management, which can be implemented using the principles of cognitive psychology. therefore, the msc sport management program at the university football business campus (ucfb) was designed for those who seek leadership positions in key functional organizational structures of the football business, covering management, marketing, finance, organization and the media. one year fulltime study continues. applicants with a bachelor's degree or an international equivalent can enter the magistracy. in addition to a diploma, a candidate for a master's program must have a motivation letter or several recommendations from university teachers or relevant practical experience in business or marketing in the field of sports. thus, the experience of uk higher education institutions in the field of training sports managers confirms the effectiveness of the educational process with the use of cognitive psychology techniques, in particular each experience in the application of cognitive techniques in the field of physical … svitlana kryshtanovych et al. 154 program cardiff metropolitan university (ucfb) developed according to the requirements of modern psychology requirements and the international sports market to ensure that every student has the best business and management skills necessary for success in sports, including football. he was able to use them in practice. the priority is the personality of the master, the formation of the professional competence of a sports manager who will be competitive in the labor market. the advantage of such programs is the ability to undergo parallel training and internships at universities around the world and successful sports organizations. 2.3. experience of scandinavian countries in using cognitive techniques in the formation of professional competence of future managers of physical education and sports the level of education as a whole in the countries of scandinavia is one of the highest in the world; states allocate significantly more (approximately 7.7%) from the budget for the development of this industry than the european average (4.9%). therefore, higher education is available at the proper level. while studying in higher education institutions of the scandinavian countries there is an opportunity to gain practical experience in local and foreign companies. given the fact that the economies of the countries are innovation-oriented, the cost of such experience can hardly be overestimated. molde university college in molde, norway is a specialized logistics university that offers programs in logistics, economics and management, sports, social sciences, health sciences and social services. this institution was one of the first in the country to introduce cognitive methods in its educational and methodological technologies and has been practicing the use of the basics of cognitive psychology for more than a year (wagner, 2010). the master's program in sports management (master of science in sport management) is designed to maximize the preparation of masters for leadership positions in the sports and sports sectors. it forms understanding and knowledge about sports, as it is practiced in the european space, introduces masters to the legal, ethical, economic, organizational, historical, political and psychological sciences that are necessary to meet the needs of the sports sector (dereka, 2016). molde university college collaborates with the norwegian football association and many other partner organizations and provides masters with a unique opportunity for internships. the training is flexible, allowing students to study exchange with partner universities in europe (maurer & jordan, 2006). brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 155 the two-year (120 ects credits) international master's program in sports management is taught in english, it covers 90 ects credits and the master's work 30 ects credits. the combination of various topics related to sports, specific tasks of sports management, provides an internship of 15 ects credits, which is effective in building the professional competence of future sports managers. the loan covers all types of master's work, in particular lectures, seminars, laboratory and practical classes, independent work, term papers, consultations. one ects loan is 30 hours. the semester the master spends abroad at one of the recommended partner universities. the goal of the master of science in sport management program is to obtain, using the assistance of innovative cognitive psychology techniques and the basics of cognitive psychology, modern knowledge of economic and organizational theories in sports management, specialized knowledge in the field of sports management, in-depth knowledge of scientific methods and philosophy, sciences related to the field of sports. the master of science program in sports management is designed to prepare students for leadership positions in the field of sports. the program aims to convey to students a clear understanding and knowledge of sports, as well as familiarize students with the legal, ethical, economic, organizational, historical, political and psychological sciences that are necessary for further management in the sports field. the courses of the program use a wide range of methods and technologies of cognitive learning: interactive lectures, extraordinary tasks, discussions, teamwork and internships (kalashnikov, 2019, pp. 87-92). some courses are conducted for one semester with classes once or twice a week, while other courses are organized as seminars with intensive weekly training. masters must work individually between lectures. during study, masters undergo an internship at a sports organization. over the past two semesters, they have been conducting research on a research project and writing a master's thesis. the workload of the program is at least 40 hours per week. during the first year, on average, the learning process lasts from 10 to 15 contact hours (teaching, seminars and supervision) per week. in the second year, masters use a significant part of their time in internships and for the study of scientific work. the program is not suitable for distance learning. after completing the master's program, masters acquire such competencies that form them as specialists in the field of sports management. experience in the application of cognitive techniques in the field of physical … svitlana kryshtanovych et al. 156 so, the curriculum aimed at giving masters the opportunity to understand the complexity, heterogeneity of tasks in the field of physical education and sports. at molde university college, priority is given to classes in the formation of social skills of masters, namely the ability to listen and be sensitive to others in order to produce effective solutions and create a corporate environment in which organizational processes are productive. passing an internship in sports organizations and completing a master's work, masters develop their ability to solve a problem by identifying and researching it, in particular studying, analyzing, eliminating and upholding their ideas. malmö university is sweden’s ninth largest university with 24,000 students. the mission of the university is to be an active center of research, education and innovation. students have the opportunity to study abroad, since this institution has signed agreements with about 250 universities around the world. the university has many interdisciplinary programs through which students study in different faculties, which are crucial for an increasingly complex labor market in modern conditions. master of sports sciences (two years) (master i idrottsvetenskap (två år) is a two-year master's program (the main branch of sports science (huvudområde: sportvetenskap)), which studies issues in the field of sports and sports science. the program aims to provide local, regional, national and international demands in the fields of sports, sports science and a sustainable society education is closely linked to the research environment of sports science at the university of malmö, which has a high-quality research environment and an outstanding xia role in scientific controversies sport (johnson, chang & lord, 2006). the program aims to ensure that the master develops cognitive and practical skills and obtains the knowledge necessary to work in organizations involved in sports, leisure and healthcare, as objects for quality social change. the focus is on the ability of the master to use various theories and methods to understand, analyse, change and use sports for sustainable development and the equality of society. this is achieved not only through the adaptation of the material and methodological work of the university, but also with the help of the staff, which annually undergoes specialized psychological trainings, and as a result has a high level of knowledge in the field of personality psychology and cognitive psychology. this knowledge helps not only in the process of facilitated learning, but also in the student’s personal development the master's program consists of 120 credits and contains both compulsory and selective courses. it covers compulsory continuing brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 157 education courses of 105 credits, of which 90 credits are compulsory in the main field and selective courses of 15 credits that correspond to the master's program. they can be selected both at the university of malmö (malmö university), and at other colleges and universities for advice on the program administrator. training is based on lectures, seminars and self-study, and training can be conducted remotely (jacobs, 2013). so, the formation of professional competence of managers in the field of sports of the scandinavian countries takes place at a high professional level and in the application of a wide range of cognitive techniques, directions for the comprehensive development of the student’s personality. for the best way to gain knowledge, they use and look for new innovative teaching methods. also in higher education institutions, student exchange programs with leading european universities are active. masters are taught to think freely, critically and creatively. the educational system of the scandinavian countries itself is aimed at the formation of social skills of masters, namely the ability to listen and be sensitive to others in order to produce effective solutions and create a corporate environment in which to successfully go through management processes. passing an internship in sports organizations and completing a master's work, masters develop their ability to solve a problem by identifying and researching it, in particular studying, analysing, eliminating and upholding their ideas. masters who completed their studies at universities in the scandinavian countries with career prospects and the possibility of getting in europe and the usa, because the local higher education is considered one of the best in the world. 3. conclusions a comparative analysis of the foreign experience of european countries in the formation of professional competence of physical education and sports managers using cognitive psychology techniques indicates the feasibility of a phased change in long-standing educational techniques in the formation of professional competence of future managers of physical education and sports these cognitive techniques formed the basis of the following innovations: introduction of an international multidisciplinary approach to the master's educational program with a diploma signed by partner universities; focus on european educational standards (increase the hours of independent work of masters to 70% of the total number of loans) to promote the mobility of students, teachers and staff in order to increase the experience in the application of cognitive techniques in the field of physical … svitlana kryshtanovych et al. 158 competitiveness of the university; participate in international projects; use high technological standards in education; develop support for masters, even outside the academic environment; give advice and help in developing a professional portfolio for employment. it should be noted that the peculiarity of using methods of cognitive psychology requires higher education institutions not only to change the methodological and technical base, but also to teach teaching staff in the context of psychological training. this is due to the fact that the methods of cognitive psychology in the field of education imply the development of both professional and personal qualities of students. references dereka. (2016). current trends in the professional training of physical education professionals in the european union. tg. derek. pedagogical sciences, 3(85), 42-47. ferkins, l. (2012). god boards are strategic: what does that mean for sport gorrmance. lesley ferkins. journal of sport management, 26(1), 67-80. flavell, j. h. (1979). meta-cognition and cognitive monitoring: a new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. american psychologist, 34(10), 906-911. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.34.10.906 flavell, j. h. (1997). speculation about the nature and development of metacognition. in f. e. weinert & r. h. kluwe (eds.), meta-cognition, motivation and understanding (pp. 21-30). erlbaum. jacobs, f. (2013). making sence of teaching social and moral skills in physical education. physical education and sport pedagogy, 18(1), 1-14. johnson, r. e., chang, c-h. d., & lord, r. g. (2006). moving from cognition to behavior: what the research says. psychological bulletin, 132, 381-415. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.381 kalashnikov. (2019). building a management training model for the institutions of the european union: an analysis of the activities of the european school of management higher education of ukraine. theorem and sciences of higher education institute of aps of ukraine. klein, g. (2004, november). a tool to build a curriculum model in the sport sector. communication to the aehesis pmg meeting. brussels. maurer, m. r. & jordan, p. j. (2006). steps to a successful physical education teacher education workshop. physical educator, 63(1), 53-56. maxcy, j. (2013). sport universitaire. ncaa: une gouvernance qui maximise la création de valeur économique [university sport. the ncaa: a governance structure to maximize economic value/] jurisport: the revue https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.34.10.906 https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.381 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 159 juridique et economique du sport [sport law and economics review], 137, 4246. michuda, v. (2020). on the experience of training specialists in the field of sports management at higher education institutions in western european countries. lviv journal of science, 11, 61-63. osadcha, i. (2018). professional training of physical education teachers at uk universities, journal of education tuy, 10, 67-69. shepard, l. a. (2005, october 10–11). formative assessment: caveat emptor. ets invitational conference the future of assessment: shaping teaching and learning, new york, united states. sushchenko, l. (2018). major trends in professional training of physical education specialists in foreign higher education institutions. pedagogy and psychology of creative personality formation: problems and searches. kyiv-zaporozhye, 18, 229-234. vosniadou, s. & verschaffel, l. (2004). extending the conceptual change approach to learning and teaching. learning and instruction, 14(5). 445-451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2004.06.014 vosniadou, s., ioannides, c., dimitrakopoulou, a. & papademetriou, e. (2001). designing learning environments to promote conceptual change in science. learning and instruction, 11(4-5), 381-419. https://doi.org/10.1016/s09594752(00)00038-4 wagner, j. f. (2010). transfer in pieces. cognition and instruction, 24(1), 1-71. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci2401_1 winn, w. (2002). current trends in educational technology research: the study of learning environments. educational psychology review, 14(3), 331-351. xiaoyan, g. & xiaohong, y. (2007). impact of learner autonomy on meta-cognitive strategy and english achievement ---a study of college non-english majors in china. celea journal, 3, 45—50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2004.06.014 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0959-4752(00)00038-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0959-4752(00)00038-4 https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci2401_1 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 01-17 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/71 psychoprophylactic correction of the individual psychological factors of narcotism denys aleksandrov¹, ivan okhrimenko 2 , volodymyr medvediev 3 , olena moiseieva 4 , kostiantyn prontenko 5 1 doctor of psychology, associate professor, professor of the department of social work, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, kyiv, ukraine, e-mail: denisaleks73@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000002-9307-2585 2 doctor in law, professor, professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, e-mail: ivango-07@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-8813-5107 3 doctor of psychology, professor, professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, e-mail: praktpsych@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-00030737-1560 4 doctor of psychology, professor, professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, e-mail: satori.san77@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000002-4698-2578 5 doctor of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of the department of physical education, special physical training and sport, s. p. koroliov zhytomyr military institute, zhytomyr, ukraine, e-mail: prontenko-kostya@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-0588-8753 abstract: the currently available psychoprophylactic programs for the rehabilitation and resocialization of drug addicts are largely based on pedagogical measures of persuasion or coercion. however, the individual psychological determinants of addiction, which should be taken into account when organizing psychotherapeutic corrective measures, are often ignored. the aim of the study is to analyze the psychological factors that determine the propensity of individuals to addictive behavior against the background of social and psychological maladaptation. the empirical basis of the study consisted of 144 people between the ages of 20 and 40, anamnesis of who included drug dependence and social maladaptation. the experimental study included the results of interviews, observations, and the collection of formalized data using four multifactorial psychodiagnostic methods. the empirical study proved that the psychoprophylactic program of the correction of addictive behavior should include specific influences aimed at the development of neuro-psychic stability (the reduction of tension, emotional instability, uncontrolled behavioral emotional reactions); at the harmonization of the system of attitudes towards oneself (the reduction of the tendency to unproductive self-blame, intrapersonal conflict, and escapism); at the formation of productive strategies for social interaction (the reduction of rigidity and prevention of delinquent behavior). the psychoprophylactic program should direct the purposeful influence of exercises and training sessions to the reduction of the basic characteristics of the individual-psychological qualities defined in the study. under these circumstances, the targeted impact will reduce the negative attitudes of addictive and socially maladaptive behavior. keywords: addiction; social and psychological maladaptation; psychoprophylaxis; individual psychological qualities; narcotism. how to cite: aleksandrov, d., okhrimenko, i., medvediev, v., moiseieva, o., & prontenko, k. (2020). psychoprophylactic correction of the individual psychological factors of narcotism. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 01-17. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/71 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/71 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/71 the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity denys aleksandrov et al. 2 1. introduction the main task of psychoprophylactic work aimed at the treatment of drug addiction is not only to neutralize physiological dependence but also to eliminate psychological dependence. this is due to the fact that the psychological attitudes developed under the influence of narcotism have a more profound destructive effect on drug addicts' behavior patterns that increases the risk of relapse. on the other hand, the deformation of psychic constructs under the influence of drug addiction causes social and psychological maladaptation of an addict. such violations of sociopsychological adaptation make it difficult to restore the normal social functioning of an addict in society. in addition, they give rise to negative experiences that encourage returning to drug use. this creates a vicious circle when the disruption of social adaptation forms the preconditions for drug addiction, which results in an even greater increase in the social maladaptation of an addict. at the same time, modern psychoprophylaxis programs do not sufficiently take into account individual psychological constructs of an individual, which determine the tendency to drug addiction against the background of social-psychological maladaptation. we interpret propensity not as rigid determinism but as the capacity of an individual to form the settings of preliminary readiness of the addictive behavior patterns. such readiness is determined by a certain constellation of the psychological qualities of an individual, which are first associated with the disadvantages of socio-psychological adaptation, and are subsequently determined by the destructive changes of personal constructs under the influence of drug addiction. this triggers a closed circle of mutual escalation “maladaptation – addiction – deeper maladaptation – deeper addiction”. 2. literature review the problem of the influence of sociocultural factors on the occurrence of narcotism is the subject of scientific research of many scholars (allen et al., 1998; chicoș et al., 2019). not only drug addiction is concerned because other additions are similarly conditioned by the sociocultural environment, as the other authors indicated (allen et al., 1998; ciubara et al., 2015; demto, 1993; ketabi, maher & borjali, 2008). although analyzing the preconditions of drug addiction, one should not take into account only social factors, as individual psychological constructs of personality play an integral role as well (sherlock, 1995). brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 3 the connection between emotional disorders and addiction is twosided, because, on the one hand, psycho-emotional instability determines a person's submission to obsessive-compulsive manifestations that make one vulnerable to addiction formation. on the other hand, the influence of drug addiction causes further destabilization of the emotional sphere (hosseinpour, 2019). as a result of drug addiction, such psycho-emotional disorders are often caused by the formation of certain mental abnormalities and anomalies due to the influence of the constituents of psychoactive substances on psychics (bornovalova et al., 2008). these destructive tendencies arise from the close connection between the psycho-emotional sphere and neuro-psychic stability (gross, & feldman barrett, 2011). that is why the indicator of the connection of psychophysiological processes with the emotional sphere was the basis for the development of the diagnostic method of davis, panksepp, and normansell (2014). the negative changes under the influence of psychoactive substances are conditioned by the deformation of the mental constructs of an individual (demto, 1993). at the same time, the behavior of an addict becomes more unsystematic, which leads to the deepening of social maladaptation (braggio et al., 1993). subsequently, such psychic changes acquire features of marked deviations and lead to a wide range of psychic pathologies (lesswing, & dougherty, 1993). indeed, the deformations of the psycho-emotional sphere caused by mental anomalies also determine the violation of the mechanisms of regulating affective manifestations that gratz and roemer proved (2004) developing a multidimensional assessment of the structure of factors that cause violations of the regulatory apparatus. such violations of the regulatory mechanisms of the emotional sphere result in a partial loss of a person's ability to control impulsive behavior to the full extent (bridges, denham, & ganiban, 2004). besides, the scientists (allen et al., 1998) prove that impulsivity is revealed not only in affective reactions but also in obsessive and compulsive tendencies, which is a prerequisite for fixing the patterns of addictive behavior. the further deformation of the psycho-emotional sphere with regulatory mechanisms disorders under the influence of drug addiction leads to mental deviations, resulting in the reactivity and delay in emotional recovery, as scientists prove (gratz et al., 2010). in turn, the regulatory mechanisms disorders of the emotional sphere have other issues. the affectivity following impulsiveness is directly related to aggressive behavior that marsh, parada, yeung, and healry (2001) emphasized analyzing age-related features of destructive behavior. the the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity denys aleksandrov et al. 4 affective aggression results in further social maladaptation, which, in turn, can lead to delinquent behavior and criminalization of an individual (reckless, & smith, 2019). it should be noted that impulsive aggression not only takes the form of outwardly destructive behavior but against the background of psychic abnormalities caused by narcotism can also take the form of self-destructive suicidal behavior (garrison, mckeown, & vincent, 1993). this can be explained from three perspectives. first, under the influence of cognitive constructs changes in personality, resulting from drug addiction, disorders of the perception of the dangers of self-destructive behavior for one's life and health occur (scafe & conner, 1997). second, the personal degradation of a drug addict violates the adequacy of self-esteem and causes intensification of internal contradictions and conflicts, which is a prerequisite for an unconscious desire for self-destruction as a way of avoiding painful experiences (schroeder, 1993). third, drug addiction causes mental abnormalities resulting in a violation of self-control functions, leading to a decrease in stress resistance, which triggers destructive behavior without psychological correction (cohen, 1986; robins et al., 2012). this is why it becomes evident that one of the important tasks of psychoprophylaxis, on the one hand, should be the restoration of the complete functionality of the emotional sphere of a patient (mennin, & farach, 2007), and on the other hand, the reconstruction of the self-esteem system as a manifestation of a self-actualized personality (budzinski, 1993). therefore, forming a comprehensive model of an addicts personality not only aims at diagnosing possible abnormalities (ketabi, maher & borjali, 2008) but should be aimed at purposeful individualized drug prevention in order to restore an updated self-identity of a personality concerning healthy socially adaptive behavior (mcintosh, & mckeganey, 2000). the current approaches to psychoprophylactic treatment of narcotism can be divided into the following areas: psychotherapeutic, medical-pharmacological, and social. the purpose of psychotherapeutic work with addicts is the elimination of specific disorders of a patient’s contact with one’s feelings and the world; the activation of productive interaction in the sphere of “therapist-patient”; assisting the patient with realizing distorted experiences and cognitive perceptions; the restoration of adequate emotional reactions, reassessing life needs and beliefs (holdevici, 1997). in particular, the gestalt approach in therapeutic work helps a patient to realize the mechanism that provokes the repetition of habitual patterns of addictive behavior. on this basis, a patient must restore the internal resource brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 5 of control and develop the capacity to accept responsibility for one's thoughts, feelings, actions, and their consequences, based on personal, social and psychological, and other resources. in turn, personally-oriented psychotherapy using the methods of the humanistic direction is aimed at the realization of internal conflict at the level of intellectual or emotional insight. on this basis, a patient reevaluates one’s negative experience, which encourages one to improve the system of one’s own life values and to develop new goals based on the reevaluation of life senses. this enables to overcome the hedonic setting by filling one’s life with new content. cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy is based on the principles of learning theory, which assumes that the learning process can be used to change addictive behavior. this approach states that drug use is determined by beliefs about the expected euphoric effects of drugs that were obtained by a person in a particular socio-cultural context. an example would be the illusion of escaping from life’s problems, the relief of subjective experiences of the challenges of social interaction, and compensation for other forms of social and psychological maladaptation. therefore, the purpose of this therapy is to assist a patient in overcoming a destructive lifestyle and replacing it with healthier and more acceptable behaviors. this approach is implemented in the form of training of individual skills and techniques: selfcontrol of negative emotions, overcoming morbid attraction, cognitive restructuring, the methods of key restraint, the methods of relapse prevention, and others. we do not aim to analyze all psychotherapeutic approaches because it is beyond the sphere of this study and we will focus only on the main common problem in this area of psychoprophylaxis. despite their diversity, all these approaches come from a general understanding of the nature of narcotism. in this case, the psychological characteristics of a patient are considered as a consequence of addiction, so they try to adjust them on the basis of the conceptual approach of a particular direction. and quite often the basic methods are reduced to persuasion, suggestion or “intimidation”, which brings them closer to educational pedagogical measures. the full range of psychoprophylactic measures based on the social interaction of a patient with professionals in the social field should be classified as social programs. they can also be divided into the programs aimed at the work with risk groups, in particular among adolescents (e.g., the project “star”, the life skills training program, the seattle social development project, “the divisional youth program”, etc.); the programs of prevention through the closest social environment of an addict (for the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity denys aleksandrov et al. 6 example, the project “family”, family strengthening program, “family in focus”, etc.); the projects of the work in the environment of drug-addicted (for example, the project “safer use”, the project “drag scouts”, etc.); the projects of group rehabilitation and mutual support training programs, which should operate in accordance with addiction development models (e.g., drug addicts anonymous, the program “12 steps”, etc.) (amini et al., 2017; johnson, 1993). these programs have the benefits of actively engaging a client in social interaction. at the same time, they pay insufficient attention to psychoprophylactic measures aimed at the correction of destructive mental formations, which, on the one hand, determine propensity for drug addiction, and which, on the other hand, are formed under the influence of addiction. various therapeutic measures, including substitution therapy, etc. should be classified as the medical-pharmacological approach. on the basis of a comparison of the results of different medical-pharmacological programs, in the result of a three-year outpatient observation, the scientists (san et al., 1993) concluded that when comparing methadone maintenance programs, non-drug treatment programs and support programs with the help of drug antagonists (naltrexone). the best results were obtained when using antagonists. however, the efforts to achieve complete withdrawal from drugs through traditional methadone or other substitute forms of therapy failed. therefore, medical-pharmacological programs should complement psychotherapy methods but not act as an independent way of psychoprophylaxis (ramezani et al., 2019). on this basis, all these approaches have both advantages and disadvantages, so it is most appropriate to apply them in combination. at the same time, the issues of consideration of individual psychological factors of drug addiction and social maladaptation in organizing more purposeful psychoprophylaxis remain ignored. therefore, the aim of the study is to analyze the psychological factors that determine the propensity of individuals to addictive behavior against the background of social and psychological maladaptation. 3. methodology the choice of psychodiagnostic methods is conditioned by the necessity of the complex study of the psychological qualities of a person with addictive behavior and the formation of a psychological profile for the realization of the tasks of the empirical research on the psychological determinants of addiction as a factor of maladaptive behavior. concerning brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 7 the diversity of addictive behaviors, appropriate psychodiagnostic methods were selected for the empirical study tools. 1). multifactor questionnaire by r. cattell (16-pf form c) for the diagnosis of personality factors of addictive behavior. this method includes 16 primary factors: warmth (a); reasoning (b); emotional stability (c); dominance (e); liveliness (f); rule-consciousness (g); social boldness (h); sensitivity (i); vigilance (l); abstractedness (m); privateness (n); apprehension (o); openness to change (q1); self-reliance (q2); perfectionism (q3); tension (q4) (cattell, & chevrier, 1994). 2). the method of diagnostics of the propensity for deviant behavior “pdb” by a. n. orel. this method was used in order to determine the forms of the deviant behavior of an addict and included the following diagnostic scales of the propensity to 1) insincerity; 2) overcoming rules and regulations; 3) addictive behavior; 4) self-destructive behavior; 5) aggression and violence; 6) the loss of volitional control of emotional reactions; 7) delinquent behavior (orel, 1999). 3). the method of diagnostics of social and psychological adaptation “spa” by с. rogers-r. dymond. this method was used in order to define the factors of social and psychological maladaptation of an addict and included the following scales aimed at the diagnostics of 1) adaptability; 2) self-acceptance; 3) acceptance of others; 4) emotional comfort; 5) internality (internal locus of control); 6) dominance; 7) escapism (rogers, & dymond, 1954). 4). the method of the study of self-relationships “mss” (the attitudes toward oneself) by s. r. pantileev. this method was used to indicate the deformation of the ideas of an addict in relation to one’s selfconcept and involved the following scales aimed at the diagnostics of 1) sincerity; 2) self-confidence; 3) self-control (self-management); 4) demonstrated attitude to oneself; 5) self-worth; 6) self-acceptance; 7) selfaffection; 8) intrapersonal conflict; 9) self-accusation (pantileev, 1993). in addition, to form sampling correctly and to interpret the results of psychodiagnostic research in a qualitative manner, an expert survey of the workers of penal institutions on the problems of the resocialization of drug addicts in the conditions of serving a sentence was conducted. the empirical basis of the study consisted of 144 people between the ages of 20 and 40, anamnesis of who included drug dependence according to icd-10 criteria and who serve a sentence in penal institutions (bucha penal institution no. 85 and irpin penal institution no. 131) of the department of the state penitentiary service of ukraine in kyiv and kyiv region. the formation of a sample of convicts is conditioned by the fact that they have https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/intelligence_(trait) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dominance_(ethology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/conscientiousness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/introversion_and_extroversion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sensitivity_(human) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/neuroticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/neophilia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/self-sufficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/perfectionism_(psychology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stress_(biological) the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity denys aleksandrov et al. 8 not only diagnosed drug addiction but also delinquent signs of deviant behavior, which demonstrate pronounced socio-psychological maladaptation. the studies were conducted in 2018-2019. the results were processed and interpreted at the department of social work of the faculty of psychology of the taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, and the department of legal psychology of the national academy of internal affairs (kyiv, ukraine). on the basis of the objectives of the study, we conducted a statistical analysis of the main correlation relationships of the indicators of the propensity for addictive behavior (scale 3 of the method “pdb” by a. n. orel) and adaptability (scale 1 of the method “spa” by с. rogersr. dymond) with other investigated indicators of the methods used. in the course of processing, the existing relationships were determined by calculating spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. this is due to the fact that the metrics obtained are not subject to the law of normal distribution. it should be noted that concerning the sample size (n=144), the statistical value of rs is not less than 0.163 with р ≤ 0.05, the high value of rs is not less than 0.214 with р ≤ 0.01, and the maximum value of rs is 0.271 with р ≤ 0.001. the study was previously approved by a research ethics committee of the taras shevchenko national university of kyiv (protocol no. 2 dated 27.12.2017). the research was performed in accordance with the requirements and provisions of the university community code of ethics, which was developed on the basis of ukrainian and world experience of ethical rulemaking and expert recommendations. the informed consent was obtained from all the participants. throughout the research, we were guided by the principle of academic honesty – advocating honesty, justice, respect, responsibility, ethical principles and statutory rules for affirming confidence in the results of creative achievements. 4. results before analyzing the correlated issues, it should be noted that the identified associations of addiction and maladaptation with other personal factors have differences in signs. this can be explained by the fact that the increase in the indicator of addiction is determined by the increase in the point’s value of the corresponding scale of the pdb method, and the indicator of social and psychological maladaptation is determined by the decrease of the point’s value of the scale 1 by the spa method. starting the analysis, it should be noted that the indicators of the propensity for addictive behavior (rs = -0.359, р ≤ 0.001) and socialbrain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 9 psychological adaptation showed the high correlation relationships, which proves their mutual determination. thus, the initial hypothesis about the direct connection between addiction and social and psychological maladaptation is confirmed. the next step in the study is to analyze the correlation between an increase in the propensity for addictive behavior and other individual psychological factors presented by the selected methods. first of all, we can state the most pronounced correlation between the indicators of scale 7 (rs = 0.892, р ≤ 0.001) and scale 2 (rs = 0.741, р ≤ 0.001) of the pdb method, which indicates the intensification of the internal delinquent orientation, which is revealed in the tendency to overcome the rules and norms established in the society. this may be explained by the fact that as the addiction is formed; an individual begins to ignore the external social constraints and the judgment of such behavior by society. this trend may be driven by increasing anomie against the background of the transformation of life priorities toward satisfying the drug tendency, despite any external constraints. as the internal dissonance of one’s own addictive tendencies grows and the contradictions with the existing social norms are realized, the internal conflict of personality occurs that is indicated by a significant correlation with the scale 8 of the mss method (rs = 0.356, р ≤ 0.001). such internal conflict gives rise to the desire for an explosive discharge of aggressive tendencies, both in the form of auto aggression, as indicated by the correlation with the scale 4 (rs = 0.629, р ≤ 0.001) of the pdb method, and in the form of external rigid or aggressive behavior, which is confirmed by correlattions with factor i (rs = -0.166, р ≤ 0.05) of the r. cattell’s method and the indicator of scale 5 (rs = 0.591, р ≤ 0.001) of the pdb method. constant debilitating tension because of such internal conflict on the background of psychophysiological destructive processes due to narcotism gradually leads to neuropsychological asthenization, which is revealed in the form of a decrease in volitional control of one’s own emotional reactions, as indicated by a correlation with scale 6 (rs = 0.499, р ≤ 0.001) of the pdb method. such dynamics are also confirmed by correlations with factors g (rs = -0.196, р ≤ 0.05) and c (rs = -0.175, р ≤ 0.05) of the r. cattell’s method that demonstrate the propensity for ill-considered behavior because of the submission to feelings and emotional instability. it should be emphasized that such psychasthenic manifestations are signs of obsessive-compulsive syndrome, which naturally occurs as the addiction increases. as a result, the the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity denys aleksandrov et al. 10 volitional control of not only one’s own emotional states but also other manifestations of destructive and self-destructive behavior are reduced. the gradual sharpening of the awareness of one’s own confrontation with social norms generates an increase in internal tension through the intensification of suspicion and anxiety, as indicated by the corresponding correlations with factors q4 (rs = 0.163, р ≤ 0.05), l (rs = 0.168, р ≤ 0.05), and o (rs = 0.165, р ≤ 0.05) of the r. cattell’s method. this results in unproductive mechanisms of psychological protection that can be revealed in a variety of ways, ranging from mimicry and insincerity, as indicated by the correlation with the scale 1 (rs = 0.560, р ≤ 0.001) of the pdb method, to escapism in the form of a tendency to escape uncomfortable circumstances and experiences, which is confirmed by the correlation with the scale 7 (rs = 0.461, р ≤ 0.001) of the spa method. it should also be noted that such mechanisms of unproductive protective behavior acquire quite polar manifestations, as they can be revealed in demonstrative self-justification, regardless the judgments of others, and in self-accusation, as indicated by the correlation with the scales 6 (rs = 0.432, р ≤ 0.001) and 9 (rs = 0.301, р ≤ 0.001) of the mss method. unfortunately, both manifestations have formal features and do not encourage an addict to self-change, and therefore do not affect further socio-psychological adaptation, as indicated by the correlation with the indicators of the scale 1 (rs = -0.359, р ≤ 0.001) of the spa method. the next step of our study is the analysis of individual psychological factors that determine the decline in socio-psychological adaptability as a manifestation of increased maladaptation of an addict. similar to the analysis of addictive factors, there is a tendency to decrease in emotional comfort, which is indicated by the correlation with the indicator of the scale 6 (rs = 0.856, р ≤ 0.001) of the spa method. this increase in internal dissatisfaction also intensifies intrapersonal conflict, as evidenced by the connection with the indicator of the scale 8 (rs = -0.671, р ≤ 0.001) of the mss method. the internal conflict against the traumatic experience of discomfort gives rise to a debilitating feeling of psycho-emotional and nervous tension, as indicated by the interrelation with factor q4 (rs = -0.165, р ≤ 0.05) of the r. cattell’s method. such neuropsychiatric asthenization, in turn, causes a decrease in the level of internal control and self-management of behavior, which is indicated by the correlation with the indicators of the scale 5 (rs = 0.745, р ≤ 0.001) of the spa method, scale 6 (rs = -0.515, р ≤ 0.001) of the pdb method, scale 3 (rs = 0.398, р ≤ 0.001) of the mss method, and factor q3 (rs = 0.382, р ≤ 0.001) of the r. cattell’s method. as a result of the brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 11 decrease in volitional self-control, emotional instability and submission to feelings are intensified, which is confirmed by the correlations with factors c (rs = 0.512, р ≤ 0.001) and g (rs = 0.343, р ≤ 0.001) of the r. cattell’s method. thus, behavior becomes more unmanageable and impulsive, leading to a willingness to ignore social norms and rules, as indicated by the relationships with the indicators of the scale 2 (rs = -0.327, р ≤ 0.001) of the pdb method. such anomy is expressed in two types of socially maladaptive behavior: on the one hand, the propensity for delinquent behavior can be formed, and on the other hand, the addiction can be deepened. this is indicated by the correlations with the scales 7 (rs = -0.428, р ≤ 0.001) and 3 (rs = -0.359, р ≤ 0.001) of the pdb method. it is worth noting that addiction and social and psychological maladaptation are mutually conditioned and begin to intensify each other as they grow. and for example, if initial violations of social and psychological adaptation generate addiction, then in the future, the addiction intensifies maladaptation. in this case, more significant immersion in the addiction becomes an attempt to escape from uncomfortable experiences, as indicated by the correlation with the escapism indicator of the scale 7 (rs = -0.489, р ≤ 0.001) of the spa method. against the background of the decline in social and psychological adaptation because of addiction, both self-perception and the perception of others are deformed, as indicated by the correlations with the indicators of scale 4 (rs = 0.500, р ≤ 0.001) of the mss method and scale 3 (rs = 0.555, р ≤ 0.001) of the spa method. such violations of the perception of one’s self-image give rise to the inner discomfort mentioned above, which results in a decrease in selfacceptance, a decrease in self-esteem, the intensification of the tendency to unproductive self-accusation. this is indicated by the correlations of social and psychological maladaptation with the indicators of scale 2 (rs = 0.777, р ≤ 0.001) of the spa method, as well as scales 2 (rs = 0.636, р ≤ 0.001), 5 (rs = 0.599, р ≤ 0.001), and 9 (rs = -0.572, р ≤ 0.001) of the mss method. at the same time, the violation of the attitude towards oneself gives rise to the deformation of the formation of interpersonal relations. the lack of selfconfidence also leads to social fearfulness of relationships, as indicated by the correlation with factor h (rs = 0.291, р ≤ 0.001) of the r. cattell’s method. this leads to the desire to avoid relationships because of asociality and demonstrable rigidity in relation to others, which is showed by the correlations with factors a (rs = 0.252, р ≤ 0.01) and i (rs = 0.265, р ≤ 0.01) of the r. cattell’s method. the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity denys aleksandrov et al. 12 in turn, the fears of close social relationships are determined by the growth of such protective behavioral strategies as conformism, conservatism, and pragmatism, as evidenced by correlations with factors q2 (rs = 0.385, р ≤ 0.001), q1 (rs = 0.332, р ≤ 0.001) and м (rs = 0.231, р ≤ 0.01) of the r. cattell’s method. such a life position limits the ability to build productive relationships with others, which reduces the possibility of receiving assistance from them. in addition, such unproductive strategies reduce social relations to the circle of people needed to satisfy one’s own addictive tendencies, which results in the intensification of social and psychological maladaptation. 5. limits and discussion the analysis of the leading determinants of addiction and social maladaptation can state that both groups of correlations have repeated individual psychological characteristics (table 1). on this basis, we can conclude that these qualities demonstrate significant correlations with the two factors studied and determine the propensity for addiction against the background of social maladaptation. the correlations found between addiction and maladaptive indicators and other personal factors have a discrepancy in signs. this is explained by the fact that the increase in the addiction indicator is determined by the increase in the point’s value of the scale 3 of the pdb method, and the indicator of social and psychological maladaptation is determined by the reduction of the point’s value of the scale 1 of the spa method. table 1. the repeated correlations of the propensity for addiction and maladaptation indicators with leading individual psychological characteristics individual psychological characteristics scale 3 of pdb method (addiction) scale 1 of spa method (maladaptation) factor c of r. cattell’s method “emotional instability” -0.175 0.512 factor g of r. cattell’s method “submission to feelings” -0.196 0.343 factor i of r. cattell’s method “rigidity” -0.166 0.265 factor q4 of r. cattell’s method “tension” 0.163 -0.165 scale 7 of pdb method “delinquent behavior” 0.892 -0.428 scale 2 of pdb method “overcoming rules 0.741 -0.327 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 13 and regulations” scale 6 of pdb method “uncontrollability of behavioral emotional reactions” 0.499 -0.515 scale 7 of spa method “propensity for escapism” 0.461 -0.489 scale 8 of mss method “intrapersonal conflict” 0.356 -0.676 scale 9 of mss method “unproductive selfaccusation” 0.301 -0.572 the above list of repetitive individual psychological qualities of addicts shows that emotional instability generates inconsideration of behavior because of the submission to feelings, as well as an increase in the level of the uncontrollability of behavioral emotional reactions. the consequence of such changes is a cognitive dissonance between expected relationships and real conflicts with people that generates social maladaptation. the realization of this dissonance and one’s own maladaptation generates tension, the reaction to which is internal conflict. such conflict can have two vectors of unproductive compensation – rigidity, which is revealed in the tendency to overcome rules and regulations, in particular, in the form of delinquent behavior, or the tendency to unproductive self-accusation and escapism at the internal level. psychological qualities derived from the analysis of correlations with addiction and social maladaptation can be divided into blocks, according to which psychoprophylactic corrective measures should be formed: 1. the block of neuro-psychic and psycho-emotional stability should include training classes for reducing tension, emotional instability, uncontrollable behavioral emotional reactions, and unconsiderable behavior because of the submission to feelings. 2. the block of attitudes towards oneself should include training sessions to reduce the tendency to unproductive self-accusation, intrapersonal conflict, and escapism. 3. the block of social interaction strategies should include training classes to reduce rigidity, the tendency to overcome rules and regulations, and the prevention of delinquent behavior. 6. conclusions the empirical study proved that a psychoprophylaxis program for correcting addictive behavior should include specific activities aimed at developing neuro-psychic stability, the harmonization of the system of the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity denys aleksandrov et al. 14 attitudes towards oneself and the formation of the productive strategies for social interaction. such a psychoprophylaxis program should direct the purposeful influence of exercises and training sessions on the reduction of the basic characteristics and individual psychological qualities defined in the study. under these circumstances, the targeted impact will reduce the negative attitudes of addictive and socially maladaptive behavior. in the future, this will be the basis for the restoration of internal and external human resources needed to break the vicious cycle “addictionmaladaptation-addiction”. references allen, t. j., moeller, f. g., rhoades, h. m. & cherek, d. r. (1998). impulsivity and history of drug dependence. drug and alcohol dependence, 50(2), 137-145. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0376-8716(98)00023-4 amini, m., mehraban, a. h., haghani, h., mollazade, e., & zaree, m. (2017). factor structure and construct validity of children participation assessment scale in activities outside of school-parent version (cpas-p). occupational therapy in health care, 31(1), 44-60. https://doi.org/10.1080/07380577.2016.1272733 bornovalova, m. a., gratz, k. l., daughters, s. b., nick, b., delany-brumsey, a., lynch, t. r., kosson, d., & lejuez, c. w. (2008). a multimodal assessment of the relationship between emotion dysregulation and borderline personality disorder among inner-city substance users in residential treatment. journal of psychiatric research, 42(9), 717-726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2007.07.014 braggio, j. t., pishkin, v., gameros, t. a. & brooks, d. l. (1993). academic achievement in substance-abusing and conduct-disordered adolescents. journal of clinical psychology, 49(2), 282-291. https://doi.org/10.1002/10974679(199303)49:2<282::aid-jclp2270490223>3.0.co;2-n . bridges, l. j., denham, s. a. & ganiban, j. m. (2004). definitional issues in emotion regulation research. child development, 75(2), 340-345. budzinski, w. (1993) samoocena realizowa nia wastosel a motywaija do leczenia siez naloju u osol uzaleznionych od heroine [self-assessment of the implementation of wastosel and motivate for the treatment of the drink network in heroin-dependent donors]. annals academy of medicine gelan, 23, 125-137. cattell, r. b. & chevrier, j. m. (1994). the 16 pf (fifth edition). institute for personality and ability testing incorporated. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0376-8716(98)00023-4 https://doi.org/10.1080/07380577.2016.1272733 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2007.07.014 https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(199303)49:2%3c282::aid-jclp2270490223%3e3.0.co;2-n https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(199303)49:2%3c282::aid-jclp2270490223%3e3.0.co;2-n brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 15 chicos, o., perri, d., capris, l., bulgaru iliescu, a. i. & kantor, c. (2019). socialcultural influences and personality disorders favoring drug consumption. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(3), 21-27. ciubara, a., burlea, ş., săcuiu, i., radu, d., untu, i. & chiriţă, r. (2015). alcohol addiction – a psychosocial perspective. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 187, 536-540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 cohen, a. (1986). deviance and control. prentice hall, englewood cliffs. davis, k. l., panksepp, j. & normansell, l. (2014). the affective neuroscience personality scales: normative data and implications. neuropsychoanalysis, 5(1), 57-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2003.10773410 demto, r. (1993). a longitudinal study of the predictors of adverse effects of alcohol and marijuana/hashish use among a cohort of high risk youths. international journal of the addictions, 28(11), 1045-1083. https://doi.org/10.3109/10826089309056243 garrison, с. z., mckeown, r. f. & vincent, м. l. (1993) aggressions, substance use, and suicidal behaviors in high school students. american journal of public health, 83, 179-184. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.83.2.179 gratz, k. l. & roemer, l. (2004). multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. journal of psychopathology and behavioral assessment, 26(1), 41-54. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:joba.0000007455.08539.94 gratz, k. l., rosenthal, m. z., tull, m. t., lejuez, c. w. & gunderson, j. g. (2010). an experimental investigation of emotional reactivity and delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder: the role of shame. comprehensive psychiatry, 51(3), 275-285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.005 gross, j. j. & feldman barrett, l. (2011). emotion generation and emotion regulation: one or two depends on your point of view. emotion review, 3(1), 8-16. holdevici, i. (1997). elemente de psihoterapie [elements of psychotherapy] (2nd edition). all publishing house hosseinpour, s. (2019). a comparative study of emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants and opioids users. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(4), 28-39. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/03 johnson, b. (1993). a developmental model of addictions it’s relationships to the twelve step program of alcoholics anonymous. journal of substance abuse treatment, 10(l), 23-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2003.10773410 https://www.tandfonline.com/isum19 https://doi.org/10.3109/10826089309056243 https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.83.2.179 https://doi.org/10.1023/b:joba.0000007455.08539.94 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.005 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/03 the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity denys aleksandrov et al. 16 ketabi, s., maher, f. & borjali, a. (2008). personality profile of drug addicts using cloninger and eysenck's two personality systems. quarterly journal of research on addiction, 2 (7), 45-54. lesswing, n. & dougherty, r. (1993). psychopathology in alcohol and cocaine dependent patients: a comparison of findings from psychological testing. journal of substance abuse treatment, 10(1), 53-57. marsh, h. w., parada, r. h., yeung, a. s. & healry, j. (2001). aggressive school troublemakers and victims: a longitudinal model examining the pivotal role of self-concept. journal of educational psychology, 93(2), 411-419. mcintosh, j. & mckeganey, n. (2000). addicts’ narratives of recovery from drug use: constructing a non-addict identity. social science and medicine, 50(10), 1501-1510. mennin, d. & farach, f. (2007). emotion and evolving treatments for adult psychopathology. clinical psychology: science and practice, 14, 329-352. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2850.2007.00094.x orel, a. n. (1999). metodika diagnostiki sklonnosti k otklonyayushhemusya povedeniyu [methodology for diagnosing a tendency to deviant behavior]. psikhodiagnostika. pantileev, s. r. (1993). metodika issledovaniya samootnosheniya [self-relationship research methodology]. smysl. ramezani, sh., afkhamzadeh, a. r., qorbani, h., naimi, s & rahmani, s. (2019). effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on substance dependence intensity and cognitive emotion regulation in patients under methadone maintenance treatment. journal of practice in clinical psychology, 7(3), 225-234. https://doi.org/10.32598/jpcp.7.3.225 reckless, w. & smith, m. (2019). juvenile delinquency. mcgraw-hill. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/cnd/session/51.html robins, c. j., keng, s. l., ekblad, a. g., & brantley, j. g. (2012). effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on emotional experience and expression: a randomized controlled trial. journal of clinical psychology, 68(1), 117-131. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20857 rogers, c. r. & dymond, r. f. (1954). psychotherapy and personality change: coordinated research studies in the client-centered approach. university of chicago press. san, l., torrens, m., castillo, c., porta, m. & de la torre, r. (1993). consumption of buprenorphine and other drugs among heroin addicts under ambulatory treatment: results from cross-sectional studies in 1988 and 1990. addiction, 88(10), 1341-1349. scafe, v. & conner, m. (1997). health risk perception and ecstasy use. proceedings of the british psychological society, 5(1), 38-47. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2850.2007.00094.x https://doi.org/10.32598/jpcp.7.3.225 http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/cnd/session/51.html https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20857 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8251871 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8251871 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8251871 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 17 schroeder, d. (1993). is there a relationship between self-esteem and drug use? journal of drug issues, 23(4), 645-665. sherlock, k. (1995). an investigation into social, psychological and health related aspects of ecstasy use. proceedings of the british psychological society, 3(1), 26-34. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 72-88 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/142 emotional intelligence of employees of risky professions: theoretical and empirical discourse of the research yaryna andrushko¹, iryna stetsenko 2 , kateryna averina 3 , tetiana alieksieienko 4 , tetiana marchak 5 , svitlana dorofey 6 1 lviv polytechnic national university, ukraine, yarunaan@hotmail.com 2 academy of the state penitentiary service, ukraine, irin_stetsenko@ukr.net 3 bogdan khmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, e.s.averina11@gmail.com 4 institute of problems on national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, alekseenko.tf@gmail.com 5 podilsky special education and rehabilitation socio-economic college, ukraine, marchak.tet@gmail.com 6 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, ukraine, dorofeysv4@gmail.com abstract: a professional, working in dangerous conditions, requires a high level of steadfastness to stress, caution, and responsibility. the goal of the research is aimed at theoretical and empirical disclosing of the essence of emotional intelligence in employees of risky professions. emotional intelligence is seen as a leading personal competence and ability. the structural components of emotional intelligence are analyzed in detail from the points of view of well-known foreign and domestic psychologists. the integrative indicators of emotional intelligence have been empirically revealed in rescue workers and patrol officers. in our study participated 1000 respondents with the same length of service in 4 years, in particular: firefighters (n = 500); patrol officers (n = 500). the psycho-diagnostic tools included: hall test, russian version of the test of emotional intelligence of j. meyer, p. salovey, d.caruso msceitv2.0 in the adapted version of o. sergiienko, i. vetrova and the method of studying the professional identity of l. schneider. the respondents showed a low level of development of emotional intelligence. however, the differences were also revealed, in particular, it is more clearly for firefighters to understand their own emotions, but for law enforcement officers the practical use of emotions is in priority. at the same time, the common problem is inability to manage own emotional experiences. keywords: structure of emotional intelligence; emotional sphere; professional activity; professional identity. how to cite: andrushko, y., stetsenko, i., averina, k., alieksieienko, t., marchak, t., & dorofey, s. (2020). emotional intelligence of employees of risky professions: theoretical and empirical discourse of the research. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 72-88. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/142 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/142 mailto:yarunaan@hotmail.com mailto:irin_stetsenko@ukr.net mailto:e.s.averina11@gmail.com mailto:alekseenko.tf@gmail.com mailto:marchak.tet@gmail.com mailto:dorofeysv4@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/142 emotional intelligence of employees of risky professions … yaryna andrushko, et al. 73 introduction globalization and transformational changes in a society cause actualization of the problem of individual's emotional life. at the same time, in these conditions, the problem of the emotional intelligence of the individual, who works in special conditions, has been raised. that is why the present time requires from the person to possess "soft skills", in particular emotional intelligence, which will allow considering it effective and successful in a professional field. therefore, a professional, working in dangerous conditions, requires a high level of steadfastness to stress, caution, and responsibility. in contrast, there is a high level of emotional intelligence that allows the individual to understand the affective realm of other people and, to first and foremost, understand himself/herself, his/her experiences and feelings. in difficult and dangerous situations, a personality, having emotional intelligence, will make it easier to overcome the obstacles of life and professional orientation. the contemporary paradigm of the world in professional discourse requires the individual to find a reasonable balance between rational and irrational, emotional and thinking, cognition and feelings. a person working in extreme, risky conditions is constantly confronted with expressing his and other peoples' emotions, and accordingly, he must be able to find out his dominant emotions and manage them, because it will ease the pressure that is constantly present in this kind of activity. updating the topic of emotional intelligence in this context is undeniable. theoretical and empirical research analyzes the theoretical approach to the interpretation of the concept of "emotional intelligence" and the leading modern theories of emotional intelligence, namely: emotional and intellectual abilities by salovey et al. (2004), emotional competence by goleman (2019), barbey et al. 2014, non-cognitive theories of r. bar-on, a four-component theory of i. andreieva. theoretical analysis of the problem of "emotional intelligence", its structural components is scientifically substantiated and confirmed by the need to develop indicators of emotional intelligence as a fundamental basis for professional selfrealization and achieving high results in professional activity. it is important to note that emotional intelligence is the motivator of intellectual and cognitive processes of a personality. for a person recognizes and understands his/her emotions, this in the future allows him/her to constructively interact with both himself/herself and the external world. the world scientific elite also did not stay out of covering this issue. in 2016, the davos world economic forum identified ten personal skills brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 74 that would be important in the near future, including emotional intelligence, people management, cognitive flexibility, critical thinking, etc. (gray, 2016). emotional intelligence holds the place of honor in this list. even in the context of educational reform, the development of emotional intelligence in children is affected. according to brackett (2017), a director of the yale university emotional intelligence development center, emotionally educated children are able to make the society a more psychologically healthy and enjoyable place to live. studies of the issue in psychological perspective began quite recently in the second half of the twentieth century. this concept is introduced in the scientific works of such american researchers as goleman (2019), caruso & salovey (2016), devid (2018), and others. practitioner psychologists breus (2016), dubravin (2019) emphasize that emotional intelligence is a leading factor in personal and professional development. a multi-vector approach to the interpretation of the concept of "emotional intelligence" is traced. we distinguish the following leading branches of theoretical and experimental development of this problem: understanding of emotional intelligence and its leading structural elements; emotional intelligence as an adaptive function of the personality's organism; the research of the ways of development of emotional intelligence; interpretation of emotional intelligence in the context of professional activity. the basis for distinguishing the theory of emotional intelligence is the works of the american scientist g. gardner (2011), who stated the existence of varieties of intelligence. professional realization also becomes an urgent problem in the context of psychology of employees of risky professional activity in special conditions. the stages of professional formation are distinguished in professional activity. modern post-soviet and ukrainian scholars pay special attention to the formation of the employee's professional identity. scientists rely on the principle of systematic and structured nature of psychological phenomena and explanation of the professionally complex conditions of the activity. according to the classification of professions in ukraine and the integral estimates, the category of workers who work in special conditions and are considered risky includes: rescuers, law enforcement, military personnel, astronauts, sailors, pilots, miners, security guards, drivers, athletes, and others. these employees work in special conditions that are considered extreme in nature, associated with high-intensity stressors, may be lifeemotional intelligence of employees of risky professions … yaryna andrushko, et al. 75 threatening to the individual and directly related to life-threatening or healththreatening risks during and after performing professional duties. employees of risky professions are confronted with aggression, anger, resentment, conflicts, threatening working conditions, all of which are traumatic factors. studying the psychological nature of the activities of workers of risky professions requires consideration of such a psychological parameter as emotional intelligence, since this type of activity is emotional, including high level of stress and responsibility, increased violent form of communication, danger to life and mental health, etc. that is why a detailed analysis of the professional realization of the personality of risky professions should be in the context of revealing the inner potential of the individual, namely emotional intelligence as a fundamental factor of a professional effectiveness of a specialist. foreign researchers, including caruso & salovey (2016), mayer (2004), considered emotional intelligence as the ability of an individual to understand himself, express his emotions, and manage them in view of the intellectual component. instead, bar-on (1997) understood emotional intelligence exclusively as a non-cognitive ability, a competence of the individual that helps to overcome difficult life circumstances. the majority of scientists suggest the author's models of emotional intelligence and the structural components of this phenomenon. let's analyze the most famous of them. thus, the structure of bar-on's (1997) emotional intelligence contains the following components: 1) intra-personal sphere. this component reveals the ability of the individual to understand himself, manage his own affective sphere, as well as the tendency to self-analysis, assertiveness, independence, self-esteem and self-realization. 2) interpersonal sphere. this structural component of emotional intelligence indicates how a person interacts with the environment, establishes relationships, and creates new connections. in order for this to work, one must have empathy, social responsibility and interpersonal relationships. 3) adaptability. this characteristic allows you to outline the degree of the individual's flexibility, the speed of escape from difficult life situations. 4) stress management. it is an important structural component that indicates an individual's ability to withstand stress and control his or her impulses. 5) general mood. this component of emotional intelligence incorporates such components as happiness and optimism. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 76 in contrast to this model, salovey and mayer (1990) distinguish 4 leading components of emotional intelligence, namely: 1) understanding emotions. this component indicates how an individual differentiates the origin of his emotion, its source, the ability to transform an emotion, to see the relationship between a word and an emotion. 2) accuracy of evaluation and expression of emotions. the importance of identifying what information (of the inner and outer world of the individual) each emotion carries. 3) consideration of emotions in the mental activity of a man, that promotes the formation and expression of positive emotions and thoughts in total. 4) managing emotions as a leading component that contains information about a person's experiences, frustrations, needs, and more. this ability allows the individual to understand and cognize himself, his inner world. a psychologist, scientist, publicist goleman (2019) also suggests his own structure of emotional intelligence, which consists of 4 components, namely: 1) emotional self-awareness as the ability to listen to oneself, one's inner ego. 2) self-control. according to the scientist, it contains the following components: self-confidence, optimism, initiative, openness, ability to restrain emotions, adaptability. 3) social sensuality. this concept describes the level of empathy of the individual, the ability to empathize. 4) relationship management, as a leading component of emotional intelligence, includes the following indicators: inspiration, influence, conflict resolution, teamwork and collaboration, promoting change, and more. the post-soviet scientist andreieva (2006) also proposes her structure of emotional intelligence, which contains the following components: 1) recognition of own emotions. it is the ability to understand one's feelings and emotions in the process of life. 2) owning your emotions. it is the ability to control one's emotions in stressful and difficult situations. 3) understanding other people's emotions. in order to increase communication efficiency and interpersonal interaction, it is important to understand the states and emotions of other people. that is the evidence of high empathy of the individual. emotional intelligence of employees of risky professions … yaryna andrushko, et al. 77 4) self-motivation. it is the ability of the individual to create a positive emotional and psychological background for interpersonal interaction. thus, having analyzed the structural components of each of the theories of emotional intelligence, we can conclude that they trace the relationship, namely the ability to understand their emotions, themselves, their inner world, and, at the same time, this will ensure understanding of the members of a society. we tend to view emotional intelligence as a personal feature and the ability to realize, understand and accept our emotions and experiences, which will help to manage them effectively. as the ukrainian psychologist zaritskaya (2018) noted, another researcher, who deals with the problem of the affective sphere of a personality and stress, namely lazarus (1991) distinguishes external and internal factors that cause the evaluation of emotions. the scientist notes that external factors include stressful situations. as threats at the primary level of emotion assessment, the following indicators are considered: the relationship between the source of the threat and the forces that restrain it, the inevitability of the collision, and ambiguity of the threatening situation. as for the secondary evaluation of emotions, the scientist distinguishes location of the threat, effectiveness of alternative protective actions, and dependence on the situation as means of protection. according to r. lazarus (1991), the internal factors include: strength and nature of emotions, confidence in the environment, intellectual resources, education and experience. the strength and nature of the threat motivation, ego-resources, and protective installations also can be considered as threats. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (bezliudnyi, 2019; gerasymova, 2019; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; melnyk, 2019; sheremet, 2019). thus, the scientist notes that stress acts as a cognitive component, since those beliefs, expectations, perceptions and evaluations are at the heart of the response to threatening stimuli. the relation between emotional intelligence and neuropsychology. in the middle of the twentieth century, the research of the intellectual sphere and emotional intelligence stood out. antonakis & dietz (2010) note that research in neuroscience should focus on identifying physiological markers or certain areas of the brain that are not related to intelligence, which will predict the performance of socio-psychological tests (nonverbal ability to decode or interpersonal sensitivity). barbey et al. (2014) indicated that emotional intelligence is an important component of general intelligence. scientists admitted that brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 78 emotional and social intelligence is more limbically tactical for immediate behavior suited more for survival and adaptation. individuals with a high level of emotional intelligence have an excellent understanding of their own emotions and feelings, which helps her to effectively manage their emotional sphere. their behavior in society is more adaptive, they more easily achieve their goals in interaction with the environment. they investigated the neural architecture of emotional intelligence and examined the degree to which this network engages systems for key competencies of psychometric intelligence (verbal comprehension/crystallized intelligence, perceptual organization/ fluid intelligence, working memory and processing speed) and personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience). hawkins & blakeslee (2004) develops a theory about human brain works and explained different between computers and intelligent. modern science explains the mechanism of action of emotional intelligence by the theory of mirror neurons, which are able to reflect the state and actions of other beings. indirect confirmation of this theory is that people who have certain neurophysiological disorders have reduced or no ability to empathize with the feelings and emotions of others. they often lose the ability to distinguish between their own emotions and feelings. according to the results of neuropsychological research, everyone has an innate emotional intelligence. the problem is the wrong, or lack of its development namely, the lack of examples of emotional competence in the immediate environment, the frequent taboos of feelings and emotions, the desire to educate "iron people" (storrs & kriegeskorte, 2019). the object of the research is the emotional intelligence of the individual. the goal of the article is aimed at theoretical and empirical disclosing of the essence of emotional intelligence in employees of risky professions. to achieve the goal determined the following tasks are to be fulfilled: 1) analyze the interpretation of the concept of "emotional intelligence" and identify the leading structural elements of this psychological phenomenon. 2) empirically explicate emotional intelligence and its interrelation with the professional activities of employees of risky professions. emotional intelligence of employees of risky professions … yaryna andrushko, et al. 79 materials & methods thus, an empirical study of the emotional intelligence of a person working in risky conditions acquires peculiar importance and weight in the context of his/her professional activity and its specificity. in our study participated 1000 respondents with the same length of service in 4 years, in particular: firefighters (n = 500); patrol officers (n = 500). the psychodiagnostic tools included: hall test (2007), russian version of the test of emotional intelligence of salovey et al. (2004) msceit-v2.0 in the adapted version of sergiienko & vetrova (2009) and the method of studying the professional identity of l. schneider. the hall test (2007) is designed to identify a person's ability to understand emotional reactions in interpersonal interaction and manage his own affective realm. the test is able to identify 2 levels of emotional intelligence: partial and integrative. the partial indicator is determined by the numerical value on each scale, namely: emotional awareness, managing one's emotions, self-motivation, empathy, and recognizing other people's emotions. the integrative indicator is determined by the sum of the answers to all the test questions. the russian version of the test of emotional intelligence of salovey et al. (2004) msceit-v2.0 in the adapted version of o. sergiienko, i. vetrova (2009) is the technique of studying that contains 8 sections, where for each component falls 2 sections. let's analyze it in detail. 1) perception, evaluation and expression of emotions, or identification of emotions sections a (measurement of persons' perception) and e (measurement of perception of pictures). 2) using emotions to increase the efficiency of thinking and activity sections b (measures the ability to assimilate your current experience, describe your feelings to a certain person) and f (measures the ability of a person to describe his/her emotional states). 3) understanding and analyzing emotions sections c (studying the understanding of the flow of emotions over time, as well as understanding how emotions follow one another, change each other) and g (measuring the ability to distinguish between mixed and complex feelings). 4) conscious management of emotions for personal growth and improvement of interpersonal relations sections d (management of own emotions) and h (management of other people's emotions). the respondents were asked to imagine themselves at the site of the heroes of their stories and evaluate options for further actions. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 80 to identify the status of professional identity of the law enforcement officer and firefighter was used the methodology of studying professional identity, based on the principle of direct and chain associative test. initially, schneider (2007) provided the subjects of the research with two stimulus words: "professional" and "non-professional", to which each of them noted 10 associative reactions. later, it was suggested again to write down any 10 words on these 10 stimulus words. then all the associative reactions (primary and secondary) of the subjects were reduced to a single and further processed. the word groups that formed the "nest of associations" were replaced with one word. words that were encountered in the two series of the study were excluded, explicit (open) associations were deleted, and random associations were also removed from the general set. finally, key word associations on wordstimuli were left behind. thus, the leading type of professional identity has been determined, and their author identifies five of them: premature identity, diffuse identity, moratorium identity, achieved positive identity, pseudopositive identity (2007). results according to l. schneider's work "methodology of the study of professional identity" (2007), it is found that 92% of respondentsfirefighters identify themselves as professionals, that is natural, as they are faced with constant critical situations in real life, and this promotes testing in typical, not standard cases, where you need to show your professionalism. instead, 8% of firefighters do not consider themselves professionals. we tend to associate this with the complexity of adapting to constantly changing conditions of activity and underdeveloped capacity of functional systems of the body. it also demonstrates dissatisfaction with their profession and own self-efficacy. similar results were found in law enforcement officers: 90% identify themselves as professionals and 10% identify themselves as nonprofessionals. this is explained by the recent changes and reforms in the law enforcement system, where the rebranding and re-establishment of postsoviet institutions took place. however, these transformations tend to continue, that may adversely affect the professional image of the police officer. at the same time, it has been found that the positive status of professional identity prevails in all respondents. this demonstrates that, according to the criteria of mature identity attainment, our respondents feel emotional intelligence of employees of risky professions … yaryna andrushko, et al. 81 the importance and weight of the work they perform, that is a social side of their personal lives. as for the internal component, it is first and foremost about the maturity of the mechanisms of embodiment and identification, that is a sign of an adequate evaluation of oneself in a society and in the professional field. the results of the hall test (2007) are shown in table 1. table 1. hall average (in points) type of activity scale firefighters policemen emotional awareness 24 (average level) 25 (average level) management of emotions 16 (low level) 15 (low level) self-motivation 24 (average level) 19 (low level) empathy 22 (average level) 19 (low level) managing the emotions of others 14 (low level) 13 (low level) integrative level eq 20 (low level) 18,2 (low level) partial eq 8 (average level) 6 (low level) let us analyze the low rates. in particular, the management of their emotions by firefighters and police officers is 16 and 15 points, respectively. this indicates that in difficult working conditions it may lack the time to recognize their true emotions, experiences and feelings, and this is triggered by the inflexibility of the affective sphere, thus needs development. low self-motivation was found in patrol officers (19 points). for this category of respondents, it is not peculiar to become comfortable with the environment, which is a sign of a superficial attitude to themselves, a lack of habit to listen to the inner voice. law enforcement also found a low level of empathy (19 points), which is evidence of a lack of empathy with the emotions and feelings of others. of course, in such an activity, this is disadvantage rather than advantage. it seems logical that firefighters and law enforcement officers have a low level of control over the emotions of others (14 points and 13, respectively), because without understanding his/her experiences the individual is not able to track and calibrate the affective realm of others. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 82 respondents' overall integrative index of emotional intelligence is low and therefore requires development and correction. with regard to the partial level of emotional intelligence, the firefighters are traced to an average level of their development, whereas the law enforcement officers to a low level. the emotional intelligence test of j. meyer, p. salovey, d. caruso (2004) msceit-v2.0 in the adapted version of o. sergiienko, i. vetrova (2009) is the next one to be analyzed (table 2). table 2. the results of the diagnosis of emotional intelligence using msceit test, d. mayer, p. salovey, d. caruso (in%) level scale high average low identification of emotions 3 45 52 use of emotions 3 30 67 understanding emotions 12 24 64 managing of emotions 2 36 62 general eq 1 29 70 therefore, according to the results of the msceit test, the majority of respondents show a low level of emotional intelligence development. 29% of the respondents show an average level of integrative intelligence, 70% low level and 1% of respondents has a high level of emotional intelligence. an indicator of 12% in terms of understanding emotions is interesting, as indicates that some of the respondents understand what emotions they are experiencing. the most difficult thing for the respondents is to identify one or another emotion, recognize its expression, features, etc., since only 3% of the respondents are capable of it. in terms of occupational differentiation, virtually similar results have been found, namely: firefighters have a better understanding of their affective realm, the peculiarities of expressing emotions over time, and law enforcement officials make better use of emotions in life. thus, operating the theoretical and empirical design of the study, we believe that emotional intelligence is one of the leading properties of professional activity, especially in risky professions, as it characterizes its effectiveness. however, in the realities of extreme activity, indicators of emotional intelligence need to be developed and refined in order to become a more efficient worker and improve mental health. emotional intelligence of employees of risky professions … yaryna andrushko, et al. 83 the spss 22 software package was used for statistical analysis, which allowed us to process the data obtained. let us analyze the main correlation relationships shown in fig. 1. fig.1. a correlative pleiads of interconnections between the leading components of emotional intelligence and occupational metrics in risky professions. the scale "emotional awareness" is in positive correlation with the scales "professional" (r = 0,163, p <0,01), "achieved professional identity" (r = 0,143, p <0,01), "general eq" (r = 0.157, p <0.01), "emotion management" (r = 0.099, p <0.05). such a relationship demonstrates that a person who positions himself / herself as a professional must possess a high level of emotional intelligence, be able to manage his / her emotions and states, and most importantly identify them first. the presence of these indicators in the aggregate will be reflected in the achieved professional identity as a congruent trait of the employee of the risky profession. in addition, a positive correlation was found between the scales of “use of emotions” and “self-motivation” (r = 0.314, p <0.01). this means that the person in life is self-motivated, correctly responding to these or those circumstances, and oriented internally to feel the surrounding reality and himself/herself above all, that is reflected in the effectiveness of interpersonal interaction and profession. such interaction of indicators of brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 84 emotional intelligence will promote attraction of external and internal resources of the personality. at the same time, there is a negative correlation between the “professional identity achievement” and “empathy” scales (r = -0.124, p <0.01). such a relationship is quite natural, because the respondents, who participated in the study, are workers of risky professions, where you need to be rigid and determined, and show the whole range of masculine traits, which does not imply empathy, social sensitivity, for its overexposure will lead to professional burnout. discussion & conclusions at the same time, modern empirical studies reveal not only the positive aspects of the phenomenon of emotional intelligence, but also the negative ones. in particular, scientific american columnist a. blaszczakboxe (2017) notes that a high level of emotional intelligence increases the risk of stress, as emotional education forces the individual to take responsibility for things that he has nothing to do with, that promotes manipulation of others for the sake of personal gain. another psychological study, published in the september 2016 issue of emotion, conducted by bechtoldt & schneider (2016), reveals the role and importance of emotional intelligence in one's life. namely, 166 male students received questions regarding the evaluation of their emotional intelligence. the results of the study showed that students with high level of emotional intelligence had increased stress scores several times during the experiment and took longer to recover. this indicates that individuals with high level of emotional insight are stressed and exhausted compared to other categories of respondents. taking this into consideration, there is still no clear correlation between specific conditions of activity and indicators of emotional intelligence. the structural components of emotional intelligence in employees of risky professions and their individual and typological virtues have not been sufficiently studied. this is our scientific originality. because in similar scientific studies there was no emphasis on the emotional sphere and emotional intelligence of employees of risky professions. thus, the study of the phenomenon of emotional intelligence in workers of risky professions made it possible to analyze it from a theoretical and empirical perspective through the lens of affective and professional orientation of the individual, the idea of one's emotions, his/her awareness and ability to manage them. it is the development of emotional intelligence emotional intelligence of employees of risky professions … yaryna andrushko, et al. 85 as "soft skills" that will help to better understand oneself and others, especially in special conditions of activity, and this will reduce the level of stress and the overall complexity of the work performed. the survey found that 92% of firefighters identify themselves as professionals, and 90% are among patrol officers. at the same time, there is a percentage of respondents in both subgroups who feel insecure and uncomfortable in the professional environment that complicates the process of professionalizing and identifying oneself as a professional. indicators of emotional intelligence in employees of risky professions are revealed at the following levels: 1) in firefighters: emotional awareness (average level); managing own emotions (low level); self-motivation (average level); empathy (average level); managing emotions of others (low level); integrative level (low level); partial level (average level); 2) in law enforcement employees: emotional awareness (average level); managing own emotions (low level); self-motivation (low level); empathy (low level); managing emotions of others (low level); integrative level (low level); partial level (low level). according to the msceit test, 29% of respondents have an average level of integrative intelligence, 70% are low and 1% of respondents have a high level of emotional intelligence. rescue workers have a better understanding of their emotional realm than they do of law enforcement agencies that use their emotions in constructive and destructive forms. statistical analysis allowed us to distinguish the correlation pleiads of the interconnection of professionally oriented components and emotional intelligence, that gives the grounds to admit that there is a close correlation between the work performed and the emotional states and personal experiences. explication of the results of the empirical study suggests that it is important for law enforcement and firefighters to express their emotions, but there are problems with their identification and ability to manage them. the low results on the indicators of emotional intelligence allow us to emphasize that this personal property requires special study and approach in the development even in extreme and risky professions. thus, the study of the index of emotional intelligence in employees of risky professions shows that respondents lack the ability to identify emotions (own and others), manage their states, which would help to increase the level of professional efficiency. the prospect of further scientific exploration is seen in the development of a psycho-correction program for the development of emotional intelligence in workers at risk. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 86 references andreieva, i. n. (2006). e`moczional`ny`j intellekt: issledovaniya fenomena. [emotional intelligence: study of the phenomenon]. voprosy` psikhologii. [psychology issues], 3, 78-86. antonakis, j., dietz, j. (2010). emotional intelligence: on definitions, neuroscience, and marshmallows. industrial and organizational psychology: perspectives on science and practice. 165-170. https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:bib_0f2c35d1b9f9.p001/ref barbey, a. k., colom, r., grafman, j. (2014). distributed neural system for emotional intelligence revealed by lesion mapping. social cognitive and affective neuroscience. 9(3), 265–272, https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss124 bar-on, r. (1997). emotional intelligence inventory (eq-i): technical manual. canada: toronto, multy-health system. https://www.scirp.org/(s(lz5mqp453edsnp55rrgjct55))/reference/referen cespapers.aspx?referenceid=2021693 bechtoldt, m. n., & schneider, v. k. (2016). predicting stress from the ability to eavesdrop on feelings: emotional intelligence and testosterone jointly predict cortisol reactivity. emotion, 16(6), 815–825. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000134 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19 (3), 1585. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf blaszczak-boxe, a. (2017). too much emotional intelligence is a bad thing. scientific american. mind. behavior & society. 28(2) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/too-much-emotionalintelligence-is-a-bad-thing/ brackett, m., & frank, c. (2017). four mindful back-to-school questions to build emotional intelligence. the washington post. september 11. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2017/09/11/amindful-start-to-the-school-year-four-back-to-school-questions-to-buildemotional-intelligence/ breus, yu. (2016). rol emotsiinoho intelektu v profesiinii diialnosti kerivnyka zakladu serednoi osvity [the role of emotional intelligence in the professional career development of the contribution to middle sanctification]. kyiv: priorities scientific center. caruso, d. r., salovey, p. (2016). emotsiinyi intelekt kerivnyka. yak rozvynuty y vykorystaty 4 bazovi navychky emotsiinoho liderstva. [the emotional intelligence of the leader. how to develop and use 4 basic emotional leadership skills]. kyiv: sammit-knyha. https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:bib_0f2c35d1b9f9.p001/ref https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss124 https://www.scirp.org/(s(lz5mqp453edsnp55rrgjct55))/reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=2021693 https://www.scirp.org/(s(lz5mqp453edsnp55rrgjct55))/reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=2021693 https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/emo0000134 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/too-much-emotional-intelligence-is-a-bad-thing/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/too-much-emotional-intelligence-is-a-bad-thing/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2017/09/11/a-mindful-start-to-the-school-year-four-back-to-school-questions-to-build-emotional-intelligence/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2017/09/11/a-mindful-start-to-the-school-year-four-back-to-school-questions-to-build-emotional-intelligence/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2017/09/11/a-mindful-start-to-the-school-year-four-back-to-school-questions-to-build-emotional-intelligence/ emotional intelligence of employees of risky professions … yaryna andrushko, et al. 87 devid, s. (2018). emotsiina sprytnist. yak pochaty radity zminam i otrymuvaty zadovolennia vid roboty ta zhyttia. [emotional agility: get unstuck, embrace change, and thrive in work and life]. k.: klub simeinoho dozvillia. dubravin, d. (2019). psikhologiya emotsiy: chuvstva pod kontrolem. [psychology of emotions: feelings under control]. kyiv: «agentstvo «іrіo»». gardner, h. (2011). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. new york: basic books. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohis-torical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11 (4), 345-361. doi: 10.18662/rrem/195 goleman, d. (2019). emotsiinyi intelekt. [emotional intelligence]. kyiv: vivat. gray, a. (2016). the 10 skills you need to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution. the world economic forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-tothrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ hall, n. (2007). emotional intelligence self-evaluation. salum international resources, inc. https://www.uusu.org/pageassets/get_involved/enterprise/ enterpriseprogrammes/uusuleadershipprogramme/leadershipworkshops/emotional-intelligence-quick-test.pdf hawkins, j., blakeslee, s. (2004). on intelligence. new york: st. martin`s press. lazarus, r. s. (1991). emotion and adaptation. new york, oxford: oxford university press. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organiza-tional characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51 (1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 salovey, p., brackett, m. a., & mayer, j. d. (eds.). (2004). emotional intelligence: key readings on the mayer and salovey model. dude publishing. salovey, p., caruso, d., & mayer, j. d. (2004) emotional intelligence in practice. in p. a. linley & s. joseph (eds.). positive psychology in practice. (pp. 447-463). hoboken, nj: j. wiley & sons. salovey, p., mayer, j. d. (1990). emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition and personality. 9(3). https://doi.org/10.2190/dugg-p24e-52wk-6cdg https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ https://www.uusu.org/pageassets/get_involved/enterprise/%0benterpriseprogrammes/uusuleadershipprogramme/leadership-workshops/emotional-intelligence-quick-test.pdf https://www.uusu.org/pageassets/get_involved/enterprise/%0benterpriseprogrammes/uusuleadershipprogramme/leadership-workshops/emotional-intelligence-quick-test.pdf https://www.uusu.org/pageassets/get_involved/enterprise/%0benterpriseprogrammes/uusuleadershipprogramme/leadership-workshops/emotional-intelligence-quick-test.pdf https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.2190%2fdugg-p24e-52wk-6cdg brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 88 schneider, l. b. (2007). lichnostnaya, gendernaya i professionalnaya identichnost: teoriya i metody diagnostiki. [personal, gender and professional identity: theory and methods of diagnosis] moscow: publishing house of the moscow psychological and social institute. sergiienko, ye. a., vetrova, i. i. (2009). emotsionalnyy intellekt: model, struktura testa (msceit v2.0), russkoyazychnaya adaptatsiya. [emotional intelligence: model, test structure (msceit v2.0), russian-language adaptation]. sotsialnyy i emotsionalnyy intellekt: ot protsessov k izmereniyam. [social and emotional intelligence: from processes to dimensions]. moscow: publishing house "institute of psychology ras", 308-331. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 storrs, k., kriegeskorte, n. (2019). deep learning for cognitive neuroscience. the cognitive neurosciences, 6th edition. cornell university. https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.01458 zaritskaya, v.v. (2018). psikhologiya emotsionalnogo intellekta: monogra-fiya. [psychology of emotional intelligence]. zaporozhe: izdatelskiy dom «gelvetika». https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.01458 your paper's title starts here: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 125-143 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/160 topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis daniel-andrei iordan¹, mircea-dan mocanu 2 *, claudiu mereuta 3 1 “dunărea de jos” university, 63-65 gării street, galaţi, romania. 2 “dunărea de jos” university, 63-65 gării street, galaţi, romania, mirdan2014@yahoo.com * corresponding author 3 “dunărea de jos” university, 63-65 gării street, galaţi, romania. abstract: the consolidation of topspin, the most prolific technical & tactical element in the attack’s area, requires, besides the daily training and efficient biomechanics, an optimal health of the osteo-articular and muscular system, due to the fact that the performance of this element requires forceful speed developed throughout the muscle chain. the purpose of the present scientific research is to identify the problems occurred at spine level resulted following to topspin attack and the importance of this technical element in the female junior’s performance. the social enquirybased survey was conducted on a number of 27 coaches and athletes, using a number of 15 questions. objectives: optimization of topspin attack in 11-12 years old female juniors. premises: the knowledge on statistics of spine specific areas generating pain at the time of the attack will allow us to create a postural correction program meant to optimize performance. research methods: the registration method was based on an opinion poll, on a statistical and mathematical method, on computer graphics method. conclusion: around 78% of the interviewed specialists consider that the lumbar area is the most affected and predisposed to pain in case of topspin, existing a strong correlation between it and the technical element considered to be the most important in the attack phase (topspin – 66.67%) in female juniors, p = 0.003 < α = 0.05, v = 0.620 and c = 0.659. keywords: postural correction; table tennis; topspin; attack; female juniors. how to cite: iordan, d.-a., mocanu, m.-d., & mereuta, c. (2020). topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 125-143. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/160 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/160 mailto:mirdan2014@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/160 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 126 introduction as a consequence of high intensity, of strains specific to competitions and long sports training periods, as well as the ball diameter’s increase, the risk of a potential accident within competition sports is increasing, according to kondrič, et al., (2008), the intervention in due time for the treatment and recovery of the affected athletes making the difference between continuity – high performance or interruption – abandon. according to mocanu (2019), in table tennis, topspin represents a technical – tactical element specific to attack, the execution being initiated by thighs impulse and fast torsion of the trunk, finalized by tangential hitting of the ball with an accelerated movement and an ascending trajectory from bottom to top of the paddle sustained by the active arm, actions meant to imprint to the ball a rotation effect forwardly, in speed mode. the attack-focused professional players and the great majority of the players who participate in international competitions use the forehand topspin attack in order to imprint speed and special effects to the ball, putting the adversary in difficulty and favoring the increase of the chances to win the point (meghdadi et al., 2019). according to yu, shao, baker, & gu (2018), table tennis is a sports which involves the simultaneous contraction of the lower body, upper body and abdomen for an efficient execution of the hit, the muscular unbalances being caused by repetitive unilateral movements which cause stress on tissues, intervertebral discs, spinal ligaments and on other structures, the symptomatology being headaches, cervical-dorso-lumbar pain, fatigue and possible postural deficiencies (muyor et al., 2013). as part of the multidisciplinary team, the kinesiotherapist’s role in high performance sports is to guide and assist the performance athletes with their training, with the purpose of preventing the occurrence of possible accidents, besides the role in assessment – recovery and counseling. the specialists in the area consider that topspin, together with retopspin, are the most important weapons from the technical – tactical arsenal, at the same time being the most spectacular and prolific elements, reason for which it is found in both offensive and defensive athlete’s game (negulescu, mocanu , & cristea, 2017). the muscular asymmetry can perturb the rhythm of movement, bone development and it can increase the athlete’s injury risk. according to hjelm, werner, & renstrom, (2010), in tennis, the lumbar spine was found to be the most commonly injured localization in girls, and new injuries were mainly found in the knee joint, followed by the ankle joint, while most recurrent injuries were localized to the lumbar spine. topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis daniel-andrei iordan, et al. 127 according to lam, fan, zheng, & lee (2019), during the game, the forehand topspin as technical–tactical procedure is considered to be the most efficient and prolific hit from offensive area, its execution making the difference between performers and amateurs. according to muyor et al., (2013), table tennis is considered to be an acyclic sport, where the execution is performed through a fast movement of the trunk in flexion – extension and spin, which executed frequently, can lead to the occurrence of lesions after a long play period, aspect which reduces the performance capacity. after the execution of a large number of technical – tactical elements, most athletes practicing table tennis present a hypertrophy on the dominant side, as per folorunso et al., (2010), aspect which favors in time the occurrence at the spine level of a symptomatoloy which is materialized in disruptive factors of performance activity, in case no compensation program has been applied. according to zhang & zhou (2019), table tennis is characterized by small balls, fast speed, strong rotation and many changes, their research showing that theoretical research on table tennis is the most common type (243 papers); in china, there had been few studies on sports medicine (9 papers) between 1980-2016; since winning the first table tennis world championship in 1959, china has won 230 gold medals in three major world competitions (the world championships, the olympics and the world cup), aspects highlighting the special interest the world leader has had in this discipline, this interest being shown also by a large volume of specialized scientific articles. according to pullinger, & rejeb (2019), most accidents take place in the first quarter of the year (65%) when the training tasks are the greatest, aspect which requires an increased attention in the dosage of the action systems and the constant presence of the kinesiotherapist in the training room. the most prolific attack technical – tactical element voted in proportion of 50% by the technicians of this sports discipline according to negulescu, mocanu, & cristea (2018), creates pain, but also disorders at the spine level for the high performance female junior athletes, one of the reasons of this situation being multiple trunk spins at high speed necessary for the execution of the topspin attack, especially for the forehand execution. due to the fact that forehand topspin is considered the most used attack hit in competitive table tennis with an usage percentage of 95.23% (mocanu, negulescu, moisescu, 2018), it is omnipresent both in offensive and defensive players, its consolidation at junior level facilitating the performance and the perspectives of female athlete’s continuity to a successful career at maturity, in the sense of senior category. kondrič et al., brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 128 (2011) mention that the most often impairments in the racket sports with are: • pain in lumbosacral areas; • tendinitis of the rotator cuff shoulder’s muscles (dead hand); • king-kong arm (overdevelopment of the skilled arm); • tennis player’s elbow (inflammation of the lateral epicondyle); • blocking of the forearm nerve; • lesion of the abdominal wall. taking into consideration other aspects leading to the occurrence of posture problems, among which we mention the weight of the schoolbags carried by students from primary and middle school (4-7 kg vs. maximum allowed weight 2.5-3 kg), spending long time watching tv or using the mobile telephone in positions favoring various deformations of the spine from young ages, the late intervention by collaborating with a specialty physician or kinesiotherapist for the immediate remediation of the occurred problems, all the above representing a plurality of factors leading to a negative influence on the performance capacity, aspects which must be solved preferably in a correct way and in a time period favoring the successful continuation of the life in table tennis high-performance. in the case of tennis, according to filipcic, cuk, & filipcic (2016), the present results show that the body asymmetry is present in these athletes starting from the smallest age category, reason for the occurrence of the problems related to the spine; in the case of table tennis, the accidents are the result of excessive training of a preparatory part inadequately achieved, of incorrect posture, emotional instability, mental vagabondage, lack of psychical focus and of previous accidents according to chu, lin, & hung (2010), the influence of anthropometric characteristics in sports performance being still unclear (carrasco, pradas, & martínez, 2010); it is also unclear if this influence is in some cases a favoring factor for the occurrence of the accidents in this sports discipline discussed by us. according to a study performed by negulescu, mocanu, & cristea (2017), on the importance of topspin in the female junior’s attack, its consolidation requires daily practice, reason for which the creation of a postural correction program for achieving the performance objectives for the female athletes with spine problems represents a “must have”. according to cao et al., (2020), multi-ball training is one of the common methods used in adolescent table tennis training and it is always used to promote the formation and fixation of players’ technical movements, to improve their training effects, in the topspin’s consolidation stage being used this highly efficient method named “the box” which involves a large number topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis daniel-andrei iordan, et al. 129 of balls sent by the coach (100-200) with increased speed, the pain occurred in the dorsal side of the trunk limiting both the amplitude of the trunk’s rotation necessary to a performance execution, especially with backspin effect ball, as well as the number of repetitions, the pain being a limitative factor for the training volume and the execution speed, especially in the case of the attack’s specific elements. as it is desired to continue the high performance tradition at european and world level started by the multiple world champion, angelica-rozeanu–edelstein (6 consecutive titles, 19501955) and by the national team of romania, world champion in 1950 -’60 (winner in all 4 sports tests of the competition during the world table tennis championship in bucharest, 1953) and continuing with the european champion, otilia badescu (courtmayour, italy 2003) and with the latest european champion, eliza samara (ekaterinsburg, rusia, 2015), as well as with the actual female team, the multiple european champion (2017 russia and 2019 france), the performance optimization by ensuring the health of the osteo-articular and muscular system, besides other actions specific to this sports discipline, represents a sine-qua-non condition for performances similar to those mentioned above. according to kondrič et al., (2008), due to the introduction of larger balls, the execution of the technical-tactical elements has become more challenging (sudden) and aggressive, aspect which has created a high accident potential of the main body parts involved in the biomechanics of the hits specific to the attack in juniors, presenting a higher risk. the acceleration of the racket at the time of contact is approximately 180 m/s 2 , whereas the ball flying away from the racket may rotate up to 140 times per second and travel at a speed of 40 m/s, values highlighting the challenge under which the body of the executor is found at the moment of performing the topspin attack (bańkosz, & winiarski, 2020). research questions in order to approach this research direction, we have started from the following existing aspects: • the inexistence of a postural correction model program in youth table tennis; • no knowledge on the percentage of players having pain and spine disorders; • the importance of knowing the most affected specific spine region resulting from the topspin attack; brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 130 • no knowledge on the existence of a relationship between the topspin attack and the health of the spine in female juniors; • do the junior female athletes trained by you have spine pain, resulting from practicing high-performance table tennis? • are the junior female athletes trained by you involved in a compensation-recovery program (regarding spinal disorders resulting from the specificity of the technical-tactical attack elements or from the fundamental position adopted at the tennis table)? • which of the five regions of the spine do you think are most likely to cause pain in the case of topspin attack in female juniors? • when do you think that exercises are useful for increasing musclejoint mobility (postural improvement program), before or after training? • is there a kinesiotherapist in the sports club you work for who can evaluate the health of the musculoskeletal system? • following the execution of a certain technical procedure, specific to the attack, can there be pain in the spine? • on a scale of 1-10, how much do you consider that a poor posture of the female athlete (improper position of the torso) can negatively influence the biomechanics of topspin execution? • how important is the technical-tactical topspin element in attack (on a scale from 1-10) at the level of performance? • do you think that a program to evaluate and improve incorrect body positions would be useful and could it be beneficial in optimizing (improving) the playing technique in attack? table 1. list of interviewed table tennis specialists no. name of the specialist sports clubs 1. a. b. c.s. stirom bucurești 2. a. f.-k. c.s. fitfeel odorheiu-secuiesc 3. b. d. c.s.m. buzău 4. b. a. c.s. viitorul pantelimon 5. b. l. a.c.s.o.v. pantelimon 6. b. a. c.s. stirom bucurești topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis daniel-andrei iordan, et al. 131 7. c. m. c.s.m. moinești 8. c. g. c.s.m. iași 9. c. a. s.c.m. dunărea 2020 giurgiu 10. d. g. a. l.p.s. bistrița 11. g. i. c.s.s. odorheiu secuiesc 12. h. n. a.c.s. dâmbovița 13. i. d. c.n. vlăhută râmnicu sărat 14. k.-g. b. l.t.n.m tg. secuiesc 15. k. b. c.s.s. sfântu gheorghe 16. m. v. c.s.m. vatra dornei 17. m. v. c.s.m. buzău 18. m. m. former coach of sport team c.s voința galați 19. o. i. athlete of post sv mühlhausen-germany & scm gloria buzăuromania clubs 20. p. a. a.s.d. t.t. biella 21. p. m. c.s.m. victoria carei 22. p. g. național cadets team and c.s. pristavu câmpulung club 23. p. c. f.c. argeș 24. ș. r. c.s.m. buzău 25. s. c. l.p.s. slatina 26. s. i. i. c.s.s. slatina 27. v.s. a.c.s. activ galați source: authors'own contribution note: most specialists participating to the scientific research are former players in a division or super league, being at present involved in the training of juniors participating to the national championship of the specialty federation. source of this table is from spss statististisc. vers. 23. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 132 purpose of the study by collecting the information from the specialists in the area on the importance of creating a model for postural correction program, we will be able to choose the most adequate action systems and modern evaluation methods specific to kinesiotherapy, meant to optimize the topspin attack and the performance of female junior players with age comprised between 11 and 12 years old. figure 1. execution of side rever topspin equations for this research, we have used the following methods for recording and analyzing the data presented in this paper: • bibliography study; • observation method; • method of recording based on opinion poll; • statistical-mathematical method; • computerized graphics method. the social enquiry-based survey was issued on a printed format of a4 type, but also in on-line variant, comprising 15 questions addressed to a number of 27 specialists comprising top coaches and athletes, a part of the interviewed specialists achieving notable performances at national and international level. most used items have had the purpose of identifying the postural problems of the spine and the importance of topspin attack in order to improve the game at the above mentioned age category. for the analysis of the relations and existing correlations between the topspin attack and posture, we have calculated the values of the correlation topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis daniel-andrei iordan, et al. 133 coefficients, c and v contingency coefficients (cramer) for nominal-type data, as well as the associated probabilities (p), cronbach’s alpha, using ibm spss statistics, version 23 statistical – mathematical analysis program. the significance threshold taken into consideration was α = 0.05. for the theoretical substantiation of our research, we have consulted and interpreted scientific materials from the national and international area specific to our field and research interest, which would facilitate a better understanding of the chosen direction. our presence at the most important competitions such as the national team championship and the individual national championship has allowed us to observe the execution (biomechanics) of the topspin attack in the female junior iii category, as well as the direct discussion with the specialists of this sport regarding the female athlete’s postural problems resulting from the frequent use of the technical and tactical element subject to our research. through the data obtained from coaches, the computer graphics provides an overview of the spinal problems, the importance of topspin during attack and the connection between the two variables, frequency and level of correlation. the item’s property of correlating with the final test score calculated by cronbach’s alpha coefficient shows an acceptable value of the test’s consistency,  = 0,598. eq. (1)                  2 1 2 1 1 x k i i t k k    . calculation formula for cronbach’s alpha coefficient eq. (2) v = )1( 2  qn  . calculation formula for the contingency coefficient v brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 134 eq. (3) c = 2 2   n . calculation formula for the contingency coefficient c eq. (4) χ 2 =    cl i t i t i o i f ff 1 2 )( . calculation formula for test χ 2 (chi-square) results the coach-addressed social enquiry-based survey highlights important aspects for the optimization of the topspin attack and of the problems generated by the deficient posture of athletes. 1. do you consider that a program for assessing and ameliorating the incorrect body positions would be useful and could bring benefits to the improvement of attacking technique? r: 100% of the coaches answered with “yes” to this question, aspect highlighting the necessity of involving a kinesiotherapist for the athlete’s performance and life improvements. 2. what technical element do you consider to be important in the attack phase? r: topspin was designated in proportion of almost 56% as being the most important element used in attack. 3. at what age do you think you can take action in sports training and find the topspin in the game? r: 8 years old is indicated as being optimum for the implementation of topspin in the game, being selected by the specialists in a percentage of 40.7%. topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis daniel-andrei iordan, et al. 135 4. which of the following aspects do you believe to influence the most topspin’s success? r: biomechanics was designated in proportion of 44.4% as being the aspect with the greatest influence in topspin’s success. 5. which of the 5 regions of the spine do you consider to be predisposed to generate pain, in the case of the topspin attack, in female juniors? r: the lumber area is the most predisposed to generate disorders and implicitly pain, with a percentage of almost 78%. 6. is a kinesiotherapist performing evaluations on the muscular and articular system’s health present within your club? r: 85% of the sports clubs do not have a kinesiotherapist in the multidisciplinary team necessary for high-performance. 7. do junior female athletes trained by you present pain at the spine level, resulting from practicing high-performance table tennis? r: almost 26% answered in the affirmative, while 67% in the negative. 8. are the junior female athletes trained by you involved in compensation – recovery programs? r: 37% of the interviewed coaches have female athletes involved in compensation – recovery programs, while 59.3% do not have. 9. in your opinion, which is the technical procedure with the highest efficiency, forehand or backhand topspin? r: 92.6% voted forehand topspin and only 3.7% for backhand topspin. table 2. the answers to question no. 10 from the opinion poll on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you consider that a deficient posture of the female athlete can negatively influence the biomechanics of the topspin’s execution? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent valid 7 2 7.4 7.4 7.4 8 8 29.6 29.6 37.0 9 9 33.3 33.3 70.4 10 8 29.6 29.6 total 27 100.0 100.0 100.0 source: results from the statistical processing of data arising from original research note: as per the highest percentage of 33.3 % corresponding to grade 9 granted by the coaches to the deficient posture, we conclude that it affects significantly the biomechanics of the most important element from the attack area. source of this table is spss statististisc. vers. 23. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 136 figure 2. image with answers to question no. 11 source: figure arising from the original research activity note: topspin technical tactical element is the one favoring the occurrence of pain in lumbar area in time source of this figure is from and involve our research dates. source of this figure is from excel worksheet. table 3. the answers to question no. 12 do you consider that a program for assessing and ameliorating the incorrect positions of the body would be useful and could it bring benefits to the improvement of attacking technique? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent valid yes 27 100.0 100.0 100.0 source: table resulting from own research note: the necessity of performing a postural assessing and ameliorating program is validated by all coaches questioned, considering that the kinesiotherapeutic endeavor would favor the optimization of table tennis attack. source of this table is from spss statististisc. vers. 23. following to the execution of a certain technical procedure, specific to the attack, could pain appear at the spine level? cervical lumbar/ lumbar / thoracic / thoracic no topspin topspin topspin smash topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis daniel-andrei iordan, et al. 137 table 4. the answers to question no. 13 which technical element do you believe to be the most important in attack? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent v a l i d position at the play table 8 29.6 29.6 29.6 topspin 15 55.6 55.6 85.2 smash (ball hit in force, without effect imprint) 2 7.4 7.4 92.6 service 2 7.4 7.4 total 27 100.0 100.0 100.0 source: data resulting from own research note: in the attack, the most important technical – tactical element is considered to be topspin with a percentage of 55.6% followed by the position at the play table in a percentage of 29%. source of this table is from spss statististisc. vers. 23. figure 3. image of the answers in percentages to question no. 14 source: figure arising from the original research activity note: the postural amelioration program is indicated by the technicians to be implemented after the preparatory part, i.e. at the beginning of the fundamental part, while 37% see it as pertinent at the end of the fundamental part. source of this figure is from excel worksheet. when do you consider the exercises for increasing the muscular – articular mobility to be useful, before or after training? after the preparatory after finalization of the i do not know part fundamental part brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 138 table 5. answers to question no. 15 from the opinion poll how important is the topspin element in the attack phase (on a scale from 1 to 10 ) at performance level? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent valid 7 1 3.7 3.7 3.7 8 6 22.2 22.2 25.9 9 5 18.5 18.5 44.4 10 15 55.6 55.6 total 27 100.0 100.0 100.0 source: original data resulting from research note: 55.6 % of the interviewed subjects offered grade 10 to the importance of topspin in high-performance table tennis, being the greatest percentage granted as compared to the other elements graded. source of this table is from spss statististisc. vers. 23. conclusions the obtained results on the influence of topspin attack at spine level resulting from the social enquiry-based survey favor the conclusion that the performance of female juniors is optimized by the amelioration of the postural problems having a negative impact on the biomechanics in the execution of the most important technical and tactical attack element and by diminishing the pain in the lumbar area, all favoring the improvement of the sports performance and the athlete’s life quality. for the achievement of the performance objectives, we recommend the following specific actions: • cooptation of a kinesiotherapist in the multidisciplinary team; • somatometric evaluation and creation of special programs for remediating the disorders identified in order to stop the boosting of postural problems which generate discomfort at the moment of the execution of attack specific technical – tactical elements; • performance of a preparative part taking into consideration the movements advised against the disorders of the female athlete at spine level; • the implementation and performance of the postural improvement program at the beginning or at the end of the fundamental part according to the recommendations made by the interviewed coaches; • performing stretching exercises after each workout for a period of 20-40 seconds for each adopted action system; • wearing heel cushions modeled according to the evaluation and the results of the analysis of the plantar pressures made with the help of the baropodometer; topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis daniel-andrei iordan, et al. 139 • paying more attention to the most prolific technical element specific to the attack (topspin) by daily training, optimizing the execution technique and hitting the ball in front of the torso. figure 4. antropometric evaluation figure 5. postural analysis performed with the help of images source: figure arising from the original research activity figure 6. comparison between the values of the plantar pressure of a subject in the dynamic phase vs. a normal value at the sole level, performed with the help of platform freemed sensormedica (posturotest) device, evaluation performed to achieve the heel cushions necessary for postural correction. source: figure arising from the original research activity brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 140 table 6. existing correlations on the influence of attack’s specific technical elements on the spine in table tennis which of the 5 regions of the spine do you consider to be predisposed to generate pain, in the case of the topspin attack, in female juniors? total cervical thoracic lumbar which technical element do you believe to be the most important in the attack phase? position at the play table 3 0 5 8 topspin 0 0 15 15 smash (ball hit in force, without effect imprint) 1 0 1 2 service 0 1 1 2 total 4 1 22 27 source: results from the statistical processing of data arising from original research note: 22 coaches (81.48%) consider that the lumbar area is the most affected area. a number of 8 coaches have chosen the position at the play table (22.72%) and 15 (68.18%) have chosen topspin. source of this table is from spss statististisc. vers. 23. another strong correlation shows the fact that most coaches (15 of 27, i.e. 55.56%) indicate that topspin is the main element in attack phase and among them, 93.33% prefer forehand topspin. because the probability associated to the correlation tests is p = 0.033 < α = 0.05, it results that there is a connection between the technical element considered to be the most important in the attack phase and the technical procedure with higher efficiency, forehand or backhand topspin. the coefficient values v = 0.505 and c = 0.581 show a good correlation. topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis daniel-andrei iordan, et al. 141 table 7. level of correlations between the most important technical attack element and the spine areas predisposed to generate pain value approximate significance nominal by nominal phi 0.881 0.002 cramer's v 0.623 0.002 contingency coefficient 0.661 0.002 n of valid cases 27 source: results from the statistical processing of data arising from original research note: the technical element considered to be the most important in the attack phase and the regions of the spine predisposed to generate pain in the case of topspin attack in juniors, are correlated (p = 0.002 < α = 0.05, v = 0.623 and c = 0.661, it results a strong correlation). source of this table is from spss statististisc. vers. 23. we intend to assess them in the future and we will create customized programs and postural amelioration means (heel cushions) for a number of 10 junior female athletes from a group of 20 subjects, using somatometry, posturotest, baropodometer and heel cushions. references bańkosz, z., & winiarski, s. (2020). kinematic parameters of topspin forehand in table tennis and their inter-and intra-individual variability. journal of sports science & medicine, 19(1), 138-148. wos:000516851900016. cao, z., xiao, y., lu, m., ren, x., & zhang, p. (2020). the impact of eye-closed and weighted multi-ball training on the improvement of the stroke effect of adolescent table tennis players. journal of sports science and medicine, 19(1), 43-51. wos:000516851900005. carrasco, l., pradas, f., & martínez, a. (2010). somatotype and body composition of young top-level table tennis players. international journal of table tennis sciences, 6, 175-177. chu, c. y., lin, j. h., & hung, t. m. (2010). a study on table tennis players’ psychological skills, sport injuries, and tournament satisfaction at the 49th world championship. international journal of table tennis scieces, 6, 200-202. https://idus.us.es/bitstream/handle/11441/22969/file_1.pdf?sequence=1 &isallowed=y#page=196 filipcic, a., cuk, i., & filipcic, t. (2016). lateral asymmetry in upper and lower limb bioelectrical impedance analysis in youth tennis players. international journal of morphology, 34(3), 890-895. http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/s0717-95022016000300012 https://idus.us.es/bitstream/handle/11441/22969/file_1.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y#page=196 https://idus.us.es/bitstream/handle/11441/22969/file_1.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y#page=196 http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/s0717-95022016000300012 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 142 folorunso, o., mutiu, a., & ademola, o. (2010). the playing posture, activities and health of the table tennis player. international journal of table tennis sciences, 6, 99-104. https://idus.us.es/bitstream/handle/11441/22969/file_1.pdf?isallowed= y&sequence=1#page=95 hjelm, n., werner, s., & renstrom, p. (2010). injury profile in junior tennis players: a prospective two year study. knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy, 18(6), 845-850. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-010-1094-4 kondric, m., furjan-mandić, g., hadzic, v., dervišević, e., matkovic, b., & ochiană, n. (2008). injuries in slovenian table tennis players compared with injuries of some of the best slovenian tennis players. gymnasium. revista de educatie fizica si sport, viii, 13, 73-85. https://www.bib.irb.hr/455370?rad=455370 kondrič, m., matković, b., furjan-mandić, g., hadžić, v., & dervišević, e. (2011). injuries in racket sports among slovenian players. collegium antropologicum, 35(2),413-417. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/miran_kondric/publication/51491 603_injuries_in_racket_sports_among_slovenian_players/links/0c96053c 948d660823000000.pdf lam, w. k., fan, j. x., zheng, y., & lee, w. c. c. (2019). joint and plantar loading in table tennis topspin forehand with different footwork. european journal of sport science, 19(4), 471-479. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2018.1534993 meghdadi, n., yalfani, a., & minoonejad, h. (2019). electromyographic analysis of shoulder girdle muscle activation while performing a forehand topspin in elite table tennis athletes with and without shoulder impingement syndrome. journal of shoulder and elbow surgery, 28(8), 1537-1545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2019.01.021 mocanu, m. (2019). strategii metodologice de eficientizare a atacului cu topspin şi retopspin la junioare în tenisul de masă [methodological strategies for increasing the efficiency of the attack by topspin-retopspin in junior female in table tennis]. universitatea națională de educație fizică și sport mocanu, m., negulescu, i. c., & moisescu, c. p. (2018). optimization of the topspin performance biomechanics in female juniors in table tennis. the european proceedings of social & behavioural sciences, xxxvii, 386-394. https://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.02.48 muyor, j. m., sánchez-sánchez, e., sanz-rivas, d., & lópez-miñarro, p. a. (2013). sagittal spinal morphology in highly trained adolescent tennis players. journal of sports science & medicine, 12(3), 588. wos:000323603800031. negulescu, i., mocanu, m., & cristea, f. (2018). importance of topspin and retopspin in table tennis for female juniors. the european proceedings of social https://idus.us.es/bitstream/handle/11441/22969/file_1.pdf?isallowed=y&sequence=1#page=95 https://idus.us.es/bitstream/handle/11441/22969/file_1.pdf?isallowed=y&sequence=1#page=95 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-010-1094-4 https://www.bib.irb.hr/455370?rad=455370 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/miran_kondric/publication/51491603_injuries_in_racket_sports_among_slovenian_players/links/0c96053c948d660823000000.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/miran_kondric/publication/51491603_injuries_in_racket_sports_among_slovenian_players/links/0c96053c948d660823000000.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/miran_kondric/publication/51491603_injuries_in_racket_sports_among_slovenian_players/links/0c96053c948d660823000000.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2018.1534993 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2019.01.021 https://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.02.48 topspin’s influence on the spine in female juniors iii in table tennis daniel-andrei iordan, et al. 143 & behavioural sciences, xxxvii, 263-269. http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.03.35 pullinger, s., & rejeb, a. (2019). training load and injury incidence over one season in adolescent arab table tennis players: a pilot study. asian journal sports medicine, 3(10), e84592. https://doi.org/10.5812/asjsm.84592 yu, c., shao, s., baker, j. s., & gu, y. (2018). comparing the biomechanical characteristics between squat and standing serves in female table tennis athletes. peerj-life and environment, 6, e4760. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4760 zhang, h., & zhou, z. (2019). how is table tennis in china successful? german journal of exercise and sport research, 49(3), 244-250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-019-00583-4 http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.03.35 https://doi.org/10.5812/asjsm.84592 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4760 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-019-00583-4 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 21-28 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/90 covid-19 influence and future perspectives of artificial intelligence on the labour market victor-alexandru briciu¹, arabela briciu 2 1 lecturer, phd, transilvania university of brasov, brasov, romania, victor.briciu@unitbv.ro 2 lecturer, phd, transilvania university of brasov, brasov, romania, arabela.baican@unitbv.ro abstract: the objective of this short communication is suggested by the labour market that has become very unpredictable and it is difficult to say what it will look like in five, 10 years or even more. new jobs appear, while others disappear. and all this is happening against a background in which artificial intelligence (ai) plays an increasingly important role and it would be very difficult for us to imagine our lives without it, especially since robots save lives today. technology has become a necessity, many jobs have changed due to robotics, and we must evolve and adapt with it, even though the new rules that came with the onset of restrictions and mutations in the labour market due to the new coronavirus pandemic that spread worldwide. the main idea reflects the possibilities reflected by the singularity hypothesis, as new intelligent technologies may alter our human lives and eliminate some jobs, change others and create completely new job categories, but as long as we know the opportunities are there for us, we need to be proactive by providing the skills for the future. keywords: labour market; future jobs; covid-19 influence; artificial intelligence; skills; singularity hypothesis. how to cite: briciu, v.-a., & briciu, a. (2020). covid-19 influence and future perspectives of artificial intelligence on the labour market. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 21-28. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/90 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/90 mailto:victor.briciu@unitbv.ro mailto:arabela.baican@unitbv.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/90 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 22 1. introduction “what do you want to do when you grow up?” we all heard this question as a child and if then we answered without too much hesitation, later we start to think differently about our future career. we discover (at some point) our true values, passions and then we can think of a job that represents us. however, new technologies are developing rapidly. this is already discussed using philosophical, sociological or anthropological arguments (popoveniuc, 2016) in regard to what the singularity hypothesis predicts: “an era completely different from the previous ones – in fact, a phase that in some sense may be regarded as a post‑human one. machines superior to any human intellect could then evolve (while surpassing man) at a pace which would mean a veritable explosion of intelligence, leading to a singularity, a major discontinuity in the evolution of human civilisation and even a transformation of our species” (nagâț, 2014, p.79). this is seen as the moment of the emergence of self-aware artificial intelligence, whose computing capacity exceeds the human power (popoveniuc, 2016). connectivity, smart cars and new media influence our daily lives and, implicitly, the way we work. the labor market has also become very unpredictable and it is difficult to say what it will look like in five, 10 years or even more. new jobs appear, while others disappear. and all this is happening against a background in which artificial intelligence (ai) plays an increasingly important role in the field of current discussions with an emphasis on the technology of ai and technological singularity (popoveniuc, 2016) and it would be very difficult for us to imagine our lives without it, especially since robots save lives today. in medicine, the robot's hand is much more precise, it does not tremble, in the army there are robots that save people's lives by defusing bombs, as well as they can end lives. we also see smart homes, autonomous cars, drones, social robots, etc. we live in a permanent change. all this is becoming part of society, simplifying our lives more and more. technology has become a necessity, many jobs have changed due to robotics, and we must evolve and adapt with it, even though the new rules that came with the onset of restrictions and mutations in the labor market due to the new coronavirus pandemic (covid-19), which “was first reported in wuhan, china and spread rapidly worldwide through human-to-human transmission” (wen et al., 2020, p. 1). it is important to say that “this is not the first time a coronavirus has taken the public health community by surprise. most will remember the severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars) coronavirus outbreak of the early 2000s” (jamal & budke, 2020, p. 182). so far we know that coronavirus 2019 (covid-19) “is an infectious disease caused by covid-19 influence and future perspectives of artificial intelligence on the … victor-alexandru briciu & arabela briciu 23 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2)” (bakar & rosbi, 2020, p. 189). the rate at which the covid-19 virus was transmitted caused it to reach the globe, with europe soon becoming “the epicenter of the pandemic, but has since been overtaken by the united states” (johns hopkins university, 2020; wen et al., 2020, p. 1). covid-19 is spread mainly through contact with an infected person when they cough or sneeze, or “when a person touches a surface or object that has the virus on it, then touches their eyes, nose or mouth. covid-19 virus can live up to 72 hours” (bakar & rosbi, 2020, p. 189). as covid-19 becomes more and more widespread, scientists are working hard to prevent and control this spread of the virus. different areas of specialization and “professionals in these sciences are facing great public pressure to research and develop vaccinations and medications to save lives” (wen et al., 2020, p. 1). it is during this period of acute pressure that several factors seem to be decisive along with climate change and global health emergencies: artificial intelligence and the reconfiguration of the labour market. 2. the economic fields in which ai is present as wisskirchen et al. (2017) argue there are two types of ai: weak ai or narrow ai, in which “the computer is merely an instrument for investigating cognitive processes the computer simulates intelligence” (wisskirchen et al., 2017, p. 10). it does not have our ability to evolve; it always remains at the same stage at which he was programmed. it does not have the ability to learn from itself or from other robots, it is just a code that simulates intelligence; strong ai, through which the computer has the ability of “self-learning processes (wisskirchen et al., 2017, p. 10). but ai can not only be classified by main types, it can also be classified by functionality (chethan kumar, 2018). in general, ai can be divided, from an economic point of view, into several categories (dettmer et al., 2016; wisskirchen et al., 2017, pp. 10-11): (1) deep learning for humans, machines are less likely to make mistakes. they are capable, just like people, of noticing a mistake and avoiding it. if we get tired, we can work a few hours and then we have to rest, the machines can work non-stop; (2) robotisation robots do not need rest and do not have to be paid overtime. given that they do not get tired, they are not as prone to mistakes as we are; (3) dematerialization moving things from physical format to another format, and standalone software will collect the necessary information and send it to employees who need it; (4) autonomous driving vehicles have the ability to govern themselves through sensors and navigate alone without human action, so some current jobs will disappear and most likely others will appear instead; brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 24 (5) gig economy including two types of work: “crowdworking” and “work on-demand via apps”, by means of structured networking applications and platforms. “there are more and more independent contractors for individual tasks that companies advertise on online platforms (eg, ‘amazon mechanical turk’). traditional employment relationships are becoming less common. many workers are performing different jobs for different clients” (wisskirchen et al., 2017, p. 11). thus, it can be argued in the light of the singularity hypothesis that „the non-biological species capable of selfawareness will be able to dethrone the human from his claims of being a thinking reed, placing him in the position of a demiurge, overthrown by his own creation” (sandu, 2016, p. 182). 3. the future of jobs and the applicability of ai when we discuss the job predictions or the future of jobs, these concepts may be misunderstood; it would be better to analyze the work skills we will use in the future: skills and abilities for future jobs. global connectivity, smart cars, ai and new media are some of the things that will change the way we think about work or what constitutes work and the skills we will need to be productive in the future. barbara stöttinger, dean of the wu executive academy, part of the university of economics and business in vienna, talks about how ai will affect the labour market. she believes that ai will have a significant impact on our lives, our jobs, but it will not go over all hierarchies. from a medical point of view, no one would want a computer to talk to a patient about a serious problem; it will still need a human for this job. as a human being, you have to use more senses, not just thinking. “i think that at this moment, this is the reason why artificial intelligence will not replace us so quickly” (olteanu, 2019). therefore, the human factor has an important role in today's medicine but also in the medicine of the future. we are social beings, so we need to communicate with other people. interpersonal relationships will be necessary in the future because robots cannot interrogate with the same warmth with which a doctor can do it. on the other hand, technology is a step forward due to their indisputable abilities. the human brain cannot store as much information as a computer is capable of. if in silicon valley technology is advancing at an astonishing pace and all the inhabitants are enjoying this phenomenon, in europe things are different. in a recent study (rubio & lastra, 2019) that “explores how citizens of eight european countries feel about the technological transformations that are unfolding in their cities and workplaces and how they think their governments should deal with them” covid-19 influence and future perspectives of artificial intelligence on the … victor-alexandru briciu & arabela briciu 25 (rubio & lastra, 2019, p. 8), when asked if they are worried or excited about the evolution of technology, it is observed that 56% of europeans are somewhat worried about a future in which robots will perform most of the tasks of the labour market (rubio & lastra, 2019). in many areas automation has already taken place, and in many others it follows. however, although people believe that technology has taken our jobs, technology has created more input than it has taken out. even if we see human job reductions in sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, many have been created in other areas that require creativity or in the fields of health, technology, or business (stewart et al., 2019). thus, the representatives of the institute for the future, an independent research organization, analyze current trends to find out how global society will evolve (davies et al., 2011). researchers of the institute for the future conducted a study regarding the changes that have already begun to occur in society and will have a substantial impact on the organization and functioning of the labor market in the future. researchers have come up with a set of six indicators of change for 2020, called “drivers of change”: (1) extreme longevity; (2) rise of smart machines and systems; (3) computational world; (4) new media ecology; (5) superstructed organizations; (6) globally connected world. this new paradigm of “drivers of change” will also have an impact on a social level, leading to the discovery of new models and relationships that have not yet been discovered (briciu & briciu, 2020). for much more detailed information see davies et al. (2011, pp. 3-5). based on these indicators, a set of 10 skills resulted, which will be sought in the future on the labor market to answer the question at the beginning of the discussion: what does the employee of the future look like? is it creative, sociable or focused on career advancement? these, according to the authors (davies et al., 2011) are: (1) sense-making; (2) social intelligence; (3) novel and adaptive thinking; (4) cross-cultural competency; (5) computational thinking; (6) new media literacy; (7) transdisciplinarity; (8) design mindset; (9) cognitive load; (10) virtual collaboration. in-depth descriptions of these 10 skills can be obtained further from davies et al. (2011, pp. 8-12). we can deduct from this that the future human resources will continue to be focused on teamwork or virtual collaboration, as 2020 demonstrated to be a viable continuation of human work in spite of covid-19 virus pandemic, and expectations regarding employee skills will be closely related to the use of social media in general and those applications defined by ai, in special. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 26 4. conclusions ai is a social phenomenon today, it is entering our lives more and more, and this phenomenon should be studied from the perspective of multiple disciplines. ai is very similar to a human. it can learn from the outside environment, it can adapt, it has decision-making power, it can write its own programs, and so it can program other robots. “ai is a smart digital system that learns on its own, develops its own search and learning systems, can even have its own language (without being understood by people), develops artificial neural networks on its own, can write its own programs, but most importantly, it has decision-making power. depending on the knowledge it has, it can decide the actions it does or does not do, being able to predict their result” (georgescu, 2018, p. 14). in conclusion, the new technology will eliminate some jobs, change others and create completely new job categories, but as long as we know the opportunities are there for us – humans – we need to be proactive by providing the skills for the future: from empathy to leadership, from critical and analytical thinking to a better understanding of cultural differences and start to “develop international competence, become globally aware of opportunities and threats and develop strategic knowledge of the global marketplace” (briciu et al, 2020, p. 24). after all, discussing this possible outcome and it’s philosophical potential, we can agree with the point of view that “artificial intelligence will, however, be able to place humanity on an infinite path, for example of cosmo-humanity, of artificial immortality through the digitization of consciousness and the infinite possibilities of communication, correlated with the virtualization of the social space” (sandu, 2016, p. 182). references bakar, n. a., & rosbi, s. (2020). effect of coronavirus disease (covid-19) to tourism industry. international journal of advanced engineering research and science, 7, 189-193. https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.74.23 briciu, v-a., & briciu, a. (2020). social media and organizational communication. in d.b.a. mehdi khosrow-pour (ed.), encyclopedia of organizational knowledge, administration, and technology, forthcoming title (chapter 180). igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-3473-1 briciu, v.-a., mircea, i.-a., & briciu, a. (2020) communication and entrepreneurship in romania: dissimulation of first impression in 30 seconds. in a. masouras, g. maris & a. kavoura (eds.), entrepreneurial https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.74.23 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-3473-1 covid-19 influence and future perspectives of artificial intelligence on the … victor-alexandru briciu & arabela briciu 27 development and innovation in family businesses and smes (chapter 2, pp. 2238). igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-3648-3.ch002 chethan kumar, g. n. (2018). artificial intelligence: definition, types, examples, technologies. medium. https://medium.com/@chethankumargn/artificialintelligence-definition-types-examples-technologies-962ea75c7b9b davies, a., fidler, d., & gorbis, m. (2011). future work skills 2020. institute for the future for the university of phoenix research institute. iftf. http://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/sr1382a_upri_future_work_skills_ sm.pdf dettmer, m., hesse, m., jung, a., müller, m.a., & schulz, t. (2016). mensch gegen maschine. der spiegel, 36, 10-18. georgescu, l. (2018). inteligenţa artificială și impactul ei în societate, mai ales în ce privește locurile de muncă. revista română de dreptul muncii, 2, 13-30. jamal, t. & budke, c. (2020). tourism in a world with pandemics: local-global responsibility and action. journal of tourism futures, 6(2), 181-188. https://doi.org/10.1108/jtf-02-2020-0014 johns hopkins university. (2020). covid-19 dashboard by the center for systems science and engineering (csse). coronavirus resource center. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html?mod=article_inlinehttps://coronav irus.jhu.edu/map.html?mod=article_inline nagâţ, g. (2014). consideraţii filosofice asupra ipotezei singularităţii. noema, 13, 7990. olteanu, a. (2019, martie 10). de ce nu va inlocui inteligenta artificiala oamenii? argumentele decanei wu executive academy. wall-street. https://www.wall-street.ro/articol/careers/239280/de-ce-nu-va-inlocuiinteligenta-artificiala-oamenii-argumentele-decanei-wu-executiveacademy.html popoveniuc, b. (2016). filosofia singularităţii. creierul global, o etică a gândirii fără om. eikon publishing. rubio, d., & lastra, c. (2019). european tech insights 2019. center for the governance of change. sandu, a. (2016). about singularity | book review for the volume “filosofia singularitatii. creierul global, o etica a gandirii fara om”, author bogdan popoveniuc, eikon publishing, bucharest, romania. postmodern openings, 7(2), 181-183. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/2016.0702.12 stewart, i., de, d., & cole, a. (2015). technology and people: the great jobcreating machine. deloitte. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-3648-3.ch002 https://medium.com/@chethankumargn/artificial-intelligence-definition-types-examples-technologies-962ea75c7b9b https://medium.com/@chethankumargn/artificial-intelligence-definition-types-examples-technologies-962ea75c7b9b http://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/sr1382a_upri_future_work_skills_sm.pdf http://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/sr1382a_upri_future_work_skills_sm.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/jtf-02-2020-0014 https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html?mod=article_inlinehttps://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html?mod=article_inline https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html?mod=article_inlinehttps://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html?mod=article_inline https://www.wall-street.ro/articol/careers/239280/de-ce-nu-va-inlocui-inteligenta-artificiala-oamenii-argumentele-decanei-wu-executive-academy.html https://www.wall-street.ro/articol/careers/239280/de-ce-nu-va-inlocui-inteligenta-artificiala-oamenii-argumentele-decanei-wu-executive-academy.html https://www.wall-street.ro/articol/careers/239280/de-ce-nu-va-inlocui-inteligenta-artificiala-oamenii-argumentele-decanei-wu-executive-academy.html http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/2016.0702.12 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 28 https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/uk/documents/finan ce/deloitte-uk-technology-and-people.pdf wen, j., wang, w., kozak, m., liu, x., & hou, h. (2020, may 13). many brains are better than one: the importance of interdisciplinary studies on covid-19 in and beyond tourism. tourism recreation research. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1761120 wisskirchen, g., thibault-biacabe, b., bormann, u., muntz, a., niehaus, g., jiménez soler, g., & von brauchitsch, b. (2017). artificial intelligence and robotics and their impact on the workplace. iba global employment institute. https://www.ibanet.org/document/default.aspx?documentuid=c06aa1a 3-d355-4866-beda-9a3a8779ba6e https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/uk/documents/finance/deloitte-uk-technology-and-people.pdf https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/uk/documents/finance/deloitte-uk-technology-and-people.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1761120 https://www.ibanet.org/document/default.aspx?documentuid=c06aa1a3-d355-4866-beda-9a3a8779ba6e https://www.ibanet.org/document/default.aspx?documentuid=c06aa1a3-d355-4866-beda-9a3a8779ba6e brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 358-363 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/214 a firefighter saving virtual addictions bogdan pavlovici¹ 1 md, phd, child psychiatrist and therapist, universitary department of child psychiatry, centre hospitalier de versailles, cmpe, 50 rue berthier, 78000 versailles, bpavlovici@ch-versailles.fr abstract: virtual addiction is, like all addictions, first and foremost an attempt to find a solution by a patient, faced with a problem in their relationship to the world, to others or to themselves. this attempt at a solution, not being the best, becomes a problem in a second step. very often, the solution can emerge from the problem if it is well identified, via systemic modelling (modelling of the relationship between the individual and the relational system that surrounds him). so, the questioning techniques specific to systemists and socalled “brief” therapists and hypnotic techniques (including htsma, emdr) are an excellent means by which a therapist can help treat his patient. we see in the clinical illustration above that starting from the external screen to which the child is addicted and repatriating it inside oneself, and making it a "psychic working screen", will be able to quickly improve the symptoms. keywords: hypnosis, brief therapy, systemic therapy, addiction. how to cite: pavlovici, b. (2021). a firefighter saving virtual addictions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 358-363. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/214 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/214 mailto:bpavlovici@ch-versailles.fr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/214 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 359 i am a child psychiatrist in the chu department of versailles working in a cmpe (medico-psychological centre for children): i carry out consultations and individual and family therapies. i am specialized in institutional and family systemic approaches, brief therapy, ericksonian hypnosis, htsma, psychodrama. within the framework of my work, i encounter various problems, generally serious, many of which have become considerably more serious since the "global pandemic": i am particularly concerned, above all, of the relative psychic effects and collective panic of this situation. within this varied, increasingly effervescent and complex situation, parents do not consult for the specific reason of “virtual addiction”, fortunately! there are already too few of us in the face of the enormous amount of suffering that presents itself at the gates of our little "cmpe city" ... if parents were to consult for this reason, world psychiatry would quickly turn into a medical desert as we would have to face practically the entire global population …... i will present to you the situation of a child accompanied in consultation by his parents for a so-called "adhd" (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), another scourge of global and collective confusion (the details being explained in the chapter of this book (pavlovici, 2020a). theo, 8 years old, consults with his parents because they looked up google and identified “adhd” in their son; the teacher confirmed the diagnosis ... in class he is agitated, cannot concentrate, disturbs his classmates and he is very distractible ... at home, he is “agitated” and “provokes” his “poor” parents. asked by me "what do you think he is trying to provoke in you, as a possible reaction? ... ", a thick silence sets in, after which the mother says," more attention from us? ... "to which i reply," you mean he's suffering from attention deficit disorder on your part? ... " little by little, always via "naive" questions, i learn that the little one "tortures" his "poor parents" by strong fits of "fury" when they turn off the computer (that theo uses mainly to play an endless array of various games) ... the parents are too busy ... little by little, i manage to get the parents to admit that this addiction to virtual games, before becoming a problem, was first and foremost an attempt to solve a problem; that problem being an emotional void and forced isolation. i probed them with delicate questions, with no avert intention of offending the parents nor making them feel guilty; " naive" questions, like those of a child trying to understand ... and when the parents admitted my hypothesis and bowed their heads spontaneously, a firefighter saving virtual addictions bogdan pavlovici 360 staring at the ground, the child changed his posture (initially curled up, eyes downcast) as he stood up and looked at me intently. it was only then, that i asked him directly (until this moment i was only observing his posture and his facial expressions, whilst i questioned his parents, because for me non-verbal reactions are the most precious, since we cannot "cheat"): "i see that your attempt to find a solution to not feel lonely, bored or sad, is to play excessively on the screens. however this has become a problem in its own right, because everything comes back to you like a boomerang: you are accused by your parents of being their main source of stress and exasperation, by your teacher too ... is this working for you? ...”. theo looked at me intently and nodded. so i asked him, "would you be okay with finding a better solution with my help?" something that would work better for you, your parents and your teacher? »theo said« yes ». i replied, "first of all, i would like to know more about your qualities, your resources, your skills and interests. for example: what profession would you be interested in doing later? »théo:« firefighter !!! "his mother added:" in addition, his teacher had the good idea to give each pupil a responsibility: theo chose that of "firefighter", that is to say to be vigilant, in the event of a problem in class. or during break. be vigilant like a firefighter and warn an adult! » me: « and how did you accomplish this mission, theo? "théo: "once a classmate played with a lighter, i felt it right away and i warned my teacher! " i then turned to the parents and asked them, applying in my own way the questioning technique specific to "narrative" therapy (white & epston, 2003):" mr and mrs, in your opinion, which values are important for théo to integrate through his actions? proved by what he did that famous day? "parents:" the desire to help, to be useful, to protect, to be present ... ". i then turned to theo: "theo, were you aware that you have these values in you and that your parents saw them in you?" ”theo then shook his head to indicate “no ”. the parents were moved and the mother let tears flow ... theo noticed it and approached her ... his mother welcomed him in her arms and hugged him tightly. ... théo also cried ... i then added, at this key moment of shared maximum positive emotion: “personally, i still see two values, although i would call one rather quality and the other competence. the first is the heart and the second is vigilance ”... the parents confirmed that yes, indeed, theo is very sensitive, helpful and generous, and attentive when he wants and when something interests him. i then asked brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 361 théo if already at school there are subjects that interest him (note that i never lose sight of the school objective, considering that children's lives are spent at school and at home, and not in the offices of child psychiatrists, long-term ...). he said "yes": science, maths, sometimes history, but that it is hard for him to concentrate for long. i then asked him what prevents him from maintaining his attention and his vigilance? (i added this point to make the link with the competences which had already been recognized earlier by his parents and to prepare him for what i already had in my head). he told me that his classmates distract him too much and that in addition, he often has the reflex to turn on his mobile phone in class and play games on it ... so i said to him, "would you like to find a power in yourself to resist it, which prevents you from using your firefighter skill?" "theo said, amused, “yes! ". i then asked him to draw the allies that we were going to use to be helpful in this scenario: the firefighter and his fire thrower. i then recommended him to accompany himself in an imaginary mental "exercise", in which we would call upon these allied powers: i thus induced a state of therapeutic hypnotic trance, via the use of tapping on his shoulders ( technique used in emdr and htsma), offering him to close his eyes and feel that part of him remains seated in his chair as an observer, while another part of him is the character of the virtual film that now takes place in front of the observer: "character theo is now in his class, in front of his desk ... is he there?" ... " theo said in a low voice. "perfect, so he's surrounded by his classmates and the teacher?" ... "theo:" yes ... ". me: "perfect, so ask the observer part to observe what happens when the teacher is going to show, right now, a maths exercise on the board ... how theo focuses and zooms easily on it and on the voice of the teacher... right now ... is it ok? ... ”. theo:" yes... ". me: “perfect! we are now going to ask a question to the firefighter who is in theo: what are you going to do, firefighter, to help theo to face the very first distractor that comes to annoy him? ... the observer has nothing to do other than observe, hear and smell what will happen before his eyes ... right now ... ». during this creative visualization trance, in which i accompanied him, theo saw, heard and felt classmates coming to disturb him, in various ways, and he visualized a firefighter dressed in a fireman's costume, who doubled his body, like an extension of it, which then sprayed his classmates with a strong jet of water by means of his fire throat, throwing them far away thus leaving the area free for character theo to focus and zoom in on the blackboard exercise and the teacher’s voice. a firefighter saving virtual addictions bogdan pavlovici 362 when i suggested that he also take care of another distractor, theo visualized taking his mobile phone out of his pocket and the firefighter spraying the phone with his fire hose and throwing it on the wall. when he came out of trance, theo was smiling and delighted with the power of the firefighter in him ... i then gave him the task of self-hypnosis at home, once a day, possibly in the evening before bedtime, so that he could train himself to accomplish various future academic or personal goals that his "adhd" prevented him from doing so. at the next consultation, a month later, i learned that theo had greatly reduced the playing time on the screens, that he could control this time and that he wanted himself to do this. at school his teacher had praised him and his grades had increased. conclusions virtual addiction is, like all addictions, first and foremost an attempt to find a solution by a patient, faced with a problem in their relationship to the world, to others or to themselves. this attempt at a solution, not being the best, becomes a problem in a second step. very often, the solution can emerge from the problem if it is well identified, via systemic modelling (modelling of the relationship between the individual and the relational system that surrounds him). so, the questioning techniques specific to systemists and so-called “brief” therapists and hypnotic techniques (including htsma, emdr) are an excellent means by which a therapist can help treat his patient. we see in the clinical illustration above that starting from the external screen to which the child is addicted and repatriating it inside oneself, and making it a "psychic working screen", will be able to quickly improve the symptoms. however, the illustration lacks all the family work that has to be done in parallel with the work with the child, namely the work on the bottom of the systemic dysfunction: a relational loss between the child and his parents. the relational and emotional potential was present enough in this family that the moment of shared positive emotion seemed to be sufficient to re-ignite the bonds. in other families, this work with parents is necessary with a longer-term perspective and is often difficult to do without proper training. final point: arriving via a virtuous loop, the therapist only has to validate the capacity of the patient to have interrupted his own vicious circle. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 363 he has to encourage the patient to stay there, continue to do what he has learned, according to that which is working well. the objective is therefore to make the patient autonomous, as quickly as possible. more precise references on the working methods that i personally developed can be found in the books of pavlovici (2019; 2020b). references pavlovici, b. (2019). les leviers du changement: un thérapeute bref en scene. éditions enrick barbillon pavlovici, b. (2020a). hypnose et tdah. in a. bioy, c. wood, b. audrainservillat (eds.), 15 cas clinique en hypnose pédiatrique (pp. 168-183). les ateliers du praticien, dunod. https://doi.org/10.3917/dunod.bioy.2020.05 pavlovici, b. (2020b). le frisbee écrit: l’art de prendre soin à distance. éditions enrick barbillon. white, m., & epson, d. (2003). les moyens narratifs au service de la thérapie. le germe satas, bruxelles. https://doi.org/10.3917/dunod.bioy.2020.05 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 279-302 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/206 the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic mechanisms in schizophrenia puiu olivian stovicek¹, dragoş marinescu2, liana păuna-cristian3, ileana marinescu4 1 lecturer, department of pharmacology, faculty of nursing, târgu jiu subsidiary, “titu maiorescu” university, bucharest, romania, puiuolivian@yahoo.com 2 professor, academy of medical sciences of romania, university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova brunch, craiova, romania, marinescu_psy@yahoo.com 3 department of radiology, gral medical center, bucharest, romania, lee_bio@yahoo.com 4 associate professor, discipline of psychiatry, 5th department, faculty of medicine, university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova, romania, marinescu_psy@yahoo.com abstract: schizophrenia is a major health problem in which diversification and increase in the quality of antipsychotic molecules did not yield the anticipated results. that the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia accounts for a combination of genetic factors forming the genetic spectrum of vulnerability for schizophrenia. the neurodevelopmental anomalies correlated with the gestational period and obstetric traumatisms raises major pharmacological management issues. the two levels of vulnerability (genetic and neurodevelopmental) are the basis of the pathogeny of side effects induced by antipsychotic medication. the most severe side effects are related to extrapyramidal symptoms, hyperhomocysteinemia, hypofrontality, impairment of the neurovascular unit and neuronal metabolic processes. understanding these particular mechanisms will allow the clinician to identify the pathogenic model of schizophrenia, customized for each specific case. the adverse drug reaction decreases the compliance and adherence to the treatment, determining repeated discontinuations with psychotic relapses, and may trigger psychopathogenic bursts deteriorating the structural and cerebral functional balance. the type of psychotropic medication must be taken into account, as well as the concomitant medication administered for comorbidities associated with schizophrenia. the cerebral vascular modifications are correlated with the metabolic syndrome induced by antipsychotic medication. this complex syndrome, associated also with modifications in the homocysteine metabolism, determines weight gain, obesity, high blood pressure, ischemic cardiopathy, hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia. identification of possible biological or neuroimaging markers helps and their early correction may prevent the onset of neurodegenerative evolution and irreversible cerebral atrophies, as well as decrease the risk of side effect that may endanger the life of the schizophrenic patient. the complexity of the pathogenic mechanisms requires a prophylactic behavior, not based on therapeutic switch, but on the proactive, customized pharmacologic intervention, addressing the pathogenic chains. keywords: dopamine, extrapyramidal symptoms, homocysteine, prolactin, hypofrontality. how to cite: olivian stovicek, p.o., marinescu, d., păuna-cristian, l., & marinescu, i. (2021). the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic mechanisms in schizophrenia. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 279-302. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/206 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/206 mailto:puiuolivian@yahoo.com mailto:marinescu_psy@yahoo.com mailto:lee_bio@yahoo.com mailto:marinescu_psy@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/206 the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 280 1. introduction schizophrenia represents the most frightful psychotic disorder with an incidence rated at 0.34-0.85% in the general population (simeone et al., 2015). the rates of incomplete remission on long term continue to be represented by approximately 40-60% of cases (lambert et al., 2010), in contrast with the development and translational integration of etiopathogenic model based on fundamental research. at the same time, the diversification and increase in the quality of antipsychotic molecules did not yield the anticipated results. this context can be explained by the fact that the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia accounts for a combination of genetic factors forming the genetic spectrum of vulnerability for schizophrenia. the neurodevelopmental anomalies correlated with the gestational period and obstetric traumatisms are engrafted on this fundament of vulnerabilities. these two levels of vulnerability (genetic and neurodevelopmental) are the basis of the pathogeny of side effects induced by antipsychotic medication. deciphering these particular mechanisms will allow the clinician to identify the pathogenic model of schizophrenia, customized for each specific case. acknowledging these mechanisms allows for a pharmacologic therapeutic approach based on informed anticipative expectation allowing the clinician to anticipate the risks of administering an antipsychotic depending on potential adverse reactions. the adverse reactions decrease the compliance and adherence to the treatment, determining repeated discontinuations with psychotic relapses, and may trigger psychopathogenic bursts deteriorating the structural and cerebral functional balance (higashi et al., 2013). these cerebral neurobiological modifications may turn a functional disorder with important reversibility potential into an irreversible progressive lesional disorder. this explains the deteriorative chronic evolution in the patients with numerous episodes and treatment discontinuations. the multiple relapses with acute psychotic episodes worsen over time the negative symptomatology, cognitive deterioration and social dysfunctionality and lead to self-aggressive and hetero-aggressive behaviors. this evolutive clinical presentations (negative and dyscognitivebehavioral symptomatology) represents the basis of stigma for patients with schizophrenia. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 281 2. white matter pathology the increase in stigma and social isolation amplifies the social stress, initiating secondary biological mechanisms dominated by episodic hyperactivation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (hpa) axis, with increased cortisol release that disrupts the immune process (chan et al., 2010). thus, the ratio between the immune reaction, inflammatory process and endothelial dysfunction is imbalanced, with the triggering of apoptotic mechanisms by glutamate activation at the expense of the gammaaminobutyric acid (gaba) neuroprotection. the glutamate excitotoxicity causes apoptosis focal points as well as axonal dysfunctions materialized by demyelinating axonopathies disturbing the cortical-subcortical circuits. this pathogenic path can be distinguished by neuroimaging examination, performed with magnetic resonance imaging (mri), through identifying white matter hyperintensities (wmhs), which can be interpreted as belonging to neurodegenerative pathology from multiple sclerosis or autoimmune infectious pathology from multiple sclerosis (figure 1). figure 1. mri-scan, sagittal fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (flair) show: multiple white matter hyperintensities (demyelinating lesions), some of them are perpendicular to the corpus callosum. typical appearance for multiple sclerosis source: authors’ personal archives the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 282 wmhs can be correlated also with neurodevelopmental anomalies, especially hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (hie). in such cases, the white matter deterioration is located periventricular, (periventricular leukomalacia), and anticipates the risk of developing ventriculomegaly (vm), which is a neuroimaging indicator suggestive for schizophrenia with unfavorable evolution and therapeutic resistance. secondary to hie, punctual hyperintensities may appear in different white matter areas, whose presence is associated with the risk of stroke and leukoaraiosis development similar to cerebral small vessel disease like disorders (csvd-ld) (marinescu et al, 2021). in schizophrenic patients, the predominant wmhs in the left cerebral hemisphere indicate the risk of developing a post-neuroleptic depressive episode or suicide risk under reactive psychic stress (iosifescu, et al., 2006). in the patients with chronic evolution and advanced age, the dynamic monitoring of the number and ratio between white and grey matter allows the anticipation of deteriorativecognitive evolution, in direct ratio with the increased total number of hyperintensities (höistad et al., 2009). from our point of view, we consider that the increase of wmhs number raises the cerebral vascular risk in schizophrenia, while the higher number of hyperintensities in the grey matter suggests a pseudo-dementia evolution (the old term of „vesanic dementia”) (kapczinski & streb, 2014). the cerebral vascular modifications are correlated with the metabolic syndrome induced by antipsychotic medication. this complex syndrome determines weight gain, obesity, high blood pressure, ischemic cardiopathy, hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia. the metabolic syndrome is the consequence of genetic vulnerability, which is why the atypical antipsychotic inducing such syndrome must be avoided, depending on the number of genetic risk factors identified at family level (positive family history). a specific condition fostering the metabolic syndrome is indicated by the presence in the patient’s medical history, even in childhood, of a somatic pathogenic underlayer that requires long term glucocorticoid therapy or cushing disease spectrum. this syndrome is associated also with modifications in the homocysteine metabolism. hyperhomocysteinemia determines toxic cardiomyopathy, provokes cortical atrophies through neurotoxic effect and can be an adverse reaction to clozapine administration (alberich et al, 2019). the interhemispheric dysconnectivity is favored by the dysfunctions or partial or total agenesis of corpus callosum, frequently determined by fetal alcoholism. wmhs associated with partial or total agenesis of the corpus callosum represent an important marker of the unfavorable evolution of brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 283 schizophrenia, with important behavioral and cognitive deficit, and therapeutic resistance (figure 2). figure 2. mri scan, sagittal t1 sequence show the corpus callosum with completely absent-agenesis of the corpus callosum source: authors’ personal archives the debut of schizophrenia can be precipitated by the use of psychotropic medication disturbing the neurobiochemical homeostasis or triggering some autoimmune mechanisms leading to cerebral vasculitis processes. although rare and sometimes ignored, these modifications can be highlighted in neuroimaging examinations. the sensory deficits, especially in the onset period, can by compensated by the glutamate activation inducing auditive or visual hallucination episodes (jardri et al., 2016). a mistaken diagnostic evaluation, such as acute psychotic syndrome and pharmacologic approach with dopamine blocking antipsychotics leads to depletion of the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 284 glutamate levels, with the emergence of auditive and visual deficits, suggesting susac syndrome (figure 3). figure 3. mri-scan, axial flair show: multiple flair hyperintense lesions in the corpus callosum, the largest in the splenium on the left. numerous bilateral white matter lesions with central distribution, suggestive for susac syndrome (different sections) source: authors’ personal archives 3. neurodevelopmental anomalies vm is associated with neurodevelopmental anomalies and has double significance from the biologic psychiatric perspective. in the first case, vm is consequent to the destruction of the periventricular areas (leukomalacia) consecutive to hie, and suggests an alteration of the axonal tracts with primary horizontal dysconnectivity between the frontal pole and occipital pole of the brain. the glutamate hyperactivity generates also focal lesions in the cortical zones predominantly in the frontal, limbic and parietotemporal areas, leading to focus triggering convulsive manifestations (focal epilepsy) (lewerenz & maher, 2015). in the frontal lobe, enuresis manifestations may appear, together with electroencephalogram (eeg) modifications, fitting within epileptic crises of the frontal pole. these crises represent risk factors for subsequent development of schizophrenia (hyde et al., 2008). brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 285 in the second case, vm is the consequence of the destruction of subventricular granular area, the main region quartering stem cells which, in the neurogenesis processes, may have a restoring role in the hippocampal level by developing the pyramidal neurons dentate gyrus and in ammon's horn (ca1 and ca2) (coletti et al., 2018). primary vm, with onset as consequence from the disturbance of the cerebrospinal fluid (csf) pressure is frequently associated with fetal growth restriction (fgr) anomalies, premature birth and low or very low birth weight. consequences of vm through fgr seem to be less severe due to relative conservation of the subventricular granular area, a premature birth favors functional potentiation of stem cells (miller, huppi & mallard, 2016). the restorative resilience capacity of the hippocampus is depending on the correct care of the premature baby. this is an important aspect because fgr associates also the hippocampal atrophy with irreversible alteration of cognitive functions (figure 4). figure 4. mri scan, axial t2 sequence show left temporal lobe atrophy, with marked volume loss of the left hippocampus (structural cause for epilepsy) source: authors’ personal archives the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 286 in the current medical practice, this type of neurodevelopmental disorder associated congenital cardiac anomalies. the seriousness of these anomalies will determine the severity of cerebral hypoperfusion, which triggers apoptotic mechanisms. neuronal death determines the destruction of subventricular granular area and vm accentuation. cardiac vulnerability of premature baby, but also of infant with hie, will be an important somatic stigma, even in the conditions of missing severe congenital cardiac anomaly. in both pathogenic circumstances, a dysautonomia of the newborn is triggered. the intensification of the sympathomimetic activities will lead to severe hypotension, and the hyperactivity of the parasympathetic system will generate anomalies in the cardiac rhythm, the most frequent being the prolonging or shortening of the qt interval, as in brugada syndrome (brugada, p. & brugada, j., 1992). identifying these cardiac disorders, previous to the first psychotic episode, will reduce the risks of arrhythmic cardiac adverse reactions induced by psychotropic (wenzel-seifert, wittmann & haen, 2011) and non-psychotropic medications, by modification of qt interval. the most used classes of non-psychotropic drugs that can alter the qt interval are antiarrhythmics, antibiotics, antihistamines (nachimuthu, assar & schussler, 2012). ventricular fibrillation and torsade syndrome, genetically or drug induced may sudden cardiac death. recognition of causal factors for fgr, especially use or abuse of drugs in pregnancy, torch infection with toxoplasmosis, other, rubella, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex, maternal hypertension, fetal diseases, may be the basis for a primary prevention project of the risks of cerebral neurodevelopmental abnormalities and congenital heart disease (fleiss et al., 2019). in the case of infectious pathogenic conditions in the current coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic, severe issues are raised due to maternal stress determining glucocorticoid release. this context may lead to onset of gestational diabetes and hippocampal atrophy of the newborn due to the neurotoxic action of cortisol in the fetal brain. recent studies showed the neurotoxic effect of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2), as well as the multisystemic inflammatory processes, secondary to the cytokine storm. these mechanisms can endanger the life of the mother and the fetus. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 287 4. extrapyramidal symptoms the most frequent neurobiological correlation in the models of side effects induced by psychotropic medication administered in schizophrenia is represented by extrapyramidal symptoms (eps). eps can be primary, within neurodevelopment anomalies, and are based on various pathogenic mechanisms: neurotoxic, neuroinflammatory, decrease of cerebral blood flow (cbf), hypoxia, severe anemia, exposure to radiation or electromagnetic waves, bacterial or viral infections. a particular aspect is represented by the infection with group a β-hemolytic streptococcus (streptococcus pyogenes) provoking sydenham chorea by alteration of the basal ganglia area or pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (pandas) syndrome by alteration of the frontal area (orefici et al., 2016, untu et al, 2015). in rare cases, as in fahr`s disease, this type of pathology is favored by the calcification of basal ganglia, highlighted on computed tomography (ct) scan, and is associated with clinical symptomatology of schizophrenia like psychosis (mufaddel & al-hassani, 2014) (figure 5). figure 5. ct scan show incidental dystrophic basal ganglia calcification source: authors’ personal archives the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 288 eps onset prior to a treatment with psychotropic medication can be correlated with some genetic anomalies, thus explaining the clinical variability of motor manifestations: park1 and park2 genes are associated with parkinsonism, with dyt1, dyt3, dyt12, dyt16 genes with dystonic syndrome (shetty, bhatia & lang, 2019). akathisia is less found in the neurodevelopment anomalies, being correlated with the administration during pregnancy of antipsychotics or ssri antidepressants. eps induced pharmacologically by psychotropic or non-psychotropic medication were correlated mainly with motor disorders. main side effects are: drug-induced parkinsonism, acute dystonia, tardive dyskinetic syndrome, acute or tardive akathisia, restless legs syndrome (blair & dauner, 1992). this motor clinical presentation associates also non-motor symptomatology, represented especially by cognitive dysfunction, depression and dysautonomia, similar with the non-motor manifestation in parkinson's disease (pd). especially in cases of genetic vulnerability, dysautonomia may be exacerbated by mild tbi and cause disruption of dopaminergic transmission (stovicek et al., 2020). the association of hyperhomocysteinemia, mild tbi and fetal alcoholism, determines a high risk for a neurodegenerative evolution as in alzheimer's disease (ad) or pd (campdelacreu, 2014). pharmacologically induced eps, indifferent from the predominant clinical manifestation, is frequently caused by a genetic spectrum. pathogenic underlayer is based on the reduction of dopaminergic transmission with dysconnectivity from the emerging basal area of the dopamine neurotransmission (ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra) and basal ganglia (globus pallidus, striatum, putamen). excessive blocking through antipsychotics of d2 receptors from the basal ganglia determine mesencephalic hypodopaminergia in the level of nucleus accumbens. the uncoupling of the nucleus accumbens from the dopamine transmission determines its dysconnectivity with the frontal cortex, limbic system, amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus. if, in the short term, d2 receptor blockade triggers esp, in the long-term dopamine supersensitivity psychosis may occur (marinescu et al., 2019, chirita et al, 2012). for the clinician psychiatrist, the onset of any eps motor clinical symptom will raise the issue of neurodegenerative evolution of schizophrenia, drugs side effects mechanisms enhancing the genetic neurodegenerative factors. the uncoupling of the nucleus accumbens and the complexity of the non-motor manifestations of this mechanism explains the association of motor effects adverse to eps with cognitive dysfunction predominantly in the frontal cortex and with alteration of integrating brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 289 emotional cognition in an ethical decision system based on the possibility to control the impulsive-aggressive behavior. conservation of the dopaminergic structure in the amygdala is responsible for the conservation of the impulsive-aggressive behavior. 5. hypofrontality syndrome dopamine decreases in the frontal cortex, consecutive to eps motor symptoms, determines hypofrontality syndrome (hs), characterized by the predominance of negative symptomatology, of psychomotor inhibition with apathy and adynamia, pronounced cognitive deficit. at cognitive level the working memory, attention, cognitive flexibility is mainly affected. hs is associated with the increase of gabaergic interneurons activity and glutamate decrease (marek et al., 2010). from the clinical point of view, hs may debut in the prodromal period of schizophrenia and has a long evolution, reason why the real onset of schizophrenia is actually taking place years before the apparent debut with the first psychotic episode with positive symptomatology. thus, the long period without treatment triggers compensatory mechanisms that reverse the gaba/glutamate ratio in the frontal lobe. the glutamate increase plays a major role in activating dopaminergic transmission (positive symptoms), noradrenergic (psychomotor restlessness), acetylcholinergic (confusional episodes) and serotoninergic (hallucinations with therapeutic resistance to dopaminergic blocking action antipsychotics). from the biological point of view, hs can be primary, with a potentially reversible functional character, generated by alteration in the glutamate secretion controlling genes. potential markers could be the decrease in glutamine synthetase, increase in vesicular glutamate transporters, reduction of n1 and n2 subunits of nmda receptors (krzystanek & pałasz, 2019, ciubara et al, 2015). increase of gaba activity is dependent on the increase in glutamic acid decarboxylase (gad). in this type of hypofrontality, the dysfunction of mirror neuron system (mns) is involved, by the disturbance in the communication between the right frontal cortex and the left temporal limbic one, consecutive to the corpus callosum dysfunction. 6. cerebellar dysfunction the immediate consequence of the frontal temporal limbic interhemispheric dysconnectivity is the cerebellar dysconnectivity with the onset of motor symptoms like ataxia and dysmetria. cerebellar cognitive the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 290 affective syndrome may further appear (schmahmann & sherman, 1998). the cerebellar motor symptoms are associated with cognitive anomalies and are caused by the dysfunctionality of the circuit between the anterior vermis and fastigial nucleus, but also the cortico-cerebellar-thalamic-cortical circuit (cctcc) (sears, andreasen & o'leary, 2000). the presence of cerebellar anomalies is suggested by the presence of saccadic eye movement, which associated with ataxia, dysmetria and dysdiadochokinesia or other neurological soft signs, indicates a disturbance of the integrative neuromotor functions (bodranghien et al., 2016). as early as the end of the xxth century, the saccadic eye movement identified through the pendulum test (robinson, 1964) was considered the main risk factor for developing schizophrenia (caldani et al., 2017). biologically, it signals a dysconnectivity between the cerebellar structures responsible for movement coordination and prefrontal cortex. the other symptoms (ataxia, dysmetria and dysdiadocochinezia) are caused by intrauterine traumatic lesions or vascular dysfunctions in the posterior circulation of the fetus cerebral arteries, which can be favored in our opinion by pelvic presentation. such a context requires special monitoring, especially if associated with umbilical cord loops (nuchal cords) and imminence of hie onset. a primary prophylactic attitude is recommended, by cesarean delivery, ensuring specific neuroprotection and pharmacologic therapies to improve blood oxygenation. saccadic eye movement can be a phenotype marker for high risk of psychosis (obyedkov et al., 2019). the variability and intensity of symptoms is dependent on the cerebellar vascular factor and suggest a cbf dysfunction in the posterior vascular territory and a possible alteration of the circulation speed in circle of willis, unable to ensure the compensation by increase in the blood flow. from the diagnosis point of view, the transcranial echography and echography evaluation of fetal cbf may show a global decrease of the blood circulation speed in circle of willis (owega et al., 1998). the decrease in the cerebellar flow in the anterior pole (figure 6a) is associated with hs while a a decrease in the posterior pole (figure 6b, 6c) is correlated with anomalies in the cctcc circuit. the circle of willis anomalies can be fostered by genetic anomalies in type iii and iv collagens controlling the correct bifurcation of small cerebral vessels, but also by elastin anomalies determining vascular rigidity or hyper elasticity with risk of cerebral aneurysms (canham et al. 2006). during evolution of schizophrenia, the cerebellar dysfunction is associated with cognitive deficit and cerebellum atrophy (figure 7) as a sign brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 291 of exhaustion of the resilience mechanisms in the cerebellar mechanisms and their connections with the frontal, temporal and parietal cortex. a. b. c. figure 6. vascular anomalies of circle of willis. a. mri scan, axial magnetic resonance angiography (mra) magnetic resonance angiography 3d time-of-flight (3d-tof) show aplastic a1 segment of right anterior cerebral artery (aca). b. mri scan, axial t2 (part 1) and c. magnetic resonance angiography coronary maximum intensity projection (mra cor mip) reconstruction show basilar artery fenestration source: authors’ personal archives the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 292 figure 7. mri scan, axial t1 sequence show diffuse cerebellar atrophy source: authors’ personal archives the dysconnectivity between cerebellum and thalamus determine a severe form of cognitive deterioration, because the thalamus plays a major role in the conservation of attention and memory. the integration of sensitive and sensory processes in the learning and linguistic awareness is deeply altered, going up to personal identity amnesia, with patient incapacity of reconstructing his past, aspect specific to thalamic dementia (saalmann & kastner 2015) (figure 8). brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 293 figure 8. cerebellar dysfunction in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia source: authors’ own conception the anatomic underlayer of the speech disorder is the dysconnectivity of arcuate fasciculus and may appear as prodromal syndrome in schizophrenia, preceded by dyslexia. in this case, the affected circuits are the visual ones and the neuro-motor sensitive integration, the early recognition and correction of causes, allowing the prevention of progression in dysconnectivity elements (revheim et al., 2014). the neuropsychologic evaluations can identify dysfunctional thalamus-related networks, which can be a marker for schizophrenia (andreasen et al., 1997; pinault, 2011). hs can also be secondary, induced by neurodevelopment anomalies or by dopamine blocking effects from antipsychotics. it is considered a lesional syndrome with reduced reversibility potential. hie is the main neurodevelopment anomaly determining the glutamate activity increase, favored also by the dysfunctionality in the parvalbumin gabaergic interneurons. the destruction of these neurons can have also an autoimmune mechanism by increased antibodies for parvalbumin gabaergic interneurons (kaar et al., 2019, sacuiu et al 2012). the gad decrease is another important market of gaba activity decrease and signaling the risk for frontal cortical atrophy through neuronal apoptosis consecutive to glutamate excitotoxicity (figure 9). the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 294 the symptomatology of movement disorders preceding schizophrenia is in approximately 50% of cases correlated with neurodevelopment anomalies and is generally dominated by eps (varambally, venkatasubramanian & gangadhar 2012). starting from the assumption that any eps motor disorder represents a genetic vulnerability of pd, we appreciate that this symptomatology must be interpreted as a risk factor for neurodegenerative evolution. pd and eps determine a homocysteine increase, through the existence of a genetic vulnerability. the decrease in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase and cystathionine betasynthase activities can be considered genetic markers for risk of developing schizophrenia. (muntjewerff et al., 2006; enokido et al., 2005). figure 9. mri scan, axial t2 sequence show bilateral frontal atrophy source: authors’ personal archives 7. homocysteine the impact on homocysteine metabolism from the prenatal period with the homocysteine increase in fetal brain favors fetal hypoxia by decreased quality of blood perfusion, as well as aberrant dna methylation, considered epigenetic risk factor in schizophrenia (nishioka et al., 2012). the disturbance of homocysteine homeostasis in fetal ontogenesis is brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 295 correlated with the one-carbon metabolism dysfunction, mitochondrial dysfunction and congenital cardiovascular or cerebrovascular pathology. the association between the genetic dysfunction involved in the alteration of homocysteine metabolism and genetic factors from pd spectrum may amplify the congenital and neurodevelopment anomalies, as well as neurodegenerative evolution. in pd, the hyperhomocysteinemia induced by dopaminergic antiparkinsonian medication (levodopa) suggests that the dopamine deficit is not the primary factor for development of neurodegenerative phenomena. at the same time, the hyperhomocysteinemia and its genetic determinism may activate the park1 gene and trigger the pathologic burst of alpha-synuclein (coppedè, 2012). if for the elderly persons, the pd onset can be frequently associated with megaloblastic anemic syndrome with vitamin b12 and folic acid deficit, for the youngsters, the aberrant genetic spectrum for pd and hyperhomocysteinemia syndrome can be indicated by eps (burada et al., 2019). this leads to a real vicious circle, eps being the consequence of neurodevelopment anomalies that can amplify hyperhomocysteinemia and may trigger gene activation mechanism that control pd neurodegenerative evolution. the increase in the homocysteine level in schizophrenia is associated with a major potential of inducing cerebral atrophies through neurotoxic effect and enhancing oxidative stress, excitotoxicity and neuronal apoptosis (sachdev, 2005). the decrease of the high homocysteine level becomes an important therapeutic target for conserving the structural and functional integrity of the brain. in schizophrenia, the hyperhomocysteinemia can be favored by administration of clozapine, levodopa type medication, hypolipidemic agents, mood stabilizing antiepileptics. (siniscalchi et al., 2005; wysokiński & kłoszewska, 2013). homocysteine is involved in several other mechanisms correlated with side effects from antipsychotics administered in schizophrenia. the main side effects are: cbf decrease, predisposition for csvd-ld, wmhs, endothelial dysfunction with predisposition for thromboembolism, demyelination processes and axonopathies, increased insulin resistance, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart attack, stroke (hassan et al., 2004) (figure 10). the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 296 figure 10. the complex role of homocysteine in the evolution and treatment of schizophrenia source: authors’ own conception the cbf imbalance between the anterior and posterior poles, favored by the hypoperfusion of the posterior pole after acute psychotic episodes, where the hyperperfusion is located in the frontal pole, may be associated with anomalies of the circle of willis or of artery of percheron irrigating the thalamus (anghelescu, 2018). in the case of hypoperfusion in arterial supply of choroid plexus, the excessive release of extracellular calcium determines calcification of choroid plexus and pineal gland. these modifications are regarded by us as predictive indicators for unfavorable evolution of schizophrenia. 10. conclusions the evaluation of antipsychotic induced side effects must benefit from a correct identification of the pathogenic conditions. the complexity of the pathogenic mechanisms requires a prophylactic behavior, not based on therapeutic switch, but on the proactive, customized pharmacologic intervention, addressing the pathogenic chains. identification of hyperhomocysteinemia and its early correction may prevent the onset of neurodegenerative evolution and irreversible cerebral atrophies, as well as decrease the risk of side effect that may endanger the life of the brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 297 schizophrenic patient (cardiometabolic syndrome, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, sudden death). references alberich, s., fernández-sevillano, j., gonzález-ortega, i., usall, j., sáenz, m., gonzález-fraile, e., & gonzález-pinto, a. (2019). a systematic review of sex-based differences in effectiveness and adverse effects of clozapine. psychiatry research, 280, 112506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112506 andreasen, n. c., o'leary, d. s., flaum, m., nopoulos, p., watkins, g. l., boles ponto, l. l., & hichwa, r. d. (1997). hypofrontality in schizophrenia: distributed dysfunctional circuits in neuroleptic-naïve patients. lancet, 349(9067), 1730–1734. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(96)08258-x anghelescu a. (2018). uncommon association of two anatomical variants of cerebral circulation: a fetal-type posterior cerebral artery and inferred artery of percheron, complicated with paramedian thalamomesencephalic stroke-case presentation and literature review. case reports in neurological medicine, 2018, 4567206. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/4567206 blair, d. t., & dauner, a. (1992). extrapyramidal symptoms are serious side-effects of antipsychotic and other drugs. the nurse practitioner, 17(11), 56–67. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006205-199211000-00018 bodranghien, f., bastian, a., casali, c., hallett, m., louis, e. d., manto, m., mariën, p., nowak, d. a., schmahmann, j. d., serrao, m., steiner, k. m., strupp, m., tilikete, c., timmann, d., & van dun, k. (2016). consensus paper: revisiting the symptoms and signs of cerebellar syndrome. cerebellum, 15(3), 369–391. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-015-0687-3 brugada, p., & brugada, j. (1992). right bundle branch block, persistent st segment elevation and sudden cardiac death: a distinct clinical and electrocardiographic syndrome. a multicenter report. journal of the american college of cardiology, 20(6), 1391–1396. https://doi.org/10.1016/07351097(92)90253-j burada, e., marinescu, i., rogoveanu, o. c., dobrescu, a., taisescu, c., burada, f., sfredel, v., & balseanu, t. a. (2019). vitamin b12 blood level is correlated with drug-induced extrapyramidal symptoms in schizophrenic patients. revista de chimie, 70(2), 630-632. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.2.6972 caldani, s., bucci, m. p., lamy, j. c., seassau, m., bendjemaa, n., gadel, r., gaillard, r., krebs, m. o., & amado, i. (2017). saccadic eye movements as markers of schizophrenia spectrum: exploration in at-risk mental states. schizophrenia research, 181, 30–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2016.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112506 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(96)08258-x https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/4567206 https://doi.org/10.1097/00006205-199211000-00018 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-015-0687-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0735-1097(92)90253-j https://doi.org/10.1016/0735-1097(92)90253-j https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.2.6972 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2016.09.003 the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 298 campdelacreu j. (2014). parkinson disease and alzheimer disease: environmental risk factors. neurologia, 29(9), 541–549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nrl.2012.04.001 canham, p. b., korol, r. m., finlay, h. m., hammond, r. r., holdsworth, d. w., ferguson, g. g., & lucas, a. r. (2006). collagen organization and biomechanics of the arteries and aneurysms of the human brain. in g. a. holzapfel & r. w. ogden (eds.), mechanics of biological tissue (pp. 307-322). springer. chan, h. y., chang, c. j., chiang, s. c., chen, j. j., chen, c. h., sun, h. j., hwu, h. g., & lai, m. s. (2010). a randomised controlled study of risperidone and olanzapine for schizophrenic patients with neuroleptic-induced acute dystonia or parkinsonism. journal of psychopharmacology, 24(1), 91–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881108096070 chirita, r, sacuiu, i, burlea, a, & chirita, v. (2012). the role of nitric oxide inhibitors in treatment on symptom severity and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15, 113-113. ciubara, a., cartas, n., burlea, l. s., chirita, r., ciubara, b. a., untu, i., & iliescu, d. b. (2015). the relationship between schizophrenia and criminality. european psychiatry, 30(s1), 1-1. https://doi.org/10.1016/s09249338(15)30603-9 coletti, a. m., singh, d., kumar, s., shafin, t. n., briody, p. j., babbitt, b. f., pan, d., norton, e. s., brown, e. c., kahle, k. t., del bigio, m. r., & conover, j. c. (2018). characterization of the ventricular-subventricular stem cell niche during human brain development. development, 145(20), dev170100. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.170100 coppedè, f. (2012). genetics and epigenetics of parkinson's disease. the scientific world journal, 2012, 489830. https://doi.org/10.1100/2012/489830 enokido, y., suzuki, e., iwasawa, k., namekata, k., okazawa, h., & kimura, h. (2005). cystathionine beta-synthase, a key enzyme for homocysteine metabolism, is preferentially expressed in the radial glia/astrocyte lineage of developing mouse cns. faseb journal: official publication of the federation of american societies for experimental biology, 19(13), 1854–1856. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.05-3724fje fleiss, b., wong, f., brownfoot, f., shearer, i. k., baud, o., walker, d. w., gressens, p., & tolcos, m. (2019). knowledge gaps and emerging research areas in intrauterine growth restriction-associated brain injury. frontiers in endocrinology, 10, 188. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2019.00188 hassan, a., hunt, b. j., o'sullivan, m., bell, r., d'souza, r., jeffery, s., bamford, j. m., & markus, h. s. (2004). homocysteine is a risk factor for cerebral small vessel disease, acting via endothelial dysfunction. brain, 127(1), 212– 219. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awh023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nrl.2012.04.001 https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881108096070 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0924-9338(15)30603-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0924-9338(15)30603-9 https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.170100 https://doi.org/10.1100/2012/489830 https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.05-3724fje https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2019.00188 https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awh023 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 299 higashi, k., medic, g., littlewood, k. j., diez, t., granström, o., & de hert, m. (2013). medication adherence in schizophrenia: factors influencing adherence and consequences of nonadherence, a systematic literature review. therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology, 3(4), 200–218. https://doi.org/10.1177/2045125312474019 höistad, m., segal, d., takahashi, n., sakurai, t., buxbaum, j. d., & hof, p. r. (2009). linking white and grey matter in schizophrenia: oligodendrocyte and neuron pathology in the prefrontal cortex. frontiers in neuroanatomy, 3, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.05.009.2009 hyde, t. m., deep-soboslay, a., iglesias, b., callicott, j. h., gold, j. m., meyerlindenberg, a., honea, r. a., bigelow, l. b., egan, m. f., emsellem, e. m., & weinberger, d. r. (2008). enuresis as a premorbid developmental marker of schizophrenia. brain: a journal of neurology, 131(9), 2489–2498. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awn167 iosifescu, d. v., renshaw, p. f., lyoo, i. k., lee, h. k., perlis, r. h., papakostas, g. i., nierenberg, a. a., & fava, m. (2006). brain white-matter hyperintensities and treatment outcome in major depressive disorder. the british journal of psychiatry, 188, 180–185. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.188.2.180 jardri, r., hugdahl, k., hughes, m., brunelin, j., waters, f., alderson-day, b., smailes, d., sterzer, p., corlett, p. r., leptourgos, p., debbané, m., cachia, a., & denève, s. (2016). are hallucinations due to an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory influences on the brain? schizophrenia bulletin, 42(5), 1124–1134. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbw075 kaar, s. j., angelescu, i., marques, t. r., & howes, o. d. (2019). pre-frontal parvalbumin interneurons in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of postmortem studies. journal of neural transmission, 126(12), 1637–1651. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-019-02080-2 kapczinski, f., & streb, l. g. (2014). neuroprogression and staging in psychiatry: historical considerations. revista brasileira de psiquiatria, 36(3), 187–188. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2014-3605 krzystanek, m., & pałasz, a. (2019). nmda receptor model of antipsychotic druginduced hypofrontality. international journal of molecular sciences, 20(6), 1442. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20061442 lambert, m., karow, a., leucht, s., schimmelmann, b. g., & naber, d. (2010). remission in schizophrenia: validity, frequency, predictors, and patients' perspective 5 years later. dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 12(3), 393–407. https://doi.org/10.31887/dcns.2010.12.3/mlambert lewerenz, j., & maher, p. (2015). chronic glutamate toxicity in neurodegenerative diseases-what is the evidence? frontiers in neuroscience, 9, 469. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2015.00469 https://doi.org/10.1177/2045125312474019 https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.05.009.2009 https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awn167 https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.188.2.180 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-019-02080-2 https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2014-3605 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20061442 the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 300 marek, g. j., behl, b., bespalov, a. y., gross, g., lee, y., & schoemaker, h. (2010). glutamatergic (n-methyl-d-aspartate receptor) hypofrontality in schizophrenia: too little juice or a miswired brain? molecular pharmacology, 77(3), 317–326. https://doi.org/10.1124/mol.109.059865 marinescu, i., marinescu, d., pauna-cristian, l., & stovicek, p. o., (2021) particularities of cerebral small vessel disease in schizophrenia. in a. gonzalez-quevedo, s. dambinova & k. bettermann (eds.), understanding and treating cerebral small vessel disease (pp 383-428). nova science publishers inc. marinescu, i., stovicek, p. o., marinescu, d., papacocea, m. t., manea, m. c., ionescu, e., badarau, i. a., manea, m., papacocea, i. r., & ciobanu, a. m. (2019). cinnarizine potential trigger of the dopamine supersensitivity psychosis in patients with paranoid schizophrenia particular neurobiochemical model. revista de chimie, 70(8), 3003-3007. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.8.7474 miller, s. l., huppi, p. s., & mallard, c. (2016). the consequences of fetal growth restriction on brain structure and neurodevelopmental outcome. the journal of physiology, 594(4), 807–823. https://doi.org/10.1113/jp271402 mufaddel, a. a., & al-hassani, g. a. (2014). familial idiopathic basal ganglia calcification (fahr`s disease). neurosciences, 19(3), 171–177. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24983277/ muntjewerff, j. w., kahn, r. s., blom, h. j., & den heijer, m. (2006). homocysteine, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase and risk of schizophrenia: a meta-analysis. molecular psychiatry, 11(2), 143–149. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001746 nachimuthu, s., assar, m. d., & schussler, j. m. (2012). drug-induced qt interval prolongation: mechanisms and clinical management. therapeutic advances in drug safety, 3(5), 241–253. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042098612454283 nishioka, m., bundo, m., kasai, k., & iwamoto, k. (2012). dna methylation in schizophrenia: progress and challenges of epigenetic studies. genome medicine, 4(12), 96. https://doi.org/10.1186/gm397 obyedkov, i., skuhareuskaya, m., skugarevsky, o., obyedkov, v., buslauski, p., skuhareuskaya, t., & waszkiewicz, n. (2019). saccadic eye movements in different dimensions of schizophrenia and in clinical high-risk state for psychosis. bmc psychiatry, 19, 110. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-0192093-8 orefici, g., cardona, f., cox, c. j., & cunningham, m. w. (2016) pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (pandas). in j. j. ferretti, d. l. stevens & v. a. fischetti, (eds.), streptococcus pyogenes: basic biology to clinical manifestations (pp. 827-868). university of oklahoma health sciences center. https://doi.org/10.1124/mol.109.059865 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.8.7474 https://doi.org/10.1113/jp271402 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24983277/ https://doi.org/10.1177/2042098612454283 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2093-8 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2093-8 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 301 owega, a., klingelhöfer, j., sabri, o., kunert, h. j., albers, m., & sass, h. (1998). cerebral blood flow velocity in acute schizophrenic patients. a transcranial doppler ultrasonography study. stroke, 29(6), 1149–1154. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.str.29.6.1149 pinault d. (2011). dysfunctional thalamus-related networks in schizophrenia. schizophrenia bulletin, 37(2), 238–243. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbq165 revheim, n., corcoran, c. m., dias, e., hellmann, e., martinez, a., butler, p. d., lehrfeld, j. m., dicostanzo, j., albert, j., & javitt, d. c. (2014). reading deficits in schizophrenia and individuals at high clinical risk: relationship to sensory function, course of illness, and psychosocial outcome. the american journal of psychiatry, 171(9), 949–959. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.13091196 robinson d. a. (1964). the mechanics of human saccadic eye movement. the journal of physiology, 174(2), 245–264. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1964.sp007485 saalmann, y. b., & kastner, s. (2015). the cognitive thalamus. frontiers in systems neuroscience, 9, 39. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2015.00039 sachdev, p. s. (2005). homocysteine and brain atrophy. progress in neuropsychopharmacology and biological psychiatry, 29(7), 1152–1161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2005.06.026 schmahmann, j. d., & sherman, j. c. (1998). the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome. brain: a journal of neurology, 121(4), 561–579. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/121.4.561 sacuiu, i., chirita, v., burlea, a., & chirita, r. (2012). the effect of the atypical antipsychotics on cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15, 61. sears, l. l., andreasen, n. c., & o'leary, d. s. (2000). cerebellar functional abnormalities in schizophrenia are suggested by classical eyeblink conditioning. biological psychiatry, 48(3), 204–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-3223(00)00247-x shetty, a. s., bhatia, k. p., & lang, a. e. (2019). dystonia and parkinson's disease: what is the relationship? neurobiology of disease, 132, 104462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2019.05.001 simeone, j. c., ward, a. j., rotella, p., collins, j., & windisch, r. (2015). an evaluation of variation in published estimates of schizophrenia prevalence from 1990─2013: a systematic literature review. bmc psychiatry, 15, 193. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0578-7 siniscalchi, a., mancuso, f., gallelli, l., ferreri ibbadu, g., biagio mercuri, n., & de sarro, g. (2005). increase in plasma homocysteine levels induced by https://doi.org/10.1161/01.str.29.6.1149 https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbq165 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.13091196 https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1964.sp007485 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2015.00039 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2005.06.026 https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/121.4.561 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-3223(00)00247-x https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0578-7 the implications of adverse pharmacologic reactions and complex pathogenic … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 302 drug treatments in neurologic patients. pharmacological research, 52(5), 367– 375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2005.05.013 stovicek, p. o., friedmann, c., marinescu, d., văduva, i. a., bondari, s., trifu, s. c., & marinescu, i. (2020). mild tbi in the elderly risk factor for rapid cognitive impairment in alzheimer's disease. romanian journal of morphology and embryology, 61(1), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.47162/rjme.61.1.07 untu, i., chirita, r., bulgaru-iliescu, d., chirila, b. d., ciubara, a., & burlea, s. l. (2015). ethical implications of bio-psycho-social transformations entailed by the aging process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 48, 216-225. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul-482015martie/2161ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-social-transformations-entailed-by-theaging-process.html varambally, s., venkatasubramanian, g., & gangadhar, b. n. (2012). neurological soft signs in schizophrenia the past, the present and the future. indian journal of psychiatry, 54(1), 73–80. https://doi.org/10.4103/00195545.94653 wenzel-seifert, k., wittmann, m., & haen, e. (2011). qtc prolongation by psychotropic drugs and the risk of torsade de pointes. deutsches arzteblatt international, 108(41), 687–693. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2011.0687 wysokiński, a., & kłoszewska, i. (2013). homocysteine levels in patients with schizophrenia on clozapine monotherapy. neurochemical research, 38(10), 2056–2062. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-013-1113-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2005.05.013 https://doi.org/10.47162/rjme.61.1.07 https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul-482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-social-transformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul-482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-social-transformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul-482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-social-transformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.94653 https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.94653 https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2011.0687 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-013-1113-1 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 41-47 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/120 pan-demon, emergency reconfiguration. peda-gogy, art, humanity vasilica bălăiţă¹, andreea darie 2 1 national university of arts ”george enescu” iasi, romania, ovasea2001@yahoo.it 2 national university of arts ”george enescu” iasi, romania, darieandreea11@gmail.com abstract: the new pandemic times reveal, besides the dysfunctions of the health system, a profound and prolonged shortage of material and human resources, as well as psychical blockages, fears and all kinds of weaknesses that we are now forced to confront, being alone with ourselves and inside ourselves. and what is it that causes these meetings, these long adjourned encounters? if it is true that being political means integrating into the superstructure of political consciousness of a state, then solidarity can be considered the first political gesture of the academic artistic community in iasi. at the end of the pandemic, the main function of this facility will be to recover the memory of an event that took place on a global scale. equally, it could be the beginning of the study in a new type of theatrical performance, addressing post-pandemically people massively affected mentally, emotionally, physically, and cognitively. keywords: pan-demon; performative; module; art; therapy. how to cite: bălăiţă, v., & darie, a. (2020). pan-demon, emergency reconfiguration. peda-gogy, art, humanity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 41-47. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/120 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/120 mailto:ovasea2001@yahoo.it mailto:darieandreea11@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/120 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 42 pan-demon, a political gesture if it is true that being political means integrating into the superstructure of political consciousness of a state, then solidarity can be considered the first political gesture of the academic artistic community in iasi. in the performative installation created by unage iasi and carried out between october 28 th -31 st , we opted for the title pan-demon to highlight the starting point, the fact that it is rooted in the sedcom libris editorial project, as a gesture of multiplication, of solidarity of the iasi academic community given the context. the meaning of the title in the volume is to bring in the present the leibnizian theory regarding the distribution of evil in the world, according to which there are three forms of the evil: a) the metaphysical evil, implicit (contained) in creation, b) the physical evil, a consequence of the original sin, representing the suffering of creatures, c) the moral evil, represented by the permanent temptation of humans to break the divine commandments. the idea that leibniz came up with was that, in the best of all possible worlds, evil is necessary. it tends to be poorly distributed in the sense of accumulations, and god, as a perfect being, watches over this best possible world by regulating it through what the philosopher calls “converging nodes” through which the evil will become uniform (even). the idea that emerges from professor marius dumitrescu’s text would be that the manifestation of the pandemic makes us all equal in front of one supreme bad (evil). in the light of the same solidarity, teachers, artists, and students in the field of visual arts, theater and music came together for the first time in the history of collaboration of the three major study directions of the national university of arts in an interdisciplinary study that involved 106 participants. we consider that in the context of the 160 years of artistic higher education in iasi, that we celebrated in 2020, the interdisciplinary study pan-demon performative installation represents the opening of a new type of thinking in the artistic creation of iasi, a unique bastion in europe through the presence of so many artistic fields within a parent university. 1 then, the fact that we launched this study in a context of seclusion 1the music field includes sections: strings and piano, percussion and canto, theoretical music studies. the field of theater includes: acting, marionette puppet, directing, choreography, theater-management. the field of visual arts includes: fine arts, design, fashion-clothing design, mural art, conservation-restoration, history and theory of art. pan-demon, emergency reconfiguration. peda-gogy, art, humanity vasilica bălăiţă, andreea darie 43 (isolation), of blocking any possibility to create and research in that exact period we were a closed city, this guarantees the authenticity of the gesture, turning it into an attitude. at the aesthetic level, this new form of interdisciplinary study becomes manifest. the dramaturgy of the 7th module the 7th module starts from the basic text now, written by vasilica bălăiţă, as a diary (journal) during the extreme (limit) situation created by the pandemic. the text presents the life of a family in which one adult goes to work (father) and the other remains isolated in the house (mother). the dramatic tension comes from the reconfiguration of family life in the space everyone calls “home”. relationships are painful by crushing existing mechanisms and routine, and equally, life becomes an odyssey through the mother’s effort to bring in the home space the activities carried out until then in institutional spaces: because the two children of the family no longer go to kindergarten, the mother will reinvent it from everything that happens daily, on weekly units of time (ciobotea et al., 2016); because the teaching activity has been transferred online, the mother will turn it into an opportunity for live (online) research and creation. because the mother considers sacredness (divinity) an integral part of the human being, she will redefine this aspect by keeping the religious holidays and by transforming the meals in the space of the house into a sacred act. concept: on the walls of the hall, some images filmed during a day in the bălăiţă family home are projected. the film is done with a 360° camera, edited, and played back with several video projectors (favd photo-video section). on the left half of the room the images are realistic, and on the right half, the images are edited in a surreal formula. the sound installation plays in the background the original soundtrack of the movie, and in the foreground, we can hear the brain activity of the performer vasilica bălăiţă (professor at faculty of theater), through the sounds rendered by brainwave monitoring with a muse device. she is positioned in the middle of the room, centered on the demarcation between the video image sections (fields). she is seated on a rocking chair, has a table in front of her with objects specific for the coffee ritual, and shares the diary of her isolation (sound equipment for amplifying the voice). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 44 the performative installation, an opening for the future at the end of the pandemic, the main function of this facility will be to recover the memory of an event that took place on a global scale. equally, it could be the beginning of the study in a new type of theatrical performance, addressing post-pandemic people massively affected mentally, emotionally, physically, and cognitively (luca et al., 2019, luca et al., 2020). last but not least, the performative installation pan-demon represents the beginning of a new type of relationship for the 106 participants in the project and the 305 visitors, by uniting us around hope and daring to remain artists and art lovers even in a context hostile to this form of manifestation of our physical, emotional and spiritual life. pan-demon or about the isolation resistance the new pandemic times reveal, besides the dysfunctions of the health system, a profound and prolonged shortage of material and human resources, as well as psychical blockages, fears and all kinds of weaknesses that we were now forced to confront, being alone with ourselves and inside ourselves (valcea et al., 2016). and what is it that causes these meetings, these long adjourned encounters (cîntec, 2020)? we have read about the different neuroses, anxieties occurring on account of social isolation, a brutal awareness taken up around sickness, death and loss (bolos et al., 2012; burlea et al., 2012). we are not going to proceed on the consequences that these “encounters” put forward, and we are certainly not going to try and prove which one of them is beneficial or not. it is quite possible that, in fact, everything that occurs during the encounter with our being will lead us to a physical, psychological or emotional progress, effects that we can notice, most of the time, only at the end of the crisis. it is true that there are several markers that could be of great help to people during the confrontations with their self, important pillars which could propel the collective conscience towards a more in-depth understanding of the personal shadows, of the traumas that come out in the light and ask to be heard and seen. as this is out of our scope, we shall focus on the effects generated by this period of isolation on professors and students from the artistic academic environment of iasi. the impressive initiative of sedcom libris publishing house represented for “george enescu” national university of arts a good opportunity to recondition the status-quo of the spring confinement in an interdisciplinary performative manner. this artistic specificity was a pan-demon, emergency reconfiguration. peda-gogy, art, humanity vasilica bălăiţă, andreea darie 45 consequence of the existing restrictions: a maximum of 3-4 people in the same room, the impossibility to perform in specific venues, mainting social distance, constantly wearing the facemask, the permanent disinfection of hands and of frequently touched surfaces, and so on. the idea to create a framework in which the artistic staff strictly adhered to all these safety measures represented an act of awareness, as well as meeting an acute need of belonging. the prolonged online activity in the relationship between artists and artists, between academics and students has equally determined a distancing of the individuals from their job. the lack of physical involvement in situations, the almost nonexistent contact between individuals equally caused an isolation of the consciences of each actant involved in this collective process, while ignoring, obviously, the chaos produced by the proximity of death or by the flow of information more and more varied and not likely to detect authenticity. pan-demon was the encounter of a group of artists, associate professor phd octavian jighirgiu, lecturer phd vasilica bălăiţă and phd student andreea darie, joined by phd student alina dincă-puşcaşu, lecturer phd adrian buliga and andrei emilian. the first work phase was represented by the selection of 13 articles from the volume pan-demon and by their conceptual-performative (re)construction. during the second phase, the information was disseminated by the academics of “george enescu” national university of arts from all three fields of activity (visual arts, music and theatre), followed by the completion of the modular work teams with students coordinated by the latter. the next step was to implement all the work directions set out during videocall sessions. our documenting showed that the project’s interdisciplinary direction is unique in the local and national artistic education. thus, the main innovative element was revealed by itself, beyond its therapeutic opportunities. we shall attempt in what follows to offer an overview of the meanings intended or discovered during the working process of one of the 10 performative modules which were created. it is about module 5 of the installation, called aurel after the text with the same name by dumitru crudu, poet and playwright from the republic of moldova. the narrative essay talks about two plans, both authentic and brutally anchored into the reality which emerged during the spring of this year. on the one side, we can observe the perception of a homeless man, a stranger to all the fears caused by the new coronavirus and then the behaviour of those outside him, terrified, in a hurry and confused. we can see how the text proposes us to merge the two perspectives and the conflicts occurring at their intersection. the homeless man deals with the lack of brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 46 understanding the others’ behaviour, with the distancing and the rush around him – a major change of the daily existence, and “the others” with keeping track of the consequences that these fears have on their behaviour, with the new reflexes that they acquire and with the gradual inner dysfunctionality. the performative concept of this module represented for us, phd student andreea darie, a work theme during the doctoral site open to study the clown from several perspectives (anthropological, philosophical, performing technique, etc.). the artistic universe of this room consisted in the presence of a clown, a hybrid shape between the whiteface clown and auguste, closed inside a ball with a circumference of 2 meters. on the black walls of the room there were arrows indicating the way to the various social spaces that people are more or less addicted to (drugstore, market, bar, church, school, grocery, hospital, etc.) all around, hanging from the ceiling, as well as on the floor, there were green and blue balls, similar to the media advertised visual identity of the new virus. the costume, likewise the identity of the written character, was composed of clownish hybrid elements, clothing combinations of the contra-auguste clown, auguste and mime. the bare feet, uncharacteristic to this stereotype, suggest the authenticity, the uncovering of the self while encountering the other, the lack of diversion. the make-up can be included in the same mixed architecture, being built, equally, from elements of the whiteface clown (eyebrows, ears, eyes and lips) and those of contra-auguste (cheeks and nose). these descriptions aim at underlining the modern compositions which, using conceptual suggestion, were applied to the entire environment of reference and existence of a man manifesting himself outside the social norms and limits considered beneficial and unshakable. the actual moment of interaction with the audience is based mainly on the impossibility to communicate, to interact, to share and to belong. that plastic ball prevents direct touch. such a present awareness can bring new perceptions, and along with them, hopefully, new behaviours. the sub-theme of this module leads towards at least two directions of reference. one of them objectifies the relational micro-universe in which, in fact, there are no encounters between beings, but between perceptions of each other. the second direction relates to the new pandemic reality which consists in the construction of a tight, restrictive, protective circle and, implicitly, isolated from the outside world. this immersive module makes the performer-spectator confront realities from which he is forced to detach in order to look at them objectively. pan-demon, emergency reconfiguration. peda-gogy, art, humanity vasilica bălăiţă, andreea darie 47 the interdisciplinary performative installation pan-demon represents an act of therapy, creation, expression and belonging to a global event, in front and inside of which we are all present. we will, probably, observe later on the effects caused by this extreme situation of the humankind and their evolution in perspective. are these opportune lessons taught to us once in a while? was this pandemic crisis necessary in order to objectify the group and individual social neuroses and anxieties? maybe so; otherwise when would self rediscovery have occurred? references bolos, a., ciubara, a-m, & chirita, r. (2012). moral and ethical aspects of the relationship between depression and suicide. revista romana de bioetica, 10(3), 71-79. burlea, a., sacuiu, i., chirita, v., & chirita, r. (2012). teen depression prevention an issue of great social impact. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15(supp. 1), 176-176. meeting abstract: p-12-002. ciobotea, d., vlaicu, b., ciubara, a., duica, c.l., cotocel, c., antohi, v., & pirlog, m.c. (2016). visual impairment in the elderly and its influence on the quality of life. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 54, 66-74. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis54_05.pdf cîntec, o. (2020 nov 9). pandemia într-o instalaţie. datul în spectacol. suplimentul de cultură. http://suplimentuldecultura.ro/33673/datul-in-spectacol131/?fbclid=iwar3f553lovdtxexxsocyrmwm0kx3ky0j8wsazvflzssq7-wyrrfecnm8b0 luca, l. ciubara, a.b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 luca, l, ciubara, a, ciubara, a. b, chirosca, a. c, & sarbu, f. (2019). youth perceptions towards psychiatry. european psychiatry, 56 (supp. s), s464s464. valcea, l., bulgaru-iliescu, d., burlea, s. l., & ciubara, a. (2016). patient’s rights and communication in the hospital accreditation process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 55, 260-270. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis54_05.pdf http://suplimentuldecultura.ro/33673/datul-in-spectacol-131/?fbclid=iwar3f553lovdtxexxsocyr-mwm0kx3ky0j8wsazvflzssq7-wyrrfecnm8b0 http://suplimentuldecultura.ro/33673/datul-in-spectacol-131/?fbclid=iwar3f553lovdtxexxsocyr-mwm0kx3ky0j8wsazvflzssq7-wyrrfecnm8b0 http://suplimentuldecultura.ro/33673/datul-in-spectacol-131/?fbclid=iwar3f553lovdtxexxsocyr-mwm0kx3ky0j8wsazvflzssq7-wyrrfecnm8b0 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 88-106 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/111 psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional competency in future social workers using the global network internet oksana fushtei¹, oksana shkvyr 2 , nataliia chorna 3 , iryna haidamashko 4 , oksana prysliak 5 , iryna sydoruk 6 1 vinnitsa state pedagogical university, named after mikhail kotsyubinskiy, vinnitsa, ukraine, e-mail: fyshtey5@gmail.com 2 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical аcademy, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, e-mail: shkvyr@ukr.net 3 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical аcademy, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, e-mail: nataliia_chorna@ukr.net 4 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical аcademy, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, e-mail: irahaid@ukr.net 5 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ternopil, ukraine, e-mail: pryshlyak_o@yahoo.com 6 lesya ukrainka eastern european national university, lutsk, ukraine, email: sudoryk_ira@ukr.net abstract: the enhancement of social workers’ information activity directly influences the development of their world outlook and information competency, which defines both the level of knowledge, abilities, skills, thought patterns, and the student’s motivational sphere. the paper aims to analyse the importance of using internet resources in developing professional competency, enhancing information activity in future social workers. the experimental work has made it possible to determine specific forms, means and methods of teaching that allow one to enhance information activity of social workers. the experimental training involved students in years 1-4. the process of studying the courses of practical training in social work enabled the assessment of professional competency at the level of determining the quality of students’ acquired knowledge and at the level of their professionally relevant qualities and skills defined in the educational qualification characteristics and qualification characteristics of specialists. a comparative assessment of applying innovative and profession-oriented teaching methods based on the means of information and communication technologies (ict), traditional forms and methods has amounted to 0.08 points (3.6%) in the experimental group (eg) versus 0.16 points (7.2%) in the control group (cg). conclusions. professional training of future social workers can be more effective if students familiarize themselves with solving real practical problems and learn new methods and means of working for this particular purpose. it has improved the learning process and provided students with the opportunity to learn information technologies with the prospect of using them in future professional activities and develop information activity. keywords: activity-related approach; motivational sphere; thinking activity; information activity; computerization; information and communication technologies. how to cite: fushtei, o., shkvyr, o., chorna, n., haidamashko, i., prysliak, o., & sydoruk, i. (2020). psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional competency in future social workers using the global network internet. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 88-106. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/111 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/111 mailto:fyshtey5@gmail.com mailto:shkvyr@ukr.net mailto:nataliia_chorna@ukr.net mailto:irahaid@ukr.net mailto:pryshlyak_o@yahoo.com mailto:sudoryk_ira@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/111 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 89 1. introduction in the modern world, the trends in social development are characterized by the rapid expansion of international relations in different spheres of human activity; the need for operational communication between individuals, groups or communities of people; the growing importance of intellectual work, focused on the use of information resources of a global scale. given this, there is a demand for professional competency of social workers as members of the information society. at the present stage, of society and education development, the main goal of education informatization is to prepare learners for an active and productive life in the information society, improve the quality, accessibility and effectiveness of education, create educational conditions for the wider population so that they can engage in lifelong learning due to the introduction of methods and means of ict and computer-based technologies for supporting people’s activities into the educational practice (bykov, 2010). the activities of social workers as competitive specialists require new approaches to developing professional skills and abilities, creative skills, values-based orientations, gaining experience and, thus, increasing the level of professional competency in those specialists who conduct the educational process. icts act as an important tool in developing professional competency in modern specialists since they enable the exchange of information of any size and type, ensure the interactivity and efficiency of feedback and provide access to various sources of information (harasim, 1993; sheremet et al., 2019). under present conditions, one of the productive ways of disseminating information, the environment for cooperation and communication between people is internet resources which allow one to use them in education (distance learning courses, distance competitions and contests, libraries, text repositories, interactive encyclopedias and dictionaries, translators, virtual museums and exhibitions), which is important in preparing future specialists. the internet provides the opportunity to use simple tools, including electronic dictionaries, manuals, texts, as well as more complex interactive systems, computer models, virtual learning environment. internet technologies enable one to use information placed on educational and scientific websites, present educational institutions, create websites devoted to studying the content of courses and place personal websites of teachers and students. psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional … oksana fushtei et al. 90 the internet network is also used for the efficient collection of information; an independent organization of students’ learning and cognitive activities; the use of modern ict in teaching and learning (multimedia, virtual reality); the diagnostics of students’ educational attainment; the management of learning activities under the level of knowledge, abilities, skills; the creation of conditions for independent study of students. the peculiarities of using internet resources serve as a powerful tool in developing professional competency in future social workers. such modern scholars as v. bykov (2010) and o. spirin (2009; 2013) largely justify theoretical principles of using internet resources in an educational environment and conduct a comprehensive analysis of their conditional groups and highlight the methods of their use. the analysis of publications related to an information-related way of life and the penetration of virtual reality into the everyday life of modern people shows that researchers are becoming more and more interested in these issues. some researchers pay specific attention to personalization variation in the context of modern internet space (bakhmat et al., 2019; tokareva et al., 2017). the study on the problems of developing competency in future specialists proves that competency is considered as an evaluative category characterizing a person as the subject of certain activity and ensures the achievement of progress in it (gerasymova et al., 2019; melnyk et al., 2019; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020). however, the following components are evaluated: the structure of knowledge and skills, valuesbased orientations, an attitude towards activity, its effectiveness and ability to improve it. to begin with, one should consider the concept of icts. they should be understood as a technology for developing information systems and constructing communication networks, which usually involves psychopedagogical support for design, development, implementation and support processes, as well as the technology of using such systems and networks for formalizing and solving tasks in any area (tokareva et al., 2017). the concept of information and communication technology in teaching and learning cannot be regarded as an established one. therefore, it should be understood as a didactic technology, which leads to achieving learning objectives as long as information and communication means are used (spirin, 2013). in the scientific literature, there are many different authorial positions regarding the types of future specialists’ competences (khutorskoi, 2005). in this study, the authors of the paper follow the methodology proposed by the scholars from herzen state pedagogical university of brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 91 russia. according to it, professional competency is considered to be a set of such groups of competences (kozyrev et al., 2004): key competences, which are necessary for any professional activity associated with professional success in a rapidly changing modern society; basic competences, which are general professional ones, reflecting the specifics of future specialists’ professional activity; special competences are primary professional ones, reflecting the specifics of a subject-specific or super-subject area of professional activity. key, basic and special competences are interdependent and develop simultaneously. their unity ensures the development of professional competency as certain integrity, as well as an integrative personal characteristic (kozyrev et al., 2004). this approach seems to be most suitable, given different levels of higher professional education. the drafts of new state standards foresee consolidating the same set of key competences for one area in education, whereas the sets of basic and special competences for bachelor’s and master’s degrees should be different in volume: the number of competences increases with the transition to a higher level of education. social work is a field of human activity, which focuses on the generation and theoretical systematization of objective knowledge about specific activities of companies or specialists. such knowledge is aimed at solving social problems of individuals, groups, families, various segments of society, their security, support and assistance, as well as at optimizing the management of various branches of the social sphere (pavlenok, 2006). one of the main tasks of developing competences in future social workers is to identify a set of the most significant competences: key, basic and special. key competences are soft skills, which ensure future specialists’ success in a competitive society. there is no single approach to defining a coherent list of key competences among scientists. the following list of future social workers’ key competences has been prepared based on the summary of various scholars’ approaches and foreign experience: personal-and-individual competencies, which are a set of competences reflecting individual qualities of future specialists and determine their behaviour in personal and social life; systemic-and-instrumental competences, which reflect systemic cognitive abilities of future specialists determining the success of their activity in personal and social life; information competences reflect future specialists’ ability to receive and analyze information in all its forms to solve different tasks in professional activity and everyday life; psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional … oksana fushtei et al. 92 competencies of interpersonal and social interaction as a set of competences reflect future specialists’ communication and management skills, which determine the success of their existence in society. in modern methodological literature, there is no unambiguous list of social workers’ special and basic competences that should be developed during their professional training in higher education institutions. their identification should be further developed and involve researchers, educators, employers and graduates in social work. in this study, the development of professional competency in future social workers is considered in the framework of studying socio-pedagogical courses which promote the development of professional competency through developing key, basic and special information competences, closely related to other types of key competencies. the authors of the paper understand social workers’ information competence as an integral part of their professional competency, which includes the ability to use the complex of knowledge and skills in the field of ict; the ability to search for information effectively and structurize it; the ability to adapt the information to characteristics of social work to further implement their professional activities. the paper also analyzes the main definitions of information activity to understand its concept. it must be noted that most definitions of this very concept refer to the activity associated with the processes of receiving, processing, accumulating and transmitting the information. any activity includes a system of actions or acts that are the result of particular needs and motives aimed at a specific purpose. thus, information activity is always associated with a certain need of the subject for something and thus causes his or her search activity (кurіn, & popov, 2015). in this paper, “information activity of social workers” is viewed as a set of information processes which involve perceiving, storing, processing, comprehending, evaluating and obtaining the necessary socially-oriented information (kyrylenko, 2013). this information can solve educational and professional tasks of social workers. it can take place during active interaction between the subjects of educational and professional activities. it must be noted that the conditions of education informatization and the use of internet resources in the educational process have made it possible to provide a qualitatively new level of training for specialists in different fields and, consequently, a qualitatively new approach to developing professional competency in future social workers. a distinctive feature of today’s stage of using internet resources in professional training of future specialists is the interest in rather theoretical brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 93 and psycho-pedagogical than a technical justification of information education, didactic development of those or other programmes. however, the technical development of programmes is far ahead of psychopedagogical research. therefore, the current conditions of computer education are characterized by several contradictory trends. on the one hand, there is an increase in the number and quality of internet resources. on the other hand, one can observe the insufficient theoretical, psychopedagogical and didactic elaboration of these problems. besides, the system of professional training for future social workers in the framework of the above-mentioned study imposes certain contradictions between: state requirements for professional training of competitive social workers and a low level of their competence in information and communication; the need of future social workers to acquire competence in information and communication and the lack of teaching and methodological support for its development. an activity-related approach indicates that a person develops his or her creative skills, views, beliefs and world outlook as a result of activity, including information activity (pasichnyk, 2017). the driving force behind personality development is the contradiction arising as a result of insufficient knowledge, skills and experience of cognitive activity which are necessary to solve specific problems. therefore, the enhancement of social workers’ information activity directly affects the development of their information competence which defines both the level of knowledge, abilities, skills, thought patterns and motivational sphere. it is information activity as a form of student activity which plays a leading role in developing thinking in future social workers during their professional training. this is evidenced by the works devoted to the intellectual development of personality in a virtual educational space (spirin et al., 2012; smulson, 2015). given this, the paper aims to analyze the importance of using internet resources in developing professional competency, enhancing information activity in future social workers. 2. materials & methods information activity of future social workers includes both learning activity of students and actions of teachers towards enhancing activities of future social workers. it is an essential fact that the development of personal interests and positions of students, as well as the enhancement of their information psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional … oksana fushtei et al. 94 activity, are only possible provided that their subjective position is updated: 1) stimulating individual achievements of students in the use of information technologies in professional activities; 2) using problematic situations in the process of their training for applying information technologies in professional activity; 3) involving future social workers in activities personally meaningful to them. thus, the creation of conditions for enhancing students’ information activity can stimulate the development of this activity in them. it, in turn, stimulates their personal professional development. information activity can be considered as a goal of the activity, as a means to achieve it and as a result. the following are prerequisites for enhancing information activity in social workers in the process of their learning and practical activities: the student’s awareness and understanding of his or her successes and achievements in the use of information technologies in professional activities; the student’s motivation and interest in individual achievements when working with information and information technologies in learning and practical activities; practical readiness and real opportunities to conduct active information activity during the learning process; the willingness of future social workers to increase the level of their knowledge, skills and abilities. the enhancement of social workers’ information activity in the framework of joint activities of teachers and students in the process of teaching the information block courses is presented in fig. 1 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 95 fig.1. enhancing information activity of social workers in learning systematized by the authors one can use certain means of computer technologies to activate information activity of future social workers: the joint activities of teachers and the students in the context of teaching the information block courses (internet technologies in the social sphere, informatization and computerization of activities of social services; volunteer activities and participation in various programmes to improve computer literacy in the elderly; realization of special tasks regarding the use of computer technologies in learning activities (working with documentation, preparing presentations, using tables with personal data, constructing diagrams, employing visualization tools). the experimental work was conducted at mykhailo kotsiubynskyi vinnytsia state pedagogical university in terms of training students who major in social work. the experimenters sought to motivate future social enhancing information activity of social workers in learning testing programme s internet, educational literature local network electronic textbooks and manuals applications information technologies effectivene ss of activity identifying the quality and level of knowledge and methods of action which ensure their correction autonomy in activity ability to organize effective search, analysis, systematiza tion of necessary informatio n project activities of students enhancing students’ productive activity within the informatio n block courses visibility and illustration ensuring perception, comprehensi on and primary memorizatio n of ways, actions, relations and attitudes in the object of learning creative research activities performing tasks, which involve applying knowledge in familiar and modified situations, individually psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional … oksana fushtei et al. 96 workers to use information technology when addressing socio-psychological problems in their professional activities. while working with students, the authors of the paper employed teaching methods incorporating information technologies. it has made it possible to improve the learning process and provide students with the opportunity to learn information technologies with the prospect of using them in future professional activities. for one, lecture presentations were used during the study. the technical means of presentations allowed expanding the possibilities of the lecturer and transfer part of the information load into the visual sphere. a significant part of preparatory work for such lectures involved analyzing the content of lectures, determining which type of visibility should support lecture comments, creating a kind of “script” of the visual part of lectures. multimedia support enabled students to demonstrate many interesting facts and phenomena in the lives of children with special needs, which cannot be shown during a traditional lecture (faux & black-hughes, 2000). practical classes were conducted either in computer labs at the faculty or in the electronic reading room of the university with internet access. the use of internet resources played a very important in conducting practical classes in the university’s electronic reading room. at the lecture, students got acquainted with the main types of programmes in the social sphere, as well as in different areas of social services. practical classes were held in the university’s electronic reading room, where students studied reference literature, visited web pages related to social work, namely, promoting a healthy lifestyle and preventing various deviations among children with special needs. due to the internet, students familiarized themselves with the activities of several children’s and youth social organizations engaged in social work. particular attention was paid to both consideration and analysis of activities of regional social institutions and services. one of the ways to integrate the internet in professional training of future specialists is to create a list with addresses of websites that should be visited for a more complete consideration of the topic. this type of practical work saves students time by allowing them to search for the necessary information on the internet. in this regard, the authors of the paper have developed “the internet navigator” on social work with different vulnerable categories of the population. it includes web pages that contain information about the institutions and organizations involved in social work. the choice of websites’ data depends on several factors: firstly, the developed navigator reflects the positive experience of using information brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 97 technology in various social services; secondly, it consists of thematic sections on various social problems. the results of classroom classes, as well as independent work of students within the optional course “social work in various spheres of social practice”, included presentations on various topics. the final class was held in the form of a round-table discussion on the results of the work performed. students presented their projects on individual topics using multimedia. in this case, the training process was less focused on the teacher as the only source of information along with the book, whereas students became more responsible for their knowledge and the process of obtaining it: they organized their time, decided what materials could be used to complete the assignment, in what form to present their point of view. thus, the teacher acted as an assistant or mentor, directing the student to effectively master the skills, as well as self-study skills and knowledge in the professional field. the student became the subject of the educational process. while developing “the internet navigator”, the authors of the paper also analyzed websites on various areas of social and pedagogical work: medical and social health problems; social problems of employment; social work with customers; family as an object of social work; social protection of customers. when conducting classes of the course “social pedagogy”, the authors of the paper used another way of integrating the internet into the content and methodology of conducting practical classes, that is scrapbook (spivakovska, 2013). during practical classes, students searched for and collected photos, pictures, texts, sound and video files on an individual topic on various websites. the findings were subsequently used by students to prepare their presentations for the chosen topic. there are many boarding schools, orphanages, social rehabilitation centres, social dormitories. however, the financial capability of these institutions is too low to afford to have their website on the internet. therefore, only some boarding schools present their work and raise their problems on webpages. the next type of assignment was used to develop relevant knowledge in students (harasim, 1993; maksymchuk et al., 2018; wernet, & olliges, 2000). it was necessary to select 10-15 links on the topic and ask questions to each information block. at the end of the work, one needed to ask questions to the whole topic to reach a logical conclusion and ensure a broad understanding of the topic. students were also encouraged to participate in the forums on these topics. psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional … oksana fushtei et al. 98 when covering the topic “childhood with special needs: history, theory and modern problems”, the authors of the paper took into account the fact that the issues of social work with children with special needs were highlighted in a broad and detailed way on the internet. a large number of abstracts, diplomas and term papers on the given problem are offered. students visited the official websites of universities paying attention to this topic and also participated in discussing this problem at various forums. students gathered much information from media sites. materials of these websites were used to conduct classes on the course “the technology of social and pedagogical work”. when conducting practical classes on the topic “the technology of activities of social workers with special needs”, the authors of the paper used the working groups method. students were divided into micro-groups, 3-4 persons each. an individual task was compiled for each group. students were encouraged to select relevant material on this topic not only in paper format but also in the form of web pages. individual themes were chosen: the method of working with persons with muscle-skeleton disorders; the method of working with children with vision disorders; the method of working with community associations of persons with special needs. microgroups of students performed mini projects on the chosen theme. the results of the projects were the student’s presentations on the given topics, which include a brief description of the chosen area, its historical aspects, the main areas of work, a description of the methodology for working with it and a developed methodology (the plan of measures) for working with this technology. this form of work allowed developing an active component of a humane attitude in students since the methods of social work with children with special needs were considered. the next form of student training with the help of information technologies was to compile a set of links allowing students to read certain information independently. the teacher pre-selected several addresses of web pages reflecting a particular problem. after that, students needed to express their point of view, justifying it based on the material they read or personal experience. this study also presents a methodology for conducting a practical class on the topic “children with special needs: history, theory and modern problems”. the class was conducted in a computer lab using internet access. students studied the un convention on the rights of the child, analyzed the papers on this topic and discussed learning material. the authors of the paper organized several studies conducted in the process of studying the courses of practical training in social work, namely, “social work in various spheres of social practice”, “social pedagogy”, brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 99 “the technology of social and pedagogical work. the experimental training involved students in years 1-4 and 10 teachers. the main efforts in the experimental work were aimed at identifying opportunities to improve the quality of professional training for future social workers using ict, as well as at developing a given level of professional competency. the process of studying the courses of practical training in social work enabled the assessment of professional competency at the level of determining the quality of students’ acquired knowledge and at the level of their professionally relevant qualities and skills defined in the educational qualification characteristics and qualification characteristics of specialists. 3. results the results on the assessment of the first criterion (the quality of knowledge acquired during professional theoretical and practical training) indicate that the level of professional knowledge quality in most eg students is equal to 80% (see table 1). the assessment did not record a low level of such quality. consequently, the process of studying practical courses on social work using the advanced ict-based learning within the framework of a specific methodological system and learning technology is more effective in the context of didactic. the method used in the study allows assessing only the “knowledge-related” side of the educational process. the “active” component can only be defined based on the use of expert assessment. therefore, special questionnaires were elaborated to determine the level of professionally significant qualities and professional skills in graduates that characterize them as future specialists in social work. these questionnaires were completed by the members of the bachelor dissertations and state examination board in the form of final reports at the final stage of the study. table 1. development levels of professional competency at the beginning and the end of the comparative pedagogical experiment (the cognitive component) levels of professional competency cg eg the number of students percentage (%) the number of students percentage (%) high (creative) before 5 20 7 28 after 7 28 10 40 average (active search) before 10 40 10 40 after 10 40 12 48 psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional … oksana fushtei et al. 100 sufficient (imitative) before 7 28 7 28 after 7 28 3 12 low (passive) v 3 12 1 4 after 1 4 0 0.00 total 25 100 25 100 systematized by the authors the results from the expert assessment of levels of students’ professionally significant qualities and professional skills were analyzed in three stages: at the first stage  educational competency (knowledge, skills and abilities of future social workers to identify, raise and solve professional on the level of technological or professional standards); at the second stage  subjective-personal competency (the levels of blocks of future social workers’ professionally significant qualities such as special, communicative and adaptive ones); at the third stage  the levels of students’ motivational (professional) orientations and their professional qualities in the following areas: a type of motivation orientation; the assessment of adaptive capabilities (neuro-psychological stability, communicative ability, moral normality, personal adaptive potential); the identification of readiness for risk. the obtained results characterize the levels of professional skills and professionally significant qualities in students who defended the bachelor dissertation and passed the state examination. the introduction of icts in the educational process allows developing a necessary level of professional competency in future social workers. this is evidenced by the subjective assessment of the students themselves. as an argument in favour of this conclusion, one can consider the fact that the level of students’ professionally significant qualities and professional skills was not lower than the indicators laid down in the qualification characteristics of specialists in social work. consequently, an important indicator of the experimental training should be a guaranteed achievement of didactic goals formulated when designing an innovative learning system based on the use of ict tools. the results of a month delayed testing conducted to determine the residual knowledge, skills and abilities acquired by students during the experimental training have confirmed the preservation of knowledge, skills and abilities. a comparative assessment of applying innovative and profession-oriented teaching methods based on the means of information and communication technologies (ict), traditional forms and methods has amounted to 0.08 points (3.6%) in eg versus 0.16 points (7.2%) in cg. the observations on the dynamics of students’ progress in eg and brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 101 cg during the formative experiment show that their cognitive and learning activity, autonomy and logical thinking have considerably increased. their interest in the future profession has grown. acquired knowledge and skills have enhanced. the conducted psychological experiment shows that the factors in the sustainable development of professional competency in future social workers are: the realization of the developed needs for learning activity; a positive attitude towards the activity being performed; the manifestation of autonomy, self-organization and self-education in learning activity; the integral enhancement of students’ professional readiness using learning and cognitive activity; the content of the overwhelming motivation towards activity and its orientation; the systematicity, depth and consolidation of the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities required to understand social processes of functioning of graduates’ special activities, their creative use in the process of performing functional duties; a high level of professional activity caused by the availability of appropriate training. 4. discussion the scientific value of the research is as follows: for the first time, socio-psychological conditions for developing professional competency in social workers using the internet have been determined and justified: creating a positive motivational sphere and the need for self-study, self-education, self-development and self-improvement; introducing a system of lectures and practical classes aimed at developing professional competency in future social workers into the content of their professional training; applying specific forms, means and methods of teaching enhancing information activity of future social workers in higher education institutions; the basic concept of “social worker’s professional competency” has been defined as a complex individual quality, covering perfect theoretical and practical knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as personal professional qualities of future social workers developed during information activity; the features of enhancing future social workers’ information activity which directly develops world outlook and professional competency and determines a level of knowledge, abilities, skills, thought patterns and motivational sphere have been disclosed and justified; diagnostic tools for studying the level of future social workers’ professional competency based on certain components, criteria and indicators at low (passive), sufficient (imitative), medium (active search), high (creative) levels have been analyzed. psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional … oksana fushtei et al. 102 the practical value of the research lies in developing and implementing “the internet navigator” on social work with different vulnerable categories of the population as a resource enhancing the quality of future social workers’ professional training using ict and developing a required level of professional competency. the obtained results can be used when developing professional competency in future social workers. also, they can be useful for university teachers in elaborating curricula, guidelines, manuals, preparing training courses on social work theories, the psychology of social work, technologies social work. the obtained results prove that a traditional system of education increases students’ level of professional competency. however, this process seems to take more time and be less effective. instead, the use of ict in professional training of future social workers involves two-way interaction with students, actively responds to their actions and builds personalized relationships. moreover, it provides students with free access to unlimited information on educational portals, engages them in its analytical processing and cultivates their information culture demonstrating significant dynamics of growth in the level of professional competency. the introduction of information technologies and training tools intended for future social workers in higher education institutions has contributed to autonomy in the acquisition of professional knowledge and ability to make professional decisions and implement them in practice. this study is designed to shape a subjective evaluation of information and can be used in the analysis of various situations. social workers who constantly work with people with different deviations regularly analyze and assist in solving various situations, including conflicts. such type of activity allows one to develop the student’s ability to analyze different situations, solve difficult situations and be tolerant to others. it, in turn, forms active information activity in future social workers. it is impossible to review all the information presented on the internet. therefore, this paper had considered only some of the resources used in practical classes within professional training of social workers. 5. conclusions thus, one can conclude that the enhancement of social workers’ information activity directly influences the development of their world outlook and professional competency, which determines the level of knowledge, skills, thought patterns, as well as the motivational sphere of the student’s personality. it is information activity as a form of students’ activity brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 103 that plays a leading role in developing thinking in future social workers during their professional training. the process of studying courses focused on the use of ict helps to develop students’ knowledge about information processing, understanding of the ict’s role in the development of modern society, the fundamentals of information culture, skills in the conscious and rational use of information technologies and computers to solve practical problems. consequently, this very process makes it possible to develop professional competency in students majoring in social work. therefore, professional competency of social workers is not only a set of knowledge and skills developed during the learning process due to modern ict. it is also the ability to navigate in the modern information flow; readiness to select adequate media and engage in socio-psychological activities under the changed conditions of education and society with the help of ict elements. this particular problem requires that one should conduct further research on theoretical and practical aspects of using ict in the work of social workers with different customers, at the premises of different institutions, through different types of interaction in the information environment. references bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1323-1332. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf bykov, v. (2010). suchasni zavdannia informatyzatsii osvity [modern objectives of education informatization]. information technologies and learning tools, 15 (1). https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/download/25/13 faux, t. l., & black-hughes, c. (2000). a comparison of using the internet versus lectures to teach social work history. research on social work practice, 10, 454466. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228391058_a_comparison_of _using_the_internet_versus_lectures_to_teach_social_work_history gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b. m., bilozerova, m., chernetska, y., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/download/25/13 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228391058_a_comparison_of_using_the_internet_versus_lectures_to_teach_social_work_history https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228391058_a_comparison_of_using_the_internet_versus_lectures_to_teach_social_work_history psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional … oksana fushtei et al. 104 romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4sup1), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 harasim, l. m. (1993). global networks: computers and international communication. mit press. khutorskoi, а. (2005). tekhnologiia proektirovaniia kliuchevykh i predmetnykh kompetentsii [a technology for designing key and subject-specific competences]. eidos.ru. http://eidos.ru/journal/2005/1212.htm kozyrev, v. a., radionova, n. f., triapitsyna, a. p., batrakova, i. s., baranova, e. v., smorgunova, v. yu., … rivkina, s. v. (2004). kompetentnostnyi podkhod v pedagogicheskom obrazovanii [a competency-based approach in teacher education]. herzen state pedagogical university of russia. http://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=21219811 кurіn, а., & popov, а. (2015). aktualnost formirovaniya informatsionnoj kompetentsii sotsialnogo rabotnika: osnovnye ponyatiya i obosnovaniye [the relevance of developing information competency in social workers: the basic concepts and justification]. journal of tambov university. series: humanities, 141(1), 5560. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnost-formirovaniya-informatsionnoykompetentsii-sotsialnogo-rabotnika-osnovnye-ponyatiya-i-obosnovanie kyrylenko, n. (2013). pidhotovka studentiv do informatsiinoi diialnosti v osvitnomu seredovyshchi vyshchoho pedahohichnoho navchalnoho zakladu [training students for іnformatіоn activity in an educational environment of higher education institutions]. scientific notes of kirovohrad state pedagogical university. sеries: the problems of methods of physical, mathematical and technological education, 4(1), 3336. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nz_pmfm_2013_4%282%29__10 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 pasichnyk, о. (2017). diialnisnyi pidkhid – sutnist ta osoblyvosti realizatsii u protsesi navchannia studentiv vnz [an activity-related approach – the essence and peculiarities of implementation in the process of teaching students in heis]. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 http://eidos.ru/journal/2005/1212.htm http://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=21219811 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnost-formirovaniya-informatsionnoy-kompetentsii-sotsialnogo-rabotnika-osnovnye-ponyatiya-i-obosnovanie https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnost-formirovaniya-informatsionnoy-kompetentsii-sotsialnogo-rabotnika-osnovnye-ponyatiya-i-obosnovanie http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nz_pmfm_2013_4%282%29__10 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 105 proceedings of the 4th international scientific-and-practical online-internet conference on the problems and innovations in natural sciences, mathematical, technological and professional education. https://www.cuspu.edu.ua/images/conf-201704/s6/6-пасічник_тези.pdf pavlenok, p. d. (2006). sostoianie i perspektivy razvitiia sotsialnoi raboty kak nauki, uchebnogo protsessa i sostavnoi chasti sotsialnogo servisa v usloviiakh globalizatsii [the conditions and prospects of developing social work as a science, the educational process and an integral part of social service under the conditions of globalization]. service +, 2, 17. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sostoyanie-i-perspektivy-razvitiyasotsialnoy-raboty-kak-nauki-uchebnogo-protsessa-prakticheskoydeyatelnosti-i-sostavnoy-chasti sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 smulson, m. (2015). intelektualnyi rozvytok doroslykh u virtualnomu osvitnomu prostori: metodychni rekomendatsii [intellectual development of adults in the virtual educational space: methodical recommendations]. pedahohichna dumka. http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/10179/1/методичн__ рекомендац__ї смульсон м.л..pdf spіrіn, о. (2009). informatsiino-komunikatsiini ta informatychni kompetentnosti yak komponenty systemy profesiino-spetsializovanykh kompetentnostei vchytelia informatyky [іnformatіon-and-communіcatіon and іnformation competencies as components of the system of professionally specialized competencies of іnformation science teachers]. іnformatіon technologіes and learning tools, 13(5). http://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/183/169 spirin, o., demianenko, v., zaporozhchenko, yu., shyshkina, m., & demianenko, v. (2012). modeli harmonizatsii merezhnykh instrumentiv orhanizatsii ta informatsiino-tekhnolohichnoho pidtrymuvannia navchalno-piznavalnoi diialnosti [some models of harmonization of network-based tools for organization and information-and-technological support of learning and cognitive activities]. іnformatіon technologіes and learning tools, 6 (32), 1521. http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/808/1/774-2539-1-pb.pdf spirin, о. (2013). kryterii i pokaznyky yakosti informatsiino-komunikatsiinykh tekhnolohii navchannia [criteria and indicators of the quality of information and communication learning technologies]. іnformatіon technologіes and learning tools, 33(1). http://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/358/315 spivakovska, y. (2013). vykorystannia novykh informatsiinykh tekhnolohii u vyvchenni studentamy anhliiskoi movy [using the new іnformation technology in studying english by students]. information technologies in education, 15, 221228. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/itvo_2013_15_27 https://www.cuspu.edu.ua/images/conf-2017-04/s6/6-пасічник_тези.pdf https://www.cuspu.edu.ua/images/conf-2017-04/s6/6-пасічник_тези.pdf https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sostoyanie-i-perspektivy-razvitiya-sotsialnoy-raboty-kak-nauki-uchebnogo-protsessa-prakticheskoy-deyatelnosti-i-sostavnoy-chasti https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sostoyanie-i-perspektivy-razvitiya-sotsialnoy-raboty-kak-nauki-uchebnogo-protsessa-prakticheskoy-deyatelnosti-i-sostavnoy-chasti https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sostoyanie-i-perspektivy-razvitiya-sotsialnoy-raboty-kak-nauki-uchebnogo-protsessa-prakticheskoy-deyatelnosti-i-sostavnoy-chasti https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/10179/1/методичн__%20рекомендац__ї%20смульсон%20м.л..pdf http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/10179/1/методичн__%20рекомендац__ї%20смульсон%20м.л..pdf http://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/183/169 http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/808/1/774-2539-1-pb.pdf http://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/358/315 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/itvo_2013_15_27 psychological and pedagogical conditions for developing professional … oksana fushtei et al. 106 tokareva, n., shamne, a., & khalik, o. (2017). variatyvnist sotsializatsii osobystosti v umovakh suchasnoho informatsiinoho suspilstva [the variability of personality socialization under the conditions of a modern information society]. interservis. https://kdpu.edu.ua/zahalnoi-ta-vikovoi-psykholohii/naukovarobota/vydannia-kafedry/2427-variatyvnist-cotsializatsii-osobystosti-vumovakh-suchasnoho-informatsiinoho-suspilstva.html wernet, s. p., & olliges, r. h. (2000). postcourse evaluations of webct (web course tools) classes by social work students. research on social work practice, 10 (4), 487504. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973150001000408 https://kdpu.edu.ua/zahalnoi-ta-vikovoi-psykholohii/naukova-robota/vydannia-kafedry/2427-variatyvnist-cotsializatsii-osobystosti-v-umovakh-suchasnoho-informatsiinoho-suspilstva.html https://kdpu.edu.ua/zahalnoi-ta-vikovoi-psykholohii/naukova-robota/vydannia-kafedry/2427-variatyvnist-cotsializatsii-osobystosti-v-umovakh-suchasnoho-informatsiinoho-suspilstva.html https://kdpu.edu.ua/zahalnoi-ta-vikovoi-psykholohii/naukova-robota/vydannia-kafedry/2427-variatyvnist-cotsializatsii-osobystosti-v-umovakh-suchasnoho-informatsiinoho-suspilstva.html https://doi.org/10.1177/104973150001000408 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 292-307 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/285 sexual satisfaction as a factor of psychological wellbeing tetyana chernyavska¹, alisa yermakova2, yuliia kokorina3, svetlana kolot4, margaryta kremenchutska5 1 odessa i.i. mechnikov national university, ukraine, astr1@ukr.net 2 odessa i.i. mechnikov national university, ukraine, alisasmm@gmail.com 3 odessa i.i. mechnikov national university, ukraine, ukla75@gmail.com 4 odessa national polytechnic university, ukraine, skolot27@gmail.com 5 odessa i.i. mechnikov national university, ukraine, mkk@ukr.net abstract: the concept of “satisfaction with one’s own sexual life” gives a new impetus to the study of psychological well-being of an individual in general and success in professional activity of businessmen in particular as components of personal maturity, positive sanogenic personal potential. the article presents modern works of foreign and domestic scientists on the problems of human sexuality (biological, medical and sexological, general psychological and other aspects); well-being of an individual. the main aspects of the problem of satisfaction with one’s own sexual life as sexual wellbeing of an individual and the problems of psychological well-being of an individual are considered. research assumptions are formulated. the theoretical and methodological basis of the study of the problem of satisfaction with one’s own sexual life in the context of psychological well-being of businessmen is determined. the results of a theoretical and empirical study of the current psychological problem of the interrelationship between satisfaction with one’s own sexual life with psychological well-being of modern domestic businessmen are presented. proof of the interrelationship between sexual satisfaction with the psychological well-being of businessmen was carried out using pearson, tau-b kendall and spearman correlation analyses and the results were presented. positive rather high correlations, which are revealed by three types of correlation analysis, enable to state that psychological well-being of businesspeople depends on their sexual development and their satisfaction with their sexual lives. keywords: sexuality of an individual, sexual attitudes, sexual satisfaction, sexual well-being, sexual permissibility, sexual fulfillment, business success. how to cite: chernyavska, t., yermakova, a., kokorina, y., kolot, s., & kremenchutska, m. (2022). sexual satisfaction as a factor of psychological well-being. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 292-307. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/285 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/285 mailto:astr1@ukr.net mailto:alisasmm@gmail.com mailto:ukla75@gmail.com mailto:skolot27@gmail.com mailto:mkk@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/285 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 293 introduction professional business activities are associated with high rates of change, financial risk, lack of time and information, take place in conditions of uncertainty and fierce competition. all this requires from businessmen special personal and professional qualities: non-standard volitional decisions and actions, business intuition, stress resistance, emotional and volitional regulation, ability to build necessary interpersonal relationships, management of different groups of people (chernyavskaya, 2010; cherniavska, 2021; palamarchuk, 2020; nerubasska, palshkov, & maksymchuk, 2020; nerubasska, maksymchuk, 2020; gerasymova, 2019). new approaches to educating businessmen are based on priority of personal qualities such as initiative and empathy. that is, the ability to empathize, adapt and persuade. it is these abilities that are necessary for success in professional business, which in turn contributes to psychological well-being of businessmen. on the other hand, psychological well-being of businessmen is affected by their positive emotional state, necessary for effective business activities, associated with satisfaction with their sexual life, with fulfillment of the sexual sphere and harmony in sexual relations with a sexual partner and harmonious family relationships. modern studies of the phenomenon of sexuality are widely represented in foreign and domestic scientific literature, first of all, the following aspects: biological factors of sex and sexual behavior of humans (pfaus, scepkowski, marson & georgiadis, 2014); medical and sexological (domoratsky, 2009; kocharyan, 2007; roach, 2017); general psychological (ainsworth & bauermeister, 2012; bass, 2017; laumann, nicolosi, 2005; tolman, diamond, bauermeister, george, pfaus & ward, 2014); sexuality and love (kernberg, 2000; martel, 2006; roach, 2017). research is devoted to certain types of well-being of an individual and related concepts, such as: happiness (lyubomirski, 2014; ryan, deci, 2001; seligman, 2013); psychological well-being (byers, rehman, 2014; diener, 2009; diener, wirtz, tov, kim-prieto, 2010; zasekina, maistruk, 20017; kahneman, diener, schwarz, 1999; stephenson, meston, 2015; ryff, keyes, 1995; seligman, 2013; chernyavskaya, 2021); innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect tetyana chernyavska, et al. 294 sexual well-being (hupalovska, 2019; chalova, 2016; stephenson, meston, 2015); sexual health (mulhall, incrocci, goldstein, rosen, 2011) . the immediacy of solving the problem of interrelationship of satisfaction with one’s own sexual life and psychological well-being of businessmen is due to the problems that accompany real business activities and private life of businessmen, such as stress reactions, psychological maladaptation and emotional burnout of businessmen in crisis, uncertainty and constant changes as well as deterioration of psychological well-being of businessmen due to extreme nature of their professional activities, which can negatively affect personal and family life of businessmen, which can lead to sexual disharmony, namely disharmonious interpersonal relationships with a sexual partner, and can also negatively influence interpersonal relationships with other people. finding ways to strengthen training of businessmen (business owners and partners) and providing them with necessary psychological support, which is associated with emotional and empathic competence, formation and development of abilities to harmonize own sexual relationships to achieve psychological well-being of businessmen. general research assumptions 1. a high level of sexual well-being development of businessmen has a positive effect on their personal business success. 2. with a certain allowance for the specific nature of the topic, we can assume that a person’s sexual behavior is influenced by the same key factors (fulfillment and satisfaction with own sexual life, libido, responsibility in interpersonal relationships) as business success (personal significance and satisfaction with business activities, energy resources, responsibility for their decisions and actions, …). therefore, highly developed components of sexual well-being have a positive effect on the development of business success components. 3. sexual well-being of a person is highly (medium, low) formed at high (medium, low) indicators of two methods: 1) method of “sexual attitudes” by eisenko by the indicators “sexual satisfaction” and “fulfillment”; 2) method of “psychological well-being” by riff by the indicator “psychological well-being”. the objective of the article is theoretical and empirical analysis of interrelationship between satisfaction with one’s own sexual life and psychological well-being of businessmen. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 295 modern research on the problem of psychological well-being despite the primary importance of sexual satisfaction of the individual not only in married relations, but also for the success of doing business, this relationship refers to understudied psychologic phenomena. facts used in research and psychotherapeutic practice are based only on describing disorders in the sexual sphere, but the problem of interrelationship between satisfaction with one’s sexual life and psychological well-being of businessmen is insufficiently studied both in theoretical and practical aspects, because in the process of training businessmen this problem is not given due attention. main attention is paid to professional training of businessmen, and such components of personal maturity, positive sanogenic potential of an individual as emotional competence, sexual-harmonious relationships, psychological well-being are not given enough attention. the phenomenon of subjective well-being of the individual is fully studied and researched in world psychological science, first of all, in connection with the study of states of optimal functioning of a human. these phenomena describe a holistic psychological reality, its versatility that is reflected in the methodological traditions of the research of well-being, peculiarities of its conceptualization, and therefore in its meaningful, content, etc. characteristics (kamsheko, traverse, 2020). it should be noted that in recent decades more and more attention is paid to the problem of satisfaction with one’s own sexual life as a person’s sexual well-being (ainsworth, baumeister, 2012; bass, 2017; byers, rehman, 2014; hupalovska, 2019; mulhall, incrocci, goldstein, rosen, 2011; stephenson, meston, 2015; chalova, 2016). thus, ainsworth and baumeister (2012) study sexual transformations related to time, relationships, and sociocultural context; bass (2017) studies the evolutionary aspect of sexual desire and strategies for finding sexual partners; byers and rehman (2014) consider sexual satisfaction and sexual self-fulfillment in relationships; hupalovska (2019) studies sexual well-being as a factor of subjective well-being of a person, exploring sexual scenarios by which people organize and evaluate their sexual life; chalova (2016) investigates sexual well-being in stable married couples; stephenson and meston (2015) in their study confirmed a strong link between sexual well-being and overall life satisfaction; in studies of sexual relations and behavior of different groups of population, scientists have proven that for people of different ages (40 to 80 years) (laumann, nicolosi, 2005), and for people of different health conditions, (cancer innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect tetyana chernyavska, et al. 296 patients, etc.) (mulhall, incrocci, goldstein, rosen, 2011) sexuality retains its significance even in the context of serious health problems. modern research on the problem of psychological well-being, happiness is presented in the works of scientists such as byers, rehman (2014); diener (2009); diener, wirtz, tov, kim-prieto (2010); zasekina, maistruk (2017); kahneman, diener, schwarz (1999); lyubomirski (2014); stephenson, meston (2015); ryff, keyes (1995); ryan, deci (2001); seligman (2013); chernyavska (2021). kahneman, diener, schwarz (1999) study well-being from a hedonistic point of view; zasekina and maistruk (2017) study psychological well-being of an individual in the context of unconditional acceptance of oneself; kernberg (2000) studies specifics of love relationships as norms and pathologies; new approaches to study of the phenomenon of happiness and satisfaction were presented by ryan and deci (2001); lyubomirski (2014); martel (2006); seligman (2009); new measures to assess well-being, prosperity and positive and negative feelings are studied by diener, wirtz, tov, kim-prieto (2010); chernyavskaya (2021) studies well-being and success of an individual in the context of human orthobiosis. based on their own vision of the place and role of the phenomena of sexual satisfaction and psychological well-being in the structure of personal maturity, personal potential, researchers propose main components of the structure and approaches to development of sexual satisfaction-fulfillment and psychological well-being of an individual. it should be noted that modern professional training of future managers and business representatives should have such disciplines in their arsenal, which will help them in capturing and practical application of emotional and communicative competence and their psychological compensatory mechanisms that will help not only in professional activity, which will contribute to harmonization of sexual relationships to improve psychological well-being of businessmen, which contributes to business success. study of the interrelationship between satisfaction with one’s own sexual life and psychological well-being of businessmen psychological well-being, as a whole, is associated with personal, professional and social variables. it is as an image and categorical structure in individual consciousness of a person, permanently leads to new aspects of their experience, which is reflected in numerous studies. psychological wellbeing is “evaluated” by the person themselves from the standpoint of their values and goals. since the latter are always individual, then there cannot be brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 297 universal ones for all structures of psychological well-being. in this case, it is advisable to study factors that influence the subjective sense of satisfaction (existential experience, attitude towards one’s own life, sexual satisfaction) (serdyuk, 2017, p.130). from the specified factors, a special role in the psychological wellbeing of the business community representatives is played by their sexual satisfaction (holmberg et al, 2010; hooghe, 2012). in the long-term development in males, sexual satisfaction allows estimate health condition and physical intimacy (heiman et al, 2011). a higher level of sexual satisfaction is associated with a lower level of depression and anxiety in females (frohlich, meston, 2002; tower, krasner, 2006). thus, it is difficult to overestimate the contribution of a sexual component to overall satisfaction with professional activities. at the same time, the psychological importance of this indicator contrasts sharply with the degree of methodological development of the construct of sexual satisfaction in family, age and clinical psychology. in the twentieth century, the issues of sexual satisfaction and its influence on the psychological well-being of the individual were given very insufficient attention of scientists, and the psychoanalysis, which claimed a leading role in understanding of this sphere, mostly avoided traditional scientific study and did not contribute to the development of special measuring instruments. at the same time as a result of the sexual revolution of the 1950’s and 60’s in america and europe, the vacuum methodological tools began to quickly fill with social workers, sexologists and other clinicians (breslav, 2013, p. 25). starting from this period, clinicians in the first place, faced a significant number of cases of sexual disorders and problems that lead to a decrease in psychological well-being, especially representatives of the business environment, their emotional burnout at work and reduction of efficiency in professional activity. the reasons for this lie in the fact that business activity can be interpreted as a kind of behaviour in a hostile social environment, due to the crucial differences of the interests of private business and society. moreover, these differences begin not only from the level of subjective assessments, but are rooted in the very essence of entrepreneurship: in its initial principles innovation and aspiration for personal success there is already a threat to stability, the formed and habitual order of things for the majority of the population (ermolayeva, 2014, p. 564). permanent exposure of businessmen to a hostile social environment leads to stress, and long stress, in turn, becomes a cause of emotional burnout, which negatively affects sexual function and is the cause of psychological discomfort. in order to determine innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect tetyana chernyavska, et al. 298 whether a businessman is in a state of emotional burnout, and to identify the stage of it, a specialist consultation is required, during which they will conduct testing, using, for example, a boyko test, or similar tools. we believe that simultaneously with testing for emotional burnout of business environment representatives, it is necessary to apply psychodiagnostic techniques to them as well, to determine the impact of the sexual component on psychological well-being of businessmen. such techniques have been applied since 1966, when the thorne sexual questionnaire was issued, consisting of 200 points for the diagnosis of sexual psychopathology (thorne, 1966). following this questionnaire there were many methods of psychodiagnostics of sexual life from small aimed at studying separate types of sexual life disorders (lopiccolo, steger, 1974) to multidimensional dsfi (derogatis sexual functioning inventory; derogatis, melisaratos, 1979), consisting of 8 subscales and 247 points. however, there is still no questionnaire aimed at the diagnosis of sexual satisfaction and psychological well-being, and the few existing techniques do not allow to form a full idea of this mutual influence. in special literature one can find only five techniques that are more or less aimed at solving this task. these include a scale of sexual satisfaction for women by whitley and poulsen (sss-w; whitley, poulsen, 1975) comprising 32 and 23 points, as well as a scale with the same name by meston and trapnell, consisting of 30 statements with a five-point agreedisagree scale; clinical questionnaire of sexual satisfaction by golombok and rust of 28 points (rust, golombok, 1985); index of sexual satisfaction (iss) of 25 points; as well as the global measure of sexual satisfaction (gmsex, p. 27) however, all these techniques give a very approximate idea of the characteristics of this phenomenon, since only the overall modality of the attitude to this sphere of life of an individual is practically evaluated, leaving all its most important components in the shadows, including psychological well-being. the theoretical and methodological analysis of the most well-known foreign and domestic studies on sexual well-being problems and the personal success in business conducted by us, allowed to determine the two most progressive, from our point of view, psychodiagnostic methods: a questionnaire of attitudes to sex (eisenk); psychological well-being questionnaire (ryff). using these instruments of psychoanalysis, let’s conduct an empirical analysis of the relationship of satisfaction with one’s own sexual life and psychological well-being of businessmen. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 299 the following businessmen were studied: entrepreneurs-beginners (n = 50); mid-level managers (n = 70); top managers and business owners (n = 30). to prove interrelationship between sexual satisfaction and psychological well-being of businessmen, we conducted pearson, tau-b kendall and spearman correlation analyses using the statistical program spss 26.0 for windows xp. table 1 presents the results of pearson correlation analysis. table 1. pearson correlation analysis results pearson correlation permissibility fulfillment sexual satisfaction psychological well-being permissibility pearson correlation 1 .502** .525** .538** value (twotailed) 0.000 0.000 0.538 n 150 150 150 150 fulfillment pearson correlation .502** 1 .881** .842** value (twotailed) 0.000 0.000 0.549 n 150 150 150 150 sexual satisfaction pearson correlation .525** .881** 1 .843** value (twotailed) 0.000 0.000 0.548 n 150 150 150 150 psychological well-being pearson correlation .538** .842** .843** 1 value (twotailed) 0.322 0.549 0.548 n 150 150 150 150 note: pearson’s correlation analysis: ** correlation is significant at the level of 0.01 (2-tailed); * correlation is significant at the level of 0.05 (2-tailed). the table shows only the significant part of the correlation analysis, as all calculations obtained using the program spss 26.0 for windows xp cannot be presented. according to the results of correlation analysis, it is possible to note that correlation coefficient of the level of strength of psychological wellbeing, which according to the psychological well-being questionnaire (ryff) reflects the general indicator of psychological well-being of businessmen and innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect tetyana chernyavska, et al. 300 indicates their personal success, has sufficient positive connections with some subscales of the questionnaire of attitudes to sex (eisenk) such as: “permissibility”, “fulfillment” and “sexual satisfaction”. a sufficient positive relationship (r> 0.538) between the general indicator of psychological well-being and the subscale “permissibility” indicates that modern and easy attitude of the surveyed businessmen to sex contributes to formation of their stable psychological well-being. there is a strong positive direct relationship (r> 0.842) between overall psychological well-being indicator and the “fulfillment” subscale, confirming our assumption that satisfaction with one’s sexual life is an extremely attractive condition for most people as part of their psychological well-being. sexual satisfaction is also one of the components of psychological well-being, which is proved by sufficient positive relationship (r> 0.538) according to the pearson correlation between these indicators. table 2 presents results of the kendall’s tau-b correlation analysis. table 2. kendall’s tau-b correlation analysis results tau-b kendall permissibility fulfillment sexual satisfaction psychological well-being permissibility correlation coefficient 1.000 .373** .418** .595** value (twotailed) 0.000 0.000 0.546 n 150 150 150 150 fulfillment correlation coefficient .373** 1.000 .763** .714** value (twotailed) 0.000 0.000 0.751 n 150 150 150 150 sexual satisfaction correlation coefficient .418** .763** 1.000 .518** value (twotailed) 0.000 0.000 0.599 n 150 150 150 150 psychological well-being correlation coefficient .595** .714** .518** 1.000 value (twotailed) 0.546 0.751 0.599 n 150 150 150 150 note: kendall's tau-b: ** correlation is significant at the level of 0.01 (2-tailed); * correlation is significant at the level of 0.05 (2-tailed). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 301 when analyzing the matrix, it is possible to note that direct significant relations were found on all selected subscales of the questionnaire of attitudes to sex (eisenk) and the general indicator of psychological wellbeing according to the corresponding questionnaire. thus, the levels on the subscale “permissibility” and the subscale “sexual satisfaction” are significantly positively correlated with the general indicator of psychological well-being (ʈ = 0.595 and ʈ = 0.518, respectively). a direct positive significant correlation was found between the subscale “fulfillment” and the indicator of psychological well-being (ʈ = 0.714). between the subscales of the questionnaire of attitudes to sex (eisenk) quite positive correlations are also found, which indicates that with a normal easy attitude to sex, general satisfaction with own sexual life a person is able to fulfill their sexual needs, which becomes one of the components of psychological well-being formation. table 3 presents results of spearman’s correlation analysis. table 3. spearman’s correlation analysis results spearman’s rho permissibility fulfillment sexual satisfaction psychological well-being permissibility correlation coefficient 1.000 .474** .538** .497** value (twotailed) 0.000 0.000 0.489 n 150 150 150 150 fulfillment correlation coefficient .474** 1.000 .879** .743** value (twotailed) 0.000 0.000 0.759 n 150 150 150 150 sexual satisfaction correlation coefficient .538** .879** 1.000 .622** value (twotailed) 0.000 0.000 0.658 n 150 150 150 150 psychological well-being correlation coefficient .497** .743** .622** 1.000 value (twotailed) 0.489 0.759 0.658 n 150 150 150 150 note: **. correlation is significant at the level of 0.01 *. correlation is significant at the level of 0.05 innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect tetyana chernyavska, et al. 302 to conduct further factor analysis of the results and prove the hypothesis of the interrelation between sexual well-being of businessmen and their personal business success, using the static program spss 26.0 for windows xp, we calculated the spearman rank correlation. according to the obtained results (tables 1 – 3) it was found that all selected subscales from the questionnaire of attitudes to sex (eisenk) and the general scale of psychological well-being of the questionnaire of psychological well-being (ryff) revealed significant correlations (-1≤ p ≥1). that is, the correlation between the two values is close to one, and spearman’s correlation coefficient is positive for all selected subscales: “permissibility” at a sufficiently positive level of correlation is equal to p = 0.497; “fulfillment” on a high positive direct correlation is equal to p = 0.743; “sexual satisfaction” on a high positive direct correlation is equal to p = 0.622. positive rather high correlations in three types of correlation analysis (pearson, kendall tau-b and spearman) give us the opportunity to say that the psychological well-being of businessmen depends on their sexual development and satisfaction with their sexual lives. the obtained correlation data allow us to consider in more detail both age and gender characteristics, to investigate in more detail the levels of professional success of businessmen depending on their overall sexual satisfaction. conclusions theoretical and empirical analysis of modern approaches and research on the problem of satisfaction with one’s own sexual life and the problem of psychological well-being of businessmen showed that sexual well-being of a person gives an opportunity to take a new approach to the study of psychological and emotional state of an entity in general and success of professional activities of businessmen in particular as components of development of personal maturity, increase of the potential in a professional business environment and prevention of stress and emotional burnout. a study of the relationship between satisfaction with one’s own sexual life and psychological well-being of businessmen, which was carried out using correlation analyses based on scientific developments of pearson, tau-b kendall and spearman enabled to reveal positive sufficiently high correlations in the three types of correlation analysis, which allows to state that psychological well-being of businessmen depends on their sexual fulfillment and on their level of satisfaction with their own sexual life. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 303 references ainsworth, s. e. & baumeister, r. f. (2012). changes in sexuality: how sexuality changes across time, across relationships, and across sociocultural contexts. clinical neuropsychiatry: journal of treatment evaluation, 9(1), 32–38. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/uq:578368 bass, d. (2017). evolyutsiya seksualnogo vlecheniya: strategii poiska partnerov [the evolution of sex drive: strategies for finding partners]. moskow: alpina. http://flibusta.site/b/504513/read breslav, g. m. (2013). razrabotka chastotnogo indeksa seksualnoy udovletvorennosti (chisu) v diagnostike supruzheskih vzaimootnosheniy [development of a frequency index of sexual satisfaction (nisu) in the diagnosis of marital relationships]. psihologiya. zhurnal vyisshey shkolyi ekonomiki [psychology journal of the higher school of economics], 10(1), 25–36. https://psy-journal.hse.ru/data/2013/10/31/1283222456/breslav_1001pp25-36.pdf. byers, e. s. & rehman, u. s. sexual well-being (2014). tolman, d. l., diamond, l. m., bauermeister, j. a., george, w. h., pfaus, j. g. & ward, l. m. (eds.), apa handbooks in psychology®. apa handbook of sexuality and psychology, vol. 1. person-based approaches (pp. 317–337). https://content.apa.org/doilanding?doi=10.1037%2f14193-011 chalova, a. v. (2016). psikhologicheskie usloviya seksualnogo blagopoluchiya muzhchin i zhenshchin v ustoychivykh supruzheskikh parakh [psychological conditions of sexual well-being of men and women in stable married couples]. (avtoreferat dysertatsii kandydata psikhologicheskikhnauk nauk). russian state humanitarian university. http://www2.rsuh.ru/binary/2635687_72.1460038037.02132.pdf cherniavska, t. p. (2021). psykholohiia blahopoluchchia i uspishnosti v konteksti ortobiozu liudyny [psychology of well-being and success in the context of human orthobiosis]. in n.v. rodina (ed.), doslidzhennia psykholohii ortobiozu liudyny: monohrafiia [research of psychology of human orthobiosis: monograph] (pp. 58-75). kyiv: lira-k publishing house. http://lira-k.com.ua/books/gumanitarni/doslidzhennja-psyhologijiortobiozu-ljudyny-%3a-monografija.html chernyavskaya, t. p. (2010). psikhologiya uspeshnosti lichnosti v biznese: monografiya [psychology of personal success in business: monograph]. odessa: astroprint. http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe derogatis, l. r., melisaratos, n. (1979). the dsfi: a multidimensional measure of sexual functioning. journal of sex & marital therapy, 5, 244–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/00926237908403732. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/uq:578368 http://flibusta.site/b/504513/read https://psy-journal.hse.ru/data/2013/10/31/1283222456/breslav_10-01pp25-36.pdf https://psy-journal.hse.ru/data/2013/10/31/1283222456/breslav_10-01pp25-36.pdf https://content.apa.org/doilanding?doi=10.1037%2f14193-011 http://www2.rsuh.ru/binary/2635687_72.1460038037.02132.pdf http://lira-k.com.ua/books/gumanitarni/doslidzhennja-psyhologiji-ortobiozu-ljudyny-%3a-monografija.html http://lira-k.com.ua/books/gumanitarni/doslidzhennja-psyhologiji-ortobiozu-ljudyny-%3a-monografija.html http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe https://doi.org/10.1080/00926237908403732 innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect tetyana chernyavska, et al. 304 diener, e. (2009). the science of well-being: the collected works of ed diener. social indicators research series, 37. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321609475_assessing_wellbeing_the_collected_works_of_ed_diener diener, e., wirtz, d., tov, w., kim-prieto, c. (2010). new well-being measures: short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. social indicators research, 97(2), 143-156. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40649361?seq=1 domoratskiy, v. a. (2009). meditsinskaya seksologiya i psikhoterapiya seksualnykh rasstroystv [medical sexology and psychotherapy for sexual disorders]. moscow: academic project. https://studfile.net/preview/7327420/ ermolaeva, e. p. (2014). predprinimatelstvo kak lichnostnyiy vyibor. lichnost professionala v sovremennom mire [entrepreneurship as a personal choice. the personality of a professional in the modern world]. moscow. https://www.hse.ru/data/2013/12/11/1339124380/%d0%9f%d1%80 %d0%be%d1%84%20%d0%b2%d0%be%d1%81%d0%bf%d1%8 0%d0%b8%d1%8f%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%b5.pdf. frohlich, p., meston, c. (2002). sexual functioning and self-reported depressive symptoms among college women. journal of sex research, 39, 321–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490209552156. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345-361. http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604 /pdf heiman, j. r., long, j. s., smith, s. n., fisher, w. a., sand, m. s., rosen, r. c. (2011). sexual satisfaction and relationship happiness in midlife and older couples in five countries. archives of sexual behavior, 40, 741–753. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9703-3. holmberg, d., blair, k. l., phillips, m. (2010). women’s sexual satisfaction as a predictor of well-being in same-sexversus mixed-sex relationships. the journal of sex research, 47(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490902898710. hooghe, m. (2012). is sexual well-being part of subjective well-being? an empirical analysis of belgian (flemish) survey data using an extended well-being scale. journal of sex research, 49(2-3), 264–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2010.551791 hupalovska, v. a. (2019). seksualne blahopoluchchia yak chynnyk subiektyvnoho blahopoluchchia: osoblyvosti seksualnykh stsenariiv osib z invalidnistiu [sexual well-being as a factor of subjective well-being: features of sexual https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321609475_assessing_well-being_the_collected_works_of_ed_diener https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321609475_assessing_well-being_the_collected_works_of_ed_diener https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11205-009-9493-y.pdf https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11205-009-9493-y.pdf https://www.jstor.org/stable/40649361?seq=1 https://studfile.net/preview/7327420/ https://www.hse.ru/data/2013/12/11/1339124380/%d0%9f%d1%80%d0%be%d1%84%20%d0%b2%d0%be%d1%81%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%b8%d1%8f%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%b5.pdf https://www.hse.ru/data/2013/12/11/1339124380/%d0%9f%d1%80%d0%be%d1%84%20%d0%b2%d0%be%d1%81%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%b8%d1%8f%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%b5.pdf https://www.hse.ru/data/2013/12/11/1339124380/%d0%9f%d1%80%d0%be%d1%84%20%d0%b2%d0%be%d1%81%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%b8%d1%8f%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%b5.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490209552156 http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9703-3 https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490902898710 https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2010.551791 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 305 scenarios of people with disabilities.]. sotsialna psykholohiia sohodni: zdobutky i perspektyvy: materialy ii vseukrainskoho konhresu iz sotsialnoi psykholohii [social psychology today: achievements and prospects: materials of the ii all-ukrainian congress on social psychology], 81-83. kyiv. https://ispp.org.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2019/11/theses-ucsp2019.pdf kahneman, d., diener, e., schwarz, n. (eds) (1999). well-being: the foundations of hedonic psychology. new york: russell sage foundation. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-02842-000 kamsheko, k. i., traverse, t. m. (2020). zadovolenist zhyttiam yak skladova subiektyvnoho blahopoluchchia osib iz homoseksualnoiu oriientatsiieiu [life satisfaction as a component of the subjective well-being of homosexuals]. visnyk natsionalnoho universytetu oborony ukrainy [bulletin of the national university of defense of ukraine], 5(58), 72-78. https://doi.org/10.33099/2617-6858-2020-58-5-72-79. kernberg, o. f. (2000). otnosheniya lyubvi: norma i patologiya [love relationships: norm and pathology]. moscow: http://osp.kgsu.ru/library/pdf/396.pdf kocharyan, g. s. (2007). sovremennaya seksologiya [contemporary sexology]. kyiv: nika-center. http://www.al24.ru/wpcontent/uploads/2014/07/%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%ba_1.pdf laumann, e. o., nicolosi, a. (2005). sexual problems among women and men aged 40–80 y: prevalence and correlates identified in the global study of sexual attitudes and behaviors. international journal of impotence research, 17(1), 39-57. https://www.nature.com/articles/3901250 lopiccolo, j., steger, j. c. (1974). the sexual interaction inventory: a new instrument for assessment of sexual dysfunctions. archives of sexual behavior, 3, 585–595. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01541141. lyubomirski, s. (2014). psikhologiya schastya. novyy podkhod [the psychology of happiness. a new approach]. saint petersburg: peter. https://readli.net/chitat-online/?b=401550&pg=1 martel, b. (2006). seksualnost, lyubov i geshtalt [sexuality, love and gestalt]. saint petersburg: rech. https://bookap.info/book/seksualnost_lyubov_i_geshtalt_2006/bypage/1 mulhall, j. p., incrocci l., goldstein, i., rosen, r. (eds) (2011). cancer and sexual health. 1st edition. springer‐verlag, new york, llc. https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.16000412.2011.01345.x nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/ view/2625 https://ispp.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/theses-ucsp2019.pdf https://ispp.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/theses-ucsp2019.pdf https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-02842-000 https://doi.org/10.33099/2617-6858-2020-58-5-72-79 http://osp.kgsu.ru/library/pdf/396.pdf http://www.al24.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%ba_1.pdf http://www.al24.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%ba_1.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/edward-laumann https://www.researchgate.net/profile/alfredo-nicolosi https://www.researchgate.net/journal/international-journal-of-impotence-research-0955-9930 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01541141 https://readli.net/chitat-online/?b=401550&pg=1 https://bookap.info/book/seksualnost_lyubov_i_geshtalt_2006/bypage/1 https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0412.2011.01345.x https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0412.2011.01345.x https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/%0bview/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/%0bview/2625 innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect tetyana chernyavska, et al. 306 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235. palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337. pfaus, j. g., scepkowski, l. a., marson, l., & georgiadis, j. r. (2014). biology of the sexual response. tolman, d. l., diamond, l. m., bauermeister, j. a. george, w. h., pfaus, j. g., & ward, l. m. (eds.) apa handbooks in psychology®. apa handbook of sexuality and psychology, vol. 1. person-based approaches (pp. 145–203). american psychological association. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-05866-007 rodina, n. v. (ed.). (2021). psykholohiia blahopoluchchia i uspishnosti diialnosti osobystosti v konteksti ortobiozu liudyny [psychology of well-being and success of the individual in the context of human orthobiosis]. doslidzhennia psykholohii ortobiozu liudyny: monohrafiia [research of psychology of human orthobiosis: monograph], 58-75. kyiv: lira-k publishing house. retrieved from http://lira-k.com.ua/books/gumanitarni/doslidzhennja-psyhologijiortobiozu-ljudyny-%3a-monografija.html rouch, m. (2017). seks dlya nauki. nauka dlya seksa [sex for science. science for sex]. moskow: alpina publisher. http://loveread.ec/read_book.php?id=61850&p=1 rust, j., golombok, s. (1985). the golombok-rust inventory of sexual satisfaction (griss). british journal of clinical psychology, 24(1), 63–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8260.1985.tb01314.x. ryan, r., deci, e. (2001). on happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. annua review of psychology, 52, 141-166. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141. ryff, c., keyes, c. (1995). the structure of psychological well-being revisited. journal of personality and social psychology, 69(4), 719-727. university of wisconsin-madison. http://midus.wisc.edu/findings/pdfs/830.pdf?source=post_page. seligman, m. (2013). put k protsvetaniyu. novoe ponimanie schastya i blagopoluchiya [the path to prosperity. a new understanding of happiness and well-being]. moskow: mann ivanov ferber. https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=429545&p=1. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-05866-007 http://lira-k.com.ua/books/gumanitarni/doslidzhennja-psyhologiji-ortobiozu-ljudyny-%3a-monografija.html http://lira-k.com.ua/books/gumanitarni/doslidzhennja-psyhologiji-ortobiozu-ljudyny-%3a-monografija.html http://loveread.ec/read_book.php?id=61850&p=1 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8260.1985.tb01314.x http://midus.wisc.edu/findings/pdfs/830.pdf?source=post_page https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=429545&p=1 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 307 serdiuk, l. z. (2017). struktura ta funktsiia subiektyvnoho blahopoluchchia [structure and function of subjective well-being]. aktualni problemy psykholohii: instytut psykholohii imeni h. s. kostiuka napn ukrainy [actual problems of psychology: g.s. kostyuk institute of psychology of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine], vol. хvii, 4 (11), 130. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/709129/1/%d0%a1%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b4 %d1%8e%d0%ba%201.pdf stephenson, k. r., meston, c. m. (2015). the conditional importance of sex: exploring the association between sexual well-being and life satisfaction. journal of sex & marital therapy, 41(1), 25–38. https://labs.la.utexas.edu/mestonlab/files/2014/10/2013-stephensonmeston-.pdf. thorne, f. c. (1966). the sex inventory. journal of clinical psychology, 22, 367–374. https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(196610)22:4<367::aidjclp2270220402>3.0.co;2-f. tower, r. b., krasner, m. (2006). marital closeness, autonomy, mastery, and depressive symptoms in a u.s. internet sample. personal relationships, 13, 429-449. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6811.2006.00128.x. whitley, m. p., poulsen, s. b. (1975). assertiveness and sexual satisfaction in employed professional women. journal of marriage and the family, 37, 573– 581. https://doi.org/10.2307/350521. zasekina, l. v., maistruk, v. m. (2017). bezumovne samopryiniattia ta psykholohichne blahopoluchchia osobystosti [unconditional selfacceptance and psychological well-being of the individual]. nauka i osvita [science and education], 11, 187-192. https://scienceandeducation.pdpu.edu.ua/articles/2017-11-doc/2017-11st25 https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/709129/1/%d0%a1%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b4%d1%8e%d0%ba%201.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/709129/1/%d0%a1%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b4%d1%8e%d0%ba%201.pdf https://labs.la.utexas.edu/mestonlab/files/2014/10/2013-stephenson-meston-.pdf https://labs.la.utexas.edu/mestonlab/files/2014/10/2013-stephenson-meston-.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(196610)22:4%3c367::aid-jclp2270220402%3e3.0.co;2-f https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(196610)22:4%3c367::aid-jclp2270220402%3e3.0.co;2-f https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6811.2006.00128.x https://doi.org/10.2307/350521 https://scienceandeducation.pdpu.edu.ua/articles/2017-11-doc/2017-11-st25 https://scienceandeducation.pdpu.edu.ua/articles/2017-11-doc/2017-11-st25 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer the cognitive complexity in modelling the group decision process constantin-bala zamfirescu, luminita duta, barna iantovics abstract. the paper investigates for some basic contextual factors (such us the problem complexity, the users’ creativity and the problem space complexity) the cognitive complexity associated with modelling the group decision processes (gdp) in e-meetings. the analysis is done by conducting a sociosimulation experiment for an envisioned collaborative software tool that acts as a stigmergic environment for modelling the gdp. the simulation results revels some interesting design guidelines for engineering some contextual functionalities that minimize the cognitive complexity associated with modelling the gdp. keywords: group decision support systems, facilitation, social simulation 69 zamfirescu, duta, iantovics modelling the group decision process 1. introduction group decision support system (gdss) is defined as an interactive computerbased environment that supports concerted and coordinated team effort towards completion of joint tasks [1]. a gdss is composed of a set of highly configurable ”tools” (e.g. brainstorming, voting and ranking, multi-criteria analysis etc.) that requires a high level of expertise for an effective use for complex decisions [2]. the strong relationship between the gdp outcome and the presence of a skilful facilitator to direct the joint decision process is thoroughly presented in many field studies of gdss research [3]. to reduce the dependence on the facilitator, the participant-driven gdss was proposed as the most promising research direction to leverage the skills and abilities of each group member [4]. however, this approach is highly constrained by the cognitive complexity associated with the construction, coordination and execution of gdp by inexperienced users. to overcome the problem of cognitive complexity briggs and de vreede [5] introduced the thinklet (tl) concept as a discrete facilitation unit that integrates a specific tool, its configuration and a script to use it a predefined interaction protocol, mediated and enforced by a specific collaborative tool, among users. the tls are considered to be the smallest piece of essential knowledge to design collaborative processes. the paper investigates from a cognitive stance the complexity associated with modelling the gdp in relation with some basic contextual factors such us the problem complexity, the users’ creativity and the problem space complexity. the remaining part of this paper is organized as it follows. the next section describes the main components of an envisioned collaborative software tool that act as a stigmergic environment for modelling the gdp. these components are implemented and tested in a socio-simulation experiment which is described in section 3. the experimental results show clear self-organizing capabilities as in many field studies of gdss research, but simultaneously high dependability of gdp modelling performance on the contextual factor. from the engineering standpoint of constructing purposeful facilitation tools for e-meetings, these results are discussed and concluded in the last section. 70 zamfirescu, duta, iantovics modelling the group decision process 2 the simulation model for modelling the group decision process analogous with the collaborative way in which cad software is used in architectural design [6], the development of the socio-simulation model is based on the view of seeing the collaborative software tool as a stigmergic environment to co-design the gdp it basically mimics the users’ conceptual ’navigation’ over the semantic structure of the problem space composed of tls. from the socio-simulation perspective the approach implies two design concerns: 1) the population of agents, and 2) the shared environment where the agents are localized and moved over it. for the gdss domain, the environment is the conceptual problem space that comprise all the tls discovered and documented by a community of users (so far there are over 70 tls acknowledged in literature [7]), while the agents are the users responsible to define, execute and evaluate a gdp (a path through the conceptual space of the available tls). 2.1 the semantic environment for modelling the gdp according to parunak [8], a stigmergic environment assumes the definition of three main components: 1) topology, 2) states and 3) process. structurally, the topology may be viewed as a fully connected weighted graph that codifies the facilitation knowledge of group decision in e-meetings. this knowledge presumes correlated information among the users and the tls, reflecting the users’ evaluation of the performance for a tl (a node in the graph) relative to a problem type. the performances are stored for each problem type in a variable associated with each edge of the graph. the problem type is simply codified through a unique id to distinguish among different performances when they are read, during the modelling phase of the gdp, or modified, after the gdp has been executed and evaluated by agents. evaluation of a gdp model entails a subjective assessment of the model, after its execution, against some performance criteria. the performances from all the graph’s edges describe the state of the environment over time. usually, the environment executes a set of processes on the variables (as aggregation end evaporation in the case of ants [8[). for our case, we apply a simple additive rule to simulate the aggregation of performances. after the evaluation of a gdp model that corresponds to a certain problem type, a path through a number of n nodes t l1, . . . , t ln, the aggregation rule may takes the following form: 71 zamfirescu, duta, iantovics modelling the group decision process pj,k(t lk, t) = pj,k(t lk, t − 1) + pj,k(t lk)/λ (1) where t represents the temporal component of the model which is incremented by one for each successive use of the gdss; k is the tl’s identification index from the set of tls used to model the gdp; pj,k(t lk) is the performance of the k-th tl evaluated from the side of t lj; pj,k(t lk, t) and pj,k(t lk, t − 1) are the new and previous values of the performances stored on the edge between the tls j and k; and λ is a tuning parameter, arbitrary chosen, to weight the impact of the last evaluation. 2.2 the agents’ behaviour over the semantic environment the agents are the users who interact with the collaborative tool to model a gdp. conceptually, in any point in time an agent is ”located” in a node (tl) of the cognitive environment, performing one of the following basic actions: 1) evaluating the preference for the next possible tl (or tls) that are going to be executed given the current context of gdp implementation; 2) selecting the next best tl (or a group of tls) for further completing the gdp model; 3) executing the tl (or the group of tls) from the model, and finally; 4) evaluating the performance for the executed tls. the evaluation activity is simulated using the formula (1), while the first three actions with luce’s selection axiom [9]: pj,k = e pj,k(t lk)/t / m∑ i=1 e pj,i(t li)/t (2) where pjk represents the preference for an alternative tl, i.e. the selection probability of the tl k from the tl j; i is the index of tls connected from the side of node j (in fact all the m tls available in the problem space as long the graph is fully connected); and t is a positive subunitary parameter used to define the deviation from a pure rational behaviour (for t = 1 we have a random selection behaviour, while for t = 0 a deterministic one). the above formula is the most common model of stochastic decisions due to its correlation with the psycho-social observations of human behaviour in several domains. as a result of normalization, the preferences for the unexploited tls are diminishing after each performance update. this mechanism replicates the pheromone evaporation process of the real ants (e.g. even if a tl has been positively evaluated after an execution of a gdp model, the 72 zamfirescu, duta, iantovics modelling the group decision process associated preference will decrease once a better alternative is discovered and more frequently used). under complex circumstances when tl’s selection depends on other users, the performances available on the edges are uncertain or incomplete, or there is impossible to evaluate the performance of a tl) we consider the user who models the gdp to have limited cognitive capacity (bounded rationality). note that luce’s selection axiom does not specify the reasons for the ”bounded rationality”; instead, it tries to generalize the selection behaviour of human decision-makers through the parameter t which may be interpreted as the evaluation costs or uncertainty associated with the quantification of tls’ performance. 2.2 experimental results to evaluate the cognitive complexity for modelling the gdp we conducted a virtual experiment implemented in the netlogo multi-agent simulation environment [10]. the experiment presumes the users are facilitating the e-meeting by defining the gdp model for a problem type by mentally moving in the conceptual graph of tls. while the tls’ performance for a problem type has a randomly assigned value, the user is trying to find the right sequence of tls that maximise the performance for this gdp model. the section presents the normalized entropy for 100 successive explorations (iterations) in relation with three factors that potentially could impact over the gdp models’ performance: 1) problem complexity (pc) defined as the number of distinct tls that compose a gdp model; 2) social temperature (t) which stands for the t parameter from the eq(2); and 3) complexity of the problem space (ps) defined as the total number of tls that compose the gdp modelling space. an exploration stands for a complete execution cycle of a gdp. it includes three consecutive phases: 1) finding a suitable model through the successive selection (using the eq(2)) of tls that compose the gdp for the given problem type; 2) executing the identified model and assessing its performance by reading and averaging the predefined performance values of all the tls that compose the gdp model; 3) evaluating the model by updating the performances values (using the eq(1)). the statistics are aggregated from 30 experiments for a relatively simple set of experimental values for the observed parameters. the auto-organization of relations between tls (i.e. the performance update after successive evaluations) entails a decrease of freedom due to the emergence of contextual constraints that reduce the probability to select some 73 zamfirescu, duta, iantovics modelling the group decision process tls (i.e. the preference for the available tl as defined in eq(2)). for a problem type, the degree of freedom corresponds to the probabilistic distribution of preferences for the selection alternatives that is equivalent with the shannon normalized entropy [11][12]. the shannon normalized entropy for the selection of a tl is given by: e(pj,k) = − m∑ k=1 (pj,kln(pj,k)/ln(m)) (3) where pjk represents the preference, the selection probability of the tl k from the tl j; i is the index for the tls connected from the node j (in fact, all the m tls available in the problem space). when the recorded performances are equal for all the available modelling alternatives, the user is considering the entire problem space when he selects a feasible tl (the probabilities from eq(2) being equally distributed entail an entropy equal with 1). contrary, when the recorded performances favour a single alternative, the user will have no freedom in the selection of the best tl (all the probabilities from formula 2 being 0 excepting the best alternative that is 1, entails an entropy equal with 0). thus, the entropy associated with tl’s selection is a measure of cognitive complexity for modelling the gdp. moreover, it is a local metrics that can be computed for each tl’s selection activity for modelling the gdp. figure 1 shows the cognitive complexity associated with the gdp modelling for different problem complexities. the data are obtained for a problem space composed of 30 tls with t=0.7. because this measure is computed on the basis of the local data for each selection action (the performances available on the edges from the current tl), the figures correspond to the average of entropies for all the tl selection actions needed to complete the gdp model (3, 5 and 7 successive tls depending on the problem complexity). the data from the figure 1 shows that problem complexity has a great impact over the convergence of entropy (around 190 iterations for a pc=7 while less than 5 are needed for a pc=3). it entails a greater need for experimentation, learning and creative use of the gdss for more complex problems. these results are contrasting with the real use of gdss in organizational settings where the complex problems are often less frequent. on the other hand, problem complexity concerns the users’ satisfaction in modelling the gdp as well. pc is often a subjective factor that measures the availability of relevant information [13]. the more predictable the gdp modelling is (i.e. the individual entropy 74 zamfirescu, duta, iantovics modelling the group decision process figure 1: the normalized entropy of the gdp modelling for different problem complexities smaller), the perceived problem complexity is smaller. consequently, the cognitive complexity for complex problems may be lessening by incorporating functionalities that provide relevant information for modelling the gdp. figure 2 shows the cognitive complexity associated with the gdp modelling for different values of t. the data are obtained for a problem space composed of 30 tls and a pc composed of 5 tls. the performances are better for higher values of t as a result of exhaustive exploration of the problem space. consequently, when the gdp modelling problem is in the learning phase it is preferably to encourage a creative use of the gdss. obviously, this issue presumes a high frequency of that problem type and a long-term use of the gdss in organizational settings. note that as long the t parameter measures the degree in which the preferences are considered by the users in modelling the gdp, it may be at the same time a post factum measure to quantify the users’ creativity. figure 3 shows the cognitive complexity associated with the gdp modelling in a problem space with a different number of tls. the data are obtained for a simple problem type composed of three tls with t= 0.7. it may be seen that the complexity of the problem space has basically no impact over the convergence of the entropy function. this is one of the core arguments for employing stigmergic coordination mechanisms for global optimization problems based solely on local interactions which that remains effective in open, dynamic and 75 zamfirescu, duta, iantovics modelling the group decision process figure 2: the normalized entropy of the gdp modelling for different t values uncertain environments. on the other hand, an increase of available tls for modelling the gdp will automatically result in an increase of alternatives to model it. it has been experimentally shown that as the number of decision alternatives is higher the decision makers are tempted to consider less of them (poole and roth, 1989). this implies an accelerated discrimination among possible alternatives through the intensification of gdp model evaluation. 3 conclusions the paper investigated some of basic contextual factors (such us the problem complexity, the users’ creativity and the problem space complexity) that usually have a significant impact over the cognitive complexity associated with modelling the gdp in e-meetings. the investigation has been conducted by implementing and testing in a socio-simulation experiment an envisioned collaborative software tool that act as a stigmergic environment for modelling the gdp. the results show that the most dominant factor remains the problem complexity. it may be lessening by incorporating functionalities that provide relevant information for modelling the gdp (i.e. the knowledge resulted from the subjective evaluation of each gdp from a large community of users) that entails a greater need for experimentation, learning and creative use of the gdss. moreover, the performances are better for higher values of the social 76 zamfirescu, duta, iantovics modelling the group decision process figure 3: the normalized entropy for the gdp modelling in a problem space of different complexities temperature as a result of exhaustive exploration of the problem space. consequently it is preferably to encourage a creative use of the gdss when the gdp modelling problem is in the learning phase. conversely, the complexity of the problem space has basically no impact over the cognitive complexity associated with modelling the gdp. it shows why the emergent functionalities of a facilitation tool for modelling the gdp should be engineered around some simple stigmergic coordination mechanisms. references [1] g. desanctis, b. gallupe. a foundation for the study of group decision support systems, management science, 589-609, 1987. [2] f.g. filip, decision support and control for large-scale complex systems, annual reviews in control, 32(1), 61-70, 2008. [3] f. niederman, c.m. beise, p.m. beranek. issues and concerns about computer-supported meetings: the facilitator’s perspective, mis quarterly, 20 (1), 1-22, 1996. [4] j.h. helquist, j. kruse, m. adkins. developing large scale participantdriven group support systems: an approach to facilitating large groups, proceedings of the first hicss symposium on field and case studies of collaboration, ieee computer society press, los alamitos, ca, 2006. 77 zamfirescu, duta, iantovics modelling the group decision process [5] r.o. briggs, g.j. de vreede, j.f. nunamaker, jr.. collaboration engineering with thinklets to pursue sustained success with group support systems, journal of management information systems, 19 (4), 31-63, 2003. [6] l.r. christensen. the logic of practices of stigmergy: representational artifacts in architectural design, proceedings of the 2008 acm conference on computer supported cooperative work, acm, new york, ny, 559-568, 2008. [7] g.j. de vreede, r.o. briggs, g.l. kolfschoten. thinklets: a pattern language for facilitated and practitioner-guided collaboration processes, international journal of computer applications in technology, 25, 140-154, 2006. [8] h.v.d. parunak.. a survey of environments and mechanisms for human-human stigmergy, lecture notes on artificial intelligence, 3830, 163186, springer, 2006. [9] d. luce. individual choice behaviour, wesley, new york., 1959. [10] u. wilensky. netlogo, http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/, center for connected learning and computer-based modeling, northwestern university, evanston, 1999. [11] s. guerin, d. kunkle. emergence of constraint in self-organizing systems. nonlinear dynamics, psychology, and life sciences, 8(2). 131-146, 2004. [12] v.h.d. parunak, s. brueckner. entropy and self-organization in multi-agent systems. proceedings of the fifth international conference on autonomous agents, montreal, canada, 124-130, 2001. [13] k. bystrm, k. jrvelin. task complexity affects information seeking and use. information processing and management, 31, 191-213, 1995. [14] m.s. poole, j. roth. decision development in small groups iv: a typology of group decision paths, human communication research, 15(3), 323-356, 1989. 78 zamfirescu, duta, iantovics modelling the group decision process constantin-bala zamfirescu, department of computer science and automatic control, faculty of engineering, lucian blaga university of sibiu, str. emil cioran 14, sibiu, romania e-mail: zbc@acm.org luminita duta, department of systems science, faculty of electrical engineering, automation and informatics university valahia of targoviste, str. bulevardul unirii, 18-20 trgoviste, romania e-mail: duta@valahia.ro barna iantovics department of mathematics and informatics, faculty of sciences and letters, petru maior university, str. nicolae iorga, no.1, tg. mures, romania e-mail: ibarna@upm.ro 79 microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 112 riassunti in italiano brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cervello. ampia ricerca in intelligenza artificiale e neuroscienze volume 1, numero 3 luglio 2010: tanti auguri! www.brain.edusoft.ro direttore responsabile: bogdan patrut direttore responsabile: bogdan patrut 1. design di un meccanismo di selezione delle azioni per robots calciatori cooperativi based on fuzzy (indistinto) decision making algorithm s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei, mohsen taheri riassunto robocup è una competizione internazionale per una ricerca multi-agente e relazionata ad un soggetto di questo tipo: intelligenza artificiale intelligence, image processing, machine learning, pianificazione del percorso dei robot, controllo, and evitare gli ostacoli. in una partite di calcio, l’ambiente è altamente competitivo e dinamico. quindi, per lavorare in un ambiente in continuo cambiamento, il sistema di “costruzione” delle decisioni (decision making system) di un robot dovrebbe avere le caratteristiche di essere flessibilità ed un adattamento real-time. in quest’articolo ci focalizzeremo sulla middle size soccer robot league (msl) e sulla nuovo metodo fuzzy sulla gerarchia ibrida per costruire decisioni e selezionare le azioni di un robot. dapprima saranno introdotte le caratteristiche di un agente implementate e classificate su due livelli (low_level_behaviors e high_level_behaviors). nel secondo layer, è presentata una fase di due meccanismi di decision making. nella prima fase, alcuni utili metodi sono implementati in cui si controlla la situazione dei robots per attuare le prestazioni richieste. nella fase successiva, la strategia di team, le informazioni sul team, il ruolo di ogni robot e la relativa posizione. viene impiegato un approccio logico indistinto (fuzzy) per riconoscere la strategia del team ed altro ancora per suggerire al robot la posizione. pensiamo che un ruolo dinamico sia una necessità per un team di successo. dynamic role engine (motore di ruolo dinamico) e la formazione del controllo sia indifesa che in attacco ci aiutano ad evitare collisioni che ostacolino i giocatori l’un l’altro ma possano ostacolare gli avversari. infine abbiamo incluso l’algoritmo nella robocup 2007 e 2008 ed i risultati hanno mostrato l’efficienza ed introdotto la metodologia. un risultato tanto soddisfacente da essere già stato implementato nella adro robocup team. il progetto è tutt’ora “in corso” ed alcuni metodi interessanti saranno descritti nel report corrente. 2. estrazione logica della struttura neo-corticale ronald j. swallow abstract il potenziale post-sinaptico di un neurone è stato visto per molto tempo come un incrocio tra un modello di frequenza in ingresso assonnale e il modello di forza sinaptica eccitatoria. perché queste correlazioni siano utili, devono essere confrontate e stabilizzate (la covarianza della potenza della connessione deve essere costante su tutte le correlazioni). una flessibile rete di neuroni è stata studiata (rete di n neuroni eccitatori, interagendo con un neurone inibitorio) e una regola pavloviana molto semplice utilizzata per variare la potenza della connessione (sia eccitatorie che per i neuroni inibitori). la sorpresa è stata che i neuroni della rete sono in grado di confrontare le loro correlazioni in modo standardizzato. ancora una volta, la rete mostra una maggiore capacità di riassunti in italiano 113 apprendere sia per modelli nuovi input che per i vecchi, spiegando la curiosità che guida il nostro cervello e la plasticità ridotta nella memoria permanente nel corso degli anni. 3. il rapporto tra "takers test" di intelligenze diverse, e le loro prestazioni, "leggere le sezioni" del toefl e ielts minoo alemi, marzieh bagherkazemi riassunto questo studio è dedicato a indagare il rapporto tra le ipotetiche intelligenze multiple "agli esaminandi" e la sua attuazione sul "sezioni di lettura" (sezioni del test) toefl e ielts. la teoria di howard gardner delle "intelligenze multiple" suggerisce che l'intelligenza non è una capacità innata sola ed isolata, ma piuttosto un costrutto solo in parte genetico, e può essere cristallizzato o congelate durante la vita di una persona. sulla base di questa teoria, ci sono otto tipi di intelligenza: linguistica, matematica, musicale, corporale, spaziale, intrapersonale, interpersonale e naturalista, ma l'elenco non è esaustivo. le intelligenze multiple di "addetti al test" sono stati stimati dalla midas, il "intelligenze multiple developmental assessment scale, sviluppato da shearer (1994). successivamente, bias di rilevazione (bias) per la sezione di lettura del toefl è stato condotto su 90 partecipanti, e in questo sotto-test sono state posta in correlazione l'intelligenza linguistica e logica. per lo stesso campione, 89 dei 163 partecipanti allo studio sono stati inclusi nell'analisi del rapporto delle intelligenze multiple "addetti al test" e la sua attuazione nella sezione lettura di ielts, e questo test dimostra uno sbilanciamento verso le intelligenze linguistica e lo spaziali. l’implicazione riguarda l'inadeguatezza della definizione di "competenza linguistica". inoltre, la misura guidata dei corsi di istruzione e materiali di preparazione delle due prove di competenza, toefl e ielts, può trarre beneficio dai risultati dello studio, che è destinata a rappresentare le intelligenze che sono correlate positivamente con l'esecuzione dei test in questione . 4. ekg sound-card tramite elettrocardiogramma gheorghe blioju riassunto questo articolo descrive il metodo più conveniente di un sistema di controllo compatto realise ecg, utilizzando il dispositivo elettronico e software. il dispositivo sarà in grado di aumentare biosegnali e li trasmette al pc tramite la scheda sonora. avrà anche un software specializzato nella presa in consegna i segnali del ricevitore e visualizzarli sullo schermo del pc. 5. progettazione e realizzazione di una struttura robusta e un motion controller basato su regole fuzzy per un robot umanoide che gioca il calcio s. hamidreza almohade kasaei, s. mohammadreza almohade kasaei, s. kasaei alireza almohade s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri riassunto questo articolo descrive la progettazione di sistemi hardware e software del robot umanoide persia team nel 2009. il robot ha 18 gradi di libertà sulla base di hsr898 hitec. abbiamo cercato di concentrarci su settori quali la struttura meccanica, l'unità di elaborazione delle immagini, il controller del robot, il comportamento del robot di intelligenza artificiale e apprendimento. quest'anno, il nostro sviluppo di robot umanoidi include: (1) la progettazione e la costruzione del nostro nuovo robot umanoide, (2) la progettazione e la costruzione di un nuovo controller hardware e software per il nostro robot. il progetto è descritto in due parti principali: hardware e software. per il robot si sviluppa un'applicazione software che consiste nel controllo per camminare, il movimento indipendente del robot auto-localizzazione basato sulla visione e la "particle filter", il locale ai, la traiettoria di pianificazione, il responsabile del movimento e hardware di rete. l’hardware è costituito da una struttura meccanica ed il circuito di guida. ogni robot è in grado di camminare, camminare velocemente, passare la palla, tirare e dribblare quando ha la palla. il progetto è ancora in corso e qui sono descritti alcuni nuovi e interessanti metodi. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 114 6. modellazione e realizzazione di un robot di calcio con visione omnidirezionale applicata a long-range-robocup msl s. hamidreza almohade kasaei, s. mohammadreza almohade kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri riassunto lo scopo di questo lavoro è quello di progettare e realizzare un robot di medie dimensioni a partecipare a robocup msl league. in primo luogo, secondo le regole della robocup, il robot design. il robot autonomo proposto è una piattaforma meccanica, un modulo di controllo del movimento, un modulo di visione omnidirezionale, una vista frontale del modulo, un modulo di trasformazione e di riconoscimento di immagini, ecc. e questo lettore incorpora nel robot il "sistema di computer portatile, e circuiti di interfaccia per prendere decisioni”. infatti, il sensore si occupa del sistema di visione omnidirezionale con elaborazione di immagini e di posizionamento per evitare ostacoli. l'algoritmo "lungo la frontiera” o ai limiti seguente algoritmo (bfa) è utilizzato per trovare le caratteristiche importanti del settore. viene utilizzato un metodo di fusione dei dati del sensore per il controllo dei parametri di sistema, auto-localizzazione per modellare il mondo. una visione a base di" auto-localizzazione e odometria” e sistemi tradizionali si fondono alla robusta auto-localizzazione. l'algoritmo di posizione include il filtraggio, condivisione e integrazione dei dati per diversi i tipi di oggetti riconosciuti nell'ambiente. le strategie di controllo sono tre “modi di stato”: la strategia di attacco, di difesa di intercettazione. i metodi sono stati provati in molti robocup in concorsi robot di medie dimensioni. 7. patologie del cervello società di mesopotamia piedad yuste, angel garrido riassunto in mesopotamia non erano praticate l’autopsia e la dissezione. pertanto, gli organi interni del corpo umano erano conosciuti solo da controlli saltuari effettuati su lesioni. il cervello era considerato una parte del corpo che non legato ad attività mentali. 8. visioni modulari contro visione unitaria (non modulare) di cervello e mente minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard riassunto questo articolo cerca di delineare i due distinti paradigmi e il loro parere circa l'apprendimento in generale e del linguaggio in particolare. si cerca inoltre di discutere diversi punti di vista sui pro e i contro argomentando su ciascuno dei suoi sostenitori e detrattori. pertanto, lo scopo di questo articolo non e’ di pretendere nulla a favore o contro una determinata procedura. per concludere, questo articolo esamina sia le questioni di mente e cervello, così come sulla modularità e la non modularità. 9. alcune note su intelligenza artificiale, come un nuovo strumento matematico angel garrido riassunto la matematica è solo un esempio di predicate calculus. pertanto, appartiene alla logica applicata monotonica. in questo modo, troviamo limitazioni di motivazione logica classica e i chiari vantaggi di fuzzy logic e di molti altri strumenti per la nuova ed interessante rappresentazione della conoscenza. riportiamo qui che alcuni di questi nuovi strumenti è un nuovo campo della matematica: l'intelligenza artificiale. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer data mining learning models and algorithms on a scada system data repository maria muntean, ioan ileană, corina rotar, mircea r̂ışteiu abstract. this paper presents three data mining techniques applied on a scada system data repository: näıve bayes, k-nearest neighbor and decision trees. a conclusion that k-nearest neighbor is a suitable method to classify the large amount of data considered is made finally according to the mining result and its reasonable explanation. the experiments are built on the training data set and evaluated using the new test set with machine learning tool weka. keywords: data mining, scada system data. 91 maria muntean, ioan ileană, corina rotar, mircea rı̂şteiu data mining learning models and algorithms on a scada system data repository 1. introduction knowledge discovery in databases (kdd) represents the overall process of converting raw data into useful information. according to the definition given in [1], kdd is the nontrivial process of identifying valid, novel, potentially useful, and ultimately understandable patterns in data. this process consists of a series of transformation steps, from data preprocessing to post-processing of data mining results. data mining, the central activity in the process of knowledge discovery in databases, is concerned with finding patterns in data. it consists of applying data analysis and discovery algorithms that, under acceptable computational efficiency limitations, produce a particular enumeration of patterns (or models) over the data [1]. classification is one of the primary tasks in data mining. it represents the task of learning a target function (classification model) that maps each attribute set to one of the predefined class labels [2]. in other words it consists in assigning objects to one of several predefined categories. the evaluation of the performance of a classifier is a complex process. the inducer’s complexity, cost, usefulness, generalization error and success rate should be taken in consideration when evaluating the predictive performance for the learned model. the most well-known performance metric is the success rate, which is based on counting the test records correctly and incorrectly predicted by the classification model. these counts can be displayed as a two-dimensional confusion matrix, with a row and column for each class. the most important examples of classifiers from literature are: decision tress, näıve bayes, neural networks, association rules, k-nearest neighbor and support vector machines. for solving our problem we chosen three different classifiers: näıve bayes, k-nearest neighbor and decision trees. a näıve bayes classifier is a simple probabilistic classifier based on applying bayes’ theorem with strong (naive) independence assumptions. depending on the precise nature of the probability model, naive bayes classifiers can be trained very efficiently in a supervised learning setting. in spite of their naive design and apparently over-simplified assumptions, naive bayes classifiers often work much better in many complex real-world situations than one might expect [3]. an advantage of the naive bayes classifier is that it requires a small amount of training data to estimate the parameters (means and variances of the vari92 maria muntean, ioan ileană, corina rotar, mircea rı̂şteiu data mining learning models and algorithms on a scada system data repository ables) necessary for classification. because independent variables are assumed, only the variances of the variables for each class need to be determined and not the entire covariance matrix. instance-based (ib) learning methods simply store the training examples and postpone the generalization (building a model) until a new instance must be classified or prediction made. (this explains another name for ib methods – lazy learning – since these methods delay processing until a new instance must be classified). k-nearest neighbor, an ib learning method, is a supervised learning algorithm where the result of new instance query is classified based on majority of k-nearest neighbor category. the purpose of this algorithm is to classify a new object based on attributes and training samples. the classifiers do not use any model to fit and only based on memory. given a query point, we find k number of objects or (training points) closest to the query point. k-nearest neighbor (k-nn) method assumes all instances correspond to points in the n dimensional space. the nearest neighbors of an instance are defined in terms of the standard euclidean distance. decision tree learning represents one of the simplest, yet most popular methods for inductive inference. it has been successfully applied to a wide variety of problems from medical diagnosis to air traffic control or the assessment of credit risk for loan applicants. its popularity is justified by the fact that it has some key advantages over other inductive methods. first of all, decision trees offer a structured representation of knowledge (as disjunction of conjunctive rules). as a direct consequence, decision trees may be rewritten as a set of “ if-then” rules, increasing human readability. secondly, decision trees are robust to errors, requiring little or no data preprocessing. other important features include the capacity of handling both nominal and numeric attributes, as well as missing values and a good time complexity even for large data sets. structurally, a decision tree is a graph, whose inner nodes are “ branching nodes” , because they contain some attribute test; the leaves contain the classification of the instance; the branches of the tree represent attribute values. the tree classifies an instance by filtering it down through the tests at the inner nodes, until the instance reaches a leaf. the technique employed for building a decision tree is that of top-down induction, which performs a greedy search in the space of possible solutions. the first decision tree algorithm was introduced by j.r.quinlan in 1986, and was called id3. a large proportion of the decision tree learners that have been 93 maria muntean, ioan ileană, corina rotar, mircea rı̂şteiu data mining learning models and algorithms on a scada system data repository developed since are improved variants of this core method; the most successful of them was the c4.5 algorithm, also developed by quinlan [4]. 2. data analysis we chose the well-known weka environment as the data mining tool to implement the experiment. originally proposed for didactic purposes, weka is a framework for the implementation and deployment of data mining methods. it is also an open-source software developed in java, released under the gnu general public license (gpl), being currently available to windows, mac os and linux platforms [7]. weka contains tools for classification, regression, clustering, association rules, data visualization and works with .arff files (attribute relation file format) and also with files in .csv format (comma separated values). the classifiers are the most valuable resource that weka provides, and can be used in a variety of ways, such as applying a learning method to a dataset and analyzing its output to learn more about the data; or using learned models to generate predictions on new instances; a third is to apply several different learners and compare their performance in order to choose one for prediction. we chose three datasets that contains the temperature values in june of 2007 to implement the experiment. a large amount of temperature variation information, obtained by the data collection equipment, was recorded and accumulated in the database of the scada system used. the datasets used are presented in table 1. dataset number of instances 1-10.06.07 14403 11-20.06.07 14400 21-30.06.07 14397 table 1. the datasets used in the experiment supervisory control and data acquisition (scada) systems provide automated control and remote human monitoring of real world processes in many fields as: food, beverage, water treatment, oil and gas, utilities. the scada system is used to monitor and control a plant or equipment and is a combination of telemetry and data acquisition. data acquisition deals with the methods used to access information or data from the controlled 94 maria muntean, ioan ileană, corina rotar, mircea rı̂şteiu data mining learning models and algorithms on a scada system data repository equipment while telemetry is a technique used in transmitting and receiving this information over a medium. scada has traditionally meant a window into the process of a plant and/or a method of gathering of data from devices in the field. today, the focus is on integrating this process data into the actual business, and using it in real time. in addition to this, today’s emphasis is on using open standards, such as communication protocols (e.g. iec 60870, dnp3 and tcp/ip) and ’offthe-shelf’ hardware and software, as well as focusing on keeping the costs down [6]. concerning scada systems, there are at least two main issues: the reliability of the system and the optimal management of the huge amount of data being transferred to the scada server by the communication systems [7]. our paper deals with the second issue and intends to contribute to a better using of communication lines ant to an economy of storing space. one can ask: all the time, all the acquired data are of the same importance for the plant control? maybe a preprocessing at sensor level and some decisions taken at this level are better solutions than passing all the data to the server. 2.1. data preparation the original data set included noisy, missing and inconsistent data. data preprocessing improved the quality of the data and facilitated efficient data mining tasks. before the experiment, we prepared data suitable to next operation as following steps: • delete or replace missing values; • delete redundant properties (columns); • data transformation; • data discretization; • export data to a required .arff or .csv format file [11]. the original and modified formats of data set are shown in figure 1 and figure 2. data visualization is also a very useful technique because it helps to determine the difficulty of the learning problem. we visualized with weka single attributes (1-d) and pairs of attributes (2-d). the figure 3 shows the variation of the temperature in time. 95 maria muntean, ioan ileană, corina rotar, mircea rı̂şteiu data mining learning models and algorithms on a scada system data repository figure 3. data visualization 96 maria muntean, ioan ileană, corina rotar, mircea rı̂şteiu data mining learning models and algorithms on a scada system data repository 2.2.data mining and interpretation of the results a classification method was applied to assemble similar data points and to predict numeric quantities. in particular, we attempted to discover useful information and rules correlated to temperature values of the system in order to discard what could be regarded as irrelevant. based on the proposed framework, we chose näıve bayes, knn and j48 algorithms to implement classification. we tried to obtain clear results by choosing a 20% split percentage, which means that about 20% records were used as test data in the pre-implemented training process before classification [11]. the classifiers will be evaluated on how well they predicted the percentage of the data held out for testing. we want to determine which classifier is suited for our data set. we concluded that j48 tree classifier model has a higher level of classification accuracy than the näıve bayes classifier model, but the ibk algorithm is more adequate to our data set. the final results of the classification techniques are presented in the table below: dataset classification accuracy näıve bayes classifier ibk classifier j48 tree classifier 1-10.06.07 98,72% 99,93% 99,93% 11-20.06.07 99,44% 100% 100% 21-30.06.07 99,06% 100% 99,96% average 99,07% 99,98% 99,96% table 2. the accuracy of the classification methods 3. conclusions and future works classifier performance evaluation is an important stage in developing data mining techniques. our goal was to find the classifier that is suitable to the data set provided by scada system. the highest level of accuracy was matched in ibk classifier. the three classes obtained after running the model allows a better optimization of the transmitted data traffic and of the necessary data storing space and projects the large amount of data to a lower dimensional space. 97 maria muntean, ioan ileană, corina rotar, mircea rı̂şteiu data mining learning models and algorithms on a scada system data repository on the data acquisition system level we can program the transmission of warning and anomaly values and discarding normal values. a future approach consists in a high sampling rate of data transmission from the three classes. we also propose to study other scada parameters (e.g. pressure) and to develop one program that makes difference between acquisition system level and local storage of the functioning modes. references [1] j. quinlan. boosting first-order learning. proceedings of the 7th international workshop on algorithmic learning theory, 1160:143–155, 1996. [2] c. nadal, r. legault, and c. y. suen. complementary algorithms for the recognition of totally unconstrained handwritten numerals. in proceedings of the 10th international conference on pattern recognition, volume a, pages 434–449, june 1990. [3] hand, dj, & yu, k. (2001). ”idiot’s bayes not so stupid after all¿‘ international statistical review. vol 69 part 3, pages 385-399. issn 03067734. [4] j. quinlan. c4.5: programs for machine learning. morgan kaufmann, 1993. [5] http://www.dayton-knight.com/projects/scada/scada explained.htm [6] http://www.bin95.com/certificate program online/control-systemstechnology.htm [7] i. stoian, t. sanislav, d. căpăţ̂ınã, l. miclea, h. vălean, s. enyedi, ”multi-agent and intelligent agents’ techniques implemented in a control and supervisory telematic system” , 2006 ieee international conference on automation, quality and testing, cluj-napoca, 25-28 may 2006, pp. 463-468. [8] e. k. cetinkaya, ”reliability analysis of scada systems used in the offshore oil and gas industry” , 2001. [9] s. wang, ”research on a new effective data mining method based on neural networks” , 2008 international symposium on electronic commerce and security, guangzhou city, 3-5 aug. 2008, pp.195-198. [10] b. zheng, j. chen, s. xia, y. jin, ”data analysis of vessel traffic flow using clustering algorithms” , 2008 international conference on intelligent computation technology and automation, pp. 243-246. 98 maria muntean, ioan ileană, corina rotar, mircea rı̂şteiu data mining learning models and algorithms on a scada system data repository [11] g. wang, c. zhang, l. huang, ”a study of classification algorithm for data mining based on hybrid intelligent systems” , ninth acis international conference on software engineering, artificial intelligence, networking and parallel/distributed computing, pp. 371-375. [12] p. du, x. ding, ”the application of decision tree in gender classification” , 2008 congress on image and signal processing, pp. 657-660. [13] s. b. shamsuddin, m. e. woodward, ”applying knowledge discovery in database techniques in modeling packet header anomaly intrusion detection systems” , journal of software, vol.3, no. 9, december 2008, pp. 68-76. [14] zengchang qin, ”naive bayes classification given probability estimation trees” , proceedings of the 5th international conference on machine learning and applications, 2006. maria muntean, ioan ileană, corina rotar, mircea rı̂şteiu department of mathematics and informatics ”1 decembrie 1918” university of alba iulia email: maria munt2006@yahoo.com 99 computational methods in medicine brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 44-63 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/219 creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity viktoriia e. vynohradov¹, iryna m. bila2, olena v. kostyuchenko3, svitlana v. oborska4, liudmyla p. dykhnych5 1 v. i. vernadsky taurida national university, kyiv, ukraine, vkl932015@yahoo.com 2 v. i. vernadsky taurida national university, kyiv, ukraine, bilairyna17@gmail.com 3 kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, g2069644@gmail.com 4 kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, lychia0811@gmail.com 5 kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, dl5021640@gmail.com abstract: under the conditions of precarious situation, caused by the global pandemic and unprecedented restrictions, aimed at countering it, productivity of specialists in various fields of work is reducing significantly. this is particularly true of activities, conducted through direct communication between concerned parties. in order to counter instability, workers have to develop creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity. the goal of research is to establish correlations between the type of professional activity and creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity. the respondents of the study were 260 people of working age –the staff of event, tourism, restaurant business, trade, it spheres. the research procedure included organizational, target-oriented, empirical, final stages. time limits of the study – april – july 2020. for psychodiagnostics the article uses the torrance test of creative thinking, diagnostics of personal creativity by tunik, the methodology “personal readiness for changes”, the scale of individual’s tolerance for ambiguity by mclain. the study found clear correlations between the indicators of creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity. the original model of a creative specialist (endowed with originality, adaptability, optimism and common sense) in the conditions of changes and uncertainty was formed in the research. the results of psychodiagnostics showed the highest indicators of creativity among it workers, readiness for changes–among the staff of it and event spheres, tolerance for ambiguity–among retail workers. in the conditions of pandemic destruction, the workers of the tourism industry were the least creative, while the workers of the event sphere turned out to be unprepared for changes and the workers of the event and tourism industries –intolerant for ambiguity. the results of the study can be used to develop correctional programs to increase the staff’s creativity, readiness for changes, tolerance for ambiguity. it is the development and implementation of effective psycho-correctional programs for the use of real communication and digital tools that are the prospect of further scientific research on the ways to solve the problem. keywords: ambiguity, innovations, crisis situations, professional activity, psychodiagnostics. how to cite: vynohradov, v.e., bila, i.m., kostyuchenko, o.v., oborska, s.v., & dykhnych, l.p. (2021). creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 44-63. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/219 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/219 mailto:vkl932015@yahoo.com mailto:bilairyna17@gmail.com mailto:g2069644@gmail.com mailto:lychia0811@gmail.com mailto:dl5021640@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/219 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 45 1. introduction recent years have been characterized by radical social transformations, economic and political instability, re-orientation of the communications system to the virtual world, the digitalization of internal and external relations of both small businesses and large corporations. all this negatively affects the psychiatric health of a person, who experiences imbalance of customary professional resources and is forced to reorient constantly due to the introduction of unexpected and undesirable innovations, has to be ready to work under new, often unstable conditions, to resort to professional experiments with unknown and questionable results. such challenges lead to a number of problems, related to maintaining the appropriate level of productivity of workers in various fields, who are most integrated into contact communicative interaction, and were disbalanced in the period of social distancing and other social destructions caused by the global pandemic. at the same time, the selection, development and implementation of effective corrective tools for proper psychological support of specialists in various spheres of activity in unstable conditions becomes especially relevant. such support will be effective only in case of empirically obtained clear data on the psychological state of workers in unstable working conditions. this is especially true of those activities in which there has occurred radical reformatting of the communications system and it was necessary to diversify the ways and means of establishing dialogue with clients. at a time of modern social transformations and critical challenges there is a need in the creative approach to the decision of difficult and contradictory situations, in adequate response to essential changes and innovations and in the ability to work under the conditions of uncertainty. adapting to changing circumstances, members of society face many difficulties that negatively affect their psychological state. in order to avoid psychological disparities, it makes sense to develop creativity, to be ready for cardinal changes in the sphere of activity, to show tolerance for ambiguity in the conditions of critical challenges and additional restrictions. in case of any transformation, different areas of human activity require creative approaches to solving problems, which can be implemented only by those employees, who not only know how to work creatively, but are also able to generate creative ideas under fast-changing conditions, in volatile periods and when it is impossible to accurately assess possible results of the introduction of the previously generated creative ideas. in maintaining creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity leonid khomenko, et al. 46 and increasing high level of employees’ creative search, their adequate response to significant changes in working conditions and tolerant attitude to the uncertain or unpredictable result of professional activity plays an important role, which will have decisive impact on the productivity in the periods of destructive transformations. 2. literature review today, there is a problem of negative impact of the global pandemic, economic uncertainty, socio-economic and socio-cultural factors, instability on the individual (godinic et al., 2020; sibley et al., 2020; varina & gworys, 2020), so the scientists look for the ways to overcome these negative manifestations (fischer et al., 2021). in scientific works, the solution to the abovementioned problems is seen in the realization of a person’s creative potential in his/her professional activity, as evidenced by the clear correlation between creativity and the level of a person’s ambiguous perception (robinson et al., 2019), in the formation of a person’s competences, aimed at further creative activity, development of critical thinking, anticipation of opportunities, tolerance for ambiguity (cropley, 2020). the researchers have justified positive effect of improvisation on the formation of creativity and tolerance for ambiguity (felsman et al., 2020), have offered training as a means of developing person’s creative potential and overcoming stress under conditions of uncertainty (anderson et al., 2020), have emphasized the importance of empathy and emotional intelligence in decision-making in the situations of uncertainty (vyatkin et al., 2020). there is clear positive correlation between employees’ creativity and the level of implementation of innovations under conditions of risk and uncertainty (zheng & miller, 2017), between a person’s creativity and psychological well-being in the context of global destruction (orkibi, 2021), between creativity and formation of leadership qualities of the individual (oosthuizen, 2020), between tolerance for ambiguity and creativity, job satisfaction, welfare of the employees, development of critical thinking, success and efficiency of activities of the organization in volatile environments (o’connor et al., 2017; cameron et al., 2018; miao & cao, 2019). creativity in resource-poor settings and tolerance for ambiguity are among the most important components of entrepreneurial mentality and the basis for effective business career growth (peschl et al., 2020), an important context for consolidation of efforts of all the parties involved in order to maintain creative atmosphere and establish cooperation in organizations in brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 47 the context of digitalization of society (mayer, 2019). scientists attach great importance to the development of creative skills in educational institutions (burnett & smith, 2019), the determining factors of creativity are considered to be cognitive abilities, motivation, socialization (mehta & dahl, 2019), selfconfidence and belief in one’s own convictions (anderson & haney, 2020). the main criteria of creativity in modern unstable environment include the ability to generate non-standard ideas, forecasting, risk and tolerance for ambiguity (yamnenko, 2021). of great importance in the formation of the individual’s creative potential is the development of professionally significant qualities, which allows to develop the skills of effective professional interaction and to improve self-perception (dobina et al., 2019), which is also important under ambiguity and in the context of introduction of innovations. the main factors of a person’s readiness for change, for innovations in particular, in terms of professional activity include creativity, risk for success, fixation on future, ingenuity, confidence, expressiveness (dysa, 2020), intellectual activity, generating ideas, tolerance for ambiguity, critical thinking, reflection (mishchykha, 2019), overcoming discomfort in the perception of ambiguity, the system of values and individual’s personal qualities. scientists emphasize the difficulties in identifying tolerance for ambiguity among the representatives of different professions and their negative manifestations in the individual’s psychological state (tanovic et al., 2018), the impossibility of avoiding ambiguity and the need to manage it (koffman et al., 2020), taking into account the role of cognitive, behavioural and emotional aspects of the personality in the formation of tolerance for ambiguity (afanasieva & ponomarenko, 2021). the abovementioned scientists stress the need to mainstream the problem of creativity, readiness for change and tolerance for ambiguity in the periods of economic recession, social destruction, in critical situations and even in global crises. researchers also indicate a clear link between the level of a person’s creativity and his/her readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity, the impact of high level of creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity on employees’ productivity, job satisfaction, perception of innovations and efficiency of the company’s operations as a whole. however, manifestations of creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity during the global crisis, the influence of restrictions caused by the global pandemic on these features and the search for effective forms, means and tools to increase their level in the representatives of various professions has not been studied sufficiently. creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity leonid khomenko, et al. 48 the analysis of the aforementioned problem gives grounds to formulate the following hypotheses: creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity in the conditions of social constraints caused by the worldwide pandemic show themselves in the representatives of different professions in different ways and contribute to rising productivity, formation of non-standard ideas and make the individual more susceptible to innovations. 2.1. problem statement the analysis of scientific sources resulted in the need for empirical verification of manifestations of creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity in the representatives of various professions in the conditions of social constraints caused by the worldwide pandemic. the purpose of the article is to establish empirically the correlation between the type of professional activity and creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity in the representatives of various professions in the conditions of social constraints caused by the worldwide pandemic. the objectives of the article are as follows: • to analyse coverage of the problem of creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity; • to conduct an empirical survey of creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity in the people working in the spheres of services (event, tourism), trade, restaurant business and it; • to compare the obtained results with the available foreign experience in the specified research topic; • to find the general and the particular, to conclude on the relationship between professional activity and creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity in the conditions of social constraints caused by the worldwide pandemic. the novelty of the research lies in the empirical determination of the correlation between professional activity and creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity in the conditions of social constraints caused by the worldwide pandemic. 3. methods and materials 3.1. research design the study covered such areas of activity as: event, tourism, restaurant business, trade, it spheres. the respondents of the scientific brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 49 research were the employees of event agencies “ovatio”, “pikan” in lviv; travel agencies “feieriia mandriv”, “pilgrim” in lviv; the staff of the restaurants “pivdenna brama”, “sobkof” in khmelnytskyi; the staff of such supermarkets as “atb”, “epitsentr” in vinnytsia; “global logic” in kyiv. the survey population was 260 people (135 men and 125 women) aged 18 to 65 years. the choice of respondents from different areas of activity is motivated by significant transformational impact of social distancing on them, as these areas involve direct contact between all parties concerned. these are event services, tourism services, restaurant business, trade. it sector was chosen to study the growing demand for technologies in the context of social distancing and the changes imposed on the abovementioned service industries. the research procedure included the following stages: organizational and target – determining the purpose and objectives of the scientific research; selection of psychodiagnostic methods, determination of target audiences of respondents; inviting respondents to participate in the survey, obtaining consent to participate in the survey; empirical stage – conducting psychodiagnostics among pre-selected respondents, recording and processing of the obtained empirical data; final stage – analysis and interpretation of psychodiagnostic data, establishment of correlations, formulation of conclusions. the study was conducted during april – july 2020 – the crisis period, caused by social constraints due to the worldwide pandemic. it was chosen to study creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity in the representatives of different professions in a crisis situation. valid psychodiagnostic methods were used for interviewing groups of respondents, namely: the torrance test of creative thinking and the diagnostics of personal creativity by tunik – to assess creativity; the methodology “personal readiness for changes” (adapted by bazhanova and bardiier, 2005, pp.169–178) – to determine readiness for changes; the scale of individual’s tolerance for ambiguity by mclain (adapted by osin, 2010) – to determine tolerance for ambiguity. it is the chosen methods that make it possible to assess manifestations of creativity in an uncertain or crisis period, to identify the ability to be tolerant in conditions of risk and ambiguity; to establish the person’s readiness to respond adequately to changes and innovations that occur in difficult periods of economic and social transformations. creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity leonid khomenko, et al. 50 3.2. sample study respondents of the second group – social media users, including 40 employees of event agencies, 40 employees of the tourism industry, 60 employees of the restaurant business, 70 employees of trade industry, 50 it specialists – were interviewed through social networks facebook and instagram using google forms. geographical location of respondents: ukrainian cities lviv, khmelnytskyi, vinnytsia, kyiv. 3.3. intervention the survey was conducted anonymously on a voluntary basis for four months. all respondents agreed to participate in psychodiagnostic procedures. psychodiagnostics did not involve interference into the activities of respondents and was carried out only in off hours. 3.4. research limitations the age of the respondents was 18 to 65 years. a total of 90 people aged 18-29, 88 people aged 30-50, 82 people aged 50-65 were interviewed. the sample was formed in such a way so as to cover economically and socially active population of different ages. 3.5. statistical analysis the primary data was recorded in excel table. in order to confirm the accuracy of results we have used the non-parametric mann-whitney utest, which was calculated using version 23 of the computer program “statistical package for the social science” (spss-23) for windows. 4. results the study involved diagnosing the assessment of creativity using the torrance test of creative thinking, assessment of personal creativity by the method of tunik, determining readiness for changes by the methodology “personal readiness for changes” (translated and adapted by bazhanova and bardiier, 2005), assessment of tolerance for ambiguity by the scale of individual’s tolerance for ambiguity by mclain. the usage of torrance test of creative thinking made it possible to evaluate such diagnostic constructs as: ease of performing professional tasks, flexibility as the ability to switch from one kind of activity to another, originality and development in the completion of professional tasks. despite targeting of this technique to younger respondents, it can be quite brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 51 appropriate to use it for interviewing mature people, as the indicators, determined by it, indicate the propensity for creativity in the respondents of all ages. the results of the survey, conducted by the torrance test of creative thinking, are shown in table 1. table 1. the results of diagnostic ting according to the torrance test of creative thinking areas of activity / points indicators of creativity ease of performing professional tasks flexibility originality development event 9,7 7,4 9,8 40,3 tourism 9,1 7,6 10 39,0 restaurant business 9,1 8,1 10 39,7 trade 9,7 8,0 10,5 38,7 it 8,9 7,9 10,7 40,4 average value 9,3 7,8 10,2 39,6 source: authors’ own conception the empirical data, presented in the table, reflect the creativity of the respondents and allow to claim that it is the easiest to perform complex tasks for the event staff who are characterized by high degree of development in detailing the work accomplished. they show moderate originality in carrying out their duties, but it is more difficult for them to switch from one object to another when performing tasks. in general, this trend reflects peculiarities of the event-sphere, where employees should show ease and originality in carrying out their work. however, event-sphere employees, who participated in this research, lack flexibility and development, which is equally important for successful performance of professional functions. workers in the tourism sector, who were respondents of the study, are characterized by ease and originality in performing work assignments, but lower indicators of development and flexibility testify to respondents’ low ability to be creative in uncertain and volatile situations. restaurant workers are characterized by relative originality and moderate development, they perform their tasks with moderate ease, but are less flexible in switching from one task to another, which is especially important for successful performance of their professional functions. retail workers easily perform their professional duties and are also original in implementing their tasks, but they are characterized by insufficient flexibility creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity leonid khomenko, et al. 52 and development in performing professional functions. it specialists showed high indicators of originality and development, but they are less flexible and it is more difficult for them to cope with complex tasks, which is rather important in their professional activities, especially in times of crisis, when there is high social demand for technologies. in order to establish other indicators of creativity we also used the technique for diagnosing personal creativity (created by tunik), which makes it possible to identify such diagnostic constructs as: curiosity, imagination, complexity, risk appetite. these parameters themselves are the reflection of respondents’ ability to get creative in critical and uncertain situations, to respond adequately and constructively to innovations in the professional sphere. the results of the survey, conducted by the technique for diagnosing personal creativity (created by tunik) are shown in the diagram (figure 1). 15 20 20 10 11 15 10 17 10 14 5 5 13 30 16 5 5 20 20 19 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 curiosity imagination complexity risk appetite figure 1. the results of diagnostic ting according to the method of personal creativity by tunik source: authors’ own conception the empirical data presented in figure 1 show the prevalence of curiosity and imagination among the employees of the event-sphere (15 people, 37.5%) and low rates of complexity and risk appetite (5 respondents, 12.5%). tourism employees have the highest rate of curiosity (20 people, 50%), but at the same time only a small number of them are endowed with high level of imagination (10 people, 25%), perceive complexity and have risk appetite (5 people, 12.5%). restaurant workers are equally curious and prone to risk (20 people, 33.3%) but with less noticeable imagination (17 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 53 people, 28.3%) and interest in complex things (13 respondents, 21.7%). retail workers are the best at carrying out difficult assignments (30 people, 42.9%), but they are somewhat less prone to risk (20 people, 28.6%) and a small number of them show curiosity and imagination (10 people, 14, 3%). the largest number of employees, prone to risk (19 people, 38%) and to perform complex tasks (16 people, 32%) is among it professionals, but they are less imaginative (14 people, 28%) and curious (11 people, 22%). in general, the most curious are the employees of the tourism industry and the restaurant business, while event staff has the most active imagination. retail workers perform complex tasks most easily, while it professionals and restaurant workers are most prone to risk. susceptibility, response and attitude of respondents to innovations (both desirable and forced) were assessed by the methodology “personal readiness for changes” (translated and adapted by bazhanova and bardiier, 2005). its use made it possible to take into account such diagnostic constructs as: passion (the ability to work energetically and tirelessly on the completion of professional tasks), common sense, optimism, courage, adaptability, confidence and tolerance for ambiguity. empirical data, obtained by the methodology “personal readiness for changes” (translated and adapted by bazhanova and bardiier, 2005) are shown in figure 2. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 2 5 2 1 3 6 9 10 8 9 8 11 11 17 7 2 6 7 8 4 8 2 15 19 13 5 2 3 7 6 9 5 12 10 8 passion common sense optimism courage adaptability confidence tolerance figure 2. the results of the diagnosis of readiness for changes source: authors’ own conception creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity leonid khomenko, et al. 54 based on the data shown in figure 2, it can be argued that the employees of the event-sphere are first of all characterized by tolerance (9), optimism (8), adaptability (8), less pronounced are common sense (6), confidence (5), while passion (2) and courage (2) are poorly expressed. tourism employees have high rates of optimism (11) and common sense (9), but they are characterized by less pronounced manifestations of passion (5), courage (6), tolerance (5), while adaptability (2) and confidence (2) are poorly expressed. restaurant workers are characterized by the prevalence of adaptability (15) and tolerance (12) but they show less optimism (11), common sense (10), courage (7). however, they are least characterized by confidence (3) and passion (2). people with high levels of adaptability (19) and optimism (17) work in trade, at the same time they have less tolerance (10), common sense and courage (8), confidence (7). however, they showed low level of manifestations of passion (1). it specialists have high levels of adaptability (13), lower levels of common sense (9), tolerance (8), optimism (7), and the lowest rates of confidence (6), courage (4), passion (3). thus, the interviewed representatives of different types of activity are practically not characterized by passion, which indicates their inability to work energetically, tirelessly, to maintain high vitality. the vast majority of all respondents do not show courage, which indicates lack of striving for the new, unknown, testifies to the inability to give up the tried and reliable. also, all respondents have low levels of confidence, which gives grounds to say that they have almost no self-confidence, belief in their abilities and strengths, in their ability to change something, motivating it by their own desires. this indicates negative trends, because in conditions of instability, crisis situations, social destruction, an important role is played by selfconfidence, ability and desire to change something for the better through their own efforts, the desire to work hard and tirelessly towards a result. among the positive aspects it is worth noting the existence of such diagnostic constructs, characteristic of all respondents, as: adaptability, which reflects the ability to adapt to new situations and new conditions; optimism, which reflects hope and commitment to succeed, the desire to perceive the unstable reality not as a problem, but as an opportunity to solve it; common sense, which indicates the ability to discover a solution of the difficulty, while appealing to new sources of information; tolerance for ambiguity, thanks to which respondents can demonstrate lenient attitude to difficult, uncertain situations, situations with unclear results. among the respondents, the largest number of those prone to common sense were recorded among restaurant business employees and it professionals. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 55 employees of trade, restaurant, it spheres turned out to be the most adaptive people. a significant number of retail workers are optimistic. the scale of individual’s tolerance for ambiguity by mclain, used in this scientific research, allows to assess respondents’ attitude to novelty, to challenging assignments and to ambiguity. the data, obtained using the scale of individual’s tolerance for ambiguity by mclain, are summarized in table 2. table 2. the average values according to the results of the investigation of tolerance for ambiguity according to mclain’s scale source: authors’ own conception areas of activity points diagnostic constructs novelty complexity ambiguity event 4,7 3,9 3,4 tourism 4,3 4,3 3,9 restaurant business 4,5 4,4 4,7 trade 4,9 4,5 4,7 it 4,9 4,1 3,3 average value 4,6 4,2 4,0 as can be seen from table 2, employees of trade and restaurant business are most of all susceptible to novelties, while tourism workers remain conservative in this respect. positive perception of challenging assignments is most characteristic of employees in such areas as trade, restaurant business and tourism. negative perception of everything challenging is recorded in event-sphere workers. retail workers and restaurant employees showed the most pronounced positive attitude to uncertain situations, while it professionals are less susceptible to ambiguity. the study examined the correlations between creativity indicators according to the methodologies of torrance and tunik (table 3) and identified significant diagnostic constructs according to the methodology “personal readiness for changes” (adaptability, common sense, optimism, tolerance for ambiguity) and the scale of individual’s tolerance for ambiguity by mclain (attitude to novelty and ambiguity). creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity leonid khomenko, et al. 56 table 3. correlation analysis of indicators of creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity source: authors’ own conception scales e as e o f p e rf o rm in g p ro fe ss io n al t a sk s f le x ib il it y o ri g in al it y d e v e lo p m e n t c u ri o si ty im ag in at io n c o m p le x it y p ro p e n si ty f o r ri sk adaptability ,223* ,017 ,145 ,099 -,011 ,701 -,001 ,780 221* ,016 ,077 ,323 ,144 ,122 ,022 ,533 common sense ,265** ,003 ,277** ,008 ,213* ,013 ,118 ,005 ,211* ,013 ,088 ,325 ,287** ,000 ,133 ,199 optimism ,137 ,198 ,033 ,129 ,031 ,648 ,056 ,559 ,177 ,072 ,112 ,025 ,166 ,199 ,266** ,003 tolerance for ambiguity ,179 ,054 ,055 ,567 ,017 ,672 ,034 ,483 ,117 ,376 ,041 ,505 229* ,018 ,177 ,055 novelty ,245** ,007 ,211* ,010 ,221* ,013 -,007 ,844 ,076 ,323 ,111 ,222 ,187 ,055 ,261** ,005 ambiguity ,209* ,011 ,187 ,205 -,031 ,455 ,114 ,253 ,121 ,169 ,118 ,372 ,279** ,004 ,202* ,039 note: ** – the correlation is correct at the level of p £ 0,01; * – the correlation is correct at the level of p £ 0,05. as can be seen from table 3, the study found clear correlations between the indicators of creativity and readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity, in particular: 1) between the ease of performing professional tasks and adaptability, common sense, attitude to novelty and ambiguity; 2) between the flexibility and common sense and attitude to novelty; 3) between originality and common sense and attitude to novelty; 4) between curiosity, adaptability and common sense; 5) between complexity, common sense, tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty; 6) between propensity for risk, optimism, novelty and uncertainty. the above-described gives grounds to formulate the following: respondents who easily perform professional tasks, are adaptive, quick-minded, more receptive to something new, take ambiguity and uncertainty adequately; respondents who are flexible, in other words easily switch from one kind of activity to another, are smart and receptive to innovations; brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 57 respondents, who are characterized by an original approach to solving professional problems, often show common sense and embrace of novelties; inquisitive respondents are more prone than others to the manifestations of adaptability and common sense in unclear situations; respondents who can easily perform complex professional tasks are smart enough, they more often show tolerance for ambiguity and adequately respond to uncertainty; risk-prone respondents are characterized by optimism, positive perception of novelties and show tolerance for ambiguity. the conducted research makes it possible to build an author's model of the personality of a specialist who works under conditions of changes and ambiguity (figure 3). figure 3. author's model of a creative specialist working under conditions of change and ambiguity based on the analysed empirical data, it can be argued that itspecialists are the most creative under crisis conditions, because they are characterized by such indicators of creativity as originality, development, imagination, complexity, propensity for risk. the average level of creativity is inherent to the employees of the event-sphere (ease of performing professional tasks, development, curiosity, imagination), restaurant business (development, curiosity, propensity for risk, imagination), the area of trade (ease of performing professional tasks, originality, complexity, propensity for risk). tourism professionals are less prone to creativity (development, creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity leonid khomenko, et al. 58 curiosity). employees of the it industry have high level of readiness for changes under crisis conditions, as they are characterized by adaptability, common sense, tolerance, while personnel of the event-sphere is endowed with tolerance for ambiguity, optimism, adaptability. moderate susceptibility to changes was shown by tourism employees (optimism, common sense), restaurant workers (adaptability, tolerance), trade workers (adaptability, optimism). employees of the event-sphere showed low readiness for changes. trade workers are most tolerant for ambiguity, as they show positive attitude towards novelties and complex tasks, adequately treat ambiguity and uncertainty. restaurant workers (complexity, ambiguity) and it specialists (novelty) showed tolerance for ambiguity at the medium level. 5. discussion scientific research, similar to our study, confirms the correlation between creativity and tolerance for ambiguity in the context of specific professional activities of respondents, which is manifested in a significantly higher level of tolerance for ambiguity in creative individuals (robinson et. al., 2019). empirical research also proves the impossibility of implementing innovations without realizing the creative potential of the individual and his/her susceptibility to risk and verify the correlation between the specific features of a particular professional activity and the individual’s creativity and productivity (zheng & miller, 2017). advocacy for the idea of developing the so-called creative adaptability as a cognitive-behaviouralemotional ability to respond creatively and adaptively to stressful situations is similar to the concept of our study (orkibi, 2021). the diagnostic constructs, which we have verified empirically, including creativity, tolerance for ambiguity and adaptability, are also included in the program for developing entrepreneurial thinking and building an entrepreneurial career, proposed by the researchers (peschl et al., 2020). related to the topic of our research is the concept of the study, which aimed to develop new practical tools for determining the employee’s tolerance for ambiguity in the workplace. this study confirmed the connection between creativity and tolerance for ambiguity, the individual’s professional achievements. as in our study, the authors of this research work focus on the correlation between tolerance for ambiguity and a person’s ability to perform complex professional tasks, to respond to risks adequately (o’connor et al., 2017). the results of our research have proven, that it is necessary for the individual to consider uncertain and ambiguous situations as opportunities for professional growth, learning new things, relevant to the scientific results brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 59 of empirical research on the impact of creativity on activities in critical situations. this study has confirmed that an unstable environment provides many opportunities for entrepreneurship and reduces the level of perceived risk (cameron et al., 2018). the main study, different from ours, is the scientific research, which proves that the focus on innovations and creativity of staff is an alternative to any other investment and prerogative in human capital management, confirms the correlation between employees’ creativity and company’s productivity in general, between employees’ creativity and their level of well-being (miao & cao, 2019). the peculiarities, identified in our study, can become the basis for the development of correctional, training programs for the representatives of various areas of work. the effectiveness of such work was confirmed in the study, the training program of which provided an opportunity to develop readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity in managers of organizations (dobina et al., 2019). the similarity of a number of scientific investigations with our study consists in the confirmation of the relationship between the creativity of the employee’s personality and his/her tolerance for ambiguity, propensity for risk, the positive impact of the employees’ creativity on the productivity of their professional activities. however, in most similar studies the main emphasis is placed on target groups of students of different specialties, teachers, on the problems of the educational sphere in times of crisis and under conditions of uncertainty. the main difference between the concept of our study and the similar ones is in establishing correlations between the type of professional activity and creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity in the period of social constraints caused by the global pandemic. 6. conclusions the undertaken study has raised the issue of forming and improving creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity in representatives of various profession sunder crisis conditions, motivated by the impact of the above-mentioned constructs on the psychological health of individuals and their productivity. the results of this scientific research allowed to confirm the hypothesis that creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity contribute to increased productivity, make the individual more susceptible to innovations, facilitate the formation of non-standard ideas; under the conditions of social restrictions, caused by the worldwide pandemic, creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity are manifested creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity leonid khomenko, et al. 60 in the representatives of different professions in different ways. the nature of the work helps to modulate the manifestations of creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity. the study has found clear correlations between: the ease of performing professional tasks and adaptability, common sense, attitude to novelty and uncertainty; flexibility, common sense and attitude to novelty; originality and common sense and attitude to novelty; curiosity, adaptability and common sense; complexity, common sense, tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty; propensity for risk, optimism, novelty and uncertainty. the obtained empirical data made it possible to form an author's model of the personality of a specialist who works under conditions of change and ambiguity, who must be endowed with originality, adaptability, optimism and common sense. it has been empirically established that the most creative under crisis conditions are it-specialists, the workers of the event-sphere, restaurant business, trade industry are moderately creative; tourism workers are least prone to creativity. employees of the it and event industries have a high level of readiness for changes in crisis situations. moderate susceptibility to changes is shown by the personnel of tourism, restaurant business, trade spheres, while event-specialists showed low readiness for changes. trade workers have the highest rate of tolerance for ambiguity, employees of restaurant business and it industry showed the moderate level of tolerance for ambiguity. event specialists and tourism workers turned out to be intolerant for ambiguity. empirically obtained results of the study can be used by practical psychologists, crisis managers in order to develop correctional programs aimed at increasing the level of creativity and forming the staff’s readiness for desired and unexpected changes in their professional activities, developing resilient, adequate and positive attitude of workers to ambiguity and uncertainty under the conditions of socio-economic, political and other destructions. the prospects for further research in this area are the search, development, testing and implementation of effective psycho-correctional programs for the representatives of various types of professional activities for the formation of creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity. an important step is also the selection of tools and instruments for the implementation of psychocorrection programs, taking into account total digitalization, which stresses the need to develop such forms of psychocorrection, which can be implemented both in direct contact and using modern digital tools. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 61 references afanasieva, n. e., & ponomarenko, i. v. (2021). vplyv tolerantnosti do nevyznachenosti na formuvannia osobystosti fakhivtsiv ekstremalnoho profiliu diialnosti [the influence of tolerance to uncertainty on the formation of the personality of specialists of extreme profile]. abstracts of the report of the scientific-practical conference: psychological and pedagogical problems of professional education and patriotic education of the personnel of the system of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine. (pp. 210-212). kharkiv: kharkiv national university of internal affairs. http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/12745/1/psykhol_ta _ped_probl_prof_osvity_patriot_vykhovan_2021%20%282%29.pdf anderson r. c., & haney, m. (2020). reflection in the creative process of early adolescents: the mediating roles of creative metacognition, self-efficacy, and self-concept. psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000324 anderson, r. c., bousselot, t., katz-buoincontro, j., & todd, j. (2020). generating buoyancy in a sea of uncertainty: teachers creativity and well-being during the covid-19 pandemic. frontiers in psychology, 11, 614774. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.614774 bazhanova, n. a., & bardiier, h. l. (2005). personal readiness for change in the context of studying the phenomenon of "expectation". publishing house of the russian christian academy of humanities. burnett, c., & smith, s. (2019). reaching for the star: a model for integrating creativity in education. in c. mullen (ed.), creativity under duress in education?. creativity theory and action in education, 3 (pp. 179-199). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90272-2_10 cameron, t., moore, k., montgomery, r., & stewart, e. j. (2018). creative ventures and the personalities that activate them in a post‐disaster setting. creativity and innovation management, 27, 335–347. https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12270 cropley, a. (2020). creativity-focused technology education in the age of industry 4.0. creativity research journal, 32(2), 184-191. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2020.1751546 dobina, t., haidukevych, k., panchenko, s., petrova, i., & sabadash, j. (2019). effectiveness analysis of entrepreneurship model of development qualities of future managers. journal of entrepreneurship education, 22(3), 1-6. https://www.abacademies.org/articles/effectiveness-analysis-ofentrepreneurship-model-1528-2651-22-3-378.pdf dysa, o. (2020). psykholohichni chynnyky spryimannia innovatsii pratsivnykamy orhanizatsii [psychological factors of perception of innovations by http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/12745/1/psykhol_ta_ped_probl_prof_osvity_patriot_vykhovan_2021%20%282%29.pdf http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/12745/1/psykhol_ta_ped_probl_prof_osvity_patriot_vykhovan_2021%20%282%29.pdf https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/aca0000324 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc7848228/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.614774 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90272-2_10 https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12270 https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2020.1751546 https://www.abacademies.org/articles/effectiveness-analysis-of-entrepreneurship-model-of-development-qualities-of-future-managers-8258.html https://www.abacademies.org/articles/effectiveness-analysis-of-entrepreneurship-model-of-development-qualities-of-future-managers-8258.html https://www.abacademies.org/articles/effectiveness-analysis-of-entrepreneurship-model-1528-2651-22-3-378.pdf https://www.abacademies.org/articles/effectiveness-analysis-of-entrepreneurship-model-1528-2651-22-3-378.pdf creativity, readiness for changes and tolerance for ambiguity leonid khomenko, et al. 62 employees of organizations]. psychology: reality and perspectives, 15, 50-58. https://doi.org/10.35619/praprv.v1i15.184 felsman, p., gunawardena, s., & seifert, c. m. (2020). improve experience promotes divergent thinking, uncertainty tolerance, and affective wellbeing. thinking skills and creativity, 35, 100632. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2020.100632 fischer, r., scheunemann, j., & moritz, s. (2021). coping strategies and subjective well-being: context. matters journal of happiness studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00372-7 godinic, d., obrenovic, b., & khudaykulov, a. (2020). effects of economic uncertainty on mental health in the covid-19 pandemic context: social identity disturbance, job uncertainty and psychological well-being model. international journal of innovation and economic development, 6(1), 61-74. https://doi.org/10.18775/ijied.1849-7551-7020.2015.61.2005 koffman, j., gross, j., etkind, s. n., & selman, l. (2020). uncertainty and covid-19: how are we to respond? journal of the royal society of medicine, 113(6), 211–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076820930665 mayer, c. h. (2019). key factors of creativity and the art of collaboration in twenty-first-century workspaces. in m. coetzee (ed.), thriving in digital workspaces (pp. 147-166). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-24463-7_8 mehta, r., & dahl, d. w. (2019). creativity: past, present, and future. consumer psychology review, 2, 30–49. https://doi.org/10.1002/arcp.1044 miao r., & cao y. (2019). high-performance work system, work well-being, and employee creativity: cross-level moderating role of transformational leadership. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(9), 1640. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16091640 mishchykha, l. p. (2019). kreatyvnist yak vahoma kharakterystyka innovatsiinoi diialnosti vykladacha vyshchoi shkoly [creativity as an important characteristic of innovative activity of a high school teacher]. actual problems of psychology, 26, 194-202. http://appsychology.org.ua/data/jrn/v12/i26/23.pdf o'connor, p., becker, k., & bell, s. (2017). embracing ambiguity in the workplace: a new measure of tolerance of ambiguity. queensland university of technology, australia. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/108255/ oosthuizen, r. m. (2020). concepts of creative leadership of women leaders in 21st century. creativity studies, 13(1), 21–40. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2020.10267 orkibi, h. (2021). creative adaptability: conceptual framework, measurement, and outcomes in times of crisis. frontiers in psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588172 https://doi.org/10.35619/praprv.v1i15.184 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2020.100632 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00372-7 https://doi.org/10.18775/ijied.1849-7551-7020.2015.61.2005 https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076820930665 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24463-7_8 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24463-7_8 https://doi.org/10.1002/arcp.1044 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16091640 http://appsychology.org.ua/data/jrn/v12/i26/23.pdf https://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/o=27connor,_peter_j=2e.html https://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/becker,_karen.html https://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/bell,_sarah.html https://eprints.qut.edu.au/108255/ https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2020.10267 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588172 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 63 osin, e. n. (2010). faktornaia struktura russkoiazychnoi versyy shkaly obshchei tolerantnosty k neopredelennosty d. makleina [factor structure of the russian-language version of d. mclain's scale of general tolerance to uncertainty]. psychological diagnostics, 2, 65-86. https://publications.hse.ru/mirror/pubs/share/folder/5ah3vuasrd/direct /67229740.pdf peschl, h., deng, c., & larson, n. (2020). entrepreneurial thinking: a signature pedagogy for an uncertain 21st century. the international journal of management education, 19(1), 100427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2020.100427 robinson, j. r., workman, j. e. & freeburg, b. w. (2019). creativity and tolerance of ambiguity in fashion design students. international journal of fashion design, technology and education, 12(1), 96-104. https://doi.org/10.1080/17543266.2018.1516807 sibley, c. g., greaves, l. m., wilso, m. s., overall, n. c., lee, c. h. j., milojev, p., bulbulia, j., osborne, d., milfont, t., l., houkamau, c. a., duck, i. m., vickers-jones, r., & barlow, f, k. (2020). effects of the covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown on trust, attitudes toward government, and well-being. american psychologist, 75(5), 618–630. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000662 tanovic, e., hajcak, g., & joormann, j. (2018). hating waiting: individual differences in willingness to wait in uncertainty. journal of experimental psychopathology, january-march, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043808718778982 varina, h. b., & gworys, w. (2020). the psychological health of the personality and society: the challenges of today. 1.9. conceptual foundations of the development of personality’s psychological well-being as a factor of future specialist’s professional stability: project report. the academy of management and administration in opole. vyatkin, а. v., fomina, l. v., & shmeleva, zh. n. (2020). empathy, tolerance for uncertainty and emotional intelligence among the agro-industrial complex managers to predict the decision-making efficiency in the antagonistic game. earth and environmental science, 421, 032037. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/421/3/032037 yamnenko, h. (2021). creativity as a condition for increasing the competitiveness of the enterprise. path of science, 7(2), 1012-1018. https://doi.org/10.22178/pos.67-5 zheng, x., & miller, m. s. (2017). risky business: the driving factors of creative risk taking attitudes in engineering design industry. proceedings of asme 2017 international design engineering technical conferences & design conference. cleveland, ohio, usa. august 6–9, 2017. v007t06a028. asme. https://doi.org/10.1115/detc2017-67799 https://publications.hse.ru/mirror/pubs/share/folder/5ah3vuasrd/direct/67229740.pdf https://publications.hse.ru/mirror/pubs/share/folder/5ah3vuasrd/direct/67229740.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2020.100427 https://doi.org/10.1080/17543266.2018.1516807 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000662 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2043808718778982 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/421/3/032037 https://doi.org/10.22178/pos.67-5 https://doi.org/10.1115/detc2017-67799 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 202-212 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/277 impact of the psychiatric comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease lucretia anghel¹, bogdan ioan stefanescu2, diana patras3, liliana baroiu4, ioana anca stefanopol5, anamaria ciubara6 1 associate professor, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, 800216, galaţi, romania, anghel_lucretia@yahoo.com 2 doctor, clinical surgical department, clinical emergency county hospital "sf.apostol andrei", 800578, galaţi, romania, b_stefanescu@yahoo.com 3 resident doctor, gastroenterology department, clinical emergency county hospital "sf.apostol andrei", 800578, galaţi, romania, patras.diana@yahoo.com 4 associate professor, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, 800216, galaţi, romania, lilibaroiu@yahoo.com 5 lecturer, morphofunctional science department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, 800216, galaţi, romania, ancaflorea1969@yahoo.com 6 professor, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy,”dunărea de jos” university, 800216, galaţi, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) is one of the main causes of death with a significant impact on the quality of life and mental health of the patients as well as on the health system. the social costs of copd are significant, because this pathology has a negative impact on patients's professional performance and daily activity. the major risk factors for copd are age and smoking. extrapulmonary comorbidities are frequently associated with copd and may have an influence on the symptoms severity, and the frequency of the exacerbations, hospitalizations and mortality. psychiatric disorders, especially anxiety and depression, have been observed in clinical trials with an increased prevalence of copd. the relationship between anxiety, depression and copd is complex. psychiatric pathology is involved in influencing the pathophysiology of copd with a proven impact on the patient's prognosis. copd sleep disorders can aggravate pre-existing psychiatric pathology, the relationship between the two pathologies being bidirectional. the aim of this paper is to review the latest clinical trials on the existing evidence of psychiatric comorbidities impact on the evolution and prognosis of copd and the therapeutic alternatives for their improvement. the conclusion of the present study is that anxiety and depression should be periodically assessed by a multidisciplinary team in order to provide a complete management (pharmacological, pulmonary rehabilitation and cognitive-behavioral therapy), improving the patient's quality of life and prognosis. keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, anxiety, depression, outcome, cognitive-behavioral therapy. how to cite: anghel, l., stefanescu, b.i., patras, d., baroiu, l., stefanopol, i.a., & ciubara, a. (2022). impact of the psychiatric comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 202-212. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/277 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/277 mailto:anghel_lucretia@yahoo.com mailto:b_stefanescu@yahoo.com mailto:patras.diana@yahoo.com mailto:lilibaroiu@yahoo.com mailto:ancaflorea1969@yahoo.com mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/277 impact of the psychiatric comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease lucretia anghel, et al. 203 introduction the definition of copd, according to the global initiative for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (gold) involves exposure to noxius agents which results in a partially irreversible limitation of the airflow, causing shortness of breath and significant systemic effects. this definition also includes the clinical diagnosis of chronic bronchitis as well as the pathological diagnosis of emphysema (rabe et al., 2007). in clinical practice copd is diagnosed and staged according to the decreased airflow on spirometry. forced expiratory volume in 1 second / forced vital capacity with a value below 0.7 after administration of bronchodilator, confirms the diagnosis of copd. unlike asthma, decreased airflows are virtually irreversible and worsen progressively over time (nathell et al., 2007; tselebis et al., 2016; zwar et al., 2011). copd has a multifactorial etiology. the abnormal inflammatory response described in copd may be triggered by repeated exposure to harmful dust, gases, or vapors. increased genetic susceptibility, such as α-1 antitrypsin deficiency or family history of copd, has also been reported however, most often we manage to identify only smoking in the etiology of copd as a potential risk factor in the onset of the associated pathology such as atherosclerosis and cancer (patel & hurst, 2011). the social and economic impact of copd, is important and growing. according to the estimates of the global burden of disease study in 2030 copd will become worldwide, as the fourth cause of death and the seventh cause of loss of years of life, adjusted for disability (lopez et al., 2006). major comorbidities of copd copd-associated comorbidities include all diseases that coexist with copd without a direct causal relationship, diseases that have common risk factors and pathogenesis with copd and diseases that can be triggered, aggravated or complicated by copd hypoxia and systemic manifestations (hillas et al., 2015; thomsen, 2012). copd is a progressive disease with predominant lung damage but also with systemic damage. morphopathological and clinical studies have described the impairment of the central and peripheral nervous system, of the circulatory system (heart, large vessels and small vessels), of the smooth and striated muscles, of the excretory system especially the kidneys, of the digestive system especially in the liver and intestines. comorbidities are brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 204 important factors in the therapeutic management of copd and in the prognosis of these patients (baroiu et al. 2021; stefanopol et al. 2021). particularly in the elderly, comorbidities, are more common and are definitely associated with a higher mortality (charlson score), a poorer adherence to therapy, and a lower quality of life. (baroiu et al. 2018; divo et. al., 2012; halichidis et al. 2013; hillas, et al., 2015; matte et al., 2016). mental health and addiction concerns affect a large number of people around the world and are associated with various comorbidities including infections associated with healthcare or community source infection (baroiu et al., 2019; pumar et al., 2014; puteikis et al., 2021). clinical studies have shown that psychological pathology is significantly more common among copd patients, 55% of patients being diagnosed with anxiety and / or depression (laurin, et al., 2012; yohannes et al., 2010). many copd patients have temporary mood manifestations during exacerbations, which ameliorate immediately after recovery. thus the diagnosis of anxiety or depression in these patients is quite difficult and requires a multidisciplinary approach by a team of pulmonologists and psychiatrists. (falup-pecurariu et al., 2017; norwood, 2006). anxiety and copd anxiety has a prevalence of up to 19% in copd patients, a significantly higher value than in the general population or other chronic pathologies (pooler & beech, 2014). the occurence of anxiety in copd patients is correlated with the decreased respiratory function, with the exacerbations recurrence and with repeated hospitalization (kim et al., 2000, radulescu et al, 2021). it has been observed that patients who associate copd and anxiety are more affected by shortness of breath, have more hospitalizations and higher mortality rates (spitzer et al., 2011). anxiety in copd patients is associated with suffocation, fear of acute dyspnea attacks, and fear of death (dudley et al., 1980; smoller et al., 1996). anxiety can even cause a low-intensity dyspnea attack. this can increase with the worsening of dyspnea and the feeling of suffocation. it creates a vicious cycle in which anxiety is triggered by dyspnea and dyspnea can be aggravated by anxiety consecutive polypnea. this vicious circle prevented many patients from performing their daily activities (bailey et al., impact of the psychiatric comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease lucretia anghel, et al. 205 2004; cooper, et al., 1995; dowson et al., 2004; lupu et al., 2017; lustig et al., 1972). smoking is recognized as a risk factor for the progression of copd. anxious patients are a higher percentage of smokers than the general population. thus, smoking is correlated with the association of copd anxiety and nicotine withdrawal is accompanied by exacerbation of anxiety (breslau et al., 1992; patton et al., 1996; pauwels et al., 2001). pathophysiological correlations between dyspnea, hyperventilation and anxiety have also been described (apostu, 2021; ah gang, 2020; busu & teodorescu, 2017; oleshko, 2020). physiological studies have shown that respiratory rate is raised by anxiety and that polypnea associated with shallow breathing resulting from anxiety attack aggravates dyspnea in copd (o'donnell, et al., 2007; voicu et al., 2020). depression and copd in copd patients with long-term oxygen therapy, the prevalence of depression reaches up to 60% (paz-díaz, et al., 2007). the degree of depression is described in clinical trials as moderate to severe in about two-thirds of copd patients and the unknown subclinical in about a quarter of copd patients (kim et al., 2000; yohannes et al., 2010). copd and depression are common and involve increased global economic and social costs (matte, et al., 2016). depression causes decreased daily physical activity, quality of life and treatment adherence, and correlates with more frequent exacerbations of copd and increased mortality from copd (gales et al., 2014; hillas et al., 2015). clinical studies have found that predictors of depression in patients with cpod are severe symptoms and decreased quality of life. severe hypoxia, continued smoking, and severe inflammation may be associated with depression in copd patients (hanania et al., 2011). in copd patients, depression is most often expressed by the lack of appetite, feelings of pessimism and hopelessness, lethargy, poor sleep, difficulty in concentrating, social isolation, dysfunction in daily activity and functional skills, a perception of mood health at lower levels than reality (emery et al., 2008; graydon & ross, 1995; leidy, 1995; weaver et al., 1997; wagena et al., 2004). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 206 treatment and management the therapeutic approach in copd is multidisciplinary and aims, in addition to the involvement of the pulmonologist, the involvement of all specialists who monitor and lead the comorbidities treatment. effective control of copd comorbidities positively impacts the dyspnea-like symptoms and the exercise capacity, the quality of life, the frequency of exacerbations, and of hospital admission, the mortality and the patient prognosis (putcha et al., 2015). there are few studies evaluating the combined therapy of copd, anxiety and depression (mikkelsen et al., 2004). as an important principle of therapy, it is important to screen the symptoms of depression in each copd exacerbation episode and re-evaluation of the psychiatric regimen concomitantly with the pneumological regimen (cicutto & brooks, 2006). when completing the treatment regimen of the patient with copd, the drug interactions and the cumulated adverse effects of the medication necessary to treat the comorbidities should be considered (bourbeau et al., 2002). conclusions chronic obstructive pulmonary disease continues to be a challenging disease, given its complexity and heterogeneity. psychiatric illnesses can influence the severity of symptoms, the frequency of exacerbations, the quality of life, can cause increased costs of therapy and care, higher mortality and a more severe prognosis for the patient with copd. anxiety and depression are common in the list of comorbidities of the copd patient. the most common psychiatric disorders in copd are transient psychiatric symptoms during exacerbations. these symptoms either require treatment only during copd exacerbation, or persist between exacerbations and require ongoing monitoring and psychiatric therapy. the most common psychiatric symptoms are feelings of lack of self-confidence, lack of efficiency in social work, poor self-care, lack of desire to actively participate in pulmonary rehabilitation therapies, decreased physical activity, poor eating habits, continued smoking and poor adherence to treatment. the multidisciplinary approach of the patient with copd, with a complex plan of combined therapies can open the horizon of a much better prognosis in patients with copd. impact of the psychiatric comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease lucretia anghel, et al. 207 references apostu, i. (2021). the divorce and it’s psycho-social impact on the couple. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 9(2), 44-53. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.2/43 ah gang grace, g. c. . (2020). psychological strengths contributing to rural student’s academic performance in kadazandusun . moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2), 01-19. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/18 bailey, p. h. (2004). the dyspnea-anxiety-dyspnea cycle--copd patients' stories of breathlessness: "it's scary /when you can't breathe". qualitative health research, 14(6), 760–778. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732304265973 baroiu, l., beznea, a., plesea condratovici, c., onisor, c., grigore, c., topor, g., & rugină, s. (2019). comparative effectiveness of vancomycin and metronidazole for the initial episode of nonsevere clostridium difficile infection. revista de chimie, 70(10), 3741-3745. https://doi.org/10.37358/rev.chim.1949 baroiu, l., dumitru, c., iancu, a., leșe, a.c., drăgănescu, m., baroiu, n., anghel, l. (2021). covid-19 impact on the liver, world j clin cases, 9(16), 38143825. http://doi:10.12998/wjcc.v9.i16.3814 baroiu, n., baroiu, l., teodor, v. g., & ciocan, t. l. (2018). gaphical method for profiling the side mill which generate helical flute of tungsten carbide dental cross cut bur. revista română de materiale, 48 (1), 131-139. https://solacolu.chim.upb.ro/p131-139.pdf bourbeau, j., nault, d., borycki, e. (2002). comprehensive management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. hamilton. breslau, n., kilbey, m. m., & andreski, p. (1992). nicotine withdrawal symptoms and psychiatric disorders: findings from an epidemiologic study of young adults. the american journal of psychiatry, 149(4),464–469. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.149.4.464 busu, o. v., & teodorescu, b. (2017). therapeutic tales and psychotrauma in the state of mourning to children. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 5(1), 57-67. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/lumenphs/article /view/49 chaudhary, s. c., nanda, s., tripathi, a., sawlani, k. k., gupta, k. k., himanshu, d., & verma, a. k. (2016). prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. lung india : official organ of indian chest society, 33(2), 174–178. https://doi.org/10.4103/09702113.177441 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.2/43 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.2/43 https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/18 https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/18 https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732304265973 https://doi.org/10.37358/rev.chim.1949 https://solacolu.chim.upb.ro/p131-139.pdf https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.149.4.464 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/lumenphs/article/view/49 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/lumenphs/article/view/49 https://doi.org/10.4103/0970-2113.177441 https://doi.org/10.4103/0970-2113.177441 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 208 cicutto, l. c., & brooks, d. (2006). self-care approaches to managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a provincial survey. respiratory medicine, 100(9), 1540–1546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2006.01.005 cooper, c. b. (1995). determining the role of exercise in patients with chronic pulmonary disease. medicine and science in sports and exercise, 27(2), 147–157. divo, m., cote, c., de torres, j. p., casanova, c., marin, j. m., pinto-plata, v., zulueta, j., cabrera, c., zagaceta, j., hunninghake, g., celli, b., & bode collaborative group (2012). comorbidities and risk of mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. american journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 186(2), 155–161. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.2012010034oc dowson, c. a., town, g. i., frampton, c., & mulder, r. t. (2004). psychopathology and illness beliefs influence copd selfmanagement. journal of psychosomatic research, 56(3), 333–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3999(03)00040-0 dudley, d. l., glaser, e. m., jorgenson, b. n., & logan, d. l. (1980). psychosocial concomitants to rehabilitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. part 2. psychosocial treatment. chest, 77(4), 544–551. https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.77.4.544 emery, c. f., green, m. r., & suh, s. (2008). neuropsychiatric function in chronic lung disease: the role of pulmonary rehabilitation. respiratory care, 53(9), 1208–1216. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18718041/ falup-pecurariu, o., man, s. c., neamtu, m. l., chicin, g., baciu, g., pitic, c., cara, a. c., neculau, a. e., burlea, m., brinza, i. l., schnell, c. n., sas, v., lupu, v. v., françois, n., swinnen, k., & borys, d. (2017). effects of prophylactic ibuprofen and paracetamol administration on the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of the 10-valent pneumococcal nontypeable haemophilus influenzae protein d conjugated vaccine (phid-cv) co-administered with dtpa-combined vaccines in children: an open-label, randomized, controlled, non-inferiority trial. human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 13(3), 649–660. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2016.1223001 gales, c., & baroiu, n. (2014) on the bending of plates in the electromagnetic theory of microstretch elasticity. zamm-zeitschrift fur angewandte mathematik und mechanic, 94(1-2), 55-71. https://doi.org/10.1002/zamm.201200219 graydon, j. e., & ross, e. (1995). influence of symptoms, lung function, mood, and social support on level of functioning of patients with copd. research in nursing and health, 18(6), 525–533. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.4770180608 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2006.01.005 https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201201-0034oc https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201201-0034oc https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3999(03)00040-0 https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.77.4.544 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18718041/ https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2016.1223001 https://doi.org/10.1002/zamm.201200219 https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.4770180608 impact of the psychiatric comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease lucretia anghel, et al. 209 halichidis, s., dumea, e., & cambrea, c. s. (2013). seroclearence of hepatitis b surface antigen after entecavir treatment. journal of gastrointestinal and liver diseases. 22 (2), 236. hanania, n. a., müllerova, h., locantore, n. w., vestbo, j., watkins, m. l., wouters, e. f., rennard, s. i., sharafkhaneh, a., & evaluation of copd longitudinally to identify predictive surrogate endpoints (eclipse) study investigators (2011). determinants of depression in the eclipse chronic obstructive pulmonary disease cohort. american journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 183(5), 604–611. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201003-0472oc hillas, g., perlikos, f., tsiligianni, i., & tzanakis, n. (2015). managing comorbidities in copd. international journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 10, 95–109. https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s54473 kim, h. f., kunik, m. e., molinari, v. a., hillman, s. l., lalani, s., orengo, c. a., petersen, n. j., nahas, z., & goodnight-white, s. (2000). functional impairment in copd patients: the impact of anxiety and depression. psychosomatics, 41(6), 465–471. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.psy.41.6.465 laurin, c., moullec, g., bacon, s. l., & lavoie, k. l. (2012). impact of anxiety and depression on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation risk. american journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 185(9), 918–923. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201105-0939pp leidy, n. k. (1995). functional performance in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. image--the journal of nursing scholarship, 27(1), 23–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.1995.tb00809.x lopez, a. d., shibuya, k., rao, c., mathers, c. d., hansell, a. l., held, l. s., schmid, v., & buist, s. (2006). chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: current burden and future projections. the european respiratory journal, 27(2), 397–412. https://doi.org/10.1183/09031936.06.00025805 lupu, v.v., ignat, a., stoleriu, g., ciubara, a. b., ciubara, a., lupu, v., burlea, m., stratciuc, s. (2017). vaccination of children in romania between civic obligation and personal choice. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala 56, 123-132. http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civicobligation-and-personal-choice.html lustig, f. m., haas, a., & castillo, r. (1972). clinical and rehabilitation regime in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 53(7), 315–322. matte, d. l., pizzichini, m. m., hoepers, a. t., diaz, a. p., karloh, m., dias, m., & pizzichini, e. (2016). prevalence of depression in copd: a systematic https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201003-0472oc https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s54473 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.psy.41.6.465 https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201105-0939pp https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.1995.tb00809.x https://doi.org/10.1183/09031936.06.00025805 http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul-562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civic-obligation-and-personal-choice.html http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul-562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civic-obligation-and-personal-choice.html http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul-562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civic-obligation-and-personal-choice.html brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 210 review and meta-analysis of controlled studies. respiratory medicine, 117, 154–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2016.06.006 mikkelsen, r. l., middelboe, t., pisinger, c., & stage, k. b. (2004). anxiety and depression in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd). a review. nordic journal of psychiatry, 58(1), 65–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/08039480310000824 nathell, l., nathell, m., malmberg, p., & larsson, k. (2007). copd diagnosis related to different guidelines and spirometry techniques. respiratory research, 8(1), 89. https://doi.org/10.1186/1465-9921-8-89 norwood, r. (2006). prevalence and impact of depression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. current opinion in pulmonary medicine, 12(2), 113– 117. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.mcp.0000208450.50231.c6 o'donnell, d. e., banzett, r. b., carrieri-kohlman, v., casaburi, r., davenport, p. w., gandevia, s. c., gelb, a. f., mahler, d. a., & webb, k. a. (2007). pathophysiology of dyspnea in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a roundtable. proceedings of the american thoracic society, 4(2), 145–168. https://doi.org/10.1513/pats.200611-159cc oleshko, d., filippov, m., bets, y., basaraba, i., bets, i., & bratko, a. (2020). ability to overcome border guards’ psychological barriers during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of mediation & social welfare, 2(1), 44-59. https://doi.org/10.18662/jmsw/2.1/11 patel, a. r., & hurst, j. r. (2011). extrapulmonary comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: state of the art. expert review of respiratory medicine, 5(5), 647–662. https://doi.org/10.1586/ers.11.62 patton, g. c., hibbert, m., rosier, m. j., carlin, j. b., caust, j., & bowes, g. (1996). is smoking associated with depression and anxiety in teenagers?. american journal of public health, 86(2), 225–230. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.86.2.225 pauwels, r. a., buist, a. s., calverley, p. m., jenkins, c. r., hurd, s. s., & gold scientific committee (2001). global strategy for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. nhlbi/who global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (gold) workshop summary. american journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 163(5), 1256–1276. https://doi.org/10.1164/ajrccm.163.5.2101039 paz-díaz, h., montes de oca, m., lópez, j. m., & celli, b. r. (2007). pulmonary rehabilitation improves depression, anxiety, dyspnea and health status in patients with copd. american journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation, 86(1), 30–36. https://doi.org/10.1097/phm.0b013e31802b8eca pooler, a., & beech, r. (2014). examining the relationship between anxiety and depression and exacerbations of copd which result in hospital admission: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2016.06.006 https://doi.org/10.1080/08039480310000824 https://doi.org/10.1186/1465-9921-8-89 https://doi.org/10.1097/01.mcp.0000208450.50231.c6 https://doi.org/10.1513/pats.200611-159cc https://doi.org/10.18662/jmsw/2.1/11 https://doi.org/10.1586/ers.11.62 https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.86.2.225 https://doi.org/10.1164/ajrccm.163.5.2101039 https://doi.org/10.1097/phm.0b013e31802b8eca impact of the psychiatric comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease lucretia anghel, et al. 211 a systematic review. international journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 9, 315–330. https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s53255 pumar, m. i., gray, c. r., walsh, j. r., yang, i. a., rolls, t. a., & ward, d. l. (2014). anxiety and depression-important psychological comorbidities of copd. journal of thoracic disease, 6(11), 1615–1631. https://doi.org/10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2014.09.28 putcha, n., drummond, m. b., wise, r. a., & hansel, n. n. (2015). comorbidities and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: prevalence, influence on outcomes, and management. seminars in respiratory and critical care medicine, 36(4), 575–591. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0035-1556063 puteikis, k., mameniškienė, r., & jurevičienė, e. (2021). neurological and psychiatric comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. international journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 16, 553–562. https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s290363 rabe, k. f., hurd, s., anzueto, a., barnes, p. j., buist, s. a., calverley, p., fukuchi, y., jenkins, c., rodriguez-roisin, r., van weel, c., zielinski, j., & global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (2007). global strategy for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: gold executive summary. american journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 176(6), 532–555. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.200703-456so rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. . (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 smoller, j. w., pollack, m. h., otto, m. w., rosenbaum, j. f., & kradin, r. l. (1996). panic anxiety, dyspnea, and respiratory disease. theoretical and clinical considerations. american journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 154(1), 6–17. https://doi.org/10.1164/ajrccm.154.1.8680700 spitzer, c., gläser, s., grabe, h. j., ewert, r., barnow, s., felix, s. b., freyberger, h. j., völzke, h., koch, b., & schäper, c. (2011). mental health problems, obstructive lung disease and lung function: findings from the general population. journal of psychosomatic research, 71(3), 174–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2011.03.005 stefanopol, i.a., miulescu, m., baroiu, l., anghele, a.d., danila,d.m., tiron, z. (2021), an unusual case of meckel diverticulitis misdiagnosed as an infected urachal cyst. medicina, 57(5), 495, https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57050495 thomsen, m., dahl, m., lange, p., vestbo, j., & nordestgaard, b. g. (2012). inflammatory biomarkers and comorbidities in chronic obstructive https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s53255 https://doi.org/10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2014.09.28 https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0035-1556063 https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s290363 https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.200703-456so https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://doi.org/10.1164/ajrccm.154.1.8680700 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2011.03.005 https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57050495 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 212 pulmonary disease. american journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 186(10), 982–988. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201206-1113oc tselebis, a., pachi, a., ilias, i., kosmas, e., bratis, d., moussas, g., & tzanakis, n. (2016). strategies to improve anxiety and depression in patients with copd: a mental health perspective. neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 12, 297–328. https://doi.org/10.2147/ndt.s79354 voicu, d.f., anghel, l., baroiu, l., & stan, d. (2020). about minimal hepatic encephalopathy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 70-77. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/30 wagena, e. j., kant, i., huibers, m. j., van amelsvoort, l. g., swaen, g. m., wouters, e. f., & van schayck, c. p. (2004). psychological distress and depressed mood in employees with asthma, chronic bronchitis or emphysema: a population-based observational study on prevalence and the relationship with smoking cigarettes. european journal of epidemiology, 19(2), 147–153. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:ejep.0000017825.07470.41 weaver, t. e., richmond, t. s., & narsavage, g. l. (1997). an explanatory model of functional status in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. nursing research, 46(1), 26–31. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006199-199701000-00005 yohannes, a. m., baldwin, r. c., & connolly, m. j. (2000). depression and anxiety in elderly outpatients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: prevalence, and validation of the basdec screening questionnaire. international journal of geriatric psychiatry, 15(12), 1090–1096. https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-1166(200012)15:12<1090::aidgps249>3.0.co;2-l yohannes, a. m., willgoss, t. g., baldwin, r. c., & connolly, m. j. (2010). depression and anxiety in chronic heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: prevalence, relevance, clinical implications and management principles. international journal of geriatric psychiatry, 25(12), 1209–1221. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.2463 zwar, n. a., marks, g. b., hermiz, o., middleton, s., comino, e. j., hasan, i., vagholkar, s., & wilson, s. f. (2011). predictors of accuracy of diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in general practice. the medical journal of australia, 195(4), 168–171. https://doi.org/10.5694/j.13265377.2011.tb03271.x https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201206-1113oc https://doi.org/10.2147/ndt.s79354 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/30 https://doi.org/10.1023/b:ejep.0000017825.07470.41 https://doi.org/10.1097/00006199-199701000-00005 https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-1166(200012)15:12%3c1090::aid-gps249%3e3.0.co;2-l https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-1166(200012)15:12%3c1090::aid-gps249%3e3.0.co;2-l https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.2463 https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.2011.tb03271.x https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.2011.tb03271.x brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 178-188 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/81 a novel fuzzy scoring approach of behavioural interviews in personnel selection dana rad¹, valentina e. balas 2 1 assoc.prof.phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, dana@xhouse.ro 2 prof.phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, balas@drbalas.ro abstract: the need for a behavioural interview scoring strategy is a critical element in order to ensure an optimal organizational human capital. behavioural interview based on storytelling approach is a technique through which career seekers are required to provide clear details of how they have handled such workloads in the past. the whole literature assumes the existence of strong correlations between the score received on the selection interview and subsequent job performance, so in this paper we intend to highlight the relationship between these two assessments as well as the modelling using fuzzy logic of a car alternative system for scoring the selection interview. the results demonstrated that there is a very significant association between the classic interview score and work performance (r=0.894 to p<0.01). furthermore, there is also a significant correlation coefficient of r=0.925 at a p<0.01, between the fuzzy car score and job performance, thus the validity and the optimization of the procedure are fully proven. keywords: personnel selection; fuzzy scoring; behavioural interview; storytelling. how to cite: rad, d., & balas, v.e. (2020). a novel fuzzy scoring approach of behavioural interviews in personnel selection. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 178-188. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/81 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/81 mailto:dana@xhouse.ro mailto:balas@drbalas.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/81 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 179 1. behavioural interviews based on storytelling approach in personnel selection the interviews tend to be one of the most common forms of workforce selection within organizations around the world (ryan et al., 1999; wilk & cappelli, 2003). behavioral interview method is preferred by direct supervisors (lievens, highhouse & de corte, 2005). moreover, candidates perceive the interview as a selection method more accurate than other selection procedures (hausknecht, day & thomas, 2004; lievens, de corte & brysse, 2003; topor, colarelli & han, 2007) having already accustomed to the fact that the interview represents a part of the selection process (huffcutt et al., 2001) the research has found that structured interviews clearly have a much higher predictive power over unstructured or semi-structured interviews (cortina et al., 2000). meta-analysis developed by huffcut et al. (2001) identifies seven latent dimensions assessed throughout the interview: knowledge and skills, cognitive ability, social skills, personality, interests and preferences, matching with job and physical skills, practically most of the individual attributes currently studied by researchers, attributes that can differentiate between job candidates. the research developed by jansen et al. (2013) adds to the literature describing why the selection strategies focused on the consistency of behavioral reasoning (behavioral interviews) are reliable predictors of subsequent work results. based on interaction theory, the researchers note that the true variance performance in the selection interview and at work is clarified by interpersonal discrepancies in evaluating the situational demands. the need for a behavioral interview scoring strategy is a critical element (taylor & small, 2012). scores of situational and behavioral interviews meant to test teamwork associated when it was used a detailed behavioral anchored scale guide (klehe & latham, 2006). both situational and behavioral interviews predict equally gpa score obtained by the candidates, when there were given clear scoring instructions (klehe & latham, 2005). moreover, in telephone interviews when the recruiter utilized behavioral anchored rating scales in assessing both types of behavioral and situational interview, there was demonstrated the criterion validity relative to the rating given by the direct supervisor (there was not found a moderating effect of recruiters previous experience) (day & carroll, 2003; gibb & taylor, 2003). finally, höner wright and sablynski (2007) found that the ratings method structuring, utilizing behaviorally grounded evaluation for each query, improved the procedure's fidelity. based on those results, the a novel fuzzy scoring approach of behavioural interviews in personnel … dana rad et al. 180 usage of rating guides tends to be helpful to the selection interview's quality and effectiveness. behavioral interview based on storytelling approach is a technique by which job applicants are asked to provide clear examples of how they have accomplished certain workloads in the past which involve certain skills in certain circumstances. the logic behind this is the behavioral consistency principle, in other terms, the nature of a human does not alter profoundly during his life. the way certain tasks have been performed in the past is a good indicator of how certain tasks will likely be performed in the future in similar situations. behavioral assessments are structured into key capabilities. basic skills are those key skills, crucial to be carried out in an extremely satisfactory occupier of the post, usually contained in the organizational competency framework. for a particular job, the structure of basic skills will obviously depend on the job responsibilities and tasks described in the job description. the recruiter will pose questions in the behavioural interview regarding whether applicants have accomplished certain roles in the past, are generally interested in candidates' views on whether they respond to a given circumstance, and there are often "follow-up" questions to provide a better and more comprehensive description of previous career success. behavioral questions would almost always begin with "tell me about a moment when ..."; "give me an illustration of ...;" "describe a scenario where ..." behavioral responses will be positive scored following the car principle (challenge/action/result), namely to describe/ narrate specific circumstances of the situation, to describe the action taken in handling the situation and to describes the result of the action. there will be also appreciated prompt, short and succinct answers. thus, in general, the types of questions require applicants to describe/narrate a problem or a situation, the actions they have undertaken to manage the problem and results of situation, allowing recruiter to quickly assess mental patterns of a candidate in the management of certain situations. if recruiters feel that there are areas which have failed to address, they could help in guiding candidate response. for example, in answering the question "describe a moment when you worked under pressure" in the case which the candidate is focused on how to deal with the practical aspects of the problem but failed to specify how did he manage to approach stress during and after the event, the recruiters may prompt with another question such as "how did you adapt to stress? ". this fact will provide an opportunity to present a complete picture of his behavior. this prompting brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 181 strategy may be affected by the subjectivity of recruiter. if the recruiter sympathize a candidate, he may be tempted to prompt the candidate. 2. fuzzy car model for scoring behavioural interviews one of the main assumptions of this paper is that the recruitment and selection process of staff represents the main way to ensure a performing human capital within organizations. in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of behavioral interview as a method of selection for technical personnel, there it was analyzed the relationship between the interview score and subsequent job performance of 51 employees within a multinational automotive company in arad county. both behavioral interview selection and method for evaluating of individual performance are standardized techniques within the studied company; both tools regard the assessment of those skills considered fundamental at organizational level. the whole literature assumes the existence of strong correlations between the score received on the selection interview and subsequent job performance, so in this paper we intend to highlight the relationship between these two assessments as well as the modeling using fuzzy logic of a car alternative system for scoring the selection interview. fuzzy logic represents the most widely accepted technique for approaching uncertainty, given the strong subjectivity which characterizes the assessment of professional competence. there was extracted from the organization archive data of 51 employees participating in this research: interview score and individual professional performance assessment score. regarding the description of the sample, 29 people are masculine and 22 people are feminine. employees are aged between 25 and 39 years. regarding previous work experience, there was a variation between 1 and 13 years of previous professional experience. the two instruments used described briefly below are: behavioral interview and job performance evaluation sheet. hiring procedure requires that candidates who have passed the screening cv stage, to be invited for an interview at the company. the recruiter will consider a summary of the inter-view that will be completed immediately after the finalization of the interview (the approximate length of interview: 30 minutes). according to the following general parameters, the recruiter awarded each applicant a rating between 1 and 5, where 1 means very low level, 2 stands for low level, 3stands for average level, 4 stands for high level and 5 for very high: education, experience, overall skills, general appearance and managerial skills (for management). for calculating the final a novel fuzzy scoring approach of behavioural interviews in personnel … dana rad et al. 182 score obtained in the selection interview there will be calculated the mean of subscores of each 4/5 of general criteria. media resulted (1 to 5) represents the total score from the interview sheet, where 1 represents very low skills, 2 equals low skills, 3 equals average skills, 4 equals increased abilities, and 5 very high skills. assessing job performance represents a standardized procedure at the organizational level, being carried out at the end of each year. depending on the score obtained on the annual performance evaluation, decision makers determine promotion and salary raise. the direct supervisor assigned each subordinate a score be-tween 1 and 5, where 1 represents a very low proficiency level, 2 equals low level, 3 equals average level, 4 equals increased level, and 5 equals very high level on 11 performance criteria: 1. specific knowledge in the workplace, 2. work quantity/quality, 3. communication, 4. interpersonal skills, 5. organizational thinking, 6. decision making and judgment, 7. client satisfaction, 8. collaboration skills, 9. changeable adaptability, 10. human resource management (for staff carrying out management) and 11. performance against objectives (only for managerial positions). for calculating the total score obtained by the employee, there will be calculating the average of subscores for each of the 9/11 general criteria. the average obtained (1 to 5) represents the total score of the evaluation of professional performance, where 1 stands for very low performance, 2 stands for poor performance, 3 stands for average performance, 4 stands for increased performance, and 5 for very high performance. the idea of this fuzzy model is to calculate the final inter-view score by car type responses provided by each candidate, as detached from their behavioral answers (storytelling approach). a simplified procedure is conducted for granting final interview score by establishing decision rules based on the interdependence of these car type responses rather than calculating the average of the 16/20 criteria scores. this research aims is to verify whether this new fuzzy model for calculating the final interview scores represents a valid procedure reported to post-employment job performance. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 183 fuzzy logic controllers (flc) realizes the fuzzy reasoning, which derives from the control theory, based on open-loop controlled process mathematical models. the flc has been effectively applied in most of the practical problems. we have used the fuzzy controller sugeno with singletons (crisp values) instead of fuzzy sets for the output variable. our fuzzy controller for scoring interview responses consists of three inputs (car): challenge, with two linguistic labels: bad and good; action, with three linguistic labels: bad, medium and good; result, with three linguistic labels: bad, medium and good; and one output with 18 singletons. the values chosen for the singletons are linearly distributed between 1 and 5, but this even distribution may be subsequently optimized. starting form this simple structure of assigning scores we can design 3 x 3 x 2 = 18 control rules that will create the de-sired input-output function (a control surface). figure 1. the main window of the cars application figure 2. action input variable with three fuzzy labels (bad, medium, good) a novel fuzzy scoring approach of behavioural interviews in personnel … dana rad et al. 184 figure 3. the output variable car score with 18 singletons figure 4. the rule base 3. results and discussion in order to test whether this novel system performs more efficient, the fuzzy inference system (fis) interface in matlab is used as implementation software environment. fis offers two visual tools to facilitate the results analysis, in figure 5 is depicted the view surface panel and in figure 6 is depicted the view rules panel. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 185 figure 5. a car score control surface (for challenge = 0.5) control surfaces are loci of the outputs variables when the input data can be represented by all values. in figure 4, the areas colored in blue depict candidate’s lower scores and yellow colored areas are associated with high scores. figure 5 illustrates the dynamic representation of the rule base. figure 6 showed that the activation thresholds of each linguistic term and of each rule can be tracked, including the final outcome (3.76 in this case). the key benefit of this form of fuzzy expert models is the complete clarity which can be conveniently clarified by the inferential rules. it creates prerequisites for more changes and modifications which are highly effective. a novel fuzzy scoring approach of behavioural interviews in personnel … dana rad et al. 186 figure 6. the dynamic representation of the rule base to test the robustness of the fuzzy algorithm for calculating the final interview score, the pearson correlation coefficients between classic interview score (mean m=2.941, standard deviation sd=0.778), fuzzy car score (m=2.99; sd=0.779) and subsequent job performance (m=3.020, sd=0.786) are to be calculated. to establish if the correlation coefficient is significantly different from zero, the t-test is used. thus, there is verification of an association between the two variables. 4. conclusions the results demonstrated that there is a very significant association between the classic interview score and work performance (r=0.894 to p<0.01), thus demonstrating construct validity. here the construct refers to specific professional competencies needed to effectively perform job related tasks, that have been investigated and tested in both interview and performance assessment. furthermore, there is also a significant correlation coefficient of r=0.925 at a p<0.01, between the fuzzy car score and job performance, thus the validity and the optimization of the procedure are fully proven. from the above results it is resulting that this car fuzzy algorithm represents an innovative and highly practical method of scoring behavioral brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 187 interviews, based on storytelling car approach. it can be applied very easy for immediately implementation by human resources specialists. in this analysis a car fuzzy model for employee evaluation behavioral interview was delineated and introduced with an illustration. a simple alternative to the conventional approach of rating behavioral interviews may be the proposed method. using current evidence, the suggested program was tested. this is suggested that the procedure proposed to verify workforce selection using behavioral interviewing based on storytelling methodology was used to produce optimum outcomes. the proposed employee selection framework has the following advantages: decision makers should split down the question of compound job selection into a clear, more rational evaluation of the variables. the fuzzy system is based on car type responses, which commonly occur in any candidate’s job interview narrative story. during the workforce selection process, the model will reduce both time and costs. in a future investigation, it will be interesting to test the influence of different membership functions on the overall results. references cortina, j. m., goldstein, n. b., payne, s. c., davison, h. k. & gilliland, s. w. (2000). the incremental validity of interview scores over and above g and conscientiousness scores. personnel psychology, 53, 325−351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00204.x day, a. l. & carroll, s. a. (2003). situational and patterned behavior description interviews: a comparison of their validity, correlates, and perceived fairness. human performance, 16, 25−47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1601_2 gibb, j. l. & taylor, p. j. (2003). past experience versus situational employment: interview questions in a new zealand social service agency. asia pacific journal of human resources, 41, 371−383. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038411103041003008 hausknecht, j. p., day, d. v. & thomas, s. c. (2004). applicant reactions to selection procedures: an updated model and meta-analysis. personnel psychology, 57, 639-683. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2004.00003.x honer, j., wright, c. w. & sablynski, c. j. (2007). puzzle interviews: what are they and what do they measure? applied h.r.m. research, 11, 79−96. huffcutt, a. i., conway, j. m., roth, p. l. & stone, n. j. (2001). identification and meta-analytic assessment of psychological constructs measured in http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00204.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1601_2 https://doi.org/10.1177/1038411103041003008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2004.00003.x a novel fuzzy scoring approach of behavioural interviews in personnel … dana rad et al. 188 employment interviews. journal of applied psychology, 86, 897−913. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.86.5.897 jansen, a., melchers, k. g., lievens, f., kleinmann, m., brändli, m., fraefel, l. & könig, c. j. (2013). situation assessment as an ignored factor in the behavioral consistency paradigm underlying the validity of personnel selection procedures. journal of applied psychology, 98(2), 326-341. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0031257 klehe, u. & latham, g. (2005). the predictive and incremental validity of the situational and patterned behavior description interviews for team playing behavior. international journal of selection and assessment, 13, 108−115. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0965-075x.2005.00305.x klehe, u. & latham, g. (2006). what would you do – really or ideally? constructs underlying the behavior description interview and the situational interview in predicting typical versus maximum performance. human performance, 19, 357−382. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1904_3 lievens, f., de corte, w. & brysse, k. (2003). applicant perceptions of selection procedures: the role of selection information, belief in tests, and comparative anxiety. international journal of selection and assessment, 11, 67−77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00227 lievens, f., highhouse, s. & de corte, w. (2005). the importance of traits and abilities in supervisors' hirability decisions as a function of method of assessment. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 78, 453−470. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317905x26093 ryan, a. m., mcfarland, l. baron, h. & page, r. (1999). an international look at selection practices: nation and culture as explanations for variability in practice. personnel psychology, 52, 359-391. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.17446570.1999.tb00165.x taylor, p. j. & small, b. (2012). asking applicants what they would do versus what they did do: a meta-analytic comparison of situational and past behavior employment interview questions. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 75, 277−294. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317902320369712 topor, d. j., colarelli, s. m. & han, k. (2007). influences of traits and assessment methods on human resource practitioners' evaluations of job applicants. journal of business and psychology, 21, 361−376. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-006-9033-6 wilk, s. l. & cappelli, p. (2003). understanding the determinants of employer use of selection methods. personnel psychology, 56, 103-124. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00145.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.5.897 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0031257 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0965-075x.2005.00305.x https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1904_3 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00227 http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317905x26093 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00165.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00165.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317902320369712 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-006-9033-6 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00145.x brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 78-97 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/193 prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional psychopedagogy for children with intellectual disabilities liudmyla chepurna¹, yuliia bondarenko2, oleg lisovets3, iryna kuzava4, larysa odynchenko5, tetiana dehtiarenko6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, chepurnal@gmail.com 2 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, bondarenkosspu@gmail.com 3 nizhyn mykola gogol state university, ukraine, lisooleg@gmail.com 4 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, kutopir@gmail.com 5 state higher educational institution "donbas state pedagogical university", ukraine, odinchenkolk@ukr.net 6 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, dehtiarenkosspu@gmail.com abstract: the history of the use of school textbooks as a special teaching tool dates back more than two centuries. throughout its existence, the textbook has played a significant role in teaching students. it records the amount of knowledge, skills and abilities to be acquired in the learning process. the textbook is a special didactic object, which is both a carrier of the content of education, forms of recording its various elements and a project of the educational process. it implements the substantive and procedural aspects of learning in their organic unity, because the content of education and the learning process are closely interrelated, without each other impossible. one of the important areas of research in the history of pedagogy is the study of the history of school textbooks, a phenomenon that has come a long way in history, and at the present stage is an important tool for learning. the didactic functions of the school textbook are determined: informational, consolidation and control, systematization, selfeducation, integrating, coordinating, reference, developmental and educational. it is established that foreign and domestic correctional pedagogy has accumulated some experience in the practical creation of textbooks for the auxiliary school. most of all in ukraine it concerns textbooks on native language and reading. it was found that the formation and development of textbooks for children with intellectual disabilities in ukraine were not the subject of a comprehensive analysis that would overcome the fragmentary historical and pedagogical knowledge to understand the historical experience gained in ukraine and help identify the most progressive ideas and provide useful material for use by authors of textbooks in modern conditions. keywords: sensorimotor education, abnormal children, development of defectology, special education, psychophysical development, didactic functions. how to cite: chepurna, l., bondarenko, y., lisovets, o., kuzava, i., odynchenko, l., & dehtiarenko, t. (2021). prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional psychopedagogy for children with intellectual disabilities. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 78-97. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/193 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/193 mailto:chepurnal@gmail.com mailto:bondarenkosspu@gmail.com mailto:lisooleg@gmail.com mailto:kutopir@gmail.com mailto:odinchenkolk@ukr.net mailto:dehtiarenkosspu@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/193 prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional … liudmyla chepurna 79 introduction the school textbook as a product of centuries-old history, and at the same time, as a carrier of educational content, is always a reflection of its era the system of values, ideology, culture, worldview, the prevailing stereotypes of modern society. in addition, the textbooks embody the knowledge, scientific achievements of a particular historical era (chepurna et al., 2020). studying the past textbook is necessary to understand the present and predict the future. in the modern pedagogical literature there are a number of interpretations of the textbook, starting from the simplest, empirical, reflecting the external features, ending with the most abstract, trying to reflect the inner essence. most judgments about the essence of the textbook comes down to the fact that on the one hand it is the content of education, and on the other a means of learning. according to zuev (1983), "a modern school textbook is a mass textbook that teaches the subject content of education and defines the activities designed by the school program for compulsory mastering by students, taking into account their age or other characteristics" (p. 58). bespalko (1988) believes that a school textbook is a pedagogical system, a massive educational book designed for students to assimilate a known amount of information on a certain branch of scientific knowledge and to manage their educational and cognitive work in the process of mastering the techniques of mental and practical activity. thus, the textbook contains educational information in the form of: subject, scientific knowledge about the methods of activity that are part of the content of education; material that helps to master this knowledge; the textbook should be presented in the form of books; the textbook is designed to serve the organization of training and help manage the assimilation of educational information. through the textbook in combination with other teaching aids the content of education is realized (bespalko, 1988; behas et al., 2019; nerubasska, & maksymchuk, 2020; nerubasska, palshkov, & maksymchuk, 2020; melnyk et al., 2019; sheremet, leniv, loboda, & maksymchuk, 2019; gerasymova et al., 2019; onishchuk et al., 2020; maksymchuk et al., 2018; 2020a; 2020b; bakhmat et al., 2019). brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 80 lerner, skatkin, & shakhmayev (1982), pointing to the understanding of the role of the textbook, gives the following definition: the textbook should serve the organization of the whole learning process. zuev determined that "the textbook combines the subject content and types of cognitive activity of students" (1983, p. 36). beilinson (1985) pointed out that the textbook is a system consisting of many elements, each of which performs certain functions, carries its own specialized service. according to bespalko (1988), the purpose of teaching in the textbook should not only be declared, but also provided with content for its implementation. it is necessary to have a clearly defined goal and didactically developed content. slastyonin, isayev, & shiyanov (2001) defined the role of the textbook as educational literature in which the design of educational content is carried out. the textbook is a special didactic object, which is also a carrier of the content of education, forms of fixing its various elements in the educational process. it implements the substantive and procedural aspects of learning, which are closely related and impossible without each other. the textbook is a methodological tool, it should be programmed not only for the student's activities, but also for the teacher's activities. it does not only gives material, but also determines the method of working with it. the textbook provides a scheme of coordination of all teaching aids needed to solve each educational task and the subject as a whole, depending on the specifics of the subject, even the topic. according to scientists, the textbook integrates and programs the functions of other teaching aids, and its system of functions is basic. that is why it is called the leader of educational literature. other educational publications are grouped around the textbook, and it coordinates their functional use. almost all editions specify, supplement and develop what is contained in textbooks. the concept, role and functions of a school textbook among textbooks, the textbook carries the greatest functional load. it is characterized by the greatest completeness of functions, the highest level of their integral implementation, as well as the presence of most special functions. according to beilinson (1985), a textbook is a workbook that serves to solve and define educational and upbringing tasks, to achieve the goal of this field of education (p. 13). the author has defined an educational book as such, which belongs to the category of specially created tools designed to prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional … liudmyla chepurna 81 achieve certain results in common conditions of the learning process. therefore, how this tool fulfills its purpose is crucial in the development of its quality and effectiveness, and therefore, the main in the process of planning, preparation and design of educational publications. analyzing the works on the soviet textbook, one can point to the development of only the most general requirements for the textbook: 1. scientific content; 2. ideological and educational orientation of the content; 3. accessibility of the presentation to the level of teaching of students for which the textbook is intended; 4. availability of illustrations. the author points out the low quality of textbooks for high school compared to the tasks facing it. at the same time, it identifies the reasons that affect the quality of textbooks. among them he mentions the extreme weakness of the theoretical development of issues related to textbooks, pointing out that before the revolution there was no theoretical research on the problems of the textbook, because there were no research institutions. therefore, in the pre-revolutionary pedagogical literature there is no work on the study of the textbook, especially in relation to its methodological part. also, the creation of a quality textbook has long been influenced by various theories and concepts that denied the existence of the textbook in general, proposing in the first years after the revolution to create a variety of textbook surrogates in the form of comprehensive workbooks, textbooks, books of the project type. the author sees to some extent the lack of proper textbooks in the fact that research institutes after the resolution of the central committee of the cpsu(b) of february 16, 1933 did not begin proper work on textbooks, and the people's commissariat of education did not oblige them before. only in 1946-1947 did separate articles appear concerning the textbook by khodakov (1959). on other issues, especially the methodological construction of textbooks, views are quite diverse and opposite. the author emphasizes that not even the concept of "textbook" has been developed and what role it should have played in the learning process. analyzing the definition of the textbook, given in the works of goncharova (2015) and others, the author emphasizes that none of the proposed definitions satisfies him, and asks a rhetorical question: "how to correctly define the concept of the textbook?", emphasizing that not every textbook can be a textbook. it can only be a special kind of textbook, characterized by some special features. taking this into account, a textbook brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 82 is such an educational book containing a systematic presentation of knowledge on a certain subject, intended for compulsory assimilation by students. also, the textbook should reveal the scope and content of all concepts that make up the content of the school curricula in accordance with the purpose and objectives of education, defining for each concept. for the twenties of the twentieth century is characterized by the definition of methodological foundations for the creation and design of textbooks in accordance with the requirements of the time. the textbook was to express the class, party position of the author, and the content to reflect science and culture in their development and to form the worldview of students. systematization of learned scientific knowledge is defined as one of the most important functions of a textbook. assumptions were supposed in the sense of debatable problems and unreasonable conclusions. thus, the textbook plays the role of a project as the content of education and the learning process, so it performs certain functions. beilinson (1985) in the concept of "function" puts the meaning adopted in sociology: it is the role, purpose, correlation with the purpose, i.e. it is what we expect from this product (in this case from the book). the starting point in the analysis of the functions of the textbook, according to lerner, skatkin, & shakhmayev (1982), should be social goals and learning conditions. in his opinion, these components form a metasystem for the learning process, so their analysis contributes to the selection of global functions of the textbook by lerner, skatkin, & shakhmayev (1982). the number of textbook functions is not constant. in some lists they number up to 7, in others up to 22. most often, scientists note the following functions: informational, transformational, systematization, consolidation and control, self-education, integrating, coordinating, developmental and educational (zuev, 1983; beilinson, 1985). in addition to the functions mentioned above by the authors, kodlyuk (2005) also singles out the function of a reference book and social and cultural education. the essence of the reference book function is to obtain accurate information, especially where access to it is difficult. if the information is publicly available, the textbook can play the role of "the last information station" (kodlyuk, 2005, p. 35). the function of social and cultural education involves the formation of the life position of the student, ensuring his socialization. prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional … liudmyla chepurna 83 some authors link the functions of the textbook with its structure and components and divide them into two groups. the first, didactic, includes informational, methodological and formative. they contribute to the solution of educational problems, the assimilation of cognitive and moral values by students, the socialization of the individual, first of all, it is a didactic function. under the didactic function of the school textbook, we understand its purposefully formed properties (qualities) as a carrier of educational content and the main book of teaching, most fully consistent with the purpose of the textbook in the implementation of educational content in developmental and educational learning. zuev (1983) draws attention to the fact that in determining the didactic functions of the textbook it is important to take into account the specific historical conditions in which the school called to implement the social order of society, and which dictate the methods and structure of the learning process. according to the author, thanks to the didactic functions of the school textbook the most complete and consistent implementation of pedagogic, educational and developmental learning objectives. zuev (1983) based on the fact that a textbook is a teaching tool, which has a certain structured book form, for the improvement of which it is necessary to know not only its broad function in the system of society, but also its specific official purpose in the process of implementation learning objectives, in the description of the functions of the textbook suggests reflecting its internal originality (p. 57). given that one of the tasks of the educational process was the transfer of relevant information to students, zuev (1983) as the leading function of the textbook identifies the information function. its essence is to fix the content of education and activities that are formed in students in the study of the subject, with the definition of a certain amount of information (zuev, 1983, p. 59). beilinson (1985) in his work gives an answer to the question of why it is necessary to highlight the functions of a textbook, in particular, he pays attention to what the optimal number of functions of a textbook should be and why they need to be allocated. the author notes that the more functions are implemented in the textbook, the thicker the book. concludes that a different approach to defining the functions of a textbook is needed. he considers function, first of all, as a social category, because “in sociology, function is a role, purpose, correlation with purpose. correlated in importance, method and degree of participation in achieving the goal ". the functions of textbooks are considered in terms of their use for developmental and educational training, in particular: informational, brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 84 transformational, systematizing, organization of intercourse and interdisciplinary links, consolidation and self-control, self-education, organizational-procedural, developmental and educational. "for educational literature as a whole and for each of its publications, the establishment of the relationship and subordination of the function is of paramount importance" by beilinson (1985, pp. 1419). the functions (transformational, systematizing, generalizing, motivational, controlling, methodological) highlighted by beilinson (1985) can be combined into a separate group. they specify and serve the information. the transformational function of the school textbook is divided into adaptive (ensuring accessibility) and motivational (awakening of interest, development of cognitive activity). it is related to the processing of knowledge included in the textbook, primarily on the principle of accessibility. motivational function stimulates the activity of students to acquire knowledge, skills, forms cognitive interests. systematizing and generalizing functions are aimed at ensuring a clear logical sequence of presentation of educational material and its generalization at different stages of learning. the methodological function is aimed at equipping students with methods of cognition, acquaintance with general and specific types and methods of cognitive and practical activities. the control and corrective function aims to create a relationship "teacher-student", the formation of students' attitudes to the acquired knowledge, to the surrounding reality, the formation of a system of personality integrity. beilinson (1985) attaches great importance to the developmental and educational function of the textbook, but says nothing about the corrective orientation of all functions. the author argues that the greatest functional load among educational books is the textbook, because it integrates and programs the functions of teaching aids, and the system of functions is basic. he considers functionality to be an important feature of educational literature. in his opinion, functionality determines the composition, place and role of the textbook in the system of educational publications, the very possibility of creating textbooks, their design and structuring. it presents all functions in a certain sequence and interdependence from each other. zuev (1983) and beilinson (1985), considering the textbook as a system with appropriate functions, defined its didactic functions by a prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional … liudmyla chepurna 85 systematic approach that corresponds to the systemic nature of the object of study. thanks to the functions, the corresponding media are determined the structural components of the textbook. another group includes the functions of the textbook, aiming and organizing the student's activities in the process of independent work: the function of planning, self-education, communicative, integrating, coordinating, developmental and educational. they provide the textbook with the role of a skill tool. the function of planning the student's independent activity is implemented in textbooks in the material that reveals the finished action plan. the function of self-education serves to form skills and abilities to independently replenish their knowledge and applying them. we are talking about the formation of learning skills (organizational, practical, intellectual). the communicative function of the textbook is manifested in the activities of students in the process of communication. purposeful activity of students under the guidance of the teacher, formation of its various kinds, helping them in the course of activity during mastering of a training material, orientation in it and a support on it in practical activity provides function of fixing and self-control. the integrative function provides assistance in the selection and assimilation of knowledge acquired by students in the process of various activities from different sources of information. the coordinating function ensures the use of all teaching aids, the assimilation of additional information that students received from extracurricular media. active formation of important features of a harmoniously developed personality, according to zuev (1983), provides the developmental and educational function of the textbook. talyzina (1978) developed a functional-target orientation of the textbook, which is based on the analysis of the goals and content of education, taking into account the process of learning and individual characteristics of students. highlighting the functions of the teacher in the learning process, the acquisition of knowledge by students, the author considers them in terms of implementation in the school textbook and grouped into 5 groups (talyzina, 1978): 1. textbook as a carrier of educational content; 2. use of the textbook to obtain information about students; 3. the textbook performs functions related to the formation of motives; brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 86 4. introduction of the content of education in the process of education; 5. development and introduction to the textbook of educational tasks. eremenko (1985) noted that the textbook is the main book for students, which provides a system of knowledge defined by the curriculum in each subject. according to the author, the content of the textbook should be ideologically sound and educational. thus, in the textbook first of all the educational function should be realized, and the requirement of giving in the textbook of close connection of the theory with practice assumes realization of cognitive activity (eremenko, 1985, p. 94). the second group included organizational functions, the implementation of which ensures proper planning and design of the educational process, management and control of learning outcomes. lerner, skatkin, & shakhmayev (1982) considered the leading function of guiding the process of mastering the content of education. in his opinion, in modern conditions, the textbook is the main carrier of social experience embodied in the relevant model of learning. it is under the condition of a clear organization of this guide that the textbook is able to really help solve the developmental and educational task of learning (lerner, skatkin, & shakhmayev, 1982). in the textbooks for the first stage school, which implement the ideas of the developmental education of the system of zankov (1960), the developmental function is highlighted as the leading. savchenko (1997) allocates informational, developmental and motivational functions as leading textbooks for junior schoolchildren. zhuravlev (1989) to the leading function, refers to the function of guiding the cognitive activity of students. zuev (1983) singles out the developmental and educational function in the leading role, since, according to the scientist, it permeates all other functions of the textbook. we fully share the opinion of the author and also define developmental and educational as the leading function of a textbook for mentally retarded children. our study is impressed by the approach to the selection of the leading function of the textbook, which is based on the psychological theory of activity. therefore, the leading one in the system of didactic functions of the textbook is recognized as motivational, the allocation of which "should strengthen all other functions of the textbook", which, in turn, will strengthen the motivational. it is probable that the considered functions are closely interconnected, and therefore their division is rather conditional. the prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional … liudmyla chepurna 87 combination of functions of the textbook allows you to create a textbook that activates the learning process of students and aims to correct their psychophysical disorders. consideration of the functions of the textbook allows from the most general positions to approach the question of the requirements for the textbook in terms of its construction and correctional orientation, because the functions of the textbook are implemented through its structural components. the analysis of special literature showed that in general pedagogy the problem of origin and development of the school textbook was the subject of study of many scientists. the question of scientific research of the history of the textbook is even allocated in an independent direction. the question of the history of the school textbook was addressed with different tasks and different research methods by methodologists who summarized the experience of their predecessors and studied textbooks of the 19th-20th centuries from historical and methodological positions on the material of geography textbooks (baransky, 1954). historians of science studied the history of the subject and its implementation in school textbooks (olshki, 1933). some historians of language, culture, and ideology considered the textbook as a source for the study of historical phenomena. thus, the modern textbook is the result of the activities and searches of many generations of scientists and educators who have made a valuable contribution to its development. prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools the development of special school textbooks for children with mental and physical disabilities in the historical period since 1917 in ukraine has been inextricably linked with the development of the content of education and the trends that have taken place in secondary school. improving the education system included changes in all parts of the educational process, including the auxiliary school. the current situation in ukraine regarding the development of special school textbooks for children with intellectual disabilities requires detailed analysis. studies concerning the content of special education in ukraine show that the problems of teaching mentally retarded children in these years were not solved in accordance with the issues that were posed by the state. defectologists had to provide a well-thought-out system of educational work, but due to insufficient development of the theoretical foundations of brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 88 education and upbringing of such children, in practice used prerevolutionary methods and techniques, including textbooks of the medical and pedagogical institute for underdeveloped, retarded and nervous children in kyiv. this didactic material had a corrective focus on the development of sight, hearing, motility and basic concepts of arithmetic, reading, writing. different approaches were observed in the development of theoretical problems of education and upbringing of these children. on the one hand, the efforts of researchers aimed at developing issues of regime, sanitary and hygienic living conditions, etc. were intensified, and on the other hand, the development of pedagogical issues began. during this period, experimental material is accumulated, which makes it possible to take steps to develop a classification of abnormal children and provide a corrective effect in learning. existing theories at the time, which gave diametrically opposed assessments of the capabilities of mentally retarded children, also hampered the development of new, optimistic approaches to the education of defective children. both russian and ukrainian defectologists such as vygotsky (1924), graborov (1923) and others played an important role in the struggle against these theories. describing the first steps towards the development of defectology in ukraine, it is necessary to pay attention to the work of the odessa pedagogical institute to combat child defectiveness, which has been carried out since the beginning of 1919. as a result, general approaches to overcoming child disability in ukraine and plans and programs of training courses for working with disabled children in special institutions were developed. in kharkov, in december 1922, the central research station of the scientific and pedagogical committee of the main department of social education of the ukrainian ssr began to perform organizational and practical work. its activities were carried out by two offices: the scientific cabinet for normal childhood and the medical and pedological cabinet for defective childhood. these institutions considered the study of children's textbooks, the development of a comprehensive method of teaching, research examination of the physical and spiritual nature of the child through observation in institutions for defective children. the development of the theory and practice of teaching and educating mentally retarded children in ukraine was inextricably linked with the development of oligophrenic pedagogy in the rsfsr. this was expressed both in the constant business contacts of special educators of the prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional … liudmyla chepurna 89 two republics, and in the fact that in all congresses and conferences of educators of the rsfsr representatives of ukraine also took an active part. in the formation of special approaches to the content of education in auxiliary schools in the 20's a significant place belongs to graborov (1923), who first justified the need for a special curriculum for auxiliary schools. graborov (1923) based the developed program on the programs of the 1st grade secondary school, including somewhat simplified theoretical material and supplementing it with material from the 2nd grade school curriculum, which had a practical orientation (p. 328). for the first time in the program, correctional teaching methods were used. considering that the didactic rules of the auxiliary school did not fundamentally differ from the requirements of the didactics of the mass school, the search for the content of education began in accordance with the tendencies that were determined in this direction in the mass school. in the article "experience of application of gus programs in auxiliary school", published in 1924 in the collection "questions of education of blind, deafmute and mentally retarded" edited by vygotsky (1924) the project of the program of auxiliary school based on complex system of training was presented. this program, according to the authors, was to be formed from a mentally retarded socially useful member of the working team and a conscious citizen. the educational material in this project was to ensure the assimilation of specific, accessible material, vital for a mentally retarded child. the main attention was paid to the practical orientation in the environment, the application of strong work skills and the acquisition of basic literacy. the explanatory notes to the program emphasized that the teaching of the native language should be based on material that is close and understandable to students, namely, on what the child saw, felt, observed, experienced. unlike mass school programs, this program had only elements of complexity. it kept the subject teaching of arithmetic and native language. due to the need to adhere to the principle of individual approach to the student in the auxiliary school, the teacher was allowed to expand, reduce and move the teaching material. the training material was grouped into sections. the training course for these programs was designed for 5 years. an important event in the further development of defectology was the second congress of social and legal protection of minors (scslpm), which took place in 1924. the congress not only drew the attention of the people's commissariat to the need for organizational design of institutions brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 90 for abnormal children, but it laid the theoretical and methodological foundations of future soviet special education. the next stage in the development of the theoretical foundations of the construction of a school for abnormal children was the program by graborov (1923). in this program, the author tries to overcome the isolation inherent in the pre-revolutionary auxiliary school. the importance of social education increases in the content of education, the local lore orientation of educational material is realized to a greater extent, the number of hours for manual work classes increases. this, in turn, led to the need to redistribute the hours allocated to the study of general education subjects. graborov (1923) introduces elements of complexity, which were expressed in the implementation of interdisciplinary links. among the list of general subjects proposed by graborov (1923), the subjects of purely corrective orientation (sensory culture and mental orthopedics also stood out (p. 368). as you know, later it was these ideas of graborov (1923) that were criticized by vygotsky (1924), who believed that special correctional education has a deep meaning and cannot be reduced only to the named subjects, since only the unity of teaching and correctional work will ensure the correct formation of the mental functions of the abnormal child and their necessary restructuring. vygotsky (1924) emphasized that "correctional work should be completely dissolved in the training and education of mentally retarded children". thus, vygotsky (1924) foresaw, taking into account the possibilities of an abnormal child, to create the necessary conditions for its development. in the archival documents of this period there is no information about the development and publication of programs for the education of mentally retarded children, developed by ukrainian speech pathologists. therefore, in our opinion, from 1917 to 1926 auxiliary schools in ukraine were given the opportunity to use three versions of the program, namely, updated programs developed by moscow teachers before the october revolution. these programs were not officially approved and were therefore considered a working option. the first measures to legalize institutions for abnormal children necessitated the development of official and unified programs for their education. work began on a draft program of auxiliary schools, which was published in 1927, and in 1928 the official, unified programs for educational institutions of this type in the ussr were developed and published. the curriculum was drawn up taking into account the following principles: coherence and unity, utilitarianism, plasticity, completeness. it prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional … liudmyla chepurna 91 included special preparatory classes for schooling and provided for a fiveyear term of study. the program also provided for the provision of mentally retarded children with knowledge, skills and abilities of working and cultural life in the scope of programs of the first degree of secondary school. all work was aimed at correcting the deficiencies in the psychophysical development of mentally retarded children. in particular, the program paid attention to the upbringing of skills and orientations that a child with normative development learns spontaneously, the development of independence, initiative and overcoming the passivity of mentally retarded children. the 1927 programs were too utilitarian. in determining the content of educational material, preference was given to the attitude to the independent life of the child. training was planned to be conducted mainly in the process of productive activity. the children had to use the accumulated sufficient stock of observations and systematized ideas and on the basis of inferences to reach certain conclusions. after approval of the "regulations on the auxiliary school", golovsotsvos narkomosviti rsfsr issued an instruction letter "on the norms of distribution of working time in the auxiliary school and auxiliary classes" (on the norms of distribution of working time in auxiliary classes. this document, which was considered as an auxiliary school curriculum, determined the number of hours devoted to the study of the sections that were included in the program of 1927-28. these sections offered the following content: а) study of life phenomena with organized participation of children in the surrounding life; b) sensorimotor education and physical culture; c) work on mastering skills in reading, writing, arithmetic; d) handicrafts, art education. the distribution of hours recommended by this instruction letter formed the basis of the first official curriculum for auxiliary schools, approved in 1929 by the people's commissariat of education. the programs were compiled on the basis of sac (state academic council) programs for city schools of the first degree and are designed for a 5-year term of study. the main principle of their construction was complexity, ie the implementation of interdisciplinary links in the study of basic life phenomena (nature, labor, society). the people’s commissariat of the rsfsr outlined the content of education in auxiliary schools, which provided for the provision of children brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 92 with intellectual disabilities most necessary for work and cultural life skills and knowledge and awakening in them a lively interest in the environment, education of basic orientations, cognitive abilities, independence in work, inoculation of labor skills. when teaching mentally retarded children, it was planned to use a large amount of specific material that can be learned directly by students. utilitarianism was allowed in the selection of educational material. preference was given to the material necessary for orientation in the surrounding reality, which would be directly related to the independent working life of the mentally retarded in the future. despite the critical attitude to sensorimotor education as an independent system of special classes, in the program of 1927 this system of classes was reflected. complex material in the programs was selected in such a way that it was easily grouped around the core the annual theme. development of sensory and motor areas, correction of speech defects, development of observation, expanding the range of ideas, instilling basic orientation, household, social skills, education of the emotional sphere were important moments of the first year of study. during all the years of study, the principle of concentricity and repetition was implemented. conclusions the structure of language and mathematics programs was almost indistinguishable from the traditional construction, but provided for the inclusion of life-practical material. this used the opportunity to link educational material in these subjects with the main complex topics. as so far the auxiliary school did not have special textbooks, these programs recommended that teachers use textbooks of the first grade. under the programs of 1927-28, auxiliary schools of ukraine worked for 5 years, during which there was a further improvement of the structure and content of education for mentally retarded children on the basis of the principle of complexity, using textbooks in mainstream schools, adapting their content to the needs of mentally retarded children. thus, the period from 1917 to 1928 is characterized by an active search for ways to restructure the activities of the ukrainian school, aimed at creating a national education. in accordance with these transformations, which were introduced in the mass school, new ways of reorganization and auxiliary school were searched for in ukraine. this period is marked by an active search for the content of education, the restructuring of the school's activities on new prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional … liudmyla chepurna 93 principles, by overcoming those features that were inherent in the prerevolutionary school. the special school faced the task of creating its own forms of work that would meet the characteristics of its pupils (vygotsky, 1924, p. 525), because the process of teaching a mentally retarded child in a regular school does not achieve its goal. only with the right education, with few exceptions, mentally retarded children can be prepared for a modest but independent life. at that time, there were opposing views on the tasks of the auxiliary school. vygotsky (1924) and his followers looked at the possibilities of mentally retarded children with exaggerated optimism, pointing out that the boundaries of the special school lie in the circle of social goals and objectives of the general and special school. it is in order that a defective child can achieve the same as a normal one, it is necessary to use completely different means (vygotsky, 1924, p. 58). the period from 1917 to 1919, vygotsky (1924) identifies as a period of construction of a new auxiliary school, a period of theoretical and practical research, culminating in the choice of path for a special school. vygotsky (1924) believed that "in the life of our auxiliary school, the new academic year will be a turning point." this was determined by the fact that in 1927 golovsotsvos published programs for auxiliary schools, built on the basis of the latest edition of the sac for urban schools of the 1st degree. the greatest achievement vygotsky (1924) considered the completion of many years of work to bring the general and special schools. namely, a special school was built on the basis of the general principles of social education. this principle was enshrined in the programs that involved the auxiliary school in the direction of general pedagogical creativity. this is the answer to the question of the nature of the auxiliary school; the immediate goal of the auxiliary school coincides with the immediate goal of the regular secondary school of the 1st degree. references bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13231332. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 94 baransky, n. n. (1954). istoricheskiy obzor uchebnikov geografii (1876-1934) [historical review of geography textbooks (1876-1934)]. moscow: geografgiz. https://books.google.com.ua/books/about/%d0%98%d1% 81%d1%82%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b8%d1%87%d0%b5%d1%81% d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9_%d0%be%d0%b1%d0%b7%d0%be% d1%80_%d1%83%d1%87.html?id=a7mmygaacaaj&redir_esc=y behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, m., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13331340. https://www.efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf beilinson, v. g. (1985) arsenal obrazovaniya: kharakteristika podgotovki konstruirovaniya izdaniy [range of education: characteristics of the preparation of the design of publications]. moscow: kniga. https://books.google.com.ua/books/about/%d0%90%d1%80%d1%81 %d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%b0%d0%bb_%d0%be%d0%b1%d1%80 %d0%b0%d0%b7%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b8% d1%8f.html?id=tlopaqaaiaaj&redir_esc=y bespalko, v. p. (1988). teoriya uchebnika. didakticheskiy aspect [textbook theory. didactic aspect]. moscow: pedagogika. https://www.twirpx.com/file/209293/ chepurna, l., fedorenko, s., kuzminska, y., sushchenko, l., zharovska, o., chyzhyk, t., prymakova, v., & kozibroda, l. (2020). the creation and development of textbooks for children with cognitive development disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 147163. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/115 eremenko, i. g. (1985). oligofrenopedagogika [oligophrenopedagogy]. kyiv: vyshcha shkola. https://www.twirpx.com/file/372564/ gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604 /pdf goncharova, o. m. (2015). hermenevtychnyy dyskurs muzeynoyi komunikatsiyi [hermeneutic discourse of museum communication. kultura ukrayiny. seriya: kulturolohiya [culture of ukraine. series: culturology], 48, 139150. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/kukl_2015_48_15 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/115 http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/kukl_2015_48_15 prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional … liudmyla chepurna 95 graborov, a. n. (1923). vspomogatelnaya shkola (shkola dlya umstvenno otstalykh detey) [auxiliary school (school for mentally retarded children)]. moscow: gosizdatelstvo. https://rusneb.ru/catalog/000199_000009_007853344/ khodakov, yu. v. (1959). obshchaya i neorganicheskaya khimiya [general and inorganic chemistry]. moscow: uchpedgiz. https://www.twirpx.com/file/2340373/ kodlyuk, ya. p. (2005). teoriya i praktyka pidruchnykotvorennya u haluzi pochatkovoyi osvity ukrayiny (1960-2000) [theory and practice of textbook creation in the field of primary education of ukraine (1960-2000)]. the institute of pedagogy of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv. http://www.disslib.org/teoria-i-praktyka-pidruchnykotvorennja-u-haluzipochatkovoyi-osvity-ukrayiny.html lerner, i. ya., skatkin, m. n., & shakhmayev, m. n. (1982). formy organizatsii obucheniya [forms of training organization]. in m. n. skatkin (ed.), didaktika sredney shkoly [didactics of secondary school] (pp. 216250). moscow: prosveshcheniye. https://hum.edu-lib.com/pedagogikapsihologiya/skatkin-m-n-didaktika-sredney-shkolyi-onlayn maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s. nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 96 nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/ 2625 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 olshki, l. (1933). istoriya nauchnoy literatury na novykh yazykakh. t. 1. literatura tekhniki i prikladnykh nauk ot srednikh vekov do epokhi vozrozhdeniya [history of scientific literature in new languages. volume 1. literature of technology and applied sciences from the middle ages to the renaissance]. moscow: state technical-theoretical publishing house. http://krotov.info/lib_sec/15_o/ls/hki_1933.htm onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 4465. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 savchenko, o. ya. (1997). dydaktyka pochatkovoi shkoly [the didactic of elementary school]. kyiv: abrys. https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=10259 153677233627762 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 slastyonin, v. a., isayev, i. f., & shiyanov, ye. n. (2001). pedagogika [pedagogy]. academy. http://pedlib.ru/books/1/0075/1_0075-87.shtml talyzina, n. f. (1978). mesto i funktsii uchebnika v uchebnom protsesse [place and functions of a textbook in the educational process]. problemy shkolnogo uchebnika [problems of a school textbook], 6, 1833. https://istina.msu.ru/publications/article/3026940/ vygotsky, l. s. (1924). voprosy vospitaniya slepykh, glukhonemykh i umstvenno otstalykh detey [the issues of education of children with eye, ear and intellectual disorders]. glavsotsvos. https://psyanimajournal.livejournal.com/2698.html zankov, l. v. (1960). naglyadnost i aktivizatsiya uchashchikhsya v obuchenii [visibility and activation of students in teaching]. moscow: https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=10259153677233627762 https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=10259153677233627762 http://pedlib.ru/books/1/0075/1_0075-87.shtml https://psyanimajournal.livejournal.com/2698.html prerequisites for creating textbooks for auxiliary schools: correctional … liudmyla chepurna 97 uchpedgiz. http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?ur l=/notices/index/idnotice:11281/source:default zhuravlev, n. k. (1989). rukovodstvo poznavatelnoy deyatelnostyu uchashchikhsya sredstvami uchebnika [guidance of cognitive activity of students by means of a textbook]. novyye issledovaniya v pedagogicheskikh naukakh [new research in pedagogical sciences], 2(54), 3135. http://ecatalog.mk.ua/npb/a6303d2d-5674-4330-8265-c1911d415f64/ zuev, d. d. (1983). shkolnyi uchebnik [the school textbook]. pedagogy. http://bestintw.narod.ru/knigi/10970.html brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 178-201 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/199 alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic networks yegnanarayanan venkatraman¹, krithicaa narayanaa y2, valentina e. balas3, marius m. balas4 1 member, board of advisors, rnb global university, bikaner, rajasthan 334601, india, prof.yegna@gmail.com 2 department of biomedical sciences, sri ramachandra institute for higher education and research (deemed to be university), chennai, tamil nadu 600116, india krithi121095@gmail.com 3 prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, faculty of engineering, arad, romania, balas@drbalas.ro 4 prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, faculty of engineering, arad, romania, marius@drbalas.ro abstract: notice that the synapsis of brain is a form of communication. as communication demands connectivity, it is not a surprise that "graph theory" is a fastest growing area of research in the life sciences. it attempts to explain the connections and communication between networks of neurons. alzheimer’s disease (ad) progression in brain is due to a deposition and development of amyloid plaque and the loss of communication between nerve cells. graph/network theory can provide incredible insights into the incorrect wiring leading to memory loss in a progressive manner. network in ad is slanted towards investigating the intricate patterns of interconnections found in the pathogenesis of brain. here, we see how the notions of graph/network theory can be prudently exploited to comprehend the alzheimer’s disease. we begin with introducing concepts of graph/network theory as a model for specific genetic hubs of the brain regions and cellular signalling. we begin with a brief introduction of prevalence and causes of ad followed by outlining its genetic and signalling pathogenesis. we then present some of the network-applied outcome in assessing the diseasesignalling interactions, signal transduction of protein-protein interaction, disturbed genetics and signalling pathways as compelling targets of pathogenesis of the disease. keywords: alzheimer’s disease, cell signalling networks, genetic networks, graph centrality measures, characteristic path length, clustering coefficient. how to cite: venkatraman, y., narayanaa y, k., balas, v.e., & balas, m.m. (2021). alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic networks. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 178-201. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/199 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/199 mailto:prof.yegna@gmail.com mailto:krithi121095@gmail.com mailto:balas@drbalas.ro mailto:marius@drbalas.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/199 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 179 1. introduction there are 1011 neurons and 104 synaptic links in a human brain. each of which contributes to the formation of a connectome with cellular connections of magnitude one quadrillion. to access such a huge complex network e it is irredundant to design simple models of the brain network. graph theory serves to the creation of one such class of simple model. graph theory is a tool to extract topological attributes of brain network models, viz., “graphs”. graphs comprise of two vital elements called vertices or nodes and edges or links. the former stands for functional units/information sources/brain regions while the latter stands for the connections among them. graphs accord pertinent measures depend on the path lengths between graph vertices. it is the number of edges among them with the understanding that two vertices separated by the path of length one is adjacent or neighbors. network hubs are formed by those vertices that are part of many paths among other vertices. in view of this, by efficiency of a network we mean the inverse of average path lengths among all pairs of vertices. so lesser average path lengths are a characteristic for higher efficiency of the network. also, path lengths between can be employed to narrate network clustering. paths of short length in sub graphs with adjacent vertices are features for networks with huge size clique and modularity (latora & marchiori, 2001; 2003). by a clique we mean a subgraph in which every vertex is adjacent with every other vertex. small-worldness is a crucial property that all brain networks hold in common is. regular networks in general possess high clustering but exhibit low efficiency. by introducing only a few more random links to a regular network its efficiency can be altered from a meagre 4% to 40% (watts & strogatz, 1998). further as axonal wiring is not cost effective the success of an evolutionary process depends on small-world attribute in brains. brain acquires counsel from systems that are attentional, perceptual, and evaluative. integration of these distinct types of counsel is mandatory for controlled behavior (baars, 1997; dehaene et al., 1998). brain is made of regions that are distinct both functionally and anatomically. counsel is divided as per various attributes and processed in distinct brain regions. graph theory-based observations of high clustering and integrity explain brain architecture. this tunes graphs as brain models to access brain topology. to create a graph, one need to specify the data base based on which vertices and edges emanate. the former stand for various sources and the alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 180 latter for various connectivity metrics (bullmore & sporns, 2009). intrinsic suddenly oscillation that are robust and strong induce brain activity in resting state across individuals and result in functional coherence patterns in a frequency range less than 10-1 hz. in this frequency range the correlation values of the signal time courses are the metric measures of connectivity and exhibit between the signal sources high functional coupling. the graphs constructed on this database denote configurations of the brain functional network at rest. when we apply the techniques of graph theory it has to be borne in mind that a single complex graph alone will not suffice. so, it is irredundant to look for graphs with same vertex/edge cardinality for comparison. a probe (zalesky et al., 2010) proved that basic features like network efficiency and clustering are conserved across networks with nodes size between 100 and 5000s. by vertex/edge cardinality we mean the number of elements in the vertex/edge set respectively. one common method of defining the edge set construction is by setting cost levels of a network. a graph’s cost level denotes its density and is set as the percentage of all possible edges. that is, a graph with n = 1000 vertices has (1000× 999)/2 = 999000 possible edges and at a cost level of 5%, this graph can have 49950 edges of all possible edges. this setting could allow comparison of graphs constructed at the identical cost level. the challenge is to determine the appropriate edge cardinality of a functional brain network. due to the dynamic nature of brain network it has spontaneous pattern of coherence and hence very hard to address the above challenge. on one side we encounter lesser to huge population of neurons and on the other side on the option of seed regions coupled with varying sources as option for vertices. as for as the option of choosing the edges of a brain network/graph is concerned a justifiable lower and upper bound could dictated by two riddles. in a brain graph no region functions and gives the lower bound and the upper bound is set by a cost level of 50%. as of now no gold standard exists to choose an edge in the process of graph construction. however, edge selection is done depending on the correlation value with the constraint that the resulting graph should be connected. this is because brain networks cannot be disconnected. so, edge addition is done every time with the assurance that every vertex can be reached from a given vertex by a path. the first edges selected for each vertex were the one with the large correlation value between this vertex and another vertex. next edge as per the next largest correlation value until the graph is connected. this process yields the minimum spanning tree (mst) of a graph/network. by a tree in a graph we mean the subgraph that relates brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 181 to no cycles. for each vertex further edges were included as per the correlation values among this vertex and all other vertices. this plan is called the k-nearest neighbor graph with k denoting the number of edges per vertex. this plan guarantee graph growing on equal foot (alexander-bloch et al., 2010). at last the edges among the vertices employed in a graph at some cost level, gives the highest order percent of edges. graphs with huge cost level mostly consist edges at the lesser cost price. so, while averaging over a cost range on graph parameters, edges with higher correlation values in relative sense gain more weight. for well-known graphs, several graph parameters can be determined. they can be region specific such as the degree of a vertex or the number of paths going through a vertex also refereed as hubs or collection of more densely connected vertices or subgraph that exhibit less dense coherence to the rest of the graph or (path lengths among neighbored vertices refereed as clustering. at last measures that point to the whole graph/network such as average path lengths among all pairs of vertices refereed as efficiency and euclidean distances between vertices. to sum up, clustering and vertex efficiency describe cognitive capacity through biomarker for and exhibit brain’s endurance to behavior adapt and adjustment. euclidian distances among joined vertices describe communication pathways’ length in real space. communication through real pathways of least path length was agreed as a plan of the brain to reduce metabolic costs (kitzbichler et al., 2011; niven & laughlin, 2008). hence preferring communication through short distance is strongly visible in patients with poor performance and is viewed as a sequel of the affected brain that has to conserve energy to uphold intrinsic state values. processing and transport of information in the brain takes place with the help of neurons by a series of electrical and chemical signal interactions. a neuron is structured with dendrites and axons and the signals are transmitted via synapses found between two neurons that allows them to receive and transmit information. the signals used in this information processing are neurotransmitters which are transported between neurons via synaptic cleft through a mechanism of action potential. neurons contain ion channels found in the lipid bi-layer of neuronal cells and these ion-channels are known for transportation of na+ and k+ ions on electrochemical gradient basis across the membrane. more data on axonal communication can be referred from (arotaritei, 2013). the axon is a cylindrical structure made up of microtubules and these microtubules are connected to each other by tau proteins making up a cytoskeleton structure. to minimize the redundancy and increase the reliability of any interaction model, moore and alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 182 shannon proposed hammocks networks which could be applied to brain interaction models. a reliable model is an error free model that would function with high precision even when applied to complex structures. the human brain consists of millions of neurons (nodes/vertices) connected to each other for information transmission via axons and dendrites (edges). in the articles (beiu et al., 2017; rohatinovici et al., 2018), the significance of application of hammock networks in the axonal communication and the model’s reliability were established. as seen through literature, graph theory is a very relativistic technique. its parameters are useful in comparison. a lot needs to happen while setting rules for graph construction. also, for the probe of brain regions, algorithms for identification and classification must be developed. graph analysis opens new vistas into how the brain network is made and how it ensures efficient counsel flow. it has potential for application in clinical research. the advances made in explaining brain networks in patients provide the way for using graph metrics as supportive tool in diagnosis of psychological brain related diseases. brain being a critical part of a human organ function rapidly to the requirements of the environment and adjust its behavior. while performing a task it is inclined to reconfigure its functional networks in milliseconds. processes such as reconfiguration cannot be done with poorly sampled fmri temporal data. 2. cellular signalling networks network is a graphical representation of objects considered as nodes connected to each other through edges or links. network has found its major position in biological concepts that helps in understanding the structural and functional organization of cells. a biological network represents the biological interaction of ecosystem describing relationship between same or different biological species, epidemiology describing spread of infectious diseases world-wide, immune system describing the process that takes places within an organism to protect against foreign antigens, neural networks representing the functional and structural interactions of brain, protein-protein interaction and gene regulation found in cells during dna replication, transcription and translation processes, metabolic reactions determining the biochemical and physiological reactions inside an organism (barabasi & oltvai, 2004; rangel et al., 2016). several biology related databases are established to study and unravel the human body and its interplay in terms of cellular functions, molecular components, and brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 183 genetic interactions. the information retrieved from these biological databases are integrated into a model of gene ontology (go). gene ontologies helps in delineating the features of genes and its products dealing with molecular functions and cellular interaction (gene ontology consortium, 2006). interpretation of high-throughput analysis of genomic data to explore gene regulation and gene expression is of greater interest to the data related to go and functional association of a set of genes retrieved from biological databases such as reactome, kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (kegg), pathway commons the intricate direct/indirect interactions among all sorts of macromolecules. proteins, genes, proteinprotein interactions, and signal transduction mechanism can be well described using network science (barabasi & oltvai, 2004; diao et al., 2007; rangel et al., 2016; gene ontology consortium, 2006). cell signalling better defines the cellular activity, interaction between cellular components and their coordination, which can be represented as cell signalling networks. depending on the functions of genes and proteins, a network system may elucidate each of the specified and unstated interactions with the other surrounding molecules called as neighbours. and the biological process of transmission of array of instructions is called signal transduction inside or outside the cell. in a normal biological process, each molecule relays a message to the others and the process continues until the final target molecule is activated or expressed. any deviations in this array of aligned signal transduction can contribute to many human diseases. the network biology helps in elucidation of functional and interactional properties of genes and proteins in definite pathways and thus their end phenotypes between healthy and diseased individuals (aggarwal et al., 2010; chen et al., 2010). taking advantage of the topological data of a network, functional analysis of each component in these biological processes can be presented as gene clusters and the methods employed to determine and analyse gene clusters can be referred (everitt et al., 2011). 3. alzheimer’s disease (ad) even though a precise mechanism of ad is vague, a complicated mix of factors attributable to environment, natural process of aging, routine living style of the individual, factors due to epigenetic and genetic are construed to be cause in general. ad is a dementia induced disorder that is neurodegenerative. it is characterized by impaired cognition with difficulties in the reasoning, problem solving abilities. a lot of research happened to address this global burden. this review gives an overview on genetic factors, alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 184 epidemiology and clinical symptoms employed in the diagnosis of ad. this is followed by the significance of graph theory and networks application in understanding the complexities alzheimer’s disease progression and management is described and concluding with few open problems of possible neurobiological research questions solved by mathematical graphnetwork models. we are much grateful to james m. ellison for nicely describing about the history of ad in (2018). we provide here a brief outline of his exposition. emil sioli brought to the notice of alzheimer’s, the death of one of his patient auguste deter by sending her brain material. alzheimer’s examined her brain material microscopically with new stains to announce what we coin as amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. it was kraepelin who honoured alzheimer’s contribution and named this type of dementia as ad. as auguste is middle aged this disease was classified at that time (in the first decade of 20th century) as presenile dementia. however, in 1976 robert katzman a noted neurologist preferred to eliminate this distinction and ad is considered as main cause of dementia in older adults from early 1980’s. the historical context of alzheimer’s disease dates back to 1906.the cognitive impairment in individuals with less than 65 years of age presented as presenile dementia and subjects above 65 years of age with vascular disease presented as senile dementia. later, around 1950, vascular explanation of senile dementia was abandoned. in 1984, the clinical characteristics and pattern of neuropathology after death was formulated which can be referred at (dubois et al., 2007). 3.1. epidemiology the neuro-pathogenesis of ad is linked to complex sets of molecular mechanisms, proteins and genes. this condition is not a single gene disorder. the function of different signalling pathways and various genes linked in cognitive impairment and disease progression are being addressed, yet, there is no definite explanation of specific mechanism and genetic predisposition to the disease development and progression. the research on this disease is long way to go for therapeutic development. the molecular interaction with disease progression varies with age, genetic susceptibility, geographical location, lifestyle and ethnicity. it is believed that ad appears 15-20 years before the actual cause of mild cognitive impairment is noticed. ad is progressive with time and diagnosed only in the later age of 60 years or above. facts and data from the literature shows the number of older brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 185 people aged 60 years or above will increase from 420 million to 1 billion from 2000-2030 (reitz et al., 2011). world health organization (who) has estimated that the world-wide cases of dementia are 50 million with 10 million new cases every year. prevalence of a disease is the proportion of population with that particular condition found at a specific time. through literature survey, the number of prevalent cases of dementia has increased by 117% from 1990 – 2016. the global prevalence of ad was 701 cases per hundred thousand in 1990 which then increased by the rate of 1.7% leading to 712 cases per 100,000 population in 2016. also, it is observed 1.17 times greater in women than in men. the incidence rate also increases exponentially with older age of 70 – 80 years (robinson et al., 2017). the prevalence, death and disability-adjusted life years of ad is recorded in the table 1. yet, the prevailing rates of ad are age-adjusted and may vary with different geographical locations, sex and ethnicity. table 1. prevalence and death for dementia associated alzheimer’s disease calculated by percentage rates of age adjusted rates by location, 1990-2016. source: authors’ own conception populations prevalence (%) death (%) high income north america -1.6 9.9 southern latin america -4.4 -3.5 central latin america -5.2 -7.2 tropical latin america 5 0.1 andean latin america -6 -3.2 western europe -8.1 -7.4 eastern europe -1.2 -0.3 central europe -3.5 -2.9 caribbean -4.9 -3.5 north africa-middle east -1.0 -1.8 southern sub saharan -3 9.9 western sub saharan -2.7 3.7 eastern sub saharan -4.1 6.5 central sub saharan -2.5 8.1 australasia -9.1 -6.2 high income asia pacific 15.6 9.2 central asia -0.9 -1 east asia 5.4 -0.5 south asia -4.6 16.6 south east asia -1.5 6.5 oceania -1.6 -7.3 alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 186 3.2. contribution of risk factors in ad onset as dementia associated ad is age-related, with rise in geriatric population will have greater impact on global public health. this disorder requires lot of care in its later stages and it is fatal. the disadvantage of the disease is that there is no definite diagnosis (biomarker detection) apart from clinical assessment (nichols et al., 2019). the major causative factors of ad are given in the figure 1. figure 1. potential risks factors that causes the onset of alzheimer’s’s disease app – amyloid precursor protein; ps 1 – presenilin; ps 2 – presenilin 2; apoe – apolipoprotein e source: authors’ own conception 3.3. clinical symptoms of ad although the memory loss is a part of aging, few other symptoms are exclusively observed in the dementia and ad patients due to the degeneration of neurons and loss of synapses in the hippocampal regions of central nervous systems. table 2 gives different signs of impaired cognition observed in ad patients. as the disease is slowly progressive there is a long duration of disease before mortality which weakens the patients from being normal and makes them more dependent. this calls for more attention, care and time. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 187 table 2. symptoms of ad and dementia in advanced form found in the moderate and later phases of cognitive impairment source: authors’ own conception age-related clinical cause of ad loss of memory difficulty in completing routine tasks and planning loss of solving-problem ability confusion with time and place trouble in vision – cataract, glaucoma, macular degeneration loss of ability to differentiate color images difficulty in speaking –employing appropriate word loosing objects easily and problems in retracing/recalling the location where the object is lost loss of judgmental ability behavioral changes mood and personality fluctuates become socially insecure and inactive withdrawal from work 3.4. cause of alzheimer’s disease pathological features of ad are: a) aggregation of amyloid b peptides referred to as amyloid plaques collected in the extracellular regions of the brain, b) aggregation of hyper-phosphorylated tau proteins contributing to the development of neurofibrillary tangles identified in spatial patterns in the intracellular regions of the hippocampus and cortical areas of the central nervous system. these proteins build up contributes to neuronal and synaptic dysfunction which promotes cognitive impairment to develop (combs et al., 2016; magalingam et al., 2018). since the discovery of ad, heterogeneous causes and recognized theories (kocahan & doğan, 2017) have led to the neuronal impairments of ad. a ton of new knowledge has emerged that establishes the causes, disease mechanisms and prospective therapeutics, but no impactful solution has been described to help treat the diseases. this could be due to the unpredictability of the pathophysiology of the brain, as it includes different causal genetic and epigenetic predispositions. the demanding high-level genetic techniques such as genome wide association studies (gwas), crispr-cas9, rna sequencing, next generation sequencing (ngs), help to transcribe the genetic sequence of different organisms. these technologies have pulled out various genes and their alleles involved in several human diseases along with the frequency data of specific forms of alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 188 mutations. the ad-associated genes were investigated by igap through gwas. some of the gene sets reported in ad include abca7, bin1, cd33, cr1, cass4, cd2ap, clu, drb5, dsg2, epha1, fermt2, hla-drb5hla-drb1, inpp5d, ptk2b, slc24a4, trem2 and zcwpw1). rare variants of some ad-connected genes such as app, apoe, trem2 have also been reported. while they study the multiple functionalities of these genes through various biological pathways, their functions in ad pathophysiology have yet to be studied (kim, 2018; rosenthal & kamboh, 2014). one may refer (andrews et al., 2020; jansen et al., 2019) to know the various risk gene / loci and the functional pathways associated with ad discovered through gwas and meta-analyses experiments. the figure 2 handles some of the popular biological mechanisms studied in the phenomenon of ad (bobba et al., 2013, bota et al., 2005; chouliaras et al., 2013; esterbauer et al., 1991; goedert & spillantini, 2006; hickman & el khoury, 2014; keck et al., 2003; mcgeer et al., 1988; okamoto et al., 2014; priller et al., 2006; yakes & van houten, 1997). though numerous facets recognized to cause ad are established, not all these abnormalities are recorded together in the cases of ad. there are reported cases of co-existence of multiple other disorders along with ad. the triggering or common causal factors of such diseases are to be researched deeply. the similarities found in various disease biology, pathways and genomic data has to be further investigated to unravel each one's function and interlinks in the pathological development of the disease. in order to achieve early detection of the disease, provide personalized medical approach, identify the prompt therapeutic target and establish disease management, it is significant to correlate and understand the hidden underlying concepts of the disease. this lays an emphasis on delineating the complexity and intricate details of disease mechanism through the right pavement of network biology. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 189 figure 2. prevailing neuro-regressive pathways source: authors’ own conception 4. network approaches for ad a recent study on association of disease-pathway in human diseases was carried out by employing a bipartite random walk with restart on heterogeneous network (rwrh). network of disease similarity and pathway similarity and their association was constructed by retrieving data from various biological databases such as go, kegg, reactome, omim. based on the similarity scores and linkage analysis, primary and intermediate nodes were detected, and edges were linked to adjacent nodes and formed a specified disease-pathway network (ghulam et al., 2020). this network of disease-pathways defines the genetic connections in different biological pathways with varied disease. the combination of biological experiment findings with graphical methods will aid in forecasting potential relationships in a disease between genes, proteins and signalling pathways. the cumulative principles of graph theory and cellular signalling have helped to define the relationship between tgf-β signalling and ad pathway incorporating clustering and semantic mining. the signalling pathway graph was created based on social network analysis (sna) for cluster identification. this analysis gives the network of semantically enriched common genes and protein linked to both pathways (rangel et al., 2016). similarly, exploiting graph principles such as centrality, modularity, and mining, we might find alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 190 essential biological pathways, analyze the functional similarities between gene communities, and build protein interaction networks. another study revealed relationships between ad and type 2 diabetes through the use of shared causal pipelines. through the data collected from gwas, go, reactome, random directed acyclic networks were created by linking some of the common genes and employed a graphical approach of causal network to assess the associations between these two diseases. this approach established 13 genes and 16 common pathways between ad and type 2 diabetes, including 101 associated methylated genetic nodes linked to both the diseases described by causal networks (zixin et al., 2020). this causal network approach can establish close association within/between genes and proteins denoted as nodes in graph theory. 4.1. genetic networks and ad the genetics of alzheimer's disease at the molecular level has evolved as alterations one after the other as interactions that are molecular centric in pathways to elucidate processes governing the states that are pathophysiological. investigations of late onset alzheimer's disease have exposed critical genomic regions connected to the disease and it is even today not known the actual reasons. a vast quanta of genetic data governing late onset has enables us to understand causally described processes to it. in (zhang et al., 2016) the authors have discussed distinct features networkbased methods pointing to devising network of genes linked to ad from post-mortem samples of tissues of brain. they explained at length replica of network methods that are multi scalar that combines interaction and causal gene to probe gene expression, dna. they made use of co-expressed weighted gene network study to build networks that are multi-tissue centric to explain interactions that are gene to gene to assess the connectivity changes due to late onset of co-expressed genes in comparison with the normal case. regulatory connections that are causal between the genes along every module are found by framework of inference through bayesian approach in network form. it is used to collate the counsel due to gene expression (zhang et al., 2016). in (kelly et al., 2020) the authors carried out a huge up to date probe of ad network in blood depending on its gene expressions. they located among the networks of disease and healthy control, the un-conserved modules and pertinent genes as hub with transcription factors. the module corresponding to lipolysis regulation in adipocytes and interaction that is neuroactive in ligand-receptor are not conserved in ad networks of both cases of healthy and mild cognitive impairment. here the vital trpc5 and brap lots are conceived as main brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 191 targets for treatments of therapeutic type. their investigation showed that ad possess in common genetics that are impaired and located pathways that are interesting (kelly et al., 2020). 4.2. google knowledge graph for ad graph theory is capable of briefly estimating the attributes of complex structure and replicating interconnections (denoted by edges) among brain lots (denoted by vertices). it can bring out the topological attributes and scrutinize the various brain network states through measures such as the vertex degree, clustering coefficient, characteristic path length, small-world attribute, betweenness centrality and global/local efficiency (bullmore & sporns, 2009). to reap the benefit from graph theory and pattern recognition, these two can be mingled through knowledge graph measures that could act as trained classifiers features. it further expands the classifiers to determine functional data from various group of cases that are unseen. this well explains hard brain conditions such as pathology. because of high dimensional type of the fmri data, features that are of graph theoretical type about brain network are also of higher dimensional and hence resorting to selection procedure is irredundant. various options are weighed and the best one is chosen for the algorithm-based handling. the automated anatomical labelling technique divides the whole brain into 90 distinct lots. these lots are represented as vertices to build brain network. the signal corresponding to each vertex is achieved by expected value of the time series of all voxels within the lots. then edges of the brain network are functional linking of all pairs of automated anatomical labelling lots through the correlation coefficient due to karl pearson. the resulting functional matrix that is undirected and weighted is a dense knowledge graph. it has to be made sparse with the setting threshold value p to lie between 0 and 1. set diagonal weights that are self-links to zero. if value of p is high, then it becomes a dense knowledge graph by allowing weaker edges with respect to low and noisy correlations. else, set a low value to p to drop more edges and it leads to a knowledge graph that is disconnected and hence its metrics cannot be found. hence for the classifiers, it is clinically recommended to employ measures of brain network as input features. when the knowledge graphs are built, compute various metrics that are knowledge graph centric to explain the functional state of the brain and employ them as features to subject the classifier to test and train. clustering coefficient normalized local efficiency and local efficiency are the three measures of functional alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 192 segregation to characterize the brain ability for processing to occur within densely interlinked cluster of distinct brain lots. characteristic path length and global efficiency are two measures of functional integration to assess the brain strength for integrating the counsel from distributed lots. then the three local vertex centred measures such as betweenness centrality, degree, and participation coefficient along with the small-world attribute of the network to probe the attributes of 90 automated anatomical labelling brain lots. these graph measures are found depending on the weightiness of the graph corresponding to its adjacency matrices through the toolbox of brain link (rubinov & sporns, 2010). the clustering coefficient in weighted sense is an expanded version of binary clustering coefficient. binary clustering coefficient of vertex x is the proportion of edge count among pairs of adjacent elements of the vertex x to the neighbour to neighbour edge count admissible. the mean clustering coefficient was determined through clustering coefficients of individual vertices which points to the existence of clustered linking about individual vertices. local efficiency assesses the capacity of a network to transfer counsel at the local level. normalized local efficiency is determined as the proportion of local efficiency to the global efficiency. these measures pertain to functional segregation of the brain knowledge graph. the characteristic path length is often employed measure of the network integration. it is conceived as the expected value of least path lengths among each pair of vertices in the network. path length for a weighted knowledge graph is determined as the total sum of reciprocal of weights of each edge. global efficiency is conceived as the expected value of the reciprocal of least path length and it finds the capacity of a network to transfer counsel at the global level (rubinov & sporns, 2010). the degree is a viable measure of centrality for a weighted undirected knowledge graph and is conceived as the sum of weights of links joined to a vertex. large value of the degree implies more interaction. the knowledge graph’s modular system is found by looking at the node arrangement into huge modules so that highest count of links lies within groups and least count of links lies between groups. when the knowledge graph modules are spelled, the diversity of links among vertices can be found by the participation coefficient. vertices with a huge participation coefficient implies varied links agreed as link hubs. it facilitates integration in between-module of the knowledge graph. but vertices with high-degree and low participation coefficient are known as provincial hubs they take part in interactions of within-module type. then one more measure of centrality called betweenness centrality is dependent on the concept of least paths. it is brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 193 conceived as the normalized sum of estimated proportion of all least paths that pass through that vertex. the brain knowledge is designed obeying small world attribute. it gives a wise mix of functional segregation and integration. small-worldness are conceived as the ratio of clustering coefficient and characteristic path length. the values of clustering coefficient and characteristic path length are normalized by their corresponding random knowledge graph values (bullmore & sporns, 2009; rubinov & sporns, 2010). a statement in biology can be given a visual treatment by denoting by denoting it as a triple consisting of [subject, predicate, and object]. note that here a subject point to a statement in a biology and the predicate points to the relation that links the subject and the object. interpreted using the terminology of graph theory, a subject corresponds to vertex; a predicate corresponds to the incidence relation between vertex and edge; an object corresponds to edge. by following this convention one can create a knowledge graph exploiting the statements from biology. lately, google has undertaken a massive exercise to create such a knowledge graph for the purpose of ease and visual treat for further probe and analysis. a very useful counsel can be drawn by looking at the subgraphs or subnetworks of protein-protein interaction networks of both normal and ad affected people. one can extract the data of protein-protein interaction of healthy people, the following inference which is a union of two connected components a and b, where a consists of 6 vertices denoting the genes: app, adam10, bace1, mif, mapt, lrp1 and b consist of 2 vertices denoting the genes ptgs2 and il1b. here a is a star graph and b is a tree on two vertices. see figure 3. figure 3. subgraph from normal person’s protein-protein interaction network source: authors’ own conception alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 194 one can extract the protein-protein interaction network of an ad affected person, the following inference which is a union of tree connected components a, b, c where a consists of 4 vertices denoting the genes: stat4, jun, mapk3, stmn2; b consists of 5 vertices denoting the genes: app, bace1, lrp1, dlg4, tgfb1; c consists of 2 vertices denoting the genes: mapt, tuba4a (iyappan et al., 2016). see figure 4. figure 4. subgraph from ad affected person’s protein-protein interaction network source: authors’ own conception 5. graph/network dependent proposition of ad network outlook make use of muti-omic data to find out pathways and susceptibility genes in ad. the following networks are associated with ad. 1) clathrin-mediated receptor endocytosis and mapk/erk. here turn upside down of the pathway receptor conciliated by clathrin result in improved levels of app paying way to progression of disease (hallock & thomas, 2012), 2) microglia and immune system (zhang et al., 2013), 3) microglia-enriched modules and astrocyte-specific (miller et al., 2013), 4) innate immune response and myelination (humphries et al., 2015), 5) ad progression network modules (kikuchi et al., 2013), 6) apoeε4 stratification dependent co-expression modules (jiang et al., 2016), 7) metastable proteins susceptible to aggregation inducing down regulated gene network (ciryam et al., 2016), 8) myelination network with hypomethylation patterns (humphries et al., 2015). in literature one can see umpteen instances on how networks could hasten personalized treatment. scrutiny of network modules that are unstable in various brain regions due to protein interaction, specifically, in the ad patient’s entorhinal cortex. at different braak stages presence or otherwise of a lot of protein interactions give indication regarding upward progression of ad through network modules brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 195 (kikuchi et al., 2013). similarly network exploration of 6 critical brain regions observed in ad patients’ unravelled a hub of 136 genes where 72 of them well agree with the mental state diagnose test and cognitive scores confirming progression dreadfulness of ad. apoeε4 is a grave risk factor for late onset of ad and responsible for greater than fifty percent of the affected cases. the carriers of apoeε4 exhibit clinical and pathological traits unlike in non-carriers. further apoeε4 carriers’ co-expression modules are full of a) disorders that are hereditary, b) diseases that are neurological and c) function of nervous system. however, modules of noncarriers were enhanced in diseases that are cardiovascular and immunological thereby conveying that several processes that are biological could cause a havoc with late onset of ad (jiang et al, 2016). network scrutiny other than determining genetic confederacy in share mode, enrol the evaluation of a similarity matrix spot clusters of gene associated to repair of dna, metabolism due to rna, and metabolism induced by glucose in ad (calderone et al., 2016). pertinently, conventional gene ontology is not used to detect these pathways. latest meta-scrutiny of brain tissue of approximately 1600 microarrays of ad affected patients pronounce a set of genes that are down regulated related to metastable proteins accord to aggregation (ciryam et al., 2016). so, proteome homeostasis network targeting components could facilitate therapeutic moment for diseases that are neurodegenerative. temporally regulated gene expression that are also spatial is created by dna methylation. such epigenetic changes could impact a global gene expression. neurodegenerative disorders and aging can be scrutinized through epigenetic changes in gene expression. further positive correlation was detected in ad affected individuals regarding cognitive repair, working memory, and acceleration epigenetic age coupled with episodic memory. for this various tool that are computational are put in place to integrate data that is epigenetic in networks. 6. conclusion through network approach aided by graph theory attributes and the advantages of visual representation and pathway-centred strategy, we reviewed various mechanisms that are of genetic and pathogenetic types governing ad. our review provides significant ideas for comprehending the mechanisms that are molecular with reference to ad. the article provides the applied concepts of graph theory principles of centrality, betweeness, pathlength, small-worldness, clustering coefficient, bipartite random network, causal path network, social network analysis with semantic mining, weighted network analysis and knowledge graph in accommodating genetics alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 196 and signalling interactions in the clinical course of development of ad. this gives an impression of the significance of network theory applications in neuroscience and disease biology mechanisms. more combined work of graph theory and biology can help elaborate the unknown causes and interaction networks in the study of any human disease. acknowledgement this research was supported by the european union through the european regional development fund under the competitiveness operational program (biocell-nanoart = novel bio-inspired cellular nano-architectures, poc-a1.1.4-e-2015 nr.30/01.09.2016) references aggarwal, c., & wang, h. (2010). managing and mining graph data. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6045-0 alexander-bloch, a. f., gogtay, n., meunier, d., birn, r., clasen, l., lalonde, f., lenroot, r., giedd, j., & bullmore, e. t. (2010). disrupted modularity and local connectivity of brain functional networks in childhood-onset schizophrenia. frontiers in systems neuroscience, 4, 147. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2010.00147 andrews, s. j., fulton-howard, b., & goate, a. (2020). interpretation of risk loci from genome-wide association studies of alzheimer’s disease. the lancet neurology, 9(4), 326-335. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(19)30435-1 arotaritei, d., turnea, m., beiu, v., & rotariu, m. (2013). probabilistic gate matrix for axon-inspired communication. in 2013 e-health and bioengineering conference (ehb), (pp. 1-4), ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/ehb.2013.6707255 baars, b. j. (1997). in the theater of consciousness: the workspace of the mind. oxford university press. barabasi, a. l., & oltvai, z. n. (2004). network biology: understanding the cell's functional organization. nature reviews genetics, 5(2), 101-113. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1272 beiu, v., rohatinovici, n. c., dăuş, l., & balas, v. e. (2017). transport reliability on axonal cytoskeleton. in 2017 14th international conference on engineering of modern electric systems (emes), (pp. 160-163), ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/emes.2017.7980404 bobba, a., amadoro, g., valenti, d., corsetti, v., lassandro, r., & atlante, a. (2013). mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes i and iv are impaired by β-amyloid via direct interaction and through complex i-dependent ros https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6045-0 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2010.00147 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(19)30435-1 https://doi.org/10.1109/ehb.2013.6707255 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1272 https://doi.org/10.1109/emes.2017.7980404 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 197 production, respectively. mitochondrion, 13(4), 298-311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mito.2013.03.008 bota, d. a., ngo, j. k., & davies, k. j. (2005). downregulation of the human lon protease impairs mitochondrial structure and function and causes cell death. free radical biology and medicine, 38(5), 665-677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2004.11.017 bullmore, e., & sporns, o. (2009). complex brain networks: graph theoretical analysis of structural and functional systems. nature reviews neuroscience, 10(3), 186-198. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2575 calderone, a., formenti, m., aprea, f., papa, m., alberghina, l., colangelo, a. m., & bertolazzi, p. (2016). comparing alzheimer’s and parkinson’s diseases networks using graph communitiesstructure. bmc systems biology, 10(1), 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12918-016-0270-7 chen, l., wang, r., li, c., & aihara, k. (2010). modeling biomolecular networks in cells: structures and dynamics. springer science & business media. chouliaras, l., mastroeni, d., delvaux, e., grover, a., kenis, g., hof, p. r., steinbusch, h. w., coleman, p.d., rutten, b. p., & van den hove, d. l. (2013). consistent decrease in global dna methylation and hydroxymethylation in the hippocampus of alzheimer’s disease patients. neurobiology of aging, 34(9), 2091-2099. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.02.021 ciryam, p., kundra, r., freer, r., morimoto, r. i., dobson, c. m., & vendruscolo, m. (2016). a transcriptional signature of alzheimer’s disease is associated with a metastable subproteome at risk for aggregation. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america, 113(17), 4753-4758. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1516604113 combs, b., hamel, c., & kanaan, n. m. (2016). pathological conformations involving the amino terminus of tau occur early in alzheimer's disease and are differentially detected by monoclonal antibodies. neurobiology of disease, 94, 18–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2016.05.016 dehaene, s., kerszberg, m., & changeux, j. p. (1998). a neuronal model of a global workspace in effortful cognitive tasks. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america, 95, 14529-14534. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.95.24.14529 diao, y., li, m., feng, z., yin, j., & pan, y. (2007). the community structure of the human cellular signaling network. journal of theoretical biology, 247(4), 608615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.04.007 dubois, b., feldman, h. h., jacova, c., dekosky, s. t., barberger-gateau, p., cummings, j., delacourte, a., galasko, d., gauthier, s., jicha, g., meguro, k., o'brien, j., pasquier, f., robert, p., rossor, m., salloway, s., stern, y., visser, p. j., & scheltens, p. (2007). research criteria for the diagnosis of https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mito.2013.03.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2004.11.017 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2575 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12918-016-0270-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.02.021 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1516604113 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2016.05.016 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.95.24.14529 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.04.007 alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 198 alzheimer’s disease: revising the nincds–adrda criteria. the lancet neurology, 6(8), 734-746. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(07)701783 ellison, j. m. (2018, october 2). the history of alzheimer’s disease. brightfocus.org. , https://www.brightfocus.org/alzheimer’ss/article/history-alzheimer’ssdisease esterbauer, h., schaur, r. j., & zollner, h. (1991). chemistry and biochemistry of 4-hydroxynonenal, malonaldehyde and related aldehydes. free radical biology and medicine, 11(1), 81-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/0891-5849(91)90192-6 everitt, b. s., landau, s., leese, m., & stahl, d. (2011). cluster analysis. john wiley & sons. gene ontology consortium (2006). the gene ontology (go) project in 2006. nucleic acids research, 34(database issue), d322–d326. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkj021 ghulam, a., lei, x., guo, m., & bian, c. (2020). disease-pathway association prediction based on random walks with restart and pagerank. ieee access, 8, 72021-72038. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.2987071 goedert, m., & spillantini, m. g. (2006). a century of alzheimer’s disease. science, 314(5800), 777-781. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1132814 hallock, p., & thomas, m. a. (2012). integrating the alzheimer's disease proteome and transcriptome: a comprehensive network model of a complex disease. omics : a journal of integrative biology, 16(1-2), 37–49. https://doi.org/10.1089/omi.2011.0054 hickman, s. e., & el khoury, j. (2014). trem2 and the neuroimmunology of alzheimer's disease. biochemical pharmacology, 88(4), 495–498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcp.2013.11.021 humphries, c. e., kohli, m. a., nathanson, l., whitehead, p., beecham, g., martin, e., mash, d.c., pericak-vance, m.a., & gilbert, j. (2015). integrated whole transcriptome and dnamethylation analysis identifies gene networks specific to late-onset alzheimer’s disease. journal of alzheimer's disease, 44(3), 977–987. https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-141989 iyappan, a., kawalia, s. b., raschka, t., hofmann-apitius, m., & senger, p. (2016). neurordf: semantic integration of highly curated data to prioritize biomarker candidates in alzheimer’s disease. journal of biomedical semantics, 7(1), 45. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-016-0079-8 jansen, i. e., savage, j. e., watanabe, k., bryois, j., williams, d. m., steinberg, s., sealock, j., karlsson, i. k., hägg, s., athanasiu, l., voyle, n., proitsi, p., witoelar, a., stringer, s., aarsland, d., ...& posthuma, d. (2019). genomewide meta-analysis identifies new loci and functional pathways influencing alzheimer’s’s disease risk. nature genetics, 51(3), 404-413. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0311-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(07)70178-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(07)70178-3 https://www.brightfocus.org/alzheimer'ss/article/history-alzheimer'ss-disease https://www.brightfocus.org/alzheimer'ss/article/history-alzheimer'ss-disease https://doi.org/10.1016/0891-5849(91)90192-6 https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkj021 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.2987071 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1132814 https://doi.org/10.1089/omi.2011.0054 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcp.2013.11.021 https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-141989 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-016-0079-8 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0311-9 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 199 jiang, s., tang, l., zhao, n., yang, w., qiu, y., & chen, h. z. (2016). a systems view of the differences between apoe ε4 carriers and non-carriers in alzheimer's disease. frontiers in aging neuroscience, 8, 171. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00171 keck, s., nitsch, r., grune, t., & ullrich, o. (2003). proteasome inhibition by paired helical filament‐tau in brains of patients with alzheimer’s disease. journal of neurochemistry, 85(1), 115-122. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.14714159.2003.01642.x kelly, j., moyeed, r., carroll, c., luo, s., & li, x. (2020). genetic networks in parkinson's and alzheimer's disease. aging, 12(6), 5221–5243. https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102943 kikuchi, m., ogishima, s., miyamoto, t., miyashita, a., kuwano, r., nakaya, j., & tanaka, h. (2013). identification of unstable network modules reveals disease modules associated with the progression of alzheimer’s disease. plos one, 8, e76162. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076162 kim j. h. (2018). genetics of alzheimer's disease. dementia and neurocognitive disorders, 17(4), 131–136. https://doi.org/10.12779/dnd.2018.17.4.131 kitzbichler, m. g., henson, r. n., smith, m. l., nathan, p. j. & bullmore, e. t. (2011). cognitive effort drives workspace configuration of human brain functional networks. journal of neuroscience, 31, 8259-8270. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0440-11.2011 kocahan, s., & doğan, z. (2017). mechanisms of alzheimer's disease pathogenesis and prevention: the brain, neural pathology, n-methyl-daspartate receptors, tau protein and other risk factors. clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the korean college of neuropsychopharmacology, 15(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.9758/cpn.2017.15.1.1 latora, v., & marchiori, m. (2001). efficient behavior of small-world networks. physical review letters, 87(19), 198701. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.87.198701 latora, v., & marchiori, m. (2003). economic small-world behavior in weighted networks. the european physical journal b, 32, 249-263. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2003-00095-5 magalingam, k. b., radhakrishnan, a., ping, n. s., & haleagrahara, n. (2018). current concepts of neurodegenerative mechanisms in alzheimer’s disease. biomed research international, 3740461. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3740461 mcgeer, p. l., itagaki, s., boyes, b. e., & mcgeer, e. g. (1988). reactive microglia are positive for hla‐dr in the substantia nigra of parkinson's and alzheimer’s disease brains. neurology, 38(8), 1285-1285. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.38.8.1285 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00171 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-4159.2003.01642.x https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-4159.2003.01642.x https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102943 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076162 https://doi.org/10.12779/dnd.2018.17.4.131 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0440-11.2011 https://doi.org/10.9758/cpn.2017.15.1.1 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.87.198701 https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2003-00095-5 https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3740461 https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.38.8.1285 alzheimer’s disease under the purview of graph theory centric genetic … yegnanarayanan venkatraman, et al. 200 miller, j. a., woltjer, r. l., goodenbour, j. m., horvath, s., & geschwind, d. h. (2013). genes and pathways underlying regional and cell type changes in alzheimer’s disease. genome medicine, 5, 48. https://doi.org/10.1186/gm452 nichols, e., szoeke, c. e., vollset, s. e., abbasi, n., abd-allah, f., abdela, j., & awasthi, a. (2019). global, regional, and national burden of alzheimer’s's disease and other dementias, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2016. the lancet neurology, 18(1), 88-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(18)30403-4 niven, j. e. & laughlin, s. b. (2008). energy limitation as a selective pressure on the evolution of sensory systems. the journal of experimental biology, 211, 1792-1804. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.017574 okamoto, s., nakamura, t., cieplak, p., chan, s. f., kalashnikova, e., liao, l., saleem, s., han, x., clemente, a., nutter, a., sances, s., brechtel, c., haus, d., haun, f., sanz-blasco, s., huang, x., li, h., zaremba, j. d., cui, j., gu, z., … lipton, s. a. (2014). s-nitrosylation-mediated redox transcriptional switch modulates neurogenesis and neuronal cell death. cell reports, 8(1), 217–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2014.06.005 priller, c., bauer, t., mitteregger, g., krebs, b., kretzschmar, h. a., & herms, j. (2006). synapse formation and function is modulated by the amyloid precursor protein. the journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the society for neuroscience, 26(27), 7212–7221. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.1450-06.2006 rangel, c. r., altamiranda, j., & aguilar, j. (2016). semantic mining based on graph theory and ontologies. case study: cell signaling pathways. clei electronic journal, 19(2), 6. http://www.scielo.edu.uy/pdf/cleiej/v19n2/v19n2a07.pdf reitz, c., brayne, c., & mayeux, r. (2011). epidemiology of alzheimer’s disease. nature reviews neurology, 7(3), 137. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2011.2 robinson, m., lee, b. y., & hane, f. t. (2017). recent progress in alzheimer’s’s disease research, part 2: genetics and epidemiology. journal of alzheimer’s disease, 61(1), 459. https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-179007 rohatinovici, n. c., proştean, o., & balas, v. e. (2018). on reliability of 3d hammock networks. in 2018 ieee 12th international symposium on applied computational intelligence and informatics (saci), (pp: 000149-000154), ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/saci.2018.8441003 rosenthal, s. l., & kamboh, m. i. (2014). late-onset alzheimer's disease genes and the potentially implicated pathways. current genetic medicine reports, 2(2), 85–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40142-014-0034-x https://doi.org/10.1186/gm452 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(18)30403-4 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.017574 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2014.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.1450-06.2006 http://www.scielo.edu.uy/pdf/cleiej/v19n2/v19n2a07.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2011.2 https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-179007 https://doi.org/10.1109/saci.2018.8441003 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40142-014-0034-x brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 201 rubinov, m., & sporns o. (2010). complex network measures of brain connectivity: uses and interpretations. neuroimage, 52(3), 1059-1069. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.10.003 watts, d. j., & strogatz, s. h. (1998). collective dynamics of ’small-world’ networks. nature, 393 (6684), 440-442. https://doi.org/10.1038/30918 yakes, f. m., & van houten, b. (1997). mitochondrial dna damage is more extensive and persists longer than nuclear dna damage in human cells following oxidative stress. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america, 94(2), 514–519. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.94.2.514 zalesky, a., fornito, a., harding, i. h., cocchi, l., yucel, m., pantelis, c. & bullmore, e. t. (2010). wholebrain anatomical networks: does the choice of nodes matter? neuroimage, 50(3), 970-983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.12.027 zhang, b., gaiteri, c., bodea, l. g., wang, z., mcelwee, j., podtelezhnikov, a. a., zhang, c., xie, t., tran, l., dobrin, r., fluder, e., clurman, b., melquist, s., narayanan, m., suver, c., shah, h., mahajan, m., gillis, t., mysore, j., macdonald, m. e., … emilsson, v. (2013). integrated systems approach identifies genetic nodes and networks in late-onset alzheimer's disease. cell, 153(3), 707–720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.03.030 zhang, b., tran, l., emilsson, v., & zhu, j. (2016). characterization of genetic networks associated with alzheimer's disease. methods in molecular biology, 1303, 459-477. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2627-5_28 zixin, h., rong, j., panpan, w., zhu, y., zhao, j., bennett, d.a., li, j. & momiao, x. (2020). shared causal paths underlying alzheimer’s dementia and type 2 diabetes. scientific reports 10, 4107. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-02060682-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.10.003 https://doi.org/10.1038/30918 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.94.2.514 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.12.027 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.03.030 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2627-5_28 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60682-3 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60682-3 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.2, pages: 01-11 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/32 particularities of clostridium difficile infection in patients with psychiatric pathology liliana baroiu¹, lucreţia anghel 2 , caterina dumitru 3 , alina viorica iancu 4 , miruna drăgănescu 5 , anamaria ciubara 6 1 clinical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunărea de jos” university of galați, 47 domneasca st., 800008, galati, romania, lilibaroiu@yahoo.com 2 clinical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunărea de jos” university of galați, 47 domneasca st., 800008, galati, romania, anghel_lucretia@yahoo.com 3 clinical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunărea de jos” university of galați, 47 domneasca st., 800008, galati, romania, dumitrukati@yahoo.com 4 clinical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunărea de jos” university of galați, 47 domneasca st., 800008, galati, romania, iancualina.2003@yahoo.com 5 clinical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunărea de jos” university of galați, 47 domneasca st., 800008, galati, romania, draganescumiruna@yahoo.com 6 clinical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunărea de jos” university of galați, 47 domneasca st., 800008, galati, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract: clostridium difficile infection (cdi) is a new pathology, but increasingly common in the elderly patient, with multiple comorbidities that often alter his quality of life and aggravate his vital prognosis. material and method: the study is a prospective, observational, controlled active study, performed on 706 patients admitted to the hospital "st. parascheva galați infectious diseases clinical hospital ” between 1.01.2017 ÷ 31.12.2018 with the diagnosis of cdi, of which 69 patients were associated with psychiatric disorders (pd). results: the demographic, clinical and paraclinical characters that differentiated the group with cdi and pd from the group with cdi and various comorbidities, statistically significant, were:female sex, predominant in the group with pd, older age in the group with pd, charlson score with values higher in the pd group, atlas score with higher values in the pd group, the number of deaths that occurred in the first 30 days after the cdi episode, as well as the number of deaths that occurred in the first 6 months after the cdi, higher in the group with cdi and pd compared to the group with cdi and various comorbidities. keywords: clostridium difficile; comorbidities; dementia; prognosis. how to cite: baroiu, l., anghel, l., dumitru, c., iancu, a.v. drăgănescu, m., & ciubara, a. (2020). particularities of clostridium difficile infection in patients with psychiatric pathology. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup2), 01-11. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/32 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/32 mailto:lilibaroiu@yahoo.com mailto:anghel_lucretia@yahoo.com mailto:dumitrukati@yahoo.com mailto:iancualina.2003@yahoo.com mailto:draganescumiruna@yahoo.com mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/32 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 2 introduction clostridium difficile infection (cdi) is an important public health problem in romania. in 2018, a number of 10241 confirmed cases entered in the cdi surveillance system, with 2% more cases than 2017 (10080). the elderly were mainly affected, the median age of confirmed cases was 68 years (0-101 years), 51% being female. risk factors for triggering the episode of cdi are: antibiotic therapy, age over 65 years, contact with medical care units, cancer chemotherapy (bilgrami et al., 1999; gorschluter et al., 2001), gastrointestinal surgery (sartelli et al., 2019; thibault, miller & gaese, 1991), feeding on the nasogastric tube, upper or lower digestive endoscopy (bliss et al., 1998), patient's comorbidities (chronic or disabling diseases accompanied by immunosuppression). risk factors for mortality from cdi are considered: age, comorbidities, hypoalbuminemia, leukocytosis, acute renal failure and ribotype 027 infection (abou chakra et al., 2014). psychiatric pathology is not usually accompanied by cdi, but there are studies that have observed high rates of cdi in patients with dementia in long-term care facilities (ltcf). in the united states, the rate of cdi in ltcf is 1.85 / 100 ltcf admissions with a 3-month mortality rate higher than those without cdi (ziakas et al., 2016). the risk of cdi among ltcf residents is seven times higher compared to individuals in the community (karanika et al, 2017). this increased risk is due to multiple risk factors for cdi in this patient population, including age, frequent antimicrobial exposure, multiple comorbidities, and recurrent hospitalizations (karanika et al., 2017; ziakas et al., 2015; ziakas et al, 2016). these conditions of patients are associated with changes in the structure of the microbiome (lewis & pamer, 2017) .the study of the microbiome in patients with advanced dementia, living in a long-term care unit, showed a reduced diversity of commensal species.thus, the diversity of the microbiome, as measured by the shannon index, was substantially reduced in these patients, with a value of 3.2, than the reported values of 4.5 among the general population (antharam et al., 2013). reconstruction of the microbiome could reduce the risk of cdi onset and recurrence. the identification of disturbances of the microbiome could identify patients with high risk of cdi and allow the formulation of preventive and therapeutic strategies targeted for cdi (araos et al., 2018, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=araos%20r%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=29594967 particularities of clostridium difficile infection in patients with psychiatric … liliana baroiu, et al. 3 manges et al., 2010, may, 2018; theriot & young, 2015; vincent & manges, 2015; vincent et al., 2013) . also, patients colonized with clostridium difficile toxigenic strains have an increased risk of cdi. the structure of the microbiome in patients with dementia from long-term care facilities, who are colonized with clostridium difficile toxigenic strains differs from non-colonized patients by the predominance of: akkermansia spp., dermabacter spp., romboutsia spp., meiothermus spp., peptoclostridium spp., and ruminococcaceae ugc 009 (araos et al., 2018). also, colonization with c. difficile is associated with a six-fold increased risk of cdi (zacharioudakis et al., 2015). specific microbiome disturbance indices may be able to identify subjects at high risk of c. difficile colonization and may help formulate targeted prevention and therapeutic strategies within ltcf (anghel et al., 2019; baroiu et al., 2018; baroiu et al. 2019; berbinschi et al., 2014; zacharioudakis et al., 2015). other clinical studies have observed a higher incidence of cdi in elderly americans with depression than in those without depression (282.9 / 100,000 person-years (95% ci 226.3 339.5) compared to 197.1 / 100,000 person-years (95% ci 168.0 226.1)). in this study, the rate of cdi was 36%, higher in patients with major depression (95% ci 1.06 ÷ 1.74). the conclusion of the study was that adults with depression who use antidepressant medication have a higher risk of cdi than the general population, with the highest risk being present in elderly widowed adults and those living alone (rogers et al., 2013). a united states study of 362 patients with cdi found that delirium, charlson score, total leukocyte count, serum urea, intensive care hospitalization were predictive factors for 30-day mortality from the episode of cdi.of these factors patients who were admitted from a long-term care facility, diagnosed in the intensive care unit, and who developed delirium were at highest risk for dying within 30 days of cdi diagnosis (archbaldpannone et al., 2016). this paper aims to identify the specific features of cdi in patients with psychiatric disorders from an epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic point of view. methodology a prospective, observational, actively controlled study was performed on 706 patients admitted to the “st. parascheva clinic hospital of infectious diseases galati” between 1.01.2017 ÷ 31.12.2018 with the diagnosis of clostridium difficile infection. 69 of them had psychiatric https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=archbald-pannone%20lr%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=25920706 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=archbald-pannone%20lr%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=25920706 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 4 comorbidities. criteria for inclusion in the study were: adults with unformed stools, over 3 in the last 24 hours, with a consistency of 6-7 on the bristol scale and toxins of clostridium difficile a or b or a and b positive; patients who have written informed consent for participation in the study, staff in full knowledge. exclusion criteria from the study were: unconscious patients or inability to sign informed consent; patients who refused to participate in the study; pregnant or breastfeeding women; patients under 18 years; patients who had extreme values ("outliers") in the usual laboratory tests (leukocytes, hemoglobin, serum albumin, ionogram, serum creatinine). patients were monitored during the hospitalization period and at one month, 2 months and 6 months after discharge, they were evaluated by telephone or in hospital. for statistical analysis we used med calc program, version 15.8. statistical analysis of the demographic data was performed on the group of patients with cdi and psychic diseases (group a) compared to the one with cdi and various comorbidities (group b). the presentation is in mean, s.d. (standard deviation), minimum and maximum value for continuous variables and in absolute frequency for categorical variables, the test used in the inferential analysis being specified for each variable. results the diagnoses of patients with psychiatric disorders were: dementia75.36% of cases, depressive disorder-8.69%, anxiodepressive disorder4.34%, schizophrenia-4.34%, anxiety disorder-2.89%, severe mental retardation-1.44%, organic affective disorder-1.44%, persistent delirium1.44%, fig.1. fig 1. profile of psychiatric pathology 52 3 6 2 1 3 1 1 dementia anxiodepressive disorder depressive disorder anxiety disorder severe mental retardation schizophrenia organic affective disorder persistent delirium particularities of clostridium difficile infection in patients with psychiatric … liliana baroiu, et al. 5 the origin of the cases in the group with patients with cdi and various comorbidities was: 553 (78.32%) patients with infection associated with healthcare, and 153 (21.67%) patients with infection with indefinite and community source, and in the group of patients with cdi and psychiatric disorders (pd) was: 61 (88.40%) patients with healthcare associated infection, and 8 (11.59%) patients with indefinite and community source infection. the percentage of nosocomial infections was higher in the pd group with 10.08% (95% ci -0.33% -17.29%, p = 0.0697) without being statistically significant. the characteristics of the group with cdi and pd and the group with cdi and various comorbidities and their statistical correlation are presented in table 1 and 2. table 1. numeric correlations of the characteristics of the group with cdi and psychiatric disorders versus cdi and various comorbidities cdi+pd+ (n 1=69) cdi+ (n 2 =706) t-t p 95% ci av. sdev max; min av. sdev max; min age(years old) 75.71 13.29 91;21 66.23 15.37 95;19 <0.0001 13.24; -5.71 hospitalization length (days) 8.88 4.68 28; 1 8.08 3.57 28;1 0.0853 -1.71; 0.11 treatment duration (days) 9.76 3.25 21; 1 10.19 3.27 35;1 0.2972 -0.37; 1.23 legend: av=average; sdev=standard deviation; max=maximum value; min= minimum value; t-t= student test (t) for differences between means; ci= conficence interval table 2. statistic analysis of the characteristics of categorical variables of the patients with cdi and psychiatric disorders versus cdi and various comorbidities cdi+pd+ n=69 cdi+ n=706 or 95%ci χ2 test p n % n % sex female male 41 28 59.42 40.57 314 392 44.47 55.52 1.8927.19 0.0243 living area urban rural 52 17 75.36 24.63 477 229 67.56 32.43 -4.54 18.03 0.2329 charlson score 0-3 4-6 7-14 8 30 31 11.59 43.47 59.42 301 270 135 4.39 38.24 19.12 0.5017.27 -7.2318.21 0.0202 0.4704 <0.0001 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 6 27.4252.30 antibiotics before cdi onset yes no 50 19 72.46 27.53 465 241 65.86 34.13 -5.9717.30 0.3297 ppi before cdi onset yes no 24 45 34.78 65.21 197 509 27.90 72.09 -4.7219.73 0.2853 endoscopy before cdi onset yes no 2 67 2.89 97.10 29 677 4.10 95.89 -6.09-4.28 0.8667 abdominal surgery yes no 3 66 4.34 95.65 69 637 9.77 90.22 -2.67-9.64 0.2055 atlas score 0-3 4-9 37 32 53.62 46.37 586 120 83.00 16.99 16.9242.08 <0.0001 recurrence yes no 13 56 18.84 81.15 124 582 17.56 82.43 -7.6512.82 0.9198 deaths 0-30 days yes no 19 50 27.53 72.46 74 632 10.48 89.51 6.6729.32 0.0001 deaths 0-6 months yes no 63 6 91.30 8.69 128 578 18.13 81.86 63.4079.27 <0.0001 demographic characters. in the group with cdi and pd, the female sex predominatedas opposed to the one with cdi and various comorbidities in which the male predominated (statistically significant differences). in both lots the urban environment of origin predominates. analysis of risk factors. patients with pd are older when they develop the episode of cdi than those with other pathologies associated. the mean age of the group with pd falls in the second degree of severity of the atlas score (70-79 years) and the average age of the group with cdi and various comorbidities fall into the first degree of severity of the atlas score (60-70 years), the difference of these means being statistically significant. the median age of both groups (79 years, group a, 68 years, group b) is in the risk zone for cdi (over 65 years). the consumption of antibiotics and the chronic consumption of proton pump inhibitors (ppis), before the onset of cdi, had not statistically significant differences between the two groups. abdominal surgery and diagnostic or therapeutic endoscopies during the last 8 weeks before the onset of cdi, had similar proportion in the two groups. particularities of clostridium difficile infection in patients with psychiatric … liliana baroiu, et al. 7 the comorbidities of patients with cdi, as measured by the charlson score, revealed statistically significant differences in the profile with various comorbidities and with pd.the patients with pd accumulated a proportion of value for charlson score 7-14 significantly higher than those with cdi and various comorbidities. analysis of the severity of the episode and the prognosis of cdi. the severity of the cdi episode, as quantified by the atlas score, reveals statistically significant differences on the episodes of high severity disease, that is, the patients with pd experienced significantly more episodes of cdi with atlas severity index 4-9 more than those with cdi and various comorbidities. the length of hospitalization and the number of days of specific antibiotic treatment were comparable in the two study groups. the number of recurrences, defined as the recurrence of symptoms with more than 3 stools, consistency 6-7 on the bristol scale, in the last 24 hours and toxins a and / or b positive for cd, in the first 8 weeks after the clinical resolution of the studied episode by cdi, was comparable in the two study groups. the number of deaths occurring during the first 30 days after the cdi episode, as well as the number of deaths occurring during the first 6 months after the cdi, were statistically significantly higher in the group with cdi and pd compared with the group with cdi and various comorbidities, in direct correlation with the fact that these patients were older and with a profile of comorbidities, with a higher risk of death, and they experienced episodes of disease with higher severity (quantified by the atlas score) (perju-dumbravă et al., 2013). discussions the study of patients with cdi and pd compared with those with various comorbidities identifies risk factors with significant importance in this group, such as older age and more complex profile of comorbidities, with higher risk of death (as measured by the charlson score). disorders of diversity and quantity of the microbiome described in literature in patients with dementia, who predominate in our group with pd, could also explain the high severity of the episode of cdi and the severe prognosis of cdi in these patients. the higher severity of cdi episodes in pd patients, the older age, the complex comorbidity profile and the dysbiosis encountered in these patients had a statistic significant impact on the prognostic of these patients, brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 8 quantified by the death rate at 1 month and 6 months from the cdi episode (perju-dumbravă et al., 2010). conclusion prevention measures for cdi should be carefully and rigorously implemented in patients with pd, especially in patients living in long-term care centers but also in those living at home because their risk profile predisposes to the onset of cdi and to the development of episodes of severe disease with reserved prognosis. the correction of microflora imbalances in the colon in psychiatric patients should be considered when designing their chronic treatment schemes, prophylactic and curative therapies with ppis and antibiotics should be well reviewed and performed only when are strictly necessary. further studies will evaluate the usefulness of screening healthy clostridium difficile carriers when hospitalized in a psychiatric ward or in a long-term care unit. references abou chakra, c. n., pepin, j., sirard, s., & valiquette, l. (2014). risk factors for recurrence, complications and mortality in cdi: a systematic review. plos one, 9, e98400. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098400 anghel, l., baroiu, l., beznea, a., topor, g., & grigore, c. (2019). the therapeutic relevance of vitamin e. revista de chimie, 70(10), 3711–3713. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.10.7630 antharam, v. c., li, e. c., ishmael, a., sharma, a., m., volker, rand, k. h., & wang, g. p. (2013). intestinal dysbiosis and depletion of butyrogenic bacteria in clostridium difficile infection and nosocomial diarrhea. journal of clinical microbiology, 51(9), 2884 – 2892. https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.00845-13 araos, r., andreatos, n., ugalde, j., mitchell, s., mylonakis, e., & d’agata, e. m. c. (2018). fecal microbiome among nursing home residents with advanced dementia and clostridium difficile. digestive diseases and sciences, 63(6), 1525 – 1531. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-018-5030-7 archbald-pannone, l. r., mcmurry, t. l., guerrant, r. l., & warren, c. a. (2016). delirium and other clinical factors with clostridium difficile infection that predict mortality in hospitalized patients. american journal of infection control, 43(7), 690 – 693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2015.03.017 baroiu, l., beznea, a., pleșea condratovici, c., onisor, c., grigore, c. a., topor, g., & rugina, s. (2019). comparative effectiveness of vancomycin and metronidazole for the initial episode of nonsevere clostridium difficile https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098400 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.10.7630 https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.00845-13 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=araos%20r%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=29594967 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=andreatos%20n%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=29594967 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=ugalde%20j%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=29594967 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=mitchell%20s%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=29594967 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=mylonakis%20e%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=29594967 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=d%26%23x02019%3bagata%20em%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=29594967 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-018-5030-7 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=archbald-pannone%20lr%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=25920706 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=mcmurry%20tl%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=25920706 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=guerrant%20rl%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=25920706 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=warren%20ca%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=25920706 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2015.03.017 particularities of clostridium difficile infection in patients with psychiatric … liliana baroiu, et al. 9 infection. revista de chimie, 70(10), 3741 – 3745. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.10.7637 baroiu, n., baroiu, l., teodor, v. g., & ciocan, t. l. (2018). gaphical method for profiling the side mill which generate helical flute of tungsten carbide dental cross cut bur. romanian journal of materials 48(1), 131–139. berbinschi, s., baroiu, n., teodor, v., & oancea, n. (2014). profiling method of side mill for threading screw for dental implants. advanced materials research, 837, 22–27. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.837.22 bilgrami, s. feingold, j. m., dorsky, d., edwards, r. l., bona, r. d., khan, a. m., rodriguez-pinero, f., clive, j., & tutschka, p. j. (1999). incidence and outcome of clostridium difficile infection following autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. bone marrow transplant 23, 1039 – 1042. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1701773 bliss, d. z., johnson, s., savik, k., clabots, c. r., willard, k., & gerding, d. n. (1998). acquisition of clostridium difficile and clostridium difficileassociated diarrhea in hospitalized patients receiving tube feeding. annals of internal medicine, 129, 1012–1019. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-12912-199812150-00004 gorschluter, m., glasmacher, a., hahn, c., schakowski, f., ziske, c., molitor, e., marklein, g., sauerbruch, t., & schmidt-wolf, i. g. h. (2001). clostridium difficile infection in patients with neutropenia. clinical infectious diseases, 33(6), 786 – 791. https://doi.org/10.1086/322616 karanika, s., grigoras, c., flokas, m. e., alevizakos, m., kinamon, t., kojic, e. m., & mylonakis, e. (2017). the attributable burden of clostridium difficile infection to long-term care facilities stay: a clinical study. journal of the american geriatrics society, 65, 1733 – 1740. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.14863 lewis, b. b., & pamer, e. g. (2017). microbiota-based therapies for clostridium difficile and antibiotic-resistant enteric infections. annual review of microbiology, 71, 157 – 178. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-micro090816-093549 manges, a.r., labbe, a., loo, v.g., behr, m. a., masson, l., tellis, p. a., & brousseau, r. (2010). comparative metagenomic study of alterations to the intestinal microbiota and risk of nosocomial clostridum difficile-associated disease. the journal of infectious diseases, 202(12), 1877–1884. https://doi.org/10.1086/657319 may, b. (2018, april 11). microbiome composition offers insight into clostridium difficile risk among dementia patients. hcp live. https://www.mdmag.com/medical-news/microbiome-compositionoffers-insight-into-clostridium-difficile-risk-among-dementia-patients https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.10.7637 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.837.22 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1701773 https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-129-12-199812150-00004 https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-129-12-199812150-00004 https://doi.org/10.1086/322616 https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.14863 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-micro-090816-093549 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-micro-090816-093549 https://doi.org/10.1086/657319 https://www.mdmag.com/medical-news/microbiome-composition-offers-insight-into-clostridium-difficile-risk-among-dementia-patients https://www.mdmag.com/medical-news/microbiome-composition-offers-insight-into-clostridium-difficile-risk-among-dementia-patients brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 10 perju-dumbravă, d., anitan, s., siserman, c., fulga, i., & opincaru, i. (2010). virtopsy – an alternative to conventional autopsy. romanian journal of legal medicine, 18(1), 75-78 perju-dumbravă, d., fulga, i., chiroban, o., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2013). ethical and diagnostic difficulties of the cohabitation tests in the forensic expertise. revista romana de bioetica, 11(4), 132-137. rogers, m., greene, t., young, v. b., saint, s., langa, k. m., kao, j. y., & aronoff, d. m. (2013). depression, antidepressant medications, and risk of clostridium difficileinfection. bmc medicine 11(1), 121. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-11-121 . sartelli, m., di bella, s., mcfarland, l. v., khanna, s., furuya-kanamori, l., abuzeid, n., abu-zidan, f. m., ansaloni, l., augustin, g., bala, m., benishay, o., biffl, w. l., brecher, s. m., camacho-ortiz, a., caínzos, m. a., shirley chan, s., cherry-bukowiec, j. r., clanton, j., coccolini, f., cocuz, m. e., coimbra, r., cortese, f., cui, y., czepiel, j., demetrashvili, z., di carlo, i., saverio, s. d., dumitru, i. m., eckmann, c., eiland, e. h., forrester, j. d., fraga, g. p., frossard, j. l., fry, d. e., galeiras, r., ghnnam, w., gomes, c. a., griffiths, e. a., guirao, x., ahmed, m. h., herzog, t., il kim, j., iqbal, isik, a., itani, k. m. f., labricciosa, f. m., lee, y. y., juang, p., karamarkovic, a., kim, p. k., kluger, y., leppaniemi, a., lohsiriwat, v., machain, g. m., marwah, s., mazuski, j. e., metan, g., moore, e. e., moore, f. a., ordoñez, c. a., pagani, l., petrosillo, n., portela, f., rasa, k. r., rems, m. r., sakakushev, b. e., segovia-lohse, h., sganga, g., shelat, v. g., spigaglia, p., tattevin, p., tranà, c., urbánek, l., ulrych, j., viale, p., baiocchi, g. l., & catena, f. (2019). 2019 update of the wses guidelines for management of clostridioides (clostridium) difficile infection in surgical patients. world journal of emergency surgery, 14(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13017-0190228-3 theriot, c. m., & young, v. b. (2015). interactions between the gastrointestinal microbiome and clostridium difficile. annual review of microbiology, 69, 445– 461. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-micro-091014-104115 thibault, a., miller, m. a., & gaese, c. (1991). risk factors for the development of clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea during a hospital outbreak. infection control and hospital epidemiology, 12(6), 345–388. https://doi.org/10.2307/30145209 vincent, c., & manges, a.r. (2015). antimicrobial use, human gut microbiota and clostridium difficile colonization and infection. antibiotics (basel) 4(3), 230–253. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics4030230 vincent, c., stephens, da., loo, vg., edens, t. j., behr, m. a., dewar, k., & manges, a. r. (2013). reductions in intestinal clostridiales precede the https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-11-121 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13017-019-0228-3 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13017-019-0228-3 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-micro-091014-104115 https://doi.org/10.2307/30145209 https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics4030230 particularities of clostridium difficile infection in patients with psychiatric … liliana baroiu, et al. 11 development of nosocomial clostridium difficile infection. microbiome. 1, 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/2049-2618-1-18 zacharioudakis, i.m., zervou, f.n., pliakos, e.e., ziakas, p. d., & mylonakis, e. (2015). colonization with toxinogenic c. difficile upon hospital admission, and risk of infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis. american journal of gastroenterology, 110(3), 381–390. https://doi.org/10.1038/ajg.2015.22 ziakas, p. d., joyce, n., zacharioudakis, i. m., zervou, f. n., besdine, r. w., mor, v., & mylonakis, e. (2016). prevalence and impact of clostridium difficile infection in elderly residents of long-term care facilities, 2011: a nationwide study. medicine (baltimore), 95(31), e4187. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000004187 ziakas, p. d., zacharioudakis, i. m., zervou, f. n., grigoras, c., pliakos, e. e., & mylonakis, e. (2015). asymptomatic carriers of toxigenic c. difficile in long-term care facilities: a meta-analysis of prevalence and risk factors. plos one, 10(2), e0117195. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117195 https://doi.org/10.1186/2049-2618-1-18 https://doi.org/10.1038/ajg.2015.22 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000004187 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117195 microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 31 towards a metaphorical type of architecture: the inside of the victorian house ioana boghian department of philosophy and communication sciences, faculty of letters, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău spiru haret, 8, 600114, bacău, romania rahela_bac@yahoo.com.uk abstract the current paper starts from the concept of relatedness6 as an act of signifying: everything inside a house signifies. the metaphorical type of architecture that we have attempted to construct aims at viewing the types of objects within a house as linking knots in the web of the house, while the way in which these objects (be they ornaments or tools) are distributed in space reveals not only a character’s profession and/or personality (objects as extensions and projections of the self), but also indicates some kind of social hierarchy. keywords: architecture, space, relation, identity, hierarchy. 1. space and relatedness r. west-pavlov ([17], p. 21) stresses the fact that the “spatial thought”, the common denominator of kristeva, foucault, and deleuze (despite their different approaches to space: psychoanalytical, historical-sociological and exploratory-speculative respectively) is what baudrillard (1987, p. 20-1 apud [17], p 22) identified as a “production paradigm”: common to all these three thinkers is the dual motif made up of ‘producer’ and ‘product’, a duality constantly blurred by the introduction of the term ‘production’ – the manner in which the spaces we inhabit are to be understood as processes, dynamic, ongoing series of events of which we ourselves are a part. space is thus approached as a material/phenomenal rather than abstract notion, a more fluid and dynamic conceptualization (massey 2005: 29 apud [17], p. 22). in the article la maison ou le monde renversè (1980/1996/b apud [10], p. 344), pierre bourdieu reads meanings out of design, architecture, and relational positions of humans and objects in space; he argues that by moving within the house and between the inside and outside of the house, people internalized the structures and values embedded both in microcosm and macrocosm. in effets de lieu (1993), bourdieu establishes an intimate connection between a house, its inhabitants and the outside world: “the organization of space, together with the architecture of a house, the design and the furniture materialize and simultaneously reproduce cultural values in a society”, and locock (1994: 1-9) claims that buildings both transmit and create social statements: “buildings are not only shaped by the society that creates them, they also impose constraints on subsequent social action”; he further stresses that: meaning is not an afterthought in material culture. rather, it is the universe in which material culture is created”; yeoh (1996: 17) moves even further by highlighting the fact that meanings of created space or built environment are constantly re-interpreted by different users according to their values, knowledge and priorities in everyday life, while eco (1986: 77) emphasized the pervasiveness in architectural discourse, arguing that “functions are not only signified but also promoted and induced” in architecture (apud [10]: 342). according to l. holtedahl and s. gerrard (eds.) ([10], p. 344), architecture, semiotically seen as a system of signs, fills both functional and symbolic purposes, since architecture functions and. the denotation of architecture, its functional purpose can be easily recognized. but in order to read the symbolic meaning of architecture, its connotative meaning, detailed cultural knowledge is 6 relatedness may be defined as a semiotic web of relations in which humans are consumers of signs – objects in their function and utility – rather than consumers of objects themselves ([13]: 93). thus, analysing relatedness with the victorian house as a sign means analysing the way in which humans “consume” this sign of the house by identifying what exactly is the signification of a victorian house when approached from the perspective of social, textual and interpretive codes. brainstorming brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 32 required because symbols are neither fixed nor globally shared (barthes, 1982; rapoport, 1982: 45 apud [10], p. 345). when architecture is read in its cultural context, it can give important information for the analysis of social hierarchy, order, authority and power. susan kent also argues that “the study of architecture and the use of space can provide important information on the sociopolitical organization of society” (idem). inequalities in physical space can reify and naturalize hierarchies: old over young, men over women, locals over newcomers, les grands over les petits; organization of physical space can have strategic dimensions. in pour une sémiotique topologique, a. j. greimas [8] argues that it is necessary, in order to draw meaning out of an architectural, spatial discourse, to distinguish between: ‘here’ and ‘there’ as focalisation points, the sacred and profane, private and public, exterior and interior, superior and inferior, masculine and feminine spaces. the spatial language thus becomes – among other means of expression – the language through which a society signifies itself. he also takes into consideration such aspects as the perception of space: cultural differences manifest themselves on different levels and through all channels: thus, the thermal elation of an inhabited space will differ for an englishman and an american, the sonorous or olfactory elation of an oriental city will be experienced as disturbing by a westerner ([8], p. 23). space becomes a spatial text, an objectmessage in between the sender and receiver of the information in the act of communication, and the receiver/lecturer is invited to construct the grammar of this text. the way in which this spatial grammar can be established can be done by taking humans as subjects and the things as objects in that particular space, by analysing the relations among these and by categorizing them according to the verbal paradigms ‘to live’, to feel’ and ‘to perceive’ (together with the two major meanings of ‘to do’ – individual and social); in this way, space becomes a signifier. a. renier ([14], pp. 45-59) offers a definition of the architectural space taking into consideration the various levels of a theoretical organization of objects in space: 1. the assembly of so-called ‘static’ systems: the different parts of the building, such as its structure and walls; 2. the dynamic systems: active systems (e.g. the door) and those with an active role (the lock which allows the door to be locked automatically, but which is itself drawn into the movement of the object that it activates, or the gesture of a human hand acting as an activation system). this category also includes the systems which illustrate the action of an agent (individual or collective) over its environment and vice-versa, and also the action of individual agents over one another (greniewski, 1995, apud [14], p. 48) (for example, the elevator and the persons that make use of it, or the case of the belated spectators who, in order to reach their seats, determine the already seated spectators to rise and allow for their passing). 3. the homeostatic systems: mainly characterized by their self-adjustment capacity (a thermostat heating system); 4. the systems that are able to independently maintain their structure, such as the cell, strictly connected with system number six, described below; 5. the systems characterized by a direct response to a stimulus of the environment, such as the plant which absorbs carbon and gives off oxygen, an important process for the well-being and functioning of an exterior or interior space; 6. the organisms able to integrate several stimuli into a single image: certain features of the animal kingdom: the presence of pets in houses/flats, which clearly affects the actions of the inhabitants of that certain space; 7. the organisms that are capable of self-reflection, in relation to this image of combined stimuli, prior to taking any action: the level of the human being which, however, can barely be analysed in isolation from the others; 8. the social organisations, characterized, on the one hand, by a collective perception of the natural phenomena, and, on the other hand, by an increased power of distancing from and reflection upon the social behaviours; i. boghian – towards a metaphorical type of architecture: the inside of the victorian house 33 9. the transcendental systems which allow the evaluation of these social conducts and, on the grounds of a definite ideology, make their overcoming possible. another next level would include the cybernetic systems, but the interest here is in building a simplified system in order to define architectural space, in finding the ‘architectural objects’ that could accede to the role of signifier. thus, the architectural space cannot be reduced to the space of the plastician (who sees only an artful combination of material and colour), or to that of the constructor engineer, or of the architect, or of the human sciences specialist; the architectural space is not only the object of social practices, it is social practice. a. renier ([14], pp. 54-58) further defines the architectural space as an assembly of objects (persons and technical objects) and relations among these objects whose nature is defined according to the systemic organisation presented above, and whose signification can be constructed on the basis of visual reading and analysis of the objects and their relations, their position(s), the distance(s) among them, their motions(s) and depth, and on the basis of auditory analysis of sounds produced by the objects (words, breath, cries, the sound of steps or the rustling of dressing materials, the sounds made by musical instruments, or by house appliances, etc.); then comes an analysis of the olfactory stimuli (natural or artificial fragrances coming from perfumes, plants, certain activities such as cooking, washing, transportation, etc.); and the analysis of tactile sensations (the surface of the walls, the floor, the various pieces of furniture, the clothes, the skin, etc.); and the kinesthetic analysis (for example, body weight can determine different types of movements and body postures when sitting on a chair, or taking an elevator, or climbing up a slope, or leading to muscular contractions after a long interval of seated activity, etc.). 2. a metaphorical approach to spatial relations chandler ([2], p. 110) stresses upon the spatial relations that are dominant for visual signs: “unlike sequential syntagmatic relations, which are essentially about before and after, spatial syntagmatic relations include: above/below, in front/behind, close/distant, left/right (which can also have sequential significance), north/south/east/west and inside/outside (or centre/periphery). these structural relationships are imbued with semantic signification: lakoff and johnson ([11], pp. 1520) have shown that “orientational metaphors” are routinely linked to key concepts in a culture. according to lakoff and johnson ([10], p. 15), ‘orientational metaphors’ organize a whole system of concepts with respect to one another and, most of them, have to do with spatial orientation: updown, in-out, front-back, on-off, deep-shallow, central-peripheral; these spatial orientation arise as a result of the fact that we have the kind of bodies that we have and that these bodies function in a certain way in our physical environment; ‘orientational metaphors’ give a concept a spatial orientation; for example, “happy is up” – the fact that the concept “happy is oriented up” leads to such english expressions as “i’m feeling up today”. g. kress and t. van leeuwen (1996, 1998, apud [11], p. 111) distinguish among three key spatial dimensions in visual texts: left/right, top/bottom and centre/margin; the horizontal and vertical axes are not neutral dimensions either; for example, a pictorial representation will be ‘read’ along a horizontal axis from left to right in european cultures (similarly to the way in which reading and writing are performed), unlike, for example, the arabic, hebrew or chinese cultures; a distinction is also made between the left-hand elements (related to ‘the given’) and the right-hand elements (related to ‘the new’); for example, western cultures will represent the idea of ‘facing the future’ by images of people moving or facing to the right. kress and van leeuwen argue that when pictures make significant use of the horizontal axis, placing some elements left of centre and others right of centre, then the left-hand side is the side of the ‘already given’ – something the reader is assumed to know already, a familiar, wellestablished and agreed-upon point of departure, something which is commonsensical, assumed and self-evident – while the left-hand side is the side of the new – something which is presented as not yet known, or perhaps not yet agreed upon the viewer, therefore something to which the viewer must pay special attention, something more surprising, problematic or contestable (kress and van leeuwen 1996: 186-92 apud [2], p. 112, and [15], pp. 201-204). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 34 according to these theories, when we imagine characters described as entering a house, we tend to picture them as stepping from the left-hand towards the right-hand section of our mental image – the left being the already known background (the yard they have just crossed, or the road they have travelled along as ‘the given’), while the right represents ‘the new’, the house they step in as an unknown space, ready to be discovered in the more or less near future, since movement about the house also implies movement in time). the vertical compositional axis is also charged with connotative meaning, as we have already implied by mentioning lakoff and johnson’s definition of ‘orientational metaphors’ ([11]: 15-18): up is associated with goodness, virtue, happiness, consciousness, health, life, the future, high status, having control or power, rationality; down is associated with badness, depravity, sickness, death, low status, being subject to control or power, emotion. thus, a signifier located ‘higher’ than another does not imply only a simple, physical, spatial relationship, but also an evaluative one in relation to the signifieds for which they stand. for example, in hardy’s the return of the native, when clym goes to help the people get a bucket out of a well at eustacia’s house, she is described as advising them from a “window somewhere above” ([9], p. 215), signifying the fact that not only does she consider herself above the status of the people of egdon heath, but she considers herself above clym as well – and the events in the novel will subsequently prove this point. chandler ([2], p. 113) further illustrates a gendered spatial code by referring to goffman’s (gender advertisments, 1979: 43) observations concerning the depiction of male and female figures in magazine advertisements, according to which men tend to be located higher than women in these advertisements, symbolically mirroring the routine subordination of women to men in society. the scene in which rochester sends for jane to come and keep him company may provide us with an example in this direction; his words – “you puzzled me the first evening i invited you down here” ([1], p. 116) – clearly signify his desire, as a master, to ‘apply’ his power upon the other inhabitant of his house: he has called for her to come, from the sanctuary of her room upstairs, and keep him company ‘down there’, at his feet. the upper and the lower sections of a vertical axis, the connotations of top and bottom, represent an opposition between ‘the ideal’ and ‘the real’; the lower section in pictorial layouts tend to be more down-to-earth representations concerned with practical or factual details, while the upper part tends to be related to abstract or generalized possibilities (relations corresponding to the particular/general or local/global polarizations): the upper section shows us what ‘might be’ while the lower section tends to be more informative and practical, showing us ‘what is’ (kress and van leeuwen apud [2], p. 113, [15], pp. 204-205). the third key spatial dimension discussed by kress (apud [2], p. 113) and van leewuen ([15], pp. 205-209) is that of centre and margin: while the composition of some visual images is based primarily on a left-right or top-bottom structure, other visual images are dominated by a centre-periphery structure: something presented as centre is something presented “as nucleus of the information on which all the other elements are in some sense subservient”; the margins are “these ancillary, dependent elements”; this distinction is related to the fundamental perceptual distinction between figure and ground: selective perception involves ‘foregrounding’ some features and ‘backgrounding’ others (the need to separate a dominant shape – a figure with a definite contour – is psychologically motivated as the need to separate things according to our own concerns and interests). according to van leeuwen ([15], p. 206), the function of the centre is to hold and connect the elements which are gathered around it; centre and margin form a multimodal semiotic principle which can apply to the way buildings are arranged in a village, the way items of furniture are arranged in a room, the way in which people arrange themselves in rooms or halls to tell stories, teach lessons, dance, sing, etc.; it may also apply to the way in which objects are arranged in an i. boghian – towards a metaphorical type of architecture: the inside of the victorian house 35 exhibition or on a desk or a table, or to the way in which things are arranged on a page, or on a canvas, or on a screen. for example, in one of miss havisham’s rooms, the rotten bridal cake stands in the middle of the room, but also in the ‘middle of the house’ (at the core of the space of the house): all the universe at satis house spins around this “epergne or centerpiece” ([4], p. 113) through the symbolically charged ritual of pip’s walking miss havisham around the room (a victorian ritual distorted into bitter and grotesque ridiculousness). the “black fungus” of a cake is also related to miss havisham’s never having been seen to eat in public since the unfortunate event: there are no objects of food at satis house and pip is significantly ‘fed’ outside the house. doody ([6], p. 420:431) identifies the social and psychological function of food (meals define characters socially and psychologically) and also mentions that “food is used to stage the search for meaning that is carried out every time one reflects on the relationship among the self, the world and others” (pip does this while eating his bread and meat, and drinking his beer outside, in the courtyard of satis house); as a particular form of ekphrasis, doody argues, the presence of food in relation to a character in a novel involves a particular reminder of his/her participation in the world through ingestion of matter and also a supporting device for the reality of that character; food is also an “antidote” for dreams: “food is magically ‘normal’. detailed references to it are semimagical bonds to the physical, the necessary, the contingent, and the valuable. food preserves against illness. it is the sovereign remedy against dreams. it is a homage paid to the earth and to the body.” food is ‘healthy’, it is the symbol of the unshadowy. theo van leeuwen ([16], p. 101) also distinguishes between objective and subjective space, a distinction that, according to him, is important for a critical discourse analysis: generally, the feelings and subjective experiences of the participants in a social practice indicate power relationships: “ the regulators of social practices want people not only to do the right thing, but also to identify with it, to ‘own it’ in the contemporary jargon” and “subjective space representations link the space construction to an actor either by means of ‘relative’ circumstance (‘to her left’, ‘on his right’, ‘above him’, etc.) or by projecting spatial descriptions through perception clauses.” another distinction operated by him is that between decorative objects (for example, paintings) and resources (objects which are used to enact social practices – for example, the piano) ([16], p. 91). our analysis of the inside of a victorian house will focus upon the way in which objects are involved in creating and constructing relations inside the house, along the vertical and horizontal axis, involving the already mentioned distinctions between up-down, left-right, centre-margin, also paying attention to the subjective and objective implications. 2. 1. objects as extensions and projections of the self objects in a culture are almost always perceived as meaningful, particularly to people belonging to that culture; they construct a system of signification which mirrors the meaning structures of the entire culture: jewelry, clothes, furniture, ornaments, tools, toys are all signs which help reconstruct to a certain degree of completeness the society’s traditions, values, rituals; for these reasons, archeology, for example, can be defines as a semiotic study of objects and artifacts; there is also a common belief around the world which holds that objects are not only signs standing for conventional social meanings, but that they also possess some inner force above and beyond the physical (a manifestation of this belief is fetishism – the conviction that some inanimate objects, fetishes, are imbued with supernatural attributes); animism is evidence that people perceive certain objects as special kinds of signs; just like works of art, objects are considered to be reflections of innate forms of thought that seek expression in real world physical forms ([3], p. 207). objects may also be perceived as: extensions of the self: for example, the automobile (or the nineteenth-century carriage) is experienced by many as an extension of the body and thus as a protective extension of the self, creating a space around the physical body that is as inviolable as the body itself; substitutes for human beings: for example, in some cultures of the caribbean, it is believed that one can cause physical or psychological damage to another person by doing something brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 36 injurious to a doll constructed to resemble that person ([3], p. 208): in hardy’s the return of the native, susan nunsuch constructs a wax doll resembling eustacia and then throws it into the fire, the wax doll’s melting away parallels eustacia’s stepping towards death); projections of the self: in relation to others, wearing jewelry projects an image of wealth, or too much jewelry worn simultaneously projects an image of snobbism; a simply furnished room may indicate a monastic kind of life. emphasizing the fact that relationships between humans and objects contribute to the construction of space, bourdieu (1996, 1993 apud [10], p. 342) points out that there is no space which is not hierarchic and which does not express social hierarchies: the place a human, or an object, occupies in space is defined according to its surface, its volume, or the range of space it consumes; physical space is visible, concrete and measurable, easily perceived by everyone, independent of their knowledge, position and wealth – this is what, according to bourdieu, makes space consumption one of the most obvious ways in which to display power. bourdieu also considers that besides being situated in physical space in a fixed location, human beings and things can be situated in a relational position in space: the location in physical space is mirrored in the relational position in social space. social space is created by the relative position of a human or an object to other humans or objects: social space is thus always defined in relation to something or someone. this relative or relational position is both time-distance position and a relative place (over/under/in/between, etc.) position; social space exists only in relative positioning while physical space is a defined location and is “the mutual exclusion (or distinction) of positions which constitute it, a juxtaposition of social positions” (1993: 160 apud [10], p. 343). human beings and objects are thus always situated simultaneously in physical space as a physical location, and in social space, as a location “which can be characterized by its position relative to other locations (as standing above, below, or in between them) and by the distance which separates them” (1996, p. 10 apud [10], p. 343). the different social spaces appear in physical space according to the way in which humans and objects are located, and also the way in which objects are used and human and material resources are distributed in physical space according to social space: social structures reconverted into physical structures organize and qualify socially as “in rise or decline, entry (inclusion) or exit (exclusion), bringing together or distancing in relation to a central and valued site” (bourdieu 1996: [14] apud [10], p. 343). another distinction should be made between primitive objects and collections: primitive objects refer not necessarily to rough objects, but to objects in their function of resources: they are objects fulfilling certain primary needs, undecorative, contrasting sharply with the victorians’ need and taste for collections of all sorts of curios: “the presence or not of objects, their place in the home, their storage, their means of acquisition, the reasons for their disposal, their relationship to other household goods and their relationship to the homemaker all produce nuances of ownership, use and meaning” ([12], p. 50). collections included furniture, paintings and other decorative objects, amassed over the years by a family or families; collections are unique not only by what they contain, but also by the way in which they are arranged. in conclusion, besides the already mentioned major functions of objects as extensions and projections of the self, another one is that of tools in the construction of social hierarchies. the victorian house as a space of social and cultural practices turns into a social space where hierarchical relationships are established by using objects to create distance; the way in which objects and whose objects are those which occupy a certain space is also significant. 2. 2. objects as indicators of profession in their function as indicators of profession, objects behave mainly as resources (according to van leeuwen’s distinction between decorative and resource objects). objects become the resources and the tools by means of which occupation is signified. but by signifying occupation, objects also contribute to the construction of social space (according to bourdieu’s distinction between physical and social space). i. boghian – towards a metaphorical type of architecture: the inside of the victorian house 37 as illustration for these statements, we shall here refer to the objects from jaggers’ office as described in dickens’ great expectations. it is a subjective experience of space, realized visually through pip’s point of view: there were not so many papers about, as i should have expected to see; and there were some odd objects about, that i should not have expected to see – such as an old rusty pistol, a sword in a scabbard, several strange-looking boxes and packages, and two dreadful casts on a shelf, of faces peculiarly swollen, and twitchy about the nose. mr jaggers’ own high-backed chair was of deadly black-horse hair, with rows of brass nails round it, like a coffin; and i fancied i could see how he leaned back in it, and bit his forefinger at the clients […] i sat down in the cliental chair placed over against mr jaggers’s chair… ([4], p. 188). jaggers is a criminal lawyer hired by magwitch to provide pip with money on his way to ‘gentlemanhood’: the office is described as meeting with or failing to meet with pip’s expectations: in fact, the underlying idea is that jaggers does not believe in pip’s dream of becoming a gentleman, and if he were not paid, he would not help at all. the objects in his office are charged with signification: the old rusty pistol and the sword in the scabbard remind of piracy, and the two casts (‘famous clients of ours’ as wemmick later describes them) represent faces marked by swollen, agonizing expressions (as if they were the result of some pain inflicted upon the original bearers of those heads) – all these send to the kind of clients mr jaggers serves. the meaningful coffin-like chair shows the immorality of jaggers’s job – that of defending criminals – which cannot but lead to some kind of death, at least spiritual, if not physical. if jaggers’s chair looks like some kind of a mephistophelic chair, the cliental chair is that of the sinful come to make a pact with the devil: the reverse is also true: in helping so many criminals escape unpunished in exchange for money, jaggers is the one selling his soul; in fact, we do not know anything about his background, he has no family, and he treats everybody in the same hardened way as he treats his clients: he fears that his friendship with others may inconvenience his profession, but he is also self-isolating himself, patronizing everybody around (he is the only character who knows almost everything about all the other main characters in the novel). even when pip is invited to have dinner at his house, jaggers alone serves the meal and clears the table. we should also mention jaggers’s careful use of the soap, an object also to be found in his office, together with his ritualistic way of washing and drying his hands: i embrace this opportunity of remarking that he washed his clients off, as if he were a surgeon or a dentist. he had a closet in his room, fitted up for the purpose, which smelt of the scented soap like a perfumer’s shop. it had an unusually large jack-towel on a roller inside the door, and he would wash his hands, and wipe them and dry them all over this towel, whenever he came in from a police-court or dismissed a client from his room ([4], p. 233). his need of hygiene is a response to all the dirt and filth around; barthes (apud [7], p. 221) distinguishes between saponites able to kill filth and saponites able only to drive filth away: their symbolic action lies in separating light from darkness. we consider that with jaggers, the action of the saponites is not that of killing, completely eliminating dirt, but only that of temporarily driving it away. the objects in jaggers’ house act as a last clue: his house is actually converted into an office; what should be profession, social, outward practice is brought inside the home and transformed not only into a way of living, but also one of being: there was a bookcase in the room; i saw, from the backs of the books, that they were about evidence, criminal law, criminal biography, trials, acts of parliament, and such things. the furniture was all very solid and good, like his watch-chain. it had an official look, however, and there was nothing merely ornamental to be seen. in a corner was a little table brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 38 of papers with a shaded lamp: so that he seemed to bring the office home with him in that respect, too and to wheel it out of an evening and fall to work ([4], p. 234). the lack of ornamental objects implies the presence only of resource objects, objects used as tools that, together with the way in which jaggers presides over dinner, questioning and tempting into answering pip, herbert and drummle, is again an exhibition of his professional qualities. the office discourse spreads itself over dinner just like over any other business meeting: “‘at half-past nine, gentlemen,’ said he, ‘we must break up. pray make the best use of your time. i am glad to see you all’” ([4], p. 237). nevertheless, jaggers sits in the centre of the entire plot: the convicted murderess who now works for him as housekeeper is estella’s mother, while estella’s father is magwitch, for whom jaggers is paid to work for, coming thus into contact with pip, too. 3. conclusions the function of objects as extensions of the self is particularly that of offering a sense of protection; the function of objects as projections of the self is that of mirroring certain aspects that an individual values most, consciously or unconsciously. renier ([14], p. 55) distinguishes between two categories of objects important to the reading of architectural space: technical objects and persons, the analysis of the nature of their relationship leading to a characterization of their entire assembly. the early-nineteenth century industrialized production of goods had affected the quantity and quality of the contents of the home ([12], p. 3): furnishings were more varied, many goods were cheaper, textiles were more easily available and shops better stocked, therefore, homes filled up with objects. but the esteem of certain goods, ponsonby argues, was also dictated by the moral or religious role of the home: furnishings that suggested comfort, particularly upholstered items that gave the impression of a secure and cosy interior, were valued; the middle-class wife was not expected to go out to work or even to work in the family business, instead she was supposed to enhance the domestic environment with her handiwork: thus, embroidery and other needlework were essential elements for beautifying the home but a host of other skills were also expected, such as painting china, pokerwork (the art of making pictures or patterns on wood using a series of deep grooves made by heated pokers), and pictures made of shells or scrolls of paper: “while essentially a private world, the home performed a public role through providing a suitable backdrop for entertaining visitors” ([12], p. 4). by merging the above-mentioned theoretical statements and, by using the relationships established between dombey (as an object in renier’s sense) and the objects in his house, we have attempted to demonstrate such hypotheses as: the victorians used objects both as extensions and as projections of the self; in their extensive function, objects signified the ‘protective’ measure taken by victorians against letting the others see their true inner self, objects also functioning as a continuation of the victorian code of clothes and all the other values that money supported; they also signified power throguh the way in which, for example, rich furniture was exhibited around the house; as projections of the self, the analysis of the objects in dombey’s house will focus upon the clash between need and appearance. we shall here refer to dombey’s way of using, or better said not using objects after the funeral of mrs dombey’s death, his act of ordering things to be covered up being charged with several apparently disparate meanings: when the funeral was over, mr dombey ordered the furniture to be covered up – perhaps to preserve it for the son with whom his plans were all associated – and the rooms to be ungarnished, saving such as he retained for himself on the ground-floor. accordingly, mysterious shapes were made of tables and chairs, heaped together in the middle of rooms, i. boghian – towards a metaphorical type of architecture: the inside of the victorian house 39 and covered over with great winding-sheets. bell-handles, window-blinds, and lookingglasses, being papered up in journals, daily and weekly, obtruded fragmentary accounts of deaths and dreadful murders. every chandelier or lustre, muffled in holland, looked like a monstrous tear depending from the ceiling’s eye ([5], p. 25) the act of covering rich furniture and turning it into ghost-like shapes signifies, beside dombey’s practical and miserly thought of carefully saving the furniture untouched for the later use of his son, a more deeper significance – there was no need of exhibiting so much luxury since there were to be no visits received and therefore nobody to admire and spread the rumour about dombey’s wealth: once the lady of the house dead, there was nobody else to preside over social gatherings, tea meetings or business receptions and not that dombey would not have managed the task himself, but an object was missing from his ‘private collection’ (a wife), and until a wife was not provided instead, the house could not open again. not only does the idea of luxury disappear from the house, but also that of comfort, if comfort there had ever been: the house seems now to be populated by hosts of phantoms, the accounts of deaths and dreadful murders from the newspapers linger about as if anticipating paul’s death, and the once sparkling chandeliers are turned into monstrous tears. these statements are also supported by the fact that when dombey is engaged to edith, he has the entire house completely refurnished and redecorated: a new wife meant the replacing of the missing link, and the recommencing of the social rituals: hardly are the two married and the house redecorated, that dombey orders the business reception to be organized, with certain duties to be fulfilled by edith, as a wife and a mistress of the house. references [1] brontë, ch. (1992). jane eyre. hertfordshire: wordsworth classics. [2] chandler, d. (2007). semiotics. the basics. london: routledge. [3] danesi, m. (2004). messages, signs and meanings. a basic textbook in semiotics and communication theory. toronto: canadian scholar press. [4] dickens, ch. (1983). great expectations. london: penguin books. [5] dickens, ch. (2002). dombey and son, introduction and notes by k. smith. hertfordshire: wordsworth classics. [6] doody, m. a. (1997). the true story of the novel. london: harper collins. [7] durand, g. (1977). structurile antropologice ale imaginarului (les structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire, translated by m. aderca). bucharest: editura univers. [8] greimas, a., j. (1979). pour une sémiotique topologique. in sémiotique de l’espace (pp. 11-44). paris: denoël/gonthier.. [9] hardy, th. (1994). the return of the native. london: penguin books. [10] holtedahl, l., gerrard, s., njeuma, m., z., boutrais, j. (eds.) (1999). the power of knowledge. from the arctic to the tropics. paris: éditions karthala. [11] lakoff, g., johnson, m. (2003). metaphors we live by. london: the university of chicago press. [12] ponsonby, m. (2007). stories from home. english domestic interiors, 1750-1850. hants: ashgate. [13] rampley, m. (ed.) (2005). exploring visual culture: definitions, concepts, contexts. edinburgh: edinburgh university press. [14] renier, a. (1979). nature et lecture de l’espace architectural. in sémiotique de l’espace (pp. 45-59). paris: denoël/gonthier. [15] van leeuwen, th. (2005). introducing social semiotics. london: routledge. [16] van leeuwen, th. (2008). discourse and practice. oxford: oxford university press. [17] west-pavlov, r. (2009). space in theory. kristeva, foucault, deleuze. amsterdam: rodopi. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 164-188 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/243 time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh¹, ihor popovych2, nataliia zavatska3, olga losiyevska4, serhii zinchenko5, pavlo nosov6, mariia aleksieieva7 1 doctor of psychological sciences, full professor, department of general psychology, v. n. karazin kharkiv national university, kharkiv, ukraine, plokhikh_v@ukr.net 2 doctor of psychological sciences, full professor, department of psychology, kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, ihorpopovych999@gmail.com 3 doctor of psychological sciences, full professor, department of practical psychology and social work, volodymyr dahl east ukrainian national university, severodonetsk, ukraine, n.e.zavadska@gmail.com 4 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, department of psychology and sociology, volodymyr dahl east ukrainian national university, severodonetsk, ukraine, infinity88lug@gmail.com 5 ph. d., associate professor, ship handling department, kherson state maritime academy, kherson, ukraine, srz56@ukr.net 6 ph. d., associate professor, department of navigation, kherson state maritime academy, kherson, ukraine, pason@ukr.net 7 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, department of humanities and socioeconomic disciplines, kharkiv international medical university, kharkiv, ukraine, almarig31@gmail.com abstract: time synthesis of sensorimotor action is reviewed as a process of a coherence setting action duration (expected duration), time sequence of required operations and significant changes in conditions. aim: to experimentally set up the connection of time synthesis success and efficiency of realization sensorimotor action in changeable conditions. hypothesis: successful time synthesis of the setting duration and the temporal sequence of operations in the mental organization of sensorimotor action in changing conditions is realized in accordance with the corresponding operational meaning and is allowed by anticipatory effects and an increase in the effectiveness of the action, materials and methods. an experimental study involved 152 male and female students. participants of the investigation solved experimental tasks, implemented in a computer version, according to schemes of a simple visual-motor reaction and a choice reaction (separately and in combination), according to a scheme of sensorimotor action with a warning signal when the apperceptive scheme, setting duration and sequence of required operations were changed promptly. results were reviewed in the aspect of disclosing the features of the subject's elimination of the uncertainty of the moment of achieving the goal in the future and the construction of a sequence of operations of sensorimotor actions in a connection with changes in external conditions, typical for the time deficit regime. the conditionality of the time synthesis of sensorimotor action by the actual operational meaning was established revealing that the successful temporal synthesis of sensorimotor action in changing conditions is associated with the fastest acceptance of an adequate apperceptive scheme, with effective anticipation of the moment of achieving the goal and the formation of a detailed setting duration of action, with the formation of a temporal sequence of required operations. conclusions. the levels of success of the time synthesis of sensorimotor action in changing conditions are highlighted: “quite successful; moderately successful; unsuccessful.” keywords: setting, anticipation, operational meaning, duration, apperceptive scheme. how to cite: plokhikh, v., popovych, i., zavatska, n., losiyevska, o., zinchenko, s., nosov, p., & aleksieieva, m. (2021). time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 164-188. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/243 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/243 mailto:plokhikh_v@ukr.net mailto:ihorpopovych999@gmail.com mailto:n.e.zavadska@gmail.com mailto:infinity88lug@gmail.com mailto:srz56@ukr.net mailto:pason@ukr.net mailto:almarig31@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/243 time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 165 1. introduction in studies of self-regulation of the psychological system of activity, the emphasis is on determining the composition, content, functions, connections of the components of its structure, on highlighting the specifics of the successive stages of goal achievement (gordeeva, 2000). at the same time, the time parameter of the organization of actions is presented mainly in quantitative terms in generally accepted units of time assessment as the sum of the durations of performing sequential operations, and as the measured total duration of solving the task. in general, knowledge of certain time guidelines (including clock readings) in the implementation of the action program for the subject is necessary. but often this is not enough for effective self-regulation. this insufficiency is especially evident in the organization of actions at small time intervals (seconds), when the use of external time meters becomes ineffective and often inhibits the performance of basic operations (plokhikh, 2006; strelkov, 2008). the latter is becoming increasingly evident in sports (camenidis et al., 2021; cheban et al., 2020; hromcik et al., 2019), when driving high-speed vehicles (zinchenko et al., 2019, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c), in solving problems in numerous extreme situations (nosov et al., 2020a, 2020b, 2020c; shevchenko et al., 2020a, 2020b). the information basis of activity contains information about the current situation that changes in a regular or random way (konopkin, 1980). at the same time, changes in the situation at any stage of the action program, limited in duration, are important not only for current corrections but also including coordination of operations. relevant changes in conditions must necessarily be taken into planning of timely achievement of the final goal. current changes in the speed and intensity of the implementation of operations of the program sequence should be consistent with the integral time perspective of the performance of actions: with the time and effort already spent with the results achieved; with the remaining time to complete the required operations. such a reconciliation of the whole and parts of the time dimension of action is actually represented as its time synthesis. analysis of the literature shows that in studies of time, a special role is assigned to the consideration of the time sequence and the disclosure of the meaning of duration (plokhikh, 2019). in a natural process, the duration and temporal sequence of changes appear in unity as the proper time of the process (vladimirskiy et al., 2014). simultaneously, the removal of the problem of the time synthesis of duration and sequence is considered in brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 166 terms of resolving the contradictions between the whole and its parts, content and form, continuity and discreteness. in representations of duration, a qualitative uniqueness of a certain process is noted in connection with the continuity, direction, integrity of its implementation (bergson, 2006; gaydenko, 2006; vladimirskiy et al., 2014). in quantitative terms, the duration as a whole appears as a unit measure of the proper time of the process, and in measurements from the outside by generally accepted units of time as the total duration of the process. at the same time, the temporal sequence is viewed as a chain of events that naturally unfolds in time, some of which, due to their importance, act as “special points”. studies of time sequences do not provide a reliable basis for proving the continuity of the passage of time. to highlight such grounds, grünbaum (2003) and poincaré (1990) propose to refer to qualitatively specific psychological time. in literary sources, psychological time is characterized as experienced, lasting, qualitatively determined, marked by the presence of “special points”, not measured by conventional measures and methods (bergson, 2006; gaydenko, 2006). psychological time is viewed as a synthesis of the duration experienced by a person and the distinguished sequence of events in the processes of reality. a model of hierarchical subordination and parity of processes with their assignment to different levels of temporality can be taken as a theoretical basis for describing such a temporary synthesis (alyushin & knyazeva, 2008). in this case, it is assumed that the duration of the process, in accordance with a certain meaning, is established at a higher level of the hierarchy, and the sequence of events unfolds at the underlying levels of temporality. the connecting, determining and guiding role of the duration of the realization of mental processes in the organization of human behavior and actions is noted by strelkov (2008). within the limits of the continuing process, the events of the time plans of the past, present and future unite and interpenetrate. as a mental phenomenon, the duration of actions is associated with the actual attitude (plokhikh, 2019). it is the attitude in its integrity, continuity and stability that ensures the implementation of a continuing action in the unity of its constituent structures. the estimated and actual durations of action ideally coincide. however, in reality, the targeted efforts of the subject are influenced not only by, accounted for, but also by random factors. the latter requires flexibility and necessary restructuring of both individual components and the entire system of regulation of actions and, accordingly, an adequate time synthesis (strelkov, 2008). in the case of small disturbances, the correction time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 167 of time synthesis can take place at the level of a time sequence by changing the pace, intensity of implementation, combining operations and actions, as, for example, in modes of acute or moderate time deficit (plokhikh, 2006). with more radical changes in the situation, the question is raised about changing the most relevant attitude. a constructive prerequisite for the latter is the presence in the information basis of the activity of a significant amount of conscious and unconscious information about the current situation. this information, together with accompanying information from past experience and expectations for the future, can be viewed by the subject from different “positions” and with the allocation of different content into a holistic, panoramic, dynamic operational image (zavalova et al., 1986). such “positions” are quite consistent with the definition of operational meaning (tikhomirov, 1981). it is in this variant that the unconscious operational meanings in the corresponding time frame of the duration of the action act as a kind of “pre-goal” and are manifested in apperceptive schemes, anticipation, and expectations. within the set duration of the action, the subject combines the time plans of significant processes on the basis of an updated operational meaning that determines the accents of a holistic view of reality. the combined processes are characterized by their own intensity, direction, tendency, their own "special points". time plans for these processes were initially largely inconsistent. for their expedient coordination or dilution, directed efforts of the subject are required to identify the sequences of “special points” of processes, to assess and change the available time intervals between these “points” in the integral time structure of the action. in such a representation of the time regulation of the action, its setting duration, the time sequence of operations and significant changes in conditions are combined with an orientation towards a certain expedient effect in the future. the latter, in fact, corresponds to anticipation as a necessary component of the organization of the system of activity (zavalova et al., 1986). anticipation in the development of the set duration of action is determined by the operational meaning, proceeds from information about the events of the past and the present, and is a foreseeable limiting event at some moment in the future. in terms of organizing the time sequence in the action program, anticipation orients towards the logical completion of the chain of operations and changes in conditions. a successful time synthesis in the organization of an action must coordinate in a changing situation the anticipated moment of achieving the goal with the expected moment of completion of the entire sequence of necessary operations. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 168 the presented time relationships in the organization of actions are of a general nature. for a specific action, they are specified depending on the meaning, goals, means, conditions. the longer the process of achieving the goal is, the more difficult is to determine the experiences and outlines of the set duration of the action, but the more clearly the events that make up the time sequence can be distinguished. the necessary clarity in the allocation of the components of temporary synthesis can be achieved in the study of sensorimotor actions carried by the subject under various conditions out. the prerequisites for that are the following: admissibility of effective control over the connection of external influences with the result of the response; the ability to select a relatively simple sequence of operations in the structure of an action; short duration of action, realized mainly at an unconscious level of mental activity; known regulatory function of the warning (indicative) signal; relatively simple assessment of anticipatory effects (boyko, 2002; gellershteyn, 1958; shoshol, 1978). to this should be added the great practical and theoretical value of studies of sensorimotor actions noted in the literature (barkhuizen et al., 2002; boyko, 2002; gellershteyn, 1958; strelkov, 2008). sensomotor actions simulate the maximum speed and intensity modes of human activity. in these modes, the uncertainty of the situation and changes in the individual components of the temporary synthesis of the mental organization of the action are essentially interrelated. the duration of the action is associated with implementation of the sequence of operations with the required speed and accuracy. however, within the very duration set by the target setting (asmolov, 1979), the integral complex of consistent, purposeful human efforts must be consistent with changes in conditions. the subject of the research is the time synthesis of the setting duration and the time sequence of operations in the mental organization of sensorimotor action in changing conditions. the aim experimentally to establish the connection between success of time synthesis and the effectiveness of the implementation of sensorimotor action in changing conditions. hypothesis successful time synthesis of the setting duration and time sequence of operations in the mental organization of sensorimotor action in changing conditions is realized in accordance with the corresponding operational time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 169 meaning and is resolved by anticipatory effects and an increase in the effectiveness of the action. research tasks: 1) theoretically to highlight constituent components and indicators of the success of the temporary synthesis of sensorimotor action; 2) experimentally to establish the connection between the effectiveness of sensorimotor action and the level of certainty of the components of the mental organization of time synthesis; 3) to determine the success of the time synthesis of sensorimotor action in connection with anticipatory effects and general effectiveness of the action. 2. materials and methods while constructing an empirical picture of the study of time synthesis in the organization of sensorimotor action, methodological principles were taken into account by us, validated in adaptation (blynova et al., 2020a, 2020d), professional activity (blynova et al., 2020b, 2020c; griban et al., 2019; halian et al., 2020b, 2020c; popovych et al., 2020) and emotional intelligence (halian et al., 2020a, 2021; khmiliar et al., 2020; shkola et al., 2019). the study subjects were male and female students. in experiments 1 and 2 (intra-subject experimental and quasi-experimental schemes), held with a difference of one and a half years, male groups included 35 (age: me = 20, min = 17, max = 25) and 43 (age: me = 19, min = 17, max = 24) people, and women’s groups, which included 31 (age: me = 20, min = 17, max = 23) and 43 (age: me = 18, min = 16, max = 25) people, completely differed in the composition of the subjects. the subjects performed a range of experimental series, solving problems of sensorimotor response in various conditions (plokhikh, 2021). the experimental tasks were implemented in the form of computer programs. in solving problems, the subjects were required to react as quickly as possible to the appearance of a stimulus (a burgundy square) on the monitor screen by pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard. in the experiments, the actual variants of stimulation and the place of the appearance of the stimulus on the screen in the next test were established using a random number generator. the subjects performed training and experimental tests. the time interval between the samples varied randomly within 1.70 – 2.30 s. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 170 in series 1, in experiments 1 and 2, subjects solved a problem, organized according to the scheme of a simple visual-motor reaction. in accordance with such a scheme, a square stimulus automatically appeared in the centre of the monitor screen. in response, the subject had to press the “↓” key on the keyboard as quickly as possible. the reaction time was determined. in series 1, the subjects performed 5-7 training and 25 experimental tests according to the following instruction: “you should react as quickly as possible to the appearance of a burgundy square in the central part of the screen by pressing the “↓” key”. in series 2, in experiments 1 and 2, subjects solved a problem, organized according to the scheme of the visual-motor selection reaction. in this problem, a square stimulus could appear on the screen in one of three places: to the left of the center of the screen; in the center of the screen; to the right of the center of the screen. for each variant of the appearance of a stimulus, the fastest reaction of the subject was assumed by pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard: stimulus on the left – key “←”; stimulus in the center – “↓” key; the stimulus to the right is the “→” key. the response time was determined. in series 2, 5 – 7 training and 25 experimental tests were performed. in the problem on the selection reaction, the subject received the following instruction: “you must react as quickly and correctly as possible to the appearance of a burgundy square in one of three possible places on the screen by pressing one of the adjacent keyboard keys: the square on the left of the screen – “←”; square in the center of the screen – “↓”; the square on the screen to the right is “→””. in series 3 and 4 of experiment 1 and series 3, 4, and 5 of experiment 2, the subjects solved the “double choice” (dc) problem, in which the scheme of action (apperceptive) was first adopted with one stimulation option (1_so) or with three stimulation options (3_so), and then a key for a motor response was selected (fig.). option 1_so was implemented on the monitor screen as one of three possible cases of implementation of option 3_so. the dc task was developed according to a response scheme with a warning signal and taking into account the effects described by w. hick's law (an increase in the number of options for possible stimuli causes an increase in the reaction time) (chuprikova, 1995; shoshol, 1978). in constructing the experimental problem, it was taken into account that, under conditions of uncertainty, the subject is guided by the broadest information context and the largest number of options for the development of the situation (shoshol, 1978; plokhikh, 2019), and reorientation to a new situation takes time (gordeeva, 2000). time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 171 in the next trial of the dc task, during some period of time (orientation time) before the presentation of the stimulus, the possible variants of the place of its presentation were indicated on the screen. for this purpose, burgundy-colored reference circles were displayed above the possible places of stimulus presentation (fig. 1). if the 1_so scheme was assumed, then one landmark circle was displayed exactly above the place where the stimulus was presented afterwards. in the case of the 3_so scheme, reference circles were displayed above all three possible places of the stimulus appearance, and then the stimulus was presented in one of these places. both according to the 1_so scheme and the 3_so scheme, in response to the presentation of the stimulus, the subject had to press the keyboard key as quickly as possible, which corresponded to the position of the stimulus on the screen (see fig. 1). the correspondence of keyboard keys and places of stimulus presentation on the screen in the dc task is the same as in the scheme of the visual-motor selection reaction in series 2. the instruction for solving the dc problem was the following: “some time before the appearance of the square stimulus, the places of its possible appearance are indicated on the screen (one or three) by displaying small burgundy circles above these places. you must react as quickly and correctly as possible to the appearance of a burgundy square on the screen by pressing one of the adjacent keyboard keys: the square on the left of the screen – “←”; square in the center of the screen – “↓”; the square on the screen to the right is “→””. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 172 notes: mrt – motor (motor) response time of the subject; oc – orientation; st – stimulus. fig. 1. scheme of the organization of sensorimotor action in the “double choice” problem the dc task in experiments 1 and 2 differed in the way of changing the orientation time in a series of tests. in experiment 1, series 3 and 4 each had three possible values of the orientation time, selected for the next sample using a random number generator. in series 3, the orientation time was: .05 s; .15 s; .25 s. in series 4, the orientation time was: .10 s; .20 s; .30 s. in experiment 2, in series 3, 4, and 5, the orientation time from sample to sample was automatically changed with a “step” of .05 s (no less than zero seconds). the indication for a change in the duration of orientation in the next test was the result of a program comparison of the motor response time in the performed test in the case of 1_so and the previously time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 173 established quantile of the distribution of the simple reaction time of the subject in series 1 as a criterion for changing the orientation time (cot criterion). if the value of the first parameter exceeded the value of the second one, then the orientation time in the next test increased by .05 s; otherwise, the orientation time decreased by .05 s. in experiment 2 in series 3, 4, and 5, the value of the cot criterion was different. these criteria for each subject were: median 50.0% (series 3), 75.0% (series 4), and 95.0% (series 5) quantiles of the time distribution for a simple reaction in series 1. in experiment 1, in series 3 and 4, in the dc task, it was supposed to perform 7–10 training and 65 experimental tests. in experiment 2 in series 3, 4 and 5, the subjects performed 7–10 training and 41 experimental tests. in the experimental task dc, the independent variables were: orientation time and the number of stimulation options (one or three); the dependent variable – motor response time (mrt) of the subject to the appearance of the stimulus. the number of stimulation options determined the apperceptive scheme and the operational sequence of the subject's motor response to the appearance of the stimulus. the orientation time also conditioned the transition from the sequence of operations for variant 3_so to the sequence of operations for variant 1_so, and the activation of anticipation processes. the independent variables had a complex effect: the orientation signal indicated the operational sequence (1_so or 3_so) and was the starting point for the orientation time. in the experiments in each trial, the subject had to take into account three possible variants of the orientation time: in experiment 1 – three given; in experiment 2 – according to the performed test, more and less by .05 seconds from the orientation time in the performed test. in the series of experiment 1, the range of possible changes in the orientation time in the next test as an indicator of changes in external conditions is at least twice as large as in experiment 2. accordingly, in experiment 2, the external conditions were more stable, and the connection between the setting duration and the operational the sequence of sensorimotor action was more pronounced. after each test, the following information was recorded in the data array: stimulus code; time between samples; reaction time (rt) in series 1 and 2; the time of the motor response in the dc task; the fact of the correct choice and pressing of the key; the fact that the key was pressed prematurely; orientation time (task dc); relevant options for stimulation (task dc). at the end of the series of tests, the data were automatically processed and entered into the test subject's results file. the success of the temporary synthesis of sensorimotor action was assessed by error-free tests according to the following parameters: rt; mrt; orientation time; the likelihood of brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 174 pronounced anticipatory effects. data processing was carried out by using the statistical package ibm spss statistics v. 20. 3. results the distributions of rt and mrt in the groups of subjects in experiment 1 were checked for compliance with the normal law (kolmogorov-smirnov criterion). in this regard, a positive result was obtained in most cases. however, for the time of a simple reaction in both groups and for two regimes in the 3_so variant in the dc task in the female group, the normal law was not established in the distributions of sample data. statistical indicators of mrt in groups of subjects for solving the problem of dc in experiment 1 are given in tabl. 1. table 1. the time of the motor response in the male and female groups of subjects in experiment 1 with different values of the orientation time in the “double choice” problem groups quantity of stimulus variants parameter, s orientation time .050 .100 .150 .200 .250 .300 men (n=35) 1 m .331 .291 .268 .219 .191 .135 sd .041 .038 .048 .045 .063 .064 me .330 .290 .270 .230 .200 .140 3 m .319 .308 .304 .295 .287 .280 sd .038 .030 .037 .038 .032 .039 me .320 .310 .300 .290 .290 .270 women (n=31) 1 m .340 .308 .273 .237 .197 .154 sd .048 .040 .044 .057 .063 .075 me .340 .300 .260 .240 .210 .150 3 me .320 .320 .300 .280 .290 .290 min .240 .210 .230 .230 .190 .230 max .420 .390 .380 .390 .410 .380 there were pronounced anticipatory effects in the decisions of the subjects in experiment 2. these effects were noted in cases where the subject's mrt to the stimulus in option 1_so was less than the minimum reference value for a simple visual-motor response (.150 s) (boyko, 2002). the probability of anticipation was determined as the ratio of the number of pronounced anticipatory effects to the number of error-free samples in the series. male and female groups were divided into subgroups according to the probability of anticipation in series 3, 4 and 5. cluster analysis (hierarchical time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 175 clustering) made it possible to identify male subgroups 1 and 2 (23 and 20 subjects) and female subgroups 1 and 2 (22 and 21 subjects). the correspondence of the distributions of mrt and the time of orientation in subgroups to the normal law was established, and the parameters of these distributions were determined (tabl. 2 and tabl. 3). table 2. orientation time in subgroups of subjects in series 3, 4 and 5 of experiment 2 in the “double choice” problem subgroups parameter, s series 3 (50.0% quintile) series 4 (75.0% quintile) series 5 (95.0% quintile) men 1 (n=23) m .206 .163 .085 sd .079 .042 .048 men 2 (n=20) m .238 .162 .109 sd .060 .045 .049 women 1 (n=22) m .251 .184 .106 sd .069 .082 .048 women 2 (n=21) m .258 .168 .104 sd .058 .055 .048 table 3. comparison results (student’s t-) of motor response time in subgroups of subjects in series 3, 4 and 5 of experiment 2 in the “double choice” problem sub groups parameter, s series 3 (50.0% quintile) series 4 (75.0% quintile) series 5 (95.0% quintile) mrt1 mrt3 mrt1 mrt3 mrt1 mrt3 men 1 (n=23) m .225 .294 .245 .297 .276 .307 sd .023 .024 .019 .024 .036 .023 men 2 (n=20) m .193 .295 .231 .302 .257 .303 sd .017 .031 .025 .031 .031 .027 t 5.235 .131 2.094 .533 1.834 .543 p .000 .896 .042 .597 .074 .590 women 1 (n=22) m .249 .326 .268 .336 .302 .339 sd .031 .037 .025 .036 .031 .037 women 2 (n=21) m .201 .308 .244 .317 .283 .320 sd .022 .036 .035 .030 .033 .030 t 5.891 1.636 2.659 1.807 1.974 1.849 p .000 .109 .011 .078 .055 .072 notes: p – probability of type 1 error; mrt1 – motor time response with one possible stimulus; mrt3 motor time response with three possible stimuli. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 176 significant differences were established between the subgroups in terms of the mrt parameter in option 1_so in the solutions of the dc problem (see tabl. 3). the orientation time in subgroups 1 and 2 under the same conditions does not differ statistically (see tabl. 2). it should also be noted the presence in the subgroups of pronounced similar tendencies of an increase in the orientation time and a decrease in mrt in variant 1_so in series 3, 4 and 5 with a change in the quantile of the distribution of the time of a simple reaction as a criterion of cot (see tabl. 2 and tabl. 3). similar results were obtained in experiment 1 (see table.1). statistical analysis of the significance of mrt changes with a change in orientation time in option 1_so in the dc task for all groups and subgroups of subjects gave a positive result (tabl. 4). taking this into account, mathematical models were obtained for the linear connections between changes in the mean values of mrt per stimulus in variant 1_so with a change in orientation time for groups and subgroups of subjects (tabl. 5). table 4. the results of comparing the motor time response of the subjects when the time of orientation was changed in the series of solving the “double choice” problem in experiments 1 (df = 5) and 2 (df = 2) according to friedman’s χ²r criterion stimu lus param eter experiment 1 experiment 2 men (n=35) women (n=31) subgroups men subgroups women 1 (n=23) 2 (n=20) 1 (n=22) 2 (n=21) 1 χ²r 160.033 141.659 32.725 34.203 30.545 32.667 p .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 3 χ²r 34.770 30.662 7.000 1.872 3.909 2.220 p .000 .000 .030 .392 .142 .330 notes: p – p robability of type 1 error. table 5. parameters of mathematical models of the linear connection of the motor time response of the subjects to the signal in the variant with one possible stimulus and the orientation time in the “double choice” problem in the series of experiments 1 (df = 4) and 2 (df = 1) experi ment subjects model parameters characteristics constant coefficient r² p 1 men (n=35) .372 -.759 .988 .000 women (n=31) .382 -.748 .997 .000 2 men subgroup 1 (n=23) .312 -.419 .998 .026 subgroup 2 .311 -.496 1.000 .003 time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 177 (n=20) women subgroup 1 (n=22) .340 -.368 .991 .060 subgroup 2 (n=21) .336 -.529 .995 .044 notes: p – probability of type 1 error; r² – the proportion of the variance of the motor time response due to the orientation time. the linear connection of a decrease in mrt to a stimulus in variant 1_ws in the dv task with an increase in the orientation time is conditionally limited. the values of the choice reaction time and the simple reaction time act as a kind of limits between which the reorientation of the sensorimotor action from the 3_so variant to the 1_so variant should mainly occur. the fact of the presence of such a range of values and, in fact, the implementation in experiments of w. hick’s law is confirmed statistically (tabl. 6). mrt per stimulus in variant 3_so in the dc task in all cases is slightly less than the rt of choice (see tables 1, 3, 6). in some cases, mrt to a stimulus in variant 3_so slightly decreases with an increase in the duration of orientation (see tabl. 1, 3, 4). the situation is different with respect to the motor response to the stimulus in variant 1_so. table 6. comparison results (student’s t-test, wilcoxon’s z-test of sign ranks) of the time of a simple sensorimotor reaction and choice reaction in groups and subgroups of subjects in experiments 1 and 2 reactio n parame ter, s experiment 1 experiment 2 men (n=35) women (n=31) subgroup’s men subgroup’s women 1 (n=23) 2 (n=20) 1 (n=22) 2 (n=21) simple m – – .224 .210 .236 .217 sd – – .017 .017 .019 .023 me .220 .220 .230 .214 .235 .219 min .150 .190 .190 .175 .206 .174 max .260 .280 .260 .250 .271 .262 choice m .323 .348 .323 .323 .367 .348 sd .038 .037 .035 .034 .051 .045 me .320 .340 .325 .326 .366 .360 min .260 .290 .264 .230 .283 .258 max .410 .420 .393 .374 .514 .452 scale t – – 15.071 16.597 13.691 16.078 z -5.169 -4.870 – – – – p .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 notes: p probability of type 1 error. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 178 the orientation time, required to achieve the level of efficiency of a simple visual-motor reaction in motor responses in variant 1_so was determined. in experiment 1, statistical analysis (wilcoxon’s sign rank test) showed that, in the male and female groups, the motor response to a stimulus in variant 1_so in relation to a simple reaction: slower with an orientation time of .05 sec (z = -5.169, z = -.865 at p = .000), at .10 s (z = -5.170, z = -4.851 at p = .000), at .15 s (z = -4.857, z = -4.502 at p = .000); does not differ for an orientation time of .20 s (z = -1.296, p = .195; z = .987, p = .324); faster at an orientation time of .25 s (z = -1.936, p = .053; z = -2.473, p = .013), at .30 s (z = -4.765, z = -3.993 at p = .000). according to the results of experiment 2, it was established (t student's criterion) that mrt in variant 1_so in series 3 (50% quantile of the distribution of the time of a simple reaction as a criterion for cot): for male and female subgroups 2 there is less time for a simple reaction (t = 4.145, df = 19, p = .001; t = 3.819, df = 20, p = .001); for male subgroup 1 does not differ from the simple reaction time (t = .107, df = 22, p = .916); for female subgroup 1, more simple reaction time (t = 2.711, df = 21, p = .013). in connection with the presented results, two aspects of the analysis of the organization of sensorimotor action in option 1_so in the dc task are distinguished. this is, firstly, the determination of the shortest orientation time required for a full-fledged temporary synthesis of sensorimotor action. and, secondly, the activation in the psychological system of the activity of the mechanisms of anticipation, providing a decrease in mrt. according to the table. 5, the mathematical relationship of mrt and orientation time was used to calculate the orientation time required to achieve mrt to a stimulus in variant 1_so of the time of a simple sensorimotor reaction. the following calculated values were obtained: in experiment 1 for the male and female groups, respectively .200 s and .217 s; in experiment 2 for subgroups 1 and 2 men, respectively .210 s and .204 s, and for subgroups 1 and 2 women, respectively .283 s and .225 s. statistical comparison (one-sample t-test) of the calculated and actual values of the orientation time in series 3 of experiment 2 (see table 2) showed: for male subgroup 1, there was no statistical difference (t = .228, df = 22, p = .822 ); for male and female subgroups 2 the relevant orientation time is excessive (t = 2.543, df = 19, p = .020; t = 2.599, df = 20, p = .017); for female subgroup 1, there was no statistical difference (t = .896, df = 21, p = .380) with an obvious lack of time for orientation (see table 2) and high mrt values. time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 179 the highest uncertainty in the temporal regulation of sensorimotor action was in cases of a simple reaction and a choice reaction (series 1 and 2). as a consequence, the probabilities of anticipation, calculated as the ratio of the number of pronounced anticipatory effects to the number of errorfree samples in a series, did not exceed p = .017 for these series. other results were obtained for the solution of the dc problem. when comparing the probabilities of anticipation in series 3, 4, 5 in the subgroups of the subjects, differences were found in all cases (tabl. 7). subgroups of subjects in experiment 2 were compared (u-mannwhitney test) in terms of the probability of premature motor responses in the dc task with a 50% quantile of the distribution of the simple reaction time as a cot criterion. the probability of premature motor responses was calculated as the ratio of the number of tests with a premature motor response to the total number of tests in the series. it was found that in the male subgroup 1 the probability of premature motor responses is lower in comparison with both the male subgroup 2 (u = 143.500, p = .019) and with the female subgroups 1 and 2 (u = 189.500, p = .100; u = 145.000, p = .012). in other cases of comparison, no statistical differences were noted. table 7. comparison results (χ²r – friedman’s test) of the probabilities of anticipation when changing the orientation time in the series of solving the “double choice” problem in the subgroups of subjects in experiment 2 (df = 2) subjects medians of allocation probabilities of anticipations in series of experiment 2 χ²r p series 3 (50.0% quintile) series 4 (75.0% quintile) series 5 (95.0% quintile) subgroup men 1 (n=23) .095 .050 .000 24.405 .000 subgroup men 2 (n=20) .227 .096 .045 20.865 .000 subgroup women 1 (n=22) .062 .023 .000 17.294 .000 subgroup women 2 (n=21) .222 .050 .000 29.951 .000 notes: p – probability of type 1 error. 4. discussion according to the definition of sensorimotor response, two “special points” are clearly distinguished in its structure: the appearance of a brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 180 stimulus; reaction (shoshol, 1978). in the organization of the duration of action with such a structure, the components of the past and present are expressed, but with a high uncertainty of the moment of achieving the goal in the future. at the same time, the moment of reaction is not just the moment of the natural completion of the necessary sequence of operations against the background of increased excitability of certain parts of the brain. the studies of s. gellershteyn (1958) showed that the subject, by purposefully combining the processes of conscious and unconscious levels of activity, is able to distinguish the features of the performance of a sensorimotor action, to establish, according to the requirements of the task, the criterion of the effectiveness of the result and significantly increase the speed of response (gellershteyn, 1958). through such regulation with activation of anticipation processes in the structure of action, the expected duration of goal achievement is also outlined, and uncertainty in the organization of action is reduced (lomov & surkov, 1980). on the contrary, an increase in the number of variants of possible stimuli, significantly increasing the uncertainty and fundamentally changing the structure of the sensorimotor action, helps to slow down the reaction (see table. 6). preventive (indicative) information significantly activates the processes of anticipation in the structure of sensorimotor action. in this variant, the subject already at the moment of presentation of the stimulus, tuning in to a certain apperceptive scheme, actively develops the time perspective of the prepared action and sets its duration. at the same time, there are three key points in the mental organization of action: the appearance of a warning signal; the appearance of a stimulus; reciprocal movement. if the orientation time between the warning signal and the stimulus is unambiguous, a classic reflex for a time can be formed in a series of tests, which, within the limit, allows the simultaneous appearance of a stimulus and a response to it. a significant decrease in the time of sensorimotor action is achieved by anticipating the moment of a motor response, taking into account changes in conditions. moreover, in our experiment, as in the study by s. gellershteyn (1958), the anticipated moment of a motor response to a stimulus within the target setting was determined by the subjects taking into account a given criterion of response efficiency (cot criterion) at different levels of formation of the structure of sensorimotor action (see tabl. 2 and tabl. 3). the transition from a “two-component” setting duration to a “threecomponent” duration required in solving the dc problem is a temporary synthesis, focused on changing the operational meaning of an action, on reorganizing the corresponding psychological mechanisms. these time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 181 transformations in the structure of action, in fact, take place in a time-deficit mode and are reflected in the final result (plokhikh, 2006). in the most detailed version, the transition from “two-component” setting duration to “three-component” is represented by the results of experiment 1 (see tabl. 1 and tabl. 4). in series 3 and 4 of experiment 1, in a wide range of changes in conditions (orientation time), the peculiarities of the transition in the organization of sensorimotor action from the sequence of operations realized in the choice reaction to the sequence of operations of a simple reaction supplemented by anticipation operations are traced. in effective terms (motor time response), the process of reorganization of the setting duration and the temporal sequence of operations of the sensorimotor action in connection with the time of orientation is presented as linear, overcoming the time limitations of a simple reaction through anticipation (see tabl. 4 and tabl. 5). in this process, the semantic accents are transferred from the accuracy of choice in the option 3_so to the maximum possible speed of response in the option 1_so. at the same time, the level of readiness of the “three-component” apperceptive scheme increases, and as a result, with a significant orientation time (.30 s), the action of anticipation mechanisms is unambiguously manifested, and the time of the subject’s motor response becomes significantly less, in comparison with a simple reaction (see table. 1) . however, the latter is valid only for response movements to the stimulus in variant 1_so. in variant 3_so, the reference signal has a different effect on the action. differences between the rt of choice (series 2) and mrt for stimuli in variant 3_so in the dc task indicate a rather rapid reorganization of psychophysiological mechanisms already at small values of the orientation time (≈ .05 s). analysis of the literature shows that such a rapid reorganization can occur due to anticipation of the subsensory level (lomov & surkov, 1980), which provides an anticipatory increase in nervous excitability in accordance with the current state and individual characteristics of a person (shoshol, 1978; silverman, 2010; vladimirskiy et al., 2014). experiment 2 confirms the linear connection between the orientation time and mrt in all subgroups, as well as the pronounced orientation of the subjects to the specified criterion of effectiveness (see tabl. 2, 3, 4). the only difference is the angle of inclination of the transition line from “two-component” to “three-component” setting duration. the latter can be closely related to a greater stability of conditions and, accordingly, stability of sensorimotor action in the dc problem in experiment 2. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 182 in relatively stable conditions, the specificity of the ratio of anticipation of the moment of achieving the goal and the construction of a sequence of operations deployed in time becomes more pronounced. this specificity manifests itself when comparing the results of subgroups in series 3 with a 50.0% quantile of the distribution of the simple reaction time as a criterion for cot. calculations indicate that in male subgroups 1 and 2, on average, almost the same orientation time is required for the transition to a pronounced “three-component” setting duration of action. however, in reality, in the male subgroup 2, as in the female subgroup 2, more time is spent on orientation. additional time is spent on anticipation operations, to increase the anticipation effect and the overall effectiveness of the sensorimotor action, in comparison with a simple sensorimotor response (see tabl. 7). in turn, according to the results of female subgroup 1, it can be seen that the subjects of this subgroup do not have enough time not only for anticipation operations, but also for a full transition to the sequence of operations of a simple sensorimotor reaction. the stable inclusion of anticipation operations of the sensorimotor level into the structure of the sensorimotor action begins at an orientation time over .10 s (see table 2 and table 7). however, it should be assumed that just when the setting duration of the action is completely determined and consistent with the sequence of operations, then a sharp increase in the probability of anticipatory effects in subgroups 2 is possible with a significant increase in the effectiveness of the sensorimotor action. at the same time, the marked activation of anticipatory processes can also lead to premature motor responses with subsequent negative effects. the latter could affect the averaged results in experiment 1 (see tabl. 1). in terms of assessing the success of temporary synthesis and regulation of sensorimotor actions, the differences between the subgroups of the subjects in experiment 2 deserve special attention. it should be noted here that in life circumstances a person quite often faces the need for an emergency response due to sudden changes in the situation. but even an unlikely rapid change in the situation is often preceded by the appearance of precursor signals. and in this case, the ability of a person to consciously or unconsciously highlight warning signals, quickly determine the meaning of a situation, form an appropriate apperceptive scheme and target, build an appropriate program of action, anticipate future events, and the effectiveness of emergency actions actually depends. in connection with the foregoing, the following division of subjects according to the success of the temporary synthesis of sensorimotor actions (without reference to gender) is indicative: quite successful (representatives of male and female subgroups 2); time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 183 moderately successful (male subgroup 1); unsuccessful (female subgroup 1). moderately successful ones are presumably reliable when performing actions in a subjectively convenient time frame and with a moderate shortage of time. unsuccessful ones, characterized by delayed orientation, difficulties in anticipation, premature motor responses, may belong to the risk group when performing activities in special and extreme conditions. quite successful representatives of subgroups 2 can be considered in the aspect of their significant opportunities for action in the modes of lack of time, but with a low tendency to errors (plokhikh, 2006). taking into account the latter, the diagnostic prospects for the application of the dc problem are indicated. 5. conclusions 1. temporal synthesis of sensorimotor action is realized in accordance with the operational meaning and is aimed at coordinating the setting duration of action and the time sequence of the required operations under changing conditions. 2. successful temporal synthesis of sensorimotor action in changing conditions is associated with the removal of the uncertainty of the moment of achieving the goal in the anticipatory process and the formation of a detailed setting duration of action that combines information about the past experience, about the current moment, about the expected significant changes in the future prospects. 3. with a significant and rapid change in external conditions, a successful temporal synthesis of sensorimotor action, providing anticipatory effects and a reduction in the response time, becomes possible with a sufficient level of formation of the temporal sequence of the required operations. 4. the following levels of success of temporary synthesis and regulation of sensorimotor action in changing conditions are distinguished: quite successful (sufficient level of formation of the temporal sequence of operations, high efficiency of anticipation, low probability of erroneous actions); moderately successful (sufficient level of formation of the temporal sequence of operations, moderate effectiveness of anticipation, low probability of erroneous actions); unsuccessful (low level of formation of the time sequence of operations, low efficiency of anticipation). references alyushin, a. l., & knyazeva, e. n. (2008). tempomiry: skorost’ vospriyatiya i shkaly vremeni [temporal world’s: perception speed and timeline]. lki. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 184 asmolov, a. g. (1979). deyatel’nost’i ustanovka [activity and installation]. msu. barkhuizen, w., schepers, j., & coetzee, j. (2002). rate of information processing and reaction time of aircraft pilots and non-pilots. journal of industrial psychology, 28(2), 67-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i2.53 bergson, a. (2006). dlitel’nost’i odnovremennost’ [duration and simultaneity]. кsu. blynova, o., chervinska, i., kazibekova, v., bokshan, h., yakovleva, s., zaverukha, o., & popovych i. (2020a). social and psychological manifestations of professional identity crisis of labor migrants. revista inclusiones, 7(3), 93-105. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1318 blynova, o., lappo, v., kalenchuk, v., agarkov, o., shramko, i., lymarenko, l., & popovych, i. (2020b). corporate culture of a higher education institution as a factor in forming students’ professional identity. revista inclusiones, 7(especial), 481-496. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1305 blynova, o., moiseienko, v., los, o., burlakova, i., yevdokimova, o., toba, m., & popovych, i. (2020c). assertiveness as a factor of students’ choice of behavior strategies in social interaction. revista inclusiones, 7(4), 259-272. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1551 blynova, o., popovych, i., semenova, n., kashyrina, ye., ursulenko, o., & kononenko, o. (2020d). personality factors of choosing adaptation strategies in a different cultural environment by labor migrants from ukraine. revista amazonia investiga, 9(32), 45-54. http://dx.doi.org/10.34069/ai/2020.32.08.5 boyko, e. i. (2002). mekhanizmy umstvennoy deyatel’nosti [mechanisms of mental activity]. mpsi. camenidis, c.-m., băiţel, i., oatu, a., amzulescu, o., & bidiugan, r. (2021). determination of neuromuscular control of the upper limbs in children – case study. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 46-61. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/155 cheban, y. v., chebykin, o. y., plokhikh, v. v., & massanov a. v. (2020). emotional factor of competitive self-mobilization of professional rowers. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 3, 28-43. http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2020-3-2 chuprikova, n. i. (1995). vremya reaktsiy i intellekt: pochemu oni svyazany (o diskriminativnoy sposobnosti mozga) [reaction time and intelligence: why they are connected (about the discriminative ability of the brain)]. voprosy psikhologii [questions of psychology], 4, 65-81. http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1995/954/954065.htm http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i2.53 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1318 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1305 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1551 http://dx.doi.org/10.34069/ai/2020.32.08.5 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/155 http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2020-3-2 http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1995/954/954065.htm time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 185 gaydenko, p. p. (2006). vremya. dlitel’nost’. vechnost’. problema vremeni v yevropeyskoy filosofii i nauke. [time. duration. eternity. the problem of time in european philosophy and science]. progress-traditsiya. gellershteyn, s. g. (1958). “chuvstvo vremeni” i skorost ’dvigatel’noy reaktsii [“sense of time” and speed of motor reaction]. medgiz. gordeeva, n. d. (2000). eksperimental’nyye issledovaniya mikrodinamiki vnutrenney formy deystviya [experimental studies of microdynamics of the internal form of action]. voprosy psikhologii, 6, 100-112. http://libtomcat.knute.edu.ua/library/docdescription?doc_id=31265 griban, g., prontenko, k., yavorska, t., bezpaliy, s., вublei, t., marushchak, m., pustoliakova, l., andreychuk, v., tkachenko, p., zhukovskyi, ye., baldetskiy, a., bloshchynskyi, i. (2019). non-traditional means of physical training in middle school physical education classes. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 8(3.1), 207-214. http://ijaep.com/journal/vol.8.3.1.pdf grünbaum, a. (2003). filosofskiye problemy prostranstva i vremeni [philosophical problems of space and time]. editorial urss. halian, a., halian, i., burlakova, i., shevchenko, r., lappo, v., zhigarenko, i., & popovych, i. (2020a). emotional intelligence in the structure of adaptation process of future healthcare professionals. revista inclusiones, 7(3), 447-460. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1347 halian, i. m., halian, o. i., gusak, l. ye., bokshan, h. i., & popovych, i. s. (2020b). communicative competence in training future language and literature teachers. revista amazonia investiga, 9(29), 530-541. https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2020.29.05.58 halian, i., machynska, n., lozynska, s., nos, l., derkach, yu., prots, m., & popovych, i. (2020c). tolerance of uncertainty as a component of the process of life-creation of future educators. revista inclusiones, 7(especial), 512-528. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1307 halian, a., halian, i., popovych, i., zavatskyi, y., semenov, o., & semenova, n. (2021). stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of adaptive ability of medical personnel. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 251-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/181 hromcik, a., zvonar, m., & balint, g. (2019). differences in sensorimotor skills between badminton players and non-athlete adults. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(2), 47-54. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/214 5/1795 http://libtomcat.knute.edu.ua/library/docdescription?doc_id=31265 http://ijaep.com/journal/vol.8.3.1.pdf http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1347 https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2020.29.05.58 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1307 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/181 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2145/1795 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2145/1795 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 186 khmiliar, o., popovych, i., hrys, a., pavliuk, m., zavatska, n., lytvynenko, o., & blynova, o. (2020). spatial regulation of personality behavior in the conditions of progression of the covid-19 pandemic. revista inclusiones, 7(especial), 289-306. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1760 konopkin, o. a. (1980). psikhologicheskiye mekhanizmy regulyatsii deyatel’nosti [psychological mechanisms of activity regulation]. nauka. lomov, b. f., & surkov, y. n. (1980). antitsipatsiya v strukture deyatel’nosti [anticipation in the structure of activity]. nauka. nosov, p., palamarchuk, i., zinchenko, s., popovych, i., nahrybelnyi, y., & nosova, h. (2020a). development of means for experimental identification of navigator attention in ergatic systems of maritime transport. bulletin of the university of karaganda – physics, 1(97), 58-69. http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/handle/123456789/10472 nosov, p. s., popovych, i. s., cherniavskyi, v. v., zinchenko, s. m., prokopchuk, y. a., & makarchuk, d. v. (2020b). automated identification of an operator anticipation on marine transport. radio electronics, computer science, control, (3), 158–172. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-3-15 nosov, p. s., zinchenko, s. m., popovych, i. s., ben, a. p., nahrybelnyi y. а., & mateichuk, v. m. (2020c). diagnostic system of perception of navigation danger when implementation complicated maneuvers. radio electronics, computer science, control, (1), 146-161. https://doi.org/10.15588/16073274-2020-1-15 plokhikh, v. v. (2006). tochnost ‘sub’yektivnoy otsenki vremennykh ogranicheniy deyatel’nosti kak faktor uspeshnosti resheniya zadachi na slezheniye [accuracy of subjective assessment of time constraints of activity as a factor in the success of solving the tracking problem]. psikhologicheskiy zhurnal, 27(2), 93-101. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/719887/1/26_5.pdf plokhikh, v. v. (2019). antitsipatsionnyye protsessy v organizatsii svoyevremennykh deystviy cheloveka [anticipatory processes in the organization of timely human actions]. aktual’ni problemy psykholohiyi, 12(6), 250-262. https://studfile.net/preview/2429388/page:7/ plokhikh v. v. (2021). assessment of subject's readiness for urgent actions using the variations of sensorimotor response tasks. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 5, 46-65. http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-5-4 poincaré, a. (1990). o nauke [about science]. nauka. popovych, i., zhigarenko, i., losiyevska, o., dovbenko, s., kashyrina, ye., shevchenko, r., & piletska, l. (2020). research of achievement motivation’s impaction the career orientations of future managers of http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1760 http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/handle/123456789/10472 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-3-15 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-1-15 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-1-15 https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/719887/1/26_5.pdf https://studfile.net/preview/2429388/page:7/ http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-5-4 time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh, et al. 187 organization. revista inclusiones, 7(especial), 247-263. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1231 shevchenko, r., cherniavskyi, v., zinchenko, s., palchynska, m., bondarevich, s., nosov, p., & popovych, i. (2020a). research of psychophysiological features of response to stress situations by future sailors. revista inclusiones, 7(especial), 56-579. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1780 shevchenko, r., popovych, i., spytska, l., nosov, p., zinchenko, s., mateichuk, v., & blynova, o. (2020b). comparative analysis of emotional personality traits of the students of maritime science majors caused by long-term staying at sea. revista inclusiones, 7(especial), 538-554. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1309 shkola, o., griban, g., prontenko, k., fomenko, o., zhamardiy, v., bondarenko, v., bezpaliy, s., andreychuk, v., tkachenko, p., zhukovskyi, ye., novitska, i., bloshchynskyi, i. (2019). formation of valuable orientations in youth during physical training. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 8(3.1), 264-272. http://ir.znau.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/9987/1/ijaep_2019_8_3.1_26 4-272.pdf shoshol, r. (1978). vremya reaktsii. eksperimental’naya psikhologiya [reaction time. experimental psychology]. nauka. silverman, i. w. (2010). simple reaction time: it is not what it used to be. the american journal of psychology, 123(1), 39-50. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.5406/amerjpsyc.123.1.0039 strelkov, y. k. (2008). fenomen vremeni v issledovanii transportnogo truda [the phenomenon of time in the study of transport labor]. problemy fundamental’noy i prikladnoy psikhologii professional’noy deyatel’nosti, 2, 200-221. http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2010/11/09/1214795333/0132.pdf tikhomirov, o. k. (1981). teoreticheskiye problemy issledovaniya bessoznatel’nogo [theoretical problems of the study of the unconscious]. voprosy psikhologii, 2, 31-39. http://voppsy.ru/issues/1981/812/812031.htm vladimirskiy, b. m., olekhnovich, b. b., ukrainskiy, yu. a., & kiroy, v. n. (2015). myslennyye komandy kak osnova dlya sinteza dopolnitel’nogo kanala upravleniya v sisteme “chelovek-mashina” [thought commands as a basis for the synthesis of an additional control channel in the “man-machine” system]. pylotyruemye polety v kosmos, 3(16), 54-67. http://www.gctc.ru/media/files/periodicheskie_izdaniya/ppk_2015_3_tot al_16.pdf zavalova, n. d., lomov, b. f., & ponomarenko, v. a. (1986). obraz v sisteme psikhicheskoy regulyatsii deyatel’nosti [image in the system of mental regulation of activity]. nauka. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1231 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1780 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1309 http://ir.znau.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/9987/1/ijaep_2019_8_3.1_264-272.pdf http://ir.znau.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/9987/1/ijaep_2019_8_3.1_264-272.pdf https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.5406/amerjpsyc.123.1.0039 http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2010/11/09/1214795333/0132.pdf http://voppsy.ru/issues/1981/812/812031.htm http://www.gctc.ru/media/files/periodicheskie_izdaniya/ppk_2015_3_total_16.pdf http://www.gctc.ru/media/files/periodicheskie_izdaniya/ppk_2015_3_total_16.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 188 zinchenko, s., nosov, p., mateichuk, v., mamenko, p., popovych, i., & grosheva, o. (2019). automatic collision avoidance system with many targets, including maneuvering ones. bulletin of university of karaganda, 96(4), 69-79. https://rep.ksma.ks.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/451/1/nosov_autom atic_collision.pdf zinchenko, s. m., ben, a. p., nosov, p. s., popovych, i. s., mamenko, p. p., & mateichuk, v. m. (2020). improving the accuracy and reliability of automatic vessel moution control system. radio electronics, computer science, control, (2), 183–195. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-2-19 zinchenko, s., ben, a., nosov, p., popovych, i., mateichuk, v. & grosheva, o. (2020b). the vessel movement optimisation with excessive control, bulletin of university of karaganda. physics, 99(3), 86-96. http://rmebrk.kz/journals/5983/46887.pdf#page=86 zinchenko, s., mateichuk, v., nosov, p., popovych, i., solovey, o., mamenko, p., & grosheva, o. (2020c). use of simulator equipment for the development and testing of vessel control systems. electrical, control and communication engineering, 16(2), 58-64. https://doi.org/10.2478/ecce-20200009 https://rep.ksma.ks.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/451/1/nosov_automatic_collision.pdf https://rep.ksma.ks.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/451/1/nosov_automatic_collision.pdf https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-2-19 http://rmebrk.kz/journals/5983/46887.pdf#page=86 https://doi.org/10.2478/ecce-2020-0009 https://doi.org/10.2478/ecce-2020-0009 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 88-111 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/270 results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma¹, dmytro usyk2, iryna omelchenko3, vadym kobylchenko4, nataliia babych5, svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, bazymanataliia@gmail.com 2 sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s.makarenko, ukraine, ysukdmitriy@gmail.com 3 mykola yarmachenko institute of special pedagogy and psychology, the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, iraomel210781@ukr.net 4 mykola yarmachenko institute of special pedagogy and psychology, the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, vadimvk@ukr.net 5 borys grinchenko kyiv university, ukraine, natalia.logoped@gmail.com 6 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, lanatsimbal@gmail.com abstract: the speech activity formation is a pretty complex multifaceted long-term process, particularly, formation of speech activity in children with autistic disorders. according to the research objectives, we have designed corrective-developmental methods of formation of speech activity in pre-school children with autistic disorders. working on the corrective-developmental methods, we have considered the research results, program requirements to the speech development of elder pre-schoolers, level of speech capabilities of every child, law regularities of the speech function development in ontogenesis and scientific-methodical principles and aspects of the speech development correction for children with speech disorders. as per the principles that we have substantiated, the research-diagnostic, correction-activity and function-speech stages of our methods show their outer and inner bounds. moreover, the identified stages of the corrective-developmental methods are closely interrelated and characterised with their combination as a continuous pedagogical process; and the knowledge, skills and habits obtained by elder preschoolers with autistic disorders are considered as an integral system. we have included initiative as capability to speak in a monologue, motivation as capability to speak in a dialogue, content-richness as saturation of the active oral speech with language units clear to a child with autistic disorders (words, word combinations, phrases, sentences) as well as sound imitations, sound complexes and vocalisation to the main components of speech activity. thus, after entrenching our methods we have processed and generalised the results of identifying levels of formed speech activity as capability to speak in a monologue and dialogue and use of particular language units according to the quantitative indices. keywords: communication-speech environment, senior preschool age, monologue speech, motivation to speak in a dialogue, oral speech, formation levels. how to cite: bazyma, n., usyk, d., omelchenko, i., kobylchenko, v., babych, n., & tsymbal-slatvinska, s. (2022). results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in children with autistic disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 88-111. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/270 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/270 mailto:bazymanataliia@gmail.com mailto:ysukdmitriy@gmail.com mailto:iraomel210781@ukr.net mailto:vadimvk@ukr.net mailto:natalia.logoped@gmail.com mailto:lanatsimbal@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/270 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 89 introduction the speech activity formation is a pretty complex multifaceted longterm process, particularly, formation of speech activity in children with autistic disorders. providing a normal development, this process can cover an early and preschool age. observing the dynamics of research and developments and studies of the subject area outlined, analysing the specialised literature, studying the organisation and content of the educational and nurturing process as a whole give an occasion to define the senior preschool age as one of the crucial stages of the child`s speech function development. scholars studying the preschool child`s personal development state that the alalia may cause a worse temper, as this factor affects the evolvement of the whole motivation-volitional sphere of a child`s personality (konopliasta, 2014; martynenko, 2013; pakhomova, 2006; sobotovych, 1989; demchenko, 2021; melnyk, 2021; komogorova, 2021; sheremet, 2019; behas, 2019 and others). as defined by ye. sobotovych (1989), the verbal communication entails an individual`s implementing the system of practical knowledge about the vocal, lexical and grammatical speech aspect. l. trofymenko (2004) defines the communicative component of the speech activity as aggregation of actions and operations that provide for the language use in apprehending or generating oral and written utterances. according to the studies of n. pakhomova (2006), improving the communicative competency requires to form a motive of the speech activity, to develop initiatives in communications, to stimulate nonverbal and verbal communication means, to be able to keep a conversation going on various topics. hence, it is requisite to organise the development of psychophysiological mechanisms of the speech activity in such areas of focus as formation of a motive in arranging verbal situations and stimulation to communicate. the methods of formation of speech activity call for establishing a communicative-verbal environment penetrating to different levels of life of a senior preschool child with autistic disorders, which arranges the stepwise speech activity formation and progress. completing a series of tasks suggested makes it possible to assess successfulness in acquiring the communicative competency, to identify the development level of motivation, initiative, pregnancy (lexical scope) of independent speech as components of speech activity in that form fitting a child (children’s speech activity at a low level is to be assessed according to the mimics and social gestures, imitative movements with a verbal accompaniment (exclamations, results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 90 easy words or word fragments) and without any speech following. taking into account the specifics of autistic children’s mental development results in the absence of strict time frames for shifting from one stage to another stage of methods (research-diagnostic stage, correction-activity stage, functionspeech stage) and causes the need to be able to vary the exercises suggested depending on subjective particulars of every individual child. modelling of corrective-logopedic activities the procedure for modelling the corrective-logopedic activities, process of formation of speech activity in preschool children with autistic disorders was carried out on the basis of the speech development diagnostics for children of the aforementioned category in view of regularities and peculiarities of autistic disorders. according to the forecast and research results, the process of formation of speech activity is to be facilitated through: speech development diagnostics for children of this nosologic group; special educational and correctional environment; methods of formation of speech activity in senior preschool children with autistic disorders. designing the experimental methods of formation of speech activity in senior preschool children with autistic disorders, we were abiding to the general pedagogical principles: principles of scientificity and simplicity consisting in the selection of scientifically substantiated tasks to be comprehensible for children with autistic disorders at this age; principles of consistency, sequence, system and order in education that manifest as necessity for selecting games, exercises and tasks in view of speech capabilities of children and the closest development zone; principle of interrelation with life requiring exercises that are based on a child’s background and are targeted at acquiring some knowledge, skills and habits to be exercised in everyday life; principle of visibility prescribing a sufficient number of visual aids through the special organization principles; principle of formation of motivation to master speech as the most useful method of communication (creating a problem that can be resolved by several methods), principle of formation of speech as linguistic capability (development of linguistic knowledge, skills and habits), principle of stimulation of the spontaneous speech as a marker of its general progress (a need to speak spontaneously is forming), principle of sensory-linguistic development (leaning words through the sensory experience, creating special micro-situations by using different activities: drawing, construction, paper brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 91 crafting etc.), principle of speech development complex approach (solving few speech tasks in terms of one lesson or one task: for example, working on the vocabulary size correlates to the development of a phonematic, grammatical aspects of speech), principle of complex influence on all the analysers preserved for correcting the disordered function, principle of speech formation in view of modern concepts about the processes of apprehension and producing of an utterance; psychophysiological principles: principle of defect classification, principle of prevention of difficulties in education, principle of reliance upon preserving analyser systems and others (sheremet, 2013; tarasun, 2004; fitsula, 2000). when proposing exercises and games, it is requisite to consider the principle of simplicity and sequence in an increasing order of complexity of tasks and in accordance with a level of speech capabilities of children with autistic disorders. the principle of system and phased approaches depending on regularities of organisation and structure of the educational process and its content provides for establishing methods based on the achievements of contemporary psycho-pedagogical science, on the principles of personalityoriented upbringing and education. a child is a core of the modern pedagogical process focused on developing his or her activity, independence and creativity in a special organised process. the models of upbringing and education based on integrity and integration call for unity of biological, social, pedagogical, psychological influences to be constantly realised in the process of a continuous and consistent preparation and cause personal changes and a better speech quality. this caused the selection of particular provisions favourable for contemplating other methods of formation of speech activity in senior preschool children with autistic disorders. they include, in particular, assurance that the purport of corrective-logopedic activities is to ensure the physical, psychological and social development, maximum individualisation in view of psychological and age peculiarities of a child and his/her main activities. the aforementioned makes it possible to figuratively determine the second stage of the process as correction-activity stage. the corrective-developmental methods have three substructures that provide together an integral understanding about the purport of the stages of corrective-pedagogical activities on speech activity formation: researchdiagnostic, correction-activity and function-speech. each stage is distinguished with its own aim and objectives, has own trends, methods and procedures, includes common aspects of the phased formation of speech results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 92 activity subordinated to a common goal and centred on particular corrective tasks to be solved. herewith, they do not compete and mutually exclude one another, but mutually complement themselves and correct common actions. the given stages have outer and inner relationships stipulated by the substantiated principles of system and phased approaches consistent with the regularities of organisation and establishment of the educational process. this provides for unity and succession of corrective-developmental actions for achieving the goal – to form the speech activity. the analysis of scientific studies reflects that each next stage of speech function development is impossible without development of the previous one (principle of ontogenetic development of the speech function in general). considering the versatility and variety of autistic symptoms and taking into account the specifics of the mental and speech development of children with autistic disorders, all the stages have no time limits set. it is understood that the transition of every specific child from one stage to another in every specific case was in view of individual achievements of the child, and not in terms of generally defined common terms. setting the initial communication of an adult and a child was that basis that could enable a child with autistic disorders to form some positive experience in interaction, to expand his/her communicative motivation, to form the ability to regulate the communication process as well as to gradually transit to the further stages of communicative development, to expand the communication scopes, to transfer the experience acquired to communicative situations with other participants of communication. the adult arranges the creation of a communicative space as part of a safe developmental environment and context of communication, where he/she and a child have an opportunity to act against each other as communicative partners. the communicative context that appears at this refers to the characteristics of the common activities, which an adult and a child are involved in, and specifics of their interaction, and is determined by the same characteristic that gives sense to the communication (zh. glozman, 2009). hence, a safe psycho-emotional space, awareness of an adult present, indirect unobtrusive form of contact within a favourable sensory-playful context of communication assisted a child with autistic disorders to adapt him/herself on the one hand, but the context selected for communication at the following stages became a pivot point for forming and developing skills in the communicative field and verbal communication on the other hand. the focus of common attention on a subject of communication assisted in brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 93 giving a communicative sense to the context of the game prescribing that an adult and a child with autistic disorders should contact with each other. for establishing and consolidating the contact and for developing the capability to imitate, such games were carried out as “give me a hand!”, “hello! goodbye!”, “who wants?”, “peekaboo!” and others. the transition to the next took place when a child was aspired to and interested in staying with adults in a common communicative space, when a child at least was taking the initiative in getting in contact, and trying to interact through speech. the main communication skills (those ones that a child uses most frequently) were identified and further communications skills were developed (those ones that a child does not use or uses selectively but could use more efficiently) in watching children with autistic disorders, staying and getting in contact with them. in addition, a considerable body of information was received from conversations and survey with parents and specialists working with children of this category. as children with autistic disorders usually have difficulties in imitating both in general and in speech directly, it is suggested that this capability should be increased by means of appropriate games, such as, for example, “going to the village”, “who speaks how?”, “large and small feet”, “let`s play the guitar!” etc. furthermore, for forming and developing the speech imitation, we believe that it is requisite to combine the development of the speech and movement coordination and development of the auditory vigilance, formation of skills to reproduce the content of literary works through exclamations or imitations and various movements. such skills were being formed during the games “hands”, “clock”, “clap! clap! chop! chop!”, “orchestra”, “fife” etc. this working stage also included the identification and development of impressive and expressive vocabularies represented by different parts of speech. for increasing motivation to interact with adults and initiative in communication, we used rewards (sensory, active, social) by aiming to pass to the preferential use of social rewards (praises and social signs). an individual selection of rewards assisted in a child`s interest in their getting in so much that it could stimulate him or her to take the initiative. furthermore, the content and purport of such games as “peekaboo!”, “show me where!”, “find it!”, “where is the ball?” prescribed the variability depending on a child`s preferences and interests, which also increased the motivation to interact with an adult for getting satisfaction (from the interaction with toys or objects first, which was arranged by an results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 94 adult, and then directly from the interaction with this adult). each lesson and each game or exercise as part of one lesson was carried out emotionally. in one respect, it motivated a child to interact; in the other respect, it provoked initiative in the attempts to initiate those activities that could be the most relevant, interesting and desired for a child in the course of communication with an adult. for establishing independence, initiative and motivation to interact with other people, the games that assisted a child in distinguishing and naming himself/herself were arranged. they were such games as “who wants?”, “who is this?”, “me!” and others. multiple repetitions of the same games with different lexical content, using which was based on the work with peculiarities of children with autistic disorders, besides the didactic purpose, (striving to repeat the same procedure, stereotypy, antipathy towards innovations and changes, etc.), did not just further the vocabulary expansion, but provided an opportunity to drill the same actions. shifting from the apprehensible communication skills to the use of verbal means of communication was through such instructions as “name it!”, “tell me!” and such questions as “who is this?”, “what is this?”, “which?” and others. in the cases when a child did not respond, an adult, after making a pause, answered instead of him/her. if a child at least made the smallest attempt to give himself/herself a verbal answer or reproduce an answer after an adult (even in failed attempts), it was obligatorily encouraged with a praise and a respective incentive. the games “show and name it!”, “name a part of body!” etc. can be taken as examples. the discrepancies found in the inability to the monologue and dialogue speech induce an individual combination, alteration and duration of the use of games and tasks suggested in the methods. initial dialoguemonologue speech skills were formed individually and variably. if a child used the speech, general logopedic games and exercises were used with reference to abilities and particularities of every individual child. children, who had low or zero speech activity levels detected during an ascertaining stage of the research (63.1% examined children), required a longer period for the aforesaid conditions to form. it is known that the learning of the grammatical system of a language means a gradual development of the whole cognitive activity of a child, his/her acquisition of logical operations of generalisation to be performed in using word combinations in a various semantical and notional context. thus, the course of learning of every part of speech shows a complex and brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 95 multifaceted relationship of the children`s speech and cognitive activity development. the speech activity formation stipulates the elaboration of a grammatical speech component based on the development of speech (grammatical) skills of a pre-schooler, which can show not only the language lows, specifics of the oral-colloquial speech, but regularities of an individual`s thinking progress, his/her exploring the environment (lalaeva, 2003; pakhomova, 2006; sichkarchuk, 2011; sobotovich, 1989). hence, the formation of speech activity in children with autistic disorders envisages a practical familiarisation with grammatical forms of words in a native language (morphological composition – parts of speech) and acquisition of the main word formation means; formation of a grammatical apprehension of a native language and fixed associative links. for this purpose, the following games were suggested: “repetitions”, “do the same!”, “do as in the picture!”, “a colour to a colour”, “shape”, “find the similar”, “dwarves and giants”, “more-less” and others. it was prescribed that some games from the previous stages were to be included, if the previous stages admitted just the reproduction of movements depending on a game situation or the pronunciation of particular words or phrases, this stage then envisaged the direct reproduction of a versed text of a game, e.g. “hands”, “chop and clap”, “water”, “pat-acake”, “tree” and others. one of the abnormalities of speech disorders in autistic children is an unformed phrasal speech, its syntactic structure. depending on a level of the speech development of senior preschool children with autistic disorders, the complex of sounds, vocalisation, a babbling word or a particular word, phrase and a sentence in certain cases can serve as means of expression of thoughts. therefore, we have identified such aspects of the phrasal speech formation in children with autistic disorders as matching adjectives to nouns, answering questions, making a simple sentence following the picture. the created corrective-developmental methods of formation of the speech activity in senior preschool children with autistic disorders present psychological and pedagogical, general didactic and special conditions and interdependence and relationships of structural components and particular individual subjects of the pedagogical process of speech activity formation. they meet the program requirements to the speech development of senior pre-schoolers, regularities of the development of the speech function in ontogenesis and scientific-methodical principles and aspects of the speech development correction in speech disorders. results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 96 the means for implementing the methods at different stages were observation of children with autistic disorders, staying with them, surveying parents and specialists working with children of this category, a nearby game, exercises and games for establishing a contact, developing the auditory vigilance, expanding apprehensible communication skills (verbal and nonverbal), developing the capability to imitate, teaching to be initiative and independent in general and in the process of communication in particular, expanding the passive and enriching the active vocabulary, forming skills to answer questions and to independently form elementary phrases, stimulation and cooperation with parents and specialists working with a child. it should be pointed out that in view of the specifics of the psychological development of children with autistic disorders, there may be the temporary return to the use of methods and means of the previous stage in the cases of lower indices of the speech activity development. furthermore, short, clear, apprehensible comments were used in relation to everything going on with a child and surrounding a child at the moment of interaction. the purpose of such comments was to improve a child`s orientation in the environment, to form links amongst objects, actions and their verbal indication, to signal about the conversation partner`s communicative presence, to form and to activate the speech activity. these methods were introduced in parallel with the planning of the main educational and upbringing process. the experiment comprised 84 senior preschool children with autistic disorders. an experimental group and a control group were established for ensuring the efficiency of implementing the methods designed. the experimental group (eg) involved 46 children in, who a series of tasks from the corrective-developmental methods were proposed to in order to form the speech activity. the control group (cg) comprised 38 children, who were not involved in by the special education, but took part in the final function-speech stage of the forming experiment. engaging children with autistic disorders in the experimental research, we did not select them according to specific markers (as level of speech activity or speech development, intelligence level, sociability etc.) and were guided only by the parents` consent. thus, the experiment drew in senior preschool children with autistic disorders who had different speech activity levels. the corrective-developmental lessons according to the methods and techniques suggested were carried out in an individual form due to different speech capabilities of children and typical autistic particularities. the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 97 corrective-developmental methods of speech activity formation met the program requirements to a senior preschool child`s development and principles of organisation of corrective activities with children with autistic disorders. a higher level of speech activity formedness was considered as a dynamic process, characterised with some specifics depending on a mechanism of origin of this speech abnormality, based on regularities of the speech ontogenetic development, and allowing for individual capacities of the motivation-volitional zone and a speech status of a senior preschool child with autistic disorders. in the course of work, there were initial and final assessments of a child`s knowledge and skills, arrangement of mainly individual lessons in the circumstances usual for children in a positive atmosphere relying upon the playing moment of presentation and completion of tasks that made the application of the principle of individual and differentiated approach in view of intellectual capabilities of children significantly efficient, specifics of the emotional-volitional sphere, specifics of communicative manifestations, severity degree of defects requiring different levels of aid to be provided. controlling assessments for assessing the efficiency of experimental methods and techniques of formation of speech activity in senior preschoolers with autistic disorders were carried out at the final stage. such assessments looked like a series of diagnostic tasks for each speech activity component (motivation, initiative, pregnancy) similar to the summative research stage. in addition, the assessment criteria of completion of diagnostic tasks were the same both for the summative and forming stages of the research. the designed methods of speech activity formation prescribe several levels of assistance: explaining how to do a task through a few similar examples by actively using visual aids; showing an example action or answer using similar materials so to form skills to answer by analogy; selecting an action or an answer from 2-3 options; giving an example action or answer for its reproduction; an action by imitating or saying an answer representatively; completing a task instead of a child by goading him or her to interact. the analysis of scientific researches shows that children with autistic disorders have to activate and enrich the sensorium (sensory sphere), apart from the abovementioned aspects of corrective activities. it is known that the education of pre-schoolers is based on particular conceptions that are directly perceived by a child. the sensory processes are organically results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 98 incorporated in all the types and forms of a child`s interaction with the outside world, and they are an integral part of any valuable activities of a preschooler. it means, we suggest stimulating the children`s sensorium in every possible way in order to increase the emotional relevance of activities by using various sensory irritants; pictures, cards, illustrations, bright toys and items, books, torches etc. (visual tools), musical accompaniment, musical instruments, applause etc. (audial tools), running, jumps, marching, swinging, hugs, strokes, tickling etc. (tactile-vestibular means). however, it is obligatory though to take into account features of the sensory perception of children so to avoid any possible origin of auto-stimulations. hence, we believe that the speech activity forming during a simple emotionally significant activity can influence the progress of communicative activities and speech activity formation. the methods and techniques presented are a pedagogical system, every component of which can be considered as a particular system providing numerous interrelated typological and individual elements and subsystems. due to this, the stageby-stage approach in building the educational-corrective process is based on attracting relatively independent components in a chronological order in line with the ontogenetic development of speech. therefore, the designed methods and techniques represent all the requisite psychological-pedagogical conditions of the corrective-developmental activities with children with autistic disorders, which, in our opinion, ensure their due efficiency. results of completion of diagnostic tasks obtained by the children with autistic disorders analysing the control and experimental groups formed for entrenching the model of corrective-developmental methods and techniques of speech activity formation, some positive changes were found. they had an influence on the general characteristics of the state of formedness of speech activity for this category of children. at the final stage of entrenchment of the corrective-developmental methods and techniques of speech activity formation in senior pre-schoolers with autistic disorders, it was proposed to perform tasks of the methods and techniques for identifying a level of speech activity in senior preschool children with autistic disorders, which were used at the summative stage of the research. studying how senior preschool children with autistic disorders are able to readily and easy get into a contact with adults after the correctivebrain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 99 developmental activities by following the methods of speech activity formation, we have found out that 13% children in the eg easily got into a contact with adults and showed their interest and activeness in communicating (a high level), close to 7.9% the cg children. 23.9% eg children and 15.8% cg children were getting into a contact with adults selectively (an adequate level). not always successful interaction and selected contacts (an average level) were noted in 26.1% eg children and 13.2% cg children. lack of initiative and a passive position in interaction (a low level) were detected in 26.1% eg children and 23.6% cg children. lack of activeness, neglect of adults and evasion of interaction with them (a zero level) were observed in 10.9% eg children and 39.5% cg children. it should be pointed out that certain children (maryna l., oksana m.) got into a contact by using the skills learned at the lessons when completing the tasks of the methods suggested. further, activeness was noted when children extended their hands to an adult, usually not showing any interest in interaction. it was considered as sign of their capability to interact. the data received are provided in table 1. table.1. indices of the capability to interact with adults, in %. levels cg eg number of children % number of children % high 3 7.9 6 13 adequate 6 15.8 11 23.9 average 5 13.2 12 26.1 low 9 23.6 12 26.1 zero 15 39.5 5 10.9 testing the capability of senior preschool children with autistic disorders to answer questions gave the following results: 21.7% eg children and 13.2% cg children answered questions asked by the adults (a high level); 21.7% eg children an 18.4% cg children turned out to be selectively capable to answer the questions verbally and non-verbally depending on a case (an adequate level); 26.1% eg children and 23.7% cg children were able to answer questions but required answers to be repeated or some additional motivation to answer and some assistance from an adult and preferred nonverbal responses (an average level); 19.6% eg children and 26.3% cg children were almost unable to answer questions (a low level); results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 100 10.9% eg children and 18.4% cg children did not give any response to an adult`s question at all (a zero level). the meaningful fact was that some children were waiting for a praise or treat after answering questions. the comparative characteristics is provided in table 2. table.2. indices of the capability to answer questions, in %. levels cg eg number of children % number of children % high 5 13.2 10 21.7 adequate 7 18.4 10 21.7 average 9 23.7 12 26.1 low 10 26.3 9 19.6 zero 7 18.4 5 10.9 regarding the study of the presence of a response of senior preschool children with autistic disorders to their names, children were addressed by their names with one of the forms preferred in child care facilities and at home, which was chosen for constant use. after completing the study, it was found out that 60.9% eg children and 47.4% cg children had a response to their names (a high level), 19.6% eg children and 15.8% cg children responded almost always (an adequate level), 10.9% eg children and 13.2% cg children did not always respond to their names (a moderate level), 6.5% eg children and 21% cg children hardly ever responded to their names (a low level). beyond that, the eg children did not include such ones who did not react on their names (a zero level), whereas the cg made 2.6%. the data received is shown as a diagram (fig.1). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 101 47,4 15,8 13,2 21 2,6 60,9 21,7 10,9 6,5 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 cg eg high level adequate level average level low level zero level *green – high level; blue – adequate level; yellow – average level; pink – low level; red – zero level fig.1. indices of the present response to an own name, in %. it turned out, the correct use of the pronoun “i” (a high level) was present in 10.9% eg children and 5.3% cg children. 43.5% eg children and 23.6% cg children tended to use personal pronouns correctly, including the pronoun “i” (an adequate level), 13% eg children and 7.9% cg children spoke about themselves mainly in the third person singular or called themselves by name, rarely using the pronoun “i” (a moderate level), 15.2 % eg children and 15.8% cg children did not have a pronoun “i” but tried to name themselves (a low level). furthermore, 17.4% eg children and 47.4% cg children did not use the pronoun “i” and were not willing to present themselves and their needs (a zero level). the data received are presented in table 3. table.3. indices of the use of the pronoun “i”, in %. levels cg eg number of children % number of children % high 2 5.3 5 10.9 adequate 9 23.6 20 43.5 moderate 3 7.9 6 13 low 6 15.8 7 15.2 zero 18 47.4 8 17.4 results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 102 the study results about the use of “yes” and “no” in speech showed that 32.6% eg and 21% cg children actively used the words “yes” and “no” (a high level), 26.1% eg children and 15.8% cg children selectively used these words in speech (an adequate level), the presence of the words “yes” and “no” in speech only in some cases (a moderate level) was present in 10.9% eg children and 10.5% cg children, 13% eg children and 13.2% cg children did not use the said speech almost at all (a low level), and 17.4% eg children and 39.5% cg children did not use the words “yes” and “no” at all (a zero level). the quantitative indices are provided as a diagram (fig.2): 21 15,8 10,5 13,2 39,6 32,6 26,1 10,9 13 17,4 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 cg eg high level adequate level average level low level zero level *green – high level; blue – adequate level; yellow – average level; pink – low level; red – zero level fig.2. indices of the use of the words “yes” and “no” in speech, in %. certain children (david t., maria ya., polina t.) did not use the pronoun “i” and words “yes” and “no” just in using the said words in the exercises and games of the methods suggested and situations with a similar context. the capability of children with autistic disorders to follow the situational instructions in a correct way expressing interest in following them (a high level) was shown by 26.1% eg children and 13.2 cg children. 43.5% eg children and 39.5% cg children selectively followed the situational instructions (an adequate level). 13% eg children and 5.3% cg children demonstrated their capability to follow the situational instructions with the help of an adult (an average level). 6.5% eg children and 28.8% cg children were not willing to follow the situational instructions and brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 103 expressed their negative attitude when asked again to follow the instructions (a low level). 10.9% eg children and 13.2% cg children did not respond to the instructions, ignored the experimenter (a zero level). it was observed that children, who selectively followed instructions (an adequate level, an average level), were usually willing to follow those instructions taking priority of changing an activity to a more interesting one. the quantitative indices can be unravelled according to the diagram (fig.3). 13,2 39,5 5,3 28,8 13,2 26,1 43,5 13 6,5 10,9 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 cg eg high level adequate level average level low level zero level *green – high level; blue – adequate level; yellow – average level; pink – low level; red – zero level fig. 3. indices of the implementation of instructions in a situation, in %. 17.4% eg children and 7.9% cg children showed their capability to follow non-situational instructions calling for a child to stop an activity or to change it (a high level). 34.8% eg children and 31.6% cg children followed non-situational instructions selectively or incompletely (an adequate level). 17.4% eg children and 7.9% cg children appeared to be able to follow non-situational instructions only with the help and under the guidance of an adult (a moderate level). 17.4% eg children and 34.2% cg children had no desire to follow non-situational instructions and expressed their negative attitude (a low level). 13% eg children and 18.4% cg children did not respond to instructions, ignored the experimenter (a zero level). it should be mentioned that instructions requiring to stop or to change an activity were substantiated with the stimuli important for a child and implemented more frequently and more willingly. the quantitative indices are provided as a diagram (fig.4). results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 104 7,9 31,6 7,9 34,2 18,4 17,4 34,8 17,4 17,4 13 0 20 40 60 80 100 cg eg high level adequate level average level low level zero level *green – high level; blue – adequate level; yellow – average level; pink – low level; red – zero level fig. 4. indices of the implementation of instructions beyond a situation, in %. regarding the level of expressive speech development after studying under the corrective-developmental methods of speech activity formation, particularly, the presence of personal expressions in interacting with adults, the examination results appeared to be as follows: 26.1% eg children and 18.4% cg children used certain expressions in interaction (a high level); 19.6% eg children and 7.9% cg children speak rarely on their own (an adequate level); it was noted that expressions were present in 26.1% eg children and 5.3% cg children only in response to questions (a moderate level); 15.2% eg children and 31.6% cg children had expressions as clichés or echolalias, sound imitations and vocalisations (a low level); 13% eg children and 34.2% cg children were not willing to communicate, but used expressions in the course of interaction (a zero level). in particular, speech anxiety was typical for nadia k. when the girl spoke quite a lot, and her speech was pretty grammatical and stylistic, but the communicative orientation was not noted that often. the quantitative indices are provided in table 4. table.4. indices of the presence of personal expressions in interaction, in %. levels cg eg number of children % number of children % high 7 18.4 12 26.1 adequate 3 7.9 9 19.6 moderate 2 5.3 12 26.1 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 105 low 12 31.6 7 15.2 zero 14 36.8 6 13 after the corrective-developmental methods had been entrenched, 19.6% eg children and 13.2% cg children of all the children with autistic disorders expressed a desire both verbally and non-verbally depending on situations (a high level), 23.9% eg children and 18.4% cg children could express a desire both verbally and non-verbally, but the non-verbal expression of desires was noted that more often (an adequate level), 32.6% eg children and 31.6% cg children expressed a desire mainly in a nonverbal manner (a moderate level), 15.2% eg children and 26.3% cg children hardly ever expressed a desire and mainly non-verbally (a low level), and 8.7% eg children and 10.5% cg children almost did not express a desire (a zero level). the results of the study are presented in table 5. table. 5. indices of the ways to express a desire, in %. levels cg eg number of children % number of children % high 5 13.2 9 19.6 adequate 7 18.4 11 23.9 moderate 12 31.6 15 32.6 low 10 26.3 7 15.2 zero 4 10.5 4 8.7 the description of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of testing the vocabulary of senior preschool children with autistic disorders after studying under the corrective-developmental methods of speech activity formation is provided in the annex !!!!! studying the monologue speech capability produces the following results: no child showed a high level of monologue speech at the final stage. the analysis of the data received in the study defined that the capability to speak in a monologue on an interesting topic (an adequate level) was present in 37% eg children and 26.3% cg children. monologue expressions in the form of phrases, clichés and echolalias as a communicative method (a moderate level) were detected in 21.7% eg children and 7.9% cg children. the communication in the form of sound imitations, sound complexes and vocalisations (a low level) was present in 17.4% eg children and 7.9% cg results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 106 children. 23.9% eg children and 57.8% cg children appeared to be unable to speak in a monologue. the quantitative indices are provided as a diagram (fig.5): 0 37 21,7 17,4 23,9 0 26,3 7,9 7,9 57,8 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 cg eg high level adequate level average level low level zero level *green – high level; blue – adequate level; yellow – average level; pink – low level; red – zero level fig.5. monologue speech capability indices, in %. as observed, the children with autistic disorders, who took part in the educational experiment, did not include any children with a high level of dialogue speech. the skill to conduct a dialogue only on apprehensible and interesting topics (an adequate level) was natural for 21.7% eg children and 13.1% cg children. the capability to answer questions on easy topics (a moderate level) was developed in 34.8% eg children and 15.8% cg children. 19.6% eg children and 5.3% cg children appeared to be able to answer questions by using clichés or echolalias, or sound complexes, sound imitations and vocalisations in the answer (a low level). 23.9% eg children and 65.8% cg children appeared to be unable to conduct a dialogue (a zero level). the quantitative indices are provided in the form of diagram (fig.6): brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 107 0 21,7 34,8 19,6 23,9 0 13,1 15,8 5,3 65,8 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 eg cg high level adequate level average level low level zero level *green – high level; blue – adequate level; yellow – average level; pink – low level; red – zero level fig.6. indices of the dialogue speech capability, in %. 4.3% children in the experimental group were identified amongst the children with autistic disorders as those who used extended sentences in the active speech, whereas the control group had no such children. the children, who mainly used non-extended sentences, phrases in the active speech made 41.3% in the experimental group and 23.7% in the control group. the children, who were noted for their predominant use of word combinations, words, phrases, made 26.1% in the experimental group and 13.2% in the control group. the children, who preferred to use sound imitations, sound complexes and vocalisations, made 17.4% in the experimental group and 44.7% in the control group. mute children meaning those who did not show any speech activity at all were 10.9% of all the children in the experimental group and 18.4% in the control group. the quantitative indices are shown on the diagram (fig.7): results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 108 4,3 41,3 26,1 17,4 10,9 0 23,7 13,2 44,7 18,4 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 eg cg high level adequate level average level low level zero level *green – high level; blue – adequate level; yellow – average level; pink – low level; red – zero level fig.7. indices of the use of corresponding language units according to the results of the final summative experiment, in %. the active diagnosing was applied in specific cases for correcting the individual approach and content of corrective influence, which had a significant impact on the experiment results. to review the potency of research and experimental activities, we had a control comparative experiment based on the data of the summative experiment carried out before and after the forming experiment. according to the data of the control assessment (under the set criteria and indices of formedness of speech activity), it was found that the children in the experimental group had significant positive changes influencing the general characteristics of speech activity formedness. according to the results of the contrastive-comparative analysis, the data received proved our predictions about the lowest level of speech activity in senior preschool children with autistic disorders in comparison with the normal level, which could slightly increase in the course of respective corrective-developmental activities according to the suggested methods of speech activity formation. conclusions according to the research tasks, we have designed the correctivedevelopmental methods of formation of speech activity in senior preschool children with autistic disorders, determined their didactic content and main brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 109 stages of entrenchment: research-diagnostic, correction-activity and function-speech. working on the corrective-developmental methods, we have taken into consideration the results of the summative stage of the research, program requirements to speech development of senior pre-schoolers, level of speech capabilities of every child, regularities of the speech function development in ontogenesis and scientific-methodical principles and trends of correction of speech development in children with speech disorders. as per the principles substantiated, the research-diagnostic, correction-activity and function-speech stages of our methods have outer and inner relationships observed. furthermore, the determined stages of the corrective-developmental methods are closely interrelated and characterised as being united in a continuous pedagogical process, and the skills, knowledge and habits acquired by senior pre-schoolers with autistic disorders are considered as an integral system. we have assigned initiative as capability to speak in a monologue, motivation as capability to speak in a dialogue, content-richness as fullness of the active oral speech with language units as well as sound imitations, sound complexes and vocalisations comprehensible for a child with autistic disorders (words, word combinations, phrases, sentences) to the main components of speech activity. thus, we have processed and generalised the results of identification of levels of speech activity formedness as capability to speak in a monologue and dialogue and use of particular language units according to the quantitative indices after entrenching our methods and techniques. the versatility of the contingent of children with autistic disorders determined the necessity to design special methods of speech activity formation in accordance with the specifics of their defect structure and in view of a level of speech and intellectual development. references behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19 (4), 13331340. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf results of verification of the methods of speech activity formation in … nataliia bazyma, et al. 110 research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 fitsula m. m. (2000). pedagogika: navchalnyi posibnyk dlia studentiv vyshchykh pedagogichnykh zakladiv osvity [ pedagogics: textbook for students at higher educational institutions ]. kyiv: publishing centre “akademiia”. http://odnorobivka.edu.kh.ua/files/downloads/fitsula_m_m_ _pedagogika_alma-mater_-_2002.pdf glozman zh. m. (2009). neiropsykhologiya detskogo vozrasta [children neuropsychology]. moscow: akademiya. https://www.academiamoscow.ru/ftp_share/_books/fragments/fragment_21161.pdf komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 konopliasta s. yu. (2013) do problem movlennievoi aktyvnosti ditei doshkilnogo viku z autystychnymy proiavamy [to the problem of speech activity of preschool children with autistic signs ]. naukovyi chasopys npu named after m.p. drahomanov, correction pedagogics and special psychology: collection of scientific papers , 19 (24). kyiv: npu named after m.p. drahomanov. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn& z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_ meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2 013_24_31 lalaeva r. i. (2003). narusheniya rechi i ikh korrektsiya u detei s zaderzhkoi psikhicheskogo razvitiya: uchebnoe posobie dlya studentov vyshykh uchebnykh zavedenii [speech disorders and their correction in children with the mental development delay: textbook for students at higher educational institutions]. moscow: vlados. https://nsportal.ru/vuz/psikhologicheskienauki/library/2014/12/01/lalaeva-ri-serebryakova-nv-zorina-svnarusheniya martynenko i. v. (2013). osoblyvosti mizhosobystisnoi komunikatsii u ditei iz normalnym ta poryshenym movlennievym rozvytkom [peculiarities of interpersonal communication of chidren with a normal and disordered speech development]. naukovyi chasopys npu named after m.p. drahomanov , correction pedagogics and special psychology: collection of scientific papers , 19 (24). kyiv: npu named after m.p. drahomanov. http://irbisnbuv.gov.ua/cgihttps://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 http://odnorobivka.edu.kh.ua/files/downloads/fitsula_m_m_-_pedagogika_alma-mater_-_2002.pdf http://odnorobivka.edu.kh.ua/files/downloads/fitsula_m_m_-_pedagogika_alma-mater_-_2002.pdf https://www.academia-moscow.ru/ftp_share/_books/fragments/fragment_21161.pdf https://www.academia-moscow.ru/ftp_share/_books/fragments/fragment_21161.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_31 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_31 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_31 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_31 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_31 https://nsportal.ru/vuz/psikhologicheskie-nauki/library/2014/12/01/lalaeva-ri-serebryakova-nv-zorina-sv-narusheniya https://nsportal.ru/vuz/psikhologicheskie-nauki/library/2014/12/01/lalaeva-ri-serebryakova-nv-zorina-sv-narusheniya https://nsportal.ru/vuz/psikhologicheskie-nauki/library/2014/12/01/lalaeva-ri-serebryakova-nv-zorina-sv-narusheniya http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_70 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_70 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 111 bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn& z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_ meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2 013_24_70 melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 pakhomova n. g. (2006). formuvannia movlennievoi gotovnosti ditei starshogo doshkilnogo viku z dyzartriieiu do navchannia v shkoli [formation of speech preparedness of senior preschool children with dysarthria before school]: dissertation phd in psychology. kyiv. http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/245205.html sheremet m. k. (2013). logopedia [speech and language therapy]. textbook (2nd ed.) revised and complemented. in m. k. sheremet (ed.) kyiv: publishing house “slovo”. https://studfile.net/preview/2041266/ sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sichkarchuk n. d. (2011). formuvannia emotsiino-otsinnoi leksyky u ditei starshogo doshkilnogo viku z motornoiu alaliieiu zasobamy khudozhnio -movlennievoi diialnosti [formation of the emotional-evaluative vocabulary of senior preschool children with the expressive language disorder though the artistic-speech activity means]: abstract, phd in pedagogics. kyiv. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/logoped_2012_2_21 sobotovych e. f. (1989). osobennosti formirovaniya yazykovogo soznaniya u detei doshkolnogo vozrasta v protsesse spontannogo rechevogo razvitiya [peculiarities of formation of language consciousness of preschool children in the process of a spontaneous speech development]. kyiv. http://rehabperm.ru/wpcontent/uploads/2019/12/%d0%a1%d0%9e_2019_no_4.pdf tarasun v. v. (2004). logodydaktyka [logodidactics]. kyiv: npu named after m. p. drahomanov. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/23345 trofymenko l. i. (2004). formuvannia leksyko-gramatychnoi storony movlennia u ditei piatogo roku zhyttia iz zagalnym nedorozvytkom movlennia [formation of the lexical-grammatical side of speech in children with general speech maldevelopment in their fifth year of life ]: dissertation phd in pedagogics. kyiv. http://dissertation.com.ua/node/657614 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_70 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_70 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_70 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nchnpu_019_2013_24_70 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/245205.html https://studfile.net/preview/2041266/ https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/logoped_2012_2_21 http://rehabperm.ru/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/%d0%a1%d0%9e_2019_no_4.pdf http://rehabperm.ru/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/%d0%a1%d0%9e_2019_no_4.pdf http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/23345 http://dissertation.com.ua/node/657614 your paper's title starts here: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 01-12 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/152 muscle coactivation index improvement in junior handball players by using propioceptive exercises bogdan antohe¹*, marinela raţă 2 , gloria raţă 3 1 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania, antohe_bogdan@yahoo.com * corresponding author 2 “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău, faculty of movement, sport and health sciences, 157 calea mărăşeşti, bacău, romania. 3 “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău, faculty of movement, sport and health sciences, 157 calea mărăşeşti, bacău, romania. abstract: ankle sprain is the most common injury in performance sports. two of the most common residual symptoms of an ankle sprain are: the occurrence of chronic joint instability and agonist-antagonist muscle imbalances, expressed numerically by the values of the muscle coactivation index. the purpose of the research was to demonstrate that the use of proprioceptive exercises leads to the improvement of the degree of chronic joint instability and of the values of the muscle coactivation index. the research had a number of 22 subjects, handball players, whose age was between 15 and 16 years. the degree of joint instability was established by using the “foot and ankle disability index” questionnaire, while the values of the muscle coactivation index were calculated following the electromyographic measurements. the obtained results highlight the efficiency of the proposed proprioceptive exercise programme, the statistical significance of the obtained results (by improving the initial and final values), as well as the existence of correlations between all evaluated parameters (muscle coactivation index, number of ankle sprains and degree of joint instability). the conclusions of the research underline the efficiency of proprioceptive exercises in diminishing the degree of chronic joint instability and in improving the values of the muscle coactivation index. based on the results obtained, the research acquires an important practical value, because the proposed intervention programme has applicability in all sports sectors. keywords: coactivation; index; agonist; antagonist. how to cite: antohe, b., raţă, m., & raţă, g. (2020). muscle coactivation index improvement in junior handball players by using propioceptive exercises. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 01-12. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/152 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/152 mailto:antohe_bogdan@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/152 muscle coactivation index improvement in junior handball players by using … bogdan antohe, et al. 2 introduction ankle sprain is a traumatic condition of the talocrural joint, caused by a movement that exceeds the physiological limits of joint amplitude and which results in a stretching or rupture of the ligaments (fong et al., 2007). both nationally and internationally, in handball, the ankle sprain occupies a secondary place in the top of injuries (the chances of injury are 67.8%, over a period of two years), the main joint prone to injuries being the knee (curitianu & balint, 2015; mircioaga, 2010). muscle coactivation is the phenomenon by which the contraction of the agonist muscle is accompanied by the contraction of the antagonist muscle, but at a lower intensity. the most studied form of muscle coactivation is the antagonistic one, and in the specialty literature it is also known as co-contraction (beck, 2015). the muscle coactivation index (ci) is the way to measure the degree of muscle coactivation. at present, muscle balance can be evaluated by surface electromyography. the first research on muscle coactivation was done in the 19th century by sherrington (1897), who proposed the theory of mutual inhibition. this theory supports the idea according to which “a contraction of the agonist muscle leads to the reflex inhibition of the antagonist muscle.” the causes of muscle imbalances can be multiple, but the most common ones are as follows: practising sports events which require more than one part of the body, improper warm-up of athletes, the existence of severe postural deficits, the selective toning of a single muscle group, etc. (herzog et al., 2019). the degree of muscle coactivation is one of the most used parameters for qualitative evaluation of the neuromuscular function. it can be correlated with the sports performance, with the risk of accidents or with the evolution in the recovery process of injured athletes. the importance of muscle coactivation on the qualitative parameters of the movement arises from its role in: increasing joint stability, dynamic protection of the ligaments, improving motor control, increasing the reaction time of the muscles (liebenson, 2007). cordun (1999) states that “the interaction between the agonist and antagonist muscles increases the movement precision, moreover a greater the number of muscles being involved.” muscle coactivation is a phenomenon present in all movements of the human body, which has higher values during the development of motor acts on unstable support surfaces. significant and unjustified increases in muscle coactivation index values denote “the immaturity of the motor brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 3 control system, and in subjects with chronic joint instability, increasing muscle coactivation is considered a strategy adopted by the motor control system, whose role is to provide joint stability” (masso et al., 2010). the lower the percentage values of the muscle coactivation index are, the better the ability of the motor control system to cope with more complex motor tasks is (zuniga et al., 2018). it has been shown that the proprioceptive exercises decrease the latency time required to activate the ankle muscles, so they can improve the values of the muscle coactivation index. in addition, the proprioceptive training restores the pathways of transmitting the sensory information between the mechanoreceptors and the central nervous system and stimulates the secondary sensory pathways, which play an important role in compensating for the proprioceptive deficits, arising from accidents. in conclusion, by systematically applying a programme of proprioceptive exercises, we can obtain improvements in the muscle coactivation index. these improvements will have a positive effect on the ankle sprain prevention and treatment. material and method research subjects the number of subjects included in the experiment was 22. these are members of the men’s handball team (junior ii), of the bacău municipal sports club (table 1). the research was carried out in bacău city, at the sports hall of the “stephen the great” national pedagogical college. the duration of the research was six months. the initial evaluation took place between 09 29.09.2019, and the final one during the period of 27.01.2019 12.02.2019. the purpose of the research is to highlight the importance of using proprioceptive exercises in improving the values of muscle coactivation index and joint instability, as well as in reducing the number of ankle sprains in handball players. the objectives of the research were the following: carrying out an objective evaluation, by which we highlight the changes in the values of the muscle coactivation index, of the joint stability and of the number of ankle sprains; elaboration and implementation of a programme of proprioceptive exercises, through which we can obtain the improvement of the values of the muscle coactivation index, of the joint instability and of the number of ankle sprains, in the handball athletes. muscle coactivation index improvement in junior handball players by using … bogdan antohe, et al. 4 the research hypotheses were the following: performing an applied intervention by using proprioceptive exercises which leads to the improvement of the values of the muscle coactivation index; performing an applied intervention by using proprioceptive exercises which leads to the diminishing of the number of ankle sprains and to the improvement of the degree of joint stability. the methods used in the research were the theoretical documentation, the pedagogical observation, the experimental method, the method of tests and evaluation tests, the survey method, the method of recording and statisticalmathematical processing of the data. subject evaluation in the evaluation of the subjects we used the anthropometric measurements to assess the level of physical development of athletes (height, weight and body mass index) and the “identification of functional ankle instability (idfai)” questionnaire in order to assess the degree of joint instability. for the assessment of the muscle coactivation index, we used the surface electromyography (biopac mp36, biopac system inc., santa barbara, ca). before starting the evaluation and the positioning of the electrodes, we cleaned the skin, applied conductive gel and calibrated the recording unit. the data recording was done through 2 acquisition channels, whose recording frequency was 1000 hz. the muscles evaluated were the anterior tibial and sural triceps. in order to position the electrodes in identical anatomical landmarks, at the level of the anterior tibial muscle, they were positioned 3 cm lower and 1 cm medial of the tibial tuberosity. for the sural triceps muscle, the electrodes were applied 4 centimeters below the popliteal fossa. in order not to influence the obtained results, the neutral electrodes were positioned at the basin level, on the iliac ridges, and the subjects performed the event barefeet. in order to calculate the muscle ci values at the ankle muscles, on the plantar flexion motion, we considered the application of the formula proposed by kellis, arabatzi & papadopoulos (2003), (ec. 1): ec. 1 – calculation formula for the muscle coactivation index brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 5 this formula was applied for the agonist action of the sural triceps muscle and the antagonistic action of the anterior tibial muscle (fig. 1). fig. 1. schematic representation of the electromyographic wave and the method of calculating the muscle coactivation index, according to the formula proposed by kellis, arabatzi & papadopoulos (2003). the hatched area represents the area of electromyographic activity of the antagonist muscle. (legend: emg = electromyography, mv = millivolts, ms = milliseconds, t = time. to obtain the muscle ci values for the example above, we will apply the following formula: = 31%. the percentage obtained represents the degree of coactivation of the anterior tibial muscle, compared to the triceps sural muscle). source: this figure was designed by the authors applied intervention the duration of the exercise programme was 15 weeks. the exercises were performed at the beginning of each training session and lasted from 15 to 20 minutes. the frequency of application of the exercise programme was three workouts per week. the exercises performed were as follows: static balance exercises performed from unipodal and bipodal support on a stable and unstable surface, dynamic balance exercises performed from unipodal and bipodal support on a stable and unstable surface. as teaching materials we used: balance board, inflatable balance disc, gym bench, balance brick, modular ladder for speed training, rhythmic gymnastics circle and plastic hurdles. results the initial and final results obtained by the athletes in the evaluation events are presented in table 1. the statistical data analysis was performed in tables 2 and 3, using ibm spss statistics software, version 20. muscle coactivation index improvement in junior handball players by using … bogdan antohe, et al. 6 table 1 initial and final results obtained by the athletes in the evaluation events source: authors' own contribution table 2. t-student test results and cohen’s d coefficient ns di ci i f i f i f number of subjects 22 22 22 22 22 22 mean 2 0.454 12.36 6.954 70.45 59.50 standard deviation 2.309 0.800 9.776 7.174 14.75 12.92 student’s test 3.636 4.952 7.596 p* value < 0.02 < 0.01 <0.01 cohen’s d 0.900 0.630 0.789 * results in initial and final testing by applying the student’s dependent t-test to each of the two groups. a significant difference between the two tests if p < 0.05. legend: ns= number of ankle spains. di = degree of instability of the ankle joint. ci = muscle coactivation index source: results from the statistical processing of data arising from original research subiects included in the experiment s h (cm) w (kg) bmi pof ne gi (points) ci (%) i f i f i f i f i f i f 1. a.a. 175 175 65 66 21.2 21.5 lw 0 0 2 0 62 44 2. b.a. 189 191 82 92 22.9 25.2 p 1 0 3 1 64 59 3. c.d. 182 183 88 92 26.5 27.5 rw 1 1 18 15 83 66 4. f.r 197 202 85 90 21.3 22 li 5 0 28 11 98 81 5. d.d 180 180 91 93 28 28.7 ri 1 0 8 0 53 48 6. d.g. 179 180 57 60 17.8 18.5 lw 7 3 30 19 86 79 7. l.c 180 181 65 68 20 2.07 pi 0 0 2 0 85 81 8. m.a. 182 182 73 76 22 22.9 pi 0 0 1 0 48 45 9. m.e. 177 178 85 86 27.1 27.2 rw 0 0 1 0 47 45 10. t.t. 190 193 70 70 19.4 18.8 li 0 0 12 0 71 47 11. t.m. 193 195 79 81 21.2 21.3 pi 0 0 0 0 69 62 12. a.ș. 183 184 68 69 20.3 20.4 lw 5 1 25 11 73 71 13. c.r. 180 183 80 83 23.1 24.8 pi 7 0 25 13 89 71 14. d.a. 186 190 68 70 19.7 19.3 ri 4 1 25 24 82 72 15. p.i. 191 194 78 85 21.4 22 ri 1 1 9 9 65 52 16. f.d. 188 190 67 69 18.9 19.1 rw 2 0 12 8 66 54 17. d.k. 176 178 62 65 20 21 lw 0 0 3 0 40 38 18. g.c. 199 202 84 87 21.2 21.3 pi 1 0 7 7 75 65 19. b.d. 187 191 75 78 21.4 21.4 c 1 1 12 6 68 48 20. r.r. 184 186 85 86 26 24.9 c 3 0 21 15 70 56 21. s.f. 186 190 86 90 24.5 24.9 p 4 2 14 10 86 67 22. g.s 187 187 80 85 22.9 24.3 ri 1 0 14 4 70 58 legend: s = subject, h = height, w = weight, bmi = body mass index, pof = position occupied in the field (lw = left winger, rw = right winger, g = goalkeeper, pi = pivot, ri = right inter , li = left inter, c = centre), ns = number of ankle sprains, di = degree of instability of the ankle joint, ci = muscle coactivation index, i = initial, f = final. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 7 table 3. pearson corelation pearson correlations ns_f di_f ci_f ns_f 1 di_f .601** 1 ci_f 0.391 .593** 1 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed), *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). legend: h_i = initial height, h_f = final height, w_i = initial weight, wg_f = final weight, bmi_i = initial body mass index, bmi_f = final body mass index, ns_i = initial number of ankle sprains, ns_f = final number of ankle sprains, di_i = initial degree of instability, di_f = final degree of instability, ci_i = initial coactivation index, ci_f = final coactivation index. source: results from the statistical processing of data arising from original research for the statistical analysis of the obtained results, we used the tstudent test and the cohen’s d coefficient. from the results presented in table 2, we highlight a series of aspects:  the analysis of the initial (m = 2, sd = 2,309) and final (m = 0.454, sd = 0.800) results of the number of ankle sprains indicates the statistical significance of the results, t = (3,636), p = 0.02. cohen’s coefficient values (d = 0.900) suggest a major effect of the exercise programme applied;  the analysis of the initial (m = 12.36, sd = 9.776) and final (m = 6.954, sd = 7.174) results of the degree of joint instability indicates the statistical significance of the data, t = (4.952), p = 0.01. cohen’s values (d = 0.630) suggest an average effect of the exercise programme applied; the analysis of the initial (m = 70.45, sd = 14.75) and f + -initial (m = 59.50, sd = 12.92) results of the muscle coactivation index indicates the statistical significance of the data, t = (7,596) , p = 0.01. cohen’s coefficient values (d = 0.789) suggest a major effect of the applied exercise programme. following the application of the pearson test (table 3), we found that there is a positive correlation between:  the number of ankle sprains and the degree of joint instability (r = 0.601);  the degree of joint instability and the muscle coactivation index (r = 0.593). discussions following the analysis of the results presented in tables 1, 2 and 3, for the 22 subjects, we present a number of issues. muscle coactivation index improvement in junior handball players by using … bogdan antohe, et al. 8 the initial and final analysis of the results recorded by the whole group of athletes indicates an initial average height value of 185 cm and a final average value of 187 cm. regarding the average values of body weight, they increased by 3.1 kg, from the initial average value of 76 kg, to the final average value of 79.1 kg. these changes in body height and weight correspond to a decrease of the average values of the body mass index by 0.4 points, from the initial average value of 22.1 points, to the final average value of 21.7 points. although each athlete has his/her own rate of growth and development, in the specialty literature, height and weight are considered risk factors for the occurence of ankle sprains, thus affecting the values of the muscle coactivation index. the justification offered by the specialists is the following: when the ankle is in a risky position (inversion + supination), an increased body weight and height will increase the couple of forces acting on the lateral ligament complex, responsible for limiting the inversion movement, correia & torres (2019), beynnon, murphy & alosa (2002). all athletes achieved increases in height and body weight, in varying proportions. these improvements are considered normal at this (puberty) age stage, characterized by a growth pattern in boys. in the specialized literature, several risk factors responsible for the occurrence of an accident are presented. these are: the existence of a previous injury, the position occupied in the field, the installation of muscle fatigue and the occurence of muscle imbalances (mccall et al., 2015). regarding the existence of a previous injury, following the analysis of the final results, we found that athletes who suffered a higher number of ankle sprains, have higher values of the degree of joint instability and muscle coactivation index. regarding the position occupied on the field, the players from the second line (inters and pivots), are more prone to injuries, because these positions require repeated jumps (mónaco et al., 2019). analyzing the number of ankle sprains, we found that the inters are the most prone to sprains, followed by wingers and pivots. the degree of chronic joint instability is also a risk factor for accidents. it has been shown that athletes who have mechanical and proprioceptive deficits (limitations of joint mobility or sensory deficits), which occur after the ankle sprain, may undergo changes in the degree of joint stability (theisen & day 2019). in our research, at the initial evaluation, the athletes presented an average value of joint instability of 12.3 points. the decrease of these values to 6.9 points, at the final evaluation, indicates the existence of mechanical and proprioceptive deficits, as well as the efficiency brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 9 of the applied exercise program. in addition, the positive correlation between the final number of ankle sprains and the final degree of joint instability (r = 0.601), highlights the negative consequences of an ankle sprain on joint stability. brown et al. (2004) demonstrated a decrease in the electromyographic activity of the sural triceps muscle, during the landing on the floor, in subjects with chronic joint instability. in another research, jaber et al. (2018) demonstrated a 33% decrease in the electromyographic activity of the anterior tibial muscle, when a dynamic balance test was applied to subjects with chronic joint instability. these changes in the electromyographic activity of the agonist and antagonistic muscle groups, in athletes with chronic joint instability, produce changes in the values of the muscle coactivation index. the improvements in the muscle coactivation index obtained in this research were 10.95%. the values of the cohen’s coefficient (d = 0.789) indicate a major effect, obtained by performing the exercise programme, on the values of the muscle coactivation index. we consider that there is a direct link between the degree of joint instability and the muscle coactivation index (r = 0.593), which allows us to state the following reasoning: the higher the number of ankle sprains suffered by an athlete is, the higher the degree of joint instability is, which will increase the values of the muscle coactivation index. other factors that influence the degree of muscle coactivation are: speed of movement execution (iwamoto et al., 2017), age of the subjects and surface area used (gebel et al., 2019). the higher the postural demands generated by the support surface, the higher the values of the muscle coactivation index. the results obtained in our research are of particular practical importance, as they underline the positive effects of applying proprioceptive exercises on the improvement of mechanical (by reducing the degree of joint instability) and neuromuscular (quantified by improving the values of muscle coactivation index) of the joint. the occurrence of these changes is accounted for by the central inhibitory feed-back mechanisms, which lead to the reorganization of the sensory-motor cortex (aman et al., 2015). for the moment, these investigations are at the beginning, the neurological mechanisms that manage muscle coactivation are still incompletely discovered and deciphered. muscle coactivation index improvement in junior handball players by using … bogdan antohe, et al. 10 conclusions starting from the proposed purpose, pursuing the objectives and hypotheses, we concluded that the application of a program of proprioceptive exercises, led to the improvement of the muscle coactivation index with an average value of 10.92%, to the handball players with chronic joint instability of ankle joint and reducing the number of sprains with an average value of 1.35 sprains. these findings allow us to emphasize that: the hypothesis according to which “carrying out an applied intervention by using proprioceptive exercises leads to the improvement of the values of the muscle coactivation index” was confirmed and is justified by the improvement of the final values of the muscle coactivation index; the hypothesis according to which “carrying out an applied intervention by using proprioceptive exercises leads to a decrease in the number of ankle sprains and to the improvement of the degree of joint stability” has been confirmed and is justified by the improvement of the final values of the degree of joint instability and the decrease in the number of ankle sprains. we believe that our research has fulfilled its purpose. references aman, j. e., elangovan, n., yeh, i. l., & konczak, j. (2015). the effectiveness of proprioceptive training for improving motor function: a systematic review. frontiers in human neuroscience, 8, 1075. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.01075 beck, t. (2015). electromyographic cross-spectral analysis of antagonist muscle coactivation. international journal of sports and exercise medicine, 1, 001. https://doi.org/10.23937/2469-5718/1510001 beynnon, b.d., murphy, d.f., & alosa, d.m. (2002). predictive factors for lateral ankle sprains: a literature review. journal of athletic training, 37(4), 376– 380. brown, c., ross, s., mynark, r., & guskiewicz, k. (2004). assessing functional ankle instability with joint position sense, time to stabilization, and electromyography. journal of sport rehabilitation, 13(2), 122– 134. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsr.13.2.122 cordun, m. (1999). kinetologie medicală [medical kinetology]. axa. correia, m.a.c., & torres, j. (2019). intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors for lateral ankle sprain: a literature review. archives of sports medicine, 3(2), 172-177. https://doi.org/10.36959/987/247 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.01075 https://doi.org/10.23937/2469-5718/1510001 https://doi.org/10.1123/jsr.13.2.122 https://doi.org/10.36959/987/247 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 11 curitianu, i. m. & balint, e. (2015). injuries and their prevention in the handball game. journal of social science research, 7(2), 1271–1275. https://doi.org/10.24297/jssr.v7i2.3570 fong, d. t.p., hong, y., chan, l.-k., yung, p. s.-h., & chan, k.-m. (2007). a systematic review on ankle injury and ankle sprain in sports. sports medicine, 37(1), 73–94. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-20073701000006 gebel, a., lüder, b., & granacher, u. (2019). effects of increasing balance task difficulty on postural sway and muscle activity in healthy adolescents. frontiers in physiology, 10. http://doi:10.3389/fphys.2019.01135 herzog, m. m., kerr, z. y., marshall, s. w. & wikstrom, e. a. (2019). epidemiology of ankle sprains and chronic ankle instability. journal of athletic training, 54(6), 603–610. https://doi.org/10.4085/10626050-447-17 iwamoto, y., takahashi, m., & shinkoda, k. (2017). correction to: differences of muscle co-contraction of the ankle joint between young and elderly adults during dynamic postural control at different speeds. journal of physiological anthropology, 36(1), 36-38. http://doi:10.1186/s40101-017-0154-6 jaber, h., lohman, e., daher, n., bains, g., nagaraj, a., mayekar, p., & alameri, m. (2018). neuromuscular control of ankle and hip during performance of the star excursion balance test in subjects with and without chronic ankle instability. plos one, 13(8), e0201479. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201479 kellis, e., arabatzi, f. & papadopoulos, c. (2003). muscle co-activation around the knee in drop jumping using the co-contraction index. journal of electromyography and kinesiology, 13, 229–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1050-6411(03)00020-8 liebenson, c. (2007). rehabilitation of the spine a practitioner's manual. lippincott williams & wilkins. masso, n., rey, f., romero, d., gual, g., costa, l. & german, a. (2010). surface electromyography applications in the sport. apunts medicina de l’esport, 45(165), 121-130. mccall, a., carling, c., & davison, m. (2015). injury risk factors, screening tests and preventative strategies: a systematic review of the evidence that underpins the perceptions and practices of 44 football (soccer) teams from various premier leagues. british journal of sports medicine, 49(9), 583–589. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2014-094104 mircioagă, e. d. (2010). performanţa sportivă şi traumatismele specifice jocului de handbal în funcţie de segmentul afectat (sports performance and injuries specific to the game of handball depending on the affected segment). discobolul, vi, 4 (22). https://doi.org/10.24297/jssr.v7i2.3570 https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200737010-00006 https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200737010-00006 http://doi:10.3389/fphys.2019.01135 https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-447-17 https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-447-17 http://doi:10.1186/s40101-017-0154-6 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201479 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1050-6411(03)00020-8 https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2014-094104 muscle coactivation index improvement in junior handball players by using … bogdan antohe, et al. 12 http://www.unefs.ro/custom_images/file/discobol%20pdf/arhiva/disco bolul%20nr%2022%20decembrie%202010/cuprins/11.pdf mónaco, m., rincón, j., ronsano, b., whiteley, r., sanz-lopez, f., & rodas, g. (2019). injury incidence and injury patterns by category, player position, and maturation in elite male handball elite players. biology of sport, 36(1), 67– 74. https://doi.org/10.5114/biolsport.2018.78908 sherrington, c. s. (1897). on reciprocal innervation of antagonistic muscles. third note. proceedings of the royal society of london, 60, 414-417. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspl.1896.0062 theisen, a., & day, j. (2019). chronic ankle instability leads to lower extremity kinematic changes during landing tasks: a systematic review. international journal of exercise science, 12(1), 24–33. zuniga, j., dimitrios, k., peck, j., srivastava, r., pierce, j., dudley, d. et al., (2018). coactivation index of children with congenital upper limb reduction deficiencies before and after using a wrist-driven 3d printed partial hand prosthesis. journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 15(1), 48. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-018-0392-9 http://www.unefs.ro/custom_images/file/discobol%20pdf/arhiva/discobolul%20nr%2022%20decembrie%202010/cuprins/11.pdf http://www.unefs.ro/custom_images/file/discobol%20pdf/arhiva/discobolul%20nr%2022%20decembrie%202010/cuprins/11.pdf https://doi.org/10.5114/biolsport.2018.78908 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspl.1896.0062 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-018-0392-9 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 303-307 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/207 habits, addiction and unknowable charles joussellin¹ 1 md, phd, médecin des hôpitaux, centre hospitalier universitaire bichat-claude bernard, paris, france, charles@joussellin.fr, 48 rue henri-huchard, 75018 paris abstract: habits like addictions are resulting from tensions between multiple living phenomenons, unknowables and unobjectivables ; inside of organs, consciousness, humain body, there are subjectif language and interhumain relation-sheeps. being affraid about the possible drift of the game of neuroscientific images, those of algorithms and protocols, we prefere the possibilities emerging from an intersubjectivity, with care-giving target. take care of somebody else represents, first of all, a meeting-point between two subjects and the quality of this meeting will considerably influence the technicity or the effects of some medecines. the technical healthcare proposed in addictions does not escape the influence of the healthcare relation-sheep and the support of hypnosis for a person called « addict » is a good way between other possibles propositions. in the practice of hypnosis, we prefer images founded by the person that we support; in other words, a visualisation of their insight, in the middle of their intimate immensity: an ephemeral space rich in possibilities insight the subjectivity, wich remains unobjectivable. the person is not « thrown into the world » but opens a world of a hidden depth and greatness, singular, radicaly subjective, intimate, constructive. the « elsewhere » and the « once » are stronger than the « here » and « now ». keywords: habit, addiction, unknown, subjectivity, hypnosis. how to cite: joussellin, c. (2021). habits, addiction and unknowable. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 303-307. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/207 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/207 mailto:charles@joussellin.fr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/207 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 304 habit, with the meaning of a permanent, regular, frequent way of behaviour, voluntarily acquired or not, is the « result of a change » and it runs the risk of dependance, impossibility of keeping that kind of behaviour under control despite its possible negative consequences. that has been named addiction starting with the 90’s in france (fortané, 2010, pp. 5-24). the changes of behaviour, like the addictions of a human being, result in tensions among various living phenomena. they seem to raise no objections to us, but there is the risk of a reduction, of spoiling what is under study. how can you cure a person who acquires bad habits little by little and who is willing to become « addict » at potential proposals ? we want to show that all the people, just like all the living beings, have a side unknown to them, which is ready to be revealed, as well as an unknown side which is constantly changing in relation with the others. this is to be done, in order to foster our modesty in comforting another person and be on our guard concerning the all-powerfull medical technology and in order to enhance the quality of the main, intersubjective intercourse. this intercourse renders all proposal of a therapeutic kind more relevant, just like the therapy required for hypnosis. 1. from the unknown and the unobjectivable the organ in his desire to perceive the mysteries of the living world, felix ravaisson displays his philosopphy thesis supported in 1838. according to it « it is more and more outside the sphere of personality, as well as outside the influence of the central organ of willingness, it is in the organs that certain movements have a tendency of acquiring habits and ideas (…) in the indefinite multiplicity of organisation » (ravaisson, 2007, p. 47). unknown or even unknowable phenomena within the body organs will participate in these changes of behaviour. the consciousness according to his pupil, henry bergson, the living, vegetal, animal or human world exists only in motion and requires a certain degree of consciousness which allows change, evolution under the influence of predictible or non-predictible phenomena. « consciousness and materiality are thus revealed as radically different, even opposed forms of existence. they adopt a « modus vivendi » and get on well together to a certain extent » (bergson, 2011, p. 13). consciousness is unobjectivable, or can be in a poor habits, addiction and unknowable charles joussellin 305 and reduced way, nevertheless , a certain degree of consciousness exists in the whole evolution of a living world and particulary in the human beings and their habits and changings of habits. the thinking flesh the founder of the phenomenology, edmond husserl, described as intersubjectivity, whatever happens with a human being who encounters another human being. in these descriptions if « my flesh is a thing », meaning an object, an organ, « the flesh also have a feeling », that is « the synthesis of the flesh while it contains in itself the habitual synthesis of a thing, but even more » (husserl, 2001, p. 53). to put it in a different way, the body of a person, organ, « korper », but also « leib », a living and subjective carrier of his history and culture, meets another person making use of his five senses, but also with the help of his own flesh and undeniable vivid and real subjectivity : that is a « thinking », vivid flesh. today are all these fundamental notions considered from an objective, restrictive point of view, by the mirror-neurons of the neuroscientists… the subjective language « the most powerful forces of the intimate life – the passions, thoughts, pleasures of the senses – live a certain existence of shadows, as long as they are not transform into narrations and in generally by the artistic transposition of individual expériences » (arendt, 1983, p. 89). in fact, the human being, allways worrying about the others and taking care of other human beings and things he has to face constantly, expresses himself by the language ; more often than by his artistic activity. the language represents what the person says and the way he puts it, which reveals his presence into the world, his « existence » (heidegger, 1986). is the language the only way in which we could understand and help a person in his changes of behaviour, even his addictions ? in fact, it is the only way at the risk of lapsus, oblivion, errors, even lies, bearing the stamp of his culture, history and circumstances. the humain being « inter homines esse ». living among the people, that is the human state, to which the triade mentionned by the french psychiatrist claude olieveinstein, brings to our attention a particular addiction the drugaddiction : « drug-addiction is the meeting-point of a product, a personality and a socio-cultural moment » (blaise & rossé, 2011, pp. 57-82). there are brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 306 essential elements in accompanying and curing people suffering from an addiction. at the same time, we should be careful about what we may research, distinguish, analise, quantify because the study of the human behaviour allways involves the observer’s behaviour (devereux, 2012, p. 48). in other words, the observer and the person under study observe each other, and thus they influence each other, that is called unobjectivable intersubjectivity. 2. how can we cure with the unobjectivable and the unknowable ? being aware that all these changes of habits are to be found simultaneously in the organs of mobility, in a certain consciousness, in a thinking flesh, in the middle of the uncertainty of the human language and in the constant human relations in the society, it must be taken into consideration that nothing is really objectivable more than in a reductive, dehumanizing way. today, when our so-called modern world is ready to turn into a digital world, the phenomenon which draws our attention is no longer a drug but the fact that anybody can feel, thanks to « the tool of tools », his own hand : his finger, digitally, easily making virtual images appear on the screen ; at the risk of a wifi access. it is neither the virtual which is allpowerful, or possible, nor feelings of our heart, but often the games easily activated on the screens of the computer by a few clicks : « click and watch ! ». moreover, a man loves playing, entertaining, especially in order to forget about his end-of-life, to get rid of his own misery : the interest in the pascal entertainment ! that takes us back to the human state and the importance of taking into account the personality of each of us, the socialcultural context and attachment to images, games at hand. fearing the possible traps set by the games of neuroscientific images, of algorithmes and protocols, we prefer the possibilities with a curing aim. without denying or putting aside the concern about the medical techniques and experts’ reports, we prefer to cure by intersubjective meetings between a patient and a person entitled to cure. looking after somebody else is an intercourse between two persons and the quality of this intercourse, particulary the first one, will certainly influence the technique or the effects awaited of a medecine. the proposed curing techniques in addictions are influenced by the curer. accompanying an addict by hypnosis is a possible cure, side by side with the others. habits, addiction and unknowable charles joussellin 307 conclusion we prefer the images seen by someone led through hypnosis ; in other words to offer an inner-self visualisation, to the heart of our intimate immensity (bachelard, 1994, p. 168), an ephemeral space filled with possibilities. a subjective treasure, admittedly impossible to grasp objectively, if not through the subject’s account. this exploration of subjectivity allows one to make sense of their experiences, whatever they may be. through one simple memory, which one may reminisce on multiple times (though it will never be twice the same), images appear, where the details desappear, the picturesque fades out, the clock stops ticking, space expends limitlessly. by closing or opening the eyes, sounds change. the subject is not thrown into the world but makes his way towards a deep one, with a hidden, singular, radically subjective, intimate and constructive greatness. the « elsewhere » and the « once » are stronger than the « here » and « now ». references arendt, h. (1983). condition de l’homme moderne [the condition of the modern human]. calmann-lévy. bachelard, g. (1994). la poétique de l’espace [the poetics of space]. puf. bergson, h. (2011). la conscience et la vie [living consciousness]. puf. blaise, m., & rossé, e. (2011). monsieur drogue. claude olievenstein, trente ans d'interventions médiatiques [mr. drogue. claude olievenstein, thirty years of media interventions]. psychotropes, 1(17), 57-82. https://www.cairn.info/revue-psychotropes-2011-1-page-57.htm devereux, g. (2012). de l’angoisse à la méthode dans les sciences du comportement [from anxiety to method in the behavioral sciences]. flammarion. fortané, n. (2010). la carrière des addictions, d'un concept médical à une catégorie d'action publique [the career of addictions, from a medical concept to a category of public action]. genèses, 1(78), 5-24. https://www.cairn.info/revue-geneses-2010-1-page-5.htm heidegger, m. (1986). être et temps [being and time]. gallimard. husserl, e. (2001). sur l’intersubjectivité [on intersubjectivity]. puf. ravaisson, f. (2007). de l’habitude [of habit]. allia. https://www.cairn.info/revue-psychotropes-2011-1-page-57.htm https://www.cairn.info/revue-geneses-2010-1-page-5.htm brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 270-286 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/231 educating students with special educational needs in the context of modern neurosciences natalia pshenychna¹, tetiana mishenina2, tetiana poplavska3, oksana dzhus4, valentyna serheieva5, inna babii6 1 berdyansk state pedagogical university, ukraine, natali122436@gmail.com 2 kryvyi rih state pedagogical university, ukraine, t.mishenina@gmail.com 3 south-ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k.d. ushinsky, ukraine, sofistriya@gmail.com 4 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, oksana.dzhus@pnu.edu.ua 5 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, valentina.sergeeva@live.com 6 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, in77na77@ukr.net abstract: the relevance of this topic resides in the fact that children with special developmental needs should have equal opportunities with other children in getting training and this means not only creation of technical conditions for unimpeded access of children with disabilities to secondary schools, but also specifics of the educational process to be built taking into account psychophysical abilities of physically disabled children. the article presents research results of domestic and foreign scientists, teachers and psychologists on education of students with special needs in the context of modern neuropsychology. it is the neuropsychology of children that allows us to get acquainted closer with peculiarities of children’s development and, accordingly, to correctly determine methods and principles of working with students. we considered disorders in the process of ontogenesis, which most often occur in children: speech delay, autism, hyperactivity, intellectual disabilities. all of them complicate social connections, which often leads to low self-esteem, especially with hyperactive children and students with speech impairments. therefore, in the process of educating students with special needs, domestic scientists call for the use of neuropsychological correction, which is the basis of social protection of children with developmental problems and creates the most favorable conditions for their education and socialization. methods of correctional work are aimed not only at overcoming some of the disorders, but at development of a harmonious personality. keywords: child neuropsychology, brain damage, speech delay, developmental disorders, intellectual disabilities, correctional work, accompanying teacher. how to cite: pshenychna, n., mishenina, t., poplavska, t., dzhus, o., serheieva, v., & babii, i. (2021). educating students with special educational needs in the context of modern neurosciences. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 270-286. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/231 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/231 mailto:natali122436@gmail.com mailto:t.mishenina@gmail.com mailto:sofistriya@gmail.com mailto:oksana.dzhus@pnu.edu.ua mailto:valentina.sergeeva@live.com mailto:in77na77@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/231 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 271 introduction for many decades, in focus of numerous foreign scientific and pedagogical discussions, there are problems of finding effective strategies for practical implementation of theoretical foundations of inclusion, which has been gaining widespread popularity in ukraine for several decades. at the same time, neurosciences that study structural and functional features of the brain and the nervous system as a whole do not lose their relevance. the science of the nervous system develops our understanding of human nature and what exactly makes person a human, offering their hypotheses and concepts to explain what mechanisms underlie thinking, emotions, behavior and other phenomena of human psyche, which in turn is a lever in studying issues of inclusive education. neuroscience has led to creation of one of the areas in psychology – neuropsychology. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars komogorova et al. (2021), sheremet et al., (2019), behas et al. (2019). neuropsychology combines elements of neurology and psychology. neuropsychologists study effects of psychological conditions on the nervous system, including brain and spine, and can explore ways in which changes in brain chemistry due to trauma, hormones, or environmental factors can affect mental health. in the 70’s on the initiative of luria a new area began to develop – a child neuropsychology. prerequisite for its creation were specific mental disorders in children with local brain damage. doctors’ observations have shown that brain of an adult and a child reacts differently to lesions of the same area, so they began to study separately “children’s” neuropsychological symptoms and syndromes. it should be noted that “child neuropsychology” provides ample opportunities to study the problem of hemispheric asymmetry and hemispheric interaction, to study the issue of genetic and social factors in formation of these fundamental laws of the brain. the applied “child neuropsychology” plays an important role, because the neuropsychological methods adapted to the young age make it possible to determine the area of brain damage in children as successfully as in adults. the current stage of development of neuropsychology, both child and adult, is characterized by extensive development around the world. neuropsychologists focus not only on patients with organic local brain lesions, but also on patients with endogenous, genetic, and functional educating students with special educational needs in the context of modern … natalia pshenychna, et al. 272 disorders, individual differences in normal mental functioning, specific social developmental situations (e.g., social deprivation or bilingualism), etc. the objective of today’s stage of development of child neuropsychology is to move from a phenomenological description of cases of abnormal child development to study of relationship of brain, genetics, sociology and personality in formation of variants of abnormal or unusual development. in other words, the basis of modern child neuropsychology is an integrative, multidisciplinary approach. the founder of this approach is considered by many to be lenneberg (1967). therefore, due to these trends in development of child neuropsychology, in recent years it has become the basis for creation of a service of practical educational psychology (asmolov, 1998). the most common developmental disorders of students with special educational needs due to wide popularization and urgency of the problem of inclusive education, the aim of our study is education of students with special educational needs in the context of modern neuroscience. let’s first consider what disorders in the process of ontogenesis most often occur in schoolchildren. the most common deviation in the mental development of children, according to domestic scientists, is delay in speech development. the level of development of language functions strongly influences the success of schooling, both according to the luriev test and according to the psychometric heidelberg test of language development: in a group of children with high scores on this test there are more successful students than in the group of children with low scores. in children with general language underdevelopment (glu), autonomous language is pathologically preserved for a long time, and speech development occurs by accumulating a vocabulary of autonomous words, rather than enriching lexical and grammatical means typical of normal language development (levina, 1936). the reason for delays in language development are early brain damages, especially in the left hemisphere. in case of delay in language development, as a rule, language function suffers (to a greater or lesser extent) comprehensively, in all its forms and modalities: oral and written language, expressive and impressive language, spontaneous speech, repetition, naming (especially low-frequency words), understanding the logical-grammatical relationship, etc. often children with well-developed oral speech, rich vocabulary, scare parents and teachers with the number of brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 273 errors in the notebook and poor reading, they have a syndrome of dysgraphia and (or) dyslexia (glozman, 2009). however, difficulty of verbal communication creates difficulties in the process of adaptation in team, which has a negative impact on the student’s self-esteem, develops negativity, insecurity. the level of communication skills is slowed down or does not even begin to develop (zhuravlyova, l., 2018). according to foreign scientists, the most common childhood mental disorder is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – adhd, according to estimates of the prevalence in childhood of 9% among boys and 3% among girls. superficial symptoms of inattention and impulsivity are often, though not always, accompanied by hyperactivity. synonymous with the term “hyperactivity”, also found in the literature, is “hyperkinetic syndrome”. syndromes of hyperactivity and movement disorders are considered comorbid (belonging to one disease) conditions that have common mechanisms and those that require common therapeutic approaches. usually, this syndrome occurs in children and adolescents, and is manifested mainly by altered characteristics of cognitive processes and attention, and it is believed that there is compensation with growing older, so in adulthood it is less common. however, becoming adults and recovering from adhd, such people are at increased risk for a number of psychopathological syndromes and diseases. it is known that this group has an increased likelihood of affective disorders (depression, bipolar disorders), anxiety disorders, including panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, various forms of addiction (addictive behavior syndromes) and psychopathy. hyperactive adolescents and adults are also more likely to develop various forms of antisocial and deviant behavior, including aggression, alcoholism, and drug abuse. often children with adhd become criminals in adolescent period. one of the mechanisms of this is reduced sensitivity to weak stimuli, including danger signals. it should be mentioned here that the human brain is not only a reactive system, but also an anticipation system that controls the future behavior of the subject. the relative emotional immaturity of children with adhd sets them apart from their peers and often makes them targets for unfriendly grunts. however, it is important to remember that many children with adhd are extremely intelligent and creative, and eventually they will understand how to communicate with others and avoid people who are not suitable for friendly relations (smith & segal, 2020). educating students with special educational needs in the context of modern … natalia pshenychna, et al. 274 the problem of autism is gaining widespread popularity not only abroad but also in ukraine. with autism, it is known that the main symptom of distorted development is the weakening or lack of ability to participate in social communication – social maladaptation. it is explained by the difficulties of prompt assessment and selection of appropriate responses to ever-changing information (rigidity of cognitive attitudes), as well as inability to understand the experiences of others (disturbance of social perception). unlike children with attention deficit disorder, who have difficulty inhibiting an inadequate response, autistic children only have difficulty switching to a new program. elementary perseverations correlate with repetitive behavioral responses, and systemic perseverations correlate with persistent narrowly focused interests. the cerebral basis of autism, according to pathoanatomy and ct, is interpreted as diffuse damage to brain structures and their relationships, including interrupted development of dendritic endings in the structures of the limbic system, decreased neurons and increased number of pathological cells in the cerebellum, overgrowth of the posterior cortex and signs of diffuse disorders of relationships at the level of the cortex (tager-flusberg & joseph, 2003). electrophysiological studies of children with autism on the eeg show increased beta activity. such changes are usually observed in a state of drowsiness. in addition, there is a lack of short-term memory. therefore, autistic children perform poorly on the choice reaction test. the ability to use internal language to regulate one’s own activities is also impaired. with a relatively good command of grammar and vocabulary, children are unable to communicate (glozman, 2009). children with asd need school more than others, despite the fact that for a child with autism it is much more difficult. mental retardation is a persistent, irreversible mental development impairment, especially intellectual, due to insufficiency of the central nervous system. the most common form of mental retardation is oligophrenia, which can be caused by genetic (endogenous) disorders (down’s disease, klinefelter’s syndrome, congenital defect of enzyme structures – phenylketonuria, congenital abnormalities at the neuronal level, especially in the morphogenesis of dendrites and synaptic zones, etc.) or external (exogenous) factors: viral infections, trauma, alcohol intoxication of the mother, radioactive and x-ray irradiation of the germ cells of the parents and the fetus, chronic hypoxia (lack of oxygen) of the embryo (otake & schull, 1984). brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 275 the neuropsychological picture of non-formation of the higher mental functions in children with oligophrenia includes primarily intellectual disorders, spatial defects, symptoms of weakness of neurodynamics of mental functions (insufficiency of internal inhibition, excessive irradiation of excitation, increased inhibition of memory and general inertia of mental processes), and also immaturity of the functions of programming and control, and especially verbal regulation of mental functions (rubinstein, 1986). active vocabulary and capabilities of grammatical design of utterances are also limited (pevzner & vlasova, 1973). one of the mechanisms of language disorders is immaturity of the sense of language, which underlies the ability to control correctness of one’s own and another’s language. in case of oligophrenia, the ability to determine correctness of phonetically, semantically or grammatically distorted words and sentences is sharply limited (for example: “ammer” (hammer); “the boy washing his face”; “nina have a big apples”; “the bear sleep well under the snow”), placed next to the correct words and sentences. only 20% of mentally retarded students in grades i-ii could notice the error, but none of them could specify what the mistake was and how to say it correctly. this indicates an undifferentiated representation of phonetically similar sounds and the unformed sense of pronunciation. oligophrenia syndrome, therefore, is a good illustration of asynchrony of development due to impaired functional interaction: development of language, memory and sensorimotor functions (with a sufficient level of development), as well as formation of a full personality is limited by low intelligence. hierarchy of defects, relative preservation of separate mental functions allow reliance on them at neuropsychological correction (lebedinsky, 1985; 2003). we have considered the most common disorders in the process of ontogenesis of children with special needs and put forward the following hypothesis: any disorders of students’ development significantly affect formation of their personality and social ties, which in turn leads to negativity, personality disorder, depression in future. plan and prerequisites for correctional work with students with special educational needs enrollment of students with inclusion in secondary schools involves provision of specialized correctional care and psychological support to monitor development of the child, cognitive abilities, provide assistance in solving problems with adaptation among healthy peers (hevko, 2019). educating students with special educational needs in the context of modern … natalia pshenychna, et al. 276 inclusive education cannot be effective without an individual approach to students, the need for which is unanimously discussed by domestic and foreign methodologists and practitioners. the scientific and methodological basis of individualization of learning can be a neuropsychological approach to diagnosis and development of effective learning strategies. the main document that defines an individual approach to learning is an individual educational program (iep). of course, the iep should contain information that should be mastered by the student by the end of the school year. but variability of school programs is a necessary feature of inclusive education. but the goals of the program will not be achieved without specifying ways and methods of solving the set tasks. the choice of ways and methods should be based on analysis of individual features of cognitive processes and behavior of the student. the most effective methods of analysis are developed in neuropsychology. in us schools, the iep is written by a team of specialists. it is approved once a year at a joint meeting, and it contains the following sections. data on the current level of knowledge and academic achievements of the student and his or her functional performance, which describes how they affect the inclusion of the child in the learning process and its success in mastering the general education program, his/her role in the class and his/her domestic responsibilities. measurable goals of the school year program (educational and / or functional). a description of how progress in achieving the program’s goals will be measured. special and additional training is required with a description of program modification and additional assistance provided by school staff in acquisition of the general education program and in additional classes. list of class activities in which the student will not participate. a description of what opportunities will be provided to the student when writing municipal tests (for example, increasing the time). note: if the student is unable to participate in tests, what alternative methods will be used. dates of beginning and end, and frequency of additional classes. this document, important for planning (and auditing) educational services, also includes: – description of the strengths and weaknesses of the child, – request of parents, brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 277 – results of the latest surveys, – child support strategies, – language and communication status and the need for (detrich, 2008). in the process of teaching and educating students with special needs, domestic scientists call for the use of neuropsychological correction, namely, correctional and developmental (conductive) learning, or medical pedagogy, which is the basis of social protection of children with developmental problems and creates the most favorable conditions for his/her education and socialization. the task of neuropsychological correction is not just to ensure the intellectual development of the child within a conditional “tolerance”, but to educate an intellectually healthy, full-fledged citizen. corrective work begins with the establishment of an emotional contact with the child, clarifying his/her interests, presence of valuable interests, motivation, self-esteem, tolerance to mental stress, the time during which the child can actively participate in the lesson (tsyganok et al., 2006). only on the basis of differentiated and systemic neuropsychological diagnosis, which is not limited to identifying weak links in the development of the child, but determines the area of his/her immediate development (vygotsky, 1984), i.e., possibilities and conditions of correction of defects at a dialogic mode of carrying out neuropsychological inspection, a timely individual program of correctional and developing training (substitution of ontogenesis) of the child can be developed. the methodological advantage of the neuropsychological approach to corrective action, which ensures its effectiveness, is based on the principle of systematicity. it means that the correction program is not aimed at overcoming a single defect, but in general at harmonizing the mental functioning and personality of the child. this principle does not exclude the need to choose the main, priority area of work at each stage of correction of each individual child on the basis of its comprehensive neuropsychological examination. the neuropsychological approach to the methods of correctional and developmental learning means development of a weak link with the support of strong links during a specially organized interaction of the child and the teacher. this involves interaction of strong and weak parts of the psyche. detection of a weak link is carried out on the basis of neuropsychological inspection and the analysis of educational activity of the child and its results. in the process of interaction, the adult assumes first the functions of the weak link of the child, and then in accordance with the educating students with special educational needs in the context of modern … natalia pshenychna, et al. 278 ideas of vygotsky, the tasks should vary from simple to complex with the following parameters: – common – independent (from division of functions between teacher and student through a gradual reduction of the role of the teacher to independent action); – externally mediated – internal (from the action involving external materialized supports, external program to internal, performed in mind); – expanded – collapsed (from expanded element-by-element execution and control of action to their collapsed forms) (akhutina et al., 2011). practical use of methods and techniques that promote education of students with special educational needs let’s consider the methods and principles of working with children, according to their individual developmental characteristics. often parents of children with speech defects complain not only about difficulties in their children’s education, but also about emotional problems, behavioral disorders in the family and at school. most often it is a complaint of increased anxiety, aggression, hyperactivity of the child. as a result, children without severe cognitive impairments, without diagnosed pronounced neurological or psychiatric pathology are forced to repeatedly change schools or even resort to home schooling. development of communication skills and self-esteem is an important factor in overcoming school maladaptation, i.e., the child’ inability to fully (as far as their abilities and development and not to the detriment of their physical and mental health) meet the requirements of mainstream school. to ensure harmonious development of the personality of a child with speech defects, a comprehensive care is needed, which includes not only an inclusive component, but also correctional classes in a group. experience gained in specially organized behavior correction groups helps to solve problems that arise in interpersonal interaction of the child in the family and at school. hidden factors such as social pressure, partner manipulation, interaction, are daily present at school, in the company of friends, family, are realized, become apparent in the psycho-correctional group, affect individual life attitudes and contribute to behavior change. as a result, the affective experiences that occur in artificially created circumstances can be naturally transferred to the outside world, contribute to personal growth of the child and the correction of his/her behavior. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 279 in accordance with these theoretical provisions, the program of group correction of communication disorders and personal problems of the child is designed to solve such problems: 1. development of an adequate self-esteem. 2. improving social skills through group experience in those children who need training in basic social skills. 3. development of group cohesion. however, there are many methods of working with such children. among them: the method of pantomime (rudestam, 1999), games in which children are invited to praise each other, which in turn helps to overcome shyness; exercise – development of friendly relations, where children are divided into groups and play different situations, for example, at school, in a store, in the theater – this exercise develops cohesion, communication skills; art therapy: individual and group, so that children learn to interact with each other, the method of motor art therapy – the art of dance (wigman, 1966) – she believed that “dance is a living language spoken by people”. there are three components of effective group correctional work with children: cognitive (knowledge of communication, about themselves and others), behavioral (development of communication skills and solving own problems) and emotional (self-acceptance and impetus to selfdevelopment) – they are the driving force on the way to harmonious development of personality and the establishment of social ties. children with adhd usually have a deficiency in executive function: the ability to think and plan in advance, to organize, control impulses, and perform tasks. this means that the teacher needs to take on the role of a supervisor, providing additional guidance as the child gradually acquires his or her own executive skills. although the symptoms of adhd can be irritating, it is important to remember that a child who ignores, annoys, or embarrasses others is not acting on purpose. children with adhd want to sit still; they want to make their rooms neat and tidy; they want to do everything their parents say, but they don’t know how to do it. with patience, compassion, and great support, adhd can be managed in childhood (smith, m., m.a. and segal, j., ph.d., 2020). treatment of adhd is comprehensive and includes pedagogical assistance, psychotherapeutic work with the family, teaching parents principles and skills of raising a child with adhd, development of the child’s social interaction skills and, if necessary, drug therapy (meisel et al., 2013). educating students with special educational needs in the context of modern … natalia pshenychna, et al. 280 to create appropriate conditions for education and upbringing of a child with adhd, the teacher needs to do the following: 1. identify the strengths of the child. it is important for every child to hear praise and know that he or she is valued, and children with adhd are less likely to receive positive feedback because of their behavior. with the help of strengths, you can build quality communication with the student, because children with adhd learn not on punishment, but on encouragement. 2. create an appropriate learning space. there should be no extra items in the classroom that distract attention of the child. it is desirable that the child sits at the desk as close as possible to the teacher, because it helps to concentrate better. 3. allow physical activity during the lesson. it is really difficult for children with hyperactivity to sit at the desk for 45 minutes. 4. pay attention to the child’s condition and respond to it. as soon as the teacher notices that it is difficult for the child to keep sit down, a moving task can be offered: to wipe the board, to bring something from another class or library. 5. structure the lesson and make it balanced. at the beginning of the lesson, the teacher can write a lesson plan. the plan focuses attention of the child with adhd on tasks and facilitates the transition from one activity to another, with which he/she often has difficulties. 6. do not leave the child alone with the task. 7. encourage good behavior – praise for waiting or waiting for their turn, does not shout out from their place (zapadnyuk, 2020). next, we will talk about autistic children. obviously, care for children with autism spectrum disorders needs to be tailored to their needs. the general opinion is that none of the methods is good or bad in itself, the validity of its application depends on two conditions: 1. the effectiveness of the method for a particular child at a certain point in his/her development. 2. from the ability of a specialist to correctly apply this method (the level of his training – development of professional and personal qualities). the practice of therapeutic care for children with autism spectrum disorders in the world has shown that their “treatment” is correctional and educational programs, and although experts from different countries have developed numerous approaches, methods and tools of psychological and pedagogical correction, today there is no ambiguity and consistency in using selection and application of these approaches. (virues-ortega et al., 2013). brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 281 in the course of inclusive education of children with asd, the following principles should be followed: 1. maintaining consistency in the spatial organization of the child’s life, which will help to avoid many behavioral problems. confusion, anxiety will decrease if the child clearly learns his/her main place of study and what he/she can do in all other places in school, which he/she attends. 2. learning a particularly clear and stable schedule of each current school day with its specific order of switching from one lesson to another, coming to school and going home, the order of these days in the school week, as well as the rhythm of working days and holidays during the school year. 3. individually adapted rhythm of classes, the possibility of timely switching and having a rest. 4. hand support, letter “hand in hand”, combined action. 5. exercise is known to increase the overall activity of the child and relieve his/her pathological stress. during training, both are relevant. 6. reliance on sensor analyzers. working with children with intellectual disabilities is complicated by a number of objective difficulties. pathological disorders of intelligence are manifested in dependence: inability to eat, dress, maintain cleanliness. often there is a reluctance to communicate with the outside world, with people, where there is a lack of interest in new information, building communications. full development requires a joint work of a team of professionals who implement additional education at school. the main person in this team is a tutor (accompanying teacher). his main responsibility is to ensure development of individual educational programs for students and support the process of individualization and individual education at school. the accompanying teacher facilitates the child’s adaptation at school. he resolves conflicts, with his/her personal behavior shows the desired attitude to the student with intellectual disabilities, stimulates the wards to social interaction. for example, involves in the process of alternating with other children. one of the parents can become a personal tutor. the tutor organizes activities of other specialists: speech pathologists, speech therapists, psychologists. his/her contribution to interaction with the teacher is important in order to form the most convenient curriculum for students with mental retardation without harm to others (mulatova & ryabenchenko, 2016). educating students with special educational needs in the context of modern … natalia pshenychna, et al. 282 conclusions we found that the education of students with special educational needs requires special knowledge, which is based on neuropsychology, because this science allows us to study disorders of various mental functions, so that in the future we can choose the right methods and techniques for correcting psychological disorders. to start working with a student, foreign scientists advise to develop an individual educational program, which should contain information what the student must master by the end of the school year. they note that variability of school programs is a necessary feature of inclusive education. the choice of ways and methods should be based on the analysis of individual features of cognitive processes and behavior of the student. the most effective methods of analysis are developed in neuropsychology. at the beginning of correctional work, it is necessary to establish emotional contact with the student, find out what interests he/she has, selfesteem, level of motivation, tolerance to mental stress, how long they can participate in the classwork. the advantage of the neuropsychological approach to corrective action is the principle of systematization. it directs the correction program not to overcome a single disorder, but in general to harmonize mental functioning and personality of the child. перевагою нейропсихологічного підходу до корекційного впливу є принцип системності. він спрямовує програму корекції не на подолання окремого дефекту, а в цілому на гармонізацію психічного функціонування та особистості дитини. we also considered methods and principles used today by teachers to educate children with special needs at secondary schools. in addition to school, children with speech defects need to attend special groups, where not only speech therapists and speech pathologists will work with them, but also psychologists, who will help get rid of complexes, gain confidence to attend school and communicate with healthy peers. students with adhd can easily study in the classroom if the teacher follows certain rules: sits the child closer to the teacher’s table, draws up a lesson plan, conducts a warm-up in the middle of a lesson, listens to the needs of a hyperactive child. for children with asd, regularity is important: daily repetition of the regime of classes, constant spatial landmarks. it is also necessary to do exercise to relieve pathological stress. children with intellectual disabilities need an accompanying teacher – a tutor. such children need special care for socialization and schooling. the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 283 tutor initiates communication with healthy peers, monitors the child’s routine, helps in everyday situations such as dressing or eating. thus, we can say with confidence that the correct organization of inclusive education, based on the principles of neuropsychology, allows students with special needs to learn along with healthy peers, which in turn helps to cultivate a positive attitude towards themselves, allows them to better adapt to environmental conditions and feel wanted, and this is an important component of the harmonious development of personality. references akhutina, t. v., pylaeva n. m., & khotyleva t. yu. (2011). neyropsikhologicheskiy podkhod v inklyuzivnom obrazovanii [neuropsychological approach in inclusive education]. inklyuzivnoe obrazovanie: metodologiya, praktika, tekhnologii [inclusive education: methodology, practice, technology], 71-73. https://psyjournals.ru/inclusive_edu/issue/44033_full.shtml asmolov, a. g. (1998). psikhologiya – osnova proektirovaniya obrazovaniya [psychology – the basis of education design]. gumer. https://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_buks/pedagog/hrist2/02.php behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, t., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 detrich, r. (2008). from policy to practice: ideia and evidence-based practice. in e. l. grigorenko (ed.), educating individuals with disabilities: ideia 2004 and beyond, (pp. 85-114). springer publishing company. glozman, zh. m. (2009). neyropsikhologiya detskogo vozrasta: uchebnoe posobie posobie dlya studentov vysshkh uchebnykh zavedeniy [neuropsychology of childhood: study guide for students of higher educational institutions]. publishing center “academy”. hevko, i. (2019). inkliuzyvnv osvita v ukraini: suchasnyi stan ta problemy rozvytku [inclusive education in ukraine: the current state of affairs and development problems]. scientific bulletin of mykolayiv national university named after v.o. sukhomlynsky. pedagogical sciences, 1 (64), 52– 58. http://dspace.tnpu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/13405 https://psyjournals.ru/inclusive_edu/issue/44033_full.shtml https://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_buks/pedagog/hrist2/02.php https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 educating students with special educational needs in the context of modern … natalia pshenychna, et al. 284 komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 lebedinsky, v. v. (1985). narusheniya psihicheskogo razvitiya u detey [mental disorders in children]. moscow. surl. http://surl.li/nlxz lebedinskiy, v. v. (2003). narusheniya psihicheskogo razvitiya v detskom vozraste [mental developmental disorders in childhood]. moscow: publishing center “academy”. goo-gl. https://goo-gl.su/mogql lenneberg, e. h. (1967). biological foundations of language. behavioral science, 13, 493-495. https://doi.org/10.1002/bs.3830130610 levina, r. e. (1936). k psihologii detskoy rechi v patologicheskih sluchayah [to the psychology of children's speech in pathological cases]. moscow. rusneb. https://rusneb.ru/catalog/000199_000009_005287231/ meisel, v., servera, m., garcia-banda, g., cardo, e., & moreno, i. (2014). neurofeedback and standard pharmacological intervention in adhd: a randomized controlled trial with six-month follow-up. biological psychology, 95, 116-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.04.015 mulatova, n. a., & ryabenchenko, n. n. (2016). inklyuzivnoe obrazovanie detey s narusheniem intellekta [inclusive education of children with intellectual disabilities]. mezhdunarodnyiy zhurnal eksperimentalnogo obrazovaniya [international journal of experimental education] 4(2), 259-261 http://www.expeducation.ru/ru/article/view?id=9780 otake, м., & schull, w. j. (1984). in utero exposure to a-bomb radiation and mental retardation; a reassessment. british journal of radiology, 57(677), 409-14. https://doi.org/10.1259/0007-1285-57-677-409 pevzner, m. s., & vlasova, t. a. (1973). o detyah s otkloneniyami v razvitii [about children with developmental disabilities]. pedlib. rubinstein, s. ya. (1986). psihologiya umstvenno otstalogo shkolnika: uchebnoe posobie dlya studentov pedagogicheskih institutov po spetsialnosti # 2111 “defektologiya” [psychology of a mentally retarded schoolchild: a textbook for students of pedagogical institutes in specialty no. 2111 “defectology”]. pedlib. http://pedlib.ru/books/3/0011/index.shtml?from_page=1 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 http://www.expeducation.ru/ru/article/view?id=9780 https://doi.org/ http://pedlib.ru/books/3/0011/index.shtml?from_page=1 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 285 rudestam k., (1999). gruppovaya psikhoterapiya [group psychotherapy]. peter kom. sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., & maksymchuk b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 smith, m., & segal, j. (2020) how to help your child with adhd. helpguide. https://www.helpguide.org/articles/add-adhd/whenyour-child-has-attention-deficit-disorder-adhd.htm tager-flusberg, h., & joseph, r. м. (2003). identifying neurocognitive phenotypes in autism. philosophical transactions of the royal society of london. series b, biological sciences, 358(1430), 303-14 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2002.1198 ty jour tsyganok, a. a., vinogradova, a. p., & konstantinova, i. s. (2006). razvitie bazovykh poznavatelnykh funktsiy s pomoshchyu adaptivnoigrovykh zanyatiy [development of basic cognitive functions through adaptive play activities]. studedmed. https://www.studmed.ru/view/cyganok-aa-vinogradova-apkonstantinova-is-razvitie-bazovyh-poznavatelnyh-funkciy-spomoschyu-adaptivno-igrovyh-zanyatiy_a48db9d84e1.html virues-ortega, j., julio, f., & pastor, r. (2013). the teacch program for children and adults with autism: a meta-analysis of intervention studies. clinical psychology review, 33 (8), 940–953. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2013.07.005 vygotskiy, l. s. (1984). sobranie sochineniy [collected works]. volume 4: detskaya psikhologiya [child psychology]. pedagogy. wigman, м. (1966). language of the dance. wesleyan university press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/77791/ zapadnyuk, o. (2020) chto takoe sindrom defitsita vnimaniya s giperaktivnostyu? [what is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?] osvitoria. https://osvitoria.media/ru/experience/syndrom-defitsytuuvagy-z-giperaktyvnistyu-yak-dopomogty-dytyni-adaptuvatysya-doshkoly-2/ zhuravlyova, l. (2018). porushennia psykhomovlennievoho rozvytku uchniv molodshoho shkilnoho viku z dyshrafiieiu [disorders of psychospeech development of primary school students with dysgraphia]. naukovyi zbirnyk “aktualni pytannia humanitarnykh nauk: mizhvuzivskyi zbirnyk naukovykh prats molodykh vchenykh drohobytskoho derzhavnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu imeni ivana franka” [scientific https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://www.helpguide.org/articles/add-adhd/when-your-child-has-attention-deficit-disorder-adhd.htm https://www.helpguide.org/articles/add-adhd/when-your-child-has-attention-deficit-disorder-adhd.htm https://www.studmed.ru/view/cyganok-aa-vinogradova-ap-konstantinova-is-razvitie-bazovyh-poznavatelnyh-funkciy-s-pomoschyu-adaptivno-igrovyh-zanyatiy_a48db9d84e1.html https://www.studmed.ru/view/cyganok-aa-vinogradova-ap-konstantinova-is-razvitie-bazovyh-poznavatelnyh-funkciy-s-pomoschyu-adaptivno-igrovyh-zanyatiy_a48db9d84e1.html https://www.studmed.ru/view/cyganok-aa-vinogradova-ap-konstantinova-is-razvitie-bazovyh-poznavatelnyh-funkciy-s-pomoschyu-adaptivno-igrovyh-zanyatiy_a48db9d84e1.html https://doi.org/ https://osvitoria.media/ru/experience/syndrom-defitsytu-uvagy-z-giperaktyvnistyu-yak-dopomogty-dytyni-adaptuvatysya-do-shkoly-2/ https://osvitoria.media/ru/experience/syndrom-defitsytu-uvagy-z-giperaktyvnistyu-yak-dopomogty-dytyni-adaptuvatysya-do-shkoly-2/ https://osvitoria.media/ru/experience/syndrom-defitsytu-uvagy-z-giperaktyvnistyu-yak-dopomogty-dytyni-adaptuvatysya-do-shkoly-2/ educating students with special educational needs in the context of modern … natalia pshenychna, et al. 286 collection “current issues of the humanities: interuniversity collection of scientific works of young scientists of drohobych state pedagogical university named after ivan franko”], 2(19), 135-140. https://doi.org/10.24919/2308-4863.2/19.168005 https://doi.org/10.24919/2308-4863.2/19.168005 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 28-56 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/237 deep learning based malware detection tool development for android operating system mahmut tokmak¹, ecir uğur küçüksi̇lle2, utku köse3 1 isparta university of applied sciences, gelendost vocational school, isparta, turkey, mahmuttokmak@isparta.edu.tr 2 suleyman demirel university, department of computer engineering, isparta, turkey, ecirkucuksille@sdu.edu.tr 3 suleyman demirel university, department of computer engineering, isparta, turkey, utkukose@sdu.edu.tr abstract: in today's world that called technology age, smartphones have become indispensable for users in many areas such as internet usage, social media usage, bank transactions, e-mail, as well as communication. the android operating system is the most popular operating system that used with a rate of 85.4% in smartphones and tablets. such a popular and widely used platform has become the target of malware. malicious software can cause both material and moral damages to users. in this study, malwares that targeting smart phones were detected by using static, dynamic and hybrid analysis methods. in the static analysis, feature extraction was made in 9 different categories. these attributes are categorized under the titles of requested permissions, intents, android components, android application calls, used permissions, unused permissions, suspicious android application calls, system commands, internet addresses. the obtained features were subjected to dimension reduction with principal component analysis and used as input to the deep neural network model. with the established model, 99.38% accuracy rate, 99.36% f1 score, 99.32% precision and 99.39% sensitivity values were obtained in the test data set. in the dynamic analysis part of the study, applications were run on a virtual smartphone, and android application calls with strategic importance were obtained by hooking. the method called hybrid analysis was applied by combining the dynamically obtained features with the static features belonging to the same applications. with the established model, 96.94% accuracy rate, 96.78% f1 score, 96.99% precision and 96.59% sensitivity values were obtained in the test data set. keywords: android malware analysis, static analysis, dynamic analysis, hybrid analysis, deep learning. how to cite: tokmak, m., küçüksille, e.e., & köse, u. (2021). deep learning based malware detection tool development for android operating system. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 28-56. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/237 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/237 mailto:mahmuttokmak@isparta.edu.tr mailto:ecirkucuksille@sdu.edu.tr mailto:utkukose@sdu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/237 deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 29 1. introduction nowadays, smart phones have occupied an important position in many users' lives and have become an indispensable part. because the smartphone can be used not only as a phone, but also as a portable computer that provides various services, such as short message service (sms), email, internet, social media, maps, gps, banking applications, games (alshahrani et al., 2018; alzaylaee et al., 2020). according to the data of international data corporation (idc) in june 2020, when examining the ratio of operating systems in the global smartphone market, android’s share of the market is 85.4% and it is expected to be 86.3% in 2023 according to the company's estimate (idc, 2020). as an open source and widely preferred technology around the world, android has become the target of malware. these malware have the ability to send text messages to special charge numbers, gain access to personal data, and even install code that can download and apply additional malware to the user's device without the user's consent. malware can also be used to create mobile botnets (alzaylaee et al., 2020; anagnostopoulos et al., 2016). in the last few years, the number of malware samples targeting the android platform has increased significantly. according to a report by mcafee in 2018, more than 2.5 million new android malware applications were detected in 2017, so the number of malware samples increased to nearly 25 million till 2017 (alzaylaee et al., 2020; mcafee, 2018). the widespread use of android and the increase the number of malicious software make it necessary to study on malware detection. in this context, google play introduced a detection mechanism called bouncer in 2012 to prevent the spread of malicious software. in order to detect any malware behavior, the bouncer application was run in a virtual area for five minutes and tested to detect malicious behavior. however, it has been shown that this detection system can be circumvented by malware (alzaylaee et al., 2020). in addition, google announced google play protect in 2017. google play protect is a service that works constantly to keep data and apps safe and tries to provide mobile security by automatically scanning the device. at the same time, google reported that more than 50 billion apps are scanned every day with this service, regardless of where they were downloaded (google play, 2018). however, in the report published by mcafee, they stated that the google play protect service is not successful when tested against malwares that detected in the last 90 days (mcafee, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 30 2018). as can be seen, in addition to the study of google play, various approaches and studies are still needed to combat malware. various approaches have been proposed in previous studies to detect android malware. these approaches are called static analysis, dynamic analysis or hybrid analysis. in the method called static analysis, it is based on the principle of analyzing the written code without running the application. dynamic analysis is based on the principle of determining the behavior of the application by running the application in a controlled environment such as an emulator (android virtual device"avd") or on a real device. the hybrid analysis method is based on the principle of combined usage of static and dynamic analysis method. in this study, it is aimed to detect malicious software that threatens android platform. during the static analysis phase, the java application that we named kuzgun was developed and the feature extraction process was performed in 9 different categories. in this respect, contrary to studies such as aafer et al. (2013), au et al. (2012), feizollah et al. (2017), hou et al. (2016, 2017), idrees et al. (2017), rosmansyah and dabarsyah (2015), yerima et al. (2014), yuan et al. (2016), the study has been analyzed in detail by using other features such as intents and system commands that can be obtained from android applications, instead of focusing only on permissions and api calls. after the feature extraction process, size reduction was performed using python and malware was detected using deep neural networks. as a result of the static analysis, 99.38% accuracy rate, 99.36% f1 score, 99.32% precision and 99.39% sensitivity values were obtained in the test data set. 2. related work in this section, a general literature review has been made on research studies for the analysis of android malware. au et al. (2012) made detailed mapping of android permissions and api calls in their study called pscout. in particular, they have matched api calls that are not documented by android with the necessary permissions to use them. wu et al. (2012) developed a system called droidmat. firstly, they obtained api calls related to the requested permissions, intent messages, activities, services, recipients and permissions by using droidmat. as a result, they made a classification with the k nearest neighbor algorithm. deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 31 aafer et al. (2013), in their work called droidapiminer, static analysis was performed using api calls obtained from application code through reverse engineering. yerima et al. (2014) studied three methods of detecting android malware based on data mining. by using a special application developed by java, they made bayesian classification by using data obtained from android application packages by automatic reverse engineering techniques. in the first of the models that they perform static analyzis, they used the standard android permissions obtained from manifest files. in the second model, they used api calls to point out potential harmful they got from code features. in the third model, they made a classification by using the android permissions and api calls they obtained in the first two models. arp et al. (2014) developed a static analysis-based tool called drebin, which enables detecting harmful applications directly on smartphones. they gathered the attributes they obtained from the android samples into 8 groups. the attributes that the application obtained from the manifest file are hardware properties, requested permissions, application attributes, intent filters. the attributes they obtain from the source code of the application are restricted api calls, used permissions, suspicious api calls, and network addresses. they tried to detect malicious software using support vector machines, one of the machine learning methods. rosmansyah and dabarsyah (2015) used api calls in their study which they used the static analysis method. they made classification with random forest, j48, and support vector machines algorithms. fereidooni et al. (2016) used static analysis method in their study called anastasia and created a malware detection system using machine learning techniques. they use the intents, the permissions used, system commands, suspicious api calls and malicious activities that obtained from the android application as attributes. they obtained the best result with the xgboost algorithm from the data they tested with machine learning techniques such as extreme gradient reinforcement (xgboost), random forest, and support vector machines. hou et al. (2016), in their study called deep4maldroid, they extracted the linux kernel system calls of android applications and used the weighted graph method for attribute representation. deep learning method was used in the study. yuan et al. (2016), in their study called droiddetector, they extracted attributes by static analysis and dynamic analysis, and then detected malicious applications by characterizing the attributes with deep learning method. in static analysis, they obtained android permissions and sensitive brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 32 api calls. in dynamic analysis, they obtained 192 attribute titles by using hooking methods to obtain file input/output, short message service, encryption and network operation attributes of application behavior characteristics. hou et al. (2017) opened apk (android application package) by using apktool and extracted smali codes from dex files. they created deep neural networks by dividing api calls obtained from smali codes into blocks. also made a comparison using deep learning methods such as deep belief network, stacked autoencoders. they found the deep belief networks method more successful than the stacked autoencoders method. feizollah et al. (2017) evaluated android intents as a distinctive feature to identify malicious applications. they stated that the intents contain semantically rich features in identifying malicious software compared to other well-studied features such as permissions. bayesian networks was usen in the tests. idrees et al. (2017) proposed a permission and intent-based detection method in their study called pindroid. they argued that android permissions and intents are related, and they tested the attributes that consist of permissions and intents using machine-learning techniques. milosevic et al. (2017) used 2 different machine learning methods in their studies. they made classification and clustering in the study where they used the static analysis method. they said that the results obtained using classification methods showed better performance than clustering methods. mclaughlin et al. (2017) performed a static analysis using the opcode arrays they extracted from the manifest file and the dex file. they trained their datasets with convolutional neural networks. karbab et al. (2018) conducted static analysis using api calls in their study called maldozer. they used the deep learning method in their detection mechanisms. alshahrani et al. (2018), in their study named ddefender, used static and dynamic analysis techniques to extract features from the user's device and then applied a deep learning algorithm to detect malicious applications. firstly, they used the dynamic analysis method to extract system calls, system information, network traffic, and required permissions from an audited application, then used the static analysis method to extract important features such as components of the application from the audited application. yang et al. (2018) proposed a dynamic analysis method called droidward in order to characterize harmful behavior, increase the rate of detecting harmful applications, and extract the most relevant and effective deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 33 features. they gathered the attributes in 15 separate categories, and stated 9 of them as classical methods and 6 as new. they used droidbox while extracting dynamic attributes. however, they stated that the data monitored by droidbox was limited, and they simulated precise api calls with monkeyrunner by making changes to the source code of droidbox. they use machine learning techniques such as support vector machines, decision tree, and random forest. sugunan et al. (2018) conducted a comparative study on the behavior of harmful and harmless applications using static and dynamic analysis. they extracted static attributes using apktool and dynamic attributes using droidbox apimonitor. they stated that the combined use of static and dynamic analysis features and the results of their tests with methods such as machine learning algorithms rf, svm, j48 and naive bayes were more successful. cordonsky et al. (2018) proposed a system that uses static and dynamic analysis methods together. cuckoo recorded features such as api calls, network activities, and string sequences obtained from malicious applications they analyzed in the sandbox in json format and used them as input to deep neural networks. alzaylaee et al. (2020) conducted a study called dl-droid, which detects malicious android applications with dynamic analysis method. they used the deep learning method in the study. they have extracted dynamic attributes using the application named dynalog developed by alzaylaee et al. (2016). contrary to the previous studies, in the static analysis part of our study, the attribute category that can be effective for android malware detection was evaluated in 9 different categories instead of a few specific categories (api, permissions, etc.). in our static analysis, a total of 62.547 examples of android harmful and harmless applications were used, again numerically more than other studies, and approximately 750.000 different features were obtained from these samples. the attributes are reduced to 900 by the ipca method. in the hybrid analysis method, a data set was obtained by combining the features obtained by the static analysis method and the api calls obtained by the hooking method in the dynamic analysis method. when using the hooking method, api calls that are effective in android malware detection are hooked. again, 375.000 features were obtained by using 35.142 android applications with a high numerical value and these attributes were reduced to 5000 using ipca. the obtained features were trained and tested with dnn and the results were presented. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 34 3. materials and methods 3.1. android software analysis analysis methods are analyzed in 3 categories in the literature. these methods are categorized as static analysis, dynamic analysis, hybrid analysis methods (alshahrani et al., 2018; bhilvare & manik, 2015; idrees et al., 2017). 3.2. static analysis method the static analysis method involves analyzing the source code from the apk file of the applications using various reverse engineering techniques. in the static analysis method, applications are analyzed without running on an emulator or any device. apk files in compressed file format can be opened with compression programs such as winzip, winrar, and so, the dex, manifest and source files can be accessed. tools such as apktool, dex2jar are used to analyze the dex file. for the analysis of the manifest file, applications such as axml2jar, axmlprinter2.jar are used. since the applications are not run while performing static analysis, there is no damage to the device. this is seen as an advantage of the static analysis method. however, if methods such as obfuscation are used in practice to make the codes difficult to understand, success cannot be achieved with the static analysis method, which is seen as the disadvantage of the static analysis method (bhilvare & manik, 2015; türker & can, 2019; yerima et al., 2014). 3.3. dynamic analysis method dynamic analysis method is based on the principle of running applications using a real device or a virtual device and following the behavior of the application at runtime. since the application is analyzed by running the application in the dynamic analysis method, if the application is a harmful application, the device will be affected and damaged when it is run on real devices. for this reason, it is considered more appropriate to run applications in systems called sandbox (virtual device-emulator). creating virtual, isolated systems is a costly and laborious method. at the same time, the dynamic analysis method takes a long time compared to the static analysis (bhilvare & manik, 2015; kulkarni, 2018; türker & can, 2019). deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 35 3.4. hybrid analysis method the hybrid analysis method is a method in which the static analysis method and the dynamic analysis method are used together. hybrid analysis method generally consists of two stages. these stages are the first stage where the static attributes are extracted and the second stage where the dynamically extracted attributes are obtained (tong & yan, 2017). the aim of the hybrid analysis method is to achieve correct results by avoiding the disadvantages of the static analysis method and dynamic analysis method. 3.5. incremental principal component analysis principal component analysis (pca) is a statistical method used to reach the basic attributes that can represent the data within the data set. considering the multivariate distributed data set, while considering a multivariate distributed data set, pca aims to represent the data set with the least data loss and the least variable. while given a set of multivariate distributed data in the x-y coordinate system, the pca firstly finds the maximum variations of the original data sets. these data points are then projected onto a new axis called the u-v coordinate system. the direction of the u and v axis is known as the main components. the main direction in which the data changes is indicated by the u-axis, whose orthogonal direction follows the v-axis. as in figure 1, if all data points on the v axis are very close to zero, the data set can be represented with only one u variable and variable v can be omitted (ng, 2017). figure 1. principal component analysis (ng, 2017) incremental principal component analysis (ipca) is used instead of pca if the size of the data set is too large. the large data set may cause insufficient system memory to run the algorithm. ipca is a method developed to overcome this memory problem. in the ipca method, which was first presented by hall et al. and developed with subsequent studies, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 36 instead of taking all training samples, it is based on the principle of dividing the training samples into the specified number and processing all training samples iteratively by processing this number of samples each time. processing these training samples by dividing them into certain parts reduces the load on the memory and thus aims to prevent the memory deficiency problem (hall et al., 1998; ozawa et al., 2006). 3.6. deep neural network dnn can be expressed as a neural network with input layer, output layer and multiple hidden layers. the attributes extracted from the problem addressed in each layer of the dnn are learned and the attributes learned in that layer constitute the input values for the next layer. in this way, a network structure is created in which the attributes are learned from the first layer to the final layer (tokmak & küçüksille, 2019). a dnn with an input layer, two hidden layers and an output layer is shown in figure 2. figure 2. deep neural network structure neurons represented by circles in the dnn structure in figure 2 have weight value, bias and activation functions. neurons produce an output value by adding the bias value after the input value and the weights are deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 37 multiplied. the activation function is used to control this output value, that is, to decide whether the neuron can be active or not. dnn is used in many areas such as natural language processing, image processing, speech recognition, time series analysis, malware detection (barros et al., 2017; cui et al., 2018; kolosnjaji et al., 2016; mezgec et al., 2019; qiu et al., 2017; ranjan et al., 2017; tokmak & küçüksille, 2019; zeyer et al., 2017). 4. research findings in this study, static analysis method and hybrid analysis method were applied in the light of the literature in order to detect android malware. the study conducted in this framework is explained under the headings of static analysis and hybrid analysis. 4.1. static analysis application for the analysis of android applications with static analysis method using machine learning techniques, the attributes should be extracted and these extracted attributes should be given as input to the machine learning method. for this purpose, an application was developed in java programming language during the creation of the attribute vector, and an application in python programming language was developed at the stage of dimension reduction and dnn method for the created attribute vector. figure 3. static analysis framework a console application named kuzgun has been developed in java programming language for the purpose of analyzing android applications. an open source apkfile library was developed and used to parse the apk application files (fenton, 2018). with this application, the attributes required for analysis were extracted from manifest.xml, classes.dex files of all apk files in the folder whose folder path is specified, and these attributes are brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 38 saved to the mysql database. after the attributes obtained from all apk files were saved in the database, the attribute vector was saved in the csv file format by reading from the database. the saved attribute file was subjected to ipca dimension reduction with the python module and the results were obtained with the dnn deep learning method. static analysis framework is shown in figure 3. 4.2. data set the data set used in the study has a large-scale structure in terms of numerical and diversity. malicious android applications in the data set were obtained from amd (android malware dataset, 2018), while harmless applications were obtained from commercial applications collected by a group of researchers from the hong kong university of science and technology (amd, 2018; android wake lock research, 2018; liu et al., 2016; wei et al., 2017). the amd dataset contains 24.553 samples, and the disk space is about 60 gb. the amd data set was collected between 2010 and 2016 and consists of malicious software included in 71 different malware families. 24.503 malware applications were used in the study due to errors such as certificate errors, signature errors and source table errors encountered during the parsing of malicious applications with kuzgun software. non-harmful software was shared by the research group in blocks of 224 sections. the data set consists of 44,736 harmless applications. due to the problems in the links given during the download and the errors encountered during the parsing of the applications with the developed kuzgun software, 38.044 of these examples were used in the study, and these applications took up about 350 gb of space on the disk. the data set created includes 62.547 applications in total. 4.3. static analysis application attributes data obtained from androidmanifest.xml file and classes.dex file were used to detect android malware while performing analysis with the static analysis method. when the studies were examined, it was revealed that the studies based on android permissions are intense in detection mechanisms, but the permissions alone are not sufficient, and the need to address features such as api calls, intents, activity, etc. for this purpose, a wide range of features are used in the study. the attributes used are expressed with the ö tag. ö1 requested permissions: it has an important place in android security mechanism. malware can gain access to the device and personal deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 39 information through the permissions they obtain and cause various damages. a software with camera permission can access the camera and take photos and videos without the knowledge of the user. a software with send_sms permission can send sms messages, a software with receive_sms permission can receive sms messages. thanks to these permissions, messages sent and received without the knowledge of the user can cause high bills and unwanted subscriptions. ö2 intents: they provide information exchange and data transfer between android application components. starting an activity, switching between activities or starting a service is done through intents. typical example of malware-related intent message boot completed is used to trigger malicious activity immediately after restarting the smartphone. ö3 android application components: they are represented in 4 different categories. these are activities, services, content providers, broadcast receivers. every application declares these components in their manifest file. the names of these components can also help identify wellknown malwares. droidkungfu2, the second variant of the droidkungfu malware can be identified by the broadcast receiver name com.eguan.state.receiver and the service name com.eguan.state.stateservice. ö4 restricted api calls: according to the android security architecture, an android application must define the necessary permissions in the manifest file to access critical api calls such as reboot, delete_package. it is possible that the application is using these api calls unintentionally in the manifest file. the use of restricted api calls without asking for permission is an event that should be followed up in revealing harmful behavior. this may indicate that the malware uses root exploits to overcome the limitations imposed by the android platform (arp et al., 2014; bhandari et al., 2015; fereidooni et al., 2016). ö5 suspicious api calls: some of the api calls can access sensitive resources or smartphone information. these types of api calls are often seen in malware samples and can cause malicious behavior. api calls such as getdeviceid() and getsubscriberid() used to access sensitive data, setwifienabled() and exechttprequest() used to communicate over the network, sendtextmessage() for receiving and sending sms, cipher.getinstance() used for code scrambling are seen as suspicious (arp et al., 2014; seo et al., 2014). ö6 used permissions: following api calls, they are defined in the attribute vector as both requested and actually used permissions. analysis of the permissions used is also a determining factor as it determines application brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 40 behavior. to determine the permissions used, the study named pscout which maps the permissions required by api calls was used. ö7 unused permissions: in developed applications, it is defined in the manifest file, but this permission is defined as the permissions that are not used by the developed application. in order to make it difficult to understand the malicious behavior during malware analysis, some developers can define extra permissions to make the behavior analysis of the malware difficult. it is important to follow up the unused permissions for this purpose. unused permissions are extracted using the shared api permission map in pscout. ö8 system commands: a set of commands can be used on the android platform as in the linux operating system. thanks to these system commands, malicious applications can run exploit code, download and install executable files by taking root privileges (fereidooni et al., 2016; seo et al., 2014) listed the most frequently used system commands in their study. the commands in this list are based on attribute extraction. ö9 network addresses: a malicious software can regularly establish network connections in order to receive collected commands from the device or to send data out. therefore, all ip addresses, hostnames, and urls found in the application's code block are included in the attribute group. in order to detect malicious software, the features categorized in 9 groups were expressed as vectors during dnn analysis. for this purpose, string values in 9 attributes sets are defined in ö set. the ö attributes set consists of approximately 750.000 different attributes. as in equation 1, ö can be expressed as a combination of 9 attributes groups. (1) |ö| dimensional vector space in which each dimension is 0 or 1 has been defined by using the ö set. an application x is mapped to the vector φ (x) so that for each feature extracted from the x application, the corresponding dimension is mapped as 1 and the other dimension is 0. this mapping is shown in equation 2 for x application. { }| | ( ) (2) function is simply shown in equation 3. deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 41 x, { f application x contains feature f not (3) attribute vector is shown in equation 4. φ x ( … … …) … android.permission.a a android.permission. a … get evice d set ifi nabled … (4) 4.4. static analysis incremental pca as a result of static analysis, a data matrix of 62.547 rows and 750.000 columns was obtained. since it would be very difficult to analyze with such a large data set, pca was tried to be performed at first. however, due to the size (120 gb) of the data set, this operation could not be performed with the existing hardware. for this reason, a machine with 32 core and 400 gb ram memory has been rented from google cloud servers. ubuntu operating system was installed on this machine and python libraries required for analysis were installed. again, memory problems were encountered in the pca process in one go and it was decided to perform ipca. python sklearn, h5py and numpy libraries were used during the ipca process. as a result of various experiments, the data could be expressed with 900 features. explanation rate of these 900 features to the total data was determined as 95.72%. 4.5. static analysis deep neural network the 900 features obtained were modeled with an established dnn. the dnn model was created using python and the sklearn, numpy, keras pandas libraries were used. during the modeling, random 80% of the data is reserved for training and 20% for testing. the established dnn model includes one input layer, 2 hidden layers and 1 output layer. hidden layers consist of 6 nodes. as a result of the established model, the accuracy rate of the training set was 0.9974 and the accuracy rate of the test set was 0.9938. the success criteria obtained for the training set of the model are shown in table 1, and the success criteria obtained for the test set are shown in table 2. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 42 table 1. static analysis training set, performance results precision recall f1-score support harmless application 0,9992 0,9965 0,9979 30.505 harmful application 0,9946 0,9988 0,9967 19.532 macro average 0,9969 0,9977 0,9973 50.037 weighted average 0,9974 0,9974 0,9974 50.037 roc auc 0,9976 accuracy 0,9974 table 2. static analysis test set, performance results precision recall f1-score support harmless application 0,9963 0,9935 0,9949 7539 harmful application 0,9902 0,9944 0,9923 4971 macro average 0,9932 0,9939 0,9936 12510 weighted average 0,9939 0,9938 0,9938 12510 roc auc 0,9939 accuracy 0,9938 4.6. hybrid analysis application the hybrid analysis method is a method performed as a result of static analysis method and dynamic analysis method of android applications. hybrid analysis framework is shown in figure 4. deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 43 figure 4. hybrid analysis framework the dynamic analysis phase of the hybrid analysis method is based on the principle of running android applications on a real device or a virtual device and obtaining the necessary information and determining the behavior of the application. considering the damages that malicious applications can cause on the real device, it seems more appropriate to perform the dynamic analysis in a virtual environment isolated from the real environment. for this purpose, the virtual android emulator developed by genymotion was used to perform the dynamic analysis part of this study. as a result of the analysis of the applications in the data set, android 5.1 lollipop api 22 version was used, aiming to run most of the applications considering the minimum sdk, maximum sdk, target sdk features. the emulator used is shown in figure 5. figure 5. android emulator the xposed application framework, as shown in figure 6, was used to capture the methods to be hooked while running android brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 44 applications. xposed framework 89 version was used with xposed installer 3.1.5 version. figure 6. android emulator and xposed application framework in order to use the xposed application framework, the necessary definitions for xposed should be made in the manifest file while developing the android application. as in figure 7, the required definitions in the manifest file in our application are: "xposedmodule" defined as true, "xposedminversion" defined as 42 and above, "xposeddescription" is labeled as "dynamic analysis tool". when the application is run, xposed will be integrated into the application framework as a module as in figure 8 and it will be able to hook the desired methods and functions in the developed application based on these definitions. figure 7. kuzgundroid manifest file deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 45 figure 8. kuzgundroid module figure 9. kuzgun pc application brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 46 with the kuzgun pc application shown in figure 9, the database is recorded automatically by specifying the path to the folder containing harmful and non-harmful applications by obtaining application permissions and application components statically and obtaining hooked api names dynamically when the application is running. communication between the emulator and the pc is done with adb commands. after the application is installed on the emulator with the adb "install" command, it is run with the "am start" command and the application is monitored for 1 minute after the log message is received from the system that the application is running. while the 1 minute running time of the applications on the emulator was determined, tests were made with some applications selected from the data set. as a result of the experiments, it was concluded that 1 minute is sufficient for the hook list used. in this 1 minute, log records are read with the "logcat" command and api calls about the installed application are obtained and recorded in the database. if an error is encountered during installation or during operation, the registration for this application has not been made. these errors are generally caused by changes introduced in android versions or by definitions made in the application. for example, android introduced the art concept after the 4th version and did not guarantee operation in applications written in previous versions. in addition, some applications do not work in the emulator we use because some api calls have been removed or permission levels have been changed. after running for 1 minute without receiving an error, the application was stopped with the "shell am force-stop" command and removed using the "pm uninstall" command and the application information was removed with the "pm clear" command. 4.7. hybrid analysis data set the data set used in the static analysis phase was also used in the hybrid analysis phase of the study. while the applications used in the data set are subjected to dynamic analysis, some applications have received an error due to the updates introduced in android versions. in order to ensure the consistency of the analysis, the applications with errors were removed from the data set. a total of 35.142 android apps were analyzed without any errors, 14.205 of which were harmful apps and 20.937 non-harmful apps. 4.8. hybrid analysis attributes in the hybrid analysis, api calls that are dynamically hooked as a result of running android applications are used. the list of apis selected for hooking is given in the appendices of the study. in addition, the statically deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 47 obtained permissions and android components are used as attributes in the dynamic analysis method. 4.9. hybrid analysis incremental pca as a result of the hybrid analysis processes, a data matrix of 35.142 rows and 375.000 columns was obtained. since it would be very difficult to analyze with such a large data set, pca was tried to be performed first, but due to the size of the data set (40 gb), this process could not be performed with the existing hardware. for this reason, a machine with 32 core and 400 gb ram memory has been rented from google cloud servers. ubuntu operating system was installed on this machine and python libraries required for analysis were installed. again, memory problems were encountered in the pca process in one go and it was decided to perform ipca. python sklearn, h5py and numpy libraries were used during the ipca process. as a result of various experiments, the data could be expressed with 5.000 features. the disclosure rate of these 5.000 attributes to the total data was determined as 92%. 4.10. hybrid analysis deep neural network the obtained 5,000 features were modeled with an established dnn. during the modeling, random 80% of the data is reserved for training and 20% for testing. the established dnn model includes one input layer, 2 hidden layers and 1 output layer. hidden layers consist of 6 nodes. as a result of the established model, the accuracy rate of the training set was 0.9943 and the accuracy rate of the test set was 0.9694. the success criteria obtained for the training set of the model are shown in table 3 and the success criteria obtained for the test set are shown in table 4. table 3. hybrid analysis training set, performance results precision recall f1-score support harmless application 0,9949 0,9957 0,9953 16.901 harmful application 0,9936 0,9922 0,9929 11.212 macro average 0,9942 0,994 0,9941 28.113 weighted average 0,9943 0,9943 0,9943 28.113 roc auc 0,9939 accuracy 0,9943 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 48 table 4. hybrid analysis test set, performance results precision recall f1-score support harmless application 0,968 0,9822 0,9751 4278 harmful application 0,9717 0,9495 0,9605 2751 macro average 0,9699 0,9659 0,9678 7029 weighted average 0,9694 0,9694 0,9693 7029 roc auc 0,9658 accuracy 0,9694 5. discussion and conclusions in today's technology world, where android malware threatens users, taking security measures, detecting and preventing the damages that malicious software can cause emerges as an important field of study. in the study conducted within the framework of this important issue, it is aimed to detect malicious applications targeting the android operating system. for the detection of android malware, static analysis method and the hybrid analysis method were applied; hybrid analysis method is combined usage of static analysis and dynamic analysis methods. when looking at other applications in the literature, a data set that can be called big data in terms of quality and quantity was used. a detailed attribute vector was created on this data set, which is not available in other studies. in the application of the static analysis method, a wide range of attributes determined in 9 different categories were extracted without running applications by using the software called kuzgun that developed using java programming language. although one or a few of the features extracted in 9 different categories have been used in other studies, this study is the first in the literature in terms of using all of these features together. as given in the data set sections of the study, the number of attribute categories has been examined in a broad perspective for the behavior of the harmful variants, since the obtained android applications are very diverse and the detection of more malicious applications is aimed. such a wide feature analysis has brought analysis difficulties with it. that is to say, since the extracted feature category is numerically high, naturally the total number of features obtained was also high. in total, the space occupied by the features in the memory also prevented analysis with the existing hardware. for this purpose, by using the google cloud server leasing method, the ipca deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 49 method and dimension reduction method was used on attributes at first. the data set consisting of approximately 750.000 attributes could be represented with 900 attributes by the ipca method. these 900 attributes reduced by ipca method had a representation rate of 95.72%. the attributes obtained in the ipca method formed the inputs of the established dnn model. the established dnn model includes the input layer consisting of 900 nodes, the first hidden layer consisting of 6 nodes, the second hidden layer consisting of 6 nodes and 1 output layer. with the training carried out in the established model, 99.74% accuracy rate, 99.73% f1 score, 99.69% certainty, 99.77% sensitivity values were obtained in the training set. in the test data set, 99.38% accuracy rate, 99.36% f1 score, 99.32% precision, 99.39% sensitivity values were obtained. in the hybrid analysis part of the study, unlike the static analysis, the behavior of the applications was taken as a basis by running applications and the api calls hooked during execution were added to the features obtained by static analysis. an android application called kuzgundroid was developed in order to implement the method called dynamic analysis based on the principle of running android applications on a virtual device or a real device, and strategically important api calls were obtained by hooking method. at the same time, a java application named kuzgun has been developed that communicates with the android device, sends applications to the emulator, runs, follows the results and removes the application installed on the emulator. the kuzgun pc application has been developed with the ability to record these attributes in the mysql database by combining the api calls obtained from the android emulator with the statically obtained attributes, as well as the ability to read these attributes from database and then record with required format for the dnn model. obtaining api calls involves a difficult and laborious process as stated in the studies in the literature. because after each android application is installed on the emulator, it must be run for a certain period of time so that the behavior of the application can be followed. as in this study, in a study with a large number of data, this situation requires large self-data in terms of both time and the study platform. due to the disadvantage of existing android virtual devices, genymotion android device was taken as a license and used in the study. in this way, convenience was provided during the compilation and testing of the kuzgun applications we developed. another disadvantage encountered while performing dynamic analysis is the total time spent to perform the analysis. according to the literature, each application runs for 1 minute on the emulator. considering the number of data sets, the time spent for analysis is approximately 25 days. considering these difficulties, other brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 50 studies usually limit the data set in numerical terms. however, in this study, these difficulties were ignored in order to detect more harmful application families without considering time and other difficulty constraints. as a result of the hybrid analysis method, 375.000 feature vectors were obtained from 35.142 applications. as with static analysis, our existing hardware was insufficient to analyze this data. for this purpose, by using the google cloud server leasing method, the ipca method and dimension reduction method was used primarily on the attributes. the data set consisting of approximately 375.000 features was represented with 5.000 features by the ipca method. these 5.000 features reduced with the ipca method had a 92% representation rate. the attributes obtained in the ipca method formed the inputs of the established dnn model. the established dnn model includes the input layer consisting of 5.000 nodes, the first hidden layer consisting of 6 nodes, the second hidden layer consisting of 6 nodes and 1 output layer. with the training performed in the established model, 99.43% accuracy rate, 99.41% f1 score, 99.42% precision and 99.4% sensitivity values were obtained in the training set. in the test data set, 96.94% accuracy, 96.78% f1 score, 96.99% precision, 96.59% sensitivity values were obtained. table 5. results of some dl studies in the literature (alzaylaee et al., 2020) s tu d ie s a n a ly s is m e th o d n u m b e r o f n o -h a rm a p p s n u m b e r o f h a rm fu l a p p s a c c u ra c y p re c is io n s e n s it iv it y f 1 s c o re droiddetector yuan et al. (2016) static 880 880 89,03 90,39 89,04 89,76 droiddetector yuan et al. (2016) dynamic 880 880 71,25 72,59 71,25 71,92 droiddetector yuan et al. (2016) static & dynamic 880 880 96,76 96,78 96,76 96,76 cnn mclaughlin et al. (2017) static 863 1.260 98 99 95 97 maldozer karbab et al. (2018) static 37.627 20.089 96,29 96,29 96,29 deep4maldroid hou et al. (2016) dynamic 1.500 1.500 93,68 93,96 93,36 93,68 autodroid hou static 2.500 2.500 96,66 96,55 96,76 96,66 deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 51 et al. (2017) ddefender alshahrani et al. (2018) static & dynamic 2.104 2.104 95,13 95,45 dl-droid alzaylaee et al. (2020) dynamic 19.620 11.505 94,95 94,08 97,78 95,89 dl-droid alzaylaee et al. (2020) static & dynamic 19.620 11.505 95,42 95,31 97,19 96,24 table 6. results obtained with kuzgun s tu d ie s a n a ly s is m e th o d n u m b e r o f n o -h a rm a p p s n u m b e r o f h a rm fu l a p p s a c c u ra c y p re c is io n s e n s it iv it y f 1 s c o re kuzgundroid static & dynamic 20.937 14.205 96,94 96,99 96,59 96,93 kuzgun static 38.044 24.503 99,38 99,32 99,39 99,36 acknowledgement his study is derived from the r. ahmut a ’s h thesis called ‘ eep learning ased alware etection ool evelopment for android perating ystem’. references aafer, y., du, w., & yin, h. (2013). droidapiminer: mining api-level features for robust malware detection in android. in t. zia, a. zomaya, v. varadharajan & m. mao (eds.), international conference on security and privacy in communication systems (pp. 86-103). springer. https://www.cs.ucr.edu/~heng/pubs/droidapiminer-securecomm13.pdf alshahrani, h., mansourt, h., thorn, s., alshehri, a., alzahrani, a., & fu, h. (2018). ddefender: android application threat detection using static and dynamic analysis. in 2018 ieee international conference on consumer electronics (icce), las vegas, usa, (pp. 1-6). https://www.cs.ucr.edu/~heng/pubs/droidapiminer-securecomm13.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 52 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cqfdo7vwqwyzkryrwpdsbyst8pw qwale/view alzaylaee, m. k., yerima, s. y., & sezer, s. (2016). dynalog: an automated dynamic analysis framework for characterizing android applications. in 2016 international conference on cyber security and protection of digital services (cyber security), london, united kingdom (pp. 1-8). https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1607/1607.08166.pdf alzaylaee, m. k., yerima, s. y., & sezer, s. (2020). dl-droid: deep learning based android malware detection using real devices. computers & security, 89, 101663. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2019.101663 amd. (2018). android malware dataset. retrieved may 10, 2018 from http://amd.arguslab.org/ anagnostopoulos, m., kambourakis, g., & gritzalis, s. (2016). new facets of mobile botnet: architecture and evaluation. international journal of information security, 15(5), 455-473. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10207-0150310-0 android wake lock research. (2018). obtain the commercial android apps. retrieved may 06, 2018, from http://sccpu2.cse.ust.hk/elite/downloadapks.html arp, d., spreitzenbarth, m., hubner, m., gascon, h., rieck, k., & siemens, c. e. r. t. (2014). drebin: effective and explainable detection of android malware in your pocket. in network and distributed system security symposium, 14 (pp. 23-26). the internet society. http://user.cs.unigoettingen.de/~krieck/docs/2014-ndss.pdf au, k. w. y., zhou, y. f., huang, z., & lie, d. (2012). pscout: analyzing the android permission specification. in t. yu (ed.), proceedings of the 2012 acm conference on computer and communications security, raleigh north carolina, usa (pp. 217-228). association for computing machinery. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2382196.2382222 barros, p., parisi, g. i., weber, c., & wermter, s. (2017). emotion-modulated attention improves expression recognition: a deep learning model. neurocomputing, 253, 104-114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2017.01.096 bhandari, s., gupta, r., laxmi, v., gaur, m. s., zemmari, a., & anikeev, m. (2015). draco: droid analyst combo an android malware analysis framework. in o. makarevich (ed.), proceedings of the 8th international conference on security of information and networks (pp. 283-289). association for computing machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2799979.2800003 bhilvare, a., & manik, t. (2015). an overview of different malware analysis techniques in android. ijsrd international journal for scientific research & development, 3(1), 368-372. http://www.ijsrd.com/articles/ijsrdv3i1264.pdf https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cqfdo7vwqwyzkryrwpdsbyst8pwqwale/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cqfdo7vwqwyzkryrwpdsbyst8pwqwale/view https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1607/1607.08166.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2019.101663 http://amd.arguslab.org/ http://doi.org/10.1007/s10207-015-0310-0 http://doi.org/10.1007/s10207-015-0310-0 http://sccpu2.cse.ust.hk/elite/downloadapks.html http://user.cs.uni-goettingen.de/~krieck/docs/2014-ndss.pdf http://user.cs.uni-goettingen.de/~krieck/docs/2014-ndss.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2382196.2382222 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2017.01.096 https://doi.org/10.1145/2799979.2800003 http://www.ijsrd.com/articles/ijsrdv3i1264.pdf deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 53 cordonsky, i., rosenberg, i., sicard, g., & david, e. o. (2018). deeporigin: endto-end deep learning for detection of new malware families. in 2018 international joint conference on neural networks (ijcnn) (pp. 1-7). ieee. https://elidavid.com/pubs/deeporigin.pdf cui, z., xue, f., cai, x., cao, y., wang, g.-g., & chen, j. (2018). detection of malicious code variants based on deep learning. ieee transactions on industrial informatics, 14(7), 3187-3196. https://doi.org/10.1109/tii.2018.2822680 feizollah, a., anuar, n. b., salleh, r., suarez-tangil, g., & furnell, s. (2017). androdialysis: analysis of android intent effectiveness in malware detection. computers & security, 65, 121-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2016.11.007 fenton, c. (2018). github. retrieved july 6, 2018 from https://github.com/calebfenton/apkfile fereidooni, h., conti, m., yao, d., & sperduti, a. (2016,). anastasia: android malware detection using static analysis of applications. in 2016 8th ifip international conference on new technologies, mobility and security (ntms) (pp. 1-5). ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/ntms.2016.7792435 google play. (2018). retrieved december 11, 2018 from https://www.android.com/play-protect/ hall, p. m., marshall, a. d., & martin, r. r. (1998). incremental eigenanalysis for classification. in j. n. carter & m. s. nixon (eds.), proceedings of british machine vision conference (pp. 286-295). bmvc. http://www.bmva.org/bmvc/1998/pdf/p186.pdf hou, s., saas, a., chen, l., & ye, y. (2016). deep4maldroid: a deep learning framework for android malware detection based on linux kernel system call graphs. in 2016 ieee/wic/acm international conference on web intelligence workshops (wiw) (pp. 104-111). ieee. https://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/wiw.2016.040 hou, s., saas, a., chen, l., ye, y., & bourlai, t. (2017). deep neural networks for automatic android malware detection. in proceedings of the 2017 ieee/acm international conference on advances in social networks analysis and mining 2017 (pp. 803-810). https://doi.org/10.1145/3110025.3116211 idc. (2020). international data corporation. retrieved december 2, 2020 from https://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share idrees, f., rajarajan, m., conti, m., chen, t. m., & rahulamathavan, y. (2017). pindroid: a novel android malware detection system using ensemble learning methods. computers & security, 68, 36-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2017.03.011 https://elidavid.com/pubs/deeporigin.pdf https://doi.org/10.1109/tii.2018.2822680 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2016.11.007 https://github.com/calebfenton/apkfile https://doi.org/10.1109/ntms.2016.7792435 https://www.android.com/play-protect/ http://www.bmva.org/bmvc/1998/pdf/p186.pdf https://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/wiw.2016.040 https://doi.org/10.1145/3110025.3116211 https://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2017.03.011 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 54 karbab, e. b., debbabi, m., derhab, a., & mouheb, d. (2018). maldozer: automatic framework for android malware detection using deep learning. digital investigation, 24, 48-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diin.2018.01.007 kolosnjaji, b., zarras, a., webster, g., & eckert, c. (2016). deep learning for classification of malware system call sequences. in b. h. kang & q. bai (eds.), australasian joint conference on artificial intelligence (pp. 137-149). springer. http://cys.ewi.tudelft.nl/~zarras/files/ai_2016_deep.pdf kulkarni, k. (2018). android malware detection through permission and app component analysis using machine learning algorithms [ master thesis, university of toledo]. ohiolink. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1525454213460236 liu, y., xu, c., cheung, s. c., & terragni, v. (2016, november). understanding and detecting wake lock misuses for android applications. in t. zimmerman (ed.), proceedings of the 2016 24th acm sigsoft international symposium on foundations of software engineering (pp. 396-409). association for computing machinery. http://cse.sustech.edu.cn/faculty/~liuyp/files/fse2016.pdf mcafee. (2018). mobile threat report. retrieved december 3, 2019 from https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-us/assets/reports/rp-mobilethreat-report-2018.pdf mclaughlin, n., martinez del rincon, j., kang, b., yerima, s., miller, p., sezer, s., ... & joon ahn, g. (2017, march). deep android malware detection. in g.j. ahn (ed.), proceedings of the seventh acm on conference on data and application security and privacy (pp. 301-308). association for computing machinery . https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2086/16947/deep-androidmalware-detection.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y mezgec, s., eftimov, t., bucher, t., & seljak, b. k. (2019). mixed deep learning and natural language processing method for fake-food image recognition and standardization to help automated dietary assessment. public health nutrition, 22(7), 1193-1202. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980018000708 milosevic, n., dehghantanha, a., & choo, k.-k. r. (2017). machine learning aided android malware classification. computers & electrical engineering, 61, 266-274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2017.02.013 ng, s. (2017). principal component analysis to reduce dimension on digital image. procedia computer science, 111, 113-119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.06.017 ozawa, s., pang, s., & kasabov, n. (2006). an incremental principal component analysis for chunk data. in 2006 ieee international conference on fuzzy systems (pp. 2278-2285). ieee. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109%2ffuzzy.2006.1682016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diin.2018.01.007 http://cys.ewi.tudelft.nl/~zarras/files/ai_2016_deep.pdf http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1525454213460236 http://cse.sustech.edu.cn/faculty/~liuyp/files/fse2016.pdf https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-us/assets/reports/rp-mobile-threat-report-2018.pdf https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-us/assets/reports/rp-mobile-threat-report-2018.pdf https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2086/16947/deep-android-malware-detection.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2086/16947/deep-android-malware-detection.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980018000708 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2017.02.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.06.017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109%2ffuzzy.2006.1682016 deep learning based malware detection tool development for android … mahmut tokmak, et al. 55 qiu, x., ren, y., suganthan, p. n., & amaratunga, g. a. (2017). empirical mode decomposition based ensemble deep learning for load demand time series forecasting. applied soft computing, 54, 246-255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2017.01.015 ranjan, r., patel, v. m., & chellappa, r. (2017). hyperface: a deep multi-task learning framework for face detection, landmark localization, pose estimation, and gender recognition. ieee transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence, 41(1), 121-135. ieee. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1603.01249.pdf rosmansyah, y., & dabarsyah, b. (2015). malware detection on android smartphones using api class and machine learning. in 2015 international conference on electrical engineering and informatics (iceei) (pp. 294-297). ieee. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109%2ficeei.2015.7352513 seo, s.-h., gupta, a., sallam, a. m., bertino, e., & yim, k. (2014). detecting mobile malware threats to homeland security through static analysis. journal of network and computer applications, 38, 43-53. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2013.05.008 sugunan, k., kumar, t. g., & dhanya, k. (2018). static and dynamic analysis for android malware detection. in e. blessing rajsingh, j. veerasamy, a. h. alavi & j. dinesh peter (eds.), advances in big data and cloud computing (pp. 147-155). springer. tokmak, m., & küçüksille, e. u. (2019). detection of windows executable malware files with deep learning. bilge international journal of science and technology research, 3(1), 67-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.30516/bilgesci.531801 tong, f., & yan, z. (2017). a hybrid approach of mobile malware detection in android. journal of parallel and distributed computing, 103, 22-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpdc.2016.10.012 türker, s., & can, a. b. (2019). andmfc: android malware family classification framework. in 2019 ieee 30th international symposium on personal, indoor and mobile radio communications (pimrc workshops) (pp. 1-6). ieee. http://doi.org/10.1109/pimrcw.2019.8880840 wei, f., li, y., roy, s., ou, x., & zhou, w. (2017). deep ground truth analysis of current android malware. in m. polychronakis & m. meier (eds.), 14th international conference on detection of intrusions and malware, and vulnerability assessment (pp. 252-276). springer, cham. http://www.arguslab.org/documents/tech_reports/2017/amd_fgwei_201 7.pdf wu, d. j., mao, c. h., wei, t. e., lee, h. m., & wu, k. p. (2012). droidmat: android malware detection through manifest and api calls tracing. in 2012 seventh asia joint conference on information security (pp. 62-69). ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/asiajcis.2012.18 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2017.01.015 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1603.01249.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1109%2ficeei.2015.7352513 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2013.05.008 http://dx.doi.org/10.30516/bilgesci.531801 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpdc.2016.10.012 http://doi.org/10.1109/pimrcw.2019.8880840 http://www.arguslab.org/documents/tech_reports/2017/amd_fgwei_2017.pdf http://www.arguslab.org/documents/tech_reports/2017/amd_fgwei_2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.1109/asiajcis.2012.18 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 56 yang, y., wei, z., xu, y., he, h., & wang, w. (2018). droidward: an effective dynamic analysis method for vetting android applications. cluster computing, 21(1), 265-275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-016-0703-5 yerima, s. y., sezer, s., & mcwilliams, g. (2014). analysis of bayesian classification-based approaches for android malware detection. iet information security, 8(1), 25-36. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1608/1608.05812.pdf yuan, z., lu, y., & xue, y. (2016). droiddetector: android malware characterization and detection using deep learning. tsinghua science and technology, 21(1), 114-123. https://doi.org/10.1109/tst.2016.7399288 zeyer, a., doetsch, p., voigtlaender, p., schlüter, r., & ney, h. (2017). a comprehensive study of deep bidirectional lstm rnns for acoustic modeling in speech recognition. in 2017 ieee international conference on acoustics, speech and signal processing (icassp) (pp. 2462-2466). ieee. https://www-i6.informatik.rwthaachen.de/publications/download/1030/zeyer-icassp-2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-016-0703-5 https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1608/1608.05812.pdf https://doi.org/10.1109/tst.2016.7399288 https://www-i6.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/publications/download/1030/zeyer-icassp-2017.pdf https://www-i6.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/publications/download/1030/zeyer-icassp-2017.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 225-229 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/315 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 what kind of problems are seen common in the adolescent health clinic during pandemic period? orhan derman¹ 1 prof. dr., md, phd, hacettepe university medical school, department of pediatrics, adolescent medicine unit, turkey. abstract: adolescence is a developmentally unique period and the psychosocial consequences of the “age-determined” curfew should not be overlooked.individualition and changes in intellectual development are the most important developmental tasks during adolescence.an age-stratified curfew may be perceived as a suppression of their own will, plans, and decisions. a distinct method of curfew involving adolescents and young adults were taken. the difference is on behaviors between youth and teenage during covid-19 pandemic that youth are intellectually better equipped than younger children to understand what is going on, authorities should explain to this unique group more clearly the importance of abiding. by following the curfew;they are aiding in problem-solving, saving lives, being the unseen heroes for the elderly people. the aim is the study that why anxiety and depression are seen more than the normal period during pandemic period. and how we are able to overcome this struggle among youth without taking any longterm troubles. keywords: covid-19 pandemic, youth, adolescent health clinic. how to cite: derman, o. (2022). what kind of problems are seen common in the adolescent health clinic during pandemic period?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 225-229. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/315 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/315 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/315 what kind of problems are seen common in the adolescent health clinic... orhan derman 226 turkey has a relatively young population compared with other european countries.there are 25.5 million children and adolescents younger than 20 years, and when combined with the 7.5 million people older than 65 years, the ratio of the population on lockdown accounts for 40% of the total population (83.15 million in accordance with the turkish statistical institute). adolescents, a vulnerable population, have been carrying on their school curriculums online and conducting daily activities indoors since the outbreak of covid-19 in china. this life-style transformation and threat of being infected may cause depressive and anxious disorders (chen et al., 2020). in young children and adolescents the pandemic and lockdown appeared to have a greater impact on emotional and social development compared to that in the grown-ups government restrictions such as closures of schools, play grounds, and recreation centres (sandu et al., 2019), lead to physical separation from peers, isolation, and less time spent outdoors, local increase in child/adolescent rates of depression and anxiety (magson et al., 2021). a feeling of responsibility in the active participation of problemsolving; encourage adolescents to more logically consider the consequences of this pandemic, allowing them to hypothetically evaluate the pros and cons of this curfew. adjusting boundaries for teens within the home may help create a balance between freedom and responsibility. during the curfew, “confidentiality” stands for more independence and more emotional distance that adolescents want between them and the household. developmentally, the adolescent's focus shifts from the family to peers and they need to build independent social relationships and acquire social roles within peer groups.social isolation or distancing, we should be using the terminology as “physical distancing. ”separation from peers is a lot more stressful during adolescence, so explaining to them that this separation is only physical is critical. globally, adolescents are devoted users of online technology which can be used during this time to keep them connected to peers, so they should be encouraged by family members to be creative in finding new ways to interact with friends (luca et al., 2020). supporting young adults to rise to the challenge of covid-19 (lee, 2020), respect young adults and leverage their strenghts rather than chastise them.we should support them to adhere to new public health guidance to prevent the spread of covid-19. they have some duties for their communities.responsibility for elderly people and other family members. all the young people understand brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 227 how concerning this disease is for them all.listen and follow the recommendations in their communities. we have much more seen some problems in the adolescent medicine clinic during covid-19 pandemic. eating disorders problems, anormal uterine bleeding, depression, anxiety, attemp to the suicide, cancelled young people’s sport activities, art performance and graduations (grigoras & ciubara, 2021). we pointed out that anxiety is %25, depression is %30 more than the normal period during covi̇d-19 pandemic. the important points for adolescence are these in order into the world. according to the world health organization (who) the legal age of adulthood in the world is 18, brain and cognitive development continues from adolescence through the late 20s.young adults are still developing the ability to set long-term goals and delay gratification. while teenagers get a bad rap, young adults actually engage in more risk behaviors than teenagers. young adults have higher rates of substance use (hawke, 2020) and sexually transmitted infections than teenagers. missing a much anticipated spring break trip with friends may seen worse than catching a virus. law and regulations due to covid-19 challenge young adults’ independence and autonomy.young adulthood is traditionally marked by less time spent with parents and more time spent with peers and romantic partners.owing to social distancing, young adults may be separated from their peers and romantic partners.college students have returned home unexpectedly, after a period of living independently in dooms, and thus feel that they have regressed (magson et al., 2021). the principles to foster healthful behavior changes in adolescents and young adults are these for covid-19 (nagata, 2020). respect; any communication or advice to young people should address their desire for status and respect rather than threatening them. acknowledge that social distancing rules may be challenging for everyone.young adults may also respond to stories or posts who share creative alternatives to cope with social distancing. motivation; motivational interview is commonly used with young adults, particularly in dealing with addiction or mental illness (racine et al., 2020).this technique engages with the young person to explore their own motivations for change.the young people is allowed to analyze the potential risks and benefits that are associated with their behaviors, thus supporting them to make their own informed choices. privacy; give young adults some privacy while home. allowing a young person some private time at home to talk with friends or romantic partners may prevent them from having to physically leave the home to get what kind of problems are seen common in the adolescent health clinic... orhan derman 228 private time. parents might allow their young adults more leeway to keep in touch with their friends and peers virtually so they do not have to meet in person. strentgths; young adults have many strength, and leveraging these may be a win-win for all involved. young people are experts at distant socializing through social media and virtual communicaitons.they can help families to keep connected virtually and troubleshoot technical issues as families work from home. conclusion the first covid-19 case in turkey was officially confirmed on the 11th march 2020, the same day the who declared the disease a pandemic.as of march 16th, schools and universities in turkey were closed. to our knowledge, turkey is the only country worldwide to apply a unique age-stratified curfew; this first started for seniors older than 65 years (as of 21st march 2020) and followed by the curfew order for children and youth younger than 20 years (starting 5th april 2020). the best solutions on adolescents are these in order during covid19 pandemic. families should be encouraged to create spaces that will allow their teens; the freedom to be themselves at home, stay connected with friends, while at the same time both gaining emotional adaptations, resilience to unpredictable life events, saving lives by staying at home. references chen, f., zheng, d., liu, j., gonga, y., guan, z., lou, d. (2020). depression and anxiety among adolescents during covid-19: a cross-sectional study. brain behavior immunity 88, 36–38. https://doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2020.05.061 grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. . (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326-334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 hawke, l. d., barbic, s. p., voineskos, a., szatmari, p., cleverley, k., hayes, e., relihan, j., daley, m., courtney, d., cheung, a., darnay, k., & henderson j. l. (2020). impacts of covid-19 on youth mental health, substance use, and well-being: a rapid survey of clinical and community samples. the canadian journal of psychiatry, 65(10), 701-709. https://doi.org/doi:10.1177/0706743720940562 https://doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2020.05.061 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://doi.org/doi:10.1177/0706743720940562 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 229 lee, j. (2020). mental health effects of school closures during covid-19. lancet child adolescent health, 4(6), 421. https://doi.org/doi:10.1016/s23524642(20)30109-7 luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a.-c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 magson, n. r., freeman, j. y. a., rapee, r. m., richardson, c. e., oar, e. l., & fardouly, j. (2021). risk and protective factors for prospective changes in adolescent mental health during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of youth and adolescence, 50(1), 44–57. https://doi.org/doi:10.1007/s10964020-01332-9 nagata, j. m. (2020). supporting young adults to rise to the challenge of covid-19. journal of adolescent health 67(2), 297-298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.04.020 racine, n., cooke, j. e., eirich, r., korczak, d. j., mcarthur, b. a., & madigan, s. (2020). child and adolescent mental illness during covid-19: a rapid review. psychiatry research 292, 113307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113307 sandu, a., criţan, m. i., & damian, s.-i. (2019). equity in public health policies. the perspective of diabetic patients. archiv euromedica, 9(1), 10-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2019/9/1/10 world health organization (2021). covid-19 disease in children and adolescents. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-2019-ncov-sci_briefchildren_and_adolescents-2021.1 https://doi.org/doi:10.1016/s2352-4642(20)30109-7 https://doi.org/doi:10.1016/s2352-4642(20)30109-7 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/doi:10.1007/s10964-020-01332-9 https://doi.org/doi:10.1007/s10964-020-01332-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.04.020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113307 http://dx.doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2019/9/1/10 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-2019-ncov-sci_brief-children_and_adolescents-2021.1 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-2019-ncov-sci_brief-children_and_adolescents-2021.1 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 01-14 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/105 the socialization of people with muscleskeleton disorders in rehabilitation centres iryna sarancha¹, kateryna volkova 2 , inesa khmeliar 3 , volodymyr babiak 4 , rostyslav sabadyshyn 5 , olena babiak 6 , maksym imeridze 7 , iryna buzhyna 8 , liudmyla gusak 9 , tetiana martyniuk 10 , tetiana marchak 11 1 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, isarancha@gmail.com 2 municipal establishment "kharkiv humanitarian-pedagogical academy" of kharkiv regional council, ukraine, volkova.katya@meta.ua 3 rivne medical academy, ukraine, hmeliar@ukr.net 4 rivne medical academy, ukraine, vova_bab@ukr.net 5 rivne medical academy, ukraine, m_college@icc.rv.ua 6 rivne medical academy, ukraine, olena_bab@ukr.net 7 los angeles university, ukraine, max.imeridze@gmail.com 8 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushinsky, ukraine, bugina.irina@gmail.com 9 lesya ukrainka eastern european national university, ukraine, abstract: the article considers the people with muscle-skeleton disorders (hereinafter “msds”) who suffer from the effects cerebral palsy, myopathy and spinal diseases. the article aims to determine, theoretically justify and experimentally verify the pedagogical conditions for the socialization of people with msds in rehabilitation centres. all the respondents had msds, namely: 76 respondents – pediatric cerebral palsy; 19 respondents – myopathy; 10 respondents – spinal diseases. it must be noted that 11 respondents, apart from msds, had intellectual disabilities (f 71). the experiment involved 59 males and 46 females. the age requirement was the following: 56 respondents aged between 14 and 17; 49 respondents aged between 18 and 19. the socialization programme, verified during the formative experiment, involved working with people with msds based on all socialization components; methodological work with the teaching staff of rehabilitation centres; parents. the programme included such specialized courses as human rights, gardenotherapy; dance therapy; photography classes; a support group for parents of children with msds. before the beginning of the experiment, only 11.55% of persons with msds had a high level of socialization. after the formative experiment, the number increased to 30.45%. besides, 44.1% of people have a sufficient level of social skills. the implementation of the designed programme as a condition for the socialization of people with msds has made it possible to significantly increase the level of social skills in people with msds in the experimental group. keywords: psychophysical problems; diagnostics; socialization programmes; correction; adaptation. how to cite: sarancha, i., volkova, k., khmeliar, i., babiak, v., sabadyshyn, r., babiak, o., imeridze, m., buzhyna, i., gusak, l., martyniuk, t., & marchak, t. (2020). the socialization of people with skeleton-muscle disorders in rehabilitation centers. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 01-14. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/105 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/105 mailto:isarancha@gmail.com mailto:volkova.katya@meta.ua mailto:hmeliar@ukr.net mailto:vova_bab@ukr.net mailto:m_college@icc.rv.ua mailto:olena_bab@ukr.net mailto:max.imeridze@gmail.com mailto:bugina.irina@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/105 lgusak04@ukr.net 10 lesya ukrainka eastern european national university, ukraine, martynyuk.t@gmail.com 11 podilsky special education and rehabilitation socio-economic college, kamianets-podilskyy, ukraine, marchak.tet@gmail.com mailto:lgusak04@ukr.net mailto:martynyuk.t@gmail.com mailto:marchak.tet@gmail.com the socialization of people with skeleton-muscle disorders… iryna sarancha, et al. 3 1. introduction according to the un data, there are about 450 million people with mental or physical problems, which is one-tenth of humanity. the social support of people with psychophysical problems is one of the important objectives worldwide, and its need is reflected in the most important international legal instruments. one of the most important factors in the social integration of people with psychophysical problems is the preparation of society for the genuine perception of people with special needs. nowadays, academics, public figures and society as a whole pay much attention to inclusive education. the gradual integration of people with special needs occurs at all levels of the educational and rehabilitation process. i. kon & v. olshanskyi (1970), i. mynovych & (1999) and a. shevtsov (2009) regard human socialization as a set of four components: 1) spontaneous human socialization in the interaction and under the influence of objective circumstances of social life, whose content, nature and results are determined by social and economic and social and cultural realities; 2) targeted socialization, which the state uses to take certain economic, legislative, organizational measures to solve the problems affecting the change of opportunities and the development of certain age groups; 3) socially controlled socialization (education) as the systematic creation of legal, organizational, material and spiritual conditions for human development by society and the state; 4) a conscious self-change which can be characterized by a prosocial, asocial or antisocial vector (self-building, self-improvement, self-destruction) according to individual capabilities and objective living conditions or contrary to them. a. shevtsov (2009) and i. dobryakova & t. shchedrina (2004) indicate that the socialization of people with msds is considered as a process and the result of the acquisition and further generation of social experience. this interpretation of socialization has become the starting point of this research. the socialization of people with msds is viewed as the process and the result of the acquisition and further generation of social experience; rehabilitation and socialization of people with msds depend on social and labour adaptability, evaluation of their life prospects and creation of a nondiscriminatory environment in society. the socialization of adults with msds is closely linked to such processes as development, education and rehabilitation; the social rehabilitation of people with psychophysical problems should ensure the teaching of basic social skills; the adjustment of brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 4 living conditions to the needs of people with msds; the provision of social and household equipment and services; the ability of these people to protect their rights, interests, self-analyze, positively perceive oneself and others and acquire communication skills; the independent living in a society with the necessary support (bakhmat et al. 2019). the integration of people with msds into society is a deliberate process of society’s sharing social experience, taking into account the characteristics and needs of different categories of people with msds along with their active participation and provision relevant conditions. the important components of socialization of people with msds include their labour adaptability, which begins with a professional orientation, and the forming of their life prospects. 2. materials and methods the socialization levels of people with msds were studied according to the following components: social adaptability, labour adaptability, one’s life prospects and creation of a non-discriminatory environment in society. the programme of rehabilitation and the methodology of the experiment have been developed by such institutions as vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, municipal establishment "kharkiv humanitarianpedagogical academy" of kharkiv regional council, rivne medical academy, los angeles university, k. d. ushinsky south ukrainian national pedagogical university n, lesya ukrainka eastern european national university, lesya ukrainka eastern european national university, podilsky special education and rehabilitation socio-economic college. to determine the levels of social integration of people with msds, a special questionnaire with four blocks of questions was prepared to survey a target group about the social integration of the respondents, labour integration, prospects of one’s family life and personal information. psychopedagogical discussions and observations were conducted. also, individual family plans of rehabilitation and development of clients of social rehabilitation centres, individual programmes of rehabilitation, as well as the products of educational activities were analyzed. to determine the levels of social adaptability of people with msds, the following aspects were studied: the aspirations and life orientations of people with msds after completing a course of social rehabilitation, selfcare skills, ability to live in society, family relationships, relationships with active members of society. in order to determine the level of labour adaptability of people with msds, the experimentators studied their attitude towards further education the socialization of people with skeleton-muscle disorders… iryna sarancha, et al. 5 and employment, evaluation of their professional and computer skills, which, at the present stage of society development, help people with msds to compensate for the existing physical limitations to create an opportunity for communication with the surrounding world and employment in order to become an equal member of society. it was necessary to study whether people with msds were willing to start their own family, have children and live independently to evaluate their life prospects (behas et al. 2019). the level of social discrimination of people with msds was studied by analyzing their relationships with peers and family members, as well as their public life. certain criteria and indicators of socialization levels of people with msds were specially developed for this research. the criteria for socialization are the following: psychophysical, psycho-emotional and activity-based ones. an indicator of the psychophysical criterion is the monitoring of psychophysical problems; an indicator of the psychoemotional criterion – the possibility of establishing feedback from people with msds, the understanding of prospects of their family life; an indicator of the activity-based criterion – both need and ability to organize outside help, establish form social connections, use modern information technologies and be socially active. accordingly, the four levels of socialization of people with msds were determined: a high level – psychophysical problems are constantly monitored and hardly affect a person’s life. the feedback is constant and clear. in everyday life, such a person does not need any help from others or can organize one’s activities independently. he/she is completely selfsufficient, acts mostly independently or with organized outside help, is aware of and accepts his/her limits, seeks and establishes strong social relationships, knows how to use modern information technologies, is ready for full support of his/her own family and realizes himself/herself in professional and public life. a sufficient level is characterized by the fact that it is possible to establish constant and relevant feedback with such a person. he/she may sometimes need outside help to satisfy his/her psychophysical needs. his/her self-sufficiency is partial since his/her creative potential is underdeveloped and rarely used, even though the ability to act independently gives grounds for successful development of social adaptability. a low level implies that a person has significant and permanent psychophysical problems. however, the initial comprehensive examination of the child in the social rehabilitation centre showed some small preserved areas of the brain that served as the basis for further corrective development. such a person needs constant skilled help from others and must stay within a proper rehabilitation environment. even though he/she is not self-sufficient brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 6 and viable, the presence of preserved areas of the brain has made it possible to build a rehabilitation programme and obtain small but positive results. these people can independently establish minimal social relationships with social support. they are largely isolated from society but have a minimal need for social relations. an initial level suggests that a person has permanent psychophysical problems that have rarely been corrected in social rehabilitation centres for children with special educational needs. normally, such people require around-the-clock supervision and skilled help from others, are unable to establish social relationships on their own and almost completely isolated from society. the research involved 105 graduates from the vinnytsia centre for social rehabilitation of children with special educational needs under the name “promin”, affiliated to the ministry of labour and social policy of ukraine, the regional center for social rehabilitation in nyzhniv in ivanofrankivsk region, the vinnytsia centre for social and psychological rehabilitation of children and young people with functional disorders under the name “obrii”. all the respondents had msds, namely: 76 respondents – pediatric cerebral palsy; 19 respondents – myopathy; 10 respondents – spinal diseases; 11 respondents, apart from msds, had intellectual disabilities (f 71). the experiment involved 59 males and 46 females. the age requirement was the following: 56 respondents aged between 14 and 17; 49 respondents aged between 18 and 19. the authors of the article have conducted a comparative study of adolescents attending secondary schools and adolescents with msds attend rehabilitation centres to determine the social orientation in the modern world and the levels of adaptability in it and understand the further life orientations of adolescents with developmental norms and adolescents with msds, to understand the influence of education on the development of personality in secondary schools and the prospects of developing correctional education in rehabilitation centres for children with special educational needs. the survey included 79 adolescents attending secondary schools no 7, 26 and 33 in vinnytsia to compare their life targets with a similar survey of 105 adolescents having msds. the analysis of the results obtained from the study of socialization levels of the respondents with msds was as follows: a high level – 11.55%, a sufficient level – 38.85%; a low level – 54.6%; an initial level – 5.25%. as for their healthy peers, a low level was characteristic of 1.9% respondents, a sufficient level – 5.7 %, a high level – 92.4% (see table 1). the socialization of people with skeleton-muscle disorders… iryna sarancha, et al. 7 table 1. a comparative table of socialization levels of adolescents with msds and adolescents with developmental norms socialization levels adolescents with msds adolescents with developmental norms high 11.55 92.4 sufficient 38.85 5.7 low 54.6 1.9 initial 5.25 0 a summary of research findings reveals the following characteristics of the socialization of people with msds: they experience some difficulties in providing self-care and interacting with urban infrastructure; one can observe a significant dependence on parents and closest people. in most cases, people with msds express a declarative nature of the desire for independence. the following problems are rather acute: the role of people with msds in parents’ families; the devaluation of love and friendship as the basis of family and social relationships; the deformation of the system of spiritual values in the relationships between people due to the priority of financial enrichment; major social and financial problems in creating and ensuring a decent standard of living for their own families; adults with msds find it difficult to obtain employment and realize themselves professionally; a negative impact of the socio-economic situation on the social well-being of children and adults with msds and their families. the analysis of the results obtained from the ascertaining experiment makes it possible to formulate the following conclusions: the adolescents with developmental norms show a higher level of socialization and they are more interested in the material side of life. people with msds express sufficiently strong material and psychological dependence on their parents and their closest people, which impedes socialization. in most cases, they show a declarative rather than adequate nature of the desire for independence. therefore, the basic problem of socialization of adults with msds is the practical inability to exercise their rights to live independently, to find a job and realize themselves professionally. besides, there is a negative influence of the socio-economic situation in ukraine on the wellbeing of children and adults with msds and their families. to correct these characteristics, people with msds require socialization in rehabilitation centres. the analysis of scientific concepts of such scholars as v. bondar & v. syniov (2011), m. halaidiuk et al. (2018), b. maksymchuk et al. (2018), n. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 8 melnyk et al. (2019), l. shipitsyna (1997) and a. shevtsov (2009), current trends in the development of correctional education in ukraine, the experience and practice of realization of the educational and rehabilitation process in eu countries, cultural and historical traditions of socialization of people with msds, established in ukraine and the results of the ascertaining experiment have made it possible to develop pedagogical conditions for socialization of people with msds in rehabilitation centres: 1. the systematic and profound psycho-pedagogical study of each child and adult with msds both before the beginning of the course of social rehabilitation and throughout the period of its realization. the systematic and deep diagnostics of each person with msds is a basic component of the effectiveness of the socialization programme since it allows using available personal capabilities and predicting individual personal progress. the monitoring of the rehabilitation process has made it possible to adjust the programme of socialization and use the acquired personal potential of people with msds. 2. the development of a socialization programme for people with msds, taking into account all its components of socialization. the availability of a clear, comprehensive programme ensures the harmonious socialization of adolescents in rehabilitation centres. 3. the involvement and strict adherence to an individual approach in the realization of the socialization programme for people with msds. an individual approach has made it possible to personally select the forms and methods of socialization aimed at revealing social potential and involving people with msds in society. 4. the mastering of socialization methods for people with msds by all teaching staff of social rehabilitation centres for children with special educational needs since team interaction is the key to adequate socialization. 5. the understanding of people with msds of the influence of their psychophysical problems on their life activity as a whole, which should help them to use their capabilities for better adaptation and realization of themselves in society, levelling their weaknesses. 6. the unity of actions and realization of socialization for people with msds on the part of specialists from social rehabilitation centres for children with special educational needs, family and public: specialists from rehabilitation centres, family members and the community were key actors in the process of socialization for people with msds, so they all had a clear understanding of the characteristics of people with msds; 7. the provision of the opportunity to obtain the necessary social rehabilitation services throughout life. the socialization of people with skeleton-muscle disorders… iryna sarancha, et al. 9 the formative experiment was conducted based on the vinnytsia centre for social rehabilitation of children with special educational needs under the name “promin”, affiliated to the ministry of labour and social policy of ukraine. the experiment involved 40 people with msds. the socialization programme, verified during the formative experiment, involved working with people with msds based on all socialization components; methodological work with the teaching staff of rehabilitation centres; parents. the programme included such specialized courses as human rights (54 classes), gardenotherapy (238); dance therapy (507 classes); photography classes (68); a support group for parents of children with msds (15 meetings). each specialized course and block of rehabilitation classes contained a correction component. the correctional and developmental goals of gardenotherapy was to teach how to work on the land independently, follow a routine pattern, develop housekeeping skills, fine motor skills, navigation skills and facilitate the physical and emotional development of people with special needs. the correctional and developmental goals of photography classes was to develop creative skills in people with msds, as well as their fine motor skills, logical and analytical thinking; to teach them to follow a routine pattern; to develop their self-control skills, coherent speech and teamwork skills; to apply psychological correction of the existing problems. the correctional and developmental goals of human rights included developing logical and analytical thinking, oral and written language and communication skills. the correctional and developmental goals of dance therapy were as follows: to develop the motor and emotional repertoire of people with msds; to develop the ability to take spontaneous decisions and verbally discuss their psycho-emotional state; to cultivate their personality; to ensure their aesthetic education; to contribute to their social activity. during the formative experiment, the main aim of social and pedagogical work with families with people with msds was to mobilize the family’s internal potential for its socio-psychological adaptation to the problems of adolescents and adults with special needs and to generate the parents' awareness of further social opportunities of their child. the conducted correctional and rehabilitation work in the framework of the formative experiment has contributed to a number of social changes in the behaviour and self-identification of people with msds, namely, the expansion of self-service and economic activities; the development of social skills; the changes in social needs; the changes in relationships between family members; the formation of new social roles in families; the changes in views on one’s own family and childbirth; the brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 10 changes in interaction with society; the changes in the motivation and localization of public life; the formation of life plans, motivation towards education and further employment and evaluation of one’s own professional skills; the enhancement of information technology skills. 3. results after the formative experiment, there occurred some significant changes in the social behaviour of people with msds. indeed, they have developed a positive attitude towards their health problems and learned how to use their potential for a full life in the community. also, they have improved their self-care skills, familiarized themselves with urban infrastructure, enhanced their decision-making skills, asserted their rights and further developed communication skills and, therefore, learned how to build friendships and family relationships. finally, people with msds have developed their gardening skills and mastered modern information technologies, which has positively influenced their professional selfidentification and employment. the mentioned changes are presented in table 2. table 2. socialization levels of people with msds before and after the formative experiment socialization levels experimental group control group before experiment after experiment before experiment after experiment high 11.55 30.45 15 17.25 sufficient 38.85 44.1 32.2 34.75 low 54.6 35.7 45.55 42.55 initial 5.25 0 7.25 5.45 positive changes in the experimental group were statistically significant (p<0.05), which confirms the effectiveness of the formative research (student’s t-test for independent samples). the formative experiment proves that social rehabilitation centres can promote socialization of people with msds under the following conditions: the systematic and profound psycho-pedagogical study of each child and adult with msds both before or during social rehabilitation; the preparation of a relevant programme for socialization of people with msds, taking into account all the components of socialization; the involvement and clear adherence to an individual approach during the implementation of the the socialization of people with skeleton-muscle disorders… iryna sarancha, et al. 11 socialization programme for people with msds; the mastering of socialization methods for people with msds by all teaching staff of social rehabilitation centres for children with special educational needs; the understanding of people with msds of the influence of their own psychophysical problems on their life activity as a whole; the unity of actions and realization of socialization for people with msds on the part of specialists from social rehabilitation centres for children with special educational needs, family and public; the provision of the opportunity to obtain the necessary social rehabilitation services throughout life. 4. discussion a. shevtsov (2009), l. shipitsyna & i. vinogradova (1996) point out that the socialization of adults with msds is closely linked to development, education and rehabilitation. this research confirms that the successful implementation of social rehabilitation of children and adults with msds is possible only with profound knowledge and taking into account both the main factors and conditions on which the normal development of the psyche and the driving forces of this development depend. the obtained research findings prove the assumption of a. shevtsov (2009) that social rehabilitation of people with psychophysical problems should ensure the teaching of basic social skills (personal hygiene, self-care, movement, communication, etc.); the adjustment of living conditions to the needs of people with msds; the provision of social and household equipment and services; the ability of these people to protect their rights, interests, self-analyze, positively perceive oneself and others and acquire communication skills; the independent living in a society with the necessary support (social, medical, legal support, household services). an important component of socialization of people with msds is their labour adaptability, whose formation begins with a professional orientation. this research also confirms the views of o. yaremnko, k. bondarchuk & n. komarova (2003), o. romanenko (2002) and a. shevtsov (2009) on the effectiveness of labour activity for people with psychophysical problems. it can increase even more if the characteristics of this activity are taken into account in developing relevant programmes, choosing forms and methods of professional orientation in social rehabilitation centres. the authors of the article agree that another component of socialization of people with msds is the forming of their life prospects in adulthood, which rely on family education, as well as the creation of brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 12 opportunities for realizing family values. people with msds and their families often find themselves in psychological and social isolation. in most developed countries, the concept of normalization and the principle of involving people with msds into society are rather common, which has resulted in the creation of the concept of supported living service. according to a. shevtsov (2009), the concept of independent life changes the existing views on the correlation between socialization and social adaptation of people with msds. the prospects for further research include developing and implementing new forms and methods of social rehabilitation of people with msds in rehabilitation centres. 5. conclusions the results obtained from the ascertaining experiment reveal the following characteristics of socialization of people with msds: the lack of independence, determination and series of actions; an expressive tendency towards care and emotional interaction with adults; the dependence of social skills development on the level of impaired functions of the musculoskeletal system; a low level of proficiency in modern information technologies; low motivation towards education and further employment; low legal culture and culture of interpersonal relations; low social activity. the revealed characteristics prove the need to take into account not only the severity of msds but also the psychology of children and adults with msds, an individual approach to people with msds. the implementation of the designed programme as a condition for the socialization of people with msds has made it possible to significantly increase the level of social skills of people with msds in the experimental group. before the beginning of the experiment, only 11.55% of persons with msds had a high level of socialization. after the formative experiment, the number increased to 30.45%. besides, 44.1% of people have a sufficient level of social skills. thus, a convincing majority of the respondents in the experimental group have increased levels of independence, developed social and personal incentives, enhanced the proficiency in modern information technologies, reinforced the desire to be independent from adults and create their own family, as well as the desire for education and further employment and active participation in public life. as a result of the conducted research, the set objectives have been realized and the effectiveness of the proposed pedagogical conditions for ensuring the socialization of people with msds in rehabilitation centres has been verified. the socialization of people with skeleton-muscle disorders… iryna sarancha, et al. 13 references bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1323-1332. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, t., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 bondar, v. & synov, v. (2011). the dictionary of pathologies. lesia. dobryakova, i., & shchedrina, t. (2004). the rehabilitation of children with the problems of the central nervous system and musculoskeletal system. the publishing house of the st. petersburg medical academy of postgraduate education. halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284–2291. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 kon, i., & olshanskiy, v. (1970). socialization. the philosophical dictionary. knowledge. maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers' professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. зборник института за педагошка истраживања [proceedings of the institute for pedagogical research], 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m mynovych, i. (1999). social work. uzhhorod state university. romanenko, o. (2002). forming the cognitive component of self-image in adolescents with cerebral palsy. defectology, 4, 24–32. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 14 shevtsov, a. (2009). educational fundamentals of rehabilitation. lesia. shipitsyna, l. (1997). education for children with developmental problems in different countries of the world. fallow deer. shipitsyna, l., & vinogradova, i. (1996). the mental development of orphans (based on the results of psychiatric monitoring). piter. yaremenko, o., bondarchuk, k., & komarova, n. (2003). the employment of young people with functional disorders. kyiv: the state institute for family and youth issues. your paper's title starts here: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 144-155 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/161 intervention models for the pre-integration of children with asd in mainstream education corina ivan¹*, corina ciolcă 2 , adina andreea dreve 3 1 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania, corinaivan.javelin@yahoo.com * corresponding author 2 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania 3 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania abstract: the pathology of autism dates back to the 1900s, being framed within the broad sphere of neuropsychological conditions. so far, the autism spectrum disorder (asd) has passed through various pathologies, from socio-emotional disorders to schizophrenic disorders. the clear distinction between childhood autism and childhood schizophrenia was only made in the early 1980s. asd is one of the most common invasive developmental disorders; defined as a neurological condition characterised by a distortion in the overall development of a person, it affects 1 in 150 children and 4 to 5 boys per girl. the autistic triad brings together qualitative anomalies in social interactions (in verbal and nonverbal communication), restricted interests and stereotypes. the 1980s and 1990s highlight the role of behavioural therapy and the use of highly controlled learning environments as a primary treatment for the forms of autism and related conditions. promising studies on the role of oxytocin or certain amino acids involved in neurotransmission, especially in regulating stress and its emotional consequences, are currently in progress. until now, the two therapies have remained primordial along with physical therapy and speech therapy. the purpose of this paper is to present some of the means that can contribute to the pre-integration of children in mainstream education, being also a starting point for future applied research. at the same time, the paper is helpful for the parents of children with asd, who are given the opportunity to work themselves in the absence of a specialist or financial possibilities. keywords: autism; pre-integration; mainstream education; athletic exercises. how to cite: ivan, c., ciolcă, c., & dreve, a. a. (2020). intervention models for the pre-integration of children with asd in mainstream education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 144-155. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/161 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/161 mailto:corinaivan.javelin@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/161 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 145 introduction the first references to autism date back to the 1900s, when a wide range of neuro-psychological conditions were found under this name. in 1911, the term was used by the swiss psychiatrist eugen bleuler to characterise a group of symptoms related to schizophrenia. in 1940, a group of american researchers used the term autism to describe children with socio-emotional problems. the american child psychiatrist leo kanner established benchmarks for this disease in 1943; thus, autism was classified as a childhood disorder and it remained like this until 1980, when a clear distinction was made between childhood autism and a type of childhood schizophrenia. currently, international classifications no longer order the types of autism into broad categories kanner, asperger, but have introduced the concept of autism spectrum disorder (asd), which establishes criteria of continuous diagnosis, separating social disorders from behavioural disorders. autistic disorder is one of the most common invasive developmental disorders. defined as a neurological condition characterised by a distortion in the overall development of a person, it affects 1 in 150 children and 4 to 5 boys per girl. the autistic triad brings together qualitative anomalies in social interactions (in verbal and nonverbal communication), restricted interests and stereotypes. being imprinted in the structural development of the brain, this disorder cannot be “cured”. neuroscience has observed differences in cortical organisation and highlighted alterations in synapses (in the neurotransmitter system, especially related to serotonin transport), in combination with alterations of the genes involved. topic addressed between 1960 and 1970, research concerning autism treatment focused on drugs (such as lsd), electric shocks and behavioural change techniques based on pain and punishment. the 1980s and 1990s emphasise the role of behavioural therapy and the use of highly controlled learning environments as a primary treatment for the forms of autism and related conditions. promising studies on the role of oxytocin or certain amino acids involved in neurotransmission, especially in regulating stress and its emotional consequences, are currently in progress. until now, the two therapies have remained primordial along with physical therapy and speech therapy. intervention models for the pre-integration of children with asd … corina ivan, corina ciolcă, adina andreea dreve 146 autism can be encountered in people with all levels of intelligence. most autistic people have below-average intellectual performance with a deficit in adaptive behaviour, depending on their degree of attention and their difficulty of understanding the surrounding world. mutism is present in almost half of the cases of autism. the other half have difficulty using speech, which sometimes lacks coherence. for example, people with autism repeat (like an echo) the heard words or sentences. resistance to change is strong: autistic people adopt routine habits, have an almost exclusive interest in certain objects or other staff, may have anxiety attacks, sleep or eating disorders, anger and/or aggressive attitudes including towards themselves, or hyper-/ hyposensitivity (to sounds, light, colours, touch, etc.). non-verbally, people with autism have major problems understanding facial expressions and gestures. the impairment of imagination can manifest by the absence of invented games and stories or the difficulty of imitating the gestures of others. the child refuses any contact with the outside world. recent scientific studies tend to show a decrease in stereotypes and an improvement in social skills or school outcomes due to physical activity programmes. in general, the published papers refer to small groups that mainly consist of children or adolescents with autism spectrum disorders, often school students, and most of them address the relationship between overweight and obesity in the populations of autistic children, adolescents and adults. according to storch et al. (2020), anxiety is frequently encountered in young people with autism spectrum disorders. the use of behavioural cognitive therapy is recommended for treating this population; however, available treatment protocols may be difficult to implement outside of research settings. toma (2018) states that the involvement of asd genetic factors in significant clinical heterogeneity, from intellectual disability to highfunctioning profiles, is currently unknown. in the study conducted by munnich (2018), most cases of autism were syndromic forms of asd with moderate to severe intellectual disability. some patients later had transient epilepsy with an undiagnosed early onset attributed to a genetic condition. a study cited by hartley, fisher and fletcher (2018) shows that children with autism often perceive items belonging to famous people with brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 147 “good” or “bad” reputations as being more valuable than similar items belonging to less known people. another research on children with autism shows that individual perceptions of parents’ communication were a stronger predictor of relational turbulence than the parents’ self-reported communication (brisini & solomon, 2018). the study conducted by huseyin (2019) demonstrates how physical exercise improves the physical fitness of children with autism. at the end of a 12-week sports training programme, a positive development in basic and life motor skills was observed. a research that involved various sports activities for young people with autistic syndrome and those with mental disability did not show significant effects on their asd status, but people with intellectual disability alone had higher scores for positive social experiences compared to those with asd and intellectual disability. socio-communication skills, coach relationship and available resources mediated the relationship between asd status and positive social experiences (ryan et al., 2018). ince (2017) examines the effects of sport on children’s health problems and finds that physical activity has largely contributed to improving their communication skills (in a percentage of 66.7%) and speech development (in a percentage of 52.4%). moreover, 65.9% of parents have indicated that special education centres do not have any physical education teacher or trainer. consequently, due to the positive effect of sport on children with asd, special education centres should have purposely trained staff, and sports installations should operate at appropriate levels. the study by duquette et al. (2016) contains the major points of a strategy for the involvement of youth with asd in physical activities:  knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the individual participating in the activity  progressively integrating the individual in the activity  turning sport into a routine  promoting the importance of regularly practicing a sports discipline  reducing any form of intimidation or exclusion of people with asd it is even mentioned the possibility of using these motor disorders in order to identify children with an asd risk factor very early in life (before the age of one year), given that there is a strong correlation between early motor disorders and communication disorders. indeed, movements have a role in communication before the use of speech, therefore from an early age. https://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e3k4h7qsczq8meoxlp6&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&daisids=9536044 https://apps.webofknowledge.com/outboundservice.do?sid=e3k4h7qsczq8meoxlp6&mode=rrcauthorrecordservice&action=go&product=wos&daisids=9536044 intervention models for the pre-integration of children with asd … corina ivan, corina ciolcă, adina andreea dreve 148 this suggests that early motor rehabilitation can improve the prognosis regarding child communication. among the findings revealed in the study published by massion (2006), we find sports activities for people with asd as a privileged means of learning, communication and socialisation. access to such activities is often limited due to low financial possibilities, but the pecuniary factor should not be an obstacle because sport offers these people the important perspective of learning, feeling pleasure and increasing self-esteem. last but not least, it is stated that sports activities help children with asd develop a sense of belonging to a group. physical activity is recognised as a potential therapy that can reduce certain asd symptoms. all sports activity programmes have triggered major progress in social and motor skills. compared to group interventions, individual physical exercise has led to a significant decrease in asd symptoms. in other words, individual interventions have greater impact than group interventions. in this regard, aquatic activities and jogging should be taken into account because they lead to the improvement of social and motor skills in people with asd. therefore, there are quite a few sports activities for children with autism, which is why the main objective is to provide them with the opportunity to move, to have fun and (possibly?) to share these pleasant moments with a parent. in movies with/about autism, we can see that these children are able to do the same kind of activities as others, but they need extra time and patience. parents can also see that their children have skills despite the differences, and teachers see how these students can be integrated into mainstream education. to start a physical activity, it is absolutely necessary to take into account the characteristics of a child: tastes, skills and how they understand the activities. autistic children are very different from each other; therefore, each child will have a certain sensory-motor level, will be able or not to communicate, will be interested or not in a specific activity. consequently, it is essential to provide interventions as individualised as possible so that athletics becomes a means preferred by these children. the optimal age to participate in an early physical exercise programme is unclear. however, most published studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of this treatment refer to children under 48 months (sheinkopf & siegel, 1998). athletics, as a way of social integration, is a strong point for experts but especially for students. in the first phase, we are all involved in the brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 149 sports activity, in the sense that students need to be organised to get to the activity room and then go back to the classroom. the natural movement of the human being is a relational one. the more the physical exercise will be integrated into the child’s consciousness due to the emotional support provided by the adult, the more the relational appetite will arouse their desire to participate, join the others and socialise. the encouraging presence of the adult in the child’s activities develops emotional intelligence and thus the child can understand the others’ physical and emotional states and intentions. this intelligence is built from the inside and feeds on bodily sensations combined with the ability to consider the other different from oneself (robert-ouvray, 2017). also, the autistic child will better tolerate frustration by accepting not to be “the centre of the universe”. it is about the relational contribution of sport: the more children are active, can do movements, discover the world and share what they learn, the more they will be socially open. athletic activities that consist of mixed actions based on various methods, starting from the observation method, involve compliance with a set of methodological requirements and the application of a specific teaching strategy. a. methodological requirements for applying the means of athletics  the means of athletics must be designed so as to increase children’s interest in practicing physical exercise;  the difficulty of athletic means must increase progressively, in a direct relationship with the regularity of applying them;  the interest in and the attractiveness to physical activity will increase if (coloured) objects are used;  the means applied must be appropriate to the child’s physical characteristics for the harmonisation of natural processes;  during a physical education session, the learning content may vary because it should not be necessarily focused on a single element. given that autistic children have very short attention spans, it is essential for them to be proposed various tasks, but without forgetting that they are reluctant and might be disturbed by too many transitions. therefore, a fair compromise between the two situations is needed;  athletic exercise should produce positive effects on the harmonious physical development concurrently with the increase in school performance;  students with disabilities must practice special exercises adapted to the specifics of their needs during the activities. intervention models for the pre-integration of children with asd … corina ivan, corina ciolcă, adina andreea dreve 150 b. teaching strategies necessary to achieve social and educational integration  fun athletic activities for those involved in the programme;  games performed using the means of athletics based on the (essential) rules of community life;  development of motor skills using playful means purposely designed for children with special educational needs;  for the acquisition of global motor skills, a learning method based on the variation of tasks is more effective than a method based on constant practice. adapted physical education programmes functional deficits such as lack of strength or endurance should be reduced so as the student can solve the task efficiently. structural defects such as dwarfism, visual impairments or physical disabilities cannot be remedied, which is why the activities need to be changed in these situations so as the student can achieve the objectives of general physical education. asd may also be accompanied by obesity, whose aetiologies can be numerous: a drug, a glandular disorder, ignorance of the diet/physical exercise ratio, etc., but regardless of the cause, it makes the movements difficult. in this situation, several recommendations will be followed:  when children have difficulty running or staying engaged in an activity for longer, or are embarrassed to participate in activities such as gymnastics or sports games and need more time for recovery, they will work at a slower pace and will have more frequent and/or longer breaks;  exercises that children do not perform well will be replaced (walking instead of running, hopping instead of jumping);  the size of the field will be adapted, and the success of the children, especially in difficult situations, will be highlighted. towards an inclusive school the pathway towards an inclusive school tracks how our society has perceived and defined the difference and disability over time. thus, we can identify three main stages: a segregation period, an integrative period and the current one, which can be called “towards an inclusive school”. each step corresponds to a new concept about difference and disability in our society. in such a situation, teachers adapt the contents, which helps them in this endeavour. in order to successfully integrate a child with autism, brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 151 educators should give up some of their representations and see the world through the eyes of the child. no child is comparable with another, and the child with autism, who is very different from other children, is by no means inferior to them. sport is beneficial for people with autism only if physical activity is of good quality and is administered in a reasonable amount. most global asd programmes also involve parents, although the effectiveness of this collaboration is unknown (diggle, mcconachie, & randle, 2013). jogging, swimming, race walking and muscle strengthening were the object of research in most studies (breton, 2012). however, the most commonly used therapeutic activities with elements taken from athletics are the runs (or the attempts to run) over low obstacles. their purpose is to teach people with autism to walk, run, hop, keep balance on various objects, correctly follow the route of an applied utilitarian circuit, be aware of exercises and their practical value in the context of socialisation and integration with other students, as well as to discipline them. in general, all exercises will involve concentration of attention and awareness of the benefit provided by the means applied. all exercises will be performed with a partner and will be accompanied by short and concise commands; throughout the exercises, the child will be assisted by a teacher who will end the activity by granting various incentives. the models that will be presented are mainly aimed to improve psychomotor skills and correct the attention deficit. objectives 1. behaviour adjustment 2. improving motor and cognitive skills 3. improving coordination 4. improving coordination and spatial location 5. procuring pleasure and reducing anxiety 6. awareness of one’s capabilities and limitations content learning will be planned so as to put students in situations that make more sense for them (“i need to get to the stick to place the cone”), which will facilitate the act of turning the acquired skills into more general skills. 1. walking, picking up a cone (possibly with help) and placing it over the others on a stick intervention models for the pre-integration of children with asd … corina ivan, corina ciolcă, adina andreea dreve 152 2. walking over very low obstacles in order to place the cone over the others on a stick 3. walking/running over low obstacles at each step (possibly with help) 4. running over low obstacles with a cone in hand and placing it on a stick (at the end) 5. with help (the teacher is placed in front of the child and holds his or her hands), hopping with double-foot take-off 6. circuit: walking over a higher obstacle (placed in the middle of a mattress) + walking/running into circles (8) + step + bench walking + bench hopping off + running over small obstacles (6) 7. with a cone in hand, running over uneven medium-height obstacles (10) + running over cones (4) + running over small but close obstacles + hopping into circles from one foot to the other (8) and placing the cone on the stick 8. hopping (into circles) with double-foot take-off and one-foot take-off – like hopscotch and placing the cone on the stick 9. along a cone corridor, forward running + backward walking 10. forward running over very low obstacles + a stick hold with both hands 11. running over 3-5 cones placed at an optimal distance – adapted to physical capabilities 12. snake running around 6-8 cones in order to pick up a baton at the end of the circuit and bring it to the start 13. walking along a ladder placed on the ground and stepping into the empty spaces with both feet. the final goal is to perform this exercise with gentle running. 14. same as in exercise 13 but walking laterally 15. walking over 4-6 low hurdles having 30-50 cm in height, according to capabilities 16. walking under 4-6 low hurdles having 100-120 cm in height, according to capabilities, while holding the back in a correct position conclusion there is no drug treatment for autism. however, the earlier the diagnosis is established, the more the recommended complex of exercises helps to develop communication skills. in this context, parents should be careful and reluctant to professionals that offer them an exclusive, brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 153 miraculous method to completely heal their children. if each child is unique, the treatment must also be personalised. the attempt to reduce asd is a struggle, a battle of ideas with frequent divergences between therapists regarding its aetiologies and possible interventions, a confrontation of professionals to support their beliefs and especially the fight of autistic children and their families to find the way to an adapted lifestyle. adaptation refers to the communication, structuring and means necessary to access the usual environment. the common goal should be to ensure the best possible quality of life for these children, which also involves going to school together with peers. this paper prefaces the need to study the impact of physical activity on several areas, such as quality of life. adapting and exploiting the physical activity field for autism spectrum disorders requires (at least initially) the experience of a specialised structure. it will establish the sets of exercises for beginners in line with the suggestions in the literature regarding the intervention methods and tools. although special education centres use purposely trained staff, their number is (too) small, and in extreme cases, they can be replaced by parents, who provide children with encouragement and emotional support and help them perform the exercises. sports activities should be consistently practiced for at least 5 hours and no more than 15 hours per week, in a learning and practice climate free of any auditory or visual disturbance. the more it is simplified, the lower the risk of interfering with learning. it is also important that any object and space used has its own function, and the work area includes only the tools to be used, which should be functionally arranged. the place of the helping adult is generally on the side; however, when placed in front of the child, the adult must avoid wide movements. the adult’s gestures and gaze must be directed to the child, even he or she stubbornly looks the other way. the increased number of repetitions ensures progress. individual sessions have greater impact than group work, and applying the intervention models, such as the suggested ones, is essential and required by parents. numerous studies have shown that regular physical exercise is accompanied by reduced aggressive behaviour (mcgimsey & favell, 1988), stereotypes and inattention (watters & watters, 1980), and, in addition to motor progress, by increased motivation (boursier, 2001). a discipline “in motion”, psychomotricity has not stopped evolving. thus, current challenges foreshadow what this profession will become tomorrow. it is important to recall that the intervention methods are intervention models for the pre-integration of children with asd … corina ivan, corina ciolcă, adina andreea dreve 154 dependent on and limited by the conditions of practice, which must first rely on the autistic characteristics of these children. unfortunately, the extreme heterogeneity of asd makes it difficult to attempt any generalisation of an educational model. acknowledgement the paper is made within the project sustainable social and educational integration through sports activities – pnp001. authors’ contributions all authors have equally contributed to this study and should be considered as main authors. references boursier, c. (2001). enseigner et animer les activités physiques adaptées… aux enfants autistes [to teach and to lead adapted physical activities… for autistic children]. in a. varray, j. bilard & g. ninot. (ed.), enseigner et animer les activités physiques adaptées (pp. 122-127). revue eps. breton, l. (2012). l’activité physique adaptée chez l’enfant avec des troubles du spectre de l’autisme: une dimension de bien-être [adapted physical activity for the child with autism spectrum disorders: a dimension of wellbeing]. https://doc.rero.ch/record/306305/files/tdb_m_lanie_loann_version_ du_13.09.2017_apr_s_le_rdv_avec_fran_oise_cinter_version_final e_definitive_en_pdf.pdf brisini, k. s. c., & solomon, d. h. (2020). relational turbulence and marital communication when children with autism start school: a longitudinal dyadic diary study. health communication, 35(4), 483-493. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2019.1567445 diggle, t. j., mcconachie, h., randle, v. r. l. (2013). parent-mediated early intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder, cochrane database of systematic reviews cochrane database of systematic reviews, 4, cd003496. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd003496.pub2 duquette, m-m., carbonneau, h., roult, r., & crevier, l. (2016). sport and physical activity: facilitating interventions with young people living with an autism spectrum disorder. physical activity review, 4, 40-49. https://doi.org/10.16926/par.2016.04.05 hartley, c., fisher, s., & fletcher, n. (2020). exploring the influence of ownership history on object valuation in typical development and autism. cognition, 197, 104187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104187 https://doc.rero.ch/record/306305/files/tdb_m_lanie_loann_version_du_13.09.2017_apr_s_le_rdv_avec_fran_oise_cinter_version_finale_definitive_en_pdf.pdf https://doc.rero.ch/record/306305/files/tdb_m_lanie_loann_version_du_13.09.2017_apr_s_le_rdv_avec_fran_oise_cinter_version_finale_definitive_en_pdf.pdf https://doc.rero.ch/record/306305/files/tdb_m_lanie_loann_version_du_13.09.2017_apr_s_le_rdv_avec_fran_oise_cinter_version_finale_definitive_en_pdf.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2019.1567445 https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd003496.pub2 https://doi.org/10.16926/par.2016.04.05 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104187 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 155 huseyin, o. (2019). the impact of sport activities on basic motor skills of children with autism. pedagogics, psychology, medical-biological problems of physical education and sports, 23(3), 138-144. https://doi.org/10.15561/18189172.2019.0305 ince, g. (2017). opinions of parents who have children with autism spectrum disorder about sport. journal of special education, 18(1), 109-124. https://doi.org/10.21565/ozelegitimdergisi.302891 massion, j. (2006). sport practice in autism. science and sports, 21(4), 243-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scispo.2006.07.001 mcgimsey, j. f., & favell, j. e. (1988). the effects of increased physical exercise on disruptive behavior in retarded persons. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 18(2), 167-179. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02211944 munnich, a. (2020). unraveling the etiological complexity of autism spectrum disorders. developmental medicine and child neurology, 62(4), 404-404. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.14455 robert-ouvray, s, b. (2017). intégration motrice et développement psychique: une théorie de la psychomotricité [motor integration and psychological development: a theory of psychomotricity]. desclée de brouwer. ryan, s., fraser-thomas, j., & weiss, j. a. (2017). patterns of sport participation for youth with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities, 31(3), 369-378. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12414 sheinkopf, s. j., & siegel, b. (1988). home-based behavioral treatment of young children with autism. journal of autism developmental disorders, 28(1), 15-23. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1026054701472 storch, e. a., schneider, s. c., de nadai, a. s., selles, r. r., mcbride, n. m., grebe, s. c., lewin, a. b. (2020). a pilot study of family-based exposurefocused treatment for youth with autism spectrum disorder and anxiety. child psychiatry & human development, 51(2), 209-219. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00923-3 toma, c. (2020). genetic variation across phenotypic severity of autism. trends in genetics, 36(4), 228-231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2020.01.005 watters, r. g., & watters, w. e. (1980). decreasing self-stimulatory behavior with physical exercise in a group of autistic boys. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 10(4), 379-387. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02414814 https://doi.org/10.15561/18189172.2019.0305 https://doi.org/10.21565/ozelegitimdergisi.302891 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scispo.2006.07.001 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02211944 https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.14455 https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12414 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1026054701472 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00923-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2020.01.005 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02414814 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 29-36 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/91 psychological risk factors of the neurotization of adolescents under the conditions of quarantine measures of the covid-19 epidemic denys aleksandrov¹, ivan okhrimenko 2 1 doctor of psychology, associate professor, professor of the department of social work, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, kyiv, ukraine, denisaleks73@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000002-9307-2585 2 doctor in law, professor, professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, ivango-07@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-8813-5107 abstract: the work analyzes the individual psychological factors that determine the risks of the neurotization of adolescents under the conditions of quarantine measures during the covid-19 epidemic in order to improve psychoprophylactic correctional programs. applying the neuroticism questionnaire by a. kokoshkarova and multifactor questionnaire by r. cattell, an empirical examination of 152 adolescents between the ages of 15 and 17 showed that quarantine measures under pandemic conditions increase the risk of neurotic disorders of adolescents owing to a very similar constellation of changes in such individual psychological factors as forced isolation, emotional instability because of exhausting tension, anxiety and worry emerging from timidity. hence, preventive and rehabilitative measures, aimed at reducing the risks of adolescents neurotization after the quarantine period in the face of an epidemiological threat should be focused primarily on increasing communication openness, emotional stability, social courage, selfconfidence reducing anxiety and tension. keywords: neurotic disorders; adolescents; quarantine measures; the covid-19 epidemic; individual psychological qualities. how to cite: aleksandrov, d., & okhrimenko, i. (2020). psychological risk factors of the neurotization of adolescents under the conditions of quarantine measures of the covid-19 epidemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 29-36. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/91 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/91 mailto:denisaleks73@gmail.com mailto:ivango-07@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/91 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 30 1. introduction the problem of the covid-19 epidemic has had not only serious consequences for the physical health of the population but also a negative impact on people’s psychological well-being. it is related to the feeling of threat to life and health, as well as the difficulty of adapting people to special quarantine conditions. such measures changed the usual way of social life radically that disrupted the adaptive potential of people. it resulted in mental disorders and, in particular, neurotization. one of the most vulnerable social groups is adolescents (aleksandrov et al., 2017). as a result of the lack of life experience, it is much more difficult for them to adapt, including the adaptation to quarantine restrictions under the threat of the covid-19 epidemic. these extraordinary circumstances of a radical change in the way of social existence, in addition to the peculiarities of the awkward age, lead to significant psychological traumatization of adolescents. this causes the neurotization owing to the violation of the compensatory protective mechanisms. 2. literature review the problem of neurotic disorders as reactions to stress-inducing factors in general, and adolescents in particular, has been considered in the works of many scientists (bridges et al., 2004; chess & hassibi, 1978; davis et al., 2014; garrett, 2003; gratz et al., 2010; kokoshkarova, 1984; lawrence et al., 2017; robins et al., 2012). at the same time, the peculiarities of the neuroses of adolescents under the conditions of quarantine measures resulting from the high epidemiological threat still remain an insufficiently developed topic that determined our interest in this problem. therefore, the aim of the study is to analyze the individual psychological factors that determine the risks of adolescents’ neurotization under quarantine measures to improve psychoprophylactic correctional programs. 3. methodology the choice of psychodiagnostic methodologies is conditioned by the need for a comprehensive study of the psychological factors of adolescents’ neurotization under the conditions of quarantine measures in order to achieve the objectives of the empirical research. taking into account the diversity of neurotic manifestations, the empirical study tools included appropriate psychodiagnostic methodologies: psychological risk factors of the neurotization of adolescents under the … denys aleksandrov & ivan okhrimenko 31 1) the choice of the standardized questionnaire for detecting neuroticism by a. kokoshkarova (kokoshkarova, 1984) is conditioned by the fact that intrapersonal problems, arising in the context of quarantine restrictions of adolescents and general social tensions because of the epidemiological situation and are not being resolved, cause neurotic reactions that lead to the formation of unproductive compensatory mechanisms. in addition, this methodology is widely used in the process of psychological support of school students to prevent neurotic states. after the covid-19 epidemic had begun, we conducted a retest of adolescents to compare the risks of neurotic disorders before the pandemic and after the quarantine period. on the basis of the analysis of answers to 83 questions, this technique allows determining the level of the following indicators: sincerity, autonomic disturbances (icd-10: g90), neurasthenia (icd-10: f48.0), psychasthenia (icd-10: f48.8), histrionic personality disorder (icd10: f60.4), hypochondria (icd-10: f45.2), depression (icd-10: f32), derealization and depersonalization (icd-10: f48.1) (table 1). table 1. the criteria for the intensity of neurotic states scales normal range «–» vivid trend «+» strong trend «++» sincerity 4-8 autonomic disturbances ≤ 6 7-9 ≥ 10 neurasthenia ≤ 5 6-8 ≥ 9 psychasthenia ≤ 7 8-10 ≥ 11 histrionic personality disorder ≤ 3 4-5 ≥ 6 hypochondria ≤ 2 3 ≥ 4 depression ≤ 3 4-5 ≥ 6 derealization and depersonalization 0 1 ≥ 2 2) the multifactor questionnaire by r. cattell & mead (2008) (16-pf form c) for the diagnosis of personality factors of neuroticism includes the following scales of 16 primary factors: warmth (a); reasoning (b); emotional stability (c); dominance (e); liveliness (f); rule-consciousness (g); social boldness (h); sensitivity (i); vigilance (l); abstractedness (m); privateness (n); apprehension (o); openness to change (q1); self-reliance (q2); perfectionism (q3); tension (q4). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/intelligence_(trait) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dominance_(ethology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/conscientiousness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/introversion_and_extroversion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sensitivity_(human) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/neuroticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/neophilia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/self-sufficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/perfectionism_(psychology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stress_(biological) brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 32 in addition, to interpret the results correctly, a survey of adolescents was conducted to identify a subjective assessment of changes in their psychological well-being under the quarantine restrictions. the empirical basis of the study involved 152 adolescents between the ages of 15 and 17, who underwent a routine examination in schools of ukraine according to the methodology by a. kokoshkarova under psychological support during november 2019. in addition, an online retest study was conducted in may 2020 with the same category of respondents in order to identify the dynamics of the risks of neurotic disorders under quarantine measures during the covid-19 epidemic. the processing and interpretation of the results were carried out at the department of social work of the faculty of psychology of taras shevchenko national university of kyiv (kyiv, ukraine) and the department of legal psychology of the national academy of internal affairs (kyiv, ukraine). on the basis of the study objectives, we conducted a mathematical and statistical analysis of the main correlations of the risk indicators of various neurotic disorders according to the methodology by a. kokoshkarova with indicators of individual psychological factors according to the methodology by cattell & mead (2008). in the course of processing, the existing relationships were determined by calculating spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. this is due to the fact that the metrics obtained are not subject to the law of normal distribution. it should be noted that concerning the sample size (n=152), the statistical value of rs is not less than 0.160 with р ≤ 0.05, the high value of rs is not less than 0.210 with р ≤ 0.01, and the maximum value of rs is 0.266 with р ≤ 0.001. the study was performed in accordance with the requirements and provisions of the ethics code of taras shevchenko national university of kyiv (protocol no. 2 of 27.12.2017). informed consent was obtained from all participants who were guided by the principles of academic integrity, accountability, ethical norms, and rules established by law during the scientific process to establish confidence in the results of creative achievements. they could refuse to participate in the study at any time. 4. results a comparison of the results of the initial testing of adolescents before the pandemic, and the results of a retest after 2 months of quarantine, showed some changes (table 2). psychological risk factors of the neurotization of adolescents under the … denys aleksandrov & ivan okhrimenko 33 table 2. the average results of the test and retest of adolescents according to the methodology by a. kokoshkarova s in ce ri ty a u to n o m ic d is tu rb an ce s n e u ra st h en ia p sy c h as th e n ia h is tr io n ic p e rs o n al it y d is o rd e r h y p o c h o n d ri a d e p re ss io n d e re al iz at io n a n d d e p e rs o n al iz at io n test 4.73 4.62 3.53 5.41 2.60 0.85 1.11 0.52 retest 5.21 4.93 6.47 8.78 3.11 3.86 3.92 0.84 thus, all the indicators had been within the norm before the epidemic, but there were noticeable changes after the quarantine. first, an increase of neurasthenia and psychasthenia, which have reached the level signaling the existence of disorders, is remarkable. the rate of hypochondria is close to the limit, which indicates an aggravation of concern for the health in terms of the epidemic uncertainty. the level of depression has also almost reached critical levels, which also proves the risks of the neurotic disorder of this type. other indicators did not change significantly. 5. limits and discussion the general upward trend in the risks of psychasthenia, neurasthenia, hypochondria, and depression is not informative (bridges, denham, & ganiban, 2004; ding, & kalashnyk, 2020; lawrence et al., 2017) as it does not explain the changes in the individual psychological constructs of adolescents that occur as a result of the stressful conditions of quarantine. therefore, our study expanded the understanding of the risks of neurotic conditions. thus, in particular, the methodology by a. kokoshkarova and the methodology by cattell and mead (2008) determined the leading correlations of these neurotic states with personal factors (table 3). brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 34 table 3. the correlations of neurotic states according to the methodology by a. kokoshkarova with personal factors according to the methodology by cattell and mead (2008) the methodology by a. kokoshkarova s in ce ri ty a u to n o m ic d is tu rb an ce s n e u ra st h en ia p sy c h as th e n ia h is tr io n ic p e rs o n al it y d is o rd e r h y p o c h o n d ri a d e p re ss io n d e re al iz at io n a n d d e p e rs o n al iz at io n t h e m e th o d o lo g y b y r . c at te ll 1 6 -p f a 0.002 -0.127 -0.081 -0.170 -0.133 -0.041 -0.013 -0.047 b -0.039 -0.157 -0.050 -0.084 -0.021 0.109 -0.102 0.007 c -0.116 -0.262 -0.239 -0.230 -0.126 -0.116 -0.164 -0.007 e -0.101 -0.084 0.014 -0.112 -0.048 -0.065 0.039 -0.050 f -0.125 -0.189 -0.048 -0.181 -0.001 -0.143 -0.213 -0.048 g -0.161 -0.114 -0.115 -0.032 -0.060 -0.069 0.021 0.089 h 0.134 -0.199 0.062 -0.192 -0.082 -0.102 -0.035 -0.038 i -0.054 0.035 -0.040 -0.086 -0.183 0.011 -0.036 -0.001 l -0.154 0.075 -0.009 0.066 0.073 -0.008 0.085 0.018 m -0.004 0.037 0.023 0.044 -0.048 0.086 0.055 0.020 n -0.003 -0.051 -0.063 0.060 -0.036 -0.049 0.061 -0.027 o -0.083 0.168 0.174 0.178 0.075 0.068 0.092 0.027 q1 0.017 0.107 0.023 0.053 -0.084 0.011 0.080 -0.003 q2 -0.047 -0.048 -0.049 -0.023 0.048 0.042 -0.066 -0.088 q3 -0.213 0.069 -0.094 -0.060 0.037 0.040 0.065 0.155 q4 -0.018 0.063 0.163 0.112 -0.022 -0.074 0.043 -0.153 the mentioned indicators show that the increase in the risks of psychasthenia is associated with an increase in isolation (factor а rs = -0.170, р ≤ 0.05), emotional instability (factor с rs = -0.230, р ≤ 0.01), anxiety (factor f rs = -0.181, р ≤ 0.05), timidity (factor h rs = -0.192, р ≤ 0.05), and worry (factor o rs = 0.178, р ≤ 0.05). the increase in the risks of neurasthenia is related to an increase in such personal qualities as emotional instability (factor с rs = -0.239, р ≤ 0.01), worry (factor o rs = 0.174, р ≤ 0.05), and debilitating tension (factor q4 rs = 0.163, р ≤ 0.05). psychological risk factors of the neurotization of adolescents under the … denys aleksandrov & ivan okhrimenko 35 the risk of increased depression is connected with emotional instability (factor с rs = -0.164, р ≤ 0.05) and anxiety (factor f rs = -0.213, р ≤ 0.01). in addition, the risks of autonomic disorders showed correlations similar to psychasthenia, indicating the similar nature of the neurotic risk of these forms. in particular, autonomic disorders of neurotic nature are associated with an increase in emotional instability (factor с rs = -0.262, р ≤ 0.01), anxiety (factor f rs = -0.189, р ≤ 0.05), timidity (factor h rs = -0.199, р ≤ 0.05), and worry (factor o rs = 0.168, р ≤ 0.05). the abovementioned conclude that quarantine measures under the conditions of a pandemic increase the risks of neurotic disorders of adolescents owing to a very similar constellation of changes in individual psychological factors: forced isolation, emotional instability because of exhausting tension, anxiety and worry emerging from timidity. 6. conclusions the conducted analysis identified the peculiarities of the risks of neurotic disorders of adolescents under quarantine measures. in addition, it clarified that preventive and rehabilitative measures, aimed at reducing the risks of adolescents’ neurotization after the quarantine period under the epidemiological threat of covid-19, should focus primarily on increasing communication openness, emotional stability, social courage, self-confidence reducing anxiety and tension. references aleksandrov, d. o., okhrimenko, i. m., & serbyn, r. a. (2017). psykholohichni chynnyky skhylʹnosti ditey uchasnykiv boyovykh diy do poststresovykh psykhotravmatychnykh perezhyvan’ [psychological factors of post-stress psychotraumatic feelings susceptibility of combanants’ children]. science and education, 9, 16-25. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-9-3 bridges, l. j., denham, s. a., & ganiban, j. m. (2004). definitional issues in emotion regulation research. child development, 75(2), 340-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00675.x cattell, h.e., & mead, a.d. (2008). the sixteen personality factor questionnaire (16pf). in g. j. boyle, g. matthews, & d. h. saklofske (eds.), the sage handbook of personality theory and assessment: volume 2 — personality measurement and testing (pp. 135-159). sage publications ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849200479.n7 https://publons.com/publon/19127941/ https://publons.com/publon/19127941/ https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-9-3 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00675.x https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849200479.n7 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 36 chess, s., & hassibi, m. (1978). childhood neuroses. in s. chess, & m. hassibi, (eds.), principles and practice of child psychiatry (pp 240-260). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2198-7_11 davis, k. l., panksepp, j., & normansell, l. (2014). the affective neuroscience personality scales: normative data and implications. neuropsychoanalysis, 5(1), 57-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2003.10773410 ding, s., & kalashnyk, l. (2020). resocialization and readaptation as a social need of postcorona period. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2), 12-19. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/135 garrett, j. f. (ed.), (2003). psychological aspects of physical disability: monograph. university press of the pacific. gratz, k. l., rosenthal, m. z., tull, m. t., lejuez, c. w., & gunderson, j. g. (2010). an experimental investigation of emotional reactivity and delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder: the role of shame. comprehensive psychiatry, 51(3), 275-285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.005 kokoshkarova, a. (1984). psikhologichno izsledovane na lichnostta v klinichnata praktika [psychological study of personality in clinical practice]. meditsina i fizkultura. lawrence, r., smith, m., & sega, j. (2017). emotional and psychological trauma. helpguide. https://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/coping-withemotional-and-psychological-trauma.htm robins, c. j., keng, s. l., ekblad, a. g., & brantley, j. g. (2012). effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on emotional experience and expression: a randomized controlled trial. journal of clinical psychology, 68(1), 117-131. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20857 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2198-7_11 https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2003.10773410 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/135 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.005 https://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/coping-with-emotional-and-psychological-trauma.htm https://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/coping-with-emotional-and-psychological-trauma.htm https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20857 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, pages: 118-131 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/144 personal reflection development as means of forming culture of scientific text perception by humanitarians liudmila romanovska¹, tetiana kravchyna 2 , nataliia korolova 3 , kateryna oliynyk 4 , olena nagachevska 5 1 doctor of pedagogical sciences, candidate of psychological sciences, professor, head of social work and pedagogics department, humanities faculty, khmelnitsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine. lroman@online.ua, orcid.org/ 0000-0001-7547-4575 2 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, department of foreign languages, international relations faculty, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnytsky, ukraine. tkravchyna@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0001-8407-6667 3 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, department of disaster medicine and military medicine, first medical faculty, national pirogov memorial medical university, vinnytsa, ukraine. koroleva.natali68@gmail.сom, orcid.org/ 0000-0003-0989-9967 4 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, social work and pedagogics department, humanities faculty, khmelnitsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine. katerina.oleynik@gmail.сom 5 candidate of philological sciences, associate professor, dean of linguistics and psychology institute, kyiv international university, ukraine. elena.nag@gmail.com, orcid.org/ 0000-0002-5200-8085 abstract: the paper presents the structure, contents, principles of the organization of the forming experiment on personal reflection development, the results, the interpretation and conclusions of the research. the program of development of creative abilities during the process of understanding the scientific text is described and tested, and it testifies about the significance of creative interpretation for the success of educational and professional activity of students of humanities of higher educational institutions. the purpose of the paper is to prove that the process of creative interpretation promotes text understanding, determines the formation of adaptive strategies of behavior and reduces the probability of occurrence of stereotyped and maladaptation strategies. the forming activities include training for developing creative abilities, in which group discussion, psychotechnical and psychotherapeutic exercises, elements of psychoanalysis (psychoanalysis, symbol-drama) are used. the paper explores and discusses a concept of personal reflection, which has been used as a means of forming culture of perception of the scientific text during 2019-2020 among the students of the humanities faculty at khmelnytsky national university, ukraine. in conclusion, the author emphasizes the guided questions for the development of personal reflection as a means of forming culture of perception of the scientific text by humanitarians. besides, the paper lists and explores benefits and drawbacks of interpretation levels (scientific, emotional-sensitive, creative) and their relations due to the components of intellect, strategies of interpreted behavior, success of educational and professional activity and creativity. keywords: scientific text; perception; reflection; creativity; intellect; interpretation. how to cite: romanovska, l., kravchyna, t., korolova, n., oliynyk, k., & nagachevska, o. (2020). personal reflection development as means of forming culture of scientific text perception by humanitarians. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 118-131. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/144 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/144 mailto:lroman@online.ua mailto:tkravchyna@gmail.com mailto:koroleva.natali68@gmail.сom mailto:katerina.oleynik@gmail.сom mailto:elena.nag@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/144 personal reflection development as means of forming culture of scientific … liudmila romanovska, et al. 119 1. introduction the culture of scientific text perception combines in itself intellectual, emotional and creative characteristics. the higher the level of development of these characteristics of the person is, the more successful text understanding is. the specifity of the humanitarian direction of professional activity predetermines the necessity of creative understanding of scientific text symbols and further intergration of knowledge into the general system of knowledge with the aim of making corresponding skills. the basis of successful interpretation is creation of general picture of the researched scientific text by means of understanding the symbols used by the author. that is why, research into the development of personal reflection and, in particular, the peculiarities of perception of scientific text by students of humanities is of particular interest to psychology. scientific text can be regarded as a set of specific social — psychological techniques and methods of influencing the consciousness of the individual (the so-called meaning techniques) in order to form a creative behavior and personal reflection. the process and the result of text understanding depend on some subjective factors (the recipient experience, that is apperception, subjective state at the time of reception, the cultural and historical context) and some objective factors (textual or semantic dominants) (soleimani & matin, 2012). personal reflection arises as a present, distinguishing feature of a person, one of the most important properties of consciousness and thinking (rudenok et al., 2020). interest in reflection is determined by the tendencies of contemporary culture. significant accumulation of knowledge, domination of subject knowledge (with the prevalence of analytical methods) lead to apperceptive alienation. this determines the need to search the place for a person in the produced knowledge and culture, reveals reflection as a vital necessary function. human activity mediates both involuntary skills (driven by socialization) and creative processes that require reassessment of the situation, established ways of interaction and their own place in the environment. our present day is characterized by a high degree of variability of cultural influences, a continuous change in requirements, priorities, guidelines, values. this situation of activity creates an objective need for the implementation of reflection, which is intended to reveal the adaptive, self-actualizing possibilities of the person and those personal, core qualities that determine self-worth and must be preserved in the processes of social expression. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 120 the analysis of recent researches and publications, which addresses and scrutinizes the outlined problems, testifies that modern scientists actively emphasize the importance of studying issues of interpretation, psychological theories of the text and peculiarities of perception and understanding of foreign language (chepeleva, 2003); principles of system approach and methods of system analysis due to the study of mental development of the personality (maksimenko, 2000); results of the research of epistemological characteristics of reflection and their manifestation in cognition processes (piazhe, 2001); research of reflection as the phenomenon of communication (leontev, 1983). despite the number of works devoted to reflection, we note that this topic, having vital importance to the psycholinguistics, is still not disclosed in the scientific and psychological analysis. interpretation of the phenomenon of reflection as a means of forming a culture of scientific text is marked by considerable diversity. that is why the need for theoretical development of the phenomena remains, in particular, in the refinement of complicated concepts of description and cognition and also in the development of new forming measures to promote the formation of culture of the scientific text perception. therefore, it can be argued that the relevance of our research is determined by the extraordinary growth of the role of the culture of the scientific language in the development of reflection, the formation and the learned positive linguistic behavior of modern specialists, their ability to critical thinking, scientific substantiation and the creative application of methods of cognition, abilities to interpret scientific concepts and theories, isolate and process (analyze, synthesize, classify, systematize) the necessary professional scientific information, seek self-development and improvement of professional qualities. based on the above, the purpose of the paper is to reveal the influence of the process of perception of scientific texts on the process of professional formation and development of personal reflection by students of humanities. to achieve this goal, the following task is foreseen: to test the program of development of creative abilities (developed by us) during the process of understanding the scientific text in order to increase the success of educational and professional activity by students of higher educational institutions. personal reflection development as means of forming culture of scientific … liudmila romanovska, et al. 121 2. methods and methodology of research to realize the given task in the paper, an empirical research (forming experiment) was used. to carry out the forming activities, the participants of the experiment were divided into 2 groups (experimental and control), which consisted of 61 and 62 students. the forming activities took place during the 2019-2020 academic year and included a training on the development of creative abilities. the training program consisted of methodological and instrumental parts. 1. the methodological part solved the following tasks: a) the formation of rules for participation in the training; b) actualization of knowledge about the person and his professional activity, in particular, professional formation; c) review of the influence of creativity on the process of professional activity; d) disclosure of factors of successful professional development. the training included: group discussion, psychotechnical and psychotherapeutic exercises, elements of psychoanalysis (psychoanalysis, symbol-drama). 2. the instrumental part consisted of three blocks, aimed at forming a constructive assessment of the situation: block 1 “introduction” foresaw the definition of the psychological basis for the interpretation of scientific text during the process of educational and professional activities of students of humanities; block 2 “the success of educational and professional activity” included an introduction to the design of various levels of professional performance and their relationship with the individual psychological characteristics of students (in particular, creative and intellectual ones); block 3 “strategy levels of interpretation during the process of educational and professional activity” combined exercises on the development of reflection in terms of interpretation of scientific text by means of creative self-realization. each block, depending on the purpose of the lesson, included: a) theoretical overview of the problems associated with educational and professional activity and peculiarities of interpretation; b) teaching different levels of interpretation; c) an overview of reflexive experiences, their verbalization and the formation of a culture of perception of the foreign scientific text. each lesson lasted for two or three hours. the general logics of training work involved forty lessons is presented in table 1. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 122 table 1. training work lesson # lesson topic block 1. “introduction”. 1. developing skills in the training group. 2. actualization of skills of reflection of professional activity. 3. psychological preconditions for successful psychological and pedagogical activity. 4-5. development of ideas about the importance of text interpretation and understanding in the process of educational and professional activity. 6. consolidation of skills of reflection of educational and professional activity block 2. “the success of educational and professional activity” 7-8. general features of models of educational and professional activity of representatives of humanitarians. 9-10. the development of attentiveness to the interpreted text is the key to the success of its understanding. 11. means of forming the success of understanding the text. 12. developing the need for creative understanding. 13. peculiarities of experiencing the need for creative understanding while overcoming psychological barriers. 14. constructive interaction as a basic component of the professional activity of humanitarians. 15-16. features of professional reflection. 17. creative understanding as factor in preventing professional conflicts. 18. consolidating the skills of professional reflection. 19-20. updating perceptions of professional engagement. block 3 “strategy levels of interpretation during the process of educational and professional activity” 21. training of linguistic interaction skills. 22. consolidation of skills of linguistic interaction by means of development of reflection. 23. developing empathy skills in the process of interpreting and understanding the text. 24. consolidation of skills of formation of professional self-presentation by means of nonverbal character. 25-26. overcoming stereotypical constructs of professional self-presentation. 27. developing skills to prevent high levels of anxiety in educational and professional activities. 28. emotional and volitional prerequisites of formation of success of educational and professional activity. personal reflection development as means of forming culture of scientific … liudmila romanovska, et al. 123 lesson # lesson topic 29-30. consolidation of skills of success of educational and professional activity by means of overcoming high level of anxiety. 31. development of active listening skills in the process of educational and professional activity. 32. formation of psychological resistance to external influences in the process of educational and professional activity. 33. consolidation of skills of constructive resolution of conflicts of professional activity. 34. prevention of conflicts regarding the professional ethics of humanitarians. 35. creativity — prerequisite for professional self-development of the individual. 36. creativity strategies in humanitarian activities. 37-38. creative self-presentation in the process of educational and pedagogical activity. 39. establishing the creative skills acquired in the course of training work. 40. fixing the skills in regulating anxiety in the process of educational and professional activity. while developing the program, we took into account the effectiveness of group work, as source of actualization and development of means of constructive thinking for practical psychologists and the nature of the corresponding reflexive experiences that accompany the process of interpretation. training program is “development of reflection of creative interpretation and understanding of scientific text during the process of educational and professional activity”. its aim is to promote the formation of creative level of interpretation during the process of educational and professional activity. its tasks are: 1) to form a presentation on effective professional activity for the participants of the training; 2) to update the skills of reflection during the process of interpretation and understanding of scientific text; 3) to develop skills of reflection of professional activity by expanding the limits of professional self-consciousness; 4) to promote the formation of creative level of interpretation by means of overcoming anxiety and developing an adaptive (creative behavior) strategy. basic tips for the trainer are: 1) work in the group should be based on the principles of voluntariness and participants’ trust in each other; 2) if necessary, the trainer should apply the forms of facilitating the training work; brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 124 3) work should not be departed from accepted rules, or the rules should be adjusted on the basis of appropriate group decisions. 3. research results the applied training program proved to be effective. its contents contributed to the development of the students’ (with different levels of interpretation of the scientific text) understanding and the integration of text contents through the formation of adaptive behavior strategies. at the end of the forming activities, a psychodiagnostic testing of representatives of control and experimental groups was carried out to determine the effectiveness of the formation research. these activities took place in september 2019 — october 2020. comparison of indicators of initial and repeated diagnostic tests made it possible to detect significant positive changes in the studied indicators among representatives of experimental groups. a comparative analysis of the success of the forming activities was carried out according to the following indicators: 1) the level of interpretation; 2) the success of educational and professional activity; 3) the strategies of educational and professional activities. 1. as the result of the forming activity, the redistribution of students by interpretation levels took place (table 2). table 2. dynamics of indicators of levels of interpretation of scientific text in relation to the components of intellect (in%) # level of interpretation components of intellect verbal abilities mathematica l abilities constructiona l abilities theoreticalpractical abilities c o n tr o l g ro u p e x p er im e n ta l g ro u p c o n tr o l g ro u p e x p er im e n ta l g ro u p c o n tr o l g ro u p e x p er im e n ta l g ro u p c o n tr o l g ro u p e x p er im e n ta l g ro u p 1 scientific 26,5 23 74,2 57 39,7 29,2 55,8 53,4 2 emotionalsensitive 15,4 12,8 8,1 4,6 32,7 21,3 24,9 14,1 3 creative 58,1 64,2 17,7 38,4 28,6 49,5 19,3 32,5 personal reflection development as means of forming culture of scientific … liudmila romanovska, et al. 125 changes in the redistribution of students’ ratio by level of interpretation are related to the increasing orientation of students to the high integration of new knowledge by means of creative interpretation. reduction of humanitarians who are focused on emotional-sensitive understanding is conditioned by reorientation to the scientific and creative interpretation of the text contents. we mean reflexion as a conscious and arbitrary process of the subject’s comprehension and rethinking of essential intrinsic features, possibilities and achievements, as well as his/her relations with the social world (the manifestation of communication with other people and the active assimilation of the norms and means of various activities). the reflection elements are: a) the informative component that characterizes its topical aspect and b) the dynamic component, associated with the way of its emergence. the informative side of reflection is determined by its subject, depending on which its both main types are distinguished — internal (intrapsychic, autoreflection) and external (interpersonal) reflexion. the first one relates to reflexivity as the ability to self-perception of the contents of own psyche and its analysis, the second one — with the ability to construct and reproduce (consciously) the direction of thought, feelings of the subject of communication. they involve both the ability to “take the place of another one”, and the mechanisms of projection, identification, empathy. the dynamic component of reflection is related to the moment of the launch of this process, that is, with the reflexive output, as well as, the processes of transition from level to level — in other words, with the process of reflexive dives and transitions on reflexive levels. reflection of professional formation includes the following aspects: topical (reflection of the structure of professional interests, goals, expectations of the individual; reflection of educational and professional actions, results, achievements; reflection of the qualities of the professional); informative (the result of self-reliance of personality in the process of professionalization, which is represented in the form of general knowledge of “i”, the problems and contradictions of professional formation, sensory experience and self-assessment of the identified, conscious structural units of “i”, etc.); operational (the main forms of intellectual, reflexive and practical activity to find, analyze, synthesize, saturate the contents of “i” — self-knowledge, self-esteem, self-generalization, etc.). reflection as an ability to self-knowledge and self-analysis of its own internal mental activity, mental qualities and conditions is one of the most important indicators of subjectivity of the specialist. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 126 2. transformation of the indicators of interpretation has led to the corresponding transformation of strategies of students’ behavior (table 3). table 3. distribution of strategies of interpretative behavior before and after forming activities (in%) № l e v el o f in te rp re ta ti o n strategies of interpreted behaviour adaptation stereotyping disadaptation c o n tr o l g ro u p e x p er im e n ta l g ro u p c o n tr o l g ro u p e x p er im e n ta l g ro u p c o n tr o l g ro u p e x p er im e n ta l g ro u p 1 scientific 36,4 2,8 41,4 45,5 28,8 14,4 2 emotion alsensitive 18,5 4,7 46,4 46,9 65,6 83,2 3 creative 45,1 92,5 12,2 7,6 5,6 2,4 the increase of students with the adaptive strategy of interpreting the scientific text is connected with the awareness of the need for successful professional development. the increase of humanitarians focused on the strategy of stereotyping indicates the need for standardization of professional knowledge, compliance with stereotyped patterns of educational and professional behavior. reduction of students with the maladaptation strategy, indicates about their responsibility for their own professional activity. 3. there is a decrease in the level of situational anxiety among the students. thus, there is the increased number of students with reactive anxiety in comparison with the reduction of students with situational anxiety. the reorientation of students from maladaptation to adaptive behavior strategies has contributed to the increased confidence in the success of educational and professional activity and the corresponding reduction of anxiety. 4. it is stated that the general success of the educational-professional activities and creativity of humanitarians increases (table 4). the increase of students with high and medium creative level of success is due to the orientation towards the creative level of interpretation of the scientific text. personal reflection development as means of forming culture of scientific … liudmila romanovska, et al. 127 reduction of students with low non-productive levels of success is a consequence of their awareness of the growing value of knowledge and the need for the integration of educational information. table 4. dynamics of relations of indicators of the interpretation level due to the success of educational-professional activity and creativity (in%) № level of interpretation success of educational-professional activity due to the level of creativity creative non creative high average / not stable low c o n tr o l g ro u p e x p er im e n ta l g ro u p c o n tr o l g ro u p e x p er im e n ta l g ro u p c o n tr o l g ro u p e x p er im e n ta l g ro u p 1 scientific 16,1 8,4 26,5 39,8 69,2 63 2 emotionalsensitive 11,5 6,4 49,4 15,6 15,6 14,9 3 creative 72,4 85,2 24,1 54,6 15,2 22,1 so, after the forming activity, the interpretation level has undergone qualitative changes. the development of creative abilities contributes to the success of the educational and professional activity of students of humanities. the success of forming activities makes it possible to conclude that the development of creative abilities is a leading factor in the implementation of effective educational and professional activity of students of humanities. the assessment of the results of forming activities gives grounds to speak about the effectiveness of the used tools. awareness of the need for successful professional development became the basis for reorientation of students to the adaptive strategy of educational and professional activities. the contents of these strategies is characterized by the high level of creative interpretation and low level of situational anxiety. according to researchers miklyaeva et al. (2003), adaptation should be understood as the process of bringing the main parameters, their social brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 128 and personal character into a state of dynamic equilibrium with the new conditions of the university environment as an external factor in relation to the student. adaptation is a continuous process, which does not stop for a day. this process also occurs with fluctuations (there can be transmissions into such various spheres as activity, communication, self-conciousness during the day). the non-behaviorist definition of adaptation is substantiated mainly in the works of i. eysenck and his followers. they define adaptation in two ways: a) as a condition in which the needs of the individual (on one hand) and the requirements of the environment (on another one) are completely satisfied; b) the process by which this harmonious state is achieved. the low level of anxiety is an indicator of successful activity of humanitarians. with this level of anxiety, profound contents of anxious experiences provide the effective performance of the educational and professional activity of students in the conditions of educational activity. the high level of anxiety puts back the activity of the personality and prevents from effective educational and professional self-regulation. the main negative sides of influence of high level of anxiety on the behavior can be characterized in such a way: 1) personality with high level of anxiety is inclined to perceive environment that hides threat and danger to a much greater extent than the personality with the low level of anxiety; 2) the high level of anxiety pauses threat for the mental health of personality and promotes the development of neurotic states. researches proved that students with high level of anxiety present themselves as a potentially unsuccessful group and need the social control from the preventive services; 3) the high level of anxiety influences the result of activity negatively: 4) anxiety, in the number of some individual-psychological peculiarities, makes an essential influence on the professional direction, in particular, reducing the level of personality demands: 5) anxiety influences the stability of behavior and manifestation of skills of self-control differently. under the low level of anxiety, we can observe the preservation of confidence, absence of nervousness (in case of mistakes — adequate attitude and desire to correct them), but high level of anxiety is manifested in the behavior by means of pressure increase, irritation, intolerance, self-doubt and so on. experiences of different emotions and feelings influence the formation of student’s personality, reconstruction of his views, attitude to the reality. high intensity (in particular, of intellectual feelings), variety, transmissions from one to the other one, acceleration of high feelings formation are characteristics for students’ emotional processes in education. personal reflection development as means of forming culture of scientific … liudmila romanovska, et al. 129 the feeling of responsibility for success, the feeling of something new and etc. have a particular role for the efficiency of student’s activity. depending on the level of individual peculiarities of personality and attitude to the valuation, students feel joy, easiness, weakness or vice versa emptiness, displeasure and anxiety. performance of educational, social and other tasks of activity requires the definition of the aim, decision making, difficulties overcoming, mobilization of forces, will revealing. that’s why, the high level of selfregulation, the skill to control behavior are important psychological precondition of student’s successful activity. psychological self-regulation is to manage your emotions, feelings, ideas, attention and etc. this is possible thanks to the help of physical actions, full concentration, imaginative self-direction, rational self-analysis and other methods of self-regulation aimed at the development of creativity of the individual (chesnokova, 1982). the process of creativity is directly related to the process of thinking, which is characterized by a number of features. at first, creative thinking is plastic. creative people offer a lot of solutions in the case when an ordinary person can find one or two solutions. secondly, it is mobile: it is not difficult for it to move from one aspect of the problem to another one, without departing from one point of view. and finally, creative thinking is original. it generates unexpected, uncommonplace, unusual decisions. in the activity aimed at the creative development of the student, the teacher must take into account a number of features: a) individual abilities are not isolated, they are interacted in relation to the goal as something integral; b) the degree of integration of abilities (in a system of concrete activity) can be individual. it means that the effectiveness of the same productivity of separate functions of different people will be different; c) each individual is also characterized by an indicator of the integration of individual abilities in relation to various activities; d) the effectiveness of the development of creative abilities of students (during the process of learning) depends, to a large extent, on the consideration of the main regularities and stages of the creative process (when creating the creative situation). the patterns of the creative process, the development of creative personality qualities impose certain requirements on the technology of teaching and developing the contents of educational and cognitive activities of the student (tihomirov, 1981). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 130 conclusions the results of the forming experiment testify about the existence of positive dynamics of the indicators of the level of interpretation of the scientific text, the success of the educational-professional activities and strategies. prevalence of adaptive behavior strategies over stereotyped and maladaptive ones is associated with the focus on the creative level of interpretation of the text. such strategies are implemented by means of increasing the activity of students in adapting to the conditions of educational and professional activities, effective attitude to the surrounding reality, awareness of the motives of their own behavior and the development of effective strategies for their implementation; independent consideration of accuracy, speed, completeness, emotionality, ability to select, analyze, use information during the process of educational and professional activity, comprehension of information, the formation of scientific concepts and the development of personal and professional reflection. increasing the level of creativity and self-regulation of personality behavior has contributed to the reduction of situational anxiety among the investigators and the development of a constructive response structure to objective external influence (reactive anxiety). the orientation of the students’ educational and professional activity on creativity, in general, and the creative interpretation of the symbolic components of the scientific text, in particular, has become possible by means of developing the skills of reflection of creative abilities. creative abilities are a complex structure that includes emotional culture, a system of cultural-logical, vocational and pedagogical knowledge, a broad general cultural erudition, genetic predestination, outlook, imaginative thinking, the ability to model a variety of ways of creative activity. the formed skills of creative self-realization of students during the process of interpretation and understanding contribute to the successful integration of new knowledge into the general system of knowledge of specialists, thus forming the basis for the success of educational and professional activity in general. references chepeleva, n.v. (2003). rozuminnya ta interpretaciya osoby`stisnogo dosvidu v konteksti psy`xologichnoyi germenevty`ky` [understanding and interpretation of the personal experience in the context of psychological personal reflection development as means of forming culture of scientific … liudmila romanovska, et al. 131 hermeneutics]. aktual`ni problemy` suchasnoyi ukrayins`koyi psy`xologiyi: naukovi zapy`sky` insty`tutu psy`xologiyi im. g.s. kostyuka apn ukrayiny` [actual problems of modern ukrainian psychology: scientific notes of the institute of psychology of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine named after g.s. kostiuk], 23, 15–24. chesnokova, i.i. (1982). samosoznanie, samoregulyaciya, samodeterminaciya lichnosti [self-consciousness, self-regulation, self-determination of personality]. problema psihologii lichnosti [problems of personality psychology]. m.: pressa. leontev, a.n. (1983). izbrannye psihologicheskie trudy [elected psychological works]. (vols. 1-2). m.: pedagogika. maksimenko, s.d. (2000). geneticheskaja psihologija (metodologicheskaja refleksija [genetic psychology (methodological reflection on problems of development in psychology)]. m.: refl-buk. miklyaeva, a.v., rumyanceva, p.v., tupicyna, i.a., tuzhikova, e.s. (2003). professionalnaya adaptaciya molodyh specialistov-psihologov na razlichnyh etapah vhozhdeniya v professiyu [professional adaptation of young psychologists at various stages of entering the profession]. integrativnyj podhod v psihologii: sb. nauchnyh statej [integrative approach in psychology: collection of scientific articles]. spb.: izd-vo rgpu im. a.i. gercena. piazhe, z. (2001). teoriya, eksperimenty, diskussiya [theory, experiments, discussion]. in burmens'kaya g.v. & obuhova l.v. (eds.), m.: gardariki. rudenok, a., zakharasevych, n., antonova, z., zhylovska, t., & falynska, z. (2020). assessing the level of verbal intelligence in preschool children as important element of cognitive abilities. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 189-198. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/82 soleimani, h., & matin, f. s. (2012). on the relationship between rightbrain and leftbrain dominance and reading comprehension test performance of iranian efl learners. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 3(2), pp. 43-58. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/ index.php/brain/article/view/1914 tihomirov, o.l. (1984). psihologiya myshleniya [psychology of thinking]. m.: prosveshhenie. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/82 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/%0bindex.php/brain/article/view/1914 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/%0bindex.php/brain/article/view/1914 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 154-171 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/176 psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special educational needs by means of art therapy viacheslav havrylkevych¹, larysa podkorytova2, larysa danylchuk3, liudmila romanovska4, tetiana kravchyna5, olena chovgan6 1 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of psychology and pedagogics, humanities faculty, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnytsky, ukraine, gavrilkevich@gmail.com 2 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of psychology and pedagogics, humanities faculty, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnytsky, ukraine, larisa.podkoritova@gmail.com 3 doctor of pedagogical sciences, аssociate рrofessor, рrofessor of social work and pedagogics department, humanities faculty, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine, larkaterdn@gmail.com 4 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, head of social work and pedagogics department, humanities faculty, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnytsky, ukraine, lroman@online.ua 5 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of foreign languages, international relations faculty, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnytsky, ukraine, tkravchyna@gmail.com 6 phd in psychology, associate professor of social work and pedagogics department, humanities faculty, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine, elena.chovhan@gmail.com abstract: the paper presents the results of empirical study of parents' attitudes towards their children with special educational needs. the following methods have been used: pari method (e. schaefer, r. bell; adaptation by t. nescheret), test-questionnaire of parental attitude of a. varga and v. stolin; questionnaire 'analysis of family myth' by a. nesterova. to clarify and deepen the analysis of research data, two samples of selected participants have been created: a) parents of children with special educational needs and b) parents of children without special educational needs. two google forms have been made with appropriate introductory questionnaires and research instructions. the analysis of the results obtained by the methods has revealed the following tendencies in the attitude of parents of children with special educational needs, in comparison with parents of other children: lower level of acceptance; greater concentration on the child and his/her control; a kind of inconsistency in the attitude to their children (simultaneous optimal emotional contact and excessive emotional distance); a sense of self-sacrifice and belief in its necessity. it has been proved, that the usage of different types and forms of art therapy (music, dance-movement, bibliotherapy, fairy tale therapy, phototherapy, film therapy, fine art therapy) helps to correct parents' attitude to their children with special educational needs. in addition, a number of recommendations for the use of art therapy to work with parents of children with special educational needs has been proposed. keywords: art therapy; sen; parents’ attitude; psychological correction; psychodiagnostic tools. how to cite: havrylkevych, v., podkorytova, l., danylchuk, l., romanovska, l., kravchyna, t., & chovgan, o. (2021). psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special educational needs by means of art therapy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 154-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/176 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/176 mailto:gavrilkevich@gmail.com mailto:larisa.podkoritova@gmail.com mailto:larkaterdn@gmail.com mailto:lroman@online.ua mailto:tkravchyna@gmail.com mailto:elena.chovhan@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/176 psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special … olena stroyanovska, et al. 155 1. introduction 1.1. the problem of study attitudes towards children with special educational needs are changing significantly. evidence of this is, in particular, the change of unattractive category symbol from 'children with disabilities' (latin 'weak, sick') to 'children with special educational needs'. such a change of designation shifts the emphasis from illness to needs. accordingly, the focus of supporting this category of children increases and begins to include a significant element of psychological work, which should be aimed at both children with special educational needs (hereinafter referred to as sen) and their parents (ionescu, cordun, carlo, 2021). in particular, it is important to study the parents’ attitude to their children with sen. such attitude plays a primary role in the further development of such children in society and social adaptation (ihnatenko, 2019) and can be corrected. one of the effective methods of psychological correction of attitude is art therapy, which, in a mild form, addresses the deep emotions of a person that make up the attitude. at the same time, there is a lack of scientific works and methodological developments aimed at psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with sen by means of art therapy. the available material is focused primarily on working with children with sen, and much less on their parents and their attitude to children. thus, the relevance of this study is due to the following contradictions: the availability of significant methodological tools and practical recommendations for working with children with special educational needs, and a smaller methodological basis for psychological work with their parents; the availability of thorough theoretical work and methodological complexes on working with families raising children with sen, and the lack of work on the attitude of parents to their children with sen; the presence of meaningful theoretical and practical developments in art therapy and the lack of proper systematization of knowledge on the use of art therapy in working with the parents’ attitude to their children with special educational needs. 1.2. literature review a general review of scientific papers has revealed that there is very little research on the attitude of parents to their children with sen. thus, o. khmyzova singled out three groups of parents of children with sen, according to adaptability: 1) parents who adequately perceive the brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 156 characteristics of the child, try to develop his/her potential; constantly look for new ways, methods of reception, means of training and education; 2) parents, who pay attention to the child with special needs, try to develop him/her, but, at the same time, their own emotional background is significantly reduced ('i live for the sake of the child'); 3) parents who financially provide for a child with special needs (pay for treatment, buy beautiful clothes, expensive toys, etc.), but do not provide emotional support (khmyzova, 2011). k. ihnatenko identifies a number of mistakes in the family upbringing of children with sen and some inadequate attitudes of parents to them: excessive care of the child, attitude to him/her as very sick or vice versa – attitude to the child as completely healthy, disregard for his/her problems, opportunities and inappropriate submission of claims; lack of proper attention to the child; attitude to the defect as a temporary phenomenon; contempt for the child, humiliation, perception of him/her as a family burden and shame (ihnatenko, 2019). analysis of scientific papers on the research topic (zaveryko, soloviova, 2008; hrytsenok, illiashenko, obukhivska, 2009; altinay, z., altinay, f., ossianilsson & aydin, 2018; ihnatenko, 2019) has shown that the attitude of parents to their children with sen varies greatly in different families and depends on a number of factors, including the nature of the child's defect, psychological characteristics and cultural level of parents, etc. at the same time, the following opposite tendencies are revealed in the attitude of parents to their children with sen: 1) hyperopia – emotional rejection; 2) pity for indulgence – demand (without taking into account the characteristics of the child); 3) illusory (underestimation of the child's problem, blind faith in prosperous 'healthy' future) – disbelief in the child (overestimation of the problem, lack of vision of the child's development prospects and his/her psychological resources). thus, the attitude of parents towards their children with sen is often contradictory, ambiguous and inadequate. scientific and methodological developments in working with families with sen children are quite significant: bukovska, 2013; galyan, 2019; illiashenko, 2019; zhuk, 2019; kolyshkin, 2015; krotenko, 2013; makarenko, 2009; o. opalyuk and t. opalyuk, 2012, podkorytova, 2020 and others. these and other works present both a theoretical analysis of the problem of professional work with families with sen children and practical recommendations, methodological developments for working with such families. in some works, we find proposals to use art therapy elements. thus, bukovska, 2013 offers to use parental essays: 'my problem', 'my way psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special … olena stroyanovska, et al. 157 of life', 'life story of my child', which can be defined as creative, or active, bibliotherapy. however, these works lack recommendations for targeted psychological correction of parents' attitudes towards their children with sen. in particular, a general description of such a program without specifying the content is presented in the publication of podkorytova, 2020. the theoretical analysis encourages to conduct an empirical study of the attitude of parents to their children with special educational needs and determine the theoretical and methodological basis for the use of art therapy for the psychological correction of this attitude. 2. methodology 2.1. research methods the following methods have been used to study the features of psychological correction of parents' attitudes towards their children with sen: 1) theoretical: analysis, classification, comparison and generalization of these scientific papers; 2) empirical: psychodiagnostic methods (pari method (e. schaefer, r. bell; adaptation by t. nescheret), test-questionnaire of parental attitude of a. varga and v. stolin; questionnaire 'analysis of family myth' by a. nesterova). we'll describe the used psychodiagnostic techniques briefly. the pari method (authors: e. schaefer, r. bell; adaptation by t. nescheret) (karelin, 1999) is designed to study the attitude of parents to different aspects of family life. the method contains 115 judgments arranged in a certain sequence. the respondent should express his/her attitude to each statement in the form of full or partial consent or disagreement. each answer is evaluated by a certain point. the processing of answers is carried out by addition of the sum of points on each of 23 scales of technique: 1) verbalization; 2) excessive care; 3) dependence on the family; 4) suppression of will; 5) sense of self-sacrifice; 6) fear of offending; 7) family conflicts; 8) irritability; 9) excessive rigor; 10) exclusion of family influences; 11) excessive authority of parents; 12) suppression of aggression; 13) dissatisfaction with the role of the hostess; 14) partnership relations; 15) development of the child's activity; 16) avoidance of conflict; 17) indifference of the husband; 18) suppression of sexuality; 19) the dominance of the mother; 20) excessive interference in the child's world; 21) equal relations; 22) the desire to accelerate the development of the child; 23) independence of the mother. 15 of these aspects describe the parent-child relationship and are grouped into the brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 158 integrated scales: 1 – optimal emotional contact, 2 – excessive emotional distance with the child, 3 – excessive concentration on the child. the test-questionnaire of parental attitude of a. varga and v. stolin (karelin, 1999) is a psychodiagnostic tool focused on revealing parental attitude to children. parental attitude is understood as a system of different feelings about the child, behavioral stereotypes practiced in communication with him/her, the peculiarities of perception and understanding of the child's personality, his/her actions. the questionnaire consists of 5 scales: 1) 'approval – rejection' (integral emotional attitude to the child; a high score is interpreted as rejection); 2) 'cooperation', or 'image of social desirability of behavior' (socially desirable image of parental attitude, interest in the child, the desire to help her/him, etc.); 3) 'symbiosis' (interpersonal distance in communication with the child; the higher the indicator is, the more parents seek a symbiotic relationship with the child, feel themselves with him/her as a single whole); 4) 'authoritarian hypersocialization' (form and direction of control over the child's behavior; the higher the score is, the more powerful the authoritarianism is); 5) 'little loser' (features of perception and understanding of the child by parents; high values indicate the desire of parents to infantilize and invalidate the child, attribute personal and social incapacity to her/him). questionnaire 'analysis of family myth' (author: nesterova, 2004, 2017) provides an opportunity to explore a set of mythological ideas about the family of an individual. it contains 30 statements. the following types of family myths are studied: 1) 'the myth of eternal love and indivisibility of family members' (love does not fade with age; it is manifested in the attitude of parents to the child by reluctance to let him/her out of their care; jealousy); 2) 'the myth of the magical power of love' (denies the objective reasons that affect the development of family events; the belief that love of parents to children, can solve all problems on their own); 3) 'the myth of the absoluteness of family situations' (substituting the analysis of the family situation with absolute concepts, rigid schemes, etc.); 4) 'the myth of evil forces attacking the family' (the idea that all events in the family are influenced by evil forces, namely, the denial of the fact of own influence on the development of events); 5) 'the myth of the need to sacrifice for the sake of the family and its members' (the idea that each family member must sacrifice something, give up own interests, feelings for the sake of family, children, partner, not to think about himself); 6) 'the myth of the permanence of family well-being' (the position that family happiness and well-being are a constant phenomenon, and there should be no psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special … olena stroyanovska, et al. 159 disagreements in a happy family. quarrels indicate about the hatred and family breakdown). these myths correspond to certain scales of the questionnaire, 5 statements in each. the more detailed description of the studied myths can be found in the original publication of the author (nesterova, 2017). the respondent must determine the level of his/her agreement with each statement. the lowest number of points that a myth can score is 5 points (indicating that the respondent does not share this myth); the highest number of points is 25 (the respondent completely shares the myth). interpretation is based on estimates of all myths. you can also determine the level of general mythology of family ideas of the respondent. we have used this questionnaire in our study of parents 'attitudes toward their children with sen, because it contains questions related to family members' illness and attitudes toward the child. the results of the scale 5 'myth of the need to sacrifice for the sake of the family and its members' (among parents of children with sen) are of particular interest for our study. we assume that the indicators of this myth will be higher among parents of children with sen than parents of children without sen. 2.2 research procedure two similar google forms were created for the study: one for parents of children with sen, the other one – for parents of healthy children. both forms contained the same set of psychodiagnostic methods (pari methodology, a. varga and v. stolin parental attitude testquestionnaire, a. nesterova questionnaire 'analysis of family myth'). the instructions for the tests and the general questionnaire differed. thus, in the google version of the form for parents of children with sen, the respondents were asked to determine their agreement or disagreement with each statement of the tests for their child with sen. the general questionnaire contained the following items: do you have a child with special educational needs? please, indicate the gender of your child with special needs. please, indicate the age of your child with special needs. what is special about your child? the google form for parents of children without sen did not contain such clarifications on children with sen in the instructions and paragraphs. our online study involved 47 people, who have children with sen and 47 people who do not have children with sen. a total amount is 94 people. a sample of parents of healthy children was formed as a control group for comparative analysis of parents' attitudes towards their children with sen. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 160 adherence to the ethics of psychological research. parental participation in the study was voluntary. the link to the developed google form for parents with children with sen was passed on to groups of parents through community organizations, social workers and psychologists working with this category of parents. the social network facebook was used to attract parents of children without sen, which guaranteed randomness and full voluntary participation in the study. before the invitation of the participants, it was stipulated that the age of children (both with and without sen) should be up to 18 years. the confidentiality of the research data was ensured by the anonymity of the survey and the absence of mandatory collection of e-mail addresses of the participants. parents were asked to leave their addresses in a special, optional column of the introductory questionnaire if they were interested in their own research results. 3. research results we present the generalized results for each method. the test-questionnaire of parental attitude of a. varga and v. stolin has shown that all the studied indicators in both parental samples are within the norm. the comparative analysis of the averages for each scale in the studied samples reveals the following: – the level of rejection by parents of their children with sen is 3.6 points higher than that of parents of healthy children. the average score of 13.5 obtained in the group of parents of children with sen is slightly above the average level of rejection according to the method and the average score of 9.9 among the parents of healthy children corresponds to the average level of rejection according to the method; – on the scales 'social desirability' and 'symbiosis', the averages of both groups of parents are identical: levels above the average and the average level, respectively; – on the scale 'authoritarian hypersocialization' the difference between the average scores is 1 point: the average score of parents of children with sen – 3.1 (average level), and healthy – 2.1 (below the average); – a slight difference between the average scores in the samples is found on the scale 'little loser': 2.4 (slightly above average) and 1.7 (average level) among parents of children with sen and parents of healthy children, respectively (see table 1). psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special … olena stroyanovska, et al. 161 table 1. averages in groups of the surveyed parents on the testquestionnaire of parental attitude of a. varga and v. stolin approval social desirability symbiosis hypersocialization little loser sen 13,5 7 3,8 3,1 2,4 healthy 9,9 7 3,7 2,1 1,7 difference 3,6 0 0,1 1 0,7 thus, according to the test-questionnaire of parental attitude of a. varga and v. stolin, parents of children with sen have shown a weak tendency not to accept their children. compared to parents of healthy children, they are more prone to authoritarianism towards their children and a little more infantilized. this may be due to the need for constant care and supervision of certain categories of children with sen. thus, the analysis of the responses of some parents has revealed that the highest rates of rejection, infantilization (disability) of the child are found in mothers of children with the following diagnoses: autism spectrum disorders, adhd, speech disorders; authoritarianism – in mothers of children with movement disorders, speech disorders, autism spectrum disorders. the highest rates of child acceptance and perception of him/her as the most healthy are identified in mothers of children with visual, hearing and autism spectrum disorders. accordingly, a more detailed study of parents' attitudes towards their children in accordance with the child's diagnosis is planned in the future. the pari method has revealed that the indicators for the studied 23 aspects and the three combined scales among the parents of children with sen and healthy children are within normal limits. almost all indicators of parents of children with sen are slightly higher than those of parents of healthy children. the biggest difference is found in the feeling of selfsacrifice (this figure is higher by 2.6 points among parents of children with sen than parents with healthy children), excessive interference in the child's world (more than 2.4 points), the desire to accelerate the child's development (more than 2.1 points). let's note that the last two indicators coincide with a slightly higher level of authoritarianism and disability of the child of the parents of children with sen compared to the parents of healthy children according to the previous method. it has also been found that parents of children with sen are slightly more likely to suppress their own sexuality. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 162 according to the generalized three indicators of attitude to the child, it has been shown that the average scores on 'optimal emotional contact with the child' and 'emotional distance with the child' in both groups of parents are almost the same, although slightly higher than in groups of parents of children with sen. since we have seen a sort of inconsistency in the results obtained – the optimal emotional contact and emotional distance, in our opinion, are inversely related – we conducted a correlation analysis of data on these scales. a weak positive correlation r = 0.13 was detected. in the sample of parents of children without sen, the correlation between the scales 'optimal emotional contact' and 'excessive emotional distance' is even weaker, but negative r = -0.04. from this, we assume that optimal emotional contact and emotional distance depend little on each other. however, the obtained assumption needs further empirical verification. the higher average score among the parents of children with sen (103.4 vs. 90.9 points among the parents of healthy children) was found with the help of the scale 'excessive concentration on the child' table 2. avarages in groups of the surveyed parents by the method of pari (integrated scales) optimal emotional contact with the child excessive emotional distance excessive concentration on the child attitude to the family role sen 64,3 32,7 103,4 107,9 healthy 62 29,4 90,9 99,6 difference 2,3 3,3 12,5 8,3 thus, the pari method has revealed the following trends in the attitude of parents to their children with sen: excessive concentration on the child and excessive interference in his/her world, due to the characteristics of children and a real need for parental attention; the desire to accelerate the child's development, some suppression of own sexuality, as well as a sense of self-sacrifice. questionnaire 'analysis of family myth' by a. nesterova has found that the overall level of mythological ideas about the family and children among parents of children with sen is higher than parents of healthy children by 9.6 points (87.1 and 77.5 points, respectively, which corresponds to the medium level of general mythology according to the questionnaire). comparison of medium levels for each studied family myth (table 3): psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special … olena stroyanovska, et al. 163 – the averages for the myths of 'eternal love and indivisibility of family members', 'magical power of love' and 'permanence of family wellbeing' among parents of children with sen are slightly higher than parents of healthy children (by 1.1; 1.3 1.3 points according to each myth); while all indicators correspond to the medium level of expression of the myth according to the method; – discrepancies between average scores are found in the myths of 'evil forces attacking the family' and 'the need to sacrifice for the sake of the family and its members'. thus, the average score according to the first myth among the parents of children with sen is higher by 2.8 points than among the parents of healthy children; and for the second myth – by 2.7 points. the manifestation of the 'myth of evil forces attacking the family' in both samples corresponds to the low level according to the method. the manifestation of the 'myth of the need to sacrifice for the sake of the family and its members' is low among the parents of healthy children, but it is at the average level among the parents of children with sen. this result coincides with the result on the scale of 'self-sacrifice' of the pari method, which is also higher among parents of children with sen than parents of healthy children; – ‘the myth of absoluteness of family situations’ in both groups of parents is the same and manifested at the high level. table 3. avarages in groups of the surveyed parents on the questionnaire 'analysis of family myth' a. nesterova 'e te rn al lo v e an d in d iv is ib il it y o f fa m il y m e m b e rs ' m y th o f m ag ic al p o w er o f lo v e' m y th o f ab so lu te n es s o f fa m il y si tu at io n s 'm y th o f e v il fo rc e s at ta ck in g th e fa m il y 'm y th o f th e n ee d t o s ac ri fi c e fo r th e sa k e o f th e f am il y an d i ts m em b e rs 't h e m y th o f th e p e rm an e n c e o f fa m il y w e ll -b e in g ' g en e ra l m y th o d o lo g y o f fa m il y id ea s sen 16,5 15,3 19,3 9,5 13,5 13,1 87,1 healthy 15,4 14 18,9 6,7 10,8 11,8 77,5 difference 1,1 1,3 0,4 2,8 2,7 1,3 9,6 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 164 summarizing the results of the questionnaire 'analysis of family myth' by a. nesterova, we can assume that the higher indicators of mythology of family perceptions by parents of children with sen can be a psychological protection – a reaction to the special needs of own child. the results obtained by all three methods do not contradict, but confirm each other. despite slight differences in the results between the studied samples of parents, the following trends in the attitude of parents to their children with sen compared to parents of healthy children have been defined: – lower level of approval; – greater concentration on the child and his/her control; – a sense of self-sacrifice and belief in its necessity. let's also note that, a fairly high level of rigidity of family ideas is found in both groups of the studied parents. at the same time, it should be emphasized that the indicators of parents of children with sen due to all the studied indicators are mostly within the norm. in our opinion, this indicates that parents treat their children with sen, in general, almost the same way as other parents treat their healthy children. at the same time, to correct the attitude of parents, in particular, to increase the acceptance of their child with sen and reduce the feeling of self-sacrifice seems appropriate. as already mentioned, such a correction, in particular, with an emphasis on the development of psychological resources of parents, will positively contribute to the development of children with sen. to that end, we suggest using art therapy, which is one of the most resourceful and mild methods of psychological correction and psychological assistance. in particular, important features of art therapy for the psychological correction of parents' attitudes towards their children with sen are: 1) reflexivity – a creative product (drawing, sculpture, installation, fairy tale, story, etc.) appears as a 'mirror', which reflects the attitude of parents to their children; 2) the possibility of non-verbal interaction, which allows the processing of difficult experiences related to the family situation and the child's illness; 3) activation of creative potential of the person that is important both for education of the child with sen and better state of parents’ health; 4) focus on emotions that form the basis of the relationship; psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special … olena stroyanovska, et al. 165 5) resourcefulness – the creative process usually causes positive emotions for its participants, which, in turn, creates a favorable basis for further psychological work with parents. art therapy combines a number of specific methods that help the client achieve mental integrity, a higher quality of life and develop his potential. according to the existing arts, different types of art therapy are defined: art therapy, bibliotherapy, film therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, dance therapy, fairy tale therapy, phototherapy, etc. a characteristic feature of ukrainian art therapy is its multimodality – the integrated use of various arts for psychological assistance. in any type of art therapy, there are two main ways to implement it (encyclopedic dictionary of art therapy, 2017). – receptive, or passive, – perception of works of art (reading, watching movies and paintings, listening to music, etc.); – creative, or active, – creating own creative product (drawing, sculpture, dance, fairy tales, etc.), which provides answers to certain questions, helps to resolve internal conflicts, improve emotional state (voznesenska, sknar, 2017). let's consider the possibility of using each type of art therapy for the psychological correction of parents' attitudes towards their children with sen. music therapy is a type of art therapy when music, singing and sounds are the means of healing (voznesenska, sknar, 2017). it is advisable for psychological correction of the attitude of parents to their children with sen to use both creative and receptive forms of music therapy. in particular, one of the possible options for creative music therapy will be to create a joint 'noise orchestra', 'trio' or 'duet' of parents and their children with sen. this allows to respond to the accumulated negative feelings and emotions, on the one hand, and on the other hand, creates a creative atmosphere that unites. it is necessary for receptive music therapy of the attitude of parents to their children with sen to make a special selection of musical works, which is a prospect for further research. dance-movement therapy – a type of art therapy, when the means of psychological assistance to a person is movement, dance (encyclopedic dictionary of art therapy, 2017). due to the fact that the dance directly involves the human body, it makes it possible to remove the muscular clamps of parents due to their long-term mental and emotional stress that arises in the process of brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 166 upbringing children with sen. this helps to reduce emotional stress of parents and improve attitudes towards themselves and their children. bibliotherapy is a type of art therapy that uses literature as a means of psychological help (voznesenska, sknar, 2017). as compared with receptive music therapy, the selection of special literary works to correct the attitude of parents to their children with sen is the subject of a separate study. in the context of creative bibliotherapy, it is advisable for parents to write essays: 'my problem', 'my way of life', 'history of my child's life', etc. (bukovska, 2013). it is advisable to offer parents to write in different genres and forms to respond and analyze their experiences and attitudes: create a saga, myth, essay, legend, fairy tale, fantasy, acrostic, children's poems, 'counters', japanese haiku and keep a diary, write an artistic autobiography and biographies of own child, write letters, etc. (voznesenska, sknar, 2017). fairy tale therapy is a method that uses a fairy tale to integrate personality, develop creative abilities, expand consciousness, improve interaction with the outside world (derkach, 2008). to work with parents of children with sen, you can use ready-made fairy tales, for example, to analyze or play the fairy tale 'little duck', and methods of fairy tale therapy, such as creating a fairy tale (about a family in which a special child was born) individually or with a child. phototherapy is a type of art therapy based on the use of photography or slides to solve psychological problems, as well as for the development and harmonization of personality (voznesenska, sknar, 2017). to correct the attitude of parents to their children with sen, it is advisable to use photo collages on the theme 'my special child', 'my special family', etc. parents can also be asked to take a series of photos of their child with sen in different situations (when eating, sleeping, reading, playing, etc.). looking at a child through the prism of photography gives parents the opportunity to psychologically go beyond the family system and look at it and their child from the outside. this creates the conditions for further changes in attitudes towards the child. cinema therapy is a type of art therapy based on the use of the art of cinema as a therapeutic tool (voznesenska, sknar, 2017). in working with parents of children with sen, it is advisable to use both forms of film therapy: select special films about children with special educational needs, which is the subject of a separate study; give creative tasks to parents, for example, to make a series of videos about the child with sen. psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special … olena stroyanovska, et al. 167 fine art therapy is a type of art therapy when the means of healing is fine art (voznesenska, sknar, 2017), which provides opportunities to use a wide range of materials for creativity: graphics, paints, paper, plasticine and etc. fine art therapy is widely used in family art therapy and has a significant arsenal of methods and techniques. some of them with appropriate modifications can be used in working with parents of children with sen. the description of these techniques is given below. one of the most common and frequently used methods of family art therapy is to create a family portrait ('family self-portrait') – a realistic, abstract or symbolic image of the family. the client family is offered a sheet of whatman paper, various materials (paints, chalk, pencils, magazines with illustrations to create a collage) and the task: 'create a self-portrait of your family'. all other guidelines and restrictions are at the discretion of the family. this technique is diagnostic for understanding by both the art therapist and the family members themselves (babii, 2014). in further work with a self-portrait, you can determine the place of each family member in the family, his/her size on paper, colours used for depiction, the level of realism or fantasy of the image, the clarity of boundaries and lines in the image of each family member and etc. the possibilities of technology are different: in terms of insights of family members, the work is considered from the outside of it; each participant describes his/her part of the work and the feelings that arise in the process of joint creativity and discussion (zinkevich-evstigneeva, 2003). the technique 'family sculpture' or 'sculpture of family relations' is similar in content to the family portrait. the art therapist suggests creating an image of a family or family relations in the form of a sculptural group from plastic material (clay, plasticine, dough) (yatsenko, kalashnyk, chernukha, 2009). working with plastic materials helps to bring out the negative experiences of family members, which can then be analyzed and evaluated. it is especially necessary to work with plastic materials in case of physical violence in the family, it allows to do traumatic material without painful experience, and also gives the chance to react the accumulated aggression and anger (hazolyshyn, 2007). a sculpture of a family can be created in the form of a family tree, where parts of the tree symbolize different family members, which is diagnostic in the study of the family hierarchy. exercise 'family coat of arms'. family members should portray what they have inherited from the personal traits of the parents, what they would brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 168 like to inherit, what they would not like, what they would like to pass on to their children; or weak and strong traits inherited from parents; or past and present in the family (voznesenskaya, 2009). exercise 'journey to the world of childhood' is aimed at processing children's memories of parents. it is for parents to portray themselves, their interests, occupations now and in childhood. this work is useful in case of conflicts in child-parent relations, processing of past insults, it helps parents to look at the situation through the eyes of their children and those children they once were, and children understand the motives of parental behavior better (medvedeva, levchenko, komissarova, dobrovol’skaya, 2001). all the above types and techniques of art therapy can be used individually, in pairs and in groups. we present recommendations for the use of art therapy to work with parents of children with sen, developed by us on the basis of our own practical experience in working with children with sen and practical experience of l. podkorytova in group art therapy: 1) art therapy classes for parents of children with sen are best conducted in group form; 2) it is more expedient to create small groups of members (up to 10 people). this creates a special intimate and trusting atmosphere, provides all participants with the necessary number of transactions and the attention of a psychologist; 3) do short classes from 60 to 80 minutes – one lesson – to work out one art therapy exercise. this ensures the psychological safety of group members, promotes the development of their resources, encourages reflection and triggers corrective processes in the psyche; 4) adhere to such main rules of work as confidentiality and nonevaluation of creative products (you can not use expressions such as 'beautifully', 'ugly', 'correctly', 'wrongly', etc.); 5) use various types and methods of art therapy (visual art therapy, bibliotherapy, fairy tale therapy, music therapy, dance therapy, etc.; special techniques for family art therapy); 6) formulate instructions for tasks in accordance with the goals and objectives of art therapy (for example, 'draw your own attitude to your child with special needs'); 7) encourage all group members to discuss each creative product; 8) give the group members the opportunity to experience catharsis, in particular in case of crying to avoid reassurance and regret; 9) encourage parents to perform various art therapy exercises at home with their children with sen; psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special … olena stroyanovska, et al. 169 10) offer parents to keep records of their participation in art therapy classes, to learn to analyze their own creative products. psychological correction with the use of art therapy can help not only to change the attitude of parents to their children with sen, but also to themselves, relieve emotional stress, as well as develop creativity and positive thinking. 4. conclusions 4.1. final conclusions an empirical study of parents 'attitudes toward their children with special educational needs has found out that this attitude, compared to parents' attitudes toward healthy children, is generally within the norm. at the same time, the parents of children with sen have the following tendencies that need psychological correction: lower level of acceptance/approval; greater concentration on the child and his/her control; some contradiction in the attitude to the children; a sense of self-sacrifice and belief in its necessity. in order to psychologically correct the attitude of parents to their children with special educational needs, art therapy is proposed, which has a number of important features for this purpose: resourcefulness, reflexivity, focus on emotions, activation of human creativity, the possibility of nonverbal interaction. possibilities of using different types of art therapy for psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special educational needs are considered, namely: music therapy, dance-movement therapy, bibliotherapy, fairy tale therapy, phototherapy, film therapy, fine art therapy. a number of common art therapy exercises and recommendations on the peculiarities of the use of art therapy in working with parents of children with sen are offered. the suggested materials and recommendations for the use of art therapy can be useful for social workers and psychologists who work with families upbringing children with special educational needs. 4.2. research prospects based on the results of the study, the prospects for further research are to clarify the relationship between the indicators of optimal emotional contact and excessive emotional distance with children according to the pari method; identification and testing of musical, literary and film works for receptive music, library and film therapy in accordance with the brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 170 problems of parents of children with sen; a more detailed study of the attitude of parents to their children with different nosological diagnoses. references altinay, z., altinay, f., ossianilsson, e., & aydin, c. h. (2018). open education practices for learners with disabilities. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 9(4), 171-176. babii, i. v. (2014). teoriia i praktyka artterapii: navchalno-metodychnyi kompleks [theory and practice of art therapy: educational and methodical complex]. uman`: almi. bukovska, o. o. (2013). napriamky psykholohichnoi dopomohy sim’iam, yaki vykhovuiut dytynu z osoblyvymy potrebamy [areas of psychological assistance to families raising a child with special needs]. visnyk chernihivskoho natsionalnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu. ser.: psykholohichni nauky [bulletin of chernihiv national pedagogical university. ser.: psychological sciences], 114, 12-16. retrieved from: http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vchdpuph_2013_114_5 derkach, o. (2008). pedahohika tvorchosti: kazkoterapiia na dopomohu vchyteliu, vykhovateliu, praktychnomu psykholohu [creativity pedagogy: fairy tale therapy to help a teacher, educator, practical psychologist]. vinnytsia: vdpu. ihnatenko, k. v. (2019). robota spetsialistiv zahalnoosvitnoho zakladu z rodynamy ditei, shcho maiut osoblyvi osvitni potreby [the work of specialists of the general educational institution with the families of children with special educational needs]. retrieved from: dspace.luguniv.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/3135/1/ ignatenko_kateryna.pdf ionescu, o., cordun, m., & di carlo, m. (2021). the importance of kinetic treatment for integrating children with sen into education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 113-124. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/159 hazolyshyn, v. (2007). artterapiia: mystetstvo bachyty [art therapy: the art of seeing]. kherson. hrytsenok l. i., illiashenko, t. d., & obukhivska, a. h. (2009). korektsiia psykhosotsialnoho rozvytku ditei z tserebralnym paralichem: metod. rekom. pratsivnykam reabilitatsiinykh tsentriv [correction of psychosocial development of children with cerebral palsy: methodological rеcommendations for employees of rehabilitation centers]. kyiv: dukhovna vis. karelin, a. a. (1999). psihologicheskie testy [psychological tests]. vol. 2. m.: gumanit izd. centr vlados. khmyzova, o. v., ostapenko n. v. (2011). orhanizatsiia psykhokorektsiinoi roboty z batkamy ditei z osoblyvymy potrebamy yak skladova tsilisnoho protsesu rannoi sotsialnoi reabilitatsii [organization of psycho-correctional http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vchdpuph_2013_114_5 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/159 psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special … olena stroyanovska, et al. 171 work with parents of children with special needs as part of a holistic process of early social rehabilitation]. sotsialna robota v ukraini: teoriia i praktyka: naukovo medychnyi zhurnal [social work in ukraine: theory and practice: scientific medical journal], 203-211. medvedeva, e. a., levchenko, i. yu., komissarova, l. n., dobrovol'skaya t. a. (2001) art-pedagogika i artterapiya v special'nom obrazovanii: uchebnik dlya vuzov [art pedagogy and art therapy in special education: a textbook for universities]. m.: akademiya. nesterova, a. a. (2017). razrabotka i validizaciya diagnosticheskogo oprosnika «analiz semejnogo mifa» [development and validation of the diagnostic questionnaire ‘analysis of the family myth’]. vestnik mgou. seriya: psihologicheskie nauki [mrsu bulletin. series: psychological sciences], 1, 33-49. retrieved from: https://vestnik-mgou.ru/articles/doc/11325 podkorytova, l. (2020). vykorystannia zasobiv art-terapii u psykholohichnii roboti z batkamy ditei z osoblyvymy potrebamy [the use of art therapy in psychological work with parents of children with special needs]. indyvidualnist u psykholohichnykh vymirakh spilnot ta profesii: zbirnyk naukovykh prats [individuality in the psychological dimensions of communities and professions: a collection of scientific papers]. kyiv : tov «alfa-pik», 161-165. voznesenska, o. l., sknar, o. m. (ed.). (2017). entsyklopedychnyi slovnyk z art-terapii [encyclopedic dictionary of art therapy]. kyiv: zoloti vorota voznesenskaya, e. l. (2009). osobennosti i perspektivy razvitiya artterapii v ukraine [features and prospects for the development of art therapy in ukraine]. naukovi pratsi: naukovo-metodychnyi zhurnal, 108(95), 19-24. vygotskij, l. s. (2003). principy vospitaniya fizicheski defektivnyh detej [the principles of raising physically defected children]. osnovy defektologii [fundamentals of defectology]. spb.–m.: lan'. yatsenko, t. s., kalashnyk, i. v., chernukha, i. o. (2009). artterapevtychni tekhnolohii v roboti psykholoha [art therapeutic technologies in the work of a psychologist]. kyiv: marych zaveryko, n. v., soloviova, t. h. (2008). sotsialno-pedahohichna robota z batkamy, shcho vykhovuiut ditei z osoblyvymy potrebamy: navch.-metod. posib [socio-pedagogical work with parents raising children with special needs: manual]. zaporizhzhia: pp «tandem». zinkevich-evstigneeva, t. d. & tihonova e. a. (2003). proektivnaya diagnostika v skazkoterapii [projective diagnostics in fairy tale therapy]. spb.: rech'. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 213-217 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/278 adaptation in affective video games during the covid-19 pandemic vlad constantin bandac¹, cristina stefanescu2 1 “elisabeta doamna” psychiatriy hospital; galati, romania. 2 dunarea de jos university of galati, romania. abstract: though national players area unit on the average 35-44 years recent, most diagnoses of on-line recreation disorder occur in adolescents. this data point may be a symptom of the usually neglected role of adults within the diagnostic method, the questionable initial line in perceiving a tangle of web use and games in their kids. parents' negative attitudes towards games and family quarrels are shown to be predictors of gambling addiction among adolescents. keywords: first covid-19, gaming addiction,, psychological impact, coping mechanis. how to cite: bandac, v.c., & stefanescu, c (2022). adaptation in affective video games during the covid-19 pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 213-217. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/278 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/278 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/278 adaptation in affective video games during the covid-19 pandemic vlad constantin bandac & cristina stefanescu 214 introduction player behavior takes precedence over different activities, as different activities area unit taken to the boundary. low management over behavior. even once the negative consequences occur, this behavior continues or escalates (casvean et al., 2021; sandu & damian, 2018; sandu & nistor, 2020, terec-vlad, 2020). a diagnosing so means a "persistent or recurrent" pattern of behavior of "sufficient severity" has emerged, consistent with the icd (luca et al., 2020). ends up in vital impairment in personal, family, social, academic or activity functioning. the impact is real and will embody sleep disorders, diet issues, physical inactivity (baroiu et al., 2021; grigoras & ciubara, 2021). research methodology this paper uses the medical literature to identify the evolution of adaptation in affective video games during covid-19, to determine the beneficial effects and to reveal some recommandations for video gamers. discussions though the utilization of games might not perpetually be helpful, exer games (a new generation of video games additionally called exergaming or active video games) seem as an alternate, feasible, attractive, and safe thanks to exercise for many folks (pandele et al., 2021; radulescu et al., 2020). exer games, a replacement generation of video games additionally called exergaming or active video games, area unit associated with the thought the thought massive body movements with engaging digital games (nechvatal, 1999; taylor, 2002; tozour, 2002). visual and sensory system stimuli area unit combined with differing kinds of apparatus that enable users to maneuver to play. exercise games, like classic video games, may be contend in multiplayer mode, which may facilitate increase social interaction in a very home surroundings. presently, there area unit many sorts of games, like people who simulate cardiopulmonary exercise (e.g., walking, running, and cycling), sports (e.g., basketball, bowling, tennis, ping-pong, baseball), swimming, ping-pong, volleyball, beach volleyball compared to on-line games, exercise games appear additional advantageous as a result they induce helpful physiological and psychological changes that aren't sometimes found in typical video games. exercise games area unit able to improve levels of physical activity, performance of daily activities, muscle strength in older brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 215 adults, heart rate, bodily property balance, psychological feature perform in older adults and relieving anxiety disorders (silistraru et al., 2021). games area unit glorious in increasing motivation for exercise, and exercise plays a very important role in managing the harmful health effects of social isolation, like a decrease in physical activity and a rise in inactive behavior (bakkes et al., 2008; manovich, 2002; millington, 2006; nareyek, 2004). research results the findings of beneficial effects are: • improved sensitivity to visual distinction in fifty hours of video games, for a amount of 10-12 weeks • rising attention and application • action video games improve players' ability to quickly and expeditiously find the targeted stimulant in a district to district parts. • players are able to focus and watch moving objects, though there are several distractions close. • rising distributive attention • action video games stimulate players' concentration, attention, perception and memory, developing their ability to create fast choices and solve issues expeditiously and safely. conclusions the recommendations are: • manage stress effectively regular exercise in stress management, deep respiration, yoga or meditation to scale back stress and raise your mood, having personal time, area and reflection. • get correct sleep sleep hygiene by keeping a sleep diary with the period and time of sleep. must: • be chosen for an exact time to travel to bed • avoid hour games • make sure that electronic play devices aren't hold on within the room • check that the room is quiet and dim. references bakkes, s. c. j., spronck, p. h. m., & van den herik, h. j. (2008). rapid adaption of video game ai (extended version). in p. hingston, & l. barone (eds.), adaptation in affective video games during the covid-19 pandemic vlad constantin bandac & cristina stefanescu 216 2008 ieee symposium on computational intelligence in games (cig'08) (pp. 7986). ieee computational intelligence society. baroiu, l., dumea, e., năstase, f., niculeț, e., fotea, s., ciubara, a. b., stefanopol, i. a., nechita, a., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2021). assessment of depression in patients with covid-19. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 căşvean, t. m. ., hodorogea, v., & căşvean, i. e. . (2021). the experience created by the social and cultural context constructed by video games: a digitization of life and death. journal for social media inquiry, 3(1), 19-31. https://doi.org/10.18662/jsmi/3.1/14 grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326-334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a.-c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 manovich, l. (2002). the language of new media. mit press. millington, i. (2006). artificial intelligence for games. morgan kaufmann publishers inc. nareyek, a. (2004). artificial intelligence in computer games: state of the art and future directions. acm queue, 1(10), 58–65. https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=971593 nechvatal, j. (1999). immersive ideals / critical distances. a study of the affinity between artistic ideologies based in virtual reality and previous immersive idioms [doctoral dissertation, centre for advanced inquiry in the interactive arts (caiia)]. university of wales college. pandele, v. f., tucmeanu, a., antohi, m. e., & ciubara, a. (2021). the effect of using facebook on elderly people during covid-19 pandemic. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 69-71. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199885x/2021/11/5.19 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 sandu, a., & damian, s-i. (2018). perceived quality of life and responsibility for own health condition. micro-research. archiv euromedica, 8(2), 18-23. http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archivhttps://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 https://doi.org/10.18662/jsmi/3.1/14 https://doi.org/10.18662/jsmi/3.1/14 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=971593 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/47200213 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/47204285 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/21961858 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.19 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.19 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 217 euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_1 2_2018-18_23.pdf sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). the dynamic perspective versus the cognitivebehavioral perspective in counselling. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2), 50-59. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/22 silistraru, i., ciureanu, a. i., ciubara, a., & olariu, o. (2021). prevalence of burnout in medical students in romania during covid-19 pandemic restrictions (preliminary data). archiv euromedica, 11(5), 12-15. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 taylor, l. n. (2002). video games: perspective, point-of-view, and immersion, master’s thesis. graduate art school, university of florida. terec-vlad, l. (2020). some approaches regarding the philosophy of technology. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(2), 28-34. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.2/43 tozour, p. (2002). the perils of ai scripting. in s. rabin, & c. river (eds.), ai game programming wisdom (pp. 541–547). ed. media, inc. http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/22 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/34745962 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/9207389 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/30711467 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.2/43 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 107-126 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/98 psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes oksana liashch¹, artem boichenko2, lyudmyla matsuk3, elena gomonyuk4, nelli tarasenko5, iryna demchenko6, vitaliy dmitruk7, iryna denysovets8, inna zarishniak9, olena hrechanovska10, nataliia terentieva11 1 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, oksanalyash7@gmail.com 2 municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy» of kharkiv regional council, kharkiv, ukraine, boychenko87@ukr.net 3 state higher educational institution «vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university», ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, plo4447@ukr.net 4 khmelnitsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine, elena_gomonyuk29@ukr.net 5 municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy» of kharkiv regional council, kharkiv, ukraine, nelliashka@gmail.com 6 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, irynadi67@gmail.com 7 lutsk national technical university, lutsk, ukraine, dm.andriy@gmail.com 8 poltava national technical yuri kondratyuk university, poltava, ukraine, denysovets.ira@gmail.com 9 vasyl’ stus donetsk national university, abstract: life activities of students from higher education institutions are largely influenced by certain adverse factors (social, psychological, environmental ones), which in turn negatively affect their physical and mental health and cause particular behavioural deviations such as aggression. the research aims to theoretically justify, develop and experimentally verify the programme on prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes due to cultivating their humanistic values and capacity for self-actualization. the research sample of the formative experiment comprised 177 athletes (92 respondents in the experimental group and 85 respondents in the control group). the research assumes that, if well-developed, humanistic values of individual self-actualization (developing one’s positive attitude towards the surrounding people, ability to understand them, accept oneself and others and reality, striving for new knowledge, identifying oneself in this world, setting goals) can be considered as a means of prevention of aggressive behaviours in students; the process of developing athletes’ capacity for self-actualization as a means of psychological prevention of aggressive behaviours is determined by an appropriate organization of activities performed by students, their parents, psychologists, teachers based on personality-oriented and humanistic approaches. the level of self-actualization was based on e. shostrom’s test and the self-actualization scale by a. jones and r. crandall; the level of aggression was identified based on the buss-durkee hostility inventory. the accuracy of changes in the groups was verified using the mann-whitney u test. results. a quantitative interpretation of the results obtained from the formative experiment proves that the arithmetic mean of selfactualization parameters in respondents in the experimental group has increased significantly (by 22%), whereas they have remained almost unchanged in the control group. concerning the arithmetic mean of parameters of aggressive behaviours in athletes, they have decreased significantly (by 18%) in the experimental group. this is because athletes' capacity for self-actualization has been developed without direct influence on their aggressive behaviours. conclusions. in comparison with their peers in the control group, athletes in the experimental group have significantly improved their conflict management skills as a result of developing a more positive attitude towards others, as well as behavioural flexibility, communication skills and capacity for self-development. keywords: individual self-actualization; humanistic values; work with athletes; work with pedagogical team and parents; work with students' families; psychological sessions with parents. how to cite: liashch, o., boichenko, a., matsuk, l., gomonyuk, e., tarasenko, n., demchenko, i., dmitruk, v., https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/98 mailto:oksanalyash7@gmail.com mailto:boychenko87@ukr.net mailto:plo4447@ukr.net mailto:elena_gomonyuk29@ukr.net mailto:nelliashka@gmail.com mailto:irynadi67@gmail.com mailto:dm.andriy@gmail.com mailto:denysovets.ira@gmail.com vinnytsia, ukraine, i.zarishniak@donnu.edu.ua 10 vinnytsia national technical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, stellamondo05@gmail.com 11 t.h.shevchenko national university "chernihiv collegium", chernihiv, ukraine, nataterentyeva@gmail.com denysovets, i., zarishniak, i., hrechanovska, o., & terentieva, n. (2020). psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 107-126. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/98 mailto:i.zarishniak@donnu.edu.ua mailto:stellamondo05@gmail.com mailto:nataterentyeva@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/98 psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes oksana liashch, et al. 109 introduction psychologists and educators consider student aggression to be one of the main causes complicating the educational process. aggression can manifest itself in interpersonal relations between teachers and students and between students themselves, which results in various destructive manifestations, from direct or indirect threats to aggressive actions. the main characteristic of this age period consists in expressing individuality and uniqueness and striving for self-actualization. when adults pay little attention to the issue of self-actualization, they provoke aggressive behaviours in students, which therefore decreases the effectiveness of interpersonal interaction between students and adults in educational space and society. aggressive behaviours in athletes students from higher education institutions are one of the possible ways of self-defence, active preservation of one's self aimed at conscious or unconscious, real or imaginary damage to various objects (to oneself, other people, groups, non-living things, animals, etc.). aggression is manifested not only in behavioural but also in personal, emotional, cognitive, volitional aspects, which reproduce the inner world of the individual prone to aggression. the interaction between the characteristics of self-actualization and aggression manifests itself in communication and social behaviour of students. self-actualization of students can be one of the main means of preventing aggressive behaviours in them. aggressive behaviours are biologically, psychologically and socially constructed behaviours, which perform adaptive and protective functions. the emergence of aggression is subjectively necessary, which increases one’s ability to adapt to society and deal with life difficulties. if the level of aggression is insufficient, one can lose his/her individuality, become passive and tend to conform. a long-term presence in a dangerous environment enhances protective reactions, activates mechanisms of psychological protection and results in destructive behaviours, which initially act as protective reactions and then are transformed into aggression. being admitted to a higher education institution is experienced by students as a radical transition to adulthood. it is during this period that most students want to assert themselves and prove their worth to everyone. therefore, under the influence of the microenvironment, aggressive behaviours appear as a way to fulfil the need for communication, selfexpression and self-affirmation, as well as a reaction to an unfavourable atmosphere in the family and poor treatment by parents and a strong brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 110 determination to achieve goals. thus, aggressive behaviours in students are protective mechanisms (gerasymova, 2019; homoniuk, 2015; martynets, 2014; melnyk, 2019; nerubasska, 2020; sheremet, 2019). individual aggressive behaviours are viewed as well-established personality traits, which include higher levels of psychopathization and an unstable emotional state manifested in excitability, irritability and depression, which leads to increased anxiety, tension, self-doubt. the main ways to prevent aggressive behaviours in students are the following: to cultivate their humanistic values and to develop their capacity for self-actualization. in this age period, self-actualization is associated with the shift to adulthood, plans for further development, the ability not only to recreate the external world but also to identify oneself in this world, to know one’s inner self, to live one’s life, to form an attitude towards oneself (tytarenko, 1994; bulakh, 2003). this research defines self-actualization as a process characterized by the following components: recognition of one’s inner self, self-acceptance, self-respect, healthy self-esteem, awareness of reality and one’s goals and life aspirations, preparation of a life plan, cultivation of autonomy. based on the defined characteristics of the concept, various aspects of the connection between humanistic values and individual selfactualization of individuals, who display aggressive behaviours, were analyzed. for one, d. zillmann (1988) indicates that aggression can be reduced due to well-developed cognitive processes. a. rean (1996) proves that paradoxical aggressive reactions are intensified with insufficient or impossible self-realization. s. prentice-dunn, & r. rodgers (1989) explain the possibility of reducing aggressive behaviours through developing selfconsciousness of the individual. some scholars believe that an increase in the level of personal self-consciousness pushes the individual towards aggression if he/she considers such behaviour permissible, and vice versa, it keeps him/her from taking aggressive actions if he/she considers such behaviour as inadmissible (berkowitz, 1989; scheier, & carver, 1988). v. znakov (2005) highlights the fact that this age period is rife with motivational conflicts and low differentiation of cognitive and affective aspects of selfactualization, which are sources of unstable self-attitude provoking aggressive behaviours. therefore, the conducted analysis shows that humanistic values and individual self-actualization can help to eliminate the risk of aggression in students. however, it is possible if humanistic values and the capacity for individual self-actualization become real factors in the socialization of athletes. it is precisely during socialization that the need for communication psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes oksana liashch, et al. 111 is realized and the relationships between students and their peers and society are expanded and deepened. all this enables them to communicate and thus fulfil their most important need. therefore, psychological conditions for cultivating humanistic values in athletes and developing their capacity for individual self-actualization can be considered as a means of preventing aggressive behaviours in them. materials & methods the formative stage of the experiment was conducted at vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy» of kharkiv regional council, state higher educational institution «vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university», khmelnitsky national university, pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, lutsk national technical university, poltava national technical yuri kondratyuk university, vasyl’ stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia national technical university, t.h.shevchenko national university "chernihiv collegium". at the formative stage of the formative experiment, experimental (92 respondents) and control (85 respondents) groups were identified; the level of self-actualization was based on e. shostrom’s test and the selfactualization scale by a. jones and r. crandall (aleshina, 1987); the level of aggression was identified based on buss-durkee hostility inventory (raygorodskiy, 2001). during the course of the work, the designed classification of groups was used. however, the composition of the group was divided into subgroups or combined into one according to the topic or goals of the lesson, which made it possible to apply an individual approach depending on the characteristics of self-actualization and aggression. the characteristics of aggressive behaviours and self-actualization in student-athletes were studied before and after the formative experiment. the control group was studied concurrently with the experimental group. the formative experiment was not conducted in the control group. the changes in experimental data are accurate and confirmed by the results of statistical processing. the accuracy of changes in the groups was verified using the mann-whitney u test (sidorenko, 2004). the psycho-pedagogical recommendations include the views of psychologists on the complex interaction, which involves forming a "pedagogical team" based on the principles of sociopsychological and psycho-pedagogical compatibility of teachers and students at a brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 112 psychophysiological level, namely compatibility of temperaments and higher brain functions, professionalism and experience, personal traits and other socio-psychological aspects, which help to discover the most optimal combination of pedagogical communication styles, namely, a favourable combination of didactic interaction, etc. (ziazuin, 2000; rybalka, 2003). these conditions make it possible to combine the efforts of teachers to psychologically prevent aggressive behaviours in athletes and cultivate their self-actualization. the interaction between all participants in the pedagogical process strengthens the role of the teacher and his/her personality. it is the teacher’s personality that is extremely important for athletes’ self-actualization. only joint activities (teamwork) of teachers, psychologists, social workers, parents can bring real results. within this research, certain psychological preventive measures were conducted to implement the formative experiment. direct interaction with athletes is one of the ways to prevent aggressive behaviours psychologically. the programme of such an interaction is presented in table 1. one of the important conditions for effective psychological prevention is the inclusion of athletes in vocational activities based on the production of useful items in workshops, material assets and, most importantly, which they find interesting. sociopsychological training sessions are considered to be rather effective methods of psychological prevention of aggressive behaviours. the developed integrative training sessions combine the elements of different psychotherapeutic and psychological techniques (liashch, 2005a; 2005b; 2010). table 1. the programme on psychological prevention of aggressive behaviours in student-athletes topic forms and methods of work 1. collecting psychodiagnostic information tests, questionnaires, observations 2. reducing a level of personal anxiety role-playing games 3. building awareness of personal emotions, as well as other people’s feelings and cultivating empathy training sessions, role-playing games 4. developing a positive self-esteem training sessions aimed at cultivating a positive self-image; involving athletes in different sections, clubs 5. behavioural therapy aimed at expanding the range of behavioural training sessions with elements of role-playing games psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes oksana liashch, et al. 113 reactions in a challenging situation and eliminating destructive elements in behaviour 6. correction work aimed at teaching athletes to control their emotions using art-therapy and gestalt therapy techniques 7. adolescent issues counselling 8. cultivating individual selfactualization training sessions systematized by the authors working with a team of teachers can also contribute to preventing aggressive behaviours in student-athletes. the programme of psychological preventive work with the pedagogical team includes the following forms of organization and methods of work. lesson 1 (a lecture; defining the structure and content of teachers and coaches’ activities aimed at assuring social and professional adaptation and rehabilitation of students) reveals the concept of adaptation and rehabilitation of students, the characteristics of disadaptation as a possible reason for the appearance of aggressive behaviours, as well as the role of teachers in managing the processes of adaptation and rehabilitation. lesson 2 (a practical class; studying personality and team as a necessary condition for successful psychological prevention of aggressive behaviours in students) justifies the characteristics and technologies of psychological diagnostics of aggressive behaviours in students, the exchange of experience between teachers on this problem, as well as the process of developing skills in studying aggressive behaviours in the context of psychology. lesson 3 (a lecture; individualizing the educational process) highlights the concept of an individual approach in the context of educational work with taking into account psychophysical condition of students and explains the preparation of an individual plan for preventing aggressive behaviours in students. lesson 4 (a psychopedagogical practical class; adapting students to occupation and learning) discloses the influence of a conscious or random choice of the profession on adaptation, as well as the process of building an interest in the chosen profession, professional skills. lesson 5 (a training session; creating a supportive environment within a group as a means of preventing aggressive behaviours in students. involving students in socially useful activities) analyzes the involvement of students in socially useful activities, which includes certain components (a student’s entry into a team, formulation of his/her thoughts, establishment of positive relationships, ethics of communication in teams) and considers socially useful activities as one of brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 114 the means of preventing aggressive behaviours. lesson 6 (a lecture; aggressive students and family) clarifies family influence on the generation of aggressive behaviours in students, forms and methods of teachers’ work with disadvantaged families. lesson 7 (a lecture; correcting and preventing aggressive behaviours in students) specifies the concept of norms and deviations in behaviour, purposeful work on the prevention and correction of aggressive behaviours in students. lesson 8 (a practical class with the elements of role-playing games; the psychological culture of teachers) considers the process of developing the psychological culture in teachers and its structure, as well as the role of teachers’ psychological culture in establishing relationships with students. lesson 9 (a conference; coordinating activities of teachers and families in the context preventing aggressive behaviours in students) shows that only active interaction of the above-mentioned mentions can effectively prevent aggressive behaviours in students. purposeful work with the families of students prone to aggressive behaviours is one of the areas of psychological prevention (see table 2). the generation of aggressive behaviours in students is very much influenced by the conditions of family education. the experience of working with aggressive students and their families shows that parents of such students often require psychotherapeutic assistance, as well as they should be taught skills in constructive interaction with them. to this end, we suggest several exercises aimed at teaching parents to communicate positively with their children. counselling of parents seeks to remove those factors in communication between the adult and student, which who can provoke aggressive behaviours in the latter. table 2. the programme of psychological preventive work with families topic a form of organization and methods of work 1. studying the social status of families parent-teacher meetings, visits to families, counselling, questionnaires 2. factors of education and communication style promoting aggressive behaviours in students parent-teacher meetings with elements of training sessions 3. conflict interaction between adults and students as the basis of aggressive behaviours individual counselling 4. techniques of effective constructive interaction with aggressive students training sessions psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes oksana liashch, et al. 115 5. techniques of emotional selfcontrol relaxation with elements of training sessions 6. setting limits allowed lectures 7. students’ positive intentions in the focus of adults’ attention training sessions systematized by the authors the main objectives of psychological work with parents are the following: to shift the adult’s attention from focusing on the student’s negative behaviour to personal uncontrolled negative emotions, since the adult’s ability to control oneself is the best guarantee of the student’s adequate behaviour; to help teachers and parents to master the techniques of constructive, positive communication in order to exclude aggressive behaviours as students’ responses. results the results obtained from the eg before and after the formative experiment are presented in fig. 1. fig. 1. the dynamics of self-actualization parameters in the eg before and after the formative experiment notes: 1 – time perception, 2 – support, 3 – value orientations, 4 – flexible behaviour, 5 – sensitivity, 6 – spontaneity, 7 – self-respect, 8 – self-acceptance, 9 – views on human nature, 10 – synergy, 11 – acceptance of aggression, 12 – rapport, 13 – cognitive needs, 14 – creativity, 15 – self-actualization. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 116 the obtained data show that the parameters on such scales as time perception, support, flexible behaviour, rapport, creativity have increased to the level of high self-actualization in the eg. the parameters on the scale of value orientations have achieved the standard level. the parameters on the scale of acceptance of aggression have decreased to the standard level. as evidenced by the histogram, these parameters have been the same throughout the year. the analysis of self-actualization development in the cg shows that the increase in the level of self-actualization is observed only on the scale of support since student-athletes have become more autonomous. the comparison of self-actualization characteristics in the cg and eg is presented in fig. 2. the obtained data prove the increase in the level of self-actualization on all scales in the eg in comparison with the cg. the difference is distinctly larger in the parameters on such scales as support and rapport, which indicates high autonomy of respondents from the eg and their ability to interact. one can also observe the increase in the level of selfactualization in respondents from the cg on such scales as self-respect and sensitivity. fig. 2. the characteristics of self-actualization in the eg and cg after the formative experiment the explanation of the parameters is presented in fig. 1. self-actualization of respondents in the cg has characterized by zero dynamics throughout the year, whereas that in the eg has retained the psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes oksana liashch, et al. 117 indicators obtained after the training and has shown some positive dynamics throughout the year. the conducted analysis of theoretical and empirical data proves that aggressive behaviours in student-athletes should tend to decrease upon completion of the programme aimed at increasing self-actualization (see fig. 3). considering the dynamics of aggressive behaviours in studentathletes in the eg, it must be noted that such forms of aggression as physical aggression, insult, suspiciousness, verbal aggression and guilt have rapidly decreased. moreover, the decreasing dynamics of aggressive behaviours has been observed on the following scales for a long time. fig. 3. the dynamics of aggressive behaviours in student-athletes from the eg before and after the formative experiment notes: 1 – physical aggression, 2 – indirect aggression, 3 – irritability, 4 – negativism, 5 – insult, 6 – suspiciousness, 7 – verbal aggression, 8 – guilt. the analysis of the changes in various types of aggressive behaviours in student-athletes in the cg shows the following: most of the aggression parameters have increased, whereas such parameters as insult and negativism have remained almost unchanged. according to the mann-whitney u test, the differences in the arithmetic mean of types in the eg and cg are random based on bussdurkee hostility inventory (uemp is equal to 31.8, which is significantly more than u0.05). thus, the parameters of aggressive behaviours are balanced before the formative experiment. comparative analysis of the results on types of aggressive behaviours obtained from the eg before and after the formative experiment indicates brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 118 significant differences in the levels of the studied characteristics of respondents from this sample (uemp is equal to 14; р≤0.05). such shifts in values of aggressive behaviours are not random since one can observe the decrease in their levels (see table 3). in contrast to the results in the eg, shifts in the levels of aggressive behaviours in the cg are random, which is confirmed by the following value: uemp is equal to 18 (more than u0.05). table 3. the parameters of self-actualization and aggressive behaviours in respondents from the eg and cg before and after the formative experiment the arithmetic mean of self-actualization parameters in respondents based on e. shostrom’s test (in points) t im e p e rc e p ti o n s u p p o rt v al u e o ri en ta ti o n s f le x ib le b e h av io u r s en si ti v it y s p o n ta n e it y s el fre sp e c t s el fac c e p ta n ce v ie w s o n h u m an s yn e rg y a c c e p ta n ce o f ag g re ss io n r ap p o rt c o g n it iv en e e d s c re at iv it y s el fac tu al iz at io n experimental group before the formative experimen t 6.8 39.2 10 11.3 5.2 6.3 7.7 8.6 3.7 3.3 8.1 7.8 4.8 4.3 39 after the formative experimen t 11.1 51.2 12.5 15.1 6.5 7.1 9 9.1 6.8 4 10.6 11 6.5 8.4 48.3 control group before the formative experimen t 6.3 39.4 10 10.6 4.4 6.6 7.6 7.9 3.3 3.1 6.8 8.2 4.3 4.9 37.3 after the formative experimen t 10.3 40 10.1 14.5 4.5 6.3 8.1 7.8 3.7 2.8 7.3 7.9 4.8 5.2 35.2 the arithmetic mean of self-actualization parameters in respondents based on the buss-durkee hostility inventory (in points) physical aggression indirect aggression irritability negativis m insult suspici ousnes s verbal aggression gui lt psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes oksana liashch, et al. 119 experimental group before the formative experimen t 7.2 5.2 5.6 4.4 5.8 7 10.2 6.8 after the formative experimen t 5.1 4.5 5.3 3.9 4.9 5 9.1 5 control group before the formative experimen t 7.4 4.7 6.1 4.2 5.6 6.2 10.6 7.2 after the formative experimen t 7.5 8 8 4.9 6 8 11.2 7 systematized by the authors as evidenced by the mann-whitney u test, significant differences are found between parameters of aggressive behaviours in the eg and cg (uemp is equal to 11.5; p≤0.05), which proves a highly effective impact of the formative experiment on reducing aggressive behaviours in respondents. accordingly, the eg and the cg were verified based on e. shostrom’s test (sidorenko, 2004). the obtained values are significantly different: uemp is equal to 54; р≤0,05. the comparison of types and levels of aggressive behaviours in student-athletes in the eg and cg reveals the following aspects (see fig. 4): firstly, parameters of aggressive behaviours in the eg are lower on all scales; secondly, parameters of aggressive behaviours in the cg maintain the increasing dynamics compared with the eg; thirdly, the changes in the structure of aggression remain the same in both groups, eg and cg. particular attention should be paid to the fact that the eg demonstrates the high level of verbal aggression and negativism, which is related to the characteristics of this age period. quantitative interpretation of the results obtained from the formative experiment proves that the arithmetic mean of self-actualization parameters in respondents from the eg have increased significantly (by 22%), whereas they have remained almost unchanged in the cg. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 120 fig. 4. comparison of aggressive tendencies in the eg and cg the explanation of types of aggression is presented in fig. 3. concerning the arithmetic mean of parameters of aggressive behaviours in student-athletes, they have decreased significantly (by 18%) in the eg. this is because students' capacity for self-actualization has been developed without direct influence on their aggressive behaviours. in comparison with their peers in the cg, students in the eg have significantly improved their conflict management skills as a result of developing a more positive attitude towards others, as well as behavioural flexibility, communication skills and capacity for self-development. as evidenced by the feedback of respondents in the eg, they stopped feeling guilty and suspicious, started to trust other people and developed a positive attitude to them, began to better understand their feelings and control them, significantly improved their communication skills and behaviour. these characteristics prove the presence of well-developed humanistic values and effective individual self-actualization in students from higher education institutions. discussion thus, it is the prevention of pedagogical neglect is one of the important aspects of psychological prevention. it can be manifested at a rather early age and includes ignorance, underdevelopment, poor upbringing of students. r. ovcharova (2013) considers the main features of pedagogical neglect in this age period and highlights the socio-pedagogical level, which is psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes oksana liashch, et al. 121 also proved by this research. this level can be manifested in the following: problematic attitudes, including an attitude towards oneself; delay and low level of cognitive processes development; low cognitive culture, pathological development of personality (accentuation). the current research also proves findings by certain scholars (babanskiy, & potashnik, 1983; bozhovich, 2008; dubrovina, 1998; potashnik, 2000), which reveal another form of work in addition to the prevention of pedagogical neglect, namely psycho-pedagogical counselling since it involves preventive, diagnostic, corrective work aimed at solving pedagogical tasks from the psychological point of view. the results of this research coincide with those achieved by r. ovcharova (2013), which imply that rehabilitation is one of the most important functions of counselling since it protects the interests of the student, who live in the unsatisfactory family and educational conditions. the essence of family rehabilitation consists in increasing the student's status as a family member and eliminating the negative image created by teachers, classmates or groupmates. besides, counselling performs a corrective function, which involves designing a special programme for eliminating deviations in the mental development of the individual. the obtained findings also prove the views of r. baron and d. ricardson (1999), who, in addition to widely used methods and techniques for correcting aggressive behaviours such as punishment and catharsis, consider other very effective ones. these include demonstration (it relates to the cases, when someone keeps calm in a critical situation or encourages others to not fall victim to provocations), cognitive factors (attributions performed by the individual; the presence of mitigating circumstances; an attempt to defend the aggressor and explain his/her aggressive behaviour, etc.), the induction of incompatible reactions (i.e., reactions incompatible with anger or open aggression). special attention is paid to the following: empathy or affection towards potential objects of aggression, humour and laughter, moderate sexual arousal, which arises as a result of the influence of moderate erotic stimuli. on the contrary, explicit sexual stimuli generate high levels of excitation, which can cause frustration, as well as both positive and negative reactions. thus, these stimuli do not reduce aggression and can even reinforce it. the lack of elementary communication skills and basic social skills can also worsen the effects of the existing problem. the research confirms a. bereznikov's statement (1999) that it is possible to gradually reduce the cases of aggressive behaviours using developing social skills in individuals prone to aggression. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 122 the research, however, rejects the view that aggressive behaviours can be prevented only in preschool and primary school age. it is indeed true that the sources of aggressive behaviours originate in childhood. therefore, it is necessary as early as possible to prevent such behaviours. some researches show that there is a connection between early childhood aggression and deviations from normal behaviour in students and young adults (incomplete formation of reluctance to work, etc.) (brook, & newcomb, 1995). thus, one can conclude that prevention of aggressive behaviours can influence the future of the individual. as a result of several objective and subjective reasons, it can become difficult to prevent or correct aggressive behaviours with age. as evidenced by the obtained results, the respondents of this research possess quite powerful protective mechanisms, which can significantly complicate the process of preventive work. l. semenyuk (1996) indicates that aggressive behaviours in students are caused not so much by organic reasons as by sociopsychological ones. as the main method of preventing and correcting aggressive behaviours, the scholar considers the involvement of aggressive students in a system of socially recognized and socially approved activities. during behavioural therapy aimed at expanding the spectrum of behavioural reactions in problematic situations and eliminating destructive elements in behaviour, one can observe positive influence of students’ involvement in planning socially approved activities, various games, competitions and contests, organizational and social activities, various financial and moral incentives, as well as teachers’ participation in everyday activities of students, joint activities of adults and students during trips. conclusions the results obtained from the formative experiment prove the effectiveness of the proposed programme since the arithmetic mean of selfactualization parameters in respondents in the experimental group has increased significantly (by 22%). it must be noted that the obtained results include a steady decrease in the level of aggression and a more well-established structure of selfactualization at a level higher than expected based on the following scales: time perception, support, value orientations, flexible behaviour, sensitivity, spontaneity, self-respect, self-acceptance, views on human nature, synergy, acceptance of aggression, rapport, cognitive needs, creativity, selfactualization. during the course of the work, the designed classification of psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes oksana liashch, et al. 123 groups was used. the complex interaction and cooperation of all participants in the pedagogical process have steadily reduced aggressive behaviours by increasing the level of self-actualization. comprehensive mathematical and statistical analysis proved the effectiveness of the formative experiment. therefore, methodological recommendations for preventing aggressive behaviours in athletes can be as follows: to create a system for targeted identification and selection of "risk groups" student-athletes; to provide a favourable emotional and psychological climate for rehabilitation of difficult student-athletes; to consolidate the efforts of various specialists (teachers, coaches, parents) in order to create a coherent picture of personal uniqueness; to encourage student-athletes to understand the surrounding people and to analyze their relationships with them; to ensure continuity and unity in implementing preventive measures; to provide favourable conditions for occupational self-realization of student-athletes. the proposed programme and the methodology of the formative experiment can be improved to achieve even better results of psychological prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes. it should be noted that it is easier to prevent many psychological problems and difficulties such as aggressive behaviours in student-athletes than to eliminate them. systematic prevention of aggressive behaviours is rather effective. if implemented early, it can involve student-athletes in various forms of self-actualization and thus contribute to developing their positive attitude towards the surrounding people, ability to understand them, accept oneself and others and reality, to strive for new knowledge, to identify oneself in this world, to set goals. this will eventually lead to reducing aggressive behaviours in them. it is indeed effective to involve the very students and teaching staff and parents in the organization of preventive measures. therefore, psychological prevention should be based on the cooperation of students, teachers, parents and practising psychologists. acknowledgments such a number of authors depends on the number of educational institutions involved in the experiment. the formative stage of the experiment was conducted at vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, municipal establishment "kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy" of kharkiv regional council, state higher educational institution "vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university", brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 124 khmelnytskyi national university, pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, lutsk national technical university, poltava national technical yuri kondratyuk university, vasyl stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia national technical university, t. h. shevchenko national university "chernihiv collegium". each author was responsible for the experiment in the control and/or experimental group. at the formative stage of the formative experiment, experimental (92 respondents) and control (85 respondents) groups were identified. also, each author was a participant in the group working on the development of the programmes for preventing aggressive behaviours in athletes. references aleshina, yu. e. (1987). sociopsychological methods for studying marital relations. moscow: publishing house of moscow university. babanskiy, yu. k., & potashnik, m. m. (1983). optimizing the pedagogical process: questions and answers. (2nd ed.). kyiv: soviet school. baron, r., & richardson, d. (1999). aggression. saint petersburg: piter. bereznikov, a. a. (1999). the programme on effective interaction with aggressive students. journal of practicing psychologist, 3, 3–5. berkowitz, l. (1989). frustration aggression hypothesis: examination and reformulation. psychological bulletin, 106, 59–73. bozhovich, l. i. (2008). personality and its formation in studenthood. saint petersburg: piter. brook, i. s., & newcomb, m. d. (1995). studenthood aggression and unconventionality: impact on later academic achievement, drug use and work-force involvement. the journal of genetic psychology, 156 (4), 393–410. bulakh, i. (2003). developing moral self-awareness of adolescent's personality (socio-psychological training). kyiv: m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. dubrovina, i. v. (1998). practical psychology of education. (2nd ed.). moscow: sphere. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11 (4), 345-361. http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604 /pdf homoniuk, o. m. (2015). pedagogical technologies for developing readiness in future teachers of natural sciences for preventive work with athletes. modern information technologies and innovative teaching methods in training of specialists: methodology, theory, experience, problems, 41, 259–264. http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf psycho-pedagogical prevention of aggressive behaviours in athletes oksana liashch, et al. 125 liashch, o. p. (2005a). psychological prevention and correction of aggressive behaviours in athletes. the collection of scientific works of the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, 22 (2), 258–268. liashch, o. p. (2005b). the socio-cultural aspect of preventing aggressive behaviours in students from universities. in v. rybalka (ed.), developing psychological culture in students in the system of continuing vocational education (pp. 276–282). kyiv: the institute for pedagogy and psychology of professional education of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. liashch, o. p. (2010). principles of psychological practice. vinnytsia: vinnytsia insitute of “ukraine” university. martynets, l. (2014). the role of the teacher in preparing high school students for life and work at the present stage. proceedings of the scientific and practical conference of the institute of issues in upbringing of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine on modern education process: the essence and innovative potential. ivano-frankivsk: nair. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51 (1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240-255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/ 2625 ovcharova, r. v. (2013). sociopedagogical neglect of students and athletes. moscow; berlin: palmarium. potashnik, m. m. (ed.). (2000). education quality management. moscow: pedagogical society of russia. prentice-dunn, s., & rodgers, r. w. (1989). deindividuation and the self regulation of behavior. in p. b. paulus (ed.), psychology of group influence (pp. 87–109). hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. raygorodskiy, d. ya. (2001). practical psychodiagnostic. methods and tests. samara: bakhrakh-m. rean, a. (1996). aggression and personal aggressiveness. (methodological and theoretical problems of psychology). psychological journal, 5, 3–18. rybalka, v. v. (2003). methodological issues of scientific psychology (the experience of personality-centred systematization of categories and concepts). kyiv: nika-center. scheier, m. f., & carver, c. s. (1988). a model of behavioral selfregulation: translating intention into action. in l. berkowitz (ed.), advances in https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 126 experimental social psychology (vol. 21, pp. 303–346). new york, ny: academic press. semenyuk, l. m. (1996). psychological characteristics of aggressive behaviours in athletes and the conditions for its correction. moscow: enlightenment. sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sidorenko, e. v. (2004). methods of mathematical processing in psychology. saint petersburg: speech. tytarenko, t. m. (2003). the world of personality: structural and genetic approach. kyiv: lybid. ziaziun, i. a. (2000). pedagogy of kindness: ideals and realities. kyiv: interregional academy of personnel management. zillmann, d. (1988). cognitive-excitation interdependencies in aggressive behavior. aggressive behavior, 14, 51–64. znakov, v.v. (2005). psychology of understanding: problems and prospects. m.: publishing house "institute of psychology ras". https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 186-207 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/104 cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive education perspective maya dimitrova¹, snezhana kostova2, anna lekova3, eleni vrochidou4, ivan chavdarov5, aleksandar krastev6, rositza botsova7, anna andreeva8, vaska stanchevapopkostadinova9, leire ozaeta10 1 associate professor, ir-bas, sofia, bulgaria, m.dimitrova@ir.bas.bg 2 associate professor, ir-bas, sofia, bulgaria, kostovasp@yahoo.com 3 professor, ir-bas, sofia, bulgaria, alekova.iser@gmail.com 4 lecturer, ihu, kavala, greece, evrochid@teiemt.gr 5 associate professor, su, sofia, bulgaria, ivannc@uni-sofia.bg 6 associate professor, ir-bas, sofia, bulgaria, aikrastev.iser.bas@gmail.com 7 assistant professor, ir-bas, sofia, bulgaria r_botsova@abv.bg 8 associate professor, swu, blagoevgrad, bulgaria, anna_andreeva@swu.bg 9 professor, swu, blagoevgrad, bulgaria, v_stancheva@abv.bg 10 phd sudent, upv/ehu, san sebastian, spain, lozaeta001@gmail.com abstract: the paper presents a linear control system framework for design of technology-based games for pedagogical rehabilitation of children with special learning needs as a central component of the proposed cyber-physical system for inclusive education. the novelty is in explicitly addressing the issue of quantitatively estimating the improvement of games in the desired direction during the design process. an advantage of the proposed approach is its applicability to small groups of children playing diverse sets of games without loss of generalisability of the linear system’s model assumptions. statistically justified experimental results are reported as providing support to the main hypotheses of the present study. keywords: inclusive education; cyber-physical systems; linear control system framework; pedagogical rehabilitation; anova. how to cite: dimitrova, m., kostova, s., lekova, a., vrochidou, e., chavdarov, i., krastev, a., botsova, r., andreeva, a., stancheva-popkostadinova, v., & ozaeta, l. (2020). cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive education perspective. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 186207. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/104 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/104 mailto:m.dimitrova@ir.bas.bg mailto:kostovasp@yahoo.com mailto:alekova.iser@gmail.com mailto:evrochid@teiemt.gr mailto:ivannc@uni-sofia.bg mailto:aikrastev.iser.bas@gmail.com mailto:r_botsova@abv.bg mailto:anna_andreeva@swu.bg mailto:v_stancheva@abv.bg mailto:lozaeta001@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/104 cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 187 1. introduction inclusive education relies on novel cyber-physical systems (cps) and advanced technologies to fulfil its aim and provide individualised education in class. technically speaking, any school can be considered a complex hierarchical organisation of many functional levels and can be modelled as a cps. its operation is based on planned activities aimed at achieving certain goals (acquired knowledge by the learners) within fixed time constraints. inclusive education, however, poses additional demands on the entire learning process in the classroom by involving children of diverse attentional and motivational resources, who are supposed to follow a coherent teaching process during the lesson. the paper presents a novel formalised approach to the design of advanced educational tools to meet the learning needs of the individual child in the classroom of the future in a better way than today. the developed educational technologies, presented in the paper, are interactive games with humanoid, non-humanoid and ‘semi-humanoid’ robots as well as kinect based motion sensing games. an interdisciplinary group of experts was involved in the process of game design: computing and robotics researchers, engineers, speech therapists, psychologists, social workers, ergotherapists, kinesitherapists and special education professionals. they formed a coherent interdisciplinary team, working towards a common goal – using novel technological means to support child’s individual development. a particular problem in the design of novel games for children with special needs is the process of adaptation of some ad hoc designed games to the individual preferences of the child, as well as the continuous improvement of the novel games along a set of predefined pedagogical criteria. we have included this process in a formalised framework so that the individual adaptation as a control variable brings structure, instead of noise, in the entire system, and will be explained in the methodology section. 2. literature review extensive research on pedagogical rehabilitation via technology is being carried out in the last decades (dimitrova et al., 2019; ghazali et al., 2020; pliasa & fachantidis, 2019; tanaka et al., 2015; van den berksmeekens et al., 2020; wainer et al., 2014). some of the main drawbacks of the implemented methodological approaches are the following: small group of participants, diverse kinds of symptoms, different learning pace of each child, and demand for constant attention to the step-by-step learning process of the individual child on behalf of the teacher. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 188 in the present work a methodology, aiming at overcoming some of the reported drawbacks, is proposed for design of new technologies in the form of robotic and computerised games for the educational cps framework for pedagogical rehabilitation when special education is part of inclusive education. game evaluation in special education is usually performed by professionals filling in questionnaires off-line for a subsequent qualitative analysis (pliasa, & fachantidis, 2019; toh et al., 2016). our teachers, instead, were asked to rate each game immediately after the child played the game. this method provides a non-distorted account of every game played by each child in respect to the child’s learning needs, since it is done immediately after the game, rather than as a follow-up of the session. the online evaluation is also an essential process, included in the linear control systems framework (lcsf) of novel game design proposed in the paper. numerous investigations are being conducted on using robots with children with special needs, most of them focusing on mild to medium cases of autism, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, cerebral palsy, etc. (bayon et al. 2016; charlton et al., 2005; dimitrova et al., 2012; huijnen et al., 2016; kim et al., 2013). the children involved in the present study have been diagnosed with the following disorders: intellectual disability, autistic spectrum conditions, cerebral palsy, or multiple disabilities. by empowering the child to be in control of complex technological devices, the child learns implicit ways how to react to complex living, nonliving and ‘seemingly living’ objects such as robots. this augments child’s adaptation to the outside world, the family and the overall social environment. a robot is defined as a semi-autonomous electro-mechanical device of various appearances (non-humanoid, humanoid or ‘semi-humanoid’), playing the role of a flexible interface to the software application, which is guiding it (e.g. choregraphe for nao 1 , etc.). in behavioural terms, the robot is endowed with certain cognitive and/or social abilities; it can initiate dialogue with the child and play the role of an assistant to the teacher (benitti, 2012; dimitrova, 2016; ozaeta et al., 2018;toh et al., 2016). the present approach investigates the issue how to design novel educational tools for pedagogical rehabilitation in special education 2 with a satisfactory degree of construct validity (e.g. bolarinwa, 2015). the present 1 https://developer.softbankrobotics.com/nao6 2 project h2020-msca-rise-2017 no 777720 cybspeed: cyber physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation in special education, url: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/212970/factsheet/en https://developer.softbankrobotics.com/nao6 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/212970/factsheet/en cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 189 study investigates the construct of evolving game design for special education. games are being improved by modifying essential aspects – functions and/or structure of the game being evaluated by the teachers after every experimental cycle. 3. piloting of technologies (games) for pedagogical rehabilitation in special education figure 1. walking robot bigfoot for scene exploration by the child the non-humanoid robot, called bigfoot, used in the present study, was designed at ir-bas (e.g. chavdarov & naydenov, 2019) a walking robot, capable of 3d exploration of the environment. figure 2. minion doll with an anthropomorphic hand controlled via kinect the ‘semi’ humanoid robot was a minion doll with an anthropomorphic hand controlled via kinect, playing a game of number brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 190 guessing by the robot after the child pointing a number with the fingers of the hand (figure 2). the humanoid robot was a nao robot 3 playing exercises and singing songs with children (figure 3). the complete set of implemented games in the present study are given in table 1. games 13, 14 and 15 are newly developed games after experiment 1 for experiment 2. table 1. games for training novel skills in special education type no game a. kinect enabled serious motion-sensing games 1 shapes and colors 2 flipper 3 jumpido and fun math 4 puzzle 5 hand paintinga b. kinect enabled humanoid robot motion control 6 nao imitates child gestures c. non-humanoid, semihumanoid and humanoid robotic solutions for special educatio 7 walking robot "bigfoot" 8 "minion" doll with robotic arm 9 gymnastics with nao 10 basketball with nao 11 nao singing and dancing 1 12 nao singing and dancing 2 13 nao building with cubes 14 nao sorting pictures 15 learn nao 3 for more information on nao robot, see https://softbankrobotics.com/corp/robots/. https://softbankrobotics.com/corp/robots/ cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 191 a. kinect enabled serious motion-sensing games the developed kinect-enabled serious motion-sensing games are of two types: adapted commercial games – flipper and jumpido 4 as well as newly designed – shapes and colors, drawing and puzzle. the kinectenabled program uses the motion of child’s hands/wrists to interact with the pinball objects on the screen (described in lekova et al. 2015). the adapted jumpido game teaches basic math abilities. it is appropriate for children who can understand spoken instructions. the goal of shapes and colors game is to hit the falling figure with hands or kick with the leg in a certain direction depending on the given task – either according to colour or to shape. the game develops learning and discrimination of colours and shapes as well as left-right orientation in individual or competitive settings. the goal of puzzle is to drag a piece of the puzzle into the right place to complete the image. it develops fine motorics and sustained attention. the aim of hand painting is to use a gesture interface to paint on the screen. the aim is to train the fine motor skills and discrimination of colours. b. kinect enabled humanoid robot motion control a microsoft kinect sensor is used for motion-sensing to replicate by teleoperation the human movements in the choregraphe platform of the nao robot. tracking the human motion is made to retrieve a kinematic model of the human from the video sequences and to use it as input to the kinematic modules of the robot (azimi, 2012; mukherjee et al., 2015). c. nonhumanoid, semi-humanoid and humanoid robotic solutions for special education games with the non-humanoid robot bigfoot. non-humanoid robots have no external resemblance to a human. the original design of a walking robot bigfoot is an example of a moving robot, capable of climbing stairs and avoiding obstacles by using several mechatronic principles of changing position in space (chavdarov & naydenov, 2019). the game with bigfoot enhances spatial orientation, coordination, communication, and sustaining attention of children. after the first experiment bigfoot robot appearance was modified according to the needs of the children. this is described in the respective section below and illustrated in figure 7 a, b). semi-humanoid robot minion doll with robotic arm. the implemented novel device is a minion doll with attached an anthropomorphic hand, 4 for more information on these games, see https://www.techlearning.com/pd-tips/videotutorial-create-pinball-games-with-actionscript-3. https://www.techlearning.com/pd-tips/video-tutorial-create-pinball-games-with-actionscript-3 https://www.techlearning.com/pd-tips/video-tutorial-create-pinball-games-with-actionscript-3 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 192 designed via 3d printing. finger detection and gesture recognition (fdgr) algorithms used microsoft kinect v2, are implemented to see the gesture of the child and imitate it by the minion (botsova et al., 2015). humanoid robot nao. the humanoid robot is defined as possessing somewhat overt or holistic resemblance to a human (dimitrova & wagatsuma, 2015). nao is especially designed for children and equipped with abilities to enhance child’s learning. the scenarios, developed with nao, include individual play with the child, turn-taking game involving pairs of children, and singing and dancing games and gymnastics exercises in groups. gymnastics with nao. nao is demonstrating positions requiring balance and the children try to repeat them. gymnastics with nao helps improve gross and fine motor skills and is very enjoyable for the children. figure 3. nao demonstrates a basketball game basketball with nao. the game aims to achieve turn taking in playing basketball with nao. one of the children displays the red ball in front of nao’s eyes and then hands it over to the other child. meanwhile nao has raised its hand. the other child places the ball in nao’s hand. nao throws the ball into the basket. then children change roles in turn. children enjoy playing basketball individually, too. other game scenarios include: nao singing and dancing – 1. nao is performing a song, which is especially created for one of the children’s day centres. cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 193 nao singing and dancing – 2. nao is performing a popular singing and dancing play, asking children to reinstate how they wash hands and face. nao building with cubes. nao grabs a cube and places it on a table, then places another on top. the game teaches children to imitate nao’s actions. nao sorting pictures. nao recognises pictures from three different classes – animals, transport, and fruit. the game helps children learn to classify objects. learn nao. nao is asking the child to touch parts of nao’s body – head, hands, or legs. the game helps learn body parts and directions – leftright. table 2 summarises the developed games and the number of children, participating in each game. the first 12 games were included in the repetitive experimental sessions, while the last 3 were newly developed after the first trial. table 2: number of participating children in the developed games no game no of children in each game march 2016 no of children in each game may 2016 1 shapes and colors 4 5 2 flipper 6 4 3 jumpido and fun math 2 4 puzzle 1 5 hand painting 2 6 nao imitates child gestures 3 7 walking robot "bigfoot" 6 5 8 "minion" doll with robotic arm 5 3 9 gymnastics with nao 7 10 basketball with nao 4 11 nao singing and dancing –1 6 12 nao singing and dancing – 2 2 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 194 13 nao building with cubes 4 14 nao sorting pictures 1 15 learn nao 3 total 46 27 the total number of participants in the games in experiment 1 was 46 and in experiment 2 27. some children participated twice. four of the games were tested twice (given in bold italic) and included in the analysis below. 4. methodology of the present study we consider one game and n (k=1,…, n) is the number of successive experiments to complete the design of the game, i.e. to validate the proposed construct of evolving game design. before the experiments, a pilot testing of the games in laboratory settings was performed and then tested in real-life settings (day care centres) in experiment 1. the results of experiment 1 are assessed according to previously defined criteria by a survey, consisting of 9 likert scales. after the assessment, new improvements in the game (control variable u) are incorporated. our miso (multi-input single-output) linear control system framework (lcsf) demonstrates that the succession of games need not be the same, and their number equated, too. multi-input are the characteristics of the game and single-output is the abstract increment of child’s development as a result of the skill’s training trial. this is reflected in the transition from experiment 1 to experiment n for each individual child in figure 4, where x and u are vectors, and y are scalars. figure 4. experimental succession of games within the miso linear control system. yn y1 y2 cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 195 the assumption, made by the present linear-systems approach, is that the teacher’s assessment is the most ‘objective’ measure of the child’s learning progress, achieved via the game. this assessment is more ‘objective’ than any others’ in respect to the individual child e.g. of a parent or external expert. therefore, the teacher’s evaluation from experiment k to experiment k+1 is in an almost linear dependence. ethics. teachers collected informed consents from parents of all involved children prior to the experiments. ethics permission for conducting the study was obtained from the ethics committees of the involved day centres in the towns of bansko and gotse delchev in bulgaria. all procedures complied with the “wma declaration of helsinki – ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects” 5 and gdpr 6 . set up and procedure. the 3 groups of games took place in the common area of each day centre. a teacher brings a child to the game scene and helps in explaining the rules of the game. the child plays the game with the constant assistance of the teacher. follow-up. brainstorming sessions are conducted after each experiment with all involved – experts and designers for qualitative and quantitative assessment of the designed games. game evaluation. right after each game the teacher gives assessment on 9 likert scales from 1 to 5. the fact that scores are collected in a “paper and pencil” manner is not crucial for the proposed evaluation methodology. scores can be collected by any type of computer interface or via the touch screen of a smart phone, for example. criterion 7 “level of difficulty” of the game was not included in the multidimensional analysis, leaving the number of game dimensions to 8, as given in table 3. 5 for more information on the declaration of helsinki, see https://www.wma.net/policiespost/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-humansubjects. 6 for more information on gdpr, see https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj. https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 196 table 3. evaluation criteria of the proposed games (matrix a) criterion 1 appropriateness of the game 2 motivation of the child 3 impact on cognitive development 4 impact on motor development 5 impact on social development 6 interest of the child 7 level of difficulty of the game* 8 role of collective participation 9 role in formation of novel policies *not included in the state matrix a a. formal considerations of the lcsf the increment of skills improvement of the children as a result of the games is represented by m in number aspects of the game – in particular here by m = 8 assessment dimensions, represented as 8 likert scales. each likert scale is 5 point. the important assumption is that the teachers’ assessment is implicit, but objective since they know best the children and their learning needs. the improvements in the games after each experiment are considered the manipulated (i.e. control) variables u. the process terminates when the game has no further capacity for improvement. b. system description  n– number of experiments;  for the participating child and the tested game (for each experiment) an eight-dimensional state variable is defined, where the vector elements represent:  appropriateness of the game, motivation of the child; impact on cognitive development; impact on motor development; impact on social development, interest of the child; role of collective participation; – role in formation of novel policies.  the initial values of the state vector have been defined after the pilot test of the game in laboratory settings.  the control variable [ ] is a twodimensional vector, representing the types of improvements of the game. for different situations, the vector can be defined as representing various types of game modifications according to the current pedagogical needs and can be of any dimension. two types of cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 197 improvements are considered in the present study first, adding new functions in the games and second, adding new elements in the game construction , which makes the vector two-dimensional.  an output scalar variable is defined, representing the integral skills level, attained as a result of playing the games. it is reflected in the average game assessment by the teachers.  a diagonal state matrix is introduced with elements on the main diagonal representing the hypothetical state of child’s development that will be influenced by the game parameters (likert scale dimensions).  a control matrix is introduced, representing the effect on the child’s development by the introduction of the proposed changes in the game (control type and/or ) .  a matrix is introduced, representing the (final) overall influence of the game parameters (vector ) on the development of the child.  then the description of the system is: ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) a simulation will reveal the dependency of the output y on the magnitude of and/or , as stated in the hypotheses below. more elaborate simulation-based predictions of the model will be performed in future studies of the lcsf applicability to novel game design for inclusive education. c) main hypotheses h1. the modifications made after experiment 1 in terms of adding new functions in the games , and adding new elements in the game construction , will bring higher overall ranking of the games, made by the teachers, after experiment 2. h2. the bigger the modification of the game (objective parameter), the bigger difference this will make as reflected in the teachers’ scores (subjective evaluation, yet more objective than possibly made by parents or experts). ideally, the dependence is linear. 5. results and discussion experiment 1 was conducted in march 2016 at two day-care centres for children with special learning needs. experiment 2 was conducted in may-june 2016 at the same centres with the modified games, with most of brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 198 the previously participating children (18) plus three new participants. the total number of participating children was 21. the number of collected experimental protocols in experiment 1 was 46 and in experiment 2 – 27 (73 in total). the games of interest for the present analysis are given in bold italic in table 3. they were used to test the formulated hypotheses h1 and h2. the experimental protocols were filled by the teachers after every game of the participating child by assessing the game along the 9 dimensions as likert scales (8 used in the model and 1 “difficulty” dimension) and writing up comments (if any). a) experimental results stimulus material games. all games were presented in the previous section. two of the games – puzzle and nao sorting pictures obtained single protocols and were excluded from the statistical analysis (table 3). difficulty ranking of the games. criterion 7 in table 1 evaluates the level of difficulty of the games and was analysed separately. figure 5 presents the average scores of the game difficulty, given by the teachers. figure 5. difficulty ranking of the implemented games after experiment 2 single factor anova revealed significant difference of the level of difficulty of the designed games, f (12, 58) = 2.28, p = 0.02. the same relation holds if the three games with only 2 protocols each are taken out of the sample, f (9, 55) = 2.49, p = 0.02. this is in line with the ambition to provide the teachers with a variety of games with varying levels of difficulty cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 199 for individual work according to the needs of the child. the most difficult games turn out to be the games designed with semi-humanoid and nonhumanoid robots walking robot bigfoot (figure 1) and minion doll with robotic arm (figure 2). the reason for this is, probably, the cognitive load they impose on children with learning difficulties. understandably, the easiest games are singing and dancing, as well as collaborative games with a humanoid robot nao (figure 3). the humanoid robot seems to provide intuitive ‘outreach’ to the children and is welcomed very emotionally by them. ranking of the games by the teachers for overall ‘applicability’ of the game. a measure for ‘game applicability’ is considered the mean of all averaged scores for each game and each criterion (except the ‘difficulty’ criterion). it corresponds to the value of the system’s output y. figure 6. ranking according to the overall applicability of all games in both experiments one-way anova revealed substantial differences in the teacher evaluations of all games tested in both experiments, f (12, 117) = 7.98, p < 0.0000. highest scores were given to the easy games, whereas the most difficult games were evaluated in the middle of the rank. the teachers assessed as applicable all the games, with varying degree of applicability in their work with children. b) test of the main hypotheses the aim of experiment 2 was to introduce improvements in line with the main hypotheses of the present study h1 and h2. in two sessions – experiments 1 and 2 we tried to test as many games as possible. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 200 collecting experimental protocols from the teachers, however, was not easy, because the individual work with the children slowed down the process. also, it was not possible to assess the individual child performance in group activities. this is the reason for having only 4 games tested in two subsequent experiments according to the proposed model – shapes and colours, flipper, walking robot bigfoot and minion doll with robotic arm. the performed qualitative analysis (brainstorming session of all involved in the game design) after experiment 1 revealed the following: the games can be grouped into 3 clusters according to their readiness to be included in the teaching programme of the day centres – 1) games of sufficient degree of completeness (cluster 1), 2) games of approximate degree of completeness (cluster 2) and 3) games of experimental degree of completeness (cluster 3). cluster 1 consists of the following games: walking robot bigfoot, shapes and colors, flipper, nao singing and dancing -1, nao singing and dancing – 2, jumpido and fun math. it includes both difficulty and easy games, which are almost complete to go on the market after the final testing of their design. of these, walking robot bigfoot, shapes and colors and flipper are used to test our formal model. cluster 2 consists of the games basketball with nao, nao imitates child gestures and gymnastics with nao. only minimal improvements are necessary for these – smoother movements of the robot and better vocation during performance. although many children participated in these games in both experiments, protocols could not be collected for the formal analysis, because it was difficult for the teachers to fill in protocols for individual children after collective games. cluster 3 consists of the games minion doll with robotic hand and puzzle. it was necessary to improve the technical implementation of the games in terms of adding new functions in the games – u1 according to the proposed evolving game design approach. the new function was a multimedia effect – the minion doll sang a song when the child identified correctly the gesture displayed by the doll. the game walking robot bigfoot was the case with adding new elements in the game construction – u2 according to the proposed model. teachers assessed the game extremely high for its appropriateness to enhance child’s cognitive development and abstract reasoning abilities (cluster 1). the reluctance of some of the children to play the game, however, was explained by the teachers with the fact that children carried around favourite toys and did not want to leave them aside for the game. for this reason, the robot was augmented with a platform, where the cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 201 children could place their toys and perform the game more confidently. adding the platform was, in fact, the added new element in the construction, according to h1 (figure 1). another change from experiment 1 to experiment 2 was switching the interface from a keyboard to a joystick, which brought the control and the bigfoot robot within the eyesight of the child. this modification of the game, being qualitatively introduced, additionally contributing to both u1 and u2, is expected to bring results in quantitative terms, according to the second main hypothesis of the study h2: higher scores will be obtained by the games with changes in the values of vector u, which are bigger in magnitude, than on games with similar, but less in magnitude changes. two subhypotheses were formulated: sub-hypothesis 1 (sh1). the games, belonging to cluster 1 – shapes and colors and flipper require little improvement and will lead to scores, given by the teachers, which will not differ largely from experiment 1 to experiment 2. it is also expected that the teacher assessment will be influenced by a ‘familiarity effect’ in terms of somewhat lowering the score from experiment 1 to experiment 2 of identical games (see the text below). figure 7. initial set up (left) the child controls the bigfoot robot via laptop interface, but pays attention to the toys outside eyesight; walking robot bigfoot modified after experiment 1 (right) – the robot is augmented with a platform to place the toys. the child controls its movements toward the toys via a joystick, so that the robot, the toys and the control are within the eyesight of the child sub-hypothesis 2 (sh2). the game, belonging to cluster 3 – minion doll with robotic arm – requiring improvement of the implementation – as well as the game walking robot bigfoot, belonging to cluster 1, but modified according to the child’s preferences – will result in significant differences in the assessment of the teachers from experiment 1 to experiment 2, since the value of u2 will be bigger for these games, than for the other 2 games – flipper and shapes and colours. brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 202 c) validation of the evolving game design construct two-way anova with replication did not reveal main effect of game, nor main effect of experiment (1 or 2), however it revealed significant interaction between these 2 factors, f(3, 56) = 3.70, p = 0.017 (figure 8). the slight decline in the values for flipper and shapes and colors can be explained with the effect of ‘familiarity’ on the part of the teachers. as it is known from experimental psychology, a familiarity effect brings faster response to ‘old’ than to ‘new’ items in ‘old-new’ recognition tasks (e.g. appelman, & mayzner, 1981). here, a familiarity effect on the part of the teacher, who is assessing a game for the second time, means that the teachers are faster in recognising ‘old’ aspects of the game, making them more critical the second time as a result of this cognitive process thus supporting sh1 7 . figure 8. light bars represent the mean scores for 4 games after experiment 1; dark bars after experiment 2 the effect of increasing the mean scores for the walking robot and minion doll games from experiment 1 to experiment 2 is clearly seen in figure 8 and not observed in the other two games – flipper and shapes and colors. therefore, u2 is big enough to overcome the possible ‘familiarity effect’ by increased saliency effect (e.g. ambady & rosenthal, 1993) from experiment 1 to experiment 2 for the walking robot and minion doll games. two-way anova with replication did not reveal main effect of game on the scores, and no interaction, but revealed main effect of experiment for 7 this is just an assumption for cases of complex stimuli like games, which needs further investigation in similar experimental conditions. cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 203 the games walking robot bigfoot and minion doll with robotic arm in teacher’s assessment of children’s motivation (criterion 2) and interest (criterion 6) as expected, f(1, 28) = 4.77, p = 0.038, supporting sh 2. figure 9. mean scores for motivation (light bar) and interest (dark bar) of children playing the walking robot and the minion doll games in experiment 1 and experiment 2 this means that the teachers are confident in giving higher scores after experiment 2 to the dimensions of motivation and interest of the child after the game modifications, reflected in u1 and u2 of vector u, where u1 refers to the modification of the game minion doll with robotic hand and u2 to the modification of the game walking robot bigfoot (figure 9). 6. limitations of the paper a serious problem of the present study is the limited number of participating children. in such a case there is always a danger not to reject a false null hypothesis (type ii error) due to the possibility that the underlying distribution of game features’ assessments from experiment 1 to experiment 2, given by the teachers, is not normal. however, we have relied on the assumption that the most objective assessment of the games in respect to each individual child’s learning needs can, and will be given by the teachers, rather than parents or external experts. therefore, we expect the increase of the sample size – i.e. number of teachers’ opinions on the games in respect to more children involved – to preserve the assumed normality of the underlying distributions of the teachers’ assessments. a well-known statistical regularity is that, if significant difference is obtained with a small sample, it is most likely to hold with a bigger sample, whereas the opposite brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 204 does not hold, supporting the expectation that this effect will be replicated in a larger study. therefore, we expect to obtain similar dependencies to the observed in the present study in our future experiments with newly designed games same or different for special education with applicability to inclusive education classes. another limitation of the present study is the reliance solely on teacher’s evaluations of games in respect to game influence on child’s development. a valuable contribution to the current linear systems framework for evaluation of novel educational tools for special education would be including, in parallel, other types of assessment of the influence of games on children development, such as various types of behavioral indicators or bio-signal feedback from clinical practice (e.g. hamzah et al., 2014; katmada et al., 2015). this will certainly help validate the construct of evolving game design for special education, which was not possible to in the present study, but can be arranged without difficulty in future studies. 7. conclusions the paper presented a set of games, designed to provide teachers with a palette of technological means for enhancing the motor, cognitive, and social skills of children in special education. these games are also applicable in inclusive education, especially being in a format, supporting turn-taking games and collaborative play. the paper explicitly addressed the issue of quantitatively estimating the improvement of games in a desired direction towards better game applicability. the proposed evolving game design was successful in providing a method for assessing the improvement of games from experiment 1 to experiment 2 by implementing a linear control system framework. we believe that the approach is applicable in inclusive education settings and plan to continue developing it in the future. acknowledgement the authors age grateful to the directors and teachers of the day centres in the towns of bansko and gotse delchev in bulgaria for participating in the study and providing valuable feedback on the de-signed games. this research has received funding from the european union's horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the marie sklodowska-curie grant no 777720 for project cybspeed (2017-2021), by the financial mechanism of eea under grant d03-90/15.05.2015 for project metemss (2015-2016), and by the european regional development fund within the op “science and education for smart growth 2014 2020”, cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 205 project coc “smart mechatronic, ecoand energy saving systems and technologies“, № bg05m2op001-1.002-0023. l. ozaeta has been supported by a predoctoral grant from the basque country. references ambady, n., & rosenthal, r. (1993). half a minute: predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness. journal of personality and social psychology, 64(3), 431-441. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.64.3.431 appelman, i. b., & mayzner, m. s. (1981). the letter-frequency effect and the generality of familiarity effects on perception. perception & psychophysics, 30(5), 436-446. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03204839 azimi, m. (2012). skeletal joint smoothing white paper. microsoft developer network. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj131429.aspx bayon, c., raya, r., lara, s. l., ramírez, o., serrano, j., & rocon, e. (2016). robotic therapies for children with cerebral palsy: a systematic review. translational biomedicine, 7(1), 44. https://doi.org/10.21767/21720479.100044 benitti, f. b. v. (2012). exploring the educational potential of robotics in schools: a systematic review. computers & education, 58(3), 978-988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.10.006 bolarinwa, o. a. (2015). principles and methods of validity and reliability testing of questionnaires used in social and health science researches. nigerian postgraduate medical journal, 22(4), 195-201. https://doi.org/10.4103/11171936.173959 botsova, r., lekova, a., & chavdarov, i. (2015). imitation learning of robots by integrating microsoft kinect and pid controller with a sensor for angular displacement in a robot joint. compsystech '15: proceedings of the 16th international conference on computer systems and technologies june 2015 (pp. 268275). https://doi.org/10.1145/2812428.2812455 charlton, b., williams, r. l., & mclaughlin, t. f. (2005). educational games: a technique to accelerate the acquisition of reading skills of children with learning disabilities. international journal of special education, 20(2), 66-72. chavdarov, i. & naydenov, b. (2019). design and kinematics of a 3-d printed walking robot “big foot”, overcoming obstacles. international journal of advanced robotic systems, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1729881419891329 dimitrova, m. (2016). cognitive theories for socially-competent robotics in education. lambert academic publishing. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.64.3.431 https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03204839 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj131429.aspx https://doi.org/10.21767/2172-0479.100044 https://doi.org/10.21767/2172-0479.100044 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.10.006 https://doi.org/10.4103/1117-1936.173959 https://doi.org/10.4103/1117-1936.173959 https://doi.org/10.1145/2812428.2812455 https://doi.org/10.1177/1729881419891329 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 206 dimitrova, m. & wagatsuma, h. (2015). designing humanoid robots with novel roles and social abilities. lovotics, 3, article 112. https://doi.org/10.4172/2090-9888.1000112 dimitrova, m., vegt, n., & barakova, e. (2012). designing a system of interactive robots for training collaborative skills to autistic children. 2012 15th international conference on interactive collaborative learning (icl), villach, 2012 (pp. 1-8). https://doi.org/10.1109/icl.2012.6402179 dimitrova, m., wagatsuma, h., tripathi, g. n., & ai, g. (2019). learner attitudes towards humanoid robot tutoring systems: measuring of cognitive and social motivation influences. cyber-physical systems for social applications (pp. 62-85). igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-7879-6.ch004 ghazali, a. s., ham, j., barakova, e., & markopoulos, p. (2020). persuasive robots acceptance model (pram): roles of social responses within the acceptance model of persuasive robots. international journal of social robotics, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-019-00611-1 hamzah, m. s. j., shamsuddin, s., miskam, m. a., yussof, h., & hashim, k. s. (2014). development of interaction scenarios based on pre-school curriculum in robotic intervention for children with autism. procedia computer science, 42, 214-221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2014.11.054 huijnen, c. a., lexis, m. a., jansens, r., & de witte, l. p. (2016). mapping robots to therapy and educational objectives for children with autism spectrum disorder. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 46(6), 2100-2114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2740-6 katmada, a., mavridis, a., apostolidis, h., & tsiatsos, t. (2015). developing an adaptive serious game based on students' bio-feedback. 2015 6th international conference on information, intelligence, systems and applications (iisa), corfu, 2015, (pp. 1-6). https://doi.org/10.1109/iisa.2015.7387975 kim, e. s., berkovits, l. d., bernier, e. p., leyzberg, d., shic, f., paul, r., & scassellati, b. (2013). social robots as embedded reinforcers of social behavior in children with autism. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 43(5), 1038-1049. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1645-2 lekova, a., stancheva, v., krastev, a., dimitrova, m., & wagatsuma, h. (2015). redesign of computer games towards serious motion-sensing games for children with limited physical skills: a developer perspective. proceedings of the ict innovations 2015. mukherjee, s., paramkusam, d., & dwivedy, s. k. (2015). inverse kinematics of a nao humanoid robot using kinect to track and imitate human motion. 2015 international conference on robotics, automation, control and embedded systems (race), chennai, 2015 (pp. 1-7). https://doi.org/10.1109/race.2015.7097245 https://doi.org/10.4172/2090-9888.1000112 https://doi.org/10.1109/icl.2012.6402179 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-7879-6.ch004 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-019-00611-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2014.11.054 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2740-6 https://doi.org/10.1109/iisa.2015.7387975 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1645-2 https://doi.org/10.1109/race.2015.7097245 cyber-physical systems for pedagogical rehabilitation from an inclusive … maya dimitrova, et al. 207 ozaeta, l., graña, m., dimitrova, m., & krastev, a. (2018). child oriented storytelling with nao robot in hospital environment: preliminary application results. problems of engineering cybernetics and robotics, 69, 21-29. pliasa, s., & fachantidis, n. (2019). can a robot be an efficient mediator in promoting dyadic activities among children with autism spectrum disorders and children of typical development? bci'19: proceedings of the 9th balkan conference on informatics (pp. 1-6). https://doi.org/10.1145/3351556.3351592 tanaka, f., isshiki, k., takahashi, f., uekusa, m., sei, r., & hayashi, k. (2015). pepper learns together with children: development of an educational application. 2015 ieee-ras 15th international conference on humanoid robots (humanoids), seoul, 2015, (pp. 270-275). https://doi.org/10.1109/humanoids.2015.7363546 toh, l. p. e., causo, a., tzuo, p. w., chen, i. m., & yeo, s. h. (2016). a review on the use of robots in education and young children. journal of educational technology & society, 19(2), 148-163. http://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.19.2.148 van den berk-smeekens, i., van dongen-boomsma, m., de korte, m. w., den boer, j. c., oosterling, i. j., peters-scheffer, n. c., buitelaar, j. k., barakova, e. i., lourens, t., staal, w. g. & glennon, j. c. (2020). adherence and acceptability of a robot-assisted pivotal response treatment protocol for children with autism spectrum disorder. scientific reports, 10(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65048-3 wainer, j., dautenhahn, k., robins, b., & amirabdollahian, f. (2014). a pilot study with a novel setup for collaborative play of the humanoid robot kaspar with children with autism. international journal of social robotics, 6(1), 45-65. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-013-0195-x https://doi.org/10.1145/3351556.3351592 https://doi.org/10.1109/humanoids.2015.7363546 http://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.19.2.148 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65048-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-013-0195-x brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 18-32 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/72 chemical biomarkers of diffusse axonal injury iuliana hunea¹, diana bulgaru iliescu 2 , simona irina damian 3 , nona gîrlescu 4 , madalina-maria diac 5 , vlad adrian afrăsânie 6 , manuela ciocoiu 7 1 the institute of forensic medicine, 4, buna vestire str., iasi, romania, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, romania, zamisnicu.iuliana@gmail.com 2 the institute of forensic medicine, iasi, romania; department of forensic medicine, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, romania, bulgarudiana@yahoo.com corresponding author 3 the institute of forensic medicine, iasi, romania; department of forensic medicine, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, romania, si_damian@yahoo.com 4 the institute of forensic medicine, iasi, romania; department of forensic medicine, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, romania, nona.girlescu@yahoo.com 5 the institute of forensic medicine, iasi, romania; department of forensic medicine, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, romania, abstract: craniocerebral trauma is the most common cause of death and post-traumatic disability in people under 45 years of age. in romania, the annual incidence shows, that for every 100,000 inhabitants, there are 300 cases of craniocerebral trauma that require specialized medical assistance. craniocerebral traumas are the most common types of traumas encountered in current forensic practice. research on the mechanisms of injury, the timing of head trauma and the establishment of causes of death remain relevant. establishing the traumatic moment implies both the distinction between pre-mortem and post-mortem injuries but also considerations regarding the post-traumatic survival interval. regarding the elucidation of the moment of occurrence of the craniocerebral trauma from the forensic point of view, a satisfactory result has not been reached so far. the classic hypothesis regarding the development of traumatic brain injuries shows that they are the result of primary traumatic injuries due to cell necrosis combined with the inflammatory brain response that causes secondary brain injuries. it was considered that post-traumatic neuronal losses are strictly due to necrosis and inflammation, and cellular apoptosis being a physiological process, does not play a role in this process. due to recent experimental data, brain cell apoptosis has begun to be reevaluated. the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury is far from being fully understood, with the idea that apoptosis would play an even more important role than originally thought. specifically, damaged brain cells release neuromodulatory substances that can lead to late-onset neuronal damage long after necrotic and inflammatory brain phenomena have ceased to act. these neuronal cell losses are responsible for the development of various neurological deficits and post-traumatic sequelae. keywords: tai biomarkers; traumatic brain injury; traumatic axonal injury; diffuse axonal injury. how to cite: hunea, i., bulgaru iliescu, d., damian, s.i., gîrlescu, n., diac, m.-m., afrăsânie, v.a., & ciocoiu, m. (2020). chemical biomarkers of diffusse axonal injury. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 18-32. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/72 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/72 mailto:zamisnicu.iuliana@gmail.com mailto:bulgarudiana@yahoo.com mailto:si_damian@yahoo.com mailto:nona.girlescu@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/72 madalina_dc89@yahoo.com 6 "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, romania, vlad_afrasanie@yahoo.com 7 pathophysiology department, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, romania, mciocoiu2003@yahoo.com mailto:madalina_dc89@yahoo.com mailto:vlad_afrasanie@yahoo.com mailto:mciocoiu2003@yahoo.com chemical biomarkers of diffusse axonal injury iuliana hunea et al. 19 1. introduction although they are a major public health problem, over time, diffuse axonal injury (dai) have not been a real point of interest in research, compared to the extent of their importance (anderson et al., 2008; unden & romner, 2010). we must not ignore statistics showing notable results in terms of mortality and morbidity at international level. according to faul et col., in the united states of america, the number of cases of people affected is 1.7 million individuals, representing 30% of the causes of violent deaths (langlois & sattin, 2005; maas, stocchetti & bullok, 2008). in europe, the annual incidence of tbi is estimated to be around 235 cases per 100.000, with an average mortality of 15 per 100.000 inhabitants (maas, stocchetti & bullok, 2008). although there are approximately 5 million people with posttbi disability in the us, and in europe, two million more, according to the world health oranization, the incidence of tbi continues to increase globally (berger et al., 2007; kawata et al., 2016; wiesmann et al, 2010). smith and meaney, identified as areas of maximum vulnerability for the development of dai, the white matter that is subjected during trauma, to voltages that exceed axonal viscoelasticity, especially during angular accelerations (christman et al., 1994; greer, et al., 2013). after tbi, axonal degeneration results as a primary axotomy consisting of a progression to the interruption of axonal transport, leading to axonal ballooning followed by secondary axotomy, in which the disconnection of the axonal ends, that will be subjected to wallerian degeneration. the microscopic lesions are highlighted by axonal retraction bulbs. the retraction bulbs are visible at least 4-12 hours after craniocerebral trauma, in arginine impregnation and after one hour by immunohistochemistry techniques, that highlight the presence of the beta-amyloid precursor protein at the level of the affected axons, this becoming the main goal of dai diagnosis (david et al., 2017; knieling et al., 2017; saatman et al., 2003). chen and col. argue that, initially, neuronal degeneration was attributed only to acute and sub-acute craniocerebral trauma, recent evidence shows that axonal degeneration continues long after trauma, resulting in a progressive, extended long-term neurodegenerative process, the link between dai and pathologies such as alzheimer's being notorious. posttbi cognitive and neuropsychic dysfunction is diverse, including attention deficits (greer et al., 2013; kawata et al., 2016; zetterberg, smith & blennow, 2013), memory deficits, effector and emotional dysfunction, agitation, depression. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 20 therefore, additional clinical tools are needed in the diagnosis and prognosis of tai. understanding the underlying mechanisms of dai, specific proteins can be identified that will serve as their biomarkers, which is essential both for a correct and early diagnosis and for the development of prognostic factors and new potential therapeutic targets (barkhoudarian, hovda& giza, 2011; iov, 2015). such biomarkers may exist in several bodily fluids, including cerebrospinal fluid (csf), blood and saliva (tang-schomer et al, 2012). 2. pathogenesis axons located in the cerebral and medullary white substance appear particularly vulnerable to trauma involving tension forces resulting from shears caused by marked angular acceleration and deceleration of the head during impact, in particular due to their heterotropicity (christman et al., 1994). in vitro experimental studies have demonstrated the axon's ability to elongate 100% of its length due to remarkable viscoelasticity, subsequently having the ability to return to its original length. however, in reality, in vivo, axons behave differently (christman et al., 1994; david et al., 2017; saatman et al., 2003). dai is wide spread damage to axons in the white substance of the brain. axonal lesions experience two major stages of production, which reside in a primary axotomy, followed by a secondary one, each resulting from distinct processes. the primary axotomy is a consequence of stretching forces acting on the axon at the time of trauma (knieling et al., 2017). the mechanism involves an initial interruption of the axonal transport system, causing axonal withdrawal and, ultimately, an axonal or axotomy disupphate (greer et al., 2013; smith, meaney & shull, 2003). primary axotomy at the time of trauma is a much rarer phenomenon found compared to secondary axotomy, which follows changes in the cytoskeleton (iov, 2015; knieling et al., 2017; zetterberg, smith & blennow, 2013). primary damage can cause mechanical deformation of the endothelium of the capillaries of the blood-brain bath (bbb) through shear forces disrupting the stability of specialized tight junction complexes (tj) and thus altering bbb. during the primary injury, mechanical trauma can trigger cyto-skeletal rearrangements compromising tj stability and leading to overcoming axonal elasticity with the release of neural and glial proteins into the bloodstream by altering bbb (barkhoudarian, hovda & giza, 2011; smith, meaney & shull, 2003; tang-schomer et al., 2012). chemical biomarkers of diffusse axonal injury iuliana hunea et al. 21 smith and col. demonstrated that within seconds of the dynamic axonal stretching, the axons become temporarily undunted due to the fact that the stretching force exceeds the elastic force, leading to lesions of the axonal cyto-skeleton visible in the form of consecutive swelling ripples and subsequent formation of the retraction bulbs, viewable in silver impregnation a few hours after the trauma, and in immunochemistry, in the first half hour. recently, in vitro studies have shown that primary rupture of microtubules is the basis of observed posttraumatic axonal ripples (hunea et al., 2017). axonal structural stability is ensured by cytochelt proteins such as neurofilaments, actin and spectrin, which over time have become biomarkers of dai. in addition to these structural markers, proteins associated with microtubules, such as tau protein, have been the subject of numerous studies. in the genesis of secondary axotomy an essential role is played by the phenomenon of mechanotransduction, which ultimately leads to the increase of intracellular calcium. the increase in intracellular calcium therefore has both external and internal, mitochondrial sources, by increasing oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation. the increase in calcium at the neural level activates the cascade of calpaines and caspases, resulting in myelin lesions with the release of myelin basic protein (mbp), neurofilaments, neurofilamentary chains, beta-amyloid precursor protein, fragments of spectrin, a cyto-skeletal protein that contributes to axonal morphology, in a collection of products known as spectrin braining down products (sbdp). activation of calpaina will lead to neural necrosis, predominant in the first stage of secondary axotomy, while calipase will lead to apoptosis, with much lower oxidative stress compared to that induced by calpain, resulting in subsequent reduction of the areas of gliosis (smith, meaney & shull, 2003; tang-schomer et al., 2012). in later stages, glutamate will be released, with the arousal of neurons, subsequent axonal eterioration stimulating the release of glutamate, with the potentiation of neurotoxicity (barkhoudarian, hovda & giza, 2011; knieling et al., 2017). maxwell et al. have demonstrated on in vitro studies on the optic nerve that its tension leads through mechanotransduction phenomena to increased activity of mechanical-dependent na channels, with the reversal of the na+/ca2+ exchanger leading to the increase of intracellular calcium, installing a vicious circle demonstrated by staal and colab. in 2010 on in vitro studies. it appears that the elevation of intracellular calcium ions leads brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 22 to the release of calcium deposits from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (smith, meaney & shull, 2003). 3. method in carrying out the present review, we conducted a search of literature reviews between 2000 and 2020, in the pubmed database, in which the keywords of the search were: neurofilament, nf, nf-h, glyceraldehhyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, nf-l, myelin basic protein, mbp, serpina 1, tau protein, tau fragments, amyloid, amyloid peptides, spectrin breakdown products, spectrin, sbdp, diffusse axonal injury, traumatic brain injury and traumatic axonal injury. 4. biomarkers biomarkers can be any quantifiable product that attests to a particular lesion. however, there are several biomarkers that may reflect tai, but may not conceptually achieve a physiopathological perspective. these are markers such as, s-100b, neuron-specific enolase (nse) and glial fibrillary acid protein (gfap). there are still no reliable and objective tests to facilitate the diagnosis of dai (unden & romner, 2010; wiesmann, 2010). studies have shown that the dynamics of dai biomarkers vary over time depending on the time elapsed from trauma. thus it appears that, as tao and col. demonstrated, the earliest and most relevant growth is recorded by the t-tau protein, one hour after the trauma, followed by phosphorylated heavy neurofilament chain (pnf-h) and myelin basic protein (mbp) within the first 6 hours. at 12-36 hours, the most significant increase was a spectrin n-terminal fragment sntf, followed by tau, pnfh and nf-l (hunea et al., 2017; bulgaru-iliescu, knieling & scripcaru, 2015). on days 2, 3 after trauma, significant increases had p nf-h, t-tau and amyloid beta protein, from cerebrospinal fluid, pnf-h, and also remained elevated. for late diagnosis, it appears that the most statistically significant were tau and amyloid beta protein (li et al., 2015). ( table 1) https://www-sciencedirect-com.dbproxy.umfiasi.ro/topics/neuroscience/glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dehydrogenase chemical biomarkers of diffusse axonal injury iuliana hunea et al. 23 table 1. dai biomarkers-mechansim, dinamic in biologic fluid in time. posttraumatic interval biologic fluid sample biomarker mechanism 1 hour plasma t-tau axonal injury / proteolytic cleavage of t-tau 6 hour plasma phosphorylated heavy neurofilament chain myelin basic protein axonal injury ubiquitin carboxylterminal hydrolase l1 neuronal damage tau 8 hours blood occludin bbb disruption 12 hours blood neuron-specific enolase neuronal damage a-tau axonal injury / proteolytic cleavage of t-tau 24 hour plasma phosphorylated heavy neurofilament chain llight neurofilament chain tau glial fibrillary acidic protein glial damage spectrin nterminal fragment axonal injury 36 hour plasma spectrin nterminal fragment axonal injury 48 hour plasma pnf-h axonal injury t-tau 72 hour cerebrospinal fluid t-tau -amyloid axonal transport damage 1 month plasma tau -amyloid 42 https://www-sciencedirect-com.dbproxy.umfiasi.ro/topics/neuroscience/neuron-specific-enolase https://www-sciencedirect-com.dbproxy.umfiasi.ro/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/neurofilament https://www-sciencedirect-com.dbproxy.umfiasi.ro/topics/neuroscience/glial-fibrillary-acidic-protein https://www-sciencedirect-com.dbproxy.umfiasi.ro/topics/neuroscience/glial-fibrillary-acidic-protein brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 24 4.1. neurofylaments the structure of axonal neurofilaments includes a light chain (nf-l), an intermediate chain (nf-m) and a heavy chain (nf-h), named after their molecular weightof 68kda, 150kda and 190kda (barkhoudarian, hovda & giza, 2011) respectively, with a tight correlation with the ct imaging aspect of dai. a retrospective clinical trial (maas, stocchetti & bullok, 2008) evaluated the use of nf-l serum as a prognostic biomarker in patients with tbi. the nf-l serum significantly improves predictive capacity when combined with radiological parameters. both clinical and animal models revealed the close association of phosphorylated nf-h neurofilaments with dai, their level at 24 hours after trauma being also correlated with the reserved prognosis at 6 months (bulgaru-iliescu, knieling & scripcaru, 2015; hunea et al., 2017; smith, meaney & shull, 2003; tang-schomer et al., 2012). song and col. also argue that to date, (nf-l), together with gfap may be the most suitable candidate for the assessment of neuronal and astrocytic lesions. manivan and col. have demonstrated that both serum levels pnf-h and nf-l measured between days 2-4 posttraumatism were significantly higher in patients with a weaker outcome at 6 months. median values of nfh was higher in patients with tai at all time points over a ten-day period compared to the focal injury group (knieling, 2017). 4.2. basic myelin protein (mbp) myelin, produced centrally by oligodendrocytes and peripherally by shcwann sheath, consists of lipoprotein structures, with mbp accounting for about one third of the protein component. in order for this to reach the blood, a damage to bbb is required (barkhoudarian, hovda& giza, 2011; iov, 2015). mbp was among the first serum biomark investigated for the diagnosis of dai (li et al., 2015; tang-schomer, 2012). there are also studies that have found that an increase in mbp in the first few days after trauma is correlated with a poor prognosis over variable periods of time. mbp has the advantage of early diagnosis, with serum levels increasing in the first two hours after trauma and remaining elevated up to two weeks (smith, meaney & shull, 2003). 4.3. the precursor protein of beta-amyloid in secondary axotomy, the conversion of anterograde transport to retrograde transport determines the accumulation of the beta-amyloid chemical biomarkers of diffusse axonal injury iuliana hunea et al. 25 precursor protein with proximal axonal swelling, while the distal end fragments and suffers walerian degeneration (knieling, 2017). in abaca1 murine models, apoe expression decreased by 70-80% and was associated with decreased cholesterol efflux and increased amyloid level (bulgaru-iliescu, knieling & scripcaru , 2015; hunea et al., 2017; li, 2015). the amyloid precursor protein (app) accumulates predominantly as a result of disruption of axonal transport after trauma (smith, meaney & shull, 2003), although there is also extensive evidence of increased expression of the app gene following tbi (barkhoudarian, hovda& giza, 2011; iov, 2015; smith, meaney & shull, 2003; tang-schomer et al., 2012; zetterberg, smith & blennow, 2013). peptides aβ are found in the interstitial fluid under normal conditions, being a neuronal metabolic product byside, it becomes neurotoxic in the form of insoluble aggregates. the relevance of aβ for axonal lesions is reinforced by a study conducted on schizophrenic patients undergoing therapeutic leukotomy decades ago. leukotomy was in this case a controlled axonal lesion model. the anatomopatological examination performed by immunohistochemistry revealed even after this long time the accumulation of aβ in the bodies of the adiacente neurons of leukotomy. app is not an acute marker, it records late serum peakes one month after trauma and being detectable in plasma up to three months. it is also the element that demonstrates the link between dai and alzheimer's disease. 4.4. tau protein the tau protein has a low molecular weight of 58-65 kda and is located in both the neuronal body and the axons. it performs multiple roles in the neural economy: axonal transport, cellular signaling and the component of the cytoskeleton (bulgaru-iliescu, knieling & scripcaru , 2015; hunea et al., 2017; smith, meaney & shull, 2003). ahmadzadeh et al. demonstrated in a study of murine models conducted in 2014 that it plays a key role in the axonal viscoelasticity opposed to angular acceleration, which once overcome will result in destructive changes in the organization of microtubules. in low-value rotational movements, the tau protein helps to drag neurofilaments, thus opposing axonal injury.neurotoxic fragments can form a key component of neurofibrillary aggregates seen in several neurodegenerative diseases resulting from impaired anterograde axonal transport (iov, 2015). also, an important role in diagnosis is the carboxyterminal fragment. there is also some evidence for the use of tau protein as a blood biomarker of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, (especially c-tau), brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 26 for a neurodegenerative condition arising as a result of slightly repeated tbi in athletes who practice contact sports in particularfor example pugilistic dementia (barkhoudarian, hovda & giza, 201; hunea, 2017). serum levels with greater diagnostic sensitivity to s-100b and nse were also detected in these athletes. the a-tau level was associated with the severity and persistence over time of the symptomatology. tao et col have also concluded that tau protein has a very high prognostic predictive value and that it is a true marker of early diagnosis, with statistically significantly maximum results at 6 h post-traumatism. they compared serum levels with ct and mri radiological images that identified extensive lesions in a tissue volume of at least 25 cm 3 . 4.5. degradation products of spectrine spectrine is known as a structural protein that helps maintain cellular shape and membranary integrity (knieling et al., 2017), and α-ii spectra perform this role as a component of the axolemal cytoskeleton. the destruction of spectrine α-ii after axonal damage is dependent on calpain (calpain-1, calpain-2) and caspse (caspse-3) (iov, 2015; zetterberg, smith & blennow, 2013), but also on the action of cytochrome c, thus generating decomposition products of spectra (sbdp) in particular bsbdp. the initial serum sntf correlates with both imaging and long-term cognitive tests of axonal lesion in patients with initial negative ct scans, providingind strong evidence that biomarkers are essential to help build a prognostic model for tbi, a pattern that is currently missing. csf studies show that different sbdp fragments may have different time profiles. brophy et al (2009) captured the dynamics in the csf of degradation products resulting both on the path of the cascade of the calpaina (sbdp-150, sbdp-145) and the caspasa (sbdp-120) (barkhoudarian, hovda, & giza, 2011; smith, meaney & shull, 2003; tangschomer et al., 2012). the degradation products of caspase persist for about 3 days more than those resulting from the action of calpaina. a major disadvantage of sbdp, however, is the extraaxonal source of spectrine, represented by erythrocytic specrine (iov, 2015), greatly decreasing its specificity as a dai biomarker, especially in patients with hemolytic anemias. this is also not recommended for postmortem studies, when hematic autolysis will generate increased plasma concentrations of spectrin. netto et col. supports in low specificity for spectrin s100β, with a role in regulating intracellular calcium, which can be synthesized by adipocytes and myocytes, especially under conditions of hypoglycaemia (knieling et al., 2017; zetterberg, smith & blennow, 2013). jeter et col. (2013) stated that in the chemical biomarkers of diffusse axonal injury iuliana hunea et al. 27 nervous system, it is found preferentially at the astrocytic level and less in neurons. in particular, the growth of extracellular s100β binds to rage neuronal receptors that lead to tau hyperphosphorylation by activating signal transduction by transcription factors, c-jun and ap-1 (bulgaru-iliescu, knieling & scripcaru, 2015; david et al., 2017; kawata et al., 2016). because s100β does not cross the bbb intact, increased serum levels of s100β after tbi were attributed to alteration of bbb permeability. blyth et al. (2009) advanced this hypothesis by showing that albumin of serum csf-albumin (qa), a definite l indicator of bbb disturbance, was positively correlated with serum concentrations of s100β in patients with severe dai (kawata et al., 2016; saatman et al., 2003). 4.6. glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate dehydrogenaza opii and col claim that this has a key role in the process of glycolysis, by catalyzing the oxidation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate to 1,3bisphosphoglicrate and nadh. recent studies indicate that gapdh also plays a role in the accumulation of glutamate in presynaptic vesicles, membrane fusion and transport, cellular signaling and oxidative stress (maas, stocchetti & bullok , 2008; saatman et al., 2003; unden & romner, 2010). kobeissy et al. showed that gapdh decreased significantly after tbi, so we can say that it is a negative marker, unlike those exposed so far. the post-traumatic decrease in gapdh causes an imbalance between energy supply and demand, ultimately causing increased oxidative stress with the accumulation of oxygen-free radicals, which play an essential role in secondary axotomy. the decrease of gapdh after dai is also explained by the fact that the same enzyme causes nuclear translocation, having a proapoptotic role. zhang et col have demonstrated on a relatively recent study in murine models that glycerol, phosphocoline, glutamine and pyruvate have been significantly modified in rats with dai (hunea et al., 2017). 4.7. neuron-specific enolasis nse is an enzyme found in neural soma, along with s-100b and the basic myelin protein (mbp). enolase is a important catabolic enzyme that converts 2phosphoglycerate into phosphenolpyruvat on the glycolytic pathway for atp production (smith, meaney & shull, 2003; tang-schomer et al., 2012). nse is a cytosolic protein that participates in axonal transport, and its expression levels may fluctuate according to intracellular energy needs. ogata and tsukanezawa have shown on postmortem studies that the level brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 28 of nse increases mainly in the axons in corpus callosum, the needles being undetectable in the control group (iov, 2015; hunea et al., 2017). anand and stead argue that it does not have very high specificity for dai diagnosis, both because of erythrocytic sources and because it exist studies that have demonstrated its growth in other central nervous system conditions, such as ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes (barkhoudarian, hovda & giza, 2011). the serum nse plasma half-life is 24–48 h, and the maximum levels occur in 6 h postinjury. shahim et al. reported that this protein has the disadvantage of low sensitivity, not registering significant variations in those who practice contact sports in the in and off-season (tang-schomer et al., 2012). 4.8. hipoxemina hypoxemine (hpx) is a glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 60 kda, with an extraordinarily high binding affinity for hem). hahl et al.have demonstrated that by forming the hemo-hemopexin complex, hpx plays an essential role in the elimination of hem from peripheral blood, thus preventing the formation of free radicals. the same collective of researchers demonstrated in 2013 on a model of rats with focal transient cerebral ischemia, the neuroprotective effect of hpx, which could be successfully introduced into the therapy of ischemic stroke patients, according to dong et al. a study by ma et al. showed that the deletion of hemoglobin-induced brain injury without the agravation of hpx (barkhoudarian, hovda & giza, 2011; hunea et al., 2017). lin et al. (2019) demonstrated an inverse relationship between serum hpx levels and posttbi mortality. the increase in serum levels only 6 hours after trauma shows the important role of this protein in the genesis of secondary axotomy (bigler, 2012; bulgaru-iliescu, knieling & scripcaru, 2015; li et al., 2015; mccracken et al., 1999). 4.9. acetone acetone is one of the ketone bodies resulting from lipid peroxidation under the action of acetil-coa and can generate betahydroxybutate and acetoacetate synthesis, generally betraying a mitochondrial alteration of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, with a decrease in adenosinetriphosphate concentration after dai (hunea et al., 2017; smith, meaney & shull, 2003). despite the general conception of neurotoxicity of ketone bodies, there are studies that have demonstrated their neuroprotective effect in patients with neurodegenerative conditions (bulgaru-iliescu, knieling & scripcaru, 2015; iwata et al., 2004; mccracken et al., 1999). wang et al. have shown that of all ketone bodies, acetone has chemical biomarkers of diffusse axonal injury iuliana hunea et al. 29 the highest increase in csf, especially in ischemia-reperfusion lesions (bulgaru-iliescu, knieling & scripcaru, 2015; iwata et al., 2004; mccracken et al., 1999). denihan et col also demonstrated that the level of acetone dosed in the blood in the heart in cadavers was associated with the increased severity of cerebral ischemia (mccracken et al., 1999). 4.10. 4hydroxybenzaldehyde another biomarker of the metabolite selected in our study was 4hydroxybenzaldehyde. 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde is a neuromodulator that acts on gamma aminobutyric acid receptors, reducing the synthesis of oxygen free radicals, ultimately having an anticonvulsant effect (iwata et al., 2004). although the detailed molecular mechanisms are still unclear, posttraumatic decrease may be correlated with persistent impairment of consciousness in patients with dai. 4.11. serpina 1 serpina1 is an antiprotease that inhibits the activity of serein and neurotripsin. it is also a negative biomarker, with low levels being reported in plasma of dai patients compared to those in the non-dai control group. serpine 1 has been shown to significantly reduce inflammation and is a protein with antiproteolytic effect (iwata et al., 2004). recent studies have shown that this enzyme is associated with neurological and psychiatric impairment (bigler, 2012; li et al., 2015). peng et al. indicated that the regulation of serpine1 could lead to synaptic dysfunction (mccracken et al., 1999). 4.12. glial fibrillary acidic protein the central nervous system astrocytes have as their main intermediate filament, glial fibrillar acid protein (gfap), which is actually a protein belonging to the cytoskeleton. its roles lie in the motility and maintenance of astrocyte morphology. astrogliosis triggered by lesions of the nervous system of various etiologies, is accompanied by the production of gfap, visible by immunohistochemical marking. studies in murine models have shown that a low level of gfap is associated with increased susceptibility to neuronal damage, by decreasing the resistance of the axonal cytoskeleton (smith, meaney & shull, 2003); conclusion biomarkers tracked in dynamics can increase prognostic accuracy for dai cases. they can also play an essential role in the therapeutic brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 30 management of these patients and in a better understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms. biochemical markers can also be used to achieve clinical-imaging correlations and to assess the response to treatment. establishing the traumatic moment by assessing the dynamics of biomarkers is also useful in forensic practice, because by evaluating them it is possible to distinguish between the injuries produced before death and those produced during the agonal period, but also assessments of the post-traumatic survival interval. references ahmadzadeh, s. r., jamisola, r. s., kormushev, p. & caldwell, d. g. (2014). learning reactive robot behavior for autonomous valve turning. ieee international conference on humanoid robots, spain. https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.4863.7441 . anderson, k. j., scheff, s. w., miller, k. m., roberts, k. n., gilmer, l. k., yang, c. & shaw, g. (2008). the phosphorylated axonal form of the neurofilament subunit nf-h (pnf-h) as a blood biomarker of traumatic brain injury. journal of neurotrauma, 25(9), 1079-1085. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2007.0488 barkhoudarian, g., hovda, d. a. & giza, c.c. (2011). the molecular pathophysiology of concussive brain injury. clinics in sports medicine, 30(1), 33-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csm.2010.09.001 berger, r. p., beers, r. s., richichi, r., wiesman, d. & adelson, p. d. (2007). serum biomarker concentrations and outcome after pediatric traumatic brain injury. journal of neurotrauma, 24(12), 1793-1801. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2007.0316 bigler, e. d. (2012). mild traumatic brain injury: the elusive timing of “recovery”. neuroscience letters, 509(1),1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2011.12.009 blyth, b. j., farhavar, a., gee, c., hawthorn, b., he, h., nayak, a., stocklein, v. & bazarian, j.j. (2009). validation of serum markers for blood-brain barrier disruption in traumatic brain injury. journal of neurotrauma, 26, 1497–1507. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2008.0738 brophy, g. m., pineda, j. a., papa, l., lewis, s. b., valadka, a. b., hannay, h. j., heaton, s. c., demery, j. a., liu, m. c., tepas, j. j., 3rd, gabrielli, a., robicsek, s., wang, k. k., robertson, c. s., & hayes, r. l. (2009). alphaii-spectrin breakdown product cerebrospinal fluid exposure metrics suggest differences in cellular injury mechanisms after severe traumatic brain injury. journal of neurotrauma, 26(4), 471–479. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2008.0657 https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.4863.7441 https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2007.0488 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csm.2010.09.001 https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2007.0316 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2011.12.009 https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2008.0738 https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2008.0657 chemical biomarkers of diffusse axonal injury iuliana hunea et al. 31 bulgaru-iliescu, d., knieling, a. & scripcaru, c. (2015). forensic medicine (1st ed.). editura „gr. t. popa”, umf iasi. christman, c. w., grady, m. s., walker, s. a., holloway, k. l. & povlishock, j. t. (1994). ultrastructural studies of diffuse axonal injury in humans. journal of neurotrauma, 11(2),173-186. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.1994.11.173 david, s., knieling, a., scripcaru, c., diac, m. m., sandu, i. & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2017). study of carbon monoxide intoxication in fire victimis. revista de chimie, 68(12), 2932-2935. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.12.6010 greer, j. e., hanell, a., mcginn, m. j. & povlishock, j. t. (2013). mild traumatic brain injury in the mouse induces axotomy primarily within the axon initial segment. acta neuropathologica, 126(1), 59-74. hunea, i., damian, s. i., david, s., diac, m. m., bulgaru-iliescu, d. & ciocoiu, m. (2017). brief literature review on the mechanisms involved in producing axial difussion injury. brain-broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 8(4), 91-98. iov, j. c. (2015). specific issues of electronic medical records. in a. sandu, a. frunza, t. ciulei, g. gorghiu, a. petrovici (2015). rethinking social action. core values, (699704). bologna, italy: editografica. iwata, a., stys, p. k., wolf, j. a., chen, x. h., taylor, a. g., meaney, d. f, & smith, d. h. (2004). traumatic axonal injury induces proteolytic cleavage of the voltage-gated sodium channels modulated by tetrodotoxin and protease inhibitors. the journal of neuroscience, 24(19), 4605-4613. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0515-03.2004 jeter, c. b., hergenroeder. g. w., hylin, m. j., redell, j. b., moore, a. n. & dash, p. k. (2013). biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of mild traumatic brain injury/concussion. journal of neurotrauma, 30(8), 657-670. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2012.2439 kawata, k., liu, c.y., merkel, s.f., ramirez, s. h., tierney, r.t. & langford, d. (2016). blood biomarkers for brain injury: what are we measuring? neuroscience & biobehavioral reviews, 68, 460-473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.05.009 knieling, a., david, s., damian, s. i., bulgaru-iliescu, d. & iov, c. j. (2017). death moment estimation in stillbirth. romanian journal of legal medicine, 25(3), 251-255. https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2017.251 langlois, j. a. & sattin, r.w. (2005). traumatic brain injury in the united states: research and programs of the centers for disease control and prevention (cdc). the journal of head trauma rehabilitation, 20(3), 187-188. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001199-200505000-00001 li, y., zhang, l., kallakuri, s., cohen, a. & cavanaugh, j. m. (2015). correlation of mechanical impact responses and biomarker levels: a new model for https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.1994.11.173 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.12.6010 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0515-03.2004 https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2012.2439 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.05.009 https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2017.251 https://doi.org/10.1097/00001199-200505000-00001 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 32 biomarker evaluation in tbi. journal of the neurological sciences, 359(1-2), 280286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2015.08.035 lin, w. j., harnod, t., lin, c. l., & kao, c. h. (2019). mortality risk and risk factors in patients with posttraumatic epilepsy: a population-based cohort study. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(4), 589. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040589 maas, a. i., stocchetti, n. & bullok, r. (2008). moderate and severe traumatic brain injury in adults. the lancet neurology, 7(8),728-741. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(08)70164-9 mccracken, e., hunter, a. j., patel, s., graham, d. i. & dewar, d. (1999). calpain activation and cytoskeletal protein breakdown in the corpus callosum of head-injured patients. journal of neurotrauma, 16(9), 749-761. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.1999.16.749 saatman, k. e., abai, b., grosvenor, a.,vorwerk, c. k., smith, d. h. & meaney, d. f. (2003).traumatic axonal injury results in biphasic calpain activation and retrograde transport impairment in mice. journal of cerebral blood flow & metabolism, 23(1), 34-42. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.wcb.0000035040.10031.b0 smith, d. h., meaney, d. f. & shull, w. h. (2003). diffuse axonal injury in head trauma. the journal of head trauma rehabilitation, 18(4), 307-316. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001199-200307000-00003 tang-schomer, m. d., johnson, v. e., baas, p. w., stewart, w. & smith, d. h. (2012). partial interruption of axonal transport due to microtubule breakage accounts for the formation of periodic varicosities after traumatic axonal injury. experimental neurology, 233(1), 364-372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2011.10.030 unden, j. & romner, b. (2010). can low serum levels of s100b predict normal ct findings after minor head injury in adults?: an evidence-based review and meta-analysis. the journal of head trauma rehabilitation, 25(4), 228–240. wiesmann, m., steinmeier, e., magerkurth, o, linn, j., gottmann, d. & missler, u. (2010). outcome prediction in traumatic brain injury: comparison of neurological status, ct findings, and blood levels of s100b and gfap. acta neurologica scandinavica,121 (3), 178-185. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0404.2009.01196.x zetterberg, h., smith, d. h. & blennow, k. (2013). biomarkers of mild traumatic brain injury in cerebrospinal fluid and blood. nature reviews neurology, 9(4), 201–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2015.08.035 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040589 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(08)70164-9 https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.1999.16.749 https://doi.org/10.1097/01.wcb.0000035040.10031.b0 https://doi.org/10.1097/00001199-200307000-00003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2011.10.030 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0404.2009.01196.x brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 137-145 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/129 coercive measures and stigmatization in the psychiatric medical care petronela nechita¹*, liliana luca 2 , alina-ioana voinea 3 , codrina moraru 4 , mirona-letiţia dobri 5 1 “socola” institute of psychiatry iaşi, romania, craciunpetronela@yahoo.com 2 “dunarea de jos” university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galați, romania, chiroscaliliana@gmail.com 3 hertfordshire partnership university nhs foundation trust, st. albans, uk, alina_ioana92@yahoo.com 4 “socola” institute of psychiatry iaşi, romania, moraru.codrina@gmail.com 5 “socola” institute of psychiatry iaşi, romania, mirona.dobri@gmail.com abstract: the involuntary commitment of psychiatric patients has been done for almost a decade under the law 487/2002, the law of mental health and protection for people with psychiatric disorders. frequent involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations have led to stigma attitudes and discriminatory acts towards patients with mental disorders. the coercive medical measures are applied in the psychiatric institutions of the mental health protection agencies. coercion gives rise to serious ethical debates in the psychiatric assistance. the individual who was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital anticipates social rejection becoming defensive, withdraws socially, experiences a complex internal conflict. the goal for this study is to illustrate aspects linked to coercive measures, mechanical restraint at involuntary admission of patients with mental illnesses in the psychiatric medical assistance. material and method: this study is a retrospective one, and the data was taken from the charts with involuntary admissions during the period of october 2002 to july 2012. the studied lot was comprised of 202 patients admitted involuntarily in a psychiatric hospital according to the law 487/2002, the law of mental health and protection for people with psychiatric disorders. results: of the 25.7% patients admitted involuntarily, that required coercive measures during admission, 58% were contained for symptoms like self-harm. the mechanical contention measures were especially necessary in the acute cases with symptoms as self-harm and/or harm of others, but also in situations with hallucinatory-delirium symptoms. the ratio of male sex subjects was significantly higher in the subject lot that needed coercive measures during hospitalization, of those admitted involuntarily (86.5% vs. 72%) (p = 0.036). conclusions: involuntary admission and mandatory treatment remains in psychiatry a medical, legal and ethical problem. the required measures can lead mainly to clinical benefits, implying a paternal attitude from the psychiatry specialists by defying the patients’ autonomy. treatment compliance is directly proportional to the overall level of functioning and inversely proportional to the level of self-stigmatization. keywords: coercion; involuntary admission; stigma. how to cite: nechita, p., luca, l., voinea, a.-i., moraru, c., & dobri, m.-l. (2020). coercive measures and stigmatization in the psychiatric medical care. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 137-145. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/129 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/129 mailto:craciunpetronela@yahoo.com mailto:chiroscaliliana@gmail.com mailto:alina_ioana92@yahoo.com mailto:moraru.codrina@gmail.com mailto:mirona.dobri@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/129 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 138 introduction liberty, from a philosophical point of view, represents the opposite of coercion. some philosophers consider moral liberty to be the most authentic form of expressing liberty. psychiatry, since its beginning, has been confronted with numerous ethical and judicial aspects. in this field, there are 2 types of admission: one with consent (voluntary) and an involuntary one. in the past, patients with mental disorders were considered by society to be a threat and by this consideration they were treated differently from other patients. the psychiatric development was well grounded on social ideological concepts that followed ethical wishes like autonomy, independence, passing aside involuntary admissions and compulsory treatments. nowadays, a patient with mental illnesses has the same right as any other patient, including the right to intimacy in one’s relationship with the psychiatrist. psychiatry raised much more ethical and judicial controversies than any other medical domain. in other medical specialties, a patient cannot be treated without one’s free and informed consent. with that in mind, a psychiatrist is capable to treat a patient who is not capable of expressing his/hers consent. in emergency situations, there are some exceptions that interfere with the activity of obtaining a valid informed consent: patients without the disease consciousness, incapable to decide for themselves (marian et al., 2012). the patient with mental disorders can present, aside from his/her illness, also a degree of social danger, an aspect that compels sometimes a particular attitude from the qualified institutions concerning him/her: involuntary admission. the measure of involuntary admission is one of the highest controversial problems in the area of psychiatric medical assistance, being the subject of permanent debates among patients and mental health professionals. restraint, isolation, stigmatization, involuntary admission and involuntary treatment are an important part in psychiatric medical assistance in emergency psychiatric situations, but in the same time, it raises many ethical dilemmas (buda, 2018, ciubara et al., 2015). patients with mental disorders, in voluntary admissions, but specially in involuntary ones, can be submitted to different coercive measures like isolation, pressure and constraint (olsen 2003; widdershoven & berghmans, 2007). patients with severe mental illnesses arrive often in emergency situations, in which coercive treatment is justified. these ethical justifications of coercive interventions in the majority of european countries, implies criteria as self-harm and hetero-aggression. although coercive measures are coercive measures and stigmatization in the psychiatric medical care alina – ioana voinea, et al. 139 necessary, these should not become routine. using coercion in psychiatry must be accompanied by responsibility and care regarding the mentally ill patient (frueh et al., 2005; janssens et al., 2004, tannsjo, 2004). coercive practice is the most radical measure when controlling aggression in mentally ill patients (hiday, 1992; monahan et al., 2005; norberg, 2001; olofsson & haglund et al., 2003). coercive measures in psychiatric hospitals were, are and will be subjects of ample ethical and judicial debates in the psychiatric medical assistance (craciun et al., 2012; ghebaur et al., 2008; katsakou et al., 2010; nicholson et al., 1996). usage of coercive measures is regulated by a series of laws that differ at an international level, according to the social, cultural and judicial variety, and the involuntary admission represents one of the most controversial measures in the psychiatric medical care (ciubara et al., 2015; ghebaur et al., 2008). the patient with mental disorders is part of the vulnerable population that beneficiates of special medical measures but also of special legal measures with a goal of protecting the patient, but also society (marian et al., 2012, ciubara et al., 2016). the psychiatrist must actively collaborate with the judicial system to aid ethical ideals. although present legal procedures make a psychiatrists’ activity even harder concerning the involuntary procedure for admission/treatment, not all of these difficulties are of ethical nature (bloch & chodoff, 2000, bolos et al., 2012; marian et al., 2012). the pattern of use of the coercive measures in the psychiatric assistance differs in the european countries, contention and isolation being frequent interventions in psychiatry in the case of patients with aggressive behavior (legea 487/2002; stoica et al., 2007). the criteria of injuriousness for involuntary admission lead to numerous ethical dilemmas for the psychiatrist. the coercion measure of forced hospitalization, sometimes due to the anticipation of the mentally ill patient’s injuriousness also raises a series of ethical dilemmas (untu et al., 2015, valcea et al., 2016). the autonomy principle is sometimes trespassed in favor of the benefit principle, especially when people with mental illnesses are at risk of self-harm or aggression to those around them (stoica et al., 2007; kallert et al., 2011). in romania, the criteria for involuntary admission include symptoms such as self-harm, hetero-aggression, and also hallucinatory-delirium symptoms. the psychiatric research must respect the dignity and human rights, minimizing the risks and maximizing the benefits, this being realized with the bioethics committee’s agreement. patients with mental illnesses are a vulnerable group, that is why there are necessary supplementary measures to protect their rights (rebeleanu et al., 2013; vicol & necula, 2013). the brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 140 eunomia study highlights the lowered levels of social functioning of the patients with mental disorders, patients considered to be vulnerable, admitted especially by the form of involuntary admission (kallert, 2011). psychiatric emergencies by involuntary admission are procedures that imply multiple ethical discussions (fiorillo et al., 2011). studies have shown that the frequency of involuntary admissions in terms of the legal, social and cultural variability is from 3% to 30% (portugal vs. sweden) (salize & dressing, 2004). likewise, the increase in the number of medicallegal institutions give rise implicitly to the frequency of involuntary admissions (priebe et al., 2005, priebe et al., 2008). the eunomia study highlighted the improvement of symptomatology in involuntary admissions (kallert et al., 2008; katsakou & priebe, 2006), the patient’s perception regarding the coercion measure being of high importance to study (kallert, 2008). the legal regulation variability regarding involuntary admissions, coercive measures and human rights influences the domain of psychiatric clinical practice, with major differences between the european countries (kallert et al., 2005; kallert et al,. 2007). in the past, the measures for total abolition of mandatory measures in the mentally ill patient therapy have suffered numerous changes and the frequency of coercive measures usage was reduces significantly (steinert et al., 2007). material and method a quantitative study was carried out that had as an objective finding the coercive measures in patients committed by form of involuntary admission, during a period of 10 years inside a psychiatric hospital, by law 487/2002, the law of mental health and protection for people with psychiatric disorders. the study follows the way that mechanical contention was justified during admission, having in mind the consequences on oneself, referring to the trespassing the right to self-determination. the performed study is retrospect, carried on during the period of october 2002-july 2012, the data being obtained from the charts of a lot of 202 patients involuntary admitted in the “socola” institute of psychiatry iaşi. results from the studied cases, of the total number of involuntary admissions carried out during 2002-2012, a number of 25.7% of committed cases was highlighted, that needed coercive measures during admission. most cases that needed coercive measures were registered in the year 2007, coercive measures and stigmatization in the psychiatric medical care alina – ioana voinea, et al. 141 representing 13.5% from the total lot with mechanical restraint during the hospitalization period. the involuntary admitted subject lot that needed mechanical restraint during admission, presented a downward annual distribution (y=8.05-0.21x). the ratio of subjects involuntary admitted that needed mechanical restraint for symptoms as self-harm was of 58% of cases, meanwhile symptoms like hetero-aggression was reason for mechanical restraint in 43.3% of mentally ill patients. the frequency distributions did not present significant differences form a statistical point of view (p=0.147). police involvement, with or without an ambulance, in the hospital transportation of subjects that needed coercive measures, was a ratio of 71%, a higher ratio compared to that of subjects that did not need coercive measures (57%), but this does not have significant differences statistically (p=0.178). from a statistical point of view no significant differences were highlighted concerning middle age in the subject lot that needed coercive measures (p=0.915), the mean age being that of approximately 40 years. the distribution of subjects with/without coercive measures had no significant differences linked to the background origin (p=0.153), 61.5% of subjects that needed coercive measures and 73.3% of those that did not need these measures are from urban background. the mean number of admission days in patients that needed coercive measures during hospitalization was slightly higher (37.54 vs 33.23 days), without registration any differences from a statistical point of view (p = 0.310). from the patient lot, 60% of subjects who needed coercive measures had no job, and from the rest of patients, 20% were employed and 20% were retired, though the frequency distributions did not differ significantly in comparison with the subjects that did not need coercive measures during admission (p=0.536). conclusions many times involuntary admission, respectively compulsory treatment and mechanical restraint, are measures necessary in the psychiatric medical assistance. this way, autonomy is breached by forms of self-harm or hetero-aggression, in the psychotic symptomatology in which the patient does not have his/her disease consciousness. coercive measures are still utilized at a large scale in psychiatric care. problems regarding ethics in psychiatry remain an open subject, permanently having the possibility to reevaluate legal and ethical aspects and their adaptation to modern times. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 142 references bloch s., & chodoff, p. (2000). etică psihiatrică (editia a ii – a). asociaţia psihiatrilor liberi. geneva initiative on psichiatry 2000. bolos, a., ciubara, a-m., & chirita, r. (2012). moral and ethical aspects of the relationship between depression and suicide. revista romana de bioetica, 10(3), 71-79. buda, o. (2008). marginalizare versus boala psihică şi stigmatizare. dileme bioetice. revista română de bioetică, 6(2), 83-89. ciubara, a. cartas, n., burlea, l. s., chirita, r., ciubara, b. a., untu, i., bulgaru iliescu, d. (2015). the relationship between schizophrenia and criminality. european psychiatry, 30(supp.1): https://doi.org/10.1016/s0924-9338(15)30603-9 ciubara, a., chirita, r., burlea, l.s., lupu, v.v., mihai, c., moisa, s. m., untu, i. (2016). psychosocial particularities of violent acts in personality disorders. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 52, 265-272. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis52_17.pdf ciubara, a-m., burlea, s. l., sacuiu, i., radu, d. a., untu, i., & chirita, r. (2015). alcohol addiction a psychosocial perspective.‏ procedia social and behavioral sciences, 187, 536-540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 crăciun, p., vicol, m. c., turliuc, s., & astărăstoae, v. (2012). autonomy versus paternalism in involuntary admission. romanian journal of bioethics, 10(4), 92 – 101. fiorillo, a., de rosa, c., del vecchio, v., jurjanz, j., schnall, k., onchev, g., alexiev, s., raboch, j., kalisova, l., mastrogianni, a., georgiadou, e., solomon, z., dembinskas, a., raskauskas, v., nawka, p., nawka, a., kiejna, a., hadrys, t., torres-gonzales, f., mayoral, f., björkdahl, a., kjellin, l., priebe, s., maj, m., & kallert, t. (2011). how to improve clinical practice on involuntary hospital admissions of psychiatric patients: suggestions from the eunomia study. european psychiatry, 26, 201-207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2010.01.013 frueh, b. c, knapp, r. g., cusack, k. j., grubaugh, a. l., sauvageot, j. a., cousins, v. c., yim, e., robins, c. s., monnier, j., & hiers, t. g. (2005). patients’ reports of traumatic or harmful experiences within the psychiatric setting. psychiatric services, 56, 1123–1133. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.56.9.1123 ghebaur, l., mihailescu, r., & prelipceanu, d. (2008). the evolution of compulsory admissions in clinical psychiatric hospital “prof. alex. obregia” before and after the application of mental health care law 487/2002. revista română de psihiatrie iii, x(3-4), 104-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0924-9338(15)30603-9 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis52_17.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2010.01.013 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.56.9.1123 coercive measures and stigmatization in the psychiatric medical care alina – ioana voinea, et al. 143 haglund, k., von knorring, l., & von essen, l. (2003). forced medication in psychiatric care: patient experiences and nurse perceptions. journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 10, 65–72. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2850.2003.00555.x hiday, a.v. (1992). coercion in civil commitment: process, preferences, and outcome. international journal of law and psychiatry, 15, 359-377. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2527(92)90017-u janssens, m., van rooij, m., ten have, h., van rooij, m. f. a. m., ten have, h. a. m. j., kortmann, f. a. m., & van wijmen, f. c. b. (2004). pressure and coercion in the care for the addicted: ethical perspectives. journal of medical ethics, 30, 453–458. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.2002.002212 kallert, t. w., katsakou, c., adamowski, t., dembinskas, a., fiorillo, a., kjellin, l., mastrogianni, a., nawka, p., onchev, g., raboch, j., schützwohl, m., solomon, z., torres-gonzález, f., bremner, s., & priebe, s. (2011). coerced hospital admission and symptom change—a prospective observaţional multi-centre study. plos one, 6(11), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028191 kallert, t. w. (2008). coercion in psychiatry. current opinion in psychiatry, 21(5), 485489. kallert, t. w. (2011). involuntary psychiatric hospitalization: current status and future prospects. srp arh celok lek., 139(suppl 1), 14-20. https://doi.org/10.2298/sarh11s1014k kallert, t. w., glöckner, m., onchev, g., raboch, j., karastergiou, a., solomon, z., magliano, l., dembinskas, a., kiejna, a., nawka, p., torres-gonzález, f., priebe, s., & kjellin, l. (2005). the eunomia project on coercion in psychiatry: study design and preliminary data. world psychiatry : official journal of the world psychiatric association (wpa), 4(3), 168–172. kallert, t. w., glökner, m., & schüzwohl, m. (2008). involuntary vs. voluntary hospital admission – a systematic review on outcome diversity. european archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 258, 195-209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-007-0777-4 kallert, t. w., rymaszewska, j., & torres-gonzalez, f. (2007). differences of legal regulations concerning involuntary psychiatric hospitalization in twelve european countries: implications for clinical practice. international journal of forensic mental health, 6, 197-207. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244x-7s1-s83 katsakou, c, & priebe s. (2006). outcomes of involuntary hospital admission: a review. acta psychiatrica scandinavica, 114, 232-241. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2006.00823.x katsakou, c., bowers l., amos, t., morriss, r., rose, d., wykes, t., & priebe, s. (2010). coercion and treatment satisfaction among involuntary patients. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2850.2003.00555.x https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2527(92)90017-u http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.2002.002212 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028191 https://doi.org/10.2298/sarh11s1014k https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-007-0777-4 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244x-7-s1-s83 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244x-7-s1-s83 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2006.00823.x brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 144 psychiatric services, 61(3), 286-292. https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2010.61.3.286 marian, g., nica, e. a., focşeneanu, b. e., cârlogea, d., & ghinea, d. (2012). ethical aspects in research and clinical psychiatry. romanian journal of bioethics, 10(4), 84 – 91. monahan j., hoge s. k., lidz, c., roth, l. h., bennett, n., gardner, w., & mulvey, e. (2005). coercion and commitment: understanding involuntary mental hospital admission. international journal of law and psychiatry, 18(3), 249263. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2527(95)00010-f nicholson, r. a., ekenstam, c., & norwood, s. (1996). coercion and the outcome of psychiatric hospitalization. international journal of law and psychiatry, 19(2), 201-217. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2527(96)00005-2 olofsson, b., & norberg, a. (2001). experiences of coercion in psychiatric care as narrated by patients, nurses and physicians. journal of advanced nursing, 33, 89–97. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01641.x olsen, p. (2003). influence and coercion: relational and rights-based ethical approaches to forced psychiatric treatment. journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 10, 705–712. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.13652850.2003.00659.x parlamentul româniei. (2002). legea 487/2002, legea sănătăţii mintale şi a protecţiei persoanelor cu tulburări psihice. monitorul oficial, partea i nr 589/08.08.2002. priebe, s., badesconyi, a., fioritti, a., hansson, l., kilian, r., torresgonzales, f., turner, t., & wiersma, d. (2005). reinstituţionalisation in mental health care: comparison of data on service provision from six european countries. bmj, 330, 123-126. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38296.611215.ae priebe, s., frottier, p., gaddini, a., kilian, r., lauber, c., martinez-leal, r., munkjørgensen, p., walsh, d., wiersma, d., & wright, d. (2008). mental health care institutions in nine european countries, 2002 to 2006. psychiatric services, 59, 570-573. https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2008.59.5.570 rebeleanu, a., şoitu, d., gavrilovici, c., & oprea, l. (2013). equity and respect of the insured rights – implications related to the access to primary healthcare. revista română de bioetică, 11(2), 148-158. salize, h. j., & dressing, h. (2004). epidemiology of involuntary placement of mentally ill people across the european union. the british journal of psychiatry, 184, 163-168. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.184.2.163 steinert, t., martin, v., baur, m., bohnet, u., goebel, r., hermelink, g., kronstorfer, r., kuster, w., martinez-funk, b., roser, m., schwink, a., & voigtländer, w. (2007). diagnosis-related frequency of compulsory measures in 10 german psychiatric hospitals and correlates with hospital https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2010.61.3.286 https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2527(95)00010-f https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2527(96)00005-2 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01641.x https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2850.2003.00659.x https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2850.2003.00659.x https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38296.611215.ae https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2008.59.5.570 https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.184.2.163 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=steinert%20t%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=martin%20v%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=baur%20m%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=bohnet%20u%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=goebel%20r%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=hermelink%20g%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=kronstorfer%20r%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=kuster%20w%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=martinez-funk%20b%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=roser%20m%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=schwink%20a%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=voigtländer%20w%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17180296 coercive measures and stigmatization in the psychiatric medical care alina – ioana voinea, et al. 145 characteristics. social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 42(2), 140-145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-006-0137-0 stoica, i., lazarescu, m., grunfeld, c., & stoica, h. (2007). studiu privind căile de acces ale pacienţilor cu prim episod psihotic în serviciile de psihiatrie. revista românã de psihiatrie iii, ix(1), 56-60. tannsjo, t. (2004). the convention on human rights and biomedicine and the use of coercion in psychiatry. journal of medical ethics, 30, 430–434. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.2002.000703 untu, i., chirita, r., bulgaru-iliescu, d., chirila, b. d., ciubara, a., & burlea, s. l. (2015). ethical implications of bio-psycho-social transformations entailed by the aging process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 48, 216-225. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis48_16.pdf valcea, l., bulgaru-iliescu, d., burlea, s. l., & ciubara, a. (2016). patient’s rights and communication in the hospital accreditation process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 55, 260-270. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf vicol, m-c., & necula, r-m. (2013). dimensions of values in the doctor-patient relationship. editorial. revista română de bioetică, 11(2), 87-89. widdershoven, g., & berghmans, r. (2007). coercion and pressure in psychiatry: lessons from ulysses. journal of medical ethics, 33, 560–563. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.2005.015545 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-006-0137-0 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.2002.000703 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis48_16.pdf https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.2005.015545 microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 43 improving tools in artificial intelligence angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net abstract the historical origin of the artificial intelligence (ai) is usually established in the dartmouth conference, of 1956. but we can find many more arcane origins [1]. also, we can consider, in more recent times, very great thinkers, as janos neumann (then, john von neumann, arrived in usa), norbert wiener, alan mathison turing, or lofti zadeh, for instance [8, 9]. frequently ai requires logic. but its classical version shows too many insufficiencies. so, it was necessary to introduce more sophisticated tools, as fuzzy logic, modal logic, non-monotonic logic and so on [1, 2]. among the things that ai needs to represent are categories, objects, properties, relations between objects, situations, states, time, events, causes and effects, knowledge about knowledge, and so on. the problems in ai can be classified in two general types [3, 5], search problems and representation problems. on this last "peak", there exist different ways to reach their summit. so, we have [4] logics, rules, frames, associative nets, scripts, and so on, many times connected among them. we attempt, in this paper, a panoramic vision of the scope of application of such representation methods in ai. the two more disputable questions of both modern philosophy of mind and ai will be perhaps the turing test and the chinese room argument. to elucidate these very difficult questions, see our final note. keywords: knowledge representation, heuristics, rough and fuzzy sets, bayesian networks, ai in medicine. 1. representation problems we can use a series of resources [4, 5] to approach the problems in a i, logic, rules, associative nets, frames and scripts. the election between these methods depends on the particular characteristics of the problem and also on our expectation about the type of solution [3]. in many cases, we take two o more tools at a time, as in the case of the frame system, with the participation of rules, and so on. 2. rules concerning the usual way of appearance of rules [3, 4, 5], as rbs (acronym of rule based systems), we need four elements: interface of usuary (iu), which will be very useful for the interaction with the usuary; motor of inference (mi), responsible for the control of the flow of information between the modules; base of facts or base of affirmations (bf or ba), that contains the initially known facts and those created during the process; and base of knowledge (bk), which contains the rules used for the representation of knowledge, into a determined domain. there exists a two-way flow: from the mi to iu, and from mi to ba, but only one between bk and mi, and never in the reverse sense, except if we accept the system´s capacity of learning. 3. inference in sbr such inference consists in establishing the certainty of some statement, from the disposable information into base of facts and base of knowledge. we can use two methods, concatenation going forward, or concatenation going backwards. in the first case, we depart from rules with verified affirmations in their antecedent, advancing through the affirmations which we find in their consequents. whereas in the second case, we depart of rules verified in certain consequents (all the consequents must be also verified in this sense), and we turn back to the antecedent. this converts its affirmations in new sub-objectives for the proof, searching for rules where appear in their consequent, and so on. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 44 the rules shows a great advantage compared to the classical logic [5]. in classical logic, as you known, the reasoning was monotonic, with inferences without contradiction with the preexisting, in rbs. nevertheless, in the rbs, we may delete facts or affirmations from the base of facts, according to the new inferences. this makes the reasoning non-monotonic, because we can modify the conclusion. then, a question arises: what should we do with the conclusion of the affirmation now invalided? for this problem [3], we need to introduce the concept of type of dependence of a rule, which can be reversible: if we delete the affirmations, then we automatically delete the above inferred facts, or irreversible: the facts, once inferred, are not deleted or changed. and in the case of some applicable rules to time, which of them should be first executed? such rules constitute, for each step, the conflict set (obviously, a dynamic set). the subjacent decision problem is called resolution of conflicts or control of reasoning. there exist different strategies, to elect a conflict set, such as ordering of rules; control of agendas; criterion of actuality, and criterion of specificity. about the first and the second, the commentaries are unnecessary: they consist in the disposition of the rules in the order as must be executed. the criterion of actuality consists in applying first the rules in whose antecedent there exists the upto-date information. the motor of inference must be charged of the control of their respective moments. the criterion of specificity leads to executing the more specific rules first, that is, those with more facts in their antecedent. so, between r1: if a, then b, and r2: if a and d, then c, we must select r2, because it is more specific than r1. we also have need the mechanisms of control in rbs. so, by usingmechanism of refractority: we are prevented from executing again a rule already utilized, unless there is no other information such (in general, anomalous) case; rule sets: they allows the activation or neutralizing of block´s rules; meta-rules: they are rules which treat (or reason about) other rules. such metarules can collaborate in the control of reasoning, with the change or assignation of priorities to different rules, according to the evolution of the circumstances. 4. frames they constitute the most general and most integrating method among all the representation procedures [3, 5]. they us to introduce some different elements. for instance, rules in frame systems. such system are usually denoted as fs. we must distinguish between facets, as properties of the field, and devils, as procedures associated to the frame system. 5. scripts they are structures of knowledge [1, 3, 4, 5] which must organize the information relative to dynamical stereotyped situations, that is, always, or almost always identical sequence of steps, or at least very similar. for instance, going to a certain cinema or a certain big store. the words and the subjacent ideas remind one of movies. the elements of a script can be scenes, roles, objects, places, names, conditions, instruments, and results. its signification is obvious from the name: for instance, the scenes must be events described sequentially, each scene being necessary for the realization of the subsequent one. with results, we mention the facts we have obtained, once we have finished the sequence described in the script. 6. searching methods we will distinguish between blind search procedures and heuristic procedures. in the first case, the oldest of them, it is possible to apply breadth search and depth search. but the problems associated to combinatorial explosion occur when the ramification index, or branching factor (the average cardinal of the successors of each node) increase beyond reasonable bounds. for this reason, a more efficient search procedure is required, such as the introduction of heuristic functions, which give the estimation of the distance among the actual node and the final node. thus, we chose to cal it heuristic search. a. garrido – improving tools in artificial intelligence 45 7. introduction to fuzziness we define the "world" [4] as a complete and coherent description of how things are or how they could have been. often, in problems related to the "real world", which is only one of the "possible worlds", the monotonic logic does not work often. but such a type of logic is classically used in formal worlds, such as mathematics. it is a real problem, because the "common sense" logic is non-monotonic, and this is our usual logic. we can see the more essential foundations of fuzzy theory in books as [2], [3] or [10]. an element of the universe, u, can belong more or less to an arbitrary set c. it can belong to c in different degrees. from 0, when it does not belong at all to c, to 1, when it belongs totally to c. or in any intermediate degree, like: 0.5, 0.3, 0.1..., but always between 0 and 1, both values included in their range. such "membership degree" value can be assigned by an adequate "membership function", whose range is the closed unit interval, [0, 1]. so, the application can be expressed as in [7], by f: c → [0, 1]. but information is given about the "membership degree", of such element, x, of the universe u, to the set c. in a classical set, therefore, the range of f should be reduced to the set {0, 1}. given n universes of the discourse, we define a fuzzy relation, r, as a membership function that associates each n-tuple, a value of the unit closed interval, [0, 1]. the fuzzy relation, r, can be defined through such "membership function". in this way, we have 0r, ..., (1/3) r, ..., (1/2)r, ..., 1r. the cartesian product of two fuzzy sets, f and g, will be a fuzzy binary relation, through the minimum between the membership degrees. sometimes, it is very useful to symbolize each fuzzy relation as one matrix, where the entries can be any real number between 0 (not related) and 1 (totally related, or simply, related). there exists a clear analogy between the composition of fuzzy relations and the product of matrices. to show this connection, it is sufficient to establish the correspondence: one +, one max; and one • one min. for this reason, the composition of fuzzy relations can also be called "max-min matrix product". as a particular case of the previous definition for the composition between fuzzy relations, we can introduce the composition between a fuzzy set and a fuzzy relation. this can be very useful in the "fuzzy inference" [6], where we attempt to obtain new knowledge from the only already available. obviously, in such a case, the fuzzy set can be represented by one row matrix, or a column matrix, depending on the order in the product. the usual properties of the classical relations can be translated into fuzzy relations, but the transitive will be modified. r is reflexive: r(x, x) = 1, for each x in the set c, into the universe. according to this, each element would be totally related with itself, when r is reflexive. r is symmetric: if r(x, y) = r(y, x), for each pair (x, y). therefore, the principal diagonal acts as a mirror, in the associated matrix. r is transitive: not in the usual way for relations or associated matrices, but now it is that r(x, z) ≥ max (min {r (x, y), r (y, z)}) occurs. all these mathematical methods can be very useful in fuzzy logic and in many branches of artificial intelligence. we can introduce new generalized versions of classical logic. so, modus ponens generalized, modus tollens generalized or hypothetic syllogism. to each fuzzy predicate, we will associate a fuzzy set, the defined by such property, that is, composed by the elements of the universe such that totally or partially verify such condition. for example, we can prove that the class of fuzzy sets with the operations ∪ , ∩ th membership degree that belongs to the open unit interval. 8. roughness the concept of rough set was introduced by the polish mathematician zdzislaw pawlak in 1982. some theoretical advances with the corresponding applications have been emerging since then [2]. it is possible to apply rough concepts to astonishing purposes, as will be the prediction of financial risk, but also in voice recognition, image processing, medical data analysis and so on. taking object, attribute or decision values, we will create rules for them: upper and lower approximations and boundary approximation. each object is classified in one of these regions. for brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 46 each rough set, a ⊆ u, we dispose of lower approximation of a, as the collection of objects which can be classified with full certainty as members of a, and upper approximation of a, as the family of objects which may possibly be classified as members of a. obviously, this class is wider than the aforementioned, containing between both the rough set. rough set theory is a model of approximate reasoning. according to this, we will interpret knowledge as a way to classify objects. we dispose of u, the universe of discourse, made up of objects, and an equivalence relation on u, denoted r. the procedure is to search for a collection of subsets in u (categories), so that all the elements of the same class possess the same attributes with the same values. so, we obtain a covering of u by a set of categories. the elementary knowledge is encoded in a pair (u, r), made up of "elementary granules of knowledge". they constitute a partition in equivalence classes, into the quotient set, u/r. given two elements, it is possible to determine when they are mutually indiscernible. in this case, we call this the indiscernibility relation. therefore, it is possible to introduce the application which assigns to each object its corresponding class. then, such indistinguishability allows us to introduce the fibre of ra , defined by the aforementioned relation r. so, the collection of such fibres, in the finite case, produces a union: this union of fibres is called a granule of knowledge. the pair (u, r) will be a knowledge base. we say that an object, or category, is r-rough, if it is not r-exact. for each r-rough set, y ⊆ u, we define two associate r-exact sets, the r-lower approximation of y, and the r-upper approximation of y. so, we can represent the rough set, y, through the pair ( r y, r y). observe that r y ⊆ y r⊆ y, and furthermore, y is r-exact r⇔ y= r y. given a knowledge base, k ≡ llection of classes ke = {r exact sets on u}, which is closed with respect to the usual set operations ∪ , ∩ it verifies the known properties of a boolean algebra. more concretely, we can say a field of sets. but it is not the case when we deal with rrough sets. because, for instance, the union of two r-rough sets can be a r-exact set. the coincidence of this rough set theory with the classical theory of sets occurs when we only work with r-exact sets. an interesting generalization of rough set will be the generalized approximation space, denoted gas. it consists of a triple: (u, i, ν ), where u will be the universe; i, the uncertainty function, i: u → p(u), and ν the rough inclusion function. an example of this type of rough inclusion function will be the generalized rough membership function. so, given any subset, we have both gas approximations, lower-approximation and upper-approximation. 9. comparison between fuzziness and roughness these names us mislead into believing that they are referring to the same concept. but they are very different approaches to uncertainty in the set of data. it depends of the nature of vagueness in the problem, or the convenience in applications. both resources cover distinct aspects of the approximate reasoning. for this reason, both paradigms address to solve the boundary problem in non-crisp cases. dubois and prade [2] establish the mutual relationship between rough fuzzy set and fuzzy rough set. in the first case we will pass from fuzzy sets, through filtering, by the classical equivalence relations to quotient spaces, which are fuzzy sets. whereas, in the second case we imitate the rough set approximation, but now with fuzzy similarity (instead of equivalence) relations. we work into the collection of fuzzy sets on u, endowed with the operations: max and min. so, {fuz (u, [0, 1]), max, min}. this produces a zadeh lattice. and it provides the path to complementary operator, {fuz (u, [0, 1]), max, min, c}. it will be a brouwer-zadeh lattice. this lets us introduce the rough approximation to fuzzy sets. our actual purpose is double: given a∈z (u), we can induce a fuzzy set in u / r, by a, and reach the approximation of a, relative to r, according to the rough set theory. a. garrido – improving tools in artificial intelligence 47 the notion of fuzzy rough set is dual to the above concept. we consider newly the family of fuzzy sets in the universe u, with values in the closed unit interval, fuz (u, [0, 1]). we need to analyze the fuzzy notion of equivalence relation and then, the fuzzy partition induced. regarding the equivalence relation, the closest concept is the t-fuzzy similarity relation. in the past, the relationship between fuzzy and rough concepts were studied by some mathematicians and computer scientists, as pawlak, nakamura, pedrycz [6], dubois and prade, pal and skowron, and many others. 10. networks as far as nets are concerned, the more actual studies to deal with bayesian nets, also called belief networks [3, 5]. before their apparition, the purpose was to obtain useful systems for the medical diagnosis, by classical statistical techniques, such as the bayes´s rule or theorem. a bayesian net is a pair (g, d), with g a directed, acyclic and connected graph, and d a distribution of probability (associated with the participant variables). such distribution, d, must verify the property of directional separation, according which the probability of a variable does not depend upon their not descendant nodes. the inference in bns consists in establishing on the net, for the known variables, their values and or the unknown variables, their respective probabilities. the objective of a bayesian network, in medicine, is to find the probability of success with which we can give an exact diagnosis, based on known symptoms. we need to work with the following hypothesis: exclusivity, exhaustivity, and conditional independence. according to the hypothesis of exclusivity, two different diagnoses cannot be right at the same time. with the hypothesis of exhaustivity, we suppose at our disposition all the possible diagnosis. and by the conditional independence, the thing found must be mutually independent to a certain diagnosis. the initial problem with such hypothesis was the usual: their inadequacy to the real world. for this, we need to introduce the bayesian networks (bns). in certain cases, as in the vascular problem of the predisposition to heart attack, there already exist already reasonable systems of prediction and diagnosis, such as the diaval net. from these procedures springs a new and useful sub-discipline called medical artificial intelligence (mai, in acronym). there are many different types of clinical tasks to which expert systems can be applied, as generating alerts and reminders; diagnostic assistance ; therapy planning; agents for information retrieval; image recognition and interpretation, and so on. in the fields of treatment and diagnosis, a i possesses very important realizations, giving us for instance the following tools: pip (1971), at mit; mycin (1976), a rule-based system, due to stanford university, works on infectious diseases; casnet (1979) is due to rutgers university and works on ophtalmological problems; internist (1980), due to pittsburgh, on inner medicine; ai/rheum (1983), at missoury university, on reumathology; spe (also 1983), at rutgers, analyses the electrophoresis of proteins; tia (1984), at maryland, on the therapy of ischemic attacks, and many others. 11. turing test and chinese room argument finally, we proceed at analyzing both of the announced questions, turing test, and chinese room argument. the turing test (tt). an interrogator is connected to one person and one machine, via a terminal, and therefore cannot see their counterparts. its task is to find out which of the two candidates will be the machine, and which will be the human, only by asking them questions. if the interrogator cannot make a decision within a reasonable time, then the machine is considered to be intelligent. the most important argument against the tt is that it indeed provides only a test for human intelligence. the chinese room argument. john searle´s argument [5] is intended to show that implementing a computational algorithm that is formally isomorphic to human thought processes cannot be sufficient to reproduce thought. something more is required. so, it will be considered a refutation of both, turing test and functionalism. it begins with this hypothetical premise: suppose brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 48 that a i research has succeeded in constructing a computer that behaves as if it understood chinese. it takes chinese characters as inputs, and produces other different characters, which it presents as output, by following the instructions of a computer program. its attempt with this argument is to refute a certain conception of the role of computation in human cognition. to understand this argument, it will be necessary to distinguish among strong a i, and weak (or cautious) a i. according to the first of them, any system that implements the right computer program with the right inputs and outputs thereby has cognition in the same sense as human beings. according the second of them, the computer is nothing more than a useful tool in studying human cognition, as in studying many other scientific domains. the contrast is that according the strong version, the correct simulation is really a mind. whereas according the weak version, the correct simulation is only a model of the mind. its proof contains three premises and one conjecture, axiom 1: implemented programs are syntactical processes, i. e., computer programs are formal (syntactic). axiom 2: minds have semantic contents, i. e., human minds have mental contents (semantics). axiom 3: syntax by itself is neither constitutive of nor sufficient for semantics. conclusion: the implemented programs are not constitutive of, nor sufficient for minds. therefore, according to searle [5], strong a i is false. but the chinese room argument may be expressed by two basic principles, each of which would be stated in four words: 1st) syntax is not semantics. because syntax by itself, is not constitutive of semantics, nor by itself sufficient to guarantee the presence of semantics, and 2nd) simulation is not duplication. we cannot describe what the machine is doing as “thinking”. and neither does the human being understand a word of chinese. therefore, we must infer that computer does not understand chinese either. thus, searle concludes that strong (but not weak) ai is a mistake. references [1] barr, a., & feigenbaum, e. a. (1981). the handbook of artificial intelligence, volumes 1-3. william kaufmann inc. [2] dubois, d., & prade, h. (eds.) (2000). fundamentals of fuzzy sets. dordrecht, netherlands: kluwer publ.. [3] fernández galán, s., et al. (1998). problemas resueltos de inteligencia artificial aplicada. búsqueda y representación. madrid: addison-wesley. [4] garrido, a. (2004). logical foundations of artificial intelligence. fotfs v, institut fur angewändte mathematik, friedrich-wilhelm universität, university of bonn. [5] mira, j., et al. (1995). aspectos básicos de la inteligencia artificial. madrid: editorial sanz y torres. [6] pedryck, w. (1993). fuzzy control and fuzzy systems. new york: wiley and sons co.. [7] szczepaniak, p. s.; lisoba, p. j., & kacprzyk g. (2000). fuzzy systems in medicine. heildelberg: physica verlag. [8] turing, a. (1950). computing machinery and intelligence. mind 59, 433-60. [9] wiener, n. (1947). cybernetics. new york: mit press and john wiley. [10] wang, z. (1997). a course in fuzzy systems and control. new jersey: prentice-hall. monitoring and managing depressive symptoms in adolescents with epilepsy brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.2, pages: 12-16 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/33 monitoring and managing depressive symptoms in adolescents with epilepsy giangennaro coppola¹, grazia pastorino 2 , francesca felicia operto 3 1 child and adolescent neuropsychiatry, salerno, italy, gcoppola@unisa.it 2 child and adolescent neuropsychiatry, salerno, italy 3 child and adolescent neuropsychiatry, salerno, italy abstract: depressive disorders are the most frequent psychiatric disturbances associated with epilepsy in adolescents and include a broad and heterogeneous spectrum of conditions that share hallmark features and symptoms such as sadness, irritability, decreased motivation or interests, fatigue, withdrawal, hopelessness, anhedonia, changes in appetite and weight, and sleep disturbances that are persistent and pervasive most days for at least 2 weeks. using generic self-report depression surveys and current diagnostic codes, clinical and surveillance studies have revealed prevalence rates of 20– 25% for depression in youth with epilepsy, with adolescents showing particular vulnerability. furthermore, 20% of youth with epilepsy endorse suicidal ideation, and youth endorsing suicidal ideation do not necessarily have clinical symptoms of depression. considering that depression in youth with epilepsy is a common comorbidity, characterized by poorer psychosocial and healthy-related outcomes and increased risk of suicide, a brief, free measure of specific depressive symptoms in youth with epilepsy would be beneficial. recently, the nddi-e-.y inventory has been developed from the adult nddi-e, and validated in many countries. nddi-e-y showed reliable and construct validity, being a brief screening tool (12 items) that can be easily included in routine epilepsy care.for the management of depressive symptoms in adolescents, interventions can be distinguished in nonpharmacological and pharmacological. the first includes psychoeducation which should clarify to adolescents and parents the main features of epileptic disorder, side effects of antiepileptic drugs, treatment modalities, how to cope with learning and social difficulties, in order to improve quality of life. concurrently, a cognitive-behavioral therapy (cbt) including individual therapy, supportive and family therapy and school services, should be carried on. psychopharmacology for depressive symptoms should be deserved to moderate to severe depressive symptomatology, only after deep assessment of prior and current antiepileptic and/or psychopharmacologic treatment. ssris including fluoxetin, sertraline, fluvoxamine and escitalopram should be first considered. data coming from experimental studies in animals and humans seem to confirm no decrease of seizure threshold by ssri adjunctive therapy. keywords: screening tools; nddi-e-y; depression; anxiety; adolescents; monitoring; managing; psychopharmacology. how to cite: coppola, g., pastorino, g., & operto, f.f. (2020). monitoring and managing depressive symptoms in adolescents with epilepsy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup2), 12-16. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/33 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/33 mailto:gcoppola@unisa.it https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup2/33 brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 13 introduction seizure disorders are the most common childhood neurologic condition, with 4-10% of children experiencing at least one seizure. children with epilepsy have higher rates of emotional and behavioral problems than their healthy peers. in particular, mood disorders are increasingly present in pre-adolescential ages compared to younger children. adolescence, indeed, is a particularly vulnerable period marked by profound developmental changes in the biological, social and psychological domains. coping with these changes may be especially challenging for adolescents with epilepsy. conflicts between life expectations and the limitations of a chronic disease could also reduce quality of life and result in increased emotional problems. recent studies report anxiety and depression in adolescents in 15-36% and 8-35%, respectively; noteworthy, clinical-based studies report higher rates of mood disorders (20-36%) compared to population-based studies (5-13%). furthermore, 20% o suicidal ideation youth with epilepsy endorse suicidal ideation, and youth endorsing suicidal ideation do not necessarily have clinical symptoms of depression (jones et al., 2013). in a case-control study, 53 children aged 8 to 18 years with recent onset epilepsy of idiopathic etiology, jones et al. (2007) showed higher rates of depressive and anxiety disorders, and less prevalent rates of attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant and tic disorders, with no significant difference between focal and generalized epilepsy. depression symptoms comprised tearfulness, sadness, becoming easily upset, separation anxiety, and social phobia. risk for depression was found significantly higher by kwong et al. (2016) in adolescents with epilepsy and lower iq, with persisting seizures vs well controlled, depending on seizure focus localization and type of antiepileptic drug. in addition, significant contributors to internalizing problems were psychologic response to disease, hopelessness, seizure adverse effects on family, poor emotional and communication support and maternal depression. with respect to seizure focus localization, a recent study by schraegle and titus (2017) reported that children and adolescents with temporal lobe epilepsy developed more frequently depression with respect to those with frontal lobe epilepsy. depressive episodes may also be triggered after starting with an antiseizure medication with negative psychotropic properties, after withdrawal of an antiseizure medication with mood stabilizing effect or after monitoring and managing depressive symptoms in adolescents with epilepsy giangennaro coppola, et al. 14 adding an enzyme-inducing aed leading to a serum level decrease of ongoing antidepressant therapy (barry et al., 2008). every aed, including those positive psychotropic properties, can trigger psychiatric symptoms in epileptic patients, some with a greater severity than others. in some cases, phenobarbital can result in depression that may occasionally be related to the presence of suicidal ideation and behavior. seemingly, primidone, tiagabine, vigabatrin, felbamate, topiramate, levetiracetam and zonisamide have been reported to trigger symptoms of depression, particularly in subjects with a prior history of depressive symptoms of mood disorder. adverse cognitive events as those linked to topiramate therapy should be considered in order to avoid depression also in adolescents and young adults. interestingly, children and adults with incident unprovoked seizures are 1.7-fold more likely to have a history of major depression before seizure onset, and major depression is a risk factor for unprovoked seizures (hersdorffer et al., 2006). with respect to suicidal ideation, nearly 20% of youth with epilepsy endorse it, but they do not necessarily have clinical symptoms of depression. luckily, suicidal attempts are very rare among adolescents with epilepsy compared with suicidal ideation (20-25%) (fulga, perju-dumbravă & crassas, 2008; perju-dumbravă et al., 2019; zamari, mehdizadeh, & sadeghi, 2012). among the several methods so far available to detect and screen depressive symptoms in young patients with epilepsy, today cdi-2 questionnaire has to be considered the gold standard. nonetheless cbcl questionnaire for teenagers and the recently validated neddi-e-y questionnaire (wagner et al., 2016). (fig.1) are particularly useful and sensitive screening tools, also for suicidal ideation screening. of course, a thorough psychiatric evaluation should always follow, to confirm depression, and all the etiologic components (familial, socio-educational, treatment dependant and so on) (perju-dumbravă et al., 2013). fig. 1. the 12-item revised nddi-e-y for children and adolescents with epilepsy, aged 12-17 years brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.2 15 management of depressive symptoms in adolescents with epilepsy the first step to be considered when treating adolescents with epilepsy and depressive symptoms is the potential detrimental role of antiseizure medications together with the effect of seizure persistence. some antiseizure medications, as monotherapy or in combination as phenobarbital, carbamazepine and lacosamide, may easily cause cognitive impairment and lethargy, thus leading to mood worsening. sometimes it is quite enough to shift to other drugs like valproic acid, lamotrigine or levetiracetam to get clinical improvement. it is as well mandatory to consider if depressive symptoms are developing early after seizure onset or during follow-up. seizure onset in a teen-ager frequently means loss of freedom due to parental worries and anxiety. life suddenly changes and the adolescent is heavily limited as to daily activities (go out alone for a walk, motorbike forbidden, etc.). consequently, psychoeducation through an improved knowledge of epilepsy disorder both to the patient and his/her parents has great importance. a cognitive-behavioral approach is as well indicated. a psychopharmacological treatment including ssri like sertraline, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine and escitalopram should be considered mainly in moderate to severe cases. as reported in animal studies, seizure threshold is not lowered by these drugs. nonetheless, drug-drug interactions has to be considered as enzyme-inducing antiepileptic drugs like phenytoin, carbamazepine and phenobarbital can decrease ssri bloodlevels. on the other hand, fluoxetine/fluvoxamine increase phenytoin, carbamazepine and valproic acid serum levels, by directly inhibiting p450 liver enzyme. in conclusion, monitoring mood disorders is strongly indicated in adolescents and young patients with epilepsy. validated scales and questionnaires as the neddi-e-y and cbcl are particularly useful tools in this regard. references barry, j. j., ettinger, a. b., friel, p., gilliam, f. g., harden, c. l., hermann, b., kanner a.m., caplan, r., plioplys, s., salpekar, j., dunn, d., austin, j., jones, j., & advisory group of the epilepsy foundation as part of its mood disorder. (2008). consensus statement: the evaluation and treatment of people with epilepsy and affective disorders. epilepsy & behaviour, 13(suppl 1), s1-29. https://doi.org/1016/j.yebeh.2008.04.005 fulga, i., perju-dumbravă, d., & crassas, r. (2008). suicide by "non-lethal" firearm. romanian journal of legal medicine 16(1), 23-26. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=barry%20jj%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=ettinger%20ab%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=friel%20p%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=gilliam%20fg%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=harden%20cl%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=harden%20cl%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=hermann%20b%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=kanner%20am%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=caplan%20r%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=plioplys%20s%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=plioplys%20s%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=salpekar%20j%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=dunn%20d%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=austin%20j%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=jones%20j%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=18502183 https://doi.org/1016/j.yebeh.2008.04.005 monitoring and managing depressive symptoms in adolescents with epilepsy giangennaro coppola, et al. 16 hesdorffer, d. c., hauser, w. a., olafsson, e., ludvigsson, p., & kjartansson, o. (2006). depression and suicide attempt as risk factors for incident unprovoked seizures. annals of neurology,59, 35-41. https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.20685 jones j. e., watson, r., sheth, r., caplan, r., koehn, m., seidenberg, m., & hermann, b. (2007). psychiatric comorbidity in children with new onset epilepsy. developmental medicine and child neurology, 49(7), 493-497. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8749.2007.00493.x jones, j. e., siddarth, p., gurbani, s., shields, w. d., & caplan, r. (2013). screening for suicidal ideation in children with epilepsy. epilepsy & behavior, 29, 521-526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.09.020 kwong, k. l., lam, d., tsui, s., ngan, m., tsang, b., lai, t. s., & lam, s. m. (2016). anxiety and depression in adolescents with epilepsy. journal of child neurology, 31, 203-210. https://doi.org/10.1177/0883073815587942 perju-dumbravă, d., fulga, i., chiroban, o., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2013). ethical and diagnostic difficulties of the cohabitation tests in the forensic expertise. revista romana de bioetică, 11(4), 132-137. perju-dumbravă, d., radu, c.c., tabian, d., vesa, s.c., fulga, i., & chiroban, o. (2019). the relation between suicide by chemical substances and the level of education. revista de chimie, 70(7), 2643-2646. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.7.7396 schraegle, w. a., & titus, j. b. (2017). the relationship of seizure focus with depression, anxiety, and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents with epilepsy. epilepsy & behavior, 68, 115-122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2016.12.009 wagner, j. l., kellermann, t., mueller, m., smith, g., brooks, b., arnett, a., & modi, a. c. (2016). development and validation of the nddi-e-y: a screening tool for depressive symptoms in pediatric epilepsy. epilepsia, 57, 1265-1270. https://doi.org/10.1111/epi.13446 zamani, g., mehdizadeh, m., & sadeghi, p. (2012). attempt to suicide in young ages with epilepsy. iran journal of pediatrics, 22, 404-407. https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.20685 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=jones%20je%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17593119 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=watson%20r%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17593119 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=sheth%20r%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17593119 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=caplan%20r%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17593119 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=koehn%20m%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17593119 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=seidenberg%20m%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17593119 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=hermann%20b%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17593119 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17593119 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8749.2007.00493.x https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=jones%20je%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24128934 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=siddarth%20p%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24128934 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=gurbani%20s%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24128934 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=shields%20wd%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24128934 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=caplan%20r%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24128934 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24128934 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.09.020 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=tsui%20s%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26033229 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=ngan%20m%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26033229 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=tsang%20b%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26033229 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=lai%20ts%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26033229 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26033229 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26033229 https://doi.org/10.1177/0883073815587942 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.7.7396 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=schraegle%20wa%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=28142130 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28142130 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2016.12.009 https://doi.org/10.1111/epi.13446 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 278-299 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/183 pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technology serhii yashchuk¹, olha shapran2, lesia martirosian3, tetiana petukhova4, inna artemieva5, yuliya kolisnyk-humenyuk6 1 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, s.yashchuk@ukr.net 2 pereyaslav-khmelnytskyi state pedagogical university named after hryhoriy skovoroda, pereyaslav, ukraine, olia.shapran@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-7514-6632 3 lesya ukrainka eastern european national university, lutsk, ukraine, lesja.lutsk57@gmail.com 4 the state institution «south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky», odesa, ukraine, tetovanka@gmail.com 5 the state institution «south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky», odesa, ukraine, a_i_s2020@ukr.net 6 separated structural unit "lviv educationalscientific center of vocational education" of national pedagogical dragomanov university, lviv, ukraine, yuliya.kolisnyk@gmail.com abstract: professional training of masters in higher education institutions, its effectiveness is largely determined by the level of pedagogical design of the training content of future teachers of general technical disciplines and teaching methods of technology, since it is the content that is designed to ensure the formation of a personality that has not only a system of special knowledge and professional actions, but also differs in formation professionally important competencies, the appropriate level of qualifications, taking into account world and european quality standards while maintaining national achievements and priorities, as well as capable of fruitful teaching activities in modern conditions. according to the results of the study it can be stated: when designing the content of training masters of technological education it is necessary to take into account the general principles of building the content of education and the principles of updating the content of training to the requirements of time; designing the content component of integrated modules of psychological-pedagogical and special-subject training involves determining their goals and objectives, selection of innovative content for each topic of the content module, selection of forms, methods and technologies of its implementation, determination of evaluation criteria and system of diagnostics of success of undergraduates; the content component of professional training of masters of technological education must contain knowledge and experience of innovative psychological-pedagogical and technicaltechnological activity of a teacher in the system of higher educational institution; the effectiveness of the content of professional training of future teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technology is determined by the effectiveness of professional activity, which can be characterized as the formation of professional and pedagogical competence, ability to professional and pedagogical selfdevelopment and self-improvement. keywords: master's degree training; higher education institutions; personality formation; professional competencies; self-development and self-improvement; content effectiveness. how to cite: yashchuk, s., shapran, o., martirosian, l., petukhova, t., artemieva, i., & kolisnyk-humenyuk, y. (2021). pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technology. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 278-299. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/183 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/183 mailto:s.yashchuk@ukr.net mailto:olia.shapran@gmail.com mailto:lesja.lutsk57@gmail.com mailto:tetovanka@gmail.com mailto:a_i_s2020@ukr.net mailto:yuliya.kolisnyk@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/183 pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 279 introduction the process of training specialists at the educational and qualification level "master" is considered as a pedagogical system consisting of a set of interconnected components and reflects the integrity of training, which is organized in accordance with the "regulations on the organization of the educational process in higher education institutions" ministry of education of ukraine of june 2, 1993 № 161. (1993). according to the provision, the organization of the educational process at the educational and qualification level "master" has certain features, namely: study time set aside for independent work must be not less than 1/2 and not more than 2/3 of the total amount of time determined by the master's program; up to 20 percent of the total study time provided by the program can be spent on conducting individual classes; qualification work of the master, which is performed during the master's study, should include research (creative development) on the problems of the relevant field; state certification is carried out by the state examination commission and is conducted in the form of defense of the master's qualification work, while the state commission must submit materials characterizing the scientific (creative) and practical value of the work printed articles, methodological developments, etc.; the responsibility for the individual curriculum relies on student; the head once a semester reports to the department meeting on the implementation of the individual plan by each student, studies according to the "master" program; a student who fails to complete the individual curriculum in time is expelled from the university, and he is issued a standard academic certificate; a student who has fulfilled all the requirements of the curriculum for master's degree and successfully passed the state final certification, the decision of the state examination commission is assigned according to the chosen specialty qualification and issued a state document on the educational qualification level "master" and full higher education; a student who has received a standard document on the obtained educational and qualification level "master" and full higher education, is employed in accordance with applicable law, he may be given the opportunity for scientific internship (scientific work) abroad; a student who received a final grade of "excellent" in at least 75% of all disciplines, and other grades of "good" (including grades during brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 280 training in educational and professional programs "bachelor" ("specialist"), defended his master's thesis with a grade of "excellent", a document of complete higher education with honors is issued; taking into account educational and scientific (creative) achievements, the master may be given a recommendation by the faculty council for postgraduate studies, etc. law of ukraine of june 2, 1993 № 161. (1993). the problem of pedagogical design of the content of education, its reforming on humanistic, personality-oriented principles has found a deep scientific and theoretical substantiation in the researches of s. bondar (2003), v. kraevsky (2000), dоhmеn g. (1998), onishchuk (2020), maksymchuk (2020) and others. analysis of these sources shows that the pedagogical system includes organizational and pedagogical support, design of training content, teaching methods and tools, forms of organization of the educational process, research, independent, individual and practical activities (еsреnbеck, 1999; rеstоn, 1996; mccаslіn, 2002; sheremet, 2019; gerasymova, 2019). information components of training, which are components of organizational and pedagogical support, make up an educational and professional training program, a structural and logical training scheme, a curriculum, curricula of disciplines, other regulatory acts of public administration bodies of education and a higher educational institution and are reflected in the corresponding textbooks, educational manuals, teaching materials, didactic tools, as well as during training sessions and other types of educational activities, the essence of which is described in more detail in our publications, yashchuk s.m. (2015) schеltеn а. (1985), sysоjеwа s. (2010), sоrеn р. nіеlsеn (2002), tеrhаrt е. (2003), . professional training of masters in higher pedagogical institutions of ukraine, its effectiveness is largely determined by the level of pedagogical design of the training content of future teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technologies, since it is the content that is designed to ensure the formation of a personality that has not only a system of special knowledge and professional actions, but also differs the formation of professionally important competencies, the appropriate level of qualifications, taking into account world and european quality standards while maintaining national achievements and priorities, as well as capable of fruitful teaching activities in modern conditions, wіlеnsky h. і. (1964), yаshchuk s. (2015), yаshchuk s. (2014), nerubasska (2020), melnyk (2019). pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 281 designing pedagogical activity and its individual components as one of the most important types of professional activity of a teacher to determine the content of professional training of masters of technological education through pedagogical design, it is necessary to clarify the interpretation of the concepts of "pedagogical design" and "content of education". in the dictionary "scientific and technological progress" (1987) design is defined as "closely related to science and engineering activities to create a project, formed within the activities of manufacturing new products, machines and mechanisms." the concept of "designing" comes from the verb "design". to design is to compose, develop a project, construct something, plan, plan to accomplish something great explanatory dictionary of the modern ukrainian language (2001). a project is a component of design, which is considered as the creation of a project (prototype) of the proposed or possible object, state, or as a process during which the product (service) is created and manufactured. thus, the design in the general sense should be understood as a scientifically sound design of the system of parameters of the future object or a qualitatively new state of the existing prototype project, a prototype of the proposed or possible object, state or process in unity with ways to achieve it. considering the design process in a broad sense as a multifaceted idea, g. muravyova (2002) identifies its main aspects, namely: activities to transform natural phenomena into artificial objects and processes that meet human needs; the process of creating an idea of an object that does not yet exist; choice of mode of action, preparatory actions; a component of human life that allows him to rationally build his life and perform various necessary activities; human attitude to reality, which reflects the desire for a comfortable existence. the introduction of the concept of "design" in the educational sphere, its adaptation to the conditions of the new environment, the natural transformation into the concept of "pedagogical design" is associated with the solution of a number of educational problems. this is due to the expansion of the terminological apparatus, the need to rethink ideas about certain categories, their ratios. thus, v. kraevsky (1972, p. 6) noted that the scientific status of pedagogy is manifested in the fact that “... it is a branch of activity in which, firstly, the functions of studying the process of teaching and upbringing are combined in a real process, secondly, the functions of creating (designing) brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 282 training and education systems." in the psychological and pedagogical sense, the concept of design has recently acquired significant relevance and new content in connection with the development of the problem of designing educational systems v. slobodchikov (1997), i. yakimanska (1996). this area also emphasizes the transformative function of design in relation to the existing level of knowledge. n. talyzina (1986) points out that “projects act as additions and transformations; they are aimed at changing the current state of affairs. in terms of design, it acts as a transformation of existing objects into a new form. "it represents the position according to which design is the driving mechanism of developmental learning: "the subject of design is the creation of conditions (tools, mechanisms) for the development of the education system as a whole, the transition from one state to another" n. talyzina (1986). an important object of pedagogical design is the content of education, which is pedagogical systems, pedagogical processes, pedagogical situations, which are implemented in stages from a general idea to specific actions. all this indicates that the design of pedagogical activities and its individual components is one of the most important types of professional activity of a teacher. for example, s. goncharenko (2000), among the most persistent components in the structure of pedagogical activity, distinguish the design branch. moreover, s. goncharenko (2000) rightly notes that "the leading activity in accordance with human nature is transforming (design and practical) activities". we agree with the opinion of v. yagupov (2012), who notes that the content of the concept of "pedagogical design" is characterized by two points: – the ideal nature of mental actions aimed at the goals, content, methods, forms, means and results of pedagogical activities; – the focus of pedagogical design on the formation of something in the future in the educational process of the educational institution v. yagupov (2012). pedagogical design, according to v. yagupov (2012), is the creation of specific images of the future, specific details of the developed pedagogical programs. its content provides: designing or creating projects is a preliminary mental activity of a teacher regarding the organization of his pedagogical activity and the activity of students; its characteristic properties are the ideal nature of action and its focus on the formation of something in the future in the educational pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 283 process; pedagogical design is associated with the problematic organization of thinking and activities of teachers and students. v. bezrukova (1996) defines pedagogical design as "preliminary development of the main details of future activities of students and teachers." the researcher's opinion is impressive, where she emphasizes that pedagogical design is a function of any teacher, no less important than organizational, gnostic or communicative. in general, the scheme of the pedagogical project includes the following components: identification of problems by their common features based on the analysis of information about the environment; fixation of level parameters of results and their comparison with forms of work; formation of a preliminary diagnostic hypothesis on the basis of primary classification and processing of the received information; identification of external and internal causes of problems and deviations; determination of the final result and its final interpretation, kobernyk o.m. (1995). thus, it can be argued that pedagogical design is an intellectual and prognostic activity of the teacher, which consists in the implementation of pedagogical ideas through a system of approaches and principles that provide for the development of materials between the teacher and the student. analysis of the possibilities of applying the basics of pedagogical design in substantiating the content of education training having clarified the content of the categories "design" and "pedagogical design", we will focus on the analysis of the possibilities of applying the basics of pedagogical design in substantiating the content of education training. in the "regulations on educational and qualification levels (degree education)" (resolution of the cabinet of ministers of ukraine of january 20, 1998 № 65): "the content of education is due to the goals and needs of society requirements for the system of knowledge, skills, worldview and social and professional qualities of the future specialist, which is formed in the learning process taking into account the prospects of science, technics, technology and culture." scientists understand the content of education: system of scientific knowledge, skills and abilities, as a result of their mastering the comprehensive development of the personality, formation of its worldview, morals and behavior, preparation for a public brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 284 life, work is provided yu. babansky (1988); system of knowledge about the world around us, modern production, culture and art, these are generalized intellectual and theoretical skills, skills of creative solution of practical and theoretical problems; system of scientific knowledge about nature, society, human thinking, practical skills and ways of activity, experience, creative activity, worldview, moral, aesthetic ideas and appropriate behavior that a student should have during training s. goncharenko (2000); system of knowledge, skills, abilities that must be possessed by those who study during the study period, in order to obtain a certain profession at the level of a specialist of higher qualification i. drozdova (2008). this understanding of the content of education is based on a cognitive approach, the conceptual educational purpose of which is to involve the individual in science and industry. according to o. savchenko (1997), the content of education is a historical category, a kind of model of society's requirements for preparing human generations for life. the content of education can be interpreted as a pedagogical category, as it is almost impossible to formulate it only on the basis of the social order of society. the way out of this situation is in pedagogical interpretation, in creating a model of this social order by means of pedagogy savchenko (1997). kraevsky (1972) emphasizes this in his research: the content of education can be defined as a pedagogical model of the social order, which is aimed at education, which lies in the context of the culturological approach. according to kobernyk (1995), the content of vocational education in higher pedagogical education is defined as a complex integrated education, structured as a system of theoretical knowledge, pedagogical skills, experience of research in the professional sphere, as well as a set of personal values and professional orientation. we agree with the opinion of scientists that the content of education is not a constant value, it must constantly change and depends on the level of development of science and technology, socio-economic and cultural state of society, taking into account the needs of educational training and prospects for the state as a whole. the opinion of kremen (2010) also convinces in this: "the content of education itself needs to be changed. it is necessary to more clearly and unambiguously define the fundamental knowledge in various fields of study of man and the world, to separate them from the excessive information component, which should play the role of illustrative pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 285 support of the cognitive process. taking into account anthropocentric tendencies, it is necessary, without reducing the possibilities of cognition of nature and the world, to provide a greater opportunity for cognition of man, his psychophysiological and vital features, for individual self-knowledge. it is also necessary to work out a mechanism for systematic updating of the content of education, in accordance with the development of science and the acquisition of new knowledge by mankind. the content of education should reflect all the richness of rational knowledge of mankind, in particular in the spiritual sphere" (kremen, 2010). as goncharenko (1997) rightly noted, the change in the structure of the theoretical component of the content of education is influenced by objective needs (the needs of society, the development of science and technology, accompanied by the emergence of new ideas, theories and radical changes in technique and technology) subjective factors (policy of the leading forces of society and methodological positions of scientists). batechko (2012) notes that the training of specialists in the conditions of master's degree without objections should take into account these trends, as the main purpose of training – providing a qualitatively new higher education, which requires not only "a fundamental rethinking of the content aspects and a real revision of scientific and educational paradigms, but also the use of leading technologies of the modern educational process, the substantiation of which is based at the bachelor's level, as the first degree in the training of specialists and masters. "it follows that in the curricula of training specialists it is impossible to make a simple division of disciplines, but it is necessary to form cycles of disciplines and the order of their study to ensure the proper quality of professional training of masters. the problem of selecting the content of education is one of the most important in pedagogical science. we share the opinion that considers the content of professional and pedagogical training of a high school teacher in a master's degree as a comprehensive program that synthesizes and integrates all cycles of disciplines, the basis of which is a program-targeted method of planning and managing the learning process. so, to design the content of education means to establish the relationship and continuity between the individual cycles of disciplines, to find their correct relationship, which allows in the shortest possible time to pass the necessary scientific information to students. these tasks are performed through curricula and programs. we will proceed from the fact that the modern content of training future teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 286 technology should contain the following components: system of scientific and technical knowledge about the essence, structure and technology of innovative professional activity of a higher school teacher; development of innovation processes in higher education and the specifics of educational and pedagogical innovations; system of professionally oriented and special skills for the introduction of pedagogical innovations based on the design of pedagogical activities; experience of creative activity on generation and realization of own innovative ideas in the educational environment of higher education institution (hei); experience of pedagogical reflection, mastering the methods of selfimprovement; experience of value attitude to pedagogical activity in hei. when designing curricula, two problems arise: first, the selection of disciplines for study; secondly, the sequence of their distribution over the years of study. these problems should be solved on the basis of the following principles yashchuk (2015): 1) comprehensive harmonious development of personality with the help of subjects (system of subjects: social general special). 2) the optimal ratio of fundamental and special disciplines. 3) taking into account interdisciplinary links. 4) variation in the training of a specialist depending on the characteristics of the educational institution and the interests of students (compulsory alternative optional disciplines). 5) coordination of the amount of educational information with the time budget of students. as noted by sysoyeva (2010), the model of teacher training should not distinguish between invariant and variable learning modules, as the requirement of flexibility of such a model should provide the selection of learning modules by the teacher depending on the input level of his needs (which can be done through questionnaires, testing, interviews, etc.). the researcher notes that training modules should provide an opportunity: 1. replenishment of knowledge in the scientific field, which is displayed by the teaching subject; replenishment of knowledge in pedagogy and psychology, modern educational innovations, pedagogical learning technologies. 2. improving the methodological and methodic culture of the teacher, the formation and development of methodological knowledge on modern forms of organization of the educational process in higher pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 287 education, including distance learning. 3. improving the level of information culture, development of practical skills in working with computers, network technologies, the internet. 4. development of professionally significant qualities of a teacher as an educator. each teacher must master the methods of selfdiagnosis and the most important for reflection skills, practical methods of professional and creative self-development and, as a result, develop an individual trajectory to change their own style of teaching according to their psychophysical capabilities, abilities, values, requirements of hei environment. 5. development of communication skills, ability to communicate. for the development of communicative abilities of a higher school teacher requires both knowledge of psychology, pedagogy, and constant study of sociological data concerning the features of socialization and value orientations of modern youth. 6. preparation of a high school teacher for innovative activities. it is important to acquaint a high school teacher with the basics of innovation in higher education; problems of innovation management; directions of innovative activity of the teacher in the system of innovative development of the higher educational institution; professional and pedagogical training of a hei teacher in the conditions of innovative processes; problems of personal and professional self-development of a teacher as a condition of his ability to innovate; implementation of innovations in education on the basis of innovative design of pedagogical activity. 7. acquaintance with the modern normative-legal base of higher education (sysoyeva, 2010). according to machynska (2013), when selecting and structuring the content of training future teachers of higher education, it is necessary to take into account the following aspects: a) the worldview value of the subject, makes it possible to understand the laws of social and natural development, to analyze social phenomena and innovation processes; b) the cognitive value of the subject, its possibilities for the development of the worldview of the future teacher, gives interesting, necessary knowledge, stimulates the development of the cognitive activity of each person; c) the social significance of the subject, its role in the scientific, social, cultural and economic life of the country; d) the practical significance of the subject for each student (connection with a certain profession, the ability to master useful skills and abilities); e) ease of mastering the subject in which the brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 288 student is interested; f) the quality of teaching the specified subject. general requirements for pedagogical design of the content of education for the training of future teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technology based on the analysis of scientific sources on the content of vocational education, we can formulate general requirements for pedagogical design of the content of education, training of future teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technology: 1. when designing the content of training masters of technological education it is necessary to take into account both the general principles of construction of the content of education, and general didactic principles and principles of updating the content of professional training. 2. pedagogical design of the content of education for the training of masters of technological education should reveal the features and directions of professional activity of the teacher in the system of innovative development of higher education; the specifics of professional and pedagogical training for this type of activity in the educational environment of the university. 3. the content of training future teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technologies should correspond to the goals of the chosen education model, reflect current trends in the scientific and technological development of the state, the main directions of innovative processes in technological education, features of educational innovations and pedagogical technologies in higher education. 4. the content component in pedagogical design should reflect the experience of applying the acquired knowledge in practice of future teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technology for the introduction of new educational and scientific and technical technologies. 5. when structuring the content of training masters of technological education it is necessary to provide for the development of innovative engineering and pedagogical style of thinking, to ensure personal and professional self-development of the future teacher. based on the results of this work, the structure and content of professional training of a teacher of general technical disciplines and methods of technology training have been developed, which has a blockmodular structure and includes three blocks that provide theoretical, practical and research training. the process of pedagogical design of the content of vocational pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 289 training is flexible and dynamic, as the amount of new knowledge (information) from all sciences on average doubles in 3 6 years. that is why it is so important when designing the content of education to choose from a large amount of information that will be the basis for becoming a professional in terms of prospects for his future activities. having analyzed the content of modern scientific and methodological literature, based on the requirements of the industry standard of higher education, educational and qualification characteristics and educational and professional training program for masters of the specialty "pedagogy of higher education" and taking into account the need of higher domestic education in the preparation of masters of technological education, we have designed a curriculum for training masters of the specialty "technological education". the curricula present the interdependence and correspondence between competencies and academic disciplines (practices), which takes place in table 1. table1. correspondence between competencies and academic disciplines (modules) of the curriculum for the preparation of a master of technological education code and name of discipline (module) competences к -1 к -2 к -3 к -4 к -5 к -6 к -7 к -8 к -9 к -1 0 к -1 1 к -1 2 к -1 3 к -1 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 гсе 01 philosophy of education ● ● гсе 02 foreign language (by specialty) ● ● гсе 03 legal support of higher education ● ● мпн 01 occupational health in ● ● 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 мпн 02 civil protection ● ● мпн 03 ecology ● ● мпн 04 management in education ● ● ● brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 290 мпн 05 theory and practice of scientific and pedagogical research ● ● ● ● пп 01 pedagogy of higher education ● ● ● ● пп 02 psychology of higher education ● ● ● ● пп 03 methods of teaching general technical disciplines ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● пп 04 scientific principles of theory and methods of teaching technology ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● пп 05 creative technologies of higher education ● ● ● ● ● пп 06 pedagogical design of educational and scientific environment ● ● ● ● пп 07 assistant (passive) practice ● ● ● пп 08 assistant (active) practice ● ● ● the development of curricula was carried out in accordance with the requirements for the mandatory minimum content of the regulatory part of the training. to determine the list of subjects and the sequence of their study, interdisciplinary links were identified, which allowed to introduce new integrative courses with a modular structure. the application of the modular structure of the content of professional training of the master of technological education made it possible to present it in the form of structural formations modular blocks, which include: general science, psychological and pedagogical, special subject, practical and research. each block includes integrated content modules with organizational and methodological, interdisciplinary structure of educational material, which pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 291 provides the formation of components of professional and pedagogical competence of the master of technological education in the process of professional training (table 2). identification of interdisciplinary links in the design of integrated modules was carried out through the analysis of experience in teaching technical and technological disciplines, material and technical base, level of educational and methodological support, which allowed to design the structure and content of each module and develop educational and methodological complexes of integrated courses (emcic). table 2. modular structure of the content of professional training of the master of technological education modules the content of professional training 1 2 1. theoretical training 1.1 general scientific training мз-1 1.1.1 philosophy of education мз-2 1.1.2 foreign language by specialty мз-3 1.1.3 legal support of higher education мз-4 1.1.4 occupational health in мз-5 1.1.5 civil protection мз-6 1.1.6 ecology 1.2 psychological and pedagogical training мп-1 1.2.1 pedagogy of higher education мп-2 1.2.2 psychology of higher education мп-3 1.2.3 pedagogical design of educational and scientific environment мп-4 1.2.4 management in education 1 2 1.3 special-subject мс-1 1.3.1 methods of teaching general technical disciplines мс-2 1.3.2 scientific principles of theory and methods of teaching technology мс-3 1.3.3 creative technologies of higher education 2. practical training мпп-1 2.1 assistant (passive) practice мпп-2 2.2 assistant (active) practice brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 292 3. research training мнд-1 3.1 theory and practice of scientific and pedagogical research мнд-2 3.2 state comprehensive qualifying examination мнд-3 3.3 master's thesis tests of different levels of complexity were developed by the creative team of teachers to diagnose the learning outcomes. the analysis of the results of diagnosis and intermediate assessments of the level of preparedness was an indicator of the effectiveness of the implemented integrative-modular system of education, which allowed to optimize the most significant parameters studied and improve the structure of emcic. the use of competency approach and modular technologies in designing the content of professional training of teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technology expands the possibilities of its improvement, introduces new qualities into the existing educational process, as it includes the whole set of elements and connections between them (goals, structure, content, knowledge). , skills, competencies, forms, methods and means of teaching, activities of teachers and students, internal and external learning conditions). their implementation provides a high degree of humanization, dynamism, flexibility, individualization of education and training, adaptability to the internal conditions of the pedagogical process and the external conditions of the educational structure. the design of the structure and content of educational material containing the block structure and integrated content modules (table 2) was carried out so that upon its completion the student achieved a certain didactic goal, expressed in the formation of professional and pedagogical competence, which is realized in solving educational and practical tasks. the procedure for developing the structure and content of integrated modules will be shown on the example of special subject training: methods of teaching general technical disciplines, scientific principles of theory and methods of teaching technology and pedagogical design of the educational environment. during the development, the purpose of their study was determined with a description of the complexity, duration and sequence of study, evaluation criteria, interaction between students and teachers. thus, the integrated module (mс-1) "methods of teaching general technical disciplines", which is part of the special subject training, is represented by four content modules: mс 1.1. "theoretical foundations of the study of general technical disciplines"; mс 1.2. "didactic bases of general technical training"; mс 1.3. "methodological features of teaching pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 293 general technical disciplines"; mс 1.4. "methodological aspects of teaching general technical disciplines". the integrated content module (mс-2) "scientific principles of the theory and methods of technology teaching", which is part of the special subject training, is represented by two modules: mс 2.1. "general issues of teaching the course" theory and methods of teaching technology "; mс 2.2. "methods of studying the course". the following integrated module (mс-3) "creative technologies in higher education" is represented by two content modules: mс 3.1. "general concepts of creative educational activity"; mс 3.2. "characteristics of creative technologies". as a result of mastering the developed author's model of the structure and content of professional training of the master of technological education, future specialists form such basic complex knowledge, skills and personal qualities that determine the level of formation of professional and pedagogical competence. conclusions according to the results of the study, the following conclusions can be made: when designing the content of training masters of technological education it is necessary to take into account the general principles of building the content of education and the principles of updating the content of training to the requirements of time; designing the content component of integrated modules of psychological-pedagogical and special-subject training involves determining their goals and objectives, selection of innovative content for each topic of the content module, selection of forms, methods and technologies of its implementation, determination of evaluation criteria and system of diagnostics of success of undergraduates; the content component of professional training of masters of technological education must contain knowledge and experience of innovative psychologicalpedagogical and technical-technological activity of a teacher in the system of higher educational institution; the effectiveness of the content of professional training of future teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technology is determined by the effectiveness of professional activity, which can be characterized as the formation of professional and pedagogical competence, ability to professional and pedagogical self-development and self-improvement. the master's pedagogical process is notable for its complexity and exactingness, the complication of tasks and the introduction of new forms, brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 294 methods and means of professional training of masters of technological education, the creation of an innovative psychological climate in the academic group based on solving situations and theoretical and pedagogical problems that are important for the development of professional potential. based on the analysis of scientific sources on the content of vocational education we can formulate general requirements for pedagogical design of educational content training of future teachers of general technical disciplines and methods of teaching technology: when designing the content of training it is necessary to take into account both general principles professional training; pedagogical design of the content of education should reveal features and directions of professional activity of the teacher in system of innovative development of higher educational institution; the specifics of professional and pedagogical training for this type of activity in the educational environment of the university; the content of training of future teachers should correspond to the purposes of the chosen model of education and others. the choice of forms and means of organization, methods and technologies of teaching in a higher educational institution in the process of professional training of a teacher is due to the tasks of professional training of masters of technological education, the peculiarities of the content of the subject and its individual sections, the specific content of classes, the composition, the level of their training, and a skillful combination of various forms , means, methods and technologies of organizing training allows undergraduates to comprehensively solve problems in educational, educational and scientific work, firmly and consciously assimilate knowledge, master the basics of pedagogical skills. from the analysis of scientific sources and own pedagogical experience, it has been established that the variety of forms of research work of masters makes it possible for each student to find an occupation to their liking, and participation in it is necessary for the most harmonious, thorough education and research experience, which is an important factor of training of a young specialist and scientist. the main factors that determine the effectiveness of the organization of research activities of masters of technological education include: personality-oriented approach to its implementation; focus on productive end result; problem-based learning as a tool for the development of creative experience; optimal combination of logical and heuristic methods of solving the problem and others. according to the results of the study, the traditional system of organizing students' independent work has changed in the context of the transition to new working curricula, and a comparative analysis of the traditional sequential study of the course and training options with the pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 295 transfer of the center to the independent work of undergraduate students showed its effectiveness under the following conditions: strengthening the role of independent activities of undergraduate students during classroom classes; creating a positive motivation for independent work; systematic guidance, assistance and constant control by the teacher; clear planning of individual work of students. practice in a higher pedagogical educational institution is one of the most important forms in the system of professional training of a teacher; it ensures their readiness for practical activity in educational institutions of various types. thus, the practical training of future teachers takes into account the need to combine sensory perception of educational information and rational, intensive speech and emotional development, the need to create situations of success in teaching and education and as a result the formation and development of readiness for professional functions: teaching, developmental, educational, organizational, communicative, research, constructive, etc., acquisition of skills necessary for effective scientific and pedagogical activity gnostic, design, constructive, communicative, organizational, etc.. references babansky, y. k. (1988). pedagogika [pedagogy]: a textbook for students of pedagogical institutes, 2nd ed., supplemented and revised. prosveshcheniye. batechko, n. g. (2012). synerhetychnyy pidkhid do pidhotovky fakhivtsiv v umovakh mahistratury [synergetic approach to the training of specialists in terms of master's degree]. pedagogical process: theory and practice, 4, 5–15. bezrukova, v. s. (1996). pedagogika. proyektivnaya pedagogika [pedagogy. projective pedagogy]: a textbook [for engineering and pedagogical institutes and industrial pedagogical technical schools]. delovaya kniga. bondar, s. (2003). kompetentnistʹ osobystosti – intehrovanyy komponent navchalʹnykh dosyahnenʹ uchniv [competence of the person the integrated component of educational achievements of pupils]. biology and chemistry in school, 2, 8–9. bеrufsbіldung іn еurора: zur bеgründung еіnеs еurорäіschеn quаlіfіkаtіоnsrаhmеns. – brеmеn : іtb, 2005. –18 р. drozdova, i. p. (2008). metodyka vykladannya, pedahohika ta psykholohiya vyshchoyi osvity [methods of teaching, pedagogy and psychology of higher education]: a textbook. kharkiv national university of municipal economy. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 296 dоhmеn, g. (1998). thе futurе оf cоntіnuіng еducаtіоn іn еurоре (будущее непрерывного образования в европе). bоnn. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11 (4), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 goncharenko, s. u. (1997). ukrayinsʹkyy pedahohichnyy slovnyk [ukrainian pedagogical dictionary]. lybid. goncharenko, s. u. (2000). profesiyna osvita [professional education]: dictionary: textbook / compiled [at al]. vyshcha shkola. goncharenko, s. u. (2000). zmist zahalʹnoyi osvity i yiyi humanitaryzatsiya / s. u. goncharenko // neperervna profesiyna osvita: problemy, poshuky, perspektyvy [the content of general education and its humanization / s.u. goncharenko // continuous professional education: problems, searches, prospects]: monograph / for general ed. zyazyun i.a. k., p. 81–107. gorokhov, v.g., & khalipov, v.f. (1987). nauchno-tekhnicheskiy progress [scientific and technical progress]. politizdat. kobernyk, o. m. (1995). proektuvannya navchalʹno-vykhovnoho protsesu v shkoli [designing of educational process in school]. khreshchatyk. kraevsky, v. v. (1972). o probleme sootnosheniya pedagogicheskoy nauki i pedagogicheskoy praktiki [on the problem of correlation between pedagogical science and pedagogical practice]. novyye issledovaniya v pedagogicheskikh naukakh, 4, 5–68. kraevsky, v. v. (2000). soderzhaniye obrazovaniya: vpered k proshlomu [the content of education: forward to the past]. pedagogical society of russia. kremen, v. h. (2010). filosofiya lyudynotsentryzmu v osvitnʹomu prostori [philosophy of anthropocentrism in the educational space], 2nd edition. knowledge society of ukraine. machynska n. i. (2013). pedahohichna osvita mahistrantiv vyshchykh navchalʹnykh zakladiv nepedahohichnoho profilyu [pedagogical education of undergraduates of higher educational institutions of non-pedagogical profile]. lviv state university of internal affairs. maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24 43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 297 mccаslіn, n. l. (2002). tеаchеr еducаtіоn іn cаrееr аnd tеchnіcаl еducаtіоn: bаckgrоund аnd роlіcy іmрlіcаtіоns fоr thе nеw mіllеnnіum. оhіо stаtе unіvеrsіty, thе nаtіоnаl dіssеmіnаtіоn cеntеr fоr cаrееr аnd tеchnіcаl еducаtіоn. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m muravyova, g. e. (2002). voprosy teorii proyektirovaniya obrazovatel'nykh protsessov [questions of the theory of designing educational processes]. pedagogical education and science, 4, 14–21. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 polozhennya pro orhanizatsiyu navchalʹnoho protsesu u vyshchykh navchalʹnykh zakladakh: [regulations on the organization of the educational process in higher educational institutions]: approved by the order of the ministry of education of ukraine of june 2, 1993 № 161 [electronic resource]. access mode: httр://nuwm.еdu.ua/strukturnі-ріdrоzdіlі/nаvchаljnоmеtоdіchnіj-vіddіl/mіnіstеrstvо-освіtі-і-nаukі-ukrаjіnі savchenko o. ya., (1997) dydaktyka pochatkovoyi shkoly [didactics of primary school]: [textbook for students of pedagogical faculties] / o. ya. savchenko. к.: abrys, 390 p. schеltеn а. tеchnіschеr wаndеl und bеrufsbіldung / а. schеltеn // рädаgоgіschе. – rund-schаu. 2, 1985. – р. 187–201. sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 slastenin, v. a., isayev, i. f., mishchenko, a. i., shiyanov, e. n. (2002). pedagogika [pedagogy]: a textbook for students of pedagogical educational institutions / 4th edition m.: shkolnaya pressa, 512 p. slobodchikov, v. i. (1997). obrazovatel'naya sreda: realizatsiya tseley obrazovaniya v prostranstve kul'tury / v. i. slobodchikov // novyye tsennosti obrazovaniya: kul'turnyye modeli shkoly [educational environment: realizing the goals of https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 298 education in the space of culture / v. i. slobodchikov // new values of education: cultural models of the school]. m., issue 7. p. 177-184. sysoyeva s. o., (2010) problemy neperervnoyi profesiynoyi osvity: tezaurus naukovoho doslidzhennya [problems of continuous professional education: thesaurus of scientific research] / s.o. sysoyeva, i.v. sokolova. к.: екмо, 362 p. sysоjyеvа s. еlеmеnty zаwоdоwореdаgоgіcznеj еdukаcjі nаuczycіеlа szkоly wyz szеj / swіеtlаnа sysоjеwа // ksztаl cеnіе zаwоdоwе: реdаgоgіkа і рsychоlоgіа / роd rеdаkcjа tаdеuszа lеwоwіckіеgо, jоlаnty wіlsz, іwаnа zіаzіunа, nеllі nyczkаlо. – czеstоchоwа : wydаwnіctwо аkаdеmіі іm. jаnа dl gоszа w czе stоchоwіе, 2010. – s. 321–327. sysоyеvа s. еlеmеnty zаwоdоwореdаgоgіcznеj еdukаcjі nаuczycіеlа szkоly wyz szеj / swіеtlаnа sysоjеwа // ksztаl cеnіе zаwоdоwе: реdаgоgіkа і рsychоlоgіа / роd rеdаkcjа tаdеuszа lеwоwіckіеgо, jоlаnty wіlsz, іwаnа zіаzіunа, nеllі nyczkаlо. – czеstоchоwа : wydаwnіctwо аkаdеmіі іm. jаnа dl gоszа w czе stоchоwіе, 2010. – s. 321–327. sоrеn р. n. (2002). tеаchеr аnd trаіnеr trаіnіng systеms аnd quаlіty. еurореаn trаіnіng fоundаtіоn. talyzina n. f., (1986) deyatel'nostnyy podkhod k postroyeniyu modeli spetsialista [an activity approach to building a model of a specialist] / n.f. talyzina // bulletin of the vyshaya shkola. no. 3. p. 10-14. tеrhаrt е. (2003). tеаchеr еducаtіоn іn gеrmаny: currеnt stаtе аnd nеw реrsреctіvеs // іnstіtutіоnаl аррrоаchеs tо tеаchеr еducаtіоn wіthіn hіghеr еducаtіоn іn еurоре: currеnt mоdеls аnd nеw dеvеlорmеnts. in: е. tеrhаrt, b. mооn, l. vlаscеаnu, l. c. bаrrоws (еd.). – buchаrеst : unеscо-cереs, 2003. – р. 135–156. tеаchеrs аnd trаіnеrs іn vоcаtіоnаl trаіnіng. vоl. 3. – cеdеfор, thеssаlоnіkі, 1999. – 249 р. velykyy tlumachnyy slovnyk suchasnoyi ukrayinsʹkoyi movy, (2001) [large explanatory dictionary of the modern ukrainian language], (2001) / [ed. busel v.]. к.: irpin: perun, 1440 p. wіlеnsky, h. і. (1964). thе рrоfеssіоnаlіzаtіоn fоr еvеryоnе? аmеrіcаn jоurnаl оf sоcіоlоgy, 1, 65–79. yagupov v. v. (2012). proektuvannya u pedahohichniy diyalʹnosti vykladachiv profesiynotekhnichnoyi osvity [designing in pedagogical activity of teachers of vocational education] / v.v. yagupov // materials of the 1st international scientific-practical conference ["design of educational space modern landmarks"] dnepropetrovsk: guz "mvpu pit", p. 169-173. yakimanska i. s. (1996). lichnostno oriyentirovannoye obucheniye v sovremennoy shkole [personality-oriented learning in modern school] / i.s. yakimanskaya. m.: sentyabr, 93 p. pedagogical design of the content of professional training of teachers of … serhii yashchuk, et al. 299 yashchuk, s.m. (2015). profesiyna pidhotovka mahistriv tekhnolohichnoyi osvity: teoriya y metodyka :[ professional training of masters of technological education: theory and methods]: monograph / sergey yashchuk. uman: sp zhovtiy, 368 p. yashchuk, s.m. (2015). profesiyna pidhotovka mahistriv tekhnolohichnoyi osvity: teoriya y metodyka [professional training of masters of technological education: theory and methods]: monograph / sergey yashchuk. uman: sp zhovtyi, 368 p. yаshchuk s. (2014). реdаgоgіcаl cоndіtіоns оf fоrmіng рrоfеssіоnаl аnd реdаgоgіcаl cоmреtеncе іn futurе tеchnоlоgіcаl еducаtіоn mаstеrs. thе аdvаncеd scіеncе, 11, 23–27. yаshchuk, s. (2015). cоncерtuаl fоundаtіоns оf рrоfеssіоnаl trаіnіng оf mаstеrs оf thе tеchnоlоgіcаl еducаtіоn іn hіghеr реdаgоgіcаl еducаtіоnаl іnstіtutіоns оf ukrаіnе. mаssаchusеtts rеvіеw оf scіеncе аnd tеchnоlоgіеs, vі, 2(12), 473–479. еsреnbеck, j. (1999). dіе kоmреtеnzbіоgrарhіе strаtеgіеn dеr kоmреtеnzеntwіcklungdurch sеlbstоrgаnіsіеrtеs lеrnеn und multіmеdіаlе kоmmunіcаtіоn. wаxmаnn mіnіstеr. іntеrnаtіоnаl tеchnоlоgy еducаtіоn аssоcіаtіоn. tеchnоlоgy fоr аll аmеrіcаns. а rаtіоnаlе аnd strucfеrе fоr thе study оf tеchnоlоgy. – rеstоn, v а : аuthоr, 1996. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 149-171 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports roman prots¹, volodimir yakovliv2, serhii medynskyi3, roman kharchenko4, tetiana hryb5, tetiana klymenchenko6, serhii ihnatenko7, iryna buzhyna8, borys maksymchuk9 1 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, prots_max@ukr.net 2 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubinskyi state pedagogikal university, vinnytsia, ukraine, dekykovliv576@gmail.com 3 bogdan khmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, melitopol, ukraine, sermedyn@ukr.net 4 sumy national agrarian university, sumy, ukraine, roman.kharchenko281180@ukr.net 5 sumy national agrarian university, sumy, ukraine, tanagrib70@gmail.com 6 sumy national agrarian university, sumy, ukraine, klymenchenkokat@gmail.com 7 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kyiv, ukraine, ign.sergey@gmail.com 8 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky, odesa, ukraine, bugina.irina@gmail.com 9 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, ukraine, 0674256781@ukr.net abstract: the research prominence lies in an increasing interest of the state in patriotic education and physical training of young people for homeland defenсe. there is an urgent today to reconstruct the ethnic model of patriotic education and its component, in particular militaryand-patriotic education, identify the means of physical culture and sports (physical exercise; natural, artificial and hygienic factors) and justify their use under reforms in education following the needs and demands of the individual and the society in ukraine. the research aims to theoretically justify and experimentally verify the effectiveness of militaryand-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports based on ethnopedagogy, following neuropedagogical criteria of their psychophysical readiness for homeland defenсe. the authors of the research offer to introduce the specialized course on martial arts of ukraine, which refers to the worldview and mindset of ukrainians underlying the ukrainian military (combat) culture, as well as strengthening and enhancement of neuropsychological properties and symptom complexes of character. the control group pupils (25) were taught based on the traditional system (they acquired and improved their knowledge, abilities and skills in preliminary military training). the experimental group pupils (25) purposefully studied the specialized course on the martial arts of ukraine. such methods as surveys, questionnaires, tests, interviews and observations were used to conduct neuropsychological diagnostics of young people’s readiness for homeland defenсe. in eg, the number of the respondents with a high level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defenсe has increased by 10.3%; the number of the respondents with an average level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defenсe has increased only by 2.2%; the number of the respondents with a low level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defenсe has decreased by 12.5%. modern military-andpatriotic education of young people can be considered effective if the pedagogical model of military-and patriotic education using physical culture and sports and taking into account neuropsychological and neuropedagogical factors is integrated into the modern system of national education. keywords: patriotic education, physical culture and sports, military culture, physical training, psychophysical readiness. how to cite: prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 mailto:prots_max@ukr.net mailto:dekykovliv576@gmail.com mailto:sermedyn@ukr.net mailto:roman.kharchenko281180@ukr.net mailto:tanagrib70@gmail.com mailto:klymenchenkokat@gmail.com mailto:ign.sergey@gmail.com mailto:bugina.irina@gmail.com mailto:0674256781@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 150 introduction the research prominence lies in an increasing interest of the state in patriotic education and physical training of young people for homeland defenсe. nowadays, one of the strategic tasks is the integration of all educational forces of society for the full development of young people, their physical and moral health, ability to adapt to dynamic socio-cultural, economic, political circumstances and be a patriot, who is ready for labour and homeland defenсe, given the current conditions of ukraine’s political life, radical changes in eastern european geopolitics and ukraine’s relations with neighbouring countries, direct threats to ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. military-and-patriotic education acts as the basis of preliminary military training of young people, which, according to the latest research, does not meet the needs of the society, taking into account low efficiency of military-and patriotic education, its content and means, formalism, bureaucratization and market orientation. the modern process of militaryand-patriotic education is characterized by weak information and methodological support, outdated facilities, inconsistency with the needs and demands of pupils, low qualification of teaching staff, insufficient use of research, historical sources, multimedia educational resources, as well as the experience of folk pedagogy. there is an urgent today to reconstruct the ethnic model of patriotic education and its component, in particular military-and-patriotic education, identify the means of physical culture and sports (physical exercise; natural, artificial and hygienic factors) and justify their use under reforms in education following the needs and demands of the individual and the society in ukraine. these problems can be solved by referring to the experience of ethnopedagogy, which defines such principles of educational work with young people as nationality, natural and cultural conformity, humanization, democratization and ethnicization. the problem of military-and-patriotic education of youth is rather complex, multifaceted and, at the same time, one of the least covered and most relevant for the education system and the state as a whole. many classic works on ukrainian pedagogy pay particular attention to solving this particular problem based on folk pedagogy and scientific psycho-pedagogical knowledge. however, traditional views take little account of neuropsychological and neurophysiological characteristics of adolescents and young adults today. using neuropsychological diagnostics, kekelidze (2014) makes an important generalization: ethnocultural factors combine those brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 151 attitudes and traditions which are both constructive and negative for a modern person. it is essential to consider modern neuropsychological aspects, such as acceleration, more rapid physical development, weak motivation to learn traditions, high sensitivity to modern axiological trends, to determine the relevance of ethnocultural and ethnopedagogical traditions (kekelidze, 2014). the problem of military-and-patriotic education in ukrainian pedagogy is being solved in the context of the following areas: 1) preparing for national service in the armed forces of ukraine and choosing military professions within the course on homeland defenсe; 2) organizing extracurricular (out-pf-school) activities aimed at training for labour and homeland defenсe; 3) being an important problem of ukrainian pedagogy. at the same time, such an approach seems to be rather one-sided. therefore, the problem of military-and-patriotic education of young people becomes interdisciplinary. philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, political scientists, military officers, educators and rehabilitation specialists are involved in building the content of the concept of “military-and-patriotic education”, as well as defining its goals, ways and means of implementation. modern neuropsychology is gradually displacing a neuropedagogical approach in scientific discourse and pays more and more attention to diagnostics and correction of the negative impact of sports. the scope of research covers issues ranging from neuropsychological modelling of the sports process (barr, 2003) to the prediction and psychocorrection of subcontact injuries (tsushima et al., 2018). in ukrainian pedagogy, sukhomlynskyi (1977) incorporated comprehensive psychophysical development of the child and patriotic education in national education. it must be noted that psychophysical aspects of military-and patriotic education can be specified in the following contexts: a. afanasiev (2006) considers psychological problems in patriotic education of the military; baka & korzh (2004) study military-and-patriotic education of young people together with physical education under the appropriate psycho-pedagogical conditions; h. vashchenko (1997) justifies military-and-patriotic education of young people in the context of the educational ideal; o. vyshnevskyi (2003) substantiates it in relation to cultivating national self-consciousness in young people; v. ivashkovskyi (2002) clarifies psycho-pedagogical conditions for training high school pupils for military service in the armed forces of ukraine; kyrychenko (2004) analyzes the process of training high school pupils for homeland defence in the system of military-and-patriotic, sports-and-technical and preliminary military activities; krasylnyk (2002) analyzes patriotic education of military psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 152 officers; tomchuk (1994) reveals psychological principles of preparing pupils for homeland defence; shtokvysh (1997) studies the military component of ethnic culture. thus, neuropedagogical and neuropsychological problems of the military “self-image”, personal motivation, difficulties caused by personal neuropsychological features, acmeological aspects of higher achievements and psychological aspects of initial military training have been widely covered by ukrainian researchers. still, one should pay more attention to medical factors (sports medicine, personal neuropsychological profile, the type of nervous system that limits or accelerates military-and-patriotic development). besides, many researchers consider the problems of military-andpatriotic education in military-and-patriotic and sports associations, extracurricular (out-of-school) activities, as well as the ways of reviving the experience of folk (cossack) pedagogy. these aspects indirectly correlate with neuropsychology and contain psychosocial and ethnopsychological aspects. v. ivashkovskyi (2002) presents a draft regulation and programme of the military-sports game “sokil” (falcon). kyrychenko (2004) offers some methodical recommendations on conducting youth cossack sports games “kozatski zabavy” (cossack fun), as well as the activities of the youth organization “moloda sich” (young sich) as a means of educating high school pupils following the military cossack traditions of the ukrainian people. a. shakhov (1992) analyzes pedagogical aspects of the traditions of the zaporozhian cossacks. however, ukrainian teachers have not studied the means of physical culture and sports in their accordance with the goals and means of military-and-patriotic education of young people yet. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (bakhmat et al., 2019; behas et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; gerasymova et al., 2019; halaidiuk et al., 2018; maksymchuk et al., 2018; melnyk et al., 2019; nerubasska & maksymchuk 2020; petrova, 2017; sitovskyi et al., 2019; sheremet et al., 2019). with regard to the research areas traditional for ukrainian neuropedagogy and military psychology, the problem of military-andpatriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports based on neuropsychology should be considered in the following areas: 1) determining the psycho-pedagogical aspect of the connection between military-and-patriotic and physical education; 2) developing the neuropedagogical model of military-and-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports; 3) justifying pedagogical means of general physical culture and applied physical training of young people as the basis brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 153 for preserving the gene pool of the nation, displaying patriotic consciousness, self-consciousness and self-identification. the research aims to theoretically justify and experimentally verify the effectiveness of military-and-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports based on ethnopedagogy, following the criterion of their neuropsychological and psychophysical readiness for homeland defenсe methods and materials the content of military-and-patriotic education, as a set of goals, includes the following: 1) military-sports training and 2) preliminary military education (training). military-sports training is a component of a holistic process of military-and-patriotic education, which is organized in various forms of extracurricular and out-of-school activities. the system of out-ofschool education incorporates military-and-patriotic and military-sports games, such as “zakhysnyk vitchyzny” (homeland defender), “kozatski rozvahy” (cossack entertainment), “kozatski zabavy” (cossack fun), “dzhura”, “sokil” (falcon), “kozatskyi vyshkil” (cossack training), “maibutnii voin” (a future warrior) for different age groups, as well as the activities of defenсe-and-sports health camps. military-and-patriotic education of pupils in grades 1-11 is implemented with maximum consideration of neuropsychological and physical potentials of different age-related and personal characteristics. it should be considered as a consistent development of personality, which consists of certain stages, namely, junior, middle and senior school age. each of these stages has its content and features depending on the previous stage and aims to reach the next stage with a different development level of motivation, as well as the cognitive and emotional-and-volitional sphere. the final stage of military-and-patriotic education of pupils is preliminary military training of young males, whose main subject in secondary school is homeland defence. it is part of the standard curriculum of 11-year comprehensive schools, approved by the order of the ministry of education and science of ukraine no 406 as of april 20, 2018. the programme of homeland defence for educational institutions of the general secondary education system is recommended by the ministry of education and science of ukraine. it encompasses general military, fire, tactical, combat, applied physical, military medical training, as well as training in military topography and the basics of civil defence. the implementation of such a variety of a young person’s psychophysical transformations should psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 154 take into account constant neuropsychological diagnostics and testing, especially regarding stress and psychological deformities (randolph et al., 2005). the practical means of military-and-patriotic education in secondary schools in the process of preliminary military training are the following: revealing the general content and justifying the need for service in the armed forces of ukraine; forming and developing readiness to defend the ukrainian state in young people; developing legal consciousness and personal qualities necessary for military professional activity. thus, militaryand-patriotic education is aimed at developing a positive motivation to fulfil a patriotic duty, that is, to protect ukraine, in young citizens. unfortunately, the state of military-and-patriotic education as a preliminary military training of young males does not meet the needs of the army and the society in terms of preparing a citizen as a patriot. nowadays, it is not enough to familiarize young people with the armed forces of ukraine, their goals and structure, prepare physically and provide them with the necessary amount of military and technical knowledge. it is more important to teach moral and axiological aspects. it is related to developing both the worldview and mindset of pupils, making them aware of the historicity of their statehood and the achievements of the ukrainian people, which can be achieved through intensive use of the experience of folk (cossack) pedagogy. the intensity and psychophysiological focus of militaryand-patriotic education requires maintaining personal profiles, keeping personal diaries on self-regulation and, eventually, using computer programmes to record psychological symptom complex, stress resistance and prevention of mental and physical injuries (randolph et al., 2005). therefore, it is essential to recreating the model of military-andpatriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports, taking into account such pedagogical and neuropsychological parameters: the concept of “military-and-patriotic education”; its goals, objectives, forms, methods and means; the indicators of educatedness. the main criterion of educatedness in the process of military-and-patriotic education of young people is their psychophysical readiness for labour and homeland defence. psychophysical readiness is manifested in neuropsychological stability; a high level of motivation and socio-psychological readiness for homeland defence; a low level of social and situational anxiety and mental stability in the process of preliminary military training; an appropriate level of physical applied training (endurance, strength, speed, agility). the authors of the research offer to introduce the specialized course on martial arts of ukraine, which refers to the worldview and mindset of brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 155 ukrainians underlying the ukrainian military (combat) culture, to reach an appropriate level of educatedness of young people in the process of militaryand-patriotic education using physical culture and sports. the implementation of the specialized course can help to solve the main urgent tasks set by the society before the educational process of preliminary military training, namely, developing modern military culture of young people (including the military); using the techniques of folk (cossack) pedagogy and the experience of physical education so that pupils can acquire the necessary military knowledge and skills; developing physical culture in pupils in the process of preliminary military training with the aim of enhancing their psychophysical readiness for homeland defence; strengthening the sense of effective patriotism in schoolchildren; developing their stable motivation and interest in studying and mastering the military culture of ukrainians; identifying the ways to use the knowledge, abilities and skills in martial arts of ukraine in the perspective of military activity; ensuring optimal and purposeful intellectual, psychophysical preliminary military training of young people to fulfill the civic duty to defend homeland. the experimental work consisted of several stages. at each of them, the goals were defined, the content was specified, and the obtained results were analyzed. the validation of the proposed model of military-and patriotic education using physical culture and sports taking into account neuropsychological indicators was aimed at increasing the level of psychophysical readiness of high school pupils to defend the homeland in the process of preliminary military training as the main criterion of militaryand-patriotic education. the three levels of psychophysical readiness of high school pupils to defend homeland (high, average, low) were determined through analyzing psychophysical indicators relevant for each age group, the experience of folk (cossack) pedagogy, activities of practising teachers, as well as understanding the specifics of military-and-patriotic education using physical culture and sports and the requirements for preliminary military training of young males. experimental research facilities included comprehensive schools in drohobych, sumy, kyiv, moscow, odesa, izmail, vinnytsia, lviv. in total, almost 850 high school pupils (males) and 100 teachers providing preliminary military training were involved in various types of the experimental work. the formative experiment was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the model of military-and-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports and the effectiveness of the specialized course on the martial arts of ukraine, taking into account the criterion of psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 156 psychophysical readiness of high school pupils for homeland defence. a sample volume for the control and experimental groups (cg and eg) is as follows: nc = 25 pupils and ne = 25 pupils. the method of serial selection was used to determine the sample volume. this selection makes it possible to assess the statistical probability of the research results. cg pupils (25) were taught on the basis the traditional system (they acquired and improved their knowledge, abilities and skills in preliminary military training). eg pupils (25) purposefully studied the specialized course on the martial arts of ukraine. such methods as surveys, questionnaires, tests, interviews and observations were used to identify psychophysical readiness of young people for homeland defenсe. initially, the results of the questionnaires were analyzed to determine the level of neuropsychological stability of pupils (a constructive attitude to the social surrounding and the level of self-criticism, ability to adapt to new social circumstances, well-developed self-regulation, self-confidence, optimism, activity, endurance, resilience). the pupils were asked to fill in the author’s questionnaire based on kyrychenko’s questionnaire “forecast” (kyrychenko, 2008), which aims to identify the state of those neuropsychological personality traits that are of paramount importance for the process of social adaptation and regulation of behaviour in military professional activities. next, the authors of the research used a system of tests to determine the level of psychophysical readiness of pupils for homeland defence in terms of motivation and socio-psychological readiness; social and situational anxiety of young males in the process of preliminary military training; their physical applied training in the specification of levels (high, average, low). also, they used the method of studying the individual physical and psychological qualities of pupils in the process of their preliminary military training (kyrychenko, 2004). the level of motivation and socio-psychological readiness of young males for homeland defence was identified by assessing the respondents’ tests, which included 35 statements, from which they needed to choose no more than seven and write their serial numbers on a separate sheet of paper. the level of motivation and socio-psychological readiness of young males for homeland defence was calculated by finding an algebraic sum of points from the selected answers. the next step of neuropsychological research was to identify the level of social and situational anxiety of pupils in the process of preliminary military training. it was identified using the following author’s methodology: brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 157 it contains a brief description of situations (pleasant, unpleasant) that may happen in the life of a young person. certain descriptions of situations that may cause anxiety are grouped as follows: group i situations related to preliminary military training; group ii situations related to the expectation of possible military service; group iii situations related to the content, the complexity of preliminary military training and activities in the context of homeland defence; group iv situations actualizing the idea of oneself as a future warrior, as well as self-assessment of readiness to defend the homeland; group v situations related to communication in the process of preliminary military training. the final step of the initial diagnostics at the ascertaining stage of the formative experiment is to identify the level of physical applied training of young males in terms of endurance, strength, speed and agility. the authors of the research used kyrychenko’s standards when identifying the level of physical applied training in the process of military-and-patriotic education of young people (kyrychenko, 2008). thus, this research theoretically justifies and offers to solve the problem of military-and-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports based on ethnopedagogy and neuropedagogy through the author’s elaboration of the content and the introduction of a special model for developing psychophysical readiness in young people for homeland defence as the main criterion of military-and-patriotic education in the process of preliminary military training. results the results of the questionnaire prove that 60% of teachers providing preliminary military training do not use neuropedagogical methods of folk pedagogy in lessons on within the course on homeland defence; 33% of them partially use them; only 7% are familiar with the experience of folk (cossack) pedagogy and use it in the process of military-and-patriotic education in lessons within this course. thus, there appears to be the need for special training (retraining) of teachers providing preliminary military training to encourage them to use the experience of medicine, neuropsychology, folk military culture, in particular (cossack) pedagogy and the elements of the martial arts of ukraine not only as a means but also as the object of training and education. also, it is essential to promote folk (cossack) pedagogy among practising teachers and the general public, which will make the process of military-and-patriotic education of young people more effective and efficient. psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 158 the next step of this research was to generalize the relative assessment of the initial diagnostics of pupils’ psychophysical readiness for homeland defence in terms of their neuropsychological stability/instability, motivation and anxiety about the prospects of military activity, physical applied training (endurance, strength, speed, agility). based on the results obtained earlier, the authors of the research tracked an increase in the indicators of low, average and high levels of military-and-patriotic education of pupils in cg and eg before and after the experiment. these parameters are specified in table 1. table 1. the dynamics in the development of the main indicators of psychophysical readiness of cg and eg pupils for homeland defence (%) no indicators of psychophysical readiness for homeland defence levels indicators cg eg the number of respondents (25) the number of respondents (25) b e fo re th e e x p er im e n t af te r th e e x p er im e n t an i n c re as е b e fo re th e e x p er im e n t af te r th e e x p er im e n t an i n c re as e 1. neuropsychological instability high 20 16 −4 16 8 −8 average 32 36 4 40 40 0 low 48 48 0 44 52 8 2. the level of motivation and socio-psychological readiness for homeland defence high 0 0 0 0 8 8 average 72 68 −4 80 76 −4 low 28 32 4 20 16 −4 3. the level of social and situational anxiety in the process of preliminary military training high 48 44 −4 44 20 −24 average 32 36 4 40 60 20 low 20 20 0 16 20 4 4. physical applied training (endurance  at the beginning of the 2nd year of training) high 8 8 0 8 20 12 average 44 48 4 32 40 8 low 48 44 −4 60 40 −20 5. physical applied training (strength  at the beginning of the 2nd year of training) high 12 20 8 24 40 16 average 72 64 −8 60 52 −8 low 16 16 0 16 8 −8 6. physical applied training (speed  at the beginning of high 20 20 0 16 36 20 average 40 44 4 44 32 −12 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 159 the 2nd year of training) low 40 36 −4 40 32 −8 7. physical applied training (agility  at the beginning of the 2nd year of training) high 8 8 0 8 12 4 average 44 48 4 40 52 12 low 48 44 −4 52 36 −16 these data make it possible to compare the results of the diagnostics (determining the average indicators of the quality) of the level of pupils’ psychophysical readiness for homeland defence (by indicators: neuropsychological instability; motivation towards homeland defence; social and situational anxiety in the process of preliminary military training; (endurance, strength, speed, agility)) before and after the experiment and conclude the following: due to the application of the proposed model of military-and-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports based on neuropsychology and neuropedagogy and the introduction of the specialized course on the martial arts of ukraine in preliminary military training g, the number of cg respondents with high and average levels of psychophysical readiness for homeland defence has increased by only 1.1% respectively; the number of the respondents with a low level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defence has decreased by 2.2%. in eg, the number of respondents with a high level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defenсe has increased by 10.3%; the number of respondents with an average level only by 2.2%. it must be noted that the number of respondents with a low level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defenсe has decreased by 12.5%. the largest differences in the results of cg and eg pupils were recorded by the following indicators: social and situational anxiety in the process of preliminary military training and physical applied training (endurance, agility). also, the authors of the research mathematically processed the results of the input and output diagnostics to determine the average indicators of the quality to compare the empirical distributions of the level of pupils’ psychophysical readiness for homeland defence in cg and eg. in turn, the obtained results made it possible to determine the deviations of differentiation concerning the level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defence in cg and eg pupils. the biggest discrepancies in the results are recorded by the following indicators: social and situational anxiety of young people in the process of preliminary military training and their physical applied training (endurance, agility). it proves that proper preliminary military training as the final stage of military-and-patriotic education of high school pupils can be conducted only using physical culture and sports. at the same time, it is impossible to effectively develop psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 160 psychophysical readiness for homeland defence in young people only through discreet weapons training and applied physical training. therefore, it is vital to introduce the integrated course, similar in content to the proposed specialized course on the martial arts of ukraine. discussion a study of relevant scientific and methodological literature shows that both the semantic content of the concept should be defined and the problem of military-and-patriotic education should be studied in the sequence and interdependence of such concepts as “national education” “patriotic education” “military-and-patriotic education” “preliminary military training”. military-and-patriotic education is a component of patriotic education, which helps to develop intellectual, moral-andpsychological and physical readiness for homeland defence. at each stage, it is necessary to measure psychophysical and neuropsychological indicators, which are manifested in the dynamics of motivation, the natural acquisition of new competencies with minimal anxiety and stress. the main objectives of the modern school in military-and-patriotic education are as follows: to develop spiritual, physical and psychological readiness in future soldiers with weapons in their hands to defend ukraine, its territorial integrity, the interests of the people of ukraine and guard its freedom. the problem of military-and-patriotic education of young people in its historical and pedagogical development is closely related to the military culture of ukraine, its social role and importance in the process of nation and state-building, as well as educational potential for the individual and the society. the authors of this research believe that military culture aims to develop pupils’ legal culture, provide them with the knowledge about the international legislative acts regulating mutual relations during the armed conflict and protecting health, life and human dignity of servicemen and ordinary citizens, wounded persons, prisoners, hostages, refugees, missing persons. in modern ukrainian society, the importance of the educational function of military culture is diminishing, which is associated with the decline of spirituality, neglect of historically formed educational military experience, distorted views on heroism. the specifics of pedagogical developments, as well as the use of military-patriotic experience in education, depended on the historical circumstances of the colonial dependence of ukrainian lands on different metropolises and the socio-political system of the state (states), which included ukrainian territory at a certain cultural and historical stage (poland, brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 161 the russian empire, the ussr). national pedagogical principles of militaryand-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports were developed in historical accordance with the needs and demands of the public life of the ukrainian people (community consolidation, protection from the enemy, cultivation of such personal roles as a citizen-and-patriot and a defender of homeland and its culture). an example of the connection between military-and-patriotic education and military culture of the society is folk pedagogy of the cossack era (cossack pedagogy) when ukrainian patriotism actively developed in the context of the struggle for the will of the people, and patriotic education acquired the features of military-and-patriotic education using physical culture and sports. however, the natural means of physical education (water, air, the sun) and artificially created (dance, herts (duels of ukrainian cossacks with their enemies before the battle), competitions) played the role of military training and bearing. this research has also determined the leading theoretical and methodological motives behind a modern introduction and a study of military-and-patriotic education of young people in cossack pedagogy, which implies using a neuropsychological approach and national traditions. having considered the educational potential of cossack traditions in folk pedagogy, the authors of the research state that the process of implementing the experience of ukrainian martial arts is of an ethnopedagogical character since it involves ethnic components of pedagogy (usatenko, 2008) and contains mechanisms for transmitting ethnocultural values, archetypes, symbols, myths and stereotypes. besides, it forms ethnic identity, finds ways of generating and transforming through the education of ethnic spirituality, the mentality of the ethnic community, ethnocultural identity and the universal culture of the information-and-technology society. finally, it searches for new forms of verbal and nonverbal communication and allows obtaining relevant theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. the authors of the research have identified and described the ethnic components of pedagogy reflected in the educational experience of ukrainian martial arts, namely: 1) a cultic and mythological attitude to the earth as a living being that protects and gives strength to the warrior; the knowledge about homeland as the land of ancestors and the native land; the awareness of the inseparable connection between the warrior and the native land, which is the object of protection and defence, as well as a source of strength and endurance; 2) the image of the pupil’s self-formed by studying the history, traditions and life of the zaporozhian army, the theory and practice of psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 162 martial arts of cossacks and accepting the values and norms practised in the national military, competitive and game-related culture, which contributes to increasing a level of national self-consciousness, motivation and readiness to protect the interests of the native land, work for its well-being; the pupil’s capacity for self-knowledge, self-development, self-improvement, independence and initiative; 3) the understanding of military affairs and homeland defence as one of the social roles of men and, at the same time, the awareness of women’s main function in ethnic military culture, that is also protection, although through traditional means available to them: maternal (female) blessing accompanied by protective actions, including reading a blessing prayer, sprinkling with holy water, sprinkling the head with the consecrated earth, laying hands on the head, make the sign of the cross, attaching an amulet or the handkerchief embroidered especially for this moment (a traditional one sung in songs and poetic works), saddling and taking out a horse, taking weapons out of the house and putting them in the hands of a soldier; a peacekeeping function; 4) the awareness of the educational potential of computer games with the realities of ethnic, military and competitive culture, which are conditionally interpreted as a means of modern empirical pedagogy; 5) the capacity for non-verbal communication, which is a combat (or military) dance, combining such manifestations of human activity as dance and battle, war and game, competition and ritual, ceremony and spectacle, magic and fighting spirit, tension and relaxation, as well as the means of artistic reflection of the heroics of the ukrainian people and a kind of system of combat training and retraining; 6) the development and improvement of endurance, strength, speed and agility since dancing combines movements, various acrobatic elements that differ in complexity, manner and speed of performance and require long training, proper breathing, plasticity and rhythm. the obtained results should be analyzed in the context of didactical and educational characteristics and checked for neurocognitive and neurophysiological changes (lovell, 2006). also, they should incorporate constant neurophysiological testing of young athletes, especially at the stage of school education (barr, 2003). taking into account the above-mentioned ethnopedagogical and neuropsychological patterns and conditions, the cultural and pedagogical space of military-and-patriotic education involves an artificially created tool of physical education in the form of non-verbal communication, which is combat (or military) dance combining such manifestations of human activity brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 163 as dance and battle, war and game, competition and ritual, rite and spectacle, magic and fighting spirit, tension and relaxation. the historical experience of ukrainians shows that martial arts are of great cognitive, educational and military-and-patriotic significance for modern young people, which also serve as the basis for the hopak, the world-famous ukrainian folk dance. it is the dance that, much faster than the usual methods, gives the expected results in psychophysical training of those who study martial arts. dancing as a means of pedagogical education significantly affects the development of those traits people need in everyday life and military activities (agility, coordination of movements, orientation in space, strength, endurance). the scientific and theoretical value of the obtained results is as follows: • for the first time, the effectiveness of military-and-patriotic education of young people based on ethnopedagogy and neuropsychology using physical culture and sports has been integrally determined, theoretically justified and experimentally verified; pedagogical principles of military-and-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports have been found to be developed following the needs and demands of the public life of the ukrainian people (community consolidation, protection from the enemy); the concept of “the military culture of ukraine” has been introduced into the educational space, and its educational significance for the individual and the society has been determined; • the concept of “military-and-patriotic education” has been specified, which has made it possible to recreate the model of military-andpatriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports based on neuropedagogy; physical exercises (endurance, speed, strength, agility) have been found to contribute to developing heroic and patriotic traits of national character in the practice of folk pedagogy and be part of applied physical training for labour and military service due to the appropriate neuropedagogical conditions; the natural factors in physical education (water, air, the sun), as well as the artificially created ones (dancing, competition), have been found to play an important role in military training of young people; • the use of ethnopsychological features with the correctivediagnostic neuropedagogical and neuropsychological support and the study of cossack pedagogy and the martial arts of ukraine which accumulate the ways and means of military-and-patriotic education, in particular means of physical culture and sports, has been further developed; the reasons behind the decline of patriotic education and military-and-patriotic education of young ukrainians as its component have been found to be the unjustified psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 164 national idea, the lack of a state-oriented model of patriotism, a slow transition from an authoritarian style of education to a democratic and personality-oriented one, as well as improper use of folk pedagogy. given the extremely unstable political and socio-economic situation in the country, these pedagogical miscalculations give rise to protest and opposition, nihilism and alienation, and even unwillingness to perform one’s military duty to serve the homeland. therefore, it is essential to study and implement the experience of folk pedagogy and neuropsychological monitoring in the educational process. the practical value of the obtained results lies in developing and validating the specialized course on the martial arts of ukraine within preliminary military training as the final stage of military-and-patriotic education using physical culture and sports in secondary schools. the authors of the research have elaborated relevant diagnostic means to determine the level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defence in young people as the main criterion of educatedness in the process of military-and-patriotic education using physical culture and sports. the research proves that neurosciences in military education help to take into account the personal psycho type, avoid psychological trauma and, at the same time, provide valid tools for measuring achievements and psychophysical dynamics (della, & anderson, 2012). the scientific and methodological practices, provisions and conclusions of the research can be used when developing the specialized course on the means of physical culture and sports in military-and-patriotic education of young people for students from ivan franko drohobych state pedagogical university, elaborating curricula and textbooks for organizing extracurricular activities of pupils and students, as well as within research activities of students in higher education institutions. conclusions an analysis of the obtained results has made it possible to draw such conclusions. a retrospective study of the problem of military-and-patriotic education and its neuropsychological aspects shows that the main objectives of the modern school in military-and-patriotic education are as follows: to develop spiritual, physical and psychological readiness in future soldiers with weapons in their hands to defend ukraine, its territorial integrity, the interests of the people of ukraine and guard its freedom. also, it is possible not only to avoid physical or mental trauma but also to achieve personal brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 165 dynamics of psychophysical, mental and value potentials inherent in a person. an ethnopedagogical approach to the problem of military-andpatriotic education of young people determines the study of ethnic components of military-and-patriotic education using physical culture and sports; the selection of pedagogical tools from the range of folk, empirical pedagogy (a set of necessary principles, forms and methods), which help to achieve the goal of military-and-patriotic education, namely, physical (sports) education of young people is implemented; their national identity which is the basis of true patriotism is formed, as well as both psychological and physical readiness of young people for homeland defence and labour is developed. both modern implementation and study of military-and-patriotic education of young people in cossack pedagogy determine the following priorities: using physical culture and sports to develop psychophysical readiness in young people to defend and love their homeland, respect for its heroic deeds, as well as ensuring comprehensive education based on the highest achievements of the national spirit and chivalrous spiritual traditions. taking into account such an approach, the use of the neuropsychological potential of martial arts acts not only as a means but also as the object of educational activity, the use of which realizes the requirements and needs of modern ukrainian society for cultivating a military culture in pupils, namely, developing pupils’ legal culture; providing them with the knowledge about the international legislative acts regulating mutual relations during the armed conflict and protecting health, life and human dignity of servicemen and ordinary citizens, wounded persons, prisoners, hostages, refugees, missing persons. such a need arises if one takes into account the orientation of the national education of ukraine as the state towards european and international values; an accelerated pace of ukraine’s integration into the european and international space; joint international military exercises; international actions and un missions; the spread of terrorist threats, which are becoming more and more international and need to be solved civilly; the armed conflicts, including in ukraine. the problem of military-and-patriotic education and training of young people for homeland defence of the fatherland is elaborated following the world trends in the development of military culture and has its characteristics. the authors of the research have identified the main neuropedagogical aspects of implementing the experience of cossack pedagogy, including mastering the worldviewand mindset-related basics and elements of the martial arts of ukraine in the process of preliminary psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 166 military training as the final stage of military-and-patriotic education of pupils in secondary schools. however, the results of the ascertaining experiment indicate a low level of professional readiness in teachers providing preliminary military training to apply the experience of folk (cossack) pedagogy, taking into account neuropsychological patterns. it can be explained by the following reasons: an insufficient number of the existing curricula and low effectiveness of methodologies for applying the experience of neuropedagogy in lessons within the course on homeland defence; insufficient interest of teachers in mastering and introducing the historical experience of the military (combat) culture of ukrainians into educational practice; the lack of the structural-and-semantic model of military-andpatriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports based on neuropedagogy; the problem of pedagogical training of teachers providing preliminary military training, which has not been properly studied yet and requires immediate adjustment and updating. an analysis of curricula and programmes of preliminary military training as the final stage of military-and-patriotic education of pupils in secondary schools has made it possible to develop and theoretically justify the model of military-and-patriotic education of high school pupils using physical culture and sports based on ethnopedagogy. its main components include the concept of military-and-patriotic education; the goals of militaryand-patriotic education; its main objectives, forms, methods and means; the indicators of psychophysical readiness. the procedural essence in the development of psychophysical readiness for homeland defence in young people as the main criterion of military-and-patriotic education can be characterized by the following indicators: neuropsychological stability of pupils (a constructive attitude to the social surrounding and the level of self-criticism; ability to adapt to new social circumstances, well-developed self-regulation, self-confidence, optimism, activity, endurance, resilience); a high level of motivation and socio-psychological readiness for homeland defence; a low level of social and situational anxiety and mental stability in the process of preliminary military training; an appropriate level of physical applied training (endurance, strength, speed, agility). the authors of the research have elaborated the content of the specialized course on the martial arts of ukraine to ensure the functioning of the developed model. the following principles were chosen when selecting educational material for the specialized course to enhance pupils' psychophysical readiness for homeland defence: orientation; scientificity; priority of humanistic and democratic values, respect for the constitutional brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 167 rights and freedoms of man and citizen; interconnection and coherence; a neuropedagogical approach to the content, forms and methods of preliminary military training and educational work; natural and cultural conformity; nationality. the comparison of the results obtained from the diagnostics (determining the average indicators of the quality) of the level of high school pupils’ psychophysical readiness for homeland defence before and after the experiment makes it possible to conclude the following: due to the application of the proposed model of military-and-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports based on neuropsychology and neuropedagogy and the introduction of the specialized course on the martial arts of ukraine in preliminary military training, the number of cg respondents with high and average levels of psychophysical readiness for homeland defence has increased by only 1.1% respectively; the number of the respondents with a low level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defence has decreased by 2.2%. in eg, the number of respondents with a high level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defenсe has increased by 10.3%; the number of respondents with an average level only by 2.2%. it must be noted that the number of respondents with a low level of psychophysical readiness for homeland defenсe has decreased by 12.5%. the results of this research indicate significant advantages in developing psychophysical readiness for homeland defence in eg. in turn, it proves the effectiveness of the proposed model of military-and-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports based on neuropedagogy and ethnopedagogy. besides, it confirms the assumption that modern military-and-patriotic education of young people can be considered effective if a neuropedagogical approach to military-and-patriotic education using physical culture and sports has been integrated into the modern system of national education. this research does not disclose all the sides of the scientific problem on military-and-patriotic education of young people using physical culture and sports based on ethnopedagogy. further research should aim to cover such an aspect as improving physical applied training in the process of military-and-patriotic education based on ethnopedagogy and developing effective models of neuropsychological diagnostics of future military officers, taking into account personal mental and national values, stereotypes and archetypes in military training. psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 168 references afanasiev, a. o. (2006). problema patriotychnoho vykhovannia u naukovii literaturi ta doslidzhenniakh suchasnykh vchenykh [the problem of patriotic education in the scientific literature and research of modern scholars]. viiskova osvita [military education], 2(18), 20–25. https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2009-02/09promep.pdf baka, m. m., & korzh, v. p. (2004). fizychne i viiskovo-patriotychne vykhovannia molodi [physical and military-and-patriotic education of youth]. knyha pamiati ukrainy. bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13231332. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 barr, w. b. (2003). neuropsychological testing of high school athletes: preliminary norms and test-retest indices. archives of clinical neuropsychology, 18, 91–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0887-6177(01)00185-8 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13331340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 15851590. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284–2291. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2009-02/09promep.pdf https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0887-6177(01)00185-8 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 169 ivashkovskyi, v. v. (2002). pedahohichni umovy formuvannia hotovnosti starshoklasnykiv do sluzhby v zbroinykh sylakh ukrainy [pedagogical conditions for developing readiness in high school pupils for service in the armed forces of ukraine] [unpublished phd. thesis]. the institute of problems in character building of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv. kekelidze, z. i. (2014). opredelenie zakonomernostei vliianiia sotsialnykh, stressovykh, ekologicheskikh i etnokulturalnykh faktorov na uroven obshchestvennogo psikhicheskogo zdorovia v rossii [determining the patterns of influence of social, stressful, environmental and ethnocultural factors on the level of public mental health in russia]. niokr. krasylnyk, y. s. (2002). patriotychne vykhovannia viiskovosluzhbovtsiv zbroinykh syl ukrainy zasobamy etnopedahohiky [patriotic education of servicemen of the armed forces of ukraine using ethnopedagogy] [unpublished phd. thesis]. the institute of problems in character building of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv. kyrychenko, o. v. (2004). kharakterystyka ta zmist osobystisno oriientovanoi prohramy “osnovy zakhystu vitchyzny” na osnovi tradytsii ukrainskoho kozatstva [the description and the content of the personality-oriented programme “fundamentals of homeland defence” based on the traditions of the ukrainian cossacks]. zbirnyk naukovykh prats. pedahohichni nauky [the collection of scientific works. pedagogical sciences], 36, 158–166. https://ps.journal.kspu.edu/index.php/ps/article/download/202/168/ kyrychenko, o. v. (2008). dopryzovna pidhotovka molodi [preliminary military training of young people]. osnova. lovell, m. r. (2006). the impact neuropsychological test battery. in r. j. echemendia (ed.), sports neuropsychology: assessment and management of traumatic brain injury (pp. 193–215). the guilford press. maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means … roman prots, et al. 170 nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 petrova, i. v. (2017). renesansna kontseptsiia dozvillia za tvoramy petrarky [the renaissance concept of leisure in the works of petrarch]. visnyk natsionalnoyi akademiyi kerivnykh kadriv kultury i mystetstv [national academy of managerial staff of culture and arts herald], 3, 3 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vdakkkm_2017_3_3 randolph, c., mccrea, m., & barr, w. b. (2005). is neuro-psychological testing useful in the management of sport-related concussion? journal of athletic training, 40(3), 139–154. shakhov, a. (1992). tradytsii zaporizkykh kozakiv: pedahohichni aspekty [the traditions of the zaporozhian cossacks: pedagogical aspects]. donetsk. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 shtokvysh, o. (1997). militarna skladova etnichnoi kultury [the military component of ethnic culture]. in b. popov, v. ihnatov, & m. stepko (eds.), zhyttya etnosu: sotsiokulturni narysy [ethnos life: socio-cultural essays (p. 162). lybid. sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532–1543. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03222 sukhomlynskyi, v. o. (1977). vybrani tvory (t. 1-5) [selected works]. sovetskaya shkola. http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/ulib/item/ukr0000012788 tomchuk, m. (1994). psykholohichni osnovy pidhotovky uchniv do viiskovoi sluzhby [psychological principles of training pupils for military service]. osvita. tsushima, w. t., jun ahn, h., siu, a. m., yoshinaga, k., choi, s. y. & murata, n. m. (2018). effects of repetitive subconcussive head trauma on theneuropsychological test performance of high school athletes: a comparison of high, moderate, and low contact sports. applied neuropsychology: child, 8(3), 223230. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622965.2018.1427095 usatenko, t. p. (2008). etnopedahohika [ethnopedagogy]. in v. kremen (ed.), the encyclopaedia of education (p. 274). yurinkom inter. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vdakkkm_2017_3_3 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03222 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/ulib/item/ukr0000012788 https://doi.org/10.1080/21622965.2018.1427095 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 171 vashchenko, h. (1997). vybrani pedahohichni tvory [the selected pedagogical works]. vidrodzhennia. vyshnevskyi, o. (2003). ukrainska pedahohika na tli osvitnikh reform [ukrainian pedagogy in the context of education reforms]. kolo. http://dspu.edu.ua/sgf/?p=265 http://dspu.edu.ua/sgf/?p=265 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 122-135 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/113 servicewomen’s personal traits lyudmila matokhniuk¹, оksana shportun 2 , victoriya shevchuk 3 , olha khamaziuk 4 , kostyantyn savenko 5 , myhailo nikulin 6 , ruslan hrynko 7 , valentyna miroshnichenko 8 1 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, head of the department of psychology, municipal higher education institution "vinnytsia academy of continuing education", vinnytsia, ukraine, lyda1974@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-6316-2352 2 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, professor of psychology department, vasyl stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia, ukraine, shportun_o@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0003-4528-4329 3 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, senior lecturer of general and engineering disciplines department, national academy of state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, vikashevchuk71@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-0436-1183 4 senior lecturer of german and other foreign lanquages department, national academy of state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, khamaziuk17@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-8545-9958 5 senior lecturer of the border guard service tactics department, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan abstract: the article reveals the theoretical substantiation and empirical research of the servicewomen’s personal traits on the basis of theoretical analysis of scientific, methodological literature. a woman in order to perform military duties must have more or less muscular traits, such as stoutness, perseverance, determination, ability to manage, willingness to take risks, dominance, courage, propensity for leadership, organizational skills, self-sufficiency, independence, strength, and so on. the personal traits of women such as increased emotionality, softness, tactfulness, sensitivity, ability to empathize, tendency to intuitive comprehension of reality, clear maternal orientation have been substantiated. psychological analysis of servicewomen professional activities indicates that most military service is influenced by such needs as success and power, a sense of social significance of service, participation in solving national problems, proving the value of one’s own personality, self-affirmation through one’s own career. assessment of the personal qualities of women oriented to military service made it possible to determine that in the characteristics of this category dominate power, dominance, confidence, self-control, etc. it has been proven that the gender identity of servicewomen is the result of an active process that takes place continuously during ontogenesis and is accompanied by a person’s sense of continuity, identity and certainty due to belonging to a certain individual unity. the analysis of the formaldynamic properties of individuality revealed that, on average, female servicemen show themselves as active, purposeful, determined, with average overall mobility (in all spheres) and low sensitivity adapted to living conditions and military service. keywords: personality; gender; androgyny; femininity; masculinity; personal traits; female servicemen. how to cite: matokhniuk, l., shportun, o., shevchuk, v., khamaziuk, o., savenko, k., nikulin, m., hrynko, r., & miroshnichenko, v. (2020). servicewomen’s personal traits. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 122-135. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/113 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/113 mailto:lyda1974@gmail.com mailto:shportun_o@ukr.net mailto:vikashevchuk71@gmail.com mailto:khamaziuk17@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/113 khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, konstantin20@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0001-5069-3034 6 senior lecturer of the border guard service tactics department, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, zmiyagaduka@ukr.net, orcid.org/00000002-0807-6742 7 candidate of law sciences, associate professor of department of constitutional, administrative and international law, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, rvg14@ukr.net, orcid.org/00000001-9900-7090 8 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, head of pedagogics and socialeconomic disciplines department, faculty of foreign languages and humanities, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, valentynadpsu@meta.ua, orcid.org/0000-0002-3931-0888 mailto:konstantin20@gmail.com mailto:zmiyagaduka@ukr.net mailto:rvg14@ukr.net mailto:valentynadpsu@meta.ua brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 124 introduction a large number of women associate their lives with military service in the light of modern events, under the conditions of undeclared war, whereupon this fact has a significant impact not only upon their identification as women, but also upon the formation of relationships in families, society, the country as a whole. one of the most important problems in creating a harmonious relationship between a man and a woman is a relationship based on complementarity, and that is exactly why the issues of gender and gender characteristics thrust to the fore. the increase in the number of women in the armed forces of the states has contributed to the intensification of scientific research on the problems of servicewomen. the military aspect of women’s social issues was studied in the second half of the last century by american and western european researchers. it was during this period that special works appeared on the role of women in the army. “the analysis of the state of the modern information society in ukraine testifies that the whole system, all types of social relations are undergoing changes, which leads to the search for their own way, to the development and change of values in both men and women” (matokhnyuk, 2018). analysis of recent research and publications. gender studies have developed quite widely since the early 90's of the twentieth century. insufficient attention is paid to gender issues in the armed forces of ukraine nowadays. studies of various aspects of the personality of a serviceman of the ukrainian army became popular in the early 1990s. some scholars also studied the problems of permanent officers, soldiers, and sergeants of compulsory military service. m. tomchuk considered methodological analysis of the problem of scientific knowledge and purposeful formation of psychological readiness of an individual for activity in his works (tomchuk, 2011). some details on military specialists training issues of different specialties and genders can be also found in the works of (karpushyna et al., 2019; bloshchynskyi, 2017a; 2017b). other scholars, namely i. bloshchynskyi, o. halus, i. pochekalin, and d. taushan described the use of electronic educational and methodological software packages for improving the preparation of the cadets of different genders for final examinations (2018). regarding neuropedagogical issues some authors examined foreign students’ intercultural adaptation experience that depends on effective interpersonal communication in order to determine the main problems of adaptation from servicewomen’s personal traits lyudmila matokhniuk et al. 125 physiological, socio-psychological, sociocultural, academic points of view (bilotserkovets et al., 2020). some researchers l. herasymenko, s. muravska, s. radul, & o. pidlubna defined the effect of teaching critical thinking skills to future pilots in the framework of aviation english. first year student pilots, who took part in the study, were chosen based on their level of english proficiency and critical thinking skills, age, and gender (herasymenko et al., 2019). concerning neuropsychological researches some scholars investigated differences in the formation of personality traits for children with various language disorders and children who do not have language disorders from a neuropsychological perspective in urban areas (pânişoară et al., 2019). other scholars g. pânişoară, i. pânişoară, c. sandu & r. chirca (neacşu) studied the status of positive psychology strengths within the romanian school in the digital society and identified the possible correlations between the strengths that are taught in school and those which are necessary for reaching personal success. the subjects selected for this research were 100 teachers from romania, both male and female (2017). in the article of r. valieiev, v. polyvaniuk, t. antonenko, m. rebkalo, a. sobakar, & v. oliinyk, authors determined the level of ukrainian police officers` burnout and effect of gender, tenure and primary workplace (field work or office service) on it. as for the police officers’ sample, wich included 129 men (70.1%) and 55 women (29.9%), gender was presented as a dichotomous variable, female (1) or male (2). officers represented nine various departments from 18 regions of ukraine (2019). the purpose of the article. in view of this, the purpose of the work is to theoretically substantiate and empirically research the servicewomen’s personal traits. methodology of research theoretical foundations of the research. a human personality is an extremely deep concept. it is formed under the influence of psychological and social factors. personality consists of features and psychological traits that are combined in its individuality or originality, which distinguishes it from other people. it is manifested in the traits of temperament, character, habits, as cognitive processes and so on. according to the scientists, the concept of personality can be interpreted from different points of view, namely: o. leontiev “personality is a set of social relations implemented in various activities”, s. rubinstein “personality is a set of internal conditions through which all external influences are brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 126 refracted”, b. ananiev “personality is the subject of social behaviour and communication”, k. platonov “personality is a human being who is the bearer of consciousness” and others (matokhnyuk, 2019). therefore, the concept of personality can be interpreted as consisting of features and psychological traits that are combined in its individuality and distinguishes it from other people. stereotypical understanding of gender, differences between men and women and various prejudices about their relationships in the social and interpersonal spheres have been formed for millennia. peculiarities of gender and sex psychology have attracted many researchers of personality psychology. there is virtually none of the known theories of personality, which would not consider the laws of male and female psychology as characteristics of the essence of personality. “the interpretation of the peculiarities of the development of men and women was radically revised under the influence of feminist ideas of the xviii-xix centuries, which significantly served to distinguish gender research as an independent scientific field in the social sciences” (tkalych, 2011). the concepts of gender are often identified with the concepts of sex, but these are completely different concepts. comparative characteristics of the concepts of “sex” and “gender” are presented in table 1. table 1 comparative characteristics of the concepts of “sex” and “gender” term sex gender definition of concept biological, anatomical, physiological differences between a man and a woman, which provide the reproductive functions of the body social characteristics of being a woman, a man, a girl, a boy which are expected, allowed and valued origin inherited with sex acquired in society i.e. the gender is being taught and it is prepared for various social roles, behaviours, activities, based on gender social manifestations similar in different countries various in different countries, depending on place of residence or social status invariance invariable characteristics variable with time and place characteristic traits of women are passed on from generation to generation in hereditary traits, i.e. inherited through maternal and paternal gametes, which contain a complete set of genetic information, stored and servicewomen’s personal traits lyudmila matokhniuk et al. 127 reproduced as the main features of external and internal structure, physicochemical features and vital functions, are consolidated in the process of ontogenesis by combining the influence of hereditary information and society (microand macro-environment) and have a significant impact upon the identification of women according to social status and the roles they play. the main purpose of studying the professional activity of this category of women is the need to determine the socio-economic and sanitary-hygienic characteristics of the military profession, to determine the requirements it places on psychophysiological and personal characteristics of women, i.e. to outline a set of professionally important traits. the concept of “military activity” and its synonym “military service” are disclosed as a specific socially necessary type of activity, which includes military training, operational readiness, sentry, guard, internal service, maintenance, inspection and repair of military hardware, direct combat operations and actions (armed forces field manuals, 1999). however, as m. tomchuk rightly noted in his study, this definition of military service is much broader than military activity, as it covers not only elements of military and service activity, but also elements of communal activity and service work, recreation, leisure, etc. (tomchuk, 2011). results of research servicewomen must have the following psychophysiological parameters as the ability to communicate with people and regulate their behaviour, the desire to be a leader, the ability to lead, to have strong willpower, to be willing to take reasonable risks, to strive for success, to be ambitious, to be able to dominate in extreme conditions, to be selfsufficient, to have a combinatorial-prognostic type of thinking. they have to possess personal traits such as extensive knowledge, energetic capacity, selfconfidence, righteousness in taken decisions, purposefulness, tactfulness, efficiency, exactingness, censoriousness, flexibility, creativity, high organizational skills, competence, broad outlook, proactive attitude, selfcontrol, responsibility, persistence, self-control, rapport, resoluteness, the need for achievements, patience and correctness. they also have to possess a high level of general intelligence and a high level of verbal abilities. the women have to know and be able to perform service functional responsibilities in peacetime and in special periods; requirements of the guideline papers regulating the issues of the military service planning and organization (according to the specifics of the service); the order of planning and organization of support in a special brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 128 period (according to the specifics of the service); the procedure for planning and carrying out measures of complete mobilization and bring the unit into combat readiness; the order of planning, organization and accounting of combat training, forms and methods of personnel training; the main provisions and requirements of the field manuals of the armed forces of ukraine, orders and directives for strengthening military discipline, maintaining the statutory order, clear organization of routine military duty and medical care; the order of all types of support of the unit; means and property used in the unit; the order of observance of safety rules during trainings, exercises, range practices; the procedure for providing self-help and mutual assistance in all emergencies. as for psychological characteristics, a servicewoman definitely needs to be in good health, because she is obliged to be ready to undertake functional responsibilities under any weather conditions, at any time of the day or night. she can only afford a sparse, short rest, which is usually disrupted. due to the above circumstances, she should be as insensitive to weather conditions as possible. a servicewoman must have good immunity since she often has to deal with various infectious diseases. the requirements for the nervous system are extremely high: irregular lifestyle (untimely meals, disturbed night rest), anxiety and heavy responsibility of the profession, suppressing the impression of human suffering, and finally the insecurity of her own material existence. strong leg muscles are desirable for servicewomen who wear military uniforms and perform duties over long distances; and considerable arm strength is required in many cases, such as carrying weapons, bulletproof vests, and carrying over patients during an evacuation. a “sensual nature” is not very suitable for military activities associated with frequent depressing experiences. in their activities, they often find themselves in a kind of unpleasant situation (for example, performing duties within the joint forces operations zone, during armed hostilities). in these cases, they should not show cowardice or subjective bias that interfere with the performance of their professional duties, should not attach much importance to external habits and a certain way of life, because their activities constantly force them to disrupt this way of life. in all emergencies, they must take immediate actions. the person who get tired quickly is not at all suitable for such activities (for example, within the joint forces operations zone), which require continuous work from morning until night. they have to make quick decisions in situations of extreme gravity or urgency. servicewomen’s personal traits lyudmila matokhniuk et al. 129 sociologist y. miliuska notes that when considering the conditions for the formation of signs of gender in women, we must take into account three levels of phenomena that can explain and influence this process: biological (possibilities of functioning due to structural and functional capabilities of the body), psychological (a resource that a woman uses to construct her own identity) and social (dominant ideology and social changes in society) (tkalych et al., 2020). we can conclude that gender behaviour is formed in the process of influence of various factors with the following distinguished groups: hereditary factors (a set of hereditary material containing the human genome, which in turn consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes (22 pairs of autosomes and 1 pair of sex ones), i.e. in general the human genome contains 20-25 thousand active genes). physiological manifestations (factors related to physiology, body structure, genitals, the peculiarity of the functioning of various organs and systems, endocrine profile, attractiveness, criteria for assessing the appearance of men and women). local macro-environment (the impact of one’s close environment, family upon the human body from early childhood i.e. the example of the mother, her behaviour, her role, family relationships, consolidation of family roles, etc.). global macro-environment (the impact of society, environment, gender stereotypes in the country, social behaviour, consolidation of social and professional roles, etc.). once formed, gender identity is manifested in the form of gender behaviour, in the study of which there are such basic components as masculinity, femininity and androgyny. sex and gender roles are closely linked to a person’s gender identity. p. hornostai emphasizes the following: “the features of role socialization are not only in the assimilation of social expectations concerning social roles, but also in the formation of psychological roles, both personal and social (hornostay, 2004). the environment, in particular the professional one, in some way affects the consolidation or development of a woman’s traits that she needs to perform certain social and professional roles (fig. 1). brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 130 figure 1. model of servicewomen gender manifestation [systematyzed by the authors] views upon the relationship between the concepts of androgyny, femininity and masculinity have changed, but their essence has always servicewomen’s personal traits lyudmila matokhniuk et al. 131 remained the same – they reflect the accepted social behaviour of men and women. femininity is the characteristics of the female sex or the characteristic forms of behaviour expected of a woman in a given society (anthony giddens), or the social expression of what is seen as a woman’s intrinsic positions (lisa tuttle). femininity is not a purely feminine trait, as it has become entrenched in our consciousness, overloaded with various stereotypes, but a certain way of understanding and perception of reality. characteristic features of femininity are emotionality, sensitivity, intuitive cognition. the notion of gender identity as a social sex is closely related to the issue of femininity, as a woman who enters the social environment changes it. she introduces a different way of thinking and acting, new content and new forms of execution. a woman leaves the private sphere for the social one, expands the sphere of her self-realization and enriches social reality with her way of perceiving reality (doronina, 2014). feminist studies have denied the conditionality of sociocultural characteristics and processes by biological differences: femininity is not so much natural as formed from childhood. according to french theorists of feminism (six, julia kristeva), femininity is an arbitrary category given to women by patriarchy. there is also the idea that femininity is a special “equal-butdifferent” polarity of masculinity, which is also wrong, because masculine traits (endurance, stoutness, self-sufficiency) are valuable for all people, i.e. both for women and men, and feminine ones are desirable for women only in terms of their attractiveness to men. the concept of androgyny is a combination of male and female in one person (titarenko, 2003). then everyone chooses his/her own way of life that is traditional male one (focused on the manifestation of masculinity i.e. independence, achievement, dominance), purely male virtues and values (courage, strength, bravery, aggression, imperturbability) and social male roles (breadwinner, protector, guardian, leader) or vice versa feminine one with signs of flexibility, shyness, sensitivity, tenderness, femininity, ability to empathize, avoiding risks, management and control. the constant fulfilment of these social and family roles cultivates and reinforces in a person the traits that are necessary for their fulfilment. all these and similar examples are united by the fact that people define themselves within the dimensions of masculinity-femininity not in their pure form, but in a mixture of both. however, the predominance of masculinity in women hinders the formation of quality relationships in the family that is a woman-leader rarely assigns the responsibilities of a leader to her husband. that is why, if during the performance of social and family brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 132 roles one would rely upon femininity, which is laid down genetically, then in the future a woman can choose another social and family role for herself. the length of service of servicewomen has some effect upon the manifestation of gender identity of these women and reinforces the gender identity manifestation that has called a woman for military official responsibilities. thus, the results of a thorough analysis of literature sources and current legislation suggest that military service is a socially significant activity aimed at ensuring the sovereignty of the ukrainian state, its territorial integrity and inviolability and is carried out on a voluntary basis by specific methods and means; professional activity; complex type of activity, characterized by special conditions; has a large list of necessary mental and professional qualities for successful performance of tasks on purpose. there are a number of studies of gender issues in the modern psychological literature. an empirical study of the gender identity of the selected sample group has been started upon a detailed review of the theoretical material, analysis of the scientific literature, classification, systematization and generalization of the information obtained. the survey methods included a questionnaire i.e. collecting criminological information by filling in pre-designed questionnaires, testing, psychodiagnostic methods such as: freiburg’s personal questionnaire sandra bem’s “masculinity – femininity” scale; “orientation to traditional or egalitarian relations” test (in the family) (according to the description of i. kliotsyna); minnesota multidisciplinary personality questionnaire or mmpi method (scale 5); questionnaire of formal-dynamic properties of personality by v. rusalov (qfdpp); methods of diagnosis of interpersonal relationships by t. leary. the questionnaire survey allowed determining the age of the surveyed women and the length of their military service, and the impact of these indicators upon the level of gender identity manifestation. freiburg’s questionnaire, in particular sandra bem’s “masculinity – femininity” method, found that 70% of servicewomen were women with androgyny manifestation, 18% were masculine and only 12% feminine. correlation analysis of gender manifestation and length of service showed that there is a close positive relationship between these indicators. having examined the level of focus upon traditional or egalitarian relations it can be concluded that the majority of servicewomen are oriented towards egalitarian relations making 64% of respondents, while 36% of respondents prefer traditional relations. based on the correlation analysis (taking into account the results of the pearson correlation coefficient), it is concluded that there is a close positive relationship between the manifestation of servicewomen’s personal traits lyudmila matokhniuk et al. 133 gender identity and the focus upon traditional or egalitarian relations, i.e. the focus upon egalitarian relations with equal family rights and responsibilities is prevailing. the use of timothy leary method of interpersonal relationships diagnosis made it possible to explore women’s perceptions of themselves and the ideal “ego”. the women recruited for military service have prevailing dominance indicator making 2.452, and the friendliness indicator makes 1.284, which confirms the shift of gender identity towards masculinity and androgyny. assessment of personal traits of women focused upon military service revealed that the characterological peculiarities of this category are dominated by power, dominance, confidence, self-control, etc., with a fairly high indicator of willingness to come to the rescue. the analysis of formal-dynamic properties of individuality allowed to determine that servicewomen show themselves on average as active, purposeful, decisive, with average indicators of general mobility (in all spheres) and low sensitivity indicators, adapted to living conditions and military service. conclusions on the grounds of theoretical analysis, it has been determined that gender identity is a social sex, cultural product or socio-biological characteristic that indicates the social status and socio-psychological characteristics of the individual, which are related to sex and sexuality, but arise in interaction with other people, taking into account primary, secondary and tertiary sexual characteristics, by which people define the concepts of “male” and “female”. on the grounds of theoretical analysis, the personal traits of women have been highlighted, such as increased emotionality, softness, tactfulness, sensitivity, ability to empathize, tendency to intuitive comprehension of reality, clear maternal orientation. it has been proven that the gender identity of servicewomen is the result of an active process that takes place continuously during ontogenesis and is accompanied by a person’s sense of continuity, identity and certainty due to belonging to a certain individual unity. psychological analysis of servicewomen professional activities indicates that most military service is influenced by such needs as success and power, a sense of social significance of service, participation in solving national problems, proving the value of one’s own personality, selfaffirmation through one’s own career. since military activity is intense and extreme one compared to other activities, it is characterized by surprise, brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 134 suddenness, unusualness, the ability to destroy existing stereotypes of behaviour, create negative mental states (anxiety, fear, affect, stress, depression), so a woman in order to perform military duties must have more or less muscular traits, such as stoutness, perseverance, determination, ability to manage, willingness to take risks, dominance, courage, propensity for leadership, organizational skills, self-sufficiency, independence, strength, and so on. references armed forces field manuals (1999). https://www.ifnmu.edu.ua/images/studentam/pidgotovka_oficeriv_zapas u/statuti_zsu.pdf bilotserkovets, m., fomenko, t., gubina, o., berestok, o., shcherbyna, y., & krekoten, o. (2020). multifaceted problems of intercultural adaptation: a case study of chinese students in ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 178-188. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/22 bloshchynskyi, i. h. (2017a) usage of anki specialised program application during future border guard officers’ independent foreign language professional training for passing state examination. information technologies and learning tools, 58(2), 49–58. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v58i2.1605 bloshchynskyi, i. h. (2017b). enhancement of cadets’ practical training at the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi. science and education, 4, 5-10. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-4-1 bloshchynskyi, i. h., halus, o. m., pochekalin, i. m., & taushan, d. v. (2018) use of electronic educational and methodological software packages for improving the preparation of future bachelors of philology. information technologies and learning tools, 66(4), 105–121. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v66i4.2327 doronina, t. o. (2014). gender dimension of educational management: an analysis of discursive practices. scientific bulletin of melitopol state pedagogical university. pedagogy, 1, 15-20. herasymenko, l., muravska, s., radul, s., & pidlubna, o. (2019). developing future pilots‟ critical thinking skills in the framework of aviationenglish. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4 suppl 1), 91-104. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/179 hornostay, p. p. (2004). gender socialization and the development of gender identity. kis. karpushyna, m., bloshchynskyi, i., zheliaskov, v., chymshyr, v., kolmykova, o., & tymofieieva, o. (2019). warm-up as a means of fostering targethttps://www.ifnmu.edu.ua/images/studentam/pidgotovka_oficeriv_zapasu/statuti_zsu.pdf https://www.ifnmu.edu.ua/images/studentam/pidgotovka_oficeriv_zapasu/statuti_zsu.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/22 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v58i2.1605 https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-4-1 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v66i4.2327 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/179 servicewomen’s personal traits lyudmila matokhniuk et al. 135 language performance in a particular english сlass. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(2), 141-159. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/122 matokhnyuk, l. o. (2018, april 25). gender differences in the levels of content of life orientations of the modern personality. implementation of gender policy at the current stage of society's development: state, problems, prospects. abstracts of the international scientific and practical conference. khmelnytskyi: nadpsu publishing house (193-195). http://ngu.gov.ua/sites/default/files/konferenciya_genderna_polityka_dr uk_2018-ilovepdf-compressed.pdf matokhnyuk, l. o. (2019). psychology of information competence of the individual genesis of ontological development [unpublished doctoral thesis]. odessa. pânişoară, g., ghita, c., lazar, i., & fat, s. (2019). study on the development of personality traits in children with language disorders and children without language disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(2), 37-46. https://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brain/article/view/902/1048 pânişoară, g., pânişoară, i. o., sandu, c., & chirca (neacşu), r. (2017). the status of positive psychology strengths within the romanian school in the digital society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 7(4), pp. 5-22. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/199 0 titarenko, t. (2003). the concept of "gender" in the psychology of personality. psychologist, 6, 13-15. tkalych, m. g. (2011). gender psychology: manual. akademvydav. tkalych, m., zinchenko, t., & kasyan, a. (2020). gender identity: content, structure, gender role differentiation. psychological journal, 6(1), 101-109. https://doi.org/10.31108/1.2020.6.1.10 tomchuk, m. (2011). methodological bases of research and formation of psychological readiness of the person for activity. psychology and society, 4, 41–46. http://catalog.liha-pres.eu/index.php/lihapres/catalog/download/60/677/1477-1?inline=1 valieiev, r. h., polyvaniuk, v., antonenko, t., rebkalo, m., sobakar, a., & oliinyk, v. (2019). the effects of gender, tenure and primary workplace on burnout of ukrainian police officers. postmodern openings, 10(4), 116131. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/97 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/122 http://ngu.gov.ua/sites/default/files/konferenciya_genderna_polityka_druk_2018-ilovepdf-compressed.pdf http://ngu.gov.ua/sites/default/files/konferenciya_genderna_polityka_druk_2018-ilovepdf-compressed.pdf https://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brain/article/view/902/1048 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/1990 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/1990 https://doi.org/10.31108/1.2020.6.1.10 http://catalog.liha-pres.eu/index.php/liha-pres/catalog/download/60/677/1477-1?inline=1 http://catalog.liha-pres.eu/index.php/liha-pres/catalog/download/60/677/1477-1?inline=1 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/97 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 189-198 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/81 assessing the level of verbal intelligence in preschool children as important element of cognitive abilities alla rudenok¹, nataliia zakharasevych 2 , zinaida antonova 3 , tetiana zhylovska 4 , zoryana falynska 5 1 phd of psychological sciences, associate professor, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine, khnat_univer007@yahoo.com 2 phd in pedagogical sciences, vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, zakharasevychna@i.ia 3 phd of psychological sciences, associate professor, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine, antonova_zinaida22@i.ua 4 phd of psychological sciences, associate professor, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine,, zhylovskaa_tetiana11@i.ua 5 associate professor, ivan franko national university, lviv, ukraine, zoryaana_faly33@i.ua abstract: the article presents the concepts of verbal intelligence as one of the main elements of a person’s cognitive abilities, as well as basic criteria for school readiness. the features of the theory of cognitive psychology, namely: the multiple intelligence of howard gardner, who identified eight basic types of intelligence (linguistic, interpersonal, existential, naturalistic, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, visual-spatial, logicalmathematical), are highlighted. in a theoretical study, we have analysed the general meaning of the concept of intelligence from the point of view of cognitive psychology, and we specified it by outlining the main characteristics of multiple intelligence. we also conducted an analysis of the scientific works of specialists specializing in working with models of cognitive-speech activity and investigated the linguistic mind in preschool children. not only a certain type of intellect is considered, but also all the others that were named by gardner, their main aspects of influence on a personality are revealed, they appear even in preschool age. in the empirical part of the study, methods were used to diagnose the verbal level of intelligence of the basic element of cognitive abilities in preschool children. they are aimed at researching the ability to generalize and analyse verbal information, identifying the ability to classify objects according to common features, differentiate emotional states in the process of communication, and also establish the level of vocabulary of preschoolers. according to these indicators, 90 pre-schoolers were diagnosed, and their level of verbal intelligence was revealed. the paper identifies the main features, skills that a child possesses with a high average or low level of intelligence, correction methods, in order to improve low results. keywords: intelligence; theory of multiple intelligence; cognitive processes; verbal mind; verbal and non-verbal communication; cognitive abilities. how to cite: rudenok, a., zakharasevych, n., antonova, z., zhylovska, t., falynska, z. (2020). assessing the level of verbal intelligence in preschool children as important element of cognitive abilities. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 189-198. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/82 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/81 mailto:khnat_univer007@yahoo.com mailto:zakharasevychna@i.ia mailto:antonova_zinaida22@i.ua mailto:zhylovskaa_tetiana11@i.ua mailto:zoryaana_faly33@i.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/82 assessing the level of verbal intelligence in preschool children as important … alla rudenok et al. 190 1. introduction understanding the need to change the goals and objectives of educational policy in the world indicates that the most important is the use of the intellectual potential of the individual in society, the development and implementation of a strategy for intensive knowledge acquisition. for its implementation, it is necessary to unite scientists and teachers to prepare a person who can integrate into the modern high-tech world of information and knowledge, since the main engine of progress now is the integrated approach “science technology innovation”, and a modern specialist working in a particular field of activity, must possess valuable knowledge and the ability to apply them. the globalization of the economy, social processes and technological development necessitates the exchange of knowledge and their carriers specialists and talented youth, capable of becoming an innovative engine of society. there is an extremely high importance of one of the types of intelligence for the successful growth and development of a child, because knowing the features of your baby is much easier to promote harmonious learning and help him realize himself in a field that will be truly fascinating and useful for him. the features of each type of intelligence are studies of general, superficial, but there are no clear results of which type dominates the younger generation, and how developed they are in general. one type of intelligence that has not been fully explored is verbal, which plays a large role in preschool years. the purpose of our study was to theoretically investigate and empirically examine the level of development of verbal (linguistic) intelligence in preschool children. the famous american psychologist howard gardner the author of the theory, at this stage in the development of science is considered classical the theory of multiple intelligence, according to which a person does not have a single "general" intelligence, but combines various skills that can exist independently of each other . howard gardner (1999) created the concept of "multiple intelligence." the theory of multiple intelligence is a theory that considers intelligence in various specific (primarily sensory) conditions, and not as the dominance of one common ability to something. gardner found that there are 8 basic types of intelligence, one of which dominates the personality more. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 191 the term "intelligence" means a general ability to cognize and solve problems, which determines the success of any activity and underlies abilities. the concept of intelligence as a general mental ability is used as a generalization of behavioral characteristics associated with successful adaptation to new life tasks (semenova, 2011). exploring various types of intelligence, it is worth noting that the connection of children's academic performance is often not supported by any specific features. after all, by examining which type of intellect dominates the child, one can significantly increase the reenie’s ability to conquer, help the effectiveness of their activities not only in the educational field, but also on the path to success in life. intelligence simultaneously points to two spheres of man: the mind and individuality. in combination, they form unique features of the individual, which are attributed to the uniqueness of knowledge. they begin to manifest most actively in the period from 3 to 6 (7) years (draganski et al., 2004). however, their course at this age has a certain specificity. first, individual psychological differences in the period of preschool childhood can be traced at the level of individual cognitive mental processes, and at its end, at the level of intelligence. so, in preschool children, thinking develops from visual-figurative to abstract, and individual differences are manifested in the level of mastery of the forms of thinking, its independence, speed, flexibility. the main directions of development of thinking in a preschooler is improvement of visual-figurative thinking, which is facilitated by the processes of imagination, which are actively developing in a children's game; an increase in the degree of effectiveness of mind-boggling thinking, which is based on arbitrary and indirect types of memory; rapid formation of verbal and logical thinking is carried out, since the preschooler uses his own language as a means of solving intellectual problems (beaver et al., 2008). the individual psychological properties of thinking begin to appear: the breadth, depth, independence of this process. thinking begins to fulfill a symbolic function, due to which it begins to precede manipulative (practical) actions, that is, the child becomes able to transfer the mode of action from one situation to another. since children 4-7 years old begin to solve problems using three paths (physical actions, actions with figurative material and through conceptual judgment), the flexibility of thinking begins to develop, it is an individual property of the thinking process. the more experience a child has, the greater the likelihood of manifestation of individual properties in children. in addition, there is such a tendency: the younger the baby, the assessing the level of verbal intelligence in preschool children as important … alla rudenok et al. 192 more often he uses practical actions, the older the preschooler, the more often he turns to the actions of visual thinking, and then to verbally logical (blair, mitchell & blair, 2005). accordingly, mental experience appears in 4-7 year old children: they begin to use internal intellectual complex operations. they are the basis of the individual psychological properties of thinking and speech. so, criticality provides for the formation of specific modes of action. external acts of behavior are transformed into internal actions, which begin to unfold in the mental plane, where the concept becomes the unit of action. there is a need for a language, and this, in turn, stimulates the improvement of the speech of a preschooler. this process enriches vocabulary, improving speech speed. such properties are different and indicate the existence of individual properties. howard gardner (1999) first set out his influential theory of multiple intelligence, arguing that each of us has eight or more distinct types of intelligence in context of cognitive psychology. in this update, aimed mainly at educators, psychologists, and other professionals, harvard professor of education gardner adds a new naturalistic intelligence to the list, which contains harmony with the environment, flora and fauna. he further suggests that there may be a spiritual or existential mind (knowledge of transcendental and cosmic matters), while adding that this assumption requires detailed scientific confirmation (kozyra, 2019). among the main eight types of intelligence, gardner in his theory highlighted the following: 1. linguistic (verbal) this type of intelligence involves excellent oratorical abilities; personality, easily makes contact and is an active interlocutor; children with this type of intelligence not only know how to write and read well, but also have a penchant for learning foreign languages. 2. interpersonal individuals with this type of intelligence are partly manipulators, because conversations are their main area; children quickly adapt in the team and find many new friends. 3. existential is interested in everything that happens around; their thoughts are original and atypical; such children from childhood are distinguished by a high degree of awareness, understand their feelings and can control them, although, being in deep thought, they can remain on the sidelines of everything that happens to them, because they are emotionally restrained and shy. 4. naturalistic contact with nature this is the main area of their life; young lovers of nature quickly remember the names of plants and animals, show attention when observing natural phenomena; nature is their environment, so outdoor games are the main entertainment. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 193 5. musical children with this type of mind love not just listening to music, but inventing and humming melodies and songs; have a good sense of rhythm; however, it is important to understand that musical intelligence is a fairly broad concept, and it can manifest itself differently in different children. 6. body-kinesthetic for people with this type of intelligence, the main credo of life will be: “movement is life”; they are characterized by good coordination of movements, high development of fine motor skills; the ability to manipulate physical objects and use various physiological skills; they tend to navigate well in time and space. 7. visual-spatial a high level of development of the imagination; it is especially important to feel life by touch; well determine the size of objects and can reproduce past events in detail; tend to express their thoughts and feelings in a visual form; marked by reverie. 8. logical and mathematical at an early age show interest in counting and quickly memorize numbers; such children are able to reason outside the box, respond to interesting and atypical clues they manage to explore patterns and relationships (burov, rybak & vinnik, 2018). in scientific knowledge (fujioka et al., 2006), verbal intelligence is understood as one of the significant signs of individuality, which is a property of the mental sphere. this psychological phenomenon is understood as the ability to verbally analyze and synthesize, to solve problems with the help of speech related to the definition of concepts, to establish similar and excellent categories, the ability to logical completeness and consistency during the proof of thought. verbal intelligence, or in other words the verbal mind, is an important element in the development of each individual. after all, it includes not only the best level of communication with other people, but also the ability to listen and analyze information in this way. for preschool children, the level of development of verbal intelligence is one of the most important indicators of their school performance. in accordance with this, there is an impact on their adaptation to the new environment, improved communication between other students and teachers, reduced emotional stress and a destructive effect on mental health (grekhova, 2019; orap, 2018). 2 methodology and main research an important factor in the formation of verbal intelligence in the context of cognitive psychology is research activities of preschool children. assessing the level of verbal intelligence in preschool children as important … alla rudenok et al. 194 it allows you to simultaneously consolidate the acquired mental experience to use in practice, fixing it at the level of establishing causal relationships between phenomena of reality. this is a peculiar type of behavior of a child of 5 6 (7) years, which is based on experiments and is aimed at independent knowledge of the object or the solution of the problem, operating with the necessary information (takeuchi et al., 2010). the methodology for assessing verbal intelligence in preschool children consists of a set of techniques and methods that are by far the most commonly used in cognitive psychology. among them, we used the methodology of mental development (subtest iv), which makes it possible to identify the child’s ability to generalize and analyze verbal information. the following methods and techniques of cognitive psychology were used to assess the level of verbal intelligence in children: 1. the methodology of mental development subtest iv is aimed at identifying the ability to generalize and analyze verbal information. children have the opportunity, having received a couple of words that are connected by a common meaning, to characterize them with one or more words. 2. oriented test of school maturity the goal verbal thinking determining the level of readiness for school, in accordance with the level of development of the verbal component. the quantitative results of this task can be divided into five groups in accordance with this to determine the levels related to the positive classification. 3. the eidelberz test of speech development correction of semantically incorrect sentences, classification of concepts, the relationship of verbal and non-verbal information: • in the methodology, which consists in correcting semantically incorrect sentences, the child should understand the connection of meanings and establish it by means of the language, that is, in each of the 10 sentences there are words that do not correspond to the general content, they need to be corrected. • classification of concepts the goal is to identify the ability to classify objects according to common features, in this case the stimulus material is an image belonging to different categories (professions, furniture, household appliances, flowers, pets). using visualization, child needs not only to name, but also to combine according to a common criterion. • the relationship of verbal and non-verbal information differentiation of emotional states in the process of communication this is an important ability of each person and is one of the important signs of brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 195 linguistic intelligence. this technique makes it possible to trace the presence or absence of this feature in children. 4. an indicative test of school maturity “vocabulary” the goal is to find out the child’s necessary vocabulary, allows you to successfully start learning. since verbal intelligence is the basis of school knowledge, and children that are owned are already potentially capable students, an important aspect of our diagnosis was the study of the stock of words, and their compliance with generally accepted norms. with regard to ethical restrictions, we note that during the testing of preschool children, we kept their anonymity. the entire testing process is documented by documenting the consent of all parents. the testing itself was attended by representatives from the parent committee and from state bodies for the protection of children and the management of preschool education. as part of providing an ethical mayor, none of the testing elements did not violate any gender, religious, or ethnic rights. the entire testing process for preschool children was agreed with the local ethnic rights authorities. all test results did not in any way affect the success of the respondents and were used only for scientific purposes. for our study, a group of preschool children was selected and a sample was formed. the sample is the oldest group, among which we have diagnosed 90 children, age 5.1 to 6.3 years, average age 5.9 years, including 30 boys and 60 girls. according to the diagnostic results, it was found (figure 1): • a high level 67% that is, more than half of the children have sufficient development of verbal intelligence, the ability to verbal analysis and synthesis, verbal understanding (disclosing the meaning of words), well perceive information presented orally; • the average level is 30% children with such a level of linguistic intelligence may have certain difficulties in using words verbally or in writing, playing children's word games, not always quickly adapt to the situation; learning to read, it’s difficult for them to understand the material they read and translate it, • low level (3%) poorly developed ability to compose speech messages in accordance with the norms and requirements of the language, difficulties in the transmission and assimilation of verbal information. assessing the level of verbal intelligence in preschool children as important … alla rudenok et al. 196 figure 1. the results of assessing the level of verbal intelligence in preschool children however, despite the results of the study, it should be noted that linguistic intelligence is very dynamic and develops well, therefore, problems that arise in preschool age can be corrected by the systematic and qualified help of a psychologist, educator, parents and other specialists. after all, to one degree or another, verbal intelligence in all mentally healthy, healthy people (golubeva, 2018). gardner (1999) noted that linguistic awareness is precisely the kind of intelligence that seems to be the most common talent among people. almost all healthy children, as well as some with mental disorders, learn the language, usually in a few years, in accordance with a clear pattern. however, there are several different areas in which children encounter difficulties. a lot of children are faced with electoral difficulties precisely in the phonological aspect, although there are children with a violation of other linguistic components. some are insensitive to syntactic factors: if they need to repeat the sentence, they are forced to resort to simplifications, thereby not developing their abilities and not fully utilizing their capabilities 3. conclusions the article identifies the main features, skills that a child possesses with a high average or low level of intelligence, correction methods, in order to improve low results. it has been established that more than half of the children have a high level of intelligence, that is, they have the ability to verbal analysis and synthesis, verbal understanding (disclosing the meaning of words), well perceive information that is presented verbally. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 197 that is, children with this type of intelligence are happy to listen to the tales and stories of any storyteller, quickly learn to speak, write and read. in addition, they easily learn foreign languages. therefore, we can assume that they will not have difficulty learning by going to elementary school. indeed, in the modern education system, a significant emphasis has been placed on the development of this particular type of intelligence: children mainly read, listen, tell and speak. thus, the main recommendation for educators and parents is to continue the development of children with an average and low level of verbal intelligence, namely: play word games, increase vocabulary, learn foreign languages, read books, and pay a significant part of attention to verbal communication. these technologies, from the point of view of cognitive psychology, are powerful mechanisms for the development of not only verbal intelligence, but also other cognitive abilities. references beaver, k., delisi, m., vaughn, m., wright j. & boutwell, b. (2008). the relationship between self-control and language: evidence of a shared etiological pathway. criminology, 46, 201–232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2008.00128.x blair, j., mitchell, d. & blair, k. (2005). the psychopath: emotion and the brain. blackwell. burov, o., rybak, v. & vinnik, n. (2018). the dynamics of the development of intellectual abilities of a gifted personality in adolescence: monograph. infosystem llc. draganski, b., gaser, c., busch, v., schuierer, g., bogdahn, u. & may, a. (2004). neuroplasticity: changes in grey matter induced by training. nature, 427, 311–312. https://doi.org/10.1038/427311a fujioka, t., ross, b., kakigi, r., pantev, c. & trainor, l. (2006). one year of musical training affects development of auditory cortical-evoked fields in young children. brain, 129, 2593–2608. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/brain/awl247 gardner, h. (1999). intelligence reframed: multiple intelligences for the 21st century. basic books. golubeva, m. v. (2018). types of intelligence classification in psychology. psychologist's advice. https://psychologist.tips/1310-vidy-intellektaklassifikatsiya-v-psihologii.html#i-2 grekhova, o. (2019). 8 types of intelligence. mel fm. https://mel.fm/blog/oxanagrehova/73140-8-tipov-intellekta http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2008.00128.x https://doi.org/10.1038/427311a http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/brain/awl247 https://psychologist.tips/1310-vidy-intellekta-klassifikatsiya-v-psihologii.html#i-2 https://psychologist.tips/1310-vidy-intellekta-klassifikatsiya-v-psihologii.html#i-2 https://mel.fm/blog/oxana-grehova/73140-8-tipov-intellekta https://mel.fm/blog/oxana-grehova/73140-8-tipov-intellekta assessing the level of verbal intelligence in preschool children as important … alla rudenok et al. 198 kozyra, p. (2019) multiple intelligences. how children learn best. the epoch times. https://www.theepochtimes.com/multiple-intelligences_1407535.html orap, m. (2018). broadcasting and verbal intelligence of primary school children. http://www.newlearning.org.ua/sites/default/files/praci/zbirnyk2009/22.html semenova, p. o. (2011). intelligence. encyclopedia of modern ukraine. http://esu.com.ua/search_articles.php?id=12386 takeuchi, h., sekiguchi, a., taki, y., yokoyama, s., yomogida, y., komuro, n. & kawashima, r. (2010). training of working memory impacts structural connectivity. journal of neuroscience, 30, 3297–3303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.4611-09.2010 https://www.theepochtimes.com/multiple-intelligences_1407535.html http://www.newlearning.org.ua/sites/default/files/praci/zbirnyk-2009/22.html http://www.newlearning.org.ua/sites/default/files/praci/zbirnyk-2009/22.html http://esu.com.ua/search_articles.php?id=12386 http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.4611-09.2010 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 543-564 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach serhii karasievych¹, borys maksymchuk2, vasyl kuzmenko3, nina slyusarenko4, oksana romanyshyna5, eduard syvokhop6, olha kolomiitseva7, lyudmila romanishyna8, ivan marionda9, vira vykhrushch10, mariia oliinyk11, andrii kovalchuk12, mykola halaidiuk13, iryna maksymchuk14 1 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, sergei.karasevich77@gmail.com 2 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, 0674256781@ukr.net 3 communal higher educational establishment “kherson academy of continuing education” of kherson regional council, kherson, ukraine, kuzmenkovasiliy@gmail.com 4 kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, ninaslusarenko@gmail.com 5 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ternopil, ukraine, oks_roman@ukr.net, 0000-0002-2887-5023 6 state university “uzhhorod national university”, uzhhorod, ukraine, sivokhop@gmail.com 7 yaroslav mudryi national law university, kharkiv, ukraine, kolomiitseva7@ukr.net 8 khmelnytskyi humanitarian and pedagogical academy, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, romanyshyna43@ukr.net, 0000-0002-6026-2614 9 state university “uzhhorod national university”, abstract: the article proves the need to create an effective system of training athletes, which is the basis for ensuring higher achievements in sports and causes a certain rise in the field of scientific and pedagogical research on the problems of sports pedagogy, physical education, and education of youth. it urges one to optimize educational conditions for training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities based on the latest neuropedagogical and didactic requirements. the research aims to experimentally verify the newly created or updated pedagogical conditions required to train future physical education teachers for sport and physical activity at secondary schools. research methods are as follows: modelling, observations, tests, questionnaires, pedagogical experiment, tests determining the level of physical development, the pwcno test, anthropomorphological measurements (body weight, height, chest circumference, lung capacity), heart rate, respiratory rate; methods of mathematical statistics (student's t-test, pearson's χ2 criterion). the experimental group consisted of 180 respondents and the control group – 189 respondents. a high level increased by 16.5%, an average level – by 24.3%; a low level decreased by 40.8%. conclusions. it has been found that the experimental group students have higher levels of readiness for sport and physical activity at secondary schools. moreover, the indicated differences in the levels are not coincidental and are the result of the implementation of relevant pedagogical conditions. the international relevance of the article lies in expanding the formative and diagnostic instruction tools within the updated conditions, which corresponds to innovative technological and neuropedagogical approaches to developing a physical education teacher today. keywords: motivation, interest, theoretical knowledge, selfimprovement, self-improvement journal, tests, training sessions, teacher placement. how to cite: karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 mailto:sergei.karasevich77@gmail.com mailto:0674256781@ukr.net mailto:kuzmenkovasiliy@gmail.com mailto:ninaslusarenko@gmail.com mailto:oks_roman@ukr.net mailto:sivokhop@gmail.com mailto:kolomiitseva7@ukr.net mailto:romanyshyna43@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 uzhhorod, ukraine, ivan.marionda@uzhnu.edu.ua 10 national university «lviv polytechnic», lviv, ukraine, nazarenkovira@i.ua 11 yuriy fedkovych chernivtsi national university, chernivtsi, ukraine, oliynykm69@ukr.net 12 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, andrqxa2009@ukr.net 13 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogikal university, vinnytsia, ukraine, halaidiuk.kolya@gmail.com 14 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, 0963113686@ukr.net mailto:ivan.marionda@uzhnu.edu.ua mailto:nazarenkovira@i.ua mailto:oliynykm69@ukr.net mailto:andrqxa2009@ukr.net mailto:halaidiuk.kolya@gmail.com mailto:0963113686@ukr.net training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: … serhii karasievych, et al. 545 introduction recent scientific and pedagogical research has provided a theoretical basis for further justification of the issues of physical education pedagogy. in particular, the following issues were addressed: individualization and differentiation in physical education of students; integration of physical education with other aspects of personality development – aesthetic, moral, valeological ones; organization of mass participation sports events; professional competency development of future physical education teachers (denysenko, 2009; marušić & oikonomou, 2013; omelchenko, 2007; solopchuk, 2003; sovhira & honcharenko, 2015). the scholars agree that physical education and sports training of future teachers require serious transformations under today’s conditions. in recent scientific publications, one can observe a shift in emphasis towards increasing the role of the educational orientation of physical education and sports as the main condition for effective development of the individual’s physical culture, as well as the selection and use of neurophysiological mechanisms to increase such effectiveness (bakhmat et al., 2019; komogorova et al., 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020a, 2020b; palamarchuk et al., 2020). the article finds that ukrainian and foreign science contains many works related to the training of future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools. despite all the variety of approaches to it, this problem has not been properly covered yet. only some aspects of it are considered. indeed, akhmetov and shaverskyi (2007) and bilokopytova (2000) deal with the organization of physical and sports activities during and after school hours. they distinguish three main areas of physical and sports activities in schools. the first area includes those forms that are in some way related to sports activities (sports sections in school premises, physical education and sports holidays, sports festivals, and competitions). the second area involves those forms maintaining links between sports activities and physical education (general physical training in sections and individually, as well as athletic gymnastics and weight training (mostly in high school)). the third area combines the forms aimed at motor rehabilitation (training in special medical groups, gyms; walking; cold training). the area is closely correlated with neurophysiological principles of sports and physical education since it requires one to mobilize personal motivation by considering the individual lateral profile and developing individual rehabilitation programmes. bezliudnyi et al. (2019), halaidiuk et al. (2018), henseruk (2005), hertsyk and vatseba (2002), maksymchuk et al. (2018), sitovskyi et al. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 546 (2019) and volkova (2008), disclose various aspects of physical and sports activities, as well as their role in personality development. their works widely cover the characteristics of physical and sports activities concerning future physical education teachers. they are as follows: physical education teachers must know how to use the techniques of a particular sport and methods of teaching physical exercises, which allows them to meet the standards of mass categories. their professional effectiveness is equally determined by sports achievements and personal development. besides, they should be able to convince parents to encourage their children to attend sports sections (especially children with poor motor skills or suffering from overweight). one should also consider neurophysiological and neuropsychological aspects of physical and sports activities. being between humanitarian and natural spheres, they act as a form of culture and social consciousness. from a neuropsychological point of view, such activities are based on motivational and emotional components (satisfaction with the process and result). before creating new educational conditions, it is essential to recognize the pivotal role of emotions. it is positive emotions that directly stimulate motivation and increase academic and sports results (li et al., 2018, р. 220). the training of future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities consists of educational (self-educational) and sports-oriented components. both components depend on the actualization of psychological and neurophysiological factors (subjectivity, self-reflection, personal and neurophysiological lateral orientation), motivational and volitional support of the educational and training process. since physical and sports activities involve internal psychological factors and needs imitated by pupils, “the teacher trainees’ motivation and self-education skills during the study process has to be promoted, therefore improving formation of students’ pedagogic competences during the study process at university” (samusevica & striguna, 2017). physical education and its teaching methods ensure the interaction between the two newest educational tendencies, such as performativity and neurocentrism. the first one is a universal method of generating knowledge and achievements directly in the educational process, while the neuroscience approach (also cross-cutting) underlies the lateral and subjective determinism of educational and life trajectories of the athlete, coach, physical education teacher and his or her pupil. neurosciences is congruent with physical education since neuropedagogy consider knowledge, perception and understanding, as well as all channels of information (tactile, kinaesthetic, intuitive, reflexive), as potentially equivalent (trifonas, 2003). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: … serhii karasievych, et al. 547 despite the possibility of receiving positive stimuli, physical education and sports are characterized by destructive neurophysiological factors (exhaustion, stress). therefore, physical and sports activities should much focus on neuropsychological diagnosis of destructive influences. being rather multifaceted, neurophysiological features of physical and sports activities include both physical and cognitive parameters, which eventually become tools of self-cognition and self-improvement. nevertheless, neurosciences are primarily aimed at anatomical and physiological ways of improving athletes and physical education teachers (randolph et al., 2005). as noted by vaidya & fellows (2017), “the ventromedial frontal lobe is required for optimal learning from reward under dynamic conditions and contributes to specific aspects of value-based decision-making”. indeed, each intellectual or sports-related act is preceded by decision-making. the latter is of neurophysiological nature. a positive stimulus, which is the main in sports, helps one make decisions with the participation of the dorsomedial frontal lobe. this fact can be considered as proven when creating positive environments. the neurophysiological nature of sports or training activities is based on conscious rewards or unconscious reflexive stimuli. thus, the neurophysiology of sport covers a wide range of issues: from neuropsychological modelling to injury prevention and psychocorrection (tsushima et al., 2018). at the same time, it is vital to boost motivation and neuropsychological stimulation via sports activities, prevent and correct negative influences from sports. neurodiagnostics, monitoring, and observation can be considered as tools to ensure the abovementioned aspects (randolph et al., 2005). researchers believe that one restructures the pedagogical process in physical education by intensifying, optimizing, and enhancing learning; by developing intellectual potential, abilities, interests and inclinations of students; by boosting their motivation towards physical education and sports. the main difficulties hindering this process involve the too complicated nature of professional-pedagogical activities of physical education teachers, which, unlike other more static versions of pedagogical work, occur under the conditions of increased complexity. after all, physical education teachers must regularly monitor the physical and mental condition of children under rapidly changing circumstances, stimulate high motor activity in larges classrooms or the street under different weather conditions. all of which requires additional emotional and intellectual concentration. in this regard, the neuropedagogical approach seems to be the most relevant due to its multifacetedness and universality. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 548 however, a theoretical analysis of scientific studies shows that this problem is not yet sufficiently covered in pedagogical theory and therefore, not properly reflected in the practice of educational institutions. the research aims to theoretically justify and experimentally verify the newly created pedagogical conditions to train future physical education teachers for sport and physical activity at secondary schools. material & methods the experimental work was conducted at pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, communal higher educational establishment “kherson academy of continuing education” of kherson regional council, kherson state university, ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, state university “uzhhorod national university”, yaroslav mudryi national law university, khmelnytsky humanitarian and pedagogical academy, s. p. koroliov zhytomyr military institute, national university “lviv polytechnic”, yuriy fedkovych chernivtsi national university, olexandr dovzhenko hlukhiv national pedagogical university. the experimental group consisted of 180 respondents and the control group – 189 respondents. the number of respondents in the groups corresponded to the requirements for forming the research sample and ensured the representativity of data. it must be noted that the respondents were selected on a personal-institutional basis (those who study in the institutions where the authors conduct educational and research activities). they were informed about the experiment and voluntarily agreed to participate in it. the experimental part and the lists of eg and cg respondents were agreed with the ethics committees of the abovementioned educational institutions. the first pedagogical condition formulated at the pre-experimental stage was of neuropedagogical nature. it implied promoting stable interest, positive motivation, and values-based views of future physical education teachers on physical culture, sport and physical activity based on the selection of technologies and instruction tools, envisaged impact on the process of developing the motivation and value criterion of their readiness for sport and physical activity at secondary schools and was realized at the basic stage of the research. its realization involved using various forms of sports events, outdoor games, refereeing sports competitions, especially those included in quadruples (running 60-meter and 500-meter dashes; jumping, throwing), sports holidays, exercises for specific muscles (running, walking, swimming, weight training exercises, flexibility exercises), active https://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?t=2535608_1_2&s1=%f0%e5%ef%f0%e5%e7%e5%ed%f2%e0%f2%e8%e2%ed%ee%f1%f2%fc training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: … serhii karasievych, et al. 549 methods: dialogues, role-playing and business games, technologies (fitness programmes, internet resources) and instruction tools (athletics, sports games, swimming, sailing, gym). the process of forming the motivation and values sphere was based on the dialogue during a role-playing game under the name “choosing the forms of physical and sports activities”. students were divided into microgroups. the first micro-group (analysts) identified a certain form of activities and a range scope of its application. the second micro-group (practicians) clarified the range of its application, supplemented the conditions associated with the individual characteristics of students. the third micro-group (managers) specified the nature and characteristics of future teachers’ training for the implementation of the proposed form of lessons and the level of their involvement in the management of physical and sports activities of pupils. during teacher placement, students familiarized themselves with the plan of educational work conducted by class supervisors and assisted in compiling the applications for participation in general school competitions and conducting competitions for the best runner. future teachers were also involved in organizing and conducting health days. the implementation of the first pedagogical condition included forming the readiness of students to organize physical and sports activities, prepare and implement sports holidays. it consisted of the following four stages: the second-year students studied, observed, and participated in sports holidays; the third-year students were responsible for certain functions defined within sports holidays, participated in collective and creative activities, and coordinated their support in preparing sports holidays; the fourth-year students planed sports holidays (games, competitions), selected the relevant material, and ensured the organization of sports holidays. the neurological principles of motivation towards educational and labour activities lie in motivational and axiological contexts. therefore, special attention was paid to the development of personal meaning in such activities. the business game under the name “dialogue” encouraged students to develop a values-based attitude towards physical and sports activities. it aimed to teach students to analyze the attitudes of people of different social status towards the same problem. all participants were divided into several sub-groups. they were informed about their roles and specific tasks. the game scenario is related to the fact that players need to propose solutions to the educational task using already prepared arguments. these arguments may differ significantly from their ones. following another logic, however, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 550 helped students to better understand their position by matching it with the given one. the positions for the demonstration were deliberately different so that all participants of the game could reflect on the existence of several views on one problem. the second pedagogical condition implied students’ mastering theoretical knowledge of the essence and the content of sport and physical activity and methods of its implementation in school with the help of interactive forms and methods of instruction, envisaged impact on the process of developing the intellect and cognition criterion and was realized at the practical and technological stage of the research. its realization involved improving the educational process through updating the course on “theory and methods of physical education”, coordinating “cross-cutting themes” of the basic courses on “gymnastics and teaching methods”, “athletics and teaching methods”, “swimming and teaching methods”, holding a special workshop on “organization and methodology of sport and physical activities at school”, organizing and realizing various forms of sport and physical activity during practical classes of basic courses (classes were conducted based on educational practice with its further analysis), applying innovative forms and active methods of instruction (lectures & discussions, binary lectures, exercises, pieces of training, round tables, seminars); technologies (information and communication technologies, cloud-oriented educational environment). theoretical material is constructed in such a way as to form knowledge about one’s own body, the ways of its improvement in the interests of further professional development and life support, the possibilities on the way of its formation and the role of physical activity in this process, the values of physical activities. at this stage, cognitive processes were stimulated by actualizing personal meanings related to valeology and physical education and ensuring the problem-based nature of the material presented. lectures were conducted with the involvement of students in the system of active cognitive actions, which encourage them to use heuristic discussions, solve problems and perform creative tasks. the process of teaching these topics was based on the use of instructive lectures and dialogue-based lectures. in instructive lectures, students familiarized themselves with the technology of their future activities and characteristics and ways of performing individual actions. for one, the lesson on the topic “physical education in the general cultural and professional training of teacher students” aimed to first update students’ knowledge about the essence of physical education and its training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: … serhii karasievych, et al. 551 main components, as well as its role at the current stage of social development. after that, students were divided into sub-groups and were expected to formulate the concepts of physical education and sport, to highlight the most significant differences and factors in the interaction between physical education and sports activities. at least for 30-35 minutes, they discussed the above-mentioned aspects and then one representative from each sub-group expressed the common opinion. collective discussions were conducted to discover the solutions to them. disputes were conducted in the form of a dialogue between students during seminars. during seminars and discussions, business games were used. the participation of students was stimulated by unusual scenarios, communication, confrontation, extreme situations, attitude towards participation in the game as a means of self-cognition and self-evaluation of individual characteristics. one of the forms of organizing physical and sports activities during extracurricular activities is a competition: multi-sport events, mountain climbing, orienteering, horseback riding, rowing. the tasks were selected individually for each student, considering their physical fitness, health, professional and applied knowledge and skills necessary for future professional activities. this stage has been supported by the neuropsychological mechanism based on acmeology, youthful maximalism and maximum individualization by sports. the third pedagogical condition implied activating students’ physical self-improvement during independent work, envisaged impact on the process of developing the activity and practice criterion of readiness of future physical education teachers for sport and physical activity at secondary schools and was realized at the corrective and developmental stage of the research. its realization involved applying tests, conversations, discussions, reflections, pedagogical situations, and practical activities, performing individual assignments, during which sports holidays, health days, outside games, sports hours, sports, and entertainment activities as part of extracurricular activities were organized. it has been found that one of the effective tools in independent work is keeping the self-development journal and preparing an e-portfolio. this condition has been realized based on the neuropsychological mechanism of forming and implementing “self-concept” via human subjectivity. thus, most methods and approaches contained the prefix “self” (self-analysis, self-control, self-development). the journal of self-improvement includes goals and tasks of athletic improvement: the potential goal (1-2 years ahead), the annual goal (the brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 552 general goal and the goal accorded with periods of training), the current and next tasks. after that, specific tasks are given and the ways and means of solving each of them are discussed. in the course of the pedagogical experiment, independent tasks and tests were designed to determine the level of physical development, physical fitness and ability: the level of overall endurance was estimated based on the results of running a 3000-meter distance (minutes per second); active flexibility of the spine and hip joints was determined by the results of forward leaning from a sitting position with the simultaneous flexion of arms (centimetres); speed and speed-strength skills in combination with agility: determined by the results of running a 100-meter distance (seconds); dynamic strength endurance of flexors and adductor muscles of the body was estimated during pull-ups (boys, the number of times), bench push-ups (girls, the number of times); the absolute strength of back muscles, left and right hands were measured using dynamometers; physical ability as an indicator of the state of the cardiovascular system was determined due to the pwcno test. the current research identified the characteristics of the ratio between the motor and vegetative functions due to the pwcno test. during the repetition, heart rate (hr) and respiratory rate (rr) were recorded (hr and rr were re-calculated to obtain a result in 1 minute); the frequency of steps was known since it was defined by a metronome. the ratio between the motor and vegetative functions was estimated based on the correlation between hr, rr, and the frequency of steps. the selected tests most fully characterize the physical fitness of students and are rather easy to conduct (the coefficient of objectivity is equal to 0.75-0.91; the coefficient of reproduction – 0.62-0.93). studying the physical development of students one can regulate the nature, volume, and intensity of physical activity during self-improvement following anthropomorphological characteristics. besides, the physical development of students reflects the impact of physical exercises on growth, as well as the characteristics of body type and the condition of the musculoskeletal system. the program of anthropomorphological measurements included the following indicators which most clearly characterize physiological parameters: body weight (measured with decimal (metric) scales to within 0.5 kg); body height (measured with a standard height meter to within 1 cm); chest circumference in a state of “pause” (measured with a centimetre tape to within 0.5 cm at the lower edge of the shoulder-blade in boys and the front chest in girls); lung capacity (measured with a standard spirometer in training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: … serhii karasievych, et al. 553 the standing position after full inhalation at full exhalation (up to 50 ml)). the measurements were carried out with standard devices according to the generally accepted methodology simultaneously in all groups. discussions, group psycho training sessions and practical classes on various topics were held to help students to disclose their characteristics. the topics included the following: “how can one deal with self-doubt and quit bad habits?”, “introduction to the experience of work in sports teams”, how can one develop will-power?”, “the team you live in”. an effective health-improving means of self-improvement is a system of activities aimed at increasing the body’s resistance to various environmental influences, namely, outdoor sports (skating and skiing, orienteering, hiking), cold-water treatments. an important role in the self-improvement of students belongs to teacher placement. the current research offers a list of tasks within teacher placement to ensure a higher level of students’ professional training for physical education and sports activities and widen their practical experience. thus, students are expected to design at least three sets of physical exercises to conduct in the classroom, hallway, recreation area, playground; to design at least two sets of gymnastics before classes; to make cards with a description of three movement games; to design and conduct “sports hours” with the selection of movement games with the directed intensity in the following sequence: one game – moderate intensity (warming up); two games – medium and high intensity; one game – low intensity; to design a programme and scenario for a sport holiday; to prepare a plan of different events, two plans for competitions in a preschool camp; to design a programme for training and organization of сamping trips; to prepare tips for tourists and recommendations for arranging swimming activities during camping trips; to act as a class supervisor and a physical education teacher; to strictly follow safety rules when organizing the above-mentioned and extracurricular physical activities (to know and be able to provide first medical care for injuries in physical education and recreation classes); to design a plan of extracurricular physical activities of middle-school and high school pupils for half a term, term, academic year; to prepare thematic discussions with parents on healthy lifestyles. an electronic portfolio was introduced to help students to realize the importance of independent physical and sports activities. the electronic physical and sports portfolio is a current educational technology that makes it possible to record, accumulate and evaluate individual athletic achievements of students during a certain period of their training. this technology is consistently expanding the scope and forms of its brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 554 implementation since it meets various requirements of life today: the requirements of higher education institutions for general education institutions, the requirements of the business for the education system in general. the portfolio serves as a dynamic process of comprehending one’s capabilities, designing the ways to implement life and professional plans and, finally, a positive personality change. to determine statistical validity and specify the difference between average levels of future physical education teachers’ readiness for sport and physical activity at secondary schools in the control and experimental groups, the t-test (student’s t-test) was applied. to verify the validity of the obtained results, pearson’s chi-squared test (χ2) was applied. results the ascertaining experiment identifies a low level of readiness for physical and sports activities among students. this fact can be explained by insufficiently developed technological and methodological knowledge, motivation, and professional-pedagogical focus on practical participation in physical education of pupils, needs for regular physical exercise with the aim of self-improvement, abilities, and skills in organizing physical and sports activities with pupils and using professional knowledge in concrete actions and other types of tasks. the results of the ascertaining stage conclude that it is essential to update the training of future physical education teachers to prepare them for physical and sports activities in secondary schools. during the control diagnostics, quantitative indicators of future physical education teachers’ readiness for sport and physical activity at secondary schools in the control and experimental groups have been analyzed. it allowed determining the appropriate dynamics of their levels (see table 1). the experiment results have proved positive changes in the levels of future physical education teachers’ readiness for sport and physical activity at secondary schools in the experimental group: a high level increased by 16.5%, an average level – by 24.3%; a low level decreased by 40.8%. in the control group, a high level increased by 3.3%, an average level – by 13.9%; a low level decreased by 17.2%. training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: … serhii karasievych, et al. 555 table 1. dynamics in levels of future physical education teachers’ readiness for sport and physical activity at secondary schools before and after the experiment (%) levels ascertaining experiment formative experiment dynamics ascertaining experiment formative experiment dynamic s control group experimental group high 2 (1.1%) 8 (4.4%) +3.3 5 (2.6%) 36 (19.1%) +16.5 average 76 (42.2%) 101 (56.1%) +13.9 85 (45.0%) 131 (69.3%) +24.3 low 102 (56.7%) 71 (39.5%) -17.2 99 (52.4%) 22 (11.6%) -40.8 the results of experimental work show that eg students are at higher levels of readiness for physical and sports activities in secondary schools. besides, the differences in these levels are not accidental and come from the implementation of appropriate pedagogical conditions. discussion the scientific value of the research is as follows: the pedagogical and neuropedagogical conditions for training future teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools (promoting stable interest, positive motivation and valuable views of future physical education teachers on physical culture, sport and physical activity based on the selection of technologies and instruction tools; mastering theoretical knowledge of the essence and the content of sport and physical activity and methods of its implementation in school with the help of interactive forms and methods of instruction; activating students’ physical self-improvement during independent work) have been justified; the key research concepts (“training future teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools” and “readiness of future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools”) have been specified; the criteria (motivation and value, intellect and cognitive, activity and practice), indicators (interests, aspirations, values, needs, knowledge, skills in physical and sports activities) and levels (high, average, low) of such readiness have been clarified; the forms, methods and tools of training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools have been improved; brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 556 the integration processes of training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools have been updated and further developed. the practical value of the research lies in developing and implementing the methodology for identifying levels of readiness in future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools in the educational process of higher education institutions. it also implies creating author’s programmes aimed at training future physical education teachers and realizing methodical support, namely, updating the content of the course on “theory and methods of physical education”; coordinating “cross-cutting themes” of the basic courses on “gymnastics and teaching methods”, “athletics and teaching methods”, “swimming and teaching methods”, “sports games and teaching methods”, “skiing and teaching methods”, “moving games and teaching methods”; holding a special workshop on “organization and methodology of sport and physical activity at school”; reinforcing independent work of future teachers so that they could obtain knowledge and skills in physical and sports activities. research materials can be used in the context teaching of professional sports and methodological courses, special workshops to prepare future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools. they can be applied to further develop the strategies for developing a physical culture in students during reforms in the ukrainian educational system, as well as in subsequent studies on theory and methods of professional education, philosophy of education. indeed, the future teacher of physical education is the organizer of various activities in general education institutions. panchenko (2011) studied the level of competency of physical education teachers in organizing and conducting sport, physical and health-improving activities, as well as the factors that inhibit the activation of this important part of professional activity. it is proved that it is necessary to deepen practical knowledge about conducting extracurricular physical and sports activities to stimulate students’ interest in them. it is also necessary to increase the level of knowledge about medical and pedagogical sports courses. the current research relies on eremeev’s statement (2011) that biological needs play an important role in igniting the interest of students in physical education and sports. therefore, one can enhance students’ motivation only due to proper organization of physical education and sport. a positive character of motives is determined by the individual’s aspirations. as a result of the implementation of the first pedagogical condition, it is found that the main factors ensuring the effective functioning of the training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: … serhii karasievych, et al. 557 motivational sphere are aspirations, interests, needs for preparation, organization and implementation of sports activities, regular monitoring; achievability of the set short-term and long-term goals. according to certain research (operailo et al., 2005; zvolinskaya & maslov, 1998), the ranking system of assessing student independent work is an important stimulus factor for learning since it has several advantages, namely visibility of ranking dynamics, strengthening of an objective factor in the assessment of knowledge. the formative experiment on verification of the content, methods and forms of conducting lessons with the use of interdisciplinary connections when teaching basic sports courses shows: the use of interdisciplinary connections in lectures changes the nature of the teacher’s explanation of the new material, helps students to understand it deeper due to timely performed independent work since they can revise knowledge of other subjects; the interest of students in obtaining a high grade for independent work contributes to more active intellectual activity when completing a map of the reproduction of previously acquired knowledge. this, in turn, allows teachers to improve the quality of the whole process of mastering knowledge; using maps in lectures significantly affects the further character of student independent work. conclusions the effectiveness of the pedagogical conditions has been proved due to the results of the formative experiment: the number of students in the control group who have a high level of readiness for sport and physical activity at secondary schools increased, whereas the same level did not increase significantly in the control group. the research findings indicate dynamic positive changes in the indicators of future physical education teachers’ readiness for sport and physical activity at secondary schools in the experimental groups under the influence of the proposed innovations, which have accelerated the neurocognitive potential of students. 1. the analysis of scientific findings on the problem under study in psycho-pedagogical literature and educational practice shows that most works deal with certain issues and areas of this process. they reveal methodological principles and general theoretical issues in the training of future physical education teachers. besides, they study the individualization and differentiation of physical education in schools, conduct relevant diagnostics in the field of physical education and sports and justify the process of developing professional competency in future physical education teachers. particular attention is paid to the peculiarities of physical and sports brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 558 activities concerning future physical education teachers. despite the steady interest in this problem, it remains insufficiently covered in the theory and practice of professional education today. the analysis of research terminology (physical education, physical culture, sports, sports activities, physical activities, physical and sports activities, teacher training) allows one to clarify the essence of such key concepts as “training future teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools” and “readiness of future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools”. the training of future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools is defined as selective use of tools of physical education and sports to develop a system of professional knowledge for future specialists, provide them with the necessary set of pedagogical skills focused on physical education, sports, restoration of pupils’ psychophysiological capacity and their personal development in the process of amateur initiatives. such concept as “readiness of future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools” indicates a dynamically developmental personal quality that reflects the required level of knowledge and skills in the field of physical and sports activities and strong motivation towards these activities. 2. the article clarifies the criteria of readiness of future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools and their indicators: the motivation and value criterion (the focus on physical and sports activities and their creative implementation; the awareness of their significance; the need for self-study and self-improvement in the field of physical education and sports), the intellect and cognitive criterion (the level of knowledge required to organize physical and sports activities in schools: theories and methods of organizing physical education classes as a social system; methods for identifying, developing and correcting motor skills; basic norms of physical activity during physical education classes), the activity and practice criterion (skills in planning and organizing sports classes, physical and sports activities during school hours and competitions, managing their organization, developing physical skills). these criteria and indicators allow one to describe the levels (high, average, low) in readiness of future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools. 3. the article identifies the levels of readiness of future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools. it finds that future specialists show a lack of attention to this activity, ignorance of their functions in the field of physical education, weak training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: … serhii karasievych, et al. 559 methodological and practical readiness to organize physical and sports activities with pupils. it can be explained by the limited amount of information on the organization of physical and sports activities with pupils during after-school hours in the content of their training. moreover, their current training does not fully consider horizontal and vertical connections in the system of teaching professional courses. educational material seems to be duplicated, which results in irrational coordination of basic courses, including the course on “theory and methods of physical education”. the ascertaining experiment was conducted to develop the model and justify pedagogical conditions for training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools. its results prove that most physical education teachers are at low levels of readiness for such activities. 4. the article presents and validates the author’s model of training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools. it consists of the following blocks and their components: the methods and goals block (goals, approaches, principles), the content and procedures block (stages, content, forms, methods, technologies, tools), the assessment and results block (criteria, levels, corresponding results). they reflect the specifics of training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools and ensure their readiness to organize this process in professional activities. the main components of the model interact through feedback mechanisms. the article determines and implements the pedagogical conditions for training future teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools: promoting stable interest, positive motivation and valuable views of future physical education teachers on physical culture, sport and physical activity based on the selection of technologies and instruction tools; mastering theoretical knowledge of the essence and the content of sport and physical activity and methods of its implementation in school with the help of interactive forms and methods of instruction; activating students’ physical self-improvement during independent work. pedagogical condition 1 was implemented through using different types of classroom tasks aimed at realizing certain technological physical and sports activities and innovative technologies (fitness technologies, ict); organizing various forms of physical culture and sports activities (moving games; refereeing sports competitions, especially those included in quadruple sprints; sports holidays) during extracurricular activities; developing certain muscle groups through physical exercise; using active methods (dialogues, role-playing and business games). pedagogical condition 2 implied improving the educational process brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 560 by updating the course on “theory and methods of physical education”, coordinating “cross-cutting themes” of the basic courses on “gymnastics and teaching methods”, “athletics and teaching methods”, “swimming and teaching methods”; holding a special workshop on “organization and methodology of physical and sports activities at school”; organizing and realizing various forms of physical and sport activity during practical classes of basic courses (classes were conducted based on educational practice with its further analysis); applying innovative forms and active methods of instruction (lectures & discussions, binary lectures, exercises, pieces of training, round tables discussions, seminars); technologies (ict, cloudoriented educational environment). pedagogical condition 3 was implemented by applying active methods (tests, conversations, discussions, reflections, pedagogical situations and practical activities), organizational forms (performing individual assignments, during which sports holidays, health days, outside games, sports hours, sports and entertainment activities as part of extracurricular activities were organized; keeping the selfdevelopment journal and preparing an e-portfolio). the results of the formative experiment prove the effectiveness of the pedagogical conditions. indeed, the number of eg students with a high level of readiness for physical and sports activities in secondary schools has increased, whereas that of cg students has not changed significantly. besides, one can see certain dynamic positive changes in the indicators of eg under the influence of the proposed innovations. further research should cover the following areas: university teachers’ competency in the field of training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities in secondary schools; an educational environment as a condition for training future physical education teachers for such activities. acknowledgments the authors of the article have equally participated in the preparation of the article. their work was divided into personal tasks, including a) search, review, and analysis of relevant studies on pedagogy and neurophysiology of physical education and sports; b) modelling and prediction of the effectiveness of modified or created educational conditions; c) evaluation of the effectiveness of the formative-diagnostic experiment; d) organization of discussions on the obtained results and formulation of conclusions. training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: … serhii karasievych, et al. 561 references akhmetov, r. f., & shaverskyi, v. k. (2007). problemy y perspektyvy formuvannia profesiinoi maisternosti fakhivtsiv fizychnoi kultury zasobamy innovatsiinykh tekhnolohii [problems and prospects of developing professional skills in physical education specialists due to innovative technologies]. visnyk zhytomyrskoho derzhavnoho universytetu imeni ivana franka, 34, 50-52. http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/1519/1/07arfzit.pdf bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1323-1332. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf bezliudnyi o., kravchenko o., maksymchuk b., mishchenko m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3),1585-1590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf bilokopytova, y. a. (2000). osnovy teorii sheipinhu [the fundamentals of shaping]. naukovyi svit. denysenko, n. (2009). naukovo-doslidnytska robota studentiv pedahohichnoho koledzhu yak odyn zi stratehichnykh napriamiv fakhovoi pidhotovky maibutnoho vchytelia fizychnoi kultury [research activities of students at teacher colleges as one of strategic trends in professional training of future physical education teacher]. fizychne vykhovannya, sport i kultura zdorovya u suchasnomu suspilstvi, 1, 29-32. https://sport.eenu.edu.ua/index.php/sport/article/view/1156 eremeev, s. n. (2011). razvitie gotovnosti prepodavatelia vuza k realizatsii adaptatsionnogo potentsiala fizkulturno-sportivnoi deiatelnosti studentov [developing lecturers’ readiness to implement the adaptation potential of physical and sports activities of students] [phd thesis, magnitogorsk state university, magnitogorsk]. dissercat. https://www.dissercat.com/content/razvitiegotovnosti-prepodavatelya-vuza-k-realizatsii-adaptatsionnogo-potentsialafizkulturn halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284-2291. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/1519/1/07arfzit.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf https://sport.eenu.edu.ua/index.php/sport/article/view/1156 https://www.dissercat.com/content/razvitie-gotovnosti-prepodavatelya-vuza-k-realizatsii-adaptatsionnogo-potentsiala-fizkulturn https://www.dissercat.com/content/razvitie-gotovnosti-prepodavatelya-vuza-k-realizatsii-adaptatsionnogo-potentsiala-fizkulturn https://www.dissercat.com/content/razvitie-gotovnosti-prepodavatelya-vuza-k-realizatsii-adaptatsionnogo-potentsiala-fizkulturn http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 562 henseruk, h. r. (2005). pidhotovka maibutnikh uchyteliv fizychnoi kultury do zastosuvannia informatsiinykh tekhnolohii u profesiinii diialnosti [preparing future physical education teachers to use information technologies in professional activities] [abstract of phd thesis, volodymyr hnatiuk ternopil national pedagogical university, ternopil]. disslib. http://www.disslib.org/pidhotovka-majbutnikh-uchyteliv-fizychnoyikultury-do-zastosuvannja-informatsiynykh.html hertsyk, m. s., & vatseba, o. m. (2002). vstup do spetsialnostei haluzi “fizychne vykhovannia i sport” [introduction to degrees in physical education and sports]. ukrainian technologies. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/20284 komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 li, l., gow, a. d. i., & zhou, j. (2018). the role of positive emotions in education: a neuroscience perspective. mind, brain, and education, 14(3), 220-234. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12244 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska. s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v, sitovsyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810-815. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf marušić, m., & oikonomou, a. (2013). value hierarchy of future subject teachers in serbia in the context of schwartz theory. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 45(2), 241-259. http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/article.aspx?id=057964311302241m#.ymcjajyzygo http://www.disslib.org/pidhotovka-majbutnikh-uchyteliv-fizychnoyi-kultury-do-zastosuvannja-informatsiynykh.html http://www.disslib.org/pidhotovka-majbutnikh-uchyteliv-fizychnoyi-kultury-do-zastosuvannja-informatsiynykh.html http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/20284 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12244 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/article.aspx?id=0579-64311302241m#.ymcjajyzygo http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/article.aspx?id=0579-64311302241m#.ymcjajyzygo training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: … serhii karasievych, et al. 563 omelchenko, s. o. (2007). vzaiemodiia sotsialnykh instytutiv suspilstva u formuvanni zdorovoho sposobu zhyttia ditei ta pidlitkiv [the interaction of social institutions in promoting a healthy lifestyle of children and adolescents]. alma-mater. operailo, s. i., ilchenko, a. i., yermolova, v. m., & ivanova, l. i. (2005). knyha vchytelia fizychnoi kultury [the book of a physical education teacher]. torsing plus. https://torsing.ua/download/libraryteacher/kniga_vchitelya_fizkulturi.pdf palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 panchenko, g. i. (2011). problemy sovershenstvovaniia podgotovki budushchego uchitelia fizicheskogo vospitaniia k organizatsii i provedeniiu fizkulturnoozdorovitelnoi i sportivno-massovoi raboty v obshcheobrazovatelnoi shkole [improving the training of future physical education teachers to organize and conduct physical and sports activities in a secondary school]. pedagogika, psikhologiya i medikobiologicheskiye problemy fizicheskogo vospitaniya i sporta, 11, 86-90. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/problemysovershenstvovaniya-podgotovki-buduschego-uchitelya-fizicheskogovospitaniya-k-organizatsii-i-provedeniyu-fizkulturno/viewer randolph, c., mccrea, m., & barr, w. b. (2005). is neuro-psychological testing useful in the management of sport-related concussion? journal of athletic training, 40(3), 139-154. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1250250/ samuseviča, a., & striguna, s. (2017). the development of teachers’ pedagogical competence in the process of self-education at the university. international journal on lifelong education and leadership, 3(2), 39-46. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/551098 sitovskyi a., maksymchuk b., kuzmenko v., nosko y., korytko z., bahinska o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, v., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., sluysarenko, n. v., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532-1543. http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/123456789/12211 solopchuk, d. v. (2003). problemy formuvannia zdorovoho sposobu zhyttia v uchniv zahalnoosvitnikh shkil [some issues in promoting a healthy lifestyle among secondary school students]. moloda sportyvna nauka ukrayiny [young sports science of ukraine], 7(2), 120-122. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/13845 https://torsing.ua/download/library-teacher/kniga_vchitelya_fizkulturi.pdf https://torsing.ua/download/library-teacher/kniga_vchitelya_fizkulturi.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/problemy-sovershenstvovaniya-podgotovki-buduschego-uchitelya-fizicheskogo-vospitaniya-k-organizatsii-i-provedeniyu-fizkulturno/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/problemy-sovershenstvovaniya-podgotovki-buduschego-uchitelya-fizicheskogo-vospitaniya-k-organizatsii-i-provedeniyu-fizkulturno/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/problemy-sovershenstvovaniya-podgotovki-buduschego-uchitelya-fizicheskogo-vospitaniya-k-organizatsii-i-provedeniyu-fizkulturno/viewer https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1250250/ https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/551098 http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/123456789/12211 http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/13845 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 564 sovhira, s. v., & honcharenko, h. y. (2015). rekreatsiine spriamuvannia fizychnoho vykhovannia studentiv u pozanavchalnyi chas. perspektyvy rozvytku turystychnoi industrii v ukraini: rehionalni aspekty [recreational trends in physical education of students during extracurricular activities]. materialy iii vseukrainskoi naukovo-praktychnoi internet-konferentsiyi “perspektyvy rozvytku turystychnoyi industriyi v ukrayini: rehionalni aspekty” [proceedings of the pan-ukrainian iii scientific and practical e-conference on prospects for development of tourism industry in ukraine: regional aspects] (pp. 88-90). vizavi. https://dspace.udpu.edu.ua/xmlui/handle/6789/3619?show=full trifonas, p. (2003). the ethics of science and/as research: deconstruction and the orientations of a new academic responsibility. educational philosophy and theory, 35(3), 285-295. https://philpapers.org/rec/triteo tsushima, w. t., jun ahn, h., siu, a. m., yoshinaga, k., yung choi, s., & murata, n. m. (2018). effects of repetitive subconcussive head trauma on the neuropsychological test performance of high school athletes: a comparison of high, moderate, and low contact sports. applied neuropsychology, 8(3), 223-230. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29393677 vaidya, a. r. & fellows, l. k. (2017). the neuropsychology of decision-making: a view from the frontal lobes. in j.-c. dreher & l. trembley (eds.), decision neuroscience: an integrative approach (pp. 277289). academic press. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-805308-9.00022-1 volkova, s. s. (2008). formuvannia profesiinoi kompetentnosti maibutnikh vchyteliv fizychnoi kultury [developing professional competency in future physical education teachers]. materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi internetkonferentsii [sovremennyye nauchnyye dostizheniya – 2008” [proceedings of the international scientific-practical internet conference on modern scientific achievements – 2008]. education and science. http://www.rusnauka.com/24_svmn_2008/sport/27099.doc.ht m zvolinskaya, n., & maslov, v. (1998). tendentsii razvitiia soderzhaniia professionalnogo fizkulturnogo obrazovaniia v sotsiokulturnom kontekste [some trends in developing the content of professional physical education in the sociocultural context]. materialy mezhdunarodnogo kongressa “chelovek v mire sporta: novyye idei, tekhnologii, perspektivy” [proceedings of the international congress on the individual in the world of sport: new ideas, technologies, prospects]. fon. http://lib.sportedu.ru/gettext.idc?txtid=544 https://dspace.udpu.edu.ua/xmlui/handle/6789/3619?show=full https://philpapers.org/rec/triteo https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29393677 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/b9780128053089000221#! https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-805308-9.00022-1 http://www.rusnauka.com/24_svmn_2008/sport/27099.doc.htm http://www.rusnauka.com/24_svmn_2008/sport/27099.doc.htm http://lib.sportedu.ru/gettext.idc?txtid=544 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, sup.1, pages: 54-68 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/122 childhood apraxia of speech. developmental speech patterns. a wide retrospective study elad vashdi¹*, amit avramov 2 , špela falatov 3 , huang yi-chen 4 , jiang pei-ru 5 , paula teodora mamina-chiriac 6 1 dpt, clinician, yaelcenter institute director, israel, center@yaelcenter.com corresponding author 2 senior mdt and vml consultant, yaelcenter, israel, amit.avramov@gmail.com 3 center za zdravljenje avtizma director, slovenia, info@centerza.com 4 mspa-cpsp, beyond speech pathology clinic director, tai, elaine.y.c.huang@gmail.com 5 bsppath, sunny speech pathology clinic director, taiwan, panny320@yahoo.com.tw 6 bs-psych, psychology office, romania, paulachiriac83@yahoo.com abstract: patterns of a phenomenon define the entity. if one understands the patterns of the maze, he can find his way there. patterns of colors on a dress will hold its characters and soul. understanding the expressive patterns of a developmental syndrome enables treating it with success. it is true for treating childhood apraxia of speech (cas) as well. cas as motor-speech disorder involves difficulties in sounds production for speech purposes. the difficulties can be demonstrated in patterns that would be specific to cas. these patterns can distinguish one phenomenon from another. a retrospective research was conducted based on 277 entry level evaluations of children diagnosed with cas or suspected of cas who visited a private clinic between 2006 and 2013. the analysis included speech variables alongside background and environmental variables. this article is dealing with speech patterns of children with motor speech disorder. among the patterns examined are vowels ladder, single syllable ladder, blowing and ssp (single sound production), oral motor and ssp, consonant group ladder and consonants exploratory factor analysis. the findings demonstrated the relationship and order of vowels, consonants and single syllables among hebrew speaking children diagnosed with motor speech disorder. the consonants exploratory factor analysis gave validity to the existence of unique consonant groups. further discussion regarding every result and its implication is included. understanding the unique patterns of consonants and vowels strength among children with cas can help clinicians in the decision-making process and goals targeting. keywords: childhood apraxia of speech; autism; nsome; oral motor; pronunciation. how to cite: vashdi, e., avramov, a., falatov, š., yi-chen, h., pei-ru, j., mamina-chiriac, p. t. (2020). childhood apraxia of speech. developmental speech patterns. a wide retrospective study. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 54-68. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/122 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/122 mailto:center@yaelcenter.com mailto:amit.avramov@gmail.com mailto:info@centerza.com mailto:elaine.y.c.huang@gmail.com mailto:panny320@yahoo.com.tw mailto:paulachiriac83@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/122 childhood apraxia of speech. developmental speech patterns. a wide … elad vashdi 55 introduction the patterns of a phenomenon might define the entity. if one understands the patterns of the maze, he can find his way there. patterns of colors on a dress will hold its characters and soul. understanding the expressive patterns of a developmental syndrome enables treating it with success. it is true for treating childhood apraxia of speech (cas) as well. cas as a motor-speech disorder involves difficulties in sounds production for speech purposes. the difficulties can be demonstrated in patterns that would be specific to cas. these patterns can distinguish one phenomenon from another. the purpose of this article is to demonstrate typical versus cas pathological speech patterns in hebrew and analyze their consequences on speech therapy. typical speech patterns how do we recognize and define the abnormal or pathological condition? probably, by first understanding the typical range of the phenomenon. whatever will not be within that range and relates to the phenomenon, will be different and require special care. the "normal" range is the area where most of the population will be found. for example, the iq score. the median score will be 100 points by definition. the normal range was set to two standard deviations above and under the median score, hence will include 95% of the population. the 2.5% tails above and under the normal range are different according to the test. therefore, in order to study and define the pathological speech patterns we should first discuss the typical speech pattern range. the vowel is the dominant sound in the word and the first sound to be acquired (vowel, 2013). the order of consonants acquisition in hebrew (see figure 1) teaches us of the level of difficulty in pronunciation of each consonant (lavie, 1978). figure 1 – consonant acquisition in hebrew 3;0 f, p , b , m , n , j 3;6 l , k , x 4;0 r , g , t 5;0 d 6;0 ts , z , s , sh , h , v fig 1 the age at which 90% of the children have good control over the consonant source: authors'own contribution brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 56 the consonants are divided into different overlapping groups based on: place of articulation, voice and manner (consonant, 2013). analyzing the consonant acquisition table and consonant features together brings up interesting conclusions. first, vowels do not appear in the sounds acquisition chart, probably since they are considered to be the first sounds the child acquires, hence no need to examine them (donegan, 2013). it is interesting that vowels are not in the chart, since in some pathological cases we might not have control over a vowel while having good control over some of the consonants (burlea et al., 2010). the bilabial group (m, b, p) appears to be mastered first. that might be attributed to the high visual component in learning these consonants. the /f/ consonant is also placed in the first group and that can be attributed to the early acquirement of the blowing skill, since a major component in producing /f/ is blowing. consonant /n/ is the first alveolar consonant to appear and it might be attributed to its nasality. the /m/ consonant, the second nasal consonant which appears also in that first group, might be the reason for the early acquisition of /n/, due its nasality. consonant /j/, that represents the sound /ya/ in hebrew, appears also in the first group. this consonant can be considered a diphthong. since vowels are the first to be learnt, finding consonant /j/ on the first group can be expected. the second group of consonants consists of 3 consonants /l/, /k/ and /x/ (the sound /cha/ in hebrew). /l/ is the second alveolar consonant to come and probably follows the /n/ consonant. they are both non plosive while the other alveolar consonants to come are plosive. /k/ is a nonvoiced, velar and first tongue related plosive consonant to come. it is accompanied by the /x/ consonant, which is a non-voiced, uvular consonant. even though /x/ is a fricative consonant, the similarity in place and voice can explain the similar time of acquisition. the third group of consonants consists of 3 consonants: /r/,/g/ and /t/. the fourth group consists of only the /d/ consonant. consonant /r/ is very similar in place to /x/, but since the manner of vibration is more difficult to master then friction, /x/ comes before /r/. through groups 2 nd to 4 th we can identify two couples: /k/, /g/ and /t/, /d/. the difference between the sounds in each group is only the voice aspect, while the nonvoiced consonants come before the voiced consonants. it is true also for the /x/, /r/ coupling. the probable explanation is the complexity of planning and executing a voiced consonant in comparison to a non-voiced one. the last group of consonants consists of fricative consonants, four of which are voiceless (ts, s, sh, h) and two are voiced (z, v). the fricatives childhood apraxia of speech. developmental speech patterns. a wide … elad vashdi 57 are the most difficult consonants to pronounce accurately, probably due to the high complexity of articulation in comparison to the other consonants. that was the typical pattern of consonants acquisition in hebrew and the logic behind it. the typical reasoning is not kept, and the speech patterns are different in the non-typical speech development. high variance of speech patterns can be found among children diagnosed with cas. the next sections will deal with cas speech characteristics and patterns as presented in the literature. what is cas? the updated definition of cas according to the american speechlanguage-hearing association (asha) 2007 is: "... a neurological childhood (pediatric) speech sound disorder in which the precision and consistency of movements underlying speech are impaired in the absence of neuromuscular deficits (e.g., abnormal reflexes, abnormal tone) …". shriberg estimated the cas prevalence as 1-2/1000 based on the proportion of children referred to one university clinic (shriberg, 1997). yoss reported a prevalence of 1% using his criteria for suspected cas (yoss, 1975), while morely reported 1.3% of cas (morley, 1975). mcckinon calculated the prevalence of stuttering, voice and speech sound disorder (ssd) among 10425 children in 36 primary schools in sydney, australia (mckinnon et al., 2007). the ssd includes cas and articulation disorder (characterized by substitution, omission or distortion of speech sounds). although tested separately, the cas and articulation score combined posthoc under one ssd score due to difficulties in differential diagnosis. the ssd prevalence was 1.06%. 13 children were found with cas (0.12%). this study was taken in a regular primary school, so it did not include the children in the special education schools of the same cross-sectional sample. hence the prevalence of the ssd should be higher. davis suggested few overall features of the cas population such as: higher incidence in males, normal intelligence, normal comprehension, delayed language development, normal hearing, and general motor clumsiness (davis, 2011). newmeyer et al found sensory regulation deficiency in children diagnosed with cas compared with regular development control group (newmeyer et al., 2009). cas speech characteristics levelt, roelofs & meyer distinguished between three different stages of speech disorders and their pathologies: 1) impairments of lexical access to the word form (classic anomia), 2) phonological encoding (post lexical brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 58 phonological disorder), and 3) phonetic encoding (apraxia of speech). cas causes deficits in the production of consonants, vowels and the formation of words (levelt, et al., 1999). shriberg et al. identified segmental and supra-segmental characteristics of cas. the segmental characteristics include: (a) an articulatory struggle (groping) particularly on word onsets, (b) trans positional (metathetic) substitution errors reflecting sequencing constraints on adjacent sounds, (c) marked inconsistencies on repeated tokens of the same word type, (d) proportionally increased sound and syllable deletions relative to overall severity of involvement and (e) proportionally increased vowel/diphthong errors relative to overall severity of involvement. the supra-segmental characteristics include: (a) inconsistent realization of stress (i.e. prominence on syllables or words), (b) inconsistent realization of temporal constraints on both speech and pause events and (c) inconsistent oral-nasal gestures underlying the percept of nasopharyngeal resonance (shriberg et al., 2003). shriberg, lohmeier, strand & jakielski (2012) reported of new elements in cas basic characteristics such as encoding, memory and transcoding deficits. davis, jakielski & marquardt (1998) searched the literature for cas criteria in order to examine 5 patients and mentioned speech and non-speech characteristics. cas diagnosis cas lacks a formal and reliable diagnosis. research work has been done in the last 25 years but still there is no consensus or gold standard that will enable a formal diagnosis. shriberg, paul, black & van santen (2011) mention an estimate of 80-90% false positive cas diagnosis based on published and unpublished sources, which reflects the lack of consensus on the inclusionary and exclusionary criteria for this disorder. forrest brings the speech language pathologists (slp) definition or perception of cas (forrest, 2003). 75 slps participated in the study and suggest 50 different items for cas diagnosis. the most common 6 items appeared in 51.5% of the responses and included inconsistent production, general oral-motor difficulties, groping, inability to imitate sounds, increasing difficulty with increased utterance length, and poor sequencing of sounds (lupu et al., 2016; lupu, et al., 2016, lupu et al., 2015). a similar research performed in sweden came with more consensuses about the main features of cas (malmenholt et al., 2012). the survey included 25 questions while 127 slps responded. 85% of the participants suggested inconsistent errors as the core feature of the disorder, 82% noticed difficulties with automaticity and 71% difficulties with sequence maintenance. childhood apraxia of speech. developmental speech patterns. a wide … elad vashdi 59 a new diagnostic tool for cas called the dynamic evaluation of motor speech skill (demss) was published recently (strand et al., 2013). the authors used a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis in order to identify groups of children with similar features of speech patterns. the demss was able to identify the children diagnosed with cas but not all of them. the purpose of this study was to explore the unique speech patterns of the children diagnosed with cas in order to improve the decision-making process of the clinicians working with that population. method a retrospective study was conducted analyzing 277 entry evaluations of children diagnosed with cas or suspected cas. the participants contacted an early age clinic for speech evaluation on their own will. the data was collected over the period 2006-2013 of children evaluated at the early age clinic in israel. a set of variables based on the vml method assessment was established for the retrospective data collection (vashdi, 2013; vashdi, 2014). each evaluation was examined thoroughly by a few examiners. inter-rater reliability was tested over 20 cases and found to have 81% agreement. the data was extracted according to a detailed index. each variable had a scale of 3-5 points score with a specific definition of each stage for scoring. evaluations inclusion criteria were: 1. suspected cas or cas diagnosis. 2. extracting at least 80% of needed data. data that wasn't clear enough to fit the variables criteria wasn't used. 3. evaluations in the hebrew language only. evaluations were examined regardless of any other conditions to ensure non-selective procedure. subjects 277 entry participants were examined. gender distribution 76.6% boys, 23.4% girls. average age was 4;11 years old. age range was 1;7 – 19 years old. all subjects came with a previous diagnosis by a certified examiner (slp or neurologist). 13.7% were diagnosed with cas, the rest of them (86.3%) were diagnosed with suspected cas. 61.15% of them were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (asd) as well. when retrospectively testing the data for each child, considering the guidelines and characteristics for cas, all the children fit the cas definition (american speech-language-hearing association, 2007; forrest, 2003; malmenholt, 2012< shriberg et al., 2003). the average score percentage of single sound production (ssp) was 25.6%. on the words level, 74.7% could brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 60 not pronounce words of any structure, 8.9% could only pronounce cvcv word structure, 4.4% could pronounce cvcv +cvc word structures, 2.2% could pronounce cvcv +cvc + cvcvc word structures and 8.7% could pronounce more complex word structure accurately based on the mastered ssp. cas speech patterns the following correlations and variables were calculated in order to establish the cas speech patterns: blowing and ssp correlation, oral motor and ssp correlation, ssp ladder (order of sounds by relative strength), sounds ladder within consonant group, consonant groups ladder, vowel groups ladder, wiv and the glottal consonant. in addition, we performed a consonants exploratory factor in order to find “resonating” consonants and consonant groups. including all the participants in this analysis might not serve the purpose of primary question since, in cases of having most of the sounds or not having them at all (very high scores and very low scores), the unique relationship between consonant groups will not be highlighted. therefore, we performed the factor analysis procedures for two groups – all the participants (ssp) and for participants with ssp score between 15 % and 80% (ssp2). results high correlation between the blowing skill score and ssp score was found (r= 0.61), as well as between the oral motor skill score and ssp score (r=0.62). table 1 – ssp rank rank sound score rank sound score rank sound score rank sound score 1 a 590* 29 mu 251 57 ku 201 85 fa 144 2 ba 501* 30 ff 249 58 go 198 86 fu 144 3 o 456 31 meh 247 59 gu 194 87 fi 144 4 i 456 32 ne 247 60 gg 194 88 su 143 5 ma 434 33 pu 246 61 je 187 89 vu 142 6 u 397 34 di 243 62 ji 175 90 che 141 7 e 385** 35 la 241 63 ll 174 91 shi 140 8 pa 369 36 ni 239 64 jo 173 92 chu 139 9 mm 355 37 ss 232 65 tsts 172 93 vo 139 10 bo 341 38 do 230 66 leh 171 94 so 138 childhood apraxia of speech. developmental speech patterns. a wide … elad vashdi 61 11 da 332 39 ja 229 67 cha 171 95 si 138 12 na 323 40 dd 229 68 ju 170 96 sho 132 13 bu 312 41 to 229 69 li 170 97 shu 130 14 ta 308 42 tt 226 70 vv 168 98 tsa 129 15 bi 306 43 te 225 71 ze 162 99 tse 128 16 be 289 44 kk 224 72 fo 157 100 zi 124 17 pi 284 45 ti 223 73 va 157 101 zu 122 18 po 283 46 no 222 74 sa 156 102 tsi 121 19 shsh 279 47 nu 220 75 sha 154 103 za 120 20 bb 278 48 lo 220 76 lu 152 104 zo 119 21 mi 276 49 de 220 77 chi 151 105 tso 115 22 ka 276 50 gi 220 78 fe 151 106 tsu 115 23 ga 271 51 chch 220 79 cho 149 107 rr 100 24 pp 267 52 du 217 80 se 149 108 ra 94 25 ke 261 53 ge 215 81 vi 147 109 ro 87 26 pe 258 54 ko 215 82 she 146 110 ri 87 27 mo 257 55 ki 212 83 zz 146 111 re 84 28 nn 254 56 tu 209 84 ve 145 112 ru 83 source: authors'own contribution (*) significantly different from one score below (<0.05), (**) significantly different from two scores below (<0.05) ssp scores within consonant groups found the first ranked sound in the group to be significantly distinctive from the second ranked sound in all groups. table 4 shows the rank of the consonant groups. differences between consonant groups and comparison to the regular development are discussed further in the discussion section. table 2 – within consonants group ssp ladder rank group percentage rank group percentage rank group percentage 1 glottal 54.97* 8 k 27.86 14 x 19.47 2 b 40.65 9 g 25.91 15 s 19.17 3 m 36.50 10 l 22.62 16 v 18.01 4 p 34.24 11 y (j) 22.48 17 z 15.90 5 n 30.18 12 f 19.84 18 ts 15.64 6 d 29.50 13 sh 19.68 19 r 10.73 7 t 28.48 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 62 source: authors'own contribution (*) significantly different from one score below (<0.05) the inclusive vowel groups' ladder is presented in table 3. the strongest vowel group is va followed by 3 similar groups (vo, vi, ve). the weakest vowel group was vu. table 3 – inclusive vowel-form groups' ladder vowel group va vo vi ve vu percentage 31.66* 24.45 24.42 24.14* 21.49 source: authors'own contribution (*) significantly different from one score below (<0.05) consonants exploratory factor analysis factor analysis procedure for all the subjects, demonstrated two consonant groups – fricatives (ch, r, sh, s, ts, z, f, v) and the rest (wiv, y, b, m, p, n, l, t, d, k, g). reducing the subjects group to subjects who had ssp score of 15%-80% demonstrated 5 groups (table 4). table 4 – rotated factor analysis group components 1 sh, s, ts, z, f, v 2 y, n, l, t, d 3 wiv, b, m, p, n 4 k, g, ch 5 n, l, r, f, v source: authors'own contribution discussion this article explored the speech patterns among children diagnosed with cas. the large number of cases and the use of ssp in analysis of patterns enable us to learn much more about the speech patterns and to get implicated in treatment use. the next section will discuss the theoretical and functional implications of the findings. preverbal skills were found correlated with ssp. the literature does not support the use of nsome in the speech treatment (lof, 2007). in this research we found that there is high correlation between the nsome skill level and the ability to pronounce the ssp. we cannot draw any conclusions regarding directional influences between speech production and nsome childhood apraxia of speech. developmental speech patterns. a wide … elad vashdi 63 practice among children with cas; however, these findings suggest that there might be an influence. since the nsome skill is acquired in typical development before the speech skill, it makes sense to consider the nsome to be a prerequisite skill for speech appearance, this is the common perception among speech therapists. in table 1, all the ssp are ranked according to the relevant strength from the strongest to the weakest. the ranking represents the overall tendency and not necessarily the developmental picture in any single cas case. however, we can learn about very interesting phenomena discovered through the ranking: 1. the 5 wiv in hebrew appear within the first 7 sounds. wiv are considered to emerge before the consonants in regular development and that is the case in the cas sounds development as well. 2. the first consonants to appear are the bilabials (first 5 syllables which are not wiv). lavie describes 6 consonants in typical development within the first consonant group (f, p, b, m, n, j) (lavie, 1978). for the cas group, the bilabial consonants are the strongest probably due to clarity of oral movements. 3. surprisingly, the coda form (final consonant) of the /sh/ consonant is ranked 19 in the ssp ranking. that can be explained by the high correlation between the blowing skill, which appears earlier, and the consonant /sh/. 4. no difference in the vocal aspect of consonants was found, suggesting that in cas there is no preference for voiced or non-voiced consonants. 5. the first 6 fricative consonants in the ranking were in coda form (/sh/ ranked 19, /f/ ranked 30, /s/ ranked 37, /ch/ ranked 51, /ts/ ranked 65 and /v/ ranked 70). these findings suggest that adding a vowel to a fricative consonant is hard for the child with cas. the reason might be timing. since the fricative consonant is elongated without a specific temporal ending point, in comparison to a plosive consonant, it is hard for the child to time the entrance of the vowel (nittrouer et al., 1989). 6. the first two sounds (ah & ba) together form the word /aba/ which means /dad/ in hebrew. sounds ranked 3 and 4 (i and ma) together form the word /ima/ which means /mum/ in hebrew. these words have the strongest emotional meaning for the hebrew speaking child, hence the biggest motivation for pronunciation and using in interaction. we can assume that the ranking of these sounds is influenced culturally by the hebrew language. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 64 7. the sounds ranked 77 – 112 (last) were non-plosive and mostly fricatives (72% of all fricatives sounds). that represents the difficulty in pronouncing fricative syllables in comparison to rest of consonants. table 3 demonstrates the intra-consonant syllable ranking. analyzing patterns within consonant groups discovers intra-consonant patterns and suggestions for intervention: the syllable /ba/ was found to be the strongest within the /b/ group, which is correlated with the strength of the vowel /a/. surprisingly /bu/ is ranked 3rd although the vowel /u/ was found to be the weakest among the vowel groups. the coda form of the fricatives (/ch/, /f/, /sh/, /s/, /ts/, /v/, /z/) was found the strongest as in all the fricatives but /z/ (ranked 2nd). it is easier to pronounce the fricative consonant without a vowel for few reasons; firstly, fricative sounds relay heavily on blowing and share similar properties and secondly, the fricative consonant is non-plosive and elongated. it is difficult for a child with cas to add a vowel to a fricative consonant due to timing. the nasal consonants (/m/,/n/) show similar patterns between them, which are different to the other consonants’ patterns. the vowel /a/ was ranked first as with most of the other consonants, however, the coda form (ranked 2nd for both) was stronger in comparison at the plosive consonants, and more alike the fricatives. that suggests similarity between the nasal consonants and the fricatives. the syllable /ke/ appears 2nd in the /k/ ranking due to language influence (/ken/ means /yes/ in hebrew which is a highly common word). at the /g/ consonant group the syllable /gi/ ranked 2nd, probably due to similarity between the tongue's height of the vowel and consonant (high tongue at /i/ and at /g/ production). this phenomenon can be used in treatment while choosing the syllable /gi/ as a preferred junction point for achieving the consonant /g/ or the vowel /i/. wiv the vowel patterns with a glottal consonant are similar to the general vowel patterns except the vowel /e/. as wiv it was ranked last, probably due to the mid position of its control parameters. the tongue is placed in the middle (vertical and horizontal planes), jaw opening is in the middle and there are no extreme movements of the lips or any other articulator. that mid-position feature is not easy for a child with cas to understand, since the boundaries of the movements are not obvious. the consonants ladder most of the speech developmental charts attribute to the consonant level. table 2 summarizes the relative strength of the consonants. we treated the word-initial vowel as the glottal plosive childhood apraxia of speech. developmental speech patterns. a wide … elad vashdi 65 consonant, and it came first in the ladder by far. the first group in lavie's research includes the consonants /f/,/m/,/b/,/p/,/j/,/n/ (lavie, 1978). in our study, /m/,/b/,/p/ and /n/ were found in the first level but /f/ and /j/ were ranked 11 and 10 respectively, though close together. it was easier for the children to acquire first the plosive consonants /t/, /d/,/k/,/g/ then the /f/ and /j/. examining the consonants control broad picture shows clearly that the plosive consonants come first and only then the nonplosive (most of them fricatives). it is easier for the children diagnosed with cas to acquire the plosive consonants since the beginning and end of the movement is clear, which is not the case for the non-plosive consonants the inclusive vowels ladder found vowel /a/ group as the strongest and vowel /u/ as the weakest. these findings can serve clinicians in choosing targets for practice and can explain clinical phenomena. the purpose of the factor analysis process was to explore relationships between consonant groups, in order to explain consonants development. moreover, it can help in speech evaluation and targeting objectives in cas treatment. analyzing the whole participants group (n=277) yielded 2 groups (spp1 score). there is a clear distinction between the fricatives group and the rest of syllables. the fricatives are more difficult to obtain for cas population as for typical developing children. the ssp2 anaylsis yield 5 groups which resonate with the typical consonants development. in group 1 we can find all the fricatives (sh, s, ts, z, f, v) but /ch/ (group 4 with k, g). this group was kept almost as in the first spp1 group. group 2 consisted mostly of tongue's front consonants (y, n, l, t, d). it emphasizes the importance of the tongue position rather than other elements such as manner of articulation or voice. in group 3 we can find the bi-labial consonants (b, p, m), n, and the wiv. bi-labial consonants and wiv are known to be the strongest sounds. the consonant /n/ is probably relates to this group due to nasality factor and affinity to /m/. group 4 consisted of 3 back of the mouth sounds (k, g, ch). it is a small group with a very specific common factor – place of articulation – just like group 2. group 5 on the other hand has a different relationship between the consonants. 4 of them appear in another group while the consonant /r/ joining them. it seems like the common feature is difficulty to pronounce these sounds. in some cases, we would find a difficulty to produce all of them. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 66 limitations since this research is using retrospective data, we do not have control over all the variables as in prospective research. some variables could not be found in all cases, which excluded these cases from the research. some of the data needed to be speculated from the texts causing possible errors in data collection. however, the inter-rater tests showed good agreement. the cas definition is not clear and precise for all children since there is no acceptable gold standard based diagnostic tool. we should consider all these limitations when concluding towards clinical implementations and theoretical hypothesizes. summary this research is unique in size and data regarding the cas population research. even though retrospective, it shed light on the population's speech patterns like no other research work before, since it analyzed data at the single syllable level. the patterns revealed in this research support some of the finding regarding typical speech development through unique aspects and show other sides and different reasoning of typical speech production. we should consider these findings in planning speech treatment and evaluation. references american speech-language-hearing association. (2007). childhood apraxia of speech. technical report. ad hoc committee on apraxia of speech in children. asha. https://www.asha.org/policy/tr2007-00278/ burlea, g., burlea, a.m., & milici, r.c. (2010). prevention and intervention in speech and language therapy for the success of lexicographical acquisitions. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 30, 86-100. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf consonant (2013, november 5). in wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/consonant davis, b. l. (2011, april 27–30). assessment and intervention issues in childhood apraxia of speech: identification and assessment. caslpa confe-rence, 2011, montreal. davis, b. l., jakielski, k. j., & marquardt, t. p. (1998). developmental apraxia of speech: determiners of differential diagnosis. clinical linguistics & phonetics, https://doi.org/10.3109/02699209808985211 ‏‏.25-45 ,(1)12 https://www.asha.org/policy/tr2007-00278/ https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis30_07.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/consonant https://doi.org/10.3109/02699209808985211 childhood apraxia of speech. developmental speech patterns. a wide … elad vashdi 67 donegan, p. (2013). normal vowel development. in m. j. ball , j. s. damico, m. j. ball , & f. e. gibbon (eds.), handbook of vowels and vowel disorders, 24. routledge. forrest, k. (2003). diagnostic criteria of developmental apraxia of speech used by clinical speech-language pathologists. american journal of speech-language pathology, 12(3), 376. https://doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360(2003/083) lavie, s. (1978). norms of the hebrew consonants system between the age 3 to 5 [unpublished master’s thesis]. tel aviv university. levelt, w. j. m., roelofs, a. & meyer, a. s. (1999). a theory of lexical access in speech production. behavioral and brain sciences, 22(1), 38-75. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x99001776 lof, g. l. (2007, november 17). reasons why non-speech oral motor exercises should not be used for speech sound disorders. asha annual convention, boston. lupu, v. v., ignat, a., ciubotariu, g., ciubara, a., moscalu, m., & burlea, m. (2016). helicobacter pylori infection and gastroesophageal reflux in children. diseases of the esophagus, 29(8), 1007-1012. https://doi.org/10.1111/dote.12429 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., ciubara, a-m., ioniuc, i., ciubara, a. b., gheonea, c., & burlea, m. (2016). the study of effects regarding ingestion of corrosive substances in children. revista de chimie, 67(12), 2501-2503. https://revistadechimie.ro/pdf/lupu%20v%2012%2016.pdf lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., mihaila, d., burlea, m., & ciubara, a-m. (2015). heterotopic gastric mucosa in the distal part of esophagus in a teenager case report. medicine, 94(42), e1722. https://doi.org/ 10.1097/md.0000000000001722 malmenholt, a., lohmander, a., & mcallister, a. (2012, june 27–30). childhood apraxia of speech (cas): a survey of knowledge and experience of swedish speechlanguage pathologists.‏ icpla 2012: 14th meeting of the international clinical phonetics and linguistics association, cork, ireland, 2012, cork university college. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva79759</div> mckinnon, d. h., mcleod, s., & reilly, s. (2007). the prevalence of stuttering, voice, and speech-sound disorders in primary school students in australia. language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 38(1), 5-15.‏ https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2007/002) morley, m. e. (1975). the development and disorders of speech in childhood. churchill livingstone.‏ newmeyer, a. j., aylward, c., akers, r., ishikawa, k., grether, s., degrauw, t., grasha, c., & white, j. (2009). results of the sensory profile in children with suspected childhood apraxia of speech. physical & occupational therapy in pediatrics, 29(2), 203-218. https://doi.org/10.1080/01942630902805202 https://doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360(2003/083) https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x99001776 https://doi.org/10.1111/dote.12429 https://revistadechimie.ro/pdf/lupu%20v%2012%2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-79759%3c/div http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-79759%3c/div https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2007/002) https://doi.org/10.1080/01942630902805202 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3, supplementary 1 68 nittrouer, s., studdert-kennedy, m., & mcgowan, r. s. (1989). the emergence of phonetic segments: evidence from the spectral structure of fricative-vowel syllables spoken by children and adults. journal of speech, language and hearing research, 32(1), 120-132.‏ shriberg, l. d., aram, d. m., & kwiatkowski, j. (1997). developmental apraxia of speech: i. descriptive and theoretical perspectives. journal of speech, language, and hearing research, 40(2), 273-285.‏ https://doi.org/10.1044/jslhr.4002.273 shriberg, l. d., lohmeier, h. l., strand, e. a., & jakielski, k. j. (2012). encoding, memory, and transcoding deficits in childhood apraxia of speech. clinical linguistics & phonetics, 26(5), 445–482. https://doi.org/10.3109/02699206.2012.655841 ‏ shriberg, l. d., paul, r., black, l. m., & van santen, j. p. (2011). the hypothesis of apraxia of speech in children with autism spectrum disorder. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 41(4), 405-426.‏ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1117-5 shriberg, l. d., campbell, t. f., karlsson, h. b., brown, r. l., mcsweeny, j. l., & nadler, c. j. (2003). a diagnostic marker for childhood apraxia of speech: the lexical stress ratio. clinical linguistics & phonetics, 17, 549-574. https://doi.org/10.1080/0269920031000138123 strand, e. a., mccauley, r. j., weigand, s. d., stoeckel, r. e., & baas, b. s. (2013). a motor speech assessment for children with severe speech disorders: reliability and validity evidence. journal of speech, language, and hearing research, 56(2), 505-520. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2012/120094) vashdi, e. (2013). using vml (verbal motor learning) method techniques in treatment of prosody disorder due to childhood apraxia of speech: a case study. international journal of child health and human development, 6(2), 255260. vashdi, e. (2014). the influence of initial phoneme cue technique according to the vml method on word formation with a child who has apraxia of speech and autism a case study. international journal of child health and human development, 7(2), 197-203. vowel (2013, november 5). in wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vowel yoss, k. a. (1975, may). developmental apraxia of speech in children: familial patterns and behavioral characteristics. asha north central regional conference, minneapolis.‏ https://doi.org/10.1044/jslhr.4002.273 https://doi.org/10.3109/02699206.2012.655841 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1117-5 https://doi.org/10.1080/0269920031000138123 https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2012/12-0094) https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2012/12-0094) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vowel brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 470-483 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/294 behavioral intervention technologies – historical, medical, philosophical, and ethical perspectives marius dumitrescu¹, şerban turliuc2, nicoleta dumitrescu3 1 faculty of philosophy and socio-political sciences, “alexandru ioan cuza” university of iaşi, romania, dumitrescu.marius66@yahoo.com 2 faculty of medicine, “grigore t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iași, romania, and “socola” institute of psychiatry, iaşi, romania, serban.turliuc@gmail.com 3 “socola” institute of psychiatry iaşi, romania, nina.dumitrescu000@yahoo.com abstract: in this study, we will analyze, from philosophical, medical and bioethical points of view, the genetic ways in which the biological foundations of human behavior can be identified, as well as the technologies that can contribute to the modification of certain human behaviors, especially aggressive ones. ideas about the inheritance of a certain behavior have been identified since greek antiquity, but in the 20th century, along with sequencing and mapping of all genes of the members of our species, the possibility of identifying possible genes for learning and memory has emerged and therefore the ability to act on them through “behavioral genetics” could develop. in the dawn of the 21st century, researchers begin to consider that abnormal behaviors had a certain genetic mutation located on the “x” chromosome or on the “y” chromosome and the concept of “genetics of intellectual disability” was introduced in the medical literature. after the identification of the genes or the constellation of genes that underlie the occurrence of psychiatric disorders, the researchers developed genetic engineering to be performed on certain groups of neuronal cells, but these activities lead to the question: how useful or dangerous these new genome editing technologies will be, especially in terms of conservation and perpetuation of the human species. we conclude that the chimera-type people, whose genetic structure is artificially constructed, would raise issues primarily about their identity, their integration into traditional societies, but also about the need for a new legislation. however, the future society will have, at some point, to accept the reality of genetic interventions, the purpose of which is to achieve much more radical transformations in human nature. keywords: behavior, genetic selection, genetic intervention, ethical challenges. how to cite: dumitrescu, m., turliuc, ş., & dumitrescu, n. (2022). behavioral intervention technologies – historical, medical, philosophical, and ethical perspectives. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 470-483. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/294 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/294 mailto:dumitrescu.marius66@yahoo.com mailto:serban.turliuc@gmail.com mailto:nina.dumitrescu000@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/294 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 471 introduction the human genome project is a remarkable scientific achievement (roushan et al., 2014), which has fulfilled its purpose of determining the base pairs that make up human dna and to identify and map all genes in the human genome, both physically and functionally. for researchers in the field of behavioral sciences, this is particularly interesting, because dimensions and behavioral disorders are the most complex features of all. therefore, it was considered that, in order to understand these traits, one must first identify the possible roles that certain genes may play in the development of different human behaviors. in this study, we will address the genetic ways in which the biological foundations of human behavior can be identified, as well as the technologies that can contribute to the modification of certain human behaviors, especially aggressive ones. historical vignettes on the significance of genetics in human behaviors viewed with suspicion since antiquity, genetic intervention has however made its way to the present day. in book v of the republic dialogue, plato considered that, in an ideal state, the ”guardians”, i.e. the ruling elite, are the result of both a genetic inheritance and a good education (grote, 1867). taking into consideration the example of how valuable specimens can be obtained in the case of dogs and poultry, he considers that, in the case of marriages and the procreation of the ruling class in the ideal state, the following imperative law must be considered: “we must copy the example of those who regulate the copulation of horses, dogs, and other animals: we must bring together those who will give existence to the best offspring. we must couple, as often as we can, the men who are best, with the women who are best, both in mind and body; and the men who are least good with the women who are least good”. the children of the first couples must be raised, but the others – no, because only a good ancestry can lead to superior characters, and those who have it can be included in the elite class (plato, 2008). ideas about the inheritance of a certain behavior could be also identified in the shakespearean works. the countess de roussilon, from the play all's well that ends well, presents helena, her protégée, as a young woman characterized both by good upbringing, which was to ensure a bright future, but also by the moral qualities acquired from her parents: “this young gentlewoman had a father… whose skill was almost as great as his honesty… his sole behavioral intervention technologies – historical, medical, philosophical, and … marius dumitrescu, et al. 472 child, my lord; i have those hopes of her good that her education promises: her dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; ... in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness” (shakespeare, 1894). however, the cases in which the observance of ethical requirements and happiness harmonize with each other give way to other situations in which these requirements are not necessarily sufficient for a person to consider himself happy. this is also the case of the character faust in the eponymous poem written by goethe, in the eighteenth century, which captures the contradiction between a life lived according to moral precepts, in accordance with the customs of society, but which does not bring happiness and fulfillment to the subject-, and a life in which desires, even if they are illicit from the point of view of the collective mind, are satisfied, making the individual a damned person, but who pays for that damnation with a moment of happiness. this eternal ambivalence between inclination and duty is perhaps best reflected in the monologue of the respected professor faust of the university of wittenberg: "i've studied, alas, philosophy/ law and medicine, recto and verso/ and how i regret it, theology also,/ oh god, how hard i've slaved away/ with what result? poor foolish old man,/ i'm no whit wiser than when i began!” (von goethe, 2014). after all these endeavors in the realm of knowledge and the practice of virtue, the bitter conclusion of the old professor faust is that he has nothing in this world: ”i've got no money or property,/ worldly honors or celebrity;/ a dog wouldn't put up with this life!” (von goethe, 2014). what did the old doctor and professor faust actually do that made him so unhappy? nothing but that he deliberately changed his innate behavior, which inhibited his tendencies, his inclinations, those neigungen as kant calls them, or the impulses as called by freud, on the basis of his casuistry in medical practice, as treib which in german means deviations (from the consciously assumed path) or drives in english, in the sense of forces that lead us independently of our consciously assumed will. freud, like kant, correlates inclinations with the idea of desire. his entire life, faust, the old professor at the university, geared his behavior in the direction that his duty to humanity, to the species, we might say, conducted him. faust's behavior thus becomes a moral one, accepted by other people and, even more, considered exemplary by his disciples. the old teacher taught philosophy and even theology. faust the theologian, however, considers himself unhappy as an individual; he is on the verge of suicide, willing to sell his soul to mephistopheles in order to experience the happiness marked by that moment when he can say: ”linger awhile, you are so fair!” (von goethe, 2014). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 473 nowadays, scientists do not inquire themselves if they can invoke mephistopheles to satisfy their most eccentric desires, but whether if human behaviors can be artificially altered in order to be improved. in recent decades, it has been found that there are two ways in which this operation can become achievable: either through genetic interventions, or through substances that alter the natural chemistry of living organisms. in both cases, "improved" behaviors can be induced through advanced technologies, thus becoming socially acceptable. the limits of eugenics the identification of methods by which certain human behaviors could be modified aroused great interest since the beginning of the twentieth century, when two theories were in vogue. one of these argued the importance of genetic determinism of behavior, based on the research of charles darwin, the founder of evolutionary theory, and the famous laws of heredity discovered by gregor mendel. the second represents the opinions of two american anthropologists, franz boas and margaret mead, who supported the social origins of human behavior. one of the proponents of the theory of heredity, the american psychologist and eugenicist henry h. goddard published in 1912 the book the kallikak family: a study in the heredity of feeble-mindedness. this book presented the results of the research carried out in an institution where «“feeble-minded children” were raised, in order to determine the mental and physical peculiarities of the different deficiencies identified in the children there, with the hope that they will be correlated with the condition of the child's nervous system», as the author announced in the book's preface (goddard, 1912). the author presents an extensive case study on the legacy of the “mental weakness” of young deborah kallikak, a patient admitted to the institution where the author worked. goddard presents her family tree, starting with her distant ancestor, martin kallikak, an american hero who had a family with his wife, which included prosperous and well-positioned individuals. prior to his marriage, during the war, young martin had a short-term relationship with a bartender girl, which resulted in a son. out of his 408 descendants, including deborah, 153 were alcoholics, prostitutes, criminals, or epileptic (goddard, 1912), because, according to the author, they had inherited their ancestor, the bartender girl, described by him as “the nameless feeble-minded girl” (goddard, 1912). the german eugenicist thus wanted to show that a variety of mental traits are hereditary and that society should limit the reproduction of people who possess such traits. behavioral intervention technologies – historical, medical, philosophical, and … marius dumitrescu, et al. 474 during the second world war, perhaps inspired by this book, the nazis tried to improve the genetic quality of the aryan german population by excluding people and groups considered inferior and by promoting those considered superior. adolf hitler promoted legislation under which people with physical or mental “defects” had to be removed from the ranks of the german people. such “defective” people were the poor, the mentally ill, the blind, the deaf, those with various developmental disabilities, promiscuous women, homosexuals, and racial groups (such as roma and jews in nazi germany) who had to be sterilized and even killed. much later, in 1994, the bell curve: intelligence and class structure in american life (herrnstein & murry, 1994) claimed the existence of correlations between genetics, class, race and intelligence, obtained on the basis of extensive documentation and extensive statistical analysis. framed by critics as promoting a nazi ethic, the book was considered dangerous for its results as it disadvantaged certain social categories. methods for identifying the genetic basis of memory and learning after the second world war, a whole literature dedicated to the artificial modification of behaviors emerged, starting with the science fiction, satirical and dystopian novel entitled a clockwork orange written in 1962 by an english author (burgess, 1962) and ending up to the famous our posthuman future: consequences of the biotechnology revolution (fukuyama, 2002), published four decades later by the american sociologist and political scientist francis fukuyama. such research, which aims at the intervention of science in changing human behaviors and performance, first tackled the increase of the degree of stress resistance, memory enhancement, but also the speed of response to various external stimuli. however, everything took shape with the launch, in 1990, of the human genome project (roushan et al., 2014) because, based on the sequencing and mapping of all genes of the members of our species, homo sapiens, it was hoped that we would understand human evolution, the causes and mechanisms of diseases that an individual could suffer at some point, but also complex interactions between genes and the environment. however, later, based on the genetic map, new research was conducted in order to understand the biological foundations of human behavior (bull & varghese, 2020). the first of the most significant achievements in this field of research is the discovery, in 1996, by joe z. tsien et al., a biologist at princeton university, of a possible gene for learning and memory. to make brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 475 this discovery, the american researcher developed the less ethical method called gene knockout technology, based on which a laboratory mouse was raised without the gene responsible for memory qualities because virtually all genes of interest in the pyramidal cells (neurons) were deleted from the hippocampal region ca1 (tsien et al., 1996). the same researchers used genetically modified mice to demonstrate a spatial memory deficit and fear conditioning when genetic modification occurs in the striatal nerve cells and the amygdala, two anatomical structures considered to belong to the limbic system (mayford et al., 1996). two years later, joe z. tsien introduces a concept that will impose him in the scientific community: “behavioral genetics” (tsien, 1998), to emphasize the role of genetics in the development of human behavior. the problem, however, is to what extent his experiments on laboratory mice can be extended to humans because, in the case of humans, such an experiment would appear to be abominable. although recent studies on memory and intelligence in identical twins encourage genetic approaches to these human qualities, however, when research comes to conclusions that are too firm in this direction, they clash with the opinion of many equally knowledgeable scientists in this field of research, especially among those working in the field of pedagogical instruction. these researchers, most of them with considerable teaching experience, believe that factors related to education are more important than the genetic ones in terms of the intelligence and even the memory of an individual, which are largely constituted through various particular learning contexts. technologies are changing the human behaviors technologies that aim to change human behavior using information from genetics or the pharmaceutical industry are still in their infancy, but this does not mean that in the near or distant future the problem data cannot progress. also in this embryonic research context are the studies on the control of delinquency or aberrant considered sexuality, disturbing for the social order. early twentieth-century research focused more on morphological elements, such as the shape of the skull, forehead, and cheekbones, the proximity of the eyes, or the size of the jaw, as this matter had been initiated since the end of the 19th century. in the second half of the twentieth century, after the world war ii, the contribution of genetics began to be recognized in the understanding of behavioral intervention technologies – historical, medical, philosophical, and … marius dumitrescu, et al. 476 the mechanisms of triggering violence and aberrant sexuality, even if it was difficult to accept. thus, the physiognomy researches of the swiss theologian johann caspar lavater (1741-1801), as well as those carried out by franz joseph gall (1758-1828), which were related to the phrenological theory, or those of cesare lombroso (1853-1909), who focused on the study of human features to identify possible trends in criminal acts, have left room for more sophisticated analyzes, developed by geneticists in their studies at the microscopic level. in 1993, a group of geneticists published the results of a research study on a dutch family with several individuals with aggressive and sometimes violent behavior, some of whom were accused of committing crimes, others of arson, attempted rape, or exhibitionism. the researchers found that all those responsible for such abnormal behaviors had a certain genetic mutation located on the x chromosome, which was missing in other family members who did not show such aggressive tendencies. the affected locus was that of the structural gene for monoamine oxidase a, the enzyme involved in the metabolism of neurotransmitters, which ensure the transmission of nerve impulses from one neuron to another. in the absence of that enzyme, monoamine neurotransmitters accumulate and cause psychiatric or neurological diseases. the researchers concluded that the genetic modification they discovered may represent the biological mechanism underlying anti-social behavior, or, in other words, that aggression may be genetically conditioned (brunner et al., 1993a). in such cases, the therapy that is required to be the most effective can only be one of a genetic nature, which would prevent the appearance of this mutation in future generations (brunner et al., 1993b). on the other hand, the romanian professor constantin maximilian, the creator of the romanian school of genetics, stated that studies that used genetics and certain statistical data regarding delinquent men have come to say that the y chromosome would have significance in such cases. in the case of those men who have a structure with two ”y”, i. e. the shape of ”xyy” instead of the normal ”xy”, would predispose to such inclinations towards extreme violence and even murder (maximilian et al., 2001). subsequently, more and more scientific articles have appeared that have proven the role of genes at behavioral, neuroanatomical, neurochemical and neurophysiological levels, throughout the ages of development (anagnostopoulos et al., 2001a). the experiments were performed on mice modified by transgenesis or gene deletion (”knockouts”), which were used to elucidate the genetic basis of the behavior (anagnostopoulos et al, 2001b) brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 477 because they provide the model for evaluating the effectiveness of new therapies in the treatment of hereditary psychiatric and neurological disorders. in fact, in 2007, the psychiatric genomics consortium was established. its purpose is to perform analyzes of genetic data identified at the human genomic level in order to identify the genes or constellation of genes that underlie the occurrence of psychiatric disorders. its more distant goal is, of course, to be able to intervene through gene therapies to improve the diagnosis, develop a targeted treatment and enhance primary prevention (watson et al, 2020). in 2008, ropers introduced the concept of "genetics of intellectual disability" in an article stating that early-onset intellectual disability is a health condition and not a social or educational problem because the condition is actually characterized by cytogenetically visible chromosomal abnormalities, such as trisomy 21, but also submicroscopic deletions and duplications of the x chromosome (ropers, 2008). bioethical controversies regarding the changes in the molecular structure of the nervous system recently, the romanian bioethicist antonio sandu specified that the possibilities of intervention on human nature call for a greater amplitude of what bioethics means. thus, this author considers that “bioethics should not be limited to providing a set of rules, or the principles of good practice for health care, but should include a specific discourse on the various scenarios in which humanity evolves, namely the nature in which research evolves, whether we are talking about an ethics of technology, a post and transhumanist ethics, an eco-ethics, an ethics of public policy, including health care” (sandu, 2020). technologies that use genetics open an extremely controversial topic: whether or not parents or society have the right to determine the sex of children or, moreover, the color of their eyes or their degree of intelligence. this is possible today not so much through genetic intervention as through genetic selection. a geneticist can easily anticipate the future features of the fetus and its possible genetic problems. the question is whether, once we know these elements of the future evolution of the embryo, do we have the moral right to make a selection among these candidates for life? another even more controversial topic is related to genetic intervention to change the molecular structure of the human nervous system behavioral intervention technologies – historical, medical, philosophical, and … marius dumitrescu, et al. 478 given that recent research has shown that the malfunction of specific cell types in different regions of the brain is the basis for various neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as hallucinations, depression, or repetitive motor behavior (heidenreich & zhang, 2016). in 2001, the technology to modify the molecular structure of the nervous system by adding genes or deleting genes in the early stages of embryo development had already become known. the researchers were also aware of a gene therapy that consisted of delivering antisense mrna directly to predetermined cell types, thus allowing genetic modification of selected neuronal populations in adult animals (lowenstein, & castro, 2001). obviously, this genetic engineering performed on certain groups of neuronal cells will have effects on human behavior, if they are put into practice on human subjects, but the question is whether this intervention is ethical or not. in the second decade of the third millennium, new genome editing technologies are used, such as those based on the crispr / cas system (feng et al., 2020), which is an rna-targeted genome editing tool that allows researchers to modify multiple genes simultaneously through insertions and deletions. the consequence is a change in the germline genome in the embryo. so far, only experiments generating genetically modified models of non-human primates have been published so far, but they are useful in researching and treating brain disorders, either of a psychiatric nature or due to a defective neural development that occurs in humans. but, because in the last decades bioethics has become “the regulatory and methodological reference factor of the activities in the most diverse fields, but with predilection in the philosophical, sociological, medical and legal one” (ojovanu, 2020), we must consider how useful or dangerous these new genome editing technologies will be, especially in terms of conservation and perpetuation of the human species. will they be able to increase the quality of life? will they achieve a better human species? or they will push us into a spiral of changes, the long-term effects of which we cannot anticipate. the possible consequences of genetic or artificial augmentation of the human being gattaca, the american dystopian science fiction film, made in 1997, offers a vision of a future society in which, through genetic engineering, descendants possessing only the best hereditary characteristics of their parents could be obtained. the film highlights a disturbing thing, namely that if all genetic efforts are directed only towards obtaining high-performing brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 479 individuals with exceptional qualities to work in the lucrative fields, then a world can be created in which love and the magical attraction between people disappear, who belong to other laws, much more complex and which cannot be predetermined artificially. in fact, this is supported since antiquity, when plato, in the banquet, stated that, in the beginning, humanity would have existed in a state of perfection without knowing love. this appeared as a consequence of a punishment by which the primordial man was degraded from his condition by halving. since then, the parts of the whole, when they meet, are attracted to each other through love, precisely to restore unity, the original state (plato, 2001). therefore, there can be no love between perfect beings. the norwegian film miracle captures the conflict between changing nature or leaving it as it is, even with the risk of unfortunate genetic accidents. such genetic accidents could be catastrophic for the fate of some people, who, innocent, can end up with a lethal genetic inheritance, which also brings disaster for those whom they became attached to in an attempt to correct this “derailment” of nature through genetic selection. the film thus raises a serious issue of morality regarding the right of people to select life artificially, thus entering into a competition with nature. the problem is how far we can push such practices. in this sense, there is reluctance about genetic modification that can really affect the nature of things, but selection can also be just as dangerous when it becomes an end in itself. thus, the following question comes to light: ”to what extent can the natural condition, in which happiness and unhappiness are equally distributed, be replaced by a society planned to be perfect, but which in fact could prove catastrophic for the human species?” the film makes direct reference to the experiments of the nazis during world war ii, which turned out to be inhuman in fact, as if recalling the famous saying: “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. nowadays, this issue of genetic planning of a human being may seem exaggerated, as it is valid only for those couples where there is a genetic disease that can be avoided this way. however, in the future, when in vitro fertilization and even the possibility of the existence of machine-type uteri will externalize the pregnancy, thus rendering the bonds between mother and fetus less strong-, such selections would become commonplace. this may seem more like science fiction today, but the trend is evident in this direction if we consider the increasing working age of women, their increasing involvement in lucrative activities and, perhaps most importantly, the fact that that current science and technology are very close to making such a womb-machine. behavioral intervention technologies – historical, medical, philosophical, and … marius dumitrescu, et al. 480 in fact, in israel, successful experiments are already being conducted with artificial uteri, so far only for mice, called ”biobag” (”biological bag”) (romanis, 2018; romanis, 2020), which are intended to ensure the gestation process outside the uterus of the natural mother. this ”biobag” is currently used to continuing the development of premature babies as it behaves just like a mother's womb and provides oxygen, a substitute of amniotic fluid, water and all necessary nutrients. however, all these researches have triggered numerous proand condiscussions of an ethical and bioethical nature, focused on the clinical benefits, respectively saving premature babies, but also on disadvantages, among which more significant would be those in which the technique is used for non-medical purposes (segers, 2021). however, it is only a matter of time before in vitro fertilization technologies and those that save premature babies, born even from four to five months of pregnancy, will be able to achieve, if they have not already fulfilled, that ideal of the alchemical man obtained in the test tube, which represents in fact that homunculus already mentioned by goethe in his poem. in goethe's faust, the homunculus is that little man obtained in the crucible of the alchemists, at a fire that kept a temperature close to the vital one, and reflected that dream of capturing the pure soul in a natural body: « homunculus: here and there and out and in,/ full of longing and impatience/ to smash my glass, enjoy a real existence.» (von goethe, 2014). these alchemical dreams, which can frighten the man of all times, are perhaps closer than ever now to be achieved through genetic engineering and cutting-edge reproductive technologies. thus, it will be possible to obtain people without a family identity, perfectly healthy from a physical point of view and who, if we add the cloning technologies, will be able to be even identical, at least when they are specialized for certain activities. the purpose of such a genetic selection would be to eliminate those factors related to the selfishness of the individual and to encourage cooperation in the lucrative group in which there would be no more parasitic elements. conclusions in the face of such possible achievements, which are already very close to becoming a reality, philosophy, medicine and bioethics must make a considerable contribution to understanding them and, especially, to follow the consequences of the interventions on the structure of the human being through genetic selection. this issue becomes even more important nowadays, as the dynamics of the implementation of some controversial technologies has far exceeded the philosophical /medical/ bioethical researches that would seriously study their impact for humanity. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 481 the chimera-type people, whose genetic structure is artificially constructed, would raise issues primarily about their identity and, why not, integration into traditional societies. these challenges are to some extent already in the realm of the present, and philosophy and medicine must give them their answers in order to achieve future legislation. as it has succeeded in integrating organ transplantation, the future society will have, at some point, to accept the reality of genetic interventions, the purpose of which is to achieve much more radical transformations in human nature. references anagnostopoulos, a. v., mobraaten, l. e., sharp, j. j., & davisson, m. t. (2001a). transgenic and knockout databases: behavioral profiles of mouse mutants. physiology and behavior, 73(5), 675-689. https://doi.org/10.1016/s00319384(01)00525-x anagnostopoulos, a. v., sharp, j. j., mobraaten, l. e., eppig, j. t., & davisson, m. t. (2001b). availability and characterization of transgenic and knockout mice with behavioral manifestations: where to look and what to search for. behavioural brain research, 125(12), 33-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/s01664328(01)00284-4 brunner, h. g., nelen, m. r., van zandvoort, p., abeling, n. g., van gennip, a. h., wolters, e. c., kuiper, m. a., ropers, h. h., & van oost. b. a. (1993a). x-linked borderline mental retardation with prominent behavioral disturbance: phenotype, genetic localization, and evidence for disturbed monoamine metabolism. american journal of human genetics, 52(6), 10321039. brunner, h. g., nelen, m., breakefield, x. o., ropers, h. h., & van oost b. a. (1993b). abnormal behavior associated with a point mutation in the structural gene for monoamine oxidase a. science, 262(5133), 578-580. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.8211186 bull, c., & varghese, f. p. (2020). human genome project and personality. in b. j. carducci & c. s. nave (eds.), the wiley encyclopedia of personality and individual differences, volume i. models and theories. wiley blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119547167.ch137 burgess, a. (1962). a clockwork orange. heinemann. feng, g., jensen, f. e., greely, h. t., okano, h., treue, s., roberts, a. c., fox, j. g., caddick, s., poo, m., newsome, w. t., & morrison, j. h. (2020). opportunities and limitations of genetically modified nonhuman primate models for neuroscience research. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 117(39), 24022-24031. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2006515117 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-9384(01)00525-x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-9384(01)00525-x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-4328(01)00284-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-4328(01)00284-4 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.8211186 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119547167.ch137 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2006515117 behavioral intervention technologies – historical, medical, philosophical, and … marius dumitrescu, et al. 482 fukuyama, f. (2002). our posthuman future: consequences of the biotechnology revolution. farrar, straus and giroux. goddard, h. h. (1912). the kallikak family: a study of the heredity of feeblemindedness. preface. macmillan company. grote, g. (1867). plato and the other companions of socrates. platonic republic, volume iii (2nd ed.). john murray. heidenreich, m., & zhang, f. (2016). applications of crispr-cas systems in neuroscience. nature reviews. neuroscience, 17(1), 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2015.2 herrnstein, r., & murry, c. (1994). the bell curve: intelligence and class structure in american life. free press. lowenstein, p., & castro, m. g. (2001). genetic engineering within the adult brain: implications for molecular approaches to behavioral neuroscience. physiology & behavior, 73(5), 833-839. https://doi.org/10.1016/s00319384(01)00520-0 maximilian, c., bembea, m., & belengeanu, v. (2001). genetica început fără sfârșit. editura de vest. mayford, m., bach, m. e., huang, y.-y., wang, l., hawkins, r. d., & kandel, e. r. (1996). control of memory formation through regulated expression of a camkii transgene. science, 274 (5293), 1678-1683. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.274.5293.1678 ojovanu, v. (2020). news and perspectives of the implementation of the potential of bioethics in the socio-medical space. in v. ojovanu (ed.), health, medicine and bioethics in the current society: inter and multidisciplinary studies. printcaro. plato. (2008). the republic (b. jowett, trans.). digireads.com. plato. (2001). symposium (b. seth trans.). the university of chicago press. romanis, e. c. (2018). artificial womb technology and the frontiers of human reproduction: conceptual differences and potential implications. journal of medical ethics, 0, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2018-1049110 romanis e. c. (2020). artificial womb technology and clinical translation: innovative treatment or medical research?. bioethics, 34(4), 392–402. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12701 ropers, h. h. (2008). genetics of intellectual disability, current opinion in genetics and development, 18 (3), 241-50. roushan, t., ahmed, d., & ali, m. r. (2014). human genome projecta review. medicine today, 26 (01), 53-55. sandu. a. (2020). bioetica în criză sau criza bioeticii? o filosofie a pandemiei în societatea medicalizată. editura lumen. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2015.2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-9384(01)00520-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-9384(01)00520-0 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.274.5293.1678 https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2018-1049110 https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12701 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 483 segers, s. (2021). the path toward ectogenesis: looking beyond the technical challenges. bmc medical ethics, 22, 59. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910021-00630-6 shakespeare, w. (1894). all's well that ends well, act i: 1. in w. a. wright (ed.), the works of william shakespeare, volume xii. macmillan and co. tsien, j. z. (1998). behavioral genetics: subregionand cell type-restricted gene knockout in mouse brain. pathologie biologie (paris), 46(9), 699-700. tsien, j. z., chen, d. f., gerber, d., tom, c., mercer, e. h., anderson, d. j., mayford, m., kandel, e. r., & tonegawa, s. (1996). subregionand cell type – restricted gene knockout in mouse brain. cell, 87(7), 1317-1326. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0092-8674(00)81826-7 von goethe, j. w. (2014). faust: a tragedy, parts one and two, fully revised faust (m. greenberg, trans.). yale university press. watson, h. j., yilmaz, z., & sullivan, p. f. (2020). the psychiatric genomics consortium: history, development, and the future. in b. t. baune (ed.), personalized psychiatry (pp. 91-101). academic press. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00630-6 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00630-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0092-8674(00)81826-7 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 98-111 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/194 schadenfreude and general anti-social behaviours: the role of violent content preferences and life satisfaction edgar demeter¹, dana rad2, evelina balaş3 1 assist. prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, edgar.demeter@uav.ro 2 assoc. prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, dana@xhouse.ro 3 assoc. prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, evelinabalas@yahoo.com abstract: in a digitally developed civilization access to different kinds of content and information can be easily acquired. from all the available content, some individuals chose and prefer to consume aggressive or violent content. in this light, the scope of this investigation is to determine the connection between the level of violent content preferences (vc) and the levels of general antisocial behaviour (as) and schadenfreude (sch) and the relationship between the intensity of life satisfaction (ls) and the intensity of violent content preferences (vc), general antisocial behaviour (as) and schadenfreude (sch). the present investigation is part of a chain of studies with reference to violent behaviours and cognitions. in this study, a number of 81 students (m = 27.57 sd = 9.25) from arad, romania, aurel vlaicu university, were investigated. vc and sch were measured with the explorative affirmations, as scores were obtained with the help of the how i think questionnaire (hit) and ls was calculated with the help of the satisfaction with life scale (swls). the obtained data ilustrates that vc is positively associated with as an sch, furthermore, as is positively related with sch, and ls was negatively associated with vc, as and sch. these outcomes point out the requirement to take into consideration the content we consume in regard to one’s satisfaction with life and can offer literature meaningful information in regards to the prevention or reduction of anti-social tendencies or cognitions. keywords: global life satisfaction, subjective well-being, schadenfreude, general anti-social behaviour, self-serving cognitive distortions, violent content, aggressive content. how to cite: demeter, e., rad, d., & balaș, e. (2021). schadenfreude and general anti-social behaviours: the role of violent content preferences and life satisfaction. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 98-111. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/194 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/194 mailto:edgar.demeter@uav.ro mailto:dana@xhouse.ro mailto:evelinabalas@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/194 schadenfreude and general anti-social behaviours: the role of violent … edgar demeter, et al. 99 1. introduction being a technologically developed civilization, access to different kinds of content and information can be easily obtained (especially by using the internet through different devices, i.e. smart phones, laptops, personal computers). individuals consume and prefer to consume various content and information, some of it even being aggressive or violent. literature indicated that violent or aggressive content has a high frequency in media, on the internet and on other platforms and some of this content can even be accessed by individuals underage (jahangir et al., 2014; smith et al., 2003; thompson & haninger, 2001; westerman, & tamborini, 2010; wilson et al., 2002). in this light, there are numerous studies in literature that found significant associations between aggressive content consumption and antisocial tendencies (anderson & dill, 2000; anderson et al., 2003; fischer & greitemeyer, 2006; gentile et al., 2004; greitemeyer & mclatchie, 2011; zumbach & bluemke, 2018). these findings do not necessary suggest that all individuals who consume aggressive media will become criminals (zumbach & bluemke, 2018). what they can suggest is the fact that individuals who consume aggressive media may develop some anti-social traits or tendencies and can enjoy when something bad happens to others, but this does not necessarily mean that they will commit crimes (ash et al., 2019; saleem et al., 2012; zumbach & bluemke, 2018). it is also true that some individuals who enjoy aggressive content or enjoy when something bad happens to others can also develop serious behavioral problems, especially if there are pre-existing problems (kanz, 2016; greitemeyer & mclatchie, 2011; greitemeyer, 2014; wang et al., 2019). therefore in this investigation we want to examine the link between the level of violent content preferences and the levels of general anti-social behavior (including cognitions and types of behaviors) and schadenfreude. schadenfreude is a borrowed term from the german language and the literal translation is “harm joy” (heider, 1958). it is represented by the unusual experience of enjoyment or pleasure caused by the misery or troubles experienced by other individuals (wang et al., 2019). schadenfreude is a negative (or dark) emotion, where instead of experiencing compassion towards someone's troubles, schadenfreude involves pleasurable feelings from watching someone else suffer (erzi, 2020; wang et al., 2019). in this light, recent studies from literature suggested that schadenfreude can be related to some anti-social tendencies, such as: aggression, anger or vengeance (erzi, 2020; sawada & hayama, 2012). studies also suggest that individuals who consume content (with aggressive tendencies) can brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 100 experience schadenfreude (westerman & tamborini, 2010; wei & liu, b. 2020; ash et al., 2019; ouwerkerk & van dijk, 2008). there are other studies that indicated that the consumption of pro-social content (i.e. video games or music) can reduce schadenfreude and anti-social tendencies (saleem et al, 2012; greitemeyer et al., 2010; greitemeyer, 2010). anti-social behaviors are described as observable behaviors that can have a negative impact on other individuals (in a direct or indirect manner), by defying significant moral or social norms (barriga et al., 2001). these types of behaviors can include acts with a high level of violence (i.e. murder, rape or violent assault) and/ or less violent acts of aggression (i.e. shoplifting, lying or stealing) (barriga et al., 2001). anti-social behaviors are generally associated with a number of risk factors, both internal and external, such as elevated levels of impulsivity, sadistic personality attributes, illegal substance consumption, social disadvantage, the presence of stressful life events, academic failures and family problems (bailey & scott, 2008). further in this investigation we want to see the link between the above mentioned variables (i.e. general anti-social behaviors, violent content preferences and schadenfreude) and well-being (life satisfaction). we especially want to see how violent content preferences can affect subjective wellbeing (life satisfaction) in a digitally developed society. in psychology, life satisfaction (or subjective wellbeing) is represented by cognitive-judgmental processes in which individuals manifest their personal interpretations and conclusions in regards to exitence in general (anand, 2016; shin & johnson, 1978; diener et al., 1985). negative life experiences, such as decreased levels of academic achievement, inadequate parenting, physical abuse, dysfunctional families, low family income, deviant peers and disadvantaged neighborhoods or communities can alter the quality of wellbeing and can associate with anti-social behaviors (farrington, 2005; macdonald et al., 2005; proctor & linley, 2014; henry, 1994; millie, 2009; zullig et al., 2001). technological advancement can improve the quality of life satisfaction or subjective wellbeing trough the enhancement of social connections, informational support, access to enjoyment or entertainment services and malleable working experiences (burke et al., 2010; ciolfi & lockley, 2018; gwinner et al., 2017; rad & demeter, 2019). other studies showed that the influence of content consumption can have a significant impact on wellbeing. in this light, some argue that the consumption of aggressive content may lead to more negative or violent cognitions and behaviors, which in turn can alter the elements of life satisfaction or wellbeing (huesmann, 2007; jahangir et al., 2014; reinecke & oliver, 2017). schadenfreude and general anti-social behaviours: the role of violent … edgar demeter, et al. 101 2. materials and research methods 2.1. objective and hypothesis the objective of this study is to determine the connection between the level of violent content preferences (vc) and the levels of general antisocial behavior (as) and schadenfreude (sch) and the relationship between the intensity of life satisfaction (ls) and the intensity of violent content preferences (vc), general antisocial behavior (as) and schadenfreude (sch). the present investigation is part of a chain of studies referring to violent behaviors and cognitions (i.e. demeter & rad, 2020). hypothesis 1: there is a positive relationship between the level of violent content preferences (vc) and the levels of general antisocial behavior (as) and schadenfreude (sch). hypothesis 2: there is a negative correlation between the level of life satisfaction (ls) and the presence of violent content preferences (vc), general antisocial behavior (as) and schadenfreude (sch). 2.2. participants for this investigation, 81 students from arad romania, aurel vlaicu university have willingly answered the statements on the basis of informal agreement. the research participants consisted of 55 females and 26 males (f 67.9; m 32.1%), with an age mean (m) of 27.57 and a sd (standard deviation) of 9.25. every participant was enrolled in or at least completed a university period of studies (bachelor's degree, master's degree or postgraduate degree). convenience sampling has been utilized in this study. students that participated in this investigation were chosen on a consecutive basis by order of presentation after completing an anonymous questionnaire posted on social media sites in compliance with the easy concept of accessibility. the time period used for data collection was from december 2019 to february 2020. the gender composition illustrates the bulk of the female population of graduates and undergraduates in the department of psychology, social and educational sciences sciences at aurel vlaicu university in arad. 2.3. instruments 2.3.1. the how i think questionnaire (hit) (barriga et al., 2001) in this investigation the hit tool (barriga et al., 2001) was used for the assessment of general anti-social behavior (as), developed to determine the intensity of self-serving cognitive distortions (i.e. blaming others, assuming the worst, minimizing/mislabeling and self-centered) and the brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 102 four categorizations of antisocial actions (i.e. physical aggression, stealing, opposition-defiance and lying). hit (barriga et al., 2001) is made of 54 statements, with an answering scale made of 6 points (likert type scale), stretching from strongly agree (6) to strongly disagreed (1). from the number of 54 statements, 39 are designed to evaluate the four categorizations of self-serving cognitive distortions and the four styles of antisocial behaviors, 8 are designed to measure the degree of anomalous response (to identify the authenticity of the gathered data) and 7 are designed as positive filters to mask the 39 questions (barriga et al., 2001). the level of physical aggression plus the level of opposition-defiance make up the overt scale (antisocial phenomenon that specifically affect the casualty) and the level of the stealing plus the level of lying make up the covert scale (antisocial acts that indirectly include the victim) (barriga et al., 2001). in this light, the questionnaire consists of a total of 12 scales and subscales and can have a global score (barriga et al., 2001). in the previous analysis (demeter et al., 2018), hit was validated for romanian use (linguistic validation) and the present investigation revealed a good internal accuracy, with an alpha crombach coefficient varying from.68 to.84, with a global coefficient of.91. 2.3.2. explorative affirmations in this research, we established a set of commonly formulated affirmations, based on literature studies and works (american psychiatric association, 2013; martens & palermo, 2005; shoemaker, 2010; bandura et al., 1963; bethell et al., 2019; smith et al., 2009), that seek to analyze the intensity of: violent/ aggressive content (text, audio or video) preferences (vc; e.g. i prefer to read literature or content with an aggressive or violent theme; evaluated by 4 items); perceived positive childhood experiences (e.g. i was feeling secure in my childhood; evaluated by 3 items); control/ domination of others (e.g. i feel good when the people around me do what i say; evaluated by 3 items); perceived superiority (e.g. i consider the people around me to be inferior to me; evaluated by 3 items); perceived loneliness (e.g. i feel alone; evaluated by 1 item); openness (e.g. i easily relate to other people; evaluated by 1 item); self-isolation (e.g. i prefer to spend more time alone; evaluated by 1item); and schadenfreude (sch; e.g. i feel good when something bad happens to other people; evaluated by 1 item). the 17 statements were introduced with a 6-point response scale (likert scale), stretching from 5 (it characterizes me to a great extent) to 0 (it doesn't characterize me at all). schadenfreude and general anti-social behaviours: the role of violent … edgar demeter, et al. 103 schadenfreude (sch) and violent/ aggressive content preferences (vc) will be used in this study. schadenfreude assesses the way individuals feel about the troubles experienced by other individuals and violent/ aggressive content preferences assesses the way in which individuals chose to consume that type of content, in the form of video, audio or text. the alpha cronbach coefficient for violent/ aggressive content preferences was .87, indicating that the chosen scale was reliable in this study. 2.3.3. satisfaction with life scale (swls) (diener et al., 1985) swls (diener et al., 1985) was used to measure life satisfaction (subjective wellbeing), which seeks to identify the comprehensive mental interpretations of one’s perception with existence. this tool is composed of 5 statements, with a 7-points response scale, stretching strongly agree (7) to strongly disagree (1) (diener et al., 1985). swls (diener et al., 1985) was linguistically tested in a previous analysis for romanian utlility (stevens et al., 2012) and demonstrated improved internal accuracy with an alpha cronbach coefficient of 0.80 in the current investigation. 2.4. study design and procedure a non-experimental correlational design will be used for this investigation. for the first hypothesis the dependent variables are: the level of vc and the levels of as and sch. for the second hypothesis the dependent variables are: the intensity of ls and the intensity of vc, sch and as. for the verification of the two hypotheses non-parametric correlations (spearman correlation) will be used because the gender distribution is not balanced and the null hypothesis for the normality test was rejected for all the variables (table 2), meaning that the studied variables are not normally distributed. the instrument package (hit, general affirmations, and swls) has been introduced to the participants on a virtual platform (via google forms) and an informed consent was given consisting of a study attendance agreement and guarantee on the confidentiality of the data. for the verification of the participants’ attention to the instruments distributed in an online format, the values from the positive filters (pf) scale of the hit tool (barriga et al., 2001) were used. the statements from the pf scale are not similar with the rest of the statements from hit. if the participants obtained higher values for pf compared to the general values from hit, than we can consider that attention was present for the instruments’ questions. the mean value for pf was 5.46 (sd = .48), indicating the case that the participants were focused when they responded brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 104 to the statements because the mean value for hit was undoubtedly decreased, i.e. 1.91 (sd = .57) (table 1). 3. results and discussion in addition to analyzing the discussed concepts and variables, the mean value for the anomalous responding scale was also identified, for the verification of the integrity of the collected data obtained from the application of the instrument kit (hit, the general affirmations and swls,). if the obtained mean average of the anomalous responding scale was exciting 4.00, the measurement should be deemed to be interpreted as being doubtful as regards of the credibility of the answers processed; if the measured data was exciding 4.25, then the given responses will not be regarded as accurate (barriga et al., 2001). the obtained value for the anomalous responding scale in this study (n = 81) was m = 3.81 (sd = 1.12), which displays that most respondents offered truthful responses to the instrument package statements. table 1. standard deviations and means and for life satisfaction (ls), violent content preferences (vc), general antisocial behavior (as) and schadenfreude (sch) ls vc as sch mean 5.32 .81 1.91 .27 std. deviation .95 .97 .57 .60 source: authors’ own conception table 2. shapiro-wilk test for life satisfaction (ls), violent content preferences (vc), general antisocial behavior (as) and schadenfreude (sch) ls vc as sch statistic .92 .81 .94 .50 sig. p < .01 p < .01 p < .01 p < .01 source: authors’ own conception 3.1. hypothesis 1: there is a positive relationship between the level of violent content preferences (vc) and the levels of general antisocial behavior (as) and schadenfreude (sch). schadenfreude and general anti-social behaviours: the role of violent … edgar demeter, et al. 105 table 3. spearman correlation between the level of vc and the levels of as and sch as sch vc .43** .35** sch .33** ** p < .01 source: authors’ own conception 3.2. hypothesis 2: there is a negative correlation between the level of life satisfaction (ls) and the presence of violent content preferences (vc), general antisocial behavior (as) and schadenfreude (sch). table 4. spearman correlation between the level of ls and the levels of vc, as and sch vc as sch ls -.24* -.25* -.29** ** p < .01; * p < .05 source: authors’ own conception 4. discussions and conclusion the current study investigated the connection between the level of violent content preferences (vc) and the levels of general antisocial behavior (as) and schadenfreude (sch) and the relationship between the intensity of life satisfaction (ls) and the intensity of violent content preferences (vc), general antisocial behavior (as) and schadenfreude (sch). results confirm the two proposed hypotheses, meaning that vc is positively associated with as an sch. furthermore, as is positively related with sch. as for the second hypothesis, ls was negatively associated with vc, as and sch, sch having the strongest association. these preliminary findings are consistent with literature, meaning that violent or aggressive content consumption can associate with anti-social behaviors and schadenfreude (anderson et al., 2003; anderson & dill, 2000; ash et al., 2019; fischer & greitemeyer, 2006; greitemeyer & mclatchie, 2011; kanz, 2016; westerman & tamborini, 2010; wei & liu, b. 2020). literature also suggests that schadenfreude is associated with anti-social brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 106 behaviors (erzi, 2020; sawada & hayama, 2012; wang et al., 2019). furthermore, literature suggests that the consumption of violent or aggressive content can have a significant impact on life satisfaction (huesmann, 2007; jahangir et al., 2014; reinecke & oliver, 2017). other studies suggest that low life satisfaction can associate with anti-social behaviors and negative cognitions (zullig et al., 2001; macdonald et al., 2005), but increased levels of life satisfaction can associate with pro-social outcomes (mohamad et al., 2014; proctor & linley, 2014). these results can underline the importance of life satisfaction in a technologically advanced society. the information and content we consume can shape our cognitions and behaviors. if we expose ourselves to negative or violent content, we can experience unpleasant thoughts and there is a chance that we can adopt some negative behaviors from that content and these behaviors and cognitions can alter the quality of subjective wellbeing. some studies show that exposure to pro-social content can enhance prosocial behaviors (greitemeyer et al., 2010; greitemeyer, 2010; saleem et al, 2012). the practical of this investigation underlines the necessity to take into consideration the content we consume and can offer literature meaningful information in regards to the prevention or reduction of antisocial tendencies or cognitions. interventions can focus on the digital aspect, implementing applications or services which can enhance one’s life satisfaction and can decrease anti-social tendencies and cognitions. one of the important limitations of this preliminary investigation could be displayed by the decreased presence of respondents (n = 81) and the unequal distribution of gender, which means that the present findings do not qualify a development on specific classifications of age, gender or educational background. forthcoming research on homogeneous populations may offer more valuable knowledge in the structuring of a more relevant representation of the topic under study in various demographic categories. in future investigations, the bi-directionality of the variables can be considered. in the current investigation, life satisfaction had a stronger connection with schadenfreude. this can mean that low life satisfaction can associate with schadenfreude, which can associate with violent content consumption and then anti-social behaviors. with this limitation in mind, future studies on a larger population can determine the predictors and causal effects using multiple regression analysis. as a preliminary analysis, forthcoming studies will be advanced on greater samples, taking into consideration more variables correlated with life schadenfreude and general anti-social behaviours: the role of violent … edgar demeter, et al. 107 satisfaction and anti-social behavior, thereby providing a clearer picture of maintaining a healthy life satisfaction, particularly in a digitally developed civilizations. acknowledgement the research results that represent the basis of this study, other than those presented in this article, were also published in the article demeter, e., & rad, d. (2020). global life satisfaction and general antisocial behavior in young individuals: the mediating role of perceived loneliness in regard to social sustainability—a preliminary investigation. sustainability, 12(10), 4081. references american psychiatric association. (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th ed. american psychiatric association. anand, p. (2016). happiness explained. oxford university press. anderson, c. a., carnagey, n. l., & eubanks, j. (2003). exposure to violent media: the effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and feelings. journal of personality and social psychology, 84, 960–971. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.960 anderson, c. a., & dill, k. e. (2000). video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life. journal of personality and social psychology, 78, 772–790. https://doi.org/10.1037//o0223514.78.4.772 ash, s. m., allen, j. j., & anderson, c. a. (2019). exploring relations between dark personality traits, media violence exposure, and finding humor in media violence. proceedings of the national conference on undergraduate research (ncur) 2019 kennesaw state university kennesaw, georgia april 11-13, 2019. iowa state university. bandura, a., ross, d., & ross, s. a. (1963). imitation of film-mediated aggressive models. the journal of abnormal and social psychology, 66(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0048687 barriga, a. q., gibbs, j. c., potter, g., & liau, a. k. (2001). how i think (hit) questionnaire manual. research press. bailey, s., & scott, s. (2008). juvenile delinquency. in m. rutter, d. bishop, d. pine, s. scott, j. stevenson, e. taylor, & a. thapar (eds.), rutter’s child and adolescent psychiatry (pp. 1106–1125). blackwell publishing. bethell, c., jones, j., gombojav, n., linkenbach, j., & sege, r. (2019). positive childhood experiences and adult mental and relational health in a https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.960 https://doi.org/10.1037/o022-3514.78.4.772 https://doi.org/10.1037/o022-3514.78.4.772 https://doi.org/10.1037/h0048687 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 108 statewide sample. jama pediatrics, 173(11), e193007. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3007 burke, m., marlow, c., & lento, t. (2010). social network activity and social wellbeing. in e. mynatt (eds.), proceedings of the 28th international conference on human factors in computing systems, chi 2010, atlanta, georgia, usa, april 10-15, 2010 (pp. 1909-1912). https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753613 ciolfi, l., & lockley, e. (2018). from work to life and back again: examining the digitally-mediated work/life practices of a group of knowledge workers. computer supported cooperative work (cscw), 27(3-6), 803-839. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-018-9315-3 demeter, e., balas-timar, d., ionescu (pădurean), a., & rusu, a. s. (2018). romanian translation and linguistic validation of the how i think questionnaire. the european proceedings of social & behavioural sciences (epsbs), 41, 241-248. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.06.29 demeter, e., & rad, d. (2020). global life satisfaction and general antisocial behavior in young individuals: the mediating role of perceived loneliness in regard to social sustainability—a preliminary investigation. sustainability, 12(10), 4081. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104081 diener, e., emmons, r. a., larsen, r. j., & griffin, s. (1985). the satisfaction with life scale. journal of personality assessment, 49, 71-75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 erzi, s. (2020). dark triad and schadenfreude: mediating role of moral disengagement and relational aggression. personality and individual differences, 157, 109827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.109827 farrington, d. p. (2005). childhood origins of antisocial behavior. clinical psychology & psychotherapy, 12(3), 177–190. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.448 fischer, p., & greitemeyer, t. (2006). music and aggression. the impact of sexualaggressive song lyrics on aggression-related thoughts, emotions and behavior toward the same and the opposite sex. personality and social psychology bulletin, 32, 1165–1176. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167206288670 gentile, d. a., lynch, p., j., linder, j. r., & walsh, d. a. (2004). the effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance. journal of adolescence, 27, 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2003.10.002 greitemeyer, t. (2010). exposure to music with prosocial lyrics reduces aggression: first evidence and test of the underlying mechanism. journal of experimental social psychology, 47 (1), 28-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.08.005 greitemeyer, t. (2014). intense acts of violence during video game play make daily life aggression appear innocuous: a new mechanism why violent video https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3007 https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753613 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-018-9315-3 https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.06.29 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104081 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.109827 https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.448 https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167206288670 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2003.10.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.08.005 schadenfreude and general anti-social behaviours: the role of violent … edgar demeter, et al. 109 games increase aggression. journal of experimental social psychology, 50, 52–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.09.004 greitemeyer, t., & mclatchie, n. (2011). denying humanness to others: a newly discovered mechanism by which violent video games increase aggressive behavior. psychological science, 20(10), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611403320 greitemeyer, t., osswald, s., & brauer, m. (2010). playing prosocial video games increases empathy and decreases schadenfreude. emotion, 10(6), 796-802. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020194 gwinner, k., melrose, p., & moffatt, a. (2017). digital wellbeing: youth engagement consultation project technical report. heider, f. (1958). the psychology of interpersonal relations. wiley. henry, c. s. (1994). family system characteristics, parental behaviors, and adolescent family life satisfaction. family relations, 43(4), 447-455. https://doi.org/10.2307/585377 huesmann l. r. (2007). the impact of electronic media violence: scientific theory and research. the journal of adolescent health : official publication of the society for adolescent medicine, 41(6 suppl 1), s6–s13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.09.005 jahangir, s. f., nawaz, n., & khan, n. (2014). effects of media (television) on mental health. fwu journal of social sciences, 8(1), 97-107. kanz, k.-m. (2016). mediated and moderated effects of violent media consumption on youth violence. european journal of criminology, 13(2), 149–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370815608882 macdonald, j. m., piquero, a. r., valois, r. f., & zullig, k. j. (2005). the relationship between life satisfaction, risk-taking behaviors, and youth violence. journal of interpersonal violence, 20(11), 1495–1518. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260505278718 martens, w. h. j., & palermo, g. b. (2005). loneliness and associated violent antisocial behavior: analysis of the case reports of jeffrey dahmer and dennis nilsen. international journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 49(3), 298-307. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624x05274898 millie, a. (2009). anti-social behaviour. open university press. mohamad, m., mohammad, m., mamat, i., & mamat, m. (2014). modelling positive development, life satisfaction and problem behaviour among youths in malaysia. world applied sciences journal, 32(2), 231-238. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.wasj.2014.32.02.14486 ouwerkerk, j. w., & van dijk, w. w. (2008). why do we laugh at idols? selfevaluation and schadenfreude following another’s misfortune in the media. paper presented at international communication association, montreal, canada. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.09.004 https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611403320 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020194 https://doi.org/10.2307/585377 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370815608882 https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260505278718 https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624x05274898 https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.wasj.2014.32.02.14486 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 110 proctor, c., & linley, p.a. (2014). life satisfaction in youth. in g. fava & c. ruini (eds.), increasing psychological well-being in clinical and educational settings, vol. 8 (pp. 199-215). springer. rad, d., & demeter, e. (2019). youth sustainable digital wellbeing. postmodern openings, 10(4), 104-115. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/96 reinecke, l., & oliver, m. b. (eds.), (2017). the routledge handbook of media use and well-being: international perspectives on theory and research on positive media effects. routledge/taylor & francis group. shin, d., & johnson, d. m. (1978). avowed happiness as an overall assessment of the quality of life. social indicators research, 5, 475-492. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00352944 saleem, m., anderson, c. a., & gentile, d. a. (2012). effects of prosocial, neutral, and violent video games on college students' affect. aggressive behavior, 38(4), 263-71. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21427 sawada, m., & hayama, d. (2012). dispositional vengeance and anger on schadenfreude. psychological reports, 111(1), 322-334. https://doi.org/10.2466/16.07.21.pr0.111.4.322-334 shoemaker, j. d. (2010). theories of delinquency: an examination of explanations of delinquent behavior, 6th edition. oxford university press. smith, s. l., lachlan, k., & tamborini, r. (2003). popular video games: quantifying the presentation of violence and its context. journal of broadcasting & electronic media, 47, 58–76. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4701_4 smith, r. h., powell, c. a. j., combs, d. j. y., & schurtz, d. r. (2009). exploring the when and why of schadenfreude. social and personality psychology compass, 3(4), 530–546. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00181.x stevens, m. j., lambru, i., sandu, c. g., constantinescu, p.-m., butucescu, a., & uscatescu, l. (2012). romanian adaptation of the satisfaction with life scale. journal of psychological and educational research (jper), 20(1), 17-33. thompson, k.m., & haninger, k. (2001). violence in e-rated video games. journal of the american medical association, 268, 591–598. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.286.5.591 wang, s., lilienfeld, s. o., & rochat, p. (2019). schadenfreude deconstructed and reconstructed: a tripartite motivational model. new ideas in psychology, 52, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2018.09.002 wei, l., & liu, b. (2020). reactions to others’ misfortune on social media: effects of homophily and publicness on schadenfreude, empathy, and perceived deservingness. computers in human behavior, 102, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.08.002 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/96 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00352944 https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21427 https://doi.org/10.2466/16.07.21.pr0.111.4.322-334 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4701_4 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00181.x https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.286.5.591 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2018.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.08.002 schadenfreude and general anti-social behaviours: the role of violent … edgar demeter, et al. 111 westerman, d., & tamborini, r. (2010). scriptedness and televised sports: violent consumption and viewer enjoyment. journal of language and social psychology, 29(3), 321–337. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x10368835 wilson, b. j., smith, s. l., potter, w. j., kunkel, d., linz, d., colvin, c. m., & donnerstein, e. (2002). violence in children‘s television programming: assessing the risks. journal of communication, 52, 5–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2002.tb02531.x zullig, k. j., valois, r. f., huebner, e. s., oeltmann, j. e., & drane, j. w. (2001). relationship between perceived life satisfaction and adolescents’ substance abuse. journal of adolescent health, 29(4), 279-288. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1054-139x(01)00269-5 zumbach, j., & bluemke, m. (2018). violence in computer games and implicit aggressiveness: lessons learned from the media comparison paradigm. in advances in psychology research (s. 97-126). nova. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x10368835 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2002.tb02531.x https://doi.org/10.1016/s1054-139x(01)00269-5 microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 116 zusammenfassungen auf deutsch brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience gehirn. breitenforschung in der künstlichen intelligenz und den neurowissenschaften issn 2067-3957 band 1, heft 3 juli 2010: “einen glücklichen sommer 2010!” www.brain.edusoft.ro chefredakteur: bogdan pătruţ 1. design für einen mechanismus zur action selection für kooperative fußball-roboter, auf der basis eines algorithmus des fuzzy decision making s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei, mohsen taheri zusammenfassung robocup ist ein internationaler wettbewerb zu multi agent research und verwandten themen wie: künstliche intelligenz, bildverarbeitung, maschinelles lernen, roboter-wege-planung, deren kontrolle und hindernis-umgehung. in einem fußball-roboter-spiel ist die umgebung wettkampfgeprägt und dynamisch. um zu funktionieren sollte der entscheidungsteil des fußballroboter-systems flexibel sein und in real time arbeiten. dieser artikel ist ausgerichtet auf die liga der middle-size-fußball-roboter (msl), und zu den entscheidungen und zur action selection werden neue, hierarchische hybrid-fuzzy-methoden für msl vorgeführt. zunächst werden die verhaltensweisen eines agent eingeführt, implementiert und klassifiziert in zwei ebenen, den lowlevel-behaviors und den high-level-behaviors. auf einer zweiten ebene wird ein zweiphasenmechanismus für entscheidungen eingeführt. in die erste phase sind einige nützliche methoden implementiert, welche die situation des roboters überprüfen, um die erforderlichen verhaltensweisen auszuführen. in der darauffolgenden phase sind die systeme zu mannschaftsstrategie, team-bildung, zur rolle des roboters und zur positionierung des roboters enthalten. ein fuzzy-logical-ansatz wird angewendet, um die team-strategie zu erkennen und außerdem dem spieler die beste position für seine bewegungen zu nennen. wir glauben, dass eine dynamic-rolemaschine notwendig ist für ein erfolgreiches team. die dynamic-role-einheit und die formationskontrolle während offensiven oder auch defensiven spiels helfen bei der kollisionsvermeidung der eigenen spieler, wenn sie attackieren, und bei der hindernis-umgehung der gegner. schließlich bringt die implementation unseres algorithmus in robocup 2007 und 2008 ergebnisse, welche die wirksamkeit dieser methoden zeigen. die ergebnisse sind zufriedenstellend, auch im bereich der mannschaft adro robocup. 2. logik-extraktion und die struktur des neo-kortex ronald j. swallow zusammenfassung das post-synaptische potential eines neurons stellte lange zeit eine korrelation dar zwischen einem input als axonalem frequenzmuster und dem potentialmuster einer exzitatorischen synaptischen verbindung. beides muss sinnvolle korrelationen ergeben und für vergleiche normalisiert sein (die kovarianz der verbindungsstärke muss für alle korrelationen konstant sein). man hat ein biologisch nachempfundenes neuronennetz (ein netz aus n exzitativen neuronen, die mit einem inhibitor-neuron interagieren) analysiert und eine pawlow’sche, sehr einfache regel verwendet für zusammenfassungen in deutsch 117 die variation der verbindungsstärke (die gleiche regel für die exzitativen und die inhibierenden neuronen). und es ergab sich eine überraschung durch die tatsache, dass die neuronen eines solchen netzes das maß sind, um korrelationen in normalisierter form miteinander zu vergleichen. außerdem hat das netz einen besseren lerneffekt aufgezeigt für neue input-muster, im vergleich zu alten input-mustern, was die aufnahmefähigkeit des gehirns, aber auch die reduzierte plastizität des langzeit-gedächtnisses mit zunehmendem alter belegt. 3. die beziehung der multiplen intelligenz von testteilnehmern zu deren performanz in der reading section des toefl und ielts minoo alemi, marzieh bagherkazemi zusammenfassung diese studie sollte die hypothetische beziehung zwischen multipler intelligenz von testteilnehmern und ihrer performanz im leseteil des toefl und ielts untersuchen. howard gardners theorie multipler intelligenzen besagt, intelligenz sei nicht eine einzelne und allein angeborene eigenschaft, sondern ein multiples konstrukt, nur zum teil genetisch bedingt, das sich herauskristallisieren oder das auch gelähmt werden kann während des lebens. nach dieser theorie gibt es acht typen von intelligenz: sprachliche, mathematische, musikalische, körperliche, räumliche, intrapersonale, interpersonale und natürliche; aber diese liste ist nicht erschöpfend. die multiple intelligenz von testteilnehmern wurde geschätzt mittels midas, der multiple intelligences developmental assessment scales, entwickelt von shearer (1994). dann wurde bezüglich des leseteils des toefl die bias-erkennung an 90 teilnehmern durchgeführt, und dieser sub-test zeigte positive korrelation mit sprachlichen und logischen intelligenzen. 89 von 163 teilnehmern einer studie wurden hinzugezogen für die analyse der beziehung zwischen multipler intelligenz von testteilnehmern und ihrer performanz im leseteil des ielts. dieser test nun belegte einen bias in richtung sprachlicher und räumlicher intelligenz. er impliziert die inadäquatheit der definition von sprachfähigkeit. außerdem aber können messtechnisch bedingte instruktionen sowie vorbereitungsmaterialien der beiden genannten tests von den ergebnissen dieser studie profitieren, da diese so im design angelegt war, dass diejenigen intelligenzen, die positiv korrelierten mit der performanz des fraglichen tests, repräsentiert wurden. 4. ekg mit sound-card gheorghe blioju zusammenfassung dieser artikel beschreibt die einfachste methode zur erstellung eines kompakten monitoring-ekgsystems, indem es elektronisches gerät und software benutzt. das gerät dient der verstärkung von bio-signalen, die es zum pc weiterleitet via sound card. eine software überträgt die erhaltenen signale zu einem pc und bildet sie auf seinem bildschirm ab. 5. design und implementation eines autonomen humanoiden roboters auf der basis eines fuzzy rule-based motion controller s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri zusammenfassung die forschung zu humanoiden robotern im bereich mechatronics and automation laboratory, electrical and computer engineering, islamic azad university khorasgan branch (isfahan), des iran begann zu beginn dieses jahrzehnts. unterschiedliche forschungsprototypen humanoider roboter sind entworfen worden und durchlaufen in diesen jahren stadien ihrer entwicklung. dieser artikel beschreibt hardware und software des kid size humanoid robot des persia-teams (2009). der roboter verfügt über 20 freiheitsgrade auf der basis von hitec hsr898. wir haben hier versucht, uns mit den bereichen mechanische struktur, bildverarbeitungseinheit, robotikcontroller, künstliche intelligenz von robotern und lernverhalten zu befassen. 2009 beinhalten unsere entwicklungen am kid size humanoid robot: (1) das design und die konstruktion unserer brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 118 neuen humanoiden roboter; (2) das design und die konstruktion eines neuen hardwareund software-controllers für unsere roboter. das projekt besteht aus zwei teilen: hardware und software. die software besteht in einer roboter-anwendung, diese wiederum besteht aus dem walking controller, dem autonomous motion robot, aus der selbst-lokalisierungs-basiseinheit zum sehen und aus particle filter, lokaler ki, trajektorien-planung, bewegungskontrolle und netzwerk. die hardware besteht aus der mechanik und aus dem treiber-circuit-board. jeder roboter kann gehen, schnell gehen, kicken und dribbeln, wenn er den ball erreicht. diese humanoiden haben erfolgreich teilgenommen an verschiedenen roboter-fußball-wettkämpfen. dieses projekt ist noch im entwicklungsstadium; einige neue, interessante methoden werden im laufenden report beschrieben. 6. modellierung und implementation eines omnidirectional soccer robot mit breitem sichtfeld als anwendung bei robocup-msl s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri zusammenfassung ziel diese artikels ist die beschreibung von design and implementation eines fußball-roboters mittlerer größe für die liga robocup msl. zunächst, entsprechend den regeln von robocup, geht es um den fußball-roboter in mittlerem format. dieser autonome fußball-roboter besteht aus dem mechanischen teil, dem bewegungs-kontrollmodul, dem modul zum sehen in alle richtungen, dem geradeaus-seh-modul, dem bildverarbeitungsund bilderkennungs-modul, aus der positionierung des zielobjekts und der rekonstruktion der realkoordinaten, aus der planung der roboterwege, von wettkampfstrategien und hindernis-umgehen. dieser fußball-roboter benutzt ein laptop-system mit schnittstellen zur entscheidungsfindung. der sensor zur omnidirektionalen sicht des seh-systems benutzt bildverarbeitung und die positionierung zu hindernis-umgehung und target tracking. angewendet wird der boundary-following algorithm (bfa), um die ausschlaggebenden feldformationen aufzufinden. wir verwenden die data fusion method für die kontrollsystem-parameter, für die selbst-lokalisierung und das world modeling. eine visuell basierte selbst-lokalisierung und die konventionellen kilometerzähl-systeme arbeiten dabei zusammen. der lokalisierungs-algorithmus enthält filtern, aufteilen und integration der daten for die unterschiedlichen typen der in der umgebung erkannten objekte. drei zustände werden bei den kontrollstrategien verwendet; sie beinhalten angriffsstrategie, verteidigungsstrategie und die intercept strategy. alle methoden wurden getestet bei den zahlreichen robocup-wettkämpfen von middle size robots. 7. hirn-erkrankungen in gesellschaften mesopotamiens piedad yuste, ángel garrido zusammenfassung im alten mesopotamien wurden weder autopsien noch präparationen vorgenommen. daher waren die inneren organe des menschlichen körpers nur bekannt durch gelegentliche inspektionen von wunden und verletzungen. das gehirn wurde als ein teil des kopfes betrachtet und nicht in beziehung gesetzt mit mentaler aktivität. und doch waren babylonische und assyrische ärzte in der lage, die symptome vieler krankheiten zu erkennen, die dieses organ betreffen. hier ein kleiner überblick dazu. 8. modulare versus unitäre (nicht-modulare) sichtweisen von gehirn und geist minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard zusammenfassung dieser artikel will die beiden unterschiedlichen paradigmen darstellen, nur insoweit, als es die sichtweisen bezüglich des lernens im allgemeinen und der sprachfähigkeit im besonderen sind. außerdem wird versucht, die unterschiedliche sicht von defekten und errungenschaften zu zusammenfassungen in deutsch 119 diskutieren, je nach proponent und opponent. daher ist es nicht die absicht dieses artikels, irgendetwas zu gunsten einer bestimmten sicht zu behaupten. dieser aufsatz betrachtet gehirn und geist gleichermaßen wie modularitätsund nicht-modularitäts-sichtweisen. 9. einige bemerkungen zu künstlicher intelligenz als einem neuen mathematischen tool angel garrido zusammenfassung mathematik ist nur eines der beispiele zu prädikaten-rechnung erster ordnung. es gehört daher zu angewandter monotoner logik. wir haben die grenzen des klassischen logischen schließens gefunden und die eindeutigen vorteile von fuzzy logic und vielen anderen neuen, interessanten tools. hier präsentieren wir einige der nützlichsten tools auf diesem neuen gebiet der mathematik, der sogenannten künstlichen intelligenz. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 64-78 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/220 the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment ihor prykhodko¹, anastasiia lyman2, yanina matsehora3, nataliia yurieva4, liubov balabanova5, konstantin hunbin6, ivan radvansky7, dmytro morkvin8 1 doctor of science in psychology, professor, research center, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, prikhodko1966@ukr.net 2 researcher, research center, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, liman.ndc@gmail.com 3 phd, research center, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, yanina_gora@ukr.net 4 phd, research center, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, yureva_natali@ukr.net 5 doctor of science in psychology, professor, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, balabanova05@gmail.com 6 phd, department of operational and logistic support, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, hunbinkonstantin65@gmail.com 7 phd, research center, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, radvanskiji@gmail.com 8 researcher, research center, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, liman.ndc@gmail.com abstract: the purpose of this article is to present an empirically-derived psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during combat deployment. the model was developed using the methods of semantic differential, peer review, and factor analysis. its theoretical basis is the concept of “hardiness”. the study involved 104 military personnel of the national guard of ukraine had combat experience in the war in eastern ukraine. the model includes four components: “ability for volitional efforts (mobilization)”, “military brotherhood”, “professional identity”, “self-control (endurance)”. their content covers the emotionalvolitional, cognitive, motivational, moral, active-practical, existentialbeing, and interpersonal-social spheres of the individual. the leading role in the model belongs to strong-willed features, combat cohesion, patriotism, and adaptive resources of the individual, which make it possible to maintain the effectiveness of military personnel’s combat activities under conditions of risk. the basis of the psychological readiness of military personnel to actively act and overcome difficulties in conditions of risk (uncertainty, direct threat to health and life) with the absence of reliable guarantees for success is hardiness. it is suggested that the model can be used for psychological selection procedures, professional and psychological training of military personnel, predicting their behavior under conditions of risk, and developing strategies for psychological support in the post-deployment period. this will reduce psychogenic losses during hostilities. keywords: psychological readiness; risk; hardiness; military personnel; combat deployment. how to cite: prykhodko, i., lyman, a., matsehora, y., yurieva, n., balabanova, l., hunbin, k., radvansky, i., & morkvin, d. (2021). the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 64-78. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/220 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/220 mailto:prikhodko1966@ukr.net mailto:liman.ndc@gmail.com mailto:yanina_gora@ukr.net mailto:yureva_natali@ukr.net mailto:balabanova05@gmail.com mailto:hunbinkonstantin65@gmail.com mailto:radvanskiji@gmail.com mailto:liman.ndc@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/220 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 65 1. introduction the modern world is full of stress and extreme situations that require a person to make quick decisions and act effectively under risk conditions. overcoming an extreme situation with the least losses requires a person to possess special personal resources (delahaij et al., 2006). one of the psychological constructs that explain the personality’s ability to withstand the influence of various stressors is called “hardiness” (bartone, 2006; florian et al., 1995; kobasa, 1979; maddi, 2002; maddi & khoshaba, 1994). hardiness is a psychological style associated with resilience, good health, and performance under a range of stressful conditions (bartone, 2006). hardiness is viewed as a personal resource, a belief system about a person, the world, and relationships with the outside world (maddi & khoshaba, 1994). this resource is filled with attitudes and skills that allow you to take risks, enrich your mental potential, and cope with distress, resulting in new opportunities for personal development (maddi, 2006). the structure of hardiness includes three main components “commitment”, “control” and “challenge” (maddi, 2002). it contains core values such as cooperation, credibility, and creativity. people high in hardiness have a strong sense of commitment to life and work, and are actively engaged in what’s going on around them (bartone et al., 2008). they believe they can control or influence what happens, and they enjoy new situations and challenges. also, they are internally motivated and create their own sense of purpose (bartone et al., 2008). in a situation of personal choice, hardiness is a factor determining the readiness to choose a new, unfamiliar situation, as well as a situation of uncertainty as opposed to an indifferent, impersonal choice or a choice of a familiar situation (gayton & kehoe, 2015). therefore, hardiness can be considered as a person’s psychological readiness to actively act and overcome difficulties in conditions of risk with the absence of reliable guarantees of success (kolesnichenko et al., 2019). thus, the researchers emphasize the importance of all the main components of hardiness for maintaining mental health: a) the ability to take risks or be psychologically prepared for risky and stressful situations; b) act in combat (extreme) conditions (kolesnichenko et al., 2019; leontev & rasskazova, 2006; maddi, 2002). extreme situations and risk are integral components of combat deployments (börjesson et al., 2015; momen et al., 2010). almost every soldier experiences combat stress under these conditions (pols & oak, 2007; prykhodko et al., 2020). the impact of combat stress on military personnel the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a … ihor prykhodko, et al. 66 begins before direct contact with the enemy and continues until they leave the combat deployment zone (escolas et al., 2013; nash, 2007). the constant threat to health and life, changes in the combat situation, superheavy and prolonged loads that exceed the limits of human capabilities, the loss of comrades, brutal violence against the enemy significantly affect the mental health of combatants (blinov, 2018; chu et al., 2016). during combat, 75-80% of military personnel develop short-term acute stress reactions, accompanied by partial or complete loss of combat effectiveness (blinov, 2018; breivik et al., 2020; yehuda et al., 2014). to increase the hardiness of military personnel, it is necessary to have a high level of risk readiness, which will contribute to the successful performance of missions in combat (extreme) conditions. from 2014 to the present, the armed forces and the national guard of ukraine (ngu) have been fighting in the east of ukraine against illegal armed formations of separatists supported by the russian federation. in the first years of the war, most of the ukrainian military personnel had no combat experience, since after the second world war no military operations were carried out on the territory of ukraine (prykhodko et al., 2019). therefore, at the time of the outbreak of the armed conflict, it was revealed that the existing level of professional and psychological training of ukrainian military personnel was not enough to conduct large-scale, non-standard, asymmetric operations (kokun et al., 2020; melnyk et al., 2019). according to blinov (2018), 80-90% of ukrainian combatants showed signs of combat stress, 25% of combatants subsequently experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) of varying severity, 20% of combatants showed some symptoms of ptsd (maladaptation reactions), 27% of military personnel had incomplete clinical manifestations of ptsd. therefore, the search for effective ways to preserve the mental health of military personnel (bein et al., 2019; kaikkonen & laukkala, 2016; prykhodko et al., 2021), their professional development, increase endurance, and improve their ability to resist stress is relevant (bartone, 2006; delahaij et al., 2006; maddi, 2007; pitts et al., 2016). determining the content of psychological readiness of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment is also relevant for improving their professional and psychological training, forming military (special) skills for participating in hostilities in the east of ukraine (kolesnichenko et al., 2019). consequently, the purpose of this study was to present an empiricallyderived a psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment to improve their professional and psychological training. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 67 2. materials and methods 2.1. participants 104 ngu military personnel (male officers) took part in the study as experts: 16 psychologists, 23 researchers, and lecturers of military academies, 25 commanders of ngu units, 11 phd students, 29 master’s students. the mean age was 36.78 years (sd = 7.09) with 27 as the minimum age and 55 as the maximum. the selection of experts was carried out according to the following criteria: the success of professional activity combined with authority among colleagues; psychological, military or legal education; more than 10 years of military experience; experience of professional activity in combat (extreme) and risky conditions. more than 90% of the experts took part in combat deployments in the east of ukraine. informed consent was obtained from all subjects for inclusion in the study while maintaining their confidentiality. 2.2. instruments the semantic differential method (osgood, 1952; serkin, 2008; stoklasa et al., 2019) was used to quantitatively and qualitatively determine the features of the studied concept of “psychological readiness of military personnel to take risks” as its representation in the mind of an expert. according to serkin (2008), the semantic differential method measures connotative meaning as a state that occurs between the perception of a stimulus and a meaningful work with it. the experts determined the content of the concept of “psychological readiness of military personnel to take risks”, which was related by meaning, stereotypes, social attitudes, and other forms of generalization, using the questionnaire-scale of semantic differential developed by us (table 1). table 1. the questionnaire-scale of the semantic differential of the concept of “psychological readiness of military personnel to take risks” during a combat deployment instructions: dear expert! we ask you to take part in defining and assessing the personality characteristics that must be possessed by a soldier who is psychologically prepared for risk during combat deployment. pay attention to the work with the questionnaire. each line of the questionnaire contains polar characteristics (antonyms) of one or another personality trait, and the space between them is divided into 7 ranges. choose only one number: the closer to the pole you choose the number (circle or crossed out), the more pronounced this personality feature. feature number feature proud of his/her profession 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 burdened by his/her the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a … ihor prykhodko, et al. 68 profession leader 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 doesn’t have leadership skills motivated 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 indifferent principled 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 unprincipled financially dependent 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 financially independent resilient 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 weak determined 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 indecisive emotionally resistant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 emotionally unstable brave 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 cowardly strong-willed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 weak-willed vigorous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 passive observant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 inattentive quick-witted 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 slow-witted sane 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 reckless professionally competent 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 professionally incompetent reliable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 unreliable patriotic 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 unpatriotic honest 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 lying follows the rules 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ignore the rules socially responsible 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 socially irresponsible self-confident 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 unconfident purposeful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 unfocused adventurous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 timid independent 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 dependent altruistic 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 egoistic organized 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 unorganized disciplined 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 undisciplined responsible 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 irresponsible initiative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 lacking initiative visionary 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 improvident trustful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 mistrustful friendly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 isolated considers opinion of others 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 disregards opinion of others authoritative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 unauthoritative objective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 biased source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 69 the construction of the questionnaire-scale of the semantic differential was carried out in five stages: 1) study, theoretical description, and definition of relevant concepts for the development of the questionnaire-scale; 2) highlighting the first set of concepts with the help of a group of experts; 3) cutting off insignificant features and defining the second set of concepts; 4) processing of results and construction of a working version of the semantic differential; 5) the selection of the main features and the formation of the final version of the questionnaire-scale, the use of factor analysis. the final version of the questionnaire consisted of 35 scales (features and their antonyms), which were distributed over 7 personality spheres: emotional-volitional, cognitive, motivational, moral, activity-practical, existential-being, and interpersonal-social. the results obtained became a means for reconstructing the perception of the studied concept in the consciousness of experts, which made it possible to determine the content of the structural and functional components of the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment. 2.3. procedure the obtained data were subjected to the procedure of factor analysis, which made it possible to determine the factor matrix of the grouping of personality characteristics related to the concept of “psychological readiness of a military personnel to take risks” during a combat deployment. factor analysis of matrices was carried out using the extraction method (principal component analysis) and the rotation method (varimax with kaiser normalization). the statistical analysis of the results of the study was carried out using the program spss 17.0. 3. results factor analysis made it possible to obtain a four-factor structure of the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment, which describes 60.81% of the variance of features (table 2). the first factor (component) contained 18.62% of the variance of features, the second – 13.89%, the third – 13.76%, and the fourth – 12.22%. the factor loading of 0.58 was used as a criterion for the level of significance, which made it possible to avoid the inclusion of features (indicators) with a low factor loading in the factors. the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a … ihor prykhodko, et al. 70 table 2. factorial matrix of a grouping of personality characteristics related to the concept of “psychological readiness of military personnel to take risks” during a combat deployment, rotated component matrixa source: authors’ own conception features (indicators) of psychological readiness of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment factors (components) 1 (18.62%) 2 (13.89%) 3 (13.76%) 4 (12.22%) determined 0.80 emotionally resistant 0.74 -0.13 0.10 brave 0.75 0.13 strong-willed 0.74 0.16 professionally competent 0.26 0.19 0.65 patriotic -0.12 0.76 follows the rules 0.13 0.17 0.64 0.14 adventurous 0.24 0.75 organized 0.38 0.14 0.72 trustful -0.18 0.80 0.14 friendly 0.19 0.78 0.15 proud of his/her profession 0.58 0.23 considers opinion of others 0.70 0.26 0.18 disciplined 0.27 0.68 note: extraction method: principal component analysis. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalization. a rotation converged in 5 iterations. the content of the first factor was determined by direct correlations with the variables “determined” (0.80), “brave” (0.75), “emotionally resistant” (0.74), and the ability “strong-willed” (0.74). given this content of features, the first component of the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment was named “ability for volitional effort (mobilization)”. the content of the second factor was determined by direct positive correlations with the variables “trustful” (0.80), “friendly” (0.78), and “considers opinion of others” (0.70). given this content of features, the second component of the model was named “military brotherhood”. the third factor was determined by direct positive correlations with the variables “patriotic” (0.76), “professionally competent” (0.65), “follows brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 71 the rules” (0.64), and “proud of his/her profession” (0.58). given this content of features, this component of the model was named “professional identity”. the fourth factor was determined by direct positive correlations with the variables “adventurous” (0.75), “organized” (0.72), and “disciplined” (0.68). in terms of content, it reflected the characteristics of a soldier’s personality, the role of which is to self-organize and self-regulation of behavior in accordance with the statutory and generally recognized social norms and rules of behavior in the military environment. therefore, this component of the model was named “self-control (endurance)”. thus, a psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment consists of four components, has a specific structure and content, and is presented in the figure 1. fig. 1. a psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment source: authors’ own conception 4. discussion the first component “ability for volitional effort (mobilization)” is the most significant among other components of the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment. a special role in its structure is assigned to the ability to initiate the transition a psychological readiness of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment “professional identity”: “patriotic”; “professionally competent”; “follows the rules”; “proud of his/her profession” “self-control (endurance)”: “adventurous”; “organized”; “disciplined” “ability to the volitional effort (mobilization)”: “determined”; “brave”; “emotionally resistant”; “strong-willed” “military brotherhood”: “trustful”; “friendly”; “considers opinion of others” the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a … ihor prykhodko, et al. 72 from making a decision to act in risky conditions to its direct implementation, to carry out such activities, to maintain its purposefulness and efficiency. abilities to show volitional effort include qualities that characterize the emotional-volitional sphere of the individual: the ability of a soldier to quickly mobilize in extreme situations; the ability to concentrate attention and energy on the fulfillment of the assigned combat mission; the ability to master and regulate one’s own emotional state and reactions to external and internal stimuli. in addition, this component of the model determines the ability to self-organize their actions in unusual conditions, the self-restraint of some aspirations and needs, self-control, and the manifestation of other volitional qualities. our results are confirmed in the studies of heckhausen (1991), shamlyan (2020), which determined that the necessary signs of volitional behavior of a person are the obligatory presence of a conscious goal, tangible obstacles, and the implementation of efforts to overcome them. findings from other researchers show that this component mobilizes the individual’s volitional efforts and encourages risky activities (bartels et al., 2009; boe, 2015a; forstmeier & ruddel, 2008; nindl et al., 2018). according to pols & oak (2007), volitional efforts ensure a person’s ability to maintain stability in various circumstances of activity and are a prerequisite for ensuring high efficiency in the performance of combat missions by military personnel. bartone et al. (2002), ben-shalom et al. (2005), king (2006), siebold (2007) have shown that good communication, understanding, and combat cohesion are essential prerequisites for effective activity of a military unit in risky situations. therefore, it is obvious that the second component of the model contains personal characteristics that are included in the interpersonal and social sphere of a person. this presupposes that military personnel who are ready for risk have sufficiently well-formed communicative qualities that regulate social relations and affect the reduction of social tension among members of the military collective. according to the researchers, good communication and cohesion in the unit contribute to the formation of mutual respect, companionship, openness and trust, consideration of each other’s interests, and mutual assistance among its members (ben-shalom et al., 2005; king, 2006; siebold, 2007). the personal characteristics highlighted in the third component “professional identity” characterize the motivational, moral, and cognitive spheres of the soldier’s personality. their combination provides selfconfidence, in the correctness of their actions, which, according to myrseth et al., (2018), is the basis for maintaining the professional activity of military personnel in conditions involving the exercise of choice, “struggle of brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 73 motives”. this component of the model also ensures the desire of the soldier to improve his professional skills in extreme conditions. “professional identity” reflects the desire to be appropriate to the chosen profession, satisfaction with it, identification with the professional role of a serviceman. an integral part of military culture and professional identity, according to griffith (2010), johansen et al., (2014), meyer (2015), is the necessary level of patriotism in the army. based on the findings of the researchers, patriotism is the leading personality trait for the formation of a soldier’s psychological readiness for risk in combat deployment (delahaij et al., 2006; myrseth et al., 2018). patriotism as a motive for choosing military service is constantly at the center of the discussion among researchers from different countries. krebs & ralston (2020) argues that many americans continue to subscribe to an idealized image of service members as moved by self-sacrificing patriotism. a unique example of the manifestation of patriotism is the volunteer movement of ukrainian citizens in the first years (2014-2015) of the war in the east of ukraine, called the “dobrobaty” (volunteer battalions) (stasiuk, 2018). the members of these battalions (about 100 thousand people, 40 battalions) did not have the necessary military training and combat experience. however, their patriotic spirit allowed them to fight the enemy for the preservation of the independence and territorial integrity of ukraine in the most difficult military operations (ilovaisk, shyrokyne, donetsk airport, debaltseve, etc.) (hrytsiuk et al., 2019; stasiuk, 2018). our results also confirm that “professional identity” ensures the desire of military personnel to comply with the universal and military values of their social group (patriotism, follows the rules, pride of his/her profession), to improve their professional competence. the fourth component, “self-control (endurance)”, determined the ability of military personnel to minimize the possibility of falling (caution) into a situation of imminent danger. however, in this case, according to gayton & kehoe (2015), it is necessary to take into account the absence of an arbitrary right from evasion (organization, discipline) or even nonperformance of their official duties. structurally, this component of the model includes existential-being and active-practical personality traits. “selfcontrol (endurance)” reflects the perception of military personnel by the provisions, rules, and norms of military culture, the mandatory observance of subordination (boe, 2015b). in our opinion, this component of the model characterizes not only the maintenance of strict statutory order, the fulfillment of orders from commanders, a high combat and mobilization the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a … ihor prykhodko, et al. 74 readiness of a military unit but also the psychological readiness of military personnel to take risks during combat deployment. 5. conclusions the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment includes four components: “ability for volitional effort (mobilization)”, “military brotherhood”, “professional identity”, “self-control (endurance)”. their content covers the emotionalvolitional, cognitive, motivational, moral, active-practical, existential-being, and interpersonal-social spheres of the individual. the leading role in the model belongs to strong-willed features, combat cohesion, patriotism, and adaptive resources of the individual, which make it possible to maintain the effectiveness of military personnel’s combat activities under conditions of risk. the basis of the psychological readiness of military personnel to actively act and overcome difficulties in conditions of risk (uncertainty, direct threat to health and life) with the absence of reliable guarantees for success is hardiness. it is suggested that the model can be used for psychological selection procedures, professional and psychological training of military personnel, predicting their behavior under conditions of risk, and developing strategies for psychological support in the post-deployment period. this will reduce psychogenic losses during hostilities. this research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. the authors have no competing interests to declare. references bartels, j. m., magun-jackson, s., & kemp, a. d. (2009). volitional regulation and self-regulated learning: an examination of individual differences in approach-avoidance achievement motivation. electronic journal of research in educational psychology, 7(2), 605–626. bit.ly/3nn6yri bartone, p. t. (2006). resilience under military operational stress: can leaders influence hardiness? military psychology, 18(sup1), s131–s148. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327876mp1803s_10 bartone, p. t., johnsen, b. h., eid, j., brun, w., & laberg, j. c. (2002). factors influencing small-unit cohesion in norwegian navy officer cadets. military psychology, 14(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327876mp1401_01 bartone, p. t., roland, r. r., picano, j. j., & williams, t. j. (2008). psychological hardiness predicts success in us army special forces candidates. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 75 international journal of selection and assessment, 16(1), 78–81. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2008.00412.x bein, l., grau, p. p., saunders, s. m., & deroon-cassini, t. a. (2019). military mental health: problem recognition, treatment-seeking, and barriers. military behavioral health, 7(2), 228–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2018.1526147 ben-shalom, u., lehrer, z., & ben-ari, e. (2005). cohesion during military operations. armed forces & society, 32(1), 63–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x05277888 blinov, o. (2018). combat stress and results of its empirical study. psychological journal, 4(2), 9–22. https://doi.org/10.31108/2018vol12iss2pp9-22 boe, o. (2015a). building resilience: the role of character strengths in the selection and education of military leaders. international journal of emergency mental health and human resilience, 01(04). https://doi.org/10.4172/15224821.1000301 boe, o. (2015b). character in military leaders, officer competency and meeting the unforeseen. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 190, 497–501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.05.033 breivik, g., sand, t. s., & sookermany, a. m. (2020). risk-taking attitudes and behaviors in the norwegian population: the influence of personality and background factors. journal of risk research, 23(11), 1504–1523. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1750455 börjesson, m., österberg, j., & enander, a. (2015). risk propensity within the military: a study of swedish officers and soldiers. journal of risk research, 18(1), 55–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2013.879489 chu, c., stanley, i. h., hom, m. a., lim, i. c., & joiner, t. e. (2016). deployment, mental health problems, suicidality, and use of mental health services among military personnel. military behavioral health, 4(3), 243–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2016.1153533 escolas, s. m., pitts, b. l., safer, m. a., & bartone, p. t. (2013). the protective value of hardiness on military posttraumatic stress symptoms. military psychology, 25(2), 116–123. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0094953 florian, v., mikulincer, m., & taubman, o. (1995). does hardiness contribute to mental health during a stressful real-life situation? the roles of appraisal and coping. journal of personality and social psychology, 68(4), 687–695. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.68.4.687 forstmeier, s., & ruddel, h. (2008). measuring volitional competences: psychometric properties of a short form of the volitional components questionnaire (vcq) in a clinical sample. the open psychology journal, 1(1), 66–77. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874350100801010066 https://doi.org/10.31108/2018vol12iss2pp9-22 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.05.033 https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2016.1153533 https://doi.org/10.2174/1874350100801010066 the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a … ihor prykhodko, et al. 76 delahaij, r., gaillard, a. w. k., & soeters, j. m. l. m. (2006). stress training and the new military environment. in human dimensions in military operations – military leaders’ strategies for addressing stress and psychological support (pp. 17a-1 – 17a-10). meeting proceedings rto-mp-hfm-134, paper 17a. rto. gayton, s. d., & kehoe, e. j. (2015). character strengths and hardiness of australian army special forces applicants. military medicine, 180(8), 857– 862. https://doi.org/10.7205/milmed-d-14-00527 griffith, j. (2010). when does soldier patriotism or nationalism matter? the role of transformational small-unit leaders. journal of applied social psychology, 40(5), 1235–1257. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00617.x heckhausen, h. (1991). volition: implementation of intentions. in h. heckhausen (ed.), motivation and action (pp. 163–188). springer berlin heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75961-1_6 hrytsiuk, v. m., pashkova, o. o., pokotylo, o. i., seheda, s. p., & skriabin, o. l. (2019). informatsiyno-dovidkovi materialy shchodo khronolohiyi podiy 2014–2019 rokiv, yaki vidbuvalysya v avtonomniy respublitsi krym ta pid chas provedennya antyterorystychnoyi operatsiyi / operatsiyi obyednanykh syl na skhodi ukrayiny [information and reference materials on the chronology of events of 20142019, which took place in the autonomous republic of crimea and during the anti-terrorist operation / joint forces operations in eastern ukraine] (p. 21). bit.ly/34ieu6k johansen, r. b., laberg, j. c., & martinussen, m. (2014). military identity as predictor of perceived military competence and skills. armed forces & society, 40(3), 521–543. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x13478405 kaikkonen, n. m., & laukkala, t. (2016). international military operations and mental health – a review. nordic journal of psychiatry, 70(1), 10–15. https://doi.org/10.3109/08039488.2015.1048718 king, a. (2006). the word of command. armed forces & society, 32(4), 493–512. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x05283041 kobasa, s. c. (1979). stressful life events, personality, and health: an inquiry into hardiness. journal of personality and social psychology, 37(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.37.1.1 kokun, o., agayev, n., pischko, i., & stasiuk, v. (2020). characteristic impacts of combat stressors on posttraumatic stress disorder in ukrainian military personnel who participated in the armed conflict in eastern ukraine. international journal of psychology & psychological therapy, 20(3), 315–326. https://www.ijpsy.com/volumen20/num3/554/characteristic-impacts-ofcombat-stressors-en.pdf kolesnichenko, o. s., matsegora,y. v., prykhodko, i. i., lyman, a. a., timchenko, o. v., yurieva, n. v., & horelyshev, s. a. (2019). psihologichna gotovnist do https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75961-1_6 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.37.1.1 https://www.ijpsy.com/volumen20/num3/554/characteristic-impacts-of-combat-stressors-en.pdf https://www.ijpsy.com/volumen20/num3/554/characteristic-impacts-of-combat-stressors-en.pdf brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 77 riziku viyskovosluzhbovtsiv natsionalnoyi gvardiyi ukrayini [psychological readiness to risk of the military personnel of the national guard of ukraine]. nangu. krebs, r. r., & ralston, r. (2020). patriotism or paychecks: who believes what about why soldiers serve. armed forces & society, 0095327x2091716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x20917166 leontev, d. a., & rasskazova, e. i. (2006). test zhiznestoykosti [hardiness test]. smysl. maddi, s. r. (2002). the story of hardiness: twenty years of theorizing, research, and practice. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 54(3), 173– 185. https://doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.54.3.173 maddi, s. r. (2006). hardiness: the courage to grow from stresses. the journal of positive psychology, 1(3), 160–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760600619609 maddi, s. r. (2007). relevance of hardiness assessment and training to the military context. military psychology, 19(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/08995600701323301 maddi, s. r., & khoshaba, d. m. (1994). hardiness and mental health. journal of personality assessment, 63(2), 265–274. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6302_6 melnyk, y. b., prykhodko, i. i., & stadnik, a. v. (2019). medical-psychological support of specialists’ professional activity in extreme conditions. minerva psichiatrica, 60(4), 158−168. https://doi.org/10.23736/s03911772.19.02025-9 meyer, e. g. (2015). the importance of understanding military culture. academic psychiatry, 39(4), 416–418. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-015-0285-1 momen, n., taylor, m. k., pietrobon, r., gandhi, m., markham, a. e., padilla, g. a., miller, p. w., evans, k. e., & sander, t. c. (2010). initial validation of the military operational risk taking scale (morts). military psychology, 22(2), 128–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/08995601003638942 myrseth, h., hystad, s. w., säfvenbom, r., & olsen, o. k. (2018). perception of specific military skills – the impact of perfectionism and self-efficacy. journal of military studies, 9(1), 34-48. https://doi.org/10.2478/jms-20180002 nash w. p. (2007). combat stress injury: theory, research, and management. in c. r. figley & w. p. nash (eds.), combat stress injury: theory, research, and management. routledge. nindl, b. c., billing, d. c., drain, j. r., beckner, m. e., greeves, j., groeller, h., teien, h. k., marcora, s., moffitt, a., reilly, t., taylor, n. a. s., young, a.j., & friedl, k. e. (2018). perspectives on resilience for military readiness and preparedness: report of an international military physiology https://doi.org/10.2478/jms-2018-0002 https://doi.org/10.2478/jms-2018-0002 the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a … ihor prykhodko, et al. 78 roundtable. journal of science and medicine in sport, 21(11), 1116–1124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2018.05.005 osgood, c. e. (1952). the nature and measurement of meaning. psychological bulletin, 49(3), 197–237. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0055737 pitts, b. l., safer, m. a., russell, d. w., & castro-chapman, p. l. (2016). effects of hardiness and years of military service on posttraumatic stress symptoms in u.s. army medics. military psychology, 28(4), 278–284. https://doi.org/10.1037/mil0000106 pols, h., & oak, s. (2007). war & military mental health: the us psychiatric response in the 20th century. american journal of public health, 97(12), 2132– 2142. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2006.090910 prykhodko, i., matsehora, y., bielai, s., hunbin, k., & kalashchenko, s. (2019). classification of coping strategies influencing mental health of military personnel having different combat experience. georgian medical news, 12(297), 130−135. prykhodko, i. i., bielai, s. v., hrynzovskyi, a. m., zhelaho, a. м., hodlevskyi, s. o., & kalashchenko, s. i. (2020). medical and psychological aspects of safety and adaptation of military personnel to extreme conditions. wiadomości lekarskie, 73(4), 679–683. https://doi.org/10.36740/wlek202004110 prykhodko, i., matsehora y., kolesnichenko, o., stasiuk, v., bolshakova, a., & bilyk, o. (2021). psychological first aid for military personnel in combat operations: the ukrainian model. military behavioral health, 9(3), 289-296. https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2020.1864530 serkin, v. p. (2008). metody psihologii subektivnoj semantiki i psihosemantiki [methods of psychology of subjective semantics and psycho-semantics]. psichea. shamlyan, k. (2020). volitional organization of personality as a subject of empirical research. journal of education culture and society, 6(2), 257–267. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs20152.257.267 siebold, g. l. (2007). the essence of military group cohesion. armed forces & society, 33(2), 286–295. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x06294173 stasiuk, y. (2018). ukrayinski dobrovolchi formuvannya yak unikalne yavyshche nezalezhnoyi ukrayiny [ukrainian volunteer units as a unique phenomenon of independent ukraine]. viyskovo-istorychnyy merydian, 2(20), 17–29. stoklasa, j., talášek, t., & stoklasová, j. (2019). semantic differential for the twenty-first century: scale relevance and uncertainty entering the semantic space. quality & quantity, 53(1), 435–448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-018-0762-1 yehuda, r., vermetten, e., mcfarlane, a. c., & lehrner, a. (2014). ptsd in the military: special considerations for understanding prevalence, https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2006.090910 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=prykhodko%20i%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32011308 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=matsehora%20y%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32011308 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=bielai%20s%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32011308 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=hunbin%20k%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32011308 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=kalashchenko%20s%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32011308 https://doi.org/10.36740/wlek202004110 https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2020.1864530 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 79 pathophysiology and treatment following deployment. european journal of psychotraumatology, 5(1), 25322. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.25322 https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.25322 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 374-410 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/256 content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be implemented in servicemen with various levels of effectiveness of service activity oleksandr kolesnichenko¹, yanina matsehora2, ihor prykhodko3, stanislav larionov4, anastasiia bolshakova5, olena bilyk6, svitlana izbash7, viktoriia kuzina8, vitalii panok9, vira kramchenkova10 1 national academy of national guard of ukraine, alex_kolesnichenko@ukr.net 2 national academy of national guard of ukraine, yanina_gora@ukr.net 3 national academy of national guard of ukraine, prikhodko1966@ukr.net 4 national academy of national guard of ukraine, larionov1985@gmail.com 5 kharkiv state academy of culture, ukraine, bolshakova777@ukr.net 6 kharkiv state academy of culture, ukraine, bilikle@gmail.com 7 national academy of national guard of ukraine, izbashs@gmail.com 8 ukrainian military medical academy, ukraine, 0960118847@ukr.net 9 ukrainian science methodological center of applied psychology and social work of naes, ukraine, panokvitaly@ukr.net 10 kharkiv national pedagogical university, ukraine, kramchenkova@ukr.net abstract: in accordance with the results of conducted research there were figured out the content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be implemented in servicemen with various levels of effectiveness of service activity. 8435 male servicemen participated in the research, they equally presented all the operational and territorial military unifications and units of the national guard of ukraine. each unit proportionately presented officers as well as military personnel under contract who included the participants of hostilities and those who did not have such experience. examination of various aspects of servicemen motivation was conducted with the help of the following the methods which were standardized being based on the ukrainian selection “close questionnaire of examining the motivation of professional choice made by applicants of the ministry of internal affairs”, “questionnaire of estimation of the effectiveness of military tasks’ execution by servicemen of the national guard of ukraine”, questionnaire on “sense-bearing and life orientations”, the methods of “studying the motivational profile of personality”, and “locus of control”. there was conducted the cluster analysis which gave the possibility to figure out six motivational types connected with the effectiveness of servicemen operational activity. motivational types were located between the poles which were introduced by two dimensions: self-efficacy (autonomous and controlled motivation) and motivation of helping others (motivations of public service selfishness).those motivational types of servicemen were the following: motivated by public service, stagnant, prosocial, romantic, deficient, and dependent. distinguished types included the content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be implemented. keywords: motive, motivational sphere, effectiveness of service, servicemen, public service. how to cite: kolesnichenko, o., matsehora, y., prykhodko, i., larionov, s., bolshakova, a., bilyk, o., izbash, s., kuzina, v., panok, v., & kramchenkova, v. (2021). content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be implemented in servicemen with various levels of effectiveness of service activity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 374410. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/256 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/256 mailto:alex_kolesnichenko@ukr.net mailto:yanina_gora@ukr.net mailto:prikhodko1966@ukr.net mailto:larionov1985@gmail.com mailto:bolshakova777@ukr.net mailto:bilikle@gmail.com mailto:izbashs@gmail.com mailto:0960118847@ukr.net mailto:panokvitaly@ukr.net mailto:kramchenkova@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/256 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 375 novelty and relevance what is already known about the topic? autonomous motivation and motivation of public service increase the efficiency of professional activity. servicemen have different motives for professional activity and their differentiation is necessary to manage the effectiveness of their activities, the choice of stimulation, encouragement. what this paper adds? this is the first study of the motivation of ukrainian military personnel, in which the typology of motivation is correlated with expert assessments of the effectiveness of military personnel. these results of the study will reduce the number of errors in the in the process of predicting the effectiveness of their operational activity with the help of the structure of motivation diagnostics of applicants for military service based on their classification in accordance with one of the distinguished types. motivation as a factor of professional as well as personal development was significant but was not completely discussed aspect of a complicated issue of professiographical examination of servicemen operational activity; though, the necessity of examining the proposed topic was mostly caused by a need of practice (prykhodko et al., 2019). experience of using military units and formations of the armed forces of ukraine (afu) and of the national guard of ukraine (ngu) during combat operations in ukraine since 2014 strongly convinced that with a considerable degree successful conduction of combat and operational tasks depended on the level of personnel’s motivation. its independent level during operations devaluated any advantages of military formations in logistics and professional development; moreover, it provoked combat stress (prykhodko, 2018). before the combat conflict on the east of ukraine daily service of servicemen faced difficult times including low level of logistics and salary, absence of prospects to receive their private accommodation, and plenty of other social and domestic problems which brought the situation to the line where servicemen made inappropriate choice (prykhodko et al., 2019). insufficient level of motivation occurred in negative facts of refusal of some parts of the ukrainian military formations’ personnel to continue the service on the territory of the autonomous republic of crimea, of donetsk and content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 376 luhansk regions at the beginning of 2014 as well as in adequate efficiency of units’ operation which were manned by mobilized servicemen, in significant quantity of suicides, crimes, and violations of military discipline among servicemen at the anti-terrorist operation zone (further joint forces operations) (prykhodko et al., 2019). besides the fact that there were many scientific researches of peculiarities of personal motivation concerning professional activity under extreme conditions, namely: combat operations constantly made adjustments to components of its diagnostics and formation. especially that issue was related to the sphere of professional activity of the ukrainian servicemen. military service included participation in combat operations, execution of operational tasks connected with vital risks, combat trainings, and daily activities (kolesnichenko, 2018). motivation concerning the military activity included a range of various social and psychological conditions, and determined the complex of positive as well as negative aspects of military service (kapluchenko & prykhodko, 2019). motivation included the reveal and actualization of inner resources of servicemen and creation of positive motivation in combination with external conditions (prykhodko et al., 2019). its specifics depended on personal peculiarities as well as on professional activity. the vast majority of modern foreign researches on individual motivation concerning professional activity, namely, under extreme conditions, were focused on the paradigm of the theory of selfdetermination. this paradigm was proposed by deci and ryan (1985) after that it was accepted as a reliable empiric theory. according to its core postulates human motivation was divided into external and internal, internal included three congenital universal psychological needs: competency (need of people to show their abilities), autonomy (right of choice to choose the profession), and interrelationship (need of feeling their own involvement into social groups and/or spheres of activity). this theory led to the conclusion that different regulating processes which, being the core of achieving goals, were correlated with the effective functioning and welfare. different contents of goals were correlated with the quality of behaviour, mental health, and with the level of needs’ satisfaction in different ways. to prove the key notions of the theory of self-determination gillet et al. (2017) analyzed interrelationship between motivating profiles of servicemen and civil workers. the results of their research showed that profiles were differently connected with accepted organizational support as well as with involvement into the activity of both selections including communication and support from the side of management and with positive brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 377 and negative effects in the second selection. moreover, servicemen with the highest indicators of autonomous motivation presented the highest levels of organizational support acceptance and involvement into activity. nevertheless, the highest level of autonomous motivation was connected with the highest level of communication, support of commander, and positive influence. using the theory of self-determination as a theoretical basis, chambel et al. (2015) created a model that included the servicemen’s perception of organizational support on exchange between commanders and members of military staff, professional motivation and welfare. the results showed that motivation concerning autonomous activity was significantly connected with both contextual factors. besides that, motivation concerning autonomous work was positively connected with its involvement into activity and was negatively connected with professional burnout while controlled motivation demonstrated the opposite reaction. foreign researchers (griffith, 2008; helmus et al., 2018) to prove main aspects of the theory of self-determination distinguished institutional and pragmatic motivation as well as their combination. internal motivation was included into the process of launching the activity because that was interesting and could self-satisfy despite the activities turned to the achievement of external goal. though, griffith (2008) using the analysis of motivation of the us national guard servicemen included into the list of institutional type such internal motives as: patriotism, desire to test themselves, desire to be useful for country and society. pragmatic motivation to serve was demonstrated through general attitude to army as if it was an employer who made delightful proposition. in another research helmus et al. (2018) from rand center distinguished key motives of entering the us army and revealed the specificity of army life reality. the results showed that the choice of future servicemen selection in the usa was influenced by two groups of motives which were interrelated with each other: institutional and pragmatic. the key motives to choose the profession of the us army serviceman were “adventures and travelling”, “advantages”, “stability of the work and salary”, “avoidance of negative surrounding”, and “professional education”. moreover, helmus et al. (2018) figured out that on the contrary those servicemen who were motivated by pragmatic incentives tended to long-term military service in contrast with those who chose the service as a “call of their heart” being based on institutional motives. thus, the most of candidates chose the military service in the us army due to pragmatic content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 378 (material) reasons, but for the majority of recruits the military service became the work and only after that – call of their hearts. the research of bury (2017) which was based on the determination of motives of recruiting and retention in logistics’ divisions of the british army reserve demonstrated that servicemen who served because of institutional motives were focused on longer service. servicemen with pragmatic motivation were less satisfied with the conditions of their service and entered the military sphere to follow the contract only. woodruff (2017) had the same conclusion which pointed out that internal motives created stronger connections with army and military values than external motives such as: salary, experience for future professional activity, finances for future education, etc. the norwegian experts johansen et al. (2014) proved that institutional and pragmatic motives could cohabit and a serviceman who was interested in salary, help and economic welfare was not obligatory a bad soldier. the authors pointed out that during the international mission beyond the borders of their own country it was hard to maintain the ideal images of military service; however, mainly the loyalty to traditional military ideals were the best motives of serving and factors of effective military organization. grigorov and spirdonov (2018) confirmed the theses that there was institutional and pragmatic motivation. they conducted the research to distinguish core motives of choosing the military profession in the republic of bulgaria and suggested that the dominant motivational structures in the process of choosing the profession was the coexistence of leading factors which were connected with pragmatic motivation in comparison with internal factors which related to one definite work, independence, achievement, and recognition. according to taiyang (2010) the system of motivation to serve in the chinese army was determined with the factors of tradition and culture: national flag as a symbol of honour, courage, role of model caused the involvement into nobility and caring about other people; non-material motivated stimulation. analyzing the motivation of the brazilian servicemen, rodriguesgoulart (2006) highlighted that it always had crucial importance for servicemen who executed tasks under combat conditions which posed risks for their life and health. according to the researcher for many situations motivation was a core to succeed in battle. rodrigues-goulart (2006) distinguished the following motives of military profession: sense of obligation, belonging to military sphere, responsibility, sacrificing, need of brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 379 fate, desire of adventures, leadership, working abilities, tendency to recognition and awards, ideas of legitimacy of war, hope and victory, hatred of enemies, and need of self-preservation. in accordance with catignani (2004) “strong spirit” of military division was equal to high combat motivation. it was impossible to overestimate the importance of combat motivation to succeed in execution of military operations such as patrolling as well as full-scale war. combat motivation was key factor that gave possibility to ordinary army to succeed in conflicts; talking about israel it was called “secret weapon” of the army. catignani (2004) pointed out that there was “a tough connection between cohesion, motivational level of servicemen and combat effectiveness”. analysis of modern scientific works indicated unbelievable urgency of the problem of servicemen motivation to act under extreme conditions in different countries all around the world. systematization of analyzing the peculiarities of professional motivation of servicemen gave the possibility to conclude that motivation was one of the most significant factors for military division to achieve the posed goals in many situations which occurred in the process of executing combat operations under extreme conditions. the aim of the research was to determine the content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to implement them in servicemen with various levels of effectiveness of service activity. method participants and procedure the research was conducted from 2019 to 2021. there participated 8435 servicemen of the ngu who equally presented all the operational and territorial divisions and military units of the ngu. each unit equally presented their officers – 29.84% (from lieutenant to colonel) and servicemen under contract – 70.16% (from crewman to warrant officer), participants of hostilities and those who did not have such experience. the age of the respondents was from 20 to 55. all procedures carried out in the study conformed to the ethical standards of the 1964 helsinki declaration and its later amendments. all participants gave consent for their data to be used in this research. instruments and measures to determine various aspects of servicemen motivation there were used the methods which were standardized being based on the ukrainian selection. https://context.reverso.net/%d0%bf%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%b4/%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%b8%d0%b9%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d1%80%d1%83%d1%81%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9/crewman https://context.reverso.net/%d0%bf%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%b4/%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%b8%d0%b9%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d1%80%d1%83%d1%81%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9/warrant+officer content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 380 1. “close questionnaire of examining the motivation of professional choice made by applicants of the ministry of internal affairs” by moskalenko (2002). this questionnaire was developed by the ukrainian researcher for professional psychological selection for future policemen education, it gave possibility to evaluate: “motives related to objective socially posed tasks and to content of profession”, “motives related to personal and professional development”, “independent profession selection”, “dependent profession selection”, “motives related to external prestigious professions and financial welfare”, “motives related to romanticization of profession”, “motives related to eagerness of compensation of temper flaws”, “antisocial motives (attitude to profession was as if it was a way to satisfy own antisocial needs)”. the instruction of this method proposed to answer the question concerning the reason of choosing this profession where the respondents using a scale made of 5 points could estimate 40 statements which described the profession of law enforcements. 2. “methods of studying the motivational profile of personality” by ritchie and martin (1999). the use of this method gave the possibility to determine the urgent motivation of professional activity. it had the following scales: “need of high salary and financial benefits”, “need of high working conditions and comfortable surrounding”, “need of accurate structurization of work and feedback”, “need of social relations”, “need of forming and supporting long-term stable relations”, “need of obtaining the recognition by other people”, “need of posing brave and tough goals and of achieving them”, “need of interesting and socially beneficial work”, “need of self-improvement and development as personality”, “need of being creative, thoughtful, and open for further ideas employee”, “need of diversity, breaks and stimulations, eagerness to avoid everyday routine”, “need of manipulation and power, eagerness to control the other people”. this questionnaire included 33 questions with 4 variants of answers where the respondents had to replace 11 points in accordance with the importance of the answers. 3. method of “will-regulated personality” by gutkin and mikhalchenko (2000) gave the possibility to determine general indicator which characterized willed organization and willed peculiarities of personality: organization of will and sense, organization of activity, determination, perseverance, self-control, and self-reliance. this method included 56 questions with 4 variants of answers. 4. method of “locus of control” in modification proposed by ksenofontova (1999) which gave the possibility to analyze internal orientation of serviceman personality, his/her ability to recognize and take brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 381 responsibility for his/her decisions and actions. this method included 40 statements which respondent could agree or disagree with. this questionnaire determined 17 options of internality: general internality, internality in thoughts about life in general, internality in description of personal experience, internality in the sphere of achievements, internality in the sphere of fails, tendency to self-incrimination, internality in the sphere of professional activity, professional and social aspect of internality, professional and processual aspects of internality, internality in interpersonal communication, competence in the sphere of interpersonal relations, responsibility in the sphere of interpersonal relations, internality in the sphere of family relations, internality in the sphere of health, negation of activity, readiness for activities which was connected with difficulties overcoming, readiness for self-planning, acting and responsibility for their activities. 5. test of “sense-bearing and life orientations” in adaptation made by muzdybaev (1998). this test was the adapted version of test “goal of life” by crumbaugh & maholick (1969). within the further work with the method there was developed a scale of searching for sense-bearing and life goals (crumbaugh & henrion, 1988). it was planned as an additional scale for the test devoted to life understanding. according to the ideas of the authors the scale had to measure the strength of motivational tendency to search for sense of life; thus, it was opposite to the scale “goal of life” – the more goals of life there were the less need for their search. adaptation of this text into the russian language was completed by muzdybaev (1998).the factor structure of the russian version of the text was determined during special research. this research demonstrated that despite the small quantity (20 points) during the factor analysis there were distinguished six factors on thebasis of which there were marked out some subscales in the final variant of sense-bearing and life orientations. 6. “questionnaire of estimation of the effectiveness of military tasks’ execution by servicemen of the national guard of ukraine” by matsegora et al. (2013) gave the possibility to estimate the level of development of important professional qualities and peculiarities of executing the servicemen’s combat operations. experts were the commanders of servicemen who participated in the research. the questionnaire included 37 criteria of estimation. in the process of estimation experts used the scale with 5 points: 5 points was the maximal possible level of development of estimated professional important quality or maximal level of effectiveness of the estimated aspect of service. 0 points was used to determine the absence, undevelopment of estimated important professional quality or full inefficiency of subordinate individual https://context.reverso.net/%d0%bf%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%b4/%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%b8%d0%b9%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d1%80%d1%83%d1%81%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9/self-incriminating+statement content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 382 in estimated aspect of combat operations. informative paragraphs of this questionnaire revealed all the processual aspects of work, peculiarities of professional communication and motives, professional skills, and possibilities of productive work. mentioned methods were standardized for the ukrainian selections, they were often used to determine the peculiarities of professional motivation of servicemen and law enforcements of ukraine. data analysis a cluster analysis was used to compare the data of psychodiagnostic scales in studied groups. to represent the data, we used the main descriptive statistics (arithmetic mean -mand standard deviation -sd). to reliably detect significant differences between comparative groups, the t-student criterion was used. mathematical data were processed through spss 17.0. results conducted cluster analysis gave possibility to distinguish 6 groups which differeddue to their ways of estimation of combat operations effectiveness as well as typical sphere of motivation and will. the indicators for psychodiagnostic methods that determine the characteristics of the identified types of motivation in servicemen are showed in tables 1 and 2. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 383 table 1. indicators for psychodiagnostic methods that determine the characteristics of the identified types of motivation in servicemen (in standard points)-i mwe mhe he we mle2 mle1 “questionnaire of estimation of the effectiveness of military tasks’ execution by servicemen of the national guard of ukraine” general indicator of the effectiveness of service and combat activities 19.43±3. 22 20.43±2. 16 21.05±2. 59 18.52±1. 93 20.23±1. 88 20.40±1. 71 “close questionnaire of examining the motivation of professional choice made by applicants of the ministry of internal affairs” “motives related to objective socially posed tasks and to content of profession” 20.71±3. 40 17.13±4. 13 21.47±2. 98 23.69±1. 75 19.61±2. 92 23.22±2. 34 “motives related to personal and professional development” 18.50±4. 30 13.53±4. 38 17.60±4. 52 22.38±3. 99 20.04±2. 29 20.04±3. 70 “independent profession selection” 17.15±4. 66 12.34±4. 91 18.73±3. 96 23.00±1. 53 18.74±2. 82 20.74±2. 95 “dependent profession selection” 13.20±4. 97 9.87±4.5 3 10.41±4. 34 21.31±4. 94 18.17±3. 07 11.98±4. 89 “motives related to external prestigious professions and financial welfare” 18.20±3. 58 13.51±3. 76 17.00±3. 28 23.62±1. 89 19.26±3. 66 18.93±3. 27 “motives related to romanticization of profession” 15.71±4. 51 11.00±3. 99 13.68±4. 41 22.69±2. 72 18.96±3. 35 14.83±5. 01 “motives related to eagerness of compensation of temper flaws” 19.12±3. 61 13.66±4. 67 17.44±4. 22 23.08±2. 06 19.91±3. 07 20.57±3. 66 “antisocial motives (attitude to profession was as if it was a way to satisfy own antisocial needs)” 14.43±4. 99 9.89±3.9 9 10.30±3. 62 21.46±3. 48 18.70±3. 10 13.30±5. 67 “methods of studying the motivational profile of personality” “need of high salary and financial benefits” 32.49±6. 74 36.11±9. 65 32.67±8. 12 30.69±4. 13 39.17±7. 62 34.56±7. 53 “need of high working conditions and comfortable surrounding” 30.72±5. 31.70±5. 28.96±7. 31.08±2. 30.26±4. 28.50±5. content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 384 40 99 36 56 27 80 “need of accurate structurization of work and feedback” 33.58±7. 92 31.30±6. 81 33.17±5. 53 32.00±4. 00 33.52±4. 33 32.70±6. 53 “need of social relations” 28.07±5. 24 27.85±5. 13 29.42±4. 68 28.23±3. 96 27.61±4. 98 30.83±4. 98 “need of forming and supporting long-term stable relations” 28.41±5. 45 28.02±4. 55 28.64±6. 66 31.23±2. 74 28.83±3. 65 29.89±4. 47 “need of obtaining the recognition by other people” 31.29±5. 93 30.87±5. 03 30.95±5. 76 29.38±4. 13 34.09±6. 16 32.39±6. 96 “need of posing brave and tough goals and of achieving them” 30.47±4. 82 29.53±4. 98 31.14±4. 18 30.31±3. 22 30.83±4. 49 28.98±4. 11 “need of manipulation and power, eagerness to control the other people” 26.66±7. 54 26.85±5. 42 26.35±5. 28 28.85±2. 51 26.61±5. 24 26.70±4. 45 “need of diversity, breaks and stimulations, eagerness to avoid everyday routine” 29.59±4. 66 29.42±6. 01 28.81±4. 67 31.08±3. 01 27.52±3. 82 27.56±5. 22 “need of being creative, thoughtful, and open for further ideas employee” 29.34±3. 93 29.02±5. 09 29.23±4. 12 30.62±6. 21 31.30±4. 35 28.59±5. 00 “need of self-improvement and development as personality” 31.27±5. 03 30.60±4. 09 30.87±4. 59 30.62±1. 85 28.43±3. 81 31.22±4. 11 “need of interesting and socially beneficial work” 31.12±5. 57 31.74±6. 02 32.79±6. 31 28.92±4. 35 24.83±4. 98 31.07±5. 16 test of “sense-bearing and life orientations” general indicator of “sense-bearing and life orientations” 90.41±1 1.21 95.23±1 4.75 116.60±1 2.03 105.38±2 0.48 78.91±1 2.02 120.09± 9.84 “goal” 27.76±5. 08 29.62±5. 23 36.35±4. 39 29.08±8. 90 24.13±5. 89 38.17±2. 95 “process” 25.85±4. 28.72±4. 32.90±4. 33.92±7. 23.91±5. 32.69±4. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 385 55 75 86 25 52 64 “result” 22.92±4. 20 24.26±4. 19 30.17±3. 27 26.54±5. 90 19.17±4. 99 31.72±2. 68 “locus of control-i” 18.84±3. 60 19.83±3. 51 24.29±2. 76 20.85±4. 88 18.04±4. 67 25.98±1. 68 “locus of life control” 27.42±4. 69 28.30±5. 57 35.73±4. 23 28.85±6. 73 24.57±5. 81 37.81±3. 24 notes: mwe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to weak indicator of effectiveness; mhe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to high indicator of effectiveness; he – highly effective; we – weakly effective; mle2 – middle level of effectiveness; mle1 – middle level of effectiveness. table 2. indicators for psychodiagnostic methods that determine the characteristics of the identified types of motivation in servicemen (in standard points)-ii mwe mhe he we mle2 mle1 method of “locus of control” general internality 25.71±3.7 4 20.64±2.9 4 29.60±3.55 24.15±3.2 9 20.43±3. 70 20.44±3.5 0 internality in thoughts about life in general 12.07±2.3 3 9.81±2.39 14.05±2.24 10.31±1.4 9 9.87±2.5 1 9.37±1.83 internality in description of personal experience 13.64±2.3 8 10.83±2.6 8 15.56±2.12 13.85±2.9 7 10.57±2. 84 11.07±2.6 8 internality in the sphere of achievements 5.76±1.68 4.55±1.29 6.82±1.21 6.46±1.45 4.17±1.4 4 4.76±1.53 internality in the sphere of fails 4.59±1.24 3.40±1.46 4.68±1.47 5.15±1.41 4.04±1.1 9 3.04±1.44 internality to self-incrimination 1.16±1.91 1.15±1.97 -2.15±1.72 1.31±1.55 0.13±1.7 1.72±2.18 content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 386 4 internality in the sphere of professional activity 10.63±1.7 5 7.66±1.80 11.83±1.85 9.85±1.52 8.13±1.9 6 7.78±2.00 professional and social aspect of internality 5.43±1.13 3.81±1.23 6.04±1.25 4.69±0.75 4.13±1.3 6 4.06±1.41 professional and processual aspects of internality 5.20±1.23 3.85±1.34 5.79±1.33 5.15±1.28 4.00±1.6 5 3.72±1.46 internality in interpersonal communication 9.34±1.88 7.75±2.08 11.15±1.90 8.00±1.83 8.09±2.0 9 7.74±1.67 competence in the sphere of interpersonal relations 5.02±1.67 3.98±1.50 6.40±1.38 3.77±1.74 3.70±1.4 6 4.24±1.48 responsibility in the sphere of interpersonal relations 4.31±1.46 3.77±1.22 4.76±1.16 4.23±0.83 4.39±1.4 7 3.50±1.46 internality in the sphere of family relations 4.15±1.17 3.74±1.18 4.90±1.22 3.69±0.85 3.87±1.1 0 3.69±1.30 internality in the sphere of health 5.60±1.28 4.28±1.26 6.29±1.17 5.54±0.66 4.30±1.4 0 4.37±1.57 negation of activity 5.14±2.12 7.55±1.67 3.30±1.86 7.46±0.78 8.13±1.7 4 7.83±2.39 readiness for activities which was connected with difficulties overcoming 5.19±1.63 3.96±1.37 6.63±1.25 2.54±1.45 3.22±1.6 2 4.13±1.89 readiness for self-planning, acting and responsibility for their activities 5.67±1.58 4.49±1.09 6.07±1.45 6.00±1.78 4.65±1.8 7 4.04±1.67 method of “will-regulated personality” value-semantic organization of personality 14.02±3.2 5 13.19±3.7 3 17.60±2.85 13.54±3.6 7 11.04±2. 40 19.39±2.6 9 organization of activity 14.56±2.3 13.32±2.4 15.53±2.17 13.69±1.8 11.39±2. 16.00±2.6 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 387 7 1 9 10 4 determination 15.16±3.2 1 14.72±2.7 5 18.56±2.99 13.85±3.8 9 11.22±2. 26 20.11±2.5 6 perseverance 15.85±2.9 7 14.72±3.7 7 19.25±2.81 14.15±4.0 4 10.87±2. 26 20.46±2.4 5 self-control 15.30±2.8 4 14.42±3.3 2 18.44±2.64 13.23±4.6 8 10.91±2. 43 19.31±2.3 9 “self-reliance” 12.88±3.1 5 13.85±3.0 0 14.66±2.38 9.15±4.20 8.35±2.9 0 14.54±3.5 4 lies index 10.72±2.3 8 8.79±3.32 11.70±3.04 11.08±3.1 2 10.13±2. 62 13.43±2.9 8 general indicator characterizing the volitional organization of the personality 87.78±12. 20 84.21±12. 48 104.04±10. 10 77.62±18. 06 63.78±5. 33 109.81±7. 75 notes: mwe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to weak indicator of effectiveness; mhe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to high indicator of effectiveness; he – highly effective; we – weakly effective; mle2 – middle level of effectiveness; mle1 – middle level of effectiveness. table 3, 4, 5 and 6 show the significance of differences between the proposed types according to the scales of methods for describing the features of the motivation of military personnel. table 3. the significance of the differences between the proposed types according to the scales of methods for describing the features of the motivation of military personnel (in standard points)-i t mwemhe t mhehe t mwewe t mwemle2 t mwemle1 t mhehe t mhewe t mhemle2 “questionnaire of estimation of the effectiveness of military tasks’ execution by servicemen of the national guard of ukraine” general indicator of the effectiveness of service 2.19* 3.89** 1.42 1.52 2.32* 1.650 3.12** 0.41 content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 388 and combat activities “close questionnaire of examining the motivation of professional choice made by applicants of the ministry of internal affairs” “motives related to objective socially posed tasks and to content of profession” 5.30** 1.670 4.91** 1.55 5.17** 6.91** 8.78** 2.98** “motives related to personal and professional development” 6.54** 1.47 3.24** 2.32* 2.25* 5.60** 7.03** 8.48** “independent profession selection” 5.72** 2.56* 8.90** 2.05* 5.58** 8.37** 13.38** 7.16** “dependent profession selection” 4.06** 4.21** 5.51** 5.96** 1.42 0.74 7.60** 9.31** “motives related to external prestigious professions and financial welfare” 7.27** 2.47* 8.31** 1.24 1.24 5.87** 13.72** 6.24** “motives related to romanticization of profession” 6.43** 3.24** 7.78** 3.81** 1.05 3.96** 12.54** 8.96** “motives related to eagerness of compensation of temper flaws” 7.27** 3.08** 5.73** 1.06 2.31* 5.08** 10.96** 6.89** “antisocial motives (attitude to profession was as if it was a way to satisfy own antisocial needs)” 5.91** 6.57** 6.36** 5.07** 1.21 0.65 10.43** 10.40** “methods of studying the motivational profile of personality” “need of high salary and financial benefits” 2.40* 0.18 1.32 3.83** 1.65 2.28* 3.09** 1.48 “need of high working conditions and comfortable surrounding” 0.97 2.00* 0.39 0.43 2.26* 2.59* 0.57 1.19 “need of accurate structurization of work and feedback” 1.800 0.42 1.13 0.05 0.71 1.760 0.48 1.710 “need of social relations” 0.24 1.920 0.13 0.39 3.13** 1.910 0.29 0.19 “need of forming and supporting long-term stable relations” 0.45 0.27 2.94** 0.44 1.750 0.71 3.26** 0.82 “need of obtaining the recognition by other people” 0.45 0.41 1.45 1.950 0.96 0.10 1.11 2.21* brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 389 “need of posing brave and tough goals and of achieving them” 1.09 1.05 0.15 0.34 1.940 2.06 0.69 1.12 “need of manipulation and power, eagerness to control the other people” 0.17 0.33 2.04* 0.04 0.04 0.56 1.960 0.18 “need of diversity, breaks and stimulations, eagerness to avoid everyday routine” 0.18 1.20 1.52 2.20** 2.34* 0.66 1.42 1.65 “need of being creative, thoughtful, and open for further ideas employee” 0.39 0.18 0.72 1.960 0.93 0.27 0.86 2.000 “need of self-improvement and development as personality” 0.85 0.58 0.87 2.94** 0.06 0.38 0.02 2.23* “need of interesting and socially beneficial work” 0.61 2.03* 1.63 5.25** 0.05 1.05 1.920 5.21** notes: mwe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to weak indicator of effectiveness; mhe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to high indicator of effectiveness; he – highly effective; we – weakly effective; mle2 – middle level of effectiveness; mle1 – middle level of effectiveness; 0p≤ .1; *p≤ .05; **p≤ .01. table 4. the significance of the differences between the proposed types according to the scales of methods for describing the features of the motivation of military personnel (in standard points)-iі t mhemle1 t hewe t hemle2 t hemle1 t wemle2 t wemle1 t mle2mle1 “questionnaire of estimation of the effectiveness of military tasks’ execution by servicemen of the national guard of ukraine” general indicator of the effectiveness of service and combat activities 0.09 4.34** 1.810 1.99* 2.57* 3.21** 0.37 “close questionnaire of examining the motivation of professional choice made by applicants of the ministry of internal affairs” “motives related to objective socially posed 9.35** 4.01** 2.80** 4.22** 5.24** 0.81 5.26** content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 390 tasks and to content of profession” “motives related to personal and professional development” 8.29** 4.06** 3.91** 3.77** 1.940 1.930 0.01 “independent profession selection” 10.70** 7.72** 0.02 3.75** 5.88** 3.87** 2.81** “dependent profession selection” 2.32* 7.65** 10.36** 2.04* 2.07* 6.12** 6.71** “motives related to external prestigious professions and financial welfare” 7.94** 10.98** 2.77** 3.61** 4.70** 6.81** 0.38 “motives related to romanticization of profession” 4.38** 10.58** 6.57** 1.47 3.63** 7.73** 4.22** “motives related to eagerness of compensation of temper flaws” 8.51** 8.22** 3.32** 5.01** 3.69** 3.30** 0.81 “antisocial motives (attitude to profession was as if it was a way to satisfy own antisocial needs)” 3.60** 10.96** 11.62** 3.58** 2.38* 6.61** 5.37** “methods of studying the motivational profile of personality” “need of high salary and financial benefits” 0.93 1.46 3.72** 1.50 4.33** 2.51* 2.44* “need of high working conditions and comfortable surrounding” 2.81** 2.18* 1.17 0.45 0.72 2.43* 1.48 “need of accurate structurization of work and feedback” 1.09 0.96 0.34 0.46 1.06 0.49 0.65 “need of social relations” 3.05** 1.01 1.62 1.770 0.41 2.02* 2.60* “need of forming and supporting long-term stable relations” 2.14* 2.68** 0.20 1.47 2.23* 1.38 1.09 “need of obtaining the recognition by other people” 1.30 1.25 2.27* 1.33 2.73** 2.02* 1.06 “need of posing brave and tough goals and of achieving them” 0.62 0.86 0.31 3.20** 0.40 1.26 1.690 “need of manipulation and power, eagerness to 0.15 2.96** 0.21 0.45 1.730 2.32* 0.08 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 391 control the other people” “need of diversity, breaks and stimulations, eagerness to avoid everyday routine” 1.710 2.43* 1.43 1.52 3.08** 3.21** 0.03 “need of being creative, thoughtful, and open for further ideas employee” 0.44 0.78 2.11* 0.83 0.35 1.09 2.39* “need of self-improvement and development as personality” 0.78 0.39 2.72** 0.51 2.30* 0.80 2.87** “need of interesting and socially beneficial work” 0.61 2.90** 6.73** 1.900 2.57* 1.54 4.98** notes: mwe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to weak indicator of effectiveness; mhe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to high indicator of effectiveness; he – highly effective; we – weakly effective; mle2 – middle level of effectiveness; mle1 – middle level of effectiveness; 0p≤ .1; *p≤ .05; **p≤ .01. table 5. the significance of the differences between the proposed types according to the scales of methods for describing the features of the motivation of military personnel (in standard points)-iiі t mwemhe t mhehe t mwewe t mwemle2 t mwemle1 t mhehe t mhewe t mhemle2 test of “sense-bearing and life orientations” general indicator of “sense-bearing and life orientations” 2.04* 16.16** 2.58** 4.13** 16.46** 9.31** 1.680 5.06** “goal” 2.07* 12.75** 0.52 2.70** 15.34** 8.21** 0.21 3.86** “process” 3.51** 10.74** 3.90** 1.55 8.55** 5.33** 2.46* 3.63** “result” 1.840 13.44** 2.13* 3.30** 15.14** 9.14** 1.31 4.28** “locus of control-i” 1.60 11.85** 1.43 0.76 15.88** 8.22** 0.71 1.65 “locus of life control” 0.96 13.12** 0.74 2.17* 15.49** 8.69** 0.27 2.61* content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 392 method of “locus of control” general internality 8.89** 7.58** 1.56 6.06** 8.44** 17.44** 3.52** 0.24 internality in thoughts about life in general 5.47** 6.14** 3.64** 3.79** 7.64** 11.01** 0.94 0.09 internality in description of personal experience 6.26** 6.00** 0.24 4.76** 5.75** 11.40** 3.34** 0.38 internality in the sphere of achievements 4.76** 5.05** 1.60 4.52** 3.61** 10.92** 4.35** 1.07 internality in the sphere of fails 4.97** 0.45 1.36 1.950 6.56** 5.34** 4.01** 2.030 internality to self-incrimination 0.03 3.81** 0.30 2.47* 1.55 3.20** 0.31 2.26* internality in the sphere of professional activity 9.55** 4.79** 1.690 5.55** 8.62** 14.02** 4.48** 0.98 professional and social aspect of internality 7.78** 3.68** 3.06** 4.21** 6.05** 11.03** 3.29** 0.97 professional and processual aspects of internality 5.95** 3.32** 0.12 3.24** 6.17** 8.87** 3.26** 0.39 internality in interpersonal communication 4.51** 6.85** 2.45* 2.60* 5.23** 10.20** 0.42 0.64 competence in the sphere of interpersonal relations 3.81** 6.27** 2.43* 3.75** 2.90** 10.04** 0.40 0.78 responsibility in the sphere of interpersonal relations 2.35* 2.35* 0.30 0.22 3.21** 4.99** 1.60 1.770 internality in the sphere of family relations 2.02* 4.49** 1.710 1.08 2.14* 5.97** 0.15 0.48 internality in the sphere of health 5.97** 3.95** 0.29 4.04** 4.86** 9.90** 4.98** 0.06 negation of activity 7.44** 6.51** 7.40** 6.98** 6.78** 14.97** 0.27 1.36 readiness for activities which was connected with difficulties overcoming 4.75** 6.92** 6.03** 5.17** 3.39** 12.15** 3.21** 1.920 readiness for self-planning, acting and responsibility for their activities 5.22** 1.850 0.62 2.40* 5.76** 7.98** 2.93** 0.39 method of “will-regulated personality” value-semantic organization of personality 1.35 8.23** 0.45 4.87** 10.58** 7.70** 0.31 3.00** brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 393 organization of activity 2.96** 3.03** 1.49 6.23** 3.27** 5.76** 0.60 3.51** determination 0.87 7.77** 1.16 6.76** 10.08** 8.31** 0.76 5.80** perseverance 1.860 8.33** 1.45 8.73** 9.98** 7.86** 0.46 5.49** self-control 1.62 8.09** 1.55 7.41** 8.99** 7.83** 0.86 5.14** “self-reliance” 1.810 4.43** 3.07** 6.54** 2.81** 1.750 3.80** 7.52** lies index 3.68** 2.62** 0.39 0.98 5.63** 5.48** 2.33* 1.880 general indicator characterizing the volitional organization of the personality 1.65 10.17** 1.960 13.94** 13.07** 10.23** 1.25 10.00** notes: mwe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to weak indicator of effectiveness; mhe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to high indicator of effectiveness; he – highly effective; we – weakly effective; mle2 – middle level of effectiveness; mle1 – middle level of effectiveness; 0p≤ .1; *p≤ .05; **p≤ .01. table 6. the significance of the differences between the proposed types according to the scales of methods for describing the features of the motivation of military personnel (in standard points)-iv t mhemle1 t hewe t hemle2 t hemle1 t wemle2 t wemle1 t mle2mle1 test of “sense-bearing and life orientations” general indicator of “sense-bearing and life orientations” 10.24** 1.940 13.81** 2.03* 4.26** 2.52* 14.49** “goal” 10.38** 2.91** 9.48** 3.22** 1.790 3.63** 10.87** “process” 4.37** 0.50 7.31** 0.28 4.32** 0.59 6.68** “result” 10.95** 2.19* 10.18** 3.32** 3.80** 3.09** 11.39** “locus of control-i” 11.53** 2.50* 6.22** 5.02** 1.680 3.74** 7.94** “locus of life control” 10.78** 3.61** 8.78** 3.59** 1.920 4.68** 10.27** method of “locus of control” content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 394 general internality 0.32 5.64** 10.98** 15.98** 3.11** 3.61** 0.01 internality in thoughts about life in general 1.07 8.12** 7.45** 14.62** 0.66 1.940 0.86 internality in description of personal experience 0.47 2.02* 8.02** 10.88** 3.23** 3.08** 0.73 internality in the sphere of achievements 0.77 0.87 8.32** 8.79** 4.56** 3.76** 1.61 internality in the sphere of fails 1.28 1.16 2.26* 6.94** 2.41* 4.85** 3.19** internality to self-incrimination 1.43 1.830 5.11** 1.27 2.09* 0.79 3.40** internality in the sphere of professional activity 0.32 4.38** 8.39** 12.73** 2.92** 4.13** 0.72 professional and social aspect of internality 0.96 5.70** 6.27** 8.95** 1.60 2.25* 0.22 professional and processual aspects of internality 0.47 1.700 4.91** 8.93** 2.33* 3.52** 0.70 internality in interpersonal communication 0.04 5.90** 6.56** 12.00** 0.13 0.47 0.70 competence in the sphere of interpersonal relations 0.90 5.27** 8.22** 9.12** 0.13 0.90 1.49 responsibility in the sphere of interpersonal relations 1.05 2.08* 1.13 5.59** 0.42 2.40* 2.44** internality in the sphere of family relations 0.21 4.64** 4.07** 5.85** 0.54 0.02 0.64 internality in the sphere of health 0.32 3.56** 6.42** 8.06** 3.59** 4.15** 0.18 negation of activity 0.72 15.28** 12.10** 12.39** 1.59 0.95 0.61 readiness for activities which was connected with difficulties overcoming 0.52 9.80** 9.57** 8.89** 1.29 3.33** 2.14** readiness for self-planning, acting and responsibility for their activities 1.670 0.14 3.45** 7.76** 2.14* 3.61** 1.36 method of “will-regulated personality” value-semantic organization of personality 9.85** 3.87** 11.65** 4.01** 2.20* 5.41** 13.44** organization of activity 5.49** 3.29** 8.63** 1.15 3.37** 3.64** 8.13** brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 395 determination 10.50** 4.24** 13.57** 3.52** 2.23* 5.52** 15.20** perseverance 9.33** 4.44** 15.66** 2.90** 2.70* 5.40** 16.61** self-control 8.75** 3.95** 13.45** 2.19* 1.66 4.55** 13.96** “self-reliance” 1.09 4.65** 9.84** 0.24 0.61 4.27** 8.00** lies index 7.59** 0.69 2.58* 3.53** 0.92 2.46* 4.85** general indicator characterizing the volitional organization of the personality 12.73** 5.19** 28.08** 4.15** 2.70* 6.29** 30.06** notes: mwe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to weak indicator of effectiveness; mhe – middle level of effectiveness with tendency to high indicator of effectiveness; he – highly effective; we – weakly effective; mle2 – middle level of effectiveness; mle1 – middle level of effectiveness; 0p≤ .1; *p≤ .05; **p≤ .01. content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 396 the group of highly effective (he) servicemen included 35% of the general selection of the research. this group consisted of 1/3 from every category which participated in the research: officers, military personnel under contract, and participants of hostilities (ph). the group of weakly effective (we) servicemen included 4% of the general selection of the research. this group consisted of 85% of military personnel under contract and 15% of officers. 85% of this group were the participants of hostilities. there were two groups with middle level of effectiveness of operational activity. group number 1 with middle level of effectiveness (mle1) was more numerical – 15% of the general selection of the research. this group consisted of 2/3 of military personnel under contract and 1/3 of officers. the status of the participants of hostilities belonged to 3/4 of respondents. group number 2 with middle level of effectiveness (mle2) was less numerical – 7% of the general selection of the research. the indicator of combat operations’ effectiveness was distinguished as 20.23±1.88. this group consisted of 87% of military personnel under contract and 13% of officers. the status of the participants of hostilities belonged to 48% of respondents. there was distinguished one more group which took intermediate place between the groups with high effectiveness and with middle level of effectiveness. it was marked as a group with middle level of effectiveness with tendency to high indicator of effectiveness (mhe). the group included 15% of the general selection of the research. this group consisted of 70% of military personnel under contract and 30% of officers. the status of the participants of hostilities belonged to 50% of respondents. moreover, there was detected the group which indicator of combat operations’ effectiveness took intermediate place between the group with middle level of effectiveness and the group with weaklevel of effectiveness. it was marked as a group with middle level of effectiveness with tendency to weak indicator of effectiveness (mwe). the group include done-in-four participant of the research. this group consisted of 73% of military personnel under contract and 27% of officers. the status of the participants of hostilities belonged to 45% of respondents. according to “close questionnaire of examining the motivation of professional choice made by applicants of the ministry of internal affairs” there were highlighted the motives of choosing military profession by group he, but their indicators were significantly weaker than those of groups we and mle1. the peculiarity of motives of choosing military profession in this brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 397 group was determined by hierarchy indicators. thus, the most expressed were “motives related to objective socially posed tasks and to content of profession”. the next stage of hierarchy was occupied by “independent profession selection”, “motives related to personal and professional development”, “motives related to eagerness of compensation of temper flaws”, “motives related to external prestigious professions and financial welfare”. the lowest stage of hierarchy was occupied by “dependent profession selection” and “antisocial motives”. according to “methods of studying the motivational profile of personality” there were determined the highest points of the scale “need of accurate structurization of work and feedback” that demonstrated their responsible attitude to accurate realization of the goal as well as eagerness to satisfy the expectations. the second stage of the hierarchy was occupied by “need of interesting and socially beneficial work” and “need of high salary and financial benefits”. the proximity of indicators concerning those indicators showed that for servicemen of the ngu socially beneficial work considered to be the source of income. the next stage was occupied by “need of posing brave and tough goals and of achieving them”, “need of obtaining the recognition by other people”, “need of self-improvement and development as personality” which characterized those servicemen as brave, ambitious, and desiring to develop people. in accordance with “sense-bearing and life orientations” servicemen of group he had one of the highest indicators of “life understanding”. they had significant prospects of life and one of the highest indicators concerning the scale “locus of control-i” and “locus of life control”. during the use of the method “locus of control” servicemen of group he had the highest indicators of internality among all the compared groups: “general internality”, “internality in the sphere of achievements”, “internality in the sphere of professional activity”, “internality in interpersonal communication”. furthermore, they had high indicators of the scale “internality in the sphere of health”, “readiness for activities which was connected with difficulties overcoming”, “readiness for selfplanning”. this group had the lowest indicator of a return scale “negation of activity”. servicemen of this group did not eager to shift the blame of fails on others “internality in the sphere of fails”. due to the method of “will-regulated personality” members of group he also had one of the highest indicators they conceded only before group mle1. the highest indicators of group he were “perseverance”, “determination” and “self-control”. the lowest indicators were “selfreliance” and “organization of activity”. the latest indicators were the content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 398 highest among the compared groups and had sufficient level of development. the less effective group was distinguished on the basis of other significantly high indicators of the method which described the motivation. thus, due to the data of “close questionnaire of examining the motivation of professional choice made by applicants of the ministry of internal affairs” the participants of group we differed from all other groups on statistically significant level. the exceptions were the indicators of group mle1 in the scale “motives related to objective socially posed tasks and to content of profession”, “motives related to external prestigious professions and financial welfare” and the lowest and minimal indicators were presented by the scales “dependent profession selection”, “antisocial motives”. this data demonstrated the passion of those servicemen and their high emotionality. to the core of “methods of studying the motivational profile of personality” there was incorporated the mechanism of overcoming social eagerness to get answers. it gave more information concerning the hierarchy of motives of this group; however, the distance from the most significant motive to the least significant stayed the shortest among all the compared groups. the most expressed motives of this group as well as in group he of servicemen were “need of accurate structurization of work and feedback”, but the next stage was occupied by motives which described comfortable conditions of work including normal circle of communication: “need of forming and supporting long-term stable relations”, “need of high working conditions and comfortable surrounding”, “need of diversity, breaks and stimulations, eagerness to avoid everyday routine”. the least important in that group were the motives which described the interest in society: “need of obtaining the recognition by other people”, “need of interesting and socially beneficial work”, “need of manipulation and power, eagerness to control the other people”, “need of social relations”. according to the data proposed by “sense-bearing and life orientations” the participants of group we had middle indicators of life overthinking and control localization (that level was higher than in groups mwe, mhe, and mle2 and lower than in groups mle1 and he). peculiarities of this group were in concentration on “life process”, in accordance with this scale there were distinguished the highest indicators among all the compared groups. moreover, there was a need to highlight the indicators of group we concerning the method of “locus of control” and their combination with indicators on the method “will-regulated personality”. thus, on the “general scale” those servicemen with low efficiency had one of the highest brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 399 indicators giving priority only to group he. that showed absolute connection between their “i” and motives including desires and needs. participants of this group had one of the lowest indicators of the scale “will-regulated personality”, they gave priority only to group mle2. among all the compared groups the least effective servicemen had the lowest indicators of the scale “self-reliance” that way they developed the dichotomy with highly effective servicemen whose indicators of this scale were the highest among all the groups. participants of group we as well as of mle1 had the highest points of the scale “close questionnaire of examining the motivation of professional choice made by applicants of the ministry of internal affairs”. however, the hierarchy of motives of choosing the profession in group mle1 differed from group we. the most expressed and significant in comparison with other groups were the “motives related to objective socially posed tasks and to content of profession”. the next hierarchy stage was developed by three types of motives which were marked with the eagerness of self-regulation: “independent profession selection”, “motives related to eagerness of compensation of temper flaws” and “motives related to personal and professional development”. “motivational profile of personality” of this group was built around the vector: “need of high salary and financial benefits”, “need of manipulation and power, eagerness to control the other people”. that characterized those servicemen as performers, so called “employee”. the second hierarchy stage was formed by: “need of accurate structurization of work and feedback”, “need of obtaining the recognition by other people”. such a high position of desire to be recognized highlighted this group among all the other groups. the third stage was developed with the help of the following motives: “need of self-improvement and development as personality”, “need of interesting and socially beneficial work”. their combination demonstrated the importance of professional honour for those servicemen. specific stage was occupied by the motives of social cooperation “need of social relations”, “need of forming and supporting long-term stable relations”. indicators of the scale “need of social relations” of this group were the highest among all the compared groups (differences reached the level of statistic importance and tendency to these motives with other groups except group he). the next stage included four types of motives due to which servicemen of group mle1 had the lowest indicators among all the compared groups: “need of posing brave and tough goals and of content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 400 achieving them”, “need of being creative, thoughtful, and open for further ideas employee”, “need of high working conditions and comfortable surrounding”, and “need of diversity, breaks and stimulations, eagerness to avoid everyday routine”. the peculiarities of group mle1 included incredibly high indicators of the general scale “sense-bearing and life orientations” which statistically differed from other groups. sense of life in this group was focused on the future – those servicemen had the highest indicators of the scale “goal”. however, group mle1 had the highest indicators among all the compared groups of the scale “result” that highlighted the importance of recognizing their achievements by the participants. group mle1 had an interesting combination of scales “locus of control” and “will regulation”. thus, group mle1 had the highest indicators among all the compared groups of both scales of locus of control method of “sense-bearing and life orientations”: “locus of control – i”, “locus of control – life”. although, according to the method “locus of control” in group mle1 there were one of the lowest indicators of the general scale and according to the scales which differentiated that indicator: “internality in thoughts about life in general”, “professional and processual aspects of internality”, “responsibility in the sphere of interpersonal relations”, “readiness for self-planning”, and “internality in the sphere of fails”. according to all the scales “will-regulated personality” the servicemen of group mle 1 had the highest points. the exception was made by the scale “self-reliance” which was the highest in group he. among the components of will regulation of servicemen from group mle1 the most expressed were: “perseverance” and “determination”. the least expressed indicators were: “self-reliance” and “organization of activity”. group mle1 also had the highest points of the indicator “insincerity” that did not demonstratethe insincerity, but their being orientated on socially approved “correct” answer on the commander’s claims. participants of group mle2 were the only individuals whose motives connected with socially posed goals and with the content of profession were not leading during the military profession selection. other peculiarities included slight differentiated motives of profession selection. thus, the most highlighted were: “motives related to personal and professional development”, “motives related to eagerness of compensation of temper flaws”. the least expressed were motives “dependent profession selection”. penultimate stage was obtained by brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 401 “motives related to romanticization of profession”, “independent profession selection”, and “antisocial motives”. nevertheless, romantic and antisocial motives were significantly higher than in other compared groups, but they gave priority only to the indicators of group we. received indicators of the method “motivational profile of personality” were protected from the effects’ activity which negatively influenced the differentiation of motives. according to the data of this method group mle2 had the following significant indicators: “need of high salary and financial benefits”. the least expressed and lagged indicators were “need of interesting and socially beneficial work”. the second stage in hierarchy of motives was occupied by “need of obtaining the recognition by other people”, “need of accurate structurization of work and feedback”. the data represented by the scale “need of obtaining the recognition by other people” showed that on statistical level servicemen of group mle2 differed from other groups except group mle1 with which they had almost identical indicators. the next stage in hierarchy of motives “need of being creative, thoughtful, and open for further ideas employee”, “need of posing brave and tough goals and of achieving them”, and “need of high working conditions and comfortable surrounding”. group mle2 had one of the highest indicators of “need of being creative, thoughtful, and open for further ideas employee” due to which on statistic level they differed from all other groups except group we. on the next stage there was a combination of “need of forming and supporting long-term stable relations” and “need of selfimprovement and development as personality” which demonstrated definite benefits of relations. servicemen of group mle2 wanted to choose the surrounding which could help their development. servicemen of group mle2 had the lowest indicators among all the compared groups on the scales of the method “sense-bearing and life orientations”. despite that, the indicators of this group on the scale “goal” were and “process”, those results were almost identical that demonstrated their orientation on the nearest future. indicators of the motivation of choosing the military profession in group mhe were weakly expressed in the scale of the method “close questionnaire of examining the motivation of professional choice made by applicants of the ministry of internal affairs”. the motives which were diagnosed with the help of this method developed the vector from “dependent profession selection”, “antisocial motives” to “motives related to objective socially posed tasks and to content of profession”. the second stage in hierarchy content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 402 of motives of profession selection showed the struggle for professional development in the past: “motives related to eagerness of compensation of temper flaws”, “motives related to personal and professional development” and “motives related to external prestigious professions and financial welfare”. due to the “methods of studying the motivational profile of personality” the group mhe had the most expressed indicators which made them significantly different from others in “need of high salary and financial benefits” and the least expressed were indicators of “need of manipulation and power, eagerness to control the other people”. less important for group mhe were the motives which described the eagerness to get new and non-standard issues in their work: “need of posing brave and tough goals and of achieving them”, “need of diversity, breaks and stimulations, eagerness to avoid everyday routine”, and “need of being creative, thoughtful, and open for further ideas employee”. due to the scales of the method “sense-bearing and life orientations” servicemen of group mhe had statistically lower indicators than groups he and mle1, but higher than group mle2. besides that, they as well as the mentioned groups had almost identical indicators of the scales “goal” and “process”. there was not any increase of the scale “result”. due to the indicators of the method “locus of control” servicemen of group mhe had identically low quantity of general points as well as groups mle1 and mle2. the peculiarities of group mhe included the lowest indicators among all the compared groups “internality in the sphere of professional activity” which were formed because of weak indicators “professional and social aspect of internality”. in accordance with the data of the method “will-regulated personality” servicemen of group mhe had indicators which were maximally close to group we. however, their indicators of scales were weakly differentiated that did not demonstrate any urgency of will regulation, they substituted it with postarbitrary activity to make professional activities automatic. servicemen of group mhe had the lowest indicator of “insincerity” that showed not only the desire to give completely honest answers, but also demonstrated slightly weaker social tolerance and communicative correctness. in the structure of motivation of choosing the military profession group mwe had the most expressed motives such as: “motives related to objective socially posed tasks and to content of profession”. close to them there were “motives related to eagerness of compensation of brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 403 temper flaws”. on the other side of hierarchy there were dependent profession selection”, “antisocial motives”, “motives related to romanticization of profession”. in group mwe intermediate position between values and motives which depreciated was occupied by the motives “independent profession selection”. the participants of group mwe came close to the indicators of group he: “motives related to objective socially posed tasks and to content of profession”, “motives related to personal and professional development”. according to the scales “dependent profession selection”, “motives related to external prestigious professions and financial welfare”, “motives related to romanticization of profession” and “antisocial motives” participants of group mwe moved closer to group mle1. due to the data presented by the “methods of studying the motivational profile of personality” group mwe had the most expressed indicators of “need of accurate structurization of work and feedback”, “need of high salary and financial benefits”. the next dense group of motives revealed in group mwe the urgency of needs of improving social status with their own powers “need of obtaining the recognition by other people”, “need of self-improvement and development as personality” and “need of interesting and socially beneficial work”. the eagerness to change life for better and to make it more comfortable distinguished the place in hierarchy of motives of group mwe due to results received from the scales: “need of high working conditions and comfortable surrounding”, “need of posing brave and tough goals and of achieving them”. less important for group mwe were indicators of “need of forming and supporting long-term stable relations”, “need of social relations” and “need of manipulation and power, eagerness to control the other people” that demonstrated the eagerness to avoid social relations. according to the scales of the method “sense-bearing and life orientations” servicemen of group mwe had one of the lowest indicators (lower than in the 5 th group). their indicators of the methods “locus of control” and “will-regulated personality” moved indicators closer to group we (it had the lowest quantity of statistically important differences). unlike group we they had significantly better indicators of the scale “negation of activity”, they had more readiness to act to overcome the differences, as well they had higher level of confidence in possibility to run their own lives, they did not tend to shift their responsibility on others due to results of cooperation, and they had significantly higher indicators of “self-reliance”. content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 404 that indicated their high level of self-reliance and low level of dependency in professional and interpersonal relations in comparison with participants from group we. discussion the research demonstrated that servicemen with the lowest effectiveness of combat operations had the highest indicators through all the motives unlike those with high effectiveness. however, this case was not the realization of the law of yerkes and dodson (1908). it was likely that the received data demonstrated the phenomenon of forming the tangentiality of awakening and of free motivation which were described by the eastern european psychology by leontiev (1975) and vygotsky (1983), by phenomenon of self-efficiency proposed by the american psychology bandura (1994) who considered that the success of activity was determined not only by the attractiveness of result, but also by the trust in their personal powers. thus, to estimate the motivation appropriately there was a need to include servicemen of distinguished groups into motivational types which consisted of content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be implemented. in that way highly effective servicemen choosing profession considered its content, expressed eagerness to realize themselves in their profession, comply with it, develop in profession, and acquire the professional skills. they rejected dependency and unlawful benefit as motives of profession selection. for relevant motivation of heit was typical to have eagerness to execute posed tasks and to meet expectations. it was important for them to do socially beneficial work which was understood by them as the only source of income. important peculiarity of their motivation was the preservation of high professional ambitions – they struggled for professional development, tough tasks, and high estimation of their achievements. motives which described the conditions and regime of work, social cooperation were non-essential. servicemen with high effectiveness were characterized as those who had high level of life understanding, significant life prospects, and considered themselves to be strong personality with sufficient will of selection. they were assured that people could control their lives, could make decisions by themselves, and could implement them. existing content of motivation was supported by high level of internality and developed qualities of will. thus, servicemen of group he took ultimate responsibility for their actions having analyzed them, they did not avoid any work, could plan, and put efforts by themselves to achieve the results they brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 405 struggled for and which they were not ashamed of. their responsibility spread on the results of professional activity and interpersonal communication as well as on the health. their obtained level of internality was, first of all, their own experience of successes and fails. strong-willed quality of servicemen from the group with high efficiency was welldeveloped and, first of all, met the requirements of their professional activity including tough and unsafe character of their profession as well as cruel normative settlement. servicemen with weak effectiveness, as it was already mentioned, had significantly high indicators of all the scales which described the motives of activity and its selection and slight differentiation of those motives. this data gave possibility to talk about insufficiently formed randomness of activity which was presented by inability to cope with desires, low level of selfreliance and reluctance to overcome difficulties. servicemen from group we depended on their desires as well as on their surrounding. they wanted to have simple, comfortable work which was usually occupied by them thanks to the patronage of people from their close surrounding. presented features of servicemen from groups he and we on the indicators of combat activity correlated with the situations concerning the connection between public service motivation (psm) with work effectiveness and its mediated self-efficiency (breaugh et al., 2018). according to it servicemen from group he was depicted as the type which was guided by motivation of public service, and servicemen from group we as dependent motivational type. servicemen from group mle1 had highly expressed motivation of a performer which was based on conscious trust in their commanders and marked qualities of will. those servicemen were orientated namely on military profession acquiring (high points for the motives of professional selection) and on making efforts to master it. they were responsible and determined concerning the execution of their tasks. they agreed to execute tough tasks, routine actions, and were undemanding concerning the working conditions. it was quite important for those servicemen to have high salary, recognition of their achievements, conformity of social expectations, and support of friendly relations. having compared motives of groups he and mle1 it was possible to conclude that they had plenty of common aspects concerning their motives of public service and prosocial motivation (schott et al., 2019). according to that data servicemen from group mle1 were included into prosocial motivational type. besides that, the description of this type was supported by the data received by gillet et al. (2017). they determined that content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 406 servicemen with the highest indicators of autonomous motivationfelt high organizational support, commander’s support, positive experience, and high level of communication because they were engaged into professional activity due to their pleasure, personal choice, and personal will, demonstrated the highest level of well-being. servicemen of group mle2 were the only participants among all the distinguished types who chose their profession being led by their own mercenary interests, possibility to work with things they liked and were interested in, those activities were full of romantic, but not of objective content of the profession. they used social relations to be “on good standing” with their commanders or to gain satisfaction from communication. those servicemen did not want to realize their strongwilled qualities. such servicemen required constant control from the side of commanders because they could be addicted to the “romantic” features of their profession neglecting its core sense. the description of this group of servicemen was close to the definition of motivational type proposed by lyk-jensen and glad (2018) – “personal benefit”. thus, servicemen from group mle2 were included into romantic (struggle for adventures) motivational type. servicemen of this type searched for adventures, challenges; however, they were unstable concerning the hardships of service, the actions of combat factors of stress and, usually, these servicemen resigned after the first contract expired. servicemen of group mhe choosing the military profession considered its content and were ready to make everything possible to acquire it; however, this motivation lost its urgency. acquiring the profession they concentrated on financial benefits, personal ambitions, and comfortable conditions of work; they were weakly motivated to put efforts to acquire new profession. it was useful for them to be orientated on the nearest future. most of professional actions were executed automatically without any strong-willed efforts. they did not get along with their surrounding and showed low level of tolerance. this type was determined as a stagnated one. nevertheless, even if this type had quite high indicators of effectiveness the general prospects for this type were pessimistic. in accordance with voet et al. (2017), who distinguished positive relations between the eagerness of changes and prosociality, group mhe was likely to decrease its altruistic behaviour. servicemen of group mwe chose the military profession because of its content as well as of his/her own desire to change the life and social status for better. in urgent situation it was important for them to have understandable and well-paid activity which would give them the possibility brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 407 to improve their social status and conditions of life internally. these servicemen did not feel themselves ready for intellectual and creative work. they did not cooperate with their surrounding and that fact detained the process of professional socialization. despite the desire to help other people, work, endeavour, and change, they did not achieve high effectiveness in professional activity as a serviceman due to their concentration on defeating the difficulties of life. this type having analogy with maslow (1943) was marked as a deficient type of motivation. the determination of deficient type of motivation of servicemen who joined the army to change their lives for better, to get new prospects, all those factors were not something new in military psychology. that was the way the american researchers pointed out that military service was often joined by afro-americans and people from latin america, not so often it was joined by people who positively studied at school, planned to enter the college and by parents who graduated from the higher educational establishments (bachman et al., 2000). conducted research gave the possibility to determine 6 motivational types related to the effectiveness of servicemen’s operational activity. these motivational types were located between the poles which were introduced by two dimensions: self-efficacy (autonomous and controlled motivation) and motivation of helping others (motivations of public service – selfishness). those motivational types of servicemen were motivated by public service, stagnant, prosocial, romantic, deficient and dependent. distinguished types included the content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to implement them. development of the motivation diagnostics of the applicants to the military service on the basis of their determination to one of the distinguished motivational types would help to decrease the quantity of mistakes during the prediction of effectiveness of operational activity. references bachman, j. g., segal, d. r., freedman-doan, p., & o'malley, p. (2000). who chooses military service? correlates of propensity and enlistment in the u.s. armed forces. military psychology, 12(1), 1-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327876mp1201_1 bandura, a. (1994). self-efficacy. in r. j. corsini (ed.), encyclopedia of psychology (2nd ed., vol. 3, pp. 368-369). wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470479216.corpsy0836 breaugh, j., ritz, a., & alfes, k. (2018). work motivation and public service motivation: disentangling varieties of motivation and job satisfaction, public https://context.reverso.net/%d0%bf%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%b4/%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%b8%d0%b9%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d1%80%d1%83%d1%81%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9/endeavour http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327876mp1201_1 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470479216.corpsy0836 content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 408 management review, 20(10), 1423-1443. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2017.1400580 bury, p. (2017). recruitment and retention in the british army reserve logistics units. armed forces & society, 43(4), 608-631. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327x16657320 catignani, s. (2004). motivating soldiers: the example of the israeli defence forces. the united states army war college quaterly: parameters, 34(3), 108−121. https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol34/iss3/4/ chambel, m. j., castanheira, f., oliveira-cruz, f., & lopes, s. (2015). work context support and portuguese soldiers’ well-being: the mediating role of autonomous motivation. military psychology, 27(5), 297-310. https://doi.org/10.1037/mil0000087 crumbaugh, j. c., & henrion, r. (1988). the pil test: administration, interpretation, uses, theory and critique. the international forum for logotherapy, 11(2), 76–88. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1991-17191-001 crumbaugh, j. c., & maholick, l. t. (1969). manual of instructions for the purpose-inlife test. psychometric affiliates. deci, e. l., & ryan, r. m. (1985). intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2271-7 gillet, n., becker, c., lafrenière, m. a., huart, i., & fouquereau, e. (2017). organizational support, job resources, soldiers’ motivational profiles, work engagement, and affect. military psychology, 29(5), 418-433. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mil0000179 griffith, j. (2008). institutional motives for serving in the us army national guard: implications for recruitment, retention, and readiness. armed forces & society, 34(2), 230-258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327x06293864 grigorov, g., & spirdonov, s. (2018). research on the motivation for choosing the military career. international conference of knowledge-based organization, 1, 302−307. https://doi.org/10.1515/kbo-2018-0048 gutkin, m. s., & mihalchenko g. f. (2000). metodika issledovaniya volevoy organizatsii lichnosti [research methodology for the volitional organization of personality]. prosvischenie. https://sites.google.com/site/test300m/ivol helmus, t. c., zimmerman, r. s., posard, m. n., wheeler, j. l., ogletree, c., stroud, q., & harrell, m. c. (2018). life as a private: a study of the motivations and experiences of junior enlisted personnel in the u.s. army. rand corporation. http://doi.org/10.7249/rr2252 johansen, r. b., laberg, j. c., & martinussen, m. (2014). military identity as predictor of perceived military competence and skills. armed forces & society, 40(3), 521-543. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x13478405 https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2017.1400580 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327x16657320 https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol34/iss3/4/ https://doi.org/10.1037/mil0000087 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1991-17191-001 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2271-7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mil0000179 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327x06293864 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327x06293864 https://doi.org/10.1515/kbo-2018-0048 http://doi.org/10.7249/rr2252 https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x13478405 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 409 kapluchenko, o. p., & prykhodko, i. (2019). vy`znachennya providny`x moty`viv vijs`kovosluzhbovciv nacional`noyi gvardiyi ukrayiny` do sluzhbovobojovoyi diyal`nosti v ekstremal`ny`x umovax [determination of the leading motives of the military personnel of the national guard of ukraine in service and combat activities in extreme conditions]. honor and law, 3(70), 114-122. http://dx.doi.org/10.33405/20787480/2019/3/70/190049 kolesnichenko, o. s. (2018). zasady` bojovoyi psy`xologichnoyi travmaty`zaciyi vijs`kovosluzhbovciv [fundamentals of combat psychological traumatization of servicemen]. nacional`na akademiya nacional`noyi gvardiyi ukrayiny. http://books.ndcnangu.co.ua/knigi/monograf_bojov_psihol_travm_2018.p df ksenofontova, e. g. (1999). issledovanie lokalizatsii kontrolya lichnosti novaya versiya metodiki uroven sub'ektivnogo kontrolya [study of the locus of control: new version of level of subjective control]. psihologicheskiy zhurnalnal, 20, 103-114. https://istina.msu.ru/publications/article/322491636/ leontiev, a. n. (1975). deyatelnost. soznanie. lichnost [activity. consciousness. personality]. politizdat. https://www.marxists.org/russkij/leontiev/1975/dyeatyelnost/deyatyelno st-soznyanie-lichnost.pdf lyk-jensen, s. v., & glad, a. (2018). why do they serve? changes and differences in motives of danish soldiers deployed to peace-keeping and peaceenforcing missions. defence and peace economics, 29(3), 312-334. https://doi.org/10.1080/10242694.2016.1200220 maslow, a. h. (1943). a theory of human motivation. psychological review, 50(4), 370-396. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/h0054346 matsegora, y., vorobyova, v., & prikhodko, i. (2013). psykholohichni zasady efektyvnosti sluzhbovo-boiovoi diialnosti viiskovosluzhbovtsiv viiskovoi sluzhby za kontraktom vnutrishnikh viisk mvs ukrainy [psychological principles of efficiency of service and combat activity of servicemen of military service under the contract of internal troops of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine]. akad. vv mvs ukrainy. http://books.ndcnangu.co.ua/knigi/monohraf_efektyvnist.pdf moskalenko, a. p. (2002). aktualni problemy profesiinoho psykholohichnoho vidboru do vuziv systemy mvs [current problems of professional psychological selection for universities of the ministry of internal affairs]. visnyk universytetu vnutrishnikh sprav, 18, 452-457. http://dspace.univd.edu.ua/xmlui/handle/123456789/8887?show=full muzdyibaev, k. (1998). strategiya sovladaniya s zhiznennyimi trudnostyami [a strategy for coping with life's difficulties]. zhurn. sotsiologii i sots. antropologii, 1, 100-111. http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/647/774/1231/007_muzdabaev.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.33405/2078-7480/2019/3/70/190049 http://dx.doi.org/10.33405/2078-7480/2019/3/70/190049 http://books.ndcnangu.co.ua/knigi/monograf_bojov_psihol_travm_2018.pdf http://books.ndcnangu.co.ua/knigi/monograf_bojov_psihol_travm_2018.pdf https://www.marxists.org/russkij/leontiev/1975/dyeatyelnost/deyatyelnost-soznyanie-lichnost.pdf https://www.marxists.org/russkij/leontiev/1975/dyeatyelnost/deyatyelnost-soznyanie-lichnost.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/10242694.2016.1200220 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/h0054346 content, hierarchy, intensity of motives and their possibility to be … oleksandr kolesnichenko, et al. 410 prykhodko, i, matsehora, j, lipatov, i, tovma, i, & kostikova, i. (2019). servicemen’s motivation in the national guard of ukraine: transformation after the “revolution of dignity”. the journal of slavic military studies, 32(3), 347-366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2019.1645930 prykhodko, i. (2018). features of the motivation of specialists for the professional activity in special conditions. international journal of education and science, 1(3-4), 35. http://dx.doi.org/10.26697/ijes.2018.3-4.24 ritchie, s., & martin, p. (1999). motivation management. gower publishing limited gower house. https://lib.ugent.be/catalog/rug01:000461801 rodrigues-goulart, f. (2006). combat motivation. military review, 86, 93−96. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332551117_combat_motivatio n schott, c., neumann, o., baertschi, m., & ritz, a. (2019). public service motivation, prosocial motivation and altruism: towards disentanglement and conceptual clarity, international journal of public administration, 42, 12001211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2019.1588302 taiyang, q. (2010, november 23). military motivation. the chinese way. harvard business review. http://blogs.hbr.org/frontlineleadership/2010/11/military-motivation-the-chines.html voet, j., steijn, b., & kuipers, b. s. (2017). what’s in it for others? the relationship between prosocial motivation and commitment to change among youth care professionals. public management review, 19(4), 443-462. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2016.1183699 vygotsky, l. s. (1983). istoriya razvitiya vyisshih psihicheskih funktsiy [the history of the development of higher mental functions]. pedagogika. woodruff, t. d. (2017). who should the military recruit? the effects of institutional, occupational, and self-enhancement enlistment motives on soldier identification and behavior. armed forces & society. 43(4), 579-607. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327x17695360 yerkes, r. m., & dodson, j. d. (1908). the relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit formation. journal of comparative neurology & psychology, 18, 459-482. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.920180503 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2019.1645930 http://dx.doi.org/10.26697/ijes.2018.3-4.24 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332551117_combat_motivation https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332551117_combat_motivation http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2019.1588302 http://blogs.hbr.org/frontline-leadership/2010/11/military-motivation-the-chines.html http://blogs.hbr.org/frontline-leadership/2010/11/military-motivation-the-chines.html http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2016.1183699 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327x17695360 https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.920180503 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 220-224 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/314 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 social resets and suicides during covid-19 pandemic dan-constantin corbeanu¹, magda antohe2, anamaria ciubară3 1 resident doctor, "elisabeta doamna" psychiatry hospital, galaţi, romania. 2 md, dr, associate profesor „grigore t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania. 3 md, dr., hab. professor, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, "dunărea de jos" university, head of psychiatry department, senior psychiatrist "elisabeta doamna" hospital, gala’i, românia, anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract: introduction. well-known as a public health problem, suicide is known to cause many deaths during periods of economic and social unrest. through the social changes imposed by the political and medical actors, the society knows old challenges, but also some completely new ones, which seem to influence the suicidal behavior among the population. aim. the paper tries to present the effects of anti-covid-19 social measures, especially those decided by the romanian authorities between march 2020 and march 2021, on mental health and suicidal behavior. also, by assessing the public policy intentions expressed publicly in european leadership circles for the medium-term future, we wanted to identify the impact on lifestyle and suicidal behaviour. materials and method. the paper uses the medical literature in order to identify traditional or new risk factors for suicide, introduced into society by sars-cov-2 and the social restrictions that accompanied it. also, sources from the domestic and international media are used to evaluate the future announced social resets and the possible impact on the suicidal behavior among the romanian population. results. the feeling of induced fear and the change of some social routines, imposed by the political factors in the context of the covid19 virus, are supposed to be accompanied by increases in the suicide rate. the new economic challenges and social antagonisms, predictable for the near future, bring with them the risk of increasing suicidal behavior among the world's population and romania. conclusion. in various countries, suicide rates have risen during the pandemic. new social measures are announced in authoritarian tones, with no intention of assessing the impact on the mental health of the population. the implementation of these innovative measures should be done only after balancing the psychological and psychiatric impact. the alternative could be the emergence of new epidemics of mental illness and suicide, which can unbalance society, as has never happened before. keywords: suicide, covid-19 pandemic, lockdown, curfews, suicidal behaviour. how to cite: corbeanu, d.-c., antohe, m., & ciubară, a. (2022). social resets and suicides during covid-19 pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 220-224. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/314 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/314 mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/314 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 221 introduction suicide is well-known as a public health problem, especially among teenagers. as history reveals, suicide causes many more deaths during periods of economic and social unrest. suicide accounts for 1.4% of all deaths, and is the 15th leading cause of death globally. the great economic depression of the 20 th century and the two world wars witnessed a rise in suicidal behaviour. through the social changes imposed by the political and medical actors, the society knows some challenges, which are risk factors for suicidal behaviour. some completely new societal factors seem also to influence the suicidal behavior among the population in time of covid-19 pandemic (sadock et al., 2017). research methodology the paper uses the medical literature in order to identify traditional or new risk factors for suicide, introduced into the pandemic society either by sars-cov-2 or the social restrictions and curfews that accompanied it. also, sources from the domestic and international mass-media are used to evaluate the future announced social resets and the possible impact on the suicidal behavior among the romanian population. many such decisions have brought deep sadness to romanian people. discussions any disease is a burden for individuals and for society. physical pain induces fear to the ill and to its relatives. in families with poor financial status, a disease very often has the meaning of a crisis. suicide is an important issue in assessing the impact of covid-19 in public health. as deaths from covid-19 as a main diagnosis are not a spectacular number (in romania, less than 1% of the cases depicted in media as belonging to covid19), one must take into account the deaths provoked by some exaggerated measures, and suicide is a major point of interest. as long as medical profession has an important saying as its principle (primum, non nocere.), the negative impact of medical measures imposed by authorities worldwide has been one a very high interest. it is almost impossible to discerne precisely whether a rise in suicides is attributable to the disease itself or to various social measures which brutally ignored basic human rights (bachman, 2018). covid-19 has been a favourite subject for the media headlines. the induction of fear, whether intended or not, and the change of some social routines, imposed by the political factors in the context of the covid-19 epidemic, are supposed to be accompanied by increases in the suicide rate. social resets and suicides during covid-19 pandemic dan-constantin corbeanu, et al. 222 although the existing romanian laws could not allow the word pandemic related to covid-19, the impact upon romanian society was huge. with a rural population of minimum 40% a a rather poor infrastructure, many romanians were pushed to new technologies as a way of of avoiding social contact. for example, the use of credit and debit cards was recommended by authorities and various hypermarkets and delivery firms as the preferred way of payment. roumours about a ban on cash use might have increased the anxiety for the elderly people, which have a well-established routine of using cash as a unique way of payment. many people of younger age are also very reluctant to use electronic payments for various reasons, mainly related to hacking and privacy. some of new social services implied an installed application on a mobile phone, which created a discrimination for people who don’t own a mobile phone or don’t want to use electronic payment; one example of such a social service is the use of push scooters in galati city. although not related to covid-19, the phenomenon of new technologies which are not available for everybody has been perceived as a phenomenon of social exclusion for the above mentioned social categories. some measures, such as lockdowns and delays in returning to work, were also associated with mental health among the public (shi, 2020). some major social changes were a direct result of the curfews imposed by authorities. many social measures had a serious impact on the religious life in romania. it is well-known that religiousness and belief in god is a factor that decrease the risk of suicide, no matter what the religion is, as holly books condemn and forbid suicide in a straightforward manner (hawton, 2009). the traditional ritual of funeral was forbidden in romania; people were not allowed to get the coffin into the church, and this never happened in history. instead of that, people declared dead of covid-19 in hospitals were rapidly identified by relatives, then put in a black plastic bag. the funeral ritual was only allowed in open air and at the peak of restrictions it was restricted to eight attendant people. the access to various religious services was seriously restricted, too. it was the first time in romanian history that the most important religious event in a year, christs resurrection, took place in closed churches, and the ritual was completed by a priest and a maximum of two people inside a church. at least three traditional religious pilgrimages have been banned in romania, while all hypermarkets were allowed to get bigger crowds inside without any limit. this fact brought forth in the general mindset the idea that religious freedom is temporarily abolished in romania (jeong, 2016). facing death announced everywhere in mass-media in catastrophic manner, romanians also found out that many non-religious gatherings were brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 223 allowed. for example, at the peak of religious restrictions, workers for german asparagus farms were allowed to travel and stay close to one another in airports, and authorities repeatedly refused to tackle the issue of different treatment of citizens and taxpayers. social isolation, anxiety, fear of contagion, uncertainty, chronic stress and economic difficulties may lead to the development or exacerbation of depressive, anxiety, substance use and other psychiatric disorders in vulnerable populations including individuals with pre-existing psychiatric disorders and people who reside in high covid-19 prevalence areas. stress-related psychiatric conditions including mood and substance use disorders are associated with suicidal behavior (sher, 2020). at the beginning of 2021, some of ideas that appeared to be conspiracy theories were proved to be true. for example, the mounting data shows that an artificial origin of the virus is very plausible, a fact that was labeled as ridiculous at the beginning of 2020. it is not the intention of the article to dispute any of these controversial facts about the covid-19, but the so-called fight against the fake news have mounted tension in society and has raised public ideas about an obvious tendency to censorship and authoritarian political regimes. this fact by itself leads to uncertainty, fear and pesimistic thoughts (gunnel et al., 2020). the new economic challenges and social antagonisms, predictable for the near future, bring with them the risk of increasing suicidal behavior among the world's population and romania. research results although many curfews had a negative impact on romanians mood, especially those related to religious issues, there are no studies which may reflect the impact on suicide. data reflecting suicide are available only a few years after, due to legal issues. very few data concerning suicide are available for 2020. a study for american army found that sicide rates increased by 25%, which is a big number. suicide in hospitals could also be an interesting issue for future investigations, as media announced some very tragic and spectacular cases. conclusions few data are available, in various countries. as far as we know up to now, suicide rates either stagnated or have risen during the pandemic. new social measures were announced in authoritarian tones, with no intention of assessing the impact on the mental health of the population. the social resets and suicides during covid-19 pandemic dan-constantin corbeanu, et al. 224 implementation of these innovative measures should be done only after balancing the psychological and psychiatric impact, as the lethality of covid19 was proven overvalued. the alternative could be the emergence of new epidemics of mental illness and suicide, which can unbalance society, as has never happened before. as trust in medical profession dropped during the pandemic, future studies are needed to decide whether the authorities have taken good or bad decisions, whether was more lethal than the disease. references bachman, s. (2018). epidemiology of suicide and the psychiatric perspective. international journal of environmental research and public health, 15(7), 1425. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15071425 gunnel, d., appleby, l., arensman, e., hawton, k., john, a., kapur, n., khan, m., o'connor, r. c., pirkis, j., & covid-19 suicide prevention research collaboration (2020). suicide risk and prevention during the covid-19 pandemic. the lancet. psychiatry, 7(6), 468–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30171-1 hawton, k., & van heeringen, k. (2009). suicide. the lancet, 373(9672), 1372– 1381. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(09)60372-x jeong, h., yim, h. w., song, y. j., ki, m., min, j. a., cho, j., & chae, j. h. (2016). mental health status of people isolated due to middle east respiratory syndrome. epidemiol health, 38, e2016048. http://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2016048 sadock, b. j., sadock, v. a., ruiz, p., & kaplan, h. i. (2017). kaplan and sadock’s comprehensive textbook of psychiatry (10th ed.). wolters kluwer. sher, l. (2020). the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on suicide rates. qjm : monthly journal of the association of physicians, 113(10), 707–712. https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcaa202 shi, l., lu, z. a., que, j. y., huang, x. l., liu, l., ran, m. s., gong, y. m., yuan, k., yan, w., sun, y. k., shi, j., bao, y. p., & lu, l. (2020). prevalence of and risk factors associated with mental health symptoms among the general population in china during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. jama network open, 3(7), e2014053. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.14053 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15071425 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30171-1 http://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(09)60372-x http://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2016048 https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcaa202 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.14053 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 15-28| https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/106 formation of the cognitive component of professionallyoriented mathematical competence of future radio specialists in the context of neuroplasticity of the human brain alona kolomiiets¹, olha kraievska 2 , yaroslav krupskyi 3 , oksana tiytiynnyk 4 , iryna klieopa 5 , ihor kalashnikov 6 1 vinnytsia national technical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, alona.kolomiets.vnt@gmail.com 2 vasyl’ stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia, ukraine, olha.kraievska@gmail.com 3 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, kruyarik@gmail.com 4 vinnytsia national technical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, tutunnik.oksana@gmail.com 5 vinnitsia national technical university, vinitsia, ukraine, paceka08@gmail.com 6 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, kalashnikov.igor.1@gmail.com abstract: the article is devoted to the disclosure of the problem of formation of competencies of future specialists in technical specialties, in particular students of radio engineering specialties. the main concept for the formation of skills and abilities of students is the theory of neuroplasticity of the human brain, which is the basis of all neuropedagogy. the essence of the phenomenon of neuroplasticity of the brain is analyzed in the work, the analysis of works of scientists who investigated the problem of formation of competences of future specialists of technical specialties, in particular formation of mathematical competences is carried out. the concepts of competence and professionally-oriented mathematical competence are specified. the authors singled out in a separate block professionally-oriented mathematical competence as fundamental, which is an integrative formation of mathematical and professional skills. it includes the following components: cognitive, operational-algorithmic, applicable, design components. the cognitive component of professionallyoriented mathematical competence is responsible for the ability to find and accumulate mathematical knowledge. in order to improve the quality of training of future specialists in technical specialties, a methodical system of fundamentalization of mathematical training of future bachelors in the field of electronics and telecommunications has been formed. elements of test tasks are offered, by means of which the formation of the cognitive component of professionally-oriented mathematical competence was checked. the article makes a detailed description of the statistical verification of the obtained experimental data and the results of the empirical verification of the effectiveness of the method. mathematical processing of data and their reliability and significance were checked using fisher's test. the results of the experiment gave grounds to assert that the effectiveness of the proposed methodological system does not depend on the individual personality of the lecturer who introduced the method into the educational process. keywords: mathematical training; electronics and telecommunications; technical specialties; neuropedagogy; fundamentalization of mathematical training; future bachelors. how to cite: kolomiiets, a., kraievska, o., krupskyi, y., tiytiynnyk, o., klieopa, i., & kalashnikov, i. (2020). formation of the cognitive component of professionallyoriented mathematical competence of future radio specialists in the context of neuroplasticity of the human brain. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 15-28. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/106 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/106 mailto:alona.kolomiets.vnt@gmail.com mailto:olha.kraievska@gmail.com mailto:kruyarik@gmail.com mailto:tutunnik.oksana@gmail.com mailto:paceka08@gmail.com mailto:kalashnikov.igor.1@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/106 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 16 introduction the leading place in the training of the future technical specialist is occupied by the formation of a number of basic, key competencies that will reflect his ability to work in engineering. prominent among them is mathematical competence, and ways of its formation, which is possible under the condition of introduction into the educational process of the competence approach, formation of conditions that promote it. accordingly, the introduction of the competency approach and its main components in the educational process occupies a leading position in the educational process in higher technical educational institutions. the basis of the formation of personality competencies is the basic principles of neuropedagogy, in particular, knowledge about the formation and development of the human brain, the laws of neuroplasticity of the brain. the theory of neuroplasticity of the brain emerged relatively recently, in the second half of xx century. it is based on the hypothesis that the acquisition of knowledge occurs at the psycho-physiological level of man, the formation of human skills is a complex process, which at the neural level means neurons of the human brain. the issues of formation of professional and basic competencies are devoted to the work of gerasymova et al. (2019), melnyk et al. (2019), nerubasska & maksymchuk (2020), sheremet et al. (2019) approach to the educational process devoted to work, ovcharuk o.v. (2009) and many other scientists. scientists rakova s.a. (2006), alpera b. (2013) and others are devoted to the problem of formation of direct mathematical competence. at the same time, not enough attention is paid to the issue of formation of professionally-oriented mathematical competencies in the scientific works of researchers known to us. caroline leaf (2015), lara boyd (2015) and others have devoted theories of brain neuroplasticity and the application of this phenomenon in the educational process. modern research convinces scientists of the need to move pedagogy to a new deeper level the level of neuropedagogy. the phenomenon of neuroplasticity of the human brain is a decisive factor in the theory of neuropedagogy. our brain is made up of neurons, between which impulses pass, the impulse that arises in the brain between neurons indicates that a certain action has taken place. the impulse passed by my neurons leaves an imperceptible trace at first, and later, with repeated action, the impulse passes in the same way, as if remembering the trajectory. the depth and formation of the cognitive component of professionally-oriented … alona kolomiiets et al. 17 strength of the connections between the neurons through which the impulses pass reflects the acquired skills. the phenomenon of neuroplasticity of the human brain is that when a person repeats a certain action, neural connections resembling tree branches are formed in his brain. the formed competence resembles a tree with branches, the so-called neural tree, newer connections are superimposed on older connections between neurons, which correspond to actions that are not practiced. modern technologies of medical engineering have made it possible to carry out in-depth research in the field of skills at the level of neural connections of the human brain, and accordingly it has made it possible to trace the formation of individual competencies. american researcher professor lara boyd (2015) studied the changes in the brains of students after a certain system of actions and loads. before and after the experiment, a group of students took brain scans using computed tomography. during the experiment (between tomographic examinations) students had to systematically perform these actions. the computer images showed the formation of subjects in those areas of the brain of the subjects who are responsible for certain activities. that is, the formed skill is displayed as a brain new growth (a branch of a neural tree). the idea of neuroplasticity of the human brain is precisely the mechanism on the basis of which the formation of abilities and skills caroline leaf (2015), and the language of the competence approach: the formation of personality competence. the branching of the tree of neural connections of the human brain indicates the formation of new abilities and skills, the development of connections between neurons is the result of a system of sequential human actions. the branching and strength of connections between neurons reflects the established system of knowledge and skills to apply this knowledge. neuroplasticity of the brain can be described as changes in synapses and nerve chains, which are formed in response to changes in human behavior, environment and nervous processes. the connections between neurons are formed gradually. the new human action that it performs systematically promotes the systematic passage of the impulse between the neurons of the brain. each such impulse leaves a thin mark after its passage. if the action is stopped, then, as scientists say, this trace will disappear over time, and if the action is repeated for a certain period of time, the pulse will pass between the neurons constantly and should take the form of a tree branch. thus, new branches appear on the "trees" of neural connections. according to scientists, for the brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 18 appearance of a new branch on the "neural tree" (as scientists call it) you need to repeat the same action for 21 days, to fix it takes another 21 days, and another 21 days for the impulse connection between neurons to take root, so that the performed action, habit, skill passed into the subconscious. at the same time, as proved by scientists in the field of brain neuroplasty, various parts of the brain that have been less active so far are beginning to work actively. and a new branch in the neural tree of the human brain is responsible for a certain skill that she has mastered. it is the neuroplasticity of the brain that explains the formation of skills in students, which are formed as a result of the systematic repetition of certain actions. for future engineers, the ability to find, select and accumulate mathematical knowledge and apply it in solving professional problems and in solving professional problems is important and fundamental. the cognitive component of professionally-oriented mathematical competence of future specialists, which is formed in the process of fundamental mathematical training, is responsible for the selection and accumulation of mathematical information. therefore, the subject of research is the formation of professionally-oriented mathematical competence of future bachelors of technical specialties. deseco experts define the concept of competence as the ability to successfully meet individual and social needs, act and perform tasks. it is noted that the structure of competence includes knowledge, cognitive and practical skills, attitudes, emotions, values and ethical norms, motivation ovcharuk, o. v. (2003). the formation of the future specialist in technical specialties as an engineer is based on the acquisition of mathematical knowledge and the formation of mathematical skills and abilities, i.e. on mathematical competencies petruk v.a. (2006). therefore, the key factor is the selection of basic mathematical competencies that directly affect the general professional training of the engineer. competency is defined by the vast majority of researchers as knowledge, personal experience and the range of issues in which a person is competent. some researchers use the terms "competency" and "competence" synonymously, but most tend to think of different meanings of these concepts. as noted by golovan m.s., the concept of "competence" is associated with the sphere of human activity, and the concept of "competence" is associated with the individual and characterizes his ability to perform activities. competency "directly" is related to competence, how specifically it defines the predetermined range of issues and in the field of activity with formation of the cognitive component of professionally-oriented … alona kolomiiets et al. 19 which a person should be well aware, competent. in other words, competence is a certain, predetermined, set of knowledge, skills, abilities, competence a qualitative characteristic of their assimilation, which is manifested in the process of practical activities leiko s.v. (2013). we will define competence as the ability of a person to successfully perform the tasks set before him, on the basis of his own knowledge and skills, a set of professional knowledge and skills, to successfully navigate in the problematic issues. in his work, b. alpers (2013) highlights the main mathematical competencies of future engineers: mathematical thinking, mathematical reasoning, formulation and solution of mathematical problems, mathematical modeling (the ability to analyze and work with existing models and the ability to perform active modeling), processing of mathematical symbols, mathematical communication, the creation of aids and tools. professionally-oriented mathematical competence is essentially mathematical competence, and on the other hand it includes elements of professional orientation. vocational-oriented mathematical competence (voms) is a set of mathematical and professional competencies integrated into a single structural unit, which is a measure, a criterion of quality general scientific, professional training of future specialists and is formed in the conditions of fundamental mathematical training of future bachelors. voms includes cognitive, operational-algorithmic, applicable, design components. the cognitive component of professionally-oriented mathematical competence reflects the formed system of knowledge of the student of the basic theoretical material, ability to accumulate mathematical knowledge, understanding of mathematical symbols, ability of the student to apply mathematical symbols in applied problems. the formation of the cognitive component of the voms of future bachelors in the field of electronics and telecommunications takes place in the process of introduction into the educational process of the methodical system of fundamentalization of mathematical training. under the fundamentalization of mathematical training of future specialists in technical specialties we understand improving the quality of the educational process due to the principle of knowledge, integrative approach, personality-oriented approach, which are the basis of the methodological system of fundamentalization of mathematical training of future technical specialists. the aim of the work is to describe the experimental verification of the method of formation of competencies of future specialists, in particular, brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 20 the formation of the cognitive component of professionally-oriented mathematical competence of future specialists in technical specialties in the context of human brain neuroplasticity. the formation of this component will reflect the ability of future professionals to accumulate mathematical knowledge. materials & methods here is a description of the methodological system of fundamentalization of mathematical training of future bachelors in the field of electronics and telecommunications in general (because it is not the subject of this study). the methodical system of fundamentalization of mathematical training of future bachelors consists of the following basic structural elements (figure 1): goals, methods, tools, forms of education.  the aims of the methodological system of fundamentalization of mathematical training of future bachelors in the field of electronics and telecommunications include:  fundamental mathematical training (mt) as part of the fundamentalization of the educational process as a whole (fet);  the system of components of professionally-oriented mathematical competence (voms) is formed; qualitatively new level of teaching mathematical disciplines. to test the formation of the cognitive component of professionallyoriented mathematical competence, we chose an experimental and control group of students in the field of electronics and telecommunications, on the basis of which an experimental test of the effectiveness of the proposed method of fundamentalization of mathematical training. the difference in the experiment in these groups was that in the experimental group the methodical system was introduced by the author of the method, and in the control group the methodical system was introduced into the educational process by another teacher who was provided with all necessary teaching materials. the peculiarity of the experiment, which distinguishes it from other experiments, is the verification of the effectiveness of the method in terms of its conduct by different lecturers. formation of the cognitive component of professionally-oriented … alona kolomiiets et al. 21 systematized by the authors figure 1. scheme of the methodical system of fundamentalization of mathematical training (fmt) of future bachelors in the field of electronics and telecommunications the formation of competence can be checked and statistically assessed by assigning certain numerical characteristics (parameters) to the results of actions, changing these characteristics, their difference in the control and experimental groups of students after the experiment will indicate the effectiveness (ineffectiveness) of the proposed method. current control was proposed in both groups. here is a partial list of tasks used to determine the level of formation of the cognitive component of professionally-oriented mathematical competence. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 22 sample test task (to check the formation of the cognitive component of voms) 1. choose the correct statement that matches the note: 2. cba  1) а belongs to b 2) a at the intersection with b forms c 3) a in combination with b forms c 4) a and b are identical to c. 2. choose the equation that describes the figure 1) cba  2) cba  3) cba  4) cba  3. matrices a and b can be added if they are: a) consistent, b) conjugate, c) of the same dimension, d) similar 4. matrices a and b can be multiplied if they are: a) consistent, b) conjugate, c) of the same dimension, d) similar 5. write the definition of the determinant of the 2nd order. 6. for the function 2 cos yxz  derivative  x z 7. а) 2 cos yz x  , б) 2 cos2 yz x  в) 2 cos2 yxz x  г) xz x 2 systematized by the authors students were tested by checking the formation of professionallyoriented mathematical competence and its components. a ab b formation of the cognitive component of professionally-oriented … alona kolomiiets et al. 23 the purpose of the experiment at this stage was to ensure the effectiveness of the method, regardless of the teacher who introduces it into the learning process. for the reliability of the experiment it was necessary that 1) both lecturers conducted lectures and practical classes on the same and the same curriculum, 2) the basic elements of methodology were introduced into the educational process; 3) in both groups students performed levels of volume and difficulty of homework, 4) the level of requirements during the final control was the same, which was ensured by the presence of both lecturers in the exams in both groups of students. results we first show that the groups of students selected for experimental testing are equivalent. let's check the equivalence of the selected groups for the quality of the exam. let's make a table of comparison of experimental and control groups on the share of students, whose answers are referred to high, sufficient and medium, low levels according to the results of the first exam in the discipline of higher mathematics among students of eg and cg, future bachelors in electronics and telecommunications (table 1). the high level includes the answers of students who received the grade "excellent", the sufficient level includes the answers of students who received "good", the middle and low levels include the answers of students with grades "satisfactory" and "unsatisfactory". according to the tables “the value of the angle  for different percentages” (sidorenko, 2002, p. 331) we find the values of , which correspond to the percentages of the “effect” in each of the groups: 1 (20%) = 0,927; 2 (26%) = 1,070. table 1. comparison of the control and experimental group by the share of students whose answers are classified as high or sufficient and medium or low levels according to the results of the first exam in the discipline of higher mathematics group "there is an effect" "no ffect" total experimental 15(20%) 58(80%) 73(100%) control 28(25%) 82(75%) 110(100%) total 43 51 183 systematized by the authors brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 24 the empirical value of  * is calculated by the formula:   ke ke nn nn    21  , (1) where 1 – an angle corresponding to a higher percentage; 2 an angle corresponding to a smaller percentage; e n the number of students in the experimental sample; k n the number of students in the control sample.  . 73 110 1, 070 0, 952 0,143 6, 6341 0, 9472 73 110 емп           we obtained that *кр.  * емпір., and therefore the obtained value*емп = 0,9472 is in the zone of insignificance (fig. 2) systematized by the authors thus, the h1 hypothesis is refuted, and the h0 hypothesis is accepted that the initial levels of knowledge of students of the control and experimental groups are the same. therefore, the selected experimental and control groups of students on the criterion of quality of knowledge can be considered as equivalent. then build a similar table with the results of the second final control. 1,64 2,31 zone of insignificance uncertainty zone zone of significance 0,01  0,05  0, 9472 емп   fig. 2. geometric interpretation of values критерію * formation of the cognitive component of professionally-oriented … alona kolomiiets et al. 25 table 2. comparison of the control and experimental group by the share of students whose answers are classified as high or sufficient and medium or low levels according to the results of the second exam in the discipline of higher mathematics group "there is an effect" "no effect" total experimental 18(27%) 48(73%) 66(100%) control 22(20%) 88(80%) 110(100%) total 132 51 183 systematized by the authors based on the results of the obtained data, we construct a histogram for better perception of the data and their visual image (fig. 3). systematized by the authors figure 3. comparison of the shares of control and experimental groups in the presence of differences in the quality of education according to the results of the first and second final control it is obvious that in the experimental group there is a tendency to increase the indicators of the category "there is an effect", where there was an increase of 6.5%, while in the control group in this category there was a decrease of 5%. in order to conclude that the results of the implementation of the methodological system differ in the control and experimental groups due to the fact that the methodology was implemented by different lecturers, we will perform a statistical evaluation of the results using fisher's test. and suppose that the differences are statistically significant. we write down the values for the particles in the control and experimental groups. brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 26 1 (27%) = 1,093, 2 (20%) = 0,927 applying formula (1) we obtain.  . 66 110 1, 09 0, 927 0,163 41, 25 1, 04 66 110 емп           the obtained value is not statistically significant, and therefore we can conclude that the introduction of the methodological system by different teachers gives the same positive results. discussion the study analyzes the effectiveness of the methodological system of fundamentalization of mathematical training of future specialists in the field of electronics and telecommunications. research on testing the methodological system of fundamentalization of certain parts of the educational process has been described in the works of a large number of scientists, while the description of testing the effectiveness of fundamental methods of mathematical training of bachelors in electronics and telecommunications is not found in any known work. in addition, the leading idea of the study is to test the effectiveness of the method as a universal tool for forming the cognitive component of professionallyoriented mathematical competence of future bachelors, which does not depend on the personality of the lecturer who uses it. the conceptual position on which the formation of personality competencies is based is the neuroplasticity of the human brain. this concept is based on the hypothesis of the formation of skills and abilities of the individual. conclusions the conducted theoretical and empirical research allows to draw the following conclusions. 1) the methodical system of fundamentalization of mathematical training of future bachelors in the field of electronics and telecommunications is an effective tool for improving the quality of education. 2) the result of the introduction of the methodical system of fundamentalization of mathematical training of future bachelors of radio engineering is the formation of professionally-oriented mathematical competence, and in particular its cognitive component. formation of the cognitive component of professionally-oriented … alona kolomiiets et al. 27 3) the formation of the cognitive component was verified empirically by testing. the validity of the obtained results was checked using fisher's angular criterion. 4) an important feature of the method of forming the cognitive component of professionally-oriented mathematical competence is the presence of a methodical system of fundamentalization of mathematical training of future bachelors in the field of electronics and telecommunications. in particular, the main components of the methodological system include goals, methods, forms, means of formation of professionally-oriented mathematical competencies of future professionals. 5) the leading achievements of neuropedagogy are taking into account the neuroplasticity of the human brain, taking into account the peculiarities of development and formation of the brain under the influence of external factors. the formation of skills and abilities is reflected on mri images in the form of formations, which have been tested by foreign researchers. 6) it is concluded that the introduced method of fundamentalization of mathematical training of future bachelors in the field of electronics and telecommunications works regardless of the individual characteristics of the lecturer. references alpers, b. a. (2013). framework for mathematics curricula in engineering education. a report of the mathematics working group. european society for engineering education, brussels. boyd, l. (2015). plasticity and the brains of children with learning disabilities. http://www.neuroplasticityandeducation.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/10/lara-boyd.pdf gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4 suppl. 1), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 leaf, c. (2015). vklyuchite svoy mozg [turn on your brain]. bright books. leyko, s. v. (2013). ponyattya “kompetentsiya” ta “kompetentnistʹ” teoretychnyy analiz [the concept of "competency" and "competence" theoretical analysis]. pedagogy. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). http://www.neuroplasticityandeducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/lara-boyd.pdf http://www.neuroplasticityandeducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/lara-boyd.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 28 models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 ovcharuk, o. v. (2003). kompetentnosti yak klyuch do formuvannya zmistu osvity // stratehiya reformuvannya osvity ukrayiny [competences as a key to the formation of the content of education // strategy of education reform in ukraine]. k.i.c. petruk, v. a. (2006). teoretyko-metodychni zasady formuvannya profesiynoyi kompetentnosti maybutnikh fakhivtsiv tekhnichnykh spetsialʹnostey u protsesi vyvchennya fundamentalʹnykh dystsyplin [theoretical and methodological foundations of the formation of the professional competence of future specialists in technical specialties in the process of studying fundamental disciplines]. universum-vinnitsa. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sidorenko, e. v. (2002). metody matematicheskoy obrabotki v psikhologi [methods of mathematical processing in psychology]. ooo “rech”. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 30-45 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/154 the incidence of vertebral static disorders at children aged 11-14 years magdalena bughiricăgeorgescu¹ 1 national university of phisycal education and sports, str. constantin noica, nr. 140, sector 6, c.p. 060057, bucureşti, românia, magdabughirica@yahoo.com abstract: disorders of the osteo-musculo-articular system represents one of the most frequent pathological manifestations, both in terms of morbidity and economical costs. therefore it is necessary an assessment of level of physical development and health status, based on medical examinations of physical balance in children from school communities. for this purpose, the initial evaluation of children by physiotherapists, through various tests and measurements specific for physical therapy, has a fundamental role in order to detect those with deficiencies (lafond et al., 2007). the appreciations are made in conjunction with the data collected from medical records, and with the information about social and family context of respective subjects. the purpose of the study is to draw attention to the incidence of spinal postural impairments, within the same age group, and to its possible consequences for the adolescence and adulthood. in the context of medical recovery, physiotherapy plays a vital role in restoring the functionality potential of people with different conditions of incapacity. the study was carried out during the time of children’s evaluation at the beginning of the 2019 school year. the research included 75 children aged 11-14 from special middle school no. 3 in bucharest. the methods used are: method of bibliographic study, observation, method of evalution, and recording of data and graphical presentation. from the 75 children evaluated, 70.67% had static vertebral disorders. the author consider that the school population is currently at risk of spinal disorders associated with sedentarism and abnormal body postures in both static and dynamic activities. keywords: incidence; spinal postural impairments; special education system. how to cite: bughirică-georgescu, m. (2020). the incidence of vertebral static disorders at children aged 11-14 years. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 30-45. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/154 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/154 mailto:magdabughirica@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/154 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 31 1. introduction the existing topic of detecting, preventing and correcting vertebral postural disorders among the school population, is a current concern for both parents and teachers who are raising and educating these age groups. vertebral postural impairments are characterized by different degrees of evident morphological changes, which occur in the shape and structure of the body, manifested by a developmental disorder or a disproportionate development, by deviations, structural deformities, followed or preceded by functional disorders. the posture, as it is defined by cordun (1999a, pp. 59-64) "is a function of the human body based on the synergic and coordinated action of the elements of the locomotor system and of the central and peripheral nervous system through which it is maintained: stability of the body, equilibrium and constant relations between the segments of the body as well as between the body and the environment surrounding". non-dynamic vertebral diseases are one of the biggest problems in school age, sometimes seriously affecting the health of the future adult. child's body is in a constant state of development and growth is unequal, alternating periods of sudden growing with a slowing down development rate. during the growth and development of a child, 3 critical periods can be highlighted: from 2 to 3.5 years, between 6-9 years and at puberty. specialized literature shows three phases in the development of spinal deformities: the first phase is characterized by functional insufficiency of the neuromuscular system; the second phase called the deformation fixation phase is characterized by the deformation stabilization. the third phase is the modification of the musculoskeletal system, being closely related to the modification of the skeleton itself. national studies showed that the disease of the vertebral posture are one of the most serious problems, arising from school age, considerably affecting child's health. according to the journals of school and university medicine, out of the 99 students studied in two schools in craiova, only 1.01% presented correct postural position (ciovică et al., 2016, p. 5). in recent years, more and more studies have focused on assessment of body posture in children with intellectual disability. the authors demonstrated that intellectually disabled children tend to present a poor body posture. in the entire group, regardless of the degree of disability, only the incidence of vertebral static disorders at children aged 11-14 years magdalena bughirică-georgescu 32 7.7% of boys and 7.1% of girls had good body posture, while the remaining subjects had poor posture or posture-related defects, and 65.5% had bad posture. the authors also reported that postural defects were significantly more often associated with the spine, and less frequently with the lower limbs. most of the boys and girls, with either moderate or severe disability, presented with abnormal lateral curvatures of the spine. however, abnormalities in the lower limbs, including foot deformities, were found in 44.4% of the boys and in 61.9% of the girls (wolan-nieroda et al, 2018). another analysis of the research results shows that more than half of the students with mental disabilities (63%) have physical deficiencies in the spine and only for 37% of them have a correct posture. from the total spine deficiencies, there was a higher incidence of the scoliosis (powers et al.,1983), followed by the kyphosis. in a smaller percentage, there were the kypholordosis, lordosis and kyphoscoliosis. the middle school age category (puberty) is the most affected by the presence of the spine deficiencies, followed by the low school age category, which is quite worrying. in boys, the deficiencies in the form of kyphosis and scoliosis also predominate, while in girls, the scoliosis dominates (gulap et al. 2018). one study conducted at the level of special schools in bucharest mentions that 33% of students involved in the recovery program during physical therapy classes have vertebral static disorders (şuţă et al., 2017). body posture in subjects with intellectual disability was also assessed by momola and czarny (2011), who studied a group of 201 subjects, (12–18 years) presenting with severe intellectual disability. the assessment focused on body posture in frontal and sagittal plane, as well as position of the lower limbs; the latter was examined for defects such as knocked knees, bow legs, low-arch foot, flat foot, and flat foot with valgus deformity. morphological structure of feet was examined using plantographic method. the authors demonstrated that intellectually disabled children tend to present themselves with poor body posture. in the entire group, regardless of the degree of disability, only 7.7% of boys and 7.1% of girls had good body posture, while the remaining subjects had poor posture or posture-related defects, and 65.5% had bad posture. momola (2007) also assessed body posture and leg shape in a group of girls with mild or severe intellectual disabilities. the study group consisted of 426 girls (aged between 8 and 18 years). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=wolan-nieroda%20a%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=29636442 https://europepmc.org/search?query=auth:%22t%20a%20powers%22 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 33 the author showed that most girls with severe disabilities (over 45%) had poor body posture, while girls with moderate intellectual disabilities had better body posture. postural defects were significantly more often associated with the spine, and less frequently with the lower limbs. most of the boys and girls, with either moderate or severe disability, presented with abnormal lateral curvatures of the spine. however, abnormalities in the lower limbs, including foot deformities, were found in 44.4% of the boys and in 61.9% of the girls (momola 2007). the analysis of body posture was also investigated in a study conducted by (kuzdzal et al.,2004) which assessed body posture in a group of 108 students with intellectual disabilities, aged 11-13 years, confirming that children with intellectual disabilities frequently presents abnormalities in body posture. in many countries, due to the lack of national programs for the detection of vertebral static disorders, statistical data are based on information provided by advisory centers and specialized orthopedic clinics, which usually address patients with severe scoliosis, who require only surgical treatment. these children are not treated properly and in time they are becoming future low back pain adults, as confirmed by national and international statistics. such conclusions drawn over time should raise an alarm system about the incidence of vertebral static disorders among the school population, which is not only a medical problem but also a social one on direct costs for prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and long-term care. in order to reduce the number of vertebral static disorders among the school population, it is necessary to implement national prophylactic programs and for this purpose an essential role for the prophylaxis/treatment of these children is played by physiotherapy, which will take into account the age and level of development of the child. for the treatment of all spinal deformities, the goal is to maintain function and prevent short and long-term symptoms (weiss, 2010). objectives of physical therapy are correlated with pathological changes of musculoskeletal apparatus and the final purpose is improving the quality of life of children (negrini et al. 2011). physical therapy applied in schools for children with disabilities aims to recover students with locomotor deficiencies and neuro-motor disorders (central or peripheral), grafted on severe, profound and/or associated mental deficiencies or on the background of sensory deficiencies (hearing, vision impairment). the incidence of vertebral static disorders at children aged 11-14 years magdalena bughirică-georgescu 34 the physiotherapist must work within a health care team, including a psychologist, orthotist, orthopedic and specialist medical rehabilitation. specific physical therapy exercises should be tailored to the child's individual pattern of curvature and treatment phase. individual therapy should be reviewed regularly and systematically (kotwicki et al., 2013). in this article, i wanted to show the type of defect existing in the vertebral grafted types of shortcomings mentioned above, evaluating children of age between 11 to 14 years, during assessment from the start of the school year. i did this through a comprehensive evaluation, to highlight the incidence of disorders of static spine in these children, classifying these deficiencies by shape, age and sex gender of children and by the degree of deficiency. the final purpose is to obtain a database comprising the specifity of this frequently met problem among school population. equally important, i believe that this register will be extremely beneficial in monitoring the somatic-functional development of these children, their personal autonomy and social inclusion. 2. problem research the subject of vertebral static disorders at children is of current interest, given the complexity of the term “educational needs/special education” and the importance of acquiring/maintaining a correct posture of the body, that can be affected by various temporary or permanent physical or psycho-sensory dysfunctions, determining states of infirmity, disability, handicap or invalidity. children with special educational needs are those whose requirements mainly derive from the mental, physical, sensory, language, emotional and behavioural deficiencies or are associated with, regardless of their severity. under the current conditions, when trying to integrate as many children with special educational needs from special education into mass education, to achieve the best results for them, works multi-and interdisciplinary teams (gulap et al. 2018). 3. research questions in this research i intended to check, after an application of a protocol assessment at the beginning of the school year, the results on the incidence of disorders of static spine in children of age between 11 to14 years with special educational needs. https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ro&prev=_t&sl=ro&tl=en&u=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/%3fterm%3dkotwicki%2520t%255bauthor%255d%26cauthor%3dtrue%26cauthor_uid%3d24600296 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 35 the theme highlights a tangible reality in this complicated problem. the results can provide a real database that can be used later for various purposes. 4. purpose of the research the purpose of the study is to detect static spine disorders at school children aged between 11-14 years in special education, and to signalize the incidence of this condition and warn the consequences for teens and adults. the aim of the paper is also to create a database on the incidence of vertebral static disorders in children with special educational needs or in children with mental disabilities. 5. the objectives of this research are: 1. going through a literature search on the incidence of postural spine disorders in children. 2. setting the level of knowledge by summarizing some general information about the physical deficiencies in children with intellectual disabilities (tătaru 2019). 3. evaluating body appearance of children with intellectual disabilities enrolled in special education. 4. highlighting the percentage difference between disorders of static spine in children with intellectual disabilities, related to the degree of deficiency. 5. calculation of body mass index in children included in the study group. 6. comparing the incidence of vertebral static disorders according to the gender of the subjects chosen in the program. 6. hypothesis of the research in developing this study we started from the hypothesis that detection of physical impairments in two categories of students with mental disabilities. a) students with mild / moderate mental disabilities in comparison with: b) students with severe/profound mental impairment allows the identification of percentage differences in terms of incidence of vertebral static disorders for these two categories of subjects. also early detection of these static vertebral disorders in children can prevent/ameliorate the serious consequences for adolescence and adulthood. the incidence of vertebral static disorders at children aged 11-14 years magdalena bughirică-georgescu 36 7. materials and method in my scientific approach, i used the following research methods: 1. study of the literature and selection of statistics related to the incidence of vertebral static disorders in the school population. 2. carrying out measurements and evaluation tests for the detection of vertebral static disorders. 3. identification of spine segments anomalies due to general or body posture assessment at children with intellectual disabilities. 4. calculation of body mass index. the assessment of normal weight and height in children and adolescents between 2 and 20 years of age. (centers for disease control and prevention -cdc). 5. data analysis, processing and interpretation. 6. formulation of conclusions. 8. subjects and location the study was conducted on a sample of 75 children aged 11-14 years (mean age 13 years) from special secondary school no. 3 from bucharest. the group of children consisted of 47 pupils with mild/moderate mental disabilities and 28 children with severe/profound mental disabilities. (table 2). the evaluation was performed during the physiotherapy program at the beginning of the 2019 school year. 9. research methods 1. evaluation of the musculoskeletal system through which the assessment of physical growth and development is performed by subjective methods somatoscopy and by objective methods somatoscopic examination instrument. to determine the incidence of the vertebral static disorders in children with mental deficiency through a detailed evaluation consisting of general somatoscopic examination and instrumental somatoscopic examination, respectively with the anthropometric symmetry framework. the anthropometric frame of symmetry (afs) according to the parameters in the literature (cordun, 1999b, pp.92-152): dimensions: 2 m high and 1 m wide. grading was performed horizontally from the middle, from the zero point (0) to the right and to the left, from 10 to 10 cm, and vertically from the bottom upwards, from 0 to 200 cm. thus, the anthropometric symmetry frame is divided into squares with sides of 10 cm. the middle vertical from the zero points (00) overlaps the median line of the body. the instrumental somatoscopic examination was performed, as it is stated in the literature, from the back, face and profile. the front and back brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 37 examinations provided information on the specificities of the deficiencies occurring in the frontal plane, respectively the scoliosis, and the examination revealed the specific aspects and defining characteristics for the deviations of the spine in the sagittal plane, namely the kyphosis, lordosis and their combinations. 2. for the assessment of normal weight and height in children and adolescents between 2 and 20 years of age, it is recommended to use growth charts corresponding to sex and age issued by the centers for disease control and prevention (cdc) (onea & balint, 2017). data on the body mass index (bmi) were collected by the school nurse and the physiotherapist at the beginning of the school year (2019-2020) and were introduced in the children’s bmi tool for schools (excel sheet), downloaded from the cdc (centers for disease control and prevention) website. according to the cdc, bmi is divided by the following criteria: underweight (<5th percentile), normal bmi (5th -85th percentile), overweight or obese (≥ 85th percentile), obese (≥ 95th percentile). studies using the cdc method reported different overweight and obese percentages for schoolchildren (table 3). also, there were studied medical records of children who have provided important information about personal data, diagnose of mental disabilities, degree of disability, chronic illness and various observations on the child's activity, which, together with the assessment showed an overview of each case. 10. results data analisys were performed using the excell program. the main vertebral static disorders encountered in children with intellectual disabilities and the number of children for each category (table 2). the distribution of children in the studied group shows the predominance of girls 56% (n = 42) compared to boys 44% (n = 33). the gender distribution is relevant in the case of scoliosis, with a greater incidence at women, in a proportion of 33%, as stated and other studies (kusturova, 2016). the incidence of vertebral static disorders at children aged 11-14 years magdalena bughirică-georgescu 38 incidence of the disorders of vertebral statics in children with mental deficiency figure 1. incidence of the disorders of vertebral statics source: figure arising from the original research activity from the graph above, we can see that out of the total number of children evaluated in research, only 29,33% had a correct postural position and 70,67% suffered from a vertebral static disorder, and 7 had severe back pain. classification of the disorders of vertebral statics according to frontal or sagittal deviations, respectively in scoliosis, kyphosis or lordosis and/or combinations figure 2. classification of the disorders of vertebral statics source: figure arising from the original research activity 70.67% 29.33% children with vertebral static disorders children without vertebral static disorders scoliosis 29.33% kyphosis 14,66% lordosis 9,33% kypho-lordosis 10,66% kypho-scoliosis 6,66 other diseases 10,66% correct position 18,66% scoliosis kyphosis lordosis kypho-lordosis kyphoscoliosis other diseases correct position brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 39 the main disorders of vertebral statics seen in children with intellectual disabilities in order of frequency, were: scoliosis 29,33% of subjects, kyphosis 14,66% of subjects, kypholordosis 10,66% of subjects, hyper lordosis lumbar proportion 9,33% and kyphoscoliosis 6.66% of subjects. (table 1) table 1. incidence type disorders of vertebral statics and sex of subjects source: original data resulting from research disease subjects male female no. % no. % no. % scoliosis 22 29 , 33 % 8 2 4.24% 14 33 , 33 % kyphosis 11 14.66 % 4 12 , 12 % 7 16.66 % lordosis 7 9 , 33 % 4 12.12% 3 7.14 % kypho-lordosis 8 1 0.66 % 5 15.15 % 3 7.14 % kyphoscoliosis 5 6.66 % 2 6 , 06 % 3 7.14% correct position 14 18.66% 5 15.15% 9 21 , 42 % other diseases 8 10.66% 5 15.15% 3 7.14% total 75 (100%) 33 100% 42 100% source: original data resulting from research table 2. the incidence of vertebral static disorders based on the degree of deficiency source: original data resulting from research disease no. subjects type of deficiency md ms no. % no. % scoliosis 22 1 8 38,29 % 4 14.28 % kyphosis 11 4 8.51 % 7 25% lordosis 7 5 1 0.63 % 2 7,14% kypho-lordosis 8 3 6.38 % 5 17,85 % kyphoscoliosis 5 4 8.51 % 1 3.57 % other diseases 8 3 6.38 % 5 17.85 % correct position 14 10 21.27% 4 14.28% total 75 47 62.66% 28 37.33% abbreviations: md children with moderate mental deficiency. ms children with severe mental deficiency. the incidence of vertebral static disorders at children aged 11-14 years magdalena bughirică-georgescu 40 source: original data resulting from research the group of children consisted of 47 pupils with mild/moderate mental disabilities and 28 children with severe/profound mental disabilities. scoliosis (38.29%) predominates in children with mild mental deficiency and kyphosis (25%) predominates in children with severe/profound mental deficiency. distribution of the vertebral static disorders at boys. the distribution of the spine deficiencies at boys (figure 3) shows that: 24,24% are scoliosis, 12,12% kyphosis and lordosis are equal to 12,12%, 15,15% kypholordosis, and kyphoscoliosis only 6.06%. figure 3. distribution of the vertebral static disorder at boys. source: figure arising from the original research activity distribution of the vertebral static disorders at girls. the deviation of the spine in the frontal plane, respectively the scoliosis, is placed on the first place in girls, with 33.33%. other values recorded in figure 4 show that: 16,66% have kyphosis, the lordosis, kypholordosis and kyphoscoliosis to equality, 7.14%. scoliosis 24.24% kyphosis 12,12% lordosis 12,12% kypho-lordosis 15,15% kypho-scoliosis 6.06% other diseases 15,15% correct position 15,15% scoliosis kyphosis lordosis kypho-lordosis kyphoscoliosis other diseases correct position brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 41 figure 4. distribution of vertebral static disorder at girls source: figure arising from the original research activity regarding the fact that the status influences the position and alignment of the body weight, we calculated s and parameter body mass index ( bmi ), resulting in the values listed in table 3. in the study group only 45% had a normal bmi, the remaining 27 % were overweight, 16 % underweight and 12% of the obese. 77,77% (n=7) from the obese subjects have been diagnosed with lordosis and suffered low back pain. a weight higher than normal whether we are talking about overweight or obesity leaves its mark on the spine. table 3. summary of children’s bmi by gender (original data resulting from research) bmi boys girls total number of children assessed 33 42 75 (100%) underweight (<5thpercentile) 6 6 12 (16%) normal bmi (5th -85th percentile 15 19 34 (45%) overweight or obese (≥ 85th percentile) 8 12 20 (27%) obese (≥ 95th percentile) 4 5 9(12%) scoliosis 33,33% kyphosis 16,66% lordosis 7,14% scoliosis 7,14% kypho-scoliosis 7,14% other diseases 7,14% correct position 21,42% scoliosis kyphosis lordosis kypho-lordosis kyphoscoliosis other diseases correct position the incidence of vertebral static disorders at children aged 11-14 years magdalena bughirică-georgescu 42 figure 5. bmi subjects repartition source: figure arising from the original research activity 10. conclusions 1. at national level, vertebral postural diseases represents one of the biggest problem found at school age, these affecting, very seriously sometimes, the health of the future adult, evidencing the need for national prophylactic programs. 2. the results shows that more than half of the mentally deficient pupils (70,67%) have vertebral postural disorders. only 29,33% of them do not present this type of impairments. 3. the most affected in terms of vertebral postural pathology is the category of average school age (puberty), as confirmed by other specialized statistics. 4. analyzing data from table 1 and table 2, we could conclude that from 75 students tested: ● in category children with moderate mental deficiency (ms) only 4 subjects have good posture. in this category is prevailing kyphosis. ● in category children with severe mental deficiency (md) only 10 subjects have a correct posture; scoliosis predominates at girls. 5. from the total vertebral static spine disorders, there was a higher incidence of the deviations in the frontal plane, respectively the scoliosis, followed by the deviations in the sagittal plane, respectively the kyphosis. in underweight 16% normal weight 45% overweight 27% obese 12% underweight normal weight overweight obese brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 43 a smaller percentage, there were the kypholordosis, lordosis and kyphoscoliosis. 6. obesity is very rarely the only cause of back pain, but it is often a factor that aggravates pre-existing pain; 7 children out of 9 obese have reported lumbar pain during static and dynamic activities. 7. this high percentage of children with spinal static disorders should draw the attention of parents, teachers and specialized institutions. 8. the evaluation file has led to impartially results, which constitutes an actual database of the spine deficiencies in children with mental disabilities, leading to the confirmation of originally hypothesis. 11. motions 1. it is necessary to carry out a school screening on vertebral static disorders in age groups at risk: 7-11 years, 10-14 years (prepuberty) and 1518 years (adolescent). 2. the role of physical therapy is essential for improving the health of these children. 3. prevention of childhood obesity is an international priority in the field of public health (waters et al., 2011). parental participation is a key factor in the prevention and management of childhood obesity (junaibi et al., 2013). overweight or obese people are not aware that being overweight can cause pain. any extra weight in this case increases the pressure on the spine 4. obesity in children is associated with unhealthy nutrition, inactivity and low physical fitness, that may contribute to increased risk of fractures (valerio et al., 2012). it has been shown that overweight children and adolescents have a greater risk of sustaining these fractures than leaner children (yamamoto et al., 2010). references ciovică, c., voinea, c., opran, t., săpoi, v., kamal d., & trăistaru r. ( 2016). importanța evaluării aliniamentului postural la școlari [the importance of evaluating postural alignment in schoolchildren]. revista de medicină școlară și universitară [journal of school and university medicine], iii(4), 5-10. http://www.medicinascolara.ro/download/revista/vol3_nr4_2016/rmsu_ vol3_nr4_2016.pdf cordun, m. (1999a). kinetologie medicală [medical kinetology]. axa. cordun, m. (1999b). postura corporală normală şi patologică [normal and pathological posture]. a.n.e.f.s. http://www.medicinascolara.ro/download/revista/vol3_nr4_2016/rmsu_vol3_nr4_2016.pdf http://www.medicinascolara.ro/download/revista/vol3_nr4_2016/rmsu_vol3_nr4_2016.pdf the incidence of vertebral static disorders at children aged 11-14 years magdalena bughirică-georgescu 44 gulap, m., andrei, a., tătaru, t., & șuță, e. v. (2018). deficiencies in children with special education needs. the european proceedings of social & behavioural sciences, 359-366. http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.03.48 junaibi, a., abdishakur, a., &nagelkerke, n. (2013).parental weight perceptions: a cause for concern in the prevention and management of childhood obesity in the united arab emirates. plos one, 8(3), e59923. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059923 kotwicki, t., chowanska, j., kinel, e., czaprowski, d., tomaszewski, m., & janusz, p. (2013). optimal management of idiopathic scoliosis in adolescence. adolescent health, medicine and therapeutics, 4, 59–73. https://doi.org/10.2147/ahmt.s32088 kusturova, a. (2016). diformitățile coloanei vertebrale la copiii și adolescenții de vârstă școlară (diagnostic, tratament și profilaxia) [spinal deformities in school-age children and adolescents (diagnosis, treatment and prophylaxis)]. orthopedics and traumatology, 321.189 (pp.3-14). chișinău. http://www.cnaa.md/files/theses/2016/24064/anna_kusturova_abstract .pdf kużdżał, a., magoń, g., & cieślar, g. (2004). physical development and body posture of mentally disabled children, with reference to the latest population norms. sports med, 4, 199–204. lafond, d., descarreaux, m., normand, m.c., & harrison d. e. (2007). postural development in school children: a cross-sectional study. chiropractic & manual therapies, 15, 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-1340-15-1 momola i. (2007). somatic development, body posture and motor abilities in mentally disabled girls. university of rzeszów publishers. negrini, s., donzelli, s., aulisa, a. g., czaprowski, d., schreiber, s., de mauroy, j. c., diers, h., grivas, t. b., knott, p., kotwicki, t., lebel, a., marti, c., maruyama, t., o'brien, j., price, n., parent, e., rigo, m., romano, m., stikeleather, l., wynne, j., … zaina, f. (2018). 2016 sosort guidelines: orthopaedic and rehabilitation treatment of idiopathic scoliosis during growth. scoliosis and spinal disorders, 13, 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13013017-0145-8 onea, g. a, & balint, l. (2017). body mass index, physical fitness assessment and injuries incidence among arab schoolchildren. the european proceedings of social & behavioural sciences,45-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.03.6 powers, ta., haher, tr., devlin, vj., spencer. d., millar, ea.(1983). abnormalities of the spine in relation to congenital upper limb deficiencies. journal of pediatric orthopedics, 3(4), 471-474. https://doi.org/10.1097/01241398-19830900000010 http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.03.48 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059923 https://doi.org/10.2147/ahmt.s32088 http://www.cnaa.md/files/theses/2016/24064/anna_kusturova_abstract%20.pdf http://www.cnaa.md/files/theses/2016/24064/anna_kusturova_abstract%20.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=lafond%20d%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17204148 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=descarreaux%20m%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17204148 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=normand%20mc%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17204148 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=harrison%20de%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17204148 https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-1340-15-1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13013-017-0145-8 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13013-017-0145-8 http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.03.6 https://europepmc.org/search?query=auth:%22t%20a%20powers%22 https://europepmc.org/search?query=auth:%22t%20r%20haher%22 https://europepmc.org/search?query=auth:%22v%20j%20devlin%22 https://europepmc.org/search?query=auth:%22d%20spencer%22 https://europepmc.org/search?query=auth:%22e%20a%20millar%22 https://doi.org/10.1097/01241398-198309000-00010 https://doi.org/10.1097/01241398-198309000-00010 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 45 şuţă, e.v., tătaru, t., şuţă, l.& vasile, m. (2017). the incidence of spine deficiencies among disabled students with intellectual disabilities from special education system in bucharest. timişoara physical education and rehabilitation journal, 10(19), pp. 80-85. https://doi.org/10.1515/tperj2017-0021 tătaru, t. (2019). spine deficiency among pupils with intellectual disabilities corrected by physical therapy exercises. bulletin of the transilvania university of braşov series ix: sciences of human kinetics, 12(61), 1, 239-246. https://doi.org/10.31926/but.shk.2019.12.61.24 valerio, g., gallè, f., mancusi,c.,onofrio, d.v., guida, p.,tramontano, a., liguori, g.(2012). prevalence of overweight in children with bone fractures: acase control study.bmc pediatrics, 12, 166. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2431-12-166 waters, e., de silva-sanigorski, a, hall, b. j., brown, t., campbell, k. j., gao, y., armstrong, r., prosser, l., summerbell, c. d. (2011). interventions for preventing obesity in children. cochrane library. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd001871.pub3 weiss, h r. (2010). spinal deformities rehabilitation state of the art review. scoliosis, 5, 28. https://doi.org/10.1186 / 1748-7161-5-28 wolan-nieroda, a., guzik, a., bazarnik-mucha, k., rachwał, m., drzał-grabiec, j., szeliga, e., & walicka-cupryś, k. (2018). assessment of foot shape in children and adolescents with intellectual disability: a pilot study. medical science monitor : international medical. journal of experimental and clinical research, 24, 2149–2157. https://doi.org/10.12659/msm.905184 yamamoto, n.,yanagi, h.,ito, y.,inoue, y.,tanaka, k., wada, t.,&ishii, t. (2010). dynamic and static ability of balance and postural control in japanese obese children. 6th world congress of biomechanics. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-64214515-5_67 https://doi.org/10.1515/tperj-2017-0021 https://doi.org/10.1515/tperj-2017-0021 https://doi.org/10.31926/but.shk.2019.12.61.24 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2431-12-166 https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.cd001871.pub3/information#cd001871-cr-0007 https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.cd001871.pub3/information#cd001871-cr-0008 https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.cd001871.pub3/information#cd001871-cr-0009 https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.cd001871.pub3/information#cd001871-cr-0010 https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd001871.pub3 https://doi.org/10.1186%20/%201748-7161-5-28 https://doi.org/10.12659/msm.905184 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14515-5_67 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14515-5_67 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, sup.1, pages: 37-47 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/92 self-harm in adolescence as maladaptive coping slavka demuthova¹, andrej demuth 2 1 assoc. prof., university of ss. cyril and methodius, trnava, slovakia, slavka.demuthova@ucm.sk 2 prof., comenius university, bratislava, slovakia, andrej.demuth@uniba.sk abstract: psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, and other associated professions, as well as the public from all over europe have noticed the negative impact of the covid-19 pandemic on mental health. in this regard, adolescents appear to be a highly vulnerable group, which is more affected than adults and children in many aspects. this study focuses on a specific and extremely maladaptive way of coping with mental stress and problems – deliberate self-harm. it offers an epidemiological study of the prevalence of self-harm among slovak youths, its forms and related variables, carried out on a sample of 2,280 adolescents aged 11 – 19 using the shi questionnaire. the results reveal that within the overall prevalence of 45.2%, the most vulnerable group are girls from nontraditional families who began to self-harm at an early age. the most frequent forms of self-harm among adolescents were torturing with selfdefeating thoughts, followed by both direct and indirect forms of physical self-harm. an analysis of the willingness to disclose self-harming behaviour shows that the need to raise awareness of this behaviour should be mostly oriented towards adolescents. keywords: self-harm; adolescence; prevalence; forms. how to cite: demuthova, s., & demuth, a. (2020). selfharm in adolescence as maladaptive coping. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 3747. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/92 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/92 mailto:slavka.demuthova@ucm.sk mailto:andrej.demuth@uniba.sk https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/92 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 38 1. introduction the covid-19 pandemic has brought intense feelings of insecurity and a radical change in our way of life which has had an impact on the mental health of young people. adolescents worry about their health as well as the health of those close to them, they feel isolated from their peer contacts that are important to them and the restrictions on their mobility have an immense effect, their daily routine is greatly disturbed, they have lost access to leisure activities... all of which limits the possibilities they have to meet their crucial needs. in more serious cases, they are the witnesses or victims of unfavourable domestic circumstances or violence and they lack access to psychological help. yet, young people must live through these complications whilst also experiencing the challenging transition from childhood to adulthood (casey et al., 2010), including the search for their own identity (pfeifer & berkman, 2018), sexual, emotional, and moral maturation (bonnie & backes, 2019), loosening of ties with the nuclear family and the formation of their first intimate relationships (jager et al. 2015), the choice of a future profession... at the same time, it is a period of emotional instability (larson et al., 2002), of inner uncertainty and the absence of verified and functional coping strategies, which only makes the situation even more complicated. as is it difficult to cope with all of these developmental needs, with the radical changes in life and a lack of maturity in the areas that could potentially help to deal with these problems, adolescents tend to opt for maladaptive coping strategies. a very serious form is that of self-harm usually in order to reduce the impact or distract attention away from negative emotions, to punish oneself, and/or to reduce feelings of numbness or dissociation (klonsky, 2007). through such behaviour, individuals feel that they have control over their lives (petermann & nitkowski, 2015), which compensates for the absence of control over the current events and experiences. the danger of this type of behaviour not only lies in the health risks it poses (often associated with suicide), but also in its addictive nature (victor et al., 2012); and in the fact that it does not resolve problems, quite the contrary – it worsens them. in order to improve the mental health care for adolescents and to effectively prevent such behaviour, it is crucial to be aware of the prevalence of self-harm and its associated circumstances. self-harm in adolescence as maladaptive coping slavka demuthova & andrej demuth 39 2. objectives the main aim of the study is to obtain the fundamental data relating to self-harming behaviour in adolescents. the secondary objectives include: • discovering the prevalence of self-harming behaviour in a sample of adolescents; • describing the forms of self-harming behaviour and their prevalence; • determining the average age when self-harm began and the average age of self-harming individuals; • revealing possible differences across genders, age groups and types of family backgrounds in the prevalence of self-harm; • describing the willingness to disclose self-harming behaviour among self-harming adolescents; • making essential recommendations for the most effective intervention strategies in the context of the current challenging situation. 3. method 3.1. participants and procedure the study sample consisted of 2,280 slovak adolescents (the who defines adolescents as the age group 11 – 19 – aarø, 2007) attending primary or secondary schools. the anonymous collection of data included participants who (or their guardians) gave their informed consent for participation. the questionnaire was administered in a standard manner by trained administrators. of the total number of 2,280 questionnaires, 61 (0.27%) were excluded due to incorrect data. 2,219 participants were included in the research (63.1% female; mean age of all participants=15.34; st. dev.=1.58 years;), however, considering the sensitive nature of the topic of the research, the participants did not always respond to all questions. for this reason, each analysis was based on the available number of answers in the questionnaires. 3.2. measures and statistical analysis the data was collected using a modified self-harm inventory (shi) (sansone & sansone, 2010); the aim of the additional questions was to obtain basic demographic data as well as other data (family background, willingness to disclose the self-harm etc.). the shi is a self-assessment questionnaire that consists of 20 items that reveal the presence of a relatively wide range of forms of self-harming behaviour. the items are preceded by the phrase, “have you ever intentionally, deliberately to cause yourself brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 40 harm…” followed by several forms of self-harming behaviour (see table 1). the participants were also asked to report how many times the behaviour has occurred as well as the frequency of the occurrence (0=never, 1=rarely, 2=sometimes, 3=often). it is also possible to observe the intensity of prevalence and to measure, using the whole shi questionnaire, the overall extent (level) of self-harming behaviour. previous studies (see e.g. démuthová & doktorová, 2018) have confirmed the relatively high internal consistency of this method (cronbach’s α=0.809). in order to classify a participant as a member of the group of self-harming individuals, it was necessary to admit to one form of self-harming behaviour with the frequency of 2 or 3 (sometimes or often). or to admit to several forms of self-harming behaviour with a frequency of 1 or above. the data analysis was conducted using the ibm spss 22 statistical software. the statistical significance threshold (α) in each data analysis was set to 0.05. 4. results 4.1. prevalence of self-harm more than half of those in the research sample (56%) have intentionally harmed themselves at least once in their lives. after using the criterion for the classification of an individual as a member of the group of self-harming adolescents (recurrent self-harming behaviour), it may be stated that the prevalence of this phenomenon in the study sample is 45.2%. the prevalence of self-harming among those of female gender is significantly higher (pearson chi-square=23.114; p=0.000); while the prevalence of self-harming reaches 39% among males, in the case of females, the prevalence reaches up to 49%. this tendency for a higher level of self-harming in those of female gender is also demonstrated in the analyses of the overall extent of self-harm for the group of self-harming individuals – using the shi questionnaire, females reached an average score of 8.9, whereas men only reached 6.6. the application of student’s t-test showed that the difference is statistically significant (t=4.512; sig.=0.000). an even more striking difference appeared in the analysis of a connection between family backgrounds and self-harm. while the prevalence of selfharming individuals in traditional families reaches 41%, in non-traditional families, the prevalence increases to 57% (pearson chi-square=42.64; p=0.000). self-harm in adolescence as maladaptive coping slavka demuthova & andrej demuth 41 4.2. forms of self-harm table 1 clearly shows that all the forms of self-harm studied through the modified shi questionnaire occurred in the research sample. participants could list several forms of self-harming behaviour, which happens rather frequently – almost three quarters of the self-harming adolescents used more than one form. the most frequent form of self-harm was torturing with self-defeating thoughts, with a prevalence of 26.8%. table 1. the prevalence of the individual forms of self-harm in the adolescent population have you ever intentionally, or on purpose, done any of the following: % n* tortured yourself with self-defeating thoughts 26.8 2,056 scratched yourself on purpose 25.2 2,012 hit yourself 24.6 2,025 cut yourself on purpose 21.6 2,046 exercised an injury on purpose 20.1 2.057 banged your head on purpose 18.3 2,040 abused alcohol to hurt yourself 17.6 2,062 not slept enough to hurt yourself 14.7 1,992 starved yourself to hurt yourself 13.8 2,060 over-exercised to hurt yourself 11.5 2,060 engaged in emotionally abusive relationships 9.9 2,038 made medical situations worse on purpose 9.2 2,063 prevented wounds from healing 8.8 2,051 burned yourself on purpose 8.1 2,065 attempted suicide 8.1 2,053 distanced yourself from god as a punishment 6.8 2,038 overdosed 3.9 2,064 abused prescription medication 3.8 2,064 set yourself up in a relationship to be rejected 3.8 2,061 abused laxatives to hurt yourself 2.2 2,055 *note: the percentage was calculated from valid cases (n) 4.3. age of self-harmers student’s t-test did not reveal any age differences between the group of self-harmers and non-self-harmers (t=0.886; sig.=0.376). a further analysis showed that the prevalence of self-harming behaviour in the group of self-harmers does not relate to the actual age of the subject – a pearson brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 42 test focused on the correlation between age and the shi score did not show any relationship (correl. coefficient=0.002; sig.=0.948). on the other hand, it seems that such a relationship exists between the amount of self-harming behaviour (shi score) and the age of the onset of self-harm (correl. coefficient=-0.121; sig.=0.005) – the earlier the individual starts to self-harm, the more massive the degree of self-harm in adolescence. 4.4. disclosure of self-harm an important point in the process of helping self-harming adolescents is the moment of disclosure. it is crucial to know to what extent they are willing to communicate their hardships and to whom they disclose this information. of 1,002 self-harming adolescents only 553 (55.2%) were willing to answer the question of whether they had confided in someone and if they had who they disclosed the information to. the results reveal that most self-harming adolescents try to hide their behaviour from others – 26.7% of the 553 adolescents indicated that they had not told anyone about their self-harming. figure 1 presents the results for those (n=285) who have told someone about their self-harming behaviour. figure 1. persons in whom adolescents confide with their self-harming (n=285) girls are statistically more prone to disclosure than boys (chisquare=13.728; sig.=0.000); 55.9% of them (compared to 37.4% in boys) revealed their self-harming behaviour to someone. it appears that age is not linked to the willingness to disclose – there was no statistically significant difference in age found between the individuals who revealed their behaviour to someone and those who did not (t-value=1.712; sig.=0.088). 164 80 30 6 3 2 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 peers somebody (did not want to specify) parent/s psychologist/psychiatrist sibling/s other adult/s self-harm in adolescence as maladaptive coping slavka demuthova & andrej demuth 43 5. discussion the analysis of the data shows that the prevalence of self-harming behaviour in the study sample is 45.2%. in contrast with the majority of countries, (4.7% in belgium (madge et al., 2008), 8% in australia (moran et al., 2012), 9.3% in norway (tormoen et al., 2013), 10% in england (hawton et al., 2012) or 20.3% in the united states (swahn et al., 2012) and 25.6% in germany (plener et al., 2009)) it is a rather high level of prevalence. only a few studies (see e.g. lundh et al., 2007) have reported similar figures. in addition to the situational and social specificities, this difference may be a consequence of inconsistent methodologies or different understandings of self-harm. in this regard, it may be advisable to promote some scientific activity towards the unification of the definition of this negative phenomenon. from the perspective of the forms of self-harm the most frequent form was “torturing with self-defeating thoughts”; this belongs among the mental forms of self-harming behaviour (see e.g. st germain & hooley, 2012). although it is indirect and hidden, its effect is just as devastating and strong; however, it targets the mental health of an individual, not their body. this finding leads us to reconsider the concept of self-harm, since there are certain tendencies to limit it to only the direct physical forms (e.g. the concept of non-suicidal self-injury, as proposed by dsm-5, 2013). the need for a broader understanding of self-harm is reaffirmed by the fact that various forms and types occurred in the study sample (mental, or direct and indirect physical forms). attention must inevitably be paid to the high occurrence of attempted suicide (8.1%) among self-harmers. considering the high risk of mortality and the rapidly growing prevalence of this behaviour (e.g. clarke et al., (2019) report a 200% increase in suicides among girls aged 10 – 14 years over the last 15 years), further research and prior intervention is imperative. from an age perspective, no significant differences were observed in terms of self-harm; this type of behaviour can be seen throughout the whole of adolescence. however, the age of onset of this behaviour plays an important role in its severity, it has a statistically significant correlation with the intensity of self-harm. this has also been reported by other studies (jung et al., 2018). in this context, it would be appropriate to carry out further studies and analyses to attempt to define the cut point of high-risk age. the most vulnerable group is girls; although it is no longer true that self-harm is an almost exclusively feminine phenomenon, there still are statistics that indicate a higher prevalence amongst women (laye-gindhu & schonertbrain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 44 reichl, 2005). this trend may be explained from various perspectives – females are more likely to disclose their problems, whereas males are less likely to report self-harm and consider it a problem; further on, aggression may be more socially acceptable for males, therefore they have the opportunity to turn it outwardly instead of inwardly, which is more typical of females (victor et al., 2018). in addition to being more prevalent amongst women, the risk of severe self-harm is increased if there is an unstable family background. this highlights the need for broader studies into this issue, for instance oriented towards the high-risk (and protective) factors of selfharming behaviour. the key moment in helping self-harmers is their willingness to disclose their problems. no intervention can be realised without this step. the analysis of the data we have obtained clearly shows that self-harmers keep their behaviour secret. and even if they disclose it, it is most often only to their peers. thus, not only is it necessary to inform the high-risk group (self-harmers) about the need for help and what is available, but also the whole adolescents population, since they are usually the decisive individuals in helping self-harmers to reach for help. the overall awareness for the need of mental health care and the help available should represent one of the priorities in every society, especially related to the highly vulnerable youth population. particularly in the present times, when the covid-19 pandemic has made it impossible to have face to face contact with others. activities that aim to disseminate this type of information (e.g. through media – saha et al. 2019) and make it more accessible should be significantly increased. 6. conclusions the issue of self-harming behaviour in adolescence is a highly relevant present-day phenomenon. the current situation in most countries has resulted in a deterioration of the state of mental health, and the population of adolescents is no exception. the options for the implementation of a more suitable approach are limited and help and intervention are difficult to access. now more than ever it is crucial to intensively promote alternative forms of psychological intervention and to launch an informational campaign focusing on the high-risk section of the population, in order to make support available to as many adolescents as possible. once the pandemic restrictions are lifted, professionals should be ready to address an increase in the need for psychological and psychiatric help and actively offer intervention in cooperation with teachers and parents self-harm in adolescence as maladaptive coping slavka demuthova & andrej demuth 45 as well as with students. research into the issue of self-harm should also continue, aiming, in particular, at the study of risk and protective factors. acknowledgements this work was supported by the slovak research and development agency under contract no. apvv-17-0123. references aarø, l. e. (2007). adolescent lifestyles. in s. ayers, a. baum, c. mcmanus, s. newman, k. wallston, j. weinman, & r. west (eds.), cambridge handbook of psychology, health and medicine (pp. 5-9). cambridge university press. bonnie, r. j., & backes, e. p. (2019). the promise of adolescence. realizing opportunity for all youth. washington: the national academies press. casey, b. j., duhoux, s., & malter cohen, m. (2010). adolescence: what do transmission, transition, and translation have to do with it? neuron, 67(5), 749-760. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2010.08.033 clarke, s., allerhand, l. a., & berk, m. s. (2019). recent advances in understanding and managing self-harm in adolescents. f1000research, 8, faculty rev-1794. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.19868.1 démuthová, s., & doktorová, d. (2018). interpohlavné rozdiely v prevalencii jednotlivých foriem sebapoškodzovania u adolescentov [gender differences in the prevalence of individual forms of self-harm in adolescents]. in kondášove dni 2018 (pp. 19-23). ff ucm. dsm-5 (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed). american psychiatric publishing. hawton, j. c., saunders, e. a., & o’connor, r. (2012). self-harm and suicide in adolescents. lancet, 379, 2372-2382. https://doi.org/10.1016/s01406736(12)60322-5 jager, j., yuen, c. x., putnick, d. l., hendricks, c., & bornstein, m. h. (2015). adolescent-peer relationships, separation and detachment from parents, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors: linkages and interactions. the journal of early adolescence, 35(4), 511-537. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431614537116 jung, k. y., kim, t., hwang, s. y., lee, t. r., yoon, h., shin, t. g., sim, m. s., cha, w. c., & jeon, h. j. (2018). deliberate self-harm among young people begins to increase at the very early age: a nationwide study. journal of korean medical science, 33(30), e191. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2018.33.e191 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2010.08.033 https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.19868.1 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60322-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60322-5 https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431614537116 https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2018.33.e191 brain. broad research in august, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2, supplementary 1 46 klonsky, e. d. (2007). the functions of deliberate self-injury: a review of the evidence. clinical psychology review, 27(2), 226-239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2006.08.002 larson, r. w., moneta, g., richards, m. h., & wilson, s. (2002). continuity, stability, and change in daily emotional experience across adolescence. child development, 73(4), 1151-1165. laye-gindhu, a., & schonert-reichl, k. a. (2005). nonsuicidal self-harm among community adolescents: understanding the “whats” and “whys” of selfharm. journal of youth and adolescence, 34(5), 447-457. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-005-7262-z lundh, l. g., karim, j., & quilisch, e. (2007). deliberate self-harm in 15-year-old adolescents: a pilot study with a modified version of the deliberate selfharm inventory. scandinavian journal of psychology, 48, 33-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2007.00567.x madge, n., hewitt, a., hawton, k., de wilde, e. j., corcoran, p., fekete, s., van heeringen, k., de leo, d., & ystgaard, m. (2008). deliberate self-harm within an international community sample of young people: comparative findings from the child & adolescent self-harm in europe (case) study. the journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 49, 667-677. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01879.x moran, p., coffey, c., romaniuk, h., olsson, c., borschmann, r., carlin, j. b., & patton, g. c. (2012). the natural history of self-harm from adolescence to young adulthood: a population-based cohort study. lancet, 379(9812), 236-243. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(11)61141-0 petermann, f., & nitkowski, d. (2015). selbstverletzendes verhalten. erscheinungsformen, ursachen und interventionsmöglichkeiten (3 überarb). hogrefe. pfeifer, j. h., & berkman, e. t. (2018). the development of self and identity in adolescence: neural evidence and implications for a value-based choice perspective on motivated behavior. child development perspectives, 12(3), 158164. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12279 plener, p. l., libal, g., keller, f., fegert, j. m., & muehlenkamp, j. j. (2009). an international comparison of adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (nssi) and suicide attempts: germany and the usa. psychological medicine, 39(9), 1549-1558. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291708005114 sansone, r. d., & sansone, l. a. (2010). measuring self-harm behavior with the self-harm inventory. psychiatry, 7(4), 16-20. tørmoen, a. j., rossow, i., larsson, b. & mehlum, l. (2013). nonsuicidal selfharm and suicide attempts in adolescents: differences in kind or in degree. social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 48(9), 1447-1455. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0646-y https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2006.08.002 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-005-7262-z https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2007.00567.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01879.x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(11)61141-0 https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12279 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291708005114 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0646-y self-harm in adolescence as maladaptive coping slavka demuthova & andrej demuth 47 saha, k., torous, j., ernala, s. k., rizuto, c., stafford, a., & de choudhury, m. (2019). a computational study of mental health awareness campaigns on social media. translational behavioral medicine, 9(6), 1197-1207. https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibz028 st germain, s. a., & hooley, j. m. (2012). direct and indirect forms of nonsuicidal self-injury: evidence for a distinction. psychiatry research, 197(1-2), 78-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2011.12.050 swahn, m. h., ali, b., bossarte, r. m., van dulmen, m., crosby, a., jones, a. c., & schinka, k. c. (2012). self-harm and suicide attempts among high-risk, urban youth in the u.s.: shared and unique risk and protective factors. international journal of environmental research and public health, 9(1), 178-191. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9010178 victor, s. e., glenn, c. r., & klonsky, e. d. (2012). is non-suicidal self-injury an "addiction"? a comparison of craving in substance use and nonsuicidal self-injury. psychiatry research, 197(1-2), 73-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2011.12.011 victor, s. e., muehlenkamp, j. j., hayes, n. a., lengel, g. j., styer, d. m., & washburn, j. j. (2018). characterizing gender differences in nonsuicidal self-injury: evidence from a large clinical sample of adolescents and adults. comprehensive psychiatry, 82, 53-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2018.01.009 https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibz028 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2011.12.050 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9010178 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2011.12.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2018.01.009 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 202-221 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/200 conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in conspiracy theory relates to adherence to quarantine restrictions (wearing protective equipment, isolation, hygiene) and influences antisocial behavior such as aggression and selfishness, as well as prosocial behavior such as help and altruism nina yarosh¹, vladyslava artiukhova2, oleksii zimovin3 1 department of applied psychology, v. n. karazin kharkiv national university, kharkiv, ukraine, ninayarosh88@gmail.com, orcid id: 0000-0001-5863-7600 2 department of the psychology and pedagogy, i. kozhedub air force national university, kharkiv, ukraine, vlada.artyukhova@gmail.com, orcid id: 0000-0003-0282-7151 3 department of applied psychology, v. n. karazin kharkiv national university, kharkiv, ukraine, zimovin@ukr.net, orcid id: 00000003-1571-6020 abstract: this research was aimed at investigating the relationship between belief in conspiracy theory and personality behaviors in quarantine. belief in conspiracy theory has been hypothesized to predict the degree of adherence to quarantine restrictions (wearing protective equipment, isolation, hygiene) and influences antisocial behavior such as aggression and selfishness, as well as prosocial behavior such as help and altruism. the obtained data of the empirical research indicate the absence of functional connections that could demonstrate the defining role of conspiracy mindset in the manifestations of prosocial and asocial behavior; however, there is still a statistical consistency of changes in indicators. also, preventive behavior was practically not associated with the personality's conspiracy beliefs about covid-19 (the regression equation explains less than 1% of the variance). it is emphasized that the data obtained contradict the results of some previous researches, which are devoted to the research of the behavioral consequences of conspiracy mindset and adherence to preventive measures in a pandemic, in particular. keywords: belief in conspiracy, quarantine behavior, antisocial behavior, pro-social behavior. how to cite: yarosh, n., artiukhova, v., & zimovin, o. (2021). conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in conspiracy theory relates to adherence to quarantine restrictions (wearing protective equipment, isolation, hygiene) and influences antisocial behavior such as aggression and selfishness, as well as prosocial behavior such as help and altruism. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 202-221. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/200 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/200 mailto:ninayarosh88@gmail.com mailto:vlada.artyukhova@gmail.com mailto:zimovin@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/200 conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in … nina yarosh, et al. 203 introduction in 2020, the entire population of the planet faced the largest pandemic in the last 150 years the covid-19 pandemic. due to the uncontrolled nature of the spread, the increase in the number of infected around the world and the deadly danger of the coronavirus, many countries have been forced to impose strict quarantine restrictions. however, despite this, a large-scale spread of the disease continues in ukraine, it ranks 17th in the ranking in terms of the number of infected people worldwide. economic instability, a turbulent situation in the world community, as well as a long information war against ukraine undermines the level of public confidence in the government and, in particular, the state's anti-epidemic policy. the current situation is aggravated by the spread of the «spread of rumors» that arose against the backdrop of the covid-19 pandemic and makes it difficult to find reliable sources of information, as well as credible recommendations. as swami (2012) emphasizes in his research, such stressful conditions contribute to the development of conspiracy mindset (belief in conspiracy theory). thus, the current situation in the world served as a fertile ground for the spread of various conspiracy theories about the causes of the covid-19 virus and aroused keen scientific interest in them. this interest is largely due to the behavioral implications of belief in conspiracy theories, in particular adherence to preventive advice. behavioral implications of belief in conspiracy theory almost all large-scale events of recent decades, along with the official version of their occurrence, are characterized by an alternative version associated with the participation of conspiracies secretly developed by powerful agents. analyzing conspiracy theories, scientists came to the conclusion that if a person believes in one kind of conspiracy theory, then there is a high probability that he will believe in others, therefore, he will be characterized by a conspiracy mindset. it has been determined that those who are inclined to believe that nothing depends on them and that only the government decides how to live society, easily succumb to the influence of conspiracy theories (parsons et. al. 1999). in addition, conspiracy theories thrive wherever there is no trust between individuals and authorities (darwin et. al., 2011; goertzel, 1994). a large number of studies are devoted to the socio-psychological reasons for the emergence of a belief in a conspiracy theory in a person (van prooijen, 2016). douglas et. al. (2017) in their work consider the brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 204 psychological factors that drive belief in a conspiracy. also van prooijen (2019), in a special issue of ejop, emphasizes that conspiracy beliefs can have serious consequences for a person and his social environment, and indicates the need to study them. it is known that the spread of conspiracy ideas in fact a universal human reaction to prolonged increasing uncertainty due to a stressful event, the need to build fairly simple cause-and-effect relationships, thereby displacing fear for the future. thus, according to some scholars, this type of thinking has a number of positive consequences: it serves to satisfy important social needs (control and reduction of uncertainty (van prooijen & jostmann, 2013; whitson & galinsky, 2008) and can lead to a sense of community with others who support the same theories (franks et. al., 2017). however, much of the current research shows the negative consequences of belief in conspiracy theories. belief in conspiracy theories has been shown to increase feelings of powerlessness and frustration (jolley & douglas, 2014), and may fuel inter-group conflict and prejudice (bilewicz et. al. 2013; golec de zavala et. al., 2013), and keep people from voting. conspiracy ideas are increasingly associated with motivated rejection of science, including anti-vaccination theories, denial of the aids-hiv link, and denial of climate science (lewandowsky et. al., 2013). the conspiracy has also been repeatedly associated with high levels of mistrust, hostility, aggression, and right-wing authoritarianism (abalakina-paap et. al., 1999; grzesiak-feldman, 2015). experiments show that adherence to conspiracy theories diminishes trust in government institutions, even when conspiracy theories are not associated with those institutions (einstein & glick, 2015), causing disillusionment among politicians and academics (jolley & douglas, 2014). thus, heightened interest in conspiracy theories may reflect low levels of public confidence in government and a general cultural suspicion. analysis of the literature revealed a contradictory trend: on the one hand, a number of authors argue that agreeing with conspiracy ideas can reduce the intention to participate in politics (jolley & douglas, 2014; van prooijen & douglas, 2018). on the other hand, conspiracy thinking can encourage people to be active in the political sphere (imhoff & bruder, 2014; imhoff & lamberty, 2018). explaining this controversy, imhoff et al. (2020) showed that adherence to conspiracy theories also lowers the desire to participate in normative political acts and at the same time increases illegal political action (for example, violent protest). the authors also emphasize that conspiracy beliefs can stimulate people to illegal ways to communicate with society. realizing that others are conspiring can change people's perceptions of social norms associated with immoral behavior. conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in … nina yarosh, et al. 205 among the behavioral consequences of belief in conspiracy theories, it is necessary to highlight its negative relationship with health-related measures. for example, people who believe in conspiracy theories exhibit lower vaccination intentions and higher rejection of modern medicine (jolley & douglas, 2014; oliver & wood, 2014; lewandowsky et al., 2013). this thinking style decreases commitment to sexually transmitted infection prevention (bogart & thorburn, 2005) and increases sexual risk behavior (gaston & alleyne-green, 2013). likewise, lamberty & imhoff (2018) found that conspiracy thinking correlates with the use of alternative medical therapies believed to be promoted by influential institutions. other researches also highlight that conspiracy thinking leads to reduced prevention and treatment interventions using biomedical therapies (jolley & douglas, 2014; bogart & thorburn, 2005). thus, it is theoretically likely that people with a high level of conspiracy mindset are less likely to adhere to government-initiated preventive behaviors. van der linden (2015) points out that the potential impact of conspiracy theories can have negative and unwanted social consequences. while past research has focused on the personality correlates of conspiracy ideas, this study examines the effect of conspiracy; the degree to which familiarity with a real conspiracy theory influences prosocial and environmental decision making. his research findings provide compelling evidence of the social-cognitive power of conspiracy, and underscore that exposure to popular conspiracy theories can have negative and undesirable consequences for society. it is known that theoretical speculation about conspiracy can negatively affect people's desire to follow normative preventive behavior, but awareness of greater risk can suppress this effect. some studies have shown that self-interested conspiracy advocates (cichocka et al., 2016) engage in normative preventive behavior (jolley et al., 2019), and that beliefs in conspiracy is positively correlated with increased anxiety about the zika virus (klofstad et al., 2019). belief in conspiracy theories can stimulate people to seek to protect themselves, under which conditions they are more likely to accept political pressure (uscinski & parent, 2014). conspiracy thinking is also inherent to people with pronounced narcissism (cichocka et al., 2016), and they also have a low level of empathy (watson & morris, 1991). such individuals are convinced that their own lives are more important than the lives of others (golec de zavala et al., 2013). as a result, a person with a pronounced conspiracy thinking can adhere to preventive brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 206 measures related to covid-19 only if he perceives it as affecting his own health, and not the health of people in society as a whole. the covid-19 pandemic represents a global health crisis, adherence to government policies and public health guidelines is critical to reducing transmission rates. at the same time, we are faced with the proliferation of covid-19 conspiracy theories and the reluctance of the population to maintain social distance and other restrictions. a recent study by plohl & musil (2020) showed that belief in shared conspiracy beliefs indirectly contributes to adherence covid-19 prevention guidelines through trust in science. people who trust science more are more likely to implement preventive behaviors during the covid-19 outbreak. a study by turkish scientists alper et al., (2020) examined individual differences in conspiracy beliefs about covid-19, their relationship to the level of prevention, and other individual differences that may determine adherence to prevention. the authors proved that high belief in intuition, uncertainty avoidance, impulsivity, general conspiracy beliefs, religiosity and right-wing ideology, and lower levels of cognitive reflection were associated with belief in conspiracy theories regarding covid-19. it is worth noting that the study highlights the lack of connection between beliefs about the covid-19 conspiracy and adherence to preventive measures. these findings are consistent with previous research on the psychology of conspiracy theories (swami et al. 2014), but contradict work linking conspiracy beliefs with unhealthy behaviors (goreis & voracek, 2019). french scientists marinthe et al. (2020) also studied the influence of a conspiracy belief on adherence to preventive health measures required to cope with the covid-19 pandemic. the authors also measured the motivation to comply with preventive measures. they indicate that people with a high conspiracy mentality are more likely to engage in abnormal preventive behavior but are less likely to engage in government-initiated preventive behaviors. however, the authors demonstrate that the perceived risk of death and the motivation to protect oneself can minimize this trend. a similar research was carried out in greece. banai et al. (2020) have empirically examined the conditionality of adherence to official covid-19 prevention guidelines to conspiracy theory beliefs, including the mediating role of pseudoscientific information beliefs and trust in government officials. the direct negative impact of covid-19 conspiracy beliefs on preventive compliance has been identified. consequently, it is likely that conspiracy mindset can minimize prosocial behavior, which is a concern in a pandemic when the population and government must act as one to combat the coronavirus. thus, scientists are conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in … nina yarosh, et al. 207 raising the question of the feasibility of conducting an experimental study of the influence of belief in conspiracy theory on antisocial behavior, such as aggression and selfishness, as well as on prosocial behavior, such as help and altruism. a detailed understanding of the possible consequences and the conditions for their occurrence will allow practitioners to assess the risks of certain conspiracy theories, the need for preventive interventions in order to level their negative social consequences. in our opinion, one of the fundamental psychological factors of preventive behavior is the nature of a person's thinking. according to a number of scientists, a pandemic, mass quarantine and the accompanying economic and socio-political instability in a certain way affect the style of thinking and a number of socio-behavioral manifestations of a person. this provision requires empirical research and determines further scientific research. in the context of modern pandemic and massive quarantines established by the government, such studies are becoming especially relevant. in our opinion, such manifestations of social behavior of an individual as altruism-selfishness, as well as aggression, can be determined by of conspiracy mindset and can play an important role in observing preventive measures during the covid-19 crisis. this provision formed the basis of our empirical research. research aims based on an analysis of recent research in this area, this study examines the relationship between belief in conspiracy theory and personality behaviors in quarantine. we build on new research showing that conspiracy beliefs have potentially significant social consequences. in particular, according to studies by van prooijen & k. douglas, we assume that, firstly, belief in conspiracy theory is related to the extent to which a person will adhere to quarantine restrictions (wearing protective equipment, isolation, hygiene). second, belief in conspiracy theories influences antisocial behavior such as aggression and selfishness, as well as pro-social behavior such as helping and altruism. we hypothesize that agreement with conspiracy ideas is positively associated with general levels of aggression and selfishness, and also negatively associated with prosocial behaviors. participants and procedure in may 2020, we organized and conducted a pilot online study using the google forms service. all respondents agreed to participate anonymously in the study. the sample consisted of 174 residents of ukraine, of which 96 women (55.2%) and 78 men (44.8%) aged 16 to 68 years (m = brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 208 24.08 years, sd = 9.99). to test the above hypotheses, three empirical studies were carried out on the same sample. research 1 examined the degree of belief in conspiracy theories associated with the pandemic. an analysis of various internet resources and media has revealed the existence of a number of conspiracy theories about the covid-19 pandemic. among the most common versions of this kind are claims that the virus is a biological weapon, a tool for population regulation, the result of a spy operation, or that it was introduced to to get economic benefits from vaccines. to measure beliefs in conspiracy theories, we built a belief scale in conspiracy theories about the coronavirus. the scale consisted of five items, each representing a different conspiracy theory about covid-19. among them: 1. coronavirus infection was created deliberately in special laboratories of the secret special services, from which there was a leak. 2. coronavirus infection has been created by some countries as a biological weapon. 3. coronavirus infection does not exist at all; it is an attempt to secretly rebuild the economic system in the world by secret organizations. 4. coronavirus infection is widespread to destroy (% decrease) the world's older population. 5. coronavirus infection was created for further vaccination (chipping) of the world's population for the purpose of total control. the respondents were asked to familiarize themselves with the statements and assess the degree of agreement with them on a five-point likert scale (1 "completely disagree", 2 "disagree", 3 "do not have a definite opinion", 4 "agree", 5 "completely i agree"). research 2 was aimed at studying the preventive behavior of an individual in conditions of quarantine restrictions. we have developed a questionnaire, the questions of which reflect the main who recommendations for the prevention of coronavirus. respondents were asked to rate the degree of compliance with these recommendations on a four-point likert scale (1 "always", 2 "sometimes", 3 "very rarely", 4 "never"). the total indicator shows the degree of respondents' adherence to quarantine restrictions. moreover, the higher the assessment received by the respondent, the more the person neglected preventive behavior. the third research was aimed at studying the asocial and prosocial behavior of the respondents. as a diagnostic tool, the questionnaire "motivation of help" (nartova-bochaver, 1992), the method "diagnostics of the personal attitude" altruism egoism” (fetiskin et al., 2002), the bassconspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in … nina yarosh, et al. 209 darki aggressiveness questionnaire (standardized in russian by khvan et al., 2008). results the first phase of the research was devoted to examining the degree of belief in conspiracy theories. it was revealed that more than 30% of the sample share conspiracy beliefs associated with covid-19. the respondents predominantly believe that the coronavirus infection was created artificially in some countries as a biological weapon, and its spread was due to an accidental leak from special laboratories. also, more than 30% of respondents deny the possibility of creating a coronavirus in order to microchip the population for total control or to reduce the number of the elderly population. more than 30% of the sample has an undifferentiated opinion. the average score on the likert scale was 18 points (out of 25 possible, where 25 points fully support conspiracy beliefs). however, it should be noted that the majority of respondents (42%) do not agree that the covid-19 virus is a fake spread by secret organizations with the aim of restructuring the economic balance in the world. the second stage of the study is aimed at studying the features of preventive behavior during the quarantine period. a number of violations of the quarantine regime on the part of the respondents were revealed. so only 38.5% of respondents always use personal protective equipment, 62.6% of respondents partially adhered to sanitary requirements, that is, only in those cases when circumstances required it. 28% of the sample indicates isolated cases of violation of quarantine prohibitions (they did not always use a mask, did not always limit their social contacts, and partially did not comply with sanitary requirements). 30.5% of residents completely limited their contacts and adhered to social distance, almost half of the respondents (49.4%), as far as possible, adhered to the lockdown regime and refused to visit public places. the average score on the likert scale was 9.94 points (out of 25 possible, where 25 points do not fully adhere to quarantine restrictions and preventive recommendations). thus, the data obtained indicate an insufficient level of preventive behavior among the respondents, which may be due to a number of reasons. among them, on the one hand, is legal nihilism and distrust of the authorities and health care systems in general, characteristic of the population of our country. on the other hand, the dominance of a regressive strategy of behavior, a return to childish forms of response (refusal and selfishness, self-indulgence), as a protective reaction of the body, which is characteristic of people during periods of prolonged stress. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 210 the third stage of the study allowed us to study the features of the asocial and prosocial behavior of the respondents under conditions of quarantine restrictions. one of the manifestations of pro-social behavior is a pronounced motivation for helping a person. according to the results of the study, the average indicator for the group was 7.6 points out of 12 possible, which indicates an average degree of its severity. it is worth noting that helping behavior is multi-motivated: a person can be simultaneously guided by both egoistic and altruistic motives. the presented sample is dominated by a pronounced egoistic orientation (the average indicator was 8.57 points). a person showing an egoistic orientation realizes egoistic tendencies in his behavior, which directly affects the peculiarities of his organization of the space of interpersonal relations with others. it is worth noting that the expressed motivation for help and the presence of an egoistic tendency in a person can be explained by the search for benefits from providing help, for example, internal self-reward. the results of the study of aggressive behavior indicate that the sample is characterized by the average level of indirect aggression, as well as negativism and resentment. it should be noted that negativism manifests itself in the form of oppositional behavior in behavior from passive resistance to active struggle against established customs and laws. an increased level of severity of physical aggression, irritability, suspicion and feelings of guilt and a very high level of manifestation of verbal aggression, which is expressed in the form of negative feelings (shouting, screeching), and through the content of verbal responses (curses, threats) were also diagnosed. multiple regression analysis with stepwise selection of predictors was used to examine the relationship between belief in conspiracy theory and preventive behavior and asocial and prosocial behavioral manifestations. table 1. regression models of the relationship between belief in conspiracy theories and quarantine behavior (in general and its individual manifestations) model variables в stand. error β t p quarantine behavior (r2 = 0,126; durbin–watson = 1,6) (constant) 7,538 0,531 14,207 0,000 conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in … nina yarosh, et al. 211 coronavirus infection does not exist at all; it is an attempt to secretly rebuild the economic system in the world by secret organizations. 0,557 0,236 0,208 2,360 0,019 coronavirus infection was created for further vaccination (chipping) of the world's population for the purpose of total control. 0,510 0,236 0,191 2,164 0,032 have you been in public places without personal protective equipment (medical mask, respirator)? (r2 = 0,058; durbin–watson = 1,7) (constant) 1,425 0,116 12,269 <0,0001 coronavirus infection was created for further vaccination (chipping) of the world's population for the purpose of total control. 0,153 0,047 0,242 3,257 0,001 have you visited parks, forest parks, playgrounds during quarantine? (r2 = 0,113; durbin–watson = 1,9) (constant) 1,150 0,150 7,667 0,000 coronavirus infection does not exist at all; it is an attempt to secretly rebuild the economic system in the world by secret organizations. 0,275 0,059 0,336 4,663 0,000 did you consistently provide personal protective equipment and maintain adequate sanitation requirements? (r2 = 0,066; durbin–watson = 1,8) (constant) 1,534 0,102 15,061 0,000 coronavirus infection was created for further vaccination (chipping) of the world's population for the purpose of total control. 0,143 0,041 0,257 3,472 0,001 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 212 have you limited contact with your family members and close friends? (r2 = 0,045; durbin–watson = 1,6) (constant) 1,785 0,189 9,467 0,000 coronavirus infection does not exist at all; it is an attempt to secretly rebuild the economic system in the world by secret organizations. 0,210 0,074 0,212 2,833 0,005 how often did you watch covid-19 incidence statistics and information on quarantine restrictions? (r2 = 0,041; durbin–watson = 1,6) (constant) 1,887 0,145 13,035 0,000 coronavirus infection is widespread to destroy (% decrease) the world's older population 0,136 0,050 0,202 2,700 0,008 note: r2 is the coefficient of determination for the model; b coefficient and constant of the regression equation; β standardized coefficient of the regression equation; t is the ratio of the coefficient b to the standardized error; p statistical significance. table 1 presents regression models of the relationship between belief in conspiracy theory and quarantine behavior (in general and its individual manifestations). based on the analysis of the data presented, the coefficient of determination for the models (r 2 ) is too low (less than 0.13) in order to assert the influence of belief in conspiracy theories on the observance of preventive measures, both in general and in their individual manifestations. the data obtained make it possible to assert that conspiracy thinking does not determine the behavior of an individual under quarantine conditions. at the same time, we can observe statistically significant links between certain conspiracy beliefs and behavior under quarantine conditions. apparently, behind the coordinated change in these variables, there is some other factor, the search for which should be devoted to further empirical research. interestingly, among the multitude of conspiracy beliefs in the coronavirus relationship that we investigated, it was "trying to rebuild the economic order" and "chipping for control purposes" that turned out to be the variables that were associated with a decrease in the likelihood of conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in … nina yarosh, et al. 213 quarantine behavior. both theories refer to conspiracy and control from above, which seems to alleviate the problem of uncertainty, but at the same time leads to a decrease in the manifestation of quarantine behavior. and only such a form of behavior as viewing statistics on the incidence of covid-19 is associated with the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was created to destroy or reduce the number of the elderly. apparently, people who do not look at the statistics do not consider themselves to be at risk older people, although today it is already known that everyone has a risk of contracting the coronavirus. table 2. regression models of the relationship between belief in conspiracy theories and prosocial behavior. model variables в stand. error β t p motivation of help (r2 = 0,062; durbin–watson = 1,9) (constant) 6,119 0,474 12,913 0,000 belief in conspiracy 0,118 0,035 0,249 3,363 0,001 "altruism egoism" (r2 = 0,046; durbin–watson = 1,8) (constant) 6,729 0,677 9,946 0,000 belief in conspiracy 0,145 0,050 0,215 2,882 0,004 note: r2 is the coefficient of determination for the model; b coefficient and constant of the regression equation; β standardized coefficient of the regression equation; t is the ratio of the coefficient b to the standardized error; p statistical significance. table 3. regression models of the relationship of belief in conspiracy theories and asocial behavior. model variables в stand. error β t p suspicion (r2 = 0,025; durbin–watson = 1,9) (constant) 3,667 0,376 9,745 0,000 coronavirus infection was 0,318 0,152 0,158 2,091 0,038 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 214 created for further vaccination (chipping) of the world's population for the purpose of total control. guilt (r2 = 0,024; durbin–watson = 1,7) (constant) 4,395 0,420 10,458 0,000 coronavirus infection has been created by some countries as a biological weapon. 0,287 0,140 0,155 2,049 0,042 note: r2 is the coefficient of determination for the model; b coefficient and constant of the regression equation; β standardized coefficient of the regression equation; t is the ratio of the coefficient b to the standardized error; p statistical significance. tables 2 and 3 show regression models for the relationship between belief in conspiracy theories and asocial and prosocial behavior that have reached the level of statistical significance. it is worth noting the low indicator of the coefficient of determination. according to the models obtained, the regression equation explains less than 1% of the variance of the effective trait. this result underscores the fact that prosocial and asocial behavior is not conditioned by belief in conspiracy theories. at the same time, we see an interesting statistically significant relationship between the overall belief score in conspiracy theories, motivation to help, and altruism. it seems that people who are prone to assimilating conspiracy theories are also inclined to help others and orient themselves to their interests. behind this connection it is worth looking for some unaccounted internal factor. the analysis of the regression models in table 3 also indicates the absence of functional connections that could demonstrate the decisive role of conspiracy mindset in the manifestations of asocial behavior. however, the statistical consistency of changes in indicators is still present. suspicion, the tendency to believe that other people are seeking to harm, is associated with the belief about chipping and population control thanks to the coronavirus. the penchant for remorse stems from the notion that the coronavirus is a biological weapon. apparently, the subject, inclined to blame himself, also ascribes great blame to other authors, in particular states. conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in … nina yarosh, et al. 215 the discussion of the results the present study was aimed at investigating the relationship between belief in conspiracy theory and personality behaviors in quarantine. belief in conspiracy theory has been hypothesized to predict the degree of adherence to quarantine restrictions (wearing protective equipment, isolation, hygiene) and influences antisocial behavior such as aggression and selfishness, as well as pro-social behavior such as help and altruism. however, the results of this study did not show any influence. only isolated links were identified, behind which apparently other factors lie. we consider that these factors have situational and personality nature, naturally, that their influence needs to be weighed. our empirical research data showed that prosocial and asocial behavior is not due to belief in conspiracy theory, but is determined by a number of other factors that have not been studied in the current study and require further theoretical and empirical. also, preventive behavior was practically not associated with the personality's conspiracy beliefs about covid-19 (the regression equation explains less than 1% of the variance). it is worth noting that the findings contradict the results of some previous studies that investigated the behavioral consequences of conspiracy mindset and adherence to preventive measures in a pandemic, in particular. it research be noted that the conducted theoretical analysis of experimental studies demonstrates many disagreements among scientists. this is especially true of the question of the impact of belief in conspiracy theory and health-related behavior. most of the 2020 studies, in particular those conducted in the context of a pandemic and quarantine, indicate that belief in conspiracies negatively affects compliance with preventive measures that are initiated by governments in almost all countries. the researches that were studied were carried out in france, greece, turkey, and slovenia. all of them point to a negative connection with belief in conspiracies or the conditioning of preventive behavior by conspiracy thinking. scientists from slovenia (plohl & musil, 2020), arguing the results obtained, emphasize that conspiracy ideas do not directly affect compliance with the recommendations for the prevention of covid-19, but do so indirectly through the credibility of science. the authors conclude that people with a higher level of development of conspiracy ideas have less confidence in science, which, in turn, leads to a lower level of compliance with preventive measures. our results are inconsistent with those of marinthe et al., (2020), which indicate a negative connection between belief in conspiracies and brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 216 adherence to preventive forms of behavior initiated by the government, as well as studies by banai et al., (2020), which proves a negative connection of conspiracy beliefs with non-compliance with preventive measures in the covid-19 pandemic. this inconsistency of the results obtained can be explained by a number of reasons that are hidden in the peculiarities of the ukrainian mentality. in particular, we are talking about the basic distrust of the population in social institutions, as well as the corruption of the political system and the health care system. thus, the beliefs that arise in ukrainian society (regarding the pandemic in particular) are generally explained not by the result of a conspiracy by some groups of people (secret organizations and others), but by the policy of the ukrainian government, which, in the opinion of the population, comes from self-interest and its own ambition. thus, the ukrainian sample, in contrast to the samples from other countries (see research above), is characterized by legal nihilism, which has developed as a historical tradition. the ukrainian political elite, which by its own example must demonstrate high legal self-awareness and adhere to all quarantine restrictions, is often not such. this fact can serve as the reason for the leveling by the respondents of the close connection between conspiracy mindset and asocial and prosocial manifestations of human behavior under quarantine in ukraine. it should be noted that social isolation caused by quarantine restrictions reduces the likelihood of prosocial behavior (twenge et. al., 2007), thereby often provoking asocial tendencies in behavior, conflict in relationships, selfish orientation and manifestation of unreasonable aggression (which confirmed by our empirical data). therefore, the behavioral manifestations in the current situation of quarantine restrictions and forced social isolation may be explained not by the peculiarities of the prevailing type of thinking (for example, conspiracy theories), but by situational factors that require further theoretical and empirical researches. at the same time, the statistically significant links we examined between belief in conspiracy theories, propensity for quarantine behavior, motivation to help, altruism, suspicion, and guilt indicate that there is a common internal factor that determines their consistent variability. as such a common factor, one should probably consider a certain temperamental trait, for example, hypersensitivity. it seems that hypersensitive people are more susceptible to believing in conspiracy theories, and it is more difficult for them to comply with quarantine behavior, since they need contact, empathy and interaction. suspicion and guilt, altruism and motivation to help can also be a natural consequence of hypersensitivity. conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in … nina yarosh, et al. 217 these assumptions naturally form the basis for further researches, in which the influence of situational and temperamental factors, both on prosocial/asocial, quarantine behavior, and on the propensity for conspiracy mindset, should be checked. limitations and future directions previous research has rarely examined the impact of belief in conspiracy theories on personality patterns in a pandemic. our research was aimed at studying this issue, but it had a number of limitations, which indicates the need for further researches of the influence of conspiracy mindset on the prevalence of prosocial or asocial behavior in conditions of security threats (such as a pandemic, economic crisis, etc.), as well as in conditions of relative stability (favorable conditions). one of the main limitations of the presented research is the characteristics of its sample. the number of study participants was relatively small, mostly ukrainians between the ages of 20 and 30, which limits the possibility of transferring the research results to another cultural context. the online nature of the research is also a limitation. the design of the developed questionnaires requiring further approbation can influence the result and lead to socially desirable answers. it is worth noting, however, that honest responses were encouraged by the fact that the research was completely anonymous. in order to level this limitation in the future, the authors plan to develop a validated method for studying the peculiarities of conspiracy mindset, or to adapt existing ones. we recognize that adherence to covid-19 prevention guidelines is not as context less as discussed in this research, but may be influenced by various variables outside the scope of this research article (e.g., need to go to work, government policies and laws). it should be noted that our findings relate to political covid-19 conspiracy theories regarding health and the global crisis. thus, the results cannot be extended to other conspiracy theories; this issue remains open and requires further researches. authors' contribution n.y., v.a., developed the study concept. n.y. analyzed and interpreted the data under the supervision of v.a. and o.z.. n.y. provided the first draft of the manuscript. v.a. and o.z. provided critical revisions of the manuscript. all authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission. we confirm that the research was conducted ethically, results brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 218 are reported honestly, the submitted work is original and not (self‐ )plagiarized, and authorship reflects the authors’ contributions. data archiving and sharing data described in this manuscript can be viewed at https://osf.io/q2m5e/quickfiles references abalakina-paap, m., stephan, w. g., craig, t., & gregory, w. l. (1999). beliefs in conspiracies. political psychology, 20(3), 637–647. https://doi.org/10.1111/0162-895x.00160 alper, s., bayrak, f., & yilmaz, o. (2020). psychological correlates of covid-19 conspiracy beliefs and preventive measures: evidence from turkey. current psychology 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00903-0 banai, i. p., banai, b., & mikloušić, i. (2020). beliefs in covid-19 conspiracy theories predict lower level of compliance with the preventive measures both directly and indirectly by lowering trust in government medical officials. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/yevq7 bilewicz, m., winiewski, m., kofta, m., & wójcik, a. (2013). harmful ideas, the structure and consequences of anti-semitic beliefs in poland. political psychology, 34(6), 821–839. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12024 bogart, l. m., & thorburn, s. (2005). are hiv/aids conspiracy beliefs a barrier to hiv prevention among african americans? journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes, 38(2), 213–218. https://doi.org/10.1097/00126334200502010-00014 cichocka, a., marchlewska, m., & golec de zavala, a. (2016). does self-love or self-hate predict conspiracy beliefs? narcissism, self-esteem, and the endorsement of conspiracy theories. social psychological and personality science, 7, 157–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550615616170 darwin, h., neave, n., & holmes, j. (2011). belief in conspiracy theories. the role of paranormal belief, paranoid ideation and schizotypy. personality and individual differences, 50(8), 1289–1293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.02.027 douglas, k. m., sutton, r. m., & cichocka, a. (2017). the psychology of conspiracy theories. current directions in psychological science, 26(6), 538–542. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417718261 einstein, k. l. & glick, d. m. (2015). do i think bls data are bs? the consequences of conspiracy theories. political behavior, 37(3), 679–701. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-014-9287-z https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1111/0162-895x.00160 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=alper%20s%5bauthor%5d https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=bayrak%20f%5bauthor%5d https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=yilmaz%20o%5bauthor%5d https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc7324005/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc7324005/ https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2fs12144-020-00903-0 https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/yevq7 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1111/pops.12024 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1097/00126334-200502010-00014 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1097/00126334-200502010-00014 https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550615616170 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1016/j.paid.2011.02.027 https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417718261 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s11109-014-9287-z conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in … nina yarosh, et al. 219 fetiskin, n., kozlov, v., manuilov, g. (2002). diagnostika lichnostnoy ustanovki “al'truizm – egoizm” [diagnostics of the personal attitude “altruism egoism”]. socio-psychological diagnostics of the development of personality and small groups. moscow: izd-vo instituta psikhoterapii. 23– 24. [in russian] franks, b., bangerter, a., bauer, m.w., hall, m. & noort, m.c. (2017). beyond “monologicality”? exploring conspiracist worldviews. frontiers in psychology, 8, 861. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00861 gaston, g. b & alleyne-green, b. (2013). the impact of african americans' beliefs about hiv medical care on treatment adherence: a systematic review and recommendations for interventions. aids behav 17(1), 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-012-0323-x goertzel, t. (1994). belief in conspiracy theories. political psychology, 15(4), 731–742. https://doi.org/10.2307/3791630 golec de zavala, a., cichocka, a., & iskra-golec, i. (2013). collective narcissism moderates the effect of in-group image threat on intergroup hostility. journal of personality and social psychology, 104(6), 1019–1039. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032215 goreis, a., & voracek, m. (2019). a systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological research on conspiracy beliefs: field characteristics, measurement instruments, and associations with personality traits. frontiers in psychology, 10, article 205. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00205 grzesiak-feldman, m. (2015). are the high authoritarians more prone to adopt conspiracy theories? the role of right-wing authoritarianism in conspiratorial thinking. in m. bilewicz, a. cichocka, & w. soral (eds.), the psychology of conspiracy (p. 99–121). routledge/taylor & francis group. imhoff, r., & lamberty, p. (2018). how paranoid are conspiracy believers? toward a more fine-grained understanding of the connect and disconnect between paranoia and belief in conspiracy theories. european journal of social psychology, 48(7), 909–926. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2494 imhoff, r., lamberty, p., klein, o. (2018). using power as a negative cue: how conspiracy mentality affects epistemic trust in sources of historical knowledge. personality and social psychology bulletin, 44, 1364–1379. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218768779 imhoff, r., dieterle, l., lamberty, p. (2020). resolving the puzzle of conspiracy worldview and political activism: belief in secret plots decreases normative but increases nonnormative political engagement. social psychological and personality science. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619896491. jolley, d., douglas, k. m. (2014). the social consequences of conspiracism: exposure to conspiracy theories decreases intentions to engage in politics javascript:void(0) javascript:void(0) https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00861 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=gaston+gb&cauthor_id=23010941 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23010941/#affiliation-1 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=alleyne-green+b&cauthor_id=23010941 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-012-0323-x https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.2307/3791630 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0032215 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00205 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=lamberty%2c+pia https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2494 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0146167218768779 https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619896491 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 220 and to reduce one’s carbon footprint. british journal of psychology, 105, 35–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12018 jolley, d., douglas, k. m., leite, a. c., schrader, t. (2019). belief in conspiracy theories and intentions to engage in everyday crime. british journal of social psychology 58(3), 534-549 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12311 khvan, a. a., zaitsev, yu.a., kuznetsova, yu. a. (2008). opyt standartizatsii oprosnika izmereniya agressivnykh i vrazhdebnykh reaktsiy a. bassa i a. darki [experience of standardization of the questionnaire for measuring aggressive and hostile reactions a. bass and a. darki]. psychological diagnostics, 1, 54–58. klofstad, c.a., uscinski, j.e., connolly, j.m. et al. (2019). what drives people to believe in zika conspiracy theories? palgrave commun, 5, 36. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0243-8 lewandowsky, s., gignac, g. e., & vaughan, s. (2013). the pivotal role of perceived scientific consensus in acceptance of science. nature climate change, 3(4), 399–404. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1720 marinthe, g., brown, g., delouvée, s. & jolley, d. (2020). looking out for myself: exploring the relationship between conspiracy mentality, perceived personal risk, and covid-19 prevention measures. health psychology, 25(4), 957–980. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12449 nartova-bochaver, s.k. (1992). eksperimental'noye issledovaniye situatsionnoy izmenchivosti motivatsii pomoshchi [an experimental study of the situational variability of motivation for help]. psychological journal, 13 (4), 15-23. oliver, j. e., & wood, t. j. (2014). conspiracy theories and the paranoid style(s) of mass opinion. american journal of political science, 58 (4), 952–966. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12084 parsons, s., simmons, w., shinhoster, f., & kilburn, j. (1999). a test of the grapevine: an empirical examination of conspiracy theories among african americans. sociological spectrum, 19(2), 201–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/027321799280235 plohl, n., & musil, b. (2020). modeling compliance with covid-19 prevention guidelines: the critical role of trust in science. psychology, health & medicine. advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2020.1772988 swami, v. (2012). social psychological origins of conspiracy theories: the case of the jewish conspiracy theory in malaysia. frontiers in psychology, 3, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00280 swami, v., voracek, m., stieger, s., tran, u. s., & furnham, a. (2014). analytic thinking reduces belief in conspiracy theories. cognition, 133, 572–585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.08.006 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12018 https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=jolley%2c+daniel https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=douglas%2c+karen+m https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=leite%2c+ana+c https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=schrader%2c+tanya https://www.researchgate.net/journal/0144-6665_british_journal_of_social_psychology https://www.researchgate.net/journal/0144-6665_british_journal_of_social_psychology https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12311 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0243-8 https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1720 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=marinthe%2c+ga%c3%ablle https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=brown%2c+genavee https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=delouv%c3%a9e%2c+sylvain https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=jolley%2c+daniel https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12449 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=oliver%2c+j+eric https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=wood%2c+thomas+j https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12084 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/027321799280235 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/13548506.2020.1772988 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00280 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.08.006 conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in … nina yarosh, et al. 221 twenge, j., baumeister, r., dewall c. n., ciarocco, n. j. & bartels j.m. (2007). social exclusion decreases prosocial behavior. journal of personality and social psychology 92(1), 56–66. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.56 uscinski, j. e., parent, j. m. (2014). american conspiracy theories. new york: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199351800.001.0001 van der linden, sl. (2015). the conspiracy-effect: exposure to conspiracy theories (about global warming) decreases pro-social behavior and science acceptance. personality and individual differences 87, 171–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.045 van prooijen, j.-w., & jostmann, n. b. (2013). belief in conspiracy theories: the influence of uncertainty and perceived morality. european journal of social psychology, 43(1), 109–115. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1922 van prooijen, j.-w. (2016). sometimes inclusion breeds suspicion: self-uncertainty and belongingness predict belief in conspiracy theories. european journal of social psychology, 46, 267–279. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2157 van prooijen, j.-w., & douglas, k. m. (2018). belief in conspiracy theories: basic principles of an emerging research domain. european journal of social psychology, 48(7), 897–908. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2530 van prooijen, j. -w. bilewicz, m., witkowska, m., pantazi, m., gkinopoulos, th. & klein, o. (2019). traumatic rift: how conspiracy beliefs undermine cohesion after societal trauma? european journal of psychology, 15(1), 82–93. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v15i1.1699 watson, p. j. & morris, r. j. (1991). narcissism, empathy and social desirability. personality and individual differences, 12(6), 575–579. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(91)90253-8 whitson, j. a. & galinsky, a. d. (2008). lacking control increases illusory pattern perception. science 322(5898):115–7. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1159845 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/roy_baumeister2 https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/c-nathan-dewall-39437588 https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/j-michael-bartels-30252065 https://www.researchgate.net/journal/0022-3514_journal_of_personality_and_social_psychology https://www.researchgate.net/journal/0022-3514_journal_of_personality_and_social_psychology https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3a%2f%2fdx.doi.org%2f10.1037%2f0022-3514.92.1.56 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199351800.001.0001 https://www.researchgate.net/journal/0191-8869_personality_and_individual_differences https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.045 https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1922 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1002/ejsp.2530 https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v15i1.1699 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1016/0191-8869(91)90253-8 https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=ru&prev=search&pto=aue&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=en&sp=nmt4&u=https://www.researchgate.net/journal/1095-9203_science&usg=alkjrhh7-dg6zr3emzzg1dy_rhq2f3q1ra https://science.sciencemag.org/content/322/5898/115 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 324-346 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/287 psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of professional activity: neurophysiological aspects olha lazorko¹, nataliia panchuk2, olha borysiuk3, anna kulchytska4, oksana borysenko5, roman khavula6 1 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, lazorko.olga@gmail.com 2 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, ukraine, nataliapanchuk697@gmail.com 3 lvov state university of internal affairs, ukraine, olhaborysjuk@gmail.com 4 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, anna379@ukr.net 5 lvov state university of internal affairs, ukraine, oksborysenko@gmail.com 6 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, romankhavula@gmail.com abstract: psychological signs of professional safety in special conditions of professional activity are considered in the context of comparison of specificity of performance of professional activity in normal and special (extreme) conditions and disclosure of specific requirements to experts of professions of risk group are considered. it is noted that human activity in special conditions is associated with mental stress and is often accompanied by stress. the purpose of the study is to summarize, classify and determine the relevance of the ukrainian theory and practice of occupational safety against the background of the latest trends and challenges. it is emphasized that the process of overcoming an emotionally stressful situation depends on the mental states of a person, the integral characteristic of which in certain conditions forms a neuro-functional state; the algorithm of the analysis of stay of the person in emotionallytense situations is considered; outlined quantitative and qualitative indicators of the result of activities in special conditions that determine its quality, productivity and reliability; the content of the professional norm, the main figure of observance of which is a person is determined. it is stated that performing professional activities in special conditions is often combined with danger to health and life. appearance of stressful situations, require the employee to use individual resources (personal, cognitive, social and instrumental) to overcome them. ensuring human life in special conditions requires the use of adaptive resources of the specialist, which ensure the activation of productive processes, and determine the construct of occupational health of the individual specialist. keywords: occurrence of stress, emotionally stressful situation, mental states, special conditions, subjectivity, meaning, responsibility. how to cite: lazorko, o., panchuk, n., borysiuk, o., kulchytska, a., borysenko, o., & khavula, r. (2022). psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of professional activity: neurophysiological aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 324-346. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/287 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/287 mailto:lazorko.olga@gmail.com mailto:nataliapanchuk697@gmail.com mailto:olhaborysjuk@gmail.com mailto:anna379@ukr.net mailto:oksborysenko@gmail.com mailto:romankhavula@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/287 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 325 introduction personal safety issues occupy one of the leading places in the field of neurophysiology, general psychology and psychology of the safety of professional activity. these questions are very relevant now. this led to dramatic socio-economic changes in modern life, which affect both society as a whole and the professional sphere. quite often moments of realization in professional activity which has the norms and samples connected with aspects of intrapersonal problems of the expert in experience of contradictions of adaptation to these conditions. this contradiction raises the question of the determinants of professional realization, where the central position is occupied by the problem of professional safety of the specialist. this problem acquires a double urgency when it comes to specialists working in special (extreme conditions). however, the informational, communicative and technological congestion of modern society becomes stressful even for specialists in the humanities (demchenko, 2021; prots, 2021; kosholap, 2021). modern neuropsychology proceeds from the premise that stress is not only normal, but also a necessary condition for human life and activity. this is a natural reaction of the organism to changes in living conditions, caused by the mobilization of its reserve (adaptation) capabilities. it is only important that stress does not go into its extreme forms, which have a devastating effect on the human body, namely emotional burnout. this negative consequence should be the main subject of study in the psychology of work in special conditions, however, it must be admitted that in practice it is not yet given due attention to its latency (secrecy) and millions of workers are exposed to its constant, usually not taken into consideration influence. in the world of psychological science, there are scientifically based theoretical models of psychological stress, which include indicators of individual differences as regulators of the development of this condition and prognostic signs of its effects. thus, the "michigan" model presents the processes by which objective stressors lead to short-term (emotional, physiological, cognitive and behavioral reactions) and to long-term health effects: objective characteristics of work affect the subjective perception occupational stress. this perception induces physiological and psychological reactions and, constantly repeating over time, short-term reactions cause deterioration in health. however, stress processes are not invariant, both as environmental factors and how the individual characteristics of the subject affect the cause-and-effect relationship. thus, the main categories of psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 326 indicators of individual characteristics of the subject, which affect the manifestation of coping strategies, include demographic factors, personal characteristics, professional expectations, preferences and satisfaction, skills of social interaction and organizational behavior. in ukrainian sources there are a number of concepts related to the characteristics of professional safety of the individual: professional adaptability, neuropsychological stability and stress (coping behavior), professional mobility, ability to work, professional maturity, professional identity, etc. they contain an understanding of the level of general readiness of a specialist for the corresponding professional activity (drobot, o. 2012 & markova, a. 1996, et al). also and a significant number of studies have also been conducted in which the ratio of personal properties and requirements of professional activity was studied (baklanova n., 1994; bodrov b., 2001, et al.). the professional activity of specialists in many fields in modern society takes place in difficult conditions, denoted by the concepts of "special", "difficult", "crisis", "stressful", "extraordinary", "extreme". in the modern psychological literature, a large number of works relate to different types of professional activities in special conditions: the activities of pilots, military specialists, law enforcement officers, firefighters (myronets, s. 2002 & popkov, v. 1999, et al). consider such aspects of human activity in special conditions as features of extreme factors, functional mental states, psychological qualities of the person, indicators (levi, l. 1989 & markova, a. 1996, et al). these works carefully take into account the general laws: in the special conditions of professional activity, the possibility of a person's work with the maximum benefit for society is determined not only by his professional training and purposefulness, but also by his resistance to emotional influences. however, in ukraine, the neurophysiological aspects of performing professional activities in special (extreme) conditions have not been sufficiently studied. in our opinion, its separation from a significant part of the available research will be able to inventory the most expedient and relevant theories for the present time and avoid various interpretations. we will try to solve the main goal of the theoretical research using the methods of generalization, comparison, extrapolation to modern globalization conditions: to carry out the rethink the views of ukrainian occupational safety specialists and exclude current scientific and effective theories. in our opinion, this will help to eliminate traditional mechanistic brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 327 approaches to human security and to establish a subjective and centric paradigm in the eastern european security theory. modern neuroscientific approaches to personal and professional safety modern researchers are working to conceptualize the essence of personal and group occupational and household safety in the context of a globalized society, where “the external globalized and internal mentalized world are threats” (kononov & zhukov, 2020). the general essence of such a concept is in its structure: man community society power international interaction. at the same time, personal safety is the main focus. household personal safety is a process and a relative result of adaptation to the rapidly changing nature of society and the technogenic environment. professional safety presupposes social and professional adaptation and specific competencies aimed at self-preservation, and at the highest levels of safety, it is necessary to form a system of collective, corporate safety, international cooperation and a discourse on non-use or "soft use of force" (stefanov, terziev, banabakova, 2018). we noticed that the issue of personal and professional safety in the studies of the 2000s is considered in the context of making non-standard, spontaneous, but expedient decisions in a situation of uncertainty. this has given rise to a number of interdisciplinary studies integrating neurophysiological and neuropsychological aspects (kahneman, & tversky 2000). it is interesting that social security and professionalization are considered primarily through the adaptability of the subject and the nature of the subjectivity of a modern person: responsibility for oneself, mobility, stress resistance and high performance in the environment: a) specific, local stress or tension; b) the general informational and changing environment, which is stressful (ivanov, seryy, yanitskiy, 2017). at the same time, selfregulation and social regulation of the mental state of the subjects of society is multi-level. however, it is important to maintain psychological balance in the current context (ordinary or spontaneous). a lot of professionally oriented and general psychological techniques of personal adaptation have already been developed through “awareness of one's own postmodern ego,” which mentally, verbally or technologically cooperates with the functional environment and other fundamentally equivalent “ego” (coan, beckes, gonzalez, maresh, brown 2017). fortunately, in a postcolonial society, hierarchical social ties (vertical) are weakened and no longer “put pressure” psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 328 on a person. horizontal ties and interpersonal contacts are more important. spontaneous communicative entry into a new social situation, while “more perceived social support corresponds to less brain tension” (coan, beckes, gonzalez, maresh, brown, hasselmo, 2017). based on laboratory medical studies of fast autonomic and slow cortical emotional responses, the neurophysiology of the process of professionalization and adaptation to stress has already been described, mcdonald (2017). from the point of view of natural sciences, this helped to substantiate the advisability of the formation of empathy, switching, the ability to simulate situations, enter into new communication, and make decisions. psychology and practical methods of the professionalization process are based on this basis. it is clear that in this article we are not talking about fundamentally dangerous professions, mentioning them only for a complete scientific picture. we are more interested in the issue of occupational safety in social situations, moral conflicts, where various preventive psychological tools of self-defense against stress can be applied (shane, bush 2015). it is possible to consider the study of occupational safety in the social sphere in the framework of intersubjective dependence. scientists have noticed that workers in the education, social sphere show a significant emotional reaction to directive, administrative instructions or situations of tactical failure. this determines the need to strengthen the subject position, responsibility and even change the values and beliefs of the participants in educational relations. at the same time, professional dependence presupposes overcoming the obsessive and protective mechanisms of professional activity, which are characterized by “the presence of social conformism, the absence of one's own position, the search for an authoritative leader” (khusainova, mishina, shlychkov, shlychkova, redkina, & yusupov, v. (2017). it is clear that the psychological safety of educators is closely related to the safety of the educational environment and maintaining a balance in an environment of constant interactivity, the presence of a management hierarchy. also, the “trusted professional activity” of teachers, doctors, social workers, on whom other persons depend, has a stressful potential. currently using the newest term "professional activity that can be trusted (epa)" (wagner, dolansky & englander, 2018). integration of the safe and professional competencies of such workers will allow solving the safety issues of a specialist and his client, but it requires changes in the curricula of assessment in education, medicine, and social support. another area of current research is the formation and forecasting of a safety culture. recent sociological research and regression analysis of the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 329 management of workers' safety, the safety of the professionals themselves and their safety culture have determined that at the group level, a positive safety culture is determined by four factors: “safety informing by the chiefs of operations; concern for the safety of employers; and the coordination and regulation of safety by safety professionals ”(wu, lin, & shiau, 2010). to a greater extent, these observations relate to the service professions for the rendering of one or another type of assistance. according to t. stecker, within the framework of the theory of behavioral inhibition (gray and mcnaughton, ("the neuropsychology of anxiety", oxford university press, oxford, 2000), educational strategies can be used to form and tempered cognitive functions and form the competencies of personal resistance, self-control, predictability and responsibility (steckler, 2005). at the instinctual level, the neuropsychological nature of a person presupposes patterns of dominance and obedience, the ability to manipulate and the willingness to be controlled; avoidance of a stimulus and its affective or volitional overcoming. there is also a significant discrepancy in the gender, temperamental and phenotypic characteristics of the individual. however, the beginning of professionalization is always associated with a number of psychological dangers. currently, neurophysiologists and psychologists have proven that affirming one's own "ego" reduces the level of subjective experience of stress, and the expectation of help and hope for social support does not contribute to professionalization and stress resistance in any profession (sheinov, 2016). neurosociologists have also proved that the development of personal and professional subjective reflection and all types of feedback is an effective means of psychological safety, but such development should not be forced, but desirable. in this case, social or technological conditions become not obstacles, but rather attractors of personal development (kazlauskiene, & barabanova 2020). given this subjective-centered and reflective nature of occupational safety in neuroscientific research, the most valid views of ukrainian scientists should be summarized, which can be applied in educational and psychological training of specialists. performing professional activities in normal and special (extreme) conditions normal working conditions differ from special, extreme and superextreme working conditions. in our opinion, this difference lies not in the psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 330 presence of destructive factors, but in the frequency, duration of effect and quantitative characteristics of their intensity (power, effectiveness). "the category" special conditions of activity " is fair for those situations when the activity of a specialist is associated with an episodic, unstable action of extreme factors or a high perceived probability of their occurrence, while extreme factors do not have high power and intensity, and the emerging negative functional states are moderately expressed", zaichykova t. (2003, p. 115-121). special conditions include the conditions of activity in which situations may suddenly arise that are dangerous to the life of the subject of activity or people around him, smirnov b. (2007). moreover, the factors leading to the emergence of extreme situations, by their nature, can be both physical or chemical, and social, but their main feature is that they are unplanned (smirnov, b. 2007 & tytarenko, t. 2007, et al). the neurophysiological approach proves: the most important condition (component) of work in special conditions are emotions that arise under the influence of the reflection of reality, significantly affect the course of mental processes and, consequently, the effectiveness of human professional activity. the quality of emotions can determine the global forms of interaction of the subject with the environment and some parameters of activity associated with professional activities. the activities of representatives of extreme professions are associated with permanent stress and expectation of danger. this is due to real or predicted conditions: work with life-threatening, high responsibility for decisions, performing complex functions, increasing the pace of activity, lack of time to perform expected actions, processing large volumes and flows of information; complicated factors of the working environment, the monotony of work in terms of waiting for the signal to extreme activity. activities in extreme conditions set high demands on representatives of risk group professions. such people must be able to constantly monitor their condition, make quick decisions, adequately assess the situation, as well as be willing to give their lives in case of emergency. all this requires significant mental effort and psychological stability, bondar g. (2007). representatives of risky professions are affected by a number of factors, each of which has a specific impact on the activities and behavior of the individual. however, in extreme conditions, we distinguish the following psychological and neurophysiological factors:  while working in extreme conditions, three types of mental stress are noted emotional, unemotional and mixed. emotional stress arises under the influence of emotional factors that cause feelings of anxiety, fear, risk to life, etc. unemotional stress appears in conditions with increased brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 331 requirements for mental resources and the motor apparatus. mixed emotional stress is characterized by different "specific weight" of the emotional component in the overall stress structure and is most characteristic of different activities in extreme conditions;  emotional working conditions cause rises and falls in a person's performance or decline, especially in strong emotional stress. in some cases, there is a loss of work skills;  rises and falls in performance depend on individual characteristics, especially on the properties of the nervous system. people with a strong nervous system are more resistant to extreme stress. "weak types" are more susceptible to super-powerful influences. confusion is often observed in them and the reliability of work performance decreases;  emotional stability and reliability of work increases if a person is familiarized in advance with the peculiarities of the activity that waits for him. on the other hand, you can get used to the extreme conditions of activity and this is known to representatives of risky professions;  moral, volitional and other personality characteristics, especially the development of a sense of responsibility, play an important role when working in extreme conditions. to assess this quality in recent times in psychology use the term "personality reliability". as you can see, the professional activity of representatives of extreme professions differs from other areas by long-term mental and emotional stress due to both the content and working conditions. these professions involve an increased risk factor, lack of information and time for reflection, the need to make an adequate decision, high responsibility for the tasks, the presence of unexpected obstacles. in such extreme working conditions, important factors are stress resistance and adaptability of the individual, in the absence of which the professional health of the individual may be impaired, bondar g. (2007). wide socio-hygienic and psychological studies carried out in various directions show that the number of professions and types of work is increasing, during which workers experience psychological overload, v. medvedev (2003). in our opinion, the bright representatives who operate in extreme conditions are emergency workers. the world health organization considers the professions of emergency services (fire service, police, ambulance, gas emergency service, etc.) to be the most complex professions, the activities of which are carried out in extreme or special conditions. these psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 332 conditions, from a psychological point of view, are characterized by strong psycho-traumatic factors. special working conditions set increased demands on the professional, are the cause of errors and disruptions in work, adversely affect a person's ability to work and health. special conditions of activity are always associated with the impact of extreme factors or the occurrence of extreme situations. depending on the degree of periodicity, the frequency of their occurrence and duration, they are distinguished: 1) the actual special conditions of activity, which are essential for those situations when the activity is associated with episodic actions of extreme factors; 2) extreme conditions of activity (as an extreme form of special conditions) associated with the constant action of extreme factors. the essence of special and extreme conditions is such that they often exist objectively and are fundamentally impossible to change, which excludes the possibility of actively influencing them. the term "extreme factors" means such factors that are not indifferent to the body and cause maximum permissible changes in it. the external environment helps to identify the adequacy or inadequacy of the functional, mental capabilities of a person in the process of performing an activity. scientists argue that the negative factors of hazardous professions are, first of all, the physicochemical characteristics of the conditions of activity, mechanical actions (vibrations, overloads), acoustic influences, danger, often the occurrence of unforeseen, including emergency, situations; specificity, activity; a high degree of responsibility, fear of making a mistake or failing (kosarev, 1998; nikiforov, 2003). however, we are closer to the opinion of scientists who primarily influence the professional activities of “stressors” and “stress factors” (leonova, 2000; polyakova, 2008, et al.). therefore, a person's work in special conditions is associated with neuropsychic stress, which is caused by the influence of various negative factors, while the physical possibility of a dangerous situation arising is potential and is determined statistically. some scientists suggest examining a person through the opposition statement: "a person's ability to adapt to a complicated reality a person's desire to change themselves based on the development of their abilities as self-worth". the individual is constantly between the desire to change in order to adapt (that is, to adapt to the value set to it from the outside), to remain unchanged, and the desire to change in order to improve his values, to develop abilities, symanyuk e. (2005). this idea reflects one of the most important principles of the systemic historical-evolutionary approach to brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 333 understanding a person, according to which a necessary condition for the development of various systems is the presence of contradictions (conflict or disharmonious interaction) between adaptive forms of activity aimed at implementing the generic program, and manifestations of the activity of elements that carry individual variability (a. leontiev 2004, s. rubinstein 2005). sensualistic views of safety are closer to neurophysiological mechanisms of self-manifestation and the search for personal existence. for example, n. grishina emphasizes that for people who work in special conditions, the meaning of life is professional self-improvement and the desire and ability to help people. for them, this is not limited to a range of narrow personal interests, but is expressed, in particular, in the desire to "prolong themselves" in the family and children. this understanding of the profession allows the specialist to mitigate the effects of stressful situations. at the same time, the influence of special working conditions on the understanding of life values by professionals is not so clear. it is noted that high tension often leads to deterioration of health, depression, n. grishina (1997). many experts who work in special conditions speak about the meaning of life as something unreal, znakov v. (2005). that is, there is an alienation from meaning, meaning is not included in the world of a particular person. in n. grishina's research (1997, pp. 76-81) groups of employees are distinguished by the nature of the influence of special conditions of activity on the formation of personality: the group of professional and personal maladaptation: special conditions of the profession are for the representatives of this group an unbearable test, they leave the profession; passive “adaptation group”: characterized by "unstable balance" between the requirements of the profession and the level of their implementation; these people, to a certain extent, get used to the difficulties of the profession as a vital necessity and do not feel satisfaction with professional activity; group of active self-improvement: special conditions contribute to professional and personal growth. self-improvement becomes the only process for them, there is an increase in the importance of professional activity to the level of the meaning of life. we find the beginnings of the subject-centric approach in the adaptation theories of ukrainian scientists. there is a significant amount of work on the problems of human life in special conditions that depend on changes in the environment under the influence of various extreme factors. most of them concern the main provisions of the theory of adaptation, which is considered as a process by which the optimization of human functioning and balance in the system "man environment" are achieved. there are several forms of manifestations of the phenomenon of adaptation, psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 334 which make it possible to consider adaptation as a dynamic formation, a direct process of adaptation to environmental conditions, on the one hand, and as a property of a certain living self-regulating system, determines its resistance to environmental conditions and presupposes the presence of a certain level of development of adaptive abilities on another. in general, the wider the adaptive capabilities of the individual, the more likely the normal functioning of the body and the effective performance of professional activities for the actions of various psychogenic factors. human activity in special conditions, which is associated with neuropsychic stress one of the most unfavorable factors in professional activity is mental tension, which can turn into a long-term destructive neurophysiological state. it is noted that a person's mental tension arises as a result of difficult conditions of activity, conflicts, anticipation of adverse developments and is accompanied by feelings of discomfort, anxiety, frustration. as already noted, special conditions are created by various factors due to specific features of the external environment, the nature of the activity performed, the properties of information flow to a person. each of these factors has its own specific impact on human activity and behavior. however, there are general patterns inherent in the activities that take place in special conditions. one of these patterns is mental stress as a consequence of working in special conditions is to anticipate an unfavorable development of events and is accompanied by a feeling of discomfort, anxiety, frustration. in ukraine, there are three types of mental stress in the process of professional activity in special conditions: emotional (affective), unemotional (operational, business) and mixed, smirnov (2007). emotional tension arises under the influence of emotional factors that cause feelings of uncertainty, anxiety, fear and other negative emotions. it can appear before the start of the activity, as well as directly in its process. the emergence of emotional tension is associated with a dynamic mismatch between the objective significance of the situation and its subjective assessment and the emergence of related negative changes in physical and mental functions. this is the type of tension that is least aimed at performing activities where the body's defense reactions are of great importance. operational tensions arise in conditions that place increased demands on a person's mental resources and musculoskeletal system and not associated with danger or other serious consequences, the thoughts of which would make a person worry in advance. this tension increases gradually as a result of complex work. it should be noted that this distribution of types of mental tension is quite brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 335 conditional, because any activity is always associated with emotions and under certain conditions, operational tension can develop into emotional. therefore, the most characteristic mixed mental tension, characterized by different significance of the emotional component in the general structure of tension and is the most characteristic of different activities in special conditions. traditionally, activity in special conditions is studied by analyzing the relationships of three parameters: external factors of activity (characterized by the presence of extreme factors); internal factors of activity (interdependence of psychological states and personality traits); indicators (results) of activity, smirnov b. (2007). in our opinion, in this triad, the question of the subordination of external (objective) and internal (subjective) factors or, in other words, the conditions of activity is quite important. external factors of activity are determined by objective factors of existence (noises, vibrations, radiation of different origin, temperature conditions, the presence of radiation, etc.) and professional factors proper (monotony of work, continuous activity, the presence of extreme factors, deficit or overload of information, etc.). it should be noted that the separation of these factors is rather arbitrary, usually it is rather difficult to separate them from each other. human activity in special conditions is often accompanied by stress, which is a neurophysiological state of man that occurs in response to various extreme influences. these actions are called stressors or psychogenic factors. since stress is most often associated with activity, with the emergence of certain emotions, these factors are often also called emotiogenic, smirnov b. (2007). in our opinion, depending on the type of stressor and the nature of its impact on humans, physiological and psychological stress can be separated. physiological is the direct reaction of the body to the effect of a uniquely defined stimulus, usually of physicochemical origin. psychological stress is characterized by the inclusion of a complex system of mental processes that mediate the effects of stressors on the human body. analysis of such states often occurs using different variants of the term "tension". physiological manifestations of this type of stress are similar to those described above, but the range of psychological and behavioral changes is wider. the most typical of them are changes in emotional reactions, in the motivational structure of activity and the course of various mental processes. psychological stress is divided into three types informational, emotional, communicative. information occurs in conditions of information overload and sensory hunger. in the first case, a person does not cope with the task, does not have time to make the right decisions at the required pace, in the second, psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 336 she is definitely underloaded with information, and also causes a number of negative phenomena in her (boredom, loss of interest in work, apathy, etc.). emotional stress manifests itself in situations of threat, insult, threat, anxiety, etc. communicative stress is caused by real communication problems and interpersonal interaction in a team. at the same time, such a distribution of types of stress is rather arbitrary. the differences are in the nature of the stimulus (stressor), the conditions of its occurrence and the level of the corresponding reaction of the organism. according to the impact on humans, stressors are divided into physiological and psychological. physiological stressors are caused by excessive physical activity, painful stimuli, influence of low and high temperature, etc. psychological stressors are factors that act on their semantic meaning: threat, insult, danger, information overload, lack of time, peculiarities of communication, etc. according to its neurophysiological essence, stress is manifested in the general adaptation syndrome as a necessary and useful autonomic and somatic reaction aimed at adapting the body to new living conditions. that is, stress, from a physiological point of view, is an adaptation syndrome and is a non-specific reaction of the body to influences of various origins that go beyond the normal range. at the same time, the norm is strictly individual for each person and is limited by the upper and lower frames. g. selye (1982) proposed to distinguish between two types of adaptive resources of the human body under stress level and deep adaptive energy. surface resources of the body are activated in a stressful situation "on demand", they are quite easily restored, for example after rest. if there is a recovery of psycho-energy (adaptive) resources, the body is not in a state of disease. surface adaptive energy is restored due to the deep restructuring of the homeostatic mechanisms of the body, which is mobilized through adaptation. activation of deep adaptive energy begins when a person is in a stressful situation for a long time and when it spends "surface energy resources". depletion of deep resources irreversibly leads to depletion of the body and emotional burnout, g. selye (1982). the process of overcoming an emotionally tense situation depends on a person's mental state: he is in a vigorous state and is confident that he will overcome the situation; a person has some doubts about his own ability to cope with difficulties, but he does; the person is not self-confident and tries to compensate for it by other means or forces (outside help, reduction of mental stress due to change of own attitude to the situation, etc.); a person with sufficient functional readiness is mentally depressed and unable to overcome difficulties. the effectiveness of overcoming an emotionally tense situation depends on the level of depletion of emotional-volitional brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 337 efforts: minimal depletion of efforts, which allows you to overcome the situation and does not require significant time for recovery (not strengthening of efforts, namely recovery), moderate depletion of forces, which leads to stress, and in further to depression; excessive exertion that causes to psychic trauma. the main characteristics of the personality in emotionally tense situations are the difficulty in overcoming obstacles; the problem of choosing the right solution; awareness that being in a socially difficult situation is a chance to express yourself, and this causes excitement; a state of constant reflection; feeling of a certain need and impossibility of finding one's place in the situation; feelings of fear and insecurity, but in further analysis of the situation the ability to find a positive solution that gives a sense of satisfaction feeling uncomfortable and worried about what will happen; a sense of self-confidence in overcoming the situation; trying to gain the support of others; under conditions of urgency of the decision of a situation at first there is a confusion, and then concentration. qualitative performance of professional activity in such conditions depends not only on the general and special training of experts, but also on degree of development in them of a number of nonspecific psychological and psychophysiological qualities. the professional activity of representatives of emergency assistance is the most stressful (in psychological terms) among the types of social activity and belongs to the group of professions with a large number and intensity of stress factors, which, in turn, sets increased demands on personal characteristics as internal conditions of activity. there are many classifications, but most researchers distinguish among them such as the level of general intelligence (intellectual and cognitive flexibility, general awareness, practical thinking, coordination, planning); level of personal stability (reliability, resistance to stress, selfconfidence, responsibility, communication skills); lack of tension, anxiety and psychopathological symptoms; psychodynamic properties (neuroticism, extroversion-introversion, type of autonomic self-regulation). psychological and psychophysiological qualities are based on the fundamental patterns of human adaptation to activities in extreme conditions. mental adaptation is of direct importance for the analysis of the features of the functional state of persons who perform activities in emergencies, as well as those who experience their effects. persons who are well adapted to "everyday" life, but have little adaptive capacity, are primarily prone to breakdowns that affect professional health. factors of human individuality, which determine the reliability and efficiency of work are especially evident in the conduct of psychophysiological research among psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 338 professionals who work in conditions of increased threat to life and health from adverse environmental factors and activities. under the influence of external factors and depending on personal characteristics, a person develops certain mental states. they are quite diverse and their integral characteristic under certain conditions of activity is called the functional state. the functional state is a characteristic of a person's states according to the effectiveness of the functions performed by it, the body systems involved in this according to the criterion of reliability and internal value of activity. the main types of functional states are 1) a state of operational calm, which is characterized by a person's readiness to perform activities, but does not reflect its specifics; 2) the state of adequate mobilization, which characterizes a person who has already joined the activity; while the changes occurring in the human body are adequate to its activities; 3) a state of dynamic inconsistency, which occurs when the body's response is inadequate to the load or the necessary psychophysiological responses that exceed adequate human capabilities. regarding the result of activities in special conditions, it is evaluated by quantitative and qualitative indicators that determine its quality, productivity and reliability. the quality of a person's professional activity is characterized not only by the system of its various indicators (infallibility, accuracy, timeliness of work, etc.), but also by its various types, which are determined by the leading goals and evaluation criteria. the study of the quality of professional activity as its infallibility, accuracy and timeliness of work and psychological reliability as the stability of mental activity under the influence of extreme factors is fundamental, especially when studying various forms of human activity in terms of adaptation to complex environmental conditions (oboznov, a. 2003 & chebykin, a. 1989 et al). professional productivity provides an opportunity for activity, choice, responsibility, gaining positive experience during professional activities, as well as the formation of value orientations that determine the level of personal activity and focus (korolchuk, m. 2002 & malkova, t. 2014, et al). these theories directly correlate with the views of foreign scientists regarding professional reliability and are responsible for adequate methods and techniques of self-regulation, the level of formation of regulatory systems of different levels and the degree of adequacy of ideas about their state and psychophysical capabilities (lager, 1974 & park, 1987, etc.). in these characteristics of activity in special conditions, the main attention is paid to manifestations of professional reliability, which is mainly considered in the framework of the activity of a person-operator and is determined by the degree of erroneous actions or their absence, the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 339 probability and sequence of their occurrence, chebykin a. (1989) or through the category of person-operator performance, in which it is defined as the property to maintain stable performance in certain modes and conditions of work, venda v. (1983). such definitions are focused on the internal, potential and ability of a person to provide it, but they do not fully disclose the specificity of this concept from the point of view of procedural (stability of functioning) and effective (reliability, faultlessness) characteristics. the most complete definition of reliability is found in the work of e. mileryan: "... a state of operability in which the operator ensures accurate, efficient, errorfree, optimal, timely and successful performance of all functions assigned to him, both in optimal and in extreme working conditions", e. mileryan (1974, p. 14). therefore, reliability of activity is provided by mental reliability which criterion is stability of mental activity in various degree of mentally strained professional situations. the basis of mental reliability the development and stability of the system of self-regulation of arbitrary human activity, which is manifested in the ability of the subject to maintain the quality and effectiveness of individual self-regulation in psychologically stressful conditions. characterizing the content of the professional norm, it is necessary to dwell on the psychological interpretation of the norm in the study of psychological phenomena, which is presented in detail in the works of g. ball (1990). based on a wide range of interpretations of the norm, the scientist characterizes it as a socially defined basis within which a certain activity is built (or should be built), i.e. the norm of activity is a socially determined model of a component (result, means, method, etc.) or system such components. based on the fact that each rule has a modality and range of action, it should be emphasized that it is a professional rule that defines a clearly regulated course of action. but the main figure in their observance is a person who, according to m. rozov, is at the same time "an actual or potential participant in a large number of regulatory systems", rozov m. (1984, p. 181). the point is that a specialist, in the course of professional development, modifies the norm with his own knowledge, skills, and especially attitudes and motives. therefore, such refined norms, manifested in the professional activity of a specialist, become personal norms, in which the manifestation of the interaction of the early "internal moral instances" of a person with his acceptance of real social requirements is clearly traced. with the help of these indicators there is a comparison of the result and the purpose of the activity. there is a complex dialectical connection between the efficiency of activity and the functional state: arising and developing in activity, the functional state has a significant, and in extreme psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 340 situations a decisive influence on the characteristics of activity. thus, the performance of professional functions of representatives of the most disgusting professions is often combined with a danger to health and life. the emergence of unforeseen situations, and often the need to overcome difficulties is usually the norm of professional activity. conclusions thus, the analysis of the problem of studying occupational safety in special conditions of activity actualizes the issues of studying neurophysiological and psychological personal and subjective determinants, which ensure the activation of productive processes of activity, mobilization of operational functions, the implementation of plans and strategies of behavior, etc., actually fits into the psychological construct of the psychological health of a specialist's personality. knowledge of the specific requirements of a particular subject to the subject in the process of work, as well as individual resources to overcome the stressful situation, helps to identify the necessary activity to reduce the adverse effects of stress in the workplace. the work situation of representatives of stressful professions is associated with the entire spectrum of personal, cognitive, social and instrumental resources to overcome stress. it is also expedient to single out the criteria for the specialist's perception of an emotionally tense situation: its features (according to the degree of subjective significance); instructions contained in the peculiarities of perception of the situation; opportunities external (situational) and internal (personal; temptation; the presence of danger; everything that determines actions (motivation, guidance, purpose, task, strategy, tactics, term, place, space); the impression caused by the situation; reasoning that generated by the situation, willpower, notes (development) of action plans, etc. the logical conclusion of the consideration of the phenomenon of emotionally tense situation can be a certain algorithm for analyzing the presence of a person in emotionally tense situations, which can be analyzed according to the following scheme: definition of the purpose, tasks of action and the relation of the person to it; as well as the conditions in which the action takes place (which contribute to or hinder the implementation of the tasks); determination of the program (sequence) of action, given formally and the degree of its awareness and perception by the individual; finding out the degree of coincidence (compliance) of this action program with the one provided in advance; identification of strengths and weaknesses of the individual that contribute to or hinder the realization of the goal; detection brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 341 of characteristic errors and erroneous actions of the individual during the performance of certain tasks; creation of a multifactorial model of personality actions in socially complex situations (taking into account the dynamic features of the situation and personality); correction and regulation of personality actions (choice of the necessary form of psychological assistance) etc. references baklanova, n. k. (1994). professional'noye masterstvo rabotnika kul'tury [professional skill of a cultural worker]. publishing house of the moscow state institute of culture. https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01001688509 ball, g. a. (1990). normy deyatel'nosti i tvorcheskaya aktivnost' lichnosti [norms of activity and creative activity of the individual] psychology issues, 6, 25–36. http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1990/906/906025.htm batarshov, a. v. (2005). bazovyye psikhologicheskiye svoystva i professional'noye stanovleniye lichnosti . prakticheskoye rukovodstvo po psikhologicheskoy diagnostike [basic psychological properties and professional formation of personality . practical guide to psychological diagnostics]. st. petersburg. https://spblib.ru/catalog/-/books/10390449-bazovyyepsikhologicheskiye-svoystva-i-professional-noye-samoopredeleniyelichnosti bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19 (3), 1585. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf bodrov, v. a. (2001). psikhologiya professional'noy prigodnosti [psychology of professional suitability]. perse. http://www.law.vsu.ru/structure/ criminalistics/books/bodrov_psy_prof.pdf bondar, g. o. (2007, september 20-22). kharakterystyka ekstremalʹnykh umov diyalʹnosti predstavnykiv ryzykovanykh profesiy [characteristics of extreme conditions of activity of representatives of risky professions]. modern socio-cultural space 2010: all-ukrainian scientific-practical internet conference. http://intkonf.org/bondar-go-harakteristika-eksremalnih-umov-diyalnostipredstavnikiv-rizikovanih-profesiy chebykin, a. ya. (1989). problema emotsional'noy ustoychivosti . psikhicheskaya napryazhennost' v trudovoy deyatel'nosti [the problem of emotional stability. mental tension in labor activity]. moscow. coan, j. a., beckes, l., gonzalez, m. z., maresh, e. l., brown, c. l., hasselmo, k. (2017). relationship status and perceived support in the social regulation of neural responses to threat. social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 12, 1574– 1583. https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01001688509 http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1990/906/906025.htm https://spblib.ru/catalog/-/books/10390449-bazovyye-psikhologicheskiye-svoystva-i-professional-noye-samoopredeleniye-lichnosti https://spblib.ru/catalog/-/books/10390449-bazovyye-psikhologicheskiye-svoystva-i-professional-noye-samoopredeleniye-lichnosti https://spblib.ru/catalog/-/books/10390449-bazovyye-psikhologicheskiye-svoystva-i-professional-noye-samoopredeleniye-lichnosti http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf http://www.law.vsu.ru/structure/%0bcriminalistics/books/bodrov_psy_prof.pdf http://www.law.vsu.ru/structure/%0bcriminalistics/books/bodrov_psy_prof.pdf http://intkonf.org/bondar-go-harakteristika-eksremalnih-umov-diyalnosti-predstavnikiv-rizikovanih-profesiy http://intkonf.org/bondar-go-harakteristika-eksremalnih-umov-diyalnosti-predstavnikiv-rizikovanih-profesiy psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 342 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dontsov, a. i. (1984). psikhologiya kollektiva: metodicheskiye problemy issledovaniya [team psychology: methodological problems of research]. publishing house of moscow state university. drobot, o. v. (2012). problema stanovlennya profesiynoyi samosvidomosti subʺyekta diyalʹnosti [the problem of formation of professional selfconsciousness of the subject of activity]. scientific journal of the national pedagogical university named after m.p. drahomanov, 38, 140–146. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nchnpu_012_2012_38_22 grishina, n. v. (1997). pomogayushchiye otnosheniya: professional'nyye i ekzistentsial'nyye problemy. psikhologicheskiye problemy samorealizatsii lichnosti [helping relationships: professional and existential issues. psychological problems of personality self-realization]. st. petersburg: peter. ivanov m. s., seryy a. v., yanitskiy m. s. (2017). mobility as strategy of providing personal secutity in postmodern society [ conference presentation]. rptss 2017 international conference on research paradigms transformation in social sciences. kahneman, d., & tversky, a. (2000). choices, values, and frames. cambridge university press. kazlauskiene a. k., & irina barabanova. (2020). neuropedagogy: preconditions for application of neuroscience results in the education process while providing feedback. technium: romanian journal of applied sciences and technology, 2(5), 112-122. https://doi.org/10.47577/technium.v2i5.1246 khusainova, s., mishina, m., shlychkov, v., shlychkova, o., redkina, e., & yusupov, v. (2017). research of teachers professional addictions in order to improve the safety of the educational. man in india, 97(3), 467-475. https://www.rea.ru/ru/org/managements/orgnirupr/documents/57s17.pdf kononov, s. v., & zhukov, a. v. (2020). the philosophy of security n the globalizing culture system.journal of history culture and art research, 9(3),415422. http://dx.doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v9i3.2848 korolchuk, m. s. (2002). psykholohichne zabezpechennya psykhichnoho ta fizychnoho zdorovʺya [psychological support of mental and physical health]. incos. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=re f&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr =20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21 str=крайнюк%20в$ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nchnpu_012_2012_38_22 https://doi.org/10.47577/technium.v2i5.1246 https://www.rea.ru/ru/org/managements/orgnirupr/documents/57-s17.pdf https://www.rea.ru/ru/org/managements/orgnirupr/documents/57-s17.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v9i3.2848 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=крайнюк%20в$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=крайнюк%20в$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=крайнюк%20в$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=крайнюк%20в$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=крайнюк%20в$ brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 343 kosarev, v. v. (1998). professional'nyye zabolevaniya meditsinskikh rabotnikov [occupational diseases of medical workers][ monograph]. samara: perspectiva, 200. https://samsmu.ru/files/news/2020/1503/profzabolevaniya.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lager, c. (1974). pilot reliability. the royal institute of technology. stockholm. lazarus, r. s. (1989). individual'naya chuvstvitel'nost' i ustoychivost' k stressu. psikhologicheskiye faktory na rabote i okhrana zdorov'ya [individual sensitivity and resistance to stress. psychological factors at work and health protection]. in r. kalimo, m. a. el-batavi, k. l. cooper (eds.), moscow, geneva. leonova, a. b. (2000). osnovnyye podkhody k izucheniyu professional'nogo stressa [basic approaches to the study of professional stress]. bulletin of moscow university, 14(3), 4–19. leontiev, a. n. (2004). deyatel'nost'. soznaniye. lichnost' [activity. consciousness. personality]. smysl: academia. https://www.marxists.org/russkij/leontiev/1975/dyeatyelnost/deyatyelno st-soznyanie-lichnost.pdf levi, l. (1989). psikhosomaticheskiye zabolevaniya kak sledstviye professional'nogo stressa . psikhosotsial'nyye faktory na rabote i okhrana zdorov'ya [psychosomatic diseases as a consequence of occupational stress . psychosocial factors at work and health protection]. geneva. malkova, t. m. (2014). teoriya i praktyka profesiynoho stanovlen¬nya osobystosti (na prykladi vyshchykh navchalʹnykh zakladiv systemy ministerstva vnutrishnikh sprav ukrayiny) [theory and practice of professional development of personality (on the example of higher educational institutions of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine)](publication no. 19.00.01 )[ dissertation of ph.d. of psychological sciences ]. https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?user=d1gzaqmaaaaj&hl=ru markova, a. k. (1996). psikhologiya professionalizma [psychology of professionalism] . gardarika. https://www.studmed.ru/markova-ak-psihologiyaprofessionalizma_6b2fa1cadce.html mcdonald, s. (2017). journal of the international neuropsychological society 23, 719–731. cambridge university press, 2017. doi:10.1017/s1355617717000844 medvedev, v. i. (2003). adaptatsiya cheloveka [human adaptation]. institute of the human brain of the russian academy of sciences, 584 p. https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01002495174 https://samsmu.ru/files/news/2020/1503/profzabolevaniya.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://www.marxists.org/russkij/leontiev/1975/dyeatyelnost/deyatyelnost-soznyanie-lichnost.pdf https://www.marxists.org/russkij/leontiev/1975/dyeatyelnost/deyatyelnost-soznyanie-lichnost.pdf https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?user=d1gzaqmaaaaj&hl=ru https://www.studmed.ru/markova-ak-psihologiya-professionalizma_6b2fa1cadce.html https://www.studmed.ru/markova-ak-psihologiya-professionalizma_6b2fa1cadce.html https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01002495174 psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 344 mileryan, e. a. (1974). emotsional'no-volevyye komponenty nadezhnosti operatora. ocherki psikhologii truda operatora [emotional-volitional components of the operator's reliability. essays on the psychology of operator labor]. moscow. myronets, s. m. (2002). psykholohichni osoblyvosti profesiynoyi diyalʹnosti fakhivtsiv avariyno-ryatuvalʹnykh pidrozdiliv mns ukrayiny [psychological features of professional activity of specialists of emergency rescue units of the ministry of emergencies of ukraine]. bulletin of kyiv international university. series: pedagogical and psychological sciences, 1, 228–239. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=we7gmv8aaaaj&hl=ca nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 nikiforov, g. s. (2003). psikhologiya zdorov'ya [psychology of health]. st. petersburg: piter. http://valeolog.net/userfiles/978_1.pdf oboznov, a. a. (2003). psikhicheskaya regulyatsiya operatorskoy deyatel'nosti v osobykh usloviyakh rabochey sredy [mental regulation of operator activity in special conditions of the working environment]. publishing house of the "institute of psychology of the russian academy of sciences". http://www.dslib.net/psixologia-truda/psihicheskaja-reguljacijaoperatorskoj-dejatelnosti-v-osobyh-uslovijah.html palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 park, k. s. (1987). human reliability. analysis prediction and prevention of human error. amsterdam. https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11956686 polyakova, o. b. (2008). psikhogigiyena i profilaktika professional'nykh deformatsiy lichnosti [psychohygiene and prevention of professional personality deformations]. non-state educational institution of higher professional education moscow psychological and social institute. https://www.studmed.ru/polyakovaob-psihogigiena-i-profilaktika-professionalnyh-deformaciylichnosti_25dfee4e6c3.html popkov, v. v. (1999). psikhicheskiye faktory adaptatsii lichnosti k sluzhebno-boyevoy deyatel'nosti [mental factors of adaptation of a personality to service and fighting activity](publication no. 19.00.01) [doctoral dissertation, novosibirsk state pedagogical university]. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=we7gmv8aaaaj&hl=ca https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 http://valeolog.net/userfiles/978_1.pdf http://www.dslib.net/psixologia-truda/psihicheskaja-reguljacija-operatorskoj-dejatelnosti-v-osobyh-uslovijah.html http://www.dslib.net/psixologia-truda/psihicheskaja-reguljacija-operatorskoj-dejatelnosti-v-osobyh-uslovijah.html https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11956686 https://www.studmed.ru/polyakova-ob-psihogigiena-i-profilaktika-professionalnyh-deformaciy-lichnosti_25dfee4e6c3.html https://www.studmed.ru/polyakova-ob-psihogigiena-i-profilaktika-professionalnyh-deformaciy-lichnosti_25dfee4e6c3.html https://www.studmed.ru/polyakova-ob-psihogigiena-i-profilaktika-professionalnyh-deformaciy-lichnosti_25dfee4e6c3.html brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 345 https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskie-faktory-adaptatsiilichnosti-k-sluzhebno-boevoi-deyatelnosti prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rozov, m. a. (1984). znaniye i mekhanizmy sotsial'noy pamyati. na puti k teorii nauchnogo znaniya [knowledge and mechanisms of social memory. towards a theory of scientific knowledge]. moscow. https://platona.net/load/knigi_po_filosofii/filosofija_nauki_tekhniki/na_ puti_k_teorii_nauchnogo_znanija_red_v_i_korjukin/30-1-0-3944 rubinshtein, s. l. (2005). osnovy obshchey psikhologii [fundamentals of general psychology]. st. petersburg: piter. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/rubinshteyn=osnovu_obzhey_psc.pdf selye, g. (1982). stress bez distressa [stress without distress]. moscow: progress. http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices /index/idnotice:67030/source:default shane s. bush. (2015). ethical decision making in clinical neuropsychology. oxford university press. sheinov, v.p. (2016). personality qualities enhancing its security against manipulation. rudn journal of psychology and pedagogics, (3), 20–27. smirnov, b. a. (2007). psikhologiya deyatel'nosti v ekstremal'nykh situatsiyakh [psychology of activity in extreme situations]. humanitarian center publishing house. https://www.studmed.ru/view/smirnov-badolgopolova-ev-psihologiya-deyatelnosti-v-ekstremalnyhsituaciyah_affcdcc4856.html steckler, t. (2005). the neuropsychology of stress. in techniques in the behavioral and neural sciences,15, 25-42. elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/s09210709(05)80005-7 stefanov s., terziev v., banabakova v. (2018). the undertsanding of security in the postmodern society. adved 20184th international conference on advances in education and social sciences abstracts & proceedings, 15-17 october 2018 istanbul, turkey, international organization center of academic research(pp. 93102). www.ocerints.org symaniuk, e. e. (2005). psikhologicheskiye bar'yery professional'nogo razvitiya lichnosti [psychological barriers to professional development of personality][monograph]. moscow psychological and social institute. http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/ index/idnotice:49868/source:default tytarenko, t. m. (2007). zapobihannya emotsiynomu vyhorannyu v simʺyi yak faktor harmonizatsiyi simeynykh vzayemyn [prevention of emotional burnout in the https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskie-faktory-adaptatsii-lichnosti-k-sluzhebno-boevoi-deyatelnosti https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskie-faktory-adaptatsii-lichnosti-k-sluzhebno-boevoi-deyatelnosti https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://platona.net/load/knigi_po_filosofii/filosofija_nauki_tekhniki/na_puti_k_teorii_nauchnogo_znanija_red_v_i_korjukin/30-1-0-3944 https://platona.net/load/knigi_po_filosofii/filosofija_nauki_tekhniki/na_puti_k_teorii_nauchnogo_znanija_red_v_i_korjukin/30-1-0-3944 http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/rubinshteyn=osnovu_obzhey_psc.pdf http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/index/idnotice:67030/source:default http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/index/idnotice:67030/source:default https://www.google.gm/search?hl=ru&tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22shane+s.+bush%22 https://www.studmed.ru/view/smirnov-ba-dolgopolova-ev-psihologiya-deyatelnosti-v-ekstremalnyh-situaciyah_affcdcc4856.html https://www.studmed.ru/view/smirnov-ba-dolgopolova-ev-psihologiya-deyatelnosti-v-ekstremalnyh-situaciyah_affcdcc4856.html https://www.studmed.ru/view/smirnov-ba-dolgopolova-ev-psihologiya-deyatelnosti-v-ekstremalnyh-situaciyah_affcdcc4856.html https://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-0709(05)80005-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-0709(05)80005-7 http://www.ocerints.org/ http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/index/idnotice:49868/source:default http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/index/idnotice:49868/source:default psychological safety of the individual in normal and extreme conditions of … olha lazorko, et al. 346 family as a factor of harmonization of family relationships]. millennium. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32308209.pdf venda, v. f. (1983). psikhologicheskiye faktory nadezhnosti upravleniya avtomobilyami i problema obshcheniya mezhdu voditelyami [psychological factors of reliability of vehicle control and the problem of communication between drivers]. psychological journal, 4( 4), 75–86. wagner, l. m., dolansky, m. a., & englander, r. (2018). entrustable professional activities for quality and patient safety. nursing outlook, 66(3), 237-243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2017.11.001 wu, t. c., lin, c. h., & shiau, s. y. (2010). predicting safety culture: the roles of employer, operations manager and safety professional. journal of safety research, 41(5), 423-431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2010.06.006 zaichykova, t. v. (2003). diahnostyka ta profilaktyka syndromu profesiynoho vyhorannya u vchyteliv [diagnosis and prevention of burnout syndrome in teachers]. rivne. znakov, v. v. (2005). psikhologiya ponimaniya: problemy i perspektivy [psychology of understanding: problems and prospects]. institute of psychology of the russian academy of sciences. http://www.ipras.ru/engine/documents/document13015.pdf https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32308209.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2017.11.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2010.06.006 http://www.ipras.ru/engine/documents/document13015.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 308-321 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/208 psychosocial implications of patients with tracheostomy a suggestive example of interdisciplinarity daniela stan¹, maria-daniela tuta2, alin laurentiu tatu3 1 „sfântul apostol andrei” emergency clinical hospital galaţi, romania ent clinic; phd student of the university „dunărea de jos” faculty of medicine and pharmacy galaţi, romania, dana.corche@yahoo.com, ioana_marya1989@yahoo.com 2 „sfântul apostol andrei” emergency clinical hospital galaţi, romania ent clinic, ioana_marya1989@yahoo.com 3 clinical hospital for infectious diseases "saint pious parascheva" galati dermatology department; professor “dunărea de jos” university, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, medical clinical department dermatology galați, romania, dralin_tatu@yahoo.com abstract: performed urgently or out of necessity, tracheostomy is one of the most traumatic surgeries that seriously affects the patient's quality of life. it has a profound impact on the ability to communicate and on self-esteem, so that the patient can experience a storm of emotions and major changes that can affect their existence. the patient with tracheostomy is a special patient with special needs. the care of such a patient involves a constant multidisciplinary effort supported by specialists in many fields: ent specialists, oncologists, radiotherapists, anesthetists, neurosurgeons, general surgeons, physiotherapists, speech therapists, nutritionists especially psychotherapists. tracheostomy affects the basic needs of the individual: communication, nutrition, sexuality, social relationships. numerous studies show that patients with tracheostomy show a high level of psychological distress. depression, anxiety, low selfesteem, frustration, alienation, isolation, tendency to suicide are the negative consequences of this mutilating surgery. perceived as a permanent disability, tracheostomy requires special care from a psychological point of view. sometimes, however, it is observed that both patients and their families are not sufficiently informed about the management of tracheostomy. due to lack of means or staff, not enough emphasis is placed on preoperative training so that the patient fully understands both the benefits and the disadvantages of this surgical technique. therefore, often the patient's family, which later assumes the role of caregivers of the tracheotomized, perceives it as a burden, excessive fatigue, helplessness, abandonment from society. this paper aims to highlight the importance of preand postoperative psychological training of both the patient and his family and to demonstrate that tracheostomy care can be one of the most suggestive examples of interdisciplinarity that seeks to provide effective solutions in this regard. keywords: tracheostomy care, psychological impairment, psychotherapy, multidisciplinary team. how to cite: stan, d., tuta, m.-d., & tatu, a.l. (2021). psychosocial implications of patients with tracheostomy a suggestive example of interdisciplinarity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 308-321. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/208 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/208 mailto:dana.corche@yahoo.com mailto:ioana_marya1989@yahoo.com mailto:ioana_marya1989@yahoo.com mailto:dralin_tatu@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/208 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 309 1. introduction the surgery that consists in opening the anterior wall of the trachea at the cervical level in order to create a direct communication with the outside is called tracheotomy. this is a temporary surgical procedure. the permanent one is, performed by anchoring the trachea to the skin and is called tracheostomy. in both cases the tracheal cannula is used. known since antiquity, this salvage intervention has endured many criticisms and failures. in the twentieth century jackson chevalier standardized the technique, the necessary instruments, certain features of the tracheal cannulas but also the indications of this surgical technique (călărașu et al., 2013). depending on the relationship with the thyroid isthmus, tracheostomies are supraistmic, transistmic and subistmic. they can be performed urgently, out of necessity or percutaneously. but regardless of the type of intervention, this surgical procedure has multiple advantages but also disadvantages. the main, absolute indication for emergency tracheotomy is upper airway obstruction caused by congenital diseases, acute inflammatory diseases of the larynx, allergic diseases, burns, cervical trauma, laryngeal damage and glottic space obstruction, laryngeal foreign bodies and tracheobia. tumors that obstruct the respiratory space. the relative indications of tracheotomies consist in the fact that they are performed for palliative purposes in the presence of tumor processes with loco-regional evolution, in which chronic laryngeal stenoses are observed or in radiotherapy, in prolonged mechanical ventilation preventing injuries secondary to tracheal intubation pharyngolaryngeal interventions (călărașu et al., 2013). in the case of tracheotomies there are no absolute contraindications but only the relative ones by which only the timing of the intervention is recommended. the advantages of tracheotomy are particularly important. first of all it ensures a good approach of the respiratory tract through which the aspiration of bronchial secretions can be achieved and it improves the comfort of the patient with the possibility of oral or communication feeding. it also protects the respiratory tract in patients neurosurgical. however, the technique is not without complications that can be both immediate or late, intraoperatively or postoperatively and functional complications: swallowing disorders, functional disorders of the larynx (călărașu et al., 2013; mirea et al., 2017) psychosocial implications of patients with tracheostomy a suggestive example ... daniela stan, et al. 310 2. material and methods this article was written on the basis of the research in the specialized literature and on the observation sheets of the ent clinic, with the approval of the ethics commission of the county clinical hospital “sfantul apostol andrei” galati, romania, no. registration 4500 of 19.02.2021. we conducted an observational study on the number of tracheostomies and other surgical techniques performed at our center. thus, in the ent clinic of the galati county emergency hospital, between january 2017 and july 2020, 179 tracheostomies were performed and 8 other techniques such as: replacement of the tracheal cannula, excision of peristomal granulations, inspections and local toilets. these procedures were applied. in 156 men and 23 women, patients under 50 were 42 and over 50 were 137. in this study, the main indications for tracheostomy were in descending order: respiratory failure caused by the presence of tumors in the pharyngo-laryngeal, oral cavity, severe brain trauma affecting the respiratory centers (see table no. 1). table 1. effective tracheostomies in the ent clinic interventions 2017 2018 2019 2020 t r a c h e o s t o m y tracheostomy total 54 49 52 24 male 45 45 46 20 female 9 4 6 4 <50 years old 14 9 12 7 >50 years old 40 40 40 17 necessity 21 9 31 15 emergency 29 38 15 6 percussive 0 1 4 2 source: autors’ own conception thus, these patients require special care exemplified in the following exposition. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 311 3. the need for interdisciplinarity thousands of tracheostomies are performed worldwide each year, which is a challenge for both the patient, his family and the medical staff (nakarada-kordic et al., 2018). pre-and especially postoperative care of a patient undergoing tracheostomy involves a constant multidisciplinary effort sustained by specialists in many fields: ent specialists, oncologists, radiotherapists, anesthetists, neurosurgeons, general surgeons, physiotherapists, speech therapists, nutritionists, therapists, social therapists but especially psychotherapists. affecting the basic needs of the individual, tracheostomy involves the presence of a special management. thus, the care of tracheostomy is one of the most suggestive examples of interdisciplinarity, requiring more medical teams, trained staff to provide continuous and effective care, starting from preoperative to home care or recovery centers. (bonvento et al., 2017) 3.1 .the need for specialists in respiratory rehabilitation careful management and care of the patient with tracheostomy, especially immediately postoperatively, reduces the possibility of serious respiratory complications: occlusion of the tracheal cannula with mucus, hemorrhage, pneumothorax, subcutaneous emphysema accompanied by swallowing disorders, malnutrition, lack of speech and lack of the capacity of satisfying the patient,s basic needs. in this sense, collaboration between specialities is essential to provide safe care for these patients. this requires synchronized specialities on duty, standardized protocols, interdisciplinary education, patient involvement in the process of self-care and the family suport. in this sense, the staff is trained to provide basic care such as: aspiration of endotracheal secretions, rigorous hygiene of surgical wounds, hygiene of the mandrel of the tracheal cannula, infection control, maintaining the permeability of the tracheal cannula through humidifiers 24 hours, nebulizations, nasal-oral hygiene, encouraging the self-elimination of secretions that appear at the level of tracheostomy. these maneuvers must be performed gently, because, for example too aggressive aspiration can affect the trachea with the possibility of bleeding, tracheal stenosis, peristomal granulations, pneumonia and tracheitis (rovira et al., 2021). also playing an important role in the care process are respiratory physiotherapists who have skills in treating respiratory problems caused by tracheostomy through breathing techniques and exercises aimed at adequate psychosocial implications of patients with tracheostomy a suggestive example ... daniela stan, et al. 312 chest clearance. certain respiratory devices with positive pressure can be used. and also the combination of drug therapy for the mobilization of secretions, nebulizations, mucolytics. respiratory physiotherapists have a special role in the physical rehabilitation of patients, especially at the time of decanulation (bonvento et al., 2017) 3.2. help in communication rehabilitation because tracheostomy severely affects the function of communication, a thorough protocol is needed in this regard. immediately after surgery, the inability to communicate causes states such as: anxiety, frustration, helplessness associated with lack of confidentiality being necessary to use other people to understand the patient. sometimes patients have found that the loss of the ability to speak is more painful than the surgical procedure. this feeling disappears with speech rehabilitation, but if it is a permanent surgical procedure patients need specialized help and must adapt various communication strategies to improve quality of life and therapeutic act. speech therapists have a role in recovering the voice, a phenomenon that gives patients a state of well-being and improving self-esteem and the ability to be helped and understood (nakarada-kordic et al., 2018). in the case of ent cancer patients, the side effects of chemoradiotherapy, including: oral and intestinal mucositis, xerostomia, dental damage, skin changes, osteoradionecrosis of the temporomandibular joint or skull base, changes in taste and smell. there are, therefore ,also neglected: the function of speech and swallowing. for this purpose are used by specialists swallowing exercises, closing and opening the mouth, mobility of the tongue. unfortunately, there are currently few qualified specialists in this field. often these procedures are expensive and the centers that provide them are few, especially if patients do not benefit from a satisfactory socioeconomic status (schorn et al., 2020). 3.3. the need for nutritionist, oncologist, radiotherapist and other multidisciplinary teams studies show that tracheostomy is generally associated with major benefits over prolonged ventilation through orotracheal intubation. the tracheostomized patient benefits from mobility, the possibility of oral nutrition and hydration, and fewer sedatives and analgesics (sutt et al., 2020). in general, the lack of ability to meet basic needs such as nutrition, hydration, communication is associated with a high level of anxiety (sutt et al., 2020). although parenteral nutrition can be used, it has been found that brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 313 after tubing patients and initiating enteral nutrition patients acquire a certain degree of autonomy leading to a significant improvement in quality of life. thus, enteral nutrition is much more appropriate than parenteral nutrition because it reduces the risk of hepatobiliary dysfunction and electrolyte imbalances, being associated with a lower incidence of subsequent infections or gastrointestinal bleeding. patients with tracheostomy, especially oncological ones, need a professional nutritional plan through a standardized management. this improves the nutritional status, the patient's prognosis and reduces the risk of nosocomial infections (wang et al., 2018). studies have shown that psychological state is associated with nutritional status especially in oncological cases of head and neck. in these patients mental suffering and malnutrition is higher than in other groups of patients. malnutrition, cachexia seriously influence the effectiveness of oncological treatment and it is necessary to perform gastrostomy, a surgical process as painful as psychic tracheostomy. after the oncological record of the patient by the specialists, the elaboration of a therapeutic plan together with the radiotherapist, before starting the indicated therapy, a nutritional evaluation of the patient is imperative in order to reduce mortality and morbidities and the risk of acute and late complications related to oncological treatment (gosak et al., 2020). 4. the psychological suffering of patients with tracheostomy this paper also focuses on the psychosocial implications of these patients by highlighting certain facets less observed in the clinic every day. the literature shows that there is little knowledge about the impact of tracheostomy on patients and their caregivers. patients with head and neck cancer, especially those to whom tracheostomy is addressed, are special patients, especially with special needs. although the overall survival rate of head and neck cancer patients has improved considerably due to therapeutic advances, few studies explore the psychological problems that derive from these interventions. these patients suffer from severe dysfunctions and loco-regional disfigurements that can lead to special psychological problems (ichikura et al., 2020). one of the most common psychosocial problems encountered in patients with head and neck cancer is depression. of these patients, 7-50% suffer from major depression compared to other patients diagnosed with other types and locations of tumors. psychosocial implications of patients with tracheostomy a suggestive example ... daniela stan, et al. 314 considered to be an under-recognized comorbidity, depression in cancer patients has multiple psychosocial implications, is different from that of healthy patients. moreover, it can compromise the patient's quality of life and influences the response to cancer treatment (ionuț et al., 2019). in addition, 16 % of patients with head and neck cancer show suicidal tendencies immediately after diagnosis (ichikura et al., 2020). tracheostomy is one of the most traumatic surgeries that severely affects the patient's quality of life because it addresses the basic needs of the individual such as: breathing, communication, nutrition, sexuality, social relationships, professional activity, but also body integrity, especially when surgery is perceived as a permanent handicap (nakarada-kordic et al., 2018). moreover, the loss of voice has a profound impact on self-esteem, the patient may experience a "storm of emotions", even dark ones that can affect his daily life. loss of voice is associated with serious negative changes starting with mood, frustration , anger that apparently no one understands, stress, loneliness, isolation, vulnerability. patients may feel mentally traumatized because they believe they cannot be able to convey messages and be understood (freeman-sanderson et al., 2018). lack of confidentiality, the feeling of pain, loss of control over his health, are experiences that seriously affect the patient's psyche. therefore it is necessary to implement effective communication strategies: voice button, high-performance digital devices, support from professionals in the field (nakarada-kordic et al., 2018). another negative aspect of tracheostomy is the fact that this intervention is disfiguring, mutilating, seriously affecting the patient's body image. this is where real psychological challenges and dramas arise for the patient, because self-image, sexuality, social relations and even his psychological health are damaged. especially if the intervention is permanent. the increase in anxiety and depression is much greater if the intervention took place urgently without preoperative training, and immediately after the intervention the patient wakes up in a whole new world where he cannot adapt. where there is a social withdrawal and isolation because tracheostomies feel ashamed, attract the public's attention, especially if there is a cough attack with expulsion of secretions. tracheostomy severely affects family relationships: many partners divorce because of this (nakaradakordic et al., 2018). studies show that radical treatment of head and neck cancers severely affects the mental health of the patient, who often suffers from emotional changes with increased risk of suicide. the incidence of suicide is brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 315 four times higher among ent cancer patients than among other oncological conditions. the common denominator of depressive syndromes, including the cancer patient, is, as mentioned above, the risk of suicide. classified as selfish, altruistic, anomic or fatalistic, suicide is difficult to explain in the case of cancer patients (bolos et al., 2012). depression, anxiety, and severe psychological problems are also associated with a poor lifestyle that the patient continues even after surgery or during cancer treatment such as alcohol and tobacco (twigg et al., 2020). 5. socio-economic implications of the patient with tracheostomy most of the times, the ent oncological patient for whom tracheostomy is recommended is extremely late in the medical centers when the oncological condition is much advanced loco-regionally, in advanced stages, usually outdated therapeutically. in these cases only palliative treatment is provided. for this reason, it is necessary to implement population screening strategies in order to early diagnose head and neck cancers in order to reduce the costs of hospitalization and subsequent treatment. many head and neck cancer survivors face serious economic problems such as: job loss, financial stress, high costs associated with cancer treatment. it is considered that the treatment of head and neck cancer is the most expensive. at this add different levels of depression and high suicide rate (osazuwa‐peters et al., 2018). also, the care of the tracheostomy is expensive, with multidisciplinary involvement and long recovery time. the social impact on this type of patient, in addition to those listed above, adds to the family reluctance, lack of integration and social adaptation (swain et al., 2021). one of the important aspects suffered by the tracheostomy is the reluctance of employers to re-employ the patient with such problems, one of the causes being compensatory disputes. moreover, due to the appearance and problems related to tracheostoma patients are forced to give up physical activities such as: swimming, mountaineering, running or are afraid of too long trips (nakarada-kordic et al., 2018). 6. psychological evaluation and quality of life of the patient with tracheostomy the psychological well-being of the patient with tracheostomy is considered by researchers as important as the physical one. for this, psychosocial implications of patients with tracheostomy a suggestive example ... daniela stan, et al. 316 numerous assessment tools are used in order to give the patient a sense of self-knowledge, acceptance of his condition and to be able to share their needs and feelings (billington & luckett, 2019). these tools assess: the functional integrity of the patient, vitality, the level of physical and emotional problems, social integration, mental health, physical and mental well-being in general. the most well-known tools are: the short q 36 questionnaire, the european research organization questionnaire and quality of life cancer treatment (eortc qlq c30) as a measure of the quality of life, eortc qlq-c30, eortc qlq-h & n35 specially designed for head and neck, hospital anxiety and depression scale (hads). designed to provide effective solutions, these tools can help the patient cope with the socio-emotional impact associated with tracheostomy (melissant et al., 2018). 7. the role of the family in the process of tracheostomy care tracheostomy has a special impact not only on the patient but also on their family or group of friends. depending on the situation, informing the patient or their family about the tracheostomy is a real shock, and the feeling of joy and impatience experienced at discharge quickly turns into despair and misery. often the spouse or caregiver of the tracheostomized person seems overwhelmed by experiencing feelings of depression, feeling helpless, feelings of abandonment by other family members. sleep disorders, decreased social interactions, other times being forced to give up the profession in favor of the loved one who is so affected (watchara & kiwanuka, 2019). prior to discharge, the family or caregiver of the tracheostomy must be well trained in the care maneuvers of the tracheostomy: rigorous peristomal toilet, washing or changing the mandrel of the tracheal cannula, proper oral hygiene, nutrition, mobilization, etc. at the possibility of respiratory difficulties, clogging of the cannula with mucus. in some cases the relatives are trained for emergency interventions, change of the tracheal cannula, respiratory resuscitation maneuvers, oxygenation of the patient with mobile equipment (swain et al., 2021; watchara & kiwanuka, 2019). although the caregives experience feelings of reluctance, fatigue, depression, the feeling that the person being cared for is a burden for the family,they learn to accept the problems and overcome them. thus, at some point, will feel satisfaction, gratitude, and improve their care skills, express a high degree of empathy,they understand and try to alleviate the suffering of the person being cared for (watchara & kiwanuka, 2019). brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 317 8. psychosocial interventions unfortunately, the psychological suffering of the patient with tracheostomy is difficult to estimate. sometimes professional interventions are needed for such individuals to face the challenges of this extremely painful mental intervention. the main objectives of psychosocial interventions are to reduce the mental suffering brought by the feeling of loneliness, isolation, social abandonment, despair, financial stress, breaking up marital relations. also, the patient is helped to effectively manage the care process. these types of patients are: psychoeducation, individual and group psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral training. these interventions help the patient to become aware of their needs, to express their emotions and mental feelings, to take responsibility for the self-care process. carried out with the help of specialized personnel, these interventions have a multitude of benefits, ensuring first of all the psychosocial well-being of this type of patient, which is so difficult to understand (semple et al., 2013). another new and effective psychotherapeutic tool is considered to be the motivational interview through which the patient is helped to accept and respect the recommended treatment even in the case of tracheostomy. these concrete ways help the patient to overcome the immediate postoperative moment, thus changing the perspective on the therapeutic act. in this sense, a new approach is needed, of a personalized, individual, patient-centered therapy from a bio-psycho-social perspective (curis et al., 2018). 9. beyond unspoken words although it is a surgical technique in which the survival of the individual prevails, mental suffering often remains permanent, severely affecting the patient's well-being and quality of life. tracheostomy is a mutilating operation, leaving scars difficult to understand, especially in young patients or pediatricians or if the intervention was performed urgently without the patient's prior preparation. the negative impact increases when the individual suffers stigma or is labeled in the community or in society as people with a severe physical disability. the disfigurement often cannot be simulated due to access of cough, secretions. these patients are perceived as a burden, a torment for family and society. sometimes they are associated with people with mental retardation. they feel ashamed, worthless, abused, ignored and misunderstood by friends and family, without a future. abandoned. psychosocial implications of patients with tracheostomy a suggestive example ... daniela stan, et al. 318 mental suffering is accentuated in individuals who before the intervention had an extroverted, sociable temperament, with occupations in which communication, singing, physical effort played an essential role. these categories of patients require specialized help to avoid subsequent psychosocial toxicities. this paper highlighted the fact that beyond the surgical act, the mental suffering of the patient with tracheostomy must not be neglected and that beyond the unspoken words it is a strong cry for help that we must know how to give. 10. conclusions although tracheostomy is a life-saving procedure, it is found that the psychosocial implications are often neglected. both the patient and their family should have clear information and instructions regarding the process of tracheostomy care. because it affects the basic needs of the individual, effective care strategies must be adapted to cover all the patient's needs. the patient himself must be actively involved in the self-care process, and in addition to the tracheostomy care procedures, the risks of psychological distress must be managed, using certain interventions in order to obtain adequate mental well-being. in the therapeutic management of ent cancer patients, an assessment of mental health, suicide risk and other psychosocial toxicities is required. managing economic problems, job loss, financial stress generated by the high cost of treatments associated with depression, anxiety, fear, anger, isolation, feelings of worthlessness, abandonment, deep mental pain related to loss of voice, relationships, previous life style , make the care of tracheostomy a complex and difficult act. this paper demonstrates that the care of tracheostomy is one of the most suggestive examples of interdisciplinarity, offering effective solutions for the psychosocial problems associated with this special type of patient who needs special care. references billington, j., & luckett, a. (2019). care of the critically ill patient with a tracheostomy. nursing standard, 34(2), 59–65. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.2019.e11297 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 319 bolos, a., ciubara, a. m., chirita, r. (2012). moral and ethical aspects of the relantionship between depression and suicide. revista romana de bioetica, 10(3),71-79. bonvento, b., wallace, s., lynch, j., coe, b., & mcgrath, b. a. (2017). role of the multidisciplinary team in the care of the tracheostomy patient. journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 10, 391–398. https://doi.org/10.2147/jmdh.s118419 călărașu, r., dimitriu, t., & safta, d. (2013). îndrumar pentru examenul de specialitatea orl și chirurgie cervico-facială [guide for the ent and cervico-facial surgery exam]. https://www.scribd.com/document/370247815/indrumar-pt-examenulpractic-in-specialitatea-orl-si-chirurgie-cervico-faciala-1 curis, c., ciubară, a. b., nechita, a., nechita, l., kantor, c., & moroianu, l. a. (2018). the role of the motivational interview in treatment. revista medicochirurgicală a societății de medici și naturaliști, 122(2), 375–380. https://www.revmedchir.ro/index.php/revmedchir/article/view/1172 freeman-sanderson, a. l., togher, l., elkins, m., & kenny, b. (2018). quality of life improves for tracheostomy patients with return of voice: a mixed methods evaluation of the patient experience across the care continuum. intensive and critical care nursing, 46, 10–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iccn.2018.02.004 gosak, m., gradišar, k., rotovnik kozjek, n., & strojan, p. (2020). psychological distress and nutritional status in head and neck cancer patients: a pilot study. european archives of oto-rhino-laryngology, 277(4), 1211–1217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-020-05798-y ichikura, k., nakayama, n., matsuoka, s., ariizumi, y., sumi, t., sugimoto, t., fukase, y., murayama, n., tagaya, h., asakage, t., & matsushima, e. (2020). efficacy of stress management program for depressive patients with advanced head and neck cancer: a single-center pilot study. international journal of clinical and health psychology, 20(3), 213–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2020.06.003 paduraru, i. m., vollmer, j., diana, p., bogdan, c. a., hozan, c. t., firescu, d., & ciubara, a. (2019). anxiety and depression in patients with cancer. a case report. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(3), 55-59. melissant, h. c., jansen, f., schutte, l. e. r., lissenberg-witte, b. i., buter, j., leemans, c. r., sprangers, m. a., vergeer, m. r., laan, e. t. m., & verdonck-de leeuw, i. m. (2018). the course of sexual interest and enjoyment in head and neck cancer patients treated with primary (chemo)radiotherapy. oral oncology, 83, 120–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oraloncology.2018.06.016 psychosocial implications of patients with tracheostomy a suggestive example ... daniela stan, et al. 320 mirea, l., ungureanu, r., mirea, d., țigliș, m., grințescu, i. c., neagu, p. t., & grințescu, i. m. (2017). the timing of tracheostomy in critically ill patient. orl.ro, 2(35), 20. https://doi.org/10.26416/orl.35.2.2017.794 nakarada-kordic, i., patterson, n., wrapson, j., & reay, s. d. (2018). a systematic review of patient and caregiver experiences with a tracheostomy. patient, 11(2), pp. 175–191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40271-017-0277-1 osazuwa‐peters, n., simpson, m. c., zhao, l., boakye, e. a., olomukoro, s. i., deshields, t., loux, t. m., varvares, m. a., & schootman, m. (2018). suicide risk among cancer survivors: head and neck versus other cancers. cancer, 124(20), 4072–4079. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.31675 rovira, a., dawson, d., walker, a., tornari, c., dinham, a., foden, n., surda, p., archer, s., lonsdale, d., ball, j., ofo, e., karagama, y., odutoye, t., little, s., simo, r., & arora, a. (2021). tracheostomy care and decannulation during the covid-19 pandemic. a multidisciplinary clinical practice guideline. european archives of oto-rhino-laryngology, 278(2), 313–321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-020-06126-0 schorn, l., lommen, j., sproll, c., krüskemper, g., handschel, j., nitschke, j., prokein, b., gellrich, n. c., & holtmann, h. (2020). evaluation of patient specific care needs during treatment for head and neck cancer. oral oncology, 110, 104898. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oraloncology.2020.104898 semple, c., parahoo, k., norman, a., mccaughan, e., humphris, g., & mills, m. (2013). psychosocial interventions for patients with head and neck cancer. cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2013(7). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd009441.pub2 sutt, a. l., tronstad, o., barnett, a. g., kitchenman, s., & fraser, j. f. (2020). earlier tracheostomy is associated with an earlier return to walking, talking, and eating. australian critical care, 33(3), 213–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2020.02.006 swain, s. k., acharya, s., & das, s. (2021). social impact of tracheostomy: our experiences at a tertiary care teaching hospital of eastern india. journal of the scientific society, 47(3), 148. https://doi.org/10.4103/jss.jss_61_20 twigg, j. a., anderson, j. m., humphris, g., nixon, i., rogers, s. n., & kanatas, a. (2020). best practice in reducing the suicide risk in head and neck cancer patients: a structured review. british journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery, 58(9), 6–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjoms.2020.06.035 wang, c., wang, j., wang, b., jing, x., & huang, y. (2018). effect of enteral nutrition tolerance assessment standardized process management on ventilator associated pneumonia and prognosis in patients with tracheotomy and long-term mechanical ventilation in intensive care unit. zhonghua wei zhong bing ji jiu yi xue, 30(12), 1173–1177. https://doi.org/10.3760/cma.j.issn.2095-4352.2018.12.014 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 321 watchara, t., & kiwanuka, f. (2019). special article family caregivers for older adults with a tracheostomy during hospitalization: psychological impacts and support. in international journal of caring sciences, 12(2), 1244-1250. http://www.internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org/docs/75_1tabootwong_special_12_2.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 172-182 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/177 studying the impact of professional interaction on social workers’ emotional burnout liudmyla novyk¹, tamara mazur 2 1 chernihiv polytechnic national university, ukraine, lyudmilanovik2015@gmail.com 2 chernihiv polytechnic national university, ukraine, offerlund@gmail.com abstract: the article deals with emotional burnout in social workers who work with people who witnessed the conflict, lost loved ones or with numerous refugees who moved to different parts of the country and are rebuilding their lives. the authors of the article used a free-form essay on the topic "the most problematic situations in my work with migrants". they analyzed the obtained results using content analysis to identify the main manifestations of “burnout”, as well as possible preconditions for its occurrence. the research involved 245 social workers aged between 25 and 45 (work experience of 5 to 10 years), who assist those who have become migrants as a result of hostilities in eastern ukraine. most often, negative emotional states in social workers with emotional burnout cause difficulties in the adaptation of migrants from the war zone in eastern ukraine. content analysis has shown that most emotionally significant situations in the interaction between social workers and these clients arise because of psychological difficulties. emotional states of social workers within the structure of emotional burnout are manifested through the identification-separation mechanism. in turn, social workers perceive negative emotional states as a manifestation of their psychological professional inability accompanied by disorders in selfidentity and negative content of structural units of self-awareness. social workers themselves experience several difficulties when communicating with clients and helping them to overcome problematic situations. keywords: emotional states; emotional burnout; professional interaction; difficult situation; difficulties in the adaptation of migrants; neurophysiological characteristics. how to cite: novyk, l., & mazur, t. (2021). studying the impact of professional interaction on social workers’ emotional burnout. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 172-182. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/177 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/177 mailto:lyudmilanovik2015@gmail.com mailto:offerlund@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/177 studying the impact of professional interaction on social workers’ emotional … liudmyla novyk, et al. 173 introduction emotional burnout is a multifactorial process, which includes the interaction between stress, characteristics of the central nervous system and production environment. also noteworthy are the studies on neurophysiological characteristics of emotional “burnout”. luijtelaar, verbraak, bunt, & keijsers (2010) indicate that patients experiencing emotional burnout demonstrate the changes in the beta range and a decreased power in the parietal-temporal-occipital parts of the brain. the authors prove that patients with emotional burnout deal with the changes in the alpha range on the electroencephalogram (eeg). the studies by golonka, mojsa-kaja, blukacz, gawłowska, & marek (2019) have shown a decrease in the power of the alpha range on the background of open eyes, a decrease in the amplitude of the alpha rhythm, a correlation of the asymmetry of the alpha rhythm with the stages of emotional burnout. at the same time, the studies on the individual frequency of the alpha rhythm (an indicator of cognitive functioning in a stressful situation) in patients with emotional burnout demonstrate its decrease (enoch, chibnall, schindler, & slavin, 2013). the article aims to study the psycho-emotional states accompanying emotional burnout in social workers who assist migrants from the war zone in eastern ukraine. analyzing the phenomenon of emotional burnout first of all, emotional burnout identification requires consideration of all the performance and symptoms of this phenomenon. this phenomenon as a social problem was first described in a clinic (fredenberger, 1974). working as a psychiatrist in a health centre, fredenberger (1974) observed a lot of workers who felt gradual burnout, loss of motivation and working capacity. the signs of burnout syndrome were observed during a year and were accompanied by some symptoms of physical health and intellectual sphere. fredenberger (1974) used the term “burnout” to denote such a state of mental exhaustion. researching people’s cognitive strategies which are used in the fight against emotional arousal, maslach (1982) determined that phenomena being investigated influence the professional identification and staff behaviour. she accidentally determined that lawyers call this phenomenon “burnout”. the usage of this term in the future showed an explicit understanding of it by test subjects. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 174 the term “burnout” by maslach, & jackson (1984) is the most common and generally accepted. according to this term, burnout is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion and cognitive weariness which can be found in social occupations. this syndrome consists of three basic components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced feelings of work-related personal accomplishment. the authors of the article believe that it is no coincidence that maslach, & jackson (1984) use the term syndrome, emphasizing the relative dependence of its elements which can also exist on their own as individual elements in other different conditions. the integration of all elements creates burnout syndrome. burnout is also regarded as physiological erosion (etzion, 1987; maslach, & leiter, 1997). according to this approach, burnout is defined as a process of erasing psychic energy which appears without warning, develops slowly and does not have a temporary ultimate limit. the human being suddenly starts to feel the symptoms of general exhaustion. the person cannot explain the appearance of them which was caused by the influence of stress factors. maslach, & leiter (1997) also describe burnout in terms of erosion by expanding its content. in their opinion, erosion covers not only a sphere of activation but also other spheres of personality such as values, motivations and volition. they consider burnout as the erosion of human’s soul which is an irreversible process developing in the spiral. there are a lot of sources devoted to the symptoms of burnout (freudenberger, 1974; maher, 1983; kahill, 1988; burish, 1993; schaufeli, & enzmann, 1998; palamarchuk, 2020; nerubasska, 2020a; nerubasska, 2020b; melnyk, 2019; sheremet, 2019). however, there are differences concerning their amount. maher (1983) identifies 12 main symptoms. carroll, & white (1982) suggest 47 symptoms. some other authors broaden the list to 84 symptoms (maslach, & leiter, 1997). there were some attempts to classify burnout symptoms. the most complete classification of burnout symptoms was represented in the work of schaufeli, & enzmann (1998). the classification is built on two grounds. the first ground of allocation of symptoms is the character of individuals’ sphere which they represent. according to this, they allocated 132 burnout symptoms combined into 5 main groups: 1. affective. 2. cognitive. 3. physical. 4. behavioural. 5. motivational. in the authors’ view, these symptoms occur at three levels (psychological, interpersonal and organizational) which give an additional cause for classification. the authors of the article claim that during burnout syndrome one experiences the attitude to oneself and the other human beings depending on the relevant life situation (situational component), previous condition studying the impact of professional interaction on social workers’ emotional … liudmyla novyk, et al. 175 (transsituational component) and personality characteristics (personal component). also, they consider burnout syndrome of social workers within the structure of consciousness through the mechanism of “identification and separation”. this mechanism reveals opposing and conflict trends in individual’s self-awareness who is a part of professional communication and is situated between the necessity to correspond to the state of the client and pursuit to defend one’s professional position in the interaction. these conflict trends create negative emotional conditions blocking productive style of interpersonal interaction which proves itself in the prevention strategy of contact. activation, tonus, ambivalence, the range of experience, dominant emotion, intensity and individual specificity of emotional look serve as the main characteristics of mental state. different functions are typical for a mental-emotional state such as integrative and adaptive function; self-regulating function; organizational and disorganized function; orientation function. the main functional role of emotional states is the preservation of the cooperation of psyche subsystems in the conditions of a changeable environment. mental states are inextricably linked to individual personality characteristics. they are intermediate between mental processes and personality characteristics. emotions and personality go hand in hand at the same time. they serve an integrative function which provides a human response to the current situation and any actions in the environment. due to this fact, the current situation determines emotional states to a lesser extent than factors of socio-psychological personality structure such as needs, goals, value orientations, settings and the attitude to the living situation, readiness to overcoming challenges and satisfaction of self-realization. despite the century-old history of research of “situation” phenomenon and a huge amount of research papers in the various fields of science, there is no unity in the understanding of the situation and its emotional features nature. in general, the situation is regarded as the combination of environment elements or as a fragment of the environment at particular stages of people’s lives. the situation is sometimes defined as a personality’s cognitive construct which reflects the part of objective reality limited in space-time which has a certain social context. there are a lot of situation classifications, but two main types can be defined: simple (day-to-day) and complicated (tense, difficult, extreme). the main feature of the complicated situation is a state of mental tension. mental tension is viewed as a human’s reaction to difficulties which are important to brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 176 overcome. the human reacts to the situation depending on how he or she perceives and evaluates it. the relationship between situation and emotions is being discussed in different research. the problem of “motivation optimum” is investigated beyond which emotional behaviour appeared. emotional situations arise in excessive motivation regarding real adaptational possibilities of the individual. the phenomenon of emotional burnout is relevant among the representatives of “the man-to-man profession”. indeed, it has become rather global in the field of social work in the last twenty years. the professional uniqueness of social workers lies in the fact that they act as mediators between the state and its citizens, who for one reason or another found themselves in an objectively and subjectively difficult (problematic, crisis or extreme) situation. such a special responsibility to a special category of clients, as well as emotional burdens, potentially creates the danger of difficult experiences related to work situations and occupational stress. working in conditions of special risk can lead to a decrease in both human capacity and efficiency, as well as to negative changes in the psyche and loss of values-based orientations in work. these disorders can affect various aspects of the working process, including professional activities, professional’s personality, professional communication. they usually imply that one cannot use the available personal capabilities and tools due to mental fatigue or loses one’s skills and abilities. it leads to disorders and deformations of professional activities, as well as reduced productivity in general. the current difficult political and socio-economic situation in ukraine highlights the need for a comprehensive study on the psychological state of specialists who assist victims forced to migrate to safer regions of ukraine (gerasymova, 2019; onishchuk, 2020; maksymchuk, 2020a; maksymchuk, 2020b). the profession of a social worker is also associated with a specific risk. it is so because social workers deal with disadvantaged people experiencing stress suffering for whose health and life they take moral responsibility. in addition to using professional knowledge, skills and abilities, social workers rely on their personality. indeed, they act as emotional donors, which also implies occupational risk factors. social workers face various kinds of difficult situations. moreover, communication situation includes a wide range of clients’ emotional states. the lack of confidence, anxiety and stress are common among the unemployed people. former convicts are vulnerable to waiting, hope or studying the impact of professional interaction on social workers’ emotional … liudmyla novyk, et al. 177 hopelessness, longing, boredom and apathy, frustration and desperation. elderly people live in a state of fear, oppression, social insecurity, loneliness and a sense of lesser worth. people with special needs are in the negative self-evaluated state; they are unhappy with themselves and the other people. children with special needs suffer from hospitalism syndrome, neurotic disorders, pathological formation of personality, overall and mental development. the main emotional states which the social worker faced are disappointment, desperation, apathy, frustration, fear, frustration, anxiety, loneliness and hopelessness. working with these states requires peculiar psychological knowledge and skills, certain personal qualities of an expert. clients’ unfavourable emotional states (disappointment, desperation, apathy, frustration, fear, anxiety, loneliness and hopelessness) bring out their own negative experiences in a social worker. when dealing with clients, helping them to overcome the difficulties, social workers also feel several challenges. as a result, the client’s objectively difficult situation becomes a social worker’s subjective difficulty which is a part of his professional consciousness. this, however, poses a complex emotional set which includes basic emotions and situational emotional states. this set encourages the professional to realize the possibilities of solving the difficult situation and can be a cause of negative physical and mental human’s state including deprivation of his or her self-awareness. the analysis of psychological literature shows that the conditions and factors which create the burnout syndrome have been studied rather broadly. yet, there is no information which describes psycho-emotional states that accompany the burnout syndrome among social workers who assist migrants from combat operational zone. the purpose of the study was to explore psycho-emotional states that accompany the burnout syndrome among social workers who assist migrants from a war zone in the east of ukraine. the research involved 245 social workers aged between 25 and 45 (work experience of 5 to 10 years), who assist those who have become migrants as a result of hostilities in eastern ukraine. the authors of the article used a free-form essay on the topic “the most problematic situations in my work with migrants”. they analyzed the obtained results using content analysis to identify the main manifestations of "burnout", as well as possible preconditions for its occurrence. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 178 emotional states of social workers when interacting with clients the reflexive method revealed the peculiarities of emotional states among social workers in the process of working with clients. the authors of the article defined that social workers who face clients’ adjustment difficulties in deplorable living conditions have negative emotional states. difficulties in adjusting among elderly people, children and adults with special need, the unemployed who have the status of displaced person are the main reason for negative emotions among social workers. a content analysis of essays showed that a majority of emotionally relevant situations arise in connection with psychological difficulties during interaction with social workers and clients. the specialists go through negative emotional states connected with professional psychological insolvency such as frustration about lack of psychological knowledge and skills (89.6%), lack of the patience to hear the client (83%), a state of depression and apathy as a result of identification with clients’ negative emotional states (81.1%), anxiety concerning lack of professional ability to deal constructively with conflict situations (82.8%). absence of success in professional communication leads to deprivation of recognition and devaluation of the personal importance of social worker. this indicates low self-professional-confidence, possibilities (88.5%), dissatisfaction with the results of their work (56%) and their professional status (43.4%). deprivation to recognition is accompanied by violations in the structural link which is called “social space of personality” social workers serve as mediators, assistants. therefore, they must psychologically correctly respond to negative clients’ reactions, keep psychologically tested distance, show emotional restraint and tolerance. mistrust, discontent and aggression cause frustration among the specialists (79.7%). the part of the workers feels guilty (38.5%) and most of them resentful (96.2%) and though they try to hide the irritation. the profession of social worker requires being understanding and empathetic; that is why they control their emotions. this ambivalent state of social workers the authors of the article classified as an occupational personality conflict between their social debt as a mediator and an assistant and their right to show negative emotions connected with emotional difficulties during communication with clients. the evaluation of the clients activates the mechanism of identification and separation among social workers. the social worker wants the identification with clients on the one hand and the exclusion from them on the other hand. these studying the impact of professional interaction on social workers’ emotional … liudmyla novyk, et al. 179 peculiarities of the emotional state of social workers have their specific features in interaction with different clients’ categories. conclusions the peculiarities of emotional states among social workers within the structure of the burnout syndrome manifest themselves through the action of the mechanism of “identification and separation”. this mechanism reveals opposing and conflict trends included in professional communication of individual's self-awareness between the necessity to correspond to the state of the client and pursuit to defend his or her professional position in the interaction. negative emotional states such as dissatisfaction, tension, emotional weakness, lack of confidence, confusion which appear among social workers during difficult situations of interaction with migrants from a war zone in the east of ukraine become a cause of professional, personal and interpersonal issues. negative emotional states from the point of view of social workers are accompanied by violations of self-identity and negative content of structural links of consciousness. the article acknowledges that negative emotional states of clients such as disappointment, desperation, apathy, frustration, fear, frustration, anxiety, loneliness and hopelessness bring out negative feelings in a social worker. when dealing with clients, helping them to overcome the difficulties, social workers also feel several challenges. being under the influence of negative emotions the social worker feels the difficulties in the realization of professional duty to be a leader in communication and falls under influence of the client. empathy ability connects with an attempt to contain the activity and authoritarianism. however, the specialist may exercise the right of defence in the event of hostile attitude by the client. passive defensive reactions in professional communication appear in subordinate behaviour. active defensive reactions combine hypersensitivity to critical remarks, sense of insecurity in connection with the ill will of clients. references burisch, m. (1993). in search of theory: some ruminations on the nature and etiology of burnout. in w. b. schaufeli, c. maslach, & t. marek (eds.), series in applied psychology: social issues and questions. professional burnout: recent developments in theory and research (pp. 75–93). washington: taylor & francis. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-97794-005 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 180 carroll, j. f. x., & white, w. l. (1982). theory building: integrating individual and environmental factors within an ecological framework. in w. s. paine (ed.), job stress and burnout (pp. 41–60). beverly hills, ca: sage. http://www.psychologyinspain.com/reference2.asp?id1=594 enoch, l., chibnall, j. t., schindler, d. l., & slavin, s. j. (2013). association of medical student burnout with residency specialty choice. medical education, 47(2), 17381. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23323656/ etzion, d. (1987). burning out in management: a comparison of women and men in matched organizational positions. israel social science research, 5(1-2), 147– 163. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1989-34896-001 freudenberger, h. (1974). staff burnout. journal of social issues, 30, 159165. https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.15404560.1974.tb00706.x gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11 (4), 345-361. http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604 /pdf golonka, k., mojsa-kaja, j., blukacz, m., gawłowska, m., & marek, t. (2019). occupational burnout and its overlapping effect with depression and anxiety. international journal of occupational medicine and environmental health, 32(2), 229244. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30855601/ kahill, s. (1988). symptoms of professional burnout: a review of the empirical evidence. canadian psychology/psychologie canadienne, 29(3), 284297. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0079772 luijtelaar, g. van, verbraak, m., bunt, m. van den, & keijsers, g. p. j. (2010). eeg findings in burnout patients. the journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 22(2), 208217. https://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/jnp.2010.22.2.208 maher, e. l. (1983). burnout and commitment: a theoretical alternative. personnel and guidance journal, 61(7), 390393. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.21644918.1983.tb00051.x maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf studying the impact of professional interaction on social workers’ emotional … liudmyla novyk, et al. 181 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 maslach, c. (1982). understanding burnout: definitional issues in analyzing a complex phenomenon. in w. s. paine (ed.), job stress and burnout (pp. 29– 40). beverly hills, ca: sage. https://www.coursehero.com/file/p75geppa/15-maslach-c-1982understanding-burnout-definitional-issues-in-analyzing-a/ maslach, c., & jackson, s. (1984). burnout in organizational settings. applied social psychology annual, 5, 133153. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-24012001 maslach, c., & leiter, m. p. (1997). the truth about burnout: how organizations cause personal stress and what to do about it. jossey-bass. https://www.wiley.com/enus/the+truth+about+burnout%3a+how+organizations+cause+pers onal+stress+and+what+to+do+about+it-p-9780470423561 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51 (1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020a). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/ 2625 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020b). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 182 in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 schaufeli, w. b., & enzmann, d. (1998). the burnout companion to study and practice: a critical analysis. london: taylor & francis. https://www.routledge.com/the-burnout-companion-to-study-andpractice-a-critical-analysis/schaufeli-enzmann/p/book/9780748406982 sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 229-238 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/280 persistent depressive disorder: the clinical approach of the patient associating depression and dental pathology case report and clinical considerations marius moroianu¹, laviniaalexandra moroianu2, anamaria ciubară3, mădălina nicoleta matei4 1 department of dental medicine, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “duna rea de jos” university of galat i, 47 domnească street, 800008, galat i, românia; medical assistance service of the municipality of galaţi, 97 traian street, galați, românia. 2 hospital of psychiatry “elisabeta doamna”, 290 traian street, galaţi, românia; university “dunărea de jos” galaţi, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, clinical medical department, 47 domnească street, 800008, galaţi, românia, lavinia.moroianu@yahoo.com 3 hospital of psychiatry “elisabeta doamna”, 290 traian street, galaţi, românia; university “dunărea de jos” galaţi, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, clinical medical department, 47 domnească street, 800008, galaţi, românia 4 department of dental medicine, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “duna rea de jos” niversity of galat i, 47 domnească street, 800008, galat i, românia; emergency clinical pediatric hospital “sf. ioan”, 2 gheorghe asachi street, galaţi, românia. abstract: growing research literature has documented an increased association between depression and dental problems. patients with severe dental problems suffer from psychosocial consequences, distress and psychiatric problems. aim: to emphasize the relationship between resistant depression and poor dental health. method: this case report demonstrates the association between resistant depression and poor dental health in a 46-year-old female patient. scores on clinical assessment measures suggested clinically severe levels of anxiety, worry, stigmatization, depression, sleeping and eating disorders and decreased satisfaction in quality of life at the beginning of the intervention. the theoretical rationale and treatment implications are presented. results: the scores on all these measures improved at the end of the dental interventions and no intense remaining depressive symptoms were reported afterward. increased scores on life satisfaction and quality of life were documented as well. this case illustrates the potential benefit of dental treatment associating psychiatric treatment. a definitively positive association exists between poor dental health and depression. once simultaneous treatment is initiated, there are chances for patients to have a positive evolution and social reinsertion. conclusion: the high occurrence of depression, anxiety and stress among patients with dental problems highlights the importance of providing support programs and implementing preventive measures to anticipate and help persons with this type of pathology, particularly those who are most susceptible to higher levels of these psychological conditions. keywords: depression, anxiety, dental problems, stigmatization, serum serotonin. how to cite: moroianu, m., moroianu, l.-a., ciubară, a., & matei, m.n. (2022). persistent depressive disorder: the clinical approach of the patient associating depression and dental pathology case report and clinical considerations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 229-238. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/280 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/280 mailto:lavinia.moroianu@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/280 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 230 1. introduction both persistent depressive disorder and dental problems are topics of national and global interest, and nowadays there is a great openness of the population to the understanding and screening of these pathologies; the treatment is expensive and long lasting in both cases. the current literature emphasizes the interdependence of oral health and psychological aspects in the patient’s treatment and also place light upon the more important variables contributing to the various mental disorders that accompany dental problems such as temporomandibular disorders, periodontal disease, dental caries or pain having dental origin ( a lupu et al., 2016; b lupu et al., 2016; c lupu et al., 2016). studies from literature suggest a close relationship between dental problems and depression, anxiety, different eating habits, personality traits or stress. furthermore, anxietydepressive disorders and somatization contribute to chronic dental problems because of the mental fear induced before arriving in a dental office. the relationship between depression, anxiety and dental problems is multidirectional. the current state of mentality is an effect, but also a cause of emergence, continuation or exacerbation of dental problems, which makes correct assessment difficult. moreover, it is difficult to diagnose a patient with depression that has dental problems (berger et al., 2015; leary & hoyle, 2013; lupu et al., 2015). according to dsm v, persistent depressive disorder is defined as a chronic major depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder where are found the following criteria: a. depressed mood for most of the day, for more days than not, as indicated by either subjective account or observation by others, for at least 2 years. b. presence, while depressed, of two (or more) of the following: poor appetite or overeating, insomnia or hypersomnia, low energy or fatigue, low self-esteem, poor concentration or difficulty making decisions, feelings of hopelessness. c. during the 2-year period of the disturbance, the individual has never been without the symptoms in the first two criteria for more than 2 months at a time. d. criteria for a major depressive disorder exists continuously for 2 years. e. there has never been a hypomanic episode or a manic episode, and criteria have never been met for cyclothymic disorder. persistent depressive disorder: the clinical approach of the patient associating … marius moroianu, et al. 231 f. the psychical disorder is not better explained by a schizophrenic or schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder or other psychotic disorders g. the symptoms are not due to the physiological effects of a substance or another medical condition h. the symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (american psychiatric association, 2013). studies reported in the literature confirms that a high level of general anxiety indicates a higher risk of irregular dental care (bernson et al., 2013). furthermore, anxiety, depression and adhd can result in poor oral hygiene, thereby having indirect, adverse effects on the periodontal health status of the affected individual (alkan et al., 2015). besides aesthetics, oral health plays an important role in many vital functions, such as speech and mastication. these are complementary elements of both psychological and physiological health. if they are lost, the personal, familial and social quality of life of the subject is adversely affected (hugo et al., 2009). also, in their study, alkan revealed that individuals with high depression scores neglected their oral hygiene (alkan et al., 2015). furthermore, not only depression has implications in oral health and vice versa. studies confirm that there are a series of factors that influence the mental status of a patient (damian et al., 2020; galan, 2017; huidu, 2020; sandu & nistor, 2020): chronic diseases such as end-stage renal disease, which has a big influence in the quality of life reported by patients (cervino et al., 2019; nițoi & moroianu, 2020) and diabetes can also influence the mental status of patients (moroianu, et al. 2020). in addition to, a biological marker is linked with some oral pathologies and could be taken into consideration as a screening factor: vitamin d. moreover, for patients associating depression it could be taken into consideration the values of serum serotonin (botelho et al., 2020; saldanha, et al., 2009). 2. case report we present the case of a patient, t.g. age 42, female, who initially presented to the dental office for a dental pain at the temporal-mandibular level. following the dental consultation, a pericoronary process (pericoronaritis) was detected with pain radiating in the auricular-temporalmandibular area. the fact that it presents an increased anxiety and an associated dental pathology determined the inclusion in this study respecting the rights and confidentiality of the patient as well as her personal data. following the application of the individual response questionnaire to the patient, the problems that were marked included the appetite, a brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 232 dissatisfaction with the physical appearance and poor quality of life because she felt inferior to others (retired because of her illness and due to poor appearance, the patient did not seem to speak correct and also appeared to be ridiculed by people around although she did not present difficulties of social integration). from a dental perspective, the patient’s treatment consisted of washing the inflammatory area with an antiseptic solution, received treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory and oral gastric protector and was referred to psychiatric service and after stabilizing the psychiatric pathology to return to dental office for consultation and treatment. at the psychiatric hospital where she was referred, the patient was hospitalized in an emergency sector because she had a sad mood, apathy, increased anxiety, hypersomnia, developed easy crying and decreased appetite due to both depressive mood and dental problems. from the hereditary-collateral antecedents, we note that the patient’s sister is affected by recurrent depressive disorder for 20 years, but successfully kept under therapeutic control, and her father developed at the age of 78, mixed anxiety-depression disorder without a specific cause. the personal pathological antecedents are represented by an appendectomy in adolescence, psychiatric history since 2005 (multiple psychiatric diagnoses after the death of a patient in the nursing home for older people where she worked (before retirement due to illness activated as a nurse), history of chronic diseases (from the age of 15 she was diagnosed with congenital platyspondylya and she had practiced vertebroplasty and hypothyroidism since 2005), having no history of infectious diseases. living and working conditions: the patient has post-secondary education, at that time being a disability pensioner, married (fusion relationship) with her husband and has a 16-year-old daughter (who declared herself as transgender). she does not declare any addiction and the treatments administered currently at home were the one with ibandronic acid 1500mg/3 month, levothyroxinum 25 µg/day, benzodiazepines (alprazolamum 0.5mg/day) and antidepressant (venlafaxinum 75mg/1day). the history of the disease: a 42-year-old patient with multiple hospitalizations in psychiatry, living in the urban area, hospitalized for sad mood, apathy increased anxiety, hypersomnia, easy crying and eating disorders, symptoms that began about 16 years ago and augmented about a week before hospitalization due to difficulty of chewing, inability to eat and an apparent delusional ideation of stigma. persistent depressive disorder: the clinical approach of the patient associating … marius moroianu, et al. 233 from a clinical and paraclinical viewpoint (usual hemoleukogram type blood tests, lipid profile, renal) there were no pathological changes. at the examination of the mental state, the patient was observed with a sad mood, easy crying, anxious, visibly preoccupied with dental problems (pain and future treatments to be performed), street attire, maintained hygiene. spontaneous narrative discourse focused on the feeling of inner “emptiness,” severe anhedonia accompanied by hypersomnia both day and night, mild bradypsychia and bradylalia. at the time of the examination, she denies perceptual disorders/suicidal, hypersomnia, decreased appetite is also due to dental problems. decreased useful yield (currently retired because of her orthopedic illness for about 8 years), but the insight of the disease present. during the hospitalization, the previous treatment was suspended (the patient states that “i have not felt anything for months, to be 8–9 months, no improvement”). clomipraminum 25mg treatment is given up to 3cp/day in progressive doses without side effects, benzodiazepine (alprazolam 0.50 mg 1+1+0cp/day), infusion treatment with vitamins, and no hospitalization was not required a treatment switch, the evolution being slowly favorable. the patient is discharged on request 4 days after admission for personal reasons. two weeks after being discharged from the hospital, she returned to the dentist to continue the dental treatments she had planned. immediately after solving them, there is an improvement in nutrition, which could not be corrected by the previously established psychiatric treatment, stating that she feels happier and socially no longer feels stigmatized due to poor pronunciation of certain words. after multiple psychiatric consultations performed monthly, within about 5 months, the patient notices an improvement in depressive symptoms, is hired as a nurse (position won through and admission exam), but does not feel completely satisfied, understood by the daughter, anhedonia persists, fact for which she decides to stop her medication. at a new consultation, she informs the psychiatrist that she is no longer taking the previously prescribed treatment and wants a change “i want to try to be well without medication, especially because i work.” about 3 months after stopping the medication, she returns to the doctor, stationary in terms of evolution, treatment is instituted with duloxetinum 30mg, trazodonum 150mg, alprazolamum 0.5mg and modafilinum 100mg, aripiprzolum 5mg. with the doctor, it is decided to conduct in her own payment regime, serum serotonin, dosage of vitamin d and vitamin b12 before making any other changes regarding the medication and start the prescribed treatment. the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 234 results of serum serotonin were 7.7 µg/l (minimum 80 µg/l), 1.25(oh) vitamin d 36.8pg/ml and vitamin b12 394pg/ml. at 2 months after administration of the medication, serum serotonin increases to 34µg/l (the patient notices an improvement in mood, but requests an increase in duloxetine to 90mg/day) and after one month, serum serotonin reaches 56.2 µg/l, which indicates that the treatment is optimally administered, the dose is appropriate and the clinical outcome is favorable. evolution and prognosis: the symptoms remit in a proportion of 30%, being slowly favorable, which increases duloxetine to 90mg/day. the prognosis is easily reserved, woman, socio-familial support with difficulties, slow response to the established treatment, the “omniscient” patient. serum serotonin after the new treatment had a positive and constant evolution. her sleeping and eating habits improved, also her cognitive status and disposition. 3. discussions 3.1. general discussions the psychiatric disorders related to stress, anxiety and depression can intensify or exacerbate some somatic comorbidities (berger et al., 2015) or vice versa, as it was demonstrated in this study. dental pathology and psychiatric comorbidities appear to have a synergic effect and they also appear to be in a co-dependence when both pathologies are found in the same patient. also, from our case report, we can conclude that once one of these two pathologies is treated, also some symptoms from the other one descends in intensity. in contrast, that was demonstrated in the a 2013-study (bernson et al., 2013) about dental coping, our patient presented at the dental cabinet for investigations and treatment even if there existed symptoms of a deep depression. moreover, she agreed to receive psychiatric help even if she did not ask for it in advance. from the same viewpoint as alkan et al.’s study, our patient had parafunctional habits and lower income habits, but in contrast on their study, she had medical studies (alkan et al., 2015). it is also demonstrated, that symptoms of depression can lead to poor oral hygiene and poor oral hygiene can lead to poor alimentation which can be defined as a symptom of depression and not only a cause because of major dental problems. both factors can lead to poorer quality of life (hugo et al., 2009). this case report has brought to light that the complications due to dental and psychiatric pathologies affect the quality of life of one’s patient as persistent depressive disorder: the clinical approach of the patient associating … marius moroianu, et al. 235 it was demonstrated also for a patient with chronic diseases such as diabetes or end-stage renal disease (cervino et al., 2019; nițoi & moroianu, 2020; moroianu et al., 2020). it is well-known that vitamin d plays an important role in the teeth mineralization and protection, fact demonstrated in the study by botelho et al. in 2020’ study (botelho et al., 2020). even if the dosage of vitamin d was in the normal parameter, our patient developed severe dental problems that made her alimentation difficult. we can consider that all her dental problems can be connected to her congenital orthopedic condition even if she were under a rigorous medication for that. furthermore, we can consider, that her low level of serotonin and her depression symptoms have also been a factor for not taking care of her oral health in advance (untu et al., 2015). the persistent depressive disorder can also be a factor for poor oral health, even if she had a family, a good relationship with her husband and medical studies. 3.2. highlights anxiety detected in the dental office is not always an anticipatory anxiety, but it can be associated with vast psychiatric pathology. multidisciplinary consultation and teamwork patient-psychiatristdentist can be part of a screening process if the patient associates psychiatric and dental pathology. 4. conclusions additionally, adult patients with a long psychiatric history show treatment-resistant psychiatric symptoms associated with dental pathology. although the established psychiatric treatment quickly resolved some of the patient’s functional and social disorders, consultation and dental treatment prevailed to resolve the appetite disorder and its perception of stigma toward others. after completing the individual response questionnaire, an increase in the quality of life and the patient’s future perspectives were observed, existing a negative response to the item about suicidal thoughts/ideas and a positive response to the one about future plan. both psychiatric and dental pathology-screening programs are necessary because when they occur simultaneously, the adjacent symptoms have a synergistic effect, and it would be preferable for treating these associated pathologies to be performed at the same time and the patient regularly monitored. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 236 conflict of interest disclosure there are no known conflicts of interest in the publication of this article. the manuscript was read and approved by all authors. compliance with ethical standards any aspect of the work covered in this manuscript has been conducted with the ethical approval of all relevant bodies and that such approvals are acknowledged within the manuscript. acknowledgments all authors have contributed equally to this paper. references alkan, a., cakmak, o., yilmaz, s., taylan, c., & gurgan, c. (2015). relationship between psychological factors and oral health status and behaviours. oral health and preventive dentistry, 13, 331-339. https://doi.org/10.3290/j.ohpd.a32679 american psychiatric association (2013). the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm–5), fifth edition, major depressive disorder. calisto medical. berger, m., oleszeklistopad, j., marczak, m., & szymanska, j. (2015). psychological aspects of temporomandibular disordersliterature review. current issues in pharmacy medical sciences, 28(1), 55-59. https://doi.org/10.1515/cipms-2015-0044 bernson, j. m., elfstrom, m. l., & hakeberg, m. (2013). dental coping strategies, general anxiety, and depression among adult patients with dental anxiety but with different dental‐attendance patterns. european journal of oral sciences, 121 (3pt2), 270-276. https://doi.org/10.1111/eos.12039 botelho, j., machado, v., proença, l., delgado, a. s., & mendes, j. j. (2020). vitamin d deficiency and oral health: a comprehensive review. nutrients, 12(5), 1471. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12051471 cervino, g., terranova a., briguglio, f., de stefano, r., fama, f., d’amico, c., et al. (2019). diabetes; oral health related quality of life and oral alterations. biomed research international, article id 5907195. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5907195 damian, s. i., diac, m. m., knieling, a., iov, t., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2020). observance of the probative value of the psychiatric forensic expertise guarantee of avoiding judicial errors in criminal proceedings. logos https://doi.org/10.3290/j.ohpd.a32679 https://doi.org/10.1515/cipms-2015-0044 https://doi.org/10.1111/eos.12039 https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12051471 https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5907195 persistent depressive disorder: the clinical approach of the patient associating … marius moroianu, et al. 237 universality mentality education novelty: law, 8(1), 60-72. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/8.1/37 galan, d. (2017). psycho-physical performance and stress in the sports group. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 6(1), 33-40. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/lumenss/article/view/ 33 hugo, f. n., hilgert, j. b., de sousa, mda, l., & cury, j. a. (2009). oral status and its association with general quality of life in older in-dependent-living south-brazilians. community dentistry and oral epidemiology, 37(3), 231–240. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0528.2009.00459.x huidu, a. (2019). the psychopathology of serial killers. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 3(1), 38-54. https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.19 leary, m. r. & hoyle, r. h. (2013). handbook of individual differences in social behavior. guilford publications. lupu, v. v., ignat, a., ciubotariu, g., ciubară, a., moscalu, m., & burlea, m. (2016). helicobacter pylori infection and gastroesophageal reflux in children. diseases of the esophagus, 29(8), 1007-1012. https://doi.org/10.1111/dote.12429 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., ciubara, a. m., ioniuc, i., ciubara, a. b., gheonea, c., & burlea, m. (2016). the study of effects regarding ingestion of corrosive substances in children. revista de chimie, 67(12), 2501-2503. https://revistadechimie.ro/articles.asp?id=5342 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., ciubara, a., moscalu, m., marginean, c. o., & burlea, m. (2016). correlation between the different ph-metry scores in gastroesophageal reflux disease in children. medicine, 95(26), e3804. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000003804 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., mihaila, d., burlea, m., & ciubara, a. (2015). heterotopic gastric mucosa in the distal part of esophagus in a teenager case report. medicine, 94(42), e1722. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 moroianu, l. a., motofei, i. g., curis, c., barbu, r. e., & toma, a. (2020). the impact of anxiety and depression on the pediatric patients with diabetes, mediterranean journal of clinical psychology, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.6092/2282-1619/mjcp-2435 niţoi, l. c., & moroianu, l. a. (2020). serum hemoglobin level and quality of life in end stage renal disease, the medicalsurgical journal, internal medicinepediatrics, 124(3), 381-387. https://www.revmedchir.ro/index.php/revmedchir/article/view/2208 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/8.1/37 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/lumenss/article/view/33 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/lumenss/article/view/33 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0528.2009.00459.x https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.19 https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.19 https://doi.org/10.1111/dote.12429 https://revistadechimie.ro/articles.asp?id=5342 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1746968 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/2311391 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/3026138 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1757602 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1202861 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1383484 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1065449 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000003804 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 https://doi.org/10.6092/2282-1619/mjcp-2435 https://www.revmedchir.ro/index.php/revmedchir/article/view/2208 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 238 saldanha, d., kumar, n., ryali, v. s. s. r., srivastava, k., & pawar, a. a. (2009), serum serotonin abnormality in depression. medical journal armed forces india, 65(2), 108-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-1237(09)80120-2 sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). the effects of mass-media on social behavior, emotions and cognitions. logos universality mentality education novelty: political sciences & european studies, 6(2), 32-37. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.2/21 untu, i., chirita, r., bulgaru-iliescu, d., chirila, b. d., ciubara, a., & burlea, s. l. (2015). ethical implications of bio-psycho-social transformations entailed by the aging process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 48, 216-225. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-socialtransformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-1237(09)80120-2 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.2/21 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.2/21 https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul-482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-social-transformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul-482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-social-transformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul-482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-social-transformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 113-123 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/307 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 the effects of sars cov 2 infection – does a depression pandemic follow? cosmina-alina moscu¹, mihaela anghele2, liliana dragomir3, sorina munteanu4, aurelian anghele5, aurel nechita6 1 md, phd student, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania; cosmina_caluian@yahoo.com 2 md, phd student, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, anghele.mihaela@yahoo.com 3 md, phd student, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, pletea.lili@yahoo.com 4 md, phd student, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, sorinanicoleta.munteanu@yahoo.com 5 md, phd student, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, aurelian.anghele@ugal.ro 6 md, phd, hab. professor, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, “dunarea de jos” university of galati, 35 a.i.cuza street, ro 800216, galati, romania, aurel.nechita@ugal.ro abstract: viral infections can be a cause of cns infection, causing mental and neurological symptoms. even under normal conditions, good mental health is of paramount importance to the functioning of society. healthcare workers are critical to the covid-19 pandemic and beyond, but may have to leave work if their mental health is affected. we present the favorable evolution of a patient, a 55 year-old woman, medical staff with a history of viral infection with sars cov-2 (august 2020), which is brought by a crew of the ambulance service in the emergency department (ed) service (december 2020) for multi-drug ingestion for suicide. after treatment and investigations she is transferred to the “elena doamna” psychiatric hospital. after 4 days of hospitalization, he returns to the emergency department by transfer from the psychiatric hospital for underlying seizures, confusion syndrome. during her admission to the neurology service of the “sf ap. andrei” emergency clinical hospital, the patient benefited from numerous clinical and paraclinical investigations, which provided information about the patient's neuropsychiatric evolution. keywords: depression, suicide attempt, pandemic, sars cov 2 infection. how to cite: moscu, c.-a., anghele, m., dragomir, l., munteanu, s., anghele, a., & nechita, a. (2022). the effects of sars cov 2 infection –does a depression pandemic follow?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 113-123. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/307 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/307 mailto:cosmina_caluian@yahoo.com mailto:anghele.mihaela@yahoo.com mailto:pletea.lili@yahoo.com mailto:sorinanicoleta.munteanu@yahoo.com mailto:aurelian.anghele@ugal.ro mailto:aurel.nechita@ugal.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/307 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 114 1. introduction the covid-19 pandemic has an adverse impact on the world's population, but little is known about its effects on mental health (grigoras & ciubara, 2021). coronaviruses are rna viruses and numerous strains (hcov-229e, mers-cov, hcov-oc43, hcov-nl63, hcov-hku1, sars-cov-1) have been identified, causing mild respiratory tract infections (desforges et al., 2019; liu et al., 2021). coronaviruses have been identified in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with seizures, encephalitis and encephalomyelitis (bohmwald et al., 2018; haider et al., 2020). the scope of this case report id to describe and analyze the neuropsychiatric symptoms post sars cov-2 infection.this case remind us that it is important to have a high degree of mental health alteration suspicion, especially at the patients with a history of viral infection with sars cov-2. thus, an appropriate treatment can be administered without any delays, considering the neurological and psychiatric components. 2. case report: description of a case from the clinic emergency hospital „sf ap. andrei” galati from 2020. we present the case of a patient, woman, 55 years old, medical staff, with a history of viral infection withsars cov-2 and systemic sclerosis, chronic hepatitis type b, is admitted in the emergency department for multi-drug ingestion, lack of air sensation and psychomotor agitation. at the moment of emergency department take over the patient showed the following neurologic and cardiopulmonary parameters: glasgow coma scale (gcs) score15 points, psychomotor agitation, rr= 20r/min, sao2= 98%, hr=100b/min anda bp=130/90 mmhg. anamnesis, the patient declares that she swallowed approximately 20 tables in the last hour in a suicide attempt, she cannot mention the types of pills. the clinical, paraclinical and imagery examinations have been in normal limits, except the transaminases which were slightly increased, alt=47u/l and ast=50u/l. at the ct scan hyperdense structures or expansive intracranial processes were not seen. (figure 1, 2) the effects of sars cov 2 infection –does a depression pandemic follow? cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 115 figure 1 figure 2 figure1, 2. ct scan. source: authors’ own conception without hyperdense structures or intracranial expansive process. visible calcifications at the level of lenticular nucleus. preserved medial axis, symmetrical cerebral venticulal system., normally sized. normal cortical relief. after the treatment received in the emergency department and the results of the paraclinical examinations, the diagnosis is given: voluntary ingestion of multi-drug for suicide purpose. psychomotor agitation and she is transferred to the “elena doamna” psychiatric hospital, where apparently she had a good evolution. after 4 days of hospitalization, she returns to the emergency department by transfer from the psychiatric hospital for underlying seizures, confusion syndrome. the treatment is started with repeated doses of benzodiazepine to control the seizures. biological, the patient at admission presented leukocytosis (13.900/mcl), with neutrophils 69,93%, normal renal samples, mildly increased hepatic samples, total bilirubin 1.17 mg/dl, direct bilirubin 0,34mg/dl, normal blood sugar, serum bicarbonate 23mmol/l. imagistic: ct scan – withouthyperdense structures. preserved medial axis. visible calcifications at the level of lenticular nucleus. symmetrical ventricular system, normally sized. normal cortical relief. (figure3, 4) chest x-ray: accentuated hila. bilateral accentuated interstitium. normal heart. (figure 5) during the neurologic examination: the patient is lethargic, noncooperative, the head and the eyeballs deviated towards right, left hemifacial paresis, left hemiplegia, positive babinski sign on the left side. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 116 figure 3 figure 4 figure 3,4. ct scan – without hyperdense structures. preserved medial axis. visible calcifications at the level of lenticular nucleus. symmetrical ventricular system, normally sized. normal cortical relief. source: authors’ own conception figure 5. chest x-ray: accentuated hila. bilateral accentuated interstitium. normal heart. source: authors’ own conception the effects of sars cov 2 infection –does a depression pandemic follow? cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 117 14.xii 14.xii •complete blood count: white blood cels 12,85 103, lymphocytes% 11,4% •fibrinogen 313,1 mg/dl •creatinkinase: 625 u/l 15.xii 15.xii •cerebrospinal fluid : normal •urine culture: e coli >100 000 ufc/ml •complete blood count: wbc 18.21 103, lymph% 2.9% •procalcitonin 0,13ng/ml •creatinkinase: 477 u/l •treponema pallidum hemagglutination negative 16.xii 16.xii •complete urine examination : urobilinogen 2, sugar 1000, red blood cells 22,4 p/hpf, white cells 43,20p/hpf, red blood cells 300, bacteria 134.60 p/hpf, cocci 62,4/hpf, bacili 72.2p/hpf, mucus 6,5 p/hpf •complete blood count: wbc 15,85 103, lymph% 3,4% •fibrinogen 526 mg/dl •creatinkinase: 223 u/l the initial evolution with the persisting seizures, needed barbiturice administration, induced coma with prosthesis of respiratory tract. the patient is admitted in the intensive care / neurology service between 13.12.2020 –21.12.2020 with the following diagnoses: status epilepticus, drug induced coma, general anesthesia with oti (oro-tracheal intubation), left hemiplegia, severe depression, voluntary multi-drug ingestion 3 days ago. during the hospitalization in the intensive care section, the patient benefitted of repeated imagistic and paraclinical examinations to ensure a proper and timely management of the admission pathology. (figure 6, 7) figure 6. paraclinical examinations during the hospitalization in the intensive care section. source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 118 on 17.12.2020 the following were executed: cerebral angiography: without blood accumulations or other visible space replacing processes intra-cerebral rm. without signal anomalies at the level of periventricular or subcortical white matter. symmetrical ventricular system with normal dimensions. interhemispheric fissure in normal position. normal cortical relief. cerebellopontine angle normal bilateral. internal auditory conduct normal dimensions. arterial vascular trajectories from the brain base with topography, caliber and rm flow in normal limits. dural venous sinuses with normal rmaspect. chest x-ray: pulmonary interstitium accentuated bilateral, normal cord bacterial culture – tracheobronchial aspiration: • germs: corynebacterium striatum • cytosmear: frequentpolymorphonuclear leukocytes, cocci grampositivein diplo, bacilli gram-positiverod-shaped figure 7. paraclinical and clinical examinations during the hospitalization in the intensive care section source: authors’ own conception 18.xii 18.xii •complete blood count: white blood cels 12.63 103, lymphocytes% 8.6,4% •fibrinogen 498 mg/dl •creatinkinase: 178 u/l •ferritin 359ng/ml •c-reactive protein: >100mg/l •fibrin monomer test: pozitiv [+++] 19.xii 19.xii •complete urine examination : in normal limits •complete blood count: wbc 10.45 103, lymphocytes% 10.4% •fibrinogen 395mg/dl •ast: 440, alt: 570, serum bicarbonate=27mmol/l, creatinine: 0.56mg/dl, urea: 41mg/dl •electroencephalogram: focal slow wave temporoparietal right 20.xii 20.xii •ac anti hcv: negative, ag hbs: positive •abdominal ultrasound: liver with increased dimension (lsh 89mm, ldh 166mm) homogeneous ecostructure, increased reflectivity, permeable portal vein, whitout dilatation of intrahepatic bile ducts. hyperechogenic pancreas, homogeneous.spline with normal dimensions, homogeneous, bladder with catheter in minimal repletion, without liquid in the peritoneal cavity. the effects of sars cov 2 infection –does a depression pandemic follow? cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 119 in addition, the following were carried out: gastrointestinal examination: acute hepatic cytolysis syndrome with the recommendation to avoid hepatic cytolysis medication. rheumatology examination: scleroderma with minimal pulmonary affection. orthopedic examination: without recent post-traumatic joint injuries. left scapulohumeral periarthritis. the focal motor seizures are remitted, the patient is extubated and transferred to the neurology department. the patient’s evolution during the hospitalization was favorable, without repeating the motor seizures, remitted motor deficiency, and also the confusion state. the patient is discharged conscious, cooperative, without motor deficiency with the recommendation to continue the treatment against epilepsy and depression, with neuropsychiatric reassessment in need. 3. discussions the etiology of the neuropsychiatric pathology of coronavirus infection includes the adverse effects of the brain infection, ischemic strokes and transient ischemic attacks (coagulation changes), social distancing, the negative psychological effects of a new severe and possibly lethal disease, concerns about infecting others and stigma. (baroiu et al., 2021; luca et al., 2021; rogers et al., 2020). the immunopathological response to coronavirus infection is major and is represented by a hyperinflammatory reaction found in hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (retamozo et al., 2021). hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis is characterized by cytopenia and progressively increasing inflammatory tests, although it is possible that this state to be a short-time one (mehta et al., 2020). the connection between inflammatory markers and depression is mentioned in the literature and may explain some of the psychiatric pathology (wohleb et al., 2021; radulescu et al., 2020). even under normal conditions, good mental health is of paramount importance to the functioning of society. healthcare workers are critical to the covid-19 pandemic and beyond, but may have to leave work if their mental health is affected (silistraru et al., 2021). the developing literature measures the impact of the factors associated with the development of neuropsychiatric pathology post sars cov-2 infection. covid-19 has already lead to various mental health disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, disposal disorders, brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 120 addiction, depression, post-traumatic stress and other neurologic disorders (chew et al., 2020; huang & zhao, 2021). the literature mentions a psychological impact on the high-risk population, such as the elderly, children, patients with chronic conditions, but also front-line workers, including medical staff (banerjee & viswanath, 2020; cheng et al., 2004). the large work amount, the absenteeism, the exhaustion and the guilt contribute to these results at this king of people. the presence of depression, disposal disorders and suicide have been reported around the world, worsened by the consequences of social isolation (hwang & et al., 2020). factors related to the development of neuropsychiatric pathology (figure 8) as a consequence of the pandemic are represented by: hospitalization, serious covid-19 disease, witness to suffering and death of others; the people who have been informed of the death or severe illness of a family member or friend caused by the virus; and people who are exposed to many traumatic events (medical staff) (valcea et al., 2016). furthermore, studies have identified other stressors that amplify a person's emotional load, such as social isolation, job loss, and economic loss, as well as teleworking while caring for others. at healthcare workers, the stress factors include the inappropriate individual protection equipment (ipe), the fears regarding the exposure to the virus, exhaustion, patients who died despite the great efforts of the doctor to treat them and the difficult medical decisions regarding the patients who benefit only from limited medical care (tucker & czapla, 2021). figure 8. stress and protection factors leading to neuropsychiatric disorders source: authors’ own conception stress factorss • severe disease •hospitalisation •witness death/ persdear one •exposure to covid-19/ quarantine • social isolation •loss of workplace • working from home •difficult medical decisions •inappropriate ipe protection factors •social support •financial stability •healthcare resources •working safely •appropriate ipe •diversity promotion •regular covid-19 testing the effects of sars cov 2 infection –does a depression pandemic follow? cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 121 the patients with sars cov-2 infection in acute stage could exhibit delusion, confusion, hearing hallucinations, agitation and conscious alteration, also depression, anxiety and insomnia symptoms (wing & leung, 2012). after the recovery from sars cov-2 infection, sleep disorders, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders, emotional liability, concentration disorders, fatigue, memory disorders have been reported at more than 15% from the patients during a surveillance period between 6 weeks and 39 months (rogers et al., 2020). the symptoms of traumatic and stress related disorder have been reported with 26,3%, depression or anxiety symptoms with 30,9%, drug consumption to cope with 13,3%, and considering the suicide with 10,7% (czeisler et al., 2020). what captures our attention at this case is the psychological impact on the patient after the recovery from sars cov-2 infection. the severe depression symptoms and taking the suicide into account, afterwards alteration of the neurocognitive function, emphasize the importance of the quick intervention and diagnosis applying the appropriate treatment. 4. conclusions mental health and well-being of the individual may be adversely affected by a pandemic, patients may experience neurological or psychiatric disorders after coronavirus infection, and physicians should be aware of the possibility of neuropsychiatric disorders occurring after coronavirus infection. the identification of population with high risk of mental health alteration is of major importance. the neurologic and psychiatric disorders related to coronavirus infection emphasize the significant impact of the pandemic and the necessity to prevent and treat these affections. references banerjee, d., & viswanath, b. (2020). neuropsychiatric manifestations of covid19 and possible pathogenic mechanisms: insights from other coronaviruses. asian journal of psychiatry, 54, 102350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102350 baroiu, l., dumea, e., năstase, f., niculeţ, e., fotea, s., ciubara, a. b., stefanopol, i. a., nechita, a., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2021). assessment of depression in patients with covid-19. brain. broad https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102350 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 122 research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 bohmwald, k., gálvez, n., ríos, m., & kalergis, a. m. (2018). neurologic alterations due to respiratory virus infections. frontiers in cellular neuroscience, 12, 386. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2018.00386 cheng, s. k., wong, c. w., tsang, j., & wong, k. c. (2004). psychological distress and negative appraisals in survivors of severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars). psychological medicine, 34(7), 1187–1195. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291704002272 chew, n., lee, g., tan, b., jing, m., goh, y., ngiam, n., et al. (2020). a multinational, multicentre study on the psychological outcomes and associated physical symptoms amongst healthcare workers during covid19 outbreak. brain, behavior, and immunity, 88, 559–565. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.049 czeisler, m. e., lane, r. i., petrosky, e., et al. (2020). mental health, substance use, and suicidal ideation during the covid-19 pandemic – united states. mmwr & morbidity & mortal weekly report, 69, 1049-1057. http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6932a1 desforges, m., le coupanec, a., dubeau, p., bourgouin, a., lajoie, l., dubé, m., & talbot, p. j. (2019). human coronaviruses and other respiratory viruses: underestimated opportunistic pathogens of the central nervous system? viruses, 12(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/v12010014 grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326-334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 haider, a., siddiqa, a., ali, n., & dhallu, m. (2020). covid-19 and the brain: acute encephalitis as a clinical manifestation. cureus, 12(10), e10784. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10784 huang, y., & zhao, n. (2021). mental health burden for the public affected by the covid-19 outbreak in china: who will be the high-risk group? psychology, health & medicine, 26(1), 23–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2020.1754438 hwang, t. j., rabheru, k., peisah, c., reichman, w., & ikeda, m. (2020). loneliness and social isolation during the covid-19 pandemic. international psychogeriatrics, 32(10), 1217–1220. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1041610220000988 liu, d. x., liang, j. q., & fung, t. s. (2021). human coronavirus-229e, -oc43, nl63, and -hku1 (coronaviridae). encyclopedia of virology, 2, 428–440. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-809633-8.21501-x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2018.00386 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291704002272 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.049 http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6932a1 https://doi.org/10.3390/v12010014 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10784 https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2020.1754438 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1041610220000988 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-809633-8.21501-x the effects of sars cov 2 infection –does a depression pandemic follow? cosmina-alina moscu, et al. 123 luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 mehta, p., mcauley, d. f., brown, m., sanchez, e., tattersall, r. s., manson, j. j., & hlh across speciality collaboration, uk (2020). covid-19: consider cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression. lancet, 395(10229), 1033–1034. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30628-0 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. . (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 retamozo, s., brito-zerón, p., sisó-almirall, a., flores-chávez, a., soto-cárdenas, m. j., & ramos-casals, m. (2021). haemophagocytic syndrome and covid-19. clinical rheumatology, 40(4), 1233–1244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-020-05569-4 rogers, j. p., chesney, e., oliver, d., pollak, t. a., mcguire, p., fusar-poli, p., zandi, m. s., lewis, g., & david, a. s. (2020). psychiatric and neuropsychiatric presentations associated with severe coronavirus infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis with comparison to the covid-19 pandemic. the lancet. psychiatry, 7(7), 611–627. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30203-0 silistraru, i., ciureanu, a. i., ciubara, a., & olariu, o. (2021). prevalence of burnout in medical students in romania during covid-19 pandemic restrictions (preliminary data). archiv euromedica, 11(5), 12-15. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 tucker, p., & czapla, c. s. (2021). post-covid stress disorder: another emerging consequence of the global pandemic. psychiatric times, 38(1). https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/post-covid-stress-disorderemerging-consequence-global-pandemic valcea, l., bulgaru-iliescu, d., burlea, s. l., & ciubara, a. (2016). patient’s rights and communication in the hospital accreditation process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 55, 260. http://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf wing, y. k., & leung, c. m. (2012). mental health impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome: a prospective study. hong kong medical journal, 18(suppl 3), 24–27. https://www.hkmj.org/system/files/hkm1204sp3p24.pdf wohleb, e. s., franklin, t., iwata, m., & duman, r. s. (2016). integrating neuroimmune systems in the neurobiology of depression. nature reviews. neuroscience, 17(8), 497–511. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.69 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30628-0 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-020-05569-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30203-0 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/34745962 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/9207389 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/30711467 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/authors/christopher-s-czapla-md https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/post-covid-stress-disorder-emerging-consequence-global-pandemic https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/post-covid-stress-disorder-emerging-consequence-global-pandemic http://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf https://www.hkmj.org/system/files/hkm1204sp3p24.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.69 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 189-205 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/244 improving cognitive flexibility by means of associations yuliia rybinska¹, nataliia sarnovska2, maryna antonivska3, taisiia ponochovna-rysak4, tetiana nikolaieva5 1 doctor of science (dr hab) in education, professor, head of foreign philology department, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, julialeo1619@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2185-7890 2 lecturer, department of foreign philology, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, nat_sarnovskaya@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7278-5183 3 lecturer,department of foreign philology, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, antonivska_maryna@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4451-3735 4 phd in pedagogical sciences, associate professor, department of foreign philology, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, rysaktaya@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2107-3343 5 phd in philological sciences, associate professor, department of foreign philology, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, nickolayeva.t@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/00000002-4642-1578 abstract: the work examines the effect of association means on the cognitive flexibility of the brain. nowadays the cognitive flexibility is one of the critical skills needed to succeed in the workplace. cognitive flexibility corrects human behaviour in a certain way following the changing environment. it allows a modern person to work effectively to distract from the previous task, reconfigure a new set of answers to complete the current task. the article aims to determine the significance of the means of association for improving cognitive flexibility in foreign languages classes. the study involved 70 students of the kyiv national university of culture and arts and was conducted between october 2020 and december 2020. learning a foreign language and bilingualism in and of themselves have an impact on the cognitive functions of the brain. in our paper, we consider the means of associations not only as one of the tools for studying foreign languages but as a means of improving cognitive flexibility. according to the study, it can be concluded that, despite the increased interest in the associative method, multiple studies in this area of research demonstrate different and sometimes conflicting results. it is important to note that associative methods have a positive effect on improving cognitive flexibility in combination with creative thinking. keywords: setting, anticipation, operational meaning, duration, apperceptive scheme. how to cite: rybinska, y., sarnovska, n., antonivska, m., ponochovna-rysak, t., & nikolaieva, t. (2021). improving cognitive flexibility by means of associations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 189-205. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/244 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/244 mailto:julialeo1619@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2185-7890 mailto:nat_sarnovskaya@ukr.net http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7278-5183 mailto:antonivska_maryna@ukr.net http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4451-3735 mailto:rysaktaya@ukr.net http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2107-3343 mailto:nickolayeva.t@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4642-1578 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4642-1578 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/244 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 190 introduction nothing in the world stands still, and we must adapt to it. every year changes are progressing more rapidly, so now we need to have flexible thinking and develop the plasticity of our brains. one of the most complex functions of the brain is cognitive, through which a person interacts with the outside world, which allows realizing processes such as perception, thinking, attention, speech, memory and motor skills. brain plasticity, or neuroplasticity, is the brain’s ability to form new neural connections. it allows neurons – the nerve cells that make up our brain – to adjust their work in response to changes in the environment and adapt to them. norman doidge, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, in his book the brain that changes itself: stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science, talks about people whose brains managed to recover from severe disorders, for example, after a stroke. the author argues that this organ can change, reorganize and form new neural connections throughout life, and not only in childhood, as science claimed before (doidge, 2008, p. 224). at any age, a person can improve the brain or maintain it at the same level. even with the approach of old age, the brain can change its structure and work only thanks to human thoughts and actions. to do this, you need to develop the flexibility of your thinking. thinking flexibility, or cognitive flexibility, is the ability of the human brain to overcome habitual reactions and thought patterns in unfamiliar conditions and create new ones. that is, the ability to adapt to new situations, break up difficult tasks into small pieces, improvise and apply different strategies depending on the goals it faces. this property of the brain allows you to switch and think about something from different points of view. the cognitive flexibility of an individual, as the mental ability to quickly switch from one thought to another, to think about several things simultaneously, is becoming more and more in demand (magnusson & brim, 2014). it is human nature to strive for constancy. change is scary in that it forces you to leave your comfort zone. but the attitude of not accepting changes and the inability to adapt to them prevents us from arranging our lives. sahakian et al. (2021) declared cognitive flexibility as one of the critical skills needed to succeed in the workplace in 2020. at present, when the rapid development of information technologies has a huge impact on the economy, the labour market, the level of income and on our life in general (brynjolfsson & mcafee, 2011), the social order for training is also changing. improving cognitive flexibility by means of associations yuliia rybinska, et al. 191 this is manifested primarily in the use of a competency-based approach in the training of future specialists, who, first of all, must be able to make creative decisions, quickly and clearly orient themselves in complex atypical situations, that is, be able to do what artificial intelligence is not capable of. not the least role in this is played by the level of development of students’ cognitive flexibility. the concept of cognitive flexibility can be defined as the ability of an individual to restructure his knowledge to be able to respond appropriately to a changing situation (spiro & jehng, 1990). in other words, it is about the ability of an individual to quickly adapt to changing conditions. experiments show (çelikkaleli, 2014) that an individual needs to have a certain degree of cognitive flexibility in order to be able to painlessly adapt, choose the best solution, avoid depressive moods, and not lose selfconfidence. in any situation, individuals have several possible scenarios for the development of further events. but those individuals who predict a greater number of potential possibilities of probable scenarios have greater cognitive flexibility (martin & anderson, 1998). thus, cognitive flexibility can be equated with flexible thinking (brown & campione, 1981). it is the plasticity of the brain that gives us the ability to overcome those mental barriers that prevent us from going beyond the established order of things. psychotherapists note that cognitive flexibility is not a phenomenon in itself, it is a certain position in life that demonstrates understanding and acceptance of the position of “different”. practical psychologists and counsellors are advised to take into account the factors and levels of cognitive organization, as well as cognitive adaptation in working with the client. the presence of a wide range of thinking ways on a particular conceptual topic or situation indicates a high level of cognitive flexibility. the use of multiple representations is important at different levels of personality development. gerontopsychologists have proven that the level of cognitive flexibility correlates with diverse longevity, busy lifestyle, reduced risk of dementia (horn & masunaga, 2006). however, the explanation of such relations is not entirely clear. one hypothesis is that the developed cognitive sphere is the result of many stimulating efforts that have been made on the mind and body for a long time (the hypothesis of “mental training”) (salthouse, 2006). critics of this approach rightly point out that this evidence is only evidence of a causal relationship: older people with relatively better cognitive flexibility seek and support a wider range of diverse actions throughout their lives. in other words, it is cognitive plasticity that stimulates them to seek different kinds of cognitive training. thus, the complexity of the selection of diagnostic tools often depends on how researchers explain this phenomenon. the article aims to determine the brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 192 place of the means of association for increasing cognitive flexibility in foreign language classes. literature review an analysis of recent research and publications that have begun to address this issue on which the author relies. in his works, jean piaget (1950) presents a person as an active, dynamic and creative person with his inherent mental structures – schemes that process and organize the information obtained. with age, these patterns evolve into more complex cognitive structures. intellectual development goes through four stages, from early childhood to 12–15 years and beyond (horn & masunaga, 2006). the following understanding of flexibility is closely intertwined with the understanding of the peculiarities of adult thinking. according to the researcher v. sheiko, during childhood and adolescence, a person acquires more complex internal structures of understanding the world. during this period, powerful tools of formal operational thinking are formed, which is a key achievement. in early adulthood, intellectual abilities are used to achieve success and determine the subsequent lifestyle. k. w. schaie called it a period of achievement. a person uses intellectual potential, problem-solving skills, decision-making in the process of achieving goals and implementing a life plan (ivanova, 2011). a person who successfully copes with this reaches a certain level of development of independence and moves to another stage of cognitive abilities – a period that includes social responsibility. in middle age (maturity) according to v. sheiko (galaziynsky, 2011), a person uses cognitive abilities to solve other people’s problems: in the family, society, at work, etc. he argues that the core of adult cognitive development is not increased opportunities or changes in cognitive structures, but the flexible use of intelligence at different stages of life. the german psychologist kohler (1970) dealt with this question. the author proposes the principle of isomorphism. there is a mutually unambiguous correspondence between the structure and dynamics of the external observable world, the cerebral cortex and subjective reality. the general precedes the personal, the properties of the system determine the properties of its elements, not vice versa. the researchers singled out the components of creative thinking, which are indicators of the flexibility of thinking: a) the ability to see the problem in the usual conditions; b) the ability to abandon the wrong hypothesis; c) the ability to find new connections and relationships between improving cognitive flexibility by means of associations yuliia rybinska, et al. 193 objects; d) the ability to create new ways of acting or creatively use the old (andreeva, 2009; ivanova, 2011). individual features related to the nature of decision-making are manifested as “flexibility–inertia” of mental actions. the parameter “flexibility–inertia reflects the change of old ways of action, the replacement of old hypotheses and plans if they no longer meet the conditions of activity that have really changed. in the modern domestic psychological literature, the concept of flexibility is also considered in two aspects: as a personal characteristic (intellectual flexibility) and as a feature of mental activity (flexibility of thinking). the most complete is the definition introduced into domestic psychology by menchinskaya (2004): flexibility of thinking is manifested in the appropriate variety of methods of action, in the ease of restructuring existing knowledge, in the ease of transition from one activity to another, overcoming the inertia of the previous action, in feedback formation, in the freedom of restructuring in the images created accordingly, and hypotheses in accordance with the conditions of the problem (guz, 2014). the conditions of the task and their complexity require the individual to constantly search for alternative answers. the results obtained as an outcome of n. menchinskaya's research allow us to consider flexibility not only as the ability to move from one type of activity to another but also as of an opportunity to see all the potential applications of human cognitive flexibility. accordingly, the author singled out the following manifestations of the flexibility of thinking: ● consideration of the task as a problem in which it is appropriate to vary the methods of action; ● conditions determine the ease of restructuring knowledge or skills and their systems in accordance with the proposed changes; ● ability to switch, or ease of transition from one mode of action to another. the psychological essence of flexibility is also considered in the perspective of the study of creative thinking. researchers note that flexibility is a necessary component of the creative component. however, it is studied by them in structural unity with other features of creativity. cognitive flexibility is one of the main mental abilities that underlie creative thinking (barbey et al., 2013). cognitive flexibility is the ability to break old cognitive stereotypes, overcoming functional habits, and thus create new creative connections between phenomena or concepts (guilford, 1965). brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 194 cognitive flexibility refers to elastic strategies for switching from one stimulus, operations and mental attitudes to others, responding to the requirements of circumstances (barbey et al., 2013). it is assumed that the main elements of cognitive flexibility arise from a distributed network of brain regions that support certain competencies for human intelligence (ritter et al., 2014). the level of flexibility of thinking is assessed in terms of “plasticity” – “rigidity”. rigidity (from latin rigidus – hard) means difficulty (up to complete inability) in changing the subjective program of human activity in conditions that objectively require its restructuring. plasticity, in contrast to rigidity, presupposes the ease of such restructuring. according to current neurophysiological data, the level of flexibility reveals significant correlations with such a primary property of the nervous system as mobility – the ability to quickly respond to changes in the environment, which is diagnosed by the rate of occurrence and termination of a nerve impulse in response to an external stimulus. there are 3 types of flexibility: cognitive (cognitive), affective (emotional) and motivational. cognitive flexibility is associated with the restructuring of perceptions and representations in situations’ changing and, as a result, with timely and adequate decision-making. results cognitive functions the study involved 70 students of the kyiv national university of culture and arts. the study with equal gender representation was conducted between october 2020 and december 2021. the state of cognitive functions was studied using the montreal cognitive assessment scale. this scale is currently recommended by most cognitive experts for effective assessment of concentration, attention, all types of memory, executive function, visual constructive skills, language ability, abstract thinking, orientation, and counting. the highest number of points that a respondent can score is 30, the number of points 26 and above is considered a standard value. the scale is validated in ukrainian; its sensitivity is significantly higher than the closest analogues (in particular, the mini-cog scale), has a minimal probability of obtaining false positive and false negative results and is actively used by both domestic and foreign researchers when verifying functional capabilities and limitations in the cognitive sphere in including students (soldatova, 2010; zakharov, 2012). the ioc test provides an assessment of short-term memory and recall; attention, concentration, working memory; linguistic functions and orientation in the range of values from 0 to 5 points, spatialimproving cognitive flexibility by means of associations yuliia rybinska, et al. 195 visual abilities and executive functions in the range from 0 to 4 points, and abstract thinking in the range from 0 to 2 points (kuznetsov et al., 2021). table 1 presents the results of assessing the state of cognitive functions of students at the beginning of the study in october 2020. table 1. the cognitive functions state of the students (n= 80) narrative variables (average values in points) m (sd) short-term memory and recollection1 4,3 (0,3) spatio-visual abilities2 3,5 (0,2) executive functions2 3,3 (0,3) attention, concentration, and operational memory1 4,5 (0,3) language functios1 4,6 (0,5) abstract mind3 1,7 (0,6) orientation1 4,5 (0,6) total 26,4 (2,8) note: μ is the arithmetic mean of the variable; sd – standard deviation. 1 – the maximum value is 5 points; 2 – the maximum value is 4 points; 3 – the maximum value is 2 points. the maximum possible number of points is 30. the normal range is 26-30 points. the total indicator of the assessment of cognitive functions among students was 26,4. level of cognitive flexibility the level of cognitive flexibility of thinking can be assessed using the method of lachins a. s. (nikiforov et al., 2007). the method is as follows: the subject is asked to write the phrase “the snow has already melted in the field” in four different ways. method 1. after the command “start!” write this phrase as many times as you can before the “stop!” command. method 2. after the command “start!” write this phrase in block letters as many times as you can before the command “stop!” method 3. after the command "start!" write this phrase as many times as you can before the command “stop!”, as follows: the first and all odd letters should be written and capitalized, and the second and all even letters should be small and printed. method 4. after the command “start!” write the phrase in your usual handwriting, but at the same time repeat each letter twice. work as quickly as possible until the command “stop!” data processing and analysis 1. the number of letters written in each task is calculated: m1, m2, m3, m4. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 196 2. the average value is calculated for three tasks: mav= 3. the coefficient of creative flexibility is determined: cflex cflex= if cflex lies in the range from 0.5 to 1, it means that the subject has plastic thinking, easily and quickly passes from one activity to another, quickly responds to changes in the input situation, can make adequate decisions. cflex value less than 0.5 indicates rigidity of thinking, i. e. low level of creative flexibility. the subject can not respond to changes in the situation quickly and adequately, has difficulty in changing the subjective program of activity. as a result of the testing, it turned out that in the subjects the coefficient of cognitive flexibility is in the range from 0.5 to 0.1, which indicates a fairly high level of plasticity of thinking. discussions cognitive flexibility and foreign language learning since one of the tasks of this article is to determine the development of cognitive flexibility in university students in foreign language classes, we paid special attention to the association method in the study of foreign languages. it seems to us that work on this should be carried out in two directions: the complexity of the problem/situation being solved and the susceptibility of the trainees to the restructuring of their knowledge. we propose the following ways to improve cognitive flexibility: 1. replacing habitual tasks/conditions with new ones. an example of this is working in pairs, where each time the participants in the pair work will change. the same applies to teamwork on projects. testing of words knowledge can be carried out not only in the form of tests but also in the form of crosswords, quests, interactive exercises, etc. 2. providing opportunities for new experiences. this may relate to an unexpected topic proposed for discussion or an unusual class format. a topic for discussion can be presented, for example, by an ethical dilemma, when there is no rigidly defined correct solution. different people make decisions about the same issue in different ways. you must answer the questions for yourself without discussing them with others. be prepared to explain your decision (whetten & cameron, 2007, p.50). 3. creative tasks that develop divergent thinking. these include complex problems that can be broken down into simpler ones. encourage learners to make quick, albeit wrong, decisions, recognize their mistakes, and improving cognitive flexibility by means of associations yuliia rybinska, et al. 197 try to solve the problem over and over again. it is moments like these that foster divergent thinking and teach trainees not to look for the simplest solutions to problems. 4. assignments that encourage an independent search for information. allow them to use various sources to satisfy their curiosity and answer the questions posed. encourage independent ways to solve the problem, extraordinary answers to the questions posed. encourage independent ways to solve the problem, extraordinary answers to the questions posed. try to avoid evaluative statements, both negative and positive. this will help create a tolerant atmosphere that will encourage the generation of a wide variety of ideas. so, new conditions require new approaches, new solutions. educational activities should prepare trainees to work in this rapidly changing world. it will also depend on teachers how quickly and successfully learners will be able to adapt to their new working environment. we believe that the development of cognitive flexibility should become an integral part of the learning process. in the course of foreign language training, the student's ability to think about several things at the same time (i.e., to show cognitive flexibility) is a prerequisite for a successful speech act: the student speaking in a foreign language must not only have an idea of the purpose of speaking (i.e. create a mental image in his head) but quickly and correctly select the lexical units necessary for the transmission of the formed thought, correctly form them in terms of grammar, stylistics, speech registers of a foreign language, paraverbal (intonation) constructs, etc. although today many mnemonic techniques facilitate the construction of associations for memorizing various kinds of information, there is no universal technique that would be suitable for all cases. in our study, we consider the method of association not only as one of the tools for studying foreign languages but as a means of improving cognitive flexibility. and the study of a foreign language itself and bilingualism itself already have a beneficial effect on the mental abilities of people, on the development of cognitive functions (javan & ghonsooly, 2018). associative thinking is built, first of all, on our creative abilities, namely, on the ability to create something new, modifying the existing one. often you have to create associations and organize material for memorization yourself. not everyone is good at associative memory, but you can learn it. there are two main approaches to teaching vocabulary using the association method: the phonetic association method and the suggestive association method. the method of phonetic (sound) associations is based brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 198 on memorizing foreign words using consonant words of the native language (rogova et al., 1991). the method of phonetic associations helps to quickly remember the meanings of words if you take into account the following rules: 1) the amount of information memorized at a time should be strictly limited. even a small increase in it leads to partial or complete forgetting; 2) our memory is capable of receiving from 2 to 26 units of information in one sitting; 3) the unit of memorized information should be as long as possible (a block of words or a phrase). those who teach or force to learn single words should be punished for wasting time and memory on an especially large scale; 4) after the process of assimilating information, there must necessarily be a pause, during which it is necessary to unload the brain from mental work as much as possible. the association method is one of the main methods for developing memory. it is imperative to know about it, since it is very useful in itself, and it is also an integral part of most memorization methods, including learning foreign words. it is hard to imagine any memorization technique at all without this method. association is an attempt to associate something with something in the broadest sense. that is, an association is a kind of virtual connection between two or more phenomena. these can be objects, feelings, thoughts, words, and so on, in which the recollection of one of them entails the appearance of another in our imagination. if you ask everyone to answer what comes to their mind at the mention of the word “red”, you can get the following answers – “blood”, "fire”, “passion”, etc. it depends on the individual experience of each of the respondents. all these associations are formed in consciousness and are called free. to master the method of associations, you just need to practice creating associative links between any elements. to further enhance the effect of the association method, it is better to come up with the most unusual, non-standard and even incredible associations. types of associations a little more detail should be told about the method of associations, namely, how to choose the right associations for learning words. indeed, in this case, we also need to have some techniques. words can be associated in several ways. ● words can be associated with a similar sound to the word in the native language. improving cognitive flexibility by means of associations yuliia rybinska, et al. 199 in this case, we associate with the sound of the ukrainian word that we know. this way you can easily memorize pronunciation and spelling. ● words can also be associated with a situation. for example, the word “frustrated” can be remembered by remembering a situation when you felt really upset. here emotions also begin to play a role in memorization. you recall the emotions and feelings you experienced in the past and try to put a word on them. emotionally, our brain memorizes words more efficiently. next time, remembering the word memorized in this way will be much easier. thus, you can try to give an emotional colouring to any words that you learn, thereby greatly increasing the chances of remembering them. ● associations of a word with a person. this is especially effective when words are studied to describe the appearance or character of a person. we pronounce a word, put a picture on it (imagine), see the spelling of the word itself, as well as its translation. all this together in a complex gives a very strong effect easy memorization of words. moreover, these words fall into the active vocabulary (memorized subconsciously), which means that the likelihood that we will forget them greatly decreases. ● associations of a word with the sound it denotes. just try in your mind to reproduce the sound, the sound you want to learn the meaning of. the word “bark” can be remembered by imagining a huge barking dog. ● rhymed lines are easy to learn and hard to forget, especially if they are also funny. this method is suitable for both children and adults. the advantage of the associations’ method is the development of figurative thinking, which makes the lessons diversified, motivates to obtain reflexive knowledge and forms vivid memorable images. the learner creates automatic connections between images or situations, words and expressions. it is believed that the use of this method in a foreign language lesson stimulates verbal communication, contributes to more confident and effective use of a foreign language in the field of professionally-oriented foreign language activity. the proof is the results of a study and questionnaire survey conducted among students of the kyiv national university of culture and arts on the topic: “the associative method in learning english” as part of the research on the topic: “improving the cognitive flexibility by means of associations”. the purpose of this part of the experiment was to prove the effectiveness of the associative method in memorizing foreign words. this part of the study took place in two stages. the first step was to experiment brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 200 itself. for the experiment, students were asked to share into groups. some of the students studied lexical units using only rote memorization, and some of them association methods mentioned above, selecting stimulus words and reaction words. for effective memorization, it was necessary to compose plots from a word-consonance and translation so that the approximate sound of the word and its translation were, as it were, in one bundle. the assessment of the cognitive flexibility of thinking in groups was carried out according to the method of a.s. lachins, which we mentioned earlier (nikiforov et al., 2007). the coefficient of cognitive flexibility of the subjects in both groups, as previously reported, was in the range from 0.5 to 1, which means that the subjects had sufficient plastic thinking. for effective memorization, it was necessary to compose plots from a word-consonance and translation so that the approximate sound of the word and its translation were, as it were, in one bundle. the main task was to compose your associative image. it was necessary to come up with bright, unusual, nonstandard associations. it is interesting to note that in the process of working in the first lessons, students exchanged images that arose in them. at the same time, everyone had their own associations. and therefore, everyone memorized words with “their own” associations. the experiment lasted for three weeks. a vocabulary survey was conducted every week. thematic testing was carried out first after a month, then after two months and after three months. 30% of students chose to learn words using the traditional method. 70% chose to study vocabulary using the association method. let’s call them group number one and group number two. it is also necessary to take into account the creative orientation of the university’s specialities. creativity plays an important role in building associations and more. “having a creative mind is one of the gateways for achieving fabulous success and remarkable progress in professional, personal and social life” (khalil et al., 2019). the experiment lasted for three weeks. a vocabulary survey was conducted every week. thematic testing was carried out first after a month, then after two months and after three months. and during the experiment, indeed, in the first month in the groups there was a drop in performance in the first group by 5%, and in the second by 3%. but, if in the first group, the drop in memorability by the final testing was 30%. then, the second group has phenomenally improved their results. when passing, 30% of the students of the second group received excellent results, 50% good and 20 satisfactory. what should also be noted is the knowledge of vocabulary from different topics and the ability to use it in various situations, which is also cognitive flexibility. improving cognitive flexibility by means of associations yuliia rybinska, et al. 201 at the next stage of the study, a questionnaire was conducted to identify the attitude of students to this method. students were asked to fill out a questionnaire and answer the following questions: 1) your attitude to the associative way of memorizing; 2) you will apply the associative method when learning foreign words; 3) which of the ways of learning a foreign language do you consider the most effective: a) mechanical; b) associative; c) mixed. the analysis of the survey showed the following. 85% of students showed a positive attitude to the use of the associative method. they note the improvement in the quality of the lesson, the availability of the material and its clarity. 11% of students are indifferent to the application of this method. 4% of students have a negative attitude to this method, since, using the method of associations, they experience difficulty and misunderstanding when learning a foreign language. the majority of students (80%) answered the second question in the affirmative. namely, that the associative method will be used in the study of foreign words. 10% of students answered negatively that they would not, and only 10% of students do not know if they will use this method. the survey was conducted among students of both groups (those who studied the language using the traditional method and those who used the method of associations). 85% of students who did not use the association method would like to start using it. according to this study, it can be concluded that, despite the increased interest in the associative method, multiple studies in this area of research demonstrate different and sometimes conflicting results. this is quite understandable since some people do not have developed imaginative thinking, the use of which is necessary for the associative approach. and for them, it is easier to remember the word itself, by memorizing it, than to come up with an association. and for someone with creative thinking, it is convenient to use the method of association. “contrary to many peoples beliefs, creativity is also important in science and innovation. for example, we have discovered that entrepreneurs who have created multiple companies are more cognitively flexible than managers of a similar age and iq” (sahakian et al., 2021). at the same time, the use of the associative method allows you to increase motivation for learning english, develop cognitive interests. the positive aspects of the associative method are that its skilful application allows the formation of general and professional competencies of students, simulates future professional situations. it should be noted that any training changes the brain. any information coming into it from the outside increases the quantity and https://www.nature.com/articles/456168a brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 202 quality of neural connections increases the efficiency of grey and white matter. our brain is always trying to improve and optimize any process. knowledge of the second, the third and more languages make the picture of the world for a person richer and richer, each object receives many associative “clues” for memorizing, storing and retrieving from memory. language affects our thinking and the process of cognition, gives an idea of several pictures of the world, provides an opportunity to look at everything that surrounds us from a different angle and perceive situations from different points of view. conclusions the associative technique increases motivation and interest in new knowledge, speeds up memorization and increases the volume of new words. it's also a good job for creative brain activity. developed associative thinking gives us a number of advantages: higher speed compared to other types of thinking, because in the process of finding solutions, an individual does not resort to implementing sequential logical steps, but operates with ready-made associative chains, images; the ability to identify and establish unexpected relationships between phenomena, objects, to carry out non-stereotypical, original thinking; associative thinking plays a leading role in the creative activity of an individual since it allows to reveal deeply hidden properties of phenomena, objects, to model images, situations that do not exist in the real world, to manipulate them; provides the ability to create conceptual models, since it does not provide for fragmentation, fragmentation of the studied objects, phenomena, processes, covering them completely. language allows us to think about things through the lens of other things. it helps you think in new ways about new things and turn your ideas into new ones. language allows us to voice our guesses, make sense of the world, based on experience and intuition. language allows you to construct ideas and draw conclusions based on facts. language is also the key to cognitive flexibility. with the help of language, we create associations between things – in terms of proximity, similarity or opposition. associative thinking opens up the ability to think about things through the lens of other improving cognitive flexibility by means of associations yuliia rybinska, et al. 203 things, improves cognitive flexibility and allows new ways of looking at problems and combining intelligence to find innovative solutions. acknowledgments we thank the management and staff of the kyiv national university of culture and arts for creating conditions and a favourable atmosphere for the research, as well as all the students who took part in it. references andreeva, g. m. (2009). psihologiya social'nogo poznaniya [psychology of social cognition.]. aspect press. barbey, a. k., colom, r., & grafman, j. (2013). architecture of cognitive flexibility revealed by lesion mapping. neuroimage, 82, 547–554. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2fj.neuroimage.2013.05.087 brown, a. l., & campione, j. c. (1981). inducing flexible thinking: a problem of access. in m. friedman, j.p. das & n. o’connor (eds.), intelligence and learning (pp. 515529). plenum. brynjolfsson, e., & mcafee, a. (2011). race against the machine: how the digital revolution is accelerating innovation, driving productivity, and irreversibly transforming employment and the economy. digital frontier press. çelikkaleli, ö. (2014). the validity and reliability of the cognitive flexibility scale. education and science, 39(176), 339-346. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a8c4/8d8b4e97c422ca25f6365f6c4ee8f7 56416a.pdf doidge, n. (2008). the brain that changes itself: stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science. penguin books ltd. galazhinsky, e. v. (2011). rigidnost' kak obshchesistemnoe svojstvo cheloveka i samorealizaciya lichnosti [rigidity as a system-wide property of a person and self-realization of an individual]. materialy konferencii “chelovek v psihologii: orientiry issledovanij v novom stoletii” [proceedings of an interuniversity scientific conference `man in psychology: research guidelines in the new century`. karaganda, kargu], 38-48. http://flogiston.ru/articles/general/galazhinsky guilford, d. (1965). tri storony intellekta [intelligence has three facets.]. in a. m. matyushkin (ed.), collection of translations “psychology of thinking” (pp. 433456). progress, moscow. https://baguzin.ru/wp/dzh-gilford-tri-storonyintellekta/ guz, n. v. (2014). osoblyvosti stavlennia molodshykh shkoliariv do navchannia [features of the younger students’ attitude to learning]. nauka i osvita, 6, 35-41._ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgihttps://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2fj.neuroimage.2013.05.087 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a8c4/8d8b4e97c422ca25f6365f6c4ee8f756416a.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a8c4/8d8b4e97c422ca25f6365f6c4ee8f756416a.pdf http://flogiston.ru/articles/general/galazhinsky https://baguzin.ru/wp/dzh-gilford-tri-storony-intellekta/ https://baguzin.ru/wp/dzh-gilford-tri-storony-intellekta/ http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nio_2014_6_ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nio_2014_6_9 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 204 bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21i d=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21 com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nio_2014_6_9 horn, j., & masunaga, h. a. (2006). merging theory of expertise and intelligence. in k. a. ericsson, n., charness, p. j. feltovich & r. r. hoffman, rr. (eds.), the cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance (pp. 587–611). cambridge university press. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1017/cbo9780511816796.034 ivanova, v. v. (2011). psykholohichni osoblyvosti rozvytku tvorchykh zdibnostei molodshykh shkoliariv u pozanavchalnii diialnosti [peculiarities of the development of creative thinking in the transition period from preschool to primary school age]. aktualni problemy psykholohii. psykholohiia obdarovanosti [current issues of psychology. psychology of giftedness], collection of scientific works of the h.s. kostiuk institute of psychology of neas of ukraine, p.118-126. http://www.appsychology.org.ua/data/jrn/v6/i16/15.pdf javan, s. s., & ghonsooly, b. (2018). learning a foreign language: a new path to enhancement of cognitive functions. journal of psycholinguistic research, 47(1), 125–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-017-9518-7 khalil, r., godde, b., & karim, a. a. (2019, march 22). the link between creativity, cognition, and creative drives and underlying neural mechanisms. frontiers in neural circuits. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2019.00018 köhler, w. (1970). gestalt psychology: an introduction to new concepts in modern psychology (vol. 18). ww norton & company. kuznetsov, v. v., kosilov, k. v., kostina, e. y., karashchuk, e. v., fedorishcheva, e. k., & barabash o. a. (2021). ocenka kognitivnyh funkciy studentov medicinskih universitetov v processe obucheniya, svyaxannaya s sostoyaniem in zdorovya [cognitive status and health-related quality of life for medical students]. research and practical medicine journal, 8(1), 85-96. https://doi.org/10.17709/2409-2231-2021-8-1-9 magnusson, k. r., & brim, b. l. (2014). the aging brain. in reference module in biomedical sciences. elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-8012383.00158-6 martin, m. m., & anderson, c. m. (1998). the cognitive flexibility scale: three validity studies. communication reports, 11(1), 1-9. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/08934219809367680 menchinskaya, n. a. (2004). problemy vospitaniya, obucheniya i psihicheskogo razvitiya rebenka [problems of upbringing, education and mental development of a child]. mpsi, voronezh. nikiforov, g. s., dmitrieva, m. a., & snetkov, v. m. (2003). praktikum po psihologii menedzhmenta i professionalnoj deyatelnosti [workshop on the psychology of management and professional activity]. rech. https://www.klex.ru/v2d http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nio_2014_6_9 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nio_2014_6_9 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nio_2014_6_9 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1017/cbo9780511816796.034 http://www.appsychology.org.ua/data/jrn/v6/i16/15.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10936-017-9518-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10936-017-9518-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-017-9518-7 https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2019.00018 https://doi.org/10.17709/2409-2231-2021-8-1-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-801238-3.00158-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-801238-3.00158-6 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/08934219809367680 improving cognitive flexibility by means of associations yuliia rybinska, et al. 205 piaget, j. (1950). the psychology of intelligence (1st ed.). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203164730 rogova, g. v., rabinovich, f. m., & sakharova, t. e. (1991). metodika obucheniya inostrannym yazykam v srednej shkole [methodology of teaching foreign languages in secondary school]. education. ritter, s., kuhn, s., muller, b. c. n., van baaren, r. b. brass, m., dijksterhuis, a. (2014). the creative brain: corepresenting schema violations enhances tpj activity and boosts cognitive flexibility. creativity research journal, 26(2), 144–150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2014.901061 sahakian, b. j, langley, c., & leong, v. (2021, june 25). why is cognitive flexibility important and how can you improve it? world economic forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/cognitive-flexibility-thinkingiq-intelligence/ salthouse, t. a. (2006). mental exercise and mental aging: evaluating the validity of the «use it or lose it» hypothesis, perspectives on psychological science, 1(1), 68–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00005.x schaie, k. w., & willis, s. l. (eds.). (2011). handbook of the psychology of aging (7th ed.). elsevier academic press. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/catherinebowen/publication/234013321_aging_in_the_work_context/links/5f75 d61092851c14bca48371/aging-in-the-work-context.pdf soldatova, e. l. (2010). sistemogeneticheskij podhod k izucheniyu razvitiya i funkcionirovaniya vzrosloj lichnosti. [a systemogenetic approach to the study of the development and functioning of the adult personality]. bulletin of the south ural state university. series: psychology, 27(203), pp. 63-65. https://dspace.susu.ru/xmlui/handle/0001.74/3096 spiro, r. j., & jehng, j.-c. (1990). cognitive flexibility and hypertext: theory and technology for the nonlinear and multidimensional traversal of complex subject matter. in r. j. spiro & d. nix (eds.), cognition, education, and multimedia: exploring ideas in high technology (pp. 163–205). routledge. whetten, d. a., cameron, k. s. (2007). developing management skills. pearson prentice hall. zakharov, v. v. (2012). nejropsihologicheskie testy. neobhodimost' i vozmozhnost' primeneniya [neuropsychological tests. necessity and possibility of application], consilium medicum, 13(2), 98-106. https://medi.ru/info/11155/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2014.901061 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/cognitive-flexibility-thinking-iq-intelligence/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/cognitive-flexibility-thinking-iq-intelligence/ https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00005.x https://www.researchgate.net/profile/catherine-bowen/publication/234013321_aging_in_the_work_context/links/5f75d61092851c14bca48371/aging-in-the-work-context.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/catherine-bowen/publication/234013321_aging_in_the_work_context/links/5f75d61092851c14bca48371/aging-in-the-work-context.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/catherine-bowen/publication/234013321_aging_in_the_work_context/links/5f75d61092851c14bca48371/aging-in-the-work-context.pdf https://dspace.susu.ru/xmlui/handle/0001.74/3096 https://medi.ru/info/11155/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 308-323 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/286 the motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents valentyna kyrychenko¹, zhanna petrochko2, valeriia necherda3, olha yezhova4, olena denysiuk5 1 institute of problems on education of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, v.kyrychenko59@gmail.com 2 borys grinchenko kyiv university, ukraine, z.petrochko@kubg.edu.ua 3 institute of problems on education of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, necherda@gmail.com 4 sumy state university, ukraine, o.ezhova@med.sumdu.edu.ua 5 borys grinchenko kyiv university, ukraine, o.denysiuk@kubg.edu.ua abstract: in article the neuropsychological approach of theoretical and experimental analysis of the study of motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents is presented. attention is paid to the theoretical study of prosocialization of personality and the possibility of positive motivation at different age stages, according to the neuropsychological characteristics of adolescents. the role of structural characteristics of the cognitivemotivational sphere is presented, which became actively developed in neuropsychological and cognitively oriented theoretical directions: a cognitive direction of neo-freudianism (the meninger school), the motivational-cognitive theories of personality, the directions of cognitive psychology. the analysis of theoretical concepts, directions of the problem motivation of prosocial behavior decision of adolescents from the viewpoint of the neuropsychological approach is carried out. in order to achieve this goal, it has been used a number of methods in this study: general scientific – a theoretical analysis of psychological and pedagogical scientific literature and generalization of data, specific scientific – ranking of experimental data. to determine the main components of the educational motivation of adolescents the method of diagnosing the structure of educational motivation is used, which allowed to investigate the most significant motives of educational activities and their qualitative analysis among pupils of different forms and discipline areas (fetiskin, 2002). so as to substantiate the connection between the prosocial behavior of an adolescent and the principal components of educational motivation, pairwise comparisons of the indicators of pupils-adolescents studying in different discipline areas were conducted. it is concluded the cognitive-motivational styles, which shape the prosocial behavior of the individual, also provide the preference of certain ways of intellectual behavior that best eligible to the cognitive inclinations and abilities of a person. a concept the "cognitive styles" characterizes the individual difference in the cause, need, aspiration and way of obtaining, processing and using information. cognitive style describes a way to motivate of an adolscent. keywords: prosocialization, the structure of educational motivation, adolescence, the cognitive styles, the cognitive-motivational styles. how to cite: kyrychenko, v., petrochko, z., necherda, v., yezhova, o., & denysiuk, o. (2022). the motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 308323. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/286 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/286 mailto:v.kyrychenko59@gmail.com mailto:z.petrochko@kubg.edu.ua mailto:necherda@gmail.com mailto:o.ezhova@med.sumdu.edu.ua mailto:o.denysiuk@kubg.edu.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/286 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 309 introduction prosocial behavior of a person determines the possibility of realizing human potential in society. the opportunity to become a full member of society, a happy and socially significant person is a priority factor in upbringing a child in a prosperous family. preschool, general education and higher education institutions are gradually joining the upbringing and prosocialization of a child in a family. such gradual prosocialization is common in the world. an important and at the same time complex sphere of human activity is the educational process, during which an individual is developed, learned, educated and socialized (demchenko, 2021; prots, 2021; kosholap, 2021). along with the main researches of national and foreign scientists on the characteristics of prosocial behavior, it is important to consider the main prosocial motivational factors of adolescence in their leading educational and cognitive activities. the ability to get an education and make an independent choice of profession, a field of activity and a self-realization, identifying conscious motivation to master priority disciplines becomes key in choosing a learning motivation and a prosocial educational behavior of adolescents. there are motivational factors at every stage of socialization of a person. so that the topic of our article is answering of such questions as: what are these motivational factors?; whether they affect the child's personality effectively enough?; whether the key neuropsychological motivational levers of prosocialization of adolescents, as a particularly vulnerable age group effective? the aim of this article is a theoretical and experimental analysis of the investigation of motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents. theoretical analysis of research on prosocial behavior of adolescents scientific papers of prosocialization of a person and the possibility of positive motivation at different age stages, according to neuropsychological characteristics, have been studied by jason j. barr and anne higgind’alessandro (2007); gustavo carlo and laura padilla-walker (2020); veenstra, r., s. lindenberg, a.j. oldehinkel, a.f. dewinter, f.c. verhulst and j. ormel (2008); elisabeth malonda, anna llorca, belen mesurado, paula samper, m. vicenta mestre (2019); richard a. fabes, kristina kupanoff (1999); tetiana ternavska and yulia zhurat (2021). the motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents valentyna kyrychenko, et al. 310 the authors of the study "empatiya ta prosotsialna povedinka pidlitkiv u bahetovymirnomu konteksti shkilnoi kultury" jason j. barr and anne higgin-d'alessandro (2007) compare the impact of life and educational process of regular and alternative schools. they think the motivational tools of the teaching staff of alternative schools have a more effective impact on the socialization of adolescents. veenstra, r., s. lindenberg, a.j. oldehinkel, a.f. dewinter, f.c. verhulst and j. ormel (2008) propose analysis on the society level of data based on the latest global values research, according to cold or hot climates, evaluate cooperative inculturation of children to the extent of their richer society, but selfish inculturation in conditions of poverty of society; clarify climatic requirements – the theory of prosociality of resources. in collective study by elisabeth malonda, anna llorca, belen mesurado, paula samper, and m. vicenta mestre (2019) the established associations between peer attachment, warmth from mother and father, strict mother-father control, prosocial behavior, and physical and verbal aggression in adolescence are presented. researchers make parallels between the peer attachments and mother-father parenting styles that are directly related with prosocial behavior and aggression. the investigation of prosocial behavior by scientists gustavo carlo and laura padilla-walker (2020) – as actions that benefit to others – proves this behavior continues to develop in complex ways. such actions are important for understanding the moral development, as well as the health and well-being of an adolescent, and have also an impact on solving social and global problems (for example, hate crimes, cooperation, peace). the authors turn to the study of prosocial behavior in adolescence, the period of age-related changes in these actions, which is considered important in the development of moral identity. richard a. fabes and kristina kupanoff (1999) present the author's meta-analysis of data on age and gender differences in prosocial behavior, with special emphasis on early adolescence. scientists argues that prosocial behavior in adolescence has rarely been studied, but during this age time a general increase of prosocial behavior comparing to early age is observed. moreover, gender differences in prosocial behavior (attachment to girls) increase during this time. tetiana ternavska and yulia zhurat (2021) connect pedagogical neglect as a consequence of ineffective prosocialization of a child in the early stages of his/her development. the authors link difficult upbringing with brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 311 the intellectual abilities of a child and the need for their development by parents in preschool age; reveal the effectiveness of re-education of pedagogically neglected children in adolescence, the possibility of their resocialization. the neuropsychological and cognitively oriented theories of motivation the idea on the key role of structural characteristics of the cognitivemotivational sphere began to be actively developed in neuropsychological and cognitively oriented theoretical areas, which include: 1) the cognitive direction of neo-freudianism (d. rapaport, r. gardner, m. druzhinin, higuera-trujillo, llinares, macagno (2021); kholodnaia (2004); 2) the motivational-cognitive theories of personality (j. kelly (2000); 3) the cognitive psychology (gardner, holzman, klein, linton, spence (1959); gardner, jackson, messick, (1960) ); teplytskyi o., teplytskyi i., semerikov s., solovyov v. (2015); pavlova & zachyosova & grebenshchikova (2018) and ternavska t., shaumian, o., mishenina, t., voloshchuk, i., raievska, y., & hrys, a. (2020), jung r. e, gasparovic c., chavez r.s.etal. (2009). the cognitive perception of information directly affects the effectiveness of motivation of the leading and creative activities of a person, which is studied by a team of modern researchers led by n. pavlova and t. ternavska (pavlova & zachyosova & grebenshchikova (2018) and ternavska t., shaumian, o., mishenina, t., voloshchuk, i., raievska, y., & hrys, a. (2020). an intrinsically and mentally healthy adolescent’s brain develops, perceives and withstands cognitive loads and has motivational levers to produce the results of this activity. the results of thinking, in turn, are indicators of the effectiveness of self-motivation in construction an individual educational path of a person, the ability to create an original and even unique product of thinking (jung r. e, gasparovic c., chavez r.s. et al. (2009). in spite of the differences, these cognitive approaches could be united through an attempt to empirically demonstrate the role of the motivational-cognitive structures (i.e, various aspects of the structural organization of mental experience) as a determinant of a human behavior. firstly, the need to distinguish between semantic (the subject's ideas about the world) and the actual cognitive (mechanisms that help for ideas to appear and transform) aspects of the motivational and cognitive reflection. the motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents valentyna kyrychenko, et al. 312 the content of cognition is available to a individual in self-observation and self-motivation to cognition, while cognitive structures are not subject to direct observation either by a researcher or by an experimenter. secondly, the necessity to comprehend the facts of transituational variability of behavior, which again gave special actuality to the question on the degree of legality of a human behavior. taking into account neither the factor of personality traits nor the factor of the situation could not explain the causes of individual behavior, it was necessary to find a mechanism for its regulation, which would simultaneously represent the characteristics of the person, the characteristics of the situation, and motivating factors for intellectual activity. thirdly, the orientation on explaining the high creative potential of all major forms of the motivational activity. strange flexibility, unpredictability and productivity of the human intellectual behavior led to the idea of the existence "inside" of a subject / person some mental formations, independent of others and capable to generate own motives and rules of the information organization (selection, structuring, transformation) (druzhinin (2008). thus, a retrospective analysis of the three above-mentioned directions in the study of the structural characteristics of the motivationalcognitive sphere is more appropriate. special attention shold be paid to the study of facts and patterns that allow us to understand the peculiarities of the composition and structure of the mental (intellectual) human experience. the cognitive direction of neo-freudianism (meninger school) was focused on the search structural entities in the cognitive sphere (they were called "cognitive controls"), which mediate the influence of external actions, motivational states. the complex of cognitive controls forms a cognitive style, by other words, a peculiar unique way of processing information about his/her environment. individual differences in cognitive styles lead to different adaptive approaches to reality, which could be equally effective regardless of the degree of "correctness" of the results of cognitive activity (rapaport (1996). adherents of this trend believed that motivational-cognitive styles characterize certain aspects of observation concerning cognitive processes, the environment, the design of the place of perception, decision-making but a cognitive structure reflects the psychological basis that determines these processes (higuera-trujillo, llinares, malinares 2021). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 313 consequently, in the study of styles for the first time the idea of the role of structural organization of the individual mental experience of the subject /person as one of the determinants of individual differences in intellectual activity is expressed. moreover the main position was occupied by one of the important functions of the structures of mental experience: depending on the characteristics of their organization, they through the formation of a set of cognitive controls ("cognitive styles" in modern terminology) provide control over the information processing at the same time bloking or regulating the affect activator (kholodnaya (2004). the motivational and cognitive theories of personality explained the uniqueness of personality through the peculiarities of human understanding of what is happening. j. kelly, making theory of personal constructs, was one of the first who tried to analyze personality through his/her cognitive sphere, creating a theory of the personal constructs. it should be mentioned that ideas of j. kelly led to a number of studies devoted to clarify and deepen ideas on the structural aspects of individual mental experience that characterize a degree of its cognitive complexity (j. kelly (2000). a human perceives, interprets and evaluates reality through a certain way of organized subjective experience, presented in the form of a system of personal (i.e, inherent for concrete personality) constructs according to j.kelly. the structural representations of motivational-cognitive formations have been further developed in experimental cognitive psychology. researches of the information processing have shown the presence of special mental formations-mediators such as cognitive structures involved in the attempt and motivation, perception, transformation and the storage of information. followers of the cognitive psychology direction believed that cognitive styles characterize certain aspects of observation of motivational processes, and cognitive structure reflects the psychological basis that determines these processes (rapport (1957); gardner, holzman, klein, linton, spence (1959); gardner, jackson, messick (1960). therefore, in scientific papers of motivational and cognitive styles inherent in the motivational sphere for adolescents, the idea of the role of structural organization of individual mental experience of the subject /person as one of the determinants of individual differences in intellectual activity was first expressed. the main position was occupied by one of the important functions of the structures of mental experience: depending on the motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents valentyna kyrychenko, et al. 314 the characteristics of their organization, they through the formation of a set of cognitive controls ("cognitive styles" in modern terminology) provided control over the information processing, while blocking or regulating affective impulses. any cognitive activity, together with the content-operational and the emotional-volitional components, is filled with a motivational one according to s. semerikov and his colleagues (teplitsky o., teplitsky i., semerikov s., solovyov v. (2015). the ability for educational and cognitive behavior, and as a consequence, prosocial one of a adolescent, implies the existence of a general ability similar to the general intelligence and, possibly, creativity. the success of learning is influenced by both general intelligence and attitudes, interests, motivation and other mental qualities of a person (huseynov) (2015). there are implicit and explicit ability to learn. in particular, v. druzhinin believes that implicit is the ability to learn without purposeful conscious effort on the part of a learner. conversely, explicit is the ability to learn, based on purposeful and conscious efforts of the subject / individual of learning (druzhinin (2008). in this regard, the ability to learn is somehow related to the level of motivational sphere, which is the basis of conscious organization, diligence, perseverance, determination, self-control of a learner. the cognitive-motivational styles as a basis for motivation of prosocial behavior the cognitive-motivational styles involve the manifestation of personal organization as a whole. individual ways of the life impressions (styles) processing are closely related to needs, motives, affects, feelings of neuropsychological satisfaction of own significance. the cognitive-motivational styles that form the prosocial behavior of the individual also involve preference to certain ways of intellectual behavior that best coincides with the cognitive inclinations and abilities of the subject / individual. the concept "cognitive styles" characterizes the individual difference in the cause, need, aspiration and method of obtaining, processing and using information. the cognitive style describes a way to motivate activity. motivation is the primary determining factor in the person's decision-making, especially when a subject acts in stressful or extreme brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 315 conditions, which is often inherent in adolescent behavior (learning, new / constant circle of communication, hormonal changes). thus, the gradual and long-term formation of prosocial behavior will have a positive effect on concentration, activation of thinking processes, memory, perception and learning in general. depending on the kind of learning motivation (cognitive, achievement, self-development, communicative, emotional and external) the style of intellectual behavior of the individual, purpose, process and end result of any cognitive activity determines. the cognitive motivation takes place in all cases when it is openly expressed the need, intention, desire or hope to learn something new, to know it, to use the acquired knowledge. the motivation of achievement is manifested when a person sets a positively formulated goal, seeks to achieve significant results, success in activities. the motivation of self-development is expressed in the tendency of a subject to self-analysis; detachment of positive and negative personal qualities which influence onto the quality of education; formation of aspirations and skills to set high but adequate goals; striving to improve his/her intellectual level. the communicative motivation arises in desire to communicate. like the need for activity, a person needs communication, the satisfaction of which is a necessary condition for the normal mental development of a individual and the development of cognitive activity. pupils’ audience, teachers, classmates are all subjects of communication, like-minded people. the emotional motivation involves emotional satisfaction from learning. positive states are joy, admiration, satisfaction (i.e. positive emotions) within the leading activities related to a particular work. external stimulation is realized through external praise, when the subject of learning is approved by someone for good work or achieving positive results. self-esteem, self-perception and self-control of an individual determine in some way the productivity of cognitive activity. the activity that determines the effectiveness of cognitive activity is expressive in the direction and stability of cognitive interests. an individual is subjectively aware of the need through the goal, but it is manifested in the motives of behavior (aspirations, needs, interests, etc.), which push a person to be active. the motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents valentyna kyrychenko, et al. 316 let us consider a definition of these concepts with dictionaries. a motive (from latin motus to activate, push) 1) activator to work and related with satisfaction of person’s needs; 2) objectively directed activity of a certain force; 3) awareness of the reason underlying a choice (petrovsky, 1990). a need is a state of a living organism, human personality, social group or society as a whole, which expresses necessity for something, dependence on the objective conditions of life. it is the driving force of a subject’s activity (honcharenko, 1997). an interest (from latin interest – has a matter, important) is a form of cognitive need that provides guidance on an individual to understand the purpose of activity and thus contributes to orientation, acquaintance with certain facts, a fuller and deeper reflection of reality (honcharenko, 1997). in the action of the content analyzing of the above concepts, certain conclusions can be done. as we know, a specific need is the main form of interest. it is amplified in the process of substantive activity, and therefore in the process of its implementation a certain motivated behavior is formed, developed and consolidated. learning is the main activity of an adolescent who is motivated both externally, by a teacher, and internally, by a learner. when the motivation for learning is organized only from the outside (checking of parents, control of the administration of a school, teachers, a class teacher), then, of course, a teenager learns for the sake a good mark, certificate. if external factors (stimuli) are internalized, then an internal desire to acquire knowledge, skills, abilities is formed, which is based on deep interest. in the innovation process, the role of a teacher changes from dominant to leading, i.e. the role of not only a mentor but also as a participant in the educational process. in the process of learning it is necessary systematically to stimulate, develop and strengthen cognitive interest both as an important motive for learning and as a stable feature of the prosocial personality. one of the leading problems in the formation of prosocial behavior of the adolescent are his/her interests, inclinations, a future choice of profession, a preparation for high-quality pass of the external independent evaluation. that is, the main motive of a subject’s educational activity will be the choice of academic disciplines, the importance of a subject, which in his/her future will play a decisive role. it is very difficult to take the first step, that is to convince a teenager that all disciplines are not additional subjects, which are an extra burden when mastering disciplines of a basic brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 317 specialty. a teacher must formulate own version of the answer to the question of a modern teenager-pragmatist: "why should we study this subject?". in addition, this answer should be repeated, and the answermethod, an organic component of the whole educational process. a successful answer will be able to convince the purely pragmatic orientation of the modern pupil audience and prove for them that ideological, life, moral and ethical issues also have the right to exist in educational courses. the diagnosis of the structure of educational motivation to prove the relationship between the adolescent prosocial behavior and the determinants of learning motivation, pairwise comparisons of pupils-adolescent studying in different disciplines were conducted. the respondents were pupils of 9-10 forms of specialized secondary schools, numbering 104 persons (58 girls and 46 boys). the methodic of the educational motivation structure diagnosing allowed to study the most significant motives of educational activity and their qualitative analysis among pupils of different specialties (fetiskin, 2002). the learning motivation is a characteristic of the next component of cognitive activity that we study – the component of "cognitive styles". the operant force of a socially adapted personality is the motives of his/her behavior. the motive of behavior is the internal motivating force, which provides the movement of an individual to cognitive activity, activates intellectual development in the process of activity. motives could be needs and interests, aspirations and emotions, attitudes and ideals. from a psychological point of view, motives are the internal impetuses of any activity, on which the success and effectiveness of the latter depends. in our research we identified several group motives of prosocial behavior. a cognitive motive is expressed in the awakening of cognitive interests and is realized through the satisfaction of the process of cognition and its results. the cognitive activity of person is the leading sphere of life. therefore, the formation of cognitive motives in adolescents is a leading factor in the success of cognitive activity, because through it the natural human need is realized. the communicative motive is manifested in the desire to communicate. like the need for activity, a person needs communication, the satisfaction of which is a necessary condition for a normal mental development of an individual and the development of cognitive activity. the the motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents valentyna kyrychenko, et al. 318 pupils’ audience, teachers, classmates are the subjects of communication, like-minded people. the motive of emotional satisfaction is shown as interest in a particular activity, the process of performing this process, a positive emotional state during learning activities, feelings of joy and satisfaction from certain behavior. the motive of self-development gives an understanding of the importance of knowledge, the need for self-education, dissatisfaction with the level of own knowledge, desire and aspirations to solve the problem alone. the pupil’s position is interest in a certain type of activity, with no prospects for the future, responsibility to a team, teachers, parents, confirmation of own social status i.e. status as a pupil in a particular team, the desire to be a leader. the external stimulation repels the desire to earn approval from peers, a team, selfishness and ambition, fear of a teacher, parents, the opportunity to receive an unsatisfactory grade. the motive of achievement is the desire to be an educated member of society, to feel responsibility, answeableness to a team, society, parents, the benefits of mastering a future profession, mercantilism, material gain, to make a rapid career. as can be seen from the above it was determined the cognitive motive of the adolescent's behavior is heterogeneous in the choice of respondents. thus, it is most pronounced in pupils of physics-mathematical and historical-legal classes (an experimental group) and pupils of chemistsbiological and philological classes (a control group). the communication motive has not very important place for successful educational activities and effective behavior of pupils in all areas, as evidenced by rather moderate indicators. however, the sociocommunicative orientation of future philologists on the background of pupils of other fields is characterized by its high level (higher than historians-lawyers by 187%, mathematicians-physicists – 15,9%, chemistsbiologists – 16,9%). the emotional motive of educational activity is also important for pupils of all directions. positive emotional state during educational activities for pupils of chemistry and biology (67,4%) and mathematicians-physicists (65,7%) is quite important, perhaps because many pupils focus on a brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 319 comfortable emotional environment while communication, or to get emotional satisfaction from learning. for pupils of many areas is usual by the dominance of the motive of self-development and this is especially evident for chemists-biologists (89,5%). although for historians-lawyers this motive in teaching is not relevant. the motive "pupil’s position" is not high among pupils of all fields, although in comparison with others in philologists, it has the highest value (59,4%). along with the motive "pupil’s position" the external stimulation of pupils’ educational activities is also reflected in the low rates of this motive. the data are the basis for the assumption that pupils have more significant for the individual motives for learning than the two mentioned above. the motive of achievement, comparing to other motives, has the foremost importance in the adolescents behavior of all the areas we have studied. it is leading, and is especially evident in chemists-biologists. we assume that many pupils focus on certain future creative achievements, a career success, avoidance of employment problems, which depends on current academic success. it gives possible to make a qualitative interpretation of the fact that leading motivation for pupils is internal, including the motivation of achievement. the analysis of results of the adolescent motives of behavior shows that the educational activities of mathematicians-physicists are determined by motivation for achievement, chemists-biologists – the cognitive motivation, historians-lawyers – the motive of self-development, and all others – the motive of emotional satisfaction. the latter motive is the most common. our research suggests that most adolescents are focused on the development of their personality, their cognitive activity and a positive emotional state during education. an important prerequisite for personal growth is the use of personality-oriented teaching methods, the creation of didactic conditions for the formation of cognitive activity of pupils, in particular in the study of disciplines in different areas according to the choice of a adolescent. this investigation made possible to identify the leading characteristics of the components that determine the formation of motivation about the adolescents social behavior. these characteristics are: the motivational orientation of pupils to cognition (the control group – 79%, the experimental group – 72%), self-development (the control group – 69%, the motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents valentyna kyrychenko, et al. 320 the experimental group – 70%), future achievements (the control group – 87%, the experimental group – 89%), and a positive emotional state during training (the control group – 67%, the experimental group – 60%). the results of the pilot stage of the reserch show that indicators of the motivation components of pupils-adolescent in a particular area are at different levels, while in order to achieve positive motivation for their prosocial behavior requires a harmonious correlation of each type of motivation. conclusions the prosocial behavior arrange social relationships and alleviates unwanted behavior, while encouraging well-being and social adaptation, which in turn leads to the effective development and the optimization of adolescent learning. the ability to find and respond to requests for help and support not only protects people throughout their development, but also encourages compassion, gratitude, and appreciation. in other words, prosocial tendencies promote popularity among peers and help people to trust their own skills and positive emotions. the adolescent period of socialization of the child's personality is characterized by the following motivational factors: the motivation to achieve personal goals; the motivation of cognition and motivation "pupil's position" as a primary activity. the communicative motivation, which determines the prosocial status of an individual becomes decisive in the choice of needs, inclinations and motives of an adolscent. the emotional motivation and motivation for self-development give the feeling of stability and neuropsychological satisfaction. the key neuropsychological motivational levers of prosocialization of adolescents, as a particularly vulnerable age group, are closely related constructions of motivational and cognitive styles, harmonization of their expression in adolescent behavior. harmonization of the correlation of indicators of the components of initial motivation requires a targeted methodology aimed on motivating the prosocial behavior of adolescents, that will be the next stage of our study in the perspective. references barr, j., higgin-d’alessandro, a. (2007). empatiya ta prosotsialna povedinka pidlitkiv u bahatovymirnomu konteksti shkilnoi kultury. zhurnal henetychnoi psykholohii, [empatiya ta prosotsialna povedinka pidlitkiv u brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 321 bahatovymirnomu konteksti shkilnoi kultury. journal of genetic psycology] 168 (3), p. 231–250. https://generosityresearch.nd.edu/otherresources/publications-2/literature-reviews/adolescent-development-ofprosocial-behavior/ demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), p. 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 druzhinin, v.n. (2008). psikhologiya obshchikh sposobnostey. [psychology of general abilities]. piter. https://docplayer.com/92432995-druzhinin-v-npsihologiya-obshchih-sposobnostey-3-e-izd-spb-piter-s-il-isbn.html fabes, r. a., carlo, g., & kupanoff, k. (1999). early adolescence and prosocial/moral behavior i: the role of individual processes. journals. sagepub. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272431699019001001 fetiskin, n.p., kozlov v.v., & manuylov g.m. (2002). sotsialno-psikhologicheskaya diagnostika razvitiia lichnosti i malykh grupp.[socio-psychological diagnosis of personality development and small groups]. institut psikhoterapii. https://docplayer.com/355815-n-p-fetiskin-v-v-kozlov-g-m-manuylovsocialno-psihologicheskaya-diagnostika-razvitiya-lichnosti-i-malyh-gruppuchebnoe-posobie.html gardner, r.w., holzman, p.s., klein, g.s., linton, h.p., & spence, d.p. (1959). cognitive control: a study of individual consistencies in cognitive behavior. psychological issues, 1(4), 1–186. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1961-02266-001 gardner, r.w., jackson, d.n., & messick, s.j. (1960). structure and style in cognitive organization. in r. w. gardner, d. n. jackson, & s. j. messick, personality organization in cognitive controls and intellectual abilities (pp. 1–12). international universities press, inc. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/200610254-001 guseynov, a.s. (2015). varianty zhyzni i ikh proiavleniia v motivakh vybora khobbi v period ranney vzroslosti. psikhologiia sposobnostey: sovremennoye sostoyaniie i perspektivy issledovaniy: materialy vserossiyskoy nauchnoy konferentsy, posviashchennoy 60-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniya [life options and their manifestations in the motives of choosing a hobby in early adulthood. psychology of abilities: the current state and prospects of research]. v.n. druzhynina, 25–26 sentiabria 2015, moskva: izd-vo «institut psikhologii ran», p. 243. http://www.ipras.ru/engine/documents/document10356.pdf gustavo, c., & padilla-walker, l. (2020). adolescents’ prosocial behaviors through a multidimensional and multicultural lens. srcd.onlinelibrary, 31. https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdep.12391 https://generosityresearch.nd.edu/other-resources/publications-2/literature-reviews/adolescent-development-of-prosocial-behavior/ https://generosityresearch.nd.edu/other-resources/publications-2/literature-reviews/adolescent-development-of-prosocial-behavior/ https://generosityresearch.nd.edu/other-resources/publications-2/literature-reviews/adolescent-development-of-prosocial-behavior/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://docplayer.com/92432995-druzhinin-v-n-psihologiya-obshchih-sposobnostey-3-e-izd-spb-piter-s-il-isbn.html https://docplayer.com/92432995-druzhinin-v-n-psihologiya-obshchih-sposobnostey-3-e-izd-spb-piter-s-il-isbn.html https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272431699019001001 https://docplayer.com/355815-n-p-fetiskin-v-v-kozlov-g-m-manuylov-socialno-psihologicheskaya-diagnostika-razvitiya-lichnosti-i-malyh-grupp-uchebnoe-posobie.html https://docplayer.com/355815-n-p-fetiskin-v-v-kozlov-g-m-manuylov-socialno-psihologicheskaya-diagnostika-razvitiya-lichnosti-i-malyh-grupp-uchebnoe-posobie.html https://docplayer.com/355815-n-p-fetiskin-v-v-kozlov-g-m-manuylov-socialno-psihologicheskaya-diagnostika-razvitiya-lichnosti-i-malyh-grupp-uchebnoe-posobie.html https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1961-02266-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-10254-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-10254-001 http://www.ipras.ru/engine/documents/document10356.pdf https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdep.12391 the motivation of prosocial behavior of adolescents valentyna kyrychenko, et al. 322 higuera-trujillo, j.l., llinares, c., & macagno, e. (2021). the cognitive-emotional design and study of architectural space: a scoping review of neuroarchitecture and its precursor approaches. sensors, 21(6), 2193. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062193 honcharenko, s.u. (1997). ukrainskyi pedahohichnyi slovnyk [ ukrainean pedagogical dictionary]. lybid. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/106820/1/%d0% 93%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%87%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b d%d0%ba%d0%be.%20%d0%9f%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%b0%d0 %b3%d0%be%d0%b3%d1%96%d1%87%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0% b9%20%d1%81%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%bd%d0%b8%d 0%ba%20%281%29.pdf jung, r. e, gasparovic, c., & chavez, r.s. (2009). imaging intelligence with protonmag-netic resonance spectroscopy. intelligence, 37, 192-198. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19936275/ kelly, g. (2000). teoriia lichnosti [personality theory]. rech. http://iakovlev.org/zip/kelly.pdf kholodnaia, m.a. (2004). kognitivnyie stili: о prirode individualnogo uma. [cognitive styles about nature of individual mind]. piter. https://platona.net/load/knigi_po_filosofii/kognitivnye_nauki/kholodnaj a_m_a_kognitivnye_stili_o_prirode_individualnogo_uma_2004/17-1-01536 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), p. 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 malonda, e., llorca, a., mesurado, b., samper, p., mestre, m. v. (2019). parents or peers? predictors of prosocial behavior and aggression: a longitudinal study. front. psychol., 10, 2379. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02379 pavlova, n., zachyosova, i., & grebenshchikova, t. (2018). mutual understanding between partnersin discourse. psycholinguistics, 24(1), 269-288. https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2018-24-1-269-288 petrovskiy, a.v., & yaroshevskyi, m.g. (1990). psikhologicheskiy slovar [psycological dictionary]. politizdat. https://hum.edulib.com/szbrannoe/psihologicheskiy-slovar-pod-red-a-v-petrovskogoonlayn prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062193 https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/106820/1/%d0%25%2093%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%87%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be.%20%d0%9f%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%b0%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b3%d1%96%d1%87%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9%20%d1%81%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba%20%281%29.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/106820/1/%d0%25%2093%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%87%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be.%20%d0%9f%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%b0%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b3%d1%96%d1%87%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9%20%d1%81%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba%20%281%29.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/106820/1/%d0%25%2093%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%87%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be.%20%d0%9f%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%b0%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b3%d1%96%d1%87%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9%20%d1%81%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba%20%281%29.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/106820/1/%d0%25%2093%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%87%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be.%20%d0%9f%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%b0%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b3%d1%96%d1%87%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9%20%d1%81%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba%20%281%29.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/106820/1/%d0%25%2093%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%87%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be.%20%d0%9f%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%b0%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b3%d1%96%d1%87%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9%20%d1%81%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba%20%281%29.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/106820/1/%d0%25%2093%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%87%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be.%20%d0%9f%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%b0%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b3%d1%96%d1%87%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9%20%d1%81%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba%20%281%29.pdf https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19936275/ http://iakovlev.org/zip/kelly.pdf https://platona.net/load/knigi_po_filosofii/kognitivnye_nauki/kholodnaja_m_a_kognitivnye_stili_o_prirode_individualnogo_uma_2004/17-1-0-1536 https://platona.net/load/knigi_po_filosofii/kognitivnye_nauki/kholodnaja_m_a_kognitivnye_stili_o_prirode_individualnogo_uma_2004/17-1-0-1536 https://platona.net/load/knigi_po_filosofii/kognitivnye_nauki/kholodnaja_m_a_kognitivnye_stili_o_prirode_individualnogo_uma_2004/17-1-0-1536 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02379 https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2018-24-1-269-288 https://hum.edu-lib.com/szbrannoe/psihologicheskiy-slovar-pod-red-a-v-petrovskogo-onlayn https://hum.edu-lib.com/szbrannoe/psihologicheskiy-slovar-pod-red-a-v-petrovskogo-onlayn https://hum.edu-lib.com/szbrannoe/psihologicheskiy-slovar-pod-red-a-v-petrovskogo-onlayn brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 323 culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rapaport, d. (1996). cognitive science. contemp orary approaches to cognition. harvard univ and buffalo press. https://cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/papers/cogsci.pdf teplytskyi, o., teplytskyi, і., semerikov, s, & solovyov, v. (2015). training future teachers in natural sciences and mathematics by means of computer simulation: a social constructivist approach. theory and methods of learning fundamental disciplines in high school. special issue "monograph in the journal", 10(1). https://ccjournals.eu/ojs/index.php/fund/article/view/1023 ternavska, t., & zhurat, y. (2021) pedagogical neglect of pupils in a special institution as a social and pedagogical problem. current problems of harmonization of personality development in the modern educational space. publishing house wszia. https://www.wszia.opole.pl/strona-glowna/jestemstudentem/biblioteka/ebooki-dla-studentow/ veenstra, r., s. lindenberg, a.j., oldehinkel, a.f., dewinter, f.c.v., & ormel, j. (2008). prosocial and antisocial behavior in preadolescence: teachers' and parents' perceptions of the behavior of girls and boys. journal of behavioral development, 32, 243-251. https://generosityresearch.nd.edu/otherresources/publications-2/literature-reviews/adolescent-development-ofprosocial-behavior/ тernavska, т., shaumian, o., mishenina, t., voloshchuk, i., raievska, y., & hrys, a. (2020). socio-psychological directions of resocialization of persons, who are located in places of imprisonment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 54-71. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/109 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/papers/cogsci.pdf https://ccjournals.eu/ojs/index.php/fund/article/view/1023 https://www.wszia.opole.pl/strona-glowna/jestem-studentem/biblioteka/ebooki-dla-studentow/ https://www.wszia.opole.pl/strona-glowna/jestem-studentem/biblioteka/ebooki-dla-studentow/ https://generosityresearch.nd.edu/other-resources/publications-2/literature-reviews/adolescent-development-of-prosocial-behavior/ https://generosityresearch.nd.edu/other-resources/publications-2/literature-reviews/adolescent-development-of-prosocial-behavior/ https://generosityresearch.nd.edu/other-resources/publications-2/literature-reviews/adolescent-development-of-prosocial-behavior/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/109 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 112-131 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/271 neurophysiological aspects of natural science training of future psychologists in higher education institutions in finland and sweden valentyna bilyk¹, sergii girenko2, hryhorii dzhahupov3, natalia miloradova4, victoria dotsenko5 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kyiv, ukraine, valya-bilyk@ukr.net 2 kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, girenko11@ukr.net 3 kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, dgagupov@ukr.net 4 kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, natasham69@ukr.net 5 kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, valakh@meta.ua abstract: the relevance of the study of the natural science training of future psychologists for the presence of neuroscientific knowledge in the content of education lies in the fact that neurosciences have penetrated all spheres of socionic areas of training and are a synergistic component for the humanitarian aspects of human psychology. the aim of our article is to investigate the content component of psychological education in the universities of finland and sweden in order to determine its relevance to the modern interdisciplinary humanities and natural sciences paradigm, in particular the application of neuroscience in the training of psychologists. it was found that the neurophysiological aspect of psychological education (in parallel with the environmental) at the universities of finland and sweden is implemented through the implementation of disciplines, focused on the study of the neurophysiological nature of higher nervous activity (compulsory disciplines) and mainly neurophysiological diagnostic and cognitively oriented selective disciplines. there is a difference in the approach to planning the training of future psychologists: in finland, lists of variable disciplines are approved, in sweden only compulsory subjects are regulated, and in the variable component students have full academic freedom. it has been established that higher psychological education in sweden and finland is fully consistent with the tendencies of today’s society, in which there is a "blurring" of boundaries between scientific fields and an orientation towards building a student's personal educational space. keywords: compulsory disciplines, academic freedom, elective courses, additional courses, psychophysiological mechanisms, neurobiology, neuropsychology. how to cite: bilyk, v., girenko, s., dzhahupov, h., miloradova, n., & dotsenko, v. (2022). neurophysiological aspects of natural science training of future psychologists in higher education institutions in finland and sweden. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 112-131. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/271 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/271 mailto:valya-bilyk@ukr.net mailto:girenko11@ukr.net mailto:dgagupov@ukr.net mailto:natasham69@ukr.net mailto:valakh@meta.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/271 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 113 introduction today’s approach to the training of psychologists, sociologists, teachers, and other specialists in liberal professions is now undergoing profound transformations. martynenko (2013) singles out the defining criteria of vocational education within the bologna process, namely: “creation of a single paneuropean space in the field of higher education for harmonization of national educational systems and strengthening of trust between subjects of education; increasing the mobility and compliance of students, teachers and citizens with the european labor market; compatibility of qualifications at the university and postgraduate stages of training”. this approach makes it relevant to study and compare the content of university education in individual countries and assess such content in accordance with the requirements of post-classical education, in which there is a close interdisciplinary relationship in most humanities and natural and technical areas of training. in the light of a new educational, social and even cultural paradigm, the psychological and neurophysiological features of the subjects of social activity come to the fore. thus, neuroscience becomes an integral component not only of psychological education, but also a tool for human knowledge of themselves, their capabilities and intentions. thus, randolph, mccrea, & barr (2005) believe that the psychology of activity management, which contains stressors (sports, education), especially when it comes to the emerging personality, should constantly rely on neuropsychological diagnosis of destructive influences. this forces us to pay more attention to the biological basis of higher mental processes in the training of future psychologists. neurosciences are extremely congruent with today’s tendencies in education, in particular performativity as a cross-cutting method of learning and individual synthesis and production of new knowledge within personal educational and life trajectories. this applies primarily to the humanities. the latter almost abandoned reproductive learning, which was based on the current mechanisms of perception, understanding and memory (trifonas, 2003). for example, teachers' ignorance of the neuropsychological mechanisms of mental activity leads to the fact that teachers pay excessive attention to one of the cognitive processes. for example, it was previously believed that the acquisition of knowledge and training of memory should automatically improve the personality as a whole (sala, & gobet, 2017). this is a typical mistake caused by a misunderstanding of the integrity and innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect valentyna bilyk, et al. 114 multilevel nature of the human neural system, in which sensory, kinesthetic, intuitive or other neural channels of reality are equally important, although they vary depending on the phenotype and lateral profile. this fact highlights the relevance to studying neurophysiological aspects of natural science training for future psychologists. from the beginning of the xxi century, in connection with the needs of the humanities and medical sciences, the neuroscientific foundations of mental processes began to develop actively. there are three areas: general methodological and theoretical foundations of neuroscience (bagozzi, & lee, 2017), neurophysiological nature and connection of mental processes and phenomena (motivation, memory, thinking, behavior, decision making) (baddeley, 2017) and neurophysiological the nature of psychological disorders within the neurological norm (deviant behavior, addictions) and pathology (cerebral disorders, developmental delays, etc.). however, the latter aspect is not separated from the previous ones, as functional neurological disorders can manifest themselves as neurotic: addictive, compulsive, risky behavior (ross, duperrouzel, vega, & gonzalez, 2016). such trilateral researches in a complex can serve in psychology not only for therapy, but also preventive activity on the prevention of behavioral aberrations, spontaneous decisions, attacks of affect; allow to model psychotherapeutic process on many initial parameters. on the positive side, since the 2000s, a common interdisciplinary categorical apparatus and non-medical research methods have been gradually developed and become established for psychology, sociology, pedagogy, and neuroscience (becker, 2014). for a long time, clinical and counseling psychology used only nonmedical methods in diagnosis conversation, testing, observation. this has always made it difficult to identify nosological units that are on the brink of psychology and neurology or psychiatry. later it became clear that such disorders, although they can be corrected with the help of psychotherapy, are still more sensitively determined when measuring neurophysiological and often visceral parameters (słoniak, 2012). this led to the interpenetration of psychology, correctional pedagogy on the one hand and on the other neurophysiology. subsequently, in the correction of conditions and diseases on the verge of neurotic and psychotic disorders, in the planning of rehabilitation and corrective measures increasingly began to use neurophysiological parameters, which significantly expanded the range of medical and psychological history. therefore, not only medicine, but also socionymic brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 115 practices (psychological counseling, coaching, social support) began to be accompanied by neuropsychology (voigt, 2019). the above trends make relevant the problems of studying neurophysiological aspects in the context of natural sciences at the faculties of training of psychologists, which lays the foundations of a multimodal psychological and physiological approach in future professional practice. therefore, the purpose of our article is to study the content of psychological education for the presence of natural science training and its neurophysiological aspects. in particular, the object of study was higher psychological education in finland and sweden as countries that are demonstrating a rapid entry into the latest educational and scientific space. given the above, we consider it appropriate in our study to determine the state of implementation of natural science training of future psychologists in leading universities in finland, namely: jyväskylän yliopisto / university of jyväskylä, turun yliopisto / university of turku and itäsuomen y university eastern finland. training of future psychologists in higher education institutions in finland finland has long established itself as a country with a very high level of higher education. higher education institutions in this country are represented by 20 universities and 29 institutes with state status and a high level of autonomy. interestingly, their autonomy is manifested, starting from decisions on enrollment of students for study, approval of curricula and extends to the rules for obtaining scientific degrees (zhernokleev, & pushkarova, 2006). it is the high level of autonomy that allows the scientific and pedagogical staff to vary the content of psychological education in the direction of biological, in particular neurophysiological aspects. jyväskylän yliopisto / university of jyväskylä is one of the most famous multidisciplinary higher education institutions in finland. there are 7 faculties in its structure, including psykologian laitos / faculty of psychology, where future psychologists are trained. through various research programs, this university cooperates with almost 900 institutions of higher education in the world (jabłoński, 2019). research work in finnish higher education institutions, according to zhernokleev, & pushkarova (2006), is compulsory because "according to finnish law , higher education institutions should carry out practical training of students on the example of their own research and achievements. this helps to avoid theorizing in the study of natural sciences and link them directly to future psychotherapeutic practice. innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect valentyna bilyk, et al. 116 an analysis of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists, which is located on the official website of the university of jyväskylä, gives reason to note that natural science training in it is 30 credits, that is, 10% of the total volume (300 ects credits), namely: 15 credits a student receives as a result studying the required basic courses: “anatomia ja fysiologia keskusja ääreishermoston / anatomy and physiology of the central nervous system”, “kokeelliset neurobiologia menetelmät / experimental methods in neurobiology”, “aivojen visualisoinnin perusteet / basics of brain imaging” (table 1) and 15 credits from the list of suggested selected disciplines: "kognitiivinen neurobiologia käytännön harjoittelu / cognitive neurobiological tutorial", "kognitiivisen neurobiologia ajankohtaiset asiat / actual problems of cognitive neurobiology", "oppiminen ja muisti neurobiologia / neurobiology of learning and memory", "hermolihasjärjestelmän kinesiologia / kinesiology of the nervous systems and", "kognitiivisen neurotieteen menetelmät / methods of cognitive neuroscience." (table 2). table 1. excerpt from the curriculum for future psychologists at jyväskylän yliopisto / jyväskylä university (compulsory disciplines) code pakolliset core-kurssit / compalsory courses credits semester ciba110 anatomia ja fysiologia keskus-ja ääreishermoston / anatomy and physiology of the central nervous system 5 1, 2 ciba120 kokeelliset neurobiologia menetelmät / experimental methods in neurobiology 5 2 ciba130 aivojen visualisoinnin perusteet / basics of brain imaging 5 2, 3 table 2. excerpt from the curriculum for future psychologists at jyväskylän yliopisto / jyväskylä university (elective disciplines) code valikoiva kurssit /elective courses credits semester ciba140 kognitiivinen neurobiologia käytännön harjoittelu / cognitive neurobiological tutorial 5 1–10 ciba160 kognitiivisen neurobiologia ajankohtaiset asiat / current problems of cognitive neurobiology 5 1–10 ciba170 oppiminen ja muisti neurobiologia / neurobiology of learning and memory 5 1–10 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 117 lbip002 hermolihasjärjestelmän kinesiologia / kinesiology of the nervous system 5 1–10 ciba213 kognitiivisen neurotieteen menetelmät / methods of cognitive neuroscience 5 1–10 ciba510 aivotutkimuksen menetelmät / brain research methods 5 1–10 after analyzing the curricula of the disciplines of natural science training defined in the curriculum, we conclude that most of them relate to the study of the neurophysiological nature of cognitive processes and diagnostic methods, and only some of them have a theoretical and educational nature.thus, carrying out a detailed analysis of the course " anatomia ja fysiologia keskus-ja ääreishermoston / anatomy and physiology of the central nervous system", the authors of the curriculum emphasize that it is theoretical, so the teaching methods used only lectures, which highlight the basic principles structure and functioning of the human central nervous system: from the cellular to the systemic level. upon completion of this course, students are expected to develop knowledge about the structural and functional organization of the central nervous system and understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms of mental processes (jabłoński, 2019). the discipline "kokeelliset neurobiologia menetelmät / experimental methods in neurobiology" for future psychologists is mandatory for the study of theoretical and practical course and, according to the authors of the curriculum, should be studied by students of psychology after studying the course "anatomia ja fysiologia keskus-ja äre and physiology of the central nervous system "/ anatomy and physiology of the central nervous system” (jabłoński, 2019). the program states that students should know the principles of experimental research in neurobiology, be able to receive and interpret neural signals and understand how the information obtained can be used in the context of future professional activities (jabłoński, 2019). the value in the theory of the laboratory course "aivojen visualisoinnin perusteet / fundamentals of brain imaging", for which students will learn the basics of invasive and non-invasive methods of imaging human brain activity, is, according to the authors of the curriculum, undeniable, since at the end of the course, students realize the benefits and the disadvantages of each of the methods, know where they can be applied, and be able to interpret the results of the research (jabłoński, 2019). elective disciplines on natural science training of future psychologists are offered, as noted by aalto, & suutama (2019), aimed at innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect valentyna bilyk, et al. 118 deepening and generalizing the neurobiological knowledge acquired by students of psychology during the training of compulsory courses (jabłoński, 2019). however, the curriculum developers emphasize that not all of them should be selected for study. in the explanatory note to the curriculum, aalto, & suutama (2019) indicate that students must choose at least 15 ects credits from the proposed list of subjects. consider the content of the science and education of the educational institution turun yliopisto (university of turku), which is the second largest institution of higher education in finland and, according to the times, is one of the hundred best universities in europe. the training of psychologists at the university of turku lasts for 5.5 years and involves the study of disciplines in the amount of 320 ects credits. as can be seen from table 3, the natural science training of future psychologists is represented by compulsory basic courses, namely: "kognitiivisen neuropsykologian perusteet / basics of cognitive neuropsychology" and "biologisen tutkimuksen menetelmät psykologiassa / methods of biological research in psychology", as well as elective courses "ekologinen psykologia / environmental psychology", "oppiminen ja muisti neurobiologia / neurobiology of learning and memory", "aivo tutkimuksen menetelmät / methods of brain research." table 3. a fragment of the curriculum for future psychologists at turun yliopisto / university of turku (compulsory disciplines) code disciplines credits semester pakolliset core-kurssit / compulsory basic courses 2240102 kognitiivisen neuropsykologian perusteet / fundamentals of cognitive neuropsychology 7,5 1, 2 2240152 biologisen tutkimuksen menetelmät psykologiassa / methods of biological research in psychology 5 2 valikoiva kurssit / elective courses 2240160 ekologinen psykologia / environmental psychology 5 1–11 2240170 oppiminen ja muisti neurobiologia / neurobiology of learning and memory 5 1–11 2240510 aivotutkimuksen menetelmät / brain research methods 5 1–11 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 119 it should be noted that although the list of elective courses is much smaller than in the curriculum for future psychologists of the previously analyzed university, but the official website of the department of psychology at the university of turku states that students can choose subjects covered by curricula of other faculties. , and in other institutions of higher education (armstrong, 2006), and this significantly expands the list of elective subjects. a detailed analysis of the curriculum for future psychologists at the university of turku, in particular its section "antama neuvonta ja ohjaus / tips and tricks", gives us reason to believe that, according to the authors of the proposed curriculum, the study of science will help future psychologists to deeply understand neurophysiological processes in neuroanatomical structures and sensory systems; will promote the development of skills to apply instrumental methods to study the physiological functions of the human brain and analyze the results; will teach them to draw conclusions and make the right, scientifically sound professional decisions, as well as to understand the impact of environmental factors on the mental health of the individual (armstrong, 2006). psychology students at itä-suomen yliopisto / university of eastern finland, as well as at turun yliopisto / university of turku, also last 5.5 years, but study 330 credits, as opposed to 320 credits reflected in the curriculum for future training. psychologists from the previously analyzed university of finland. as can be seen from table 4, the natural science training of future psychologists is represented by one mandatory integrative course "kognitiivisen neuropsykologian / cognitive neuropsychology". 15 ekts credits are provided for its study during the first two years of study. the total amount of natural science training of future psychologists at the university of eastern finland, as stated in the "suosituksia opetussuunnitelmaan / curriculum recommendations", must be at least 25 ects credits. therefore, students must receive 10 ects credits from the list of elective courses. it is worth noting that in accordance with the requests of students, the list of elective courses is updated at the university every year. the official website of the department of psychology at the university of eastern finland states that students can choose subjects that belong to the approved list of elective subjects both within their university and in other higher education institutions in the country and the world. innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect valentyna bilyk, et al. 120 table 4. a fragment of the curriculum for future psychologists at itä-suomen yliopisto / university of eastern finland (compulsory disciplines) code disciplines credits semester pakolliset kurssit / compulsory basic courses psys02 kognitiivisen neuropsykologian / cognitive neuropsychology 15 1, 2, 3, 4 a detailed analysis of the curriculum of the integrative course "kognitiivisen neuropsykologian / cognitive neuropsychology" suggests that its structure covers four modules, namely: "hermoston anatomia / anatomy of the nervous system" 4 ects credits, "neuroanatomisten rakenteiden fysiologia / physiology of structures 5 credits ects, "henkisten prosessien geneettinen perusta / genetic foundations of mental processes" 3 ects credits and "ekopsykologia / ecopsychology" 3 ects credits, which, in the opinion of the mentors of the training of future psychologists, will form students' understanding of the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of mental processes, knowledge of the meaning cerebral cortex and subcortical structures in the control of mental processes and the influence of heredity and environmental factors on the formation of psychophysiological characteristics of a person. thus, the analysis of the finnish higher education system showed that the training of future psychologists in finnish higher education institutions is carried out in accordance with the approved curriculum with compulsory subjects and disciplines of free choice, which prevail. interestingly, in addition to the elective subjects proposed by the curriculum, students of psychology can independently choose to study natural sciences, which belong to the curricula of other faculties both within their educational institution and in other institutions of higher education. note also that in finland, the scientific training of future psychologists is a mandatory component of psychological education. each curriculum contains a justification for the introduction of a particular discipline, including science. all natural science disciplines covered by the training plans for future psychologists are closely related to the practical application of the knowledge gained during their study. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 121 analysis of the organization of natural science training of future psychologists in the leading universities of sweden higher education in sweden is characterized by a high level of quality and independence of the management of higher education institutions in the organization of the educational process, research and management. in total, there are about 55 higher education institutions in the country, of which 11 have the status of a university. in sweden, as in finland, higher education is a degree, but the training of future psychologists in higher education is carried out on a continuous specialized five-year program, according to which students specialize in certain areas of psychology from the very beginning. let's analyze the organization of natural science training of future psychologists in the leading universities of sweden, namely: uppsala universitet / university of uppsala, göteborgs universitet / university of gothenburg and stockholms universitet (2019) / stockholm university. uppsala universitet / uppsala universitet the oldest university in sweden and all of scandinavia, has 9 faculties in its structure, including samhällsvetenskapliga fakultetsnämnden / faculty of social sciences, where future psychologists are trained. as a result of our research, it was found that the compulsory natural sciences, which are provided by the curriculum for future psychologists at uppsala university include only two: "biologisk psykologi / biological psychology" and "hjärna och beteende / brain and behavior » (table 5). for their study, 15 ects credits are provided, which is 5% of the total amount (300 credits). table 5. a fragment of the curriculum for future psychologists at uppsala university (compulsory disciplines) code disciplines credits semester obligatoriska kurser / compulsory courses 2pp106 biologisk psykologi / biological psychology 7,5 1; 2 2ps714 hjärna och beteende / brain and behavior 7,5 3; 4 a detailed analysis of the målet / objectives, innehåll / content and förväntade / resultat expected results defined in the science curriculum indicates their professional use. thus, the developers of the kursplan för biologisk psykologi / biological psychology program note that after completing the course, the student should be able to: explain in detail the innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect valentyna bilyk, et al. 122 anatomical structure of the human nervous system, the structure and functions of individual nerve cells, the mechanisms of intracellular and intercellular, both electrical and chemical transmission of excitation; describe the main stages of development of the human nervous system, starting from the embryonic period; taking into account the theory and conclusions about the development of the human nervous system, predict evolutionary prospects. in addition, the authors of the program argue, students should understand: how hormonal activity and biological rhythms can affect human behavior, for example, in relation to sleep, alertness and response to stress, as well as when and for what purpose it is advisable to use methods of physiological or structural measurements in brain research (univerzita palackého v olomouci, 2017). to achieve such results, according to the curators of the outlined training course, it is advisable to organize classes in the form of lectures, laboratory work and individual research. the learning outcomes indicated in the program are evaluated through final testing and on the basis of the defense of individual scientific research (univerzita palackého v olomouci, 2017). analyzing the curriculum of the discipline "hjärna och beteende / brain and behavior", we came to the conclusion that this course is a logical continuation of the course "biologisk psykologi / biological psychology", because, according to its authors, aimed at in-depth and more detailed study of biological mechanisms of perception, memory, learning, emotions, language, sleep (univerzita palackého v olomouci, 2017). we consider it expedient to note that in the curriculum of training of future psychologists analyzed by us there are no selected disciplines. however, the instruction in the curriculum, which is available on the official website of the institutionen för psykologi / department of psychology, uppsala university, states that knowledge of ej obligatoriskt / additional courses, including science, the student can get in two ways: either he chooses already existing courses at the university, or a group of students chooses the direction in which they want to gain in-depth knowledge, and together with the responsible teacher make a proposal for the curriculum, which is approved by the head of the department. the curriculum should contain: the purpose, objectives and content of the discipline, methods of teaching and diagnosing the acquisition of educational material, as well as a list of educational and scientific literature (univerzita palackého v olomouci, 2017). göteborgs universitet / university of gothenburg is the third oldest university in sweden, with 8 faculties, including the samhällsvetenskapliga brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 123 fakulteten / faculty of social sciences, which reports to the institutionen för psykologi / department of psychology. analyzing the curricula for the training of future psychologists at the university of gothenburg, we found that natural science training is represented by three disciplines: “kognitiv neurovetenskap / cognitive neuroscience”, “biologiska mekanismer av mentala processer / biological mechanisms of mental processes” and “miljöpsykellan: interaktion mental processes och miljö / environmental psychology: human-environment interaction ”. for its implementation, 37.5 ects credits are provided, which is almost 2.5 times more than in the curricula for training future psychologists at the previously analyzed uppsala university (table 6). table 6. a fragment of the curriculum for future psychologists at the university of gothenburg code disciplines credits semester obligatoriska kurser / compulsory basic courses pc2129 kognitiv neurovetenskap / cognitive neuroscience 15 1; 2 px1161 biologiska mekanismer av mentala processer / biological mechanisms of mental processes 15 3; 4 px1102 miljöpsykologi: interaktion mellan människa och miljö / environmental psychology: human-environment interaction 7,5 4 a thorough analysis of the science curricula reflected in the curriculum for future psychologists at the university of gothenburg suggests that, although they differ in name from the disciplines at uppsala university, they have much in common in terms of content. the program of the discipline "kognitiv neurovetenskap / cognitive neuroscience", contained in the curriculum of the university of gothenburg, in purpose, content and expected learning outcomes is completely similar to the discipline "biologisk psykologi / biological psychology" in the curriculum of uppsala university. the discipline "biologiska mekanismer av mentala processer / biological mechanisms of mental processes" studied by studentspsychologists of the university of gothenburg, as well as the discipline "hjärna och beteende / brain and behavior" from the curriculum of innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect valentyna bilyk, et al. 124 uppsala university involves the study of physiological mechanisms of attention. , learning, consciousness, emotions, speech and sleep. however, despite the significant similarity in the content of science disciplines at the universities of gothenburg and uppsala, we found that the discipline "miljöpsykologi: interaktion mellan människa och miljö / environmental psychology: human-environmental interaction" is not studied by future psychologists, and is only in the list of compulsory disciplines of the university of gothenburg. according to lomberg (2019), the author of the curriculum for the discipline “miljöpsykologi: interaktion mellan människa och miljö / environmental psychology: human-environment interaction environment ”the subject of her training is the analysis of the nature of environmental problems from a psychological point of view. this course, as the scientist notes, on the one hand, forms in future psychologists knowledge about the influence of environmental factors on the mental state of a person, and on the other hand, it illuminates the features of the influence of human activity on the state of the environment. stockholms universitet (2019) / stockholm university is one of the largest educational and research centers in europe and, according to the academic ranking of world universities, is one of the fifty best universities in europe and hundreds of the best universities in the world (spencer, & spencer, 2008). given the above, we consider it appropriate in our study to analyze the state of implementation of natural science training of future psychologists at stockholm university. a fragment of the curriculum for future psychologists at this university is shown in table 7. table 7. a fragment of the curriculum for future psychologists at stockholms universitet / stockholm university code disciplines credits course obligatoriska kurser / compulsory basic courses pв1001 grunderna för biologi / fundamentals of biology 5 1 pspr08 neurovetenskap kognition och lärande / neuroscience of cognition and learning 20 1; 2; 3 thus, the analysis of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at stockholm university showed that science training is 25 ects credits or 8% of the total (300 credits) and is represented by two disciplines: "grunderna för biologi / brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 125 fundamentals of biology" and "neurovetenskap kognition" och lärande / neuroscience of cognition and learning "(table 7). the authors of the curriculum for the discipline "grunderna för biologi / fundamentals of biology" claim that the purpose of this course, on the one hand, is to form future psychologists' knowledge of biology: anatomy, physiology, genetics and ecology, and on the other to motivate them to study the basics of biology as a theoretical basis for specialized disciplines in professional training. the structure of the course "neurovetenskap kognition och lärande / neuroscience of cognition and learning" differs from all other previously analyzed courses. this discipline is studied during three years of study, ie almost the entire period of training of future psychologists at the bachelor's level. for its study, 20 ects credits were allocated, which are evenly distributed among the structural units (modules) of the discipline. a detailed analysis of the working curriculum for the discipline "neurovetenskap kognition och lärande / neuroscience of cognition and learning", which is available on the official website of stockholm university, showed that the first module of this discipline is introductory. it summarizes and details the knowledge about the structural and functional organization of the human nervous system, which students received during the course "grunderna för biologi / fundamentals of biology". psychology students start studying the discipline "neurovetenskap kognition och lärande / neuroscience of cognition and learning" in the second semester of the first year of study, immediately after completing the course "grunderna för biologi / fundamentals of biology". in the process of studying the following modules of the course "neurovetenskap kognition och lärande / neuroscience of cognition and learning" psychology students develop competencies in: search and generalization of research literature on neuroscience, understanding the nature of mental processes and their correction taking into account biological factors. discussion thus, the analysis of the swedish higher education system showed that the country's higher education institutions provide educational services in accordance with european standards that meet the level of "bachelor's / bachelor's", "master's / master's" and "phd / doctor of philosophy (phd)". however, for some areas of training for future professionals, including future psychologists, there is a continuous specialized five-year education. innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect valentyna bilyk, et al. 126 a positive trend is the fact of increasing participation of students in the choice of disciplines of the natural science cycle with a clear neuroscientific bias (with one several mandatory integrative courses (such as "kognitiivisen neuropsykologian / cognitive neuropsychology) from the approved list of disciplines and in other higher education institutions of the country and the world. this corresponds to two key trends in the development of higher education in europe: first, the change in the role of the teacher from universal to consultative and organizational, and the student to a self-managed motivated personality (zlatea, & cucui, 2015). secondly, by abandoning the stereotype of “getting an education” and affirming the principle of combining educational experience with one's own, with the need to learn independently and throughout life, to build personal professional tools in a flexible educational environment (castañeda, dabbagh, & torres-kompen, 2017). unfortunately, it has been noticed that there is still an ethical, categorical and deontological barrier in the interaction of psychology and neuroscience. this is due to the established tradition of distinguishing these disciplines, the difficulty of conducting neurophysiological diagnostics in psychotherapeutic practice, and the fact that neurophysiology is not traditionally used in cases of neurological norm (bush, 2015). despite this, neurophysiological data are increasingly taken into account in the prevention of ethical conflicts in management, in the practice of judicial, educational, sports and management activities, and therefore are widely implemented in the educational process at the faculties of psychology. the study confirmed that the application of neuroscience in education in general is an interdisciplinary study of the relationship of external educational and psychological influences on the neural mechanisms of cognitive activity. previously, educational theories contained a priori arguments about the validity of neuroscientific data for didactics and used only psychology "in its pure form." this distinguished both teachers and psychologists from the natural, especially reflexive basis of cognitive (didactics) and behavioral (education) processes. currently, neuroscience and the humanities interact to maintain the brain in optimal adequate health in all types of influences and interactions (thomas, ansari, & knowland, 2019). in the long run, such interactions should influence educational policy, the management of educational processes, and the day-to-day teaching practices of schools, colleges, and universities. the analysis of compulsory and variable components of higher psychological education programs in finland and sweden confirms the fact that, despite the many modalities, psychology needs to update the basic brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 127 theories. the inclusion of neuroscientific advances in psychological and psychotherapeutic practice can accelerate therapeutic work, as it will correct not only the exogenous causes of cognitive impairment, but also their neurophysiological component. in addition, knowledge of the mechanisms of the brain will affect the psychological and educational practice, as well as the organization of therapeutic, corrective or educational environment (alloway, & alloway, 2014). natural science training for future psychologists in higher education institutions in sweden and finland is mandatory. it is also interesting to note that the curricula for the training of students of psychology contain a minimum of mandatory subjects for study, including science. elective subjects, they can independently choose from the disciplines available in the institution of higher education list of additional courses or ask the curators to develop new courses in the area in which they need to gain in-depth knowledge. thus, analyzing the uniqueness of natural science training of future psychologists in higher education institutions in finland and sweden, we observe similarities in its implementation in higher education institutions in the countries analyzed above. thus, in higher education institutions in finland and sweden, as well as in the united states and canada, students of psychology have the opportunity to choose elective science disciplines both at home and abroad, or even in other higher education institutions. the curricula for future psychologists in higher education institutions in finland and sweden include integrative science courses, and training is based on a competency-based approach in spain, italy, poland, hungary and the czech republic. natural science training of future psychologists in finland and sweden, as well as in all the above-mentioned higher education institutions, is compulsory and has a professional orientation and involves the formation of relevant competencies. schwartz, lilienfeld, meca, & sauvigné (2016) warn against extremes, which are often followed by psychologists. these extremes are that some psychologists believe that higher mental activity is almost unrelated to nervous function. the other part believes the opposite: the achievements of neuroscience will gradually displace psychology from therapeutic practice (eliminative reductionism). in fact, it is necessary to find a balance between the growing popularity of psychology and the rapid development of neuroscientific research (schwartz, lilienfeld, meca, & sauvigné, 2016). scientists see the solution to the problem in the field of psychological education and practice, in particular in the appropriate innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect valentyna bilyk, et al. 128 combination of social and natural components in the content of education and self-improvement of specialists, which is observed in the educational environment of the studied educational institutions. conclusions so, a detailed analysis of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at the universities of sweden and finland gives us grounds to assert that the study of the disciplines of natural science training of incentives in order to help future psychologists deeply understand the neurophysiological processes in neuroanatomical structures and sensory systems; promote the development of skills to apply instrumental methods to study the physiological functions of the human brain and analyze the results; teach them to draw conclusions and make correct, scientifically grounded professional decisions, as well as be aware of the influence of environmental factors on the mental health of an individual. the content of the natural science component of education in the studied educational institutions involves the formation of neurophysiological and environmental competencies on the development of the human nervous system, nervous system plasticity, physiological mechanisms of mental processes and human interaction with the environment, including the impact of environmental factors on the mental state; understanding of the mechanisms underlying the dysfunctions of the autonomic and central nervous system, including diseases of the autonomic nervous system and brain disorders, as well as strategies for their correction; awareness of the feasibility of using in psychological practice of physiological research methods and methods of biological statistics; readiness to plan, implement and apply physiological techniques in future professional activities and interpret their results. it is established that in higher education institutions of finland, natural science training of future psychologists is carried out in accordance with the approved curriculum, which substantiates the feasibility of studying each compulsory discipline and training courses of students' choice. in addition to the selected natural science disciplines proposed in the curriculum, students in higher education institutions in finland have the right to independently choose for study the natural sciences that belong to the curricula of other faculties both within their own educational institution and in other institutions of higher education in the world. the curricula for the training of future psychologists in swedish higher education institutions list only the natural sciences that are compulsory for study. elective courses are chosen by psychology students in brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 129 swedish higher education institutions independently from the list of additional courses available in higher education institutions, or if there is no required discipline in the curriculum, they have the right to apply to the curator or head of the department. requesting the development of new training courses in the area in which they require in-depth knowledge. it is emphasized that students together with the responsible teacher make a proposal for the program of a new course. in addition, an important role in the formation of neurophysiological, environmental and other natural science competencies is given to the personal experience of the student. as part of a personal educational trajectory, the student not only has the opportunity to choose inuniversity and out-of-university courses, but also to gain experience in laboratories, industrial practices in the performance of individual research tasks. references aalto, j., & suutama, t. (2017). opetussuunnitelmat 2017–2020. kasvatustieteiden ja psihologijan tiedikunta [curricula 2017–2020. faculty of education and psychology]. https://www.jyu.fi/edupsy/fi/laitokset/psykologia/opiskelu/opetussuunnitelmat/ psy-opinto-opas-2017-2024.pdf. alloway, t. p., & alloway, r. g. (2014). understanding working memory. sage publications ltd. https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/understandingworking-memory/book241272 armstrong, м. a. (2006). handbook of human resource management practice. london: kogan page limited. https://books.google.com.ua/books/about/a_handbook_of_human_re source_management.html?id=d78k7qidr3uc&redir_esc=y baddeley, a. (2017). working memory, thought, and action. oxford: oxford university press. https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/ 9780198528012.001.0001/acprof-9780198528012 bagozzi, r. p., & lee, n. (2017). philosophical foundations of neuroscience in organizational research: аunctional and nonfunctional approaches. organizational research methods, 22(1), 299331. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428117697042 becker, n. (2014). mehr verstehen, besser handeln? zum verhältnis von pädagogik und neurowissenschaften [understand more, act better? on the relationship between education and neuroscience]. zeitschrift für pädagogik https://www.jyu.fi/edupsy/fi/laitokset/psykologia/opiskelu/opetussuunnitelmat/psy-opinto-opas-2017-2024.pdf https://www.jyu.fi/edupsy/fi/laitokset/psykologia/opiskelu/opetussuunnitelmat/psy-opinto-opas-2017-2024.pdf https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/understanding-working-memory/book241272 https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/understanding-working-memory/book241272 https://books.google.com.ua/books/about/a_handbook_of_human_resource_management.html?id=d78k7qidr3uc&redir_esc=y https://books.google.com.ua/books/about/a_handbook_of_human_resource_management.html?id=d78k7qidr3uc&redir_esc=y https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528012.001.0001/acprof-9780198528012 https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528012.001.0001/acprof-9780198528012 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428117697042 innovations in primary education: neuropsychological aspect valentyna bilyk, et al. 130 [journal of education], 60, 208225. https://www.pedocs.de/frontdoor.php?source_opus=9095 bush, sh. s. (2015). ethical decision making in clinical neuropsychology. oxford: oxford university press. https://www.amazon.com/ethical-decision-makingclinical-neuropsychology/dp/0195328221 castañeda, l., dabbagh, n., & torres-kompen, r. (2017). personal learning environments: research-based practices, frameworks and challenges. journal of new approaches in educational research, 6(1), 12. https://naerjournal.ua.es/article/view/v6n1-introduction jabłoński, s. (2019). biologiczne podstawy zachowania: рrogram [the biological basis of behaviour: program]. https://usosweb.amu.edu.pl/kontroler.php?_action=actionx:katalog2/prze dmioty/pokazprzedmiot(prz_kod:08-psz5-bpz). lomberg, m. (2019). miljöpsykologi: interaktion mellan människa och miljö: рrogram [environmental psychology: interaction between man and environment: рrogram]. https://utbildning.gu.se/kurser/kurs_information/?courseid=px1102 martynenko, s. (2013). yevropeyskyy prostir vyshchoyi osvity: tendentsiyi rozvytku ta priorytety. osvitni reformy: misiya, diysnist, refleksiya [european higher education area: development trends and priorities. educational reforms: mission, reality, reflection]. kyiv: edelweiss publishing company llc. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ocvit_2013_2_22 randolph, c., mccrea, m., & barr, w. b. (2005). is neuro-psychological testing useful in the management of sport-related concussion? journal of athletic training, 40(3), 139–154. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1250250/ ross, j. m., duperrouzel, j., vega, m., & gonzalez, r. (2016). the neuropsychology of risky sexual behavior. journal of the international neuropsychological society, 22(6), 586594. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355617716000400 sala, g., & gobet, f. (2017). does far transfer exist? negative evidence from chess, music, and working memory training. current directions in psychological science, 26, 515–520. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721417712760 schwartz, s., j., lilienfeld, s. o., meca, a., & sauvigné, k. c. (2016). the role of neuroscience within psychology: a call for inclusiveness over exclusiveness. american psychologist, 71(1), 5270. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26766765/ słoniak, r (2012). wpływ tapingu rehbilitacyjnego na ruchomość kręgosłupa [effect of rehabilitation taping on the mobility of the spine]. https://docplayer.pl/amp/6288208-iv-miedzynarodowe-dni-rehabilitacjihttps://www.pedocs.de/frontdoor.php?source_opus=9095 https://www.amazon.com/ethical-decision-making-clinical-neuropsychology/dp/0195328221 https://www.amazon.com/ethical-decision-making-clinical-neuropsychology/dp/0195328221 https://naerjournal.ua.es/article/view/v6n1-introduction https://usosweb.amu.edu.pl/kontroler.php?_action=actionx:katalog2/przedmioty/pokazprzedmiot(prz_kod:08-psz5-bpz) https://usosweb.amu.edu.pl/kontroler.php?_action=actionx:katalog2/przedmioty/pokazprzedmiot(prz_kod:08-psz5-bpz) https://utbildning.gu.se/kurser/kurs_information/?courseid=px1102 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/ocvit_2013_2_22 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1250250/ https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355617716000400 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721417712760 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26766765/ https://docplayer.pl/amp/6288208-iv-miedzynarodowe-dni-rehabilitacji-rzeszow-16-17-lutego-2012r-program-szczegolowy-16-lutego-czwartek.html brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 131 rzeszow-16-17-lutego-2012r-program-szczegolowy-16-lutegoczwartek.html spencer, l. m. jr., & spencer, s. m. (2008). competence at work: models for superior. noida: wiley india pvt. limited. https://www.wiley.com/enus/competence+at+work%3a+models+for+superior+performance-p9780471548096 thomas, m. s. c., ansari, d., & knowland, v. c. p. (2019). annual research review: уducational neuroscience: зrogress and prospects. journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 60, 477–492. https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcpp.12973 trifonas, p. (2003). the ethics of science and/as research: deconstruction and the orientations of a new academic responsibility. educational philosophy and theory, 35(3), 285–295. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1469-5812.00028 univerzita palackého v olomouci. (2017). informace o studiu. studijní rok 2017/2018. prezenční a kombinované stadium [study information. study year 2017/2018. full-time and part-time study]. https://www.ff.upol.cz/fileadmin/userdata/ff/studium/st_plany/ff171 8.pdf voigt, t. h. (2019). beratung, coaching und neurowissenschaft – produktive zusammenarbeit oder geschickte vermarktung? [consulting, coaching and neuroscience  productive collaboration or clever marketing?]. organisationsberatung, supervision, coaching [organizational consulting, supervision, coaching], 26, 339–350. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613019-00612-z zhernokleev, i., & pushkarova, t. (2006). systema osvity finlyandiyi [the education system of finland]. retrieved from http://osvita.ua/school/method/1300/. zlatea, s., & cucui, g. (2016). motivation and performance in higher education. procedia  social and behavioral sciences, 180, 468–476. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1877042815014925?v ia%3dihub https://docplayer.pl/amp/6288208-iv-miedzynarodowe-dni-rehabilitacji-rzeszow-16-17-lutego-2012r-program-szczegolowy-16-lutego-czwartek.html https://docplayer.pl/amp/6288208-iv-miedzynarodowe-dni-rehabilitacji-rzeszow-16-17-lutego-2012r-program-szczegolowy-16-lutego-czwartek.html https://www.wiley.com/en-us/competence+at+work%3a+models+for+superior+performance-p-9780471548096 https://www.wiley.com/en-us/competence+at+work%3a+models+for+superior+performance-p-9780471548096 https://www.wiley.com/en-us/competence+at+work%3a+models+for+superior+performance-p-9780471548096 https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcpp.12973 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1469-5812.00028 https://www.ff.upol.cz/fileadmin/userdata/ff/studium/st_plany/ff1718.pdf https://www.ff.upol.cz/fileadmin/userdata/ff/studium/st_plany/ff1718.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613-019-00612-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613-019-00612-z http://osvita.ua/school/method/1300/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1877042815014925?via%3dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1877042815014925?via%3dihub brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 287-302 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/232 the system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the context of neuropedagogy: traditions and innovations olena vynogradova¹, larysa zdanevych2, nataliia sivak3, svitlana melnychuk4, olha polianovska5, liudmyla motoziuk6 1 municipal establishment "kharkiv humanitarianpedagogical academy" of the kharkiv regional council, kharkiv, ukraine, bf_lada@ukr.net 2 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, larisazdan@ukr.net 3 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, khmelnytsky, ukraine, natali.sivak76@gmail.com 4 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, khmelnytsky, ukraine, melme88882008@ukr.net 5 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, polyanovska_olga@ukr.net 6 khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, luynik31@gmail.com abstract: the article deals with the interaction of sociology, in particular the practice of social work, with neuropedagogy and neuropsychology; the main political, legal and pedagogical principles of neuropedagogy of disability are outlined. taking into account the new inclusive paradigm of disability, modern social, pedagogical and psychological approaches to accompanying children with special needs, the points of intersection of neuropsychology with other socio-humanitarian disciplinesю there is also a brief digression into the formation of neuropedagogy as a science, the classical principles that formed its basis and the main achievements in modern times (since the 70's of the twentieth century). the article identifies and compares a set of psychophysiological and social problems of children with disabilities, which can be solved by the integrated use of social support and neuropedagogy. the expediency of development and implementation of scientific results of the newest interdisciplinary field neurosociology is substantiated. during the research, methods relevant for theoretical works were used historical excursion, analysis of theoretical material, generalization, comparison, interdisciplinary extrapolation. the discussion revealed that the patterns obtained during the study of traditions and innovations in the system of social work and neuropedagogical support are currently relevant and widely analyzed in scientific discourse: in sociology, pedagogy, psychology, defectology, correction, rehabilitation and medicine. it is established that the prospect of further research is a constructive synthesis of the above disciplines in the field of neurosociology with the development and delineation of a universal categorical apparatus and methodological and diagnostic tools. keywords: neuropsychology, persons with special needs, inclusive paradigm of disability, neuropedagogical support, neurosociology. how to cite: vynogradova, o., zdanevych, l., sivak, n., melnychuk, s., polianovska, o., & motoziuk, l. (2021). the system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the context of neuropedagogy: traditions and innovations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 287-302. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/232 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/232 mailto:bf_lada@ukr.net mailto:larisazdan@ukr.net mailto:natali.sivak76@gmail.com mailto:melme88882008@ukr.net mailto:polyanovska_olga@ukr.net mailto:luynik31@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/232 the system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the … olena vynogradova, et al. 288 introduction against the background of modern globalization, integration and communication processes in society, the main humanistic problem urgently arises ensuring the rights, freedoms and necessary services of people with limited physical, mental, educational and social capabilities. the rethinking of values after the second half of the twentieth century led to the adoption of a number of international acts and declarations that obliged democratic countries to pay special attention to education, socialization and care for people with disabilities (see table 1). the very term "disability" has undergone transformations as a segregation and one that stimulates discriminatory stereotypes. the terms "person with a disability" and "person with special needs" are now becoming widespread. table 1. the main legal acts governing the implementation of inclusion (systematized by the authors) document title who and when adopted previous laws and documents that contributed to the development of inclusion: universal declaration of human rights (1948); declaration of the rights of the child (1959); world declaration on the survival, protection and development of children; un in 1948; un, 1959; un, 2000; laws and regulations on inclusive education and social support "salamanca declaration on principles, policies and practices for the education of persons with disabilities" (1994); dakar framework for action (2000); un convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (2006); incheon declaration (2015). un, salamanca, 1994; un, dakar, 2000; united nations, 2006; unesco, incheon, 2015. it is positive that governments, states, ministries of education and social protection have adopted a new non-medical paradigm of disability, the principles of which are united by the term "inclusion". the main goal of inclusion is to ensure the education, socialization and integration of persons with disabilities into a full-fledged public space without their segregative removal within special institutions, within the family or other institutions that restrict their rights and opportunities. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 289 an essential component of inclusive provision for people with disabilities is psychocorrection and physical rehabilitation. these services may include medical intervention as needed, but the most humane, effective, and non-violating rights of people with special needs are psychological and pedagogical support. the latter should take into account as much as possible the nosology of the underlying disease, the specifics of the associated cognitive and activity capabilities, the peculiarities of the development of the personality of a person with special needs. the most valid in this regard are neurosciences, which comprehensively take into account the psychophysiological parameters and achievements of the humanities. the purpose of this study is to study the applications of neuropedagogy and neuropsychology in pedagogical, social and psychocorrectional support of persons with disabilities, and especially in their socialization (social work). in order to generalize traditions and innovations in this area, it is necessary to solve partial problems: to study the historical experience of the formation of neuropsychology in terms of its social and adaptive potential; to generalize modern neuropsychological and neuropedagogical theories and approaches in social work of the leading countries of the world; compare ways of solving psychophysiological and social problems by neuropedagogy and related sciences; to formulate on the basis of the studied recommendations on improvement of such work and to outline the further prospects of researches. the epistemological core of the work is the consideration of the innovative science of neurosociology and its socially adaptive potential in working with children with special needs. historical aspects of neuropsychology and social work with people with disabilities the methods relevant for the theoretical study of socionic issues, problems of the frontier and the intersection of the humanities and natural sciences are used in the work. in particular, the method of analysis and generalization of theoretical sources; method of extrapolation of social work tasks with children with disabilities to neuroscientific theories and practices. the method of establishing intradisciplinary correlations allowed to identify socio-pedagogical problems that can be comprehensively addressed at the junction of psychological, pedagogical and neurobiological sciences. the material for the study was historical reviews, classical provisions and theoretical works on innovative areas of social work and neuropedagogical support for people with disabilities. the main theoretical the system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the … olena vynogradova, et al. 290 provisions of inclusion as the main paradigm of education, correction and social support of persons with disabilities are also taken into account. the analysis of the historical aspects of neuropsychology and social work with people with disabilities should begin with a review of the main legislative acts that once provided for the framework principles of integration, socialization and education of people with disabilities (table 1). let us consider in more detail the framework provisions of education and social work in the context of the above documents, which implement a non-medical model of support for people with disabilities. for example, the un convention on the rights of persons with disabilities uses the term "inclusion" for the first time (2006). however, in different countries, the terms “inclusion” and “integration” are often used interchangeably, indicating the unity of the principles of education and social integration of persons with disabilities. if the provisions adopted in the second half of the twentieth century were general and symbolic in terms of inclusion of persons with disabilities in the general social process, then a number of documents of the late twentieth early xxi century laid down specific provisions of inclusion. thus, the “standard rules for the equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities” (united nations, 1993) outline equality of rights in obtaining all general and professional levels of education for persons with disabilities; detailed optimal conditions for the provision of social services on the principle of integration, even for people with disabilities with severe diseases. the salamanca declaration on the principles, policies and practices for the education of persons with disabilities (1994) for the first time uses the term "inclusion" in a pedagogical sense, which is recognized by almost a hundred governments as key to building national education systems. the document presents framework concepts for governments to adopt relevant laws that provided for the complete transformation of education in order to implement inclusion by 2015. all documents refer to deontological principles of communication with children with disabilities, as violation of these principles not only reduces the effectiveness of pedagogical efforts, but can also harm the mental and physical health of a child with special educational needs (hereinafter sen). the teacher and the social worker are responsible for the chosen goals, objectives, content, methods of teaching a child with sen, because a child with sen is more dependent on pedagogical assistance than his peers who do not have sen. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 291 in europe, the concept of disability from the very beginning of scientific research has been associated with physical or psychological characteristics that lead to social dysfunction. for example, in germany, a person with a disability is a person whose physical or psychological functions for more than six months do not allow him to correspond to his social status, age and normal physical well-being and prevent him from participating in public life. thus, disability in the modern sense is associated not so much with subjective well-being, but with the ability to fully enter society. this gradually reoriented the paramedical and socio-psychological sciences towards socially oriented support. consider the above approaches in modern theoretical and methodological discourse. reviews of literature sources on neuropedagogy and neuropsychology have already been carried out by scientists on certain aspects. thus, collins and rurke (2003) analyzed the literature that examines the correlation of neurophysiological processes and defects and learning difficulties. in most works it is proved that the acquired forms of mental and neurotic disorders, the consequences of psychotraumas are well exposed to neuropsychological influence. the foundations of neuropsychology and neuropedagogy were laid by vygotsky (2003) and luriya (2003), who were the first to apply a psychological approach in didactics. however, already in the early stages of sociology, its connection with (the biology and psychophysiology of human behavior was established. thus the first sociologists considered biology and sociology to be the basic and complementary sciences of man. in the early twentieth century. opinions were expressed that socialization is a natural stage of human development that follows directly from the biological and accompanies it. in this case, man was considered a biological species, and society a natural environment for this species spencer (1999). the primary in terms of history and the most general concept of the direction of social work with people with disabilities is the term "integration". the literature identifies two main aspects of integration: the process and result of adaptation to the (social) environment and the balancing of existing defects by the system of components of this environment cancian (1972, p. 104). german scientists have deepened the sociological content of accompanying people with disabilities. they formulated the philosophical foundations of integration, according to which a person with a disability is a full-fledged, albeit new, element of the environment, after inclusion in which he acquires all the full-fledged properties of this environment (endruveit, 1989, p. 307). the system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the … olena vynogradova, et al. 292 researchers of the role of metaphors in human life lakoff and johnson (2016), perhaps without realizing it, laid down one aspect of neuropedagogy, in particular behavioral and mental. according to these scholars, metaphor is not just a linguistic formation. it is also a way of thinking and acting, from which one can judge the deep neural nature of metaphor. m. johnson emphasizes the social role of metaphors and the metaphorical nature of society. therefore, a person who has not developed unconscious skills and reactions is desocialized and falls out of the usual social foundations. developing ideas of the neuropsychological nature of metaphor, scientists propose to use it as a tool of didactics, education and psychocorrection. thus, sadik (2018, pp. 21 22) argues the use of metaphors in the correction of negative or deviant behavior. the researcher proved on the basis of a pedagogical-psychological experiment that students perceive teachers' directives through metaphors (often negative), and themselves produce their own mostly positive metaphors. this makes the metaphorically modeled educational process better and translates it into the object of neuropedagogy research. neurophysiological indicators are currently taken into account in specialized or vocational training (quality improvement, determination of aptitudes and inclinations, neurodidactic support) and reflected in specific educational and rehabilitation programs and manuals for secondary education kulikova (2014), potapov (2002), sirotyuk (2003). in connection with the penetration of neuropedagogy into the educational practice of high school, linda kirby (2006) proposes to create a course for future teachers courses on the laws of brain function. the degree of formation of such competencies should be revealed by interpreting the process and learning outcome of children with different abilities and characteristics of the brain. the main psychodidactic tools in the work of a young teacher-neuropedagogue increasing positive stimuli, satisfaction and play component in time and quality. in turn, franks and turner (2013, p.3) are forced to recognize that the newly created science of neurosociology, which is ideally designed to take into account the peculiarities of brain development in social entry, still remains a framework approach, not a full-fledged science, because problems and prospects outlined, and diagnostic and shaping tools are still under development. so far, the most developed in this area is the establishment of determinant links between the neuropsychology of the individual and his membership in social groups and organizations. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 293 thus, a review of the sources revealed the multimodal possibilities of the neuropedagogical approach, which is an important subject of study in the sociological and natural sciences. correlations of neuro pedagogy and social work in modern theory and practice analysis of neuropedagogical and socio-pedagogical sources revealed the main patterns of modern social support for children with disabilities. the first of them is expedient, but not directive, construction of a complex social project of a child with the involvement of a wide range of specialists. the role of the neuro-educator is to choose a personal trajectory of educational and social cases that can contribute to the gradual social equalization, development of deficient or poorly developed didactic and social abilities. the second of them, according to the european model, is interactive, related to the formation of personal (as far as possible) responsibility of the child for its interaction with society. provides pedagogical and psycho-correctional stimulation of activity, strengthening of socially significant functions, which are already available at least in its original form. the third, most important, taking into account the cognitive and communicative features of the child, measuring higher nervous and mental functions and building its effective interaction with the environment. first of all, with inclusive, and if possible, with heterogeneous and not always favorable (development of stress resistance). the concrete realization of these directions begins with neuropedagogical modeling of social situations in which the child with a disability is gradually involved. at the same time stress or on the contrary comfort of stay, activity and activity in a microsociety is constantly tested. as the positive psychophysiological dynamics of the situation become more complicated, the child is involved in the interaction of an increasing number of real and formal social groups. the level of meaningfulness of the process of social integration is also subject to constant monitoring. the optimal indicators are the level of satisfaction, acceptance, conformism, the dynamics of movement from the specific (i ego) to the general. this aspect correlates with the actual neuropsychological indicators. the need for neuropsychological and neuropedagogical correction is caused by congenital or acquired psychosomatic disorders. especially those related to the destructive effect of disability and incorrect professional behavior (deontology) of specialists who provide support for people with disabilities. these, according to scientific sources, include autopsychic and the system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the … olena vynogradova, et al. 294 acquired disorders (apathy, inferiority complex, hypoprotection (lack of care), hyperprotection (excessive care), restriction and prohibition syndrome (to improve or simplify the life of a person with disabilities), inappropriate expectations. (inhibit or excessively accelerate development). thus, the main aspect of neuropsychological correction concerns both subjects people with disabilities and the environment (parents, professionals), which can harm development with a positive declared goal. the main means of counteracting destructive neuropsychological influential is the observance of the key goal-principles of inclusion and appropriate correctional and socio-pedagogical support: individual selection of means of influence, continuity, adaptability, voluntariness (on the part of a person with a disability), axiological, naturalness (naturalness (nature), resourcefulness, consistency, involvement the like. the basis for the valid application of neuropedagogical techniques and practices is the classical provisions of personality-oriented pedagogy of nature-type and nature-doozy (komensky, 1982), personal ethics and activity spontaneity (montessori, 1955), the presence in the personality of potential and all the rudiments of its divine development (plato, 2007). on the basis of these works, the terms of behavior and activity, formation, influence, in order to avoid damage, compensation, personal space and the like came to neuropedagogy. a study of the incorporation of neuropedagogy and neuropsychology into social work with children with special needs revealed that neurosociology, the science of the biological, anatomical, and psychophysiological determinants of human social development and adaptation, has been slowly but steadily developing since the 1990s. however, most sociologists, and even more so social workers, still consider their own activities to be humanitarian and separate from neuroscience. in parallel, neuroeconomics, neurosociology, and culturological neuroscience have emerged and are developing, which testifies to the paradigmatic nature of the neuro approach to modern anthropology in general. the term "neurosociology" was first used by j. bogen (bogen et al., 1972) to study the styles of thinking lateralized in the left hemisphere, and later scientists began to establish determinant links between the lateral profile of a person and his behavior and incorporation into society. the analysis of valid correlations between neuroscience and social and socio-pedagogical work with children with special needs allows to formulate scientific and practical connections that can synergistically solve the problems of adaptation of persons with disabilities to the environment (table 2). brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 295 american scientists have declared the 1990s a "decade of the brain," which has led to the rise of many interdisciplinary sciences. with the delineation of the subject and the development of categories and tools of neurosociology, social work practices began to turn to it: social workers, correctional teachers, speech pathologists, rehabilitation specialists, etc. currently, the two most developed areas of neurosociology are outlined affective and cognitive (emphasis is placed on the emotional-volitional and mental-cognitive spheres, respectively). as a result of studying the common object of study of sociology and neuropedagogy, common and different approaches of these sciences to solve the main socio-pedagogical and psychological problem of children with special needs their sociologization and environmental selfidentification. the results of this analysis are presented in table 2. table 2. correlations of neuropedagogy and social work in modern theory and practice (systematized by the authors) socio-pedagogical approach to the problem of accompanying children with disabilities neuropedagogical approach to the problem of accompanying children with disabilities comments and search for instructions common / excellent 1. consideration of belonging to a formal and / or real social group (person with a disability, child, student). 2. taking into account personality traits (hobbies, interests, promising areas of activity, the degree of sociologization). 3. organization of support on the way to socialization through the development of self-identification, acceptance of full membership in several 1. taking into account neuropsychological characteristics: temperament, gender, features of cognitive activity. 2. taking into account the modalities of internal experience, the prevailing modality (sound, visual, retrospective) (past experience), etc. 3. organization of support on the way to socialization through the development of subjectivity, 1. complementary components. often neurophysiological indicators are determinants of belonging to a certain group. 2. neuropedagogic al approach more deeply determines the causes of the intention of the individual and at an earlier stage of life. 3. common accompanied by a social worker and a neuropedagogue in the formation and psychosynthesis of "ithe system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the … olena vynogradova, et al. 296 social groups; group project activities, cooperation, consulting. 4. recognition of the value of one's own personality, its activity and creative intention, for the purpose of which self-knowledge and formation of one's own cognitive and activity "niche" are stimulated. personality-oriented activity (he is the subject and object), the formation of skills of self-responsibility for the development of a unique biosocial nature. 4. recognition of own biological, cognitive and psychosocial needs and learning to implement them ego" in different social roles (i a man, i a student, i a son / daughter). 4. both approaches allow to resolve internal contradictions synergistically; to find external (social) and internal (psychophysiological) resources to meet their own needs and the realization of vital interests. in order to preserve the often insignificant psychoneurological resources of a child with a disability, it is necessary to consistently implement a quasi-professional pedagogical approach. we mean acting out social situations, the primacy of education and communication over learning, the involvement in the educational and socio-socialization process of outsiders volunteers, community workers, peers, community activists and more. this approach expands the consciousness of the child with special needs, the changes of which gradually include new productive neural connections in layers. although in the social pedagogy of working with children with psychophysical disorders it is recommended to exclude the competitive component (in learning and socialization), still the neuropsychological features of the brain of any person are aimed at change. many works are devoted to acmeological aspects of correction and support of persons with disabilities (achievements in a special niche, paralympic sports, narrow professional successes). however, the main requirement for the dynamics of cerebral, and therefore mental, motor or activity dynamics should be selfobservation and constant background testing in compliance with the medical principle of "do no harm" (barr, 2003; tsushima et al., 2018). analysis of the application of methods for determining the lateral profile and extrapolation of these data to social work allows us to identify a number of specific psychophysical properties of children with special needs. these properties are of key importance in the sociologization of the child and in its social support. we present the data in the form of a table. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 297 table 3. neuropsychological features of children with disabilities with different neurophysiological orientation (systematized by the authors) children with disabilities with right hemispheric neurophysiological orientation. children with disabilities with left hemispheric neurophysiological orientation. 1. pay attention to objects and events that are or occur on the left. 2. more prone to social communication. 3. can solve spontaneous psychosocial problems in a non-standard way. 4. sensitive to irrational support and praise from others. 5. more prone to independent socialization (with the presence of appropriate support). 6. prefer group, collective types of transformational or creative activities. 7. can detect symptom complexes of hyperactivity, overvaluation (russian supervaluability), hysteria. 8. typical creative and cognitive activities: role-playing games, brainstorming, group work, empathy, creativity. 1. pay attention to objects and events that are or are happening on the right. 2. prone to distance themselves from group types of communication. 3. prefer logical solutions to psychosocial problems, need more time. 4. pay attention to specific facts, objectivity of assessment. 5. it is more difficult to socialize and require significant social support. 6. prefer independent activity. 7. may show symptoms of hypoactivity, mild autism, perfectionism. 8. typical creative activity: solving logical problems, working with specific data according to a certain algorithm the above features are the starting point for the neuropedagogical development of individual strategies of social support and personal social trajectory. this applies to didactic, psychological and social influences and activities on the part of the subjects of the social process. discussion та conclusion currently, the neuropsychological and neurodidactic approach to social work with people with disabilities is still in its infancy and is most applicable to physical disabilities and mild forms of mental dementia, when it can be combined with the actual medical. however, scientists deny the clear effectiveness of neuropedagogical and neuropsychological correction in moderate and severe cerebral and sclerotic disorders (santiago rolania et al., 2006). in the early 70's, when the basic laws of neuropedagogy were the system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the … olena vynogradova, et al. 298 established, there were also fluctuations in the choice of object and the main tasks of the study. the focus was on the neuropsychological problems of learning disabilities: whether there is a link between brain disorders and didactic success, whether there are reliable criteria for determining how cerebral disorders and other dysfunctions are associated with psychosocial dysfunctions (rourke, 1975). thus, at the very beginning of its formation, neuropsychology and neuropedagogy correlated with social adaptability. there are also trends in the approximation of neuropedagogy to cybernetics and e-management, which is explained by the common patterns of the brain and electronic neural systems. klemantovych and stepanov (2015) directly state in this regard: "neuropedagogy", in contrast to pedology (recognizes the primacy of biological and hereditary in the development of the child) (author's note) does not try to replace the whole science of man. is designed to work closely with various specialists, primarily in the field of neuroscience, based on the totality of their data ". international experience in the formation of social justice in children tries to resolve controversial issues. thus, scientists study in terms of crosscultural trends in ethics, pedagogy and psychology. for example, in the united states, new zealand, and ireland (cochran-smith et al., 2012) school curricula have been implemented. demographic situation, competence of teachers who form basic neural connections for full-fledged social communication. a positive aspect of the application of neurosciences in social work with persons with disabilities is that this science takes into account not only individual psychophysical characteristics, but also the usual group characteristics: gender, age, social status that forms the environment, the degree of development or lagging behind certain neuropsychiatric functions, psychotype, and so on. like that. these factors are the initial data for the formation of social status, social self-identification and social behavior, sociologization in general, that is, the achievement of the main goals of social work with persons with disabilities. so, the analysis of the historical and modern experience of the application of neuropedagogy in social work revealed a correlation with the leading problems of the humanities, natural and related neurosciences. as a result of the analysis of theoretical and methodological sources, the results of neuropedagogical experiments and practices conducted in an inclusive environment among children with disabilities, we can formulate a key conclusion of this study. the most promising area of interaction between neuropedagogy and social work is the focus of sociological observations and research on neurobiological causes and mechanisms of acts brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 299 and patterns of social interaction; on neuropsychological laws of entering social groups and occupying in them a certain rank (status); determining the nature of internalized cultural values, observance of traditions, etiquette, rituals, etc .; on the ways of mastering social and institutional rules, experience that determine the role social functions of a child with a disability. in addition, neuropedagogy allows us to identify how the dysfunction of a child with a disability affects his social self-identification, behavior, and so on. the most valid results of these activities can be obtained in the synthetic science neurosociology. the individual program of social work with a person with special needs includes a trilateral correctional complex of work: 1. neuropsychological (clarifies the nosology and the causes of difficulties in entering in the society); 2. comprehensive (takes into account sociological, pedagogical, medical, psychological and other knowledge about the person, inventories them and outlines ways out); 3. interdisciplinary (coordinates the activities of specialists of different profiles in the implementation of fullfledged social and correctional work for full entry into the social process). here there is a combination of individual mental and nosological with the general social image and personal trajectory of a person with a disability as a subject of social activity. promising areas of further research are the search for practical interaction of neuroscience with the humanities, the development of a common categorical apparatus, effective tools, changing the educational programs of future teachers and social workers in terms of mandatory study of the practical foundations of neurosociology. scientists are already predicting innovative and futurological studies of the brain in connection with various types of human disabilities: from learning disabilities to severe disabilities. according to them, in the near future the following neuropedagogical tasks should be solved: elucidation of brain metabolism in children with learning difficulties, identification of subtypes of psychosocial life and their correction, neuropsychiatric consideration of learning and socialization of children with epilepsy and other severe mental disorders . references barr, w. b. (2003). neuropsychological testing of high school athletes: preliminary norms and test-retest indices. archives of clinical neuropsychology, 18(1), 91– 101. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0887-6177(01)00185-8 bogen. j. e., dezure, r., tenhouten, w. d., & marsh, j.f. jr.(1972). other side of the brain iv. the a-p ratio. bulletin of the los angeles neurological societies, 37(2), 49–61. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0887-6177(01)00185-8 the system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the … olena vynogradova, et al. 300 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/18123932_the_other_side_of_ the_brain_iv_the_a-p_ratio cancian, f. m. (1972). review of the system of modern societies by t. parsons. social forces, 51(1), 104–105. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/51.1.104 cochran-smith, m., ludlow, l., ell, f., o’leary, m., enterline, s. (2012). learning to teach for social justice as a cross cultural concept: findings from three countries. european journal of educational research, 1(2), 171-198. http://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.1.2.171 collins, d. w., & rourke, b. p. (2003). learning-disabled brains: a review of the literature. journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, 25(7), 10111034. https://doi.org/10.1076/jcen.25.7.1011.16487 council of europe. (1948). evropeyskaya konventsiya po pravam cheloveka [european convention on human rights]. http://www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf dakarskiye ramki deystviy [dakar framework for action]. (2020, april 26-28). education for all: meeting our common commitments (text adopted by the world education forum az kar, senegal). https://studref.com/448457/pedagogika/dakarskie_ramki_deystviy endruveit, g. (1989). worterbuch der soziologie [dictionary of sociology]. stuttgart ferdinand enke. franks, d. d., & turner, j. h. (eds.). (2013). handbook of neurosociology. springer science+ business media b.v. kirby, l. f. (2006). brain science and teaching: a forty-year personal history. forum on public policy. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1126340.pdf klemantovich, i. p., & stepanov, v. g. (2015). neyropedagogika: predmet issledovaniya [neuropedagogy: the subject of research]. fundamental'nyye issledovaniya [fundamental research], 2(11), 24642468.https://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 komensky, y. a. (1982). izbrannyye pedagogicheskiye sochineniya [selected pedagogical works]. pedagogic. kulikova, o. v. (2014). neyrodidakticheskiy podkhod kak faktor povysheniya kachestva obucheniya inoyazychnomu professional'nomu obshcheniyu [neurodidactic approach as a factor in improving the quality of teaching foreign language professional communication]. vestnik moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo lingvisticheskogo universiteta. obrazovaniye i pedagogicheskiye nauki [bulletin of moscow state linguistic university. education and pedagogical sciences], 14(700), 107114. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyrodidakticheskiy-podhod-kak-faktorpovysheniya-kachestva-obucheniya-inoyazychnomu-professionalnomuobscheniyu https://www.researchgate.net/publication/18123932_the_other_side_of_the_brain_iv_the_a-p_ratio https://www.researchgate.net/publication/18123932_the_other_side_of_the_brain_iv_the_a-p_ratio https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/51.1.104 http://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.1.2.171 https://doi.org/10.1076/jcen.25.7.1011.16487 http://www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf https://studref.com/448457/pedagogika/dakarskie_ramki_deystviy https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1126340.pdf https://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 301 lakoff, j., & johnson, m. (2016). metafory, kotorymi my zhivem [metaphors we live by]. lki. luriya, a. r. (2003). osnovy neyropsikhologii [fundamentals of neuropsychology]. academy publishing center montessori, m. (1955). the formation of man (vol. 3). new american library. plato. (2007). dialogi : publitsistika [dialogues: journalism] (m.s. solovyev, trans.). folio. potapov, a. s. (2002). psikhologicheskoye obosnovaniye sistemy obucheniya s uchetom lateralnoy asimmetrii polushariy golovnogo mozga [psychological substantiation of the training system taking into account the lateral asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. a. m. sholokhov moscow state open pedagogical university https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskoe-obosnovaniesistemy-obucheniya-s-uchetom-lateralnoi-asimmetrii-polusharii rourke, b. p. (1975). brain-behavior relationships in children with learning disabilities: a research program. american psychologist, 30(9), 911-920. http://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.30.9.911 sadik, f. (2018). children and discipline: investigating secondary school students’ perception of discipline through metaphors. european journal of educational research, 7(1), 31-44. http://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.7.1.31 santiago rolanía, o., guàrdia olmos, j., & arbizu urdiain, t. (2006). neuropsicología de los pacientes con esclerosis múltiple remitente recurrente con discapacidad leve [neuropsychology of mildly disabled patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis]. psicothema, 18(1), 84– 87. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/727/72718113.pdf sirotyuk. a. l. (2003). neyropsikhologicheskoye i psikhofiziologicheskoye soprovozhdeniye obucheniya [neuropsychological and psychophysiological support of training]. sfera. spencer, g. (1999). opyty nauchnyye, politicheskiye i filosofskiye [experiments scientific, political and philosophical]. sovremennyi literator. tsushima, w., t., ahn, h. j., siu, a. m., yoshinaga, k., choi, s. y., & murata, n. m. (2018): effects of repetitive subconcussive head trauma on the neuropsychological test performance of high school athletes: a comparison of high, moderate, and low contact sports. applied neuropsychology: child, 8(3), 223-230. http://doi.org/10.1080/21622965.2018.1427095 unesco. (2015). inchkhonskaya deklaratsiya. obrazovaniye-2030:obespecheniye vseobshchego inklyuzivnogo i spravedlivogo kachestvennogo obrazovaniya i obucheniya na protyazheniivsey zhizni: [incheon declaration. education 2030: ensuring universal, inclusive and fair quality education and learning throughout life] http://elib.bspu.by/bitstream/doc/47482/1/%d0%98%d0%bd%d1% https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskoe-obosnovanie-sistemy-obucheniya-s-uchetom-lateralnoi-asimmetrii-polushariihttps://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskoe-obosnovanie-sistemy-obucheniya-s-uchetom-lateralnoi-asimmetrii-polushariihttp://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.30.9.911 http://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.7.1.31 https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/727/72718113.pdf http://doi.org/10.1080/21622965.2018.1427095 http://elib.bspu.by/bitstream/doc/47482/1/%d0%98%d0%bd%d1%87%d1%85%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b0%d1%8f%20%d0%b4%d0%b5%d0%ba%d0%bb%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%86%d0%b8%d1%8f.pdf the system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the … olena vynogradova, et al. 302 87%d1%85%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b0%d1%8f %20%d0%b4%d0%b5%d0%ba%d0%bb%d0%b0%d1%80%d0% b0%d1%86%d0%b8%d1%8f.pdf united nations. (1948, december 10). vseobshchaya deklaratsiya prav cheloveka. prinyata rezolyutsiyey 217 a (iii) general'noy assamblei oon ot 10 dekabrya 1948 goda [universal declaration of human rights. adopted by resolution 217 a (iii) of the un general assembly of december 10, 1948]. https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/declhr.shtml united nations. (1959, november 20). deklaratsiya prav rebenka. prinyata rezolyutsiyey 1386 (xiv) general'noy assamblei oon ot 20 noyabrya 1959 goda [declaration of the rights of the child. adopted by resolution 1386 (xiv) of the un general assembly]. https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/childdec.sht ml united nations. (1993). standard rules for the equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities. https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/dissre00.htm united nations. (1994). salamankskaya deklaratsiya o printsipakh, politike i prakticheskoy deyatel'nosti v sfere obrazovaniya lits s osobymi potríbnostyami [salamanca declaration on principles, policy and practical activities in the sphere of education for persons with special needs]. https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/pdf/salaman ka.pdf united nations. (2000, september 30). vsemirnaya deklaratsiya ob obespechenii vyzhivaniya, zashchity i razvitiya detey prinyata vsemirnoy vstrechey na vysshem urovne v interesakh detey [world declaration on the survival, protection and development of children adopted by the world summit for children].https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/de cl_child90.shtml united nations. (2006, december 13). konventsiya oon o pravakh invalidov [un convention on the rights of persons with disabilities]. http://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/conventions/disability.sht ml vygotski, l., s. (2003). defekt i sverkhkompensatsiya. l. s. vygotskiy. osnovy defektologii [defect and overcompensation. l. s. vygotsky. fundamentals of defectology]. lan publishing house http://elib.bspu.by/bitstream/doc/47482/1/%d0%98%d0%bd%d1%87%d1%85%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b0%d1%8f%20%d0%b4%d0%b5%d0%ba%d0%bb%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%86%d0%b8%d1%8f.pdf http://elib.bspu.by/bitstream/doc/47482/1/%d0%98%d0%bd%d1%87%d1%85%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b0%d1%8f%20%d0%b4%d0%b5%d0%ba%d0%bb%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%86%d0%b8%d1%8f.pdf http://elib.bspu.by/bitstream/doc/47482/1/%d0%98%d0%bd%d1%87%d1%85%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b0%d1%8f%20%d0%b4%d0%b5%d0%ba%d0%bb%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%86%d0%b8%d1%8f.pdf https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/declhr.shtml https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/childdec.shtml https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/childdec.shtml https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/dissre00.htm https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/pdf/salamanka.pdf https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/pdf/salamanka.pdf https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/decl_child90.shtml https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/decl_child90.shtml http://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/conventions/disability.shtml http://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/conventions/disability.shtml brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 19-39 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/168 the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and neuropsychological aspects olha lazorko¹, virna zhanna2, vasyl yahupov3, oksana valchuk-orkusha4, iryna melnyk5, mykhailo sherman6 1 lesya ukrainka eastern european national university, ukraine, lazorko.olga@gmail.com 2 lesya ukrainka eastern european national university, ukraine, annavirna@ukr.net 3 national defense university of ukraine named after ivan cherniakhovskyi, ukraine, yagupow1957@gmail.com 4 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, valchykorkysha@gmail.com 5 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, iramelnyk@i.ua 6 kherson state university, ukraine, sherman_m@ukr.net abstract: recently, the revision of priorities in the interpretation of the security problem and their transformation from the interests of the state to the interests of man himself, have actualized the study of psychological protection. especially aspects of personal protection are relevant in the professional sphere, which led to the development of the problem of personal protection as a subject of professionalization, taking into account psychological and neuropsychological factors. the purpose of the study is to empirically verify the structurally functional organization of personal protection as a subject of professionalization. the proposed model is based on the methodological principles and conditions of the content of the subject, system and synergetic approaches (the subject principle determines the subjective features expressed in subjective-personal characteristics, the system principle substantial features expressed in socially personal characteristics; the synergetic principle quality features that are integrative sign of professional protection of the individual. the sample of the study was: graduating students (n = 180); 4th and 5th year students (n = 230); doctors and medical workers (n = 441). the characteristics of psychodiagnostic tools used in these blocks of the empirical research program are described. the results of the study demonstrated the excellent content of empirical referents of professional protection of the individual in the period of professional optation, professional training and actual professional implementation in ordinary and special conditions of activity. the scientific position of the empirical study of professional safety of the individual is realized in the separation of the experience of social satisfaction, the system-forming factor of which is the urgent need that initiates the manifestation of successful professional realization. keywords: empirical verification; professional optation; professional training; professional realization; social satisfaction; social frustration. how to cite: lazorko, o, zhanna, v., yahupov, v., valchuk-orkusha, o., melnyk, i., & sherman, m. (2021). the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and neuropsychological aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 19-39. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/168 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/168 mailto:lazorko.olga@gmail.com mailto:annavirna@ukr.net mailto:yagupow1957@gmail.com mailto:valchykorkysha@gmail.com mailto:iramelnyk@i.ua mailto:sherman_m@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/168 the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and … olha lazorko, et al. 20 introduction a productive human life, full of real values and principles, determines the trajectory of its development, the vectorization of which is due to the psychological fact of protection, which is an integral part of socio-economic and socio-political processes and a basic factor in quality of life. recently, the revision of priorities in the interpretation of the protection problem and their transformation from the interests of the state to the interests of man himself, have actualized the study of psychological protection. acute contradictions associated with the established system of professional development of personality are manifested at all stages, from professional optics, professional training, and ending with the actual professional functioning with all the signs of psychological protection. in the professional realization of personality changes are particularly intense, because it concentrates the main activity of the subject. activity as a functional-dynamic system of personality, integrates and regulates in dynamics all its personal structure (needs, abilities, will, consciousness), provides an opportunity to take into account the requirements of society and the manifestation of independence, self-determination as a subject of life. therefore, a person becomes a real subject of professional realization when he is in a state of protection and safety, while maintaining their needs, values and prospects for self-expression. this context makes it possible to consider the professional protection of the individual in terms of objective and subjective characteristics of states, which are integrally localized in the subjective sense of social satisfaction as a measure of human comfort both in the inner world and within society. in our opinion, it is the measurement of social satisfaction / frustration that is the determining indicator of professional protection of an individual, which outlines the success of professional realization at each stage of formation. the neuropsychological parameters of personal security in professional socialization include its subjectivity, emotional stability and ability to make decisions in unusual situations. in the post-soviet space where empirical research was conducted, significant achievements of theoretical and empirical research on the study of personality protection within the sphere of professional development are the study of the peculiarities of life and professional development of the individual within the ontogenetic studies of life self-realization (druzhilov, 2010; tytarenko, 2007; frankl, 1990) and professional self-determination of brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 21 the individual as a component of the life development of the individual (bozhovych, 1979; vasilyuk, 1995; zlobina, 1996); study of motivational and adaptive content of professional activity (berezin, 1988; kokun, 2012; maklakov, & sidorova, 2011), development and transformation of the content of professional activity in special conditions (oboznov, 2003; olefir, 2015; smirnov, & dolgopolova, 2007); determination of morphological, psycho-emotional and socio-economic constants of occupational health (haletska, & sosnovskyi, 2006; maysak, 2012). different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (bakhmat et al., 2019; behas et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; gerasymova, et al., 2019; maksymchuk et al., 2018; nerubasska, & maksymchuk, 2020; petrova, 2017; melnyk et al., (2019); sheremet, leniv, loboda, & maksymchuk, 2019). in recent decades, neurophysiologists have identified the mechanisms of neuropsychological decision-making under uncertain conditions. subsequently, it has approximated andrology and psychology to neurosciences, such neurophysiology and neuropsychology (kahneman, & tversky, 2000). modern research shows that social security and professionalization are considered multimodally. one’s social security implies, first of all, a sense of personal security and adaptability in the multimodal postmodern society. one of the main neuropsychological characteristics which can be considered socially and professionally adapted is mobility. it is the ability to maintain high productivity, adaptability and creativity without being tied to a specific location, usual comfort, place of work (study). ivanov, seryy, & yanitskiy (2017) theorize that mobility is a psychosocial phenomenon which can be studied both in terms of neuropsychology and social security. it is based on the coherence of life strategy and personal safety. however, such a phenomenon is inseparable from the profound neurophysiological, psychological and social characteristics of the subject, who should realize himself or herself as part of “the postmodern self” (ivanov, seryy, & yanitskiy, 2017). the neurophysiological mechanisms of the feeling of security in society are well-objectified by non-verbal manifestations of the contacts between people, namely facial and kinetic. for instance, coan et al. (2017) have studied the effects of social regulation through handholding or tactile touches between the subjects who are or are not in different relationships. their research proves that holding hands can be perceived as a gesture of social support, especially between people of the same status or relationship. however, “more acceptable social support corresponds to less brain activity in the expanded network associated with similar processes, but only during the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and … olha lazorko, et al. 22 the very process of handholding. these facts prove the importance of contacts and their context for neurophysiological relief of social stress. all major types of emotional responses (rapid autonomic and slow cortical) have been discovered and confirmed by mri in neurophysiology over the last quarter of a century. cortical responses underlie cognitive data processing. mirror neurons discovered in the late 20 th century have confirmed the neurophysiological nature of empathy, decision-making, social adaptation and emotional modelling of the reflected world, which is directly related to the neurophysiology of professionalization (mcdonald, 2017). however, the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and neuropsychological aspects has not yet been comprehensively studied. therefore, this research is extremely relevant. besides, the methodological substantiation of the structural and functional organization of personal protection as a subject of professionalization is necessary to eliminate the fragmentary nature of the study of this problem, the purpose of the study is to empirically verify the structural and functional organization of personal protection as a subject of professionalization, taking into account psychological and neuropsychological factors. methods and materials the process of constructing a structural and functional model of professional protection of the individual shows that the psychological construct of professional protection should be considered as: 1) such a psychological state that is guaranteed to protect the professional interests of the individual; 2) a set of conditions of existence of the subject of professional realization, which he has mastered and is able to control. the proposed model is based on the methodological principles and conditions of the neuropsychological subjective, systemic and synergetic approaches (the subjective principle determines the subjective features expressed in subjective-personal characteristics, the systemic principle substantial features expressed in socially personal characteristics; the synergetic principle qualitative features that are integrative sign of professional protection of the individual. there are six substructures in the structure of subject-personal characteristics: personality orientation, projections of a person’s life path or selfconsciousness, abilities, temperament and character, mental processes and states, subject experience. in the structure of socio-personal characteristics there are three substructures: the scope of the specialist, the age of the individual and working brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 23 conditions. aspects of studying the professional protection of the individual as an integrative synergetic system in which the subject-personal and sociopersonal characteristics are expressed functional means of qualitative changes in personality are clarified and generalized. taking into account these integrative features of personality, which appear in the process of development and affect the construction of professional life, as well as the conditions on the ambiguity of their formation at different stages of professional socialization, because their nature and content change under the influence of many socio-psychological factors the nature of constant dynamic development. the research sample consisted of: students of graduating classes of secondary schools of lutsk (nvk (educational complex) № 20, № 22, № 24) (n = 180); 4th and 5th year students of the faculty of psychology, faculty of education, institute of social sciences, institute of economics and management of the east european national university named after lesia ukrainka (n = 230); mid-level doctors and medical staff of the volyn regional clinical hospital, the volyn regional infectious diseases hospital, the lutsk primary health care center № 2 and the lutsk city children's polyclinic (n = 441). the total sample is 851 people. the program of empirical research contains four blocks: block 1 is devoted to explication of empirical referents of professional protection within the limits of early professionalization of the person; block 2 explication of empirical referents of professional protection of the person in the conditions of professional training; block 3 explication of empirical referents of professional protection of the individual in terms of professional implementation; block 4 explication of empirical referents of professional protection of the individual in emotionally stressful conditions of professional realization. accordingly, the sample of students consisted of graduates of secondary schools, 4th and 5th year students and mid-level doctors who work in ordinary and special conditions. also, the sample of medical workers was differentiated into four groups according to two criteria length of service and conditions of professional activity. the characteristics of psychodiagnostic tools used in these blocks of the empirical research program are described. the first block of the empirical program devoted to the explication of empirical referents of professional safety within the early professionalization of personality used the following psychodiagnostic methods: methods of diagnosing the level of social frustration (vaserman, iovlev, & berebin, 2004) (a modified version); questionnaire to study the relationship between personality type and the sphere of professional activity (holland, 1973); methods of studying the the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and … olha lazorko, et al. 24 mental states of schoolchildren (prokhorov, 1997); method "index of attitude to health"; personal questionnaire for high school students (cattell, & coan, 1959); anxiety questionnaire in older adolescents and young people; questionnaire of professional attitudes of older adolescents (kondakov, 1997); scale of research of children’s ego-concept (piers, & harris, 2002) in adaptation and rationing of prikhozhan (2007); eysenck’s questionnaire (eysenck, & eysenck, 1975); in the second block of the empirical program devoted to explication of empirical referents of professional safety within the limits of professional training of the person the following is used: a technique of diagnostics of level of social frustration (vaserman, iovlev, & berebin, 2004); life satisfaction index adaptation; ryff’s scale of psychological well-being (ryff, 1989) in the adaptation of lepeshinskiy (2007); methods of studying the main motives for choosing a profession; optimism-activity scale (corning, & myers, 2002); the method, called “diagnosis of the motivational structure of personality” (milman, 2005); the questionnaire of formal-dynamic properties of individuality (rusalov, 1997); fpi personal questionnaire (modified form b); questionnaire for the study of dominant states (ds-8) (kulikov, 2004); the questionnaire for diagnosing self-actualization of personality; test-questionnaire of personal maturity; methods of diagnosis of socio-psychological adaptation (rogers, & dymond, 1954); in the third and fourth blocks of the empirical program devoted to the explication of empirical referents of professional safety within the professional realization of personality in normal and special conditions, used for two groups of samples psychodiagnostic methods: in addition to the above methods were additionally involved: methods of studying socio-psychological attitudes in motivational-needs sphere , multilevel personal questionnaire "adaptability" (mlo-am), methods of studying coping behavior strategies (sacs scale), test questionnaire "lifestyle index" style index) (plutchik, 1979). results after conducting a one-way analysis of variance and determining statistically significant correlations between the level of social frustration and diagnostic criteria that determine the subjective and personal characteristics of professional protection of high school students, the results were factorized to identify generalized sets of characteristics that affect the development of characteristics conditions of professionally safe condition of high school students, using during its implementation only those indicators that are statistically significantly correlated with the level of social frustration. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 25 as a result of factor analysis, the structure of subject-personal characteristics of professional protection of high school students with different levels of social frustration was established. in high school students with a high level of social frustration, the factors "emotional well-being", "conformity", "caution", "anxiety", "social type", "expressiveness", "intellectual development" (specified factors describe about 76% of the variance of the data set) ); middle school students have the factors “responsibility”, “dominance”, “independence”, “conventional type”, “restraint” (over 67%); and in high school students with a low level of social frustration, the factors "positive behavior", "real enthusiasm", "independence", "determination", "intellectual nihilism", "expressiveness", "sociability" (70% variance of the data set) were identified. using the method of multiple regression analysis, the main indicators that determine the high level of social frustration of students "caution" (β = 0.490), "intellectual development" (β = 0.193), "anxiety" (β = 0.182), psychological content which is concentrated in such features as distrust, skepticism, aggressive straightforwardness of the studied students; high levels of intelligence contribute to the general development of curiosity, insight, and concentration, but frustrating signs of anxiety make them insecure and confused, and as a result, lead to a state of hopelessness, selfblame, insecurity, despair and confusion. the average level of social frustration of high school students is determined by indicators of "responsibility" (β = -0.521), "dominance" (β = 0.490), "independence" (β = 0.148) and "restraint" (β = 0.137), which determine the general background of the developed social competence as a powerful factor of self-actualization that stimulates self-realization of the individual through the ability of the individual to interact effectively with other people, take responsibility for decision-making and exercise authority and demanding, guided by healthy selfishness and self-esteem. the low level of manifestation of social frustration of high school students is determined by the indicators of “independence” (β = 0.592) and “sociability” (β = 0.227), which constitute a zone for the development of optimal conditions for a professionally safe state of the personality, which will protect high school students in real and future time a means of the existing ability to interact with other people, a developed sense of proportion in relationships and interaction with people, the ability to be tactful and sensitive to the mood of others; their formed independence is expressed in self-esteem, responsibility and practicality of thoughts and specific actions, defines the face of social and professional activity and organization of an individual. the statement of psychodiagnostic data in the second block of the empirical program was carried out according to the results of differentiation the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and … olha lazorko, et al. 26 of the studied students according to the level of manifestation of social frustration, which was determined by the method of the same name (vaserman, iovlev, & berebin, 2004): group 1 students with high social frustration (27.8% ); group 2 average level (39.1%), group 3 students with a low level of social frustration (33.1%). after using the kolmogorov-smirnov z-normality critera (stepnov, 1985), more than 88% of diagnostic criteria were found to correspond to the normal distribution (p ≤ 0.05), and the non-parametric n-kraskal-wallace criteria was used (kruskal, & wallis, 1952), confirmed the differences between groups of students with different levels of social frustration (confidence level from p ≤ 0.01 to p ≤ 0.001). the factorization procedure made it possible to obtain an unambiguously interpreted factorial model of the subjective-personal characteristics of students' professional protection with different levels of social frustration, which included factors: “life satisfaction”, “sympathy in interaction with other people”, “poise”, “creativity”, “working orientation ”,“ flexibility in communication ”,“ shyness ”,“ achievement of social status ”,“ emotional sensitivity ”,“ desire to lead ”, which describe about 55% of the dispersion of an array of empirical data. the use of the z-transform method to determine the levels of expression of factors in three groups of respondents and the non-parametric u-mann-whitney criteria (mann, & whitney, 1947) made it possible to determine statistically significant differences in the expression of the selected factors in the studied groups (p ≤ 0.001), except for two factors “achieving social status ” and “ desire to manage ”. the application of the method of multiple regression analysis made it possible to determine the main determinants of the integrated indicator of psychological well-being of respondents. the prognostic determinants of psychological well-being of students with a high level of social frustration include "shyness" (β = 0.682) in signs of anxiety and insecurity, lack of a positive self-image, expressed communicative emotions and general "life dissatisfaction" (β = -0,360) in signs of low assessment of psychological wellbeing, instability of emotional tone, general low tone, neuroticism, the dominant state of boredom and passivity. an integral indicator of the psychological well-being of students with an average level of social frustration is most determined by "shyness" (β = 0.343) and "creativity" (β = 0.223) in a set of signs of autonomy, spontaneity and a pronounced need for knowledge. for students with a low level of social frustration, the prognostic determinants of the integrated indicator of psychological well-being were "creativity" (β = 0.421) in all signs of readiness for self-realization, "life brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 27 satisfaction" (β = 0.386) in the complex of positive self-esteem, high psychological well-being , stability of emotional tone, high general tone, energy, cheerfulness and "sympathy in interaction with other people" (β = 0.385), which is expressed in the developed communicative ergic, speed and plasticity, which contribute to the development of communication with other people and their life values are full of feelings of happiness and life integrity and justice. the statement of psychodiagnostic data in the third block of the empirical program was carried out in accordance with the results of differentiation of the studied specialists in medical specialties according to the level of social frustration, which was determined using the same method (vaserman, iovlev, & berebin, 2004). in total, the sample of medical workers was differentiated into four groups according to two criteria length of service and conditions of professional activity (group of medical workers with professional experience up to 5 years) (n = 205), among which 90 medical workers work in normal conditions, and 115 in special conditions and a group of medical workers with professional experience of more than 5 years (n = 236), among which 124 medical workers work in normal conditions, and respectively 112 in special conditions). the data obtained during the diagnosis in groups of medical workers (adapted to certain conditions) working in normal and special conditions of professional activity were subjected to mathematical and statistical analysis using the z-criteria of normality kolmogorov-smirnov (p≤0.05), nonparametric h – kraskal-wallace criteria (confidence level from p ≤ 0.01 to p ≤ 0.001), which allowed to apply the procedures of factor and multiple regression analysis for all groups of subjects (kruskal, & wallis, 1952). as a result of factorization for adapted persons (ap) with a high level of social frustration, working in normal conditions, the following factors were obtained: "active involvement in life", "manipulative spontaneity", "shyness", "communicative activity", "acceptance of others" , "neurotic autonomy", "sociability", "cognitive alienation", "maintenance of social status", which describe 59.6% of the variance of the empirical data. medium-level adapted persons have "socio-psychological adaptation", "professional productivity", "social comfort", "creativity", "determination", "emotional stability", "search for social support", "purposefulness" and "ability to work" ( 51.7% of the variance). the results of factor analysis in a group of adapted persons with a low level of social frustration, framed by factors: "reactivity", "adaptive potential", " self-esteem", "positivity", "impartiality", "autonomy", "social affirmation", "acceptance of others" and "self-confidence" (69.3% of the variance of the data set). the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and … olha lazorko, et al. 28 it was found that the determinants of the integrated indicator of psychological well-being among ap with a high level of social frustration, working in normal conditions were "manipulative spontaneity" (β = -0.308), "active involvement in life" (β = 0.247), "neurotic autonomy" (β = 0,195), which largely determine the characteristics of the desire to manage the environment, uncritical self-perception and self-doubt, which are manifested in the hidden indirect actions of manipulating people and demonstrating authority over others; at the same time, these medical workers are actively involved in life, they have a high rate of integrated life support index, a clear interest in life, they are consistent in achieving goals, and at the same time can be creative; their expressed independence is full of neurotic signs of excessive thinking about their own actions in the process of social interaction. the prognostic determinants of occupational protection of ap with an average level of social frustration, who work in normal conditions, mostly include the characteristics of "purposefulness" (β = 0.574) with a sense of clear awareness of past and present events; expressed "creativity" (β = 0.255), but in terms of "professional productivity" (β = -0.132), these medical professionals do not have a stable, emotionally sustained attitude to various professional situations. in ap with a low level of social frustration, who work in normal conditions, the characteristics of natural "impartiality" (β = 0.731) are most pronounced in the signs of friendliness, purposefulness, interest in life, conflict-free attitude to themselves and activities, optimism and cognitive activity. , altruism; they are deprived of "reactivity" (β = -0.178), so they are energy efficient and balanced; as well as the desire for social status through the recognition of others ("social affirmation" (β = -0.153). as a result of mathematical and statistical analysis of factor analysis data for ap who work in special conditions, we obtained data for each of the studied groups on the level of manifestation of social frustration. thus, for a group of ap with a high level of social frustration, working in special conditions, a nine-factor model was obtained: "irritability", "impulsiveness", "alienation", "independence", "aggressive actions", "shyness", " interest in life "," pessimism " and " autonomy ", which describe 63.5% of the variance of the array of empirical data. for a group of ap with an average level of social frustration "adaptive potential", "curiosity", "self-acceptance", "work orientation", "livelihood", "need for knowledge", "active dominance", "avoidance of social contacts", "internal passivity " (54.9%). for ap with a low level of social frustration, who work in special conditions as a result of factoring an array of empirical data, the following factors were obtained: "entry into social contact", "professional devotion", "altruism", "life satisfaction", "professional diplomacy", "vital apathy "," brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 29 consistency in achieving goals "," self-acceptance " and " cognitive activity " (58.8% variance of the data set). the application of the method of multiple regression analysis, allowed to determine the main determinants of the integrated indicator of psychological well-being of ap with a high level of social frustration, working in special conditions, including "pessimism" (β = 0.576), "aggressive actions" (β = -0.251) and "irritability" (β = 0.229), which together determine the signs of intolerance and frustration; their intellectual rigidity and communicative slowness determine the low need for communication, and the weakness of the emotional tone is not manifested in distrust and aggression; although they are prone to neuropsychiatric disorders and irritability, which neutralizes their adaptive abilities. the prognostic determinants of professional protection of ap with an average level of social frustration include a pronounced "work orientation" (β = 0.455), which is supported by creative activity, propensity for extraordinary and original decisions, emotional balance; their blocked "self-acceptance" (β = -0.382) confirms the presence of difficulties in social contacts "avoidance of social contacts" (β = 0.137), but does not deprive these medical workers of "curiosity" (β = 0.130) as a reinforcing stimulus of cognitive activity and needs for selfimprovement. the same procedure for processing diagnostic data was applied to medical workers with more than 5 years of professional experience working in normal and special conditions. the prognostic determinants of professional protection of masters with a high level of social frustration, working in normal conditions, include a pronounced "neuroticism" (β = 0.262), supported by emotional lability and shyness, their poorly developed super-ego excludes the acceptance of others and the system formed values of harmonious interaction with other people "low super-ego" (β = 0.252), which can explain the excessive desire for dominance over others, success and approval "manipulative dominance" (β = 0.238). for masters with an average level of social frustration "selfunderstanding" (β = -0.409) and "professional tact" (β = 0.344) demonstrate the denial of manifestations of human sensitivity to their own desires and needs, which allows to adequately perceive and evaluate themselves; the general background of their individual-dynamic and personal properties is determined by the expressed need for motor activity and communicative ergic, balance, sociability, stress resistance, endurance and decision-making ability. generalization of the dominant factor characteristics of medical workers with a low level of social frustration "friendliness" (β = 0.285), "intellectual confidence" (β = -0.278), "emotional stability" (β = 0.207) and the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and … olha lazorko, et al. 30 "autonomy" (β = 0.204 ) emphasizes the signs of their friendliness, friendliness and openness, they have the techniques of professional communication, and in interaction with people sincere in emotions and thoughts; intellectual confidence is not expressed, but they are emotionally stable, have a high level of self-regulation and behavior, which confirms their endurance and efficiency; signs of social maturity are reflected in such characteristics of self-actualization as autonomy, trust in people and impartiality. in the group of masters with a high level of social frustration, working in special conditions, the following factors were identified: "negative self-image", "uncritical self-acceptance", "adaptive communication", "operational formality", "communicative tact", "focus on process "," need for knowledge "," life support "and" aggressiveness ", which describe 61% of the variance of the array of empirical data. specialists with an average level of social frustration "contact", "communicative competence", "self-concept", "creativity", "skepticism", "interest in life", "dissatisfaction with life", "vital activity" and "intellectual ergic” (59.2%). experts with a low level of social frustration demonstrate a factor model that includes " self-esteem", "adaptive abilities", "sociability", " orientation ", "professional competence", "caution", "creative activity", "reactive aggression" , "reactive aggression" and “positive self-image ” (67.6% of the data array variance). for medical workers with a high level of social frustration who work in special conditions, the factors “operational formality” (β = 0.589), “process orientation” (β = 0.261) and “negative self-image” (β = 0.155) had the greatest impact, the psychological content of which is determined by the operational formality due to the pronounced focus on the process of activity, characterized by strict compliance with the operational requirements of professional activity; the formed negative image of oneself reflects signs of high criticism in the assessment of oneself, insecurity and anxiety and dissatisfaction with life in general, which actually blocks the development of positive life goals. in the group of masters of medical workers with an average level of social frustration factors "interest in life" (β = 0.451) and "contact" (β = 0.312) state a pronounced level of their self-actualizing signs of respect for values, time orientation and acceptance of others, confirming a high level personal competence and social maturity; developed contact is a confirmation of their sociability, friendliness and openness. for health workers with a low level of social frustration who work in special conditions the factors of "positive self-image" (β = 0.531) and " self-esteem" (β = 0.451) in psychological terms characterize these medical workers as professionals with a formed attitude to themselves and self-acceptance, which determines the level of their adequate self-esteem and self-criticism; expressed self-esteem brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 31 confirms the formed sense of self-esteem, confidence, balance, endurance and inner endurance, which is generally the result of their ability to love other people, to show tolerance and flexibility in interacting with others. the analysis allows us to conclude that the identified indicators of the subjective-personal profile of medical workers with different lengths of professional activity (up to 5 years and more than 5 years), and who work in different conditions, contain significant differences in the criteria division studied by the level of social frustration expressed. discussion the article considers the theory of social security as an element of personal security. in particular, it confirms the theory of the decisive role of psychological and neuropsychological mechanisms of the subjective influence on non-standard decision-making. an optimal application of such approaches is in the prevention, preventive avoidance and resolution of social and ethical conflicts, which is the key to comfortable professionalization (bush, 2015). professionalization, as one of the aspects of socialization, is associated with several psychological dangers for a person. indeed, sheinov (2016) points out that there are manipulative tendencies in modern society at all levels of interaction with a person, which cause psychological discomfort or other negative psychological states in 92% of cases. self-affirmation and assertiveness serve as protection against such manipulations during social adaptation and (as a next stage of) professionalization, while goal setting in the context of social support and relationships weakens such protection. this fact has been proven by experiments with significant representativeness in both men and women (over 500 respondents). this applies to absolutely all professional groups, namely, students, cadets, university teachers, service workers, social workers (sheinov, 2016). the article proves the neuropsychological theory about one’s subjectivity, which manifests itself both in individual activities and in the social context. the provisions on the neuropsychological and neurosocial potential of everyone’s ability “to expand their subjectivity, develop and assimilate sociocultural experience in accordance with the neurobiological inclinations of their subjectivity (to become the highest result of the interaction between the natural and the social)” have proved to be valid (glozman, 2012, p. 31). also, the obtained results confirm the need to develop neurosocial and neuropsychological aspects of subjective reflection, as well as all types of the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and … olha lazorko, et al. 32 feedback, which are a prerequisite for socialization and professionalization in education and professional development (kazlauskiene, & barabanova, 2020). besides, the scientific novelty of the obtained results is that for the first time: the structural-functional model of professional protection of the person is developed; the specifics of functioning of mechanisms of satisfaction of actual need of professional realization of the person (latent inhibition and consequent growth) are revealed and nominative modes of professional protection of the person (neurotic, normative and productive) are specified; developed the definitive articulation of the concept of "professional protection of the individual" and highlighted its integrative function in the system of personal life; further development of substantiation of synergetic effects in the integrative system of professional protection of the individual (weakening and strengthening) and "targets" of professional counseling influence in psychological practice of blocking mechanisms of latent inhibition of meeting the urgent need for professional realization at each stage of professional development , positive institutional perception of future professional life, self-regulation and self-control of professional activity, constructive initiation of professional competence). the practical significance of the results is that certain psychological features of the structural and functional organization of personal protection as a subject of professionalization and the proposed "targets" of professional counseling can be used in the practice of creating developmental and correctional programs to improve professional comfort and well-being at different stages of professional development personalities in educational and medical institutions. theoretical provisions and practical achievements of the thesis can be used in the teaching of academic disciplines “general psychology”, “psychodiagnostics”, “differential psychology”, “labor psychology and engineering psychology”, “health psychology”, “psychological foundations of professional counseling” and for the duration of the passage research practice of masters and graduate students of the specialty "psychology". conclusions a structural and functional model of professional protection of the individual is developed, which is based on methodological principles and brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 33 provisions of systemic, neuropsychological subjective and synergetic approaches, the content of which determines the subjective, semantic and qualitative characteristics that are manifested respectively in subjectpersonal, social -personal and integrative personality traits. it is noted that a potentially regulating factor in the manifestation of professional protection of the individual is the experience of social satisfaction / frustration, which most clearly outlines the success of professional realization of the individual at different stages of formation. the main empirical referents of studying the protection of the individual as a subject of professionalization at all stages of its formation from the period of professional choice (orientation), the period of initial professional development (higher education) and the period of professional implementation taking into account working conditions are outlined. the scientific position of the empirical study of professional protection of the individual is realized in the separation of the experience of social satisfaction, the system-forming factor of which is the urgent need that initiates the manifestation of successful professional realization. empirical identification of subject-personal and socio-personal characteristics of persons who differ in the parameters of professional functioning, their age range of professional development and working conditions, was carried out in the mode of fixing the level of social satisfaction / frustration of the individual in each of the four blocks of the empirical program devoted to the study of empirical referents of professional protection in the period of professional optation, professional training in higher education, within the professional realization of personality in normal and special conditions on the example of medical workers. the results of the study demonstrated the excellent content of empirical referents of professional protection of the individual in the period of professional optation, professional training and actual professional implementation in ordinary and special conditions of activity. given the list of subject-personal characteristics of the studied high school students in the period of professional optation, which have differences in manifestation depending on the level of social frustration (high, medium, low), identified such urgent needs for professional implementation as actualization of stimulus-passive activity, actualization -cognitive activity, actualization of creatively balanced activity. in the studied students at the level of the actual need for professional realization recorded the actualization of normergy-spending activity; actualization of normergic-accumulative activity; actualization of creative and effective activity. at medical workers with experience the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and … olha lazorko, et al. 34 up to 5 years who work in normal conditions, at the level of actual needs of professional realization actualization of neurotic-impulsive activity is specified; actualization of operational and economic activity; actualization of adaptiveproductive activity; and for medical workers with up to 5 years of experience who work in special conditions the actualization of emotionally rigid activity; actualization of operative-adaptive activity; actualization of adaptive-compensatory activity. at medical workers with more than 5 years of experience who work in normal conditions at the level of actual needs of professional realization actualization of neurotic-manipulative activity is noted; actualization of normativeconformal activity; actualization of adaptive-conventional activity; and for medical workers with more than 5 years of experience who work in special conditions the actualization of operational and rigid activity; actualization of mobilization-adaptive activity; actualization of adaptive-optimal activity. references bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13231332. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13331340. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf berezin f. b. psikhicheskaya i psikhofiziologicheskaya adaptatsiya cheloveka [mental and psychophysiological adaptation of a person]. leningrad: science. https://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/22471109/ bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 15851590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230 .pdf bozhovych, l. i. (1979). etapy formirovaniya lichnosti v ontogeneze [stages of personality formation in ontogenesis]. voprosy psikhologii [questions of psychology], 4, 23–34. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 35 bush, s. s. (2015). ethical decision making in clinical neuropsychology. oxford: oxford university press. https://www.amazon.com/ethical-decision-makingclinical-neuropsychology/dp/0195328221 cattell, r. b., & coan, r. w. (1959). objective-test assessment of the primary personality dimensions in middle childhood. british journal of psychology, 50, 235–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1959.tb00701.x coan, j. a., beckes, l., gonzalez, m. z., maresh, e. l., brown, c. l., & hasselmo, k. (2017). relationship status and perceived support in the social regulation of neural responses to threat. social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 12, 1574–1583. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28985422/ corning, a. f., & myers, d. j. (2002). individual orientation toward engagement in social action. political psychology, 23(4), 703729. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3792364 druzhilov, s. a. (2010). individualnyy resurs cheloveka kak osnova stanovleniya professionalizma [individual human resource as the basis for the formation of professionalism]. voronezh: scientific book. https://www.academia.edu/26297114 eysenck, h. j., & eysenck, s. b. g. (1975). manual of the eysenck personality questionnaire. kent: hodder and stoughton. http://www.sjdm.org/dmidi/eysenck_personality_questionnaire.html frankl, v. (1990). chelovek v poiskakh smysla [man in search of meaning]. moscow: progress. https://www.yakaboo.ua/chelovek-v-poiskah-smysla.html gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 glozman, zh. m. (2012). o subieektnosti lurievskoi neiropsikhologii [on the subjectivity of lurievsky neuropsychology]. vestnik moskovskogo universiteta. seriia 14. psikhologiia [journal of moscow university. series 14. psychology], 2, 31–36. http://msupsyj.ru/articles/detail.php?article=1550 haletska, i., & sosnovskyi, t. (2006). psykholohiya zdorovya: teoriya i praktyka [psychology of health: theory and practice]. lviv: educational center of i. franko lviv national university. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1888271/ holland, j. l. (1973). making vocational choices: a theory of careers. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. https://openlibrary.org/books/ol5413510m/making_vocational_choices ivanov, m. s., seryy, a. v., & yanitskiy, m. s. (2017). mobility as strategy of providing personal security in postmodern society. proceedings of the international https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1959.tb00701.x https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and … olha lazorko, et al. 36 conference on research paradigms transformation in social sciences. tomsk: fuutre academy. https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=36994550 kahneman, d., & tversky, a. (2000). choices, values, and frames. cambridge: cambridge university press. kazlauskiene, a. k., & barabanova, i. (2020). neuropedagogy: preconditions for application of neuroscience results in the education process while providing feedback. technium: romanian journal of applied sciences and technology, 2(5), 112122. https://doi.org/10.47577/technium.v2i5.1246 kokun, o. m. (2012). psykholohiya profesiynoho stanovlennya suchasnoho fakhivtsya [psychology of professional formation of a modern specialist]. kyiv: information and analytical agency. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1806184/ kondakov, i. m. (1997). diagnostika professionalnykh ustanovok podrostkov [diagnosis of professional attitudes of adolescents]. voprosy psikhologii [psychology issues], 2, 122130. http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1997/972/972122.htm kruskal, w. h., & wallis, w. a. (1952). use of ranks in one-criterion variance analysis. journal of the american statistical association, 47(260), 583–621. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2280779 kulikov, l. v. (2004). psikhogigiyena lichnosti: voprosy psikhologicheskoy ustoychivosti i psikhoprofilaktiki [personal psychohygiene: questions of psychological stability and psychoprophylaxis]. saint petersburg: peter. https://www.twirpx.com/file/264176/ lepeshinskiy, n. n. (2007). adaptatsiya oprosnika “shkala psikhologicheskogo blagopoluchiya” c. ryff [adaptation of the questionnaire “scale of psychological well-being” by c. ryff. psikhologicheskii zhurnal [psychological journal], 3, 24–37. http://elibrary.miu.by/journals!/item.pj/issue.15/article.3.html maklakov, a. g. (2001). lichnostnyy adaptatsionnyy potentsial: yego mobilizatsii i prognozirovaniye v ekstremal'nykh usloviyakh [personal adaptive potential: its mobilization and forecasting in extreme conditions]. psikhologicheskii zhurnal [psychological journal], 22(1), 1624. https://studfile.net/preview/4225080/page:3/ maklakov, a. g., & sidorova, a. a. (2011). formirovaniye adaptatsionnogo potentsiala lichnosti i yego razvitiye v protsesse obucheniya v vuze [formation of the adaptive potential of the personality and its development in the learning process at the university]. vestnik leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta imeni a. s. pushkina [bulletin of a. s. pushkin leningrad state university], 5(4), 41–51. http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/formirovanie-adaptatsionnogopotentsiala-lichnosti-i-ego-razvitie-v-protsesse-obucheniya-v-vuze (accessed: 01/30/17). the name from the screen. https://doi.org/10.47577/technium.v2i5.1246 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 37 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf mann, h. b., & whitney, d. r. (1947). on a test of whether one of two random variables is stochastically larger than the other. annals of mathematical statistics, 18, 5060. https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177730491 maysak, n. v. (2012). profilaktika lichnostnykh deformatsiy i destruktsiy spetsialistov stressogennykh professiy [prevention of personal deformations and destruction of specialists of stressful professions]. moscow: mpsu. https://www.bookvoed.ru/book?id=5966704 mcdonald, s. (2017). emotions are rising: the growing field of affect neuropsychology. journal of the international neuropsychological society, 23, 719– 731. doi:10.1017/s1355617717000844 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalijameljnik.pdf milman, v. e. (2005). motivatsiya tvorchestva i rosta: struktura, diagnostika, razvitiye [motivation of creativity and growth: structure, diagnostics, development]. moscow: mireya and co. https://www.twirpx.com/file/42405/ nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/ 2625 oboznov, a. a. (2003). psikhicheskaya regulyatsiya operatorskoy deyatel'nosti v osobykh usloviyakh rabochey sredy [mental regulation of operator activity in special conditions of the working environment]. moscow: institute of psychology ras. https://psyjournals.ru/editorial_boards/64195.shtml olefir, v. o. (2015). intelektualno-osobystisnyy potentsial samorehulyatsiyi subyekta diyalnosti [intellectual-personal potential of self-regulation of the subject of activity]. kharkiv: ukrainian engineering and pedagogical academy. http://psychology.univer.kharkov.ua/prepody/olefir.html http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 the safety of professionalization subjects in psychological and … olha lazorko, et al. 38 petrova, i. v. (2017). renesansna kontseptsiia dozvillia za tvoramy petrarky [the renaissance concept of leisure in the works of petrarch]. national academy of managerial staff of culture and arts herald, 3, 3 7. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vdakkkm_2017_3_3 piers, e., & harris, d. (2002). children’s self-concept scale. los angeles, ca: western psychological services. https://www.rand.org/education-andlabor/projects/assessments/tool/1963/piers-harris-childrens-self-conceptscale-second-edition.html plutchik, r., kellermann, h., & conte, h. r. (1979). a structural theory of ego defenses and emotions. in c. izard (ed.), emotions in personality and psychopathology (pp. 229–257). new york, ny: plenum. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4613-2892-6_9 prikhozhan, a. m. (2007). diagnostika lichnostnogo razvitiya detey podrostkovogo vozrasta [diagnosis of the personal development of adolescent children]. moscow.: peb. https://www.twirpx.com/file/310095/ prokhorov, a. o. (1997). metodiki diagnostiki psikhologicheskikh sostoyaniy lichnosti [methods for the diagnosis of psychological states of personality]. kazan: per se. https://www.twirpx.com/file/674130/ rogers, c. r., & dymond, r. f. (1954). psychotherapy and personality change: coordinated research studies in the client-centered approach. chicago, il: university of chicago press. https://www.amazon.com/psychotherapy-personality-change-coordinated-client-centered/dp/0226723755 rusalov, v. m. (1997). oprosnik formalno-dinamicheskikh svoystv individualnosti [questionnaire of the formal-dynamic properties of personality]. moscow: ipran. https://psytests.org/temperament/ofdsi.html ryff, c. d. (1989). happiness is everything, or is it? explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. journal of personality and social psychology, 57, 10691081. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0b7c/bc0e7b5946b39778784a2167019ee bd53e52.pdf sheinov, v. p. (2016). kachestva lichnosti, sposobstvuiushchie ee zashchishchennosti ot manipuliatsii [personality qualities enhancing its security against manipulation]. vestnik rossiiskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. seriia: psikhologiia i pedagogika [rudn journal of psychology and pedagogics], 3, 20–27. http://journals.rudn.ru/psychologypedagogics/article/view/14424/13560 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vdakkkm_2017_3_3 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 39 smirnov, b. a., & dolgopolova, e. v. (2007). psikhologiya deyatelnosti v ekstremalnykh situatsiyakh [psychology of activity in extreme situations]. kharkiv: humanitarian center. https://www.twirpx.com/file/218577/ stepnov, m. n. (1985). statisticheskiye metody obrabotki rezultatov mekhanicheskikh ispytaniy [statistical methods for processing the results of mechanical tests]. moscow: mechanical engineering. https://www.termist.com/bibliot/stud/stepnov/232.htm tytarenko, t. m., & klyapets, o. ya. (2007). zapobihannya emotsiynomu vyhorannyu v simyi yak faktor harmonizatsiyi simeynykh vzayemyn [prevention of emotional burnout in the family as a factor of harmonization of family relationships]. kyiv: millennium. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/8741/ vaserman, a. i., iovlev, b. v., & berebin, m.a. (2004). metodika dlya psikhologicheskoy diagnostiki urovnya sotsialnoy frustrirovannosti i yeye prakticheskoye primeneniye [methodology for the psychological diagnosis of the level of social frustration and its practical application]. saint petersburg: v. m. bekhterev st. petersburg research psychoneurological institute. https://www.twirpx.com/file/703225/ vasilyuk, f. e. (1995). zhiznennyy mir i krizis: tipologicheskiy analiz kriticheskikh situatsiy [life world and crisis: a typological analysis of critical situations]. psikhologicheskii zhurnal [psychological journal], 16(3), 90–101. zlobina, o. h. (1996). osobystist sohodni: adaptatsiya do suspilnoyi nestabilnosti [personality today: adaptation to social instability]. kyiv: is nanu. https://scholar.google.com.ua/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluste r=15670314482012098129 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, pages: 132-148 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/145 psychological analysis of occupational conditions in extreme environments and the structure of non-standard situations oksana khurtenko¹, kseniia bereziak 2 , roman khavula 3 , oksana vdovichenko 4 , nataliia onishchenko 5 , svitlana liebiedieva 6 1 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, kseniaxyrtenko@gmail.com 2 lviv state university of life safety, ukraine, xmber@meta.ua 3 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, romankhavula@gmail.com 4 the state institution "south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky", ukraine, werta4877@gmail.com 5 national university of civil defence of ukraine, ukraine. onishchenko@nuczu.edu.ua 6 national university of civil defence of ukraine, ukraine, lebedeva@nuczu.edu.ua abstract: professional coaching career is associated with a wide range of issues and problems which need to be solved and are directly or indirectly determined by creative activity. therefore, an appropriate training process of students, in particular prospective coaches, is an essential scientific and practical problem. the article presents a thorough psychological analysis of the structure of decision-making in extreme situations and identifies different types of non-standard situations in a coaching job. also, it clarifies such concepts as “situation”, “non-standard situation” and “extreme situation” in the activity of the individual. it describes different types of non-standard situations which can be manifested in professional coaching and their impact on the human psyche. it analyzes extreme conditions in the activities of athletes and coaches and the role of various mental functions and personality traits in problem-solving. importantly, the article emphasizes the role of the coach’s reflection and self-regulation in solving non-standard tasks under non-standard conditions. it indicates that two theoretical views on the nature of the human psyche and thinking correspond to two approaches to studying this particular problem. according to the first one, that is an adaptive approach, creative thinking as a form of behaviour is the result of learning, and only some individuals have creative ability. to teach creativity, however, one needs to include the elements of creative behaviour (problem-solving) and heuristics in the educational material. another approach assumes that thinking is a productive process emerging as a result of a certain problematic situation. prerequisites for the creative process are cognitive abilities and research activities of the individual. keywords: coaching job; creative activity; human psyche; adaptive approach; creative thinking; productive process; cognitive abilities. how to cite: khurtenko, o., bereziak, k., khavula, r., vdovichenko, o., onishchenko, n., & liebiedieva, s. (2020). psychological analysis of occupational conditions in extreme environments and the structure of non-standard situations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 132-148. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/145 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/145 mailto:kseniaxyrtenko@gmail.com mailto:xmber@meta.ua mailto:romankhavula@gmail.com mailto:werta4877@gmail.com mailto:onishchenko@nuczu.edu.ua mailto:lebedeva@nuczu.edu.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/145 psychological analysis of occupational conditions in extreme environments … oksana khurtenko, et al. 133 introduction sports activities, such as wrestling and competitions, are carried out with the help of special tools, actions, which aim to solve specific problems. sporting achievement is possible due to solving problematic situations that are the result of changes in the behaviour of rivals and the conditions of athletes’ struggle with them, their mental and physical states. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (bakhmat et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al, 2019; halaidiuk et al., 2018; maksymchuk et al., 2018; sitovskyi et al., 2019; nerubasska, & maksymchuk, 2020; melnyk et al., 2019; sheremet, leniv, loboda, & maksymchuk, 2019; gerasymova et al., 2019); onishchuk et al., 2020; maksymchuk et al., 2020; khmil, & popovych, 2019; petrova, 2017). the authors of the article believe that any situation in sport can be considered problematic until the individual realizes it. if so, it becomes a task. sports activity is characterized by the fact that athletes never deal with familiar conditions. they usually know their goals, namely general features of wrestling. however, they do not know what their rivals plan to do and what tactics of struggle they intend to choose. thus, any situation of a sports competition is unknown to athletes and coaches and, therefore, problematic, to some extent difficult, and non-standard. in this regard, it is vital to clarify the essence of such a concept as “situation” and its specific type, that is “non-standard situation”. after all, a situation is the area of decision-making and, accordingly, determines certain psychological features. psychological analysis of any activity, including management, should consider specific structural elements. moreover, these elements must be taken into account not separately but in unity. this integrity is possible due to an optimal combination of psychological analysis of its two types, namely, by elements (components) of activity and by units of activity analysis. defining a system unit of activity analysis, including management, is the most important methodological and methodical task of psychological analysis. this task was considered differently in the context of different schools of ukrainian psychology. vygotsky (1982) repeatedly considered two methods of mental analysis, including elements and units. rubinshtein (2002) and leontev (1975) suggest using action as units of analysis, miasishchev (1998)  an attitude and uznadze (2004) and his followers  affirmation. many ukrainian scholars propose the principle of activity-mediated modelling and study of decision-making (karpov, 1993). it lies in the fact that decisionbrain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 134 making should be modelled and studied not in isolation from the structure of activity or in a ready-made form but indirectly. it means generating a more general and holistic regulatory framework, which includes decisionmaking as one of the necessary means of regulating the individual’s activities at the wish of the individual. it should not be set only from the outside but created by the individual. psychological structure and typology of non-standard decisionmaking situations in coaching job it is important to note that presently, there are studies in which integral acts of activity (sidorenko, 2000) and structural-functional units of systemic analysis (derkach, & isaev, 1981) are considered as units of analysis on different activities. this article views shvedin’s (1989) approach as the most efficient one since the researcher suggests using situations as a unit of analysis. an activity analysis unit is always systemic. acting as an integral synthetic concept, it allows one to describe (analyze) any activity more specifically, namely, with certain consequences for practice. a criterion for the correct choice of an analysis unit is the extent to which it makes it possible to identify integral properties of the object, including its structure, dynamics of development, properties. the situation as a unit of analysis fully meets these requirements. it allows one to conduct structural, functional and genetic analysis of the activity in systemic integrity. activity is defined as a specifically human form of an active attitude to the environment, whose content is based on its appropriate change and transformation. therefore, it is important to study it in a psychological context so that one can analyze the unity of the world (environment) and the very activity of the individual. according to shvedin (1989), an activity can be considered in a system of three-dimensional space: tasks, the actor of activity, the objective conditions of activity. thus, the main structural elements of activity identified in psychology (motives, actions, operations, goals, results) are integrated concerning a specific actor of activity when performing a specific task under in specific objective conditions. the situation is the smallest, indivisible, systematically organized part of the activity, which reveals all its basic elements. besides, it should be considered concerning the properties and characteristics of those who act in this situation and deal with the activity itself. it is these factors that cause non-standard situations, conditioned as novelty, unusualness and something which does not fit into the general algorithm of activity. psychological analysis of occupational conditions in extreme environments … oksana khurtenko, et al. 135 the term “complicated situation” is quite close to the concept of a non-standard situation in psychology. its main psychological feature lies in requiring the actor to use their mental and physiological capabilities to the fullest. at the same time, the focus is on the general conditions of the activity. in this regard, complicated situations can be somehow classified in the system of “extreme-non-extreme” operational conditions. according to such an approach, it is common to divide all the factors determining the difficulties of such situations into two groups based on the impact on the human psyche: complications in the functioning of the human body as a psychophysiological system; changes in socio-psychological factors of life and personality. in this research, however, the term “non-standard situation” should primarily take into account the manifestation of extreme conditions in many sports. yet, the research considers the situations manifested under the conditions of sports competitions. regarding coaches’ decision-making, a non-standard situation can be caused, on the one hand, by unusual (usually stressful) conditions of management in a competitive environment and, on the other hand, a new, unusual and creative nature of the task requiring effective solutions. any non-standard situation consists of the following three components: a situation (state) of the actor under control; a process that can develop in one direction or another; psychological, socio-psychological and other consequences. the analysis of the nature of non-standard situations allows one us to note that: firstly, these are extraordinary phenomena which periodically occur in nature and official, economic and industrial spheres of society and pose a real threat to human life and health (natural disasters, industrial accidents and catastrophes, emergencies, sports trials requiring a high level of fitness); the factors affecting the human psyche in non-standard situations can have a strong negative impact, cause anxiety, stress, shock and panic behaviour and lead to a sharp increase in the physical loss; second, non-standard situations are not described in the regulations and are not incorporated in the personal experience of coaches as a model of activity. in this situation, there is an urgent need for a creative approach to decision-making, which can increase its effectiveness. in psychology, the systemic-situational analysis offers different approaches to classifying non-standard decision-making situations depending on the decision-making conditions and the most important tasks (grouping the conditions and nature of the situation tasks concerning the dominant brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 136 psychological mechanisms of their acceptance). this research is based on the classification model (see fig. 1) proposed in stsiborovskyi’s study (2005). fig. 1. the dependence of the dominant psychological decision-making mechanisms on the conditions and tasks of situations (systematized by the authors) the above-mentioned study suggests isolating types of non-standard situations clusters, whose model may be transferred to sports activities, as well as coaches’ the activities. it allows one to understand the features of real sports activities, its non-standard nature (content; a level of complexity) to devise algorithms to solve and improve the training programme for students, namely, prospective coaches. when dealing with standard situations, coaches act based on the known algorithm and achieve more or less successful results. it is important to note that non-standard situations of types 1-3 are much more difficult to solve. type 1 non-standard situations are characterized by the presence of non-standard tasks under standard conditions. consequently, decisionmaking is of creative and productive nature, which follows the mechanisms of reflexive thinking. athletes and senior managers create such situations for coaches since the training process should aim to develop the personality of the athlete. type 2 non-standard situations are based on an ordinary, often solvable problem under unusually difficult conditions. therefore, decisionmaking is mainly stressful due to the impact of difficult activities. the most important condition for making effective decisions in such a situation is high situation indicators tasks standard non-standard conditions standard reproductive thinking mechanisms creating thinking mechanisms non-standard mental regulation mechanisms collective effects of mechanisms psychological analysis of occupational conditions in extreme environments … oksana khurtenko, et al. 137 emotional stability of the coach. examples of such situations are games, team competitions on the road, unexpected changes in conditions (weather, the composition of the rival team, judges, competition schedule). type 3 non-standard situations are traditionally related to non-standard tasks and stressful conditions of its performance. thus, decision-making consists in the fact that coaches use the mechanisms of creative thinking and also maintain their psychological stability. interestingly, such situations occur most often. it must be noted that non-standard conditions, by the nature of their action or influence, are always manifested as motivating influences, i.e. those that violate the normal nature of the process, phenomenon, functioning. they include disturbing influences which force coaches to make the best decisions. in psychological research, there is a general idea of the essence of extreme operational conditions. according to platonov (1984), extreme conditions cause the human body’s reactions which are on the verge of pathological disorders. besides, nebylitsin (1967) considered extreme conditions to be the limit values of those elements of the situation that create an optimal basis or at least do not act as a source of discomfort in the average values. lebedev (1989) claims that evident extreme conditions are “changed” ones. thus, he believes that the boundary separating usual conditions from changed ones is the situation when, having exhausted spare capacities, psychophysiological mechanisms and mental processes can no longer provide adequate reflection and regulation of activities under the influence of psychogenic factors. this approach implies either normal conditions or changed ones. in this context, zazykin (1995) introduced the concept of “special operational conditions”, whose impact is compensated for with spate capacities. therefore, the main factors determining coaches’ non-standard tasks are the novelty of the task (such a situation has not happened before); requiring coaches to broaden and deepen their knowledge; requiring them to be more reasonable and emotionally stable; requiring them to develop their intuition and ability to work with a team and athletes in case of information shortage; requiring them to make collective decisions in a competitive environment. one can assume the following invariants of activities of coaches who make decisions: self-regulation under non-standard conditions; reflection under the conditions of non-standard tasks. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 138 psychological characteristics of decision-making in non-standard situations include the actor’s subjective perception of risky tasks. there are four main stages in coaches’ decision-making: creating the subjective perception of the task; assessing the effects of alternatives; forecasting the condition determining the consequences; choosing alternatives. the subjective perception is an imaginary idea of the task, which is characterized by the following features: dependence on the structure of the task; dynamism; a type of representations (figurative, model-like); prospects to succeed (some ideas cannot lead to successful solutions). taking into account the traditional three-component understanding of situation’s structure as a systemic unit of activity in psychology, the typology of non-standard situations of coaches’ decision-making can be represented as follows: type 1 non-standard situations which involve solving of unusual, complex and creative tasks of sports management; type 2 non-standard situations which involve coaches’ decision-making under unusual and difficult conditions of sports competitions; type 3 nonstandard complex situations which involve solving complicated problems under difficult conditions. the theoretical analysis of the problem under study and relevant scientific literature shows that different types of non-standard situation are characterized by the dominance of mechanisms of reflexive-creative thinking and mental self-regulation. the psychological analysis of the effectiveness of decision-making in non-standard situations should include the methods of their isolation and systematic study. the success of coaches’ decision-making in extreme sports situations depends on the level of their psychological readiness to implement these decisions. psychological analysis of athletes’ and coaches’ extreme operational conditions a special socially significant type of activity is the professional activity of coach-teachers and coach-organizers in sports and physical education. the issues of such specialists’ professional development are related to their professional readiness. it deals with the phenomenology, patterns and features of human development at the stage of maturity (babushkin, 1985; bekasova, 1999; derkach, & kuzmina, 1993). considering the professional development of specialists, researchers pay special attention to motivational aspects of the activity, personality qualities, links between the actor’s motivational sphere and procedural aspects of the activity. the success of a person’s career and life is traditionally based on health and the means to maintain it. therefore, there is the evident need for psychological analysis of occupational conditions in extreme environments … oksana khurtenko, et al. 139 specialists who can support physical culture and sports a measure and way of human development. in this context, one should pay considerable attention to the studies on the factors in achievements in physical and teaching activity, the patterns of self-realization, as well as the self-realization of athletes and physical education specialists (ageevets, 1997; verzilina, & lysenko, 1999). it is important to note that professional development is one of the current issues in psychology. many scholars interpret the term “professional development” as a process of progressive changes in personality under the influence of social conditions, professional activity and self-activity; as the development of professional orientation, competency, socially and professionally significant qualities; as certain readiness for continuing professional development; as a search for optimal methods of qualitative and creative performance of activities following individual psychological characteristics; as a process of gradual resolution of the existing contradictions between socio-professional requirements for the individual and their abilities and motivation to implement them (karandyshev, 1994; klimov, 1996a; 1996b). zeer (2003) believes that professional development is a complex continuous process of developing the specialist’s personality. it begins from the moment of choosing and accepting a future career and ends after stopping it. in other words, it is a large part of human ontogenesis, which covers the period from the origination of professional intentions to the end of professional life. this research reveals the features of coaches’ professional development and development of their psychological readiness to work under extreme conditions during their higher education study. in modern psychology, there is an idea that professional development means gradual development and realization of one’s professional path based on purposeful activity, comprehensive consideration of external and internal, social and individual factors of professionalization (povarenkov, 1999). the analysis of special literature shows that the problem of coachers’ professional development was covered only fragmentarily. however, some areas of research on the personality and activities of specialists in physical education and sports can serve as a prerequisite for considering this particular problem. at the same time, such scholars as bekasova (1999) and zernova (2004) analyzed professional training and development of psychological readiness in prospective specialists in physical education and sports. besides, babushkin (1990) and gorskaya (2005) justified the origins of the brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 140 motivational structure of actors in sports and teaching activity during professional development. sports activities are quite diverse and multi-dimensional. it must be noted that each sport has its specific features, which is why professional activities of coaches, to some extent, differ from each other in different sports. however, different types of sports share some general, typical conditions and features. according to volianiuk (2006), they include the following: one’s own body and motor skills act as the object of the actor’s will and consciousness in sports; regular intense and maximum physical activity require significant willpower from the individual; a compulsory component of sports activities are competitions full of emotional experiences caused by the struggle for the championship and the highest results. sports activities are characterized by rather high physical and mental overload, constant self-restraint in everyday life, increased attention from the social environment, frequent separation from family, study or work. intense loads, including psychological ones, require the athlete to have appropriate willpower and motivation to succeed. furthermore, psychological readiness requires coaching even greater personal efforts. this research aims to study the features in the development of students’ psychological readiness to meet general requirements of coaching and their ability to make decisions in extreme situations, which are common to the most common sports. it must be noted that competitions serve as an integral component of any sports activity, as well as the evidence of the level of the educational and training process organized by coaches. an integral indicator of coaching effectiveness is the results and achievements of students in sports competitions. sports competitions require the greatest expenditure of energy and effort of both their participants and coaches. rodionova (2004) states that sports competitions are mainly characterized by the individual’s striving for self-affirmation in a social environment through self-improvement and achievements in sports, harmonious personal development, the realization of activity motives and accomplishment of the main goal and, finally, evaluation of their psychological readiness to achieve this goal. athletes’ readiness for competitions is characterized by the following indicators: confidence in one’s abilities; the desire to achieve victory; optimally high emotional excitement; high resistance to various obstacles, environmental factors (influence of opponents, fans, judges); arbitrary behaviour, actions; optimal organization of attention, the focus of consciousness on the performance of mental and motor actions throughout psychological analysis of occupational conditions in extreme environments … oksana khurtenko, et al. 141 the competition; motivation to participate in competitions and identification of the leading activity motive in this particular competition; clear manifestation of personality orientations and morale; a clearly defined aim to participate and act in this competition; readiness for maximum willpower, firm confidence in one’s abilities and capabilities to win competitions; demonstration of high sporting achievements (rodionova, 2004). sports competitions serve as a way and method for assessing coaches’ effectiveness and ability to develop the athlete’s personality, as well as a clear indicator of their psychological readiness for professional activity in unusual, more extreme situations. unfortunately, the psychological readiness of coaches to work in extreme situations has not been properly studied yet. psychologists do not pay specific attention to the problem of developing such readiness in prospective specialists in physical education. in comparison with the usual training process, sports competitions imply more complex, intense activity that places special demands on the individual. both objective and subjective factors influence the process of their implementation and results. objective factors include a system of interrelated indicators, such as conditions, requirements, structure and content of competitions, refereeing. subjective factors involve athletes’ psychological readiness to participate in competitions, which in turn is determined by coaches’ psychological readiness to organize, manage and effectively solve various situations and problems which may occur during competitions. discussion and conclusions thus, the extremity of competitions is characterized by complicated conditions, which are naturally reflected on a mental level of the individual in the form of anxiety, fears, stress, distress. the causes of their occurrence include the following: their unexpected occurrence and manifestation under different conditions of sports competitions; disruptions of normal life, certain threats to health (the possibility of injury); unusualness of competition situations, which can be created by the opponent; uncertainty about the behaviour and tactics of the opponent’s sports activities (partial or lack of information, contradictory conditions); an excess or inadequacy of information about the competition, opponents’ behaviour and, therefore, the formulation of incorrect conclusions; high dynamics of the competition and lack of time for analysis, assessment of the situation, decision-making and implementation of specific actions, in comparison with usual conditions of training activities; high social responsibility (collective, socio-moral) for brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 142 the results of competitions, own actions and deeds; the individual’s reflection of long restrictions, difficulties and a certain life discomfort on the preparation of the competition or its course. it must be noted that sports activities, competitions, as well as any other extreme activities, are intense and place special demands on the emotional sphere of both the athlete and the coach since their emotional states and experiences can be transformed and transmitted to others. in general, any competition includes several different interrelated both planned and unexpected situations, which can be characterized by the following indicators: 1. short duration of situations. levels and types of competitions may differ. however, what they have in common is that they take place under conditions of a severe shortage of time with the maximum mental load of the participants and the coach and require their constant readiness for immediate actions at an extremely fast pace. such situations are characterized by unexpectedness, speed of occurrence and course, lack or inconsistency of information, intensive intellectual functions (thinking, imagination, attention). 2. during competitions, it is essential to how high physical and mental endurance, mobilization, responsibility and often independence of athletes and coaches in decision-making. 3. the degree of uncertainty. in such situations, athletes and coaches need to choose the only right solution from several possible equally important options. 4. situation may require athletes’ and coaches’ readiness for urgent and prompt actions. in these situations, special requirements apply to attention, the speed of mental functions (thinking, imagination) and the emotional balance. 5. situations may be related to false information and opponents’ manipulative, sly behaviour. in this case, decision-making depends on the amount of such information, the available time for its processing and the individual’s sports experience. 6. critical situations. these may occur in extreme cases of sports activities or competitions and provide the individual with a choice of possible results, that is victory or complete defeat. such situations help athletes and coaches to reveal all their skills and adaptive capabilities. they serve as a criterion for checking athletes and coaches for compliance with their social status. the authors of the article claim that coaching is one of the types of creative management since it requires non-standard thinking and ability to psychological analysis of occupational conditions in extreme environments … oksana khurtenko, et al. 143 forecast possible consequences of team members’ activities, as well as find a way out of an extreme situation, especially during competitions. some researchers believe that creative management is based on senior management experience. others, however, assume that it lies in studying colleagues’ experience and thus improving one’s professional experience (budnyk, 2004). most scholars associate managerial creativity with the formulation and creative solution of managerial tasks and situations. consequently, this research defines managerial creativity as coaches’ conscious activities aimed to solve professional problems effectively. the development of professional readiness for creative solutions to sports problems begins with the development of original management thinking. two theoretical views on the nature of the human psyche and thinking correspond to two approaches to studying this particular problem. according to the first one, that is an adaptive approach, creative thinking as a form of behaviour is the result of learning, and only some individuals have creative ability. to teach creativity, however, one needs to include the elements of creative behaviour (problem-solving) and heuristics in the educational material. another approach assumes that thinking is a productive process emerging as a result of a certain problematic situation. prerequisites for the creative process are cognitive abilities and research activities of the individual (budnyk, 2004). some scholars define managerial thinking as a special mindset and its specific focus, which are adequate to the nature of management (klimov, 1996a; 1996b; kuzmin, volkov, & emelianov, 1984). the main features of managerial thinking include the following: understanding life and management situations in terms of using them to achieve a certain management goal; perceiving various information sources from the standpoint of their further use as a means of management; striving to look at the situation from the standpoint of athletes and assess it in a psychological context; striving to comprehend the motives of subordinates’ actions and imagine their psychological state; feeling the motivation towards activity modelling; striving to acquire management-related knowledge, which gradually captures all its structural elements. today, there are two ways of developing creative thinking. the first one means teaching certain techniques of creativity in the framework of specially organized training courses. the second one lies in developing certain sets of creative techniques during special classes conducted by brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 144 psychologists. both of these ways have positive and negative features and, therefore, certain researchers insist on combining them. thus, coaching is related to a wide range of issues and problems that need to be solved and directly or indirectly or are determined by coaches’ creative activity. that is why the process of preparing students (future coaches) for such activities is an essential scientific and practical problem. references ageevets, v. u. (1997). analiz dinamiki protsessa povysheniia kvalifikatsii spetsialistov po fizicheskoi kulture i sporta [analyzing the dynamics of professional development of specialists in physical education and sports]. teoriya ta praktyka fizychnoho vykhovannya [theory and practice of physical education], 12, 13–15. https://www.docsity.com/ru/analiz-dinamikiprocessa-povysheniya-kvalifikacii-specialistov-po-fizicheskoy-kulture-isportu/1353004/ babushkin, g. d. (1985). psikhologiia truda trenera po sportu [the psychology of coaches’ activities]. omsk: ogifk. babushkin, g. d. (1990). motivatsiia sportivno-pedagogicheskoi deiatelnosti: struktura, dinamika [the motivation of sports and teaching activity: the structure and dynamics]. teoriya ta praktyka fizychnoho vykhovannya [theory and practice of physical education], 1, 56–57. bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13231332. https://efsupit.ro/images/stories/ august2019/art%20192.pdf bekasova, s. n. (1999). informatsionnye potrebnosti studentov kak faktor professionalnogo i lichnostnogo razvitiia (na materiale tsikla pedagogicheskikh distsiplin) [information needs of students as a factor in professional and personal development (based on a cycle of pedagogical disciplines)]. (abstract of phd thesis). p. f. lesgaft saint-petersburg state university of physical education, sports and health, saint-peterburg. https://www.dissercat.com/content/informatsionnye-potrebnostistudentov-kak-faktor-professionalnogo-i-lichnostnogo-razvitiya-n bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 15851590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf https://www.docsity.com/ru/analiz-dinamiki-processa-povysheniya-kvalifikacii-specialistov-po-fizicheskoy-kulture-i-sportu/1353004/ https://www.docsity.com/ru/analiz-dinamiki-processa-povysheniya-kvalifikacii-specialistov-po-fizicheskoy-kulture-i-sportu/1353004/ https://www.docsity.com/ru/analiz-dinamiki-processa-povysheniya-kvalifikacii-specialistov-po-fizicheskoy-kulture-i-sportu/1353004/ https://efsupit.ro/images/stories/%0baugust2019/art%20192.pdf https://efsupit.ro/images/stories/%0baugust2019/art%20192.pdf https://www.dissercat.com/content/informatsionnye-potrebnosti-studentov-kak-faktor-professionalnogo-i-lichnostnogo-razvitiya-n https://www.dissercat.com/content/informatsionnye-potrebnosti-studentov-kak-faktor-professionalnogo-i-lichnostnogo-razvitiya-n http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf psychological analysis of occupational conditions in extreme environments … oksana khurtenko, et al. 145 budnyk, s. m. (2004). tvorchi aspekty v upravlinskii diialnosti ofitsera [creative aspects in managerial activities of officers]. the collection of scientific works, 31, 55–57. derkach, a. a., & isaev, a. a. (1981). pedagogicheskoe masterstvo trenera [pedagogical skills of coaches]. moscow: fizkultura i sport. derkach, a. a., & kuzmina, n. v. (1993). akmeologiia: puti dostizheniia vershin professionalizma [acmeology: ways to achieve top of professionalism]. moscow: rau. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604 /pdf gorskaya, g. b. (2005). kontekstnye determinanty subieektnosti lichnosti [contextual determinants of personality subjectivity]. in v.v. znakova, & z. i. riabikina (eds.), akter, lichnost i psikhologiya chelovecheskogo sushchestvovaniya [actor, personality and psychology of human existence] (pp. 178–190). moscow: institut psikhologii ran halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284–2291. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/16733 karandyshev, v. n. (1994). psikhologicheskie osnovy razvitiia studenta kak subieekta ucheniia [psychological principles of student’s development as the actor in learning]. (postdoctoral thesis). p. f. lesgaft saint-petersburg state university of physical education, sports and health, saint-peterburg. https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskie-osnovy-razvitiyastudenta-kak-subekta-ucheniya karpov, a. v. (1993). problemy priniatiia reshenii v trudovoi deiatelnosti [difficulties in decision-making at work]. psikhologicheskiy zhurnal [psychological journal], 3, 3–14. khmil, v. v., & popovych, i. s. (2019). philosophical and psychological dimensions of social expectations of personality. anthropological measurements of philosophical research, 16, 55-65. https://doi.org/10.15802/ampr.v0i16.187540 klimov, e. a. (1996a). psikhologiia professionala [the psychology of specialists]. moscow: institut prakticheskoy psikhologii. https://www.twirpx.com/file/55742/ http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/16733 https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskie-osnovy-razvitiya-studenta-kak-subekta-ucheniya https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskie-osnovy-razvitiya-studenta-kak-subekta-ucheniya https://doi.org/10.15802/ampr.v0i16.187540 https://www.twirpx.com/file/55742/ brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 146 klimov, e. a. (1996b). psikhologiia professionalnogo samoopredeleniia [the psychology of professional self-identification]. rostov-na-donu: feniks. https://www.academiamoscow.ru/ftp_share/_books/fragments/fragment_21192.pdf kuzmin, e. s., volkov, i. v., & emelianov, yu. n. (1984). rukovoditel i kollektiv [manager and team]. leningrad: lgu. lebedev, v. i. (1989). lichnost v ekstremalnykh usloviiakh [personality in extreme conditions]. moscow: politizdat. https://www.twirpx.com/file/236151/ leontev, a. m. (1975). deiatelnost. soznanie. lichnost [activity. awareness. personality]. moscow: progress. https://www.marxists.org/russkij/leontiev/1975/dyeatyelnost/deyatyelno st-soznyanie-lichnost.pdf maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m miasishchev, v. n. (1998). psikhologiia otnoshenii [the psychology of relationships]. moscow: institut prakticheskoi psikhologii. http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/ index/idnotice:72340/source:default nebylitsin, v. d. (1967). nadezhnost raboty operatora v slozhnoi sisteme upravleniia [operator’s reliability in a complex control system]. http://psychologylib.ru/books/item/f00/s00/z0000038/st018.shtml nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), https://www.academia-moscow.ru/ftp_share/_books/fragments/fragment_21192.pdf https://www.academia-moscow.ru/ftp_share/_books/fragments/fragment_21192.pdf https://www.twirpx.com/file/236151/ https://www.marxists.org/russkij/leontiev/1975/dyeatyelnost/deyatyelnost-soznyanie-lichnost.pdf https://www.marxists.org/russkij/leontiev/1975/dyeatyelnost/deyatyelnost-soznyanie-lichnost.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/index/idnotice:72340/source:default http://lib.mgppu.ru/opacunicode/app/webroot/index.php?url=/notices/index/idnotice:72340/source:default http://psychologylib.ru/books/item/f00/s00/z0000038/st018.shtml psychological analysis of occupational conditions in extreme environments … oksana khurtenko, et al. 147 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/ index.php/po/article/view/2625 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 4465. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 petrova, i. v. (2017). rol dozvillia v arkhaichnii hretsii: na prykladi tvoriv homera ta hesioda [the role of leisure in archaic greece: based om the works of homer and hesiod]. visnyk natsionalnoyi akademiyi kerivnykh kadriv kultury ta mystetstva [national academy of managerial staff of culture and arts herald], 4, 8-11. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vdakkkm_2017_4_4 platonov, k. k. (1984). kratkii slovar sistemy psikhologicheskikh poniatii [ashort glossary of the psychological terms system]. moscow: vysshaya shkola. https://www.twirpx.com/file/1687831/ povarenkov, yu. p. (1999). professionalnoe stanovlenie lichnosti [professional development of an individual]. (postdoctoral thesis). k. d. ushinsky yaroslavl state pedagogical university, yaroslavl. http://www.dslib.net/psixologia-vozrasta/professionalnoe-stanovlenielichnosti.html rodionova, a. v. (2004). psikhologiia fizicheskogo vospitaniia i sporta [the psychology of physical education and sport]. moscow: akademicheskii proekt. https://www.twirpx.com/file/792703/ rubinshtein, s. l. (2002). osnovy obshchei psikhologii [the fundamental of general psychology]. saint-petersburg: piter. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/rubinshteyn=osnovu_obzhey_psc.pdf sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shvedin, b. ya. (1989). chelovecheskii faktor v upravlenii voiskami: problemy i poiski [the human factor in command and control of troops: problems and searches]. moscow: vpa. sidorenko, e. v. (2000). metody matematicheskoi obrabotki v psikhologii [mathematical processing methods in psychology]. saint-petersburg: rech. https://www.sgu.ru/sites/default/files/textdocsfiles/2014/02/19/sidoren ko.pdf sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/%0bindex.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/%0bindex.php/po/article/view/2625 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vdakkkm_2017_4_4 https://www.twirpx.com/file/1687831/ http://www.dslib.net/psixologia-vozrasta/professionalnoe-stanovlenie-lichnosti.html http://www.dslib.net/psixologia-vozrasta/professionalnoe-stanovlenie-lichnosti.html https://www.twirpx.com/file/792703/ http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/rubinshteyn=osnovu_obzhey_psc.pdf https://www.sgu.ru/sites/default/files/textdocsfiles/2014/02/19/sidorenko.pdf https://www.sgu.ru/sites/default/files/textdocsfiles/2014/02/19/sidorenko.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 148 differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532–1543. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 stsiborovskyi, o. a. (2005). psykholohichni osoblyvosti pryiniattia efektyvnykh rishen ofitseramy dps ukrainy v nestandartnykh sytuatsiiakh [psychological features of effective decision-making in non-standard situations by officers of state border guard service of ukraine]. (abstract of phd thesis). the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi. http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichni-osoblyvosti-pryinjattjaefektyvnykh-rishen-ofitseramy-dps-ukrayiny-v.html uznadze, d. n. (2004). obshchaya psikhologiya [general psychology]. saintpetersburg: piter. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/ “uznadze=ob_psc.pdf=ann=frr.pdf verzilina, n. a., & lysenko, i. a. (1999). organizatsionno-pedagogicheskie aspekty innovatsii v sisteme nepreryvnogo obrazovaniia fizkulturnykh kadrov v ukraine [organizational and pedagogical aspects of innovations in the system of continuing education of physical education specialists in ukraine]. fizicheskoye vospitaniye, sport i kultura zdorovya v sovremennom obshchestve [physical education, sports and health culture in modern society], 36, 126–130. volianiuk, n. yu. (2006). psykholohiia profesiinoho stanovlennia trenera [the psychology of coaches’ professional development]. lutsk: volynska oblasna drukarnia. vygotsky, l. s. (1982). sobranie sochineniiy [collection of works]. moscow: pedagogika. https://www.twirpx.com/file/743870/ zazykin, v. g. (1995). psikhologo-akmeologicheskie osnovy deiatelnosti spetsialistov v osobykh usloviiakh [psychological and acmeological principles of specialists’ activities in special conditions]. (postdoctoral thesis). russian academy of public administration, moscow. zeer, e. f. (2003). psikhologiia professii [the psychology of profession]. moscow: akademicheskii proekt. https://www.twirpx.com/file/280671/ zernova, t. n. (2004). vliianie razlichnykh form rannei professionalizatsii na lichnostnoe i intellektualnoe razvitie podrostkov [the influence of various forms of early professionalization on the personal and intellectual development of adolescents]. (abstract of phd thesis). the kuban state university of physical culture, sports and tourism, krasnodar. http://naukapedagogika.com/pedagogika-13-00-04/dissertaciya-vliyanie-razlichnyhform-ranney-professionalizatsii-na-lichnostnoe-i-intellektualnoe-razvitiepodrostkov http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichni-osoblyvosti-pryinjattja-efektyvnykh-rishen-ofitseramy-dps-ukrayiny-v.html http://www.disslib.org/psykholohichni-osoblyvosti-pryinjattja-efektyvnykh-rishen-ofitseramy-dps-ukrayiny-v.html http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/%0b“uznadze=ob_psc.pdf=ann=frr.pdf http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/%0b“uznadze=ob_psc.pdf=ann=frr.pdf https://www.twirpx.com/file/743870/ https://www.twirpx.com/file/280671/ http://nauka-pedagogika.com/pedagogika-13-00-04/dissertaciya-vliyanie-razlichnyh-form-ranney-professionalizatsii-na-lichnostnoe-i-intellektualnoe-razvitie-podrostkov http://nauka-pedagogika.com/pedagogika-13-00-04/dissertaciya-vliyanie-razlichnyh-form-ranney-professionalizatsii-na-lichnostnoe-i-intellektualnoe-razvitie-podrostkov http://nauka-pedagogika.com/pedagogika-13-00-04/dissertaciya-vliyanie-razlichnyh-form-ranney-professionalizatsii-na-lichnostnoe-i-intellektualnoe-razvitie-podrostkov http://nauka-pedagogika.com/pedagogika-13-00-04/dissertaciya-vliyanie-razlichnyh-form-ranney-professionalizatsii-na-lichnostnoe-i-intellektualnoe-razvitie-podrostkov brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 167-184 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/163 the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised children: a theoretical framework for applied research monica stănescu¹, gabriela tomescu 2 * 1 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania 2 national university of physical education and sports, faculty of physical education and sport, bucharest, romania, tomescu.gabriela03@yahoo.com * corresponding author abstract: the paper aims to make a systematic analysis of the literature that addresses the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences in order to identify the main theoretical aspects that underpin the design and implementation of educational interventions for institutionalised children to learn dance. this category of children is a permanent concern for specialists in the field of education sciences who are interested in finding the most effective methods and means of training that can support the educational and institutional efforts for the social integration of these children. following the review of the literature provided by the main databases, a correspondence was made between the types of intelligence described by gardner (1983) and the effects of dance on these intelligence modalities. the bibliographic analysis had as organisational criteria: multiple intelligences, dance, children at risk and the effects of dance on their growth and development. the correlative analysis has revealed a number of dance characteristics susceptible to have a positive influence on different types of intelligence and can serve as benchmarks in the interdisciplinary design of dance activities in general and dancesport in particular. as a result, the theoretical model presented in this paper represents a methodological benchmark for the implementation of enhanced programmes for the personal development of institutionalised children and the creation of additional conditions for their school and social integration. keywords: multiple intelligences, dance, institutionalised children. how to cite: stănescu, m., & tomescu, g. (2020). the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised children: a theoretical framework for applied research. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 167-184. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/163 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/163 mailto:tomescu.gabriela03@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/163 the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised … monica stănescu, gabriela tomescu 168 introduction the study of multiple intelligences is a highly topical issue addressed by specialists in various educational fields, including physical education and sport. according to the theory proposed by howard gardner and presented in the book frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences (1983), intelligence is a set of abilities differently developed in each person and necessary for coping with social and environmental changes. gardner makes reference to the following intelligence modalities: verbal-linguistic (speech skills, meaning and rhyme of words), logical-mathematical (abstract, conceptual thinking, identification of logical, numerical models), visualspatial (spatial judgement, visualisation with the mind’s eye), musicalrhythmic (ability to produce and have sensitivity to rhythm, pitch and timbre), bodily-kinaesthetic (ability to control body movements and handle objects skilfully), social/interpersonal (ability to detect and properly respond to others’ moods, motivations and desires) and emotional/intrapersonal (ability to be self-aware of one’s values, beliefs and thoughts). over time, gardner proposed two other intelligence modalities, namely naturalistic intelligence (ability to recognise elements in the natural world: flora, fauna, etc.) and existential intelligence (ability to ask deep questions about human existence). this theory has opened new horizons in the field of educational psychology, which was provided with innovative perspectives of intervention. the starting idea was that each individual has multi-factorially represented abilities that develop over time and increase personal efficiency, thus making it easier to learn certain things compared to others. although possessing all types of intelligence, an individual is essentially characterised by one or some of them that will influence their personal learning style. the theory of multiple intelligences was soon adopted by teachers specialising in various fields of science, but also by education systems interested in increasing their own efficiency. such an approach was clear evidence of surpassing the stage where only verbal and rational intelligences were considered as essential to characterise an individual (nacakci, 2009). applying this theory to the field of education actually means identifying the main ways in which a certain content can become comprehensible for an individual due to a facilitated learning process. in the study conducted in 2014, morgan presents the advantages enjoyed by a student who benefits from a differentiated teaching system brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 169 based on the learner’s types of intelligence: optimal learning time, stability of learning outcomes and ability to put into practice the acquired knowledge. these modalities delimit distinct methods and means of training that are able to meet the learner’s need for knowledge. in this way, valuable, useful and highly accessible learning experiences are provided. on the other hand, the subject’s motivation for learning, curiosity and pleasure of learning with ease are also stimulated. for each child, these multiple intelligences are expressed in the form of a preferential learning style. many learning styles can be found within one classroom or group of children. if a certain content is not accessible to students because it addresses a less represented intelligence, the teacher will have the role of conveying new information by applying the most developed intelligence so that children understand the new subject. for example, brualdi (1996) shows in a study how a child with highly-developed musical intelligence can learn history by producing various sounds associated with war. this explains the quick way in which children can learn different contents if they are presented in different forms. for instance, mathematics can be learned through drawing or even dance. the study by nacakci (2009) highlights the development of multiple intelligences through musical education that, according to available data, gives more pleasure of learning compared to classical lessons. participants become more interested in the explanations provided by teachers, more receptive and understand faster the information transmitted through practical methods. when the development of a child includes the main types of intelligence, the level of education increases. beyond educational interventions in the classroom, there are student-centred curricula worldwide that use these learning styles. obviously, it is extremely difficult to approach all types of intelligence during a single activity, but it is important for the teacher to address as many students as possible (dastgoshadeh & jalilzadeh, 2011). purpose of the paper starting from the theory of multiple intelligences, the paper aims to make a systematic analysis of the literature that addresses the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences in order to identify the main theoretical aspects that underpin the design and implementation of educational interventions for institutionalised children to learn dance. the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised … monica stănescu, gabriela tomescu 170 topic addressed growth and development difficulties of institutionalised children a specialised study entitled “the bucharest early intervention project (beip)” and started in 2000 by three american teachers (nathan fox, charles nelson and charles zeanah) on a sample made up of 136 institutionalised romanian children indicated that they had problems with discernment, impulse control and memory. the same study also involved 72 community children from organised families whose intelligence quotient was higher compared to institutionalised children. the care and attention that children receive at home decisively influence their mental and emotional development. the situation of institutionalised children in romania can be approached from many points of view because there are numerous aspects that need to be improved in the educational and social protection systems designed for them. with the increasing number of abandoned children, the percentage of those placed in foster families or adopted has also increased. compared to children in orphanages, they receive love, understanding and security, factors that contribute to harmonious development and significant cognitive and emotional progress (lăcătuşu, 2004). one of the main problems is the social integration of children that grow up in foster homes. lack of parental care affects the child intellectually but also in emotional and behavioural terms, which is why they show hyperactivity and attention disorders, depression and anxiety, aggression, behavioural disorders, impulsivity, instability or emotional detachment, nonconformism, disregard for common sense rules, introversion, maladaptive traits, especially the social ones (popa, sava, & david, 2018). shyness, lack of trust in people around them and lack of self-confidence prevent these children from communicating and interacting with other members of society. the feeling of being marginalised, not being of interest to anyone, being deprived of affection and love develops in the abandoned child a state of depression, of existential emptiness and therefore they will always have doubts about the sincerity of people who try to give them love (roco, 2004). following a study conducted by tutunaru (2018), it has been found that the social disadvantage of institutionalised children has a negative impact on their school success, but the school also influences their results, the relationship between the socioeconomic aspect and school performance having a boomerang effect. the development and training of children may depend on the financial possibilities provided to them. abandoned young brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 171 people are prone to school failure because of their limited possibilities, and this makes it difficult for them to integrate into society. in the absence of family support, children living in foster homes try to self-manage existential problems and face mistrust and insecurity about their own strengths and the decisions made, having a lower level of mental resilience compared to the non-institutionalised child (muris & maas, 2004). a study by vygotsky (cited by lantieri, 2017) mentions that social interaction is the way in which mental processes develop in children aged between 8 and 11 years, meaning that they live in a world based on selfawareness in relation with others, and benefiting from calming strategies from an adult they trust can provide them with an effective tool for managing difficult feelings. a study conducted in satu mare by cuc and macarie (2012) on a target group of 20 children aged 7 years (1st grade) from foster homes aimed at verifying to what extent the emotional intelligence of subjects could influence their social life. the conclusion reached by the two specialists is that only 4 of the 20 children had good emotional intelligence. an authoritarian behaviour of caregivers generates a negative state of mistrust and fear of expression. the absence of a parent who cares about the child’s harmonious growth and mental health leads to frustration and fear, which makes it difficult to integrate them into society, not only among children of their age but also as adults. when treated with affection and motivated to progress, children will be more relaxed, spontaneous and original, and therefore exploiting their creative potential will be easy to achieve. anxious, nervous or depressive people do not receive information effectively, show attention disorders and choose self-isolation (lozovina et al., 2012). in a study by floarea (2016), it is emphasised that children need an environment that ensures their harmonious psychological and intellectual development. emotional stability, educational guidance, participation in collective and non-discriminatory activities together with other children and the guarantee that an adult is always there as a support are important aspects for child development and integration into society. the absence of a family environment generates behavioural disorders leading to antisocial manifestations that are differently expressed, depending on each child’s personality, either through aggression, violence and agitation, or, on the contrary, through introversion. there are many children who suffer in silence, isolate themselves and prefer not to talk about their feelings with those around them. in order to overcome these traumas, they need support from the people around them and a balanced environment that gives them affection and emotional stability. the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised … monica stănescu, gabriela tomescu 172 children in foster homes are much more efficient in their activities, even during a game, when they spend their time with a caregiver, a foster carer, and those who have passed more time in an orphanage have poorer results than those who are adopted or live in foster families (daunhauer et al., 2007). goleman (2007) claims that children who are raised with love and affection from their parents are more optimistic, relaxed and emotionally stable. they control their feelings and empathise with those around them, being at an advantage in any area of life. well-developed emotional abilities give individuals a chance to be satisfied with their personal lives, but also efficiency, self-control, clear thinking and concentration. the role of dance in child development dance is an activity performed to music, with profound effects of relaxation and emotional release. studies demonstrate that performing physical exercise to music improves the individual’s mental and affective states (predoiu, 2016). brain activity is extremely important for children, and dance has a positive impact on their mental, emotional and social development from the first years of life, the forms of communication in that period relying on expression through gestures and movements (faber, 2017). specialists in the field of dance analysed its contribution to regulating emotional states (as a basis for interpersonal relationships) with regard to music and movement and have concluded that people who are not able to convey or receive emotions are shunned by other people. dance develops the performer’s capacity for nonverbal expression through the body. the means of expression that dance activates are encoded through nonverbal communication and are represented by gestures, posture, eye contact, distance between partners, facial expression. the emotional charge released through music and dance generates mental relaxation, self-control and self-confidence, which turns over time into long-term happiness and a feeling of wellbeing (schneider, 2018). music releases endorphins and generates physiological, psychosomatic and mental effects, thus influencing the dynamics of emotional life, stimulating attention, memory and imagination. there are people who think in rhyme, are sensitive to the pitch and timbre of a sound, create or reproduce music using their voice or instruments and establish a connection between a melody and emotion, being endowed with musical intelligence that can be enhanced through dancesport. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 173 as a sport discipline, dance combines musicality with the coordination of body segments, developing another type of aesthetic, artistic intelligence characterised by plastic and expressive execution, aesthetic refinement of interpretation and choreographic construction (macovei, 2007). all these confer this sport complexity and difficulty, but also the ability to generate positive cognitive and socio-emotional effects. on the other hand, studies show that young people who perform activities that stimulate creative ability, such as music, dance, singing, drama, painting, etc., have better mental health and resistance to external stimuli of any kind. these positive effects are highlighted by self-confidence, selfesteem, ability to interact with the social environment, sense of belonging to a group, as well as skills related to the self-control of emotions and thoughts, arts offering the possibility of mental recovery especially during adolescence, when young people’s moods are unstable and positive thinking is important for maintaining mental wellbeing and making the educational process more efficient (zarobe & bungay, 2017). compared to people who perform other physical and leisure activities, dancers and musicians have a greater ability to distinguish sounds, understand information, anticipate and imitate the next movements of people around them or other living organisms, have a sense of rhythm and movement synchronisation with music, spatiotemporal orientation and body control (karpati et al., 2016). a study conducted on a sample made up of 136 children (preda & iacob, 2014) has shown that dancesport improves memory, verbal comprehension and social intelligence, but there are differences between boys and girls, test results favouring the male gender. at the same time, the level of spatial orientation ability increases, dance being performed in all directions. once the movements are memorised, the vision of the workspace is much clearer. dance is known to integrate sensory information received through the auditory, visual, somatic and vestibular channels, and to involve motor control over the entire body. dance – an educational means for children at risk dancesport is an activity that meets the primary needs of an individual, such as affiliation to a group, socialisation, verbal and nonverbal communication with group members, freedom of expression, stimulation of creativity and originality, improvement of physical and emotional states. korenjak (2018) highlights in a study the revolutionary work of goergen, who, around 1820, introduced music and dance as a form of patient therapy in a psychiatry clinic in vienna, thus making known the the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised … monica stănescu, gabriela tomescu 174 concept of “active form of music”. when people study what they like and receive careful education, they regularly carry out their preferred activities and listen to their favourite music, which results in a lower risk of developing mental illness or emotional disorders. music therapy and dance therapy are a reform of life, a refreshment of the body. the study by raglio, traficante and oasi (2011), which included 7 children with various disabilities (autism, retardation, etc.) and social integration difficulties, who communicated with therapists through music, has demonstrated that nonverbal and sound communication can be improved; in the studied children, sound-music communication was improved by 86%, and nonverbal communication, by 43%. dance helps to both maintain the optimal functioning of the cardiovascular system and, because mental health is dependent on physical condition, heal children suffering from cancer due to mental relaxation and emotional discharge during rhythmic exercise (kourkouta et al., 2014). another study (habron, 2014) conducted on 112 children with back and neck problems, who had anxiety and stress, also demonstrated the efficiency of dancesport in optimising mental health. half of the children attending dance classes every week improved their health status, but also their emotional state, thus overcoming depression. practicing dancesport improves self-esteem and therefore participants become more confident, oxygenates the brain, which increases concentration, memory and attention abilities, is a means of play and socialisation being associated with entertainment and pleasure, stimulates the motor system and balance, and releases endorphins, subjects feeling good after training. music therapy is used to alleviate mental disorders such as behavioural, comprehension and learning problems, trauma, brain damage, mental illness, dementia, but also physical disabilities, being an ally for maintaining or reaching a feeling of wellbeing and health, including from the emotional perspective. a study by capello (2008) describes a project carried out in several countries of the world, which involved a dance programme aimed at improving the physical and mental condition of children in difficulty. the methods used were adapted to the needs of the group from each participating country. this programme was a form of therapy for children with special needs living in foster homes, orphans after the loss of both parents, victims of violence, with behavioural disorders, from disadvantaged backgrounds, etc. it has been proven that dance can be a form of treating mental and emotional problems, and that general health can be enhanced. the quality of life has improved in children practicing any form of dance in brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 175 their free time, because this sport is thought to educate self-control of the body and mind. deprived of affection and parental attention, institutionalised children often face difficulties in controlling their emotions and negative states. although one of the causes of a poor emotional state is genetic in nature, it is also influenced by the environment and experiences lived throughout life; therefore, emotional intelligence can be learned, educated (schutte, 2014). emotions can be conveyed from one person to another, which is why the social environment is very important in the development of an individual. it is scientifically proven that the feeling of being marginalised, not being of interest to anyone, being deprived of affection and love develops in the abandoned child a state of depression, of existential emptiness (roco, 2004). haboush et al. (2006) argue that dance combats depression. after the implementation of a dancesport programme for 8 weeks, with 1 lesson of 45 minutes per week, it has been concluded that this sport can be considered a therapy for mentally unstable people due to its beneficial effects on psychological and emotional levels. the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences dancesport is a means by which multiple intelligences, especially the musical-rhythmic one, can be enhanced (becea, 2008). moreover, dancesport, also known as “ballroom dance”, develops emotional and social intelligences, and thus contributes to balancing the body’s energies through movements accompanied by music and developing interpersonal relationships. social competence can be divided into two areas, empathy and social skills (praditsang, hanafi, & walters, 2015). once the feelings and needs of others have been perceived and understood, people manifest themselves differently in society, being influenced by the level of their emotional intelligence. thus, they can show interest or disinterest in another person, can influence people, communicate what they feel or think, manage a conflict, change situations or collaborate with a person or group. skourdi and rahimi (2010) believe that emotional intelligence is related to linguistic intelligence and can be stimulated through dance due to the technique of performing the steps and the countless ways of expressing them in choreographies specific to each dance style. verbal expression is more difficult for an introverted person than for a vocal one, whose manifestations are sincere and natural towards others. in the case of negative experiences and extreme stress, the amygdala neurons work very intensely the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised … monica stănescu, gabriela tomescu 176 and interrupt the transmission of information to other areas of the brain, such as the hippocampus that is related to the thalamus, grey matter and the centre of spoken language. a trauma can lead to the inability of producing verbal expression, and if it is narrated, time jumps and gaps may occur (ruppert, 2012). bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence, namely the ability to use a certain part of the body in different ways and to control its movements so that it expresses as many states and feelings as possible (gardner, 1983), is highlighted in the study conducted by root-bernstein and root-bernstein (2003). these authors promote the idea that expressing one’s emotions through dance is achieved by means of choreography that, metaphorically speaking, can be considered the vocabulary of an individual. just as, when wanting to convey information, it is not enough to know how to speak but it is necessary to have something to say, the message of the artistic act reflects emotion and creativity. dance, through the development of bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence, also stimulates cognitive aspects related to the perception of the environment and people around, being a sport based on the attitude of listening to all surrounding stimuli that, according to personal perceptions, are expressed physically and emotionally to the rhythm of music. a person able to physically express what they feel, with an attraction to art, has a considerable cultural background and sensitivity to minute details that are not noticed by rigid people, without aesthetic sense. naturalistic intelligence refers to everything that is in a pure, natural state in the environment and develops directly proportional to the artistic vision and expression, an aspect that dance achieves through any style. women show greater inclination towards artistic activities, which stimulate creativity, having high levels of visual-spatial and rhythmic intelligences (ekici, 2011). at the same time, stereotypes have been created in society, according to which girls should practice artistic sports based on music and body movements, such as gymnastics, ballet or dance, while boys are guided towards football, boxing or team sports, which involve contact with the opponent (jakubowska & byczkowska-owczarek, 2018). we believe that, in the case of institutionalised children who do not benefit from parental guidance, a physical activity based on dancesport can represent an efficient and accessible content with multiple instructive and educational valences. in a study by murcia et al. (2010), dance also provides cognitive benefits because it stimulates logical thinking and memory by the fact that the different movements (specific motor gestures) learned are combined to brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 177 form choreographies. the logical sequence of dance steps accompanied by technical and artistic elements that must be taken into account during the execution represent a means of developing logical-mathematical intelligence. as regards visual-spatial intelligence, the performer acquires the ability to clearly visualise the examples provided by the instructor and mentally represent them in relation to the workspace and their own movement capabilities. in the study conducted in 2017 by the german centre of neurodegenerative diseases over an 18-month period, it has been demonstrated that dance increases the volume of the hippocampus, which is associated with learning, memory and balance, and represents a more efficient and faster method of neural regeneration as compared to other physical activities. combining the idea that institutionalisation affects children’s memory, intelligence and social skills (nelson, fox, & zeanah, 2014) with information about the benefits of dance extracted from the previously mentioned studies, it follows that this type of activity can be a means of integrating institutionalised children into society by encouraging them to learn behaviours that ensure optimal integration into school and social environments as a result of using multiple intelligences. table 1 reveals the aspects by which dancesport influences each type of intelligence and also shows possible research directions for these relationships. table 1. relationships between dancesport and multiple intelligences type of intelligence elements of dancesport that contribute to the development of multiple intelligences general hypotheses regarding the target group of institutionalised children emotional intelligence intrapersonal area * learning dance steps specific to different dance styles through which the performer conveys certain states * performing individual dance steps without physical support from another person * maintaining static positions specific to standard dance styles while listening to music for mental relaxation different dance styles differently influence intraand interpersonal skills. the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised … monica stănescu, gabriela tomescu 178 interpersonal area * musical interpretation through movements and expression in front of the group * communication between partners in order to correct mistakes and learn dance steps faster dance contributes to developing the performer’s mental flexibility and ability to cope with the demands of social and professional/educational life. stress management area * optimisation of mental state and attainment of suitable emotional tone * performing exercises for relaxation, meditation and elimination of negative states dance develops stress management skills. dancesport contributes to balancing the demands of school and leisure activities. general condition area * variety of dance styles that provide a feeling of wellbeing, happiness * dancer-teacher communication that occurs in optimistic and supportive terms dancesport contributes to increasing the quality of life for institutionalised children. adaptability area * teamwork and collaboration between partners * learning new movements dancesport develops the social interaction skills of institutionalised children and increases their ability to interact in different school and social environments. verballinguistic intelligence * collaboration and verbal and nonverbal communication * dancer-teacher communication dancesport facilitates the development of passive and active vocabulary, thus contributing to the school success of performers. communication between partners throughout the training process and the practice of dance contribute to optimising groupwork skills. logicalmathematical intelligence * dance steps are performed in a logical sequence (crossed, added, collected, hop steps), in all directions of movement (forwards, backwards, to the leftright side, diagonally) * alternating high and low positions, steps performed with the heel raised and on the heel, with the knees stretched or bent * choreographies specific to dance styles where the steps are performed according to a count specific to each style, to the rhythm of music dance stimulates the development of thought processes, imagination and memory. dance develops the ability to focus. memorising the steps of various dance styles and the geometric movement paths contributes to the formation of calculation skills. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 179 musicalrhythmic intelligence * musical rhythm and association with its specific count * musical interpretation through body movements * noticing the secondary instruments in a melodic structure through dance-step specific accents * step synchronisation with the musical rhythm dance-specific motor structures contribute to the development of temporal orientation and organisation, with a direct effect on time budget management. the variety and complexity of musical rhythms in dancesport develop the musical sense. visual-spatial intelligence * development of spatial orientation * travelling in all directions by adjusting the stride length to the size of the dancefloor * careful visualisation of available space and anticipation of other people’s movements so as to avoid unintentional collision * travelling in the dancing direction (counter-clockwise), in the form of an imaginary circle dancesport has positive effects on the spatial orientation and organisation involved in the success of school activities. dancesport-specific travel in different directions contributes to developing a sense of space and autonomous movement in various environments. bodilykinaesthetic intelligence * expressing feelings though body movements * rhythmic interpretation through limb coordination * development of optimal muscle tone * harmonious physical development of the whole body * controlling all body segments and performing large body movements * balance control while performing technical elements dance contributes to forming and maintaining the correct body posture. rhythmic interpretation stimulates the development of nonverbal communication skills. body expressiveness developed through dance facilitates interpersonal communication. aesthetic (artistic) intelligence * educating the aesthetics of movement by learning the basic movements of classical ballet, which aim at the positions of arms, legs and torso. * expressing the specific character of a dance style can have theatrical valences in order to induce a feeling of wellbeing for both performers and spectators. * correction of physical impairments and improvement of posture by maintaining a straight, high position while dancing body control developed through dance contributes to improving the posture and aesthetic sense of institutionalised children. the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised … monica stănescu, gabriela tomescu 180 * educating body control so as to develop the dancer’s aesthetic sense and inclination towards beauty social intelligence * physical activity performed to music involves moving to several points of the workspace, which makes it possible to interact with several people. * creation of collective, team choreographies, which stimulates interpersonal collaboration and cooperation. * dancesport promotes fair play and stimulates the acceptance of people around and their support by performing individual dances in the middle of the group, being encouraged by colleagues. * synchronisation of pair movements or group choreographies pair or group dance training develops the social intelligence of institutionalised children, which is expressed through social ability, as well as the ability to interact and empathise. practicing dances from different cultures facilitates the inclusion of people from minority groups, disadvantaged categories or at risk. naturalistic intelligence * interpretation of sounds from nature (animals or natural phenomena) through dance movements * associating the movements of living bodies in nature with body elements performed to music dance contributes to harmonising the relationships of institutionalised children with the natural environment. source: original contribution to the research topic conclusion the theory of multiple intelligences (gardner, 1983) has opened new perspectives in the field of education sciences in general and particularly in the field of sport and physical education science by highlighting new directions to approach the teaching/learning process. applying this theory in the specific context of practicing physical exercise opens new horizons on the way in which teachers design and carry out their activities with different categories of subjects. the complexity of this sport generates positive effects on the entire body and develops all forms of intelligence through the integrated manner in which it specifically acts on them. the outcomes of participating in dancespecific activities create the prerequisites for obtaining physical, motor, cognitive and socio-emotional benefits. although the literature presents the beneficial effects of dance on performers, its use as a means of training in the activity carried out with brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 181 institutionalised children is reduced. however, the results of some studies encourage the use of dance as a therapeutic means, which creates favourable conditions for using it for this category of children who often show growth, developmental, behavioural and/or language disorders. consequently, dance activities in general and dancesport in particular represent the framework for exploiting highly valuable educational resources that specialists in our field are invited to explore in future studies. addressing multiple intelligences through dancesport in the case of institutionalised children is a novelty. whether we refer to latin dances, which express joy, exuberance but also deep feelings through fast, energetic or slow rhythms, or we turn our attention to standard dances where elegance, purity and innocence are prevailing, all styles aim at the expression of feelings and the execution of movements by highlighting the emotional substrate that everyone hides inside their own person. the specific relationships that are established between the content of dance and the multiple influences exerted on verballinguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, social, aesthetic, musical-rhythmic and naturalistic intelligences have been insufficiently studied, especially as regards institutionalised children. this creates perspectives for dance research and development as an educational method to be used in the training process designed for performers from disadvantaged groups. references becea, l. (2008). dezvoltarea tipurilor de inteligenţă prin mijloace ale educaţiei fizice şi spotului. gymnasium, 13, 248-253. http://gymnasium.ub.ro/images/arhive/2008-13.pdf brualdi, a. c. (1996). multiple intelligences: gardner’s theory. eric digest, 1-6. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed410226.pdf capello, p. p. (2008). dance/movement therapy with children throughout the world. american dance therapy association, 30, 24-36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10465-008-9045-z cuc, m. c., & macarie, s. (2012). contribution of socio-emotional development game to social integration of young children from disadvantaged backgrounds. acta didactica napocensia, 5(4), 59-64. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1054463.pdf dastgoshadeh, a., & jalilzadeh, k. (2011). multiple intelligences-based language curriculum for the third millennium. international proceedings of economics development & research, vol. 18 (pp. 57-62). iacsit press. http://www.ipedr.com/vol18/13-iceri2011-r10021.pdf http://gymnasium.ub.ro/images/arhive/2008-13.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed410226.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s10465-008-9045-z https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1054463.pdf http://www.ipedr.com/vol18/13-iceri2011-r10021.pdf the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised … monica stănescu, gabriela tomescu 182 daunhauer, l. a., coster, w. j., tickle-degnen, l., & cermak, s. a. (2007). effects of caregiver-child interactions on play occupations among young children institutionalized in eastern europe. the american journal of occupational therapy, 61(4). https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.61.4.429 ekici, s. (2011). multiple intelligence levels of physical education and sports school students. educational research and review, 6(21), 1018-1026. https://academicjournals.org/article/article1379844359_ekici.pdf faber, r. (2017). dance and early childhood cognition: the isadora effect. arts education policy review, 118(3), 172-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2016.1245166 floarea, m. e. (2016). noua orientare a sistemului de protecţie socială a copilului şi familiei din românia [new orientation of the social protection system for the child and family in romania]. revista de asistenţă socială, 15(4), 61-70. gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. basic books. goleman, d. (2007). inteligenţa emoţională [emotional intelligence]. curtea veche. haboush, a., floyd, m., caron, j., lasota, m., & alvarez, k. (2006). ballroom dance lessons for geriatric depression: an exploratory study. the arts in psychotherapy, 33(2), 89-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2005.10.001 habron, j. (2014). “through music and into music” – through music and into wellbeing: dalcroze eurhythmics as music therapy. the journal for transdisciplinary research in southern africa, 10(2), 90-110. https://doi.org/10.4102/td.v10i2.101 jakubowska, h., & byczkowska-owczarek, d. (2018). girls in football, boys in dance. stereotypization processes in socialization of young sportsmen and sportswomen. qualitative sociology review, 14(2), 12-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.14.2.02 karpati, f. j., giacosa, c., foster, n. e. v., penhune, v. b., & hyde, k. l. (2016). sensorimotor integration is enhanced in dancers and musicians. experimental brain research, 234(3), 893-903. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4524-1 korenjak, a. (2018). from moral treatment to modern music therapy: on the history of music therapy in vienna (c. 1820-1960). nordic journal of music therapy, 27(5), 341-359. https://doi.org/10.1080/08098131.2018.1467481 kourkouta, l., rarra, a., mavroeidi, a., & prodromidis, k. (2014). the contribution of dance on children’s health. progress in health sciences, 4(1), 229-232. lantieri, l. (2017). dezvoltarea inteligenţei emoţionale a copiilor [development of emotional intelligence in children]. curtea veche. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.61.4.429 https://academicjournals.org/article/article1379844359_ekici.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2016.1245166 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2005.10.001 https://doi.org/10.4102/td.v10i2.101 http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.14.2.02 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4524-1 https://doi.org/10.1080/08098131.2018.1467481 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 183 lăcătuşu, i. (2004). aspecte ale problematicii abandonului şi a copilului instituţionalizat în judeţul covasna [aspects of the issue related to abandonment and the institutionalised child in covasna county]. angvstia, 8, 309-327. lozovina, m., banacin, d., & lozovina, v. (2012). emotional intelligence and determination of sociometric status in sport. sport science, 5(2), 66-74. https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20133249995 macovei, s. (2007). antrenamentul în gimnastica ritmică [training in rhythmic gymnastics]. bren. morgan, h. (2014). maximizing student success with differentiated learning. the clearing house: a journal of educational strategies, issues and ideas, 87(1), 24-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/00098655.2013.832130 murcia, c. q., kreutz, g., clift, s., & bongard, s. (2010). shall we dance? an exploration of the perceived benefits of dancing on well-being. arts & health, 2(2), 149-163. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533010903488582 muris, p., & maas, a. (2004). strengths and difficulties as correlates of attachment style in institutionalized and non-institutionalized children with belowaverage intellectual abilities. child psychiatry and human development, 34(4), 317-328. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:chud.0000020682.55697.4f nacakci, z. (2009, may 23-24). multiple intelligence application in elementary music lessons [conference presentation abstract]. 1st international living theorists conference – howard garden, burdur, turkey mehmet akif ersoy university. https://www.academia.edu/8487340/multiple_intelligence_applications_i n_elementary_music_education nelson, c. a., fox, n. a., & zeanah, c. h. (2014). romania’s abandoned children: deprivation, brain development, and the struggle for recovery. harvard university press. popa, c., sava, f. a., & david, d. (2018). psihoterapiile cognitive şi comportamentale în tulburările de personalitate. aplicaţii practice şi noi direcţii [cognitive and behavioural psychotherapies in personality disorders. practical applications and new directions]. trei. praditsang, m., hanafi, z., & walters, t. (2015). the relationship among emotional intelligence, social intelligence and learning behaviour. asian social science, 11(13), 98-107. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v11n13p98 preda, a. m., & iacob, l. m. (2014). influenţa practicării dansului sportiv asupra memoriei, comprehensiunii verbale şi inteligenţei sociale [the influence of practicing dancesport on memory, verbal comprehension and social intelligence]. revista de psihologie, 60(1), 38-47. predoiu, r. (2016). psihologia sportului. maximizarea performanţei sportive [sports psychology. maximising sports performance]. polirom. https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20133249995 https://doi.org/10.1080/00098655.2013.832130 https://doi.org/10.1080/17533010903488582 https://doi.org/10.1023/b:chud.0000020682.55697.4f https://www.academia.edu/8487340/multiple_intelligence_applications_in_elementary_music_education https://www.academia.edu/8487340/multiple_intelligence_applications_in_elementary_music_education https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v11n13p98 the relationship between dance and multiple intelligences of institutionalised … monica stănescu, gabriela tomescu 184 raglio, a., traficante, d., & oasi, o. (2011). the evaluation of music therapy process in the intersubjective perspective: the music therapy rating scale. a pilot-study. pragmatic and observational research, 2, 19-23. https://dx.doi.org/10.2147%2fpor.s21891 roco, m. (2004). creativitate şi inteligenţă emoţională [creativity and emotional intelligence]. polirom. root-bernstein, m., & root-bernstein, r. (2003). martha graham, dance, and the polymathic imagination: a case for multiple intelligences or universal thinking tools? journal of dance education, 3(1), 16-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2003.10387225 ruppert, f. (2012). traumă, ataşament, constelaţii familiale. psihoterapia traumei [trauma, attachment, familial constellations. trauma psychotherapy]. trei. schneider, c. e. (2018). music training as a neuro-cognitive protector for brain aging: cognitive and neuropsychological profiles in professional musicians [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. university of kentucky. https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2018.172 schutte, n. s. (2014). social environment contexts of trait emotional intelligence. journal of human behavior in the social environment, 24(7), 741-750. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2013.866065 skourdi, s., & rahimi, a. (2010). the relationship of emotional intelligence and linguistic intelligence in acquiring vocabulary. california linguistic notes, 35(1), 1-24. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a53b/8047be6cd20c4a40618eefa5b4b9a 8b4ab64.pdf?_ga=2.38935267.175382537.15928899371720258790.1588164446 the bucharest early intervention project (beip). (2000). nih u. s. national library of medicine. clinicaltrials.gov. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/nct00747396 tutunaru, r. e. (2018). incluziunea şcolară şi incluziunea socială a copiilor cu cerinţe educaţionale speciale. contribuţii ale cadrelor didactice itinerante [school inclusion and social inclusion of children special educational needs. contributions of itinerant teachers]. revista de asistenţă socială, 17(1), 133144. zarobe, l., & bungay, h. (2017). the role of arts activities in developing resilience and mental wellbeing in children and young people: a rapid review of the literature. perspectives in public health, 137(6), 337-347. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1757913917712283 https://dx.doi.org/10.2147%2fpor.s21891 https://doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2003.10387225 https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2018.172 https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2013.866065 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a53b/8047be6cd20c4a40618eefa5b4b9a8b4ab64.pdf?_ga=2.38935267.175382537.1592889937-1720258790.1588164446 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a53b/8047be6cd20c4a40618eefa5b4b9a8b4ab64.pdf?_ga=2.38935267.175382537.1592889937-1720258790.1588164446 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a53b/8047be6cd20c4a40618eefa5b4b9a8b4ab64.pdf?_ga=2.38935267.175382537.1592889937-1720258790.1588164446 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/nct00747396 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1757913917712283 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 22-36 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/300 submitted: november 25th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 13th, 2022 innovative technologies in physical education: neuropsychological aspect oksana adamenko¹, оlha shevchenko2, sergii babiuk3, andrey osiptsov4, anastasiia melnik5, liliia sikorska6 1 admiral makarov national university of shipbuilding, ukraine, adamenkooksana76@gmail.com 2 volodymyr vynnychenko central ukrainian state pedagogical university, ukraine, gimnast.olga@gmail.com 3 kamianets-podіlskyi ivan ohiienko national university, ukraine, tanja17@email.ua 4 mariupol state university, ukraine, a.osiptsov@mdu.in.ua 5 volodymyr vynnychenko central ukrainian state pedagogical university, ukraine, nastenkamelnik89@gmail.com 6 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, lilukubik@gmail.com abstract: the article scrutinises the issue of application of innovative technologies in physical education from the neuropsychological perspective. it has been found that physical education is inseparable from neuropsychology. the content of the concepts: “physical education”, “innovation”, “innovative activity”, “technologies”, “pedagogical innovations”, “neuropsychology” is studied. it is emphasized that innovative educational activity is supported by regulatory documents. it is emphasized that physical education affects not only the motor activity of individuals, but also personal spiritual and social development. it has been investigated that the contemporary innovative technologies are focused on improving the educational process, the use of new teaching methods for creative, active cooperation between the teacher and the student. the essence of cooperative, problematic, practice-oriented learning, active teaching methods is highlighted. the focus is made on constructivism. it has been studied that speech is an indicator of the activity of different regions of the brain. the use of aerobic exercises as a tool to improve plasticity and function of the hippocampus is considered. running has been shown to help think clearly, make correct and informed decisions. the essence of autogenic training is considered. the benefits of kinesiological exercises for mental and physical health have been studied. attention is paid to strengthening and maintaining the health of children with special needs. it has been found that development of information and communication technologies has contributed to the emergence of modern mobile applications that increase students’ motivation to care for their health, improve functionality and mobility, help monitor their health. the benefits of exercises that are modelledin virtual reality have been studied, inasmuch as they optimize motor skills, involve motivational, cognitive, sensory processes in dynamic activities. keywords: physical education, innovation, innovative activity, technologies, pedagogical innovations, neuropsychology, kinesiological exercises, autogenic training. how to cite: adamenko, o., shevchenko, o., babıuk, s., osıptsov, a., melnık, a., & sıkorska, l. (2022). innovative technologies in physical education: neuropsychological aspect. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 22-36. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/300 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/300 mailto:adamenkooksana76@gmail.com mailto:gimnast.olga@gmail.com mailto:tanja17@email.ua mailto:a.osiptsov@mdu.in.ua mailto:nastenkamelnik89@gmail.com mailto:lilukubik@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/300 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 23 introduction ongoing reforms in education in ukraine contribute to new changes in the educational process in educational institutions (khatsaiuk et al., 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020a; nikolaienko et al., 2021; ovcharuk et al., 2021). teachers, in order to satisfy the level of education of the contemporary students, to motivate them to study, have to work in a new way: to use innovative teaching technologies that are effective (komogorova et al., 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020b; palamarchuk et al., 2020). in addition, physical education is inseparable from neuropsychology, which studies functioning of higher mental processes, as well as suggests ways to improve brain function (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). to begin with, let’s establish meanings of the necessary terms: “physical education”, “innovation”, “innovation activity”, “technology”, “pedagogical innovation”, “neuropsychology”. according to the glossary of terms from the theory of physical education by vykhliaiev (2018) we learn that “physical education is an educational process that is aimed at systematic physical exercise by people in order to develop physical fitness and health; the subject (course module) is aimed at mastering knowledge, skills and abilities to manage physical development of individuals by various types of motor activity”. according to dubaseniuk (2014), “innovation is the ability to influence the overall level of professional activity of teachers, to improve the educational environment with contemporary effective forms of work”. according to moskalenko (2015) “innovation activity is a complex process that involves formation of a flexible system of scientific support, takes into account the logic and specifics of the peculiarities of perception, evaluation, mutual adaptation of system elements”. according to the dictionary of foreign words by lukianiuk (20012021) we find out that “technology is 1) a set of knowledge, information about the systematic work of production operations in the process of manufacturing something; 2) a set of methods of processing and recycling of materials, manufacturing products”. the essence of innovation activity was considered by ohiienko (2015), who found that the term “pedagogical innovation” became widespread in the 80s of the xx century. innovative orientation encourages teachers to be creative, to express themselves. in addition, pedagogical innovation must have innovative potential, i.e., tuned to an effective result. thus, according to ohiienko (2015), “a pedagogical innovation is a novelty innovative technologies in physical education: neuropsychological aspect oksana adamenko, et al. 24 in pedagogical activities to increase the efficiency of the educational process”. incidentally, innovative educational activities are supported by regulatory documents. in particular, the ministry of education and science of ukraine adopted amendments to the regulation on the procedure for carrying out innovative educational activities (hrynevych, 2017). physical education undeniably affects not only the motor activity of an individual, but also personal, spiritual and social development. so, presently, maintaining good health is a very important task for contemporary teachers of educational institutions. therefore, there is a need to develop innovative technologies based on neuropsychological knowledge to organize a systematic approach in physical education. in his study shevtsov (2015) noted that “neuropsychology is a psychological science that studies regularities of psychomotor, cognitive and emotional development of the child.” thus, neuropsychology is a science that studies organization of higher mental functions. luria (2018) is considered to be the founder of this area. objective: to identify innovative technologies related to the methods and forms of neuropsychology for effective physical education. methods of work analysis of scientific and methodical literature, system analysis. application of innovative technologies for physical education of students of higher educational institutions application of innovative technologies for physical education of students was covered by vykhliaiev (2018). the author emphasizes that contemporary innovative technologies are focused on improving the educational process, the use of new teaching methods and creative, active cooperation between the teacher and the student. educational institutions, in particular higher education institutions, actually choose themselves methods and technologies (moskalenko et al., 2014) for teaching aimed at quality education. therefore, the main task of physical education of students in higher education institutions is aimed at the personal orientation of the concept of higher education with the option of an alternative approach of students to the choice of their education. it is worth notingthe article by chang (2020), which emphasizes that the old concept of learning, the usual boring repetition of educational material should be changed to an innovative approach to teaching physical brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 25 education, in particular, to pay attention to the development of students’ psychological state to satisfy contemporary youth. in addition, the author emphasizes that it is necessary not only to promote, but also to understand that it can contribute to achievement of excellent health in people. among innovative technologies, the author singles out cooperative learning, which is aimed at team work of students, when they exchange ideas, gain new knowledge and this contributes to development of cognitive, emotional and social processes. however, it is necessary to pay attention to a special aspect –the psychological one, i.e., fostering of social adaptability, so that the student could havegood mental health. he also emphasizes constructivism as a new epistemology and the theory of teaching. so, constructivism means acknowledging things and gaining experience through a variety of cognitive exercises that involve psychological knowledge. thus, physical education contributes to psychological health of students, because physical activity has a positive effect on psychology. with the help of visualization, interesting plot-driven stories, students get involved in active participation during learning and feel joy, satisfaction from successful learning. therefore, nowadays teachers should teach physical culture in accordance with the current requirements of social development, selecting innovative technologies, interesting methods and forms of work, using the internet and multimedia technologies in teaching. such teaching can motivate students, stimulate their enthusiasm for learning, eliminate psychological fear, stress, improve the child’s condition and mood. barun et al. (2021) states that students of polotsk state university study the theoretical foundations of physical education and sports, physical therapy and massage, physical rehabilitation. the author emphasizes that the higher education in the 21st century is designed to teach students so that after graduation from a higher educational institution they could be competitive, professionals in their field, able to think critically. to implement active methods, barun et al. (2021) offers teachers to use learning cards, flowcharts, didactic games when teaching their subjects. obviously, in order to introduce innovative technologies, teachers should take into account the needs of students in order to form necessary competencies in them. the article emphasizes the benefits of active teaching methods that promote active thinking, stimulate cognitive processes, creative activity of students. the project method, according to the author, helps to establish a connection between the acquired knowledge and skills. this method is quite effective for acquisition of new knowledge by students: they independently innovative technologies in physical education: neuropsychological aspect oksana adamenko, et al. 26 find the necessary information, select, process, analyse, and finally present their findings in micro groups. due to the quarantine restrictions associated with covid-19, the use of ict (information and communication technologies) is among the current technologies, as they help to continuously keep going the educational process. microsoft teams and google classroom platforms help apply problem-based learning technology. according to the results of the survey, students are satisfied with online learning, because it provides a constant access to educational materials, the ability to pose questions to the teacher at any time, hyperlinks to references, etc. for students majoring in “physical culture” practice-oriented learning is important, which is organized by summer schools and in cooperation with branches of the department, in particular with the centre for correctional and developmental training and rehabilitation and joint activities for children with disabilities. the summer school provides excellent experience for students in working with people of all ages, improving sports skills, volunteering experience, etc. in order to develop professional skills, students work with children with special needs. therefore, students communicate with such children, gain experience in inclusive education. development of physical education through the use of current methods of neuropsychology the issue of neuropsychological principles for speech activation insenior preschool children during motor actions was studied by panhielova & krutsevych (2019). the authors emphasized that neurophysiologists and psychophysiologists believe that speech is an indicator of activity of different areas of the brain, therefore it is directly related to muscle motility, hand movements. it is known that the speech function simultaneously involves 4 analysers: kinaesthetic, auditory, motor and visual. therefore, physical development certainly plays an important role in the child formation. it is motor activity that contributes to formation of intellectual abilities of moral, physical and mental qualities. for development of a preschool child the leading method in physical education is the game. performing movements (running, walking, crawling) are extremely important for a child. if a child lacks motor activity, theyare listless and this can be observed bytheir negative neuropsychological state. afferent impulses from proprioceptors, which appear due to contractions of skeletal muscles, have a significant effect on the development of higher nervous activity. for example, the voice reactions of young children develop due to motor activity. therefore, brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 27 children’s physical activity has an integral influence on the development of coherent speech and communication. the use of aerobic exercise as a tool to improve plasticity and function of the hippocampus in individuals, practical implications for treatment of mental health are highlighted in the article by kandola et al. (2016). aerobic exercise improves hippocampal function and improves development of cognitive processes in various mental disorders. it is commonly known that running has a positive effect on clarity of thinking and aerobic activity, because it helps to think clearly, make correct and balanced decisions, get rid of self-pity. running improves the flow of oxygen, resulting in generation of new neurons, which play a special role in remembering and perceiving information. after a successful run, a person feels fresh, because running helps to clear the mind, feel confident, due to formation of new neurons. and aerobic training contributes the most to this, because new cells are formed in the hippocampus the region of the brain that is responsible for memory and cognitive processes. furthermore, running has a great effect on the frontal cortex, because it is involved in planning, concentration, goal setting, i.e.,“pure” thinking. moreover, this area is responsible for a person’s emotional state, i.e., running refreshes the memory of emotions. thus, running is relevant for contemporarypeople, because physical exercise develops and improves strength of many muscle groups, speed, endurance, efficiency, willpower. in their article li et al. (2014) consider the effect of aerobic exercise on human cognitive functions. the authors claim that intense aerobic exercise increases activity of the cerebral cortex, improves distribution of physical resources, because it provides the necessary neural level. kurdybakha (2014) highlights the impact of autogenic training on mental processes. she draws attention to autogenic training as a method of psychological relief, relief of psychological stress, treatment and prevention of various functional disorders in the body. in order to master this technique, it is necessary to master certain physical and mental skills. exercises should be performed systematically for 2-3 weeks, moreover, each type should be learned consistently. corrective and developmental programs are built on moving activity, so hemispheric interaction occurs only when the right and left hemispheres are fully active. kinesiology is one of the contemporary innovative health technologies. this science is engaged in development of exercises aimed at formation of physical and psychophysical qualities. kinesiological exercises innovative technologies in physical education: neuropsychological aspect oksana adamenko, et al. 28 develop the physical condition of the body, increase stress resistance, improve mental activity, improve memory, imagination, attention, visual and motor coordination. in addition, they develop hemispheric connections, synchronize the work of the hemispheres of the brain. kinesiological exercises are divided into physical movements, breathing exercises, brain gymnastics, massage, etc. certain aspects of kinesiology as a means of speech development and intellectual abilities of children with special educational needs are covered by lichman (2018). the author states that more and more children appear in educational institutions, who have difficulties in learning, in adaptation, with speech disorders. kinesiological correction should be used to improve their physical health, overcome speech disorders, and strengthen their mental health. for children with special needs, knowledge of this science helps to develop cognitive activity, develop verbal and logical thinking, master analysis and synthesis, comparison and analysis, develop hand motor skills and improve coordination of movements. luriia (2018) argued that both hemispheres of the brain can develop well due to constant kinesiological exercises. such “brain gymnastics” develops hemispheric interaction, synchronizes the work of the hemispheres, develops fine motor skills, abilities, thinking, memory, attention, speech. neuropsychological technique of dennison & dennison (1995), or exercises developed for “brain gymnastics” effectively improve condition of children. they master the movements of two-handed coordination, oculomotor reactions, skills of successful learning to write, read, regulation of behaviour and emotions. kinesiological exercises, i.e., neurogymnastics, help to relieve muscle tension. age kinesiology studies features of motor activity, gender features, regularities of mental development of people of different ages, features of health monitoring, adaptation to physical activity. dyachenko’s work (2021) is devoted to the study of the use of fitness applications as a means of increasing students’ motivation for regular physical activity. the author emphasizes that with the help of fitness applications that are installed on mobile phones, one can increase physical activity of students and use it as an incentive for independent work. mobile fitness applications help students adhere to a training regimen and turn fitness classes into a game with a competitive element. thus, mobile applications increase the interest in independent physical exercises, form the brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 29 ability to control physical activity, increase motivation to take care of one’s health, form the creative use of digital tools and technologies. noteworthy is the article by winstein & requejo (2015), which emphasizes the fact that in an era of rapid technology development, physiotherapists and engineers, concerned with people’s physical health, are developing new technologies to improve the rehabilitation of patients so that they can monitor state of their health. for rehabilitation scientists have invented “computer brain research”, sensors, and interactive media applications. these new technologies reduce disability, increase functionality and mobility, as well as the quality of life of people with special needs. the use of new technologies for neuropsychological rehabilitation is explored by fichman et al. (2014). the authors claims that new technologies are emerging in neuropsychology, which are related to computerized versions, cognitive modelling, artificial intelligence, etc. in the field of neuropsychology, computer tests are widespread, which are more commonly used for the physical condition of adults or the elderly. new technologies for physical rehabilitation include electronic devices, mobile phones, tablets, video games, virtual reality, neurofeedback, and transcranial dc stimulation. it is worth noting the publication of levin et al. (2015), which covers the emergence of virtual reality as a tool for rehabilitation of the upper extremities. the author draws attention to people who suffer from loss of upper extremities due to acquired brain injury. exercises modelledin virtual reality can optimize motor skills by involving motivational, cognitive, motor and sensory processes in activities. the article considers the principles of motor activity, gives recommendations for their use in the learning environment of virtual reality, as well as proves the results of restoration of the upper extremities. horak et al. (2015) explore the role of body-worn motion monitor technology in restoring balance and gait. the author highlights the potential of monitors worn on the body. in the field of wireless sensor technology, scientists have invented portable sensors that can correctly assess body movement. it is important for physicians to obtain accurate readings for malfunctions in order to prescribe therapy correctly. then treatment can be aimed at specific physiological disorders of walking or other activities. baran et al. (2015) emphasize the interdisciplinary concepts of designing and implementing interactive mixed reality neurorehabilitation systems forcerebral apoplexy. the author proposes a systematic approach to the design of scalable neurorehabilitation systems in order to have results of innovative technologies in physical education: neuropsychological aspect oksana adamenko, et al. 30 a successful study that may be necessary for prescription of exercises in physical therapy. dicianno et al. (2015) emphasize the perspective of the evolution of mobile (mhealth) technologies and their applications. the term “mhealth” means the use of mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets, smartphones, computers. incidentally, about half of american adults are diagnosed with one chronic disease. so most often, people who feel sick use voice and text messages. it turns out that text messages have a positive effect on self-management and the outcomes of diabetics, asthmatics and hypertonic patients. in addition, applications help patients find the necessary medical information, monitor their health. the author classifies 6 functional programs and systems for health and wellness: 1) lifestyle applications (weight loss, exercise programs, diet). people can download the application to their smartphone and use it; 2) applications for patients (information from rehabilitation manuals, medical encyclopaedias, drug directories); 3) applications for doctors; 4) disease management systems; 5) traditional telemedicine systems; 6) mhealth systems. furthermore, smartphones are the main gadget for mhealth. different models of wireless sensors, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and force sensors can demonstrate physical activity, pace, movement. therefore, analysing the above information, it can be stated that physical development of a pre-schooler depends on physical activity. a game forms intellectual, moral, physical and psychological qualities. also, the benefits of aerobic exercise, running are noted, which have a great effect on the brain. in order to relieve psychological stress, for disease prevention autogenic training is worth practicing. one of the health-keeping technologies is kinesiology, the exercises of which improve physical health, strengthen mental health and overcome speech disorders. the development of information and communication technologies has contributed to the invention of contemporary gadgets, computers, tablets, which can be used to install mobile applications, sensors, download exercises for virtual activities that can determine the pace, activity of movements, physical activity, etc. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 31 conclusion thus, the article highlights the use of innovative technologies in physical education in terms of neuropsychology. physical education has been shown inseparable from neuropsychology. also, the meanings of the concepts “physical education”, “innovation”, “innovation activity”, “technologies”, “pedagogical innovations”, “neuropsychology” was studied. it turns out that innovative educational activityis supported by regulatory documents. obviously, physical education affects not only the motor activity of people, but also personal spiritual and social development. physical activity for a person is an extremely important occupation that requires competent professionals. to this end, university teachers use contemporary innovative technologies aimed at improving the educational process, use new teaching methods aimed at creative, active cooperation between the teacher and the student. the study highlights the essence of cooperative, problem-based, practice-oriented learning, active learning methods. the focus is made on constructivism. moreover, speech is an indicator of the activity of different regions of the brain. the use of aerobic exercises as a tool to improve the plasticity and function of the hippocampus is considered. running has been found to help think clearly, make the right and informed decisions. the essence of autogenic training is considered. the benefits of kinesiological exercises for mental and physical health have been studied and attention has been paid to strengthening and maintaining the health of children with special needs. a novelty in the work was considered information and communication technologies that have contributed to the emergence of contemporary mobile applications that increase students’ motivation for maintaining their health, improve functionality and mobility, help monitor their health. the benefits of exercises that are modelledin virtual reality have been studied, because they optimize motor skills, involve motivational, cognitive, sensory processes in dynamic activities. thus, the article highlights the use of innovative technologies in physical education in terms of neuropsychology. physical education has been shown inseparable from neuropsychology. also, the meanings of the concepts “physical education”, “innovation”, “innovation activity”, “technologies”, “pedagogical innovative technologies in physical education: neuropsychological aspect oksana adamenko, et al. 32 innovations”, “neuropsychology” was studied. it turns out that innovative educational activityis supported by regulatory documents. obviously, physical education affects not only the motor activity of people, but also personal spiritual and social development. physical activity for a person is an extremely important occupation that requires competent professionals. to this end, university teachers use contemporary innovative technologies aimed at improving the educational process, use new teaching methods aimed at creative, active cooperation between the teacher and the student. the study highlights the essence of cooperative, problem-based, practice-oriented learning, active learning methods. the focus is made on constructivism. moreover, speech is an indicator of the activity of different regions of the brain. the use of aerobic exercises as a tool to improve the plasticity and function of the hippocampus is considered. running has been found to help think clearly, make the right and informed decisions. the essence of autogenic training is considered. the benefits of kinesiological exercises for mental and physical health have been studied and attention has been paid to strengthening and maintaining the health of children with special needs. a novelty in the work was considered information and communication technologies that have contributed to the emergence of contemporary mobile applications that increase students’ motivation for maintaining their health, improve functionality and mobility, help monitor their health. the benefits of exercises that are modelledin virtual reality have been studied, because they optimize motor skills, involve motivational, cognitive, sensory processes in dynamic activities. references baran, m., lehrer, n., duff, m., venkataraman, v., turaga, p., ingalls, t., rymer, w. z., wolf, s. l., & rikakis, t. (2015). interdisciplinary concepts for design and implementation of mixed reality interactive neurorehabilitation systems for stroke. physical therapy, 95(3), 449–460. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20130581 barun, a., hryshanava, n., vashchanka, s., dauhiala, n., & andryewskaja, s. (2021). the use of new pedagogical practices and modern technologies to increase the competence level of i and ii stage students of the specialty “physical training” of polotsk state university. bio web of conferences, 29, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1051/bioconf/20212901017 chang, l. (2020). innovation of the teaching mode for physical education of college students based on psychological analysis and constructivism. revista https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20130581 https://doi.org/10.1051/bioconf/20212901017 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 33 argentina de clínica psicológica, 29(2), 1312–1323. https://www.revistaclinicapsicologica.com/pdf_files/trabajos/vol_29/nu m_2/racp_29_2_1312_4tdjz3h1l2.pdf demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dennison, p. i., & dennison, g. i. (1995). brain gym. edu-kinesthetics, incorporated. diachenko, a. a., & antoniuk, a. e. (2021). vykorystannia fitnes-dodatkiv, yak zasib pidvyshchennia motyvatsii studentiv do rehuliarnoi rukhovoi aktyvnosti. suchasni tekhnolohii v haluzi fizychnoho vykhovannia, sportu, fizychnoi terapii ta erhoterapii [using fitness applications as a means of increasing students' motivation for regular physical activity. modern technologies in the field of physical education, sports, physical therapy and erchotherapy]. national academy of the national guard of ukraine, 14–16. https://nangu.edu.ua/uploads/files/documenty/naukova%20diyalnist/na ukovu%20forumy/2021/konf_2021_zbirnyk%20kaffp.pdf dicianno, b., parmanto, b., fairman, a., & crytzer, t. (2015). perspectives on the evolution of mobile (mhealth) technologies and application to rehabilitation. physical therapy & rehabilitation journal, 95(3), 397–405. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20130534 dubaseniuk, o. a. (2014). innovatsii v suchasnii osviti. innovatsii v osviti: intehratsiia nauky i praktyky: zbirnyk naukovo-metodychnykh prats [innovations in modern education. innovations in education: the integration of science and practice: a collection of scientific and methodological works]. zhytomyr ivan franko state university. fichman, h., uehara, e., & fernandes, c. (2014). new technologies in assessment and neuropsychological rehabilitation. temas em psicologia, 22(3), 539–553. https://doi.org/10.9788/tp2014.3-01 horak, f., king l., & mancini, m. (2015). role of body-worn movement monitor technology for balance and gait rehabilitation. physical therapy, 95(3), 461– 470. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20140253 hrynevych, l. m. (2017). pro vnesennia zmin do polozhennia pro poriadok zdiisnennia innovatsiinoi osvitnoi diialnosti [on amendments to the regulations on the procedure for carrying out innovative educational activities]. mes of ukraine. kandola, a., hendrikse, j., lucassen, p., & yücel, m. (2016). aerobic exercise as a tool to improve hippocampal plasticity and function in humans: https://www.revistaclinicapsicologica.com/pdf_files/trabajos/vol_29/num_2/racp_29_2_1312_4tdjz3h1l2.pdf https://www.revistaclinicapsicologica.com/pdf_files/trabajos/vol_29/num_2/racp_29_2_1312_4tdjz3h1l2.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://nangu.edu.ua/uploads/files/documenty/naukova%20diyalnist/naukovu%20forumy/2021/konf_2021_zbirnyk%20kaffp.pdf https://nangu.edu.ua/uploads/files/documenty/naukova%20diyalnist/naukovu%20forumy/2021/konf_2021_zbirnyk%20kaffp.pdf https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20130534 https://doi.org/10.9788/tp2014.3-01 https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20140253 innovative technologies in physical education: neuropsychological aspect oksana adamenko, et al. 34 practical implications for mental health treatment. frontiers in human neuroscience, 29(10), 373. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00373 khatsaiuk, o., medvid, m., maksymchuk, b., kurok, o., dziuba, p., tyurina, v., chervonyi, p., yevdokimova, o., levko, m., demchenko, i., maliar, n., maliar, e., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). preparing future officers for performing assigned tasks through special physical training. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(2), 457-475. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.2/431 komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168 187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kurdybakha, o. m. (2016). vplyv autohennoho trenuvannia na psykhichni protsesy [influence of autogenic training on mental processes]. neurorehabilitation city center. levin, m. f., weiss, p. l., & keshner, e. a. (2015). emergence of virtual reality as a tool for upper limb rehabilitation: incorporation of motor control and motor learning principles. physical therapy, 95(3), 415–425. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20130579 li, l., men, w. w., chang, y. k., fan, m. x., ji, l., & wei, g. x. (2014). acute aerobic exercise increases cortical activity during working memory: a functional mri study in female college students. plos one, 9(6), e99222. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099222 lichman, n. m. (2018). kineziolohiia yak zasib rozvytku movlennia ta intelektualnykh zdibnostei ditei z osoblyvymy osvitnimy potrebamy [kinesiology as a means of developing speech and intellectual abilities of children with special educational needs]. logoped, 6(90). lukianiuk, v. (2001-2021). psykholohiia [psychology]. slovnyk inshomovnykh sliv. luriia, a. r. (2018). lobovi chastky i rehuliatsiia psykhichnykh protsesiv: neiropsykholohichni doslidzhennia [frontal lobes and regulation of mental processes: neuropsychological studies]. moscow university press. maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00373 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.2/431 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20130579 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099222 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 35 solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 moskalenko, n. (2015). innovatsiina diialnist u fizychnomu vykhovanni zahalnoosvitnikh navchalnykh zakladiv [innovative activity in physical education of secondary schools]. fizychne vykhovannia, sport i kultura zdorovia u suchasnomu suspilstvi [physical education, sports and health culture in modern society], 4, 35–38. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229325143.pdf moskalenko, n. v., vlasiuk, o. o., stepanova, i. v., & shyian, o. v. (2014). innovatsiini tekhnolohii u fizychnomu vykhovanni shkoliariv [innovative technologies in physical education of schoolchildren]. innovatsiia. nikolaienko, v., maksymchuk, b., donets, i., oksom, p., verbyn, n., shemchuk, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). cycles of training sessions and competitions of youth football players. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(2), 423-441. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.2/429 ohiienko, o. i. (2015). innovatsiini pedahohichni tekhnolohii [innovative pedagogical technologies]. kyiv. ovcharuk, v., maksymchuk, b., ovcharuk, v., khomenko, o., khomenko, s., yevtushenko, y., rybalko, p., pustovit, h., myronenko, n., syvokhop, y., sheian, m., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). forming competency in health promotion in technical specialists using physical education. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(3), 01 09. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 panhielova, n., & krutsevych, t. (2019). neiropsykholohichni pryntsypy aktyvizatsii movlennia ditei starshoho doshkilnoho viku v kursi rukhovykh dii [neuropsychological principles of speech activation of older preschool children in the course of motor actions]. psycholinguistics, 25(1), 232–255. https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2019-25-1-232-255 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229325143.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.2/429 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2019-25-1-232-255 innovative technologies in physical education: neuropsychological aspect oksana adamenko, et al. 36 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 shevtsov, a. h., & ilina, o. v. (2015). neiropsykholohichnyi pidkhid u korektsii rozvytku ditei z psykhofizychnymy porushenniamy [neuropsychological approach in the correction of the development of children with psychophysical disorders]. aktualni problemy korektsiinoi osvity [current issues of correctional education], 5, 347–360. https://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/231/210.pdf/ vykhliaiev, yu. m. (2018). innovatsiini tekhnolohii fizychnoho vykhovannia studentiv [innovative technologies of physical education of students]. igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute. winstein, c., & requejo, p. (2015). innovative technologies for rehabilitation and health promotion: what is the evidence? physical therapy, 95(3), 294–298. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.2015.95.2.294 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/231/210.pdf/ https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.2015.95.2.294 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 3, pages: 136-146 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/114 effects of endurance workouts on thyroid hormone metabolism and biochemical markers in athletes ramazan erdoğan¹ 1 phd, bitlis eren university school of physical education and sport, bitlis, turkey, ramaznerdogan@hotmail.com abstract: objective: exercises can create differences in the organism by affecting the hormonal system and hemostasis. evaluation of hormonal changes along with physical activity, many factors such as physical and physiological state of athletes, environmental factors and nutritional status are effective and affect the performance. in this study, as a result of endurance workouts, chronic changes in athletes' thyroid hormone metabolism and biochemical markers were evaluated. method: 16 male athletes formed the research group. the athletes participating in the study received endurance training for 60 minutes a day, three days a week for 12 weeks. blood samples were taken from the athletes before the session and after the session. the levels of thyroid hormones, iron, iron binding capacity, uibc, erythrocyte, leukocyte and platelet were determined in blood samples. data were considered by using spss statistical package software. findings: a significant difference was observed in athletes' thyroid hormone values as a result of the training sessions: thyroid stimulating hormone (tsh), thyroxine (t4) and triiodothyronine (t3) levels were detected to be statistically different in pre-post test (p <0,05). as a result of the applied workouts changes were observed in the erythrocyte, leukocyte and platelet values of the athletes, and a significant difference was seen in general (p <0,05). results: applied regular and long-term endurance training created differences in athletes' thyroid hormone metabolism and biochemical markers. it is thought that these findings will positively affect the fight against the stress experienced by athletes during their competitions and increase their performance. keywords: exercise; thyroid hormones; biochemistry; sportsman. how to cite: erdoğan, r. (2020). effects of endurance workouts on thyroid hormone metabolism and biochemical markers in athletes brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 136-146. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/114 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/114 mailto:ramaznerdogan@hotmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/114 effects of endurance workouts on thyroid hormone metabolism… ramazan erdoğan 137 1. introduction regular exercise is known to positively affect general health, cardiovascular functions and metabolic systems. overall studies show that regular and aerobic training positively affects the organism. however, anaerobic and intense exercises that cause physiological changes in the organism can cause oxidative stress (friedenreich et al., 2015; zhang et al., 2016). oxidative stress caused by exercise causes many cardiovascular and metabolic problems (cheserek et al., 2016). oxidative stress resulting from exercises affects the hormonal system in addition to metabolic functions in the organism. hormones are important markers for monitoring the changes in the organism. thyroid hormones (th), by controlling the expression of tr target genes, play a significant role in basal metabolism and hemostasis as well as being effective in metabolic processes necessary for growth and development through thyroid hormone receptors (trs) (mullur et al., 2014). it is known that thyroid hormones have an active role in many metabolic events besides lipid and glucose metabolism. with the effect of thyroid hormones on lipid metabolism, it can lower cholesterol levels in the organism and helps in the regulation of endocrine disorders, preventing cardiovascular disorders by providing improvement in lipid profile (chi et al., 2013; dillmann, 2010; mask and barnwal, 2016; mwafy et al., 2018; pascual and aranda, 2013; song et al., 2011; teixeira et al., 2017; yehudashnaidman et al., 2013). it is known that thyroid hormone metabolism is affected with the exercises, and when the structural and functional properties of the thyroid are taken into consideration, it has been revealed that it is associated with rare elements (calcium, magnesium, sodium, chromium, cobalt, iodine, iron, selenium, manganese, zinc). not only especially the effect of zinc, one of the rare elements, on the thyroid metabolism is known but also iron element creates differences in thyroid metabolism, too (soria et al., 2016). iron is essential for the continuity of all living organisms. this micronutrient element plays an active role in the structure and functions of enzymes, which are vital in the energy metabolism of cells, in the proliferation of cells, in transporting oxygen to tissues and in protein synthesis. however, insufficient or high iron levels are harmful for metabolism and cause many diseases. metabolic or cardio metabolic changes occur in the organism due to iron deficiency or excessive accumulation. in addition, iron deficiency creates differences in thyroid hormone metabolism and hematological parameters (chifman et al., 2014; corrales-agudelo et al., 2016; gallego-narbón et al., 2019; pantopoulos et al., 2012; refaat et al., brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 138 2018; vincent et al., 2019). iron is one of the important determinants of athletic performance efficiency and endurance parameters in athletes due to its effect on oxidative metabolism (denis & conway, 2019; hinton, 2014; nandadeva et al., 2019). thyroid hormones and biochemical markers, which are so important for athletic performance and organism in athletes, continue to attract researchers. in this research, chronic changes in athletes caused by endurance training thyroid hormone metabolism and biochemical markers were evaluated. 2. materials and methods 2.1 research group the research group was consisted of 16 volunteer male athletes who are licensed athletes in the field of athletics and have no metabolic disorders. the research was conducted to detect the effect of long-term athletics exercise on athlete's thyroid hormone metabolism, erythrocyte, lococyte, platelet, iron and iron binding capacity. 2.2. training program considering the athletics competition schedule, the training program for endurance and athletics branches for the athletes was implemented for sixty minutes a day and three times a week during 12 weeks. together with workout sessions, athletes participated in athletics competitions. within the scope of the training, the athletes were given a fifteen or twenty minutes warm-up period, sixty minutes of endurance and athleticism before starting the main phase of the training, and five minutes cooling exercises (stretching) at the end of the training. workouts were adjusted to max 5560% according to the fitness level of the study group, and were increased to max 65-75% in the coming weeks. the intensity of the exercise was arranged according to the karvonen method. 2.3 determination of biochemical parameters 7 cc blood samples were taken from the athletes who form the research group while resting for twice, before and after the training. the athletes were constantly observed during the training and were asked not to take any supplements and medications that would adversely affect the metabolism.within the blood samples iron, iron binding capacity, uibc, thyroid hormone (t3, t4 and tsh), lococyte (wbc), erythrocyte (rbc, mcv, hgb, hct) and platelet (plt, pct, rdw-sd, mpv, pdw, rdweffects of endurance workouts on thyroid hormone metabolism… ramazan erdoğan 139 cv) levels were determined. blood samples were taken with sterile syringes by applying tourniquet from arm vein to arm by specialists. blood samples were taken by using pre-prepared anticoagulation tubes and blood samples were analyzed in a private hospital laboratory. 2.4 statistical analysis the data were analyzed using spss 22 package program. the normality test (shapiro wilt-w) was used to determine whether the data showed normal distribution. after determining that the data showed normal distribution, to compare the pre-test and post-test data of the research group paired samples t test was used. p <0,05 values were considered meaningful. 3. results table 1. athletes' thyroid hormones analysis results according to parameters pre-test avrg±sd post-test avrg±sd t p tsh 2,39±0,41 2,47±0,45 -2,462 0,029* t3 3,82±0,16 3,76±0,14 4,856 0,000* t4 1,29±0,11 1,23±0,09 3,030 0,010* in table 1, athletes’ total thyroid hormone pre-post test values are given. in consequence of the training, it was determined that there was a statistically notably difference in the pre-post test values of tsh, t3 and t4 levels (p <0,05). table 2. athletes’ analysis results of hematological parameters according to paired samples t test parameters before training after training t p electrolyte iron 118,71 ±4,73 120,14 ±4,48 -4,616 0,000* iron binding capacity 368,14 ±10,97 368,57±9,72 -0,574 0,576 uibc 241,29 ±18,34 243,93 ±21,22 -2,365 0,034* lococyte wbc 7,47 ±1,42 8,62 ±1,25 -2,172 0,049* erythrocyte rbc 4,83±0,25 5,13 ±0,20 -3,488 0,004* hgb 14,05 ±0,98 14,24 ±0,76 -0,624 0,544 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 140 hct 41,47 ±2,22 41,79 ±2,13 -0,379 0,711 mcv 80,74 ±3,81 86,40 ±1,82 -4,898 0,000* mch 27,72 ±1,43 29,05 ±1,32 -3,738 0,002* mchc 33,63 ±1,19 34,35 ±0,29 -2,431 0,030* platelet plt 275,36 ±62,38 287,43 ±33,01 -0,618 0,547 mpv 7,80 ±0,37 8,11 ±0,35 -2,762 0,016* pdw 17,12±0,59 17,99 ±0,48 -4,212 0,001* pct 0,21 ±0,04 0,23±0,03 -1,271 0,226 rdw-sd 39,29±1,05 40,57±2,47 -1,583 0,137 rdw-cv 11,74±0,66 12,18±0,55 -2,404 0,032* table 2 presents the pre-post test values of athletes' iron, iron binding capacity, uibc, erythrocyte, lococyte and platelet values. in consequence of training, a statistically important difference was seen in iron and uibc levels (p <0,05) but there was no major difference in iron binding capacity (p> 0,05). a crucial difference was seen in the lococyte (wbc) level of the athletes (p <0,05). when erythrocyte values were compared, it was concluded that there was a significant difference in rbc, mcv, mch and mchc levels (p <0,05), and no important difference in hgb and hct levels (p> 0,05). when the platelet values of the athletes were compared, no significant differentiation was determined in plt, pct and rdw-sd levels (p> 0,05), whereas mpv, pdw and rdw-cv levels were statistically significant (p <0,05). 4. discussion and conclusions for the human organism, to work regularly and adapt to the current situation, some warnings are activated. as a result of exercises in the organism, changes occur in hormones and biochemical markers, which are elements of the hemostatic mechanism aimed at controlling physiological stresses caused by exercise. in our study, secreted hormones and biochemical markers associated with the adaptation of the organism as a result of chronic exercises were examined in order to reveal the changes and interactions that occur in the organism following physiological changes arising from exercise. thyroid hormone metabolism exercises are indicators of oxidative stress for the organism, while hemostasis is restored during recovery, serious problems occur especially in hormones secreted during exercise, cells, organs and hemostasis. regulatory effects of endurance workouts on thyroid hormone metabolism… ramazan erdoğan 141 mechanisms appear specifically to provide hemostasis (philippou et al., 2017). especially in acute and chronic exercises, thyroid hormone (tsh, t3, t4) release increases. thyroid hormones, along with exercise, improve the endurance of the organism by affecting protein carbohydrates, fat, metabolism, and adaptation of the organism to physiological and metabolic changes that will occur as a result of exercises (elliott-sale et al., 2018; louzada & carvalho, 2018). as a consequence of the workout sessions, an important increase was observed in the level of tsh and it was also observed that there was a statistically major difference in t3 and t4 levels. in their study, akbulut and his friends (2019) determined that an eight-week exercise program and vitamin e supplementation caused changes in thyroid hormone metabolism. zarei and friends (2018) observed that chronic exercises increase tsh level and decrease t3 and t4 levels. in their study, chicharro and friends (2001) reported that the three-week race period process increased the t4 level and did not change the tsh and t3 levels. in their study, johannsen and friends (2012) stated that acute troxin and exercise practises had significant changes in thyroid hormones. sultan and rashed (2009) stated in their study that one-month exercise and diet create differences in thyroid hormones. teixeira and friends (2017) found in their study that there was no major change in thyroid hormones of the ten-week exercise program. masaki and friends (2019) found that acute exercise had changes in tsh and t3 levels, and there was no change in t4 level. in their study, cinar and friends (2017) determined that a six-week exercise program and zinc supplement affected the participants' thyroid hormone metabolism positively. in their study, mwafy and friends (2018) observed that the sixmonth exercise program had a significant increase in tsh level and a decrease in t3 and t4 levels. the results of the study were found to be generally similar to the literature. changes in thyroid hormone metabolism may have been resulted from physiological responses to minimize oxidative stress in the organism as a result of the exercises applied and to adapt the organism to the current state. iron and hematological parameters are biochemical markers and are indicators of athletic performance. changes appear together with acute or chronic exercises. problems in oxygen use and transportation as a result of iron deficiency may adversely affect sports anemia and athletic performance. potential mechanisms involved in exerciseinduced iron deficiency are intravascular and extravascular hemolysis, hematuria, and sweat and gastrointestinal iron loss and inflammation. hemolysis is caused by many factors such as oxidative stress and erythrocyte deformability. the adaptation of the organism is ensured against these problems that will occur as a result of the exercises (burden and friends, brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 142 2014; peeling and friends, 2014). as a result of the training, an increase in iron, iron binding capacity and uibc levels of athletes was observed. in the study, when the hematological parameters of the athletes were examined, there were generally increases. govus and friends (2015) determined that 2 4 week altitude training increases iron and hematological parameters. in their study, badenhorst and friends (2015) found that acute exercise increases iron levels in athletes. mielgo-ayuso and friends (2015) observed that elevenweek training performed with iron supplementation led to increases in iron and hematological parameters. sim and friends (2014) stated that one week of exercise does not affect iron levels in athletes. corsetti and friends (2012) stated that there was no difference in iron and hematological parameters as a result of the trainings covering the three-week race period. tayebi and friends (2017) found in the study in which different exercise models were applied that there were increases in iron levels with aerobic exercises, and there were decreases in iron levels in anaerobic and wrestling training exercises. skarpańska-stejnborn and friends (2015) observed that athletes’ iron levels decrased as a result of acute intense exercise, and found significant increases in hematological parameters after exercise. in general, acute and chronic training creates differences in iron metabolism and hematological parameters. we think that these results will help to prevent the negativities in biochemical markers of acute or chronic exercises that will occur in the organism and to adapt the athletes to the current situation. as a result; endurance training has been found to create positive differences in thyroid hormone metabolism and biochemical markers. in the research results, it was determined that there were increases in iron metabolism, erythrocyte, lococyte, platelet and tsh levels, and decreases in t3 and t4 levels. these results are generally thought that positive changes caused by chronic and aerobic exercises in the organism will improve athletic performance and endurance as well as preventing metabolic problems. references akbulut, t., cinar, v., & erdogan, r. (2019). the effect of high intensity interval training applied with vitamin e reinforcement on thyroid hormone metabolism. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4sup1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/173 badenhorst, c. e., dawson, b., cox, g. r., laarakkers, c. m., swinkels, d. w., & peeling, p. (2015). timing of post-exercise carbohydrate ingestion: influence on il-6 and hepcidin responses. european journal of applied physiology, 115(10), 2215-2222. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3202-0 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/173 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3202-0 effects of endurance workouts on thyroid hormone metabolism… ramazan erdoğan 143 burden, r. j., pollock, n., whyte, g. p., richards, t., moore, b., busbridge, m., srai, s. k., otto, j., & pedlar, c. r. (2014). effect of intravenous iron on aerobic capacity and iron metabolism in elite athletes. medicine & science in sports & exercise, 47(7), 1399-1407. https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0000000000000568 cheserek, m. j., wu, g., li, l., li, l., karangwa, e., shi, y., & le, g. (2016). cardioprotective effects of lipoic acid, quercetin and resveratrol on oxidative stress related to thyroid hormone alterations in long-term obesity. the journal of nutritional biochemistry, 33, 36-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2016.02.008 chi, h. c., chen, c. y., tsai, m. m., tsai, c. y., & lin, k. h. (2013). molecular functions of thyroid hormones and their clinical significance in liver-related diseases. biomed research international, 16, 1-16, 601361. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/601361 chicharro, j. l., hoyos, j., bandrés, f., terrados, n., fernández, b., & lucía, a. (2001). thyroid hormone levels during a 3-week professional road cycling competition. hormone research in paediatrics, 56(5-6), 159-164. https://doi.org/10.1159/000048112 chifman, j., laubenbacher, r., & torti, s. v. (2014). a systems biology approach to iron metabolism. in j. c., seth, k. marek, n. l. joshua (eds.), a systems biology approach to blood (pp. 201-225). springer. cinar, v., akbulut, t., & sarikaya, m. (2017). effect of zinc supplement and weight lifting exercise on thyroid hormone levels. indian journal of physiology and pharmacology, 61(3), 232-236. https://www.ijpp.com/ijpp%20archives/2017_61_3/232-236.pdf corrales-agudelo, v., parra-sosa, b. e., & burgos-herrera, l. c. (2016). proteínas relacionadas con el metabolismo del hierro corporal. perspectivas en nutrición humana, 18(1), 95-116. http://dx.doi.org/10.17533/udea.penh.v18n1a0 corsetti, r., lombardi, g., lanteri, p., colombini, a., graziani, r., & banfi, g. (2012). haematological and iron metabolism parameters in professional cyclists during the giro d’italia 3-weeks stage race. clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine, 50(5), 949-956. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/cclm-20110857 denis, r. s., & conway, j. l. (2019). iron deficiency and aerobic endurance performance in a female club runner. science & sports, 34(1), 45-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scispo.2018.04.012 dillmann, w. (2010). cardiac hypertrophy and thyroid hormone signaling. heart failure reviews, 15(2), 125-132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10741-008-9125-7 elliott-sale, k. j., tenforde, a. s., parziale, a. l., holtzman, b., & ackerman, k. e. (2018). endocrine effects of relative energy deficiency in sport. international https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0000000000000568 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2016.02.008 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/601361 https://doi.org/10.1159/000048112 https://www.ijpp.com/ijpp%20archives/2017_61_3/232-236.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.17533/udea.penh.v18n1a0 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2011-0857 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2011-0857 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scispo.2018.04.012 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10741-008-9125-7 brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 144 journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 28(4), 335-349. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2018-0127 friedenreich, c. m., neilson, h. k., o’reilly, r., duha, a., yasui, y., morielli, a. r., adams, s. c., & courneya, k. s. (2015). effects of a high vs moderate volume of aerobic exercise on adiposity outcomes in postmenopausal women: a randomized clinical trial. jama oncology, 1(6), 766-776. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.2239 gallego-narbón, a., zapatera, b., & vaquero, m. p. (2019). physiological and dietary determinants of iron status in spanish vegetarians. nutrients, 11(8), 1734. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081734 govus, a. d., garvican-lewis, l. a., abbiss, c. r., peeling, p., & gore, c. j. (2015). pre-altitude serum ferritin levels and daily oral iron supplement dose mediate iron parameter and hemoglobin mass responses to altitude exposure. plos one, 10(8), e0135120. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0135120 hinton, p. s. (2014). iron and the endurance athlete. applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism, 39(9), 1012-1018. https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0147 johannsen, d. l., galgani, j. e., johannsen, n. m., zhang, z., covington, j. d., & ravussin, e. (2012). effect of short-term thyroxine administration on energy metabolism and mitochondrial efficiency in humans. plos one, 7(7), e40837. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040837 louzada, r. a., & carvalho, d. p. (2018). similarities and differences in the peripheral actions of thyroid hormones and their metabolites. frontiers in endocrinology, 9, 394. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2018.00394 masaki, m., koide, k., goda, a., miyazaki, a., masuyama, t., & koshiba, m. (2019). effect of acute aerobic exercise on arterial stiffness and thyroidstimulating hormone in subclinical hypothyroidism. heart and vessels, 34, 1309–1316. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-019-01355-8 maske, u. a., & barnwal, s. l. (2016). effect of yogic practices on the level of thyroxine (t4) in the female patients of hyperthyroidism. international journal of medical and health research, 2(8), 69-72. http://www.medicalsciencejournal.com/archives/2016/vol2/issue8/2-845 mielgo-ayuso, j., zourdos, m. c., calleja-gonzález, j., urdampilleta, a., & ostojic, s. (2015). iron supplementation prevents a decline in iron stores and enhances strength performance in elite female volleyball players during the competitive season. applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism, 40(6), 615622. https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0500 mullur, r., liu, y. y., & brent, g. a. (2014). thyroid hormone regulation of metabolism. physiological reviews, 94(2), 355-382. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00030.2013 https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2018-0127 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.2239 https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081734 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0135120 https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0147 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040837 https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2018.00394 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-019-01355-8 http://www.medicalsciencejournal.com/archives/2016/vol2/issue8/2-8-45 http://www.medicalsciencejournal.com/archives/2016/vol2/issue8/2-8-45 https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0500 https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00030.2013 effects of endurance workouts on thyroid hormone metabolism… ramazan erdoğan 145 mwafy, s., yassin, m., & mousa, r. (2018). thyroid hormones, lipid profile and anthropometric changes after programmed weight loss in palestinian obese adult females. diabetes & metabolic syndrome: clinical research & reviews, 12(3), 269-273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2017.12.009 nandadeva, t. d. p., dissanayake, a. m. s. d. m., rajaratne, a. a. j., & nanayakkara, s. d. i. (2019). effect of iron supplementation during high altitude training on haemoglobin and iron status of sri lankan middle-and long-distance athletes. sri lanka journal of medicine, 28(1), 29-40. http://doi.org/10.4038/sljm.v28i1.114 pantopoulos, k., porwal, s. k., tartakoff, a., & devireddy, l. (2012). mechanisms of mammalian iron homeostasis. biochemistry, 51(29), 5705-5724. http://doi.org/10.1021/bi300752r pascual, a., & aranda, a. (2013). thyroid hormone receptors, cell growth and differentiation. biochimica et biophysica acta (bba)-general subjects, 1830(7), 3908-3916. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagen.2012.03.012 peeling, p., sim, m., badenhorst, c. e., dawson, b., govus, a. d., abbiss, c. r., swinkels, d. w., & trinder, d. (2014). iron status and the acute postexercise hepcidin response in athletes. plos one, 9(3), e93002. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093002 philippou, a., maridaki, m., tenta, r., & koutsilieris, m. (2017). hormonal responses following eccentric exercise in humans. hormones, 16(4), 405-413. https://doi.org/10.14310/horm.2002.1761 refaat, b., abdelghany, a. h., basalamah, m. a., el-boshy, m., ahmad, j., & idris, s. (2018). acute and chronic iron overloading differentially modulates the expression of cellular iron-homeostatic molecules in normal rat kidney. journal of histochemistry & cytochemistry, 66(11), 825-839. https://doi.org/10.1369/0022155418782696 sim, m., dawson, b., landers, g. j., swinkels, d. w., tjalsma, h., wiegerinck, e. t., ... & peeling, p. (2014). a seven day running training period increases basal urinary hepcidin levels as compared to cycling. journal of the international society of sports nutrition, 11(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-11-14 skarpańska-stejnborn, a., basta, p., trzeciak, j., & szcześniak-pilaczyńska, ł. (2015). effect of intense physical exercise on hepcidin levels and selected parameters of iron metabolism in rowing athletes. european journal of applied physiology, 115(2), 345-351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-0143018-3 song, y., yao, x., & ying, h. (2011). thyroid hormone action in metabolic regulation. protein & cell, 2(5), 358–368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13238011-1046-x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2017.12.009 http://doi.org/10.4038/sljm.v28i1.114 http://doi.org/10.1021/bi300752r http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagen.2012.03.012 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093002 https://doi.org/10.14310/horm.2002.1761 https://doi.org/10.1369/0022155418782696 https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-11-14 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-014-3018-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-014-3018-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13238-011-1046-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s13238-011-1046-x brain. broad research in september, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 3 146 soria, m., anson, m., & escanero, j. f. (2016). correlation analysis of exerciseinduced changes in plasma trace element and hormone levels during incremental exercise in well-trained athletes. biological trace element research, 170(1), 55-64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-015-0466-5 sultan, s., & rashed, l. (2009). effect of low calorie diet and exercise on thyroid hormones and leptin levels. medical journal of cairo university,77(1),33-39. https://www.medicaljournalofcairouniversity.net/images/pdf/2009/marc h/06.pdf tayebi, s. m., mahmoudi, a. a., shirazi, e., & sangi, m. (2017). acute response of some iron indices of young elite wrestlers to three types of aerobic, anaerobic, and wrestling exercise. montenegrin journal of sports science and medicine, 6(1), 5. http://www.mjssm.me/clanci/mjssm_march_2017_tayebi.pdf teixeira, r. b., zimmer, a., de castro, a. l., de lima-seolin, b. g., türck, p., siqueira, r., belló-kleina, a., singal. p. k., sander, a. & da rosa araujo, a. s. (2017). long-term t3 and t4 treatment as an alternative to aerobic exercise training in improving cardiac function post-myocardial infarction. biomedicine & pharmacotherapy, 95, 965-973. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2017.09.021 vincent, j. b., neggers, y., & mcclung, j. (2019). roles of chromium (iii), vanadium, iron, and zinc in sports nutrition. in d. bagchi, s. nair, & c. k. sen (eds.), nutrition and enhanced sports performance (second edition) muscle building, endurance, and strength (pp. 653-664). academic press. yehuda-shnaidman, e., kalderon, b., & bar-tana, j. (2013). thyroid hormone, thyromimetics, and metabolic efficiency. endocrine reviews,35(1),35-58. https://academic.oup.com/edrv/article/35/1/35/2354664 zarei, m., zaeemi, m., & rashidlamir, a. (2018). effects of testosterone enanthate treatment in conjunction with resistance training on thyroid hormones and lipid profile in male wistar rats. andrologia, 50(2), e12862. https://doi.org/10.1111/and.12862 zhang, h. j., he, j., pan, l. l., ma, z. m., han, c. k., chen, c. s., ... & zhang, j. f. (2016). effects of moderate and vigorous exercise on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a randomized clinical trial. jama internal medicine, 176(8), 1074-1082. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.3202 https://doi.org/https:/doi.org/10.1007/s12011-015-0466-5 https://www.medicaljournalofcairouniversity.net/images/pdf/2009/march/06.pdf https://www.medicaljournalofcairouniversity.net/images/pdf/2009/march/06.pdf http://www.mjssm.me/clanci/mjssm_march_2017_tayebi.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2017.09.021 https://academic.oup.com/edrv/article/35/1/35/2354664 https://doi.org/10.1111/and.12862 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.3202 the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 2, pages: 199-210 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/83 the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity ilona kostikova¹, liudmyla holubnycha 2 , karyna fomenko 3 , anna shevchuk 4 , oksana kadaner 5 , olena moshynska 6 1 doctor of science in education, ph. d in education, ph. d in philology, full professor, head of department of theory and practice of the english language, h. s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, kharkiv, ukraine, ilonakostikova@gmail.com 2 doctor of science in education, ph. d in education, full professor, department of foreign languages # 3, yaroslav mudryi national law university, kharkiv, ukraine, golubnichaya11@gmail.com 3 doctor of science in psychology, ph. d in psychology, professor, department of psychology, h. s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, kharkiv, ukraine, karinafomenko1985@gmail.com 4 ph. d in education, associate professor, department of pedagogy, foreign philology and translation, simon kuznets kharkiv national university of economics, kharkiv, ukraine, annamasluk1986@gmail.com 5 ph. d in philology, associate professor, department of foreign languages # 1, yaroslav mudryi national law university, kharkiv, ukraine, kadaneroksana@ukr.net 6 ph. d in philosophy, associate professor, department of foreign languages # 1, yaroslav mudryi national law university, kharkiv, ukraine, moshaelena1@ukr.net abstract: the correlation between english speech activity and psycholinguistic standpoints of foreign language learning has been shown as well as the empirical analysis of their connection has been conducted. the purpose of the article is to identify the correlation between english speech activity and psycholinguistic standpoints. the theoretical, empirical, statistical methods have been used to reach the purpose. to check the effectiveness of applying psycholinguistic principles to english speech activity the empirical (diagnostic) methods such as testing (oral and written), observation, and discussion were used. the pedagogical experiment with the students of h.s.skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university and yaroslav mudryi national law university was also conducted. the pedagogical experiment showed the effectiveness of developing english speech activity based on the psycholinguistic standpoints. the statistical methods helped to evaluate the results of the pedagogical experiment. apprehending the correlation between psycholinguistic standpoints and english speech activity (speaking, reading, listening, and writing) training is really topical since it helps to define the most effective methods of the foreign language teaching and learning. the psycholinguistic components (motivational and cognitive, analytical and technological, reflexive, emotional and evaluation ones) have been described from the standpoint of psycholinguistics. all types of english speech activity have been researched as for their correlation with psycholinguistic components. keywords: english speech activity; speaking, reading, listening, and writing; psycholinguistic standpoints; foreign language learning; students. how to cite: kostikova, i., holubnycha, l., fomenko, k., shevchuk, a., kadaner, o., & moshynska, o. (2020). the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 199-210. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/83 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/83 mailto:ilonakostikova@gmail.com mailto:golubnichaya11@gmail.com mailto:karinafomenko1985@gmail.com mailto:annamasluk1986@gmail.com mailto:kadaneroksana@ukr.net mailto:moshaelena1@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/83 the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity ilona kostikova et al. 200 1. introduction as it is known, neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field of study for neural processes. neuroscience includes a number of areas such as cognitive science, computer science, linguistics, medicine, psychology etc. the development of neuroscience creates new subdisciplines such as neurocommunications, neurolinguistics etc. neurolinguistics is a branch of psychological and linguistic science that studies the brain mechanisms of speech activity and changes in speech processes; it studies the system of higher mental functions and the correlations between linguistic systems and neurophysiologic violations in a linguistic behavior. neurolinguistics considers speech as a system function. neurolinguistics has much in common with psycholinguistics that studies the cognitive mechanisms of a language using theoretical and experimental methods of psychology and linguistics. modern psycholinguistics studies many issues: psycholinguistic units of speech perception, stages of generation and comprehension the speech utterance, perspectives on machine translation, problems of human and computer dialogue, aspects of foreign language learning etc. as for our research psycholinguistic problems are studied through the structure of foreign language development and perception as well as the correlation between speech and foreign language acquisition. nowadays the globalization process contributes to the study of the english language as an international one. we can see the rapid growth of intercultural contacts in all spheres of our life: a wide variety of intercultural communication situations such as international study, internship, experience exchange, the integration of world scientists, international conferences, international cultural events etc. thus, learning english as an international language has become a matter of international importance. therefore, the problems in our study have an international dimension as they show the increasing role of english speech activity. development of english speech activity has become one of the most necessary aspects for different languages learning and teaching. however, this appears to be not enough for foreign language instruction as it cannot override the issues of psycholinguistics. so, in order to choose the more effective ways for development of english speech activity it is vital to understand the relationship between its types and psycholinguistics if there is any. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 201 2. literature review the research analysis has shown that among scholars the most popular issues are psycholinguistic perspectives of foreign language learning and teaching, they are „psycholinguistic perspectives on language and its acquisition‟ by j. hulstijn (2007); „psycholinguistic perspectives on comprehension in sla‟ (second language acquisition) by p. karimvand (2011); „psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives on second language learning and teaching‟ by k. drozdzial-szelest and m. pawlak (2013); “psycholinguistic perspectives and contributions of ell and elt‟ (english language learning and english language teaching) by m. eghlidi, m. talebinezhad, and z. fard (2017). some problems are connected with difficulties of foreign language learning and teaching, a foreign language and its acquisition, a foreign language comprehension. for example, n. mačianskienė (2011) studied „developing institutional language policy‟, focusing on foreign language learning in non-linguistic higher education. r. oxford et al (2014) determined issues of „the learning strategy prism: perspectives of learning strategy experts‟. a. flogie, b. aberšek, and i. pesek (2019) researched „the impact of innovative learning environments on social competences of youth‟ in foreign language learning with information and communication technology. however, the relationship of english speech activity and psycholinguistics for searching more efficient ways of developing both was not the investigation subject of a wide range of scholars. the purpose of the article is to identify the correlation between english speech activity and psycholinguistic standpoints. the tasks of the paper are 1) to analyze the main types of english speech activity such as speaking, reading, listening, and writing while a foreign language learning, which correlate with psycholinguistic standpoints; 2) to find out psycholinguistic components connected with speech activity; 3) to check experimentally efficiency of english speech activity (speaking, reading, listening, and writing) teaching and learning based on its connection with main psycholinguistic components. 3. methodology there were three groups of methods used for achieving the purpose and tasks of the research. they are theoretical, empirical and statistical methods. so, among general theoretical methods we have chosen analysis the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity ilona kostikova et al. 202 and synthesis of psycholinguistic, linguistic, psychological and pedagogical literature since they helped to study and describe main types of english speech activity and psycholinguistic components connected with it, as well as to make conclusion not only about their correlation but also about importance of applying this information for effective english speech learning and teaching. the empirical (diagnostic) methods, namely testing, observation and discussion were used in the pedagogical experiment where we have been checking the correlation between english speech activity and psycholinguistics in language learning and teaching. the statistical methods (such as student‟s t-test) were needed to evaluate the experiment results. 4. results in order to find a correlation (if there is any) between english speech activity and psycholinguistics we decided to decompose the studied phenomena into components and highlight those that may have common ground. thus, talking about english speech activity (which is considered as an active, purposeful process of production and perception of words and expressions that is carried out with linguistic means during people interaction in different speech situations) speaking, reading, listening, and writing must be distinguished (while studying the peculiarities of speech activity training we will pay particular attention to these types). firstly, all types of english speech activity are necessary for communication. all the components of psycholinguistics, in general, they are language and speech (lyons, & le page, 1981; miller, 1990; sapir, 1921), „activity and consciousness‟ (leontyev, 2009), „language, thought and consciousness‟ (carruthers, 1998), „language, mind and world‟ (steinberg, nagata, & aline, 2013) serve for communication purpose. as the main aim of foreign language learning is an ability to communicate, this common feature is significant for our research so we studied it carefully and discovered that from psycholinguistic point of view, communication may include the following components: the motivational and cognitive component, the analytical and technological component, the integrative and personal component, the socio-cultural component, the reflexive component, the emotional and evaluation component. to understand theoretically the correlation between speech activity and psycholinguistics it is offered to analyze some psycholinguistic components. the motivational and cognitive component, which should be understood both as a set of knowledge about a particular subject and the ways of speech activity that ensure the knowledge application (the latter, in terms of language learning, applies not only to knowledge of speech activity, brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 203 communicative units and linguistic clichés, but also to the possibility or impossibility of their use in general, as well as in a specific professionally oriented situation), and as a set of motives and internal conditions that determine, direct and regulate the process of speech activity and communicative interaction. definitely, it reflects in speaking and writing. this component, analyzed through the prism of psycholinguistics, is necessary for development socio-cultural, intercultural, professionally oriented foreign language competences and skills, because it provides the quality of speech activity and communicative behaviour. concerning the connection of the motivational and cognitive component with the psycholinguistic principles of language learning, its interpretation may be understood as an awareness of the ultimate goal of speech activity, an interest in the process of creativity while building a sentence or a statement, the desire for success in speech activity and solving communicative tasks (which should lead to the achievement of professional goals), raising the level of cognitive interests and needs in language learning, the desire to find the additional information, the desire for communication, especially in a team work. the analytical and technological component is an analysis of the effectiveness of speech activity and communication with a foreign partner, forecasting the possible ways of solving communicative problems and communicative tasks through speech activity while speaking and writing; actualization and productive realization of communication, humanitarian and socio-cultural competences that are relevant to the goals and communicative situations. the analytical thinking is used as well in reading, listening to comprehend both. the reflexive component involves the purposeful development of individual responsibility for speech activity and actions, the ability to analyze the possible consequences of statements which is especially important for negotiating with foreign partners. it reflects in speaking and writing. the reflexive component also involves the assessment and correction of statements and actions. from psychological and pedagogical standpoints, it can be linked to the development of self-processes, such as self-control, selfexamination, and critical self-esteem. the emotional and evaluation component, which is aimed to developing such personal traits as curiosity, openness in speech activity and communication, critical evaluation of information extracted from speech activity, positive perception of information necessary for comprehension. it reflects in reading and listening. and sometimes emotions are necessary for the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity ilona kostikova et al. 204 speaking and writing for solving communicative problems in speech activity (speech production). all the described components brought us to another correlation between the researched phenomena. so, studying correlation between psycholinguistic standpoints and english speech activity two important elements may be taken into consideration. so, from psycholinguistics point of view, speech activity can be apprehended as product or result. since the product is creation as while speaking or writing and the result is perception as when reading or listening, there is another reflection of the idea of connection between the types of speech activity (through its product and result) and psycholinguistics. let us consider the first important element of speech activity such as its product. it is in the product the speech activity is materialized and brought to real life and communication (adler, rosenfeld & proctor, 2001). in psycholinguistics, sometimes instead of the term „product‟, the term „speech utterance‟ may function (sadagopan & smith, 2008). since the term „speech utterance‟ is a fairly widespread concept in psycholinguistics, it is worth noting that in this context the speech utterance may be defined as a finished, ready to use form. the product of speaking and writing is an utterance (text). if the product of speech activity (such as speaking and writing) is a complete, expanded expression (text), then the speech actions involved in creating that product are separate phrases, sentences, statements, that is, separate utterances in the form of relatively complete communicative logical semantic units. in a text, the whole set of psychological conditions of speech activity and individual peculiarities of its subject are objectified. the second important element of speech activity is its result. the result of perception activities (reading, listening) is understanding the semantic content of the speech utterance and, accordingly, further subsequent speaking, writing or any other non-speech activity of another participant of speech communication (marx, heppt & henschel, 2017). the result of productive activities (speaking, writing) is the nature of perception of speech by other people. speaking about speech activity, on the one hand, it is realized in the field of communication, it influences different psycholinguistic components, provides the language interaction, communication from psycholinguistic standpoints. on the other hand, we interpret it as the combination of “skills or practical language competences which reflect a person‟s ability to use the foreign language as a tool to adapt to the english language environment and brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 205 solve the range of tasks involving the use of a foreign language” (kostikova et al., 2019). therefore, speech activity is the main and universal means of communication between people in the human environment. thanks to perceptive speech activity, a person acquires social and historical experience. definitely, it is the main means of perception the world around a person, the prerequisite for person‟s cognitive activity. finally, speech activity plays a significant role in person‟s mental intellectual activity, participating in the processes of cognition, creativity, and all kinds of thinking. all of the features of speech activity mentioned above and its correlation with psycholinguistic standpoints make it possible, firstly, to take a fresh look at the problem. in particular, speech activity is not just a speech action, speech practice, a process of using the language individually and not communicating in general. this is a very special structural and substantive phenomenon that determines the nature of people interaction in the process of their speech communication. in other words, speech activity performs the function of a purposeful, motivated, active, lively process of receiving or reproducing a message organized by the means such as speech and language in forming and formulating thoughts with the purpose of people communication. secondly, the theoretical research has helped us to apprehend the importance of equal attention and parallel development of all types of speech activity, not giving preference to any of them. we may suggest that if we follow these ideas our students will acquire better speaking skills and get better academic results. in order to solve the research task the pedagogical experiment was carried out in h. s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university and yaroslav mudryi national law university (kharkiv, ukraine) in 2018/2019. the groups of 46 thirdand fourth-year students, who were attending the additional fce (cambridge english: first) preparation course, were investigated in order to develop english speech activity. the students run some placement tests at the beginning of the experiment including speaking, reading, listening, and writing, which allowed us to define their level of the main types of english speech activity. after the training course at the end of the experiment the students were tested as well. speaking was tested by our own offered proposals. we created a facebook page to give students speaking tasks; they discussed different pictures in english on that facebook page. the main tasks were to offer two photos for comparison and questions to them which were expected to be commented by the students. after the students‟ comments we provided the the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity ilona kostikova et al. 206 model of the answer and gave an analysis of comments, posted the recommended lists of vocabulary for use. reading, listening were tested on the computer-based coursebook “say it! fce”. the computer-based course book “say it! fce” allowed us to define students‟ level in reading, some tests were done. the computer-based course book “say it! fce” allowed us to define students‟ level in listening, some tests were done. the statements of results contained detailed information about the performance of every student, which has given the opportunity of analyzing this data and to determine the best learning strategies to develop speech activity to facilitate the process of learning acquisition. having obtained the data of students‟ performance in all main types of speech activity, we managed to compare average scores and to state with some degree of confidence that the obtained difference between the scores of the sample group is big enough to be a chance event, and to define that the difference exists. speaking was tested with the evaluation criteria such as complete expression; expanded text; correct speech actions such separate phrases, sentences, statements, utterances; complete communicative units; logical and semantic units. the most of other evaluation criteria are based on the computerbased course book “say it! fce”. as for reading it was tested with the evaluation criteria of different types of texts for reading comprehension. listening was tested with the evaluation criteria in the computer-based course book as well; the criteria were different types of texts for listening comprehension. writing was tested with the evaluation criteria as well. the criteria were a complete text; separate utterances as complete communicative logical semantic units. the mean ± standard deviation/ standard error of the mean (m ± sd / sem) are represented as the results. the distribution was normal and confirmed, to define differences between results a t-test for dependent samples was done. the results were analyzed with the licensed microsoft exel computer program. the considerable levels for tests were set at p ≤ 0.05. in table 1 it is shown the difference with mean standing for standard scores for example population, t for t-value measuring the diversity to the difference in the sample data, p for p-value that shows tough evidence against the null hypothesis at the beginning of the course and their performance at the end of the course and overall performance in general. brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 207 table 1. students‟ academic results at the course beginning and its end types of speech activity at the beginning of the course at the end of the course average progress (%) t p mean ± sd mean ± sd speaking 164.1 ± 3.8 170.9 ± 5.08 4.1 4.7 ≤ 0.001 reading 163.3 ± 3.9 168.5 ± 4.9 3.2 3.2 ≤ 0.01 listening 162.3 ± 3.46 166.5 ± 2.7 2.6 3.1 ≤ 0.01 writing 162.7 ± 3.16 166.8 ± 3.25 2.5 4.09 ≤ 0.001 overall performance 163.1 168.18 3.1 – – so, the students improved their results in all types of english speech activity as average group progress is 3.1%; the most significant progress has been in speaking as 4.1%. the progress in reading has been 3.2%, in listening it has been 2.6%, the least advance has been in writing with 2.5%. 5. limits and discussions the research data can be explained by the fact that despite we tried to pay equal attention to all types of speech activity, speaking and reading appeared to be the most frequent activities applied in almost all textbooks, all tests. also speaking, reading are done regularly as a part of students‟ usual class work and homework. to our mind, listening and writing were trained unfortunately not so often as speaking and reading; moreover, it can be connected to the individual abilities of english speech activity and foreign speech acquisition. thus, the t-value result ranged from 3.1 to 4.7, the average progress is 3.1%, it lets us state that there is the difference, it is proved statistically by the obtained results. it is evident the experimental results can be extrapolated for other researchers‟ data. the results could be in comparison with other competences. for instance, if there is an english speaking environment in students‟ country, or students travel a lot to the english speaking countries, or communicate a lot with native speakers in english listening and speaking results will increase more. if students have a lot of writing and reading tasks, they write a lot of english essays, compositions, write a lot for students‟ the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity ilona kostikova et al. 208 writing contests in english, read a lot in english, read or write academic english writing and reading results will increase more. so, speaking, writing as types of english speech activity are reflected and correlated with motivational and cognitive, analytical and technological psycholinguistic components as well as with reflexive, emotional and evaluation ones. reading and listening are correlated with analytical and technological, emotional and evaluation psycholinguistic components, analytical and technological component too. the statement that english speech activity really correlates psycholinguistic points could be of interest for worldwide readers. 6. conclusions thus, the research results allow us to illustrate the conclusions. the english speech activity does correlate psycholinguistic points for language learning as problems of the psycholinguistic basics actualized in all types of english speech activity. the main types of english speech activity such as speaking, reading, listening, and writing are connected with psycholinguistic components (motivational and cognitive, analytical and technological, reflexive, emotional and evaluation ones), which are directly correlated to the theory of psycholinguistics. the test results at the experiment beginning and at the end approved the development of all types of english speech activity while speech activity (speaking, reading, listening, and writing) teaching and learning based on its connection with main psycholinguistic components. references adler, r., rosenfeld, l. & proctor, r. (2001). interplay: the process of interpersonal communicating (8th ed). harcourt. carruthers, p. (1998). language, thought and consciousness: an essay in philosophical psychology. cambridge university press. drozdzial-szelest, k., & pawlak, m. (2013). psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives on second language learning and teaching. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2f978-3-642-23547-4 eghlidi, m., talebinezhad, m. r., & fard, z. r. (2017). psycholinguistic perspectives and contributions of ell and elt. journal of applied linguistics and language research, 4 (7), 317–335. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d35b/82371b787641d8737e0aecdd3fd54 0b67ecc.pdf https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2f978-3-642-23547-4 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d35b/82371b787641d8737e0aecdd3fd540b67ecc.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d35b/82371b787641d8737e0aecdd3fd540b67ecc.pdf brain. broad research in june, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 2 209 flogie, a., aberšek, b., & pesek, i. (2019). the impact of innovative learning environments on social competences of youth. research in learning technology, 27, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v27.2214 hulstijn, j. h. (2007). psycholinguistic perspectives on language and its acquisition. in j. cummins & c. davison, (eds.), international handbook of english language teaching (pp. 83–795). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-46301-8_52 karimvand, n. k. (2011). psycholinguistic perspectives on comprehension in sla. journal of language teaching and research, 2 (6), 1268–1273. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.897.2465&rep =rep1&type=pdf kostikova, i., viediernikova, t., holubnycha, l., & miasoiedova, s. (2019). the competency-based approach to passing first certificate in english. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(1), 117–130. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/100 leontyev, a. n. (2009). activity and consciousness. marxists internet archive. https://www.marxists.org/archive/leontev/works/activityconsciousness.pdf lyons, j., & le page, r. (1981). language and speech [and discussion]. philosophical transactions of the royal society of london. series b, biological sciences, 295(1077), 215–222. www.jstor.org/stable/2395736 mačianskienė, n. (2011). developing institutional language policy. santalka: filologija, edukologija, 19 (2), 158–167. http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/cpe.2011.17 marx, a., heppt, b., & henschel, s. (2017). listening comprehension of academic and everyday language in first language and second language students. applied psycholinguistics, 38 (3), 571–600. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0142716416000333 miller, g. a. (1990). the place of language in a scientific psychology. psychological science, 1(1), 7–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1990.tb00059.x oxford, r., rubin, j., chamot, a., schramm, k., lavine, r., gunning, p., & nel, c. (2014). the learning strategy prism: perspectives of learning strategy experts. system. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.02.004 sadagopan, n., & smith, a. (2008). developmental changes in the effects of utterance length and complexity on speech movement variability. journal of speech, language, and hearing research, 51, 1138–1151. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2008/06-0222) sapir, e. (1921). language: an introduction to the study of speech. brace. https://www.ugr.es/~fmanjon/sapir,%20edward%20%20language,%20an%20introduction%20to%20the%20study%20of%20 speech.pdf https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v27.2214 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-46301-8_52 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.897.2465&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.897.2465&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/100 https://www.marxists.org/archive/leontev/works/activity-consciousness.pdf https://www.marxists.org/archive/leontev/works/activity-consciousness.pdf http://www.jstor.org/stable/2395736 http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/cpe.2011.17 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0142716416000333 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1990.tb00059.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.02.004 https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2008/06-0222) https://www.ugr.es/~fmanjon/sapir,%20edward%20-%20language,%20an%20introduction%20to%20the%20study%20of%20speech.pdf https://www.ugr.es/~fmanjon/sapir,%20edward%20-%20language,%20an%20introduction%20to%20the%20study%20of%20speech.pdf https://www.ugr.es/~fmanjon/sapir,%20edward%20-%20language,%20an%20introduction%20to%20the%20study%20of%20speech.pdf the psycholinguistic standpoints in english speech activity ilona kostikova et al. 210 steinberg, d. d., nagata, h., & aline, d. p. (2013). psycholinguistics: language, mind and world. routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315846330 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315846330 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 01-17 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/188 socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a cause of conflicts in inclusive groups valentyna afanasenko¹, taisiia komar2, natalia potapchuk3, olena vasylenko4, larysa podkorytova5, viacheslav havrylkevych6 1 doctor of philosophical sciences, associate professor, chair of psychology department, cherkasy regional institute of postgraduate education of teachers of cherkasy regional council, ukraine, e-mail: vallina_k911@ukr.net 2 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, professor of psychology and pedagogics department, humanities faculty, khmelnytskyi national university, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, e-mail: tayisiya67@i.ua 3 doctor of psychological sciences, senior researcher, the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, e-mail: natapotapchuk@i.ua 4 phd in pedagogy, associate professor, department of psychology and pedagogics, humanities faculty, khmelnytskyi national university, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, e-mail: vasilenko.dm@ukr.net 5 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of psychology and pedagogics, humanities faculty, khmelnytskyi national university, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, e-mail: podkorytovalagis@ukr.net 6 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of psychology and pedagogics, humanities faculty, khmelnytskyi national university, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, e-mail: gavrilkevich@gmail.com abstract: the article examines the causes of conflicts in inclusive student groups and means of their prevention. it has been found that the success of inclusive education in higher education institutions mainly depends on interpersonal relationships in inclusive student groups. this is due to the fact that communicating with each other, students with special educational needs acquire skills of social interaction, widen the range of their social roles, learn more about their own personality. however, the peculiarities of moral attitudes, values, behavior, features of the emotional and volitional sphere development, cognitive processes of students with special educational needs lead to conflict situations in inclusive student groups. to determine the causes of conflicts in inclusive student groups, a diagnostic study was conducted among the full-time and part-time students with special educational needs of khmelnytsky national university. the results of the diagnosis showed that main causes of conflicts in inclusive student groups are the following sociopsychological characteristics of students with special educational needs: low level of self-esteem due to which they get painful experiences because of critical remarks addressed to them, try to adapt to other people's opinions, have low motivation for achievement, feel lonely and anxious; low ability to establish new contacts for communication, low level of sociability; the desire to avoid conflict or to get out of it with dignity accepting the opinions and interests of others without seeking compromise solutions. taking this into consideration, we have developed and substantiated conflict prevention tools for inclusive student groups that can help students with special educational needs to interact effectively with other students while studying at higher education institution. keywords: students with special educational needs; inclusive education; higher educational institution; conflicts in inclusive student groups. how to cite: afanasenko, v., komar, t., potapchuk, n., vasylenko, o., podkorytova, l., & havrylkevych, v. (2021). socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a cause of conflicts in inclusive groups. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 01-17. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/188 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/188 mailto:vallina_k911@ukr.net mailto:tayisiya67@i.ua mailto:natapotapchuk@i.ua mailto:vasilenko.dm@ukr.net mailto:podkorytovalagis@ukr.net mailto:gavrilkevich@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/188 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 2 introduction as the number of people with special educational needs, especially children, in developed countries is increasing, disability prevention and social problems solution have become the national priorities of these countries. the problem of education of children and youth with special educational needs has always been the most complicated problem for the society. nowadays, inclusive education is supposed to solve it, as it recognizes the necessity to meet the various demands and abilities of children and youth with special educational needs, including differences in ways and tempo of learning. this goal is achieved be means of individualized teaching methods, adapted curricula and individually selected learning support materials. inclusive education is a necessary condition for active adaptation, socialization and development of students with special educational needs. inclusion is considered to be a process of increasing the participation of people with special educational needs in social life, and inclusive education is defined as a system of educational services based on the principle of ensuring the basic right of children to education and the right to receive it at the place of residence at secondary education institution which is adjusted to the needs of all students (sophii, 2008). the success of the inclusive education implementation largely depends on the interpersonal relationships in the student group. starting their studying, students begin a new independent life, which is an integral part of the higher education institution where they study and the group which the belong to. the new relationships, formed in the group, are based on the commitment or unfriendliness of some students to others, which can lead to conflicts. the term "conflict" means "collision". conflict arises when people begin to realize that their interests, needs, goals can not be met if the existing system of social relations is maintained, and begin to act trying to change the situation (tiuptya, 2008). a number of scientists studied some aspects of involvement of children and youth with special educational needs into studying at regular educational institutions, their rehabilitation and socialization to social rules: (kolupaeva et al., 2012; talanchuk et al., 2004; chaikovsky, 2016). the problem of causes and ways of resolving conflicts in inclusive classrooms and inclusive student groups was covered by the studies of volchelyuk (2010), lavrinenko (2017), popeliushko, (2019) and romanovska & vasylenko (2020). socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a … valentyna afanasenko, et al. 3 the important role of teachers in the inclusive education implementation and solving all related problems is discussed in the works of the following researchers: mâţă & clipa (2020); bezliudnyi et al. (2020); frumos (2020); sălceanu (2020). thus, mâţă & clipa (2020) argue that it is extremely important to study the attitude of teachers to the integration of students with special educational needs in secondary schools. this will help to identify appropriate measures of influence to establish a relationship based on mutual trust and support of equal learning opportunities for all the educational process participants. if teachers have a positive attitude towards an inclusive school, they become more open to adapting and changing teaching methods to meet the needs of students with special educational needs. chaikovsky (2016) stresses that inclusive education is closely interrelated with the integration process of people with special educational needs into the social and educational environment, which is defined as the normalization of social life and educational opportunities in accordance with international and ukrainian legal acts. however, one of the most important aspects of the inclusive education implementation in higher education institutions is the inclusive competence of higher education teachers. the author defines it as a relatively independent part of general professional competence; integrative personal education, which determines the ability to perform educational functions in the inclusive education process, in particular to meet the educational needs of students with special educational needs, their socio-pedagogical adaptation in the educational environment, to create all conditions for their development. the works of bezliudnyi et al. (2020) concluded that current researches on inclusive education focus mainly on the following aspects: identifying the peculiarities of interaction between primary school teachers and students’ parents in inclusive practice; the requirements and the role of the teacher who works with students with special educational needs; behavior of parents of students with special educational needs. the authors believe that future teachers must be specially trained in various aspects of inclusive practice. unfortunately, the theoretical and applied aspects of such training are insufficiently developed, which indicates a certain inefficiency of teacher training for the inclusive education implementation. a romanian scientist (frumos, 2020) believes that teachers who work in inclusive classrooms take on new roles and responsibilities as they have to meet the needs of all students in the classroom. these teachers must be committed to the principles of inclusion, accept all the challenges of inclusive education and try to develop curricula taking into account the brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 4 capabilities of all students, regardless of their abilities, psychophysiological characteristics, etc. in case of distance learning, the transition to inclusive education in the online classroom is possible and necessary. a student with special educational needs should participate in an online environment for a wide range of learning activities. but some limitations are still indefeasible, so teachers must actively overcome them, using various tools and methods. at the same time, teachers should be responsible for the choice and use of certain methods and training resources in accordance with the needs of students, so that the latter can achieve basic educational goals. sălceanu (2020) emphasizes the important role of teachers in the inclusion of autistic children in public schools. it is the teacher who plays an active role in the development of children's cognitive, practical and social skills, in the management of children's classes and in creating opportunities for learning for both ordinary and autistic children. to achieve their goals, teachers need training, resources and support from an interdisciplinary team of specialists. unfortunately, quite often teachers refuse to work with autistic children, especially because they lack sufficient training to be able to provide an inclusive environment for such children. many teachers have fear that they will not be able to manage the classroom well enough, and having an autistic child can be a problem for other children. therefore, the success of including children with autism in regular educational institutions depends on the teachers’ efforts, their positive attitude to inclusive education, openness and development of their own professional skills. this should be combined with an acceptance and a positive attitude of children and their parents to the autistic child, the intervention of specialists (facilitators, therapists, counselors, psychologists). it is also the teacher who should raise awareness and sensitivity towards children with autism in parents of ordinary children, school board and classmates, by means of organizing classes with social workers, psychologists and other professionals to familiarize everyone with the needs of autistic children. such educational programs can lead to a change in attitudes towards autistic children and their isolation. ukrainian scientist teslenko (2020) argues that ukrainian social pedagogy is just taking the first steps in the scientific substantiation of the content, forms and methods of social and pedagogical support for children with special educational needs. therefore, in his research, he pays special attention to the development of conceptual approaches to social and pedagogical support of children with special educational needs, as well as the stages of implementation of this support. the experience of experimental organization of social and educational support, rehabilitation and social adaptation of children with special educational needs in ukraine allows the socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a … valentyna afanasenko, et al. 5 author to conclude that timely and early social and educational support is a priority in the development of life skills of children with special educational needs. it creates a favorable rehabilitation environment and takes into account the most productive age for rehabilitation and social adaptation. thus, v. teslenko proposes to develop and implement regional programs of social and educational support for children with special educational needs. it should look like a scientific algorithm that provides a logical sequence and step-by-step actions of all providers of social and educational support for children with special educational needs. according to the author, the regional program provides effective assistance to each family on the basis of a complete database of legal, social, economic, medical, psychological and pedagogical support of the interests and requests of the child and their further self-determination in public life. ukrainian researcher vasylenko (2010) supporting teslenko's opinion, states that the adaptation of children with special educational needs to study in regular educational institutions will be more effective if the following social and pegagogical conditions are introduced in the institutions: arranging of a favorable social and educational environment for students with special educational needs; development of productive relationship types of the child with special educational needs with others (in the classroom, in the family); organization of socio-pedagogical and psychological assistance to a family raising a child with special educational needs. popeliushko (2019) believes that attending regular school classes together with their peers, leads to positive personal changes of the students with special educational needs. the author notes that higher education institutions as social institutions should be involved in the promotion and implementation of inclusive education. they must adopt their own concept of inclusive learning (special education services can be provided in different settings) and support the learning of each student with special educational needs (teachers can teach in three ways: firstly, their way of teaching must be clear to the students with different abilities and learning styles so that they could understand the learning process and take an active part in it; secondly, teachers change tasks when they are too difficult for students with special educational needs; third, they model respect and encourage friendship between students in an academic group). however, despite the interest of researchers in the implementation of inclusive education in educational institutions at all levels and solving the issues related to this process, it needs to be studied more detailly. the nature of the interpersonal relationship development in an inclusive classroom and brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 6 an inclusive student group determines not only the academic success of children and youth with special educational needs, but also the effectiveness of their adaptation, socialization and rehabilitation. research problem scientists claim that the work of specialists in educational institutions is very important, because it is focused on involving children and youth with special educational needs in the educational process, their socialization, developing their active attitude to confident self-positioning in society, obtaining the skill to transform their weaknesses into strengths, changing the attitude of modern society to people with special educational needs. however, the implementation of inclusive education has a number of obstacles, including psychological rejection of students with disabilities by other students. this factor, unfortunately, is one of the dominant causes of conflicts in inclusive student groups of higher education institutions. therefore, the purpose of this article is to study the sociopsychological features of students with special educational needs that lead to conflicts in inclusive student groups, and to develop means to prevent these conflicts. methods and stages of research the diagnostic study involved 55 students with special educational needs of khmelnytskyi national university: 15 students majoring psychology", 15 students of "social work", 11 students "philology" students and 14 "secondary education" students. the age of participants taking part in the diagnostic study was 18-22 years. they provided their verbal consent to participate in the study and process the results of the study without disclosing personal information about them. students worked with questionnaires in their free time. the study was carried out within the theme of the research work of the department of psychology and pedagogy of khmelnytskyi national university "transformation of the human vital world in terms of personal and professional development". the study was conducted in several stages from september to december, 2020). the first stage of the study was conducted to determine the causes of conflict in inclusive student groups. the aim of the second stage of the study was to diagnose those socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs that lead to conflicts in inclusive student groups. for this purpose the following socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a … valentyna afanasenko, et al. 7 diagnostic methods were used as: test-questionnaire "self-assessment scale"; anxiety test (spielberg questionnaire); method "assessment of the sociability level" (v. ryakhovsky); questionnaire to determine the level of student youth socialization; k. thomas test (adaptation by n. grishina, 2008). the third stage of the study was carried out to analyze the results of diagnosis of socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs that lead to conflicts in inclusive student groups, and development and justification of means to prevent such conflicts. study results in a higher education institution, the student group plays the most important role in the students’ socialization. communicating with each other, students acquire skills of social interaction, widen their range of social roles, learn more about their own personality. differences in moral attitudes, rules, values, behavior often put the student in a conflict situation. the academic group works out specific relationships, standards and norms of behavior, values and socio-psychological climate. the collision of different tendencies in intentions, attitudes, motives and behavior can lead to conflict. so, conflicts become an integral part of student life (bogdanov, 2004). it is worth noting that in inclusive student groups, the causes of conflict can be low self-esteem of students with special educational needs, their anxiety, sensitivity, shyness, as well as lack of flexible curricula and rapid fatigue of these students. also, some styles of other student’s behavior can cause conflicts in inclusive student groups. these include dominance in communication, conservatism in thinking, unreasonable criticism of the communication partner; violation of the partner’s personal space; an unexpected speeding of the pace of conversation, the deliberate arranged shortage of time in solving the problem; humiliation of the communication partner’s personality and his rights (interruption, ignoring contacts, unwillingness to recognize his rightness in judgments, etc.); constant imposition of their own views; demonstration of their unwillingness to help because of permanent lack of free time; emphasizing the difference with a partner in their favor; insincerity, intemperance, inflexibility, unjustice. problems related to socio-psychological adaptation to learning in an inclusive student group are quite typical for students with special educational needs. they are specified by the new social situation of development, changing living conditions, their social isolation, their attitude to their own disability and interpersonal relationships. socio-psychological maladaptation of a student with special educational needs in the group can cause negative brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 8 psychogenic reactions, emotional instability, personal and situational anxiety, low self-esteem and low achievement motivation. therefore, the activity of all employees of higher education institutions is very important for ensuring effective interaction of students with special educational needs in the student group. it should be based on positive emotional self-perception, communication, joint activities of healthy students and students with special educational needs on the basis of tolerance and partnership. all this will help reduce the level of social isolation and, consequently, improve the adaptation of student youth with special educational needs to the conditions of higher education establishment. as one of the main causes of conflict in inclusive student groups is the socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs, we conducted a diagnostic study among 55 full-time and part-time students with special educational needs who sudy at khmelnytskyi national university. the levels of students’ self-esteem were determined by means of the test questionnaire "self-assessment scale" (kirsheva & ryabchikova, 1995: 108-112). the questionnaire contains 32 statements with five possible answers: very often 4 points, often 3 points, sometimes 2 points, rarely 1 point, never 0 points. in order to determine the level of self-esteem, it is necessary to add points for all 32 statements. it should be noted that the interpretation of the results of the testquestionnaire "self-assessment scale" is as follows: the sum of points from 0 to 43 indicates a high level of self-esteem, at which a person adequately responds to the comments of others and rarely doubts their actions. the sum of points from 43 to 86 indicates the medium level of selfesteem. such people rarely suffer from the "inferiority complex" and only from time to time try to adapt to the opinion of others. the sum of points from 86 to 128 indicates a low level of selfesteem, at which a person reacts painfully to critical remarks addressed to them, always tries to take into account the opinion of others and often suffers from "inferiority complex". the results of the diagnosis of self-esteem levels of students with special educational needs are presented in table 1. socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a … valentyna afanasenko, et al. 9 table 1. self-esteem levels of students with special educational needs level # % high 9 16,4 medium 21 38,2 low 25 45,4 source: authors’ own conception as the results of the study show, the vast majority of students with special educational needs have a low level of self-esteem, which indicates that critical remarks are quite painful for them, they try to adapt to other people's opinions, suffer from excessive shyness, have low motivation for achievements and identification of their professional interests and inclinations. only 9 students with special educational needs (16.4%) showed a high level of self-esteem, which means they are confident and do not have "inferiority complex" or attempt to adapt to the other’s opinions. the anxiety test (spielberg questionnaire) (nemov, 2001) was used in the diagnostic study to determine the levels of personal (stable personal tendency to respond to social situations with increased anxiety and excitement) and reactive (temporary anxiety in certain life situations) anxiety. the participants were given a questionnaire form with a number of statements to which they had to provide the following answers: 1 – no; 2 probably so; 3 true; 4 really true. anxiety levels in the spielberg questionnaire are defined as follows: a score of less than 12 indicates a very low level of anxiety and typical for depressive and areactive state with a low level of motivation. a score of 0 to 30 indicates low anxiety. the sum of points from 31 to 45 indicates a medium level of anxiety. a score of 45 or more indicates a high level of anxiety. the sum of scores much higher than 46 indicates not only a very high level of anxiety, but also directly correlates with the neurotic conflict, emotional and neurotic breakdowns, psychosomatic diseases. the results of the study of anxiety levels of the students with special educational needs are represented in table 2. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 10 table 2. anxiety levels of the students with special educational needs. levels of manifestation # % very high 7 12,7 high 15 27,3 medium 17 31 low 8 14,5 very low 3 5,5 source: authors’ own conception the results of a study of anxiety levels of students with special educational needs showed that most of them (31%) have a medium level of anxiety. this indicates their tendency to feel fear, apprehension and insecurity in some life situations. unfortunately, reactive anxiety of 27.3% students with special educational needs transformed into personal anxiety and became their stable personality trait. it should be noted that anxiety not only became a personality trait, but also caused a neurotic conflict, with emotional breakdowns and psychosomatic illnesses of 12.7% students. only 14.5% of students with special educational needs had a low level of anxiety, which characterizes them as self-confident and calm individuals who do not show fear and apprehension in various life situations. interestingly, three respondents (5.5%) have a very low level of anxiety. however, it might mean that they are actively suppressing their high anxiety in order to create a good impression of themselves for other people. in order to further study the socio-psychological characteristics of students with special educational needs, we conducted a test "assessment of the sociability level" (v. ryakhovsky) (karelin, 2007). students with special educational needs had to fill in the test forms with the answers: "yes" 2 points, "sometimes" 1 point, "no" 0 points. the test results by this method were determined as follows: 30 32 points complete lack of sociable skills. such people are clearly unsociable and they and their family members usually suffer from it. they are difficult to rely on in a situation that requires team efforts. 25 29 points low sociability. these people are closed, incommunicative, they prefer loneliness, so they have few friends. new work and the need for new contacts disbalance them for a long time. they are aware of this character feature and are often dissatisfied with themselves. 19 24 points – a medium level of sociability. such people are to some extent sociable and in an unknown situation feel quite confident. new socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a … valentyna afanasenko, et al. 11 problems do not frighten them. however, they are reluctant to communicate with new people, to take part in disputes and dicussions. their statements tend to be sarcastic, usually with no reason. 14 18 points a sufficient level of sociability. they are inquisitive, willing to listen to an interesting interlocutor, quite patient in communicating with others, defend their point of view without zeal. they meet new people without any worries. at the same time, they do not like noisy companies, eccentrical behavior and talkativeness. 9 13 points a high level of sociability. these people are quite sociable, interesting, talkative, they enjoy speaking on various issues, which sometimes irritates others. they are willing to meet new people. they like to be in the center of attention, do not refuse anyone's requests, although they can not always fulfill them. sometimes they can get angry, but they calm down quickly. they lack perseverance, patience and courage when facing with serious problems. 4 8 points – excessive sociability level. such people are the soul of any company. they enjoy participating in all discussions, although they do not like serious topics. they are are ready to talk on any topic, even if they have a superficial idea about it. everywhere they feel comfortable in all life situations. they settle down to any task, although they may not always be able to successfully complete it. for this reason, managers and colleagues have some apprehension and doubt about them. 3 points or less supersociable level. the sociability of these people is painful. they are talkative, interfere with some matters that have nothing to do with them. they express their judgements on problems in which they are not competent at. consciously or unconsciously, they often cause conflicts. they are hot-tempered, offensive, and often biased. serious work is not for them. other people find it difficult to deal with them. the study results on the test "assessment of the sociability level" (v. ryakhovsky) are shown in the table 3. table 3. levels of development of communicative skills and sociability of students with special educational needs level of manifestation # % lack of sociable skills 8 14,5 low sociability 10 18,2 medium sociability level 17 31 sufficient sociability level 15 27,3 high sociability level 4 7,3 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 12 excessive sociability level 1 1,7 supersociable level 0 0 source: authors’ own conception the analysis of the test results showed that only four students (7.3%) with special educational needs have a high sociability level. it was found out that a significant part of respondents has a medium (31%) and sufficient (27.3%) level of sociability. these data indicate that most students with special educational needs are inquisitive, sociable, and patient in communication. a low level of communication skills was diagnosed in 18.2% of students, which indicates that they are closed, lonely, do not want to make new contacts in communication. unfortunately, eight students with special educational needs (14.5%) totally lack communication skills, i.e. they are unsociable and suffer from it. only a few students had a high and excessive sociability level. this shows that it is easy for them to make new acquaintances, to express their views on various topics, but they often cause misunderstandings and conflicts with peers, because demonstrating their awareness and success, they do not always complete the work they have started. we worked out a questionnaire to determine the socialization levels of students with special educational needs. according to the results of the survey, most respondents find it difficult to decide what kind of person they are. thus 40% of students consider themselves principled, 20% of respondents see themselves as determined, 20% of respondents consider themselves strong-willed and 20% of students say that they are honest people. as for the relationship with other people, 27.2% of surveyed students easily come into contact with new people. 65.5% students find it difficult to establish new relationships with people. 7.3% of respondents could not answer this question at all. answering the question about the frequency of compromising their conscience to achieve their goal, most students admit they often have to do so (41.8%), while 25.5% of respondents say they never compromise their conscience and 32.7% of respondents do it sometimes. when asked about typical recent ambitions, the majority of respondents answered that they aim for establishing new relationships with interesting people (40%) and professional growth (40%%). only 20% of students are ambitious for making money. the answers of students with special educational needs about their behaviour in conflict situations appeared to be of great interest. thus, the socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a … valentyna afanasenko, et al. 13 majority of respondents want to get out of the conflict with dignity (56.4%), 23.6% of students go for a compromise solution and 20% of respondents admit they are not inferior to their opponent in the conflict. thus, according to the results of the survey among students with special educational needs, we can conclude that most respondents consider themselves principled people, although they do not have a clear idea of what kind of person they are. it was also found out that the vast majority of students find it difficult to establish new relationships with people, though they are ambitious for meeting interesting people and making new friends. the results of the survey also showed that students with special educational needs in a conflict situation attempt to get out of the conflict with dignity, rather than look for compromise solutions. the k. thomas test (adaptation by n. grishina, 2008) was conducted at the end of the diagnostic study to determine the personal disposition of students with special educational needs toward conflict behavior and ways of their behaving in conflict situations. the author of the test k. thomas identifies the following ways of behaving in conflicts: 1) competition as an attempt to satisfy own interests at the expense of others; 2) adapting as sacrificing own interests for the benefit of others; 3) compromise; 4) avoidance as a lack of tendency both for cooperation and for achieving own goals; 5) cooperation as working on an alternative solution that fully satisfies the interests of both parties. the results of the study of behaviors in conflicts of the students with special educational needs are shown in table 4. table 4. ways of behaving in conflict situations of the students with special educational needs ways of behavior # % competition 10 18,2 adapting 14 25,5 compromise 7 12,6 avoidance 14 25,5 cooperation 10 18,2 source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 14 as shown in table 4, adapting (25.5%) and avoidance (25.5%) are typical styles of behavior in conflict situations for most students with special educational needs. it means that they either do not want to defend their rights, do not cooperate with others to avoid conflict, or they agree to accept the views of others sacrificing their own interests. it should be noted that a significant proportion of respondents have directly opposite styles of behavior in conflict situations: 18.2% of respondents seek to protect their own interests in conflict and 18.2% go for cooperation. unfortunately, only seven students (12.6%) are ready to compromise in conflict situations. thus, the obtained data of the conducted diagnostic research became the basis for the development of means of conflict prevention in inclusive student groups. these tools, in our opinion, can be: training students to avoid "evaluative stereotypes" while communicating with students with special educational needs, because stereotyping simplifies the process of knowing another person or makes the attitude to them biased; development of empathy in interpersonal communication with student with special educational needs. empathy helps to adequately understand other people. the ability to perceive the feelings of another person as their own and to give an emotional response is a necessary component of communication and a specific means for people to get to know each other. developing other students’ skills to avoid causal attribution in communication with students with special educational needs. understanding is often complicated due to the lack of information specifying causal attribution. this phenomenon is the means of interpretation and evaluation of others on the basis of the life experience. causal attribution involves filling information gaps with characteristics and causes of behavior based on the past experience; conducting trainings as effective methods of conflict prevention and resolution in inclusive student groups. training for students is an effective education model that reproduces the situation of creative search. training sessions are practical group exercises to develop optimal solutions, application of methods and techniques in artificially created conditions that model a real psychological and pedagogical situation; conducting individual interviews to identify unfavorable living and education conditions of students with special educational needs; counselling students with special educational needs on overcoming personal problems (misunderstandings with loved ones, arranging of cooperation with other students, etc.); socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a … valentyna afanasenko, et al. 15 involvement of students with special educational needs in the work of the student mutual assistance club, interest club, volunteer activities, etc. conclusions and prospects for further research thus, the success of educational activities and social adaptation of students with special educational needs in higher education institutions depends on many factors, the main of which are the inclusion of such students in student groups, their involvement in joint activities, their feeling of belonging to the team. it largely depends on the activity of students with special educational needs, their sociability, their range of interests, etc. teachers’ friendly attitude and special training to work in inclusive student groups is a key to successful inclusion of students with special educational needs in the educational environment of higher education institutions. social inclusion, in contrast to educational inclusion, is aimed at the social adaptation of young people with special educational needs to the general system of social relations within the educational environment where it takes place. under the inclusion conditions this category of young people acquire the role behavior of their healthy peers and focuses on joining the educational environment of the academic group, adapting to the requirements of higher education institution and gets support of their studying. the results of the study reveal the main causes of conflict in inclusive student groups. they are socio-psychological characteristics of students with special educational needs including a low level of self-esteem due to which they get painful experiences because of critical remarks addressed to them, try to adapt to other people's opinions, have low motivation for achievement, feel lonely and anxious; low ability to establish new contacts for communication, low level of sociability; the desire to avoid conflict or to get out of it with dignity, accepting the opinions and interests of others, without seeking compromise solutions. based on these results, we have developed conflict prevention tools for inclusive student groups that can help students with special educational needs to interact effectively with other students while studying at a higher education institution. the prospects for further research in this direction are the development and justification of scientific and practical advice to tutors of inclusive student groups to improve educational, socio-psychological and social rehabilitation activities of students with special educational needs during their studies at a higher education institution. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 16 references bezliudnyi, o., bevzyuk, m., demchenko, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., babii i., kozii, o., bezliudna, v., butenko, o., dudnyk, n., nikitenko, a., riaboshapka, o. & kolesnik l. (2020). psycho-pedagogical conditions for preparing future teachers for their interaction with students’ parents in inclusive practice in primary schools. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11 (2), 160-177. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/80 bogdanov, e. & zazykin, v. (2004). psychology of personality in conflict. textbook. st. petersburg: piter. chaikovsky, m. (2016). theory and practice of socio-pedagogical work with young people with special needs in the inclusive educational environment [extended abstract of doctor’s thesis]. taras shevchenko national university of luhansk, starobilsk frumos, l. (2020). inclusive education in remote instruction with universal design for learning. revista românească pentru educaţie multidimensională, 12(2) sup.1, 138-142. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2sup1/299 grishina, n. v. (2008). the psychology of conflict. peter. karelin, a. a. (2007). psychological tests. moscow: vlados-press. kirsheva, n. & ryabchikova, n. (1995). personality psychology: tests, questionnaires, methods. helicon. kolupaeva, a., danilavichute, s. & litovchenko, s. (2012). professional cooperation in the inclusive educational institution. guidance manual. ask publishing group. lavrinenko, l. (2017). school for everyone (some aspects of inclusive education). guidance manual for heads of educational institutions, school teachers, teachers of preschool educational institutions, afterschool daycare groups, boarding schools, methodologists. chernihiv: chernihiv national technological university. mâţă, l. & clipa, o. (2020). inclusive education and in-service teachers' attitudes. revista românească pentru educaţie multidimensională, 12 (1), 135-149. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/204 nemov, r. (2001). psychology. textbook for higher pedagogical educational institutions. book 3: psychodiagnostics. moscow: vlados. popeliushko, r. (2019). peculiarities of inclusive education in the higher educational institution. major aspects of theory and practice of psychological and pedagogical training of future professionals, 114-116. khmelnytsky, ukraine. http://elar.khnu.km.ua/jspui/handle/123456789/7555 romanovska, l. & vasylenko, o. (2020). causes of conflicts in inclusive student groups and ways to resolve them. socio-educational dominants of professional training of specialists in the social sphere and inclusive education, 34-41. berdyansk, ukraine. http://elar.khnu.km.ua/jspui/handle/123456789/9747 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/80 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2sup1/299 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/204 http://elar.khnu.km.ua/jspui/handle/123456789/7555 http://elar.khnu.km.ua/jspui/handle/123456789/9747 socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a … valentyna afanasenko, et al. 17 sălceanu, c. (2020). development and inclusion of autistic children in public schools. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 14-31. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/12 sophii, n. (2008). providing an inclusive approach to teaching civics. civic education: theory and methods of teaching, 154-164. http://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/3078/ talanchuk, p., kolchenko, k. & nikulina, g. (2004). training support of students with special needs in the integrated educational environment. guidance manual. kyiv: sotsinform. teslenko, v. (2020). improving the health of children with special needs during the implementation of the programme of social and educational support. revista românească pentru educaţie multidimensională, 12 (2), 199-219. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2/274 tiuptya, l. & ivanova, i. (2008). social work (theory and practice). textbook for students of higher educational institutions. kyiv: vmurol "ukraine". vasylenko, o. (2010). socio-pedagogical conditions of adaptation of junior schoolchildren with special needs to study in secondary school: [extended abstract of phd thesis]. taras shevchenko national university of luhansk, luhansk. volchelyuk, yu. (2010). inclusive education as a factor of social adaptation of students with special needs. collection of research papers of the khmelnytsky institute of social technologies of the university "ukraine", 2. 18-20. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/znpkhist_2010_2_6 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/12 http://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/3078/ https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2/274 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/znpkhist_2010_2_6 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 01-16 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/265 neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences valentyna bilyk¹, alla dimitrova2 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kyiv, ukraine, valya-bilyk@ukr.net 2 bogomolets national medical university, kyiv, ukraine, a_dimitrova@ukr.net abstract: the presence of neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences has become the basis for the development of the academic discipline "fundamentals of modern neurobiology" as a component of the natural science training of future psychologists in higher education institutions. the main aim of the article is to structure the above-mentioned discipline to deepen and systematize the natural science knowledge previously mastered by psychology students to modern ideas about the physiological mechanisms of mental activity and human behavior, the causes of occurrence and the neural mechanisms of the main psychopathologies. to this end, one has achieved a number of partial results: a) the analysis of modern neurobiological sources has made it possible to determine the main areas of neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of the natural disciplines; b) one has justified the expediency of using interdisciplinary links when structuring the course on fundamentals of modern neurobiology; c) one has selected the three most promising areas of neurobiological research relevant to structuring the course on fundamentals of modern neurobiology. it has allowed one to design an integrative academic discipline "fundamentals of modern neurobiology", which, combining three interdependent and interconnected modules, namely: "neurobiological essence of human connection with the environment", "cognitive neurobiology and modern ideas about the higher nervous activity of a person", "neurobiological changes and mechanisms of dysfunctions of the nervous system, higher nervous activity and sensory systems ", will contribute to the effective implementation of the transformation of the content of natural science training of future psychologists, taking into account current trends in the present and the current state of development of neurobiological sciences. keywords: interdisciplinary connections, future psychologists, natural science knowledge, neural mechanisms, interconnected modules, neurobiological nature, cognitive neurobiology. how to cite: bilyk, v., & dimitrova, a. (2022). neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 01-16. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/265 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/265 mailto:valya-bilyk@ukr.net mailto:a_dimitrova@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/265 neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences valentyna bilyk & alla dimitrova 2 introduction integration processes occurring in the scientific environment, as a rule, lead to the emergence of new sciences, and in education to the emergence of new disciplines. in the system of natural sciences, these processes are quite active, so it can be considered a leader in science. for example, integration processes led to the emergence of biophysics, biochemistry, bioinformatics, bioengineering, biomechanics, biomedicine, neurobiology and other sciences. the presence of neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences became the basis for the development of the discipline "fundamentals of modern neurobiology" as a component of natural science training of future psychologists in higher education. we consider it appropriate to emphasize that the development of any discipline involves its preliminary design, namely: outlining the subject, goals and objectives, interdisciplinary links, determining the expected learning outcomes and competencies they will form, approximate thematic planning. the scientific training of future psychologists is interpreted as a basis for their mastery of professionally oriented knowledge and skills, taking into account some ideas of neporozhnya (2018) that the natural sciences: a) "create theories that determine the characteristics of human ideas about the world and oneself, form its awareness of the scientific picture of the world and are decisive in its creation; b) they are leading in changing the paradigm of scientific thinking; c) influence the creation of basic models of cognition; d) form the basis of applied sciences; e) it is the most important element of human spiritual culture, one of the essential indicators of the level of civilization… ". therefore, one can outline the subject of study and the purpose of the proposed discipline “fundamentals of modern neurobiology”. also, the article substantiates the expediency of interdisciplinary links and areas of assessing the acquired competences. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; melnyk et al., 2019; sheremet, leniv, loboda, & maksymchuk, 2019; gerasymova et al., 2019). the main objectives of the designed training course are: a) to expand the understanding of psychology students about the value of natural science training in substantiating professional actions, developing creative potential and increasing the level of competitiveness in the labor market; b) teach brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 3 future psychologists to analyze, synthesize, generalize natural science knowledge and notice the prospects for their practical application; c) to form students-psychologists ideas about the natural scientific methodology of the analysis of mental phenomena and human behavior, about the possibilities and place of physiological research methods in psychological practice; d) to form in future psychologists the ability to interpret age-related characteristics of mental activity, human behavior and to recognize the characteristics of the main psychopathologies, using the results of modern neurobiological research. literature review lately, humanities and borderline sciences are paying more and more attention to neurobiological foundations of learning and cognitive processes accompanying it. modern research has shown that neurobiological methods can be used to observe and adjust the hierarchy of links (molecular  cellular  systemic (brain areas) during the acquisition, memorization and production of knowledge.) besides, neurobiological cognitive processes are almost identical to pedagogical processes of learning and acquisition of competences. in this regard, researchers claim that “there are significant opportunities for the integration of modern knowledge about the biology of learning with educational strategies and curriculum development” (friedlander et al., 2011). the specially developed and realized strategies of cognitive neurobiology have already contain the concepts of implementing three main practical aspects (sensory perception, sensorimotor coordination and microphysical realization) in pedagogy and psychology (churchland, 1986). being somewhat reductionist, this approach has nevertheless shown considerable effectiveness in practice. according to eichenbaum (1997), the discovery of declarative memory different from its other forms is a major recent achievement in cognitive science. the main questions about the nature of declarative memory are considered in the context of its basic brain mechanisms. numerous studies show that declarative memory is mediated by a specific brain system, including areas of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus which significantly contribute to memory processing (eichenbaum 1997). declarative memory, which is easily diagnosed and observed, is a marker of more complex processes, such as flexibility, systematicity, spontaneity of expression, depth. kelly et al. (2006) have analyzed a number of studies on the neurobiology of aging and summarized the main areas of gerontological neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences valentyna bilyk & alla dimitrova 4 studies on neurobiological changes during “normal aging”. they are as follows: a) the mechanisms of hippocampal plasticity; b) calcium dyshomeostasis and synaptic communication (testing “the calcium hypothesis” in aging); c) the loss of synaptic connections; c) neuropathological changes along with alzheimer’s disease (kelly et al., 2006). as noted by eclarinal & ajilore (2017), neuroimaging allows one to determine structural and biochemical markers of age-related pathologies (the decrease in gray matter’ the increase in white matter hyperintensity and neurochemical changes). the researchers prove that oxidation processes and mitochondrial dysfunction of brain cells are one of the main causes of bipolar disorder in elderly patients. regarding the neurophysiology-environment relationship, kempermann (2019) confirms that the environment enriched with stimuli based on the available genotype can change the neurogenesis of the hippocampus in adults. this change affects the plasticity of the brain manifested externally in the expansion of acts and patterns of behaviour, as well as in the increase of individual experience. neurobiological studies on human behaviour in society enable one to establish the dependence of deviant behaviour (aggression) on changes in metabolism, the specifics of the subregions of the prefrontal cortex and the intensity of transport of serotonin and dopamine. these aspects endogenously determine the cognitive-behavioural specificity of the individual and can depend on the environment. due to reflexive perception, the latter may increase or decrease neurophysiological factors (cupaioli et al., 2021). another important aspect is the justification of interdisciplinary links as the most important factor in optimizing the educational process. according to burzhinskaya (2007), konyok (2013), neporozhnya (2018), one of the important reserves for improving the educational process in higher education is the establishment and application of interdisciplinary links in the formation of curricula, study programs, choice of information and educational material, etc. konyok (2013) considers interdisciplinary communication as "the most important factor in optimizing the learning process, increasing its effectiveness, reducing the overload of lecturers and students". the researcher asserts that this is due to "the modern level of development of science, characterized by a pronounced integration of social, natural and technical knowledge". neporozhnya (2018) agrees with konyok (2013) who notes that "by introducing interdisciplinary topics in programs and defining interdisciplinary links between individual topics, where there is a need and brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 5 opportunity, it is possible to achieve harmonization of the content of natural subjects". according to burzhinskaya (2007), one of the main functions of interdisciplinary relations among the disciplines of natural science training is the consistent reflection in their content of the objective relationships that operate in nature. according to the scientist, interdisciplinary naturalscientific connections are manifested in the systematization of knowledge obtained by students and form the basis for the formation of a scientific worldview and comprehensive development of personality. following the views on the expediency of the active introduction of interdisciplinary connections to increase the motivation of students in the study of non-core fundamental disciplines, burzhinskaya (2007) notes that their use in higher education institutions causes certain difficulties, which, according to the scientist, are associated with the traditional isolation of academic subjects and the search for connections between highly specialized courses. among the most common difficulties faced by lecturers of higher education institutions in the process of organizing the educational process on the basis of interdisciplinary links, burzhinskaya (2007) singles out the difficulties associated with the organization of cognitive activity of students, namely, with the formation of desire and ability to establish links between knowledge from different disciplines and cognitive interest in worldviews of science. methods the main research methods include induction (generalization of modern neurobiological achievements), surveying of actors in the educational process (students), as well as the method of designing (an academic discipline). the design of the thematic plan of the discipline "fundamentals of modern neurobiology" was carried out taking into account the fact that psychology students already have a certain level of natural science knowledge and skills provided for by the state standard (ministry of education and science of ukraine, 2019) and the program in biology for general educational institutions, the formation of which was facilitated by educational material, is highlighted in the developed by us and the textbook "biology for the 8th grade" recommended by the ministry of education and science of ukraine, the textbook for the 8th grade of general educational institutions (strashko, horyana, & bilyk, 2016) and the educationalneurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences valentyna bilyk & alla dimitrova 6 methodical manual "biology: workbook" (strashko, voytsekhivskyy, bilyk, & ihnatenko, 2016). we consider it appropriate to note that when forming the content of this integrative discipline, we took into account the results of a survey of psychology students and practicing psychologists, the results of a theoretical analysis of the content of school textbooks and workbooks, and research of domestic and foreign scientists on the theory of modern education. in particular, we relied on scientific views of andrushchenko, & lutay (2008) on the expediency of interpreting the educational function of education as one that involves teaching future generations of students the knowledge and skills that are the property of society and their coverage in development, and educational as such that is aimed at the socialization of man, ie the formation of a system of spiritual values, which simultaneously combines the interests of the individual and the interests of society; principles of competence orientation of higher education, which, according to sysoeva (2015), make "the expansion of academic and professional recognition and mobility, the correlation of diplomas and qualifications of specialists in our country and the european educational and research space”, in accordance with which it is necessary to separate "target and competence" spaces ", covering" international landmarks and contexts, when creating educational resources to distribute competences into two groups: “general and professional” that "must ensure the fulfillment of the requirements for academic and professional training; the theory of didactic integrology by kozlovska (2011), according to which “the application of the basic laws of didactic integration and their consequences makes it possible to create didactic systems based on basic fundamental knowledge”. kozlovska (2011) believes that the advantage of such systems is that they together are constant (based on fundamental knowledge and didactic laws) and variable (respond quickly to changing social requirements), while the main course becomes the integrator that groups knowledge in accordance with the requirements of a particular profession. when designing the content of the above-mentioned academic discipline, we took into account the scientific works of okoń (1998) and zagvyazinsky (2008) on the formation of the content of education. okoń (1998) argues that when shaping the content of education, it is necessary to take into account the criteria associated with a person who is involved in the educational process and develops, and society is changing. zagvyazinsky (2008) agrees with this point of view and proposes a generalized structure with which, according to the scientist, it is advisable to form the content of all academic disciplines, namely: the introduction, or the basis of science, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 7 reveals the modern natural science and social picture of the world, that is, a set of fundamental concepts, laws , theories, basic facts and types of problems that science solves the main areas of application of theoretical knowledge; methodological approaches that ensure the conscious mastery of knowledge by a person and the development of his thinking, in particular, information about the history of knowledge; knowledge necessary to ensure all or many spheres of human life and activity: unsolved, but important scientific and social problems; generalizing principles and provisions, form in the consciousness of the individual an understanding of the unity and development of the world. results thus, given the above, in the process of teaching the discipline "fundamentals of modern neurobiology" provides for the formation of general and special (professional, subject) competencies that require the presence of scientific knowledge, skills and abilities. we believe that having a certain level of scientific training in the subjects studied in the school course of biology, students of psychology are able to independently or in terms of individual-consultative cooperation with the lecturer (according to student needs) to deepen it in accordance with modern advances in neurobiology. in our opinion, this approach to designing an integrative course "fundamentals of modern neurobiology" allows a lecturer of higher education to spend more time studying more complex topics of the course and promotes the formation of students-psychologists creative activity, perseverance, desire for scientific self-development, self-education and selfimprovement and skills to independently search for the necessary scientific information, to understand and realize its subject area, to operate the natural-scientific conceptual and categorical apparatus, to analyticallycritically process, analyze and generalize natural-scientific information from various sources and to formulate reasoned conclusions. so, given that in topic 7 "the relationship of the human body with the environment. nervous system ", developed by us textbook" biology for 8th grade "highlights the main aspects: the general structure and functions of the human nervous system; excitation and inhibition processes; impulse transmission in the nervous system; reflex activity of the human nervous system; structure and functions of the spinal cord, brain stem and cerebellum, diencephalon and terminal brain (the textbook for the 8th grade of general educational institutions (strashko, horyana, & bilyk, 2016); in neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences valentyna bilyk & alla dimitrova 8 topic 8 "the relationship of the human body with the environment. sensory systems ", contains general characteristics of visual, auditory, chemoreceptor sensory systems and tactile sensitivity (strashko, horyana, & bilyk, 2016); topic 9 "higher nervous activity" reveals the basics of human behavior (congenital and acquired), features of signaling systems; sensation and perception; memory; emotions; physiological mechanisms and sleep hygiene (strashko, horyana, & bilyk, 2016), and in the textbook “biology: workbook. test tasks. laboratory tests. research tutorial", our proposed plans contain tasks for laboratory research and research workshops on these topics (strashko, voytsekhivskyy, bilyk, & ihnatenko, 2016). we were able to logically and rationally distribute the hours (credits) between the modules and topics of the developed discipline table 1. thematic planning of the integrative discipline "fundamentals of modern neurobiology" there are 3 ects credits (90 hours) module names t o ta l c re d it s / h o u rs distribution of hours provided for discipline training in-class learning in d e p e n d e n t w o rk o f st u d e n ts t o ta l cl as sr o o m h o u rs l e c tu re s s em in ar -p ra c ti c al c la ss e s module i. neurobiological essence of human connection with the external environment. 1/30 8 4 4 22 module ii. cognitive neurobiology and modern ideas about higher human nervous activity. 1/30 12 6 6 18 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 9 module iii. neurobiological aspect of age-related changes and mechanisms of disorders of the nervous system, higher nervous activity and sensory systems. 1/30 14 6 8 16 hours in general 3/90 34 16 18 56 systematized by the authors our preliminary theoretical design of the discipline "fundamentals of modern neurobiology" allows us to characterize its content by modules and topics. thus, taking into account the above, the educational discipline “fundamentals of modern neurobiology” developed by us has integrated three modules: “neurobiological essence of human connection with the external environment”, “cognitive neurobiology and modern ideas about human higher nervous activity”, “neurobiological aspect of age-related changes and mechanisms of disorders functions of the nervous system, higher nervous activity and sensory systems "(table 1), the topics of which, according to the traditional system for the implementation of naturalscientific training of future psychologists in higher education institutions, are covered in several separate educational systems "," physiology of higher nervous activity and sensory systems ", " age physiology "," fundamentals of medical knowledge ", " valeology ", etc., focused on the mono-aspect of teaching, during which the subject of study is interpreted from the standpoint of one biological characteristic , e.g., highlights either only the morphological features of the subject of study, or only its genetic aspects, or only its physiological features and etc., while the modules of the academic discipline developed by us are designed to ensure the end-to-end implementation of these tasks and the formation of a holistic system of professionally oriented neurobiological knowledge in students (and not a body of knowledge, as it happens according to the traditional system of natural-scientific training of future psychologists in institutions of higher education) which, of course, will contribute to the formation of the natural science competence of future psychologists, will become the basis for their professional training in higher education institutions, will allow the highquality performance of future professional duties and thereby ensure the high competitiveness of the future psychologist in the labor market. the use of interdisciplinary links and interdisciplinary integration of different branches of biology (morphology, physiology, genetics, ecology, etc.), chemistry, physics, valeology and medicine in the development of the neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences valentyna bilyk & alla dimitrova 10 discipline "fundamentals of modern neurobiology" gives grounds to consider it as an integrative discipline of the system natural-scientific training of future psychologists, which ensures the formation of their holistic naturalscientific competence. discussion the analysis of relevant scientific sources proves that the module on the neurobiological essence of human connection with the external environment” is expedient to study. at the same time, the environment is considered in a broad sense, namely, as a natural and cultural environment. regarding the latter, it essential to consider reasonable views of doane, sladek & adam (2018) on the links between biology, new demographic models and cultural neurobiology. the basic idea is that there are constant transactions “between cultural processes and central and peripheral aspects of neurobiology over a number of time frames” (doane, sladek, & adam, 2018). one can observe adaptive processes emerging in the human population surrounded by a certain cultural environment. these processes can be determined using biomarkers (allostatic load, activity of the autonomic nervous system, the specifics of hypothalamic-pituitary function). analyzing the current areas of neurobiological research, one can justify the need to single out the module on the neurobiological aspect of age-related changes and mechanisms of disorders in the nervous system, higher nervous system and sensory systems. indeed, researchers have shown a link between individual mental and biological models which predict predisposition to exogenous mental disorders, including depression. the neurobiological basis of such disorders is closely related to social (depletion) and phenotypic aspects. in the laboratory, one can determine the degree of neuroplasticity, neurotransmitter changes. psychological methods make it possible to identify the degree of stress, nervous tension. the article proves that all the above-mentioned mechanisms are “interconnected and interact bilaterally”, and “psychological factors have a direct impact on neurodevelopment, causing a biological predisposition to depression, while biological factors can also lead to psychological pathology” (dean, & keshavan, 2017). one should also distinguish the module on the neurobiological aspect of age-related changes and mechanisms of disorders in the nervous system, higher nervous system and sensory systems, given numerous neurophysiological studies on the frontoparietal and subcortical brain networks and cognitive disorders in traumatized patients and geriatric patients. the main empirical evidence is the role of neuroimaging these brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 11 areas. modern neuroimaging methods allow one to assess not only the structural integrity of components of the central nervous system (cns) but also its vascular, functional and molecular characteristics. these advances in neuroimaging help one understand the early and subtle age-related cns disorders in more detail (rosso, nadkarni, & rosano, 2020). sullivan’s (2015) position can be perceived as final on the relevance of neuroscientific studies on cognitive processes of the psyche. according to the researcher, “neurology is a laboratory science covering various levels of analysis, namely, from molecular genetics to behaviour. one designs experiments at each level of analysis to answer empirical questions about interesting phenomena. understanding the nature and structure of experiments in neurology is fundamental to assessing the quality of the evidence obtained from such experiments and the types of statements supported by the data” (sullivan, 2015). also, sullivan (2015) identifies two key sub-branches in this regard, such as cognitive neurology and cognitive neurobiology. it confirms the need to single out the module on cognitive neurobiology and modern ideas on higher nervous activity of humans. on the other hand, the results of our theoretical analysis of scientific sources on the importance and place in the educational process of interdisciplinary links allow one to conclude that for the effective formation of scientific competence of future psychologists in higher education in the discipline "updates of modern neurobiology it is important not only to demonstrate interdisciplinary links by the teacher, but also to involve students in their search. however, the experience of our own pedagogical activity forces us to agree with the opinion of burzhinskaya (2007) about the inefficiency of independent search by students of interdisciplinary or intradisciplinary connections at the initial stages of learning. therefore, the process of forming the ability of students of psychology to independently search for interdisciplinary links in the process of learning the discipline "fundamentals of modern neurobiology", we will begin using the findings of burzhinskaya (2007) on the expediency of the gradual formation of such an ability. thus, according to the researcher, you must first teach students to characterize the object of several of the most important aspects that correspond to the basic teachings of a particular science, gradually involving them in finding more connections not only intradisciplinary but also interdisciplinary, which will automatically lead to ability of students to independently find interdisciplinary connections of the analyzed objects and phenomena. neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences valentyna bilyk & alla dimitrova 12 conclusions thus, the subject of study of the discipline "fundamentals of modern neurobiology" are: hierarchical subordination and interaction of the central nervous system; nervous processes that occur in its higher parts and ensure the fluidity of human behavioral reactions; neural bases of mental processes; age-related changes in the human body and neurobiological mechanisms of dysfunction of its nervous system, higher nervous activity and sensory systems, and its purpose to deepen and systematize previously acquired by students of psychology scientific knowledge of modern ideas about physiological mechanisms of mental activity and behavior, causes and neural mechanisms of basic psychopathologies. the list of recommended literature, which is a compulsory component of the curriculum in any discipline, including "fundamentals of modern neurobiology", is formed by us taking into account its purpose, student needs and current advances in neurobiological sciences. a factor that contributes to the transformation of the content of natural science training of future psychologists in higher education, taking into account current trends and the current state of development of neurobiological sciences, is an integrative course "fundamentals of modern neurobiology", which aims to deepen and systematize -psychologists of natural science knowledge of modern ideas about the physiological mechanisms of mental activity and human behavior, the causes and mechanisms of the main psychopathologies. the course consists of three modules: "neurobiological essence of human communication with the environment", "cognitive neurobiology and modern ideas about higher nervous activity", "neurobiological aspect of age-related changes and mechanisms of disorders of the nervous system, higher nervous system and sensory systems" , which will ensure the end-to-end performance of the outlined tasks and the formation of a holistic system of modern professionally oriented neurobiological knowledge. this approach to designing an integrative course "fundamentals of modern neurobiology" allows a lecturer of higher education to spend more time studying more complex topics of the course and promotes the formation of students-psychologists creative activity, perseverance, desire for scientific self-development, self-education and self-improvement and skills to independently search for the necessary scientific information, to understand and realize its subject area, to operate the natural-scientific conceptual and categorical apparatus, to analytically-critically process, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 13 analyze and generalize natural-scientific information from various sources and to formulate reasoned conclusions. references andrushchenko, v., & lutay, v. (2008). filosofiya osvity [philosophy of education]. in v. kremen (ed.), entsyklopediia osvity [encyclopedia of education] (pp. 960–980). kyiv: yurinkom inter. burzhinskaya, t. g. (2007). ispolzovaniye mezhpredmetnykh svyazey v obuchenii khimii studentov geograficheskikh fakultetov [the use of interdisciplinary connections in teaching chemistry to students of geographical faculties]. naukovi vidomosti byelhorodskoho derzhavnoho universytetu. seriya: pryrodnychi nauky [scientific bulletin of belgorod state university. series: natural sciences], 5(36), 168170. churchland, p. m. (1986). some reductive strategies in cognitive neurobiology. in s. silvers (ed.), representation. philosophical studies series (vol. 40, pp. 223253). dordrecht: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2649-3_12 cupaioli, f. a, zucca, f. a., caporale, c., lesch, k.-p., passamonti, l., & zecca, l. (2021). the neurobiology of human aggressive behavior: neuroimaging, genetic, and neurochemical aspects. progress in neuro-psychopharmacology and biological psychiatry, 106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2020.110059 dean, j., & keshavan, m. (2017). the neurobiology of depression: an integrated view. asian journal of psychiatry, 27, 101–11. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28558878/ doane, l. d., sladek, m. r., & adam, e. k. (2018). an introduction to cultural neurobiology: evidence from physiological stress systems. in j. m. causadias, e. h. telzer, & n. a. gonzales (eds.), the handbook of culture and biology (pp. 227–254). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons, inc. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119181361.ch10 eclarinal, e., & ajilore, o. (2017). neurobiology of older age bipolar disorder. in s. lehmann, & b. forester (eds.), bipolar disorder in older age patients (pp. 4356). cham: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48912-4_3 eichenbaum, h. (1997). declarative memory: insights from cognitive neurobiology. annual review of psychology, 48, 547–572. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.48.1.547 friedlander, m. j., andrews, l., armstrong, e. g., aschenbrenner, c., kass, j. s., ogden, p., schwartzstein, r., & viggiano, t. r. (2011). what can medical education learn from the neurobiology of learning? academic medicine, 86, 415–420. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21346504/ gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2649-3_12 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0278584620303754#! https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2020.110059 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28558878/ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119181361.ch10 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48912-4_3 https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.48.1.547 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21346504/ neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences valentyna bilyk & alla dimitrova 14 future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604 /pdf kelly, k. m., nadon, n. l., morrison, j. h., thibault, o., barnes, c. a., & blalock, e. m. (2006). the neurobiology of aging. epilepsy research, 68, 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2005.07.015 kempermann, g. (2019). environmental enrichment, new neurons and the neurobiology of individuality. nature reviews neuroscience, 20, 235–245. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0120-x konyok, m. m. (2013). mizhpredmetni zvyazky yak faktor optymizatsiyi protsesu pidhotovky maybutnikh vchyteliv tekhnolohiy [interdisciplinary links as a factor in optimizing the process of training future teachers of technology]. visnyk chernihivskoho natsionalnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu. seriya: pedahohichni nauky [bulletin of chernihiv national pedagogical university. pedagogical sciences], 108(2), 168–170. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vchdpup_2013_2_108_39 kozlovska, i. m. (2011). dydaktychna intehrolohiya: teoriya ta praktychne zastosuvannya u profesiyno-tekhnichniy shkoli [didactic integralogy: theory and practical application in vocational school]. suchasni informatsiyni tekhnolohiyi ta innovatsiyni metodyky navchannya u pidhotovtsi fakhivtsiv: metodolohiya, teoriya, dosvid, problem [modern information technologies and innovative teaching methods in training: methodology, theory, experience, problems], 27, 557–564. http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=re f&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr =20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21 str=%d0%9a%d0%be%d0%b7%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d1 %81%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m ministry of education and science of ukraine. (2019). standart vyshchoyi osvity ukrayiny iz haluzi znan 05 sotsialni ta povedinkovi nauky, spetsialnosti 053 “psykholohiya” [standard of higher education of ukraine in the field of knowledge 05 social and behavioral sciences, specialty 053 “psychology”]. https://mon.gov.ua/storage/app/media/vishchaosvita/zatverdzeni%20standarty/2019/04/25/053psikhologiyabakalavr.pdf http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf http://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1604/pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2005.07.015 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0120-x http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vchdpup_2013_2_108_39 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%9a%d0%be%d0%b7%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d1%81%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%9a%d0%be%d0%b7%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d1%81%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%9a%d0%be%d0%b7%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d1%81%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%9a%d0%be%d0%b7%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d1%81%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%9a%d0%be%d0%b7%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d1%81%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%9a%d0%be%d0%b7%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d1%81%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://mon.gov.ua/storage/app/media/vishcha-osvita/zatverdzeni%20standarty/2019/04/25/053psikhologiyabakalavr.pdf https://mon.gov.ua/storage/app/media/vishcha-osvita/zatverdzeni%20standarty/2019/04/25/053psikhologiyabakalavr.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 15 neporozhnya, l. v. (2018). formuvannya pryrodnycho-naukovoyi kompetentnosti starshoklasnykiv u protsesi navchannya fizyky [formation of natural science competence of high school students in the process of teaching physics]. kyiv: convie print. http://undip.org.ua/news/library/posibniki_detail.php?id=6912 nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/ 2625 okoń, w. (1998). wprowadzenie do dydaktyki ogólnej. warszawa: wydawnictwo: żak. https://medbook.com.pl/ksiazka/pokaz/id/2407/tytul/wprowadzeniedo-dydaktyki-ogolnej-okon-wydawnictwo-akademickie-zak rosso, a. l., nadkarni, n. k., & rosano, c. (2020). neurobiology of falls: neuroimaging assessment. in m. montero-odasso, & r. camicioli (eds.), falls and cognition in older persons (pp. 165188). cham: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24233-6_10 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 strashko, s. v., horyana, l. h., & bilyk, v. h. (2016). biolohiya: pidruchnyk dlya 8 klasu zahalnoosvitnikh navchalnykh zakladiv [biology: the textbook for the 8th grade of general educational institutions]. kyiv: gramota. https://www.gramota.kiev.ua/pdf/8kl_biologiya_strashko.pdf strashko, s. v., voytsekhivskyy, m. f., bilyk, v. h., & ihnatenko, s. a. (2016). biolohiya: robochyy zoshyt. testovi zavdannya. laboratorni doslidzhennya. doslidnytski praktykumy. 8 klas [biology: workbook. test tasks. laboratory tests. research tutorials. grade 8]. kyiv: gramota. https://www.yakaboo.ua/biologija-robochij-zoshit-8-klas-testovizavdannja-laboratorni-doslidzhennja-doslidnic-kij-praktikum.html#tabattributes sullivan, j. a. (2015). experimentation in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neurobiology. in j. clausen, & h. levy (eds.), handbook of neuroethics (pp. 31–47). ny: springer. https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-94-007-4707-4 sysoeva, s. (2015). kompetentnisno zoriyentovana vyshcha osvita: formuvannya naukovoho tezaurusu. kompetentnisno zoriyentovana osvita: yakisni vymiry [competenceoriented higher education: the formation of a scientific thesaurus. competence-oriented education: qualitative dimensions]. kyiv university named after b. hrynchenko. http://undip.org.ua/news/library/posibniki_detail.php?id=6912 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://medbook.com.pl/ksiazka/pokaz/id/2407/tytul/wprowadzenie-do-dydaktyki-ogolnej-okon-wydawnictwo-akademickie-zak https://medbook.com.pl/ksiazka/pokaz/id/2407/tytul/wprowadzenie-do-dydaktyki-ogolnej-okon-wydawnictwo-akademickie-zak https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24233-6_10 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://www.gramota.kiev.ua/pdf/8kl_biologiya_strashko.pdf https://www.yakaboo.ua/biologija-robochij-zoshit-8-klas-testovi-zavdannja-laboratorni-doslidzhennja-doslidnic-kij-praktikum.html#tab-attributes https://www.yakaboo.ua/biologija-robochij-zoshit-8-klas-testovi-zavdannja-laboratorni-doslidzhennja-doslidnic-kij-praktikum.html#tab-attributes https://www.yakaboo.ua/biologija-robochij-zoshit-8-klas-testovi-zavdannja-laboratorni-doslidzhennja-doslidnic-kij-praktikum.html#tab-attributes https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-94-007-4707-4 neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences valentyna bilyk & alla dimitrova 16 https://kubg.edu.ua/images/stories/departaments/osvitology/spisok_na uk_prats_ndl_osv_2015.pdf zagvyazinsky, v. i. (2008). teoriya obucheniya: sovremennaya interpretatsiya [learning theory: modern interpretation]. moscow: academia. https://www.twirpx.com/file/2038088/ https://kubg.edu.ua/images/stories/departaments/osvitology/spisok_nauk_prats_ndl_osv_2015.pdf https://kubg.edu.ua/images/stories/departaments/osvitology/spisok_nauk_prats_ndl_osv_2015.pdf https://www.twirpx.com/file/2038088/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 57-79 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/238 theories of a stresscoping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh¹, nataliia mateiko2, myroslav savchyn3, mariia zamishchak4, svitlana zabolotska5, vasyl kulyk6 1 v. n. karazin kharkiv national university, kharkiv, ukraine, ninayarosh88@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-58637600 2 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, mnm2807@ukr.net 3 ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, msavchun@gmail.com 4 ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, dpszammeri@gmail.com 5 ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, svitlana.zabolotska@ukr.net 6 ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, vasyakulyk@gmail.com abstract: the article proves that the main form of overcoming stress is coping behavior, which is understood as a purposeful social and neurophysiologically determined behavior that allows a person to cope with stress in ways that meet the characteristics of the individual and the situation. coping behavior is considered a synonym for stress-coping behavior, which is expressed in the use of coping strategies by the individual. personal characteristics and situational factors determine the choice of coping behavior strategies. the article aims to resolve the contradictions of multimodal approaches to the problem in question in the post-soviet countries and group theories that include not only external social but also neurophysiological factors. the article shows that the choice of coping strategies mostly depends on personal and neurophysiological factors. these include neurophysiological reflexive or instinctive and higher ones: adequate self-concept, positive self-esteem, personality anxiety, cognitive style, and energy resources, which include endurance and temperament characteristics, intelligence, creativity, and locus of personality control. overcoming a stressful situation is impossible without cognitive "processing," which becomes available through reflection. the influence of reflection on the choice of coping strategy of the individual is that reflective individuals choose more adaptive and effective strategies. the international relevance of the article lies in discovering neuroscientific aspects of the problem in question in the post-soviet countries, which will allow these countries to contribute to the global scientific interdisciplinary discourse. keywords: subjectivity, avoidance, positive self-esteem, personality anxiety level, cognitive style, energy resource, character traits, intelligence, creativity and personality locus control. how to cite: yarosh, n., mateiko, n., savchyn, m., zamishchak, m., zabolotska, s., & kulyk, v. (2021). theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 57-79. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/238 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/238 mailto:ninayarosh88@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5863-7600 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5863-7600 mailto:mnm2807@ukr.net mailto:msavchun@gmail.com mailto:dpszammeri@gmail.com mailto:svitlana.zabolotska@ukr.net mailto:vasyakulyk@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/238 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 58 introduction in everyday life, people are constantly faced with various difficulties which they have to overcome. quite frequently, such difficulties can exceed one’s resources and lead to stress, followed by negative changes in psychological and physical well-being, as well as in professional activity. according to recent sociological studies, despite significant improvements in living standards and life expectancy, stress is becoming a more and more acute problem today. the globalized and informatized neoliberal society prioritizes physical security of people, respects their rights and recognizes life as the greatest value. still, humanity is powerless in the face of vast arrays of destructive information, rapidly changing events, situations of uncertainty and information entropy, the need for instant decisions. consequently, all these factors provoke stressful situations almost daily. one of the essential topics in the psychological space is the issue of stress-coping behavior. constant stay in the atmosphere of stress in which the person lives requires an effective psychological response. a characteristic feature of modern psychological research is studying the field and possibilities of positive human existence. researchers have developed many classifications of stress responses and described types of behavior in a stressful situation. analysis of the scientific literature on the problem of personal resources to overcome stress shows that today the most studied are two types of personal processing of negative experiences. these are psychological protection (freud, 1999; zhurbin, 1990) and psychological overcoming – a phenomenon that has been studied in the literature recently and is still not fully disclosed (antsiferova, 1994; nerubasska et al., 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020; vasilyuk, 1984). the term "coping" first appeared in the psychological literature to explain how children overcome developmental crises. the founders of the concept are folkman et al. (1986), who called coping strategies "strategies for mastering and settling relationships with the environment." they turned to coping to describe conscious strategies to overcome stress and other events that cause anxiety (folkman et al., 1986). since the early '90s of the twentieth century, the study of coping behavior has become a field of scientific research of post-soviet researchers. they are exploring ways to overcome stressful situations by healthy people representatives of various professions, including doctors, psychologists, psychotherapists, students, teachers, managers, law enforcement officers, and people suffering from alcoholism, drug addiction, neurosis, and more. theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 59 in the works of domestic psychologists (rasskazova & gordeyeva, 2011), we find the interpretation of the concept of "coping" as overcoming (stress-overcoming) or psychological overcoming of stress. titarenko (2010) emphasizes the internal factors of human resilience to stress, using the concept of "viability," which was introduced into scientific circulation by maddi & khoshaba (1994) in the late '70s of the twentieth century. vitality characterizes the degree of ability of an individual to withstand a stressful situation, maintaining internal balance and not reducing the success of activities. titarenko & larina (2009) believe that the components of vitality are trusted in life and the world, loyalty to yourself, developed internal control, the ability to overcome obstacles, the desire to test their strength. sustainability affects not only the assessment of the situation but also the choice of coping strategy. therefore, it should be noted that the concept of "viability" is not identical to the concept of "coping strategy." nikonenko (2015) considers overcoming behavior as one that reflects the readiness of the individual to solve problem situations. the author believes that the concept of coping behavior is broader than the concept of coping strategy, and the latter – for coping. coping strategy is an internal regulatory mechanism of human behavior, and the behavior itself is not actually a psychological phenomenon, because it contains social and biological components. according to the author, overcoming behavior is realized through successful coping strategies (nikonenko, 2015). nikolskaya & granovskaya (2006) note that the concept of coping behavior in its content is close to the concept of psychological protection. the main difference is that coping behavior strategies are used by the individual consciously, and can change depending on the circumstances, and the mechanisms of psychological protection are not realized, and in the case of their consolidation become maladaptive. kryukova (2010) points out that a person who resists stress uses several basic strategies that can be both optimal and suboptimal, both adequate and inadequate situations. according to the author, the "overcoming person" is considered in the paradigm of "stress coping" as having a unique personal disposition, high reserves of resistance to stress or resilience (kryukova, 2010). antsiferova (1994) notes that individuals in problematic and stressful situations resort to psychological protection mechanisms, perceive the world as a source of danger, have low self-esteem, and have a pessimistic outlook. individuals who prefer constructive coping behavior strategies have an brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 60 optimistic outlook, stable positive self-esteem, a realistic approach to life, and a solid motivation to achieve. effective coping strategies are a crucial element of a person's psychological health. it is also possible to include the concepts of vitality ("hardiness") and psychological well-being. psychological well-being, vitality, and coping are a system of stable positive traits of the individual, interpreted as personal resources that contribute to the successful adaptation of man to the world and practical mastery of it, and perform a vital buffer function, i.e., prevent the development of mental pathology, deviant behavior, personal violations (olefir, 2011). the above-mentioned approaches show that one can define the essence of the phenomenon of psychological overcoming in several ways. in particular, specific strategies of reaction and behavior in stressful situations aimed at overcoming negative experiences are considered; certain personal qualities that contribute to the implementation of constructive psychological overcoming are clarified. however, the relevance of the problem in question can be determined by several contradictions. a detailed propaedeutic analysis of available scientific works shows that: a) the problem of coping strategies and coping behavior is indeed acute; b) the specified topic is widespread among bloggers, journalists, teachers who somewhat exaggerate it in scientific, pseudo-scientific and journalistic discourse; c) recently, the body of research on coping behavior has expanded significantly. such multimodality of approaches and heterogeneity of participants in coping discourse make it difficult to elaborate practical recommendations and strategies. thus, it is crucial to reduce the entropy of the terminology and scientific content on the problem in question. this will contribute to its epistemological certainty and coherence and allow one to outline the most effective and appropriate theories and practices of coping behavior and its strategies. with regard to the post-soviet countries, another problem lies in the absence or fragmentary nature of studies on neurophysiological mechanisms of coping behavior. besides, the data obtained by different researchers do not always correlate with each other and sometimes even contradict each other: the statistical procedures used by scientists do not give a sufficiently reliable prediction of the influence of cognitive factors on the choice of coping strategy up to 40%. thus, the role of cognitive styles in overcoming life's difficulties needs further analysis and clarification. therefore, the article aims to analyze both foreign and post-soviet studies on coping behaviour, single out theories with a neuroscientific theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 61 component and present a general classification of such theories and approaches. research methods include systemic, comparative, comparativetypological and extrapolative analysis in order to reveal neurophysiological aspects in heterogeneous theories of coping behaviour, as well as generalization and classification of conclusions. the necessary data were mostly collected from the corpus of the post-soviet literature (ukrainian and russian) through thematic selection and search for relevant materials by keywords. the problem of coping behaviour in west european research today a detailed study of recent scientific publications on coping behavior and strategies has shown that both terminology and methodicalpsychological understanding of this topic is indeed well established. at the same time, the diversity of discourse is determined by new current challenges (the covid-19 pandemic, anthropogenic influences, information overflow, burnout syndrome). therefore, this article considers the most typical thematically different publications. currently, the problem of coping behaviour is extremely acute in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. researchers point out several objective and subjective dangers: fear of infection, lack of personal protective equipment, challenges to distance education and work. in 2020, savitsky et al. (2020) assessed anxiety levels among nursing students with the help of factor analysis to identify coping components. their findings are the following: “the prevalence of moderate and severe anxiety was 42.8% and 13.1% respectively; stronger resilience and usage of humor were associated with significantly lower anxiety levels, while mental disengagement with higher anxiety levels” (savitsky et al., 2020). in a globalized society, there is a problem of personality. despite well-developed online communication, the level of repression and alienation in society is ever growing. this is especially true for mature and middle-aged people, who lack flexibility and mobility to fully integrate into a rapidly changing society. heffer & willoughby (2017) assume that one’s ability to modify and change coping strategies depends on the current context and a flexible attitude towards it. in turn, this is the key to universal adaptability (heffer & willoughby, 2017). the researchers also conclude that the main problem is not the absence/presence of coping strategies but one’s awareness and willingness to use them. quite often, young people use only one strategy that suits their attitudes, character and temperament. at the same time, the flexible use of multimodal strategies based on optimism, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 62 positive attitudes and ability to adjust attitudes, behaviors and activities can significantly reduce negative impacts on an individual. nowadays, burnout syndrome is the common target of research on coping behaviour and strategies. vast arrays of information, as well as the high pace of occupational and mental activity, are not consistent with one’s limited mental resources. consequently, it leads to emotional exhaustion and increases anxiety and stress. martínez et al. (2020) described and experimentally confirmed the presence of different “burnout profiles”, including depersonalization, emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment. the researchers present a detailed analysis of sociological and psychological studies on these phenomena. however, this article aims to indicate only the main ways of solving these problems among teachers: “the need for prevention and intervention programs that enhance teachers’ emotional skills, especially their ability to cope with exhaustion” (martínez et al., 2020). it is also essential to focus on those studies which are related to human-made and technologically caused destruction. tarafdar et al. (2020) prove that the greatest danger lies in “addiction to the use of the same social networking systems”. excessive use or curt refusal from these technologies can lead to stress and even depression. since one cannot completely avoid the virtual world, the best coping strategy is the psychological concept of distraction. it means that one can rhythmically balance between the virtual and real world, realizing their advantages and disadvantages. another relevant aspect is an abuse of psychoactive substances, caused by the need for compensation, relaxation, switching from real stressful environments to temporary comfortable states. in particular, cruden & karmali (2021) have recently published an article on opioid misuse as a coping behavior. they “used 2015-2018 data on u.s. adults from the national survey of drug use and health” and proved the following: “self-medication theory posits that experiencing mental health distress can lead to opioid misuse; having unmet mental health treatment needs was associated with likelihood of opioid misuse; individuals potentially experiencing social isolation were at particularly high risk” (cruden & karmali, 2021). thus, drug abuse is mostly a countermeasure to one’s inability to accept and internalize intense social, informational and personal problems. the authors of this article believe that such knowledge can change the paradigm of addiction treatment in the early stages. today, many researchers claim that all kinds of external resources can be used to overcome stress or avoid objective danger. in everyday life, however, the best invariant coping strategy is self-efficacy skills. on the theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 63 example of coping strategies and self-efficacy in university students, freire et al. (2020) prove that young people can “combine different coping strategies and the adaptive consequences this flexibility entails”. a detailed study of coping profiles shows the following: the synergy of an individual selfefficacy trajectory and the understanding of at least three proven coping strategies allow young people to comfortably and effectively adapt, learn and self-determine in an entropy-filled environment. thus, current research on coping behavior and strategies is rather segmented and aimed at personal solutions to problems of the globalized and informatized society, which is full of personally significant events and influences. however, in young democracies (in this case – the post-soviet countries), one can observe a “conglomerate” of traditional psychopedagogical and advanced interdisciplinary synergistic use of terms and theories of personal counteraction to external threats. therefore, the following sections of this article will attempt to minimize the theoretical and conceptual entropy of theories and practices of coping behavior and strategies by generalization. the classification of coping behavior in scientific discourse the concepts of "coping with stress" and "coping behavior" are understood as various forms of human activity, covering all types of interaction of the subject with the tasks and problems of the external or internal plan. overcoming begins to work not only in cases where the complexity of the task exceeds the usual reactions, makes an insufficient regulatory adjustment, requires new resources, but also if necessary to change behavior in difficult life situations, with chronic stressors and in case of everyday adverse events. overcoming, as a rule, is aimed at finding ways to change the relationship between the subject and environmental conditions or to reduce his emotional experiences and distress; it is manifested on the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral levels in the form of various strategies to counteract stressors or stress reactions. relying on this assumption as a basic one, the authors of the article will attempt to generalize the types of coping behavior based on research by leading foreign and post-soviet scholars. besides, they will strive to achieve an additional goal, that is to integrate traditionally different eastern and western european approaches. folkman & lazarus (1988) consider coping as a dynamic process determined by the subjectivity of the experience of the situation, the stage of development of the conflict, the collision of the subject with the outside world. they defined psychological coping as the cognitive and behavioral brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 64 efforts of an individual aimed at reducing the effects of stress. the individual assesses the amount of potential stressor and compares the environment's requirements with his assessment of the resources he has to cope with these requirements with optimal efficiency. coping mechanisms determine the degree of adaptation of the individual to the situation. the authors note that the form of behavior in a given situation depends on the individual's characteristics and the crucial situation. an active form of coping behavior, active overcoming, is a purposeful elimination or reduction of the impact of a stressful situation. passive coping behavior, or passive coping, involves using a different arsenal of psychological defense mechanisms to reduce emotional stress rather than changing the stressful situation. over time, the scientific paradigm of applying the concept of "coping" began to include reactions to "extraordinary, exceeding human resources requirements" and everyday stressful situations. reactions to stress began to be divided into voluntary and involuntary (compas, 1998). according to folkman et al. (1986), the main task of stress-coping (coping behavior) is to ensure and maintain human well-being, physical and mental health, and satisfaction with social relations. more precisely, coping behavior is defined as "continuously changing cognitive and behavioral attempts to cope with specific external and/or internal requirements that are assessed as excessive or over human resources." the authors emphasize that coping can change because the individual and the environment form an inseparable, dynamic relationship and interact with each other (folkman et al., 1986). in the studies by aleksandrovsky (1996), bezliudnyi et al. (2019), chekhlaty (1994), kitaev-smyk (1983), nerubasska & maksymchuk (2020), sheremet et al. (2019), the emphasis is placed on the fact that insufficient development of constructive forms of overcoming behavior increases the pathogenicity of life events, and these events can contribute to the emergence and development of psychosomatic and other diseases. in general, there are three approaches to considering stress-coping behavior. the first of them – the dispositional approach (folkman & lazarus, 1988) – focuses on whether there are particular personal qualities that determine the effective coping with stress. the second – situational or dynamic approach – is based on the fact that there are situationally changing factors that determine the choice of coping strategy. the third approach is integrative (moos & schaefer, 1986), according to which both personal and changing situational factors influence the choice of coping. the fourth neurophysiological approach is reflexive or instinctive avoidance. therefore, it is worth noting that among the unconstructive theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 65 coping strategies, which still alleviate the inner state of man, contribute to his adaptation to challenging conditions, we can name the escape strategy. a person refuses seemingly tempting offers, promotions, feeling that he will pay too much for all this. in health, some strategies focus on emotions. it is a psychological struggle with negative emotional states and painful feelings when a person does not want to notice the symptoms of the disease, tries to assess his condition with humor, hopes for the help of supernatural forces. scientific research by khazova & kryukova (2006) on the influence of cognitive-stylistic characteristics of the cognitive sphere on coping strategies' choice of coping strategies indicates that cognitive styles (polydependent/poly-independent and reflexive/impulsive) have such a direct influence, while poly-dependent and impulsive more often choose strategies. reduction of emotional stress due to distraction, hope for a miracle, and direct disregard for the problem. poly-independent and reflective people are more independent and effective in overcoming life's difficulties. as noted by ukrainian scholars titarenko & larina (2009), the least effective coping strategies are avoidance and self-blame in any case. a person shuts himself off from what is happening and begins to punish himself, thereby reducing his self-esteem. in general, the study of mostly post-soviet studies proves that coping strategies can be grouped into four meta-concepts: evaluative, problembased, emotional and avoidance strategies. the strategy of coping with stress focused on evaluation includes human efforts to establish the significance of the situation, understand the negative processes that occur, and assess their possible consequences. within the framework of the specified strategy, the logical analysis of circumstances and cognitive preparation is carried out; that is, the person accepts a situation and divides it to allocate any good moments. this strategy can also use non-constructive skills produced by defense mechanisms, such as denial or threat reduction. the strategy of overcoming life's difficulties focused on the problem is to resolve stressors and their consequences. this response to a crisis begins with obtaining as reliable information as possible about the person's circumstances. the strategy includes the individual's skills in seeking support and reassurance from people close to him or valuable to him. the central point of this strategy of overcoming stressful situations is decision-making and implementing concrete actions, the desire to deal directly with critical issues. the third strategy for overcoming life's difficulties is focused on emotions. it aims to manage the feelings caused by crisis events and to brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 66 maintain emotional balance. adaptive skills that help maintain emotional balance, above all, give hope for a change in the situation. hope, reflection on a positive perspective, allows a person to suppress negative feelings and impulsive acts and directs him to adhere to moral norms because it is hoped that supports the will to live. it is the source of aspirations. in addition to regulating emotions through hope, there is also a way to manage emotions through learning tolerance. methods of avoidance include immersion in the disease, increased use of alcohol, drugs, an option for an active method of avoidance suicide. avoidance strategy is one of the leading behavioral strategies that contribute to the formation of maladaptive, pseudo-overcoming behavior. this strategy is due to the lack of personal coping resources and skills to solve life's problems actively. the avoidance strategy can be adequate or inadequate, depending on the specific stressful situation, age, and condition of the resource system of the individual. the most effective is the situational use of all four behavioral strategies. at the same time, the avoidance strategy is currently seen as the least productive and even undesirable. in some cases, a person can overcome the difficulties that have arisen. in other cases, he needs the support of the environment; in others he can avoid a collision with a problematic situation, assessing in advance the negative consequences of such a collision. psychological and neurophysiological factors in avoiding destructive influences and choosing coping strategies the experience of stress is individual for each person, although it has standard features. the main form of effort to overcome a difficult situation is coping behavior. the term "experience" is close in meaning to the concept of "coping." according to the definition of vasilyuk (1984), the term "experience" is used not in the usual sense for scientific psychology, as a direct, often emotional form of giving the subject the content of his consciousness. the term "experience" is used to denote a particular internal activity, internal work, through which a person manages to withstand certain life events and phenomena, restore lost mental balance, and cope with a critical situation. we consider overcoming a dynamic phenomenon that is influenced by the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral spheres of personality. coping behavior is the main form of overcoming efforts. we understand coping theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 67 behavior as a purposeful, conscious reaction to stress, which manifests itself in strategies that meet the specifics of the individual and the situation. it is also essential to consider coping strategies of mainly ukrainian and russian origin and, yet, only those rooted in psychoneurological or physiological mechanisms. among the individual characteristics of the individual, which well characterize human behavior, its activities, and communication, a special place belongs to temperament. it is believed that temperament is most pronounced in those situations where there is a high level of neuropsychological stress, i.e., stress. however, it is not so much the type of temperament itself as its components – extraversion-introversion and neuroticism (emotional stability-lability) – that determine a person's behavior in difficult life situations. the influence of neuroticism is quite significant, which allows us to attribute this property to the predictors of coping behavior in early adolescence. various studies have shown a few links between psychometric intelligence and coping strategy choices. aleksapolsky’s research (2008) analysis shows that the overcoming behavior of intellectually productive people is more flexible and variable. they do not try to avoid problems or use social distractions. they are not afraid to take responsibility. intellectually productive individuals, and individuals at a higher level of intellectual development use a broader range of strategies for overcoming behavior and rarely do not cope with difficulties (rasskazova & gordeyeva, 2011). some scientists believe that such essential personality characteristics as emotionality, energy, sociability, which are inherent in a person at an early age, can reduce stress on the individual. the authors argue that temperament influences a stressful situation's coping strategy (khazova, 2008). also, a factor in stressful behavior is considered personality anxiety. a certain level of anxiety is a natural and obligatory feature of a dynamic personality. everyone has their own optimal or desired level of anxiety. this is the so-called beneficial anxiety. a person's assessment of his condition in this sense is an essential component of self-control and self-education. however, an increased level of anxiety is a subjective manifestation of a person's unhappiness. manifestations of anxiety in different situations are different. in some cases, people tend to behave anxiously always and everywhere. in others – they show their anxiety only from time to time, depending on the circumstances. as a result of a study conducted by borisova et al. (2011) on the study of coping behavior of individuals with different levels of anxiety, the influence of anxiety on the choice of coping strategy was revealed. highly brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 68 anxious individuals are more likely to use ignoring and running away from solving problems as coping strategies. the authors conclude that the higher the level of anxiety, the more the individual uses unproductive coping. the use of emotionally-oriented coping also characterizes such individuals. no less influential factor in coping behavior is the locus of personality control, which is defined as a personal characteristic that reflects the individual's tendency to take responsibility for life events and the results of their activities to external forces (external locus control) or their abilities and effort (internal locus control). mainly in the psychological literature, locus control of personality is seen as a predictor of effective forms of personality behavior, namely coping behavior. it is believed that locus control affects the formation of individual styles of coping behavior. confident of the ability to control adverse circumstances, interns perceive stressful situations as an opportunity to test their strength. externals do not consider themselves responsible for their actions and prefer to endure difficulties without trying to change them humbly. yakovleva (2012) found that external locus control orients the individual to choose unproductive coping strategies. the internal locus promotes the choice of coping style with the predominance of productive strategies to overcome stress, which contributes to the successful socialization and adaptation of the individual. the author concludes that locus of control can act as a factor in determining coping behavior. based on these and several other theories, figure. 1.3 shows the variety of psychological and neurocognitive factors of stress-coping behavior that influence the effectiveness of coping strategies and are well-studied today. theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 69 fig. 1.3 personal factors of stress-coping behavior also, it is important to consider the areas of a neuroscientific approach to coping strategies in the post-soviet discourse. since the implementation of coping strategies can take place in three areas (behavioral, cognitive, and emotional), muzdybayev (1998) identifies specific strategies for overcoming adverse life events, in particular, a strategy focused on evaluation; problem-focused strategy; and a strategy focused on emotions that can be assessed depending on the extent to which they respond to these general adaptive tasks. a slightly different but reasonably similar classification of crisis management strategies was proposed by pearlin & schooler (1978). in their view, the protective functions of such strategies should be exercised in three ways: by eliminating or changing the conditions that created the problem (strategy to change the problem); by perceptual management of the content brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 70 of experiences in such a way as to neutralize their problematic nature (strategy to change the way of seeing problems); by keeping the emotional consequences of the problem within reasonable limits (emotional distress management strategy). the authors also believe that problem-solving coping (i.e., active coping) can reduce the negative impact of acute life events and long-term stressors. menaghan (1982), mitchell et al. (1983) also emphasize that the use of problem-focused coping is also associated with a reduction in depression and current distress. in contrast, coping, focused on emotions and avoidance, is characterized by a greater severity of depression and the risk of possible problematic consequences. subjective and creative theories of coping strategies can be considered neurophysiological, given that “self-concept”, “self”, “creative search” and “personal values” belong to neuroscientific and interdisciplinary discourse (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). in kolienko’s (2010) research, it is considered and experimentally proved that creative thinking is a factor influencing the variability of choice and productivity of coping strategies. the author considers creative thinking as an individual-psychological coping resource of the individual. khazova & kryukova (2006) emphasize that the more reflexive a person is, the less likely he is to choose unconstructive coping strategies in stressful situations. this is since impulsive individuals make decisions on an insufficient information basis, while reflexive individuals tend to make decisions based on the complete information about what happened. no less vital is such an intellectual resource as the cognitive style of personality, which is an individual way of perception, evaluation and interpretations of the surrounding reality. titarenko (2010) emphasizes the importance of a productive attitude to stress, which involves mastering a range of strategies for self-control. depending on the specific situation, the use of these strategies can be pretty flexible, versatile. the researcher highlights the need to change a person's attitude to the situation, which is a positive interpretation of unpleasant, morally tricky experiences. a person can find a non-trivial meaning in a situation, see the event from an unexpected perspective. thus, titarenko (2010), who studied a study of prisoners in 225 nazi concentration camps, found that those who saw the point in determining the possibility of survival in inhumane conditions more easily endured suffering. zimbardo & boyd (2010) are the authors of the method of accepting a role when a person learns to perform not his role temporarily, but the role of "lucky" – a person strong, confident, successful. it should be noted, that long-term theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 71 performance of a role that is not characteristic of a person makes dangerous changes in personal values and attitudes. one of the approaches to the study of stress, which emphasizes subjective factors in overcoming stress by the individual, is the resource approach. the resource approach emphasizes a process of "commerce of resources," which is explained by the fact that some people can maintain health and adapt to different life circumstances (hobfoll, 1996). hobfoll (1996) believes that there is a "key resource," which is the primary tool that controls and organizes the distribution of other resources. other researchers envisage not one but a whole set of critical resources. the proposed conservation of resources (cor) theory considers two classes of resources: material and social, or values. the significance of this theory is that depending on the availability and influence of a particular set of critical resources. it is possible to predict the formation of specific coping behavior under certain conditions and trace the relationship of those resources with personality and formed coping formations. seligman (1992) considers optimism as the leading resource of stress management. other researchers consider the construct "viability" as one of the resources influencing the nature of the coping strategy used by the individual. frydenberg (2002) reveals the meaning of the process of overcoming behavior using the formula: stress-overcoming = personality (individual characteristics) + situation + perception and cognitive assessment (situation, own capabilities, and effectiveness of action). therefore, the most productive approach should include levels of integration of mental processes, psychological and socio-psychological qualities and personality traits, ie, the necessary holistic understanding and analysis of factors that determine productive stress-coping behavior. it is worth noting that coping behavior always includes cognitive assessment, which involves specific intellectual actions, namely, reflection on the problem, analysis, and reflection on ways to solve it, the search for new information. all this allows an individual to anticipate possible difficulties and increase their resources and chances of success. cognitive assessment concerns the situation and "oneself," i.e., it includes the process of reflection, which allows you to critically comprehend your behavior in certain situations, make changes according to changing conditions, and predict the possible outcome of the event (shkuratova & annenkova, 2007). as a neurophysiologically subject-oriented factor in stressful behavior, researchers have also considered the self-concept of personality, which is defined as a system of ideas of the individual about himself. these brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 72 ideas about oneself are most often realized, and they are characterized by relative stability. this concept is the result of knowing and evaluating oneself through the prism of individual images of oneself in various real and fantastic situations, as well as through the thoughts of other people and one's relationship with others. self-concept is characterized by adequacy or inadequacy (burns, 1989). traditionally, there are cognitive, evaluative, and behavioral components of self-concept. the cognitive component is an individual's idea of himself, a set of characteristics that he seems to possess. evaluation is how an individual evaluates these characteristics, how they are treated. behavioral this is how a person acts (burns, 1989). the critical factors of a strategy to overcome stress are cognitive assessment results, namely self-concepts, self-categorization, and subjective assessment of the severity of the situation. the content of these assessments is following the chosen coping strategy. the role of the self-concept as a factor in selecting a plan to overcome stress consists of selecting a course of action in a difficult situation that is adequate to their characteristics and capabilities of the individual. specific components of the self-concept, namely i ideal and i in a difficult situation, do not determine the desired strategy but allow a complete analysis of the chosen type of coping strategy through the relationship with situational factors. the neurophysiological factors of stress-relieving personality behavior include adequate self-concept, positive self-esteem, low neuroticism, internal locus of control, optimistic worldview, empathy, affiliative tendency, and temperament characteristics, intelligence, creativity, and others. conclusions thus, there is a particular shortage of research focused on studying the internal personal factors of coping behavior. in essence, such research is somewhat sparse or analyzed in the context of social or psychological theories. one must admit that most post-soviet and some foreign studies prioritize social or socio-psychological theories of coping behavior and strategies. the main form of overcoming efforts is coping behavior, which is understood as a purposeful social behavior that allows a person to cope with stress in ways that meet the characteristics of the individual and the situation. coping behavior is considered a synonym for stress-coping behavior, which is expressed in the use of coping strategies by the individual. theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 73 personal characteristics and situational factors determine the choice of coping behavior strategies. despite the heterogeneity of the studied factors affecting the character of personality coping, it can conclude that an important place in the process of overcoming stress by a person is given to cognitive assessment, information processing, and emotional state, which are the direct sources of stress (yarosh, 2015). thus, coping behavior (stress-coping behavior) will be understood as the means of conscious and purposeful management of stressors that an individual uses to respond to a perceived threat. the concept combines the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral strategies that an individual uses to overcome today's stressors. it can also be assumed that there is a relationship between neurophysiological constructs through which a person forms his attitude to life's difficulties and what strategy of behavior under stress he chooses. the general neurophysiological mechanism can be presented as follows: each stressful situation causes a set of evaluation processes, coordination, adjustment during the interaction of the individual with stressors, which continue until the control of stress through relief or until the stress stops spontaneously. the principles of feedback establish the relationship between the stopping interaction and the person who receives information about the effect of these influences and the significance of the event itself. as long as the feedback is on, the person constantly overestimates the situation, adjusting the coping strategies and the event's significance whenever possible. the assessment of the event as stressful is influenced by several factors (including assessment that anticipates emotional reactions to personality stress), which are closely related to the development of the level of reflection and the dominant type of human thinking, and therefore may be factors influencing the nature of stress-coping behavior. the main form of overcoming efforts is coping behavior, which we understand as purposeful social behavior that allows a person to cope with stress in ways that meet the characteristics of the individual and the situation. coping behavior is considered a synonym for stress-coping behavior, which is expressed in the use of coping strategies by the individual. personal characteristics and situational factors determine the choice of coping behavior strategies. factors influencing the choice of productive strategies, according to researchers, include adequate self-concept, positive self-esteem, personality anxiety, cognitive style, and energy resources, which include endurance and brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 74 temperament characteristics, intelligence, creativity, and locus of personality control. overcoming a stressful situation is impossible without cognitive "processing," which becomes available through reflection. the influence of reflection on the choice of coping strategy of the individual is that reflective individuals choose more adaptive and effective strategies. references aleksandrovsky, y. a. (1996). sotsialnostressovye rasstroystva [social and stressful disorders]. obozrenie psikhiatrii i meditsinkoy psikhologii im. v. m. bekhtereva [v. m. bekhterev review of psychiatry and medical psychology], 11, 5-10. https://www.rmj.ru/articles/obshchie-stati/socialynostressovye_rasstroystva/ aleksapolsky, a. a. (2008). stilevyye i urovnevyye svoystva intellekta kak faktory sovladayushchego povedeniya [style and level properties of intelligence as factors of coping behavior] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. the institute of psychology of the russian academy of sciences. http://irbis.gnpbu.ru/aref_2008/aleksapol'skij_a_a_2008.pdf antsiferova, l. i. (1994). lichnost v trudnykh zhiznennykh usloviyakh: pereosmyslivaniye. preobrazovaniye situatsiy i psikhologicheskaya zashchita [personality in difficult living conditions: rethinking, transformation of situations and psychological protection]. psikhologicheskiy zhurnal, 15(1), 318. https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=21395491 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1585-1590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf borisova, i. v., zyuzya, a. a., mezentseva, i. a., & petukhova, l. p. (2011). osobennosti sovladayushchego povedeniya studentov fakulteta fizicheskoy kultury s razlichnymi urovnyami trevozhnosti [features of coping behavior of students of the faculty of physical education with different levels of anxiety]. uchenye zapiski universiteta imeni p. f. lesgafta, 10, 42-45. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osobennosti-sovladayuschegopovedeniya-studentov-fakulteta-fizicheskoy-kultury-s-razlichnymiurovnyami-trevozhnosti/viewer burns, r. (1989). ya-kontseptsiya i vospitaniie [self-concept and education]. progress. chekhlaty, e. i. (1994). lichnostnaya i mezhlichnostnaya konfliktnost i koping-povedeniye u bolnykh nevrozami i ikh dinamika pod vliyaniyem gruppovoy psikhoterapii [personal and interpersonal conflict and coping behavior in patients with neuroses and their dynamics under the influence of group psychotherapy] [unpublished doctoral dissertation, the st. petersburg bekhterev https://www.rmj.ru/articles/obshchie-stati/socialyno-stressovye_rasstroystva/ https://www.rmj.ru/articles/obshchie-stati/socialyno-stressovye_rasstroystva/ http://irbis.gnpbu.ru/aref_2008/aleksapol'skij_a_a_2008.pdf https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=21395491 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osobennosti-sovladayuschego-povedeniya-studentov-fakulteta-fizicheskoy-kultury-s-razlichnymi-urovnyami-trevozhnosti/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osobennosti-sovladayuschego-povedeniya-studentov-fakulteta-fizicheskoy-kultury-s-razlichnymi-urovnyami-trevozhnosti/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osobennosti-sovladayuschego-povedeniya-studentov-fakulteta-fizicheskoy-kultury-s-razlichnymi-urovnyami-trevozhnosti/viewer theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 75 psychoneurological research institute]. https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01000044236 cruden, g., & karmali, r. (2021). opioid misuse as a coping behavior for unmet mental health needs among us adults. drug and alcohol dependence, 225(1), 108805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108805 cоmpаs, в. е. (1998). аn аgеndа fоr соpіng rеsеаrсh аnd thеоry: bаsіс аnd аpplіеd dеvеlоpmеntаl іssuеs. іntеrnаtіоnаl jоurnаl оf bеhаvіоrаl dеvеlоpmеnt, 22(2), 231-237. https://doi.org/10.1080/016502598384351 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 folkman, s., & lazarus, r. s. (1988). ways of coping questionnaire: sampler set: manual, test booklet, scoring key. consulting psychologists press. folkman, s., lazarus, r. s., dunkel-schetter, c., delongis, a., & gruen, r. j. (1986). dynamics of a stressful encounter: cognitive appraisal, coping, and encounter outcomes. journal of personality and social psychology, 50(5), 9921003. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.5.992 freire, c., ferradás, m. d. m., regueiro, b., rodríguez, s., valle, a., & núñez, j. c. (2020). coping strategies and self-efficacy in university students: a personcentered approach. frontiers in psychology, 11, 841. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00841 freud, s. (1999). lektsii po vvedeniyu v psikhoanaliz [lectures on introduction to psychoanalysis]. aleteya. http://www.lib.ru/psiho/freud/lekcii.txt frydenberg, e. e. (2002). beyond coping: meeting goals, visions, and challenges. oxford university press. heffer, t., & willoughby, t. (2017). a count of coping strategies: a longitudinal study investigating an alternative method to understanding coping and adjustment. plos one, 12(10), e0186057. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186057 hobfoll, s. e. (1996). social support: will you be there when i need you? in n. vanzetti & s. duck (eds.), a lifetime of relationships (pp. 46–74). cole publishing co. khazova, s. a. (2008). rol kognitivnykh faktorov v sovladanii s zhiznennymi trudnostyami [the role of cognitive factors in coping with life's difficulties]. in a. l. zhuravleva, t. l. kryukova & e. a. sergienko (eds.), sovladayushcheye povedeniye. sovremennoye sostoyaniye i perspektivy [coping behavior: current state and prospects] (pp. 274-288). institut psikhologii ran. https://lib.ipran.ru/upload/papers/paper_18806170.pdf https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01000044236 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108805 https://doi.org/10.1080/016502598384351 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.5.992 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00841 http://www.lib.ru/psiho/freud/lekcii.txt https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186057 https://lib.ipran.ru/upload/papers/paper_18806170.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 76 khazova, s. a., & kryukova, t. l. (2006). temperament v trudnykh zhiznennykh situatsiyakh [temperament in difficult life situations]. in t. l. kryukova, & s. a. khazova (eds.), psikhologiya i praktika [psychology and practice] (pp. 32-43). kostroma state university named after n. a. nekrasov. kitaev-smyk, l. a. (1983). psikholohia stressa [psychology of stress]. nauka. kolienko, n. s. (2010). vliyaniye tvorcheskogo myshleniya i mezhlichnostnogo doveriya na vybor koping-strategiy v yunosheskom vozraste [influence of creative thinking and interpersonal trust on the choice of coping strategies in youthful rewards] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. p. g. demidov yaroslavl state university. http://www.rd.uniyar.ac.ru/upload/iblock/21c/02100080.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kryukova, t. l. (2010). psikhologiya sovladayushchego povedeniya v raznyye periody zhizni [the psychology of coping behavior at different stages of life]. kostroma state university named after n. a. nekrasov. maddi, s. r., & khoshaba, d. m. (1994). hardiness and mental health. journal of personality assessment, 63(2), 265-274. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6302_6 martínez, j. p., méndez, i., ruiz-esteban, c., fernández-sogorb, a., & garcíafernández, j. m. (2020). profiles of burnout, coping strategies and depressive symptomatology. frontiers in psychology, 11, 591. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00591 menaghan, e. g. (1982). measuring coping effectiveness: a panel analysis of marital problems and coping efforts. journal of health and social behavior, 23, 220-234. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2136631 mitchell, r. e., cronkite, r. c., & moos, r. h. (1983). stress, coping, and depression among married couples. journal of abnormal psychology, 92(4), 433-448. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843x.92.4.433 moos, r. h., & schaefer, j. a. (1986). life transitions and crises. in r. h. moos (ed.), coping with life crises (pp. 3-28). springer. muzdybayev, k. (1998). strategiya sovladaniya s zhiznennymi trudnostyami. teoreticheskiy analiz [coping strategy with life’s difficulties. theoretical analysis]. zhurnal sotsiologii i sotsialnoy antropologi, 1(2), 100-111. http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/647/774/1231/007_muzdabaev.pdf nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 http://www.rd.uniyar.ac.ru/upload/iblock/21c/02100080.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6302_6 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00591 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2136631 https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843x.92.4.433 http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/647/774/1231/007_muzdabaev.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 77 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 nikolskaya, i. m., & granovskaya, r. m. (2006). psikhologicheskaya zashchita u detey [psychological protection in children]. rech. nikonenko, i. o. (2015). mekhanizmy psykholohichnoho zakhystu yak chynnyky formuvannia kopinh-stratehii osobystosti [mechanisms of psychological protection as factors in the formation of coping strategies of personality]. naukoviy vіsnik khersonskogo derzhavnogo unіversitetu. serіya: psikhologіchnі nauki, 2(1), 57-60. http://nbuv.gov.ua/j-pdf/nvkhp_2015_2(1)__13.pdf olefir, v. o. (2011). vzaiemozviazok zhyttiestiikosti, kopinh-stratehii ta psykholohichnoho blahopoluchchia [interconnection of life, copying strategies and psychological well-being]. visnyk kharkivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni v. n. karazina. seriia: psykholohiia, 981(47), 168-172. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21i d=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21 com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vkhipc_2011_981_47_38 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 pearlin, l. i., & schooler, c. (1978). the structure of coping. journal of health and social behavior, 19, 2-21. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2136319?origin=crossref&seq=1 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rasskazova, e. i., & gordeyeva, t. o. (2011). koping-strategii v psikhologii stressa: podkhody, metody i perspektivy issledovaniy [coping strategies in stress psychology: approaches, methods and perspectives]. psikhologicheskiye issledovaniya, 3(17). http://www.psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2011n317/493-rasskazova-gordeeva17.html savitsky, b., findling, y., ereli, a., & hendel, t. (2020). anxiety and coping strategies among nursing students during the covid-19 pandemic. nurse education in practice, 46, 102809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102809 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 http://nbuv.gov.ua/j-pdf/nvkhp_2015_2(1)__13.pdf http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vkhipc_2011_981_47_38 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vkhipc_2011_981_47_38 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vkhipc_2011_981_47_38 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vkhipc_2011_981_47_38 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2136319?origin=crossref&seq=1 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 http://www.psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2011n3-17/493-rasskazova-gordeeva17.html http://www.psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2011n3-17/493-rasskazova-gordeeva17.html https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102809 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 78 seligman, m. e. (1992). learned optimism. random house australia. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). stan sformovanosti smart-informatsiynoho kryteriyu hotovnosti fakhivtsiv do realizatsiyi inklyuziyi v osviti [the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education]. informatsiyni tekhnolohiyi i zasoby navchannya, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shkuratova, i. p., & annenkova, e. a. (2007). lichnostnyye resursy kak faktor sovladaniya s krizisnymi situatsiyami [personal resources as a factor in coping with crisis situations]. psikhologiya krizisa i krizisnykh sostoyaniy, 4, 1723. https://irshkuratova.ru/lichnostnye_resursy_kak_faktor_sovladanija.html tarafdar, m., maier, c., laumer, s., & weitzel, t. (2020). explaining the link between technostress and technology addiction for social networking sites: a study of distraction as a coping behavior. information systems journal, 30(1), 96-124. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12253 titarenko, t. m. (2010). ispytaniye krizisom. odisseya preodoleniya [test crisis odyssey overcome]. ludoprintm. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32309152.pdf titarenko, t. m., & larina, t. o. (2009). zhyttiestiikist osobystosti: sotsialna neobkhidnist ta bezpeka [hardiness of the person: social necessity and safety].marych. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/9065/1/zhiznestoykost_lichnosti.pdf vasilyuk, f. e. (1984). psikhologiya perezhivaniya (analiz preodoleniya kriticheskikh situatsiy) [psychology experience (analysis of overcoming crisis situations)]. mgu. yakovleva, s. a. (2012). osobennosti sovladayushchego povedeniya starsheklassnikov s uchetom lokusa kontrolya [features of coping behavior of high school students, taking into account the locus of control]. uchenyye zapiski zabaykalskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. seriya: pedagogicheskiye nauki, 5, 46-53. http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osobennosti-sovladayuschegopovedeniya-starsheklassnikov-s-uchyotom-lokusa-kontrolya yarosh, n. s. (2015). analiz doslidzhen vnutrishnikh predyktoriv stres-dolaiuchoi povedinky [analysis of internal investigations predictors of stress overcoming behavior]. visnyk kharkivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni v. n. karazina. seriia psykholohiia, 58, 60-64. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vkhipc_2015_58_13 zhurbin, v. i. (1990). ponyatiye psikhologicheskoy zashchity v kontseptsiyakh z. freyda i k. rodzhersa [the concept of psychological defense in the concepts of z. freud and k. rogers]. voprosy psikhologii, 4, 14-23. http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1990/904/904014.htm https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://irshkuratova.ru/lichnostnye_resursy_kak_faktor_sovladanija.html https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12253 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32309152.pdf https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/9065/1/zhiznestoykost_lichnosti.pdf http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osobennosti-sovladayuschego-povedeniya-starsheklassnikov-s-uchyotom-lokusa-kontrolya http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osobennosti-sovladayuschego-povedeniya-starsheklassnikov-s-uchyotom-lokusa-kontrolya http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vkhipc_2015_58_13 http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1990/904/904014.htm theories of a stress-coping behavior: searching for neurocognitive mechanisms nina yarosh, et al. 79 zimbardo, f., & boyd, g. (2010). paradoks vremeni. novaya psikhologiya vremeni, kotoraya uluchshit vashu zhizn [the paradox of time. a new time psychology that will improve your life]. rech. microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 106 resumos de artigos em português brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cérebro. ampla pesquisa em inteligência artificial e neurociências issn 2067-3957 volume 1, número 2 abril de 2010, "feliz verão 2010!" www.brain.edusoft.ro editor chefe: bogdan pătruţ 1. “dynamic role engine” e a formação de agentes de cooperação com o algoritmo robusto de tomada de decisão s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei, mohsen taheri resumo robocup é uma competição internacional de multi-agente de investigação e relacionadas como tema: inteligência artificial, processamento de imagem, aprendizado de máquina, planejamento de trajetória de robôs, controle e evitar obstáculos. em um jogo de futebol de robôs, o ambiente é altamente competitivo e dinâmico. para trabalhar no ambiente em mutação dinâmica, o sistema de tomada de decisão de um sistema de robô de futebol deve ter as características de flexibilidade e adaptação em tempo real. neste artigo vamos nos concentrar no campeonato “middle size robot soccer” (robô de futebol de tamanho médio) (msl). neste trabalho uma nova hierárquico híbrido métodos fuzzy para tomada de decisão e seleção de ações de um robô de tamanho médio “robot soccer league” (a liga de futebol de robôs) (msl) são apresentados. em primeiro lugar, o comportamento de um agente são introduzidas, aplicadas e classificados em duas camadas, os comportamentos do nível baixo e os comportamentos do nível alto. na segunda camada, um mecanismo de duas fases para a tomada de decisão é apresentado. na primeira fase, alguns métodos que são implementados útil verificar a situação do robô para executar os comportamentos necessários. na próxima fase, a estratégia da equipe de formação de equipe, o papel do robô e do sistema de posicionamento do robô são introduzidos. uma abordagem lógica confuso é empregada para reconhecer a estratégia da equipe e ainda mais para dizer ao jogador a melhor posição para se mover. acreditamos que um mecanismo de motor dinâmico é necessária para uma equipa de sucesso. o motor role dinâmico e a formação de controlar durante o jogo ofensiva ou defensiva, nos ajude a evitar a evasão de colisão entre os próprios jogadores para atacar a bola e evitar o obstáculo dos adversários. por fim, composta por nosso algoritmo implementado no robocup 2007 e 2008 e os resultados mostraram a eficiência da metodologia introduzida. os resultados são satisfatórios, que já foi implementado com sucesso em adro equipa robocup. 2. extração lógica da estrutura neo-cortex ronald j. swallow resumo por muito tempo o potencial pós-sináptico de um neurônio foi conhecido por ser uma correlação cruzada entre um padrão de frequência de entrada axonal e sináptica excitatório padrão de resistência de força de conexão. a fim de correlações para ser úteis, que deve ser capaz de ser resumos de artigos em português 107 comparada e deve ser normalizado (covariância das forças de conexão deve ser constante ao longo de todas as correlações). uma rede de neurônios biologicamente viável foi estudada (n rede de neurônios excitatórios interagindo com um neurônio inibitório) e uma regra pavlovian muito simples utilizado para variação de conexão de força (mesma regra para os neurônios tanto excititorio e inibitória). a surpresa foi que os neurônios dessa rede são capazes de comparar as suas correlações de uma forma normalizada. além disso, a rede exibiu uma maior aprendizagem para os padrões de entrada de novos padrões para a entrada de idade, justificando a unidade do curiosidade de cérebro e redução de plasticidade memória permanente com a idade. 3. a relação entre os examinados inteligências múltiplas e os seus desempenho nas secoes de leitura de toefl e ielts minoo alemi, marzieh bagherkazemi resumo o presente estudo visa para investigar a relação hipotética entre as inteligências múltiplas dos examinandos e os seus desempenho nas seções de leitura de toefl e ielts. a teoria das inteligências múltiplas do howard gardner sugere que a inteligência não é uma capacidade única e exclusivamente inato, e não uma construção múltipla, que é parcialmente genética, e pode ser cristalizado ou paralisado em mais de uma vida. com base na teoria, existem oito tipos de inteligência: linguística, matemática, musical, corporal, espacial, intrapessoal, interpessoal e naturalista, mas a lista não é exaustiva. as inteligências múltiplas de examinandos foram estimados por meio de midas, o avaliação para a escala de desenvolvimento das inteligências , desenvolvido pelo shearer (1994). posteriormente, a detecção de viés para a seção de leitura de toefl foi realizada em 90 participantes, e o subteste correlacionou positivamente com as inteligências linguística e lógico. pelo mesmo motivo, 89 dos 163 participantes do estudo foram incluídos na análise da relação entre as inteligências múltiplas de examinandos e o seu desempenho na seção de leitura de ielts, e este teste mostrou-se inclinado para as inteligências linguísticas e espaciais. as implicações preocupam a inadequação da definição de proficiência na língua. além disso, os cursos das instrução realizadas de medido e materiais de preparação das duas provas de proficiência, toefl e ielts, podem beneficiar dos resultados do estudo, sendo concebido de forma a representar as inteligências que estão positivamente correlacionados com o desempenho nos testes em questão. 4. ecg através do cardo de som gheorghe blioju resumo este artigo descreve um método econômico para realisar um sistema compacto de monitorizar eck, usando um dispositivo eletrônico and software. o dispositivo será capaz de aumentar biosinais e envia-los ao pc através do cardo de som. também ele terá software dedicado a ter os sinais recebidos e exibi-las na tela do pc. 5. desenho e implementação de uma estrutura robusta e fuzzy rule-based motion controller para um humanoid soccer robot s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. alireza mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri resumo este artigo descreve o desenho de hardware e software do tamanho de miúdo para os sistemas robôs humanóidas do team pérsia, em 2009. o robô tem 18 graus de liberdade atuados base hitec hsr898. nós tentamos focar em áreas como a estrutura mecânica, uma unidade de processamento de imagem, o controlador do robô, robô ai aprendizagem e comportamento. este ano, a nossa evolução para o tamanho de miúdo para o robô humanóide inclui: (1) a concepção e construção da nossa nova robôs humanóides (2) a concepção e construção de um novo hardware e software do controlador a ser usado em robôs. o projeto é descrito em duas partes principais: hardware e brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 108 software. o software desenvolveu um aplicativo robô que consiste a pé do controlador, robô movimento autônomo, independente de localização base na visão e filtro de partículas, ai local, a trajetória de planejamento, motion controller e network. o hardware consiste na estrutura mecânica e do driver de placa de circuito. cada robô é capaz de caminhar, andar rápido, passe, chute e drible quando pega a bola. o projeto ainda está em andamento e alguns novos métodos interessantes são descritos na descrição atual. 6. modelagem e implementação de omnidirectional robot soccer com “wide scope vision” aplicado na robocup-msl s. hamidreza mohades kasaei, s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, mohsen taheri resumo o objetivo deste trabalho é projetar e implementar um robô de futebol de tamanho médio conforme robocup liga msl. em primeiro lugar, de acordo com as regras do robocup, nós projetamos o robô de futebol de tamanho médio, o robô autónomo de futebol proposta consiste na plataforma mecânica, módulo de controle de movimento, o módulo de visão omnidirecional, visão frontal do módulo, módulo de processamento de imagem e reconhecimento, investigou-alvo posicionamento do objeto real e coordenar a reconstrução, planejamento de trajetória de robôs, as estratégias de concorrência e evitar obstáculos. e este robô de futebol equipa o sistema de computador portátil e circuitos de interface para tomar decisões. na verdade, o sensor de visão omnidirecional do sistema de visão lida com o processamento de imagem e posicionamento para evitar obstáculos e seguir destino. o algoritmo de contorno seguintes (bfa) é aplicado para encontrar os aspectos mais importantes do campo. nós utilizamos o método de fusão de dados de sensores dos parâmetros de controle do sistema, a localização ea modelagem auto mundo. uma visão baseada em localização de auto-e os sistemas convencionais de odometria são fundidos para selflocalization robusto. o algoritmo de localização inclui filtragem, partilha e integração dos dados para diferentes tipos de objectos reconhecidos no ambiente. nas estratégias de controle, apresentamos três modos de estado, que incluem a estratégia de ataque, defesa de estratégia e estratégia intercept. os métodos foram testados em campo muitos competição robocup robots de tamanho médio. 7. doenças do cérebro nas sociedades da mesopotâmia piedad yuste, ángel garrido resumo na mesopotâmia antiga nem autópsias nem bissecções foram praticados; os órgãos internos do corpo humano eram conhecidas apenas a partir de inspeções ocasionais em ferimentos e lesões. o cérebro era considerado uma parte da cabeça e não estava relacionado com a atividade mental. 8. modular em oposiçao a unitário (non-modular) pontos de vista sobre o cérebro e a mente minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard resumo este artigo visa para descrever os dois paradigmas distintos na medida em que os seus pontos de vista em relação à aprendizagem em geral e a língua em particular estão em causa alem disso, tenta para discutir pontos de vista diferentes a partir dos falhas e elogios criada para cada um de seus defensores e opositores. portanto, a finalidade deste artigo é a não afirmar qualquer coisa em favor de qualquer opinião. no final, este artigo revisa as questões de cérebro e mente , bem como modularidade e pontos de vista não modularidade. 9. algumas notas sobre de inteligência artificial como um novo instrumento matemática resumo ángel garrido resumos de artigos em português 109 a matemática é um exemplo simples de cálculo de predicados de primeira ordem. por isso, pertence ao lógica monotonica aplicada. assim, encontramos as limitações de clássica, lógica raciocínio e as vantagens do fuzzy logic e muitos outros novos instrumentos interessantes. apresentamos aqui alguns das mais utilisados instrumentos deste novo campo da matemática, chamado inteligência artificial. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 112-121 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/195 the participatory behaviour and the students’ adaptability in the online environment during the pandemic roxana maier¹ 1 assist. prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, edgar.demeter@uav.ro abstract: changing the relational environment from face-to-face to the online one led to new problems regarding the student classroom’s functionality, which led to the students’ difficulties in relation to the new situation and the adaptability process. in this new context brought by the pandemic, the relationship’s dynamic between student’s changes, as well as the one between students and teachers. the endeavour includes the analysis of a small group of students, who resorted to therapy throughout the lockdown, to remit the difficulties that emerged due to the teaching environment’s change from face-toface to the online medium. the objectives’ focus highlighted the participatory behaviour’s optimization of the students in the new conditions, the enhancement of the students’ wellbeing’s, in order to optimally face the teaching process and finish the academic year. keywords: online, student, therapy, adaptability, wellbeing. how to cite: maier, r. (2021). the participatory behaviour and the students’ adaptability in the online environment during the pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 112-121. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/195 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/195 mailto:edgar.demeter@uav.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/195 the participatory behaviour and the students’ adaptability in the online … roxana maier 113 1. introduction our interactional space has suddenly shifted with the lockdown and the electronic devices have gained a much more important role in our life, as well as more diverse functions than before. for all of us the impact was different and it brought various difficulties, but even in this completely new context, it was easier for the adults than it was for the children. the latter process the difficulties differently, especially as they did not encounter so many things as the adults, but also through the fact that their personal resources related to fighting the adversities are in the formation process. one issue that the children who were going to school faced at all levels was the whole teaching process’ shift to the online environment. our world is continuously changing, but in recent times, these alterations became increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (vuca). when we thought our world could not undergo any more changes, a bigger alteration than we expected occurred, brought by the pandemic. in this stressful environment, what we knew about us, what we thought about our capabilities, what we had in our relationships with others, personally and professionally can be compromised by a lack of ability to achieve the new and different insights and our own personal understanding. all of these changed our connection to ourselves and the others (stillmann et al., 2017). due to the relationships’ role in our lives, they are impregnated emotionally and so the others’ attitudes and behavior are important to us and determine our emotional reactions. moreover, our way of being involved in relationships gives us our proclivity towards action and the adaptive tendencies. in school, students can create an adequate teachinglearning space, through their way of being and acting through participating in group’s activities, and through their method of defining their role within the group. so, the relationships’ meanings and our tendencies to take action are correlated and they give us the relationship between individual and environment from a point of view regarding adaptability which creates our own wellbeing (lazarus, 2011). the constructivist perspectives attach a significant importance to learning through collaboration and the schoolmates’ role within this process, due to the daily social interaction (cristescu, 2008). cooperation enhances the attitudes towards the classroom, the social dynamic and so we can go through the learning process easily (barnett, 2018) and more pleasantly. all of these were superseded by the new conditions brought by the activities’ shift from an integral classroom to an online environment. our behavior, activity, reactions, are equally triggered by internal and external factors, an ensemble which creates a state brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 114 of dissociation and tension which puts the organism in motion until it decreases the tension and it rediscovers its own integrity. our conduit is an answer to a motivation, triggering all of our motion, physical, and psychological components to reach the proposed goals and the adaptability to the situations that occurred (miller & rollnick, 2002). faced with the new online conditions, the main activities correlated to the classroom changed their form, quality, interactions dynamic, and these led to abrupt and numerous changes that became stress inducing. uncertainty loomed over all of them– the disease’s appearance, the time span in which we will stay indoors, the way in which the academic year will finish. regarding the end of the academic year, the students in their final years were put to the most strenuous test – due to the reasons relating to the different approach to teaching, the classroom’s dynamic, the lessons, to which various types of uncertainties added – regarding their final grade (to the ones that this mark was relevant for their high school’s or university’s entry), regarding their final exams – online or not, what part of the curriculum was included, regarding the university’s application process (for both the students that applied for national or international universities), regarding the way in which the university’s first term will be carried out (the necessity of finding accommodation or not, how will they travel to the location in which the courses will be carried out, how will they travel then), regarding their graduation ceremony. until answering all these uncertainties, the main issue was the adaptation to online teaching and all its modification regarding their digital wellbeing and its two main dimensions – rehearsing each individual’s digital abilities and the relationship within the new digital medium so that it will provide comfort, safety, and satisfaction regarding the relationship (rad & demeter, 2019). the people that had difficulties throughout this period opted for therapy to receive assistance in overcoming the encountered difficulties, to find support and understanding, to activate the necessary resources for the effort of integrating in the new means of functioning as a classroom, and also to enhance performance, finding solutions for the occurred problems, to understand their own acts, their own steps towards achieving a goal, to discover new adaptive strategies (mumford, 2007). therapy is like a „supportive mirror” because it functions through finding our own possibilities to hold up. it is a process which is realized by being questioned and choosing on your own, not through being told what to do. it is transparent, it encourages the subjects’ change through self-exploration, selfdiscovery, self-determination, and it reaches to each one’s creativity, to curiosity and the desire of being surprised by findings related to their own the participatory behaviour and the students’ adaptability in the online … roxana maier 115 person. so the success is guaranteed not by what the person says he or she will do, but by what they are effectively doing as a person (mcdermott & jago, 2006). wellbeing has three important components: autonomy, competence, and relatedness (ryan & deci, 2017). in order to achieve wellbeing in this new and difficult context, all three components underwent changes for all of us, implicitly students. autonomy relates to action according to our own values and goals. throughout the lockdown, the students’ main goals received new definitions, while some of them lost their sense and others were never able to be achieved. the students’ competence was put to the test as well because the medium in which the activities were undergone changed, so the digital abilities received new and more important role. this also led to having access to the main reality of the romanian teaching system i.e. the teachers are far less digitally able compared to their students. regarding relatedness, in which the classroom’s dynamic was faulty, the difficulty regarding the courses’ attendance in the online environment was evident because the students did not have a connection to each other and they did not have a sense of inclusion within the group. the participatory behavior’s stimulation takes place especially in common projects of each classroom’s various groups of students, and unfortunately this is not a frequent reality within the romanian educational system’s classrooms. to partake in online schooling was not defined in terms of finding sense and happiness from the beginning and so the vigilance towards the online medium was constantly present. the students did not find something pleasant and motivational that would keep them engaged with the activities and they did not feel as if they were part of the classroom or group and that the relationship’s dynamic was beneficial (rad et al., 2020). the perspective regarding the multiple changes, the burden brought by the lockdown, the dysfunctionalities the occurred due to the abrupt change of the medium in which the learning activities were undergone, proposes an excursion within some of the dimensions which were looked upon throughout therapy, to dismiss these dysfunctions for the students as follows: to promote health and wellbeing, to manage stress, to activate personal resources, to optimize the participatory behavior, to dismiss the negative emotional states. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 116 2. materials and methods 2.1. objective and hypothesis the study’s objectives overlook: the relationship between the student’s participatory behavior and his or her adaptability to online schooling, as well as highlighting the improvement of the relationship’s dynamic and the participation to the online activities after therapy. 2.2. participants in order to test these hypothesis, the subjects’ group consisted in 14 people who opted for therapy during this period. 2.3. instruments in order to collect data, they were given two questionnaires: one which identifies the participatory behavior’s dimensions and another one which highlights the perceived relationship’s dynamic and their participation to the classes post-therapy. the questionnaire which overlooked the participatory behavior had the following dimensions – behavior relating to exchange (if they exchange classes, notes, the materials used for learning, information regarding the source of the materials used to for the learning process), the participatory behavior towards a group (do they contribute to the online classes, do they ask questions, do they participate in the activities), the attitude towards teamwork within the new conditions in which the classes are undergone. 2.4. study design and procedure in the beginning it was studied if there are any people advocating the participatory behavior among the subjects or not and in what way were they advocating for it. for the people that opted for therapy because of the online schooling difficulties, the premise was that participatory behavior was advantageous to undergo educational activities (even if they were face-toface or online activities). 3. results and discussion after submitting the questionnaires, the results were as follows: 75% of the subjects did not consider participatory behavior important, 83% of the subjects did not consider the behavior of exchange valuable and relevant, all the subjects considered that participating in group activities was not relevant for them and regarding their attitude towards teamwork, none of the participatory behaviour and the students’ adaptability in the online … roxana maier 117 them were orientated to work in a team. after receiving these results, the therapeutic objectives were set. these subjects’ results are pointing out to an issue of the romanian educational space i.e. collaboration in classroom. within the romanian educational system, the students’ work is usually focused on individual work, being scarcely stimulated towards teamwork. this results in students not being keen on valorizing teamwork because they lack the exercise relating to this work, so they undervalue its benefits. the difficulties that the students have identified while working online for their classes are: access to the device needed (there weren’t always enough devices for all the users in the house), not all had high-performance devices (not enough for every member of the household that worked online at once), the impossibility of being on their own in the room during class (for those who shared the room with a brother or sister), the absence of teachers or classes held in shorter amounts of time than it was schedules, lack of attention during class, the lack of appropriate instruments for teaching (blackboard for the teacher to write on, as an example), accessibility to online platforms, lack of attention while using the platforms during class. due to the difficulties identified and the sudden changes that appeared once the emergency state was installed, all subjects have perceived relating to the class as something difficult. starting from the findings related to the participative behavior, but also from the difficulties the students have met in working online we have formulated the therapeutic objectives. these have targeted: activating personal resources decisional flexibility and the adaptability to multiple changes valuing different dimensions of relating as follows: relating to the class in general within the relationship with teachers, relating to colleagues, the perception of the process of learning optimizing the communication between colleagues and teachers with a role in adapting to school in the online environment, but also to the amelioration of school performance the change of the personal map that was not functional, with one that was functional (making the change from frustration to engagement and resolution, from anxiety and insecurity to engagement and success) one can notice a change following therapy on the dimensions evaluated as follows: 73% of the respondents consider the exchange behavior as valuable and relevant and thus they constantly take part in initiating or responding in a positive way to it, or to similar behaviors seen in classmates brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 118 64% of participants value participating in group activities and consider that these have contributed to the amelioration of personal scholastic performances, but also to an ameliorated relational dynamic in the class 57% of the participants consider that team work is important and emphasize its role in being part of school in the current conditions in addition, all mention that the communication in class has improved, among themselves but also with the teachers, the relational dynamic between the classmates has been optimized and they have managed to surpass the difficulties of staying in from of their camera and concentrate throughout the lesson. in the online space the social construct of our reality was created differently as in the online sphere, exercising the power of the public space has a different valence. we are co-creators of the social reality through our communication and through the dynamics of our relationship (sandu, 2016). the new environment in which relating and communicating has happened is one in which the power rapports have changed, with our capacity to adapt and the wish to move forward coming out to the surface. one of our relational dimensions activates in the online activities, and that is our social anxiety to evaluation. this is a component of social anxiety, characterized by a strong fear of being negatively evaluated by the others (calsyn et al., 2005). due to the fact that we are alone in front of a screen we perceive ourselves differently, but especially exposed and vulnerable to evaluation (more vulnerable). for children the pressure is even higher as during this time they perceive the relationships with others, suddenly different than until now. for certain students, relating with classmates happened only in class and in public places, and suddenly, with all the changes brought by the pandemic, they were forced to receive them all „at home” through a screen. all these changes in which certain aspects of their lives have been made public has brought along discomfort (from the way their room looks like, to the way they are dressed, who else is in the same room with them, etc.) and have represented an extra stressor during this time, so that each student’s level of stress augmented. each student had to make numerous adjustments during this time, which enhanced the discomfort in front of the camera, the person’s fitting to the environment was different by comparison to their class work, and the work conditions were entirely new, on top of school work all the home activities from the other family members were superimposed. we have all gone through this period through changes in all of our life’s plans – from working from the office, to working from home, from going out when and where we want to only going out in certain places and the participatory behaviour and the students’ adaptability in the online … roxana maier 119 certain moments, etc. over all the fear of an unknown disease also superimposed. for adults it was difficult, but each knew relatively well their own personal resources, but for the children it was different and far more difficult for the element of novelty, for the multitude of restrictions that they hardly understood. pupils needed extra support to surpass this period that was so different than until now, but an extra issue was finishing the school year well in the new conditions (going from face-to-face learning to learning online). in front of a screen, our possibilities to react, even if immediate are less accessed as we and the others, in a different networking and far more exposed (me alone on one side and all the others on the other side). students with a high level of social anxiety for evaluation have gone through this with significant difficulty (malin, 2003). during this entire period, therapy proved to be a real tangible support for adapting to the new conditions and to enhance each person’s comfort with the new life defined by the pandemic. in therapy, for children and not only the moment they identify the change, and what has brought a personal growth from there onwards (slayton et al., 2010) this will bring constant growth, the ability to solution the dysfunctionalities that may appear, improving their quality of life on all plans, carrying through online learning activities easily and this will make their perception on digital wellbeing better. 4. discussions and conclusion this pandemic period has been, for all of us, one of multiple tries and one of the biggest for the school system was moving from face-to-face teaching to online teaching. the difficulties appeared both in the activity in itself done by the teachers, but also in the pupils’ activity. the study brings to light some data from this period, data referring to the pupils’ activity and the perception they had on it, but also data on the support that therapy has brought for adapting to the new conditions and the creation of a healthy environment to unfold activity. the challenge for the work with pupils online is difficult in itself, and thus the challenge to find new solutions in new and relatively limited context to tackle issues proved even more difficult. in this space of working with others it is always needed, as a therapist to take their wishes and their ability to move forward with their life into account (sandu & frunză, 2019). in this completely new state for all of us, that of the state of emergency, we have managed to attach, through the therapeutic endeavor the students in an authentic partnership, centered on their news that they themselves identified. in therapy, through the main benefits enumerated by clients are the ones about the change in their general wellbeing, both physically and mentally, a decrease in stressors, the possibilities for personal brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 120 growth (leckley, 2011). the main benefits identified by the students themselves, were the ones tied to getting over the discomfort of learning online to the wellbeing given by the activities with their classmates while online. the existence of such an endeavor creates a working space that facilitates the access to the student’s wellbeing, his or her adaptability, creating premises for an online learning process that is made more efficient, to discovering new ways of working online, that were different until that moment, to understanding the role each student has in rectifying the issues that intervened, but also who to go to for support during this time. anxiety and apathy, as well as isolation, are two of the symptoms of mental well-being that may persist long beyond the completion of the pandemic, while the heightened feelings of distress and tension, particularly at an unpredictable period, may have major consequences for public wellbeing, can increase vulnerability to poor health, and can threaten the whole of society. while some specific circumstances require social distance, social isolation should not become a norm. such two terms are often used interchangeably, but the definitions of both words can be specifically differentiated and used accordingly. in current times where social distancing and isolation represent important aspects of daily life, public bodies have to mobilize their ability to respond to individuals’ emerging necessities and tackle the overall wellbeing effects of social isolation. it is important for humanity to counter the pandemic and keep it from spreading further, but these interventions do not mean that social interaction will collapse. the effect of isolation and loneliness should never be underestimated, as failure to act will lead to increased human and financial costs later on. strong social and economic arguments should suffice to convince decision-makers that urgent action is also needed to address the social isolation of people, especially those in a vulnerable position. developing appropriate strategies, including preventive initiatives, is not an simple task during a public health emergency, where goals need to be redefined and public funding desperately needs to be reallocated; but awareness of these concerns will now make a substantial contribution to reducing the long-term impact of the ongoing crisis. references barnett, l. a. (2018). boredom. in r. j. r. levesque (ed.), encyclopedia of adolescence. springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33228-4 calsyn, r. j., winter, j. p., & burger, g. k. (2005). the relationship between social anxiety and social support in adolescents: a test of competing causal models. adolescence, 40(157), 103-113. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33228-4 the participatory behaviour and the students’ adaptability in the online … roxana maier 121 cristescu, i. (2008). colaborarea în realizarea sarcinilor cooperative: utilizarea platformei de realitate îmbogăţită arise [collaboration in carrying out cooperative tasks: using the arise enriched reality platform]. revista română de interacţiune om – calculator [romanian journal of human computer interaction], 1, 145-162. lazarus, r., s. (2011). emoţie și adaptare. o abordare cognitive a proceselor afecive [emotion and adaptation. a cognitive approach to affective processes]. editura trei. leckey, j. (2011). the therapeutic effectiveness of creative activities on mental wellbeing: a systematic review of the literature. journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 18, 501-509. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.13652850.2011.01693.x malim, t. (2003). psihologie socială [social psychology]. editura tehnică. mcdermott, i., & jago, w. (2006). the coaching bible. the essential handbook. piatkus books ltd. miller, w., r., & rollnick, s. (2002). motivational interviwing. preparing people for change. the guilford press. mumford, j. (2007). life coaching. john wiley&sons. ltd. rad, d., & demeter, e. (2019). youth sustainable digital wellbeing. postmodern openings, 10(4), 104-115. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/96 rad, d., balas, v., lile, r., demeter, e., dughi, t., & rad, g. (2020). statistical properties of a new social media context awareness scale (smca)—a preliminary investigation. sustainability 12(12), 5201, https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125201 ryan, r. m., & deci, e. (2017). self-determination theory: basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. guilford publication. sandu, a. (2016). social construction of reality as communicative action. cambridge scholars publishing. sandu, a., & frunză, a. (2019). informed consent in research involving human subjects. in a. sandu, a. frunză, & e. unguru, (eds.), ethics in research practice and innovation (pp. 171-191). igi global. slayton, s. c., d'archer, j., & kaplan, f. (2010). outcome studies on the efficacy of art therapy: a review of findings, art therapy. journal of the american art therapy association, 27(3), 108-118, https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2010.10129660 stillman, p., freedman, j., jorgensen, m., & stillman, s. (2017). coaching with emotional intelligence: an experiential approach to creating insight, connection, and purpose. journal of experiential psychotherapy, 20, 4(80), 313. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2011.01693.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2011.01693.x https://doi.org/10.18662/po/96 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125201 https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2010.10129660 schadenfreude and general anti-social behaviours: the role of violent content preferences and life satisfaction brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 79-88 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/221 volunteering and prosocial behaviour roxana maier¹, andra maier2, călin maier3 1 assoc. prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, roxanamaierpsiho@gmail.com 2 pr specialist, the comms factory, romania, roxanamaierpsiho@gmail.com 3 ba (hons) architecture, manchester university, uk, roxanamaierpsiho@gmail.com abstract: the study wants to put in relation prosocial behaviour with well-being. the study’s participants were selected from various volunteering groups, involved in student organisations in romania and outside of it. the data regarding one’s own perception of prosocial behaviour and well-being was gathered during the pandemic’s first week and after 8 weeks, but the volunteers’ activity was tracked in the months that followed. this led to acknowledging that their activities diversified in this field and the participants’ number in their groups grew bigger. finding a meaning based on our prosocial behaviours brings benefits in the social dynamic, diminishes the feeling of loneliness, and leads to optimising our well-being. keywords: prosocial behaviour, pandemic, volunteering, quality of life. how to cite: maier, r., maier, a., & maier, c. (2021). the system of modern social work with children with disabilities in the context of neuropedagogy: traditions and innovations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 79-88. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/221 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/221 mailto:roxanamaierpsiho@gmail.com mailto:roxanamaierpsiho@gmail.com mailto:roxanamaierpsiho@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/221 volunteering and prosocial behaviour roxana maier, et al. 80 1. introduction when talking about prosocial behaviour, we talk about that type of behaviour focused on keeping, conserving, and promoting social values, without expecting external gratification. in order to talk about this type of behaviour, two conditions need to be achieved: the intention to help people and the possibility of choosing this on your own. prosocial behaviour is taught, so being exposed to it early on and keeping a conduit in the family, oriented towards it, will stimulate the child to embrace such behaviour. these types of behaviours are encouraged by the society because they bring benefits in social relationships. in these behaviours, two norms are involved – reciprocity (we help the ones that help us) and social reciprocity (we are helping the people without thinking that we will meet them or not, the example being related to supporting those less fortunate) (boncu et al., 2006). building back better (bbb) is a concept introduced to enhance countries’ resilience when faced with disasters and to re-build themselves starting from the community. this is based on the community’s possibility to find resources and offer support in reconstruction. starting from these ideas, some students, which volunteered in student organisations, wanted to offer support to all the student categories, as well as reaching out to those in need during the pandemic. thus, they initiated plans to manage the situations that intervened during the lockdown and pandemic. although the activity plans in which they volunteered have been done from the beginning of the academic year, when the emergency state has intervened, these have been reconsidered and adapted for the new situation. these plans were oriented towards increasing well-being, reconstructing the lost equilibrium, increase the participants’ resilience, identifying those categories that are more vulnerable and offering proper support for their problematic, creating a reference framework to re-establish personal equilibrium throughout the pandemic and afterwards. some guidelines utilised from documents referring to bbb are: promoting resilience, finding resources in the business space that could aid the supporting and developing projects, promoting people, materials, technologies that could bring change in the given situation, identifying the financial mechanisms that could make all of these possible (donating to other organisations that give support, creating communities, etc.), constructing bridges over cultural or spatial differences (wherever you would find yourself, you could receive support), identifying and including as many affected categories as possible (clinton, 2006). of important lessons regarding this type of reconstruction is that students, being involved in brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 81 learning activities, represent, or could represent learning hubs for the whole community. both their teachers and them are interested in their own development, more than any other category, so they can easily represent initiators of development in various activity domains. starting from some ideas, the volunteering groups immediately got involved in offering support during the pandemic. their example can lead to prosocial behaviours that can be manifested not only within their volunteering group, but also outside of it (boncu, 2002). in the meeting space between two people there is an exchange of meanings, social and interpersonal contexts are explored and through this, the two given each other access to the other’s world (duck, 2000). this is mediated by empathy. meeting the other person was even more necessary during the pandemic, because a lot of people ended up spending some time alone in their house and thus the social contacts were suddenly minimised and moved to the online medium. when you are alone, you feel every issue that may intervene, more acutely, and well-being is deteriorating faster than in other conditions. above all these, fear related to the new coronavirus, uneasiness related to the dear ones that are far away maybe, the changes that intervened each day, uncertainty regarding supplies, personal losses – related to equilibrium, definitions or even worse, people, were superposed during the pandemic. to give a new meaning to what is happening to us, it is necessary to understand our present, so we can build the future (mecu, 2016). we all had fluctuant affects, reaching all the affect’s range from the positive to the negative throughout the emergency state. this was doubled by feelings of loss for things’ sense – what is the point in doing things for myself only, what is the point of wearing something else rather than the clothes that i am wearing at home, what is the point of caring for myself if i am at home, what is the point of opening the camera if i can leave it off during this online talk, etc. all of these led to believing that all that we do, think of feel is pointless, especially for the people who were living on their own (van tilburg & igou, 2011). our feelings are constantly changing due to the shifts that intervene in our relationship with the environment, thus our meanings related to what happens to us ought to be constantly evaluated and understood. our adaptation refers to the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural efforts, related to coping with the situation, to managing everything in relation to our own resources (lazarus, 2011). throughout the pandemic, but especially during lockdown, we encountered many varied emotions, a lot of them belonging to the negative spectrum. this influenced our well-being throughout the whole period. well-being is a subjective evaluation of ourselves and it represents the way in which we understand our happiness, and because of it well-being can also be named as volunteering and prosocial behaviour roxana maier, et al. 82 confessed happiness. this state constitutes a synthesis of some recurrent emotional states and it is linked to everyday experiences, lived by each of us (lazarus, 2011). favourable attitude and positive norms are constituted by premises in choosing behaviours focused on offering support and empathy. throughout the pandemic and not only, our attitude towards our behaviour also gives us the impression of a perceived behavioural control. between the two there is a positive relationship (la barbera, 2018). during the pandemic, the difficulty came by losing, in some degree, our control over behaviour, doubled by a lot of uncertainty related to what is happening. moreover, the volunteers’ activity offered support in creating premises for re-establishing a daily meaning, for a better emotional management, for concrete actions which were happening rhythmically, and which gave a rational and actional configuration for every participant. managing one’s own emotions represent an important part of understanding how happy we are (clark, 2011). 2. materials and methods 2.1. objective and hypothesis the main objective of this study was showcasing the volunteers’ relationship between being involved in a prosocial activity and optimising well-being throughout the pandemic. objective 1. highlighting the starting parameters regarding wellbeing values. objective 2. showcasing the prosocial behaviour’s role in volunteering group activities and the subjective perception’s influence about success in doing this role. the study focuses on showcasing the prosocial behaviour’s role in volunteering groups from student organizations and its influence on the participants’ well-being throughout the pandemic. hypothesis 1. focusing on prosocial behaviours leads to being involved in social activities offering support during the pandemic. hypothesis 2. being attentive to prosocial behavior during the first weeks of pandemic constitutes a good predictor for optimizing well-being. 2.2. participants and instruments for this study, 35 people participated, being involved in various student organisations across romania and outside of it, aged 19-26 years old. in order to collect the data describing the participants (age, profession, the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 83 number of organisations they are involved in, their functions within those organisations) a first questionnaire is used. the people that participated in the study are students across different educational paths – bachelors or masters. the second questionnaire is applied to identify the starting values related to their subjective perception of their own prosocial behaviour and well-being. the answers regarding the second questionnaire were marked on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest level and 5 the highest. also, the participants were told that the term prosocial behaviour is related to the following areas: altruism, self-help, interpersonal attraction, mutual respect, and the one related to well-being targets overall well-being (across all the areas related to their life). 3. results and discussion first hypothesis the participants are people involved in volunteering student organisations. the answers targeting prosocial behaviour and self-evaluation of their own prosocial behaviour brings the following data – all the participants view themselves as focused on prosocial behaviours and the values they give to it are as follows 17% medium level, 37% high level, and 46% very-high level. these results led to the second hypothesis – as a follow-up for what this study focused on, which is to follow the way in which students are involved in giving support during the pandemic. regarding well-being, the respondents attributed values below the medium level during the first week of the pandemic (55% medium level, 39% low level, and 6% very-low level). all 35 people were involved in volunteering activities since the beginning of the academic year. second hypothesis the participants’ prosocial behaviour made it possible that just after the pandemic’s first week; they were mostly focusing on offering support for those who lived alone. the organisations in which the participants volunteered were already involved in creating or optimising well-being, but in that moment, their focus was on actions related to the new situation i.e., the emergency state. through social involvement, the mood changes (from negative to positive, or from positive to even more positive) and thus well-being is enhanced. living empathically leads to opportunities for social involvement and prosocial behaviour, which can be constituted as an important predictor for developing socio-emotional health (van de groep et al., 2020). to empathically resonate is a way to experiment to what someone other expresses, to understand on a significance level what the other is trying to express. the quality of a process of empathic understanding is determined by the measure in which the person that shows volunteering and prosocial behaviour roxana maier, et al. 84 empathy is in contact with his or her own emotions and also by his or her way of expressing these as authentically as possible. this creates a bridge of empathic communication between the two people and thus produces a significance felt by both parties. at the end of the day, empathic resonance is a process of knowing oneself and each other, in a different way i.e. the type that targets the other person’s inner world (vanaerschot, 2011). healthy mental functioning assumes that the experience is taken further. as in the process of personal expression, what the person has lived and experimented in a certain situation to find a constructive sense in the life of the person. to remain in the explicit does not necessarily mean going further. living the implicit, this means adding a personal significance means being able to traverse the experience so that the person can come out of it enriched and with the ability to go forward. during lockdown was the moment in which we have each discovered why our home was home, because we were mostly orientated towards our inner selves, rather than towards the exterior (dumitrache, 2017). this led to discovering how we find ourselves in regard to the social dynamic, with empathy or not, with involvement or not. our success is not defined by our relationships at school or work, but mostly our adaptive capacity and in the way we managed to support other in this adaptive endeavour. the actions of volunteering organizations have been orientated in such a way during the pandemic, from day one, so that they can offer support to people that have found themselves on their own, and not only. the situations in which the persons were alone in their homes were the following – they have been left alone in their university accommodation because they missed their last window of opportunity to travel home, they needed to isolate as they were coming from a red zone, needed to quarantine upon entering the country, in an unknown space given by their respective home state/country, have made it home, but the rest of their family couldn’t isolate with them, got sick and were taken to the hospital, etc. the actions unfolded by certain volunteering organizations have been as follow:  daily posts, each on different themes – motivational, quotes, work tasks, something for your well-being, tips & tricks to get through it all better,  a weekly list with 3 books to read and each of their recommendations, three films to see, three songs to listen to, which all contributed to living in harmony with yourself and your free time (petre, 2014). if the films were for example recommended or seen by multiple volunteers, then, in their weekly meetings they could discuss brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 85 them, and add another activity that personally enriched the members who are part of the organization,  twice a week the volunteers could be called by those who were alone for various reasons to have someone to chat to, or to ask for support in case they needed it,  yoga or sports activities all done online,  workshops – where the students could work online with others on the tasks received during the classes at university – these were an opportunity to spend quality time with others, but also to consult themselves with others on their respective work tasks, or to find new solutions in case these were needed. in addition to that, the volunteers have been involved in writing about their different experiences in certain magazines or on platforms so that each person’s experience can offer a way to follow or a possibility to go further in this hardship we all were carrying shoulder to shoulder. each of these actions have led to a diminishing of the feeling of loneliness, to finding sustainable behaviours given the situation, to the belief that someone, at the end of a ‘line’ can listen to you, can offer you psychological comfort, to also finding out that you are not alone and not the only one going through this situation, to finding experiences similar to yours and a place in which to be able to talk about them, to be understood and to receive support in case of need. the number of people registered for the volunteering organisations rose to 20-35%, which was higher than any other increase throughout the years. finding a way to support others leads to a better personal resilience and an augmentation of kindness to others, but to a better perception regarding personal success. taking part in prosocial actions one can notice the creation of reciprocity in behaviour, in the volunteer group, which means that it is oriented towards spreading the positive experience, finding new resources to support, finding new participants in the organization’s actions and thus making these actions ampler and more prosocially oriented. for those assisted, during the pandemic, the teams have formed certain fixed markers associated with a state of well-being – the small regular posts, the articles that appeared, the music, the activities suggested, the people who could be contacted, the constant support received. the fact that they were connected with other people that went through similar experiences made each participant engage in behaviours that were socially desirable, or even more than that oriented in a prosocial manner. one of the changes that we have all registered during the pandemic was changing one’s daily habits – we could not go out as usual, volunteering and prosocial behaviour roxana maier, et al. 86 we couldn’t do many of our usual activities, we couldn’t see people we were used to seeing, outdoors’ activities were diminished or non-existent. all these small habits were suddenly gone, or diminished drastically, and volunteer student organisations tried hard to add something instead of all those activities, substituting these with small activities and things that could happen in the current state, and which, through regularity and positive content offered a direction and path of the day or the week that were easier to do. throughout the pandemic, due to the many changes and the unusual of the whole situation, it is possible that some of those who were completely alone would have been demotivated, or even bored, but through the volunteers’ actions and their dynamics, they were offered a direction, motivation, or even orientation towards changes to increase their state of well-being. the volunteers’ activity was oriented towards the following: facilitating social contacts, moral support, source of information, eliminating the feelings of isolation (badea & constantin, 2002) the progress seen for the 35 participants in the study has been tied to their own meaning shared in rapport to giving support, defining personal success, diminishing the negative feelings throughout the pandemic, growing their role in the volunteering groups, forming a support network, the feeling of belonging, developing new friendships, and last but not least, augmenting the feeling of well-being. for all the participants in this study one could see the following changes to the level of perceiving one’s well-being state after 8 weeks – 14% on a very high level, 23% on a high level and 63% on an average level. in addition to this, starting from the experience of offering support throughout this period and in the way it was done, the volunteers have found ways to orient themselves towards other categories that were in difficulty, and have thus initiated projects – some geared towards the homeless, protecting the environment, under-privileged students (support for online classes), fund raising for certain actions oriented towards solutioning the health crisis (donating masks, making the visors, etc), actions to get used to student life for those in their first year, the possibility to befriend those in older years, socializing for those in year 1 in order to be able to create the feeling of belonging, and a better group dynamic, in the conditions of only having online classes. 4. conclusion the pandemic forced all of us to live in an unexpected way and this has not contributed to our general well-being but generated quite the opposite. our main concern was tied to our health, but on top of that we brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 87 can also add the following – caring for loved ones, for those far away, the difficulty of the situations that have arisen, etc. for those 35 participants in this study, the fact that they could be part of volunteering activities, which had a deep prosocial character, lead to defining their roles better, to living the present moment to the fullest, to finding a positive meaning each day, each contributing to making the emergency state easier, to keeping themselves healthy, to optimising their well-being throughout the difficult weeks that have followed. the fact that the organizations which they were part of accepted new members throughout the pandemic, and the fact that they were not in small numbers, proved, once more that a prosocial behaviour leads through reciprocity to other similar. continuing these projects and taking part in new ones brought new meanings of development of student organisations and these finding new resources to continue. references badea, v., & constantin, m. f. (2002). în umbra societăţii. incursiune în viaţa persoanelor fără adăpost. [in the society’s shadow. incursion in the lives of the homeless people]. sper publishing house. boncu, ş. (2002). psihologia influenţei sociale [social influence psychology]. polirom publishing house. boncu, st., ilin, c., & sulea, c. (2007). manual de psihologie socială aplicată. [manual of applied social psychology]. west university publishing house clark, l. (2011). sos ajutor pentru emoţii. managementul anxietăţii, furiei şi depresiei. [sos help for emotions. anxiety, anger, and depression management] (o. a. gavita, trans.). romanian psychological testing services. (original work published 2002) clinton, w.j. (2006). key proposition for building back better: lesson learned from tsunami recovery. office of the secretary general’s special envoy for tsunami recovery. new york united nation. https://www.preventionweb.net/files/2054_vl108301.pdf duck, s. (2000). relaţiile interpersonale. a gândi, a simţi, a interacţiona. [human relationships. to think, to feel, to interact.] (m. talparu, trans.). polirom publishing house. (original work published 1986) dumitrache, s. (2017). aici şi acum, dezvoltare personală: scenă si culise. [here and now, personal development: scene and backstage]. sper publishing house. la barbera, f. (2018). moderating role of control in the theory of planned behavior: a replication and extension. psycharchives. http://dx.doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.2344 https://www.preventionweb.net/files/2054_vl108301.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.2344 volunteering and prosocial behaviour roxana maier, et al. 88 lazarus, r. (2011). emoţie şi adaptare. o abordare cognitivă a proceselor afective [emotion and adaptation. a cognitive approach to affective processes] (i. diaconu, trans.). trei publishing house. (original work published 1990) mecu, c.-m. (2016). drumuri de vindecare, tehnici şi ,,tipsuri,, psihoterapeutice. [ways of healing, psychotherapeutic techniques and tips]. sper publishing house. petre, l. m. (2014). muzică, voce, terapie. spectacolul minţii. [music, voice, therapy. mind’s show]. sper publishing house. van de groep, s., zanolie, k., green, k.h., sweijen, s.w., crone, e.a. (2020, october 7). a daily diary study on adolescents’ mood, empathy, and prosocial behavior during the covid-19 pandemic. plos one. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240349 van tilburg w. a.p., & igou e. r. (2011). on boredom: lack of challenge and meaning as distinct boredom experiences. motivation and emotion, 36(2), 114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9234-9 vanaerschot, g. (2011). rezonanţa empatică – sursă a intervenţiilor pentru intensificarea experienţei. [empathic resonance as a source of experienceenhancing interventions]. in a. c. bohart & l. s. greenberg (eds.), empatia în psihoterapie [empathy reconsidered. new directions in psychotherapy] (a. timofte, trans). trei publishing house. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240349 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9234-9 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 297-313 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/251 the problem of mental development in children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma¹, lesia zalanovska2, iryna brushnevska3, alina ivanenko4, dina shulzhenko5, tetiana shvaliuk6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, bazymanataliia@gmail.com 2 «zaporizhzhia polytechnic» national university, ukraine, lesia_zalanovskaia@ukr.net 3 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, brush-ira@ukr.net 4 donbas state pedagogical university, ukraine, ivanenko.ddpu@gmail.com 5 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, dinashulzhenko@gmail.com 6 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, shvaluktm@ukr.net abstract: the clinical-psychological-pedagogical picture of autistic personality disorders of a child is highly complex and diverse compared to other mental development disorders. the divergence of researchers' views on the autism clinic leads to a scientific discussion on the problem of conceptual and terminological base of definitions and concepts, so, as a consequence, the problem has a conceptual and diagnostic orientation. summarizing the research of scientists, we highlight the characteristic manifestations of autism in older preschool age: lack of mental activity; violation of the interaction of mental functions; unevenness, partialness of intellectual development; gross violations of purposefulness and arbitrariness of attention; lack of lively interest, interest in the new, environmental research; the tendency to perceive information as if passively absorbing it into whole blocks; the reaction of departure from the influences of the environment directed on the child; adverse reaction or no reaction at all when trying to draw attention to the objects of the surrounding reality; rapid exhaustion and oversaturation with any purposeful activity; difficulty concentrating; difficulties in symbolization, transfer of skills from one situation to another; impaired formation of social and communicative functions. having analyzed many scientific studies, we can determine the number and variety of speech disorders in children with autistic disorders: challenging to interpret crying; limited barking; lack of imitation of sounds; phonography of speech; mutism; echolalia; words-stamps, phrases-stamps; neologisms; limited use of pronouns; lack of speech in speech; speech autonomy; speech disorders; inability to form words; violation of the semantic, syntactic, grammatical structure of speech; violation of speech melody; violation of prosodic components of speech; inability to engage in dialogue; specificity of the development of monologue speech. keywords: older pre-school-age, characteristic manifestations of autism, speech development disorders, intellectual development, mental activity deficit, impaired interaction of mental functions. how to cite: bazyma, n., zalanovska, l., brushnevska, i., ivanenko, a., shulzhenko, d., & shvaliuk, t. (2021). the problem of mental development in children with autistic disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 297-313. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/251 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/251 mailto:bazymanataliia@gmail.com mailto:lesia_zalanovskaia@ukr.net mailto:brush-ira@ukr.net mailto:ivanenko.ddpu@gmail.com mailto:dinashulzhenko@gmail.com mailto:shvaluktm@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/251 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 298 introduction the clinical-psychological-pedagogical picture of autistic personality disorders of a child is highly complex and diverse compared to other mental development disorders. the divergence of researchers' views on the autism clinic leads to a scientific discussion on the problem of conceptual and terminological base of definitions and concepts, so, as a consequence, the problem has a conceptual and diagnostic orientation. examining the manifestations of autism in early and preschool age, researchers (melnyk et al., 2019, 2021; wing & gould, 1979) note that a child with autistic disorders is not by generally accepted age norms from the first months of life and affects the variety of manifestations. even though most scientific sources indicate the most striking manifestation of the syndrome at the age of 3-5 years, the signs of impaired development, which can then manifest themselves in the form of autism, in most cases can be seen much earlier. according to bayenskaya (2001) research, the formation of this syndrome is completed by 2.5-3 years, when the disorders are already pervasive and are manifested in the peculiarities of motor, speech, intellectual development. unfortunately, the initial period of mental development of an autistic child is still inaccessible for direct research. although the general picture of children's early development in this category is described in many sources, scientists emphasize certain sensory and speech development features, research and cognitive activity, development of instinctive-affective sphere, communication skills, and social behavior (vrono & bashina, 1988). complexity and variability of autistic disorders today, there are several views on when the first symptoms of autism appear. due to the complexity and variability of autistic disorders and, in some cases, the difficulty of differentiating autism at an early age from other disorders (blindness, deafness, mental retardation), according to studies by bayenskaya (2001) and sheremet et al. (2019). the detection of this disorder is complicated and delayed, which is the reason for the later detection of autism and, consequently, the later onset of targeted correctional work. osterling & dawson (1994) investigated the difference between healthy children and those diagnosed with autism in behaviors such as pointing at objects, the ability to bring and show an object (such as a toy), and reactions to one's name and gaze in the face of another person during the first birthday based on the analysis of home videos by pediatricians. scambler et al. (2001) proves that it is possible to diagnose autism with a sufficient the problem of mental development in children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma, et al. 299 degree of reliability in the period from 12 to 18 months. baron-cohen (1987) notes that if systematic research on impaired social interaction in autism is expanded and deepened, the diagnosis of this disorder will be possible at a much earlier age. shulzhenko (2009) notes that the vast majority of requests from parents of children with autistic disorders for help to specialists fall on the period preceding the second year after the birth of a child when there is a noticeable difference in speech development, interest in games and social contacts between their child and adults or other children of the same age. ostrovskaya (2013) marks such a period of the fourth or fifth year of a child's life, when behavioral features, developmental delays, and specific speech become apparent. the main manifestations of autism include a triad of disorders (world health organization, 1994):  qualitative disorders in social interaction (inability to adequately use the look "face to face," facial expressions, postures, and body gestures to regulate social interaction, lack of socio-emotional reciprocity, manifests itself in a disturbing reaction to the emotions of others or the lack of modulation of behavior by the social context);  qualitative disorders in communication (relative inability to initiate or maintain communication);  limited, repetitive, or stereotypical behaviors, interests, or activities. also, we note a pronounced lack or absence of need for contact with others, emotional coldness or indifference to loved ones, along with a possible symbiotic relationship with the mother, a painful attachment to routine, constant (habitual) order, fear of novelty, any changes in the environment, speech disorders, the nature of which significantly depends on the variant of autism (bayenskaya, 2001; nikolskaya et al., 2007 etc.). nikolskaya et al. (2007) identified and explained a typical combination of two pathogenic factors in autism: impaired ability to interact with the environment actively and lowering the threshold of practical discomfort in contact with the world. the first factor makes itself felt due to a decrease in vitality and difficulties in organizing active relations with the world. the second factor manifests itself as a painful reaction to ordinary sounds, light, color, or touch and increased sensitivity, vulnerability in contact with another person (nikolskaya et al., 2007). such children are characterized by low endurance in communicating with the world. they quickly become oversaturated and painfully experience even pleasant contact with the environment. it is important to note that most such children are characterized not only by increased vulnerability but also a tendency to fixate brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 300 on unpleasant impressions for a long time, to form a rigid negative selectivity in contacts, to create a whole system of fears, prohibitions, all sorts of restrictions (nikolskaya et al., 2007). these factors act in one direction, preventing active interaction with the environment and creating conditions for strengthening self-defense (nikolskaya et al., 2007). combining these factors leads to the formation of secondary signs of autistic dysontogenesis, i.e., the classic signs of the syndrome: directly autism and stereotypes in contact with the environment (nikolskaya et al., 2007). lebedinsky (2003) to the main difficulties hindering mental development of the autistic child carries: deficit of mental activity, disturbances of the instinctive-affective sphere, sensory disturbances, disturbances of a motor sphere, speech disturbances are closely connected with it. he considers the mechanism of formation of secondary disorders through the prism of abnormal mental development and argues that mental development suffers from biological inferiority and adapts to it as external conditions (lebedinsky, 2003). tarasun (2004) defines the main diagnostic criteria of autism: disorders in the field of social relations and social regulation; disorders in the communicative sphere and immaturity of the ability to dialogue and initiate contact; limited patterns of behavior, interests, and types of occupations, limited, constant interest in certain subjects or details; selectivity of perception of the world around, where the main symptom of a triad disorder is a socio-emotional disorder. rozhdestvenska & konopliasta (2004) focus on such symptoms as profound lack of emotional contact, anxious desire to maintain the constancy and immutability of the environment, extreme focus on and manipulation of individual objects, mutism or speech, not aimed at communication. an autistic child (lebedinsky, 2003; nikolskaya et al., 2007) suffers from the development of mechanisms that determine active interaction with the world, and at the same time accelerates the pathological development of defense mechanisms: instead of establishing a flexible distance that allows contact with the environment and avoid uncomfortable impressions, the reaction of departure from the influences directed on the child is fixed; instead of developing favorable selectivity, developing a rich and diverse arsenal of life skills that meet the needs of the child, negative selectivity is formed and fixed, that is, in the center of her attention instead of pleasure, is what she does not like, does not accept, fears; instead of developing skills that can actively influence the world (explore situations, overcome obstacles, perceive their own mistakes as a new adaptive task, which, in fact, opens the way to intellectual development), there is a focus on protecting the permanence and immutability of the surrounding microworld; instead of the problem of mental development in children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma, et al. 301 developing emotional contact with relatives, which makes it possible to establish arbitrary control over behavior, a system of protection is built by establishing the maximum distance in contacts with relatives (lebedinskiy, 2003; tarasun, 2004). emotional and volitional disorders are a leading sign of autism and can occur immediately after birth. thus, in 100% of the observations conducted by lebedinskiy (2003), autism sharply lags behind the formation of the very first system of social interaction with others the recovery complex. as a child grows, the weakness of emotional contact with close adults continues to grow. children do not ask for hands; being on hands, do not accept the corresponding pose, do not press, remain sluggish and passive. usually, the child distinguishes parents from other adults but does not express great affection (mamaychuk, 2007). a child with autistic disorders treats affection relatively unusually: sometimes with indifference (tolerates affection) or even unfriendly, if the child receives pleasant feelings and experiences, it quickly becomes satiated. attitudes towards moments of discomfort (for example, eating disorders or temperature disorders) are paradoxical: the child either does not tolerate them or is indifferent to them (mamaychuk, 2007). the process of metallization suffers, i.e., the ability to recognize one's own and others' mental states (shulzhenko, 2009). some children seem unemotional: they do not express enough fear or love, and some, on the contrary, are overly emotional: they suffer from outbursts of anger, aggression and abruptly move from one emotional state to another (mamaychuk, 2007; tarasun, 2004). lebedinsky (2003) draws attention to the fact that the lack of emotional resonance to the environment, often coldness and indifference, even to loved ones, is combined with increased vulnerability, timidity, and sensitivity slightest remark in his address. initial energy deficiency and related weakness of motivation, rapid exhaustion, and oversaturation with any purposeful activity, low sensory thresholds with a pronounced negative background of feelings, increased readiness for reactions of anxiety and fear push the autistic child to a rigid (inflexible) state, external environment (lebedinsky, 2003). moreover, a child with autism assesses most situations of interaction with the outside world as dangerous. autism in this regard can be represented, according to lebedinsky (2003), as a compensatory mechanism aimed at protecting against the traumatic environment. lebedinsky (2003), shulzhenko (2009), and others, studying the development of children with autistic disorders, notes that by the age of one and a half, they have a weakness of mental tone: general lethargy, lack of instinctive sphere (poor appetite, weakness of instinct). self-preservation, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 302 reduction of reactions to discomfort) (hvorova, 2009; mamaychuk, 2006). the development of those aspects of the psyche that are formed in active social contact suffers the most. as a rule, there is a violation of the development of psychomotor skills. distortion of the development of cognitive mental nikolskaya et al. (2007) see as a consequence of disorders in the affective sphere, which lead to the deformation of the basic mechanisms of affective organization of behavior. a child with typical development can establish the optimal individual distance in relations with the world, determine their needs and habits, learn the unknown, overcome obstacles, build an active and flexible dialogue with the environment, establish emotional contact with people and arbitrarily organize their behavior. it is known that disorders in the affective sphere entail changes in the child's higher mental functions. the vast majority of autistic children have different degrees of manifestation of intellectual disabilities (shipitsyna, 2001; shulzhenko, 2009), but kanner (1944) noted that intellectual disability is not mandatory for them. such children can often have good intellectual abilities, even be partially gifted in various fields (mnukhin et al., 1967; shulzhenko, 2009). the main feature of the intellectual development of children with autism is unevenness, partialness, a unique characteristic of which is the ability to cope with tasks of an abstract nature when it is impossible to perform tasks of similar complexity with specific content. however, for intellectual activity in general, typical are violations of purposefulness, difficulty concentrating, oversaturation. understanding the specifics of intellectual and emotional underdevelopment in childhood autism and analysis of many years of experience in correctional work (dushka, 2003; karvasarskaya, 2003) suggest that children with autism can learn and have the prerequisites for further intellectual development. the inability to examine intelligence due to the child's behavior, lack of attention, or turbidity does not give the right to talk about mental retardation. impaired interaction of mental functions is most manifested explicitly in the formation of thinking and thinking of an autistic child (dushka, 2003; gilbert & piters, 2002): difficulties of voluntary learning, purposeful solution of real problems, understanding the development of situations over time, determining the sequence of events, causes and consequences, understanding the logic of another person, his ideas and intentions (mikirtumov & zavitayev, 2008; nemov, 2004, etc.). the distinction between one's own "self" and the surrounding world is poorly formed. many experts point to the difficulties in symbolization, the transfer of skills from one situation to another. within the stereotypical situation, the problem of mental development in children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma, et al. 303 many autistic children can generalize, use game symbols, build a program of action, so the lack of individual abilities (to generalize, understand the causal relationship, planning, etc.) can not be said unanimously (lebedinsky, 2003; kagan, 1981). however, children with autistic disorders cannot actively process information, actively use their abilities to adapt to the ever-changing world and the inconsistency of other people's intentions (nikolskaya et al., 2007; ostrovska, 2013). simultaneously, in a situation of complete control over events, such children may develop primitive interaction with others, a stereotypical game according to the same scheme. lack of general, and, including, mental, tone, combined with increased sensory and emotional sensitivity, causes a shallow level of active attention (ostrovska, 2013; tarasun, 2004): gross violations of focus and arbitrariness of attention, which interferes with the normal formation of higher mental functions; mental oversaturation (attention can be stable for literally minutes, and sometimes seconds, and oversaturation can be very strong and expressed by aggression) (skrypnyk, 2008; tarasun, 2004). conditions for preserving traces of emotional experiences from an early age, children with autistic disorders have good mechanical memory, which creates the conditions for preserving traces of emotional experiences. it is emotional memory that stereotypes the world's perception around: children easily remember the sensations that come through all sensory channels: sight, hearing, taste, smell, skin (williams, 1994) and strive for constant uniformity. the perceptual development of children with autistic disorders is also paradoxical. they have a characteristic painful hyperor hypostasis to the usual sensory stimuli: tactile, temperature, light, sound, which is observed early. the first classification of sensory dysfunction in autism was introduced by delacato (1974), who suggested that each sensory channel may be hypersensitive, hypersensitive, or have a perception disorder (socalled "white noise"). in particular, analyzer dysfunction was studied by grandin (2011), williams (1994), and others. it is difficult for children with autistic disorders to process different sensory sensations. the environment, typical for a healthy child, for an autistic child, is a source of a constant negative background of feelings and emotional discomfort (bogdashina, 1999; lebedinsky, 2003), which contribute to feelings of insecurity and is a favorable ground for fears. there are violations of spatial orientation, distortion of the holistic picture of the real object world and the subtle separation of individual, affectively significant, sensations of one's own body and smells, sounds, colors, shapes brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 304 of things (grandin, 2011). often it is exciting and essential for them not the subject as a whole, but its individual sensory qualities: sounds, shape, texture, color (shulzhenko, 2009; williams, 1994). feelings of light, color, shape, their body acquire for children with autistic disorders of self-worth. under the condition of normal development, they are, first of all, a means and a basis for the organization of motor activity, and for autistic children become the object of independent interest, a source of self-stimulation. thus, perceiving the world around, a child with autistic disorders receives sensory information different from the information received by a child who is developing typically. perhaps this may explain some behavioral manifestations and self-stimulation directed at the relevant organs (stereotypical pressure on the ear or eye, sniffing, licking objects, moving fingers in front of the eyes, playing with glare, shadows, inadequate reactions to domestic noise, fear of sudden or prolonged sounds, squeaks or screams, selectivity in food, etc.). gillingham (2000) suggested that such typical behaviors in autism as waving hands, rotating on the spot, and the like can produce endorphins that calm the child. at the same time, behavior such as tantrums or hitting the head against the wall or the floor causes "system overload", which leads to "disconnection" from external stimuli. similar behaviors may also indicate that the child is trying to escape from a situation that is causing him or her severe stress or trying to ask adults for help in the only way available to him or her. the motor sphere of a child with autistic disorders develops with features: awkwardness, arrhythmia, swaying, stiffness, inaccuracy, the tendency to motor stereotypes, difficulties in calculating movements by force and amplitude, more successful execution of more complex movements compared to lighter, better development of fine motor skills. difficulties in arbitrary activities, delaying the formation of skills of domestic adaptation, mastering the usual, necessary for life, actions with objects, such as mastering the basic skills of self-care, food, etc. there is an accumulation of stereotypical ways to obtain pleasant vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile sensations (nikolskaya et al., 2007; tarasun, 2004): waving hands, freezing in certain strange poses for a long time, selective tension of individual muscles and joints, running in a circle or wall to wall, jumping, spinning, rocking, climbing on furniture, jumping from chair to chair, balancing, etc. (gilbert & piters, 2002; nikolskaya et al., 2007). neurological examination reveals changes in muscle tone (to hypotension or hypertension) (chuprikov, 2005; nikolskaya et al., 2007). along with awkwardness and weakness, especially of hands, mannerisms, and whimsy movements, unexpected and original gestures, obsessive motor rituals are characteristic (lebedinsky, 2003). the problem of mental development in children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma, et al. 305 stereotyping in a child's behavior with autistic disorders is caused by the need to control contact with the world and protect themselves from uncomfortable impressions and limited ability to actively and flexibly interact with the environment (nikolskaya et al., 2007; shulzhenko, 2009). there is a twofold conditionality of stereotyping in contact with the environment: on the one hand, the particular requirement to maintain consistency in the environment, and on the other the desire to ensure a stereotypical environment due to inability to actively and flexibly adapt to changing circumstances. thus, instead of active interaction with the world, the child mainly develops means of protection from it, inadequate distance in contacts is established, and instead of favorable selectivity and objectification of their needs, a system of negative selectivity is developed in detail, and numerous fears, prohibitions, protective actions, rituals are recorded (shulzhenko, 2009). in conditions of frequent discomfort, limited active, positive contacts with the world, particular pathological forms of compensatory selfstimulation develop, which allow the child to raise his tone and suppress discomfort by reproducing the same pleasant impression and shielding from the adverse effects of the environment. the most striking manifestations of nikolskaya et al. (2007) syndrome are understood in the form of direct reactions of the child to his maladaptation: violation of self-preservation, negativism, destructive behavior, fears, aggression, self-aggression, which, conversely, decrease when choosing available forms of interaction. the apparent paradox of the child's behavior is to some extent due to affective self-stimulation: against the background of constant sensory discomfort, children tend to receive certain activating impressions (attraction to fire, water, to rock, jumping, shaking rope, knocking stick, tearing paper movement and rotation of objects, etc.). perhaps, this affective selfstimulation is compensatory and is aimed not only at increasing mental tone in general but also at selective stimulation of positive emotions that have the weakest tonic basis. the strengthening of the emotional positive dominant is so vitally important for the child that he, trying to regulate the state of sensory discomfort, often suffers from accompanying unpleasant sensations (for example, swinging on a creaking swing, covering his ears). negative emotional dominance is why these children and the world, in general, perceive it as a set of negative affective traits, according to lebedinsky (2003), and causes a state of diffuse anxiety and numerous fears. the tendency of a child with autistic disorders to fixate on unpleasant impressions, to the formation of fears was studied by lebedinsky (2003) and nikolskaya et al. (2007) who identified three groups brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 306 of fears: typical for childhood, fear of losing mother, situational fears after fear); due to increased sensory and emotional sensitivity of children (fear of domestic and natural noises, strangers, unfamiliar places); inadequate, which have no factual basis. feeling afraid, children often do not know how to explain what scares them. autistic fears distort, distort the objectivity of perception of the world around. in a particular experimental study conducted by lebedinsky (2003), it was found that children with autistic disorders perceive the surrounding objects not whole but based on individual affective symptoms. the data suggest that persistent fears contribute to creating emotionally negative perceptions of the world around us, thus increasing the fear of it for the second time. the content of fantasies, interests, games of the autistic child is monotonous; the behavior is monotonous. for years, children will play the same game, draw duplicate drawings (often separate objects), do the same stereotyped actions, interrupt them, often turn out to be unsuccessful or lead to negativism (behas et al., 2019; lebedinsky, 2003). autistic fantasies, as a rule, also have a storyline divorced from reality, often bizarrely fabulous in contrast to the games and fantasies of a healthy child. there is a complete detachment from reality in these cases, the fascination of all behavior with a fantastic plot. in the bizarre sense of fantasies and games, it is often possible to define a compensatory tendency to overcome fears, feelings of inadequacy. sometimes fantasies are aggressive, which reflects both hypercompensation manifestations and disinhibition of drives. speaking of aggression, some authors note (bogdashina, 1999; ostrovska, 2013; shulzhenko, 2009 etc.) that the aggression of a child with autistic disorders is mostly not aimed at anything in particular. moreover, the unaddressed nature does not reduce its intensity it can be explosions of despair of extraordinary destructive force. there is aggression towards people, things, towards oneself self-aggression (biting, scratching, scratching one's own body, pressing on eyes or ears, hitting the head or other parts of the body against walls or floors, etc.) and "generalized aggression" aggression as if against the whole world. by these actions, children drown out unpleasant impressions coming from the outside world. in a threatening situation, the intensity of self-stimulation increases; it approaches the pain threshold and can pass through it. lebedinsky (2003) argues that aggressive manifestations of children with autistic disorders have a dual nature: they can occur as a result of fears, negative attitudes towards the environment, or as a primitive attempt to contact the environment, i.e., as a consequence of the child's lack of ready forms of interaction with the environment. . thus, aggressive phenomena are ambiguous, and if in some the problem of mental development in children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma, et al. 307 cases they need to be corrected, in others they are a necessary stage of adaptation to the environment. in the behavior of a child with autistic disorders, there is a weakness or lack of contact with both relatives and peers. a child with autism, when at home with relatives or in a children's group, mostly behaves as if he were alone. hvorova (2009) and tarasun (2004) note the difficulty of controlling the behavior of such children by adults and the possible manifestations of inadequate reactions to the situation: recovery and laughter, fear and crying, stereotyped motor and speech arousal, rapid satiety, and others. the reason for this, according to nikolskaya et al. (2007) is the lack of ready-made forms of interaction with the environment. in the process of developing purposeful forms of behavior, the development of various stereotypes of behavior in an autistic child plays an important role. the use of already existing stereotypes, enrichment, and filling them with content facilitates the possibility of interaction of the child with others and creates favorable conditions for the development of its spontaneous activity (gilbert & piters, 2002; skrypnyk, 2008). lebedinsky (2003) and spivakovskaya (2000), studying the individual game of autistic children (children refused to play collectively), both spontaneously and according to the plot set by the experimenter, found that the role play on a given plot is very unstable. spontaneous play is characterized by pathological inertia of the plot, the invariability of details. also, there was an advantage in the game for non-specialized toys (bright cubes, necklaces), household items (papers, rags) along with the desire to act with materials (sand, water), and interest in just physical effects when dealing with objects (creaking doors, the noise of water, a rustling of paper, "bunny" from the mirror). there was much more manipulation, both adequate and incredibly inadequate, and much less substantive action than in the game of healthy children of the appropriate age. thus, the analysis of game activity revealed a number of its pathological features: underdevelopment of subject game actions, ignoring toys, the advantage of manipulations, orientation on perceptually bright, instead of functional properties of a subject, giving preference to non-game objects giving sensory effect (tactile, visual, olfactory) (lebedinsky, 2003). play in such children is non-communicative. they play alone, in a different place (khaustar, 2004; nikolskaya et al., 2007), the presence of other children is usually ignored; in rare cases, the child can demonstrate the results of their game. problems of nonverbal communication are expressed in the limited use of gestures, limited and inappropriate facial expressions, strange fixed or distracted gaze, and awkward gestures (shopler & lanzind, 1997; tarasun, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 308 2004). due to the severity of the underlying defect, a child with autistic disorders does not develop emotional or visual contact with the mother from the first days of life. it is difficult for an adult to "catch" the gaze of an autistic child, directed as if "past" objects and people. delay in speech development can begin directly from birth and occur suddenly, even if previously noted accelerated early development of speech (morozova, 2007; nikolskaya et al., 2007). from the first days of life in a child with autism, it is challenging to differentiate crying and understand its cause. there is no babbling stage and barking, and if barking is, it is primarily mechanical, limited, devoid of intonation, may resemble a scream or squeak. it is possible to predict a delay in forming the main components of the speech sphere, underdevelopment of auditory attention, phonemic hearing, imitation function due to lack of fixation of gaze on the articulatory organs of the mother and others (lebedinsky, 2003; morozova, 2007). lebedinsky (2003) suggests that autism is a secondary form of compensatory or hyper compensation nature and reflects pathological adaptation mechanisms. autism-related underdevelopment of social contacts dramatically distorts the whole course of mental development. we emphasize once again that mental development in autism occurs in particular conditions when the regulation of vital and mental tone is violated and the thresholds of affective sensitivity are reduced (nikolskaya et al., 2007). the inability to adequately respond to the environment leads to the fact that the tasks of protection and self-regulation become more critical for the child than active adaptation to the world around him, which, in turn, causes distortions in the development of mental functions. thus, the pathological features of mental development appear in autism not only in the form of individual disorders of mental tone, affective sphere, perception, motility, speech but also as associated with these disorders and difficulties of social adaptation asynchrony of development in general, distortion of regular interaction in the formation mental functions (lebedinsky, 2003). all aspects of mental activity aimed at mastering social relations are underdeveloped and primarily detached from other parties. thus, the current view of the clinical and psychological picture of autistic disorders is in a relatively wide range of understanding of the problem and requires the creation of a system of correction of both primary abnormalities affective-communicative sphere and behavior, and secondary, resulting from blocking active interaction with adults and children cognitive sphere: active development of regulatory and control actions and intellectual and speech activity. the problem of mental development in children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma, et al. 309 conclusions despite more than half a century of research into the problem of autism, scientists are still debating which signs of autism are the main ones. because autism is a disorder that has many forms, it is somewhat difficult to study. the complexity of the study of autism is also due to the interrelated nature of social, cognitive, speech, and emotional development in the first years of life. violations of any of these functions affect other areas of the child's psyche. summarizing the research of scientists, we highlight the characteristic manifestations of autism in older preschool age: lack of mental activity; violation of the interaction of mental functions; unevenness, partialness of intellectual development; gross violations of purposefulness and arbitrariness of attention; lack of lively interest, interest in the new, environmental research; the tendency to perceive information as if passively absorbing it into whole blocks; the reaction of departure from the influences of the environment directed on the child; adverse reaction or no reaction at all when trying to draw attention to the objects of the surrounding reality; rapid exhaustion and oversaturation with any purposeful activity; difficulty concentrating; difficulties in symbolization, transfer of skills from one situation to another; impaired formation of social and communicative functions. having analyzed many scientific studies, we can determine the number and variety of speech disorders in children with autistic disorders: challenging to interpret crying; limited barking; lack of imitation of sounds; phonographic speech; mutism; echolalia; words-stamps, phrases-stamps; neologisms; limited use of pronouns; lack of speech in speech; speech autonomy; speech disorders; inability to form words; violation of the semantic, syntactic, grammatical structure of speech; violation of speech melody; violation of prosodic components of speech; inability to engage in dialogue; specificity of the development of monologue speech. references baron-cohen, s. (1987). autism and symbolic play. british journal of developmental psychology, 5(2), 139-148. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044835x.1987.tb01049.x bayenskaya, e. (2001). osobennosti rannego affektivnogo razvitiya autichnogo rebenka v vozraste ot 0 do 1.5 let [features of early affective development of an autistic child aged 0 to 1.5 years] almanakh instituta korrektsionnoy https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1111/j.2044-835x.1987.tb01049.x https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1111/j.2044-835x.1987.tb01049.x brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 310 pedagogiki rao, (3), 1-7. https://alldef.ru/ru/articles/almanah3/osobennosti-rannego-affektivnogo-razvitija-autichnogo behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v. maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf bogdashina, o. (1999). autizm: opredelenie i diagnostika [autism: definition and diagnosis] lebed’. chuprykov, a. (2005). rannii dytiachyi autyzm [early childhood autism] vydavnytstvo ivano-frankivskoi derzhavnoi medychnoi akademii. delacato, c. h. (1974). the ultimate stranger: the autistic child. doubleday. dushka, a. (2003). pryntsypy pobudovy i zahalna kharakterystyka systemy psykholohichnoi korektsii osib z psykhofizychnymy vidkhylenniamy (na prykladi autyzmu) [principles of construction and general characteristics of the system of psychological correction of persons with psychophysical disorders (on the example of autism)] naukoviy vіsnik pіvdennoukraїnskogo natsіonalnogo pedagogіchnogo unіversitetu іmenі k. d. ushinskogo, 5-6, 231-238. http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3302/1/dushka.pdf gilbert, k., & piters, t. (2002). autizm: meditsinskoye i pedagogicheskoye vozdeystviye: kniga dlya pedagogov-defektologov [autism: medical and pedagogical impact: book for teachers-defectologists]. vlados. gillingham, g. (2000). autism, a new understanding!: solving the "mystery" of autism, asperger's and pdd-nos. tacit pub. grandin, t. (2011). the way i see it: a personal look at autism & asperger's. future horizons. kagan, v. (1981). autizm u detey [autism in children]. medicine. kanner, l. (1944). early infantile autism. the journal of pediatrics, 25, 211-217. //doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3476(44)80156-1 karvasarskaya, i. (2003). v storone. iz opita ravoti s autistichnimi detmi [in the side. from the experience of working with autistic children]. теrevinf. http://pedlib.ru/books/4/0453/4_0453-1.shtml khaustar, a. (2004). issledovaniye kommunikativnykh navykov u detey s sindromom rannego detskogo autizmа [a study of communication skills in children with early childhood autism syndrome]. defektologiya, 4, 69-74. http://www.shishkova.ru/library/journals/items/d0404.htm hvorova, h. (2009). tekhnolohiia kompleksnoi psykholoho-pedahohichnoi korektsii ta rozvytku autychnoi dytyny [technology of complex psychological and pedagogical correction and development of an autistic https://alldef.ru/ru/articles/almanah-3/osobennosti-rannego-affektivnogo-razvitija-autichnogo https://alldef.ru/ru/articles/almanah-3/osobennosti-rannego-affektivnogo-razvitija-autichnogo http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3302/1/dushka.pdf https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1016/s0022-3476(44)80156-1 http://pedlib.ru/books/4/0453/4_0453-1.shtml http://www.shishkova.ru/library/journals/items/d0404.htm the problem of mental development in children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma, et al. 311 child] defektolohiia, 3, 20-27. http://www.shishkova.ru/library/journals/defectology.htm lebedinskiy, v. (2003). narusheniya psikhicheskogo razvitiya v detskom vozraste: ucheb. posobiye dlya stud. vyssh. ucheb. zavedeniy [disorders of mental development in childhood: textbook. allowance for students. higher textbook. institutions]. academia publishing center. https://kpni.rkomi.ru/system/attachments/uploads/000/149/809/origina l/лебединский_в.в.__нарушения_психологического_развития_в_дет ском_возрасте.pdf mamaychuk, i. (2006). psikhokorrektsionnyye tekhnologii dlya detey s problemami v razvitii [psychocorrectional technologies for children with developmental problems]. litres. http://cokanchalan.ru/f/mamaychuk_ii_psikhokorrektsionnyye_tekhnolo gii_dlya_detey_s_problemami_v_razvitii.pdf mamaychuk, i. (2007). pomoshch' psikhologa detiam s autizmom [psychologist's help to children with autism]. rech. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46-93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 mikirtumov, b., & zavitayev, p. (2008). klinicheskaya struktura i dinamika autizma [clinical structure and dynamics of autism]. obozreniye psikhiatrii i meditsinskoy psikhologii imeni vm bekhtereva, (2), 10-12. mnukhin, s., zelenetskaya, a., & isaev, d. (1967). o sindrome «rannego detskogo autizma» ili sindrome kannera u detei [about syndrome "early infantile autism" or kanner's syndrome in children]. zhurnal nevrologii i psikhiatrii im. s.s. korsakova, 10, 15011506.http://yaosobenniy.ru/files/upload/mnyhin_s.,_zeleneckaya_a.,_is aev_d._o_sindrome_rda.doc morozova, s. (2007). autizm: korrektsionnaya rabota pri tyazhelykh i oslozhnennykh formakh [autism: correctional activity of difficult and complicated forms]. vlados. http://www.shishkova.ru/library/journals/defectology.htm https://kpni.rkomi.ru/system/attachments/uploads/000/149/809/original/лебединский_в.в.__нарушения_психологического_развития_в_детском_возрасте.pdf https://kpni.rkomi.ru/system/attachments/uploads/000/149/809/original/лебединский_в.в.__нарушения_психологического_развития_в_детском_возрасте.pdf https://kpni.rkomi.ru/system/attachments/uploads/000/149/809/original/лебединский_в.в.__нарушения_психологического_развития_в_детском_возрасте.pdf http://cokanchalan.ru/f/mamaychuk_ii_psikhokorrektsionnyye_tekhnologii_dlya_detey_s_problemami_v_razvitii.pdf http://cokanchalan.ru/f/mamaychuk_ii_psikhokorrektsionnyye_tekhnologii_dlya_detey_s_problemami_v_razvitii.pdf https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 http://yaosobenniy.ru/files/upload/mnyhin_s.,_zeleneckaya_a.,_isaev_d._o_sindrome_rda.doc http://yaosobenniy.ru/files/upload/mnyhin_s.,_zeleneckaya_a.,_isaev_d._o_sindrome_rda.doc brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 312 nemov, r. (2004). psikhologiya. kniga 1. obshchiye osnovy psikhologii. [psychology. book 1. general foundations of psychology]. litres. nikolskaya, o., baenskaya, e., & libling, m. (2007). autichnyy rebenok. puti pomoshchi. [autistic child. ways of help]. terevinf. https://www.surwiki.admsurgut.ru/wiki/images/1/14/либлинг_николь ская_аутичный_ребенок_пути_помощи.pdf osterling, j., & dawson, g. (1994). early recognition of children with autism: a study of first birthday home videotapes. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 24(3), 247-257. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8050980/ ostrovska, k. (2013). psykholohichni osnovy formuvannia sotsialnykh kompetentsii ditei z autystychnymy porushenniamy [psychological bases of formation of social competencies of children with autistic disorders]. faculty of pedagogical education. rozhdestvenska, m., & konopliasta, s. (2004). rannii dytiachyi autyzm [early childhood autism]. npu im. mp drahomanova. scambler, d., rogers, s., & wehner, e. (2001). can the checklist for autism in toddlers differentiate young children with autism from those with developmental delays?. journal of the american academy of child & adolescent psychiatry, 40(12), 1457-1463. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583200112000-00017 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 shipitsyna, l. (2001). detskiy autizm: ucheb. posobiye dlya studentov vyssh. i sred. ped., psikhol. i med. ucheb. zavedeniy [children’s autism: textbook for students of higher and secondary pedagogical, psychological and medical educational institutions]. didaktika plyus publ. shopler, e., & lanzind, m. (1997). podderzhka autichnykh i otstayushchikh v razvitii detey. sbornik uprazhneniy dlya spetsialistov i roditeley [support for autistic and developmentally retarded children (0-6 years old). exercise book for professionals and parents]. belapdi otkrytyye dveri. http://xn-80aocr1af.su/index.php/korrektsiya-i-obuchenie/pedagogika/397-shoplerpodderzhka-autichnykh-i-otstayushchikh-v-razvitii-detej shulzhenko, d. (2009). osnovy psykholohichnoi korektsii autystychnykh porushen u ditei [fundamentals of psychological correction of autistic disorders in children]: monohrafiia [monograph]. slovo. skripnik, t. (2008). modelirovaniye shkolnoy situatsii kak sredstvo podgotovki k obucheniyu detey s autizmom [modeling the school situation as a means of preparing for teaching children with autism] pedagogicheskaya mysl. https://www.surwiki.admsurgut.ru/wiki/images/1/14/либлинг_никольская_аутичный_ребенок_пути_помощи.pdf https://www.surwiki.admsurgut.ru/wiki/images/1/14/либлинг_никольская_аутичный_ребенок_пути_помощи.pdf https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8050980/ https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200112000-00017 https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200112000-00017 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 http://аутизм.su/index.php/korrektsiya-i-obuchenie/pedagogika/397-shopler-podderzhka-autichnykh-i-otstayushchikh-v-razvitii-detej http://аутизм.su/index.php/korrektsiya-i-obuchenie/pedagogika/397-shopler-podderzhka-autichnykh-i-otstayushchikh-v-razvitii-detej http://аутизм.su/index.php/korrektsiya-i-obuchenie/pedagogika/397-shopler-podderzhka-autichnykh-i-otstayushchikh-v-razvitii-detej the problem of mental development in children with autistic disorders nataliia bazyma, et al. 313 spivakovskaya, a. (2000). psikhoterapiya: igra, detstvo, semia. chast 2: psikhoterapiya detskogo autizma [psychotherapy: play, childhood, family. part 2: psychotherapy for childhood autism]. aprel-press. tarasun, v. (2004). lohodydaktyka [logodidactics]. slovo publ. vrono, m. s., & bashina, v. (1988). ranniy detskiy autizm: voprosy teorii i praktiki [early childhood autism: questions of theory and practice] viii vsesoyuznyy syezd nevropatologov і psikhiatrov [viii all-union congress of neuropathologists and psychiatrists]. williams, d. (1994). somebody somewhere: breaking free from the world of autism. crown. wing, l., & gould, j. (1979). severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: epidemiology and classification. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 9(1), 11-29. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej201404 world health organization. (1994). international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (10th ed.). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej201404 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 171-190 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 neuropsychological bases of selfimprovement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education anatolii kosholap¹, borys maksymchuk2, tetiana branitska3, liliia martynets4, artem boichenko5, oksana stoliarenko6, lyudmyla matsuk7, oleksii surovov8, olena stoliarenko9, iryna maksymchuk10 1 mariupol state university, mariupol, ukraine, anatoliykocholap@gmail.com 2 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, ukraine, 0674256781@ukr.net 3 communal higher educational institution “vinnytsia academy of continuing education”, vinnytsia, ukraine, tatjanarom4@gmail.com 4 luhansk national agrarian university, starobelsk, ukraine, liliamart7@gmail.com 5 municipal establishment “kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy” of kharkiv regional council, kharkiv, ukraine, boychenko87@ukr.net 6 vinnytsia national technical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, oksanny-81@ukr.net 7 state higher educational institution “vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university”, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, plo4447@ukr.net 8 municipal establishment “kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy” of kharkiv regional council, kharkiv, ukraine, alexsur007@gmail.com 9 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, olenabest@ukr.net 10 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, ukraine, 0963113686@ukr.net abstract: the article says that despite the decline in health as a professional value and self-realization, future teachers have neurobiological inclinations for self-improvement and reflection. in this regard, new pedagogical conditions and stages of the formation of students 'readiness for physical self-improvement are proposed, namely: students' awareness of the importance of health as a necessary prerequisite for personal and professional self-realization; their mastery of diagnostic techniques, reflective analysis and practical skills to improve their own physical condition; providing pedagogical support for students in physical self-improvement. the experimental stage used a set of methods and techniques: step ergometry, rufier's and cooper's tests, watching movies, photos, test tasks, observations, interviews, questionnaires, expert assessments and etc. the number of students being at the local reflexive level increased from 12.2% to 22.2% and at the adaptive algorithmic level – from 28.1% to 41.3%. the percentage of students at the directive empirical level of competency in physical self-improvement decreased from 52.4% to 21.4%. the effectiveness of the designed methodology for developing students’ competency in physical self-improvement was verified by the formative experiment. the hypothesis of the study, which was the subjective neurobiological basis of motivation to improve and reflect on future teachers, was also confirmed, which contributed to the choice of the appropriate profession in order to implement and transmit these personal values. keywords: pedagogical conditions, training stages, physical selfimprovement, self-improvement program, pedagogical support, selfcontrol. how to cite: kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 mailto:anatoliykocholap@gmail.com mailto:0674256781@ukr.net mailto:tatjanarom4@gmail.com mailto:liliamart7@gmail.com mailto:boychenko87@ukr.net mailto:oksanny-81@ukr.net mailto:plo4447@ukr.net mailto:alexsur007@gmail.com mailto:olena-best@ukr.net mailto:olena-best@ukr.net mailto:0963113686@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of … anatolii kosholap, et al. 172 introduction researchers show that most teachers do not consider health as one of their core values of life. there are some cases when teachers tend to develop bad habits or do not take sick leave when necessary. as a result, the teaching profession is characterized by extremely low physical health indicators. indeed, young teachers often suffer from cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, neurogenic diseases (nervous exhaustion, neurosis). there is a tendency towards the deterioration of teachers’ health indicators along with increasing work experience. according to faresjio (1992), definitions of health can be divided into the three main groups: 1) biological definitions, which consider health as a category of the body’s functional state; 2) social definitions, which characterizes health as a prerequisite for participation in public life; 3) mixed or biosocial definitions, which consider health as general well-being. according to such definitions, the regulation and self-regulation of physical health should take place with the actualization of psychological, social and biological factors (resources) of the individual. this article hypothetically assumes that the motivation and reflection of teachers is the neurobiological basis of their subjectivity, which contributed to the choice of the appropriate profession (to promote the development and improvement of the younger generation). in this regard, the idea of the development of the motivational sphere of g. allport's (1950) personality deserves attention. his concept of motives’ functional autonomy considers a person in the activity aspect. the researcher explains the origination of new motives by transforming the means of activity into its goals and motives. an object or activity that once acted only as a means to achieve a certain goal begins to arouse certain interest and helps one find one’s motivating force. allport (1950) developed this concept in a polemic with psychoanalysis, refuting their basic tenets: the instinctive and irrational nature of human motivation, the invariability of personal motives, the lack of dynamic force in self and, finally, the fatal conditionality of childhood experiences in adult personality. according to allport (1950), physical self-improvement is characterized by the emergence of motives that become completely independent of childhood motivation. the motives of adults should be considered “as infinitely diverse and self-sustaining modern systems, growing from previous systems but functionally independent of them” (allport, 1950). such autonomous motives create an important part of the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 173 self. it follows that self has its strong energy and does not draw it only from the irrational libidinous “it”. changing meanings of actions in physical self-improvement leads to changes in a person’s behaviour and actions. one can obtain a new meaning either by changing what already exists or by creating additional meanings. besides, revaluating the significance of a motive or need can bring certain changes in the meaning of actions. in his works, bandura (1977) highlights such a possibility. as evidenced by the analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature, the problem of developing future teachers’ competency in physical self-improvement during physical training has not been properly studied yet. traditionally, physical education of students predominantly focuses on the standard model, since teachers somewhat force students to engage in standard physical activities. as a result, most students are physically inactive and unmotivated to strengthen their health. thus, there appears to be the need to enhance students’ internal motivation to participate in physical activities and develop their physical skills. besides, it is imperative to discover novel ways and methods to prepare future teachers for physical self-improvement based on the principles of humanism and democratism. neuropsychological studies of the need for self-improvement reveal a link between self-improvement and self-regulation, which raises the issue of the neuropsychological nature of subjectivity. the latter is influenced by negative and positive incentives that are fixed. thus, j. karman studied the self-improvement of students in the knowledge of exact subjects in different educational conditions in the laboratory and natural conditions, kurman (2003). the latter showed more valid results: participants' efforts to improve themselves were not related to the need to change, but were manifested in stages of behavior stimulated by a negative emotional response to failure and improved productivity through such a reaction (negative stimulus). that is, an immature person can self-improve in order to avoid failures and appropriate changed behavior. thus, in neuroscience excessive attention is paid to the so-called "routine self-improvement", which requires negative stimulation, and therefore excessive time, mental resources and one-dimensional motivation. the way out of the situation is the introduction of a holistic approach aimed at changing the way of life, schmeichel (2006). this requires a departure from the academic perception of regulatory information and the actualization of individual multimodal motivations. barkley (2001) proposes to paint a long-term evolutionary perspective for the subjects of the educational process: "this model neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of … anatolii kosholap, et al. 174 considers the executive functions of a person as a form of behavior to himself, transforming from open (public) to hidden (private) reactions as a means of self-regulation." at the same time, praise or other short-term stimulation cannot be strategically important, and interpersonal competition as a form of motivation must be transferred from the direct context to "selfregulation by internal ideas about a hypothetical social future." of course, the problem of self-improvement can be considered in terms of biological adaptation, but in the human dimension it is more complex and requires interdisciplinary study of social exchange, altruism, imitation, mimesis, cooperation, preservation of private sovereignty and protection. recently, there have been pilot neuroscience studies of innovative methods of health care and valeological self-improvement. quasiexperimental studies by interviewing students for their knowledge, behavior and their beliefs after listening to a course on the neurology. intervention teams found improved knowledge of neuroscience, but applied little to selfregulation: “the data suggest that information on the relationship between health behavior and brain function can be successfully integrated into medical education, although the implications for beliefs and behaviors of students' health were not observed. additional development work should focus on elucidating the theoretical mechanisms of change, integrating the content of neuroscience with self-regulation and thinking of growth, and providing additional professional development for teachers” (babinsky et al., 2018). these data indicate the need to develop interdisciplinary neuropedagogical mechanisms to stimulate motivation for health and improvement. the most promising for self-improvement of their own physical health of future teachers in the process of university education is the direction of "exercise neurology" (portugal et al., 2013). the key point of such research is: "exercise can improve both the mood and adherence to an exercise program in healthy people and can modulate both performance and mental health of athletes. exercise is associated with increased synthesis and release of both neurotransmitters and neurotrophic factors, and this increase may be associated with neurogenesis, angiogenesis and neuroplasticity” (portugal et al., 2013). to implement such a program, three areas of work are decisive: a) the neurophysiological effects of exercise on mental disorders; b) the impact of exercise on mood and mental health; c) elucidation of neurobiological mechanisms of consequences of physical exercises and physical improvement. it is clear that positive reactions (improvement of self-esteem, well-being, functional autonomy) are possible brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 175 only after a certain period of time, which requires personal motivation, initially of a humanitarian (psychological, value) nature. after studying the construction of personality-oriented health systems and the formation of professional competencies of future physical education teachers, russian scientists believe that it is difficult to achieve significant results in a short-term experiment (kudryavtsev et al., 2016). this is determined by the specifics of the discipline "physical culture". according to them, there are symptom complexes and patterns that are difficult to correct, but within one school year you can form the simplest needs and skills of adaptation to the socio-cultural environment, self-organization and motivation for self-improvement. thus, pedagogical support of students in developing their competency in physical self-improvement should be systemic and take into account the following factors: the need to optimize students’ communication and increase their level of personal and physical development; the ability to prove oneself during individual communication, the striving for self-development; the opportunity to master diagnostic assessment methods, reflexive analysis and practical skills to improve one’s physical health; flexibility and creative approach to solving the problems in educational interaction. the main principles of providing pedagogical support while preparing students for physical self-improvement are the following: orientation towards positive traits of the individuals, their potential opportunities; the combination of pedagogical leadership with the development of students’ ability to act independently; partnership; tolerance and tactfulness. the favourability of emotional background within the educational environment directly depends on physical education teachers’ personality, their style of communication with students and attitude towards their health. as facilitators of the education process, they should be able to solve the following tasks: to enhance students' awareness of the importance of health and the need to improve their physical competency as an essential prerequisite for professional self-realization; to acquaint students with diagnostic assessment methods, reflexive analysis and practical skills to improve their physical health; to provide students with relevant pedagogical support. therefore, the current research follows the idea that future teachers’ competency in physical self-improvement can be effectively developed based on the fulfilment of the conditions mentioned above. the purpose of the study is to theoretically substantiate and experimentally test the pedagogical conditions for the formation of future teachers' competence for physical neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of … anatolii kosholap, et al. 176 self-improvement, taking into account the neurobiological patterns of motivation, whole set, activity and self-analysis (reflection). materials & methods the formative experiment required 8 experimental groups (eg) and 8 control groups (cg), which involved 246 and 249 students respectively. the experiment (2015-2019) was conducted at vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, communal higher educational institution “vinnytsia academy of continuing education”, lesia ukrainka eastern european national university, vasyl stus donetsk national university, municipal establishment “kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy” of kharkiv regional council, vinnytsia national technical university, state higher educational institution “vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university”, khmelnytskyi humanitarianpedagogical academy, t. h. shevchenko national university “chernihiv colehium”. the following stages of developing students’ competency in physical self-improvement were distinguished: the motivation stage, the goal-setting stage, the organization and implementation stage, the supervision stage. the motivation stage aims to enhance students’ striving for self-cognition, to determine strong and weak sides of their personality, to actualize the need for physical self-improvement. these concepts shape the inner strength, which is necessary for achieving success. at the goal-setting stage, it is necessary to assist every student in identifying the main aim and develop an individual programme for physical self-improvement. such a programme provides for a system of certain actions aimed at achieving the main aim and performing specific objectives, which imply constant self-improvement. without this programme, self-education becomes rather situational and reduces to occasional and ineffective actions. the organization and implementation stage aims to assist students in realizing their intentions. this process is rather complicated since it always involves a volitional act. making or approving a decision is important in self-education, namely, it is a reliable means of developing volition, determination, faith in oneself; it is an incentive for further action, the trigger mechanism of activity; finally, it is an indicator of the individual’s maturity. as life and history show, many intentions are not realized due to the inability to make decisions. during this stage, the teacher acquaints students with the methods of self-control, self-analysis (written form), self-report (oral form). the supervision stage encourages students to analyze their results, achievements and failures. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 177 at the first stage of developing the need for physical selfimprovement, many students demonstrated indifferent or negative attitudes towards physical education and their physical health. therefore, they were provided with a variety of interesting information, as well as pictures, photographs, drawings, films on sports topics. as a result of such actions, students became interested in the information they received. the success stories of outstanding athletes, their current position in society and the beauty of their spiritual world effectively motivated students towards selfimprovement. the teachers’ narrative skills, their ability to use speech and live this experience with their students and appreciate their success played a decisive role in this process (maksymchuk et al., 2018). practice shows that the teachers’ language under such circumstances should be: 1) bright, expressive, emotionally rich, that is, thought-provoking; 2) figurative; 3) optimal in terms of tempo, clear and precise; 4) varied in content. discussions on physical education and sports and consideration of every student’s activity level are rather important in the process of developing students’ competency in physical self-improvement. such discussions were prepared and conducted by students themselves under the supervision of the teacher. those students who were rather physically active prepared discussions of the scientific and cognitive nature and shared their own experience of self-improvement. those students who were less physically active discussed rather simple topics. as the physical activity of students increased, the topics of discussions became more complicated. many efforts were made to enhance students' interest in these topics, encourage them to express their points of view, share their thoughts, learn more about the individual's ability to strengthen his/her health. as a result, such discussions contributed to transforming students’ knowledge of the role of self-education into their intention to engage in physical activities. those students who were involved in the discussions not only consolidated their knowledge but also acquired some useful experience in communicating with their groupmates and improved their ability to relay the received information to others. at this stage of the experiment, persuasion was mostly used. there were two ways of persuasion, namely a word and a personal example. the first one includes such techniques as clarification, refutation, discussion. the main requirements for using these techniques involved eliminating excessive moralization and ensuring a close connection of theoretical material with practice. the teacher’s role mostly implied assisting students in making the right decision. neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of … anatolii kosholap, et al. 178 in the process of verbal persuasion, some internal contradictions were revealed. they formed the basis of the problem and the ways of solving it with the use of specific positive and negative examples and facts. at this stage, particular attention was paid to acquainting students with diagnostic assessment methods, reflexive analysis and practical skills to improve their physical health. this is since most young people consider their physical health to be quite sufficient and do not attempt to improve it. to dismantle such an illusion, students were taught how to identify the level of their physical health with the help of the indicator of maximum oxygen consumption (vo2 max), which can be characterized by the functional state of cardiovascular and respiratory systems. to a certain extent, physical health can serve as an integral indicator of physical development and human health. it is determined by various methods such as stepergometry, the ruffier test, the cooper test, etc. during the experiment, these methods were briefly described. also, students were taught how to use them to identify the level of their physical health. while identifying the level of their physical health, students relied on the relative indicator of vo2 max with the help of stepergometry. the suggested method is quite accurate, informative and accessible. to conduct the survey, one needs a metronome, a stopwatch and a step platform of 0.3-0.4 m in height. students were offered such physical activities, which involved climbing a step platform in fours in the following order: left leg – on the step, right leg – on the step, left leg – on the floor, right leg – on the floor. the work performed by the trainee for one minute can be presented by the following formula: (1) w = 1,33 p h n, where w – the performed work in kgm; р – body weight in kg; h – step platform height in m; n – the number of climbs per minute; 1.33 – the coefficient taking into account the work performed during descending. since w amounts to the work performed per minute, it corresponds to physical workload (n) and is measured in kgm/min. the trainee performed two loads. the physical workload was easily adjusted by the frequency of climbing the step platform. the first load was performed with a frequency of 15-20 climbs per minute, the second one – 25-30 climbs per minute. the work was assessed with the help of metronome. given that each climb required 4 steps, the number of climbs (n) was multiplied by 4 and the obtained figure was set on the metronome. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 179 the duration of the first and second loads amounted to 5 minutes, the duration of rest between loads – approximately 3 minutes. at the end of the first and second loads, the heart rate was calculated (f1 і f2). it is important to keep the heart rate at 100-120 beats at the end of the first load, 140-160 beats – at the end of the second load. the difference between the first and second loads should be no less than 40 beats per minute. provided that one adheres to these conditions, the error will be minimal. this formula was also used to calculate the level of physical workload while performing the first and second loads (n1 and n2). the pwc 170 indicator was calculated using the following formula: 12 1 121170 170 )( ff f nnnpwc    , where pwc170 – the level of physical workload measured in kgm/min at heart rate 170 beats per minute; n1 and n2 – the level of the first and second loads measured in kgm/min; f1 and f2 – heart rate at the end of the first and second loads in beats per minute. there is a high correlation between pwc170 and vo2 max, which can be shown by the following formula: vo2 max = 1,7 pwc170 + 1240, where vo2 max is measured in ml/min, pwc170 – kgm/min. once the absolute index of vo2 max was determined, its relative index was calculated. this required that the absolute value of vo2 max be divided by the trainee’s body weight. the obtained result was measured in ml/min kg -1 . the physical health level of people of different age based on the relative index of vo2 max was determined by pyarnat’s criterion. determining the level of physical health based on the ruffier test. after a fiveminute rest, the trainee’s heart rate in 15 seconds (f1) was calculated. then the trainee performed 30 sit-ups in 30 seconds (f2). after a one-minute rest, the trainee’s heart rate in 15 seconds was recalculated in the sitting position (f3). the value of the ruffier’s index was determined by the following formula: 10 200)(4 321   fff j the level of physical health is considered to be excellent if j<0, good – if j=0-5, sufficient – if j=5-10, insufficient – if j=10-15, poor – if j=16 and more. determining the level of physical health based on the cooper test. the trainee performed a 12-minute running load. the running distance and the heart neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of … anatolii kosholap, et al. 180 rate in the first 30 seconds of the second, third and fourth minutes of the rest period were taken into account. physical readiness was assessed based on cooper’s index determined by the following formula: )(2 100 321 fff q y    , where y – the cooper’s index, q – the result of the 12-minute running load measured in metres, f1, f2, f3 – heart rate in the first 30 seconds of the second, third and fourth minutes of the rest period. after students identified and reflexively analyzed their level of physical health (which turned out to be rather low in most cases), they changed their views on their physical skills. this rather positively influenced their attitude towards physical education. so, at this stage of developing students’ need for physical selfimprovement, the content and methods were aimed at the following: to make them believe in their abilities; to help them find personal meaning in physical self-improvement and develop a positive attitude towards physical education. using these forms, methods and means, it was possible to develop a positive attitude towards physical education lessons in eg students, as well as to enhance their responsibility, activity, autonomy and initiative. the developed interest in physical education and sports encouraged students to deepen and broaden special methodological knowledge, changed their attitude to self-study, a healthy lifestyle. as a result of such actions, students started to subconsciously compare innate abilities and external demands. when the actions of this assessment mechanism “gave a positive signal”, there appeared, as indicated by a. maslow, “the need for self-actualization” and, subsequently, motivation for physical self-improvement: the individual is always more interested in the activities he/she feels able to do. at the goal-setting stage, it was important to assist every student in identifying the main training aim and develop an individual programme for physical self-improvement. it is rather a complicated task and an extremely important stage in the individual’s self-education. also, it was essential to take into account the results on the identification of one’s physical health level and analyze the causes, which might negatively affect its indicators, and clearly define further actions aimed at self-improvement. the programme for physical self-improvement provided for a system of certain actions targeted at achieving the main aim and specific brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 181 objectives of self-improvement. without this programme, self-education becomes rather situational and reduces to occasional and ineffective actions. within the current research, the programme for physical selfimprovement mostly was viewed as a brief or detailed description of the aim and the content of a particular activity. it served as a system or plan realized in space and time. this is an important long-term document of activity, which, however, is being revised and clarified in the process of its implementation. such a programme implied its “decoding”, that is, drawing up a plan of action, identifying specific objectives and actions aimed at achieving the goal, such as adopting a confident posture, developing certain physical skills, as well as the ability to control and improve one’s physical health, sporting achievements. students were offered to draw up a clear plan of physical selfimprovement. specific attention was paid to developing a positive attitude towards the plan since it might directly influence its effectiveness. when the plan takes into account students’ physical and psychological characteristics, their employment, interests and tastes, its effectiveness greatly increases. the research considered the fact that even an effective programme of physical self-improvement and its specific plan did not necessarily result in success. they serve only as a means. however, they formed the basis for relevant short recommendations and rules of self-education. the third stage of the experiment was targeted at providing students with relevant pedagogical support. this process is rather complicated and significant since it always involves a volitional act. making or approving a decision is important in selfeducation, namely, it is a reliable means of developing volition, determination, faith in oneself; it is an incentive for further action, the trigger mechanism of activity; finally, it is an indicator of the individual’s maturity. as life and history show, many intentions are not realized due to the inability to make decisions. it is precisely this idea that lies at the heart of the well-known proverb “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. therefore, the organization of the experiment took into account the causes identified during the ascertaining experiment, which might impede the development of a positive attitude towards physical exercises. based on this, the main ways to improve the programme of the experiment were determined. particular attention was paid to the methodical provision of extracurricular physical and recreational and mass sporting activities of students; professional training of the core staff, who supervised these activities; participation of students in the organization and implementation of sporting and other events. neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of … anatolii kosholap, et al. 182 the third stage aimed at providing students with specific tasks on physical self-improvement. the main forms and means that contributed to involving students in physical education and increasing their level of competency in physical self-improvement involved interest-based lessons, individual tasks, participation in a variety of physical and recreational and mass sporting events. the dynamics of the motives behind physical self-improvement was systematically studied. the causes interfering with students’ active actions regarding physical self-improvement were timely detected and eliminated. as students developed the personal meaning of physical self-improvement, external stimulation gradually declined. to enhance students’ cognitive activity regarding physical selfimprovement and increase the amount of information about physical education within self-study, the list of recommended methodical and reference sources was provided, as well as technical teaching means intensifying the education process were widely used. in particular, such means of transmitting the information as tables, drawings, slides and films were used. thus, every student could assess the level of his/her physical health using the tables, which represented different options for assessing the level of the physical workload with vo2 max. also, students were required to prepare reports on the given topics as part of the programme’s theoretical course. based on the results, teachers assessed students’ level of the acquired knowledge of the course and defined whether they passed/failed it. the process of assessing students’ knowledge involved ongoing monitoring (after mastering a certain topic), final monitoring (at the end of the school year) in oral, written and online forms, as well as through group and individual activities, etc. for instance, students answered teachers’ questions, performed specific tasks, explained the rules of an exercise, etc. didactic tests assessed students’ knowledge more in detail. students were offered to do multiple-choice tests, where each question was allocated 1-2 minutes. this allowed teachers to conduct a quick assessment of their knowledge during the rest between exercises. professional orientation of practical lessons provided for acquiring the necessary skills and abilities of physical self-improvement. during practical lessons, specific attention was paid to preventing negative emotions and the feeling of physical inferiority. to this end, students were offered some physical loads adequate to their abilities, excluding unreasonable pauses, which were filled with relevant educational content and individual tasks. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 183 while developing motivation towards physical education, the following basic rules were employed: 1) the process of developing motivation towards physical education should be based on a steady interest in all sports included in the comprehensive programme of physical education; 2) the process of involving students in systematic physical exercises facilitates consolidation of self-study skills in physical education at the level of habit; 3) only consciously acquired habits are stable; 4) the process of developing one habit creates the necessary preconditions for developing other ones related to it; 5) systematic and standard conditions for motor activity greatly increase the speed of acquiring and strengthening habits. at the fourth stage of students’ physical self-improvement, particular attention was paid to acquainting students with diagnostic assessment methods, reflexive analysis and practical skills to improve their physical health. besides, they were taught to analyze their achievements and set further goals. practice shows that students’ progress in physical self-improvement and their increased emotionality while being assessed are important means of compensating for certain deficiencies, which serve as an incentive for further self-improvement. the final stage aimed to transform external actions into internal ones, shift from teacher’s requirements to internal self-organization of physical and sporting activities. it is found that the following pedagogical conditions can contribute to maintaining and developing in students a steady interest in physical education: 1) employing various means, methods and forms while organizing physical education lessons: monotonous physical activities lead to developing adverse psychological phenomena such as monotony and mental overload; 2) implementing gaming and competitive methods into the organization of physical education lessons at the stage of improving the studied movements; 3) providing students with the knowledge they need to set specific and achievable physical self-improvement goals; 4) motivating students toward extracurricular physical activities. this includes awarding a prize or certificate of appreciation for outstanding achievements in the form of a ceremony, which can positively affect not only those students who have already achieved success in physical selfimprovement but also those who are still on their way to do it; neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of … anatolii kosholap, et al. 184 5) providing the necessary facilities. this problem can be solved by introducing non-standard tools for group and individual use into physical education lessons; 6) incorporating musical accompaniment into physical education lessons. musical accompaniment evokes positive emotions, enhances the working ability and increases interest in physical exercises. it is in particular effective in the first part of the lesson during walking, jogging and performing general physical exercises. the research shows that a steady interest in a particular type of motor activity is developed gradually, with the increase in the number of repetitions transformed into a habit. the following pattern was discovered: the deeper interest in engaging in physical education, the steadier need for physical self-improvement. so, future teachers are more motivated towards physical selfimprovement if they comprehend its role in professional and personal development, are interested in the very process and their results. therefore, one can distinguish the following stages of this process: the motivation stage, the goal-setting stage, the organization and implementation stage, the supervision stage, which realized the determined pedagogical conditions: enhancing students’ awareness of the importance of health and the need to improve their physical competency as an essential prerequisite for professional self-realization; acquainting students with diagnostic assessment methods, reflexive analysis and practical skills to improve their physical health; providing students with relevant pedagogical support. results the effectiveness of both pedagogical conditions and methodology for developing students’ competency in physical self-improvement was verified with the use of assessment tests before and after the experiment. the obtained results prove that the formative experiment has resulted in statistically significant changes in the main components of eg students’ competency in physical self-improvement, namely motivation and values, cognition and information, activities and results. in general, there was observed a statistically significant positive dynamics in the general levels of development of students’ competency in physical self-improvement (see table 1). a significant number of students (15.1%) reached the systemic reflexive level of this competency. the number of students being at the local reflexive level increased from 12.2% to 22.2% and at the adaptive algorithmic level – from 28.1% to 41.3%. the percentage of students at the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 185 directive empirical level of competency in physical self-improvement decreased from 52.4% to 21.4%. table 1. dynamics in the levels of eg and cg students’ competency in physical selfimprovement (in %) source: authors’ own conception № the levels of competency eg (n=246) cg (n=249) male students female students total male students female students total 1st test 2nd test 1st test 2nd test 1st test 2nd test 1st test 2nd test 1st test 2nd test 1st test 2nd test 1. the systemic reflexive level 6,7 14,2 7,9 15,9 7,3 15,1 8,2 7,4 4,0 4,8 6,1 6,1 2. the local reflexive level 13,3 21,7 11,1 22,7 12,2 22,2 13,9 15,6 12,1 11,3 13,0 13,5 3. the adaptive algorithmic level 27,5 41,7 28,6 40,9 28,1 41,3 27,9 33,6 29,8 35,5 28,9 34,5 4. the directive empirical level 52,5 22,4 52,4 20,5 52,4 21,4 50,0 43,4 54,1 48,4 52,0 45,9 in contrast to egs, the levels of cg students’ competency in physical self-improvement did not significantly change. some positive changes can still be observed, although they are rather local and do not reach the level of statistical significance. thus, the obtained results testify to the effectiveness of reasonable pedagogical conditions for the formation of the competence of future teachers to physical self-improvement and confirm the truth of the formulated hypothesis. discussion the scientific novelty and theoretical significance of the study is that for the first time the pedagogical conditions for the formation of future teachers 'readiness for physical self-improvement are substantiated, taking into account neuropsychological and neuropedagogical patterns: students' awareness of the importance of health as a necessary prerequisite for personal and professional self-realization; mastering their methods of diagnosis, reflexive analysis and practical skills to improve their own physical condition; providing pedagogical support to students in physical selfimprovement neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of … anatolii kosholap, et al. 186 the essence and structural components of readiness for physical selfimprovement have been specified; the content, forms and methods for ensuring pedagogical support for students in physical self-improvement have been further developed. the practical value of the research lies in developing a complex of diagnostic techniques for identifying the levels of students’ readiness for physical selfimprovement; preparing and implementing methodical recommendations on how to motivate future teachers for physical exercise in practice; developing methodical recommendations for developing students’ readiness for physical self-improvement. the current research confirms that it is imperative to consolidate students’ training for physical self-improvement with the creation of an appropriate educational environment, which can contribute to students’ understanding of physical health as a personal and social value and promote sustainable development of the necessary practical skills. taking into account the researches on the environmental education approach (manuilov, 1997), it can be proved that future teachers' readiness for physical selfimprovement can be developed provided that a favourable psychological atmosphere and appropriate ecological niches, that is the opportunities for students to study and change themselves under certain ideals and values orientations, have been developed. considering the specifics of self-improvement as an internally determined activity of the individual, pedagogical support can be defined as an important condition for developing students’ competency in physical selfimprovement. the research findings also prove that pedagogical support as a requirement for personality development is considered in the context of various psychological and pedagogical areas, namely existential psychology and pedagogy (rogers & freiberg’s, 2002) concept of helping relations (petrovsky’s, 1987) concept of personalization, rubinstein’s (1959) idea of “strengthening the existence of other individuals” (gazman’s, 2002) concept of individualization. the specificity of pedagogical support as a factor in education consists in the fact that it ensures the utmost consideration of the individual’s needs and interests, stimulates his/her activities aimed at selforganization and self-improvement. the ideas of maksymchuk et al. (2018) that the implementation of the model for developing competency in physical self-development consists of several interconnected stages and the basis of the model is rooted in the determined pedagogical conditions were confirmed. this opinion is shared by other researchers (soltyk et al., 2017). they indicate that “the positive brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 187 dynamics of developing future physical education teachers’ professional competency during professional training is achieved by the implemented organizational and pedagogical conditions for these specialists’ professional development during professional training”. the conducted research does not disclose all aspects of the problem of developing students’ competency in physical self-improvement. further researches should deal with such aspects as the theoretical justification of faculty’s activities aimed at motivating students towards a healthy lifestyle. this research follows certain ethical rules. first, all ethical requirements were considered before conducting it. next, the authors of the research obtained the consent of ethics committees of educational institutions. then, the participants were informed about the goals and objectives of the research. they were also informed that their participation in the research was voluntary and they could withdraw from it at any time. conclusions teachers’ success, professional and personal self-realization depend not only on professional competency and methodological skills but also on physical condition and functional readiness to perform professional duties. however, certain studies show that teaching as a professional group is characterized by extremely low levels of physical health, as well as insufficient readiness and focus on physical self-improvement. the physical condition of teachers directly or indirectly affects pupils’ health and results of educational activities in general. therefore, there appears to be a need to improve the system of physical education in higher education institutions and justify pedagogical conditions for developing their readiness for physical self-improvement. the analysis of researchers views on physical health and features of selfeducation has made it possible to determine whether future teachers are ready for physical self-improvement as an important component of their general professional culture and a complex personal quality, which is manifested in productive independent physical and sports activities aimed at improving their moral and psychological condition. the readiness of future teachers for physical self-improvement consists of three components, namely motivation and values, which characterize the motivational aspect of competency and includes steady motives behind physical self-improvement, comprehension of its importance for one’s life and professional activity, a system of value orientations and mental sets that motivate the individual to systematically neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of … anatolii kosholap, et al. 188 engage in physical and recreational activities; cognition and information, which reflect the cognitive aspect of competency in physical selfimprovement and provide for the knowledge of the basics of physical culture, healthy lifestyle, patterns in physical functioning and body development, criteria for health assessment and physical self-improvement methods; activities and outcomes, which characterize the practical aspect of this competency and contains the skills necessary for effective physical selfimprovement (the ability to assess one’s physical health, plan, organize and control their actions). the effectiveness of the designed methodology for developing students’ competency in physical self-improvement was verified by the formative experiment. the obtained results prove that the formative experiment aimed at implementing the justified pedagogical conditions has resulted in statistically significant changes in the main components of eg students’ competency in physical self-improvement, namely motivation and values, cognition and information, activities and results. a significant number of students (15.1%) reached the systemic reflexive level of this competency. the number of students being at the local reflexive level increased from 12.2% to 22.2% and at the adaptive algorithmic level – from 28.1% to 41.3%. the percentage of students at the directive empirical level of competency in physical self-improvement decreased from 52.4% to 21.4%. acknowledgement such a number of authors is related to a large number of participants in the experiment, as well as a large number of control and experimental groups in different regions of the country. it has ensured high representativeness of the research sample. each author created a control and / or experimental group in his / her educational institution. the article contains information about it: “the formative experiment required 8 experimental groups (eg) and 8 control groups (cg), which involved 246 and 249 students respectively. the experiment was conducted at vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, communal higher educational institution “vinnytsia academy of continuing education”, lesia ukrainka eastern european national university, luhansk national agrarian university, municipal establishment “kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy” of kharkiv regional council, vinnytsia national technical university, state higher educational institution “vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university”, khmelnytskyi humanitarian-pedagogical academy, t. h. shevchenko national university “chernihiv colehium”. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 189 references allport, g. (1950). the nature of personality: selected papers. addison-wesley press. babinsky, l. m., murray, d. w., wilson, w. a., kuhn, c. m., & malone, p. s. (2018). impact of a neuroscience-based health education course on high school students’ health knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors. journal of adolescent health, 63(4), 489-496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.05.016 bandura, a. (1977). self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavior change. psychological review, 84, 191215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033295x.84.2.191 barkley, r. a. (2001). the executive functions and self-regulation: an evolutionary neuropsychological perspective. neuropsychology review, 11(1), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1009085417776 faresjio, t. (1992). social environment and health—a social epidemiological frame of reference. scandinavian journal of primary health care, 10(2), 105110. https://doi.org/10.3109/02813439209014045 gazman, o. s. (2002). neoklassicheskoe vospitanie: ot avtoritar. pedagogiki k pedagogike svobody [neoclassical education: from authoritarian pedagogy to pedagogy of freedom]. miros. kudryavtsev, m. d., kopylov, yu. a., kuzmin, v. a., ionova, o. m., & yermakova, t. s. (2016). personality oriented system of strengthening of students’ physical, psychic and social-moral health. physical education of students, 3, 43–52. https://doi.org/10.15561/20755279.2016.0306 kurman, j. (2003). self-enhancement, self-regulation, and self-improvement following failures. british journal of social psychology, 45(2), 339-356. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466605x42912 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s. nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 manuilov, yu. s. (1997). sredovoi podkhod v vospitanii [an environmental approach to education]. mcst. petrovsky, a. v. (1987). razvitie lichnosti i problemy vedushchei deiatelnosti [personality development and the problems in the leading activity]. issues in psychology, 1, 15–26. http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1987/871/871015.htm portugal, e. m. m., cevada, t., monteiro-junior, r. s., guimarães, t. t., da cruz rubini, e., lattari, e., blois, c., & deslandes, a. c. (2013). neuroscience https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.05.016 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1009085417776 https://doi.org/10.3109/02813439209014045 https://doi.org/10.15561/20755279.2016.0306 https://doi.org/10.1348/014466605x42912 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1987/871/871015.htm neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of … anatolii kosholap, et al. 190 of exercise: from neurobiology mechanisms to mental health. neuropsychobiology, 68(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1159/000350946 rogers, k., & freiberg, d. (2002). svoboda uchitsia [freedom to study]. meaning. rubinstein, s. l. (1959). o psikhologicheskom poznanii: puti i printsipy razvitiia psikhologii [on psychological cognition: the ways and the principles of psychology development]. the academy of sciences of the ussr. schmeichel, a. (2006). the neuropsychology of self-development. in n.pałka & e. lorek-jezińska (eds.), currents. a journal of young english philology thought and review, (vol 3), (pp. 96-112). http://www.currents.umk.pl/files/issues/currents-no.3.pdf#page=98 soltyk, o., pavlyuk, ye., vynogradskyi, b., pavlyuk, o., chopyk, t., & antoniuk, o. (2017). improvement of professional competence of future specialists in physical education and sports during the process of vocational training. journal of physical education and sport, 17(3), 964–969. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2017.s3148 https://doi.org/10.1159/000350946 http://www.currents.umk.pl/files/issues/currents-no.-3.pdf#page=98 http://www.currents.umk.pl/files/issues/currents-no.-3.pdf#page=98 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2017.s3148 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 124-134 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/308 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 ethanol dependence in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. comparative study between januarymarch 2019-2021 ioana isabela nicoară¹, mihai terpan2, ciprian vlad3, cezar ionut bichescu4, anamaria ciubară5 1 resident psychiatrist, "elisabeta doamna" hospital of psychiatry, galati, romania, isabelaioana4@gmail.com 2 phd student, university "dunarea de jos", galati, romania, terpan.mihai@yahoo.com 3 associate profesor, "dunarea de jos" university, ciprian.vald@ugal.ro 4 associate profesor, "dunarea de jos" university, cezar.bichescu@uagal.ro 5 hab. professor at faculty of medicine and pharmacy, "dunarea de jos" university, head of psychiatry department, galati, romania, senior psychiatrist, "elisabeta doamna" hospital of psychiatry, galati, romania, anamaria.ciubara@ugal.ro abstract: in romania, alcohol is the most used substance of abuse and at the same time the most culturally acceptable, the abusive consumption of ethanol by individuals has a significant role in increasing the number of presentations in psychiatric services. the objective of this paper is to establish a comparison in the dynamics of presentations of chronic alcohol users at the 'elisabeta doamna' psychiatriy hospital in galati, from january 1 to march 30, 20191 to january 30, march 2021. the retrospective study consists in comparing the group of patients presented between january 1, 2019 and march 30, 2019 with the group of patients presented between january 1, 2021 and march 30, 2021 in the 'elisabeta doamna' psychiatriy hospital in galati. the inclusion criteria were: county, gender, age, date of presentation, time of presentation, environment of origin, disorders related to alcohol consumption (f10.0-f10.9). all patients with psychiatric diagnoses who did not have alcohol-related disorders were excluded. the data was processed statistically using microsoft office-excel, sofa statistics open for all version 1.5.4. between january and march 2019 there were 671 presentations due to alcohol-related disorders, of which 222 (33.1%) patients from rural areas and 449 (66.9%) from urban areas, compared to the period january-march 2021, when the total number of presentations due to alcohol-related disorders was 660, of which 204 (31%) patients were from rural areas, and 456 (69%) came from urban areas. keywords: alcohol, covid-19, pandemic, psychiatry. how to cite: nicoară, i.i., terpan, m., vlad, c., bichescu, c.i., & ciubară, a. (2022). ethanol dependence in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. comparative study between january-march 2019-2021. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 124-134. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/308 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/308 mailto:isabelaioana4@gmail.com mailto:terpan.mihai@yahoo.com mailto:ciprian.vald@ugal.ro mailto:cezar.bichescu@uagal.ro mailto:anamaria.ciubara@ugal.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/308 ethanol dependence in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. comparative … ioana isabela nicoară, et al. 125 introduction in romania, alcohol is the most used substance of abuse and also the most culturally acceptable, the abusive consumption of ethanol by individuals has a significant role in increasing the number of presentations in psychiatric services (luca et al., 2020). alcohol consumption is associated with multiple conditions and generates a vulnerable organic substrate for sars-cov-2 infection. it can also cause exacerbations of mental illness and predispose to behaviours with an increased risk of violence (grigoras & ciubara, 2021; niaaa, 2017; sadock et al 2017). globally, nearly 3 million premature deaths from alcohol abuse occur each year (who, 2018). ethanolic addiction and all disorders derived from this pathology (ethanolic withdrawal, acute intoxication, violence associated with alcohol consumption, vagrancy) are among the most common cases in the emergency room of a psychiatric hospital (ciubara et al., 2018; ciubara et al., 2015). pathophysiology alcohol amplifies inhibition at the level of gaba synapses and reduces arousal at the level of glutamatergic synapses, initially resulting in states of relaxation, euphoria, behavioral disinhibition (stahl, 2013). the effects of alcohol consumption are directly proportional to the amount of alcohol ingested, so that after a certain amount may appear slurred speech, impaired motor coordination, unstable gait, nystagmus, attention and memory deficits, stupor or coma (rehm et al., 2010; sadock et al., 2017). impulsive traits and a dysfunctional reward system can give a tendency to ethanol consumption and abuse (sadock et al., 2017). in these individuals, impulsive consumption can lead to the activation of the habit formation system, triggering neuroplasticity in the compulsive circuit (sadock et al., 2017). according to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder 5 th ed., (apa, 2013) and to the international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (who, 1993) the main criteria for substance use disorders is a set of cognitive symptoms, behavioral and physiological evidence that the individual continues to consume the substance, despite significant problems caused by it. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 126 the covid-19 pandemic is a challenge for everyone. uncertainty, drastic change in lifestyle, declining income, limiting social interaction are factors that significantly affect any mentally balanced individual. when these events co-occur in a patient who is known by a psychiatric pathology, the effects are exacerbated. objective the objective of this paper is to establish a comparison in the dynamics of the presentation of chronic alcohol users during the covid-19 pandemic, compared to the period before the pandemic, in order to see if there are changes generated by the current medical and social context. method the retrospective study consists in comparing the group of patients presented between january 1, 2019 and march 30, 2019 with the group of patients presented between january 1, 2021 and march 30, 2021 in the psychiatric hospital 'elisabeta doamna' in galati. for the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders, icd-10-classification of mental and behavioral disorders, dsm-5 diagnostic manual and statistical classification of mental disorders were used for the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. the inclusion criteria were: county, gender, age, date of presentation, time of presentation, environment of origin, disorders related to alcohol consumption (f10.0-f10.9) (who, 1993). all patients with psychiatric diagnoses who did not have alcoholrelated disorders were excluded. the data were statistically processed using: • microsoft office-excel • sofa-statistic open for all version 1.5.4 (paton-simpson & associates ltd., 2009-2021). ethanol dependence in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. comparative … ioana isabela nicoară, et al. 127 results figure 1. total number of presentations compared to the number of presentations related to alcohol consumption in the years 2019-2021. source: authors’ own conception the percentage increase of ethanol consuming patients in 2021 compared to 2019 may be due to the use of alcohol as a coping and stress release mechanism. given the analyzed period, a period that coincides with multiple religious holidays in which alcohol consumption is used in socializing relationships, we would have expected a decrease in consumption in 2021, taking into account the adoption of social restrictions during the pandemic, the trend is upward. figure 2. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, comparison by gender, january 2019 source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 128 figure 3. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, comparison by gender, january 2021 source: authors’ own conception january shows us an increase in the number of male persons in 2021, 179 (87.3%) compared to 2019 when there were 125 (80.6%). analyzing female presentations we see a reverse trend, in 2019, 30 (19.4 %) compared to 26 (12.7%) 2021. figure 4. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, gender comparison, february 2019 source: authors’ own conception ethanol dependence in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. comparative … ioana isabela nicoară, et al. 129 figure 5. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption comparison by gender, february 2021 source: authors’ own conception from the analysis of the data, in february we see an increasing trend among women: 10.6% in february 2019, compared to 15.6% in february 2021.this is at odds with the results in january. figure 6. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, gender comparison, march 2019 source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 130 figure 7. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, gender comparison, march 2021 source: authors’ own conception march 2019 is the month with the most patients with alcohol-related disorders, the male gender being prominent with 280 cases. the same trend can be observed in 2021. as a percentage, there is a tendency to stabilize consumption among females, 32 (10.3%) in 2019, 30 (13.5%) 2021. figure 8. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, comparison by environment, january 2019 source: authors’ own conception ethanol dependence in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. comparative … ioana isabela nicoară, et al. 131 figure 9. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, comparison by environmental conditions determined by place of residence, january 2021 source: authors’ own conception in january we can see a steady trend in the ratio between rural and urban areas, 100 (64.5%) in urban 2019 and 55 (35.5%) in rural 2019, respectively 142 (67, 6%) urban 2021 and 68 (32.4%) rural 2021. figure 10. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, comparison according to environment, february 2019 source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 132 figure 11. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, comparison by environment, february 2021 source: authors’ own conception in february we notice an increase in the number of presentations in urban areas compared to rural areas, so in 2019 there were 146 (72.3%) presentations in urban areas and 56 (27.7%) presentations in rural areas, and in 2021 there were 171 (75.7%) presentations in urban areas and 55 (24.3%) in rural areas. figure 12. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, comparison by environment, march 2019 source: authors’ own conception ethanol dependence in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. comparative … ioana isabela nicoară, et al. 133 figure 13. number of presentations related to alcohol consumption, comparison by environment, march 2021 source: authors’ own conception in march we see a significant decrease from 203 cases in urban areas 2019 to 143 cases in urban areas 2021.a significant decrease is also reflected among presentations in rural areas, from 111 ( 35.4%) in 2019 at 81 (36.2%) 2021. conclusions in 2021, despite the restrictions, alcohol-related disorders had an increased impact among men with no significant trend among women. the environmental distribution reflects the influence of restrictions adopted in urban areas, with a significant increase in the month of march. theoretically, given the restrictions imposed by the authorities during the covid-19 pandemic, anxiety related to social contact, low incomes, we would have expected a significant reduction in cases of patients with alcohol-related disorders, in a much higher percentage than observed. we thus conclude that, in the context of an addiction, people find resources and prioritize the maintenance of vice, despite material shortcomings, social restrictions and the harmful consequences due to chronic ethanol consumption. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 134 references american psychiatric association. (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). washington, dc. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 ciubara, a. m., burlea, s. l., sacuiu, i., radu, d. a., untu, i., & chirita, r. (2015). alcohol addiction a psychosocial perspective. ‏ procedia social and behavioral sciences, 187, 536-540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 ciubara, a. b., tudor, r. c., nechita, l., tita, o., ciubara, a. m., turliuc, s., & raftu, g. (2018). the composition of bioactive compounds in wine and their possible influence on osteoporosis and on bone consolidation. revista de chimie, 69(5), 1247-1253. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.18.5.6300 grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326-334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 luca, l., ciubară, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubară, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 paton-simpson & associates ltd. statistics were performed using sofa statistics version 1.5.4. statistics open for all. https://www.sofastatistics.com/home.php rehm, j., baliunas, d., borges, g. l., graham, k., irving, h., kehoe, t., parry, c. d., patra, j., popova, s., poznyak, v., roerecke, m., room, r., samokhvalov, a. v., & taylor, b. (2010). the relation between different dimensions of alcohol consumption and burden of disease: an overview. addiction, 105(5), 817–843. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.13600443.2010.02899.x sadock, b. j., sadock, v. a., ruiz, p., & kaplan, h. i. (2017). kaplan and sadock’s comprehensive textbook of psychiatry (10th ed.). wolters kluwer. stahl, s. m. (2013). stahl's essential psychopharmacology: neuroscientific basis and practical applications (4th ed.). cambridge university press. world health organization. (n.d.). http://www.who.int/news-room/factsheets/detail/alcohol world health organization. (2014). global status report on alcohol and health. world health organization. world health organization. (1993). the icd-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders. world health organization. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.18.5.6300 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://www.sofastatistics.com/home.php https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.02899.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.02899.x http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/alcohol http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/alcohol brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 309-338 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/321 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review of mancini’s cognitive model and theoretical review of young’s maladaptive cognitive schemas model suzana semeniuc1, camelia soponaru2 1 psychologist, doctoral candidate, “alexandru ioan cuza” university iasi, romania, suzana.semeniuc@yahoo.com 2 asoc. prof., “alexandru ioan cuza” university, iasi, romania, puzdriac@yahoo.com abstract: obsessive-compulsive disorder is one of the most common, debilitating, and expensive illnesses for the medical systems focusing on mental health. given the heterogeneity specific to obsessivecompulsive symptomatology, experts have proposed several explanatory models over time to point out the mechanisms leading to such pathology. this research study – organised into two parts – analyses existing empirical data regarding two explanatory cognitive models of obsessive functioning, namely mancini’s cognitive model and young’s schemas and dysfunctional modes model. the first part comprises three systematic reviews with three qualitative analyses and a meta-analysis regarding the three main hypotheses of mancini’s model. the meta-analyses have shown an average-sized effect of deontological guilt in the emergence of ocd-like behaviours in the non-clinical population compared to inducing altruistic guilt. however, the qualitative analyses suggest evidence regarding the association between disgust, not just right experience (njre) and ocd symptomatology. the second part of the research comprises a theoretical review of the studies focusing on young’s schema therapy mode model to explain obsessive mental functioning. the present research studies on the topics are scarce, but they suggest that the two cognitive models point out accurately the mechanisms of obsessive functioning. findings also show that there are attempts to reunite the two models in a more complex explanatory model. the aspects above may lead to the development of more effective intervention protocols for this type of pathology. keywords: ocd, mancini’s model, young’s maladaptive schemas, review, meta-analysis. how to cite: semeniuc, s., & soponaru, c. (2022). explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review of mancini’s cognitive model and theoretical review of young’s maladaptive cognitive schemas model. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 309-338. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/321 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/321 mailto:suzana.semeniuc@yahoo.com mailto:puzdriac@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/321 explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 310 1. introduction usually chronic (two-thirds of the cases become chronic) (prelipceanu, 2018), with the onset between 11-28 years old and reported in studies within various countries as affecting 1.2% to 3% of the population (abramowitz et al., 2017), obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd) is often complicated by multiple first-axis comorbidities (major depression – in a third of the cases, tourette syndrome, specific phobias, panic disorder, generalised anxiety, eating disorders, schizophrenia) or second-axis comorbidities (avoidant, dependent, borderline, obsessive-compulsive, passive-aggressive, histrionic personality disorder) (izzat et al., 2021; piraianu et al, 2021; prelipceanu, 2018). the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition (dsm–5) defines ocd by the presence of obsessions, compulsions, or both. obsessions represent recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or impulses that are experienced as intrusive and unwanted. in most individuals, they cause marked anxiety or distress that they attempt to ignore, suppress, or neutralise using various types of mental or behavioural compulsions. the entire process is debilitating, timeconsuming and impairs significantly important areas of functioning (american psychiatric association, 2013). dsm 5 dedicates a whole chapter to obsessive spectrum disorders, which includes (besides ocd) body dysmorphic disorder, compulsive hoarding disorder, excoriation [skinpicking] disorder, body-focused repetitive behaviour disorder, and obsessional jealousy (american psychiatric association, 2013). given the heterogeneity specific to obsessive-compulsive symptomatology, experts have proposed several explanatory models over time to point out the mechanisms leading to such pathology. the models assessed in this study are based on appraisal theories assumption, according to which the proximal determinants of people’s behaviours are their specific purposes (needs, desires, etc) and beliefs (cognitions, representations, assumptions) (castelfranchi & paglieri, 2007). furthermore, emotional states result from the individuals' subjective evaluation, which includes the signification and attributions associated with a situation (scherer, 1999). 1.1. the cognitive model of ocd proposed by mancini in conformity with the evaluative theories, mancini’s model includes three significant purposes of patients with ocd: avoiding deontological guilt; preventing or neutralising the contamination with factors perceived as disgusting (rachman, 2006); avoiding the discomfort produced by the sensation of not just right experience (njre) (coles et al., 2003). the brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 311 subject interprets the event as a threat, depending on the first evaluation (the common denominator of the various sensations – contamination/njre being the threat of being guilty deontologically). the consequence is the first order attempted solutions (as1), a complex, automatic reaction comprising negative emotions (anxiety, disgust, and fear of guilt), cognitive processes (selective attention and memory, orientation of hypothesis testing), and observable behaviours (e.g., verifications, reassurances, etc) or mental behaviours (mental compulsions, ruminations, etc) (luca et al., 2020). they usually have a paradoxical effect because they determine a generalisation (increase in the number/types of events considered threatening, reinforced belief concerning the threat, increase in the value of the threatened purpose, and increase in the efficiency of attempted solutions). the second part of the model introduces meta-evaluation or second order evaluation comprising mainly the criticism brought by the patient against the first evaluation and attempted solutions, generally self-deprecating and selfaccusatory, leading to the worsening of symptoms (mancini, 2017). 1.2. young’s model in obsessive functioning in conformity with the evaluative theories, mancini’s model includes three significant purposes of patients with ocd: avoiding deontological guilt; preventing or neutralising the contamination with factors perceived as disgusting (rachman, 2006); avoiding the discomfort produced by the sensation of not just right experience (njre) (coles et al., 2003). the subject interprets the event as a threat, depending on the first evaluation (the common denominator of the various sensations – contamination/njre being the threat of being guilty deontologically). in cognitive psychology, a schema is defined as a way to organise reality, as an abstract plan serving as a guide for interpreting the information and solving problems. according to the theory on which schema therapy (st) is based, the frustration of basic emotional needs in childhood and adolescence leads to dysfunctional schemas. when a schema is activated by similar situations with the ones experienced before, the individual is flooded with intense negative affects. he tries to adapt to them by using three coping strategies, representing the foundation of maladaptive behaviours: accepting the schema, overcompensating, or avoiding it. in the revised model of schema therapy, young and his colleagues differentiate between 18 early maladaptive cognitive schemas grouped into five fields, depending on the basic needs that were not satisfied: disconnection and rejection, impaired autonomy and performance, impaired limits, overdirectedness, overvigilance and inhibition (young et al., 2003). explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 312 another central concept of young’s model is the mode (i.e., a specific mental state after schema activation). there are several types of modes describing a person’s intrapsychic dynamic: child modes (parts that express needs and emotions (e.g. the vulnerable, alone, abused, neglected, sad, furious, impulsive child, etc), parent modes (parts that represent introjected parental voices – the critical, punitive, demanding parent), the specific coping modes (submissive-unassertive mode, avoidance mode – characterised by isolation, dissociation, behavioural avoidance, attack/overcompensator mode – violent, critical, judging) (rădulescu et al., 2020; tenore et al., 2018). whereas a schema reflects a unidimensional theme, a mode reflects numerous schemas and coping styles active at a certain point. this research proposes to analyse the existing empirical data regarding the two cognitive models proposed for obsessive functioning. 2. the analytical research framework to reach the goal of this research, we organised it into two parts. the first part includes three systematic reviews meant to analyse the main hypothesis argued by mancini’s model: (1) inducing deontological guilt, compared to inducing other types of emotions or to neutral induction, determined the onset of obsessive-compulsive trends in the non-clinical population, (2) there is an association between deontological guilt and disgust, in the non-clinical population and (3) there is an association between deontological guilt and njre, in the non-clinical population. the second part of the research comprises a theoretical review that focused on presenting the studies supporting young’s explanatory model of obsessive functioning. 3. method 3.1. searching strategies and selection of studies we identified the potential research studies by using keywords (controlled vocabulary) in the following databases: pubmed, lilac (https://lilacs.bvsalud.org/en/) lilacs (health information from latin america and the caribbean countries), science direct, web of science, scopus, springer, nature journals. to limit the publishing bias, we also searched in the proquest databases. in addition, we conducted a manual search starting from the bibliographies of research studies. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 313 for the systematic review, we selected the studies that met the following inclusion criteria: (1) adult, nonclinical population (hypotheses 1, 2 and 3); (2) experimental design with or without a control group (hypothesis 1), correlational studies, and experimental or quasi-experimental designs with or without a control group (hypotheses 2 and 3) ; (3) intervention: inducing deontological guilt using diverse methods (hypothesis 1); (4) obsessive traits measured: hand washing, checking, ordering behaviours, action avoidance, propensity toward structure, propensity toward staying out of moral dilemmas, concern for danger avoidance (hypothesis 1); (5) language of publication: english, french, italian (hypotheses 1, 2 and 3). in the theoretical review dedicated to young’s model, we did not apply inclusion criteria, given the small number of research studies and their heterogeneity. thus, we analysed all the studies identified in the databases mentioned above. we used keywords for the search regarding the model in question. 3.2. data extraction for the three systematic reviews within the first part of the research, the data extracted for the analysis of the three hypotheses were the publication year, the sample characteristics (number of subjects, gender, age), research design, induction of deontological guilt, modality of measuring disgust, ocd-like trends measured and the measuring tools, controlled variables, statistical data (means, standard deviations, f, t, p). in the second part, which includes the theoretical review of young’s model, we analysed the studies globally. 4. results 4.1. hypothesis 1 4.1.1. the characteristics of the studies after applying the searching strategy mentioned above, we identified 127 potential studies, and after removing duplicates, 122 remained, for which we scanned the abstracts. among them, 102 were excluded because they did not answer our research question. among the 20 remaining studies scanned integrally, 15 were rejected because they failed to meet the inclusion criteria. finally, five studies were analysed (fig. 1). the five studies meeting the inclusion criteria mentioned above were published in 2014-2019, and they included 342 subjects (70% women), with a mean age of 23.2 (university students or graduates, italian). the data extracted from the five explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 314 studies are featured in tab. 1. in three of the five studies, inducing deontological guilt used scenarios previously validated on other samples. in one study, induction involved recounting an autobiographical situation where guilt had been experienced; the independent evaluators made the difference between deontological guilt and altruistic guilt. in another research, induction initially involved a scenario followed by recounting. in all the five studies, manipulation was evaluated using vas scales (0-100) through which the subjects self-assessed their emotional state, discriminating between several emotions preand post-induction. in all five studies, the subjects were naive concerning the purpose of the research. the obsessive tendencies measured in the studies included were as follows: checking (visual scanning latency from baseline), in conditions of certainty and uncertainty, cleaning (behaviour observation checklist – number of cube faces cleaned, number of checks, spray use frequency, behaviour planning time, accuracy score), propensity toward inaction in moral dilemmas, compared to control scenario, total obsessive tendencies (measured using the revised padua inventory), ranking and cleaning (error-related negativity, doubts, perceived responsibility, hesitation and checking, time, errors, modifications, perceived task difficulty, discomfort). two studies included a control group. in the rest of the studies, the comparison groups were those where deontological guilt was induced. one study, comprising a control group, included a comparison group where shame was induced as an emotion. none of the studies reported data completely (effects, means and standard deviations). on a general note, there were no statistical data on reporting the absence of a significant effect and on the means of groups in case of a reported significant effect. the parasite variables controlled throughout the studies were as follows: depressive symptomatology (4 studies), anxiety as a trait (4 studies), obsessive-compulsive symptomatology (4 studies), guilt as a trait (1 study), scrupulosity (1 study), altruism (1 study), propensity toward disgust (1 study). a study (d’olimpio & mancini, 2016) of the five selected had a 2x4 design. comparisons were made with the control group (the group where shame was induced and that where altruistic guilt was induced). the authors measured propensity toward inaction in moral dilemmas (d’olimpio et al., 2013), unlike neutral scenarios and overall obsessive tendencies. however, in what concerns the obsessive tendencies, the effect of deontological guilt was insignificant, but no statistical data were reported. another study (d'olimpio, & mancini, 2014) included two types of research on different samples. the authors compared the group where deontological guilt was induced, in what concerns a ranking task (i.e., cleaning) with a control group and one where altruistic guilt was induced. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 315 from these two pieces of research, we only analysed the obsessive tendencies measured through hesitations and checks during the task. we considered the other measurements reported (namely, evaluation of discomfort during the task, perceived degree of responsibility, modification need) to be indirectly related to the obsessive tendencies. fig. 1. prisma flow diagram source: authors’ own conception explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 316 tab. 1. characteristics of the studies analysed study sampled characteristics controlled vb. comparison group ocd-like tendencies/ measurement mean, std dev., t, f, p, ηp 2 giacomantonio et al., 2019 100 students (75% women; mage=20.94, sd= 4.09) none vs altruistic guilt (low and high uncertainty) visual check/ visual scanning latency from baseline uncertainty vls (dg) (m = 9531, sd = 1971) vls (ag) (m = 9332, sd = 2274) f (1, 90), = 4.60, p=.035, ηp2 = .05 certainty vls (dg) (m = 5339, sd = 1102) vls (ag) (m = 5578, sd = 1485) f (1, 90), = 4.47, p=.037, ηp2 = .05. ottaviani et al., 2018a 61 subjects (30 women, 31 men) mean age = 27.1 + 5.5 years old, between 18 – 44 years old) -altruism -scrupulosity -depression -anxiety as trait -propensity toward disgust -ocd symptoms -guilt as a trait vs altruistic guilt checking/cleaning task/ behaviour observation checklist no. of cube faces cleaned (f(1,54)=6.45, p<.02; ηp2=.10; mvd: 10.32, mva: 8.34) no. of checks (f(1,54) = 15.24, p<.001; ηp 2 = .22; mvd: 2.11, mva: .62) spray use frequency, time, behaviour planning, accuracy score no difference between groups reported, missing data d’olimpio & mancini, 2016 38 subjects (27 women, between 19-30 de years old, mage = 24.13, sd = 3,3) -depression -anxiety trait -ocd symptoms vs altruistic guilt, shame, control group propensity toward inaction in moral dilemmas/adaptation after trolley dilemma ocd tendencies / the revised padua inventory propensity toward inaction: (f(3,34) = 3.72, p=.02; ηp2=0.25; mvd /sd dg (moral scenario): 0,28/0,15 mvd/sdvd (control scenario):0,48 /0.24 mva /sd ag (moral scenario): brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 317 0.50/0.20 mva/sdva (control scenario):0.48 /0.26 mshame /sd shame (moral scenario): 0.41/0.16 mshame/sdshame (control scenario):0.64 /0.27 mcontrol /sd control (moral scenario): 0.68/0.44 mcontrol/ sd control (control scenario):0.52 /0.17 obsessive tendencies (total score): (f(3, 34) = 2.52, p=.07; ηp2 = 0.18 mancini & gangemi, 2015 70 students (58 women, mage 21,2 years old, between 18-24 years old) -depression -anxiety trait -ocd symptoms vs altruistic guilt propensity toward inaction in moral dilemmas/adaptation after trolley dilemma t(68)= 5.33, p<.0001) d'olimpio & mancini, 2014 study 1: 29 subjects (21 women, mage 24.13 years old sd = 3.3, between 19–30 years old) -depression -anxiety trait -ocd symptoms vs altruistic guilt and control group checking/ranking task/ behaviour observation checklist doubts/ 7-point selfassessment likert scale error-related negativity/ 7point self-assessment likert scale error-related negativity: f(2, 26) = 3.61, p<.05, ηp2 = .22.) doubts f(2, 26) = 0.21, p=.82, ηp2 = .02 hesitation and checking (checking beh.): f(2, 26) = 3.09, p<.05, ηp2 = .16 explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 318 study 2: 44 subjects (30 women, m age = 25.00 years old, sd = 4.21, between 19–39 years old) -depression -anxiety trait -ocd symptoms vs altruistic guilt and control group cleaning/cube cleaning task/behaviour observation checklist doubts/ 7-point selfassessment likert scale error-related negativity/ 7point self-assessment likert scale error-related negativity: f(2, 29) = 4.42, p=.02, ηp2 = .23 doubts f(2, 29)=4.41, p=.02, ηp2 = .23 checking: f(2, 41) = 13.17, p=.001,ηp2 = .39. source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 319 4.1.2. quantitative analysis for the quantitative analysis, we used the comprehensive metaanalysis version 2. we estimated the effect size by calculating the hedges coefficient (g) that controls reduced sample bias (hedges & holkin, 1985). considering the small number of studies and their heterogeneity degree, we chose the fixed-effect model. the meta-analysis comprised data from six studies across five papers (one of the papers contains two studies, with different samples). in all the studies, the effect of deontological guilt on obsessive-compulsive tendencies was calculated compared to altruistic guilt. only in two studies including a control group (neutral induction) and one study including shame as a comparison, the meta-analysis estimated the effect of deontological guilt induction on the emergence of obsessive tendencies, compared to altruistic guilt induction, in the non-clinical population. the total sample included in the analysis comprises 249 subjects (134 gd, 115 ga) with a mean age of 22.6. the design was 2x2; the comparison groups were those where altruistic guilt was induced. the main result of the meta-analysis is featured in fig. 3. hence, e obtained a total statistically significant result of a mean size (g=0.78, 95% ci [.546-1.022], p<.0001), with heterogeneity evidence in the results (q (6) = 28.435, p = .000, i2 = 78.89) of deontological guilt on obsessive tendencies compared to altruistic guilt, among the nonclinical population. explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 320 fig. 2. results of the meta-analysis source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 321 4.2. hypothesis 2 4.2.1. characteristics of the studies after applying the searching strategy mentioned above, we identified 106 potential studies, and after removing duplicates, 97 pieces of research remained, for which we scanned the abstracts. among them, 77 were excluded because they did not answer our research question or because the guilt concept measured did not correspond to the deontological guilt as defined above. among the 20 remaining studies scanned integrally, 15 were rejected because they failed to meet the inclusion criteria. in nine, disgust was not a directly measured variable or it was not included in the analysis. in five, they did not measure deontological guilt distinctly. in one, there was a clinical population sample). finally, five studies were analysed (fig. 3). given the heterogeneity of the studies (caused by the multiple research designs, by very different measurements of disgust and deontological guilt), we did not carry out any quantitative analysis of the data. the studies analysed were published in 2008-2018; they included 264 subjects (152 women), with the mean age 31.5 years old. the data extracted from five studies are featured in tab. 2. fig. 3. prisma flow diagram source: authors’ own conception explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 322 two of the studies selected (ottaviani et al., 2018; schaich borg et al., 2008) are neuropsychological. they bring a series of arguments regarding the correlation between the deontological field, deontological morality and disgust. hence, it may be suggested that the transcranial stimulation of a cerebral area specifically correlated with the processing of disgust in many neuroimaging studies, the insula, respectively, induce besides disgust an accentuation of the moral sense within the deontological field but not within the altruistic field. at the same time, schaich borg et al. (2008) report that the same brain area was activated only as a response to the processing of incestuous stimuli but not of pathogenic or nonsexual sociomoral stimuli. mancini (2017) listed the incestuous stimuli among the stimuli inducing deontological guilt. furthermore, the research with fmri scans discriminates between pathogenic and sociomoral disgust, reporting different representations of them in the brain. hence, the activity of the amygdala and two regions from the occipital lobes was more intense in the processing of pathogenic stimuli compared to sociomoral stimuli. in addition, we noted statistically significant differences between the two groups in the cerebral activity of regions within the orbitofrontal cortex and the precuneus. in the processing of the sociomoral stimuli, we observed a more intense activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the bilateral temporoparietal junction, areas of the temporal gyrus, precuneus, dorsolateral prefrontal and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ottaviani et al., 2013). it is worth mentioning that – whereas the scans have shown different neural pathways in the processing of pathogenic stimuli in comparison to the incestuous ones – subjects reported the same level of disgust on the self-assessment scales (schaich borg et al., 2008). an experimental study that assessed the effect of inducing deontological guilt compared to altruistic guilt on perceived disgust identified the same discrepancy between the physiological and selfassessment measurements regarding the intensity of perceived disgust (ottaviani et al., 2018a). in this study, the case of self-assessment, the subjects did not report significant differences regarding perceived disgust, but the authors noted the effect for the group where deontological guilt was induced when they measured disgust using physiological measurements, namely hrv (vagally-mediated hr variability). in addition, the induction of disgust seems to favour omissive choices in moral dilemmas (basile et al., 2011a; basile et al., 2017a; tenore & serrani, 2013), while the deontological answers within moral dilemmas associate a higher frequency of experiencing disgust and fear, compared to the utilitarian answers (associating a higher frequency of living regret) (szekely & miu, 2014). it is worth noting, though, that studies thus far assessing the correlation between deontological guilt brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 323 and disgust are scarce (basile & mancini, 2011b). the studies selected in our analysis suggest rather than prove a correlation between the two concepts, if we consider that only in two of the five pieces of research, deontological guilt was measured or manipulated directly. in addition, three of the five studies do not assess any potential parasite-variable, such as depression, anxiety, propensity toward disgust, guilt as a trait, proven to correlate significantly with obsessive (mancini, 2018) functioning, which could have influenced the results significantly. in addition, we highlight the failure to report the complete statistical data mainly for the refuted hypotheses. explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 324 tab. 2. characteristics of the studies analysed study sampled characteristics controlled vb. tip study disgust/ vd/measurement results ottaviani et al., 2018b 37 subjects (25 women, mage=26.78 (5.04) years old) -altruism -scrupulosity -depression -anxiety trait -propensity toward disgust -ocd symptoms -moral system -emotional state experiment of prepostinduction with a control group intervention: inducing disgust through transcranial stimulation the island with electric current. -physiological measurement of disgust (vagally-mediated hr variability -hrv) -measurement of disgust through a word completion task -dg measurement by appraising scenarios involving the deontological field vs the altruistic field -transcranial stimulation effect on morality in the deontological field: active (11.55 ± 1.21) vs neutral stimulation (11.22 ± 1.37); (cohen’s d = .26) no stimulation effect on morality in the altruistic field: active (11.73 ± 1.54) vs neutral (11.83 ± 1.74) combined effect stimulation x vignette field on morality: (f(1, 36) = 3.51, p=.06, ηp2 = .10) ottaviani et al., 2018a 61 subjects (30 women, m age = 27.1 + 5.5 years old; between 18 – 44 years old) -altruism -scrupulosity -depression -anxiety trait -propensity toward experimentof 2x3x2 group (dg vs ag) x time (baseline vs induction vs -physiological measurement disgust (vagally-mediated hr variability -hrv significant increase in hrv only in dg, pre vs post induction: (39.6 ± 23.7 vs 42.9 ± 24.6) brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 325 disgust -ocd symptoms -guilt as a trait -current emotional state cleaning task) x guilt (dg vs ag) intervention: induction dg, respective ag through validated scenarios -self-assessment-vas scales (0-100) no significant effect on self-assessed disgust: (time: f(2, 116) = .30, p=.74; ηp2< .01; group: f(1, 58) = .04, p = .83; ηp2< .01; group x time: f(2, 116) = .38, p = .69; ηp2< .01) szekely & miu, 2014 63 subjects (55 women, mage 23.2 ± 4.6 years old) -none frequency analysis deontological or utilitarian answer to the moral dilemmas dominant emotion during the task: five-point likert scale fear was significantly more often experienced in the deontological vs utilitarian choices (25.93% vs 13.85). disgust was significantly more often experienced in the deontological vs utilitarian choices (4.09% vs 1.95%) regret was significantly more often experienced the utilitarian vs deontological choices (3.20% vs 0.53%) basile et al., 2017b 58 participants (42 women, mage-53.5 none experimentof 2x2 group (g propensity toward inaction in moral moral dilemma condition: explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 326 years old) induced disgust vs g induced fear) x type of dilemma (moral vs neutral) dilemmas/adaptation after trolley dilemma significant difference concerning omissive choices between gd (21) and gf (9); (x2 [1]=9.93; p < 0.03) neutral dilemmas condition: there are no significant differences (failure to report statistical data) schaich borg et al., 2008 45 men (mage25 ± 6 years old) -none experimentof 4x2/pathogenic (p) vs incest (i) vs moral nonsexual (m) vs neutral (n) in induction vs resting state induction through the memorising / sentence remembering task neural correlates /fmri scans -pathogenic and sociomoral disgust are not represented identically in the brain, -the processing of incest stimuli compared to the processing of moral nonsexual stimuli involve different but overlapping neural pathways. -the processing of pathogenic stimuli compared to incest stimuli involve different neural pathways, though the subjects brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 327 report similar levels of disgust in the processing of both stimuli -the insula was activated only in the processing of incestuous stimuli but not of pathogenic or nonsexual sociomoral stimuli. source: authors’ own conception explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 328 4.3. hypothesis 3 4.3.1. characteristics of the studies after applying the searching strategy mentioned above, we identified 27 potential studies, but 26 were excluded because they did not answer our research question. finally, we analysed one study (fig. 4), which excluded the possibility of quantitative data analysis. the study was published in 2008, and it includes a sample of 104 students (58 women) with a mean age of 25.3 years old. the data extracted are featured in tab. 4. whereas the research reports a significant effect of inducing guilt on njre sensation, guilt as a trait plays a significant role in the effect of inducing the affective state. in addition, it is worth noting that induction concerns a global affective guilt state, without any discrimination between deontological and altruistic guilt. we believe further studies are necessary to determine the extent to which there is an association between deontological guilt and “not just right experience”. fig. 4. prisma flow diagram source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 329 tab. 3. characteristics of the study study sampled characteristics controlled vb. type of study disgust/ vd/measurement results mancini, gangemi, et al., 2008 study 1: 104 students (58 women, mage 25.3 years old (sd 5.2) -ocd symptoms experimental 2x2/guilt group (high trait) vs guilt group (low trait) x induction guilt (state) vs neutral induction -measurement of guilt as a traitthe trait guilt inventory guilt state induction: through autobiographic remembering. measuring guilt state – state guilt inventory njre state-njre survey questionnaire -main effect of induction on njre (f(1, 100) = 14.77, p<0.001). (mgguilt = 11.03, sd = 5.4 vs mgcontrol = 6.93, sd =4.39). -main effect of guilt as a trait on njre (f(1, 100)=15.4, p<.001), (mgvhigh=11.03, sd = 5.43 vs mgvlow=6.93, sd = 4.39 -interaction effect of induction and guilt as a trait: (f(1, 100) = 4.57, p<.05); significant dif. explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 330 only in the group with guilt as a high trait (m = 7.9, sd = 4.69, t (50) = -4.08, p<.001). induction had no effect on njre in the group with low guilt m = 6.28, sd = 4.13; t (50) = -1.25, ns) study 2: 110 students (69 women, mage= 24.9 (sd = 3.9) -none experimentof 2x3/ guilt group (high trait) vs gguilt group (low trait)/guilt group (state) vs victimising group vs control group (neutral induction) measurement of guilt as a traitthe trait guilt inventory state induction: through autobiographic remembering. measurement of guilt state – state guilt inventory njre state-njre survey questionnaire victimisation feeling (feeling like a victim) – vas 0-100 scale -main effect of induction on njre (f(2, 104) = 7.17, p<.001). (mgv.high= 6.26, sd = 7.04 vs mgcontrol = 8.69, sd = 4.55, t(71)=-5.4, p<.001) vs mgvict =9.59, sd=5.21, t(73)=4.65, p<.001). -main effect of guilt as a trait on njre (f(1, 104) = 11.17, p<.001), (mgvhigh=14.62, sd = 6.9 vs mgvlow =8.91, sd = 5.08 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 331 -interaction effect of induction and guilt as a trait: (f(2, 104) = 4.11, p<.01); significant dif. only in the group with guilt as a high trait (m = 18.48, sd = 6) vs control (m = 9.25, sd = 4.67, t(39)=-4.81, p<.001) vs victimisation (m =10.27, sd = 4.73, t(38) = -4.12, p<.001) induction had no effect on njre in the group with low guilt source: authors’ own conception explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 332 4.4. schemas and modes specific to obsessive functioning initially developed for interventions in personality disorders, especially cluster b disorders (borderline and narcissistic), st has also been extended to support patients with other cluster personality disorders and to patients whose pathology is included on the first axis. they include obsessive spectrum disorders. however, the studies concerning the particularities of obsessive functioning from the perspective of dysfunctional cognitive schemas and modes are very scarce. moreover, they regard generally comparisons with comorbid pathologies. in what concerns early dysfunctional schemas, the patients with ocd report higher scores in schemas of dependence/incompetence, vulnerability to danger, abandonment and low self-control compared to the patients with eating disorders and patients with chronic pain (voderholzer et al., 2014). other schemas associated with ocd were social isolation, emotional deprivation, undeveloped self, entitlement, subjugation, need for validation, negativism/passivity and unrealistic standards (atalay et al., 2008). compared to the patients with bipolar disorder and with schizophrenia, the patients with ocd report higher scores in the schemas of vulnerability to harm, emotional inhibition, unrealistic standards, self-sacrifice, emotional deprivation, and social isolation (khosravani et al., 2018). in what concerns the result of cognitive-behavioural therapy, it appears that low responsiveness in ocd treatment is predicted significantly by high scores in failure and emotional inhibition schemas (thiel et al., 2014). in what concerns the specific modes of obsessive functioning, the number of the studies is even lower. hence, the vulnerable child mode, angry child mode, punitive parent, exigent parent, as well as overcompensation schemas (perfectionist/overcontrol, grandiosity) and avoidance mode manifested as the detached protector, and the self-calming modes were associated with ocd and obsessive personality (arntz, 2012; basile et al., 2017b; gross, 2012; van wijk-herbrink et al., 2108). several recent studies tried to integrate the two models of cognitive theories (tenore et al., 2018). their purpose was to elaborate therapeutical interventions targeting not only the reduction of specific symptomatology but also the dysfunctional cognitive schemas as causes for symptomatology. according to the authors, this would increase the efficiency of the treatment and it would prevent the numerous relapses experienced by patients with ocd. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 333 5. conclusions the purpose of this research was to analyse as comprehensive as possible the researches concerning obsessive-compulsive functioning from the perspective of the two cognitive models: the model proposed by mancini and the model of dysfunctional schemas and modes proposed by young. to this end, we analysed three research questions in agreement with the main assumptions of mancini’s model and a classic theoretical review, motivated by the scarce number of studies published concerning young’s model. the systematic reviews – the first ones, to our knowledge – concern mancini’s model and they comprised three qualitative analyses and a metaanalysis that included six studies. the results pointed out an average-sized significant effect of deontological guilt on the emergence of obsessive tendencies, compared to altruistic guilt (g=0.78, 95% ci [.546-1.022], p<.0001). however, we should interpret it cautiously. we must consider the small number of studies and implicitly the small total sample and the fact that it included italian subjects as a majority. this aspect entails a possible influence of the catholic religion on deontological values – when interpreting this result. the result is consistent with the findings of previous studies concerning the role of deontological guilt in obsessive-compulsive disorder conducted on the clinical population. one of the main limits of this research is that the result reflects an effect only in comparison with altruistic guilt. for comparisons with control groups or other affective states, several future studies are necessary. in what concerns the association of deontological guilt with disgust, the results significantly suggest such a connection highlighted even by neuroimaging studies, but the heterogeneity of the studies – derived from the different designs, the distinct conceptualisations of disgust and morality – is very high. hence, future studies are necessary to point out more clearly the correlation between this type of guilt and disgust. it seems that the correlation between deontological guilt and njre has been the least studied – we identified only one study on a non-clinical population concerning the relationship between guilt and njre. it reports an effect of inducing guilt on njre – thus, it is difficult to estimate the nature and power of association between the two concepts in the case of obsessive functioning. in what concerns the quality of the studies analysed in our research, it is worth noting that they have several significant limits. we refer mostly to the ways of measuring obsessive tendencies (some studies were based on behaviour observation checklist, subjective in evaluation), as well as to the lack of controlling parasite-variables (depression, anxiety as a trait, guilt as a explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 334 trait, propensity toward disgust) proven to have strong correlations with obsessive-compulsive symptomatology. however, the quality of the studies is affected precisely by the heterogeneity of obsessive-compulsive functioning (a wide array of obsessive and compulsive subtypes in what we define as obsessive-compulsive). hence, a generalisation of the findings concerning all the types of obsessive and compulsive tendencies is extremely difficult, considering that most studies measure these tendencies only in what concerns common subtypes (checking, washing, inaction in moral dilemmas), but it is still highly challenging to study cognitive compulsions or aggressive or sexual obsessive thoughts. following the theoretical review that concerned the conceptualisation of mental obsessive functioning from the perspective of young’s model, the studies published thus far outline a specificity of this type of mental functioning in what concerns both the maladaptive cognitive schemas and the characteristic modes. all the studies made comparisons between various clinical populations or the nonclinical population and the patients with ocd. another characteristic is that most studies are correlational. hence, the main early dysfunctional schemas for which patients with ocd report higher scores are those of dependence/incompetence, vulnerability to harm, abandonment, low self-control, emotional deprivation, failure, social isolation, undeveloped self, entitlement, subjugation, need for validation, negativism/passivity and unrealistic standards. whereas – in what concerns dysfunctional schemas – there is a low specificity for the patients with ocd, regarding the modes, the most specific mode for obsessive-compulsive functioning seems to be the perfectionist-overcontrol overcompensation type, along with the exigent parent mode. the other modes for which the patients with ocd report to which scores are vulnerable child mode, angry child mode, detached protector, grandiosity, punitive parent modes. as a general conclusion of our research, we believe that – whereas evidence supports the two explanatory cognitive models for obsessive functioning – further research is necessary. it is necessary to clarify the mechanisms through which deontological guilt, disgust, njre, dysfunctional cognitive schemas and adjustments to them make the difference between the functional and the dysfunctional in an obsessive mental organisation. . references abramowitz, j. s., mckay, d., & storch, e. a. (2017). the wiley handbook of obsessive compulsive disorders, volume i. west sussex, john wiley & sons ltd. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 335 american psychiatric association. (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). american psychiatric association washington, dc. arntz, a. (2012). imagery rescripting as a therapeutic technique: review of clinical trials, basic studies, and research agenda. journal of experimental psychopathology, 3(2), 189-208. https://doi.org/10.5127/jep.024211 atalay, h., atalay, f., karahan, d., & caliskan, m. (2008). early maladaptive schemas activated in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder: a cross-sectional study. international journal of psychiatry in clinical practice 12(4), 268-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/13651500802095004 basile, b., mancini, f., macaluso, e., caltagirone, c., frackowiak, r., & bozzali, m. (2011a). deontological and altruistic guilt: evidence for distinct neurobiological substrates. human brain mapping, 32(2), 229–239. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21009 basile, b., & mancini, f. (2011b). eliciting guilty feelings: a preliminary study differentiating deontological and altruistic guilt. psychology, 2(2), 98–102. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2011.22016 basile, b., gualtieri, g., & mancini, f. (2017a). disgusto e deontologia: sentirsi disgustosamente contaminate rende piu rispettosi della deontologia. cognitivismo clinico 14(1), 5-9. https://www.apc.it/wpcontent/uploads/2013/03/02basile-etal-cc17-1.pdf basile, b., tenore, k., luppino, o. i., & mancini, f. (2017b). schema therapy mode model applied to ocd. clinical neuropsychiatry, 14(6), 407-414. https://www.clinicalneuropsychiatry.org/download/schema-therapymode-model-applied-to-ocd/ castelfranchi, c., & paglieri, f. (2007). the role of beliefs in goal dynamics: prolegomena to a constructive theory of intensions. synthese, 155, 237-263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-006-9156-3 coles, m. e., frost, r. o., heimberg, r. g., & rhéaume, j. (2003). ‘‘not just right experiences’’: perfectionism, obsessive–compulsive features and general psychopathology. behaviour research and therapy, 41, 681-700. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7967(02)00044-x d'olimpio, f., & mancini, f. (2014). role of deontological guilt in obsessivecompulsive disorder like checking and washing behaviors. clinical psychological science, 2, 727-739. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702614529549 d’olimpio, f., & mancini, f. (2016). ”don’t play god!”: is inaction preference linked to obsessive compulsive characteristics?. clinical neuropsychiatry, 13, 6, 122-129. https://www.apc.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2016-dontplay-god-3.pdf d'olimpio, f., cosentino, t., basile, b., tenore, k., gragnani, a., & mancini, f. (2013). obsessive-compulsive disorder and propensity to guilt feelings and https://doi.org/10.5127%2fjep.024211 https://doi.org/10.1080/13651500802095004 https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21009 https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2011.22016 https://www.apc.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/02basile-etal-cc17-1.pdf https://www.apc.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/02basile-etal-cc17-1.pdf https://www.clinicalneuropsychiatry.org/download/schema-therapy-mode-model-applied-to-ocd/ https://www.clinicalneuropsychiatry.org/download/schema-therapy-mode-model-applied-to-ocd/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-006-9156-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7967(02)00044-x https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702614529549 https://www.apc.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2016-dont-play-god-3.pdf https://www.apc.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2016-dont-play-god-3.pdf explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 336 to disgust. clinical neuropsychiatry: journal of treatment evaluation, 10(3, suppl 1), 20–29. giacomantonio, m., salvati, m., & mancini, f. (2019). am i guilty or not? deontological guilt, uncertainty, and checking behavior. applied cognitive psychology, 33(6), 1279-1287. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3600 gross, e. n., stelzer, n., & jacob, g. (2012). treating ocd with the schema mode model. the wiley blackwell handbook of schema therapy: theory, research, and practice. john wiley & sons, ltd. hedges, l., & holkin, i. (1985). statistical methods for meta-analysis. academic press. izzat, a. a. h., anghel, l., stefanescu, b., kantor, c., & ciubara, a. (2021). prevention of psychoactive substance use. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 59-61. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.16 khosravani, v., bastan, f. s., mohammadzadeh, a., amirinezhad, a., mehdi, s., & ardestani, s. (2019). early maladaptive schemas in patients with obsessivecompulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia: a comparative study. current psychology,40, 2442-2452. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144019-00195-z luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a.-c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 mancini, f. (2017). mintea obsesivă. tratamentul tulburării obsesiv-compulsive [the obsessive mind. treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder]. romanian academy publishing house. mancini, f. (2018). the obsessive mind. abingdon-on-thames. routledge. mancini, f., & gangemi, a. (2015). the relevance of maintaining and worsening processes in psychopathology. behavioral and brain sciences, 38, 14. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x14000375 mancini, f., gangemi, a., perdighe, c., & marini, c. (2008). not just right experience: is it influenced by feelings of guilt? journal of behaviour therapy and experimental osychiatry, 39, (2),162-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.02.002 ottaviani, c., mancini, f., petrocchi, n, medea, b., & couyoumdjian, a. (2013). autonomic correlates of physical and moral disgust. international journal of psychophysiology, 89(1), 57-62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2013.05.003 ottaviani, c., collazzoni, a., d’olimpio, f., moretta, t., & mancini, f. (2018a). i obsessively clean because deontological guilt makes me feel physiologically disgusted!. journal of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, 20, 21-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2018.01.004 https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3600 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/15322052 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/46777175 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/41602579 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/7522852 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.16 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00195-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00195-z https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x14000375 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.02.002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2013.05.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2018.01.004 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 337 ottaviani, c., mancini, f., provenzano, s., collazzoni, a., & d’olimpio, f. (2018b). deontological morality can be experimentally enhanced by increasing disgust: a transcranial direct current stimulation study. neuropsychologia, 119, 474 – 481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.09.009 piraianu , a., neagu, m., neagu, a., fulga, a., ciubara, a., ciubara, b. a., & fulga, i. (2021). triogenesis of extreme hetero-aggressive behaviour in psychiatric forensic expert practice. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 72-75. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.20 prelipceanu, d. (2018). psihiatrie clinică [clinical psychiatry]. medical publishing. rachman, s. (2006). fear of contamination: assessment and treatment. oxford university press inc. rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. . (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 schaich borg, j., lieberman, d., & kiehl, k. a. (2008). infection, incest, and iniquity: investigating the neural correlates of disgust and morality. journal of cognitive neuroscience 20(9), 1529–1546. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2008.20109 scherer, k. r. (1999). appraisal theory. in t. dalgleish & m. j. power (eds.), handbook of cognition and emotion (pp. 637–663). john wiley & sons ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/0470013494.ch30 szekely, r. d., & miu, a. c. (2014). incidental emotions in moral dilemmas: the influence of emotion regulation. cognition & emotion, 29(1), 64-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2014.895300 tenore, k., & serrani, f. m. (2013) . la schema therapy. caratteristiche distintive . franco angeli. tenore, k., basile b., mancini, f., & luppino, o. i. (2018). an integration of schema and cognitive therapy in ocd treatment: theoretical conceptualization and rationale (part ii). psychology, 9, 2278-2295. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2018.99130 thiel, n., tuschen-caffier, b., herbst, n., külz, a. k., nissen, c., hertenstein, e., gross, e., & voderholzer, u. (2014). the prediction of treatment outcomes by early maladaptive schemas and schema modes in obsessivecompulsive disorder. bmc psychiatry, 14(362). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-014-0362-0 van wijk-herbrink, m. f., bernstein, d. p., broers, n. j., roelofs, j., rijkeboer, m. m., & arntz, a. (2018). internalizing and externalizing behaviors share a common predictor: the effects of early maladaptive schemas are mediated by coping responses and schema modes. journal of abnormal child psychology 46, 907–920. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0386-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.09.009 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/42174917 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/44612910 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/46450997 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32115251 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/13616102 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32118585 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32118585 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.20 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2008.20109 https://doi.org/10.1002/0470013494.ch30 https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2014.895300 https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2018.99130 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-014-0362-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0386-2 explanatory psychological models of obsessive functioning: systematic review ... suzana semeniuc & camelia soponaru 338 voderholzer, u., schwartz, c., thiel, n., kuelz, a. k., hartmann, a., & scheidt, c. e. schlegl, s., & zeeck, a. (2014). a comparison of schemas, schema modes and childhood traumas in obsessive-compulsive disorder, chronic pain disorder and eating disorders. psychop athology, 47, 24-31. https://doi.org/10.1159/000348484 young, j. e., klosko, j. s., & weishaar, m. e. (2003). schema therapy: a practitioner’ s guide. guilford press. https://doi.org/10.1159/000348484 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 300-325 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/184 psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of stress among members of election commissions in parliamentary elections in ukraine vasiliy lefterov¹, iryna ignatieva2, ihor prykhodko3, olexander timchenko4, yuliia formaniuk5, olha holina6 1 doctor of sciences in psychology, professor, department of sociology and psychology, national university “odessa law academy”, odessa, ukraine, lefterov.vasil@gmail.com 2 phd in political sciences, associate professor, department of sociology and psychology, national university “odessa law academy”, odessa, ukraine, irynaikuptsova@gmail.com 3 doctor of sciences in psychology, professor, research center, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, prikhodko1966@ukr.net 4 doctor of sciences in psychology, professor, research laboratory of extreme and crisis psychology, national university of civil protection of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, timchenko.psy@gmail.com 5 phd in psychological sciences, psychological center, national university “odessa law academy”, odessa, ukraine, julia.formanyuk@gmail.com 6 researcher, research center, national academy of the national guard of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, golinao@ukr.net abstract: the results of the empirical study among the members of election commissions (n=112, age: 25−68 years) for ukrainian parliamentary elections 2019 to study the styles of their professional activity and the level of stress are presented. the most pronounced style of professional activity is “professional-perfectionist”, which contributes to the high productivity of members of election commissions. the work tasks at a polling station are best fulfilled by the person with a more pronounced style of professional activity “formalist-bureaucrat”. it is undesirable to involve working at the polling station persons with high rates in the style of the professional activity of “nihilist”. it has been found that the major psychological difficulties of working in election commissions are due to excessive psycho-emotional and psychophysical overload, to which some members of the commissions are not ready. this overload can cause them to experience certain mental stress, different levels of stress, their manifestation, and consequences. although the majority of participants demonstrated a high degree of adaptability to stressful workloads, members of commissions should perform their duties at a highly professional level in extremely difficult circumstances, including at night and in a state of intense emotional stress. the results of the research should be taken into account during the organization of the election process and the holding of elections to central and local authorities. to improve it, it is advisable to organize and conduct early training and skills upgrading of members of election commissions. to do this, it is necessary to develop and implement training programs for the development of style peculiarities of professional activity, which will contribute to effective work in the election commission and overcoming psychological difficulties. keywords: parliamentary elections; election commissions; style of professional activity; stress; ukraine. how to cite: lefterov, v., ignatieva, i., prykhodko, i., timchenko, o., formaniuk, y., & holina, o. (2021). psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of stress among members of election commissions in parliamentary elections in ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 300-325. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/184 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/184 mailto:lefterov.vasil@gmail.com mailto:irynaikuptsova@gmail.com mailto:prikhodko1966@ukr.net mailto:timchenko.psy@gmail.com mailto:julia.formanyuk@gmail.com mailto:golinao@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/184 psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 301 1. introduction in the last decades, people’s activity in political life is an important aspect of their social interests, which has attracted the particular attention of researchers (cawvey et al., 2017; friesen, 2019; james, 2020; laanela, 2017). modern democracy is determined by the nature of the organization of the electoral process: regular, well-organized elections are a prerequisite for the existence of the democratic political system (clark & james, 2017; elklit, 1999; lijphart, 2012; msila & matjila, 2017; pastor, 1999; shevel, 2015). political behavior of the human usually depends on various factors: sociocultural and geographical environment, individual experiences related to the conduct of elections, socio-economic determinants, demographic indexes, ethnic indicators, and others (elklit & reynolds, 2002; mondak et al., 2010). the management and delivery of elections is a core task for local government officials in many countries but often overlooked by research and policymakers (james, 2020; james & clark, 2020). three rounds of elections took place in ukraine in 2019, the last of which took place on july 21, 2019. in ukraine, the subjects of the election process, except for voters, candidates, parties, and their observers are election commissions. election commissions are special collegial bodies authorized to organize the preparation and conduct of elections, as well as to ensure the implementation of the electoral rights of citizens (vyborchyy kodeks ukrayiny, 2019, p. 14). district and precinct election commissions are temporary bodies created during the preparation and conduct of elections. the election commission may include citizens of ukraine who have the right to vote in elections. elected candidates, their proxies, party representatives, official observers, government officials, court and law enforcement officials cannot be members of election commissions. the election commission selects the chairman, deputy, and secretary of the election commission (vyborchyy kodeks ukrayiny, 2019, p. 15). concerns about electoral malpractice have been raised in many democracies in recent years because of errors made in the administration of elections by local election officials (james, 2013). successful work of election administrations depends on the entire army of workers responsible for direct interaction with the population at polling stations (boyko, herron & sverdan, 2014). the effectiveness of the work of the election commissions is of great importance as it determines the level of public confidence in the electoral process as a whole and, even, can have an impact on the election results (clark & james, 2017; herron, thunberg & boyko, 2015). brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 302 at the same time, only a small part of the research of the election process deals with the study of the psychological peculiarities of professional electoral management and psychological climate in the election commissions (catt et al., 2014; garnett, 2019; james et al., 2019; van ham & lindberg, 2015). the style characteristics of the activity and the psycho-emotional states of the heads and members of the election commissions at different levels during the preparation and holding of the elections are still poorly understood. theoretical-empirical study of these psychological aspects will facilitate the selection of members of election commissions and the development of effective programs for their training and psychological support for the conduct of elections. he study of the system of involvement of polling stations workers in the usa indicates that there is a problem of involvement of highly qualified workers if they are volunteering or paid low (burden & milyo, 2015). the empowerment of election officials and executives is usually overlooked, understated, or simply ignored (maphunye, 2017). in ukraine, members of election commissions are also involved as volunteers, or for a fairly symbolic fee, and work in groups for a rather limited period of time. moreover, according to ukrainian analysts, the voting procedure in the electoral legislation “is written without taking into account the basic physiological and psychological capabilities of the average citizen” (vyborchyy kodeks ukrayiny, 2019). does such a recruiting system raise a number of questions as to how the efficiency of electoral management can be enhanced in the context of intense workload in the run-up to the election and on election day itself? the results of american cross-national surveys indicate that the nature of human resources management practices has a significant impact on the performance of election commission members (james, 2019). thus, the use of practices aimed at developing skills, increasing the motivation of workers leads to improved results of their work, reduces the level of stress, and reduces the number of those who wish to leave the position (james, 2019). ukrainian scientists presented a socio-psychological portrait of a member of a precinct election commission on the basis of the expert poll (zhvaniia & mahda, 2016). it was found that “the main motive for participating in the work of election commissions is monetary remuneration. for those members of the commissions who find themselves relatively stable in their political orientations, a strong motive is socio-political – to make elections fair and transparent” (zhvaniia & mahda, 2016). in general, the leading professional values for members of election commissions are the psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 303 desire for security, stability, and predictability of professional and personal life; maintaining balance, harmony between career and personal life; orientation on the realization of the main socially important values in own activity. at the same time, the lowest value for the members of the election commissions is the desire to solve unique problems, to overcome obstacles, to constantly be in the struggle; aspirations for career advancement, focus on integrating the efforts of other employees, managing different aspects of the organization activity; focus on creating new services (zhvaniia & mahda, 2016). in the course of their professional activities, each person performs his or her duties in his or her own style. this style is expressed in the way in which the specialist approaches the fulfillment of their duties, whether he shows initiative and creativity, in which way he or she controls the results of his own activity. working in the election commission requires not only a specific set of skills and competencies but also a certain style of activity (hall et al., 2012). that is why the study of the styles of the professional activity of members of election commissions is of great scientific interest. in 1925, adler first used the concept of “style” in a psychological context. he understood the style as the peculiarities of human behavior that contribute to the compensation of the individual defects (physical, mental, and social) (adler, 2000). later, the term “style” was used by other psychologists to explain various psychological manifestations (allport, 1961; hall et al., 2012; lefterov & alieksieiev, 2011; moll, 2011; royce & powell, 1983; tolochek, 2000). in 1961, allport defined style as individual differences in expression, indistinct manner of behavior, reflecting the attitude of the individual to objects and subjects of life. he attributed to the style “instrumental” and “operational” by nature personality traits (ways and means of behavior), through which a person realizes their motives and goals (allport, 1961). in 1983, royce and powell distinguish three lifestyles depending on the chosen strategy for achieving individual values: “altruistic”, aimed at serving people; “individualistic”, aimed at selfactualization, and the “icarus like”, focused on creativity. traditionally, in social psychology, the problem of leadership (management) style is explored, which means the typical system for the leader of ways and techniques of influence on subordinates (tolochek, 2000). the author recognizes the objective organization of the environment (components, conditions of work, interpersonal space) as the initial conditions of formation and expression of style phenomena. the style of the professional activity of a person under conditions of high psycho-emotional stress, psychophysical overload, great responsibility, and other stressful brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 304 factors becomes especially important and revealing (prykhodko et al., 2020). a person can achieve high levels of work at the price of constant fatigue and stress (melnyk, prykhodko & stadnik, 2019). chronic adverse functional states lead to the formation of negative emotional and personal traits. in 2011, moll points to two main strategies of forming a positive internal assessment of professional activity success: “active life strategy”, ability to overcome oneself, and “adaptive strategy”, which, from the point of view of maximum revealing personal opportunities, self-realization, is no less effective than the first one. stressogenic, sometimes even extreme, factors impede the work of election commissions in modern ukraine (boyko & herron, 2015; ivanchenko et al., 2019; shevel, 2015). this is quite natural since election day and the election campaigns that precede it have recently become very stressful for many ukrainian citizens (bevza, 2019). it is quite obvious that any individual feels natural striving to work in comfortable non-stressful conditions and with the most positive result of their own activities. but the complexity of life, derived from various problems that have both a wide range of determinants and an extensive set of manifestations (cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and physiological), does not permit to use of effective means of dealing with stress in order a person might be capable to reveal own mobilization resources and recreational potential for increasing a proper productive-energetic outcome (prykhodko et al., 2019). research hypothesis: the styles of the professional activity of the members of election commissions, as a kind of typical pattern of combining their individual resources, level of professional development and external environment, which is sometimes quite stressful, directly influence the results of their activity in the preparation and conduct of elections. the goal of the research: to determine the styles of professional activity among members of election commissions that most effectively fulfill their duties, as well as establish the main factors that negatively affect their work. 2. materials and methods 2.1. participants 112 members of the election officials (age: 25-68 years) who worked in the snap ukrainian parliamentary elections on july 21, 2019, took part in the empirical study. data collection was organized over the internet two weeks after election day. psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 305 2.2. instruments taking into account the specific nature of the organization of the electoral process at polling stations, difficult working conditions, and the intensity of workloads, psychodiagnostic of the styles of the professional activity of the election officials has been carried out in conjunction with the analysis of indicators of their stress. it was intended that such a design of the research would make it possible to prepare some recommendations on the organization of the electoral process at polling stations, effective management in view of the peculiarities of the psychological climate of the election officials. the study used a specially designed questionnaire (table 1) and psychodiagnostic techniques. the questioning and testing were conducted anonymously among all constituency subjects at the precinct and district election commissions that functioned during the elections in odesa (ukraine). table 1. questionnaire “socio-psychological characteristics of the organization and conduct of elections” instruction: “dear respondent! in 2019, ukraine held three rounds of elections. in order to develop proposals for improving the electoral process and introduce modern curricula for the effective preparation of election officials, we ask you to participate in the study of the socio-psychological characteristics of the organization and conduct of elections, as well as the personal characteristics of members of the election commission. the proposed survey is conducted anonymously.” 1. your age: ___________. 2. gender: ___ male; ___ female. 3. education: ___ secondary; ____ medium special; ____ incomplete higher; _____ higher; _____ two higher. 4. sphere of main professional activity: ___ public service; ___ industrial production; ___ education and science; ___services sector; ___business; ____ i am temporarily not working; other ________. 5. position in the election commission ____________. 6. what, in your opinion, was psychologically difficult during the work of the election commission and the conduct of elections (the choice is not limited to one option):  lack of experience and/or competence to perform duties in the election brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 306 commission;  high level of responsibility;  excessive emotional stress and stress;  isolation, inability to leave the polling station;  tensions with other members of the commission;  conflicts and misunderstandings with voters;  conflicts with observers, proxies, media representatives, etc.;  work at night, lack of adequate rest;  physical overload;  work in extreme mode and above normal;  violation of the usual regimen and diet;  feeling unwell;  another answer _______________________. 7. what negatively affects the activities of election commissions and elections (the choice is not limited to one option):  shortcomings in the selection of members of election commissions;  untimely appointment of members of election commissions;  shortcomings in the organization and preparation for the elections;  low level of information and methodological support for the activities of election commissions;  shortcomings of organizational and managerial communication;  psychological reluctance of members of the commission to work in extremely difficult and stressful conditions;  low level of managerial competence of the leadership of election commissions;  deficiencies in the material and economic support of the activities of election commissions and elections;  violation of the principle of collegiality and justice in the distribution of duties and remuneration;  unhealthy moral and psychological climate in the team;  poor organization of the procedure for obtaining counting protocols;  another answer _______________________. 8. what will contribute to the successful work of election commissions and the conduct of elections (the choice is not limited to one option):  experience and competence of commission members;  high organizational and leadership qualities and skills of heads of election psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 307 commissions;  quality training (special training) for commission members;  transparency of the election process and absence of irregularities;  trust / friendly relations between members of the commission;  fair distribution of responsibilities among members of the commission;  ability to create comfortable working conditions, including taking time for rest and eating;  high motivation of the members of the election commissions, including proper remuneration;  another answer _______________________. the method “professional activity styles” was used to evaluate the types of professional behavior (lefterov & alieksieiev, 2011). according to this method, respondents were rated on the following scales of professional activity styles: 1. “professional-perfectionist” is a person who wants to do his job perfectly and wants to be perfect. with a pronounced style, such people are responsible enough employees, carefully adhere to all the recommendations, take into account all the details and nuances, often go towards and produce a wonderful, almost flawless result. however, it is often difficult for others to withstand their busy working mode, high criticality. they often experience mental exhaustion under the conditions of a large amount of work and the inability to keep them up to date. in the unspoken style, such an employee has a passive attitude toward the performance of their duties, without haste or fuss. such people do not burden themselves with a large amount of work, clearly and independently separating important things from minor ones, without giving them particular importance. 2. “formalist-bureaucrat” is an employee who performs his / her professional duties solely on the job description. with a pronounced style for such a person, the main thing is to work out their time and perform a certain amount of work. typically, such an employee is low-initiative but disciplined, he or she is noted for conservatism, the cult of formal requirements and regulatory documents, the need for clear instructions, planning activities, and the availability of assigned functions. indifference to the end result of their activities is observed. such a person is not flexible enough to deal with people, does not take into account their individual abilities. with the unspoken style, such an employee shows uncompromising and stubbornness in significant moments of professional activity. formalistbureaucrat seeks to solve important matters quickly, showing activity and brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 308 independence. he/she often allows for clutter in the workplace, possibly even errors in the execution of business records, welcomes changes, and approves any innovations. in relations with colleagues, such a person is open and sociable. 3. “creative innovator” is an employee who thinks, analyzes a situation, always looks for the optimal and original ways of solving a problem, and flexibly approaches any situation. with a pronounced style he/she can look at the situation from the unexpected side, is not afraid to express paradoxical ideas and wants to reach the goal, to see the results of his/her work. he/she has the courage to try new things and take risks to achieve the desired result. such a person does not tolerate strict regulations and monotonous mode of work. however, this employee is rather unorganized: sometimes, when distracted by interesting details, he/she cannot do the main thing on time. with the unspoken style, one can see selfdoubt, a tendency to uncertainty, and mood swings when solving problems. such a person is able to spend effort on ordering, structuring, and achieving useful and rational actions. he/she is indecisive and cautious in new endeavors, weakly susceptible to emotional experiences. 4. “philosopher-theoretician” is a person who discusses and seeks to solve problems from beginning to end; using ready-made knowledge obtained by other people, expressed in conceptual form, judgments, and conclusions. with a pronounced style, most often, to perform the work he/she uses a competent calculation of different combinations and the choice of the best option based on theoretical research. such a person does not take on someone else’s belief, loves to reach on their own to the true cause of the situation. it becomes difficult to perform several tasks, to do things at once, especially in a hurry. with the unspoken style, one can see spontaneity and emotionality in actions, backed by new experiences and circumstances. 5. “specialist practitioner” – such a person is associated with independence, practical orientation, inexhaustible energy, and optimism. with a pronounced style, he/she has the talent of coordinator of the efforts of colleagues, the ability and willingness to socially loyal communication with other people and at the same time the ability to go against the current. such an employee has a tendency to risk, a desire to fight and win, a need for self-actualization and public recognition. the hallmark is activity – willingness to act in uncertainty. he/she is interested in performing routine, monotonous tasks, in the end, the result of which he or she is 100% confident. with the unspoken style, one can see low activity, moderation, and persistence at work. such a person belongs to those people who do not psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 309 take a personal view of what is happening. 6. “permanent conformist” is an employee who successfully adapts to any problems at work. with a pronounced style, he/she can at any time change plans for solving problems, if it is needed for achieving the goal, because he/she does not like to make in advance the most accurate plans that can make him or her hostage. such a person believes that much more can be achieved if he/she is able to make adjustments to the plans on the move, as appropriate. this style is characterized by high communicability, plasticity, ability to perfectly establish a comfortable climate in the environment of colleagues. however, it is difficult for this person to exercise his/her will and perseverance while defending their own interests. his/her performance depends on their own and other's downturns and rises of mood. with the unspoken style, such an employee likes stability, moderation in the execution of work, adhering to their own schedule. such a person is a supporter of clear business subordination, without subjective manifestations in interpersonal communication at work. 7. “nihilist” – such a person has a somewhat superficial attitude towards their professional duties, needs constant control. with a pronounced style does not like strict procedures, thoughtless obedience to regulations and instructions. such an employee tends to be distracted by insignificant details, ignoring the main tasks to accomplish the goal. he/she is stress-tolerant, especially when put in a situation of uncertainty. the low organization, lack of initiative, passivity, and cynical attitude to work are noted. with the unspoken style, the desire for consistency in the endeavors and deeds, the completion of the intended goals and tasks, is manifested. such a person is responsible, meticulous, and accurate in business relationships. the lemyre-tessier-fillion (1988) scale was used to study stress feelings in somatic, behavioral, and emotional indicators of election commission members in the adaptation of vodopianova (2009), designed to measure the structure of stress experiences. 2.3. procedure statistical methods (correlation and analysis of variance) were used to increase the validity and reliability of the research results. they were used to measure random variables and justify the calculation methods over these values, as well as reveal correlation relationships (pearson correlation coefficient), statistically significant differences (student’s tcriterion) between the studied mental and behavioral phenomena, as well as statistical intergroup, disperse analysis (anova method). mathematical-statistical brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 310 data processing was performed using the spss 14.0 application package. 3. results the survey results showed that the majority of the polling station members surveyed were women (77.5%). a large proportion of the respondents (45%) are respondents with one higher education, while 30% of respondents have more than one higher education. these results are easily attributed to the fact that 50% of the polled commission members are professional teachers, the second largest group is temporary unemployed (17.5%). for half the respondents, early parliamentary elections were the first in their professional experience to work in election commissions. more than half of those polled who have held the post of chairman, secretary, or deputy chairman of the election commission has previous experience in the sphere, the other polling station members showed a reversed trend. the respondents were asked to evaluate the working conditions and psychological discomfort they encountered while working at the polling station (appendix a and table 1). thus, the most difficult during the work of the election commission, the respondents found the night mode of work and lack of adequate sleep (50%). the second most significant response was “high emotional tension and stress” (45%), followed by “lack of experience and/or competence” (37.5%). in addition, the following was psychologically difficult for election commission members: physical overload (35%); work in extreme mode and above normal (30%); high level of responsibility (22.5%); conflicts with observers, trustees, media representatives (20%) and other responses (all less than 20%). respondents were also asked to identify the qualities and skills required to serve as chairman, secretary, and members of election commissions (appendix a and table 2). thus, according to the interview, the chairman of the commission should first of all be able to concentrate on problems and ways of solving them in critical situations, give instructions, orders in given conditions, and have positive emotions regardless of the nature of the situation, including being able to work without conflict in the team. honesty, fairness, and high personal discipline were also considered essential qualities to chair the election commission. psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 311 table 2. comparison of averages on the scales of the method “professional activity styles”, depending on the position in the election commission style of professional activity position in the election commission (group average) student’s t-criterion managerial positions other members “professional-perfectionist” 5.85 5.8 0.096 “formalist-bureaucrat” 2.9 4.1 -2.1* “creative innovator” 5.05 4.9 0.307 “philosopher-theoretician” 5.45 5.6 -0.453 “specialist practitioner” 5.4 5.6 -0.453 “permanent conformist” 3.9 4.2 -0.765 “nihilist” 1.25 2.7 -2.44* note: *р < .05. according to the interview, the work of the secretary requires, in addition to the speed of paperwork and mathematical calculation, to be able to perform a monotonous and routine work, to be responsible for the task of working with a sense of duty. interestingly, the response “sense of duty” was also quite popular in assessing the qualities required to serve as a commission member. according to the interviewees’ opinion, the commission member should be disciplined, honest, enduring and quickly adapt to new living conditions. also, the status of chairman and secretary requires special professional and leadership skills. at the same time, the status of a member of the commission imposes, first and foremost, the obligation to adhere to certain moral-value directives and executive discipline. from the above mentioned, the hypothesis follows: the professional style of persons holding managerial positions (chairman, deputy chairman, secretary) differs from the professional style of persons who perform the duties of ordinary members of the commission. on the basis of the information about the peculiarities of professional style, it was decided to check whether the professional style of the commission members in leadership positions differs from the ordinary brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 312 members of the election commission. table 2 shows the results of comparing average scores on individual scales of professional style in two groups of respondents (the first group includes respondents holding executive positions in election commissions, and the second group – other members of commissions). in general, the studied groups differ little in the context of the analysis of the styles “professional-perfectionist”, “creative innovator”, “philosopher-theoretician”, “specialist-practitioner”, which are within the average expression in both study groups. the “permanent conformist” style also has no significant differences and is poorly expressed by both chairmen and members of election commissions, which indicates a reduced ability to adapt to changing plans and tasks. instead, both members of the election commissions and managerial personnel show stability and moderation in the execution of tasks, adhering to their own timetable and clear business subordination. the most pronounced in both groups of respondents is the style of professional activity “professional perfectionist”. this indicates that both the chairmen and the members of the election commissions during their work are striving to do their job as best as possible, carefully adhere to all recommendations, and invest much effort in solving the existing problems. at the same time, they may have a tendency to mental stress and exhaustion in the face of a large amount of work and the inability to have time to complete them at the proper level. statistically significant differences in styles of professional activity between the groups of chairmen and members of election commissions were established on the “formalist-bureaucrat” and “nihilist” scales. lower figures on these scales showed the heads of election commissions. that is, unlike the ordinary members of the election commissions, the professional style of persons holding managerial positions is characterized by high organization, initiative, and meticulousness (according to the low indicators of the “nihilist” scale). at the same time, according to the “formalistbureaucrat” scale, the chairmen of election commissions may, in some cases, make mistakes in the execution of business documents. they accept changes well, approve any innovations, but tend to be uncompromising, active, and independent in solving important issues. the statistically higher indicators on the “nihilist” scale of the members of the election commissions indicate a certain tendency for them to be distracted by insignificant details, the need for external control, lower organization, and stress resistance. the lemyre-tessier-fillion scale diagnostic results revealed (table 3) that the majority of the subjects (67%) showed high adaptability to stressful psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 313 workloads, while the other 33% experienced significant stress. table 3. the matrix of inter-correlations of mental stress on the lemyretessier-fillion scale and the method “professional activity styles” style of professional activity integral indicator of mental load (the pearson correlation value) “professional-perfectionist” 0.028 “formalist-bureaucrat” -0.352 * “creative innovator” -0.060 “philosopher-theoretician” 0.295 “specialist practitioner” 0.295 “permanent conformist” 0.007 “nihilist” 0.347 * note: *р < .05. thus, the expressed dominant style of professional activity “formalist-bureaucrat” has an inverse relationship and correlates with the low levels of stress while working in the election commission. “formalistbureaucrat” is a type of worker who strives to work his or her time and perform a certain amount of work, as a rule, is a low-initiative, disciplined person, characterized by conservatism, the cult of formal requirements and regulatory documents, need for clear instructions, planning activities. that is, a display of formalism, discipline, unconditional adherence to the law and insufficient flexibility will cause low stress. conversely, the uncompromising and stubbornness of members of election commissions in significant moments of professional activity, their desire to quickly solve important cases, while displaying activity and independence, cause high mental tension and high level of stress. a directly proportional relationship was found between the style of the professional activity of “nihilist” and the degree of stress. the more this type shows a superficial attitude towards his or her professional duties, low organization, absence of initiative, and passivity, the higher he will be stressed. in other words, the “nihilists” are particularly acutely stressed and experiencing considerable psychological tension in difficult conditions of work in the election commission. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 314 our following important questions were: “does the experience of the participants of the research influence the level of stress? will the level of emotional experience and stress of the members of commissions who are participating in the election process for the first time differ significantly from those who already have some experience in the commission?” thus, comparing groups of “experienced” and “inexperienced” participants in the electoral process using the student’s t-test revealed that the feeling of stress according to the lemyre-tessier-fillion scale does not differ in these groups. therefore, the experience cannot be considered as a factor that determines the intensity of the processes of the feeling of stress by members of election commissions. also, respondents were able to rate relations with other members of the commission during their work at the polling station as “excellent”, “good”, “satisfactory”, or “bad” (table 4). table 4. descriptive statistics of the level of feeling stress on the scale of lemyre-tessier-fillion according to the evaluation by the participants of interpersonal relations in the election commission group evaluation by the participants of interpersonal relations in the election commission average (м) standard deviation (sd) 1 “excellent” 47.33 12.63 2 “good” 83.55 31.18 3 “satisfactory” 86.73 36.36 it is interesting that none of the respondents chose the latter option “bad”, so the results were divided into three groups: 50% of the participants described relations with other members of the team as “good”, 22.5% of participants gave them an “excellent” rating, and 27.5% rated relations as “satisfactory”. the average values of the feeling of stress for a group of participants who rated as “excellent” relations with other members of the commission were almost twice lower than those of participants who rated them “satisfactory”. the difference between those who rated the relationship at the polling station as “good” and “excellent” is also significant. this implies the need to test the hypothesis that the better the relationship between the members of the commission at the polling station, the less the level of stress. due to the fact that the studied data satisfy the requirements for normality of distribution and homogeneity of dispersion, psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 315 the statistical method of intergroup dispersion analysis (anova) was chosen. one-dimensional analysis of dispersion showed that the trend understudy is statistically significant (f = 5.49; p = 0.008), which in turn confirms our hypothesis. within the framework of the survey, the members of the commission expressed their proposals on improving the organization of work of election commissions and holding elections (appendix, table 3). in general, the majority of respondents believe that the recruitment process needs to be improved and that commissions should be formed in a timely manner; the formation of precinct election commissions should be completed no later than two weeks before the elections and be composed of competent staff. the respondents also pointed out the importance of conducting educational training for all members of the commission, not just for the managerial staff. according to some participants, the introduction of electronic vote counting and data entry into a single electronic database will greatly facilitate the work of commissions. other popular recommendations include raising wages and addressing logistical support for election commissions. 4. discussion the results of the research showed that the respondents consider the style of professional activity “professional-perfectionist” the most popular one, which generally contributes to the productivity of their work. but the overwhelming desire to do everything in the best way possible can cause stress and exhaustion for election commissioners. the inverse dependence of the style of professional activity “formalist-bureaucrat” and the integral indicator of mental tension prove the regularity that the manifestations of excessive motivation, activity, independence, the desire to quickly solve important cases also cause high mental tension and stress. in general, this phenomenon of the dependence of activity efficiency on the level of activation was first investigated by american scientists yerkes and dodson (1908). the law of the “optimum of motivation” formulated by them has been confirmed in our study. the revealed professional style of persons holding managerial positions differs from other members of election commissions, and it seems to us quite natural. the extremely high level of responsibility requires that the executives have special business and psychological qualities – initiative and uncompromising decision making; they must be able to react quickly to changes. this conclusion coincides with the results of a study of leadership brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 316 characteristics of polling station leaders (hall et al., 2012). on the contrary, according to the participants of the research, the status of the commission member requires not so much special professional skills, but rather certain moral and psychological qualities, including being honest and disciplined, in their actions to be guided by a sense of duty. involvement of members of commissions to work on a public basis creates certain moral requirements for persons holding such positions, who for a certain time become the embodiment of the electoral system. therefore, it is desirable to involve highly motivated workers in the polling station. and for this, it is important to create comfortable working conditions, material and moral incentives for employees, etc. our conclusions are confirmed by numerous studies of the features of elections in different countries (basiru & adesina, 2019; james & clark, 2020; lane & humphreys, 2011; van ham & lindberg, 2015). high adaptability to hard work in stressful conditions distinguishes members of election commissions with a pronounced style of professional activity “formalist-bureaucrat”. they perform tasks more clearly, follow the procedure, and are generally more disciplined and stress-tolerant. it should be noted that in addition to the “formalist-bureaucrat” style, the style compositions of the chairmen of election commissions also include a sufficiently pronounced style of professional activity “professionalperfectionist” with necessarily low performance of “nihilist” style. it is least desirable to involve individuals with a distinctive “nihilist” style of professionalism, not only because such people exhibit passivity, superficial attitude to their duties, but also because they are extremely unstable to work in conditions of considerable stress or uncertainty. the results of the study show that members of election commissions feel stressed in the course of performance of their duties, regardless of whether or not they have previous experience at the polling station. the results of other studies show that, in addition to stress, members of election commissions sometimes experience psychological and even physical violence (birch & muchlinski, 2018; lyons, 2004). this is typical for authoritarian and hybrid states, as well as for countries with unstable democracies (debrah, 2011; elklit, 1999; mcallister & white, 2015; van ham & lindberg, 2015). it is quite possible that regular changes in the legislation governing the electoral process cause additional load and stress for even experienced election commissioners. other possible explanations are that the members of the election commissions are forced to balance the responsibilities of the polling station, their main job, and their personal life at the time of the election. it is obvious that the problem of lack of experience and competence psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 317 of the members of the commission significantly influenced the efficiency of the election process management and the quality of the organization of work at the polling stations. the fact that training is organized for commission members only before the election and the formation of election commissions often does not complete even two weeks before the election, leads to the situation that a large number of employees do not have the opportunity to attend educational training organized for commission members. such problems exist in almost all countries where the establishment and improvement of the electoral process take place (herron et al., 2015). as one of the foremost mechanisms for improving elections, training is crucial to organizational performance enhancement (hall, quin monson & patterson, 2009). generally incorporated in generic university or vocational institute courses globally, training is usually offered as a specially tailor-made module for polling officials in western countries (maphunye, 2017). even then, it rarely covers the severe conditions election officials regularly face, especially in countries with transitional democracies and hybrid regimes (basiru & adesina, 2019; friesen, 2019; garnett, 2019; msila & matjila, 2017; van ham & lindberg, 2015). to reduce tension and stress, it is necessary to create a healthy psychological climate in the election commission, normalize relationships in the group. the better the relationship between the members of the commission at the polling station, the less the level of stress they feel. however, traditional psychological techniques for reducing conflict potential in the workforce encounter a number of obstacles related to the specifics of the election procedure. in addition, the workforce is formed in a very tight time frame, often unable to establish psychological and professional contact with colleagues who should work as a team. all this influences the speed and quality of the organization of work on election day. we agree with the findings of the researchers that one of the ways to improve the electoral process is its technical improvement and automation (elklit, 1999; garrett & jensen, 2011; kimura, 2015). this will reduce the risk of election manipulation and corruption of officials, the “strategic rejection of falsified” ballots and their incorrect counting, in general, as much as possible limit the influence of the human factor on the electoral process and election results (friesen, 2019; mcallister & white, 2015). 5. conclusions the results of the research made it possible to identify the psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 318 stress of the members of the election commissions for ukrainian parliamentary elections, as well as to identify certain shortcomings in the organization of the election process at the polling stations and to prepare appropriate recommendations. the most pronounced style of professional activity is “professional-perfectionist”, which contributes to the high productivity of members of election commissions. but an excessive desire to do their best can cause them stress and exhaustion. it has been found that the major psychological difficulties of working in election commissions are due to excessive psycho-emotional and psychophysical overload, to which some members of the commissions are not ready. this overload can cause them to experience certain mental stress, different levels of stress, their manifestation, and consequences. although the majority of participants demonstrated a high degree of adaptability to stressful workloads, members of commissions should perform their duties at a highly professional level in extremely difficult circumstances, including at night and in a state of intense emotional stress. the results of the research should be taken into account during the organization of the election process and the holding of elections to central and local authorities. to improve it, it is advisable to organize and conduct early training and skills upgrading of members of election commissions. to do this, it is necessary to develop and implement appropriate training programs for the development of style peculiarities of professional activity, which will contribute to effective work in the election commission and overcoming psychological difficulties. this research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. the authors have no competing interests to declare. appendix a results of polling of election commission members table a1. respondents’ answers to the question: “in your opinion, what was the most psychologically difficult during your job in the election commission?” answer option* number of respondents who selected the chosen option as a percentage work at night, lack of adequate rest 50% excessive emotional tension and stress 45% psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 319 insufficient experience and/or competence to fulfill their duties in the election commission 37.5% physical overload 35% work in extreme mode and above normal 30% high level of responsibility 22.5% conflicts with observers, proxies, media representatives, etc. 20% tense relations with other members of the commission 10% isolation, inability to leave the polling station 7.5% abandonment of the usual food 6.5% conflicts and misunderstandings with voters in the course of performing their duties 5% feeling sick 5% note: * respondents could choose more than one option. table a2. respondents’ answers to the question: “what, in your opinion, most negatively affects the activity of election commissions and conduct of election?” answer option* number of respondents who selected the chosen option as a percentage disadvantages of recruiting members of election commissions 67.5% late appointment of members of election commissions 65% the psychological unwillingness of commission members to work under extremely difficult and stressful conditions 47.5% disadvantages of material and economic support for the activity of election commissions and conduct of elections 37.5% miscounts in the organization and preparation for elections 37.5% low level of information and methodological support of the activity of election commissions 30% poor (not optimal) organization of the procedure of receiving protocols for the counting of votes 27.5% brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 320 the unhealthy moral-psychological climate in the electoral commission staff 22.5% breach of the principle of collegiality and fairness in the distribution of responsibilities and rewards 20% low level of managerial competence 20% disadvantages of organizational-managerial communication 17.5% note: * respondents could choose more than one option. table a3. respondents’ answers to the question: “in your opinion, what first of all contributes to the successful work of election commissions and the conduct of elections?” answer option* number of respondents who selected the chosen option as a percentage high organizational and leadership skills and abilities of representatives of the election commissions leadership 77.5% experience and competence of the members of commissions 75% high motivation of members of election commissions, including proper pay 72.5% fair distribution of responsibilities among members of the commission 50% trust/friendly relations between members of the commission 50% quality training (special training) for members of the commission 42.5% ability to create comfortable working conditions, including time for rest and meals 35% transparency of election process and absence of violations 32.5% note: * respondents could choose more than one option. references adler, a. (2000). ponyat’ prirodu cheloveka [understand human nature]. sanktpeterburg: akademicheskiy proyekt. https://www.rulit.me/books/ponyatprirodu-cheloveka-read-79921-1.html https://www.rulit.me/books/ponyat-prirodu-cheloveka-read-79921-1.html https://www.rulit.me/books/ponyat-prirodu-cheloveka-read-79921-1.html psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 321 allport, g. w. (1961). pattern and growth in personality. new york: holt, rinehart & winston. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1962-04728-000 basiru, a., & adesina, k. (2019). electoral reforms and the administration of the 2015 general elections in nigeria. democracy and security, 15(3), 207–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/17419166.2019.1643325 bevza, o. (2019). yak vberehty psykhichne zdorov’ya pid chas vyboriv [how to save mental health during elections]. retrieved april 11, 2020, from 24tv.ua website: https://24tv.ua/health/yak_vberegti_psihichne_zdorovya_pid_chas_vibor iv_n1133524 birch, s., & muchlinski, d. (2018). electoral violence prevention: what works? democratization, 25(3), 385–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2017.1365841 boyko, n., & herron, e. s. (2015). the effects of technical parties and partisan election management bodies on voting outcomes. electoral studies, 40, 23– 33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2015.06.008 boyko, n., herron, e. s., & sverdan, r. (2014). administration and management of ukraine’s 2014 presidential election: a systematic and spatial analysis. eurasian geography and economics, 55(3), 286–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2014.986494 burden, b. c., & milyo, j. (2015). the quantities and qualities of poll workers. election law journal: rules, politics, and policy, 14(1), 38–46. https://doi.org/10.1089/elj.2014.0277 catt, h., ellis, a., maley, m., wall, a., & wolf, p. (2014). electoral management design. stolkholm: international institute for democracy and electoral assistance. http://www.eods.eu/library/idea.electoral-managementdesign.pdf cawvey, m., hayes, m., canache, d., & mondak, j. j. (2017). personality and political behavior. in politics: oxford research encyclopedias. http://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001 .0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-221# clark, a., & james, t. s. (2017). poll workers. in p. norris & a. nai (eds.), watchdog elections: transparency, accountability and integrity (pp. 1– 32). new york: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190677800.001.0001 debrah, e. (2011). measuring governance institutions’ success in ghana: the case of the electoral commission, 1993–2008. african studies, 70(1), 25– 45. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2011.557573 elklit, j. (1999). electoral institutional change and democratization: you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. democratization, 6(4), 28–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510349908403631 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1962-04728-000 https://24tv.ua/health/yak_vberegti_psihichne_zdorovya_pid_chas_viboriv_n1133524 https://24tv.ua/health/yak_vberegti_psihichne_zdorovya_pid_chas_viboriv_n1133524 http://www.eods.eu/library/idea.electoral-management-design.pdf http://www.eods.eu/library/idea.electoral-management-design.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 322 elklit, j., & reynolds, a. (2002). the impact of election administration on the legitimacy of emerging democracies: a new comparative politics research agenda. commonwealth & comparative politics, 40(2), 86–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/713999584 friesen, p. (2019). strategic ballot removal: an unexplored form of electoral manipulation in hybrid regimes. democratization, 26(4), 709–729. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2019.1574755 garnett, h. a. (2019). on the front lines of democracy: perceptions of electoral officials and democratic elections. democratization, 26(8), 1399–1418. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2019.1641797 garrett, r. k., & jensen, m. j. (2011). e-democracy writ small. information, communication & society, 14(2), 177–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2010.490558 herron, e. s., thunberg, m. e., & boyko, n. (2015). crisis management and adaptation in wartime elections: ukraine’s 2014 snap presidential and parliamentary elections. electoral studies, 40, 419–429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2015.07.009 hall, j., barabas, e., shapiro, g., cheshire, c., & mulligan, d. (2012). probing the front lines: pollworker perceptions of security & privacy. proceedings of the 2012 international conference on electronic voting technology/workshop on trustworthy elections, 2. https://bit.ly/2xmkyhb hall, t. e., quin monson, j., & patterson, k. d. (2009). the human dimension of elections. political research quarterly, 62(3), 507–522. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912908324870 ivanchenko, a., ignatieva, i., lefterov, v., & timchenko, o. (2019). personality traits as determinants of political behavior: ukrainian electoral and voting tendencies. studia politica. romanian political science review, 19(3–4), 441–466. https://bit.ly/393h3ky james, t. s. (2013). fixing failures of u.k. electoral management. electoral studies, 32(4), 597–608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2013.07.013 james, t. s. (2019). better workers, better elections? electoral management body workforces and electoral integrity worldwide. international political science review, 40(3), 370–390. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512119829516 james, t. s. (2020). comparative electoral management performance, networks and instruments. abingdon, oxon; new york: routledge. https://bit.ly/397b1t6 james, t. s., & clark, a. (2020). delivering electoral integrity under pressure: local government, electoral administration, and the 2016 brexit referendum. local government studies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2020.1719075 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2015.07.009 https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512119829516 psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 323 james, t. s., garnett, h. a., loeber, l., & van ham, c. (2019). electoral management and the organisational determinants of electoral integrity: introduction. international political science review, 40(3), 295–312. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512119828206 kimura, m. (2015). information and communication technology and election administration in the philippines: an assessment of the nationwide automation of the 2010 and 2013 synchronized elections. philippine political science journal, 36(1), 54–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01154451.2015.1024693 laanela, t. p. (2017). beyond the checklist: addressing new challenges in election observation methodology. nordic journal of human rights, 35(4), 327–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2017.1400336 lane, s. r., & humphreys, n. a. (2011). social workers in politics: a national survey of social work candidates and elected officials. journal of policy practice, 10(3), 225–244. https://doi.org/10.1080/15588742.2011.582809 lefterov, v. o., & alieksieiev, a. o. (2011). psykhodiahnostychna metodyka «styli profesiynoyi diyalʹnosti» ta dosvid yiyi zastosuvannya u ryzykonebezpechnykh profesiyakh [psychodiagnostic methods of “styles of professional activity” and experience of its application in risky professions]. actual problems of becoming a professional in risky professions, 165– 168. kyiv: nyou. https://bit.ly/3omptik lemyre, l., & tessier, r. (1988). mesure de stress psychologique (msp): se sentir stressé-e. canadian journal of behavioural science / revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 20(3), 302–321. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0079945 lijphart, a. (2012). patterns of democracy: government forms and performance in thirty-six countries (2nd ed.). new haven: yale university press. http://digamo.free.fr/lijphart99.pdf lyons, t. (2004). post-conflict elections and the process of demilitarizing politics: the role of electoral administration. democratization, 11(3), 36–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/1351034042000238167 maphunye, k. j. (2017). straining without training? capacity-related problems facing african election executives and officials. international journal of african renaissance studies multi-, interand transdisciplinarity, 12(1), 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2017.1333282 mcallister, i., & white, s. (2015). electoral integrity and support for democracy in belarus, russia, and ukraine. journal of elections, public opinion and parties, 25(1), 78–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2014.911744 melnyk, y. b., prykhodko, i. i., & stadnik, a. v. (2019). medical-psychological support of specialists’ professional activity in extreme conditions. minerva psichiatrica, 60(4), 158–168. https://doi.org/10.23736/s03911772.19.02025-9 http://digamo.free.fr/lijphart99.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 324 moll, y. g. (2011). upravleniye kar’yeroy menedzhera [career management manager]. sanktpeterburg: piter. https://readli.net/upravlenie-kareroy-menedzhera/ mondak, j. j., hibbing, m. v., canache, d., seligson, m. a., & anderson, m. r. (2010). personality and civic engagement: an integrative framework for the study of trait effects on political behavior. american political science review, 104(1), 85–110. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055409990359 msila, v., & matjila, l. (2017). the management of democratic elections in africa (mdea) programme at the university of south africa: is this the right path towards african solutions? international journal of african renaissance studies multi-, interand transdisciplinarity, 12(1), 76–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2017.1340004 pastor, r. a. (1999). the role of electoral administration in democratic transitions: implications for policy and research. democratization, 6(4), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510349908403630 prykhodko, i., matsehora, y., bielai, s., hunbin, k., & kalashchenko, s. (2019). classification of coping strategies influencing mental health of military personnel having different combat experience. georgian medical news, 12(297), 130–135. https://bit.ly/3pxxq9d prykhodko, i., yurieva, n., timchenko, o., fomenko, k., kernickyi, o., tovma, m., & kostikova, i. (2020). what motivates ukrainian women to choose a military service in warfare? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3), 36−53. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/108. royce, j. r., & powell, a. d. (1983). theory of personality and individual differences: systems, factors and processes. prentice hall. https://bit.ly/3q3kqst shevel, o. (2015). the parliamentary elections in ukraine, october 2014. electoral studies, 39, 159–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2015.03.015 tolochek, v. a. (2000). stili professional’noy deyatel’nosti [styles of professional activity]. moscow: smysl. https://www.rfbr.ru/rffi/ru/books/o_65875 van ham, c., & lindberg, s. (2015). when guardians matter most: exploring the conditions under which electoral management body institutional design affects election integrity. irish political studies, 30(4), 454–481. https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2015.1099097 vodop’yanova, n. y. (2009). psikhodiagnostika stressa [psychodiagnosis of stress]. sanktpeterburg: piter. https://www.klex.ru/92o vyborchyy kodeks ukrayiny [the electoral code of ukraine]. (2019). retrieved april 15, 2020, from zakon.rada.gov.ua website: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/396-20 https://readli.net/upravlenie-kareroy-menedzhera/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3/108 https://www.rfbr.ru/rffi/ru/books/o_65875 https://www.klex.ru/92o psychological peculiarities of styles of professional activity and the level of … vasiliy lefterov, et al. 325 yerkes, r. m., & dodson, j. d. (1908). the relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-formation. journal of comparative neurology and psychology, 18(5), 459–482. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.920180503 zhvaniia, t. v., & mahda, h. v. (2016). osobystisnyy sotsialʹno-psykholohichnyy portret chlena vyborchoyi komisiyi (za materialamy pilotazhnoho ekspertnoho opytuvannya) [personal social and psychological portrait of a member of the election commission (according to the materials of a pilot expert survey)]. suchasne suspilʹstvo, 1(11), 57–75. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.51236 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, sup.1, pages: 46-61 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/155 determination of neuromuscular control of the upper limbs in children case study carmen-magdalena camenidis¹*, irina băiţel 2 , amalia oatu 3 , octavian amzulescu 4 , radu bidiugan 5 1 university of pitesti, faculty of sciences, physical education and computer science * corresponding author 2 theoretical high school "dante alighieri", bucharest, romania. 3 national institute for sport research, bucharest, romania. 4 national institute for sport research, bucharest, romania. 5 national institute for sport research, bucharest, romania. abstract: the objective of this case study is to observe the existence of an anticipation mechanism at the muscle groups level of the upper limbs. we tried to highlighted this anticipation process by measuring the potential of surface electric for some muscle groups representing the kine-matic chain on the right side, involved in the motor action of catching a basketball and a 3kg medicine ball with two hands to the chest. we conducted a case study of a 13-year-old child, female gender. as a measurement method, we used surface electromyography signals of the emg trigno delsys wireless system with 16 electrodes. we determined the moment when the muscles come into action by increasing the potential of surface electric and the moment when the action of catching the ball takes place, using the information provided by the accel-erometers incorporated in the sensors of the delsys equipment used. therefore, we obtained information about how different muscle groups come into action which helped us to get an idea of how the child's movement is structured. based on results of accelerations and emg signals acquired we have formulated conclusions regarding the neuromuscular control of the tested subject. we also planned for the future to test a larger group of participants in the study research of anticipation mechanism in children who do not practice any performance sports. keywords: structural anticipation; electromyography; catching a ball; motor action. how to cite: camenidis, c.-m., băiţel, i., oatu, a., amzulescu, o., & bidiugan, r. (2020). determination of neuromuscular control of the upper limbs in children case study. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 46-61. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/155 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/155 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/155 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 47 introduction the research into the mechanism of anticipating human motor behavior is a challenge for both phd students and researchers in sports science and physical education, because of movement that require sending a nerve command in the motor cortex which is involved in controlling voluntary body movements to initiate a motor action. voluntary movement controlled by the cortex expresses the human intention to initiate an action through a pre-existing motor program anticipating the movement. according to pailhours and bonnard (1999, p.2160) the voluntary movement comes from a nervous command generated in the cortex which is called telekinetic, insofar as it expresses the intentions of the individual and where it may have different patterns due to the cognitive abilities of the human being. according to kandel et al. (2013, p. 862) the motor cortex although plays an essential role in controlling voluntary movements, its neurons do not function as spinal motor neurons whose unique role is to encode patterns of muscle activity. instead, the motor cortex contains a heterogeneous population of neurons that contribute to several operations needed to convert an action plan into the motor controls that execute the motion pattern. the new evolutionary development in primates of a direct, monosynaptic projection on spinal motor neurons allows the primary motor cortex to control hand and finger movements in a uniquely skilled way. this feature was essential in acquiring the dexterity movements of the hand that only the up per primates possess and especially humans. in this article we will highlight the values of an existing mechanism of anticipation due to the intention's effect of the predictive internal model ( on the muscles. the effect of telekinetic kandel et al., 2013, pp.758-759) anticipation of a motor pre-action could be depend on the degree of development of the motor program that the child of our case study may have. from our point of view, the term of telekinetic anticipation in this context expresses the various voluntary movements to which we attribute an intentionality for the body in the action of catching a ball. the objective of our case study is to highlight the telekinetic anticipation mechanism for the learning area of a motor task by using an electrophysiological measurement technique. the phenomenon of anticipation from the electrophysiological techniques point of view, demonstrates that the anticipatory processes can be observed only with a certain difficulty and as disconnected manifestations determination of neuromuscular control of the upper limbs in children … carmen-magdalena camenidis, et al. 48 bernstein, 1967, p.162) he surface electromyography (emgs) is used in ( . t biomechanics to highlight the control of muscle contraction during effort, especially to be able to understand the role played by each muscle group in structuring an effective motor gesture (hillerin, 2011, p.31). these processes can be observed before the movement begins when the weak bioelectrical manifestation of tonic impulses, involuntary, is not masked by the much bernstein, 1967, p.163)stronger potentials that accompany muscle activity ( . an understanding of anticipatory muscle contraction in the develohashi, 1997) could opment of motor control as "being about something" ( be observed using the delsys trigno emg wireless system with 16 electrodes. it requires knowledge of human anatomy because emgs provides data on the analysis of the processing and recording of electrical signals between two or more recording electrodes placed on the muscles (delafieldgangopadhyay, butt & 2013). election and placement of electrodes are important (soltani & vilas-s boas, 2016) because the delsys trigno emg wireless system measures the electrical signal associated with neural muscle activation, being an experimental technique that provides information about what is happening physiologically in the nerves and muscles, as well as information about sequences or synchronization over time of a several muscles activities. the importance of emg wireless system is that it provides an objective assessment of when a muscle is active or not because it reflects electrical activity in the muscle fibers of the activated motor units (mu) where the electrical signal is proportional to the degree of muscle activation and it spreads over the muscle fibre surface (hunter et al., 2002). according to hillerin (2011, p.34), electromyography is an application about the utility of understanding electrical phenomena for the performance sports domain and effort in general, as well as usefulness in physical education where the phenomenon of anticipation exists and continues to be the subject of research, but it is difficult to determine given the time of the order of milliseconds that requires advanced technical equipment to measure it. there are other authors who say that the central nervous system can perform anticipatory adaptations in terms of advance adjustment of the excitation of all the sensory and motor elements used where the physiological component (biochemical or electrical) ensures the production of the respective behavior, and the morphological component (type of neurons, synapses and neural circuits) supports the physiological manifestation (berthoz, 1993, p.379; dănăilă & golu, 2000, p.11; dima et al., 2007, p.84, p.438, p.1565; epuran, 2011, pp.30-31, pp.269-270; kandel, 2013, p.746-747, forestier, brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 49 2018; pailhous & bonnet, 1999, pp.2159-2160; sbenghe, 2002, p. 350; williams, 2006, p.105, p.23). we also mention other researches conducted over time which has shown that the posterior parietal cortex is involved in motor-sensor integration processes which allows the generation of predictive models, as well as the real-time estimation of the segmental position and the identification of the discrepancies between the anticipated consequences baumann müllerversus real driving commands ( et al., 2015; brenton & , 2018; bongaardt & meijer, 2000; botezatu & andrei & hillerin, 2014; buckner et al., 2011; gau et al., 2020; macovei & hillerin, 1997; marin et al., 2015). research hypotheses 1. if we use surface electromyography (emgs) then we could highlight the phenomenon of functional anticipation on the arm muscles in the execution of an absorption movement to catch a ball. 2. the measurement of the anticipation contraction is different both in relation to the task to be performed and for the muscle groups involved. 3. if we have different work tasks, then the anticipation time could also be different. research methods the main research methods used were as following: • the bibliographic studying; • the observation method; • the laboratory experiment; • the case study • the data collection and data processing by filtering and rms (the root mean square); • the mathematical method; • the graphic representation; • method of data analysis and interpretation. the subject of the research was a child 13-year-old, female gender, right-handed, who does not attend at any performance sport training and has no history of motor or neurological dysfunction. the participant was informed of the characteristics of the research and brought an informed written consent document signed by the parent. 1. the experiment took place at the biomotor laboratory of the national institute for sports research, located on bucharest, strictly following determination of neuromuscular control of the upper limbs in children … carmen-magdalena camenidis, et al. 50 the rules of the world health organization (2020). the work methodology was established as follows: before catching, the participant stood in a staggered stance with the legs apart and knees slightly bent, arms bent in front of the chest and hands with fingers slightly rounded and ready to catch the ball. in order to help the participant to perform the exercises, a researcher was located 2 m in front of her, with a similar staggered stance. the participant catches the ball with two hands to the chest by an absorption movement, hold the ball for 1-2 seconds and after that she throws the ball back to researcher. the participant was instructed to catch and throw the ball as fast as possible. in both exercises with the two different types of ball, the ball was caught in front of the chest and thrown directed towards the researcher and both legs were in contact with the ground throughout whole trial. an accommodation period consisting of three repetitions of each exercise was performed prior to data collection. the participant was verbally instructed by the researcher on correct catching and throwing technique. a 3 min rest period between exercises was given to avoid muscular fatigue. the participant performed three catches of the basketball and three catches with the medicine ball. results surface electromyography (emg) signals were collected by using the emg trigno delsys wireless system with 16 electrodes. an accelerometer is also incorporated in the composition of each sensor unit. we used 11 electrodes that were placed on the main muscle groups from kinematic chains involved in the absorption and propulsion movement of catching and throwing the ball to / from the chest with both hands. the following upper limbs and trunk muscles and locations were used: rectus abdominis (ra); external oblique (eo); pectoralis major (pm); flexor carpi radialis (fcr); biceps brachii (bb); extensor digitorum (ed); anterior deltoid (ad); trapezius middle fibers (tmf); thoracolumbar fascia (tf); latissimus dorsi (ld) and the triceps brachii (tb). a topographic marking of the different anatomical points was carried out to facilitate the placement of the electrodes and the skin zones for electrode locations were cleaned with an alcohol swab in order to reduce impedance. then the surface electrodes were placed parallel to the muscle fibers to begin their electrical signals recording. using the dedicated software of the trigno delsys system, the information acquired using the emg sensors was processed by filtering the signal for both acceleration and emg signal and rms (the root mean brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 51 square) and then the data collected after filtering was exported to excel. in this regard, we illustrated graphically the evolution of the acceleration over time and the surface electromyography (emg) signals for the muscles monitored in order to observe what happens before catching the ball (figure 1). from all the acceleration signals acquired we have chosen to use the one recorded from the sensor fixed on ed because it was the first segment that moved when the ball was caught. following the curves carefully, we identified the time t0 when the forearm begins to move. on the x-axis of time in the surface electromyography (emg) graph, we marked t0 moment and tracked the muscle activity that precedes it, which is characteristic of the movement anticipation. figure 1. acceleration and emg signals for catching a 3kg medicine ball source: figure arising from the original research activity on the acceleration graph, we analyzed the first decrease of the forearm acceleration in order to mark the t1-moment corresponding to the contact with the ball. the muscle activity between these two moments of time, t0 and t1, represents the area of the contact anticipation, respectively the determination of neuromuscular control of the upper limbs in children … carmen-magdalena camenidis, et al. 52 muscles preparation for contact. there are contractions between the interval t0 t1 to a small extent for muscles monitored (tb, fcr, ed, bb and ra). in order to participate in the preparation of contact with the ball, also have contractions during this time the muscles ad, tmf, tf and pm. even before catching the medicine ball the activity of all muscle groups has been intensified. we can see that certain muscles groups come into action before the t0 reference point like ad, tf, pm, tmf rather than tb, fcr, ed, bb (which have muscular coordination in the same time figure 2). ra does not come into action before the same reference point shown above. figure 2 shows how the muscle groups of tb, fcr, bb and ed acted. at t1-moment was made the synchronization of time variation curves of the potential electrical of the muscles involved. figure 2. muscular coordination for catching a 3kg medicine ball source: figure arising from the original research activity following the data acquired and the graphs presented, we identified the reference points of the anticipation time values at t0 and t1 when the first movement of the forearm begins for each of the three catches of the ball. in this regard, we have calculate the movement timing from the first contraction until the contact with a 3kg medicine ball (table 1). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 53 table 1. the anticipation time for catching a 3kg medicine ball source: original data resulting from research time 1st catching 2nd catching 3rd catching t0 [s] 4.148 8.164 12.814 t1 [s] 4.634 8.643 13.891 t1 t0 [ms] 504 521 923 once we discovered these reference points, we were able to observe in the participant how its muscles have prepared for the trials performed. table 2 shows the maximum values of the emg signals measured which are expressed in microvolts [µv] for each muscle involved in every of the three actions of movement. these values represent the maximum recorded before t0 and between t0 – t1. table 2. the potential of surface electric for three catches of a 3kg medicine ball source: original data resulting from research catch surface electical potential ad tb fcr ed bb eo ld pm tmf ra tf 1 vmax 5034 1890 479 734 595 62 20 75 67 62 39 vmax (t0– t1) 3325 202 162 82 359 52 19 65 67 37 34 vmax before t0 1182 26 24 7 26 12 8 24 49 7 25 % t1-t0 66 11 34 11 60 84 95 85 100 60 88 % before t0 23 1 5 1 4 19 39 32 73 11 64 2 vmax 4924 1082 822 766 456 606 19 47 64 73 46 vmax (t0– t1) 3987 288 111 41 169 245 15 43 55 8 36 vmax before t0 1229 46 33 12 42 38 7 19 4 7 18 determination of neuromuscular control of the upper limbs in children … carmen-magdalena camenidis, et al. 54 % t1-t0 81 27 14 5 37 40 80 91 85 9 78 % before t0 25 4 4 2 9 6 36 40 7 96 39 3 vmax 4956 1778 621 664 568 355 16 63 119 21 36 vmax (t0– t1) 3482 248 70 21 80 109 12 20 119 21 32 vmax before t0 3097 77 33 13 26 108 12 19 22 21 25 % t1-t0 70 14 11 3 14 31 73 32 100 97 88 % before t0 63 4 5 2 5 31 76 30 19 100 70 abbreviations: ra = rectus abdominis; eo = external oblique; pm = pectoralis major; fcr = flexor carpi radialis; bb = biceps brachii; ed = extensor digitorum; ad = anterior deltoid; tmf = trapezius middle fibers; tf = thoracolumbar fascia; ld = latissimus dorsi; tb = the triceps brachii. figure 3 shows the same synchronization for the trunk and the abdominal muscle groups area. the overlap was not so good, which is a sign that every time the subject has organized its movements differently (as i said, the 13-year-old subject does not practice any sport in an organized way). figure 3. muscular contraction for trunk and abdominal muscles for catching a 3kg medicine ball source: figure arising from the original research activity figure 4 shows the percentage calculation for maximum contraction brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 55 recorded for the three catches of a 3 kg medicine ball. figure 4. percentage of maximum contraction recorded before t0 and between t0 t1. source: figure arising from the original research activity there is a contraction of anticipatory movement for three of the four muscle groups (tmf, tf and ld) presented above and, more strongly, another contraction in contact anticipation with the ball between t1 t0 for the tb and bb muscles. in the same way as for the medicine ball, we processed the data for catching a basketball. after we gained the data acquisitions we marked the reference points for the t0 and t1-moment timing in order to observe in the participant's motor behavior how its muscles have prepared for the trials performed. the results obtained are represented in table 3 for the time intervals delimited by the t0 and t1 moments. determination of neuromuscular control of the upper limbs in children … carmen-magdalena camenidis, et al. 56 table 3. the anticipation time for catching a basketball source: original data resulting from research time 1st catching 2nd catching 3rd catching t0 [s] 1.515 6.173 12.008 t1 [s] 1.931 6.767 12.234 t1 t0 [ms] 416 594 222 table 4 shows the maximum values of the emg signals measured which are expressed in microvolts [µv] for each muscle involved in every of three motor actions representing the maximum recorded before t0 and between t0 – t1. table 4. the potential of surface electric for three catches of a basketball source: original data resulting from research catch surface electrical potential ad tb fcr ed bb eo ld pm tmf ra tf 1 vmax 5042 57 193 142 2523 37 23 88 32 33 27 vmax (t0–t1) 3992 57 155 82 876 37 22 73 32 33 27 vmax before t0 649 7 27 7 1212 8 7 17 19 11 11 % t1-t0 79 100 80 58 35 100 94 83 100 98 100 % before t0 13 12 14 5 48 23 29 19 60 32 41 2 vmax 4948 51 159 90 2146 46 52 70 59 52 34 vmax (t0–t1) 3017 22 73 22 625 13 10 21 38 19 34 vmax before t0 1319 8 26 6 18 13 6 17 14 16 15 % t1-t0 61 42 46 24 29 29 20 31 64 36 100 % before t0 27 16 16 7 1 28 11 24 24 32 44 3 vmax 5031 106 724 145 2785 42 98 121 84 39 35 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 57 vmax (t0–t1) 4352 74 115 42 910 18 45 31 84 28 35 vmax before t0 1540 7 23 6 37 13 6 21 71 11 15 % t1-t0 87 70 16 29 33 42 46 26 100 73 100 % before t0 31 7 3 4 1 31 6 18 84 28 42 abbreviations: ra = rectus abdominis; eo = external oblique; pm = pectoralis major; fcr = flexor carpi radialis; bb = biceps brachii; ed = extensor digitorum; ad = anterior deltoid; tmf = trapezius middle fibers; tf = thoracolumbar fascia; ld = latissimus dorsi; tb = the triceps brachii. figure 5 shows the surface electromyography (emg) signals for the tb, fcr, bb and ed muscles. to the right of the image are the variance curves of the surface electrical potentials for deltoid and biceps brachii. the timing was done all, the one that marks the contact with a basketball. it is observed how a pattern of movement is observed somewhat, but there are also variations that indicate a disorder in the organization of the movement. figure 5. muscular coordination for catching a basketball source: figure arising from the original research activity figure 6 shows the muscle activity recorded for the tmf, ld and tf muscle (left image) and for the ra and eo muscles (right image). determination of neuromuscular control of the upper limbs in children … carmen-magdalena camenidis, et al. 58 figure 6. muscular coordination for back and abdominal muscles for catching a basketball source: figure arising from the original research activity figure 7 shows the calculation of percentages for maximum contraction recorded for the three catches of a basketball. figure 7. percentage of maximum contraction recorded before t0 and between t0 t1 source: figure arising from the original research activity conclusion the results obtained demonstrate that the simple responses such as upper limbs extension can be produced with different neuromuscular patbrain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 59 terns when the task was modified. the coordination in the motor cortex is an important component of voluntary movement because specific anticipatory adjustments of certain postural muscles could provide the stable support needed to successfully complete the intended actions such as catching and throwing a ball as quickly as possible. to the extent that postural muscle activity precedes and is specific to a given movement, it could be argued that muscle activity is a component of the voluntary response planning. regarding the time of information processing, the finding is relevant for improving the motor program because there may be an anticipation of movement even in the joint of the hand or fingers that initiates a motor act before muscle groups of other body segments. the neuromuscular activity can be a component of a voluntary response which has implications for motor control models of response organization. this sort of feedforward mechanism may control both postural and task response components. at this stage of learning, a complex motor action, like catching a ball of different sizes and weights, requires a stable connection between the systems involved in the trials, such as hand-eye coordination and telekinetic movement of the upper limbs. there is an anticipatory motor pattern activity in both work task and upper limbs muscles which was examined for catching a ball and may be considered a major component of voluntary bilateral arms extension. differences in the dominance of certain structural moment of anticipation related to the fact that the subject of the case study does not practice any sport can be revealed. but this does not mean that there is no representation (scheme or program) that determines certain aspects of the individual internal model according to the level of sports training. even if it is currently a case study, the analyzes of the surface electromyography (emg) signals indicate that there is a link between the evolution of anticipation times and the level of psychomotor training in the learning area, as well as the differences in anticipation of time between the catches. regarding the subject's age of our research as well as the lack of a training stage in any sport, we can highlight the existence of a weak telekinetic anticipation time, which shows that an internal learning model should be developed and supported from an early age less than 13 years. the participant's ability to use its own neural representation in a motor action requires future investigations of neural mapping during the execution of another motor task, in order to better highlight the mechanism of telekinetic anticipation. determination of neuromuscular control of the upper limbs in children … carmen-magdalena camenidis, et al. 60 references baumann, o. borra, r. j., bower, j. m., cullen, k. e., habas, c., ivry, r. b., leggio, m., mattingley, j. b., molinari, m., moulton, e. a., paulin, m. a., pavlova, m. a., schmahmann j. d., & sokolov, a. a. (2015). consensus paper: the role of the cerebellum in perceptual processes, springer cerebellum, 14(2), 197–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-014-0627-7 bernstein, n.a. (1967). the coordination and regulation of movements. pergamon press. berthoz, a. (1993). multisensory control of movement. oxford university press inc. bongaardt, r., & meijer, o. g. (2000). bernstein’s theory of movement behavior: historical development and contemporary relevance. journal of motor https://doi.org/10.1080/00222890009601360 behavior, 32, 57-71. botezatu, c., andrei, c., & hillerin, p. j. (2014). neuromuscular aspects of anticipation in preparing the body for the contact structure in motrice performance. sport science rewiev journal, xxiii(1-2), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.2478/ssr-2014-0001 brenton, j., & müller, s. (2018). is visual-perceptual or motor expertise critical for 739-746expert anticipation in sport? applied cognitive psychology, 32(6), . https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3453 buckner, r. l., krienen, f. a., castellanos, a., diaz, j. c., & thomas yeo, b. t. (2011). the organization of the human cerebellum estimated by intrinsic functional connectivity. journal of neurophysiology, 106(5), 2322-2345. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00339.2011 dănăilă, l., & golu, m. (2000). tratat de neuropsihologie [treatise on neuropsychology], vol.i. editura medicală. delafield-butt, j. t., & gangopadhyay, n. (2013). sensorimotor intentionality: the origins of intentionality in prospective agent action. developmental review, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2013.09.001 33(4), 399-425. dima, e. (2007). dicţionar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române [illustrated explanatory dictionary of the romanian language]. editura arc şi gunivas. epuran, m. (2011). motricitate şi psihism în activităţile corporale [motor skills and psychism in bodily activities], vol. 1. editura fest. forestier, n. (2018). intégration sensorielle rôle des signaux centraux [sensory integration role of central signals.]. lecture session at the doctoral school (material slides 57-58). university of pitesti. gau, r. bazin, p-l., trampel, r., turner, r., & noppeney, u. (2020). resolving multisensory ant attentional influences across cortical depth in sensory cortices. elife, 9, e46856. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.46856 aplicaţii ale fizicii în educaţia fizică şi sport [applications of hillerin, p. j. (2011). physics in physical education and sports]. suport de curs, anul iii, facultatea de educaţie fizică şi sport, universitatea din piteşti. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-014-0627-7 https://doi.org/10.1080/00222890009601360 https://doi.org/10.2478/ssr-2014-0001 https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3453 https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00339.2011 https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%2525253a%2525252f%2525252fdx.doi.org%2525252f10.1016%2525252fj.dr.2013.09.001 https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.46856 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4, supplementary 1 61 hunter, s. k., ryan, d. l., ortega, j. d., & enoka, r. m. (2002). task differences with the same load torque alter the endurance time of submaximal fatiguing contractions in humans. journal of neurophysiology, 88(6), 3087–3096. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00232.2002 kandel, e.r., schwartz, j. h., jessell, t. m., siegelbaum, s. a., & hudspeth a. j. the mcgraw-hill compa-(2013). principles of neural science (5th edition). nies, inc. macovei, s., & hillerin, p. j. (1997). orientation de la préparation physique et techles cahiers de l'insep, 18-19, nique au moyen d'un test du train inférieur. 267-271. https://doi.org/10.3406/insep.1997.1274 marin, c. de hillerin, p. j., marin m., & vizitiu, c. (2015). arguments for a unified psycho-neuro-motor approach in human performance training. palestrica of the third millennium – civilization and sport journal 16(2), 107–112. http://www.pm3.ro/pdf/60/ro/08%20-%20marin%20%20%20107112.pdf ohashi, j. (1997). the effects of preceded fatiguing on the relations between monopolar surface electromyogram and fatigue sensation. applied human science: journal of physiological anthropology, 16(1), 19-27. https://doi.org/10.2114/jpa.16.19 programme moteur; mouvement; les mou-pailhours, j., & bonnard, m. (1999). vements volontaires. in larousse (ed.), grand dictionnaire de la . psychologie. larousse sbenghe, t. (2002). kinesiologie ştiinţa mişcării [kinesiology-the science of movements]. editura medicală. soltani, p., & vilas-boas, j. p. (2016). muscle activation during exergame playing. in d. novák, b. tulu, & h. brendryen (eds.), handbook of research on holistic perspectives in gamification for clinical practice (pp. 312-341). igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-9522-1.ch015 williams, d. f. (2006). dicţionar de biomateriale [dictionary of biomaterials]. editura casa cărţii de ştiinţă. world health organization. (2020). coronavirus disease (covid-19) advice for the public. world health organization [updated on 2020 october 13]. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus2019/advice-for-public https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00232.2002 https://doi.org/10.3406/insep.1997.1274 http://www.pm3.ro/pdf/60/ro/08%20-%20marin%20%20%20107-112.pdf http://www.pm3.ro/pdf/60/ro/08%20-%20marin%20%20%20107-112.pdf https://doi.org/10.2114/jpa.16.19 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-9522-1.ch015 https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 347-360 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/288 anxiety in homequarantined patients with covid-19 cătălin pleşea-condratovici¹, emil răzvan gatej2, steliana rizeanu3, alina pleşea-condratovici4 1 assistant professor, department of morphological and functional sciences, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, ‘dunarea de jos’ university, galati, romania, cmidr.pleseacatalin@gmail.com 2 assistant professor, department of psychology, hyperion university of bucharest, romania, emilrgatej@gmail.com 3 professor, department of psychology, hyperion university of bucharest, romania, stelianarizeanu@yahoo.co 4 assistant professor, department of medical sciences, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, ‘dunarea de jos’ university, galati, romania, alina.plesea@ugal.ro abstract: one of the challenges of the current pandemic in romania has been the monitoring of covid-19 positive patients isolated at home by their family doctors. there was no legal framework or experience in remote medical consultations and there were no clear and comprehensive guidelines for therapeutic management at the beginning of this study. as the pandemic evolved, one of the problems identified from practical experience was that anxiety in this category of patients is an underestimated factor. the present study aimed to provide some clarifying data on the level, determinants, effects and methods of addressing anxiety in covid-19 patients isolated at home. this approach started on a number of n = 107 patients to whom demographic data were collected and an anxiety questionnaire was applied by telephone. in the next stage, in order to obtain valid results in a timely manner, an online questionnaire was completed by 71 family physicians from galati county, romania. descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was performed using excel and spss software. the results showed that the level and importance of anxiety in these patients are underestimated and one of the key factors to avoid negative endings (delayed hospitalization or unjustified hospitalization) is the self-determination of peripheral oxygen saturation. keywords: covid, anxiety, pulse oximetry, delayed hospitalization, phone monitoring. how to cite: pleşea-condratovici, c., gatej, e.r., rizeanu, s., & pleşea-condratovici, a. (2022). anxiety in home-quarantined patients with covid-19. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 347-360. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/288 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/288 mailto:cmidr.pleseacatalin@gmail.com mailto:emilrgatej@gmail.com mailto:stelianarizeanu@yahoo.co mailto:alina.plesea@ugal.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/288 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 348 introduction the covid pandemic is certainly one of the greatest challenges of the contemporary world and one of the most anxious events globally, at least after the end of the cold war. the whole world had to adapt to the pandemic, and health systems were in high demand. if at first all patients tested positive for covid were hospitalized, the capacity of hospitals to absorb the large mass of covid patients was soon exceeded. thus, there was a need for covid-positive patients with asymptomatic or mild symptoms to be isolated at home. the difficult task of remotely monitoring this category of patients fell in romania to family doctors. because non-covid hospitals have severely restricted their activity as well as polyclinics, and patients' fear of becoming infected with covid19 has greatly reduced calls to emergency services and other segments of health care, most family physicians have suffered from over burning during that period (silistraru et al., 2021). the additional task of ensuring the telephone monitoring of isolated covid positive patients at home, including weekends and holidays, which involved a large bureaucratic burden if contracted, meant that, in the case of galati county, less than 20% of family doctors contracted these services. however, most doctors monitored "pro bono" their patients in this situation. before the outbreak of the pandemic, remote medical consultation was not regulated in romania. this made the monitoring process even more difficult. national protocols imposed the following standard of care for covid-19 patient self-izolated at home with no or moderate symptoms: ● home isolation for 14 days ● gp daily phone monitorization ● self-assessment of: a) shortness of breath/”lack of air” sensation b) intense cough c) fever d) headache) muscle pain f) sore throat g) lack of taste h) lack of smell i) diarrhea j) fatigue the official guidelines stated that no medication is needed for asymptomatic covid-19 patients also, there are no guidelines for treatment of covid-19 related emotional distress. even from the first calls to the monitored patients, many doctors felt that anxiety, depression and fear of covid consequences (jaradat & stupar, 2020; loue & lamb, 2020; sandu, 2020; silistraru et al., 2021) are a major unaddressed problem in this category of patients (baroiu et al., 2021). in anxiety in home-quarantined patients with covid-19 cătălin pleşea-condratovici, et al. 349 order to investigate this assumption, covid patients monitored by two general practitioner settings were included in an observational study. material and method patients were enrolled in study during monitoring phone calls. they were re-assured about the confidentiality of their personal data and their informed consent was given by phone, as the study is non-interventional. age, gender and preexistent anxiety status were extracted from their digital clinical records. all participants were advised to buy a pulse oximeter. table 1. characteristics of subjects source: authors’ own conception (n=107) age on admission (years) mean (sd) 45.11 (15.19) minimum-maximum 13-83 gender male 62 (58%) female 45 (42%) admission domicile houses with garden 18 (17%) block apartments 89 (83%) preexistent anxiety 12 (11%) had pulse oximeters 43 (40%) to assess anxiety, we chose the anxiety subset from the hospital anxiety and depression scale (hads) because it was developed to be used in hospitalized patients with somatic diseases, so does not include somatic symptoms as fatigue, sleep disorders or loss of appetite and is easy to administrate (wu et al., 2021). the test consists in only 7 items and the responses are on a likert scale with 5 items. data was recorded in excel and then imported in spss v16. variables were tested for normality using a visual assessment first (scatterplots, histogram. rr plots), then shapiro wilkins test for normality of data was used. the null hypothesis was confirmed, then spearman’s test was used to see if there are significant correlations between the analyzed variables. in the next phase, to further investigate and validate the results, a survey among general practitioners from galati, romania was conducted brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 350 using google forms, with 71 responders from the total number of 246 doctors. results mean anxiety score was 11.49. hads score was interpreted (figure 1) as normal (0 -7), borderline (8-10) and anxiety (11-21). figure 1 anxiety classification (percent) source: authors’ own conception our approach to determine anxiety score during phone monitorization had some limitations. we had only to medical settlings in this study and the results were influenced by doctors’ views, perception of disease, prescription habits. anxiety was undertreated, even that 11.2% of the patients were known with preexistent anxiety disorder, only 13.70% of the patients received benzodiazepines 9.34% antidepressants (associated or not with benzodiazepines) and 18.69% received herbal otcs (with nondocumented efficacy). table 2. independent variables significant correlated with anxiety scores source: authors’ own conception correlation sig2 tailed p value strength women r=0.340 0.000 p<0.01 moderate rural setting r=-0.201 0.038 p<0.05 garden r=-0.247 0.010 p<0.05 pre-anxiety r=0.210 0.030 p<0.05 no pulse oximeter r=0.651 0.000 p<0.01 medium unjustified 112 call r=0.279 0.004 p<0.01 weak delayed 112 call r=0.251 0.009 p<0.01 weak deaths r=0.230 0.017 p<0.05 anxiety in home-quarantined patients with covid-19 cătălin pleşea-condratovici, et al. 351 pre-covid anxiety base score is not known. also, we had a small number of terminal events like: unnecessary 112 calls for hospitalization (6), delayed calls to emergency services for hospitalization (6), fatal events (5). this part of the study is to be completed with the estimation of the post covid stress level, but for a faster view of the importance of diagnosing and treating anxiety in home self-isolated covid-19 patients we analyzed in the second part of the study the perception of family physicians on these issues. from the analysis of the family physicians answers to the online questionnaire resulted: ● from the beginning of the pandemic to april 2021, the 71 family physicians surveyed monitored 6,113 home isolated patients mean: 86 patients/doctor (min 0, max 500) ● 80% of them worked «pro bono» ● anxiety was identified in 53% of the monitored patients (min 2%, max 100 %) ● unanimously the diagnosis of anxiety in this category was considered important (60% considered it very important) ● most of the doctors surveyed agreed that the level of anxiety was correlated with the unjustified use of ambulance services for hospitalization or vice versa, with the delay or refusal of hospitalization (figure 2) even when the patient's condition required it. figure 2. anxiety level correlation with unjustified or delayed hospitalization source: authors’ own conception ● the vast majority of family physicians considered that there was a correlation between the intensity of anxiety during the period of home isolation of covid patients and the possibility of permanent anxiety status after overcoming the disease episode. after the end of the isolation period, they noticed symptoms of anxiety, hypochondria, that did not exist before the disease. (figure 3). 14% 39% 35% 10% 2% totally agree agree not sure brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 352 ● anxiety was treated with medication in 22% of all monitored patients (40.% of patients in whom anxiety was identified) ● most commonly used drug treatment of anxiety in covid-19 patients were over the counter herbal products (68%), followed by benzodiazepines (20%) and antidepressants associated or not with benzodiazepines (8%) ● even that current protocol states that no medication is required for asymptomatic covid patients, in practice, doctors prescribed medication: mainly over the counter herbal products, food supplements as d3, c vitamins, zn, herbal immunostimulants. 20 % of doctors does not prescribe anything to asymptomatic patients. figure 3. covid anxiety as a trigger for a permanent after covid anxious state source: authors’ own conception ● 47% of the monitored patients had a pulse oximeter available ● more than half of the questioned doctors believed that the level of anxiety was lower in patients who used a pulse oximeter and knew the alert thresholds (figure 4), almost one third does not have an opinion in that aspect. figure 4. use of pulse oximeters lower the anxiety level in covid-19 patients source: authors’ own conception 7% 58% 22% 12% 1% totally agree agree not sure dezagree 10% 42% 31% 17% 0% totally agree agree not sure dezagree strongly disagree anxiety in home-quarantined patients with covid-19 cătălin pleşea-condratovici, et al. 353 discussions anxiety in the covid positive group of patients isolated at home was particularly high, both in percentage (63%) and in the average anxiety score (11.49). it should be noted that the percentage of anxiety resulting from the application of the hads test on the 107 asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic covid patients is comparable to that resulting from the average estimates of family doctors in galati. thus, the two results validate each other and show that the questionnaires that test the perception of doctors are sufficiently accurate and a much faster working tool than an observational study on this subgroup of patients. anxiety baseline in romanian general population was in pre-covid times 4.9% (florescu et al., 2009), 6.9% (iovu & breaz, 2019). the covid pandemic has increased the percentage of anxiety and depression in the general population, after some studies that analyzed the presentations in psychiatric services, doubling them (luca et al., 2020). a recent metaanalysis shows that globally the level of pandemic-induced anxiety in general population is 33.33% in china and 47.70% in other countries (italy, turkey, and india). this shows that there is an important component of national, socio-cultural specificity in adapting to stressors (izzat et al., 2021; necho et al., 2021). another study that analyzes the level of anxiety in the general population, which also includes data from romanians, shows a comparatively low level for romania: 4% severe anxiety, 23% moderate anxiety (burkova et al., 2021). we did not find other comparative data from romania on anxiety in covid patients isolated at home. a study in india shows the level of anxiety as: mild 11.9%, moderate 14.8%, severe 10%, extremely severe 4.2%. adding all this data, it is obvious that the selfisolated covid patient status is associated with increased anxiety levels compared to the general population. if in the general population an increased anxiety related to covid can have beneficial effects such as respecting social distance and all health rules that protect against covid-19 infection (harper et al., 2021), in the subgroup of patients isolated at home anxiety has only negative consequences. high levels of anxiety adversely affect resilience in patients with covid 19 (uzunova et al., 2021). the high anxiety score in patients with covid may also have unrelated causes of covid: pre-existing high anxiety that is not related to covid (population studies reveal an upward trend in anxiety before the covid era), anxiety related to covid before diagnosis, excessive exposure to the very anxiogenic audiovisual material in the romanian press. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 354 although the term covid-related anxiety is more commonly used, the psychological changes induced by covid in self-isolated patients are more complex, including fear, depression, stress, anxiety (projected fear without a clear object). beyond anxiety, there is a justified and concrete fear: fear of aggravation, death, the same fear for loved ones, fear of infecting others, fear of stigmatization (upadhyay et al., 2020). unquantifiable in this study, but of essential importance is the psychological support provided by the doctor: active and empathic listening to the patient's concerns and fears, ensuring education and encouraging treatment, regular updating of the patient on his goals and objectives. “the relationship between physician and patient has a supportive role when it is based on trust and reciprocity, when communication is open, sincere and full of honesty” (radulescu et al, 2020; rebegea et al., 2019). the level of anxiety in the group of 107 self-isolated patients included in our study could be higher than the measured one. the simple fact that they are being monitored daily, that someone is interested in them and trying to help them is a psychotherapeutic approach that lowers anxiety. from the analysis of the correlations between the level of anxiety and the independent variables investigated in this study (table 4), the following conclusions can be drawn: women have higher anxiety scores than men, this emerged from other studies in romania also (iovu & breaz, 2019). globally, there are states where there are no statistically significant differences between men and women in terms of anxiety levels (burkova et al., 2021). weak negative correlations were found between anxiety and: rural domicile, living at home with a yard, garden. the correlations found are valid in both situations, even if we find most homes with gardens in rural areas. the data in the literature are contradictory, there are studies in which anxiety is lower (kowal et al., 2021), the same or higher in rural areas than in urban areas (nicholson, 2009). as in the case of gender differences, differentiation related to zonal particularities appear. a garden, courtyard offers more space, a relaxing area and an escape from the claustrophobic isolation in flats (grigoras & ciubara 2021). weak positive correlations were found between anxiety and: preexisting anxiety status, unjustified or delayed emergency calls for hospitalization and deaths. beyond the value of the anxiety score, the maximum and quantifiable practical importance have the three final points: unjustified call to the emergency services for hospitalization, hospitalization delay and death. a panic attack has respiratory symptoms that can be confused by patient with acute respiratory failure. in this situation, the anxiety in home-quarantined patients with covid-19 cătălin pleşea-condratovici, et al. 355 patient unjustifiably uses the emergency services, exhausting the limited resources of the health system (falup-pecurariu et al., 2017). on the other hand, the fear of hospitalization, maintained by the media, makes patients refuse or postpone hospitalization even if it is recommended by the doctor. this leads to the third unwanted event, death. the questionnaire completed by family doctors validates the conclusions of the study and adds new elements. the individual variability was particularly high, in the case of question "how many of the monitored patients had a pulse oximeter" for example, the answers given vary between 0 and 100% (see figure 5). however, the average of the answers approximates very well the reality, being in accordance with the results of our study on patients and with the literature data. figure 5. variability of individual responses source: authors’ own conception the current national covid-19 protocol states that no medication is required for asymptomatic patients and that there are no guidelines for the treatment of covid-19-related emotional distress. most doctors choose to strictly follow the rules and not treat anxiety in this category of patients. this choice was motivated on the one hand by the need to comply with the regulations imposed to avoid possible problems of malpractice and on the other hand by the fear that benzodiazepines could aggravate and accelerate a possible respiratory failure. however, we found in our investigation reasons brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 356 for treating anxiety. all physicians surveyed considered the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety to be important. it is also known that previous users of benzodiazepines should not discontinue treatment, as the risk of withdrawalinduced delirium, anxiety-induced hyperventilation may impair lung function, tachypnea may be construed as hypoxia, and may lead to unnecessary hospitalization. anxiety increased the fear of hospitalization, causing delay or refusal of hospitalization (53.5% doctors agreed, the study of patients shows a significant correlation). there is a post-covid risk of persistent anxiety (65.2% of doctors agreed). all these factors made doctors treat anxiety in 21.54% of all monitored patients and in 40.42% of patients in whom anxiety was identified. the drugs used were: benzodiazepines (19.7%), antidepressants +/benzodiazepines (8.5%) and herbal otc (68.4%). the covid national treatment protocol specifies since november 28, 2020 that patients monitored at home should be sent quickly for evaluation if spo2 ≤ 94%, a threshold known for a long time (o’driscoll et al., 2017), for patients who did not already have a respiratory impairment. who guidelines recommended “use of pulse oximetry monitoring at home as part of a package of care” from january 2021. covid-19 clinical management: living guideline, 2019). family physicians who practically monitored covid-19 patients used self-monitoring of oxygen saturation from the first cases and found that relevant for emergency hospitalization is the rapid decrease of spo2 from the baseline by 3-4 percent (greenhalgh et al., 2021). the survey of family doctors found that 45.6% of monitored covid patients bought (on the doctor's recommendation) pulse oximeters, 52.2% of doctors believe that the level of anxiety was lower in those who used a pulse oximeter and knew alert thresholds. from the study of patients, the existence of a pulse oximeter correlates negatively with the severity of the anxiety score (r = 0.651, p <0.01), the inverse correlation is stronger than with the use of benzodiazepines (this could be a special situation caused by reduced use of benzodiazepines in this lot), also the unjustified or delayed call to 112 for hospitalization is positively correlated with the absence of the pulse oximeter. monitoring of peripheral oxygen saturation with pulse oximeter also allows safe use of benzodiazepine treatment. not to forget, oxygen saturation is a key clinical index for evaluating the severity of covid-19. the existence of a medical instrument that objectively evaluates respiratory function and clear threshold values set by the doctor of oxygen saturation that require the call of emergency services for hospitalization anxiety in home-quarantined patients with covid-19 cătălin pleşea-condratovici, et al. 357 helps patients make correct decisions, unaffected by panic attacks, fear of hospitalization. threshold values compared to oxygen saturation are anchor points in reality that reduce anxieties, fears, negative projections. all these considerations indicate that the pulse oximeter is a key element for the remote management of isolated covid positive patients at home. conclusions among the covid positive patients monitored at home, anxiety is positively correlated with: female gender, urban environment, living in flats, pre-existing anxiety disorder, impossibility of self-monitoring of oxygen saturation. the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety is especially important in covid-19 patients quarantined at home. the level of anxiety in this category is much higher than in the general population or before the onset of the covid epidemic19 and affects resilience. self-determination of peripheral oxygen saturation is essential in this category of patients for assessing lung damage, reducing anxiety and unjustified or delayed calls to emergency services for hospitalization. references baroiu, l., dumea, e., năstase, f., niculeț, e., fotea, s., ciubara, a. b., stefanopol, i. a., nechita, a., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2021). assessment of depression in patients with covid-19. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 burkova, v. n., butovskaya, m. l., randall, a. k., fedenok, j. n., ahmadi, k., et al. (2021). predictors of anxiety in the covid-19 pandemic from a global perspective: data from 23 countries. sustainability, 13(7), 4017. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13074017 falup-pecurariu, o., man, s., neamtu, m. l., chicin, g., baciu, g., pitic, c., cara, a. c., neculau, a. e., burlea, m., brinza, i. l., schnell, c. n., sas, v., lupu, v. v., françois, n., swinnen, k., borys, d. (2017). effects of prophylactic ibuprofen and paracetamol administration on the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of the 10-valent pneumococcal nontypeable haemophilus influenzae protein d conjugated vaccine (phid-cv) co-administered with dtpa-combined vaccines in children: an open-label, randomized, controlled, non-inferiority trial. human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 13 (3), 649-660. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2016.1223001 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13074017 https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2016.1223001 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 358 florescu, s., ciutan, m., popovici, g., galaon, m., ladea, m., pethukova, m., & hoffnagle, a. (2009). the romanian mental health study: main aspects of lifetime prevalence and service use of dsm iv. disorders. management in mental health, 13(22), 30. http://journal.managementinhealth.com/ index.php/rms/article/view/30/103 greenhalgh, t., knight, m., inda-kim, m., fulop, n. j., leach, j., & vindrolapadros, c. (2021) remote management of covid-19 using home pulse oximetry and virtual ward support. british medical journal, 372, 677. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n677 grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 harper, c. a., satchell, l. p., fido, d., & latzman, r. d. (2020). functional fear predicts public health compliance in the covid-19 pandemic. international journal of mental health and addiction, 19, 1875–1888. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00281-5 iovu, m. b., & breaz, m. a. (2019). the prevalence and burden of mental and substance use disorders in romania: findings from the global burden of disease study 2016. psychiatria danubina, 31(4), 457–464. https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd.2019.457 izzat, a.a.h, anghel, l., stefanescu, b., kantor, c., ciubara, a. (2021). prevention of psychoactive substance use. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 59-61. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.16 jaradat, m., & stupar, m.-a. (2020). emergency situation management in the new context of the pandemic covid-19 crisis. logos universality mentality education novelty: economics & administrative sciences, 5(1), 10-18. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumeneas/5.1/17 kowal, m., coll-martín, t., ikizer, g., rasmussen, j., eichel, k., studzi ´nska, a., & ahmed, o. (2020). who is the most stressed during the covid-19 pandemic? data from 26 countries and areas. applied psychology: health and well-being, 12, 946–966. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12234 loue, s., & lamb, e. (2020). retraumatized: covid-19, the specter of hiv/aids, and reorienting responsibility. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/31 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry http://journal.managementinhealth.com/%0bindex.php/rms/article/view/30/103 http://journal.managementinhealth.com/%0bindex.php/rms/article/view/30/103 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n677 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00281-5 https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd.2019.457 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.16 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumeneas/5.1/17 https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12234 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.1/31 anxiety in home-quarantined patients with covid-19 cătălin pleşea-condratovici, et al. 359 hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 necho, m., tsehay, m., birkie, m., biset, g., & tadesse, e. (2021). prevalence of anxiety, depression, and psychological distress among the general population during the covid-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. international journal of social psychiatry, 67(7), 892-906. https://doi.org/10.1177/00207640211003121 nicholson, l. (2008). rural mental health. advances in psychiatric treatment, 14(4), 302-311. https://doi.org/10.1192/apt.bp.107.005009 o’driscoll, b. r., howard, l. s., earism, j., & mak, v. (2017). british thoracic society emergency oxygen guideline group, bts emergency oxygen guideline development group. bts guideline for oxygen use in adults in healthcare and emergency settings. thorax, 72(suppl 1), ii1-90. https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2016-209729 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 rebegea, l., firescu, d., baciu, g., & ciubara, (2019). a. psycho-oncology support. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(3), 77-88. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/ view/2169 sandu, a. (2020). the importance and limits of experiential psychotherapy. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(2), 72-82. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.2/46 silistraru, i., cozmanciuc, g., roşca, ş., bulgaru-iliescu, d., damian, s. i., & ciureanu, i. a. (2021). stress and anxiety in general population in romania during covid -19 pandemic. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 4-6. http://journalarchiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica-052021/archiv_euromedica_05_2021_001_075_web_01.pdf silistraru, i, ciureanu, ai, ciubara, a, & olariu, o. (2021). prevalence of burnout in medical students in romania during covid-19 pandemic restrictions (preliminary data). archiv euromedica, 11(5), 12-15. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 upadhyay, r., sweta, singh, b., & singh, u. (2020) psychological impact of quarantine period on asymptomatic individuals with covid-19. social sciences & humanities open, 2(1), 100061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2020.100061 uzunova, g., pallanti, s., & hollander, e. (2021). presentation and management of anxiety in individuals with acute symptomatic or asymptomatic covid-19 infection, and in the post-covid-19 recovery phase. international journal of https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://doi.org/10.1177/00207640211003121 https://doi.org/10.1192/apt.bp.107.005009 https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2016-209729 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/%0bview/2169 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/%0bview/2169 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.2/46 http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica-05-2021/archiv_euromedica_05_2021_001_075_web_01.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica-05-2021/archiv_euromedica_05_2021_001_075_web_01.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica-05-2021/archiv_euromedica_05_2021_001_075_web_01.pdf https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/34745962 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/9207389 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/30711467 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2020.100061 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 360 psychiatry in clinical practice, 25(2), 115–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/13651501.2021.1887264 world health organization (2021, january 25). covid-19 clinical management: living guideline. world health organization https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/338882 wu, y., levis, b., sun, y., he, c., krishnan, a., neupane, d. et al. (2021). accuracy of the hospital anxiety and depression scale depression subscale (hads-d) to screen for major depression: systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis. british medical journal, 372, 1231. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1231 https://doi.org/10.1080/13651501.2021.1887264 https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/338882 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1231 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 230-246 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/316 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 burnout syndrome in personnel of an infectious diseases hospital, one year after the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic elena dumea¹, nela daniela efrim2, adina petcu3, lucretia anghel4, cristina gabriela puscasu5 1 university lecturer, “ovidius” university by constanta, medicine faculty, constanta, romania, elenadumea@yahoo.com 2 phd student, “ovidius” university by constanta, medicine faculty, constanta, romania, daniela.efrim@gmail.com 3 university lecturer, “ovidius” university by constanta, pharmacy faculty, constanta, romania, adinpetcu@yahoo.com 4 university lecturer, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy “dunarea de jos” university galati,, romania, anghel_lucretia@yahoo.com 5 university lecturer, “ovidius” university by constanta, faculty of dentistry, constanta, romania, cristinap@gmb.ro abstract: healthcare workers (hcws) are important players in the covid-19 pandemic management and are inescapably in the first line to be exposed to the sars cov-2 virus. they were at risk of losing their lives while caring for their duty for covid patients. this pandemic has substantial psychological impact on hcws. this study describes the prevalence of burnout between hcws handle with covid-19 pandemic. the study explored the level of burnout in this population and examined factors involved in development of this psychological consequence. this cross-sectional survey was conducted on personnel from an infectious diseases monospecialty hospital, which provides care for covid-19 patients. the study was attended at 12 months after the outbreak. a questionnairebased survey using maslach burnout inventory (mbi) was conducted for all personnel. participation was voluntary and anonymous. age, gender, job category and the level of burnout in each subscale was measured. 186 persons completed the questionnaire (79%from employees). 61.86% experienced medium and high levels of burnout comparable with other country studies. the mean score and sd in emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of personal accomplishment were 23.26+8.45, 11.11+4.05, and 22.62+6.83, respectively. the prevalence of burnout in the hospital`s personnel was 38.179% in low rates, 46.77% had medium level and 15.05% high level. doctors and administrative staff were more affected than others. nevertheless, there are no significant statistical differences in the level of the three domains of burnout studied regarding the age and job profile. in conclusion, in our hospital, designated to treat moderate and severe covid-19 patients burnout is equally present among hcws. keywords: covid-19, burnout, healthcare workers, sarscov-2, professional emotional exhaustion. how to cite: dumea, e., efrim, n.d., petcu, a., anghel, l., & puscasu, c.g. (2022). burnout syndrome in personnel of an infectious diseases hospital, one year after the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 230-246. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/316 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/316 mailto:elenadumea@yahoo.com mailto:daniela.efrim@gmail.com mailto:adinpetcu@yahoo.com mailto:anghel_lucretia@yahoo.com mailto:cristinap@gmb.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/316 burnout syndrome in personnel of an infectious diseases hospital, one year … elena dumea, et al. 231 1. main text 1.1. introduction epidemics of infectious diseases: 1918 influenza pandemic (spanish flu) (luca et al., 2021), zika, ebola and now severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2) has marked the history of humanity (cambrea et al., 2014). due to globalization, an infectious disease can be spread in hours from one continent to another. the world health organization (who) declared the covid-19 pandemic a global public health emergency, in march 2020. a high rate of infection and mortality for sars-cov-2 infection has a tremendous impact on the healthcare system (baroiu et al., 2021). the pandemic resulted in high levels of anxiety and panic worldwide (puscasu et al., 2019). healthcare workers (hcws) are important players in the covid-19 pandemic management and are inescapably in the first line to be exposed to the sars cov-2 virus or other infectious diseases. they were at risk of losing their lives, while caring for their duty for covid-19 patients, in the setting of significantly decreased social support (luca et al., 2020). in this pandemic, the staff has been subjected to huge stress through fear of illness, to train the infection of their families and to work under difficult conditions. it was an enormous emotional burden for healthcare providers who were on the first line against this disease, like our hospital. sometimes, medical staff has become sick with covid treating infected patients. in our hospital, more than 30% of personnel contracted the virus in one year with mild and medium forms covid-19 and no death (baroiu et al. 2018; lupu et al., 2017; padureanu et al., 2020). high mortality and uncontrollable character of this disease, with relatively raised rates of infection and mortality among staff, can provoke stress and anxiety in hcws. factors such as heavy workload, difficult working wearing special protective equipment, social stigmatization on the staff may aggravate this emotional change. recent survey-noted worries of hcws on being placed in the situation to take care of critically ill patients with comorbidities, sometimes exceeding the specialty competencies, with limited information about the diseases, at less at the beginning, limited therapeutically options, with limited access to up-to-date medical information. many strategically workers had problems at home, where it was necessary to find a solution to take care of their children, as the schools and kindergartens have closed down. the problem increases for hcws with single parent family or when both parents are essential staff (shanafelt et al., brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 232 2020; valcea et al., 2016). many healthcare providers isolate themselves within their home, due to risk of transmitting the disease to their families. therefore, this pandemic has substantial psychological impact on hcws. to determine the effects on sleep quality of social support, a chinese researcher (xiao et al., 2020), studied the structural equation model (sem) on medical staff working with patients covid-19. they found that respondents to the questionnaire had high levels of anxiety, stress and relatively low sleep quality. burnout, described by maslach & jackson (1981), represent a state of emotional, psychological and physical stress among professionals, in response to exposure to occupational stress as long-term involvement in work situations that are emotionally requiring. it includes multidimensional factors: feelings of emotional exhaustion (depletion of emotional resources), depersonalization (developing cynical attitudes about patients) and reduced professional accomplishment (a sense of negative evaluation of oneself) (maslach, 1998). physician’s burnout has serious consequences, not only to the individual physician, but also to patients and to employees’ institutions (grigoras & ciubara, 2021). apart from being harmful for personal, burnout can lead to suboptimal care (shanafelt et al., 2015). 1.2. aim the study explored the level of burnout among hcws taking care of patients with covid-19 pandemic and evaluated factors associated with the development of this psychological sequel. 1.3. material and method maslach burnout inventory (mbi) is an internationally recognized, self-report, validated questionnaire for evaluating the severity of occupational burnout (maslach & jackson, 1981). there are three dimensions assessed: emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment and depersonalization. there are 22 items in this questionnaire and each is answered on a likert scale five-point. we performed a cross-sectional prospective survey, to evaluate the burnout’s prevalence on employees, in an infectious diseases hospital dealing with covid-19 patients. it`s a teaching mono specialty hospital, with an intensive care unit department, situated in the largest city in the eastern part of the country, since the beginning of the pandemic in the battle against covid-19 (in march 2020 was the covid-19 first case in our hospital). the study took place after 12 months from the beginning of the outbreak. burnout syndrome in personnel of an infectious diseases hospital, one year … elena dumea, et al. 233 hospital ethics committee granted approval for survey. answering the survey instrument was recognized as implied consent, so written informed consent was not required. participation was voluntary and anonymous. researchers have analyzed only non personal data; no personal identification data was required. the study used a simple recruitment method. an invitation through professional networks to participate in the study was made. the hospital psychologists’ and head nurses invited the entire staff to complete the questionnaire explaining the purpose and principal investigator name of the study. they instructed participants to respond to items in the tool related to covid-19 outbreak. several questionnaires were administered to the employees. the investigators didn’t know the identity of the respondents. all questionnaires were interpreted and analyzed by the same psychologist. a questionnaire-based survey using adapted maslach burnout inventory (mbi) was carried out for all personnel. we invited all hospital employees: medical staff (doctors, nurses, and healthcare assistants’, i.e) and administrative staff. the questionnaire consists of 29 questions. the questionnaire comprises general questions and specific questions in the three areas of burnout. general questions were age, gender, job profile and working department. the first domain, emotional exhaustion, based on personal burnout, had 9 items. the second domain, which evaluated depersonalization, had 6 items. the third domain evaluated the reduced sense of personnel accomplishment and consists in 10 items. burnout is calculated by scores of each of the mbi subscales, with a high score corresponding to a high level of burnout. all specific items had five response categories each, on a five-point likert scale (very rarely, rarely, occasionally, frequently, very frequently). each subscale score is calculated by combining all items scores in that subscale, with the notification that some specific domain items are reversely scored (maslach et al., 1986; maslach & jackson, 1984). scores range between 9 to 46 for emotional exhaustion, 10 to 50 for personal accomplishment and range from 6 to 30 for depersonalization subscale. the sum of the points for each domain is calculated, obtaining a score, which is related to the values below. the standard threshold values were used to define levels in each dimension as low, moderate and high. the sum of those three domains provides the final burnout score: 25-50 is low level, 51-75 medium level and values > 76 high level burnout (table 1). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 234 table 1 the cut-off values for each domain of burnout risk level low medium high domain emotional exhaustion 9-18 19-27 28-45 depersonalization 6-12 13-18 19-30 personal accomplishment 10-20 21-30 31-50 burnout scale 25-50 51-75 76-125 source: authors’ own conception 1.4. statistical analysis data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed using ibm spss statistics 23.0. variables measured on nominal scale were represented using proportions (%). the responses (n, %) were determined separately for each domain. each domain mean scores were compared using anova test between domain and job profile or group age. kolmogorov-smirnov test was used for normality. categorical variables were analyzed using chi-square test for association. a p value of <0.05 was taken to indicate statistical significance. 1.5. results we received responses from 186 hcws (the overall response rate was 65.28%). most of them, 179 (96.24%), were women, as in many hospitals in our country. participants` demographic characteristics are shown in table 2. table 2. demographic characteristics of responders criteria number % age 21-30 years 19 10.22 31-40 years 39 20.97 41-50 years 76 40.86 51-60 years 50 26.88 >61years 2 1.08 job profile doctor 26 13.98 nurse 88 47.31 healthcare assistant 52 27.96 administration staff 20 10.75 burnout syndrome in personnel of an infectious diseases hospital, one year … elena dumea, et al. 235 sex male 7 3.76 female 179 96.24 source: authors’ own conception to maintain the anonymity of the participants, the age was completed as decades of age. regarding emotional exhaustion, the responses on 9 items are represented in table 3. the mean score for all respondents was 23.26+8.45, corresponding to a medium level. table 3. personal burnout and distribution of responses questions very rarely rarely occasi onally frequ ently very frequen tly mean score i feel emotionally drained 50 23 62 42 9 2.66+1. 22 toward the end of the working hours i feel like a squeezed lemon 32 17 57 57 23 3.11+1. 25 i feel tired when i wake up in the morning and have to go to work 35 22 67 53 9 2.88+1. 15 i feel full of energy and enthusiasm* 25 49 64 34 14 2.80+1. 11 i have a state of depression and apathy 68 39 59 18 2 2.17+1. 06 i feel indifferent to things i have shown interest in before 60 43 54 25 3 2.28+1. 10 i become tense and upset when i think about my current concerns 63 42 51 23 7 2.29+1. 16 i want to isolate myself from everyone and rest 57 31 59 23 16 2.51+1. 27 i feel at the limit of my powers 58 28 57 28 16 2.53+1. 29 average score 23.26+8.45 * pointed reverse source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 236 personal burnout rates for respondents were similar for all levels: low 32.22%, medium 34.40% and high 33.33%. the prevalence of emotional exhaustion among doctors (reported to mean value) is much higher than for other personnel categories, probably because they were directly involved, with many challenges, in attending covid-19 patients, with limited information about this disease, with no internationally treatment recommendations at the beginning and many changes in national protocols. nurses, healthcare assistant and administrative staff have had similar mean values. (table 4) table 4. personal burnout and distribution by job type emotional exhaustion level scale job profile low n, % medium n, % high n, % average range doctor 6, 23.07% 6, 23.07% 14, 56% 26.07+8.85 nurse 29, 32.95% 31, 35.22% 28, 32.55% 22.95+8.30 healthcare assistant 18, 34.61% 21, 40.38% 13, 25% 22.13+8.33 administration staff 7, 35% 6, 30% 7, 35% 22.13+8.33 % 32.22 34.40 33.33 23.26+8.45 source: authors’ own conception there is no significant association between personal burnout scale and job profile χ 2 calc=7.453, df=6, p=0.281>α=0.05. table 5. personal burnout and distribution by age groups emotional exhaustion level scale age group low medium high average range 21-30 years 5 9 5 22.84+5.94 31-40 years 15 11 13 23.33+8.63 41-50 years 25 26 25 22.71+8.33 51-60 years 14 17 19 24.4+9.31 >61years 1 1 0 19+9.89 number 60 64 62 23.26+8.45 source: authors’ own conception in comparison between age categories, respondents aged between 51-60 years demonstrated higher mean score for personal burnout and those over 65 (in limited number) lower score (table 5) with no significant burnout syndrome in personnel of an infectious diseases hospital, one year … elena dumea, et al. 237 association between emotional exhaustion scale and age group: χ 2 calc=2.938, df =6, p=0.817>α=0.05. regarding depersonalization, the responses on 6 items are represented in table 6. the mean score for all respondents was 11.11+4.05, corresponding to a low level. table 6: domain 2: depersonalization and distribution of responses questions very rarely rarely occasi onally frequ ently very frequen tly mean score i communicate with some colleagues how i would communicate with objects 83 47 49 7 0 1.89+0. 93 lately i have become tougher in my relationships with colleagues or subordinates 93 34 43 16 0 1.90+1. 03 the people i work with are uninteresting and boring 107 40 32 6 1 1.67+0. 90 sometimes i don't care what happens to my colleagues or subordinates 102 42 30 10 2 1.75+0. 98 i communicate easily with people regardless of their social status and character* 58 87 34 7 0 1.94+0. 80 my subordinates and colleagues put the burden of their problems and duties on my shoulders 94 31 44 11 6 1.94+1. 12 average score 11.11+4.05 * pointed reverse source: authors’ own conception regarding depersonalization 73.11% had low level, 24.73% had medium level and a small proportion 7.5% high level. doctors and nurses seem to be more affected than others (mean values represented in table 7) but there is no significant association between depersonalization scale and job profile (χ 2 calc=4.27, df=6, p=0.64>α=0.05). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 238 table 7. depersonalization level and distribution by job type depersonalization scale job profile low medium high average range doctor 17 8 1 11.19+3.40 nurse 67 21 10 11.53+4.43 healthcare assistant 37 13 2 10.46+3.87 administration staff 15 4 1 10.75+3.66 average range 136 46 14 11.11+4.05 source: authors’ own conception in comparison between the age categories (table 8) respondents aged 21-30 years and those over 65 had a low mean value score, but without a significant association between depersonalization scale and age: χ 2 calc=5.013, df =6, p=0.542 >α=0.05. table 8. depersonalization scale and distribution by the age group depersonalization level scale age group low medium high average range 21-30 years 15 4 0 10.10+2.90 31-40 years 27 7 5 11.25+4.78 41-50 years 51 20 5 11.15+4.12 51-60 years 31 15 4 11.34+3.86 >61 years 2 0 0 9.5+2.12 number 60 64 62 11.11+4.05 source: authors’ own conception regarding a reduced sense of personal accomplishment, the responses on the 10 items are represented in table 9. the mean score for all respondents was 22.62+6.83, corresponding to a medium level. table 9 domain 3: reduced sense of personal accomplishment and distribution of responses questions very rarely rarely occasi onally frequ ently very frequen tly mean score i have periods when i feel overwhelmed by the situation 44 37 61 36 8 2.60+1.16 burnout syndrome in personnel of an infectious diseases hospital, one year … elena dumea, et al. 239 nothing happens the way i want it to 52 51 68 15 0 2.24+0.95 i can find the right solution in conflict situations* 34 74 67 9 1 2.45+0.78 i can positively influence the productivity of the work of my subordinates and colleagues*. 27 70 70 10 9 2.48+0.97 i have many plans for the future and i believe in their realization* 53 70 47 13 3 2.15+0.97 i have professional disappointments 66 42 58 17 3 2.18+1.07 i can easily create a kind and cooperative atmosphere in a group* 42 78 48 14 4 2.24+0.96 i manage to do many things* 44 77 53 8 4 2.19+0.92 i think i will be able to achieve many things in life* 48 84 42 9 3 2.11+0.90 i feel like one who went bankrupt 85 34 39 19 9 2.10+1.22 average score 22.62+6.83 * pointed reverse source: authors’ own conception for the third domain, reduced sense of personal accomplishment, 37.09% of personnel had low rates, 50% had medium level and a small proportion 12.9% high level. doctors and administrative staff had higher mean values (represented in table 10), but no statistically significant association between reduced sense of personal scale and job profile χ 2 calc=2.555, df =6, p=0.862 > α=0.05. table 10 reduced sense of personal accomplishment and distribution by job type the reduced sense of personal accomplishment level scale job profile low n medium n high n average range doctor 9 12 5 23.96+6.87 nurse 33 44 11 22.27+6.61 healthcare assistant 20 25 7 22+7.19 administration staff 7 12 1 23.05+5.75 number 69 93 24 22.62+6.83 source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 240 in comparison between age categories, respondents between 51-60 years demonstrated higher mean values score for reduced sense of personal accomplishment (as in personal burnout) an those over 65 (in limited number) lower scores (table 11) with no statistically significance χ 2 calc=3.664, df =6, p=0.722 >α=0.05. table 11. reduced sense of personal accomplishment and distribution by age group the reduced sense of personal accomplishment level scale age group low medium high average range 21-30 years 8 9 2 22.26+6.49 31-40 years 15 21 3 22+6.32 41-50 years 30 36 10 22.28+7.00 51-60 years 14 27 9 23.52+6.81 > 61years 2 0 0 18.5+2.12 number 69 93 24 22.62+6.83 source: authors’ own conception summarizing the hospital personnel data, the prevalence of low level burnout is 38.17% of the participating employees, 46.77% had medium level of burnout and 15.05% high level of burnout. doctors and administrative staff had higher mean values of burnout score (seems to be more affected than the others), but no significantly statistical association between total burnout scale and job profile χ 2 calc=5.926, df=6, p=432> α=0.05 (table 12). table 12. burnout level and distribution by job type burnout scale scale job profile low n medium n high n average range doctor 8 14 4 61.23+17.14 nurse 36 36 16 56.98+18.12 healthcare assistant 22 24 6 54.65+17.78 administration staff 5 13 2 58.57+15.67 number 71 87 28 57.01+17.62 source: authors’ own conception burnout syndrome in personnel of an infectious diseases hospital, one year … elena dumea, et al. 241 for each category, the scores from each domain are normally distributed (p>α=0.05 kolmogorov–smirnov test for normality) as in table 13. there are no significant differences between mean score values for each domain corresponding to job category (p=0.374>α=0.05) table 13 anova test for scores of each domain depending on job profile. source: authors’ own conception table 14. burnout level and distribution by age groups the reduced sense of personal accomplishment level scale age group low medium high average range 21-30 years 7 11 1 55.21+13.41 31-40 years 16 16 7 56.58+18.23 41-50 years 31 34 11 56.28+18.08 51-60 years 16 25 9 59.52+18.23 >61years 1 1 0 47+14.14 number 71 87 28 57.01+17.62 source: authors’ own conception even though the age 51-60 years group had higher mean values for total score burnout (table 14) there is no significant association between burnout level scale and age group χ 2 calc=3.397, df=6, p=0.758 > α=0.05. in the case of age group for each burnout domain, the scores are normally distributed (p>α=0.05 kolmogorov–smirnov test for normality). there are no significant differences between mean score values for each domain corresponding to age group (p=0.721>α=0.05 table 15). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 242 table 15 anova test for scores of each domain depending the on the age group. anova f sig. score emotional exhaustion .419 .739 score depersonalization .452 .716 score personal accomplishment .478 .698 total score .445 .721 source: authors’ own conception 2. discussions this study reveals that 15.38% of doctors, 18.18% of nurses, 11.53% healthcare assistant and 10% of administrative staff have met the criteria for high level of burnout. a percentage of 61.82% of personnel have medium and high level, being a warning signal for psychological reaction of hcws in this pandemic (kowalska et al., 2021; man et al., 2020, silistraru et al., 2021). older people, with age between 51 and 60 have higher scores of burnout, probably linked to higher risk of being ill with severe forms of covid-19, less adaptation to working conditions with special equipment (anghel et al., 2011; stanculescu, 2021;). however, those with age over 65 demonstrated lower prevalence of personal and work related burnout, maybe because they were trained in combat other infectious diseases like hiv/aids (cambrea et al., 2019), viral hepatitis (halichidis et al. 2013), flu, west nile, clostridium difficile (halichidis et al., 2015), i.e. this study has some limits. it was held in a single monospecialty hospital with departments providing care or services to patients with medium and severe forms covid-19. this can explain high percentage of burnout and no statistically significant differences between personal categories, all of them are tired and stressed. the results of this study, by the particular nature of the hospital and the disease covid-19, cannot be generalized for other regions or countries. we didn't determine the level of burnout before the pandemic, so we cannot match the changes in prevalence. further studies to identify the burnout and findings solutions for first line hcws are needed to prevent burnout and reduce it. 3. conclusions in this study, there are no significant differences between age and job category in personal dealing with covid 19 patients. the explanation is that all of them were exposed at the same conditions. leadership, clear burnout syndrome in personnel of an infectious diseases hospital, one year … elena dumea, et al. 243 communication regarding health care directives, management of diseases and guidelines, will reduce hcws burnout. health care professionals must be safe and healthy. daily screening of vital signs, possible symptoms of infection should be assessed, but also signs of burnout should be monitored by hospital psychologist. some of the factors that contributed to the burnout are lack of control in the conduct of procedures, inadequate personal protective equipment (ppe), malfunctioning infection control measures, the false concept of safety precautions, defective communication and directives, lack of emotional support and preparedness, perceived fatality. acknowledgments all authors contributed equally to this work. i want to express my special thanks of gratitude to my colleagues for participating to this study. also, i would like to thank to georgiana tugearu and claudia fodor, our clinical psychologists, who helped us in finalizing this project. funding no external funding for this research. conflict of interest all authors declare no conflict of interest. references anghel, l., ghiuru, r., & gavrilescu, c. m. (2011). the depression and cardiovascular diseases in the elderly. the medical-surgical journal, 115(2), 331336. https://www.revmedchir.ro/index.php/revmedchir/article/view/1376/11 77 baroiu, l., dumitru, c., iancu, a., leșe, a. c., drăgănescu, m., baroiu, n., & anghel, l. (2021). covid-19 impact on the liver. world journal of clinical cases, 9(16), 3814 3825. https://doi.org/10.12998/wjcc.v9.i16.3814 baroiu, n., baroiu, l., teodor, v. g., & ciocan, l. t. (2018). graphical method for profiling the side mill which generate helical flute of tungsten carbide dental cross cut bur. revista romana de materiale-romanian journal of materials, 48(1), 131 139. https://solacolu.chim.upb.ro/p131-139.pdf cambrea, s. c., ilie, m. m., dumea, e., halichidis, s., carp, d. s., & petcu, c. l. (2014). correlation of an acute viral hepatitis type a outbreak in the constanta county with environmental risk factors. journal of environmental protection and ecology, 15(1), 340-347. https://docs.google.com/a/jepejournal.info/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=amvwzs1qb3vybmfslmluz m98amvwzs1qb3vybmfsfgd4ojjlzdjknzfjyjuxndnkzq cambrea, s. c., popescu, g. g., resul, g., & petcu, l.c. (2019). the spectrum of infectious diseases hospital mortality by hiv status. acta medica https://www.revmedchir.ro/index.php/revmedchir/article/view/1376/1177 https://www.revmedchir.ro/index.php/revmedchir/article/view/1376/1177 https://doi.org/10.12998/wjcc.v9.i16.3814 https://solacolu.chim.upb.ro/p131-139.pdf https://docs.google.com/a/jepe-journal.info/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=amvwzs1qb3vybmfslmluzm98amvwzs1qb3vybmfsfgd4ojjlzdjknzfjyjuxndnkzq https://docs.google.com/a/jepe-journal.info/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=amvwzs1qb3vybmfslmluzm98amvwzs1qb3vybmfsfgd4ojjlzdjknzfjyjuxndnkzq https://docs.google.com/a/jepe-journal.info/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=amvwzs1qb3vybmfslmluzm98amvwzs1qb3vybmfsfgd4ojjlzdjknzfjyjuxndnkzq brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 244 mediterranea, 35(6), 3517 3522. https://doi.org/10.19193/03936384_2019_6_554 halichidis, s., dumea, e., & cambrea, c. s. (2013). seroclearance of hepatitis b surface antigen after entecavir treatment. journal of gastrointestinal and liver diseases, 22(2), 234-236. https://www.jgld.ro/jgld/index.php/jgld/article/view/2013.2.193 halichidis, s., stoicescu, r. m., carp, d. s., & cambrea, c. s. (2015). clostridium difficile enterocolitis: current public health problem. journal of environmental protection and ecology,16(1), 352 355. https://docs.google.com/a/jepejournal.info/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=amvwzs1qb3vybmfslmluz m98amvwzs1qb3vybmfsfgd4oju2yjbjmgqxnzi1zwi5mdy grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326 334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 kowalska, j. d., kase, k., vassilenko, a., harxhi, a., lakatos, b., lukić, g. d., verhaz, a., yancheva, n., dumitrescu, f., jilich, d., machala, v., skrzatklapaczyńska, a., & matulionyte, r. (2021). the characteristics of hivpositive patients with mild/asymptomatic and moderate/severe course of covid-19 disease—a report from central and eastern europe. international journal of infectious diseases, 104, 293 296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.12.026 luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., iliescu, a. i. b., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2021). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 01 07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261 272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., stoleriu, g., ciubara, a. b., ciubara, a., lupu, v., burlea, m., & stratciuc, s. (2017). vaccination of children in romania between civic obligation and personal choice. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 56, 123 132. http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civicobligation-and-personal-choice.html man, m. a., toma, c., motoc, n. s., necrelescu, o. l., bondor, c. i., chis, a. f., & rajnoveanu, r. m. (2020). disease perception and coping with https://doi.org/10.19193/0393-6384_2019_6_554 https://doi.org/10.19193/0393-6384_2019_6_554 https://www.jgld.ro/jgld/index.php/jgld/article/view/2013.2.193 https://docs.google.com/a/jepe-journal.info/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=amvwzs1qb3vybmfslmluzm98amvwzs1qb3vybmfsfgd4oju2yjbjmgqxnzi1zwi5mdy https://docs.google.com/a/jepe-journal.info/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=amvwzs1qb3vybmfslmluzm98amvwzs1qb3vybmfsfgd4oju2yjbjmgqxnzi1zwi5mdy https://docs.google.com/a/jepe-journal.info/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=amvwzs1qb3vybmfslmluzm98amvwzs1qb3vybmfsfgd4oju2yjbjmgqxnzi1zwi5mdy https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.12.026 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul-562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civic-obligation-and-personal-choice.html http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul-562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civic-obligation-and-personal-choice.html http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul-562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civic-obligation-and-personal-choice.html burnout syndrome in personnel of an infectious diseases hospital, one year … elena dumea, et al. 245 emotional distress during covid-19 pandemic: a survey among medical staff. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(13), 4899. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134899 maslach, c., & jackson, s. e. (1981). the measurement of experienced burnout. journal of organizational behavior, 2(2), 99 113. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030020205 maslach, c., & jackson, s. (1984). burnout in organizational settings. applied social psychology annual, 5, 133  153. maslach, c., jackson, s. e., leiter, m. p., schaufeli, w. b., & schwab, r. l. (1986). maslach burnout inventory, 21, 3463 3464. maslach, c. (1998). a multidimensional theory of burnout. in c. l. cooper (ed.), theories of organizational stress (pp. 68 85). oxford press university. padureanu, v., bogdan, m., subtirelu, m. s., padureanu, r., turcu-stiolica, a., petrescu, f., & mititelu-tartau, l. (2020). perceptions of covid-19 vaccination among healthcare professionals in romania. medical surgery journal, 124(3), 454 460. https://www.revmedchir.ro/index.php/revmedchir/article/view/2221 puscasu, c. g., dumea, e., & petcu, l. c. (2019). cardiovascular disease and diabetes, potential risk factors for periodontal disease. acta medica mediteranea, 35(6), 3177 3182. https://doi.org/10.19193/03936384_2019_6_499 shanafelt, t.d., gorringe, g., menaker, r., storz, k.a., reeves, d., buskirk, s. j., sloan, a. j., & swensen, s. j. (2015). impact of organizational leadership on physician burnout and satisfaction. mayo clinic proceedings, 90(4), 432 440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.01.012 shanafelt, t., ripp, j., & trockel, m. (2020). understanding and addressing sources of anxiety among health care professionals during the covid-19 pandemic. jama, 323(21), 2133 2134. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.5893 silistraru, i., ciureanu, a. i., ciubara, a., & olariu, o. (2021). prevalence of burnout in medical students in romania during covid-19 pandemic restrictions (preliminary data). archiv euromedica, 11(5), 12 15. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 stănculescu, e. (2021). fear of covid-19 in romania: validation of the romanian version of the fear of covid-19 scale using graded response model analysis. international journal of mental health and addiction, 1 16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00428-4 valcea, l., bulgaru-iliescu, d., burlea, s. l., & ciubara, a. (2016). patient’s rights and communication in the hospital accreditation process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 55, 260 -270. http://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134899 https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030020205 https://www.revmedchir.ro/index.php/revmedchir/article/view/2221 https://doi.org/10.19193/0393-6384_2019_6_499 https://doi.org/10.19193/0393-6384_2019_6_499 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.01.012 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.5893 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/34745962 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/9207389 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/30711467 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00428-4 http://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis55_17.pdf brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 246 xiao, h., zhang, y., kong, d., li, s., & yang, n. (2020). the effects of social support on sleep quality of medical staff treating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) in january and february 2020 in china. medical science monitor: international medical journal of experimental and clinical research, 26, e923549. https://doi.org/10.12659/msm.923549 https://doi.org/10.12659/msm.923549 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 259-272 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/342 submitted: december 15th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 psychotherapy in dealing with crises in the covid-19 pandemic nelia bihun 1 , nina tverezovska 2 , oksana vdovichenko 3 , nataliia barinova 4 , alexandr kocharian 5 , mariia kazanzhy 6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, nelabigun@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1767-5181 2 national university of life and environmental scienсes of ukraine, tverezovskaya@nubip.edu.ua, orcid id: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-06729308 3 the state institution “south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky”, ukraine, werta4877@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0430-2295 4 v.n. karazin kharkiv national university , ukraine, barinova.n2310@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5103-0611 5 v.n. karazin kharkiv national university , ukraine, kocharian55@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8998-3370 6 the state institution “south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky”, ukraine, kazanzhy.mariya@gmail.com, orcid id https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8316-1288 abstract: in the article, a theoretical analysis of the study of crisis states and the methodological foundations of crisis psychotherapy, taking into account foreign and domestic experience, is carried out. based on the results of empirical studies, modern foreign and domestic researchers have established that crisis conditions during the covid-19 pandemic are accompanied by suicidal reactions, depression, neurotic conditions with post-traumatic stress disorders, exacerbation of psychosomatic diseases, psychopathological disorders.psychological approaches in psychotherapy together with crisis psycho-psychotherapeutic interventions for working with acute crisis states and crisis psychotherapy of clients in the postquarantine period are considered.the concepts of a crisis state, the features of the influence of "covid" psychotrauma on the mental and psychological health of a person, and the provision of psychological assistance in crisis situations during the covid-19 pandemic are described in detail. it is noted that in working with crisis conditions during the covid-19 pandemic, modern foreign and ukrainian specialists prefer cognitivebehavioral psychotherapy.at the theoretical and methodological level, it has been proved that psychotherapy of post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) is close to crisis psychotherapy and is aimed at reintegration of mental activity disturbed by the "conductive" psychotrauma and restoration of psychological adaptation to a certain extent.the psychotherapeutic model of psychological crisis intervention in the context of the covid-19 pandemic is based on a biopsychosocial approach and requires a comprehensive and integrated use of crisis psychotherapy methods with the integration of neuropsychotic methods and internet technologies into the entire therapy process. keywords: crisis situations, psychotrauma, psychotherapeutic directions, psychological approaches, psychological resources, psychosomatic disorders, depression, neurotic states. how to cite: bihun, n., tverezovska, n., vdovichenko, o., barinova, n., kocharian, a., & kazanzhy, m. (2022). psychotherapy in dealing with crises in the covid-19 pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 259-272. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/342 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/342 mailto:nelabigun@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1767-5181 mailto:tverezovskaya@nubip.edu.ua http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0672-9308 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0672-9308 mailto:werta4877@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0430-2295 mailto:barinova.n2310@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5103-0611 mailto:kocharian55@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8998-3370 mailto:kazanzhy.mariya@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8316-1288 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/342 psychotherapy in dealing with crises in the covid-19 pandemic nelia bihun et al. 260 1. introduction the instability of society under the influence of the covid-19 pandemic, the quarantine regime of life, stresses before and after the quarantine period caused a low crisis resistance in many people of the planet, changed their fates, places of work, worsened social and psychological health.the most vulnerable were those with a sensitive emotional response, high anxiety, neurotic states, low level of mental health, prone to depression and panic attacks, those who had already experienced age-related or abnormal crises before the pandemic.in a situation of existential challenge, fear for one's life and the life of loved ones, chronic crisis states with psycho-traumatic symptoms may arise.under the influence of the covid19 pandemic, crisis situations exacerbate psychosomatic illnesses, experiences of suicidal tendencies, neurotic and mental disorders, which require psychotherapeutic support from specialists of counseling centers. the relevance of studying the problem of psychotherapy in working with crisis states against the background of anxiety-depressive or psychopathological symptoms in a state of exacerbation by a "covid" trigger is extremely significant for medical-psychological and applied crisis practice according to the social and psychological significance of unexpected crises in connection with a pandemic and quarantine and the consequences crisis situations for human mental health (bezliudnyi et al., 2019; demchenko et al., 2021; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; nerubasska et al., 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020). the purpose of the article is to analyze modern scientific approaches to the methodological foundations of the organization and conduct of crisis psychotherapy.the practical significance and novelty of the investigated problem lies in the expansion of scientific knowledge about psychotherapeutic methods and techniques of working with the ideas and worldview instructions of clients regarding a crisis situation that is subjectively significant for them, caused by a pandemic and the regime of social isolation; analysis of modern psychotherapeutic methods for activating internal psychological resources in overcoming a chronic crisis state, interconnected with depressive, neurotic and psychosomatic disorders in connection with the experience of self-isolation; analysis of the research results by modern foreign and domestic specialists of the crisis conditions caused by the covid-19 pandemic. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 261 2. theoretical analysis of the study of crisis states and methodological foundations of crisis psychotherapy: foreign and domestic experience in many people, one can observe a violation of psychological adaptation, the loss of vital resources for a person values, hope, faith, a sense of security in the context of a coronavirus panic. individuals who found it difficult to control their emotional reactions and behavior, there was an exacerbation of relationships with others, contradictory performance of social roles and “coronavirus” syndrome: emotional burnout, depressive and neurotic states, pathological fear of infection, experiencing panic attacks by the health workers themselves, diseases and complications of personal problems with mental disorders. crisis condition a serious, transitional, unstable state leading to the disintegration of the personality, causes an imbalance in the life and activities of a person, as a result of which socially maladaptive behavior, inappropriate actions and actions, as well as a breakdown of neuropsychic and somatic health arise. a personality crisis state occurs when a person encounters experiences that, in strength and duration, exceed his psychological regulatory capabilities, accompanied by a violation of physiological, psychological and social adaptation mechanisms (kocharyan & lisenaya, 2011). li duan and gang zhu (2020) detailed the psychological problems of patients, their families and medical personnel in relation to the covid19 epidemic. time constraints, isolation and self-administered psychological crisis interventions by medical departments have taken away many mental health resources from teachers, psychologists, medical professionals and all those who provided psychological support to victims in china and around the world. the researchers also noted the lack of timely diagnosis and proposed to carry out crisis interventions that would be based on a comprehensive assessment of risk factors leading to psychological problems, losses and injuries. xiang et al. (2020) confirm that psychopathological disorders, persistent depression, anxiety, panic attacks, psychosomatic disorders, psychotic symptoms, delusions and even suicidality are noted in people at an early stage of a mers virus outbreak. researchers believe that groups set up by health authorities at regional and national levels (including psychiatrists, nurses, clinical psychologists and other workers) should provide psychological support to both patients and healthcare professionals and regularly inform them about epidemic outbreaks to overcome feelings of uncertainty and fear. psychotherapeutic methods should be focused on stress adaptation models. compliance with the basic principles of pharmacological treatment will also be beneficial. psychotherapy in dealing with crises in the covid-19 pandemic nelia bihun et al. 262 yeen huang and ning zhao (2020) propose continuous monitoring of the psychological consequences of outbreaks of life-threatening epidemic diseases, the establishment of targeted crisis mental health interventions at an early stage, which will ensure psychological preparedness to overcome the epidemic. shen et al. (2021) claim the 2019 coronavirus disease (covid-19) outbreak led to depression and anxiety. ettman et al. (2020) empirically investigated the factors associated with depression symptoms during and to covid-19: job loss, loved ones due to covid-19 and financial problems, taking into account population demographics and resources. higher rates of depression symptoms were observed across all demographics during covid-19. at the same time, women were more likely to have symptoms of depression than men, and married people had lower rates of symptoms of depression. galea et al. (2020) argue that in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, a significant increase in anxiety and depression, substance use, loneliness and domestic violence; there is a very real likelihood of an epidemic of child abuse when schools are closed. this concern is so significant that the uk has issued guidelines for psychological first aid and mental health promotion strategies. media, group visits and assistance through technology platforms will be important components of step-by-step assistance, both for the treatment of acute crises and for long-term psychological support. antonova (2020) identified the following parameters for assessing the manifestations of panic during the period of quarantine isolation: the intensity of emotional states; the experience of danger and helplessness; trust in rumors and fake news in the study of the peculiarities of the occurrence of panic among the population in a prolonged extreme situation of uncertainty on the example of quarantine self-isolation during the covid-19 pandemic. it turned out that negative emotional response is the first mechanism that regulates a person's activity in a panic situation. subsequent changes are associated with the concentration of consciousness on negative emotions by reducing the intensity of the emotions of satisfaction. the duration of negative experiences in a prolonged situation associated with self-isolation of the population is reflected in the growth of a sense of danger and helplessness, a narrowing of consciousness and an increase in a person's suggestibility, which increases his confidence in rumors and inaccurate information.the main predictive potential is provided by the scales for assessing the emotional states of a person, including the assessment of forecast emotions (dismay, fear, and horror) and frustrating emotions (disappointment, grief, hopelessness). other scales (assessment of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 263 emotions of pleasure, feelings of danger and helplessness, trust in rumors and fake news) are auxiliary. the list of manifestations of maladjustment in conditions of a crisis unexpected for most people is not complete, however, hypothetically, the relationship with crisis states is their characteristic and common feature. at the same time, everyone experiences a “socio-pathological” crisis from young to old age, taking into account the conditions caused by it as a blockage of a person's vital activity, due to the frustration of his significant needs. such crisis conditions often accompany psychopathic reactions and neurotic disorders and depression, suicidal thoughts and psychosomatic illnesses. in an acute crisis response, the perception of time may change (time seems to have stopped) with manifestations of defense mechanisms “this is not happening to me”; there is a narrowing of consciousness and a deterioration in mental activity (attention and memory processes, thinking); manifest hyperactivity, irritability, panic, aggression, hypersensitivity to unexpected and harsh sounds; somatic manifestations appear (shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting, sweating, finger tremors, palpitations, dizziness, etc.), which requires crisis psychotherapy. naturally, the need for crisis assistance grows in situations of disasters, natural disasters and social upheavals, since a large number of people who have lost loved ones, housing or work experience a state of life crisis burdened with tragic experiences. the most significant factor of “pathological” crisis states that determines the therapeutic tactics of crisis psychotherapy is suicidal tendencies (suicidal thoughts and suicidal behavior). there are three components in the structure of suicidal reactions: affective, cognitive and behavioral. the content of the affective component is, in particular, the experience of emotional isolation and the situation. the most common modalities of affect are reactions of anxiety, depression, melancholy, resentment. in some cases, apathy, a feeling of powerlessness, a desire for solitude are noted. the cognitive component of a suicidal crisis state includes the idea of one's own uselessness, insolvency, aimlessness and painfulness of later life, the conclusion that it is impossible to resolve the crisis due to lack of time or opportunity. the behavioral component often includes high activity in attempts to resolve the crisis state, including the use of non-adaptive coping behaviors such as “alcoholism and drug addiction”, manifestations of aggressive and dissocial tendencies. these psychological characteristics determine both the specifics of crisis patients and the characteristics of crisis psychotherapy (karvasarsky, 2000). the main therapeutic targets for suicidal danger are: the patient's problem situation; changing the system of his values with an emphasis on psychotherapy in dealing with crises in the covid-19 pandemic nelia bihun et al. 264 the values of life; negative cognitive style (learned helplessness); development of adequate ways to relieve stress in a traumatic situation; decrease in emotional dependence and rigidity; self-actualization of “ego” (increasing selfesteem, finding ways to realize the personality in the main spheres of life). three main strategies of psychotherapy are used in suicidal behavior: empathy empathy with the patient, the recognition that he has unbearable mental pain and the right to stop it; pause agreement a proposal to jointly go through the path of finding a solution and a way out “here”, and not “there” and recognition of human rights to live (ponomareva, 2014). the provision of crisis psychotherapeutic assistance is well described in the works of kocharyan and lisenaya (2011), lopez and simanyuk (2011), malkina-pykh (2005), ponomareva (2014) and turinina (2017). a detailed psychological analysis of the crisis conditions that arose during the covid-19 pandemic and accompanying depressive, anxiety and psychosomatic disorders is presented in the works of domestic and foreign researchers (duan & zhu, 2020; ettman et al., 2020; karvasarsky, 2000; kocharyan & lisenaya, 2011; shen et al., 2021). thus, chaban and khaustova (2020) note that the current “epidemic” of anxiety should be overcome with the help of biopsychosocial approaches. an effective model of psychological intervention is that integrates doctors, psychotherapists, psychologists and social workers into internet platforms for the implementation of psychological interventions in relation to patients, their families and medical personnel. such actions should be based on a comprehensive assessment of risk factors that lead to psychological problems, in particular, poor mental health before the crisis, fear, trauma to oneself and family members, life-threatening circumstances, panic, separation from loved ones and low household income. in the mental state of persons affected by covid-19: excessive fatigue and stress, exhaustion, anxiety, insomnia, depression, helplessness, frustration or selfblame, fear of infection, fear for the family, excessive anxiety, nervousness, mental health professionals should adhere to the following principles: support and comfort; pacification, emotional communication and increased confidence in treatment; health, encouraging collaboration and adapting to change.the principle of encouraging cooperation and adaptation to changes in order to maintain health implies: helping the client understand real and reliable information, trusting scientific and medical authoritative materials; encouraging active adherence to medical and isolation rules, healthy eating, work and rest, reading, listening to music, using modern communication methods, etc.; fostering conditions of isolation, understanding your own reactions and finding a positive meaning in trouble; recommendations for broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 265 seeking social support to cope with stress (modern communication methods for connecting with family, friends, colleagues, etc., talking about feelings, gaining support and encouraging attention); stimulation of the use of the hotline for psychological help or online psychological intervention. a feature of psychotherapeutic interventions during crisis intervention in connection with a pandemic is that stabilizing intervention at the initial stage of work with acute crisis states is completely different than in psychotherapy. the assistant should understand that there is temporary assistance in a special situation, the study of personal life history will provide less assistance, even if it is important for the crisis process. disorders originating from a personal history can be treated in final psychotherapy; in a crisis state, this overstrains the patient and distracts him from solving problems. formation and strengthening of existing supporting resources: value, material security (confidence), work and result and social network. the essence of crisis intervention is not to solve the problem, but to do the work on the problem. the main principles of crisis intervention: limiting goals (the immediate goal of crisis intervention is to prevent catastrophic consequences, the main goal is to learn to use adaptive ways to overcome the crisis and restore psychological balance); working with feelings (it is important not to try to change a person's feelings, but to reorganize them into a structural integrity, since the pain that a person experiences in a crisis motivates him to search for new solutions, resources, and acquire new skills); decision-making (it is necessary to avoid interference in what the patient must decide for himself, it is important to motivate him to postpone the decision until the end of the acute crisis state); providing support (when working with a client, it is necessary to maintain external peace, avoid unrealistic promises and predictions dictated by the desire to calm the victim, avoid merging with the patient the danger of emotional infection is very high). to deal with crises, there are self-help groups, support groups such as “anonymous with depression”, groups of meetings of people experiencing loss, etc. the main indications for a group form of work with crisis individuals are age-related crises, starting from adolescence, "noogenic neuroses", existential crises and crises associated with disruption of social ties or social adaptation, the so-called "social crises". a potential advantage of group conditions is the ability to receive feedback and support from people who have common problems or experiences with a particular group member. a person gains insight into the values and needs of others through group interaction. in a group, a person feels accepted and accepted, someone who gets trust and trusts himself, is surrounded by caring and psychotherapy in dealing with crises in the covid-19 pandemic nelia bihun et al. 266 caring, receives help and helps. the reactions and feelings of others can make it easier to resolve interpersonal conflicts and crisis-related experiences. the group can also facilitate the process of self-exploration and introspection (kocharyan & lisenaya, 2011). in a crisis caused by unpredictable situations, inappropriate emotional reactions and emotional distress are always present. one of the most effective methods for their therapy is the methods of personalityoriented psychotherapy. personality-oriented therapy sets the task of helping a person in crisis to change his attitude towards the social environment and his own personality. there is no rigid separation between clinical and person-centered therapy methods: the same methods can be successfully used in both areas. the basis of many forms of psychotherapy, as well as psychological practice itself, was psychoanalysis, developed by 3. freud. personality-oriented therapy uses different options for analyzing the emotional experiences of crisis situations. the main feature of therapy is the removal of an internal personality conflict, which generates depression, anxiety, fears, and a violation of communication. psychotechnologies of personality-oriented therapy include individual psychoanalytic conversations, group psychotherapy, auto-training (lopez & simanyuk, 2011). during the covid-19 pandemic, the analysis of crisis interventions in the experience of practitioners of certain psychological and psychotherapeutic approaches may also become: psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioral therapy (hereinafter cbt), gestalt therapy, positive psychotherapy. inter-theoretical discussions of the practice and research of psychological and psychotherapeutic phenomenology during the pandemic of the new coronavirus disease are also relevant. inevitable changes in the pandemic situation create a challenge to create appropriate modifications in the organization of psychological and psychotherapeutic support. the main task of these modifications is to preserve the stability of the therapeutic setting as much as possible and continue to provide the necessary assistance to patients in such difficult conditions as quarantine, financial losses, the inability to meet face to face and adherence to the schedule, etc..psychologists and psychotherapists note the urgent need for additional training and support from the professional community, including in the format of supervision and intervision (velykodna & frankova, 2020). community support workers during the covid-19 pandemic face an increased level of anxiety and depression due to increased work requirements, lack of appropriate personal protective equipment, fear of contracting the virus and fear of passing it on to loved ones, and therefore they themselves need support your mental health. clinicians can use broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 267 cognitive behavioral therapy (cbt) techniques to work with clients, which have been empirically proven to be effective in crisis interventions. empathic listening, identifying crisis states, and clarifying values can help therapeutic relationships, feel a renewed sense of purpose and meaning in their careers and families, and promote behavioral change in line with chosen values. cbt techniques such as journaling promote self-control, help clients recognize maladaptive patterns in their thoughts and behavior, reduce anxiety, and promote positive and adaptive activity (benhamou & piedra, 2020). weiner et al. (2020), in turn, claim that online cognitive behavioral therapy has been effective in the treatment and prevention of various disorders influenced by stressful situations. caused by the covid-19 pandemic and developed an effective mental health program. aminoff et al. (2021) also confirmed that cbt significantly reduces rates of depression, anxiety and can be used for a variety of psychological symptoms associated with the covid-19 pandemic. 3. modern methods of crisis psychotherapy during the covid-19 pandemic by its nature, crisis psychotherapy is close to cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy and includes three stages: crisis support, crisis intervention and an increase in the level of adaptation necessary to resolve a conflict situation. crisis psychotherapy is used in three main forms: individual, family and group. individual therapeutic programs of crisis psychotherapy are applied differentially, depending on the relevance of experiences. thus, crisis support is provided to patients at high suicidal risk; in relation to patients who are in the phase of recovery from an acute crisis, crisis intervention is carried out; post-crisis patients without suicidal tendencies, who are in an unresolved highly relevant situation, are included in adaptation skills training. the mentioned stages of crisis psychotherapy can be carried out sequentially: crisis support crisis intervention increasing the level of adaptation. level of adaptation enhancement: behavioral training of untested ways of resolving a crisis situation; developing the skills of introspection and selfobservation of non-adaptive mechanisms, as well as overcoming them; introduction of new vips for support and assistance after the end of crisis therapy. examples of psychotherapy for crisis states are also axiopsychotherapy (a method aimed at reassessing values, adapting to reality) and prophylactic-oriented pathogenetic psychotherapy. axiopsychotherapy sets itself the following tasks: preventing the fixation of the cognitive attitude of a dead end and a lack of meaning in life; personal growth of the patient, which increases crisis and frustration tolerance (karvasarsky, 2000). psychotherapy in dealing with crises in the covid-19 pandemic nelia bihun et al. 268 features of experiencing quarantine periods in connection with covid-19 may be associated with crisis conditions accompanying posttraumatic stress disorder (hereinafter ptsd). to a certain extent, psychotherapy for ptsd is close to crisis psychotherapy and is aimed at reintegration of mental activity disturbed by the “conductive” psychotrauma and restoration of psychological adaptation. crisis psychotherapy for ptsd should be aimed at the following tasks: building a new cognitive-behavioral model with a rethinking of life values, personal values of self-sufficiency, self-respect and pride; reassessment of traumatic experience. malkina-pykh (2005) gives methods and techniques of some areas of psychotherapy that have proven themselves well when working with clients with ptsd: psychotherapy of emotional trauma using eye movements, gestalt therapy, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, symbol-drama, family psychotherapy, neurolinguistic programming. the basic prerequisites for successful work with clients with ptsd can be formulated as follows: the client's ability to talk about trauma is directly proportional to the therapist's ability to listen empathically; any sign of impairment is perceived as the therapist's inability to help him and can lead to the client's struggle for recovery. therapeutic work with people with ptsd involves three stages: establishing a safe environment; work with memories and experiences; inclusion in daily life. in the process of successful recovery, one can recognize a gradual transition from alertness to a sense of security, from dissociation to the integration of traumatic memories, from isolation to building social contacts. the most common therapeutic mistakes are: avoidance of traumatic material; untimely and rapid development of a traumatic experience until a sufficient safety atmosphere is created and a trusting therapeutic relationship is not created (malkina-pykh, 2005). work with trauma under the influence of social and personal crises and crisis states is focused on traumatic symptoms: a feeling of fear, anxiety, excessive emotionality, a sense of loss of meaning. more distant consequences of trauma include panic attacks, phobias, depression, adjustment disorders, and psychosomatic symptoms. kocharyan and lisenaya (2011) note that psychotherapeutic work with mental trauma involves re-experiencing the traumatic experience, emotional response and a change in attitude to the traumatic situation and uses such methods:cathartic (the essence of the methods is an emotional response when re-experiencing a traumatic experience and release from painful symptoms); autogenous training a method aimed at restoring the dynamic balance of the body; psychotherapy of emotional trauma by means of eye movements according to f. shapiro; somatic therapy of trauma by p. levin, according to the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 269 concept of which the neurophysiological basis of traumatic experiences should be eliminated (conscious fixation of sensations in the body is one of the main therapeutic techniques that helps to achieve discharge of concentrated trauma energy); debriefing is one of the options for crisis intervention and urgent group psychological assistance for acute mental trauma. with this form of work, all attention is focused on the actual situation and actual experiences, and not on the personality. debriefing is not therapy or psychotherapeutic purposes. the optimal period for debriefing is about 48 hours after the received mental trauma, since there is a certain period of time when changes in the psyche and neural circuits remain reversible. it is during this period that their modification is possible in terms of the content and intensity of affective signs. turinina (2017) considers practical psychotherapeutic approaches in helping to overcome post-traumatic stress, depending on the theoretical schools within which they arose: v. frankl's logotherapy; existentialhumanistic psychotherapy j. bujenthal; f. perls gestalt therapy; somatic therapy of p. levin's mental trauma; personality-oriented psychotherapy k. rogers; body-oriented psychotherapy; a. mindell's procedural psychotherapy. thus, in existential-humanistic psychotherapy, an internal study takes place, aimed at understanding and changing the system of constructs “me and the world”, at revealing personal potential and building new life meanings. overcoming trauma involves working through existential “realities” such as “freedom”, “isolation”, “meaninglessness”, “death”, which most often make up the meaning of experiences during psychological trauma. in this regard, the given of “corporeality” is of particular interest. crisis conditions, maladaptive phenomena and chronic stresses during epidemics and quarantine isolation modes can produce dysfunctional disorders in the brain and long-term depletion of the nervous system, which requires an eclectic approach to the provision of psychological assistance a combination of psychotherapy with neuropsychotic correction. in particular, areas of the limbic system, the influence of systemic brain mechanisms, cortex and subcortical formations on the occurrence of negative emotions, were studied by western researchers jeffrey burgdorf and jaak panksepp (2006). the formation of new neural connections in such disorders requires neuropsychological and relaxation techniques, meditation, work with the body and fears. for example, kathy benhamou and alexandra piedra (2020) consider the benefits of using relaxation techniques in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy to help clients regulate their physiological responses to prolonged stress during the covid-19 pandemic. relaxation techniques can take many forms, including visual imagery, breathing psychotherapy in dealing with crises in the covid-19 pandemic nelia bihun et al. 270 exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness exercises. they help clients recognize signs of stress in their body and relax, which makes it easier to respond to stress. conclusion the psychotherapeutic model of psychological crisis intervention in the context of the covid-19 pandemic is based on a biopsychosocial approach and requires the integrated use of family and existential psychotherapy methods, taking into account the complexity of manifestations and individual psychological characteristics of crisis response and crisis states of clients and the integration of internet technologies into the entire therapy process.crisis psychotherapists and counseling psychologists in many countries of the world have taken up the modern challenges of the global psychological problem of humanity during covid19 and continue to work to develop effective strategies in helping people in crisis situations. references aminoff, v., sellén, м., sörliden, е., ludvigsson, м., berg, м., & andersson, g. (2021, june 14). internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for psychological distress associated with the covid-19 pandemic: a pilot randomized controlled trial. frontiers in psychology, 12, 684540, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684540 antonova, z. o. (2020). osoblyvosti proyavu paniky v umovakh karantynnoyi samoizolyatsiyi ta rozpovsyudzhennya covid-19 [peculiarities of panic manifestation in the conditions of quarantine self-isolation and distribution of covid-19] psychological journal, 6(6), 29-39. https://www.apsijournal.com/index.php/psyjournal/article/view/992 benhamou, k., & piedra, а. (2020). cbt-informed interventions for essential workers during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of contemporary psychotherapy, 50(4), 275-283. https://doi.org/10.1007%2fs10879-020-09467-3 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1585-1590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf burgdorf, j., & pankseppa, j. (2006). the neurobiology of positive emotions. neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 30(2), 173-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.06.001 chaban, o. s., & khaustova, o. o. (2020). psykhichne zdorovya v period pandemiyi covid‑19 (osoblyvosti psykholohichnoyi kryzy, tryvohy, strakhu ta https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684540 https://www.apsijournal.com/index.php/psyjournal/article/view/992 https://doi.org/10.1007%2fs10879-020-09467-3 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.06.001 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 271 tryvozhnykh rozladiv): realiyi ta perspektyvy [mental health during the pandemic covid ‑ 19 (features of psychological crisis, anxiety, fear and anxiety disorders): realities and prospects]. neuronews, 26-36. http://healthua.com/multimedia/userfiles/files/at/covid_19/nn20_3_26-36.pdf demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 duan, l., & zhu, g. (2020). psychological interventions for people affected by the covid-19 epidemic. lancet psychiatry, 7(4), 300-302. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc7128328/ ettman, c. k., abdalla, s. m., cohen, g. h., sampson, l., vivier, p. m., & galea, s. (2020). prevalence of depression symptoms in us adults before and during the covid-19 pandemic. jama network, 3(9), 1-12. http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.19686 galea, s., merchant, m. r., & lurie, n. (2020). the mental health consequences of covid-19 and physical distancing. the need for prevention and early intervention. jama internal medicine, 180(6), 817-818. http://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.1562 huang, y., & zhao, n. (2020). generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms and sleep quality during covid-19 epidemic in china: a web-based crosssectional survey. psychiatry research, 288, 112954. https://doi.org/10.1016%2fj.psychres.2020.112954 karvasarsky, b. d. (2000). psikhoterapevticheskaya entsiklopediya [psychotherapeutic encyclopedia]. piter. kocharyan, a. s., & lisenaya, a. m. (2011). psikhologiya perezhivaniy [psychology of emotions]. kharkov. lopez, e. g., & simanyuk, e. e. (2011). nauka o krizisakh i psikhologiya krizisnykh sostoyaniy [science about crises and psychology of crisis states]: textbook. publishing house of the russian state profile-pedagogical university. https://elar.rsvpu.ru/handle/123456789/13950 malkina-pykh, i. g. (2005). psikhologicheskaya pomoshch' v krizisnykh situatsíyakh [psychological assistance in crisis situations] “eksmo” publishing house. http://umo.edu.ua/images/content/aspirantura/zabezp_discipl/малкина пих%20и.г_психологическая%20помощь%20в%20кризисных%20си туациях.pdf nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 http://health-ua.com/multimedia/userfiles/files/at/covid_19/nn20_3_26-36.pdf http://health-ua.com/multimedia/userfiles/files/at/covid_19/nn20_3_26-36.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc7128328/ http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.19686 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.1562 https://doi.org/10.1016%2fj.psychres.2020.112954 https://elar.rsvpu.ru/handle/123456789/13950 http://umo.edu.ua/images/content/aspirantura/zabezp_discipl/малкинапих%20и.г_психологическая%20помощь%20в%20кризисных%20ситуациях.pdf http://umo.edu.ua/images/content/aspirantura/zabezp_discipl/малкинапих%20и.г_психологическая%20помощь%20в%20кризисных%20ситуациях.pdf http://umo.edu.ua/images/content/aspirantura/zabezp_discipl/малкинапих%20и.г_психологическая%20помощь%20в%20кризисных%20ситуациях.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 psychotherapy in dealing with crises in the covid-19 pandemic nelia bihun et al. 272 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 ponomareva, i. m. (2014). rabota psikhologa v krizisnykh sluzhbakh [the work of a psychologist in crisis services:] a textbook. st. petersburg state institute of psychology and social work. https://shelter-tranzit.ru/wpcontent/uploads/2018/06/пономарева-и.м..pdf shen, x., yan, s., cao, h., feng, j., lei, z., zhang, w., lv, c., & gan, y. (2021, september, 27). current status and associated factors of depression and anxiety among the chinese residents during the period of low transmission of covid-19. frontiers in psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700376 turinina, o. l. (2017). psykholohiya travmuyuchykh sytuatsiy [psychology of traumatic situations]: a textbook for students of higher educational institutions. “personal” publishing house. https://maup.com.ua/assets/files/lib/book/psiholog_travm.pdf velykodna, м., & frankova, і. (2020). psykholohichna i psykhoterapevtychna dopomoha pid chas pandemiyi covid-19: suchasni vyklyky [psychological and psychotherapeutic assistance during the covid-19 pandemic: current challenges].https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341055616_psihologicna_i_ psihoterapevticna_dopomoga_pid_cas_pandemii_covid19_sucasni_vikliki weiner, l., berna, f., nourry, n., severac, f., vidailhet, p., & mengin, а. с. (2020, october 21). efficacy of an online cognitive behavioral therapy program developed for healthcare workers during the covid-19 pandemic: the reduction of stress (rest) study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. trials, 12, 870. https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-02004772-7 xiang, y.-t., yang, y., li, w, zhang, l., zhang, q., cheung, t., & ng, c. h. (2020). timely mental health care for the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak is urgently needed. lancet psychiatry, 7(3), 228-229. https://doi.org/10.1016%2fs2215-0366(20)30046-8 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://shelter-tranzit.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/пономарева-и.м..pdf https://shelter-tranzit.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/пономарева-и.м..pdf https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700376 https://maup.com.ua/assets/files/lib/book/psiholog_travm.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341055616_psihologicna_i_psihoterapevticna_dopomoga_pid_cas_pandemii_covid-19_sucasni_vikliki https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341055616_psihologicna_i_psihoterapevticna_dopomoga_pid_cas_pandemii_covid-19_sucasni_vikliki https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341055616_psihologicna_i_psihoterapevticna_dopomoga_pid_cas_pandemii_covid-19_sucasni_vikliki https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-020-04772-7 https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-020-04772-7 https://doi.org/10.1016%2fs2215-0366(20)30046-8 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 2, pages: 222-236 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/201 the evolution of depressive disorders in children with history of tuberculosis (clinical study in the context of covid-19 pandemic in romania) oana mihailov¹, loredana matei2, alexandru bogdan ciubara3, miruna dragostin4, raul mihailov5, anamaria ciubara6 1 ph.d. student, pediatric, hospital of pneumophysiology “saint spiridon” galati, galati, romania, oanamihailov@yahoo.com 2 ph.d. student, pediatric, pediatric hospital “saint ioan” galati, galati, romania, mateiloredana23@yahoo.com 3 associate professor, dunarea de jos university of galatia, galati, romania, bogdan.ciubara@ugal.ro 4 ph.d. student, pediatric, pediatric hospital “saint ioan” galati, galati, romania, dragostinmiruna@gmail.com 5 ph.d. student, surgery, emergency county hospital “sf. ap. andrei” galati, galati, raulmihailov@yahoo.com 6 ph.d., hab. professor, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, university "dunarea de jos" head of psychiatry department, senior psychiatrist at ”elisabeta doamna” hospital, galati, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract: the covid-19 pandemic has transformed the world since the beginning of 2020 and has produced many changes in key aspects of healthcare delivery. the emergence of sars-cov-2 has been seen as the promoter of many dramatic changes, especially in the medical field, having a huge impact on health systems around the world. both patients and healthcare professionals have been subjected to a new stress factor that has resonated strongly in everyday life. this leads to an increased risk of association of psychological disorders, especially for patients suffering from chronic diseases, as they have already had a history of psycho-vulnerability. patients with known chronic pathologies therefore have several concerns about important issues in the future, therefore, they are associated with an increased risk of occurrence of psychological phenomena. the present research represents an observational study, with a prospective case-witness type, carried out over a period of 2 years, between 2019 and 2020. the patients included in this research are part of the databases of the children’s pneumology department of “sfântul spiridon” pneumoftiziology hospital of galati and in the tb (tuberculosis) clinics in galati county, being patients diagnosed and treated in these departments. we aimed to study the association between the presence of tuberculosis and depressive disorders reported in children aged 7-18 years, during 2019 and 2020 and in addition, to expose the results of the psychological effects of the pandemic on these chronic patients. we finally hypothesized that depression, but also the symptoms associated with them, will have a significantly higher incidence among patients with tuberculosis during the covid pandemic. keywords: tb, depressive disorders, covid 19 pandemic. how to cite: mihailov, o., loredana matei, l., ciubara, a.b., dragostin, m., mihailov, r., & ciubara, a. (2021). conspiracy belief and behavior in the covid-19 pandemic. how belief in conspiracy theory relates to adherence to quarantine restrictions (wearing protective equipment, isolation, hygiene) and influences antisocial behavior such as aggression and selfishness, as well as prosocial behavior such as help and altruism. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 222-236. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/201 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/201 mailto:oanamihailov@yahoo.com mailto:mateiloredana23@yahoo.com mailto:bogdan.ciubara@ugal.ro mailto:dragostinmiruna@gmail.com mailto:raulmihailov@yahoo.com mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/201 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 223 introduction one of the main factors for which the year 2020 will remain in the common memory is represented by the pandemic caused by the sars cov2 virus. coronaviral infections have taken the entire medical community by surprise, overloading every component of this system (luca, baroiu et al, 2020). the numerous vulnerabilities were highlighted (sandu, 2020a; 2020b), as well as the lack of elements of crucial importance for the medical system, a situation in which we were all confronted with the necessity to face many challenges (alagna et al., 2020; damian et al., 2020; dara et al., 2020). another extremely important change was the obligation to replace, as far as possible, the clinical examinations, respectively the “in person” meetings, with telephone consultations and to conduct various activities based on the internet, in the virtual environment (stop tb partnership, 2020; sandu, 2020c). at the same time, there has been information that, in many countries, the pneumonologists and experts in infectious diseases and public health (those involved in the prevention and care of tuberculosis), together with icu specialists, are or have been relocated to the front line to ensure the fighting against covid-19 pandemic (stop tb partnership, 2020). as for patients, their number has varied globally. the specialty literature confirms the existence of an upward curve of mortality detected among subjects, especially among the elderly and the patients who associate pre-existing comorbidities. the socio-economic consequences of this pandemic have had as direct implications the following: the contribution to the aggravation of the precarious situation in which many patients find themselves, the deepening of shortages, the appearance of malnutrition and of the morbidity and mortality related to this factor (saunders & evans, 2020). thus, at present, the medical world is focusing on two topics of main interest, both being the promoters of a relatively recent hypothesis, which has begun to concern more and more the medical community, namely: ● the effects of tb on the quality of life (qol) of patients known to have this pathology, whether or not they associate concomitant covid-19 infection; the analysis being performed before, during and after the anti-tb treatment (with the need for pulmonary rehabilitation); ● the potential offered by the increasing use of the internet as a means of monitoring the patients for the performance of the proper management in tb’s administration (ngwatu et al., 2018). the evolution of depressive disorders in children with history of … nina yarosh, et al. 224 through manifold studies carried out, the specialized literature confirms the fact that mental illnesses had represented and continue to define a real health problem, with implications and consequences worldwide (luca et al., 2019, burlea et al., 2012; sandu & damian 2018). from the strict point of view of the occurrences, the statistics confirm the fact that depression, as a psychiatric spectrum pathology, affects an impressive number of approximatively 322 million people worldwide (who, 2017). among patients with comorbidities, the prevalence of depression is even higher. thus, for example, 26.8% of patients with hypertension and 8-18% of patients with diabetes also struggle with depression (andreoulakis et al., 2012; li et al., 2015). consequently, it will be admitted that both tuberculosis and depression share common risk factors, which explains, in part, the high prevalence of their comorbidity, the current reports ranging from 10 to 52% (ambaw et al., 2015; pachi et al., 2013; yen et al., 2015). the interaction of these two pathologies is extremely complex, because there is a hypothesis according to which there is a causal relationship between the two pathologies. on the one hand, there will be an increase in proinflammatory cytokines characteristic to depression, which leads to decreased activation of the cellular and humoral immune system. this will ultimately contribute to the development of tb (kiecolt-glaser & glaser, 2002). on the other hand, tb infection causes chronic inflammation, stimulating the release of proinflammatory cytokines that generate a series of cascading events. the enzymes at cerebral level, such as indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, which degrade the tryptophan and thus limit serotonin production, will initially be activated. antituberculosis drugs can also play an important role in the development of psychiatric diseases. these include isoniazid, which has the ability to alter the absorption of serotonin, as well as high doses of ethambutol, whose presence has been associated with depression (yen et al., 2015). the key elements of the present clinical research are represented by the provision of support for maintaining an optimal state in terms of mental health, from the moment the patient is diagnosed with tb, until after its complete recovery. another very important element, which is in itself a purpose of this paper, is defined by the desire to prove that psychological rehabilitation after healing the patient of respiratory pathology (tb) is a key factor in the fight against the so-called residual depression, as well as against the long-term decrease in the incidence of self-stigma and associated selfconfidence issues. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 225 material and methods the purpose of the research the main characteristics of these patients were analyzed, focusing on the symptoms that indicate the existence of a depressive syndrome, based on the cdi (children’s depression inventory) questionnaire. the ultimate goal of this research was to demonstrate the null hypothesis that depression will be significantly more common among patients diagnosed with clinically manifest tb during the covid-19 pandemic. the design of the study group the present research possesses the characteristics of an observational study, with a descriptive character, which is based on a group consisting of a total number of 122 pediatric patients diagnosed with tb, monitored for a period of two years, between january 2019 and december2020, respectively. the patients presented at the time of registration ages comprised between 7 and 18 years. all of them are subjects diagnosed and treated in the children’s pneumology department of “sfântul spiridon” pneumoftiziology hospital of galati and in the tb clinics in galati county. prior to data collection, a written agreement was signed with the ethics commission of the above-mentioned medical units, as well as a confidentiality agreement for personal data processing, drawn up in accordance with declaration of human rights of helsinki. as criteria for inclusion in the study we mention: the age of the patients comprised in the previously mentioned interval, the signing of the informed consent (sandu, 2020d) for inclusion in the study, patients with a definite diagnosis of tb. for an easier understanding of the characteristics of these patients, we decided to subdivide the initial group into two equal groups, as follows: a group of patients with the diagnosis of active tuberculosis, diagnosed in 2020 (year of the covid 19 pandemic) consisting of a total number of 61 patients considered the study group (subgroup a) a control group, consisting of subjects with a definite diagnosis of tuberculosis received in 2019, the year before the covid-19 pandemic – the control group (subgroup b) statistical analysis the statistical analysis is performed in a staged manner. initially, the socio-economic and demographic, clinical-paraclinical and therapeutic information obtained from the medical records of the mentioned clinical units had been analyzed. each of these data was entered in sampling lists, the evolution of depressive disorders in children with history of … nina yarosh, et al. 226 then in summary tables to facilitate the final statistical analysis. microsoft xcel v2020 was used as the work program, the database was corrected, labeled and accompanied by the outputs with all the final tables. results we previously stated that the main group, consisting of a total number of 120 patients, was subdivided into two subgroups, depending on the years of diagnosis (2019, respectively 2020), each of the two subgroups comprising an equal number of 61 of patients. from the point of view of distribution according to the presence or absence of symptoms specific to depressive syndromes, it can be observed that at the level of the total group, the existence of a final number of 77 subjects (64.16%) diagnosed with depression was noted (according to the application of cdi questionnaire). the distribution of the depression cases diagnosed in patients in the study group was also analyzed in terms of incidence in each of the two subgroups, the graphic image being exposed underlyingly. the predominance of cases of depression, regardless of the affiliation to the two subgroups, will be observed first of all, which is why we will issue the null hypothesis that patients diagnosed or undergoing specific treatment for tb pathology have an increased risk of depressive symptoms. concomitant application of the chi-square test χ 2 [ χ 2 = (7755.5) 2 / 55.5 + (43 – 55.5) 2 / 55.5 = 11.14], had a final value higher than the reference value in the fisher table, which is why we will continue with the rejection of the null hypothesis that there are no statistically significant differences between the two subgroups, by reference to the incidence of depressive phenomena. in this case we can conclude that depression has an increased incidence compared to the pandemic period. brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 227 source: authors’ own conception thenceforth, we decided to perform the statistical analysis by reference to the age groups of the patients, in order to detect statistically significant conclusions, if any, according to the previous model. thus, the patients were divided into 3 age groups, as follows: group i with ages comprised between 7 and 10 years: n=17, 22.07% from the total of the depression cases, 14.16% from the total of the group patients with ages comprised between 11 and 14 years: n = 21, 27.27% from the 77 cases with depression, respectively 17.5% from the total of those 120 patients lastly, the patients with ages comprised between 15 and 18 years: n = 39 cases, 50.64% from the total of depression cases diagnosed according to cdi, signifying 32.5% from the total of the main group. thus, according to the information presented above, we will issue a series of null hypotheses as follows: it will be noted that, out of the total cases of depression diagnosed in the main group, the highest incidence will be reported in patients older than 15 years. overall, a maximum incidence peak will be determined in subjects aged in the previously mentioned range, who belong to the study subgroup (n = 25, 32.46% among the depression cases). distribution of depression according to the two subgroups absence of depression presence of depression study group (2020) control group (2019) the evolution of depressive disorders in children with history of … nina yarosh, et al. 228 accordingly, from the point of view of statistical analysis with descriptive character, we will be able to issue, strictly from a quantitative point of view, the hypothesis according to which the incidence of depression presents an ascending curve, by reference to patients’ ages (characterized by a relation of direct dependence). at the same time, it will be noted the influence of the pandemic on these distributions, with the predominance of cases in 2020, in the age group 15-18 years (with a percentage difference of 14.28%), while for patients under 15 years, it will be noticed that cases of depression predominate among those in the control sublot (with percentage differences of 1.29%, dependent on the age groups). this fact is partly explained by the hypothesis that the impact of the pandemic was greater on the adolescents included in the study, due to the interdictions existing in pandemic context (isolation imposed to minimize community transmission of sars cov-2, the increase of on-call consultations, etc.). source: authors’ own conception another factor of increased importance in terms of the distribution of depression cases in pediatric patients diagnosed with tb, in and out of the pandemic context, is represented by the origin environments (but also the associated socio-economic conditions). the following will be observed: distribution approximatively equal of patient genders, in pandemic context, with the discrete predominance of those of female gender (n = 39, 50.64% out of the total of those 77 patients diagnosed with depression according to cdi) brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 229 the maximum incidental peak by concomitant reporting to the pandemic context and to the gender of the subjects is observed for those of male gender, diagnosed with depression in 2020 (n = 23, 29.87%, with a percentage difference of 10.38% as compared to the year 2019) 85.71% of the subjects known with depression (no matter the year of the diagnostic) are educated patients, the lack of education being present in extremely small percentage for pediatric patients with depression. the concomitant application of the chi-square test aims to detect, if any, statistically significant differences in the incidence of depression (according to cdi) in pediatric patients, depending on whether they belong to one of the two subgroups: a) reported to the gender of patients: χ 2 = 46.71 (female gender), respectively χ 2 = 46.31 (male gender). in both cases the chi-square equation showed final values exceeding the reference limit according to fisher table, which is why the null hypothesis that there are no statistically significant differences between the distributions of depression relative to the gender of the patients during the pandemic period will be rejected. b) the education level presents values of the chi-square tests of 19.14 (for educated subjects), respectively 90.09 for those non-educated. it will be concluded that there are statistically significant differences, by reporting the distributions of depression in the pandemic, depending on the level of schooling of patients (increased incidence of depression in educated subjects, in a pandemic context). source: authors’ own conception the evolution of depressive disorders in children with history of … nina yarosh, et al. 230 the image below shows graphically the distribution of symptoms associated with depressive phenomena, as detected by reference to the two subgroups analyzed. it will be concluded that the predominance of the symptoms appeared in a pandemic context, dominated by the existence of suicidal thoughts, the withdrawal from ms, by expressing the feelings of guilt / devaluation, respectively sadness. source: authors’ own conception discussions the present clinical research demonstrated a prevalence of psychiatric depressive spectrum disorders diagnosed in pediatric patients known with tb of 64.16%. this value exceeds the data obtained by another study, conducted in three cities in shandong province from east china (58.6%) (lei et al., 2016). compared to the results obtained in other specialized studies, the prevalence of depressive phenomena was compared with those found in two studies conducted in ethiopia (of 63.3%, respectively 67.6%) (ayana et al., 2019; tola et al., 2015). it should be mentioned that the prevalence of the present study is lower than that found in south africa (81%) (peltzer et al., 2012). the variations presented above can be justified based on the differences in the design of the studies, by reference to the origin environments, the socio-economic characteristics, but also to the individual brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 231 variables. it is important to note in this situation that the pandemic caused by the new sars cov-2 virus had an important impact on the care of patients with tb (we are therefore discussing the delays in diagnosis, the decrease in the number of days of hospitalization, and the detection of severe increased general condition at the time of presentation, as well as the prevalence of psychological distress related to this population group) (di gennaro et al., 2021). the specialty literature has confirmed through numerous studies that worldwide, the restrictions imposed by the pandemic context on the quality of life of patients (especially those under 18 years of age, diagnosed with tb) have had a significant impact on the depressive phenomena (luca, ciubara et al., 2020). according to international conclusions, the present study noted the increased incidence of depression in the year of the pandemic, year 2020 (55.84%). the presence of psychological distress can lead to a number of extremely serious adverse consequences, including poor results of the response to treatment (ugarte-gil et al., 2013), but also an increase in morbidity, mortality and at the same time in the risk of drug resistance (wang et al., 2020). however, psychological stress can be alleviated by appropriate interventions (kaliakbarova et al., 2013; peddireddy, 2016). therefore, it is essential for clinicians (pediatricians and pulmonologists alike) to explore effective intervention strategies. from the point of view of socio-demographic characteristics, the present study detected the existence of statistically significant associations between the gender of patients and the incidence of depressive phenomena, a conclusion that will align with those obtained by specialized studies in angola, but in contradiction with the conclusions of studies in ethiopia (ayana et al., 2019; tola et al., 2015). it has been reported that the incidence of depressive disorders is increased among older patients (over 15 years old), fact justified in part by the hypothesis that older tb patients are an exposed group in terms of overall vulnerability, of increased mortality rates due to the risk of other comorbidities or of adverse reactions to the applied treatment (peddireddy, 2016). in addition, the present study proved that education is a risk factor for the occurrence of depressive phenomena, a conclusion antagonistic to the research conducted internationally (di gennaro et al., 2020). according to other clinical research, the mental disorders have an increased incidence among patients with low educational levels (ambaw et al., 2017). this population group, due to its educational level, may not have the ability to understand the characteristics of tb pathologies, of postdiagnostic emotional insecurity, or low literacy. under these conditions, the evolution of depressive disorders in children with history of … nina yarosh, et al. 232 these patients can easily be associated with psychological distress (theron et al., 2015). conclusions in conclusion, the prevalence of psychological suffering in pediatric patients with tb was high in a pandemic context, in galati county. finding such a diagnosis is therefore a stress factor, making psycho-vulnerable any patient, especially the pediatric subject. the educational level, the psychosocial reaction, the economic burden, the side effects of the psyche that appeared as a result of tuberculostatic medication, the severity of the self-assessed disease, the psychological consequences of the disease, all these are already known factors for detecting depressive phenomena in patients with tb. in addition, in the context of the covid 19 pandemic, due to the restrictions imposed by it, the incidence of depressive phenomena has increased. the impairment of the family dynamics, the increasing of the need for psychological counseling, and stigma experienced by patients have been associated with psychological distress. in a pandemic context, the aggravation or de novo appearance of mental health problems was detected, which, corroborated with the lack of screening programs for depressive disorders in children diagnosed with tuberculosis, lead to late diagnosis and decreased compliance with treatment, resulting in increased incidence of tuberculosis and many drug-resistant forms of the disease, associated with the depressive phenomena. therefore, the impact of the psychological stress on patients with tb must be acknowledged and, consecutively, effective interventions to mitigate this phenomenon should be developed. at the same time, more attention should be paid to those patients known to be at risk, with the ultimate goal of achieving better clinical outcomes and improving patients’ quality of life. references alagna, r., besozzi, g., codecasa, l. r., gori, a., battista migliori, g., raviglione, m., & cirillo, d. m. (2020). celebrating world tuberculosis day at the time of covid-19. the european respiratory journal, 55, 2000650. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00650-2020 ambaw, f., mayston, r., hanlon, c., & alem, a. (2017). burden and presentation of depression among newly diagnosed individuals with tb in primary care settings in ethiopia. bmc psychiatry,17(1), 57. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-017-1231-4 https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00650-2020 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-017-1231-4 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 233 ambaw, f., mayston, r., hanlon, c., & alem, a. (2015). depression among patients with tuberculosis: determinants, course and impact on pathways to care and treatment outcomes in a primary care setting in southern ethiopia—a study protocol. bmj open, 5, e007653. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-007653 andreoulakis, e., hyphantis, t., kandylis, d., & iacovides, a. (2012). depression in diabetes mellitus: a comprehensive review. hippokratia, 16(3), 205–214. ayana, t.m., roba, k.t., & mabalhin, m. o. (2017). prevalence of psychological distress and associated factors among adult tuberculosis patients attending public health institutions in dire dawa and harar cities, eastern ethiopia. bmc public health, 19(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7684-2 burlea, a., sacuiu, i., chirita, v., & chirita, r. (2012). teen depression prevention an issue of great social impact. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15, 176(supplement: 1), p-12-002. damian, s-i., diac, m. m., knieling, a., iov, t., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2020). observance of the probative value of the psychiatric forensic expertise guarantee of avoiding judicial errors in criminal proceedings. logos universality mentality education novelty: law, 8(1), 60-72. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/8.1/37 dara, m., sotgiu, g., reichler, m. r., chiang, c-y., chee, c. b. e., & migliori, g. b. (2020). new diseases and old threats: lessons from tuberculosis for the covid-19 response. international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease, 24, 544–545. https://doi.org/10.5588/ijtld.20.0151 di gennaro, f., gualano, g., timelli, l., vittozzi, p., di bari, v., libertone, r., cerva, c., pinnarelli, l., nisii, c., ianniello, s., mosti, s., bevilacqua, n., iacomi, f., mondi, a., topino, s., goletti, d., vaia, f., ippolito, g., girardi, e., & palmieri, f. (2021). increase in tuberculosis diagnostic delay during first wave of the covid-19 pandemic: data from an italian infectious disease referral hospital. antibiotics (basel, switzerland), 10(3), 272. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10030272 di gennaro, f., vittozzi, p., gualano, g., musso, m., mosti, s., mencarini, p., pareo, c., di caro, a., schininà, v., girardi, e., & palmieri, f. (2020). active pulmonary tuberculosis in elderly patients: a 2016-2019 retrospective analysis from an italian referral hospital. antibiotics (basel, switzerland), 9(8), 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9080489 kaliakbarova, g., pak, s., zhaksylykova, n., raimova, g., temerbekova, b., & van den hof s. (2013). psychosocial support improves treatment adherence among mdr-tb patients: experience from east kazakhstan. the open infectious diseases journal, 7(special 1), 60–64. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874279301307010060 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-007653 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7684-2 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/8.1/37 https://doi.org/10.5588/ijtld.20.0151 https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10030272 https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9080489 https://doi.org/10.2174/1874279301307010060 the evolution of depressive disorders in children with history of … nina yarosh, et al. 234 kiecolt-glaser, j. k., & glaser, r. (2002). depression and immune function: central pathways to morbidity and mortality. journal of psychosomatic research, 53, 873–876. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3999(02)00309-4 lei, x., huang, k., liu, q., jie, y. f., & tang, s. l. (2016). are tuberculosis patients adherent to prescribed treatments in china? results of a prospective cohort study. infectious diseases of poverty, 5(1), 38. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-016-0134-9 li, z., li, y., chen, l., chen, p., & hu, y. (2015). prevalence of depression in patients with hypertension: a systematic review and metaanalysis. medicine, 94, e1317 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001317 luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 luca, l., ciubara, a., ciubara, a. b., chirosca, a. c., & sarbu, f. (2019). youth perceptions towards psychiatry. european psychiatry, 56 (supplement: s), s464-s464. ngwatu, b. k., nsengiyumva, n. p., oxlade, o., benjamin mappin-kasirer, b., nguyen, n. l., jaramillo, e., falzon, d., schwartzman, k., & collaborative group on the impact of digital technologies on tb (2018). the impact of digital health technologies on tuberculosis treatment: a systematic review. european respiratory journal, 51, 1701596. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01596-2017 pachi, a., bratis, d., moussas, g., & tselebis, a. (2013). psychiatric morbidity and other factors affecting treatment adherence in pulmonary tuberculosis patients. tuberculosis research and treatment, 2013, 489865. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/489865 peddireddy, v. (2016). quality of life, psychological interventions and treatment outcome in tuberculosis patients: the indian scenario. frontiers in psychology, 7, 1664. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01664 peltzer, k., naidoo, p., matseke, g., louw, j., mchunu, g., & tutshana, b. (2012). prevalence of psychological distress and associated factors in tuberculosis patients in public primary care clinics in south africa. bmc psychiatry, 12(1), 89. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244x-12-89 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3999(02)00309-4 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-016-0134-9 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001317 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01596-2017 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/489865 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01664 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244x-12-89 brain. broad research in june, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 2 235 sandu, a., & damian, s-i. (2018). perceived quality of life and responsibility for own health condition. micro-research. archiv euromedica, 8(2), 18-23. http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiveuromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_1 2_2018-18_23.pdf sandu, a. (2020a). the principles of bioethics and their use in ethical decisionmaking. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 9(1), 139154. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.1/39 sandu, a. (2020b). from pandemic to infodemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 277-289. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/88 sandu, a. (2020c). pandemic catalyst of the virtualization of the social space. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 115-140. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 sandu, a. (2020d). autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 260-276. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 saunders, m. j., & evans, c. a. (2020). covid-19, tuberculosis and poverty: preventing a perfect storm. the european respiratory journal, 56(1), 2001348. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01348-2020 stop tb partnership. (2020). we did a rapid assessment: the tb response is heavily impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. stop tb partnership. http://www.stoptb.org/news/stories/2020/ns20_014.html theron, g., peter, j., zijenah, l., chanda, d., mangu, c., clowes, p., rachow, a., lesosky, m., hoelscher, m., pym, a., mwaba, p., mason, p., naidoo, p., pooran, a., sohn, h., pai, m., stein, d. j., & dheda, k. (2015). psychological distress and its relationship with non-adherence to tb treatment: a multicenter study. bmc infectious diseases, 15(1), 253. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-015-0964-2 tola, h. h., shojaeizadeh, d., garmaroudi, g., tol, a., yekaninejad, m. s., ejeta, l. t., kebede, a., karimi, m., & kassa, d. (2015). psychological distress and its effect on tuberculosis treatment outcomes in ethiopia. global health action, 8(1), 29019. https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v8.29019 ugarte-gil, c., ruiz, p., zamudio, c., canaza, l., otero, l., kruger, h., & seas, c. (2013). association of major depressive episode with negative outcomes of tuberculosis treatment. plos one, 8(7), e69514. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069514 wang, q., dima, m., ho-foster, a., molebatsi, k., modongo, c., zetola, n. m., & shin s. s. (2020). the association of household food insecurity and hiv infection with common mental disorders among newly diagnosed http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-18_23.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.1/39 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/88 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/146 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01348-2020 http://www.stoptb.org/news/stories/2020/ns20_014.html https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-015-0964-2 https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v8.29019 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069514 the evolution of depressive disorders in children with history of … nina yarosh, et al. 236 tuberculosis patients in botswana. public health nutrition, 1– 9. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980020004139 world health organization (who). (2017). depression and other common mental disorders: global health estimates. report no.: who/msd/mer/2017.2. world health organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254610/who-msdmer-2017.2-eng.pdf yen, y-f., chung, m-s., hu, h-y., lai, y-j., huang, l-y., lin, y-s., chou, p., & deng, c-y. (2015). association of pulmonary tuberculosis and ethambutol with incident depressive disorder: a nationwide, population-based cohort study. journal of clinical psychiatry, 76, e505–11. https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.14m09403 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980020004139 https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254610/who-msd-mer-2017.2-eng.pdf https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254610/who-msd-mer-2017.2-eng.pdf https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.14m09403 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 303-318 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/233 a content analysis on publications written on (e-government and m-government) from 2000 to 2021 huseyin bi̇cen¹, shobo najim shali̇2 1 near east university, cyprus, huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr 2 kpi research center, iraq, shoboshali@hotmail.com abstract: the ict (internet communication technology), with the assistance of web 2.0 tools, made a revolutionary impact on organizational performances, including the governmental ones. the electronic government or (e-government) is a modern approach that contributes positively to the governmental organization's performances; it leads to a structural reforms and creates an innovative atmosphere in the flow of information. the mobile government or (m-government) created by the technology innovators to add better efficiency to the governmental organizations works for saving time and efforts. between 2000 and 2021, this study looked at publications that supported e-government and m-government that were published on the scopus website or contributed to the scopus database. keywords: e-government, m-government, e-government, mgovernment. e-gov, m-gov, government data processing. how to cite: bicen, h., & shali, s.n. (2021). a content analysis on publications written on (e-government and m-government) from 2000 to 2021. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 303318. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/233 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/233 mailto:huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr mailto:shoboshali@hotmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/233 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 304 1. introduction in recent years, the demands on smartphones increased incredibly (silver, 2019). it became a necessary gadget for most of people. young and old, even children demanding to own one of those smartphones for incredible capabilities in connecting to others and using advanced applications, like if you were completing your work with your palm of your hand. on the other hand, advanced governments in the race for innovations and creating better tools for their types of work in serving their people (oecd 2017), by offering advanced solutions to their employees to provide better efficiency in technology base tools. from this angle, the egovernment and the mobile government applications are created in supports of good governance. around the world, advancements in e-governmentoriented technologies and services are happening at a breakneck pace. egovernment initiatives attempt to profit from the most cutting-edge types of information technology, notably web-based internet applications, in order to improve government's core tasks. these functions are currently spreading the usage of mobile and wireless technology, paving the way for a new path: government on the move (m-government) (kushchu & kuscu, 2016). the ict (internet communication technology) devices, with assistance web 2.0 tools, allow multiple functions simultaneously (bicen et al., 2012) and made a revolutionary impact on organizational performances, including governmental organizations. the e-government is a modern approach that contributes positively to the governmental organization's development; it leads to structural reforms and creates a creative atmosphere in the flow of information. consequently, it will generate better performances from the government sides to serve their citizens better, leading to transparency and trust. e-government solutions strive to improve government essential activities by utilizing the most cutting-edge kinds of information technology, particularly web-based internet applications. these functions have now expanded mobile and wireless technologies, resulting in a new trend: mobile government (m-government) (kushchu & kuscu, 2016). further to the e-government developments, the mobile government supported by smartphones creates an extra efficient tool for serving people from the comforts of their palms. the" at any time ... anywhere...." approach saves both governments and citizens time and effort. it changes the faces of organizations. technology innovation is not going to stop at this point. with upcoming internet advancements of the g6, new technology in the a content analysis on publications written on (e-government and … huseyin bi̇cen & shobo najim shali̇ 305 governmental institutions will arise under the smart government. this new approach is underway to make governments' organizations even more efficient and accessible to their citizens. this study aims to analyze the literature using e-government and its sub-setting tool "m-government technologies" in terms of various variables, give better guidance for future studies and research, and pinpoint the gap areas of studies regarding this specific subject. 1.1. the goal of the study this study aims to understand the amount of interest shown from different sectors to the mobile government (m-gov.) researches with in the electronic government (e-gov.) approach, from academics, scholars, and other professionals levels. in addition what has being published on scopus website. 1.2. hypothesis the following sub-objectives have been determined to help achieve the overall goal: 1. what is the distribution map of studies using the e-government and m-government aspects according to the publication type? 2. what is the distribution map of studies that use the e-government and m-government aspects by year of publication? 3. how is the distribution map of publications using the egovernment and m-government aspects according to the number of authors? 4. what are the disciplines where articles about e-government and m-government publications used? 5. how is the distribution of studies using the e-government and mgovernment publications according to the country of interest? 2. method the quantitative method is used to assess the content analysis for the electronic-government (e-government) and the mobile-government (mgovernment) publications. content analysis is a research method that seeks to make repeatable and accurate conclusions about concepts from text and documents (krippendorff, 2012). in another definition, content analysis is an unbiased and quantitative examination of the main substance of communication (berelson, 1952). it can also be used to look for trends and patterns in documents (stemler, 2000). brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 306 2.1. scanning criteria the researcher determined certain scanning and selecting criteria to determine the project procedure in this investigation (jawabreh & bicen, 2020). after defining the requirements, the terms searched basis on the criteria keywords "e-gov." and "m-gov" as well as “electronic government” and “mobile government” in the database of (scopus) database to find all publications posted between the years 2000-2021. the results, 184 publications were found by the researcher within the contexts of the field in multiple categories. these articles were found to meet the criteria established at the end of the screening process. "publishing types, publication years, authors, the discipline areas, the publication's country of origin, and their volumes" were all examined. 2.2. sample all samples included from 2000 to 2021, the research sample includes papers about e-government and m-government discovered in the titling literature on the (scopus) database. as a consequence of the research, many categories were investigated, and investigations were supported based on the data presented. 2.3. data collection and analysis the information gathered for the study was evaluated using descriptive statistical approaches, such as percentages and frequencies (jawabreh & bicen, 2020). to meet the answer to each study question, the rates of the data were calculated based on the frequencies and given in tables. 3. findings and comments 3.1. distribution of projects by publication type the distribution map of studies on the use of "e-government and mgovernment" includes term equivalencies like "electronic government, mobile government, e-gov., and m-gov", analyzed by types of studies. the highest number of publication type appeared to be a conference papers with 48.92%, followed by articles 32.06%, book chapters 14.13%, conference reviews 3.27%, and each of (book, editorial and review papers) with less than 1% which was 0.54%. a content analysis on publications written on (e-government and … huseyin bi̇cen & shobo najim shali̇ 307 (table 1) the distribution of projects on e-government and m-government to their publication type) source: authors own conception publication/ document types number of articles % conference paper 90 49.5% article 59 32% book chapter 26 14% conference review 6 3 % book 1 0.5% editorial 1 0.5% review 1 0.5% total 184 % 100 3.2. distribution of projects by publishing years when the distribution map of studies on the use of "e-government and m-government" includes term equivalencies like "electronic government, mobile government, e-gov., and m-gov", the highest number of studies were analyzed by years observed between 2000-2021 with 8.7% in 2020. these studies came after those conducted in 2010 with 8.2% and in 2013 and 2014 with 7.6%. however, 3.3% of studies published in the 49% 32% 14% 3% 0% 1% 1% types of publications conference paper article book chapter conference review book editorial review brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 308 recent year 2021 so far, and this rate might change by the end of this year as other scholars might add to this table of accomplishment. (table 2) the distribution of projects on e-government and m-government to their publishing years source: authors own conception publishing years of studies number of articles % publishing years of studies number of articles % 2000 0 % 0 2011 13 % 7 2001 0 % 0 2012 11 % 6 2002 0 % 0 2013 14 % 7.6 2003 1 % 0.54 2014 14 % 7.6 2004 1 % 0.54 2015 12 % 6.5 2005 1 % 0.54 2016 12 % 6.5 2006 4 % 2.17 2017 12 % 6.5 2007 7 % 3.8 2018 11 % 6 2008 10 % 5.4 2019 14 % 7.6 2009 10 % 5.4 2020 16 % 8.7 2010 15 % 8.2 2021 (in progress) 6 % 3.3 total 184 %100 a content analysis on publications written on (e-government and … huseyin bi̇cen & shobo najim shali̇ 309 3.3. how is the distribution of publications using "e-government and m-government" according to the number of authors? when it comes to the number of authors, there are numbers of them. in "e-government and m-government" studies, six levels of contributions and 239 authors contributed to 184 publications. that means multiple people contributed to the same publications. in other words, some articles were published under more than one author. on the other hand, some authors contributed to more than one publication. the single highest contributing author contributed to five publications. three authors contributed to four journals, and 12 authors contributed to 3 publications, followed by 37 authors with two publications and 106 singled publication authors. however, in this research, six undefined fields of authors were founded. (table 3) the distribution of articles using "e-government and m-government" according to the number of authors) source: authors own conception 0% 0% 0% 1% 1% 1% 2% 4% 5% 5% 8% 7% 6% 8% 8% 7% 7% 7% 6% 8% 9% 3% publications per year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 (in progress) highest contributors number of authors numbers of publication contribution percentage 1 1 author 5 publications 3.125 2 3 authors 4 publications 2.5 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 310 3.4. what are the disciplines where articles about "e-government and m-government"? regarding the discipline areas of "e-government and mgovernment," the disciplines covered in related publications are listed in alphabetical order (table 4). there are 325 disciplines in total in the study, which are divided into 15 groups. the field of computer science has the greatest studies in these disciplines with 42.76 percent, which is the highest one, and followed by social sciences of 18.76%. business, management and accounting at 10.46%, engineering 8.61%, decision sciences 8.31%, mathematics 5.84%, economics, econometrics, and finance 1.24%, both multidisciplinary and physics and astronomy 0.93%, environmental science 0.61%, and each of (agricultural and biological sciences, arts and humanities, energy, materials science, plus medicine) participated by less than 1%, which was equivalent to 0.31% of the total discipline. 31% 25% 19% 13% 6% 6% authors contribution percentage 1 author 5 publications 3 authors 4 publications 12 authors 3 publications 37 authors 2 publications 106 authors 1 publications 6 undefined authors 3 12 authors 3 publications 1.875 4 37 authors 2 publications 1.25 5 106 authors 1 publications 0.625 6 6 undefined authors undefined 0.625 total publications 184 100% a content analysis on publications written on (e-government and … huseyin bi̇cen & shobo najim shali̇ 311 (table 4) the distribution map of the discipline areas about "e-government and mgovernment" in the articles on scopus source: authors own conception research topics number of articles % 1 computer science 139 42.76 2 social sciences 61 18.76 3 business, management, and accounting 34 10.46 4 engineering 28 8.61 5 decision sciences 27 8.31 6 mathematics 19 5.84 7 economics, econometrics and finance 4 1.24 8 multidisciplinary 3 0.93 9 physics and astronomy 3 0.93 10 environmental science 2 0.61 11 agricultural and biological sciences 1 0.31 12 arts and humanities 1 0.31 13 energy 1 0.31 14 materials science 1 0.31 15 medicine 1 0.31 total 325 %100 43% 19% 11% 9% 8% 6% 1% 1% 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% publications by research topics computer science social sciences business, management and accounting engineering decision sciences mathematics economics, econometrics and finance multidisciplinary physics and astronomy brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 312 3.5. how is the distribution of studies using the e-government and mgovernment according to the country of interests? the country of origin for publications about "e-government and mgovernment" resulted in 226 countries. this means there are several publications with more than one country of origin. the highest contributing country of origin that linked to the affiliated institutions of the source of the publication in the united kingdom with contributing 20 publications, which means the uk contributed to 8.85% of these studies, followed by the united state of 18 publication, an 8%, south africa of 5.5%, india 5%, each of (australia, china, germany, and malasia) contributed by 4%, jordan 3.53%, greece and iran 3.1%, each of (finland, indonesia, saudi arabia, south korea, turkey) with 2.21%, each of (bahrain, italy, and united arab emirates) 1.76%, eygipt, (hungary, indonesia, netherland, nigeria, and sweden) of 1.5%, and the rest of countries contributed by 1 or 2 publications which contributing by less than 1% to the outcome of the search. however, seven publications came without country of origin or undefined. (table 5) the distribution of the disciplines where articles about "e-government and m-government" are used source: authors own conception # publication country of origin number of articles % # publication country of origin number of articles % 1 united kingdom 20 8.85 30 israel 2 0.9 2 united states 18 8 31 japan 2 0.9 3 south africa 12 5.5 32 malawi 2 0.9 4 india 11 5 33 portugal 2 0.9 5 australia 9 4 34 qatar 2 0.9 6 china 9 4 35 singapore 2 0.9 7 germany 9 4 36 switzerland 2 0.9 8 malaysia 9 4 37 taiwan 2 0.9 9 jordan 8 3.53 38 tanzania 2 0.9 10 greece 7 3.1 39 austria 1 0.5 11 iran 7 3.1 40 azerbaijan 1 0.5 12 finland 5 2.21 41 belgium 1 0.5 13 indonesia 5 2.21 42 bolivia 1 0.5 14 saudi arabia 5 2.21 43 colombia 1 0.5 15 south korea 5 2.21 44 denmark 1 0.5 a content analysis on publications written on (e-government and … huseyin bi̇cen & shobo najim shali̇ 313 16 turkey 5 2.21 45 estonia 1 0.5 17 bahrain 4 1.76 46 france 1 0.5 18 italy 4 1.76 47 iraq 1 0.5 19 united arab emirates 4 1.76 48 kenya 1 0.5 20 egypt 3 1.5 49 mauritius 1 0.5 21 hungary 3 1.5 50 mexico 1 0.5 22 macedonia 3 1.5 51 oman 1 0.5 23 netherlands 3 1.5 52 papua new guinea 1 0.5 24 nigeria 3 1.5 53 peru 1 0.5 25 sweden 3 1.5 54 samoa 1 0.5 26 bangladesh 2 0.9 55 spain 1 0.5 27 brazil 2 0.9 56 thailand 1 0.5 28 canada 2 0.9 57 trinidad and tobago 1 0.5 29 czech republic 2 0.9 58 undefined 7 0.5 total 226 %100 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 314 9% 8% 5% 5% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% publications by country united kingdom united states south africa india australia china germany malaysia jordan greece iran undefined finland indonesia saudi arabia south korea turkey bahrain italy united arab emirates egypt hungary macedonia netherlands nigeria sweden bangladesh brazil canada czech republic israel japan malawi a content analysis on publications written on (e-government and … huseyin bi̇cen & shobo najim shali̇ 315 4. results and discussion integrating mobile government solutions into electronic government applications and processes is rapidly increasing because it creates more efficiency for people. smartphones are one of the best tools to connect and perform daily transactions "at any time and anywhere approach” (parcell, 2015). this approach came very useful when covid-19 invaded the entire world in the beginning of 2020, and the world's population still suffering from this pandemic until today. this study focused on understanding the amount of attention based on the m-government within the context of the e-government. this goal was determined by analyzing the number of publications that were published from one particular website database, the (scopus), within the last 11 years from 2000 to 2020. when the distribution map of studies on the frequent use of "egovernment and m-government" including term equivalents, analyzed by types of assignments (table 1), the highest number of publication type appeared to be the conference papers with 48.92%, followed by articles 32.06%, book chapters 14.13%, conference reviews 3.27%, and each of (book, editorial and review papers) with less than 1% which was 0.54%, this indicates the amount of attention given by professionals in exposing the subjects and discussing them at the professional levels. on the other hand, books were the least of concerns from academics and professional institutions. the importance of the period is based upon the era of web 2.0 tools developments, including internet developments and smartphones. when the distribution map of studies on the frequent use of "e-government and mgovernment" including term equivalencies like "electronic government, mobile government, e-gov., and m-gov", analyzed by years (table 2), there was a total of 184 publications, the highest number of studies observed between 2000-2021 was 8.7% in 2020. these studies were followed by those done in 2010 (with 8.2%), 2013, and 2014 (with 7.6%). however, 3.3% of studies published in the recent year 2021 so far, and this rate might change by the end of this year as other scholars might add to this table of accomplishment. in addition, the research found no publications posted before 2003, which means the attention to this subject did not initiate or not posted on scopus before 2003. the data analysis showed graduate increase toward 2010 and graduate decrease toward 2020. then it reached a peak in 2020, which explained by the pandemic situation. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 316 when it comes to the number of authors in the areas of "egovernment and m-government" studies who contributed to 184 publications, six levels of contributions and 239 authors found (table 3). that means multiple people contributed to the same publications. in other words, some publications were published under more than one author. on the other hand, some authors contributed to more than one publication. the single highest contributing author contributed by (5) publications, followed by (3) authors contributed to (4) publications, and (12) authors contributed to (3) publications, followed by (37) authors with (2) publications and (106) singled authored publication. however, in this research, six articles were found with undefined authors. if we calculate each author's effort to the total work of 184 publications, we find each author contributed by 0.625%. regarding the discipline interests in publications of "e-government and m-government," the disciplines included in related publications (table 4) and studies have 15 categories of disciplines areas of total 325 covered in the 184 publications, this means some publications covered more than one area of discipline. computer science is the most common place to look for research in these fields, the highest with 42.76%, followed by social sciences of 18.76%, business, management and accounting of 10.46%, engineering 8.61%, decision sciences 8.31%, mathematics 5.84%, economics, econometrics and finance 1.24%, both multidisciplinary and physics and astronomy 0.93%, environmental science 0.61%, and each of (agricultural and biological sciences, arts and humanities, energy, materials science, plus medicine) participated by less than 1%, which was equivalent to 0.31% of the total discipline. the country of origin is linked to affiliated institutions that adopting studies. when it came to the country of origin for these 184 publications about "e-government and m-government," it resulted in 226 countries. this means there are many publications with more than one country of origin, which means multiple institutions joined efforts in the contribution of these researches as shown in (table 5). this study shows the highest contributing country as an origin of the affiliated institution to the publication in the united kingdom, contributing to 20 publications in that period. in other words, uk contributed to 8.85% of these studies with 20 publications, followed by the united state with 18 publication of 8%, then south africa of 5.5%, india 5%, each of (australia, china, germany, and malasia) contributed by 4%, jordan 3.53%, greece and iran 3.1%, and each of (finland, indonesia, saudi arabia, south korea, turkey) with 2.21%, each of (bahrain, italy, and united arab emirates) 1.76%, (egypt, hungary, indonesia, netherland, nigeria, and sweden) 1.5%, and the rest of countries a content analysis on publications written on (e-government and … huseyin bi̇cen & shobo najim shali̇ 317 contributed by 1 or 2 publications which will be less than 1% to the outcome of the search. however, the study shows seven publications came without country of origin or undefined country. 5. limitations this study is restricted to a single website. more testing, extending to numerous target websites, is needed to reproduce and verify the approach's functionality. in order to compare and enrich the findings, future studies should combine the quantitative and qualitative approaches in the framework of content analysis ( vitouladiti, 2013). references berelson, b. (1952). content analysis in communication research. free press. bicen, h., & ozdamli, f., & uzunboylu, h. (2012). online and blended learning approach on instructional multimedia development courses in teacher education. interactive learning environments, 22(4), 529-548. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2012.682586 jawabreh, r., & bicen, h. (2020). content analysis of articles that related to the use of google classroom and gamification in education from 2016 to 2020. near east university online journal of education, 3(2), 53-65. https://doi.org/10.32955/neuje.v3i2.247 krippendorff, k. (2012). content analysis: an introduction to its methodology (second edition). sage publications. kushchu, i., & kuscu, m. h. (2016). from e-government to m-government: facing the inevitable. mobilegov uk. oecd. (2017, february 12-14) embracing innovation in government: global trends. world government summit, dubai, united arab emirates, 12-14 february 2017. oecd publication. retrieved august 10, 2021, fromhttps://www.oecd.org/innovation/innovativegovernment/embracing-innovation-in-government-global-trends.htm parcell, j. (2015,), how government will accelerate anytime, anywhere services and information in 2015. digital.gov. gsa | washington d.c. retrieved august 10, 2021, from https://digital.gov/2015/01/29/how-governmentwill-accelerate-anytime-anywhere-services-and-information-in-2015/ silver, l. (2019,). smartphone ownership is growing rapidly around the world, but not always equally. pew research center. retrieved august 10, 2021, from https://www.pewresearch.org/global/smartphone-ownership-isgrowing-rapidly-around-the-world-but-not-always-equally/ stemler, s. (2000). an overview of content analysis. practical assessment, research, and evaluation, 7, 17. https://doi.org/10.7275/z6fm-2e34 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2012.682586 https://doi.org/10.32955/neuje.v3i2.247 https://www.oecd.org/innovation/innovative-government/embracing-innovation-in-government-global-trends.htm https://www.oecd.org/innovation/innovative-government/embracing-innovation-in-government-global-trends.htm https://digital.gov/2015/01/29/how-government-will-accelerate-anytime-anywhere-services-and-information-in-2015/ https://digital.gov/2015/01/29/how-government-will-accelerate-anytime-anywhere-services-and-information-in-2015/ https://www.pewresearch.org/global/smartphone-ownership-is-growing-rapidly-around-the-world-but-not-always-equally/ https://www.pewresearch.org/global/smartphone-ownership-is-growing-rapidly-around-the-world-but-not-always-equally/ https://doi.org/10.7275/z6fm-2e34 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 318 vitouladiti, o. (2014). content analysis as a resear ch tool for marketing management and development str ategies in tourism. procedia – economics and finance, 9, 278-287. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(14)00029-x https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(14)00029-x ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 371-381 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/348 submitted: january 19th, 2022| accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 virtual reality as an artistic space in the context of musical art maryna petrenko 1 , ivan zabolotnyi 2 , tetiana martyniuk 3 , anatolii martyniuk 4 , olena tkachenko 5 , dmytro yefimov 6 1 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, mariina.petrenko@gmail.com 2 state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, zabolotnyj@meta.ua 3 hryhorii skovoroda university in pereiaslav, ukraine, tatyana5081964@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5236-5990 4 hryhorii skovoroda university in pereiaslav, ukraine, anatolij23111953@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0000-00032553-8598 5 hryhorii skovoroda university in pereiaslav, ukraine, helenmuzik28@gmail.com 6 horlivka institute for foreign languages of state higher educational institution “donbas state pedagogical university”, ukraine, jaster19911@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6317-5287 abstract: the article highlights the modern view of musical art in the context of the development of information and communication technologies, which form the perception of art in the context of virtual interpretation. the relevance of the study is based on the prerequisites of the modern development of information and innovation society. there is a need for the perception of information in the context of virtual space in the context of the twentieth century. this trend changes approaches to human activities in different spheres of life, including artistic. this article shows the basic principles of virtual reality formation in the context of creating a space for the manifestation of musical art. the basic principles of perception of new artistic media in virtualization and digitalization are defined, and aspects of musical art reproduction are analyzed. this study shows the transformation of real life into virtual simple, which contributes to the spatio-temporal thinking of man and interprets the cultural achievements of human activity throughout the historical development. the article presents theoretical and methodological approaches to the analysis of musical art. the reflexion of the temporal phenomenon of cultural stratification and in-depth analysis of modern digital transformation in the context of virtual space formation is defined. music discourse is analyzed in the context of cultural dynamics in the direction of the virtual world creation. the methods of analysis and synthesis, the research method and the method of discourse analysis were applied to study the virtualization of the musical environment. this study provided a basis for reflecting the effectiveness of the virtual environment for music art. keywords: media, socio-cultural values, innovativeness, informatization, transformation of space, digitalization of music. how to cite: petrenko, m., zabolotnyi, i., martyniuk, t., martyniuk, a., tkachenko, o., & yefimov, d. (2022). virtual reality as an artistic space in the context of musical art. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 371-381. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/348 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/348 mailto:mariina.petrenko@gmail.com mailto:zabolotnyj@meta.ua mailto:tatyana5081964@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5236-5990 mailto:anatolij23111953@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0003-2553-8598 https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0003-2553-8598 mailto:helenmuzik28@gmail.com mailto:jaster19911@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6317-5287 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/348 virtual reality as an artistic space in the context of musical art maryna petrenko et al. 372 1. introduction art space forms human socio-cultural values, reflecting the spiritual heritage of mankind throughout the evolutionary and civilizational process. musical art is a unique phenomenon, it forms the emotional intelligence of the individual, which most fully reflects the spiritual world of man. the newest era reflects the achievements of mankind in the context of cultural development and forms new approaches to the interpretation of art. informatization and digitalization prompts people to a new view of art, to the search for a new interpretation, formed in a new style reflection of reality through the artistic context in the perspective of an innovative technological approach. postmodernism the style direction of contemporary art reflects the ironic human perception of the real world, which is not ideal, losing the values acquired in previous eras (komogorova et al., 2021; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; nerubasska et al., 2020; sheremet et al., 2019). the global digital space has defined a similar environment for music, blurring the boundaries between varieties, genres, or styles of musical art. the corresponding trend gives rise to new challenges for the artistic society of a new temporal dimension and prompts the determination of ways to regulate the artistic space. therefore, the topic for the study was chosen, which shows the representation of the virtual space of music art in order to identify new approaches to the transformation of music art in the digital space. this approach to the analysis of innovations of artistic space in the context of the formation of virtuality to display musical interpretation is relevant and interesting to study, because the virtual dimension of musical art can be a prospect for further study in the context of human progress. the purpose of this article is to explore virtual reality as an artistic space for music. 2. theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the formation of the artistic space of music art musical art contributes to the formation of human values throughout the development of history, the formation of its cultural level. the space of art is a phenomenal concept that characterizes the integral system of functioning and interaction of different aspects of creative activity in the process of the emergence of catharsis as an emotion triggered by the aesthetic manifestation of art. this reflection of art is a manifestation of socio-cultural value impact on human life. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 373 the artistic space of musical creativity is formed as the interaction of real human communication in the musical interpretation in certain genres and styles, which is reflected in a certain model of human activity. the space is reflected by the creative approach of the artist as a central character for the creation of artistic musical space. artistic space is formed by the creative person of his own hand. the space is man-made, as it is shaped by the creative personality using artistic elements to compose the musical artistic environment. the central character of the creation of musical artistic space is the author of artistic projects, because he reflects his perception and vision of social development. thus, in musical art, the activity of the composer is decisive, because it represents his artistic worldview and constitutes the content of authorship on the demonstration of musical manifestations in society, as well as the ability to implement the author's projects and approaches. the contemporary author displays his perception of art as the basis for communication with the viewer or listener. at the same time, the peculiarity of musical art is the combination of different ways of mastering the environment and communication in the process of communication, in particular through visualization or moving perception of reality. communicativity the sign of space in the reproduction of musical art creates a spatial and temporal environment for music as a phenomenal formation of socio-cultural values. on the basis of this approach the perception about the worldview concept of the art historical aspect of the culture of the modern era is formed. artistic space is the content of the artist's creative activity, which is formed as a manifestation of self-expression. art has certain attributes that help in self-expression. the language of musical art is a universal manifestation for expression both in the context of communication, transmission of information, expression of feelings and emotions. musical speech as a manifestation of the various functions of musical art is an exponent of the various means of musical art and forms a specific space for music-making. at different times, musical art has its own characteristics in the context of certain style features of the era, as well as the manifestation of individual style. modern individual style is characterized by a certain interpretation of music from past eras, that is, "paraphrasing" the music of the past expresses a modern individual approach. the postmodern aspect characterizes contemporary music as a manifestation of general trends in society, better than the interpretation of the author's. virtual reality as an artistic space in the context of musical art maryna petrenko et al. 374 thus, the history of the art of music goes back to antiquity, to the beginning of primitive society. man strives for self-expression and to gain catharsis from life, which is why the art of music is so important. the space of musical art is the environment in which the process of creating, expressing, and interpreting music takes place. artistic space is formed from the author's intent, to the complete reproduction of a piece of music in the context of the manifestation of the language of music and the development of a style both epochal and individual. the procedure and technology of creating music is an important topic for many researchers, but not enough research is aimed at highlighting the context of musical space as a musical activity in order to achieve selfrealization of personality, development of individual traits, as a manifestation of personality. today music is predominantly analyzed in the context of discourse analysis, in the context of the social aspect by bonfeld (2007), critical discourse analysis by makarov (2003, p. 74) or the sociocognitive school of discourse analysis (laclau, 1995). the concept of artistic space as a manifestation of musical art emerged in the period of antiquity. such a problem was of interest to researchers of the ancient era, who believed that space is the content of being and the form of expression of music. since the ancient period there has been a debate about the conceptual position of space. some researchers argued that space is a separate independent substance, others believed that space is the interaction of material bodies. this approach contributes to the model of art in the context of the interaction of objects and their relationships. one of the statements about the formation of space is defined by a mathematical interpretation. thus, mathematics arranges space in the context of a representation of a set of points in certain relationships, expressed in geometric order. such a representation is appropriate for formulating a representation for artistic space. researcher zlotnyk (2018) forms the notion of space as a sign of social culture, which is structured by relevant social components interacting in the geographical and temporal field. kolesnyk (2014) characterizes space as a set of structures of ethnic development formed due to interaction in the context of three attributes: ethno-national, territorial and socio-cultural. the psychological aspect of the formation of space is also an important paradigm of artistic interpretation. thus, the musical space is formed as a figurative perception of the surrounding reality in a creative interpretation in the context of conscious representation and creation of the corresponding image, modeled and reproduced in the music. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 375 space reflects the results of human activity in different aspects. however, musical space is more abstract in the representation of the process of its creation, but, at the same time is compared to the social space, which combines different spheres of human activity. according to davydovsky (2011), space combines social structural components manifested in the artistic space. space is a display of different positions of objects. shved (2006) believes that the artistic world, as well as space is formed due to the interaction of differential components, interpreted in this case in music. art is always formed in the spatial representation, in particular architecture and sculpture. musical art is formed in representation as an interpretation in music and time. syuta (2008) formulates a statement in which he shares the view of the space and space of thought, reflecting thinking as a model of reality based on the perception of consciousness. space cannot be reflected without semiosphere as a sign reflection, developed by lotman (1998). the structure of space as a set of structural units for displaying the activity of the author is the content of the study, forming a model of artistic space. the world of contemporary art was revealed as a concept in the study of samoylenko (2003). another american philosopher and aesthetician hackman (2004) analyzed the art world as an artistic space in the context of interaction of objects illustrating art space as a concept of reality reflection and human relations. the world as a field of art is reflected in shved's (2006) own research on analyzing the concept of sociology of art. the philosophical perspective of the analysis of the key concept of the research is connected with the dominance of the structural idea: the category of space is a unique and universal form, which serves to coordinate different kinds of objects and phenomena (bern, 1992). space is a sustained representation of the world as regulating, coordinating, ordering musical representation and providing a framework for the realization of musical creativity in a conceptual process of representation and essence. artistic space exists as a relative entity in the context of physical or conceptual representation in the context of a differential approach (gygli et al., 2019). researcher howard gardner (1983) identified varieties of space in music acoustic, sacred, mobile, and in a separate category he allocated the concept of "disappearing space". thus, the artistic space is a reflection of the representation of the world in the context of the combination and interpretation of musical creativity. the artistic space of musical art is formed under the influence of virtual reality as an artistic space in the context of musical art maryna petrenko et al. 376 the artist's activity and the perception of the musical work by the audience and listeners. 3. the study of virtual reality as artistic space in the context of musical art globalization has embraced all the processes of public life and has defined the directions of artists' creative activities. informatization of modern society has become the basis for the formation of a new innovative environment, accompanied by the effective use of information and communication technologies. the artwork is the result of creative interpretation in the context of the dialogicity of the artist's inner world (johnson & skarphol, 2018). a work of art is created in the context of the relationship between the artist and the creative material, in the creative process the style features are formed, reflecting the perception of the author's surrounding reality and reflecting his vision of the world. one of the necessary conditions for the creation of the author is the communicative foundations necessary for the development of humanity, which are formed from the beginning of the historical era to the present as a process of increasing complexity: from simple communication to high-tech communications (fairclough, 1992). humanity evolves in the context of the evolution of communicative technologies. therefore, in the process of historical development, communicative formats have been evidence of the evolution of cultural progress. different formats have been formed in the history of culture: mimetic, oral-verbal, written, printed, electronic, electronic network (imel, 1998). the modern world is developing as an integration of different formats of communicative development into the electronic networked one. on the basis of this process a virtual world is formed, in which the processes of the real world are transformed and transformed into a new space with new qualitative features and characteristics. the virtual world is a computer environment that depicts network communication through the simulation of two-dimensional or graphic images. virtualization is formed due to the use of information and communication technologies, the main function of which is efficiency, convenience and mobility in the representation of real trends in the development of society. however, real space is reformatted in virtual space and loses its former content and essence. that is, virtual space, reflecting the real world, changes the essence of the reflected event. reality is displayed by means of visual signs in the virtual world or sounds. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 377 the virtual world reflecting artistic space is quite common and at the same time complex. virtual environment encourages the search for new realizations of real space, expands the possibilities and simultaneously forms a new interpretation of reflection of various spheres of human activity. man reflects his activities in the virtual world with a 3-d character, virtualized, visualized and interactive. a person can self-actualize in new ways in the virtual world, so it becomes important for him (meyer & wodak, 2001). an important function of the virtual world is to find new approaches to social interaction, where the virtual character can realize different social roles and promote the creative initiative of reflecting one's potential. the musical space reflects all the structural components of activities and institutional objects that create the conditions for creative selfrealization. the globalization of society has become an opportunity for the development of musical art in a wide space, and informatization has entailed an expansion of the field for the popularization of musical art among a large number of people. the virtual world facilitates the realization of its possibilities for many artists in different cultural areas, and especially in the musical field. thus, in the real world, an artist can be a person who understands the technology of creating musical art, has the skills and abilities to play an instrument, can compose sounds, knows how to play different musical instruments, who can create a musical artwork (rapp, 2009). also an important condition is having a music recording studio and a place to present a piece of music and other institutions that are a necessary factor in the creation of music. virtual space changes the possibilities of creating a musical work of art. the main requirement of an artist is to have the inspiration to create an idea and to have the information and communication tools to create a piece of music. virtual space creates the opportunity to realize its creative potential, the possibility of attracting a larger audience for the dissemination of their creativity, helps to unite people who are fans of a certain type of musical creativity and contributes to the formation of opportunities for communication relationships in the musical environment, the effective exchange of creativity and information in the musical space. music communication is a holistic system of interpretation of visualized, aural information in the context of temporal space as the context of musical art. a musical work of art is the result of the effective work of a composer, a performer, and a manager who collaborate to realize their individual talents, improve cultural development, and create an artistic space for society. virtual reality as an artistic space in the context of musical art maryna petrenko et al. 378 the study of artistic space contributes to the formation of awareness of the possibility of influencing the creative process of music making and analysis of communicativeness in the context of musical discourse in the context of the functioning of musical space as a procedure of socio-cultural activity. the virtual space of musical art becomes an opportunity to influence the impact on the inner world of the creative person and the impact on the emotional intelligence of the individual translates the creative experience through the interpretation of a musical work in the virtual world. the virtual environment for musical art has been an opportunity to transform the real representation of creative musical intentions. musical art is synthetic, that is, it combines temporal and spatial reflections of creativity (smith & schwartz, 1997). a piece of music is created by assembling sounds that are displayed in a specific sequence, are intended for an audience, and reproduce the artistic intent of the artist. musical art accumulates communicative possibilities and becomes suitable for presentation in virtual space. the virtual world greatly enhances the physical world by incorporating additional computer technology into the creation of a piece of musical art, music video, or other work for an audience. the virtual space of musical art is supplemented by expositions created with the help of computer technologies. musical art greatly expands its aesthetic and spiritual functions, and creates modernist and innovative approaches to the presentation of musical creativity. 4. conclusion research has been conducted on the transformation of reality into the virtual world. in particular, we analyzed the main theoretical and methodological approaches to the value of musical art in the context of cultural development. we highlighted the importance of the technology of music creation and representation of a musical work of art. the main influences of information and innovative technologies on the development of musical creativity have been analyzed. the features of art in the context of modern creative manner reflecting the artists' perception of the world, their worldview approaches and ability to create with the use of information and communication technologies were determined. the features of the virtual environment as the main space for the creation and reproduction of musical art were investigated. the effectiveness of virtual reflection of musical art as a manifestation of the modern approach to the development of society was determined. the virtualization broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 379 of real space in the context of artistic space is a relevant perspective for musical art. the main approaches to the creation of musical art in the virtual environment were highlighted and the positive features of musical creativity were identified. the virtual environment expands the possibilities for the musical work, in particular in its representation. thus, in virtual life it is possible to present one's work of art to the audience much more effectively. the study determined that musical art in a real environment is difficult to interpret compared to the virtual, because virtualization adds the possibility of creating additional expositions that accompany the work of art. but there is also a negative manifestation of the interpretation of a musical work in virtual space a decrease in the uniqueness of the work of art. references bern, e. (1992). igry, v kotoryye igrayut lyudi. psikhologiya chelovecheskikh vzaimootnosheniy [the games people play. psychology of human relationships. lenizdat. https://spbguga.ru/files/05-5-01-008.pdf bonfeld, m. s. (2007). semantika muzykal'noy rechi [semantics of musical speech]. in m. g. aranovsky (ed.), muzyka kak forma intellektual'noy deyatel'nosti [music as a form of intellectual activity] (pp. 82-141). russian academy of sciences. https://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/semant/text.pdf davydovsky, k. y. (2011). sotsiokulʹturni vymiry mizhnarodnoho festyvalʹnoho rukhu: za rezulʹtatamy iv mizhnarodnoho muzychnoho festyvalyu «virtuozy planety». [sociocultural dimensions of the international festival movement: based on the results of the fifth international music festival "virtuosos of the planet".] world culture and international relations, 3(1), 94100. https://www.culturology.academy/wpcontent/uploads/kd3_davydovskyi.pdf fairclough, n. (1992). language and power (2nd ed.). cambridge. https://www.felsemiotica.com/descargas/fairclough-norman-criticaldiscourse-analysis.-the-critical-study-of-language.pdf gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. basic books. gygli, s., haelg, f., potrafke, n., & sturm, j. e. (2019). the kof globalisation index-revisited. the review of international organizations, 14, 543-574. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11558-019-09344-2.pdf hackman, j. r. (2004, june). what makes for a great team?. psychological science agenda. https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2004/06/hackman.aspx https://spbguga.ru/files/05-5-01-008.pdf https://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/semant/text.pdf https://www.culturology.academy/wp-content/uploads/kd3_davydovskyi.pdf https://www.culturology.academy/wp-content/uploads/kd3_davydovskyi.pdf https://www.felsemiotica.com/descargas/fairclough-norman-critical-discourse-analysis.-the-critical-study-of-language.pdf https://www.felsemiotica.com/descargas/fairclough-norman-critical-discourse-analysis.-the-critical-study-of-language.pdf https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11558-019-09344-2.pdf https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2004/06/hackman.aspx virtual reality as an artistic space in the context of musical art maryna petrenko et al. 380 imel, s. (1998). transformative learning in adulthood. office of educational research and improvement. (eric document reproduction service no. ed42326). https://www.academia.edu/25166095/transformative_learning_in_adult hood johnson, m., & skarphol, m. (2018). the effects of digital portfolios and flipgrid on student engagement and communication in a connected learning secondary visual arts classroom [master disertation of arts in education research papers]. st. catherine university repository. https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1270&context=mae d kolesnyk, o. s. (2014). kulʹturolohichna hermenevtyka yak metodolohichna osnova doslidzhennya fenomena interpretatsiyi [cultural hermeneutics as a methodological basis for the study of the paradox of interpretation]. bulletin of the national academy of culture and art leaders, 4, 13-16. http://www.irbisnbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21i d=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21 com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vdakkkm_2014_4_5 komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 laclau, e. (1995). «discourse». in r. goodin, p. pettit & t. pogge (eds.), the blackwell companion to contemporary political philosophy (pp. 431-438). oxford. https://eltalondeaquiles.pucp.edu.pe/wpcontent/uploads/2016/04/robert-e--goodin-philip-pettit-thomas-w-pogge-a-companion-to-contemporary-political-philosophy-2-volumeset-blackwell-companions-to-philosophy-2007.pdf lotman, y. m. (1998). k probleme prostranstvennoy semiotiki. struktura khudozhestvennogo teksta. semiotika kino i problemy kinoestetiki [to the problem of spatial semiotics. the structure of the artistic text. semiotics of cinema and problems of film aesthetics] (pp. 224-446). iskusstvo. https://adview.ru/wpcontent/uploads/2015/09/yu_m_lotman_struktura_teksta.pdf makarov, m. l. (2003). osnovy teorii diskursa [foundations of the theory of discourse]. gnosis. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/cultur/makarovosnovu_teorii_diskursa-8l.pdf meyer, m., & wodak, r. (eds.). (2001). methods of critical discourse analysis. sage publications. https://www.academia.edu/25166095/transformative_learning_in_adulthood https://www.academia.edu/25166095/transformative_learning_in_adulthood https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1270&context=maed https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1270&context=maed http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vdakkkm_2014_4_5 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vdakkkm_2014_4_5 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vdakkkm_2014_4_5 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vdakkkm_2014_4_5 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vdakkkm_2014_4_5 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://eltalondeaquiles.pucp.edu.pe/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/robert-e--goodin-philip-pettit-thomas-w--pogge-a-companion-to-contemporary-political-philosophy-2-volume-set-blackwell-companions-to-philosophy-2007.pdf https://eltalondeaquiles.pucp.edu.pe/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/robert-e--goodin-philip-pettit-thomas-w--pogge-a-companion-to-contemporary-political-philosophy-2-volume-set-blackwell-companions-to-philosophy-2007.pdf https://eltalondeaquiles.pucp.edu.pe/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/robert-e--goodin-philip-pettit-thomas-w--pogge-a-companion-to-contemporary-political-philosophy-2-volume-set-blackwell-companions-to-philosophy-2007.pdf https://eltalondeaquiles.pucp.edu.pe/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/robert-e--goodin-philip-pettit-thomas-w--pogge-a-companion-to-contemporary-political-philosophy-2-volume-set-blackwell-companions-to-philosophy-2007.pdf https://adview.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/yu_m_lotman_struktura_teksta.pdf https://adview.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/yu_m_lotman_struktura_teksta.pdf http://yanko.lib.ru/books/cultur/makarov-osnovu_teorii_diskursa-8l.pdf http://yanko.lib.ru/books/cultur/makarov-osnovu_teorii_diskursa-8l.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 381 nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 rapp, a. (2009, june 3). personal space in design of feature. design observer. http://designobserver.com/feature/personal-space/8597/ samoylenko, o. (2003). kompozytsiynosemantychnyy analiz muzyky i yavyshche katarsysu [the compositional and semantic analysis of music and the phenomenon of catharsis]. materialy do ukrayinsʹkoho mystetstvoznavstva [materials for ukrainian art history], (3), (pp. 88-93). http://irbisnbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn =ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2003/03soiasm.zip&image _file_download=1 schved, m. (2006). osoblyvosti spryynyattya suchasnoyi muzyky i sproby klasyfikatsiyi slukhatsʹkoyi audytoriyi [peculiarities of perception of modern music and the classification of the listening audience]. artistic culture. actual problems: scientific bulletin, (3), 211-220. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21i d=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21 com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=khud_kult_2006_3_18 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 smith, p. в., & schwartz, s. h. (1997). values. in j. w. berry, m. h. segall & с. kagitcibasi (eds.), handbook of crosscultural psychology, vol. 3. (pp. 77-118). allyn & bacon. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289252331_values syuta, b. (2008). deyaki aspekty metodyky analizu suchasnoyi muzyky [some aspects of the method of analysis of contemporary musis]. chislo, 4(24), 120-124. http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/43587/13syuta.pdf?sequence=1 zlotnyk, o. y. (2018). pertseptualʹnyy prostir funktsionuvannya muzychnoho tvoru. mystetstvoznavchi zapysky [perceptual space of musical work functioning. art history notes]. a collection of scientific works, 34, 61-66. millennium. http://elib.nakkkim.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/2289/zlotnykdisser.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 http://designobserver.com/feature/personal-space/8597/ http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn=ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2003/03soiasm.zip&image_file_download=1 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn=ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2003/03soiasm.zip&image_file_download=1 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn=ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2003/03soiasm.zip&image_file_download=1 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn=ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2003/03soiasm.zip&image_file_download=1 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn=ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2003/03soiasm.zip&image_file_download=1 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=khud_kult_2006_3_18 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=khud_kult_2006_3_18 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=khud_kult_2006_3_18 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=khud_kult_2006_3_18 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289252331_values http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/43587/13-syuta.pdf?sequence=1 http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/43587/13-syuta.pdf?sequence=1 http://elib.nakkkim.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/2289/zlotnyk-disser.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://elib.nakkkim.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/2289/zlotnyk-disser.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 113-129 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/335 submitted: october 13th, 2021| accepted for publication: february 12th, 2022 neuropsychological correction technologies of psychosomatic disorders and diseases nataliia pylypenko 1 , oksana liashch 2 , iryna chorna 3 , marianna kompanovych 4 , nataliia levina 5 , yuliia chystovska 6 1 state technological university, ukraine liya878veretelnik@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7750355x 2 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, oksanalyash7@gmail.com 3 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, irynachorna-@ukr.net orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6947-1140 4 lviv institute the private soint-stock company higher education institution “interregional academy of personnel management”, ukraine, mar.kompanovuch@gmail.com 5 zaporizhzhia national university, ukraine, natalifiesta82@gmail.com 6 bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, ukraine, j.chystovska@ukr.net abstract: the article is devoted to the problem of considering the best neuropsychological technologies for correcting human psychosomatic health. the most popular theories of the onset of psychosomatic disorders in foreign and domestic works are considered. the article describes neuropsychological mechanisms: the provision of psychosomatic health and the occurrence of psychosomatic disorders and diseases and some features of their dynamics. a detailed classification of psychosomatic disorders has been submitted. the role of the emotional and psychological factor in the occurrence of psychosomatic disorders and diseases is emphasized and other influential factors in the violation of psychosomatic health in general are considered. the conditions for the development and implementation of an individual program for neuropsychological correction of a psychosomatically ill client, taking into account the specificity and category of psychosomatic disorders, the peculiarities of the relationship between the emotional and bodily spheres and the results of neurophysiological research of the functional state of the brain, as well as a complex of neuro-psychosocial factors of psychosomatic health resources. the conditions for professionally competent neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders at the systemic level are noted. the technologies of neuropsychological correction in combination with psychotherapy are considered. neuropsychological recommendations have been developed to ensure, restore and correct psychosomatic health. the use of psychohygiene as a psychoprophylaxis of psychosomatic diseases is recommended. keywords: emotions, internal conflicts, neuropsychological methods, chronic stress, psychosomatic health, nervous system, mechanisms of psychological defense, neuropsychological mechanism, psychotherapy. how to cite: pylypenko, n., liashch, o., chorna, i., kompanovych, m., levina, n., & chystovska, y. (2022). neuropsychological correction technologies of psychosomatic disorders and diseases. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 113-129. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/335 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/335 mailto:liya878veretelnik@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7750-355x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7750-355x mailto:oksanalyash7@gmail.com mailto:irynachorna-@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6947-1140 mailto:mar.kompanovuch@gmail.com mailto:natalifiesta82@gmail.com mailto:j.chystovska@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/335 neuropsychological correction technologies of psychosomatic disorders and... nataliia pylypenko et al. 114 1. introduction today, a neuropsychological program for the preservation of psychosomatic health is becoming especially important in connection with social, environmental and economic changes in the human life space (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). the development of the scientific neuropsychological direction of correction of somatoform disorders and diseases and psychoprophylactic health care technologies for the implementation of psychological support for psychosomatic patients are relevant issues in psychotherapy and neurosciences. an integrated approach to the study of psychophysiological, biological, internally personal, neuropsychological and social factors of reservations of psychosomatic disorders has become a priority for the study. the ability to psychologically correctly experience their emotions, orientation towards solving psychological problems as opposed to avoiding them, positive thinking, good mood, a sense of humor can have people with signs of psychosomatic health. but the frequent suppression of one's emotions, as a result of which one feels discomfort, low stress resistance in conditions of chronic stress and long-term frustration of urgent needs, the dominance of asthenic emotions depletes the body with mental stress, and can also trigger the mechanism of psychosomatic disorders at the same time against the background of rigid psychological defenses and manifestations of deformation personality structure. the emotional factor is the leading one in the emotional response to stressful stimuli externally. negative emotions for a long time can cause pathological changes in the functional systems of the body, primarily for the cardiovascular system. in conditions of chronic stress, neurotic reactions (which are most often associated with fears and anxieties), psychophysiological or somatovegetative reactions (fever, sweating, blood pressure, etc.) may appear, which may indicate systemic organ disorders at the neurohormonal level. undoubtedly, especially in psychosomatic disorders, the nervous system is exhausted, and all systems of the human body are involved and suffer, which requires long-term (up to several years) psychotherapy and treatment. therefore, the primary tasks should be the rehabilitation of the nervous system and neuropsychological correction with a combination of methods of personality-oriented psychocorrection of psychosomatic patients an urgent applied problem in neurosciences. we believe that neuropsychological correction technologies should be used already at the initial stages of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 115 working with a client, especially their introduction is also important in chronic human diseases, as well as in the progression of somatic disorders. the objectives of our article follow from the aforementioned introductory conceptual provisions: consideration of modern methods of neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders and diseases with a description of the neuropsychological mechanism of their occurrence and course and the development of neuropsychological recommendations for the preservation and restoration of psychosomatic health. the novelty and practical significance of the article for the first time, the obligatory use of neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders of the client in the practice of psychotherapists and psychologists, taking into account the degree of recovery of the depleted nervous system based on the results of neurophysiological research of the functional state of the brain of a psychosomatically sick client, the peculiarities of the relationship of his emotional and bodily spheres and the complex is proposed neuropsychosocial factors of psychosomatic resources of his health. the “emotional” neuropsychological occurrence of psychosomatic disorders is substantiated and the complex application of the most effective psychotherapeutic methods and neuropsychological measures for their correction and restoration of neurophysiological indicators of the central nervous system and psychoemotional state of a client of any age from young to old is recommended. 2. theoretical analysis of the study of the problem of the neuropsychological mechanism of the appearance and characteristics of the dynamics of psychosomatic disorders and diseases psychosomatic is called secondary functional and organic disorders of internal organs and systems, the primary cause of the appearance and exacerbation of which are psychological factors. the concept of “psychosomatics” unites a number of phenomena that are difficult to formulate unambiguously. however, two aspects can be distinguished: psychosomatic disorders and psychosomatic medicine. psychosomatic medicine defines a general approach to the delivery of health care, the conceptual basis of which is the complexity of somatopsychosocial interactions. in the dsm-iv, psychosomatic disorders designate category 316 – “psychological factors affecting the somatic state”. this also includes disorders that have general somatic symptoms due to emotional factors or contributed to their appearance. usually we are talking about a system of individual organs, the activity of which is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. for example, atopic dermatitis, low back pain, bronchial neuropsychological correction technologies of psychosomatic disorders and... nataliia pylypenko et al. 116 asthma, hypertension, migraine, peptic ulcer and colitis. disorders that are described in other classifications as psychosomatic can be characterized in the following categories: f45 somatoform disorders; f50 eating disorders; f52 sexual dysfunction f54 psychological and behavioral factors associated with disorders or diseases classified elsewhere. category f54 is especially important, which is used to denote the emotional origin of physical disorders classified in other (not mental disorders) sections of the мкх-10 (diseases of the nervous system). for example: asthma (f54 plus j45) dermatitis and eczema (f54 plus l23 l25) urticaria (f54 plus l40) gastric ulcer (f54 plus k25) mucosal colitis (f54 plus k58) ulcerative colitis (f54 plus k54). the division of diseases into mental, somatic, psychosomatic and somatopsychic is conditional. any of the named variants of painful conditions affects the entire body. at the same time, at all stages of the development of the disease, numerous changes are combined into pathological complexes according to the type of a kind of "vicious circle" (fedosova, 2013, pp. 111-117). fava and sonino (2010) clarified the definition of psychosomatic medicine, which is usually considered as a section of psychosomatics. from the point of view of modern researchers, psychosomatic medicine can be defined as a complex interdisciplinary basis for: assessing psychological factors that affect individual vulnerability, as well as the course of the disease; biopsychosocial consideration of patient care in clinical practice; specialized interventions to integrate psychological therapy into the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of medical diseases. first of all, the term “psychosomatics” is associated with a person's emotional response to significant social circumstances in the form of somatic manifestations. the reflection of emotions on the human body is professionally seen by psychotherapists and neuropsychologists, although psychosomatics as a branch of medicine pays great attention to the study of the state of health of the internal organs. psychosomatic and somatopsychic systems are interrelated, the influence of the nervous system and personality traits on the occurrence of psychosomatic disorders is a poorly studied problem in science. in the etiopathogenesis of somatic diseases, chronic stresses and features of a usually inadequate emotional response to them, the relationship of personal psychopathological and behavioral characteristics with low stress resistance and a genetic or “family” tendency to psychosomatic diseases play a role. psychosomatics arises under the influence of subjectively significant psychological factors, especially emotional stress, including with the participation of mental influences in the past or present, and may be associated with the experience of a threat in the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 117 future, for example, in connection with possible obsessive “hypochondriac” thoughts about one's state of health. the opinion about the unity of "soul" and “body” was first formulated by hippocrates in his teaching on temperaments. as a result of modern neurophysiological research, facts about the relationship of the nervous and somatic systems of the human body. there are neurodynamic mechanisms of somatic manifestations of psychosomatic disorders. the development of functional neuroses is especially easy in representatives of the extreme types of the nervous system: unbalanced choleric people and melancholic patients with a weak inhibitory type of the nervous system. under certain conditions, breakdowns of normal higher nervous activity are also found in strong types sanguine and phlegmatic. in this case (most often a few days after severe stress), the pathophysiological mechanism of weakening of cortical nerve cells is triggered, the limit of their working capacity decreases, inertia of nervous processes appears (most often the process of excitation), or, on the contrary, excessive pathological mobility of cortical processes at the time of the manifestation of the reaction changes also by inhibition during the period of irritation a manifestation of an explosion. most neuroses cause pathological abnormalities in the field of higher nervous activity and often lead to significant disorders of the functions of internal organs. among the factors in the onset of psychosomatic disorders, the following should also be distinguished: age-related (pubertal crisis, menopause); production (noise, vibration); seasonal (may be a poly-etiological factor); sexual (more psychosomatic disorders in women in connection with generative function) (eliseev, 2003). the system of neuropsychological corrective agents should cover the stage of studying the causes and conditions for the appearance of the clinical picture of pathological processes in the body and the disorders associated with them in mental activity in order to develop effective neuropsychological corrective agents taking into account age, gender, social conditions of life, neurodynamic, neurophysiological and personal characteristics of psychosomatic sick people. mcewen (2007) successfully modeled the relationship between the brain's work and the emotional and physiological response of a person to stress and the characteristics of the body's adaptation to stressful events throughout life. the author argues that the brain is a key organ in the stress reaction, as it determines physiological and behavioral reactions that can be adaptive or non-adaptive. stress involves two-way interaction between the brain and the cardiovascular, immune and other systems through neural and endocrine mechanisms. in addition to the “run or fight” reaction to acute neuropsychological correction technologies of psychosomatic disorders and... nataliia pylypenko et al. 118 stress, there are events in everyday life that cause a certain type of chronic stress and eventually lead to depletion of the body (“allostatic stress”). the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex undergo structural changes that alter behavioral and physiological reactions. therefore, as an addition to pharmaceutical therapy, social and behavioral measures, regular exercise and social support, reduce the stress on the nervous system under the influence of chronic stress and are health-saving technologies for the brain and body. the most complete conceptual provisions regarding the problem we are investigating are set forth in the following works: the concept of the origin of psychosomatic disorders was considered by kulakov (2003), biopsychosocial model of psychosomatic illness in dynamics with a detailed analysis of the most famous theories of psychodynamic processes in foreign science with a description of psychodynamic therapy methods and trends in the development of modern psychosomatics (wise, 2014), interrelation of neuroses of persons who are not adapted to protective manifestations in behavior, in particular, aggressive and masochistic manifestations of it with psychosomatic disorders (xardel-haddab, 2009), the interrelation of alexithymia (inability to recognize and understand emotions, experience emotional feelings and separate them from bodily sensations, a deficit of intellectual and cognitive competence of persons with personality disorders in relationships between people) with psychosomatic disorders (taylor & bagby, 2021). certain aspects of the theoretical foundations of alexithymia, the difficulties of its diagnosis and attempts to substantiate them in a psychodynamic-oriented model of psychosomatic disorders are reflected in the work (šago & babić, 2019). the presence of a significant emotional response to stimuli from the outside world to a person with psychosomatic disorders is present in almost all foreign and domestic works considered in our work. however, psychosomatic displays of emotions in the organs and systems of the human body are analyzed most clearly in some of them, since they are of scientific interest for our article and consider the personality-psychological factor of the emergence and dynamics of psychosomatic diseases (alexander, 1953; eliseev, 2003; kulakov, 2003; romans & cohen, 2008; solso, 2006). undoubtedly, a psychosomatic symptom arises as a physiologically accompanying emotional state of a person. for example, in a state of anger, a person's blood pressure rises, his pulse and respiration rate increase. when the anger passes, the physiological processes go out. over time, a person becomes aware of physiological dysfunctions, but denies the emotions that they caused. moreover, certain character traits and certain conflicts with unhealthy relationships can cause certain psychosomatic illnesses (alexander, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 119 1953). from the point of view of modern psychosomatics, the role of emotional disorders in the origin of psychosomatic disorders is also emphasized by thomas n. wise (2014). the generalization of the above sources on psychosomatics quite successfully complements the work with proposals for neuropsychological correction methods that can be directly applied to psychosomatic disorders (eliseev, 2003; kotsan et al., 2011; malkina-pykh, 2005; mcewen, 2007; mozgovaya et al., 2014; tkach, 2016). sonino and peruzzi (2009) conducted a highly specialized analysis of the basic scientific concepts of psychosomatic medicine for medical students as analysts of psychosomatics in order to provide them with practical experience in the framework of a biopsychosocial model of care for psychosomatic patients and conduct a psychosomatic examination. the authors summarize the main studies of the main psychophysiological mechanisms the central nervous system/autonomic nervous system, psychoneuroimmunology and psychoendocrinology in three main diseases cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and hiv infection. certain aspects of studies of individual psychosomatic diseases were also considered by sonino and peruzzi (2009). antonio meneghetti (2008) considers internal conflicts as one of the sources of psychosomatic disorders and notes that the main problem in the definition of psychosomatics is how opinion, mental activity can become a problem and internal conflict. the source of internal contradictions can be the a priori "ego". in some cases, the “ego” defeated by social influence is forced to displace its natural impulses, which is due to internal conflicts between the organic system and social requirements. after repression, “ego” takes a neurotic position, organizes a person's energy that does not correspond to reality, which does not allow her to realize the natural purpose of her own desires, which results in psychoneurotic disorders, hysteria, organic changes, tumors. pathological phenomena in both the mental and the somatic sphere are a form of reaction to a neurotic feeling of anxiety. there are also scientific ideas that the psychosomatic reaction is considered not as a result of repression of instinctive urges, but as a consequence of impaired interaction with others, formed in the early period of a psychosomatically patient's life, fixed in the deficit functions of his personality and manifests itself in adulthood under the influence of social stressors. in this regard, it is the group methods of therapy that are quite effective (ammon, 2000). in any case, the rigid influences of psychological defense mechanisms (and not only repression), internal conflicts and inadequate relationships with others can be accompanied by the experience of negative neuropsychological correction technologies of psychosomatic disorders and... nataliia pylypenko et al. 120 emotions by a psychosomatically sick person. this may be due to personal anxiety, disruption of the “neural” relationship of a person with the world, perception of inadequate emotional assessment of real life difficulties. at the psychophysiological level, emotional reactions are associated with the activity of brain systems, primarily the limbic system and functional asymmetry of the brain. it follows from this that the complex application of psychotherapeutic methods and neuropsychological methods of correction of emotional, cognitive and behavioral disorders in psychosomatic clients will be effective. in addition, a professionally competent study of neuropsychological mechanisms for ensuring psychosomatic health should be a priority in the choice of the subject of research by specialists. kulakov (2003) successfully generalized the most popular theories of the uprise of psychosomatic disorders and professionally applied an integrative approach in therapy where he combined psychodynamic psychotherapy with cognitive-behavioral and family. between the theories of the emergence of psychosomatic disorders highlighted by the researcher in the practice of psychocorrection and therapy, the following are quite often analyzedaccording to the model of autonomic neurosis, if the unconscious conflict does not have external manifestations, this leads to emotional stress, which is accompanied by stable changes in the autonomic nervous system; the mental factor triggers the process of somatization, conditions are created when healthy defense mechanisms are not enough, neurotic (pathological) defense mechanisms are connected (for example, neurotic depression, obsessive thoughts and actions, fears, phobias). it is equally important to consider psychosomatic disorders as a result of such disorders object relations (with the world, with people, with oneself), self-esteem and integrity (for example, narcissists with vulnerable self-esteem often experience emptiness, depression and dissatisfaction with their relationships with others), dysfunction cognitive and family systems and alexithymia as an emotional disorder (“blocking” of feelings, inability to perceive and even name them). 3. neuropsychological recommendations for the provision, recovery and correction of psychosomatic health neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders and diseases helps to improve cerebral circulation, increase the differentiation of cerebral functional systems, activate the interaction of the cerebral hemispheres, increase efficiency and improve well-being. preliminary diagnostics of the neuropsychic state and computer psychophysiological broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 121 examination of the client are carried out, as well as the degree of recovery of the exhausted nervous system is determined. the results of a neurophysiological study of the functional state of the brain of a psychosomatically ill client, the peculiarities of the relationship between his emotional and bodily spheres and a complex of neuro-psychosocial factors of the psychosomatic potential of his health are also taken into account. the development and implementation of an individual program of neuropsychological correction of a psychosomatic patient should be carried out taking into account the specifics and category of psychosomatic disorders and diseases, in particular: conversion symptoms (hysterical paralysis and paresthesias, psychogenic blindness and deafness, pain symptoms, vomiting) functional syndromes (functional disorders of individual organs or body systems without organic changes: cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, musculoskeletal system, respiratory system). psychosomatosis (they are based on a somatic reaction to stress with pathological disorders in organs bronchial asthma, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.) infectious, oncological and colds (more than 2 3 cases per year) diseases they are often accompanied by such disorders: rapid vomlyuvanis, poor sleep or lack thereof, lability of blood pressure, manifestations of irritability and conflict, astheno-neurotic symptoms, sexual health disorders, hysterical and depressive reactions, functional disorders of the nervous system. the choice of a target organ is always determined by neural cortical connections that affect subcortical emotional zones to attract certain body systems to stress responses. excessive physical and mental stress is tolerated by those who have positive emotional health, contact with themselves, adequate self-esteem and a harmonious relationship with the environment. to increase the effectiveness of the neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders, it is necessary in parallel to comprehensively work a group of specialists with a psychosomatic client: physicians for a specific psychosomatic illness, a psychologist or psychotherapist so that a psychosomatic patient can solve his own psychological problems on his own, a nutritionist according to the client's needs. a psychotherapist who plans a neuropsychological correction preliminarily collects such important data: family history; psychiatric history; characteristics of the character and model of the client's life; the psychosomatic patient's attitude to the environment (often inadequate anxious-ambivalent or avoiding and disorganizing, with elements of violence). and also the presence of internal conflicts (between “i want” and “must”, between “i endure and will endure” neuropsychological correction technologies of psychosomatic disorders and... nataliia pylypenko et al. 122 and “i endure and do not want to endure," etc.) and rigid mechanisms of psychological defense; personal meanings and benefits from illness. chronic psychosomatic illnesses often arise and worsen precisely in the second half of life, when a midlife crisis may be inevitable, which may coincide with professional crises. we believe that the expansion of neuropsychological, psychophysiological and personal resources, using technologies of psychological self-regulation is important in psychotherapeutic and corrective work for a psychosomatic patient at this stage of life. these psychocorrectional methods should be applied taking into account the psychosomatic and neuropsychological approaches to the client's problem at an individually defined level of psychosomatic disorders with appropriate psychological characteristics. on the psychotic (problems of security and basic distrust, reinforced by anxieties of destroying one's mental and physical health), borderline (problems of autonomy, self-doubt, which may be accompanied by feelings of guilt, separation anxiety, selfflagellation), neurotic (possible problems of identity, hyperresponsibility, anxiety due to loss of control). at all these levels, there can be a neurotic “fixation” on past events from his life with a subjective experience of anxiety, all this requires long-term (up to several years) therapy. the psychopathologically anxious state of the client can be explained by neuropsycho-programming of the brain, the peculiarities of its neurocognitive processing of information about the external world. in the neurocognitive concepts of solso (2006), brain dynamics when creating a false alarm begins with activity in the middle part of the temporal lobe, then moves to the level of the associative zone, and during the reconstruction of anxious thoughts, memories can be perceived by the brain at the level of real. a negative emotional state associated with anxious thoughts maintains hormonal levels that are unfavorable for the body, as a result, the patient develops stable psychosomatic disorders. in our opinion, the task of a neuropsychologist is to restore brain functions and stimulate the formation of neural connections that will contribute to healing thanks to the client's self-hypnosis on the joint development of a model of psychosomatic health with him. the results of cognitive neuroscience have confirmed that words without meaning cannot actualize centers in the brain. on the other hand, modeling the state of psychosomatic health based on self-hypnosis, comparing limitations in sick and healthy people and changing attitudes can affect the success of neuroand psychocorrection at the same time. at the same time, neurocorrection is impossible without bodily techniques, sensorimotor, breathing and relaxation exercises, which contribute to the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 123 formation of new neural connections for an adequate interaction of the client with the world, without psychosomatic disorders and diseases. the classic neuropsychological methods of autogenous training are: deep and complete relaxation of the muscles of the whole body, voluntary regulation of the rhythm of cardiac activity, breathing techniques with mastering the rhythm and frequency of breathing, verbal formulas of selfhypnosis, mobilizing exercises, general strengthening of the emotionalvolitional sphere; yoga therapy techniques, neuropsychological exercises for the development of intelligence and memory (using desensitization of the eyes and successive inhalation and exhalation). the proposed methods are effective in combination with psychotherapy in order to reduce anxiety and mitigate conflicts (hypnosis, relaxation, rational and suggestive therapy), herbal medicine and drug therapy to improve the somatic state (eliseev, 2003). effective technologies of neuropsychological correction are relaxation techniques within the framework of cognitive-behavioral therapy (muscle relaxation, deep breathing, visual images), complex meditations, work with fears (verbalization of fears), role-playing games and constellations according to hellinger. the task of the neuropsychologist is to reduce the activity of the pleasure center by using the connections between the prefrontal cortex and the adjacent core. this therapeutic goal is achieved through the formation of a thought culture and critical inner speech. an effective method of direct work with the brain at the level of its physiology, biofeedback by eeg (neuro-hoop) during meditative practices. the quality and duration of sleep, nutrition, physical activity, mental health, “information diet” (completely avoid television and non-constructive content on the internet) are important (tkach, 2016). along with the further improvement of clinical and clinical and biological research in the system of rehabilitation measures, sociological and psychological studies of the patient's personality and his living conditions are becoming increasingly important. on the basis of these studies, experts give recommendations on the organization of the patient's lifestyle in order to eliminate those psycho-traumatic factors that contribute to the return of the disease. the main link of the rehabilitation system is the organization of such activities of patients, which ensures the development of their personality and compensation for lost abilities in the process of illness. both for the prevention of neuropsychiatric disorders and for the prevention of psychosomatic diseases, the principles of psychohygiene and the activities carried out in this area are of paramount importance. personal psychohygiene uses techniques and methods of individual psychoprophylaxis at, psycho-gymnastics of the face, self-help methods, neuropsychological correction technologies of psychosomatic disorders and... nataliia pylypenko et al. 124 etc., which are used to prevent the negative consequences of psychotraumatic factors (kotsan et al., 2011). in our opinion, personal psychohygiene, psychohygiene of work and life, family and sexual life, psychohygiene of sports, work and communication should be used in a complex of neuropsychological measures aimed at preserving and strengthening neuropsychic health and prevention of neuropsychiatric disorders in psychosomatically healthy people. in order to correct psychosomatic diseases in children, modern domestic researchers have developed methods of projective drawing "my future", "good and evil", the priority of which is confirmed by patents of ukraine. tests reflect the conscious and unconscious aspects of the mental structure of the personality, self-esteem, zones of frustration, peculiarities of motivation and allows to identify asthenia. the testing was supplemented by neurophysiological studies of the functional state of the brain, which made it possible to reveal a decreased level of activity of processes in the subcortical structures overexcitation, functional blockade of thalamo-cortical connections and dysfunction of the brain. the complex using of psychological methods for the correction of psychosomatic pathology and metabolic therapy is associated with the improvement of thalamo-cortical connections and the removal of overexcitation. the use of psychocorrectional influences led to an improvement in the working conditions of the brain due to the normalization of its perfusion (mozgovaya et al., 2014). neuropsychological self-regulation exercises involve a person's influence on himself with the help of self-hypnosis instructions and include autogenous training technologies (to relieve mental stress and calm down). after that, a person transitions into a special state of hope, trust, faith in the capabilities of the body and in the character of the personality, the formation of the desired mental qualities, while the person does not think rationally, but completely trusts his body. biofeedback (bfb) conscious control and voluntary influence on a number of processes that are not felt and realized in the body (biological activity of the brain, heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, muscle relaxation, etc.), bfb with using electrophysiological equipment, changes and shows (in visual and auditory versions) the results of influencing the course of one or another arbitrary physiological process. meditation as a series of mental actions, the purpose of which is to achieve a special state of the human body, characterized by immersion in deep physical and mental peace, isolation from the outside world. meditation gives the ability to think operating with images on a previously set topic and is achieved by concentrating internally directed attention, greater muscle broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 125 relaxation (relaxation) and emotional peace, which effectively protects the body from the destructive effects of stress, regulates breathing, normalizes the pulse, and relieves the acuteness of anxiety and fear (kotsan et al., 2011). a practical guide written by malkina-pykh (2005) is an effective guide to diagnostic and psychotherapeutic techniques that can be used for psychosomatic disorders, in particular, methods of suggestive psychotherapy, gestalt therapy, body-oriented psychotherapy, neurolinguistic programming, psychocorrection. the researcher believes that any psychosomatic disease is a property of the human body, it cannot be explained by studying the properties of only one of the subsystems mental or somatic, and only understanding their interrelation can make it possible to effectively influence psychosomatic disorders of psychocorrection and psychotherapy. considering all of the above, neuropsychological correction in psychosomatic diseases should be carried out in combination with psychotherapy, mainly in all its directions. in our opinion, important factors for the implementation of individual neuropsychological correction for a psychosomatically ill client are: positive psychotherapy, gestalt therapy, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, art therapy, body-oriented psychotherapy, suggestive psychotherapy, family psychotherapy. in any case, the client's awareness of the emotional mechanism of psychosomatic manifestations, which can come to him through trance, verbal or non-verbal actions, creativity, metaphor or dance movements, will reduce the effectiveness of psychosomatics. even in the absence of alexithymia as an individual or family cult to ignore emotions and one's body (feelings are always an indicator of difficult life situations), the brain under any circumstances will process primarily information about a person's attitude to other people and the world and to himself, which is directly related to features of the cerebral organization, dominance of the right or left hemispheres of the brain and the work of all functional systems. of course, it is difficult for a person with alexithymia to name their feelings and understand the connection between emotions, relationships and the body, since alexithymia has a protective nature. in this case, neuropsychological correction is able to neutralize psychosomatic symptoms even before therapy, for example, in diseases of the musculoskeletal system, caused at the psychological level by the containment of aggression due to social deprivation. for primary care in order to optimize the client's neuropsychiatric state, a course of neuropsychological work is sufficient: carrying out exercises to relax the muscles of the back with the simultaneous use of techniques of individually selected correct breathing, massage and neuropsychological correction technologies of psychosomatic disorders and... nataliia pylypenko et al. 126 neuropsychological exercises. undoubtedly, the combination of neuropsychological correction technologies and psychotherapy will be an effective rehabilitation measure to recover the client's psychosomatic health in the future. 4. conclusion the mental and somatic spheres are interconnected by an emotional reaction, which is expressed in the form of neurovegetative changes, behavior and physiological pathological changes in an organ or organ system. emotions are the psychic lever of orientation of a person in it complex living space. the conditioning of psychosomatic disorders through emotional responses to other people and the outside world and their own psychological problems indicates that psychosomatic health can undergo changes, but it can be restored under the influence of neuropsychological correction. ability for neuropsychological control of emotional reactions and behavior in difficult life or professional situations, awareness of the identity of your physical and mental “ego”, “аsertive” ability to get along with oneself is the key to maintaining psychosomatic health and an important criterion for mental health. as a rule, psychosomatic pathology develops according to the “neurotic” type: the presence of internal conflicts, anxieties, mental trauma in the past and "immersion" in the disease, often with its unconscious benefit and the client's explanation that this is happening to avoid an uncomfortable emotional stimulus by rigid mechanisms of psychological defense. neuropsychological technologies for the correction of psychosomatic health in complex interaction with psychotherapeutic methods contribute to the restoration of normal relations with the world and oneself, which occurs due to the provision of resource functional capabilities of mental activity. a neuropsychological program for the correction of psychosomatic disorders should be developed in a comprehensive manner, taking into account the specifics and mechanisms of the onset of psychosomatic diseases; age; the results of a neurophysiological study of the functional state of the brain; adverse family and social factors; psychosomatic state of the client; his gender and personality characteristics; pathogenesis of the disease; hereditary predisposition to psychosomatic illness; specifics and categories of psychosomatic disorders and diseases; the degree of recovery of the depleted nervous system and the results of diagnostics of the neuropsychic state. for the purpose of effective neurocorrection, it is first necessary to analyze all these factors and their interrelationships, therefore the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 127 neuropsychological approach to the correction of psychosomatic disorders should be individual, objective, systemic, integrative and highly competent. references alexander, f. (1953). psychosomatic medicine: it's principles and application. konald. ammon, g. (2000). psikhosomaticheskaya terapiya [ psychosomatic therapy]. “rech” publishing house. [https://psychoanalysis.by/2018/03/12/book-23/ demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 eliseev, y. y. (2003) psikhosomaticheskiye zabolevaniya [psychosomatic diseases]. handbook. https://kingmed.info/download.php?book_id=1640 fava, g. a., & sonino, n. (2010). psychosomatic medicine. international journal of clinical practice, 64(8), 1155-1161. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.17421241.2009.02266.x fedosova, l. o. (2013). klynychna psykholohiya [clinical psychology: textbook]. se publishing house personal. http://portal.iapm.edu.ua/portal/media/books/036906c3f9f54e24acd3fe6 96b1561e7.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kotsan, i. y., lozhkin, h. v., & mushkevych, m. i. (2011). psykholohiya zdorovʺya lyudyny [psychology of human health]. “vezha” publishing house of volyn national university named after lesya ukrainka. https://ela.kpi.ua/bitstream/123456789/25834/1/psihologiazdorovia.pdf kulakov, s. a. (2003). osnovy psikhosomatiki [fundamentals of psychosomatics]. rech. https://www.klex.ru/ek6 malkina-pykh, i. g. (2005). psikhosomatika [psychosomatics]. eksmo. https://monster-book.com/download_link/21932 mcewen, b. s. (2007). physiology and neurobiology of stress and adaptation:central role of the brain. physiological reviews, 87(3), 873-904. http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2006 https://psychoanalysis.by/2018/03/12/book-23/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://kingmed.info/download.php?book_id=1640 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1742-1241.2009.02266.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1742-1241.2009.02266.x http://portal.iapm.edu.ua/portal/media/books/036906c3f9f54e24acd3fe696b1561e7.pdf http://portal.iapm.edu.ua/portal/media/books/036906c3f9f54e24acd3fe696b1561e7.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://ela.kpi.ua/bitstream/123456789/25834/1/psihologiazdorovia.pdf https://www.klex.ru/ek6 https://monster-book.com/download_link/21932 http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2006 neuropsychological correction technologies of psychosomatic disorders and... nataliia pylypenko et al. 128 meneghetti, a. (2008). psikhosomatika [psychosomatics]. https://avidreaders.ru/download/psihosomatika.html?f=pdf mozgovaya, g. p., beketova, g. v., & mozgovaya z. d. (2014). psikhosomatika mediko-psikhologicheskaya korrektsiya [psychosomatics medical and psychological correction], 37-45. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/22692/nchnpu_ 012_2014_43_7.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 romans, s., & cohen, m. (2008). unexplained and underpowered: the rela-tionship between psychosomatic disorders and interpersonal abuse. harvard review of psychiatry, 16(1) 35-44. https://doi.org/10.1080/10673220801933788 šago, d., & babić, g. (2019). roots of alexithymia. archives of psychiatry research, 55, 71-84. http://dx.doi.org/10.20471/may.2019.55.01.06 solso, r. (2006). kognitivnaya psikhologiya [ cognitive psychology, 6th ed.) series “masters of psychology”. peter. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/solso=cognitive_psychology-6.ru.pdf sonino, n., & peruzzi, p. a. (2009). a psychoneuroendocrinology service. psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 78(6), 346-351. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19713729/ taylor, g. j., & bagby, r. m. (2021). examining proposed changes to the conceptualization of the alexithymia construct: the way forward tilts to the past. psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 90, 145-155. https://www.karger.com/article/pdf/511988 tkach, b. (2016). spetsyfika zastosuvannya bryhadnoyi modeli neyropsykholohichnoyi reabilitatsiyi dlya postrazhdalykh uchasnykiv antyterorystychnoyi operatsiyi [specifics of application of the brigade model of neuropsychological rehabilitation for victims of anti-terrorist operation]. collection of scientific works of the national academy of the state border guard service of the country, series: psychological science, 3(5), 195-209. http://www.irbisnbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21db n=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt =asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=znpnapv_pn _2016_3_18 wise, t. n. (2014). psychosomatics: past, present and future. psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 83, 65-69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1159%2f000356518 https://avidreaders.ru/download/psihosomatika.html?f=pdf http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/22692/nchnpu_012_2014_43_7.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/22692/nchnpu_012_2014_43_7.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1080/10673220801933788 http://dx.doi.org/10.20471/may.2019.55.01.06 http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/solso=cognitive_psychology-6.ru.pdf https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19713729/ https://www.karger.com/article/pdf/511988 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=znpnapv_pn_2016_3_18%20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=znpnapv_pn_2016_3_18%20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=znpnapv_pn_2016_3_18%20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=znpnapv_pn_2016_3_18%20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=znpnapv_pn_2016_3_18%20 http://dx.doi.org/10.1159%2f000356518 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 129 xardel-haddab, h. (2009). névrose, psychosomatique et fonctionnement limité : approche clinique projective : du destin des pulsions agressives [neurosis, psychosomatics and limited functioning: projective clinical approach: the destiny of drives aggressive]. psychologie. université nancy 2. https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/tel01752704/document https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/tel-01752704/document https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/tel-01752704/document brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 40-50 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/169 the role of neuroaccounting (the science of neural-based accounting) in decision making tri frida suryati¹, william indra s. mooduto 2 1 sekolah tinggi ilmu ekonomi (stie) muhammadiyah mamuju, trifrida.suryati@gmail.com 2 universitas bina mandiri gorontalo, willsmood@ubmg.ac.id abstract: the present study aims to determine the role of neuroaccounting in decision making. the data collection method is conducted by using interviews, moreover, the data analysis is analyzed by administering the interpretation of subjective understanding of informants which then followed by researchers' reflexivity. the results suggest that principal-agent relationships can occur when the legislature and the executive establish agency relationships in the policymaking process. in the perception of neuroscience; the interest of interest, the limited time of office, the inclination and limitation of knowledge to know all the public needs can be imprinted and settled in the brain, thus, it can create moral hazard and adverse selection of behavior. keywords: neuroscience; neuroaccounting; agency theory. how to cite: taran, i., vasylieva, n., gurova, a., karpukhina, y., konkov, a., koziy, t., kolomyichuk, a., & biriukova, t. (2020). methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 40-50. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/169 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/169 mailto:trifrida.suryati@gmail.com mailto:willsmood@ubmg.ac.id https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/169 the role of neuroaccounting (the science of neural-based accounting) in … tri frida suryati, et al. 41 1. introduction indonesian people possess a long history of corruption since before the war of java 1820-1830, then the case of mega corruption in the procurement of e-ktp (electronic id cards) that wrapped up state finance to 2.3 trillion rupiahs, sharing "kue" for the regional budget (apbd) in 2017. according to indonesia corruption watch (icw) records, there were 360 regional heads at the level of governor to deputy regent who were entangled in corruption cases till 2015. the indicated public official is suspected of not acting alone but instead collaborating with the dprd or other local government apparatus, and in the end, the autonomy of managing the apbd is trapped in political negotiations that lead to corruption. the important questions that keep crossing the minds of researchers are why policymakers tend to behave corruptly? how do the thinkers of policymakers think? how does the brain work at the stage of making decisions, making choices, producing, and evaluating the consequences of actions? and how agency theory answers that behavior can influence decisions? agency relationships in agency theory as a contractual relationship (nexus of contract) between the owners of economic resources (principal) and managers (agents) who take care of the use and control of these resources (kim et al., 1998; ying & dawei, 2019). agency theory can be applied in public organizations, it is stated that a modern democratic state is based on a series of principal-agent relations (amayah, 2013; raczkowski, 2015). the model of principal-agent is considered very useful in public institutions with two possible conditions, namely (1) there are several principals with each purpose and interests that are not coherent and (2) the principal can also act out of line with the interests of the community, but prioritize their interests narrower (j. c. andvig, 1993). moreover, (christensen, 1992; upping & oliver, 2011) stated that the principalagent theory can be an analytical tool for the preparation and implementation of public budgets. in government concept, there is a linkage in principal-agent agreements that can be traced through the budget process: voter-legislature, government legislature, finance minister-budget user, prime ministerbureaucrat, and service provider officials (mcafee & mcmillan, 1986; nyman et al., 2005; tommasi & weinschelbaum, 2007). the same thing was brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 42 stated also by (van slyke, 2007) and (hepburn, 2010) who inspected the agency relationship as a chain of delegation, namely the delegation of the community to its representatives in parliament, from parliament to the government, from the government as a whole to a person minister, and from the government to the bureaucracy. the relationship does not always reflect the hierarchy, but it can be in the form of a delegation relationship (bar-gill & sunstein, 2015; feltham & xie, 1994). the delegation has four characteristics (1) the existence of principals and agents, (2) the possibility of a conflict of interest, (3) the existence of information asymmetry, and (4) the principal may reduce agency problems (lupia & mccubbins, 2000). the principals must provoke costs to obtain the information needed to monitor the performance of agents and to determine the structure of incentives and efficient monitoring (lupia & mccubbins, 1994; lupia & mccubbins, 1994, 2012). behavioral assumptions in public choice theory state that politicians are primarily concerned with maximizing prospects for re-election and bureaucrats are primarily concerned with maximizing enjoyment, which comes from the use of workplace facilities (e.g. prestige and influence) (austen-smith, 1999; lupia et al., 2012). executive and legislative relations as a self-interest relationship model (raile et al., 2011; shugart, 2009) where legislators want to be reelected while bureaucrats want to maximize their budget, and constituents want to maximize their utility. the executive-legislative agency relationship was also stated by (rockman, 1984) and (powell, 2007; zucco, 2013). as a principal, the legislature can also behave in a moral hazard or in realizing its self-interest (laver & shepsle, 2012; whitford, 2005) as corrupt principals (jens chr andvig & moene, 1990; della porta & vannucci, 2012). according to (colombatto, 2003, 2018), the existence of discretionary power on one side will lead to violations of agency contracts, such as the occurrence of rent-seeking behavior and corruption. legislative and public relations in terms of policy-making, (arter, 2006) argued that the principal relationship that occurs between voters and the legislature shows how voters choose politicians to make decisions about public spending for them and they provide funds with pay taxes. according to (baltrunaite et al., 2014; bozeman et al., 1982), elected politicians can be opportunistic and therefore voters want to eliminate the opportunity to get rents by making politicians bound to a rule that determines what they can or should do under certain conditions. the agency relationship between voters and politicians can be seen as an incomplete contract (gagliarducci et al., 2010; galasso & nannicini, 2011; street, 2004; thatcher, 2005). the role of neuroaccounting (the science of neural-based accounting) in … tri frida suryati, et al. 43 in the perception of neuroscience, the decision-making process is the act of choosing from various alternatives, which begin as a sensory process in the brain cortex. so, when these decisions are made, the sensory information must be interpreted and translated into behavior. decision making is defined as a perception that is influenced not only by the sensory information at hand but also by factors such as attention, level of difficulty, concentration, or an earlier event and consideration of the consequences of the decision. although traditional psychological theories suspect that the decision-making process consists of components that act in a hierarchical or structured manner, with the serial development of perceptions of actions and the latest neuroscience findings show that some components of this process occur in parallel. the current study aims to determine the role of neuroaccounting (neuro-based accounting) in decision making. research methods the present study uses a qualitative approach using active participation observation in collecting the data. the data collection method is conducted by using interviews, data analysis is administered by interpreting subjective understanding of informants, which is then followed by researchers' reflexivity. results and discussion the interview with the house of representatives of the republic of indonesia, commission ix expert staff regarding how is the relationship between the executive and the legislature in decision making? the informant answered that; when the legislature makes policies then proposes to the executive a relationship occurs, wherein the policies also contain executive interests. based on the informant's statement, the researcher has the view that when executives formulate policies in the context of budgeting can have a charge of interest. we know that executives submit budgets for financial and non-financial benefits, thereby increasing constituents' trust that they receive benefits from the government without having to pay the full cost. in the end, the superiority of information possessed by the executive that is used to compile the draft budget will be faced with the discretionary power possessed by the legislature. the interview with the house of representatives of the republic of indonesia, commission ix expert staff on how is the relationship between the legislature and the public in formulating public policies that protect the brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 44 public interest? the informant answered that; when the public elects' legislative members to make public policies, the public as the owner of the resources will support it through tax payments, so it is expected that the legislature can represent the public interest. based on the observations of researchers through print and electronic media, public support for the legislature is littered with various mega corruption cases. this is reinforced by the statement of an informant that not all public interests formulated in policies can be realized because of limited office time, political inclination, and knowledge to know all public needs. it is clear that the relationship between the legislature and the public can be considered an incomplete contract. the interview with neurologists regarding how are the mental processes and behavior of leaders' influence in decision making? explanations that bring leadership functions in the nervous system are interpreted and translated into leader behavior, in decision making can be viewed from the noble functions that characterize humans such as; character or character, intelligence, personality, policy in making decisions. as a leader who has a decision-making function, the leader can regulate himself in achieving organizational goals by measuring himself following his noble function through the nervous system, especially the brain. in the brain, there is a process of freezing and settling all experiences where the freeze and experience are started since the period of his career achievement, the prospective leader of an organization has gone through various stimuli that create impulses and various trajectory patterns in the celestial cortex that is the term used as the last station for all impulses triggered by sensory devices and all types of receptors. the interview with neuroscientists about how to interpret the managerial functions or leadership of the organization as planners, regulation, and management in the nervous system? the explanation begins with the managerial function or organizational leadership as a planner, arrangement and management can be interpreted in the nervous system by understanding the domains that underlie the basic mental processes or known as gnosis and cognizes are perceptions, joints and deviations are the manifestations of dominance in the organization's functions the sublime that develops shows planners, regulation and management in the nervous system. this can be interpreted by the organizational structure of nerve pathways that underlies planned external activity in the cerebral cortex of the frontal lobes. from an anatomical point of view, the cervical frontal lobe is the part of the brain that has the most connections with the brain stem and also with other cortex parts. the links are reciprocal. the external manifestation that the role of neuroaccounting (the science of neural-based accounting) in … tri frida suryati, et al. 45 shows the nature of planning, regulation, and management in its entirety is known as the activity of intervention which is a typical human activity. the interview with neurologists about how to interpret the behavior of leaders who emphasize the relevance of accounting information to the leadership and group decision making caused by communication between them? neuroscientists' answer that the leaders' behavior emphasizing the relevance of accounting information to leadership and group decision making caused by communication between them can be observed through external manifestations that show aspects of planning, regularity, and management in the form of muscle activity expressed in the form of movement agile in carrying out his professions such as language and writing activities. language and writing are human communication tools. every human needs communication, and every human has complete tools to develop communication. gnosis is very closely related to the description of the motion patterns which are both determined by dominance factors. instead, cognize is not related to hemisphere dominance but rather is integrated with both frontal lobes. if disturbed gnosis means the lesions in certain brain regions are also disturbed, whereas cognitive impairment is a manifestation of diffuse lesions on both hemispheres, these disorders are called organic syndromes such as orientation disorders, memory disorders, impaired intellectual functions such as understanding, counting, learning, assessment disorders, and judgment disorders and disruption of emotional livelihood stability, which can only be analyzed in terms of psychiatric associated with power that is organic. the interview with neuroscientists about how to interpret decision making as actions of leaders who have an awareness motive? motive awareness when someone is doing orientation activities, remembering accounting events, doing counting activities, learning, valuing and activities of various emotions, the components of sublime functions function so that orientation, memory, judgment and so on can be manifested in a high degree of vigilance, vigilance it is a brain activity known as consciousness as an integrated reflection state between efferent impulses (commonly called the output of the central nervous system) and afferents (commonly called the input of the central nervous system). healthy and adequate awareness is known as a caution, where actions, and reactions to what is seen, heard, and felt. high quality of awareness also raises the degree of awareness, therefore, making quality decisions come from leaders who have high quality and degree of awareness as manifestations of mental functions. the interview with psychiatrists about how to find leaders who have good mental functions to create quality decisions? the answers received by brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 46 researchers are to know the mental function of leaders is one way to get quality leaders who can produce quality decisions by observing mental functions consisting of degrees of awareness (or level of alertness), ability and implementation of intellectual activities, emotional reactions (affective reactions), way of thinking, psycho-sensory patterns, psychomotor patterns, language, and language. to test the seven groups of mental functions to the leadership, can conduct clinical functions of mental testing. neurology classifies characters that can influence the behavior of leaders in the process of making or making quality decisions, which explains that in the world of clinical neurology human behavior is influenced by emotions, thoughts and intellectual conduct of these three characters have a close relationship and influence each other. the interview with psychiatrists about what are the behavior influences of leaders in the process of making or making quality decisions? based on data that has been analyzed by researchers, that interpreting that the leader's emotions can affect his brain is through the status of human emotions can be assessed reaction to doctor's questions, can also pay attention to the behavior of the leadership of the people around him, or from the state of physical feelings from themselves. emotions color the behavior of the leadership, of course, the coloring of the behavior looks real and sharp when psychogenic or organic pain. organic pain or diffuse organic lesions interfere with the brain, so tenacity in mental function is reduced or even no more. the result is a cautious attitude that will not last long and a long time decreasing the power of concentration, the nature of the mind which is unstable. thus, the mind or consideration for making decisions is not good and not qualified. in such circumstances, the management of emotional feelings decreases or even disappears, resulting in an emotional state known as irritability, insistence, feelings of sadness, and sentimentality will emerge showing the weeping behavior of events that are insignificantly sad and laugh out loud events that not funny at all. this emotional state is called emotional lability which can contribute to damage to the nervous system of the brain caused by diffuse cerebral lesions. when they are mild, diffuse cerebral lesions will show symptoms of adaptability to be less, so that the leader will be neuro-typical, he will easily become tense and anxious where these feelings can be veiled in the form of psychosomatic symptoms, conversion reactions, depression or compulsive activities that can produce neurotic syndromes as a manifestation of brain damage or as a symptom of psychogenic disorders. the role of neuroaccounting (the science of neural-based accounting) in … tri frida suryati, et al. 47 conclusions and suggestions conclusions the results of the present study show that the principal-agent relationship can occur when the legislature and the executive establish an agency relationship in the policy-making process. in the perception of neuroscience, the charge of interests, limited tenure, political inclination, and limited knowledge to know all public needs can imprint and settle in the brain to create moral hazard and adverse selection of behavior. suggestions concerning the intense interaction between researchers and informants, there are several suggestions that in mutation systems and policy formulation activities, expertise involvement in neurology and cognitive psychology is needed by using clinical neurology and cognitive psychology testing tools to create quality leaders to produce quality decisions. references amayah, a. t. (2013). determinants of knowledge sharing in a public sector organization. journal of knowledge management. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-11-2012-0369 andvig, j. c. (1993). economic analyses of corruption. development theory: recent trends. proc. conference, bergen, 1992. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-0070599-9_2 andvig, jens chr, & moene, k. o. (1990). how corruption may corrupt. journal of economic behavior and organization. https://doi.org/10.1016/01672681(90)90053-g arter, d. (2006). introduction: comparing the legislative performance of legislatures. journal of legislative studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13572330600875423 austen-smith, d. (1999). review of the democratic dilemma (lupia and mccubbins). public choice. baltrunaite, a., bello, p., casarico, a., & profeta, p. (2014). gender quotas and the quality of politicians. journal of public economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.06.008 bar-gill, o., & sunstein, c. r. (2015). regulation as delegation. journal of legal analysis. https://doi.org/10.1093/jla/lav005 bozeman, b., aberbach, j., putnam, r., & rockman, b. (1982). bureaucrats and politicians in western democracies. journal of policy analysis and management. https://doi.org/10.2307/3324823 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 48 christensen, c. m. (1992). exploring the limits of the technology s‐curve. part i: component technologies. production and operations management. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1937-5956.1992.tb00001.x colombatto, e. (2003). why is corruption tolerated? review of austrian economics. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1027349206371 colombatto, e. (2018). the economic way of thinking. in the economics you need. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315658988-2 della porta, d., & vannucci, a. (2012). political corruption. in the wiley-blackwell companion to political sociology. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444355093.ch12 feltham, g. a., & xie, j. (1994). and diversity in congruity principal / agent relations. the accounting review. gagliarducci, s., nannicini, t., & naticchioni, p. (2010). moonlighting politicians. journal of public economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.05.001 galasso, v., & nannicini, t. (2011). competing on good politicians. american political science review. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055410000535 hepburn, c. (2010). environmental policy, government, and the market. oxford review of economic policy. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grq016 kim, c.-s., mauer, d. c., & sherman, a. e. (1998). the determinants of corporate liquidity: theory and evidence. the journal of financial and quantitative analysis. https://doi.org/10.2307/2331099 laver, m., & shepsle, k. a. (2012). government accountability in parliamentary democracy. in democracy, accountability, and representation. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139175104.010 lupia, a., & mccubbins, m. d. (1994). learning from oversight: fire alarms and police patrols reconstructed. journal of law, economics, and organization. https://doi.org/10.1093/jleo/10.1.96 lupia, a., & mccubbins, m. d. (1994). designing bureaucratic accountability. law and contemporary problems. https://doi.org/10.2307/1191988 lupia, a., & mccubbins, m. d. (2000). representation or abdication? how citizens use institutions to help delegation succeed. european journal of political research. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.00514 lupia, a., & mccubbins, m. d. (2012). the institutional foundations of political competence: how citizens learn what they need to know. in elements of reason. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511805813.003 lupia, a., mccubbins, m. d., & popkin, s. l. (2012). constructing a theory of reasoning: choice, constraints, and context. in elements of reason. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511805813.013 the role of neuroaccounting (the science of neural-based accounting) in … tri frida suryati, et al. 49 mcafee, r. p., & mcmillan, j. (1986). bidding for contracts: a principal-agent analysis. the rand journal of economics. https://doi.org/10.2307/2555714 nyman, c., nilsson, f., & rapp, b. (2005). accountability in local government: a principal‐agent perspective. journal of human resource costing & accounting. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013380510645397 powell, r. j. (2007). executive-legislative relations. in institutional change in american politics: the case of term limits. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1ww3w2t.9 raczkowski, k. (2015). public management: theory and practice. in public management: theory and practice. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20312-6 raile, e. d., pereira, c., & power, t. j. (2011). the executive toolbox: building legislative support in a multiparty presidential regime. political research quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912909355711 rockman, b. a. (1984). legislative-executive relations and legislative oversight. legislative studies quarterly. https://doi.org/10.2307/439490 shugart, m. s. (2009). comparative executive-legislative relations. in the oxford handbook of political institutions. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199548460.003.0018 street, j. (2004). celebrity politicians: popular culture and political representation. the british journal of politics and international relations. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-856x.2004.00149.x thatcher, m. (2005). the third force? independent regulatory agencies and elected politicians in europe. in governance. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14680491.2005.00280.x tommasi, m., & weinschelbaum, f. (2007). centralization vs. decentralization: a principal-agent analysis. journal of public economic theory. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9779.2007.00311.x upping, p., & oliver, j. (2011). international review of business research papers accounting change model for the public sector : adapting luder ’ s model for developing countries. international review of business research papers. van slyke, d. m. (2007). agents or stewards: using theory to understand the government-nonprofit social service contracting relationship. journal of public administration research and theory. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mul012 whitford, a. b. (2005). the pursuit of political control by multiple principals. journal of politics. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2005.00306.x ying, h., & dawei, z. (2019). manager’s characteristics, debt financing and firm value. china economist. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 50 zucco, c. (2013). legislative coalitions in presidential systems: the case of uruguay. latin american politics and society. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15482456.2013.00185.x brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 132-144 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/272 principles of realization of physical therapy for students: modern views of neuropedagogy and neuropsychology valentyna bilyk¹, oksana bashtovenko2, tetiana biriukova3, vitalii osipov4, maryna kriukova5, liliya tomich6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, valya-bilyk@ukr.net 2 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, osiabasht@gmail.com 3 kherson state university, ukraine, wwwisdom777@gmail.com 4 berdyansk state pedagogical university, ukraine, shef_fizvosp@ukr.net 5 national university "odesa law academy", ukraine, marisel039@ukr.net 6 kyiv national university of technology and design (knutd), ukraine, liliya_tomich@ukr.net abstract: the article considers the issue of the principles of realization of physical therapy of students from the point of view of neurosciences. the article notes that modern higher education is characterized by the appearance of a new medical specialty "physical therapy, ergotherapy". the emphasis is made on the fact that the ukrainian society badly needed such specialists. the essence of such concepts: "higher education", "specialist", "vocational training", "physical therapy", "ergotherapy", "rehabilitation therapist", "neuropedagogy", "neuropsychology" is considered. it is noted that physiotherapists from japan played an important role in assisting athletes during the 2020 olympic games. since 2007, the ukrainian association for physical therapy has been organized in ukraine. it is proved that the first appearance of the profession, which is associated with physiotherapy exercises, dates back to the beginning of the xx century. it is noted that the government document gives the right to be in training persons who have special educational problems. a review of articles by domestic and foreign authors on the use of physical therapy to improve human health is made. the main aspects of training a future specialist in physical therapy are disclosed. it is noted that university teachers should think about a modern approach when teaching subjects. the professional training of future specialists in physical therapy to work on improving the health of athletes has been studied in detail. structural components that should be taken into account by future specialists are noted. the interactive methods and forms of work that are integral to teaching students are named. it is noted that future specialists should have not only knowledge of physical culture, but also pedagogical, psychological and physiological methods of work. in addition, it was noted that for rehabilitation therapists it is important knowledge of intersubject relationships. the active-operational component of the professional activity of students has been investigated. in addition, it is noted that the physiotherapist should be professional in the selection of exercises for remedial gymnastic. since it was found that the neuropsychological overload of students requires physical therapy. keywords: higher education, specialist, vocational training, physical therapy, ergotherapy, rehabilitation therapist, neuropedagogy, neuropsychology. how to cite: bilyk, v., bashtovenko, o., biriukova, t., osipov, v., kriukova, m., & tomich, l. (2022). principles of realization of physical therapy for students: modern views of neuropedagogy and neuropsychology. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 132-144. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/272 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/272 mailto:valya-bilyk@ukr.net mailto:osiabasht@gmail.com mailto:wwwisdom777@gmail.com mailto:shef_fizvosp@ukr.net mailto:marisel039@ukr.net mailto:liliya_tomich@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/272 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 133 introduction the intensive development of higher education is manifested in the appearance of new specialties for modern students. therefore, one of the branches is the specialty "physical therapy, ergotherapy". this is a modern profession that combines unique knowledge, skills in the use of physical exercises to support, develop, recover a person's physical activity during aging, injuries, pains, diseases, etc. changes and reforms in health care in ukraine emphasize the need for such specialists who would be professionals and competitive specialists in the labor market. a fast pace of life, a decrease in stress resistance, the lifestyle of many people is based on a decrease in physical activity and an increase in the consumption of foods rich in cholesterol all these factors are the causes of the risk and occurrence of various diseases. this can be helped by a healthy lifestyle, preventive anti-stress steps, care for the cleanliness of the environment, various rehabilitation techniques, dyachenko t.v. (2007). therefore, to begin with, it is necessary to find out such concepts as higher education, specialist, vocational training, physical therapy, ergotherapy, rehabilitation therapist, neuropedagogy, neuropsychology. the definition of "higher education" is in the article 1 of the law of ukraine "on higher education", therefore it is "a complex of systematized knowledge, skills and practical skills, ways of thinking, professional, ideological and civic qualities, moral and ethical values, and other competencies obtained in institution of higher education, which correspond to the field of knowledge for a certain qualification at the levels of higher education ", p. poroshenko (2014). in the dictionary of the ukrainian language, edited by i.k. bilodid (1979, p. 570) explanations of the word "specialist" are presented 1) "the one who perfectly owns the specialty, has high qualifications, deep knowledge in a certain field of science, technology, art", 2) "the one who has done some business by his personal profession ". it becomes known from the article 1 of the law of ukraine "on higher education" that "vocational training is a student obtaining qualifications in the correspond field of study or specialty", poroshenko p. (2014). in a note by bernstein s. (2021), the following definition is given: "physical therapy is a help to a person that relieves pain, improves physical activity and development of abilities, helps to recover from a sports injury, principles of realization of physical therapy for students: modern views of ... valentyna bilyk, et al. 134 surgery, rehabilitation after illness, teaches to use assistive devices or prosthetic limbs". the article by bagriy i. (2014) gives an interpretation of the concept of "ergotherapy" this is an area of professional activity that focuses on the role of human employment in the development process. an article by gardner m. (2014) defines that "a rehabilitation therapist is a health care professional who helps patients recover from physical trauma or mental illness and back to their normal life". according to voznyuk a. v. (2019), "neuropedagogy is a neuroscience that combines knowledge of cognitive neurology, differential psychophysiology, neuropsychology". in the article by a.g. shevtsov (2015), the meaning of the word "neuropsychology" means "the science of the brain, which combines correctional pedagogy and psychological and pedagogical rehabilitation, i.e. it studies the regularity of the psychomotor, cognitive and emotional state of a person". interestingly, that the world confederation for physical therapy claims that physical therapists played a significant role in the tokyo 2020 olympics, grant m. (2021). the olympic physical therapy group consisted of 800 specialists from the japan physical therapy association who made physical therapy, sports massage, ice baths, etc. for athletes. according to the interpretation of the world confederation for physical therapy (2019), physiotherapy is a service that physiotherapists offer to patients in order to recover maximum physical activity of a person. the reason for the need for physical therapy can be aging, trauma, pain, disease, disorders. physiotherapists discover the cause of a disease, as well as plan and carry out rehabilitation of the patient, taking into account the physical, mental, emotional and social state of the patient. the task of physiotherapists is to carry out the examination of the patient in a qualified and professional manner, to assess the examination, find out the diagnosis, plan further actions, render with systematic consultations, conduct therapeutic exercises with the patient, cooperate with medical professionals. without a doubt, practical activity will depend on the goal: whether it is focused on prevention or treatment, or rehabilitation of the patient. by the way, since 2007, the ukrainian association of physical therapy has been organized in ukraine thanks to the efforts of the lviv association of physical rehabilitation specialists. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 135 review of the literature on the realization of physical therapy to improve human health at the beginning of the 20th century in the united states, they first started talking about the appearance of a profession that is associated with remedial gymnastic. patients during the polio epidemic, as well as those injured during the first world war, required emergency assistance: specialists who would understand physical exercises. article 3 of the law of ukraine "on amendments to certain laws of ukraine concerning access of persons with special educational needs to educational services" states that at present, inclusive vocational (vocational) training is organized for persons with disabilities, i.e. educational services are provided for obtaining a profession, poroshenko p. (2018). therefore, physiotherapy is useful not only for persons with special educational needs, but also for healthy students, because the use of physical exercise, physical fitness and the prevention of injuries and obesity contributes to the overall strengthening of human health. knowledge of neurosciences is used by psychologists and teachers both in institutions of general secondary education and in higher education. it is known that physical exercise is one of the tools that is the key to successful learning. undoubtedly, remedial gymnastic is unique for the development of motor skills. a clinical guide written by louw a. (2018) provides patient advice on pain management and neuroscience knowledge to help develop the body, move better, promote exercise, and restore hope for a healthy mind. scientists explain how the human body and brain work, why pain appears, how you can overcome the symptoms of the disease with the help of neuroscience knowledge and improve your health. knowledge of this guide will be useful for students studying physical therapy and doctors who work in this direction and patients to successfully treat chronic pain. the guide by mitra r. (2019) "principles of rehabilitation medicine" deserves special attention, where the author proposes the treatment of cerebral hemorrhage, spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries based on neurosciences. the author draws attention to the rehabilitation of patients who have amputated limbs or patients suffering from cardiovascular or pulmonary diseases. the author considers child rehabilitation, prosthetics and orthopedics separately from adult rehabilitation. minnis g. (2017) in his work lists diseases that a physiotherapist can treat: cardiopulmonary, carpal tunnel syndrome, musculoskeletal disorders, principles of realization of physical therapy for students: modern views of ... valentyna bilyk, et al. 136 neurological and pediatric, sports injuries, pelvic floor dysfunctions. among the methods of treatment, the teacher can use orthopedic, geriatric, neurological physical exercises, cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation, children's physical therapy, wound care therapy, vestibular and decongestive therapy, pelvic floor rehabilitation. noteworthy is the comprehensive reference book by palisano r. (2016), which details children neuropsychological disorders. emphasis is placed on the benefits of remedial gymnastic, which develops fine motor skills, improving not only the physical condition of the child, but also the work of the brain. the authors offer recommendations on the correct use of tests in the practice of a physiotherapist. special attention is paid to the treatment of children asthma. the middleton k. (2020) manual was prepared by two physiotherapists who developed pediatric exercises for use with children to develop their hand motor skills. this mannual helps to understand the importance of physical activity for the learning and progress in studies of children. the main aspects of training a future physical therapy specialist a modern approach to the organization of the educational process in a higher educational institution requires the training of a competitive specialist. classes should help to attract students to intense activities, carry motivation to study the material, and also contain planned educational and cognitive activities that are aimed at solving certain educational problems. currently, neurorehabilitation is one of the main areas of modern medicine. restorative medicine is based on three factors: traditional physical rehabilitation, new technologies and achievements in complex rehabilitation, a.a. kozyolkin. (2020). the issue of the peculiarities of training future specialists in physical therapy and occupational therapy (ergotherapy) in universities was covered by the domestic researcher bazylchuk o (2018). the author examines in detail the professional training of future specialists in physical therapy to work to recover the health of athletes. he focuses on the fact that future specialists in physical therapy should have the knowledge, skills, abilities, personal qualities that contribute to the support of successful activities to recover athletes' working capacity. the researcher characterizes the structural components of the readiness of future specialists: motivational, scientific and theoretical, procedural, personal, which are necessary for the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 137 implementation of rehabilitation measures to recover the health of athletes. as it turned out, the health level of athletes is highly dependent on the conditions for organizing training, as well as taking into account the sanitary and hygienic conditions. among the reasons for sustain sports injuries are: a weak level of training sessions, individual characteristics of athletes are not taken into account, non-compliance with safety standards, neglect of sanitary and hygienic standards, systematic use of excessive exersices, underestimation of systematic work on technique, fatigue, wrong warm-up, wrong use of standing by (in a case of accident). it is noted that the formation of professional development of specialists in physical rehabilitation is influenced by objective and subjective factors. in addition, the study developed a complex of interrelated concepts and target, theoretical and methodological, substantive, procedural and criteriondiagnostic blocks. the author examines in detail the pedagogical conditions created in higher education, in particular, he notes the use of interactive teaching methods and believes that they are an integral part of ensuring the development of the professional activity of future rehabilitation therapists. among the forms of work, teachers are recommended to use a "round table" to develop a discussion between students, a method of situational exercises, "brainstorming", business games, a method of projects, to develop a portfolio. to invite medical workers, experienced specialists and athletes to classes. the researcher in his manual notes that the discussion helps students to dive deeply into the problem, discuss it and come to the right conclusions. students can simulate the process of activity using a business game and work in a team. among business games, it is recommended: simulation, operational, role-playing, traditional project, etc. the basic element of a business game is the development of a game scenario, in which a phased algorithm is presented. it is noted that the business game helps the student to consciously understand the essence of his profession. the case method attracts students to independence, assessment of real problems, the ability to analyze and find the main and the secondary. such individual and group work helps students to develop their competencies. "brainstorming" has its own structure: an introductory stage, generating thoughts and a conclusion. this form of work contributes to the fact that each student is actively involved in the work, because everyone has to speak out. among the advantages of this method are: equality of students with respect to proposals, the creation of a cognitive process, a decrease in closed thinking, students overcome internal and mental obstacles. the project method helps principles of realization of physical therapy for students: modern views of ... valentyna bilyk, et al. 138 students develop critical thinking, self-process material, and make presentations. the portfolio is one of the criteria for self-assessment of a future specialist, because he has to give reflection on his activities. without a doubt, the above-mentioned interactive forms of work help to the development of personal qualities: independence, determination, the ability to formulate thoughts and work in a team. noteworthy is the article by a.v. chesnokov. (2007), in which the author raises the question of the professional training of future specialists in physical culture and notes that students should have not only good achievements in physical culture, but also master pedagogical, psychological and physiological methods. the author notes that 2 experiments were carried out for two groups of students gymnasts, after which new methods were proposed to improve their professional training. at the same time, the author believes that it is necessary to take into account the individual state of health, sports specialization and training. zyuzin v.a. (2009) argues that interdisciplinary relations necessary for professional activity play an important role for the professional training of future physical rehabilitation therapists. the author notes that scientific studies prove the significant effectiveness of rehabilitation methods. if a rehabilitation therapist draws up a rehabilitation program competently, then more than 50% of patients can back to an active, mobile, normal lifestyle. kopochynska yu. (2020) investigated the formation of the activityoperational component of the professional identity of future specialists in physical therapy and occupational therapy. the author examines the activeoperational component of the professional activity of students, which is implemented through the appropriate methods, forms and techniques of rehabilitation. the active-operational component is manifested according to a certain algorithm: 1) observation, active listening, according to the actions, words, gestures of a person; 2) understanding and interpreting others, 3) conclusions and evaluating actions. the principle of professional training that support the improvement of physical activity and lifestyle of a person contains the knowledge of students in remedial gymnastic and occupational therapy. future specialists should think about improving their qualifications and improving self-education after getting higher education. in the work of a physical therapist, consistency is a prerequisite, it consists in a combination of cognitive and practical activities of students. in addition, it is worth studying new information in order to form a system of associations with already acquired knowledge. in addition, systematic thinking supports to the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 139 efficient functioning of the brain, because the brain is regularly faced with stress in certain portions. knowledge of interdisciplinary relationships will contribute to the holistic study of a certain material. the training of a specialist in physical therapy and occupational therapy requires specific planning and carefully selected, developed program support. consistency should be shown by the teacher in the organization of the educational process of each lesson and in the making of homework by students. the principle of continuity should show the duration of training, structure and phasing. continuity should be a progressive movement for students in the study of new disciplines, in their mastery of new knowledge, in an active participation during practical classes. all this contributes to the formation of professional and necessary traits of a future specialist. the principle of the unity of individualization and differentiation, i.e. teachers must take into account the individual characteristics of each person while teaching subjects, because all personalities are unique: they have their own abilities, tendencies, inclinations, needs. in addition, the teacher should take a differentiated approach to testing the knowledge acquired by students. the next principle is the activity criterion, which contains professional competence, i.e. the result of self-expression of a future specialist. the principle of activity shows the student's ability to apply and keep the moral norms of professional ethics: the ability to make an arrangement with the patient, achieve effective communication, use non-verbal signals. thus, the basic level of the formation of the professional identity of future physical therapy specialists is the ability to keep moral norms for communicating with the patient. a high level is characterized not only by successful communication, but also by the ability to apply rehabilitation practice based on modern scientific discoveries, as well as to solve complex issues that appear in practice. the highest level differs from the previous one in that the specialist knows how to analyze situations well and even prevent and foresee them, avoid unnecessary. barker k. (2019) draws attention to the basic principles of remedial gymnastic and offers a complex of exercises. the author notes that the american health care system focuses on the use of physical exercises. the work presents a program of exercises, including aerobic exercises, which form flexibility, stability, and promote motor development all this supports to the maintenance and improvement of physical health. in addition, the author claims that properly selected physical activity is an effective therapy. the physical therapist should select an individual exercise program when prescribing home exercises to help the person cure a medical condition and principles of realization of physical therapy for students: modern views of ... valentyna bilyk, et al. 140 maintain his health. noteworthy is the greeman technique, who believed that special attention should be paid to the length, strength and control of muscle function, destefano l. (2011). therefore, a successful exercise program recovers not only muscle function, but also the nervous system. to do this, he developed the following algorithm: 1) training sensory motor balance, 2) stretching the short, hypertensive muscle to symmetry, 3) strengthening of inhibited muscles, 4) recovering of symmetrical movements, 5) aerobic coordination. an interesting method developed by mcgill, which consists in passing a 5-stage algorithm: 1) identify and eliminate abnormal movements, 2) recover the work of joints throughout the body through physical exercises that are focused on the correct activity of the spine, 3) develop endurance, 4) and 5) train strength, agility, speed in athletes, mcgill s. (2015). a review of the literature of domestic and foreign researchers shows that physical therapists are developing a program of physiotherapy exercises, which includes fitness classes (improves the functioning of the cardiovascular system, strengthens muscles), swimming (breathing, movement, flexibility, muscle tone training, strength in water) , conducting games for children, physical education for adults (improving coordination of movements, psychological and coordination abilities). physical rehabilitation includes remedial gymnastic, therapeutic massage, physiotherapy, and ergotherapy. remedial gymnastic is a complex of physical exercises aimed at muscle activity. during physical exercise, the patient doing movements consciously, during which sometimes it is necessary to overcome pain, discomfort that arose due to injuries or burns. physical exercises in remedial gymnastic are classified into gymnastic (for the muscles of the head, neck, arms, body; breathing, corrective; they can be done with or without objects), ideomotor (done only in the imagination, thus developing "muscle sensitivity", they are transition to more complex exercises), applied sports (walking, climbing, crawling, running, swimming.) a study on therapeutic education and health promotion in persons with neuropsychological overload syndrome is covered by a group of scientists led by georgescu l. (2017). researchers have found that even monotonous activity, lack of interest in work can lead to attention failure and memory, the appearance of fatigue. therefore, for teaching physical therapy students, teachers daily try to combine practical and theoretical activities rationally, alternate active forms of learning with less active ones. in addition, a balanced diet and healthy sleep are necessary, the physical and brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 141 mental state of the student depends on these factors. common symptoms: fatigue, decreased attention, anxiety, irritability, emotional instability, behavioral disorders, drowsiness, poor memory, lack of interest in learning indicate the syndrome of neuropsychological overload of students. constant chronic fatigue reduces the body's ability to work actively, and therefore it becomes necessary to be at rest in order to regain its strength. the exhausted body needs to be recovered. the authors investigated the neuropsychological overload of students and determined that unsystematic, malnutrition, insomnia, and lack of exercise led to the appearance of chronic diseases in students. overload syndrome a condition characterized by physical, cognitive, and emotional impairments that result in poor mood, frustration, depression, memory impairment, poor academic performance, and loss of self-esteem. to overcome such disorders, neuropsychological and physical mechanisms should be activated. for the experiment, the correspondents recruited 50 students, who were divided into two groups: one students who just study, and the other study and work. according to the results of the study, it was found that most of the students of the second group experienced chronic fatigue syndrome. experiment has shown that overload affects activity and quality of life. conclusions the article considers the issue of the principles of realization of physical therapy of students from the point of view of neurosciences. it was noted that modern higher education is characterized by the appearance of a new medical specialty "physical therapy, ergotherapy". the essence of the concepts was considered: "higher education", "specialist", "professional training", "physical therapy", "ergotherapy", " rehabilitation therapist", "neuropedagogy", "neuropsychology". it was noted that physiotherapists from japan played an important role, who provided assistance to athletes during the olympic games 2020. by the way, it is noted that since 2007 the ukrainian association of physical therapy has been organized in ukraine. it has been proven that at the beginning of the 20th century, the first appearance of a profession associated with remedial gymnastic was recorded. the law of ukraine stipulates the right to get education for persons with special educational problems. a review of articles by domestic and foreign authors on the use of physical therapy to improve human health is made. the main aspects of principles of realization of physical therapy for students: modern views of ... valentyna bilyk, et al. 142 training a future specialist in physical therapy are considered. in addition, it was noted that university teachers should think about a modern approach when teaching subjects. the professional training of future specialists in physical therapy to work on improving the health of athletes has been studied in detail. structural components were highlighted that should be taken into account by future professionals. the interactive methods and forms of work that are integral to teaching students are named. it is noted that future specialists should not only possess knowledge of physical culture, but also master pedagogical, psychological and physiological methods. in addition, it was noted that knowledge of interdisciplinary relations is important for rehabilitation therapists. the active-operational component of the professional activity of students has been investigated. the physical therapist should be professional in the selection of exercises for remedial gymnastic. it is found out that common symptoms such as: fatigue, decreased attention, anxiety, irritability, emotional instability, behavioral disorders, drowsiness, poor memory, lack of interest in learning indicate the syndrome of neuropsychological overload of students. references bagriy, i. (2014). zanyattyeva terapiya yak napryam profesiynoyi diyalʹnosti [ergotherapy as a direction of professional activity] pedagogy and psychology of vocational education, 1, 158-166. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pippo_2014_1_17 barker, k. (2019). exercise prescription and basic principles of therapeutic exercise. pm&rknowledge. https://now.aapmr.org/exercise-prescription-andbasic-principles-of-therapeutic-exercise/ bazylchuk, o. (2018). profesiyna pidhotovka maybutnikh fakhivtsiv z fizychnoyi terapiyi, erhoterapiyi do roboty z vidnovlennya zdorovʺya sport·smeniv: teoretychno-metodychnyy aspect [professional training of future specialists in physical therapy, ergotherapy for work on the health improvement of athletes: theoretical and methodological aspect][ monograph]. khmelnitsky pe monuscript, 534. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/21126 bernstein, s. (2021). what is physical therapy? webmd. https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/what-is-physical-therapy bilodid, i. k. (1979). slovnyk ukrayinsʹkoyi movy. [dictionary of the ukrainian language] (vol. 11, p.570). http://sum.in.ua/s/kompetentnyj chesnokov, a. v. (2007). profesiyna pidhotovka pedahohiv fizychnoyi kulʹtury: novi napryamy [professional training of teachers of physical culture: new http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pippo_2014_1_17 https://now.aapmr.org/exercise-prescription-and-basic-principles-of-therapeutic-exercise/ https://now.aapmr.org/exercise-prescription-and-basic-principles-of-therapeutic-exercise/ http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/21126 https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/what-is-physical-therapy http://sum.in.ua/s/kompetentnyj brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 143 directions]. medicine and education of siberia, 5, 12-20. https://ur.booksc.org/book/50750926/e17afa destefano, l. a. (2011). greenman's principles of manual medicine. (4th ed.) lippincott williams & wilkins. https://www.amazon.com/greenmans-principlesmedicine-lippincottwilliams/dp/078178915x?asin=078178915x&revisionid=&format=4&de pth=1 dyachenko, t.v. (2007). stan vyvchennya problemy pidhotovky fakhivtsiv-reabilitolohiv v osvitnʹomu prostori ukrayiny. pedahohika, psykholohiya ta medyko-biolohichni problemy fizychnoho vykhovannya i sportu [the state of studying the problem of training rehabilitation specialists in the educational space of ukraine. pedagogy, psychology and medical and biological problems of physical education and sports][ monograph]. kharkiv state academy of design and fine arts (kharkiv art and industrial institute), 10, 38-41. https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2008-02/08dtvtpr.pdf gardner, m. (2014). what is a rehabilitation specialist. coastal orthopedics. https://www.coastalorthopedics.com/blog/what-is-a-rehabilitationspecialist georgescu, l. (2017). therapeutic education and health promotion in individuals with neuropsychological overload syndrome. in l.georgescu, e. iconaru, m. tudor, m. ciucurel (eds.), social & behavioural sciences, 28, 1621–1628. grant, m. (2021). physiotherapists play key role at tokyo olympic games. world physiotherapy. https://world.physio/news/physiotherapists-play-key-roletokyo-olympic-games kopochynska, yu. (2020). formuvannya diyalʹnisno-operatsiynoho komponenta profesiynoyi identychnosti maybutnikh fakhivtsiv z fizychnoyi terapiyi, erhoterapiyi [formation of an active-operational component of the professional identity of future specialists in physical therapy and ergotherapy]. topical issues of the humanities. http://aphnjournal.in.ua/archive/29_2020/part_2/35.pdf kozyolkin, o.a. (2020). fizychna terapiya v neyroreabilitatsiyi [physical therapy in neurorehabilitation]. in a. a. kozyolkin, v. i. dariy, m. v. sikorskaya, i. v. vizir (eds.), zaporozhya state medical university, 234. https://cutt.ly/8wmilp1 louw, a. (2018). pain neuroscience education: teaching people about pain 2nd edition. in a. louw (ed.) orthopedic physical therapy products, 536 p. https://radiologyebook.vn/pain-neuroscience-education-teaching-peopleabout-pain-2nd-edition mcgill, s. (2015). low back disorders 3rd edition with web resource. in s. mcgill (ed.), human kinetics australia p/l, 424. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26451413-low-back-disorders https://ur.booksc.org/book/50750926/e17afa https://www.amazon.com/greenmans-principles-medicine-lippincott-williams/dp/078178915x?asin=078178915x&revisionid=&format=4&depth=1 https://www.amazon.com/greenmans-principles-medicine-lippincott-williams/dp/078178915x?asin=078178915x&revisionid=&format=4&depth=1 https://www.amazon.com/greenmans-principles-medicine-lippincott-williams/dp/078178915x?asin=078178915x&revisionid=&format=4&depth=1 https://www.amazon.com/greenmans-principles-medicine-lippincott-williams/dp/078178915x?asin=078178915x&revisionid=&format=4&depth=1 https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2008-02/08dtvtpr.pdf https://www.coastalorthopedics.com/blog/what-is-a-rehabilitation-specialist https://www.coastalorthopedics.com/blog/what-is-a-rehabilitation-specialist https://world.physio/news/physiotherapists-play-key-role-tokyo-olympic-games https://world.physio/news/physiotherapists-play-key-role-tokyo-olympic-games http://aphn-journal.in.ua/archive/29_2020/part_2/35.pdf http://aphn-journal.in.ua/archive/29_2020/part_2/35.pdf https://cutt.ly/8wmilp1 https://radiologyebook.vn/pain-neuroscience-education-teaching-people-about-pain-2nd-edition https://radiologyebook.vn/pain-neuroscience-education-teaching-people-about-pain-2nd-edition https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26451413-low-back-disorders principles of realization of physical therapy for students: modern views of ... valentyna bilyk, et al. 144 middleton, k. (2020). pediatric exercise handbook: a developmental how-to for parents and clinicians. united states: copyrighted material. https://www.amazon.com/pediatric-exercise-handbook-developmentalhow/dp/b084g6pzbd?asin=b084g6pzbd&revisionid=&format=4& depth=1 minnis, g. (2017). how can physical therapy help? medical news today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/160645 mitra, r. (2019). principles of rehabilitation medicine. university of kansas medical center: mcgraw-hill education. https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/book.aspx?bookid=2550 palisano, r. (2016). campbell's physical therapy for children expert consult 5th edition . in r. palisano, m. orlin (eds.), physical therapy for children. pittsburgh: elsevier, 2978. https://www.amazon.com/campbellsphysical-therapy-children-consult-ebook/dp/b0789xr68h poroshenko, p. (2014). zakon ukrayiny «pro vyshchu osvitu» [law of ukraine "on higher education"]. verkhovna rada of ukraine. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1556-18#text poroshenko, p. (2018). zakon ukrayiny «pro vnesennya zmin do deyakykh zakoniv ukrayiny shchodo dostupu osib z osoblyvymy osvitnimy potrebamy do osvitnikh posluh» [law of ukraine "on amendments to some laws of ukraine on access of persons with special educational needs to educational services"]. verkhovna rada of ukraine. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/254119#text shevtsov, a. g. (2015). neyropsykholohichnyy pidkhid u korektsiyi rozvytku ditey z psykhofizychnymy porushennyamy [neuropsychological approach in the correction of the development of children with psychophysical disorders]. http://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/231/210.pdf/ voznyuk, o. v. (2019). neyropedahohika – potuzhnyy resurs osvity doroslykh [neuropedagogy a powerful resource for adult education]. publishing house of the zhytomyr state university named after i. franko. http://library.zu.edu.ua/andragogichnyi_visnyk.html world confederation for physical therapy. description of physical therapy policy statement. world confederation for physical therapy world physiotherapy. – 2019. https://world.physio/sites/default/files/202007/ps-2019-description-of-physical-therapy.pdf zyuzin, v. o. (2009). profesiyna pidhotovka fakhivtsiv fizychnoyi reabilitatsiyi v suchasnykh umovakh osvity [professional training of specialists in physical rehabilitation in modern conditions of education]. in a. zyuzin, t. n. zinchenko(eds.), scientific works. ecology, 113-115. https://lib.chmnu.edu.ua/pdf/naukpraci/ecology/2012/179-167-28.pdf https://www.amazon.com/pediatric-exercise-handbook-developmental-how/dp/b084g6pzbd?asin=b084g6pzbd&revisionid=&format=4&depth=1 https://www.amazon.com/pediatric-exercise-handbook-developmental-how/dp/b084g6pzbd?asin=b084g6pzbd&revisionid=&format=4&depth=1 https://www.amazon.com/pediatric-exercise-handbook-developmental-how/dp/b084g6pzbd?asin=b084g6pzbd&revisionid=&format=4&depth=1 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/160645 https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/book.aspx?bookid=2550 https://www.amazon.com/campbells-physical-therapy-children-consult-ebook/dp/b0789xr68h https://www.amazon.com/campbells-physical-therapy-children-consult-ebook/dp/b0789xr68h https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1556-18#text https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2541-19#text https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2541-19#text http://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/231/210.pdf/ http://library.zu.edu.ua/andragogichnyi_visnyk.html https://world.physio/sites/default/files/2020-07/ps-2019-description-of-physical-therapy.pdf https://world.physio/sites/default/files/2020-07/ps-2019-description-of-physical-therapy.pdf https://lib.chmnu.edu.ua/pdf/naukpraci/ecology/2012/179-167-28.pdf ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 181-194 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/361 submitted: september 6th, 2022 | accepted for publication: september 19th, 2022 speech therapy as a component of comprehensive rehabilitation of patients with acute impairment of cerebral circulation nataliia vasylieva 1 , myroslava kuleshaliubinets 2 , kateryna trubaieva 3 , mariana dub 4 , yulia ribtsun 5 , nataliia ivantsev 6 1 kherson state university, ukraine, nataliavasileva85@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7104-1737 2 vasyl stefanyk preсarpathian national university, ukraine, myroslava.kulesha@pnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9130-1719 3 kherson state university, ukraine, sandurenkokaterina@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5398-9540 4 state universiti "uzhhorod national university", ukraine, marjana.dub@uzhnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2737-960x 5 mykola yarmachenko institute of special pedagogy and psychology, national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, logojuli@i.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2672-3704 6 vasyl stefanyk preсarpathian national university, ukraine, nataliya.avantsev@pnu.edu.ua abstract: the article reveals the essence of speech and speech therapy as a component of the rehabilitation process in restoring the health of patients who have suffered acute impairment of cerebral circulation. the concept of cerebral vascular insufficiency was analyzed, which refers to cerebral physiological changes in old age and associated conditions of speech impairment. vascular diseases of the brain are not only a medical problem, but also a social one: they cause enormous damage to the economy, considering the costs of treatment, medical rehabilitation, and losses in production. the effectiveness of motor recovery after an ischemic stroke in the early recovery period depends largely on timely rehabilitation. physical exercises have a positive effect on the recovery of the body systems of people who have had an ischemic stroke. the most frequent consequences of stroke in about 40-50% of the total number of patients are disorders of speech function, manifested in the form of aphasia and dysarthria, which are often combined with pathology of other higher mental functions (various types of agnosia and apraxia). today, speech therapy is practiced by specialists both as a separate method and in combination with other techniques, and is used in individual and group work, including work with patients who have had an acute impairment of cerebral circulation. keywords: stroke; speech disorders; physical therapy; speech therapy. how to cite: vasylieva, n., kulesha-liubinets, m., trubaieva, k., dub, m., ribtsun, y., & ivantsev, n. (2022). speech therapy as a component of comprehensive rehabilitation of patients with acute impairment of cerebral circulation. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 181-194. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/361 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/361 mailto:nataliavasileva85@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7104-1737 mailto:myroslava.kulesha@pnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9130-1719 mailto:sandurenkokaterina@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5398-9540 mailto:marjana.dub@uzhnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2737-960x mailto:logojuli@i.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2672-3704 mailto:nataliya.avantsev@pnu.edu.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/361 speech therapy as a component of comprehensive rehabilitation of patients … nataliia vasylieva et al. 182 introduction acute impairment of cerebral circulation leads to stroke, which is the third leading cause of death worldwide and the main cause of formation of permanent primary disability. on average, no more than 55% of patients survive for 5 years after acute stroke. one of the main concerns of a stroke patient is to return to an active life and physical rehabilitation, which makes up the general post-stroke rehabilitation, helps to restore independence and improve the patient's quality of life. post-stroke rehabilitation should begin as early as possible after a vascular accident, usually in the acute period after the patient's general condition has stabilized (mostly within 24-48 hours after the stroke). the earlier the patient receives rehabilitative interventions, the greater the chances of restoring impaired or lost abilities and skills. the goal of rehabilitation is to help stroke patients regain the skills they have lost as a result of damage to part of the brain through retraining. it is also important to develop, maintain, and restore as much as possible the patient's motor and functional abilities when they are impaired or lost due to aging, trauma, disease, or negative environmental influences. the duration of the rehabilitation process is individual for each individual and depends on the severity of the stroke, comorbidities, and the timing of rehabilitation care from the onset of the disease. although some patients recover fairly quickly, most patients require long-term rehabilitation that may last for months or even years ( behas et al., 2019; kim et al., 2021; kimble & ellor, 2001; nenko et al., 2022; sarancha et al., 2021;taran et al., 2020). rehabilitation is an important part of recovery for many stroke survivors. the aftermath of a stroke can mean that the patient must change, rethink their philosophy, and learn how to live. and it is physical rehabilitation after a stroke that can help return to independent living. this requires offering the patient an individual rehabilitation program, competently and reasonably designed by rehabilitation specialists (kinesitherapists, occupational therapists, language therapists). cerebral circulation impairment as a neurological problem hemodynamic vascular insufficiency develops in the tissues when the perfusion pressure changes and decreases relative to the vascular resistance. thereafter, a decrease in blood flow may occur, causing ischemic broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 183 hypoxia. cerebrovascular insufficiency is analogous to coronary insufficiency. in turn, it may cause episodic focal neurological states in cases with no apparent vascular occlusion. cerebrovascular insufficiency may contribute little to episodic neurological disorders, but it may be crucial in age-related changes in mental function. one can imagine that subacute, prolonged or intermittent ischemia (with the consequence of hypoxia) can lead to diffuse degenerative changes in the brain, leading to behavioral and intellectual disorders. acute hemostasis and tissue infarction are not the only consequence of cerebrovascular insufficiency. ischemic hypoxia occurs involving histological, ultrastructural and cytochemical changes. impairment of higher integrative functions depends on the wide cerebral spread of such effects and their accumulation over time. the concomitant onset of anemia or pulmonary insufficiency, common in the elderly, can easily exacerbate the underlying hypoxia. obrist w. d. (1972) notes that the role of cerebrovascular insufficiency in the development of intellectual impairment in old age is important enough and emphasizes the need to assess circulatory states of the brain. cerebrovascular disease is directly related to aging intellectual changes. acute cerebral circulation impairments are a major cause of morbidity, mortality, long-term disability, and disability in society. they are also the second most common cause of dementia, the most common cause of epilepsy in adults, and a frequent cause of depression. stroke is an acute disorder of the cerebral circulation. there are two varieties of this disease ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. approximately 80% of all stroke cases occur in the ischemic form. the mechanism for the development of this form of stroke is as follows: the blood supply is blocked, resulting in less blood flow to the brain. the remaining 20 cases are hemorrhagic strokes, which occur differently: the vessel wall ruptures and blood pours into brain tissue or nearby tissues. an ischemic stroke is an acute insufficiency of the cerebral circulation, resulting in impaired neurological function. among the diseases that lead to the development of cerebral infarction, the first place is occupied by atherosclerosis affecting the main cerebral vessels of the neck or the intracranial vessels or both at the same time. risk factors for stroke are over 50 years of age; arterial hypertension; heart disease, especially those accompanied by arrhythmias; diabetes mellitus; smoking, alcohol abuse; obesity. in the case of ischemic stroke, the consequences can range from very severe, with a large ischemic stroke, to speech therapy as a component of comprehensive rehabilitation of patients … nataliia vasylieva et al. 184 minor, with microstrokes. it all depends on the place of localization and the volume of the focus of the disease. every year cerebral stroke develops in 5.5-6 million people, 4.5 million of them die, i.e. the population of an average european country by area. in the structure of cardiovascular pathology, strokes began to prevail over myocardial infarctions in terms of frequency by about 30%. this phenomenon has been called the "stroke paradox". a convincing explanation of this phenomenon is the link between stroke and life expectancy. scientists at oxford university found that the mortality rate from all types of stroke during the first week is 12%, in the first month 19%, in the first year 31%. the highest mortality rate is observed in large strokes in the carotid basin up to 60% in the first year. several studies, including johnston s. c., mendis, s., & mathers, c. d. (2009) analyzed stroke-related mortality. this analysis presents a proportional relationship between a country's low economic development and the increased medical and social burden of causing strokes in that country. at the same time, the difference between the richer and poorer countries was tenfold. the consequence of stroke is often permanent disability. of all stroke patients, about 60% become disabled, who are able to serve themselves, 19-35% are completely dependent on others and only 15-20% return to work. also cerebral circulation impaired occurs in acute craniocerebral injury and is due to its severity (safin et al., 2007). in studies of shcherbatyi a. a., korkushko o. o., and chupryna h. m. (2000) showed the effect of low doses of ionizing radiation on the development of various cerebrovascular disorders. the results of examination of 120 patients with initial forms of cerebrovascular insufficiency, who were victims of the chernobyl accident, with analysis of the most important clinical manifestations in patients are presented. the results of treatment of patients by laser puncture technique are presented, its high efficiency in the complex of therapeutic measures carried out in patients with initial forms of cerebrovascular insufficiency is shown. if we talk about the causes of stroke, coronavirus infection covid19 caused by sars-cov-2 is now a serious threat. pizova, n.v. et al (2020) note in their study that neurological disorders detected in patients with coronavirus infection have a wide range of clinical signs: headaches, dizziness, altered level of consciousness, acute ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, venous sinus thrombosis of the brain. in people with vascular broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 185 risk factors, covid-19 was more common, and mortality rates were higher among such people. various possible and not mutually exclusive mechanisms that may play a role in the development of ischemic stroke in patients with covid-19, including a hyperinflammatory state ("cytokine storm"), "covid-19-associated with coagulopathy" and disseminated intravascular clotting syndrome have been described in detail. risk factors of stroke associated with critical condition in these patients are presented. the results of observation of patients with acute cerebral circulation impairment in specialized vascular centers 2 months before and 15 days after quarantine through covid-19 are presented. physical therapy for patients with stroke to date, the problem of rehabilitation of stroke patients has not been fully studied. despite all the variety of techniques for restoring the lost functions in patients with brain stroke, today there is no unified system of differentiated use of means and methods of therapeutic physical training, taking into account not only the peculiarities of the development of a brain stroke, but also peculiarities of motor function development in norm during ontogenesis, stages of spontaneous functional recovery after brain stroke, possibilities of rational combination of advantages of different treatment methods (kinesotherapy) during treatment of an individual particular patient. neurorehabilitation is a field of neuroscience and practice that requires specialists to have knowledge of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, psychophysiology, neurology, psychiatry, neuropsychology and neurodefectology, a neurosociological component, and finally an understanding of the laws of neuroeconomics (behas, 2019; demchenko et al., 2021; nenko et al., 2022; onishchuk et al., 2020; sarancha et al., 2021). according to bowler j.v. (2004), 1 month after the development of stroke only 55% of patients are able to move freely on their own, in 2 months 79%. 6 months after the development of stroke, there are still impairments that affect activity in daily life: impaired pelvic function is noted in 7-11% of patients, 33% cannot eat independently, 31% cannot dress themselves, 49% cannot take a bath; 19% of patients cannot move from a bed to a chair independently, 15% cannot walk. 15% of patients experience significant difficulties in communication. stroke affects not only motor and sensory functions, but is also a powerful risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia. the combination of physical and cognitive impairment speech therapy as a component of comprehensive rehabilitation of patients … nataliia vasylieva et al. 186 significantly slows or prevents recovery of impaired functions, and also increases the patient's dependence on others. s. paolucci et al (2003) believe that women have less effectiveness in post-stroke rehabilitation than men. they suggest that men, regardless of age, have greater muscle strength and tend to be more active than women. the same authors note that the rate of good rehabilitation outcomes gradually decreases with increasing patient age, from 64% in patients younger than 50 years old, to 27% in older people. in addition, the study of al-waili, n.s., butler, g.j., beale, j. et al (2005), regarding hyperbaric oxygen therapy (hbo), which is used to treat patients with numerous diseases, including stroke, is quite interesting. this treatment has been shown to reduce cerebral edema, normalize water content in the brain, reduce the severity of infarction, and maintain the integrity of the blood-brain barrier. hbo therapy attenuates motor deficits, reduces risks of consequences and prevents recurrent cerebral circulatory impairments, leading to improved outcomes and survival. hyperbaric oxygen also accelerates regression of atherosclerotic lesions, promotes antioxidant protection and suppresses proliferation of macrophages and foam cells in atherosclerotic lesions. in impaired cerebral circulation the use of angiotensives (in atherosclerosis of the great brain artery, arterial hypertension), indirect anticoagulants (in atrial fibrillation), statins (maksimova et al., 2012) is quite effective. patients with impaired cerebral circulation reveal an increased frequency of autoantibodies to gamma-synuclein (roman et al., 2017). the main consequences of ischemic stroke are: mental disorders; impaired sensitivity in the limbs and face; impaired motor function; impaired speech; impaired coordination. the main motor disorders after cerebral stroke include paralysis and paresis (usually unilateral hemiparesis) with decreased strength and limitation of movements in the limbs, impaired tone and sensitivity. timely treatment of neurological defects, early use of physical rehabilitation methods such as massage, kinesotherapy, physical therapy, reflexology, biofeedback management and manual therapy are of great importance in the recovery of patients with motor disorders after ischemic stroke of the brain. speech therapy after a stroke recovery of speech disorders and swallowing disorders is a complex of medical and psychological measures aimed at the full or partial recovery broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 187 of impaired and (or) compensation for the lost functions of swallowing, speech and voice during an acutely developed disease, as well as early diagnosis and correction of possible disorders of voice, speech and swallowing functions; reduction of the degree of possible disability, improvement in quality of life, maintaining the ability to work and his social integration into society. the primary task is to determine the route for recovery of impaired speech functions in patients with acute cerebral circulatory impairments; the content of corrective work is determined by the localization and severity of the brain lesion. often, along with aphasia and dysarthria, there are movement disorders, inability to orient oneself in space, disorders of memory, thinking, and attention. speech disorders are one of the main manifestations of brain damage, often developing in patients after a stroke, brain injury, neuroinfection, which is explained by changes in the brain due to the diseases. many patients have impairments of higher cortical functions, including language, reading, writing, counting, voice, and swallowing, due to lesions in one or another part of the brain. and cognitive, joined emotional disorders further aggravate the picture of the disease, which leads to patients becoming disabled and making it impossible for them to integrate into the social environment. various forms of aphasia, dysarthria, dysphagia, and their combined pathology require rapid and competent work of the entire multidisciplinary team. despite the availability of technical means of examination, the theory and methods of logopedic diagnosis and logotherapy are becoming more and more in demand for all doctors involved in patient treatment and expertise. assessment of these disorders in dynamics allows you to determine the rehabilitation potential of patients, make long-term and short-term plans of speech therapy assistance and provide the maximum qualified assistance in the shortest possible time. mclafferty c. (2016) points out that in the decades since frankl originally formulated his theory of logotherapy, technological and medical advances have increased the responsibility of caregivers of those diagnosed as "dead brain" or in a persistent vegetative state . stroke patients who have been hospitalized are 30-40% depressed. cognitive therapy and family psychoeducation are recommended for depressed and helpless stroke patients, which increases the ability to change negative thinking (ramadia et al., 2021). speech therapy as a component of comprehensive rehabilitation of patients … nataliia vasylieva et al. 188 eric pfeifer (2021) notes that in logotherapy and existential analysis, the human will to meaning is considered the primary motivation for human life. this meaning-centered approach in psychotherapy, founded by viktor emil frankl, is often referred to as the third vienna school of psychotherapy. although the evidence suggests that meaning can be actualized through music, music therapy has so far focused little on the concepts and theory of logotherapy and existential analysis. this contribution fills that gap by introducing a meaning-oriented approach to music therapy and adapting frankl's model of meaning realization to music therapy. speech disorders after a stroke occur due to lesions of the speech cortical areas and their leading pathways. depending on the localization and size of the affected area, language disorders may manifest as aphasia: 1. motor aphasia: afferent manifests itself in the disintegration of individual articulatory postures, or otherwise, articulums. in the speech of patients, it manifests itself in the search for articulation. efferent speech becomes disjointed, accompanied by getting stuck on individual fragments of expression. the patient pronounces individual sounds relatively easily, but has significant difficulty pronouncing words and phrases. 2. sensory aphasia. phonemic hearing disorder, which causes severe impairment of impromptu language comprehension. sounds lose their stable sound and are perceived distorted each time, mixed with each other in one way or another. 3. dynamic aphasia. the language defect manifests itself in language spontaneity and inactivity. their language is characterized by poverty, onesyllable answers in dialogue. 4. amnestic disorders. patients lose the ability to retain information perceived by ear, narrowing of memory. 5. semantic aphasia. that is, the inability to perceive complex logical and grammatical patterns of speech. it takes a very long time to recover speech functions, on average 2-3 years, and in some cases up to 6 years. the effectiveness of treatment depends largely on how quickly the rehabilitation process begins and the methods of treatment. for resumption of speech after a stroke, work with a speech therapist should begin in the first three months after the stroke. as a rule, the form of the disorder and its degree can be determined after a few weeks, and already at this time it is possible to outline a basic program and select a set of exercises. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 189 speech rehabilitation after a stroke is a necessary part of a comprehensive program of renewal training. it should be remembered that the ability to speak will not return to a person spontaneously it can only be achieved by daily exercises with specialists in an individual program, depending on the language pathology. the method and duration of the sessions are determined individually. speech therapy after a stroke at the rehabilitation center is conducted by qualified speech therapists, aphasiologists, and clinical psychologists. after a preliminary diagnosis and examination of the patient, specialists prepare an individual program for restoring language and other higher mental functions. consultations are also held with the patient's relatives, including sessions at home. the task of the speech therapist: carry out an initial neuropsychological examination of speech and other higher mental functions of patients, carry out a detailed qualitative assessment of the identified symptomatology in a prescribed form; carry out logopedic, neuropsychological, pathopsychological, and express diagnostic examinations; determine the strategy and tactics of neurorehabilitation. together with physicians, a therapeutic exercise specialist, develop programs for the neurorehabilitation of patients, taking into account their individual characteristics and the state of higher mental functions; perform dynamic observation with a qualitative assessment of the state of language and other higher mental functions within the course of neurorehabilitation in order to adjust the patient's individual neurorehabilitation program; evaluate the effectiveness of treatment and rehabilitation at different stages; carry out consultative work with the patient's immediate family for the purpose of specialized psychological and neurologopedic assistance; carry out prognostic evaluation of neurorehabilitation. thus, based on the structure of the defect, we can say that the main speech therapy work will be built on the following main areas: 1. pre-language training. 2. disinhibition of expressive speech. 3. development of correct speech breathing. 4. development of melodic and intonational characteristics of speech. speech therapy as a component of comprehensive rehabilitation of patients … nataliia vasylieva et al. 190 pre-language training training to master the sound side of the native language, directly to speech. this includes the teaching of mosaics, making patterns out of cubes, elements of drawing (shading, connecting by dots, drawing by squares, finishing drawing pictures on a template). exercises for the development of fine motor skills molding from plasticine or marzipan, assembling puzzles, weaving from colored ( chenille) wire, massage palms and fingers with a special hard mat or a ball. special devices are also widely used wooden figures, sorters, laces, work with wooden beads, sorting small objects (buttons, coffee beans, beans, etc.). in terms of corrective measures, appropriate training also includes articulation exercises and speech therapy massage. a set of articulation exercises is chosen individually, based on the structure of the defect. the exercises are performed by the patient in front of a mirror, since it is difficult for the patient to coordinate the movements of the lips or tongue without visual control. the articulation exercises, if possible, use the "mirror" exercise, when the speech therapist asks the patient to repeat his movements, that is, to be his "mirror" to frown, raise the eyebrows, stretch the lips in a smile or fold them into a tube, etc. articulation exercises are performed by the patient himself, the duration of the exercises is about 15 minutes, if possible 2-3 times a day. pronunciation of the sounds of the tongue is ensured by the coordinated work of the lips, tongue, lower jaw, larynx, pharynx and lungs. all these organs are under the control of the motor zones of speech in the cerebral cortex. abnormalities in the structure of the articulatory apparatus, such as increased tone of the speech musculature, insufficient or incorrect innervation are the causes of the incorrect formation of pronunciation. with dysarthria, the sound, tempo, expressiveness of speech, its modulation suffer especially. in a complex system of corrective measures, speech therapy massage is ahead of articulation, voice and breathing exercises. the correct selection of a set of massage exercises promotes the normalization of the muscle tone of the articulation organs, which improves their motor skills, which contributes to the recovery of the pronunciation side of speech. the techniques of speech therapy massage vary depending on the pathological symptomatology in the muscular system of speech disorders. it is important to use additional means of massage speech therapy probes, spatulas, etc. the purpose of a logopedic massage is to eliminate or reduce the pathological symptoms of the speech apparatus. the main objectives of a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 191 logopedic massage for the correction of the pronunciation side of speech in dysarthria are distinguished: normalization of muscle tone, overcoming hypoor hypertonicity in the articulation and mimic muscles; elimination or reduction of pathological symptoms; improvement in the accuracy, volume, and switching of articulatory movements; increase in the strength of muscle contractions; activation of subtle differentiated movements of the articulation organs, necessary for correction or recovery of pronunciation. massage directly and reflexively affects different systems of the body. the use of logopedic massage can significantly reduce the time of correctional work, especially on the formation of the pronunciation phase of speech. if the patient has pronounced neurological symptoms, the use of only speech therapy massage, especially at the initial stages of correctional work, can provide a stable positive effect. a characteristic feature of dysarthria is impaired vocal sound formation due to impaired innervation of the laryngeal muscles. the voice in dysarthria is usually weak with impaired modulation. with weakness of the muscles of the vocal apparatus vibration of the vocal cords is disturbed, because the strength of the voice becomes small. pronunciation of words in a whisper and at the top of his voice, singing familiar tunes. thus, even with the same forms of dysarthria, the clinical picture of disorders is not the same, so the correction plan in each case will be individual. psychological and logopedic work with dysarthria is very timeconsuming, diversified and requires systematic sessions with specialists and home exercises, as well as a lot of time and consistent application of a system of special exercises. references al-waili, n. s., butler, g. j., beale, j., abdullah, m. s., hamilton, r. w. b., lee, b. y., lucus, p., allen, m. w., petrillo, r. l., carrey, z., & finkelstein, m. (2005). hyperbaric oxygen in the treatment of patients with cerebral stroke, brain trauma, and neurologic disease. advances in therapy, 22, 659–678 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02849960 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02849960 speech therapy as a component of comprehensive rehabilitation of patients … nataliia vasylieva et al. 192 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, t., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 bowler, j. v. (2004). vascular cognitive impairment. stroke, 35, 386 388. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.str.0000115301.12426.2b demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 johnston, s. c., mendis, s., & mathers, c. d. (2009). global variation in stroke burden and mortality: estimates from monitoring, surveillance, and modelling. the lancet neurology, 9, 56-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/s14744422(09)70023-7 kim, o., madjidova, y., abidova, m., hamidova, n., abdullaeva, v., & sattarov, t. (2021). clinical-neurological and neurocognitive indicators against the background of neuroprotective therapy in vertebro-basilar insufficiency in patients with symptoms of cerebral venous dyscirculation. annals of the romanian society for cell biology, 25(1), 315-323. https://www.annalsofrscb.ro/index.php/journal/article/view/112/84 kimble, m. a., & ellor, j. w. (2001). logotherapy: an overview. journal of religious gerontology, 11(3-4), 9-24. https://doi.org/10.1300/j078v11n03_03 maksimova, m. yu., domashenko, m. a., & tanashyan, m. m. (2012). current approaches to preventing and treating chronic cerebral circulatory disorder. neurology, neuropsychiatry, psychosomatics, 4(4), 88-91. https://doi.org/10.14412/2074-2711-2012-4 mclafferty, c. (2016). “meaning until the last breath”: practical applications of logotherapy in the ethical consideration of coma, brain death, and persistent vegetative states. in a. batthyány (ed.), logotherapy and existential analysis. logotherapy and existential analysis: proceedings of the viktor frankl institute vienna, vol 1. (pp. 365-376). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29424-7_31 nenko, y., medynskyi, s., maksymchuk, b., lymarenko, l., rudenko, l., kharchenko, s., kolomiets, a., & maksymchuk, i. (2022). communication training of future sports coaches in the context of neurophysiological patterns. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 42-60. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/268 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://doi.org/10.1161/01.str.0000115301.12426.2b https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(09)70023-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(09)70023-7 https://www.annalsofrscb.ro/index.php/journal/article/view/112/84 https://doi.org/10.1300/j078v11n03_03 https://doi.org/10.14412/2074-2711-2012-4https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29424-7_31 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/268 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 193 obrist, w. d. (1972). cerebral physiology of the aged: influence of circulatory disorders. in c. m. gaitz (ed.), aging and the brain. advances in behavioral biology, vol 3, (pp. 117-133). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-14684-8503-5_8 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 paolucci, s., antonucci, g., grasso, m. g., bragoni, m., coiro, p., de angelis, d., fusco, f. r., morelli, d., venturiero, v., troisi, e., & pratesi, l. (2003). functional outcome of ischemic stroke patients after inpatient rehabilitation. a matched comparison. stroke, 34(12), 2861 – 2865. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.str.0000102902.39759.d3 pfeifer, e. (2021). logotherapy, existential analysis, music therapy: theory and practice of meaning-oriented music therapy. the arts in psychotherapy, 72, 101730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2020.101730 pizova, n. v., pizov, n. a., skachkova, o. a., sokolov, m. a., izmaylov, i. a., & taramakin, r. b. (2020). ostryye narusheniya mozgovogo krovoobrashcheniya i koronavirusnaya bolezn' [acute cerebral circulatory disorders and coronavirus disease]. meditsinskiy sovet [medical advice], 8, 18-25. https://doi.org/10.21518/2079-701x-2020-8-18-25 ramadia, a. r., keliat, b. a. k., & wardani, i. y. w. (2021). effect of cognitive therapy and family psychoeducation in stroke clients with depression and disability. jurnal keperawatan komprehensif (comprehensive nursing journal), 7(2), 43-56. https://doi.org/10.33755/jkk.v7i2.222 roman, a. y., kovrazhkina, e. a., razinskaya, o. d., kukharsky, m. s., maltsev, a. v., ovchinnikov, r. k., lytkina, o. a., smirnov, a. p., moskovtsev, a. a., borodina, yu. v., surguchov, a. p., ustyugov, a. a., ninkina, n. n., & skvortsova, v. i. (2017). detection of autoantibodies to potentially amyloidogenic protein, gamma-synuclein, in the serum of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cerebral circulatory disorders. doklady biochemistry and biophysics, 472, 64–67. https://doi.org/10.1134/s1607672917010197 safin, a. m., mandorskii, s. v., parfenov, a. l., & oshorov, a. v. (2007). narusheniya mozgovogo krovoobrashcheniya pri razlichnykh porazheniyakh golovnogo mozga po dannym transkranial'noy dopplerografii [cerebral circulatory disorders in varying brain injury, as evidenced by transcranial doppler study]. zh vopr neirokhir im n n burdenko [journal neurosurgery, issues named after n. n. burdenko], 2, 16-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8503-5_8 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8503-5_8 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.1161/01.str.0000102902.39759.d3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2020.101730 https://doi.org/10.21518/2079-701x-2020-8-18-25 https://doi.org/10.33755/jkk.v7i2.222 https://doi.org/10.1134/s1607672917010197 speech therapy as a component of comprehensive rehabilitation of patients … nataliia vasylieva et al. 194 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 shcherbatyi, a. a., korkushko, o. o., & chupryna, h. m. (2000). novi pidkhody do likuvannia pochatkovykh proiaviv nedostatnosti krovoobihu holovnoho mozku [new approaches to the treatment of the initial manifestations of cerebral circulatory insufficiency]. lik sprava, 1, 70-73. taran, i., vasylieva, n., gurova, a., karpukhina, y., konkov, a., koziy, t., kolomyichuk, a., & biriukova, t. (2020). methods of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 244-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/151 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/151 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 01-21 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/328 submitted: january 25th, 2022| accepted for publication: february 24th, 2022 anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh 1 , ihor popovych 2 , iryna koval 3 , larysa stepanenko 4 , pavlo nosov 5 , serhii zinchenko 6 , liliia boiaryn 7 , vadym zavatskyi 8 1 doctor of psychological sciences, full professor, department of general psychology, v. n. karazin kharkiv national university, kharkiv, ukraine, plokhikh_v@ukr.net 2 doctor of psychological sciences, full professor, department of psychology, kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, ihorpopovych999@gmail.com 3 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, department of medical psychology, psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy, bogomolets national medical university, kyiv, ukraine, dgspsychology9@gmail.com 4 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, department of psychology, shei “donbas state pedagogical university”, sloviansk, ukraine, os7284292@gmail.com 5 ph. d., associate professor, department of navigation, kherson state maritime academy, kherson, ukraine, pason@ukr.net abstract: the aim of the study is to determine the composition and functional significance of anticipatory resources in the process of temporal regulation of sensorimotor action. materials and methods. the subjects were male (35 people) and female (31 people) students. the tasks of a simple sensory response, a choice reaction (three alternatives), and a “double choice” were implemented in a computer version of the experiment. in the “double choice” task, the stimulation variation was first provided (possible stimuli: one or three), and then a stimulus for a fast motor response was presented after some time, the orientation time (independent variable). results. the participants’ initial reaction to the option with three alternative stimuli in the “double choice” task was negative. the time of the motor response falls linearly as the orientation time increases in both the male and female groups for the variant with one possible stimulus and the frequency of anticipatory effects and premature actions increases in a quadratic pattern. it must be noted that with enough orientation time, determining the expected duration of the sensorimotor action is quite straightforward. it was demonstrated that, in the presence of a margin of orientation time, operational estimates and revisions of the time required to accomplish an action dramatically improve the likelihood of anticipatory effects. conclusions. actualization of the anticipatory resource (which includes temporary memory standards, the ability to accurately determine and correlate the durations of processes and time intervals, time estimation skills, and individual characteristics that influence decision making) ensures the determination of the total duration of a sensorimotor action, prompt correction of its implementation, and a significant reduction in the time it takes to respond to a motor stimulus. keywords: duration of action, temporal sequence, temporary memory standard, attitude, anticipatory effect. how to cite: plokhikh, v., popovych, i., koval, i., stepanenko, l., nosov, p., zinchenko, s., boiaryn, l., & zavatskyi, v. (2022). anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 01-21. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/328 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/328 mailto:plokhikh_v@ukr.net mailto:ihorpopovych999@gmail.com mailto:dgspsychology9@gmail.com mailto:os7284292@gmail.com mailto:pason@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/328 6 ph. d., associate professor, ship handling department, kherson state maritime academy, kherson, ukraine, srz56@ukr.net 7 ph. d., associate professor, department of pedagogy, psychology and theory of education management, institute of postgraduate pedagogical education of chernivtsi region, chernivtsi, ukraine, vz02022020@gmail.com 8 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, department of social psychology and social work, volodymyr dahl east ukrainian national university, ukraine, urijzavackij3@gmail.com mailto:srz56@ukr.net mailto:vz02022020@gmail.com mailto:urijzavackij3@gmail.com broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 3 1. introduction a modern person’s vital activity is inextricably linked to a plethora of complicated, highly dynamic, and information-rich systems. in these conditions, it is clear that simply reacting to the subject’s current circumstances is insufficient to assure high action efficiency. an examination of the activities of pilots, vehicle drivers, navigators, and operators in a variety of high-tech businesses reveals that accomplishing final results is only achievable if the required actions are performed with some spatiotemporal anticipation of the expected events (plokhikh et al., 2019; strelkov, 2008). the estimation of the dynamics of changes in the situation, the actualization of the necessary resources, and the implementation of the right expedient activity are all primarily given by psychological mechanisms of anticipation in the structure of action at any level of complexity (konopkin, 1980; lomov & surkov, 1980; zavalova, lomov, & ponomarenko, 1986). according to research, the temporal and spatial parameters of a subject’s actions can be considered separately (ahrens et al., 2015; plokhikh et al., 2021). furthermore, the content and spatial aspects of anticipation have previously attracted some attention, particularly in regard to quite gradual external changes (lomov & surkov, 1980). the study of the temporal component of anticipation in the planning of actions was largely confined to examining the correspondence of the moment of getting the desired results to the constraints set in terms of commonly accepted physical time (nosov et al., 2019; 2020a). at the same time, the structure of psychological time, which is important for activity in the context of significant, unexpected changes in the situation, is inadequately highlighted. any action proceeding from some initial conditions and oriented through the implementation of a planned sequence of operations to achieve a goal set in the future is a specific process and, as such, has a corresponding duration. with the subject’s acceptance of the goal under particular conditions and the available resource support, a certain time frame for reaching the desired solution is instantly assumed (nosov et al., 2020b; zinchenko et al., 2020a). at the same time, the content features of the implemented action should be most closely linked to the time it would take to complete. the duration of a holistic action, on the other hand, might be thought of as its fundamental subjective transitory measure (plokhikh et al., 2021). as a first approximation, the timeliness of achieving the goal is determined by the accuracy of the subject’s correlation of the duration of the action with the durations of significant objective changes and with the total duration of the implementation of the sequence of necessary operations in anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh et al. 4 the anticipatory process. problems with determining the realistically possible duration of the planned action under conditions of a strict time limit become an essential prerequisite for the emergence of regimes of acute and total lack of time. in the latter scenario, the subject chooses to act in a particular way, even if it is obvious from the start that achieving the final result by the deadline is nearly impossible (plokhikh, 2019; strelkov, 2008). at the sensorimotor level of anticipation, the action is realized at intervals of tenths of a second (gellershteyn, 1958; lomov & surkov, 1980). conscious control over both the execution of an action and the lapse of time is severely limited or impossible in such circumstances (nosov et al., 2020c; zinchenko et al., 2020b). as a result, the subject is compelled to refer to previously memorized time standards as well as urgent information (carboch et al., 2014; cravo et al., 2017; lomov & surkov, 1980). the variety and accessibility of standards found in experience and swiftly generated in short-term memory, as well as the ability to notice substantial changes, might be considered a resource for anticipating activity structuring. in this case, the ways of integrating significant information about current changes into the duration of the action learned by the subject can also be a resource (shevchenko et al., 2020). the duration of an activity is generally selected by the subject as a previous assessment of the temporal perspective of the accompanying expedient efforts. the situation alters in some way while the sequence of activities continues, and these changes can be important and should be factored into ongoing corrections. as a complex system formation, the action structure includes a number of feedback loops that provide anticipation and self-regulation processes (konopkin, 1980; prohorov, 2020). the most general feedback loop is concerned with determining whether the result parameters are in accordance with the requirements for achieving the goal. all at the same, intrasystem local feedbacks are tuned to control and correct sequential operation execution (nosov et al., 2021a). in this regard, n. bernstein’s (2004) studies of movement construction revealed that at any level of movement organization, the implementation of any operation, despite being based on the corresponding subjective motor standard, is always unique. in this case, the so-called principle of “repetition without repetition” is effective. according to this principle, each subsequent execution of a motor operation promptly adjusts to any, even consciously indistinguishable, changes in the situation through verified corrections (nosov et al., 2021b). concurrently, the correction of operations in the optimal variant is carried out ahead of the expected undesirable consequences and violations in the movement’s broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 5 execution. the sequence of operations that is controlled in this manner is only temporary. and this sequence of operations should roughly correspond to the duration of the movement. in this case, the corresponding standards fixed through repeated repetitions in memory, methods for assessing afferent information, and methods for correcting performance serve as a basis for coordinating the structural elements of the actions being implemented and the current changes in the situation (cravo et al., 2017; plokhikh et al., 2021). the unconscious level of mental regulation plays a significant role in the performance of sensorimotor actions. at once, many previously learned operations and methods for their control and correction are implemented automatically in a fraction of a second. however, even in such circumstances, s. gellershteyn (1958) proposed using physical time measures to improve subjects’ conscious regulation and reduce sensorimotor response time. the author’s consistent results indicated a reliable fixation in the subjects’ experience of more advanced methods for assessing the course of psychological time with the expansion of the scope of their practical application. studies of the development of sensorimotor actions at the level of the most basic conditioned reflexes reveal the importance of anticipatory mechanisms in the process of their implementation at all levels of mental activity (pavlov, 2004). when a conditioned stimulus occurs, the memory standards formed during the process of developing conditioned reflexes, with a time-determined lead, initiate the corresponding activity of the organism. as a result, the regulation of both simple and complex actions necessitates a mandatory assessment and correction of the total duration and temporal sequence of implementations. the anticipatory process’s ability to provide appropriate resources is critical for the effectiveness of the sensorimotor response. the process of temporal regulation of sensorimotor action is the subject of the research. the aim of the research was to determine the composition and functional significance of anticipatory resources in the process of temporal regulation of sensorimotor action. hypothesis: full-fledged actualization of the anticipatory resource during the temporary regulation of sensorimotor action contributes to pronounced anticipatory effects and a significant reduction in the time of the motor response to stimulation. research tasks were: anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh et al. 6 1) to substantiate theoretically and to confirm empirically the actualization of anticipatory resources in the components of the process of temporal regulation in the structure of sensorimotor action. 2) to establish experimentally the composition and features of the use of anticipatory resources in determining the duration of the sensorimotor action. 3) on the basis of experimental data, to show the value of anticipatory resources for the current operational regulation of the time of performing a sensorimotor action. 2. materials and methods the study included 66 students, both male and female. the male group had 35 people (age: me = 20, min = 17, max = 25) and the female group had 31 people (age: me = 20, min = 17, max = 23). the design of experimental tasks was based on schemes of a simple sensorimotor reaction and a choice reaction (jain et al., 2015; shoshol, 1978; silverman, 2010). the response scheme was used in the research methodology, with a warning (indicative) signal indicating the appearance of the main stimulus for the motor response after a certain time interval. the implementation of this scheme reinforces the reflex connection between the conditioned stimulus and the reaction in the simplest variant of the response (pavlov, 2004). the experience of constructing an empirical and experimental picture in studies of temporality (popovych et al., 2021a), social expectations (popovych et al., 2021b; semenov et al., 2021), adaptive processes (blynova et al., 2020; halian et al., 2021), individual self-regulation ability (hudimova, 2021; hudimova et al., 2021; khmiliar et al., 2020), and psychological patterns of the age range of respondents (kuzikova et al., 2021; popovych et al., 2021c) was taken into account when developing the research methodology. the methodology also implemented the effects described by hick’s law, which manifested itself in the fact that as the number of possible stimuli alternatives increases, so does the reaction time of choice (shoshol, 1978). the “double choice” problem was based on the aforementioned grounds. in this task, a stimulus was presented in accordance with one of two options in the following trial: one possible stimulus for presentation (1_ps); three possible stimuli for presentation (3_ps). the stimulus in variant 1_ps was one of three possible stimuli in variant 3_ps. the subject’s stimulation option for the follow-up trial was initially unknown. we organized the experimental task with the understanding that in a situation of uncertainty in broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 7 the prospects for action, a person attempts to focus on the most extensive set of current circumstances, with their subsequent admissible concretization and formation of the necessary information basis for action (konopkin, 1980; plokhikh et al., 2021; shoshol, 1978). a change in orientation to the perceived situation is, first and foremost, a change in the apperceptive scheme, followed by a change in the system of action, which takes time (gordeeva, 2000). the subjects in the experiment completed five test series of trials that differed in the task conditions, each of which was preceded by a number of training trials. the experimental task had a software implementation and was made available to the subjects for computer-based completion. the subject had to respond to the appearance of a stimulus on the monitor screen as quickly as possible in all variants of the experimental task (a square colored burgundy). the square was displayed in the center of the screen in the task of simple sensorimotor response (variant 1_ps) (series 1). the square was presented on the screen in one of three possible locations in the choice reaction task (variant 3_ps): in the center, to the right of the center, or to the left of the center (series 2). when the stimulus was presented, the subject was required to press the appropriate key on the keyboard. the “↓” key was used for a simple sensorimotor response. the function keys for the selection reaction in variant 3_ps were as follows: the square on the left is the “←” key; the square in the center is the “↓” key; and the square on the right is the “→” key. in the “double choice” (dc) task, the variant of the proposed task was preliminarily indicated on the monitor screen some time before the appearance of the stimulus: 1_ps or 3_ ps. the time of orientation was measured from the preliminary indication of the updated version of the task to the moment the stimulus was presented. the task variant was indicated by displaying small burgundy circles on the screen above the locations where the stimulus could appear. in order to solve the dc problem, the subject had to, after the presentation of the square stimulus, press the corresponding key on the keyboard as quickly as possible, taking into account the possible locations of appearance of the stimulus previously marked with circles. variants of the dc experimental problem differed in how they changed the orientation time while running a series of trials. three different fixed values of the possible orientation time were set in series 3 and 4. a random number generator was used to choose one of the three orientation time values for the next sample. the orientation time from sample to sample in series 5 changed automatically in accordance with the specified algorithm. the indication for changing the duration of orientation in the next trial was anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh et al. 8 the result of a software comparison of the motor response time in the current trial in variant 1_ps and previously, before the start of the series, the value of the median value of the subject’s simple reaction time in series 1 (criterion for changing the orientation time) set under computer program conditions. if the motor response time value was greater than the criterion value, the orientation time for the next trial was increased by .05 s; otherwise, the orientation time was decreased by .05 s. the current version of the dc task and the location on the screen where the stimulus for the reaction appeared in the next trial was determined using a random number generator. the time interval between samples in the series was changed at random within 1.7÷2.3 s. and after each trial, data about the conditions and outcomes of its implementation were automatically recorded in the program data array. following the completion of a series of trials, the data array was pre-processed and entered into the test results file. our previous works contain a detailed description of the experimental study’s methodology as well as instructions for the subjects (plokhikh, 2021; plokhikh et al., 2021). in series 1, subjects performed a simple sensorimotor reaction (5–7 training trials and 25 test trials). the choice reaction was performed in variant 3_ps in series 2 (5–7 training and 25 test trials). subjects in series 3 and 4 solved the dc issue with fixed orientation time options (7–10 training and 65 test trials each). the orientation time options in series 3 were .05 s, .15 s, and .25 s. the orientation time options in series 4 were .10 s, .20 s, and .30 s. when the results of series 3 and 4 were combined, the orientation time in them ranged from .05 s to .30 s, with a “step” of .05 s. 7–8 training and 50 test trials were carried out in series 5 with automatic change in orientation time. in the course of processing the experimental data, pronounced effects of anticipation in the reactions of the subjects were discovered. these effects were observed when the subject’s response time to the stimulus in the 1_ps variant was less than the minimum reference value for a simple reaction to a visual signal (.150 s) (boyko, 2002). the probability of anticipation in the series was calculated as the ratio of the number of pronounced anticipatory effects to the total number of samples in the series for all subjects in the group for variant 1_ps. the probability of premature action was also calculated as the ratio of the number of noted hasty reactions (reactions prior to the appearance of the stimulus) to the number of trials in the series for the variant 1_ps combined for all subjects in the group. thereby, the time of orientation and the proposed version of the task for the sensorimotor response (1_ps or 3_ps) were the independent variables in the experimental series. the dependent variables of this research were broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 9 motor response time, anticipation probability, and premature action probability. the following statistical criteria were used to process experimental data: the kolmogorov–smirnov criterion; the wilcoxon signed-rank test; the student’s t-test; the χ²r – friedman criterion; and the fisher φ* – criterion. the statistical package ibm spss statistics v. 20 was used. 3. results the distribution of motor response time in all series, as well as orientation time in series 5, was analyzed in subject groups for compliance with normal law (kolmogorov-smirnov statistical test). a positive result of compliance was established in most cases, with the exception of the simple reaction time in series 1 in both groups of subjects, but with a central trend in the distributions of sample data. for the male and female groups, the parameters of the distributions of the simple reaction time in series 1 were calculated (males: me = .220 s, min = .150 s, max = .260 s; females: me = .220 s, min = .190 s, max = .280 s) and reaction time of choosing from three signal alternatives in series 2 (males: me = .320 s, min = .260 s, max = .410 s; females: me = .340 s, min = .290 s , max = .420 s). statistical comparison of simple reaction time and choice reaction time in series 1 and 2 (wilcoxon signed-rank test) revealed significant differences for both male (z=5.169; p<.001) and female (z=4.870; p<.001) groups. the probabilities of anticipation and premature action were determined in male (p= .048 and p= .051; n=827) and female (p= .014 and p= .049; n=715) groups for a series of simple reactions with the obtained number of observations (n). tables 1 and 2 show the response parameters of the test groups to the stimulus in variant 1_ps series 3, 4, and 5. the probabilities of anticipation and premature action for variant 1_ps in series 5 were calculated using the following numbers of observations (n): n = 911 for the male group and n = 763 for the female group. anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh et al. 10 table 1. parameters of the motor response to the signal in the case of one stimulation variant in series 3 and 4 with different orientation times in the groups of subjects group motor response parameter orientation time, s .050 .100 .150 .200 .250 .300 males time ( m ), s .331 .291 .268 .219 .191 .135 time (sd), s .041 .038 .048 .045 .063 .064 probability of anticipation .000 .000 .014 .113 .282 .499 probability of premature action .012 .004 .006 .010 .009 .042 females time ( m ), s .340 .308 .273 .237 .197 .154 time (sd), s .048 .040 .044 .057 .063 .075 probability of anticipation .000 .000 .016 .088 .249 .459 probability of premature action .010 .029 .010 .015 .041 .057 table 2. motor response parameters in the “double choice” task in series 5 to a signal in the case of one stimulation option in groups of subjects group motor response parameter time, s orientation time, s probability of anticipation probability of premature action m sd m sd males .217 .028 .184 .059 .128 .016 females .234 .026 .206 .064 .108 .025 statistical analysis (wilcoxon signed-rank test) revealed that the simple reaction time in series 1 did not differ significantly from the motor response time in the variant 1_ps in series 5 in the male group (z=1.347; p=.178). the time of a simple reaction in series 1 in the female group is slightly less than the time of motor response in the variant 1_ps in series 5 (z=2.401; p=.016). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 11 in the “double choice” task in series 5, the values of statistical indicators for the motor response time to the stimulus in the 3_ps variant were determined for males ( m = .299 s, sd = .030 s) and females ( m = .310 s, sd = .027 s). the comparison (student’s t-test) of the given values of the motor response time to the stimulus in the 1_ps and 3_ps variants in series 5, similar to the comparison of the results of series 1 and 2, revealed a significant excess of response time for the 3_ps variant and in the male (t=14.520; p<.001), and female (t=13.648; p<.001) groups. comparison of the values of the motor response time to the stimulus in the 1_ps variant, corresponding to different orientation times in series 3 and 4 (see table 1), using the friedman χ²r test, made it possible to establish significant differences for the male (χ²r = 160.033 at p<.001), and for female (χ²r =141.659 at p<.001) groups. changes in the time of motor response, as well as changes in the probabilities of anticipation and premature actions, occur in accordance with certain trends as the time of orientation increases. the parameters of mathematical models closest to the trends in empirical data in the variant 1_ps in series 3 and 4 were calculated (“curve fitting method”) for the dependences of the following variables on orientation time: motor response time (linear model), anticipation probability (quadratic model), and probabilities of premature actions (quadratic model) (table 3). table 3. parameters of mathematical models depending on the orientation time of the motor response time (linear model), the probability of anticipation (quadratic model), the probability of premature action (quadratic model) in the case of one stimulation option in groups of subjects in series 3 and 4 of the “double choice” task group motor response parameter model’s parameters characteristic constant coefficient 1 coefficient 2 ² p males time .372 .759 – r 988 <.001 pa .092 -2.297 12.179 .998 <.001 cpa .029 -.386 1.379 .858 .054 females time .382 .748 – .997 .000 pа .096 -2.296 11.643 .999 .001 cpa .027 -.255 1.179 .775 .107 note: pа – probability of anticipation; cpa – chance of premature action; р – significance level; r² – proportion of reaction time variance due to orientation time. anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh et al. 12 the theoretical values of the expected duration of orientation required to achieve a high criterion of response efficiency (median of a simple reaction in series 1) for male and female groups in series 5 were calculated using the obtained mathematical models of the dependence of the time of the motor response to the stimulus in the variant 1_ps on the time of orientation (respectively: for the male group – .200 s; for the female group – .217 s) (see table 3). using a one-sample t-test, it was found that the orientation time in the “double choice” task in series 5 (see table 2) was not statistically different from the estimated expected orientation time for the male (t=1.606; p=.117), and for female (t=.915; p=.368) groups. the expected values of the motor response time, the probability of anticipation, and the probability of premature action in the 1_ps variant were calculated using the obtained mathematical models and based on the average values of the orientation time in the male and female groups established in the empirical study in series 5 (table 4). the calculated results were compared to empirical results in series 5, as well as series 3 and 4. table 4. expected values of sensorimotor action parameters, in series 5 (“double choice” task) for the case with one stimulation option, calculated using mathematical models for male (n=911) and female (n=763) groups group calculated parameter of sensorimotor action motor response time, s probability of anticipation chance of premature action males (35) .232 .082 .005 females (31) .228 .117 .025 using a one-sample t-test, it was found that the motor response time in variant 1_ps of the “double choice” task in series 5 (see table 2), when compared to the calculated time (see table 4) is statistically different for the male group (t=3.276; p=.002) but not for the female group (t=1.256; p=.219). the probabilities of anticipation and premature actions were statistically compared (fisher’s φ*-test) in series 1 (simple reaction) and series 5 (“double choice” task) (see table 2). in the male (φ*=6.038; p<.001) and female (φ*=8.319; p<.001) groups, there was a significant excess of the probability of anticipation in series 5 compared to series 1. premature actions, on the other hand, were more likely in series 1 for both male (φ*=4.206; p<.001), and female (φ*=2.459; p=.006) groups. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 13 4. discussion the calculated values of the indicators of the probability of anticipation and the probability of premature actions for the dс task (see table 4) differed from the empirical data in some ways (see table 2). all at the same, they were quite consistent with the corresponding trends in real changes in these indicators when the orientation time in series 3 and 4 changes (see table 1). some discrepancies in the calculations and experimental results can be explained by the male group’s subjects’ reorientation in the dc task from variant 3_ps to variant 1_ps being particularly quick in comparison, for example, to the results in our other experiment (plokhikh et al., 2021). furthermore, the results of another experiment with different participant compositions of male and female groups were quite consistent with the theoretical trends presented above (see table 3). both the experimental and calculated values of the orientation time required for the subjects’ complete reorientation to the 1_ps option in solving the dc task fell into that section of the dependences of the anticipation probability and the probability of premature action on the orientation time, which marked the beginning of a pronounced change in the values of these indicators (see tables 1 and 3) such drastic changes in the dynamics of system implementation are typically associated with the qualitative restructuring of system processes (konopkin, 1980). in other words, the organization and implementation of the sensorimotor action in the dc task differed significantly for short and long orientation times. furthermore, the functioning of anticipation mechanisms included in the action structure varied under these conditions. when the orientation time in the dс task is small, the subject is gradually reoriented to a new situation and a new variant of the action system’s organization. the results clearly showed that when the variant 1_ps is updated, the initial setting of the subject to the variant 3_ps changed. all at the same, the executive link structure and the apperceptive scheme tuned to the expectation of perception of the corresponding stimuli change. the presentation of a stimulus in the experimental dc task was a significant simplification of the scheme of a more complex task in the 3_ps variant, implying a significant reduction in the amount of information processed. and it appears that a sharp restriction of the information flow and simplification of the response should immediately increase the subject’s motor response speed. however, as the experiment results showed, there was a radical restructuring of the structure of the entire action, and this restructuring occurred gradually (see table 1). the restructuring took about two-tenths of a second in the dc anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh et al. 14 problem. naturally, the time required for emergency updating of an action system with a more complex structural organization and in more difficult circumstances (for example, in operator or sports activities, and in extreme situations) increases significantly (konopkin, 1980; zavalova et al., 1986). any action, as previously stated, has a corresponding duration. as a result, when the subject was reoriented to option 1_ps, the structure of the action in the dc task was restructured, as was the duration of achieving the goal. deficiencies in the content of the action structure, as a stable holistic systemic organization, are reflected in a decrease in the certainty in the assessment of duration, as well as in the assessment of the sufficiency of this duration to achieve the desired result under changing conditions. in our previous study of anticipating the location of a uniformly moving object with partial occlusion of the motion trajectory, the stages of determining the duration of an action in the process of reorienting the subjects to the 1_ps option in the dc task fully corresponded to the states of the activity system in the modes of total and acute time deficit (plokhikh, 2006). naturally, when the structure of an action of any complexity is changed, the feedback loops are rebuilt, providing current corrections at various structural levels of the organization (bernstein, 2004). it is extremely difficult to assess the dynamics of current circumstances and the necessary operational changes in the time parameters of ongoing operations with incompletely formed feedback loops, particularly the main loop for controlling the duration of action. the latter was manifested by a slower response time and a low probability of anticipation for small values of orientation time in the dc task (see table 1). at the same time, mere completion of the system of action formation is insufficient for successful anticipation. this was based on a comparison of the simple sensorimotor reaction in terms of the “probability of anticipation” parameter (series 1) with motor responses in the 1_ps variant (series 5) and the calculated values for both male and female groups (see tables 2 and 4). an appropriate time reference, which became the moment of the appearance of the indicative signal, was required for anticipation in the dc problem. the most accurate estimated correlation of the duration of action with the time interval between the orienting signal and the expected moment of the appearance of the stimulus determined the start of motor response realization not after, but simultaneously with the appearance of stimulation. in the series of the dc task, such a verified combination of the onset of action with the appearance of a stimulus actually provided anticipation and a significant reduction in the time of the motor response. and in this aspect, it should be noted that if n. gordeeva broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 15 (2000) considered a sequential change in the forms of sensitivity in the microstructure of action with a reorientation of executive functions to perceptual ones and vice versa, then in the variant we were considering, these functions were integrated into a certain coordinated unity at the final stage. the latter is quite consistent with the findings of j. carboch et al. (2014) in a study of the importance of tennis players observing various sections (particularly the final section) of the ball’s flight path. the subjects’ ability to maintain orientation time in series 5 of the dc task indicated the formation and retention in operative memory of a temporary standard of the required duration of action (see table 2). the action was under control thanks to this standard. furthermore, the time standard was implemented in a series of samples quite flexibly and in response to known variations in the orientation time (.05 s.). subjects discovered the ability to account for current changes in the time of appearance of the stimulus for a response and combined it with a motor response, resulting in anticipatory effects. as can be seen, the resources in the process of temporal regulation at the stage of reorganization of the structure of the sensorimotor action are ways to improve the accuracy of highlighting the expected duration of action; ways to improve the accuracy of assessing the prospects for significant objective changes; skills of correlating the moment of motor response with the expected event in the future. of course, the faster the required system of action is established, the more fully the resource support for the functioning of the sensorimotor level’s anticipatory mechanisms is actualized. the anticipated scheme is presented in the study in its most basic form, which is typical of the construction of conditioned reflexes. the time interval between the conditioned stimulus and the previously reinforced subsequent reaction is critical in conditioned reflexes (pavlov, 2004). however, intrasystem feedbacks are significant even in this variant, as evidenced by the unique dynamics of the processes of excitation and inhibition of active parts of the nervous system. in the dc task, increasing the orientation time beyond what was required for full action system actualization in the 1_ps variant increased the probability of anticipation almost exponentially for both the male and female groups (see tables 1 and 3). it is reasonable to assume that this effect was simply the result of further improvements in the comparison of the total duration of action with the expected time for changes in objective circumstances. however, in the cases where the orientation time in series 3 and 4 was the longest (.25 s and.30 s), and the duration of the processes estimated by the subjects were equally certain, the corresponding anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh et al. 16 probabilities of anticipation should not have differed significantly. meanwhile, for the considered time regimes, with an increase in the orientation time by only fifty milliseconds, the probability of anticipation sharply increases almost twice (see table 1). this effect was due to a significant improvement in successive intermediate time estimates and the corresponding current corrections of operations via the actualization of internal feedback loops in the established sensorimotor action system. this result fully corresponded to n. bernstein’s (2004) identified peculiarities of movement construction at the spatial field level, as well as the results of s. gellershteyn’s (1958) formative experiments. in this case, the relevant time standards assimilated in preliminary samples became an important resource for anticipating operation execution moments. along with this, the subjects’ ability to accurately estimate and correct the time of performing operations was rapidly improving. other studies of the regulation of highly coordinated movements in hitting targets and sports activities found a similar effect (cheban et al., 2020a; 2020b; kiparenko & kremenchutska, 2021). another empirical fact indicates an increase in the fundamental importance of operational time estimates in solving the dc problem. it is characterized by the fact that as the probability of anticipation increases, so does the probability of premature action (see table 1). in other words, while carrying out a sensorimotor action, the subjects were given the option of either reacting immediately or delaying their reaction in order not to get ahead of events (carlsen et al., 2008). fears of reacting too quickly have an impact on decision-making confidence. the latter, as a limiting factor, can explain why the motor response time in the 1_ps variant decreased linearly as the orientation time increased, whereas the probability of anticipation increased in a quadratic pattern (see table 3). the same fact confirms the significance of operational time interval estimation accuracy in facilitating timely decision-making. and in this case, as a resource for sensorimotor level anticipation, there are time interval standards stored in memory, learned schemes for differentiating time intervals, and time estimation skills. individual characteristics of the subject associated with the mobility of nervous processes, as well as character traits that affect the accuracy, validity, and decisiveness of actions, should be added to the proposed resource provision. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 17 5. conclusions 1. a full-fledged actualization of the anticipatory resource of the sensorimotor action system, performed in the unity of the implementation of the mechanism for the attitudinal determination of the expected duration of action (in the simplest version, the duration of the implementation of the conditioned reflex connection) and the psychological mechanism for clarifying the operational estimation of time intervals, significantly increases the subject’s motor response. 2. if the system of action is completely organized, and there is preliminary tentative information about the possible moment in time for the realization of a motor response in the future, the mechanism for setting the expected duration of the realization of a sensorimotor action is sufficiently activated. the ability to accurately determine the expected duration of action; the ability to accurately estimate the time of significant objective changes; skills to correlate the expected duration of action with the expected duration of significant external changes; high speed of formation and significant definiteness of the system of action act as anticipatory resources in this case. 3. in a fully functioning system of action, the anticipatory resource of the sensorimotor action is updated if there is a margin of time for the corresponding estimation, which is associated with an increase in the effectiveness of the psychological mechanism for clarifying the estimation of time intervals and the moment of the motor response. the probability of anticipatory effects increases sharply as the margin of time increases (within the limits of the implementation of the sensorimotor level of anticipation), as does the effectiveness of the action, but so does the probability of a premature response. an increase in the probability of a premature motor response limits the possibilities for anticipation in action organization. the resources of anticipation in clarifying the temporal characteristics of operations in the structure of sensorimotor action are: time interval standards stored in memory; mastered schemes of differentiation of time intervals; time estimation skills; individual characteristics associated with nervous process mobility; personal qualities that ensure quick and effective decision making. anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh et al. 18 references ahrens, m., veniero, d., gross, j., harvey, m., & thut, g. (2015). visual benefits in apparent motion displays: automatically driven spatial and temporal anticipation are partially dissociated. plos one, 10(12), e0144082. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144082 bernstein, n. a. (2004). biomechanics and physiology of movements. мoscow: mpsi. blynova, o., kisil, z., tkach, t., semenova, n., semenov, o., kamisnka, s., & popovych, i. (2020). psychological manifestations of professional marginality of future social welfare professionals. revista inclusiones, 7(si), 218–233. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1229 boyko, e. i. (2002). mekhanizmy umstvennoy deyatel’nosti [mechanisms of mental activity]. mpsi. carboch, j., süss, v., kocib, t., & lopot, f. (2014). return temporal anticipation on the basis of the ball trajectory estimation in tennis. international journal of sports sciences and fitness, 4(1). http://mail.ijssf.org/pdf/v04issue01abs01.pdf carlsen, a. n., chua, r., inglis, j. t., sanderson, d. j., franks i. m. (2008). motor preparation in an anticipation-timing task. exp. brain res., 190(4), 453-61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1487-5 cheban, y. v., chebykin, o. y., plokhikh, v. v., & massanov a. v. (2020b). emotional factor of competitive self-mobilization of professional rowers. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 3, 28-43. http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2020-3-2 cheban, yu., chebykin, o., plokhikh, v., & massanov, a. (2020a). mental resources for the self-mobilization of rowing athletes. journal of physical education and sport, 20(3), 1580-1589. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2020.03216 cravo, a. m., rohenkohl, g., santos, k. m., & nobre, a. c. (2017). temporal anticipation based on memory. journal of cognitive neuroscience, 29(12), 2081-2089 https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01172 gellershteyn, s. g. (1958). “chuvstvo vremeni” i skorost ’dvigatel’noy reaktsii [“sense of time” and speed of motor reaction]. мoscow: medgiz. gordeeva, n. d. (2000). eksperimental’nyye issledovaniya mikrodinamiki vnutrenney formy deystviya [experimental studies of microdynamics of the internal form of action]. voprosy psikhologii, 6, 100-112. http://libtomcat.knute.edu.ua/library/docdescription?doc_id=31265 halian, a., halian, i., popovych, i., zavatskyi, y., semenov, o., & semenova, n. (2021). stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of adaptive ability of medical personnel. brain. broad https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144082 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1229 http://mail.ijssf.org/pdf/v04issue01abs01.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1487-5 http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2020-3-2 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2020.03216 https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01172 http://libtomcat.knute.edu.ua/library/docdescription?doc_id=31265 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 19 research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 251-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/181 hudimova a. kh. (2021). psychological well-being and social media users’ behavioral online patterns in everyday life and during covid-19 pandemic. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 5, 133-147. https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-5-9 hudimova, a., popovych, i., baidyk, v., buriak, o., & kechyk, o. (2021). the impact of social media on young web users’ psychological well-being during the covid-19 pandemic progression. revista amazonia investiga, 10(39), 50–61. https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2021.39.03.5 jain, a., bansal, r., kumar, a., & singh, k. d. (2015). a comparative study of visual and auditory reaction times on the basis of gender and physical activity levels of medical first year students. international journal of applied and basic medical research, 5(2), 124–127. https://doi.org/10.4103/2229516x.157168 khmiliar, o., popovych, i., hrys, a., pavliuk, m., zavatska, n., lytvynenko, o., & blynova, o. (2020). spatial regulation of personality behavior in the conditions of progression of the covid-19 pandemic. revista inclusiones, 7(si), 289-306. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1760 kiparenko, o. l., & kremenchutska, m. k. (2021). assessment of the impact of motor development on adaptation to learning. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 6, 95-109. https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/20216-7 konopkin, o. a. (1980). psikhologicheskiye mekhanizmy regulyatsii deyatel’nosti [psychological mechanisms of activity regulation]. мoscow: nauka. kuzikova, s., shcherbak, t., blynova, o., pobokina, g., dyatchenko, d., mariichyn, a., & popovych, i. (2021). empirical research of the hardiness of the personality in critical conditions of life. postmodern openings, 12(2), 57-77. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.2/297 lomov, b. f., & surkov, ye. n. (1980). antitsipatsiya v strukture deyatel’nosti [anticipation in the structure of activity]. мoscow: nauka. nosov, p. s., ben, a. p., matejchuk, v. n., & safonov, m. s. (2019). identification of “human error” negative manifestation in maritime transport. radio electronics, computer science, control, 4. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-32742018-4-20 nosov, p. s., cherniavskyi, v. v., zinchenko, s. m., popovych, i. s., nahrybelnyi y. а., & nosova, h. v. (2021a). identification of marine emergency response of electronic navigation operator. radio electronics, computer science, control, 1, 208–223. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2021-1-20 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/181 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-5-9 https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2021.39.03.5 https://doi.org/10.4103/2229-516x.157168 https://doi.org/10.4103/2229-516x.157168 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1760 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-6-7 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-6-7 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.2/297 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2018-4-20 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2018-4-20 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2021-1-20 anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action viktor plokhikh et al. 20 nosov, p. s., popovych, i. s., cherniavskyi, v. v., zinchenko, s. m., prokopchuk, y. a., & makarchuk, d. v. (2020c). automated identification of an operator anticipation on marine transport. radio electronics, computer science, control, 3, 158–172. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-3-15 nosov, p. s., popovych, i. s., zinchenko, s. m., kobets, v. m., safonova, a. f., & appazov, e. s. (2021b). automatic determination of the navigator’s motivation model when operating water transport. radio electronics, computer science, control, 3, 152–165. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-32742021-3-13 nosov, p., cherniavskyi, v., zinchenko, s., popovych, i., prokopchuk, y., & safonov, m. (2020a). identification of distortion of the navigator’s time in model experiment. bulletin of university of karaganda. instrument and experimental techniques, 4(100), 57-70. https://doi.org/10.31489/2020ph4/57-70 nosov, p., popovych, i., zinchenko, s., cherniavskyi, v., plokhikh, v., & nosova, h. (2020b). the research on anticipation of vessel captains by the space of kelly’s graph. revista inclusiones, 7(si), 90-103. https://revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1502 pavlov, i. p. (2004). brain and psyche. mpsi. plokhikh, v. v. (2019). antitsipatsionnyye protsessy v organizatsii svoyevremennykh deystviy cheloveka [anticipatory processes in the organization of timely human actions]. aktual’ni problemy psykholohiyi [current issues of psychology], 12(6), 250-262. https://studfile.net/preview/2429388/page:7/ plokhikh, v. v. (2021). assessment of subject’s readiness for urgent actions using the variations of sensorimotor response tasks. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 5, 46-65. http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-5-4 plokhikh, v., popovych, i., zavatska, n., losiyevska, o., zinchenko, s., nosov, p., & aleksieieva, m. (2021). time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 164-188. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/243 popovych, i., arbeláez-campillo, d. f., rojas-bahamón, m. j., burlakova, i., kobets, v., & bokshan, h. (2021a). time perspective in the professional activity of specialists of economic sphere. cuestiones políticas, 39(69), 424445. https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3969.27 popovych, i., chervinskyi, a., kazibekova, v., chervinska, i., & machynska, n. (2021b). empirical research of the typology of social expectations of the personality. amazonia investiga, 10(43), 112-122. https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2021.43.07.11 popovych, i., shevchenko, a., galvez, l. m., & klenina, k. (2021c). research of the relationship between social desirability and value orientations of adolescents. revista otas isto ricas y eogra ficas, 26(1), 241–268. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-3-15 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2021-3-13 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2021-3-13 https://doi.org/10.31489/2020ph4/57-70 https://revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1502 https://studfile.net/preview/2429388/page:7/ http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-5-4 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/243 https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3969.27 https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2021.43.07.11 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 21 https://www.revistanotashistoricasygeograficas.cl/index.php/nhyg/article /view/339 prohorov, a. o. (2020). structure-functional model of mental regulation of subject’s psychic states. psikhologicheskiy zhurnal, 41(1), 5-17. https://doi.org/10.31857/s020595920007852-3 semenov, o., oleshko, p., tsymbal, s., liashko, v., shevchenko, a., & popovych, i. (2021). research of social expectations of university students in the dimensions of psychological well-being. revista eduweb, 15(3), 124–138. https://doi.org/10.46502/issn.1856-7576/2021.15.03.10 shevchenko, r., cherniavskyi, v., zinchenko, s., palchynska, m., bondarevich, s., nosov, p., & popovych, i. (2020). research of psychophysiological features of response to stress situations by future sailors. revista inclusiones, 7(si), 566-579. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1780 shoshol, r. (1978). vremya reaktsii. eksperimental’naya psikhologiya [reaction time. experimental psychology]. nauka. silverman, i. w. (2010). simple reaction time: it is not what it used to be. the american journal of psychology, 123(1), 39-50. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.5406/amerjpsyc.123.1.0039 strelkov, y. k. (2008). fenomen vremeni v issledovanii transportnogo truda [the phenomenon of time in the study of transport labor]. problemy fundamental’noy i prikladnoy psikhologii professional’noy deyatel’nosti [problems of fundamental and applied psychology of professional activity], 2, 200-221. http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2010/11/09/1214795333/0132.pdf zavalova, n. d., lomov, b. f., & ponomarenko, v. a. (1986). obraz v sisteme psikhicheskoy regulyatsii deyatel’nosti [image in the system of mental regulation of activity]. мoscow: nauka. zinchenko, s. m., nosov, p. s., mateychuk, v. m., mamenko, p. p., & grosheva, o. o. (2020b). automatic collision avoidance with multiple targets, including maneuvering ones. radio electronics, computer science, control, 4, 211–222. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2019-4-20 zinchenko, s., mateichuk, v., nosov, p., popovych, i., solovey, o., mamenko, p., & grosheva, o. (2020a). use of simulator equipment for the development and testing of vessel control systems. electrical, control and communication engineering, 16(2), 58-64. https://doi.org/10.2478/ecce-20200009 https://www.revistanotashistoricasygeograficas.cl/index.php/nhyg/article/view/339 https://www.revistanotashistoricasygeograficas.cl/index.php/nhyg/article/view/339 https://doi.org/10.31857/s020595920007852-3 https://doi.org/10.46502/issn.1856-7576/2021.15.03.10 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1780 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.5406/amerjpsyc.123.1.0039 http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2010/11/09/1214795333/0132.pdf https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2019-4-20 https://doi.org/10.2478/ecce-2020-0009 https://doi.org/10.2478/ecce-2020-0009 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 29-39 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/374 submitted: october 17th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 18th, 2022 antimicrobial resistance: the moral compass of health laura pricop 1 1 phd., senior researcher, department of social sciences and humanities, institute of interdisciplinary research, ”alexandru ioan cuza university” of iaşi, romania, laura.pricop@gmail.com abstract: antimicrobial resistance (amr) in the simplest terms describes a paradoxical and disproportionate relationship between the irrational consumption of antibiotics and the real needs. the developing antimicrobial resistance (amr) is considered one of the most serious public health issues which in the last years have started to be perceived as the real threat it is. the paper has a double purposes: a) to critically analyze the methods in which such a complex phenomenon is conceptualized and b) to better understand the possible available approach methods that specialists in the field of public health have in their ongoing attempt to slow down and reduce the momentum of this phenomenon. the overall reasoning of the paper is to better understand the current correct decision-making of a healthcare provider regarding the use and the restriction of antibiotics on a patient. keywords: antimicrobial resistance; ethics; ethics of care; antibiotics; morality; prevention; public health. how to cite: pricop, l. (2022). antimicrobial resistance: the moral compass of health. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 29-39. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/374 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/374 mailto:laura.pricop@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/374 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 30 introduction antimicrobial resistance is one of the most burdensome public health problems that are still in search of solutions. the answers outlined in order to disband this problem seem to fall primarily to the task of philosophy and ethicists. medical humanities can contribute significantly to the development of correct policies, and to the education of the population to stop the process of accelerating the ineffectiveness of antibiotics. the whys of antibiotic resistance have a circular trajectory. antibiotics are used excessively or administered improperly. these deficiencies in the administration of antibiotics lead to an increase in microbial resistance. the simplest intervention to correct this situation is outlined by ethics and moral behavior, care for oneself and others, or attention to spending common resources that must be reserved for generations to come. if it is about what is given to them in excess and the lack of administration of antibiotics, adverse effects occur in people who do not act the right way. in the case of excess, the antibiotic taken for a respiratory tract infection, which can be treated by ingesting liquid and rest, can generate resistance of the microbes and at the subsequent relapse, the antibiotic can no longer cope, be ineffective for the person caring for the abused and furthermore, there will be constant danger of passing on the resistant microbe. in the case of improper uses, for example, the person who does not follow the doctor's prescription to take antibiotics to treat tuberculosis abandons the treatment. the disease can recur and tuberculosis can be resistant to drugs. treatment of drug-resistant tb takes around two years. that is, daily, for a period of 24 months, the patient will be administered therapy that includes antibiotics that are much more toxic and aggressive for the body and much more expensive than first-line drugs. according to the studies, (jang & chung, 2020) only in 54% of the cases, the success of the therapy found. for other severe infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, for example, p. aeruginosa, which affects immunocompromised hospitalized patients, there are often no alternative therapies. morbidity and mortality in this case of nosocomial infections (horcajada et al., 2019) represent a considerable threat worldwide. there is a need to find the fine line between what is too much or too less for each patient who might be treated with antibiotics and to develop procedures based on ethical principles and moral values that put the patient and his needs at the center of attention or to develop protocols to prevent and control the evolution of infectious diseases to stop the process of eroding the effectiveness of antimicrobials. antimicrobial resistance: the moral compass of health laura pricop 31 amr in the simplest terms describes a paradoxical and disproportionate relationship between the irrational consumption of antibiotics and the real needs. the centre of disease control or cdc describes the situation in these terms: „the more we use antibiotics, the more we contribute to the pool of antibiotic-resistant microbes. (...) all antibiotic use, whether warranted or not, places selection pressure on bacteria, and some organisms that possess genetic mutations will survive antibiotic treatment” (viens & littman, 2015). the developing antimicrobial resistance or amr is considered one of the most serious public health issues which in the last years has started to be perceived as the real threat it is. this is due to its disastrous effect on people’s health worldwide. around 700.000 people die of antibiotic-resistant infections every year, and by 2050 10 million lives a year will be at risk due to drugresistant infections (giubilini, 2017, kamenschikova et al. 2018). in europe, each year, more than 670 000 infections occur due to bacteria resistant to antibiotics and approximately 33000 people die as a direct consequence of these infections. the related cost to the healthcare systems of eu/eea countries is estimated according to european centre for disease prevention and control (2022) to be around €1.1 billion. due to the conjuncture created by the sars-cov-2 pandemic, the consumption of antibiotics has decreased in humans by more than 15% between 2019 and 2020 as announced by the european center for disease prevention and control (2021). however, antimicrobial resistance (amr) levels remain high for several important combinations of bacterial species and antimicrobial groups, with the highest percentages generally reported by countries in the south and east of europe. however, the risk of eroding the effectiveness of antibiotics due to improper administrations remains pressing and the danger increases for generations to come. under these conditions, what are the concepts around which antibiotic administration procedures should be built? are the ethical justifications and arguments brought either in favor of antibiotic rationalization, taxation, or delayed prescribing strategy sufficiently strong and effective? having these questions at the front, the paper has a double purpose: a) to critically analyze the ways in which such a complex phenomenon as amr is conceptualized and b) to better understand the possible approach methods that philosophers and ethicists in the field of public health proposed in their ongoing attempt to slow down and reduce the momentum of this phenomenon. the overall reasoning of the paper is to better understand the current correct decision-making of a healthcare provider regarding the use and the restriction of antibiotics on a patient and to sketch broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 32 an ethical path (pahlman et al., 2022) for the use of both individuals and policymakers. methodologically, the critical analysis of specialty literature was performed using two ethical filters: a) ethics of care as an element that may provide an adequate but impartial fundamental in the passing between going from taking care of a person to taking care of a multitude of people; b) minimum conception of morality as an instrument that may support the specialist in public health to make, indifferent of the case, the best rational and morally correct decision. the result of this critical analysis was afterward interpreted ethically, especially with regards to the orientation towards ethics of care in collaboration with elements of minimum conception of morality. inclusion criteria (mcdougall, 2015) in this non-systematic review were based on the relevance of the thematic content of articles, books, or research as part of the philosophical/ ethical field. quantitative research depicting numbers of amr prevalence or incidence in certain regions, countries, etc. was discarded from the research itself but noted as a reference to the magnitude of the scale of amr worldwide. strategies for reasonable use of antibiotics to be able to discuss the various strategies of the reasonable use of antibiotics, for whatever reason there may be or however justified they may be, they come into direct conflict with the will, right or interest of a person through the simple fact that said person has access to this type of medication by law. that is why before any type of analysis and discussion of strategies regarding the use of antibiotics put in practice by clinics, hospitals, or in the measures of prevention and screening we have to respond to the question: who is the patient? who is the person which for the good of the community we must solicit to endure the pain? how it is normal to perceive this patient: as isolated from the community he lives in or to consider him as if broken from it? of course, through the course of philosophical history, there have been documented responses (foucault, 2007; person, 2017) to these questions and from this point of view, there are at least two options evidently opposing one another. each of them adds different methodologies which healthcare workers use: a naturalistic view of the person and a practical-moral view of the person. in a naturalistic account, the person is reduced to a mere organism. this reductionist perspective is used commonly in statistics, economy, decision theory, and epidemiology and it has a limited but precise function to determine the way in which the gestures, options, preferences, how each one's diseases are inter-connected, and the context in which they are integrated. the other option takes into consideration the antimicrobial resistance: the moral compass of health laura pricop 33 perspective developed by taylor (1985, pp. 97-114) in which the person „has a sense of self, of his/her own life who can evaluate it, and make choices about it”. this is the basis of „respect we owe persons”. if we are to analyze in a naturalistic view of the person and compare it with the metaphysical perspective of the person, the identity and individual autonomy (verkerk, 2001) developed by taylor (1985) and at the same time direct our attention towards the situation in which a person is put under the scenario of applying strategies of rationalization of antibiotics, we can very easily observe that the person is situated outside of the possibility to take a decision regardless if the capacity to decide is altered by disease or not. for example, in the case of the measures taken by the infectious diseases society of america through their guidelines for developing antimicrobial stewardship programs or asp’s, the doctors are solicited to reduce the dose and to shorten the duration of antibiotic use (oczkowski, 2017). to accomplish these guidelines that have been set out, doctors are solicited to take a decision of action while taking into account a series of aspects that transform the decision into an ethically justified decision: publicity condition; appeals/revision conditions, and enforcement condition. this mechanism of decision making where a health physician, first of all, let the patient know, or the close relatives of the patient the necessity to restrict access to medication, is called public condition (beauchamp & childress, 2012). in the context of taking such a decision, this condition is very important as there may be situations in which healthcare providers consider it is not always necessary to burden the patient with such information if at that moment he/she does suffer from an antibiotic-resistant acute infection (kamenschikova, 2018). in the case of relevance and revision condition, the doctor must evaluate the health state of an individual and the level of risk the patient is at if he is not empirically administered (as in without an answer from a laboratory that would indicate specifically which type of antibiotic would the bacteria be susceptible to) a wide spectrum antibiotic as protocol solicits in cases of emergency. if the patient is temporarily incapacitated and does not have the mental state to make a decision or to partake in the decision-making alongside the doctor, the healthcare provider is advised to come to a conclusion using the ethical principle of rawls, also called the ignorance veil. ethical justification in these conditions is extremely important. the lack of an ethical foundation in these circumstances does not mean anything else but abuse from the doctor and the breaking of one most fundamental principles (beauchamp, childress, 2012) of professional deontology: primum non-nocere first, to do no harm. the problem that appears here is one of the instruments utilized to come to an ethically justified decision. the principle of rawls (1999), the veil of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 34 ignorance, will give the possibility to make a moral evaluation of individuals from positions of the original agreement. according to this point of view, participants in social cooperation should choose together, by means of a unitary act, the principles which allocate the rights and obligations of everyone, which establish the distribution of benefits of social cooperation. people should decide beforehand how they will adjust the expectations they have from each other and what is going to be the fundamental agreement in their society. rawls says that those who participate in the act of taking decisions should fulfill certain conditions and, at the same time, certain rights are assumed; first, it’s about rational persons and, consequently, they are ensured equal freedom. the original status is seen as a purely hypothetical situation, nothing primitive, cultural, or historic, which could have a strict role, in rawls’ terms, to configure a certain conception of justice and the individuals who accept this situation are not aware of their status in society. here, rawls takes into account the class or social status and the natural qualities and abilities, e.g., intelligence, powerand the participants do not know their own conceptions about good or their particular psychological inclinations. under these conditions, nobody will be disadvantaged or advantaged by the contingency of a social lottery. if we take into account the strict specifications of this principle we can note that it can be used in the case of rule making which will be at the base of decisionmaking and not the decision of action. the requirement imposed by the antimicrobial stewardship programmes (asps) to include the principle of rawls as a support instrument of decision-making is simply ineffective. the idea of need in the medical system realistic situations in which a sick person is sitting in a bed do not necessitate in any way for the doctor to cover his face and judge with his eyes closed. a clear difference has to be made though, between personalized treatment and discrimination in this case. it is morally wrong to discriminate but personalized treatments are necessary for certain scenarios for the good health of a patient. all doctors should have the same amount of care when treating a patient, but that does not mean the same treatment. a better response to the situation to this would be the one given by the ethics of care. beyond the problems not well developed yet by the ethics of care, this orientation is considered to be close to the ethics of justice just as rawls’ theory is. but different when compared to rawls (1999) that promotes a particularistic moral epistemology in which attention, contextual and narrative appreciation, and communication are considered elements of moral deliberation. antimicrobial resistance: the moral compass of health laura pricop 35 in this ethical context, the doctor would have to confront making the decision of limiting the consumption of antibiotics. in a case such as that he could decide based on the following structure: the elements taken into account are derived from the ethic developed by joan c tronto (2009) and requires from the one that is taking the decision: attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness. tronto in his ethics linked all these elements coming from the idea that treatment as an act in itself is based on the idea of need-the needs-to observe the fact that someone needs help. and as this need seemingly may be an infinite one, tronto affirms that in the medical system of healthcare there will be permanent moral dilemmas linked with the need to satisfy all requirements of care. and the judgment of the doctor that takes responsibility for caring for a person will be a judgment of needs. besides professional competence, in this ethical framework, the specialist that offers healthcare services must take into consideration before the decision of action the response of the patient or the ones that replace the patient in the taking of the decision. because the point of view of the two denominators that participate in this deliberative act with regard to what the need represents may be radically different. ethics of care do mention the fact that it is individualistic but must be situated in the broader context. this concept can be understood through the perspective of moral practice upon a person based on taylor’s view (1985), which finds an adequate response for this scenario: the fact that an individual is not the only person that suffers from an affliction, that other people may be in the same situation; that other people have the same needs and require the same amount of attention. the fact that one is part of a world that is shared by others automatically comes with the fact that one must share all the resources that make one able to maintain life in this world. and to take correct action, indifferent of the situation in which someone is in the process of care, be it a patient or a healthcare provider, they must first start acknowledging the situation in whichthey are, beginning with ‘‘the minimum conception of morality’’ (rachels, 2003). every individual has the duty to ask and at the same time respond to the question of what is right, what is correct to do in this situation? with at least one valid argument. strategies for reducing consumption of antibiotics even if some concepts considered key to ethical-philosophical research that focuses on finding the least restrictive ways to reduce antibiotic consumption are not fully clarified, they are functional and can be used with caution. there are still discussions in this field that reveal a secondary antagonism regarding the classification of antibiotics as a common good or a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 36 public good. but researchers seem to agree on the fact that the erosion of the effectiveness of antibiotics represents a tragedy of the commons (giubilini, 2019). in establishing strategies to limit consumption, both types of responsibilities were taken into account (dyar et al., 2016), the possibility of charging the consumption of antibiotics in certain circumstances (giubilini, 2019) or the delay of purchase reactions and immediate gratification of the consumption of antibiotics (peters et al. 2011). the taxation model depicted by giubilini (2019) has some features slightly similar to the taxation model for alcoholic beverages and tobacco consumption. the difference between the two models actually lies in the consequences on the body of the consumption of the products for which the so-called "vice tax" is charged and the harmful effects of the unjustified consumption of antibiotics that affect not only the person who consumes them but also future generations. the tax would apply only to those cases in which the consumption of antibiotics is not an immediate necessity and the sum of the tax, in the view of the author of the model, should be directed to the research and development of new generations of more effective antibiotics. if in the case of alcoholic beverages and tobacco a series of taxes were successfully imposed that limited the excessive consumption of alcohol, would the taxation of antibiotics follow the same pattern? certainly, there are major differences between what alcohol and tobacco represent for consumption and, on the other hand, under what conditions the antibiotic can be administered. if in order to enhance the well-being provided by the consumption of alcohol and tobacco a person is willing to pay more, would people be willing to pay more to eliminate a bad, unpleasant state that could deepen? administration of the antibiotic appears as a need dictated by the deterioration of the individual's well-being and based on previous experiences, the patient believes that to overcome the condition he is facing he needs the antibiotic. the patient's interest is to overcome the condition he is facing as quickly as possible, and the doctor has the duty to help him, taking into account the patient's opinion and decision to act. every individual has the right to decide on his own course of life and the laws governing societies must ensure and protect this fundamental right. in the case of respiratory tract infections (rtis), a category in which sore throat, acute cough, and ear infection are included, most of the viral ones can be self-managed without antibiotics. however, it was found that in these cases primary doctors prescribe antibiotics at the patients' request 60% of cases (peters et al., 2011). antimicrobial resistance: the moral compass of health laura pricop 37 one of the strategies to reduce the consumption of antibiotics in this context was the introduction in 2008 in the uk by the national institute for health and clinical excellence of a delayed prescribing strategy. in fact, those authorized to prescribe antibiotics post-dated the prescription so that the patients could not obtain the medicine until the date indicated on the prescription, in case they still considered that the antibiotic was needed. doctors felt that this strategy was affecting their therapeutic relationship with the patient. according to the study carried out by peters et al. (2011) this strategy was not successful. by comparison with the model of taxing the consumption of antibiotics (giubilini, 2019) which was ethically justified with the same arguments with which the unqualified supererogation was justified and whose argumentation is partially supported, the delayed prescribing strategy can easily find its supporters among the followers of stoicism and the strategy would also be considered in the future. conclusion the conclusions of this paper go into multiple directions which require more study; as such they remain open and can describe at most some possibilities for future research. first of all it is necessary to develop a new generation of antibiotics which has to delay the confrontation with the era of post-antibiotics as much as possible; the necessary transformation of new methodology of work in medical sciences of public health that requires a unified concept regarding what a person means and the way in which the person is attributed to meaningful and rational decision making regarding itself. and lastly, the direction in which one has to find the best most suitable ethical instruments that can help professionals of the health domain to take the best decisions of action in the morally complex situations which they are confronted with daily. on the other part, interdisciplinary, ethical, and philosophical investigations in the field of medical humanities should develop in search of answers, justifications, and correct and convincing arguments capable of changing behaviors. in the same direction, researchers and specialists who bring a new perspective, and add knowledge in this field should also undertake the exercise of communicating science to the non-specialist public. the communication of science and the delivery of correct, verified, valid, ethically justified information has the best chances to decrease antivaccination attitudes against infections, form and maintain behavioral patterns to maintain proper hygiene, and thus prevent infections and antibiotic consumption. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 38 references beauchamp, t. l., & childress j. f. (2012). principles of biomedical ethics (7th ed.). oxford university press. dyar, o.j., obua, c., chandy, s., xiao, y., lundborg, c. s., & pulcini, c. (2016). using antibiotics responsibly: are we there yet?. future microbiology,11, 8, 1057-1071. https://doi.org/10.2217/fmb-2016-0041 european centre for disease prevention and control. (2022). external quality assessment (eqa) of the performance of laboratories participating in the european antimicrobial resistance surveillance network (earsnet), 2021. european centre for disease prevention and control. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/external-qualityassessment-eqa-performance-laboratories-participating-european european centre for disease prevention and control. (2021). reported decrease in antibiotic consumption across eu/eea during covid-19 pandemic. european centre for disease prevention and control. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/reported-decreaseantibiotic-consumption-across-eueea-during-covid-19-pandemic foucault m. (2007). the politics of truth. semitext. giubilini, a. (2019). antibiotic resistance as a tragedy of the commons: an ethical argument for a tax on antibiotic use in humans. bioethics, 33, 776–784. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12598 giubilini, a. (2017). antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial stewardship programmes: benefiting the patient or the population?. journal of medical ethics, 43(10), 653–654. horcajada, j. p., montero, m., oliver, a., sorlí, l., luque, s., gómez-zorrilla, s., benito, n., grau, s. (2019). epidemiology and treatment of multidrugresistant and extensively drug-resistent pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. clinical microbiology reviews, 32, 4, https://doi.org/10.1128/cmr.00031-19 jang, j. g., & chung, j. h. (2020). diagnosis and treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. yeungnam university journal of medicine, 37(4), 277-285. https://doi.org/10.12701/yujm.2020.00626 kamenschikova, a., wolffs, p. p. g., hoebe, c. j., penders, j., & horstman, k. (2018). complex narratives of health, stigma and control: antimicrobial resistance creening among non-hospitalised refugees. social science&medicine, 212, 43–49. mcdougall, r. (2015). reviewing literature in bioethics research: increasing rigour in non-systematic reviews. bioethics, 29, 523-528. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12149 https://doi.org/10.2217/fmb-2016-0041 https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/external-quality-assessment-eqa-performance-laboratories-participating-european https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/external-quality-assessment-eqa-performance-laboratories-participating-european https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/reported-decrease-antibiotic-consumption-across-eueea-during-covid-19-pandemic https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/reported-decrease-antibiotic-consumption-across-eueea-during-covid-19-pandemic https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12598 https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/cmr.00031-19#con2 https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/cmr.00031-19#con3 https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/cmr.00031-19#con4 https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/cmr.00031-19#con5 https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/cmr.00031-19#con6 https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/cmr.00031-19#con7 https://doi.org/10.1128/cmr.00031-19 https://doi.org/10.12701/yujm.2020.00626 https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12149 antimicrobial resistance: the moral compass of health laura pricop 39 oczkowski, s. (2017). antimicrobial stewardship programmes: bedside rationing by another name? journal of medical ethics, 43, 684-687. pahlman, k., fehross, a., fox, g. j., & silva, d. s. (2022). ethical health security in the age of antimicrobial resistance. bmj glob health, 7(1), e007407. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007407 person, c. g. (2017). identity, and political theory. springer. peters, s., rowbotham, s., chisholm, a., wearden, a., moschogianis, s., cordingley, l., baker, d., hyde, c., & chew-graham, c. (2011). british journal of general practice, 61(590), e579-e589. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp11x593866 rachels, j. (2003). the elements of moral philosophy (fourth edition). mc graw hill. rawls, j. (1999). a theory of justice. harvard university press. taylor, c. (1985). the concept of a person. in philosophical papers (pp. 97-114). cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139173483.005 tronto, c. j. (2009). moral boundaries. a political argument for an ethic of care. routledge. verkerk, m. a. (2001). the care perspective and autonomy. medicine health care and philosophy, 4, 289-294. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1012048907443 viens, a. m., & littman, j. (2015). is antimicrobial resistance a slowly emerging disaster?. public heath ethics, 8(3), 255-265. https://doi.org/10.1093/phe/phv015 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007407 https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp11x593866 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139173483.005 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1012048907443 https://doi.org/10.1093/phe/phv015 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 37-50 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/301 submitted: august 11th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 13th, 2022 neuropsychological bases of correctional and preventive preparation of children with autism to master writing zoriana leniv¹, oksana dzhus2, nataliia ilina3, olesia prokofieva4, nataliia matveievа5, iryna hlushchenko6 1 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, lzoryana@ukr.net 2 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, oksana.dzhus@pnu.edu.ua 3 kherson state university, ukraine, asha@ksu.ks.ua 4 bogdan khmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, prok.olesya@gmail.com 5 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian university, ukraine, nataliematveieva@gmail.com 6 communnal higher educational establishment “kherson academy of continuing education” of the kherson regional council, ukraine, glushchenko.irina19@gmail.com abstract: the article presents a neuropsychological approach to the correctional and preventive preparation of autistic children to master writing. the neuropsychological bases of correctional work with autistic children are considered: structural functional organization of the brain and symptoms of the main disorders of brain blocks, scientific ideas about functional blocks – regulation of the level of brain activity (energy block); receiving, processing and information storing block; block for programming, regulation of educational activities, including writing and its control. scientific ideas about autism, learning difficulties and methods of writing development in children with developmental disabilities are analysed. neuropsychological recommendations for correctional and preventive preparation of autistic children to master writing based on domestic and foreign experience have been developed. it is confirmed that implementation of correctional and preventive training of autistic children in writing should be carried out mainly individually, comprehensively and systematically, taking into account disorders in the mental development of a child and the prognosis of learning difficulties. the conceptual provisions of neuropsychology about the brain organization of higher mental functions and functional blocks of the brain, features of interfunctional systems, methods of correctional and preventive, restorative training of special children in writing and the method of “substitutive ontogenesis” are reflected. keywords: higher mental functions, social interaction, inclusive education, neuropsychological methods, neuropsychological factors, neuropsychological exercises, neuropsychological recommendations. how to cite: leniv, z., dzhus, o., ilina, n., prokofieva, o., matveievа, n., & hlushchenko, i. (2022). neuropsychological bases of correctional and preventive preparation of children with autism to master writing. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 37-50. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/301 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/301 mailto:lzoryana@ukr.net mailto:oksana.dzhus@pnu.edu.ua mailto:asha@ksu.ks.ua mailto:prok.olesya@gmail.com mailto:nataliematveieva@gmail.com mailto:glushchenko.irina19@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/301 neuropsychological bases of correctional and preventive preparation of ... zoriana leniv, et al. 38 introduction the problem of studying technologies of correctional and preventive education of children with autistic writing disorders is increasingly attracting attention of neuropsychologists, clinical psychologists, neurophysiologists. according to icd-10 scientific data, in particular neuropsychology, autism has a phenomenological variability – a wide range of autistic disorders of both endogenous and exogenous psychopathology with disorders of mainly social interaction, communication and behavior. in this regard, selection of adequate neuropsychological correctional and preventive methods of teaching special children in writing should include: diagnosis of cognitive abilities of primary school children, taking into account the type of autism (specifics of autistic disorders), specifics of mental development and age category; prediction and forecast of possible learning outcomes and selection of adequate methods of teaching special children in writing, taking into account peculiarities of the child’s speech development; formation of psychological readiness and motivation for social interaction in communication with the environment in autistic children (demchenko et al., 2021; melnyk et al., 2019; melnyk et al., 2021; sheremet, 2019). undoubtedly, deviations from the norm in the mental and speech development of children with disabilities cause difficulties in learning to write. importantly, in autistic children, the speech regions of the brain and speech apparatus in the vast majority of cases are functional. the ability to express ideas in a few words, the ability to memorize letters is already a criterion for success in mastering writing. however, autistic children are not active in communicating with others. the main thing is tolerance and responsibility of teachers in partner motivation of special children for communication and their competence in creative application of neuropsychological methods in preparing autistic children for writing. understanding the impact of neuropsychological mechanisms of the brain on the effectiveness of education of special children enables selection of adequate correctional and preventive methods of mastering writing, which is one of the current problems of inclusive education. theoretical neuropsychological framework of research of introduction of correctional and preventive methods of preparation of children with autism for mastering of writing: foreign and domestic experience the term “autism” from the greek “autos” means oneself, which characterizes a child with a tendency to alienation from reality, a unique brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 39 inner life, a special world of dreams and fantasies. at the level of popular psychology, autistic children are called indigo and are identified with the phenomena of solitude. the mental organization of children with autism has really unique features of a person who is immersed in one’s inner world due to specific mechanisms of psychological protection and inconsistent contact with the external environment, receiving certain pieces of information. the number, ambiguity and variability of autistic symptoms, the lack of differentiated understanding of its neuropsychology, complicate selection of reliable corrective and preventive methods of preparing children with autism to master writing. neuropsychological theories of explanation of autism reflect the links between brain function and behaviour, success in activities (including written) due to unique manifestations of mental life, which is confirmed in many foreign and domestic works (bachevalier, 1994; baron-cohen et al., 1985; dawson, 1996; happe & frith, 1996; hughes et al., 1994; joseph, 1999; luria, 1966; minshew et al., 1997; turner, 1997). thus, the work of joseph (1999) explains characteristics of behaviour of people with autism by the following theories: the theory of regulatory dysfunction, in which autism is seen as inability to program and control behaviour; the weak central coherence theory, which states that cognitive processing of information is incomplete, and covers limited areas; limbic theory, according to which disorders of psychological abilities, especially social, in particular communicative interaction, are associated with the medial part of the temporal lobes and the limbic system. happe & frit (1996), in turn, argue that cognitive theories are vital in neuropsychology, which seeks to establish a link between brain abnormalities and behavioral symptoms. the researchers explain autism at the biological, behavioral, and cognitive levels. autism is based on affective complexes, thinking disorders, isolation or activity of “strange” children, a deep violation of contact with other people; obsessive desire for monotonous forms of activity; high or low cognitive potential is possible. as a result, the psychological picture of autistic disorders can take many forms, from a child with a low level of intelligence, who does not speak and is maladapted, to a selectively gifted person with specific interests and “adult” speech. children with such different levels of abilities need differentiated learning, so it is considered unacceptable to combine in one classroom children with autism with a significant degree of mental retardation with children with autism, which is characterized by high intellectual development (ostrovska, 2012). symptoms neuropsychological bases of correctional and preventive preparation of ... zoriana leniv, et al. 40 of autism vary widely and may include: inability to communicate clearly, resistance to regime change, difficulty with social interaction, lack of eye contact, social detachment, difficulty in understanding one’s own needs, repetition of words or phrases (timmons et al., 2006). we believe that children with intellectual disabilities need special attention to the correctional and preventive preparation of an autistic child for writing. according to shevtsova & poleshchuk (2016) children with intellectual disabilities have no formed at a sufficient level harmonious relationships between sensory and motor components of motor action, i.e., between such necessary components to ensure optimal psychomotor and perceptual-cognitive functions, which are undoubtedly involved in all forms of mental activity of children. at the same time, stereognosis and visual gnosis, which are based on the processes formed in early ontogenesis (tactile and visual perception, perceptual actions), as well as on the presence of images of surrounding objects in the child’s memory, probably have a certain system-forming value. peculiarities of the relationship between psychomotor skills and perceptual-cognitive functions in young students with intellectual disabilities must be taken into account when conducting educational and correctional work. in particular, if possible, it is necessary to work in parallel on those functions that include common links, ensuring strengthening of ties between them. students with heterogeneous structure of psychomotor and perceptual-cognitive disorders need additional systematic practice of the most disturbed links based on better preservation. thus, the results of neuropsychological examination of primary school children with intellectual disabilities enable to determine the directions of pathogenetically-oriented adaptive correction of disorders of psychomotor and perceptual-cognitive development, aimed at strengthening the psychophysiological basis of educational activities (shevtsova & poleshchuk, 2016). the methodological basis for development of correctional and preventive programs for teaching autistic children to write in the context of our study is a neuropsychological approach to correctional and developmental work with special children (baron-cohen et al., 1985; happe & frith, 1996; joseph, 1999; luria, 1966, 2003; minshew et al., 1997; semago & semago, 2000; semenovich & vorobeva, 1998; shevtsov & ilina 2015; shevtsova & poleshchuk 2016; sirotyuk, 2003; skrypnyk, 2010; tarasun, 2017). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 41 the neuropsychological approach, which is based on modern ideas according to the works of luria (1966, 2003) on the laws of development and hierarchical construction of the brain organization of higher mental functions in ontogenesis, made it possible to create highly effective correctional technologies based on a systematic approach to correction of mental development of the child. one such system is a comprehensive method of psychomotor correction, created by a group of psychologists led by semenovich (1998). within this system, there are two different areas of correctional work: methods of motor correction, development of nonverbal components of communication, and cognitive methods aimed at overcoming difficulties in acquiring school knowledge and formation of higher mental functions used in a single complex with their subsequent integration taking into account the complementary impact. actualization and consolidation of any bodily skills involves an external demand for mental functions such as memory, emotions, perception, self-regulation processes, etc., i.e., creates a basic prerequisite for full participation of these processes in mastering writing, reading, mathematical knowledge. actualization of cognitive correction methods with their subsequent inclusion in the correction process should take into account the dynamics of individual or group work (semago & semago, 2000). cerebral representation of any mental or psychosomatic factor is invariant. it is subject to change, the brain organization of the function (speech, memory, perception, etc.), interfunctional processes (writing, arithmetic, reading) and complex patterns of behaviour (voluntary selfregulation, learning) is flexible. all this is a systematically-dynamic set of factors that are different in the degree of complexity. neuropsychological factors (the group of basal factors include: modal-specific; kinaesthetic; kinetic; spatial; voluntary regulation of mental activity; energy supply; hemispheric interaction, etc.) are supporting components for further improvement of cognitive and emotional processes. the difficult multilevel construction of the child’s individual personality is built and kept on them. it is impossible to change the “localization” of a factor, but one can naturally, or artificially create a system of actualization of the inter-factor connections, or superfunctional patterns. this is the main purpose of the neuropsychological correction. this process is possible due to plasticity of the child’s neurobiological systems (shevtsov & ilina, 2015). researchers have shown that teaching children to write is closely related to their prior learning to read and the level of development of speech neuropsychological bases of correctional and preventive preparation of ... zoriana leniv, et al. 42 and articulatory apparatus. in this regard, tarasun (2012, 2017) argues that correctional and developmental work with children who have signs of impaired articulatory praxis and deficiencies in preverbal development should begin at the age of 1.5 months. specially developed directions and methods of correction help to improve quality of articulatory movements, which allows in the initial stages of praxis formation to avoid formation of a stable pathological stereotype of movements. lack of work aimed at prevention and correction of defects in preverbal development, disorders of articulatory praxis and successive stages of preverbal development, can lead to a child’s general speech underdevelopment (tarasun, 2012). in our opinion, the sensorimotor development of autistic children is no less important for mastering writing skills, which causes intensification of development of all higher mental functions, which are essential for organization of a successful educational process. thus, skrypnyk (2010) in his neuropsychological approach to treatment of autism calls the method of “substitutive ontogenesis” an adapted version of basic body-oriented psychotechnics (optimization of general body tone, expansion of sensorimotor repertoire, formation of attention skills, etc.). its application involves working out in the unity of the affect, perception and action. the neuropsychological correction is a three-level system. each of the correction levels has its own specific “target” action and is aimed at all the three brain blocks. at the first level there is formation of the child’s self-regulation with the help of body-oriented, art-therapeutic techniques, harmonization of synkinesis, expansion of the fields of visual perception, formation of sensorimotor interactions. the second level provides preconditions for the full formation of holistic mental functions (speech, memory, somatognosis, spatial representations, etc.). at the third level, the synthetic, integrative interand supra-functional interactions are corrected and formed, methods and algorithms of using generalized and regulatory language function, intellectual operations, voluntary attention, automated skills of voluntary self-regulation in emotional and cognitive aspects acquired at previous levels are consolidated. all methods (neuropsychological, logopedic, psychotherapeutic, etc.) are assimilated and modified into a new system (skrypnyk, 2010). the reason for difficulties in writing may be attributed to shortcomings in the complex coordination of sensorimotor processes: transformation of the time sequence of phonemes into a spatial series of graphemes, phonemic analysis and graphomotor operations of writing brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 43 letters. difficulties in performing these operations are mainly due to the fact that both phonemic analysis and letter writing of words in chronological order are successive processes. therefore, as a prerequisite for intelligence, they can suffer even with mild residual organic lesions of the central nervous system. in the chain of operations that make up the writing process, the final effector link are the graphomotor skills, which influence the writing process as a whole. difficulties in writing letters sometimes so burdens the child’s attention that disrupts all previous operations. it is important to emphasize that in ontogenesis graphomotor operations undergo a significant evolution simultaneously with the development of imaging activity. the most important function on which this process depends is formation of visualmotor coordination. undeveloped or insufficiently developed graphomotor skills can cause a special kind of writing disorders. for all the clarity and perfection of the corrective-compensatory effect, which uses thoroughly developed methods and techniques for correcting defects in the skills of graphic symbolization of speech (in accordance with the phonetic principle of writing and grammatical rules of agreement of words in a sentence), in a significant number of children this dysgraphia grow persistent and, in some cases, cannot be corrected (tarasun, 2017). neuropsychological recommendations for correctional and preventive preparation of autistic children to master writing the principle of correctional and preventive orientation indicates the need for continuous adaptation of learning to the individual characteristics of the process of acquiring of the program material by students so that the cognitive skills formed in them are carried out quickly, joined-up, simultaneously, i.e., turned into a skill (tarasun, 2017). neuropsychological methods can be considered effective if they are used taking into account development of brain mechanisms of higher mental functions and their disorders and taking into account neuropsychological ideas about the causes, mechanisms and symptoms of mental dysontogenesis and the relationship of cortical and subcortical mechanisms of the brain when ensuring mastering handwriting by a child. in this regard, for a comprehensive study of higher mental functions, it is appropriate to use a neuropsychological examination based on the luria battery (1966, 2003) to identify neuropsychological functions of possible deficits of i (energy), ii (cognitive), iii (programming) brain blocks and diagnostics of the level of speech development and formation of neuropsychological bases of correctional and preventive preparation of ... zoriana leniv, et al. 44 communicative skills in communication. the purpose of such diagnostics is to use a system of methods of correctional and preventive training, especially the method of “substitutive ontogenesis”, adequate to the structure of the mental defect. the results of neuropsychological research, obtained in the process of didactic and role-playing games and on the basis of purposeful observation of children’s behavior and manifestations of their mental life in everyday situations, are of great value. the neuropsychological exercises for correctional and preventive training of autistic children, taking into account scientific ideas about functional blocks of the brain may include the following: exercises to develop proper breathing, formation and correction of sensorimotor interactions; distinction of noises (household, natural, musical instruments), voices of people, depending on remoteness of a sound source; teaching children a correct pronunciation of complex words, rapid speech, which enriches their vocabulary with new words (the same exercises may be given to parents to perform them at home); formation of logical-grammatical, “quasi-spatial” understanding begins with transition of the concepts “higher”, “lower” to “above”, “under”, “in”, “behind”, “in front of”; oculomotor exercises (shevtsov & ilina, 2015). in our opinion, such exercises should be combined comprehensively with an individual program for correctional and preventive preparation of an autistic child for writing. application of any neuropsychological exercise should be based on the real resources of the child. for example, some children with autism respond better to images or sign language than to verbal presentation; children with autism may have difficulty understanding complex instructions, so they need to be “adapted”; it is appropriate to perform written exercises at the same time every day, so that the activity becomes predictable and turns into an interesting and fun task; psychologically do not put pressure on the child who does not like to write, but combine writing lessons with material of interest to the child in order to stimulate interest. for special children with learning difficulties and weak social activity are characterized by the following neuropsychological indicators of the higher mental functions: lack of mental self-regulation, control of educational activities, information processing (at the level of visual, auditory, kinaesthetic sensations), rapid fatigability, inhibition of motor activity, low productivity, which is certainly associated with a deficiency of the cortical regions of the brain. deficiency of neuropsychological components of brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 45 educational activity in older pre-schoolers and young schoolchildren requires development of individual programs with competently selected corrective and preventive means of preparing autistic children for writing. the correctional and preventive program for teaching autistic children to write should also include various types of productive activities: drawing, modeling, designing – in order to develop in them the musculoskeletal work of the wrists, visual-motor coordination, muscular-tactile analysers, kinaesthetic sensations. we consider the use of the pep-r test to be effective for successful teaching of autistic children. pep-r can also be used for individual education programs for children with autism, but when selecting tasks for this program it is necessary to take into account the current level of development of the child. pep-r provides information on the development of imitation skills, perception, fine and gross motor skills, visual-motor coordination, cognitive activity, communication and active speech. pep-r also provides an opportunity to determine the degree of behavioural disorders in human relationships, the way to respond to external stimuli, as well as the degree of speech development disorders. pep-r profiles have proved invaluable in the extremely important process of collaboration between parents and therapists. parents effectively developed and conducted programs of education and upbringing at home (ostrovska, 2012). vizel (2005) offers a set of exercises and tasks aimed at developing reading and writing skills in special children, forming in them logical thinking, spatial imagination, overcoming spelling and grammatical errors. the author testifies that children with autism have an innate reluctance to communicate with others, using speech as well. they are silent because they do not need to speak, although the speech areas of the brain and the speech apparatus in them are initially preserved (vizel, 2005). the method of tarasun (2017) of gradual formation in children with developmental problems of the global way of writing is interesting. thus, the basis of preparing a child for writing are drawing lessons, in the process of which it is important to form in children an attitude to drawing as a means for expressing freely their thoughts, developing the ability to see, optically distinguishing and measuring a subject. exercises for transforming drawings can be a valuable technique for preparing a child for writing, as they contribute to formation of children’s knowledge about mobility and variability of the subject and drawing with both hands at the same time. drawing is supplemented by systematic exercises, for which purpose it is neuropsychological bases of correctional and preventive preparation of ... zoriana leniv, et al. 46 necessary to eliminate, first of all, all kinds of obstacles to free hand exercises (lines in a notebook or on a sheet of paper, strictly defined letter sizes, etc.) and work out the correct position of the child’s body at the table as an essential condition for the activity of the muscular system. the task of the teacher is not to achieve a calligraphic beauty of the child’s writing, but to create favourable conditions for formation of individual, fast (running) handwriting (tarasun, 2017). an inclusive environment can provide opportunities for children with autism to increase their social interactions and, in turn, to improve their social skills. in order to increase academic performance, activities should be properly structured, learning accessible, organized through cooperation with parents and competent teachers. children with autism need to be praised and encouraged, although it is sometimes difficult (timmons et al., 2006). in neuropsychological recommendations to teachers of children with problems in psychophysical development syrotyuk (2003) noted that if a child cannot read and write, then learning these skills simultaneously, neither will be optimally formed, because reading should precede formation of writing skills, the child must first understand the text and then read it; senseless training of memory, attention and self-control without normalization of brain work exacerbates the child’s problems; fatigue complicates comprehension, systematization and memorization of information, because the brain work becomes so disorganized that the already established but not fixed nerve connections get ruined (sirotyuk, 2003). the correctional and preventive methods of work with autistic children considered in the context of neuropsychology are indicative, because for correction of mental development of a special child in each separate case the uniqueness and ambiguity of autistic manifestations successfully selected by a competent specialist neuropsychological techniques should be the best option. in this regard, in the correctional and preventive individual program for preparing autistic children for writing, the primary task is to “build” unformed mental functions in the unity of neuropsychological diagnosis, correction and programmed learning. neuropsychological methods in the correctional and preventive work of teachers and psychologists of special children should ensure, first of all, restoration or restructuring of impaired higher mental functions, to encourage the brain to create new interfunctional systems. at the brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 47 neuropsychological level, connections are made between brain structures, neuronal mechanisms, and mental and behavioural manifestations, including functions of writing that they mediate. with the help of restorative learning with the use of neuropsychological methods, superfunctional patterns are created, lost functions are formed, new interfunctional connections are actualized, which contributes to the optimal mastery of writing by autistic children. functional systems of writing support, the neuropsychological and psychophysiological basis of which are higher mental functions, are formed in the process of activity. the main task of a neuropsychologist is to implement a competent integrated system approach to organization of the educational activities of autistic children with preliminary diagnosis of mental development disorders of autistic children and selection of adequate correctional and preventive methods for successful mastering of writing by them. conclusion to successfully master writing, autistic children need personalityoriented learning, based on an individual approach to each child with special educational needs, inclusive partnership, high competence of specialists, involvement of autistic children in secondary schools and creating a comfortable developmental (sensory saturated) educational environment for such children through emotional contact and inclusion in psychomotor action. the primary task of the inclusion process is to provide special children with psychological and pedagogical support, preparing them for a successful transition to adulthood with confident mastery of social skills necessary for socialization – reading, writing, speaking, optimal social interaction with the environment. the neuropsychological bases of correctional and preventive preparation of children with autism for writing are: study of symptoms of basic disorders of the brain blocks and structural functional organization of the brain, taking into account scientific views on its functional blocks – regulation of brain activity (the energy block); the block for receiving, processing and storing information; the block for programming, regulation and control of educational activity and optimal selection of correctional and preventive methods of teaching writing according to neuropsychological examination of a child with autism. corrective and preventive methods of teaching children with autism in writing should be selected at the research-creative and analyticalneuropsychological bases of correctional and preventive preparation of ... zoriana leniv, et al. 48 evaluation levels, taking into account personal needs and the current state of psychophysical development of the child and prevention of secondary disorders. educational and correctional activities of defectologists, oligophrenic educators, social educators, speech therapists and neuropsychologists should be integrated, professionally diverse, humane. personal empathy, positive-tolerant attitude to students and positive emotional tone of the teacher can increase effectiveness of professionally selected correctional and preventive teaching methods for special children. references bachevalier, j. (1994). medial temporal lobe structures and autism: a review of clinical and experimental findings. neuropsychologia, 32(6), 627–648. https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(94)90025-6 baron-cohen, s., leslie, a. m., & frith, u. (1985). does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”? cognition, 21(1), 37–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/00100277(85)90022-8 dawson, g. (1996). neuropsychology of autism: a report on the state of the science. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 26, 179–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02172008 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 happe, f., & frith, u. (1996). the neuropsychology of autism. brain, 119(4), 13771400. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/119.4.1377 hughes, c., russell, j., & robbins, t. w. (1994). evidence for executive dysfunction in autism. neuropsychologia, 32, 477–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(94)90092-2 joseph, r. m. (1999). neuropsychological frameworks for understanding autism. international review of psychiatry, 11(4), 309–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540269974195 luria, a. r. (1966). higher cortical functions in man. springer. luria, a. r. (2003). osnovyi neyropsihologii: uchebnoe posobie dlya studentov vyisshih uchebnyih zavedeniy [fundamentals of neuropsychology: textbook for students of higher educational institutions]. akademiya publishing center. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(94)90025-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02172008 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/119.4.1377 https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(94)90092-2 https://doi.org/10.1080/09540269974195 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 49 organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 minshew, n. j., goldstein, g., & siegel d. j. (1997). neuropsychologic functioning in autism: profile of a complex information processing disorder. journal of the international neuropsychological society, 3(4), 303–316. https://europepmc.org/article/med/9260440 ostrovska, k. o. (2012). zasady kompleksnoji psykhologho-pedaghoghichnoji dopomoghy ditjam z autyzmom: monoghrafija [principles of comprehensive psychological and pedagogical assistance to children with autism: monograph]. triada pljus. semago, n. ya., & semago, m. m. (2000). problemnyie deti: osnovyi diagnosticheskoy i korrektsionnoy rabotyi psihologa [problem children: fundamentals of the diagnostic and corrective work of a psychologist]. arkti. semenovich, a. v., & vorobeva, e. a. (1998). kompleksnaya metodika psihomotornoy korrektsii [complex technique of psychomotor correction]. moscow. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 shevtsov, a. h., & ilina, o. v. (2015). neiropsykholohichnyi pidkhid u korektsii rozvytku ditei z psykhofizychnymy porushenniamy [neuropsychological approach in the correction of the development of children with psychophysical disorders]. kyiv. shevtsova, ya. v., & poleshchuk, s. v. (2016). porivnialnyi analiz stanu psykhomotoryky i pertseptyvno-kohnityvnykh funktsii uchniv z vadamy intelektu [comparative analysis of psychomotor status and perceptualcognitive functions of students with intellectual disabilities]. aktualni pytannia korektsiinoi osvity [current issues of correctional education], 7(2), 425-437. http://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/111/108.pdf/ sirotyuk, a. l. (2003). neyropsihologicheskoe i psihofiziologicheskoe soprovozhdenie obucheniya [neuropsychological and psychophysiological support of training]. sfera. skrypnyk, t. v. (2010). fenomenolohiia autyzmu: monohrafiia [phenomenology of autism: monograph]. phoenix publishing house. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://europepmc.org/article/med/9260440 http://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/111/108.pdf/ neuropsychological bases of correctional and preventive preparation of ... zoriana leniv, et al. 50 tarasun, v. v. (2012). psykholoho-pedahohichna dopomoha ditiam pereddoshkilnoho viku z osoblyvostiamy v rozvytku: napriamy realizatsii [psychological and pedagogical assistance to preschool children with developmental disabilities: areas of implementation]. publishing house of national pedagogical dragomanov university. tarasun, v. v. (2017). osnovy teorii i praktyky lohodydaktyky: pidruchnyk dlia vyshchykh navchalnykh zakladiv [fundamentals of the theory and practice of logodidactics: a textbook for higher education]. caravela. timmons, v., breitenbach, m., & macisaac, m. (2006). educating children about autism in an inclusive classroom. http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/ed_autisminc.pdf turner, m. (1997). towards an executive dysfunction account of repetitive behavior in autism. in j. russell (ed.), autism as an executive disorder, (pp. 57100). oxford university press. vizel, t. g. (2005). narusheniya chteniya i pisma u detey doshkolnogo i mladshego shkolnogo vozrasta: uchebno-metodicheskoe posobie [reading and writing disorders in children of preschool and primary school age: teaching aid]. astrel, tranzitkniga. http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/ed_autisminc.pdf ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 280-291 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/388 submitted: october 6th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 14th, 2022 formation of mastering morphology mechanisms and word formation in children: neuroscientific research kateryna kruty 1 , liudmyla koval 2 , olena vazhenina 3 , iryna desnova 4 , anatoly zahnitko 5 , oksana popovska 6 1 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, katerina.krutiy@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5001-2331 2 vasyl' stus donetsk national university, ukraine, lmkoval1978@gmail.com, https://orchid.org/0000-0002-4014-1858 3 vasyl' stus donetsk national university, ukraine, olena.vazhenina@gmail.com, https://orchid.org/0000-0003-0600-1242 4 mariupol state university, ukraine, irina.desnova0701@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5130-079x 5 vasyl' stus donetsk national university, ukraine, a.zagnitko@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7398-6091 6 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, shikiroksana@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4424-4627 abstract: the article presents an analysis of the problem of mastering morphology and word formation in children in neuroscience, biology and linguistics, identifies motivational mechanisms that contribute to learning experience, namely: joyful, meaningful, active, motivational and social in mastering morphology and word formation in children. from a neuroscientific point of view, these features can contribute to the acquisition of skills and contribute to the mastery of morphology and word formation in children. models that describe the work of children's brains in mastering the morphological and lexical skills in them, expand the understanding of the probable mechanisms inherent in the human brain. in addition, studies of the cerebral cortex show that the brain of children is more vulnerable and sensitive to environmental influences, to the acquisition of knowledge than the brain of adults. with this in mind, the available scientific literature on the topic has been studied and (in most cases) the question of how each function can influence children's learning to master the basics of morphology and word formation has been studied. the importance of studying the research topic is due to the difficulties that arise in children when mastering morphology and word formation at different ages. keywords: motivational mechanisms; brain work; neuropsychology; interdisciplinary approach; integration of knowledge. how to cite: kruty, k., koval, l., vazhenina, o., desnova, i., zahnitko, a., & popovska, o. (2022). formation of mastering morphology mechanisms and word formation in children: neuroscientific research. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 280-291. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/388 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/388 mailto:katerina.krutiy@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5001-2331 mailto:lmkoval1978@gmail.com https://orchid.org/0000-0002-4014-1858 mailto:olena.vazhenina@gmail.com https://orchid.org/0000-0003-0600-1242 mailto:irina.desnova0701@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5130-079x mailto:a.zagnitko@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7398-6091 mailto:shikiroksana@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4424-4627 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/388 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 281 introduction nowadays, there is a need to interconnect knowledge about the peculiarities of teaching morphological and lexical bases in children with neurological, neurophysiological, neuroanatomical, neurochemical, neuropsychological, neuropsycholinguistic sciences. the multidisciplinary experience gained in each of these sciences has long gone beyond interdisciplinarity in practice, due to the interaction of traditional methods of language learning with modern technologies of neurological correction, a systematic approach to organizing and providing neurological care features in mastering morphological and word-forming skills in children. today it is important to recognize that the problems of brain stimulation of certain anatomical structures of the brain in children need regulation (or) mental development. during this time, multidisciplinary research is being actively developed in ukraine (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). the need to study this perspective of the research topic is due to the difficulties that arise in children in mastering morphology and word formation at different ages. neuroscientific research on methods and techniques that contribute to the acquisition of knowledge of morphology and word formation in children are presented in the works of domestic and international scientists thematically: ontogenesis and neurontogenesis of language development – (walsh, 1992); neurocognitive ontogenesis of development in the works of a. paliy (2010); neurogenetic diagnostics – (ainscow et al., 2006); neuropsycholinguistic diagnostics and correction – (lalaeva & serebryakova, 2004); neuroorthopedic diagnosis and correction of children with the consequences of cerebral palsy – (konoplyasta & sak, 2010). scientific works, explaining the problem of ontogenesis and neurontogenesis of language development, give an analysis of neurocognitive ontogenesis of development, acquaint with neurogenetic and neuropsycholinguistic, neuroorthopedic diagnostics and correction, help to choose the perspective of learning to master knowledge of child morphology and word. formation of mastering morphology mechanisms and word formation in ... kateryna kruty et al. 282 reaction to newly formed stimulus in the brain during mastering morphology and word formation in children: neuroscientific research with the advent of modern methods of neuroscientific processes of the brain, the range of scientific interests of domestic and foreign scientists has expanded significantly. advances in neuroscience have made it possible to analyze the mechanisms of mastering morphology and word formation in children. due to the integration of the achievements of neuroscience, medicine, speech therapy theory and practice of correction of severe and complex speech disorders, technologies of neurostimulation of speech zones are actively used to master morphology and word formation in children. the word is related to the ability of neurons to receive, process and respond to various signals received by the senses or otherwise, both at the basic and more complex stages. such diverse manifestations often serve as useful factors (if not the basis) for the proper development of mastery of morphology and word formation in children (cook & friend, 1996). the acquisition of morphology and word formation in children begins through direct interaction with educators, teachers or parents, as the child receives visual, auditory, linguistic and social and emotional information at an early stage to obtain information and knowledge about morphology and word formation (zalevskaya, 1998). it promotes language development, cognitive control and emotion regulation as we grow older (fahey & forman, 2012). the joy of forming new vocabulary, introducing it into your vocabulary, learning new vocabulary of different parts of speech, the ability to use them in the right context is associated with the presence of elevated levels of dopamine in the child's brain, which promotes better memory, attention, cognitive flexibility, creativity (paliy, 2010; wilson, 2012). establishing connections between known lexical elements and unfamiliar words is a stimulus that stimulates the brain in learning, which requires considerable effort. with considerable experience, new stimuli emerge that consist in the absorption of learning words or word forms that are related to existing mental structures. the reaction to such newly formed stimuli in the brain is associated with analogous thinking about the formation of new forms of word formation or the use of words of a particular language in a particular context, memorization, understanding of personal mental functions (metacognition), motivation, reward system (lodatko, 2011). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 283 involvement of all processes, improves the processes of memorization, forms a lexical vocabulary in children. through the active participation of various morphological word formations in the brain, connections are involved that are responsible for control skills, such as neutralizing distractions that promote short-term and long-term learning, a reward system and neural networks responsible for memory that promotes learning (gardner, 2006). in combination with exercise, motivational activity usually uses neural networks for similar actions and decisions, flexibility of thinking and creativity (leontiev, 1996). established positive contact between the educator and the child helps to form neural connections for the development of healthy social and emotional control and protection from any obstacles to learning, from stress. social positive interaction in childhood contributes to the plasticity of processes in the brain, which later helps to cope with life's problems. such interactions activate the connections in the brain related to determining the psychological state of other people, which can be a very important factor in the interaction in the process of acquiring knowledge (figueroa-sanchez, 2008). here are five signs of learning when children learn word-formation states and the basics of morphology meaningful, social, active, motivating and joyful, which contribute to a variety of information consumption and thus stimulate neural networks responsible for learning so that children begin to master lexical-grammatical, word-formation and morphological level. learning the basics of word formation is done by expanding the child's vocabulary. acquiring word formation skills is a long process, it occurs mostly during school, but in this process a special place is occupied by the initial phase of learning (hemsley-brown & sharp, 2004). v. lubovsky (2013) noted that mastering word formation is preceded by mastering the logical structures and operations of the child. therefore, the teaching of children's language, which explores the processes of word formation, at the initial stage should be based on the practical mastery of this material. e. zhinkin (1969) proposes to use neural networks responsible for learning in the following perspective: comparison of words and their word forms, selection of sound complexes (morphemes) that have this meaning, their systematization and generalization, formation on this basis by analogy of words and word forms. formation of mastering morphology mechanisms and word formation in ... kateryna kruty et al. 284 in the current state of development of the science of word formation, it is considered as a special activity of linguistic thinking, which has a number of basic operations: the operation of selection and recognition of morphemes when listening to the sound of words and operation integration of a new (derived) word. assimilation of the morphological system of word formation involves mastering a number of actions and operations of the child with language signs (in this case with morphemes), the means used for them; it is the main means of enriching the vocabulary of the native language, ie the creation of new words. the subject of word formation is the formation of new words based on morphemes, design principles, word formation models (dail, 2011). the level of word formation lies between the morphological and lexical-semantic basic level. the essence of the relationship between the levels is that the basic unit of the morphological level the morpheme is used to generate units of the lexical-semantic level words (tokens). a morpheme is a minimally significant indivisible part that is characterized by its structure by comparing a word with other words with the same morphemes (greenspoon & seliverstov, 1988). one of the characteristics of a morpheme is its recurrence (affix morphemes); the root can also be solitary. root morphemes are the lexical core of the word, function as an organizing structural-semantic center, around which are strictly located affixes of the word with additional meanings (prefix and suffix new lexical and emotional shades, the ending serves to combine words into one sentence and has grammatical meaning). the process of word formation in children, aimed at repetition and memorization, use of words unproductive; the child must know its mechanism and learn to use it. the essence of the model of this education is a materialized demonstration of the word-forming system of language as the most general rules of construction and use of creative units for children. children pay attention to how words are formed with the help of suffixes or prefixes, as well as develop word formation skills (mystkowska, 1972). methods of teaching word formation to preschool children were used by such scientists and practitioners as b. greenspoon, and v. seliverstov (1988) with the help of the same morphemes in different words to denote similar phenomena. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 285 mechanisms of mastering morphology and word formation in children there are such mechanisms for learning word formation in children (lubovsky, 2013) formation of skills of practical use of words with different morphemes. formation of the ability to determine common word-forming affixes in words with different lexical meanings. formation of skills of practical use of words with different morphemes. when forming the grammatical system of word formation it is necessary to take into account the following algorithm (irvine et al., 2010): 1) formation of words with a certain meaning with the help of diminutive suffixes or with the same word-forming affixes (depending on the meaning and sound of -ichk (a)); 2) the choice of a common morpheme; 3) determining the meaning of the affix; 4) analysis of sound compositions’ morphemes (for older children); 5) independent word formation with this affix. the method of comparison is widespread in word formation. the comparison is made on two levels: comparison of several words with the same word-forming affix: it turns out that these words have a common meaning and sound (ball, nose, dog, bow, etc.). comparison of related words (motivational and derivative): determines how similar and different these words are (forest forest forester forester). when choosing the lexical material for working out the grammatical system of word formation, the structural complexity of words and phrases is taken into account, ie the ability of children to pronounce sounds and reproduce words (kovshikov, 2007). the class system for children to learn the grammatical system of word formation should be a cycle (series) of exercises with gradual practice and gradual complication of the child's actions with the same language material, and then repeat this cycle at the end. word formation as an independent discipline has gone through several stages of formation. it was first considered and incorporated into morphology as a series of morpheme combinations, then this theory was formation of mastering morphology mechanisms and word formation in ... kateryna kruty et al. 286 replaced by a structural-semantic approach that focused on derived word formation, defining a "derived base", focusing on creating the structure and semantics of each word (ainscow et al., 2006 ). at the present stage of linguistics in the study of word formation with children, three directions are proposed (lalaeva & serebryakova, 2004): 1. syntactically (transformational). this approach was initiated by chomsky. according to this theory, the semantics and structure of derivatives in linguistics are considered as the result of different syntactic constructions, and the concept of word formation rules is associated with the reproduction of the transition chain, which leads to the transformation of the original syntactic constructions and is based accordingly. 2. onomasiological theory is based on the principle of nomination, that is the word-forming meaning is included in the nominative act as part of the mental content prepared for definition. it is not the formal expression of the word-forming component (prefix, suffix) that comes to the fore, but its nominative meaning, the ability to become the initial meaning of the word (you know you know and you motivates the names of parts) also in the linguistic form of functional semantics (formal-semantic). achievements of the two previous approaches. this approach to word formation is traditional. the term "word formation" is usually interpreted in two ways (forlin et al., 2010): section of linguistics that studies the creation, motivational new words on the basis of existing in the dictionary derived words; is the study of the structure of derived words, means and methods of their formation. is the process (or result) of forming new words on the basis of onesyllable words or phrases according to certain patterns that exist in the language. according to the methods used to obtain the derived value (goodman, 1992). it is an innovative process that sharply distinguishes word formation from the concept of "word modification", which is based on the creation of grammatical forms. in word formation, the relations between words are formal-semantic (both changes in "form" and changes in the individual meaning of vocabulary are easily recognizable). this distinguishes word formation from vocabulary, where the connection between words is primarily semantic (physical forms of words usually do not attract the speaker's attention) and from morphology, where formal connections broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 287 predominate (the semantics of grammatical categories are usually not controlled). mastering the system of morphological word formation begins at the age of two. and by the age of four children (except for atypical cases) fully master the morphological system of the native language. so in the language of a child with normal ontogenesis at 1 year 9 months 2 years, the first derived words appear (mostly with the suffixes of diminutiveness and tenderness together with the first forms of numbers in nouns in the nominative and accusative) (kirk & gallagher, 1989). if before this period the vocabulary arose only due to the child's assimilation of collective words, which are perceived from the language of adults, then his own word formation is especially common after two years. at the age of 2 years 6 months – 3years 5 months 4 years derived words that are not in the language norms (children's neologisms), ie "language units or modified units of adult language", created by children begin to appear intensively. ) this is explained not only by the child's cognitive activity, but also by his focus on significant morphological elements of language and how he works on pointing to new phenomena in the surrounding reality. mastering the morphological nature of word formation leads to an increase in the vocabulary of children from 2 to 5 years, also due to the appearance of words formed by the child, as mentioned above. thus, according to a. zalevska (1998), in the structure of all children's neologisms there is a characteristic form in which the original, which cannot be found in ordinary language, is a combination of morpheme elements. when forming a new word, the child takes into account only the basic meaning of its root and affix part, but not more subtle patterns of phonological or semantic compatibility of word-forming morphemes. gradually, the child begins to notice that his neologisms do not meet the norms of the native language, which the child constantly hears in the language of the adults around him. therefore, later these neologisms are replaced in the child's language by words that correspond to the standardized vocabulary of the language. as a result, up to four years, the system of morphological word formation is almost completely mastered, except for rare and atypical forms (neumann & neumann, 2012). this significant experience of developing mechanisms for mastering morphology and word formation in children can be useful through the inclusion of neural networks, we understand why we learn. it is believed that the study of new material includes the following two types of neural formation of mastering morphology mechanisms and word formation in ... kateryna kruty et al. 288 structures of the brain: the system of rapid learning and the system of further learning (lubovsky, 2013). the first type of neural network in the formation of mechanisms for mastering morphology and word formation in children allows you to quickly and purposefully acquire knowledge, contradictions or potential threats. the second network, in developing mechanisms for mastering morphology and word formation in children, helps to incorporate new information into existing mental models to establish a link between unknown and already known information based on higher cognitive processes. the best functional relationships between the two networks help to link external stimuli to existing cognitive models that find learning useful, and knowledge gained in one area can be transferred to new, real-world settings. there are many scientific studies that support the neural connection of various aspects of learning that relate to the five identified characteristics of learning through play. this allows us to better explain how the gaming experience can contribute to the learning process. we found that the mechanisms described in the relevant literature show a generally positive cycle. in other words, each symptom is related to neural networks that are associated with certain processes in the brain, including the reward system, memory, cognitive flexibility, and stress control activated during learning. activation of such neural connections, in turn, helps to prepare the child's brain for further development (kirk, & gallagher, 1989). conclusions thus, a sense of joy helps children determine the importance of what they do or learn, while actively engaging, motivating, and social components can teach children the basics of lifelong learning. so far, our understanding of the neural aspects that contribute to learning has been confirmed. the joy of forming new words, learning new vocabulary of different parts of speech, the ability to use them in the right context is associated with increased levels of dopamine in the brain, which is responsible for better memory, attention, cognitive flexibility, creativity. establishing connections between known lexical elements and unfamiliar words is a stimulus that stimulates the brain in learning, which requires considerable effort. the process of word formation in children, aimed at repetition and memorization, use of words unproductive; the child must know its mechanism and learn to use it. the essence of the model of this broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 289 education is a materialized demonstration of the language word-forming system as the most general rules of construction and use of creative units for children. children pay attention to how words are formed with suffixes or prefixes, as well as develop word formation skills. the classification system for children to learn the grammatical system of word formation should be a cycle (series) of exercises with gradual practice and gradual complication of the child's actions with the same language material, and then repeat this cycle at the end. this determines the environment and conditions for students that promote learning and for whom such conditions are most effective. such a more detailed understanding can help us plan neuroscience, thereby further explaining the relevant neural mechanisms that can facilitate learning the basics of word formation and morphology. the links between play and learning, as well as the links between different characteristics of play, learning, also open up opportunities for further research. for example, we may find that joy is associated with a reward system that encourages creative and flexible thinking; on the other hand, it is quite possible that it is the ability to show creative and flexible thinking that inspires joy in learning. references ainscow, m., booth, t., & dyson, a. (2006). inclusion and the standards agenda: negotiating policy pressures in england. international journal of inclusive education, 10(4), 295–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110500430633 cook, l., & friend, m. (1995). co-teaching: guidelines for creating effective practices. focus on exceptional children 28(3). https://doi.org/10.17161/fec.v28i3.6852 dail, a. r., & mcgee, l. m. (2011). expanding preschoolers’ vocabulary: the role of professional development. childhood education, 87(3), 161–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2011.10521716 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191–213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 fahey, j. c., & forman, j. (2012). the journey toward literacy begins in infancy: the reach out and read innovation. childhood education, 88(4), 217–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2012.699847 https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110500430633 https://doi.org/10.17161/fec.v28i3.6852 https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2011.10521716 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2012.699847 formation of mastering morphology mechanisms and word formation in ... kateryna kruty et al. 290 figueroa-sánchez, m. (2008). building emotional literacy: groundwork to early learning. childhood education, 84(5), 301–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2008.10523030 forlin, c., slee, r., rouse, m., garner, p., rose, r., & ashman, a. (2010). education for inclusion: changing paradigms. workshop presented to: inclusive and supportive education congress (isec): promoting diversity and inclusive practice. queen’s university. gardner, h. (2006). multiple intelligences: new horizons in theory and practice. basicbooks. goodman, j. (1992). when slow is fast enough: educating the delayed preschool chid (p. 306). the guilford press. greenspoon, b., & seliverstov, v. (1988). development of communication skills in preschool children in the process of speech therapy work on coherent language. defectology, 3(1), 81–84. hemsley-brown, j., & sharp, c. (2004). the use of research to improve professional practice: a systematic review of the literature. oxford review of education, 29(4), 449–470. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305498032000153025 irvine, a., lupart, j., loreman, t., & mcghie-richmond, d. (2010). educational leadership to create authentic inclusive schools: the experiences of principals in a canadian rural school district. exceptionality education international, 20(2), 70-88. https://doi.org/10.5206/eei.v20i2.7664 kirk, s. a., & gallagher, j. j. (1989). educating exceptional children. houghton mifflin company. konoplyasta, s., & sak, t. (2010). logopsychology. znannia. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171–190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kovshikov, v. (2007). psycholinguistics. theory of language activity. moscow ast astrel. lalaeva, r., & serebryakova, n. (2004). formation of correct spoken language in preschool children. fenix. leontiev, a. (1990). psycholinguistic analysis of semantics and grammar: on the material of linguistic ontogenesis. nauka. lodatko, e. (2011). educational models, educational models and educational processes: is it so?. vyshtanska shrine of ukraine. lubovsky, v. (2013). development of regulation of verbal actions in children (with normal and developmental disorders). buki vedy, 9(30), 1-14. https://oaji.net/articles/2016/797-1479503420.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2008.10523030 https://doi.org/10.1080/0305498032000153025 https://doi.org/10.5206/eei.v20i2.7664 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://oaji.net/articles/2016/797-1479503420.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 291 mystkowska, h. (1972). rozwijamy mowe lenie dziecka w wieku przedszkolnym. panstwowe zaklady wydawnictw szkolnych. neumann, m. m., & neumann, d. l. (2012). the role of idiomorphs in emergent literacy. childhood education, 88(1), 23–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2012.643712 paliy, a. (2010). child psychodiagnostics. academvydavnytstvo. prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 walsh, j. m. (1992). student, teacher, and parent preference for less restrictive special education models--cooperative teaching. case in point, 6(2), 1–12. wilson, l. (2012). learning to read and the preschool years. childhood education, 88(4), 270–271. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2012.699866 zalevskaya, a. (1998). psycholinguistics: ways, results, prospects. language issues, 6, 81–94. https://biblioclub.ru/index.php?page=author_red&id=53437 zhinkin, n. (1969). intelligence, language and speech. speech disorders in preschool children. labyrinth. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2012.643712 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2012.699866 https://biblioclub.ru/index.php?page=author_red&id=53437 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 206-223 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders iryna sarancha¹, borys maksymchuk2, galyna gordiichuk3, tetiana berbets4, vitalii berbets5, liudmyla chepurna6, volodymyr golub7, liudmyla chernichenko8, liudmyla behas9, svitlana roienko10, natalia bezliudna11, olha rasskazova12, iryna maksymchuk12 1 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, isarancha@gmail.com 2 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, 0674256781@ukr.net 3 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, galina.gordiuchyk@gmail.com 4 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, berbec08@ukr.net 5 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, berbec1977@ukr.net 6 мykhailo drahomanov national pedagogical university, ukraine, chepurnal@gmail.com 7 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, golub-vol-nad@ukr.net 8 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, lydachernichenko@meta.ua 9 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, begasld@ukr.net 10 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, svet.roenko@gmail.com 11 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, bezludniy_oi@ukr.net abstract: the article proves that the socialization of adults and children with musculoskeletal disorders (msds) is closely related to development, education, rehabilitation and includes the following neuropsychological aspects: social adaptation, labour adaptation, assessment of prospects for one’s adult life and creation of a nondiscriminatory environment in society. besides, the article shows how the photography club implements such goals, as well as evaluates the effectiveness of its activities. the educational aim of the photography club was to familiarize persons with msds with the basic types of working with digital photography and basic computer programmes that enable processing of digital information; to develop their knowledge about the photography and design business, computer skills and independent work skills. the experimental group (eg) consists of 40 leavers (18 males and 22 females) from the vinnytsia centre for social rehabilitation of children with special needs “promin”, who were diagnosed with cerebral palsy and six leavers with mild mental disorders. the age requirement for eg is 14-19 years old. the control group (cg) consists of 40 persons diagnosed with cp and seven persons with mild mental disorders (23 males and 17 females). the respondents managed to study different types of shooting: portraits, landscapes, group and individual photography. the photography club used different methods: verbal methods (mini-lectures, stories, explanations, conversations); practical methods (computer exercises, independent work, role-playing games), as well as paid considerable attention to the psychological correction of persons with msds. unfortunately, most options of the respondents for employment are rather passive. therefore, it is necessary to prepare persons with msds for competition in the labour market through psychological training and counselling. it is also crucial to promptly inform them about the dynamics of the labour market. the international relevance of the article lies in an attempt to adjust available electronic and software technologies to labour adaptation of people with msds and consider neurophysiological patterns of such a process. keywords: photoshoot, social adaptability, socialization, cerebral palsy, computer literacy, feelings, developmental impact. how to cite: sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 mailto:isarancha@gmail.com mailto:0674256781@ukr.net mailto:galina.gordiuchyk@gmail.com mailto:berbec08@ukr.net mailto:berbec1977@ukr.net mailto:chepurnal@gmail.com mailto:golub-vol-nad@ukr.net mailto:lydachernichenko@meta.ua mailto:begasld@ukr.net mailto:svet.roenko@gmail.com mailto:bezludniy_oi@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 12 municipal institution "kharkiv humanitarian and pedagogical academy" of the kharkiv regional council, ukraine, olgarasskazov69@gmail.com 13 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, 0963113686@ukr.net mailto:olgarasskazov69@gmail.com mailto:0963113686@ukr.net neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal … iryna sarancha, et al. 207 introduction in ukraine, an annual increase in chronic diseases among young people and adults results in repeated cases of disability. now, childhood disability can be characterized by the following aspects: congenital abnormalities – 23.7%; diseases of the nervous system – 19.7%; mental and behavioural disorders – 16%. in ukraine, cerebral palsy (cp) is becoming a more and more acute problem, given 2.4-2.5 cases among 1000 children (burmenskaya et al., 1990). the establishment of a democratic society presupposes public support for children and young people with special needs, who should study in traditional educational institutions, actively communicate with their peers, live in a family and have a full social life. visible defects should not cause a negative attitude or specific “immunity” on the part of society. everyone has certain limitations, although it may be difficult for some people to hide them (romanchuk, 2008). the standard rules for the equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities, approved by the united nations in 1994, is an incorporating document covering all aspects of the life of persons with special needs. their ideology is based on equal opportunities implying that persons with special needs are members of society and entitled to remain in their communities. they should receive the support they need under the traditional systems of healthcare, education, employment and social services. there are twenty such rules (kholostova & dementieva, 2006). the socialization of adults and children with msds is closely related to development, education, rehabilitation and includes the following components: social adaptation, labour adaptation, assessment of prospects for one’s adult life and creation of a non-discriminatory environment in society (bakhmat et al., 2019; behas et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; halaidiuk et al., 2018; koziuk et al., 2020; kozlovsky et al., 2018; maksymchuk et al., 2018; melnyk et al., 2019; sitovskyi et al., 2019; sheremet et al., 2019). akatov (2003) defines social adaptation as a constant, active adaptation of the individual to the conditions of the social environment, as well as the result of this process. social adaptation is rather continuous and usually associated with dramatic changes in the life and activities of the individual and his or her environment. the acceptance of the individual’s social role is at the heart of social adaptation. the child’s psychological adaptation to his or her problems and needs related to disability is of three types: high, average and low. socially brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 208 psychological adaptation of children with msds implies active adaptation to a changing environment (koval et al., 1997). besides, the child’s adaptation is part of his or her socialization. on the one hand, it is a particular integration, during which the individual with certain natural inclinations acquires the qualities he or she needs for life in society. on the other hand, it means personality development under the impact of learning, education and acceptance of culture, norms, values, and social roles which are essential to this society and specific social communities. in this regard, the article aims to organize and incorporate the photography club in educational and rehabilitation processes to ensure labour adaptation of people with msds via neurophysiological mechanisms of creativity, cognition, subjective self-realization, and reflection. the instructional aim of the photography club was to familiarize persons with msds with the basic types of working with digital photography and basic computer programmes that enable processing of digital information; to develop their knowledge about the photography and design business, computer skills and independent work skills. the correctional and developmental aim of the photography club was to develop creative skills, fine motor skills, logical and analytical thinking, independent work skills, self-control, communication, and teamwork skills in persons with msds, as well as organize their psychological correction. the educational aim of the photography club was to foster a friendly attitude of persons with msds towards themselves through the products of their activities, cultivating respect for the work of others and developing their aesthetic taste. neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with msds children and adults with msds need to be included in the system of rehabilitation to restore their social relations and realize themselves as individuals. recently, a system of institutions has been established in ukraine to ensure the rehabilitation of those who need it, that is, to return the patient to a healthy life and work within the limits of psychophysical and neurophysiological capabilities. this article considers adaptation as a comprehensive, multi-stage system of medical, neurophysiological, socially psychological and pedagogical actions aimed at eliminating or mitigating the developmental limitations of children with msds, integrating them into the social environment and involving them in public life and work (bondar & synov, 2011). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal … iryna sarancha, et al. 209 shevtsov (2004) believes that the rehabilitation of persons with special needs is a specially organized, open, personality-oriented, systemic and synergistic process of medical, social, psychological, pedagogical, physical, professional, labour, technical, legal, economic, cultural, creative and informative actions aimed at eliminating limits in their life activity, restoring their physical, mental and social health, ensuring their socialization, social adaptation and integration, optimizing the level of their activity, including educational and labour activities, and enhancing the quality of human life and developing their independent style. thus, the characteristics of the emotional sphere in the development of children with cp, which will influence the further development of their personality, are an unstable emotional state, mood swings, anxiety, fears, an adverse reaction to one’s physical condition, shyness, insecurity, aggression towards peers, parent dependency, affective fixation and conflicts with their parents (illiashenko et al., 2003). according to kapska (2006), the integration into society is a process of restoring a person’s lost connections with society, which ensures his or her inclusion in the primary spheres of life (work, leisure). shipitsyna & mamaychuk (2004) indicate that the integration of children with special needs into society is a deliberate process of transferring social experience to society, taking into account their characteristics and needs if they actively participate in it, and ensuring relevant conditions for it. as a result, such children integrate into all social systems, structures, societies and relationships that exist for healthy children and start to actively participate in the primary areas of life and activities of the society following age and gender, preparing themselves for self-realization. the process of developing life competence is an essential element of socialization of children with msds. such competence cannot be abstracted from their real health and living conditions. according to tytarenko (1998), it necessitates the consideration of the basic situations in the lives of such children, which can be emotionally complicated, problematic, critical, crisisrelated, existential and terminal by content and nature. yashchuk (2001) assumes that life competence encompasses the knowledge, skills and life experience necessary to solve life’s tasks and realize oneself. theoretical studies on labour and physical adaptation indicate that its success lies in constant control of action selection, planning and execution, as well as in one’s ability to adapt behaviour. ullsperger et al. (2014) study such parameters of labour adaptation as “the neurophysiology of evaluating action course and outcome with respect to their valence, i.e., reward and punishment, and initiating shortand long-term adaptations, learning, and brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 210 decisions”. they claim that such studies help one determine physiological principles of performance monitoring and adaptation and, consequently, connect them with neuroanatomy, and neurochemistry (ullsperger et al., 2014). in turn, the use of the above-mentioned techniques shows that the basal ganglia, frontal cortex, thalamus, and monoaminergic nuclei of the brainstem are sensitive to labour stimuli and results, selection of action and behaviour. this makes labour adaptation rather a long-term but quite effective type of neurotherapy. at the same time, labour adaptation is not only planning, execution, and selection of actions. primarily, it is the ability to be flexible in changing conditions, which may cause problems in the case of neural rigidity. therefore, rehabilitation specialists should constantly monitor changes and levels of adaptability, while feedback should reflect deviations from the expected conditions. the use of neurophysiological methods to diagnose stress-related behavioural disorders seems important for labour adaptation and therapy of patients with cns diseases. this applies, first of all, to the stage of life when the place of residence or stay changes. however, cognitive control is also necessary for labour adaptation. karpova et al. (2020) define the concept of “behavioural cognitive control” as such, “which includes the ability to voluntarily activate or suppress actions aimed at achieving life goals in changing conditions”. both development and application of cognitive control can help one avoid destructive factors of occupational therapy and adaptation, such as nervous fatigue, inconsistency of work performed with existing neurocognitive capabilities, stress. it is also essential to consider neurophysiological factors in labour adaptation. in the late 20 th century, the canadian occupational performance measure (copm) was used as a client-centred outcome measure on a neurological rehabilitation unit (bodiam, 1999). clients with various neurological disorders chose activities they considered important to improve (hobbies, occupational therapy). the ratings of performance and satisfaction turned out to be the most sensitive parameter. as noted by bodiam (1999), “the increase in ratings between initial and final assessments was higher for satisfaction than for performance in clients with only physical problems, compared with clients with both physical and cognitive problems”. hypothetically, such differences are due to difficulties in self-assessment of performance or lack of awareness of cognitive deficits by the last group of clients (bodiam, 1999). however, the author’s programmes of labour adaptation tend to show moderate efficiency in the context of rehabilitation. neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal … iryna sarancha, et al. 211 even though occupational therapists use a wide range of tools to study the impact of occupational therapy on the adaptation and rehabilitation of patients with neurological disorders, it is still difficult to formulate definitive conclusions due to the length of such therapy (adaptation) over time. this contradicts the educational requirements and programmes, usually limited to a semester or school year. besides, many methods of labour adaptation are important to rehabilitation specialists and social educators but ignored by clinicians focused on more sustainable and rapid effects. according to doucet (2012), it is vital to teach clinicians to use neurological rehabilitation methods, capture the data more accurately and incorporate them in practical strategies of occupational therapy. phipps & richardson (2007) conducted a study among 155 ethnically diverse clients with traumatic brain injury and stroke to achieve their desired goals and the relatively complete (in their subjective opinion) outcome of occupational therapy. they found that “a statistically and clinically significant change in self-perceived performance and satisfaction with tasks of daily life occurred at the end of a client-centered occupational therapy program (p < .001)” (phipps & richardson, 2007). also, the researchers claim that “there were no significant differences in performance and satisfaction between the tbi and cva groups, even though the group with right cva reported a higher level of satisfaction with performance in daily activities than the group with left cva (p = .03) (phipps & richardson, 2007). thus, one can conclude that labour adaptation programmes should be focused on both the professional competence and nosological status of the client. however, measuring the results of occupational therapy helps one determine significant goals of professional activities and build an individual occupational trajectory. one should study the effects of occupational therapy, adaptation, and rehabilitation after acute neurological diseases based on clients’ professional activities. as noted by skubik-peplaski et al. (2012), there are noticeable changes in neuroplasticity and growth of behavioural motor functions after 15-20 sessions of occupational therapy. besides, the scholars state that corticomotor reorganization of the cns was observed in all cases studied, even though the best results were obtained in conditions similar to a familiar home environment (skubik-peplaski, et al., 2012). in addition, there was an increase in certain professional indicators, as well as the expansion of functional (partially lost) capabilities. these data support the expediency of using labour adaptation and rehabilitation both in rehabilitation centres and in other controlled conditions. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 212 it is also important to distinguish between occupational adaptation and occupational therapy. according to napoleone et al. (2019), occupational therapy is defined as “the therapeutic use of everyday life activities (occupations) with individuals or groups for the purpose of enhancing or enabling participation in roles, habits, and routines in home, school, workplace, community, and other settings”. it aims to ensure maximum autonomy of performance and vital functions of patients with cns disorders, including rest, education, entertainment. the difference is that occupational therapists use remedial and compensatory approaches to reduce the existing deficit (napoleone et al., 2019). thus, there are many empirical and neuroscientific data on the labour adaptation of people with cns disorders. the authors of the article have chosen photography as a type of adaptive activity that allows one to establish new neural connections related to visuality, and use creative approaches to the reflection of different objects. the results from the implementation of the photography club and its effectiveness are presented in the next section. activities of the photography club within the centre for social rehabilitation of children with special needs “promin” before experimenting, the authors of the article resolved all necessary ethical issues: a) parents and children were informed about their voluntary participation in the experiment and the opportunity to leave it at any time; b) the experiment was agreed with the committee for protection of the rights of people with special needs at the regional level. the experimental group (eg) consists of 40 leavers (18 males and 22 females) from the vinnytsia centre for social rehabilitation of children with special needs “promin”, who were diagnosed with cp and six leavers with mild mental disorders. the age requirement for eg is 14-19 years old. the control group (cg) consists of 40 persons diagnosed with cp and seven persons with mild mental disorders (23 males and 17 females). rehabilitation lessons in the photography club of forty minutes’ duration were held at 3 p.m. on tuesdays by a handicraft teacher together with a practical psychologist. they were of two types (group and individual) since it was crucial to promote the development of interpersonal competency and collectivism. neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal … iryna sarancha, et al. 213 the topics which persons with msds worked on during rehabilitation lessons in the photography club (thematic planning): 1. holidays. goals: to actualize and express different feelings, disclose creative skills and resources and develop self-control; to study the system of relationships, if necessary; to actualize and resolve internal personal relationships. content: the pupils were asked to take a series of holiday photos, print out their works and discuss them. 2. seasons. goals: to develop the emotional sphere, disclose creative skills and resources, develop self-control, understand the dynamics of external and internal changes, gain new experience. content: the pupils were asked to take a series of photos reflecting the change of seasons, as well as other participants of the club, and include them in calendars and postcards. 3. my friends. goals: to actualize and express feelings related to the inner self and self-attitude, identify and understand values and needs of the pupils, study the system of relationships, actualize and resolve interpersonal conflicts; to contribute to psychological bonding of persons with msds. content: the pupils needed to bring photos of themselves and their friends, show them to each other and discuss them (the club leader asked them to tell why this or that friend was dear to them). 4. my hobbies and interests. goals: to actualize and express feelings related to the inner self and self-attitude, identify values and needs of the pupils; to actualize and understand internal and external resources; to study the system of relationships. content: the pupils needed to bring photos of themselves in different situations related to their interests and hobbies and took similar photos at the centre (taking photos of each other). 5. creating a portrait. goals: to disclose creative skills; to actualize, express and comprehend feelings; to develop teamwork skills; to reach a mutual understanding; to support emotionally. content: the pupils needed to paint portraits of children and staff from the vinnytsia centre for social rehabilitation of children with special needs “promin”. 6. making postcards and calendars. goals: to develop creative skills; to boost self-esteem; to gain experience of working with different programmes which can help to create such things. content: the pupils needed to make holiday postcards from the photos taken during rehabilitation lessons in the photography club. they include photos of the flowers grown on flower beds near the centre, handmade products made by persons with msds, as well as the events happening at the centre. also, teachers helped children to choose appropriate poems for these photos. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 214 the photography club used different methods: verbal methods (mini-lectures, stories, explanations, conversations) together with visual aids and activities of the pupils themselves; practical methods (computer exercises, independent work, role-playing games), as well as psychological correction of persons with msds. the photography club also aimed to develop computer literacy in persons with msds, teach them to choose different objects, angles and moments of shooting and use specific techniques. it can be a contributing factor in the development of such functions as thinking, memory and attention, as well as fine motor skills. as part of this research, people with msds studied different types of shooting: portraits, landscapes, group and individual photography. thus, they have learned how to shoot both in natural and artificial light. the photography club has made it possible to realize the tasks and functions presented in table 1. table 1. the use of photographs and their psychological functions tasks functions to actualize and express different feelings, ensure the emotional release focusing, actualization, stimulation, mobilization to identify needs and anxiety objectification, the occurrence of new sensations, display of change dynamics, organization to identify and correct maladaptive manifestations of behaviour and thinking objectification, the occurrence of new sensations, display of change dynamics, organization to develop coordination stimulation, mobilization to develop skills and mechanisms of psychological defence and self-control defence, organization, mobilization to develop independence and nurture responsibility organization, mobilization, focusing, actualization, objectification, the occurrence of new sensations to develop spontaneity and the ability to experiment with new forms of experience focusing, actualization, mobilization, stimulation to develop visual and conceptual thinking, sensorimotor skills and aesthetic views stimulation, organization, mobilization, the occurrence of new sensations, display of change dynamics, focusing, actualization, designing neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal … iryna sarancha, et al. 215 to comprehend the connection between various aspects of mental experience and the system of relationships; to secure the inner self and personal boundaries display of change dynamics, organization, integration, objectification, focusing, the occurrence of new sensations to actualize and demonstrate latent needs and personality traits; to disclose internal resources and creative skills stimulation, mobilization, focusing, organization, defence, the occurrence of new sensations to develop interests and motivations; to comprehend attitudes and values mobilization, focusing, objectification, display of change dynamics, the occurrence of new sensations to develop interpersonal competency, that is an ability to understand and perceive others and engage in meaningful interaction with them focusing, actualization, objectification, the occurrence of new sensations, organization, mobilization, deconstruction, display of change dynamics to develop teamwork skills stimulation, organization, mobilization, display of change dynamics, deconstruction, focusing, actualization to comprehend and accept group norms and values; to realize common problems and human experience focusing, display of change dynamics, the occurrence of new sensations, reconstruction the options for using photography can differentiate depending on what creative forms the pupils can add to it. thus, the process of taking photos also involved creating photo collages, posters or “the photo book”. photography also implied inventing stories or mini scripts related to literary creativity. people with msds, independently or with teachers, took photos of all holidays and celebrations at the centre, as well as the events aimed at social rehabilitation of children and young people with msds outside the centre. they have learned to take id photos, create postcards and calendars. it has helped them to develop creative thinking, attention, memory and imagination. when creating postcards and calendars, they matched flowers to an appropriate season, event, date. they also retouched images, using photoshop. given the ever-growing computerization, it is much easier for persons with msds to realize their ambitions and opportunities for learning and employment if they have a computer. computer literacy for children and adults with msds remains an essential element of social rehabilitation brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 216 and, therefore, this research incorporates such activity in the photography club. the analysis of the obtained results proves the effectiveness of the selected method for teaching computer literacy to persons with msds. the results of the experiment are presented in tables 2 and 3. table 2. the programmes and devices persons with msds use when working programmes and devices eg cg before experiment after experiment before experiment after before experiment % % % % word 62.5 80 65 62.5 excel 22.5 37.5 20 22.5 nero 17.5 32.5 15 17.5 antivirus programmes 15 27.5 20 22.5 pragma 7.5 15 5 10 explorer 15 45 17.5 17.5 managers 5 17.5 7.5 10 printers 30 35 32.5 32.5 scanners 25 35 22.5 27.5 * the total score in all tables exceeds 100% as the respondents made several choices. it is crucial to continue the process of social rehabilitation of persons with msds to improve their computer literacy. table 3 shows how persons with msds have reconsidered their views on their professional qualities in comparison with those of healthy persons. table 3. views on professional qualities grade eg cg before experiment after experiment before experiment after experiment % % % % much better 10 15 12.5 12.5 better 20 42.5 25 32.5 the same 35 22.5 27.5 30 worse 25 12.5 22.5 15 much worse 10 7.5 12.5 10 neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal … iryna sarancha, et al. 217 if persons with msds are aware of the importance of work in their lives, they can overcome all difficulties on the path to employment. the results of the experiment are presented in tables 4 and 5. table 4. the importance of work in the lives of persons with msds after all, work is a means to fulfil hopes for most persons with msds. the experiment focused much on the development of partner communication skills and collaboration skills in persons with msds so that they can meet their needs. the results of the experiment are presented in table 5. table 5. what are persons with msds ready to do to obtain employment? the importance of work eg cg before experiment after experiment before experiment after experiment % % % % the most important thing in life 62.5 67.5 60 67.5 a tool for self-realization 32.5 57.5 30 37.5 the way to gain independence 30 52.5 27.5 35 a tool for self-affirmation 27.5 45 30 32.5 burden 5 2.5 7.5 5 something insignificant 5 2.5 5 5 steps the number of respondents eg cg before experiment after experiment before experiment after experiment % % % % to use one’s help 50 45 52.5 55 to do in-service training 37.5 52.5 35 40 to contact the employment office 32.5 47.5 35 37.5 to search independently 30 55 30 32.5 to contact the authorities 10 12.5 10 7.5 to compete with others 10 7.5 10 12.5 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 218 conclusions the results of the formative experiment show that it is possible to include photography in various programmes of treatment, correction, psychoprophylaxis, neurorehabilitation, and development: 1. photographing can be used once or sporadically, especially at certain stages of rehabilitation, when persons with msds want to use it. at the same time, they can be merely curious or ready to gain new creative experience, be closer to reality, avoid feelings, get visual confirmation of the changes that have occurred to them and memorize especially crucial moments in their life or work. these needs may be temporary. when they become interested in photography, they may switch to other means and materials. the specialist should, as far as possible, understand the needs of a particular person or group and strengthen their interest in photography, providing it is associated with significant trends of their development. 2. if a particular person or group is keen on photography, they can use it regularly throughout the whole process of rehabilitation. in doing so, the specialist can either offer them full freedom of action and following the principles of a nondirective approach, provide optimal working conditions and facilitate the expression of feelings, or teach them specific techniques and exercises that allow them to organize their work and focus on solving specific tasks. 3. it is also advisable to organize special groups of photographing therapy to work in the form of psychotherapy and use photography as the primary working tool. the paper proves that it is vital to organize a photoshoot in an environment that acts as a significant external resource. for one, photoshoots in nature can enhance sensory stimulation, evoke positive emotions and aesthetic experiences. also, photoshoots can take place in an environment leading to social confrontation and complicated feelings, which can be quite helpful in some cases. they can help persons with msds to understand the nature of their social behaviours and attitudes and prepare them to meet reality. the positive influence of photography on persons and their relationships with the outside world can be manifested both in selfemployment and in the creation and discussion of photos with the specialist. a photo can be considered a game. it allows one to “play” with reality and its visual reflections, namely, to choose from it what is most important and exciting for persons with msds and combine different neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal … iryna sarancha, et al. 219 elements of reality and create another fantastic reality (surrealism), which one cannot see. photographing is often associated with self-presentation, which implies presenting a particular image of oneself to a real or imaginable audience. quite often, people do not realize the extent to which their appearance and behaviour can change and do not know “the script” of drama played out in front of the camera. it is somehow similar to a minishow, which influences the participants and audience. when showing photos to someone, one tells its story. not only does the story convey one’s attitude to what is depicted in the photo and clarify what is hidden behind the scenes, he or she also explains the essence of events and experiences and links together different aspects of these experiences. the stories that accompany the show of photos are often very inventive and colourful, which not only enhances the impact of visual images but also expresses the fuller and deeper feelings associated with them. unfortunately, most of the respondents’ options for employment are rather passive. therefore, it is necessary to continue preparing persons with msds for competition in the labour market through psychological counselling. it is also important to inform them about the dynamics of the labour market. photographing therapy can help persons with msds to express themselves, improve their computer literacy and become more confident. persons with msds should find their life-long goals during the rehabilitation, as well as realize and understand them during social rehabilitation. further social rehabilitation largely depends on adults’ ability to use children’s life prospects, personal incentives triggering their inner strengths and abilities. cognitive activity. first, it is related to the stimulation of the child’s sensorimotor development. the development of sensorimotor functions in combination with the positive emotional communication of the child serves as the basis for developing all mental functions, presented in such categories as speech, attention, purposeful activity, emotional reaction, thinking and imagination. the specifics of sensorimotor education of children with msds is aimed at the simultaneous development of sensory organs and motor skills. in the case of cp, rehabilitation should consider the correct position of the body, head, arms, legs, which is associated with such a category as posture. children with cp quite often cannot focus on the same object. in turn, it is related to such psychological categories as visual focus and object brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 220 tracking and the first voice reactions in the case of the child’s positive emotions. acknowledgments the authors of the article have equally conducted this comprehensive study. on the one hand, they researched and modelled the activities of the photography club to ensure labour adaptation of people with msds, taking into account neuroscientific achievements. on the other hand, they implemented these activities in the educational process of the mentioned rehabilitation centre and proved their effectiveness. references akatov, l. (2003). sotsialnaya reabilitatsiya detey s ogranichennymi vozmozhnostyami zdorovya. psikhologicheskiye osnovy [social rehabilitation of children with special needs. psychological fundamentals]. vlados centre. http://pedlib.ru/books/5/0347/5_0347-1.shtml bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1323-1332. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, m., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. https://www.efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 15851590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf bodiam, c. (1999). the use of the canadian occupational performance measure for the assessment of outcome on a neurorehabilitation unit. british journal of occupational therapy, 62(3), 123-126. https://doi.org/10.1177/030802269906200310 bondar, v., & synov, v. (2011). defektolohichnyy slovnyk [the dictionary of defectology]. lesia. http://pedlib.ru/books/5/0347/5_0347-1.shtml http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf https://www.efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177%2f030802269906200310 neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal … iryna sarancha, et al. 221 burmenskaya, g., karabanova, o. a., & liders, a. g. (1990). vozrastnopsikhologicheskoye konsultirovaniye: problemy psikhicheskogo razvitiya detey [age tips and psychological counselling: the problems of children’s mental development]. moscow state university. doucet, b. m. (2012). neurorehabilitation: are we doing all that we can? the american journal of occupational therapy, 66, 488-493. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2012.002790 halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284-2291. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf illiashenko, t., obukhivska, a., romanenko, o., & skrypka, n. (2003). korektsiya psykhosotsialnoho rozvytku ditey z tserebralnym paralichem u reabilitatsiynomu tsentri [correcting psychosocial development of children with cerebral palsy in the rehabilitation centre]. knowledge. kapska, a. (2006). sotsialna pedahohika [social pedagogy]. the centre for educational literature. https://studfile.net/preview/5462857/ karpova, a. g., afanaseva, e. b., tamozhnikov, s. s., & savostyanov, a. n. (2020). metodologicheskiy podkhod k issledovaniyu neyrofiziologicheskikh mekhanizmov adaptatsii k severu na osnove analiza eeg-korrelyatov dvigatelnoy aktivnosti [methodological approach to the study of neurophysiological mechanisms of adaptation to north by analyzing eeg correlates of motor activity]. vestnik severo-vostochnogo federalnogo universiteta im. m. k. ammosova. seriya “meditsinskiye nauki” [vestnik of m. k. ammosov north-eastern federal university. series “medical sciences”] 2(19), 5-16. http://smnsvfu.ru/wpcontent/uploads/2020/06/%d0%9c%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%bd%d0 %b0%d1%83%d0%ba%d0%b8-%e2%84%96219_20202.pdf#page=6 kholostova, e., & dementieva, n. (2006). sotsialnaya reabilitatsiya (4-e izd.) [social rehabilitation (4th ed.)]. dashkov and co. koval, l., zvierieva, i., & khliebik, s. (1998). sotsialna pedahohika. sotsialna robota [social pedagogy. social work]. izmn. https://ukrdoc.com.ua/text/45022/index-1.html koziuk, v., hayda, y., dluhopolskyi, o, & kozlovskyi, s. (2020). ecological performance: ethnic fragmentation versus governance quality and sustainable development. problemy ekorozwoju, 15(1), 53-64. http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/jspui/handle/316497/37667 https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2012.002790 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf https://studfile.net/preview/5462857/ http://smnsvfu.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/%d0%9c%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%83%d0%ba%d0%b8-%e2%84%96219_2020-2.pdf#page=6 http://smnsvfu.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/%d0%9c%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%83%d0%ba%d0%b8-%e2%84%96219_2020-2.pdf#page=6 http://smnsvfu.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/%d0%9c%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%83%d0%ba%d0%b8-%e2%84%96219_2020-2.pdf#page=6 http://smnsvfu.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/%d0%9c%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%83%d0%ba%d0%b8-%e2%84%96219_2020-2.pdf#page=6 https://ukrdoc.com.ua/text/45022/index-1.html http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/jspui/handle/316497/37667 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 222 kozlovskyi, s., shaulska, l., butyrskyi, a., burkina, n., & popovskyi, y. (2018). the marketing strategy for making optimal managerial decisions by means of smart analytics. innovative marketing, 14(4), 1-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.14(4).2018.01 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810-815. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., &amp; maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46-93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m napoleone, d., silberglied, t., l’abbate, g., & fried, d. (2019). the role of occupational therapy in neurorehabilitation. in j. elbaum (ed.), acquired brain injury (pp. 135-161). springer. phipps, s., & richardson, p. (2007). occupational therapy outcomes for clients with traumatic brain injury and stroke using the canadian occupational performance measure. the american journal of occupational therapy, 61(3), 328-334. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.61.3.328 romanchuk, o. (2008). nepovnospravna dytyna v simi ta v suspilstvi [a child with special needs in family and society]. credo. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shevtsov, a. (2004). suchasni problemy osvity i profesiynoyi reabilitatsiyi lyudey z vadamy zdorovya [modern problems of education and professional rehabilitation of people with health problems]. social information. shipitsyna, l., & mamaychuk, i. i. (2004). psikhologiya detey s narusheniyami funktsiy oporno-dvigatelnogo aparata [psychology of children with musculoskeletal disorders]. vlados. sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.14(4).2018.01 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.61.3.328 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal … iryna sarancha, et al. 223 speed of biological development. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532-1543. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 skubik-peplaski, c., carrico, ch., nichols, l., chelette, k., & sawaki, l. (2012). behavioral, neurophysiological, and descriptive changes after occupationbased intervention. the american journal of occupational therapy, 66, 107-113. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2012.003590 tytarenko, t. (1998). psykholohichni mozhlyvosti samoreabilitatsiyi u skladniy zhyttyeviy sytuatsiyi [psychological abilities of self-rehabilitation in a difficult life situation]. in i. h. yermakov (ed.), reabilitatsiyna pedahohika na rubezhi xxi stolittia [rehabilitation pedagogy at the turn of the 21st century] (vol. 1, pp. 142–149). vzmn. ullsperger, m., danielmeier, c., & jocham, g. (2014). neurophysiology of performance monitoring and adaptive behavior. physiological reviews, 94(1), 35-79. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2012 yashchuk, i. (2001). formuvannya zhyttyevoyi kompetentnosti osobystosti tarshoklasnykiv zahalnoosvitnikh shkil ukrayiny [developing life competency in high school pupils from secondary schools in ukraine] [abstract of phd thesis, the institute of problems of education of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv]. http://www.lib.uaru.net/diss/cont/35567.html http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2012.003590 https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2012 http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/35567.html http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/35567.html ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 63-84 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/354 submitted: august 16th, 2022 | accepted for publication: september 19th, 2022 psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok 1 , nataliia didyk 2 , andrii kovalchuk 3 , olena petyak 4 , zinaida antonova 5 , natalia khanetska 6 1 ph. d. in psychology, assistant professor, national university of khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, rudenokalla@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/00000003-1197-0646 2 ph. d. in psychology, assistant professor, kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohienko national university, kamianets-podilskyi, ukraine, didyk.natalya@kpnu.edu, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5852-2379 3 ph. d, assistant professor of department of theory and methods of physical education, vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university,vinnytsia, ukraine, andrqxa2009@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4150-9837 4 ph. d. in psychology, senior lecturer at the department of psychology and pedagogy, national university of khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, lenapetyak@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0635-493x 5 ph. d. in psychology, assistant professor, national university of khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, shvedzina@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1920-7410 6 ph. d. in psychology, assistant professor, national university of khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, khanetska@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9951-9106 abstract: the article reveals the problems of psychological support for children with intellectual disabilities in wartime. as children with intellectual disabilities are one of the most difficult categories of children with special educational needs due to their difficulties in communication, behavior, sensorimotor functioning, environmental orientation, social adaptation and socialization, they become the most vulnerable and need maximum assistance in crisis situations. the empirical research was carried out using the following methods: a conversation was conducted with parents / guardians of children with intellectual disabilities to determine the traumatic events that children experienced during the war, then used a questionnaire "general reactions of children after the war / war events" and the diagnosis of stress disorders in children was carried out with the help of luscher's abbreviated method of color choices, as well as the projective drawing technique "what scary dreams i have and what i am afraid of during the day". the study involved 26 parents (legal representatives) and 26 children aged 7 to 15 years with intellectual disabilities. respondents included both local families and internally displaced persons. according to the results of the parents' survey, it was established that virtually all respondent children witnessed and participated in certain traumatic events related to hostilities in our country: children remained in shelters for a long time during air alarms and shelling, experienced severe hunger and cold. , felt the fear of their own death, etc. according to the parents, they noted in their children problems with memory, thinking, concentration, social services, frequent mood swings. in fact, the diagnosis of children with intellectual disabilities also revealed high levels of stress disorders and unfavorable emotional states. the article also offers recommendations and areas of psychological support and assistance to children with intellectual disabilities in wartime. keywords: current emotional state; war; children with intellectual disabilities; psychological support and assistance; traumatic situation. how to cite: rudenok, a., didyk, n., kovalchuk, a., petyak, o., antonova, z., & khanetska, n. (2022). psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 63-84. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/354 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/354 mailto:rudenok-alla@ukr.net mailto:rudenok-alla@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1197-0646 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1197-0646 mailto:didyk.natalya@kpnu.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5852-2379 mailto:andrqxa2009@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4150-9837 mailto:lenapetyak@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0635-493x mailto:shvedzina@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1920-7410 mailto:khanetska@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9951-9106 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/354 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 64 introduction today ukraine is going through quite difficult times. society has faced incredible trials and social upheavals: full-scale hostilities, the destruction of all state infrastructure, the occupation of territorial communities, internally displaced persons and migrants who have left the country, the extremely difficult state of the economic system and more. all this affected every citizen of our country. children, women, and low-mobility groups are increasingly suffering from modern military conflicts. during the war, children, like adults, can often fall victim to various horrific events that traumatize their psyche. they may witness artillery shelling and shootings, experience difficulties in emergency and sudden evacuations, observe the destruction of their hometown or village, or even their homes. children can spend a long time in difficult conditions in bomb shelters and shelters, see the wounded or dead, torture and murder, mass deaths. they may be injured themselves, suffer heavy losses, see their family members and friends being injured or dying (zavatskyi et al., 2020). such experience can lead to a variety of psychological problems in both normative children and children with special educational needs, in particular children with intellectual disabilities. among the most characteristic changes they may have irritability, anxiety, sadness, frequent crying, isolation, depressed mood and timidity. children may be afraid of loud noises, afraid to go outside their home, they find it difficult to concentrate while learning (andryushchenko, 2000). some of them may experience a loss of self-control and fear of going insane. as the nature of wars changes, professionals working with children in war-torn countries try to find new ways to help and focus it narrowly on the most vulnerable. it is now believed that the sooner you help your child cope with the stresses of war, the better he or she will feel and the risk of deep problems in the future will decrease (smith et al., 2014). if the entire population is involved in the war, often the first task of specialists is to provide assistance to a large number of children as soon as possible and accelerate their recovery. literature review the implementation of an inclusive approach in the economic system, education system of ukraine and society in general continues to ensure access to quality social and educational services for all children, psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok et al. 65 including those with special educational needs. in general, over the last 5 years, the number of students in inclusive education has increased 7 times (nichugovska et al., 2021). significant progress in the implementation of inclusion for children with intellectual disabilities (melnichuk, 2019) is due to a set of measures, the key of which is ukraine's accession to basic international documents (zasenko & kolupaeva, 2014), adoption of normative-legal documents that ensure the implementation of organizational-legal and financial mechanisms of its implementation (verbovsky, 2020), development of theoretical and methodological principles of inclusive education (horishna et al., 2020), strengthening the institutional and financial capacity of local governments in the development of inclusive education and the realization of the right of children with special educational needs to receive quality education at the place of residence (belova, 2014). however, due to the beginning of hostilities on the territory of ukraine and the imposition of martial law, there are changes in the legal framework and humanization of relations in the educational and social space, changes in the educational paradigm, continues to actively search for new directions, technologies, methods of education especially, psychological support for children with special educational needs. significant attention is paid to children with intellectual disabilities of varying severity, due to the presence of persistent trends towards the spread of new options for combining psychophysical disorders in children against the background of emergencies or in combination with intellectual disabilities (shevchenko, 2020). this category of children with special educational needs is considered as one of the most difficult for psychological recovery and inclusion in the educational process of educational institutions. this is due to the fact that intellectual disabilities are usually accompanied by disorders of the psyche, speech, communication, behavior, sensorimotor functioning and, as a consequence, there are difficulties in orientation in the environment, social adaptation and socialization (ilyashenko, 2021). the use of modern diagnostic tools makes it possible not only to detect intellectual disabilities, to determine the degree of their complexity, but also to obtain reliable information for planning forms of current psychological support, as well as psychological, pedagogical and correctional and developmental work. studies of domestic scientists reveal various aspects of the inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities in the social environment, in particular, the features of their cognitive sphere and psychological and pedagogical support (horishna & maichuk, 2021), support for children and their families in times of war and military conflict (smith et al., 2014), socialization and social and labor adaptation (yarmola, 2019). at the same time, the analysis of scientific broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 66 research shows that modern approaches to providing psychological support to children with intellectual disabilities are extremely relevant, but in the domestic scientific discourse have not received due attention. methodology the empirical study was conducted on the basis of khmelnytskyi collegium named after volodymyr kozubniak among children with intellectual disabilities and their parents. it was attended by 26 parents / guardians and 26 students, aged 7 to 15, with special educational needs, including 20 students who are local residents and 6 students internally displaced persons from other cities of ukraine. parents and other legal representatives of children orally agreed to participate in the study, which took place outside of school hours, without disclosing personal information about the participants and the results of the study. the solution of the tasks was carried out by using a set of general scientific methods and methods of psychological and pedagogical research. in particular, theoretical methods were used: analysis of scientific literature, comparison of different approaches and concepts, theoretical synthesis, classification, methodological generalization, etc. we also used empirical tools: interviewing parents / guardians to identify traumatic events that children experienced during the war, using the questionnaire "general reactions of children after the war / war events" (among parents and legal representatives of children with special educational needs) (smith et al., 2014), diagnosis of stress disorders in children using the method of luscher's color choices (8color abbreviated version of the technique) and projective technique "what scary dreams i have and what i am afraid of during the day" (isaeva, 2006). based on the results of the diagnosis, practical recommendations for parents and specialists working with children with intellectual disabilities in wartime were developed and substantiated. results and recommendations in order to differentiate and understand the psychological characteristics of children with intellectual disabilities, we turned to the interpretation of this concept, the classification of intellectual disabilities. yes, the american association on intellectual and developmental disabilities (aaidd) defines intellectual disabilities as those associated with significant limitations of intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, which manifests itself in impaired learning, social and practical skills and manifests itself before the age of 18 (schalock et al., 2009). psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok et al. 67 the american psychiatric association (apa) in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders of the 5th revision dsm-5) considers intellectual disorders as disorders of neuropsychological development and emphasizes their persistent nature and connection with early brain dysfunctions. the main diagnostic features of such disorders are established on the basis of clinical studies and standardized assessment results of inconsistency of intellectual functions (ability to think, abstract thinking, judgment, understanding, learning, problem solving, planning) and adaptive skills (performing everyday activities in educational, social and practical areas in different contexts at home, in preschool / school / college, in the community, etc.) according to age, gender and socio-cultural expectations (afanasenko et al., 2021). disorders in these functions and skills can be manifested not only until the child reaches the age of 18, but throughout the period of personality development (matson & issarraras, 2019). in researches of domestic scientists intellectual disturbances are considered as persistent disturbances of cognitive activity owing to organic defeat of a brain (congenital or acquired) (chupakhina, 2020). they define them as a group of pathological conditions characterized by a violation of the systemic interaction between intellectual and affective spheres of cognitive activity and manifested in general mental retardation with a dominant intellectual defect and complications in social adaptation (voytiuk, 2020). also, intellectual disorders are a set of hereditary, congenital or acquired persistent syndromes of general mental retardation, which are manifested in difficulties in adapting to the social environment (pryadko & furman, 2015). despite the lack of a unified interpretation of this term in the domestic scientific discourse, the key aspects are common: they relate to the fact that such disorders manifest themselves in childhood, negatively affect the development of personality and the ability to act independently (social dysfunction) due to difficulties in perception and understanding new information and mastering new skills (intelligence impairment). according to schalock et al. (2007), despite the development of terminology used to refer to intellectual disabilities and advances in research, social policy, and clinical practice, the very construct of "intellectual disability" remains virtually unchanged. and includes impaired cognitive function, adaptive behavior, and early onset of these symptoms. in ukraine, the diagnostic criteria defined in icd-11 (who, 2021) and the corresponding iq indicators are used to determine the presence and degree of intellectual disabilities in children: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 68 50-69 mild degree. the child is capable of self-care, can perform simple work, has personal hygiene skills, but needs help in solving complex problems in learning and daily life, can show signs of social immaturity; 35-49 moderate degree. the child has a speech delay, there are severe learning difficulties, impaired social interaction. it can perform instructions, simple tasks, but cannot function independently without outside support; 20-34 severe degree. the child is unable to count and read, has a depleted vocabulary, communicates with gestures, needs constant support throughout life; below 20 deep degree. the child may have certain specific skills, but he has a limited understanding of what is happening around him, the understanding of the language is symbolic, he is not able to follow simple instructions and remains dependent on constant outside help. accordingly, our study involved children with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. thus, the first stage of empirical diagnosis was working with parents of children with special educational needs. in may 2022, a written interview was held with parents and legal representatives to identify the traumatic events that their children have faced since the beginning of the full-scale military events in ukraine (smith et al., 2014). participants were asked to note in writing all the difficulties that children experienced during the war. thus, table 1 presents the results of this survey. table 1. traumatic events that children suffered during the war (according to parents / legal representatives) № event children local residents (20 people),% children internally displaced persons (6 persons),% 1 they are forced to leave their city, town or village 25 100 2 soldiers or armed men forcibly entered the house 0 66.6 3 the house was shelled 0 33.3 4 separated from family 30 33.3 5 the parents are separated from each other because of the war 40 83.3 6 a family member went to the front to fight 35 50 7 a family member was wounded 5 33.3 psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok et al. 69 during the war 8 a family member died during the war 0 16.6 9 shooting at a very close distance 0 50 10 remained in the basement for a long time during an air alert or shelling 100 100 11 feeling of being very cold 70 100 12 feeling of being very hungry 45 83.3 13 seen the wounded 10 66.6 14 experienced threats 0 33.3 15 thought would die 85 100 source: authors own conception thus, from the results of this survey, we saw that almost all child respondents (according to their parents) witnessed certain traumatic events related to hostilities in our country. accordingly, 100% of local children and internally displaced persons remained in shelters for a long time during air strikes or shelling, more than 70% of children experienced severe hunger and cold, 85% thought they would die, and so on. the next stage of the empirical study was the use of the questionnaire "general reactions of children after the war / military events"(smith et al., 2014). parents (legal representatives) of children with intellectual disabilities were asked to note the reactions they observed in their children during the last month. table 2 presents the results of a survey of parents of local children and internally displaced persons. table 2. general reactions of children with intellectual disabilities after the war (under parental supervision) № type of reaction / features of behavior % of children who have this type of reaction 1 irritability 73 2 shivering, especially from loud sounds 96.1 3 fears, timidity 92.3 4 emotion 88.4 5 anxiety 84.6 6 he is afraid to go outside, to leave the apartment 38.4 7 solitude 26.9 8 depressive disorders 15.3 9 frequent crying 53.8 10 easily upset over small things 80.7 11 does not want to communicate, play with peers 46.1 12 annoyance, getting angry quickly 76.9 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 70 13 anxiety 84.6 14 problems with concentration 96.1 15 sleep disturbances, nightmares 57.6 16 military themes in games 30.7 17 reactions of grief 80.7 18 fear of death of other family members 65.3 19 loss of interest in daily activities 73 20 whimsy or a quick change of mood 96.1 source: authors own conception the results of the questionnaire showed that more than 96% of children have tremors after loud sounds, problems with concentration, show capriciousness or rapid mood swings. 92.3% of respondents are timid and experience various fears, including fear of the death of other family members. 84.6% feel anxious and anxious, and 88.4% of children are anxious. thus, we identified a significant frequency of emotional, behavioral changes in children with intellectual disabilities in war. next, we diagnosed stress disorders in children using the method of luscher's color choices, which used an 8-color version of the method (sobchik, 2007). the purpose of testing was that the subjects, choosing some colors and discarding others, construct seven color series. the set of incentives consists of eight color cards, these are the main colors: red, blue, yellow, green; achromatic: gray, black and mixed: purple, brown. an abbreviated version of the luscher test includes one main scale, consisting of eight elements and several additional scales. all scales are interconnected and are considered part of one integrated structural scale. the method of color choices proposed by l. sobchik is an adapted version of the luscher color test.the method is designed to study the unconscious, deep-seated personality problems, current situation, basic needs, individual style of experience, type of response and the degree of adaptability of the subject. in addition, it allowed to identify the compensatory capabilities of the subjects, to assess the severity of painfully acute traits and clinical manifestations. according to l. sobchik (sobchik, 2007) with the help of this technique it is possible to diagnose the leading needs and features of response in everyday situations. table 3 diagnoses the leading needs of children with intellectual disabilities affected by the war. psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok et al. 71 table 3. leading needs of children according to the luscher method № leading need and general condition number of children with dominance,% 1 the need for rest and harmony with others 15.4 2 the need to wait for change 73 3 the need for emotional relaxation and rest 80.7 4 physical and psychological exhaustion 57.7 5 subjective lack of strength 30.7 6 feelings of anxiety, fear of loneliness, the desire to avoid conflict and stress 96.1 7 a state of emotional tension, increased anxiety, the desire to avoid difficulties 100 8 stress caused by limiting one's independence by external obstacles 65.4 9 lack of opportunity to realize the need to preserve one's own individuality and the "social niche" that would create a sense of understanding and security 23 10 the need for compassion, a sense of helplessness 92.3 11 frustrated need for independence 19.2 12 anger 69.2 13 despair 38.4 14 crash, failure and regression 53.8 source: authors own conception thus, the results of the study of the leading needs and general condition of children with intellectual disabilities showed that all respondents (100%) are in a state of emotional tension, have increased anxiety and seek to avoid these difficulties. thus, 96.1% of respondents experience feelings of anxiety, fear of loneliness and try to avoid conflicts and stress. 24 children (92.3%) need compassion and feel powerless. 80.7% of respondents need rest and emotional relief. more than half of the respondents (57.7%) showed physical and psychological exhaustion. accordingly, from this we can make a preliminary conclusion that the children at the time of diagnosis were in a difficult psycho-emotional situation and needed immediate intervention to restore their psychological well-being. the final stage of our diagnosis was the study of fears with the help of drawings what scary dreams i have and what i am afraid of during the day"(isaeva, 2006). some children (19.2%) did not draw their fears at all broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 72 (explained it for various reasons: "i'm not afraid of anything", "i don't know what to draw", "i can't draw it", "i don't want to draw", "i don't want to think about their fears "). other participants overcame the barrier of fear in their minds, were able to reflect with strong-willed, purposeful efforts what they try not to think about, what they are afraid of, what hinders them. after the child drew fear, she was asked certain questions: 1. what did you draw? 2. is it your fear or some other person's? 3. why are you afraid of this? the completion of the diagnosis with the help of projective methods was an exercise, which can be attributed to the correction, the purpose of which was to reduce the degree of manifestation of fears and free the child from their persecution. when the child answered the question about his fear, which was drawn on a piece of paper, the paper was folded so that the picture was no longer visible and placed in a large beautiful box with the words: appeared, put it in this beautiful box, where he will never come out. and instead of this fear, we will give you a gift (candy, stationery, a book, etc.)! ” all the children were satisfied after such an "exchange". as the results of the diagnosis indicate that children have severe psycho-emotional states, problems that require professional help, we have developed appropriate recommendations for psychological support of children with intellectual disabilities in war. the consequences of a child's mental trauma during a war may depend on how quickly the child receives help after the traumatic event, how well his or her own defense mechanisms work: self-esteem, self-confidence, problem-solving skills, and the belief that he or she can cope. a changed situation from the available emotional support. the greatest harm can be done to a child by postponing a call for help (wenger et al., 2006). the injury does not heal on its own, the problem is not solved and goes deeper and deeper. the child seeks to hide it under the protections and strategies by which he tries to cope with the situation. in fact, after the child uses all these mechanisms of protection and overcoming, the problem can "look" better. but it continues to affect the child's character, his dreams, form fears, destroy feelings of trust and plans (yul & williams, 2001). the tasks of psychological support and assistance to children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities who have experienced severe mental trauma are fundamentally different depending on the time of its receipt immediately after the injury or a few months. at the first stage of psychological support, the work in general can be described as medicalpsychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok et al. 73 psychological, at the second as psychological. this determines the selection of specialists for such work (mykyteichuk et al., 2022). consider the main changes in children of different ages who suffered during the war (table 4). table 4. the main symptoms of psychological trauma in children with intellectual disabilities in wartime (litvinenko, 2016) changes age from 4 to 7 years age from 8 to 11 years age from 12 to 17 years physiological sleep disorders: frequent awakenings, nightmares, etc. enuresis, encopresis. abdominal pain sleep disorders. headaches. abdominal pain. nausea. vomit. stool disorders. frequent urination sleep disorders. headaches. tremor. tiki emotional generalized fear. lack of language expressions of concern refusal to talk, "dumb" questions. anxieties related to misunderstanding of death, destruction, murder, fantasy of "cure from death"; the expectation that criminals may return, attack. aggressiveness. concern for one's own actions during events: concern for one's responsibility and (or) guilt. specific fears that are triggered by memories or being alone. fear of being overwhelmed by one's own experiences. close attention to the condition of parents, relatives, fear of upsetting them with their worries. fear and feelings of change caused by their own reactions of grief, fear of fire, loud noise, soldiers and others. shame and guilt. fear of looking abnormal. thirst for revenge and devising plans for revenge. acute feeling of loneliness cognitive cognitive difficulties that manifest themselves in misunderstanding. attributing mystical properties to memories of impaired concentration. disorders of memory, thinking, speech. academic learning difficulties impaired concentration, inattention. memory impairment. understanding your fears, your own vulnerabilities broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 74 trauma. difficulties in recognizing anxiety and other emotional reactions cognitive helplessness and passivity in ordinary matters. recurrent trauma. anxious attachment (clinging to adults, unwillingness to be without parents). regressive symptoms (finger sucking, babbling). various communication disorders. problems of adaptation to new institutions retellings and reproduction of events (traumatic games), distortion of their picture and obsessive detailing. taking care of your safety and the safety of others. disturbed or unstable behavior (for example, usually aggressive or reckless behavior, negativism). "disruptions" in illegal, deviant behavior. dangerous way of life. selfdestructive or risky behavior. sharp changes in interpersonal relationships. immediately after the traumatic event, the main task of psychological support for the affected children and adolescents is rapid relief of acute symptoms that interfere with the normal functioning of the child: • restoration of normal sleep and nutrition (this creates favorable conditions for the recovery of the central nervous system); • ensuring a normal level of overall activity and its streamlining; • overcoming acute phobias, depressive states, acute anxiety, flashback effects; • correction of gross communication disorders (havrylkevych et al., 2021). removal of these symptoms contributes to the further normalization of the psychological state, intensifies the child's use of coping strategies and protective mechanisms of the psyche. such tasks are typical of psychological support, which is not aimed at providing deep personal transformations, but at "getting rid of negative feelings, discomfort or depression." according to the available data, a significant increase in the level of subjective well-being can be achieved in one or two psychotherapeutic sessions. overcoming or reducing emotional discomfort is also important as a preventative measure that reduces the risk of further development of posttraumatic stress disorder. it is established that in the absence of special psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok et al. 75 preventive work, this disorder is found in 70% of children and adolescents who have experienced a severe traumatic situation (andryushchenko, 2000). emergency psychological support and assistance to children with intellectual disabilities of primary school age: 1. establish physical contact with the child take him in his arms, hug him, shake him in his arms, it gives the child a sense of security. 2. calm down with the words: "it is all over, i'm with you ...". 3. take the child away as soon as possible from the place where the traumatic event took place. emergency psychological support and assistance to adolescents with intellectual disabilities: 1. physical contact: touch to the shoulder, hands. 2. if possible, inform the child about what is happening. 3. opportunity for the teenager to actively participate in solving the situation to help others, smaller and weaker. 4. verbal support: "you're great, you helped me a lot (you can help ...)". the main task of working with the delayed consequences of a traumatic event is to restore the normal social and intra-family functioning of children with intellectual disabilities. it is important to ensure regular attendance at school (school, kindergarten). to restore the normal condition and functioning of children requires special work with the child's immediate environment, with parents and teachers. children, as well as adults, in a traumatic situation lose confidence in the world (zavatskyi et al., 2020). therefore, the key points of psychological support for a child with intellectual disabilities will be as follows. 1. gradual restoration of the child's trust, given that she has a pronounced loss of trust in the world. 2. refusal of standard diagnostic procedures before talking about traumatic events. 3. creating a reliable environment during psychotherapy. 4. adequate performance of rituals that help meet the child's need for safety. for the gradual formation of trust are useful statements of a psychologist, which recognizes the problems experienced by the child. to work effectively with injured children, it is necessary to have a room divided into separate zones, each of which must be provided with the equipment and materials necessary for a certain type of activity: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 76 • role-playing area (house with dolls, toy furniture and utensils; toy garage with a variety of machines and appliances; sets "hairdresser", "shop", "hospital"; soft toys); • area of constructive activity (sets of handicrafts, building materials and designers of different types); • sports area (simulators, swedish wall, mats, dry pool; balls, hula hoops; spring mattress); • aggression response zone (punching bag and gloves; inflatable swords, hammers and batons); • area of artistic activity (paints, brushes, water, pencils, pastels, plasticine, white and colored paper); • water play area (water basin, floating toys, scoops); • relaxation area (artificial aquarium, music center, mattresses, rugs, pillows, small "magic" accessories elephants, bells, "dream catchers"). the space should be organized in such a way that the objects that fill it, themselves encourage children to appropriate activity. toys and materials must be hung on the walls, laid out on the floor, as if left in the middle of an already started activity (wenger et al., 2006). during psychological care for children with intellectual disabilities, the diagnosis does not need to be allocated to an independent stage. this is due to the special brightness and obviousness of the symptoms targeted by therapy, as well as the need for emergency care. the assessment of the child's condition is carried out on the basis of observations, conversations, complaints of parents, analysis of reactions to psychological influences, etc. only in some cases you can use special diagnostic techniques (in particular, the child can be offered some drawing tests). with younger children, psychological support can be provided using the methods of play therapy, with older children art therapy. each lesson with a child should be built on the principle of a wave: first there is a gradual inclusion of the child in the activity, its intensity increases, reaches a certain maximum, which is determined by the psychological state of the child, and then decreases. the lesson ends with a quiet activity, such as drawing or a relaxation session. before going home, the child can be given a toy, which is a reminder of joint activities with a psychologist and thus helps to consolidate the results of psychological support. children also need to be offered materials for artistic activities; set homework (which you can not insist on): draw and bring a picture, make and bring a product. when working with a child, the psychologist must constantly demonstrate a willingness to listen to the story of their behavior in an extreme situation, but never stimulate the actualization of traumatic psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok et al. 77 experiences, if the child does not want to tell about them. this is due to the fear of disrupting the protective mechanisms of the psyche and may exacerbate the pathogenic effects of a traumatic event. an important component of the psychologist's work is the involvement of parents in therapy (if possible), the restoration of their normal communication with the child (yul & williams, 2001). the child, who first came to the psychologist, must first get acquainted with the room and tell in more detail about toys, objects that are in designated areas. if the child refuses to inspect the room (for example, sits on the carpet and sits for a long time, doing nothing), the psychologist can slowly and unobtrusively offer different activities: bring paper and paints, give a balloon, and so on. at the beginning of work with a child who has experienced a traumatic event during the war, it is necessary to pay special attention to overcoming sleep disorders, which allows to provide favorable conditions for the recovery of the nervous system (guillén-burgos & gutiérrez-ruiz, 2018). various forms of relaxation and control of the rhythm of breathing contribute to the restoration of sleep. one of the options for such control is the task of adjusting the breath to the rhythm, which is directly set by the psychologist (the psychologist counts slowly, and the child takes a breath at each expense). you can set the rhythm by taking the child's hands in their own and slowly, evenly raising (inhaling) and lowering them (exhaling), just as it is done with artificial respiration, but not so sharply. another control option is to focus the child's breathing (according to the instructions: "listen to how you breathe, but do not try to do anything with your breathing, do not try to control it"). due to this, breathing becomes smooth and deeper. such classes with children (parents can be taught to perform such tasks at home) help not only to restore normal sleep, but also reduce overall tension, help to overcome the state of acute anxiety, typical of a person who has experienced a severe traumatic event. to restore the general level of activity it is necessary to use forms of work, the choice of which depends on the degree of initial inhibition of the child (guillén-burgos & gutiérrez-ruiz, 2018). thus, with a particularly pronounced passivity, the psychologist can offer a variety of simple tasks to choose from: drawing, assembling puzzles or the simplest model from the designer, playing with dolls and more. the psychologist himself should take an active part in the activity, encouraging the slightest manifestations of the child's initiative. if the child refuses all these activities, the specialist should start playing or drawing in front of the child, periodically encouraging him to take part in it. art therapy plays an important role in restoring overall broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 78 activity. children can paint with gouache on a sheet of wallpaper spread on the floor. sometimes at the initial stage, the child is more willing to agree to paint with a sponge soaked in paint (technique of "soaking"). you can also use paints for hand painting. restoration of activity is an effective way to overcome childhood depression. at the same time, it is often accompanied by the actualization of symptoms, which previously could not be detected precisely because of the general inhibition of the child. there are chaotic, unfocused actions, destructive and aggressive manifestations. in most children, whose activity level was not reduced at the time of treatment, such behavior can be observed simultaneously. to structure and organize the child's activity requires a gradual increase in the number of rules and restrictions (for example: "play take away the toys"); only then can you move on to another lesson. for children whose condition is characterized by high activity, rules and restrictions can be set from the beginning of psychological support. a significant place must be given to the response to aggression. children can be offered the following activities: fencing with inflatable swords and batons; punches on a punching bag or cardboard box; puncturing balloons; games with "horror stories" and toys depicting aggressive characters (wolf, crocodile, monster); marching, stamping feet; creating drawings with aggressive content; tearing paper or cardboard. care must be taken to ensure that aggression does not go directly to another person. yes, even during fencing it is allowed to strike with a sword only on another sword, but not on a person. usually, the reaction of aggression is accompanied by loud sounds, which is also useful in overcoming acusophobia (fear of loud sounds), which is present in most children who have experienced a traumatic situation during the war. each aggression response session should end with a relaxation session. in group work, as well as in individual, it is necessary to widely apply various forms of art therapy with tasks that require compliance with certain rules (litvinenko, 2016). for example, group drawing with the transfer of the brush in a circle: each member of the group collects the paint, draws until the paint on the brush runs out, then washes the brush and passes it to the next participant. in case of mass traumatic situations (explosions, destruction of housing, hostage-taking, stay in basements, shelters) it is necessary to organize large-scale group work with children. to restore the normal psychological state of the child after the trauma, psychological work with the whole family is of great importance. as a result of the injury, normal child-parent ties are broken, symbiotic or forced-distance relations between the child and parents arise. these two psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok et al. 79 types of disorders of intra-family communication are often combined with each other: in domestic relationships there is a symbiotic relationship, while emotional contacts are significantly weakened. with the advent of dysfunctional forms of children's behavior, parents feel their incompetence and helplessness and involuntarily contribute to the consolidation of negative stereotypes of behavior in the child. if both parents and children experienced mental trauma during the war, the pace of recovery of their psychological state differs significantly. usually children return to normal emotional levels faster due to greater mental flexibility and adaptive capabilities. the condition of parents changes more slowly and prevents the normalization of the mental state of children. despite the fact that parents are concerned about providing support to their children, insufficient criticism of their own psychological state often forces them to avoid seeking psychological help. in this regard, special attention is paid to involving parents in working on their own psychological problems and difficulties. it is especially important to work with families in cases where the family structure is disrupted due to the death of a father or mother. at the same time, intra-family ties are sharply disrupted, as the functions of the deceased do not pass to another family member (andryushchenko, 2000). the most difficult category is male widowers raising young children. manifestation of daily care for the child is an unusual function for them. their emotional state can remain very difficult for a long time. this is reinforced by the common stereotype that seeking psychological help humiliates a man and indicates unacceptable weakness. grandparents, who are not always physically able to perform this role and also experience mental trauma, often take on a heavy burden. conclusions we can now predict quite broadly how children with intellectual disabilities react psychologically to war. after the impact of the atrocities of war, everyone is in danger. when entire communities are at war or in political violence, many children may suffer. although local and international organizations can treat children after (or during) war, the level of care needed for children can be reduced by acting early to prevent the symptoms that occur first (zavatskyi et al., 2020). the results of empirical research show that children with intellectual disabilities, who to varying degrees have become participants or witnesses of the horrors of war, have significant changes in physiological and psychoemotional states. almost all respondents show acusophobia, frequent mood broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 80 swings, problems with concentration, capricious, angry. children experience various fears, anxiety and restlessness, and worry a lot. they are in a state of emotional tension for a long time, have increased anxiety and try to avoid these difficulties, feel their own helplessness. the results of projective techniques, response processes and children's stories were dominated by images of destruction and drawings on military themes. that is why psychological support and assistance to children with intellectual disabilities who have survived an extreme situation should be provided, abandoning the usual treatment of symptoms, and considered as psychological support of the individual, aimed at positive change for integration and development of all levels of functioning. with this in mind, the specialist should keep this in mind. 1. the main and professional function of the psychologist in this work is to help the child in maintaining the existential contradictions that are inevitable in the process of change. to do this, you need to be empathetic and loving, not kind: this is the only way to keep an individual from a completely natural desire to escape from pain. 2. to really help a child you need to know a lot and take into account the degree of his intellectual disability. necessary knowledge about the features of positive and negative experiences of mental trauma, and about the internal difficulties that may inhibit the restructuring of the child's lifestyle, and the dynamics of experiencing the consequences of an extreme situation. 3. in addition to knowledge, practical skills are also needed it is important to master psychotechnics, which are the most adequate and effective at different stages of work with victims. it should be borne in mind that the work must be conducted at all levels of personality simultaneously (physical, social, psychological and spiritual). 4. it is important for a psychologist who works with children who have experienced an extreme situation to be in symbiosis with their own feelings that arise in the process of work. after all, a psychologist is inevitably exposed to the influence of his clients, whose condition can be contagious and traumatic. 5. personal maturity is also required to work with traumatized persons. the psychologist must be mentally stable, reliable. he is called to be aware of his strengths and to soberly assess his own limitations and his human vulnerability. when providing psychological assistance and support to children with intellectual disabilities who have experienced traumatic extreme situations, the psychologist must remember that their reactions are normal psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok et al. 81 and that there is no person who would not experience the consequences of crisis or extreme situations. therefore, the prospects for further research are the development of a program of support and psychological assistance to various categories of children in wartime for students of psychology and its implementation during higher education. references afanasenko, v., komar, t., potapchuk, n., vasylenko, o. m., podkorytova , l., & havrylkevych, v. (2021). socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a cause of conflicts in inclusive groups. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 01-17. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/188 andryushchenko, a.v. (2000). post-traumatic stress disorder in situations of loss of an object of extraordinary significance. psychiatry and psychopharmacotherapy, 2(4), 24. belova, l. o. (2014). reforming the education management system under the condition of decentralization of local self-government. current issues of public administration, 1, 109-118. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/apdy_ 2014_1_16 chupakhina, s. v. (2020). psykhofiziolohichni osoblyvosti ovolodinnya informatsiyno-komunikatsiynymy tekhnolohiyamy uchnyamy z intelektualʹnoyu nedostatnistyu [psychophysiological features of mastering information and communication technologies by students with intellectual disabilities]. visnyk natsionalʹnoho universytetu «chernihivsʹkyy kolehium» imeni tarasa shevchenka [bulletin of the national university «chernihiv collegium» named after taras shevchenko], 6(162), 156-166. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3731333 guillén-burgos, h.f. & gutiérrez-ruiz, k. (2018) avances genéticos en el trastorno por estrés postraumático [genetic advances in post-traumatic stress disorder]. revista colombiana de psiquiatría [colombian journal of psychiatry], 47, 108-118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcp.2016.12.001 havrylkevych, v., podkorytova, l., danylchuk, l., romanovska, l., kravchyna, t., & chovgan, o. (2021). psychological correction of parents’ attitude to their children with special educational needs by means of art therapy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 154-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/176 horishna, n., & maichuk, o. (2021). disorders of intellectual development in children: approaches to diagnosis. social work and education, 8(4). 528-539. https://doi.org/10.25128/2520-6230.21.4.9 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/188 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/apdy_%202014_1_16 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3731333 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcp.2016.12.001 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/176 https://doi.org/10.25128/2520-6230.21.4.9 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 82 horishna, n., polishchuk, v., slozanska, h., & hlavatska, o. (2020). trends in the development of inclusive education in ukraine. educational dimension, 55, 103-116. https://doi.org/10.31812/educdim.v55i0.3953 ilyashenko, t. (2021). problems of implementation of inclusive education of children with special educational needs in ukraine. acta paedagogica volynienses, (5), 150-157. isaeva, y. s. (2006). study of the influence of family relationships on the emergence of fears in children. social psychology, 5, 103-109. litvinenko, o. d. (2016). the problem of trauma in psychological science: basic views and approaches. bulletin of the i.i. mechnikov onu, 1(39), 180-186. http://dspace.onu.edu.ua:8080/bitstream/123456789/9563/1/180186.pdf matson, j. l., & issarraras, a. (2019). handbook of intellectual disabilities. springer. melnichuk, o. (2019). formation and development of inclusive education in ukraine. scientific notes of vinnytsia state pedagogical university named after mykhailo kotsyubynsky. series: history, 27, 54-60. https://doi.org/10.31.652/2411-2143-2019-27-54-60 mykyteichuk, k., perepeliuk, i., perkhun, l., bondarenko, y., yakovleva, s. & sydoruk, i. (2022). future teacher training for work in the inclusive education framework. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 14(2), 244-256. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.2/578 nichugovska, l. i., nikolenko, l. m., & vovchenko, g. o. (2021). formation of information competence of inclusive class students with intellectual disabilities. bulletin of the cherkasy bohdan khmelnytsky national university. series «pedagogical sciences», 1, 200-205. https://doi.org/10.31651/25242660-2021-1-200-205 pryadko, l. o., & furman, o. o. (2015). didactic bases of teaching children with intellectual disabilities: methodical manual. sumy. schalock, r. l., borthwick-duffy, s.a., buntinx, w. h. e., coulter, d. l., & craig, e. m. p. (2009). intellectual disability: definition, classification, and systems of supports (11th ed.). american association on intellectual and developmental disabilities. schalock, r. l., luckasson, r. a., shogren, k. a., borthwick-duffy, s., bradley, v., buntinx, w. h., coulter, d. l., craig, e. m., gomez, s. c., lachapelle, y., reeve a., snell, m. e., spreat, s., tassé, m. j., thompson, j. r., verdugo, m. a., wehmeyer, m. l., & yeager, m. h. (2007). the renaming of mental retardation: understanding the change to the term intellectual disability. journal of intellectual & developmental disability, 45(2), 116-24. https://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556(2007)45[116:tromru]2.0.co;2 shevchenko, yu. (2020). osoblyvosti rozvytku ditey z intelektualʹnymy porushennyamy v suchasnomu osvitnʹomu prostori [features of https://doi.org/10.31812/educdim.v55i0.3953 http://dspace.onu.edu.ua:8080/bitstream/123456789/9563/1/180-186.pdf http://dspace.onu.edu.ua:8080/bitstream/123456789/9563/1/180-186.pdf https://doi.org/10.31.652/2411-2143-2019-27-54-60 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.2/578 https://doi.org/10.31651/2524-2660-2021-1-200-205 https://doi.org/10.31651/2524-2660-2021-1-200-205 https://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556(2007)45%5b116:tromru%5d2.0.co;2 psychological support for children with intellectual disorders in war conditions alla rudenok et al. 83 development of children with intellectual disabilities in the modern educational space]. osoblyva dytyna: navchannya i vykhovannya [special child: education and upbringing] 3(96), 35-44. smith, p., diregrov, e., & yule w. (2014). children and war: learning healing techniques. ucu institute of mental health. sobchik, l. n. (2007). the color selection method is a modification of the eight-color luscher test. practical guide. rech. verbovsky, i. a. (2020). normatyvno-pravove rehulyuvannya orhanizatsiyi inklyuzyvnoyi osvity v ukrayini [regulatory regulation of the organization of inclusive education in ukraine]. in rozvytok suchasnoyi osvity i nauky: rezulʹtaty, problemy, perspektyvy [development of modern education and science: results, problems, prospects] (pp. 75-78). http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/32740/1/verbovskij.pdf voytiuk, i. v. (2020). correction of thinking of older preschool children with intellectual disabilities by means of non-traditional pictorial activity [ unpublished doctoral dissertation]. national pedagogical university named after m. p. drahomanov. wenger, a. l., morozova, e. i., & morozov, v. a. (2006). psikhologicheskaya pomoshch' detyam i podrostkam v chrezvychaynykh situatsiyakh [psychological assistance to children and adolescents in emergency situations (on the experience of working with the victims of the terrorist act in beslan)]. moscow journal of psychotherapy, 1, 131-159. https://www.twirpx.com/file/196308/ world health organization. (2021). international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (icd). world health organization. https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases yarmola, n. a. (2019). assessment of academic achievement of students with special educational needs in the context of inclusive education. in proceedings of the v international congress of special education, psychology and rehabilitation «children with special needs in the educational space» (pp. 249-251). symonenko. yul, w., & williams, r. m. (2001). an intervention strategy for mental trauma resulting from large-scale catastrophes. in child and adolescent psychotherapy (pp. 275-308). peter. zasenko, v., & kolupaeva, a. (2014). children with special needs: priority directions of the state policy of ukraine in the field of education, social protection and health care. osoblyva dytyna: navchannya i vykhovannya [special child: education and training], 3(71), 2029. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/711034/ zavatskyi, v. yu., piletska, l. s., zavatska, n. ye. semenov, о. s., blyskun, o. о., blynova, o. ye., yaremchuk, v. v., & popovych, i. s. (2020). systematic http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/32740/1/verbovskij.pdf https://www.twirpx.com/file/196308/ https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/711034/ broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 84 rehabilitation of student youth with post-traumatic stress disorders under conditions of the armed conflict in eastern ukraine. revista espacios, 41(6), 20. https://www.revistaespacios.com/a20v41n06/a20v41n 06p20.pdf https://www.revistaespacios.com/a20v41n06/a20v41n%2006p20.pdf https://www.revistaespacios.com/a20v41n06/a20v41n%2006p20.pdf ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 105-116 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/409 submitted: december 20th, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 4th, 2023 the mediating role of social support in the relationship between operational stress and well-being in military personnel ana-diana balcan1 1 matei basarab group of mobile gendarmes, ploieşti, romania, psiholog.anadianabalcan@gmail.com abstract: introduction. little is known about the activity of the military gendarmes in south-eastern europe, which involves managing high-risk missions. in order to understand the factors underlying wellbeing in this population, the aim was to examine the relationship between operational stress and well-being, as well as the mediating role of social support and coping strategies. methodology. this a cross-sectional corellational study of the relationship between perceived operational stress and well-being. moreover, the mediating role of social support and coping strategies (seeking social support, positive reassessment, self-control) was examined. results. stress has a significant negative effect on well-being. social support, but not the coping strategies, acts as a mediator of the relationship between operational stress and well-being. discussions and conclusions.the results have implications for improving the overall wellbeing of military gendarmes, by developing intervention strategies focused on raising awareness of the importance of social support, increasing perceptions of available support, understanding supplier value and developing skills to provide support within the military organization. keywords: operational stress; well-being; social support; coping strategies; self-control; military gendarmes. how to cite: balcan, a.-d. (2023). the mediating role of social support in the relationship between operational stress and well-being in military personnel. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 105-116. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/409 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/409 mailto:psiholog.anadianabalcan@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/409 the mediating role of social support in the relationship between operational ... ana-diana balcan 106 1. introduction constant exposure to stressors has significant effects on the health of emergency service personnel (nielsen et al., 2011). in particular, the specific tasks and responsibilities of public safety and order personnel place them in countless stressful situations, which can have a significant impact on mental health and performance (garbarino et al., 2013). the specialized literature identifies two categories of factors that police officers face, with an impact on their well-being and mental health: operational and organizational stressors. they generate various problems, such as depression, anxiety, burnout (garbarino et al., 2013), ptsd (violanti et al., 2007) or family problems (kapade-nikam & shaikh, 2014). organizational stress factors refer to work schedule, high workload or organizational changes (baron & kenny, 1986; purba & demou, 2019). the operational stress factors are found in the specific activity of the military gendarmerie, including: missions with a high degree of risk, permanent confrontation with criminals, interaction with citizens and their problems, the risk of being injured, exposure to hostile attitudes, long hours, over normal working hours. studies focused on analyzing police activity indentified the significant but smaller impact of organizational stress on well-being, compared operational stress (brough, 2004; brough & o'driscoll, 2005). operational stress, to which this study refers, has significant negative effects on the well-being of military and police officers, leading to increased alcohol consumption, reduced productivity, difficult relationships with superiors and colleagues, and reduced performance (williamson et al., 2018). in identifying the resources that help prevent stress impact, the literature refers to social support, either as a direct contributor to well-being (direct effect model, wheaton, 1985), or as a moderator of the stress-wellbeing relationship (hypothesis buffer, cohen & wills, 1985). when faced with stressors, high social support has been associated with increased wellbeing and reduced mental health problems (beehr & mcgrath, 1992). social support is a stress-reducing factor (etzion, 1984), being able to damage its direct association with well-being (chao, 2012). however, the role of social support as a response to the stressors faced by military gendarmes has not been analyzed to date. when faced with stressors, soldiers can adopt both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies (hart et al., 1994). the study investigates the mediating role of coping strategies: positive reappraisal (by identifying the positive effects of stress factors), the search for social support (in the form of informational, tangible or emotional support) and self-control in the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 107 management of actions and emotions (folkman & lazarus, 1986) in the case of military gendarmes confrunted with operational stress. 2. research overview and hypotheses based on the previously mentioned theoretical framework, but taking into account the lack of research investigating the impact of stress on the well-being of military gendarmes, we formulated the following hypotheses: hypothesis h1: operational stress perceived by military gendarmes significantly negatively predicts well-being. hypotheses h2: social support mediates the relationship between operational stress perceived by military gendarmes and well-being. hypothesis h3: positive refocusing, seeking social support and self-control mediate the relationship between military gendarmes' operational stress and well-being. 3. method 3.1. measures operational police stress questionnaire (psq-op, mccreary et al. 2013) instrument composed of 20 items, evaluates the stress factors associated with the performance of specific activities, missions. each item ("risk of being injured at work") is rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 ("not at all stressful") to 7 ("very stressful") with 4 indicating moderate stress. cronbach's alpha for this study was .96. the ways of coping scale (wcs, folkamn & lazarus, 1985) instrument composed of 66 items, structured in the following dimensions: (1) confrontational coping, measured by items such as: "i did something that i didn't think would work, but the little did i do something"; (2) distancing, measured by items such as "i continued as if nothing had happened"; (3) self-control, measured by items such as “i tried to hide my emotions”; (4) seeking social support, measured by items such as "i accepted understanding and sympathy from someone"; (5) acceptance of responsibility, measured by items such as "i apologized or did something to make up for it"; (6) avoidance, measured by items such as "i slept more than usual"; (7) problem solving, as measured by items such as “i made a plan of action and followed it”; (8) positive refocusing, measured by items such as "i was inspired to do something creative." items are scored on a 4-point likert scale from 0 (not at all used) to 3 (very much used). in this study only the adaptive coping strategies were used in the analysis: seeking social support, positive refocusing and self-control. cronbach's alphas for this coping strategies the mediating role of social support in the relationship between operational ... ana-diana balcan 108 ranged bewteen .78 and .88 (self-control scale: .88; seeking social support: 78; positive refocusing: .852). psychological well-being scale (pwbs, ryff, 1989) instrument made up of 42 items divided into 6 subscales: autonomy (“i trust my opinions even if they are contrary to the general opinion”), control over the environment (“i managed to build my a home and a lifestyle that is to my liking”), personal development (“i think it's important to have new experiences that challenge the way you think about the world”), positive relationships with others (“i like personal and shared conversations with family members or friends”), purpose in life (“i like to make plans for the future and make them come true”) and self-acceptance (“the past had its ups and downs, but in general i would not want to exchange”) and score on a 6-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). cronbach's alpha for this study was .88. interpersonal support evaluation list (isel, cohen et al., 1985) measures the functional components of social support and consists of 40 items. cronbach's alpha for this study was .85. 3.2. procedure the study involved testing individually according to individual consent. the research objectives were communicated to the subjects and anonymity and confidentiality were ensured. subjects were informed of the possibility to withdraw from the studio at any time. the study procedure and the instruments administered were fully compliant with the declaration of helsinki and the university's code of ethics. 3.3. participants the sample consisted of 210 military gendarmes, 202 men (96.19%), 8 women (16.8%). the average age of the participants was 38.52 years, and the standard deviation was sd= 8.92. 3.4. statistical analysis 3.4.1. preliminary analysis the first step was represented by the descriptive and correlational analyzes made using spss 28.0.1.0 software. we calculated means, standard deviations, and pearson correlations between study variables. the second step proposed and analyzed two mediation models using model 4 (hayes, 2018) of process version 4.0 with ibm spss 28. we adopted 5000 bootstrap samples by constructing bootstrap-based confidence intervals to estimate broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 109 intervals of 95% confidence (hayes, 2017). confidence intervals that do not include zero indicate significant effects (hayes & scharkow, 2013). mediation analysis was conducted to verify the mediating role of social support and coping strategies: social support seeking, positive refocusing, and self-control in the relationship between operational stress and wellbeing. the means and standard deviations for the main variables, together with the pearson correlation coefficients can be consulted in the table below table no.1. the results show a number of significant correlations. operational stress correlates significantly negatively with well-being (r= 0.365, p < 0.01), social support (r= -0.269, p < 0.01), positive refocusing (r= -0.291, p< 0.01), seeking social support (r=-0.230, p < 0.01) and self-control (r=-0.306, p < 0.01). social support correlates significantly positively with well-being (r=0.342, p < 0.01). table 1 pearson correlations among the variables of the study variable measures correlations m sd 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. operational stress 36.17 18.38 1 -.365** -.269** -.291** -.230** -.306** 2. wellbeing 105.50 60.71 -.365** 1 .342** .216** .174* .272** 3. social support 29.20 6.15 -.259** .342** 1 .103 .276** .121 4. positive refocusing 16.58 3.21 -.291** .216** .103 1 .265** .452** 5. seeking social support 14.46 2.80 -.230** .174* .276** .265** 1 .211** 6. self control 16.42 3.51 -.306** .272** .121 .452** .211** 1 note. **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed); *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). source: author's own conception the mediating role of social support in the relationship between operational ... ana-diana balcan 110 3.4.2. mediation analysis note: * p < .05; ** p < .01; ***p < .001 source: author's own conception figure 1 mediation analysis: operational stresswell being, with social support as a mediator note: * p < .05; ** p < .01; ***p < .001 source: author's own conception figure 2 mediation analysis: operational stresswell being, with social support, positive refocusing, seeking social support and selfcontrol as mediators the first model of the study tested the predictive effect of operational stress on well-being and the mediating role of social support. the second model of the study tested both the predictive effect of operational stress on well-being and the mediating role of social support and coping strategies: social support seeking, positive refocusing, and selfbroad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 111 control. multiple regression analysis was performed to estimate the components of the mediation model. for the first and the second models, the direct effect of operational stress on well-being was statistically significant and negative (β = -0.9780; p<.001 and, respectivelly, β = -0.7858; p<.001), confirming the first hypothesis h1. in the first model, the relationship between operational stress and well-being was partially mediated by social support, confirming hypothesis h2. (figure 1). both the direct effect of operational stress (c' = -0.7858; 95% ci [-1.2277; -.3438) and the indirect effect of social support (a1*b1 = -.4192; 95% ci [-.6647; .1710]) are statistically significant because the confidence interval does not include 0. this demonstrates that social support partially mediates the relationship between organizational stress and well-being, as the direct path still remains significant. therefore, hypothesis h2 is confirmed. in the second model, the relationship between operational stress and well-being was partially mediated by social support, confirming hypothesis h3. (figure 2). the indirect effects of positive refocusing (a2*b2 = -.0531; 95% ci [-.01993; .0838]), seeking social support (a3*b3 = -.0031; 95% ci [.1157; .1308] and self-control (a4*b4 = -.1436; 95% ci [-.3160; .0055] are statistically insignificant because the confidence interval includes 0. therefore, hypothesis h3 is rejected. also, in the second model, the results showed that operational stress significantly negatively predicted social support (β = -0.0865; p<.001), positive refocusing (β =0.0509; p<.001), seeking social support (β = 0.0351; p<.001) and self-control (β = -0.0585; p<.001). 4. discussion through the two mediation models analyzed by the present study, both the significantly negative effect of operational stress on well-being and the protective role of social support are demonstrated. social support have a mediating role in the relationship between stress and well-being, which turns it into an important external resource of the military gendarmerie in the confrontation with specific work risks. but adaptive coping strategies, positive reappraisal, the search for social support, and self-control does not explain the link between operational stress on well-being. the stress associated with long working hours, overloading with tasks, the risk of being injured or frequent exposure to anti-social acts directly affects the well-being of military gendarmes. the result is in agreement with previous research that mentioned operational factors as an the mediating role of social support in the relationship between operational ... ana-diana balcan 112 important source of stress for personnel working in the field of public order and safety (violanti et al., 2016), being significantly associated with the wellbeing of the military (mcdougall & drummond, 2010) and leading to police officer burnout and dissatisfaction (gershon, 2000). a protective factor that can mitigate the negative effects of stress on the well-being of military gendarmes is social support. military gendarmerie who enjoy the support of the people they belong to, both family and friends or colleagues, experience a lower level of operational stress and have a higher state of well-being, compared to soldiers who do not enjoy social support. social support has a significant positive effect on well-being. this result provides a complement to previous studies by referring to the gendarmerie military population, along with those that mentioned the significant predictive effect of social support on well-being, among police personnel (rodwell et al., 2011) or that of security services emergency (shakespeare-finch et al., 2015). operational stress correlates significantly negatively with social support. social support is thus an external resource with a protective role, offering military gendarmerie an adaptive threat in the sense of reducing the tension associated with specific missions. the sense of belonging provided to military gendarmes by social support can facilitate beneficial communication for managing stressors and improving well-being. the mediation of coping strategies was found to be non-significant. in the case of military gendarmes, a significant partial mediation of social support was preserved. reducing the negative effect of stress factors can be done both through the direct action of social support and through the buffering effect (beehr et al., 1990; cohen & wills, 1985). emotional and tangible social support provides supportive relationships that mitigate the effects of potentially traumatic events specific to professional activity (beehr et al., 1990). the study has important practical implications by raising awareness of the need to develop intervention programs in order to strengt the social support network of military gendarmes, as well as to educate the support behavior. the psychological well-being of military gendarmes can be supported by an organizational culture of mutual support, provided by managers and mental health specialists, as well as by offering strategies to manage negative behavior or stressful situations at work. 5. limitations and future directions first of all, the data collection was carried out through quantitative measurements, by administering some self-report scales, which limits the complex investigation of the association between the analyzed variables. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 113 future studies should therefore be oriented towards dynamic measurements, which also address qualitative aspects in the nuanced understanding of the types of social support used by military gendarmes and in investigating its relationship with other variables that can be associated with well-being. second, the obtained results must be interpreted in the context of the sample represented by a single military unit. future studies can be extended to other public safety and order workers. also, future research could analyze the cultural implications, given the military's mistrust of mental health professionals and the difficulty of investigating stress at the level of strong organizational cultures, where resilient personalities operate who consider the display of difficulties a sign of weakness. 6. conclusion this paper investigates how the stress associated with frequent highrisk missions affects the well-being of military gendarmes. considering the fundamental role that this category of personnel has for maintaining public order and safety, the results obtained are of particular importance. first, this research claims that operational stress significantly negatively predicts the well-being of military gendarmes. second, the results show that social support significantly mediates the relationship between operational stress and well-being, but not the adaptive coping strategies. social support becomes an important external resource, with the help of which the military gendarmerie can mitigate or reduce the negative impact of operational stress. acknowledgement this article is part of the ph.d. project stress and well-being in military personnel, written by ph.d. student ana-diana balcan, under the coordination of prof. univ. dr. maria nicoleta turliuc. references baron, r. m., & kenny, d. a. (1986). the moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. journal of personality and social psychology, 51(6), 1173-1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 beehr, t. a., & mcgrath, j. e. (1992). social support, occupational stress and anxiety. anxiety, stress & coping: an international journal, 5(1), 7–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615809208250484 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/10615809208250484 the mediating role of social support in the relationship between operational ... ana-diana balcan 114 beehr, t. a., king, l. a., & king, d. w. (1990). social support and occupational stress: talking to supervisors. journal of vocational behavior, 36(1), 61–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(90)90015-t brough, p. (2004). comparing the influence of traumatic and organizational stressors on the psychological health of police, fire, and ambulance officers. international journal of stress management, 11(3), 227–244. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.11.3.227 brough, p., & o’driscoll, m. (2005). work-family conflict and stress. in a. antoniou & c. cooper (eds.), a research companion to organizational health psychology (pp. 346-365). edward elgar. chao, r. c‐l. (2012). managing perceived stress among college students: the roles of social support and dysfunctional coping. journal of college counseling, 15(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2012.00002.x cohen, s., & wills, t. a. (1985). stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. psychological bulletin, 98(2), 310–357. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.310 etzion, d. (1984). moderating effect of social support on the stress–burnout relationship. journal of applied psychology, 69(4), 615–622. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.69.4.615 folkman, s., lazarus, r. s., dunkel-schetter, c., delongis, a., & gruen, r. j. (1986). dynamics of a stressful encounter: cognitive appraisal, coping, and encounter outcomes. journal of personality and social psychology, 50(5), 992– 1003. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.5.992 garbarino, s., cuomo, g., chiorri.c., & magnavita, n. (2013). association of work-related stress with mental health problems in a special police force unit. bmj open, 3(7), e002791. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013002791 gershon, r. (2000). national institute of justice final report: “project shields”. national institute of justice. https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/national-institute-justice-finalreport-project-shields hart, p. m., wearing, a. j., & headey, b. (1994). perceived quality of life, personality, and work experiences: construct validation of the police daily hassles and uplifts scales. criminal justice and behavior, 21(3), 283–311. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854894021003001 hayes, a. f. (2017). introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. guilford press. hayes, a. f. (2018). introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach (methodology in the social sciences) (2nd ed.). guilford press. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(90)90015-t https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.11.3.227 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2012.00002.x https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.310 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0021-9010.69.4.615 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.5.992 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-002791 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-002791 https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/national-institute-justice-final-report-project-shields https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/national-institute-justice-final-report-project-shields https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854894021003001 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 115 hayes, a. f., & scharkow, m. (2013). the relative trustworthiness of inferential tests of the indirect effect in statistical differences in analysis: does method really matter? psychological science, 24, 1918-1927. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613480187 kapade-nikam, p., & shaikh, m. (2014). occupational stress, burnout and coping in police personnel: findings from a systematic review. american international journal of research in humanities, art and social sciences, 14(377), 144–148. http://iasir.net/aijrhasspapers/aijrhass14-377.pdf mcdougall, l., & drummond, p. d. (2010). personal resources moderate the relationship between work stress and psychological strain of submariners. military psychology, 22(4), 385–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/08995605.2010.513231 nielsen, m. b., mearns, k., matthiesen, s. b., & eid, j. (2011). using the job demands– resources model to investigate risk perception, safety climate and job satisfaction in safety critical organizations. scandinavian journal of psychology, 52(5), 465-475. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14679450.2011.00885.x purba, a., & demou, e. (2019). the relationship between organisational stressors and mental wellbeing within police officers: a systematic review. bmc public health, 19(1), 1286. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7609-0 rodwell, j. j., noblet, a. j., & allisey, a. f. (2011). improving employee outcomes in the public sector: the beneficial effects of social support at work and job control. personnel review 40(3), 383–397. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111118676 shakespeare-finch, j., rees, a., & armstrong, d. (2015). social support, selfefficacy, trauma and well-being in emergency medical dispatchers. social indicators research, 123(2), 549–565. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-0140749-9 violanti, j. m., andrew, m., burchfiel, c. m., hartley, t. a., charles, l. e., & miller, d. b. (2007). post-traumatic stress symptoms and cortisol patterns among police officers. policing: an international journal of police strategies & management, 30(2), 189–202. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639510710753207 violanti, j. m., fekedulegn, d., hartley, t. a., charles, l. e., andrew, m. e., ma, c. c., & burchfiel, c. m. (2016). highly rated and most frequent stressors among police officers: gender differences. american journal of criminal justice, 41(4), 645–662. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-016-9342-x wheaton, b. (1985). models for the stress-buffering functions of coping resources. journal of health and social behavior, 26(4), 352–364. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136658 https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613480187 http://iasir.net/aijrhasspapers/aijrhass14-377.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/08995605.2010.513231 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2011.00885.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2011.00885.x https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7609-0 https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111118676 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0749-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0749-9 https://doi.org/10.1108/13639510710753207 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-016-9342-x https://doi.org/10.2307/2136658 the mediating role of social support in the relationship between operational ... ana-diana balcan 116 williamson, v., diehle, j., dunn, r., jones, n., & greenberg, n. (2018). the impact of military service on health and well-being. occupational medicine, 69(1), 64–70. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqy139 https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqy139 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 17-28 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/266 foreign language competence development of university students and its evaluation in the context of modern neuroscience ruslana dovhanchyna¹, roksolana povoroznyuk2, svitlana kyrychenko3, anastasiia petrova4, nataliia bailiuk5, bogdana kolodii6 1 taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, educational and scientific institute of philology, kyiv, ukraine, dovganchina@ukr.net 2 taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, educational and scientific institute of philology, kyiv, ukraine, salina.sunset@gmail.com 3 admiral makarov national university of shipbuilding, mykolaiv, ukraine, svitlana.kyrychenko@nuos.edu.ua 4 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, nastyapetroff@ukr.net 5 odessа polytechnic state university, odessa, ukraine nataliia.bailiuk@opu.ua 6 taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, educational and scientific institute of philology, kyiv, ukraine, danah13ua@gmail.com abstract: the article reviews the literature, the main trends and prospects for building and, to a greater extent, evaluation of foreign language competence with university students in the context of modern neuroscience. for the first time, neuroscientific aspects in the now common methods of evaluation of foreign language competencies are determined and the expediency of using the associative method as an effective development and evaluative tool is substantiated. it is found that the neuro-approach at the level of linguodidactics in the evaluation and building linguistic and communicative competencies with students is possible with appropriate and methodically modeled actualization of logical-associative relations of free subjective meanings of words and obligatory (paradigmatic) meanings. the international significance of the article lies in its summary nature related to the methods of evaluating foreign language competencies, determining the relative universality and accessibility of the associative method as the most accessible of the neurooriented and accessible to the average higher education language teacher. keywords: evaluation, neurocognitive mechanisms, subjectivity, methods, associative experiment. how to cite: dovhanchyna, r., povoroznyuk, r., kyrychenko, s., petrova, a., bailiuk, n., & kolodii, b. (2022). foreign language competence development of university students and its evaluation in the context of modern neuroscience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 17-28. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/266 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/266 mailto:dovganchina@ukr.net mailto:salina.sunset@gmail.com mailto:svitlana.kyrychenko@nuos.edu.ua mailto:nastyapetroff@ukr.net mailto:nataliia.bailiuk@opu.ua mailto:danah13ua@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/266 foreign language competence development of university students and its … ruslana dovhanchyna, et al. 18 introduction development and assessment of foreign language competencies in today's globalized world with new rapidly changing challenges is a significant problem. if previously the triad “knowledge – experience – skills” in foreign languages has been relevant for decades, now the configuration of competencies is different: it is necessary to develop and evaluate language ability taking into account natural neurocognitive processes that correlate with the ability to solve practical problems of today, potential for making flexible decisions, perspective orientation, etc. (melnyk et al., 2019; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; onishchuk et al., 2020; purpura, 2016). for over a century, the world has used a scale of levels for foreign language proficiency from a1 (survival level) to c2 – the level of perfect command, but the content and functional meaning of these levels require a revision of the principles and methods of evaluating foreign language competence. scientists point out that the next stage of revision of the developmental and evaluative principles of foreign language competence, which would take into account neurolinguistic, digital, intercultural and other new conditions, is currently relevant (turnbull, 2017). modern linguodidacts (even those who have no command of the basics in neuroscience) intuitively understand: a professional bilingual should possess a foreign language in compliance with such psychologically and neurophysiologically oriented principles as naturalness, automatism, speed of speech reaction, authenticity, flexibility (garcía, 2017). reforming a foreign language education should combine scientific and natural approaches (creese et al., 2014; melnyk et al., 2021; nerubasska et al., 2020). all this suggests the need for a comprehensive tetralateral (four-aspect) approach in building and evaluation of foreign language competencies: taking into account neurophysiology – the needs of interpersonal communication – intercultural communication – digital communication. if taking only a personal plan, then foreign language competence still looks more widespread than 10-20 years ago. a professional bilingual is a person who can not only communicate in a foreign language in order to solve professional problems, but also argue, transform, illustrate with facts and opinions, determine contexts, draw conclusions, make hypotheses, etc. as we can see, these complex (although, at first glance, partial) competencies show a close connection with the neuropsychological category of active subjectivity, reflexivity and activity. on the other hand, it is necessary to build competencies that are inherent and manifested in the group of native speakers: typical associations, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/dosearch?contribauthorstored=purpura%2c+james+e brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 19 concepts (mental linguistic formations), language efficiency of the team, corporate language, etc. despite the importance of analysis and description of the collective psycholinguistic portrait of firms, companies and corporations in terms of their speech and communication efficiency (see next section) at the present stage it is clear: only the principle of building and evaluation “from bottom – up to top” gives good result in terms of valid evaluation and developing foreign language competencies. at the same time, a great importance belongs to the self-assessment and awareness of the subject in the linguodidactic process, its naturalness and connection with the existing conditions of communication, which determines the nature of modern higher linguistic education. finally, the fact that modern students find it most difficult to construct spontaneous and improvised oral speech, which indicates problems in the levels and depth of internalization of a foreign language, gives special relevance to the topic of this article. this encourages the search for methods of development and evaluation of foreign language competencies, taking into account natural neuropsychological patterns. markers of high neurocognitive learning of a foreign language are the lack of stress, flexibility, associativity, appropriateness of the use of psycho-energy resources, the ability to switch, etc. thus, the aim of the article is to analyze methods of building and evaluation of foreign language competencies with students in terms of neuroscientific approach and justification of one of these methods as relatively accessible and universal for language teachers who do not have special neurophysiological knowledge and appropriate equipment. neuroscientific aspects of evaluation of mental and neurological processes in learning – perception – use of a foreign language modern neuroscience, which is deeply integrated with the humanities, takes a new approach to the problem of evaluating language and other socionic competencies. thus, s. volk, t. köhler and m. pudelko consider evaluation of a foreign or second language not in terms of the interpersonal effect of the use of foreign languages, but in terms of “intrapersonal, cognitive processes that affect overall performance of employees” (volk et al., 2014). scientists believe that it is necessary to develop evaluation models that take into account the cognitive processing of perception and reproduction of a foreign language. from the point of view of resourcefulness such processing is energy consuming and nonlinear. that foreign language competence development of university students and its … ruslana dovhanchyna, et al. 20 is, it gradually depletes mental resource, which “can lead to biased decisionmaking and reduced self-regulation” (volk et al., 2014). this approach is valid for group (collective) evaluation of the use of corporate foreign language, which affects activities of the organization, has practical implications for business, socionics and service sphere. however, the main problem of the neuroscientific approach to foreign language evaluation is whether it is possible to use the tools of neuroimaging of lexical-semantic and grammatical cognitive processing of information by a bilingual. on the other hand, the problem arises as to “whether it is possible to process l2 by the same neural mechanism underlying collection and processing of l1” (second language and first language) (abutalebi, 2008). j. abutalebi provides experimental evidence that the second language is learned on the basis of the same neurostructures as the first one. however, since the second (foreign) language is studied, as a rule, by a more mature person, its neural assimilation occurs at “more expanded activity of the nervous system” (abutalebi, 2008). these developments can be used in the humanities (pedagogy, psychology) in the evaluation of language competencies, if taking into account: cognitive processing of the native language is stronger and more automated, and a foreign one is less fixed by experience and weaker, it is less automated (more controlled by the individual). it is also possible to neurovisually study “competition and conflict” between languages, which can expand the range of diagnostic tools in the socio-humanities. in neuroscientific approaches to evaluation of foreign language competencies, the concept of “control” appears more often than “monitoring” and “evaluation”. neuroscientists focus not so much on measuring linguistic knowledge as on issues of language representation, efficiency, and management, which can be measured by neuroimaging methods and analyzed by an appropriate methodological categorical apparatus. so far, despite significant advancement in neuroscience, a direct link between neural representation of the “second language” and its functional efficiency with an individual has not been found. however, it is proved that “speech production by bilinguals is a dynamic process that includes cortical and subcortical structures that use excitation / inhibition processes to solve problems of lexical competition when choosing language tools” (abutalebi & green, 2007). this pattern can be used in the development of actual pedagogical tools for “measuring” the relationship between native and foreign languages. evaluation and control of language competence at a team (company) level can generate data on the overall psychological portrait of the group, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 21 and hence its effectiveness. thus, in 2009 an evaluation of the foreign language competence of subsidiaries of finland and china was conducted. these companies were located abroad. structured interviews with the company management and their psycholinguistic and performance analysis showed that “subsidiaries with low language competence were controlled more by centralization and formalization than divisions with high language competence” (björkman & piekkari, 2009). at the same time, the language competence of the support staff had almost no effect on the psycholinguistic portrait of the company. such studies prove relevance of psycho and neurolinguistic control of the core of the team (group), which determines its linguistic and social effectiveness in general. neuropsychologists have also suggested that the use of a foreign language should cause a slowdown in thinking by increasing load on the areas responsible for information processing. the latter is generated mentally in the native language and is subject to simultaneous internal translation. the truth of this hypothesis was proved by conducting an experiment with divided attention (the experiment involved anglo-japanese and japanese-english bilinguals) (takano & noda, 1993). certain theses from the results of this study can be used in linguodidactics, specifically: a) decrease in mental activity differs from difficulties of translation; b) the efficiency of language tasks in a foreign language is always lower than in the native language; c) decreased mental efficiency is observed even in other types of thinking (when performing several unrelated tasks). neuropsychological studies were also performed to determine whether there was a noticeable additional load on the total working memory (wm) in the perception of a foreign language. the following thesis was postulated: the native language is fully automated, a foreign one – partially. at that, participants of the experiment evaluated themselves the sentences heard in a foreign language in terms of understanding and memorized the last word of each sentence by recognizing the displayed pictures. at the same time, the sentences increased in size each time, and after each act of perception it was necessary to remember all the last words. simultaneously, duration of recalling was determined. the sentences alternated and were presented either in the native language of the participants of the experiment or in the second language learned. the result is predictable: perception and recollection of sentences in a foreign language created deficit of working memory, and the quality and accuracy of recollection-reproduction in the native language was higher (service et al., 2002). similar experiments were performed on the processing of written texts, phonological short-term memory and language differences/similarities. the general principle relevant foreign language competence development of university students and its … ruslana dovhanchyna, et al. 22 for linguodidactics was made: with practice the speed and quality of comprehension of sentences in a foreign language increases, and the load on the resources of thinking and memory decreases. such psycholinguistic evaluation can also be considered as a multifaceted time-stretched evaluation. analysis of the above neuro-oriented linguodidactic literature shows that it is necessary to look for neurolinguistic aspects in the actual didactic methods in order to make it possible to take into account and use these aspects by the average teacher who has no special neuroscientific training and tools for neuroimaging of foreign language speech processes. substantiation of associative formative-diagnostic experiment as a method “between didactics and neuro” in modern european universities there is a gradual departure from the universal method of testing and the like, and methods for determining foreign language knowledge, rather than functions have long been a thing of the past. even in the post-soviet republics from where the author comes from, traditional testing in foreign language learning is actively supplemented by natural ways of using language: establishing the amount of acquired meanings of words and their associations, spontaneous generation of oral and written foreign discourse, creative rather than reproductive methods, etc. it is clear that evaluation of foreign language competencies on the basis of a neuro-approach (it is a methodological reflection of the natural processes of speech thinking) should be diagnostic and formative. communicative competencies, which are currently among the top five key competencies of the modern adult, are the main goal of the neurodidactic approach. communication in a foreign language is a complex neurocognitive process that is developed, evaluated and functions syncretically, so it is necessary to teach and simultaneously monitor effectiveness of acquisition of bilingual status by students (turnbull, 2017). the search for a universal or at least the most accessible to the teacher neurolinguistically oriented method of building and evaluation of foreign language competencies, which would take into account all aspects, allowed to distinguish the associative experiment. researchers point out that “such an experiment diagnoses not only knowledge of a foreign language, but also flexibility of thinking, the ability to establish syntagmatic and paradigmatic connections, feel the peripheral semantics of lexical items and use linguistic richness in generating coherent oral text” (khirzoeva, 2008). at the same time, it is both a developmental and an evaluative method. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 23 this method uses both the actual language mechanisms and builds the actual language competencies (the ability to establish syntagmatic and paradigmatic connections, use linguistic richness in generating coherent oral text, feel the peripheral semantics of lexical items) and neurolinguistic (flexibility of thinking), establishing connections between referents and denotations of lexical items, feelings and expressions of the linguistic collective consciousness (concepts), etc. despite the fact that the language associative experiment was invented in the early xx century, only in the xxi century it got a new lease of life in the fold of cognitive, neuroand psycholinguistics, as it correlates with the theory of neural connections. the latter in linguistic terms clearly manifests itself in mental linguistic theory (thumb & marbe, 1901). scientists suggest that the key concepts in the system of metaphorical, associative, logical linguistic connections are a specific cognitive (individual, and in most cases collective) construct – concept. it can be measured within the framework of an associative experiment both as a personal and as a corporate entity. instead, the classical approach to speech professional competencies offers to consider the necessary skills for knowledge of language units and their practical use (creation of oral or written speech). we agree that such first level of interiorization of a foreign language is validly evaluated through tests, translation and conversation. instead, foreign speech as a product of deep neurostructures requires not only a logical but also an irrational individual approach, which is “diagnosed by constructing concepts in the form of a lexical-semantic field or, using an associative experiment, an associative-semantic field” (sternin, 2001). obtaining a bachelor degree involves not only professional (from b 2), but also the most natural mastery of a foreign language, so we propose to diagnose the individual associative structure of the word by analogy with the structure of the concept. this process can be final in reflecting the associative experiment. in order to confirm the effectiveness of the associative neurolinguistic method of building and evaluation of foreign language competencies, we briefly describe our own experience of its application. on the basis of the faculty of foreign languages, an associative experiment was conducted to evaluate foreign language competencies by establishing individual associations between full words of a foreign language. there are 5,000 to 6,000 such words in each indo-european language, but the 50 most commonly used full words were chosen by random sampling. after that, the teacher read the lexical items in random order, and students foreign language competence development of university students and its … ruslana dovhanchyna, et al. 24 had 5-7 seconds to record blitz associations. the maximum number of the latter was not limited and ranged from 3 to 7 in the control and experimental groups. professional mastery of a foreign language is not only knowledge of meanings of learned words, but also development of one’s own idiostyle, development of usual and individual (occasional) linguistic neural connections. scientists note: “these processes in a linear form occur almost unconsciously (actualization of the relationship between the referent and his verbal objectification)” (khirzoeva, 2008) therefore, such connections can be evaluated only indirectly and in an accelerated mode. therefore, the associative experiment is the most valid: it allows to identify not so much semantic connections as connections between external stimuli-excitants, verbalized instantly. the speed and nature of associations allow to conclude about the quality of ownership and the degree of interiorization of foreign language units. at the next stage of the linguistic associative experiment, we collected a maximum number of associations to a small number of words without time limit. at this stage, each student was offered one lexical unit and an unlimited amount of time (up to an hour or more). the student had the opportunity to comprehend and arbitrarily explain meanings and essence of the selected associations. at this stage, the maximum scope of the individual concept was clarified. the last stage of the research is building an individual concept on the basis of all the maximum possible meanings of a single word and definition of its associative and subjective meanings. the method of free associations was used, which essentially illustrated logical and emotional thinking (emotional intelligence) taking into account all types of associations. at this stage, researchers propose to establish types of relationships, inventory associations and subjectively explain their origin (sternin, 2001). as it was confirmed, the most striking neuropsychological markers in the experiment were: a) the ratio of individual frequency of associations to the total number of lexical units; b) the presence of clichéd combinations in speech; c) psychological indicators (spontaneity, speed, emotionally colored values, intention, etc.). quantitative and qualitative methods, neuropsychological and linguistic interpretation of data, in particular correspondence of volume of obligatory and individual values of the individual dictionary, speed and quality of their reproduction were expediently used at processing of results. such values were compared with those required for the content of education at this stage. subsequently, such data were evaluated against the background brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 25 of other, broader competencies and in the dynamics of the repeated associative experiment (hu, 2002). thus, the associative experiment can be not only a means of building and evaluating foreign language competence, but also a tool for constructing concepts or individual associative-semantic field of the native or foreign language (mubarakshina et al., 2016). repeating such experiment can determine cognitive dynamics and dynamics of the sense of language during study of the language by students (aghababyan, 2016). it is confirmed that the associative experiment can be used not only during evaluation, but also during development of foreign language competence. for this purpose, students learn obligatory paradigmatic relations, gain during training and communication the experience of establishing typical associations; developing new connections during professional activities (aghababyan, 2016). the opinion of scientists is confirmed, in which the associative experiment develops a possible flexible use of connections: “the first wordreaction, the second word-reaction, each subsequent one from the previous one; the whole chain of associations that coordinate themselves” (mukhametzyanova & shayakhmetova, 2014). among negative aspects of the associative experiment as a method of linguodidactics should be distinguished contamination, blurring of nuclear values, so this method cannot be abused in teaching (benjamin & rahman, 2016). it must be combined with classical methods of language learning and encourage bilinguals to build and use an individual thesaurus in changing contexts, living discourse. conclusion thus, analysis of modern neurocognitive approaches and their extrapolation into the field of building-evaluation of foreign language competencies with university students (with elements of implementation in the educational process) proved: for unprepared linguodidact in neuroscience the most valid is the associative experiment, a method that harmoniously combines and takes into account the actual linguistic and neurocognitive patterns of lexicon expansion. this method can be considered relatively universal and such that allows to “penetrate” into the individual conceptual “world” of the student, to determine his language profile and idiosyncrasy. foreign language competence development of university students and its … ruslana dovhanchyna, et al. 26 as a result of generalization of experimental data, it was proved: the connection between thematic relations and conceptual representations of concrete concepts does not always coincide, has individual differences. it is also proved that syntagmatic and paradigmatic connections between words and their referents not only provide material for diagnosing the scope and flexibility of speech neural connections, but also develop the ability to spontaneously actualize usual and subjective meanings. accordingly, the neuro-approach at the level of linguodidactics in the evaluation and building of linguistic and communicative competencies of students is possible with appropriate and methodologically modeled actualization of logical-associative relations of free subjective meanings of words and obligatory (paradigmatic) meanings. references abutalebi, j. (2008). neural aspects of second language representation and language control. acta psychologica 128(3), 466-478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.03.014 abutalebi, j., & green, d. (2007). bilingual language production: the neurocognition of language representation and control. journal of neurolinguistics, 20(3), 242-275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2006.10.003 aghababyan, k. h. (2016). investigation of dynamics of students' sense of language by word associative experiment method. humanities in the 21st century: scientific problems and searching for effective humanist technologies, 55-62. http://doi.org/10.15350/l_21/2/04 benjamin, s., & rahman, r. r. a. (2016). cumulative semantic interference for associative relations in language production. cognition, 152, 20-31. https://www.psychologie.hu-berlin.de/de/prof/neuro/lit/rose björkman, a., & piekkari, r. (2009). language and foreign subsidiary control: an empirical test. journal of international management, 15(1), 105-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2008.12.001 creese, a., blackledge, a., & takhi, j. (2014). the ideal ‘native speaker’ teacher: negotiating authenticity and legitimacy in the language classroom. the modern language journal, 98(4), 937–951. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12148 garcía, o. (2017). reflections on turnbull’ s reframing of foreign language education: bilingual epistemologies. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 22(5), 628-638. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1277512 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.03.014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2006.10.003 http://doi.org/10.15350/l_21/2/04 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0010027716300683#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0010027716300683#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00100277 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00100277/152/supp/c https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2008.12.001 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 27 khirzoeva, z. m. (2008). assotsiativnyy eksperiment kak metod otsenki urovnya vladeniya inostrannym yazykom [an associative experiment as a assessing method of proficiency level in a foreign language]. bulletin of the dagestan state pedagogical university, 3, 16-23. https://profspo.ru/magazines/7050/2008/3 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., &amp; maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 mubarakshina, a., fedorova, n., & fattahova, n. (2016). associative-semantic field of ‘nravstvennost’ in modern russian language. journal of language and literature, 7(2), 280-284. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/197475322.pdf mukhametzyanova, l., & shayakhmetova, l. (2014). application of associative experiment in forming the foreign communicative competence. english language teaching, 7(12), 60-64. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/197470323.pdf nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 purpura, j. e. (2016). second and foreign language assessment. the modern language journal, 100 (1), 190-208. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12308 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12308 foreign language competence development of university students and its … ruslana dovhanchyna, et al. 28 service, e., simola, m., metsänheimo, o., & maury, s. (2002). bilingual working memory span is affected by language skill. european journal of cognitive psychology, 14(3), 383-408. https://doi.org/10.1080/09541440143000140 sternin, i. a. (2001). metodika issledovaniya struktury kontsepta [the metodology of concept structure analysis].metodologicheskie problemyi kognitivnoy lingvistiki [methodological problems of cognitive linguistics]. voronezh state university press. takano, y., & noda, a. (1993). a temporary decline of thinking ability during foreign language processing. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 24(4), 445462. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022193244005 thumb, a., & marbe, k. (1901). experimentelle untersuchungenüber die psychologishen grundlagen der sprachlichen analogiebildung. [experimental studies on the psychological foundations of linguistic analogy formation]. w. engelmann publishing. turnbull, b. (2017). towards new standards in foreign language assessment: learning from bilingual education. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 23(2), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2017.1375891 volk, s., köhler, t., & pudelko, m. (2014). brain drain: the cognitive neuroscience of foreign language processing in multinational corporations. journal of international business studies, 45(7), 862–885. https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2014.26 https://doi.org/10.1080/09541440143000140 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0022022193244005 https://ideas.repec.org/s/pal/jintbs.html https://ideas.repec.org/s/pal/jintbs.html https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2014.26 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 484-509 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/295 physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod¹, zoryana korytko2, ljudmyla rusyn3, mykola balukh4, volodimir yakovliv5, ihor hnyp6 1 ivano-frankivsk national medical university, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, n.golod@ukr.net 2 ivan boberskyi lviv state university of physical culture, ukraine, korytko@ukr.net 3 uzhhorod national university, uzhhorod, ukraine, ljudarusyn@gmail.com 4 khmelnitskiy humanitarian-pedagogical academy, khmelnitskiy, ukraine, balukh.mykola@gmail.com 5 vinnitsia mykhailo kotsiubinskyi state pedagogikal university, vinnitsia ukraine, dekykovliv576@gmail.com 6 lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, igi_2008@ukr.net abstract: most of the current programs of physical rehabilitation of students of a special medical group (hereinafter smg) are aimed only at a separate contingent depending on the type of nosology, which complicates the work of the teacher and reduces the effectiveness of classes for other students. in fact, no physical rehabilitation programs have been developed for female students who have the highest reproductive potential. therefore, the creation of a rehabilitation program that will not only be able to cover students with various diseases, but will also be useful for the prevention of risk factors for chronic noncommunicable diseases (chd) as the most acute demographic problem is relevant. the purpose of the study is to develop, scientifically substantiate and test the program of physical rehabilitation of students of a special medical group, taking into account motor disorders. the developed program of physical rehabilitation of smg students taking into account motor impairments had a complex character and included the following elements: lifestyle modification, kinesitherapy (with stoppage of fitness yoga, functional training, aerobic training) (swimming, fitness, jogging, health) selfmassage with the lyapko applicator. the control group included 24 individuals, the experimental group consisted of two groups of 24 individuals. the following methods were used to solve the research tasks: analysis of scientific and special literature, surveys and questionnaires, pedagogical testing, methods of determining indicators of physical development, physical fitness and functional state of the organism, methods of mathematical statistics. after the implementation of the developed program of physical rehabilitation for female students, a decrease in the number and intensity of modified risk factors for chd due to increased physical activity, reduction of bad habits was determined; reducing the number of complaints. studies on the effectiveness of the program of physical rehabilitation of female students, taking into account motor impairments, tested on a sufficient number of female students of the special medical group, have confirmed data and can serve as a basis for practical implementation of this program. keywords: motor impairment, lifestyle modification, kinesitherapy, aerobic training, functional training, self-massage with lyapko applicator. how to cite: golod, n., korytko, z., rusyn, l., balukh, m., yakovliv, v., & hnyp, i. (2022). physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 484-509. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/295 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/295 mailto:n.golod@ukr.net mailto:korytko@ukr.net mailto:ljudarusyn@gmail.com mailto:balukh.mykola@gmail.com mailto:dekykovliv576@gmail.com mailto:igi_2008@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/295 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 485 introduction in 2011, the un declared an epidemic of non-communicable diseases in the world. by 2030, the who forecasts an increase in deaths from them to 52 million per year. chronic non-communicable diseases (chd) include diseases of the circulatory system, malignant neoplasms, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and more. chds cause global socio-economic losses to many countries around the world, including ukraine. they determine the level of total mortality of the entire population of our country by 82.8% and by 62.4% mortality in working age (gorbas, 2009). currently, the risk factors that lead to chd have been studied. it is proved that eight risk factors cause up to 75% of deaths from these types of pathology: hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking, malnutrition (insufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables, excessive consumption of salt, animal fats and excessive caloric intake), low physical activity, high levels blood glucose, overweight and obesity, and frequent alcohol consumption. ukraine, like most european countries, is characterized by a significant prevalence of risk factors for chds, which leads to a deepening of the epidemic, significant medical and social losses and economic losses. in the who european region ranking, ukraine ranks fourth in terms of standardized mortality rates of the working age population due to cancer, fifth in terms of the corresponding mortality rate from diseases of the circulatory system and alcohol consumption per capita, and ninth in terms of smoking prevalence among men (gorbas, 2009). at the same time, according to such indicators of a healthy lifestyle as the level of physical activity, consumption of vegetables and fruits per person per day, ukraine ranks 32nd among european countries (davydenko, 2006; dudnyk, 2013). thus, the high prevalence of risk factors in the population indicates an unfavorable epidemiological situation for chd in the population of ukraine, which requires more active use of methods of prevention and correction of the consequences of these diseases in all age groups, especially young people at risk. youth health is an urgent problem and a matter of paramount importance, as it determines the future of the country, the nation’s gene pool, scientific and economic potential of society (bodnar, 2014; andriychuk, 2015). preservation and strengthening of students' health, formation of their health values is possible with the choice of educational technologies, adequate to the categories and needs of students. according to a study by the ukrainian research institute of child and adolescent health, no more than 10-15% of children aged 7-18 can be considered healthy. physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 486 accordingly, the number of students enrolled in special medical groups (smg) is increasing every year and has doubled in the last 10 years. thus 1218% of students are directed for employment in special medical groups for the purpose of application of complexes of medical physical training (repnevskaya, 2009). the problem of physical education and correction of health of students of smg is paid a lot of attention by ukrainian scientists (platonov, 2006; dubogai, tsos, & evtushok, 2012; koryagin, & blavt, 2013; maksymchuk, 2020a; maksymchuk, 2020b, palamarchuk, 2020, sheremet, 2019; bakhmat, 2019; behas, 2019; bezliudnyi, 2019; halaidiuk, 2018; maksymchuk, 2018; sitovskyi, 2019). however, they all note that the existing programs and assessment criteria at the state level are obsolete and do not meet the physical capabilities of modern youth, and the full recovery of such students remains an urgent problem of physical rehabilitation. for students studying at smg, the discipline "physical education" is often the only opportunity to receive physical rehabilitation, because the exercises for them are based on the principles of kinesitherapy. however, in this situation the teacher has some difficulties, because in the framework of regulated classes he must simultaneously work with students with various chronic diseases. this requires finding new methodological approaches to correcting the health of smg students. neurophysiological aspects of physical rehabilitation of female students in the late 20 th century, it became possible to experimentally prove positive effects from taking into account the mechanisms of brain activity on the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes, especially for people with brain injuries. it was then believed that a detailed neurophysiological diagnosis and appropriate medical history should precede the actual physical or psychological rehabilitation. in the 1980s, however, scientists predicted a rapid expansion in the use of neurosciences in various types of rehabilitation, which occurred during “the quantum leap” in brain research in the 1990s-2000s (caplan, 1982, p. 362). the neurophysiological aspect in physical rehabilitation can be used not only as diagnostic or propaedeutic. as part of experiment, d’agatha et al. (2016) exercised regular influence on patients with chronic stroke due to repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rtms) and transcranial directcurrent stimulation (tdcs) to restore motor activity during the rehabilitation of the upper extremities. they also studied the clinical effect patients with mild and moderate cognitive and motor disorders. a relevant result for this brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 487 research is the fact of the dependence of cognitive and motor changes after the above-mentioned rehabilitation: the rate of limb muscle contraction and agility increased after 6 months of neurorehabilitation. neurophysiological measurement of limb strength (comparison of right and left ones) during rehabilitation on fitness equipment (mostly, bicycles and on treadmills), seems to be valid for the research. neurophysiologists are now equipped with devices to assess bilateral reflexes by modulating skin reflexes that are electrically stimulated (irritation of the superficial radial nerve in the wrist). such reflexes can be assessed directly during movement and at rest, and then processed in test mode. it allows one to assess the rehabilitation progress of gait, balance, coordination and other cerebrovascular indicators (diac et al., 2020). such long-term physical rehabilitation controlled by neurophysiological indicators gives clear results. according to kaupp et al. (2018), the results show significant changes in function and neurophysiological integrity. exercise increases the force of bilateral grip and strength during plantar flexion and muscle activation. the normalization of skin reflex modulation was detected during cyclic movement (kaupp et al., 2018). thus, it is promising for ukrainian rehabilitation centres to be equipped with devices for diagnosing the condition and dynamics of central pattern generator networks. today, physical rehabilitation increasingly uses automated simulators and robots, which programmatically take into account the neurophysiological data of the identified disorders and even displace the rehabilitation specialists themselves. according to major et al. (2020). there is currently competition between classical and robotic physiotherapy. prospects are seen in the expedient interchangeability of human and technological factors in physical rehabilitation. moreover, the latter factor can comprehensively and multimodally take into account the neurophysiological assessment of the musculoskeletal system (encephalogram, motor conductivity, degree of motor amplitude) (major et al., 2020; amunts et al., 2007; apanasenko, 2007; ardila, rosselli, matute, & inozemtseva, 2011). discussing the expediency of using automated and robotic technologies for physical rehabilitation, researchers claim that the correction of sensorimotor deficits by such methods should be based on neurophysiological and interdisciplinary indicators and control. importantly, the restoration of sensorimotor function after cns injury is based on the use of neuroplasticity with an emphasis on the rehabilitation of movements necessary for independence. it requires physiological activation of the muscles of the extremities, which can be achieved through functional physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 488 exercises for the movement of the arms / hands and feet and the activation of the corresponding peripheral receptors (gassert, & dietz, 2018). therefore, physical rehabilitation without anthropogenic intervention should be followed by the constant use of sensors that would monitor the neurophysiological and physical condition of patients undergoing such rehabilitation. one should also pay special attention to neurophysiological and psychophysiological studies which consider the specifics of gender (physical, motivational, emotional and activity prerogatives of women and men) so that they can be further implemented in physical rehabilitation programmes. kozina, sobko, klimenko, & sak (2013) devoted their study to certain neurophysiological indicators and subjective changes in the well-being of female basketball players. they draw an important conclusion as a result of heart rate measurements during training and identification of the subjective state of health. indeed, it is more difficult for female students aged between 20 and 22 to withstand physical activity than for first-year students and teenage girls. this can be explained by neurophysiological specifics (completed formation of the female body and, respectively, a higher coefficient of heat stroke and the degree of subjective severity) (kozina, sobko, klimenko, & sak, 2013). such gender-oriented and age-specific features provide important empirical material for developing rehabilitation and physical education programmes for girls of all ages and will be taken into account by the author in further research. it is important to take into account physical and neurophysiological differences of gender for studies on women. sensory-motor, cognitive and physical features of men and women have long been studied and described in science. however, comprehensive studies on neurophysiological specificity of women are rather interesting, given that such specificity can be recorded using digit span, digit symbol and block design tests in combination with other types of diagnostics. polunin, bryun, sydniaeva, & golukhova (2018) studied the mental state, speech, motility and other neurophysiologically relevant indicators and proved a consistent gender pattern in several differences. indeed, psychomotor speed and verbal fluency predominate in women and visual-spatial orientation in men (polunina, bryun, sydniaeva, & golukhova, 2018). these data can form the basis of recommendations for physical and psychological rehabilitation and collective influence for people of different sexes. thus, one can conclude that those types of physical rehabilitation associated with traditional hobbies of modern girls (fitness, step aerobics, callanetics) are more acceptable for female students, given gender priorities. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 489 callanetics requires particular attention since it is a static set of exercises, which is primarily relevant for post-traumatic rehabilitation. the studies conducted among first-year students (a 72-hour programme with a change in daily routine and nutrition) has revealed not only an improvement in anthropometric, neurophysiological and subjective valeological indicators but also positive changes in motivation for static and dynamic exercises (kolomiytseva, & anatskyi, 2017). this observation may be an impetus for the inclusion of callanetics in the rehabilitation process, in particular for girls and women. it is known that girls are less prone to active motor actions (physical education, rehabilitation or sports) due to their psychophysiology. normally, and especially as pathology, this phenomenon is called “kinesiophobia”, that is individual psychological or trauma-induced fear of physical movements. kinesiophobia as a result of negative motor experience (trauma, exhaustion) can be a serious obstacle to physical rehabilitation of young people. indian researchers have shown through an experimental study that 16-year-old girls with a negative traumatic experience should undergo propaedeutic and / or psychological rehabilitation before physical rehabilitation. this will protect them from the behaviour of avoiding physical rehabilitation (wane, naqvi, vaidya, & kumar, 2020). such generalizations correlate with the observed fact of caution, bias or avoidance of physical post-traumatic stress in ukrainian students. unfortunately, the analysis of domestic (ukrainian) scientific sources suggests that most of the current programs of physical rehabilitation of smg students are aimed only at a certain contingent depending on the type of nosology, which complicates the work of the teacher and reduces the effectiveness of classes for other students. in fact, no physical rehabilitation programs have been developed for female students who have the highest reproductive potential. therefore, the creation of a rehabilitation program that will not only be able to cover students with various diseases, but will also be useful for the prevention of risk factors for chd as the most acute demographic problem is relevant. the consideration of neurophysiological and neuropsychological factors still remains a promising area of ukrainian rehabilitation. the purpose of the study is to develop, scientifically substantiate and test the program of physical rehabilitation of students of a special medical group, taking into account motor impairments. physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 490 materials and methods to solve the problems a set of research methods is used, adequate to the purpose of the research: analysis of scientific and special literature; surveys and questionnaires (questionnaires to clarify complaints from the body's major systems, assess their health, awareness and control of anthropometric and functional indicators of the body, the presence of risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases; specification of physical activity during school; international physical activity questionnaire (ipaq) (abbreviated); anthropometric examination (height, body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, ratio of waist and hip circumference, chest girth and excursion; basic and wrist dynamometry, index of lifting force and hand strength); determination of the state of the cardiovascular (heart rate, blood pressure) and respiratory systems (respiratory rate, pulse oximetry device "utasoxi 200" (ukraine), computer spirography device "spirocom standard" 3.1.0122.10040 : national aerospace university " kharkiv aviation institute", kharkiv), the state of the autonomic nervous system (test with isometric load, orthostatic test). the state of motor capacity was determined by indicators of physical fitness: strength (flexion and extension of the arms in a lying position, squats on two legs), speed (time of the basketball at 10 m, running on the spot, raising the knees to an angle of 90 ° for 5 s ), endurance (transition from the position of squatting to the position of lying down, six-minute walk), agility (hitting the ball on target in 10 attempts and in the basketball hoop), flexibility (distance from fingertips to the floor when tilted to the side, body tilt forward) and (functional movement screen (fms). the obtained results were processed by methods of mathematical statistics using the computer program microsoft excel. the developed program of physical rehabilitation of smg students taking into account motor impairments s had a complex character and included the following elements: lifestyle modification, kinesitherapy (with stoppage of fitness yoga, functional training, aerobic training) (swimming, fitness, jogging, health) self-massage with the lyapko applicator (tab. 1). when developing the rehabilitation program, the methodological principles of conducting classes with smg students were taken into account according to the "typical curriculum for students of higher medical educational institutions of iii-iv levels of accreditation". also, this program and work plans of the discipline "physical education", adopted by the department of physical education and health of the state higher educational institution "ivano-frankivsk national medical university" brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 491 determined the number of classroom and independent classes and the sequence of mastering physical skills used in the rehabilitation program, i.e. the created program was adapted to physical education classes as part of the smg visit. in the process of developing the program of physical rehabilitation of smg students, the requirements of adequacy, regulation and strict dosage of physical activity were observed; their regularity; gradual expansion of means to ensure a comprehensive impact on the internal organs and musculoskeletal system; selection of fitness yoga exercises, functional training, aerobics in accordance with the type of limitations of motor capacity of female students; tried to improve the psycho-emotional state of female students. the complexity of the impact of the developed program included the impact not only on the physical component of health due to the positive impact of exercise on the cardiovascular, respiratory, autonomic nervous system, the parameters of physical development and physical fitness. the social and psychological components also underwent positive changes due to the feeling of improving health; increasing the level of household activity; creating the image of a modern person, free of bad habits, a future doctor who, by the example of his own health. table 1. the structure of the rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group, taking into account motor impairments stage month (calendarr) training mode tasks methods p re p ar at o ry g e n tl e initial control k in e si th e ra p y p ro g ra m morning hygienic gymnastics (mhg) daily (independent classes) li fe st y le m o d if ic at io n (n u tr it io n co rr e c ti o n , ab an d o n m e n t o f b ad h ab it s, in c re as e o f g e n e ra l p h y si c al ac ti v it y ) m as sa g e (s e lf -m as sa g e w it h m u lt in ee d le ap p li c at o rs l y ap k o ) adaptation of all body systems to increasing physical activity, mastering the proposed techniques, correction of motor disorders, development of physical qualities, general endurance, correction of psychoemotional state, motivation to lead a healthy lifestyle fitness yoga 2 times in two weeks (classes) 1 time in 2 weeks (independent employment) 0 functional training once a week classroom 2 times in two weeks (independent classes) wellness course jogging daily (independent classes) b as ic 1 tr ai n in g g e n tl e intermediate control mhg daily (independent classes) improving the function of the cardiovascular, respiratory, autonomic nervous systems, functional training once a week classroom 2 times in two weeks (independent classes) 2 swimming 2 times a week (classes) physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 492 correction of motor impairments, further development of physical qualities, improvement of back posture, training health walking daily (independent classes) tr ai n in g intermediate control mhg daily (independent classes) consolidation of the obtained results, further improvement and stabilization of the function of internal organs, further expansion of physical activity, maintaining the achieved level of physical fitness,increase overall endurance, further improvement of physical qualities health aerobics 3 times in two weeks (classes) function al training 3 times in two weeks (independent classes) final control wellness course jogging daily (independent classes) results in the examined students smg1 and smg2, subjective signs of the following syndromes were identified: cardiac, hyperventilation, dyspeptic, cephalic, neuroendocrine, polyarthralgic, astheno-neurotic. almost a quarter of the students of the special medical group assessed their state of health as rather bad and bad, which is 4 times higher than the similar indicator of their healthy age-mates (24% vs. 6%). the survey also showed a low level of awareness and control of the main anthropometric and functional indicators of the body in both groups of respondents. it is established that the lifestyle of smg1 and smg2 students is characterized by the presence of modified risk factors for chd: bad habits, insufficient physical activity, signs of malnutrition, chronic stress, as well as the impact of burdened heredity. when determining the level of household and physical activity according to the developed questionnaire, it was found that students smg1 and smg2 have a pronounced tendency to hypokinesia and static lifestyle, low interest in health training. although the level of physical activity according to the international physical activity questionnaire (ipaq) of smg1 and smg2 and kg students did not differ statistically, during the calculation of energy consumption it was determined that smg1 and smg2 students (respectively 1232.92 ± 190.84 met and 1272.82 ± 123.80 me (metabolic equivalent) brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 493 statistically significantly lag behind the girls cg in the level of total weekly energy expenditure (1826.38 ± 183.14 me) (p <0.05). when conducting anthropometric measurements, it was found that the students of smg1 and smg2 were smaller than the representatives of the control group were the average values of chest girth on inhalation and exhalation, chest excursion (p <0.05). other studied indicators (height, body weight, waist and hip circumference) probably did not differ. the study of body muscle strength showed a significant decrease in body muscle strength and, accordingly, the index of postural strength in female students smg1 and smg2 compared with cg (control group) on the background of unchanged hand strength. examination of the functional state of the respiratory system showed worse parameters of the stange test (32.08 ± 2.10 s), acceleration of respiratory rate at rest in students smg1 and smg2 (respectively 21.67 ± 0.83 and 19.17 ± 0.80 per minute .), decrease in fev1 (forced expiratory volume) (respectively 86.65 ± 3.46% and 83.56 ± 3.39%) and fev (respectively 84.26 ± 3.26% and 82.90 ± 3.45%) compared with control analogues (p<0.05) against the background of unchanged hensler index (p> 0.05), which is characteristic of restrictive type disorders. the consequence of the violation of external respiration was a statistically significant decrease in the degree of oxygenation of arterial blood of female students smg1 and smg2 (93.3 ± 0.18% and 94.3 ± 0.27%, respectively). the condition of the cardiovascular system of smg students was also disturbed. the mean resting heart rate in girls smg1 and smg2 was significantly higher (90.9 ± 2.45 beats / min and 90.1 ± 1.79 beats / min, respectively) from the control analogue 2.93 beats / min.), which can be explained as a compensatory response of the cardiovascular system in response to dysfunction of external respiration and a decrease in the degree of oxygenation of arterial blood. blood pressure readings were unchanged. when conducting tests to establish the functional state of the autonomic nervous system (orthostatic test, with isometric load) in students smg1 and smg2 found increased tone of the nerve centers of the sympathetic nervous system. motor ability ("movement abilities", "sprawność ruchowa") was defined as the ability to control one's musculoskeletal system through the development of motor skills (gilewicz, 1994). the increase in motor capacity depends on the acquired skills and sports achievements, respectively, the decrease characterizes the disease or low state of physical development. the study used two approaches to determine motor disorders: physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 494 determining the level of general physical fitness and testing on the screen of functional movement. after testing the students involved in the study to assess their physical fitness, it was found that students smg1 and smg2 were inferior to cg students in terms of strength (squats on two legs, flexion and extension of the arms in a supine position), endurance (dynamics 6you minute test, transition from the position of the stop squatting to the position of the stop lying down), speed (according to the parameters of the time of the basketball on 10 m, running on the spot, raising the knees to an angle of 90 ° for 5 s), agility (number of hits in a goal of 10 attempts or in a basketball hoop), flexibility (in terms of inclination to the side and forward), which resonated with the low results of tests. to assess motor impairments, we also used a modern information test functional movement screen (fms). the fms includes seven basic motor models that require balance, mobility and stability: 1) deep squats; 2) step over the barrier; 3) linear attack; 4) shoulder mobility; 5) active lifting of the straight leg; 6) stability of the torso when stretching the arms; 7) circular stability. each exercise was evaluated on a 3-point system. impaired motor capacity of students smg1 and smg2 was confirmed by complications and low grades when performing all fms exercises. at the initial examination according to the results of all tests, the indicators of female students smg1 and smg2 did not differ statistically significantly (p> 0.05). identified at this stage of the study, the above pathological changes in the body of students of special medical groups argued the need and served as a basis for the development of a comprehensive program of physical rehabilitation based on the improvement of motor capacity and its testing. after a long implementation of the program we developed for the physical rehabilitation of students of a special medical group, taking into account motor impairment, its expressive beneficial effect on the majority of the analyzed indicators of physical development and the functional state of the body was determined. the results of the repeated survey of female students showed a decrease in the intensity of all complaints of smg2 female students, normalization of the menstrual cycle, reduction of the share of meteorologically dependent persons among them. there was also an increase in self-esteem, a decrease in the number of bad habits (smoking, alcohol consumption), as well as an increase in the level of physical activity of this group of girls. the dynamics of subjective perception of smg1 students has not changed significantly. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 495 analyzing the results of the survey of female students on the international physical activity questionnaire (ipaq) after the implementation of the rehabilitation program, we can conclude that the time that respondents spent on different types of physical activity increased only in smg2 students. they also significantly exceeded the parameters of smg1 in terms of energy expenditure on foot, performing intense physical activity and total weekly load (p <0.05) (table 2). table 2. dynamics of weekly energy consumption of smg students after the implementation of the rehabilitation program (m ± m) energy consumption cg (n=24) smg1 (n=24) smg2 (n=24) initial examinati on final examina tion initial examinat ion final examinati on before fr after fr footing, ме 554,41 ±23,00 508,75± 54,31 404,25± 96,12 429,00±5 9,42 425,15± 63,25 585,75± 49,48 **,*** to perform loads of moderate intensity, ме 360,00 ±29,41 342,83± 42,13 248,67± 69,47 254,67±6 8,10 277,00± 65,15 310,00± 39,92 to perform high-intensity loads, мет 911,97 ±64,04 870,00± 83,60 580,00± 164,25 593,33±8 5,60 * 570,67± 72,98 * 800,00± 51,64 **,*** total weekly load, ме 1826,38± 183,14 1721,58 ±115,52 1232,92 ±190,84 * 1277,00± 123,40 * 1272,82 ±123,80 * 1695,75 ±112,70 **, *** notes: * statistically significant difference in comparison with the value of the corresponding cg (p <0,05); ** statistically significant difference compared to its value before the implementation of the program (p <0,05); *** statistically significant difference compared to the value of the corresponding indicator smg1 (p <0,05). when determining anthropometric indicators, it was revealed that during the final examination, smg1 students did not show a pronounced change in weight, height, body mass index, chest circumference on exhalation and inspiration, waist and hips, the ratio of waist to hip circumference relative to the initial result. at the same time, statistically significant growth dynamics of the chest excursion rate (up to 6.6 ± 0.21 cm) were determined for smg2 students, which indicates an improvement physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 496 in the respiratory function of the lungs and an increase in respiratory reserves in the representatives of this group. during the post-dynamic dynamometry, a slight increase in back muscle strength was found in female smg1 (up to 48.67 ± 3.29 kg) and a marked increase in smg2 girls (up to 91.67 ± 2.21 kg) relative to initial index. 0.05). accordingly, the index of class strength has changed. when measuring the strength of the wrist, it was found that it increased in smg1 students, but increased statistically insignificantly (p> 0.05). at the same time, smg 2 students showed a marked increase in the strength of the right and left hands (p <0.05). the hand strength index also increased statistically significantly only in girls smg2 (p <0.05). the results of the re-examination showed a significant improvement in the functional parameters of the respiratory organs, blood circulation and the state of the autonomic nervous system of smg2 students under the influence of the rehabilitation program compared to the initial examination. thus, the improvement of the functional reserves of the respiratory system was manifested in an increase in the duration of respiratory arrest on inspiration and exhalation (according to the results of the stange (43.08 ± 2.83 s) and gench tests (28.08 ± 1.13 s)) statistically significant in girls smg2 (p <0.05). they also determined the normalization of respiratory rate at rest. at repeated inspection improvement of ventilatory function by results of spirometry (increase in size of forced lung capacity (flc) (95,00 ± 3,15%), fev1 (97,17 ± 3,14%)) is more expressed at smg2 students in comparison with smg1 (p <0, 05). the value of the modified index indicated the absence of obstructive changes in students of both groups. confirmation of the improvement of the functional state of the respiratory organs were the results of the dynamics of the degree of oxygenation of arterial blood of smg2 students (99.83 ± 0.11%). with positive results ahead of time, the dynamics of indicators of the heart-ship system are normalized: normalization of systolic blood pressure (sbp), diastolic blood pressure (dbp) heart rate in the presence of a representative of smg2. normalization of the balance of the autonomic nervous system due to the reduction of sympathicotonia based on the samples with isometric load, orthostatic test. the pathological deviations of the initial functional parameters, which adversely affected the ability to tolerate physical activity, as evidenced by the test at the initial examination, decreased at the second. the rufier index for smg1 students was rated "satisfactory", while for smg2 girls it brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 497 reached "good". the structure of the evaluation of the results of the test has changed: in smg2, compared to the initial survey, there were students with grades of "good" and "excellent", which was not found in smg1. against the background of improving physical development, a decrease in signs of motor impairment was revealed. the indicators of physical fitness of smg2 students have improved: strength and speed abilities, endurance, agility and flexibility. the introduction of a physical rehabilitation program for students of special medical groups caused a pronounced positive impact on the physical condition of girls, which was reflected in the results of all fmc exercises (table 3) and the structure of their assessment more pronounced in smg2 girls compared to smg1 students (p <0.05 ). table 3. change of the screen of functional movement after implementation of the rehabilitation program, points (m ± m) test, points cg (n=24) smg1 (n=24) smg2 (n=24) initial exami nation final exami nation initial exami nation final exami nation before fr after fr № 1. «deep squat» 2,71± 0,09 2,58± 0,14 1,58± 0,30* 2,08± 0,22 1,08± 0,32* 2,75± 0,13**,*** № 2. «step over the hurdle» 2,88± 0,07 2,96± 0,04 2,42± 0,14* 2,50± 0,14* 2,33± 0,18* 2,92± 0,08**,*** № 3. «linear lunge» 2,92± 0,06 2,83± 0,08 2,25± 0,13* 2,42± 0,14* 2,25± 0,17* 2,92± 0,08**,*** № 4. «shoulder mobility» 3,00± 0,01 2,96± 0,04 2,83± 0,11 2,67± 0,18 2,75± 0,17 3,00± 0,01 № 5. «active lifting of the straight leg» 2,83± 0,08 2,67± 0,10 2,00± 0,20* 2,17± 0,16* 2,17± 0,23* 2,83± 0,11**,*** № 6. «stability of the body when stretching the arms» 2,71± 0,11 2,63± 0,10 1,50± 0,19* 1,92± 0,14* 1,83± 0,23* 2,83± 0,16**,*** physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 498 № 7 «circular stability» 3,00± 0,01 2,8 8± 0,0 7 2,25 ± 0,27* 2,5 0± 0,1 9 2,42 ± 0,18* 3,00± 0,01**,** * 3,00± 0,01 2,8 8± 0,0 7 2,25 ± 0,27* 2,5 0± 0,1 9 2,42 ± 0,18* 3,00± 0,01**,** * 3,00± 0,01 2,8 8± 0,0 7 2,25 ± 0,27* 2,5 0± 0,1 9 2,42 ± 0,18* 3,00± 0,01**,** * 3,00± 0,01 2,8 8± 0,0 7 2,25 ± 0,27* 2,5 0± 0,1 9 2,42 ± 0,18* 3,00± 0,01**,** * 3,00± 0,01 2,8 8± 0,0 7 2,25 ± 0,27* 2,5 0± 0,1 9 2,42 ± 0,18* 3,00± 0,01**,** * 3,00± 0,01 2,8 8± 0,0 7 2,25 ± 0,27* 2,5 0± 0,1 9 2,42 ± 0,18* 3,00± 0,01**,** * notes: * statistically significant difference in comparison with the value of the corresponding cg (p <0,05); ** statistically significant difference compared to its value before the implementation of the program (p <0,05); *** statistically significant difference compared to the value of the corresponding indicator smg1 (p <0,05) discussion the article presents a theoretical generalization and a new solution to the problem associated with the correction of motor disorders of smg students and, as a consequence, improving the functioning of physiological systems of the body. for the first time, the expediency of eliminating risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases, the development of physical qualities and improving the physical fitness and functional state of the body of female students to eliminate motor impairments; the degree of motor impairment of students of basic and special medical groups was determined with the use of the functional movement screen testing program; the expediency of including in the program of physical rehabilitation of students modification of their lifestyle, fitness yoga, functional and aerobic trainings (healthimproving gait, jogging, swimming, health-improving aerobics), massage is substantiated; proved the effectiveness of the developed set of rehabilitation measures to reduce the number of risk factors for chronic diseases, reduce the degree of motor impairment, improve physical development, functional and physical fitness of smg students. improved information on physical development, functional status and physical fitness of students of special medical and basic groups. acquired further development of knowledge about the methods of physical rehabilitation of smg students, including by finding a new approach to assessing their physical condition. the practical significance of the study is determined by the creation of a rehabilitation program for students of special medical group, the use of which allows to reduce the level of physical development, as well as physical and functional fitness of students to reduce risk factors for chronic noncommunicable diseases, improve the functioning of physiological systems. the program can be the basis for effective correctional work among smg students. at the same time, it can be used in the practice of physical brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 499 rehabilitation specialists, physical education teachers, trainers of secondary schools, rehabilitation institutions and health centers. such that confirm the results of previous studies are: the state of health of students of special medical groups remains an urgent problem of modern medicine (apanasenko, 2007) and physical rehabilitation (platonov, 2006; dubogai, tsos, & evtushok, 2013; koryagin, & blavt, 2013); the problem of finding a unified approach to physical education classes for students of special medical groups remains extremely relevant in medical, pedagogical and rehabilitation practice and requires further understanding, study, scientific and experimental justification (chaban, 2002; vrzhesnevskyy, 2006; malakhova, 2011; blavt, 2013). тhe need to use modern technologies of physical education and physical rehabilitation, adapted to the interests and needs of modern youth (ivanochko, 2011; buleychenko, sheremet, & yanchenko, 2013; vilyanskyy, chernihiv, & prykhodko, 2013; grokhova, 2013; bodnar, 2014; andriychuk, 2015; goloviychuk, 2015); it is advisable to use physical rehabilitation to correct health impaipments of students of special medical groups (moseychuk, 2007; repnevska, 2009). complementing the results of previous studies are: the importance of the problem of low interest of students in leading a healthy lifestyle and the spread of risk factors among them (galizdra, 2004; levandovskyi, 2006; omelchenko, 2011; bodnar, 2014); data on the causes and progression of health impairments of students of special medical groups (levandovskyi, 2006; makarova, & bashkin, 2012); about disturbances of physical development, functional and physical readiness of students of special medical groups (ivanochko, 2011; goloviychuk, 2013; dotsenko, 2013); about the favorable effect of physical rehabilitation measures on physical development, functional, physical fitness of students of special medical groups (olkhovyk, 2011; onyshchuk, 2011; bochkova, 2013). the following data are completely new: for the first time in the contingent of smg students it was found that low risk of physical activity, eating disorders, bad habits are the risk factors for the emergence of chd; for the first time the degree of motor impaipments of students of basic and special medical groups was determined with the use of the functional movement screen testing program; for the first time the differences in the complexes of indicators of motor capacity, functional and physical fitness of students of the special medical group in comparison with similar indicators of students of the main medical group were clarified; the expediency of elimination of risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases, development of physical qualities and improvement of physical fitness and physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 500 functional condition of internal organs of smg students for elimination of motor impairments is substantiated; the expediency of including in the program of physical rehabilitation of students modification of their lifestyle, fitness yoga, functional training, aerobic training (health walking, jogging, swimming, health aerobics), massage is substantiated. conclusions the state of health of young people, in particular students, is an urgent problem and an important task of national importance, as it determines the gene pool of the nation, the future of the country, the economic and scientific potential of ukraine. however, in recent years there has been deterioration in the general health of the population, which is reflected in an increase in the number of students who study in special medical groups. most of the existing programs of physical rehabilitation of smg students are aimed only at certain groups of students depending on the type of disease, which reduces the effectiveness of classes for other students and complicates the work of the teacher. therefore, it is important to create a rehabilitation program that will not only be able to cover students with various nosological forms, but also has a preventive effect on risk factors for chd as an acute demographic problem. the lifestyle of female students of the special medical group is characterized by the presence of modified risk factors for chd: bad habits, low physical activity, malnutrition. female students showed subjective signs of cardiac, hyperventilation, dyspeptic, cephalic, neuroendocrine, polyarthralgic, astheno-neurotic syndromes. the level of weekly energy consumption of smg students was 1272.82 ± 123.80 met, and healthy students 1826.38 ± 183.14 met (p <0.05). also lower were the average values of chest girth on inhalation and exhalation, chest excursion (p <0.05). examination of the functional state of the respiratory system showed a decrease in the parameters of the stange test, fev1 (83.56 ± 3.39%) and forced vital capacity of the lungs (82.90 ± 3.45%) of smg students compared with control analogues (p<0.05). the consequence of the violation of external respiration was a decrease in the degree of oxygenation of arterial blood of smg students (94.3 ± 0.27%). when conducting tests to establish the functional state of the autonomic nervous system (orthostatic, with isometric load) in smg students found a violation of the balance of its parts in the direction of sympathicotonia. impaired motor capacity of students of the special medical group was manifested in reduced (p<0.05 relative to students of the main medical group) parameters of strength, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 501 flexibility, endurance, agility, speed, which echoed the low results of the test. it is also confirmed by complications and low scores when performing all fmc exercises. the developed rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group included lifestyle modification, kinesitherapy (with the use of fitness yoga, functional training, aerobic training (swimming, fitness, jogging, health aerobics), massage, was aimed at differentiated correction reducing the impact of modified risk factors for chd, improving the functioning of the cardiovascular, respiratory and autonomic nervous systems. the program is adapted for use in physical education classes in special medical groups of universities. the complex nature of the applied means and methods of physical rehabilitation is associated with the simultaneous impact on various functional systems of the body and on the three components of the human essence physical, mental and social. after the implementation of the developed program of physical rehabilitation for female students, a decrease in the number and intensity of modified risk factors for chd due to increased physical activity, reduction of bad habits was determined; reducing the number of complaints. the level of weekly energy consumption increased (1695.75 ± 112.70 met, p <0.05). it was found that statistically significant dynamics of growth of the chest excursion index (6.6 ± 0.21 cm) was determined in smg students. dynamometry showed an increase in the strength of the muscles of the back, right and left hands (p <0.05). the improvement of the ventilatory function of the respiratory system was manifested in a significant increase in the duration of respiratory arrest on inhalation and exhalation (according to the results of the tests); increases in the parameters of forced vital capacity of the lungs (95.00 ± 3.15%) and fev1 (97.17 ± 3.14) (p <0.05); improving the degree of oxygenation of arterial blood (99.83 ± 0.11%) (p <0.05). the balance of the autonomic nervous system was normalized due to the reduction of sympathicotonia according to the results of the calculation of the test with isometric load, orthostatic test (p <0,05). as a result of the developed rehabilitation program, the ability to tolerate physical activity has improved, as evidenced by the test. the index reached "good" (p <0.05). the structure of evaluation of test results has changed: in comparison with the initial examination, students with evaluation "good" and "excellent" were found. reduction of motor impairments was revealed: significant relative to the initial examination (p<0.05) improvement of students' physical fitness: strength, endurance, speed, agility, flexibility. such dynamics was reflected in the results of all fmc exercises and in the structure of their evaluation. the positive physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 502 dynamics of the state of health of students who were engaged in a typical program of physical education in special medical groups was not noted. studies on the effectiveness of the program of physical rehabilitation of female students, taking into account motor impairments, tested on a sufficient number of female students of the special medical group, have confirmed data and can serve as a basis for practical implementation of this program. we see prospects for further research in the development of a program of physical rehabilitation of young students studying in a special medical group, taking into account motor impairments. references amunts, k., armstrong, e., malikovic, a., hömke, l., mohlberg, h., schleicher, a., zilles, k. (2007). gender-specific left-right asymmetries in human visual cortex. journal of neuroscience, 2(6), 13561364. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/6/1356 andriychuk, o. ya. (2015). kilkisnyy sklad spetsialnykh medychnykh hrup zalezhno vid roku navchannya ta spetsialnosti (sered studentiv-medykiv) [quantitative composition of special medical groups depending on the year of study and specialty (among medical students)]. fizychne vykhovannya, sport i kultura zdorovya u suchasnomu suspilstvi [physical education, sport and health culture in modern society], 1(29), 6774. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/fvs_2015_1_17 apanasenko, h. l. (2007). knyha o zdorove [a book on health]. medknyha. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec& s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=2 0&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21st r=%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5 %d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%20%d0%93$ ardila, a., rosselli, m., matute, e., & inozemtseva, o. (2011). gender differences in cognitive development. developmental psychology, 47, 984–990. doi:10.1037/a0023819 bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19 (4), 1323-1332. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of https://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/6/1356 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/fvs_2015_1_17 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%20%d0%93$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%20%d0%93$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%20%d0%93$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%20%d0%93$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%20%d0%93$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%90%d0%bf%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d0%be%20%d0%93$ http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 503 speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19 (4), 1333-1340. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1585-1590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf blavt, o. z. (2013). suchasnyy stan systemy testuvannya u fizychnomu vykhovanni spetsialʹnykh medychnykh hrup vnz [the current state of the testing system in the physical education of special medical groups of universities]. scientific journal of m. p. dragomanov national university. series 15: scientific and pedagogical problems of physical culture (physical culture and sports), 4(29), 107– 113. bochkova, n. l. (2013). parametry fizkulturno-ozdorovchykh zanyat yak faktor korektsiyi funktsionalnoho stanu studentiv z arterialnoyu hipertenziyeyu [parameters of physical culture and health classes as a factor in the correction of the functional state of students with hypertension]. scientific journal of m. p. dragomanov national university. series 15: scientific and pedagogical problems of physical culture (physical culture and sports), 4(29), 139143. https://intellect.kpi.ua/profile/bnl/publications bodnar, i. (2014). porivnyalna kharakterystyka skarh na zdorovya u shkolyariv riznykh medychnykh hrup [comparative characteristics of health complaints in schoolchildren of different medical groups]. young sports science of ukraine, 18(3), 1622. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/157 buleychenko, o. v., sheremet, o. l., & yanchenko, i. m. (2013). vplyv sportyvnoho oriyentuvannya na psykhoemotsiynyy stan studentiv spetsialnykh medychnykh hrup [influence of sports orientation on the psycho-emotional state of students of special medical groups]. scientific journal of m. p. dragomanov national university. series 15: scientific and pedagogical problems of physical culture (physical culture and sports), 4(29), 147151. caplan, b. (1982). neuropsychology in rehabilitation: its role in evaluation and intervention. archives of physical medicine & rehabilitation, 63, 362–366. https://europepmc.org/article/med/7052012 chaban, i. p. (2002). kompleksnyy pidkhid v rozrobtsi novykh tekhnolohiy prohramuvannya zanyat fizychnoho vykhovannya iz studentamy spetsialnoho medychnoho viddilennya [complex approach in the development of new technologies for programming physical education classes with students of the special medical department]. pedagogy, psychology and medical biological problems of physical education and sports, 16, 310. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf https://intellect.kpi.ua/profile/bnl/publications http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/157 https://europepmc.org/article/med/7052012 physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 504 http://www.irbisnbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref &p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21c om=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colo rterms=1&s21str=%d0%a7%d0%b0%d0%b1%d0%b0%d0%b d%20%d0%86$ d’agata, f., peila, e., cicerale, a, caglio, m. m., caroppo, p., vighetti s., piedimonte, a., minuto, a., campagnoli, m., salatino, molo, m. t., mortara, p., pinessi, l., & massazza, g. (2016). cognitive and neurophysiological effects of non-invasive brain stimulation in stroke patients after motor rehabilitation. frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 10, 111. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00135 davydenko, n. v. (2006). dynamika osoblyvostey kharchuvannya ta sertsevosudynni zakhvoryuvannya (15-richne doslidzhennya) [dynamics of nutrition and cardiovascular disease (15-year study)]. problemy kharchuvannya [problems of nutrition], 6. http://www.medved.kiev.ua/arh_nutr/art_2006/n06_3_3.htm. diac, m., oprea, r., iov, t., damian, s-i., knieling, a., & bulgaru iliescu, a. (2020). finite elements models of the head in craniocerebral trauma – review. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 08-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/25 dotsenko, o. m. (2013). vzayemozvyazok parametriv fizychnoho rozvytku, fizychnoyi pidhotovlenosti i koordynatsiynykh zdibnostey u studentok spetsialʹnoyi medychnoyi i osnovnoyi hrup [the relationship between the parameters of physical development, physical fitness and coordination skills in students of special medical and basic groups]. scientific journal of m. p. dragomanov national university. series 15: scientific and pedagogical problems of physical culture (physical culture and sports), 4(29), 325330. http://eadnurt.diit.edu.ua/jspui/handle/123456789/1821 dubogai, o. d., tsos, a. v., & evtushok, m. v. (2012). metodyka fizychnoho vykhovannya studentiv spetsialnoyi medychnoyi hrupy: navchalnyy posibnyk dlya studentiv vyshchoho navchalnoho zakladu [methodology of physical education of students of a special medical group: a textbook for students of a higher educational institution]. lutsk: eastern european national university named after lesya. http://esnuir.eenu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/1619/1/posibnyk.pdf dudnyk, s. (2014). chomu i yak khvoriyut ukrayintsi? [why and how do ukrainians get sick?]. vashe zdorovya [your health], 42-43. http://www.vz.kiev.ua/chomu-i-yak-xvoriyut-ukraїnci/ galizdra, a. a. (2004). kharakterystyka faktoriv, shcho vplyvayut na zdorovya studentiv vyshchykh navchalʹnykh zakladiv [characteristics of factors http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%a7%d0%b0%d0%b1%d0%b0%d0%bd%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%a7%d0%b0%d0%b1%d0%b0%d0%bd%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%a7%d0%b0%d0%b1%d0%b0%d0%bd%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%a7%d0%b0%d0%b1%d0%b0%d0%bd%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%a7%d0%b0%d0%b1%d0%b0%d0%bd%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%a7%d0%b0%d0%b1%d0%b0%d0%bd%20%d0%86$ https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00135 http://www.medved.kiev.ua/arh_nutr/art_2006/n06_3_3.htm http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/25 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/25 http://eadnurt.diit.edu.ua/jspui/handle/123456789/1821 http://esnuir.eenu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/1619/1/posibnyk.pdf http://www.vz.kiev.ua/chomu-i-yak-xvoriyut-ukraїnci/ brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 505 influencing the health of students of higher educational institutions]. teoriya ta metodyka fizychnoho vykhovannya. [theory and methods of physical education], 3, 4143. https://tmfv.com.ua/journal/article/view/138 gassert, r., & dietz, v. (2018). rehabilitation robots for the treatment of sensorimotor deficits: a neurophysiological perspective. journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 15(46), 115. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-018-0383-x gilewicz, z. (1994). teoria wychowania fizycznego [the theory of physical education]. warszawa: pwn. https://archiwum.allegro.pl/oferta/teoria-wychowaniafizycznego-zygmunt-gilewicz-i8417931362.html goloviychuk, i. (2015). vprovadzhennya zasobiv yohy v navchalnyy protses fizychnoho vykhovannya studentiv spetsialnoyi medychnoyi hrupy [implementation of yoga in the educational process of physical education of students of a special medical group]. scientific journal of m. p. dragomanov national university. series 15: scientific and pedagogical problems of physical culture (physical culture and sports), 3(1), 110-112. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nchnpu_015_2015_3%281%29__34 gorbas, i. m. (2009). profilaktyka khronichnykh neinfektsiynykh zakhvoryuvan – realnyy shlyakh polipshennya demohrafichnoyi sytuatsiyi v ukrayini [prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases a real way to improve the demographic situation in ukraine]. ukrayinskyy kardiolohichnyy zhurnal [ukrainian journal of cardiology], 3, 611. http://tests.ifnmu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=15645 grokhova, h. p. (2013). rekreatyvni zasoby dlya pidvyshchennya funktsionalʹnoho stanu zdorovʺya studentiv spetsialʹnoyi medychnoyi hrupy [recreational means for improving the functional health of students of a special medical group]. scientific journal of m. p. dragomanov national university. series 15: scientific and pedagogical problems of physical culture (physical culture and sports), 4(29), 302307. halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18 (4), 2284–2291. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf ivanochko, v. v. (2011). vplyv ozdorovchykh fitnes-prohram na fizychnyy stan studentok iz zakhvoryuvannyam kardiorespiratornoyi systemy [influence of health-improving fitness programs on the physical condition of students with cardiorespiratory system diseases]. moloda sportivna nauka ukrainy, 15(2), 9297. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/1192 kaupp, c., pearcey, g. e., klarner, t., sun, y., cullen, h., barss, t. s., & zehr, e. p. (2018). rhythmic arm cycling training improves walking and https://tmfv.com.ua/journal/article/view/138 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-018-0383-x https://archiwum.allegro.pl/oferta/teoria-wychowania-fizycznego-zygmunt-gilewicz-i8417931362.html https://archiwum.allegro.pl/oferta/teoria-wychowania-fizycznego-zygmunt-gilewicz-i8417931362.html http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nchnpu_015_2015_3%281%29__34 http://tests.ifnmu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=15645 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/decembrie2018/art%20344.pdf http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/1192 physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 506 neurological integrity in chronic stroke – the arms can give legs a helping hand in rehabilitation. journal of neurophysiology, 119, 1095–1112. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00570.2017 kolomiytseva, o., & anatskyi, r. (2017). fitness callanetics in physical education of girl students. physical education of students, 21(2), 6671. https://doi.org/10.15561/20755279.2017.0203 koryagin, v., & blavt, o. (2013). fizychne vykhovannya studentiv u spetsialnykh medychnykh hrupakh [physical education of students in special medical groups]. lviv polytechnic publishing house. kozina, zh. l., sobko, i. n., klimenko, a. i., & sak, n. n. (2013). comparative characteristics of psychophysiological features skilled basketball playerswomen with hearing and skilled basketball players healthy. pedagogics, psychology, medical-biological problems of physical training and sports, 7, 2833. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.fgshare.735962 levandovskyi, o. s. (2006). metodyka aktyvizatsiyi rukhovoyi aktyvnosti studentiv z oznakamy vehetatyvnoho dysbalansu [methods of activation of motor activity of students with signs of vegetative imbalance]. pedahohika, psykholohiya ta medyko-biologichni problemy fizychnogo vykhovannya i sportu [pedagogy, psychology and medical biological problems of physical education and sports], 4, 9094. major, z. z., vaida, c., major, k. a., tuca, p., simori, g., banica, a., brusturean, e., burz a., craciunas, r., ulinici, i., carbone, g., gherman, b., birlescu, i., & pisla, d. (2020). the impact of robotic rehabilitation on the motor system in neurological diseases. a multimodal neurophysiological approach. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17, 6557. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186557 makarova, e., & bashkin, i. (2012). efektyvnist prohram fizychnoyi reabilitatsiyi v patsiyentiv iz posturalnymy y lokomotornymy porushennyamy [the effectiveness of physical rehabilitation programs in patients with postural and motor impaipments]. molodizhnyy naukovyy visnyk volynskoho natsionalʹnoho universytetu im. lesi ukrayinky. seriya: fizychne vykhovannya i sport [youth scientific bulletin of volyn national university named after lesya ukrainka. series: physical education and sports], 7, 8387. http://esnuir.eenu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3473 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00570.2017 https://doi.org/10.15561/20755279.2017.0203 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.fgshare.735962 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186557 http://esnuir.eenu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3473 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 507 grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf malakhova, zh. v. (2011). optimizatsiya protsessa fizicheskogo vospitaniya studentov spetsialnoy meditsinskoy gruppy [optimization of the process of physical education of students of a special medical group]. nauka i osvita [science and education], 1, 98102. moseychuk, yu. yu. (2007). korektsiya psykholohichnykh porushen u studentiv pid vplyvom tryvaloho zastosuvannya systemy kompleksnoyi reabilitatsiyi [correction of psychological disorders in students under the influence of long-term application of the system of complex rehabilitation. visnyk chernihivskoho derzhavnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu. seriya: pedahohichni nauky. fizychne vykhovannya ta sport [collected papers of chernihiv state pedagogical university. series: pedagogical sciences. physical education and sports], 44, 468472. olkhovyk, a. v. (2011). fizychna reabilitatsiya studentiv spetsialʹnoyi medychnoyi hrupy iz zakhvoryuvannyam na veheto-sudynnu dystoniyu za zmishanym typom [physical rehabilitation of students of a special medical group with a disease of vegetative-vascular dystonia of mixed type]. pedahohika, psykholohiya ta medyko-biologichni problemy fizychnogo vykhovannya i sportu [pedagogy, psychology and medical biological problems of physical education and sports], 10, 5456. https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2011-10/11oavsmt.pdf omelchenko, t. a. (2011). efektyvnist protsesu zaluchennya studentiv do ozdorovchoyi diyalʹnosti [the effectiveness of the process of attracting students to health]. proceedings of the international scientific conference on healthpreserving technologies, physical rehabilitation and recreation in higher education, kharkiv, kharkiv state academy of design and arts. onyshchuk, v. ye. (2011) fizychna reabilitatsiya studentiv, khvorykh na bronkhialnu astmu shlyakhom kompleksnoho zastosuvannya metodyky “endohenno-hipoksychnoho” dykhannya ta tsyklichnykh vprav aerobnoho spryamuvannya [physical rehabilitation of students with asthma by complex application of the method of “endogenous-hypoxic” breathing and cyclic exercises of aerobic direction]. moloda sportyvna nauka ukrayiny https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2011-10/11oavsmt.pdf physical rehabilitation program for students of the special medical group nataliya golod, et al. 508 [young sports science of ukraine], 15(3), 171177. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/1500 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 platonov, v. (2006). berezhy zdorovya zmolodu [take care of the health of youth. dzerkalo tyzhnya [week’s mirror], 47, 2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322759278_berezi_zdorov'a_z molodu polunina, a. g., bryun, e. a., sydniaeva, e. n., & golukhova, e. z. (2018). gender differences in cognitive functions: retrospective analysis of the data of 5 neuropsychological studies. scholars report, 3(1), 6175. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326225884_gender_difference s_in_cognitive_functions_retrospective_analysis_of_the_data_of_5_neuro psychological_studies repnevska, m. s. (2009). optymizatsiya protsesu fizychnoyi reabilitatsiyi studentiv vyshchoho navchalʹnoho zakladu [optimization of the process of physical rehabilitation of students of higher educational institution]. pedahohika, psykholohiya ta medyko-biologichni problemy fizychnogo vykhovannya i sportu [pedagogy, psychology and medical biological problems of physical education and sports], 5, 226229. https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2009-05/09rmsshe.pdf sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sitovskyi a., maksymchuk b., kuzmenko v., nosko y., korytko z., bahinska o. maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532 – 1543. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf vilyanskyy, n. v., chernihiv, s. a., & prykhodko, v. v. (2013). vplyv tekhnolohiyi neprofesiynoyi fizkulturnoyi osvity na funktsionalnyy stan studentiv, zvilnenykh vid praktychnykh zanyat z “fizychnoho vykhovannya” [influence of technology of non-professional physical education on the functional state of students exempted from practical classes in “physical education”]. scientific journal of m. p. dragomanov national university. series 15: http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/1500 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322759278_berezi_zdorov'a_zmolodu https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322759278_berezi_zdorov'a_zmolodu https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326225884_gender_differences_in_cognitive_functions_retrospective_analysis_of_the_data_of_5_neuropsychological_studies https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326225884_gender_differences_in_cognitive_functions_retrospective_analysis_of_the_data_of_5_neuropsychological_studies https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326225884_gender_differences_in_cognitive_functions_retrospective_analysis_of_the_data_of_5_neuropsychological_studies https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2009-05/09rmsshe.pdf https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20192.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 509 scientific and pedagogical problems of physical culture (physical culture and sports), 4(29), 190195. https://kfv.nmu.org.ua/ua/str_vnv/s_vnv.php vrzhesnevskyy, y. y. (2006). unyfytsyrovannaya systema otsenky fyzycheskykh vozmozhnostey studentov spetsyalʹnoho otdelenyya vuza [unified system for assessing the physical capabilities of students of the special department of the university]. pedahohika, psykholohiya ta medyko-biologichni problemy fizychnogo vykhovannya i sportu [pedagogy, psychology and medical biological problems of physical education and sports], 9, 44-48. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=33070371 568069090 wane, m., naqvi, w. m., vaidya, l., & kumar, k. (2020). kinesiophobia in a patient with postoperative midshaft fracture: a case report of its impact on rehabilitation in a 16-year-old girl. cureus, 12(11), article e11333. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.11333 https://kfv.nmu.org.ua/ua/str_vnv/s_vnv.php https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=33070371568069090 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=33070371568069090 https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.11333 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 4, pages: 149-167 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/146 adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses damla karagozlu¹, janet ajamu 2 , anne bakupa mbombo 3 1 assistant professor, near east university, department of computer information systems, mersin 10, turkey, damla.karagozlu@neu.edu.tr 2 near east university, department of computer information systems, mersin 10, turkey, ajamujanet@gmail.com 3 near east university, department of computer information systems, mersin 10, turkey, annythabakupa2@gmail.com abstract: one of the popular technologies in the industry today is cloud computing and the use of cloud computing in small businesses is now fashionable, it has a remarkable impact on them by bringing a new way of working, accessing their data and storing it. the aim of the study is to examine the impacts and effects of migration to cloud computing on small businesses. the methodology used for this study is based on a review of past studies, which explains in broad terms each research question of this study. the results of this study shows that there are several benefits that cloud computing has to offer small businesses if cloud computing is adopted and that includes flexibility, cost reduction and automatic software/hardware upgrades etc. cloud computing has a large storage capacity that helps small businesses store and access large amounts of data quickly and easily, and there are a number of cloud computing data recovery techniques that help to recover lost or damaged data in the cloud. in the same way that security is a major concern for all technologies, it is also a concern for data stored in the cloud; security techniques such as encryption, cryptography are mostly used to ensure that key areas of data security (data confidentiality, data integrity and data availability) are protected. the results of this study helps small businesses to understand the impact of cloud computing on their businesses and the various security measures that need to be taken while adapting cloud computing technology. keywords: cloud computing; security in cloud computing; small businesses; cloud computing in business; adaptation. how to cite: karagozlu, d., ajamu, j., & mbombo, a.b. (2020). adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 149-167. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/146 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/146 mailto:damla.karagozlu@neu.edu.tr mailto:ajamujanet@gmail.com mailto:annythabakupa2@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/146 brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 150 1. introduction cloud computing is getting more attention and becoming one of the most suitable utility for companies, organizations and users that deal with financial, feasible, adaptable and scalable computing services for its everyday activities. cloud computing operation is internet based which allows sharing of computer resources with other devices based on user demands of the resources (ahmed, 2019). the most widely used definition of cloud computing is defined by (mell & grance, 2011) at national institute of standards and technology (nist). cloud computing is a model for allowing universal, easy, on-demand network access to a common pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, software, and services) that can be distributed easily and released with minimal management effort or service provider involvement (mell & grance, 2011). cloud computing as defined by the nist is made-up of five (5) major characteristics, three (3) service models and four (4) deployment models. the first characteristic is, on-demand self-service. in ondemand self-service, the consumer can singularly make available the computing requirements without human intervention or interaction with the service provider. the second characteristic is the broad network access; this means that services are reachable from anywhere via different types of devices such as laptop, mobile device, and workstation. the third characteristic is the resource pooling; in resource pooling, both the physical and virtual resources are pooled so as to serve more than one consumer by using a multi-tenant model. this multi-tenant model uses diverse physical and virtual resources, they can be allotted and reassigned dynamically in accordance to customer request. if the resources are assigned to customers on request, the location of the allotted resources is unknown. rapid elasticity is the fourth characteristic, which refers to the ability to provide scalable resources when needed. measured services is the fifth characteristic. measured services ensure the monitoring, controlling, and optimizing of resources usage by the cloud service providers (mell & grance, 2011; rashid, & chaturvedi, 2019). cloud service providers like google, microsoft, amazon are vendors that provide their customers with cloud computing resources and services that are used dynamically based on customer demand in accordance with a particular business model (rashid, & chaturvedi, 2019). cloud computing service models are: software as a service (saas), platform as a service (paas), and infrastructure as a service (iaas). the cloud computing deployment models are: private cloud, community cloud, public cloud and hybrid cloud (challagidad, dalawai, & birje, 2017). adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses damla karagozlu, et al. 151 one of the primary use of cloud computing is the cloud storage (data online storage). cloud storage system is considered as a circulated data centers which generally uses the technologies of cloud computing and it also offers interface for storage and accessing of data (venkatesh, & eastaff, 2018). figure 1. cloud computing service models and deployment models (saini, upadhyaya, & khandelwal, 2019) every organization is liable for dealing with their data adequately, but just those organizations that are of considerable size are competent of suitable resources as a powerful influence for the issue (clarke, 2017). the fair work act 2009, in australia defined small business as a business with less than 15 staff (bahzad, (2010). but realistically, a small business doesn’t require a huge amount of money to get started and it can also be part-time based. private company is additionally appropriate to web showcasing in light of the fact that it can without much of a stretch serve particular specialties. one overview of entrepreneurs indicated that 38% of the individuals who relinquished their professions at different organizations said their fundamental explanation behind leaving was that they needed to work for themselves (qing, 2012). before adopting this technology, companies ask themselves several questions including whether to integrate this technology will be beneficial for them. cloud computing gives a business the chances of increasing their productivity. when a business adopts cloud computing, these helps to reduce operational stress and the maintenance costs while providing products to their brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 152 customers (hussainn, hussainn, hussainn, damiani, & chang, 2017). cloud computing is an ever-developing technology that is widely accepted in parallel computing. it provides reasonable range of services to consumers, for example, universal processing, dynamic and versatile scaling, access to onrequest computing resources, metered asset use, and virtualized assets that can be provisioned and discharged without exertion (hussainn et al., 2017; ramezani, lu, tuheni, & zomanya, 2017). small businesses have to realize the significant ideas of cloud computing, together with its space, time, costs, accessibility, privacy, and security (alijani, fulk, omar, & tulsi, 2014). the aim of this study is to show the impact of a cloud computing adoption on small businesses. to be able to do this, this study is supported by a series of questions as below: ● how can the integration of cloud computing impact a small business? ● what effect can the migration to cloud computing have on the smooth running of a company? ● how are data backup and recovery handled by cloud computing applications? ● how is the security of data guaranteed on cloud computing? because of the need to effectively evaluate the application of cloud computing in specific areas, several researchers have developed studies to demonstrate its effectiveness and its many benefits. in this respect, this study focuses on the impact of cloud computing to small businesses. the contributions of this study includes: it proposes the benefits and importance of migrating to cloud computing by small businesses, it proposes the various recovery techniques and security measures to be considered when adopting to cloud computing. this study does not only help small business owners, it also help researchers and individuals inquisitive about the effectiveness and reliability of cloud computing in the context of small businesses. 2. research methodology the methodological technique used in carrying out this study’s bibliometric evaluation is based on articles selection process. a search for existing literature reviews was carried out. the articles selected were mainly based on studies that have been published from the year 2014 to year 2020. articles from year 2014 to year 2020 were selected in order to discover the current developments in cloud computing although articles published in previous years were also used. adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses damla karagozlu, et al. 153 2.1. documents selection process the databases used for this study are ieeeexplore, web of science, sciencedirect and scopus. other search engines like google scholars.com, ecadamian.com were also used. in carrying out the literature search, few steps were taken. the keywords used for searching related articles to this study are “cloud computing”, “small business”, “adaptation”, “security”, “data backup and data recovery”. these keywords were typed in to find related articles to the scope of this paper. the search was done using the “and” and “or” boolean operator in order to get the relevant articles for the purpose of this study. after searching with the keywords, type of document was specified and only articles were selected. articles written in english were considered and articles written in other languages were eliminated. articles identified with relevant information based on the aim of this study and the formulated research questions were considered. figure. 2 explains the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the studies used for this paper. figure 2. inclusion and exclusion criteria of the studies. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 154 3. results and discussions this section presents the findings conducted from reviews based on the research questions of this study. 3.1. impact of cloud computing integration on small businesses to demonstrate the impact of integrating cloud computing into a small business, the concept of cloud computing must be understood. buyya et al, described it as follows: “the cloud is a parallel circulated computer framework comprising of a lot of interconnected and virtualized computers, progressively provisioned and exhibited in the form of one or multiple unified computing resource(s) based on service-level agreements established over negotiation between the service provider and customers” (parikh, 2014: 110). the benefits of cloud computing in business are flexibility, cost reduction, automatic software/hardware upgrades, agility, and scalability (xue, & xin, 2016). ● flexibility: cloud computing is being adopted by many organizations because of its flexibility. most of the organizations choose to adopt cloud computing as it increases the business flexibility. it allows every staff to be more flexible in or out of their working environment. the only thing needed is an internet connection. diverse cloud computing systems help companies cope with business demand. cloud storage allows the workers to concurrently exchange information and files over the internet. and every employee will be able to get the updated version. in addition, it helps the workers to access the same services simultaneously due to the data and information being stored remotely on the internet. ● cost reduction: a major factor that organizations consider for the adoption of cloud computing in their businesses is that it helps in cost reduction. organizations only pay for the services being used when they make use of cloud services. in figure 3, the key factor that motivates the company to implement cloud computing is cost reduction which is 45.5 %. adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses damla karagozlu, et al. 155 figure 3. reasons for the adoption of cloud computing (xue, & xin, 2016; sahandi, alkhalil, & opara-martins, 2013). ● software /hardware upgrade automatically: when an it solution has been introduced in organisations, it creates a dilemma that cannot be addressed adequately due to the high cost of buying and maintaining hardware and software. this will have a detrimental impact. these problems can be resolved by the implementation of cloud computing. organizations could transfer their capital expenditures to operating expenses. not only does it reduce costs, but it also helps to create a stronger relationship, keep ahead of technological developments, raise revenues, offer reliable and low cost services to customers. ● agility: in today's highly competitive market climate, it is important to stay competitive. one of the ways that make the company distinct from the others is the willingness and time it takes that adapt to customers' rapidly changing needs. cloud computing can do so in a more effective way. cloud computing is available around the clock thanks to the availability of the internet. this helps organizations offer services in the shortest time possible so that they can be used as a strategic tool for accelerated growth. ● scalability: cloud computing offers services as per consumer or company demand. it allows the upscaling or downscaling of the administrations as indicated by interest, traffic and frequent spikes. cloud meets the market needs of adaptable technologies. the manner in which companies will increase in the coming years is vital to the size of the industry as it grows (saini, upadhyaya, & khandelwal, 2019). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 156 cloud computing is an additional benefit, particularly for smaller organizations, because they can increase resources when needed. in addition, cloud computing helps users to access a large amount of data in just a few minutes due to its processing capacity. it has successfully attracted industry analysts to evaluate the market and forecast consumer behaviour and purchasing preferences (xue, & xin, 2016). this new world of virtualization brings a new way of working for businesses in general and small businesses in particular, because it simplifies the way backup and data manipulation works in a business (marston, li, bandyopadhyay, zhang, & ghalsasi, 2011). for example, in the it infrastructure area, buying of physical servers will no longer be necessary because its data will be automatically saved on the virtual services on which it will be connected (staten, 2009). along these lines, the association that controls the information should be possible anyplace and whenever; on the grounds that it is never again important to utilize computers with physical system engineering (gutierrez, boukrami, & lumsden, 2015). the cloud turns into a versatile framework that can be shared by various end clients, every one of whom may utilize altogether in different manners. the clients are totally isolated from one another, and the adaptability of the foundation considers registering burdens to be adjusted on the fly as more clients join the framework (the way toward setting up the framework has become so institutionalized that including processing limit has become nearly as basic as adding building squares to an existing grid (moura, & hutchison, 2016). the excellence of the course of action is that as the quantity of clients goes up, the interest load on the framework gets progressively adjusted in a stochastic sense, even as its economies of scale grow, cloud registering makes it simpler for endeavours to scale their administrations which are progressively dependent on exact data as indicated by customer request. since the figuring assets are overseen through programming, they can be conveyed exceptionally quick as new necessities emerge (hosseini, fallon, weerakkody, & sivarajah, 2019). the principle potential advantage of receiving distributed computing is to dispose of the colossal expenses related with the inward upkeep of equipment and programming (jones, irani, sivarajah, & love, 2017). cloud computing goal is to leverage increased computing power to execute millions of instructions per second. cloud computing uses a large number of cloud networks with advanced connections to facilitate data processing between the servers (inukollu, arsi, & ravuri, 2014). adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses damla karagozlu, et al. 157 3.2. the effect of migrating to cloud computing on the smooth running of a company cloud computing application does not disrupt the smooth running of the business because by using cloud computing, small businesses can support the costs related to skilled labour, deployment, service, repair, update and troubleshooting (tsao, venkatsubramanyan, parikh, & sarkar, 2011), as cloud computing offers infrastructure, applications and software costumes on a subscription-based pay-per-use model (armbrust et al,. 2010). mell & grance (2011) characterized cloud computing as a model for ubiquitous and helpful on-demand access to a common pool of configurable processing assets (systems, servers, storage, applications and administration) that can be delivered and discharged without delay with effort or with insignificant administration. neighborhood pcs won’t need to take the whole weight of running applications again. cloud computing innovation is being utilized to reduce the use cost of processing assets (amanatullah, lim, ipung, & juliandri, 2013). the entire cloud, consisting of a pc system, manages the stack. the cost of programming and purchasing facilities at the end of the customer service reduces. the main thing that the client has to do is run the application interface programming to communicate with the server. cloud computing consists of the front and back ends. the front end includes the user's computer and the programming needed to get to the cloud. back-end is made up of different pcs, servers and database frameworks that make up the cloud. the client can access cloud-based applications from anywhere by connecting to the cloud through the internet. cloud computing is a trend setting innovation that just has the potential for organization coordinated effort, yet the innovation likewise enables organizations to remotely control their assets since their topographical appearance. for example, organizations can stack their site pages by downloading limited data to a pre-doled internet-based system (sivarajah, irani, & weerakkody, 2015). subsequently, distributed computing empowers associations to profit by a powerful situation in which private ventures can for all intents and purposes design their business on an adaptable framework (armbrust et al., 2010). when adopting to cloud services there are three phases of adoption strategy (attaran, 2017). the phases are described below: ● elementary phase: companies begin to learn about cloud technologies and carry out a thorough review of their applications and the resources they need. cloud computing relies mainly on services, not technology. the services provided vary from automated it jobs, it services and digital business processes. the availability of cloud computing services to users is based on their needs. consumers of the service place requests for service through selfbrain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 158 service and are billed for what they use. the most powerful deployments begins with users actually understanding the intended business outcomes and then identifying the services that will be offered through the private and/or public cloud. questions such as what services consumers need, how much of the service should be used, when the service is usually used, which consumers consume the service and what is a fair price for the service should be explained. ● phase 2 (intermediate phase): users must document and analyze the internal processes that the chosen cloud services will affect. the users will examine the internal it processes involved in providing the services during this research. this can reinforce the need to flatten, reconfigure, realign, optimize or remove inefficient processes and aim repetitive manual processes to be automated. it also needs to discuss the type(s) of security that will be applied to cloud deployment. ● phase 3 (final phase): users should link applications and related workloads to their cloud services. each workloads should: review the internal it processes involved in the delivery of services, analyze every workload for both its relevance to cloud computing and its location environment, decide the general workload architecture of the applications, and decide the security profile for each workload. after the user analyzes the workload, decisions should be taken as to what cloud-based deployment model is best suited to the organization's applications and workloads. 3.3. data backup and recovery in cloud computing backups have two main purposes: backups main purpose is to recover loss data that may occur due to corruption, damage, or deletion. backups other purpose is to restore stored data from an earlier period of time (laxmi, deepika, pranay, & supriya, 2018). data backup is a way of restoring disaster. issues relating to data recovery process are (venkatesh, & eastaff, 2018): data storage: in order to provide security to data stored in the cloud, computing is distributed while storage is centralized and due to this, storing data in the cloud is correlated with single point failure and data loss. data security: it is essential to provide data protection, since certain data can be confidential and sensitive. lack of redundancy: when the cloud is damaged for whatever cause, and the primary storage fails to provide the data, the secondary site will be enabled to provide the data to the customer. dependency: customer has no control over their system and their data. backup service is provided to address this drawback. adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses damla karagozlu, et al. 159 over the years, a lot of techniques for cloud backup service have been discovered. a. remote data backup server: remote data backup server is a type of server that represents the main cloud. it contains the copy of the main clouds entire data. remote data backup server is kept far away from the main cloud. the central repository is known as the main server, while the remote backup system is known as the secondary repository (sambrani, & rajashekarappa, 2016). if any occurrence happens like data loss, security breach, natural disaster etc. from the main cloud, then it makes use of the data stored in the remote repository. this also lets customers to access data from the remote server in a situation where network availability is not available or where the main cloud cannot provide customers with the required data (sharma, & singh, 2012). remote repository services should address consecutive concerns, including: privacy and ownership, server-to-cloud transfer, data security, reliability, and cost effectiveness (monisha, & venkateshkumar, 2018). b. data recovery: the reason why clients would want to recover data is mostly due to disaster. disaster is an unexpected event caused by environment, software or hardware failures. challenges of disaster recovery includes: cost, dependency, failure detection, and security. disaster recovery solutions: local backup, inter-private cloud storage (monisha, & venkateshkumar, 2018). until now, various methods have been proposed in cloud computing for data backup and recovery. some of these approaches include: seed block algorithm (sba): the architecture of the seed block algorithm comprise of the central repository, its clients and the remote data backup server (also known as the remote repository). sba makes use of remote repository. remote repository is a server that stores the entire data of the main cloud and it’s located far from the main cloud. sba ensures the simplicity of data backup and its recovery procedure. it uses the idea of the logic exclusive or (xor) operation. the advantages of sba are: takes less time to recover data from the remote server, it ensures data integrity, and it doesn’t require network connectivity to recover data from the remote location. the disadvantage is that the remote repository uses the same storage space as the central repository (gharde, & ghaormare, 2016). parity cloud service (pcs): pcs uses a novel cloud infrastructure data recovery service framework, and also offers a privacy-protected personal data recovery service. pcs does not require the uploading of user data to the server for data recovery. all the resources required by the server are within reasonable limits (badhel, & chole, 2015). the advantage of pcs is that it is reliable and it is less in terms of cost for data recovery. the disadvantage is that it has a high implementation complexity. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 160 high security distribution and rake technology (hsdrt): hsdrt uses a wide-spread data transfer strategy and high-speed encryption technology. the system has both the back-up and recovery sequences. the backup sequence is used when data is saved for back up purpose while the recovery sequence is used when there’s loss of data and the data needs to be retrieved. advantage of hsdrt is that it can work efficiently for movable clients like laptops and smart phones. the disadvantage is that it is costly and data redundancy (jayalakshmi, & mathuramgbigai, 2017). other recovery techniques include: linux boxadvantages: it’s simple and low cost. disadvantages: high rate of bandwidth and complete server backup is done at a time. efficient rounding grounded on taxonomy (ergot) – advantages includes: privacy, performs exact match retrieval of data. disadvantages: increased complexity and cost increases as data becomes larger. cold/hot backup serviceadvantage: immediate availability. disadvantages: expensive and cost increases as data become larger (tamimi, dawood, & sadaqa, 2019). all this techniques try as much as possible to solve the limitations of an already existing technique but none of these techniques have been able to resolve the issues regarding the high storage space for remote data back-up. 3.4. data security in cloud computing data security ensures the protection of the data in terms of confidentiality, integrity and availability (zardari, jung, & zakaria, 2014; chen, & zhao, 2012). ● data confidentiality: confidentiality means that the information is kept hidden from unauthorized users. only an authorized user has the right to access resources up to a specified access limit which is set by the administrator. data confidentiality is a major concern for cloud users, and this alone can discourage users from storing data in the cloud (zardari, jung, & zakaria, 2014). the solution for protecting confidentiality before releasing data to service providers is encryption. providers can't decrypt data for query execution if data is protected by encryption (samarati, di vimercati, murugesan, & bojanova, 2016). ● integrity: data integrity is data accuracy and continuity in the cloud without modification by any unauthorized party, and guarantees data resource reliability. in the design stage of the database, data confidentiality is implemented with standard rules and procedures (zardari, jung, & zakaria, 2014). adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses damla karagozlu, et al. 161 ● availability: availability of data requires that information be accessible when it is requested by authorized persons. data availability is one of the service providers' main concerns. when a cloud service is disrupted for whatever reason, it can affect other clients. contractually, service providers attempt to guarantee a high degree of availability likelihood. there are many threats that may affect cloud service availability such as storage capacity, internet connectivity dependency, and technological failures. generally speaking, data availability in cloud is more secure than on a conventional network, because large providers such as google, amazon and microsoft are better prepared to handle such risks than a single person or business (kacha, & zitouni, 2017). the security architecture for cloud computing can be grouped into four parts (chen, & zhao, 2012): a. software security issues: (multi-tenant access security, internet application security) b. platform security: (framework security, environment security, component security, security of the interface) c. infrastructure security: (security of the virtual environment, shared storage security) d. auditing and compliance: (user management, authorization management, access management, service level agreement management, monitoring services, auditing services, reporting services) in other to improve cloud computing, and to secure data stored in cloud, authentication, authorization, and access control should be put into practice. the main areas in data security are confidentiality, integrity and availability. encryption is recommended as a good approach for securing information. users should encrypt data before storing in the cloud server (rao, & selvamani, 2015). brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 162 figure 4. cloud computing security architecture (chen, & zhao, 2012). data security in the cloud is better achieved when we have a combination of techniques for encryption, data loss prevention, integrity protection, authentication, and authorization. when providers and companies use cryptographic algorithms, these algorithms are very important and are well known as defined by nist. it is also helpful to provide an annual re-evaluation of the algorithms and keys used to ensure the quality of the security. it is also very important for companies that use cloud technology to understand the adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses damla karagozlu, et al. 163 security controls in the cloud multi-tenant environment that are connected to the data. recommended for storing the keys are hardware protection modules or hardware security module (hsms) (jakimoski, 2016). although, a lot has been done regarding cloud computing security and many techniques has been introduced like encryption method, cryptography etc. but none of these approaches has fully solved cloud computing security problem they’ve only been able to reduce the problems. jakimoski (2016) concluded that if all the necessary steps are taken to ensure authentication, confidentiality, access control and authorization, cloud computing can then be trusted in data security. 4. conclusion cloud computing has been regarded as a growing technological field and it has been adopted by various individuals, organizations, large scale businesses etc. but many small businesses are still unfamiliar with its operation. discussions on cloud computing, phases involved in cloud computing adoption, cloud computing backup and recovery of data techniques, and data security issues were discussed in this study. this study emphasis was based on small businesses. individuals, organizations, large scale businesses that adopted the use of cloud computing earlier are pleased with the various benefits involved and it has helped to reduce unnecessary costs. when a small business decides to start using cloud computing techniques it does not disrupt the way the business has been running before it rather improves the operation of the business. an area of concern to small businesses about adopting cloud computing is the security aspect. security issues are not only concerned with cloud computing, many it related fields are faced with the issues of security. from the early use of cloud computing, different approaches and methods have been proposed and adopted for the improvement of cloud computing security problems. although, cloud computing is still growing but there are lots of effective security solutions which are been used for safe securing of data in the cloud. so therefore, small businesses that wants to migrate to the use of cloud computing should consider the best option for data security for their business before migrating. reasons for transferring data to cloud computing include availability, speed and ease of data sharing, cost efficiency and reliability. this study only discussed few aspects of cloud computing techniques as regards small business; the research did not address cloud computing in full context while including large and medium scale businesses. brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 164 future research should address the limitations of this study as described. future research should also discuss in details how to select cloud providers as regarding the nature of the business. references ahmed, i. (2019). a brief review: security issues in cloud computing and their solutions. telkomnika, 17(6), 2812-2817. alijani, g. s., fulk, h. k., omar, a., & tulsi, r. (2014). cloud computing effects on small business. entrepreneurial executive, 19, 35-45. amanatullah, y., lim, c., ipung, h. p., & juliandri, a. (2013). toward cloud computing reference architecture: cloud service management perspective. international conference on ict for smart society (pp. 1-4). jakarta, indonesia, ieee. armbrust, m., fox, a., griffith, r., joseph, a.d., katz, r., konwinski, a. … zaharia, m. (2010). a view of cloud computing. communications of the acm, 53(4), 5058. attaran, m. (2017). cloud computing technology: leveraging the power of the internet to improve business performance. journal of international technology and information management, 26(1), 112-137. badhel, s. p., & chole, v. (2015). an efficient and secure remote data back-up technique for cloud computing. international journal of computer science and mobile computing, 4(6), 361-369. bahzad, t.s. (2010). the finance aspects of building a small business in kurdistan region-iraq: a comparison with sweden, master in business administration, lebanese french university-bmu internship with university of picardie jules verne france, erbil. journal of asian business strategy, 2(4), 84. challagidad, p. s., dalawai, a. s., & birje, m. n. (2017). efficient and reliable data recovery technique in cloud computing. internet of things and cloud computing, 5(1), 13-18. chen, d., & zhao, h. (2012). data security and privacy protection issues in cloud computing. proceedings of the 2012 international conference on computer science and electronic engineering, 1, 647-651. doi: 10.1109/iccsee.2012.193 clarke, r. (2017). can small users recover from the cloud? computer law & security review, 33(6), 754-767. gharde, a. s., & ghaormare, k. (2016). study of seed block algorithm in cloud computing environment. iosr journal of computer engineering, 37-39. gutierrez, a., boukrami, e., & lumsden, r. (2015). technological, organisational and environmental factors influencing managers’ decision to adopt cloud computing in the uk. journal of enterprise information management, 28(6), 788807. https://doi.org/10.1109/iccsee.2012.193 adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses damla karagozlu, et al. 165 hosseini, s., fallon, g., weerakkody, v., & sivarajah, u. (2019). cloud computing utilization and mitigation of informational and marketing barriers of the smes from the emerging markets: evidence from iran and turkey. international journal of information management, 46, 54-69. hussainn, w., hussainn, f.k., hussainn, o.k., damiani, e., & chang, e. (2017). formulating and managing viable slas in cloud computing from a small to medium service provider's viewpoint: a state-of-the-art review. journal of information system, 71(10), 240-259. inukollu, v. n., arsi, s., & ravuri, s. r. (2014). security issues associated with big data in cloud computing. international journal of network security & its applications, 6(3), 45. jakimoski, k. (2016). security techniques for data protection in cloud computing. international journal of grid and distributed computing, 9(1), 49-56. jayalakshmi, j., & mathuramgbigai, g. (2017). a survey on backup recovery issues in cloud computing. international journal of computer science and mobile computing, 6(8), 63-68. jones, s., irani, z., sivarajah, u., & love, p.e. (2017). risks and rewards of cloud computing in the uk public sector: a reflection on three organizational case studies. information systems frontiers, 21, 359-382. kacha, l., & zitouni, a. (2017). an overview on data security in cloud computing. in: silhavy r., silhavy p., prokopova z. (eds) cybernetics approaches in intelligent systems. comesyso 2017. advances in intelligent systems and computing, 661, 250-261. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-67618-0_23 laxmi, k., deepika, k., pranay, n., & supriya, v. (2018). data backup and recovery techniques in cloud computing. international journal of scientific research in computer science, engineering and information technology, 3(4), 1002-1005. marston, s., li, z., bandyopadhyay, s., zhang, j., & ghalsasi, a. (2011). cloud computing-the business perspective. decision support systems, 51(1), 176-189. mell, p., & grance, t. (2011). the nist definition of cloud computing. gaithersburg: us department of commerce national institute of standards and technology, special publication, 800-145. monisha, s., & venkateshkumar, s. (2018). cloud computing in data backup and data recovery. international journal of trend in scientific research and development, 2(6), 865-867. available from: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd18652.pdf moura, j., & hutchison, d. (2016). review and analysis of networking challenges in cloud computing. journal of network and computer applications, 60, 113-129. doi: 10.1007/s10796-017-9756-0 parikh, s. m. (2014). a survey on live virtual machine migrations and its techniques. computer engineering and intelligent systems, 5(3), 110-113. https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd18652.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 4 166 qing, h.l. (2012). research on model and application of e-commerce based on cloud computing. proceedings of the 2012 international conference on computer and service system, 142-146. ramezani, f., lu, j., tuheni, j., & zomanya, a.y. (2017). a multi-objective load balancing system for cloud environment. the computer journal, 60(9), 13161337. rao, r. v., & selvamani, k. (2015). data security challenges and its solutions in cloud computing. procedia computer science, 48, 204-209. doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2015.04.171 rashid, a., & chaturvedi, a. (2019). cloud computing characteristics and services: a brief review. international journal of computer sciences and engineering, 7(2), 421426. sahandi, r., alkhalil, a., & opara-martins, j. (2013). cloud computing from smes perspective: a survey based investigation. journal of information technology management, 24(1), 1-12. saini, h., upadhyaya, a., & khandelwal, m. k. (2019). benefits of cloud computing for business enterprises: a review. proceedings of the international conference on advancements in computing & management, 1003-1007. available from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3463631. samarati, p., di vimercati, s. d. c., murugesan, s., & bojanova, i. (2016). cloud security: issues and concerns. encyclopedia on cloud computing. wiley. sambrani, y., & rajashekarappa. (2016). efficient data backup mechanism for cloud computing. international journal of advanced research in computer and communication engineering, 5(7), 92-95. sharma, k. & singh, k.r. (2012). online data backup and disaster recovery techniques in cloud computing: a review. international journal of engineering and innovative technology, 2(5), 249-254. sivarajah, u.s., irani, z., & weerakkody, v. (2015). evaluating the use and impact of web 2.0 technologies in local government. government information quarterly, 32(4), 473-487. staten, j. (2009). hollow out the moose: reducing cost with strategic right sourcing. forrester research, inc, 209. tamimi, a. a., dawood, r., & sadaqa, l. (2019). disaster recovery techniques in cloud computing. 2019 ieee jordan international joint conference on electrical engineering and information technology, (pp. 845-850). ieee. tsao, j., venkatsubramanyan, s., parikh, s., & sarkar, p. (2011). itc leap-frogging enabled by cloud computing for economics: a case study on streamlining india’s grain supply chains. international journal on advances in itc for emerging regions, 4(02), 37-51. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3463631 adaptation and effects of cloud computing on small businesses damla karagozlu, et al. 167 venkatesh, a., & eastaff, m.s. (2018). a study of data storage security issues in cloud computing. international journal of scientific research in computer science, engineering and information technology, 3(1), 1741-1745. xue, c. t. s., & xin, f. t. w. (2016). benefits and challenges of the adoption of cloud computing in business. international journal on cloud computing: services and architecture, 6(6), 01-15. zardari, m. a., jung, l. t., & zakaria, n. (2014). a quantitative analysis of cloud users' satisfaction and data security in cloud models. 2014 science and information conference (pp. 42-47). ieee. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 288-307 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/368 submitted: august 23rd, 2022 | accepted for publication: september 16th, 2022 ‘nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!’a case study on the rise of the digital civic activism in romania (2015-2018) monica pătruţ 1 1 “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău, romania. abstract: in this study we focused our attention on the involvement of the oldest and the most active online community, corupţia ucide, in organising or rallying protests in 2015, 2017 and 2018. we wanted to show to what extent the representatives of this community managed to increase the number of (involved) fans supporting the cause of anticorruption protests and how they used facebook as an interactive tool for communicating with users in the case of the three analysed protests. the corupţia ucide community has provided internet users with information about protests and anti-corruption legislation, has succeeded in connecting and engaging citizens to participate also in the street, not only in social media, and has paved the way for the digital civic activism institutionalisation in romania. keywords: anti-corruption protests; online communication; digital activism; social media; diaspora rally; romania 2018; corupţia ucide (corruption kills). how to cite: pătruţ, m. (2022). „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic activism in romania (2015-2018). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 288-307. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/368 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/368 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/368 „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic … monica pătruţ 289 introduction there has been a growing number of research studies on the relationship between digital activism and social media (tsatsou, 2018) use during protests around the world over the past three decades. academic papers refer to several concepts considered synonymous with the term digitalactivism: internet activism (kang, 2017), hashtag activism (briones, janoske, & madden, 2016), social media activism (miller, 2017), networked activism (tufekci, 2013), online activism (yang, 2018). the synonymic phrases used for the popular term digital activism have taken into account fashionable linguistic discourses or technological developments: web and cyber-activism were related to early forms of digital communication, social media, mobile and hashtag-activism refer to post-2005 technological developments (özkula ,2021). in addition, the perception of the social actors towards the analysed phenomenon has also changed, they no longer consider that there is a rigid delimitation between the online/virtual and the offline/real (sandu & nistor, 2020). activism in the virtual environment is materialised beyond the digital networks, the online and the offline are perceived not separately but as a whole continuum (maiba, 2005). the definitions given for digital activism are not very precise, but broadly speaking they highlight as follows: practices of resistance and rebellion (hands, 2011), “political participation, activities and protests organised in digital networks beyond the politics of representation and by non-state actors” (karatzogianni, 2015), political activism on the internet or political movements based on it (vegh, 2003) or an act of communication expressing personal opinions on public issues and the use of internet-based digital technologies for offline activism training (mercea, 2011). özkula (2021) considers that digital activism includes five practices: (a) advocacy and political commentary, (b) recruitment and movement building, (c) organisation & coordination, (d) online direct action, hacktivism, and civil disobedience and (e) research and documentation about activism. bennett and segerberg (2012) have argued that the digital means of activism have fostered the „personalisation of collective action‟ by providing maximum flexibility in terms of how, when, where and with whom individuals can join and participate in protests. george & leidner (2019) consider the following activities to be emblematic of digital activism: “clicktivism, metavoicing amplification of a user‟s voice or opinion through re-sharing, assertion content creation, e-funding, political consumerism, digital petitions, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 290 botivismrobot-distributed activism, data activism, exposure and hacktivism”. theoretical framework as society has become increasingly digital, more and more researchers have begun to study the impact of social media on online activism. four types of online activism have been identified: political, social, cultural, and nationalist (yang, 2018). for most activists, online communities represent the necessary space for networking or debate created to facilitate awareness of real problems experienced and the urgency of engagement to solve them. studying how activists have turned to new technologies to organise protests and managed to combine careful coordination with decentralisation, scott & street (2000) used the phrase „organised spontaneity‟. in addition to the problems of organising, activists need to find a method that combines the commercial logic of how social media works with their need to transform it into a public information infrastructure. the main social media platforms are institutions which shape the interactions within the collective action spaces of protesters. according to youmans, w. l & york, (2012) social media has supported the collective action in four ways: a) facilitating coordinated public action by discontented citizens; b) creating information flows which have reinforced the protesters‟ perception of success; c) increasing the costs of repression by the governments in power; and d) enhancing publicity by disseminating information to an (inter)national audience. valenzuela (2013) finds that social media use translates into increased protest activity among the adult population and advances three explanations for this relationship: information (social media as a source of news), expression (social media as a space for expressing political views) and activism (social media as a place to join the cause and seek out mobilising information). mundt, ross & burnett (2018) highlight the important role played by social media for rallying, coalition-building and collective meaning-making before or during the course of protest movements. social media helps to engage human resources, by facilitating access to information for large numbers of users, thus enabling social movements to reach critical mass, and material resources by supporting digital crowdfunding campaigns. the coalitions between different groups of protesters who have different identities or come from different geographical areas but have the same common goal/same cause are achieved through the access allowed by social media to individuals' social capital, their interpersonal networks between which “weak/strong ties” can be created (nien, 2017). by removing the media from the process „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic … monica pătruţ 291 of interpreting social reality as a public sphere, social media plays a significant role in shaping the discourse on the issues raised by various protests and participates in creating collective meanings, strengthening the sense of identity/collective cause among protesters. we should not ignore the (possible) risks that the use of social media can have for the protest participants. icts [information and communication technologies] not only have an emancipatory potential, but they are also tools used to reinforce the political or economic power. “online surveillance by state agents is widespread, and the discourse on netwars and cyberattacks places hacktivism or online civic disobedience within (cyber) terrorism rather than activism” (cammaerts, 2015, 8-9). similarly, social media platforms can impose various constraints on the protest participants, from preventing the use of pseudonymous or anonymous posts, counter-activism by regime actors to removing the accounts of key movement activists, to shutting down the use of social media altogether. “social media tools facilitating protests can also be used by the repressive regimes and their supporters to mitigate and disrupt opposition” (youmans& york, 2012). in romania, the first protests in which participants turned to social media for coordination and mobilisation started in 2012 (stanici, 2018). the street protests in the university square (january 2012) against the healthcare reforms promoted by the emil boc government are the first protests in which participants got organised and rallied on the online social networks, especially on facebook. members of the online discussion groups have scheduled on facebook the times of their protest meetings (grigoraşi, 2017) in the squares in the centres of the country‟s major cities.the most visible facebook groups/pages through which protests were organised and coordinated were piaţauniversităţii (university square) and indignaţii de romania (indignados of romania) (goina, 2012). the protests dedicated to the rosia montana project also benefited from the support of online communities (united we save, united we change, united we save rosia montana) created on the facebook platform. this is where the information leaflets, promotional materials, open letters and online petitions went viral, and the cultural events were created. facebook provided the experienced protesters with a solid support for participation in these collective actions (mercea, 2014). on 14th october 2013, the protests against the chevron company which intended to start work on shale gas extraction began. on facebook the protest was visible after the creation of two virtual communities: pungeşti-tv and pungeşti-rezistenţa. sharing pictures and video files featuring villagers and protesters who came from the country to support them, these virtual communities produced a strong emotional impact, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 292 supported a local protest action and gave it (inter)national visibility (cmeciu, coman, 2016: 22-23). immediately after the fire in the colectiv club (2015), several pages or communities appeared on facebook providing information about the tragedy, its causes and consequences: corupţia ucide #colectiv, ajutor colectiv, r.i.p. colectiv, împreună rezistăm, ajutor colectiv, marsul tacerii colectiv, colectiv pentru viitor, revolutia #colectiv, solidaritate cu romania #colectiv.. they facilitated the development of an alternative communicative space and a critical, anti-system discourse, being the main source of information for those who wanted to find out in real time details about the tragedy and its victims and the main mobilisation tool for organising volunteer centres and street protests (pătruţ, 2017). during the 2017 protests, the most popular facebook groups were #rezistenţa, corupţia ucide, 600000 pentru rezistenta, geeks pentru democraţie, împreună rezistăm, vă vedem din sibiu, iniţiativa timişoara, iniţiativa românia. the corupţia ucide community was a real forum for discussion and debate, the place where information was exchanged, photos and videos were posted and shared by participants in the protests in order to show their support for the movement and to further activate others in the network (gubernat& rammelt,2017). there were also (re)posted articles from the (inter)national press providing coverage of the anti-government protest. basically, corupţia ucide was a network node whose message was picked up by thousands of other users. the central points of the rallying narratives distributed in social media were the messages encapsulated in the form of the #rezist (resist), #coruptiaucide (the corruption kills), #democracy, #romanianprotests, #ruleoflaw, #neamsaturat (we had enough), #rezistenta (the resistance) hashtags (pătruţ & stoica, 2019). the moral conflict between the government and the protesters was managed on facebook by the administrators of these online communities, real “soft leaders or choreographer” (gerbaudo, 2012: 5) who were always in the background, but who were able to create the emotional space necessary for collective action. the empirical research on the romanian online activism was continued by vasilendiuc & bardan (2019) who focused on the online communities corupţia ucide and #rezistenţa during the protest of 20th january 2018, gathering 60,000 people. even though the peak of the rallying and organisation of facebook protests was reached in january-february 2017, the two communities were still active in january 2018 during the protest entitled “all roads lead to bucharest. our generation's revolution”. corupţia ucide is the online community that has had a greater impact on users by coordinating direct actions before and during the protests, focusing on internal organisation, recruiting new members and creating new networks, stimulating discussion and debates among members. https://www.facebook.com/ucide.coruptia/?hc_ref=pages_timeline https://www.facebook.com/ajutorcolectiv/?hc_ref=pages_timeline „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic … monica pătruţ 293 research inquiries and methodology the romanian diaspora is very influential economically and politically, with strong connections to the country, especially with family members. it is the most important investor in romania, bringing around €2 billion annually. with almost 4 million romanians living abroad, the diaspora represents more than 20 percent of the country‟s population (buzasu, 2018). on 10th august 2018, dissatisfied with the social-democratic government and its decisions on justice laws and penal codes,100,000 people once again took part in the diaspora rally, as it was called in the press, attended by both romanians from the country and from other countries around the world. the diaspora rally was marked by violence between protesters and police, caused by violent groups and the reaction of the gendarmerie (stan, 2018a, 2018b). the “we won‟t leave until you do” protest took place on 11th august 2018, this time peacefully, with tens of thousands of participants. protesters were again rallied by using the online platforms. in addition to the already well-known platforms corupţia ucide or # rezistenţa, a number of new facebook groups and pages have appeared specifically for connecting and rallying the romanian citizens in the diaspora: #rezist birmingham, #rezist budapesta, #rezistenta in valencia, #rezistam si la paris, #rezist diaspora, #rezist dublin, #rezist londra, #rezist olanda, #rezist san francisco, #rezist torino, #rezist bruxelles, #rezist toronto, #rezist stockholm, #rezist stuttgart, #rezist marsilia, #rezist liguria, #rezist madrid, diaspora europeană (răuţu, 2022). the aim of this paper is to provide a complementary insight to the few studies which analyse the contribution of the online social networks to the dynamics of protests in romania between 2017 and 2019. for the present research, we used the content analysis and collected data/posts from the coruptia ucide community between 15th july 2018 and 15th august 2018. in order to show the constant involvement of the mentioned community in the organisation of anti-corruption protests in romania in the last years, we have compared the data from 2018 with those from 2015 (from the protest which broke out after the fire at club colectiv) and from 2017 (the #resist protest). all the quantitative data on the activity of the corupţia ucide community used in the article was generously provided by the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 294 representatives of facebrands.ro, namely the facebook page monitoring service in romania. our research questions are as follows: rq 1as in the case of previous protests, was facebook used as a tool for interactive communication with those interested in the organisation and unfolding of the 10 th august 2018 protests? rq2what were the protest frames used by the organisers to get protesters engaged through the events created on facebook? results and discussion the number of new and/or engaged page fans is a key indicator showing the health or vitality of a facebook page (ernoult, 2013). facebook fans are those users who have liked a page and chosen to receive updates from the administrator of the liked page. engaged users are engaged fans, who are unique individuals having interacted with the page content over a period of time, either by clicking on an individual post or creating stories (carpenter, 2017). engaged users generate more exposure among fans for the posts they have interacted with. the corupţia ucide facebook page was created immediately after the fire at the colectiv club in 2015 to provide those interested in the protests with up-to-date information (adi & lilleker, 2017) or to rally citizens to volunteer in order to provide assistance to the victims of the fire and their families (pătruţ, 2017). figure 1. shows us that the corupţia ucide page also had a steady increase in the number of fans during the three protests: „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic … monica pătruţ 295 fig. 1 corupţia ucide new & engaged fans during the anti-corruption protests (2015, 2017, 2018) the number of fans ranged from 890 active fans in 2015, to 52,487 in 2017 and 75,406 in 2018 and from 10,421 fan base in 2015, to 73,687 in 2017 and 104,143 during the 2018 protest. these impressive boosts in the number of fans meet the demand for information felt by the protesters. the civic participation in the protests is based on the consumption of information from the internet (sultănescu, 2021, p.230) and this well-known community has been used as an information hub by its members. data browsed by zelist monitor, an online communication monitoring platform in romania, shows that half of the mentions of the protests came from facebook (47.8%), twitter (14.5%) and instagram (10.7%) and classic online media sources (7%) (sultănescu, 2021, p. 236-237). on facebook we can measure the interactivity of a page in two ways: user-to-user and user-to-document (tedesco 2007, p.1187). while the first form of interactivity involves the distribution of different posts from one member of the social network to another, the second involves liking and commenting on posts/documents available from the network. both types of interactivity succeed in showing the involvement or engagement of virtual friends in the process of communicating with the political or organisational actor. interactivity or engagement rate gives a more nuanced and realistic picture of the presence of the political actor on facebook. engagement is “the number of people who clicked anywhere in your post. this includes liking, commenting and sharing and people who‟ve viewed your video or 0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 #colectiv (1.11.10.11.2015) # rezist (1 .01.5.02. 2017) diaspora protest (15.07 -15.08.2018) active fans fans base https://www.facebook.com/help/281439321873710/?q=the%20number%20of%20people%20who%20clicked%20anywhere%20in%20your%20post.&sid=0jn1msfentmjyhwo7 https://www.facebook.com/help/281439321873710/?q=the%20number%20of%20people%20who%20clicked%20anywhere%20in%20your%20post.&sid=0jn1msfentmjyhwo7 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 296 clicked on your links and photos. and it also includes people who‟ve clicked on a commenter‟s name, liked a comment, clicked on your page name and even gave negative feedback by reporting your post”. (ernoult, 2013). fig.2 interactivity of the corupţia ucide page (2015, 2017, 2018) figure 2 shows the increase in interactivity of the corupţia ucide page. compared to 2015, the year of its creation, we see that in 2017 and 2018 the page has become a national phenomenon, which has succeeded not only in rallying massive numbers of protesters, but also in creating a new form of resistance to the abuses of power. in addition to being consistent in supporting the anti-corruption protests, the community also relied on a very good organisation and professionalisation of communication with virtual members (pătruţ & stoica, 2019). florin bădiţa, the founder of the community, stated in an interview “until the ego 13 in 2017 there were 35 of us and we were not very well organised. after the ego 13 we understood that we had to organise ourselves a little. as page administrators and editors there are 15-20 people in total, of which 10 are more active. we also have different groups of 100-200 people with whom we collaborate on a punctual basis or on different actions. there is no central office, we mostly work online. i‟m from cluj, most of them are in bucharest, there are also some in other cities or abroad. ... our work consists of managing the facebook pages and facilitating the organisation of protests, we consider ourselves facilitators, not organisers. then we have discussions with the team, we see what has happened, what we can do, we read messages, we reply to messages, we do research, we try to keep up to date, we are in contact with other civic groups (florescu, 2018). everybody has a different task, we are also working with slack, a little corporate, but very efficient. you 1727 68915 109579 122 4829 3029 225 24472 12094 0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 #colectiv (1.11.10.11.2015) # rezist (1 .01.5.02. 2017) diaspora protest (15.07 -15.08.2018) likes comments shares http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/author/emericernoult/ „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic … monica pătruţ 297 have different channels there: we have one channel for graphic design, doing a banner, etc. or the channel for creative writers, they are doing stuff with texts, or everything that is related to writing, we have a channel for law, where people take care of juridical stuff. very decentralized, everybody can contribute to the ensemble of things, without needing all information.” (gubernat & rammelt, 2017). fig. 3. types of content distributed on corupţia ucide (2015, 2017, 2018) following consistency, organisation, professionalisation, the community offered virtual members also diversification of online activities: the civic starter educational project, a civic entrepreneurship incubator and the activist house, a space for knowledge sharing between civic organisations and protest participants. moreover, the socio-political context has contributed to a tremendous increase in the site‟s interactivity: in 2017 a lot of discussion and knowledge exchange about organisational logistics and anti-corruption legislation (under the form of many law texts and many useful links to different resources, as now shown in figure 3), many advocacy campaigns, anti-government campaigns, anti-government petitions; in 2018 many discussions about the abuses of the gendarmerie and the violent suppression of the protest, gathering evidence of abuses committed by the authorities and legal advice given to the victims (many photos during street protests in as many cities of the country, many videos taken and then posted by witnesses of the violence in 2018, see figure 3). bennett &segerberg (2012) showed that new protest movements are also driven by selfmotivation of participants who distribute their own ideas, plans, images, resources to others. sharing content supporting civic-political activism thus becomes a form of personal expression and self-validation of one‟s beliefs. 21 21 1 7 30 71 25 9 22 98 14 9 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 links photos video statuses #colectiv (1.11.10.11.2015) # rezist (1 .01.5.02. 2017) diaspora protest (15.07 15.08.2018) broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 298 in the study of social movements, the frame theory was used in order to explain the way in which ideas and meanings contribute to the development, the diffusion and the functioning of the (counter)mobilisation in the collective actions. these collective frames are negotiated expressions of the meaning, they are social schemes which guide the action and support the discursive process which accompanies the action. the most important functions of framing are diagnosis, prognosis and motivation (benford& snow, 2000). in order to provide an answer to the second research question in our study, we have summarised the events organised by the corupţia ucide community in table 1. table 1. events created by corupţia ucide during and after the august 2018 protest no. crt name of the event date of the event place of the event no. of people who announced their intention to participate no. of people who announced their interest in the event/protest 1. support the diaspora in the piatavictoriei/victory square! (corupţia ucide, n.d.f) 10.08.2018 bucharest 7.2 k 15.9 k 2. on 10th august the people of fagaras go to bucharest! #diasporaacasa (iesiti in strada daca va pasa, n.d.) 10.08.2018 făgăraş.braşov 74 222 3. peasants and farmers are coming on 10th august to bucharest (corupţia ucide, n.d.a) 10.08.2018 bucharest 96 684 4. cluj: from piataunirii/union square, with the diaspora on 10th august (umbrela anticorupţie cluj, n.d.a) 10.08.2018 cluj-napoca 2.9 k 5.9 k 5. 10th august: romanian citizens go to protest #together (ştafeta 10.08.2018 bucharest 1.4 k 3.7 k „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic … monica pătruţ 299 steagului uniunii europene, n.d.) 6. simple: we demand the resignation of the entire government! (rezist zürich, n.d.) 11.08.2018 bucharest 3.4 k 11.7 k 7. we won‟t leave until you do! (coruptia ucide, n.d.b) 11.08.2018 bucharest 11.1 k 23.6 k 8. bucharest, don‟t forget, cluj is always on your side! (umbrela anticorupţie cluj, n.d.b) 11.08.2018 cluj-napoca 1.5 k 3 k 9. we won‟t give in! (coruptia ucide, n.d.c) 12.08.2018 bucharest 3.8 k 10.9 k 10. we won‟t give in! (reset, n.d.) 12.08.2018 iaşi 426 1.1 k 11. cluj: #we won‟t leave until you do! 12.08.2018 cluj-napoca 683 1.6 k 12. let‟s file criminal complaint for brutal intervention (coruptia ucide, n.d.d) 13.08.2018 bucharest, military prosecutor's office 37 265 13. 30 minutes #forromania (coruptia ucide, n.d.e) 13.08.2018 bucharest, piaţavictoriei 1.6 k 6.5 k 14. democracy dies in gas and truncheons! (rezistenta, n.d.) 17.08.2018 bucharest 438 1.7 k 15. clujflashmob why me? 10th august-let‟s not forget! (umbrela anticorupţie cluj, n.d.d) 19.08.2018 cluj-napoca 89 458 16. clujflashmob: keep an eye on 10th august! (umbrela anticorupţie cluj, n.d.e) 26.08.2018 cluj-napoca 26 76 the first five events, all scheduled to take place on 10th august 2018, show members of the community the injustice caused by the socialbroad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 300 democratic government, an injustice to which the romanian people fell victim (diagnosis framing). in the presentation of the events, the organisers state that “we say a firm no to the laws aimed at undermining the independence of justice, to the proposed and voted amendments to the penal code and the code of criminal procedure, and we demand a review of the positions adopted, in order to bring these provisions in line with the opinions expressed by professionals, with the eu recommendations and with common sense. romania is not a country of corruption, incompetence or criminals, but it is our country, the country of those of us who want a better future, transparency, dignity, fairness and uprightness. let‟s meet in the streets!”. after the violent clash between the police and the protesters, the community quickly gets organised and announces that, in addition to the problem initially reported, another problem/unjust situation has now arisen abuse by the police. these injustices need immediate action: call for the resignation of the government, the sanctioning of those responsible, the filing of criminal complaints by those who have suffered physically and the continuation of the protests (prognosis framing) – “452 people required medical attention after the intervention of the gendarmeries. we need to be at least 452 people in the victory square wearing masks (surgical or for painting) and remind the world that democracy dies in romania in gas and truncheons. we are staying in the streets until the fall of the dăncilă government! leave before someone dies!”. the last four events want to underline that the brave protesters who remained on the barricades continued to show their indignation towards this government: “we‟ll keep our eyes on them, on the “authorities” until all the representatives of the gendarmerie who attacked the protesters are held accountable before the law and until the moral authors of this communist action of repression of people‟s voices do not disappear from all public functions” (motivational framing). conclusions since 2012, we can speak of a (re)discovery of civic spirit and digital activism, a rediscovery that has led to an impressive number of people getting involved in supporting social, political, civic or cultural causes, leaving their computers to vote or protest (stoiciu, 2019). on facebook, event pages have been created where the romanians in the country and in the diaspora are invited to take to the streets to support the constitutional right to vote, campaigns are run to mobilise people to vote or to challenge the actions of political authorities (pătruţ, 2017; pătruţ et al., 2011; pătruţ & stoica 2019). „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic … monica pătruţ 301 even if before 2012, the romanians did not have a “protest culture” or a mature spirit of civic participation, since 2015 the corupţia ucide online community has managed to connect compatible citizens, to rally large groups of people to join protests, advocacy campaigns, petitions and antigovernment actions. together with other influential civic networks (rezistenţa, iniţiativa romania, declic, vă vedem din sibiu, #rezist), they have made available to internet users information about protests, legislation and issues that have divided the romanian public opinion, have shown that civic rallying can be a formative action, have paved the way for the institutionalisation of the digital civic activism in romania and have demonstrated that some concrete (albeit short-term) results can be achieved. references adi, a., & lilleker, d. g. (2017). #rezist – romania‟s 2017 anti-corruption protests: causes, development and implications. berlin: quadriga university of applied sciences. www.romanianprotests.info benford, r. d., & snow, d. a. (2000). framing process and social movements: an overview and assessment. annual review of sociology, 26(1), 611. https://www.jstor.org/stable/223459 bennett, w. l., & segerberg, a. (2012). the logic of connective action: digital media and the personalization of contentious politics. information, communication & society, 15(5), 739–768. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2012.670661 briones, r. l., janoske, m., & madden, s. (2016). hashtag activism at its best? a comparative analysis of nonprofit social media use for mobilizing online action. in m. zavattaro & t. a. bryer (eds.), social media for government. theory and practice (pp. 159-182). new york: routledge. buzasu, c. (2018). moştenirea protestului diasporei [“the legacy of the diaspora protest”]. adevărul. https://adevarul.ro/news/societate/mostenireaprotestuluidiasporei1_5b75f33bdf52022f7577e5ab/index.html cammaerts, b. (2015). social media and activism. in r. mansell & p. hwa (eds.), the international encyclopedia of digital communication and society (pp. 10271034). oxford, uk: wiley-blackwell. carpenter, e. (2017). why are engaged users better than facebook fans? https://www.hubnami.com/2017/08/03/blog-en/why-are-engagedusers-better-facebook-fans-1483726361 cmeciu, c., & coman, c. (2016). digital civic activism in romania: framing antichevron online protest community «faces» = activismocívico digital http://www.romanianprotests.info/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/223459 https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2012.670661 https://adevarul.ro/news/societate/mostenireaprotestului-diasporei1_5b75f33bdf52022f7577e5ab/index.html https://adevarul.ro/news/societate/mostenireaprotestului-diasporei1_5b75f33bdf52022f7577e5ab/index.html https://www.hubnami.com/2017/08/03/blog-en/why-are-engaged-users-better-facebook-fans-1483726361 https://www.hubnami.com/2017/08/03/blog-en/why-are-engaged-users-better-facebook-fans-1483726361 https://scholar.google.ro/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=14023385592242396623&btni=1&hl=en https://scholar.google.ro/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=14023385592242396623&btni=1&hl=en broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 302 enrumanía: la comunidad de facebook en las protestas on-line contra chevron. comunicar, 24(47), 19-28. http://eprints.rclis.org/29600/ corupţia ucide. (n.d.a). ţăranii si agricultorii vin pe 10 august la bucureşti [peasants and farmers are coming on 10th august to bucharest]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/221427685187981/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr corupţia ucide. (n.d.b). nu plecăm, până nu plecaţi [we won‟t leave until you do!]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/2144867605732467/?acontext=%7b% 22event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22 %7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr corupţia ucide. (n.d.c). nu cedăm! [we won‟t give in!]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/308549109691262/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr corupţia ucide. (n.d.d). depunem plângere penală pentru intervenţia brutală [let‟s file criminal complaint for brutal intervention]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/235600307092021/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr corupţia ucide. (n.d.e). 30 de minute #pentruromania [30 minutes #forromania]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/215430139153294/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr corupţia ucide. (n.d.f). susţinem diaspora, în piaţa victoriei! [support the diaspora in the piatavictoriei/victory square!]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/213707935957739/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr ernoult, e. (2013). 6 facebook metrics marketers should be measuring. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-page-metrics/ florescu, r. (2018). fondatorul „corupţia ucide‟, mai popular decât emma watson la premiile european leadership: „protestul e sexy, dar nu aduce schimbarea pe termen lung”, [“founder of 'corruption kills,' more popular than emma watson at european leadership awards: the ' protest is sexy, but it doesn't bring long-term change”]. https://adevarul.ro/locale/cluj-napoca/fondatorul-coruptia-ucidehttps://scholar.google.ro/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=14023385592242396623&btni=1&hl=en https://scholar.google.ro/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=14023385592242396623&btni=1&hl=en http://eprints.rclis.org/29600/ https://web.facebook.com/events/221427685187981/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/221427685187981/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/221427685187981/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/2144867605732467/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/2144867605732467/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/2144867605732467/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/308549109691262/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/308549109691262/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/308549109691262/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/235600307092021/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/235600307092021/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/235600307092021/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/215430139153294/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/215430139153294/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/215430139153294/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/213707935957739/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/213707935957739/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/213707935957739/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/author/emericernoult/ http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-page-metrics/ https://adevarul.ro/locale/cluj-napoca/fondatorul-coruptia-ucide-maipopular-decat-emma-watson-premiile-european-leadership-protestul-e-sexy-nu-aduceschimbarea-termen-lung-1_5ac22e7fdf52022f7555e686/index.html „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic … monica pătruţ 303 maipopular-decat-emma-watson-premiile-european-leadership-protestul-esexy-nu-aduceschimbarea-termen-lung1_5ac22e7fdf52022f7555e686/index.html george, j. j., & leidner, d. e. (2019). from clicktivism to hacktivism: understanding digital activism. information and organization, 29(3), 100249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2019.04.001 gerbaudo, p. (2012). tweets and the streets: social media and contemporary activism. london: pluto books. goina, c. (2012). cine nu sare, nu vrea schimbare! o analiză a mişcărilor de protest din ianuarie-februarie 2012 din cluj [who does not jump in, does not want change! an analysis of the protest movements of january-february 2012 in cluj]. in c. a. stoica & v. mihăilescu (eds.), iarna vrajbei noastre: protestele din romania, ianuarie-februarie 2012 [the winter of our discontent: protests in romania, january-february 2012]. bucharest: paideea. grigoraşi, c. (2017). facebook, mişcări sociale şi construcţia unui spaţiu public alternativ [facebook, social movements and the construction of an alternative public space]. bucharest: comunicare.ro. gubernat, r., & rammelt, h. (2017). anti-corruption protests in romania from a perspective of social media mobilization efforts. in democracy in development. comparative perspectives on the governance of the public good, 26-28 may 2017. bucharest, romania. https://www.academia.edu/34325866/anti_corruption_protests_in_rom ania_from_a_perspective_of_social_media_mobilization_efforts_scope _science_of_politics_international_interdisciplinary_conference_of_politi cal_research_university_of_bucarest_ hands, j. (2011). @ is for activism dissent, resistance and rebellion in a digital culture. london: pluto press. iesiti in strada daca va pasa. (n.d.). pe 10 august toti românii vin la bucuresti! #diasporaacasa [on 10th august the people of fagaras go to bucharest! #diasporaacasa]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/173150380040874/?_rdc=1&_rdr kang, j. (2017). internet activism transforming street politics: south korea‟s 2008 „mad cow‟protests and new democratic sensibilities. media, culture & society, 39(5), 750-761. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443717709444 karatzogianni, a. (2015). firebrand waves of digital activism 1994-2014 – the rise and spread of hacktivism and cyberconflict. basingstoke: palgrave. maiba, h. (2005). grassroots transnational social movement activism: the case of people's global action. sociological focus, 38, 41–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2005.10571256 https://adevarul.ro/locale/cluj-napoca/fondatorul-coruptia-ucide-maipopular-decat-emma-watson-premiile-european-leadership-protestul-e-sexy-nu-aduceschimbarea-termen-lung-1_5ac22e7fdf52022f7555e686/index.html https://adevarul.ro/locale/cluj-napoca/fondatorul-coruptia-ucide-maipopular-decat-emma-watson-premiile-european-leadership-protestul-e-sexy-nu-aduceschimbarea-termen-lung-1_5ac22e7fdf52022f7555e686/index.html https://adevarul.ro/locale/cluj-napoca/fondatorul-coruptia-ucide-maipopular-decat-emma-watson-premiile-european-leadership-protestul-e-sexy-nu-aduceschimbarea-termen-lung-1_5ac22e7fdf52022f7555e686/index.html https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2019.04.001 https://www.academia.edu/34325866/anti_corruption_protests_in_romania_from_a_perspective_of_social_media_mobilization_efforts_scope_science_of_politics_international_interdisciplinary_conference_of_political_research_university_of_bucarest_ https://www.academia.edu/34325866/anti_corruption_protests_in_romania_from_a_perspective_of_social_media_mobilization_efforts_scope_science_of_politics_international_interdisciplinary_conference_of_political_research_university_of_bucarest_ https://www.academia.edu/34325866/anti_corruption_protests_in_romania_from_a_perspective_of_social_media_mobilization_efforts_scope_science_of_politics_international_interdisciplinary_conference_of_political_research_university_of_bucarest_ https://www.academia.edu/34325866/anti_corruption_protests_in_romania_from_a_perspective_of_social_media_mobilization_efforts_scope_science_of_politics_international_interdisciplinary_conference_of_political_research_university_of_bucarest_ https://web.facebook.com/events/173150380040874/?_rdc=1&_rdr https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443717709444 https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2005.10571256 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 304 mercea, d. (2011). digital prefigurative participation: the entwinement of online communication and offline participation in protest events. new media & society, 14(1), 153 –169. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444811429103 mercea, d. (2014). towards a conceptualization of casual protest participation: parsing a case from the save roşia montana campaign. east european politics and societies, 28(2), 386-410. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2402744 miller, v. (2017). phatic culture and the status quo: reconsidering the purpose of social media activism. convergence, 23(3), 251-269. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856515592512 mundt, m., ross, k. & burnett, c. m. (2018). scaling social movements through social media: the case of black lives matter, social media & society, 1 –14. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118807911 nien, w. l. (2017). what is the role of social media in establishing a chain of equivalence between activists participating in protest movements? online journal of communication and mediatechnologies, 7, 182–215. https://www.ojcmt.net/download/what-is-the-role-of-social-media-inestablishing-a-chain-of-equivalence-between-activists.pdf özkula, s. m. (2021). what is digital activism anyway? social constructions of the “digital” in contemporary activism? journal of digital social research, 3(3), pp 60-84. https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v3i3.44 pătruţ, m. (2017). a #col(l)ectiv(e) romanian tragedy. a case study on social media fighting corruption. brand, 8(1), 38-46. https://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brand pătruţ, m., & stoica, v. (2019). romanian rezist protest. how facebook helps fight political corruption. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 66, 214-232. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.66.13 pătruţ, m., cmeciu, c., & miron, l. (2011). ngo annual reports as a device to frame education in romanian public communication campaigns. public relations review, 37(4), 432-434. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.06.006 răuţu, i. s. (2022). protestul din 10 august 2018, un catalizator al implicării civice româneşti [the protest of 10th august 2018, a catalyst for romanian civic engagement]. polis. revistă de ştiinţe politice, 165-192. http://revistapolis.ro/documente/revista/2022/1(35)/16.%20r%c4%83u %c8%9bu.pdf reset. (n.d.). nu cedăm! [we won‟t give in!]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/252130188955710/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr rezist zürich. (n.d.). simplu: cerem demisia întregului guvern! [simple: we demand the resignation of the entire government!]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444811429103 http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2402744 https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856515592512 https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118807911 https://www.ojcmt.net/download/what-is-the-role-of-social-media-in-establishing-a-chain-of-equivalence-between-activists.pdf https://www.ojcmt.net/download/what-is-the-role-of-social-media-in-establishing-a-chain-of-equivalence-between-activists.pdf https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v3i3.44 https://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brand https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.66.13 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.06.006 http://revistapolis.ro/documente/revista/2022/1(35)/16.%20r%c4%83u%c8%9bu.pdf http://revistapolis.ro/documente/revista/2022/1(35)/16.%20r%c4%83u%c8%9bu.pdf https://web.facebook.com/events/252130188955710/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/252130188955710/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/252130188955710/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic … monica pătruţ 305 https://web.facebook.com/events/1361325320667644/?acontext=%7b% 22event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22 %7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr rezistenta. (n.d.). democraţia moare în gaze şi bastoane! [democracy dies in gas and truncheons!]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/439174926591292/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). the effects of mass-media on social behavior, emotions and cognitions. logos universality mentality education novelty: political sciences & european studies, 6(2), 32-37. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.2/21 scott, a., & street, j. (2000). from media politics to e-protest: the use of popular culture and new media in parties and social movements. information, communication & society, 3, 215–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180050123712 ştafeta steagului uniunii europene. (n.d.). 10 august: cetăţenii români merg la protest #împreună [10th august: romanian citizens go to protest #together]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/259825304632083/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr stan, m. (2018a). august 10 evidence of violence, abuse and human right violations by the riot police report. declic. https://instrumente.declic.ro/uploads/raport-10-august-en-2.pdf stanici, m. (2018b). piaţa universităţii 2012: renaşterea activismului românesc [university square 2012: the rebirth of romanian activism]. bucharest: tritonic stoiciu, g. (2019). expansiunea social media şi transformarea angajamentului civic [social media expansion and the transformation of civic engagement]. revista română de sociologie, 5-6, 373–389. https://www.revistadesociologie.ro/sites/default/files/04-gabriels.pdf sultănescu, d. (2021). încredere şi implicare: modele de participare politică în românia democratică [trust and involvement: models of political participation in democratic romania]. bucharest: tritonic. tedesco, j. c. (2007). examining internet interactivity effects on young adult political information efficacy. american behavioral scientist, 50(9), 1183–1194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207300041 tsatsou, p. (2018). social media and informal organisation of citizen activism: lessons from the use of facebook in the sunflower movement. social media & society, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117751384 https://web.facebook.com/events/1361325320667644/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/1361325320667644/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/1361325320667644/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/439174926591292/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/439174926591292/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/439174926591292/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.2/21 https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180050123712 https://web.facebook.com/events/259825304632083/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/259825304632083/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/259825304632083/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://instrumente.declic.ro/uploads/raport-10-august-en-2.pdf https://www.revistadesociologie.ro/sites/default/files/04-gabriels.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207300041 https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117751384 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 306 tufekci, z. (2013). “not this one”: social movements, the attention economy, and microcelebrity networked activism. american behavioral scientist, 57(7), 848 – 870. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213479369 umbrela anticorupţie cluj. (n.d.a). cluj: din piata unirii, alaturi de diaspora in 10 august [cluj: from piataunirii/union square, with the diaspora on 10th august]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/2411180838921970/?acontext=%7b% 22event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22 %7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr umbrela anticorupţie cluj. (n.d.b). bucuresti, nu uita, clujul e de partea ta! [bucharest, don‟t forget, cluj is always on your side!]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/240432373463891/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr umbrela anticorupţie cluj. (n.d.d). cluj flashmob de ce eu? 10 august-nu uitam! [clujflashmob why me? 10th august-let‟s not forget!]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/261614751123505/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr umbrela anticorupţie cluj. (n.d.e). cluj flashmob: cu ochii pe 10 august! [clujflashmob: keep an eye on 10th august!]. [facebook event]. facebook. https://web.facebook.com/events/319207438830621/?acontext=%7b%2 2event_action_history%22%3a[%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22% 7d]%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr valenzuela, s. (2013). unpacking the use of social media for protest behavior: the roles of information, opinion expression, and activism. american behavioral scientist, 57(7) 920 –942. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213479375 vasilendiuc, n., &bardan, a. (2019). strategies of social media communication on two facebook communities corupţia ucide and #rezistenţa. in i. iancu, d. c. balaban & i. hosu (eds.), communication: strategic perspectives pr trend international conference, february the 26th–the 27th 2018 cluj-napoca, romania (pp.143-156). suceava: accent. vegh, s. (2003). classifying forms of online activism: the case of cyberprotests against the world bank. in m. mccaughey & m. d. ayers (eds.), cyberactivism: online activism in theory and practice (pp. 70-97). new york: routledge. yang, g. (2018). (un)civil society in digital china. demobilizing the emotions of online activism in china: a civilizing process. international journal of https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213479369 https://web.facebook.com/events/2411180838921970/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/2411180838921970/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/2411180838921970/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/240432373463891/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/240432373463891/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/240432373463891/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/261614751123505/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/261614751123505/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/261614751123505/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/319207438830621/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/319207438830621/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://web.facebook.com/events/319207438830621/?acontext=%7b%22event_action_history%22%3a%5b%7b%22surface%22%3a%22page%22%7d%5d%7d&_rdc=1&_rdr https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213479375 „nu plecăm până nu plecaţi!‟a case study on the rise of the digital civic … monica pătruţ 307 communication, 12, 1945–1965. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/5313 youmans, w. l., & york, j. c. (2012). social media and the activist toolkit. journal of communication, 62, 315–329. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14602466.2012.01636.x https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/5313 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01636.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01636.x brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 80-93 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/239 cognitive and emotional components of the inner picture of an individual experience in terms of a pandemic yuliia rybinska¹, oleksandra loshenko2, nataliia pohorilska3, maryna antonivska4, nataliia sarnovska5, olha shum6 1 doctor of science (dr. hab) in education, professor, head of foreign philology department, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, julialeo1619@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0003-2185-7890 2 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of experimental and applied psychology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, ukraine, psiholog3003@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-3303-3162 3 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of general psychology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, ukraine, pogorilska_n@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0001-52971624 4 lecturer, department of foreign philology, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, antonivska_maryna@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-4451-3735 5 lecturer, department of foreign philology, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, nat_sarnovskaya@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0001-7278-5183 6 phd in philological science, associate professor, department of foreign philology, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, oshym@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-4638-843x abstract: the epidemic threat of covid-19 has changed the sociopsychological situation in general and has become a serious test for both ukrainian society and the whole of humanity. the purpose of this research was to study the psychological characteristics of emotional experiences and behavioral strategies in pandemic conditions. the study involved 85 people aged 22 to 60, residents of ukraine. in the research, the participants of the study used diener et al. satisfaction with life scale (swsl) (1985), adapted by d. leontiev & osin (2020), the method of spana (equivalent to the method of panas (positive and negative affect schedule), adapted by e. osin, attitude to a significant life situation, a method by e. korzhova and a. berdnikova. the study identified both negative and positive changes caused by the threat of a pandemic. among the negative consequences, the respondents most often indicated anxiety and fears, among the positive ones – personal growth, strengthening family relationships, and others. the research also provides data on the life satisfaction level and outlines the behavioral strategies, which ukrainians choose in a rapidly changing environment. thus, the majority of ukrainians, namely 27% of the sample, take a passive position on the prevailing conditions, feeling powerless and helpless. keywords: covid-19; emotional experiences; life satisfaction; anxiety; fear; behavioral strategy. how to cite: rybinska, y., loshenko, o., pohorilska, n., antonivska, m., sarnovska, n., & shum, o. (2021). cognitive and emotional components of the inner picture of an individual experience in terms of a pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 80-93. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/239 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/239 mailto:julialeo1619@gmail.com mailto:psiholog3003@gmail.com mailto:pogorilska_n@ukr.net mailto:antonivska_maryna@ukr.net mailto:nat_sarnovskaya@ukr.net mailto:oshym@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/239 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 81 introduction the 21st century has brought to the lives of people worldwide not only rapid scientific and technological progress but also several negative events. among them are the challenges of a global pandemic. present-day living conditions in the context of covid-19 pandemic, accompanied by changes in the socio-economic situation, and increase in the information load lead to the formation of intrapersonal and interpersonal contradictions among members of society, an increase in anxiety, insecurity, a sense of uncertainty in the future, and a loss of the activity prospect. people around the world have no idea what awaits them and what to hope for. three main questions hang in the air: “how to live now?”, “when will it all end?”, “will everything be as it was before?”. these, at first glance, concise questions make our heart beat faster, feel anxiety, devastation, fatigue, and the like. most do not tolerate the uncertainty caused by pandemic conditions. the real threat to the whole planet population is an increase in the number of suicidal disorders. this was the reason for our study, the purpose of which was to study the psychological characteristics of personality experiences and behavioral strategies in a pandemic threat. in 2020, several studies were conducted that examined the psychological aspects of the pandemic consequences. notably, it is noted that the uncertainty situation has led to an increase in the number of depressive disorders (wang et al., 2020), as well as such negative reactions as anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (kumar & somani, 2020). studies have also noted the impact of quarantine restrictions, which mainly lead to post-traumatic stress and sleep disorders (liu et al., 2020). in particular, the study reveals that the rate of post-traumatic stress was four times higher in children who were in quarantine than in those who were not. also informative is research conducted by roy and colleagues in india (roy et al. 2020) to examine the anxiety level and sleep problems in pandemic conditions. it was found that 12% of people had sleep disorders of diverse nature, and the anxiety level indicator was elevated. thanks to these studies, we already have an array of data that allows us to assume that the conditions of a pandemic threat adversely affect the mental state of the person. methods and materials the research team of the faculty of psychology of the taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, together with the scientific team of the department of foreign philology of kyiv national cognitive and emotional components of the inner picture of an individual … yuliia rybinska, et al. 82 university of culture and arts, conducted an online survey of the population of ukraine in connection with covid-19. the study involved 85 people aged 22 to 60, residents of ukraine. in the research, we used e. diener et al. (1985) satisfaction with life scale (swsl), adapted by osin & leontiev (2020). the method includes five questions, which involve the choice of the answer on a seven-point scale. the scale measures the cognitive assessment of the life circumstances compliance with the individual expectations and reflects a general measure of internal harmony and psychological satisfaction. the emotional component of life satisfaction was studied through the frequency of the level of positive emotions and negative affects using the technique of spana/шпана (equivalent to the method of panas (positive and negative affect schedule) (osin, 2012). the subjects are asked to note the severity of 20 adjectives revealing various psycho-emotional states. the result of this technique is two poles: positive emotional feelings and negative emotional affects. the study also used the “attitude to a significant life situation”, a method by e. korzhova and a. berdnikova which is designed to identify the specifics of human interaction with the life situation (korzhova & berdnikova, 2016). several statements were brought to the attention of the people under the research. in the first part, it was necessary to provide a detailed answer to the question. the second part reveals the degree of agreement with the proposed statements. the study situation is the quarantine situation (currently adaptive) in the conditions of the covid 19 pandemic. such an instruction allowed the experimenters, in no way, to direct attention to a specific aspect, to get an actual picture of the respondents' experiences and thoughts regarding the current situation. results according to the results presented in table 1, most often describing the importance of the situation, the respondents indicated fear, anxiety for their health (14% of the answers), and the health of their loved ones (8%). slightly fewer – 18% of answers told about the positive changes in their lives, which became possible both through the pandemic and the introduction of quarantine restrictions to limit the incidence. for example, these are the answers: “for me, this is a time when i can save money on travel and finally buy a car and make repairs in the apartment”, “because i spend more time with my husband, as he has to work from home, and, thanks to staying at home for a long time, we had the opportunity to take a puppy”, “my husband and i became even closer, as well as the whole family”, “made me slow down and look around”, etc. the answers often include the idea that life used to seem different and people often brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 83 wanted something different, but now it is important to maintain health, life. “this situation made me stop (in terms of life functionality) and think about what i have and how i want to live my life. this is when you have everything and nothing at the same time. you live, do what you want, go where you want, and at one moment, everything is taken away, and nothing is allowed, and at that moment came the realization that you need to stop and start living a real present, not the phantom future”. table 1 frequency analysis of a situation description № category frequency of occurrence, % 1 negative experiences, fears for loved ones 14 8 (total 22) 2 values reassessment 18 3 experiencing restrictions 13 4 discovering other options and opportunities 13 5 important for everyone 12 6 global changes 11 7 business and economy destruction 7 8 nothing has changed in my life 4 13% of respondents noted the restrictions as the most important aspect of the pandemic situation. these restrictions concern both the possibilities of travel, shopping, social activities, and answers such as “my freedom is limited”. 13% of responses reveal the pleasure of new opportunities that began to open up both in the macro world and in internal priorities and values. “the pandemic forced me to reconsider priorities, adapt to the new, and i opened up loads of opportunities for myself,” “gave direction for new development,” “i realized that you could have a job that does not depend on the location” and the like. 12% of the respondents agreed with the importance of the situation that arose but did not specify why exactly the situation was serious. 11% of those studied indicated in their responses the globality of the changes caused by the covid 19 pandemic. for example, “for me, this is a period of great change. we all learn to live in a new way and according to new rules”, “new realities that dictate new rules,” etc. 7% of respondents complained about the economic destruction, the complexity of small and medium-sized businesses, whose activities ceased or suspended due to quarantine restrictions. and only 4% of the respondents indicated in their answers that the pandemic situation, quarantine restrictions are not significant to them. cognitive and emotional components of the inner picture of an individual … yuliia rybinska, et al. 84 in total, only 2% of the sample refused to answer the question on the pandemic situation, namely, why the pandemic situation arises. accordingly, 98% tried to determine the causes. thus, the respondents most often (26% of the sample) claimed that the pandemic and quarantine situation is essential to someone: “because someone needs it,” “political games,” “because it is a business” and so on. the same percentage of the sample (26%) revealed the cause of quarantine restrictions, as the fear of multiple deaths, the desire to protect humanity from the intensive spread of the virus. 11% of the sample noted that pandemics appear periodically and are pretty logical. 9% of the sample saw in the ferocity of coronavirus infection the wrong actions of humanity, as a whole, these are incorrect values, disrespect for nature, and, accordingly, global warming, as a result of people's wrong actions. 8% of the sample as the cause of the pandemic indicated the virus novelty and the doctors' inability to repel the disease quickly. and 1% of the researchers indicated that we would never know the truthful cause of the pandemic. (see fig. 1) evaluating their actions, some of the subjects felt the complexity. 4% of the sample indicated that they “find it difficult to answer this question.” 8% in response to the question “what part did you take in the situation under study” indicated that “did not take,” and 6.5% indicated that took “none” participation. 10% of the sample indicated their “passive” role without specifying. irresponsibility of people17% someone's benefit27% rapid spread of the disease26% epidemics are periodical 11% the fault of mankind 9% refusal to respond 2% no one would ever know 1% brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 85 9% of the sample indicated active participation: “helped the company to switch to remote work format,” “provided antiseptics and personal protective equipment to vulnerable groups,” etc. 1.5% of the sample indicated that they “just were doing their business.” and the largest percentage of the sample (61%) presented the answers typical for isolation and self-isolation due to the pandemic: “i follow all the recommendations and stay at home,” “i adhere to all the rules and requirements” and the like. revealing the consequences of the pandemic, 46.5% of respondents indicated negative consequences, 42.5% saw positive ones, and 11% of respondents indicated neutral changes in their lives. qualitative analysis of negative impacts showed that most often (53% of negative consequences) changes were manifested in the appearance of anxiety, fears, and a sense of hopelessness. one subject pointed out that he felt acute fear of getting out when quarantine was relieved. 23.5% of respondents complained about losses due to the pandemic and the closure of borders: job loss in another country, obstacles to change the country of residence, abandonment of important events, etc. 17.5% of the sample faced financial constraints and losses. and 6% of respondents complained about the shrinking time perspective and difficulties in building long-term plans. among the positive results, the respondents indicated positive life changes (31% of all answers with positive consequences), personal growth, awareness of their resources (22%), time-release for themselves and their needs (18%), strengthening family relations (16%) and familiarity with online opportunities (13% of answers). 19% of the study sample believe that after the end of the pandemic (one subject hopes for a vaccine), life will return to “pre-covid” life, and people will quickly forget about this disease. 81% of respondents believe that life has already changed, and these changes will remain with them either for a long time or forever. most often, it was simply stated that changes would be made, but some responses were detailed. consequently, 16% of answers about changes note their personal changes, which the subjects no longer want to get rid of, also 16% of responses indicate adaptability to such situations in the future, 10% of responses note fear of social contacts, 8% are afraid of a global economic crisis, 6.5% complain about boundary restrictions, and another 6.5% indicate that now, online forms of work would be preferred where possible. cognitive and emotional components of the inner picture of an individual … yuliia rybinska, et al. 86 statement average standard deviation everything in my power 1.60 .89 not so much depends on me 1.44 1.00 it is good that everything happened that way. for me, this is a valuable experience 1.25 1.04 that should not have happened to me .87 .91 there is nothing difficult for me in the situation 1,52 .94 the situation seems very complicated to me 1.79 .98 i believe that everything will be great 2.41 .81 i doubt that this will lead to anything good 1.09 .87 i take an active part 1.23 .86 i do not play an important role 1.60 .97 the evaluation was performed using a four-point scale from 0 to 3, where 0 is the indicator of absolute disagreement with the statement, and 3 is the maximum degree of agreement. according to the results obtained, the highest rating (with a low standard deviation) had the statement “i believe that everything will be great,” which indicates the positive attitude of our subjects, optimism. a more positive view of the situation is confirmed by the agreement degree with the statements included in the parameter “optimismpessimism,” in particular: “i believe that everything will be great” (m = 2.41; σ = 0.81) and “i doubt that this will lead to anything good” (m = 1.09; σ = 0.87). the statement “that should not have happened to me” received the lowest score, which may indicate our subjects' acceptance of a pandemic situation caused by covid 19. this assumption confirms the general assessment of the statements, the methodology authors attributed to the “acceptancerejection” pole, namely: “it is good that everything happened that way. for me, this is a valuable experience” (m = 1.25; σ = 1.04) and “it should not have happened to me” (m = 0.87; σ = 0.91). low levels of agreement with these statements indicate a generally faster positive emotional attitude to the situation. degrees of agreement with the parameter statements “ease – complexity” “there is nothing difficult for me in the situation” (m = 1.52; σ = 0.94) and “the situation does not seem very simple" (m = 1.79; σ = 0.98) reveal the difficulty in unambiguous assessment. most likely, the situation seems difficult for the subjects, but the above-described optimism helps to reduce this complexity. the same ambiguity appeared when answering the statement to the parameter “internality-externality”: “the situation depends on me. everything in my power” (m = 1.6; σ = 0.89) and “not so much depends on me. this is how the brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 87 circumstances turned out” (m = 1.44; σ = 1). it is likely that already at this stage, the respondents perceive the situation of the pandemic as one that can be controlled by them. and the parameter “activity – passivity” covered the statement “i take an active part” (m = 1.23; σ = 0.86) and “i do not play an important role” (m = 1.6; σ = 0,97). according to the answers, there is a slight predominance of the pole of passivity. it is likely that quarantine situations, which continue to apply to many spheres of life, are perceived by the subjects as limiting their activity. factor analysis of the above statements revealed their semantic combination for the studied sample. the expediency of factor analysis is indicated by the values of the kmo index (0.719) and bartlett’s test of sphericity (0.000). due to factor analysis, four factors were identified, which together covered 64% of the variance. to obtain more or less uniform filling factors, we used the rotation of quartimax. statement components 1 2 3 not so much depends on me .833 everything in my power -.811 that should not have happened to me .588 the situation seems very complicated to me .582 it is good that everything happened that way. for me, this is a valuable experience -.562 i doubt that this will lead to anything good -.771 there is nothing difficult for me in the situation .767 i believe that everything will be great .672 i take an active part .846 i do not play an important role -.756 three factors were obtained. the first factor, which explained 27% of the variance, combined five statements: “not so much depends on me” (0.833), “everything in my power” (-0.811), “it should not have happened to me” (0.588), “the situation seems very complicated to me” (0.582) and “it is good that everything happened that way. for me, this is a valuable experience” (-0.562). these statements reveal feelings of helplessness, powerlessness, rejection of the pandemic situation. the second factor, which explained 21% of the total variance, included statements that studied “i doubt that this will lead to anything good” (-0.771), “there is nothing difficult for me in the situation” (0.767), and “i believe that cognitive and emotional components of the inner picture of an individual … yuliia rybinska, et al. 88 everything will be great” (0.672). this factor included positive emotional experiences of the subjects. the third factor (16% of the total variance) combined the statements “i take an active part” (0.846) and “i do not play an important role” (-0.756), which indicates a behavioral strategy to overcome feelings about the covid-19 pandemic. next, we consider the results of the life satisfaction study of the sample under research. we identified three levels of life satisfaction: low, medium, and high. according to the obtained results, the most among the studied people with a high degree of life satisfaction 49.3 samples. in the studied sample, the lowest number of people is with a low level of life satisfaction 9.3%. and, accordingly, individuals with an average satisfaction level is 41, 3% of the subjects' sample. statement question sample covariance standard deviation in many ways, my life corresponds to my ideal 4.24 1.14 the conditions of my life are wonderful 5.17 1.06 i am satisfied with my life 5.06 1.04 i achieved almost everything i wanted in my life 3.9 1.19 if i had the opportunity to live my life again, i would not change almost anything in it. 4.31 1.36 analysis of the answers sample covariance showed that most of our subjects are satisfied with living conditions and their lives in general. but the least they are satisfied with their achievements and need more accomplishments. accordingly, according to these results, we can say that for people with a high level of life satisfaction, the subjective perception of the current life situation as prosperous is more important than the correspondence of the life of the subjective ideal. thus, it is possible to claim that the subjects of our sample are generally satisfied with their lives, live in psychologically comfortable conditions, have a strong interest in life as the opposite of apathy, show determination, commitment, consistency in achieving life goals; coherence between set and actually achieved goals; positive assessment of one's qualities and actions and the general positive mood background. it was determined that life-satisfied subjects, often revealing their degree of agreement with the statements described above, chose the average brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 89 estimates of consent with the statement “do not play an important role,” and those with low levels of life satisfaction most often agreed as much as possible that they do not play an important role in the current situation (score phi = 0.418, cramera v 0.296 at p = 0.041). there is likely a clarification of the life satisfaction concept: a person with a low level of satisfaction reacts more sharply to time constraints. the next stage of the study was the analysis of the dominant emotional experiences of the sample under study. as noted above, panas (in russian adaptation of spana/шпана) has been used for this purpose. we analyzed the results according to the principle provided in the methodology. that is, we determined the indicators of positive and negative effects. also, factor analysis was used to clarify the emotional experiences of the respondents, which helped to understand the internal picture of the experiences. adjectives were grouped into four factors that generally explained the 67.52% of the variance. the feasibility indicators of the factor are 0.821 kmo, respectively, and bartlett’s statistical significance is 0.000. adjectives components 1 2 3 4 anxious .856 restless .854 angry .825 nervous .824 irritated .814 scared .684 depressed .666 upset .594 inspired .839 enthusiastic .836 interested .727 confident .675 active .604 full .530 joyful .527 attentive .848 focused .745 decisive .539 guilty .900 embarrassed .789 cognitive and emotional components of the inner picture of an individual … yuliia rybinska, et al. 90 the first factor includes adjectives that fill the negative factor of feelings: anxious (0.856), restless (0.854), angry (0.825), nervous (0.824), irritated (0.814), scared (0.684), depressed (0.666), upset (0.594)). thus, the first factor can be called the “negative pole,” where the dominant is anxious, restless, and angry. the second factor includes adjectives that belong to the positive pole of emotional experiences: inspired (0.839), enthusiastic (0.836), interested (0.727), confident (0.675), active (0.604), full (0.530) and joyful (0.527). you can call the factor “positive emotions” with a predominance of inspiration and admiration. the third factor includes such adjectives as attentive (0.848), focused (0.745), and decisive (0.539). this factor can be called the factor of attention. finally, the fourth factor combines two adjectives: guilty (0.900) and embarrassed (0.789). this factor is called the guilt factor. analysis of the arithmetic mean sample revealed the dominance of the positive pole of experiences (m = 33.12; σ = 6.9) over negative affects (m = 20.23; σ = 7.46). analysis of the arithmetic mean of the samples according to the estimates of the expression degree of each adjective emotion revealed leaders: decisive (m = 3.48), enthusiastic (m = 3.41), active and focused (both received an average score of 3.37), focused (m = 3.36) and attentive (m = 3.28). according to the subjects' assessments, emotionsexperiences were the least expressed: embarrassed (1.24), guilty (1.33), angry (1.81), and scared (1.85). discussions recent events, namely the pandemic threat and quarantine restrictions, have significantly changed the socio-psychological situation of ukrainians and caused numerous changes that have had both negative and positive effects (pohorilska, 2021). this study is aimed at studying the subjective experiences of ukrainian, namely their qualitative component in pandemic conditions. attention is paid to the study of the behavioral aspect in complex life realities. the empirical study obtained results on the life satisfaction level and revealed its content. the pandemic and quarantine restrictions have highlighted the experiences that characterize a situation of uncertainty (skotnikova et al., 2020). conducted empirical study shows that during the period of adaptive quarantine in a pandemic threat, most ukrainian people worry about their health (14%). the second place is occupied by fears for the health of relatives, 8% of the sample. in general, health anxiety covers 22% of respondents. however, in the course of our research, it turned out that brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 91 ukrainians observed not only the negative consequences of being in a situation of long-term danger to health and life in general. 18% of respondents felt pleasure through positive changes in their lives thanks to a value reassessment. researchers noted that the pandemic threat situation opened up new opportunities for respondents and gave direction for further development. a significant proportion of those investigated complained and felt dissatisfied because of the restrictions that were imposed during adaptive quarantine. in total, 13% of respondents were dissatisfied with the restriction of social activity and perceived this as an attack on their freedom. only 4% of the sample considered the situation due to the pandemic, and the restrictions that were imposed are not important. qualitative analysis of the pandemic threat consequences showed that respondents' responses to the positive and negative consequences were divided almost equally. thus, 46.5% of respondents noted negative changes, while 42.5% of respondents indicated positive changes. among the negative consequences were mostly the appearance of anxiety, fears, feelings of hopelessness. among the positive changes, 22% of the sample indicated the possibility of personal growth and awareness of own potential. a significant part of the sample (18%) noted the free time as a positive factor that contributed to meeting their needs. for 16% of the sample, experiencing a situation of uncertainty led to family strengthening. enrichment of experience as a positive change was reflected in 13% of responses through acquaintance and mastery of online opportunities. as part of the pandemic threat situation, data were obtained on the degree of satisfaction with the life of ukrainians. three degrees with high, medium, and low levels of satisfaction were identified, respectively. it should be noted that in a difficult situation, the majority of respondents (49.3%) showed a high level of satisfaction from life. among them, the respondents are most satisfied with life in general and their living conditions. the average assessment of life satisfaction was found in 41.3% of the sample. the lowest percentage was given to the low level. namely, 9.3% of respondents were dissatisfied with their lives. as a result of factor analysis, we obtained three behavioral strategies that were characteristic of respondents in adaptive quarantine. for most responses, which is 27% of the variance, the behavioral strategy of the passive type prevails, which is expressed in experiences of helplessness, powerlessness, and anticipation of a change in the current situation. the behavioral strategy of the active type, which is 16% of the variance of all responses, manifests itself in overcoming the adverse consequences of a pandemic threat situation. 21% of the total variance were responses, cognitive and emotional components of the inner picture of an individual … yuliia rybinska, et al. 92 generally characterizing an optimistic behavioral strategy. respondents of this type generally experience positive emotions, rationally assess the current situation, and are positive towards the future. conclusions analyzing the results of the study, it can be noted that in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, namely adaptive quarantine, the respondents often felt fear, especially fear for their health and their loved ones. it should be noted that a significant number of respondents mentioned crucial positive changes in their lives. qualitative analysis of the pandemic consequences showed that most often among the pandemic negative impacts, the respondents indicated anxiety, fears, and feelings of hopelessness. the positive consequences of the pandemic were personal growth, resource awareness, freeing time for themselves and their needs, strengthening family relationships, as well as familiarity with online opportunities. we also found a positive attitude of our subjects, the belief that everything will be fine, and, in general, a positive emotional attitude to the situation. the respondents feel that the situation is difficult but controlled. their optimism helps to cope with difficult circumstances. the study found the highest number of people with a high level of life satisfaction and, accordingly, the lowest, with low. respondents are satisfied with their living conditions and their lives in general. but they are least satisfied with their achievements and need further accomplishments. thus, this study demonstrates that an unexpected, uncertain, and at the same time dangerous situation such as the covid-19 pandemic can cause not only negative effects but also positive changes in the lives of ukrainians. references diener, e., emmons, r. a., larsen, r. j., & griffin, s. (1985). the satisfaction with life scale. journal of personality assessment, 49, 71-75. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 korzhova, e. y., & berdnikova, a. v. (2016). metodika «otnoshenie k znachimoj zhiznennoj situacii» [methodology "attitude to a significant life situation"]. in praktikum po psikhologii zhiznennykh situatcii [manual on life psychology] (pp. 59-72). russian state pedagogical university named after a. i. herzen. https://docplayer.com/28662716-praktikum-po-psihologii-zhiznennyhsituaciy.html kumar, a., & somani, a. (2020). dealing with corona virus anxiety and ocd. asian journal of psychiatry, 51. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32302962/ https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32302962/ brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 93 osin e. n., & leontiev d. a. (2020). kratkie russkoyazychnye shkaly diagnostiki sub"ektivnogo bla-gopoluchiya: psihometricheskie harakteristiki i sravnitel'nyj analiz [brief russian-language instruments to measure subjective well-being: psychometric properties and comparative analysis]. monitoring of public opinion economic and social changes, 1, 117-142. https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2020.1.06 liu, n., zhang, f., wei, c., jia, y., shang, z., sun, l., wu, l., sun, z., zhou, y., & liu, w. (2020). prevalence and predictors of ptss during covid-19 outbreak in china hardest-hit areas: gender differences matter. psychiatry research, 287, 112921. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32240896/ osin, e. (2012). izmerenie pozitivnykh i negativnykh emotcii: razrabotka russkoiazychnogo analoga metodiki panas [measuring positive and negative emotions: developing a russian-language analogue of the panas method]. psikhologiia. zhurnal vysshei shkoly ekonomiki, 9(4), 91-110. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/izmerenie-pozitivnyh-i-negativnyhemotsiy-razrabotka-russkoyazychnogo-analoga-metodiki-panas/viewer pohorilska, n. і. (2021). stavlennia do znachym sytuatsii pandemii cherez covid 19 [attitude towards the significant situation of the pandemic because of covid-19]. materialy mizhnarodnoho naukovo-praktychnoho seminaru “psykholohichni vyklyky pandemii covid-19: ukraino-kanadiiskyi dosvid” [materials of the international scientific and practical seminar "psychological challenges of the pandemic covid-19: ukraine-canada experience] (pp. 83-86). laboratory of methodology and theory of psychology of the gs institute of psychology kostyuk naps of ukraine. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/725040/1/26_04_2021.pdf roy, d., tripathy, s., kar, s. k., sharma, n., verma, s. k., & kaushal, v. (2020). study of knowledge, attitude, anxiety & perceived mental healthcare need in indian population during covid-19 pandemic. asian journal of psychiatry, 51, 102083. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc7139237/ skotnikova, i., egorova, p., ogarkova (dubinskaya), y., & zhiganov, l. (2020). psikhologicheskie osobennosti perezhivaniia neopredelennosti pri epidemii covid-19 [psychological features of experiencing uncertainty during the covid-19 epidemic]. sotcialnaia i ekonomicheskaia psikhologiia, 5(2), 245-268. http://soc-econom-psychology.ru/engine/documents/document792.pdf wang, c., pan, r., wan, x., tan, y., xu, l., ho, c. s., & ho, r. c. (2020). immediate psychological responses and associated factors during the initial stage of the 2019 coronavirus disease (covid-19) epidemic among the general in china. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(5), 1729. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32155789/ https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2020.1.06 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32240896/ https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/izmerenie-pozitivnyh-i-negativnyh-emotsiy-razrabotka-russkoyazychnogo-analoga-metodiki-panas/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/izmerenie-pozitivnyh-i-negativnyh-emotsiy-razrabotka-russkoyazychnogo-analoga-metodiki-panas/viewer https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/725040/1/26_04_2021.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc7139237/ http://soc-econom-psychology.ru/engine/documents/document792.pdf https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32155789/ ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 514-528 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/402 submitted: october 20th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 18th, 2022 emotional intelligence in the context of linguodidactics and linguocultural studies lesia malimon 1 , alla pavliuk 2 , nataliia yefremova 3 , valentina boichuk 4 , antonina semeniuk 5 , oksana khnykina 6 , svitlana sheludchenko 7 , oksana torosian 8 , oksana rohach 9 , iryna navrotska 10 , svitlana honcharuk 11 , maryna vasylenko 12 , liliya potapenko 13 1 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, mail.malimon@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6740-0701 2 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, allapavlyuk@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6037-4819 3 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, yefremova05@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1476-1831 4 the municipal higher educational institution "lutsk pedagogical college" of the volyn regional council, ukraine, boichukvalia@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9870-2195 5 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, asemeniuk70@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002--4437-179x 6 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, likhach.oks@gmail.com, abstract: in the article, for the first time in eastern european linguodidactics, an original method of using students' emotional intelligence data and their personal linguoculture for a new structuring of didactic material in the study of foreign languages (on the example of ukrainian as a foreign language) is offered. the authors aimed to make theoretical generalizations and conclusions about the main subject of the research, to determine the types of emotionalintellectual relation of students to a foreign language in the classes of the higher educational institutions and to model the general methodological scheme on the basis of sociological and functional-semantic data. the used methods can be clearly divided into theoretical, sociological and modeling, which made it possible to demonstrate a new approach to the thematic presentation of didactic material on the example of the concept happy and determine the degree of flexibility of students' emotional intelligence in foreign language classes. first of all, the international significance of the article lies in the first attempt of the synthesis of the theory of emotional intelligence and linguoculturology (theory of concepts) in the optimization of the foreign language didactics; secondly, the authors, with the help of associative experiment and functional-field thematic structuring, offered a new model of presenting the lexical material of foreign language teaching for the first time. keywords: associative experiment; functional-semantic (field) structuring; new structure of the thematic study of the lexical material; center and periphery; emotional intelligence syndromes detection; concepts. how to cite: malimon, l., pavliuk, a., yefremova, n., boichuk, v., semeniuk, a., khnykina, o., sheludchenko, s., torosian, o., rohach, o., navrotska, i., honcharuk, s., vasylenko, m., & potapenko, l. (2022). emotional intelligence in the context of linguodidactics and linguocultural studies. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 514-528. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/402 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/402 mailto:mail.malimon@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6740-0701 mailto:allapavlyuk@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6037-4819 mailto:yefremova05@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1476-1831 mailto:boichukvalia@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9870-2195 mailto:asemeniuk70@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002--4437-179x mailto:likhach.oks@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/402 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3851-0677 7 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, sheludchenko@vnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5998-1531 8 taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, ukraine, torosyano@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9160-9871 9 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, oksanarog@vnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5304-0837 10 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, rasmusia@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9787-2280 11 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, tsvetik323@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0976-6945 12 bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, ukraine, pian@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/00000002-1485-9102 13 the bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, ukraine, liliapotapenko@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7495-3152 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3851-0677 mailto:sheludchenko@vnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5998-1531 mailto:torosyano@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9160-9871 mailto:oksanarog@vnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5304-0837 mailto:rasmusia@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9787-2280 mailto:tsvetik323@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0976-6945 mailto:pian@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1485-9102 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1485-9102 mailto:liliapotapenko@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7495-3152 emotional intelligence in the context of linguodidactics and linguocultural ... lesia malimon et al. 516 introduction there are two reasons for writing this article: the first (less important) reason is the almost complete absence in the international scholarly discourse of specialized research on the consideration of emotional intelligence in foreign language lessons. the second reason is more serious and conceptual: most teachers, especially in traditional schools, do not encourage expressing emotions in foreign language lessons. moreover, it is traditionally believed that the rational, knowledge component lexical content, grammar, discourse construction techniques, etc. should dominate when learning a foreign language. especially this problem arises in higher education institutions, where students must manifest knowledge rather than impressions and emotions. the other side of the problem is the suppression of emotions, which drastically reduces motivation, because the emotionalaffective side of the psyche directly determines the desire to do a certain thing, while rational or distant practical stimuli are much weaker. at the same time linguocultural methods of learning a foreign language for some reason are always separated from the problems of emotional intelligence (ei). the inability or inhibition to express emotions creates several rows of actually artificial interferences: student-teacher, student-student, studenttext, student-language society. however, frank interviews with teachers showed that teachers make little use, but still understand the importance of emotional intelligence in learning a foreign language. we have tentatively summarized the main benefits of such use in a triune system: amazing (happy) unity (empathy) coherence (experience). as for the emotions of students and pupils, the most relevant intellectuallyemotional actions were cognition (emotion) acceptance expression in the context of linguodidactic activity. relevance of the article domestic scholars have begun to use the concept of emotional intelligence frequently, but usually in a context where it can compensate for rational ways of knowing (demchenko et al., 2021) or when we are talking about the mental or neurophysiological aspects of education proper (kosholap et al., 2021). we have found almost no fundamental works where methodologists consider emotional intelligence as the main tool and channel for learning humanities disciplines, emphasizing the relevance of our article. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 517 the international scientific and methodological discourse is overflowing with articles about not so much the methodological role of ei in language teaching, but rather the technological, environmental and valeological ones (emotional burnout of the subjects of the process), chan (2006); engaging the hidden resources of teachers and students (cuéllar, & oxford, 2018) or resolving internal conflicts between teaching attitudes and current emotions (barcelos, & ruohotie-lythy, 2018). at the same time, there is a lack of specific methodological guidelines on foreign language teaching methods, changes in the structuring of didactic material taking into account the phenomenon of ei as a primary educational resource in students and learners. we first encountered the concept of "emotional intelligence" at the end of the 19th century, when gardner (2007) argued for the multicomponent nature of human intelligence. he believed that humans have a natural ability to emotionally reflect on their assessment of themselves, their own states, and their feelings. later scholars mayer, j. d., & salovey, p. caruso d. (2007) attempted the author's test to determine emotional intelligence. this test still raises questions, but the four-component structure of ei seems valid to us: the instrumental emotional component (affective stimulation thinking); the objective emotional component (understanding one's own and others' emotions); the perceptual component (perception of emotions) and the imperative component (managing one's own emotions). managing emotions in the educational process at school is the most difficult task because children are emotionally spontaneous and full mastery of emotions is only possible at a mature age. however, it is this spontaneity, flexibility, and variability of emotions that can be used in linguistics, because language with its emotional, conotative, and expressive functions is very close to ei. ekman & davidson (1994) and their followers reduce the taxonomy of emotions to four general ones joy, fear, anger and sadness. there is also a six-component classification, which also adds love and shame. however, within the framework of these general taxonomies we can deploy a palette of nearly a hundred emotional shades, inseparable from personal world pictures. in classical pedagogy, emotion was hardly the only irrational educational category. however, gardner (2021) introduced the concept of "emotional reality" as early as the last century. at that time it had already, psychological meaning, but now, in our opinion, when the multitude of virtual, but such important types of realities is growing, this concept should be reviewed, supplemented and expediently applied. emotional intelligence in the context of linguodidactics and linguocultural ... lesia malimon et al. 518 the concept of studying literature has already taken emotional intelligence as its basis: most schools in europe have already switched to a perceptual study of works of fiction. it is more difficult to work with language, since its didactic basis is not a figurative, but a conceptual component. but here the linguocultural approach can come to the rescue, studying concepts complex and integral formations, which in parity roles include concepts, emotions, impressions, myths, etc. the purpose of our article is to start a discussion about effective foreign language learning, taking into account the parameters and possibilities of emotional intelligence and the use of the natural ability of a person to linguocultural conceptualization of the world within a personal picture. on the basis of sociological data from real foreign language teachers we'll try to define stable emotional-intellectual types of relations (syndromes) of students to a foreign language and use the concept and the method of functional field structuring to model a new general methodological scheme of foreign language learning with ei actualization. let us note that the verbal content of the scheme was built on the basis of the ukrainian language, which for the current englishspeaking reader will be perceived as a foreign language. data saturation. our article is theoretical, but in addition to scientific and analytical data we carried out a survey of teachers of one of the ukrainian institutions of higher education (manifestations of et in the attitude of students to a foreign language) and students (determination of significant components of the emotional concept happy to demonstrate our author's scheme-model). we used theoretical and sociological methods in our work. among the latter are non-randomized (demonstration) survey of teachers and students, method of associative experiment. theoretical methods include analysis of relevant literature, induction, taxonomic methods, method of functional-field structuring, etc. the presupposition of our study is several points. first: emotional reality is the inner complement of rational reality and real reality. since the world of language is a kind of virtual reality, its emotional plane is an "arrangement," a conotation and "coloring" of such reality. this also seems obvious because the emotional and expressive functions of language come immediately after the informational and communicative ones, and, rather, they are parallel and complementary. the second position is that for the student positive emotions and their intellectual processing are much more broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 519 important than rational knowledge, so we place emotional rather than thematic concepts in the functional centers of language learning. ethics of the research the authors of the article coordinated the sociological work with the administration and ethics commission of donetsk national university named after vasyl stus (ukraine), and the teachers (15 people) and students (98 people) voluntarily agreed to the survey. emotional intelligence in the context of linguodidactics and linguocultural studies. a review of current works in 1908, the german philosopher and psychologist g. mayer (1981, p. 123) in his work "the psychology of emotional thinking" for the first time classified the main types of thinking in psychological detail, systematizing their essential characteristics. the author singled out, next to "judging" (logical) thinking, types of intellectual activity if they are closely connected with the emotional and motivational spheres ("emotional" thinking, "affective" thinking, etc.). since then, the outline of the concept of "emotional intelligence" has gradually emerged in psychology and pedagogy. since there are enough publications in the scientific internet space about the general problems of learning and application of emotional intelligence, in this brief review we decided to focus on the key publications covering the problem of "language learning and ei". the studies describing the group and contextual use of ei in learning a native and foreign language seem to be important and key in methodological terms. for example, n. clarke proved through a pilot project that emotional awareness and emotion management in a group avalanche leads to the identification of team goals, soft conflict resolution, activates communicative and social interaction, clarke (2010). for our part, we add: during the sociological data saturation for our article, we noticed that positive general psychological " infusion" of positive emotions often led to collective reflection, general cognitive insights, against which the acquisition of foreign-language communicative competencies was significantly accelerated. some scientists have gone even further: they have attempted to put ei patterns at the core of students' learning strategies. for example, using the bar-on (2000) questionnaire and lassi measures of learning strategy effectiveness (hasanzadeh, & shahmohamadi, 2011), researchers found emotional intelligence in the context of linguodidactics and linguocultural ... lesia malimon et al. 520 direct and effective relationships between ei levels and various parameters of learning subjects regardless of age, gender, training direction, etc. the problem lies only in minor strategic differences between genders, since the "depth" and speed of operational accessibility to and stimulation of ei are somewhat different in men and women. at one time ei was measured among students belonging to different language groups. the results were unexpected: the more complex the speech morphologically, the higher ei parameters were involved (atamanova, & bogomaz, 2018). apparently, this is due to the fact that rational intelligence is "afraid" of complex speech, while ei seeks out new personal trajectories, motivations and techniques, because learning a non-native language means opening new perspectives, learning a heterogeneous culture, finally challenging oneself epistemologically. the authors of the project i. v. atamanova and s. a. bogomaz summarize: a comparative analysis of descriptive statistics in the selected groups showed: chinese language students had the highest scores in the parameters of emotional intelligence, responsible for recognizing, understanding, and managing the emotions of others. such observations may have far-reaching implications for increasing motivation to learn a language minimally similar to one's native language. in science there are also completely unexpected and irrational conclusions about the possibilities of ei in language learning, so we should remember the study of jean-marc dewaele (2018) about the connection between ei and love of language. the author identified such an "unscientific" category as love of language through markers of well-being, emotionality, self-control, and communicability in foreign language learning. through multivariate research, the scientist found numerous correlations between academic performance and positive human emotions, which he called a global trait of emotional intelligence, dewaele (2018, р. 468). if we talk about recent current research in our field, even such global processes as economic crises, military conflicts, the covid-19 epidemic are reflected in the educational potential of ei. the article by p. resnik and j. dewaele on the role of et in the urgent transition to distance or online learning of english. researchers have argued: students are much better about face-toface forms of learning, but due to the emotional flexibility and adaptability of today's youth led to a very rapid disappearance of negative markers about anxiety, expectations and frustrations (resnik, & dewaele, 2021). emotionally intelligent learners were found to "find pleasure" even in the most alternative and challenging foreign language learning environments. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 521 logically, the research described above has been theoretically studied and experimentally verified by the cognitive determinants of emotion. as cognitive determinants there is not only evaluation, but also interpretation of the situation, state, evaluation and comparison of available and available means to achieve goals. therefore, emotions are the result of the cognitive processing of certain information. using personal linguoculture with an emotional center and thematic periphery. general methodological features ukraine already has a long experience of experimental, though rather chaotic, use of ei in pedagogical work. a well-known teacher-innovator shatalov (2010) uses positive emotions in the learning process to its fullest extent. he used a range of techniques: eliminated the fear of grades, allowed them to correct, questioned students depending on the level of their training (written answer or personally to the teacher, tape-recorded answer, the answer in front of the whole class). the scholar built relationships on mutual trust, allowed students to grade each other and themselves, believed in a child's success and conveyed that belief, reinforced each student's selfesteem, etc. subsequently, such experiments became the object of attention of scientists. for example, a romanian researcher e. a. mancaş, who had been implementing the methodological ideas of emotional intelligence in language and literature lessons for three years, came to an important conclusion: our conclusion is that a full transfer of emotional theory to language lessons has at least three important outcomes: a) students have developed comprehension and reading competence; b) students have highly developed emotional intelligence, as evidenced by their school behavior; c) they have the highest motivation to learn (mancaș, 2012). we decided to close a kind of "lacuna" to find out the approximate intentions of ei regarding self-reflection and attitude towards the very phenomenon of learning a foreign language. we suggested that teachers, through covert pedagogical observation in a natural learning experiment, compare the cognitive-behavioral, reflective, and other competencies of students who were, in the teachers' experience, qualified as children with low (mediocre) and high ei. on the basis of surveys of teachers of a foreign language at donetsk national university named after vasily stus (teachers worked in the middle, 2nd 3rd years) we defined three types of manifestation of emotional thinking in relation to an educational subject. since the teachers were not interested in conducting a detailed sociometric research, we asked them to emotional intelligence in the context of linguodidactics and linguocultural ... lesia malimon et al. 522 determine at least an approximate number of students who revealed one or another type of emotional thinking attitude and to summarize the main types of this attitude. the results are presented in table 1 in the form of emotional syndromes. by these we mean constant or regularly exhibited symptom complexes in the form of undifferentiated emotional-thought attitudes. tab. 1. emotional intelligence detection syndromes in relation to the subject of foreign language syndrome name affective-cognitive essence didactic effect deferred emotion syndrome. emotional relationship syndrome to virtual stimuli. current emotion syndrome experiencing expected future success reaction to verbal and nonverbal signs, insults, artifacts actual reflection and reaction restraint of inappropriate emotions, management of emotions during study. change of motivation to the educational subject, material self-control, giving meaning to the educational process "here and now" table data are formulated by the authors of the article in addition to the illustrative results shown in the table, we realized: analyzing the various methods of identifying the emotional intelligence of students in language learning, we can make this important conclusion: despite the visual playfulness and openness, young people with high ei seem more mature because of the high level of integrative left-right and ei itself was no less dynamic and multifunctional in the linguistic aspect than general intelligence in the classical sense. however, let's move closer to the methodologically modeling part of our article. we mentioned: the classic of our pedagogy v. teliya (2022) considered the linguocultural aspect as a factor of the development of emotional intelligence in the process of learning a foreign language, and the scientist considered the focus on the synchronous interaction of language and culture in living communicative processes as relevant features of linguoculture. thus, the linguocultural aspect as a factor in the development broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 523 of emotional intelligence in the study of a foreign language describes the everyday picture of the world as it is presented in the everyday speech of native speakers, in a variety of discourses and cultural texts. now the linguocultural doctrine of concepts is widely known in all the humanities, but we recall: language in the form of broad associative links between lexemes fixes the achievements and values of culture symbols, places, basic objects of life activity, etc. the same happens individually, in the mind and subconscious of each native speaker (bamberg, 1997). it follows that conceptual representations, thematic relations and individual world pictures have in common, but do not coincide. for individual speakers, not only the basic representations of concepts, but also numerous direct or hidden associative relations are very important. their presence contributes to the diversity of individually generated discourses (mukhametzyanova & shayakhmetova, 2014). these considerations encouraged us to use field structuring around the concepts-emotions, where the nominations of phenomena and objects are secondary. next, we applied the associative experiment method (thumb & marbe, 2017) to determine which off-task realities students associate with certain types of emotions (the association can be both rational and emotional). we then extrapolated our findings to themes, programmatic mini-thesauruses of active vocabulary, and other linguistic components and were able to model a guiding framework for foreign language learning that is based on thematic centers on concepts-emotions rather than conceptsevents. we consider the most appropriate way of structuring concepts, thematic lexical blocks, etc. to be the functional-semantic approach proposed by v. bondarko (2022), that is, in the form of concentric circles symbolizing the center (most important, most obvious), semi-periphery, periphery etc. emotional intelligence in the context of linguodidactics and linguocultural ... lesia malimon et al. 524 diagram.1. structure of the thematic study of the lexical material on the basis of personal linguoculture, determined by the emotional-intellectual intension of the students source: authors' own conception thus, let us move on to defining the general outlines of our methodology, which takes into account the linguocultural approach to language learning with an emphasis on emotional intelligence. the general idea we propose is not a thematic basis of blocks of knowledge of a foreign language, traditionally starting with the topics "my family", "my plans for the future", "my hobbies", etc. we propose to put virtual concepts that correlate with basic (mostly positive) emotions in the center of the general topics: hope, happy, love, success, etc. if we put them in the thematic value center, then, in fact, the traditional themes will be as if emotionally and rationally supplementing the emotional undifferentiated concept (in fact experiencing the emotions and their understanding, extension, verbal filling). these themes will occupy a semi-peripheral position on the diagram of the concept's field structure ( marked in blue on diagram 1). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 525 let us take a closer look at and comment on the concentric diagram we have demonstrated. on the example of the intellectual-emotional concept of happy we constructed a functional-field scheme of studying themes that are emotionally associated with this emotion in the majority of students interviewed. towards the periphery the themes become more concrete and individualized, but they still have a group typological commonality. the zone of personal associations, which we, like the center, have marked in orange, students form and assimilate independently, according to their own individual or even ocasional perceptions of the key emotion. we believe that such diagrams should be developed for each of the emotions, using an associative experiment that gives and average statistical picture of student emotional intelligence. conclusions and results we can first draw some theoretical conclusions. emotional intelligence demonstrates language in action. as a result, speech expresses emotions and is in quite close connection with both emotions themselves and cognitive processes. regarding the emotional experience of a native speaker, it is generally accepted that it is localized in the semantic structure of the word. the emotion is preserved in the word. practically, it is the idea of it. in speech, it is customary to represent not the emotion itself, but its concept. it is quite a complex structurally semantic, lexically shaped formation. it is usually based on a conceptual basis. its components are a concept and an emotional and cultural value. thus, research in this direction has two values for conceptual linguistics and pragmatics practical and theoretical. the essence of the linguocultural aspect as a factor in the development of emotional intelligence in teaching a foreign language is not only a comprehensive study of the semantic-cognitive structure of language, but also the insertion of a set of semantic features, taking into account the structures (conceptual, associative-image, value), as well as socio-cultural direction of the content of communication, which is provided by the willingness to use a foreign language as a means of intercultural communication and the creation of their own social and cultural identity through the comparison and awareness of the culture of native speakers. using the emotional intelligence of students will allow both appropriate formation of didactic material, and the mastery of it. emotional intelligence in the context of linguodidactics and linguocultural ... lesia malimon et al. 526 the main results of our study are as follows: 1. according to reflexive observations of higher school teachers, in foreign language classes students show emotional intelligence in relation to the subject in the following aspects: a) syndrome of deferred emotions; b) syndrome of emotional attitude towards virtual stimuli; c) syndrome of current emotions. these manifestations of ei can be used for didactic purposes, as well as to modify the motivation to learn a foreign language. 2. the use of the method of associative experiment on individual and group filling of the concepts with the invariant center emotion allows a new approach to the structuring of the lexical material according to the principle of the functional-semantic field. this will take into account: a) the potential of emotional intelligence; b) emotional-intellectual attitude of students to the designated realities (denotations); c) motivation for learning the lexical material will be based not on compulsion or rational justification, but on the initial positive emotions of the subjects of the educational process. limitation of the study our study, though novel, is still a framework. not only theoretical conclusions and outline sociometric data are needed, but also the methodological development and experimental implementation of the project. it should include the development of individual and group linguocultural trajectories to actualize emotional intelligence in foreign language lessons. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to the students and professors of the faculty of foreign languages at donetsk national university named after vasyl stus for participating in a sociological survey to saturate the data of our article. the author 1 was responsible for this aspect of the work and the processing of the results, and the author 2 made important theoretical conclusions and generalizations about ei in a real educational environment. we would like to acknowledge the author 3 for a systematic review of the relevant scientific literature, the author 4 and the author 5 for extrapolating theoretical and sociometric data to the linguocultural plane. the final work of summarizing, concluding, and resuming the results was done by the author 6. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 527 references atamanova, i. v., & bogomaz, s. a. (2018). emotional intelligence in linguistic students majoring in languages belonging to different language groups. proceeding of the eigth international conference on cognitive science, october 18–21, 2018, svetlogorsk (pp. 68-70). immanuel kant baltic federal university. bamberg, m. (1997). language, concepts and emotions: the role of language in the construction of emotions. language sciences, 19(4), 309-340. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0388-0001(97)00004-1 barcelos, a. m. f., & ruohotie-lythy, m. (2018). teachers’ emotions and beliefs in second language teaching: implications for teacher education. in j. de dios martínez agudo (ed.), emotions in second language teaching: theory, research and teacher education (pp. 109-124). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3319-75438-3_7 bar-on, r. (2000). emotional and social intelligence: insights from the emotional quotient inventory (eq-i). in r. bar-on & j.d.a. parker (eds.), handbook of emotional intelligence. jossey-bass. bondarko, a. (2022). kategorizatsiya v sisteme grammatiki [categorization in the system of grammar]. litres. chan, d. w. (2006). emotional intelligence and components of burnout among chinese secondary school teachers in hong kong. teaching and teacher education, 22(8), 1042-1054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.04.005 clarke, n. (2010). emotional intelligence and learning in teams. journal of workplace learning, 22(3), 125-145. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665621011028594 cuéllar, l., & oxford, r. (2018). language teachers’ emotions: emerging from the shadows. in j. de dios martínez agudo (ed.), emotions in second language teaching: theory, research and teacher education (pp. 53-72). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75438-3_4 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dewaele, j. m. (2018). the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and experienced esl/efl teachers’ love of english, attitudes towards their students and institution, self-reported classroom practices, enjoyment and creativity. chinese journal of applied linguistics, 41(4), 468-487. https://doi.org/10.1515/cjal-2018-0034 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0388-0001(97)00004-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75438-3_7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75438-3_7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.04.005 https://doi.org/10.1108/13665621011028594 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75438-3_4 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1515/cjal-2018-0034 emotional intelligence in the context of linguodidactics and linguocultural ... lesia malimon et al. 528 ekman, p. e., & davidson, r. j. (1994). the nature of emotion: fundamental questions. oxford university press. gardner, g. (2007). the structure of the mind. theory of multiple intelligence. ooo id williams. gardner, h. (2021). disciplined mind: what all students should understand. simon & schuster. hasanzadeh, r., & shahmohamadi, f. (2011). study of emotional intelligence and learning strategies. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 29, 1824-1829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.430 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 mancaş, e. a. (2012). emotional intelligence and language learning. proceedings of the international conference ict for language learning, 5th edition (pp. 1-5). pixel. https://conference.pixelonline.net/conferences/ict4ll2012/common/download/paper_pdf/19 8-qil28-fp-mancas-ict2012.pdf mayer, g. (1981). psychology of emotional thinking. in reader on general psychology. psychology of thinking (123-129). prentice hall. mayer, j. d., salovey, p., & caruso d. (2007). mayer-salovery-caruso emotional intelligence test. multi-health systems incorporated. mukhametzyanova, l., & shayakhmetova, l. (2014). application of associative experiment in forming the foreign communicative competence. english language teaching, 7(12), 60-64. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v7n12p60 resnik, p., & dewaele, j. m. (2021). learner emotions, autonomy and trait emotional intelligence in ‘in-person’versus emergency remote english foreign language teaching in europe. applied linguistics review. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2020-0096 shatalov, v. f. (2010). zoloto u kozhnoho v dushi [gold is in everyone's soul]. donetsk. eastern publishing house. teliya, v. (2022). frazeologiya v kontekste kul'tury [phraseology in the context of culture]. litres. thumb, a., & marbe, k. (1901). experimentelle untersuchungenüber die psychologishen grundlagen der sprachlichen analogiebildung [experimental studies on the psychological foundations of linguistic analogy formation]. leipzig. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.430 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://conference.pixel-online.net/conferences/ict4ll2012/common/download/paper_pdf/198-qil28-fp-mancas-ict2012.pdf https://conference.pixel-online.net/conferences/ict4ll2012/common/download/paper_pdf/198-qil28-fp-mancas-ict2012.pdf https://conference.pixel-online.net/conferences/ict4ll2012/common/download/paper_pdf/198-qil28-fp-mancas-ict2012.pdf https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v7n12p60 https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2020-0096 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 163-181 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/381 submitted: december 7th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 13th, 2022 peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of personality in adolescence ivanna parfanovych 1 , valentyna kyrychenko 2 , zhanna petrochko 3 , valeriia necherda 4 , olesya koropetska 5 , iryna lavrentieva 6 1 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, parfanovichi@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5300-7092 2 institute of problems on education of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, v.kyrychenko59@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1248-1588 3 borys grinchenko kyiv university, ukraine, z.petrochko@kubg.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4413-1243 4 institute of problems on education of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, necherda@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2571-5785 5 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, o.koropetska54@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7251-2978 6 postgraduate student of the institute of problems on education of the naes of ukraine, irenestoker90@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4085-6228 abstract: adolescence is a crisis period of personality development marked by significant physiological and neuropsychological changes that affect the growth and relationships with others. the uneven maturation of the limbic system and prefrontal cortex structures, characteristic of adolescence, provokes a decrease in subjective control and self-regulation, increased impulsivity, and emotional instability. qualitative and quantitative morphometric changes in the brain of adolescents can cause behavioral problems, impaired control and self-regulation, a sharp change in areas of cognitive interests, the inability to understand themselves and explain their actions. these features are a predictor of the successful socialization of adolescents. socialization is seen as a process in which the adolescent acquires the skills necessary for his entire existence in society. psychophysiological changes in his body determine the nature and characteristics of socialization, relationships with others, the nature of actions, and social contacts. an important feature that promotes the adaptive socialization of adolescents is assertiveness. assertiveness as personal property of behavior primarily involves the development of confidence, determination, perseverance, self-esteem, empathy, communication skills. the formation of assertive behavior significantly increases the adaptation processes of adolescents, normalizes the emotional sphere, has a positive effect on socialization, and sets the vector of social success, self-actualization, and self-realization. keywords: adolescent neuropsychology; adolescent crisis; personal socialization; social adaptation; assertive behavior; confidence; assertive communication. how to cite: parfanovych, i., kyrychenko, v., petrochko, z., necherda, v., koropetska, o., & lavrentieva, i. (2022). peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of personality in adolescence. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 163-181. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/381 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/381 mailto:parfanovichi@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5300-7092 mailto:v.kyrychenko59@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1248-1588 mailto:z.petrochko@kubg.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4413-1243 mailto:necherda@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2571-5785 mailto:o.koropetska54@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7251-2978 mailto:irenestoker90@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4085-6228 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/381 peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of ... ivanna parfanovych et al. 164 introduction the transformational processes taking place in the modern world set a specific pace of development of society and make particular demands on the individual, who must be integrated into society most adaptively and optimally way, i.e., to socialize successfully. socialization involves the entry of an individual into the system of social relations, his acceptance of the norms and rules of society (kesebir et al., 2010), as a result of which he learns specific patterns of behavior and values necessary for his successful life in this society (smetana et al., 2015). the most significant in the process of socialization is adolescence, as a sensitive period of learning behavior, self-expression, and self-affirmation, the formation of their worldview and value system (demchenko et al., 2021; komogorova et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020a; maksymchuk et al., 2020b; prots et al., 2021; sitovskyi et al., 2019). however, during this unstable and turbulent period of life, numerous deviations in adolescents' behavior occur, which are accompanied by the intake of prohibited substances or constant fixation of attention on specific activities to develop intense emotions (şengönül, 2018). socialization in adolescence is multifaceted and can be adaptive or maladaptive due to the peculiarities of morphofunctional maturation of the organism (soenens & vansteenkiste, 2020). the nervous system of the adolescent is unstable and is characterized by changes in vital organs and systems (rivera et al., 2020). transformations in the brain during adolescence are associated with various manifestations of risky behavior (caravita et al., 2020). the most significant influence is shown by natural heterochronous processes of maturation of multiple brain sites, neurohumoral changes in dns. with age, the ability to inhibit, plan and recognize emotions in adolescents linearly improves. risky behaviors characteristic of early adolescence increase significantly in late adolescence (mürner-lavanchy et al., 2020; kaess, 2020). such behavior is undesirable for successful socialization and needs some correction. that is why it is worth paying attention to the possible means that will contribute to the optimal socialization of adolescents in modern society. one such tool is the development of assertive behavior. assertiveness as a personality trait and a way of interaction is an essential factor in the successful socialization of adolescents (parmaksız & kılıçarslan, 2020) because, on the one hand, the adolescent must be adaptable to the new sociocultural environment, on the other be focused, confident, active and determined. in adolescents, the combination of such states is not always broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 165 successful due to functional psychophysiological changes, imbalance of excitation and inhibition processes (kim-spoon et al., 2016), unformed volitional self-regulation of mental processes (mürner-lavanchy et al., 2020). assertiveness is seen as a balance between passive and aggressive behavior, and being assertive means respecting thoughts, feelings, and beliefs (nair, 2021). the meaning of the concept of "assertiveness" is revealed through such personal traits as constructiveness, purposefulness, self-confidence, responsibility, determination, independence, independence, neuropsychological stability. however, developed assertiveness is the key to high self-esteem of adolescents, empathy, the ability to have spontaneous reactions and manage emotional states (emotional intelligence) (simarmata, 2018), the ability to speak directly about their desires and needs, the ability to express their views using argumentation, to insist on one's own (yuliani et al., 2020); possession of tactics to meet their own needs and interests without violating the rights of others. thus, the analysis of scientific sources showed a significant amount of research that reveals the features of psychophysiological development of adolescents, behavioral manifestations of their psycho-emotional processes, areas of socialization and integration. however, little attention is paid to the importance of developing confident, assertive behavior for successful socialization. neuropsychological features of development in adolescence adolescence is a critical period of personality development, during which there is a qualitative restructuring of the whole organism of the individual, accompanied by physical, hormonal, and psychophysiological changes. most adolescents during this period undergo drastic changes in appearance and inner world. physiological processes occurring in adolescents' bodies cause them to change the nature, methods, and types of response to the surrounding reality, style of behavior (salter, 2012). the critical need is the need for self-expression, which at the same time cannot be fully satisfied due to the lack of a system of claims and confidence in their actions (korem et al., 2012). according to hormonal theory, adolescents have sharp mood swings, increased interest in the opposite sex (kelley, 2006; kim-spoon, 2016). from the point of view of neuropsychology and the theory of functional asymmetry of the brain, a vital role in the regulation of physical peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of ... ivanna parfanovych et al. 166 activity is played by the prefrontal cortex (casey et al., 2008), which provide planning and programming of actions, regulation of behavior according to environmental requirements, self-control, and self-expression. in adolescence, there is an improvement of the essential functions of the prefrontal cortex, which contributes to the differentiation of motives and actions, integration of objects and concepts, the ability to predict the consequences of their actions and adjust if necessary, self-regulation, volitional control (harden et al., 2016). given that the formation of these functions lasts up to 18 years, in adolescents, they are not yet fully formed. insufficient formation and imperfection of the prefrontal cortex provoke various problems in adolescents: distracted and unstable attention, poor control over impulses, hyperactive behavior, disorganized activity, decreased emotional intelligence, short-term memory problems, and constant social anxiety (hassan et al., 2020). as a result, the period of adolescent development is characterized by an increase in the frequency of health-threatening behaviors, including experiments with drugs and alcohol (kim-spoon et al., 2016). the role of the prefrontal brain in the synthesis of the whole system of stimuli and the creation of a plan of action is manifested not only in the actual signals but also in the formation of active, purposeful behavior. therefore, adolescence as a transition period is marked by abrupt changes in the brain's emotional regulation and cognitive functions. as a result, adolescents think and act differently than adults and behave more impulsively and recklessly. risk-taking and finding new experiences are the main signs of typical adolescent behavior. adolescents are eager for new experiences so much that, for the most part, they do not take into account the future consequences of their actions. from the point of view of adaptability, this style of behavior has certain advantages. it contributes to the formation of independence, but at the same time, makes the adolescent more vulnerable to external negative environmental influences (kelley et al., 2006). as b. casey rightly points out, "traditional neurobiological and cognitive explanations for adolescent behavior have failed to reveal the essence of the nonlinear behavioral changes observed during adolescence" (casey et al., 2008). given the uneven maturation of the limbic system and prefrontal cortex, b.j. casey and co-authors in 2008 attempted to derive a new biopsychosocial model of adolescent risk behavior called emotional reactivity. the biological component of this model is based on a more broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 167 developed and more robust limbic system. the social element is an emotionally significant situation that affects the individual in a certain way. the essence of the psychological component is the ability to assess the surrounding reality objectively. based on this, the adolescent, who found himself in an emotionally significant situation, understanding the negative consequences of their impulsive and risky actions, still decides in favor of a more powerful emotional stimulus (casey et al., 2008). thus, adolescence is a period of radical changes in the body, including neuropsychological, which determine the style of behavior and worldview. the adaptability of the process of passing this age period can affect the individual's entry into a system of complex social relations, i.e., his socialization. therefore, it is advisable to consider the features and ways of socialization of adolescents in modern society. the problem and ways of socialization of adolescents each individual as a member of a particular sociocultural environment in its ontogenesis undergoes a process of socialization, i.e., adaptation to the requirements of the society in which he lives. from the total number of definitions of socialization, two main areas can be distinguished. from the first direction, the basic social cognitive principles assume that the basis of socialization of the individual is the immediate environment, which, activating or inhibiting the development of the child, provides the formation of different styles of behavior and worldview (harden et al., 2016). at the heart of another direction is the idea that successful socialization can be favorable when changing the conditions of the social environment that affect cognition and behavior (kesebir et al., 2010). thus, socialization is a specific interaction of the individual with a vast number of different conditions that affect its development. these conditions are called factors. the socialization process is not always successful and is accompanied by the influence of various stressors and, to some extent, is one of the risk factors for individual health. according to d. rivera, the study of the main types of factors influencing the socialization of adolescents contributes to a better understanding of their imperative influence on physiology and behavior (rivera et al., 2020) among the scientific studies on the problem of socialization, most focus on studying the features of this process in children of early and middle childhood, as these are the age periods of the most favorable changes in peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of ... ivanna parfanovych et al. 168 development. at the same time, the socialization of adolescence has its unique aspects, which are expressed in the formation of independence, selfsufficiency, self-realization (smetana et al., 2015). in general, socialization refers to how adolescents acquire the skills of competent and successful functioning as members of their sociocultural environment (han et al., 2014). however, the socialization of adolescents depends not only on external conditions. their development in socialization occurs under the influence of internal individual characteristics that promote or hinder self-development, self-realization, and integration into society. in this case, the individual affects himself as a social object (kesebir et al., 2010). thus, the interaction of social environment, culture, and personality is influenced by certain groups of mechanisms, the first of which is interpreted as a mechanism of socialization of the individual, and the second as a mechanism of change of social environment and culture, provided by the integration of social adaptation and internalization. adolescence is closely linked to the process of finding one's own identity. therefore, the primary attention in the process of socialization should be paid to innate individual characteristics, their functions, spiritual values as the foundation of interpersonal relationships, and the attitude of adolescents to them (martisauskiene, 2014). that is why teenagers are especially concerned about the opinion of their peers. this is due to such neuropsychological features as improving the functioning of areas of the brain responsible for understanding and perception of the opinions of others, increasing the excitability of regions of the brain sensitive to social acceptance or rejection, increasing susceptibility to the manifestation of emotional states of other people. changes in these brain areas lead to increasing importance for adolescents about their status in the peer group; they become more prone to pressure from them, begin to discuss others more, and evaluate themselves from the standpoint of self-assessment (mürner-lavanchy et al., 2020). today, scientists from different countries are trying to identify the most typical and effective ways of socialization of adolescents. some consider the importance of empathy, sympathy, and prosocial behavior in the process of socialization for adolescent development (şengönül, 2018). others draw attention to the role of parents in the integration of adolescents into society, his becoming a member of society, ensuring the development of his autonomy and self-esteem (soenens & vansteenkiste, 2020). others note the effectiveness of emotional intelligence, determination, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 169 perseverance, and self-esteem during socialization (zélia, 2016). successful socialization is measured by the established values and attitudes that make up adolescents' social competence (kim et al., 2015). all these studies show that the socialization of adolescents is a dynamic process and can change under the influence of significant circumstances or special means. knowing how a teenager will react in certain situations can teach him to behave in a certain way, by the requirements of the outside world and the norms of the sociocultural environment in which he integrates. adolescence is a crisis in terms of educational impact. however, suppose we create conditions for each adolescent that ensure the formation of their initiative. in that case, it is possible to promote the formation of the adolescent as a subject of social activity (martišauskienė, 2014). today, the critical condition for the successful socialization of adolescents in such a personal quality as assertiveness. it is manifested and developed through the individual's social experience and his interaction with society (peneva & mavrodiev, 2013). the expanded emphasis in adolescents contributes to their effective social adaptation, while its absence can form social incompetence, disharmony, and social maladaptation (soenens & vansteenkiste, 2020). based on this, it should be noted that assertiveness is one of the effective means of overcoming adverse events in the behavior of adolescents and their adaptive socialization. the concept of personality assertiveness in research the concept of "assertiveness" in the psychological literature refers to a confident self-sufficient person, independent of external evaluations, able to independently regulate their behavior and be responsible for their actions, take responsibility for their own decisions (sarkova et al., 2013). the scientific study of assertiveness began in the mid-twentieth century as an assumption that certain mental illnesses may be caused by insecurity or an inability to express one's ideas and feelings openly, to be confident in oneself and one's actions (pfafman, 2017). in 1949, the american research psychologist e. salter first conducted a study of assertiveness, studying the causes of insecurity in depressed patients and reducing its neurotic effects on their personalities. the author concluded that among all the reasons for uncertainty, the key is the physiological characteristics of the individual. based on this and based on the introductory provisions of the teachings of ip pavlova, a. salter peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of ... ivanna parfanovych et al. 170 suggested that uncertainty is a consequence of the predominance of inhibitory processes overexcitation processes in the central nervous system. based on this, insecure individuals are inactive, can not openly express emotions and feelings, have difficulty communicating and interpersonal interaction. summarizing this approach, it can be stated that the author presents confidence as a personal trait, in particular as an innate quality. this interpretation expresses the constant static nature of assertiveness (pfafman, 2017). in contrast, j. wolpe and a. lazarus quoted in m. davis and e. robbins eshelman (2019) rethought the essence of assertiveness and presented it as an "expression of personal rights and feelings." the authors found that assertiveness is a variable trait and can be developed under favorable conditions. the basis of assertiveness is the constant training of perseverance, confidence, and the ability to defend their rights. j. wolpe, studying the psychophysiological features of the process of assertiveness, argued that the basis for changing behavioral styles is "mutual inhibition" as a process in which "in the presence of a stimulus, the reaction that does not cause anxiety is repeated until it changes the unwanted reaction" (1990). thus, with the help of assertiveness, it is possible to train new styles of behavior in interpersonal interaction while overcoming the negative consequences of anxious experiences that distort communicative interaction. the problem with insecure people is that their social fear becomes the dominant feeling that blocks their social activity. subsequently, lange a.j. and jakubowski p. viewed assertiveness as "the direct and honest expression of one's feelings, beliefs, thoughts, and needs, the protection of individual rights, and the expression of one's worldview" (lange & jakubowski, 1976). according to their concept, in which assertiveness appears within a humanistic-oriented value system framework, purposeful and confident interpersonal communication allows increasing personal freedom. a.j. lange, d.c. rimm, j. loxley developed a program of assertiveness training, which includes a variety of therapeutic procedures designed to promote the effective transmission of states and feelings from one person to another (1975). f. rakos noted that assertiveness skills are necessary for selfconfidence, improving communication skills, stabilizing their emotional sphere. the key to assertiveness is the ability to express oneself confidently without resorting to passive, aggressive, or manipulative behavior (rakos, 1991). it presupposes greater self-awareness and requires considering the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 171 interlocutor's needs without ignoring one's interests and compromising one's principles. it is about improving interpersonal skills, ensuring effective communication, and reducing stress through skillful handling of people and situations. a. lazarus noted that assertiveness is a form of behavior, not a personality trait. according to his teachings, assertive behavior includes four specific components: denial of a request, making demands, expressing one's feelings, an initiative at the beginning and the end of the conversation (1973). r. rakos generalizing approaches to the definition of assertiveness identified the differences of assertive persons: taking into account the interaction of the rights of all participants, the lack of assessment of the dignity of the interlocutor, taking into account the potential negative consequences of their actions. he also found assertive attitudes: openness in close personal relationships; willingness to voluntarily express their thoughts, ask questions and cope with stressful situations without fear; desire to assert their rights and give neutral but decisive answers in impersonal cases (1991). among modern researchers, many adhere to the already established provisions about assertiveness and its essence. still, many scientists aim to expand the understanding of assertive behavior and its impact on the individual's life. thus, studies of the effect of assertiveness on overcoming negative emotional states are quite relevant today. p. vagos and a. pereira propose a cognitive model to justify the development of assertiveness. the authors note that previous individual action patterns may affect the interactive activation of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral structures. it follows that assertive behavior is the assimilation of specific cognitive patterns of interaction that can accumulate and promote social integration (2016). r. maqbool investigated the relationship between assertiveness, self-esteem, academic achievement, and stress (maqbool parray et al., 2020). khodabakhshi-koolaee a. and coauthors found the influence of emotional intelligence on the development of assertiveness and self-esteem (2016). assertiveness plays a significant role in interpersonal interaction. an assertive person can establish close communicative contacts with others (eslami et al., 2016). at the same time, assertive people decrease negative emotional states such as fear, anxiety, stress, and depression (davis & eshelman, 2008); assertiveness is the basis for reducing anxiety and fear of separation in adolescents (parmaksız & kılıçarslan, 2020). assertiveness is peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of ... ivanna parfanovych et al. 172 the ability of an individual to assert their rights and easily express their feelings and thoughts and the ability to interact freely with others without undue anxiety. assertiveness is a part of personal potential and a prerequisite for successful self-actualization (peneva & mavrodiev, 2013). thus, most definitions of assertiveness emphasize the direct expression of feelings, desires, and thoughts in interpersonal spheres. scholars conceptualize assertiveness as an immediate and appropriate expression of their own needs and ideas without humiliating others. that is, assertiveness is an essential, initial trait, thanks to which the individual has the opportunity to cope with their problems and generally thrive, asserting their dignity. assertiveness is a factor in the socialization of adolescents socialization as a process of entering the social norms and social relations system for a teenager is a prerequisite for establishing personal contact with the outside world. the success of socialization provides adolescents with the achievement of their own identity, self-development, and self-realization (martišauskienė, 2014). therefore, effective socialization is due to adolescents' developed confidence, determination, and perseverance, in other words, assertiveness. it is assertiveness that ensures the achievement of the goal, establishing new contacts with others, developing self-esteem and confidence, determination, and perseverance. assertiveness is an essential social skill of adolescents that improves their well-being. the level of assertiveness can be influenced by factors such as fear of negative evaluation, especially in social interaction situations (himaja & kiran, 2021). assertiveness promotes responsibility for behavior, self-esteem, and self-confidence. confident adolescents are more satisfied with their lives (sarkova et al., 2013). at the subjective level, assertiveness reflects the ability of the individual to set goals and plan the stages of their achievement while maintaining an advantageous position about himself and others; ability to establish and sustain communicative contacts with other people. assertiveness helps to take a clear moral position to himself, to others and, based on this position in some way to achieve their life goals. in this context, assertiveness can be seen as the moral basis of adolescent socialization (han et al., 2014). the research results show that there are differences in the neuropsychological processing of information obtained, which determine broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 173 the perception of moral norms and rules. when adolescents assess different types of ethical situations, other areas of the brain are activated. thus, in determining personal moral problems, the response is more emotionally significant, while impersonal moral dilemmas are, in most cases, based on conscious and controlled thinking (caravita et al., 2020). thus, the importance of deciding on the ethical dilemma situation affects the neuropsychological processes involved in assessing the situation. based on this, h. han and his colleagues found that "compared to impersonal moral dilemmas, personal moral dilemmas cause a longer response time and activation in different areas of the brain" (2014). analyzing such data, it can be noted that assertiveness, as the ability to assess the situation and react decisively morally, reflects the higher cognitive development of the adolescent. assertive adolescents are characterized by the complexity and variety of behavioral reactions and have a diverse, contradictory nature of the expression of emotional states. non-assertive adolescents, at the same time, are marked by conformism, dogmatism, which in adolescents is expressed in stubbornness, the tendency to demonstratively external behavior (gegajo & vargas, 2018). such qualities complicate the process of interaction with the environment, intensifying negative emotional experiences and complicating socialization. assertiveness can also affect the social adaptation of adolescents, which is an essential indicator of successful socialization. adolescents with developed assertiveness see a stressful situation as a challenge and an opportunity to express themselves, while adolescents with low assertiveness assess it as a threatening situation (parto, 2011). applying a problem-solving model in behavior usually implies that practical problem-solving usually requires time and systematic effort. and this, in turn, contributes to the development of assertive response skills at the psychophysiological level (eslami et al., 2016). adolescents with high assertiveness in stressful situations demonstrate a complex model of automatic response. it follows that the development of assertive behavior reduces anxiety in adolescents' interpersonal relationships and physiological signs of stress. high assertiveness and confidence contribute to the autonomy of the adolescent's personality and, accordingly, increase the success of his socialization (parmaksiz & kılıçarslan, 2020). studies show that adolescents with low assertiveness have low communication skills, inconsistent thinking, negative self-expression, inability to resolve conflicts constructively, and peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of ... ivanna parfanovych et al. 174 negative feelings and emotional states, common social adaptation (simarmata & anizar, 2018). in turn, promoting the development of assertiveness can provide enhanced social skills and interpersonal relationships (simarmata & anizar, 2018). assertiveness is a trait that promotes the development of assertive communication the ability to speak and communicate in a way that respects the rights and opinions of others while upholding their rights, needs, and personal boundaries (parveen, 2015). the results of studies confirm the effectiveness of assertiveness in increasing adolescent self-esteem, relationship satisfaction, and perseverance, and at the same time reducing clinical manifestations such as anxiety and depression (shanmugam & kathyayini, 2017; speed et al., 2017; yılmaz et al., 2019; zeigler-hill & shackelford, 2020). this ensures successful socialization and positive relationships with the environment. adolescents experience cognitive, biological, and emotional changes accompanied by negative behavioral responses, such as aggression. given the possible dynamic pressure from peers in adolescence, assertiveness plays an essential role as a social skill of confident behavior. increasing assertiveness and self-efficacy helps to reduce aggression (mofrad & mehrabi, 2015). at the same time, the reason for aggressive behavior, scientists call the lack of adolescent skills of assertive communication, which is the ability to convey thoughts, feelings, needs, taking into account the interests and needs of others (yuliani et al., 2020). other authors have also found that assertive adolescents have high self-esteem, which contributes to their entry into society, the formation of self-confidence, which in turn reduces negative behaviors (zélia, 2016). in particular, assertiveness is an effective tool in preventing such negative phenomena of socialization as drug use (indah et al., 2019) and bullying (utami et al., 2019). during socialization, adolescents may manifest several stressful situations that they will have to face in everyday life and the stages of their maturation. assertiveness is often seen as a balance between passive and aggressive behavior. being assertive for adolescents means respecting other people's thoughts, feelings, and beliefs by taking responsibility for one's actions (nair, 2021). based on the analysis of scientific sources, it can be stated that assertiveness is a crucial parameter of successful socialization of adolescents and contributes to the formation of such positive qualities as empathy, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 175 communicative competence, self-esteem, autonomy, self-efficacy, and more. however, the development of assertiveness can help reduce aggression, anxiety, depression, fear, bullying, and more. assertiveness, according to the principle of determinism, has its conditions and factors of development. the external conditions of assertiveness include the peculiarities of family and school upbringing, the influence of reference groups, personal social experience, etc. to the internal states of development the basic needs, the formation of the relevant individual psychological characteristics of the individual. conclusion adolescence is marked by rapid hormonal and psychophysiological changes that inevitably lead to various deviations in adolescent behavior. excessive emotional excitability, instability, imbalance of the central nervous system, unformed response system in stressful situations all complicate the process of socialization of adolescents in the social environment of society. at the same time, the development of assertiveness can balance the psychoemotional state of adolescents. to promote the establishment of interpersonal interaction and facilitate the process of self-affirmation. the favorable emotional background of assertive behavior fixed in structures of mentality can further considerably define the formation of a communicative type of person, direct on achievement of success, promote the development of motivation, independence, and, ultimately, success in terms of personal socialization. the development of assertiveness makes it possible to find selfconfidence, change aggressive behavior to calm, learn to defend their rights without violating the rights of others. with the help of assertiveness, the teenager sets goals, plans to achieve them and adjusts the progress of tasks. adolescent assertiveness is mediated by the motivation of self-affirmation, the dominant value orientations of the reference group, the specifics of the interests and ideals of the adolescent subculture. in adolescence, assertive behavior provides a steady tendency to independence, self-affirmation, selfrealization, which leads to strengthening and deepening the desire of the individual to participate in socially valuable affairs, which ensure the formation of socially significant worldview and success of socialization. peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of ... ivanna parfanovych et al. 176 references caravita, c. s., astrologo, l., biancardi, g., & antonietti, a. (2020). behavioral indices of neuropsychological processing implicated in moral domain reasoning amongst children and adolescents. brain sciences, 9(12), 331. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9120331 casey, b. j., jones r. m., & hareb, t. m. (2008). the adolescent brain. annals of new york academic science, 1124, 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1440.010 davis, m., & eshelman, e. r. (2008). assertiveness: the relaxation and stress reduction workbook chapter singles. new harbinger publications. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), pp.191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3 eslami, a. a., rabiei, l., afzali, s. m., hamidizadeh, s., & masoudi, r. (2016). the effectiveness of assertiveness training on the levels of stress, anxiety, and depression of high school students. iranian red crescent medical journal, 18(1), e21096. http://doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.21096 gegajo, g. t., & vargas, m. (2018). the assertiveness training program on the coping skills of the abused female adolescents authors. journal of medical science and clinical research, 6(6), 1033-1045. https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i6.188 han, h., glover, g. h., jeong, c. (2014). cultural influences on the neural correlate of moral decision-making processes. behavioural brain research, 259, 215– 228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2013.11.012 harden, p., kretsch, n., mann, f. d., herzhoff, k., tackett, j. l., steinberg, l., & tucker-drob, e. m. (2016). beyond dual systems: a genetically-informed, latent factor model of behavioral and self-report measures related to adolescent risk-taking. developmental cognitive neuroscience, 25, 221-234. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2016.12.007 hassan, r., macmillan, h., tanaka, m., & schmidt, l. (2020). psychophysiological influences on personality trajectories in adolescent females exposed to child maltreatment. development and psychopathology, 32(4), 1390-1401. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579419001342 himaja, p. p., & kiran, b. n. c. (2021). assertiveness and fear of negative evaluation among young adults. international journal of indian psychology, 9(2), 408-416. https://doi.org/10.25215.0902.042 https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9120331 https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1440.010 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3 http://doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.21096 https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i6.188 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2013.11.012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2016.12.007 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579419001342 https://doi.org/10.25215.0902.042 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 177 indah, r., budi, a., keliat i., & yulia, w. (2019). assertiveness training and family psychoeducational therapies on adolescents mental resilience in the prevention of drug use in boarding schools, enfermería clínica, 29(2), 326330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enfcli.2019.04.040 kaess, m. (2020). neuropsychological development in adolescents: longitudinal associations with white matter microstructure, developmental cognitive neuroscience, 45, 100812. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100812 kelley, a. e., schochet, t., landry, c. f., & taking, r. n. (2006). seeking in adolescence: introduction to part i. adolescent brain development: vulnerabilities and opportunities, 1021(1), 27-32. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1308.003 kesebir, s., uttal, d., & gardner, w. (2010). socialization: insights from social cognition. social and personality psychology compass, 4, 93 106. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00245.x khodabakhshi-koolaee, a., yaghobee, z., falsafinejad, m., & rahmatizadeh, m. (2016). effectiveness of emotional intelligence on assertiveness and selfesteem in high school girl students. middle east journal of psychiatry and alzheimers, 7, 10-14. https://doi.org/10.5742/mepa.2016.92816 kim, c., yang, z., & lee, h. (2015). adolescents’ consumer socialization outcome measure [database record]. apa psyctests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t43620-000 kim-spoon, j., deater-deckard, k., holmes, c., lee, j., chiu, p., & king-casas, b. (2016). behavioral and neural inhibitory control moderates the effects of reward sensitivity on adolescent substance use. neuropsychologia, 91, 318326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.08.028 komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 korem, a., horenczyk, g., & tatar, m. (2012). inter-group and intra-group assertiveness: adolescents' social skills following cultural transition. journal of adolescence, 35(4), 855-862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.12.002. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enfcli.2019.04.040 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100812 https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1308.003 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00245.x https://doi.org/10.5742/mepa.2016.92816 https://doi.org/10.1037/t43620-000 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.08.028 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.12.002 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of ... ivanna parfanovych et al. 178 lange, a. j., & jakubowski, p. (1976). responsible assertive behavior: cognitive/behavioral procedures for trainers. research press. lange, a. j., rimm, d. c., & loxley, j. (1975). cognitive-behavioral assertion training procedures. the counseling psychologist, 5(4), 37–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/001100007500500406 lazarus, a. a. (1973). on assertive behavior: a brief note. behavior therapy, 4, 697699. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7894(73)80161-3 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), pp. 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 maqbool parray, w., kumar, s., e. david, b., & khare, s. (2020). assertiveness predicts self-esteem, academic achievement, and stress: a study of kashmiri adolescents. humanities & social sciences reviews, 8(1), 707-715. https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2020.8185 martišauskienė, e. (2014). spirituality as foundation for adolescents’ socialisation: methodological approaches. pedagogika, 116(4), 94–111. https://doi.org/10.15823/p.2014.050 mofrad, s., & mehrabi, t. (2015). the role of self-efficacy and assertiveness in aggression among high-school students in isfahan. journal of medicine and life, 8, 225-231. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315545854_the_role_of_selfefficacy_and_assertiveness_in_aggression_among_highschool_students_in_isfahan mürner-lavanchy, i. m., koenig, j., ando, a., henze, r., schell, s., resch, f., brunner, r., & kaess, m. (2020). neuropsychological development in adolescents: longitudinal associations with white matter microstructure. developmental cognitive neuroscience, 45, 100812. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100812 nair, r. (2021). perceived stress and assertiveness among young adults. international journal of indian psychology, 9(2), 2126-2135. https://doi.org/10.25215/0902.210 https://doi.org/10.1177/001100007500500406 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7894(73)80161-3 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2020.8185 https://doi.org/10.15823/p.2014.050 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315545854_the_role_of_self-efficacy_and_assertiveness_in_aggression_among_high-school_students_in_isfahan https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315545854_the_role_of_self-efficacy_and_assertiveness_in_aggression_among_high-school_students_in_isfahan https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315545854_the_role_of_self-efficacy_and_assertiveness_in_aggression_among_high-school_students_in_isfahan https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100812 https://doi.org/10.25215/0902.210 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 179 parmaksız i̇., & kılıçarslan, s. (2020). the relationship between assertiveness and separation-individuation in adolescents. pegem journal of education and instruction, 10(3), 869–888. https://doi.org/10.14527/pegegog.2020.027 parto, m. (2011). problem-solving, self-efficacy, and mental health in adolescents: assessing the mediating role of assertiveness. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 30, 644-648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.125 parveen, u. (2015). study of relationship between mental health and assertiveness among adolescents. international journal of indian psychology, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.25215/0301.085 peneva, i., & mavrodiev, s. (2013). a historical approach to assertiveness. psychological thought, 6, 3-26. https://doi.org/10.5964/psyct.v6i1.14 pfafman, t. (2017). assertiveness. in v. zeigler-hill, & t. shackelford (eds.), encyclopedia of personality and individual differences (pp. 1-7). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1044-1 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rakos, r. f. (1991). assertive behavior: theory, research, and training. routledge. rivera, d.s., lindsay, c.b., oliva, c.a. codocedo, j. f., bozinovic, f., & inestrosa, n. c. (2020). effects of long-lasting social isolation and re-socialization on cognitive performance and brain activity: a longitudinal study in octodon degus. scientific report, 10, 18315. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-02075026-4 salter, a. (2002). conditioned reflex therapy: the classic book on assertiveness that began behavior therapy. wellness institute. sarkova, m., bacikova-sleskova, m., & orosova, o., madarasova, g. a., katreniakova, z., klein, d., heuvel, w., & van dijk, j. p. (2013). associations between assertiveness, psychological well‐being, and self‐esteem in adolescents. journal of applied social psychology, 43(1), 147-154. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00988.x şengönül, t. (2018). socialization processes toward children and adolescents for developing empathy, sympathy and prosocial behaviors. in r. morese, s. palermo & j. nervo (eds.), socialization a multidimensional perspective. intechopen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74132 shanmugam, v., & kathyayini, b. v. (2017). assertiveness and self-esteem in indian adolescents. galore international journal of health sciences & research, 2(4), 8-13. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/assertiveness-andself-esteem-in-indian-adolescents-shanmugamkathyayini/7c801e0b9ddee5de39237c7ebf93a00bfcb1d074 https://doi.org/10.14527/pegegog.2020.027 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.125 https://doi.org/10.25215/0301.085 https://doi.org/10.5964/psyct.v6i1.14 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1044-1 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75026-4 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75026-4 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00988.x https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74132 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/assertiveness-and-self-esteem-in-indian-adolescents-shanmugam-kathyayini/7c801e0b9ddee5de39237c7ebf93a00bfcb1d074 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/assertiveness-and-self-esteem-in-indian-adolescents-shanmugam-kathyayini/7c801e0b9ddee5de39237c7ebf93a00bfcb1d074 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/assertiveness-and-self-esteem-in-indian-adolescents-shanmugam-kathyayini/7c801e0b9ddee5de39237c7ebf93a00bfcb1d074 peculiarities of assertiveness development and ways of socialization of ... ivanna parfanovych et al. 180 simarmata, e. r., & anizar, r. (2018). correlation between assertiveness and empathy with adolescent's social adjustment in social home of south jakarta. in proceedings of the universitas indonesia international psychology symposium for undergraduate research (uipsur 2017). atlantis press. https://doi.org/10.2991/uipsur-17.2018.23 sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speeds of biological development. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532–1543. https://www.efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20222.pdf smetana, j. g., robinson, j., & rote, w. m. (2015). socialization in adolescence. in j. e. grusec & p. d. hastings (eds.), handbook of socialization: theory and research (pp. 60–84). the guilford press. soenens, b., & vansteenkiste, m., (2020). taking adolescents' agency in socialization seriously: the role of appraisals and cognitive-behavioral responses in autonomy-relevant parenting. new directions for child and adolescent development, 173(special 2), 7-26. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20370 speed, b. c., goldstein, b. l., & goldfried, m. r. (2018). assertiveness training: a forgotten evidence‐based treatment. clinical psychology: science and practice, 25(1), e12216. https://doi.org/10.1111/cpsp.12216 utami, d. s., wati, n. l., suryani, & nurjanah, n. (2019). the effect of assertive training towards self-assertiveness among female adolescent of bullying in junior high school. kne life sciences, 4(13), 716–725. https://doi.org/10.18502/kls.v4i13.532 vagos, p., & pereira, a. (2016). a cognitive perspective for understanding and training assertiveness. european psychologist, 21(2), 109–121. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000250 wolpe, j. (1990). the practice of behavior therapy ((4th ed.)). pergamon press. yılmaz, g., erdöl, h., çalık, k. y., & bulut, h. k. (2019). self-esteem and assertiveness levels of nursing students. in e. soriano, c. sleeter, m. antonia casanova, r. m. zapata, & v. c. cala (eds.), the value of education and health for a global, transcultural world, vol 60. european proceedings of social and behavioural sciences (pp. 819-827). future academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.04.02.101 yuliani, e., etika, a., suharto, i., & nurseskasatmata, s. (2020). analysis of assertive communication skills in adolescents health with aggressive behavior. in w. striełkowski (ed.), advances in social science, education and https://doi.org/10.2991/uipsur-17.2018.23 https://www.efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20222.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20370 https://doi.org/10.1111/cpsp.12216 https://doi.org/10.18502/kls.v4i13.532 https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000250 https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.04.02.101 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 181 humanities research (pp. 232-236). atlantis press. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201014.050 zeigler-hill, v., & shackelford, t. k. (2020). low assertiveness: encyclopedia of personality and individual differences. springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_301486 zélia, c. a. (2016). self-esteem, assertiveness, and resilience in adolescents institutionalized published in international journal of developmental and educational psychology. revista infad de psicología, 1(1), 231. https://doi.org/10.17060/ijodaep.2016.n1.v1.231 https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201014.050 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_301486 https://doi.org/10.17060/ijodaep.2016.n1.v1.231 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer some consequences of the complexity of intelligent prediction joel ratsaby abstract. what is the relationship between the complexity of a learner and the randomness of his mistakes ? this question was posed in [4] who showed that the more complex the learner the higher the possibility that his mistakes deviate from a true random sequence. in the current paper we report on an empirical investigation of this problem. we investigate two characteristics of randomness, the stochastic and algorithmic complexity of the binary sequence of mistakes. a learner with a markov model of order k is trained on a finite binary sequence produced by a markov source of order k∗ and is tested on a different random sequence. as a measure of learner’s complexity we define a quantity called the sysratio, denoted by ρ, which is the ratio between the compressed and uncompressed lengths of the binary string whose ith bit represents the maximum a posteriori decision made at state i of the learner’s model. the quantity ρ is a measure of information density. the main result of the paper shows that this ratio is crucial in answering the above posed question. the result indicates that there is a critical threshold ρ∗ such that when ρ ≤ ρ∗ the sequence of mistakes possesses the following features: (1) low divergence ∆ from a random sequence, (2) low variance in algorithmic complexity. when ρ > ρ∗, the characteristics of the mistake sequence changes sharply towards a high ∆ and high variance in algorithmic complexity. it is also shown that the quantity ρ is inversely proportional to k and the value of ρ∗ corresponds to the value k∗. this is the point where the learner’s model becomes too simple and is unable to approximate the bayes optimal decision. here the characteristics of the mistake sequence change sharply. keywords: learning, sequence prediction, descriptive complexity mathematics subject classification: 68q19, 68q30, 62m05, 68q87, 94a17. 113 joel ratsaby some consequences of the complexity of intelligent prediction 1. overview in computer science, the notion of computational complexity serves as a measure of how difficult it is to compute a solution for a given problem. computations take time and complexity here means the time rate of growth to solve the problem. another related kind of complexity measure (studied in theoretical computer science) is the so-called algorithmic (or kolmogorov) complexity which measures how long a computer program (on some generic computational machine) needs to be in order that it produces a complete description of an object. interestingly, the theory says that if we consider as an object a system that can process input information (available as a binary sequence of high entropy) and which produces another sequence as an output then the amount of randomness in the output sequence is inversely proportional to the algorithmic complexity of the system. this has been known in the context of algorithmic randomness (see [1] and references within) and it has been only until recently unknown whether such a relationship between complexity and randomness exists for more general systems, for instance, those governed by physical laws. in [3] the complexity of a general static system (for instance, a physical solid) is modeled algorithmically, i.e., by its description length. using the model it is proposed that the stability of a static system (from the physical perspective) is related to its level of algorithmic complexity. this is explained by the relationship between the complexity of a system and its ability to ’distort’ the randomness in its environment. a proof of this concept appeared in several recent works [2, 6, 7] where it is shown that this inverse relationship between system complexity and randomness exists in a physical system. the particular system investigated consisted of a one-dimensional vibrating solid-beam to which a random sequence of external input forces is applied. the current paper is yet another proof of concept of the model of [3]. we consider a decision system and study its influence on a random binary data sequence on which prediction decisions are made. the decision system is based on the maximum a posteriori probability decision where probabilities are defined by a statistical parametric model which is estimated from data. the learner of this model is a computer program that trains from a given random data sequence and then produces a decision rule by which it is able to predict (or decide) the value of the next bit in future (yet unseen) random binary sequences. 114 joel ratsaby some consequences of the complexity of intelligent prediction our interest is in displaying a learning (and decision) system from the perspective of static system complexity (as in [3]) and determine its influence on a random input sequence. 2. introduction let x(n) = x1, . . . , xn be a sequence of binary random variables drawn according to some unknown joint probability distribution p ( x(n) ) . consider the problem of learning to predict the next bit in a binary sequence drawn according to p. for training, the learner is given a finite sequence x(m) of bits xt ∈ {0, 1} , 1 ≤ t ≤ m, drawn according to p and estimates a model m that can be used to predict the next bit of a partially observed sequence. after training, the learner is tested on another sequence x(n) drawn according to the same unknown distribution p. using m he produces the bit yt as a prediction for xt , 1 ≤ t ≤ n. denote by ξ(n) the corresponding binary sequence of mistakes where ξt = 1 if yt 6= xt and is 0 otherwise. in [4] the following question was posed: how random is ξ(n) ? this question was answered for a particular learning setting where the teacher uses a probability distribution p based on a markov model with a certain complexity. the learner has access to a hypothesis class of boolean decision rules that are based on markov models. learning amounts to the estimation of parameters of a finite-order markov model. the answer shows theoretically that the random characteristics of the subsequence of mistakes corresponding to the 0-predictions of a learner changes in accordance with the complexity of the learner’s decision rule’s complexity. the more complex the rule the higher the possibility of ’distortion’ of randomness, i.e., the farther away it is from being truly-random. in the current paper we take an experimental approach to answering the above question. as in [4] we focus on markov source and a markov learner whose orders may differ. as this is only a short version of the paper in [5] in the next sections we briefly describe the setup and summarize the results. 3. experimental setup the learning problem consists of predicting the next bit in a given sequence generated by a markov chain (model) m∗ of order k∗. there are 2k∗ states in the model each represented by a word of k∗ bits. during a learning problem, the source’s model is fixed. a learner, unaware of the source’s model, has a 115 joel ratsaby some consequences of the complexity of intelligent prediction markov model of order k. we denote by p(1|i) the probability of transiting from state i whose binary k-word is bi = [bi(1), . . . , bi(k)] to the state whose word is [bi(2), . . . , bi(k), 1]. given a random sequence of length m generated by the source the learner estimates its own model’s parameters p(1|i) by p̂(1|i), 1 ≤ i ≤ 2k, which is the frequency of the event “bi is followed by a 1” in the training sequence. we denote by m̂ the learnt model with parameters p̂(1|i), 1 ≤ i ≤ 2k. we denote by p∗(1|i) the transition probability from state i of the source model, 1 ≤ i ≤ 2k. a simulation run is characterized by the parameters, k and m. it consists of a training and testing phases. in the training phase we show the learner a binary sequence of length m and he estimates the transition probabilities. in the testing phase we show the learner another random sequence (generated by the same source) of length n and test the learner’s predictions on it. for each bit in the test sequence we record whether the learner has made a mistake. when a mistake occurs we indicate this by a 1 and when there is no mistake we write a 0. the resulting sequence of length n is the generalization mistake sequence ξ(n). we denote by ξ(n)0 the binary subsequence of ξ (n) that corresponds to the mistakes that occured only when the learner predicted a 0. for a fixed k denote by nk,m the number of runs with a learner of order k and training sample of size m. the experimental setup consists of nk,m = 10 runs with 1 ≤ k ≤ 10, m ∈ {100, 200, . . . , 10000} with a total of 100·10·nk,m = 10000 runs. the testing sequence is of length n = 1000. each run results in a file called system which contains a binary vector d whose ith bit represents the maximum a posteriori decision made at state i of the learner’s model, i.e., di = { 1 if p̂(1|i) > 1/2 0 otherwise (1) for 1 ≤ i ≤ 2k. another file generated is the errort0 which contains the mistake subsequence ξ(n)0 . at the end of each run we measure the lengths of the system file and its compressed length where compression is obtained via the gzip algorithm (a variant of [8]) and compute the sysratio (denoted as ρ) which is the ratio of the compressed to uncompressed length of the system file. note that ρ is a measure of information density since it captures the number of bits of useful information (useful for describing the system) per bit of representation (in the uncompressed file). we do similarly for the mistake-subsequence ξ(n)0 obtaining the length `0 of 116 joel ratsaby some consequences of the complexity of intelligent prediction the compressed file that contains ξ(n)0 (henceforth referred to as the estimated algorithmic complexity of ξ(n)0 since it is an approximation of the kolmogorov complexity of ξ(n)0 , see [7]. we measure the kl-divergence ∆0 between the probability distribution p (w|p̂) of binary words w of length 4 and the empirical probability distribution p̂m(w) as measured from the mistake subsequence ξ (n) 0 . note, p (w|p̂) is defined according to the bernouli model with parameter p̂, that is, p (w|p̂) = p̂i(1 − p̂)4−i for a word w with i ones, where p̂ is the frequency of ones in the subsequence ξ(n)0 . the distribution p̂m(w) equals the frequency of a word w in ξ(n)0 . hence ∆0 reflects by how much ξ (n) 0 deviates from being random according to a bernoulli sequence. 4. results and conclusions the first result of the experiment indicate that the mean of the sysratio ρ decreases as the learner’s model order k increases. as we discuss in the full paper [5] this is attributed to the lowering in entropy of the decision rule once the learner k surpasses k∗. we studied the characteristics of the mistake subsequence ξ(n)0 . we observed that the mean of the estimated algorithmic complexity `0 of ξ (n) 0 has a low spread in values when the mean of the system ratio ρ is low. there appears to be a sharp threshold at ρ∗ where the spread around the mean value of `0 increases significantly. we saw a similar effect on the mean of the divergence ∆0 of the mistake subsequence ξ (n) 0 . for low values of sysratio the spread of ∆0 is low and there exists a threshold at ρ∗ where the standard deviation around the mean value of ∆0 increases significantly. we conclude that the sysratio ρ is a proper measure of complexity of a learner decision rule. it is with respect to ρ that the characteristics of the random mistake subsequence ξ(n)0 follow what the theory [4] predicts. the higher the sysratio the more significant the deviation ∆0 of ξ (n) 0 compared to a pure bernouli random sequence and the larger the possible fluctuations in its algorithmic complexity `0. references [1] l. bienvenu. kolmogorov-loveland stochasticity and kolmogorov complexity. in 24th annual symposium on theoretical aspects of computer science (stacs 2007), volume lncs 4393, pages 260–271, 2007. 117 joel ratsaby some consequences of the complexity of intelligent prediction [2] j. chaskalovic and j. ratsaby. interaction of a self vibrating beam with chaotic external forces. comptes rendus mecanique, doi:10.1016/j.crme.2009.11.001, 2009. [3] j. ratsaby. an algorithmic complexity interpretation of lin’s third law of information theory. entropy, 10(1):6–14, 2008. [4] j. ratsaby. how random are a learner’s mistakes ? technical report # arxiv:0903.3667, 2009. [5] j. ratsaby. learning, complexity and information density. technical report # arxiv:0908.4494v1, 2009. [6] j. ratsaby and i. chaskalovic. random patterns and complexity in static structures. in proc. of international conference on artificial intelligence and pattern recognition (aipr’09), volume iii of mathematics and computer science, pages 255–261, 2009. [7] j. ratsaby and i. chaskalovic. on the algorithmic complexity of static structures. journal of systems science and complexity, (doi:10.1007/s11424-010-8465-2), 2010. [8] j. ziv and a. lempel. a universal algorithm for sequential data compression. ieee transactions on information theory, 23(3):337–343, 1977. joel ratsaby department of electrical and electronics engineering ariel university center ariel 40700, israel email:ratsaby@ariel.ac.il 118 microsoft word brain_2_1.doc 38 creating virtual communities by means of swarm intelligence lucian hancu faculty of economics and business administration, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, 58-60, teodor mihali street, tel. 0040 264-41865, cluj-napoca, romania lhancu@softproeuro.ro abstract during centuries, observing the behavior of wild species has always been fascinating and full of mysteries. modeling human interactions based on those revealed on the wilderness conducts to innovative solutions, but also poses unexpected issues. in this article, we describe our approach of creating communities of virtual entities by means of swarm intelligence. we discuss the algorithm of creating the virtual communities along with the issues that arise when modeling business entities as individuals of the swarm. keywords: swarm intelligence, virtual communities, virtual enterprise, business dependencies, virtual swarm creation algorithm 1. introduction in a complex and dynamic environment, as it is the business one, the fight for long-term survival is crucial. business companies try to adapt their strategies according to market changes, but have difficulties to overcome these changes when the dimension of the company is small and its resources (both human and financial) limited. in this turbulent context, forming virtual business communities would certainly be a solution; as such communities can share their resources and thus contribute to the welfare of the whole community. in this article, we present a technique for constructing virtual communities by considering each member of the community as a member of a swarm. modeling the business environment with the aid of swarm behavior poses several interesting issues that we discuss later on a distinct section. by creating virtual communities of business entities, we aim to improve the survival of the companies on the medium and long term, as, by sharing resources, virtual members would help themselves to survive in the extremely dynamic (and sometimes hostile) business environment. the paper is organized as follows. in the next section we provide a brief introduction on the terminology of swarm behavior, swarm intelligence and its applications to the business environment. the second section presents how we can model the creation of virtual business communities by means of swarms. later, we introduce the swarm creation algorithm and discuss the issues that we encounter in its design. we conclude the paper with setting future research directions. 2. swarm intelligence during the last decades, scientists have increased their efforts in understanding the nature and applying the knowledge extracted from the animal world to solve complex problems. in [6], the authors present a thorough survey on the scientific literature regarding swarm intelligence. they start by defining the term swarm behavior the aggregate motion performed by groups of individuals from various species (for examples, a school of fish that swims, turns, flees together [7], cited in [6]). a swarm is defined in [6] as a set of n agents that are cooperating to achieve some purposeful behavior and achieve some goal. the agents use simple local rules to govern their actions and via the interactions of the entire group, the swarm achieves its objectives [6]. swarm intelligence, according to [6], is the emergent collective intelligence of groups of simple autonomous agents. an autonomous agent is a subsystem that interacts with its environment, which probably consists of other agents, but acts relatively independently from all other agents. the autonomous agent is self-organized, i.e. it does not follow commands from a leader, or some global plan ([2], cited in [6]). lecture brainotes lucian hancu creating virtual communities by means of swarm intelligence 39 in [1] the authors introduce several applications of swarm intelligence principles to the business environment. while social insects have been so successful because of three characteristics: flexibility (the colony can adapt to a changing environment), robustness (even when one or more individuals fail, the group can still perform its tasks) and self-organization (activities are neither centrally controlled nor locally supervised), business executives mostly relate on the first two attributes and avoid the one regarding the self-organization. according to the swarm intelligence principles, even if individuals follow simple rules (like certain species of ants which are able to find the shortest path to a food source merely by laying and following chemical trails [1]), the resulting group behavior can be surprisingly complex and remarkably effective, which conducts to the fact that, to a large extent, flexibility and robustness result from self-organization [1]. an interesting comparison between the insects’ ecosystem and the business environment is depicted in [1]. the authors point out the ties between a company's spin-off and a honeybee colony. when a honeybee colony becomes too large that is, when it reaches a point of diminishing returns the nest splits into two, behavior which can be used by large corporations in determining when to spin off some of their operations. in the authors' opinion, no social-insect equivalent exists in the case of mergers [1], in contrast with the spin-offs case. despite the fact that there would not be any equivalent to the mergers case, in the next section of the paper we shall explore the creation of a virtual community formed by more business entities which would act as a swarm. 3. creating virtual communities in our past research, we have investigated several methods of suggesting mergers between two business entities based on the analysis of each one of the two candidates' last financial statement [4, 5]. our models developed so far considered only the case in which two companies tend to combine, therefore we should have provided an answer of the type: company a buys company b (or vice versa), company a merges with company b (when the two companies are almost equal when considering their position on the market), the two companies a and b create a virtual enterprise (thus continuing to exist independently, but joining forces to meet a common goal, such as a joint project a thorough discussion on the issues regarding the virtual enterprise can be found in [3]) or the two companies remain independent of each other and act independently. we now pose a more complex problem: giving a set of companies: a1, a2, ..., an can we construct a virtual cluster of companies (or virtual business community) from these companies so as to join forces and create more added value than in the cases of a single company acting independently or the case of creating pairs of virtual entities from two companies? for instance, the wheat producer decides to join forces with a flour producer in order to reduce costs. furthermore, it would be interesting that the two companies would virtualize with a bread producer, which, later on, would join forces with a commodities transportation company. thus, in the end, the virtual company formed from the wheat, grain and bread producers and the commodities transportation company could create an integrated value chain with the purpose of reducing the bread's final cost of production. but does such an entity suffice to act according to the principles of swarm intelligence that we have point out in the previous section? the virtual group is self-organized, each one of the companies can act independently without supervision (or, as stated in [1], the group needs relatively little supervision or top-down control). also, the virtual community is flexible: each member of the group can easily adapt to changing environments (for instance, an increase in electricity price would not stop the flour producer to stop its processes). in addition, we ask ourselves: is this virtual community robust (i.e. when one or more individuals fail, the virtual group will still be able to perform its tasks)? by considering each company an individual of the virtual community (and not each company's employee an individual), brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 we believe it cannot (the wheat producer does not have the capabilities to directly produce the bread without the flour producer), thus our virtual community requiring further adjustments. the solution to the robustness issue would be to allow more individuals (distinct companies) specialized in producing flour to join the virtualized community. generally, a robust virtual community would need at least two companies from the same business sector (i.e. competitors) to join the virtual community. the later competitor would help the virtual community survive even in the case that the former flour producer (or another member of the community) could not meet its goals. by allowing more competitors to join the virtual community, the robustness increases, thus reducing the risk that the community would not meet its final goal. 4. the virtual swarm creation algorithm in this section, we present the algorithm for creating a virtual community (or swarm) based on the dimension of the swarm and the starting entity as inputs (see the next algorithm). algorithm virswarmcreation(n, e, out s); in: n – dimension of the swarm e – starting entity out: s – the virtual community begin_algorithm s = s ∪ backups(e); if (n > 1) { v = getvirtualization(e, s); s = s ∪ v; s = virswarmcreation(n-1, v); } end_algorithm function backups(e) in: e – starting entity out: l – list of backups entities begin_function foreach (company b in companieslist) if (activitycode(b) == activitycode(e) and mavoc(b,e) == virtualization) if (sizeof(l) < recommendedsize(activitycode(e)) l = l ∪ b; else break; /* the required size of l has been reached*/ return l; end_function function getvirtualization(e, s) in: e – starting entity s – the previously-chosen community (swarm) out: v – virtualization candidate begin_function foreach (company v in companieslist) if (activitycode(v) <> activitycode(e) and mavoc(v,e) == virtualization and activitycode(v) ∉ activitycodes(s)) return v; /* the virtualization candidate*/ end_function lucian hancu creating virtual communities by means of swarm intelligence 41 the backups function returns one or more business entities that have the same sector of activity with the initial company e. the backup entities will have the role of minimizing the risks of not accomplishing the company's tasks that could arise in a complex business environment. the number of entities returned by the function depends on the business class of the entity and also on the economic conditions. the companies that are backups of the entity e are considered from the virtualization candidates of the company e, i.e. the mavoc score function [5] between e and each of the backups is virtualization. we further discuss on the robustness issue on the subsequent section of the paper. we recall that the mavoc score [5] takes as input the financial statements of two companies a and b, then it computes a strategic suggestion of type a buys b, b buys a, a and b merge}, a and b create a virtual enterprise or a and b conserve their status. the getvirtualization function returns a virtualization candidate not-previously chosen for e (for which the mavoc score function [5] between e and the candidate is virtualization) that has a different business sector than the one of e. the condition that the virtualization candidate had a different business sector than e assures that the virtual business community has diverse members. allowing only the companies from the same sector of e to enter the virtual community (as in the case of company's backups) would significantly limit the community's capacities, which also limits its survival possibilities in the future. the algorithm functions as follows. considering the example of wheat producer-flour producer-bread producer-transportation company, the algorithm starts with the wheat producer, and the empty swarm: s = ∅; virswarmcreation(4, 14210118, s); (14210118 is the registration id of a wheat producer situated in the dolj county) it adds to the swarm a list of virtualization candidates from its sector of activity (considering the nowadays risky business environment, it would add more than one candidate as to cover increased business risks for its sector of activity). moreover, the algorithm extracts a virtualization candidate by inspecting the business sectors that depend on the wheat producer (here the business dependency map introduced in [4] is used). considering that the production of flour has a greater dependence on the wheat production than the bread production has on the wheat production, the production of flour would be selected, then emphasized the virtualization candidate which has the highest virtualization score with the company e, let us name it v. after adding the candidate to the swarm, the algorithm continues with completing the swarm from the current candidate v, assuring that a candidate is chosen only once. the algorithm finishes when the construction of the virtual community is complete, i.e. we have reached the required dimension of the swarm. we should point out that n (the dimension of the swarm) does not include the backups (companies that have the same sector of activity with the starting company), thus the whole dimension of the swarm would sum n with the number of backups of each one of the swarm's members. 5. issues in this section, we discuss several issues that we encountered when modeling the creation of virtual communities as swarms. we recall that in our previously developed model mavoc [5] two companies tend to virtualize when they are relatively small companies and they are similar (or close) in terms of number of employees, turnover, market share. are such virtual communities really robust? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 in the previous section, we have stated that backup entities are needed in order to create robust virtual communities that tend to appear similar to swarms. but the question is how many backups are needed for a virtual community (i.e. companies that have the same sector of activity with one of the community's companies)? we believe the number of such backup companies rises along with the risks associated with the sector of activity of a company, but also with the economic climate. for instance, in a period of severe flooding, the wheat producer companies will tend to be exposed to higher risks, thus several companies from various regions (both national and international) would be needed to be part of the virtual community. is an entity autonomous? in the business world, the entities are tied by various relationships of type supplier-client, which creates a dependence between the client and the supplier. in this context, can entities be modeled as autonomous? we can model them as autonomous, considering a free market with no dominant position on it. we recall that in [5] our model has suggested the creation of virtual entities from rather equal companies in terms of number of employees, turnover or market share. are the entities (individuals) equal? in our model, we consider an individual of the swarm the business entity that is a member of the virtual community. for the same reasons that we stated above, the virtualized communities (or clusters) would consist of companies of small, but almost equal, size. our previous studies have shown that during the last years a consistent number of companies had only one employee, which make them ideal candidates for a virtual community (by joining forces, they would increase their strength in terms of financial capital, human capital, market share). in this sense, it is suitable to consider these entities as equal. can we also model mergers this way? modeling mergers raises more complex problems than in the case of creation of virtual entities. whereas the virtual entities appear and disappear along with the opportunities that exist in the market, the creation of a merger between two companies implies more time and intense effort for negotiation. for these reasons, we believe that mergers cannot be modeled as swarms, as mergers usually occur between large companies with different characteristics in terms of market share, profits, turnover. despite this drawback, we believe modeling virtual communities is far more interesting than modeling a small number of mergers (we have previously shown in [5] that from a number of 61.944.015 pairs of companies, our model suggested a virtualization for 28.374.777 of them, i.e. 45,8%). 6. conclusions modeling business activities as swarm behavior is fascinating, intriguing and promising. such modeling is fascinating as the business world is frequently compared to the wilderness, when considering its intense preoccupation of surviving. it is also intriguing as many questions arise from such a modeling (some of them were discussed in a separate section of our article). it is as fascinating as promising, because it opens new paths to solving business problems: how can two or more companies cooperate in order to improve the outputs (taken as a single company's output). as future research directions we plan to study the introduction of a fitness function of the swarm which would compute the likelihood that the swarm would survive in the business environment. such a swarm would have to compete with other virtual communities in order to survive on the market. thus, even more difficult questions arise: what will it weight more? the dimension of the virtual community? how fit its members are? how dependent they are according to the dependencies between the business classes? lucian hancu creating virtual communities by means of swarm intelligence 43 7. acknowledgements this work was supported by cncsis-uefiscsu under the project no. pn ii-ru-pd 397/2010. 8. references [1] bonabeau, e. and meyer c.(2001), swarm intelligence: a whole new way to think about business, harvard business review, may,. [2] flake, g. (1999) the computational beauty of nature, cambridge, mit press, 1999. [3] ghilic-micu, b. and stoica, m. (2004), organizatia virtuala (the virtual enterprise), editura economica, bucharest. [4] hancu l. (2008), data-mining techniques for supporting merging decisions, international conference on computers, communications and control, baile felix-oradea. [5] hancu l. (2008), pruning decision trees for easing complex strategic decisions, international workshop in collaborative systems and information society, cluj-napoca. [6] liu, y. and passino, k. (2000), swarm intelligence: literature overview, accessed on august 9, 2010, http://www2.ece.ohio-state.edu/~passino/swarms.pdf [7] shaw, e. (1968), the schooling of fishes, scientific american, vol. 206, pp. 128-138. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 252-268 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/418 submitted: december 21st, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 4th, 2023 detection of intellectual giftedness in children of different ages and methods of its development as an aspect of neurophysiological development iryna pidlypniak1, oksana marchuk2, victoriia naichuk3, olena tryfonova4, inokentii korniienko5, svitlana mashchak6 1 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, senior lecturer at the department of psychology and pedagogy of child development, pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, irenkudryashka@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8265-589x 2 doctor of science in pedagogy, associate professor, professor of the department of general pedagogy and preschool education, academician stepan demianchuk international university of economics and humanities, ukraine, oxanna442@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2922-285x 3 doctoral student of psychology department, candidate of psychological sciences, h.s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, ukraine, naichukvv@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2971-1386 4 doctor of science in pedagogy , full professor, professor of the department of primary and pre-school education, v.o. sukhomlynskyi mykolaiv national university, ukraine, 5lenatrifonova@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7899-3714 5 doctor of science in psychology, full professor, professor of the department of psychology, mukachevo state university, ukraine, innokesha@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1451-4128 6 associate professor of psychology, candidate of psychological science, lviv polytechnic national university, ukraine, nikoleom@i.ua abstract: in this article, the concept of giftedness in children of different ages, its types and characteristics, the basics of diagnosis and methods of development of factors contributing to intellectual abilities were studied. in this context, quite a lot of opinions and worldviews of thinkers of different historical eras, including plato, confucius and others, were analyzed regarding the definition of the concept of giftedness in children. the neurophysiological features of mental thinking were also investigated. it was concluded that giftedness is a unique combination of abilities that are the result of neurophysiological processes, which is a prerequisite for achieving certain successes or certain achievements in a certain activity. thanks to such unique features, the child differs from others in a certain way. giftedness is some unique feature of children, which is determined by the neurophysiological features of the body's development. the relevance of such topics is extremely important, because the scientific and technical development of modern society forces creative approaches in solving a number of problems. the presence of a perfect system for identifying and educating gifted and creative children is a necessary component of the successful activity of society. the purpose of the article is to clarify the necessary features and signs of giftedness in children with the aim of developing effective mechanisms for diagnosing giftedness in children of different age groups and methods of its development as an aspect of the neurophysiological approach to personality. in the research process, the method of analysis of the available theoretical information of the selected area, synthesis of all existing points of view was used. the result is the determination of the characteristics of giftedness, taking into account its types, characteristics, and the creation of methods of dealing with gifted children and developing their abilities. keywords: skills and abilities; child's potential; trial tests, neurophysiological features of giftedness; level of intelligence; iq test. how to cite: pidlypniak, i., marchuk, o., naichuk, v., tryfonova, o., korniienko, i., & mashchak, s. (2023). detection of intellectual giftedness in children of different ages and methods of its development as an aspect of neurophysiological development. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 252-268. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/418 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/418 mailto:irenkudryashka@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8265-589x mailto:oxanna442@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2922-285x mailto:naichukvv@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2971-1386 mailto:5lenatrifonova@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7899-3714 mailto:innokesha@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1451-4128 mailto:nikoleom@i.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/418 detection of intellectual giftedness in children of different ages and methods … iryna pidlypniak, et al. 253 introduction the main task of parents, kindergartens, educational institutions is the comprehensive development of their children. in this process, you must first identify the various talents, abilities of the child, inclinations. after all, the development of children is not just bringing them to common standards of knowledge and skills. in this area it is necessary to select an individual approach to each child, to diagnose his/her special abilities. along with the general aspects of development in the form of communication skills, cognition and perception of the world, the ability to read, write, count, which are necessary components of the formation of social personality, it is necessary to take into account the uniqueness of each person. the problem of determining the giftedness of each child, his/her features and methods of development is extremely important and necessary for research (berbets et al., 2021; demchenko et al.,, 2021; karasievych et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). despite the fact that the basis for imitation and trust for children is the family, but the pedagogical principles that are available in schools, at least there should be, better and more professionally reveal the identity of children in specific areas (zavhorodnia, 2006). it is the rules and features of pedagogical psychology that are designed to recognize and realize the potential of each gifted child, which are formed by neurophysiological processes. without the necessary psychological analysis of the phenomenon of giftedness, its characteristics, determining the age and psychological characteristics of the child, the disclosure of their potential is almost impossible (gallagher, 2008). also important aspects are the definition of the main trends and dynamics of improvement of gifted children intellectually and personally. it should be noted that the necessary criteria for professional and psychological support of gifted children are the presence of an atmosphere of mutual respect, cooperation between teachers and children, new approaches in the educational process. in modern society there is a tendency to stereotype the concept of gifted children, shifts the emphasis and forgets certain individual characteristics of gifted children (klymeniuk, 2015). in other words, the pedagogical community is mostly inclined to believe that only those who can win are gifted, ie various tournaments, olympiads and other competitions where you can show yourself and your abilities. thus, a distorted view of this concept is created and the study of the unique features of each child broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 254 recedes into the background. after all, people are satisfied with the fact that they consider gifted and unique only some people who achieve success. at the same time, in the education system there are gradual shifts and changes in the social direction towards the maximum disclosure and further development of the potential of each child (antonova, 2005). more and more we are talking about such concepts as self-improvement, selfdetermination and self-realization. these processes will best help to reveal the giftedness and uniqueness of each individual. well-developed countries, such as the united states, for example, have been developing the problem of giftedness since the middle of the twentieth century. at that time, schools for gifted children and youth were being established (davis et al., 2013). in 1975, the same united states even established the international association of gifted children. instead, the center for the study of gifted children and youth was established in the united kingdom. however, in some countries, separate classes for gifted students have been introduced in schools. that is, the general idea of countries in this context was the need for timely identification of talented, gifted children and the development of their abilities. one of the factors in the formation of a child's giftedness is the neurophysiological features of the child's development. an attempt by neurophysiologists to explain different levels of intellectual development is the resource theory, according to which more accurate and faster intellectual activity requires the involvement of additional brain resources. it is assumed that with a high level of intelligence, these resources can be provided both by involving more areas and areas of the cortex in the thinking process, and by increasing the activation of the brain departments usual for this type of activity, for example, the frontoparietal neural network. it is also assumed that people with high intelligence have greater resources or are more easily engaged in solving complex tasks compared to their less able peers. at the same time, the origin of these additional resources is actually unknown. the purpose of the study is to study the factors of giftedness in children with the aim of developing effective diagnostic mechanisms as an aspect of neurophysiological personality development. theoretical substantiation of the concept of giftedness, its features and characteristics timely identification of a child's giftedness, and even more so to choose the right approach and methodology of working with them is a very difficult task for psychologists, parents, teachers. therefore, it is necessary to understand and know every aspect, every detail and feature of the concept of detection of intellectual giftedness in children of different ages and methods … iryna pidlypniak, et al. 255 giftedness (karpenko, 2013). moreover, it is necessary to take into account the historical experience of working with gifted children in order to develop a clear strategy for identifying unique features and tendencies in children of different ages and their proper development. in terms of studying the physiological foundations of giftedness, psychologists traditionally consider the key issue to be the relationship between hereditary and social factors in the development of giftedness. in their research, scientists tried to prove the thesis that intellectual giftedness is hereditary. later, some authors demonstrated the opposite position. attempts to find physiological causes consist in confirming innate differences in mental abilities. some scientists believe that all brain structures that have formed since the beginning of human ontogenesis, from the very beginning of the child's immersion in the environment, are a fusion of biological and social, and this fusion, ultimately, is expressed only in the form of psychophysiological processes. for many years, it was believed that with age, brain processes gradually lose the ability to reorganize neurons. however, modern data have shown that neuron plasticity is also possible in adulthood. research in neurophysiology shows that the formation of neural structures is a selforganized and self-determined process that depends equally on hereditary and environmental factors. in particular, in one of the latest works of british scientists, there is a psychophysiological study of the memory of london taxi drivers. it is interesting that in those people who had considerable experience working as a taxi driver and, accordingly, were very well oriented in the location and name of the streets, larger hippocampal structures were found in the tomography than in the rest. thus, even in the days of ancient greece, a systematic plan was devised to identify and develop gifted children (al-hroub & khoury, 2018). this was done by the world-famous philosopher plato. that is, in ancient times emphasized the importance of understanding giftedness. the ancient greek thinker insisted on the view that only individual children who took the test could go further on the educational level. others simply had to be rejected. at the same time, confucius proposed to identify and develop gifted preschool children (ford & harmon, 2001). such approaches to giftedness, on the one hand, correlate with the structure of the society of that time, when there was no opportunity, the necessary knowledge to seek an individual approach to each. such views are similar to those that have been said before. however, on the other hand, every child needs to learn. researchers have begun to study giftedness more closely and in depth, linking the concept to science since the 16th century. first of all, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 256 during this period, such issues as: types, signs of giftedness, the relationship of science, art and giftedness were covered. nowadays, there are many government programs and associations that provide gifted children in science. thus, with the development of science and better knowledge of the world, people are increasingly aware of the definition of giftedness and characteristics of this concept. the chief education officer in the united states (marland, 1972) insisted on the definition of giftedness through academic performance criteria. his definition was as follows: gifted and talented are children who stand out from others due to outstanding abilities and the ability to high productivity. there was a growing awareness that such children needed special educational programs in addition to those already provided by the school curriculum, in order to intellectually realize themselves. again, it was about the strategy and tactics of development of individual children who had special tendencies to intellectual activity. considering the correspondence of the notion of giftedness to certain historical epochs, we conclude that modern beliefs about giftedness are the result of the evolution of various ideas. each generation of gifted theories builds on the previous one, thus combining and synthesizing previous research, adding components of novelty that reflect current advances in science. (kaufman & sternberg, 2008). by the way, alfred binet created the first iq test in 1905. its goal was purely an assessment of school success, not an analysis of innate intelligence or human potential (gardner, 1992). unfortunately, a large cohort of researchers, psychologists, educators, and people in general believe that iq is a basic criterion for determining intelligence and giftedness (sarouphim, 2004). those scholars who oppose these views believe that such indicators do not provide sufficient basis to decide whether a child is gifted or not. after all, in this case, the iq test serves only to test only linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities. that is, other important abilities are overlooked, such as spatial, personal, musical, and artistic skills, which may indicate a child's giftedness. such tests do not take into account and, in fact, exclude other important factors: motivation, effort and creativity, which are key components of giftedness. another argument why iq tests cannot be considered as the only method of identifying giftedness is that its use has led to a significant underrepresentation of students from culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged groups (clark, 1988). this can be explained by the high dependence of iq tests on verbal skills, in which minority students often lag behind (sarouphim, 2009). detection of intellectual giftedness in children of different ages and methods … iryna pidlypniak, et al. 257 in the modern world, scientists have come to the conclusion that giftedness is a set of giftedness and abilities that under certain conditions and circumstances allow to succeed in a certain type of activity (petrychenko, 2011). thus, we can say that a gifted child is one who has a natural inclination to a certain type of activity, as well as talents and a high level of development of various abilities. such children can be developed in intellectual, creative, critical aspects and stand out with curiosity (bandura, 2012). neurophysiological features are an important factor in the development of a child's giftedness. at the same time, much more recognition received another explanation. the neurobiological underpinnings of high intelligence, namely: the brain efficiency hypothesis, which predicts not so much more active, but more efficient brain functioning in highly intelligent people compared to their less gifted peers. primary work in this context was research that measured the rate of glucose metabolism in the brain using positron emission tomography during various tasks: raven's progressive matrices, wechsler subtests, and the computer game "tetris". higher intelligence was associated with lower levels of glucose metabolism and, accordingly, brain activation. this made it possible to conclude that intelligence is not a function of the intensity of the brain's work, but its efficiency, which can be expressed in the non-use of many areas of the brain that are not needed to solve the task, as well as in the more purposeful involvement of areas necessary for this solution. the following characteristics are characteristic of gifted children: • high level of abilities (ability to formulate concepts, think spatially and abstractly, quickly analyze and process information, learn at a fast pace, be aware of their own development processes, independent activities, feel the need for self-study); • intellectual curiosity or curiosity (curiosity is directly related to intellectual growth, as it is a motivating force in motivating the intellect. a child who is quite inquisitive, prone to comprehensive active contemplation of world phenomena, she has well-developed cognitive abilities); • creative abilities (developed by adapting to changes in the search for solutions and their rapid adoption); • ability to intense motivation (high level of personal energy, the ability to set goals and achieve them, the ability to work to achieve specific success, the desire to improve in a particular activity); • self-criticism (constant dissatisfaction with the quality of their own work, high level of ethical development). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 258 fig.1. types of giftedness possessed by a child (developed by the authors) using the above information on giftedness, we will equip a system for diagnosing the presence of special skills, abilities and aptitudes in children of different ages. thus, in early childhood (age: 1-3 years) giftedness is manifested in restless curiosity, endless questions, the ability to concentrate on several events at once, as well as the availability of a large vocabulary. at the age of 4-7 years, a gifted child can have an excellent memory, vivid imagination, fine motor coordination, a tendency to actively explore the environment, an acute reaction to injustice. gifted school children, about 8-17-year-old children, achieve success or high results in various activities, have a great sense of humor, developed working memory, developed logical thinking skills, emphasis on creative problem solving, building a clear image their future activities or occupations (matiushkyn, 1989). when the adult period comes, ie after 18 years, at this time the giftedness can be evidenced by the easy assimilation of new ideas, thoughts, knowledge in general. such children also have well-developed communication skills, inherent independence in behavior and expression of their own opinions; they do not restrain their emotions and feelings, prefer complex tasks. thus, understanding the theoretical evolution of etymology and the importance of the concept of gifted children, awareness of the shortcomings of the emphasis on giftedness at a particular historical stage, modern spiritually valuable communicative theoretical and intellectual artistic and aesthetic practical giftedness detection of intellectual giftedness in children of different ages and methods … iryna pidlypniak, et al. 259 research on characteristics, types of gifted children can best develop schemes and systems for identifying unique abilities, tendencies of children of different ages. their development at a later stage. neurophysiological factors in the development of a gifted personality the results of the above studies indicate that individual differences in intelligence are associated with the variability of the brain's responses to different cognitive situations. however, intelligence, as the most studied construct, is only one aspect of the complex domain of mental abilities. talented and gifted people are distinguished not only by a high level of logical and analytical thinking, understanding, working memory, but also by a "way of thinking". specialists in the field of gifted psychology recognize creativity as a key component of the complex phenomenon of giftedness, although there is no agreement on the definition and measurement of creativity. in the definition of creativity, the difference between convergent (the search for the single best solution to the problem) and divergent (the search for many solutions to the problem) thinking is often indicated, and creativity is operated using the fluency index, or the productivity of thinking, which is measured by the number of proposed ideas solutions to a specific problem. perhaps because of the complexity of defining and measuring creativity, research into possible brain states associated with creative thinking has been relatively recent. nevertheless, data on possible brain mechanisms of divergent thinking were obtained, for example, when setting the following tasks: name as many unusual ways of using ordinary objects or possible consequences of a hypothetical situation as possible. data were obtained on the greater complexity of the eeg pattern in divergent than in convergent thinking, which, according to the researchers, indicates an increase in independent oscillations of minimal neural ensembles in divergent thinking. according to these ideas, creative individuals are more able to move along the continuum of primary (free association, synesthesia, thinking by analogy) secondary (abstract, logical, reality-oriented) processes, or towards the primary process, which is necessary for the creation of new, original ideas. they are also characterized by a "flat" (a large number of distant associations per stimulus) as opposed to a "steep" (a small number of trivial associations per stimulus) association hierarchy and the ability to unfocused attention holding several objects or ideas in the mind at the same time. the activity of the cerebral cortex in the alpha range of the eeg was recorded during the performance of verbal creative tasks: requiring an broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 260 explanation (the so-called insight problems) and two hypothetical, utopian situations. solving a creative task was usually accompanied by lower levels of cortical excitation, that is, a stronger alpha rhythm in the period from the pre-stimulus mark to the moment of solving the problem. this task-related synchronization of alpha activity contrasts with the phenomenon of its desynchronization observed in ordinary (predominantly convergent) cognitive tasks. an increase in power in the alpha range, although not reaching statistical significance, was noted more often in the anterior than in the posterior cortex, which, according to the authors, may reflect a reduced level of excitability of neurons in the frontal regions or some "hypofrontality" when performing creative tasks. in addition, more original responses were associated with stronger increases in alpha rhythm power in posterior (semantic) cortical regions, especially in individuals with high situational anxiety. neurophysiological studies of gifted children and adolescents remain rare. the neurophysiological basis of the manifestations of individual characteristics of a person, in particular his intelligence, should be sought in the general properties of the central nervous system, namely in the parameters of the regulatory apparatus of the brain. this problem was widely discussed in psychophysiology in connection with the study of the correlation of psychophysiological indicators. trends related to the mental activation of the asymmetry index of single waves of frontal lead rhythm were also revealed. the frontal lobes contain the richest bidirectional connections with many cortical and subcortical structures of the brain, including the reticular formation, which is a kind of "accumulator" for them, providing a charge of activity. using a bipolar recording method with an original electrode scheme, the authors managed to find a significant inverse relationship between the peak latency of the visual evoked potential components in the region from 142 to 374 ms and the 1p level. repeated studies confirmed the existence of a statistically significant negative correlation between values and latency periods of the visual evoked potential. thus, the research led to the creation of an original paradigm that unifies early work on the relationship between the characteristics of evoked potentials and intelligence. when processing information by the cerebral cortex, errors occur, possibly related to processes in synapses. to assess the level of fidelity of information processing, two characteristics of the evoked potential were proposed: variability and configurational complexity, which, as expected, express errors in the passage of nerve impulses in the form of smoothing of evoked potential waves. detection of intellectual giftedness in children of different ages and methods … iryna pidlypniak, et al. 261 individual differences in the modulation of brain bioelectrical activity by new or unexpected stimuli are associated with differences in intelligence. his hypothesis is that a well-functioning brain needs fewer neurons to process familiar stimuli, while the introduction of a new stimulus causes more neurons to fire. a person with high intelligence and, accordingly, high nervous adaptability will more quickly show habituation to irritation, that is, in fact, there will be a faster extinction of the orientation response. this should be reflected in a smaller amplitude of the evoked potential. on the other hand, the same person will perceive unexpected stimuli with greater intensity, which, on the contrary, will cause an increase in amplitude. in general, a literature review of works in the field of finding a possible connection between intelligence and neurophysiological parameters, such as the electroencephalogram and the evoked potential, shows that the latter do contain some information about the higher integrative processes of the brain. at the same time, the parameters of even "elementary" sensory evoked potentials, apparently, reflect the efficiency of the brain's systemwide activity, which at the behavioral level is expressed in the success of the test tasks in the test and constitutes psychometric intelligence. heuristic, in our opinion, are ideas about the connection with the accuracy and speed of information processing in neural networks, with the participation of higher coordination centers of the prefrontal cortex, with the role of activating brain systems, with the presence of specific regularities in the coordinated activity of various brain departments. the works reviewed by us are very productive in terms of the variety of theoretical and methodological approaches supported by relevant research. it is very remarkable that in psychophysiological studies of intellectual giftedness there is a clear turn from a purely phenomenological approach, when only the facts of the detection of electroencephalogram features or evoked potentials in people with high intelligence are established, to a fundamental approach that includes hypotheses about the physiological mechanisms of the phenomenon of intellectual giftedness. however, it must be stated that the level of development of the problem of psychophysiological correlates of intellectual giftedness is currently at the stage of producing and testing various hypotheses, each of which mainly affects a certain limited field of application. we have to admit that the task of diagnosing the level of intelligence by psychophysiological indicators is still very far from being solved and, accordingly, used in the everyday work of a psychologist. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 262 nevertheless, the use of simple stimuli is not devoid of meaning for the diagnosis and prognosis of the intellectual development of young children. modern researchers note that "underdevelopment of "lower" zones inevitably causes underdevelopment of higher, superstructure formations as a secondary systemic effect. methods of working with gifted children and methods of development of their unique aptitudes and skills at this stage, we move directly to the stage of applying different methods of giftedness in children of different ages. first of all, it should be noted that for the development of giftedness in children it is necessary to build their education and upbringing on the basis of diagnostic tests (iliichuk, 2013). fig.2. methods of developing the creative component of giftedness (developed by the authors) in the context of methods for improving giftedness, it should be understood that the process of development and improvement should take place with the full support of parents, teachers, psychologists. in general, only combined activities can lead to positive results. creative activity creative actings creative thinking creative activity creative search creative giftedness detection of intellectual giftedness in children of different ages and methods … iryna pidlypniak, et al. 263 thus, taking into account the intellectual talent, it is necessary to constantly demonstrate friendliness and promote the aspirations and ambitions of gifted children in this specialization (panov, 2001). it is also important to be flexible and able to make concessions to such children who also show exceptional leadership qualities. it is worth remembering that when working with a gifted child, you need to take into account the peculiarities of his psychosocial behavior (chernyshov, 2010). the focus of psychophysiological studies of intellectual giftedness should be focused on the study of the already largely formed system of structures of higher functions. at the same time, it is necessary to remember that in the implementation of behavior and higher forms of conscious activity, not specific structures are important, but their coordinated ensemble a functional system. the main principles of development of gifted children are: • the principle of maximum diversity of activities for personal development and better self-knowledge; • the principle of increasing extracurricular activities to improve various aspects; • the principle of individuality and differentiation, which is one of the basic; • the principle of fruitful interaction of children in their environment without the participation of the teacher for the development of team traits; • the principle of free choice of activity for the development of decision-making techniques. however, given that the teacher spends a long time with children and has some training, we can say that teachers to successfully work with gifted children of all ages must be: • interested in their own activities; • capable of experimental, creative and scientific activities; • sufficiently erudite; • connoisseur of all spheres of human life; • psychologist and just a close friend to his wards; • skilled organizer of the educational process. the most common and effective activities in terms of improving the various abilities and aptitudes of children are: • creative clubs; • group classes; • competitions; • scientific and practical conferences; • participation in competitions; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 264 • interest groups. thus, it can be stated that the study of intelligence and creativity as components of giftedness using neurophysiological methods, despite the persistent ambiguity of the results, continues to attract both foreign and domestic researchers. in general, most of the data support the hypothesis of greater brain efficiency in individuals with a high level of intelligence. at the same time, the desynchronization of rhythms, primarily the alpha rhythm, as well as the topographic patterns of activation during the performance of intellectual activity may differ depending on the gender and age of the subjects, their ability profile, the type and complexity of those presented during the registration of the task. the resource hypothesis of intellectual giftedness finds its confirmation much less often. conclusions a study was conducted in order to form an effective mechanism for identifying the giftedness of children and its development. to do this, the existing theoretical basis on this issue was analyzed. the views of various scholars on the definition and interpretation of the very concept of giftedness are reviewed. these views directly influenced the very approaches to identifying unique traits and abilities, methods of working with gifted children. if most of the time it was popular to associate the concept of giftedness directly with the level of intelligence and only this explained it. as a result, only a small cohort of children who achieved some success only in the field of science was considered special. now this worldview is changing in the direction of individualization and differentiation, which, in my opinion, is correct. after all, each child according to the list of gifted children has a certain uniqueness. teachers, psychologists and parents need to do their daily work to develop it. teachers should take an individual approach to each child in order to reveal their potential to the maximum. various creative, intellectual activities must be created so that the child can realize what is closest to him. instead, educators, knowing a number of characteristics of gifted children of different ages, should build their work in such a way as to learn as much as possible about the giftedness of everyone. ideas about the neurophysiological features of high creativity are even more complex and ambiguous. it is about differences in reactions during the performance of various creative tasks (verbal and figurative, simple and complex, divergent and associative), at different stages of solving the task and in people with different levels of creativity. nevertheless, the results of research conducted in this field indicate that the features of detection of intellectual giftedness in children of different ages and methods … iryna pidlypniak, et al. 265 activation reflect not only different levels of intellectual and creative abilities, but also the level of academic success. this indicates that, in the long term, neurophysiological studies of giftedness can help identify the causes of academic failure of gifted students and develop ways to overcome difficulties that prevent the realization of their high creative potential. the novelty of this article is the shift of emphasis towards the individualization of the process of determining the giftedness of children and taking into account the diversity of types of giftedness. that is, not only a child who is successful in intellectual activities is gifted, but also one who is successful in creative fields, has an impressive memory, who can serve as a helper in various activities, and so on. as a result, the methods of identifying and developing children's giftedness are directly related to the characteristics of each individual and his psychological state. acknowledgment author 1 – general concept of the article, processing and summarization of the research materials, preparation and design of the research bibliography author 2 collection of materials and writing of the section theoretical foundations of the concept of giftedness, its features and characteristic features. authors 3, 4 – collection of materials and writing of the section neurophysiological factors in the development of a gifted personality. authors 5, 6 – collection of materials and writing of the chapter methods of working with gifted children and ways of developing their unique tendencies and skills. references al-hroub, a., & khoury, s. (2018). definitions and conceptions of giftedness around the world. in s. khoury & a. al-hroub (eds.), gifted education in lebanese schools (pp. 9-38). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31978592-9_2 antonova, о. (2005). obdarovannist: dosvid istorychnoho ta porivnialnoho analizu [giftedness: experience of historical and comparative analysis]. zhytomyr state university. http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/12517/1/maket_obdarovanist.pdf bandura, h. (2012). obdarovannist iak obyekt psycholohichnoho analizu [giftedness as an object of psychological analysis]. collection of scientific works of young scientists of drohobych state pedagogical university named after ivan franko, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78592-9_2 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78592-9_2 http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/12517/1/maket_obdarovanist.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 266 1, 194-198. https://dspu.edu.ua/hsci/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/00132.pdf berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 chernyshov, о. (2010). pidhotovka pedahohiv do roboty z obdarovannymy ditmy [preparing teachers to work with gifted children]. native school, 4-5, 12-14. http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ujrn&p21dbn =ujrn&image_file_download=1&image_file_name=pdf/rsh _2010_4-5_7.pdf clark, b. (1988). growing up gifted: developing the potential of children at home and at school. pearson education. davis, g., rimm, s., & siegle, d. (2013). education of the gifted and talented (6th ed.). pearson. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i. & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 ford, d., & harmon, d. (2001). equity and excellence: providing access to gifted education for culturally diverse students. journal of secondary gifted education, 12(3), 141–146. https://doi.org/10.4219/jsge-2001-663 gallagher, j. (2008). psychology, psychologists, and gifted students. in s. i. pfeiffer (ed.), handbook of giftedness in children: psychoeducational theory, research, and best practices (pp. 1-11). springer. https://ua1lib.org/dl/2194830/58a2f8 gardner, h. (1992). assessment in context: the alternative to standardized testing. in b. r. gifford & m. c. o’conner (eds.), changing assessment: alternative views of aptitude, achievement, and instruction (pp. 77-120). kluwer. https://ua1lib.org/dl/2117748/b8cf78 iliichuk, l. (2013). osoblyvosti roboty z obdarovannymy ditmy [features of the school's work with gifted children]. mountain school of the ukrainian carpathians, 8-9, 67-70. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309175497_osoblivosti_roboti _skoli_z_obdarovanimi_ditmi karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & https://dspu.edu.ua/hsci/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/001-32.pdf https://dspu.edu.ua/hsci/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/001-32.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ujrn&p21dbn=ujrn&image_file_download=1&image_file_name=pdf/rsh_2010_4-5_7.pdf http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ujrn&p21dbn=ujrn&image_file_download=1&image_file_name=pdf/rsh_2010_4-5_7.pdf http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ujrn&p21dbn=ujrn&image_file_download=1&image_file_name=pdf/rsh_2010_4-5_7.pdf http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ujrn&p21dbn=ujrn&image_file_download=1&image_file_name=pdf/rsh_2010_4-5_7.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.4219/jsge-2001-663 https://ua1lib.org/dl/2194830/58a2f8 https://ua1lib.org/dl/2117748/b8cf78 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309175497_osoblivosti_roboti_skoli_z_obdarovanimi_ditmi https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309175497_osoblivosti_roboti_skoli_z_obdarovanimi_ditmi detection of intellectual giftedness in children of different ages and methods … iryna pidlypniak, et al. 267 maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 karpenko, n. (2013). psykholohia obdarovannosti: pidhody do rozuminnia [psychology of giftedness: approaches to understanding]. scientific bulletin of lviv state university of internal affairs. psychological series, 1, 52-64. http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/1247/1/12013knapdr.pdf kaufman, s., & sternberg, r. (2008). conceptions of giftedness. in s. i. pfeiffer (ed.), handbook of giftedness in children psycho-educational theory, research, and best practices. plenum. https://scottbarrykaufman.com///wpcontent/uploads/2011/06/kaufman-sternberg-2008.pdf klymeniuk, y. (2015). obdarovani dity, ikh vyiavlennia ta diahnostyka [gifted children, their detection and diagnosis]. problems of education: a collection of scientific papers. special issue, 46-50. http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/18528/1/клименюк.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 marland, s. (1972). education of the gifted and talented. report to the congress of the united states by the u.s. commissioner of education. u.s. government printing office. https://www.valdosta.edu/colleges/education/human-services/document /marland-report.pdf matiushkyn, a. (1989). kontseptsia tvorcheskoi odarennosti [the concept of creative giftedness]. questions of psychology, 6, 29-33. https://psyjournals.ru/files/93141/vestnik_psyobr_2012_n4_matyushkin. pdf panov, v. (2001). odarennye deti: vyiavlenie-obuchenie-razvitie [gifted children: identification learning development]. pedagogy, 4, 30-44. https://ua1lib.org/dl/3292802/f7dbce petrychenko, l. (2011). formuvannia u maibutnikh pedahohiv navychok praktychnoi roboty z obdarovanymy uchniamy [formation of future teachers' skills of practical work with gifted students]. scientific notes of the department of pedagogy, 27, 131-137. https://periodicals.karazin.ua/pedagogy/article/view/3568/3134 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/1247/1/1-2013knapdr.pdf http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/1247/1/1-2013knapdr.pdf https://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/kaufman-sternberg-2008.pdf https://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/kaufman-sternberg-2008.pdf http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/18528/1/%d0%9a%d0%bb%d0%b8%d0%bc%d0%b5%d0%bd%d1%8e%d0%ba.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://www.valdosta.edu/colleges/education/human-services/document%20/marland-report.pdf https://www.valdosta.edu/colleges/education/human-services/document%20/marland-report.pdf https://psyjournals.ru/files/93141/vestnik_psyobr_2012_n4_matyushkin.pdf https://psyjournals.ru/files/93141/vestnik_psyobr_2012_n4_matyushkin.pdf https://ua1lib.org/dl/3292802/f7dbce https://periodicals.karazin.ua/pedagogy/article/view/3568/3134 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 268 training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 sarouphim, k. (2004). discover in middle school: identifying gifted minority students. journal of advanced academics. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254120446_discover_in_ middle_school_identifying_gifted_minority_students sarouphim, k. (2009). the use of a performance assessment for identifying gifted lebanese students: is discover effective? journal for the education of the gifted, 33(2), 275–295. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234612883_the_use_of_a_per formance_assessment_for_identifying_gifted_lebanese_students_is_di scover_effective zavhorodnia, n. (2006). pedahohichni umovy sotsializatsii obdarovannych uchniv u navchalno-vykhovnomu seredovyshchi zahalnoosvitnoho navchalnoho zakladu: avtoref. dys… kand. ped. nauk. [pedagogical conditions of socialization of gifted students in the educational environment of a secondary school: abstract. dis ... cand. ped. science]. national pedagogical dragomanov university. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/1679/zavhorodn ya.pdf?sequence=3&isallowed=y https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254120446_discover_in_middle_school_identifying_gifted_minority_students https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254120446_discover_in_middle_school_identifying_gifted_minority_students https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234612883_the_use_of_a_performance_assessment_for_identifying_gifted_lebanese_students_is_discover_effective https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234612883_the_use_of_a_performance_assessment_for_identifying_gifted_lebanese_students_is_discover_effective https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234612883_the_use_of_a_performance_assessment_for_identifying_gifted_lebanese_students_is_discover_effective http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/1679/zavhorodnya.pdf?sequence=3&isallowed=y http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/1679/zavhorodnya.pdf?sequence=3&isallowed=y ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 398-420 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/395 submitted: february 23rd, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special educational needs olena vasylenko 1 , mykhailo chaikovskyi 2 , olena dobrovitska 3 , nataliia ostrovska 4 , svetlana kondratyuk 5 , yuliia luchko 6 1 phd in pedagogy, associate professor, department of psychology and pedagogics, faculty of health, psychology, physical culture and sports, khmelnytskyi national university, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, e-mail: vasilenko.dm@ukr.net 2 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, director of separate structural subdivision of the higher education institution "open international university of human development "ukraine" khmelnytskyi institute of social technologies, ukraine, e-mail: chaikov.me@gmail.com 3 phd in pedagogy, associate professor of department of legal and information technology, separate structural subdivision of the higher education institution "open international university of human development "ukraine" khmelnytskyi institute of social technologies, ukraine, e-mail: libaddobr@gmail.com 4 phd in pedagogy, associate professor of department of psychology and social work, separate structural subdivision of the higher education institution "open abstract: the paper examines the peculiarities of the adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special educational needs. it was found that one of the most significant issues of rehabilitation work with children with special educational needs is to create the conditions for their integration into society. this stipulates the determination of the state of their adaptive and rehabilitation potential formation suggesting identification of social characteristics and social relations of the children with special educational needs; definition of the levels of their learning opportunities, skills and abilities development; elucidation of the peculiarities of intra-family relations in families bringing up children with special educational needs; research of rehabilitation processes features being passed by children with special educational needs. for studying the state of adaptive and rehabilitation potential formation in working with children with special educational needs, we have conducted a diagnostic study among children with special educational needs who receive rehabilitation services at the shepetivka city center for social rehabilitation of disabled children of khmelnytskyi region. the parents of the children took part in the study as well. the results of the diagnosis revealed that the children with special educational needs are dominated by medium and low levels of formation of self-concept and comprehention of their relations with the social environment; they are characterized by medium and low levels of general mental development; children with special educational needs suffer hostility and conflict in their families, while their parents experience feelings of guilt, anxiety, and mental stress; the difficulties being faced by the children with special educational needs during the rehabilitation process are mainly related to their focusing on their own illness. in this regard, we have developed and substantiated the forms and methods for regulating the adaptive and rehabilitation processes in working with children with special educational needs, which, in our opinion, should be applied by specialists at the centers for the social rehabilitation of children with disabilities. keywords: children with special educational needs; adaptive and rehabilitation potential; diagnostics; rehabilitation; forms and methods of working with children with special educational needs. how to cite: vasylenko, o., chaikovskyi, m., dobrovitska, o., ostrovska, n., kondratyuk, s., & luchko, y. (2022). peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special educational needs. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 398-420. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/395 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/395 mailto:vasilenko.dm@ukr.net mailto:chaikov.me@gmail.com mailto:libaddobr@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/395 international university of human development "ukraine" khmelnytskyi institute of social technologies, ukraine, e-mail: nata_ostrovska@ukr.net 5 phd in psychology, associate professor, chair of department of psychology and social work, separate structural subdivision of the higher education institution "open international university of human development "ukraine" khmelnytskyi institute of social technologies, ukraine, e-mail: svetakondratyuk@ukr.net 6 phd in pedagogy, chair of department of legal and information technology, separate structural subdivision of the higher education institution "open international university of human development "ukraine" khmelnytskyi institute of social technologies, ukraine, e-mail: yuliya.luchkov@gmail.com mailto:nata_ostrovska@ukr.net mailto:svetakondratyuk@ukr.net mailto:yuliya.luchkov@gmail.com broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 400 introduction ill health and deaseases are painful for everyone and even the most developed, economically prosperous society cannot prevent it. remaining still relevant today, this issue is getting more acute and significant at the beginning of the third millennium, at a time of social change that substantially affects the fate of the individual and determines his life path.. the level of awareness of this problem in society plays an important role in creating favorable social conditions for the normal life of people with disabilities. the current state of ukrainian society is characterized by intensified attention to the problems of people with disabilities. after all, 2.74 million of people with disabilities live in ukraine, this is about 6% of the population of our country. the relavence of this problem is also caused by the tendency of increasing number of children with special educational needs (poroshenko, 2019, p. 10). the development of modern ukraine and its integration into the european space have a significant impact on the formation of educational policy. this issue is especially concerned with ensuring the right of children with special educational needs to education. the relevance of inclusive education is that 7.6 million children live in ukraine and 37.7 thousand of them are children with special educational needs who study in special establishments of general secondary education as well as 15.8 thousand children are in sanatoriums, and only 11.8 thousand children are covered by inclusive education in regular schools. therefore, the introduction of an inclusive educational environment is vitally important and topical issue for ukraine (poroshenko, 2019, p. 10). children with special educational needs demand special attention, which definitely actualizes the issue of their socialization and adaptation to the world around them, creating a favorable environment to meet their needs, ensuring socio-cultural mobility and more. in this regard, there is a need to distinguish, develop and implement methods for diagnosing adaptive and rehabilitation potential in children with special educational needs as well as models of social support for these children and adapting existing standards that best meet their needs. some aspects of the problem of adaptation, socialization and rehabilitation of children and youth with special educational needs have been addressed and scrutinized by ukrainian researchers o. vasylenko (2010), yu. volchelyuk (2009), r. maranchak & o. vasylenko (2013), m. poroshenko (2019), m. chaykovskyi (2008). peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special ... olena vasylenko et al. 401 some researches revealed the outlined issue of the development and substantiation of forms and methods of work on the regulation of adaptive and rehabilitation processes working with children and youth with special educational needs, they are: v. afanasenko, t. komar, n. potapchuk, o. vasylenko, l. podkorytova and v. havrylkevych (2021), l. akatov (2003), s. demchuk and o. kuts (2003), a. globa (2010), v. havrylkevych, l. podkorytova, l. danylchuk, l. romanovska, t. kravchyna and o. chovgan (2021), t. illyashenko et al. (2003), v. lyashenko (2004), a. shevtsov (2004). issues of providing individual and differentiated approach to the education of children and youth with special educational needs are considered in the researches of j. hoover & j. patton (2004), t. loreman, j. deppeler & d. harvey (2010), j. m. mcguire, s. s. scott & s. f. shaw (2006). characteristics of methods for diagnosing the socio-psychological development of children with special educational needs can be found in the textbook of ukrainian researchers d. romanovska & r. mintyanska (2019), who described in detail not only the methods for diagnosing the adaptation and microclimate in inclusive classes, but also substantiated the methods of diagnosis of indicators of the cognitive sphere and emotional and volitional sphere development of children with special educational needs. in the dissertation ukrainian researcher o. vasylenko (2010) developed and tested the method and procedure for determining the levels of adaptability of primary school children with special educational needs to secondary schooling, which is based on the author's criteria and indicators of adaptability of primary school children with special educational needs to general secondary school. thus, we can summarize, that ukrainian and foreign researchers pay attention to various aspects of working with children and youth with special educational needs. scientists are convinced that the implementation of state and regional programs for improving their socio-psychological position in society depends on the introduction of effective forms and methods of work with this category of children and youth. issue studied despite the growing interest of researchers in the problem of socialization and adaptation of children and youth with special educational needs to the conditions of social life, the problem of developing and implementing forms and methods of diagnosis, development and regulation broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 402 of adaptive and rehabilitation processes in this category of children and youth is still not disclosed. therefore, the aim of the research is to diagnose the state of formation of adaptive and rehabilitation potential in children with special educational needs, and to develop forms and methods of regulating adaptive and rehabilitation processes in this category of children. methods and methodology of the research the study involved 25 children with special educational needs aged 8-10 who received rehabilitation services at the shepetivka city center for social rehabilitation of disabled children in khmelnytskyi region, ukraine. simultaneously, 22 parents of the children with special educational needs – the participants of the study – took part in the research.. it should be noted that the parents of the children who participated in the study gave verbal consent to their participation and the participation of their children and the processing of the results of the study without disclosing personal information. experimental work was carried out in several stages during september-december 2021: the first stage of the research was conducted in order to diagnose the state of formation of adaptive and rehabilitation potential in the children with special educational needs. diagnostic work was carried out in four areas: 1) social diagnosis suggested the study of basic social characteristics of the children and the identification of peculiarities of their behavior in various life situations. for this purpose, such diagnostic methods were used: the projective method "house-tree-man" and the projective method of personality study (gilles, 1960). 2) pedagogical diagnostics involving the assessment of educational opportunities and achievements of the children with special educational needs applying "test interview (authors a. kern j. yerasek)". 3) diagnosis of the peculiarities of families upbringing the children with special educational needs, i.e. analysis of relationships in the families of the children using the projective method "kinetic family drawing " and the method of "family anxiety analysis" (faa). 4) diagnosis of the peculiarities of the rehabilitation processes in the children with special educational needs, namely: the assessment of the level of adaptation of the children to the rehabilitation process and the evaluation of the spesialists’ work of the shepetivka city center for social rehabilitation of disabled children by the parents of the children with peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special ... olena vasylenko et al. 403 special educational needs. for this purpose, a survey of the parents of the children with special educational needs was conducted on the basis of the questionnaire developed by us. the purpose of the second stage of the research was to analyze the results of the diagnosis of the levels of adaptive and rehabilitation potential in the children with special educational needs. at the third stage of the research, based on the results of diagnostic study, forms and methods of regulation of adaptive and rehabilitation processes in the children with special educational needs were developed and substantiated. research results it should be noted that the shepetivka city center for social rehabilitation of disabled children (hereinafter the center) is a special educational and upbringing institution of labor and social protection system, which performs work on social adaptation in combination with correctional education and upbringing of children with physical and mental disabilities without separation from the family but involving the child's family members in the rehabilitation process. the activities of the center are guided by the issues of comprehensive rehabilitation of persons with disabilities in accordance with the order of the ministry of social policy of ukraine dated march 14, 2018 № 355 (ministry of social policy of ukraine, 2018). based on the diagnosis and diagnostic results for each child with special educational needs, the specialists of the medical advisory commission compile an individual rehabilitation program. then the parents of a child with special educational needs or their tutors apply with an individual rehabilitation program to the department of labor and social protection of the shepetivka city council of khmelnytskyi region, where they get an appointment card for rehabilitation services which they can obtain at the shepetivka city center for social rehabilitation of disabled children. the center has a material and technical base that meets all the necessary needs for the rehabilitation of a child with special educational needs: rehabilitation equipment for working with children with musculoskeletal problems; base of didactic materials for correctional work; medical equipment used in combination with physical rehabilitation measures. in the center the rehabilitation work with children with special educational needs is provided in the following areas: prevention, reduction or overcoming of physical and mental disorders; correction of developmental disorders; training in basic social and household skills; development of abilities; creating preconditions for their integration into broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 404 society (the shepetivka center for social rehabilitation of disabled children, 2007). given that one of the most important areas of rehabilitation work with the children with special educational needs is the creation of the conditions for their integration into society, we conducted a diagnostic study with the purpose to determine the state of their adaptive and rehabilitation potential and, based on diagnostic outcomes, to develop forms and methods of regulating adaptive and rehabilitation processes in the children with special educational needs. the first direction of our diagnostic research was to identify the behavior of children with special educational needs in various life situations and study the basic social characteristics of these children (social diagnosis). for obtaining the outcomes, we applied the projective method "housetree-man" modified by r. belyauskaite (1994) and the projective method of personality study (gille, 1960; lemak & petryshche, 2012, pp. 576-587). for evaluating the degree of formation of social ties of the children with special educational needs, their perception and knowledge about social reality, we used the projective method "house-tree-man" modified by r. belyauskaite (1994). to perform this technique, children are offered paper, a soft lead pencil, a sheet of paper. the standard drawing sheet is folded in half. on the first page, in a horizontal position, "house" is written in printed letters at the top, on the second "tree", on the third "man", on the fourth "name of the child, date of the study". a soft lead pencil is usually used for drawing, as changes in the force of pressure can be most clearly seen when using this tool. the instructions given to the child are: "please draw the house, the tree and the person. try to do your best." all questions which can be followed should be responded and it must be explained that the child can draw any way he/she desires. execution of the projective method "house-tree-man" in the modification of r. belyauskaite consists of two parts: the process of drawing and conversation after it. observing the child's drawing provides a lot of information. usually all spontaneous statements are recorded, any unusual movements are noted. having completed the drawing, the child is asked a few questions about his/her picture. the survey begins with a drawing of a man. for example, a child is asked about a person he/she has painted, the age of the person he/she has painted, what a man in the picture has been doing, what his mood is, if a man reminds him/her of someone he/she knows. usually the questions about drawing grow into a conversation about the child's life perception (belyauskaite, 1994). peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special ... olena vasylenko et al. 405 the results of the diagnosis of development of such symptom complexes as hostility, conflict, aggression and negativism in the children with special educational needs by means of the method of "house-treeman" are presented in table 1. table 1. levels of development of hostility, proneness to conflict, aggressiveness and negativism in the children with special educational needs according to the method "house-tree-man" symptom complex level # % hostility below normal norm above normal 6 10 9 24 40 36 proneness to conflict below normal norm above normal 4 10 11 16 40 44 aggressiveness below normal norm above normal 4 14 7 16 56 28 negativism below normal norm above normal 2 8 15 8 32 60 source: authors' own conception as can be seen from table 1, the level of aggression is lower than normal in only 16% of children with special educational needs. the same indicator was determined for the level of conflict. a high level of negativism as a type of behavioral disorder was shown by the majority of surveyed children (60%). only the hostility indicators were positive: in most children this type of behavior disorder is within the norm (40%) and below the norm (24%). the generalized results of diagnostics of levels of social relations formation of the children with special educational needs by means of the method "house-tree-man" are given in table 2. table 2. levels of social relations formation of the children with special educational needs levels test score # % high 1-13 4 16 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 406 average 14-22 12 48 low 23-34 9 36 source: authors' own conception the data presented in table 2 allow us to state mainly the average and low level of formation of self-concept of children with special educational needs and their relations with the social environment. the proportions of children's drawings reflected the psychological significance, importance and value of things, situations or relationships that are directly or symbolically presented in the drawing of a house, a tree and a person. interviews with children during the drawing confirmed the results of the interpretation of their drawings and showed their inability to self-criticism, low self-esteem, pessimistic attitude to their lives and negative or indifferent attitude to learning. the next method we used in the diagnostic study was the method of personality research (gille, 1960; lemak & petrishche, 2012, pp. 576-587). the technique is visual-verbal and consists of 42 pictures depicting children and adults, as well as textual tasks. it is intended to identify the characteristics of behavior in various life situations that are significant to the child and those related to child’s relationships with other people. before starting work using the method, the child is informed that he/she is expected to answer questions on the pictures. the child is supposed to look at pictures, listen or read the questions and answer them. the child must choose his/her place among the people depicted or identify himself/herself with a character who occupies a place in the group. he/she can choose a place closer or farther from a certain person. in textual tasks, the child is asked to choose a typical form of behavior, and some tasks are based on the type of sociometric. thus, the technique allows to get information about the child's attitude to various people around him/her. simplicity and schematicity, which distinguish the method of r. gilles (1960) from other projective tests, not only make it easier for the child to get involved into the experiment, but also allow relatively greater formalization. in addition to qualitative assessment of the research results, children's projective methods of interpersonal relationships allows to present the results of psychological examination on a number of specific variables. psychological material that characterizes the system of interpersonal relations of the child can be divided into two major groups of variables: 1. variables that characterize the specific personal relationships of the child: attitude to the family environment (mother, father, grandmother, sister), attitude to a friend, to an authoritative adult and others. peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special ... olena vasylenko et al. 407 2. variables that characterize the child and are manifested in different relationships: sociability, isolation, desire for dominance, social adequacy of behavior. in total, the author identifies 12 features: attitude to the mother; attitude to the father; attitude to his/her mother and father as spouses; attitude towards his/her brothers and sisters; attitude to his/her grandparents; attitude to one of the family members; attitude to the teacher; curiosity; desire for dominance; sociability; social closure; adequacy (gille, 1960; lemak & petrishche, 2012, pp. 576-587). the results of the study of the attitudes of children with special educational needs to the immediate environment are given in table 3. table 3. the results of the study of the characteristics of the attitude of children with special educational needs to the immediate environment # characteristics o % 1. attitude to the mother 8 2. attitude to the father 8 3. attitude to parents as a parent couple 8 4. attitude to siblings 16 5. attitude to grandparents 28 6. attitude to a friend 24 7. attitude to the teacher as an authoritative adult 0 8. curiosity 0 9. dominance 0 10. sociability 0 11. social closure 8 12. social adequacy of behavior 0 source: authors' own conception as can be seen from table 3, the attitude of the children to others is dominated by attitudes towards grandparents (28%) and at the second (girlfriend) 24%. only 8% of the children showed a positive attitude towards their parents. the same indicators are characteristic for both in relation to the mother and the father. unfortunately, the psychological characteristics of children with special educational needs did not show such indicators as curiosity, camaraderie, dominance, social adequacy of behavior and attitude to the teacher as an authoritative adult.. thus, a diagnostic study based on the method of r. gilles (1960) showed that in most children with special educational needs the general broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 408 atmosphere in families is not favorable, it is proved by the perception of their grandparents as more loving and caring people than their parents. the results of this method also revealed that children with special educational needs have a low level of ability to make friends, which may be due to an unfavorable family situation. separation and isolation from peers in the absence of a tendency to curiosity, leadership and camaraderie, indicate the neurotic development of this category of children. the next direction of our diagnostic research was pedagogical diagnostics, i.e. assessment of educational opportunities and achievements of the children with special educational needs by means of of "test interview" (yerasek, 1978; maksymenko et al., 2003, pp. 64-67). the main purpose of this technique is assessing the general mental development of the child, his/her perception of the environment, the level of formation of mental operations and the development of coherent speech. the results of the interview are evaluated by the sum of points obtained from individual questions. children with a score of 12-15 points are "immature". they should be carefully examined to find out what is causing the poor performance of the test, to determine effective measures for the formation of their school maturity and to make an individual decision with the parents regarding the "immaturity" of the child. "mediummature" are children with a score of 20-24 points. "school-mature" are children with a score of 24-29 points. the results of the reseach with "test conversation " (yerasek, 1978) are given in table 4. table 4. levels of formation of learning skills in the children with special educational needs levels test score # % high 24-29 3 12 average 20-23 14 56 low 15-19 8 32 source: authors' own conception the results shown in table 4 prove that the majority of the children with special educational needs have average (56%) and low (32%) levels of general mental development, mental operations and coherent speech development. they are unconfident in their knowledge, have low motivation for learning, show irritability and impatience. the third direction of our diagnostic research was the diagnosis of the peculiarities of family upbringing the children with special educational peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special ... olena vasylenko et al. 409 needs. first, we used the projective method "kinetic family drawing" (lemak & petryshche, 2012, pp. 501-507), and then the method of "family anxiety analysis" (faa) (olyfyrovych et al., 2006, pp. 282-284). the projective method "kinetic family drawing" (lemak & petryshche, 2012, pp. 501-507) is used to study the causes of child aggression and other types of behavioral disorders determined by intrafamily relationships. interpreting this technique, the main attention is paid to the following aspects: analysis of the family picture structure (comparison of the composition of the real and drawn family, location and interaction of family members in the drawing); analysis of the features of the drawing of individual family members (difference in drawing style, number of details, drawing scheme of individual family members); analysis of the drawing process (comments, pauses, emotional reactions during drawing). to study the causes of aggression of the child and other types of behavioral disorders determined by intrafamily relations, such symptom complexes as conflict and hostility in family relationships are identified. the results of the projective method "kinetic family drawing" among children with special educational needs are given in table 5. table 5. levels of intrafamily relations formation in families of children with special educational needs levels test score # % high 1-8 3 12 average 9-13 9 36 low 14-26 13 52 source: authors' own conception the data shown in table 5 prove the presence of low and average levels of intra-family relations in the families of the children studied. this is confirmed by the results of conversations with children during the drawing process (their comments, pauses, emotional reactions during the drawing). most of the children surveyed demonstrated that the actual family composition did not match the drawn family members, and in some cases certain members of the family were located on the reverse side of the picture. all these details are convincing evidence of hostility and conflict in families with the children with special educational needs. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 410 in order to investigate how parents of children with special educational needs assess the psychological atmosphere in their families, we implemented the method "family anxiety analysis" (faa) among 22 parents of children under study (olyfyrovych et al., 2006, pp. 282284). the instructions on this method provided to parents are: "the proposed questionnaire consists of statements about your feelings and wellbeing at home and in the family. read and circle the statement number on the form if you agree with it. if you find it difficult to choose the answer, put a question mark, but there should be no more than three. remember that you describe your well-being in the family. answer what you really feel”. characteristics of the results of the implied "family anxiety analysis" (faa) method among 22 parents of children with special educational needs are given in table 6. table 6. the results of the family anxiety analysis as an indicator of a typical family status in families upbringing children with special educational needs scale level # % feelings of guilt («g») below normal 0 0 norm 4 18,2 higher than normal 18 81,8 anxiety («a») below normal 0 0 norm 2 9,1 higher than normal 20 90,9 nervous and mental stress («s») below normal 0 0 norm 6 27,3 higher than normal 16 72,7 integral indicator of family anxiety («f») below normal 0 0 norm 2 9,1 higher than normal 20 90,9 source: authors' own conception the results given in table 6, convincingly show that the integral indicator of family anxiety as a typical family status is present in most of the peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special ... olena vasylenko et al. 411 studied parents (90.9%) and only two of them (9.1%) have this indicator within normal limits. all other parents experience feelings of guilt in the family (81.8%), mental stress (72.7%) and anxiety (90.9%). the final direction of our diagnostic study was the diagnosis of the peculiarities of rehabilitation processes in the children with special educational needs, namely: assessment of children's adaptability to the rehabilitation process and work of the shepetivka city center for social rehabilitation of disabled children (2007) by the parents of the children with special educational needs. for fulfilling this task we conducted a survey among 22 parents of the children with special educational needs according to the composed questionnaire. the questionnaire included questions that allowed parents to look at their children's relationships with the world around them and assess the child's attitude to: the rehabilitation process at the center on a five-point scale; to evaluate the specialists working at the center; individual classes provided by the center's specialists; various activities in the center. this gave us the opportunity to distinguish psychological and pedagogical factors affecting the adaptation of the children with special educational needs to rehabilitation activities and identify negative factors that cause their maladaptation not only in the center but also outside it. it should be pointed out that the respondents had to give written answers to the questions in the questionnaire. the questionnaire contained the questions formulated in such a way that the answers were evaluated on a five-point scale as they were graded. the following results are considered as the generalized conclusions of the survey among 22 parents of the children with special educational needs: 20% of the parents have an inaccurate, superficial knowledge about the level of their children adaptation to the rehabilitation process and the work of specialists; 42% still do not have a sufficiently formed opinion about the work of the center's specialists in improving the adaptation and rehabilitation of their children as well as clear idea about their children’s attitude to the rehabilitation process; about 38% of the surveyed parents expressed a desire and willingness to continue working with the center to improve the adaptation and rehabilitation processes of their children with special educational needs, which indicates an increase in parents’ self-awareness and concern. at the next stage of our research the analysis of the received data of the conducted diagnostic study among the children with special educational broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 412 needs and their parents was performed. based on the analysis of diagnostic data we can draw the following conclusions: the results of social diagnostics of the children with special educational needs have shown that these children are dominated by medium and low levels of formation of perception of themselves and their relations with the social environment; they are separated and closed for communication with others; tend to communicate more with grandparents than with parents; show low self-esteem and inability to self-criticism, pessimistic attitude to their lives; the results of the pedagogical diagnosis of the children with special educational needs applying the "test interview" (authors a. kern j. yerasek)" have proved that most children with special educational needs are insecure, have low motivation for learning, show irritability and impatience, i.e. are characterized by medium and low levels of formation of general mental development, mental operations and coherent speech.; as provided by the results of the diagnosis of perculiarities of family upbringing the children with special educational needs, it was definied that children with special educational needs in their families suffer hostility and conflict while the parents of these children experience feelings of guilt, mental stress and anxiety. the data obtained as a result of the diagnosis of the peculiarities of rehabilitation processes with the children having special educational needs suggest that the difficulties encountered by the children with special educational needs during the rehabilitation process are related mainly to their focusing on their own illness, which causes the emergence of feelings of inferiority, anxiety, insecurity and fear of the future. the parents of the children under study believe that their children treat the friends and acquaintances they have met at the center the best and enjoy playing with them, simultaneously the children demonstrate the worst attitude towards training and rehabilitation classes. therefore, corresponding to parents’ opinion, the center's specialists should think carefully and diversify the content and conditions of classes with children with special educational needs. thus, the data obtained during the diagnostic study became the basis for the development and substantiation of the forms and methods of regulation of adaptive and rehabilitation processes working with the children with special educational needs, and constitute the final stage of our research. we believe, that the center's specialists working with the children with special educational needs should apply the following methods and forms: art therapy, bibliotherapy, music therapy, garden therapy, fairy tale therapy, peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special ... olena vasylenko et al. 413 game therapy, puppet therapy, animotherapy, sand therapy, sensory integration. let's consider all these methods and forms of work with the children with special educational needs in detail. 1. art therapy as a method of rehabilitation by means of art helps children with special educational needs to expand their circle of communication and reduce aggression in behavior. the method of art therapy is aimed at: the development of small motility skills, the capabilities of other parts of the child's body; self-сoncept; correction of the psychoemotional sphere; broadening horizons, perception of the environment; development of memory, attention, associative and figurative thinking. the rehabilitation effects of this method for the children with special educational needs are: increasing the child's self-esteem; formation of an active life position; evolution of self-confidence; formation of independence and creativity, the possibility of actualization of mental reserve capabilities; formation on the basis of adequate behavior by means of creative art activity. the main activities of children in art therapy are: explanation, dialogue, demonstration, game, illustration, encouragement. forms of work can be individual or group. 2. the method of bibliotherapy includes various activities utilizing books and printed materials (discussions, literary evenings, readings of stories, meetings with characters and their authors, literary and poetic clubs, book exhibitions, working in the reading hall). the rehabilitation effect of bibliotherapy for the children with special educational needs is the development of their imagination, memory, artistic taste; expanding their cognitive sphere, horizons, meeting information needs; establishing communication between children and peers; development of their articulatory and linguistic abilities, formation of logical thinking while retelling. 3. the method of music therapy facilitates the development of social activity, communication skills of the children with special educational needs, their self-realization, enrichment of aesthetic experience, expansion of the aesthetic interests and skills of children to realize the beauty, seek to communicate with it. music therapy suggests such activities for as: playing children's musical instruments; games with musical accompaniment; listening to works or fragments; chanting and singing. the rehabilitation effect of music therapy for children with special educational needs involves aestheticization of the child’s taste; development of his sense of rhythm; perception of musical images; evolution of skills using his voice, breathing; development of moral and volitional sphere, activity, independence, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 414 determination; ability to control himself; sense of collectivism; formation of cooperation skills; desire to win. 4. the method of garden therapy contributes to encouraging the children with special educational needs to work with plants and involves: the development of small motility, orientation of the child in space; development of logical thinking; enlargement of his aesthetic tastes; relaxation. feeling part of nature, a child with special educational needs in a new way, more emotionally perceives the world around him, other people, which, in turn, has a positive impact on the process of his socialization and adaptation. forms of garden therapy can be varied, namely: care, collecting, drying of plants and making composition. the rehabilitation effect of garden therapy for children with special educational needs is that the child feels like a discoverer and experiences joy of experimenting with wildlife; discovers the new in the familiar and the familiar in the new; becomes aware of the simplest laws of nature. garden therapy can be used in combination with elements of music therapy, art therapy, bibliotherapy. 5. fairy tale therapy is the instrument of emotional and mental, pedagogical and socio-moral influence, which suggests the activation of creative potential in a child with special educational needs and promotes the development of associative figurative thinking. types of activities in fairy tale therapy are: storytelling, retelling, dramatization. forms of activity can be group, individual, mass. the rehabilitation effect of fairy tale therapy for children with special educational needs is: the formation of the child's attitude to the character of the fairy tale; manifestation of their own positions in behavior necessary for socialization; identification of his own "i" with one or another character; satisfying the need to understand the magical mysterious manifestations of life; collective participation in joint actions; involvement in folk art. forms of work with a fairy tale in sociocultural activities with children with special educational needs can be: holidays, theatrical performances, participation in competitions, shows, literary and artistic events, exhibitions of drawings based on fairy tales, family evenings. 6. game therapy is a set of socio-cultural rehabilitation measures, based on the use of game techniques, forms, situations in order to give a child with special educational needs the opportunity to solve his/her problems, resolve conflicts. the main types and forms of activity of children in game therapy are: play (in education, upbringing, sports, rehabilitation, communication, obtaining information, career guidance); dialogue; training; informativeness; illustrations; demonstrations. the rehabilitation effect of game therapy for children with special educational needs is: the formation of peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special ... olena vasylenko et al. 415 communication skills, communicative relations of the child; formation of his/her arbitrary mental processes (memory and attention); development of his/her mental activity, imagination, language, musculoskeletal and volitional activity. 7. the method of puppet therapy is a branch of art therapy, which uses a doll as the main method of psycho-corrective action and as an intermediate object of interaction between a child and an adult. the main forms of application of this method are games, namely: the child as the spectator watches a game of dolls; the child himself/herself is a participant in a role play in which he/she is invited to play himself/herself or someone else (brave, timid, kind, aggressive, small, adult); the child plays spontenaously without the guidance and prompting of adults; the child plays games with the help of game material (dolls, paints, sand), and during the game the adult directs or reveals the hidden possibilities of the child. the rehabilitation effect of puppet therapy for children with special educational needs is to: relieve children’s emotional stress; develop their speech; form their social skills and the ability to resolve conflicts. 8. method of animation therapy is the treatment involving animals (birds, aquarium fish, dogs, hamsters, horses). the rehabilitation effect of the animation therapy method for the children with special educational needs is: improving their physical and psycho-emotional state; reducing aggression and increasing the level of self-control; developing of small motility skills and speech; relieving mental tension and stress. 9. the method of sand therapy or psychotherapy with sand is currently one of the most popular in psychological, psychotherapeutic, rehabilitation and pedagogical practice. pictures made of sand give the chance of creative changes, forms, a plot, events, relations. due to the rules that the game takes place in the context of a fairy-tale world, the child can creatively change the situation or condition that worries him/her. by turning a situation into a game with sand, the child gains experience in resolving both internal and external conflicts. the accumulated experience of independent constructive changes gives the child the opportunity to transfer it to reality. the rehabilitation effect of the sand therapy method for children with special educational needs is that their tactile-kinesthetic sensitivity and small motility skills of the hands develop, the amplitude of joint movements, coordination of movements and eyesight improves, and the muscular corset is strengthened. interaction with sand stabilizes the emotional state of children with special educational needs. their speech, thinking, random attention, memory and phonemic hearing are improving. children learn to understand themselves and others and positive communication skills are broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 416 formed. playing with sand opens up the child's potential, the creative flight of his/her imagination. 10. the method of sensory integration can be used in a specially equipped sensory room, where the environment is specially organized, consisting of a large number of different types of stimulators (light, sound, tactile) that affect the organs of sight, hearing, smell, tactile and vestibular receptors of children with special educational needs. a sensory room equipped with various elements creates a feeling of comfort and security. this facilitates the rapid establishment of warm contact between the specialist and the child with special educational needs. the sensory room is used as an additional tool of therapy and increases the effectiveness of any measures aimed at improving the mental and physical health of the child. it can be used to relax children with neurotic and psychosomatic disorders and to stimulate various body functions (hearing, sight, smell, tactile sensations, motor functions, speech) of children with cerebral palsy, mental disorders. the rehabilitation effect of the method of sensory integration for children with special educational needs is: improving their emotional state, reducing anxiety and aggression; removal of nervous excitement and anxiety; normalization of sleep; activation of brain activity; acceleration of recovery processes; development of independence, communication skills and selfcare. conclusions and prospects of further research thus, the effectiveness of the development and regulation of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of the children with special educational needs depends on diagnosing the state of their adaptive and rehabilitation potential as well as developing and applying effective forms and methods of regulating adaptive and rehabilitation processes of these children. considering that, we conducted a diagnostic study of the state of formation of adaptive and rehabilitation potential of the children with special educational needs, which included four areas: social diagnosis; pedagogical diagnostics; diagnosis of features of family upbringing of the children; diagnosis of the peculiarities of the rehabilitation processes of these children. the results obtained during the diagnostic study testify that the children with special educational needs are dominated by medium and low levels of formation of self-concept and self perception perception as well as their relations with the social environment; they reveal medium and low levels of formation of general mental development, mental operations and coherent speech; in families where the children with special educational needs are brought up they suffer hostility and conflict while the parents of peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special ... olena vasylenko et al. 417 these children experience feelings of guilt, mental stress and anxiety. the difficulties faced by the children with special educational needs during the rehabilitation process are mainly related to their focus on their own illness, which causes feelings of inferiority, anxiety, insecurity and fear of the future.. given the results of diagnostic research, we have developed and substantiated forms and methods of regulating adaptive and rehabilitation processes of the children with special educational needs, which, in our opinion, should be implemented by the specialists at social rehabilitation centers for the children with disabilities. these forms and methods include: art therapy, bibliotherapy, music therapy, garden therapy, fairy tale therapy, game therapy, puppet therapy, animation therapy, sand therapy, sensory integration. prospects for further research in this area suggest studying the effectiveness of the proposed forms and methods of regulating adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special educational needs who receive rehabilitation services at the shepetivka city center for social rehabilitation of disabled children of khmelnytskyi region, ukraine. author contributions: documentation – o. vasylenko, m. chaikovskyi & y. luchko; methodology – o. vasylenko, m. chaikovskyi, o. dobrovitska, y. luchko & s. kondratyuk; data gathering – n. ostrovska & s. kondratyuk, data processing – o. dobrovitska & y. luchko, writing – preparation of the original text – o. vasylenko; writing – review and editing – o. vasylenko & n. ostrovska. all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. references afanasenko, v., komar, t., potapchuk, n., vasylenko, o., podkorytova, l., & havrylkevych, v. (2021). socio-psychological features of students with special educational needs as a cause of conflicts in inclusive groups. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/188 akatov, l. (2003). sotsial'naya reabilitatsiya detey s ogranichennymi vozmozhnostyami zdorov'ya. psikhologicheskiye osnovy [social rehabilitation of children with disabilities. psychological bases]. in uchebnoye posobiye dlya studentov vysshikh uchebnykh zavedeniy. vlados. belyauskaite, r. (1994). risunochnyye proby kak sredstvo diagnostiki razvitiya lichnosti rebenka [drawing tests as a means of diagnosing the development of a child's personality]. in detskiy prakticheskiy psikholog [children's practical psychologist] (pp. 30-34). http://psychlib.ru/inc/absid.php?absid=179435 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/188 http://psychlib.ru/inc/absid.php?absid=179435 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 418 chaykovskyi, m. (2008). modelʹ sotsialʹno-pedahohichnoyi reabilitatsiyi molodi z osoblyvymy potrebamy [model of social and pedagogical rehabilitation of young people with special needs]. naukovi zapysky, 22, 342-346. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0b1qfvjjxxat9ajnbtfi4bfgzcja/view? resourcekey=0-sbshwlaargud3yjuap1wka demchuk, s., & kuts, o. (2003). sotsialʹna intehratsiya ta reabilitatsiya nepovnospravnykh shkolyariv iz tserebralʹnym paralichem zasobamy fizychnoho vykhovannya [social integration and rehabilitation of disabled students with cerebral palsy through physical education]. nvf «ukrayinsʹki tekhnolohiyi». gille, r. (1960). le test-film. revue philosophique de la france et de l'etranger, 150, 402402. globa, o. (2010). sotsializatsiya ditey ta molodi z obmezhenymy mozhlyvostyamy v umovakh rehionalʹnoho reabilitatsiynoho prostoru [socialization of children and youth with disabilities in the regional rehabilitation space]. naukovyy chasopys npu imeni m.p. drahomanova [scientific journal of the npu named after m.p. drahomanova], 19(10), 7-12. https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?user=uv3ciqeaaaaj&hl=uk havrylkevych, v., podkorytova, l., danylchuk, l., romanovska, l., kravchyna, t., & chovgan, o. (2021). psychological correction of parents' attitude to their children with special educational needs by means of art therapy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 154-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/176 hoover, j., & patton, j. (2004). differentiating standards-based education for students with diverse needs. remedial and special education, 25(2), 74-78. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f07419325040250020101 illyashenko, t., obukhivska, a., romanenko, o., & skrypka n. (2003). korektsiya psykhosotsialʹnoho rozvytku ditey z tserebralʹnym paralichem u reabilitatsiynomu tsentri [correction of psychosocial development of children with cerebral palsy in the rehabilitation center]. vydavnytstvo «dukhovna vis». lemak, m., & petryshche, v. (2012). psykholohu dlya roboty. diahnostychni metodyky [psychologist for work. diagnostic methods]. vydavnytstvo oleksandry harkushi. loreman, t., deppeler, j., & harvey, d. (2010). inclusive education: supporting diversityin the classroom. routledge. lyashenko, v. (2005). formuvannya zhyttyevoyi kompetentsiyi ditey-invalidiv u tsentrakh rannʹoyi sotsialʹnoyi reabilitatsiyi [formation of life competence of children with disabilities in early social rehabilitation centers] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. luhansk national university named after taras shevchenka. maksymenko, s., maksymenko, k., & hlavnyk, o. (2003). hotovnistʹ dytyny do navchannya: psykholohichnyy instrumentariy [the child's readiness to learn: psychological tools]. mikros – svs. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0b1qfvjjxxat9ajnbtfi4bfgzcja/view?resourcekey=0-sbshwlaargud3yjuap1wka https://drive.google.com/file/d/0b1qfvjjxxat9ajnbtfi4bfgzcja/view?resourcekey=0-sbshwlaargud3yjuap1wka https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?user=uv3ciqeaaaaj&hl=uk https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/176 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f07419325040250020101 peculiarities of adaptive and rehabilitation processes of children with special ... olena vasylenko et al. 419 maranchak, r., & vasylenko, o. (2013). inklyuzyvna osvita yak odna z umov sotsialʹnoyi adaptatsiyi ditey z osoblyvymy potrebamy [inclusive education as one of the conditions for social adaptation of children with special needs]. zbirnyk naukovykh pratsʹ khmelʹnytsʹkoho instytutu sotsialʹnykh tekhnolohiy universytetu «ukrayina», [collection of scientific works of khmelnytsky institute of social technologies of the university "ukraine"], 2(8), 128132. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/znpkhist_2013_2_26 mcguire, j., scott, s., & shaw, s. (2006). universal design and its applications in educational environments. remedial & special education. 27(3), 166-175. https://doi.org/10.1177/07419325060270030501 ministry of social policy of ukraine. (2018). pytannya kompleksnoyi reabilitatsiyi osib z invalidnistyu [issues of comprehensive rehabilitation of persons with disabilities], 355, 1. ministry of social policy of ukraine. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0401-18#n10 olyfyrovych, n., zynkevych-kuzemkyna, t., & velenta, t. (2006). psykholohyya semeynykh kryzysov [psychology of family crises]. rech. poroshenko, m. (2019). inklyuzyvna osvita. [inclusive education]. tov «ahent·stvo «ukrayina». romanovska, d., & mintyanska, r. (2019). tekhnolohiyi psykholohichnoho zabezpechennya osvitnʹoho protsesu v inklyuzyvniy shkoli [technologies of psychological support of the educational process in an inclusive school]. tekhnodruk. shepetivka center for social rehabilitation of disabled children. (2007). upravlinnya pratsi ta sotsialʹnoho zakhystu naselennya shepetivsʹkoyi misʹkoyi rady khmelʹnytsʹkoyi oblasti [. department of labour and social protection of population of shepetivka city council of khmelnytskyi region]. shepetivka center for social rehabilitation of disabled children. http://soczach.shepetivka-rada.gov.ua/crdi/ shevtsov, a. (2004). metodychni osnovy orhanizatsiyi sotsialʹnoyi reabilitatsiyi ditey z vadamy zdorovʺya [methodical bases of the organization of social rehabilitation of children with health defects]. nti «instytut sotsialʹnoyi polityky». yerasek, j. (1978). diagnostics of a school maturity. in diagnostics of mental development (pp. 251-264). avitsenum. vasylenko, o. (2010). sotsialʹno-pedahohichni umovy adaptatsiyi molodshykh shkolyariv z osoblyvymy potrebamy do navchannya v zahalʹnoosvitniy shkoli: [socio-pedagogical conditions of adaptation of junior schoolchildren with special needs to study in secondary school] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. luhansk national university named after taras shevchenka. volchelyuk, yu. (2009). kompʺyuterni tekhnolohiyi yak chynnyk sotsializatsiyi student·sʹkoyi molodi z osoblyvymy potrebamy [computer technology as a http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/znpkhist_2013_2_26 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f07419325060270030501 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0401-18#n10 http://soczach.shepetivka-rada.gov.ua/crdi/ broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 420 factor in the socialization of students with special needs]. zbirnyk naukovykh pratsʹ khmelʹnytsʹkoho instytutu sotsialʹnykh tekhnolohiy universytetu «ukrayina», [collection of scientific works of khmelnytsky institute of social technologies of the university "ukraine"], 1, 38-42. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/znpkhist_2009_1_11 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/znpkhist_2009_1_11 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 423-454 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/258 enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral life alexandru gabriel cioiu¹ 1 phd, faculty of philosophy, university of bucharest, romania, alexandru.cioiu@yahoo.com abstract: in the human enhancement literature, there is a recurrent fear that biomedical technologies will negatively impact the autonomy and authenticity of moral agents, even when the agents would end up having better capacities and an improved life with the aid of these technologies. i will explore several ways in which biomedical enhancement may improve the autonomy of moral agents and try to show that biomedical methods are, all things considered, beneficial to our autonomy and authenticity. i will argue that there are instances when it’s desirable to limit the autonomy of moral agents and that strict regulations are to be put in place if a great number of people will have easy access to powerful, genetic-altering technologies which can impact the life of future children. i will advocate for using assisted reproductive technologies in order to select the child with the best chance of the best moral life and in doing so i will analyse several procreative principles which have been proposed by different scholars in the genetic enhancement debate and try to determine which one would be best to adhere to. usually, people place high value on the concept of autonomy and there are many cases in which they end up overestimating autonomy in relation to other moral values. while autonomy is important, it’s also important to know how to limit it when reasonable societal norms require it. sometimes autonomy is defined in strong connection with the concept of authenticity, in the sense that it’s not sufficient for our choices to be autonomous if they are not also authentic. i will try to defend the idea that authenticity can be enhanced as well with the aid of enhancement technologies which can actually prove beneficial in our quest to improve our own self. keywords: moral enhancement, autonomy, authenticity, assisted reproduction, procreative beneficence, procreative altruism, pharmaceuticals, prozac, modafinil, the right to an open future, disabilities, genetic manipulation, cognitive enhancement. how to cite: cioiu, a.g. (2021). enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral life. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 423-454. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/258 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/258 mailto:alexandru.cioiu@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/258 enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 424 1. introduction in the last decades there have been important developments in the field of enhancement technologies capable of improving our mental capacities, dispositions, motivations, physical aspect and human behavior in general. while such technologies have immense benefits and can help us improve our life substantially, there are many concerns regarding the fact that they can have a severe impact on our autonomy, which is one of the core values of human life. while autonomy is definitely one of our main values, it shouldn’t be considered as being important in an absolute sense, that is, by eclipsing all the other values which are also important for a fulfilled life. while the objections regarding the threat posed by biotechnologies to autonomy shouldn’t be taken lightly, many of them seem to be simple red herrings and too vague to apply to the biotechnologies which are at our disposal today. moreover, there seems to be strong evidence which shows that our autonomy can be enhanced rather than impaired by the use of biomedical methods. in this paper i will try to show that the current scientific evidence supports the idea that autonomy can be enhanced using certain biomedical methods and that we should use any chance we have in order to promote these technologies and make them available on a large scale if we want to live in a better society. one of the ways in which our autonomy can be enhanced is by improving our mental capacities altogether. our reason is an important part of our autonomy and it is unlikely that a person who can’t reason properly can be considered as being an autonomous person under any reasonable conception of autonomy. therefore, by improving our reasoning process via biomedical means we should be able to improve and make better use of our autonomy (which we sometimes might be inclined to abuse due to our flawed cognitive processes). i will try to determine whether this is indeed the case by exploring several ways in which our autonomy can be enhanced via various biotechnologies. in doing this, i will argue that we can combine enhancement technologies with environmental engineering in order to better promote autonomy and fulfill one’s potential. also, we are today in possession of powerful assisted reproductive technologies (art) which can help couples select the sex and the traits of their future children, which means that in this way their reproductive autonomy can be enhanced and they can better put their conception of a happy and fulfilled life into practice. bioconservatives usually argue against the use of such technologies claiming that it might threaten our autonomy brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 425 and the access of the child (who is the subject of the selection) to an open future. here, i will try to refute the arguments of bioconservatives and show that we actually have strong reasons to promote and use such assisted reproductive technologies on a large scale. an important aspect to be emphasized is the fact that these technologies can give us, paradoxically, too much autonomy and we should be aware of not abusing this autonomy. while autonomy is a chief human value, it is not an absolute value and there are instances in which autonomy should be limited, rather than enhanced, in order to promote the interests of the future child. such an instance is the selection of children with disabilities by parents with a twisted conception of how the designed child should be like. i will consider several principles used in biomedical ethics which can help us better determine the amount of autonomy parents should have when selecting their future children. even if this is a controversial topic, i strongly believe that some kind of agreement can be reached regarding the use of assisted reproductive technologies. autonomy is sometimes defined in terms of authenticity, in the sense that one cannot really be considered autonomous if one’s choices and desires are not truly authentic. but defining this concept has been a real challenge and is considered by many too vague of a concept to be used in a discussion about autonomy. however, even with this vagueness in mind there are reasons to believe than biotechnologies can enhance authenticity alongside with autonomy, and in the following pages i will try to offer some arguments for this case as well. 2. enhancing autonomy with the aid of pharmaceuticals and environmental engineering autonomy is a wide concept which has become in time one of the core human values without which life would lose most of its value because, presumably, no one would want to live a life without having at least some level of autonomy. some philosophers consider it to be the most important human value, with the power to override all other values. it is considered one of the four fundamental principles in the influential book principles of biomedical ethics, alongside with beneficence, non-maleficence and justice (beauchamp & childress, 2001), sometimes referred to as being the first among equals (gillon, 2003) and the way we define autonomy is of utmost importance for the most important questions in contemporary bioethics. it is for this reason, probably, that many bioconservatives are arguing against enhancement technologies on the basis that they might impair or limit our autonomy. however, there is strong evidence which shows that these enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 426 technologies can actually better promote our autonomy and authenticity if used in a proper manner. but what do we understand by autonomy anyway? historically, autonomy comes from the greek autos (self) and nomos (rule of law), which literally means self-government (dworkin, 1988, p. 12). its original meaning referred to politics: a right assumed by states to administer their own affairs (darwall, 2006, p. 263) and only later it started to refer also to the conduct of individuals (darwall, 2006, p. 263). the general meaning of the concept today is that to be autonomous is to govern oneself; and to live autonomously is to live in accordance with one’s basic desires or values (juth, 2011, p. 36). there are several theories of autonomy which are quite distinct and make the struggle to give a universal definition to this concept difficult, but this doesn’t mean that the task itself should be seen as impossible. for immanuel kant (1996), for example, autonomy is an aspect of the will defined in terms of rationality and acting in accordance with the categorical imperative which leaves no room for desires (o’neill, 2009). john stuart mill, on the other hand, considered autonomy one of the elements of well-being (mill, 2003, p. 121), therefore to be defined by our desires and values, which suggested that rationality was not the single force behind autonomy. he wrote that: the only part of the conduct of anyone for which he is amenable to society is that which concerns others. in the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. (mill, 2003, pp. 80-81). expanding on this idea, harry frankfurt developed a so-called hierarchical conception of autonomy (although he never uses the term per se, referring to it as freedom). according to frankfurt, thus, we have first-order as well as second-order desires which we struggle to accommodate and which can make us more or less autonomous agents. first-order desires refer to basic desires, which are simply desires to do or not to do one thing or another (frankfurt, 1971, p. 7) such as to eat, drink, sleep, etc., while second-order desires refer to higher desires, such as the capacity for reflective self-evaluation (frankfurt, 1971, p. 7) or desires to have certain desires. more recently, contemporary bioethicists define autonomy in terms of understanding, intentionality and absence of controlling influences (beauchamp & childress, 2009), or as competence and individuality (bernofsky, 1995). these are just a few examples which show how entangled and sophisticated can be to try to define such a concept, and most likely the attempt to do so will inevitably disappoint someone who might think of autonomy in other terms. but if we are to argue for the idea that autonomy can indeed be enhanced using biotechnologies, then we must find a common element of all these distinct theories that can unite them up to a certain point and make plausible the idea that autonomy can be enhanced. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 427 so, what is that element which can be considered to define all these theories, in spite of the various elements which differentiate them? in an article from 2014, schaefer and colleagues argue persuasively that there’s a certain element which all these theories have in common, and that is the idea that autonomy is crucially related to people’s reasoning, deliberative and evaluative capacities (schaefer et al., 2014, p. 126). this idea (which seems to have kantian roots) suggests that by improving our reasoning and cognitive capacities, we can actually enhance autonomy no matter to which theory of autonomy we might choose to adhere, because the capacity for reasoning is important in all plausible theories of autonomy. schaefer et al. (2014, p. 126) give several examples: deductive/logical competence, comprehension (including the avoidance of false beliefs), and critical analysis. this means that we could, for example, use nootropics in order to improve our intelligence, memory, creativity and so on, which would be an important help in our endeavor to become more autonomous. we could use, for instance, modafinil in order to improve our working memory and help us better at achieving some specific tasks. for example, it could help architects and graphic designers with better achieving their goals (juth, 2011, p. 36). also, we could take prozac in order to better improve our mood and feel less depressed, which means that we could feel more motivated to act in accordance with our reason (degrazia, 2000). another example is the reduction of impulsivity using methylphenidate (also known as ritalin), by controlling those impulses which might override our conscious self (pugh, 2014) and the list might go on. according to singh and kelleher (2010, p. 8), patients suffering from adhd who take ritalin tend to feel that they have increased agency . . . in forging their life trajectories. there are many drugs which can presumably affect out mental capacities for the better and therefore improve our autonomy. of course, improving our cognitive faculties doesn’t always lead to an improvement of our autonomy, because there’s not a necessary cause/effect relation between the two. it could lead us, for example, to an endless debate about the right course of action and even to more indecision. but we must understand the fact that when we talk about the impact of drugs on our behavior we are not talking about chemical determinism, nor about an improved behavior in all possible circumstances of life. we are simply talking about substances which might make it more likely to behave moral in more situations, and not at all about something that might determine us to behave in a certain manner in all situations. the boost of our mental capacities isn’t the only variable in the equation of enhancing our autonomy. we have many psychological biases enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 428 which impede us from acting in a proper manner in specific situations and pharmaceuticals might prove beneficial yet limited in this endeavor. for example, as n. levy shows, people are subjected to a phenomenon called hedonic adaptation: the way in which we tend to revert to our former level of happiness fairly quickly after major life events. people systematically overestimate the effect that life events will have on their happiness because they fail to take this phenomenon into account (levy, 2012, p. 593). this means that we have a distorted view regarding how certain important life events impact our lives, which might lead us to act on some false beliefs. in fact, studies show that we are terrible at assessing the impact that certain events which we perceive to be bad might have on our well-being. a study from 2008, in which normal controls and locked-in-syndrome (lis) sufferers were given the task to note the levels of their well-being from -5 to +5, revealed that the average was the same among the 2 groups: the well-being rate was at around 2 for both groups (bruno et al., 2008). another example which shows that people are not well-suited to judge what might be good for them in certain situations is the case of hyperbolic discounting, which is to think that the opportunity to secure future access to a good is worth less than the opportunity to have immediate access to the same good (levy, 2012, p. 595). this means that we are inclined, in many everyday situations, to behave in a hazardous manner that promises to procure us some immediate pleasure and disregard the long-term effects of certain actions. this explains many irrational choices people make in their everyday lives, from smoking to gambling and eating unhealthy food. as levy puts it: people who overeat—and that is, to a first approximation, all of us—generally value health more than they value cheeseburgers, but they find their preferences temporarily shifting when the opportunity for consumption presents itself. predictably, they come to regret their actions, and the cycle begins again (levy, 2012, pp. 595-596). last but not least, people in general are pretty bad when it comes to evaluating their own skills and competencies. we are victims to so-called positive illusions, meaning beliefs that we are more competent in key areas than we actually are (the more we value a skill, the higher the likelihood that we will attribute it to ourselves) (levy, 2012, p. 596). even if these positive illusions are not bad in all cases and might prove beneficial in certain contexts, they have a negative impact in many aspects of our lives, rendering us incapable of acting for the right reasons. the examples are abundant: 80% of drivers judge themselves to be in the top 30%; most students judge themselves to be more popular than average; a full 94% of university professors believe they are better-than-average at their jobs (levy, 2012, p. 596). ironically, those of us who are better at self-evaluation are actually the depressed individuals (depressed realists) (alloy & abramson, 1979). brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 429 these cognitive limitations interfere heavily with our ability to act in an autonomous manner, even when there’s no coercion from an external force. so, the simple fact that we have these limitations seems to hinder our autonomy and keep us away from realizing our full potential in this matter. how can we diminish the negative impact of such biases on our behavior? neil levy thinks that we can solve this issue with the aid of environmental engineering: we ought to implement social policies which shape our environments so that our cognitive weaknesses are dampened and our strengths enhanced (levy, 2012, p. 598). he goes on to propose several policies, such as limiting their opportunities for consumption; that is by ensuring that opportunities for immediate consumption of tempting goods but which, all things considered, they prefer not to consume, are less frequent (levy, 2012, p. 598). these goods are mostly food with high amounts of calories, drugs, alcohol etc. he concedes that hard regulation is not permissible as it doesn’t sufficiently respect our autonomy, but he thinks that softer regulations might do the trick: restricting the hours for alcohol, cigarettes etc. sale by reducing the likelihood that they will encounter temptations in too rapid a succession. laws that govern the placement and content of advertising, and laws governing the density and number of outlets selling tempting goods—alcohol, fast food, or what have you—can, if well designed, allow agents to manage their cognitive resources better (levy, 2012, p. 599). these regulations might indeed improve the lives of people in large societies by making them less prone to make choices on the spot which later prove to be detrimental to their health and well-being. but it’s unrealistic to think that these methods are by themselves sufficient to solve problems like obesity and alcoholism. it’s unrealistic to think that alcoholism can be solved by reducing the opening hours of a bottle store from 9-14 instead of 9-17. it might indeed help in some instances, but it would be very limited as it wouldn’t address the core of the problem. pharmaceutical drugs go straight to the heart of the matter and could prove to be a lot more beneficial because they would intervene at the biological level: they might make the alcoholic or obese person, for instance, feel nausea when consuming high-fat foods or alcohol. in his article, levy takes these 2 methods: pharmaceutical drugs and environmental engineering and puts them in opposition when there is no need to do so. why should we consider the two as being opposite methods when we can use them as complementary methods? the argument that the pharmaceutical drugs are not effective because we don’t yet know their effects is unconvincing, since there are many cases in which we do know their effects and some of them are available to millions of people worldwide without knowing all the specific ways in which they affect the organism. no matter which method we choose, it feels wrong to disregard pharmaceuticals enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 430 in favor of environmental engineering, as well as the other way around. we should use whatever methods have been tested and proved to be safe and efficient, combine them whenever it’s possible and not disregard them for fear that they might alter our biology, since our biology can be altered by a lot of things in a beneficial way. 3. autonomy and assisted reproductive technologies pharmaceuticals are not the only way to improve our autonomy. we can find conclusive evidence of such improvement if we turn our eyes and scrutinize the use of available technologies for assisted reproduction. in their highly influential book principles of biomedical ethics, beauchamp and childress have promoted the idea of autonomy as a negative right, that is, as the lack of coercion from outside forces (beauchamp & childress, 2001). this means that a patient can’t be forced to be the subject of a specific medical procedure if he doesn’t consent to that procedure, so doctors can’t force a patient to follow a certain treatment because that would violate his autonomy. in the last decades, however, due to important advancements in genetics and assisted reproductive technologies, the paradigm has shifted for autonomy as well and it has become an important human value to be promoted, an end which is valuable in itself and towards which we must strive, and not just a negative right (juth, 2011, p. 39). many geneticists consider autonomy as being the main value of their work (wertz & fletcher, 1988), which suggests that they may be onto something when pursuing such a goal with the use of biotechnologies. today we possess powerful technologies which can help parents choose the sex of their child as well as select an embryo with certain features from a plethora of options. these technologies usually include in vitro fertilization (ivf) and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (pgd). such technologies help parents select the child whom they deem most worthy to be brought into existence and so they put this responsibility on their shoulders instead of letting this selection to the randomness of nature, god, chance, genetic lottery, or whatever one might want to call it. these technologies are usually controversial because people are generally hostile to the idea of intervening at the genetic level in order to actively select certain features of the fetus. but the impact that these technologies have on the well-being and autonomy of the future child as well as on the parents is too important to just be disregarded on the basis of some irrational status-quo bias (bostrom & ord, 2006). they have an impact on the child, because they make him more suited for a successful life by diminishing the risks for brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 431 disease and by giving him better abilities. they have an impact on the parents as well, because they are given more options regarding the future child whom they want to bring into existence. of course, the choice is made, in this scenario, by the parents on behalf of the future child, but this is surely better than leaving this option to some random genetic lottery with no interest for the well-being of the future child. just like in the case of modafinil improving the life of architects and graphic designers by helping them to better accomplish their projects, so can, in this case, assisted reproductive technologies offer parents the possibility to better fulfill their idea of a happy family. so, it doesn’t feel forced to assume that these technologies do indeed promote reproductive autonomy (chadwick et al., 1999). like in most cases, the real problem comes from another direction than that of the use of the technology per se. as i stated before, these technologies place an enormous burden on us by giving us a lot of responsibility, the responsibility of choosing the kind of child that we want to bring into the world. for some people, this might be too much, they can be so scared at this prospect that they might refuse the technology altogether. others might be more willing to embrace these technologies, but without assuming full responsibility. with powerful technologies also come greater responsibilities. by people who don’t assume full responsibility when using assisted reproductive technologies, i mean those parents who might become so invested in selecting a particular kind of child that they tend to overlook taking into account or forecasting the potential level of well-being of the future child. assisted reproductive technologies are like a doubleedged sword with no intentionality of its own. this means that it can cut both ways and it is the handler of the sword who decides in which way to swing the sword. we can assume that most people will choose to bring into the world, with the aid of these technologies, children who have the best prospects for living a good life, but there might also be parents who won’t be concerned about this matter, as it is safe to assume that not all people are concerned about ethics. at this point we should ask ourselves how much autonomy should be granted to parents willing to bring into existence children with the aid of such technologies. here we have several competing principles of procreative selection from which we can choose. i will try to point out several key differences among them in order to estimate which one(s) might be the best to use and which one(s) we should leave behind. the most permissive principle of procreative selection is the principle of procreative autonomy. this principle states roughly that if reproducers enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 432 have decided to have a child, and selection is possible, then any procreative option selected by reproducers is morally permissible as long as it is chosen autonomously (savulescu & kahane, 2009, p. 279). this kind of conception is usually attributed to the so-called liberal eugenics, for whom the personal autonomy of the parents seems to be an absolute value (agar, 2004, p. 6). however, giving so much autonomy to parents with no regard for the prospects of the well-being of the child makes this principle implausible. according to this principle, for instance, parents could choose to bring into existence severely impaired children using biotechnologies and the state couldn’t interfere with their choice because it would violate their autonomy. it’s relatively easy to see why this principle is implausible and rather disturbing if it were to be applied to real-life scenarios. this principle would basically allow parents to deliberately bring into existence children with disabilities: blind, deaf, handicapped or even suffering from down syndrome or huntington disease. there is already a precedent for deliberately selecting children with disabilities with the aid of these technologies. in 2002, a deaf lesbian couple sought and was successful in bringing into existence a deaf child by using sperm from a deaf male for artificial insemination (spriggs, 2002). their argument for doing so was that deafness is not a medical disability, but a cultural identity (mundy, 2002). this means that the members of the deaf community are the exponents of a unique kind of culture which the members of the hearing community don’t quite understand and because they don’t understand it, they shouldn’t interfere with their reproductive autonomy. deafness is, however, considered a disability under the americans with disabilities act (mundy, 2002). the first thing we should notice here is that, no matter how we see deafness, deaf people have a beautiful culture and can live lives full of happiness and accomplishments, in many cases even better lives than people whom we usually deem normal, that is, who have all their senses unaltered. being deaf is compatible with having a wonderful life and developing healthy relationships. the problem lies, therefore, not in the fact that the life of the deaf child would be less worth living, but in the fact that by bringing into existence in a deliberate manner, via biotechnologies, a deaf child, we are not concerned with the best interests and the well-being of the future child and are closing the door to a potentially healthy child with the ability to hear and enjoy activities which imply the sense of hearing. this is not just an isolated case. according to nancy rarus there are many, many deaf people who specifically want deaf kids (mundy, 2002). julian savulescu gives a relevant example when comparing a deaf child to a child who lives in china and only speaks english (savulescu, 2002, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 433 p. 771). surely, the life of the child who only speaks english is a good life, but it would be even better if he spoke chinese because it would open for him a new array of opportunities, so we shouldn’t refrain him from learning chinese if given the chance, because that would mean restricting his life choices: hearing children of deaf parents can learn to sign, just as children of english parents can learn to speak chinese as well as english. it is better to speak two languages rather than one, to understand two cultures rather than one (savulescu, 2002, p. 771). in this case, selecting the child who doesn’t have the deafness trait clearly has more advantages, because it provides him with more life-options. if at some point the child decides, for whatever reasons, to abandon the hearing community and only be a part of the deaf community, he can choose to lose his hearing. but being born without the sense of hearing deprives the child from the start of so many life pleasures which have a significant impact on his well-being, since deaf people are denied the world of sound, music, and the most fundamental form of human communication (savulescu, 2002, p. 771). but does this mean that we should ban parents from using biotechnologies in this way? julian savulescu claims that we don’t have to go that far in restricting their personal autonomy: because reproductive choices to have a disabled child do not harm the child, couples who select disabled rather than non-disabled offspring should be allowed to make those choices, even though they may be having a child with worse life prospects (savulescu, 2002, p. 772). however, this kind of permissibility might seem a bit odd, since the fact that the child is not harmed is a bit of a stretch in cases like this one. after all, the fact that the child will be born without the sense of hearing represents a failure to take into account the interest of the future child, a failure to select the child who doesn’t have this disability. deafness is, however, just an example and there are countless other examples. another example is deliberating bring into existence via biotechnologies children with the down syndrome. as savulescu argues, in antenatal care, screening for down's syndrome is now offered routinely. each couple makes its own decision about whether or not to have a child with down's syndrome (savulescu, 2002, p. 772). and the examples can continue. i would not try to settle this kind of dispute here because i don’t think that this is something that one can settle in an article. i also think that bringing children with such disabilities into the world is morally wrong if it’s done in a conscious and deliberate manner because it disregards the life prospects of the future child and it is guided by an extravagant idea of parenting. what is sure is that we need to establish a threshold for such cases and implement regulations at a global level regarding the use of these technologies. it is undeniable that there are instances when it is preferable to limit the autonomy of parents regarding the use of these technologies. what this threshold is and how the regulations enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 434 should apply in each case should be a matter of public debate and not the decision of a single individual. when using assisted reproductive technologies, it is imperative to take into consideration the expected well-being of the future child and not just the respect for the autonomy of the parents who wish to have a child with specific traits. it won’t be possible to calculate the precise level of wellbeing, for sure, but we can nevertheless make a rough estimation. failing to take into account this expected well-being means failing the child. at this point, well-being might enter in opposition with autonomy. this can be seen in the form of the procreative principle of respect for the autonomy of future persons: if reproducers have decided to have a child, and selection is possible, then they have a significant moral reason to aim, not to maximise expected well-being, but to maximize expected autonomy (savulescu & kahane, 2009, p. 282). in this case autonomy would be something which is intrinsically good rather than instrumentally good, so it would mean autonomy for the sake of autonomy, not aiming for well-being. but these 2 concepts are strongly interconnected, and in most cases a more autonomous person is more apt to follow her own idea of a good life and live a happy life. as savulescu and kahane argue: it seems to us doubtful that having a wider range of choices is valuable in itself, independently of its contribution to expected well-being (savulescu & kahane, 2009, p. 282). so, if we were to oppose respect for autonomy to well-being, there would be, most likely, many instances where the value of well-being might override the respect for autonomy, perhaps in most cases. neil levy considers that, while there’s room for improvement regarding the social inclusion of deaf people, the disadvantages which come with deafness are not entirely reducible to discrimination. even in the most non-discriminatory society the deaf will always be cut off from the buzz of conversation, always restricted to a narrower range of jobs, always slightly alienated from the mainstream of political, social, and cultural life (levy, 2002, p. 284). this means that deafness is a limitation which we have reasons to avoid and that parents who choose to bring children in the world using biotechnologies are violating the child’s right to an open future (levy, 2002, p. 284). however, their choice is probably an irrational and subconscious fear that the relation with the child would be altered if the child could hear: we ought to remember the extent to which they, like many other deaf people, felt isolated and alone as children, cut off not only from their schoolmates but also from their own family. they fear a similar fate for their children; that a nearly insuperable barrier will divide mother and child. in reality, their fear is misplaced (levy, 2002, p. 285). i agree with levy on this point that we ought to react to them with compassion and understanding, not condemnation (levy, 2002, p. 285). so perhaps the best course of action is to brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 435 try to persuade such parents through counseling that bringing a hearing child into the world won’t negatively impact the relation with the future child and that it would have great benefits for the child’s happiness. if such counseling fails, then we must have some strong regulations which should restrict the parents’ autonomy and compel them to take into account the needs and best interests of the future child. one such best interest is that he has all his senses unaltered. to some extent, i think that parents who choose to actively use biotechnologies in order to bring into existence children with disabilities resemble conspiracy theorists (at least when it comes to invoking the right to autonomy) who invest a lot of time, resources and energy in order to justify their beliefs and promote their wild theories in society. flat-earthers, for instance, make donations to support their cause, hold conferences and are vocal about their beliefs. both groups hold false beliefs and act upon them and invoke autonomy as a sacred right if someone were to stop them from acting on those beliefs. society, however, doesn’t ban flat-earthers from holding their beliefs, even though those beliefs are wrong and lead them to a waste of resources and energy, but if the movement would become large enough so that it would threaten social stability, we might want to ban people from adhering to such a movement. the same thing could apply to parents who are selecting for children with disabilities. if such a practice would become too widespread, we would have strong reasons to ban it. however, it is unlikely that many people would make a selection for disability (savulescu, 2002, p. 773). but even if the practice is not widespread, shouldn’t we try to do more in order to prevent these kinds of choices? referring to a study published in 2008 (baruch et al., 2008), julian savulescu and guy kahane claim that 5% of 190 of pgd clinics surveyed in the us have allowed parents to select embryos with conditions commonly taken to be disabilities (savulescu & kahane, 2009, p. 284). the disagreement among the clinic directors who answered the survey shows that the controversy is far from reaching a solution in the near future: forty-five percent of all clinics agree or strongly agree with the statement ‘‘there will be restrictions on using pgd for nonmedical genetic traits such as sex.’’ forty-three percent disagree or strongly disagree with that statement, and 12% ‘‘don’t know.’’ (baruch et al., 2008). an important principle in the assisted reproduction debate is the principle of procreative beneficence (pb) which, unlike other principles, places the weight center on the concept of well-being. this principle states that: if couples (or single reproducers) have decided to have a child, and selection is possible, then they have a significant moral reason to select the child, of the possible children they could have, whose life can be expected, in light of the relevant available enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 436 information, to go best or at least not worse than any of the others (savulescu & kahane, 2009, p. 274). according to this principle we have, therefore, a moral obligation to use assisted reproductive technologies in order to bring into existence children who are expected to have the best possible life. the principle is controversial, even though many people agree that we must take into consideration the potential for a happy life of the child who is brought into existence. if we use genetic testing to screen for certain diseases, we have reasons to select that embryo which doesn’t have a predisposition to severe diseases, so we have reason to aim to have children who are more advantaged rather than leave this to chance or nature (savulescu & kahane, 2009, p. 276). this principle helps us shed light on how to approach cases of disability, such as the case with deafness. if the deaf child is expected to have a less fulfilled life than that of a child without this limitation, so that the expected wellbeing is higher in the second case, then pb gives us strong reasons to select the second child instead of the deaf one. as things seem to be, here the respect for the well-being of the child overrides the respect for the autonomy of the parents. so, the idea is that we shouldn’t treat autonomy as an absolute right with which we mustn’t interfere under no circumstance. the same applies for pb. pb shouldn’t be understood like an absolute principle: pb is not an absolute obligation. it is the claim that there is a significant moral reason to choose the better child. the principle states, not what people invariably must do, but what they have significant moral reason to do (savulescu & kahane, 2009, p. 278). however, one might argue that this principle, in this form, is not sufficient when considering the life of the future child. sure, it takes into account the well-being of the future child and not just the desires of the parents, which is of utmost importance, but it doesn’t say anything about the contribution of the child to the well-being of others. this point is made clear by thomas douglas and katrien devolder in an article from 2013. they give the example of a parent who can choose between 2 children: paul, a child with a high level of well-being, but who is a free-rider, and another child, liza, who will have slightly less personal well-being in her life, but who will contribute more to the general well-being of other people: it can be expected, let us stipulate, that, though both will enjoy good lives, paul’s life will contain somewhat more well-being than liza’s, but that liza, being less disposed to free-riding, will contribute much more to the well-being of others than paul (douglas & devolder, 2013, p. 402). in this case it would be preferable, the authors claim, to select the child who contributes more to the well-being of other people. this example shows us that the well-being of the future child is not the only thing to take into consideration when deliberating about the kind of child we want brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 437 to bring into the world. the way that the child will interact with others and will care about others’ sorrows and well-being is also important and is the hallmark of a true moral life. we already teach children in society the importance of altruism, self-sacrifice and taking into account the interests of other people, so why not doing this from birth by selecting those embryos with a predisposition to altruism? this is exactly what the principle of procreative altruism (pa) would have us do: if couples (or single reproducers) have decided to have a child, and selection is possible, they have significant moral reason to select a child whose existence can be expected to contribute more to (or detract less from) the wellbeing of others than any alternative child they could have (douglas & devolder, 2013, p. 403). according to these authors, the pb is an individualistic selection principle (douglas & devolder, 2013, p. 406) because it only takes into account the well-being of the future child. the authors don’t want to dismiss the pb principle, but to complement it by adding the pa principle as a supplement: our claim is that the conjunction of any individualistic selection principle and procreative altruism provides a superior practical basis for making selection decisions (douglas & devolder, 2013, p. 403). the limitations of the pb principle can best be assessed when considering the effects of assisted reproductive technologies at the collective level. if bringing a child into existence would only be about his well-being, then pb would indeed be enough as a reproductive selection principle. but bringing a child into the world is much more than that: parents are responsible for the education and the values that they’ll pass on to the child, as well as, at least to a certain extent, for the way that the child will treat others and will contribute to their well-being. the fact that assisted reproductive technologies are becoming available to large segments of population in an accelerated manner poses coordination problems at the collective level. for example, in india and china, who already have more men than women, these technologies could be used to discriminate against women and select more male children because culturally, in these societies, it is considered to be an advantage to be a male rather than a female. so, these technologies, if it were to fall in the wrong hands, might lead to pernicious outcomes at the societal level. when we refer to autonomy, the widespread use of such technology might actually prove to have a negative outcome, since even if someone can promote her autonomy by using a certain enhancement technology, it is conceivable that the more general use of such a technology decreases the total level of autonomy as compared to the situation where this technology is not used at all (or to a very limited extent) (juth, 2011, p. 44). also, the fact that these technologies will soon be available on a large scale means that parents will select embryos with certain characteristics, enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 438 and it’s likely that many parents will make similar choices, which will lead to a negative outcome. such an example is the selection of taller children: if most parents will select taller children, this will lead to a futile and predictable waste of resources, given the fact that height is a positional good: it is being tall relative to others that confers well-being, not being tall in an absolute sense” and “taller people will have more trouble living in existing buildings and may be more likely to suffer certain medical conditions, for example, due to increased strain on the heart (douglas & devolder, 2013, p. 408). in such cases we might want to tread lightly, because what might seem at first glance as enhancing autonomy and well-being might prove to do us a disservice when considered in a broader social context. in order to prevent such disastrous outcomes, we must create laws and regulations with regard to the impact of such technologies at the collective level. we can’t give full autonomy to parents for them to choose to do whatever they want with these technologies without any regard to the consequences of their choices for society as a whole. we must assess the risks posed by parents’ choices regarding the impact of assisted reproductive technologies at the collective level and impose restrictions whenever it’s the case. there are several ways in which we might convince parents to take into account the consequences of their choices when using reproductive technologies: for example, we might use subsidies or force. as john stuart mill once argued: the fact itself, of causing the existence of a human being, is one of the most responsible actions in the range of human life. to undertake this responsibility – to bestow a life which may be either a blessing or a curse – unless the being on whom it is bestowed will have at least the ordinary chances of a desirable existence, is a crime against that being (mill, 2003, p. 168). most likely we will have to enforce certain social norms to which people would have to adapt and follow, but the solution to such complex issues won’t be simple. jonathan anomaly suggests the following: a less coercive but more radical alternative is to redesign political societies so that people have the right to form communities or states with a strong right to exclude those who choose to reproduce in a way that ignores the social consequences of their children’s traits (anomaly, 2020, p. 16). he places the bet on small political communities which are more inclined to make the right choices and which could lead the way and make the best use out of assisted reproductive technologies. the bet, of course, is not safe and it’s a reiteration of john stuart mill’s idea about experiments in living, an idea advanced by many other thinkers, for example the biologist joseph henrich, who states that we should take a page from cultural evolution’s playbook and design “variation and selection systems” that will allow alternative institutions or organizational forms to compete brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 439 (henrich, 2015, p. 331). this kind of competition might create the emergence of favorable reproductive norms (anomaly, 2020, p. 17). for starters, we need to enforce some regulations on those parents who are bent on creating wrongful life (shiffrin, 1999) and select embryos with serious genetic disease. such regulations might consist in information campaigns, stern advice from genetic counselors, and (at the limit) prohibitions on selecting embryos with serious inherited diseases (anomaly, 2020, p. 75). whatever the solution might be, it would have to be a matter of public debate before going on in one direction or another. 4. rejecting bioconservative objections in the moral enhancement literature, there are some objections regarding the deployment of biomedical enhancement which have by now become a commonplace. one of the main objections is the fact that genetic manipulation of embryos negatively impacts the autonomy of the future child, sometimes referred to as the right to an open future. the idea of a right of the child to an open future has been developed by joel feinberg and then adapted by other authors as an objection to genetic engineering in general. the right to an open future takes the form of a conflict between parents and the state: children are not legally capable of defending their own future interests against present infringement by their parents, so that task must be performed for them, usually by the state in its role of parens patriae (feinberg, 1992, p. 79). the personality of the child is influenced by both his parents and the environment in which he grows. the will of the parents should therefore allow the child to develop in his own way and pay attention to his needs and interests. after all, the character of the child is the product of a complicated interaction of external influences and ever-increasing contributions from his own earlier self (feinberg, 1992, p. 96). dena davis uses this argument in order to combat genetic selection and makes an analogy with a child who would be prevented from attending school and having a basic education. this prevention would have, without a doubt, catastrophic results for his life by closing off many career opportunities and basically deprives the child of the intellectual resources that contribute towards personal autonomy (schaefer et al., 2013, p. 131). davis refers not only to existing children, but also to potential ones, such as the embryos who were genetically engineered and considers that sex selection can be deleterious to the child’s right to an open future (davis, 1997, p. 14). as we have previously seen, we need to always have in mind the life of the future children, and it is true that in a way the child has a right against parents taking actions at any point— enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 440 indeed, even before the child was conceived—that would inhibit the child’s options later in life (schaefer et al., 2013, p. 131). i think that dena davis is right to consider that genetic selection restricts the child’s right to an open future in the case of selecting a deaf child instead of a hearing one, insofar as the deaf child would have less opportunities in life than the hearing child. all things considered, the future wouldn’t be as open for the deaf child as it would be for the hearing child. the problem is that davis extrapolates this particular scenario to the practice of genetic selection in general. for example, she believes that parents shouldn’t test their children for huntington disease (davis, 1997, p. 14), an idea which betrays a strong conservative bias. in the case of the deaf child, the right to an open future is violated in the sense that the deaf child would have difficulties integrating into the hearing community. because she targets genetic selection as a practice for enhancement, it means that davis also opposes autonomy enhancement (even if she doesn’t discuss autonomy enhancement via biomedical means). it is hard to see what reason we would have to oppose genetic selection and manipulation in general and not on a case-by-case basis. after all, as we have seen, certain practices might improve autonomy. if we have strong reasons to think that the autonomy of the future child would be improved by using genetic selection, then this is a path worth pursuing. not only would this not limit the right of the child to an open future, but it would actually make it even wider. as schaefer et al. observe: being autonomous is integral to taking full advantage of various options; enhancing autonomy should directly promote the number and value of a child’s options, not restrict them (2013, p. 131). there is a way in which the autonomy of the child might be restricted when using genetic selection and manipulation, but it doesn’t have to do with the practice itself rather than with the attitude of the parents towards the engineered child. in other words, parents might become so invested in the process of designing the life of their future child, that they might become inclined to want to control too much of the child’s life, they might become prone to what michael sandel calls hyper-parenting (sandel, 2007). hyper-parenting is not something which derives particularly from genetic manipulation, even though it’s true that assisted reproductive technologies might reinforce such an attitude. for example, parents might use genetic manipulation in order to enhance their child’s athletic ability, because they very much want their child to be an elite athlete (schaefer et al., 2013, p. 132). if the child somehow deviates from this life-plan, then it might determine parents to adopt drastic measures in order to limit the autonomy of the child and keep him on the pre-established path that they have planned for him. dena davis goes further and considers cognitive enhancement as being brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 441 problematic in this sense: even traits that are useful for all life plans (such as intelligence) may be chosen with very particular life plans in mind, with expectations that may restrict the child’s future freedom (davis, 2009, p. 26). however, even if genetic manipulation might reinforce hyper-parenting in this way up to a certain point, it is surely bad faith to generally condemn genetic enhancement for this reason. after all, we are talking here about enhancing autonomy, which will make the future child more immune to manipulation and deception, among other things. even if parents are too obsessed with controlling the life of their offspring via genetic manipulation, a child whose autonomy is enhanced will better be able to resist the effects of the intolerance of his or her parents’ expectations, and more likely to pursue his or her own interests in spite of the parents’ plans— even if the parents’ aim in seeking this biomedical intervention had nothing to do with autonomy (schaefer et al., 2013, p. 132). it is expected that the child’s sense of individuality and personal development will counterbalance the parents’ need for control and therefore defeat hyper-parenting in the long term. another objection against biomedical interventions in general has been formulated by jürgen habermas. it has kantian roots and it basically refers to not instrumentalizing future children via genetic interventions. he emphasizes the need for communication and discourse, as well as the importance of critically assessing one’s condition regarding such biomedical practices (habermas, 2003). ideally, the child should be able to understand, evaluate and consent to the to the genetic interventions directed towards him. however, since these interventions are supposed to take place before he was even born, he can’t give his consent, so we have the difficult task of having to find the best practices to which we can reasonably expect that he would consent if given the chance to reflect upon them. as schaefer et al. observe, the general point of habermas is that inculcation of values and expectations is permissible, so long as adequate space is given for the child to reflect on such inculcation and guide the direction of his or her own intellectual growth. autonomy, then, is crucial to people’s very identity and sense of self (schaefer et al., 2013, p. 132). the fact itself that genetic manipulation takes place before the child being able to consent to the intervention is considered by habermas to be a reason against such interventions: eugenic interventions aiming at enhancement reduce ethical freedom insofar as they tie down the person concerned to rejected, but irreversible intentions of their parties, barring him from the spontaneous self-perception of being the undivided author of his own life (habermas, 2003, p. 63). the issue at stake is not only that genetic manipulation might restrict certain options of the child, but that the child himself or herself had no input or communicative engagement with that restriction (schaefer et al., 2013, p. 133). however, enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 442 habermas concedes the fact that genetic manipulation in order to prevent grave illnesses in future children may be permissible because it is reasonable to presume that the resultant child would agree to the procedure (schaefer et al., p. 133). for habermas, autonomy is central to human agency (schaefer et al, p. 133). this means that the kind of autonomy enhancement that we have in mind should be accepted also by habermas since, after all, enhancement of autonomy via improved cognitive abilities would improve the child’s ability to communicatively engage with the world. so, for instance, by making someone more self-aware and cognizant of the various factors that influence them, they will be better able to guide and direct their own growth (schaefer et al., 2013, p. 133). also, the enhancement of autonomy helps in preventing the instrumentalization of the human being that habermas fears so much: enhancing autonomy would be a powerful weapon against instrumentalization, insofar as it could prevent people from having a distorted view of the world and themselves. as habermas takes the capacity to personally engage with and provide input into the factors that shape one’s life to be so central, he should embrace autonomy enhancements as a useful tool to improve that capacity (schaefer et al., 2013, p. 133). selecting for the traits of future children is no easy task. whatever we choose to select has a direct impact on the life of the future child, so there’s a feeling of uneasiness here regarding the question if we’re doing the right thing and the same thing also holds for autonomy enhancement: the decision to decline or even prohibit autonomy enhancement would similarly not be the result of a communicative process with the resultant child—no matter what, the parent must make a decision without input from the resultant child, and it is surely better to choose the option that results in more autonomy (schaefer et al., 2013, p. 134) but parents are already doing this in our society through education and the inculcation of moral values to their children. so, education itself is, to some degree, imposed on young children without communicative dialogue (schaefer et al, 2013, p. 134), and yet nobody considers this point controversial and rightly so. it would indeed be ridiculous to condition the process of education to the consent of the child and the same case should apply to autonomy enhancement. nick bostrom is another scholar who argues against the idea that enhancement technologies restrict the right to an open future, because, in fact, the enhanced child would enjoy more choice and autonomy in her life, if the modifications were such as to expand her basic capability set because they would open more life-plans than they block (bostrom, 2005, p. 212). the idea that enhancement technologies might inhibit the autonomy of the future child seems therefore a non-sequitur (malmqvist, 2011). habermas considers that there are subjacent expectations of the parents in the motivation to use germline enhancement: the parent’s choice of a genetic program is associated with intentions which later take on the form of expectations addressed to the child (habermas, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 443 2003, p. 51). habermas also talks about dissonant cases in which eugenic interventions aiming at enhancement reduce ethical freedom insofar as they tie down the person concerned to rejected but irreversible third party intentions (habermas, 2003, p. 63). prusak argues, interpreting habermas, that the contingency of our genetic makeup might well be necessary for a person to be capable of regarding herself as an autonomous being (prusak, 2005, p. 35). but this contingency seems to show the preference for a status quo bias, rather than a concern for autonomy, since contingency can lead too often to unwanted consequences which could be avoided if we were less reluctant regarding the use of genetic engineering. habermas appeals to the treatment/enhancement distinction when criticizing genetic manipulation. for him, the use of genetic manipulation solely on treatment grounds is acceptable insofar as the grave illness it prevents is unquestionably extreme, and likely to be rejected by all (habermas, 2003, p. 43). on the other hand, in the case of enhancing memory or intelligence, he argues, same as dena davis, that we can’t be sure that such characteristics will benefit the future child in all contexts: can parents wanting only the best for their child ever really presume to know all the circumstances . . . in which a brilliant memory . . . or high intelligence will prove a benefit for their child? (habermas, 2003, p. 85). but even if we can’t be 100% sure that these characteristics will indeed benefit the future child, it is nevertheless safer to bet on these characteristics than on the contingency of mother nature or the genetic lottery. as jonathan pugh argues parents cannot predict with absolute certainty that any way in which they affect their child will increase the child’s well-being. rather, parents choose to affect their child in the ways that they do on the basis of what it is rational for them to believe will benefit their child. for instance, they believe that reading bed-time stories to a child is more likely to increase future literacy than it is to induce deep melancholia. however, they cannot be certain that this will be the case. yet this does not represent an argument against reading bed-time stories (pugh, 2015, 151). when discussing about the characteristics we wish to enhance in future children we are dealing, of course, with probabilities, not certainties. we hope that we are choosing what’s best for the child even when we don’t know for sure how those characteristics that we want to enhance will impact his life. parents should use those methods which are expected to improve the quality of life of the future child. the keyword here is expected, since no parent can know for sure if a certain method will benefit the child. but if we have strong reasons to believe that the enhancement of desired characteristics will, all things considered, improve the life of the child, we should opt for enhancement. enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 444 5. authenticity and autonomy in general, the concept of autonomy has been understood by many authors as being strongly correlated with the concept of authenticity. authenticity, just as autonomy, is a hard to define concept. some consider it to be too vague and underspecified (schaefer et al., 2013, p. 125) in order to be of any relevant help in the discussion about autonomy. other authors consider it crucial for autonomy, in the sense that a person’s choices and actions can’t really be considered autonomous unless they’re also authentic. but how is authenticity to be understood? authenticity is generally understood to be true to oneself: we each have a way of living that is uniquely our own, and that we are each called to live in our own way, rather than that of someone else (taylor, 1992, p. 28), and some authors even consider it to be the most fundamental component of autonomy (christman, 1988). defined in relation with autonomy, authenticity refers therefore to the extent to which one’s actions, choices and behavior in general are truly one’s own. this is, of course, an impossible thing to determine, which makes the discussion highly speculative at this point. the main worry is that enhancement technologies will have such an impact on our behavior that it will make us depart from who we really are. as elliott puts it: it would be worrying if prozac altered my personality, even if it gave me a better personality, simply because it isn’t my personality. this kind of personality change seems to defy an ethics of authenticity (elliott, 1998, p. 182). this seems to suggest that pharmaceuticals don’t really improve our behavior, but rather alter it in a manner that makes us less true to ourselves, which in turn makes us somehow fail to live a worthy life: i miss the point of my life, i miss what being human is for me (taylor, 1992, p. 29). this kind of criticism doesn’t refer only to psychopharmaceuticals, but also to assisted reproductive technologies to the extent that these technologies, because of the set of options they can offer women, can reinforce societal norms that a “real” woman should have biological children of her own. so the desire is the result of a cultural indoctrination of a gender oppressive kind, by being part of common beliefs and norms that contribute to the subordination of women (juth, 2011, p. 40). the same case can be made for enhancing physical appearance via cosmetic surgery: that by doing this, women are actually reinforcing patriarchal values. these arguments usually try to convince us that, because there’s a chance that these desires of women might be the result of cultural indoctrination and subconscious patriarchal norms, they must necessarily be inauthentic, and by acting on them women are not actually acting autonomously. but this kind of argument places too high of a threshold when it comes to deciding when someone actually does act autonomously, brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 445 because all our desires are influenced, to a certain degree, by our society, culture, norms and so on. if we were to track the birth of a desire in a person, we wouldn’t be able to find a single desire which wasn’t influenced by external factors. as niklas juth judiciously argues since all desires entertained by a person have a causal history that is (at least partly) uncontrolled by the person herself, the self-governance of the creation of the desire cannot very well be the mark of authenticity (unless we would like a theory of authenticity implying that no actual person can have authentic desires) (juth, 2011, p. 41). moreover, it is unconvincing to say that biotechnologies which can help us make our lives better in more than one way should be rejected on the sole ground that they might, sometimes, lead to reinforcing oppressive norms. if the norms are oppressive, then people should just reflect more on the nature of those norms and use biotechnologies accordingly. to claim that people would just use biotechnologies in order to reinforce patriarchal or oppressive norms means to give little credence to the ability of people to think for themselves and be autonomous. people are in general very diverse, some are conservatives, others progressives and others in-between. it is most likely that strong conservatives, which are more inclined to reinforce patriarchal norms, won’t be open to the idea of using such biotechnologies, so those who would indeed use them are most likely to be progressives or in-between and their desires should be considered authentic as long as they are informed and they have given their consent: a desire is self-determined if the person having it would approve of it in the light of information of why she has it, not if she ought to approve of it in the name of social justice or the like (juth, 2011, p. 42). this means that if a woman wants to have a child and to use biotechnologies in order to select for specific traits, we shouldn’t consider her desire inauthentic and lacking autonomy insofar as her choice doesn’t negatively impact the life of the future child and she is competent enough to make choices on her own. the respect for the autonomy of the person overrides, in this case, a presumably inauthentic desire which might impair one’s autonomy. when arguing against the use of pharmaceuticals, the objections don’t usually refer to oppressive social norms but rather to the fact that the drugs might alter the enhanced person in some irreversible way: . . .biomedical interventions act directly on the human body and mind to bring about their effects on a subject who is not merely passive but who plays no role at all. he can at best feel their effects without understanding their meaning in human terms. . . thus, a drug that brightened our mood would alter us without our understanding how and why it did so — whereas a mood brightened as a fitting response to the arrival of a loved one or an achievement in one’s work is perfectly, because humanly, intelligible (kass, 2003, p. 22). however, this kind of objection seem very imprecise, since it is hard to enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 446 grasp the meaning of in human terms. as niklas juth rightly asks: why is it not even possible to understand why one becomes happier from using ssri or more able to perform complicated graphic tasks from using modafinil? (juth, 2011, p. 43). not only is it understandable, but in many cases it’s desirable and it can even be argued that we have a moral obligation to enhance in some cases. it is important to stress here that pharmaceuticals don’t change who we are and don’t transform us in other persons with different reasons from those of the person we used to be before the enhancement, because our reasons stay the same after the enhancement. in this sense the scenario in which reducing the need to sleep and gaining in some respects a better working memory by using modafinil, changes one’s deeply held convictions and plans of life is hard to imagine (juth, 2011, p. 43). moreover, pharmaceuticals can actually help us discover our true self, thereby making our choices more authentic as a result of the drugs. this can be seen in patients using antidepressants in order to improve their mood. according to peter kramer, his patients reported that they were their true selves when taking antidepressants, and once they stopped taking them, they reported that i’m not myself (kramer, 1993, p. 19). clinical studies do generally seem to indicate that pharmaceuticals can improve one’s mood and with this the sense of one’s self. according to elliott’s view of authenticity (1998), people’s choices and desires can become less authentic after the use of pharmaceuticals. but even if they were, admitting for the argument’s sake, inauthentic, does this mean that they shouldn’t be used at all? after all, elliott’s ethics of authenticity is not the only conception of authenticity. his conception is an individualistic conception of the self, which is inspired by the romantic movement with its emphasis on the idea of a unique self that each of us has and needs to discover. however, this is not the only available conception of authenticity and there are other conceptions of authenticity which emphasize self-creation rather than self-discovery (degrazia, 2000). the philosopher who is most associated with the self-creation conception of authenticity is jean-paul sartre, who denied that people have an essence and considered that we are responsible for who we are because we can actively collaborate in the process of creating our own self (sartre, 1955). this implies that we shouldn’t accept who we are from the start and consider us tied by some abstract metaphysical essence and that we should strive to improve ourselves in order to become better versions of ourselves. in striving towards this ideal, we are free to employ whatever methods we deem appropriate and if pharmaceuticals which can make our lives go better are available, then it is hard to see why we shouldn’t use them. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 447 we find ourselves at a crossroads where we can opt for one of these 2 conceptions of authenticity: self-discovery or self-creation. as n. levy puts it: are we most human, do we live most meaningfully, by accepting our distinctive natures, or do we live most meaningfully by transcending limitations? (levy, 2011, p. 312). it is hard to settle such a dispute as both conceptions have some strong points which we can’t ignore. both of these conceptions have their fair share of truth when it comes to how we should view authenticity. erik parens, one of the leading figures in bioethics, considers that we can’t really resolve this dispute and that we should just acknowledge the powerful force of each of these conceptions without trying to solve the tension between the two, since it’s impossible to choose one conception over the other (parens, 2005). however, there is reason to believe that, even if we can’t settle this dispute, pharmaceuticals can still be of use in our quest for authenticity (and autonomy). research shows us that pharmaceuticals have the power to make us more predisposed to behave in a certain manner, so they do not determine us to behave in a way which we haven’t already endorsed. if my true self is to be discovered or created/altered in a way which can help me to be more at ease with myself by using pharmaceuticals, then my authenticity would most likely be enhanced in this way, not hindered. because in the end, what matters is how i feel about myself after being enhanced and if my values are the same, not that something in my conception of autonomy wasn’t respected. even the self-discovery conception of autonomy, in its moderate form, that is if it doesn’t consider that humans have a fixed essence which shouldn’t be altered under any circumstance, can be compatible with the idea of enhancing our authenticity via biotechnologies: self-discovery might require change from us, and to that extent it is entirely compatible with the use of various enhancements. just as the person suffering from gender identity disorder might come to be who they really are by means of an intervention, so the depressed person might become who they are by means of prozac (levy, 2011, p. 316). according to hierarchical theories of autonomy, when there’s a harmony between lower and higher-order desires it means that the desires are also authentic (dworkin, 1988, p. 25). this harmony usually happens if the person identifies with her first-order desires and this identification is supposed to bring satisfaction, because it entails an absence of restlessness or resistance ... a satisfied person has no interest in bringing about a change, being better is not interesting or important to him. (frankfurt, 1999, p. 105). inauthenticity, therefore, relates to alienation, which is nothing else than the inability to accommodate pro-attitudes that conflict with one’s self-concept. if someone is alienated from his first-order pro-attitudes, the resulting actions are not autonomous (bublitz & enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 448 merkel, 2009, p. 363). but in most cases pharmaceuticals don’t work in this way, that is, they don’t lead to inauthenticity and this conclusion comes also from the testimonies of those who have used them. taking a drug in order to have improved capacities doesn’t result in one having a different self. it’s not as if some new self is replacing the old self, because taking a drug is not the same thing as having a chip implanted in our brain which can decide for us how to behave. taking pharmaceuticals does not drastically change our behavior in this manner, it does not invade our self: raising serotonin levels that alter mood is not an imposition or replacement of an alien mechanism over an authentic one but rather the modification or reconfiguration of a system (bublitz & merkel, 2009, p. 365). serotonin is just an example, but any neurotransmitter we might consider works in this way. they can work either in a natural way: for example, a person doing exercise every day increases his ephedrine production, elevating his mood and acquiring new pro-attitudes (bublitz & merkel, 2009, p. 367), or in an artificial way by improving our mood using prozac or other antidepressants. of course, it might be the case that in the second scenario prozac is more efficient than physical exercise, but neither should be seen as posing a threat to autonomy. there is a struggle between internal and external theories of autonomy to accommodate the use of biotechnologies, but the use of pharmaceuticals should be theoretically compatible with both types of theory. bublitz and merkel consider that people who use neuroenhancements should be considered autonomous under certain circumstances regardless of the self-discovery/self-creation (sometimes referred to as the essentialist/existentialist) distinction: if agents who possess the minimal autonomy capacities self-initiate neuroenhancements and then identify with the results, they are autonomous (bublitz & merkel, 2009, p. 372). even if authenticity is not necessary for autonomy, as the authors argue, it does have value beyond the concept of autonomy. when the authors ask would you marry someone who asked for your hand under the spell of lovafinil, a potent love potion? (bublitz & merkel, 2009, p. 374) it’s not as weird today to answer yes to this question as it used to be in the past. today we talk about love drugs (earp & savulescu, 2020) and there are people around the world who consider that such drugs can improve their relationships and are happy to have them available and use them. should we stop such persons from taking the drugs and accuse them of having an inauthentic love? if they identify with the results and they manage to have better relationships, then it would be a mistake to stop them from using these drugs and they can even be considered more authentic/true to themselves than before. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 449 6. conclusion the debate regarding the use of enhancement technologies has become very passionate in the last decades, with attitudes varying from downright hostility to unconditional approval when it comes to the use of such technologies. a lot of work and energy has been put in researching and developing new technologies which can improve our life and for some biotechnologies it took longer than expected to elicit the interest of philosophers. it’s true that the development of such technologies and the concerns they raise have revitalized ethics and have provided ethicians with new insights regarding the understanding and reinterpretation of certain values such as autonomy and authenticity, as well as with new ways in which human beings can improve their behavior. in this paper i tried to explore the relation between enhancement technologies and the values of autonomy and authenticity and i argued in favor of the use of such technologies. not only do these technologies not threat what we usually understand when we refer to autonomy and authenticity, but they can actually prove themselves good tools in our struggle to improve ourselves and become better persons. autonomy is a multifaceted concept with many arrays of interpretation which has progressed over time and was transferred from the realm of political affairs to the everyday life and behavior of the moral agent. in biomedical ethics it has become more than a negative right, it has become a value which we have strong reasons to promote and an important part of our well-being. i have tried to show that, even though there are many different theories of autonomy, we can reach a certain kind of agreement on how this concept is to be understood and that we can even improve our autonomy by combining various methods such as enhancement technologies and environmental engineering. there’s no reason for us to consider new technologies as being in opposition with traditional ways of enhancement. if we have sufficient reasons backed by science to consider that geneticaltering technologies can help us make better use of our autonomy then we should not refrain from using them, because such refraining would be a path to encapsulate ourselves in a state of ignorance and irrational fear. nootropics and antidepressants are a good example of how we can improve our autonomy by improving our reasoning abilities as well as our mood. if we can judge things more clearly and have better moral dispositions beneficial to our autonomy, then we have strong reasons to choose to enhance ourselves. enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 450 the advent of assisted reproductive technologies has made us more responsible regarding the children we choose to bring into existence. this is a unique chance in the history of our species, given the fact that our predecessors didn’t have a choice and were forced to leave to chance important features of the reproductive process, such as sex selection and the traits of the future child. today we have this choice and it is up to us to decide how to use such technologies. assisted reproductive technologies have enhanced our autonomy regarding reproduction and perhaps they have given to some people more autonomy than they can handle. i have argued that we should restrict this autonomy in cases where societal norms demand it and that we should discourage parents from using these technologies in order to deliberately bring into existence children with disabilities instead of children who have all their senses unaltered. the interests of the future child should be taken into account and the state should be the guardian of these interests, protecting them from those parents who might be inclined to abuse their own autonomy. bringing a child into the world is one of the most important events in the lives of many people, if not the most important, and we should give this event the proper thought. when choosing between different procreative principles which can help us determine what kind of child we want to have, we should have in mind the interests of the child as well as the interests of the future persons with whom the child will interact during his life. with this in mind, i have argued that it’s better to use a combination of procreative beneficence and procreative altruism when deciding what kind of child to bring into the world. this means that we have a moral obligation to select for the child who is expected to have the best prospects for the best moral life. medicine has evolved to new heights in the past few decades and so should our views about its role. sticking to the idea that the role of medicine is solely to treat and prevent illnesses is an old-fashioned idea which doesn’t synchronize well with the use of biotechnologies. the truth is that medicine has progressed to the point where we can alter our biology in specific ways so that we can become better and this is a reality which can no longer be ignored and disregarded. we should open the door for emerging technologies, expand our understanding of medicine and let it flourish the way it’s supposed to. many authors talk about autonomy in terms of authenticity, meaning that a person can’t really be autonomous if her desires or preferences aren’t also authentic. same as autonomy, authenticity is a vast concept with many different meanings which can transform our effort to define it into an brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 451 ordeal. i have tried to show that we should respect the desire of a moral agent to enhance himself with the aid of biomedical methods and consider it an authentic desire. if the moral agent is competent enough to make choices regarding those traits which he wants to improve in himself through the use of such technologies and if he is satisfied with the result, then there’s no need to consider that result or the agent himself as being inauthentic. enhancement technologies can help us discover or create our true self and, therefore, improve our authenticity rather than hinder it. if i take a drug like prozac, which improves my mood and helps me finish those projects which give me a sense of purpose, meaning and fulfillment, then the drug helps me to be (and not just feel) more autonomous, as well as more authentic, it helps me be my best self. references agar, n. (2004). liberal eugenics: in defense of human enhancement. blackwell. alloy, l. b., & abramson, l. y. (1979). judgment of contingency in depressed and non-depressed students: sadder but wiser? journal of experimental psychology: general, 108(4), 441-485. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/00963445.108.4.441 anomaly, j. (2020). creating future people: the ethics of genetic enhancement. routledge. baruch, s., kaufman, d., & hudson, k. l. (2008). genetic testing of embryos: practices and perspectives of us ivf clinics. fertil steril, 89, 1053-1058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2007.05.048 beauchamp, t. l. & childress, j. f. (2001). principles of biomedical ethics (5th ed.). oxford university press. beauchamp, t., & childress, j. (2009). principles of biomedical ethics (6th ed). oxford university press. bernofsky, b. (1995). liberation from self: a theory of personal autonomy. cambridge university press. bostrom, n. (2005). in defence of posthuman dignity. bioethics, 19(3), 202-214. http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/courses/hon182/posthuman_dignity_bos trom.pdf bostrom, n., & ord, t. (2006), the reversal test: eliminating the status quo bias in applied ethics. ethics, 116(4), 656-679. https://doi.org/10.1086/505233 bruno, m. a., pellas, f., bernheim, j. l., ledoux, d., goldman, s., demertzi, a., majerus, s., vanhaudenhuyse, a., blandin, v., boly, m., boveroux, p., moonen, g., laureys, s., & schnakers, s. (2008). quelle vie après le locked-in syndrome? revue médicale de liège, 63(5-6), 445-451. https://www.rmlg.ulg.ac.be/show.php https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0096-3445.108.4.441 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0096-3445.108.4.441 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2007.05.048 http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/courses/hon182/posthuman_dignity_bostrom.pdf http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/courses/hon182/posthuman_dignity_bostrom.pdf https://doi.org/10.1086/505233 https://www.rmlg.ulg.ac.be/show.php enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 452 bublitz, j. c., & merkel, r. (2009). autonomy and authenticity of enhanced personality traits. bioethics, 23(6), 360-374. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2009.01725.x chadwick, r., shickle, d., ten have, h., & wiesing, u. (eds.). (1999). the ethics of genetic screening. kluwer. christman, j. (1988). constructing the inner citadel: recent work on the concept of autonomy. ethics, 99(1), 109-124. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/293038 darwall, s. (2006). the value of autonomy and autonomy of the will. ethics, 116(2), 263-284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/498461 davis, d. (1997). genetic dilemmas and the child’s right to an open future. the hastings center report, 27(2), 7-15. https://doi.org/10.2307/3527620 davis, d. (2009). the parental investment factor and the child’s right to an open future. the hastings center report, 39(2), 24-27. https://doi.org/10.1353/hcr.0.0125 degrazia, d. (2000). prozac, enhancement, and self-creation. hastings center report, 30(2), 34-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3528313 douglas, t., & devolder, k. (2013). procreative altruism. journal of medicine and philosophy, 38, 400-419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jht022 dworkin, g. (1988). the theory and practice of autonomy. cambridge university. earp, b. d., & savulescu, j. (2020). love drugs: the chemical future of relationships. stanford university press. elliott, c. (1998). the tyranny of happiness: ethics and cosmetic psychopharmacology. in e. parens (ed.), enhancing human traits. ethical and social implications (pp. 177-188). georgetown university press. feinberg, j. (1992). freedom and fulfillment: philosophical essays. princeton university press. frankfurt, h. (1971). freedom of the will and the concept of a person. the journal of philosophy, 68(1), 5-20. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2024717 frankfurt, h. (1999). the faintest passion. necessity, volition, love. cambridge university press. gillon, r. (2003). ethics needs principles four can encompass the rest and respect for autonomy should be “first among equals”. journal of medical ethics, 29(5), 307-312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.29.5.307 habermas, j. (2003). the future of human nature. polity press. henrich, j. (2015). the secret of our success. princeton university press. juth, n. (2011). enhancement, autonomy, and authenticity. in j. savulescu, r. ter meulen & and g. kahane (eds.), enhancing human capacities (pp. 34-48). blackwell publishing ltd. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2009.01725.x https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/293038 http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/498461 https://doi.org/10.2307/3527620 https://doi.org/10.1353/hcr.0.0125 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3528313 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jht022 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2024717 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.29.5.307 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 453 kant, i. (1996). practical philosophy (m. j. gregor, trans. & ed.). cambridge university press. kass, l. (2003). ageless bodies, happy souls. biotechnology and the pursuit of perfection. the new atlantis, 1, 9-28. https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/ageless-bodies-happy-souls kramer, p. d. (1993). listening to prozac. penguin. levy, n. (2002). deafness, culture and choice. journal of medical ethics, 28(5), 284285. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136%2fjme.28.5.284 levy, n. (2011). enhancing authenticity. journal of applied philosophy, 28(3), 308-318. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5930.2011.00532.x levy, n. (2012). ecological engineering: reshaping our environments to achieve our goals. philosophy & technology, 25(4), 589-604. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2fs13347-012-0065-8 malmqvist, e. (2011). reprogenetics and the ‘parents have always done it’ argument. hastings center report, 41(1), 43-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1552-146x.2011.tb00099.x mill, j. s. (2003). on liberty. yale university press. mundy, l. (2002, march 31). a world of their own. washington post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/2002/03/3 1/a-world-of-their-own/abba2bbf-af01-4b55-912c-85aa46e98c6b/ o’neill, o. (2009). autonomy and trust in bioethics. cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511606250 parens, e. (1988). authenticity and ambivalence: toward understanding the enhancement debate. hastings center report, 35(3), 34-41. https://doi.org/10.2307/3528804 prusak, b. g. (2005). rethinking ‘liberal eugenics’: reflections and questions on habermas on bioethics. hastings center report; 35(6), 31-42. https://doi.org/10.1353/hcr.2005.0113 pugh, j. (2014). enhancing autonomy by reducing impulsivity: the case of adhd. neuroethics, 7, 373-375. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-0149202-7 pugh, j. (2015). autonomy, natality and freedom: a liberal re-examination of habermas in the enhancement debate. bioethics, 29(3), 145-152. http://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12082 sandel, m. j. (2007). the case against perfection. belknap. sartre, j. p. (1955). being and nothingness. washington square press. savulescu, j. (2002). education and debate: deaf lesbians, ‘designer disability,’ and the future of medicine. british medical journal, 325(7367), 771-773. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136%2fbmj.325.7367.771 https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/ageless-bodies-happy-souls https://dx.doi.org/10.1136%2fjme.28.5.284 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5930.2011.00532.x https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2fs13347-012-0065-8 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1552-146x.2011.tb00099.x https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/2002/03/31/a-world-of-their-own/abba2bbf-af01-4b55-912c-85aa46e98c6b/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/2002/03/31/a-world-of-their-own/abba2bbf-af01-4b55-912c-85aa46e98c6b/ https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511606250 https://doi.org/10.2307/3528804 https://doi.org/10.1353/hcr.2005.0113 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-014-9202-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-014-9202-7 http://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12082 https://dx.doi.org/10.1136%2fbmj.325.7367.771 enhancing autonomy, authenticity and selecting the child with the best moral … alexandru gabriel cioiu 454 savulescu, j., & kahane, g. (2009). the moral obligation to create children with the best chance of the best life. bioethics, 23(5), 274-290. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2008.00687.x schaefer, g. o., kahane, g., & savulescu, j. (2014). autonomy and enhancement. neuroethics, 7(2), 123-136. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s12152013-9189-5 shiffrin, s. (1999). wrongful life, procreative responsibility, and the significance of harm. legal theory, 5(2), 117-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1352325299052015 singh, i., & kelleher, k. (2010). neuroenhancement in young people: proposal for research, policy, and clinical management. ajob neuroscience, 1, 3-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21507740903508591 spriggs, m. (2002). lesbian couple create a child who is deaf like them. journal of medical ethics, 28(5), 283. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136%2fjme.28.5.283 taylor, c. (1992). the ethics of authenticity. harvard university press. wertz, d. c., & fletcher j. c. (1988). attitudes of genetic counsellors: a multinational survey. american journal of human genetics, 42(4), 592-600. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1715239/pdf/ajhg0012 7-0068.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2008.00687.x https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s12152-013-9189-5 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s12152-013-9189-5 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1352325299052015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21507740903508591 https://dx.doi.org/10.1136%2fjme.28.5.283 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1715239/pdf/ajhg00127-0068.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1715239/pdf/ajhg00127-0068.pdf ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 115-127 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/447 submitted: june 6th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 28th, 2023 creative coding as a modern art tool asmati chibalashvili 1, igor savchuk 2 svitlana olianina 3 ihor shalinskyi 4 yuriy korenyuk 5 1 candidate of art studies, senior researcher, deputy director for scientific affairs, modern art research institute of the national academy of arts of ukraine, orcid id: 0000-0003-1001-4273, e-mail: chibalashvili@mari.kiev.ua 2 doctor of art studies, professor, director, modern art research, institute of the national academy of arts of ukraine, orcid id: 0000-0002-6882-3404, e-mail: savchuk@mari.kiev.ua 3 doctor of art studies, associate professor, head of department of graphic arts, national technical university of ukraine, “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute”, orcid id: 0000-0002-0628146x, е-mail: s.olianina@ukr.net 4 candidate of art studies, department of graphic arts, national technical university of ukraine, “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute”, orcid id: 0000-0001-53665979, е-mail: amuigor@gmail.com 5 candidate of art studies, associate professor, department of graphic arts, national technical university of ukraine, “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute”, orcid id: 0000-0002-7766-6842, email: yu.korenuyk@gmail.com abstract: the research examines the phenomenon of creative programming as an example of the interaction between art and technology. the historical prerequisites for its emergence and various tools for its implementation are analysed. systematization and analysis of existing platforms and computer languages for creative programming made it possible to classify them chronologically, according to principles of work, and technical characteristics. the main ways of using creative programming in different periods were explored in analysing contemporary art projects that used creative programming. thus, the algobabez duo used real-time programming with supercollider software at their performances. the capabilities of max/msp made it possible to implement the performer-computer interaction in intersax-tive by composer nicolas scherzinger. in the interactive project messa di voce, the sound is transformed with the help of the openframeworks software into graphics, which affects the performers. in other cases, the software was written specifically for an art project. in the abraham project, artist and programmer gene kogan tries to create an autonomous artificial artist who has his own will and can create authentic visual images. as part of the multidisciplinary interactive project "hakanaï", we can see how code written specifically for the project, allows performer to interact with a visual projection (mapping) that, in turn, interacts with the performer’s moves. we prove that creative programming has become a promising, independent tool of creativity within modern interdisciplinary artistic practices, borders of which continue to expand thanks to the open code approach and the involvement of a community of like-minded people. keywords: digital art, algorithm, sound, image, coding, code, generic, interactivity. how to cite: chibalashvili, a., savchuk, i., olianina, s., shalinskyi, i., & korenyuk, y. (2023). creative coding as a modern art tool. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 115-127. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/447 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/447 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1001-4273?lang=en file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/chibalashvili@mari.kiev.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1001-4273?lang=en mailto:savchuk@mari.kiev.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1001-4273?lang=en https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0628-146x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0628-146x mailto:s.olianina@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1001-4273?lang=en mailto:amuigor@gmail.com mailto:yu.korenuyk@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/447 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 116 introduction technology has always played an essential role in the development of art. artists explored new inventions and techniques and used them as tools for their art, expanding the means of expression and upgrading work methods. however, in recent decades, this interaction has acquired new dynamics. as we can see, the trend toward combining science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics is being actively implemented through the concept of steam education. it proves that the combination of technical knowledge and the development of creativity at the initial stages of the growth of a mind is an important trend in education. the combination of logical thinking and creative freedom is essential to the rise and growth of creative programming as an artistic field. in this context, the position of the processing programming environment (one of the most popular creative programming tools) developers is indicative: "we believe in the synthesis of the arts and technology, and we know the arts are a necessary part of education from a young age. we don't want to live in a world where technology is developed without ideas and input from the arts and where only some people have access to learning to code" (processing foundation, 2018). creative programming emerged at the interjunction of digital art and design on the one hand and the desire to find an intuitive approach to the programming process on the other. it aims to implement an artistic idea by creating visual, sound images or complex systems of interaction with the help of software code in interdisciplinary art projects. that distinguishes creative programming from functional programming, which objective is to solve specific applied tasks. as part of creative programming, it is possible to work with various types of data: text, sound, image, video, 3d models, etc. with the help of software code, the artist can "translate" data from one medium to another. in other words, any data, even dry statistical information, can serve as material that will be processed and transformed into a specific type of media – sound, image, interactive projection, installation, etc. thus, the ultimate goal of creative programming is to transform any data into an artistic project. creative coding as a modern art tool asmati chibalashvili et al. 117 analysis of recent research works and publications/ literature review the vast majority of studies of creative programming belong to authors who, in their work, combined research in natural sciences with creative experiments. thus, the theoretical basis of the research lies in the works of john maeda, a. michael noll, frieder nake, dominic lopes and christiane paul. in his book design by numbers, published in 1999, john maeda considers the computer as an autonomous artistic environment, separate from the traditional tools of the artist. the purpose of the book was to create a new method of programming that would allow people without mathematical abilities to implement their creative ideas based on intuitive and visual approaches. a similar view has a. michael noll, who, in his works, explored the aesthetics of computer art, called the computer a creative environment (1967) and believed that the artist should explore computer technologies and learn to program and use this knowledge (noll, 1970; 2016). the article "there should be no computer art", published in 1971 by frieder nake, caused a stir due to the perspective, which was significantly different from other researchers' of early computer art. in the article, the author recognized the invention of new interesting methods important for artists and a new communicative model of interaction between the creator and his creation but he does not see the point of using the computer "as a source of pictures for the galleries" instead believes that the computer can become a "convenient and important tool in the investigation of visual (and other) aesthetic phenomena as part of our daily experience" (nake, 1971). in his book "a philosophy of computer art" (lopes, 2009), exploring the aesthetics of computer art, dominic lopes considers technology as a tool of artistic creation, similarly to the views mentioned above. he indicates significant changes in artistic practice and, at the same time, talks about the need to renew approaches to creating and perceiving of art in the context of computer art. digital art researcher christiane paul considers its evolution through the latest information technologies and states that the terminology in this field needs to be clarified. she defines the art based on data, codes, and specifically designed software as "software art". in our opinion, the given definition fully reflects the essence of creative programming for which the code is the basis. christiane paul points out that "… code is sometimes called the artistic medium, the "paint and canvas" of the digital artist, but it does not fit into this metaphor because, among other things, it allows artists to create their tools — broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 118 if we extend the metaphor, we can say that in this case, the artistic medium allows the artist to create both a palette and a brush" (paul, 2017). thus, researchers and practitioners of computer art interpret it as an autonomous artistic environment that functions separately from the traditional tools of the artist (john maeda, a. michael noll), a tool for the study of aesthetic phenomena (f. nake) or for the creating (d. lopes) and a medium that allows the artist to create his instruments using the code (c. paul). the given opinions illustrate the tendency towards the multidisciplinary character of creative activity in the context of creative programming. practical aspects of creative programming can be found in numerous manuals aimed at familiarizing the reader with the basics of computer technology and the possibilities of its involvement in solving creative tasks through mastering a specific programming language or programming environment. the historical and theoretical context of creative programming the first examples of creative programming were recorded in the early 1960s in the field of digital art. among the first to use digital technologies in the visual arts were a. michael noll, frieder nake and george nis. all three were engaged in natural sciences — mathematics, physics, electrical engineering, and computer science — before launching into artistic experiments. landmark exhibitions of these artists presenting computer-generated images took place in 1965 in germany and became a reference point in the history of computer art. they based their works on mathematical computations, with the help of which the computer creates an image with varying degrees of control over the final result. vera molnar (n.d.) has been creating visual art with the help of a computer since 1968. getting a degree in fine arts and having an experience in programming, she began to create abstract geometric images with the help of algorithms, using fortran and basic programming languages. after the exhibition, cybernetic serendipity, which featured the works of the named artists, in 1968, the computer art society and the computer art magazine page were founded in london. simultaneously with creative activity, these artists developed theories related to computer art and theorized their experiments. georg nees identified his works as generative computer graphics in his dissertation and book "generative computergraphik" (nees, 1969). in addition, the book includes research on aesthetics, semiotics, artificial intelligence, etc. creative coding as a modern art tool asmati chibalashvili et al. 119 later, in 1995, jean-pierre hébert introduced the term "algorists" to define artists who use algorithms in their art. the development of digital technologies became a powerful impetus for the rapid development of algorithmic art, thanks to the possibilities that the computer could offer. and, first of all, the speed of computation, which was impossible to imagine in the "pre-computer" era. speaking about artists working with technology, zhang, y. and funk, m. identify two approaches: "the first one is based on a concept, and with the second approach, the artist starts from the data or the available material, forming a concept based on the possibilities and the results of data processing" (zhang & funk, 2021). researchers note that this division in real life is not so clear, and approaches can change at different stages of work. despite the existing stereotype that creativity is based only on inspiration and the embodiment of various emotional states, the process of artistic creation has always contained a rational component. in this context, creative coding will serve as a tool for artists to expand the field for experimentation. when an artist works with code, according to the researchers, "[they] may need a new way of thinking and working that helps them see this new field through the prism of the old field where they were active and professional" (zhang, & funk, 2021). the earliest creative programming platforms discussed below were explicitly designed to help artists quickly master elementary programming. the main platforms for creative coding one of the early creative output-oriented programming environments is design by numbers (dbn). its first version, dbn 1.0, was developed by john maeda to introduce artists and designers to the basics of computational media. the dbn system consists of three components: the core dbn software, the design by numbers book, and a website generator built for educators design by numbers courseware. later, a collective of scientists participated in the dbn system's development. among them were ben fry and casey reas, who, in 2001 proposed a new, more developed system for teaching programming processing. currently, processing is the most popular software among visual artists. in addition, it is the software of choice when the task is to teach designers programming because of its accessibility and the ability to show the visual output of the entered code. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 120 like design by numbers by john maeda, processing is also multicomponent and consists of: a programming language (which is a hybrid between the developers' original elements and the java programming language), the processing development environment, a programming interface for starting and stopping sketches and community (group of people sharing their sketches and code on related resources). in our opinion, the latter enabled more significant learning and sharing opportunities, which is one of the prerequisites for its popularity. "the original mission of processing was to create software that made learning to code accessible for visual people (designers, artists, architects) and to help a more technical audience work fluidly with graphics. we aspired to empower people to become software literate — to learn to read and write software. we wanted to change curriculum in universities and art schools around the world" (processing foundation, 2018). in addition to educational activities, processing has vast opportunities for creating multi-component art projects. below, we present a table with the main characteristics of the most widespread platforms, environments and languages of creative programming in chronological order. frameworks environments and languages for creative coding name programming language capability principles of work date, developer max/msp/jitter object oriented programming language audio, video, multimedia. audiovisual process in real time visual programming; msp an addon for working with audio; jitter an addon for working with video miller puckette, 1980s. cycling 1990-і рр. https://cycling74.com/ pure data event-oriented system of programing interactive multimedia projects visual programming 1996, miller s. puckette http://puredata.info/ https://cycling74.com/ http://puredata.info/ creative coding as a modern art tool asmati chibalashvili et al. 121 supercollider sclang – an interpreted programming language audio synthesis, algorithmic composition text programming james mccartney, 1996 https://supercollider.github.io/ vvvv c#, hlsl shaders visual effects and graphics, audio and video in realtime visual programming; ability to use external devices (i.e. kinect and psp); interactive projects vvvv group (joreg, max wolf, sebastian gregor, sebastian oschatz) https://vvvv.org design by numbers (dbn) dbn java support an opportunity for designers, artists and other nonprogrammers to easily start computer programming text programming; multiplatform (run from website or local computer) john maeda 1999 https://dbn.media.mit.edu/ processing java based programming language images, animation, interactive projects, webapplications, etc text programming; open code shiffman, 2009 https://processing.org touchdesigner node based visual programming language, python music, multimedia, interactive content in realtime, 2d, 3d, video-mapping, interaction of devices hybrid programming 2008 derivative touchdesigner 077, beta version https://derivative.ca/ https://supercollider.github.io/ https://vvvv.org/ https://dbn.media.mit.edu/ https://processing.org/ https://derivative.ca/ broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 122 openframeworks c++ interactive multimedia app text programming 2009, zach lieberman, theodore watson, and arturo castro https://openframeworks.cc/ p5.js java script library images, animation, video, sound text programming; browser-based 2014 https://p5js.org/ cables.gl work with the cables modules kit interactive video-content in real time visual programming interface 2017, undev studio https://cables.gl/ nannou rust graphics, audio visual programming 2017, mindbuffer https://nannou.cc/ openrndr kotlin interactive projects, supports machine learning (orml) hybrid programing; open code; uses shaders in its structure 2018, edwin jakobs, openrndr studio https://openrndr.org/ analyzing the information presented in the table, we conclude that the reviewed platforms for creative programming can be divided into three types: text (dbn, processing, p5.js, openframeworks, supercollider); visual (cables, max/msp/jitter, pure data, vvvv , nannou) hybrid (openrndr, touchdesigner), which combine the previous two. these platforms for creative programming influence each other to some extent. for example, design by numbers is the predecessor of processing, and p5.js is the browser counterpart of the latter. cables.gl is inspired by vvvv, which is influenced by max/msp and pure data. in turn, pure data is a free analogue of max/msp. openframeworks and processing are similar because they serve as an interface to media libraries and hardware. it is important to note that it is possible to combine the https://openframeworks.cc/ https://p5js.org/ https://cables.gl/ https://nannou.cc/ https://openrndr.org/ creative coding as a modern art tool asmati chibalashvili et al. 123 capabilities of several of those platforms within the framework of one project. over the past decades, software for creative coding has been dynamically developed due to the open-source philosophy, which states that each user can freely use the work of others and, in turn, supplement it with his/her ideas and code. almost all developers of the platforms and programming environments mentioned above share and support this principle. implementations of creative coding in artistic practices two-dimensional fractal images and early computer music are the first examples of creative programming. nowadays, it can be used in a far wider field. the result can be as traditional forms of artistic representation, as image or sound, or an interactive installation and live projection (mapping) programmed in real-time. creative programming can interact with generative design and machine learning, which is based on algorithms. shelly knotts develops projects using supercollider software as part of the algobabez duo with joanne armitage (2018). in its performances, the duo uses various types of data and live programming, and improvisation plays a key role in their art. thanks to the above, each of their performances is unique and full of spontaneous creative decisions that affect the final result of their performance. using the object-oriented software max/msp, composer nicolas scherzinger creates interactive musical works. communication between the performer and the computer is carried out with the help of the software. “inter-sax-tive” is a series of improvisation pieces for saxophone and interactive computer. the interaction between the performer and the computer takes place in real-time. “each piece consists of a collection of sound materials and special effects with which the saxophonist freely improvises. the computer responds to the saxophonist by producing a series of sounds based on what the saxophonist plays. the computer can also create random elements throughout the piece, thus allowing the saxophonist to respond to the computer.” (scherzinger). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 124 the computer generates sounds based on the algorithms of processing the sounds of the saxophone through the digital signal coming to it during the performance. rudolf quintas’ body-mapping audiovisual installation black hole aims to help blind people “experience the deep emotional qualities associated with their bodies through the creative exploration of movement through sound” (quintas, n.d.). for this, the artist used the capabilities of maxmsp, ableton and processing programs, the audiovisual performance messa di voce (italian for “placing the voice”) was created with the involvement of openframeworks a library of c++ tools for creative open-source programming. “the software transforms every vocal nuance into complex, differentiated and highly expressive graphics. these visual elements depict the singers’ voices and serve as controls for their acoustic reproduction. while the voice graphics thus become an instrument for the singers to perform, the bodily manipulations of these graphics further reproduce the sounds of the singers’ voices, creating a loop of interaction that fully integrates the performers into the sonic atmosphere, virtual objects and real-time processing” (lieberman, n.d.). the interactive video mapping was used in the project “hakanaï. a performance for a dancer in a cube of moving images. choreography, that depicts the transience of dreams and the impermanence of things” (hakanaï). the ever-changing image, which, according to the concept, symbolises a dream, reacts to the dancer’s movements and changes accordingly. an image is projected into a cube with a dancer inside, creating a multidimensional space. the authors of the installation and its artistic directors are claire bardent and adrian monda (2013). it should be noted that more than twenty people are involved in the technical implementation of the performance. in their projects, the company adrien m. & claire b. combines choreography with visual art, using digital devices and original code for their interaction with the main character of the performance (n.d.). gene kogan, artist and programmer, combines generative art, collective intelligence and informatics in his projects. he strives to develop scientific literacy through creativity, and to achieve this, he publishes his works, lectures and training manuals free to access. his abraham project goes beyond multimedia or interactive projects – it aims to create an autonomous artificial artist. “by autonomous, we mean that autonomous creative coding as a modern art tool asmati chibalashvili et al. 125 artificial artist demonstrates its freedom of action or will independent of the will of its creators. even the most advanced artificial intelligence, which lacks autonomy, is no more creative than a dummy in the hand of a ventriloquist” (kogan, 2021). so, his autonomous artificial artist thanks to the author's involvement of the collective intelligence in the process of machine learning, capable of creating original art. conclusions the phenomenon of creative coding establishes the close link between art and technology, which in recent years has been actively used in real and virtual art spaces. the given examples present various methods of involving creative programming as a new creative tool in the arsenal of artists. real-time programming using the supercollider software is used in the performances of the algobabez duo. the capabilities of max/msp made it possible to realize the interaction between the performer and the computer within in “inter-sax-tive” project by the composer nicolas scherzinger (n.d.). in the interactive project messa di voce, with the help of the openframeworks program, the sound is transformed into graphics, which, in turn, affects the performers. we see that in some cases, software was developed specifically for a specific art project. thus, in the abraham project, artist and programmer gene kogan tries to create an autonomous artificial artist who has his own will and is capable of autonomously creating original visual images. within the framework of the multidisciplinary interactive project “hakanaï”, we also see a unique code designed to use the performer’s interaction with a visual projection (mapping) that, in turn, interacts with his movements. creative programming as a part of contemporary artists’ toolkit is still in dynamic development. at the same time, it is evident that the discovery of a broader spectrum of its artistic capabilities still lies ahead. however, it is evident that some art projects get ever more complex, and their successful implementation was possible amid coding. if at the early stages of creative programming, two-dimensional, fractal images were created or variants of sound combinations were computed in algorithmic composition, nowadays, complex interactive multimedia projects are created using machine learning. the philosophy of open source and the presence of a strong network of community support is crucial for the spread and development of creative programming in the future. at the same time, the prospects of future implementation in artistic practices are related to the renewal of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 126 creative thinking through combining the artist’s research activity and mastery of the latest technologies. references cables. (2022). about. cables. https://cables.gl/ cycling '74. (1998). about. cycling '74. https://cycling74.com/ design by numbers. (1999). about. design by numbers. https://dbn.media.mit.edu/ jakobs, e. (2018). playful forprototypes. serious forproduction. openrndr. https://openrndr.org/ kogan, g. (2021, december 10). artist in the cloud gene kogan. medium. https://medium.com/@genekogan/artist-in-the-cloud-8384824a75c7 lieberman, z. (n.d.). thesystemis | the works of zach lieberman and collaborators. thesystemis. http://thesystemis.com/projects/ lopes, d. (2010). a philosophy of computer art. routledge. maeda, j. (1999). design by numbers. maeda studio. https://maedastudio.com/1999/dbn/index.php max/msp/jitter. (n.d.). see this sound. max/msp/jitter. http://www.see-thissound.at/works/797.html mccartney, j. (1996). what is supercollider? solvusoft. https://www.solvusoft.com/en/file-extensions/software/jamesmccartney/supercollider/ miller puckette. (2013). about. msp. http://msp.ucsd.edu/ mindbuffer. (2017). nannou. mindbuffer. https://mindbuffer.net/nannou monda, a., & bardent, c. (2013). hakanaï. adrien, m. & claire, b. http://www.am-cb.net/projets/hakanai monda, a., & bardent, c. (n.d.). about. adrien, m. & claire, b. https://www.amcb.net/en/a-propos nake, f. (1971). there should be no computer-art. bulletin of the computer arts society, london, 18(1–2), 18–19. nannou. (2018). home. nannou. https://nannou.cc/ nees, g. (1969). generative computergraphik. siemens. noll, a. m. (1967). the digital computer as a creative medium. ieee spectrum, 4(10), 89–95. https://doi.org/10.1109/mspec.1967.5217127 noll, a. m. (1970). art ex machina. ieee student journal, 8(4), 10–14. noll, a. m. (2016). early digital computer art at bell telephone laboratories, incorporated. leonardo, 49(1), 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_00830 https://cables.gl/ https://cycling74.com/ https://dbn.media.mit.edu/ https://openrndr.org/ https://medium.com/@genekogan/artist-in-the-cloud-8384824a75c7 http://thesystemis.com/projects/ https://maedastudio.com/1999/dbn/index.php http://www.see-this-sound.at/works/797.html http://www.see-this-sound.at/works/797.html https://www.solvusoft.com/en/file-extensions/software/james-mccartney/supercollider/ https://www.solvusoft.com/en/file-extensions/software/james-mccartney/supercollider/ http://msp.ucsd.edu/ https://mindbuffer.net/nannou http://www.am-cb.net/projets/hakanai https://nannou.cc/ https://doi.org/10.1109/mspec.1967.5217127 https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_00830 creative coding as a modern art tool asmati chibalashvili et al. 127 openframeworks. (2007). about. openframeworks. https://openframeworks.cc/ openrndr. (2022). about. openrndr. https://openrndr.org/about/ p5js. (2017). hello! home. p5js. https://p5js.org/ paul, c. (2017). цифровое искусство [difital art]. ad marginem. processing foundation. (2018, june 21). a modern prometheus processing foundation. medium. https://medium.com/processing-foundation/a-modernprometheus-59aed94abe85 processing. (2024). welcome to processing! processing. https://processing.org/ pure data. (2004). pd community site. pure data pd community site. http://puredata.info/ quintas, r. (n.d.). studio rudolfo quintas. studio rudolfo quintas. https://www.rudolfoquintas.com/ scherzinger, n. (n.d.). scherzimusic. scherzimusic. http://www.scherzimusic.com/intersax.html shiffman, d. (2009, august 23). interview with casey reas and ben fry. rhizome. http://rhizome.org/editorial/2009/sep/23/interview-with-casey-reas-andben-fry/ supercollider. (2014). index. supercollider. https://supercollider.github.io/ touchdessigner. (2008). touchdessigner features. touchdessigner. https://derivative.ca/ knotts, s., & armitage, j. (2018). algobabez: writing code, pushing buttons. dancecult, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2018.10.01.13 undev studio. (2017). about. undev studio. https://undev.studio/ vera molnar. (n.d.). about. vera molnar. http://www.veramolnar.com/ vvvv. org. (2006). a multipurpose toolkit. vvvv. org. https://vvvv.org/ zhang, y., & funk, m. (2021). coding art: the four steps to creative programming with the processing language (design thinking) (1st ed.). apress. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6264-1 https://openframeworks.cc/ https://openrndr.org/about/ https://p5js.org/ https://medium.com/processing-foundation/a-modern-prometheus-59aed94abe85 https://medium.com/processing-foundation/a-modern-prometheus-59aed94abe85 https://processing.org/ http://puredata.info/ https://www.rudolfoquintas.com/ http://www.scherzimusic.com/intersax.html http://rhizome.org/editorial/2009/sep/23/interview-with-casey-reas-and-ben-fry/ http://rhizome.org/editorial/2009/sep/23/interview-with-casey-reas-and-ben-fry/ https://supercollider.github.io/ https://derivative.ca/ https://doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2018.10.01.13 https://undev.studio/ http://www.veramolnar.com/ https://vvvv.org/ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6264-1 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 1, pages: 326-342 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/185 results of the examination of primary school students by means of speech therapy screening larysa zhuravlova¹, maria sheremet2, daria suprun3, svitlana fedorenko4, svitlana dubiaha5 1 bohdan khmelnytsky melitopol state pedagogical university, melitopol, ukraine, zhuravlova_larysa@mdpu.org.ua 2 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kyev, ukraine, fkpp@npu.edu.ua 3 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kyev, ukraine, darya7@ukr.net 4 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kyev, ukraine, fedorenkosvit@gmail.com 5 bohdan khmelnytsky melitopol state pedagogical university, melitopol, ukraine, svetlana_107@ukr.net abstract: the number of senior preschoolers with speech development below the norm on the eve of school education is growing steadily annually. updating the educational process organization, aiming at improving the efficiency and quality of primary school students education and, consequently, growing requirements for the level of their knowledge and skills, on the one hand, and the increase of the number of children with speech impairment, on the other, necessitate propedeutics of impairment and the development of special diagnostic tools. in this paper, we set an objective to analyze the reasons for which younger primary school students have difficulties in the process of written speech formation. the research is aimed at studying the level of the formation of basic processes and functions essential for literacy and writing skills acquisition. 240 primary school students were engaged in a pilot experiment aimed at assessing the efficiency of speech therapy screening. the traditional screening methods have always been the observation, conversation, but one of its modern methods is testing. the analysis of the results of the younger primary school students' frontal examination enables to state that in students from 1st to 4th grades there prevailed average level of formation of basic prerequisites and skills essential for writing skills teaching. according to the results of the study, we can affirm that the study of the degree of the formation of processes and functions essential for literacy and writing skills acquisition by means of speech therapy screening is an essential prerequisite of a comprehensive correction of the speech development of younger primary school students with dysgraphia, as it facilitates early identification of children from "risk groups" and those who have impairments of basic writing skills formation. keywords: senior pre-schoolers; younger primary school students; speech impairment; propedeutics of impairments; special diagnostic tools; written speech; writing skills formation. how to cite: zhuravlova, l., sheremet, m., suprun, d., fedorenko, s., & dubiaha, s. (2021). results of the examination of primary school students by means of speech therapy screening. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 326-342. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/185 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/185 mailto:zhuravlova_larysa@mdpu.org.ua mailto:fkpp@npu.edu.ua mailto:darya7@ukr.net mailto:fedorenkosvit@gmail.com mailto:svetlana_107@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/185 results of the examination of primary school students by means of speech … larysa zhuravlova, et al. 327 introduction modern education trends set high requirements for the quality of knowledge, the fundamentals of which are established already at the initial stage of school education. however, the level of speech development of primary school children does not always meet these requirements. unfortunately, the number of senior preschoolers with a speech level below the norm on the eve of school education is growing steadily annually. the success of education depends to a great extent on the patterns of children's development, in particular speech development, as with the increase in the study load, some difficulties may arise while mastering school subjects, including the acquisition of the written speech skills (zhuravlova, 2020; ahutina, 2008; bezrukykh, 2005; golub, 2014; nerubasska, 2020). specific writing impairments in schoolchildren are the most common evidence of difficulties of education and remain one of the most urgent problems of modern speech therapy. thus, the renovation of the educational process organization, orientation at improving the efficiency and quality of young primary schools students' education and, accordingly, the growth of requirements for the level of their knowledge and skills, on the one hand, and the increase in the number of children with speech impairments, on the other, necessitate propedeutics of impairments and development of special diagnostic tools. complete acquisition of written skills by a child in the conditions of normal ontogenesis and dysontogenesis occurs differently. thus, according to the researchers (bezrukykh, 2005; korniev, 2003; sadovnikova, 1997; melnyk, 2019; sheremet, 2019), in the systemic underdevelopment of speech there are evident either only speech impairments, or a combination of underdevelopment of speech with a violation of the formation of a number of important non-speech processes and functions. this naturally results in the lack of the functional basis of writing formation and the occurrence of preconditions for the development of various forms of dysgraphia as one of the specific impairments (m. bezrukyh, 2005; n. golub, 2014; e. danilavitchutie, 2012; o. korniev, 2003; i. sadovnikova, 1997; n. cherednichenko, 2012 and others). speech therapy is the first stage of the system of corrective work with younger students with dysgraphia. however, unfortunately, the specified speech pathology is diagnosed even when the child has persistent difficulties in learning. modern speech therapy practice reveals a great variety of mechanisms for disrupting the formation of writing skills in children and sets certain requirements for expansion of diagnostic tools. with this in brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 328 mind, it is necessary to organize the process of timely prophylaxy of writing skills impairments and their prevention while mastering written speech by younger students. we have suggested the approach based on prevention of manifestations of impairments, and not only on their discovery, in particular: timely diagnosis of the basic processes required for literacy acquisition and writing skills formation by means of speech therapy screening. from a medical point of view, the main purpose of screening tests is to identify early diseases or risk factors of the disease in a large number of virtually healthy people. the purpose of the diagnostic test is to establish the presence (or absence) of the disease, in case of positive screening results (ruf, morgan, 2008; onishchuk, 2020). d. creighton notes that the prognostic effect of screening (creighton, dewey, sauve, 1997; behas, 2019; maksymchuk, 2018) techniques is noticeable while monitoring a child by a certain program, including screening techniques for basic examination, focal screening tests, and multi-purpose tests for thorough children's examination. however, work with most of them requires special training. forecasting is necessary for the detection, timely correction or assistance in the development of children with high or moderate risk of impairments. thus, screening is aimed at the examination and detection of children who need further, more profound medical, psychological and pedagogical diagnostics. it should be noted that today there is shortage of screening techniques in the domestic speech therapy practice and their use is rather limited. therefore, in our opinion, the development and implementation of the screening methodology for determining the status of basic preconditions of writing is timely, since it may become an essential diagnostic tool in the work of both speech therapists and elementary school teachers. the objective of this paper is to analyze the reasons for which younger students have difficulties in the process of written speech formation. the research is aimed at studying the level of the formation of basic processes and functions required for acquiring literacy and writing skills formation. materials & methods the state of basic prerequisites for the formation of writing skills in younger primary school students was conducted by means of speech therapy in the period from 2016 to 2019 years. 240 younger primary school students (school # 249 in kyiv and tec # 16 in melitopol) participated in a pilot results of the examination of primary school students by means of speech … larysa zhuravlova, et al. 329 experiment to assess the efficiency of speech therapy screening. in the process of the experimental research there were examined 2534 pupils of 14th grades from schools in different cities of ukraine (sumy, kyiv, kolomyia, sloviansk, zaporizhzhya, kamyanets-podilsky, melitopol, lviv). the comparative analysis was employed to study predictive screening function. the traditional screening methods have always been the observation, conversation, however one of the modern methods is testing. in evaluating our achievement due to the specificity of our research, we studied the following testing characteristics: reliability, validity, discriminativity. reliability assessment is based on the calculation of the correlation between two sets of results of the same test or of its two parallel forms. the higher the correlation is, the more reliable the test is. a good coefficient of test reliability is considered to be the one which changes in the range of 0.8 < r < 1. since speech therapy screening performs chiefly a diagnostic function, we conducted it once without repetition on a certain number of pupils (240 people) to verify reliability. for this purpose, we employed the technique of splitting by rulon's formula (moroz, 2010) to assess reliability as internal consistency. the coefficient value is approximately equal to 0.99. this indicates that the test has a high degree of reliability. so, from this point of view, it is well-made. the reliability of the test is very high, that is, the methods used give correct (valid) results. validity characterizes the ability of methods to fulfil the tasks of assessment. it determines the degree in which the test reflects what it must evaluate. to assess the validity of the developed speech therapy screening methods, the correlation between test indices and certain external criteria was verified. to determine the validity an independent external criterion was needed, i.e. expert assessment (speech therapist, elementary school teacher). for the validity factor there is taken correlation coefficient of the test parameters and criteria. the validity of testing is checked by comparing test results of the examined students with expert — independent results of assessing the level of material assimilation by other methods: verbal survey, traditional test paper, examination or comparison of these results with assessment of current success. to determine the validity there are most commonly employed in practice different types of correlation analysis, the relationship between individual estimates according to the methods and assessment on the brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 330 criterion of validation. if the criterion index is the result of other (reference) methods and the both sets of data are normally distributed and may be recognized interval, pearson's correlation coefficient is used for the validity factor. for our research, most suitable is a comparison of empirical distribution with theoretical one, that is, to test the technique of speech therapy screening for the validity we use pierson's criterion, where the frequencies of these distribution series are compared, differences between them are distinguished and the probability of these differences is determined. this criterion is not recommended for the evaluation of small samples, since the sample volume must have a quantity. the criterion is measured in approximate values. the accuracy of the criterion rises at large n. let's compile statistical hypotheses: — experts' results and the total number of students' scores don't differ; — experts' results and the total number of students' scores differ. the number of degrees of freedom is the same. a variable value is , which equals on this condition, the hypothesis is accepted, that is, the experts' results and the total number of students' scores don't differ. this indicates that the validity of this test is high. discriminativity of the tasks is determined as the ability to separate the examinees with a high total number of scores for the test from those who received a low total number, or examinees with high scores from examinees with low scores. we used the method of extreme groups to calculate the discriminativity: while calculating discriminativity of a test assignment the results of the most and least successful respondents are taken into account. (the proportion of extreme groups' members may vary widely depending on the sample size. the larger the sample, the less portion of the examinees suffices when selecting the groups with high and low results. the lower limit of "clipping groups" is 10% of the total number of examinees in the sample, the upper — 33%.) in our research we have employed 27% group, as with this percentage ratio the maximum accuracy in the discriminativity distinction is achieved. the discriminating index has been calculated by the formula: results of the examination of primary school students by means of speech … larysa zhuravlova, et al. 331 where: nnmax — the number of respondents in the group of the best, fulfilled the assignment correctly; nnmin — the number of respondents in the group of the worst, fulfilled the assignment correctly; nmax — the total number of the examinees in the group of the best; nmin — the total number of the examinees tests in the group of the worst. the value of the discrimination coefficient may vary from -1 to +1. high positive value of the assignment task discriminativity indicates the efficiency of the distribution of examinees, high negative value indicates the unsuitability of this assignment for the test, its mismatch in the total number of scores. the obtained result of mathematical processing, d ≥ 0.7, (according to the results of each assignment's verification) is considered sufficient. thus, screening technique testing on the main test characteristics (reliability, validity, discriminativity) confirms the expediency of its application. results the analysis of the younger primary school students' frontal examination results allows to state that students from 1st to 4th grades have revealed the predominance of the average level of formation of basic prerequisites and skills necessary for teaching writing skills (fig. 1–5). in addition, in percentage value, its indicators gradually increase with the transition of the child to the following grades. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 332 figure 1. levels of formation of basic prerequisites and skills necessary for teaching writing skills thus, in the 1st grade, the percentage of pupils of average level is 30.7%. it should be noted that the average level for the children of this age is considered acceptable. these pupils, though not in full extent, have coped with the tasks of speech therapy screening. the age norm for first-graders is a sufficient level of the development of basic mental processes and functions required for writing skills formation (about 21.2% of pupils had this level). and the figures corresponding to the high level (10.4%) illustrate that first-graders strictly followed the instructions, easily distinguished phonemes in words and differentiated them correctly, defined the number of sounds in the word, correlated the perception of phonetic with the visualization of the letter. they also had a high level of the formation of visual-motor and auditory-motor coordination, visual-spatial perception, spatial and visual-spatial orientation. they could analyze the sample without assistance and acted on the model. all this provides them with the possibility of successful training in the future and easy acquisition of skills in academic disciplines. however, we should note that among the first-graders, there occurred many children with difficulties in basic writing skills formation and writing impairments – 37.7% of the examinees (indicators below the average and the lowest levels). we believe that these children may have persistent typological errors in writing in the future. that is why we these children were included into the "risk group". results of the examination of primary school students by means of speech … larysa zhuravlova, et al. 333 the greatest number of pupils with difficulties in basic writing skills formation and writing impairments are traced in the 2nd grade – 46% of the examinees had scores below the average (24.6%) and low levels (18.6%). they showed a low level of visual-motor coordination formation (inability to accurately reproduce the sample – a set of dots, difficulties in operating visual-spatial images (visual-spatial perception, spatial orientation), failure to adhere to instructions, inaptitude to analyze the sample and act on the model, as well as absence of phonetic processes formation. the examinees found it difficult to perceive and comprehend the linear sequence of sounds in words. that is the process of psychologically conditioned basic linguistic operations of writing in such students is carried out on the damaged and/or unformed basis. a little less number of students than in the 1st grade had an average level of scores (27%), however figures of the average level in the 2nd grade have revealed the imperfection of basic prerequisites of young primary school students writing skills formation. that is why we considered this group of children the "risk group". there were much fewer children who fulfilled all the assignments of speech therapy screening and had normative indexes of the formation of skills required for writing (sufficient level – 17.1% and high level – 12.3%). in the third grade the percentage of pupils with low figures of the basic prerequisites of writing formation is 30.6% (indicators below the average and low levels) and 31.2% – students of the "risk group", who did not cope with the assignments of speech therapy screening or fulfilled them with errors. quite a small number of younger pupils had scores corresponding to the high level (8.8%). the process of their written speech formation is carried out on the perfect basis. finally, we recorded normative results in 29.4% of pupils who showed an adequate level of the basic mental processes and functions development required for writing skills formation. as for the 4th grade pupils, there should be stated the absence of children with the low level of scores. it should also be taken into account that in the 4th grade there is observed the lowest percentage of pupils who have perfectly fulfilled all the assignments of speech therapy screening (6.3%). there were about 35.5% of the examinees with the sufficient level, the state of their basic writing skills formation corresponds to the age norm. however, the figures corresponding to the levels below the average (9.3%) and average (48.9%) revealed insufficient formation of the necessary prerequisites for teaching children of this age. this means that the younger primary school students' training is carried out on a deficient basis. on the basis of the speech therapy screening results, there were selected pupils of 1st grades with the difficulty in writing skills formation brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 334 (those were the children from the "risk group") and pupils of the 2nd-4th grades with the insufficient level of writing skills formation and writing impairments for the more detailed empirical research. the next year the re-examination of the 2nd grade pupils (ex-firstgraders) and the 3rd grade pupils (ex-second-graders) was carried out. the comparative analysis of the speech therapy screening results for younger primary school students of the 2nd grade (with their preliminary scores) reveals that the pupils either retained the same level of the skills essential for teaching writing, as in the previous year, or there was traced shift both for the higher and lower levels. figure 2. comparative analysis of the speech therapy screening results for younger primary school students of the 2nd grade results of the examination of primary school students by means of speech … larysa zhuravlova, et al. 335 figure 3. comparative analysis of the speech therapy screening results for younger primary school students of the 2nd grade we found out that the increase in teaching requirements resulted in the decrease of the percentage of children with high level (from 10.4% to 7.4%), there occurred certain increase in the number of children with sufficient (from 21.2% to 31.6%) and average level (from 30.7% to 36.8%). but, while in the first grade children with scores corresponding to the average level basic mental processes and functions formation were on the verge of acceptable, in the second grade they represent the "risk group" and constitute a significant percentage of pupils with difficulty in writing skills formation. in addition, the number of children with low indexes of basic writing skills formation (low level – from 15.1% to 6.04% and below the average level – from 22.6% to 18.08%), has decreased. still, the pupils who had difficulties in fulfilling all the assignments of speech therapy screening in the first grade are traced in the second grade as well. so, the earlier assumption was confirmed that the students who had an average level of the formation of the basic functions and skills essential for teaching writing in the first grade, show a low level of writing skills in the second grade. the comparative analysis of the speech therapy screening results for younger primary school students of the 3rd grade and their preliminary scores for the second grade showed similar changes in the indexes: increase in the sufficient (from 17.1% to 21.6%) and average levels (from 27.4% to brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 336 35.5%), and decrease in the high (from 7.8% to 12.3%) and low levels (from 18.6% to 14.2%). figure 4. comparative analysis of the speech therapy screening results for younger primary school students of the 3d grade figure 5. comparative analysis of the speech therapy screening results for younger primary school students of the 3d grade results of the examination of primary school students by means of speech … larysa zhuravlova, et al. 337 in the 3d grade there remains a significant percentage of children with the level below average (21%) and low level (14.2%), a slight decrease in their scores is traced. it should be noted that we have registered very few pupils of this age with normative indicators of basic writing skills formation (sufficient level – 21.6%, high level – 7.8%). consequently, the analysis of the speech therapy screening results has given us an opportunity to state in younger primary school students the imperfection of the functional and psychological basis of writing necessary for its formation. in the 1st grade there are a lot of children with nonformation of phonetic processes, motor function immaturity, reduced ability to automate and differentiate movements, immaturity of subtle movements kinesthetic control, absence of space perception and spatial orientation abilities, lack of coordination of development processes of visual and motor analyzers, insufficient development of self-control. discussion we have suggested an approach based on the prevention of manifestations of impairments, not only their distinction, namely: the timely diagnostics of the level of basic processes and functions formation, which indirectly influence the violations of the written speech formation, in particular writing skills, and therefore the performance of the formation intensification in the sensitive period of the younger primary school students' speech development on the earliest stage. we have grounded the speech therapy screening technique and determined the expediency of the introduction of the elaborated author's technique in comprehensive schools of ukraine. we have obtained new experimental data on the condition of basic prerequisites for writing skills formation for younger primary school students in comprehensive schools of ukraine. we have optimized the process of timely prevention of writing impairments while acquisition of writing skills by younger primary school students. the screening technique is an important diagnostic tool in both speech therapist's and elementary school teacher's activity and is implemented on the basis of their interaction. it provides timely recognition of speech impairments in children of primary school age. it helps to predict the potential difficulties in writing skills formation and clarify the causes and character of these difficulties. brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 338 conclusion thus, we have revealed that the main problem in first-graders is the absence of phonetic processes formation (starting with the touch level), remains and transforms into more complex mechanisms – immaturity of the analysis and synthesis mechanisms, traced in children up to the 4th grade. children are experiencing difficulty in distinguishing the sounds from the words and their differentiation. it is especially difficult for them to perceive and realize the linear sequence of sounds in a word, to operate visual-spatial images and reproduce the spatial relationship. this means that for a long time children of younger primary school age are forming a necessary basic level instead of forming more complex processes and functions of a higher level. the compensation processes occur at a low level, and higher levels remain unreformed. thus, up to the 4th grade younger primary school students compensate for the reduced level of elementary mental processes and basic functions formation, but the skills of a higher level are not being formed. we believe that this results in a large number of common mistakes. on the basis of the aforesaid, it is possible to draw conclusions, if pupils easily and independently perform speech therapy screening assignments, this proves their readiness to form the skills of writing and written speech. but, if children are experiencing difficulties with certain assignments phonetic processes formation, graphical-motor skills, visualmotor coordination and spatial orientation, as well as the development of the iconic thinking (necessary for mastering the symbolic designation of phonemes) and self-control, this indicates the insufficient formation of basic mental processes and functions, which indirectly influence the violation of the written speech formation, in particular writing skills. after all, any skill has its own specific spheres that must be in a state of readiness until its formation. in the process of initial writing skills acquisition, pupils face various difficulties caused by individual peculiarities of the development. for many children, given their individual psychophysiological peculiarities, inadequate (compared to the average development at this age) or dysharmonic formation of certain psychological functions, which are important for the process of writing skills mastering. we are conviced that, while studying in elementary school, it is necessary to take into account children's individual differences, especially their mental maturity and activity. in the case when there is no diagnostics of these individual characteristics, some pupils may first have difficulty in writing skills formation, and later – persistent dysgraphia may occur. results of the examination of primary school students by means of speech … larysa zhuravlova, et al. 339 in school educational institutions speech therapy screening can be performed during the routine preventive examinations of children by teachersspeech therapists. it is performed with the employment of previous teachers' data based on the results of their observations of younger primary school students' speech. screening diagnostics, implemented on the basis of interaction between elementary school teacher and teacher-speech therapist, provides timely recognition of speech impairments in children of primary school age. according to the screening results, the teacher is able to form a fairly complete picture of the imperfection basic prerequisites for writing formation or their violation, predicting the potential difficulties in writing skills formation, distinguishing the causes and character of these difficulties. organization of the process of timely prevention of writing impairments in the process of the acquisition of writing skills by younger primary school students, and therefore, the investigation of the condition of basic prerequisites for their writing skills is a prerequisite for successful teaching of primary school students. according to the results of the study, we can state that the study of the underlying processes and functions required for literacy acquisition and writing skills formation by means of speech therapy screening is an essential prerequisite for a comprehensive correction of speech development for younger primary school students with dysgraphia, as it allows as early as possible to identify children as "risk groups" and select those who have basic writing skills formation impairments. references behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19 (4), 13331340. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf bekebrede, j., vander leij, a. & share, d.l. (2009). dutch dyslexic adolescents: phonological-corevariable-orthographic differences. read writ 22, 133– 165. https://doi. org/10.1007 /s11145-007-9105-7 berninger, v. w., & amtmann, d. (2003). preventing written expression disabilities through early and continuing assessment and intervention for handwriting and/or spelling problems: research into practice. in h. swanson, k. harris, & s. graham (eds.), handbook of learning disabilities, newyork, ny: guilfordpress, 323–344. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/august2019/art%20193.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-007-9105-7 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 340 berninger, v. w., & berninger, v. w., richards, t. (2010). inter-relationships among behavioral markers, genes, brain, and treatment in dyslexia and dysgraphia. future neurology, 5, 597–617. doi:10.2217/fnl.10.22 borleffs, e., maassen, b.a.m., lyytinen, h. et al. (2017). measuring orthographic transparency and morphological-syllabic complexity in alphabetic orthographies: a narrative review. read writ 30, 1617– 1638. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9741-5 chanquoy, l. (2012). what writing is and how it changes across early and middle childhood development: a multidisciplinary perspective. in e. grigorenko, e. mambrino, & d. preiss (eds.), writing: a mosaic of perspectives and views, new york, ny: psychology press, 65–84 creighton d. e., dewey, d., sauve, r. s. (1997). a comparison of three infant developmental screening tests. journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics, 18, 361–362 diagnosis and screening diagnosis and screening index. revised by dr kelly mackenzie (2017). public health textbook. url: https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-text book/disease-causation-diagnostic/2c-diagnosis-screening/screeningdiagnostic-case-finding drijbooms, e., groen, m.a. & verhoeven, l. (2015). the contribution of executive functions to narrative writing in fourth grade children. read writ 28, 989–1011. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-015-9558-z early development of language by hand: composing, reading, listening, and speaking connections; three letter-writing modes; and fast mapping in spelling (2006). developmental neuropsychology/ v.w. berninger, r. d. abbott, j. jones and other, 29, 61–92 ekzhanova, ye. a.(2007). metodika i tehnologiya psihologo-pedagogicheskoy rabotyi na osnove ispolzovaniya diagnostiko-prognosticheskogo skrininga. [methodology and technology of the psychopedagogical activity on the basis of the diagnostic predicting screening test]. manual. saint petersburg, publishing house karo, 79. foy, j. g., & mann, v. a. (2012). speech production deficits in early readers: predictors of risk. reading and writing, 25(4), 799– 830. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9300-4 gilbert, ruth , logan, stuart, moyer, virginia a., elliott, elizabeth j. (2001). assessing diagnostic and screening tests. part 1. concepts. 174(6): 405– 409. doi: 10.1136/ewjm.174.6.405 hooper, s. r., costa, l. j., mcbee, m., anderson, k., yerby, d. c., knuth, s. b., children, a. (2011). concurrent and longitudinal neuropsychological contributors to written language expression in first and second grade https://doi.org/10.2217/fnl.10.22 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9741-5 https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/disease-causation-diagnostic/2c-diagnosis-screening/screening-diagnostic-case-finding https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/disease-causation-diagnostic/2c-diagnosis-screening/screening-diagnostic-case-finding https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/disease-causation-diagnostic/2c-diagnosis-screening/screening-diagnostic-case-finding https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-015-9558-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9300-4 https://dx.doi.org/10.1136%2fewjm.174.6.405 results of the examination of primary school students by means of speech … larysa zhuravlova, et al. 341 students. reading and writing: an interdisciplinary journal, 24, 221–252. doi:10.1007/s11145-010-9263-x hurschler lichtsteiner, s., wicki, w. & falmann, p. (2018). impact of handwriting training on fluency, spelling and text quality among third graders. read writ 31, 1295–1318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-0189825-x kornev, a. n. (1996). narushenie chteniya i pisma u detey. [reading and writing impairments]. manual. saint petersburg, publishing house "mim", 286. koss torkildsen, j., morken, f. helland, w.a., helland, t. (2016). the dynamics of narrative writing in primary grade children: writing process factors predict story quality. read writ, 29:529‐554. doi:10.1007/s11145-015-9618-4 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i. … savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18 (2), 810–815. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51 (1), 46–93. https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf miller, e. k., & cohen, j. d. (2001). an integrative theory of prefrontal cortex functions. annual review of neuroscience, 24, 167–202. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.167 miller, e. k., & cohen, j. d. (2001). an integrative theory of prefrontal cortex functions. annual review of neuroscience, 24, 167–202. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.167 murad, ruf, morgan, oliver (2008). differences between screening and diagnostic tests and case finding. 2c nelson assessment url : http://www.nelson.com/assessment/ (date of treatment : 12.12.2019) nerubasska, a., maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11 (2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 oerlemans, m. doodd, b. (1993) development of spelling ability and letter-sound orientation in primary-school children. european journal of disorders of communication, 28, 4, 349-367 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-010-9263-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9825-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9825-x http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/iunie2018/art%20119.pdf https://ipisr.org.rs/images/pdf/zbornik-51/natalija-meljnik.pdf https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.167 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.167 http://www.nelson.com/assessment/ https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 brain. broad research in march, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 1 342 experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 quinlan, t. (2004). speech recognition technology and students with writing difficulties: improving fluency. journal of educational psychology, 96, 337–346. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.96.2.337 raman, n., nagarajan, r., venkatesh, l., monica, d. s., ramkumar, v., krumm, m. (2019) school-based language screening among primary school children using telepractice: a feasibility study from india. international journal of speech-language pathology, 21, 4, 425434 doi: 10.1080/17549507.2018.1493142 rispens, j.e., mcbride-chang, c. & reitsma, p. (2008). morphological awareness and early and advanced word recognitionand spelling in dutch. read writ 21, 587–607. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-007-9077-7 sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., maksymchuk b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shipley, kenneth g., mcafee, julie g. (2015). assessment in speech-language pathology: a resource manual, 5th edition, 736. nelson assessment viersen, s., debree, e.h., kalee, l., kroesbergen, e.h., dejong, p.f. (2017).foreign language reading and spelling in gifted students with dyslexia in secondary education. readwrit, 30(6):1173‐1192. doi:10.1007/s11145-016-9717-x wagner, r. k., puranik, s., foorman, b., foster, e., wilson, l., tschinkel, e., & kantor-thatcher, p. (2011). modeling the development of written language. reading and writing: an interdisciplinary journal, 24, 203–220. doi:10.1007/s11145-010-9266-7 welsh, m., & pennington, b. (1988). assessing frontal lobe functioning in children: views from developmental psychology. developmental neuropsychology, 4, 199–230. doi:10.1080/87565648809540405 zhao, j., liu, m., liu, h., huang, c. (2018). increased deficit of visual attention span with development in chinese children with developmental dyslexia. sci rep. feb 16;8(1):3153. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-21578-5. zhuravlova, l., sheremet, m., dmytriieva, i., suprun, d. (2020). state of formation of motivation as one of the structural-functional components of speech development of primary schoolchildren with dysgraphia. international journal of psychosocial rehabilitation, 24, 08, 8985-8999. https://doi.org/10.37200/ijpr/v24i8/pr280893 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.96.2.337 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-007-9077-7 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-010-9266-7 https://doi.org/10.1080/87565648809540405 https://doi.org/10.37200/ijpr/v24i8/pr280893 microsoft word brain_1_4.doc 97 zusammenfassungen auf deutsch brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience gehirn. breitenforschung in der künstlichen intelligenz und den neurowissenschaften issn 2067-3957 band 1, heft 4 oktober 2010: “ herbst, 2010” www.brain.edusoft.ro chefredakteur: bogdan pătruţ 1. neues kombinations-scoring-system zur vorhersage von atemstillstand bei irakischen patienten mit guillain-barré-syndrom zaki noah hasan zusammenfassung das guillain-barré-syndrom (gbs) ist eine akute, nach entzündung auftretende autoimmune polyradikulo-neuropathie; es ist die am weitesten verbreitete periphere neuropathie, die atemlähmung verursacht. das ziel dieser studie ist die anwendung des neuen kombinationsscoring-systems, um mittels vorausmaßnahmen gegen die atemlähmung ausgewählte messungen zu schaffen, ohne erst notsituationen eintreten zu lassen. patienten und methoden: 50 patienten mit gbs wurden untersucht. acht klinische parameter (einschließlich der patientenprogression bez. max. schwäche, atmungsrate /min., des maßes bez. des atemanhaltens (als anzahl der ziffern, die der patient 'in einem atem' aufzählen kann), der anwesenheit von fazialmuskel-schwäche (unilateral oder bilateral), vorliegender schwäche des bulbärmuskels, schwäche des nackenbeugemuskels sowie gliederschwäche) wurden erhoben für jeden patienten, und ein bestimmter score wurde jedem parameter zugeteilt, ein konstruierter kombinierter score als konstruktion aus allen oben erwähnten klinischen parametern. ergebnisse und diskussion: 15 patienten (30%) unserer studie entwickelten atemlähmungen. es gab einen statistisch hochsignifikanten zusammenhang zwischen der entwicklung von atemlähmung und niederen score-graden (der bulbärmuskel-schwäche, des atemanhaltens, der nackenmuskel-schwäche, der schwäche der unteren und oberen gliedmaßen, der atmungsrate) und des gesamt-scores oberh. 16 von 30 (p = 0,000). kein statistisch signifikanter unterschied wurde gefunden bei der progression bez. max. schwäche (p = 0,675) und der fazialmuskel-schwäche (p = 0,482). schlussbetrachtung: die patienten mit kombiniertem score (oberh. 16 von 30) haben ein großes risiko der atemlähmung. 2. quo vadis, intelligente machine? rosemarie velik zusammenfassung artificial intelligence (ai) – künstliche intelligenz (ki) – ist ein zweig der computerwissenschaft, der sich mit computern befasst, die sich wie menschliche wesen verhalten. jedenfalls war dies die ursprüngliche idee. jedoch stellte sich heraus, dass dies keine leichte aufgabe war. dieser aufsatz will einen verständlichen überblick über die letzten 60 jahre der künstlichen intelligenz geben, aus philosophischer sicht. es wird dargelegt, was bisher in der ki geschah, was derzeit abläuft in diesem forschungsgebiet und was man in zukunft erwarten kann. ziel ist es, verständnis zu vermitteln für die entwicklungen und die veränderungen im denken brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, octobre 2010, "autumn 2010", issn 2067-3957 98 darüber, wie maschinen-intelligenz überhaupt erreicht werden kann. die klare botschaft ist: ki hat zusammenzugehen mit den neurowissenschaften und anderen disziplinen, die sich mit dem gehirn befassen, damit ein weiterer schritt in richtung auf wahrhaft intelligente maschinen geschieht. 3. vokabellernen zur leistungs-abschätzung der third-grader efl learners: ein fall von translation ali jahangard zusammenfassung es war das ziel dieser studie, ein modell zu entwickeln, um die performanz iranischer highschool-third-grader bei den tests zum end course achievement (eca) über ihre performanz bei den vokabel-tests zu ermitteln, die laufend während des kurses eingerichtet waren. um diesen abschluss zu erreichen, nahmen 32 lerner – im alter von 17 bis 19 – an dieser studie teil, die bis zu ihrem ende neun monate dauerte. die linguistischen fähigkeiten lagen näherungsweise auf dem intermediate-mid-niveau, entsprechend den actfl-leistungs-richtlinien (1998). das samplingverfahren war die methode der intact group. 333 lexikalische einheiten wurden den lernern beigebracht, nach der methode der dekontextualisierten paar-assoziativ-methode. die unterrichtseinheiten fanden während zweier stunden pro woche statt, in einer neunmonatigen zeiteinheit. sechs sets von vokabel-tests wurden eingerichtet, und der mittelwert eines jeden lerners wurde errechnet. die scores der lerner bei den eca-tests und ihre durchschnittlichen punktestände bei den vokabel-tests wurde analysiert über ein regressionsverfahren, um ein modell abzuleiten, das reliabel die scores der eca-lerner voraussagen konnte über deren durchschnittliche performanz bei diesen vokabel-scores. für die analyse war die folgende formel erforderlich: (durchschnittsvokabular × 0,713) + 2,871± [3,1]. 4. die auswirkung von test-angst auf die test-performanz bei iranischen efl-lernern parviz birjandi, minoo alemi zusammenfassung als affekt-faktor wurde die test-angst untersucht: in unterschiedlichen kontexten in den letzten beiden dekaden. jedoch zeigen die gemischten resultate des bezugs zwischen der test-angst und der test-performanz der l2-lerner, dass die instrumentation dieser test-angst und die dazugehörigen faktoren noch mehr forschungsaktivitäten erfordern, um dies genauer zu beleuchten. bisher wurden ein fragebogen zur erfassung der test-angst (sarason, 1975) [27] und ein allgemeiner englisch-test erstellt für 164 esp-maschinenbau-studenten, eingebettet in ein b.a.-programm, um (a) den grad ihrer test-angst, (b) den bezug zwischen test-angst und testperformanz sowie (c) die faktorenauswirkung von angst auf der basis explorativer faktorenanalyse zu dokumentieren. die ergebnisse zeigen, dass die test-angst der l2-lerner ziemlich niedrig ist, wobei die meisten dieser komponenten keine signifikant negative korrelation mit test-performanz aufweisen. die ergebnisse der explorativen faktorenanalyse zeigen die auswirkung von test-angst auf die einander eher überlappenden drei faktoren spezifischer testangst, allgemeiner test-angst und testvorbereitungs-angst. jedoch weist aufgrund dieser faktoren die allgemeine test-angst, da sie auf einem affekt-niveau höherer ordnung beruht, eine signifikant negative korrelation mit der test-performanz auf. im gegensatz dazu manifestiert sich die testvorbereitungs-angst, im hinblick auf die erleichternde test-performanz, in einer positiven, wenn auch nicht-signifikanten korrelation zur test-performanz. die ergebnisse zeigen zweierlei: (a) da die korrelationen und auswirkungen auf die test-angst-faktoren sich als sowohl vom negativen als auch vom positiven typus zeigten, ist der angst-erfassungsfragebogen nicht monolithisch, und somit ergibt er nicht eigentlich ein maß für den fall, dass der lineare bezug zwischen test-angst und test-performanz im fokus der studie steht; sowie (b): die test-angst scheint nicht viel einfluss auf test-performanz, auf dem mikro-testspezifischen niveau, zu zeigen. zusammenfassungen in deutsch 99 5. über die beziehung zwischen inputund interaktions-perspektiven psycholinguistischer, kognitiver und ökologischer art im zweitspracherwerb mohammad khatib, minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard resümee der sprachliche input ist eines der wichtigsten elemente im prozess des zweitspracherwerbs (sla; l2). wie gass (1997) ausführt, kann das lernen einer zweiten sprache nicht ohne den input irgendwelcher art stattfinden. von da aus wurden zu l2 bestimmte dinge aktiv diskutiert: zur input-natur und zum input-ablauf, so zur menge an input, die notwendig ist beim spracherwerb, zu verschiedenen input-eigenschaften und wie diese den spracherwerb erleichtern oder aber behindern, und zur vermittlungsmethode, die den input fördert. in diesem aufsatz wurden vier hypothesen und verfahren von input-prozessen beschrieben. es wird aufgezeigt, dass, obwohl die drei verfahren des triggerns, der input-hypothese und der interaktions-hypothese weitestgehend genutzt und akzeptiert wurden, ihnen doch die fähigkeit fehlt, ein ansatz für die dynamische natur von sprache zu sein. auf der anderen seite kann der aufwand eine solche natur der sprache erklären. der aufwand ersetzt daher fixed-eye vision durch mobile-eye-vision; ein aktiver lerner richtet sich mit der umgebung und innerhalb dieser umgebung ein. der lerner kann direkt perzipieren und agieren in seiner sprachumgebung, ohne sich durch einen prä-existenten mentalen apparat von schemata und repräsentation hindurchzulavieren, wohingegen dies nicht stimmt in bezug auf die fixed-code-theorie. bei der fixed-code-theorie der kommunikation wird vorausgesetzt, dass vorgefertigte botschaften am einen ende kodiert sind, übertragen und dann in identischer form am anderen ende wieder dekodiert werden. an dieser stelle benötigen wir eine konstruktivistische theorie zur konstruktion und interpretation der übertragenen botschaft. 6. computer-mathematik in der medizin angel garrido resümee künstliche intelligenz (ki) erfordert logik. aber ihre klassische version zeigt zu viele unzulänglichkeiten. so ist es sehr notwendig, raffiniertere tools einzuführen, wie z.b. fuzzy logic, modal-logik, nicht-monotone logik usw. [2]. unter dem, was ki zur darstellung benötigt, sind kategorien, objekte, eigenschaften, relationen zwischen objekten, situationen, zustände, zeit, ereignisse, ursachen und effekte, wissen über wissen usw. die probleme in der ki können unterteilt werden in zwei allgemeine typen [3, 4]: in suchprobleme und in repräsentationsprobleme. es gibt verschiedene wege, dies zu erreichen. so haben wir [3] logik, regeln, frames, assoziative netze, scripts usw. oft miteinander verbunden. auch wird es nützlich sein, bei der behandlung von problemen der ungewissheit und der kausalität, bayesian networks einzuführen und, vor allem, ein grundlegendes tool wie den essential graph. wir versuchen hier, das ausmaß der anwendung solch vielfältiger methoden aufzuzeigen, die derzeit in der medizin fundamental sind. 7. über einzigartige allgemeine fixpunkt-theoreme für 'three and four self mappings' im symmetrischen fuzzy-metric-raum saurabh manro zusammenfassung in diesem aufsatz prüfen wir zwei einzigartige allgemeine fixpunkt-theoreme für 'three and four self mappings' im symmetrischen fuzzy-metric-raum brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 145-157 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/273 neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders yuliia chystovska¹, olha bratanich2, ivan zhurakovskyi3, artur akopian4, olha izvekova5 1 the bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, psychology department, ukraine, j.chystovska@ukr.net 2 the bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, ukraine, bratanich_os@i.ua 3 the bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, ukraine, zhurakovskiy_i@ukr.net 4 the bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, ukraine, akopyanartur@ukr.net 5 the bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, ukraine, nightwish@bigmir.net abstract: the article analyzes one of the effective methods of neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders that arose as a result of nervous breakdown and under the influence of chronic stress. the interrelation between the influence of psychological factors and an inadequate emotional response to stress on the appearance of psychosomatic disorders is described. the classification of psychosomatic disorders, which include neurosis-like, conversion, somatomorphic and hypochondriacal disorders is considered. some aspects of the action of the mechanism of emotional burnout, which is the cause of the appearance of a complex of symptoms of psychosomatic disorders are analyzed. taking into account the individual neuropsychological (including characteristics of the encephalic asymmetry) and psychophysiological characteristics of the client with psychosomatic disorders, the neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders is described. the most significant conditions for the neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders are noted. a system of neuropsychological corrective measures has been drawn up for clients with emotional burnout, as a result of which psychosomatic disorders appear. keywords: central nervous system, emotional response, stress resistance, psychosomatic health, stressful situations, psychophysiological processes, emotional burnout. how to cite: chystovska, y., bratanich, o., zhurakovskyi, i., akopian, a., & izvekova, o. (2022). neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 145-157. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/273 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/273 mailto:j.chystovska@ukr.net mailto:bratanich_os@i.ua mailto:zhurakovskiy_i@ukr.net mailto:akopyanartur@ukr.net mailto:nightwish@bigmir.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/273 neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders yuliia chystovska, et al. 146 introduction in conditions of unstable social situations, job loss, prolonged deprivation of social needs against the background of emotional-phobic experience of pandemics, the problem of stress resistance and preservation of psychosamotic health has become one of the topical issues in applied science. from the point of view of the physiology of higher nervous activity, the parts of the central nervous system are responsible for satisfying human needs, as well as for providing various forms of behavior and emotional reactions. first of all, this is the limbic system, the mediobasal parts of the brain as a formation of the ancient, old and diencephalon of the cortex, which maintain close contacts with the reticular formation and nuclei of the diencephalon. when a person finds himself in difficult life situations with frustration of her actual needs, these parts of the brain can lead to dysfunctional disorders, and the nervous system can lead to long-term fatigue. this requires urgent neuropsychological correction at the bodily, cognitive, emotional and behavioral levels. high stress resistance in a person with an adequate emotional response and a strong nervous system is able to prevent negative emotions from starting psychophysiological reactions, which, under the influence of stress, “somatize” and turn into psychosomatics. however, there are circumstances (often a series of difficult stressful situations, professional crises, family problems and an unexpected loss of values at the same time) in which stress-resistant people themselves can have psychosomatic diseases. it is known that the nervous system is rather difficult to recover, but nevertheless, a neuropsychological corrective tool for recovering nervous processes at the psychophysiological, cognitive and emotional levels can replace drug treatment for certain psychosomatic disorders. in this connection, the study of the problem of neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders is extremely relevant in modern medical psychology and neurosciences (demchenko, 2021; prots, 2021; kosholap, 2021). the purpose of the article is to theoretically explain the tasks, content and features of neuropsychological correctional work with psychosomatic clients. the novelty and practical importance of the article lies in the identification of effective methods of corrective work with psychosomatic clients who have experienced chronic stress and received psychosomatic disorders against the background of emotional burnout. methodological aspects and methods of neuropsychic correction of psychosomatic disorders can be used in the clinical practice of medical brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 147 rehabilitation centers for the lend of medical, psychological and psychotherapeutic assistance to clients who show signs of professional burnout. in the practical work of medical psychologists, social workers, military psychologists and psychologists in the field of education, neuropsychological generalizations can be introduced. theoretical analysis of the study of the problem of neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders in modern psychosomatics and the scientific paradigm of psychocorrection, the influence of professional stress on the violation of an individual's adaptation to the requirements of the environment is analyzed. in this connection, there is a psychophysiological and psychological inconsistency between mental processes and the somatomorphic organization of the human body. in many primary sources, psychosomatic disorders are mentioned only as one of many psychological adaptation disorders that occurs as a result of emotional burnout in the workplace and under the influence of professional crises. burnout is associated with a loss of optimal efficiency, poor sleep, low emotional tone, constant fatigue, anxiety-depressive symptoms, manifestations of inadequate emotional reactions aggression, anger, irritation, which turn into a psychosomatic symptom. emotional burnout that accompanies professional burnout is characterized by the sequential development of increased nervous tension (vodopyanova, starchenkova, 2008; kokun 2013; chemali, ezzeddine, gelaye, dossett, salameh, bizri, dubale fricchione, 2019). according to f. alexander (1953), intense psychophysiological and emotional reactions as a factor in psychosomatic diseases can be caused even by conflicts and toxic relationships that are significant for a person. levels of stress, resistance, and emotional exhaustion can be caused by physical and mental stress. there is a loss of available mental resources, a decrease in emotional tone, a weakening of the nervous system, which manifests itself through: emotional shortage (development of emotional insensitivity against the background of overwork, minimization of emotional contribution to interaction, automatism, specialist burnout during the performance of professional duties; the appearance of irritability, resentment); emotional alienation (creating a protective barrier in communications; a person almost completely excludes emotions from the sphere of activity, he almost does not care about anything and almost nothing causes an emotional response neither positive nor negative, and neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders yuliia chystovska, et al. 148 this is not a defect in the emotional sphere, not a sign of rigidity, but an acquired emotional defense due to a long time of work with clients ); depersonalization (violation of relationships, the development of a cynical attitude towards those with whom a person should communicate when performing his professional duties); psychosomatic and psychovegetative disorders (deterioration of physical well-being, the development of psychosomatic and psychovegetative disorders such as sleep disorders, headaches, problems with blood pressure, gastric disorders, exacerbation of chronic diseases. even thoughts about work cause a bad mood, negative associations, insomnia, fear, discomfort in the heart, vascular responses, etc.) gridkovets (2018). psychotherapeutic methods are effectively used to recover psychosomatic health against the background of emotional and physical burnout, in particular, somatic and art therapy, which are able to support a neuropsychological level of health through training in visuospatial orientation, motor development, overcoming emotional stress, decreasing sensory and emotional discomfort. of course, the separation of soul and body can only be conditional. somatically preoccupied patients may have neurosis-like disorders and psychoses, such people often need psychotherapeutic help. depression and neurosis are often accompanied by impaired somatic functions, primarily vegetative. the transitional link of psychosomatic disorders is located between bodily and mental diseases, which are functional and proceed without organic changes in organs and tissues. this arises under the influence of a real or latent mental factor the strength of the manifestations of psychosomatics depends on its level. psychosomatic disorders react well enough to psychotherapy and poorly to drugs. in a broad sense, psychosomatic disorders include conversion and somatoform disorders, eating and secretion disorders, sleep and sexual function disorders. conversion disorders include pseudo-neurological disorders of the sensory and motor functions, somatoform disorders somatized and hypochondriacal disorders, somatoform vegetative dysfunction and chronic somatoform pain disorders. psychosomatic diseases are distinguished in the precise meaning of the word (organic psychosomatosis), they compose the "holy seven": essential hypertension, thyrotoxicosis, neurodermatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, bronchial asthma, ulcerative colitis and gastric ulcer, starshenbaum (2005). psychosomatic disorders have intense bodily manifestations of psychological problems (which persist for a long time). first, an internal brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 149 conflict between the conscious and unconscious personality structures arises or intensifies, which manifests itself in dissociation. then it finds a way out in the appearance of psychosomatic symptoms (release of psychological tension). for example, pain in the lower back is often accompanied by feelings of lack of help and support; pain in the upper back is quite often associated with moderate aggression; and pains in the lower abdomen accompany a variety of sexual neuroses. somatical pain disorder is a disorder characterized by pain, where psychological factors play a leading role in the onset, severity and duration of this pain, kulakov (2007). neuropsychological correction should be carried out taking into account the bodily localization of various pains, the correct definition of tense muscles and the specifics of the manifestation of psychosomatic symptoms and the nosological picture of the disease. g.v. starshenbaum (2005) in his work gave a detailed description of psychosomatic disorders and their psychotherapy in combination with neuropsychological techniques (relaxation, physical activity and motor); i.g. malkina-pykh (2005) examines psychosomatic theories and models, and also carries out a detailed analysis of effective techniques for psychocorrection and psychotherapy of psychosomatic disorders; the work of n.e. vodopyanova and e.s.starchenkovа (2008) presents a system of corrective measures for clients with emotional burnout, which can be successfully applied in the neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic symptoms; the precise aspect of the relationship between emotions and psychosomatics, as well as practical recommendations for avoiding psychosomatic disorders, was highlighted by p.v. evdokimenko (2020); o.o. khaustova (2010) carried out a detailed classification of psychoanalytic concepts of psychosomatic medicine and psychosomatic theories, as well as the development of a model for the formation and complex correction of psychosomatic illness. foreign scientists are actively exploring the methodological paradigm of psychosomatics, applied aspects of psychotherapy and correction. in modern foreign literature, hamida xardel-haddab (2009) described a model of maladaptive behavior with emotional reactions of aggression against the background of psychosomatic disorders, thomas n. wise (2014) interestingly noted about modern psychosomatics and methods of psychodynamic therapy, n. sonino, r. peruzzi (2009) analyzed the main psychosomatic theories and presented a biopsychosocial model of helping psychosomatic clients in certain aspects, g. j. taylor, r. m. bagby (2021) neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders yuliia chystovska, et al. 150 described the relationship of alexithymia and a certain spectrum of psychosomatic disorders, western researchers jeffrey burgdorf and jaak panksepp (2006) studied the relationship between psychoemotional stress and its weakening and systemic cerebral mechanisms, in particular, parts of the limbic system, cortex and subcortical formations (wilmar b. schaufeli, isabel m. martínez, alexandra marques pinto, marisa salanova, arnold b. bakker, 2002) describe the inappropriate emotional response of young people to stress, as well as signs of burnout (jamila geri tomaschewskibarlem, valéria lerch lunardi, aline marcelino ramos, rosemary silva da silveira, edison luiz devos barlem, carolina mirapalheta ernandes, 2013; eduardo motta de vasconcelos, charlene olive 2019) offer burnout prevention for young people. it certainly prevents psychosomatic disorders. first of all, the system of corrective measures of medical and psychological rehabilitation of patients is based on drug and physiotherapeutic rehabilitation of psychosomatic health. in the treatment of patients with psychosomatic diseases, an effective physiotherapeutic effect is electrosleep a method of electrotherapy. it is based on the effect of a pulsed current of low frequency and low strength on the central nervous system (brain), as a result of which a state close to physiological sleep takes place. the mechanism of action of electrosleep is a complex process that combines the direct and reflex influence of impulse current as a weak rhythmic stimulus to certain structures of the brain (subcortical formations, cerebral cortex). the impulse current penetrates into the cranial cavity and acts directly on the subcortical part of the brain, where the hypothalamus, nuclei of the optic hillocks, reticular formation, limbic systems, etc. are located. if the patient achieves a state of muscle relaxation and at the same time changes in circumstances from negative to comfortable (emotionally positive state), then his anxiety, stress and pain are blocked. in addition to listening to the sounds of nature, binaural rhythms were used to enhance this effect. physical factors also affect the functional systems of the body using the nervous system and with its help to stimulate selfrecovery processes. thanks to the principle of nervousism, which means the unity of the nervous and humoral ways, the influence of the energy of physical factors on the human body from molecular processes to the activity of the body as a whole is realized, savenkova (2018). according to the abovementioned neuron, physical and psychological methods, the psychological purposes of introducing a comprehensive medical-psychological program brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 151 are to recover the spirit, decrease anxiety and depression, and increase adaptation to stress. neuropsychological techniques for the recovery and correction of psychosomatic disorders include those that are often used in psychotherapeutic practice, for example, progressive muscle relaxation (jacobson's method). the tension of the corresponding muscle group corresponds to a different type of emotional response. for example, a depressive state is accompanied by tension in the respiratory muscles; fear muscle spasm, articulation and phonation. each part of the brain functions together with the peripheral neuromuscular apparatus and forms the cerebral neuromuscular circle. arbitrary relaxation allows to influence not only the peripheral, but also the central part of the circle. the aim of the method is to achieve arbitrary relaxation of the striated muscles at rest. the client is asked to establish which muscle groups are more tense with various negative emotions (fear, anxiety, excitement, embarrassment) or painful conditions (pain in the heart, increased blood pressure, etc.). then it is possible to learn how to prevent or block negative emotions or painful manifestations by relaxing local muscle tensions. the "bodily states" test can simultaneously be a method of correcting the condition of clients, it is used in group bodyoriented therapy: a complex of diagnostic gymnastics is preliminarily done, which is specially designed to activate the joints and spine, leading muscle patterns, both in statics and in dynamics; reproduction of bodily feelings in drawings, malkina-pykh (2005). in the prevention and overcoming of emotional burnout, n.e. vodopyanova and e.s. starchenkova (2008) use technologies that can be successfully introduced into a neuropsychological correction program to influence psychosomatic symptoms, namely: relaxation physical exercises, respiration exercises, sensory and mental stimulation techniques, mental desensitization, meditation, "toning" (an imaginary psychophysiological state that stimulates certain body functions – heart rate, arteriotony, motor, sensory and other functions; ideomotor training as imagination of motor actions that increase physical and emotional tone; imagination of situations that can cause an increase in psychophysical tone) regulation of vegatative processes (autogenous training, respiration exercises to control neuropsychic tension and mood). neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders yuliia chystovska, et al. 152 important conditions for the neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders in our opinion, neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders that arose against the background of emotional burnout, under the influence of unfavorable social situations, as well as professional crises and chronic professional stresses, should be carried out using the following methods: cognitive behavioral therapy, which aims to treat neurotic disorders; working with disturbing thoughts; effective mastering by the client of psychotechnics for neutralizing high anxiety and working with anxiety and optimizing the psychoemotional state at the emotional, cognitive and behavioral levels; the client gaining experience of self-regulation to overcome burnout; body-oriented therapy, which covers a complex of relaxation body techniques, as well as complex psychotherapy, taking into account the psychological characteristics of the client, his specificity and the individual neurophysiological and nosological level of psychosomatic disorders. significant is the expansion of the client's adaptive resources to overcome stressful situations and change the attitude towards it, as well as an increase the level of culture of personal psychohygiene. it is known that left-handed people can be prone to excessive burnout, which is associated with activation of the right hemisphere of the brain. it can be assumed that they may be susceptible to neurotic experiences of stressful situations against the background of disorders of hormonal metabolism. violation of self-regulation, psychophysiological characteristics, inadequate emotional reactions to chronic stress or crisis situations are reflected in the psychosomatic symptoms of "righthemispheric people", which, taking into account their individual, personal, psychophysiological and neurodynamic characteristics, need neuropsychocorrection. psychosomatic syndrome of the burnout can occur against the background of chronic stress, reactive depression, professional crises. to reduce the effectiveness of psychosomatic disorders of a broad spectrum, neuropsychological correction of emotional disorders can be effective. the study of interhemispheric connection in relation to emotional states showed that the right hemisphere is more associated with negative emotions (antropova, andronnikova, kulikov, kozlova, 2011). people with a dominant left hemisphere have a low tendency to depression and low anxiety, they are more emotionally stable and extroverted. we believe that " sinistrocerebral people" may be less susceptible to psychosomatic diseases, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 153 since their emotional response to stress is more adequate. moreover, it is not enough to take into account only the functional features of brain asymmetry for neuropsychological diagnosis and correction of psychosomatic disorders. however, complex neuropsychotic correction of emotional disorders can be effective. the most essential conditions for neuropsychological correction are: the presence of information collected by the neuropsychologist about the main factors of psychosomatic disorders, the characteristics of the client's emotional response to stress, his individual neuropsychological and psychophysiological indicators and nosological data; program development for neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders based on the collected data and determination of its effectiveness and approbation based on the use of an integrative psychosomatic approach to neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders. in addition, it is advisable to carry out neuropsychological correction in combination with psychotherapy, in particular, this the case of emotional disorders. as already noted, psychosomatic disorders are often accompanied by negative emotions that are “chronic” in nature, that is, they often arise in connection with stressful situations. for example, s.o. kulakov (2007) considers а resentment as a form of aggression, a manifestation of envy and hatred towards others, which are caused by a feeling of anger, dissatisfaction with a particular person or the whole world in general for real or contrived suffering. it is difficult to describe а resentment from the point of view of simple emotions; it is more appropriate and constructive to describe it from the point of view of object relations and their significance. systemic family psychotherapy helps the client to become aware of them, through which inappropriate emotional reactions weaken their effect and stop to support the effectiveness of psychosomatic disorders on the body as a whole. therefore, for the neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders of persons with emotional exhaustion (which can be typical mainly for representatives of the military sphere, teachers and doctors), it is necessary to monitor the symptom complex of psychosomatic illness and diagnose the psychophysiological information of clients, their mental and emotional state, neurophysiological characteristics of the central nervous system, working capacity, peculiarities of the course of mental processes, personal characteristics and functional reserves of the body; identify and reduce the intensity of the impact of stress factors on the body; apply neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders yuliia chystovska, et al. 154 individualized neuropsychological technologies in accordance with the investigated resources of the human body. conclusion the neuropsychological symptom complex of psychosomatic disorders is associated with neuroses, maladaptive mechanisms of psychological defense, inadequate emotional reactions, burnout of the nervous system. burnout syndrome often occurs under the influence of chronic stress, as well as in conditions of social deprivation of needs, the frustration of which causes such intensity and strength of emotional response that mental somatization occurs at the psychophysiological and neurohormonal levels. taking into account the neurophysiology of the origin of somatic diseases, one of the most effective methods of correcting mentally somatic disorders will be neuropsychological, it depends on the neurophysiology of the origin of somatic diseases. in conditions of chronic stress, the effectiveness of the psychological mechanisms of maladaptation can cause burnout syndrome, which is closely related to psychosomatic diseases and can deplete the nervous system. it is very important to carry out neuropsychological prevention and correction for this. this is an urgent problem in neurosciences, especially for the implementation of health rehabilitation programs in centers for the provision of medical and psychological assistance. references alexander, f. (1953). psychosomatic medicine: it's principles and application. konald. https://www.britannica.com/biography/franz-alexander#ref838920 antropova, l.k., andronnikova, o.o., kulikov, v. yu., kozlova, l.a. (2011). funktsional'naya assimetriya mozga i individual'nyye psikhofiziologicheskiye osobennosti cheloveka. in l. k. antropova, o. o. andronnikova, v. yu. kulikov, l. a. kozlova . meditsina i obrazovaniye v sibiri [encephalic asymmetry and individual psychophysiological characteristics of a person. l. k. antropova, o. andronnikova, v. yu. kulikov, l. a. kozlova // medicine and education in siberia]. novosibirsk, 3, p. 10. burgdorf, j., & pankseppa, j. (2006). the neurobiology of positive emotions. neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 30, 173–187. https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research/moleculartherapeutics-falk-center/documents/publications/45-neurobiologypositive%20emotions.pdf https://www.britannica.com/biography/franz-alexander#ref838920 https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research/molecular-therapeutics-falk-center/documents/publications/45-neurobiology-positive%20emotions.pdf https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research/molecular-therapeutics-falk-center/documents/publications/45-neurobiology-positive%20emotions.pdf https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research/molecular-therapeutics-falk-center/documents/publications/45-neurobiology-positive%20emotions.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 155 chemali, z., ezzeddine, f. l., gelaye, b., dossett, m. l., salameh, j., bizri, m., dubale, b., & fricchione, g. (2019). burnout among healthcare providers in the complex environment of the middle east: a systematic review. bmc public health, 19. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889019-7713-1 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 evdokimenko, p. v. (2020). psikhosomatika: samyye opasnyye emotsii [psychosomatics: the most dangerous emotions]. act publishing house. (doctor evdokimenko). [electronic resource] https://iknigi.net/avtor-pavelevdokimenko/194132-psihosomatika-samye-opasnye-emocii-pavelevdokimenko.html hamida, x.-h. (2009). névrose, psychosomatique et fonctionnement limité : approche clinique projective : du destin des pulsions agressives. psychologie. université nancy 2, français. https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/tel-01752704/document khaustova, o. o. (2010). psykhokorektsiya ta psykhoterapiya na etapi reabilitatsiyi patsiyentiv z khvorobamy systemy krovoobihu [psychocorrection and psychotherapy at the stage of rehabilitation of patients with diseases of the circulatory system]. ukrainian research institute of social and forensic psychiatry and addiction of the ministry of health of ukraine. http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua kokun, a. n. (ed.) (2013). psykhofiziolohichne zabezpechennya stanovlennya fakhivtsya u profesiyakh typu «lyudyna-lyudyna» [psychophysiological support of the formation of a specialist in professions of the "man-man" type]. kirovograd: imeks-ltd. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/1651/1/кокун_моногр_12.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kulakov, s. a. (2007). praktikum po integrativnoy psikhoterapii psikhosomaticheskikh rasstroystv [tutorial on integrative psychotherapy of psychosomatic disorders]. spb.: rech. http://www.medpsy.ru/library/library136.pdf malkina-pykh, i.g. (2005). psikhosomatika [psychosomatics]. eksmo. https://monster-book.com/download_ link/21932 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7713-1 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7713-1 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://iknigi.net/avtor-pavel-evdokimenko/194132-psihosomatika-samye-opasnye-emocii-pavel-evdokimenko.html https://iknigi.net/avtor-pavel-evdokimenko/194132-psihosomatika-samye-opasnye-emocii-pavel-evdokimenko.html https://iknigi.net/avtor-pavel-evdokimenko/194132-psihosomatika-samye-opasnye-emocii-pavel-evdokimenko.html https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/tel-01752704/document http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/ https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/1651/1/кокун_моногр_12.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 http://www.medpsy.ru/library/library136.pdf https://monster-book.com/download_%20link/21932 neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders yuliia chystovska, et al. 156 motta de vasconcelos, e., oliveira trindade, c., rodrigues barbosa, l., figueiredo de martino, m.m. (2019). predictive factors of burnout syndrome in nursing students at a public university. rev. esc. enferm. usp, 54. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220x2018044003564 osnovy reabilitatsiynoyi psykholohiyi: podolannya naslidkiv kryzy (2018). [fundamentals of rehabilitation psychology: overcoming the consequences of the crisis] (2018), 3, p. 236. l. gridkovets. https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/4/d/430841.pdf prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 savenkova, i.i. (2018). khronopsykholohichne prohnozuvannya psykhosomatychnoho stanu osib iz osoblyvymy potrebamy [chrono-psychological forecasting of the psychosomatic state of persons with special needs]. kiev university named after b. grynchenko. http://dspace.mdu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/856/1/савенкова _хронопсихологічне%20прогнозування%20психосоматичного%20ста ну%20осіб%20із%20особливими%20потребами.pdf schaufeli, w.b., martínez, i.m., marques pinto, a., salanova, m., & bakker, a.b. (2002). burnout and engagement in university students: a cross-national study. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022022102033005003 sonino, n., & peruzzi, p. (2009). a psychoneuroendocrinology service. psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 78(6), 346-351. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19713729/ starshenbaum, g. v. (2005). psikhosomatika i psikhoterapiya. istseleniye dushi i tela [psychosomatics and psychotherapy. healing of soul and body]. publishing house of the institute of psychotherapy. https://readster.me/storage/2020/10/starshenbaum_g_v_psihosomatik a_i.pdf taylor, g.j., & bagby, r.m. (2021). examining proposed changes to the conceptualization of the alexithymia construct: the way forward tilts to the past. psychother psychosom. y, university of toronto, toronto, on, canada. https://www.karger.com/article/pdf/511988 tomaschewski-barlem, j.g., lunardi, v. l., marcelino ramos, a., da silveira, r.s., devos barlem, e. l., mirapalheta ernandes, c. (2013). signs and symptoms of the burnout syndrome among undergraduate nursing students, text context nursing, florianópolis. http://www.index-f.com/textocontexto/2013pdf/e22754.pdf https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220x2018044003564 https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/4/d/430841.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 http://dspace.mdu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/856/1/савенкова_хронопсихологічне%20прогнозування%20психосоматичного%20стану%20осіб%20із%20особливими%20потребами.pdf http://dspace.mdu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/856/1/савенкова_хронопсихологічне%20прогнозування%20психосоматичного%20стану%20осіб%20із%20особливими%20потребами.pdf http://dspace.mdu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/856/1/савенкова_хронопсихологічне%20прогнозування%20психосоматичного%20стану%20осіб%20із%20особливими%20потребами.pdf https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022022102033005003 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19713729/ https://readster.me/storage/2020/10/starshenbaum_g_v_psihosomatika_i.pdf https://readster.me/storage/2020/10/starshenbaum_g_v_psihosomatika_i.pdf https://www.karger.com/article/pdf/511988 http://www.index-f.com/textocontexto/2013pdf/e22-754.pdf http://www.index-f.com/textocontexto/2013pdf/e22-754.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 157 vodopyanova, n. e., & starchenkova, e. s. (2008). sindrom vygoraniya: diagnostika i profilaktika [burnout syndrome: diagnostics and prevention]. piter; spb. http://kingmed.info/media/book/3/2930.pdf wise, t.n. (2014). psychosomatics: past, present and future. psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 83. https://www.karger.com/article/pdf/356518 http://kingmed.info/media/book/3/2930.pdf https://www.karger.com/article/pdf/356518 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 273-289 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/343 submitted: december 15th, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 comprehensive psychological analysis of the features of emotional burnout among it specialists: the ukrainian labor market yuliia rybinska 1 , oleksandra loshenko 2 , taisa kyrylenko 3 , veronika kondratieva 4 , olha serbova 5 , oksana stebaieva 6 1 doctor of science (dr hab) in education, professor, head of foreign philology department, kyiv national university of culture and arts (kyiv, ukraine) julialeo1619@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2185-7890 2 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of experimental and applied psychology. taras shevchenko national university of kyiv (kyiv, ukraine), psiholog3003@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3303-3162 3 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of general psychology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv (kyiv, ukraine), https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9079-9722 4 phd (philosophy), associate professor, department of experimental and applied psychology. taras shevchenko national university of kyiv (kyiv, ukraine), https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6588-6960 abstract: the article includes an analysis of the symptoms (occurred at the stages of formation) of emotional burnout of it workers in the labor market of ukraine in accordance with experience in the profession, type of programming backend, frontend and kind of work organization involving absence and presence of communication with the client within the project. the use of the method of victor boyko determined the symptoms of emotional burnout. the study involved 75 programmers, divided into three groups based on the duration of professional experience including up to 5 and 10 years, and more than 10 years. the study revealed the opposite trend between work experience and the main symptoms of emotional burnout occurring at the already formed stage and the phases of “resistance” and “exhaustion” marked by the decrease in the percentage of formed symptoms and increase in the percentage of symptoms at the stage of formation. the frontend group demonstrated the most pronounced symptoms of emotional burnout as a manifestation of the simplification of emotional emphasis in the profession. the backend showed the symptoms of emotional burnout as a manifestation of the simplification of professional responsibilities. the severity of symptoms of psychosomatic and psych vegetative disorders and self-dissatisfaction occurred in the frontend group at the stage of symptoms formation of emotional burnout. the research did not show the already formed symptoms in this group. the project revealed a higher percentage of symptoms of emotional burnout in the phases of "resistance «and "exhaustion" in the group having no communication with the client, than in the group with communication with the client. keywords: burnout, it specialists, emotional burnout, it market. how to cite: rybinska, y., loshenko, o., kyrylenko, t., kondratieva, v., serbova, o., & stebaieva, o. (2022). comprehensive psychological analysis of the features of emotional burnout among it specialists: the ukrainian labor market. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 273-289. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/343 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/343 mailto:julialeo1619@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2185-7890 mailto:psiholog3003@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3303-3162 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9079-9722 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6588-6960 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/343 5 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of applied psychology and speech therapy, berdiansk state pedagogical university (berdiansk, ukraine), https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8131-7506 6 lecturer, foreign philology department, kyiv national university of culture and arts (kyiv, ukraine) oksibella@icloud.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0977-6820 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8131-7506 mailto:oksibella@icloud.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0977-6820 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 275 1. introduction in 2017, 64% of ukrainians noted that they were in a state of emotional burnout. only 5% of ukrainian citizens did not experience this state by showing disappointing indicators (dudyak, 2007). the dissatisfaction with work was the main cause of this syndrome. lack of professional development and career growth were also important factors. unfortunately, many employers, top management of companies, and even team leaders of the departments do not understand the importance of stress at work, the general psychological climate in the team and company, and the importance of rest and recovery at the strategic level. every employee should work in a positive psychological climate to show productive work by bringing personal satisfaction, and the company's success in the market. the ukrainian it market doubled during 2016-2020 to 184,700 it professionals. by the end of 2019, labor market statistics in ukraine showed that the number of able-bodied people working in it has increased by 18% (stasiuk, 2017). nowadays, it is difficult to overestimate the fact that the it sector is developing quite rapidly in the world including ukraine. accordingly, a large number of jobs and a variety of vacancies for professionals with experience and without it occurred. since the it sector has recently begun to gain rapid popularity in ukraine, publications and studies showing the psychological characteristics of it workers and a set of characteristics needed to work in this field have not existed yet. brooks, weinberg, wirth, dijkstra, mcconnell, smulson, volkonskaya, babayeva took part in the study of personal characteristics of it workers. certain publications on the issue of professional and emotional burnout, research on stress resilience, leadership skills and communication skills in employees in this field emerged. thus, the works of such foreign and domestic psychologists as burish, jackson, selye, dion, maslach, boyko, vodopyanova, karamushka, zaychikova, lozhkin, levitska, orel, formanyuk, and maksymenko dedicated to the problem of burnout, content, and structure of this phenomenon occurred. the activities in a constantly developing field caused a constant increase in attention to detail and change, anxiety of the unknown (sandu et al., 2017) and constant learning activity. after all, the knowledge gained a year ago in the courses becomes obsolete in the current moment in technology. one of the causes of job burnout among software developers is the pressure they experience in meeting impending deadlines (rezvania & khosravi, 2019). if the specialist works in such conditions of the working environment, it causes a great burden on the emotional background of the comprehensive psychological analysis of the features of emotional burnout... yuliia rybinska et al. 276 individual. by the way, one of the factors in the development of emotional burnout is determined by the low level of emotional intelligence and, as a consequence, reduced ability of developers to self-regulate their feelings and understandings. in addition, the most common factor in emotional burnout in the it field is work overload, namely the uneven distribution of work of it workers, life from contract to contract (nagaraj & mahadevan, 2015). “every employee is aware that stress can be a fire of joy from the work done. but if the worker does not have the resources to manage and control this fire, he can "burn out": freudenberg writes (freudenberger, 1974). therefore, the study of the psychological characteristics of emotional burnout among it professionals is relevant by bringing it business companies to a new level of development in the management of work. an analysis of emotional burnout and its manifestations occurred under the impact of the ideas of emotional burnout by maslach, as a threedimensional construct including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduction of personal achievements (maslach & leiter, 1997). the main component of emotional burnout involves emotional exhaustion manifesting itself in a low background, indifference, or emotional oversaturation. according to boyko, vodopyanova, and karamushko, burnout is an acquired stereotype of emotional and often professional behavior associated with the dosage of energy resources and the negative impact on the performance of professional activities in the form of a professional deformation of the specialist (boyko, 1999; vodopyanova, 2005). 2. methods various companies, including outsourcing and product enterprises in the city of kyiv and lviv, became the basis for the study of the psychological features of emotional burnout among it workers. the sample for the empirical study involves 75 programmers aged 20 to 41. the study occurred anonymously in the period from january 27 to february 4, 20202021. the average experience of respondents was equal to 6 years. among the respondents included 14 women and 61 men reflecting the gender distribution in this area of activity. the group of correspondents working from home made up 83% of all participants in the experiment. they emphasized the relevance of this topic for them at the moment. the methodology of "diagnostics of the level of emotional burnout" by boyko turned into a foundation for the study (maksymenko et al., 2004). boyko's method of "diagnosis of the level of emotional burnout" is the most complex approach compared to the works of other ukrainian broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 277 authors (raigorodsky, 1998). it allows the audience to analyze the severity of twelve individual symptoms of "emotional burnout" systematically and in detail. they include individuals experiencing traumatic circumstances, selfdissatisfaction, cornering, anxiety and depression, inadequate selective emotional response, emotional and moral disorientation, emotions, reduction of professional responsibilities, emotional deficit, emotional alienation, personal alienation or depersonalization, psychosomatic and psych vegetative disorders. this emphasizes the procedural nature of the emotional burnout syndrome. we find similar views in matthias burisch's book the burnout syndrome (burisch, 1994). this technique consists of a questionnaire of 84 statements (for example, 7 signs for each of the 12 symptoms). the respondent should give an answer in the form "yes" or "no" to each statement. this technique is the most comprehensive way by showing the features of the manifestation of emotional burnout in a particular person. it also detects the presence of psychosomatic and psychotic vegetative disorders. this approach makes it possible to reveal the formed symptoms and during the process of their formation. the analysis of the various symptoms assesses the development of emotional burnout. it is possible to give a broad description of personality and prescribe prevention and psych correction measures based on the consideration of the content and quantitative indicators calculated for different symptoms and phases of the formation of the "burnout" syndrome. 3. results the research conducted by the method of descriptive statistics resulted in the analysis of the peculiarities of the formation of symptoms of emotional burnout among programmers depending on the duration of their working experience: 1-4 years (i group of respondents), 5-10 years (ii group of respondents) and more than 10 years (iii group of respondents). the peculiarities of emotional burnout in backend and frontend developers were also studied. the sample includes indicators based on the interaction with the client and customer ordered the project or its absence (i and ii groups of respondents, respectively). comprehensive psychological analysis of the features of emotional burnout... yuliia rybinska et al. 278 table 1. phases and symptoms of emotional burnout of programmers by work experience (i and ii groups) results % group i programmers (experience 1-4 years) group ii programmers (experience 5-10 years) phases and symptoms unformed at the stage of formation formed unformed at the stage of formation formed experiencing traumatic circumstances: 62% 14% 24% 70% 11% 19% selfdissatisfaction: 81% 19% 0% 81% 15% 4% hopelessness: 76% 19% 5% 93% 7% 0% anxiety and depression: 52% 14% 33% 67% 15% 19% emotional tension: 71% 5% 24% 85% 7% 7% inadequate selective emotional response: 24% 33% 43% 33% 41% 26% emotional and moral disorientation: 38% 29% 33% 56% 37% 7% expansion of areas of saving emotions: 67% 10% 24% 52% 19% 30% reduction of professional responsibilities: 38% 24% 38% 44% 22% 33% resistance phase: 33% 38% 29% 44% 37% 19% emotional deficit: 33% 48% 19% 52% 30% 19% emotional alienation: 29% 33% 38% 30% 48% 22% broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 279 personal alienation (depersonalization): 76% 10% 14% 81% 7% 11% psychosomatic and psycho vegetative disorders: 67% 24% 10% 78% 19% 4% depletion phase: 62% 19% 19% 74% 15% 11% according to the results presented in table 1, we can observe that a small number of specialists have complete or partial formation of symptoms and phases of emotional burnout. the first component called "stress" indicates a sense of influence of stressors causing emotional exhaustion and fatigue during professional activities. it has certain symptoms including experiencing traumatic circumstances (group i 24%, group ii 19%, group iii 14%). this symptom is most pronounced among programmers with up to 5 years of experience and decreases in proportion to the experience growth. self-dissatisfaction (group i-0%, group ii-4%, group iii-0%) occurs due to a large number of failures. the programmers begin to feel dissatisfied with their performance, professional activities or the position in the project. such low percentages may indicate the symptom that is uncommon for burnout of programmers. we can say that they enjoy work regardless of the situation. hopelessness (group i 5%, group ii 0%, group iii 0%) means the presence of a symptom in 5% of developers with experience up to 5 years. the professionals at the start of a career more often face stress factors making them feel critical of the situation and think about changing jobs. anxiety and depression (group i 33%, group ii 19%, group iii 0%) decreases with increasing experience. the high percentage of symptoms means that young people are more vulnerable to fear of making a mistake. they make every effort to achieve the next level of professional development. comprehensive psychological analysis of the features of emotional burnout... yuliia rybinska et al. 280 table 2. phases and symptoms of emotional burnout of programmers by work experience (iii group) results % group ііі programmers (more than 10 years of experience) phases and symptoms unformed at the stage of formation formed experiencing traumatic circumstances: 86% 0% 14% self-dissatisfaction: 86% 14% 0% hopelessness: 100% 0% 0% anxiety and depression: 71% 29% 0% emotional tension: 100% 0% 0% inadequate selective emotional response: 0% 71% 29% emotional and moral disorientation: 29% 43% 29% expansion of areas of saving emotions: 57% 29% 14% reduction of professional responsibilities: 43% 43% 14% resistance phase: 14% 86% 0% emotional deficit: 57% 29% 14% emotional alienation: 43% 57% 0% personal alienation (depersonalization): 100% 0% 0% psychosomatic and psycho vegetative disorders: 71% 14% 14% depletion phase: 71% 29% 0% broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 281 the second component of the syndrome includes "resistance" showing its special symptoms. the peculiarities of the symptoms of this phase involve inadequate selective emotional response (group i 43%, group ii 26%, group iii 29%) when the specialist no longer understands the difference between "economic" expression of emotions and inadequate selective emotional response by becoming strong enough to limit his/her emotional impact. this approach affects the mood and reaction of colleagues, conflicts by causing complaints. the employees with up to 5 years of experience are most affected. emotional and moral disorientation (group i 33%, group ii 7%, group iii 29%) emerges at the stage of career development. it is more difficult for programmers to cope with a proper emotional attitude due to the working experience of more than 10 years. a large amount of accumulated communication experience has an impact on the situation. the expansion of the sphere of saving emotions (group i 24%, group ii 30%, group iii 14%) is the most pronounced symptom among programmers with experience from 5 to 10 years. reduction of professional responsibilities (group i 38%, group ii 33%, group iii 14%) demonstrates a low percentage of symptoms among programmers with more than 10 years of experience by having the qualification level of a senior or technical worker of this level. the third component called "exhaustion" involves a pronounced drop in overall energy tone and complete or partial weakening of the nervous system based on other physiological problems of the body. our study revealed certain features of symptoms including emotional deficit (group i 19%, group ii 19%, group iii 14%). it involves a low level of formation of this symptom indicating its insignificant meaning in the burnout syndrome among it workers. the emotional alienation (group i 38%, group ii 22%, group iii 0%) represents a weakened emotional control of specialists during the first 5 years of work. the personal alienation (depersonalization) (group i 14%, group ii 11%, group iii 0%) shows low rates correlated with the symptom of emotional deficit. people working with technology and emotional deficit and alienation are almost unproductive. psychosomatic and psych vegetative disorders (group i 10%, group ii 4%, group iii 14%) represent the data indicating an increase in the percentage of symptom formation relative to the increase in experience. comprehensive psychological analysis of the features of emotional burnout... yuliia rybinska et al. 282 table 3. phases and symptoms of emotional burnout of programmers by types of programming results % group i programmers (backend developers) group ii programmers (frontend developers) phases and symptoms unformed at the stage of formation formed unformed at the stage of formation formed experiencing traumatic circumstances: 74% 13% 13% 63% 8% 29% self-dissatisfaction: 90% 6% 3% 71% 29% 0% hopelessness: 90% 10% 0% 83% 13% 4% anxiety and depression: 65% 26% 10% 58% 4% 38% emotional tension: 94% 3% 3% 67% 8% 25% inadequate selective emotional response: 26% 52% 23% 25% 29% 46% emotional and moral disorientation: 52% 29% 19% 38% 42% 21% expansion of areas of saving emotions: 52% 23% 26% 67% 8% 25% reduction of professional responsibilities: 45% 26% 29% 38% 25% 38% resistance phase: 35% 48% 16% 38% 38% 25% emotional deficit: 42% 39% 19% 50% 33% 17% emotional alienation: 42% 39% 19% 17% 50% 33% personal alienation (depersonalization): 90% 6% 3% 71% 8% 21% psychosomatic and psycho vegetative disorders: 84% 10% 6% 58% 33% 8% depletion phase: 74% 23% 3% 63% 13% 25% broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 283 table 3 shows the distribution of the percentage of symptoms based on the type of programming including backend or frontend developers. in software engineering, the terms "frontend" and "backend" are distinguished by the principle of division of responsibilities between the level of presentation of information to the user and the level of access to data. frontend is an appearance for user-backend interaction. backend is a part of the system that is invisible to the user by containing all the logical connections needed to interact with the system (for example, a platform, mobile application or website). depending on the type of programming, certain features of the symptoms of emotional burnout of the first component occurred. they included the experience of traumatic circumstances (group i 13%, group ii 29%). this emotional burnout syndrome is common among frontend programmers. the self-dissatisfaction (group i – 3%, group ii-0%) does not dominate among the programmers of the second group. this symptom is also rarely manifested in backend specialists. "hopelessness" (group i 0%, group ii 4%) does not appear among backend developers. a small percentage of its manifestation occurred among programmers working with the visualized material. anxiety and depression (group i 10%, group ii 38%) are common for frontend programmers having a high level of depressive symptoms aggravating the emotional state of the individual. the following indicators occurred during the second phase of the formation of emotional burnout including inadequate selective emotional response (group i 23%, group ii 46%). in the second group of programmers, the emotional impact is more limited by increasing the number of conflicts in the group. emotional and moral disorientation (group i 19%, group ii 21%) is common for the programmers of both groups equally. they experience difficulties during the interaction with colleagues and business partners. the expansion of the sphere of saving emotions (group i 26%, group ii 25%) is not typical for this group of programmers. the reduction of professional responsibilities (group i 29%, group ii 38%) shows that representatives of the backend direction are more responsible for the performance of their duties. the empirical study revealed significant differences in the "exhaustion" phase for the two groups of developers on the scales "emotional alienation" and "personal alienation". according to the scale of emotional deficit, group i and group ii of developers noted slight differences in indicators, 19% and 17%, respectively. weakening of emotional control is common for frontend programmers by showing a rate of 33% in contrast to backend specialists with a quantitative comprehensive psychological analysis of the features of emotional burnout... yuliia rybinska et al. 284 value of 19%. significant differences also become noticeable between the two groups in terms of personal alienation, group i 3%, group ii 21%. on the scale of psychosomatic and psych vegetative disorders no significant differences occur (group i 6%, group ii 8%). table 4. phases and symptoms of emotional burnout of programmers by type of organization of work on the project results % group i programmers “do not communicate with the client/customer ” group ii programmers “communicate with the client/customer” phases and symptoms unformed at the stage of formation formed unformed at the stage of formation formed experiencing traumatic circumstances: 60% 10% 30% 74% 11% 14% self-dissatisfaction: 80% 20% 0% 83% 14% 3% hopelessness: 90% 5% 5% 86% 14% 0% anxiety and depression: 50% 15% 35% 69% 17% 14% emotional tension: 65% 10% 25% 91% 3% 6% inadequate selective emotional response: 20% 50% 30% 29% 37% 34% emotional and moral disorientation: 55% 25% 20% 40% 40% 20% expansion of areas of saving emotions: 60% 15% 25% 57% 17% 26% reduction of professional responsibilities: 35% 45% 20% 46% 14% 40% resistance phase: 40% 40% 20% 34% 46% 20% emotional deficit: 45% 35% 20% 46% 37% 17% emotional alienation: 35% 45% 20% 29% 43% 29% personal alienation (depersonalization): 75% 5% 20% 86% 9% 6% broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 285 psychosomatic and psycho vegetative disorders: 65% 30% 5% 77% 14% 9% depletion phase: 65% 15% 20% 71% 20% 9% depending on the type of work organization marked by the presence and absence of communication with the client, we noticed certain features in the indicators of emotional burnout. in the first phase called "stress" the particular indicators showed the experience of traumatic circumstances (group i 30%, group ii 14%), self-dissatisfaction (group i 0%, group ii 3%), hopelessness (i group 5%, group ii 0%), anxiety and depression (group i 35%, group ii 14%). thus, programmers who do not communicate with clients are more anxious. they have elevated levels of nervous tension, accumulation of accumulated irritation and indignation, and more frequent manifestations of the depressive spectrum. in the second phase of emotional burnout, significant shifts emerged. in general, the following data on the scales included inadequate selective emotional response (group i 30%, group ii 34%); emotional and moral disorientation (group i 20%, group ii 20); expansion of the sphere of saving emotions (group i 25%, group ii 26%); reduction of professional responsibilities (group i 20%, group ii 40%). significant differences emerged only in the indicators of the scale "reduction of professional responsibilities". it means the need to increase the level of communication with the client. it has a tendency to relieve or reduce responsibilities that require emotional expenditure. this situation can cause frequent breaks, and delays at work. the results of the study affected by the method of diagnosing the level of "emotional burnout" by boyko made it possible to assess the differences in the third component of emotional burnout depending on the type of work organization on the specific scales including emotional deficit (group i 20%, group ii 17%); emotional alienation (group i 20%, group ii 29%); personal alienation (group i 20%, group ii 6%); psychosomatic and psych vegetative disorders (group i 5%, group ii 9%). the scale "personal alienation" shows a tendency to increase anxiety and emotionlessness in the sample of respondents who do not communicate with clients. the symptom of emotional alienation is dominant in the phase of exhaustion for both groups of respondents. the study shows an analysis of the features of the symptoms at the stage of their formation (table 1,2,3,4). the tendency of severity of burnout symptoms at the stage of their formation in programmers, depending on the comprehensive psychological analysis of the features of emotional burnout... yuliia rybinska et al. 286 length of working experience, has certain differences. with experience, the percentage of symptoms at the stage of "resistance" increases involving inadequate selective emotional response (1 group 33%, 2 group 41%, 3 group 71%); emotional and moral disorganization (1 group 29%, 2 37%, 3 43%); reduction of professional responsibilities (1 group 24%, 2 22%, 3 43%), and stages of "exhaustion" implying emotional alienation (1 group 33%, 2 48%, 3 57%). the symptom of emotional deficit at the stage of formation decreases with experience (1 group 48%, 2 30%, 3 29%). thus, this symptom has specific characteristics and as formed, and as one that is in the process of formation, namely confirmed the vulnerability of programmers with up to five years of experience to acquire emotional protection including indifference, and callousness as possible factors of emotional burnout. at the beginning of the career, the absence of the skills of emotional complicity, intellectual, and volitional return has a significant impact. as individuals become older, the professionals begin to develop the skills to limit the range of emotional returns leading to attempts to reduce professional responsibilities. this symptom is most pronounced at the stage of its formation in programmers for more than 10 years. an increase in the percentage of symptoms at the stage of their formation reveals a hidden potential for the development of emotional burnout of it professionals with increasing experience of their work. it has a negative influence on the effectiveness of the programmers by leading them to professional deformation. an analysis of the presence of symptoms of emotional burnout among it employees, based on the type of programming involving frontend and backend showed the severity at the stage of formation of the already mentioned symptoms in both groups. the appearance of psychosomatic and psych vegetative disorders in the phase of "stress" showed the symptom of dissatisfaction with oneself (29%). it was undetected among the programmers with the formed symptom. this situation may be a signal of the formation of depressive symptoms among these professionals. an analysis of the presence of symptoms of emotional burnout at the stage of their formation in groups of programmers differing in the type of organization of work on communication/non-communication with the client showed a high percentage of scales of inadequate emotional response (50%), reduction of professional responsibilities (45%), emotional deficit (35%), emotional alienation (45%), and psychosomatic and autonomic disorders (30%), in terms of communication with the client. the results may indicate the possibility of alternate changes in the type of work organization broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 287 to avoid professional deformation and the intensity of emotional burnout, even to physical exhaustion. 4. discussion the development of emotional burnout depends on certain external and internal factors. in the course of the empirical research, significant differences occurred in the manifestations of emotional burnout of programmers depending on the length of service, type of programming, and type of work organization based on the presence of communication with the customer and its absence. the results of the symptoms of emotional burnout including emotional deficit (formed type and the stage of formation) at the beginning of the professional career of a programmer up to 5 years of experience indicate danger to further effective functioning in the profession. this situation occurs when the skills and abilities of the employee are insufficient to meet the status-role and professional requirements, or the work does not meet the expectations, needs, values of the specialist. the next position of the analysis concerns the symptoms of emotional burnout depending on the type of programming. although most of the symptoms of emotional burnout in all phases are presented in the group frontend including experiencing a traumatic situation, anxiety and depression, inadequate selective emotional burnout, emotional deficit, weakening of emotional control may indicate the presence of emotional burnout in this group of programmers. they do not communicate with the client on the project, but the presence of one of the main symptoms of emotional burnout in professional activities involving the reduction of professional responsibilities in the group backend highlights a similar trend. thus, 40% of the programmers of the group communicating with the clients on the project have the most pronounced reduction of professional responsibilities. it indicates the presence of emotional burnout. probably, this situation corresponds to the nature of burnout as an emotional state in the process of long-term professional communication. the symptom of the reduction of professional responsibilities is manifested in the removal from their responsibilities, the desire to reduce the emotional cost of communication and reduced motivation to work. at the same time, this group has a symptom of "inadequate selective emotional response" (34%) indicating an attempt to limit emotional impact, exacerbated by the symptom of "emotional alienation" (29%) excluding emotional reactions both positive and negative from the professional sphere of activities. the presence of such signs indicates the manifestations of professional comprehensive psychological analysis of the features of emotional burnout... yuliia rybinska et al. 288 deformation (as a consequence of burnout) of the it specialist of the backend group taking part in communication with the client. 5. conclusions a comprehensive analysis of emotional burnout of it specialists showed the presence of the features of indicators of emotional burnout at the stages of their formation in accordance with experience in the profession, types of programming, and the type of organization of programmers. the analysis also noted the importance of taking into account the symptoms of emotional burnout at the stage of their formation to predict the occurrence of emotional burnout and protect programmers from the destructive power of emotional energy. according to the results of the analysis, we can observe that a small number of it specialists have complete or partial formation of symptoms and phases of emotional burnout. the symptom of self-dissatisfaction is atypical for the programmers. they also know how to cope with critical situations. therefore, they do not have the desire to change their area of activity. the shorter the work experience leads to the higher the percentage of depressive symptoms. it means that young people are more vulnerable to the fear of making a mistake. the programmers with up to 5 years of experience have an inadequate selective emotional response. programmers with 5 to 10 years of experience are more likely to build a family as well as a career. the scope for saving emotions expands. deterioration in emotional health increases with age. the most vulnerable group consists of the programmers with up to 5 years of experience. this group of programmers needs the help of a psychologist for corrective prevention of overcoming the negative consequences of emotional burnout. the number of programmers with symptoms of emotional burnout significantly exceeds in the direction of frontend. the programmers communicating with the client on the project have 40% of the formation of the symptom indicating that communication with the client encourages programmers to transfer their responsibilities to other colleagues. communicating frequently with clients, they more often than others try to limit their emotional impact, even in cases that are completely normal. the study allows us to note that the phases and symptoms of emotional burnout begin to form in programmers from the first years of their careers. these aspects prevent the possibility of self-regulation of stress levels in life. the developers with experience up to 5 years are more likely to develop emotional burnout. this group of programmers needs the help of a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 289 psychologist for corrective prevention of overcoming the negative consequences of emotional burnout. references boyko, v. (1999). the syndrome of "emotional burnout" in professional communication. sudaryinya. burisch, m. (1994). the burnout syndrome. matthias. dudyak, v. (2007). emotional burnout. glavnik. freudenberger, h. (1974). staff burn-out. journal of social issues, 30(1), 159-165. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1974.tb00706.x maksymenko, s., karamushka, l., & zaychikova, t. (2004). professional burnout syndrome and professional career of employees of educational organizations: gender aspects. milenium. maslach, c., & leiter, m. (1997). the truth about burnout. jossey-bass. nagaraj, k., & mahadevan, a. (2015). a review on the factors leading to employee burnout in it sector. international journal of accounting and business management, 4(2), 334-343. https://doi.org/10.24924/ijabm/2015.04/v3.iss1/334.343 raigorodsky, d. (1998). practical psychodiapustics. methods and tests. bahrah. rezvania, a., & khosravi, p. (2019). emotional intelligence: the key to mitigating stress and fostering trust among software developers working on information system projects. science, 48, 139–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.02.007 sandu, a., necula, r., & damian, s. (2017). a qualitative inquiry in social construction of chronic illness. case study on diabetes mellitus. 4th central and eastern european lumen international scientific conference on education, sport and health 2017, 224-227. https://ibn.idsi.md/vizualizare_articol/69934 stasiuk, m. (2017). features of the emotional sphere of it specialists. science and education a new dimension. pedagogy and psychology, 82–86. vodopyanova, n. (2005). burnout syndrome: diagnosis and prevention. piter. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1974.tb00706.x https://doi.org/10.24924/ijabm/2015.04/v3.iss1/334.343 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.02.007 https://ibn.idsi.md/vizualizare_articol/69934 translation from romanian into english of a legal document brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 510-517 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/296 the necessity of using adaptive coping mechanisms in the context of online teaching angela mariana jiboc¹ 1 clinical psychologist, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist, specialist speech therapist, expert, supervisor, first degree speech therapist teacher, employee of c.j.r.a.e. satu mare, romania, jibocangi@yahoo.com abstract: this article is based on a study in which we investigated the relationship between coping mechanisms manifested by students and their reading level measured by number of errors and time, reading speed comprehension and writing in the case of one group of students (n = 55) with ages between 12-14 years. for this purpose, the battery for the assessment of developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia was useddde-2. the battery includes eight subtests: five for the analysis of the reading process and three for the analysis of the writing process, and the cerq cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire identifies nine coping strategies. the results show that, in general, our group adopts highly adaptive coping strategies in stress management, especially refocusing on planning, positive reassessment, while their dysfunctional coping mechanisms are: ruminating, selfblame. keywords: students; coping strategies; refocusing on planning; positive reassessment. how to cite: jiboc, a.m. (2022). the necessity of using adaptive coping mechanisms in the context of online teaching. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 510-517. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/296 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/296 mailto:jibocangi@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/296 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 511 introduction online teaching / learning can be defined as an alternative form of education in which the continuation of the educational process under normal or self-isolation conditions is ensured, through various digital tools for distance communication. coping behavior, defined as the totality of cognitive and behavioral efforts to reduce or tolerate the demands created by a stressful transaction (lazarus & folkman, 1984). adaptive coping designates a stabilizing process in the management of disruptive events (georgescu et al., 2020; harja, 2020; ichim, 2021; rus, 2021), management that pursues two main purposes: a) to help the person to maintain a psychosocial adaptation in his existential environment; b) to help eliminate or reduce the mental distress inherent in disturbing situations. we used as base studies such as: geisthard and munsch (1996), students with learning disabilities reported that they use more cognitive avoidance as a coping mechanism in order to cope with the stress caused by school and family problems (garcia & pintrich, 1994). the authors, sara givon and deborah court (2009), interviewed 20 israeli high school students with learning disabilities over three years to identify coping strategies specific to high school students, they identified as coping mechanisms used: “avoidance", "rebellion", "reconciliation" and "determination". the study by noala firth and erika frydenberg (2010) on students aged 12 to 13 with learning difficulties, identified a greater use of a generally unproductive coping style in particular, strategies to ignore the problem they face. research methodology the design of the research is correlational, multifactorial intragroup. the independent variables are: the level of difficulties in writing reading acquisition among students with a medium-low level of cognitive abilities (iq). the dependent variables are given by: the 9 coping methods, established by the questionnaire cerq and the reading time and the number of reading errors, time and comprehension, made by each child (established with the evaluation battery dde-2). the data were processed with the statistical program spss 18. general hypothesis: the coping mechanisms used by students in the conditions of the difficulties of the reading and writing process constitute important predictors in the acquisition of reading and writing. the objectives we pursue in this paper aim at: the necessity of using adaptive coping mechanisms in the context of online … angela mariana jiboc 512 • evaluation of the coping mechanisms used by students in stressful situations within the instructive-educational activities. • identification of the relationship between reading level, time, number of errors, writing after dictation and coping mechanisms used by students. this article is based on our study in which we investigated the relationship between coping mechanisms manifested by students and reading level measured by number of errors and time, reading speed comprehension and writing in the case of one group of students (n = 55) with ages 12-14. in our study we used the battery for the evaluation of dyslexia and developmental dysgraphia dde-2 (sartori et al., 2007). the battery includes eight subtests: five for reading process analysis and three for writing process analysis; the cerq cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (garnefski et al., 2007) identifies nine coping strategies. research results analyzing the results of our research, we present in table 1 a primary analysis of data at the sample level, the most commonly used mechanisms of positive or adaptive emotional cognitive coping are: refocusing on planning, positive reassessment, positive refocusing, acceptance and perspective, and as dysfunctional coping mechanisms: ruminating, self-blaming, catastrophizing and blaming others. table 1. frequencies of manifestation of coping mechanisms at the sample level source: authors’ own conception self-blame acceptance ruminatin g positive refocusing refocusing on planning positive reassessme nt perspective catastroph izing blaming others n valid missing mean median mode std. deviation minimum maximum 55 0 11.3818 11.0000 9.00 2.93441 5.00 18.00 55 0 13.8545 14.0000 12.00 3.141123 9.00 20.00 55 0 12.5091 12..0000 10.00 3.45271 5.00 20.00 55 0 13.0182 13.0000 11.00 4.20534 4.00 20.00 55 0 14.3455 14.0000 14.00 3.15183 7.00 20.00 55 0 14.0182 14.0000 12.00 3.03371 7.00 20.00 55 0 12.0727 11.0000 11.00 3.64059 5.00 20.00 55 0 10.0364 10.0000 9.00 a 3.36080 4.00 18.00 55 0 8.3273 8.0000 4.00 a 3.07351 4.00 16.00 a. multiple modes exist. the smallest value is shown. in order to determine whether differences exist at the grade level in terms of accuracy of writing-reading, we will evaluate the differences at the rank level between more than two independent samples using the kruskalwallis test. the values follow the shape of the chi-square distribution, which brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 513 has its origin in the value 0, the more the sums of the ranks for the 14 groups are different from each other, the higher the value of the test and potentially closer to a significant variation. there are significant differences between the averages of the ranks in reading errors between grades at the level of the following subtests: test 2 errorsfm abs: high frequency, low imaginative content, we have chi-square coefficient, χ2 = 9.640, df = 3 and p = 0.022, since the value of p is less than 0.05, the statistical link is significant (95% trust). test 2 errors fm con: low frequency, high imaginative content, we have chi-square coefficient, χ2 = 11.786, df = 3 and p = 0.008, since the value of p is less than 0.05, the statistical link is highly significant (99% trust). test 2 errorsfm abs: low frequency, low imaginative content, we have chi-square coefficient, χ2 = 10.996, df = 3 and p = 0.012, since the value of p is less than 0.05, the statistical link is significant (99%trust). test 8 homophone errors, chi-square coefficient, χ2 = 10.130, df = 3 and p = 0.017, the statistical link is significant (99% trust). table 2. chi-square test to assess a significant difference between the averages of ranks of reading and comprehension time by grade source: authors’ own conception test statistics a,b test 1 time test 2 time fm_con test 2 time fm_abs test 2 time fmcon test 2 time fmabs test 3 time_a test 3 time_a test 3 time_c chi-square df asymp. sig. 8.863 3 .031 9.228 3 .026 5.516 3 .138 11.437 3 .010 8.362 3 .039 5.834 3 .120 2.809 3 .422 4.434 3 .218 a. kruskal wallis test b. grouping variables: grade analyzing table no. 2 we determine the existence of differences at the level of grades in terms of speed of writing reading, the differences in rank at the two independent samplesare evaluated using the kruskal-wallis test again. we notice that there are significant differences between the averages of the reading time ranks between grades at the level of the following subtests: test 1 time, we have chi-square coefficient, χ2 = 8.863, df = 3 and p = 0.031, since the value of p is less than 0.05, the statistical link is significant (95% trust). test 2 time fm con: high frequency, high imaginative content, we have chi-square coefficient, χ2 = 9.228, df = 3 and p = 0.026, since the value of p is less than 0.05, the statistical link is highly significant (95% trust). test 2 time fm con: low frequency, high imaginative content, we have chi-square coefficient, χ2 = 11.437, df = 3 and p = 0.010, since the value of p is less than 0.05, the statistical link is highly the necessity of using adaptive coping mechanisms in the context of online … angela mariana jiboc 514 significant (99% trust). test 2 errorsfm abs: low frequency, low imaginative content, we have chi-square coefficient, χ2 = 8.362, df = 3 and p = 0.039, since the value of p is less than 0.05, the statistical link is significant ( 95% trust). discussions the results show that, in general, our group adopts highly adaptive coping strategies in stress management, especially refocusing on planning, positive reassessment, while the dysfunctional coping mechanisms are: ruminating, self-blame. another important conclusion shows that as students grow, the time spent on reading and writing tests decreases and thus implicitly the level of speed, accuracy and comprehension of reading increases, but unfortunately the number of errors recorded does not decrease as students approach the eighth grade, which correlates with specialized studies showing that the reading speed of a student with dyslexia is lower than that of a child of the same chronological age without specific learning disorders. analyzing the data we notice that as students increase the time spent on reading and writing tests, the level of speed, accuracy and comprehension of writing-reading decreases also, but unfortunately the number of errors recorded does not decrease as students approach the 8th grade. specialist studies show that the reading speed of a student with dyslexia is lower than that of a child of the same chronological age without dyslexia (pierart, 1994; burlea et al., 2010) and the reading speed of pseudowords is lower than the reading of words (grégoire & piérart, 1994; ziegler & goswami, 2005) which our study also demonstrates. possible explanations for this situation would be: in the secondary school in romanian language and literature classes there are no more reading exercises and the lack of reading exercise is felt, students are more concerned to read quickly to finish the passage quickly than to read with awareness, to understand what they read. the tendency towards superficiality in reading is felt with the approach of the eighth grade, students do not have enough time to deepen the meaning and significance of the word (thoits, 1995). being the generation that lives very much online (luca et al., 2020), where the images succeed each other quickly, the depth of understanding might be affected, at the same time, while online, they use many abbreviated words, grammatically distorted, and these written distortions might be maintained in their school activity. students record a large number of errors in low-frequency words in their usual language (burlea et al., 2012; panadero & alonso-tapia, 2014), which brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 515 indicates that their reading focuses on form reading and does not deepen the meaning of the word because it takes time, so some students will develop over time a denotative reading focused on the common meaning of words ignoring polysemantism, affecting the understanding of meaning and significance (difficulties encountered in test 4), which may be a possible explanation for functional illiteracy. conclusions in online teaching the teacher offers generalized suggestions, in a traditional classroom, students can directly share their opinions and clarify their own questions with the teacher, getting the answers immediately. online instruction can be an impediment for students with poor school results; the contents exposed in the online environment can be more difficult to assimilate in the conditions in which their understanding is not facilitated by the teacher. references burlea, a., sacuiu, i., chirita, v., & chirita, r. (2012). teen depression prevention an issue of great social impact. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15(sup 1), 176-176. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1461145712000508 burlea, g., burlea, a. m., & milici, r. c. (2010). prevention and intervention in speech and language therapy for the success of lexicographical acquisitions. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 30, 86-100. https://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/40-volumul-302010septembrie/315prevention-and-intervention-in-speech-and-language-therapy-for-thesuccess-of-lexicographical-acquisitions.html firth, n., & frydenberg, e. (2010). coping styles and strategies: a comparison of adolescent students with and without learning disabilities. journal of learning disabilities, 43(1), 77-85. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219409345010 garcia, t., & pintrich, p. r. (1994). regulating motivation and cognition in the classroom: the role of self-schemas and self-regulatory strategies. in d. h. schunk & b. j. zimmerman (eds.), self-regulation of learning and performance: issues and educational applications (pp. 127-153). lawrence erlbaum associates, inc. garnefski, n., rieffe, c., jellesma, f., terwogt, m. m., & kraaij, v. (2007). cognitive emotion regulation strategies and emotional problems in 9 11year-old children: the development of an instrument. european child & adolescent psychiatry, 16(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-006-0562-3 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1461145712000508 https://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/40-volumul-302010septembrie/315-prevention-and-intervention-in-speech-and-language-therapy-for-the-success-of-lexicographical-acquisitions.html https://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/40-volumul-302010septembrie/315-prevention-and-intervention-in-speech-and-language-therapy-for-the-success-of-lexicographical-acquisitions.html https://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/40-volumul-302010septembrie/315-prevention-and-intervention-in-speech-and-language-therapy-for-the-success-of-lexicographical-acquisitions.html https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219409345010 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-006-0562-3 the necessity of using adaptive coping mechanisms in the context of online … angela mariana jiboc 516 geisthard, c., & munsch, j. (1996). coping with school stress: acomparison of adolescents with and without learning disabilities. journal of learning disabilities, 29(3), 287–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/002221949602900307 georgescu, d. n., dumitrache (torcica), g., & joita (leafu), m. (2020). the relationship between motivation and performance of teachers in increasing the quality of education. logos universality mentality education novelty: economics & administrative sciences, 5(1), 38-44. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumeneas/5.1/20 givon, s., & court, d. (2010). coping strategies of high school students with learning disabilities: a longitudinal qualitative study and grounded theory. international journal of qualitative studies in education 23(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390903352343 grégoire, j., & piérart, b. (1994). évaluer les troubles de la lecture : les nouveaux modèles théoriques et leurs implications diagnostiques. de boeck université. harja, i. g. (2020). challenges for the entrepreneurial environment and the european union during the pandemic. logos universality mentality education novelty: political sciences & european studies, 6(1), 31-40. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.1/14 ichim, a.-a. (2021). identifying the types of diversity in the romanian preuniversity educational institutions and the appropriate managerial strategy. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 10(1), 0109. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/52 lazarus, r.s., & folkman, s. (1984). stress, appraisal and coping. springer. luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a. c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 panadero, e., & alonso-tapia, j. (2014). how do students self-regulate? review of zimmerman's cyclical model of self-regulated learning. anales de psicología, 30(2), 450-462. pierart, b. (1994). l'eclatement du concept de dyslexie. in gregoire, j., & pierart, b. (eds.), evaluer les troubles de la lecture (pp. 1731). de boeck. rus, m. (2021). social construction of the of nowadays school success from the perspective of the family involvement in educational act. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 10(1), 18-29. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/54 sartori, g., job, r., & tressoldi, p. (2007). dde-2 batteria per la valutazione della dislessia e della disortografia evolutiva-2. giunti. https://doi.org/10.1177/002221949602900307 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumeneas/5.1/20 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumeneas/5.1/20 https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390903352343 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.1/14 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.1/14 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/52 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/52 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/54 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/54 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 517 thoits, p. a. (1995). stress, coping, and social support processes: where are we? what next? journal of health and social behavior, 35, 53-79. https://doi.org/10.2307/2626957 ziegler, j. c., & goswami, u. (2005). reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: a psycholinguistic grain size theory. psychological bulletin, 131, 3–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.3 https://doi.org/10.2307/2626957 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.3 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 3, pages: 191-213 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education iryna demchenko¹, borys maksymchuk2, valentyna bilan3, iryna maksymchuk4, iryna kalynovska5 1 national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, irynadi67@gmail.com 2 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, ukraine, 0674256781@ukr.net 3 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, valentinaandreevna72@gmaіl.com 4 mariupol state university, mariupol, ukraine, 0963113686@ukr.net 5 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, kalunovska@gmail.com abstract: according to the concept of developing inclusive education, the process of introducing inclusion in schools has been intensified. this is due to the training of physical education teachers to work with children with special educational needs during specially organized courses, whose fragmentation has not greatly increased the level of teachers’ qualifications. the research aims to scientifically justify theoretical and methodological foundations, develop and experimentally verify the methodology of training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education, taking into account the specifics of their psychological, theoretical and practical readiness for it. pedagogical conditions for training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education are defined as follows: prioritizing the content of programmes and teaching methodology; improving the content, forms, methods and means required to master normative, psychological, pedagogical and correctional theoretical and practical and scientific foundations of inclusive education, as well as didactic and correctional and developmental technologies during the classes dedicated to professional teaching methodologies; consolidating professional knowledge and practical skills of students based on the simulation modelling and reflection on pedagogical experience of future physical education teachers under the conditions of inclusive education with the relevant update of the content of teaching placements. the experimental work involved 444 students majoring in physical education and sport (222 students in the experimental and the control groups). given the summarized data of final tests, it becomes clear that the students in the eg tend to have a high level of such readiness (at the ascertaining stage – 28.6%, at the formative stage – 47.0%, the difference being 18.4%). the results of the experiment prove the effectiveness of introducing the developed methodology of training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. keywords: training stages, pedagogical conditions, school, pupils, educational subjects. how to cite: demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 mailto:irynadi67@gmail.com mailto:0674256781@ukr.net mailto:valentinaandreevna72@gmaіl.com mailto:0963113686@ukr.net mailto:kalunovska@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 192 introduction international documents testify to the third world trend of inclusive education aimed at involving children, young people and adults with special needs to obtain lifelong learning without limiting any access to it (adăscăliţei, 2020; frumos, 2018; stăncescu et al., 2020). significantly, this trend in foreign theory and practice now has a certain scientific basis, whose leading category is a clear definition of the concept of inclusive education as joint education programmes and upbringing of children with normal and impaired development without any conditions and restrictions. the article aims to scientifically justify theoretical and methodological principles, develop, and experimentally verify methods of training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education, taking into account their psychological, theoretical and practical readiness for it. accordingly, the objectives of the article are as follows: to generalize the concept of an inclusive learning environment; to determine the conditions of inclusive education accessibility in school and the requirements for an inclusive learning environment; to identify and study the current use of a neuropsychological approach in practical training of future physical education teachers; 4. to scientifically justify pedagogical conditions for training future physical education teachers to work with pupils in an inclusive learning environment; 5. to develop and validate a model of a pedagogical system for training future physical education teachers to work with pupils in an inclusive learning environment; 6. to identify levels of future teachers’ readiness for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. the scientific value of the article lies in determining and justifying pedagogical conditions for training future physical education teachers to work with pupils in an inclusive learning environment (the inclusivepedagogical focus of professionally oriented courses; the focus of students’ practical activities on health promotion among pupils with special needs) and applying current achievements of neuropedagogy and neuropsychology. in the second half of the 19 th century, many prominent researchers, educators, and physicians actively discussed the issues of “comprehensive and harmonious development of the younger generation”, and the positive impact of motor actions which “prevent the diseases of the soul and body. they also highlighted the need to know “30 rules of physical education” and brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 193 “the most rational rules of hygiene” for those who will educate the younger generation. besides, they already talked about the creation of special institutions to train physical education teachers to work with pupils during classroom and extracurricular hours. the problem of training specialists to preserve health, especially physical, with the help of sports, exercise and games came into focus already in the late 19 th century (shchekotylina, 2019). at the same time, ivanova (2006) claims that when we strengthen the health-promoting function of physical education in secondary schools (reflected in standards for motor modes of 12-year school education, three physical education lessons per week for all grades, use of a differentiated approach to different groups of pupils), we create a health-promoting learning environment. therefore, it is vital to modernize professional training of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions and focus it on the development of creative specialists who can act as coordinators of health education. it must be noted that correctional and health-promoting activities in primary schools constitute a specially organized pedagogical process that covers learning and daily activities of pupils. in turn, this process aims to correct and reduce deviations in pupils’ psychophysical state and help them to adapt and socially integrate into the school environment. the authors of the article believe that correctional and health-promoting activities form the basis for organizing inclusion in school. still, studies on professional training of physical education specialists for professional activities in the context of inclusive education began to be conducted much later. besides, they emerged due to the general trend towards global democratization. therefore, the concept of inclusion was introduced into the theory and policy of education only in the 20 th century. indeed, inclusive education is the first step towards achieving the ultimate goal, which is the creation of an inclusive society that will allow all children and adults, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, ability, presence or absence of developmental disorders and hiv, to participate fully in society and contribute to it. one can observe how the ukrainian society is becoming more and more aware of the ideas of inclusive education, which only indicates its democratization. this is due to a change in the public consciousness, i.e., the conscious acceptance of humanistic values, elimination of sociopsychological barriers in the interaction between people with special needs and people without physical disorders, formation of tolerance as a basic principle of social interaction following the diversity of lifestyles. training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 194 analyzing inclusive processes, many scholars rely on the multifunctional nature of research. in turn, they believe that a sociopedagogical approach is expressed in understanding the nature of the child, the experience of his or her sensory life through a socially determined spatio-temporal linguistic environment (nazarova, 2011). after all, an inclusive learning environment seems quite optimal for children with special needs. another, personalistic, approach combines several areas. one of them is humanistic psychology (kurth & mastergeorge, 2013). also, one should consider the social theory of autopoiesis. its essence is the need to provide each child with an individual educational route focused on active communicative interaction with the social environment to verify the adequacy of acquired knowledge and skills. given these concepts, inclusive education is implemented through a specially built individual educational route (nazarova, 2011). the authors of this article support this area of social theory and, at the same time, emphasize the problems related to its practical implementation in ukrainian schools. these problems begin with the fact that about 60% of parents still do not consider their children as those with special needs. consequently, it makes it impossible to carry out a comprehensive assessment and corrective work. besides, there is a lack of relevant specialists, such as a teacher’s assistant, speech therapist, special education teacher, psychologist. the analysis of scientific works (gilman, 2009; litvintseva, 2011) shows that the organization of inclusive education in the theory and practice of foreign countries is aimed at forming inclusive culture in schools, which is based on the acceptance of children with special needs, as well as the philosophy of involving them in the educational process together with their peers with normal development. such scholars as kolupaieva (2009), kuzava (2015), maksymchuk et al. (2020) and others have proved the need to create additional resources and appropriate educational conditions for the education of such children. based on the works of nerubasska & maksymchuk (2020), melnyk et al. (2019), it is found that the individual characteristics of younger pupils determine their educational needs, whose knowledge is a prerequisite for the effective organization of the educational process in educational institutions. at the same time, the potential of “traditional” psychology of learning and physical education is insufficient to organize an effective educational process for children with special needs, given the development of their cognitive and emotional-personal spheres. an individual approach to learning and development of such children, required for both children with developmental disorders and brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 195 children without them, considers the peculiarities of cognitive activity, as well as the knowledge about “strengths” and “weaknesses” of mental development. as noted by vygostky (1983), it is essential to identify potential resources and characteristics, which can be the basis for children’s further learning and development, to select a diagnostic approach to assessing their development. importantly, it is a neuropsychological approach that enables the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the child’s psycho-physiological functions (myhydiuk, 2019). both democratization and humanization of public life are reflected in several international legal acts, which have laid down the basic principles and approaches to the implementation of inclusive education worldwide. the legal side of inclusive education development is closely related to international acts and resolutions. in march 1990 in jomtien (thailand), they adopted world declaration on education for all (united nations, 1990). this document sets out clear lines of action and measures to achieve the goals of education for all (efa). the key aspects and principles of the declaration include universalizing access and promoting equity, focusing on learning, broadening the means and scope of basic education, enhancing the environment for learning, strengthening partnerships (akhmetova, 2013). indeed, since the proclamation of the provisions of the salamanca statement (centre for studies on inclusive education, 1994), they have employed the concept of children with special needs, which subsequently acquired some psychological and educational content characteristics and was, somewhat, replaced with the concept of children with special educational needs. there was a shift of accents from the disadvantages, defects, disorders, deviations from the norm of the child’s development to his / her needs for special conditions, methods and means of education and correction of development. modern scholars (gerasymova et al., 2019; kolupaieva, 2012; myronova et al., 2010; malofeev, 2007; sheremet et al., 2019; shipitsyna, 2002) described pupils with special educational needs and found that it was expedient to designate all children whose personal development was outside the generally recognized norm and could be accelerated, delayed, somewhat or significantly impaired. building on the results of nine preparatory meetings and four regional conferences on inclusive education organized by the unesco international bureau of education, as well as their plenary sessions and discussions, member states agreed to use inclusive education in planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating education policy. it is considered as a way to further accelerate the achievement of the efa goals and promote a more inclusive society. in this regard, a broader understanding of training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 196 inclusive education can be seen as a guiding principle for supporting education for sustainable development, lifelong learning and providing equal educational opportunities for all segments of society (zagumennov, 2009). thus, in recent decades, global humanization and democratization of society in both developed and developing countries have influenced research to improve the training of future physical education teachers by enabling comprehensive personalization of young people’s physical improvement, given the conditions of implementing inclusive education and applying neuropedagogy and neuropsychology. to meet the needs of children with special educational needs, an appropriate inclusive educational environment is needed, that is a set of organizational, physical, psychological and pedagogical and social conditions created in the educational institution to ensure the effectiveness of educational and correctional and developmental processes, which depend on its accessibility, quality of services provided, social-psychological climate in the team and the teachers readiness for educational activities under the conditions of inclusive education. the accessibility of inclusive education in schools consists in the following aspects: legal aspect – the possibility of obtaining education is legally guaranteed; economic aspect – financial satisfaction of the child’s educational needs; organizational aspect – the expansion of a network of educational institutions with inclusive education, located close to the child’s place of residence and with the appropriate universal design, the functioning of the school bus system, the presence of barrier-free infrastructure, qualified defectologists, speech therapists, psychologists, social educators, teacher assistants and special equipment according to nosology; content aspect – the adaptation and modification of the content of education coherently to the physical and mental capacity of the child; technological aspect – an active use of innovative pedagogical, information and communication, psychological, social, medical and rehabilitation technologies, taking into account the individual characteristics of different categories of children with special educational needs. the quality of providing both basic (education, upbringing and development of pupils in class and after-hours) and additional (strengthening the correctional and developmental component of the educational process and ensuring psychological, pedagogical, medical and social support of inclusive education) educational services in inclusive schools is determined by the conditions of educational environment, education content, teaching and effectiveness of the educational process. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 197 also, one of the prerequisites for education quality under inclusion is the introduction of a neuropsychological approach to professional training of future physical education teachers. it is especially relevant to ukrainian society (akhutina & pylayeva, 2003). a common use of a neuropsychological approach in physical education is associated with several reasons. first, “innovative technologies” of teaching and learning, widely discussed in the psycho-pedagogical literature and practically implemented in the educational process, are no longer the latest pedagogical discoveries that guarantee high educational attainment and physical development of children. second, the social and cultural environment, as well as the conditions for learning and physical education, has changed almost completely, qualitatively, and quantitatively. indeed, today’s information age provides children with many alternative ways to obtain information and spend free time. third, the school curriculum requires first-graders to have certain skills that must be developed already in preschool. however, society is constantly raising the requirements for learning and educational levels. on the one hand, it strengthens education. on the other hand, it deteriorates the mental and physical health of children. high educational requirements for the relatively unformed child brain increase the risk of psychosomatic diseases, emotional and behavioural disorders. therefore, neuropedagogy, as learning and upbringing of children under brain activity patterns together with comprehensive physical development, is seen as an option of using a neuropsychological approach in school practice (glozman, 2016). this area is an example of productive interaction between neuropsychology and pedagogical theory and practice of introducing innovations in physical education of pupils within inclusive-oriented education. the creation of a positive social and psychological climate within the school staff as a condition of inclusive education aims to consolidate, stimulate, stabilize and regulate the activities of its members on such bases as confidence and high demand, friendly and business criticism, free expression of their opinions, lack of pressure, sufficient awareness of the state of affairs, satisfaction from cooperation, emotional interaction and mutual assistance, respect and self-expression. the main mechanism for creating conditions for inclusive education in schools is the activities of the administration and the work of an interdisciplinary team, where a key role is played by a physical education teacher, who qualitatively performs an expanded range of professional activities. training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 198 according to the results obtained from a series of diagnostic tasks at the ascertaining stage of the experiment, it is found that 28.6% of students in the eg and 29.5% of students in the cg were at a high level of readiness for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. the overwhelming number of students was at average and low levels: an average level in the eg – 35.4% and the cg – 34.9%; a low level in the eg – 36.0% and the cg – 35.6%. all this convincingly proved the students’ lack of readiness for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education and confirmes the need to justify the methodology of training future teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. materials & methods to fulfill the set objectives, a set of methods was used at various stages of scientific search: theoretical methods: comparative analysis and synthesis of philosophical, educational, historical, psychological, social, inclusive, correctional and pedagogical literature to clarify the main concepts and categories; analysis of the national and foreign experience, regulatory framework and guidance documents on inclusive education in higher and general education institutions to generalize and define conceptual approaches to educational inclusion; classification, structuring and systematization of pedagogical phenomena to build a coherent pedagogical system, which helps to increase future teachers’ readiness to work under the conditions of inclusive education; logical and semantic justification and designing to develop a model of pedagogical system for training future physical education teachers; prediction and objectification of the course and effectiveness of the educational process in higher education; empirical methods: psychological and pedagogical diagnostics (observation, discussions, questionnaires, tests, expert evaluation of the educational process, self-evaluation) to determine the levels of readiness of future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education based on the results obtained from placement and final tests, the pedagogical experiment (ascertaining and formative stages) to determine the effectiveness of the developed model of pedagogical system for training future physical education teachers; statistical methods: analysis and interpretation of the obtained results, quantitative processing and comparison of the obtained experimental data (testing null and alternative hypotheses according to the fischer’s criterion) to prove the accuracy of the facts raised to increase students’ readiness for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 199 the experimental work was conducted at pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, kherson state university, izmail state university of humanities, mariupol state university. it involved 444 students majoring in physical education and sport (222 students in the experimental and the control groups). such a large volume of research samples will allow obtaining the most reliable results of diagnostics. the experimental model of the pedagogical system consisted of three interrelated stages, namely motivation and values, theory and practice, simulation and reflection. the first stage aimed to ensure students’ positive attitude towards interiorization, internalization and identification of values of inclusive education and intensification of their interest in professional activities, which implies a set of tasks corresponding to the criteria of the missionary component of students’ readiness for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. the peculiarity of the formative experiment is presented in the following sequence: “i recognize the value of inclusion” → “i accept differences in the development of children” → “i feel the need for new knowledge and skills”. the accomplishment of these tasks was facilitated by the provision of integrative links between pedagogical and inclusive components of the content of professional training while studying such courses as philosophy, the history of ukrainian culture, the history of pedagogy, didactic, theory and methods of education. lectures, seminars, practical and laboratory classes, as well as students’ independent and extracurricular activities, have become the main organizational forms of study at universities. due to the course on philosophy, future teachers had the opportunity to learn such additional topics as “the philosophy of inclusive education in the system of social values”, “axiological approach to inclusion and social integration as a whole”, “values of educational inclusion for the development of society”, “the principles of inclusive education in an axiological context”. also, they were able to trace the cultural and historical retrospective of developing public recognition of an individual with developmental disabilities and relevant educational paradigms due to the course on the history of ukrainian culture, including such topics as “the culture of kievan rus. christianization of rus and its importance for the development of ukrainian culture”, “ukrainian culture in the second half of the 14 th century – the first half of the 18th century”, “ukrainian baroque of the middle 17th century – the early 18th century”, “ukrainian culture of the 18th and 19th centuries”, “ukrainian culture of the soviet training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 200 era”, “ukrainian culture when overcoming the effects of totalitarianism of the late 1980s – the first decade of the 21st century”. at the end of the course, students’ work on the joint project, titled “famous people with special needs” involved seeking information on innovations and achievements in different spheres of the culture of people with special needs. this information was organized in a chronological order and presented at a student round-table discussion on “equals among equals”, during which the issues of cultural aspects of involving people with special needs in various spheres of public institutions were discussed, as well as the reports prepared based on the materials of the web-site “ukraine without barriers” and the all-ukrainian fund “step by step”, etc. such courses as the history of pedagogy, didactic and theory and methods of education contributed to revealing the complexity and versatility of physical education and the depth of its content, as well as to understanding the values of inclusive education. with the help of the history of pedagogy, students became acquainted with the peculiarities of development of joint education programmes and upbringing of children with different levels of development on the examples of the paris department for the deaf at district schools, the russian children’s clubs “settlement”, “children’s work and leisure” and the labour colony “cheerful life”, f. dostoevsky’s school, the dzerzhinsky commune, outpatient medical courses, experimental study of the blind girl roza zolotnitskaya in a mass school (also blind from birth, 1928) et al. the course on didactic was focused on theoretical and practical foundations of organizing joint education for children with different levels of development, taking into account the principles of integration and differentiation. supplementary lectures were chosen to be the most effective form of such education since it helped to increase students’ motivation to acquire didactic knowledge. during theoretical sessions, the audience is involved in the active understanding of the problems raised through individual supplementary speeches: interesting facts, useful information, examples of innovative pedagogical experience and modern achievements in the field of pedagogy. this type of classroom activity is closely related to interactive learning (learning-by-teaching) since students are allowed to participate in learning and transfer knowledge to their peers. the inclusive and pedagogical focus of the course on theory and methods of education implied future teachers’ awareness of the values of inclusive education. seminars in the form of a show much contributed to increasing students’ interest and motivation towards educational work under the conditions of inclusive education. thus, they familiarized themselves brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 201 with educational activities for children with special educational needs and acted as their “directors”. the lesson on the topic “collective creative activities of young pupils with special educational needs” was prepared by students on the basis of internet sources, namely the following videos about educational events held in ukraine: “day of persons with disabilities”, including creativity festivals for children with special needs “the rainbow of talents” (krasyliv), “the joy of childhood” (khmelnytskyi), “let’s believe in ourselves” (kyiv), “the wind of action” (lviv), “believe in yourself” (kherson); exhibitions “colours of the world of silence” (kyiv), “white rainbow” (kharkiv), “the hope of otynia” (otynia, ivano-frankivsk region); competitions “pokrovsky games” (kyiv), “sport for everyone” (ivano-frankivsk), “the source of hope” (izmail); flashmobs “open your hand” (uman), “believe in yourself, and others will believe in you” (cherkasy), “a living heart” (odesa), “the world is equal for everyone” (dnipro); promotions “good will save the world” (uman), “children of the sun” (zhytomyr), “a fur tree of mercy” (kyiv), etc. the presented video materials were verbally supported with comments. future teachers also realized the importance of such kind of educational work as collective creative activities for children with special educational needs, educators, parents and the community. in their free time, students organized the event, called “uman students in blue” dedicated to the world autism awareness day held on april 2. it was aimed at raising public awareness of the problem of children and young people with autism, building tolerance and raising awareness of autism. several activities have also been organized to support inclusive programmes for children and young people with autism, cultivating a humane and value-oriented attitude towards students with special educational needs. the pedagogical condition, which was realized at the motivation and values stage, implies prioritizing the content of programmes and teaching methodology of such courses as philosophy, the history of pedagogy, the history of ukrainian culture, didactic, theory and methods of education so that students can acquire the axiological principles of inclusive education. the second stage aimed to help future teachers acquire theoretical, scientific and practical foundations of inclusive education in schools. the objectives of this stage included correcting and systematizing the content of inclusion-oriented courses (bachelor programmes), developing an experimental curriculum of the course on inclusive pedagogy of physical education and updating the content of optional courses; optimizing research and independent work of students (preparation of reports, course papers and qualification research, projects, presentations with reports, participation training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 202 in meetings of research laboratories, scientific conferences, seminars on certain issues of inclusive education). these objectives were based on such courses as political science, fundamentals of medical knowledge and health care, developmental and pedagogical psychology, pedagogical skills, fundamentals of defectology, fundamentals of correctional pedagogy, fundamentals of inclusive education and professional techniques (three or four courses within bachelor programmes), whose content included additional topics or issues of inclusive education. this has ensured an integrative link between the pedagogical and inclusive components of professional training for future physical education teachers. traditional forms (lectures, seminars, laboratory work and tutorials) and informative, explanatory, summarizing and evaluation methods of theoretical and practical training were employed to enhance the level of professional, methodological and psychological readiness of future physical education teachers to perform an extended range of professional functions under the conditions of inclusive education. the quality of the educational process was much contributed by problematic lectures with the use of such interactive exercises as “microphone”, “incomplete sentences”, “working in groups”, “discussions”, “the decision tree”, “learning-by-teaching”, “working in pairs”, etc. the course on fundamentals of medical knowledge and health care covered such topics as “characteristics and prevention of psychoneurological disorders, hearing and vision problems in children”, “musculoskeletal disorders in children, its causes and prevention”, “predoctor care in case of accidents and emergencies”. during lectures, seminars and practical classes, students were acquainted with the sanitary and hygienic conditions of general educational institutions with and without inclusive education, as well as the characteristics of pre-doctor care for children with special educational needs. during the extracurricular time, a mini-conference on the topic “sanitary-hygienic and health-saving conditions in a school for children with special educational needs” was organized and held with the participation of teachers and students, physical education teachers, specialists from special schools, orphanages, rehabilitation and psychiatric centres. the course on developmental and pedagogical psychology paid much attention to the study of psychological characteristics and general patterns in personality development of young pupils, their typical individual traits, which should be taken into account when organizing the educational process for children with different levels of development. the students were involved in a mini-training, titled “training exercises for developing brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 203 teacher’s pedagogical communication skills”. these exercises were supplemented by such game improvisations as “one hundred balls”, “a letter card”, “australian rain”, “empathy”, “camomile”, “unison”, “the verbalization of feelings” to teach students to communicate and interact with children with special educational needs. such courses as teaching ukrainian teaching methods, math teaching methods, environmental studies teaching methods, fine arts teaching methods, music teaching methods, practical training in crafts rather contributed to forming students’ ability to effectively apply modern didactic, correctional and developmental technologies in future professional activities. at the same time, university teachers were provided with relevant materials for methodical support of the educational process, namely the textbook on didactic, correctional and developmental technologies of inclusive physical education. during lectures, future teachers had the opportunity to gain the necessary knowledge about the forms, methods, techniques and means of organizing the educational process under the conditions of inclusive education. practical classes and, especially, workshops, much facilitated their understanding of pedagogical (traditional intensive learning, differentiated learning, formation of cognitive strategies, developmental and interactive learning, creation of successful situations) and correctional technologies (gaming technologies, art therapy, logarithmic forms of learning and methods of alternative and additional communication). some interactive methods (“the carousel”, “brainstorming”, role-playing and business games) and project-based technologies (lesson planning) were used to enhance students’ educational activities, focused on the application and acquisition of the existing and new knowledge and skills. the course on inclusive pedagogy of physical education has been developed. its content is focused on theoretical, methodological, organizational and practical aspects and is implemented in the following modules: “methodology of inclusive pedagogy”, “inclusive didactic of physical education, “inclusive education of young pupils”, “inclusive physical education”. this course was taught with appropriate educational and methodological support. the knowledge, abilities and skills students acquired during this course are directly related to the organization of an inclusive environment in schools, the selection of content, forms and methods of learning, upbringing and development of young pupils with and without special education needs; the establishment of tolerant relations between the participants of the inclusive educational process under the conditions of inclusive education and the creation of favourable psychological and pedagogical conditions for the interaction between training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 204 children with different levels of development to prevent the emergence or elimination of already existing factors that can destabilize their comprehensive development. the optional course on the psychology of creativity was supplemented with the content module, titled “creative therapy” to enrich the content, forms and methods of correctional and pedagogical work with pupils with and without special educational needs. it was aimed at teaching students about the specifics of creativity as a means of psychotherapeutic assistance to the participants in the educational process and helping them to acquire methodical knowledge and practical skills of using creative therapy in psychological, pedagogical, correctional and developmental work with pupils with and without special educational needs. the module covers the following topics: “creativity as a means of psychological assistance to young pupils”, “the content, forms and methods of creative therapy in psychological and pedagogical support of the comprehensive development of young pupils with and without special educational needs”, “the most common techniques of visual therapy in psychological and pedagogical support of young pupils in an inclusive environment”. it also involves performing such thematic tasks as “the self-image. draw your name”, “the mandala of my body”, “the star of feelings”, “the next generation – the pictures of hope”, “my guardian angel”, “sand paintings”, “paper sculptures”. all this was aimed at correcting and harmonizing the personal development of future teachers and revealing their creative potential. the outlined objectives of this stage have been realized through such a pedagogical condition as improving the content, forms, methods and means required to master normative, psychological, pedagogical and correctional theoretical and practical and scientific foundations of inclusive education due to the courses on developmental and pedagogical psychology, political science, pedagogical skills, fundamentals of medical knowledge, fundamentals of defectology, fundamentals of correctional pedagogy, fundamentals of inclusive education and didactic, correctional and developmental technologies during the classes dedicated to professional teaching methods. the third stage aimed to involve future teachers in real-life professional activities and active reflection of pedagogical experience under the conditions of inclusive education and was specified with the tasks based on the self-regulatory component of professional readiness. during their implementation, the methods of contextual learning were used. procedurally, this process followed the author’s algorithm of real-life training while students were mastering the course on inclusive physical education. it brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 205 included seven sequential schemes of modelling pedagogical activities of physical education teachers under the conditions of inclusive education: 1) a certain problem (students were supposed to understand the reasons for diagnostics of young pupils’ psychophysical development, determine its goals, tasks, criteria, choose research methods and prepare a plan of such diagnostics); 2) team collaboration of specialists (a team of specialists developed an individual programme for development and provision of educational services for each child); 3) pedagogical knowledge (students were encouraged to learn the basic concepts of teaching methods, which are based on the principles of personality-oriented and competency-based approaches); 4) a pupil (future teachers needed to learn how to evaluate pupils’ creative skills, motivation towards artistic activities and their involvement in them); 5) a teacher (future teachers needed to justify their sets of criteria for future physical education teachers’ readiness for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education and determine the most optimal of them based on their cooperation with the university teacher); 6) a pedagogical analysis of the problem (the problem is raised not by the university teacher but by the students who actualize pedagogical knowledge when analyzing the practice of implementing inclusive education in schools); 7) an interpretation of traditions and innovations (when students were studying the methods and organizational forms of inclusive education in schools, they not only familiarized themselves with the best practices but also clarified the need to promote new methodological innovations in the field of inclusive education, generate their creative ideas in the development of fragments of a lesson and educational events). the content of teaching placement has been updated, too. it was aimed at using scientific and theoretical knowledge, practical abilities and skills acquired by students in the process of studying pedagogy, psychology, professional methodologies and special courses in inclusive education in pedagogical activities. besides, it contributed to their mastering of modern forms and methods of the educational process in schools with inclusive education, increasing their interest in professional activities, as well as cultivating the need to systematically update their knowledge and strive for professional self-development and self-improvement. during teaching placements, students collected materials for a portfolio of pupils taking into account personal (“my family and i”, “my friends and i”, “my pets and i”, “my hobbies”, “my wishes”, “my learning expectations”), educational (fixed educational and creative achievements, participation in competitions, olympiads, tournaments in the form of gratitude, certificates, photos of training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 206 prizes and results of club or studio work), reflexive and prognostic (“wishes for myself”, “what do i do to achieve changes”, “how i see my future", “whom i want to become”, etc.) thematic blocks, which was a clear demonstration of student collaboration with teachers, pupils and their parents. at the simulation and reflection stage, the third pedagogical condition was realized. it implies consolidating professional knowledge and practical skills of students through mastering such optional courses as inclusive physical education, the psychology of creativity based the simulation modelling and reflection on the pedagogical experience of future physical education teachers under the conditions of inclusive education with the relevant update of the content of teaching placements. upon completing each stage of the formative experiment using diagnostic tools developed during the ascertaining experiment, the final tests were conducted and the empirical data on the quantitative distribution of students by levels of readiness for professional activities in inclusive education were obtained. results the results obtained from a comparative analysis show that the quantitative distribution of the eg and cg students by their levels of readiness for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education differ by each of its structural components and as a whole. the comparison of the data on the identification and the final tests proves the desired performance of the formative experiment (see table 1). table 1. the general dynamics of changes in students’ readiness for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education (in %) according to the summary data of identification and final tests (it and ft) levels of readiness eg dynamics cg dynamics it ft it ft high 28.6 47.0 + 18.4 29.5 32.0 + 2.5 average 35.4 39.8 + 4.4 34.9 36.8 + 1.9 low 36.0 13.2 – 22.8 35.6 31.2 – 4.4 according to the summarized data of the final test, obtained in the process of identifying future physical education teachers’ readiness for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education, it becomes evident that the eg students have managed to increase it to a high brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 207 level. as evidenced by table 1, the results of the identification test show that 28.6% of the eg students were at a high level at the beginning of the experiment, whereas 47.0% of them reached a high level after the formative experiment. the difference is equal to 18.4%. according to the identification test, the average level of readiness was characteristic of 35.4% of the eg students. the results of the final test prove that 39.8% of the eg students reached the average level (by 4.4% times more). thus, the number of students with low readiness decreased from 36.0% to 13.2%, with a difference of 22.8%. in the cg, the levels of such readiness also increased slightly, but significantly less compared to the eg. as evidenced by the identification and final tests, the high level was characteristic of 29.5% and 32.0% of the cg students respectively, which is only by 2.5% times more. besides, the identification and final tests show that 34.9% and 36.8% of the cg student are at an average level of such readiness, which is only 1.9% times more. accordingly, the initial number of students with a low level was equal to 35.6% and it eventually decreased to 31.2%, which is by 4.4% times less. to test these changes, the authors of the article used a statistical method for determining the φ criterion, which determined its empirical value as follows: φ*emp = 9.53. it is located in the area of significance. therefore, there is a reason to argue that the functioning of an experimental model of the pedagogical system for training future physical education teachers for professional activities in inclusive education has been statistically proved to be sufficiently effective. discussion the authors of the article agree with the findings of kolupaieva (2009), who states that simultaneous learning of healthy children and children with special educational needs does not resolve all problems of their interaction since without proper pedagogical work the sphere of children’s relations can remain deformed and defective. therefore, the main mechanism for creating conditions for inclusive education in schools is the activities of the administration and the work of an interdisciplinary team, where the key role is played by the teacher, qualitatively fulfilling the expanded range of professional functions. however, they do not agree with babanskiy (1987) that the intensification of the educational process means some optimal organization of learning. this, in his opinion, allows one to achieve the best results as soon as possible at the expense of saving time. thus, there is an increase in training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 208 the productivity of educational activities and the effectiveness of interaction between the university teacher and the student for a certain amount of time. however, it must be borne in mind that when improving the quality of education, one should not consider time savings as an absolute tool since the intensification aims to use a system of techniques to activate the reserve capacity of the individual and increase the efficiency of the educational and cognitive process. therefore, it does not imply the revision of scientifically grounded standards of labour productivity but only a focus on the introduction of advanced pedagogical technologies. the functional sufficiency of students’ practical training depends to a large extent on the organization of the educational process at universities, during which, as evidenced by kusherets (2003), the requirements for the content of learning, nature of problems and its praxeological tasks, synergistic effects are defined and implemented. therefore, it should be emphasized that the information environment of higher education institutions should not only provide the maximum amount of knowledge to students but also teach them to use it based on their involvement. however, this is manifested only in the necessary and sufficient pedagogical conditions, specially created for creative activities to master the requirements for the chosen profession, professional skills and thanks to daily hard work, honest fulfilment of practical tasks. in this context, special attention is paid to principles of teaching praxeology, which should be adhered to in the training of future teachers: identifying the goals and results of learning activities; stimulating and enhancing students’ positive attitude to learning, taking into account their needs and interests; cultivating the university teacher’s competency in forming and developing students’ motivational sphere; selecting effective methods, means and forms of activities; ensuring the interrelation between training stages; supporting the creation of individual conditions for self-regulation of cognitive activities. the prospects of further research can be seen in analyzing, generalizing and adapting to modern conditions of inclusive education in foreign experience of learning, education and development of young pupils; preparing future specialists as subjects for creating an inclusive educational space in schools. conclusions the pedagogical conditions for developing future physical education teachers’ readiness for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education are defined as follows: prioritizing the content of programmes and teaching methodologies of such courses as philosophy, the brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 209 history of pedagogy, the history of ukrainian culture, didactic, theory and methods of education towards the values of inclusive education; improving the content, forms, methods and means required to master normative, psychological, pedagogical and correctional theoretical and practical and scientific foundations of inclusive education when studying such courses as developmental and pedagogical psychology, political science, pedagogical skills, fundamental of medical knowledge, fundamentals of defectology, fundamentals of correctional pedagogy, fundamentals of inclusive education, as well as didactic and correctional and developmental technologies during the classes dedicated to professional teaching methodologies; consolidating professional knowledge and practical skills of students when mastering such courses as inclusive physical education, psychology of creativity based on the simulation modelling and reflection on pedagogical experience of future physical education teachers under the conditions of inclusive education with the relevant update of the content of teaching placements. the theoretical and practical training of future physical education teachers for professional activities is methodically provided on a comprehensive basis, taking into account the inclusive and correctional components of its content. to achieve the main goal and complete the objectives of theoretical and practical training of future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education, a set of teaching methods of those subjects was used, which take into account inclusive and correctional components of their content. it contains the methods of informational, visual, explanatory, analytical, synthetic, problem-seeking, interactive, cooperative, projective, modelling, imitative, situational, real-life, game-based, practical and creative learning, as well as integrative, differentiated, facilitating, informational, communicative, cognitive, activity-based, reflexive, evaluative educational technologies that varied according to the goals and objectives of each stage of the organization and the course of the educational process in higher education. the results of the experiment prove the effectiveness of the developed model for the pedagogical system and the methodology of training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. given the relevance of the topic, it is recommended to improve the curriculum of training for future physical education teachers through the introduction of the courses on inclusive physical education and psychology of creativity with the involvement of materials from creative therapy, organizing and conducting practical training and updating the content of teaching placements accordingly. training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 210 references adăscăliţei, c. (2020). an integrative approach to vocational identity and of the prevention of school adaptation difficulties. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2), 20-27. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/19 akhmetova, d. z. (2013). pedagogika i psikhologiya inklyuzivnogo obrazovaniya [pedagogy and psychology of inclusive education]. poznaniye. akhutina, t. v., & pylayeva, n. m. (2003). metodologiya neyropsikhologicheskogo soprovozhdeniya detey s neravnomernostyu razvitiya psikhicheskikh funktsiy [methods of neuropsychological support for children with uneven development of mental functions]. in t. v. akhutina, & n. m. pylayeva (eds.), doklady ii mezhdunarodnoy konferentsii, posvyashchennoy 100-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya a. r. luriya “a. r. luriya i psikhologiya xxi veka” [proceedings of the international conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of a. r. luria “a. r. luria and 21st century psychology”] (pp. 181189). smysl. http://childpsy.ru/lib/articles/id/9542.php babanskiy, y. k. (1987). intensifikatsiya protsessa obucheniya [the intensification of the learning process]. znaniya. centre for studies on inclusive education. (1994). the salamanca statement. http://nmcio.ippo.kubg.edu.ua frumos, l. (2018). attitudes and self? efficacy of romanian primary school teachers towards including children with special educational needs in regular classrooms. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 10(4), 118-135. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/77 gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, y., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. http://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 gilman, s. (2007). including the child with special needs: learning from reggio emilia. theory into practice, 46(1), 23–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840709336545 glozman, z. m. (2016). prakticheskaya neyropsikhologiya. opyt raboty s detmi, ispytyvayushchimi trudnosti v obuchenii [practical neuropsychology. the experience of working with children with learning difficulties]. genesis. ivanova, l. i. (2006). fizkulturno-ozdorovcha spryamovanist pidhotovky maybutnikh uchyteliv fizychnoyi kultury [professional training of future physical ducation teachers focusd on health promotion]. pedahohika, psykholohiya ta medyko-biolohichni problemy fizychnoho vykhovannya i sportu [pedagogics, psychology, medical-biological problems of physical training and sports], 4, 5758. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgihttps://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/19 http://childpsy.ru/lib/articles/id/9542.php http://nmcio.ippo.kubg.edu.ua/ https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/77 http://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840709336545 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&z21id=&image_file_name=/articles/2006//06ilitpt.zip&image_file_download=1 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 211 bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn= ref&z21id=&image_file_name=/articles/2006//06ilitpt.zip&image _file_download=1 kolupaieva, a. a. (2009). inklyuzyvna osvita: realiyi ta perspektyvy [inclusive education: realities and prospects]. summit-book. kolupaieva, a. a. (2012). prohrama kursu “osnovy inklyuzyvnoyi osvity” [the programme of the course on the fundamentals of inclusive education]. ask. http://www.ussf.kiev.ua/ieeditions/16/1/ kurth, j., & and mastergeorge, a. m. (2009). individual education plan goals and services for adolescents with autism: impact of age and educational setting. the journal of special education, 44(3), 146–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022466908329825 kusherets, v. i. (2003). analiz znannya yak stratehichnoho resursu transformatsiyi suspilstva (svitohlyadno-metodolohichnyy aspekt) [the analysis of knowledge as a strategic resource for the transformation of society (the ideological and methodological aspect)] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. taras shevchenko kyiv national university. http://www.disslib.org/analizznannja-jak-stratehichnoho-resursu-transformatsiyi-suspilstva.html kuzava, i. b. (2015). teoretychni ta metodychni zasady inklyuzyvnoyi osvity doshkilnykiv, yaki potrebuyut korektsiyi psykhofizychnoho rozvytku [theoretical and methodological foundations of inclusive education for preschool children in need of psychophysical development correction] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/6732 litvintseva, n. a. (2011). obzor sovremennykh zarubezhnykh issledovaniy po problemam inklyuzivnogo obrazovaniya [review of modern foreign studies on inclusive education]. psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovaniye [psychological science and education], 3, 114–121. https://psyjournals.ru/psyedu/2011/n3/liventseva.shtml maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 malofeev, n. n. (2007). osobyy rebenok  vchera, segodnya, zavtra [a special child – yesterday, today, tomorrow]. the institute for correctional pedagogy. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&z21id=&image_file_name=/articles/2006//06ilitpt.zip&image_file_download=1 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&z21id=&image_file_name=/articles/2006//06ilitpt.zip&image_file_download=1 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=ref&z21id=&image_file_name=/articles/2006//06ilitpt.zip&image_file_download=1 http://www.ussf.kiev.ua/ieeditions/16/1/ https://doi.org/10.1177/0022466908329825 http://www.disslib.org/analiz-znannja-jak-stratehichnoho-resursu-transformatsiyi-suspilstva.html http://www.disslib.org/analiz-znannja-jak-stratehichnoho-resursu-transformatsiyi-suspilstva.html http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/6732 https://psyjournals.ru/psyedu/2011/n3/liventseva.shtml https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 training future physical education teachers for professional activities under … iryna demchenko, et al. 212 organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m myhydiuk, a. (2019, december 17). povernuty ukrayini status neyronatsiyi: vidomyy ukrayinskyy neyropsykholoh zavitav do studentiv lvivskoyi politekhniky [return the status of neuronation to ukraine: a well-known ukrainian neuropsychologist visited students of lviv polytechnic]. tyzhnevyk “audytoriya” [weekly newspaper “audytoriya”]. https://lpnu.ua/news/vidomyi-ukrainskyi-neiropsykholog-zavitav-dostudentiv-politekhniky myronova, s. p., havrylov, o. v., & matvieieva, m. p. (2010). osnovy korektsiynoyi pedahohiky [fundamentals of correctional pedagogy]. ivan ohienko kamianets-podilskyi national university. nazarova, n. m. (2011). k probleme razrabotki teoreticheskikh i metodologicheskikh osnov obrazovatelnoy integratsii [on the development of theoretical and methodological principles of educational intergration]. psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovaniye [psychological science and education], 3, 511. https://psyjournals.ru/psyedu/2011/n3/nazarova.shtml nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 shchekotylina, n. f. (2019). pedahohichni umovy pidhotovky maybutnikh uchyteliv fizychnoyi kultury do indyvidualnoyi roboty z uchnyamy v umovakh inklyuziyi [pedagogical conditions for training future physical education teachers to work with pupils with special needs] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushinsky. http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/5995/1/shchekotylina %20natalia%20fedorivna.pdf sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). stan sformovanosti smart-informatsiynoho kryteriyu hotovnosti fakhivtsiv do realizatsiyi inklyuziyi v osviti [the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education]. informatsiyni tekhnolohiyi i zasoby navchannya [information technologies and learning tools], 72, 273285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 shipitsyna, l. m. (2002). neobuchayemyy rebenok v semye i obshchestve. sotsializatsiya detey s narusheniyem intellekta [an unteachable child in the family and society. socialization of children with intellectual disorders]. didactic plus. stăncescu, i., drăghicescu, l. m., & suduc, a. m. (2020). teenagers` perception about discrimination. logos universality mentality education novelty: political sciences and european studies, 6(7). https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://lpnu.ua/news/vidomyi-ukrainskyi-neiropsykholog-zavitav-do-studentiv-politekhniky https://lpnu.ua/news/vidomyi-ukrainskyi-neiropsykholog-zavitav-do-studentiv-politekhniky https://psyjournals.ru/psyedu/2011/n3/nazarova.shtml https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/5995/1/shchekotylina%20natalia%20fedorivna.pdf http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/5995/1/shchekotylina%20natalia%20fedorivna.pdf https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 brain. broad research in september, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 3 213 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/lumenpses/article/view /4177 united nations. (1990). world declaration on education for all (adopted by the world conference on education for all, jomtien, thailand, 59 march 1990). https://bice.org/app/uploads/2014/10/unesco_world_declaration_on_ed ucation_for_all_jomtien_thailand.pdf vygostky, l. s. (1983). sobraniye sochineniy (t. 1-6) [the collection of works (vol. 16)]. pedagogika. zagumennov, y. l. (2009). razvitiye inklyuzivnogo obrazovaniya: sushchnost, problemy, perspektivy [developing inclusive education: the essence, problems, prospects]. adukatsyya í vykhavanne [education and upbringing], 2, 111. https://narfu.ru/upload/iblock/832/zagyumenov-yu.l.-razvitieinklyuzivnogo-obrazovaniya.pdf https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/lumenpses/article/view/4177 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/lumenpses/article/view/4177 https://bice.org/app/uploads/2014/10/unesco_world_declaration_on_education_for_all_jomtien_thailand.pdf https://bice.org/app/uploads/2014/10/unesco_world_declaration_on_education_for_all_jomtien_thailand.pdf https://narfu.ru/upload/iblock/832/zagyumenov-yu.l.-razvitie-inklyuzivnogo-obrazovaniya.pdf https://narfu.ru/upload/iblock/832/zagyumenov-yu.l.-razvitie-inklyuzivnogo-obrazovaniya.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 339-356 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/322 submitted: august 28th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 10th, 2022 application of artificial intelligence in education. problems and opportunities for sustainable development valentyna yuskovychzhukovska¹, tetiana poplavska2, oksana diachenko3, tetiana mishenina4, yana topolnyk5, roman gurevych6 1 private higher education establishment “academician stepan demianchuk international university of economics and humanities”, ukraine, valivanivna@i.ua 2 south-ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k.d. ushinsky, ukraine, sofistriya@gmail.com 3 мariupol state university, ukraine, djoksana@gmail.com 4 kryvyi rih state pedagogical university, ukraine, t.mishenina@gmail.com 5 shee “donbas state pedagogical university”, ukraine, yannetkatop@gmail.com 6 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, r.gurevych2018@gmail.com abstract: the article is devoted to the application of artificial intelligence in education and highlighting opportunities and problems in the context of sustainable development. the current state of introduction of artificial intelligence technologies in the educational process is analyzed. the technologies of artificial intelligence, which are most often used in the educational process are generalized into the following categories: cognitive services; virtual, mixed and augmented reality; internet of things and peripheral computing; metacognitive scaffolding. the advantages of using the artificial intelligence in educational processes depending on the impact on its beneficiaries are generalized: students, teachers, students’ parents, heads of educational institutions, local governments. it is proved that the learning process can be significantly effective through the use of artificial intelligence technologies and the creation of individual training programs based on the use of analytical data obtained from the application of these technologies. it is found that the main advantage of using artificial intelligence in education is the individualization and personalization of the educational process. the benefits are pointed out which heads of educational institutions and local governments receive from the use of artificial intelligence technologies in the educational process in order to ensure sustainable development, including transparency and accountability of decisions, rational and energy efficient use of resources. discussion issues of confidentiality and depersonalization of students’ data who are processed by artificial intelligence during the educational process are revealed; it is recommended to differentiate the responsibility for access, storage and use of personal and confidential data by educational institutions. prospects for further scientific research are outlined further personalization and individualization of the educational process. keywords: informatization of education, artificial intelligence in education, sustainable development, individualization of education, personalization of education, information and communication competence. how to cite: yuskovych-zhukovska, v., poplavska, t., diachenko, o., mishenina, t., topolnyk, y., & gurevych, r. (2022). application of artificial intelligence in education. problems and opportunities for sustainable development. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 339-356. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/322 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/322 mailto:valivanivna@i.ua mailto:sofistriya@gmail.com mailto:djoksana@gmail.com mailto:t.mishenina@gmail.com mailto:yannetkatop@gmail.com mailto:r.gurevych2018@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/322 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 340 introduction the interest of scientists in recent decades in the problem of the artificial intelligence (ai) use in education remains relevant there are still discussions about the need for its use in education. the issues of collecting, storing, using and disseminating personal and confidential data of students who use ai technologies also remain debatable. from a technical point of view, the issues of ai technology allow to achieve significant or “breakthrough” economic progress. usually this is due to the automation of various technological processes, conducting a significantly different level of quality analytics. ai technologies are actively implemented in all industries and therefore education is no exception. ai provides the opportunity to use a large scale of knowledge that is in some way structured and suitable for use in the educational process to solve certain educational problems and which is personalized for each student. “smart” learning devices, various software educational applications, adaptive intelligent virtual assistants, chatbots today this is the stage of application of ai in education and this stage passes. we agree with scientists and develop the idea of the true potential of ai in education the development of a more effective perception and understanding of human learning processes, its measurement and awareness (gerasymova et al., 2019; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; nerubasska et al., 2020; palamarchuk & poltorak, 2020). the global tendency of ai use in education is noted as the automation of various processes. any process of explaining educational material can be automated and presented to the learner in a format that is as personalized as possible for his age, physiological and psychological characteristics and properties, and this display format can be adaptive and rapidly changing depending on changes in the dominant type of perception information (so-called “audials”, “visuals”, “verbals”, “kinesthetes” which are defined by the vark method) (vark, 1987). in this way, students receive the most effective and accessible training, which will stimulate the ability to research and the ability to solve everyday problems. the potential for the ai use in education is extremely powerful. in addition to the ability to personalize and individualize the educational process, it is also an opportunity to collect and analyze great amounts of information, identify problematic issues that humanity does not have answers to today or anticipate potential difficulties in the future and find scenarios to reduce their negative impact on humanity. the more multimodal data will be processed the better the awareness of the application of artificial intelligence in education. problems and opportunities … valentyna yuskovych-zhukovska, et al. 341 educational material content and the more scenarios will be invented to apply the acquired knowledge in real everyday life. at the same time, a number of humanitarian studies note the consequences of using ai as negative, namely: rising unemployment (ford, 2013), the potential for manipulation of public opinion (yang, 2019), interference in private life (winkler-schwartz, 2019). researchers’ interest of ai using in education remains relevant and, in our opinion, will remain relevant in the future. therefore, the search for scenarios for the ai use in education, the maximum prevention of the negative consequences of ai on humanity, the development and strict adherence to various standards and policies for the use of ai in education remain relevant today. the purpose of the research is to study and summarize scenarios for the use of ai technologies in education in the context of sustainable development. literature review in general, today the use of ai technologies in the educational process is not new and is actively explored among the european and world scientific community, as well as national one. ukrainian scientists study the methods and tools of artificial neural networks and the possibility of their application to assess the performance of higher educational institutions, systematize the tools of machine learning (milkevych & redich, 2021), explore various methods of predicting final grades of students using recurrent neural network (rnn) from the electronic journal stored in the educational system (bukreev & serdiuk, 2019). moroz i. (2017) devoted his works to the application of neural networks in the intellectualization of distance education, which identifies the following types of ai tasks to solve the problem of assessing the quality of education: classification of students, search for relationships between parameters, data clustering, forecasting (moroz, 2017). the works of kocharian a. and viktorova l. (2021) are devoted to the application of ai in education, focusing on the personalization and individualization of the educational process on the example of learning a foreign language by students. a review of the foreign researchers’ work allows to state a systematic approach to the use of ai technologies in education from the need to develop, implement, monitor compliance with national standards and policies (chassignol et al., 2018), development and implementation of brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 342 corporate standards at the educational level to technology clustering (lоpezbelmonte et al., 2020) and the development of scenarios for the use of ai in education (yang, 2019) for each participant in the educational process (matsuda et al., 2020). our analysis and author’s experience demonstrate that the use of ai technologies in the educational process is not new in research. however, despite the large number of such studies, they remain relevant due to the emergence of new technologies and their rapid development, which stimulates the constant search for new scenarios for their application. artificial intelligence technologies as a trend in education one of the trends in modern education is the individualization and personalization of learning. by individualization of learning process we mean the organization of such a system of interaction of learning participants, during which the individual features of each are used as fully and effectively as possible (osadcha et al., 2021). by personalization we mean the organization of such a system of interaction of participants, during which students acquire socially significant, unique and individual properties and qualities that allow them to effectively perform a social role (osadcha et al., 2021). the use of modern information and communication technologies (ict) allows to successfully implement individualization and personalization of learning. the use of ai technologies is especially promising for solving personalization problems. artificial intelligence – is “an organized set of information technologies, using which it is possible to perform complex tasks using a system of scientific research methods and algorithms for processing information obtained or independently created during working process, as well as create and use their own knowledge bases, decisionmaking models, algorithms to work with information and identify ways to achieve the objectives” (concept for the development of artificial intelligence in ukraine, 2020). the following ai technologies have been successfully proven in education today: machine learning, in-depth learning and language recognition, language processing, computer vision. the use of ai tools and methods allows to create complex digital learning environments that are as individual, flexible, inclusive and interesting for students. in general, the issue of ai use in education is consistently relevant and constantly attracts the attention of both ukrainian and foreign researchers. thus, the number of queries in the google search engine for the period 2016-2021 of the keyword “artificial intelligence” shows a application of artificial intelligence in education. problems and opportunities … valentyna yuskovych-zhukovska, et al. 343 consistently high rate among foreign researchers and for the keyword “artificial intelligence” among ukrainian researchers (there is a surge in queries since 2014). fig. 1. quantitative indicators of google queries for the keywords “artificial intelligence” (in ukraininan), “artificial intelligence” (in english) for the period 2016-2021 (screenshot). source: google the interest of ai is due to the intensive pace of industrialization and urbanization, technological progress and globalization processes in general. at the same time, these processes make us think about the issue of environmental protection and social responsibility, the search for sustainable development. in ukraine, since 2019, the priority of sustainable development has included the issue of digitalization, one of the tasks of which was to create a “state in a smartphone”. in 2020, the cabinet of ministers of ukraine approved the concept of ai development in ukraine, which provides for eight key areas of state policy in the field of artificial intelligence to achieve sustainable development: education and human capital; science and innovation; cyber security; defense; governance; legal regulation and ethics; justice. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 344 the main task of education in ai development, specified in the concept of ai development in ukraine (2020), is to provide qualified personnel through the spread of digital literacy among students, creating specialized ai educational programs, inclusion of ai issues in educational programs in various specialties, introduction of ai technologies in education. based on the analysis of available research, we will try to systematize and classify ai technologies used in the educational process. 1. cognitive services. these are ai products that can perform tasks that previously could only be performed by humans. examples of cognitive technologies are computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing, language recognition, and robotics. analyzing microsoft collection of cognitive services, developers group them into the following functional categories (azure cognitive services, 2021). 1.1. category “vision”, which includes ai technologies for image and video content recognition. examples of such application programming interfaces (apis) are: computer vision, emotion, face, video and content moderators. 1.2. category “speech recognition” involves understanding and synthesizing oral speech, recognizing people by voice. examples of such apis are: custom speech, speaker recognition and bing speech api. 1.3. category “natural language processing” involves understanding, word processing and “prediction” of what a person expects. examples of such apis are: bing spell check, language understanding, linguistic analysis, text analytics, web language model. 1.4. category “knowledge” aims to add meaning to the text and combine them with other general meanings and concepts. examples of such aris are: academic knowledge, entity linking, qna maker, language exploration. 2. virtual, mixed and augmented reality that can radically change education, making learning a more exciting process (windows mixed reality, 2017). experts in the field of educational technology already predict that in the future inexpensive versions of such technologies will replace textbooks and take the learning process outside the classroom (lopez-belmonte, 2020). ai will not only implement these technologies, but also analyze their effectiveness and optimize the benefits they can provide. 3. internet of things and peripheral computing. today, there are more internet of things devices than humans, and researchers predict that by 2025, the number of such devices will exceed 40 billion (the growth in connected iot devices, 2019). educational institutions already use a variety application of artificial intelligence in education. problems and opportunities … valentyna yuskovych-zhukovska, et al. 345 of devices to control heating and lighting in the premises; use biometrics and other devices to ensure the safety of students on the territory of the institution. peripheral computing, in turn, is needed to address shortcomings in cloud-based programs and services. cloud computing may not always meet the required response time requirements. internet of things technology often requires high bandwidth, minimal latency, and reliability, which is why peripheral computing is important. this means that there is no need to send data for processing to the cloud storage data processing is even faster. 4. metacognitive scaffolding, which provides assistance to the learner only when necessary, with a gradual reduction or minimization of the intervention of the teacher as the student’s competence increases (matsuda et al., 2020). the use of ai in education allows not only to determine when and in what applicants need help, but also to monitor when to increase or decrease the amount of assistance provided during the educational process. applicants themselves benefit from the findings of their training; they become the main users of ai technologies and services, not just data subjects (hung & tsai, 2020). 5. personalization and individualization of the educational process. ai is able to implement personalized (kocharian & viktorova, 2021) and individualized learning, allowing obtaining huge amounts of data and formulating conclusions that can be used to develop an educational trajectory that takes into account the individual needs and abilities of students. advantages of using artificial intelligence technologies for participants of the educational process researcher’ works on the search for scenarios for the use of ai in the educational process can be summarized by the following beneficiaries (stakeholders): education obtainers who can get personalized and individualized training with the help of ai. pedagogical and scientific-pedagogical workers who use ai technologies to improve the quality of the educational process, improve their own pedagogical skills. heads of educational institutions who, with the help of ai technologies, can more effectively manage and lead the processes of change in the institution. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 346 developers of e-learning resources who, using ai technologies, can create e-learning resources with more efficient use and lower costs compared to others. ai technologies allow these stakeholders to obtain a much larger amount of generalized and systematized data. world experience confirms ai is able to perform a number of application tasks, such as: document processing, automation of the procurement process, processing requests and comments from users, data security issues. the tendency of spreading ai technologies in the field of education is becoming more obvious and is moving from the category of “document automation” to the category of “automation of the educational process”. intelligent educational environment is becoming a promising tool for self-education of students. the covid-19 pandemic, quarantine, restrictive measures and mass transfer of students to distance learning in almost all countries of the world have only further actualized the tendency intellectual educational environment is becoming promising not only in distance learning but also in self-education, including lifelong learning. thus, the intellectual educational environment allows to automate the pedagogical functionality of the teacher, which in a large array of educational content and e-learning tools, e-learning platforms is becoming increasingly relevant and is being in demand (karpukhin & lobazhevych, 2019). thus, the use of ai technologies by students provides the latter, regardless of age and level of success, social status and financial security, a number of benefits that can significantly improve the quality of learning and learning outcomes. in many countries, much of the data is already being collected and analyzed for further decision-making. these can be school graduation grades, results of state exams (in ukraine the results of the external independent assessment), the tendency of success and “failure” of each student, information on participation in international competitions and grant programs, as well as other quantitative data. the process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting such data is a resource-intensive process. at the same time, the construction of an individual learning trajectory for the learner should take into account individual preferences, abilities and capabilities. therefore, one of the areas of ai technologies research in education is the direction of solving the processes of formation and use of personal educational environment for the implementation of individual trajectories to study the “educational behavior” of the learner (zharska & zinkovska, 2014). the obtained results of educational data allow to reveal regularities and interdependencies and visualize the process of perception of educational application of artificial intelligence in education. problems and opportunities … valentyna yuskovych-zhukovska, et al. 347 material, the degree of formation of full perception and awareness of the material. the use of ai technologies for the processing of such data is already possible today, subject to integration with existing educational lms, which allow to individualize and personalize the learning process. examples of such lms are: moodle, neo lms, learn.com, edmodo, ecollege, atutor and others. these lms allow to determine the following data for each student: time spent on training; reasons for termination of training; level of use of prompts; level of application of notes; participation in commenting on educational material; participation in group projects and/or discussions and debates; time spent on passing test tasks; use of auxiliary resources; return to the passed educational material, etc. the use of ai in turn allows to interpret these data, which in turn implements the principle of adaptability, the principle of assessing the knowledge of students on the basis of analytical data on the application of machine learning methods and automated data collection on the actions of applicants in lms. thus, learners who receive educational services using ai technology have the opportunity to access personalized information and draw conclusions about key aspects of their own success, as well as to identify other factors that may provoke changes in motivation or learning effectiveness. the ability of ais not only to analyze a large flow of data, but also to establish links between different data sources, allows to identify gaps or opportunities for development in real time. thus, ai develops a targeted, individual educational trajectory for each student, taking into account all its features and capabilities. personalization with the help of ai provides an optimal educational environment in which students can maximize their full potential. this leads not only to improved performance, but also to a change in the attitude of the student to the learning process itself, a change is in the level of the involvement, a change is in the system of the values. in addition, it is worth noting that it is generally accepted that automation and ai are radically changing the labor market and that interpersonal skills, empathy and creativity will be important for future work. the demand for social and emotional skills, such as the ability to solve problems and interact with others, in the labor market is constantly growing (emotion and cognition, 2019). that is why the awareness of the relationship between the worldview and the emotional state of the student, its ability to interact and cooperate with others and the ability to learn has led to educational reform with a shift in emphasis on these skills. the works (sensing curiosity in play and responding, 2016) have shown that ai and multimodal social computing can help improve cognitive, social and emotional skills (khaimovych et al., 2019). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 348 private companies already have experience in applying the results of data analysis and machine learning to analyze their own business (khaimovych, 2015), and in the long run these applications are more likely to penetrate into the field of education. they provide ample opportunity to develop the social and emotional skills needed for learning, as they allow teachers to personalize learning and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data to assess the level of mastery of these skills and, if necessary, help to master them. effective use of ai can allow teachers to make the learning process more exciting through the use of immersion technologies in a virtual environment, the creation of individual training programs based on the use of analytical data obtained from the use of these technologies. by analyzing all available data sources and formulating conclusions that can be used to create individual educational trajectories, ai allows teachers to save a lot of time. enthusiastic and interested learners acquire a much larger amount of knowledge, and this knowledge is stored in their memory for a longer time (a hierarchical conceptualization, 2006). pleasure is not only a favorable condition for learning. this is both an expected outcome of sustainable society, and in some national curricula (for example, in the uk since 2003) it is given the same importance as health and safety (every child matters, 2003). at the same time, ai allows the heads of educational institutions to identify all the teachers’ strong characteristics and systematize strategies for cooperation that will maximize the combined skills of the entire teaching staff. this provides an opportunity to develop mentoring and mutual learning through free and constant access to quantitative and qualitative data. in its turn, the effective use of ai technologies provides teachers with a similar opportunity to access learning at any time and in any place and allows them to develop skills without leaving work. it is worth noting another advantage of the use of ai, which is received by the heads of educational institutions – and it is the efficient use of resources (zacharis, 2016) and the management of students’ academic failure (arpaci, 2020). incomplete education in an educational institution is a problematic issue not only for students, but also for the institution as a whole from reputational risks to unjustified resources use. academic failure is not the only reason for incomplete education. the ability to identify or predict the probability of incomplete education by analyzing a large amount of data about them is quite high. such analysis with the help of ai allows to application of artificial intelligence in education. problems and opportunities … valentyna yuskovych-zhukovska, et al. 349 take measures to prevent such a situation and promotes more efficient use of their resources. ai, used in the educational process, promotes more active involvement and communication of parents, local governments for decisionmaking processes and sustainable development, the management of educational institutions. the basis for it is an effective communication where can be personalized not only educational trajectories, but also the ways to choose communication with each participant in the educational process (chassignol et al., 2018), including parents. thus, summarizing the various approaches and scenarios for the use of ai in the educational process, we can say that its effective use, use of data and analytics allows to develop the educational process to more exciting, individual and effective one. thus, we can summarize the following advantages and features of the use of ai in the educational process. 1. ai allows to automate repetitive learning and search processes through the use of data. however, ai is different from robotics, which is based on the process of applying hardware. the purpose of ai is not the automation of manual labor, but the reliable and continuous execution of numerous large-scale computerized tasks. such automation requires human participation for the initial setup of the system and the correct formulation of questions. ai can automate basic actions in education, such as certification (wilson & czik, 2016). 2. ai performs in-depth analysis of large amounts of data using neural networks with many hidden levels. deep learning models require a huge amount of data, as on the basis of which students learn. therefore, the more data, the more accurate the model. ai-based programs are a source of feedback for both the learner and the teacher. ai systems have successfully proven themselves in online learning to monitor student ‘s performance and timely inform teachers about existing problems with a course success. such ai systems create conditions for effective improvement of the educational process and timely introduction of relevant changes. ai programs help students choose majors based on the areas in which they succeed. 3. deep neural networks allow ai to achieve an unprecedented level of accuracy. for example, alexa, google search, and google photos are based on in-depth learning, and the more often we use these tools, the more effective they become. google adapts search results to users based on location, amazon provides recommendations based on previous purchases, siri meets personalized needs and adapts to teams. these features of brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 350 intelligent systems can change the way information is sought and used in educational institutions and academia in general (teachthought staff, 2019). 4. ai allows to get the most out of data analysis. the data contains the right answers – there is just a need to find them with the help of ai technology. since data plays a much more important role today than ever before, it can provide a competitive advantage to educational institutions. when using the same technology in a competitive environment, the one who has the most accurate data wins. it is the opportunities of ai that education seekers can receive personalized and individualized learning, the opportunity for social and emotional development, the formation of skills of the xxist century, the unlimited opportunities for people with disabilities. teachers, in turn, use their working time more efficiently and save time, the ones who are more involved in the process of using ai technologies, can focused on cooperation and professional development more. heads of educational institutions and local governments have access to the analysis of a large amount of data, which allows much more efficient decision-making and use of available resources, to predict the results for a more sustainable development of society. 5. at present, the debatable issues regarding the replacement of ai by teachers remain incorrect. quite often, david thornburg’s (1999) statement that “any teacher who can be replaced by a computer deserves it” (thornburg, 1999) can be considered controversial. currently, there are no technologies that can reproduce and, moreover, replace the countless skills and qualities of a professional teacher. however, ai is consistently and confidently changing the role of teachers. ai can perform tasks such as assessment, can help learners improve learning, and can even replace real learning. ai systems can be a source of expertise to which students can direct their questions, or even take the teachers’ place for the basic materials of the course. however, in most cases, ai will only change the role of the teacher to the role of facilitator (watts, 2019). in order to maximize the effective use of ai technology in education, we recommend to follow the algorithm: determining the needs of students; identification of ai technologies that can solve or significantly optimize these needs; defining the strategic goals of the educational institution; identification of ai technologies that can help achieve certain strategic goals of the educational institution; application of artificial intelligence in education. problems and opportunities … valentyna yuskovych-zhukovska, et al. 351 development of internal policies and corporate standards that define ai technologies that can address (or optimize) the needs of students and achieve the strategic goals of the educational institution; reasonable ways to monitor the performance of ai technologies by ensuring transparency and accountability, identifying performance indicators and safety indicators that need to be constantly analyzed and monitored. discussion issues of application of artificial intelligence technologies in the educational process examining the implementation of modern technologies in the educational process and ai technologies, including in the context of sustainable development of society, we consider it necessary to approach this issue systematically and comprehensively. therefore, the study of the ai technologies use in the educational process would not be complete if we did not mention other discussional questions that lead or may lead to certain undesirable consequences when using ai. the decision-making process for choosing a particular ai technology must be conscious, systematic, consistent and responsible. the efficiency of ai is ensured by a large array of data that the user (or database owner) discovers. most of this data is depersonalized, but the results of recent cybersecurity research should force school leaders to take a more responsible approach to this issue (pal, 2020). in order to ensure the effective personalization of education of the student there is a need to obtain and process the maximum possible amount of data about him, including his activities on social networks, analysis of his search history, geolocation of his stay and others. therefore, the vast majority of ai systems provide the registration using a google, microsoft or facebook account. analyzing the privacy policy of google (privacy policy and terms of use, 2021), microsoft (control the confidentiality of your data, 2021) or facebook (facebook. questions from senator booker, 2021), we can provide the following user data: search engine query keywords, youtube browsing analysis, linking the account to certain geolocation objects (shops, cinemas, shopping malls, etc.) and many others. in addition, facebook collects much more data about its users: cursor movements on the user’s device; names and file types on the user’s device; call log and sms history of messages from devices running the android operating system; list of users and frequency of interaction with them, etc. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 352 a separate open issue is the observance by educational institutions of the law of ukraine “on information” and the law of ukraine “on personal data protection”, according to which an educational institution must not only obtain written consent to the collection, processing and use of personal data of students, but also to ensure their proper preservation, damage or unauthorized access. to implement these provisions of the laws it requires not only technical support, but also the development and implementation of corporate standards and policies at the institution level. given the insufficient amount of research among domestic researchers on the risks of using ai in the educational process, we propose at this stage to differentiate responsibilities for access, storage and use of personal and confidential data of educational institutions. conclusions artificial intelligence has a key role in implementing the idea of personalized learning the adaptation of learning, its content and pace to the specific needs of each student. it provides the ability to obtain data from a variety of sources, verify this data and analyze it using analytics and machine learning. in this way, the powerful potential of ai in education can be revealed, and its use can act as a catalyst for the transformation of the education system for all stakeholders, from individual learners to local governments, which will promote and ensure sustainable development. ai technologies can change any industry, but their possibilities are not limitless. the main limitation of ai is that learning is possible only on the basis of data, otherwise it is impossible. this means that any errors in the data will be reflected in such training results. modern ai systems are focused on clearly defined tasks. a system designed to identify the individual characteristics of students will not be able to implement the assessment of the same students. a system configured to detect plagiarism in the students’ work will not be able to provide adaptive learning. these systems are characterized by a very narrow specialization. they are designed to perform one specific task, and today they are very far from human multitasking. ai systems, analyzing the behavior of students (and all participants in the educational process in general) during the educational process, create a digital footprint. this digital footprint is a commodity on the market. and it can be both individual and collective. therefore, the issue of identifying learners and understanding what data will be collected, analyzed and used remains relevant. it is no more important to understand the scenarios for using such a large flow of data from students. therefore, promising thing is application of artificial intelligence in education. problems and opportunities … valentyna yuskovych-zhukovska, et al. 353 not only the direction of research aimed at developing ai systems in the educational process, but also the use of a large flow of data generated by students and the impact of the digital footprint in the future. in any case, today ai has already contributed to the formation of practices and opportunities for all participants in the educational process to ensure sustainable development. and its smart, transparent and responsible use brings real benefits to pupils, students, teachers, school leaders, parents, administrators and providers and will continue to be a powerful catalyst for change in education reform. references a hierarchical conceptualization of enjoyment in students (2006). learning and instruction, 16, 323–338. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-11990-004 arpaci, i. (2020). what drives students’ online self-disclosure behaviour on social media? a hybrid sem and artificial intelligence approach. international journal of mobile communications, 18(2), 229–241. https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/ijmc.2020.10584 7 azure cognitive services (2021). https://azure.microsoft.com/enus/free/cognitive-services/ bukreev, d. & serdiuk, і. (2019). metod vykorystannia neironnoi merezhi dlia prohnozuvannia efektyvnosti roboty studentiv [a method of using a neural network to predict the effectiveness of students]. information technologies in education and science, 11, 61–64. chassignol, m., khoroshavin, a., klimova, a., & bilyatdinova, a. (2018). artificial intelligence trends in education: a narrative overview. procedia computer science, 136, 16–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.08.233 emotion and cognition in the age of ai: white paper. (2019). the economist intelligence unit; commissioned by microsoft. https://info.microsoft.com/wwlanding-emotion-and-cognition-in-the-age-of-aiwhitepaper.html?lcid=en-us every child matters. (2003). department for education and skills. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/every-child-matters facebook. (2021). questions from senator booker. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/ed0185fb-615a-4fd5818b-5ce050825a9b ford, m. (2013). could artificial intelligence create an unemployment crisis? commun, (56), 37–39. https://doi.org/10.1145/2483852.2483865 gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b. m., bilozerova, m., chernetska, y., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-11990-004 https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/ijmc.2020.105847 https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/ijmc.2020.105847 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/cognitive-services/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/cognitive-services/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.08.233 https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-emotion-and-cognition-in-the-age-of-ai-whitepaper.html?lcid=en-us https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-emotion-and-cognition-in-the-age-of-ai-whitepaper.html?lcid=en-us https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-emotion-and-cognition-in-the-age-of-ai-whitepaper.html?lcid=en-us https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/every-child-matters https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/ed0185fb-615a-4fd5-818b-5ce050825a9b https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/ed0185fb-615a-4fd5-818b-5ce050825a9b https://doi.org/10.1145/2483852.2483865 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 354 in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4sup1), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 hung, j. & tsai, c. (2020). the effects of a virtual laboratory and metacognitive scaffolding on students' data modeling competences. journal of baltic science education, 19(6), 923. https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/20.19.923 karpukhin, s., & lobazhevych, v. (2019). ispolzovanie iskustvenoho intellekta v obrazovanii: perspektivy i problem [the use of artificial intelligence in education: prospects and problems]. philosophy and culture of the information society: seventh international scientific and practical conference, huap, st. petersburg, 206–209. khaimovych, a. (2015). rozrobka shablonu vymoh do systemy informatsiinoho zabezpechennia v konteksti rozrobky novykh materialiv iz zaluchenniam velykykh danykh [development of the requirements template for the information support system in the context of developing new materials involving big data]. ceur workshop proceedings, 1490, 364–375. https://doi.org/10.18287/1613-0073-2015-1490-364-375 khaimovych, i., ramzaev, v., & chumak, v. (2019). multimodalnaia klasterizatsia sotsialnykh setei v sotsialnom demfirovanii s ispolzovaniem big data (polucheie znanii iz dannykh) [multimodal clustering of social networks in social damping using big data (obtaining knowledge from data)]. ceur workshop proceedings, 2019, 948–960. http://repo.ssau.ru/bitstream/informacionnye-tehnologii-inanotehnologii/multimodalnaya-klasterizaciya-socialnyh-setei%cc%86-vsocialnom-demfirovanii-s-ispolzovaniem-big-data-poluchenieznanii%cc%86-iz-dannyh-75747/1/paper123.pdf kocharian, а., & viktorova, l. (2021). zastosuvannia shtuchnoho intelektu ta chatbotiv pid chas vyvchennia inozemnoi movy [use of artificial intelligence and chatbots when learning a foreign language]. innovative pedagogy, 32 (2), 166 -173. https://doi.org/10.32843/2663-6085/2021/32-2.33 kontroluite konfidentsiinist svoikh danykh [control the confidentiality of your data]. (2021). https://account.microsoft.com/account/privacy?refd=lifehacker.ru&ru=h ttps%3a%2f%2faccount.microsoft.com%2fprivacy%3frefd%3dlifehack er.ru&destrt=privacy-dashboard#/ kontseptsia rozvytku shtuchnoho intelektu v ukraini [the concept of artificial intelligence development in ukraine]. (2020). https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1556-2020-%d1%80#text lоpez-belmonte, j., moreno-guerrero, a., lopez-nunez, j., & hinojo-lucena, f. (2020). augmented reality in education. a scientific mapping in web of science. interactive learning environments, 1 – 15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1859546 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/20.19.923 https://doi.org/10.18287/1613-0073-2015-1490-364-375 http://repo.ssau.ru/bitstream/informacionnye-tehnologii-i-nanotehnologii/multimodalnaya-klasterizaciya-socialnyh-setei%cc%86-v-socialnom-demfirovanii-s-ispolzovaniem-big-data-poluchenie-znanii%cc%86-iz-dannyh-75747/1/paper123.pdf http://repo.ssau.ru/bitstream/informacionnye-tehnologii-i-nanotehnologii/multimodalnaya-klasterizaciya-socialnyh-setei%cc%86-v-socialnom-demfirovanii-s-ispolzovaniem-big-data-poluchenie-znanii%cc%86-iz-dannyh-75747/1/paper123.pdf http://repo.ssau.ru/bitstream/informacionnye-tehnologii-i-nanotehnologii/multimodalnaya-klasterizaciya-socialnyh-setei%cc%86-v-socialnom-demfirovanii-s-ispolzovaniem-big-data-poluchenie-znanii%cc%86-iz-dannyh-75747/1/paper123.pdf http://repo.ssau.ru/bitstream/informacionnye-tehnologii-i-nanotehnologii/multimodalnaya-klasterizaciya-socialnyh-setei%cc%86-v-socialnom-demfirovanii-s-ispolzovaniem-big-data-poluchenie-znanii%cc%86-iz-dannyh-75747/1/paper123.pdf https://doi.org/10.32843/2663-6085/2021/32-2.33 https://account.microsoft.com/account/privacy?refd=lifehacker.ru&ru=https%3a%2f%2faccount.microsoft.com%2fprivacy%3frefd%3dlifehacker.ru&destrt=privacy-dashboard#/ https://account.microsoft.com/account/privacy?refd=lifehacker.ru&ru=https%3a%2f%2faccount.microsoft.com%2fprivacy%3frefd%3dlifehacker.ru&destrt=privacy-dashboard#/ https://account.microsoft.com/account/privacy?refd=lifehacker.ru&ru=https%3a%2f%2faccount.microsoft.com%2fprivacy%3frefd%3dlifehacker.ru&destrt=privacy-dashboard#/ https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1556-2020-%d1%80#text https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1859546 application of artificial intelligence in education. problems and opportunities … valentyna yuskovych-zhukovska, et al. 355 matsuda, n., weng, w., & wall, n. (2020). the effect of metacognitive scaffolding for learning by teaching a teachable agent. international journal of artificial intelligence in education, 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-019-00190-2 milkevych, k., & redich, о. (2021). vykorystannia shtuchnykh neironnykh merezh v otsintsi pokaznykiv dialnosti zakladivvyshchoi osvity [the use of artificial neural networks in the evaluation of performance indicators of higher education institutions]. series scientific works of university of the state fiscal service of ukraine students, 49. http://ir.nusta.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/ 6867/1/6863_ir.pdf#page=52 moroz, i. (2017). zastosuvannia neiromerezh v intelektualizatsii dystantsiinoi osvity [the use of neural networks in the intellectualization of distance education]. http://elar.nung.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/8251/ 1/7889p.pdf nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential . postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 osadcha, k., osadchyi, v, spirin, о., & kruhlyk, v. (2021). realizatsiia indyvidualizatsii ta personalizatsii navchannia zasobamy moodle [implementation of individualization and personalization of learning by means of moodle]. youth and the market, 1, 187. https://doi.org/10.24919/2308-4634.2021.228274 pal, d., funilkul, s., & zhang, x. (2020). should i disclose my personal data? perspectives from internet of things services. ieee access, 9, 4141 -4157. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3048163 palamarchuk, v., & poltorak, a. (2020). features of guaranteeing the security of the integrated global financial space. modern economics, 20(1), 215-225. https://doi.org/10.31521/modecon.v20(2020)-34 politykka konfidentsiinosti ta umovy vukorystannia [privacy policy and terms of use]. (2021). https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=ru#infocollect sensing curiosity in play and responding. (2016). the articulab, carnegie mellon university. http://articulab.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/projects/scipr/ teachthought staff. (2019). 10 roles for artificial intelligence in education. https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/10-roles-forartificial-intelligence-ineducation/22.03.2019 international data corporation. (2019). the growth in connected iot devices is expected to generate 79.4zb of data in 2025, according to a new idc forecast. https://www.idc.com/%20getdoc.jsp?containerid=prus45213219 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-019-00190-2 http://ir.nusta.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/%0b6867/1/6863_ir.pdf#page=52 http://ir.nusta.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/%0b6867/1/6863_ir.pdf#page=52 http://elar.nung.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/8251/%0b1/7889p.pdf http://elar.nung.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/8251/%0b1/7889p.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.24919/2308-4634.2021.228274 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3048163 https://doi.org/10.31521/modecon.v20(2020)-34 https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=ru#infocollect http://articulab.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/projects/scipr/ https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/10-roles-for-artificial-intelligence-ineducation/22.03.2019 https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/10-roles-for-artificial-intelligence-ineducation/22.03.2019 https://www.idc.com/%20getdoc.jsp?containerid=prus45213219 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 356 thornburg, d. (1999). technology in k-12 education: envisioning a new future. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed452843 vark. (2022). a guide to learning preferences. https://vark-learn.com viktorova, l. (2021). perspektyvy zastosuvannia suchasnykh tekhnolohii ta shtuchnoho intelektu u zakladakh vyshchoi osvity zi spetsypichnymy umovamy navchannia [prospects for the application of modern technologies and artificial intelligence in higher education institutions with specific learning conditions]. current issues of the humanities, 35(2). http://www.aphn-journal.in.ua/archive/35_2021/part_2/352_2021.pdf#page=180 watts, e. (2019). 9 ways to use artificial intelligence (ai) in education. https://bigdatamadesimple.com/9-ways-to-use-artificial-intelligenceineducation/23.03.2019. wilson, j. & czik, a. (2016), automated essay evaluation software in english language arts classrooms: effects on teacher feedback, student motivation, and writing quality. computers & education, 94–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.05.004 microsoft hololens. (2017). windows mixed reality: an evolution for education. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xv8a9vqebw winkler-schwartz, a. (2019). artificial intelligence in medical education: best practices using machine learning to assess surgical expertise in virtual reality simulation. journal of surgical education, 76 (6), 1681 – 1690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2019.05.015 yang, k., varol, o., davis, c., ferrara, e., & flammini, a. (2019). arming the public with artificial intelligence to counter social bots. human behavior and emerging technologies, 1(10), e:115, 48 – 61. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.115 zacharis, n. (2016). predicting student academic performance in blended learning using artificial neural networks. international journal of artificial intelligence and applications, 7(5), 17 – 29. https://aircconline.com/ijaia/v7n5/7516ijaia02.pdf zharska, і., & zinkovska, d. (2014). osoblyvosti doslidzhennia povedinky spozhyvachiv osvitnikh posluh v internet-seredovycshchi [features of research of behavior of consumers of educational services in the internet environment]. business inform, (6), 404–412. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/binf_2014_6_71 https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed452843 https://vark-learn.com/ http://www.aphn-journal.in.ua/archive/35_2021/part_2/35-2_2021.pdf#page=180 http://www.aphn-journal.in.ua/archive/35_2021/part_2/35-2_2021.pdf#page=180 https://bigdata-madesimple.com/9-ways-to-use-artificial-intelligence-ineducation/23.03.2019 https://bigdata-madesimple.com/9-ways-to-use-artificial-intelligence-ineducation/23.03.2019 https://bigdata-madesimple.com/9-ways-to-use-artificial-intelligence-ineducation/23.03.2019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.05.004 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xv8a9vqebw https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2019.05.015 https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.115 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330917245_arming_the_public_with_artificial_intelligence_to_counter_social_bots%204 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330917245_arming_the_public_with_artificial_intelligence_to_counter_social_bots%204 https://aircconline.com/ijaia/v7n5/7516ijaia02.pdf http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/binf_2014_6_71 microsoft word brain_1_4_nou_modif.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 69 computational mathematics in medicine angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net abstract ai requires logic. but its classical version shows too many insufficiencies. so, it is very necessary to introduce more sophisticated tools, as may be fuzzy logic, modal logic, nonmonotonic logic, and so on [2]. among the things that ai needs to represent are categories, objects, properties, relations between objects, situations, states, time, events, causes and effects, knowledge about knowledge, and so on. the problems in ai can be classified in two general types [3, 4], search problems and representation problem. there exist different ways to reach this objective. so, we have [3] logics, rules, frames, associative nets, scripts, and so on, many times interconnect. also it will be very useful, in the treatment of the problems of uncertainty and causality, the introduction of bayesian networks and particularly, a principal tool as the essential graph. we attempt here to show the scope of application of such versatile methods, currently fundamental in medicine. keywords: graph theory, bayesian networks, computational biology, ai in medicine. 1. representation methods we can use a series of resources [4] to approach the problems in ai. between them logic, rules, associative nets, frames, and scripts. the election between these methods must be based in the own characteristics of the problem and our expectation about the type of solution [2]. in many cases, we take at a time two o more tools, as in the case of the frame system, with participation of rules, and so on. the rules shows a great advantage on the classical logic [3]. in the classical logic, as you known, the reasoning was monotonic, with inferences without contradiction with the pre-existing, in sbr. nevertheless in the rbs, we may delete facts or affirmations of the base of facts, according the new inferences. this makes the reasoning non-monotonic, because we can modify the conclusion. then, appear a question: which we must to make with the conclusion of the affirmation now invalided? for this problem [2], we need to introduce the concept of type of dependence of a rule, which can be reversible, if we delete the affirmations, then we delete automatically the above inferred facts; or irreversible, if the facts, once inferred, it is not deleted neither changed. and in the case of some applicable rules at time, which must be executed firstly? such rules constitutes, in each step, the conflict set (obviously, a dynamic set). the subjacent decision problem is called resolution of conflicts or control of reasoning. there exist different strategies, for to elect each time a rule into the conflict set, as such ordering of rules, control of agendas, criterion of actuality and criterion of specificity. about the first and the second, the commentaries are un-necessaries: they consist in the disposition of the rules in the order as must be executed. the criterion of actuality consists in apply first the rules in whose antecedent there exists the more actual information. the motor of inference must be charged of the control of their respective moments. the criterion of specificity lead to execute, firstly, the more specific rules, that is, that with more facts in its antecedent. so, between r�: if a, then b, and r�: if a and d then c, we must to select r�, because it is more specific than r�. we also have of mechanisms of control in rbs. for example using refractory mechanism. so, we prevents to execute newly a rule, once utilized, if do not exist more information which allow or recommend such (in general, anomalous) case rule sets. it allows activate or neutralize block´s rules; metabrain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 70 rules, they are rules which treat (or reasoning) about other rules; such meta-rules can collaborate in the control of reasoning, with the change or assignation of priorities to different rules, according the evolution of the circumstances. it is the more general and more integrating method, between all the representation procedures [2, 4]. they permits introduce some different elements. for instance, by rules on frame systems. we denote such system as fs. we must distinguish between facets, as properties of the field, and devils, as procedures associated to the frame system. types of facets: defect value, it is the value which we assign to the field, when it is previously inexistent; multivalued, when more than a value is admissible; restrictions, they will be limitations on the values in the rang of the field; certainty, it gives us the credibility of the values of the field; interface facets, it allow the control of the interaction with the usuary. types of devils: devil of necessity, to give a value, before inexistent, to the field; devil of modification, when it change the value of the field; devil of deleting, if the value of the field is eliminated; devil of assignation, it will be when we add the value to the field; devil of access, when we reclaim the value of the field. they are structures of knowledge [2, 3, 4] which must organize the information relative to dynamical stereotyped situations, that is, ever or almost ever identical sequence of steps, or at least very similar. for instance, go to such cinema or such big store. the words and the subjacent ideas remember to movies. the elements of a script can be scenes, roles, objects, places, names, conditions, instruments, and results. its signification is evident according their name: for instance, the scenes must be events described sequentially, being necessary each scene for the realization of the subsequent. with results, we say the facts obtained, when we have finished the sequence described in the script. 2. searching methods we will distinguish between blind search procedures and heuristic procedures. in the first case, the oldest, it is possible to apply breadth search, and depth search. but with the trouble associated of combinatorial explosion, which appears when the so-called ramification index, or branching factor (the average cardinal of the successors of each node) increase without reasonable bounds. for this reason, it is necessary a more efficient procedure of search, by the introduction of heuristic functions, which give the estimation of the distance among the actual node and the final node. in such case, we said that will be the heuristic search. between the nets, the more actual studies to deal with bayesian nets, also called belief networks [3]. before than their apparition, the purpose was to obtain useful systems for the medical diagnosis, by classical statistical techniques, such as the bayes´s rule. a bayesian net is a pair (g, d), with g a directed, acyclic and connected graph, and d a distribution of probability (associated with the participant variables). such distribution, d, must verify the property of directional separation, according which the probability of a variable does not depends of their not descendant nodes. 3. expert systems the expert systems (ess, in acronym), also called knowledge-based systems (kbss), are the more usual type of aim (artificial intelligence in medicine) system in clinical use. they provide medical knowledge, generally about a very specific task, and are able to reason with data from individual patients to come up with adequate conclusion. there are many variations. but many times the knowledge within an expert system is represented in the form of a set of rules. there are many different types of clinical task to which expert systems can be applied: generating alerts and reminders, diagnostic assistance, therapy planning, agents for information retrieval, image recognition and interpretation, and so on. in the fields of treatment and diagnosis, we dispose of very important realizations, giving us for instance the subsequent tools: pip (1971), at brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 71 mit; mycin (1976), a rule-based system, due to stanford university. it works on infectious diseases; casnet (1979), it is due to rutgers university, and it works with ophtalmological problems; internist (1980), due to pittsburgh, on inner medicine; ai/rheum (1983), at missoury university, on reumathology; spe (also 1983), at rutgers, to analyze the electrophoresis of proteins; tia (1984), at maryland, on the therapy of ischemic attacks, and many others. 4. graphs and networks now, we may analyze the mathematical foundations of bayesian networks, and its adequate representation, by an essential graph for each markovian equivalence class. let s and s’ two structures of bayesian networks (abridgedly bns) on v, where v will be the set of nodes of the corresponding graph, subjacent to the bn. then, according to [15], we can say that s is equivalent to s´, denoted by s χ s’, if s can represent every probability distribution which s’ represents and vice vers. an essential graph of a structure of bn, s, is a partially directed acyclic graph (pdag) such that their skeleton is the same that of s, and the essential edges (and only these) are directed. let c be a class of directed acyclic graphs (in acronym dags) markov equivalent among them. then, their essential graph would be the smallest graph greater than every dag that belongs to the class. if we denote the essential graph as g*, this is equivalent to saying g* = ∪ {g: g∈c}, where such graph union is reached by the union of the nodes and edges of g, v (g*) = ∪ v (g), and e (g*) = ∪ e (g). so, g* will be the smallest of upper bound for all graphs of the represented class. each node represents a random variable, and its edges give the relationship between them. therefore, bayesian nets represent joint probabilities [13, 14, 15]. we says that two bns are equivalent (denoted by χ), if both represent the same jpd (joint probability distribution). the following properties hold: • reflexive: b χ b, ∀ b; • symmetrical: if b χ b’⇒ b´χ b; • transitive: if b χ b’ and b’χ b’’ ⇒ b χ b’’. therefore, it is an equality relation, also called an equivalence relation [17], defined on the set of bns. on such mathematical object, it is well established a partition in equivalence classes [13], as we will see then. let s and s’ be two of such structures of bns on v. then, we say that s is equivalent to s’: s χ s’, if for each parameterization, θ, of s, there exists another parameterization, θ’, of s’, such that p (v / s, θ) = p (v / s´, θ´) hence, s can represent every probability distribution which s´ represents and vice versa. s is equivalent to s´, denoted by s χ s´ iff both structures induce the same set of conditional independencies (according the global markov property). in a dag, if we eliminate its directions to each directed edge [18], the remainder is its skeleton graph. and we call an immorality each configuration of the following type x → y ← z, where we can observe the following directed edges, x → z and z ← y. but where the nodes x and y must never be adjacent, because in such a case, the immorality remains. recall that they are also called v-structures or head-to-head patterns, according different authors. if we connect (“wedding”) the father-nodes by a line (no-directed edge), and we transform all directed edges into non-directed edges then we say that “the graph is moralized”, or that the moral graph of the initial graph has been obtained. also consider that the set of fathers of a node y will be pa (y) = {x∈v (g): there exist an edge x → y into e (g)} brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 72 two models of bns are equivalent iff both have the same skeleton and the same immoralities. in dags, an edge x→y is covered, if pa (y) = pa (x) ∪ {x}. two models of bns are equivalent iff there exists a sequence of covered edge inversions, transforming one in another model. we can denote the equivalence class of s by [s]. it induces a partition into the set of bns, β, in equivalence classes, ω = β / χ = ∪ β i as classification, it must be exhaustive and mutually exclusive. each class includes all the bns markov-equivalent to a given (or equivalent between them). to obtain their representation and work efficiently with it, it suffices taking an element as representative, being denominated the essential graph of such class [13, 15]. a directed edge is said to be compelled, or essential, in a structure of bn, s, if it would always be present on each structure equivalent to s. by the verma & pearl theorem, we said that each edge intervening in one immorality will always be one of this type, “compelled”, or essential. but those are not all the essential edges: other edges can be compelled without participating into immoralities. an essential graph of a structure of bayesian network, s, is a pdag such that its skeleton is the same of s, and the essential edges (and only these) are directed. the directed edges connecting the same pair of nodes, but showing opposed directions, into two graphs belonging the same class, c, are substituted by a line. so, g* will be the lesser of the upper bounds for every graph of the class represented equivalence and inclusion, by s χ s´ iff (s ⊂ s´) ∧ (s´⊂ s) and we said that s´ is strictly included into s, if s includes s´, but s´ is not included in s. a structure of bn, s, includes another, s´, iff there exists a sequence of covered arc inversions and additions of arcs which transforms s into s´. so, a structure of bn, s, includes another, s´ iff s is able to represent any joint probability distribution that s´ can represent. some basic references [1] barr, a., feigenbaum, e. a. (1981), the handbook of artificial intelligence,volumes 1-3. william kaufmann inc. [2] fernández galán, s., et al. (1998), problemas resueltos de inteligencia artificial aplicada. búsqueda y representación. addison-wesley, madrid. [3] garrido, a. (2004), logical foundations of artificial intelligence, fotfs v, universität bonn. [4] mira, j., et al. (1995), aspectos básicos de la inteligencia artificial, sanz y torres, madrid. [5] searle, j. (1980), minds, brains and programs, the behavioral and brain sciences, 3, 417-424. [6] turing, a. (1950), computing machinery and intelligence, mind, 59, 433-60. [7] wiener, n. (1947), cybernetics, mit press and john wiley, new york. [8] dubois, d., prade, h. (2000), fundamentals of fuzzy sets, kluwer publ., netherlands. [9] dubois, d., prade, h. (1988), possibility theory, plenum press, new jersey. [10] garrido, a. (2006), special functions in a i, opuscula mathematica, vol. 26, issue nr. 3, 457-464, agw publishers, krakow university, poland. [11] pedryck, w. (1993), fuzzy control and fuzzy systems, wiley and sons co., new york. [12] wang, z. (1997), a course in fuzzy systems and control, prentice-hall, new jersey. more references [13] anderson, s. a., madigan, d. perlman, m. d. (1997), a characterization of markov equivalence classes for acyclic digraphs. ann. statist, 25, 505-541. [14] barro, s., marin, r. (2002), fuzzy logic in medicine, physica verlag, heidelberg. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 73 [15] garrido, a. (2009), chain graphs and directed acyclic graphs improved by equivalence classes and their essential graphs, sic (studies in informatics and control), 17-24. [16] gillispie, s. b., perlman, m. d. (2002), the size distribution for markov equivalence classes of acyclic digraph models, ai, 141 (1/2), 137-155. [17] gillispie, s. b., perlman, m. d. (2001), enumerating markov equivalence classes of acyclic digraph models, uai 2001, 171-177. [18] harary, f., palmer (1973), graphical enumeration, academic press, new york. [19] mordeson, j. n., malik, d. s., cheng, s. c. (2000), fuzzy mathematics in medicine, physica verlag, heidelberg. [20] pólya, g. (1987), combinatorial enumeration of groups, graphs… springer verlag. [21] robinson, p. (1973), counting labeled acyclic digraphs, in: new directions in the theory of graphs, 239-279, academic press, new york. [22] steinsky, b., grabner, p. j. (2005), asymptotic behavior of the poles of a special generating function for acyclic digraphs, aequationes mathematicae, 70 (3), 268-278. [23] steinsky, b. (2004), asymptotic behavior of the number of labeled essential acyclic digraphs and labeled chain graphs, graphs and combinatorics, 20 (3), 399-411. [24] steinsky, b. (2003), enumeration of labeled chain graphs and labeled essential directed graphs, discrete mathematics, 270 (1-3), 266-277. [25] szczepaniak, p. s., lisoba, p. j. g., kacprzyk, j. (2000), fuzzy systems in medicine, physica verlag, heidelberg. [26] torres, a., nieto, j. j. (2006), fuzzy logic in medicine and bioinformatics, j. of biomedicine and biotechnology, vol. 2006, 1-7. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 135-158 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/309 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in women ramona adriana schenker¹, marius eugen ciurea2, puiu olivian stovicek3, anamaria ciubara4, michael schenker5, ileana marinescu6 1 phd student, university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova, romania, ramona_schenker@yahoo.com 2 professor, department of plastic surgery, university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova, romania, meciurea@gmail.com 3 lecturer, department of pharmacology, faculty of nursing, târgu jiu subsidiary, “titu maiorescu” university, bucharest, romania, puiuolivian@yahoo.com 4 professor, clinical medical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, ”dunărea de jos” university, galaţi, romania, anamburlea@yahoo.com 5 associate professor, department of oncology, university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova, romania, mike_schenker@yahoo.com 6 associate professor, discipline of psychiatry, 5th department, faculty of medicine, university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova, romania, marinescu_psy@yahoo.com abstract: psychological evaluation of women with suspected or diagnosed breast cancer can provide psychooncological elements for predicting the evolution of the disease and imperative customization of specific oncological therapies. in this study, we assessed the psychological status in terms of depression, anxiety and dysfunctional attitudes in both the group of patients with a confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer and that of patients with suspected breast cancer who are in the stage of histopathological evaluation of the diagnosis. the results of the psychometric evaluations allowed the development of a common neurobiological model for the two categories of patients. given the staging model of breast cancer, the clinical and psychometric data obtained through our study allowed us to develop an integrative neurobiological model based on the evolutionary staging of anxiety and depressive disorders (zhao et al., 2013). based on these hypotheses, we argue that the staging of psychological disorders, the customization of specific psychotherapeutic prophylaxis strategies and the prudent pharmacological approach to these psychological changes can significantly improve the evolution and prognosis of cancer and the quality of life of patients. the state of relative psychoemotional balance (objectified by psychometric scales), without its validation by normalizing multisystemic biological indicators of depression (creactive protein, proinflammatory cytokines, blood-brain barrier disruption and cerebral blood flow decrease), suggests the risk of progression of the neoplastic process. we argue that when communicating the diagnosis and the therapeutic plan, a special methodology (specific protocol) must be applied to reduce distress, correct emotional balance and improve cognitive dysfunction by supporting the motivation to survive, as well as increasing patients' self-esteem. keywords: breast cancer, depression, anxiety, dysfunctional attitudes, body dysmorphic disorder. how to cite: schenker, r.a., ciurea, m.e., stovicek, p.o., ciubara, a., schenker, m., & marinescu, i. (2022). depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in women. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 135-158. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/309 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/309 mailto:ramona_schenker@yahoo.com mailto:meciurea@gmail.com mailto:puiuolivian@yahoo.com mailto:anamburlea@yahoo.com mailto:mike_schenker@yahoo.com mailto:marinescu_psy@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/309 depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 136 introduction breast cancer in women is a real public health problem due to the high incidence, late diagnosis in advanced stages of the disease that leads to a negative evolution and prognosis. this condition causes multiple physical disabilities, but especially psychological, which change the social status of women with breast cancer, disrupting the integration of macrosocial and microsocial. psychooncological evaluations have shown that depressive and anxiety disorders are major risk factors for the unfavorable evolution of oncological disease. in breast cancer, depression has been linked to a high risk of recurrence and mortality and anxiety to recurrence. the combination of the two types of pathology causes a negative prognosis, especially in women under 60 years of age (wang et al., 2020). from this perspective, anxiety and depressive symptoms should be identified early, prior to suspicion or diagnosis of cancer, but should also be monitored over time to reduce psychosocial distress (burgess et al., 2005). depression and anxiety are the most common mental health changes in breast cancer patients, with an incidence of 68.6% and 73.3%, respectively. the severity of this symptomatology depends on the stage of the disease, mutilating surgery, social and family status. anxiety is especially correlated with uncertainty in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of breast cancer (alagizy et al., 2020). in the case of women with breast cancer, this clinical picture is dominated by existential specific features, caused especially by the existence in the personal history of psychotraumas, caused especially by different types of abuse. although the epidemiological data are variable, the main forms of abuse have the following prevalence data: physical abuse approximately 22%, sexual abuse 12% and emotional abuse with 36% of cases (christ et al., 2019). it has been estimated that approximately 70% of adult patients who have suffered a psychotrauma have experienced childhood abuse. these antecedents affected the psychological status, determining the impairment of cognitive patterns, behavioral and emotional changes, depression and anxiety, having as substrate the impairment of several brain areas such as the frontal, parietal or cingulate cortex (huang et al., 2021). the strongest link with depressive disorder is the presence of poor emotional treatment in childhood, about 44% of patients developing this type of disease. childhood sexual abuse causes depressive disorder in over 50% of adult cases, suicidal brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 137 ideation in approximately 23-40% of cases, and suicide attempts in up to 19% of patients (radell et al., 2021; xu et al., 2013). the uncertainty of the diagnosis of breast cancer was correlated with the presence of anxiety when deciding to perform a breast biopsy, at the time of the biopsy or communication of the diagnosis. in patients diagnosed with benign tumor, anxiety was present, but at a lower level than in those with breast cancer (liao et al., 2008). the main fears of breast cancer patients are related to the uncertainties regarding the evolution of the disease, the treatment options and the risk of side effects, the erroneous or limited information as well as those regarding the coping capacity to overcome the trauma induced by the oncological pathology (shaha et al., 2008). during the period of diagnostic uncertainty, a major role in the psychological picture is played by anticipatory anxiety, which disturbs the neurobiological balance between the cortical and subcortical systems. a serious threat disrupts the ability to avoid or ameliorate negative consequences and increases the level of anxiety due to uncertainties related to sensory area, general condition, new rules in the pathological context, as well as evolution and therapeutic results (grupe & nitschke, 2013). thus, cognitive dysfunctions are triggered, which significantly decrease the resilience of breast cancer patients, delaying both the early diagnosis and the therapeutic approach. the period of diagnostic uncertainty or the stage between the suspicion of the diagnosis and the certainty of the breast cancer diagnosis, based on histopathological examination, is the most important period for possible prophylaxis of psychological disorders. prophylactic interventions can limit neurobiological changes whose progression can generate pathogenic support that causes the onset of psychiatric nosographic entities of the depressive and anxious type. in breast cancer in women, a major problem is the onset of body dysmorphic disorder (bdd), which amplifies depressive-anxiety pathology and increases the risk of suicidal behavior (shaw et al., 2016). it is estimated that approximately 80% of patients with bdd had suicidal ideation and up to 28% attempted suicide (phillips, 2007). in breast cancer, excessive worries about a certain change in one's body image are mainly related to alopecia, partial or total excision of a breast or skin changes (rashes). often this disorder is underdiagnosed because patients are reluctant to seek psychiatric medical advice, preferring to resolve the defect through cosmetic or dermatological surgery. depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 138 if in the general population the incidence of bdd is about 2%, in the case of patients who went to a plastic surgery service, the incidence rises to about 15% (metcalfe et al., 2014). the association of bdd with depression increases the risk of metastases and recurrences due to immune dysfunction induced by depression or prolonged distress caused by cancer, as well as by the decrease or total lack of compliance with specific oncological treatment (bender et al., 2014; smith, 2015). psychological evaluation of women with suspected or diagnosed breast cancer can provide psychooncological elements for predicting the evolution of the disease and imperative personalization of specific oncological therapies. in this regard, we assessed the psychological status in terms of depression, anxiety and dysfunctional attitudes in both the group of patients with a confirmed breast cancer diagnosis and that of patients with suspected breast cancer who are in the stage of histopathological evaluation of the diagnosis. the results of psychometric evaluations could allow the development of a common neurobiological model for the two categories of patients. based on these arguments, we want to emphasize the importance of the psychooncological approach of patients with depressive-anxiety disorders or dysfunctional attitudes even at the time of biopsy, before receiving the histopathological result. at the same time, the personalization of psychotherapeutic strategies must be considered in the conditions of a positive diagnosis for breast cancer, which leads to the prospect of a mutilating surgery or a specific oncological treatment with a high risk of side effects. material and method this study aimed to assess the level of anxiety, depression and dysfunctional attitudes in patients diagnosed with breast cancer, but before surgery or other specific oncological treatments. the study enrolled 58 patients with histopathologically confirmed breast cancer (group a). also included in the study, as a comparative group, were 61 patients with breast lumps in the post-biopsy period, until they received the histopathological result (group b). all patients signed an informed consent to participate in the study, within the oncology center „sfântul nectarie", craiova. the inclusion criteria were: female gender, age over 18 years, lack of personal medical oncological or psychiatric history. the following psychometric evaluation scales were applied for evaluation: hamilton depression rating scale (hamilton, 1960), hamilton anxiety rating scale (hamilton, 1959) and dysfunctional attitude scale brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 139 form a (das-a) (de graaf et al., 2009). all patients answered the questionnaires after the psychooncologist answered all questions, with no time limit. the results were statistically processed following the differences between the two groups based on the proportionality tests and the p value for statistical significance. the study was conducted according to the guidelines of the declaration of helsinki, and approved by the ethics committee of university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova, romania (no. 70/01.04.2019). results the statistical analysis showed that depression and anxiety had different degrees of severity, both in patients diagnosed with breast cancer (group a) and in women with breast lumps in observation (group b), regardless of staging of the disease. depending on the scores obtained, the depression was classified as mild (score 7-17), moderate (score 18-24) and severe (score ≥ 25). anxiety was considered significant at a score above 20. in group a, significant anxiety (74.14%) and moderate depression (44.83%) predominated, while in group b, significant anxiety (62.30%) and mild depression (54.10%) predominated (figure 1). although the only statistically significant difference was observed in mild depression, patients diagnosed with cancer were more likely to experience severe depression and significant anxiety than those in group b. figure 1. depression and anxiety levels in the two groups of patients source: authors’ own conception depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 140 the analysis of dysfunctional attitudes according to the degree of depression showed that there are statistically significant differences between the 2 groups (figure 2). in the stage of mild depression, undiagnosed patients had low but also high dysfunctional attitudes, statistically significant (p<0.05) compared to patients with breast cancer. in cases of moderate depression, high dysfunctional attitudes are more common in group a and low ones in group b. significant differences for severe depression were found for moderate dysfunctional attitudes, which predominate in group a, and for very high ones that are more common in group b. figure 2. dysfunctional attitudes depending on the level of depression in the two groups of patients source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 141 figure 3. dysfunctional attitudes depending on the level of anxiety in the two groups of patients source: authors’ own conception the analysis of the correlations between dysfunctional attitudes and anxiety showed statistically significant differences between the 2 groups (figure 3). in cases with insignificant levels of anxiety, undiagnosed patients more frequently had very low dysfunctional attitudes, significantly static (p<0.05) compared to patients with breast cancer. for the level of significant anxiety, group a had more frequently high, medium and very low dysfunctional attitudes, and less frequently low dysfunctional attitudes towards group b (p<0.05). the correlation of dysfunctional attitudes with depression and anxiety showed differences between the two groups of patients. insignificant anxiety was most commonly associated with mild depression and dysfunctional attitudes for both groups. patients with breast cancer and significant anxiety most commonly associated moderate depression with high dysfunctional attitudes and severe depression with low dysfunctional attitudes. patients in group b with significant anxiety had a wider distribution depending on the state of depression and dysfunctional attitudes. most cases associated mild depression with high or low dysfunctional attitudes, moderate depression with moderate dysfunctional attitudes, and severe depression with high dysfunctional attitudes. depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 142 discussions given the staging model of breast cancer, the clinical and psychometric data obtained through our study allowed us to develop an integrative neurobiological model based on the evolutionary staging of anxiety and depressive disorders. based on these hypotheses, we argue that the staging of psychological disorders, the customization of specific psychotherapeutic prophylaxis strategies and the prudent pharmacological approach to these psychological changes can significantly improve the evolution and prognosis of cancer and the quality of life for patients. anticipatory anxiety is considered a psychological condition that does not meet the criteria of a psychiatric nosographic entity according to diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders 5 (dsm-5) and international classification of diseases 10 (icd-10). however, in the conditions of oncological pathology and especially in the case of breast cancer in women, anticipatory anxiety causes a strong state of distress that can change the physiological parameters and the influence of the biological diagnostic marker (dhama et al., 2019; labbe-coldsmith et al., 2017). in this context, the recognition of this particular psychological status is of major importance because it can influence the pace of evolution of neoplastic pathology and lead to misbehavior dominated by the abandonment of specific therapies. anticipatory anxiety can occur in a psychological field previously vulnerable to multiple negative life events or the existence of a cancerous pathology in people of great emotional importance to the patient (jacobsen et al., 1993). patients who have been cared for by people diagnosed with cancer have a high potential for developing this form of anxiety. anticipatory anxiety is generated by the cognitive processing of potentially dangerous factors regarding the existence of the subject or of possible existential changes determined by the disturbance of the physical or mental status, with an imminent impact on the perception or identification of one's own person. thus, a real gap is established between "what i feel" and "what i am" in my own perception and "what i will be if ...". undoubtedly, this unclear perspective in the first phase is orchestrated by psychotraumatic events and previous negative emotional experiences related to oncological pathology. the intensification of anxiety symptoms is determined by the long duration of the diagnostic uncertainties regarding breast cancer, but also by the prospect of an unfavorable evolution that would require radical surgeries such as mastectomy with or without ovarectomy, as well as chemotherapy and radiotherapy (maheu et al., 2021). the general psychological evaluation brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 143 performed before the first suspicions of neoplastic breast disease may give the clinician and psychooncologist data on the presence or absence of anxious personality traits (stark & house, 2000). a particular aspect of anxious personality traits may be the presence of compulsivity (compulsive anxiety) and repetitive cognitive changes, suggesting obsessive and compulsive tendencies (helbig-lang et al., 2012). in this context, at the beginning of oncological disease, breast cancer patients may have a psychological profile in which the anxious-compulsive and obsessive component is predominant, and another profile in which it is of small amplitude. patients with a positive anxiety profile have a low resilience to the development of an anxious, depressive-anxious pathology or bdd, while patients with insignificant anxiety traits have a good resilience for psychiatric pathology in the context of breast cancer. the increase in anxiety was correlated with the way in which the bad news related to the oncologic diagnosis and treatment as well as the lack of specialized psychooncological support were communicated (liénard et al., 2006). the first category suggests evolutionary risks and an unfavorable prognosis, with the rapid progression of neoplastic disease or in the case of bdd following mastectomy with the appearance of suicidal behavior. bdd can occur in patients with anticipatory anxiety from the moment of certainty of the diagnosis of breast cancer, and can be amplified by side effects of chemotherapy that change the status of one's body image (excessive weight loss, hair loss, sarcopenia, skin dermatological changes, especially on the face). anticipatory anxiety greatly increases patients' fear of surgery, chemotherapy (dilorenzo et al., 1995) or radiotherapy, being an important factor in delaying the start of treatment, but also in poor adherence and adherence to treatment caused by psychogenic intolerance to possible side effects (singer et al., 2015). radiotherapy, as well as specific oncological pharmacological medication, can cause changes in the cognitive areas of the brain by stopping the process of neurogenesis and significantly decreasing neuroprotective factors. hippocampal atrophy and frontal cortex may be associated with marked cognitive dysfunction, which may disrupt patients' daily activities and thus contribute to decreased self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness that support the amplification of depressive symptoms (pazzaglia et al., 2020; pereira dias et al., 2014). the neurobiological support of anticipatory anxiety is complex and from our point of view, we can discuss their staging, in accordance with the evolution of psychopathological changes. initially in the stage of diagnostic uncertainty, the disconnections between the anterior cingulate cortex and the depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 144 medial and orbito-frontal areas of the prefrontal cortex are mainly involved, which causes a loss of the balance of cognitive information processing (rolls, et al., 2019). at the level of these cerebral areas there is a hyperactivity caused by an excessive increase in cerebral blood flow (cbf) in contrast to its decrease in important subcortical areas such as the amygdala and thalamus. normally, the cortical and subcortical areas need to process sensory information in a synergistic cognitive manner (grupe & nitschke, 2013). in the presence of anticipatory anxiety, this processing is dysinergic, dominated by cognitive-emotional processing with multiple error factors. moreover, in the repetitive conditions of informational, sensory or cognitive stimuli with anxiogenic potential, there is a marked increase in cbf in the left area of the brain island, while in the right area it decreases (hasler et al., 2007). this cerebral insular interhemispheric imbalance calls into question the dysfunctional involvement of the mirror neuron system (rajmohan & mohandas, 2007). this interhemispheric dysfunction can lead to aberrant cognitive processing by swinging informational signals between the two hemispheres. each stage of information crossing from the dominant hemisphere to the non-dominant hemisphere generates an amplification of the signal and implicitly an increase in the level of anticipatory anxiety. the increase in intensity of this neuronal signal overstimulates the right temporal cortex and the right anterior cingulate cortex in the non-dominated hemisphere, with a significant increase in cbf (wang et al., 2005). this is the moment of transition from anticipatory anxiety to the anxiety pathology itself, dominated by the general anxiety disorder, with or without panic attacks, as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder. favoring elements of hippocampal atrophy and overuse exhaustion of the amygdala and cingulate cortex as well as the prefrontal cortex are the neurobiological elements that suggest the transition to mixed anxiety-depressive pathology (cha et al., 2016). thus, in the evolution of anxiety and depressive disorders from breast cancer in women, we can support their classification into three clinical-biological stages that evolve against the background of personality traits of depressive or anxious type. these three stages, each with a particular neurobiological substrate, are: anticipatory anxiety (figure 4); generalized anxiety disorder with or without panic attacks (figure 5); mixed anxietydepressive disorder (figure 6). at any of these stages of anxiety-depressive pathology, present in women with breast cancer, bdd may occur, this risk being amplified by mastectomy, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 145 figure 4. neurobiological model of anticipatory anxiety in women's breast cancer source: marinescu & stovicek, 2022 figure 5. neurobiological model of generalized anxiety disorder, with or without panic attacks, in women's breast cancer source: marinescu & stovicek, 2022 depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 146 figure 6. neurobiological model of mixed anxiety-depressive disorder in women's breast cancer source: marinescu & stovicek, 2022 clinical data and psychometric assessments suggest the presence of depressive manifestations, independently or simultaneously with the anxietytype changes, which do not fall within the nosographic criteria for depressive disorder in dsm-v and icd 10. we can initially discuss depressive personality traits related to women with the presence of verbal, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse during childhood or adolescence. childhood abuse and psychological trauma are associated with depressive pathology accompanied by hippocampal atrophy partially explained by overactivation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (hpa) over a long period of time and high levels of endogenous cortisol (vythilingam et al., 2002). this pattern of depression suggests early cognitive dysfunction, especially by disrupting cognitive patterns with a significant decrease in resilience and adaptability to new events with potential psychostress. breast cancer is a major distress event that acts over a long period of time, and impaired cognitive function can be exacerbated both psychologically and by the action of specific oncological pharmacological medication or radiotherapy (ng et al., 2017). this form of depression is most often associated with bdd pathology and high risk of suicide. the decrease in cognitive status is amplified by the presence of dysfunctional attitudes highlighted by the assessment with the dysfunctional brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 147 attitude scale form a (das-a). in these patients, the evolution may be cognitive impairment (fatahi et al., 2021), especially if it is associated with: age over 55 years, postmenopausal condition, history of traumatic brain or epileptic symptoms. (kim & jung, 2015). from a neurobiological point of view, the presence of dysfunctional attitudes correlates early with bloodbrain barrier (bbb) disruption (nation et al., 2019). early recognition of bbb permeability plays a major role in anticipating the adverse side effects of specific pharmacological antineoplastic medication (fan et al., 2018). on the other hand, bbb damage is associated with functional impairment of the cerebral neurovascular unit, and alteration of arterial capillaries promotes neurodegenerative invasion with beta-amyloid (aβ) and tau proteins (marinescu et al., 2017). dysfunction of small cerebral vessels also unbalances the functional relationship between neuron and astroglia, with the appearance of high levels of glutamate which accentuates the potential of neural apoptotic mechanisms but also chronic global cerebral vascular hypoperfusion, with the appearance of cerebral small vessel disease (csvd) and white matter hyperintensities identifiable on neuroimaging examination (huang et al., 2021). dysfunctional attitudes are also associated with decreased vascular perfusion in the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, favoring, in terms of depressive anxiety symptoms and increased hpa axis activity with high levels of endogenous cortisol, severe hippocampal atrophy and severe cognitive impairment (conway et al., 2015; ju et al., 2020). the main mechanism is based on the neural disconnectivity between the basal structure of complex cognitive processes, represented by the hippocampus and the parahippocampal cortex that ensures interconnectedness with the amygdala controlling emotional cognition, and the entorinal and peririnal cortex that ensures the integration of sensory or cognitive information in memory, by connecting with the temporo-parietal cortical area, thus supporting the function of contextual associative memory (aminoff et al., 2013; burwell, 2000). changes associated with dysfunctional attitudes involve both the hippocampal-parahippocampal disconnect that controls declarative memory and the disconnectivity between the parahippocampal cortex and the striatum that controls non-declarative memory, directly (lin et al., 2021). indirectly, the interaxonal disconnections at the level of the striato-frontal circuits contribute significantly to the alteration of the cognitive function of the prefrontal and frontal area, causing the alteration of the working memory (li & mody, 2016). depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 148 the separate investigation of the mnemonic function including working memory, declarative and non-declarative, but also contextual associative memory, whose low efficiency announces the aggravation of dysfunctional attitudes with the installation of dementia-type cognitive impairment. the importance of early detection of impaired functional segments of memory can be precipitated by the use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, imposing personalized therapeutic attitudes based on increased neuroprotection and avoidance of chemotherapeutic agents with neurotoxic action and aggressive radiotherapy (figure 7). figure 7. neurobiological mechanisms of cognitive impairment in women's breast cancer, with mixed anxiety-depressive disorder source: marinescu & stovicek, 2022 dysfunctional cognitive attitudes in women with breast cancer associated with bbb permeability and hippocampal atrophy may anticipate an increased risk of developing dementia. under these circumstances, the use of potentially neurotoxic drugs of major antineoplastic potential or radiotherapy sessions may precipitate the rapid progression of minor cognitive dysfunction to dementia. bbb dysfunction has an important peripheral marker represented by increased serum level of s100 calciumbinding protein b (s100b) (choi et al., 2016). in patients with cognitive impairments, we consider that, prior to any oncological therapeutic strategy, it is necessary to evaluate the s100b protein (marchi et al., 2004), as well as brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 149 monitoring its level during treatment (karmur et al., 2020). bbb integrity, lack of hippocampal atrophy, and normal s100b protein levels may be important markers for initiating cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy sessions for anxiety-depressive disorder in women with breast cancer. on the other hand, cognitive status can be disrupted by epigenetic factors, especially in the elderly, such as mild traumatic brain injury (mtbi) (stovicek et al., 2020), alcohol or opioids consumption (bruijnen et al., 2019), chronic respiratory illness, (andrianopoulos et al., 2017) or cardiac dysfunction (hilal et al., 2015). cardiac dysfunction with decreased ejection fraction, accentuates vascular hypoperfusion, thus amplifying neuronal damage in the frontal and cingulate cortex, and disruption of connectivity between the striatum and the frontal cortex (dehelean et al., 2019). depressive disorder associated with anticipatory anxiety has a particular clinical feature, represented by the dominance of anxiety disorders compared to depressive symptoms, often ignored. the therapeutic attitude based exclusively on anxiolytic or thymostabilizing drugs, as well as on psychotherapy aimed at the symptoms and anxious behaviors, maintains the neurobiological potential for the evolution of depressive disorders. this prolongs the period in which an activation of the microglial systems occurs with the increase of proinflammatory cytokines and endothelial dysfunction. (brites & fernandes, 2015; jo et al., 2015). in this context, we can consider depression as a depression with a biological facade, because the proinflammatory processes and endothelial dysfunction favor the rapid progression of neoplastic disease. at the time of the patient's impact with the certainty of a positive diagnosis for breast cancer, anxiety disorders are associated with depression (cardoso et al., 2016). this depression is initially dominated by anxiety symptoms, being considered comorbid to anxiety, so that in a later phase of evolution to shape the mixed anxiety-depressive disorder as an independent nosographic entity. anxious depression is neurobiochemically caused mainly by serotonin deficiency, and is associated with hostility and explosive addictive or impulsive behaviors. in such situations, it is recommended to use therapies with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (ssris) (garakani et al., 2020). however, the excessive presence of elevated serotonin levels after treatment favors vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) activity which amplifies vascularization and tumor progression with a higher risk of metastases (udo et al., 2014). an alternative pharmacological solution may be tianeptine, especially in elderly patients, as it does not interfere with cytochrome p450 and has a very good tolerance (emsley et al., 2018). depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 150 anxious depression is a psychiatric condition often associated with the developmental stages of the tumor and may be exacerbated by side effects of specific oncological treatments or psychotraumatic surgery. in the previous stage of clinical or biological suspicion of breast cancer, patients with a history of anxiety depression have a significant risk factor for neoplastic disease, especially when associated with depressive and anxiety disorders, increased proinflammatory indicators c-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor alpha (tnf-α) and proinflammatory cytokines. as well as high levels of endogenous cortisol (berthold-losleben & himmerich, 2008; felger & lotrich, 2013). the presence of these indicators and social distress increase the risk of accelerating proneoplastic mechanisms. patient stress is amplified by the clinical and paraclinical investigations imposed by the diagnostic confirmation protocols for breast cancer, but especially by the time of the biopsy. this diagnostic intervention becomes an important traumatic factor that destabilizes the emotional balance, promotes depression, amplifies distress and anxiety and potentiates both patients with uncertain histopathological status and those with a confirmed breast cancer diagnosis. in these circumstances, the patient must be evaluated by a complex therapeutic team led by a psychooncologist, who must apply personalized psychotherapy techniques, but also effectively manage communication with the patient. if mastectomy is required, depending on the type of histopathology and stage of the breast cancer, psychotherapy and communication techniques should ensure that patients will be able to rehabilitate the body defect through treatment of plastic and reparative surgery, which will provide the certainty of regaining the previous body aesthetic level, sometimes even better. this discussion will be led by the coordinator of the team of plastic surgeons in close collaboration with the psychooncologist. the pharmacological treatment of depression and anxiety in breast cancer patients requires the avoidance of any psychotropic or nonpsychotropic drugs that may induce an increase in prolactin but also antidepressants that may increase the growth of vegf, which are indicators of metastatic risk (liu et al., 2011; wang et al., 2016). dysfunction and cognitive impairment are important factors in the pathogenesis of anxiety depression and bdd, which is why specific identification and approach through specific psychooncological strategies can be achieved early and can be supported by the use of neuroprotective medication, especially in specific cancer therapy. we believe that the data provided by this study have an important potential to improve the evolution of breast cancer in women and significantly increase the quality of life for patients with this condition. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 151 conclusions depression, anxiety, decreased cognitive abilities, and dysfunctional cognitive patterns amplify the deteriorating quality of life of breast cancer patients. at the same time, through multisystemic molecular and cellular mechanisms, there is a significant deterioration of the evolution of the oncological condition and the risk of metastatic dissemination. thus, in our opinion, psychooncology acquires a major importance in the therapeutic strategies of breast cancer. the complex neurobiological model of mixed anxiety-depressive disorder offers the oncologist, as well as the psychooncologist, arguments for the effectiveness of personalized therapies, but also for the importance of objective monitoring supported by oncological markers and biological markers of depressive disorder. the state of relative psycho-emotional balance (objectified by psychometric scales), without its validation by normalizing multisystemic biological indicators of depression (c-reactive protein, proinflammatory cytokines, bbb disruption and cbf decrease), suggests the risk of progression of the neoplastic process. we argue that, when communicating the diagnosis and the therapeutic plan, a special methodology (specific protocol) must be applied to reduce distress, correct emotional balance and improve cognitive dysfunction by supporting the motivation to survive, and increase selfesteem. patients. references alagizy, h. a., soltan, m. r., soliman, s. s., hegazy, n. h., gohar, s. f. (2020). anxiety, depression and perceived stress among breast cancer patients: single institute experience. middle east current psychiatry, 27, 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43045-020-00036-x aminoff, e. m., kveraga, k., & bar, m. (2013). the role of the parahippocampal cortex in cognition. trends in cognitive sciences, 17(8), 379–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.009 andrianopoulos, v., gloeckl, r., vogiatzis, i., & kenn, k. (2017). cognitive impairment in copd: should cognitive evaluation be part of respiratory assessment? breathe (sheffield, england), 13(1), e1–e9. https://doi.org/10.1183/20734735.001417 bender, c. m., gentry, a. l., brufsky, a. m., casillo, f. e., cohen, s. m., dailey, m. m., donovan, h. s., dunbar-jacob, j., jankowitz, r. c., rosenzweig, m. q., sherwood, p. r., & sereika, s. m. (2014). influence of patient and treatment factors on adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy in breast cancer. oncology nursing forum, 41(3), 274–285. https://doi.org/10.1188/14.onf.274-285 https://doi.org/10.1186/s43045-020-00036-x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.009 https://doi.org/10.1183/20734735.001417 https://doi.org/10.1188/14.onf.274-285 depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 152 berthold-losleben, m., & himmerich, h. (2008). the tnf-alpha system: functional aspects in depression, narcolepsy and psychopharmacology. current neuropharmacology, 6(3), 193–202. https://doi.org/10.2174/157015908785777238 brites, d., & fernandes, a. (2015). neuroinflammation and depression: microglia activation, extracellular microvesicles and microrna dysregulation. frontiers in cellular neuroscience, 9, 476. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2015.00476 bruijnen, c., dijkstra, b., walvoort, s., markus, w., vandernagel, j., kessels, r., & de jong, c. (2019). prevalence of cognitive impairment in patients with substance use disorder. drug and alcohol review, 38(4), 435–442. https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.12922 burgess, c., cornelius, v., love, s., graham, j., richards, m., & ramirez, a. (2005). depression and anxiety in women with early breast cancer: five year observational cohort study. bmj (clinical research ed.), 330(7493), 702. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38343.670868.d3 burwell, r. d. (2000). the parahippocampal region: corticocortical connectivity. annals of the new york academy of sciences, 911, 25–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2000.tb06717.x cardoso, g., graca, j., klut, c., trancas, b., & papoila, a. (2016). depression and anxiety symptoms following cancer diagnosis: a cross-sectional study. psychology, health & medicine, 21(5), 562–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2015.1125006 cha, j., greenberg, t., song, i., blair simpson, h., posner, j., & mujica-parodi, l. r. (2016). abnormal hippocampal structure and function in clinical anxiety and comorbid depression. hippocampus, 26(5), 545–553. https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.22566 choi, h., puvenna, v., brennan, c., mahmoud, s., wang, x. f., phillips, m., janigro, d., & mazzone, p. (2016). s100b and s100b autoantibody as biomarkers for early detection of brain metastases in lung cancer. translational lung cancer research, 5(4), 413–419. https://doi.org/10.21037/tlcr.2016.07.08 christ, c., de waal, m. m., dekker, j., van kuijk, i., van schaik, d., kikkert, m. j., goudriaan, a. e., beekman, a., & messman-moore, t. l. (2019). linking childhood emotional abuse and depressive symptoms: the role of emotion dysregulation and interpersonal problems. plos one, 14(2), e0211882. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211882 conway, c. c., slavich, g. m., & hammen, c. (2015). dysfunctional attitudes and affective responses to daily stressors: separating cognitive, genetic, and clinical influences on stress reactivity. cognitive therapy and research, 39(3), 366–377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-014-9657-1 https://doi.org/10.2174/157015908785777238 https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2015.00476 https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.12922 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38343.670868.d3 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2000.tb06717.x https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2015.1125006 https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.22566 https://doi.org/10.21037/tlcr.2016.07.08 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211882 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-014-9657-1 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 153 de graaf, l. e., roelofs, j., & huibers, m. j. (2009). measuring dysfunctional attitudes in the general population: the dysfunctional attitude scale (form a) revised. cognitive therapy and research, 33(4), 345–355. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9229-y dehelean, l., marinescu, i., stovicek, p. o., & andor, m. (2019). cardiovascular anomalies and evolutionary risk factors in schizophrenia multifactorial approach. romanian journal of morphology and embryology, 60(4), 1105–1113. https://rjme.ro/rjme/resources/files/60041911051113.pdf dhama, k., latheef, s. k., dadar, m., samad, h. a., munjal, a., khandia, r., karthik, k., tiwari, r., yatoo, m. i., bhatt, p., chakraborty, s., singh, k. p., iqbal, h., chaicumpa, w., & joshi, s. k. (2019). biomarkers in stress related diseases/disorders: diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic values. frontiers in molecular biosciences, 6, 91. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2019.00091 dilorenzo, t. a., jacobsen, p. b., bovbjerg, d. h., chang, h., hudis, c. a., sklarin, n. t., & norton, l. (1995). sources of anticipatory emotional distress in women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer. annals of oncology: official journal of the european society for medical oncology, 6(7), 705– 711. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.annonc.a059288 emsley, r., ahokas, a., suarez, a., marinescu, d., dóci, i., lehtmets, a., milanova, v., lee, m. s., didi, r., araszkiewicz, a., sulaiman, a. h., blanchot, f. p., crutel, v. s., antoine, c., & penelaud, p. f. (2018). efficacy of tianeptine 25-50 mg in elderly patients with recurrent major depressive disorder: an 8-week placeboand escitalopram-controlled study. the journal of clinical psychiatry, 79(4), 17m11741. https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.17m11741 fan, j., yang, j., & jiang, z. (2018). prediction of central nervous system side effects through drug permeability to blood-brain barrier and recommendation algorithm. journal of computational biology: a journal of computational molecular cell biology, 25(4), 435–443. https://doi.org/10.1089/cmb.2017.0149 fatahi, f., ramezani farani, a., ashuri, a., shariat, s. v. (2021). cognitive insight as the differentiating feature of psychosis and anxiety. journal of practice in clinical psychology, 9(2), 103-110. https://doi.org/10.32598/jpcp.9.2.715.1 felger, j. c., & lotrich, f. e. (2013). inflammatory cytokines in depression: neurobiological mechanisms and therapeutic implications. neuroscience, 246, 199–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2013.04.060 garakani, a., murrough, j. w., freire, r. c., thom, r. p., larkin, k., buono, f. d., & iosifescu, d. v. (2020). pharmacotherapy of anxiety disorders: current and emerging treatment options. frontiers in psychiatry, 11, 595584. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.595584 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9229-y https://rjme.ro/rjme/resources/files/60041911051113.pdf https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2019.00091 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.annonc.a059288 https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.17m11741 https://doi.org/10.1089/cmb.2017.0149 https://doi.org/10.32598/jpcp.9.2.715.1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2013.04.060 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.595584 depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 154 grupe, d. w., & nitschke, j. b. (2013). uncertainty and anticipation in anxiety: an integrated neurobiological and psychological perspective. nature reviews. neuroscience, 14(7), 488–501. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3524 hamilton, m. (1959). the assessment of anxiety states by rating. british journal of medical psychology, 32(1), 50-55. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.20448341.1959.tb00467.x hamilton, m. (1960). a rating scale for depression. journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry 23(1), 56–62. http://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.23.1.56 hasler, g., fromm, s., alvarez, r. p., luckenbaugh, d. a., drevets, w. c., & grillon, c. (2007). cerebral blood flow in immediate and sustained anxiety. the journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the society for neuroscience, 27(23), 6313–6319. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.5369-06.2007 helbig-lang, s., lang, t., petermann, f., & hoyer, j. (2012). anticipatory anxiety as a function of panic attacks and panic-related self-efficacy: an ambulatory assessment study in panic disorder. behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy, 40(5), 590-604. http://doi.org/10.1017/s1352465812000057 hilal, s., chai, y. l., ikram, m. k., elangovan, s., yeow, t. b., xin, x., chong, j. y., venketasubramanian, n., richards, a. m., chong, j., lai, m., & chen, c. (2015). markers of cardiac dysfunction in cognitive impairment and dementia. medicine, 94(1), e297. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000000297 huang, d., liu, z., cao, h., yang, j., wu, z., & long, y. (2021). childhood trauma is linked to decreased temporal stability of functional brain networks in young adults. journal of affective disorders, 290, 23–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.04.061 huang, h., zhao, k., zhu, w., li, h., & zhu, w. (2021). abnormal cerebral blood flow and functional connectivity strength in subjects with white matter hyperintensities. frontiers in neurology, 12, 752762. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.752762 jacobsen, p. b., bovbjerg, d. h., & redd, w. h. (1993). anticipatory anxiety in women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer. health psychology: official journal of the division of health psychology, american psychological association, 12(6), 469–475. https://doi.org/10.1037//0278-6133.12.6.469 jo, w. k., zhang, y., emrich, h. m., & dietrich, d. e. (2015). glia in the cytokinemediated onset of depression: fine tuning the immune response. frontiers in cellular neuroscience, 9, 268. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2015.00268 ju, y., wang, m., lu, x., sun, j., dong, q., zhang, l., liu, b., liu, j., yan, d., guo, h., zhao, f., liao, m., zhang, x., zhang, y., & li, l. (2020). the effects of childhood trauma on the onset, severity and improvement of depression: the role of dysfunctional attitudes and cortisol levels. journal of affective disorders, 276, 402-410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.07.023 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3524 http://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8341.1959.tb00467.x http://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8341.1959.tb00467.x http://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.23.1.56 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.5369-06.2007 http://doi.org/10.1017/s1352465812000057 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000000297 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.04.061 https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.752762 https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.12.6.469 https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2015.00268 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.07.023 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 155 karmur, b. s., philteos, j., abbasian, a., zacharia, b. e., lipsman, n., levin, v., grossman, s., & mansouri, a. (2020). blood-brain barrier disruption in neuro-oncology: strategies, failures, and challenges to overcome. frontiers in oncology, 10, 563840. https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2020.563840 kim, s. a., & jung, h. (2015). prevention of cognitive impairment in the midlife women. journal of menopausal medicine, 21(1), 19–23. https://doi.org/10.6118/jmm.2015.21.1.19 labbe-coldsmith, e., butler, t. w., naylor, p., & aragon, i. (2017). journal of clinical oncology, 35(sup. 31), 251-251. http://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2017.35.31_suppl.251 li, b., & mody, m. (2016). cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuitry, working memory, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. frontiers in psychiatry, 7, 78. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00078 liao, m. n., chen, m. f., chen, s. c., & chen, p. l. (2008). uncertainty and anxiety during the diagnostic period for women with suspected breast cancer. cancer nursing, 31(4), 274–283. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ncc.0000305744.64452.fe liénard, a., merckaert, i., libert, y., delvaux, n., marchal, s., boniver, j., etienne, a. m., klastersky, j., reynaert, c., scalliet, p., slachmuylder, j. l., & razavi, d. (2006). factors that influence cancer patients' anxiety following a medical consultation: impact of a communication skills training programme for physicians. annals of oncology : official journal of the european society for medical oncology, 17(9), 1450–1458. https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdl142 lin, y. h., dhanaraj, v., mackenzie, a. e., young, i. m., tanglay, o., briggs, r. g., chakraborty, a. r., hormovas, j., fonseka, r. d., kim, s. j., yeung, j. t., teo, c., & sughrue, m. e. (2021). anatomy and white matter connections of the parahippocampal gyrus. world neurosurgery, 148, e218–e226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2020.12.136 liu, y., tamimi, r. m., collins, l. c., schnitt, s. j., gilmore, h. l., connolly, j. l., & colditz, g. a. (2011). the association between vascular endothelial growth factor expression in invasive breast cancer and survival varies with intrinsic subtypes and use of adjuvant systemic therapy: results from the nurses' health study. breast cancer research and treatment, 129(1), 175–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-011-1432-3 maheu, c., singh, m., tock, w. l., eyrenci, a., galica, j., hébert, m., frati, f., & estapé, t. (2021). fear of cancer recurrence, health anxiety, worry, and uncertainty: a scoping review about their conceptualization and measurement within breast cancer survivorship research. frontiers in psychology, 12, 644932. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644932 https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2020.563840 https://doi.org/10.6118/jmm.2015.21.1.19 http://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2017.35.31_suppl.251 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00078 https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ncc.0000305744.64452.fe https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdl142 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2020.12.136 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-011-1432-3 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644932 depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 156 marchi, n., cavaglia, m., fazio, v., bhudia, s., hallene, k., & janigro, d. (2004). peripheral markers of blood-brain barrier damage. clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry, 342(1-2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cccn.2003.12.008 marinescu, i., enătescu, v. r., ghelase, ş. m., & marinescu, d. (2017). neurobiological arguments for a pathogenic multifactorial disconnective model of cognitive disorders from alzheimer's disease in elderly people. romanian journal of morphology and embryology, 58(4), 1165–1173. https://rjme.ro/rjme/resources/files/58041711651173.pdf metcalfe, d. b., duggal, c. s., gabriel, a., nahabedian, m. y., carlson, g. w., & losken, a. (2014). prevalence of body dysmorphic disorder among patients seeking breast reconstruction. aesthetic surgery journal, 34(5), 733– 737. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090820x14531775 nation, d. a., sweeney, m. d., montagne, a., sagare, a. p., d'orazio, l. m., pachicano, m., sepehrband, f., nelson, a. r., buennagel, d. p., harrington, m. g., benzinger, t., fagan, a. m., ringman, j. m., schneider, l. s., morris, j. c., chui, h. c., law, m., toga, a. w., & zlokovic, b. v. (2019). blood-brain barrier breakdown is an early biomarker of human cognitive dysfunction. nature medicine, 25(2), 270–276. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-018-0297-y ng, c. g., mohamed, s., kaur, k., sulaiman, a. h., zainal, n. z., taib, n. a., & mybcc study group. (2017). perceived distress and its association with depression and anxiety in breast cancer patients. plos one, 12(3), e0172975. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172975 pazzaglia, s., briganti, g., mancuso, m., & saran, a. (2020). neurocognitive decline following radiotherapy: mechanisms and therapeutic implications. cancers, 12(1), 146. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12010146 pereira dias, g., hollywood, r., bevilaqua, m. c., da luz, a. c., hindges, r., nardi, a. e., & thuret, s. (2014). consequences of cancer treatments on adult hippocampal neurogenesis: implications for cognitive function and depressive symptoms. neuro-oncology, 16(4), 476–492. https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/not321 phillips, k. a. (2007). suicidality in body dysmorphic disorder. primary psychiatry, 14(12), 58–66. radell, m. l., abo hamza, e. g., daghustani, w. h., perveen, a., & moustafa, a. a. (2021). the impact of different types of abuse on depression. depression research and treatment, 6654503. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6654503 rajmohan, v., & mohandas, e. (2007). mirror neuron system. indian journal of psychiatry, 49(1), 66–69. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.31522 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cccn.2003.12.008 https://rjme.ro/rjme/resources/files/58041711651173.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/1090820x14531775 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-018-0297-y https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172975 https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12010146 https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/not321 https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6654503 https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.31522 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 157 rolls, e. t. (2019). the cingulate cortex and limbic systems for emotion, action, and memory. brain structure & function, 224(9), 3001–3018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-019-01945-2 shaha, m., cox, c. l., talman, k., & kelly, d. (2008). uncertainty in breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer: implications for supportive care. journal of nursing scholarship: an official publication of sigma theta tau international honor society of nursing, 40(1), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15475069.2007.00207.x shaw, a. m., arditte hall, k. a., rosenfield, e., & timpano, k. r. (2016). body dysmorphic disorder symptoms and risk for suicide: the role of depression. body image, 19, 169–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.09.007 singer, s., blettner, m., kreienberg, r., janni, w., wöckel, a., kühn, t., felberbaum, r., flock, f., schwentner, l., & brenda ii study group (2015). breast cancer patients' fear of treatment: results from the multicenter longitudinal study brenda ii. breast care (basel, switzerland), 10(2), 95–100. https://doi.org/10.1159/000381933 smith, h. r. (2015). depression in cancer patients: pathogenesis, implications and treatment (review). oncology letters, 9(4), 1509–1514. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2015.2944 stark, d. p., & house, a. (2000). anxiety in cancer patients. british journal of cancer, 83(10), 1261–1267. https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2000.1405 stovicek, p. o., friedmann, c., marinescu, d., văduva, i. a., bondari, s., trifu, s. c., & marinescu, i. (2020). mild tbi in the elderly risk factor for rapid cognitive impairment in alzheimer's disease. romanian journal of morphology and embryology, 61(1), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.47162/rjme.61.1.07 udo, h., hamasu, k., furuse, m., & sugiyama, h. (2014). vegf-induced antidepressant effects involve modulation of norepinephrine and serotonin systems. behavioural brain research, 275, 107–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.09.005 vythilingam, m., heim, c., newport, j., miller, a. h., anderson, e., bronen, r., brummer, m., staib, l., vermetten, e., charney, d. s., nemeroff, c. b., & bremner, j. d. (2002). childhood trauma associated with smaller hippocampal volume in women with major depression. the american journal of psychiatry, 159(12), 2072–2080. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.12.2072 wang, j., rao, h., wetmore, g. s., furlan, p. m., korczykowski, m., dinges, d. f., & detre, j. a. (2005). perfusion functional mri reveals cerebral blood flow pattern under psychological stress. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america, 102(49), 17804–17809. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0503082102 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-019-01945-2 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.2007.00207.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.2007.00207.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.09.007 https://doi.org/10.1159/000381933 https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2015.2944 https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2000.1405 https://doi.org/10.47162/rjme.61.1.07 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.12.2072 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0503082102 depression and anxiety risk factors in the evolution of breast cancer in … ramona adriana schenker, et al. 158 wang, m., wu, x., chai, f., zhang, y., & jiang, j. (2016). plasma prolactin and breast cancer risk: a metaanalysis. scientific reports, 6, 25998. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25998 wang, x., wang, n., zhong, l., wang, s., zheng, y., yang, b., zhang, j., lin, y., & wang, z. (2020). prognostic value of depression and anxiety on breast cancer recurrence and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 282,203 patients. molecular psychiatry, 25(12), 3186–3197. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-00865-6 xu, y., olfson, m., villegas, l., okuda, m., wang, s., liu, s. m., & blanco, c. (2013). a characterization of adult victims of sexual violence: results from the national epidemiological survey for alcohol and related conditions. psychiatry, 76(3), 223–240. https://doi.org/10.1521/psyc.2013.76.3.223 zhao, w., luo, l., li, q., & kendrick, k. m. (2013). what can psychiatric disorders tell us about neural processing of the self? frontiers in human neuroscience, 7, 485. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00485 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25998 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-00865-6 https://doi.org/10.1521/psyc.2013.76.3.223 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00485 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 224-237 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/246 cognitive and neurolinguistic aspects of interpreting halyna onyshchak¹, liudmyla koval2, olena vazhenina3, ivan bakhov4, roksolana povoroznyuk5, antonina devitska6 1 uzhhorod national university, uzhhorod, ukraine, halynaov@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5133-4313 2 vasyl' stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia, ukraine, lmkoval1978@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4014-1858 3 vasyl’ stus donetsk national university, vinnytsia, ukraine, olena.vazhenina@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0600-1242 4 interregional academy of personnel management, kyiv, ukraine, bakhov@ukr.net, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8379-199x 5 institute of philology by the taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, kyiv, ukraine, salina.sunset@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3418-6651 6 uzhhorod national university, uzhhorod, ukraine, antonina.devitska@uzhnu.edu.ua, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7575-5390 abstract: over the past decade, a large and growing body of literature has explored the cognitive and neural foundations of interpreting processes. the article explores the relevance of cognitive and neurolinguistic approaches to the process of both simultaneous and consecutive interpreting. the main objective is to reveal the interpreter’s status, his/her mental and linguistic operations as cognitive units in the approaches under review. firstly, we discuss how both interpreting modes have been understood and defined by various researchers. secondly, we present the overview of diverse research works on cognitive and neurolinguistic scientific approaches to interpretation, trying to understand and explain the operating of interpreters’ minds. finally, we focus on the issues of bilingualism and its impact on language comprehension and its production. it has been revealed that interpreting contributes significantly to improving cognitive and neural functions of the brain. interpreters have always been a key figure in facilitating and bridging communication across cultures and languages. they can input, retain, retrieve, and output data but are limited in processing capacity at any given time. quite recently, scholars in both interpreting and neurolinguistics have attempted to provide insight into the organization of bilingual speakers’ minds. in interpreting and translation tasks, it has been complemented by research works into language control in a bilingual language mode, with both language systems being simultaneously activated. taken together, the cognitive and neurolinguistic studies reviewed in the paper support strong recommendations to regard an interpreter as a conceptual mediator relying on both his/her decision-making and probability thinking mechanisms. keywords: interpreting; cognition; simultaneous and consecutive interpreting; mental and linguistic operations; bilingualism; language comprehension and production. how to cite: onyshchak, h., koval, l., vazhenina, o., bakhov, i., povoroznyuk, r., & devitska, a. (2021). cognitive and neurolinguistic aspects of interpreting. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 224-237. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/246 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/246 mailto:halynaov@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5133-4313 mailto:lmkoval1978@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4014-1858 mailto:olena.vazhenina@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0600-1242 mailto:bakhov@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8379-199x mailto:salina.sunset@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3418-6651 mailto:antonina.devitska@uzhnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7575-5390 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/246 cognitive and neurolinguistic aspects of interpreting halyna onyshchak, et al. 225 introduction interpreting, as an extreme form of bilingualism (babcock, 2015; chmiel, 2021) and as a special type of linguistic activity, is of interdisciplinary character, having intricate connections with other fields of linguistics. such an increasingly interdisciplinary perspective on its study opens new promising opportunities for scholars in the field. from a psycholinguistic point of view, interpreting is recognized as being a linguocultural phenomenon and psychic and cognitive activity (demetska, 2019, p. 71). consistent with this view, interpreters usually face many challenges, acting not as merely receivers of the message but being rather actively involved in appropriating it and reformulating it (krémer & quijano, 2018, p. 80). furthermore, they are regarded as tools that provide interdisciplinary communication (erton, 2020, p. 1914). notwithstanding the crucial role of an interpreter in the process of thought transmitting from input language into the output, there is a sizeable body of research findings on what one might call the phenomenon of interpreting as such. the past two decades have produced a wealth of studies linked up with the diversity of conceptual approaches. the latter contribute much to our current understanding of how the brain subserves both bilingual interaction and interpreting processes. first, social and relational aspects are concerned with the cross-cultural dimension of mediated communication (pochhacker, 2004; zasiekin, 2018). relevance theory is a cognitive approach of communication, integrating both linguistic and pragmatic insights and providing definite conceptual tools and techniques proven appropriate in understanding the interpreting processes from inside. related to conceptual knowledge and its organization in the brain, the second commonly studied area of interpretation is cognitive. several studies have found that conceptual knowledge is organized as a network of mutually interconnected nodes, the activation of which represents the retrieval of information (gillies, 2019; guo, 2016; ning et al., 2020; rojo lopez, 2015). language is a key element in transferring information, a specific mental entity that is prone to constant development. cognitive processes taking place in the mind are undoubtedly very significant in language control as a mental capacity. finally, a few studies have examined the interpreting process from a neuroscience perspective concerned with the issue of what brain areas and neural networks are implicated in complex cognitive processes (lin et al., 2018; nerubasska et al., 2020; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; onishchuk et al., 2020; pisa, et al., 2021; setton & dawrant, 2016). brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 226 notwithstanding diverse approaches used by the scholars, their research is designed to contribute primarily to our understanding of the phenomenon of interpreting. firstly, the relevance of the research is conditioned by the scholars’ growing interest in determining the role of lingual, cognitive, and neural operations in the process of simultaneous and consecutive interpreting. secondly, debate continues about the status of the interpreter. thirdly, the neurobiological basis of interpreting as a form of bilingualism is poorly understood. this paper aims to remedy these problems by analyzing the literature on interpreting conceptions available in the field of neurolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and interpreting studies. having gained some inspiration from previous studies on cognitive and neurolinguistic aspects of interpretation, we decided to incorporate some theoretical findings of relevant researchers into the paper. there are several important areas where this study contributes. examination of the literature emphasizing such relevant issues provides perspectives that strengthen the existing knowledge of neurolinguistic and other characteristics of the interpreting process. second, the literature on translation offers new significant views on the nature of language transfer and communication characteristics between speakers of different languages. interpreting and its cognitive root language can influence cognition in a lot of different ways. the latter lies behind language, going far beyond it, and can be referred to as cognitive backstage (eftekhari, 2019, p. 1) rather than a scientific notation. cognitive problems arising in interpreting process are for the most part conditioned by certain socio-cultural and historical experience shared by representatives of the target language culture. this wealth of experience is manifested in various forms: mental and emotional images, socio-cultural stereotypes and norms, discursive communication strategies, etc. in this respect, translation and interpreting, in particular, appear to be the primary aspects of cross-cultural communication. cognitive abilities play a crucial role in these processes since humans are “cognitive niche builders, extending the mind into space to think more efficiently” (queiroz & atã, 2019, p. 20). furthermore, they can extend cognition through nonbiological devices, merging our cognitive activities with the operation of cognitive artifacts and creating an external and distributed cognitive system (queiroz & atã, 2019, p. 19). in the individual's mind, social environment, everyday and spiritual life of community, and cognitive and neurolinguistic aspects of interpreting halyna onyshchak, et al. 227 standards of human conduct are reflected in certain cognitive structures, realized in linguistic forms. el-zawawy (2019, p. 50) holds the view that the integration of the semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic (and cultural) aspects does not operate in the void but is geared towards exploring the cognitive demands and processes of interpreting. in 2016, setton and dawrant pointed to three basic steps of the interpreting process: understanding, speaking, and mediating (p. 159). while acting as a mediator, an interpreter can face some barriers, which prevent efficient communication and information transfer. the scholars claim that linguistic barriers occur while using the concepts of deverbalization and transcoding and exploring the traps of language transfer, especially interference. cognitive barriers can be easily overcome if the interpreter projects the cognitive environment of the parties to the exchange. the interpreter's role in the process is undeniably profound as he/she should instill the ethos of impartiality and step into the speaker's shoes. the evidence from the studies suggests that only by employing the linguistic analysis and entailing extralingual factors in the message production can the interpreter realize the potential communicative intent of the source language speaker in the target text. recent developments in the field of cognitive sciences have paved “the way for a better understanding of critical and creative thinking, problem solving, strategy developing, perceiving, learning and memory processing” (erton, 2020, pp. 1912-1913) and led to a renewed interest in the issues of the interpreter’s role in the process of interpreting. one major theoretical issue that has dominated the field for many years concerns how interpreters function in their role. regarding both modes of interpreting, the interpreter is believed to be a bilingual communicator who facilitates the transmission of the verbal message. consistent with this view, throughout this paper, we suggest that interpreting is not just a cognitive process requiring constructing output in the target language based on input provided by the sourcelanguage speaker but a communicative act mediated by an interpreter. it turns out that performance problems and communicative ‘breakdowns’ may arise not only in simultaneous but in consecutive mode. the former is a “highly complex verbal task” (lin et al., 2018, p. 1), requiring various actions to be completed simultaneously with definite intellectual capacities. it presents a unique type of multitasking, encompassing speech comprehension and production, a switch of attention, self-correction, and many other concurrent activities. there is an unambiguous relationship between both modes of interpreting as they presuppose multitasking. however, consecutive interpreting is distinguished brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 228 from simultaneous from the perspective of cognitive science in that a time lag separates speech comprehension and its production. interpreting studies conducted so far are mainly product-oriented. overall, they highlight the need for focusing on the product without an indepth analysis of the interpreting process. the issue has grown in importance in light of recent works on cognitive processing in translation and interpreting. a longitudinal study of simultaneous interpreting by chernov (2004) arouses fierce controversy in this area of concern. a reasonable approach to tackle this issue could be to penetrate deeply into the interpreting process, disclosing its essential phases, components, and interpreter's capacities. although differences of opinion still exist, there appears to be some agreement that interpreting refers to a cognitively demanding activity entailing both memory and production efforts (liang et al., 2019; russel & takeda, 2015; seeber, 2015). multitasking is usually understood as an ability or skill necessary to accomplish definite complex tasks at once. the evidence consistent with this hypothesis can be clearly seen in the gile’s groundbreaking work of 1995. he puts forward the effort model of interpreting, outlining the activities that interpreters must make (efforts). more broadly, the model is centered on the notion of processing capacity, requirements, and limitations. as noted by the scholar (gile, 1995, p. 161), the use of ‘mental energy’ is only available in limited supply. it takes up almost all of it. the efforts an interpreter is challenged with are the following (figure 1). figure 1 is a refined and yet confined state of the interpreting process in the cognitive perspective. the arrows indicate the links between the phases, revealing an unambiguous relationship between the phases of interpreting since each implies an effort. the interpreter’s role in this process is undoubtedly profound, as he/she should therefore be able to find a balance among them in terms of energy and avoid cognitive ‘overload’. cognitive and neurolinguistic aspects of interpreting halyna onyshchak, et al. 229 figure 1. daniel gile’s effort model for interpreting (1995) each phase in the sequence involves definite operations undertaken while interpreting, complex thought processes, and impressive cognitive abilities. the listening and analysis effort starts with the identification of the sound form of the source language message and involves the final decision as to the content of the output. effort the memory effort is viewed as a specific mechanism for storing and retrieving information before its further processing. the production effort stands for the output phase of interpretation and has distinctive features depending on the mode of interpreting. in simultaneous interpreting, it ranges from the operations connected with the mental representation of the source message to its active reproduction in the target language. in consecutive mode, there are two types of production distinguished by different characteristics in each phase. phase 1 presupposes listening and analysis, production of notes, short-term memory operations, and coordination of these tasks, whereas during phase 2 an interpreter is engaged in note-reading, remembering, and production. in this regard, coordination skills are of primary importance for people with interpreting experience and expertise since interpreting is “highly complex and requires the performance and coordination of multiple, simultaneous tasks” (strobach et al., 2015, pp. 1-2). according to gile (1995), while rendering the speech into the target language, the interpreter will have to coordinate and distribute his/her mental resources between the interpretation components to achieve the intended purpose. concisely, gile’s coordination component can be regarded as similar in function to the language control mechanism. listening and analysis effort memory effort production effort brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 230 many scholars believe that memory as a particular cognitive function in complex mental and linguistic activity is activated in consecutive interpreting. its role in interpreting should not be underestimated. the last decade has witnessed enormous growth in typologies of memory put forward by cognitive scientists. however, a great deal of work remains to be done in determining what those types are and how they are engaged in the interpreting process. setton and dawrant (2016) have attempted to draw fine distinctions between immediate, short-term, and long-term memory. the function of the immediate (echoic) memory lies in retaining sounds or images for just a few seconds without mental processing of the information. short-term memory or ‘working memory’ refers to “the active core of our mental activity, a busy workshop of flexible but limited capacity in which we process what we are currently seeing, hearing, and experiencing against our existing knowledge, assumptions and past experiences” (setton & dawrant, 2016, p. 206). a well-trained interpreter's memory can retain considerable volumes of information, retrieving it while deciphering the message in the target language. the researchers maintain that long-term memory may last from a few minutes to several decades. it is further subdivided into semantic (retaining explicit knowledge organized in schemas), procedural (capturing unconscious sequences and procedures) and episodic (memory for life experiences, events, and situations). thus far, the studies presented evidence that an interpreter decodes a message and renders it by integrating the communicative acts and cognitive entities, drawing on various memories. taking notes at a short “ear-pen span” (chen, 2017, p. 11) in the form of shorthand signs and symbols representing ideas is also an important goal of consecutive interpretation. notes taken in consecutive interpreting are “a representation of the skeleton structure of the speech” (gillies, 2017, p. 9). to all those identifying, retrieving, and analyzing the primary parts of the sentence, the understanding of logical links between them has become indispensable for interpreters. as gillies points out: “once you’ve recognized, noted and split the ideas on the page, you will see that although they give you the most important information from the speech, without information about the relationship between the ideas, the ideas don’t make enough sense alone” (gillies, 2019, p. 103). thus, these links are meaningful associations between entities and concepts expressed in verbal form. their variety and properties play a significant role in human comprehension and reasoning. from a cognitive psychological perspective, interpreting is a systematic information processing that requires cognitive resources and cognitive and neurolinguistic aspects of interpreting halyna onyshchak, et al. 231 mappings, undergoing accurate mental processing. what is not yet clear is the impact of systemic thinking on speech deciphering. preliminary work on this issue was undertaken by rebrіi and rebrіi (2018). the scholars draw our attention to the point that systemic thinking lets an interpreter go beyond what seems to be isolated and independent experiences and reveal the structures lying in the core (rebrіi & rebrіi, 2018, p. 183). furthermore, organizing the message information into the concurrent chunks does play a significant role in the hearer’s perception of speech since it “reflects the speaker’s sensitivity to the hearer’s state of knowledge in the process of communication” (baker, 2018, p. 160). thus, the accurate delivery of the original message is directly related to the interpreter's cognitive ability and degree of comprehension. furthermore, the encyclopedic and specific knowledge they have acquired in advance contributes to conveying the rich subtlety of mental models that both individuals and cultures bring to bear on the communication process. to better understand the mechanisms of the interpreting process and its outcome, the scholars attempted to analyze it as an artistically creative process (eftekhari, 2019, p. 1; rebrіi, & rebrіi, 2018, p. 182; zasiekin, 2018, p. 72). one of the pivotal for interpretation studies revolves around the interpreter’s questions anticipation and intuition (gile, 1995; hubscher-davidson, 2015; palova & kiktova, 2019; setton & dawrant, 2016). the role of these strategies is significant. cognitive anticipatory activities are an inseparable part of the reception process. they involve word prediction, probabilities related to phonological, grammatical, stylistic rules, and sense expectations. depending on differences concerned with the production of anticipation, different types of anticipation have been distinguished. gile (1995) classified anticipation into two broad types: 1) linguistic, based on the prediction of source discourse from knowledge of collocations, function words, connectives; 2) extralingual, based on external knowledge, varying according to situational and personal factors (gile, 1995, pp. 176-178). these two types of anticipation activate drastically different operations in the human mind. regardless of any anticipation type, it is usually seen as the strategy an interpreter can deploy in the complex interpreting process before his/her mental generation of assumptions that the speaker has not yet actualized. interpreting takes its root in psycho-cultural interaction, being a biological entity geared by cognition. undoubtedly, cognitive processes and operations are indispensable elements of both interpreting modes. as an artful and highly demanding communicative act, the latter requires proficient linguistic competence, tremendous effort, mental power, effective listening brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 232 and memory skills, and anticipatory strategies. improper activation of these elements results in the disruption of communication flow, distortion of the original message, and language barriers in bilingual or multilingual environments. more information on bilingualism would help us establish a greater degree of accuracy on this matter since “without evidence from bilinguals we could only ever have (less than) half of the story” (pisa et al., 2021, p. 1). furthermore, it can shed light on bilingualism and cognitive ability issues, linguistic competence in bilingual settings. interpreting as a specific case of bilingual activity a striking feature of contemporary translation and interpreting theory is that one of the significant types of verbal communication is the information exchange between speakers of different languages. thus, bilingualism is becoming a necessary interpreting skill in the modern globalized world, where international and cultural contacts are strengthening. the term has broad semantics and is generally understood to mean using two languages in the communication process or information transfer. however, this definition is centered mainly on linguistic competence, overlooking relevant cognitive, socio-cultural, and neurobiological factors engaged in bilinguals' performance. bilingual competence is a significant aspect of the interpreting process and is heavily involved in producing output in the target language from the input in the source language. interlingual and cross-cultural communication cannot be effectively realized without a mediator. however, he/she should re-interpret those communication needs due to the context in which he/she is in without any diversion of the original intent. the causes of failure in rendering the message into the target language are innumerable, ranging from misunderstandings of the original to insufficient mastery of the receptor language. the most significant scientific attention seems to be given to matters concerning the management and control of the two languages representing two different linguistic codes. recent trends in interpreting have led to a proliferation of studies that focus on such complicated issues as the functionality of bilingual memory, attention and discourse processing, language comprehension and its production, lexical and conceptual representations in a bilingual's mind. however, notwithstanding a number of serious research works on how concurrently command and control two languages that have appeared recently (grosjean, 2008; mishra, 2018; schwieter & ferreira, 2018), there cognitive and neurolinguistic aspects of interpreting halyna onyshchak, et al. 233 still is ample room for further insight into the problem, providing for deeper penetration into its vast expanse. interpreters should comprehend the source language while producing the output in the target one, maintaining both languages active. this ability to multitask distinguishes interpreters from monolinguals and bilinguals. the latter are frequently engaged in various interpreting-related activities and often switch from one language to another, outperforming monolinguals in executive control. the other differences between monolinguals and bilinguals involve the interaction of the two linguistic systems: their simultaneous activation and the need to select one at a time, the effort involved in operating two lexicons and grammars instead of one. undoubtedly, at the heart of the description of bilingualism is language processing in the human brain. the bilingual’s language modes in language production and language perception constitute a significant area of interest within the field. neurological research on interpreting conducted so far has attempted to map task-specific activation patterns. while a variety of definitions of the term ‘language mode’ has been suggested, this paper will make use of the definition suggested by grosjean (2008), who saw it as “the state of activation of the bilingual’s languages and language processing mechanisms at a given point in time” (p. 39). surveys such as that conducted by the researcher have shown that ranging from a monolingual mode to a bilingual, the base language, i.e., the primary language being produced or perceived at a particular point in time, is the most active. in contrast, the second language is activated to lesser degrees. it must be noted that language is tightly tied with cognition, and the linguistic phenomena are analyzed regarding their status in a human mind within human culture. the study of bilingual cognition can benefit neurolinguistic research into various issues. the latter are related to language and cognitive processes, cognitive control in interpreting, the linguistic shaping of human thought, cross-linguistic differences in conceptualizing events, and metalinguistic awareness in bilinguals. conclusion returning to the hypothesis posed at the beginning of this study, it is now possible to state that the interpreting process is an essential task for cognitive and neural systems. researchers in cognitive psychology, neurolinguistics, and interpreting studies hold the view that different modes of interpreting should include various processing procedures, mechanisms and efforts. both simultaneous and consecutive interpreting pose severe and daunting challenges for an interpreter in transferring from one language to brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 234 another, changing his/her role from a mere receiver of the message to an active participant of the cross-cultural communicative act. although both interpreting modes require substantial efforts to be made and overload of working memory, the reviewed literature has shown that simultaneous and consecutive interpreting involve different degrees of cognitive capacity. today’s understanding of interpreting process and the interpreter’s role in it far exceeds in complexity compared to practices in the past. the current study found that an interpreter faces significant difficulties, including the simultaneity of listening, retaining, comprehending the input and producing the output, and concurrent and proficient activation of two languages at once. these require the constant use of linguistic and cognitive mechanisms, coordinating various brain systems involved in handling these multiple tasks. cognitive and neurolinguistic perspective on interpreting entails an interdisciplinary approach since it acknowledges that language processing and production must be considered regarding communicative, psychological, and neural constraints. despite its exploratory nature, this study offers some insight into interpreting as bilingual processing. it is portrayed as a cognitive process activating both psychological and neural mechanisms whose integration provides for the successful resolution of problem situations in interpretation. the current findings add to a growing body of literature on the well-founded interpreting conceptions, enhancing our understanding of interpreting as a means of cross-cultural communication and exploring the brain operations activated in the process of interpreting. this research has thrown up many questions and proved that interpreting is an intriguing one that could be usefully explored in further research. references babcock, l. e. (2015). the neurocognitive fingerprint of simultaneous interpretation [doctoral dissertation, scuola internazionale superiore di studi avanzati]. sissa digital library. https://iris.sissa.it/retrieve/handle/20.500.11767/3895/1583/196 3_34447_dissertation-laura%20babcock-final.pdf baker, m. (2018). in other words: a coursebook on translation (3rd ed). routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315619187 chen, s. (2017). note-taking in consecutive interpreting: new data from pen recording. translation & interpreting, 9(1), 4-23. http://doi.org/10.12807/ti.109201.2017.a02 chernov, c. v. (2004). inference and anticipation in simultaneous interpreting. john benjamins publishing company. http://doi.org/10.1075/btl.57 https://iris.sissa.it/retrieve/handle/20.500.11767/3895/1583/1963_34447_dissertation-laura%20babcock-final.pdf https://iris.sissa.it/retrieve/handle/20.500.11767/3895/1583/1963_34447_dissertation-laura%20babcock-final.pdf http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315619187 http://doi.org/10.12807/ti.109201.2017.a02 http://doi.org/10.1075/btl.57 cognitive and neurolinguistic aspects of interpreting halyna onyshchak, et al. 235 chmiel, a. (2021). effects of simultaneous interpreting experience and training on anticipation, as measured by word-translation latencies. interpreting, 23(1), 18-44. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00048.chm demetska, v. (2019). adaptyvna model perekladu v psykholingvistychnomu vymiri [adaptive model in translation: psycholinguistic dimension]. psycholinguistics, 26(2), 71-90. https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-201926-2-70-90. eftekhari, m. (2019). interpreting and its cognitive root. modern journal of language teaching methods (mjltm), 9(2), 1-9. https://mjltm.org/article-1-507en.pdf el-zawawy, a. m. (2019). exploring the cognitive processes of simultaneous interpreting: english–arabic–english dynamics. lexington books. erton, i̇. (2020). linguistic and cognitive aspects of translation and interpretation skills. journal of language and linguistic studies, 16(4), 1910-1920. http://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.851022 gile, d. (1995). basic concepts and models for interpreter and translator training. john benjamins publishing company. https://kupdf.net/download/194290699basic-concepts-and-models-for-interpreter-and-translatortraining_590ab5b7dc0d60f519959e91_pdf gillies, a. (2017). note-taking for consecutive interpreting: a short course (2nd ed). routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315648996 gillies, a. (2019). consecutive interpreting: a short course. london and new york: routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315648972 grosjean, f. (2008). studying bilinguals. oxford university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022226709990089 guo, y. (2016). cognitive analysis of long-term memory in interpreting. international journal of language and linguistics, 4(3), 103-113. http://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20160403.13 hubscher-davidson, s. (2015). the role of intuition in the translation process: a case study. in m. ehrensberger-dow, b. englund dimitrova, s. hubscherdavidson & u. norberg (eds.), describing cognitive processes in translation: acts and events (pp. 63-84). john benjamins publishing company. http://doi.org/10.1075/bct.77.05hub krémer, b. & quijano, c. m. (2018). non-verbal communication and interpreting. in k. malmkjaer (ed.), the routledge handbook of translation studies and linguistics (pp. 79-94). routledge. https://salahlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/the_routledge_handboo k_of_translation.pdf liang, j., lv., q, & liu, y. (2019). quantifying interpreting types: language sequence mirrors cognitive load minimization in interpreting tasks. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00048.chm https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2019-26-2-70-90 https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2019-26-2-70-90 https://mjltm.org/article-1-507-en.pdf https://mjltm.org/article-1-507-en.pdf http://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.851022 https://kupdf.net/download/194290699-basic-concepts-and-models-for-interpreter-and-translator-training_590ab5b7dc0d60f519959e91_pdf https://kupdf.net/download/194290699-basic-concepts-and-models-for-interpreter-and-translator-training_590ab5b7dc0d60f519959e91_pdf https://kupdf.net/download/194290699-basic-concepts-and-models-for-interpreter-and-translator-training_590ab5b7dc0d60f519959e91_pdf http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315648996 http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315648972 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022226709990089 http://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20160403.13 http://doi.org/10.1075/bct.77.05hub https://salahlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/the_routledge_handbook_of_translation.pdf https://salahlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/the_routledge_handbook_of_translation.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 236 frontiers in psychology, 10, 1-13. doi: http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00285 lin, y., lv, q., & liang, j. (2018). predicting fluency with language proficiency, working memory, and directionality in simultaneous interpreting. frontiers in psychology, 9, 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01543 mishra, r. k. (2018). bilingualism and cognitive control. springer international publishing ag. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-925134 nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 ning, s, hayakawa, s, bartolotti, j., & marian, v. (2020) on language and thought: bilingual experience influences semantic associations. journal of neurolinguistics, 56, 100932. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2020.100932. onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 palova, m., & kiktova, e. (2019). les indices anticipatoires prosodiques et l'activation de la reference en interpretation simultanee [prosodic anticipatory clues and reference activation in simultaneous interpretation]. xlinguae, 12(1), 13-22. http://www.xlinguae.eu/files/xlinguae1xl_2019_2.pdf pisa, g. di, soares, s. m. p., & rothman, j. (2021). brain, mind and linguistic processing insights into the dynamic nature of bilingualism and its outcome effects. journal of neurolinguistics, 58, (9), 100965. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2020.100965 pochhacker, f. (2004). introducing interpreting studies. london and new york: routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315649573 queiroz, j., & atã, p. (2019). intersemiotic translation as an abductive cognitive artifact. in k. marais & r. meylaerts (eds.), complexity thinking in translation studies: methodological considerations (pp. 19-32). routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203702017 http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00285 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01543 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92513-4 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92513-4 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2020.100932 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 http://www.xlinguae.eu/files/xlinguae1xl_2019_2.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2020.100965 http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315649573 http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203702017 cognitive and neurolinguistic aspects of interpreting halyna onyshchak, et al. 237 rebrіi, o., & rebrіi, і. (2018). cistemnіst' і tvorchіst' u perekladі: psiholіngvіstichnij pіdhіd [systemic and creative aspects of translation: psycholinguistic approach]. psycholinguistics, 23(2), 180-191. http:/doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1199186 rojo lopez, a. m. (2015). translation meets cognitive science: the imprint of translation on cognitive processing. multilingua: journal of cross-cultural and interlanguage communication, 34(6), 721-746. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/multi-2014-0066 russel, d., & takeda, k. (2015). consecutive interpreting. in h. mikkelson & r. jourdenais (eds.), the routledge handbook of interpreting (pp. 96-111). routledge. schwieter, j. w., & ferreira, a. (2018). bilingualism, translation, and interpreting. in k. malmkjær (ed.), the routledge handbook of translation studies and linguistics (pp. 251-266). routledge. https://www.academia.edu/43202394/the_routledge_handbook_of_tra nslation_studies_and_linguistics seeber, k. g. (2015). simultaneous interpreting. in h. mikkelson & r. jourdenais (eds.), the routledge handbook of interpreting (pp. 71-95). routledge. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315745381 setton, r., & dawrant, a. (2016). conference interpreting: a trainer’s guide. john benjamins publishing company. http://doi.org/10.1075/btl.121 strobach, t., becker, m., kühn, s., & schubert, t. (2015). better dual-task processing in simultaneous interpreters. frontiers in psychology, 6, 1-9. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01590 zasiekin, s. v. (2018). pidkhody do perekladu v konteksti teorii movlennievoi diialnosti [approaches to translation in the context of theory of speech activity]. psycholinguistics, 24(2), 63-77. http://doi.org/10.31470/23091797-2018-24-2-63-77. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1199186 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/multi-2014-0066 https://www.academia.edu/43202394/the_routledge_handbook_of_translation_studies_and_linguistics https://www.academia.edu/43202394/the_routledge_handbook_of_translation_studies_and_linguistics https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315745381 http://doi.org/10.1075/btl.121 http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01590 http://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2018-24-2-63-77 http://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2018-24-2-63-77 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 22-38| https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/329 submitted: february 2nd, 2022| accepted for publication: june 1st, 2022 distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality lesia kondratiuk 1 , svitlana musiichuk 2 , nelia zuienko 3 , yuriy sobkov 4 , olha trebyk 5 , dmytro yefimov 6 1 ivan chernyakhovsky national defense university of ukraine, lnkon@ukr.net 2 national university of food technologies, ukraine, svetlana.museichuk@gmail.com 3 national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, znelja@gmail.com 4 chernivtsi national university, ukraine, y.sobkov@chnu.edu.ua 5 interregional academy of personnel management, ukraine, folktaleolga@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4467-9193 6 horlivka institute for foreign languages of state higher educational institution "donbas state pedagogical university", ukraine, jaster19911@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6317-5287 abstract: the article is devoted to virtual reality technologies and scenarios of their application in distance learning of foreign languages. a generalized experience of application of virtual reality technologies in distance learning of foreign languages is presented; the advantages, risks and deterrents of their introduction into the educational process in educational institutions are highlighted. the features by which technologies can be classified as virtual reality technologies are singled out. examples of application of the following virtual reality technologies are considered: mondly vr, virtualspeech, immersive vr education, altspacevr and classvr; their brief description, scenarios for use in learning foreign languages, benefits and risks of use are provided. summarizing the review of these technologies, it was found that the educational content of distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality can be divided into three groups: “360-degree video”, platforms and sites, interactive programs. conditions and didactic principles of the effective use of virtual reality technologies during distance learning of foreign languages are generalized. the issue of assessing effectiveness of virtual reality technologies in learning foreign languages is analyzed and identified as debatable and in need of further research. the criteria by which researchers summarize the principles of selection of evaluation criteria are clarified. perspective directions of future scientific investigations are outlined: research of conditions of intensification and research of scenarios of use of collective intelligence during distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality. keywords: distance learning, virtual reality technologies, immersive technologies, language environment. how to cite: kondratiuk, l., musiichuk, s., zuienko, n., sobkov, y., trebyk, o., & yefimov, d. (2022). distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 22-38. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/329 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/329 mailto:lnkon@ukr.net mailto:svetlana.museichuk@gmail.com mailto:znelja@gmail.com mailto:y.sobkov@chnu.edu.ua mailto:folktaleolga@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4467-9193 mailto:jaster19911@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6317-5287 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/329 distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality lesia kondratiuk et al. 23 introduction the contemporary world cannot be imagined without the use of various gadgets and the use of technologies that are actively emerging (sandu & vlad, 2018) and being implemented in the field of education. the role of the teacher today has long been changed from the role of the bearer of knowledge. the teacher tries not only to transfer knowledge, but also to capture attention of the student to his / her discipline (karasievych et al., 2021; berbets et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; onishchuk et al., 2020). in order for a foreign language teaching to be more effective, it is necessary to use the method of full immersion in the language environment. but it is not always possible to completely immerse oneself in the language environment. therefore, educators try to use the latest technologies to find alternative approaches and teaching methods to create a language environment that is as close as possible to the real thing. the use of virtual reality technologies can significantly improve the quality of distance learning of foreign languages. virtual reality technologies are classified as immersive learning, which creates the “presence effect” using virtual and augmented reality gadgets. the range of applications of virtual reality technologies is quite wide, as these technologies can be used both for teaching young children and adult students, company employees and the elderly. the purpose of the article is to analyze the application of virtual reality technologies in distance learning of foreign languages and to identify the pedagogical conditions for effectiveness of such educational activities. use of contemporary information and communication technologies (ict) in the process of learning foreign languages researchers’ interest in the use of contemporary information and communication technologies (ict) in the process of learning foreign languages has been steadily increasing since the end of the 20th century. trends in globalization and the use of foreign languages in international communication have led to the need for professionals in the labor market who can speak at least one foreign language and possess the conceptual and categorical apparatus and terminology in accordance with professional activities (viktorova, kocharian, & mamchur, 2021). the urgency of the need for accelerated and high-quality foreign language learning is also partly due to the fact that in 2018 the european parliament and the council of the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 24 european union approved the framework program for the renewal of key competences, which are defined as competences for lifelong learning, which include multilingual competence (the council of the european union, 2018). and it is current ict that allow to quickly and efficiently master foreign languages (tadeieva, kupchyk, & litvinchuk, 2021). obviously, the emergence of the contemporary technologies that can be used to improve quality of education requires constant practical research (lawrence & tar, 2018). scientific publications on this topic can be divided into two different groups. the first group is a traditional review of the methodological potential of a particular ict tool (mugaya, 2020), which focuses on practical application and relates mainly to the development of certain types of speech activities. the second group studies aimed at analyzing the essence of the process of distance learning, identifying its specifics and prospects for maximum effectiveness (alipichev, et al., 2016). the research of the second group concerns mainly full-fledged online courses of foreign languages, introduction of all forms of education into the educational process. among the positive qualities of distance learning using contemporary ict, scientists note a higher level of psychological comfort as a result of individualization of the educational process (sugie, 2014). at the same time, morze (2015) and kocharian (2016) state the insufficient level of information and communication competence of the academic staff, on which the quality of distance learning depends. the main disadvantage of distance learning, according to the scientists, is the lack of direct contact between the student and the teacher, which, according to their research, is an obstacle to the successful implementation of the competency approach (shamina, 2019). the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the problem of distance learning in the context of the rapid search for various scenarios for addressing the quality of education through the use of contemporary ict technologies, including virtual reality technologies. the process of applying virtual reality technologies in the educational process is not new. creation and implementation of virtual curricula in the educational process of educational institutions are addressed in the research of kotsiuba (2013), which outline the basic definitions for learning a foreign language through virtual reality, specifically: the need for constant filling of modules, the universality of presentation and the effect of predicted expectations. distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality lesia kondratiuk et al. 25 the study of virtual environments, as well as their use as a tool to influence learners are highlighted in the work of foreign authors mikropoulos & natsis (2011), who analyzed studies over ten years and found that although virtual reality supports multisensory channels interaction, however, the use of visual channels is dominated. the use of immersive technologies in education has been reviewed by authors such as cummings & bailenson (2016), potkonjak et al. (2016), whose research showed that the degree of technological immersion of the user in the virtual world does not significantly affect the quality of digesting information from the virtual world; in addition, researchers have proven that the visual channels of user immersion have an advantage in perception. theoretical analysis of distance learning of a foreign language through virtual reality digitalization is a global trend in higher education and if by 2020 it was limited to the use of sporadic ict in education and traditional methods of learning foreign languages, in particular, since the covid-19 pandemic a significant number of educational institutions are forced to switch to distance learning (shevtsova & kozubai, 2020). this forced rapid transition and unpreparedness of both scientific and pedagogical staff and material and technical resources only exacerbated the problem of using contemporary ict in education. thus, analyzing the scientific literature, we can identify the following prerequisites for the interest of scientists in the use of virtual reality technologies in the learning of foreign languages: global informatization of society, which necessitates the development of information and communication competence (iccompetence) both in students and, accordingly, in the academic staff; expanding the profile of future activities of students, where knowledge of foreign languages is a significant advantage in the labor market; the constant need to solve problems of the education system as a whole: a contradiction between the rapid increase in scientific and professional information with the unwillingness to qualitatively structure it; contradictions between studies of new effective methods of teaching and training of specialists in the conditions of rapid development of ict, etc.; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 26 contradictions between the needs of society in a variety of forms, methods and techniques for quality education in a short period of time and the inability of educational institutions to meet this demand; contradictions between the rapid development of contemporary ict and virtual reality technologies, including the lack of detailed, consistent methods in distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality. recent researches have shown that the most effective way to learn foreign languages is to completely immerse in the language environment. constant exposure to a foreign language environment is the most effective method to learn a foreign language. the academic staff are constantly looking for such teaching methods that would be as close as possible to real life conditions. the problem of maintaining motivation and interest in learning can be solved by virtual reality (vr) technologies, which are used in gamification and allow to immerse in a foreign language environment and learn the language at a completely different level. by virtual reality technology, we mean “advanced computer simulation that allows the user to delve into the artificial world and act directly in it with special sensory devices that connect them to audiovisual effects” (klymniuk, 2018). virtual reality technologies allow to interact with the learner through the senses: eyesight, hearing, sensation. communicating with virtual characters in a foreign language in the virtual world is a great practice of pronunciation, building a dialogue, understanding another language. by involving more senses, the learning process becomes more efficient. analyzing scientific literature and scenarios for application of virtual reality technologies in the educational process, we consider it necessary to clearly distinguish between virtual reality technologies (virtual reality, vr) and augmented reality technologies (augmented reality, ar). these are two significantly different technologies. augmented reality technology combines virtual objects with the real ones, overlays images of virtual objects and real objects. in the most cases this happens when a camera of the smartphone is pointed at a real object, and the screen of the smartphone displays the image of the real object with the image of the virtual object superimposed on it. virtual reality involves immersing a person in an artificial simulated world with the involvement of eyesight, hearing, sensation and, sometimes, taste and smell. thus, the main feature of vr is creation of the illusion of presence of the learner in a simulated computer environment. distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality lesia kondratiuk et al. 27 the main features by which ict (namely 3d visualization) can be attributed to the definition of virtual reality are as follows – the images must be stereoscopic and consistent with the coordinates of visual sensors; the system is equipped with a bidirectional interface (input coordinates of visual sensors, output images); the image refresh time in response to changes in sensor coordinates should not exceed 1/16 second (foreman, 2014). it should also be noted that the use of virtual reality technologies in education has led to the emergence of a virtual educational environment. by virtual educational environment we mean the information content and communication capabilities of local, corporate and global computer networks, which are formed and used for educational purposes by all participants in the educational process. the first virtual environment can be considered mud (multi user dimension) a full-text environment that works in chat mode (http://www.athena.edu). it was further developed in mood (object-oriented multi user dimension) an object-oriented version of mud, which allows users to create new objects and manipulate them to complete the worlds in virtual reality. for further analysis of distance learning of a foreign language through virtual reality, we will consider examples of specific virtual reality technologies: mondly vr, virtualspeech, immersive vr education, altspacevr and classvr. since 2017, the mondly vr application (https://www.mondly.com) has become available to users. “mondly: learn languages in vr” is a simulator game developed by ati studios a.p.p.s. srl for pc platform. the environment in the game belongs to the style of modernity, and the features are the presence of a casual game, a simulator, training, vr, option for several players. a screenshot of the program image is shown in figure 1. using this application, the learner practices a foreign language and significantly increases one’s vocabulary. a real situation is generated (visiting a museum, a restaurant, a theater; traveling by train or plane; communicating in a hotel or a taxi, and many others), which forces the learner to start and continue a dialogue. the application recognizes the language and the virtual character immediately responds to the words of the learner with the appropriate reaction: continuation of the dialogue, corrections, advice, requests to repeat, etc. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 28 fig. 1. screenshot from mondly vr (https://mmo13.ru/games/mondly-learn-languages-in-vr) it should be noted that to record the voice it is necessary to hover the mouse over the interface element with the image of the microphone and click on it (enable) these additional actions are, in our opinion, unnecessary and make the interaction unrealistic and time-consuming. the learners do not have the opportunity to ask their own questions, the initiative and script always belong to artificial intelligence. it is also worth focusing on the lexical component of the lessons. mondly vr uses speech-to-text technology. incorrect intonation leads to grammatical errors and incorrect use of vocabulary (for example, “i'll stay home until sunday” instead of “i'm staying home until sunday”) – all this can make learning ineffective. however, mondly vr can be recommended as an additional tool for learning a foreign language or as a tool to correct errors. the application can be useful for a2 level learners to practice basic dialogues and to break down “the speech barriers”. the next software product that can be used in distance learning of a foreign language through virtual reality is virtualspeech (https://virtualspeech.com), which can be used as an additional element in a comprehensive system of foreign language learning. the distance course english for business on the virtualspeech platform includes two components: a standard online course with video lectures, reading materials, tests and cases, practical exercises for application of theoretical knowledge in virtual reality. a screenshot of one of the program’s scenarios is shown in figure 2. https://mmo13.ru/games/mondly-learn-languages-in-vr distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality lesia kondratiuk et al. 29 fig. 2. screenshot from virtualspeech (https://virtualspeech.com/courses/interview-vr) virtualspeech offers over 50 lessons and 15 cases on vr. a typical scenario is watching a video lecture and reading texts. then a student puts on a helmet of virtual reality, where a virtual situation of the real world unfolds (a visit to a restaurant, an interview, a meeting, etc.). the learner turns into a character who has to interact with other characters in the virtual world. all scenarios of the virtual world are based on real life situations and require an active participation of the learner. examples of situations (courses) are: public speaking, the ability to say “no”, talking to an angry client, holding a meeting, interview with a difficult leader, selling goods and services, etc. in virtualspeech, the learner can upload one’s own presentation and make a speech in front of a virtual audience, which according to the scenario will try to distract from the speech (moving characters around the virtual hall, turning off the microphone, accidentally spilled coffee, etc.). all this only brings the learner as close as possible to the real situation and requires the maximum “inclusion” in the practice of speaking and thinking in another language. it is also useful to be able to record one’s own audio file. similar in functionality to virtualspeech is the following software product immersive vr education (https://immersivevreducation.com), which can also be successfully used in the educational process of distance learning through virtual reality. the next virtual reality technology is altspacevr (https://altvr.com), which allows to practice english with real people in the https://virtualspeech.com/courses/interview-vr broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 30 virtual world. each participant creates their own avatar and communicates with other real users in the virtual world. one can join a variety of virtual events: parties, interviews, presentations, games, etc. the main advantage of use is the ease of communication in the form of an avatar, which hides the real user. classvr (https://www.classvr.com) is an educational vr platform with hundreds of ready-made various lessons dedicated to english language and culture. the platform is designed for teachers, but it has a separate independent curriculum with ready-made lessons for students. classvr offers augmented reality programs in which students can use textbooks and workbooks, which is an added bonus while learning. it is also worth noting that navigating around with a vr headset can be difficult. classvr has developed separate instructions and uses hand and head gestures to help students navigate in the virtual world and choose activities that are intuitive. the front camera can capture specific hand gestures, such as the thumb up, and uses it to select and launch the resource the learner is looking at. the head movements also control the device by rotating the resource icons so that the learner could find them to launch, or rotate around the image 360 degrees. an example of classvr instructions for use is shown in figure 3. the program includes english lessons on a variety of topics closely related to everyday life: shopping, school, weddings, etc. summarizing a brief overview of some vr technologies, we can state that the educational content of distance learning a foreign language through the virtual reality can be divided into three groups: “360-degree video”, platforms and sites, interactive programs. fig. 3. screenshot from the classvr user’s guide (https://www.classvr.com/classroom-virtual-reality-lessons/student-independent-learninggesture-control) distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality lesia kondratiuk et al. 31 “360-degree video”, also known as the presence effect videos or spherical videos; video recording in which images are recorded simultaneously in all directions taken with a set of cameras; it allows to see the space at once from all sides. on platforms and sites, a virtual learning environment is created in real time, when all participants in the process are simultaneously immersed in vr. virtual lectures and workshops can be set as an example. interactive programs are finished products that are ready for use at lessons. for example, minecraft education or an online business english course – virtual speech. these are hybrid products of a traditional online course and practice in virtual reality. there are plenty of vr technologies and educational vr content available on the market for learning foreign languages which can be easily found in the app store, google play, or simply through the google search engine. usage examples and detailed descriptions can also be found on youtube. conditions for effective use of virtual reality technologies during distance learning of foreign languages after analyzing the scientific literature and reviewing modern virtual technologies that can be effectively used in distance learning, we agree with the researchers and believe that technologies for foreign language distance learning through virtual reality are best for wide practical application for the following reasons: the user does not need to have programming skills; the lack of an intermediate link between the teacher and the student allows to avoid negative psychological moments that prevent a wider introduction of virtual reality technologies in the educational process; the technology of virtual reality itself is rather universal the same software product enables students of different specialties at different faculties to learn a foreign language; centralized automated learning management, fast and controlled access to educational content, a single unified platform, support for current standards and personalization of educational content and reusability all these are examples of the many advantages of virtual reality technologies in learning foreign languages. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 32 when using virtual reality technologies, administration of educational institutions, academic and teaching staff should be ready to address the following issues: distance learning courses for one language will require significant additional financial costs for translation and adaptation for learning another language; insufficient bandwidth of communication channels can reduce accessibility of distance learning; lack of specialists on development and implementation of virtual reality technologies; high cost of software development; work with objections to the effectiveness of the application and the myths of negative impact. when organizing distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality, we consider it necessary to adhere to the following didactic principles. 1. the principle of conscious and active learning. only with a conscious goal of their own learning and the focus on the end result (answer to the question “why do i need to learn a foreign language?”) one can achieve effectiveness of this form of learning. it should be understood that virtual reality technology is just a tool in the hands of a teacher. the very fact of using this tool will not ensure effectiveness of training. a sign of conscious mastery of educational material is the degree of independence of the student; the higher this degree, the more consciously this knowledge is mastered. 2. the principle of systematicity and consistency implies a logical sequence and connection between the training courses studied at different stages of learning, and each time the training material should be based (superimposed) on the training material studied earlier. 3. the principle of availability of virtual reality technologies for distance learning of foreign languages today remains open due to the expensive resources for their development. however, the rapid development of ict allows for a rapid decline in the cost of such resources. 4. the principle of modular construction of the content of distance learning through virtual reality. each area of study should be represented by a separate block. each block should be represented by separate modules that cover individual topics. the content of modules and blocks, respectively, can be adjusted depending on specific conditions, such as the level of distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality lesia kondratiuk et al. 33 knowledge of students or their psychological and physiological characteristics, etc. one of the results of the modular learning is formation of self-education skills in the student. the process of modular distance learning through virtual reality is based on conscious goal-setting with its own hierarchy of the short-term (knowledge, skills, abilities), medium (21st century skills) and long-term (development of personal abilities) goals. it is the awareness of students of their own educational activities that transfers the teacher from the mode of information (the role of the bearer of knowledge) in the mode of counseling and management. the method of modular learning in distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality allows to provide a free choice of a way of training so the individual trajectory of training is constructed. 5. the principle of transition to self-education. during the fourth industrial revolution, the knowledge acquired in educational institutions by students is rapidly aging. that is why the trend of “lifelong learning” is gaining momentum in recent years. and a conscious approach to distance learning allows to form a habit of lifelong learning. debatable issue of assessing the effectiveness of virtual reality technologies in mastering foreign languages the issue of assessing the effectiveness of the use of virtual reality technologies in distance learning of foreign languages remains open. to create an assessment system, researchers summarize the following principles of assessment criteria selection: objectivity (allows to assess the selected indicator unambiguously), adequacy (allows to assess those indicators that really affect the quality of distance learning using virtual reality technologies), sustainability (the indicator should be constant for a certain period of application of virtual reality technologies in the educational process). in addition, the following requirements should be applied to measure the effectiveness of the use of virtual reality technologies in distance learning of foreign languages: the technology of virtual reality in distance learning of foreign languages should be described sufficiently completely; measurement methods, methods and means of mathematical processing of the obtained data should ensure measurement of parameters in static and dynamic states. at the moment, we believe that the scientific literature sufficiently describes the general issues of assessing quality of learning using distance broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 34 learning technologies in general. there are also detailed descriptions, scenarios for the use of individual ict tools during distance learning. in the scientific literature we come across generalized principles of construction of distance learning systems including didactic, pedagogical principles and prerequisites for their effective use. however, we do not find systematic research related to measuring effectiveness of distance learning of a foreign language through virtual reality. this area of research, in our opinion, is promising for further study. prospects for further scientific research we also consider the study of the conditions for intensification of distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality to be a promising area of further research. by intensification we mean the maximum use of internal reserves of the learning process through the rational allocation of time, compression of educational material, activation of cognitive activity of students and stimulating their motivation to learn. in our opinion, many problems of intensification of distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality will only become more acute over time and, accordingly, will require solutions. the impetus for these problems, in our opinion, is the ever-increasing amount of educational information, the expansion of intersectoral knowledge, which are necessary for successful professional activity. that is why the search for an effective intensification of distance learning will resolve the contradictions between the amount of necessary training material and the terms of training for which they need to be effectively mastered. we also consider the study of scenarios for the use of collective intelligence during distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality to be one of the promising areas of further research. a few years ago, the very concept of collective intelligence was defined by sociologists as the ability of a group of people to find more productive solutions compared to a particular member of the group. in the context of global digitalization, collective intelligence is considered in the theory of artificial intelligence as a method of optimization and, in our opinion, can be a promising area for finding optimization and improving the quality of teaching. also, we believe that with the advent of distance learning courses for a foreign language through virtual reality, in our opinion, we need to detail the concept of “blended learning”, where instead of the classroom component there is a component of virtual reality. distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality lesia kondratiuk et al. 35 conclusion due to the advent of vr technology, it has become possible to significantly improve modern methods of teaching foreign languages. in recent years, the practice of teaching foreign languages is increasing using vr technologies, which significantly improve motivation of students, their communication and collaboration through ict. introduction of vr in the process of learning foreign languages has numerous advantages: three-dimensional models allow to capture the attention of students and involve them in the active cognitive and communicative activities; students completely immerse in real life situations created in the virtual world; they have to react quickly and focus on the content of dialogues; simultaneous visual and auditory perception of information provides high efficiency of speech communication; availability of different avatars provides an opportunity to conceal one’s real character thus avoiding the fear of communicating with strangers; individualization and personalization of the educational process; as a result, immersion in the language environment increases vocabulary, improves hearing perception of the language, improves memory, attention and thinking. thus, virtual reality can be considered an effective method of teaching foreign languages. the development and implementation of this unique state-of-the-art technology requires systematic research on important issues such as methodology and technical equipment. analysis of virtual reality technologies shows that it can be used as an effective tool in teaching foreign languages. references alipichev, a. y., khalevina s. n., trubcheninova, a. a., & fedulova, a. n. (2016). practical solutions to foreign language training courses implemented using distance learning tools. international electronic journal of mathematics education, 12(1), 59-68. https://www.iejme.com/article/practical-solutions-toforeign-language-training-courses-implemented-using-distance-learningtools berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent https://www.iejme.com/article/practical-solutions-to-foreign-language-training-courses-implemented-using-distance-learning-tools https://www.iejme.com/article/practical-solutions-to-foreign-language-training-courses-implemented-using-distance-learning-tools https://www.iejme.com/article/practical-solutions-to-foreign-language-training-courses-implemented-using-distance-learning-tools broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 36 creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 cummings, j. j., & bailenson, j. n. (2016). how immersive is enough? a metaanalysis of the effect of immersive technology on user presence. media psychology, 19 (2), 272–309. https://vhil.stanford.edu/mm/2015/cummings-mp-how-immersive.pdf demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 foreman, n. (2014). proshloe i buduschee 3-d tehnologiy virtualnoy realnosti [past and future of 3-d virtual reality technologies]. scientific and technical bulletin of the st. petersburg state institute of fine mechanics and optics, 6(94), 1-8. https://ntv.ifmo.ru/ru/article/11182/proshloe_i_buduschee_3d_tehnologiy_virtualnoy_realnosti_.htm karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 klymniuk, v. ye. (2018). virtualna realnist v osvitnomu protsesi [virtual reality in the educational process]. collection of scientific works of kharkiv national university of the air force, 2, 207-212. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/zkhups_2018_2_30 kocharian, a. b. (2016). rozvytok informatsiino-komunikatsiinoi kompetentnosti naukovopedahohichnykh pratsivnykiv humanitarnykh spetsialnostei klasychnykh universytetiv [development of information and communication competence of scientific and pedagogical workers of humanitarian specialties of classical universities]. [doctoral dissertation, institute of information technologies and teaching aids of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine]. digital library naps of ukraine. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77241187.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 https://vhil.stanford.edu/mm/2015/cummings-mp-how-immersive.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://ntv.ifmo.ru/ru/article/11182/proshloe_i_buduschee_3-d_tehnologiy_virtualnoy_realnosti_.htm https://ntv.ifmo.ru/ru/article/11182/proshloe_i_buduschee_3-d_tehnologiy_virtualnoy_realnosti_.htm https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=zkhups_2018_2_30 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77241187.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality lesia kondratiuk et al. 37 kotsiuba, r. b. (2013). vykorystannia virtualnykh navchalnykh prohram pry vyvchenni inozemnoi movy profesiinoho spriamuvannia [the use of virtual educational programs in the study of a foreign language for professional purposes]. informatsiini tekhnolohii i zasoby navchannia, 37(5), 43-52. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/itzn_2013_37_5_7 lawrence, j. e., & tar, u. a. (2018). factors that influence teachers’ adoption and integration of ict in teaching/learning process. educational media international, 55(1), 79-105. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09523987.2018.1439712 mikropoulos, t. a., & natsis, a. (2011). educational virtual environments: a tenyear review of empirical research (1999-2009). computers and education. 56(3), 769–780. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s03601315100030 52?via%3dihub morze, n. v. (2015). informatsiino-komunikatsiina kompetentnist naukovopedahohichnykh pratsivnykiv universytetu. istorychnyi rozvytok formuvannia poniatiinoho aparatu [information and communication competence of scientific and pedagogical staff of the university. historical development of the formation of the conceptual apparatus]. pedahohichna osvita: teoriia i praktyka. psykholohiia. pedahohika, 24. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/potip_2015_24_5 mugaya, t. s. (2020). using ict to improve teaching and learning of kiswahili language for university students. international journal for educational and vocational studies, 2(4). https://ojs.unimal.ac.id/index.php/ijevs/article/view/2528 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 potkonjak, v., gardner, m., callaghan, v., mattila, p., guetl, c., petroviс, v. m., & jovanović k. (2016). virtual laboratories for education in science, technology, and engineering: a review. computers and education, 95, 309– 327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.02.002 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=itzn_2013_37_5_7 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09523987.2018.1439712 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0360131510003052?via%3dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0360131510003052?via%3dihub http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=potip_2015_24_5 https://ojs.unimal.ac.id/index.php/ijevs/article/view/2528 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.02.002 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 38 sandu, a., & vlad, l. (2018). beyond technological singularity the posthuman condition. postmodern openings, 9(1), 91-102. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/07 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 shamina, n. v. (2019). onlayn-obuchenie v obrazovatelnom protsesse: silnyie i slabyie storonyi [online learning in the educational process: strengths and weaknesses]. kazanskiy pedagogicheskiy zhurnal, 2, 20–24. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/onlayn-obuchenie-v-obrazovatelnomprotsesse-silnye-i-slabye-storony shevtsova, p., & kozubai, i. (2020). distance foreign language learning during the pandemic as a challenge for the education system. proceedings of the conferences of the youth scientific league, 57-59. https://ojs.ukrlogos.in.ua/index.php/liga/article/view/2532 sugie, s. (2014). practice and evaluation of blended learning with cross-cultural distance learning in a foreign language class: using mix methods data analysis. journal of pan-pacific association of applied linguistics, 18(2), 1-19. https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2115/63945 tadeieva, m.i., kupchyk, l.ye., & litvinchuk, a.t. (2021). vykorystannia zasobiv ikt dlia formuvannia navchalnykh i komunikatyvnykh stratehii pid chas vyvchennia inozemnoi movy u nemovnykh zakladakh vyshchoi osvity [the use of ict tools for the formation of educational and communicative strategies in the study of a foreign language in non-language institutions of higher education]. informatsiini tekhnolohii i zasoby navchannia, 81(1), 272-284. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/itzn_2021_81_1_20 the council of the european union (2018). council recommendation of 22 may 2018 on key competences of lifelong learning (text with eea relevance). official journal of the european union. 189/1–189/13. https://eurlex.europa.eu/legalcontent/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:32018h0604(01)&rid=7 viktorova, l.v., kocharian, a.b., & mamchur, k.v. (2021). vykorystannia tekhnolohii potokovoi peredachi danykh u navchanni doroslykh na prykladi nearpod [the use of streaming technology in adult education on the example of nearpod]. informatsiini tekhnolohii i zasoby navchannia, 82(2), 266-281. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/itzn_2021_82_2_20 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/07 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/onlayn-obuchenie-v-obrazovatelnom-protsesse-silnye-i-slabye-storony https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/onlayn-obuchenie-v-obrazovatelnom-protsesse-silnye-i-slabye-storony https://ojs.ukrlogos.in.ua/index.php/liga/article/view/2532 https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2115/63945 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=itzn_2021_81_1_20 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:32018h0604(01)&rid=7 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:32018h0604(01)&rid=7 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:32018h0604(01)&rid=7 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=itzn_2021_82_2_20 microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 65 intelligent agent for acquisition of the mother tongue vocabulary bogdan pătruţ department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania bogdan@edusoft.ro grigor moldovan faculty of mathematics and computer science, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca mihail kogalniceanu, 1, cluj-napoca, 400084, romania, moldovan@cs.ubbcluj.ro abstract this paper describes the following: firstly, the basic ideas of a system that simulates how we consider that a child acquires the mother tongue vocabulary and makes the correspondences between objects, words and senses; secondly: the mechanism for a system that can learn the mother tongue vocabulary using observations, and, thirdly, how to make an intelligent agent that can behave like a little child, in the process of mother tongue acquisition. keywords: mother tongue, intelligent agent, intelligence 1. introduction from his first day a baby learns. he learns by interacting with his environment. he use his senses to acquire information about the world. psychologists and doctors claim that not all the five senses have the same importance in the learning process ([4], [5], [6], [7]). they appreciate that the role of sight is more important than other senses. of course, during the first days of life, a child does not use sight for mental acquisitions. he uses touch, smell and taste. he can recognize his mother by using smell. but the child starts learning the mother tongue when he is two years old. at this age, the role of the senses is changed. sight is the most important sense, and it is followed by hearing. throughout our life, 80% of the information is acquired by sight, 18% by hearing and only 2% by the other senses. this is a special capacity of the human beings, who can use articulated language, the role of language being very important in learning and acquiring information. human language is intimately related to human intelligence. humans talk, but no other beings do. the problem is how a baby acquires the mother tongue vocabulary? our opinion, and not only ours, is that the environment is very important for a human being. we call environment not only the natural environment, but also the family of the child. if parents talk to their child, he will learn the mother tongue. if parents do not talk to their child, he will not learn how to talk.. his vocabulary depends on the parents’ vocabulary. for example, we know that children who were born and grew up in forests, don’t know any kind of human language. for example, a jungle-child can’t speak, and it is very hard to make him speak, if he is over four years old. tarzan’s “mother tongue” is a… jungle language one. [1] so, the language of a human being is very linked with what he learns from his parents. and parents show and speak to their child. he learns the vocabulary from his parents, and makes correspondences between what what they tell him and what they show him, and even what he himself hears and sees in the environment. if you want to learn a foreign language, you need to have good command of your mother tongue. there is no doubt that babies and toddlers learn a language in a different way than adults do. until the late 1950's, behavioral researchers were of the opinion that babies are born without any linguistic disposition. as a result of further examinations, it became clear that acquiring a language as well as acquiring human behavior is based on stimulus-response mechanisms. if the child frequently gets in touch with these stimuli and is encouraged, he will learn to repeat the sounds that have triggered a positive reaction in a similar situation. does this mean,through the eyes of the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 66 behavioral researchers, that second language acquisition concentrates on learning certain language patterns by heart? one of the most convincing arguments against this theory of children's language acquisition is: if children were able to learn a language only by imitating sounds, they would only be able to use words and sentences that they have heard before. however, babies and toddlers use real words and structures to create new words. as a result of this, researchers came to the conclusion that babies have the ability to acquire language from birth on. the researcher chomsky has shown that each human being has a disposition to develop language. by seeing how language is used, children finally learn to use it themselves. [2] 2. how a child acquires the mother tongue vocabulary if a child is alone, he can only see and hear, touch, smell and taste objects and actions or events. but if a child is with his parents, who talk to him, the child will see objects and actions, and he will hear words from the parents. it is natural for the child to want to learn. so, the child will make associations between what he hears from the parent’s mouth and what he see in the environment. let’s suppose that the mother shows a blue cup to the child, and the mother tells him: this is a blue cup. but don’t be sure that the child will understand the idea of cup or the idea of blue, from the first example. he can mak all kinds of associations between what he sees (a blue cup) and what he hears (the mother’s words). he can think that the cup is called cup, but maybe he will think that the cup is called blue. of course, the cup has a dimension, it may be small or big. maybe the mother refers to the colour and not to the dimension, but maybe the child observes the dimension and not the colour. we don’t know whether the child will associate the word blue or even the word cup with the idea of small or big. so, the learning process is very complex, and it is a probabilistic one. thus, a second example is required, and even more than that. normally, the mother speaks naturally to her child, she speaks with love and affection, she doesn’t “judge” or “program” what to say to her child. therefore, another day she will tell her child, for example, “my darling son, let’s drink the milk from the cup.” so, after these two events, the associations can be the following (and not only these) (figure 1): figure 1. associations between objects and words now we observe that there are two arrows from the word cup and the object cup, and the chance that the idea of cup is represented by the word cup is, probabilistically speaking, greater than other chances. of course, we cannot draw conclusions only after two examples. but, of course, the correspondence between the concept of cup and the word cup will increase, if the word cup occurs many times when the mother shows a cup to her child, even she also shows other objects and she tells him about other things as well, using other words. blue cup drink milk bl b. pătruţ, g. moldovan – intelligent agent for acquisition of the mother tongue vocabulary 67 the mother speaks to her child every day. we know that the richness of the little child’s vocabulary is linked to the richness of the conversations (unidirectional or even bidirectional) between the parents and their child. so, the child will acquire the vocabulary by a probabilistic way. now the problem is the following: suppose the child has an internal grammar (as noam chomsky said, in a discussion with jean piaget, at a round table). one may use certain rules, such as the following: s -> np vp | vp np -> n | det n | etc. vp -> v | v np etc. does every rule has the same importance, the same “weight” or probability? and, if each rule has its own importance, its own weight, how can we determine this? 3. the mechanism let us define a weight grammar through a system g=(n,t,r,w,s), where n is a set of nonterminal symbols, t is a set of terminal symbols, s is a nonterminal symbol from n, r is the set of production rules n->(n*t)*, and w is a function w:r->[0,1], which associates a certain weight to every rule. for a rule r from r, we define |r| = the number from the right side of r. [3] this weight is, in fact, a probability that says that if we have the rules r1, r2, …, rk having the same nonterminal symbol in the left side, and w(r1)=w1, w(r2)=w2, …., w(rk)=wk, then w1+w2+…+wn≤1, then it will be 1 when the grammar contains all the rules that a natural language may have, with the same nonterminal symbol in the left side. it is important to determine these weights. we can not make ri=1/k for each i from 1 to k, we must make correpondances between phrases and observations. we can define a sample a couple between a set of objects and actions that the child observes (using sight), and a phrase that his mother tells him, at the same time. a sample, will be a couple (ob,ph), where ob=(o1, o2, …., om) and ph=(u1, u2, …, un). first of all, the child will make a correspondence between what he hears and his internal grammar. suppose he hears a phrase ph=u1 u2 … un, with n words. he will try to match the phrase with all the rules from r, that have |r|=|ph|=n. then, for each word ui he will make the correspondence with all the objects from o: o1, ...., om. the child can use a matrix a with many rows and columns, and the number of rows will increment each time a new object is seen, and the number of columns will increment each time a new word is heard. in this matrix, a[o,u] represents the number of correspondences between the observed object o and the heard word u. so, at a sample (ob,ph), the child will made this: for each oi in ob for each uj in ph a[oi,uj]++ but, we consider that not only a matrix a is required. for each part of speech, the child must have a matrix. so, suppose he works only with nouns, adjectives and verbs, let as be the matrix for nouns, aa the matrix for adjectives, and av the matrix for verbes. the child will increment the matrices an, aa and av according to the number of words from ph. thus, by using only the rules that have the same cardinal as ph, where nouns, adjectives and verbs appear, the a matrices will increment their cells, as we have shown above. we are working on a system that can learn vocabulary through “sight” and “hearing”, making correct or almost correct associations between words (nouns, adjectives and verbs) and objects from the environment. the system can observe different things (objects and actions), and he can make the statistical tables (an, aa and av) to find the correct or almost correct correspondences between things and words, using the phrases or just noun phrases that we use as inputs. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 68 the work is currently in progress and we try to finalize it by the end of next year. the image bellow represents a screen capture from the system. the top-left corner contains the obervations (loaded from a file observ1). in the top-right corner there is the an table, the leftbottom displays the aa table, and in the bottom-right corner there is the av table. bellow the observation table you can see the phrases spoken by the parent. figure 2. screen capture of the current application from this screen capture (figure 2), you can observe that, for example, the noun car (masina) is in a great correspondence with the correct word car(masina), and in the same correspondence with the incorrect word small (mic). but this is due to the fact that the system worked only with few examples. after a training with much more examples, the system will increase the correspondence between the concept/object car and the word car, and the correspondence between the object car and the word little will remain smallest. if you will look in the second table, where the matrix for adjectives is shown, you can see that the concept of “small” (“mic”) has a greatest correspondence with the word “small” (“mic”), and this demonstrates the efficiency of the system. by looking at the top-left corner, you can see that the word “mic” (“small”) appears many times. so, the chances for the correspondence between the concept of small and the correct word small (“mic”) will grow if the system observes many small objects and the mother uses this word accordingly. 4. conclusions our goal is to make an intelligent agent that can act like a child who acquires the mother tongue vocabulary. it will observe, and it will act. it will act by asking questions in order to obtain much more precise information. for example, he can ask for information that may help him in b. pătruţ, g. moldovan – intelligent agent for acquisition of the mother tongue vocabulary 69 making differences between small and car, although one of these words may a noun and the other one an adjective. we have described, in this paper, the basic idea of how to simulate the way in which a child can acquire his mother tongue vocabulary. we do not know exactly whether this is the way in which a child acts, but our goal is to make an intelligent agent for this kind of acquisition. our next task is to improve the system, and to make the system autonomous, so that it may become a real software agent. 5. references [1] kiraly, don (n.d.). how do children learn their mother tongue. retrieved september 1, 2007, from http://www.fask.uni-mainz.de/user/kiraly/english/gruppe2/wie%20lernen%20kinder.html. [2] piattelli-palmarini, m. (1982). théories du langage. théories de l'appretissage le débat entre jean piaget et noam chomsky organisé et recueilli par massimo piattelli-palmarini. paris: editions du seuil. [3] moldovan, gr. (2006). limbaje formale şi teoria automatelor/ formal language and automata theory (romanian). bacău, romania: edusoft. [4] thielen, melanie (1996). the teaching of short-term english courses for german youths in great britain a neglected field of study: guidelines for the teacher. in fachbereich angewandte sprachund kulturwissenschaft der johannes gutenberg, universität mainz in germersheim. [5] malv, h. (n.d.) a world where everyone understands one another is a better world. retrieved january 14, 2008 from http://www.2-2.se/en/index.html#toc. [6] komar, s. (n.d.) the role of the mother tongue upon the acquisition of english tonality and tonicity rules. retrieved january 14, 2008 from http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/ptlc2001/pdf/komar.pdf. [7] cummins, j. (n.d.) bilingual children’s mother tongue. why is it important for education? retrieved september 14, 2008 from http://inet.dpb.dpu.dk/infodok/sprogforum/espr19/cumminseng.pdf. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 247-266 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/317 submitted: september 8th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 10th, 2022 model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme situations of professional activity oksana khurtenko¹, svitlana liebiedieva2, lina perelygina3, oleksandr morhunov4, vasyl ovcharuk5, eduard mykhliuk6 1 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, kseniaxyrtenko@gmail.com 2 national university of civil defence of ukraine, ukraine, lebedeva@nuczu.edu.ua 3 national university of civil defence of ukraine, ukraine, perelugina@nuczu.edu.ua 4 kharkiv national university of internal affairs, ukraine, tspsfp1976@gmail.com 5 vinnytsia national technical university, ukraine, vvovcharuk@gmail.com 6 national university of civil defence of ukraine, ukraine, muhlyk@nuczu.edu.ua abstract: inflated self-esteem provokes goal setting higher than the real possibilities, neglect of the necessary information, reduction of the probability of failure, minimization of efforts to achieve the goal, "relaxing" effect of success and a strong emotional experience of failure; the need to maintain the level of self-esteem leads to a protective ignoring of failures, the explanation of their external causes, which weakens the incentive to overcome them. sharply inflated selfesteem can create at a certain stage of activity a zone of constant failures, reduced professional motivation. the consequence of low selfesteem is passivity, fear of responsibility, tendency to set too easy tasks, underestimation of the subjective probability of success, which disrupts the impact of failures. obviously, the inadequacy of selfesteem becomes an obstacle to professional adaptation. as evidenced by our observations, it is characteristic that coaches who do not have a sufficient level of competence in the management of subordinates, have an inflated self-esteem. but also adequate high self-esteem, which is spontaneously formed in the process of professional training, can become a disorganizing factor, if it is not critically transferred from educational to professional activities. in this case, entering a professional activity, which is already characterized by a decrease in the stability of self-esteem, is complicated by its strong fluctuations. in addition, we found that there is no significant correlation between learning success and success in starting a professional activity. high self-esteem of a young specialist is often an obstacle to his acceptance into the team. the creative adaptive component, which prevails over the conformal one, is an interference at this stage. keywords: coach readiness model, inflated self-esteem, motivation of the coach activity, professional training, young specialists, management of subordinates. how to cite: khurtenko, o., liebiedieva, s., perelygina, l., morhunov, o., ovcharuk, v., & mykhliuk, e. (2022). model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme situations of professional activity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 247-266. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/317 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/317 mailto:kseniaxyrtenko@gmail.com mailto:lebedeva@nuczu.edu.ua mailto:perelugina@nuczu.edu.ua mailto:tspsfp1976@gmail.com mailto:vvovcharuk@gmail.com mailto:muhlyk@nuczu.edu.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/317 model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme ... oksana khurtenko, et al. 248 introduction analysis of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the problem of psychological readiness of the individual to work, readiness to manage people allows us to state that there are two main approaches to determining its content and structure: functional and personal. within the functional approach, psychological readiness is considered as a certain state of mental functions of the individual, which provides a high level of achievement in performing a particular activity, karamushka (2000). it should be noted that from the point of view of personal approach, psychological readiness is considered as a result of training, as an individual's readiness for a certain activity. in this regard, psychological readiness can be represented as a stable, integrated formation of personality, which includes a number of components that are adequate to the requirements of content and conditions of activity, which together allow the subject to more or less successfully implement it. thus, at the personal level, readiness is considered as a manifestation of individual and personal qualities, due to the nature of future activities of a number of scientists abulkhanova-slavska, (1981); ananiev, (1980); bezliudnyi (2019); gerasymova (2019); maksymchuk (2020); melnyk (2019); nerubasska (2020); onishchuk (2020); sheremet (2019). psychological readiness for any activity at the functional level is represented as temporary readiness and efficiency, pre-start activation of mental functions, the ability to mobilize the necessary physical and mental resources for the implementation of activities (chamata, 1960; levitov, 1963). among the researchers who consider on a personal level readiness for professional activity sports psychologist puni (1969). in his opinion, the problem of readiness is psychological and pedagogical (psychological in subject and pedagogical in means of forming readiness). in the structure of readiness, the author identifies the symptom complex of signs: volitional qualities, the necessary direction of intellectual processes, special observation, creative imagination, the optimal level of wall emotions, flexible attention, the ability to self-regulation. the author's approach to this problem makes it possible to explore readiness as a manifestation of individual and personal qualities, due to the nature of future activities (puni, 1969). in the context of management orban-lembrick (2001), presents the readiness of the individual as a psychological mechanism that allows us to brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 249 see the motivating effect of meaningful choice. at the same time, she notes that "the readiness of the leader's personality is a socially determined and mentally conditioned process, which finds its expression in a positive emotional and volitional attitude to management, it is a concentrated indicator of professionalism, it is a person's ability to reach the top (acme) skills, these are, finally, the real actions of the individual that contribute to the optimal and successful functioning and development of the organization” orban-lembrik (2001). we are impressed by the opinion of the researcher yu. samarin, (1969), who argues that readiness as a psychological state of personality is an internal attitude to a certain behavior in solving problems facing a person, setting for active and appropriate action. the purpose of readiness is to facilitate the process of adaptation, to achieve success, for which it is necessary to master the operational, moral, mental, organizational aspects of the chosen profession. ukrainian psychologist chamata (1960) understands the readiness to work as the formation of moral and psychological qualities of the individual, which determine the attitude to professional activity and ensure its successful implementation. the author considers the educational process to be the main means of forming readiness. however, according to the author, although objectively readiness is formed in the educational process, in practice this may not happen, which makes it necessary to introduce special measures that purposefully affect its formation and development. psychological readiness for activity in extreme conditions is considered by researcher timchenko (1995). according to the author, to achieve readiness are necessary: adequate reflection of the specialty, professional skills, the ability to mobilize the necessary physical and mental resources for the implementation of activities. at the functional level, psychological readiness is considered by levitov (1963) and understands it as temporary readiness and ability to work. he sees its essence in the pre-start activation of mental functions. its content is orientation in working conditions and creation of mental readiness for it. the problem of readiness is related to the broadest personal context. the author identifies three factors of individual readiness for professional activity: two psychological (a person's attitude to a particular job, its focus on this field and suitability for the profession) and pedagogical (mastering the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for this profession) (levitov, 1963). shadrikov (1994) emphasizes that readiness can be seen not only as a working mobilization of professional and psychological opportunities, but model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme ... oksana khurtenko, et al. 250 also as higher professionalism, based on various reserves selected by social experience and profession, compensation and substitutions generated by self-improvement of natural data, personal experience and practice, pedagogical school and own professional orientation. a. derkach (1981) considered the psychological readiness to perform professional functions from the standpoint of personal-activity approach. it is defined as a holistic manifestation of all aspects of personality (cognitive, emotional, motivational components). according to other scientists barabanshchikov (1967), the formation of readiness means the creation of a system of such motives, attitudes, personality traits, accumulation of knowledge, skills, abilities, which, intensifying, provide a professional opportunity to effectively perform their functions. since the improvement of activity and the formation of readiness for it is a two-way interrelated process, and the level of readiness for activity determines the optimal human performance and high productivity, the increase in readiness can be considered as a basis for improving efficiency. researcher of the psychological structure of personality platonov (1986) identifies one of the values of readiness for work as one that is directly manifested in certain conditions and is the result of psychological training and psychological mobilization. the model of psychological readiness of the coach to make decisions in extreme situations psychological readiness in a particular activity is understood as an intensive restructuring of this level of professionalism in the direction of its improvement, it is a characteristic of the psychological capabilities of the developing person, a characteristic of a certain stage of his mental development, its diversity, breadth, scale and range. regardless of the type of activity, readiness is formed at all stages of professional development in the higher education institute (hei). as it develops, it becomes a condition and a means of organizing a reserve of personal activity, its property, created by professional activity or preparation for it (skorikov, 1991). shadrikov (1994) from the standpoint of system-genetic approach to professional activity and individual abilities of the individual considers a system of objective laws that characterize individual activity, paying great attention to the psychological essence of learning as a process of forming psychological readiness for activity. the internal side of mastering the profession is the formation of readiness for professional activity on the basis of individual qualities of the subject of activity through their reorganization, reconstruction, based on the motives of the activity, purpose and conditions. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 251 the needs of man, his interests, worldview, beliefs and attitudes, life experience, features of individual mental functions, neurodynamic qualities, personality traits are the starting point for the formation of psychological readiness for any professional activity. as noted in the "psychological dictionary" (1990), the main feature of readiness for professional activity is its integrative nature, which is manifested in the ordering of internal structures, the consistency of the main components of the professional's personality, in the tenacity, stability and consistency of their functioning, i.e. professional readiness has signs , testifying to the psychological unity, the integrity of the personality of the specialist, which contribute to productive activity. psychological readiness for activity is generalized in the works of dyachenko & kandybovich (1976). they define readiness as a "purposeful expression of personality", and argue that it is formed in the process of comprehensive training and is the result of comprehensive development of personality, taking into account the requirements of the activities, profession (dyachenko & kandybovich, 1976). the authors consider long-term readiness "a stable personal characteristic, an essential prerequisite for successful activity", which includes the following elements of dyachenko & kandybovich (1976): a) a positive attitude to the activity, profession; b) adequate to the requirements of the activity, profession character traits, abilities, temperament, motivation; c) necessary knowledge, skills, abilities; d) stable, professionally important features of perception, attention, emotional and volitional processes. on the other hand, psychological readiness can be considered as situational, short-term, as manifested on the eve of an event (competition, start, etc.). we tend to regard the psychological readiness of the coach to solve extreme problems of sports and as a mental state, and as a complex property of the individual, which is manifested and revealed through a number of situations. given that the management of sports activities requires a high level of development of all his mental qualities and properties, i.e. personal development, in our study we preferred a personal approach to understanding the essence of psychological readiness to make decisions in extreme situations. however, in our opinion, it is possible to form a high level of personal readiness to solve problems in extreme situations of sports activities by including the future coach in adequate training situations. model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme ... oksana khurtenko, et al. 252 based on the generalization of research on the problems of psychological readiness of the individual to work, we proposed a model of psychological readiness of the coach to make decisions in extreme situations of his professional activity (fig. 1). it can be divided into several components, including motivational and executive (cognitive and operational-activity) components. it should be noted that motivational readiness can be considered only in the context of the theory of motivation of personality, which remains a topical problem of psychology (leontiev, 1971; tuzov, 1982). fig. 1.3. the model of psychological readiness of the coach to make decisions motivation of the coach source: authors’ own conception the study of motivation is to analyze the causes and factors that motivate, initiate, guide, enhance and support human activity on the way to achieving the goal. personal motivation is associated with meeting the needs of the subject; it is a set of conditions that cause its activity and determine the direction of its activity; it is the motivating and defining choice of the subject of activity for the sake of which it is realized; a person's conscious reason underlying the choice of actions, actions of the individual, and the like. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 253 thus, the foreign psychologist j. guilford (1946) reduces motivation to goal-setting attitudes of a productive nature, as in his understanding "the goal is best defined as a certain final state at which supportive activity ceases." similar views on motivation were in s. freud, who as a source of motivation, human activity considered the function "id" as a system of instinctive, innate urges, which seeks to maintain the psyche in a state of freedom from any excitement. the tendency to homeostatic explanation of motivation is shown by such psychologist as voitonis (1972), who defines "motive as a system of reactions that disturbed the balance of the organism, and is a prerequisite for the implementation of another system of reactions, organically related to the first and restoring the relative balance of the organism". v. g. aseev (1976) notes that the metaphysical, anti-dialectical understanding of motivation contradicts the real facts of human behavior: the state of active desire for new achievements, the search for new needs, goals, ideals, and so on. he emphasizes that only with the development, improvement of the structure of the activity itself the structure of motives develops and proposed a systematic approach to the consideration of motivation, analyzing it not just as an abstract motivational sphere, but describing its personal and individual parameters, features. scientifically significant in terms of motivation is the opinion of rubinstein (1976) that a person's attitude to the environment, to others is manifested through motivation. the scientist expresses the opinion about the determinism of human activity through consciousness and the important role of volitional regulation of activity. that is why he points to the presence of conscious and unconscious impulses in the activity, rubinstein (1976). interpretation of rubinstein (1976) the concept of motive is reduced to the following basic provisions: motive is understood as motivation; as a reflection in the minds of the objective driving forces of human behavior; as the experience of something personally meaningful to the individual. shorokhova (1982) emphasizes that the formation of personality is carried out through the development of its needs and activities in a particular social environment. however, the individual treats these external influences differently, and accordingly, depending on the level of awareness of social needs, its motivational sphere develops differently. the theory of motivation was developed by o.m. leontiev (1971). in particular, he emphasized that the motive not only motivates the individual to activity and determines the direction of the latter, but also gives the activity a certain personal meaning. the author presents various aspects of the problem of motivation and points out that the basis, the prerequisite model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme ... oksana khurtenko, et al. 254 of any activity is one or another human need o.m. leontiev (1971), and objects, means of satisfying needs must act in the mind as an inner image, as a need, as a motivation and as a goal. thus, real objects, objects of need become motives (in the form of mental, not physical formations) as a result of their reflection in the human psyche and transformation into an internal image. leontiev (1971) believes that historically and socially determined needs are a source of motivation for human activity. today there is a tendency to move from the study of individual motives to their systematic, synthetic analysis, taking into account the peculiarities of professional activity and social relationships. thus, psychologist v.i. kovalev (1978) speaks of the "motivational sphere" of personality. it is mostly understood as a structural and substantive characteristic of motives, its system-hierarchical reflection (kovalev, 1978). that is why we in the study of motives that motivate the individual to make decisions in extreme situations of sports, based on a systematic approach. we can agree with the position of v.g. aseev (1976) that the concept of motivation can include such personality formations as interests, aspirations, attitudes, ideals, and so on. in our opinion, they need, depending on the level of awareness of the individual's need for activity, to build a clear structure of motivation. it is established that the function of motivation to activity is realized not by the motive (sosnovsky, 1992). at a potential stage, this is accomplished by the need for their various hierarchical relationships with motives. at the productive stage of motivation, the predominant role is played by dynamically subordinated motives in their relationships and contradictions with the personal hierarchy of meanings. in both cases, a special study of all groups of hierarchies, as well as their relationships in order to study the specific motivational and semantic structures of human orientation. some of the components of these structures may be a kind of criteria for assessing the level of motivational readiness of the subject to a particular activity. according to leontiev (1971), the problem in the study of certain motives is to establish a connection between the concepts of motive and meaning of activity. personal meaning should be considered as a specifically human, social part of life experience. sosnovsky (1992) points out that the motive is primary in relation to meaning only in the early stages of ontogenesis. in this case, the motive exists as a material need. in the process of personality development, meaning gradually becomes decisive in activity and participates in the choice of motives for activity. such an analysis will be subjected to the personal brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 255 meaning of students in mastering computer technology for future professional activities. v.a. ivannikov (1991), concluded that the concept of motive means both the root causes of behavior and stable mental formations that motivate the choice of purpose, means and methods of action, form the meaning of action. along with this, for reasons, we can talk about the presence of situational formations that initiate a specific activity or individual actions. the idea of bozhovic (1972) that the basis of a person's motivation is a stable system of interrelated motives, in which the leaders form the core of the motivational sphere and subordinate all the rest motives are subordinate. this idea was the basis for our study of the structure of motivation, which motivates the personality of future coaches to work in extreme situations of professional activity. in the structure of activity motives were necessarily characterized in relation to the goal to which they motivate the individual and his needs, which are reflected in the motives in the form of lack of something that causes suffering and is perceived as an objective lack of merlin (1971). the contribution to the principles of development of psychology of motivation and activity was made by the known ukrainian psychologist g.s. kostyuk (1989). he assigns a leading place in the activity of the individual to the motivational sphere, which covers a number of motives of different origin and content, the degree of generalization and awareness. he connects the motivation of human behavior with internal contradictions, conflicts between different motives, in particular, personal and socially significant g.s. kostyuk (1989). a number of other works are devoted to the study of the professional orientation of the individual kovalev (1978), shavir (1981), etc. they reveal a number of professional values of the individual: effective (possibility of self-affirmation, recognition, material motives, etc.) and meaningful (conformity to inclinations, abilities, availability of opportunities for self-improvement, etc.) psychologists dyachenko & kandybovich (1976) defends the idea of the interdependence of personality structure and motives. they emphasize, first of all, that on the basis of motives, in the course of activity such structural component of the person as orientation is formed. motivation of the coach can be divided into general professional and sports motivation and motivation for operational activities in certain sports situations, in extreme conditions that arise and very often manifest themselves in a competitive environment (florea & ungureanu, 2012). model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme ... oksana khurtenko, et al. 256 on the basis of our generalization of scientific research in sports psychology rodionov (2004), volyanyuk (2006) analysis of the peculiarities of the real professional activity of coaches, a number of factors were identified that, in our opinion, may motivate the latter to perform their professional functions: the desire for self-affirmation through sports results, the success of their students; expectations of future successful results of their activities; awareness of its social significance (sense of patriotism, responsibility to society, etc.); sports excitement, a sense of struggle, love of sports and sports honor; material reward, salary; satisfaction with high sports achievements of their students in sports, etc. the motives for the coach's behavior in specific conditions of the competition, the struggle for victory, which are saturated with numerous extreme situations, may, in our opinion, be the following: motives for achieving the previous goal of relatively high results; motives for expecting joy from victory; motives for professional self-affirmation and testing of their coaching abilities in extreme conditions of competitions; motives of sports excitement, rivalry; motives of aggression, hyperactivity as a means of overcoming the fear of loss, defeat; motives of material reward, unwillingness to receive condemnation, dissatisfaction of senior managers, etc. in the structure of the psychological readiness of the coach to work in extreme situations, we can identify the executive component. it should be considered as a system that includes: the necessary knowledge, abilities, skills, characteristics and mental processes, i.e. all that forms the cognitive and operational components of professional readiness for management (budnyk, 2003). it involves the assimilation by students future coaches of integrated methodological, theoretical, methodological and practical knowledge, mastery of methods and techniques of their creative application, mastery of skills of non-standard solution of various problems in sports, competitive activities. however, as our analysis showed, the graduates of the hei have insufficient knowledge and skills necessary for the management of athletes, especially in conditions of extreme situations of competition. as some researchers note, it is the knowledge that is true, indisputable for a person, in which he has no doubts that constitute the basis of his beliefs, and therefore behavior. m.i. dyachenko (1976) called this component "orientation", understanding it as an idea of the peculiarities of professional activity, its requirements for the individual. however, the name "cognitive component", in our opinion, better reflects the psychological brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 257 characteristics of the cognitive sphere of personality and reflects the result of individual cognitive efforts and individual experience in a particular activity. the cognitive component is a theoretical basis that must be gradually translated into practice, i.e. implemented through the executive component. to successfully perform the duties of a coach, students need to form special knowledge about the psychological characteristics of athletes and sports activities, planning and managing the preparation of athletes for competitions, knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent and methods, ways to obtain information about future competitions, theoretical ideas about planning and decision-making algorithms in extreme situations. however, it is quite logical that this is not enough for the coach and there is a need to talk about the operational component of readiness, namely his ability to practically solve management problems. in understanding the essence of management skills, three directions have emerged. one of them focuses on the type of work management. this area is characterized by definitions of this type: management skills is the mastery of methods and techniques of management, based on the conscious use of managerial and psychological knowledge. the rest focuses on the creative nature of managerial work. thus, the ability to perform certain activities in changing conditions on the basis of knowledge and skills is noted; possession of a complex dynamic set of mental and practical actions aimed at creative performance of professional functions; a measure of the success of heuristic management action, a measure of the effectiveness of the productive solution of a wide range of management tasks. in the third direction the definitions reflecting specificity of separate components of administrative activity are presented (budnyk, 2004). despite the different approaches to the definition of management skills, it should be noted that they are based on theoretical training, taking into account the specifics of the activities where they are used, and practical actions of the professional. from the field of view of scientists falls methodological, and sometimes methodical preparation of coaches. according to a number of scientists, coaching is as close as possible to the pedagogical activity of rodionov (2004). therefore, a significant interest in this regard are the works of n.v. kuzmina, (1961) and shchotka (2003). based on the psychological analysis of pedagogical activity, kuzmina (1961) identified the following components: constructive; communicative; organizational and gnostic. the author correlates the groups of knowledge and skills of the same name with these components. model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme ... oksana khurtenko, et al. 258 shchotka (2003) in the psychological structure of pedagogical activity distinguishes such functions as informational, mobilizing, developing, orientational, constructive, communicative, organizational, research. moreover, the author rightly classifies the constructive, communicative, organizational and research functions as general labor functions, because they are available in all types of modern skilled labor. we include the ability to creatively solve the tasks of coach activity: skills that correspond to the stages of professional management (the ability to see the problem (task) and search for the idea of its solution; the ability to implement the overall management strategy of athletes; ability to apply research methods (theoretical: analysis, comparison, generalization, modeling of processes in sports; practical: observation, conversation, testing, analysis of sports results, etc.); ability to reflect on one's own professional activity (ability to perform intellectual reflection, personal reflection, interpersonal reflection); the ability to manage their mental states in a competitive environment, to present the results of the achievements of their students, etc. thus, we can see that for creative management activities that are characteristic of a modern coach, it is necessary to have a wide range of professional skills. forming them to the required level for a relatively limited period of study in the hei, as practice shows, is very difficult and problematic. however, the analysis of works of domestic and foreign authors gives us the chance to draw a conclusion that the basis of an operational and activity component of professional readiness for activity is formed by the components which are called its invariants (kandybovych, 2000). such invariants include, first of all, developed anticipation the ability to predict, to determine in advance the outcome of activities. in other words, a good specialist with a high level of anticipation, i.e. the ability to accurately and far forecast, predict, even regardless of the type of activity, is able to perform their professional activities more effectively. specialists with a high level of self-regulation work more successfully. the latter makes it possible to resist the influence of negative functional states, to quickly adapt to the conditions of activity, to maintain the efficiency of activity and efficiency. the high level of self-regulation can be caused both by innate features, typology of a nervous system of the trainer, and can be developed by means of special psychotechnologies. a high level of self-regulation is considered by many researchers as the most valuable professional quality. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 259 the ability to make quick decisions is also an invariant of the effectiveness of professional activity. the ability to make decisions in extreme conditions is the most important psychological component of the activity. the decision-making process is necessarily included in any activity in one form or another. according to lomov (1979), it is the "core of activity" and occupies a central place in the structure. the specialist makes decisions at all stages of activity: at definition of the purpose and concrete tasks; when planning it; in the perception of current information; when choosing ways of activity; when making hypotheses; when evaluating current results. the quality of decisions depends on the effectiveness of the activity as a whole. the above invariants are common and directly affect the effectiveness of professional activities of specialists of any category. a specific invariant that reflects the level of special in the activities of the coach is figurative thinking, managerial thinking, the ability to make meaningful decisions, etc.). experts call creativity one of the most important professional qualities. creative thinking is one of the important intellectual mental processes of a successful coach. today the focus of researchers of creativity is the problem of intellectual abilities, intellectual activity, intelligence and their relationship with the creativity of the individual, his creative thinking (rybalka, 1996; semenov, 1979). not only psychologists but also teachers deal with this problem, because the intellectual activity of students, as well as their creative activity, is of great importance in the learning process and further professional activity after graduation. (bagas, 2000; balashov, 1996; etc.). unfortunately, in our opinion, insufficient attention is paid to this issue during the training of coaches-teachers in the hei. the meaningfulness of any actions by the coach is to find the most rational and consistent actions. the managerial activity of a coach is a system of complex consecutive actions, the performance of which depends on other actions and situations of sports activity. no less important components of the operational-activity component of the psychological readiness of coaches to make decisions in extreme situations, both in the opinion of experts and in our opinion, are communicative, perceptual, organizational and suggestive skills and abilities. communication of the coach, especially in the conditions of competitions, has the specific features. the reason for their originality is contained in difficult, often extreme conditions. they force to regulate styles, forms of communication. the communicative function (transfer of information) of the coach as a teacher is manifested in the optimal model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme ... oksana khurtenko, et al. 260 communication of the specialist, in establishing the right relationships with subordinates and higher level managers, in psychological tact, which is undoubtedly his professional characteristic, and therefore we can call professional communication the leading professional quality of the coachteacher. it is very important in the professional activity of the coach to choose the optimal style of communication. it allows, depending on the level of communicative competence of the coach and taking into account the characteristics of his wards, the level of team development, to achieve the goal. according to scientists volyanyuk (2006), a coach's use of one or another management style is conditioned by a number of factors: purpose and objectives of the activity; specific situation; coach's competence; the level of development of the team, athletes. the purpose of the activity determines the management style, because in extreme situations of sports activities, the time to make a decision is often limited, often characterized by the inability to make a collective decision. there may be a situation (and it often happens) when the coach has to make an authoritarian decision and take full responsibility. in this case, the result depends on his competence, psychological readiness for it, and the ability to communicate, to influence the team. the perceptual abilities of a coach are manifested in his ability to adequately perceive and evaluate athletes, to understand their mental states, experiences, which are naturally manifested in various sports. the ability to show espathy when necessary, to show tact in communication are important features of a modern coach. the activity of the coach basically involves the organization of the training process, planning, monitoring the activities of the team or its individual members, a positive impact on them, creating an appropriate emotional background, etc. there is no doubt that the coach has strong-willed qualities, the ability to instill in students confidence in victory, success, the ability in critical situations to instill in them the belief in it. therefore, the formation of future coaches suggestive abilities is one of the tasks of the educational process. in many works of psychologists it is noted that an important factor in regulating activities, including management, is such a personal education as self-esteem, which means that self-esteem a component of psychological readiness for creative management (dyachenko & kandybovich, 1976). selfbrain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 261 esteem is an assessment of oneself, one's abilities, qualities and place among other people neimer (2003). there are three aspects to self-esteem (as in the social attitude to any other object): cognitive self-awareness as an object of knowledge; affective emotional self-esteem, feelings of confidence, calm or anxiety; behavioral a manifestation of attitude to themselves in behavioral acts (zaluchenova, 1992). discussion and conclusions as evidenced by our observations, it is characteristic that coaches who do not have a sufficient level of competence in the management of subordinates, have an inflated self-esteem. inflated self-esteem provokes goal setting higher than the real possibilities, neglect of the necessary information, reduction of the probability of failure, minimization of efforts to achieve the goal, "relaxing" effect of success and a strong emotional experience of failure; the need to maintain the level of self-esteem leads to a protective ignoring of failures, the explanation of their external causes, which weakens the incentive to overcome them. sharply inflated self-esteem can create at a certain stage of activity a zone of constant failures, reduced professional motivation. the consequence of low self-esteem is passivity, fear of responsibility, tendency to set too easy tasks, underestimation of the subjective probability of success, which disrupts the impact of failures. obviously, the inadequacy of self-esteem becomes an obstacle to professional adaptation. but also adequate high self-esteem, which is spontaneously formed in the process of professional training, can become a disorganizing factor, if it is not critically transferred from educational to professional activities. in this case, entering a professional activity, which is already characterized by a decrease in the stability of self-esteem, is complicated by its strong fluctuations. in addition, we found that there is no significant correlation between learning success and success in starting a professional activity. high self-esteem of a young specialist is often an obstacle to his acceptance into the team. the creative adaptive component, which prevails over the conformal one, is an interference at this stage. the result of inadequate self-esteem, as a rule, is the incomplete realization of human capabilities in professional activities, in some cases the rejection of it (korneva, 1989). often, during the first year of work, graduates of hei experience a sharp drop in self-esteem, often accompanied by a steady decrease in self-confidence, a drop in motivation for professional activity, and even refusal from it. a sharp break in self-esteem has a negative model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme ... oksana khurtenko, et al. 262 effect on the success of activities, accompanied by negative emotions, neuroticism. however, the protective preservation of inadequate self-esteem, which temporarily provides the individual with relative comfort, is even more unfavorable for the activity. thus, with an inadequate personal position, the subject solves the creative task as a typical (seeking to "reduce" it to cases known to him) and in this sense reproductive. "reproductive personal position is that the subject, starting to perform the task, involves for its solution already known knowledge and tools” (podolsky, 1987). adequate position, on the contrary, assumes the subject's attitude to his work as a creative, which should encourage him, on the one hand, to delve into the content of the task in search of his creative moments, and on the other to be extremely reflexive in their actions and tolerant to himself, his mistakes and failures. thus, the ability to adequately assess the situation and selfassessment of their capabilities in it, the decisive factors for the success of the coach in extreme situations of sports. references abulkhanova-slavska, k. o. (1981). razvitiye lichnosti v protsesse zhiznedeyatel'nosti. psikhologiya formirovaniya i razvitiya lichnosti [ personal development in the process of life. psychology of personality formation and development]. antsyferova. ananiev, b. g. (1980). izbrannyye psikhologicheskiye trudy (vol. 1)[ selected psychological works]. pedagogy. aseev, v. g. (1976) motivatsiya povedeniya i formirovaniye lichnosti.[ behavior motivation and personality formation]. mysl. bagas, o. p. (2000). pidvyshchennya psykhofizychnoyi hotovnosti kursantiv do maybutnʹoyi sluzhbovoyi diyalʹnosti v prykordonnykh viysʹkakh ukrayiny [ increasing the psychophysical readiness of cadets for future service in the state border guard of ukraine] (publication no. 20.02.02) [doctoral dissertation, national academy of the state border guard of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytsky]. khmelnytsky. balashov, v. a. (1996). formirovaniye professional'nykh kachestv u slushateleypogranichnikov v protsesse professional'nogo obucheniya: [formation of professional qualities among students-border guards in the process of vocational training] (publication no. 01.20.06) [doctoral dissertation, pedagogical sciences]. khmelnitsky. barabanshchikov, a. v., glotochkin, a. d., fedenko, n. f., & shelyag, v. v. (1967). psikhologiya voinskogo kollektiva.[ psychology of a military collective]. voenizdat. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 263 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 230, 1585. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 bozhovic, l. i. (1972). problema razvitiya motivatsionnoy sfery rebenka. izucheniye motivatsii povedeniya detey i podrostkov [ the problem of the development of the child's motivational sphere. studying the motivation of the behavior of children and adolescents]. prosveshcheniye. budnyk, s. m. (2004). tvorchi aspekty v upravlinsʹkiy diyalʹnosti ofitsera [creative aspects in the management of the officer]. collection of scientific works, 31(2), 55-57. publishing house of the national academy of the state border guard of ukraine. chamata, p. r. (1960). psikhologicheskaya gotovnost' detey k trudu i osnovnyye puti yeye formirovaniya. [ psychological readiness of children for work and the main ways of its formation]. soviet pedagogy. derkach, a. a. isayev, a.a., (1981). pedagogicheskoye masterstvo trenera [pedagogical skills of a coach]. physical culture and sport. dyachenko, m. i., & kandybovich, l. a. (1976). psikhologicheskiye problemy gotovnosti k deyatel'nosti.[ psychological problems of readiness for activity]. publishing house of the belarusian state university. florea, d., & ungureanu, c. (2012). the competition policy in the european union. annals of the „constantin brâncuşi” university of târgu jiu, economy series, 3, 111-116. https://www.utgjiu.ro/revista/ec/pdf/201203/16_dumitrita%20floarea%20(ionescu)%20111-116.pdf freud, s. (1933). new introductory lectures on psycho-analysis. n. y. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 guilford, j. p. (1946). general psychology. n. y. p. ivannikov, v. a. (1991). psikhologicheskiye mekhanizmy volevoy regulyatsii [ psychological mechanisms of volitional regulation]. moscow state university. kandybovych, s. l. (2000). psikhologo-akmeologicheskiye osnovy upravlencheskoy deyatel'nosti komandira voysk radiatsionnoy, khimicheskoy i biologicheskoy zashchity [ psychological and acmeological bases of administrative activity of the commander of the troops of radiation, chemical and biological protection] (publication no. 19.00.13) [ doctoral dissertation, psychological sciences]. moscow. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 https://www.utgjiu.ro/revista/ec/pdf/2012-03/16_dumitrita%20floarea%20(ionescu)%20111-116.pdf https://www.utgjiu.ro/revista/ec/pdf/2012-03/16_dumitrita%20floarea%20(ionescu)%20111-116.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme ... oksana khurtenko, et al. 264 karamushka, l. m. (2000). psykholohiya upravlinnya zakladamy serednʹoyi osvity [psychology of management of secondary education institutions] [ monograph]. nika-center. korneva, l. n. (1989). samootsenka kak mekhanizm regulyatsii professional'noy deyatel'nosti [self-assessment as a mechanism for regulating professional activity]. bulletin of the leningrad university, 6(4), 27, 12-16. kostyuk, g. s. (1989). navchalʹno-vykhovnyy protses i psykhichnyy rozvytok osobystosti [educational process and mental development of personality]. in l.m. prokolienko (ed.), radyanska shkola (pp. 608). kovalev, v. i. (1978). psikhologicheskiye osnovy formirovaniya boyevoy aktivnosti u sovetskikh voinov [psychological foundations of the formation of combat activity in soviet soldiers] [ doctoral disseratation, candidate of psychological sciences]. moscow. kuzmina, n. v. (1961). formirovaniye pedagogicheskikh sposobnostey [formation of pedagogical abilities]. publishing house of leningrad state university. leontiev, a. n. (1971). potrebnosti, motivy i emotsii [needs, motives and emotions]. moscow state university. levitov, n. d. (1963). psikhologiya truda [labor psychology]. uchpedgiz, state educational pedagogical publishing house. lomov, b. f. (1979). izucheniye cheloveka na osnove sistemnogo podkhoda. chelovek v sisteme nauk [the study of man on the basis of a systematic approach. man in the system of sciences]. nauka. maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o. … maksymchuk, i. (2019). models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja [proceedings of the institute for pedagogical research], 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m merlin, v. s. (1971). lektsii po psikhologii motivov cheloveka [lectures on the psychology of human motives]. perm state pedagogical institute. neimer, yu.l. (ed.), (2003). psikhologicheskiy slovar [psychological dictionary]. fenix. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 265 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 orban-lembryk, l. e. (2001). psykholohiya upravlinnya [psychology of management]. play. osnovy zahalʹnoyi psykholohiyi. (1998). [fundamentals of general psychology]. in s.d. maksymenko (ed.), osnovy zahalʹnoyi psykholohiyi (pp. 256). npu perspektiva. petrovskiy, a. v., & yaroshevskiy, m. g. (eds.), (1990). psikhologicheskiy slovar [psychological dictionary]. moscow. platonov, k. k. (1986). struktura i razvitiye lichnosti [structure and personality development]. nauka. podolsky, a. i. (ed.). (1991). psikhologiya podgotovki spetsialistov dlya sovremennogo proizvodstva [psychology of training specialists for modern production]. publishing house of moscow state university. puni, a. c. (1969). psikhologicheskaya podgotovka k sorevnovaniyu v sporte [psychological preparation for competition in sports]. physical culture and sport. rodionov, a. v. (2004). psikhologiya fizicheskogo vospitaniya i sporta [psychology of physical education and sport]. academic project “mir” foundation. rubinstein, s. l. (1976). problemy obshchey psikhologii [problems of general psychology]. pedagogy. rybalka, v. v. (1996). psykholohiya rozvytku tvorchoyi osobystosti [psychology of creative personality development]. izmn. samarin, yu. a. (1969). psikhologiya studencheskogo vozrasta i stanovleniye spetsialista [psychology of student age and the formation of a specialist]. bulletin of the higher school, 8, 16–21. semenov, i. n., & stepanov, s. yu. (1979). produktivnost' lichnostnogo komponenta myshleniya pri diskursivnom reshenii zadach [the productivity of the personal component of thinking in discursive problem solving]. questions of psychology, 6, 109-114. shadrikov, v. d. (1994). deyatel'nost' i sposobnosti [activity and abilities]. publishing house corporation "logos". shavir, p. l. (1981). psikhologiya professional'nogo samoopredeleniya v ranney yunosti [psychology of professional self-determination in early youth]. pedagogy. shchotka, o. p. (2003). formuvannya psykholohichnoyi hotovnosti studentiv pedahohichnykh universytetiv do profesiyno-upravlinsʹkoho samovyznachennya [formation of psychological readiness of students of https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 model of psychological readiness of a coach to make decisions in extreme ... oksana khurtenko, et al. 266 pedagogical universities to professional and administrative selfdetermination] (publication: 19.00.07) [doctoral dissertation, institute of psychology named after g.s. kostyuk of the academy of pedagogical sciences]. ukraine. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 shorokhova, e. v. (1982). tendentsii issledovaniya lichnosti v sovetskoy psikhologii. problemy psikhologii lichnosti [trends in personality research in soviet psychology. problems of personality psychology]. nauka. skorikov, v. b. (1991). psikhologicheskaya gotovnost' rabotnika k rukovodstvu nauchno-proizvodstvennym kollektivom [psychological readiness of an employee to manage a research and production team] (publication no. 19.00.05) [doctoral dissertation, psychological sciences]. state academy of management named after v.s. ordzhonikidze. sosnovsky, b. a. (1992). motivatsionno-smyslovyye obrazovaniya v psikhologicheskoy strukture lichnosti [motivational and semantic formations in the psychological structure of the personality]. (publication no. 19.00.01) [doctoral dissertation, psychological sciences]. moscow state university. timchenko, a.v. (1995). problema psikhologicheskoy gotovnosti voyennogo spetsialista k ekstrennomu deystviyu v sostoyanii emotsional'nogo stressa [the problem of psychological readiness of a military specialist for emergency action in a state of emotional stress]. (publication no. 19.00.01) [doctoral dissertation, candidate of psychological sciences]. kharkov university of internal affairs of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine. tuzov, a. p. (1982). motivatsiya protivopravnogo povedeniya nesovershennoletnikh [motivation of unlawful behavior of minors]. vishcha. voitonis, n. yu. (1972). problema motivov povedeniya i yeye izucheniye [the problem of motives of behavior and its study]. psychology, 2(2), 47–52. volyanyuk, n. yu. (2006). psykholohiya profesiynoho stanovlennya trenera [psychology of professional development of a coach]. volyn regional printing house. zaluchenova, e. a. (1992). samootsenka v deyatel'nosti studentov [self-assessment in the activities of students]. mysl. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 292-305 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/389 submitted: april 12th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special educational needs: neuropedagogical aspect olena mudryk 1 , anna ivakhnenko 2 , larysa odynchenko 3 , irina dmytriieva 4 , alina ivanenko 5 , oksana shelever 6 1 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, olenamudryk34@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9457-9890 2 zaporizhzhia polytechnic national university, zaporizhzhia, ukraine, annaivahnenko1@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4133-5400 3 state higher educational institution "donbas state pedagogical university", ukraine, odinchenkolk@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4629-0600 4 state higher educational institution "donbas state pedagogical university", ukraine, dmitrievasgpu@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1330-6645 5 state higher educational institution "donbas state pedagogical university", ukraine, ivanenko.ddpu@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0866-3856 6 state university “uzhhorod national universiti”, ukraine, oksana.shelever@uzhnu.edu.ua abstract: the relevance of the topic is in characterizing the neuropedagogical aspect of mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special educational needs. the article contains the theoretical analysis of the elaborations on this topic, the definition of the concept «inclusive education», the chief principles of teaching students with limited capabilities; the neuropedagogical aspect of mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special educational needs. the understanding of the concept of inclusive education has been studied, the literary sources on this topic have been summarized. on the basis of the findings it has been concluded that it is essential to critically review traditional approaches in the neuropedagogical aspect of mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special educational needs. the author of the article remarks that in the context of vocational training for teachers' educational activity there might be efficient the techniques of teaching children with special educational needs, contributing to the better integration of children with special educational needs into the educational process. the system forming foundation of the inclusion is the postulate of acknowledging the capabilities of each student. consequently, educational process must be arranged so that fully reveal the educational needs of each child. keywords: inclusive environment; methodological techniques of teaching activity; integration into the educational process; principles of education; teaching techniques. how to cite: samara, o., shkrabiuk, v., kompanovych, m., liebiedieva, s., mateiko, n., & shelever, o. (2022). mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special educational needs: neuropedagogical aspect. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 292-305. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/389 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/389 mailto:olenamudryk34@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9457-9890 mailto:annaivahnenko1@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4133-5400 mailto:odinchenkolk@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4629-0600 mailto:dmitrievasgpu@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1330-6645 mailto:ivanenko.ddpu@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0866-3856 mailto:oksana.shelever@uzhnu.edu.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/389 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 293 introduction nowadays the number of children with special educational needs is rapidly increasing, which means that in the neuropedagogical aspect modern education system should be transformed and renovated so that all the children could get qualified and up-to-date mental and pedagogical educational support. inclusive education is a wholesome phenomenon, which foresees equal access to the qualified education for all the people without exception. «inclusive» education is a subtype of comprehensive education, in which education becomes accessible for all the categories of children regarding their specific needs. this approach provides the facilities of teaching children with specific educational needs. inclusive education offers for the variety of students' requests the corresponding complex of educational services, most suitable for educational activity. the system forming foundation of the inclusion is the postulate of acknowledging the capabilities of each student. consequently, educational process must be arranged so that fully reveal the educational needs of each child. the principle of acceptance of otherness is based upon humanism, intellectual development and elaboration of other skills, the balance of intellectual, ethnical, emotional and physiological components of every personality. the pedagogical staff of comprehensive schools admits children regardless of their social status, intellectual and physical abilities, emotional state. the educational process must be based upon such mental techniques and methods which are fully oriented at the children's needs. when switching to inclusive education students are enabled to form the essential competences according to the educational standards. there are numerous research works on neuropedagogy, which serve to improve the educational process involving students with special educational needs, relying on the experience of the foreign countries (berbets et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021; karasievych et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021; sheremet et al., 2019). anishchuk (2016) considers that in the neuropedagogical aspect the modern education system must be urgently transformed and rebuilt so that all the children could have the qualified and up-to-date mental and pedagogical educational support and consequently suggests relying on the experience of the european countries; proves in her research works that the system-forming foundation of inclusion is the postulate of accepting the mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special … olena mudryk et al. 294 peculiarities of each student; in darling-hammond's (2010a) opinion, the educational process must be arranged properly to fully distinguish the educational needs of every child, relying upon the overseas experience, where this aspect has been much earlier studied. treviranus (2010) assures that for the children with physical, intellectual and mental disorders there are required special techniques and standards to facilitate their secondary education, and the content of education should be reviewed. the main principles of teaching students with limited capabilities children with limited capabilities are children, whose physical and mental state hinders the acquisition of comprehensive education outside the boundaries of the special educational environment. the students with limited capabilities have various developmental disorders like: hearing, eyesight, speech and motion problems, intellectual thinking, emotional disorders, developmental retardation and complex developmental disorders. therefore, an individual approach to each child and a special individual curriculum for children with limited capabilities are the chief advantages in educating such children, ashytok (2015). according to voloshyna and dmitrenko (2017) it is possible to outline the main principles of teaching students with limited capabilities: 1. building an appropriate communicative situation, the possibility of correcting mistakes. students should be offered such tasks, which will contribute to building an appropriate situation, acknowledging the student's right to correct mistakes.for example, while doing a crossword puzzle, a student is allowed to erase the text if a mistake occurs. the tasks based upon schematic drawing are also of great use. this reasonably facilitates the activity of the students, which find it difficult to give oral or written answers. 2. the complication of the educational stuff step-by-step, its presentation in small parts. but the tasks should be constantly complicated. 3. there should be employed enough educational aids and manuals. 4. the practical orientation of the tutorials and reliance on the child's life experience should be amplified. 5. there should be revision and reference to «previous» knowledge. there should be mandatory tasks for repetition at each lesson. there should be also arranged the overall revision at the end of each topic with the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 295 employment of various methods and techniques (crossword puzzles, puzzles etc). 6. to facilitate students' work it is important to employ the sufficient number of tasks with the pattern, that is tasks based upon reproduction. these include tasks on filling in the schemes, symbolizing specific objects in the pictures. the educational stuff should be preliminary studied with the students on the basis of a textbook and only after that students may be given the task to perform the task in their copybooks. the reality nowadays is such that it is difficult for the children with special needs to get adapted to social life. and in this case correctional and educating techniques for teaching the children with special needs are useful. it is very important that teachers on all the levels of education should employ the methods, which contribute to the socialization of the alternatively able students, and their maximal adaptation to the normal life. there are many definitions of the term «educational technology» (raptis & spanaki, 2017). the neuropedagogical aspect of the mental and pedagogical technology in teaching children with special educational needs technology is a complex of techniques, employed in any businessя, skills or art, budnyk (2017). according to kasyanenko (2018), technology is the structure of educational activity, in which all the actions are given in the specific order and wholeness, and their realization is foreseen and presupposes the achievement of the required result. the correctional and educational technology results in positive dynamics in educating and teaching children with limited capabilities. there should be singled out the neuropedagogical aspect of modern technology, which elements may be employed in special education acquisition: 1. multilevel teaching technology; 2. problem-based teaching technology; 3. project-based teaching technology; 4. compensatory teaching technology; 5. gaming technology; 6. information and communication technology; 7. moral technology; 8. safe and healthy technology. mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special … olena mudryk et al. 296 the efficient combination of the traditional and innovative technology contributes to the development of cognitive activity, creativity and school motivation of students in the educational process. the most important are educational techniques oriented at the employment of the teacher's continuous emotional interaction with children. traditional technology allows to enrich children's imagination, arousing numerous associations with their social and emotional experience while stimulating speech development as well, berehova (2019). one of the ways of modernizing traditional technology is the inclusion of the elements of developing education and the integration of information as well as of the teaching methods and forms. the multilevel educational technology takes into account each child's individual peculiarities, forms comfortable mental and educational environment for active cognitive activity of students, develops their thinking and independence, chupakhina (2019a). the neuropedagogical aspect of the multilevel education is the technology of the educational process arrangement, which presupposes different degrees of tutorial acquisition depending on the skills and individual peculiarities of each personality, but never below the basic level. it is especially urgent in correctional educational institutions for children with special educational needs. this technology is aimed at facilitating the acquisition of the basic knowledge and skills by all students for further development. it enables the improvement of students' individual gifts and their awareness of the porfessional and social self-identification, voyevutko (2017). level differentiation should be employed while studying complex topics or sections. multilevel test works are the most recurrent at final lessons. there should be defined the purpose of students' education by the end of the section and respectively multilevel tasks should be provided. one can also act differentially when studying a new topic. explain the topic from the more complicated matters to the simpler ones. in the end the level of material acquisition may be assessed. the analysis of the knowledge of the students' with multilevel education elements has resulted in the following findings (crowl et al., 1997): such education favors the differentiated way of teaching regarding the students' individual peculiarities; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 297 reflexivity is increased (why; what i am doing; it should be admitted) and motivation for education is risen; the level of the satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the teaching results by the teacher and the students. problem-based education is understood as the arrangement of the educational process, including challenges provided by the teacher and the students' independent activity. there occurs creative professional knowledge, skills and thinking ability development mastering. the problembased technology is aimed at the acquisition of the knowledge, skills and abilities, the inclusion of independent activity ways, the development of cognitive and creative abilities. problem-based education consists in motivation through challenges, thus adequate didactic tutorials are required as a chain of challenges, martynchuk (2018). there are distinguished two types of challenges in the modern theory of problem-based education: mental and educational. the former ones include the students' activity, the latter – the educational process arrangement. pedagogical challenges are dealt with by means of motivating actions, teacher's questions, focus on the new meaning, vividness or other peculiarities of the object of cognition. mental challenges arise in various ways. cognitive tasks, neither too complex, nor too simple hardly ever result in challenges for children, kearsley (1992). challenges may arise on all the stages of the educational process: explanation, repetition, revision. the term «gaming teaching techniques» encompasses quite an extended set of methods and techniques of arranging educational process in the form of pedagogical games, prominent and formed according to teaching and cognitive orientation. depending on the kind of activity the games are subdivided into physical (motional), intellectual (mental), action, social and psychological. when selecting games for the children with limited capabilities the following requirements should be met (mattson & hansen, 2009). gaming lesson form is created by means of gaming techniques and situations, employed to motivate children and stimulate educational activity; the adaptation of the game to the child's age or his\her current development level; the calculation of the mistakes structure; mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special … olena mudryk et al. 298 the selection of tutorials with consequent complication; the interaction of the game content with the child's knowledge; the correspondence to the correctional teaching purpose; the study of the activity types diversity principle; the employment of prominent, memorable toys and manuals; the correspondence to the standards of life safety and hygiene. this teaching techniques type includes all the kind of role game, didactics and board games. to draw children's attention, teachers may use fairy tale characters. due to the involvement of the famous characters of children are prepared to do the given tasks, become enthusiastic about the game itself and education on the whole. almost every child is curious about the technology of «fairy tale lessons». the gaming process engages children for quite a long time, discreetly gains their attention, arouses high spirits. moreover, children become motivated for education, so students perform tasks eagerly. gaming technology in teaching children with limited capabilities is an efficient educational method, which is both interesting and easy to understand for children, chupakhina (2019b). as practice reveals, gaming challenges which add excitement to the educational process, contribute to active cognitive interest development in students. such lessons create unique atmosphere, including elements of creativity and free choice. the ability to work in groups is developed: its victory depends on the efforts of each personality. it often helps to fight shyness and indecisiveness. it is possible to employ gaming activity in teaching in the following cases: as a part of lesson (vocabulary work with terms); in vocabulary revision (frontal enquiry with competitive elements in groups); the most efficient are the following games: vocabulary bingo: on one side of the board words are written, on the other – their definitions. match the words with their definitions. which group is faster?; word auction: the one who knows the biggest number of words and is the last one to say the word, wins. gaming technology may by employed as a type of activity, for example, travelling games, didactic games on revision, repetition and generalization of knowledge, crossword puzzles, riddles, puzzles etc., bondarenko (2018). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 299 thus, didactic games enrich, optimize and extend knowledge and contribute to the child's holistic development. information technology improves the educational process due to novelty, objectivity and dynamics, employment of animated images and introduction of gaming elements. while using information technology, knowledge comes through different perception channels (visual, aural), which means it is better mastered and faster memorized. in a nut shell, this technology is guided by the principle: «when said forgotten. when shown remembered. when done understood». this statement proves the necessity of employing information technology in teaching children with special educational needs. information technology is employed in various ways. most widely distributed there are multimedia presentations. presentation preparation is a serious artistic process, each element of which should be studied and understood from the student's point of view, ashytok (2015). the preparation of presentations for teaching enables tutors to employ the methods of active learning oriented at actions. the realization of such lessons requires special teacher's training. lessons become more interesting, engaging, emotional which enables students to perceive knowledge visually, aurally and mentally and penetrate deeper into the tutorials. multimedia presentations contribute to the better comprehension of information. nowadays the role of testing as one of teaching methods is constantly increasing, and electronic texts are used for better knowledge acquisition and assessment. self-assessment may be realized via doing electronic crossword puzzles. interactive crossword puzzles arouse great interest as they allow to check the answers. if the answers are correct, there appears a word or illustration in the crossword puzzle field, but if they are wrong, music plays or there appears the word «think». interactive games and simulators on different topics may be of great use for teachers and students, kasyanenko (2018). moral education technology contributes to the development of personality and breeding of nobleness by displaying the personal peculiarities; it leads to the formation of humanism and tolerance and optimizes self-education. teachers should cultivate high moral standards, tolerance to teach students cultural competence. moral presentations may be used in class to illustrate the report as auxiliary visual and aural aids. due to the influence of the environmental problems and social challenges the number of children with disabilities is increasing. therefore, mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special … olena mudryk et al. 300 the employment of safe technology is one of the priorities in modern educational reformation. according to the oriental aphorism: «the one who is healthy, has a hope, the one who has a hope – has everything». to come into being, to get adjusted to life, to identify oneself, one's abilities and limits, to define one's role and importance in the whole world – all this requires life and creative activity, martynchuk (2018). to such technology there might be included exercises, fitness, sports etc. the main purpose of health improvement technology in teaching children with limited capabilities is the formation of abilities, skills and knowledge which enable full-scale life style with the fewest limitations and the development of health culture. the employment of such teaching methods in educating such children is of great relevance in their overall and complex development відіграє and social adaptation. the principles of safe technology: to form the tolerant, specific environment, individual work with each child; harmonious combination of teaching and health improvement and rehabilitation in educational institutions; resources restoration (for this purpose the change of activity or load as well as intervals for rest is used). the following type of educational technology for teaching children with limited capabilities is not only an educating factor, but also a distinguished means of improving children's health, developing their personality, will-power and readiness for group work. the important part of health protecting teacher's activity is rational arrangement of classes. first new information is discussed, then students take down the most essential part of it, process cards with tasks, analyze tables and schemes, make use of thematic presentations, in the meanwhile the students' activity is constantly changing, darling-hammond (2010b). to improve children's ability to work, to avoid stamina and excessive workload, it is necessary to have intervals with exercises, emotional relaxation, eyesight training exercises, minutes of joking and mind the correct posture. the employment of health protecting technology in the educational activity in correctional institutions allows not only to keep children with limited capabilities healthy without additional expenses but also contributes to the greater efficiency of the teaching process. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 301 the technology of compensatory education presupposes diagnostic and correctional curricula, employed to reveal irregularities in children's development and correct them, as well as to help less gifted students catch up with the rest. the majority of compensatory means of the rehabilitation include: love for children (care, humane attitude, warmth and tenderness); sympathy with children's challenges and difficulties; readiness to accept children with all their advantages and drawbacks, tolerance, assistance, support in developing self-control skills. equally relevant there are various forms of educational knowledge perception support, treviranus (2010): • eager learning (on the basis of interest, success, trust); • interaction of aural, visual, motional, mental and logical skills in knowledge acquisition; • employment of the approximate bases for actions (sample signals); • mutual teaching, dialogical methods; • optimal speed of perception. art-therapy technology (music therapy, phototherapy, fairy tale therapy, origami therapy). painting is not only the reflection of reality in children's mind, but also their attitude to the reality, its modeling and rearrangement. while painting, children reveal their emotions and feelings, wishes and dreams, rebuild their relationship in various situations and fearlessly faces scary and awkward images. the employment of various visual aids allows to mobilize the child's creative potential and discover most suitable ways in accordance with the emotional state, needs in self-realization, contributes to the emotional communication activation and adds up to its variability. every child may express his\her thoughts, reveal the emotional state by sound, movement, tune, picture (chupakhina, 2019b). sand game therapy is a wonderful opportunity to display the attitude to the environment, discover the child's worries, relieve the fears. sand game has a positive impact on the children's emotional state. all this makes it a wonderful instrument for students' development. sand therapy is much more efficient than standard teaching techniques. not only psychologists, but also teachers may make use of a sandpit in an educational institution by providing games with the sand to learn letters, numbers, concepts of space and time. drawing in the sand help to develop creative thinking, imagination, perception and memory, as well as hand motility and sensitivity. while playing with the sand, children become mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special … olena mudryk et al. 302 more enthusiastic, try to do it in the correct way, carefully and, what is important, quickly (crowl et al., 1997). there are various sand games. they are employed to train reading, writing, counting skills, they help to develop phonemic hearing and correct speech defects. cognitive games enable children to master the variety of the environment, to learn the history of their city, country etc.; project games serve to reveal the child's potential and develop creativity and imagination. modern school system provides technological methods of educational activity for teaching children with special educational needs, the specific employment of which enables these students to develop both mentally and personally. conclusion in the article the analysis of the theoretical survey on the topic has been performed, the concept «inclusive education» has been defined, the main principles of teaching students with limited capabilities have been presented; the neuropedagogical aspect of mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special educational needs has been reviewed. therefore, in has been proved, that inclusive education is a process of teaching and bringing up, in which children regardless of their physical, mental, intellectual or other peculiarities are involved in the comprehensive school system. they go to common schools with their peers but their educational needs are taken into account. they are also supported. this gives everyone right for education regardless of the correspondence to the school system requirements. the development of the personality occurs through respect and tolerance to other individuals. at the same time children become a part of community, they learn to socially interact and build up relations to solve educational problems in a creative way. inclusive education presupposes involvement of students with limited capabilities in the educational process and collective teaching and problemsolving, by employing strategies of active participation – games, projects, laboratory works, field research etc. inclusive education extends all the children's personal abilities, contributes to humanism and tolerance. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 303 references anishchuk, a. (2016). inclusive education: manual for the students of higher institutions specialty «preschool education». https://npu.edu.ua/images/file/vidil_aspirant/dicer/%d0%94_26.053.23 /chupakhina.pdf ashytok, n. (2015). the problems of inclusive education in ukraine. human studies. pedagogy, 1(33), 4-11. https://dspu.edu.ua/pedagogics/arhiv/33_1_2015/3.pdf berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 berehova, m. (2019). dydaktyko-praktychna pidhotovka maybutnikh korektsiynykh pedahohiv do roboty v umovakh osvitnʹoho inklyuzyvnoho prostoru [didacticpractical training of future correctional teachers for work in the inclusive educational environment]. [unpublished phd thesis]. kiev: national pedagogical university named after m. p. drahomanov. https://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/bitstream/34606048/26497/1/%d0%91% d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b0_avtoref_20 19.pdf bondarenko, t. (2018). vykorystannya informatsiynykh tekhnolohiy dlya zabezpechennya dostupnosti ta rozvytku inklyuzyvnoyi osvity [the employment of information technology to provide accessibility and development of inclusive education]. information technology and teaching techniques, 5(67), 31. https://ino.nau.edu.ua/files/syllabuses/information_technologies_inclusiv e_environment_ict.pdf budnyk, o. (2019). innovatsiyna kompetentnistʹ uchytelya: krashchi yevropeysʹki praktyky [innovative competence of a teacher: best european practices]. journal of vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, 1, 76–89. https://journals.pnu.edu.ua/ index.php/ jpnu/ article/ view/1895 chupakhina s. (2019a). information technologies in inclusive education: future teachers readiness. international scientific conference scientific development of new eastern europe: conference proceedings, 85–89. http://www.baltijapublishing.lv/download/conference/all-science/allscience_part_1.pdf chupakhina, s. (2019b). methodological provision of it support for educating primary school pupils with intellectual irregularities. journal of drahomanov https://npu.edu.ua/images/file/vidil_aspirant/dicer/%d0%94_26.053.23/chupakhina.pdf https://npu.edu.ua/images/file/vidil_aspirant/dicer/%d0%94_26.053.23/chupakhina.pdf https://dspu.edu.ua/pedagogics/arhiv/33_1_2015/3.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 https://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/bitstream/34606048/26497/1/%d0%91%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b0_avtoref_2019.pdf https://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/bitstream/34606048/26497/1/%d0%91%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b0_avtoref_2019.pdf https://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/bitstream/34606048/26497/1/%d0%91%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b0_avtoref_2019.pdf https://ino.nau.edu.ua/files/syllabuses/information_technologies_inclusive_environment_ict.pdf https://ino.nau.edu.ua/files/syllabuses/information_technologies_inclusive_environment_ict.pdf https://journals.pnu.edu.ua/index.php/jpnu/article/view/1895 http://www.baltijapublishing.lv/download/conference/all-science/all-science_part_1.pdf http://www.baltijapublishing.lv/download/conference/all-science/all-science_part_1.pdf mental and pedagogical techniques in teaching children with special … olena mudryk et al. 304 national pedagogical university. correctional pedagogy and special psychology, 38, 152 164. https://npu.edu.ua/images/file/vidil_aspirant/dicer/%d0%94_26.053.23 /chupakhina.pdf crowl, t. kaminsky, s., & podell, d. m. (1997). educational psychology windows on teaching. irvine: mcgraw-hill college. darling-hammond, l. (2010a). teacher education and the american future. journal of teacher education, 61(1-2), 35–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487109348024 darling-hammond, l. (2010b). information and communication technology (ict) for inclusion: united kingdom (northern ireland). demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 kasyanenko, o. (2018). pidhotovka maybutnikh pedahohiv do navchannya ditey doshkilʹnoho viku v inklyuzyvnomu seredovyshchi [future teachers training for educating children of preschool age in the inclusive environment]. http://docplayer.net/115962945-ministerstvo-osviti-inauki-ukrayini-mukachivskiy-derzhavniy-universitet.html kearsley, g. (1992). educational leadership in the age of technology: the new skills. journal of research on computingin education, 25(1), 50–60. https://euromentor.ucdc.ro/ euromentor%20june% 2025% 2006%202020.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 martynchuk, o. (2018). pidhotovka vchyteliv-defektolohiv v inklyuzyvnomu osvitnʹomu seredovyshchi [training teachers of special education in https://npu.edu.ua/images/file/vidil_aspirant/dicer/%d0%94_26.053.23/chupakhina.pdf https://npu.edu.ua/images/file/vidil_aspirant/dicer/%d0%94_26.053.23/chupakhina.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487109348024 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 http://docplayer.net/115962945-ministerstvo-osviti-i-nauki-ukrayini-mukachivskiy-derzhavniy-universitet.html http://docplayer.net/115962945-ministerstvo-osviti-i-nauki-ukrayini-mukachivskiy-derzhavniy-universitet.html https://euromentor.ucdc.ro/euromentor%20june%2025%2006%202020.pdf https://euromentor.ucdc.ro/euromentor%20june%2025%2006%202020.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 305 inclusive educational environment]. http://ispukr.org.ua/articles/19/19061814_d.pdf mattson, e. h., & hansen, a.-m. (2012). inklyuzyvna ta eksklyuzyvna osvita u shvetsiyi: dumky ta dosvid dyrektoriv [inclusive and exclusive education in sweden: principals’ opinions and experiences of headmasters]. european journal of special needs education, 24(4), 20-29. https://psyjournals.ru/files/50095/jmfp_2012_1_n3_liventseva.pdf prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 raptis, j., & spanaki, e. (2017). teachers’ attitudes regarding the development of socio-emotional skills in elementary schools in greece. international journal of psychology and educational studies, 4(1), 21-28. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1217247.pdf sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculo skeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 treviranus, j., stolarick, k., denstedt, m., fichten, c., & ascunsion, j. (2010). leveraging inclusion and diversity as canada’s digital advantage. toronto: inclusive design research centre. http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/1476/1/treviranus_inclusion_20 10.pdf voloshyna, o., & dmitrenko, n. (2017). pedagogical aspect of future teachers training in inclusive educational environment. education of people with special needs: ways of rebuilding, 13, 80-86. https://vinps.vn.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2018/06/%d0%97%d0%91%d0%86%d0%a0%d0% 9d%d0% 98%d0%9a_13_2017.pdf voyevutko, n. (2017). suchasni tendentsiyi modernizatsiyi profesiynoyi pidhotovky maybutnikh uchyteliv v ukrayiny [current tendencies of future teachers vocational training modernization in ukraine]. https://seanewdim.com/uploads/3/4/5/1/34511564/voyevutko._n._yu._ current_trends_of_modernization_of_teacher_training_in_ukraine.pdf http://ispukr.org.ua/articles/19/19061814_d.pdf https://psyjournals.ru/files/50095/jmfp_2012_1_n3_liventseva.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1217247.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/1476/1/treviranus_inclusion_2010.pdf http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/1476/1/treviranus_inclusion_2010.pdf https://vinps.vn.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/%d0%97%d0%91%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%9d%d0%98%d0%9a_13_2017.pdf https://vinps.vn.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/%d0%97%d0%91%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%9d%d0%98%d0%9a_13_2017.pdf https://vinps.vn.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/%d0%97%d0%91%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%9d%d0%98%d0%9a_13_2017.pdf https://seanewdim.com/uploads/3/4/5/1/34511564/voyevutko._n._yu._current_trends_of_modernization_of_teacher_training_in_ukraine.pdf https://seanewdim.com/uploads/3/4/5/1/34511564/voyevutko._n._yu._current_trends_of_modernization_of_teacher_training_in_ukraine.pdf ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 195-210 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/362 submitted: may 10th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 public morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon: neuroethical aspects nadiia skrypnyk 1 , valentina sinelnikova 2 , sviatoslav ovcharenko 3 , tetyana shnurenko 4 , andriy ivanish 5 , pelaheia pavliuchenko 6 1 communal higher education institution «vinnytsia humanities pedagogical college», ukraine, nadiyvnua@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6847-200x 2 kyiv national university of culture and arts, ukraine, valentinasinelnikova@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9488-270x 3 kyiv national university of culture and arts, ukraine, ovcharenkosvyatoslav@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1855-9358 4 kyiv national university of culture and arts, ukraine, shnurenkotanya@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7468-1465 5 kyiv national university of culture and arts, ukraine, ivanishandriy@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5814-7855 6 kyiv national university of culture and arts, ukraine, pgpavliuchenko@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5519-5234 abstract: under the conditions of a rich transformation of the ukrainian society the national morality’s problem acquires contradictions in today's information society, therefore interaction researches of its aspects in social regulation have always been and are important. present-day neuroethics is formed as an academic disciplinary, asserting to be a variety of overlay ethical issues, apologetic and morality by the natural models established on new neurobiology’s notes and cognizable sciences. the aim of the article is to explore the essence of folk morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon, its neuroethical aspects particularly. in previous eras, education aimed to instill personal virtues and shape character, so ideas about moral life are in all cultures over time. in centuries-old religious teaching, the commandments have been used as the basis for moral behavior. they were given by god moses himself on mount sinai after a forty-day conversation. in today’s philosophy, where the ideals of democracy, for example, embrace the fundamental concepts of freedom, equality, respect and dignity for all, people have the right to determine for themselves what moral life is. such a conversation covers different points of view among observers and scholars who think deeply about these issues. therefore, folk morality has become the subject of our study, because it is not just a basic model to follow, but fundamental. keywords: morality; neuroethics; human excellence; ontology; neuroscience. how to cite: skrypnyk, n., sinelnikova, v., ovcharenko, s., shnurenko, t., ivanish, a., & pavliuchenko, p. (2022). public morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon: neuroethical aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 195-210. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/362 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/362 mailto:nadiyvnua@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6847-200x mailto:valentinasinelnikova@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9488-270x mailto:ovcharenko-svyatoslav@ukr.net mailto:ovcharenko-svyatoslav@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1855-9358 mailto:shnurenkotanya@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7468-1465 mailto:ivanishandriy@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5814-7855 mailto:pgpavliuchenko@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5519-5234 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/362 public morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon: … nadiia skrypnyk et al. 196 introduction cognitive improvement is a key concept for neuroscience in neuromorality, so science uses not only neurological explanations of behavioral instruments, on the other hand the facility to spreed the mindfulness’ cappibilities including the mind-changinge stuff’ cure and more high-tech fighting chance hitted by neuroscience (berbets et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021; karasievych et al., 2021; kosholap et al. 2021; prots et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). this approach also applies to popular morality. its main factors are the ideal of humanity, kindness, mercy, and such categories as dignity, honor, diligence. the traditional understanding of these concepts in the subject of popular morality is always appropriate to gender, age, social status. true-life redictions in the way to understand the morals makes an individual sensitive in his right to identificate himself or herself, initiate the procedure for check over the individual. it is generally accepted that morality (lat. mores – customs) is a system of worldly attitudes, principles and norms of behaviour. they teach the concept of good and evil, focus people's attention on the proper and improper, fair and unfair. the neural centres of the brain take part in making decisions, accordingly a neuromoral is formed. it is customary to distinguish between individual and group morality. the individual is the bearer of individual morality. as to the observance of moral standards, it is ensured by the individual’s conscience. the bearer of group morality is a certain group of people. this can be a particular society, professional corporation, religious denomination, etc., at which time adherence to standards of morality is ensured not only by the moral awareness of the individual, or it can be the public spirit of the people. we can speak of universal morality which is based on universal values. in our case, we are concerned with public morality, which takes as its basis not only general human values but also spiritual and moral conjugation. it includes spiritual foundations, a christian and religious worldview and cultural tradition. scientific ethics rethinks the morality’s nature on the basis of new experimental data. rethinking people's morality in the perspective of innovative technologies is to create a new tool of consciousness. an ontological conflict is formed. the fact is that neuroethics is developing a view of a new neuroimproved society. an example is the concept of metzinger (2017), who proposes to use neuroscience data to set up an broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 197 original thinking of sencibility and consult neuroethic as a mechanism for making a new “sensibility’s ethics”. practically, it is a request to arouse the interest of modern society in issues directly related to morality, popular morality, to demonstrate to the modern society the general necessity and importance of the development of individual’s spiritual sphere, to help people to define their own position in life, drawing on both popular morality and national spiritual traditions. in the last decade there has been a boom in applied ethics, and ethical regulation of various spheres of human activity is topical. neuroethics is a form of applied ethics, which in the process of its research considered in a few angles. besides, it is granted as a bioethics’ variety, addaped ethics, neuroscience ethics and neuroscience ethics. in other words, its indications as a technoscience’s piece and a anthropological transformations’ supporter, which in the epoch of biotechnologies have received the name “mprovement of people” in the optics of critical analysis of biotechnological improvement of people, the authors consider people's morality as a social and determinative phenomenon, focusing on its neuroethical aspects. the intrigue lies in the fact that this scientific discipline tries to clarify what role morality plays in society, where it is going to become cognitively enhanced and where it is a piecemeal intellec, because morality is a part of the psychological structure of a person. as an alternative to naturalistic reductionism in the understanding of morality, the approach to neuroethics who believes that morality should be part of the philosophy of the brain, is chosen. but where is then the notion of calm people's morality? from this position one can conclude that neuroethics consistently develops bioethics, remaining within the framework of the inclusive model. it announces in the bioethical debate new measures of moral choice due to the new scientific data. the question remains relevant: where is the place of public morality? neuroethics as an inclusive model scientists have revealed the neural basis of the mechanism of searching for signs on the subject of morality, its popular perception. since the neurons of the cerebral cortex react differently to stimuli associated with certain spatial orientation (vertical, horizontal, bent under the couture), further researches of scientists show different stages of perception of morality, its adherents, people's morality and it is connected with different activity of neurons of the cerebral cortex. one activity corresponds to the public morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon: … nadiia skrypnyk et al. 198 early stages of stimulus processing. signs that indicate stomeliness, passive activity, correspond to the later stages of perception, which is characterized by respect, synthesis and integration of the signs. the reticular formation is a system of neurons that plays an important role in the processes of personal intelligence. the reticular formation ensures that the individual recognizes his or her own existence, isolated from external stimuli. morality, people's morality is not excluded here. it concerns its psychological, social and determinative aspects. brain research in this way reveals an even greater intricaty in the people’s morality growth together with humanity, chiefly in ethically cases, and affects the self-recognition and person’s self-testimony. devide brooks admits, “we have words and emotional instincts about what is right or wrong," but questions the criteria we use to “help us think, negotiate and decide. larissa mcfarquhar (new york) describes the many good philosophers whose deep-seated, even extraordinary moral acumen is as often criticised as they are applauded. columbia philosophy professor michelle moody adams believes that morality is the best way to earnestly reinvent ourselves and continually control ourselves. and stanford political philosopher rob reich is encouraging all of us to take an in-depth look at these issues”, brooks (2017). every moral question is a question of how one person (often “i in philosophy” or often someone else in the field) can and must relate to others in the world. in the abstract, however, moral living is living a life in which people are committed to a certain philosophy of interdependence. it is interesting how neuromoralism reveals itself on such an interval, what criteria it considers. the problem is that such a notion as moral life, even in a family, is absent. everyone chooses their own way, you just do your job, that's what democracy is all about. we should pay attention to the fact that by conception morality is formed spontaneously in the course of social life, it has an informal character and is not universally binding. the sphere of regulation, maksimov (2019, p. 4) morality concerns all spheres of human life, including interpersonal communication (love, friendship). the relationship between friendship and love is also seen in the light of honesty of folk morality. the solidity of the basis and grounding of these understandings in this case is manifested in the greatest extent. friendship, like love, creates a truly personal, spiritual bond between people. the unity attained in friendship is the unity of the different, the unity of the two, where the individual does not disappear. like spiritual love, friendship is a virtuous choice, built on integrity, loyalty and sacrifice, on faith and hope. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 199 friendship, like love, is a type of transcendence in which the self enters into a connection not simply with another self, but with another absolute. the highest level of the spiritual vision of the person, a sample of ideal popular morality, while the ideal is always far from engineering and projection. it can be identified with the truth if it is conceived within the christian staff paradigm. people's morality as a revival of national ethical norms and principles the study of people's morality is essential for the development of ethical norms and principles. this is real because of their scrupulous comprehension, the establishment of a moral ideal that has survived the passage of time and is most in keeping with the psychology and mentality of the nation. popular morality at this stage contributes to a deep awareness of the gravity of the forefathers' ethical ideals, contributes to the cementing of social structures, spiritual foundations the people's life and state-creative activities. in the form of expression, folk morality is expressed in folk traditions, rituals, customs, folklore, religious precepts, etc. there are sometimes several moral systems in society. in this case the focus on neuromoral becomes more important, as many factors in a given vector need to be studied. this is neuromoral on the level of detailedization, that is, precise, detailed rules of behavior, while the general mode of action (e.g., the “golden rule of morality”, applies to most ancient and modern ethical systems, so it requires ordinary treatment of other people the way you want people to treat you, without disclosing the specific forms of such treatment. another criterion of people's neuromoralism concerns its genesis, maksimov (2019, p. 5). behind the means of ensuring that morality is fulfilled, it is ensured by the internal perekonaniye of the people as to whether their behaviour and public opinion is correct or not. also relevant in this vector are sanctions for breach of moral precepts, such as censure and public condemnation. so, morality is a separate social regulator, which contributes to the achievement of people's goals, maksimov (2019, p. 5). the notion of humanity in public morality is topical, therefore the work examines the ethical principle of humanism in both normative and behavioural spheres of public morality. one of the leading norms of popular morality is the need for humane relations between parents and siblings, friends, fathers and children, fellow villagers and members of neighbouring communities. the norm is being updated in both family and public morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon: … nadiia skrypnyk et al. 200 community life. the humanistic principles of christian morality have a great influence on the humane nature of family and community interactions. on a societal level, moral principles are equivalent to morality. therefore, this concept is viewed from several angles: national archetype, correlation with values, perceptions, perception, compliance with the status and social status of people. traditionally, the “cell” of morality is the human cause. the basis of moral principle is a conscientious choice or voluntary assertion of specific moral values. the manifestation of the will of the dissolved person is a manifestation of the principle. this is an example of the high moral sense. the meaning of popular morality is considerably broader. її ethnization begins from the early period of life in the family, from the mother's story or grandmother's tale, from participation in folk ceremonies, customs, from folk wisdom. the sphere of morality characterizes the value attitude of the individual to the world as a whole. it determines human behavior, the moral quality of the person, prepares people to do their righteous deeds in case of need. value incentives structure people's self-consciousness, influence their entire psyche and mindset, affect their senses, and influence their behaviour and conduct. moral demand selects the cause that is derived from the values that people accept. initiatives based on popular morality are tired even in conditions of global transformations. they are based on norms of moral behaviour, categories, values and ideals. everything is very individual. the ideal demonstrates thoroughness, reflects people's aspiration or beliefs about high moral standards. popular morality characterizes the system of people's views, practically directs people in everyday life. the people's morality as a psychic, social and determinative phenomenon and, in particular, its neuroethical aspects are effectively fulfilled if the philosophical conceptualisation of ethics and morality in their biometrical projection is given its basic place in the understanding of the discipline. its form the regulative tasks of neuroethics as a social norm of social relations. morality determines the boundaries of individual behaviour, folk morality is not an exception. the basic principles, categories of people's morality are not independent of their ethical and natural value, which manifests itself in the organic integrity of morality and beauty of personal values, not only in relations with people, but also in the attitude to nature. the methodological situation of the dual understanding of ethics as a synonym of morality and as knowledge about morality through the prism of neuroethics gets a new focus: apart from searches for the good and the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 201 proper and their normative basis, the ontological foundation of morality itself is put into question. the point is that everything depends on the choice of ontological position in the discussion of moral problems, which is the focus of neuroethics. will the discussions on neuroethics have a consistently transdisciplinary character, and will they not end up in a narrow expert group? in this case, it is necessary not only to appeal to profane discourse and evaluate the practical relevance of neurotechnologies, but also to bear in mind the consequent implementation of the humanistic goals of preserving humanity and humanity, which have respect for life, identity and integrity. at the same time, cognitive neuroscience is re-examining the nature of consciousness and all of its phenomena. neuroethics, in essence, becomes a natural science – neuroscience ethics – and gains the ability to technologize its findings, transforming them into recommendations for improving human behavior and interrelationships in society. popular morality through the prism of neuroethics preserves its ideals, categories and values. the relevance of clarifying the limits and possibilities of neuroethics lies not only in the number of neuroscience studies and the development of neurotechnologies, which are prompting new insights and raising new ethical questions, but also in the fact that in the neural network there is a clear desire to form the morality of a new society. here is where the conflict with popular morality takes shape, with the ideals, values and categories of which are intrinsic. neuroethics can develop its own principles and norms, which define the limits of what is permissible in research practice. this is certainly a vital argument for accepting and developing neuroethics as an applied ethics. however, according to sidorova (2018), the question whether we are not in a vicious circle, establishing rules for neurotechnical transformation of consciousness for the purpose of a vigorous desire for self-improvement, remains relevant. the consequences of this drive, in the form of a worldwide nudge against the high criteria of creativity and sophistication, is the challenge to communicate the amount of information to the public. society is struggling with depression, which it itself creates the conditions for. nature and life's indivisibility cannot be constructed by replacing them with apparent, complete worlds, so neuroethics, in order to preserve morality in itself, must protect these unchangeable values. this concerns public morality, in particular its main factors. calmly, the ideals of humanity, goodness and mercy. this does not exclude such categories as generosity, honour, loyalty and a feeling of love for one's parents. the final ethical command is in harmony with god's commandment “shun your child and your mother....”. god's commandments impose a moral verdict on selfpublic morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon: … nadiia skrypnyk et al. 202 worth and determine a remedy for it. in this folk wisdom is a manifestation of the ethical imperative that is in accordance with god's commandment. a striking example of popular morality is condemnation. the meaning of human judgment is given an axiological scale, which characterises the subject as a moral person. implementation of the right of the court, first of all, is addressed to oneself, and then it concerns another person. thus, popular morality condemns domestic thievery. the native life is based on the love for the family, humanity, beauty of interrelations, principles of good friendship. the well-known statement in the gospel according to st. matthew “by the way you judge, you will be judged; and in the way you measure it, you will be rewarded” (bible, matthew 7:2) demonstrates the essence which prohibits the judgment of men one against another, as there is a judgment of god. the new testament presents divine judgment and not human or civil judgment. the bible specifically emphasizes the responsibility of human beings before god's judgment, focusing on the relationship of judgment to god's commandments. the unequivocal christian morality of condemnation by one person over another brings with it god's deserved condemnation. the meaning of divine judgment is an ideological mechanism for establishing and maintaining a socio-cultural order that is based on recognition of the hierarchy between divine and human will, which requires people to willingly commit their own will to the will of god the creator. in one of the epistles of the apostle peter is reinforced the thought that "those who cooperate with him as the faithful creator, let them give their souls in charity to him as the faithful creator" (bible, 1 pet. 4:19). this thought prompts the following reflection. first, the phrase “out of god's will they sin against him” (cf. 1 pet. 4:19) gives a strong emotional charge to the biblical imperative of the prophet (4:19) gives a strong emotional charge to the biblical imperative to do god's will, which legally encourages not only adherence to the established order, but also forms a strong inner desire, a zeal for the divine will with the willingness to take control of it in one's own life. second, the creation of good deeds by man or of the gospel as a genuine moral requirement for human beings is seen from the standpoint of spiritual discernment as fulfilling the will of god the creator (serving him as the supreme creator, may they give their souls in kindness to him as the supreme creator). (bible, 1 pet. 4:19). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 203 christian and folk morality: an analysis of moral and psychological attitude the fact that we live in a modern society – a “spectacle society” (a society of deceit and deception) adds a special piquancy to the historical situation on the subject of people's morality. all public life is a “production of shows” and any representation becomes a simulation. what kind of public morality can we talk about here? simulations pervade all spheres of social activity. the social scene of today is most often characterized by “shameful performances” described in the works of i. hoffmann, guy debord and j. baudrillard, in which inauthenticity, hypocrisy and social falsity "reign", bataeva (2011, pp. 60-62). what, then, should neuroethics be, able to adapt the moral and social innovations that come into society together with neuroscience and modern neurotechnologies? the same question can be asked about public morality and how it relates to neuroethics. in the foreground there should be a truly ethical meta, the meaning of which is set transdiscursively, rather than a simple regulation of the decision-making process. for popular morality, it is calm. the purpose of neuroethics is often understood functionally – as ensuring the possibility of action rather than achieving the moral goal itself. this is inconsistent with popular morality. the excessiveness of applied ethics could be the source of its development on the condition that the complexity and richness of ethical analysis of situations where the position of people is problematic is taken into account. neuroethics in the aspect of applied ethics is entirely possible as a regulative system, for which principles of a bioethical nature can be used, these can be found in bioethical texts such as the european convention on human rights in biomedicine (1997), the unesco universal declaration on bioethics and human rights (2005) and others. the same cannot be said of popular morality. modern neuroethics develops its own principles and norms, which define the limits of what is acceptable in research practice. popular morality has its own tired principles and categories. this is, certainly, a vital argument for accepting and developing neuroethics as applied ethics, and for accepting people's morals as narrow. therefore the issue of theoretical foundations of neuroethics, namely its theoretical foundations and, respectively, its methodology, remains open. just recently it was written about “solid neuroethics,“pointing out that”contemporary neuroethics is not able to explain the moral normativity public morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon: … nadiia skrypnyk et al. 204 in principle, and therefore can not be called a ethics in the strict sense of the word” (lazurenko & kyroi, 2012, p. 93). neurophysiological determinism, which is the basis of the reductionist approach in neuroscience and transmitted in neuroethics, in fact, undermines the basis of humanistic principles of bioethics: autonomy, which requires freedom of choice; diversity, which recognizes the uniqueness and criticality of human existence; and the principle of respect for wholeness, which regards the human being as an ontological wholeness throughout her entire life, protecting the identity of the human being. popular morality always offers a choice – a tired garb. if neuroethics is philosophically oriented towards considering issues which involve a multiplicity of positions, and searching for humanist frames of reference for their synthesis, then it could be regarded as a kind of biometrics. however, if the problems are viewed in the light of biological reductionism, neuroethics pretends to be disciplined and isolated. the theory of neuroethics as an application is distinguished by the fact that it considers the meaning of ethics to be normative-regulative. philosophical integration is relevant in the search for solutions to moral dilemmas, as it is a dynamic phenomenon. it transforms depending on many factors: cultural, economic, informational, spiritual development of the society or individuals, which mirror the ontological aspect. christian morality and people's morality are not the same. the study of the moral and psychological attitude to the subject of people's morality, the study of the system of education, the analysis of labour activity of the individual are grounds to assert that any morality is only a norm, but also a behavioural reality. man is endowed with freedom of will. there is freedom of choice, freedom of thought, freedom of desire, freedom of creativity. at the same time, with the presence of freedom, the individual exists in society, and living in society regulates the system of rules, regulations, patterns of behavior, which people are guided by. neuroethics is developing along the lines of neuroscience ethics, at the same time reassessing the nature of morality on the basis of new experimental data, which generates a new “euroscience ethics” (lazurenko, & kyroi, 2012, p. 74). neuroethics involves at least three aspects in the study of morality: the creation of evolutionary ethics on the basis of cognitive science data, the explanation of moral phenomena by the activity of neural connections (investigating the neurological level of decision-making – the ideal and idol are not excluded), and on this basis the examination of the problem of freedom of will. this is broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 205 how existential freedom is crystallized in social crises, alienation and borderline situations. it creates a sociocultural situation with very limited horizons. in this way, neurological reductionism (the human sciences argument) is formed, which many researchers dismiss as a one-sided paradigm. such an interpretation has had little precedent in the history of philosophy and science (struggle against vulgar materialism, criticism of naturalism and sociobiology). but naturalism is relevant again. the scientific mind is not immune to naturalistic ideas, so the humanistic sciences use natural-science methods, for example experimental psychology often falls under their influence. thus, one of the representatives of evolutionary ethics a. goldman states that moral psychology is to replace ethics, the outgrowths of which are in human biology, novikova (2017, p. 119). experiments of neurophysiologists and cognitive psychologists have generated a debate on the subject of neurological determinism in the process of explaining the essence and origin of morality, the freedom of will and moral acts. popular morality was also the subject of their research. authors demonstrated that there is an hour-long gap between brain reaction, which is registered by eeg, and decision making (the test taker has to press the keyboard). in neurology it is called the “potency of readiness”. despite the fact that the authors of the experiment and other scientists conducted similar studies, have carried out similar research, they did not consider the in-depth explanation of the origin of the actions, which were previously attributed to the power of the will, but these data began to be used in the discussions, novikova (2017, p. 119). thus in the book “the justification of good” v. solovyov defined honesty as “an inner disposition of the will to good by itself”, analyzing it as spiritual good, solovyov (1988, p. 455), while the gospel subordinates morality to the divine law, in this way placing morality higher in relation to the natural and written law. god's judgment correlates with the spiritual dimension of people's moral choice and is seen as an extrinsic echatological sanction. the apostle peter reminds christians of this on several occasions. in this trial, reprobates and sinners who have not obeyed the law of god's gospel are condemned (bible, 1 pet. 4: 17 – 18). thus in the book “the justification of good” v. solovyov defined honesty as “an inner disposition of the will to good by itself”, analyzing it as spiritual good, solovyov (1988, p. 455), while the gospel subordinates morality to the divine law, in this way placing morality higher in relation to the natural and written law. god's judgment correlates with the spiritual dimension of people's moral choice and is seen as an extrinsic echatological public morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon: … nadiia skrypnyk et al. 206 sanction. the apostle peter reminds christians of this on several occasions. in this trial, reprobates and sinners who have not obeyed the law of god's gospel are condemned (bible, 1 pet. 4: 17 – 18). in “critique of pure reason” kant focused on two historical meanings of ecchatology in the aspects of obituary and threat. the obituary ordains man's knowledge of the eschatological good as a reward for honesty, while the bane is a condemnation to the torment of hell. this is the divine judgment, the mechanism of which reveals the culture of man. it is regarded as the supreme arbiter of the condemnation of the moral wrongs of man and the exercise of his natural right and freedom to condemn others. by means of the vicarious work, the judgment of god upon the sinner is carried out during the life of the person, and not only after death. this means that the idea of divine judgment is not reduced solely to echatological discourse, but also has a genetic meaning. in this discourse the search for the normal is being pursued and a new moral and social experience is being normalized, which is coming into society together with the use of new technologies. the essence of neuroethics in this aspect uses morality as an instrument of power, and the posed problem points at the context of the natural right to judge others and the society through the prism of morality. ethics regulates the right through morality and makes it dependent on it, while new testament ethics turns to the spiritual world of people, demanding from them a christian duty and attitude in the spirit and truth. taking into account christ's manifestation, "i am the way, the truth, and the life" (bible, john 14:6), the christological context of the new testament ethic becomes clear: a call to the spiritual world of a person is equivalent to a call to christ. the subsequent course in this direction leads us to the variant of understanding neuroethics as a sphere of regulation of specific areas of neurosciences, where neuroethics becomes a part of research ethics or, alternatively, a part of a specific neuroscience. generally speaking, everything depends on the choice of ontological position in discussing the moral issues that neuroethics focuses on. will the discussion of neuroethics have a consistently transdisciplinary character or will it end up in a narrow expert group, because public morality is a broader notion and its understanding is deeper? in this case, it is necessary to not only appeal to profane discourse and evaluate the practical effectiveness of neurotechnologies, but also to take into account the consequent realisation of the humanistic goals of protecting people and humanity, which include respect for life, personal identity and wholeness. today we have a more inbroad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 207 depth and grounded knowledge of how the dynamic link between the material and ideal aspects of morality and, more broadly, the conscious psychological life of the individual is made. with regard to the neuroethical approach, namely the impact of current neuroscience on human selfawareness, it reveals its psychological, socio-cultural and deterministic aspects, while self-awareness integrates and informs the whole being. practically, this is the result of the state of the world. when the subject of neuroethics is no longer the regulation of research, but morality itself, it is at a worldview level (in popular morality they reflect the worldview of the people), and this very version is close to the philosophical and thus to the bioethical context. neuroethics itself is a problem of bioethics, because in its naturalization of morality the question of the improvement of human qualities is actualized. if the source of moral action is directly or indirectly located in the neural correlates, the discovery of this connection in scientific research is followed by a technologically formalized desire to influence it. initially, the impact is dictated by the desire to help people with neuropsychiatric disorders, and later by the desire to improve the healthy, to improve their cognitive, the development of cognitive abilities leads simultaneously to moral progress, and freedom is the gateway to morality. conclusion the article describes the basic principles of popular morality, reveals its psychological, social and determinative specificities, and analyses its neuroethical aspects. the human being is a whole person. therefore the moral mind is not something external, mechanically integrated with the emotions. it is nothing else than the result of the crystallization of the same primal creative energy which manifests itself in its living, hot state through emotion. the interrelationship between what gives morality through reason and love, which is a deep and active source of moral action, is vividly and figuratively described by p. yurkevich, the russian philosopher. turning to the evangelic metaphorical language, p. yurkevich likens the mind to a light, and love to an elixir. the philosopher writes that “a luminary and an ellipse are necessary for living – not only for a stated morality”. “as the love's elite becomes depleted in people's hearts, the light goes out: moral principles and ideas darken and, finally, disappear from the mind”, yurkevich (1990). love remains, without a doubt, the ideal of the moral and ethical elevation of the individual, the ideal of the enigmatic human community. public morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon: … nadiia skrypnyk et al. 208 also, morality is a category that mirrors the level of conscience. it repeatedly demonstrates the human attitude as appropriate. the criteria of human perception truth, justice, good and evil, orderliness, honesty.... morality is formed by an individual under the influence of such factors as education, education, environment in the form of principles, norms, values, ideals. a practical act that purposefully establishes certain moral principles in a situation where values are in doubt or are rejected altogether. the underlying causes of action are human conscience, risk and fear. is this something we can learn or is it still easier to accept people's morality with its calm ideals, on which we can rely in life? people's morality is guided by calm ideals – goodness, goodness, charity, loyalty, honesty, goodness and other values. the ideal is a far cry from projects oriented towards so-called social engineering. it does not include any specifics concerning the future social structure. although this very specificity, individual and private decisions are not indifferent to the absolute moral ideal by which public morality is lived. only in the light of such an ideal do all longand short-term social projects take on their significance. love is not an exception. that is why people always say: “may everything be with love”. love is the foundation of morality and the ideal of human solidarity. the force that animates the moral sense is rooted in the principle of life itself, in the creative energy of love, which manifests itself as an inner, automatically acting force, infra-intellective instinctive impulse and as a superintellective creative and emotionally charged drive for the integrity of life, yurkevich (1990, pp. 48-49, 74, 204-205). militant in the christian staffist paradigm, the ideal of love has nothing in common with socialocentrism, about the dangers of which solovyov (1990, p. 309) warned at his time. the work of the human community, presented from the position of such an ideal, finds its fulfillment in service. practically speaking, it is an ideal that requires, first and foremost, spiritual and moral strength. as an absolute good, love offers criteria for varying the degree of quality of this or other forms of relative earthly justice depending on the degree of its closeness or remoteness to the moral ideal of love. references unesco. (2005). universal declaration on bioethics and human rights. https://en.unesco.org/themes/ethics-science-and-technology/bioethicsand-human-rights https://en.unesco.org/themes/ethics-science-and-technology/bioethics-and-human-rights https://en.unesco.org/themes/ethics-science-and-technology/bioethics-and-human-rights broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 209 council of europe. (1997). convention for the protection of human rights and dignity of the human being with regard to the application of biology and medicine. https://www.coe.int/en/web/bioethics/oviedo-convention bataeva, e. v. (2011). “obshchestvo spektaklia” y “spektakl obshchestva”: sovremennыe kontseptsyy sotsyalnoi teatralyzatsyy. [“society of the spectacle” and “spectacle of society”: modern concepts of social theatricalization]. visnyk im. v. n. karazyna. seryia: filosofski perypetii, 952, 58 – 63. http://philosophy.karazin.ua/ua/kafedra/staff_tpf/visnyk/visnyk_952.pdf berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 brooks, d. (2017). how to live a moral life. https://www.aspenideas.org/sessions/how-to-live-a-moral-life bible (1992). knyhy sviashchennoho pysanyia vetkhoho y novoho zaveta. [bible. books of scripture of the old and new testaments]. khrystyanskoe yzdatelstvo. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lazurenko, d. m., & kyroi, v. n. (2012). sovremennye problemy neiroetyky. [current problems of neuroethics]. valeolohyia, 4, 74-80. http://www.journal.valeo.sfedu.ru/journal/201204.pdf#page=74 https://www.coe.int/en/web/bioethics/oviedo-convention http://philosophy.karazin.ua/ua/kafedra/staff_tpf/visnyk/visnyk_952.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 https://www.aspenideas.org/sessions/how-to-live-a-moral-life https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 http://www.journal.valeo.sfedu.ru/journal/201204.pdf#page=74 public morality as a mental, social and determinative phenomenon: … nadiia skrypnyk et al. 210 maksimov, s. i. (2019). transformatsii moralnoi i pravovoi kultury v suchasnomu ukrainskomu [transformations of moral and legal culture in modern ukrainian]. kharkiv: pravo. metzinger, t. (2017). nauka o mozghe y myf o svoem ya. tonnel eho. [the brain’s science and the myth of the self. ego’s tunnel]. moscow: ast. novikova, o. v. (2017). obosnovanye moraly v sovremennoi fylosofskoi kohnytyvystyke: dys. [justification of morality in modern philosophical cognitive science]. saint petersburg: sankt-peterburhskyi hosudarstvennyi unyversytet. prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 sidorova, т. (2018). neyroetika mezhdu etikoy i moral'yu [neuroethics: between ethics and morality], pp. 75 – 99. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyroetika-mezhdu-etikoy-imoralyu/viewer solovyov, v. s. (1988). opravdanye dobra. nravstvennaia fylosofyia [justification of good. moral philosophy: in 2 vol. vol. 1. moscow: mysl, pp. 47 – 580. http://www.vehi.net/soloviev/oprav/index.html yurkevich, p. d. (1990). serdtse y eho znachenye v dukhovnoi zhyzny cheloveka [the heart and its meaning in the spiritual life of a person]. https://studfile.net/preview/7202735/page:23/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyroetika-mezhdu-etikoy-i-moralyu/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyroetika-mezhdu-etikoy-i-moralyu/viewer http://www.vehi.net/soloviev/oprav/index.html https://studfile.net/preview/7202735/page:23/ ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 628-646 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/438 submitted: november 23rd, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 28th, 2023 the impact of decentralization on the development of civil society in the context of the philosophy of reason volodymyr zablotskyi1, nadiia babarykina2, tetiana sych3, olga ptakhina4, yevhen ivanov5, nadiia vasynova6 1 doctor of science in state administration, professor of the department of civil service and management of educational and social institutions, state institution ,,luhansk taras shevchenko national university'', starobilsk, ukraine, zablotskiivv@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1032-8993 2 candidate of political science, associate professor of the department of general legal and political sciences, national university «zaporizhzhia polytechnic», zaporizhzhia, ukraine, aidcrash@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6167-3693 3 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor of the department of public service and management of educational and social institutions, luhansk taras shevchenko national university, poltava, ukraine, tatynasych@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0230-3374 4 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of the department of public service and management of educational and social institutions, luhansk taras shevchenko national university, poltava, ukraine, olga.pth@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9672-4593 5 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of the department of public service and management of educational and social institutions, luhansk taras shevchenko national university, poltava, ukraine, yugene35@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6511-2474 abstract: the authors have attempted a philosophical essay to comprehend the phenomenon of statehood, society, decentralization and culture in the context of the philosophy of mind and (partially) the neuroscientific paradigm. the authors used a number of theoretical methods: from historical analysis and reconstruction of the phenomenon of philosophy of mind and establishing the role of human subjectivity and "selfhood" in sociopolitical processes, to philosophical reflection and essayistic parascientific author interpretations. the main result is a new view of decentralization in the context of postmodernist consciousness, where the background (postmodern) and sociopolitical result (decentralization) are the synergistic result of human social networks' realization of neurocognitive natural ability to parallel coexistence of personal and social. as a result, the virtual and material manifestations of the globalized informatized post-industrial society, which has received postmodernist experience, have conditioned total decentralization. at the same time, politically administrative is only a partial manifestation of it, while civil society seeks to diversify its needs and ways of solving them as much as possible. the international significance of the article lies in its universality: it complementarily analyzes the neuroscientific, cultural-mystetic, philosophical, social, and political dimensions of a civil postmodern society that seeks maximum decentralization of all superstructures and maximum delegation of managerial functions to its members and groups. keywords: neurosociology; mind-body-sense interaction; vertical and horizontal decentralization; correlation of neurocognitive capacity; postmodernity and decentralization; cognitive and behavioral divergence of postmodernity. how to cite: zablotskyi, v., babarykina, n., sych, t., ptakhina, o., ivanov, y., & vasynova, n. (2023). the impact of decentralization on the development of civil society in the context of the philosophy of reason. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 628-646. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/438 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/438 mailto:zablotskiivv@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1032-8993 mailto:aidcrash@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6167-3693 mailto:tatynasych@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0230-3374 mailto:olga.pth@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9672-4593 mailto:yugene35@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6511-2474 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/438 6 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of the department of public service and management of educational and social institutions, luhansk taras shevchenko national university, poltava, ukraine, ned1235@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7019-0247 mailto:ned1235@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7019-0247 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 630 introduction now the neurocognitive sciences have reached such a level that phenomena of the social, attitudinal, and sociopolitical spectrum, which were considered fully complete in the classical descriptive-analytical interpretation, we can reconsider in a new way from the perspective of the cognitive-behavioral approach from the position of philosophy of mind. philosophy of mind, broadly understood, is a sphere of social consciousness that studies itself: cognition, thinking, activity in the context of interaction with cognitive-behavioral patterns. they manifest themselves at the highest level of human practice, its bodily component and mental reflection (sellars, rorty, & brandom, 1997). it can be said that it is precisely the reflection by the higher nervous activity of its partial but key intensions of how we perceive the world, understand it, and how we interact with it. in this article, therefore, we will explore the social phenomenon of postmodern decentralization in the context of notions of free will, intention, activity, and mind-body interaction. obviously, we will need to apply interdisciplinary methods and theories, including studies of social psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience in general. relevance of the article we were interested in the processes of state decentralization, which in the ukrainian context have acquired extremely surprising socio-mass behavioral and value-cognitive metamorphoses. we decided to press the positive assumption that behavioral and cognitive mechanisms of selfattraction to participation in redistribution of material and spiritual resources played the leading role in this phenomenon, neuroscientific rudiments of which we found in the works of e. coleman (2014). first, let us return to the object of the study. more than 20 years ago, the idea of decentralization of power in ukraine was first proposed, which was not supported at the time. from the moment the idea of decentralization was announced, political speculations, counter-propaganda, accusations of separatism and humiliation of the topic of decentralization began to occur, which led to devaluation of the very idea of decentralization of power in ukraine. the combination of these factors certainly affected the subjective consciousness and social behavior of citizens and, as a consequence, led to the non-acceptance of the decentralization reform. however, since 2014 (with the beginning of the war with russia) there has been an expressive mass-social neuroplasticity in the ukrainian the impact of decentralization on the development of civil society in the ... volodymyr zablotskyi, et al. 631 society: there is a frantic growth of democratic tendencies, comprehension of postmodernist experience and, as a result, new reflections on decentralization both state and political, and social and cultural process amid globalization tendencies. the current historical and cultural epoch is characterized by total informatization, post-industrialism, frontier and seemingly final ways of cultural and artistic exploration of the world, to which the human mind responds with new modulations of social self-image. this means that the conscious subjects of the young state suddenly find themselves in the context of post-modernity, post-culture, and post-truth, but their welcome adaptability has allowed them to redistribute resourcefulness and modulate subjective realization in horizontal planes. therefore, in this article we will focus on postmodernism as a way of thinking and social practice that has expanded far beyond culture and defines economic, political, social and other kinds of consciousness and picture of the world. we were prompted to this essayistic reflection by an absentee discussion, primarily in the pages of the native scientific discourse. we examined the native ukrainian-language content of scholarly works on postmodernism in society and saw that it expands into neurophilosophical discourse, but does not fulfill it. thus, ukrainians look for the causes of socially significant behavior in the fields of mass, social communication, and gender (chornodon, verbytska, haladzhun, ivanytska, & mudrokha, 2021); problems of identity, modes of human genius and anthropology in a broad sense (nerubasska, maksymchuk, 2020); critical postmodernist approaches in science and metacognition are realized (kiryachok, & melnyk, 2019). the article by d. shevchuk on interdisciplinary postmodern dimensions of political philosophy seemed to us the most relevant in our academic space, shevchuk (2011). however, the ukrainian discourse lacks systematic works on decentralization, which is induced "from below" as a result of the synergistic network interaction of the human brain and neurosocial laws of horizontalization and localization of society. purpose of the article these considerations inspired us to write an article in which we would trace the roots of decentralization in the depths of historical and synchronic philosophy of mind and outline as much as possible the correlation "mind-postmodernism-decentralization" on the basis of authoritative works and our own reflections. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 632 the methods used in the article we employed methods relevant to neurosocial, sociocultural, and political-historical research, namely, the method of historical-cultural and historiosophic reconstruction and the determinant method (establishing causal relations between social and neurocognitive phenomena). the method of reflection, neuroscientific extrapolation of social phenomena, and essayistic generalization allowed us to cement and holistically generalize relatively heteromorphic phenomena of civil society. the international relevance of the article many well-known scientists in europe and beyond try to explain the decentralization of the postmodern era by an explosion of possibilities for identities on different levels (from personal to national), leading to federalization, marchildon g. (2016). other scholars see european "political postmodernism" as the only and newest phenomenon so far (anderson, j. & goodman, j. (1995), but they do not address the historical roots of decentralization in a broad sense. our article has international relevance because it continues the scholarly trend of integrating different aspects of decentralization into a single synergistic process. it explores a unified picture of decentralization, well described in terms of individual aspects: ecology and environmental management, zhang li (2022); racial and demographic policies (felix, & trinidad, 2020), and the organization of educational space (raimundo, & rosário, 2021). we also continued to form and verify an integrative model of decentralization according to the ukrainian national model, which complements the range of nuances and varieties of regional forms of decentralization, well described on the material of asian countries (wu, hao, & ren, 2020) and european countries in certain areas of public activity in different years (rico, 1996; andersson, quigley, & wilhelmson, 2004). we will try to take into account the experience of transitional democracies to expand the range of possible marginal decentralizing modalities in recent decades, which t. talitha, t. firman, and d. hudalah (2020). also note that the authors of the article have seen that there is a lack of research in the international scholarly space that combines a historicaltypological approach and the synchronic determinants of decentralization as a total phenomenon of modernity in the context of postmodernist consciousness. the impact of decentralization on the development of civil society in the ... volodymyr zablotskyi, et al. 633 however, there is an increasing role of neuroscientific (neurosocial) practical and theoretical-philosophical research, which opens new perspectives for interpreting social-moral and political phenomena on the basis of patterns of personal and collective behavior, meloni (2013). we adhere to the inductive way of applying neuroscience philosophy to the interpretation of decentralization phenomena, which we found among the thoughts of n. verploegen (1978) (drawing analogies with cybernetic systems as correlates of human neurosystems in the practice of control and self-organization). however, there is a counter opinion among scientists that argues: the obstacles to social activity, equality and participation lie in neurobiological constraints on social behavior: sexual dominance, maternal instinct, primordial hierarchies, territorial and ecological constraints on personal activity. this sort of minimizes the neurocausal factors of social realization of subjectivity, shkurko (2018). at the intersection of these relevant but controversial trends, the international relevance of our study is heightened. from classical philosophy of mind to neurosociology the historical relationship between the formation of human social and political subjectivity and the philosophy of mind is complex and developed in the context of rational philosophy. one key aspect of this connection can be traced back to the enlightenment period of the eighteenth century, when thinkers began to question traditional assumptions about the nature of power, the influence of the individual on the environment, and the social and political nature of knowledge. e. cassirer (1951), looking back on the experience of the classical enlightenment, saw the phenomenon of doubt as a watershed step toward the understanding that concrete consciousness, corporeality and their syncretic activity were instruments of co-creation through personal participation. during the enlightenment, new notions of the human mind and will emerged as immanent factors of autonomy and individual freedom. one of the greatest philosophers in this regard was immanuel kant, who argued that human beings have the capacity to reason and make decisions for themselves, and that this capacity is fundamental to their dignity and ability to practically realize natural and cultural values (kant, kehrbach, 1913). this idea has become a key part of the philosophical foundations of modern democratic theory, which regards individual autonomy as the cornerstone of a free and just society. in the 19th and 20th centuries, the connection between democratization and the philosophy of mind became even clearer as social movements for social and political reform began to broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 634 rely on ideas about human consciousness and cognition rather than an extraanthropological absolutization of power. society began to realize that human diversity does not interfere with humanity's overall sociopolitical and cultural capacity, but rather the opposite. this is why mass civil rights movements of the socially and politically vulnerable have emerged since the mid-20th century. for example, we still have not overcome the obsessive but correct leadership about the equal moral and intellectual capacity of african americans, who should have the same political and social rights as white americans. this latest social philosophy of mind and body in the mid-20th century was heavily influenced by the ideas of martin luther king, jr. (1986), who drew on his education in theology and philosophy to rationalize the inherent worth and dignity of human beings regardless of their race or ethnicity. in recent years, the connection between democratization and the philosophy of mind has continued to evolve thanks to new technologies that have created online forms of political participation and social interaction. for example, social media platforms such as twitter and facebook have allowed people to organize and mobilize in ways that were not possible before, and have created new opportunities for dialogue and debate. at the same time, these platforms have also raised new questions about the nature of communication, identity and freedom in the digital age. overall, the connection between democratization and the philosophy of mind is deep and multifaceted, reflecting the complex interplay between ideas and social change over time. as our understanding of the human mind continues to evolve, it is possible that this connection will continue to form the contours of democratic theory and practice in new and unexpected ways. now let us look into the philosophy of mind of postmodernism. postmodernism, as a rhizomatic set of "personal philosophies" of mind and body (reflection-performance), asserts that reality is a social construct, created through language, discourse, and power relations, rather than an objective independent entity. this rejection of objective reality has significant implications for philosophy of mind, since it challenges traditional views according to which consciousness and mental processes are based on objective physical reality. postmodernism argues that the mind is shaped by cultural and social factors, and that our perceptions and experiences are influenced by the language and discourse that surrounds us. thus, richard rorty, in his book philosophy and the mirror of nature (2009), argues that traditional philosophical approaches to reason were based on the assumption of objective reality, and that this assumption led to an erroneous search for objective, fundamental knowledge. rorty argues that the impact of decentralization on the development of civil society in the ... volodymyr zablotskyi, et al. 635 postmodernism offers an alternative approach to philosophy of mind, emphasizing the importance of language and discourse in forming our understanding of mind. according to rorty, speech and discourse are key factors in shaping our perception of the world, including ideas about our own mental state. jean-françois lyotard made a significant contribution to objectifying the connection between postmodernism and philosophy of mind. in his book postmodern conditions (1979), he argues that the postmodern rejection of objective reality has important implications for the way we think about the mind. according to lyotard, the mind is not a fixed, stable entity, but rather a constantly changing, contingent phenomenon formed by social and cultural factors. these humanitarian advances, combined with advances in neurobiology, have become predictors for neurosocial research, so we will briefly examine them. the neurobiological reason for the democratic movements of the 20th century has now become apparent. for example, the women's suffrage movement was already based on ideas of women's rationality and free will, whose behavior and consciousness were really not determined by total maternal instinct alone, pitts-taylor (2015). the basic idea was that women should have the same political rights as men, so that social reflection and subjectivity are determined not by differential but by shared natural energies. scholars search for the ideological origins of decentralization in the philosophy of mind based on humanity's attempt to find a balance of "head, heart, and hands," verploegen (1978). the divergence of mind, feelings and actions (behavior) seems to have entailed the destruction of the relationship between humans, the natural and technological environment, so that neuroethics, ecology and sustainability have now become basic for further human evolution. scientists are now convinced: neurosociology, in particular the role of neurocognitive and behavioral mechanisms of social activity, is based on neurophysiological structures that feed and regulate social emotionally colored information. social, political, and cultural commitment are shaped on a conditionally reflexive principle: individuals avoid uncertainty and anxiety and modulate modes of social commitment, satisfaction, and structure (vrtička, & vuilleumier, 2012). consequently, the connection between brain activity and social commitment becomes apparent. and the reverse is also true: sociocultural activity also affects the brain, forming new neural connections based on neurosensitivity and neuroplasticity. sociocultural activity and neuromodulation occurs through a variety of tools, from signs and meanings to systemic adherence to values and holistic broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 636 behavior in pursuit of collective goals. therefore, agree with the bold general proposition: historically and globally, human cultures play a leading role in the reorganization and restructuring of bodily sensations into symbolically and linguistically specific feelings and emotions, burkitt (2019, p. 5). research on mirror neurons in primates demonstrates that social creatures satisfy a higher cognitive instinct if in social opposition and selfother communication they engage in mutual observation and learn to adapt to constantly new social conditions, the most plastic in the living world (barresi, & moore, 2008). similarly, an article by l. schilbach and colleagues, "the brain basis of human social interaction" (2012), argues for an objectification of the neural basis of human social interaction. the authors argue that social interaction is a fundamental aspect of human behavior and that understanding the brain basis of social interaction is essential to understanding social behavior and its disorders. the study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri) to examine participants' neural activity during various social tasks. the study also revealed that neural activity in these regions was modulated by different factors, such as the type of social task, social context, and personality traits of the individual. thus, we came close to advances in neurophysiology, which already hardware shows: the right somatosensory cortex, left frontal fate, and anterior cingulate cortex are directly involved in acts of social self-regulation, volitional acts, leadership, and social emotional reactions, adolphs (2003). these and other empirical findings bring sociology closer to the neurosciences and become the natural basis for a neurosociology that promises a new collaboration between biologists, sociologists and philosophers. looking for correlations between intelligence, decentralization, and the development of postmodern society before our own reflections, generalizations, and conclusions, let us turn our attention to the views of recent scholars who have rationalized the role of the "separate mind" and the subject in the decentralizing processes of the postmodern. in particular, to understand the role of decentralization in postmodernism (or vice versa), it is important to recall some personal socially oriented theories. for example, post-fordism implies a rejection of the hierarchical conveyor belt in the production of both products and goods, and small-scale, cluster-based creation is considered the basis of the postmodern socio-economic system. scholars call such convergence "fragmented post-fordism," albertsen (1988, p. 339). interestingly, postthe impact of decentralization on the development of civil society in the ... volodymyr zablotskyi, et al. 637 fordists are not concerned with why industrialism and hierarchies have lost their credibility in the social economy: they focus on local alliances that are self-sufficient and systemic in the larger alliance of globalism. the basis of this understanding is the democratic and neoliberal openness of contingent centers to peripheral and even marginal senseand social-forming connections. among the author's concepts it is necessary to mention the phenomenon of neotribalism, which in postmodernism was formed on the basis of the concept of tribalism anti-colonial theory with elements of ethnic anarchism and cultural and domestic isolation. this term was first used by m. maffesoli when he sensed that postmodernist longing and uncertainty would direct people to search for existential and organizational aspects of life in the primary patrimonial inheritance: instead of connections of mass and administrative controllability, tribal and clan networks. consequently, society as a microgroup in its context can only be seen as an association of microgroups, maffesoli (1996), and the network of subjects associated with irrational values undoubtedly stimulates them to produce material, corporeal, and activity-based self-organizations. neotraibalism, as well as postmodern decentralization, we propose to consider on several levels (from the state to the individual and the domestic). however, the very essence of neotraibalism in relation to postmodernism is interesting in the opposition between individuality (postmodernism) and personhood (neotraibalism). personality can be either an individual or move to a higher, microgroup level of self-identity (afonin, & plyushch, 2017). consequently, if we project neotribalism on decentralization, we can recognize it as a destructive and reductive form of decentralization. however, this concept and this phenomenon has not so much a decentralizing potential as an interpretative one, capable of filling in "stratification gaps" and having a place in the conceptual paradigm of postmodernity. we have also drawn attention to decentralization not as a sociopolitical phenomenon, but as an element of postmodern artistic discourse. m. mojaveri agah, m. alyari, and h. shairi believes that the dichotomy of global and local in postmodern discourse always generates a movement toward any decentralization (mojaveri agah, alyari, & shairi, 2019). one can speak of the decentralization of discourses, narratives, and texts in general as a strategy of postmodern creation, or one can speak of the decentralization of individuals with their intention to interact rather than self-concentrate. among the tools of this centrifugal movement the authors include double orientation and multiple orientations, narrative structures, dynamic imagination, temporal and spatial expansion, which lead to interactions in current broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 638 postmodern discourse and pave the way for philosophical questions and research (mojaveri agah, alyari, & shairi, 2019, р. 213). the most general conclusion is this: the decentralization of individualities leads to postmodern communication with other individualities on one of the aspects relevant at the time, the intertwining (rather, contact) of individual rhizomatic ramifications for instant communication and the generation of new meaning. finally, we must talk about the specifics of decentralization of the postmodern information society in the pandemic and already post-pandemic era. the specificity of the course of the covid-19 pandemic has drawn even more attention to the region as a separate social and global unit. at this time, regionalism reaches its apogee. decentralization as a politicalphilosophical category includes a) the growing importance of regional constructivist models (the construction of space, interactions and effective alliances); b) the intensification of traditional models of cooperation at lower association levels (the evolution of locales); c) global attention to the regions; d) the interaction of close associations (neighboring states, regions, ethnic groups). some of the authors of our article and their colleagues have already written about this and noted that world regionalism is characterized by both convergent and divergent properties: it is much easier for us to explain decentralization within post-industrial europe than outside of it (prymakova, shulga, manuilova, novoselskyi, & hololobov, 2021). we will now reflect more autonomously. to understand the administrative and political impact of postmodernism as maximizing the possibilities for an individualistic philosophy of mind, we should consider it not as an artistic and cultural phenomenon, but as a transversal anthropological paradigm. it has not seriously touched only the exact sciences with their absolutely structural-logical basis. expressive proof of the influence of postmodernism on the material, urban and spatial sphere is postmodern architecture and postmodernists' criticism of such convenient and understandable architectural forms of modernism. p. galison even dared to call the empire state building "the dead point of new york," galison p. (2001), which could only stand for half a century. d. harvey even drew arguable parallels between modernist urban design/architecture and the rapid development of parallel self-management relationships in large cities, which led to the decline of external management and the rise to the forefront of self-organization of small and medium-sized enterprises, harvey d. (1989, р. 4). let us first turn our attention to decentralization in the political sense. the current level of political activity and the concentration of citizens on direct political participation indicates a gradual shift toward an activist the impact of decentralization on the development of civil society in the ... volodymyr zablotskyi, et al. 639 culture based on post-material values. and at the same time, the analysis of statistics shows a decrease in the level of trust in the authorities. currently there is a complex system of mutual influence of political culture and the process of self-organization of civil society, civil society remains the strongest element of the democratic transition of present-day ukraine, which has a powerful self-organizing potential. the democratization of territorial development management processes also implies broad involvement of the public, public organizations in cooperation with local governments and representatives of state power in solving local development issues. decentralization of governance opens up a wide space for local governments to take initiatives in implementing strategic objectives for community development. decentralization of power is a basic condition for establishing effective dialogue between the community and the district, the district and the region, and the region and the state. the introduction of participatory mechanisms in the community will contribute to the self-organization of the community in order to streamline its own life and development, unite around the desire to solve common problems. as a result, through the formation of a common position of citizens on important issues, the influence of the community on the local council will be strengthened. thus clear and transparent procedure of realization of rights of citizens on participation in management of society allows to regulate relations of power and community and is an effective way of selection of initiatives. to be implemented, the proposal or initiative must be substantive and useful to society. otherwise, it will be impossible to fulfill all the requirements of a properly prescribed procedure, and especially to obtain the support of fellow citizens. and the most important thing is the effect of residents' involvement in community affairs, which is a direct result of the introduction and use of mechanisms of citizens' involvement in community management. participation in the affairs of the community allows people to soberly assess the problems, to better understand them, to see the objective difficulties and obstacles faced by the government. the projection of the contradictions of postmodern society onto the binary nature of the human brain, which is equally naturally and permanently oriented both to itself (autonomy) and to other subjects (networking) allowed us to classify social phenomena according to the dichotomy principle (table 1). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 640 table 1: the cognitive and behavioral divergence of postmodernism and its implications postmodernism of the first type (signs) postmodernism of the second type (signs) loyalty cultural explosion directed inward denial of avant-gardism new social hierarchies emergence of a new middle class consumerism individualism ornamentalism and historical reconstruction opposition cultural explosion directed outward pragmatism, use of reality subjective openness and polymodality diversification of the middle class decentralization of social actors communities urban poly-structuring on the model of "medieval labyrinths" source: the table was compiled by the authors after analyzing s. lash's monograph, lash (2014). thus, s. lash, in our opinion, has most fully described the social and cultural dimensions of postmodernism according to the dichotomous principle. in our opinion, he bypassed only virtual information structures, which play a huge role in social communication and political decentralization. they can be classified as postmodern manifestations of the "second type". we would like to mention the activation of postmodernist narratives produced by the concepts man-world, city-world, structure-world. here, on the one hand, we see the universal rhizomatic regularity of j. deleuze (1980) and, on the other hand, the deeply historical and semi-mythological concept of hermes trismegisto about the principal repetition of large structures and systems in small ones, trismegisto (2021). let's dwell on this global historical parallel in more detail. on the one hand, h. trismegisto's (2021) concept is docent: it shows that the micro is a hologram of the macro, and the structural elements are capable of carrying information about the system. however, such a concept lends itself well to the decentralist principles of postmodernity, where horizontally dispersed carriers of discourses and meanings are able to touch the main thing, to reproduce it if necessary. the absence of hierarchy in, for example, j. deleuze and dispersion of small structures from the center can be extrapolated to the peculiar microsemantics and microsystematics of trismegisto. thus, we can assume: to a certain extent the evolution of monadic decentralization is inherently natural. the impact of decentralization on the development of civil society in the ... volodymyr zablotskyi, et al. 641 we come to an important conclusion, or rather observation: postmodernism is a kind of "hodgepodge" of historical attempts and manifestations of individualism, locality, and segmented civil society, so it sometimes seems that decentralization is primary relative to postmodern consciousness. to illustrate the determinant links between forms of decentralization (on the one hand) and the neurosocial attributes of a civil postmodern "society of reason" (on the other hand), we have compiled a corresponding table. (table 2). table 2: correlations between the experience of decentralization and signs of a postmodern society binary correlations postmodernism decentralization interdiscursivity play irony horizontality of connections individualism world as text (connectedness) narrativity "death of author/work." polycentrism context "flowing," impermanence disappointment in values demythologization tolerance interaction, networking social activism rejection of institutions and dogmas social self-organization subjectivity society as a network political/societal ideas deinstitutionalization decentralization proper environment mobility distrust of social dogmas loss of statist ideals, cults equality source: the table was compiled independently by the authors of the article based on the analysis on the other hand, we see that there is a dilemma: society, socium, administrative structure, etc., even in conditions of maximum decentralization, assume a stable community, sustainability, structuredness, and therefore resist the anti-hierarchy and full horizontal organization of postmodernism. if a member of postmodern society tries to be as individualized as possible in his dynamic intension and set of values, meanings and actions, and communications, then it should be recognized that the individual seems to "go" to society and culture when he needs to. we should note the instability of social ties and relations, except for natural (family), temporary (education) or one-time (participation in elections). so, centralization is not so much a new minimalist type of structure as it is a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 642 flexible state of society and politics at the minimal level of each personal mind. we conclude that there are multidimensional manifestations of decentralization in the era of postmodernism, realized in real (administrative decentralization, personal involvement and participation, freedom) and virtual (social networks, art, interdiscursiveness) dimensions. these manifestations require a new, or at least a working and broader definition of decentralization. we have come to believe that political-administrative decentralization is a partial manifestation of global restratification in solving social problems, which is horizontal in nature, covers all spheres, and reaches the lowest level of clustering the individual, his cognitive and motor activity. conclusions an analysis of the relevant literature of recent decades has shown that there are both generally accepted and alternative theories of decentralization and its determinant links with postmodernism. we would also like to note the depth and conceptuality of the works of p. galisson (2001), m. maffesoli (1995), j. anderson (1995; 1996), who have interpreted well the social role of postmodernism as a major resource of the "war against the center" (p. galisson's term (galisson, 2001). thus, since the late 1980s neuroscience has reached such an even greater flowering that along with computer systems it has become possible to simulate the neural networks of the human brain. social networks. we present the main results of the article below. we have formulated a new view of decentralization and theoretically, based on a polymodal analysis of the phenomenon of postmodernism (method) and human mind (tool), proved: socio-political and administrative decentralization is a partial manifestation of postmodernism, or more correctly, a manifestation and result of postmodernist mass. it should also be noted that the internet and online communication have become living instruments of decentralization and self-organization, because they have a direct correlation with neural networks. they have replaced institutional connections that have traditionally been bureaucratic and offline. we have also once again proved that postmodernism is not only a qualitatively new state of culture and society, but (as a consequence) also of the political, economic and social spheres. the new scientific-theoretical progress in the field under study may conclude about the "flickering" or pulsating nature of individualistic and group beginnings in the organization of societal management. this also the impact of decentralization on the development of civil society in the ... volodymyr zablotskyi, et al. 643 correlates with the biorhythmological nature of the human brain and bodily activity. the whole history of culture, as well as of forms of government, is a peculiar alternation, or at least a "flickering" between the dominance of individualistic attempts and their group mimicry. for example, recall the underlying essence of the main cultural paradigms: antiquity (individual) middle ages (collective) renaissance (individual) baroque (collective), etc. and so up to modernity, where artists and figures, despite the rush to individuality, still clearly fit into general currents, groups, movements, parties, etc. naturally, this reflexion is metaphysical and too philosophical to pretend to a clear classification and episteme. an important general-scientific result of our article is the proven thesis about the cumulative effect of individualistic, microgroup and other segmental manifestations of self-organization. we believe that with each epoch, paradigm, direction, sociocultural segmentation has increased, and the experience of acquiring identities and breaking with any organizing center has had a cumulative effect, which has led to total decentralization. it now permeates and is realized in all forms of social consciousness, as well as in social practice and state administration. thus, we can now assert that there is not just some kind of maximum decentralization, but a restratification of society, where, first, the state plays a very small role, and second, we observe not a dispersion of administrative functions on the ground, but a kind of dichotomy and pragmatic synergy. locality and mobility. mobility is most vividly observed in the activity of already individual actors. we can talk about a public policy of mobility, which state structures do not practically manage, but only stimulate (or do not stimulate) with resources. acknowledgements limitation of the study. the patterns described by the authors can be applied to specific regional models. sociometric and experimental neurosociological studies of decentralization and its postmodern dimensions require special attention. because the article is theoretical and sometimes philosophical, the authors had to integrate partial advances and reflections into one text. the author 1, who studied domestic and foreign literature, collaborated closely with the author 2 (conducting historical and comparativehistorical analysis), with the author 3, who extrapolated the traditional notion of decentralization and postmodernism to the neuroscientific plane. the author 4 was engaged in expedient reconstruction, making parallels and correlations between different theories; the author 5 modeled broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 644 philosophy of mind as a determinant of decentralization in the context of the postmodern, while the author 6 comprehensively argued the main theses at different levels of social being neurosocial, political, philosophical, economic, etc. references adolphs, r. (2003). cognitive neuroscience of human social behaviour. nat rev neurosci, 4, 165–178 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1056 afonin, e., & plyushch, v. (2017). neotraybalizm i suchasna polityka detsentralizatsiyi: analiz idey profesora sorbonny mishelya maffesoli [neotribalism and the present-day politics of decentralization: an analysis of the ideas of sorbonne professor michel maffesoli]. public administration, 4(9), 34-47. http://journals.maup.com.ua/index.php/publicmanagement/article/view/589 albertsen, n. (1988). postmodernism, post-fordism, and critical social theory. environment and planning d: society and space, 6(3), 339-365. https://doi.org/10.1068/d060339 anderson, j. (1996). the shifting stage of politics: new medieval and postmodern territorialities?. environment and planning d: society and space, 14(2), 133-153. https://doi.org/10.1068/d140133 anderson, j., & goodman, j. (1995). regions, states and the european union: modernist reaction or postmodern adaptation?. review of international political economy, 2(4), 600-631. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692299508434335 andersson, r., quigley, j. m., & wilhelmson, m. (2004). university decentralization as regional policy: the swedish experiment. journal of economic geography, 4(4), 371-388. https://doi.org/10.1093/jnlecg/lbh031 barresi, j., & moore, c. (2008). the neuroscience of social understanding. the shared mind: perspectives on intersubjectivity, 39-66. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=9e7c 0437c2c53e99884fa54370d1fa53e0042006 burkitt, i. (2019). emotions, social activity and neuroscience: the cultural-historical formation of emotion. new ideas in psychology, 54, 1-7. cassirer, e. (1951). philosophy of the enlightenment (vol. 7). princeton university press. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2018.11.001 chornodon, m., verbytska, k., haladzhun, z., ivanytska, b., & mudrokha, v. (2021). the conceptual framework of postmodern gender-labelled periodicals in ukraine. postmodern openings, 12(1sup1), 149-163. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.1sup1/276 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1056 http://journals.maup.com.ua/index.php/public-management/article/view/589 http://journals.maup.com.ua/index.php/public-management/article/view/589 https://doi.org/10.1068/d060339 https://doi.org/10.1068/d140133 https://doi.org/10.1080/09692299508434335 https://doi.org/10.1093/jnlecg/lbh031 https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=9e7c0437c2c53e99884fa54370d1fa53e0042006 https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=9e7c0437c2c53e99884fa54370d1fa53e0042006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2018.11.001 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.1sup1/276 the impact of decentralization on the development of civil society in the ... volodymyr zablotskyi, et al. 645 coleman, e. a. (2014). behavioral determinants of citizen involvement: evidence from natural resource decentralization policy. public administration review, 74(5), 642-654. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12249 deleuze, g., & guattari, f. (1980). a thousand plateaus. capitalism and schizophrenia. trans brian massumi. usa, minneapolis. felix, e. r., & trinidad, a. (2020). the decentralization of race: tracing the dilution of racial equity in educational policy. international journal of qualitative studies in education, 33(4), 465-490. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1681538 galison, p. (2001). war against the center. grey room, 4, 6-33. http://www.placemakers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/galison-.war_against_the_center.pdf harvey, d. (1989). from managerialism to entrepreneurialism: the transformation in urban governance in late capitalism. geografiska annaler: series b, human geography, 71(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.1989.11879583 kant, i., & kehrbach, k. (1913). kritik der praktischen vernunft (vol. 4). reclam. kiryachok, m., & melnyk, a. (2019). naukovo-krytychnyy dyskurs ukrayinsʹkoho postmodernizmu [the scientific and critical discourse of ukrainian postmodernism]. perspectives of science and education, 371. http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/bitstream/316497/35804/1/new_york_2 7092019.pdf#page=371 lash, s. (2014). sociology of postmodernism. routledge.maffesoli, m. (1995). the time of the tribes: the decline of individualism in mass society. sage. lyotard, j. f. (1979). la condition postmoderne. collection critique maffesoli, m. (1996). the time of the tribes. the decline of individualism in the mass society. m. – london: sage publications; thousand oaks, new delhi marchildon, g. (2016). postmodern federalism and sub-state nationalism. in the ashgate research companion to federalism (pp. 459-474). routledge. meloni, m. (2013). on the growing intellectual authority of neuroscience for political and moral theory. in vander valk f. (ed.), essays on neuroscience and political theory: thinking the body politic (pp. 25-49). routledge. mojaveri agah, m., alyari, m., & shairi, h. (2019). the study of decentralization component in postmodern illustrative narrative work. journal of literary criticism, 3(6), 213-185. doi: 20.1001.1.25886495.1398.3.2.8.1 nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/ 2625 https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12249 https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1681538 http://www.placemakers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/galison-.-war_against_the_center.pdf http://www.placemakers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/galison-.-war_against_the_center.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.1989.11879583 http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/bitstream/316497/35804/1/new_york_27092019.pdf#page=371 http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/bitstream/316497/35804/1/new_york_27092019.pdf#page=371 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 https://www.lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/2625 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 646 pitts-taylor, v. (2015). a feminist carnal sociology?: embodiment in sociology, feminism, and naturalized philosophy. qualitative sociology, 38, 19-25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-014-9298-4 raimundo, r., & rosário, a. (2021). blockchain system in the higher education. european journal of investigation in health, psychology and education, 11(1), 276293. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe11010021 rorty, r. (2009). philosophy and the mirror of nature. princeton university press. schilbach, l., eickhoff, s. b., mojzisch, a., & vogeley, k. (2008). what's in a smile? neural correlates of facial embodiment during social interaction. social neuroscience, 3(1), 37-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470910701563228 sellars, w., rorty, r., & brandom, r. b. (1997). empiricism and the philosophy of mind (vol. 1). harvard university press. king, m. l. (1986). i have a dream (p. 860). mpi home video. shevchuk, d. (2011). postmoderni vymiry politychnoyi filosofiyi. filosofiya. pedahohika. suspilʹstvo [postmodern dimensions of political philosophy. philosophy. pedagogy. society.] collection of scientific works of rivne state university for the humanities, 1, 76-89. http://eprints.oa.edu.ua/id/eprint/3748 shkurko, y. s. (2018). development of evolutionary neurosociology: behavioral biograms and biological predisposition to social inequality. sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya, (9), 23-29. 10.31857/s013216250001955-3 trismegisto, h. (2021). corpus hermeticum. edaf. verploegen, n. (1978). "... a balance of head, heart, and hand": the philosophy of decentralization in the works of ivan illich, ef schumacher, and john todd (doctoral dissertation). https://scholars.carroll.edu/handle/20.500.12647/3746 vrtička, p., & vuilleumier, p. (2012). neuroscience of human social interactions and adult attachment style. frontiers in human neuroscience, 6, 212. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00212 zhang, w., & li, g. (2022). environmental decentralization, environmental protection investment, and green technology innovation. environ sci pollut res, 29, 12740–12755. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09849-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-014-9298-4 https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe11010021 https://doi.org/10.1080/17470910701563228 http://eprints.oa.edu.ua/id/eprint/3748 https://scholars.carroll.edu/handle/20.500.12647/3746 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00212 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09849-z brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 94-106 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/240 behavioral analysis of individuals in crises oksana serhieienkova¹, svitlana kalishchuk2, oleksandra kohut3, inna dobrenko4, lut suyusanov5 1 borys grinchenko kyiv university, ukraine, okgenik@gmail.com 2 borys grinchenko kyiv university, ukraine, klana_@ukr.net 3 donetsk state university of internal affairs, mariupol, ukraine, aleksandra13-76@ukr.net 4 berdyansk university of management and business, ukraine, dobrenko.inna@gmail.com 5 donetsk state university of internal affairs, mariupol, ukraine, lyt.sujusanow@gmail.com abstract: political, social, economic, and civilization changes trigger a number of issues that require the development of personal characteristics sufficient for survival and adaptation to life in a society stricken by a crisis. in general, we can talk about a neurotic personality, the signs of which manifest themselves in anxiety, the actualization of specific negative defenses, suspicion, feelings of resentment and guilt, loss of sense in life. to prevent or counteract these disrupting behaviors, one needs to seek meanings and ideas of self-actualization, to grow spiritually, acquire "psychological culture" while learning to build their life experience in the form of the worldview of reality, so-called semantic pictureу of the world. the development and reinforcement of this worldview are made possible due to spiritual values, reflective thinking, conscience, intuition, achieving integrity and the highest cognitive and aesthetic human needs, which are respect and self-actualization. such type of individual is open-minded and inquisitive, ready to push the boundaries, which is also a sign of the capability for transcendence. keywords: psychological culture, crisis society, neurotic personality, self-actualization, spiritual values, reflective thinking, conflict behavior. how to cite: serhieienkova, o., kalishchuk, s., kohut, o., dobrenko, i., & suyusanov, l. (2021). behavioral analysis of individuals in crises. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 94-106. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/240 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/240 mailto:okgenik@gmail.com mailto:klana_@ukr.net mailto:aleksandra13-76@ukr.net mailto:dobrenko.inna@gmail.com mailto:lyt.sujusanow@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/240 behavioral analysis of individuals in crises oksana serhieienkova, et al. 95 introduction scientists typically describe critical life situations through such terms as stress, conflict, crisis, and frustration. as of today, the relationship between these concepts remains unresolved by science. stress is viewed as a mini-crisis. the chinese interpret crisis as a tragedy but, at the same time, as an opportunity for growth, while seeing conflict as a path to neurosis and deem it an opportunity for development. frustration is scientifically interpreted as an aggressive reaction to the obstacles on the way to the desired goal. all these situations are united by the concept of "stress resistance". if a person is trained to find a way out of crisis and use it as a resource for development, they automatically change their adaptive capabilities and learn to be in a state of balance and harmony (gerasymova et al., 2019; nerubasska et al., 2020; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020; sheremet et al., 2019). political, social, economic, and civilization changes bring about a number of issues that require the development of personal characteristics necessary for survival and adaptation to life in a society stricken by a crisis. this volatility causes ambiguity in personal ways of development (horney, 1997). the inability to develop a specific set of values and views of the events happening in the world contributes to the crisis and suffering in various domains of human personality and existence. the chaotic nature of social phenomena is often subjectively perceived as a crisis of normative ideas about the relationship between the individual and society. the economic crisis, meanwhile, is seen as a conflict between the poor and the rich. today, researchers view the globalization trend as the main culprit of the civilization crisis (kovaliov, 2016). the technological revolution poses a threat to human civilization, especially after having effectively introduced such phenomena in the media as internet wars or the 25th frame effect. whereas the ethnic crisis is a misunderstanding of communities that have different mentalities often expressed in political views, personal crisis manifests itself as an internal conflict, neurosis and can be both the cause and result of the crises mentioned above. speaking of our adaptation in the contemporary social and cultural environment, scientists have come up with a notion of the “psychological culture of a personality” (kuzikova, 2008). the analysis of the relevant scientific literature allows suggesting that, in the psychological dimension, the inability to adapt to modern society can manifest itself in varied forms of neurosis. we consider the personal level of crisis in terms of changes that occur in the individual under the influence of social instability. in general brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 96 terms, we are talking about a neurotic personality, recognized by increased anxiety, the actualization of specific negative defenses, and suspicion. neuroticism makes it difficult for an individual to tell sincerity from insincerity. they tend to be rigid and stubbornly refuse to accept other people’s views; they are constantly suffering, struggling to develop a relationship with others, which is manifested in internal conflict, imbalance and distortion of character structure, inconsistency in actions and behavior, painful addiction and obsessions. the neurotic internal conflicts deprive an individual of the possibility of choice, which is impeded by their conflicted nature and the internal prohibitions that severely limit such people in relationships and self-actualization. their "ego-concept" is dominated by an unconscious tendency to evaluate themselves based on what others think of them, resulting in low self-esteem. internal conflict is part of both a healthy and a neurotic personality while neurosis can be caused by a crisis, it can also form before a crisis breaks out. according to horney (1997), interpersonal trends that people use to maintain social security are defined as moving toward people, moving against people and moving away from people depending on the motivation. moving towards people is of a gradual nature because here an individual is seeking love and acceptance. moving against everybody is inherent to aggressive, dominant personalities who are driven by the desire to survive; they tend to be competitive and seek to be superior to others, often displaying the necessity to manipulate people (“how can i benefit from this person?”) and even sadistic behaviors. they always aspire to win where their job is the means of accomplishing their goals. they seldom feel happy with their job, and the feelings are consistently suppressed because they would distract from the goal and stand in the way to success. the internal conflict forms the structural basis of neurosis. however, it should be noted that internal conflict is peculiar to mentally stable people as well. what is different is that a mentally healthy individual perceives constructive conflict and contributes to personal development, while neurotic conflict is often unconscious and aggravates the neurotic situation. we can describe the internal conflict in many ways. for example, it can be the controversy between the structures that express the instinctive nature of identity and the cultural nature of a “superego” (according to freud, 1993). it can be a clash of the internal needs of internally contradictory states of personality, such as the state of the child whose actions are governed by emotional desires, and opportunities to satisfy them, behavioral analysis of individuals in crises oksana serhieienkova, et al. 97 expressed by the state of the father, guided by the principle of necessity (according to berne, 1992). the internal conflict can also arise between the individual’s ego and the rest of the world, which calls for sharp rigid selfcontrol, cynicism, casting away doubts, loss of moral values (according to horney, 1997). it can also manifest itself in a disturbance of the balance between conscious and unconscious (according to jung, 1997). stressful situations reveal inadequate reactions in people with impaired psychological protection. in childhood, the psyche protects us from psychological trauma, but when we grow up such protection is inadequately expressed and forms an aggressive personality. according to the doctrine of freud (1993), frustration together with conflicts motivate a person to master new ways of stress reduction, which is possible through such methods as identification and substitution. here are some statistics from the study of various forms of aggression among 77 students of technical universities in 2014 and 2015. the research based on the aggression test developed by bass et al. (2008) produced the following results: 24.67% of the surveyed reported physical aggression above the norm; 28,57% of surveyed students reported verbal aggression; 15.58% reported indirect aggression (evil jokes, ridicule, slander, and gossip) and aggression not directed at anyone (disordered anger, observed in screaming, banging fists on the table, stomping feet); negative thinking (oppositional manner in behavior from passive resistance to active struggle against established customs and laws, typically directed against the authorities or management) was indicated in 25.97% of respondents; annoyance (even at slightest irritation a person would be ready to express rudeness, irritability, resentment, sharpness) was found in 11,68 %; 44,7% of the surveyed reported suspicion that ranges between distrust and caution towards people and confidence that others plot something villainous; 49,35 % were indicated as prone to resentment or bearing a grudge (envy and hatred towards others for actual and imaginary actions); finally, 40,25% were found tending to auto aggression or a feeling of guilt, which means subjects think they are bad people, therefore, they experience pangs of conscience. as can be inferred, the respondents received the highest scores on the scales "suspicion", "feelings of resentment" and "guilt" (see table 1). brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 98 table 1. statistical data of research in various forms of aggression among students of technical university types of aggression exceeding the norm in % of respondents physical aggression 24,67 verbal aggression 28,57 indirect aggression 15,58 negative thinking 25,97 annoyance 11,68 suspiciousness 44,77 resentment 49,35 auto aggression 40,25 perceived at the level of public consciousness, social stratification is subjectively experienced as a crisis of social values and ideals, in particular, the high examples of social justice. values underlie our understanding of the meaning of life. they navigate us in search for answers to the eternal questions such as what is the sense of life? or what for do i wake up every day? the sense of own worth and purpose are powerful driving forces for personal motivation. unfortunately, nowadays, an increasing number of people struggle to find a clear purpose for their existence. dr viktor frankl (1990) pointed out that an individual without a sense of life is a creature with no ideas, completely devoid of interest in self-actualization. as a rule, such people tend to avoid or escape from reality, growing addicted to environments where they can be someone else and easily reach their goals, which is already a trend as we witness the rapid growth in popularity of video games. such people are often oriented by false values and, thus, set false goals, for instance, placing priority on material wealth. these people are believed to abandon the spiritual values: humanity, integrity, sincerity, harmonious development. the risk to lose the sense of life is the highest for such people because they often lack interest in life, which is bound to result in existential frustration or existential vacuum. according to viktor frankl (1990), it contributes to noogenic neurosis. on the bright side, however, if seeking professional help, they can be analyzed and understood, thus an individual would be able to divert the energy into a constructive direction. the subject of the chosen discussion at the socio-psychological level behavioral analysis of individuals in crises oksana serhieienkova, et al. 99 is social situations in which a particular social group is guided by a normative model of behavior regarding the purpose and outcome of their activities. the multiple crises of contemporary society complicate the situation with a social choice, adoption of social norms, and the process on the whole. the situation with choice is connected with the selectivity of the information necessary for the personal growth of an individual, freedom in control over their life and responsibility before themselves and other people. freedom of choice is based on the developed reflexivity of the individual because the choice means conscious decision-making, which is possible as long as a person understands the nature of the situation. responsibility is an ethical prerogative of a person that indicates their developed spirituality. each time in history is characterized by a certain specificity of neuroses, according to which different psychotherapeutic directions were formed. "a constructive theory of neuroses" by horney (1997) is aimed at the real integration of personality. according to the researcher, the change in the conditions in which the neuroses were formed, contributes to the solution of neurotic problems. carl gustav jung (1997) considered neurosis as a sign of some superpower that is pointing at the necessity of intrapersonal growth. this assumption resonates with the views of other renowned scientists such as freud (1993) and james (2000). they believed "personal growth" to be the most important concept on which a person's ability to exist under given conditions depends. however, as a clinician, freud (1993) was more curious about individual aspects of ego, emphasizing the idea of self. in the light of this position, a person who would show interest in others could understand their own problems, desires, and worries more effectively, thus, also, achieving their goals. james (2000) and his followers, on the other hand, were concerned with interpersonal relationships. words can kill, they can also heal, which was proved by viktor frankl (1990). dr frankl’s logotherapy (1990) is a philosophy rather than a mechanism. contemporary philosophers point to the need to develop worldview sciences. in modern psychological science, the term "psychological culture of the individual” is used to define the behavior model in society. psychologist kuzikova (2008) singles out the philosophical meaning of this concept and connects it with the processes of selfactualization, personal growth and ways of organizing psychological experience in the form of worldview understanding of reality, semantic picture or a model of the world. motkov (1999) dedicated his work to the research of the instrumental, technological constituent of the human psychological culture. brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 100 the scientist argues that psychological culture is, first of all, high quality of self-organization and self-regulation of all activities, expressed in patterns of behavior. he believes people with a higher level of psychological culture can manage their functional states, maintain positivity, well-being and vitality. they can be generally characterized as content with life because they have worked on and mastered the system of such tools as self-awareness, healthy communication, control of their emotions and actions, creative search, selfdevelopment, and their aspirations while taking into account the internal needs, possibilities and features of the social environment. psychological culture of personality along with an efficient lifestyle and developed spiritual values, psychological culture provides for harmonious and resilient psychological health. but the harmonious holistic development of the individual must occur simultaneously with the formation of other aspects of culture. when someone builds some specific plan of action, all levels of personality cooperate, namely, the initial psychobiological level, level of operative "self" and the "highest" level of spiritual orientations and values. when speaking of the psychological culture development of young men, contemporary psychologists place an emphasis on the formation of reflective thinking. in his methodology “psychological culture of personality”, motkov (1999) outlines a set of skills necessary for successful personal self-organization in the modern social and cultural environment. the skills that young men should learn include the ability to clearly understand themselves and their desires, their character; to listen carefully to the other, without losing the logic of the interlocutor’s thoughts; to flexibly manage their mood, desires and actions; to boldly challenge themselves in new situations and new businesses; wisely plan time, to choose a job based on personal capabilities; to develop themselves incessantly; to understand psychological causes to why their mood changes; understand their own mistakes; to keep a clear head and composure in conflict situations; to express negative desires and emotions carefully and with consideration towards other people; to create original ideas and unusual images; to keep promises and fulfill business agreements; maintain the mental and physical strength; realize their purpose, and actualize their potential in life; express their thoughts clearly and confidently; respond quickly to unsatisfactory condition and find ways to improve it; to practically implement their new ideas, create new methods of work; to follow things through, to prioritize important goals; to independently overcome bad habits and develop positive behavioral analysis of individuals in crises oksana serhieienkova, et al. 101 ones. the irrational structures of the psychological culture require, however, further research. according to frankl (1990), these structures are non-reflexive methods of self-development. thus, the irrational structures of the individual psyche become the cultural determinants of the development of meaning. frankl (1990, p. 97) sees conscience as one of them. conscience is immersed in the depths of the unconscious and is the structure of the "spiritual unconscious." it helps a person to make existential decisions of non-reflective origin building upon the unconscious, so it has signs of irrationality. whereas our consciousness is directed to what already exists, the conscience is directed to something that has not happened yet, something about to be realized, and what will be carried out in the act of contemplation by intuition. conscience as an intuitive function can be meaningful and rational only after some time. frankl (1990) believed that through suffering, a person can change and become complete. this integrity can be found in the higher manifestations of personality, which, according to maslow (1997), occupy the highest levels of our needs, which are cognitive, aesthetic needs, the need for respect and self-actualization. such a personality is open-minded and ready to push their boundaries, which speaks for their capacity for self-transcendence. a person focused entirely on physical needs is not inclined to make extra effort for the sake of creativity. they seek excitement and pleasure. focus on meaning and values are the elements inherent to a healthy personality. basically, to be a person means to be present in the world, to have relationships with others. self-actualization and happiness are possible through the cognition of the senses (bühler, 1968). modern psychologists did a series of experimental studies to find that a high level of psychological culture relies on the presence of positive psychological defense mechanisms, harmony, the general level of culture, psychological well-being, flexibility, self-discipline, and spontaneity, which correlates with their "spiritual satisfaction". people with a developed psychological culture rate their functional mental states (well-being, mood, general activity, sustainable happiness) higher than people with a low level of psychological culture. according to tchaprak (2009), the term "psychological culture" helps to describe and understand the psychological conditions for overcoming the disintegration of personality value systems during a crisis of a certain type of culture. individual psychological culture cannot be considered outside the context of the culture in which a person grew up and lives. in the epistemological framework, these are the components of culture brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 102 singled out in philosophy and culturology, namely the normativity of social behavior, its role functions, social expectations, psychological knowledge, meanings expressed in images, symbols, gestures and words, the way we dress, values as an image of the ideal, desirable and normative. the procedure-and-activity aspect of the psychological culture analysis is determined by the scope and content of tasks that an individual needs to learn to solve. in the subjective-personal aspect of the analysis, those components arise that are objectively represented in the culture, and they became the personality’s acquisition, and are assigned to the subject in relationships. culture is seen as the indicator of a person who has achieved a certain harmony that allows stable social and productive inclusion in public life and work, as well as emotional comfort. howard gardner (2007), a developmental psychologist who was studying the multiple intellects of an individual, concluded that it is symbols and symbolic systems that express sounds, moods, feelings, connect the intellectual capacity and the formed culture of the individual. based on the manifestation of symbolic abilities in the ontogenesis of personality, gardner (2007, p. 355) identifies four stages of adaptation in society. it all starts in infancy, which is the time for the acquisition of rudimentary skills, as the basis for further development of symbols and the detection of symbolic actions. then, we proceed with early childhood (from two to five years) where the acquisition of skills to work with a number of symbolic systems occurs. we move into the school age where we improve skills in some areas of symbolism, which are valued in a particular culture. finally, in adolescence and adulthood, we become accomplished in the use of symbols, transferring symbolic knowledge, and generating original symbolic products. the social and psychological crisis is brought about by differences in the mentality of people, which complicates the ability to understand each other. as is said, a lumberjack, a botanist and an artist will see three different ecosystems in one forest. the term "neurotic" cannot be understood without considering the cultural conditions of neurosis. what we perceive as the norm varies in different cultures. if we are aware of the cultural conditions we live in we have a better chance to study and understand the neuroses. the cultural factors impact our psychological conditions. the cultural context in the treatment of neuroses was acknowledged by the great minds of sullivan (1999), horney (1997), and frankl (1990). neurosis is a deviation from the norm, but people can deviate from conventional patterns without negative consequences. a person with neurosis stands in their own way, because of anxiety and negative forms of social protection, caused by the personality behavioral analysis of individuals in crises oksana serhieienkova, et al. 103 poorly adapted to the conditions of society. culture and history interpret different patterns of behavior differently. cultural conditions determine certain forms of neurosis. such neuroses stem from various forms of prohibition, in particular, the prohibition of pleasure in culture (from work, from relationships with people). every culture has its peculiar neurosis type. freeman (1983) has proved that some cultures do not feature neuroses at all, for instance, a cyclical culture. in modern culture, time is discrete (present, past and future), thus, people are neurotic. fromm (2018) developed a method of applying cultural factors in the treatment of neuroses, the formation of guidelines for productive activities. in contrast to the symbiotic relationship, the mature person retains their integrity. fromm (2018) is convinced that the more a person knows and understands, the bigger their capacity for love is, and the bigger their accomplishment in the process of creating a unity with the world. this unity is achieved through a state of focused meditation, the movement of the soul. the activity of internal forces is independent of changes in the external world. a personality that is motivated by passion is not focused on love. to love means to give, not to receive. love is a dynamic concern and consideration. responsibility is a voluntary act in response to the needs of others; to be responsible means to worry about others, about their spiritual needs. respect is a fundamental feature in a developed society as it navigates people to be considerate to others, observe and be aware of the individuality of others while also showing interest in the individual’s selfdevelopment but following own path and not serving somebody else’s interests. a mature person should have a developed set of guidelines that help in day-to-day life. a mature person is free from the image of mother and father, instead, forming the inner self-consciousness of their parents. conclusions summarizing the presented theoretic research, we now have a possibility to identify the factors of personality stress resilience, according to the criteria of cognitive and volitional structural components: "fielddependence -independence" and "adaptation-maladaptation”. the results are presented in table 2. table 2. stress resilience indicators adaptation (self-organization, self-regulation) adaptation to the existing living conditions without the ability to change self-actualization (presence of meaning of life; orientation on conscience, sense of brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 104 them or influence them ethics; an individual is self-organized and has a purpose of life; integral; when in conflict, moves towards people; possesses developed psychological culture maladaptation interdependent neurotic (anxious, aggressive, with sadistic tendencies, has no freedom of choice) neurotic with the illusion of freedom of choice (unrealized; irresponsible; with no determined life path of development; when in conflict, tends to move away from people) field dependence field independence (freedom of choice) references bass, а., khvan, а. а., zaitsev, u. a., & kuznetsova, u. a. (2020). standartizatsiya oprosnika a. bassa i a. darki [questionnaire standardization by а. bass and а. darka]. psikhologicheskaya diagnostika, 1, 35-58. http://irbis.bigpi.biysk.ru/cgibin/irbis64r_12/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=sks&p21d bn=sks&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s2 1cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=1&s21p03=a=&s21str=%d0%a5% d0%b2%d0%b0%d0%bd,%20%d0%90.%20%d0%90 berne, e. (1992). psihologiya tchelovetcheskoi sudby [games people play: the psychology of human relationships]. pramber. (original work published 1964). http://loveread.ec/contents.php?id=2086 bühler, c. (1968). kurs liudskoho zhyttia: vyvchennya tsilei u humanistytchniy perspektyvi [the course of human life: a study of goals in the humanistic perspective]. apriori-nauka. https://apriorinauka.ru/management/sharlotta-byuler-zhiznennyi-put-chelovekasociologiya-molodezhi.html frankl, v. (1990). liudyna v poshukaach spravzhnioho sensu [man in search of meaning: collection]. (l. y. gozman & d. a. leontiev, trans). progress. (original work published 1946) freeman, d. (1983). margaret mead and samoa: the making and unmaking of an anthropological myth. australian national university press. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/114717 http://irbis.bigpi.biysk.ru/cgi-bin/irbis64r_12/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=sks&p21dbn=sks&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=1&s21p03=a=&s21str=%d0%a5%d0%b2%d0%b0%d0%bd,%20%d0%90.%20%d0%90 http://irbis.bigpi.biysk.ru/cgi-bin/irbis64r_12/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=sks&p21dbn=sks&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=1&s21p03=a=&s21str=%d0%a5%d0%b2%d0%b0%d0%bd,%20%d0%90.%20%d0%90 http://irbis.bigpi.biysk.ru/cgi-bin/irbis64r_12/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=sks&p21dbn=sks&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=1&s21p03=a=&s21str=%d0%a5%d0%b2%d0%b0%d0%bd,%20%d0%90.%20%d0%90 http://irbis.bigpi.biysk.ru/cgi-bin/irbis64r_12/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=sks&p21dbn=sks&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=1&s21p03=a=&s21str=%d0%a5%d0%b2%d0%b0%d0%bd,%20%d0%90.%20%d0%90 http://irbis.bigpi.biysk.ru/cgi-bin/irbis64r_12/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=sks&p21dbn=sks&s21stn=1&s21ref=&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=1&s21p03=a=&s21str=%d0%a5%d0%b2%d0%b0%d0%bd,%20%d0%90.%20%d0%90 http://loveread.ec/contents.php?id=2086 https://apriori-nauka.ru/management/sharlotta-byuler-zhiznennyi-put-cheloveka-sociologiya-molodezhi.html https://apriori-nauka.ru/management/sharlotta-byuler-zhiznennyi-put-cheloveka-sociologiya-molodezhi.html https://apriori-nauka.ru/management/sharlotta-byuler-zhiznennyi-put-cheloveka-sociologiya-molodezhi.html https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/114717 behavioral analysis of individuals in crises oksana serhieienkova, et al. 105 freud, a. (1993). psikhologiya ya i zashchitnyye mekhanizmy [the ego and the mechanisms of defense]. pedagogika. (original work published 1937) fromm, e. (2018) begstvo ot svobody [escape from freedom] (a. v. alexandrova, trans.). аст. (original work published 1941) gardner, h. (2007) struktura razuma [the structure of mind]. wiliams. (original work published 1983). http://www.williamspublishing.com/books/978-58459-1153-7.html gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 horney, k. (1997). nevroz i litchnostnuy rost: borba za samorealizatsiyu. [neurosis and human growth: the struggle towards self-realization] (e. zamfir, trans.). east european institute of psychoanalysis and bsk. http://psylib.org.ua/books/hornk03/index.htm james, w. (2000). vvedeniye v filosofiyu [conception to philosophy] (a.f. griaznova, trad.). respublika. https://uchebnikfree.com/filosofiyuvvedenie/vvedenie-filosofiyu-rassel-problemyi-filosofii.html jung, c. (1997). soznaniye i bessoznatelnoye [consciousness and the unconscious] (a.a. alekseev, trans.) universitetskaya kniga. (original work published 1912) kovaliov, s. v. (2016). nlp. programma stchaslivaya sudba [nlp “happy destiny” program]. ast publishing house. kuzikova, s. b. (2008). psyhologichnyi trening yak zasib aktyvatsii protsesiv osobystisnoho samorozvytku [psychological training as a means of activating the processes of personal self-development]. aktualni problermy psykholohiyi, х(54), 29-299. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229041197.pdf maslow, a. (1997). psykholohiya buttia [toward a psychology of being] (v. danchenko, trans). reflbuk. (original work published 1962) http://psylib.org.ua/books/masla02/index.htm motkov, о. i. (1999). metodika “psikhologitcheskaya kultura litchnosti” [methodology "psychological culture of personality"]. schkolnuy psikholog, 15, 8-9. http://www.psychology-online.net/articles/doc-392.html nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new http://www.williamspublishing.com/books/978-5-8459-1153-7.html http://www.williamspublishing.com/books/978-5-8459-1153-7.html https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 http://psylib.org.ua/books/hornk03/index.htm https://uchebnikfree.com/filosofiyu-vvedenie/vvedenie-filosofiyu-rassel-problemyi-filosofii.html https://uchebnikfree.com/filosofiyu-vvedenie/vvedenie-filosofiyu-rassel-problemyi-filosofii.html https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229041197.pdf http://psylib.org.ua/books/masla02/index.htm http://www.psychology-online.net/articles/doc-392.html https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 106 potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sullivan, h. s. (1999). interpersonalnaya teoriya v psikhiatriyi [the interpersonal theory of psychiatry]. east european institute of psychoanalysis. (original work published 1953). https://shag.com.ua/sallivan-g-s-interpersonalenayateoriya-psihiatrii.html tchaprak, y. v. (2009). psychologichna kultura yak nevidyemnuy component professionalizmu pedahoha [psychological culture as an integral component of teacher professionalism]. http://www.nbuv.gov.ua/old_jrn/soc_gum/vknukim_ped/2009_21/17. pdf. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 https://shag.com.ua/sallivan-g-s-interpersonalenaya-teoriya-psihiatrii.html https://shag.com.ua/sallivan-g-s-interpersonalenaya-teoriya-psihiatrii.html http://www.nbuv.gov.ua/old_jrn/soc_gum/vknukim_ped/2009_21/17.pdf http://www.nbuv.gov.ua/old_jrn/soc_gum/vknukim_ped/2009_21/17.pdf title of your paper, capitalize first letter brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 51-66 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/302 submitted: november 8th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 13th, 2022 speech activity research program in children with autistic disorders of senior preschool age nataliia bazyma¹, valentyna serheieva2, nataliia ivanova3, viktoriia zviekova4, olena utosovа5, oksana sorochynska6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, bazymanataliia@gmail.com 2 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, valentina.sergeeva@live.com 3 іnstitution of higher education "lutsk pedagogical college" of volyn regional council, ukraine, iva.chumbas@gmail.com 4 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, vikazvekova19@gmail.com 5 zakarpattia institute of postgraduate pedagogical education, ukraine, elenautiosova88@gmail.com 6 zhytomyr ivan franko state university, ukraine, ksena21031977@gmail.com abstract: one of the recent problems of the formation of speech function, which is studied in pedagogical, psychological, linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects is the formation of speech activity, in particular, in children with autistic disorders. the methodology for determining the level of speech activity in children with autistic disorders of older preschool age included examination of the impressive side of speech (finding out the level of understanding of statements containing affectively significant words, the possibility of executing instructions in the context of a spontaneous situation and following instructions outside the context of the situation (examination in a spontaneous situation). checking the understanding of the names of objects, the names of actions, the names of the qualities and properties of objects and spatio-temporal relations (examination in specially organized conditions). checking the expressive side of speech (studying the quality of the use in speech of the corresponding linguistic units (words, phrases, phrases, sentences) and vocalizations, onomatopoeia and sound complexes, methods of verbal or non-verbal expression of desires and the presence or absence of one's own statements without provocations to speech activity on the part of the experimenter (examination in a spontaneous situation). examination of the lexical stock (examination of the dictionary of nouns, the dictionary of verbs and the dictionary of adjectives), examination of the grammatical side of speech (examination of the skills of inflexion, word formation, combining two simple sentences into a complex one) and examination of the state of development of coherent speech (examination in specially organized conditions). keywords: neuropsychological and neurolinguistic diagnostics, impressive side of speech, spontaneous situations, expressive side of speech, spatio-temporal relations, lexical stock, development of coherent speech. how to cite: bazyma, n., serheieva, v., ivanova, n., zviekova, v., utosovа, o., & sorochynska, o. (2022). speech activity research program in children with autistic disorders of senior preschool age. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 51-66. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/302 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/302 mailto:bazymanataliia@gmail.com mailto:valentina.sergeeva@live.com mailto:iva.chumbas@gmail.com mailto:vikazvekova19@gmail.com mailto:elenautiosova88@gmail.com mailto:ksena21031977@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/302 speech activity research program in children with autistic disorders of senior … nataliia bazyma, et al. 52 introduction the current stage of the formation of correctional assistance in ukraine is marked by an increase in the attention of scientists to the improvement of the scientific, theoretical and methodological apparatus of correctional and developmental education of children with various disorders of psychophysical development in order to create effective correctional programs that contribute to the optimization of the personal development of the child. in the special literature devoted to the problem of studying the speech development of children, including those with speech disorders, various approaches to studying the issue of examining and correcting the speech of preschool-age children in all its structural components are presented (amir, 1999; attwood, 1998; baron-cohen et al., 1996; behas et al., 2019; gillingham, 2000; grandin, 2008; quill, 2002; melnyk et al., 2021; melnyk et al., 2019; nurieva, 2003; scambler et al., 2001; sheremet et al., 2019). the process of formation of speech function was studied in pedagogical, psychological, linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects. but, despite a wide range of studies, speech development and, in particular, the formation of speech activity in children with autistic disorders of senior preschool age remained out of sight of scientists all of the above data determine an experimental study of the state of speech activity formation in children with autistic disorders of senior preschool age. we have set a program of psychological and pedagogical experiment in order to implement this task. compliance with the principles of an individual and differentiated approach follows from the polymorphic nature of autistic disorders and the variety of presentations of this disorder, it involves taking into account the degree and quality of disturbance or safekeeping of certain functions along with an orientation towards age-related and individual characterological characteristics in combination with the active use of the child's interests and hobbies. considering the depletion of the nervous system and the rapid overload of impressions, the duration of interaction with the child was about 20-30 minutes a day. the specified time of the examination could vary somewhat or be modified and depended on the child's ability to interact with the experimenter, adapt to the situation, and organize his own spare time. the survey was conducted in a spontaneous situation and in specially organized conditions. in the process of an experimental study of the features of speech activity formation in children with autistic disorders, taking into account their psychological characteristics and capabilities, the following brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 53 levels of help were used: individual selection of visual material, focusing on gender, preferences and possible emotional passions of children; clear and concise design of instructions in a simple imperative sentence; re-message the task instruction; asking leading questions to improve the ability to understand and follow instructions; providing a sample of the assignment; completing the task in collaboration (in parallel) with the experimenter. the results of studies of children speech development with normal and impaired development open up new opportunities for assessment and differentiated approach to verbal techniques, which v.i. lubovsky (1989) divided into two large groups: 1. methods that do not go beyond the speech material that is contained in the tasks and do not require active transformation of this material; 2. methods involving the transformation of the material that is contained in the tasks or the use of another material or other data (lubovsky, 1989). to study the state of development of both speech and non-speech processes, (lubovsky, 1989) proposes not to develop new tests, but to find the principles of adaptation of known techniques and recommends using two well-known methods: 1. the method of a free speaking, which based on a simple plot figure, gives the child the opportunity to use well-solidified, automated speech material and strengthened grammatical connections; 2. first of all, the method of composing a phrase based on key words, which requires the child to establish semantic connections and, in general, does not allow the use of strengthened grammatical stereotypes. having analyzed the methods of neuropsychological and neurolinguistic diagnostics (vizel, 2005), the method "profile of social development of the child" (averyanov, 2007), the method of diagnostics and development of simultaneous and succesive syntheses (tarasun, 2001) “psychological and educational profile” (pep-r): for diagnosing psychoeducational (psychoeducational) profile of a child (schopler et al., 1990), cars methodology (childhood autism rating scale) scale for assessing childhood autism (schopler et al., 1990), card of psychological and pedagogical study of autistic children (shulzhenko, 2005), chat questionnaire (checklist for autism in toddlers) (baron-cohen et al., 1996), protocol of primary examination of speech of children with autism (morozov, 1998), we have developed a questionnaire for the study of communication skills, which consists of five blocks and was offered for filling out to parents, educators, speech therapists, psychologists, correctional teachers – that is, people who often interact with children with autistic disorders and can objectively assess the characteristics of their behavior and the impact of communication skills. with the study of data on speech activity research program in children with autistic disorders of senior … nataliia bazyma, et al. 54 the state of development of communication skills of children, in parallel, a survey was carried out examination of the methodology for determining the level of speech activity of children with autistic disorders of senior preschool age, which took place in two stages: examination of the impressive side of speech, because the perception and understanding of external speaking is a process, turned to the process of language formation, where the central core of the processing of verbal messages is internal speech and examination of the expressive side of speech (zhinkin, 1998). methods for determining the impressive side of children speech with autistic disorders of senior preschool age the task began with the instructions of the experimenter and completed the child's response or lack of it (due to unwillingness to complete tasks or inability to respond). v.i. lubovsky (1989) comes to the conclusion that the construction of an independent statement in response to any verbal task can be difficult due to two reasons: the inability to comprehend (understand) the tasks; difficulties in the transition from an internal mental plan to the construction of a direct speech act, despite understanding the task. instructions were given in a clear, concise and understandable way, with a simple, imperative sentence. lack of reaction within 3-5 seconds after the teacher's instructions included repeating instructions or providing assistance. in our opinion, speech activity in the examination of impressive speech may be manifested in the desire to perform the task proposed by the experimenter and verbally (in the form available to a child with autistic disorders of older preschool age) to respond to the interlocutor's reply (in this case the experimenter). in our opinion, speech activity in the examination of impressive speech may be appearanced in the desire to perform the task proposed by the experimenter and verbally (in the form available to a child with autistic disorders of senior preschool age) to respond to the interlocutor's reply (in this case the experimenter). in specially organized conditions, with the aim of directly checking the understanding of children with autistic disorders of senior preschool age, the examination of the impressive side of speech included four directions of tasks, names of objects, names of actions, names of qualities and properties of objects and spatio-temporal relations. the reaction to affectively significant words was selected individually for each child based on the indicators of the content of the protocols of the questionnaires of the study of communication skills. the ability to follow situational instructions was found out through passive interaction with the brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 55 child in a natural situation. during the examination, the experimenter focused on the child's easy behavior, his activity and desire, adapting the questions and tasks to the child's activity without trying to change the situation in any way. that is, observing the child and his activities, the experimenter proposed to fulfill the instruction, which provided for a slightly modified continuation of the child's activity, watching that the instruction was being performed, and noting the quality of its implementation. the ability to follow non-situational instructions was determined during the proposal to perform tasks that involved the stopping of the child's activities or its change. attention was drawn to how well the instruction was carried out, "excluded" the child from the situation, and it is performed at all. the survey of the understanding of the names of objects by a child with autistic disorders was checked using tasks to show real objects and their images according to the instructions of the experimenter. demonstration of one's own body parts, showing the body parts of another person (for example, an experimenter) and body parts in a picture (of a painted boy or girl) and showing images of objects according to their functional description. the survey provided that, in addition to testing the ability to find and distinguish among other objects or their images and point to the object proposed by the experimenter or its image, named by the appropriate word, also check the possibility of differentiating the concepts of “object”, “name of the object” (word) and “image subject "(picture). for this purpose, commonly used words that the child heard and / or used in his own speech, if he uses speech (table, chair, window, door, toy, apple, tree, cube, girl) (boy) were selected. it is known that people with autism have problems processing and understanding verbal information. their delayed processing of the received verbal information does not keep pace with the speed of speech, especially in those cases when a large amount of information is given out at one time. they understand short and clear sentences better. long explanations when gaining new knowledge may not help, but, on the contrary, lead to difficulty in comprehending knowledge, because: first, it requires simultaneous processing on two channels: audio and visual, and, secondly, additional words and phrases can distract from the main (zyumalla, 2005). researchers note that in some cases children with autism are poorly oriented in their own body, do not understand the concept of "right-left", sometimes do not perceive their own body parts as a part of themselves. in addition, they have difficulty in understanding and using personal pronouns, in particular, the pronoun "i" and in the most complex cases, they do not speech activity research program in children with autistic disorders of senior … nataliia bazyma, et al. 56 distinguish themselves from the environment (nikolskaya, 2005). according to the instructions, in order to test the ability of children of this category to navigate in their own body, know the names of body parts and be able to show them in themselves and in other people, tasks were proposed to demonstrate their own body parts, show body parts to another person (for example, an experimenter) and show parts the body in the figure (in the drawn boy or girl). it is known that children with certain speech disorders may have difficulty understanding the functional use of certain objects. knowing the name of an object, they do not always understand its purpose and use. to test the ability of a child with autistic disorders, it is necessary to understand what object is being discussed in his verbal description, so that he is guided by the functional purpose of the object, a task was proposed that provided for the child to show objects according to their functional description. children with autistic disorders often use stereotyped speech patterns, echolalia, constant expressions in speech. their vocabulary is mostly poor, but there are cases when children of senior preschool age are characterized by the so-called "adult speech" (nikolskaya 2005). a child uses extended sentences when he or she memorizes them while watching tv, listening to fairy tales or stories, or reading (there are cases when children with autism learn to read early). the passion of children with autistic disorders for stability, constancy and balance to some extent predetermines the constancy in the use of speech units (collocations, phrases, sentences). thus, while testing the understanding of the names of actions by a child with autistic disorders, we proposed a task that required the child with a question to show the performance of the corresponding actions in the pictures. for this purpose, images of animals (a cow, a pig, a frog, a dog) were selected and the child had to indicate in response to the experimenter's question about which of the animals would give a voice. the next task was to find among the images of people and animals and point to the picture, which was the corresponding action, called the experimenter. drawings were selected so that they reflect the actions that the child performs every day (sit, play, eat, sleep, read). in addition, according to the experimenter's instructions, the child was asked to perform the appropriate actions. the task was selected in such a way as not to cause difficulties and require a minimum amount of time to complete them. in order to understand the names of the qualities and properties of objects, they were checked by finding among the images exactly those objects that the experimenter determined, indicating the corresponding quality or property of the object. in particular, to check the understanding of brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 57 the names of colors, drawings were selected that depicted objects of different colors. according to the instructions, the child had to find among other images (white dog, red tomato, green cube, etc.) and indicate which object of a particular color was named by the experimenter. in the question, the name of the object was not voiced, but only one color or another was called, the knowledge of the name of which was checked. to test knowledge, understanding and distinguishing the names of geometric shapes, drawings were selected depicting objects of various shapes (square tv, oval rug, etc.). according to the instructions, the child had to find among the drawings the one whose geometric shape was named. the ability to determine and distinguish the size of objects was found out by the child finding large and small, larger and smaller objects in a paired image of identical objects of various sizes. for the accuracy of the obtained data, the child was shown pairs of different drawings (large and small apple, large and small spoon). in order to determine the understanding of the concepts of "large" and "small", "bigger" and "less" (large and small cube, bigger and smaller bucket), pairs of different drawings were shown. the task of determining the material from which the objects were made was that among the proposed images (glass jar, wooden table, etc.), the child, according to the instructions, had to find and show the object and the material of which was voiced by the experimenter. since many children with autistic disorders are characterized by excessive enthusiasm for some one object with which they do not want (or cannot) part, because its absence of this object provokes attacks of overwhelming fear, negativism or aggression, we presume that for the children of this category it is difficult to understand the belonging of objects to certain persons. in view of this, we proposed a problem that required the child, among similar plot drawings, to find directly those on which the object belongs to the person about whom the experimenter was asking (mom holds a cat, grandmother holds a cat; dad hammers nails with a hammer, boy hammers nails with a hammer). o.s. nikolskaya & d.i. shulzhenko, 2005 note that a child with autistic disorders is sometimes difficult to understand the development of the situation over time and determine the sequence of events. to determine the understanding of children with autistic disorders of senior preschool age, two series of drawings were selected, which traced the development of plants (bud, flower, apple) and animals (egg, chicken, hen). the child was given the task to dispose in turn the drawings of each series in chronological order with the help of leading questions: "what happened before?", "what happened later?" "what happened after?" speech activity research program in children with autistic disorders of senior … nataliia bazyma, et al. 58 in order to test the children's understanding of spatial relationships, they were given simple one-step instructions, providing for the placement of improvised objects in space according to the experimenter's instructions (notebook, key, book, pencil, pen). examination of the expressive side of children speech with autistic disorders of senior preschool age examination of the expressive side of speech in children with autistic disorders of older preschool age in a spontaneous situation involved the study of the quality of use of appropriate language units (words, wordcombinations, phrases, sentences). vocalizations, onomatopoeia and sound complexes, methods of verbal or non-verbal expression of desires and the presence or absence of one's own statements without provocations to speech activity on the part of the experimenter. in specially organized conditions included: examination of vocabulary, examination of the grammatical side of speech and examination of the state of development of coherent speech. the survey was carried out while interacting with the child and under observation in natural conditions and without creating an experimental situation. testing children to use appropriate language units included an analysis of how they interact with others and which language units are most often used in communication. at the same time, verbal and / or non-verbal ways of expressing desires that arose in the child were ascertained (how the child signaled with which toy or object he wants to play or manipulate, what exactly he wants to do etc.). particular attention was paid to the presence or absence of their own statements in independent activities and in interaction with the, except for incentives for speech activity on experimenter’s part (in the form that is available). hat is, the child was not asked questions, but he was allowed to speak a monologue of the experimenter in the form of commenting on what was happening to the child or around the child. checking the vocabulary of children with autistic disorders of senior preschool age included examinations of the noun dictionary, the verb dictionary and the adjective dictionary. it is known that the lexical stock of children with autistic disorders is expressive and mostly poor. therefore, examining the dictionary of nouns, we aimed to check how children of this age use the basic concepts in such lexical topics ("family", "toys", "clothing", "tableware", "furniture", "animals", etc.). when we selected the material for the survey of the active vocabulary of nouns, we focused on the program requirements for the volume and subject of the dictionary in accordance with age norms. the task brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 59 involved the names of the words of the subject drawings and combining them using a generalizing word in accordance with the instructions (for example, a cat, a mouse, a dog, a cow animals, etc.). to check the vocabulary of verbs, plot drawings were selected, which contained images of people and animals who performed certain actions that the child knows (the boy runs, the girl reads, the bird flies, etc.). the task involved the answer to the experimenter's question about what the person or animal shown in the figure does. the vocabulary of adjectives was checked using the description of subject drawings, which were selected in such a way that they could be described by several signs (book blue, new, interesting; apple green, large, etc.). in the case when the child had difficulty answering the questions "what?", "what?", "what?", "what?", the experimenter asked auxiliary questions such as "what color?", "what size?" etc.. scientists (bashina, 2005) note in children with autistic disorders violations of the grammatical and syntactic aspects of speech, inability to word formation. therefore, examining the grammatical structure of speech, we assumed the identification in children of the level of formation of the ability of word formation and inflection (morphology) and the level of proficiency in various types of sentence structure (syntax). we tested the level of proficiency in grammatical categories such as numeral flexions of nouns, numeral flexions of verbs, numeral flexions of adjectives, numeral flexions of nouns and adjectives when we conducted research on the ability of children with autistic disorders in inflexion. to study the use of numeral flexions of nouns, paired drawings were proposed containing images of one object and many objects (pencil pencils, cube cubes, etc.). the experimenter asked the child to look at the pictures and name what is depicted on them. the correctness of the use of numeral flexions of nouns was noted. the use of numeral flexions of verbs was clarified through the definition and naming of the action that people and animals perform in the plot drawings. the child was shown paired drawings depicting the performance of the corresponding action by one person or animal or a group of people (animals), and was asked to tell what people and animals do (a dog runs dogs run; a boy laughs boys laugh, etc.). attention was paid to the correct use of numeral flexions of verbs. the use of generic flexions of adjectives was recorded as a result of the description of subject drawings, selected so that they can be described by several common features: color, taste, shape (lemon yellow, sour, oval; apple green, sweet, round, etc.). in order to study the understanding of children by the categories of gender and number, attention was paid to the fact that when selecting the speech activity research program in children with autistic disorders of senior … nataliia bazyma, et al. 60 material, images of objects denoted by the words male, female and middle genders (lemon, plum, apple), as well as plural (berries). in the case when the child had difficulty answering the questions "what?", "what?", "what?", "what?", the experimenter asked auxiliary questions such as "what color?", "what taste?" etc. in the scientific literature, it is noted that children with autistic disorders who can speech sometimes use words in the root form, ignoring the cases and numbers of inflexion (lebedinskaya, 2001; nikolskaya, 2005; shulzhenko, 2005). testing the ability of children of this category to inflect, a number of questions were selected, the answers to which included the use of nouns and adjectives in different cases. the child was presented with object drawings (boy or girl, flower) and asked to answer the experimenter's question, moreover, answers in the form of phrases were encouraged (smart boy, good girl, beautiful flower). scientists have noted such a characteristic feature of some children with autistic disorders as the widespread use of neologisms, that is, independently invented words next to the inability to word formation (arshatskaya, 2005; bayenskaya, 2001; lebedinskaya, 2001; nikolska 2005). we examined the ability to do words formation, checking whether diminutive-hypocoristic suffixes, prefixed ways of verbs formation are used in speech (if available), and whether children are able to form adjectives from nouns. the use of diminutive-hypocoristic suffixes was clarified with the help of matched pairs of different patterns (a large apple and a small bull'seye, a large spoon and a small scoop, etc.). the experimenter suggested that the child select and name only the small objects depicted in the figures, paying attention to the accuracy of the use of suffixes. the ability for the prefixed way of creating verbs was investigated through tasks, which consisted of naming actions based on plot drawings. the pictures show a puppy jumping, jumping over; a bird that flies in, flies out. the experimenter noted how accurately and straight the child chose words. images of berries and fruits were suggested to test the ability to form adjectives from nouns. it was proposed to imagine that a delicious compote would be prepared from berries and fruits and asked what kind of stewed fruit would be obtained (cherry, grape, etc.). in order to study the level of proficiency in various types of sentence structure, two types of tasks were developed: to identify the use of complex sentences using the conjunctive conjunctions "a", "and" and complex sentences using the hypotactic conjunctions "because", "when". brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 61 to examine the use of compound sentences, plot drawings depicting children performing certain actions were proposed. the experimenter proposed to first voice what is depicted in the picture "what are the children doing?", and then, combining the pictures in pairs, create one complex out of two simple sentences, using the conjunctions "and" ("a girl draws and a boy draws"), "and" ("girls dance and boys sing"). the study of the use of complex sentences took place using a drawing where children were depicted playing. after that, voiced by the child, the children play in the picture, it was suggested to continue the sentence with the words "because", "when" ("children play because they have new toys", "children play when they have fun", etc.). determination of the level of development of coherent speech and the ability to express by himself was tested at the stage of examining the expressive side of speech in a spontaneous situation and when interacting with a child with autistic disorders of senior preschool age at each stage of a specially organized experiment. as the studies of many scientists show, for children with autistic disorders, who even have a monologue speech, characteristic difficulties in dialoging (nikolskaya, 2005; shulzhenko 2005; simashkova, 2006). we assume that the development of dialogical speech is significantly complicated by a general decrease in speech activity. as well as insufficiently formed motivation to interact through verbal communication with people around and the inability to build social relations. thus, we see the need to examine the state of development of coherent speech in children with autistic disorders of older preschool age through tasks such as: conversation on plot drawing; drawing up a story based on a series of plot drawings; drawing up a story based on a plot drawing; drawing up a description according to a drawing (by the experimenter's questions or independently). the study of the child's ability to maintain a dialogue took place in the form of a conversation based on a plot drawing. the plot drawings depicted everyday household activities (a boy does exercise, a girl plays with a doll, a woman prepares lunch, a man reads a newspaper). the experimenter suggested answering questions such as: who is depicted in the picture? what is he (she) like? what is he (she) doing? why is he (she) doing this? etc. the ability to compose a story based on a series of plot drawings was tested on the basis of anticipation that children of this category would feel difficulties in completing this task. therefore, we have selected a series of six drawings reflecting the daily routine. the child was asked to look at the pictures and write a story about what the depicted hero was doing. in case speech activity research program in children with autistic disorders of senior … nataliia bazyma, et al. 62 the child could not complete the task, the experimenter suggested answering questions such as: what was in the beginning? what happened next? what happened next? to investigate the ability to compose a story based on a plot drawing, a drawing was proposed, which depicted a boy (girl) in the forest. the child had to look carefully at the picture and tell a short story about how the boy (girl) got into the woods and what they were doing there. if the child could not complete the task, the experimenter suggested asking her leading questions, encouraging to tell the story. it is believed that writing a description is one of the most difficult tasks for children with severe speech disorders. therefore, testing the ability to compose a description of the drawing, we offered the image of a teddy bear. if the child felt difficulties in describing, the experimenter asked the same type of questions like: "what are the bear eyes?" conclusions it is impossible to overestimate the importance of forming in children with autistic disorders of communicative function in general and speech activity in particular. both specialists, such as (correctional teachers, special psychologists, rehabilitation therapists, speech therapists, educators, medical workers, etc.), and parents should work closely, since the development of speech and speech functions in the process of correctional educational activities will contribute to the consolidation of the acquired skills in everyday life. using any opportunity for the development of speech and the upbringing of the desire to communicate with people around, it can speed up the process of forming the communication activity of children with autistic disorders. the communication skills questionnaire consisted of five blocks: features of interaction with adults, features of interaction with peers, features of independent activity, features of communicative behavior and features of speech activity. the methodology for determining the level of speech activity in children with autistic disorders of older preschool age included examination of the impressive side of speech (finding out the level of understanding of statements containing affectively significant words, the possibility of executing instructions in the context of a spontaneous situation and following instructions outside the context of the situation (examination in a spontaneous situation). checking the understanding of the names of objects, the names of actions, the names of the qualities and properties of objects and spatio-temporal relations (examination in specially organized conditions) brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 63 and the expressive side of speech (the study of the quality of use in speech of the corresponding linguistic units (words, collocations, phrases, sentences). vocalizations, onomatopoeia and sound complexes, ways of verbal or non-verbal expression of desires and the presence or absence of one's own speaking without provocations to speech activity on the part of the experimenter (examination in a spontaneous situation). determination of the lexical stock (examination of the dictionary of nouns, the dictionary of verbs and the dictionary of adjectives), examination of the grammatical side of speech (examination of the skills of inflection, word formation, combining two simple sentences into a complex one) and examination of the state of development of coherent speech (examination in specially organized conditions). the survey was carried out in a spontaneous situation and in specially organized conditions. the task began with the instructions of the experimenter and ended with the appropriate reaction of the child or his absence (due to reluctance or inability to respond). instructions were given in a clear, concise and understandable way, with a simple, compelling sentence. lack of reaction within 3-5 seconds after the teacher's instructions included repeating instructions or providing assistance. the duration of interaction with the child was about 20-30 minutes a day. the specified time of the examination could vary somewhat or be modified and depended on the child's ability to interact with the experimenter, adapt to the situation, and organize his own spare time. much attention was paid to adherence to the principles of an individual and differentiated approach. references amir, r. t., van den veyver, b. i., wan, m., tran, c. q., francke, u., & zoghbi, h. y. (1999). rett syndrome is caused by mutation in x-linked mecp2, encoding methilcpg-binding protein 2. nature genetics journal, 23(2), 185188. https://doi.org/10.1038/13810 arshatskaya, o. s. (2005). psikhologicheskaya pomoshch' rebonku rannego vozrasta pri formiruyushchemsya detskom autizme [psychological assistance to a young child with developing child autism]. defectology, 2, 4656. https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskaya-pomoshchrebenku-rannego-vozrasta-pri-formiruyushchemsya-sindrome-detskog attwood, t. (1998). asperger's syndrome: a guide for parents and professionals. jessica kingsley publishers. averyanov, v. p. (2007) diahnostyka hotovnosti ditey do shkoly [diagnostics of children's readiness for school]. kviv. https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskaya-pomoshch-rebenku-rannego-vozrasta-pri-formiruyushchemsya-sindrome-detskog https://www.dissercat.com/content/psikhologicheskaya-pomoshch-rebenku-rannego-vozrasta-pri-formiruyushchemsya-sindrome-detskog speech activity research program in children with autistic disorders of senior … nataliia bazyma, et al. 64 baron-cohen, s., cox, a., baird, g., swettenham, j., nightingale, n., morgan, k., drew, a., & charman, t. (1996). psychological markers in the detection of autism in infancy in a large population. the british journal of psychiatry: the journal of mental science, 168(2), 158–163. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.168.2.158 bashina, v. m. (2005). sovremennyye podkhody k ponimaniyu autizma v detstve. obshchiye voprosy nevrologi i psikhiatrii [general disorders of mental development. atypical autistic disorders]. center for psychological, medical and social support for children and adolescents, 8, 4-13. https://psyjournals.ru/child_autism/issue/bashina.shtml bayenskaya, e. r. (2001). pomoshch' v vospitanii detey s osobym emotsional'nym razvitiyem. mladshiy doshkol'nyy vozrast [help in raising children with special emotional development. younger preschool age]. almanac of the institute of correctional pedagogy. behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka. o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, t., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 gillingham, g. (2000). autism: a new understanding!. tacit publishing inc. grandin, t. (2008). the way i see it: a personal look at autism and asperger's. future horizons. lebedinskaya, k. s. (2001). diagnosticheskaya karta [diagnostic card]. in k. s., lebedinskaya & o. s. nikolskaya (eds.), psychodiagnostics and correction of children with developmental disabilities (pp. 256). piter. lubovsky, v. i. (1989). psikhologicheskiye problemy diagnostiki anomal'nogo razvitiya detey [psychological problems of diagnosing abnormal development of children]. pedagogika. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208 – 233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.168.2.158 https://psyjournals.ru/child_autism/issue/bashina.shtml https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 65 morozov, v. p. (1998). neverbal'naya kommunikatsiya v sisteme rechevogo obshcheniya. psikhofiziologicheskiye i psikhoakusticheskiye osnovy [non-verbal communication in the system of verbal communication. psychophysiological and psychoacoustic foundations]. publishing house institute of psychology of the russian academy of sciences. nikolskaya, o. s. (2005) deti i podrostki s autizmom. psikhologicheskoye soprovozhdeniye [children and adolescents with autism. psychological support]. terevinf. nurieva, l. g. (2003). razvitiye rechi u autichnykh detey: metodicheskiye razrabotki [speech development in autistic children: methodological developments]. terevinf. quill, k. a. (2002). do-watch-listen-say. social and communication intervention for children with autism. paul h. brookes publishing co. scambler, d., rogers, s. j., & wehner, e. a. (2000). can the checklist for autism in toddlers differentiate young children with autism from those with developmental delays?. journal of the american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry, 40(12), 1457 – 1463. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200112000-00017 schopler, e., reichler, r.j., bashford, a., lansing, m., & marcus, l. (1990). individualized assessment and treatment for autistic and developmentally disabled children (vol. 1). psychoeducational profile-revised. pro-ed, austin. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 shulzhenko, d. i. (2005). pidhotovka vchyteliv zahalʹnoosvitnikh zakladiv do konstruyuvannya roboty z autychnymy ditʹmy. dydaktychni ta sotsialʹnopsykholohichni aspekty kolektsiynoyi roboty u spetsialʹniy shkoli [preparation of secondary school teachers for designing work with autistic children. didactic and socio-psychological aspects of collection work in a special school]. scientific and methodical collection, 6, 228-231. naukovyy svit. simashkova, n. v. (2006). klinicheskiye i neyrofiziologicheskiye aspekty tyazhelykh form autizma u detey [clinical and neurophysiological aspects of severe forms of autism in children]. journal of neurology and psychiatry named after s. s. krsakov, 7. http://www.psychiatry.ru/cond/0/diss/2006/12 tarasun, v. v. (2001). bazovi invariantni diyi ta operatsiyi yak komponent navchalʹnoyi diyalʹnosti ditey z porushennyamy movlennyevoho rozvytku [basic invariant actions and operations as a component of educational activity of children with speech development disorders]. defectology, 1, 2-4. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200112000-00017 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 http://www.psychiatry.ru/cond/0/diss/2006/12 speech activity research program in children with autistic disorders of senior … nataliia bazyma, et al. 66 vizel, t. g. (2005). osnovy neyropsikhologii: uchebnik dlya studentov vuzov [ fundamentals of neuropsychology: a textbook for university students]. astarel tranzitkniga. zhinkin, n. i. (1998). o kodovykh perekhodakh vo vnutrenney rechi [on code transitions in internal speech]. creativity. zyumalla, r. (2005). obucheniye i soprovozhdeniye lyudey s autizmom po programme teacch [teaching and accompanying people with autism under the teacch]. public association “belarusian association for assistance to disabled children and young people with disabilities. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 130-151 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/336 submitted: october 20th, 2021 | accepted for publication: december 22nd, 2021 neuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health in special conditions natalia afanasieva 1 , kateryna gordeeva 2 , yuliia, muskharina 3 , olga zastavna 4 , liudmyla shuppe 5 , iryna andreikova 6 1 doctor of psychological sciences, professor, simon kuznets kharkiv national university of economics, kharkiv, ukraine, afanaseva_natali@ukr.net 2 candidate of pedagogical sciences, department of theoretical, methodological foundations of physical education and rehabilitation, donbass state pedagogical university, sloviansk, ukraine, katrin.zzz83@gmail.com 3 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, department of medical and biological fundamentals of life protection and civil defense, donbass state pedagogical university, sloviansk, ukraine, uliya.musharina@gmail.com 4 candidate of sciences physical education and sport specialty, associate professor, department of physical therapy, ergotherapy, state higher educational establishment “vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivanofrankivsk, ukraine, zastavna.om@gmail.com 5 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of spanish philology, odessa i.i.mechnikov national university, odessa, ukraine, ludmilashuppe@gmail.com 6 candidate of pedagogical sciences, assistant professor of the foreign languages department, odessa national polytechnic university, odessa, ukraine, psychological@meta.ua abstract: the article is devoted to the theoretical and empirical study of athletes’ psychological health involved in extreme sports, the definition of psychological and social factors of its preservation problem. the essence and indicators of psychological health of a person have been clarified. the analysis of the study results made it possible to single out stable (the degree of awareness and positivity of the “i-concept”, the ability and desire for self-development, satisfaction with life) and variable (reflexivity, level of self-regulation, communication, locus of control) indicators for psychological health of extreme athletes. based on the study in the content of the psychological health of athletes’ characteristics, its social and psychological factors were determined. the main psychological factors of maintaining psychological health include satisfaction with activities, internality, positive "i-concept", the ability of self-government, self-regulation, subjective well-being. the main social factors include extreme conditions of activity, high professional and family status, availability of social support. it has been proven that the presence of the maximum extreme experience leads to a significant decrease in all indicators of psychological health, causing severe maladjustment, emotional and personal problems. the main directions of improving the process of preserving psychological health of extreme sportsmen have been proposed. allocation of the components of psychological health and determination of socio and psychological factors that determine its preservation, made it possible to form tasks for psychological prevention and correction: teaching positive self-attitude and acceptance of others; learning reflexive skills; the formation of the need for self-development. keywords: mental health, specialist, professional activity, psychological correction, socio-psychological factor, extreme conditions. how to cite: afanasieva, n., gordeeva, k., muskharina, y., zastavna, o., shuppe, l., & andreikova, i. (2022). neuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health in special conditions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 130-151. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/336 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/336 mailto:afanaseva_natali@ukr.net mailto:katrin.zzz83@gmail.com mailto:uliya.musharina@gmail.com mailto:zastavna.om@gmail.com mailto:ludmilashuppe@gmail.com mailto:psychological@meta.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/336 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 131 1. introduction the problem of psychological health has been attracting more and more attention lately. in modern science, a viewpoint about the capacity of mental and psychological health is being formed; approaches for protection psychological health are being developed and established as a new, independent brunch of scientific knowledge. models of psychologically healthy specialties are being implicated that the self realization (apostu, 2016) and integrity of a person are the most important conditions of maintaining the psychological health. in addition, there are a number of methodological issues for the development of specific ways for the maintenance of psychological health of athletes for extreme sports in the process of their activity, especially when it is necessary to take place in unsafe conditions what are not solved. on the one hand, there is a necessity to keep up with social and psychological factors that rate available level of the athletes’ psychological health in their category, and on the other hand, the need to create supplementary conditions of its support and preservation. as noted by lankford (2015), “deterioration of cognitive and other neurological function occurs at high altitude”, what happens due to brain hypoxia. among the general spectrum of medical problems associated with sport climbing, peters (2001) highlightes nerve compression syndromes. this study reviewed psychological health as a complex phenomenon that is based on different person’s characteristics and support self developing resource, achievement of feeling life well-being, that is balanced between successful functioning of an individual and “price“ of aims achievement of development and activity. tabatabaie, litt, & crane (2020) underline that the term "psychological health" is used for the process of interaction between the body and unpleasant factors of the environment, as well as for determining the result of the whole process. extreme sports according to buckley (2018), defined as sporting or adventure activities involving a high degree of risk, have boomed since the 1990s. these types of sports attract men and women who can experience a life-affirming transcendence or “flow” as they participate in dangerous activities. because flirting with death is critical to the extreme sports ethos, practitioners must gain further understanding of this field and its at-risk participants. as indicated in the articles by duits (2020), savage et al. (2020), мountaineering is the sport of high psychological tension. as an activity that takes place under extreme environmental conditions, mountaineering is a neuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health... natalia afanasieva et al. 132 high-risk activity. the complex structure of mountaineering activity demands high level of mental health of the individual. unlike other sports, where competition performance lasts relatively short period of time, in alpinism athletes have to climb for several days. so, the athlete's “optimal fighting conditions” model mainly considered to control the pre-start state is ineffective in mountaineering. in alpinism, state control models for a long period of activity are necessary. this requires a systematic approach to describe interaction between athletes and extreme environment during climbing, and it is a common feature and is a problem. during the process of crossing high barriers, a person is on the limit of his/her abilities; at this moment activity space is the physiology of man and his/her individuality, and he/she knows his/her personality as the subject of activity. the review by wagstaff and leach (2015) highlighted 6 strength-based concepts for elite sports conditions in sports and the military: “mental toughness, positive emotion, learned optimism, resilience, posttraumatic growth, and self-and emotion regulation”. as noted monasterio and cloninger (2019), the “extreme sports” of mountaineering and base jumping are growing in popularity and are associated with significant risk of injury and death. in recent years there have also been increasing numbers of reports of reckless disregard and selfishness in the pursuit of mountaineering goals, including severe environmental degradation. extant research has focused predominantly on personality variables that contribute to engagement, participation, and stress responsivity in these extreme sports. character traits of the specialists behavior esfahani, musa and khoo (2017) are determined by: unpredictable, spontaneous actions, propensity to rebel against established norms and rules, the need for separateness and independence, notable privacy, isolation, self-isolation, excessive selfconfidence, as well as they have a great desire to assert their “ego” while underestimated their level of self-esteem and high ambitions and wishes. the emotional state of these athletes is unstable, they are inflammatory, stubborn, sometimes aggressive, do not hide their desire to lead. at the same time, most of them are in great physical shape and quite easily endure all the hardships, difficulties and disadvantages of travelling, showing the desire to achieve the goal, extraordinary courage, the ability to overcome fear. in the article by orth et al. (2018) determine that there are two basic motivational criteria for specialists: emotional and sporting. the first steps in mountaineering are always based on emotional criteria: the unique beauty of mountain environments, the rigidity mountains, the strongest emotional experiences during the first climb, and the like. family traditions, friendship, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 133 literature, films contribute to the formation of climbing craving. taken together, it feeds the desire to climb and enjoy mountaineering again and again. at the same time, men have an excellent opportunity to realize ambitious goals to raise their self-esteem. of interest are the studies of stress factors on the manifestation of symptoms of athlete burnout, presented in the article (granz et al., 2019). hetland et al. (2018) to prove courage, ability to respond adequately to all extreme mountain conditions, make decisions, assess the situation soberly, overcome things like weaknesses and fears are especially significant in mountaineering, as in no other sport. of course, specialists are aware of possibile tragic consequences and even death in the fight a man against the mountain. but still, they take a conscious risk in order to make sure in their vitality again and again. the climbing fraternity differs from all other sports communities by its individuality, intelligence: mainly, specialists, creative and ambitious. the article by macintyre et al. (2019) presents the result of a study of the life experience of 8 extreme sportsmen. an important conclusion of the authors is that participation in extreme sports has psychological advantages, such as positive emotions, resilience, and connection with the natural environment. the article by araújo et al. (2019) defines theoretical approaches and practical recommendations for identifying the impact of physical activity in the environment on the somatic and psychological health of athletes. the study by reid and kampman (2019) revealed the positive impact of enduring expeditionary adventures on the psychological well-being and individuals' growth. 2. purpose of the article. the aim of the work is to consider the essence and the structure of psychological health maintenance of the specialists. 3. methods of the study 3.1. research participants the study included the specialists, a group of 131 men aged 18‒45 years old. all participants agreed to participate in the study. based on our tasks of empirical research, we divided the subjects into the following groups: the first group included 38 specialists with the most extreme experience (extreme index, that is, the average rate of complexity of mountaineering that is they have taken part in mountaineering expeditions to an altitude of over 7000 meters above sea level, per year is 19.8 points); the 2nd group included neuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health... natalia afanasieva et al. 134 specialists with average rates of extreme experience (extreme index is 11.5 points, they have taken part in mountaineering expeditions to an altitude of less than 4000 meters above sea level) a group of 42 persons; the 3rd group included the people that were being researched with the minimum extreme experience (participation in mountaineering expeditions to an altitude of less than 1500 meters above sea level, extreme index is 3.6 points) 51 persons.the extreme index was calculated according to the method proposed in the article by litvinenko and baikovsky (2019), for each specialist separately depending on the experience of climbing, then calculated the average score for groups. 3.2. theoretical foundations of mental health research recently, mental health has become the subject of research of many human sciences. traditionally, mental health problems is a scientific and practical study either in medicine and in psychology. today, these issues are considered and implemented in economics, ecology, science of law, in particular, in lawmaking and law enforcement branches, in social protection sphere. political rhetoric pays attention to this issue. now political rhetoric is becoming popular and is an inalienable social, cultural, information component of our time. this cross-sectoral attention to mental health is wellgrounded and timely, as problem solving at the national level can only be achieved through an integrated approach, the design and implementation of an effective cross-sectoral system of approaches. one of the most important places in this system belongs to psychological practice, as the field of providing qualified mental health counseling services. dubrovina (2009) define psychological health as the optimal functioning of all mental, emotional, behavioral structures of a person necessary for a harmonious life. thus, psychological health is an integral characteristic of a full-fledged psychological functioning of the individual, which ensures emotional comfort in a social environment. anthropological theory considers psychological health as a condition characterizing the process and the result of the normal development of subjective reality within the limits of individual’s life. criteria of specialists psychological health, at the thought roberts, jones, and brooks (2018) are: positive "i-concept", possession of reflection, the ability to self-regulation, lack of propensity to addictive and deviant behavior, the ability to communicate constructively with other people, taking responsibility for their lives, the need for self-development, satisfaction with their own lives, self-awareness as a psychologically healthy person. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 135 3.3. methodology for determining the level of mental health psychological health study of the specialists who go in for extreme sports had the following structure: • at the first stage a meaningful analysis of the phenomenon of psychological health was conducted, its structural components and socio and psychological factors influencing psychological health of specialists were determined; • at the second stage, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the main components of specialists psychological health in a dynamic aspect, that allowed to distinguish stable and variable indicators of mental health; • on the basis of assessment specialists psychological health level at the third stage of the research, the study of the main socio and psychological factors that determine it was performed; • at the fourth stage, taking into account both theoretical and empirical data, the main recommendations for maintaining psychological health of specialists engaged in extreme sports were proposed.during the research we used both general scientific and special methods of research: 1) theoretical methods: analysis of the scientific literature, compilation of information, system analysis and data interpretation; 2) empirical methods: a). method by campbell et al. (1996) (scc) is used to study the degree of consciousness of self-awareness. it contains 12 statements that should be evaluated on a 5-point scale. at processing the quantity of points is summed up and the degree of awareness of own "i-concept" by examinee is defined. b). methods of polymotivational tendencies diagnosis of personality in the "i-concept" according to (petrova, 1995). the use of stimulus material in the form of proverbs for the study of the motivational sphere of personality is due to their proximity to the archetypal formations of the psyche and mental forms of consciousness, as well as their imagery, intelligibility, proper emotional potential. all this adequately reflects the motivational conditionality of the "i-concept" of the individual. scales: acquisition (material) motivation, hedonistic motivation, optimistic motivation, communicative motivation, cognitive motivation, work motivation, normative motivation, moral motivation, striving for perfection, pugnic motivation, striving for perfection, pugni motivation, striving for superiority, motivation of positive attitude to people, motivation to avoid troubles, motivation of individualization, egocentric motivation, altruistic motivation. neuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health... natalia afanasieva et al. 136 c) method by karpov (2003) for diagnosing the level of development of personality reflexivity. it consists of 27 statements that should be evaluated on a 7-point scale. the obtained points are transformed into the stans according to the presented criteria. the number of stans obtained by the subject indicates the level of development of reflexivity. d) questionnaire "self-regulation style of behavior-98" (ssp-98) (morosanova, (2004). the questionnaire consists of 46 statements that are part of six scales, which are allocated according to the main regulatory processes (planning, modeling, programming, evaluation of results) and regulatorypersonal properties (flexibility and independence). each scale consists of nine statements. the structure of the questionnaire is that a number of statements are part of two scales, due to the fact that they can be attributed to the characteristics of both the regulatory process and the properties of regulation. the questionnaire is calculated according to the "key". f) communicative social competence (csc) methods of diagnosis (fetiskin, kozlov, & manujlov, 2005). the questionnaire includes 100 statements arranged in a cyclical order. there are three alternative answers for each question. g) scale of subjective well-being (fetiskin, kozlov, & manujlov, 2005). it is a screening psychodiagnostic tool for measuring emotional component of subjective well-being (sb) or emotional comfort (ec). it contains 17 statements, each of which must be evaluated on a 7-point scale. it includes such scales: tension and sensitivity, psycho-emotional symptoms, mood swings, the importance of the social environment, self-esteem, satisfaction with daily activities. processing of results is carried out by the help of the "key". the obtained points are transformed into stans according to the presented criteria. h) mental health test. it is designed by nikiforov (2007) to determine mental health / illness. it consists of 46 pairs of judgments. in each case, the examinee must choose one option. the "key" is used to process the test results. statistical processing of the obtained data was carried out using the computer program spss 12.0, for which student's t-test, fisher's φ-test (fisher's angular transformation) to identify significant differences in the compared indicators; correlation analysis by pearson's r-test to establish the density of relationships between the studied indicators; cluster analysis were used. correlation and cluster analysis were used to determine the main subjective and objective factors of specialists’ psychological health. correlation analysis allowed us to identify the main subjective (psychological) factors of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 137 maintaining psychological health. the purpose of cluster analysis was to identify groups of subjects with optimal and suboptimal levels of mental health. to achieve this goal, we used the method of k-means, which allows you to divide the entire sample by the specified characteristics into a specified number of clusters. so, we set the number of clusters 2 and first see if all the variables (indicators selected by correlation analysis) differ in all two clusters. this test is performed by analysis of variance (f-test). 4. results of the study in order to determine the subjective factors of the psychological health of specialists, the psychodiagnostic research of psychological health components of specialists with different extreme experience was conducted. the results of the psychodiagnostic research show that extreme or military experience affects the psychological health of specialists negatively (table 1). table 1. indicators of psychological health of specialists with different extreme experience(points) the name of the scale group 1 m±у group 2 m±у group 3m±у t p-value reflexivity 7.7±2.7 4.1±1.5 5.4±1.9 t (1,2) = 3.7 t (1,3) = 2.4 t (2,3) = 1.4 р (1,2) ≤ 0.01 р (1,3) ≤ 0.05 р (2,3)>0.05 level of selfregulation 3.4±1.2 4.2±1.5 6.0±2.31 t (1,2) = 0.8 t (1,3) = 2.7 t (2,3) = 1.9 р (1,2)>0.05 р (1,3) ≤ 0.01 р (2,3)>0.05 predisposition towards dependencies 16.5±5.6 14.7±5.0 10.5±3.6 t (1,2) = 0.9 t (1,3) = 3.2 t (2,3) = 2.2 р (1,2)>0.05 р (1,3) ≤ 0.01 р (2,3) ≤ 0.05 predisposition to addictive behavior 15.4±5.3 13.5±5.6 8.5±3.0 t (1,2) = 0.8 t (1,3) = 2.9 t (2,3) = 2.1 р (1,2)>0.05 р (1,3) ≤ 0.01 р (2,3) ≤ 0.05 selfgovernment 3.5±1.3 5.7±2.0 6.2±2.2 t (1,2) = 2.3 t (1,3) = 2.8 t (2,3) = 0.5 р (1,2) ≤ 0.05 р (1,3) ≤ 0.01 р (2,3) >0.05 subjective well-being 4.1±1.5 5.5±2.0 6.9±2.4 t (1,2) = 1.5 t (1,3) = 2.9 t (2,3) = 1.5 р (1,2)>0.05 р (1,3) ≤ 0.01 р (2,3) >0.05 psychological health 22.5±7.7 8.8±3.1 17.4±5.9 t (1,2) = 1.9 t (1,3) = 2.1 t (2,3) = 1.2 р (1,2)>0.05 p (1,3) ≤0.05 р (2,3) >0.05 neuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health... natalia afanasieva et al. 138 therefore, extreme experience of specialists leads to significant reduction of all indicators of psychological health, causing severe maladaptation, emotional and personality disorders. these individuals are characterized by a low level of self-awareness, dissatisfaction with their marriage, professional activity and social functioning. capacity to selfdevelopment is significantly blocked by internal conflicts and contradictions. accordingly, the indicator of subjective well-being and the overall indicator of psychological health are at a low level among these individuals. such specialists need depth psychotherapy. extreme experience of the average rate also affects the components of the psychological health of the specialists negatively, to be specific: they experience reduction of the self-awareness, material, employee, normative, moral and ezopov motivations are dominant among motivational tendencies. substantially reduced level of reflexivity, self-regulation scillsare not developed enough. despite the fact that these respondents are characterized by an average level of sociability and casual behavior, emotional stability, realism, practicality and reasonability, they have lower life satisfaction, especially lower job satisfaction and lower satisfaction with relationships with relatives and loved ones. the general indicator of psychological health indicates the maladaptation and the need for consistent solutions of internal problems and conflicts with the help of specialists. specialists with minimal extreme experience are characterized by a quite high level of self-awareness, unique self-improvement skills. the material, hedonic, communicative, cognitive, employee, moral, strifal motivations are dominant among motivational tendencies, as well as the desire for perfection and a positive attitude towards people, which characterizes a positive self-concept. planning, autonomy, ability to evaluate the resultsare the most developedamong the stylistic features of selfregulation. in general, they are happy with their lives. however, their predispositions towards alcohol, tobacco and job dependencies indicate that there are a number of problems that need solving. the next stage of the researchwas to use correlation and cluster analysis to determine the main subjective and objective factors of the psychological health of the specialists. correlation analysis allowed to distinguish the main subjective (psychological) factors of psychological health maintaing. these include: job satisfaction, internality, positive self-concept, self-management skills, self-regulation, subjective well-being. further, a cluster analysis was conducted, its aim was to identify the groups of subjects with optimal and suboptimal levels of psychological health. to achieve the goal, the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 139 k-means method was used, which allowed the whole sample to be broken down into a certain number of clustersby certain features. the indicator "satisfaction with professional activity" has a direct correlation with indicators (table 2): positive "self-concept", self-regulation, sociability, high intelligence, independence, self-control, general internality, self-development (motivational, cognitive, volitional, gnostic, organizational, communicative components), propensity for self-management, subjective well-being and psychological health; inverse correlation with reflexivity and a tendency to addictive behavior. we should note that the role of satisfaction with professional activities is growing in modern society, as satisfaction is one of the driving forces of increasing personal activity. table 2. the significant correlations of the correlation cores with indicators of psychological health criteria indicator of psychological health correlation coefficient r with center satisfaction with professional activity general internality positive “iconcept” propensity to selfgovernment selfregulation subjective wellbeing positive "iconcept" 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.4 0.7 reflectivity -0.3 -0.5 -0.3 -0.4 -0.3 self-regulation 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.4 propensity to addictive behavior -0.4 -0.4 -0.4 -0.3 -0.5 -0.7 predisposition to delinquent behavior 0.3 -0.4 general internality 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.3 0.6 motivational component of selfdevelopment 0.4 cognitive component of selfdevelopment 0.3 volitional component of selfdevelopment 0.4 0.7 0.3 0.6 0.4 neuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health... natalia afanasieva et al. 140 gnostic component of selfdevelopment 0.4 0.3 0.4 organizational component of selfdevelopment 0.6 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.5 propensity to selfgovernment 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.4 0.4 communicative component of selfdevelopment 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.3 satisfaction with marital life 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.5 satisfaction with professional activity 0.5 0.4 0.5 0.3 0.4 satisfaction in the social sphere 0.5 0.4 0.5 subjective well-being 0.3 0.6 0.7 0.4 psychological health 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.8 satisfaction with professional activity is an integrative indicator that reflects the attitude of the subject to the chosen profession, to the conditions and results of professional activity. the mental and psychological health of a person depends on the degree of satisfaction with professional activity. satisfaction indicators can demonstrate the degree of effectiveness of management of the organization. in a broader, social sense, the level of satisfaction with professional activities may to some extent indicate the social well-being of society as a whole. the indicator "general internality" has a direct correlation with: positive "i-concept", self-regulation, sociability, high intelligence, independence, volitional and organizational components of self-development, tendency to self-management, satisfaction with marital life and professional activity, subjective well-being and mental health. the opposite one has a direct correlation with reflexivity and a tendency to addictive behavior. internality is an integral quality of personality to take responsibility for events, to implement an active life position and to succeed in various life situations. internality is broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 141 based on a complex control structure and provides flexible use of optimal attributive strategies in the decision-making process. the relationship between the type of locus of control and psychological health of the individual is also recorded. in particular, studies show that people with an external locus of control are more likely to have psychological problems than people with an internal locus of control. internality is seen as an indicator of personality maturity, ie the willingness to make decisions in various spheres of life and be responsible for them, to control their behavior and feelings. specialists with an internal locus of control are less prone to the phenomenon of "burnout" than external ones. the indicator "positive" i-concept "" has a direct correlation with selfregulation, friendliness, emotional stability, cheerfulness, general internality, volitional, gnostic, communicative and organizational components of selfdevelopment, propensity to self-management, marital satisfaction, professional life and professions, satisfaction in social sphere, subjective well-being and psychological health; the reverse one has a direct correlation with reflectivity and a tendency to addictive behavior. the indicator "tendency to self-management" has a direct correlation with the positive "i-concept", self-regulation, sociability, high intelligence, emotional stability, cheerfulness, independence, general internality, volitional, gnostic and organizational components of self-development, marital satisfaction and professional activities, subjective well-being and psychological health; reverse one has a direct correlation with a tendency to addictive behavior. the ability of the individual to self-management is a synthesis of qualities, which includes the ability to self-knowledge, self-determination, self-organization, self-realization, self-activity, self-control, self-esteem, selfdevelopment, which allow individuals to qualitatively and effectively manage themselves in various activities and communication. self-management is the most important characteristic of the individual and is realized in all forms of personal activity as a deliberate, conscious, planned, self-directed change of human behavior, activities, communication, relationships. self-government is a determinant of human development. the indicator "self-regulation" has a direct correlation with the positive "i-concept", sociability, emotional stability, general internality, volitional, organizational and communicative components of self-development, propensity to self-government, satisfaction with marital life and professional activity, satisfaction in the social sphere, psychological health; reverse one has a direct correlation with reflexivity and a tendency to addictive behavior. the indicator "subjective well-being" has a direct correlation with the positive "i-concept", general internality, gnostic and communicative componeuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health... natalia afanasieva et al. 142 nents of self-development, propensity to self-management, satisfaction with marital life and professional activity, satisfaction in the social sphere and mental health; reverse one with reflexivity, propensity to addictive and delinquent behavior. well-being and a sense of well-being are significant enough for the inner world of the individual. it is associated with the realization of physical, spiritual and social potential of a person. the idea of one's own well-being or the well-being of others, the assessment of well-being is based on objective criteria of well-being, success, health indicators, material prosperity, etc. the latter have one or another influence on the experience of well-being. but this experience is largely due to the peculiarities of the individual's attitude to himself, the world around him as a whole and its individual aspects. all external factors of well-being with any objective characteristics of the most natural psyche can not act on the experience of well-being directly, but only through subjective perception and subjective assessment, which are due to the characteristics of all spheres of personality. the next stage of the researchwas to use and cluster analysis, its aim was to identify the groups of subjects with optimal and suboptimal levels of psychological health (table 3). table 3. indicators of dispersion analysis indicator f p-value job satisfaction 17.29 0.000015 general internality 7.22 0.000006 positive self-concept 10.15 0.000040 self-management skills 12.44 0.00053 self-regulation 11.32 0.000005 subjective well-being 16.97 0.000116 the significance level for all indicators is very high, all points of the f-criterion are significant. therefore, all selected indicators are classification criteria. then the average (arithmetic mean) of the data for each cluster was measured (table 4). table 4. the average (arithmetic mean) for each cluster indicator cluster 1 cluster 2 job satisfaction 9.1 5.5 general internality 6.4 3.2 positive self-concept 6.0 3.1 self-management skills 6.2 3.7 self-regulation 6.8 3.5 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 143 subjective well-being 6.7 3.9 note: cluster 1 is a group with optimal level of psychological health; cluster 2 is a group with suboptimal level of psychological health. we conducted a questionnaire to the representatives of the selected groups, on the basis of which the main objective (social) factors of the psychological health of the specialists were determined (table 5). table 5. results of the questionnaire of specialists with different levels of psychological health indicator group 1 group 2 φ p-value people % people % marital status married 18 48.2 10 25.4 1.87 ≤ 0.05 single 9 23.5 12 29.8 0.52 >0.05 divorced 8 22.8 18 42.3 1.64 ≤0.05 widower 2 5.5 1 2.5 0.25 >0.05 professional status high 28 77.3 17 41.8 2.91 ≤0.01 low 8 22.7 23 58.2 2.91 ≤0.01 education higher 27 75.4 19 47.9 2.26 ≤0.01 secondary 9 24.6 21 52.1 2.26 ≤0.01 income high 12 33.5 9 21.4 0.99 >0.05 average 14 39.8 21 52.5 1.04 >0.05 low 10 26.7 10 26.1 0.05 >0.05 traumatic events primary injury 7 18.2 12 29.4 0.92 >0.05 secondary injury 10 27.3 13 31.6 0.35 >0.05 no injuries 20 54.5 16 39.0 1.27 >0.05 social support high level 23 63.8 13 32.5 2.57 ≤0.01 average 10 27.3 12 30.5 0.26 >0.05 low level 3 8.9 15 37.0 2.30 ≤0.01 organizational identification high level 20 55.2 9 21.8 2.74 ≤0.01 average level 11 30.4 13 33.5 0.25 >0.05 low level 5 14.4 18 44.7 2.48 ≤0.01 information overload high level 20 55.1 27 66.3 0.92 >0.05 average level 14 38.2 12 31.5 0.55 >0.05 low level 3 6.7 1 2.2 0.37 >0.05 the investigated people with the optimal level of psychological health (group 1) frequently have the marital status: married (48.2%), in comparision with those who have a suboptimal level of psychological health (group 2) – neuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health... natalia afanasieva et al. 144 there are significant discrepancies p ≤ 0.05 according to fisher criterion. most of the subjects fromgroup 2 have the marital status: divorced (42.3%). the investigated persons from group 1 more often identify their professional status as high (77.3%) in comparision with the investigated from group 2, which have a low professional status (58.2%). the differences are significant: p ≤ 0.01. there are 75.4% of people with higher educationamong the investigated persons from group 1, there are 2 47.9% with higher education among the people from group 2 (the differences are significant: p≤0.01). the first group has, high social support 63.8%, the second group has32.5% ofsocial support (the differences are significant: p≤0.01). people from the first group have high organizational identification: 55.2%, the second group has 21.8% of organizational identification (the differences are significant: p≤0.01). therefore, the questionnaire results of specialists with different levels of psychological health have allowed identifying the main objective (social) factors reflecting the impact of the social environment on the psychological health of the specialists. these factors include: high professional and family status, social support and organizational identification. emphasizing the components of psychological health and sociopsychological factors that maintain it, allowed to solve the following tasks of psychological prevention and psychological correction: teaching positive self-determination and accepting others; teaching reflexive skills; forming the need of self-development. purposeful influence on specialists is carried out through psychocorrection consisting of several interdependent parts. each part is aimed to solve various problems and consists of special methods and psychotechnologies. the psycho-correction includes four main parts: part 1. diagnosis. aim is: to distinguish diagnostic features of personality development, to identify risk factors, to form a program of psychological correction. part 2. setup. aim is: to initiate interaction, to reduce anxiety, to improve his/her self-confidence, to initiate cooperation with a psychologist and to make changes in his/her life. part 3. correction. aim is: to harmonize and optimize personality development, to show a transition from positive to negative phases of development, learning the ways to interact with the world and himself/herself, certain ways of activity. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 145 part 4. evaluation of correction efficiency. aim is: to measure the psychological content and reaction dynamics, to encourage positive behavioral support and experiences, to stabilize positive self-esteem. the program we have developed consists of three interdependent and complementary semantic parts: 1. development of positive thinking among specialists. 2. ideomotor training for the formation of activity readiness in extreme conditions. 3. therapeutic crisis intervention with elements of art therapy. the prophylactic correction was used to optimize specialists psychological health. psychocorrection was conducted in mixed groups, that is, they included people both with optimal and suboptimal levels of development of psychological health; the number of people in groupsdid not exceed 15 people. according to the requirements of a semantic part of the program, the duration of the classes varied from 2 to 4 hours. the psychodiagnostic research of the components of psychological health after psycho-correction allows us to confirm that there are positive changes in all investigated components among investigated persons. formed complex of the semantic parts of the program provides intra mental therapy: impact on cognitive strategies, emotional state and constituent component of an individual. i. e.: the degree of self-awareness and its concept has increased significantly among the subjects with suboptimal level of psychological health also, the motivational tendencies of self-concept have changed: communicative, employee motivations, desire for perfection, positive attitude towards people have increased; desire to avoid troubles has decreased; the reflexivity of the subjects with suboptimal and optimal levels of psychological health reached the optimal level: the initial level of the subjects with suboptimal level of psychological health has slightly decreased, and it has increased among subjects with the optimal level of psychological health; some components of self-regulation have significantlychanged among the subjects of the research with a suboptimal level of psychological health: these components are modeling, evaluationresults, independence, also, the level of self-regulation has increased. the indicators of the scales: planning and independence have increased among the subjects with an optimal level of psychological health; there have been positive changes in communication among the investigated people, both with the suboptimal and the optimal level of neuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health... natalia afanasieva et al. 146 psychological health: desire to communicate and interact with others has grown, the emotional background has improved, independence and selfsufficiency, self-control have increased; the level of general internality and internality of interpersonal relations has considerably increased among the subjects with a suboptimal level of psychological health; the internality in the field of achievements has increased among the subjects with an optimal level of psychological health; the indicators of such components of self-development as: organization, self-management skills and communication have increased among the subjects with a suboptimal level of psychological health; the indicators of job satisfaction and social satisfaction have grown among the subjects with a suboptimal level of psychological health. the obtained results prove the effectiveness of the developed prophylactic correction and allow to recommend it both for maintaining psychological health and for psycho-correction of the existing violations of the specialists with the psychological support. 5. dicussion the development of psychological approaches to the individual functioning with the necessity to appeal to distinguish concepts of mental and psychological health. to have psychological health is not enough to have mental health. this research conciders psychological health as a multicomponent phenomenon based on heterogeneous human characteristics and this phenomenon provides a personal development resource; life satisfaction, balanced between individual success and the "price" of achievement of development goals and activity. psychological health differs from physical and mental health by revealing personal development largely. as characteristics which are the components of psychological health, the following characteristics may be: a high level of social and psychological adaptation, which demonstrates itself in harmonious relationships with others, a subjective sense of psychological ease and high potential to improve life well-being; the ability to accept himself/herself and to value people and their uniqueness, as well as to take responsibility for one’s lives; the ability to use the past experiences of coping with stress; emotional well-being, readiness to overcome challenges; the ability to use their own psychic powers adequately, positive attitude towards life. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 147 if we consider this category regardingthe problem of extreme sports, it should be noted that the term "psychological health" is used both to describe the interactions betweenthe organism and adverse environmental factors, and to report the result of this process. the analysis of the sources of scientific information proved that most researchers identify extreme sport activities as a set of many sociopsychological factors, which has the most significant impact on all types of health of an individual.it has been proved that it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of their professional activity which is accompanied by certain factors that create conditions to maintain one or another of healthfeatures studying the characteristics of psychological health of the specialists. 6. conclusions psychological health is considered by researchers in accordance with the concepts of personality and differs from physical and mental health by revealing personal development largely in the system of interpersonal relationships in a society. psychological health is a complex multicomponent phenomenon based on heterogeneous human characteristics and this phenomenon provides a personal development resource; life satisfaction, balanced between individual success and the "price" of achievement of development goals and activity. the problem of maintaining psychological health is the most acute in the extreme conditions of activity. the criteria of the psychological health of the specialists are: positive self-concept, having reflection, the ability to selfregulation, the lack of predisposition to addictive and deviant behavior, ability to communicate effectively, taking responsibility for one’s own life, the need for self-development, life satisfaction, self-awareness as a psychologically healthy person. two groups of factors adversely affect the psychological health of specialists: environmental (objective or social), which are accepted as the characteristics of the environment where a rescuer lives and works, and internal (subjective or psychological) mostly personality characteristics are subjectively specified which determine the quality of his/her life in objectively existing living conditions. the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the main components of the psychological health of the specialists made it possible to distinguish a number of peculiarities: sufficient indicators of psychological health, such as the ability to communicate effectively and taking responsibility for one’s own life, have been sufficiently formed; cognitive, gnostic and motivational elements of self-development. there are reflexivity, life satisfaction and subneuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health... natalia afanasieva et al. 148 jective well-being on an average level. the indicator of self-concept among specialists is average with a tendency to a low indicator. at the same time, a large majority of respondents have a clear tendency to externality in all spheres of life. it is proved that all parameters of self-regulation, as well as a desire for self-development are not formed enough among specialists. studying the predispositionsto addictive and deviant behavior among specialists showed that most of them have pronounced predispositions towards tobacco, alcohol, gaming, computer and food dependencies. they also have a predisposition to aggression and addictive behavior. the psychodiagnostic research of psychological health components of specialists with different extreme experience allows to say that there is negative influence on their psychological health. it has been established that the most extreme experience is the cause of a significant reduction of all indicators of psychological health, that leads to severe maladaptation, emotional and personality disorders. such individuals are characterized by a low level of self-awareness, dissatisfaction with their marriage, professional activity and social functioning. accordingly, the indicator of subjective wellbeing and the overall indicator of psychological health are at a low level among these individuals. such specialists need depth psychotherapy. the specialists with extreme experience of the average level have reduction of self-awareness, reflexivity, self-regulation ability. despite the fact that these respondents are characterized by an average level of sociability and casual behavior, emotional stability, realism, practicality and reasonability, they have lower life satisfaction, especially lower job satisfaction and lower satisfaction with relationships with relatives and loved ones. the general indicator of psychological health indicates the maladaptation and the need for consistent solutions of internal problems and conflicts with the help of psychologists. specialists with minimal extreme experience are characterized by a quite high level of self-awareness, unique self-improvement skills. the material, hedonic, communicative, cognitive, employee, moral, strifal motivations are dominant among motivational tendencies, as well as the desire for perfection and a positive attitude towards people, which characterizes a positive self-concept. planning, autonomy, ability to evaluate the results are the most developed among the stylistic features of selfregulation. in general, they are happy with their lives. however, their predispositions towards alcohol, tobacco and job dependencies indicate that there are a list of unsolved psychological problems. according to the research results, stable (the level of self-awareness and positive self-concept, ability and a desire for self-development, life broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 149 satisfaction) and variational (reflexivity, level of self-regulation, communication skills, locus of control) indicators of psychological health of specialists are highlighted. based on the research of the characteristics of specialists psychological health, its social and psychological factors are determined. the main subjective (psychological) factors of maintaining psychological health include: job satisfaction, internality, positive self-concept, self-management skills, self-regulation, subjective well-being. objective (social) factors, besides the activity at extreme conditions, include high professional and family status, social support and organizational identification. emphasizing the components of psychological health and identifying socio-psychological factors that maintain it, allowed us to develop a program of psychological prevention and psychological correction of the negative consequences caused by mountaineering to the psychological health of specialists. the main technologies of the program for the maintaining psychological health are the following: positive thinking training, ideomotor training to form activity readiness in extreme conditions and therapeutic intervention with elements of art therapy. the goals of the program is the impact on cognitive strategies, emotional state and constituent component of an specialist. the analysis of the results of the developed program for specialists with different levels of psychological health has established lasting positive changes in all indicators studied, so it means its effectiveness. conflict of interest. the authors state that there is no conflict of interest. references apostu, i. (2016). the two dimensions of infidelity. postmodern openings, 7(2), 167178. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/2016.0702.11 araújo, d., brymer, e., brito, h., withagen, r., & davids, k. (2019). the empowering variability of affordances of nature: why do exercisers feel better after performing the same exercise in natural environments than in indoor environments? psychology of sport and exercise, 42, 138-145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.12.020. buckley, r. c. (2018). to analyze thrill, define extreme sports. frontiers in psychology, 9, 1216. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01216. campbell, j. d., trapnell, p. d., heine, s. j., katz, i. m., lavallee, l. f., & lehman, d. r. (1996). self-concept clarity: measurement, personality correlates, and cultural boundaries. journal of personality and social psychology, 70, 141–156. dubrovina, i. v. (2009). mental and psychological health in the context of individual’s psychological culture. journal of practical psychology of education, 3(20), 17–21. http://postmodernopenings.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/po_december2016_167to178.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.12.020 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01216 neuropsychological factors and practical methods of maintaining mental health... natalia afanasieva et al. 150 duits, r. (2020). mountaineering, myth and the meaning of life: psychoanalysing alpinism. journal of the philosophy of sport, 47(1), 33-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/00948705.2020.1715227. esfahani, m., musa, g., & khoo, s. (2017). the influence of spirituality and physical activity level on responsible behaviour and mountaineering satisfaction on mount kinabalu, borneo. current issues in tourism, 20(11), 1162-1185. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2014.987733. fetiskin, n. p., kozlov, v. v., & manujlov, g. m. (2005). social'nopsihologicheskaja diagnostika razvitija lichnosti i malyh grupp. [social and psychological diagnostics of the development of personality and small groups]. moscow: publishing house of the institute of psychotherapy. [in russian]. granz, h. l., schnell, a., mayer, j., & thiel, a. (2019). risk profiles for athlete burnout in adolescent elite athletes: a classification analysis. psychology of sport and exercise, 41, 130-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.11.005. hetland, a., vitterso, j., oscar bo wie, s., kjelstrup, e., mittner, m., & dahl, t. i. (2018). skiing and thinking about it: moment-to-moment and retrospective analysis of emotions in an extreme sport. frontiers in psychology, 9, 971. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00971. karpov, a. v. (2003). refleksivnost' kak psihicheskoe svojstvo i metodika ee diagnostiki [reflexivity as a mental property and a technique for its diagnosis]. psihologicheskij zhurnal, 24(5), 45-57. [in russian]. lankford, h. v. (2015). dull brains, mountaineers, and mosso: hypoxic words from on high. high altitude medicine & biology, 16(4), 363-370. https://doi.org/10.1089/ham.2015.0039 litvinenko, s. n., & bajkovskij, ju. v. (2019). metodika ocenki urovnja jekstremal'nosti al'pinistskih voshozhdenij. [methodology for assessing the level of extreme mountain climbing]. jekstremal'naja dejatel'nost' cheloveka, 3(53), 46-49. [in russian]. macintyre, t. e., walkin, a. m., beckmann, j., calogiuri, g., gritzka, s., oliver, g., donnelly, a. a., & warrington, g. (2019). an exploratory study of extreme sport athletes’ nature interactions: from well-being to proenvironmental behavior. frontiers in psychology, 10, 1233. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01233. monasterio, e., & cloninger, c. r. (2019). self-transcendence in mountaineering and base jumping. frontiers in psychology, 9, 2686. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02686. morosanova, v. i. (2004). oprosnik "stil' samoreguljacii povedenija" [questionnaire "behavior self-regulation style"]. zhurnal prakticheskoj psihologii i psihoanaliza, (2), 150-163. [in russian]. https://doi.org/10.1080/00948705.2020.1715227 https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2014.987733 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.11.005 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00971 https://doi.org/10.1089/ham.2015.0039 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01233 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02686 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 151 nikiforov, g. s. (2007). diagnostika zdorov'ja. psihologicheskij praktikum [diagnostics of health. psychological workshop], st. petersburg: rech'. orth, d., davids, k., chow, j. y., brymer, e., & seifert, l. (2018). behavioral repertoire influences the rate and nature of learning in climbing: implications for individualized learning design in preparation for extreme sports participation. frontiers in psychology, 9, 949. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00949. peters, p. (2001). nerve compression syndromes in sport climbers. international journal of sports medicine, 22(08), 611-617. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-200118527. petrova, s. m. (1995). motivacionnaja obuslovlennost' ja-koncepcii lichnosti v junosheskom vozraste. [motivational conditioning of the self-concept of personality in adolescence]: phd theses. st. petersburg. [in russian]. reid, p., & kampman, h. (2019). exploring the psychology of extended-period expeditionary adventurers: going knowingly into the unknown. psychology of sport and exercise, 46, 101608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2019.101608. roberts, l., jones, g., & brooks, r. (2018). why do you ride?: a characterization of mountain bikers, their engagement methods, and perceived links to mental health and well-being. frontiers in psychology, 9, 1642. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01642. savage, d., chan, h. f., moy, n., schaffner, m., & torgler, b. (2020). personality and individual characteristics as indicators of lifetime climbing success among everest mountaineers. personality and individual differences, 162, 110044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110044. tabatabaie, s., litt, j. s., & crane, l. a. (2020). the experience of outdoor physical activity for skin cancer survivors: understanding the importance of the built and natural environments. journal of cancer survivorship: research and practice. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-020-00889-5. wagstaff, c. r., & leach, j. (2015). the value of strength-based approaches in sere and sport psychology. military psychology, 27(2), 65-84. https://doi.org/10.1037/mil0000066. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00949 https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2001-18527 https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2001-18527 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2019.101608 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01642 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110044 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-020-00889-5 https://doi.org/10.1037/mil0000066 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 01-13 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/403 submitted: april 13th, 2022 | accepted for publication: december 3rd, 2022 methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling yurii kashpur1, liudmyla lupiiko2, oleksii liashenko3, vira kuzmenko4, nataliia huzii5, olena tadeush 6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-02591137, yu.m.kashpur@npu.edu.ua 2 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-20606136, lyudmila0209@ukr.net 3 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-29428284, o.a.lyashenko@npu.edu.ua 4 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/000-0003-47096081, vira@ukr.net 5 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-91589791, natguz@ukr.net 6 boris grinchenko kyiv university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6373-4891, o.tadeush@kubg.edu.ua abstract: the article analyzes the theoretical and methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling in the sphere of today's education in the interdisciplinary aspects, in particular, neuropsychology and neuropedagogy. an attempt to substantiate psychological and pedagogical counseling as a service of providing psychological assistance to the client through training and forming a new experience of adaptive behavior in accordance with the requirements of the educational environment is made. theoretical and methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling are analyzed on the basis of the works on the current issues of psychological counseling by foreign and domestic researchers. the importance of psycho-consultative interaction in the conditions of inclusive education and teaching special children, taking into account the competencies of neuropedagogy, neuropsychology and neurophysiology was substantiated. the personal approach in the methodology of today's psychological and pedagogical counseling is defined as the main one, which is integrated with psychological approaches to counseling. the methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling are defined by theoretical and methodological principles, psychological mechanisms for organizing and conducting counseling work and ethical principles and norms for manifestation of professional competence of a counselor. it was found that psychological approaches such as person-centered, problem-oriented, and professional-competence approaches are most often applied to psychological and pedagogical counseling. keywords: education applicants; consultant; consultative interaction; neuropsychology; neuropedagogy; psychological approach; personal development; person-centered approach. how to cite: kashpur, y., lupiiko, l., liashenko, o., kuzmenko, v., huzii, n., & tadeush, o. (2023). methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 01-13. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/403 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/403 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0259-1137 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0259-1137 mailto:yu.m.kashpur@npu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2060-6136 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2060-6136 mailto:lyudmila0209@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2942-8284 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2942-8284 mailto:o.a.lyashenko@npu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/000-0003-4709-6081 https://orcid.org/000-0003-4709-6081 mailto:vira@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9158-9791 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9158-9791 mailto:natguz@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6373-4891 mailto:o.tadeush@kubg.edu.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/403 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 2 introduction to date, the main socio-psychological requests for psychological and pedagogical counseling in the modern education are: the solution of pressing issues related to distance learning in quarantine in connection with the epidemic covid 19 and its implications of psychological health of teachers and education applicants; consideration of optimal ways and psychological and pedagogical strategies for personal development of applicants for education and solving problems associated with the normative crises of age development and non-normative crises of professional formation of personality and improve the psychological and pedagogical culture of all participants in the educational process. features of today's educational issues determine the specificity of psychological and pedagogical counseling, able to provide comfortable conditions for the inclusion of clients in a communicative system of adequate business relationships and productive learning process with the optimal level of performance of all participants of the educational environment. the relevance of the study of methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling in the present day psychology and pedagogy is not limited only to the specifics of the problems of clients, the content and methods of educational activities and professional work of the psychologist-consultant. in this connection, the purpose of our article is to study psychological and pedagogical counseling in the sphere of education in interdisciplinary aspects: practical psychology and pedagogy, neuropsychology and neuropedagogy, developmental psychology and age psychology, psychotherapy and psychocorrection (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). the novelty and practical significance of the article in expanding the scientific understanding of the features of psychological and pedagogical counseling in the context of interdisciplinary relationships; an attempt to substantiate psychological and pedagogical counseling as a service of providing psychological assistance to the client through training and forming new experiences of adaptive behavior in accordance with the requirements of the educational environment. theoretical and methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling psychological dictionaries explain the concept of "consultation" as a one-time provision by a specialist of competent information at the request methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling yurii kashpur et al. 3 of the client for the optimal solution of those or other life, personal or professional problems (bulakh, 2014). psychological and pedagogical counseling is a service of psychological assistance to the client (individual counseling) or clients (group counseling) in the field of education to assist in solving psychological problems through training and forming new experiences of adaptive behavior in accordance with the requirements of the educational environment and the development of self-sufficient and responsible personality of his life and adequate educational and professional situations of behavior strategies. methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling contain: theoretical and applied paradigm of the counseling process in an interdisciplinary context; theoretical and methodological principles and psychological mechanisms for organizing and conducting counseling work of a psychologist (social educator) to achieve the counseling goals; ethical principles and standards for display of professional competence of a counselor. theoretical and methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling are analyzed on the basis of works on the most current issues of psychological counseling related to the specifics and structure of the counseling activity of a psychologist, age and psychological aspects of counseling, psychodiagnostics in the process of counseling interaction, psychotechnology for counseling consultants with specific problems (bulakh et al., 2014), integration of methods, theory and practice of consultative interaction into the integral theoretical and practical approach (vaskivska, 2004; khomych & tkach, 2004; tsymbaliuk, 2005), methods of neuropsychological consultations in the practice of the educational psychologist (tsvetkova & tsvetkova, 2012), methodological issues in the development of personality-centered methods and technologies of professional psychologists (rybalko, 2017), features of neuropsychological support of education (syrotyuk, 2003), influence of personality-centered counseling on the personal development of the client (merry & haugh, 2020). foreign researchers believe that psycho-educational counseling is important for students. psycho-educational counseling is concerned with how to help people overcome their problems, especially behavioral problems that can escalate into serious behavioral disorders if not addressed in time (wahid et al., 2018). important in pedagogical counseling services are social support services for students who are studying remotely and have reported feelings of isolation and lack of opportunities to develop effective broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 4 learning skills. in this regard, internet-based social counseling and pedagogical advising should be improved (orero obiero et al., 2020). it has been empirically proven that educational counseling as a support service for the student improves the quality of learning (okafor et al., 2021). therapeutic factors during psycho-pedagogical group intervention in facilitating the adaptation of first-grade students to school have been successfully investigated (brouzosa et al., 2019). school counseling should be based on the integration of counseling methods, taking into account the experiences of educational participants and the results of acute problems of applied school counseling research, consciously local, dynamic, interactive, localized, fluent, strategic and generative (truscott et al., 2022). cooper and dryden (2016) considered methodological principles of implementation of today's psychological counseling methods: there is no single correct way to conceptualize clients' problems; counselors should recognize and celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of clients; clients should be fully engaged at every stage of the counseling process; clients should be understood in terms of their strengths and resources and their problems; it is important that consultants be critical of their own theory and practice-they must be willing to look at their own investment in a particular position and be able to disengage from it. there are certain principles of behavior of the psychologistconsultant; observance of them not only ensures the ethics of professional activity, but is also a guarantee of the success of psychological influence. especially important are the following ethical requirements for the professional activity of the consultant: benevolent and invaluable attitude to the client, orientation on the norms and values of the client, prohibition to give advice, anonymity, separation of personal and professional relationships, involvement of the client in the counseling process. models (riches) of an effective counselor: acceptance of personal responsibility, ability to set realistic goals, empathy, tolerance for uncertainty, personal strength and identity, priority on the development of self-knowledge, authenticity, openness to own experience (tsymbalyuk, 2005). one of the most important tasks of psychological and pedagogical counseling is to develop the abilities of applicants for education and ensure the effectiveness of the educational process, taking into account the individual approach to the client-student. in such statement of a problem, the specificity of psycho-consulting interaction in the context of interdisciplinary communications, especially in conditions of inclusive education and education of special children is clearly enough traced. the methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling yurii kashpur et al. 5 consultant's work with such clients assumes the presence of competences from the sphere of neuropedagogy, neuropsychology and neurophysiology. today it is quite natural and necessary to have a new branch of science neuropedagogy or "neuropsychopedagogy" the science of the theory and technologies of education based on the data of present-day neuroscience, which will significantly increase the effectiveness of education and development of children and adults, their creative and working abilities, physical and mental health, to form law-abiding behavior, and thereby optimize living and behavior in social and environment. data from neuroscience, in particular the theory of functional asymmetry of the brain, would help in determining pedagogical techniques relative to rightand lefthemispheric. thus, right-hemispheric people learn better the structure of sentences and speech periods, as it is related to their inherent integrity of perception. many left-hemispheric people with a humanitarian professional orientation avoid familiarizing themselves with visual material such as drawings, graphs, diagrams, charts, symbolic representations, and mathematical formulas. they prefer extended verbal explanations and descriptions (klemantovich & stepanov, 2015). the professional obligation of the educational psychologist is to take into account such neuropsychological individual characteristics of the client in order to select more effectively methods and psychological techniques of consultative, first of all neuropsychological correction work with him or her. neuropsychological correction work in the process of consultative interaction is necessary, above all, for clients who are in stressful situations. as sapolsky (2003), stress can alter the plasticity of the nervous system, especially the limbic system. the author examines the effects of severe and/or prolonged stress on impaired learning and altered hippocampaldependent plasticity; the ability of light and fleeting stress to promote such plasticity; the ability of a range of stressors to increase fear and the amygdala plasticity underlying it. the psychological and pedagogical counseling as a fundamental factor of psychological support is especially in demand in the conditions of the social self-isolation regime. the data on the orientation of problems when applying to a teacher-psychologist during self-isolation show the predominance of consultations on the issues of aggressive behavior of schoolchildren, inconsistency of actions with social norms, as well as existing difficulties in interpersonal relations. a significant component of professionalism of both the educational psychologist and the teacher is the ability to carry out effective psychological and pedagogical counseling in conditions of self-isolation. this is directly related to the level of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 6 development of their communicative competence, professional training in the manifestation of competence online counseling during psychological and pedagogical support of the participants of educational relations (monzhievskaya & ruzhnikov, 2020). an important task of psychological and pedagogical counseling is the adaptation and personal development of education applicants in accordance with the requirements of inclusive education taking into account neuropsychological diagnosis. in this connection (sirotyuk, 2003) confirms that neuropsychological data on the child can be used when choosing a method of education and correction. at the same time, such training, which is aimed not at weak, but at strong links of mental activity, is effective. such training provides involvement of new nerve impulses and new brain structures that did not participate in realization of the disturbed function. difficulties arising in the process of school education, without timely corrective and developmental work develop into a chronic failure, which contributes to the formation of deviant behaviors, social maladaptation. a teacher with a rich arsenal of methodological techniques and teaching technologies can build a didactic scheme that allows each child to find his or her own way to master difficult school subjects. in the methodology of today's psychological and pedagogical consulting, professional interaction between the consultant and the client is carried out in a person-to-person position with a personality approach, according to which the psychologist sets the task to lead the client to recognize himself or herself as an active individual capable of setting goals and making the best choice of strategies for achieving them. thus one of the major purposes of psychological and pedagogical consulting is to identify difficulties in the personal development of the client and to help in the solution of personal problems. in our opinion, the personal approach is the methodological basis of today's psychological and pedagogical counseling. thus, tony merry (2020) considered the specifics of the influence of person-centered counseling on the phenomenological aspects in the development of the client's personality, in particular person-centered values as a conscious attitude of the client to himself, other people and the world. thus, according to domestic psychologists, in the current conditions it is expedient to consider this approach as a defined set of conceptual and methodological tools, which can be structured in such components: the personal approach must be based on a holistic, systemic view of the personality with a certain structure of its psychological properties; its necessary component is the development and use of personality-oriented complex methods of study (psychodiagnostics), stimulation, the methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling yurii kashpur et al. 7 development and realization of a person's creative potential; personal approach must be based on a holistic view of the life of the individual, covering the key periods of its formation, taking into account that human life has a holistic structure, characterized by a certain combination of lines of development, accumulation, enrichment and transformation of personal qualities and their embodiment in the process and products of activity behavior; determination of individual and socio-psychological features of the person which would allow to predict, prevent, reveal and solve acute personal problems of the person and thanks to this to prevent losses of his creative potential, to render him adequate help in compensation of deviations from the norm, in the formation of a healthy lifestyle, in the implementation of creative development and fruitful activities and behavior (rybalka, 2017, pp. 82-83). psycho-consultative interaction should have a clear internal logic and unfold in stages. all stages are interconnected, each subsequent stage builds on the previous one. most types of counseling in their initial and final results are similar and have a common basis. at the same time, according to the uniqueness of the individual and his problem, the logic of transition from one stage to another, the use of procedures and techniques, the time limits for achieving the result of counseling will be individual. stages of consultative interaction of the psychologist-consultant with the client: "mutual understanding/structuring," namely, the beginning of work a meeting, acquaintance, establishment of contact; "information gathering," in particular, clarification of the problem content, diagnostics of the client (conversation, supervision, testing), definition of the resource potential of the client; "strategic" determination of possible solutions to a problem, coordination of the plan of action, determination of ways to control implementation of the planned algorithm and determination of the desired result which the client strives to achieve; "implementation of the plan by the client and development of alternative solutions" independent performance by the client of tasks, procedures and techniques contributing to maximum success in overcoming the declared problem; "generalization" the transition from learning to action in real life. the success of the consulting activity of a professional psychologist depends on the level of his awareness and erudition, availability of theoretical and practical experience, actualization of professional attitudes, development of special abilities, professional possession of methods and techniques of consultation (bulakh et al., 2014). n. f. velikhanova (2012) considers psychological and pedagogical counseling as a means of rehabilitation of socially deprived children and teenagers, an important direction of correctional and rehabilitation work, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 8 which is a specially organized process of communication with children and teenagers who have applied for help to a psychologist or a teacher. in the process of psychological and pedagogical counseling, children's adaptive psychological resources are actualized, a desire to realize their needs and interests arises, and allows the child to change his or her attitude toward the world and the personality around him or her. two stages are important in the preparation and implementation of such counseling: a study of the motivational and needs sphere of the individual; preparation for the counseling work; and one's own counseling. at the second stage, the data received at the first stage, were analyzed and grouped into meaningful blocks, ranked by personal importance for teenagers: family and domestic relations, health, academic performance, interpersonal contacts, life plans and prospects for personal development. for psychological and pedagogical counseling to be effective, the age specifics of children, the degree of social maladjustment and the nature of emotional problems must be taken into account. sofie bager-charleson (2012) examines the impact of counseling using therapeutic psychotechniques on the personal development of the client. during counseling and psychotherapy training, the focus is on selfawareness with an emphasis on how the therapist as a person affects the therapeutic outcome in the context of an integrative approach. thus, the methodological and conceptual apparatus of psychological and pedagogical consultation is closely connected with the humanistic psychological approach, the basic methodological principle of which is understanding the wholeness and uniqueness of the client's personality, the integral nature of his or her personal components and assistance in his or her self-realization and self-actualization. in this regard, s. nash (2018) considered the weighty role of person-centered counseling in humanistic psychology. current technologies of psychological and pedagogical counseling psychological approaches to psychological and pedagogical consultation are most often applied as personality-oriented (diagnostics of individual psychological features of the client, application of methods of humanistic, client-centered and psychodynamic psychotherapy), problemoriented (the reasons for the problem, ways and means of its occurrence with the inclusion of methods of family therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, etc.) and professionally competent (focus on the business and positive aspects of the teaching situation, actualization of psychological methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling yurii kashpur et al. 9 resources, discussion of strategies for realistic solutions, the use of methods of positive psychotherapy). current techniques for the first stage of psychological and pedagogical consultation with teachers and parents focus on the diagnosis of neuropsychological features of a child's mental and personal development. in neuropsychological examination, it is important to investigate the factor (an elementary mental process which is provided by constellation of stable brain structures and their vertical and horizontal links) and, specifically, the features of the course of mental processes, identification of their violations which cause deviations in behavior, which, in turn, requires psychological correction in the process of neuropsychological consultation. for example, the express methods of neuropsychological examination of children according to l. s. tsvetkova (2012) for the purpose of effective neuropsychological counseling by a psychologist of an educational institution contains the following tests: the study of the emotional and motivational attitude towards school; features of voluntary attention, emotions, memory, speech, intelligence; ability and skills of expression; ability for cooperation and verbal communication, etc., tsvetkova (2012, p. 27 38). in our dynamic times, cognitive-behavioral counseling is one of the leading areas of psychological help for people. methods of cognitivebehavioral counseling are often used to solve such problems as anxiety, stress, insecurity (assertiveness), and are also effective in dealing with psychological difficulties associated with raising a child or asocial actions of a person. cognitive-behavioral counseling is aimed at changing a wide range of mental phenomena: deformed thinking, persistent negative moods, emotionality and uncoordinated behavior of the client. for this purpose, not only cognitive counseling strategies (socratic dialogue, guided research, the method of the falling arrow, techniques of active imagination, role-playing, methods of hard, soft and objective negation of irrational ideas, homework, etc.), but also techniques from other areas of counseling (behavioral, gestalt therapy, neuro-linguistic programming (nlp), etc.) are used. the choice of technique is determined by the specifics of the client's personal problem or each traumatic incident and the goals the counselor has, bulakh (2014). in our opinion, cognitive counseling techniques most successfully meet the theoretical and methodological tasks of psychological and pedagogical counseling. h. o. khomych, r. m. tkach (2004) believe that the use of the cognitive method is possible for clients who are at different ages and have good results in both individual and group forms of counseling, but methods of assessing cognitive development in children and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 10 adults differ significantly. for adults, standardized verbal techniques are predominantly used, while for children, given their dominant figurative thinking, nonverbal tests are more valid, as are methods of assessment of activity products and observation of inclusion in mental activity. cognitive counseling techniques for clients, regardless of age: detecting and identifying opinions, focusing on images, self-monitoring opinions, carrying out cognitive experiments. techniques of consultative interaction: a. establishing effective contact 1) establishing a report a necessary condition for cooperation and effective consultative interaction, mutual trust, contact with oneself, congruence with oneself and the situation); 2) tweaking: focus and calibration (this is the installation and maintenance of a report with the client for a certain period of time by consuming into his reality due to his nonverbal manifestations, emotions, thoughts, wishes; the process by which the consultant adjusts to the client's nonverbal signals, which indicate the features of his current state); 3) work with sensory modules (the analysis of functioning of the client's representative systems allows to clarify some fragments of his or her unconscious experience); 4) non-test diagnostics: the concept of psychological clues (psychological clues allow us to highlight meaningful moments that signal a problem, they stimulate the emergence of hypotheses, produce questions that ensure the progressive advancement of the consultative dialogue). b. psychotherapeutic interviewing skills: 1) techniques for clarifying information (reflective listening, speech encouragement, retelling, micro-skills for finding out and clarifying information, micro-skills for recognizing emotional experiences); 2) representation techniques ( representing feelings and meanings, focusing experiences, empathic response), vaskivska (2004). conclusion methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling contain: theoretical and applied paradigm of the counseling process in an interdisciplinary context; theoretical and methodological principles and psychological mechanisms for organizing and conducting counseling work of a psychologist (social educator) to achieve the counseling goals; ethical principles and standards for display of professional competence of a counselor. psycho-pedagogical counseling can integrate technologies, tasks and goals from different psychological approaches to counseling work with the client, which determines the specificity of the methodology of the psychological and pedagogical counseling process. methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling yurii kashpur et al. 11 the main clients of psychological and advisory pedagogical interaction are the applicant and his or her mentor-teachers, so consideration of the needs, expectations and specifics of the psychological problems of participants in the educational process determine the methodological features of psychological and pedagogical consulting. psychological and pedagogical counseling is usually performed in the context of applied interdisciplinary connections, which leads the counselor to use primarily person-centered, problem-oriented, neuropsychological and neuropedagogical approaches as a general integrative approach at the system level. references bager-charleson, s. (2012). personal development in counselling and psychotherapy. learning matters, metanoia institute. brouzosa, andreas, stephanos, p. vassilopoulosb, stavroua, vaia, vasiliki c. baourda. (2019). therapeutic factors during a psychoeducational group intervention aiming to promote school adjustment in first grade students. the european journal of counselling psychology, 8(1), 177–195. https://ejcop.psychopen.eu/article/view/143/pdf bulakh, і. s., kuzmenko, v. v., & pomytkin, e. a. (2014). konsulʹtatyvna psykholohiya [counseling psychology]. nilan-ltd. cooper, m., & dryden, w. (2016). introduction to pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy. in m. cooper & w. dryden (eds.), handbook of pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy. sage. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 khomych, h. o., & tkach, r. m. (2004). osnovy psykholohichnoho konsulʹtuvannya [fundamentals of psychological counseling]: textbook. interregional academy of personnel management. https://lkkeip.at.ua/_ld/1/146_up_31.pdf klemantovich, i. p., & stepanov, v. g. (2015). neyropedagogika: predmet issledovaniya. fundamental'nyye issledovaniya [neuropedagogy: the subject of research. fundamental research], 2-11, 2464-2468. https://fundamentalresearch.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 merry, t., & haugh, s. (2020). learning and being in person-centred counselling (third edition). pccs books. https://ejcop.psychopen.eu/article/view/143/pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://lkkeip.at.ua/_ld/1/146_up_31.pdf https://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 https://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 12 monzhiyevskaya, v. v., & ruzhnikov, m. s. (2020). izucheniye napravlennosti psikhologo-pedagogicheskogo konsul'tirovaniya v shkole v period rezhima samoizolyatsii [a study of the focus of psychological and pedagogical counseling in the school during the self-isolation regime]. pedagogy. issues of theory and practice. pedagogy, 5(5), 598-603. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/izuchenie-napravlennosti-psihologopedagogicheskogo-konsultirovaniya-v-shkole-v-period-rezhimasamoizolyatsii nash, s. (2018). the place of person-centred counselling in humanistic psychology. in r. house, d. kalisch, & j. maidman (eds.), humanistic psychology: current trends and future prospects, (pp. 53–70). routledge/taylor & francis group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315392943-6 okafor, i. c., onwuadi, c. c., imo, c. o., eneh, e. c., okeke, p., mbagwu, d., & eseadi, c. (2021). counselling as a learner support service for enhancing quality learning for students of national open university of nigeria, south-east study centres of nigeria. library philosophy and practice, 4873. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/4873 orero obiero, j., kimamo, c., & assey, a. (2020). social guidance and counselling support services on the study habits of distance learners: a case of learners in bachelor of education programmes by distance learning of university of nairobi, kenya. international journal of psychology and counselling, 12(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.5897/ijpc2019.0581 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rybalka, v. v. (2017). metodolohichni problemy naukovoyi psykholohiyi [ methodological problems of scientific psychology]. institute of pedagogical education and adult education of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. sapolsky, r. m. (2003). stress and plasticity in the limbic system. neurochemical research, 28(11), 1735-1742. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1026021307833 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 sirotyuk, a. l. (2003). neyropsikhologicheskoye i psikhofiziologicheskoye soprovozhdeniye obucheniya [neuropsychological and psychophysiological support of training]. creative center "sphere". https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/izuchenie-napravlennosti-psihologo-pedagogicheskogo-konsultirovaniya-v-shkole-v-period-rezhima-samoizolyatsii https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/izuchenie-napravlennosti-psihologo-pedagogicheskogo-konsultirovaniya-v-shkole-v-period-rezhima-samoizolyatsii https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/izuchenie-napravlennosti-psihologo-pedagogicheskogo-konsultirovaniya-v-shkole-v-period-rezhima-samoizolyatsii https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315392943-6 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/4873 https://doi.org/10.5897/ijpc2019.0581 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1026021307833 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 methodological foundations of psychological and pedagogical counseling yurii kashpur et al. 13 truscott, diane, stephen, d. m., truscott,michelle, l. washington & mclendon, & katherine e.. (2022). understanding school-based consultation as engineering using a mix of methods. journal of educational and psychological consultation, 32(1), 106-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/10474412.2021.1954528 tsvetkov, a. v, & tsvetkova, l. s. (2012). neyropsikhologicheskoye konsul'tirovaniye v praktike psikhologa obrazovaniya [neuropsychological counseling in the practice of the educational psychologist] http://psyhologdcpp.in.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2020/03/tsvetkov_a_v _neyropsikhologicheskoe_konsultirovanie.pdf tsymbalyuk, i. m. (2005). psykholohichne konsulʹtuvannya ta korektsiya. modulʹnoreytynhovyy kurs [psychological counseling and correction. modular-rated course]. publishing house "professional". vaskivska, s. v. (2004). osnovy psykholohichnoho konsulʹtuvannya [fundamentals of psychological counseling]. the fourth wave. velikhanova, n. f. (2012). psikhologo-pedagogicheskoye konsul'tirovaniye kak sredstvo reabilitatsii sotsial'no dezadaptirovannykh detey i podrostkov [psychological and pedagogical counseling as a means of rehabilitation of socially maladjusted children and adolescents]. social pedagogy. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologo-pedagogicheskoekonsultirovanie-kak-sredstvo-reabilitatsii-sotsialno-dezadaptirovannyhdetey-i-podrostkov wahid, n. a., hih, h., yunus, a. m., adam, f., & omar, s. h. s. (2018). the importance of psychological and educational counseling from the students’ perspective. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 8(4), 660–670. https://hrmars.com/papers_submitted/4051/the-importance-ofpsychological-and-educational-counseling-from-the-studentsperspective.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/10474412.2021.1954528 http://psyhologdcpp.in.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2020/03/tsvetkov_a_v_neyropsikhologicheskoe_konsultirovanie.pdf http://psyhologdcpp.in.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2020/03/tsvetkov_a_v_neyropsikhologicheskoe_konsultirovanie.pdf https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologo-pedagogicheskoe-konsultirovanie-kak-sredstvo-reabilitatsii-sotsialno-dezadaptirovannyh-detey-i-podrostkov https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologo-pedagogicheskoe-konsultirovanie-kak-sredstvo-reabilitatsii-sotsialno-dezadaptirovannyh-detey-i-podrostkov https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologo-pedagogicheskoe-konsultirovanie-kak-sredstvo-reabilitatsii-sotsialno-dezadaptirovannyh-detey-i-podrostkov https://hrmars.com/papers_submitted/4051/the-importance-of-psychological-and-educational-counseling-from-the-students-perspective.pdf https://hrmars.com/papers_submitted/4051/the-importance-of-psychological-and-educational-counseling-from-the-students-perspective.pdf https://hrmars.com/papers_submitted/4051/the-importance-of-psychological-and-educational-counseling-from-the-students-perspective.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 361-386 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/289 рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the formation of professionalism оksana shportun¹, natalia avramenko2, vasyl kaplinsky3, tetyana koval4, tamara tyurina5, lyudmila matokhniuk6, viktoriya shevchuk7, ihor bloshchynskyi8 1 doctor of psychological sciences, professor, professor of psychology department, municipal higher education institution "vinnytsia academy of continuing education", vinnytsia, ukraine, shportun_o@ukr.net, orcid.org/00000003-4528-4329 2 candidate of pedagogical sciences, lecturer of the departments of philology and humanities public, municipal higher education institution "vinnytsia academy of continuing education", vinnytsia, ukraine, edelnata@yahoo.de, orcid.org/0000-0003-1241-0261 3 doctor of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the department of pedagogy and vocational education, vinnytsia state pedagogical university named after mykhailo kotsyubynsky, vinnytsia, ukraine, kaplinskiy55@mail.ru, orcid.org/0000-00030829-1079 4 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the department of art disciplines of preschool and primary education, vinnytsia state pedagogical university named after mykhailo kotsyubynsky, vinnytsia, ukraine, tanyabyzja@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0001-6491-4010 abstract: the article actualizes the problem of psychological research features of procrastination, and definition of its influence on formation of professionalism at student's age. the psychological analysis of the concept of "procrastination" is carried out, the essence and specifics of procrastination development in student age are investigated, the level of procrastination development in student age and psychological mechanisms of its influence on formation of professionalism are investigated. the following methods were used in the study: theoretical methods (analysis of scientific and methodological literature of noctive and foreign authors in psychology); empirical methods (scale of assessment of the need for achievements of yu. orlov; methods of research of volitional self-regulation a. zverkov, e. eidman; melbourne decision-making questionnaire (adaptation of t. kornilova, s. kornilov); scale of procrastination for students s. ley; methodology "self-assessment organization"; questionnaire "control over action" yu. kulya; temporary perspective questionnaire (ztpi) zimbardo; questionnaire "integral job satisfaction" n. fetiskin, v. kozlov, g. manuilov). the experimental base of the study were students majoring in 053 "psychology" of donetsk national university named after vasyl stus (n = 92 people) aged 18-22 years. keywords: procrastination, adolescence, professionalism, psychological features. how to cite: shportun, o., avramenko, n., kaplinsky, v., koval, t., tyurina, t., matokhniuk, l., shevchuk, v., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2022). рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the formation of professionalism. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 361-386. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/289 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/289 mailto:shportun_o@ukr.net mailto:edelnata@yahoo.de mailto:kaplinskiy55@mail.ru mailto:tanyabyzja@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/289 5 doctor of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, professor of the department, of sociology and social work, national university "lviv politechnica", lviv, ukraine, tamara.h.tiurina@lpnu.ua, orcid.org/00000001-9421-9350 6 doctor of psychological sciences, professor, head of the department of psychology, municipal higher education institution "vinnytsia academy of continuing education", vinnytsia, ukraine, lyda1974@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-6316-2352 7 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, senior lecturer of general and engineering disciplines department, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, vikashevchuk71@gmail.com, orcid.org/00000002-0436-1183 8 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, head of the english translation department, faculty of foreign languages and humanities, national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, i.bloshch@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-00031925-9621 mailto:tamara.h.tiurina@lpnu.ua mailto:lyda1974@gmail.com mailto:vikashevchuk71@gmail.com mailto:i.bloshch@gmail.com рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 363 introduction the high level of development of human civilization, which is manifested in the achievements of science, technology, medicine and other spheres of human life, research on the capabilities of modern man does not exclude the emergence of new negative phenomena that threaten the overall health of mankind. one of such phenomenon is the phenomenon of procrastination, which has interdisciplinary significance and is the subject of research by psychologists, sociologists, educators and philosophers. first of all, it is necessary to consider and clarify the psychological meaning of the concept of "procrastination" and determine its place in a number of semantically similar psychological concepts. higher school instructors’ pedagogical and psychological skills improvement for development of students’ professional training were substantiated by i. melnychuk, i. drozdova, i. savchak, i. bloshchynskyi (melnychuk, drozdova, savchak, bloshchynskyi, 2019). issues of complex portfolio usage by the future primary school teachers training of the new ukrainian school were regarded in the work a. kykylyk, h. stukan, l. hlushok, i. shorobura, i. bloshchynskyi (kykylyk, et al, 2020). some scientists studied the strategic significance of english in self-education of the students for fundamentalization of university education (melnychuk, rebukha, zavgorodnia, bloshchynskyi, 2018). some issues on changing the educational paradigm in post-pandemic world were presented in the works of s. hanaba, o. mysechko, i. bloshchynskyi (hanaba, mysechko, bloshchynskyi, 2020). other scholars l. borovyk, l. matokhniuk, k. demyanyuk, v. shevchuk, s. pidhaichuk, o. danylenko, a. halimov, i. bloshchynskyi revealed the peculiarities of professional imagination formation in the process of implementation of technical disciplines with the aid of it (borovyk, et al, 2020). the urgency of the problem of "postponement" of affairs and life in general has led to the emergence of a number of case studies in psychological science. in particular, the features of procrastination and its causes were studied by m. spada, p. steele, k. taylor, k. lay, n. milgam and others. native researchers such as: s. babatina, e. bazika, m. dvornik, s. sobolev, y. shaygorodsky, turned to the study of this phenomenon only in the early 19th century (demina, ral'nikova, luzhbina, 2010). some scientific researches on the problems of laziness, lack of motivation and willpower, underdevelopment of professional skills, optimization of personal time were conducted in ukraine, but, of course, they should not be reduced to procrastination (f'ore, 2013). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 364 the term "procrastination" is new to ukrainian psychology, despite the fact that the psychological essence of this term phenomenon is familiar to each of us. procrastination (latin pro instead of and crastinus tomorrow) the tendency to postpone the necessary tasks "for later" or "for tomorrow"; behavioral pattern, in which the implementation of leading activities that are important to man in this period of time, deliberately postponed (milgram, 1993). the person remains in activity, but its activity is directed on extraneous, insignificant, sometimes simply senseless occupations. the purpose of the article. the aim of the study is to analyze and determine the psychological characteristics of procrastination, as well as to determine its impact on the formation of professionalism at student age. to achieve the purpose of the study, the following tasks were carried out: 1) to determine the nature and specifics of procrastination development in student age by theoretical analysis; 2) to determine the psychological features and characteristics of the phenomenon of procrastination; 3) to investigate the level of procrastination development in student age; 4) determine the impact of procrastination on the formation of professionalism. methodology of research тheoretical methods (analysis of scientific and methodological literature of native and foreign authors in psychology); empirical methods (scale for assessing the need for achievements of yu. orlov (f'ore, 2013); methods of research of volitional self-regulation a. zverkov, e. eidman (pashukova, dopira, d'yakonov, 1996); melbourne decision-making questionnaire (adaptation t. kornilova, s. kornilova) (lay, 1986); methodology "self-assessment of organization" (lay, 1986); questionnaire "control over action" yu. kulya (raygorodskiy, 2000); zimbardo temporary perspective questionnaire (ztpi) (lay, 1986); questionnaire "integral job satisfaction" (n. fetiskin, v. kozlov, g. manuilov) (fetiskin, 2002); methods of qualitative and quantitative data analysis. sample of the study: the experimental base of the study were students majoring in 053 "psychology" of donetsk national university named after vasyl stus (n = 92 people) aged 18-22 years, of whom 63 people girls and 29 boys. results of research in psychological science, the term "procrastination" was introduced in 1977 by p. ringenbach in the book "procrastination in human life". in the рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 365 same year, a book by a. ellis and w. knaus "overcoming procrastination" was published, which was based on clinical observations. then came the popular science book by j. burke and l. yuen "procrastination: what it is and how to deal with it" (ferrari, 1995). and mentions of this phenomenon, as well as its formulation can be found even earlier as in the works of the heyday of the industrial revolution in the middle of the eighteenth century, and in the oxford dictionary of 1548. it is also possible to note the existence in most languages of proverbs such as "do not put off for tomorrow what can be done today." thus, we can conclude that procrastination has always been. just as necessary and increasing the urgency of the problem, it began to be studied. theories, methods for measuring the level of procrastination, techniques for its weakening have appeared. everyone at least once in their life did not shy away from performing any actions and postponed them, especially when it was necessary to do something under duress or under pressure of circumstances or when there were doubts about the necessity and usefulness of the intended. but the procrastinator procrastinates even when he is 100% sure of the necessity and importance of action. and he has no doubt that it is necessary, useful, and the idea had to be done "yesterday." but he deliberately postpones the planned case, despite the fact that it will cause some problems and complications. in this case, he can perform small and insignificant tasks, which he attaches more importance. procrastination can cause stress, guilt, decreased productivity, and dissatisfaction with others due to failure and fulfill obligations. the combination of these feelings and the effort can provoke further procrastination. chronic procrastination can be caused by a hidden psychological or physiological illness. some people can work productively only when a strict time frame is set, the peak of their productivity is in the last hours and minutes before the deadline. the main signs of procrastination are the lack of productivity and meaning in combination with the constant deposition of really important and useful things. to some extent, this is not a bad thing, because no one can work like a machine. short breaks for rest and change of activity have a positive effect on overall productivity (palladino, 2015). procrastination is a kind of expression of an emotional reaction to planned or necessary things (kornilova, 2003). depending on the nature of these emotions, procrastination is divided into two fundamental types: "relaxed", when a person spends time on other, more enjoyable activities and entertainment, and "tense", associated with general overload, loss of sense of time, dissatisfaction with their own achievements, unclear life goals, indecision and self-doubt (lay, 1986). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 366 in the conditions of a modern society which puts forward serious requirements to independence and responsibility of the person, urgency of a problem of the described phenomenon grows (maksymenko, matokhnyuk, 2017). according to psychologists who study this phenomenon, persistent procrastination is present in 15-25% of the world's population. moreover, as longitudinal studies show, over the past 25 years, the level of procrastination has increased and tends to increase further (vorob'eva, 2013). n. milgram and co-authors first identified five types of procrastination: 1) daily (household), ie postponement of household chores, which must be performed regularly; 2) procrastination in decision-making (including minor); 3) neurotic postponement of vital decisions, such as choosing a profession or starting a family; 4) compulsive, when a person combines two types of procrastination daily and in decision-making; 5) academic, ie postponement of educational tasks, preparation for exams, etc (demina, ral'nikova, luzhbina, 2010). there are also procrastination associated with the desire to avoid unpleasant business and with the receipt of acute experiences in a shortage of time. in this regard, there are two types of procrastinators passive and active. the active procrastinator tends to increase the voltage. postponing cases "to the last", it creates a critical moment associated with the extreme proximity of the deadline. when there is little time to complete the work, a person experiences mobilization of forces, full concentration, increased activity of mental processes (il'in, 2011). analyzing and summarizing foreign studies of procrastination, we can talk about the presence of 3 main components of this phenomenon: behavioral, cognitive and emotional. procrastination is a complex, psychologically heterogeneous phenomenon that includes behavioral, emotional and cognitive components closely related to the motivational sphere of personality. the behavioral component of procrastination is seen as a form of learning. students tend to avoid tasks that they find unpleasant and repulsive and engage in short-term activities that seem more important to them than those that require more time to complete (bazyka, 2003). such behavior may well be seen as a way to avoid responsibility or anxiety associated with learning. it can also be associated with voltage (dvornyk, 2014). procrastination can be considered as a result of cognitive impairment, these problems are not related to abilities or level of intelligence, but procrastinators have difficulties in perception and adequate assessment of time (fetiskin, 2002). the relationship with the emotional sphere was revealed in the course of research on procrastination: 1) with the fear of failure and neuroticism; 2) with impulsivity (blunt, pychyl, 2000). рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 367 procrastinators often have perfectionist attitudes that apply to all spheres of life. on the other hand, there are impulsive procrastinators, who have difficulty in perceiving and evaluating signals coming from the environment. such people are unable to postpone the satisfaction of their own needs, have difficulty with self-control. a number of authors also highlight the fourth component the subconscious. sometimes procrastination can signal the presence of deep intrapersonal conflicts (demina, ral'nikova, luzhbina, 2010). a person can unconsciously avoid and delay the performance of any activity that has a certain symbolic meaning for him. such activity on an unconscious level is associated with some conflict in the past and is seen as a threat. therefore, we can note that procrastination is a complex phenomenon that includes: behavioral component (procrastination as a fixed mechanism of human behavior), cognitive component (specificity of feeling the results of activities, as well as motivation to perform activities), emotional component (high anxiety, emotional congestion, fear of failure and neuroticism), as well as the subconscious component (procrastination as a protective mechanism of the individual, which works when increasing anxiety and assessing the situation of any task as threatening and danger). modern society makes high demands on the responsibility, independence and productivity of the individual (maksymenko, matokhnyuk, 2017). and the study of procrastination is a very significant and relevant, especially when there are problems and difficulties that can not be attributed to human laziness and disinterest in performing the necessary activities. thus, the phenomenon of procrastination is a complex psychological concept that should not be completely identified with the protective mechanisms or violations of motivational and volitional processes. this issue requires further study and in-depth research that will clarify the available data on the nature of procrastination, its components and possible correlations with other psychological characteristics of the individual. student`s age is a special period of human life. according to b. ananiev, it is a sensitive period for the development of basic sociogenic potentials of human. higher education has a huge impact on the human psyche, the development of his personality. during their studies at the university, in the presence of favorable conditions, students develop all levels of the psyche. they determine the direction of the human mind, ie form the composition of thinking that characterizes the professional orientation of the individual. successful studyihg at higher education establishmeht requires a fairly high level of general intellectual development, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 368 including perception, memory, thinking, attention, level of mastery of a certain range of logical operations. considering students as a special social category, a specific community of people, i. zimova identifies the main characteristics of student`s age that distinguish it from other groups with high educational level, high cognitive motivation, the highest social activity and a very harmonious combination of intellectual and social maturity. in terms of general mental development, students at a period of intensive socialization of personality, the development of higher mental functions, the formation of the entire intellectual system and the individual as a whole. it is the entrance to the university that creates in a young person a sense of faith in his own abilities and determines his future life. however, further study at the university also reveals changes in the mood of young people: the euphoria of the first months of study is replaced by skepticism about teaching, the assessment system and so on. however, it should be noted that the ability to arbitrarily and consciously regulate their behavior is not fully developed in young people. the success of a young person's educational activities is determined by the development of new features of his studies at the university. in the process of learning the student body is formed, skills and abilities of organizational work are developed, the system of work on development of professionally significant qualities of the person is formed. thus, the student age is characterized by the achievement of the highest, peak results, which are based on all previous processes of biological, psychological, social development. at the same time, the beginning of studying at higher education al establishment is a highly stressful period of life: it presents a critical life event (change in the stage of the life cycle), in some universities there are intense daily educational overloads. v. bykova, studying the features of student procrastination, argues that the causes and features of procrastination in students and adults are different. procrastination occurs most often in situations and cases involving intellectual stress, requiring self-organization and planning of activities characterized by delayed remuneration, lack of motivation, the need to interact with people who cause negative emotions. among the causes of student`s procrastination syndrome, she says: is unfavorite job, boring and unpleasant thing to do; inability to set priorities; ambiguity of the main life goals, own directions; inability to organize themselves and their time; lack of motivation; insecurity (milgram, 1992). causes, types of procrastination and its consequences are widely reflected in foreign literature. conducting a generalized theoretical analysis on this issue, there are several approaches to the study of this phenomenon, in particular, researchers identify five types of procrastination: 1. рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 369 procrastination as a life tactic lack of skills in performing daily, routine duties, which are observed throughout life and are associated with the inability to manage time. 2. procrastination in decision-making the inability to accept decision in a certain period. 3. neurotic procrastination inability to take in time vital careful decisions. 4. compulsive procrastination a chronic delay in behavior. 5. academic procrastination difficulties in completing tasks at the right time during training (demina, ral'nikova, luzhbina, 2010). the main causes of academic procrastination are: lack of motivation and in a broad sense a violation of the motivational-volitional sphere, stress as a consequence of uncertainty and fear of the future, or, conversely, perfectionism. but the most common reasons are the inability to build a hierarchy of goals and values and plan their activities, lack of direct communication with the environment and the excess of virtual (silistraru et al., 2021). according to research by s. mokhova and a. nevryuyev, the main causes of academic procrastination are: disease, social and family problems, lack of motivation and interest, overconfidence, laziness, lack of guidance and advice from teachers, helplessness, low level of communication, external distractions. this often leads to lower performance, increased anxiety, often to the formation of inferiority complex and, as a result, to the refusal of further training. therefore, to reduce the level of academic procrastination, teachers need to be more attentive to students, introduce an effective system of incentives, promote the development of academic ties between students and logically divide certain types of work into smaller components. in the study of causal relationships of this phenomenon in humans, many researchers have concluded that the key factors can be considered features of human personality and the characteristics of the tasks themselves (varvaricheva, 2014). analyzing the causes of procrastination together with the quality of the tasks themselves, most authors identify the following reasons: the imposition of tasks from the outside; delayed consequences; long term given for execution; large temporary investments in the task; boring, routine tasks; high employment in others matters; deferment in receiving pleasure or rewards. depending on the emotional response, scientists distinguish two fundamental types of procrastinators: 1. "relaxed" procrastinator spends time on other, more enjoyable, activities and entertainment. their procrastination is a form of escape from the unpleasant experiences of doing what they put off. at first they do not do it because they are bored, and then they look for excuses or come up with pseudo-rational explanations for their behavior. at the heart of their motives may be the desire to meet the most brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 370 important emotional needs in the attention and approval of others, in love, self-confidence. 2. "intense" procrastinator is characterized by general overload, loss of sense of time, dissatisfaction with their own achievements, unclear life goals. fear of failure (fear that you will fail due to lack of necessary knowledge (talent, luck), fear of demonstrating incompetence are the most common causes of this type of procrastination. too self-critical people avoid many forms of activity, especially if they have an element of competition. they realize that giving up the fight is also a form of defeat, and they also suffer because of it. however, defeat without a fight is obviously less painful than the failure of a real attempt. fear of success is no less common cause of academic procrastination. this phenomenon is often formed during the school years and is manifested in the desire to be worse and less successful in order to maintain certain relationships with friends, to meet certain stereotypes or to prevent additional workload and increased demands from teachers and parents. often this trend persists in some students in the junior year while studying at the university. another reason for academic procrastination is resistance to external control. procrastinators of this type interact with reality in a "passive-aggressive" way. deep down, they believe that their desires are the law, and any demands on them (from relatives, teachers, leaders, comrades) cause, respectively, protest and revolt. but the vast majority of researchers believe that the main cause of procrastination in the student environment is a lack of motivation to learn. this is due to various factors: they entered the university only at the request of parents, do not see prospects in future professional activities, the main purpose of education are to obtain a diploma. among the main causes of procrastination are: authoritarianism of parents, procrastination may be a response to the authoritarian style of parenting; fear of failure a person is afraid that he will not cope with the task, he is afraid that he does not have enough abilities, skills or time. "it's better not to do it at all than to look ridiculous," the procrastinator thinks. low self-esteem, self-doubt that's what prevents; perfectionism a person does not accept average results. if you start a business, then do it perfectly; unclear goals if the leader did not indicate in which direction to move, but explained that there are no priorities and most importantly, the person is completely confused and seeks to delay the implementation of unclear tasks, he just does not know from which side to approach the problem, and as nature is indecisive, he is afraid to take responsibility; not true beliefs a person thinks that if you drive it into the framework, he can do the job much better; laziness and lack of interest. рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 371 the consequences of procrastination are stress, guilt, loss of productivity, dissatisfaction with others due to non-fulfillment of obligations. in an effort to complete the task in a limited period of time, a person experiences serious emotional and physical stress. nervous tension, constant sleep deprivation, abuse of caffeine, energy drinks all this can have unpleasant consequences on the body. in addition, procrastination is the basis for feelings of guilt because of unfinished work, lack of selfrealization, loss of opportunities, etc. and is the result of poor self-control. time management techniques and time planning skills help to combat this phenomenon. equally important is the development of the student's desire to succeed, which will reduce feelings of anxiety and fear of failure (milgram, 1995). thus, the main causes of academic procrastination are: illness, social and family problems, lack of motivation and interest in learning, overconfidence, laziness, poor management of teaching activities and teacher advice, helplessness of individual students, lack of direct communication and excess of virtual, external distractions. procrastination leads to a decrease in the quality of success, increase the level of anxiety, and sometimes to the refusal of further training. procrastination does not become an obstacle if it is temporary and, conversely, grows into a problem becoming chronic. chronic procrastination interferes with work, success, plans for the future. it can be a hidden beginning of a psychological or physical illness. chronic procrastination is characteristic of students who have chosen the wrong profession and educational institution; they study without interest, hence the sleepless nights trying to do unpleasant tasks on the last day before tests, exams. the decision to leave the study of an uninteresting specialty can be made only by a strong personality, with a strong character, but only a few are capable of radical actions (kovylin, 2013). thus, procrastination is a process of voluntary evasion of important tasks and, instead, the performance of things that are less important, but those that bring quick results and satisfaction ("here and now"). procrastination usually leads to negative consequences both personally and professionally. using the methodology "scale for assessing the need for achievements" (yu. orlova) (f'ore, 2013) we determin what levels of achievement motivation prevail in students. this technique diagnoses three levels of achievement needs: low, medium and high motivational level. statistical analysis of the obtained results was performed using excel spreadsheets. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 372 from fig. 1 it is seen that the predominant level of need for achievements according to the method of "scale of need for achievements" by yu. orlov is: medium level 84% (4-7 points), with a low level 14% (13 points) and high 2% (8-10 points). fig. 1. percentage distribution of motivational levels of achievements according to the method "scale of needs assessment for achievements (yu. orlova) individuals with a strong need for achievement are more effective and avoid routine work. they tend to look for more efficient tasks. researchers have always believed that people with a strong need for achievement should pay more attention to personal responsibility for performance, because only then can they feel satisfied with what they have done better than others. students are future professionals who not only study, but also show themselves up in various ways in social and cultural life. that is, they have an active position in life and the desire to succeed. these results can be explained by the continuous development of technology, the rapid pace of life, competition and other social factors that force us to adapt constantly to change. free opportunity for higher education, increasing the quality of life, increasing aspirations and ambitions, lack of time all this stimulates a person to develop motivation to succeed as a tool through which he will fight for a better "place under the sun". in general, the need to achieve is a stable characteristic of the individual, ie manifested in a wide range of situations, regardless of their specific content. the motivation to succeed, the goal is expressed in the desire to improve results, perseverance in achieving their goals, and affects the entire life of the individual. we have determined that people with an average level of need for achievement are quite confident in coping with tasks of medium severity, 35% 19% 46% high level low level average level рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 373 but do not like situations involving risk. because a person needs to have a high need for achievement to be successful, this need can and should be developed, because this is an important trait inherent in leaders. using the method of studying volitional self-regulation a. zverkova, e. eidman (pashukova, dopira, d'yakonov, 1996), we determined the levels of volitional self-regulation on a common scale and two subscales: persistence and self-control. fig. 2. percentage distribution of indicators of low and high levels separately for each scale according to the method of zverkov & eidman in general, the volitional self-regulation level means the degree of mastering their behavior and actions control in different situations. a high level on the common scale (35%) is inherent in individuals who are selfsufficient and emotionally mature. they are characterized by calmness, a pronounced socio-positive orientation and self-confidence. there is an infrequent increase in internal tensions associated with the desire to control every step, stage of their own behavior. spontaneous actions lead to a state of anxiety. low level on this scale is observed in 65% of people. these people are sensual, vulnerable and emotionally unstable. they are characterized by a low level of reflexivity, and the general background of activity is usually reduced. high level on the subscale of persistence was found in 45% of people. this characterizes the strength of a person's intentions his desire to complete the work started. on the positive pole, they are active, hardworking people who actively strive to do what is planned, are mobilized by obstacles and barriers to the goal, but, at the same time, are distracted by alternatives and temptations, their main value the case is started. otherwise a possible loss of flexibility of behavior, the presence of manic tendencies. low values on this scale (55%) indicate increased lability, and uncertainty of 65 55 63 35 45 37 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 common scale persistence seif-control high level low level brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 374 the subjects. this can lead to inconsistencies and even chaotic behavior. the reduced background of working capacity and activity is balanced by increased sensitivity and ingenuity, as well as tendency to free interpretation of social norms. a high level on the subscale of self-control was found in 37% of people and gained by emotionally stable people who are well-versed in various situations. usually these people are emotionally stable, selfconfident, they are characterized by inner peace, lack of fear of the unknown, willingness to accept the new, unexpected, tendencies to innovation and radicalism. the desire for constant self-control, excessive conscious restriction of spontaneity can cause increased tension and the benefits of constant fatigue and anxiety. a low level on the same scale (63%) characterizes spontaneity and impulsiveness, combined with preference and abusiveness for traditional views. it separates a person from intense experiences and internal conflicts, contributes to a calm mood. there is an ambiguous social desirability of high performance on a given scale. the high level of development of volitional self-regulation may be associated with problems in the organization of people life and relationships. low levels of intrusiveness and self-control usually perform a compensatory function. however, this may be evidence of a violation of the development of personality traits and respond adequately to diffrent situations. using the melbourne decision-making questionnaire (adapted by t. kornilova, s. kornilova) (mopr) (lay, 1986), it was determined how and which strategies of the subjects are guided by in decision-making. according to the provided histogram (fig. 3), we see that the scale 1 "vigilance" and scale 4 over "vigilance" have almost the same percentage of low and high rates. but these 2 categories should be distinguished, although at first glance they have the same meaning. the category of vigilance means that such a person is quite attentive and constantly vigilant. and vigilance is a manifestation of extreme caution, even when a person is in a safe situation. according to this method, these concepts are characterized as follows: vigilance is the main stylistic characteristic of man as a person who makes decisions related to cognitive complexity, the need for knowledge and tolerance for uncertainty; vigilance is an unjustified "throwing" between different alternatives, an impulsive acceptance that promises to get rid of the situation; in extreme forms "panic" in choosing between alternatives. scale 2 "avoidance" indicates that more than half of the respondents avoid independent decision-making, shift responsibilities and rationalize questionable alternatives. this is because a person either adapts to a problem or decision, or avoids it. she is afraid to take responsibility or just does not рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 375 want to, and such a person will always find excuses. on a scale of 3 "procrastination", most subjects received high scores that is, they are characterized by a high level of development of procrastination. this is a tendency to constant postpone or so-called postponement of decisions, cases for later. if this is not fought immediately, then in the future such people become prone to constant postponement of cases, negative thoughts and actions for later. although the previous 3 traits, such as vigilance, avoidance and over vigilance, can be corrected or reduced. procrastination can develop into a disease and become a lifestyle of the individual. fig. 3. percentage distribution of indicators of low and high levels separately for each scale according to the method of mopr (t. kornilova, s. kornilova) the manifestations of all these phenomena can be influenced by a number of circumstances, for example: previously experienced stress or a situation that is not pleasant to a person, which had an unpleasant "sediment" and now it manifests itself in this way. such phenomena can also include a high level of anxiety associated with previous personal experience. in most situations, a person is driven by emotions, so emotions affect people in many different ways. the same emotion affects people differently; moreover, it has different effects on the same person who gets into different situations. therefore, depending on what situations a person has been in before, how he fought with them and got out of them, so he will react to all life events, circumstances and solve their problems based on past experience. the scale of procrastination for students of s. leigh (lay, 1986) was determined by the levels of development of procrastination in students. 95 67 70 87 5 33 30 13 vigilance avoidance procrastination overvigilance low indicators high indicators brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 376 for fig. 4 shows that the average level of procrastination development 81% is predominant among students, they also have a high level of procrastination development it is 6% and low 13%. procrastination is a painful inability to take action, accompanied by anxiety, sadness and anxiety. this is an endless postponement of important and urgent tasks for later. if a lazy person just rejoices when he manages to rest for a few hours, then in the case of procrastination the opposite effect occurs: the person is depressed by his inaction and still can not force himself to take up the cause. sometimes a person despairs, just disappointed with himself and still does not move. the worst thing is that many of them are in this state for weeks and months. the consequences of procrastination can be very sad. fig.4. the results of an empirical study by the method of the scale of procrastination for students (s. leia) procrastination occurs often in situations and cases involving intellectual stress, requiring self-organization and planning of activities characterized by delayed remuneration, lack of motivation, the need to interact with people who cause negative emotions. among the causes of procrastination syndrome among students are the following: un favorite job, boring and unpleasant thing to do; inability to set priorities; ambiguity of the main life goals, own directions; inability to organize themselves and their time; lack of motivation; insecurity. the main reasons for the development of academic procrastination include: illness, social and family problems, lack of motivation and interest in learning, overconfidence, laziness, poor leadership of educational activities and teacher advice, helplessness of individual students, lack of direct communication and excess of virtual, external distractional factors. procrastination leads to a decrease in the quality of success, increase the level of anxiety, and sometimes to the refusal of further training. 5% 72% 23% integral job satisfaction low level average level high level рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 377 according to the method of "assessment of self-organization" (lay, 1986) the following results were obtained: fig. 5. the results of empirical research on the method of "self-assessment of organization" in fig. 5 is shown that in a larger number of subjects the organization is developed at the average level 63%, high level 27% and low level is inherent in only 10%. the high rate is characterized by high demands of the individual to himself and focus on the result. such a person realizes what his ultimate goal is and what needs to be done to achieve it. organization, which is at high level, is an acquired skill that must be systematically maintained. successful people know that as soon as they deviate from the rules and give up these promises, they will automatically leave the organization. a person can be successful only when he keeps himself within limits. the average level is characterized by the presence of constant throws between high activity and a significant decline. a person experiences a state of internal struggle and additional stress from the fact that he can not allocate time and a lot of effort is wasted. the low rate is characterized by a reluctance to act at all. maybe such a person sometimes wants to change something in his life, but he has too little internal reserves to achieve the desired. according to the questionnaire "control over action" yu. kulya (raygorodskiy, 2000) the following results were obtained: 5% 72% 23% integral job satisfaction low level average level high level brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 378 fig. 6. the results of empirical research on the method of "control of action" yu. kulya control over the action associated with decision-making (when planning). this scale reflects the ability of the subject in the process of initiating the action to distract from the inferior, competing intentions. control over the action associated with the implementation (in the implementation). this scale reflects the ability of the subject to be in the process of realization of intentions for the necessary time, to keep the focus of actual intention, to show persistence. action control associated with a focus on failure (when planning). this scale reflects the ability of the subject to initiate the process of realization of the intention, despite the accompanying difficulties. the results of this method show that a small percentage of respondents (29% with 100% on the scale of "planning") plan their activities and a very large percentage of people (83% with 100% on the scale of "failure") are afraid of failures and difficulties and half of the subjects still realize their intentions, and half do not, because the fear of failure and possible inability to plan prevail over them. high scores on each of the scales mean focus on action, and low in turn focus on their own condition and experience. according to the ztpi method questionnaire of time perspective f. zimbardo (milgram, 2000), the following results were obtained: 29 41 83 71 59 17 planning realization failure high level low level рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 379 fig. 7. the results of empirical research on the method f. zimbardo "questionnaire of time perspective" the factor "negative past" reflects the general pessimistic, negative or mixed aversion to the past. may involve trauma, pain and regret. this attitude can be due to real unpleasant and traumatic events, due to the negative reconstruction of positive events, or due to both of them. the factor "hedonistic mood" reflects the hedonistic, risky, "i don't care" attitude to time and life. provides a focus on pleasure, excitement, enjoyment in the present and a lack of concern for future consequences or sacrifices in favor of future rewards. future factor reflects the general focus on the future. assumes that behavior is largely determined by the desire for goals and rewards for the future. characterized by planning and achieving future goals. the "positive past" factor reflects a warm, sentimental attitude toward one's past. this indicator is characterized by a nostalgic, positive reconstruction of the past; it is presented in a rainbow light. factor "fatalistic present" reveals a fatalistic, helpless and hopeless attitude towards one's future and life in general. this factor reflects the lack of a focused time perspective. there is a lack of focus on future-oriented goals, no emphasis on excitement, and no nostalgia or bitterness for the past. this factor reveals the belief that their future cannot be influenced by individual actions; people with high scores on this scale are in the power of capricious (demanding) fate. using the method of the questionnaire "integral job satisfaction" (n. fetiskin, v. kozlov, g. manuilov) (fetiskin, 2002) the following results were obtained: 88 78 73 24 65 12 22 27 76 35 fatalistic present positive past future hedonistic mood negative past high level low level brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 380 fig. 8. the results of an empirical study on the method of the questionnaire "integral job satisfaction" (n. fetiskin, v. kozlov, g. manuilov) this chart shows that the average level of job satisfaction is average 72%, high reaches 23%, and low 5%. this means that most respondents are still satisfied with their profession, working conditions, relationships with management and staff. job satisfaction is a state of balance of the requirements shown by the worker to the maintenance, character and working conditions, and a subjective estimation of possibilities of realization of these requirements. job satisfaction is the evaluative attitude of a person or group of people to their own work, its various aspects and the most important indicator of employee adaptation in the organization. labor is a purposeful human activity, in the process of which it affects nature and uses it to produce material goods needed to meet their needs. work is one of the basic conditions of human life and society. it is labor activity that underlies any social relations and significantly affects the relations and interactions of people. in addition, it is of great importance to be in the process of personality formation. in the process of labor and social activity a person shows a different degree of activity, which is due to its interests and needs. correlation analysis was performed using the program spss statistics 13. * the correlation is significant at 0.05 (bilateral); ** – correlation is significant at the level of 0.01 (bilateral). 1. perseverance and self-control (474 **) these two categories are the volitional qualities of the individual. persistence is a strong-willed quality due to which a person can mobilize his forces for a relatively long and difficult struggle with obstacles and difficulties encountered in his activities 5% 72% 23% integral job satisfaction low level average level high level рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 381 on the way to achieving quite distant goals. without perseverance, without standing his ground and fighting for the implementation of the decision, there can be no determination, independence, self-control and determination. self-control is a volitional quality characteristic of people who control their thoughts and feelings, their actions and needs. people who are characterized by self-control, balance and consistent. also, these two categories are inevitably associated with procrastination. that is, the more developed are these qualities, the less is the development of procrastination in the individual. 2. procrastination and avoidance (442 **) these two categories are also inextricably linked. avoiding decision-making, shifting responsibility to others this is procrastination. the person avoids work, postpones everything for later. thus these two concepts are inextricably linked. 3. vigilance and over vigilance (477 **) these two categories should be distinguished, although at first glance they have the same meaning. the category of over vigilance means that such a person is quite attentive and constantly vigilant. and vigilance is a manifestation of extreme caution, even when a person is in a safe situation. vigilance is the main stylistic characteristic of a person as a person who makes decisions related to cognitive complexity, the need for knowledge and tolerance for uncertainty; over vigilance is an unjustified "throwing" between different alternatives, an impulsive acceptance that promises to get rid of the situation; in extreme forms "panic" in choosing between alternatives. 4. implementation and organization (478 **) this connection can be explained by the fact that these qualities of the individual that characterize his ability to plan wisely, organize their activities and be sure to carry it out. such people follow the order in work, rationally distribute their time, clearly plan and perform everything. 5. organization and interest in work (305 **) if a person has an interest in this type of profession and it is very organized, then he will achieve great success in his profession. such individuals have a business orientation and enjoy the process of work. 6. avoidance and vigilance (277 *) vigilance is the main stylistic characteristic of man as a person who makes decisions related to cognitive complexity, the need for knowledge and tolerance for uncertainty. clarification of the goals and objectives of the solution, consideration of alternatives associated with the search for information, its assimilation "without prejudice" and evaluation before the choice. avoidance of independent decision-making, transfer of responsibility and rationalization of dubious alternatives. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 382 7. planning and implementation (312 *) the ability of the individual in the process of initiating action to be distracted from the inferior, competing. realization is the ability of a person to be in the process of realizing the intention for the necessary time, to keep the focus of the actual intention, to show perseverance. these concepts are closely interconnected and mean the ability to reasonably plan, organize their activities and be sure to carry it out. conclusions each phenomenon has its causes. the reasons that provoke the development of such a phenomenon as procrastination, we can include not only external causes but also internal. some causes are due to depressive disorder, but this is rare. usually the reasons forcing a person to put things off indefinitely are referred to as simpler. one of the most common causes of pathological inability to act is fear. we have been taught since childhood that mistakes are bad; they should be avoided in all possible ways. most often, procrastination occurs as a result of fear of action. another reason for the lack of motivation to act is the internal dissatisfaction with the activities that have to be engaged. it's no secret that many people spend their entire lives hating their work. this reason can be attributed to student activities. dissatisfaction with the monotonous work, and even more so the work that has to be done independently provokes the development of the phenomenon of procrastination. in some cases, the human brain is so overloaded that it simply cannot work effectively. the cause of procrastination is often severe emotional exhaustion, increasing nervous tension, and as a result stress. an empirical study of student procrastination has shown that students are more characterized by an average level of procrastination. 6% of students had a high level of procrastination; 81% have an average level, 13% of students have a low level of procrastination. thus, among student youth there is a tendency to postpone the execution of cases for later. the activity of such students is aimed at meaningless, insignificant activities, while there are important tasks that require immediate completion. they are characterized by preparation for the exam as soon as possible before passing, postponing important cases and decisions to a later date. we also found the imposition of tasks from the outside; delayed consequences; long term given for execution; large temporary investments in the task; boring, routine tasks; high employment in other matters; deferment in receiving pleasure or rewards. рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 383 it is important among student youth to conduct conversations on relevant topics, to clarify problem-solving classes, to conduct trainings on the formation of students' temporal competence, to inform about the techniques and methods of effective self-organization and life time management. after all, chronic procrastination, which is often observed in student`s age, is a destructive form of personality behavior in relation to the organization of their own space. student must understand that first of all his motivation to study, the acquisition of professional knowledge will help to combat the phenomenon of procrastination. therefore, any intention, goal, built plan must be specific, realistic, achievable, flexible, measurable, focused and time-bound. prospects for further research: need further study of the impact of individual psychological and personal qualities on the development of procrastination in young people. references bazyka, ye. l. (2003). fenomen psykhofiziolohichnoho stanu prokrastynatsii [the phenomenon of psychophysiological state of procrastination]. mezhdystsyplynarnыe yssledovanyia v nauke y obrazovanyy, 1. http://mino.esrae.ru/158-1023 blunt, a. k. & pychyl, t. a. (2000). task aversiveness and procrastination: a multidimensional approach to task aversiveness across stages of personal projects, personality and individual difference, 28, 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(99)00091-4. borovyk, l., matokhniuk, l., demyanyuk, k., shevchuk, v., pidhaichuk, s., danylenko, o., halimov, a., bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). formation of professional imagination in the process of implementation of technical disciplines with the aid of modern information technologies. postmodern openings, 11(3), 20-40. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.3/198. demina, l. d. & ral'nikova, i. a. & luzhbina, n. a. (2010). psihologicheskaja kul'tura kak faktor stanovlenija professionala [psychological culture as a factor of becoming a professional], vestnik ngu. moskva. 4(2), 15. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologicheskaya-kultura-lichnostiobschepsihologicheskiy-kontekst-1/viewer dvornyk, m. s. (2014). sotsialno-psykholohichni praktyky vidterminuvannia v konstruiuvanni osobystistiu vlasnoho maibutnoho [socio-psychological practices of deferment in the construction of a person's own future]. kyiv. http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/705432/1/%d0%b4%d0%b8%d1%81%20%d0 %94%d0%b2%d0%be%d1%80%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba.pdf. http://mino.esrae.ru/158-1023 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(99)00091-4 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.3/198 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologicheskaya-kultura-lichnosti-obschepsihologicheskiy-kontekst-1/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologicheskaya-kultura-lichnosti-obschepsihologicheskiy-kontekst-1/viewer http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/705432/1/%d0%b4%d0%b8%d1%81%20%d0%94%d0%b2%d0%be%d1%80%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba.pdf http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/705432/1/%d0%b4%d0%b8%d1%81%20%d0%94%d0%b2%d0%be%d1%80%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 384 ferrari, j. r. (1995). procrastination and task avoidance: theory, research, and treatment. springer. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276292917_ procrastination_and_task_avoidance--theory_research_and_treatment. fetiskin, n. p. & kozlov v. v. & manuilov g. м. (2002). social and pedagogical diagnostics of personality and small group development psychotherapy. institute publishing house. https://umc38.ru/wpcontent/uploads/2016/02/fetiskin-n.p.-sotsialno-psihologicheskayadiagnostika-razvitiya-lichnosti-i-malyh-grupp.pdf. f'ore, n. k. (2013). legkij sposob perestat' otkladyvat' dela na potom [an easy way to stop procrastinating]. https://www.you-books.com/book/nfore/legkij-sposob-perestat-otkladyvat-dela-na-potom. hanaba, s., mysechko, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). solidarity of efforts as a common condition for the survival of the world in a pandemic. postmodern openings, 11(2), 29-38. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/137. hanaba, s., mysechko, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). changing the educational paradigm in post-pandemic world: possibilities and risks of artificial intelligence using. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 48-55. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/93. il'in, e. p. (2011). rabota i lichnost'. trudogolizm, perfekcionizm, len' [work and personality. workaholism, perfectionism, laziness]. https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=217857. kornilova, t. v. (2003). mel'burnskij oprosnik prinjatija reshenij: russkojazychnaja adaptacija [melbourne decision-making questionnaire: russian adaptation], psihologicheskie issledovanija. 6(31), 4. http://www.psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2013v6n31/883kornilova31.html. kovylin, v. s. (2013). teoreticheskie osnovy izuchenija fenomena prokrastinacii [theoretical foundations of studying the phenomenon of procrastination]. nauchnyj zhurnal «lichnost' v menjajushhemsja mire: zdorov'e, adaptacija, razvitie. 3, 34-38. http://humjournal.rzgmu.ru/uploadfiles/01_kovylin_v_2013_02.pdf. kykylyk, a., stukan, h., hlushok, l., shorobura, i., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). complex portfolio as one of the means of the future primary school teachers training of the new ukrainian school. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(1sup1), 163-184. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.1sup1/229 lay, c. h. (1986). at last, my research article on procrastination. journal of research in personality, 20, 474-495. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(86)90127-3 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276292917_%0bprocrastination_and_task_avoidance--theory_research_and_treatment https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276292917_%0bprocrastination_and_task_avoidance--theory_research_and_treatment https://umc38.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/fetiskin-n.p.-sotsialno-psihologicheskaya-diagnostika-razvitiya-lichnosti-i-malyh-grupp.pdf https://umc38.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/fetiskin-n.p.-sotsialno-psihologicheskaya-diagnostika-razvitiya-lichnosti-i-malyh-grupp.pdf https://umc38.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/fetiskin-n.p.-sotsialno-psihologicheskaya-diagnostika-razvitiya-lichnosti-i-malyh-grupp.pdf https://www.you-books.com/book/n-fore/legkij-sposob-perestat-otkladyvat-dela-na-potom https://www.you-books.com/book/n-fore/legkij-sposob-perestat-otkladyvat-dela-na-potom https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/137 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/93 https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=217857 http://www.psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2013v6n31/883-kornilova31.html http://www.psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2013v6n31/883-kornilova31.html http://humjournal.rzgmu.ru/upload-files/01_kovylin_v_2013_02.pdf http://humjournal.rzgmu.ru/upload-files/01_kovylin_v_2013_02.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.1sup1/229 https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(86)90127-3 рsychological analysis of procrastination as a destructive factor in the … оksana shportun, et al. 385 maksymenko, yu. b. & matokhnyuk, l. o. (2017). principles of research in psychology of development of information competence of personality. science and education, 11, 76-85. https://scienceandeducation.pdpu.edu.ua/doc/2017/11_2017/10.pdf. melnychuk, i., drozdova, i., savchak, i., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2019). higher school instructors’ pedagogical skills improvement as a basis of educational strategy for development of students’ professional training. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4supl.1), 170-184. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/184. melnychuk, i., rebukha, l., zavgorodnia, t., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2018). strategic significance of english in self-education of the students of sociohumanitarian specialities for fundamentalization of university education. modern journal of language teaching methods, 8(11), 712–720. milgram, n. a. (1992). procrastination: a malady of modern time. boletin de psicologia, 35(83), 102. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(92)90173-m. milgram, n. a. (1993). correlates of academic procrastination. journal of school psychology, 31(4), 487-500. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-4405(93)90033-f. milgram, n. a. (1995). correlates of academic procrastination: discomfort, task aversiveness and task capability. journal of psychology, 129(2), 145-155. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1995.9914954. milgram, n. а. (2000). personality correlates of decisional and task avoidant procrastination. european journal of personality, 14(2), 141-156. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-0984(200003/04)14:2<141::aidper369>3.0.co;2-v. palladino, l. d. (2015). maksimal'naja koncentracija. kak sohranit' jeffektivnost' v jepohu klipovogo myshlenija [maximum concentration. how to maintain efficiency in the era of clip thinking]. http://loveread.ec/read_book.php?id=45659&p=1. pashukova, t.i. & dopira, a.i. & d'yakonov, g.v. (1996). psikhologicheskiye issledovaniya: praktikum po obshchey psikhologii dlya studentov pedagogicheskikh vuzov. ucheb. posobiye [psychological research practicum on general psychology for students of pedagogical universities]. institut prakticheskoy psikhologii. https://klex.ru/97n. raygorodskiy, d. ya. (2000). psikhologiya samosoznaniya [the psychology of selfawareness]. silistraru, i., cozmanciuc, g., roşca, ş., bulgaru-iliescu, d., damian, s. i., & ciureanu, i. a. (2021). stress and anxiety in general population in romania during covid -19 pandemic. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 4-6. http://journalarchiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica-052021/archiv_euromedica_05_2021_001_075_web_01.pdf https://scienceandeducation.pdpu.edu.ua/doc/2017/11_2017/10.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/184 https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(92)90173-m https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-4405(93)90033-f https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1995.9914954 https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-0984(200003/04)14:2%3c141::aid-per369%3e3.0.co;2-v https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-0984(200003/04)14:2%3c141::aid-per369%3e3.0.co;2-v http://loveread.ec/read_book.php?id=45659&p=1 https://klex.ru/97n brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 386 varvaricheva, ja. i. (2014). fenomen prokrastinacii: problemy i perspektivy issledovanija [the phenomenon of procrastination: problems and research prospects]. voprosy psihologii, 3, 121-131. https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=18931766. vorob'eva, v. v. & yakimanskaya i. s. (2013). psihologija leni: postanovka problemy [the psychology of laziness: problem statement]. orenburg. https://studfile.net/preview/7059569/. https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=18931766 https://studfile.net/preview/7059569/ ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 85-103 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/355 submitted: may 28th, 2022 | accepted for publication: june 13th, 2022 the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive coping romulus-dan nicoara 1 , horia-george coman 2 , doina cosman 3 1 iuliu haţieganu university of medicine and pharmacy, cluj-napoca, romania, daninicoara@yahoo.it 2 medical psychology department, iuliu hatieganu university of medicine and pharmacy, cluj-napoca, romania, hcoman@umfcluj.ro 3 medical psychology department, iuliu hatieganu university of medicine and pharmacy, cluj-napoca, romania, doinacozman@gmail.com abstract: background and aim: emotional cognitive coping strategies are closely correlated with depression and suicide risk. the aim of this study is to explore the particular features of cognitive-emotional coping and their impact on depression levels and suicidal ideation. methods: the study included a total number of 131 participants, 65 with a clinical diagnosis of depression and 66 controls. instruments used were: cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (cerq), columbia suicide severity rating scale (c-ssrs), depression anxiety stress scale (dass21r), montgomery-asberg depression scale (madrs), in order to assess the differences between depressive and non-depressive individuals in relation to coping strategies. results and conclusion: the findings, based on the statistical analysis of the scores obtained on the various psychometric scales, showed significant differences between depressive and non-depressive patients. also, cognitiveemotional strategies could represent a good predictor to be used in the prevention of suicide risk in depressed patients. keywords: depression; suicide risk; emotional cognitive coping. how to cite: nicoara, r.-d., coman, h.-g., & cosman, d. (2022). the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive coping. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 85-103. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/355 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/355 mailto:daninicoara@yahoo.it mailto:hcoman@umfcluj.ro mailto:doinacozman@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/355 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 86 coping and emotional cognitive coping cohen and lazarus (1979) define coping as “cognitive and behavioral efforts to control, tolerate and reduce the burden that encumber or overwhelm a person’s resources”. it represents an internal resource of emotional power that mediates a person’s reaction to perceived stress, regardless of its origin. there are several studies that examined the impact of the different coping styles on suicide risk. botsis et al. (1994) and kotler et al. (1993) compared patient groups and found that high suicide risk patients did not use coping strategies. coping strategies have recently been considered as a potential risk factor of depression. according to individual vulnerability–stress frame, acute stressful events in the life of an individual and a chronically stressful environment can cause depression (hankіn, 2006). however, not all individuals who face/cope with stressful events become depressive. thus, there are defense mechanisms that prevent the onset of depression. fundamental differences in personal defense mechanisms depend on the personal characteristic features of any individual in particular (jіn et al., 2009). one of these features are the coping strategies, defined as emotional, cognitive and behavioral efforts to minimize the effect of stressful events on individual physical, social and emotional wellbeing. according to lazarus, coping strategies fall into two categories: based on problems and based on emotions (lazarus, 1993). jіn et al. (2009) found that coping strategies are mediation variables influencing the interplay of the family environment of the individual and depression (andеrson et al., 1994). a significant correlation was also found between the strategies of approaching depression based on problems and emotions in girls (hеіnrіch & gullonе, 2006). jіn et al. (2009) showed that the family atmosphere affected depression by problem-solving strategies. some argue that an individual may adjust the inadequate or stressful family conditions, or s/he may exacerbate them and thus eventually develop depressive symptoms. faramarzі et al. (2013) reported that the use of problem based coping strategies combined with emotion-based ones depends on the regulation effects, the two having a mutual relationship. in this case, when a person is confronted with mental pressure, s/he finds comfort by applying a personal emotion-based strategy. then, using a problem-based strategy, she tries to solve the problem suppressing the emotion by knowledge. when confronted with stressful interpersonal circumstances, a person may adjust the inadequate family and social conditions using emotion-oriented strategies and focusing on problems or she/he may exacerbate them and suffer from the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive … romulus-dan nicoara et al. 87 depressive symptoms. these findings emphasize the necessity of teaching coping strategies to teenagers. coping and depression the assessment of coping strategies is an issue with multiple facets and has challenged researchers. carver et al. (1989) have developed a multidimensional coping inventory based on five scales that “measure aspects of what might be viewed as emotion-focused coping” and he correlations amongst them. garnefki et al. (2002) developed the cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire to describe nine coping strategies in relation to negative life events. the relationship between depression and coping strategies is the main subject matter to many studies such as garnefski et al. (2002) and garnefski and kraaij (2006). garnefski and kraaij (2006) pointed out the relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive emotional regulation strategies. the relationship between coping strategies and depression is a main focus of a number of studies (garnefski et al., 2002; garnefski and kraaij, 2006). in their study of 2006, the authors evidenced a relationship between cognitive emotional regulation strategies and depressive symptoms, which was similar in adolescents and elderly people. the role of developing coping, self-help strategies in the improvement of depressive symptoms was investigated in relation to physically debilitating diseases in general (garnefski et al., 2011) and in relation to rheumatic diseases (garneski et al., 2013), both studies emphasizing that implementation of a self-help system would be beneficial for the healthcare system. the gender facet of coping strategies and styles was investigated by vingerhoets and van heck (1990) in relation to psychosomatic symptoms, emphasizing that demographic variables might be important predictors in the development of psychosomatic symptoms and even more severe diseases. the gender demographic variable is also the focus of the study by nolen-hoeksema and jackson (2001), who investigated the relationship between gender and rumination and concluded that, despite preconceived theories, there was no significant difference between women and men in beliefs that one should ruminate. coping and suicidal behavior suicide risk has been shown to be closely related to coping strategies, and even more, botsis et al. (1994) showed that coping styles, or rather their broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 88 scarcity, could be predictors of suicide and violence risk, having significant implications for early interventions and prevention. this study confirms an earlier study by kotler et al. (1993), based on inpatient psychiatric population, who also found that coping styles could be used as predictors of violent and suicidal behaviors. joseph and plutchik (1994) investigated the relationship between interpersonal problems, coping styles and suicide risk. they showed that the coping style was significantly correlated with the suicide risk. at the same time, several coping styles proved to be significantly correlated with suicide risk. current study objectives, working hypothesis and study design the study is based on the data in literature regarding the cognitiveemotional coping strategies and aims at identifying the relations between cognitive-emotional coping styles, depression and suicide risk main objective the main objective of the study is the exploration of the particular features of cognitive-emotional coping in depressive patients with suicidal ideation. specific objectives o1. identification of the differences between depressive and nondepressive patients regarding the cognitive-emotional coping strategies. o2. the investigation of the relation between the level of depression, suicide risk and cognitive-emotional coping. o3. identification of the role of the clinical diagnosis of depression and cognitive-emotional coping strategies in the prediction of the severity of suicide risk. working hypothesis in view of the first objective, the following hypotheses were formulated: research hypothesis 1 h1. there is expected to be statistically significant differences between depressive and non-depressive patients on the scores of cognitiveemotional copings as follows: the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive … romulus-dan nicoara et al. 89 h1.1. depressive patients will present statistically significant higher scores on the scales of self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing and blame than non-depressive individuals h1.2. depressive patients will present statistically significant lower score than non-depressive ones on the scales of acceptance, positive shifting, planning refocusing, positive reassessment, change of perspective. in view of the second objective the following hypothesis was formulated: research hypothesis 2 h2. it is expected that suicide risk to be positively associated with clinically diagnosing depression (condition) as well as with cognitiveemotional strategies, such as: self-blame, catastrophizing, blaming someone else and rumination, and also negatively correlated with: planning shift, positive reassessment, change of perspective, acceptance, positive shift. in view of the third objective the following hypothesis was used: research hypothesis 3 h3. it is expected that a clinical diagnosis of depression and cognitive-emotional coping strategies to predicts the severity of suicide risk. method study design this study has been approved by the ethics committee of iuliu haţieganu university of medicine and pharmacy and observes good clinical practice rules. it is a transversal, clinical trial, carried out on two groups: study group – patients with depression and control group. participants the final number of patients included in the study was 131, age range 18 – 60 years (mean=37, sds= 12.22), 65 in the clinical study group (49.6%) and 66 in the non-clinical group (50.4%), 47 men (35.9%) and 84 women (64.1%), 67 from the rural area (51.5%) and 64 urban area (48.9%). according to the level of education: 2 with primary schooling (1.5%), 7 mid school (5,3%), 48 with high-school level, (36.6%), 25 college level (19.1%) and 24 university graduates (18.3%), 17 postgraduate master level (13%), and 8 with doctoral studies (6.1%). marital status: 453 unmarried (40.5%), 54 married (41.2%), 19 divorced (14.5%), 5 widowed (3.8%). socio economic broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 90 status: 10 students (7.6%), 78 employees (59.5%), 5 unemployed (3.8%), 21 without steady occupation (16%), 11 pensioners (12.2%). personal history of disease: 66 without history (50.4%), 65 with a psychiatric history (49.6%), 65 with suicidal tendency (49.6%) and 66 without suicidal tendency (50.4%). the following criteria were used to include patients in the research: age between 20 – 60 years, either men or women; voluntary patients / participants who expressed their informed consent; ability to understand written text at the level of the 6 th grade or higher; patients admitted to the psychiatric unit; depressive disorder; recurrent depressive disorders; bipolar disorder, current depressive flare; suicide risk. exclusion criteria: age over 60 years; poor ability to understand written text; presence of other psychiatric conditions (mental retardation, cognitive impairment, schizophrenia, delirium, delusional disturbance); conditions related to abuse / dependence on psychoactive substances; neurological diseases (neurodegenerative diseases, stroke); chronic illness leading to disability (audio-visual disturbances); refusal to express informed consent for participation in the study; persons with depressive symptoms without suicide risk at the time of enrollment; persons undergoing longterm psychological or psychiatric treatment (over 10 days) at the time of enrollment. measures cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire, cerq (garnefski et al., 2002) is a multidimensional questionnaire developed to identify cognitive coping strategies used by individuals after experiencing negative events or situation. as opposed to other coping tests, which do not distinguish between a person’s thoughts and her/his real activity, cerq targets exclusively a person’s thoughts after a negative experience. cognitive coping strategies are defined as emotion regulation cognitive strategies. cerq is a self-report test that includes 36 items; it measures nine coping strategies: nine coping strategies: self-blame, acceptance, rumination, positive refocusing, refocus on planning, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective, catastrophizing, and blaming someone else. it may be administered to healthy individuals or clinical patients, adults or adolescents over 12 years old. cerq may be used to identify the general cognitive coping style as well as the cognitive coping strategies after having experiences a specific event. self-blame is a cognitive coping strategy by which a person develops thoughts that the responsibility of the experienced situation belongs to her/himself, that s/he is the one to blame, and also thoughts the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive … romulus-dan nicoara et al. 91 related to the mistakes made. on the self-blame scale we obtained a cronbach’s alpha coefficient α=.73, which validates the scale. item example: i am guilty for what has happened. acceptance refers to the thoughts which make us resigned to what happened and accept the situation, which cannot be changed therefore life goes on. on the acceptance scale we obtained a cronbach’s alpha coefficient α=.73, which is a good validation. item example: i think that i should accept what happened. rumination is when we think over and over at one thing, being excessively preoccupied by the feelings and thoughts triggered by a negative event. on the rumination scale we obtained a cronbach’s alpha coefficient α=.79, which shows a good validation. item example: i think a lot about my feelings concerning this situation. positive refocusing appears when we think of more pleasant things, instead of the negative event experienced. on the positive refocusing scale we obtained cronbach’s alpha coefficient α=.83, which shows that the scale grasps this concept very well. item example: i think i may learn something from this experience. refocus on planning appears when we consider the steps toward coping with a negative event, or when we think of a plan to change the situation. on the refocus on planning scale cronbach’s alpha coefficient was α=.77, which is a good validation of the scale. item example: i am thinking of what would be the best for me to do. positive reappraisal appears when we associate in our mind a positive significance with a negative event in terms of personal development, thinking that the event would make us stronger, looking at its positive aspects. on the positive reappraisal scale cronbach’s alpha coefficient was α=.83, showing a very good validation of the scale. item example: i think that this situation may also have some good in it. putting into perspective refers to the thoughts that reduce the severity of the event, as compared to other events, emphasizing the fact that there are worse things in the world. on the putting into perspective scale cronbach’s alpha coefficient was α=.77, which show a good validation. item example: i think that it could have been a lot worse. catastrophizing appears when we keep thinking of how terrible the event was, that it is the worst/horrific thing that could have happened, much more serious than what happened to others. on the catastrophizing scale cronbach’s alpha coefficient was α=.82, showing a good validation of the scale. item example: i keep thinking of how terrible it is what happened to me. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 92 other-blame appears when we blame others for what happened, making them responsible for the negative event, and/or when we think of the others’ mistakes related to the situation. on the other-blame scale cronbach’s alpha coefficient was α=.86, a very good validation of the scale. item example: i think that other are in fact guilty for what happened. columbia suicide severity rating scale, c-ssrs. (posner et al., 2011). this scale represents a complex, multidimensional tool, which was adapted to the romanian population (vrăşti, 2015); it aims to assess: severity of suicidal ideation, assessed on a 5-point likert scale (1 = least severe to 5 = most severe). item example: did you ever wish to be dead or go to sleep and not wake up? intensity of suicidal ideation, assessed on a 5-point likert scale (1 = least intense to 5 = most intense). item example: how many times did you have these thoughts? suicidal behavior, involving: real suicide attempts, interrupted suicide attempts, self-interrupted suicide attempts, other actions or behaviors in preparation of self-harm, without suicide intention. item example: did you ever try to take your life? lethality of suicide thoughts and planning, assessed on a 3-point scale (0 = behavior is not likely to result in self-harm, 1= behavior will probably result in self-harm, but not death, 2 = behavior probably leads to death, despite medical intervention). the c-ssrs scale provides: 1) definitions of the ideation, suicide behavior and non-suicidal self-harm behavior, 2) it quantifies the entire range of the suicide ideation and behavior, 3) it distinguishes suicide behavior from self-harm behavior, and 4) it has an attractive format that allows the integration of data from several sources. there are several versions of the c-ssrs scale, for adults and adolescents, basic and screening versions, follow-up versions. in our study, the scale proved to be of good psychometric value (cronbach’s alpha α=.80) depression anxiety stress scale, dass21r (lovibond & lovibond, 1995) was used to measure the state of mental health. the scale is a set of three subscales assessing depression, anxiety and stress. dass has been translated into 27 languages and was adapted for the romanian language. each of the dass subscales contains 14 items, assessing from 0 (disagree) to 3 (strongly agree or most of the time). the score for each subscale is obtained by the sum of items scores. high scores indicate high the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive … romulus-dan nicoara et al. 93 levels of anxiety, depression or stress. examples of items and cronbach alpha coefficients are shown in table 4. lovibond and lovibond (1995) maintain that: the depression scale measures dysphoria, loss of hope, loss of life value, self-deprecation, loss of interest, anhedonia, associated with low levels of self-esteem and initiative to pursue personal goals. item example: i felt that life had no meaning (item 20). our cronbach alpha coefficient was α = .94. the stress scale contains items referring to the difficulty to relax, nervous excitement and the tendency to become agitated, irritable / hyperreactive. item example: i had the tendency to overreact to situations (item 3). our cronbach alpha coefficient was α = .93). the present study this scale proved to have good psychometric value (for total dass we obtained cronbach alpha coefficient α = .97. montgomery-asberg depression scale, madrs. the scale was developed by montgomery and äsberg (1979), derived from the comprehensive psychopathological rating scalede – cprs (äsberg et al., 1978), and in our study we used the version adapted for the romanian population (vrăști, 2015). it includes 10 items (see annex) that assess the main symptoms of depression. nine of the ten items refer to the patient’s self-appraisal, one item contains the evaluator’s observation during the interview. madrs items are based on a 7 points likert scale (0=no abnormality to 6=severe), the overall score being the sum of the items. the test clearly defines scores 0, 2, 4 and 6, while 1, 3, 5 are intermediate steps. the sum of items scores gives the final score, which varies between 0 and 60. the test is relatively quick to administer, between 15-20 minutes, unlike the hamilton depression scale ham-d (hamilton, 1960). madrs does not focus on the somatic symptoms of depression, but rather on the main mood states like sadness, tension, pessimism, fatigue and suicidal thoughts. the 9 items are: apparent sadness, assumed sadness, inner state of tension, sleep time disturbance, diminished appetite, concentration difficulties, fatigue, emotional numbness/instability, pessimistic thoughts, suicide thoughts. snaith et al. (1986) presented the following score ranges for depression severity: a limitation of madrs is the absence of typical depressive symptoms of bipolar disorder such as anhedonia, motor retardation and absence of value (berk et al., 2004). psychometric quality. there seems to be a relatively strong correlation between the madrs and ham-d scores. inter-evaluators broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 94 fidelity is also good (r=0.89–0.97) (sajatovic et al., 2015). in the present study cronbach alpha coefficient was: α = .97 the questionnaire of the demographic and health-related characteristics included questions on gender, background (rural, urban), education level (primary, midschool, high school, college, university undergraduate and graduate), marital status (married, single, divorced, widowed), socio-economic status (student, employed, no occupation, pensioner), family history, personal history of disease (psychiatric or somatic diseases), suicide attempts (present or absent). procedure the study protocol is in accordance with the norms of iuliu haţieganu umph ethics committee and has been granted approval. patients were enrolled after their acceptance and signed written consent. personal data are strictly confidential, identification being possible on the basis of a unique code. the study observes the provisions of helsinki declaration. the patient group was selected from the cluj county emergency clinical hospital. the tests were administered pen-on-paper. the participants were informed about the objectives of the research and also that they could withdraw at any time during the study; demographic data were then collected. each test was preceded by specific instructions. the time duration was between 25-40 minutes for every participant. the order in which the test were administered was: montgomery-asberg (mdrs) depression scale, depression, anxiety, stress (dass21r) and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (cerq). participants were informed that they would have access to their results after completion of the study. results the preliminary data analysis involved checking the normality of scores distribution. skewness and kurtosis were found within normal range (not exceeding 3 for skewness and 8 for kurtosis). the mean scores of the variables measured are presented in table 1. the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive … romulus-dan nicoara et al. 95 table 1. descriptive statistics for the measured variables source: author’s own conception minimum maximum mean std. deviation skewness kurtosis statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic std. error statistic std. error c_ssrs_severity of suicidal ideation 0 5 .94 1.28 1.12 .23 .69 .45 cerq_self blame 4.00 20.00 11.15 3.52 .506 .23 -.32 .45 cerq_acceptance 5.00 20.00 12.56 3.84 .129 .23 -.69 .45 cerq_rumination 4.00 20.00 12.68 3.98 -.094 .23 -.83 .45 cerq_positive refocusing 4.00 20.00 11.59 4.42 .081 .23 -.79 .45 cerq_refocus on planning 5.00 20.00 15.22 3.55 -.75 .23 -.029 .45 cerq_positive reappraisal 4.00 20.00 14.43 4.34 -.64 .23 -.51 .45 cerq_putting into_perspective 4.00 20.00 12.92 4.16 -.28 .23 -.95 .45 cerq_catastrophizing 4.00 20.00 9.95 4.52 .48 .23 -.81 .45 cerq_other blame 4.00 20.00 8.55 4.21 .98 .23 .20 .45 dass_depression .00 21.00 6.95 6.85 .82 .23 -.68 .45 madrs_total .00 60.00 12.29 16.49 .92 .23 -.44 .45 valid n (listwise) testing of hypotheses (inferential statistics) to test the first hypothesis of the study (h1. there is expected to be statistically significant differences between depressive and non-depressive patients on the scores of cognitive-emotional copings) the student t test for independent samples was used. regarding the differences between present and absent depression (clinical and control group), the comparison of mean scores evidences the following:  on cerq self-blame scale the clinical group scored higher (m=13.00, ds=4.01) than controls (m=9.95, ds=2.55). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) = 4.84; p < .001;  on cerq acceptance both groups had similar mean values, clinical group (m=13.18, ds=4.28), control group clinic (m=12.16, ds=3.51). the difference is not statistically significant, t (107) = 1.35; p = .17; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 96  on cerq rumination both groups had similar mean values, clinical group (m=13.67, ds=4.25), control group (m=12.04, ds=3.69). the difference is not statistically significant, t (107) = 2.11; p =.03;  on cerq positive refocusing the clinical group scored lower (m=10.32, ds=4.78) than controls (m=12.42, ds=3.99). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) = 2.47; p =.001;  on cerq refocus on planning the clinical group scored lower (m=14.23, ds=4.11) than controls (m=15.86, ds=3.01). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) = 2.38; p =.01;  on cerq positive reappraisal the clinical group scored lower (m=12.18, ds=4.87) than controls (m=15.89, ds=3.24). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) = 4.74; p < .001;  on cerq putting into perspective the clinical group scored lower (m=11.53, ds=4.53) than controls (m=13.83, ds=3.65). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) =2.91; p < .004;  on cerq catastrophizing the clinical group scored higher (m=12.72, ds=4.57) than controls (m=8.15, ds=3.48). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) = 5.90; p < .001;  on cerq other blame the clinical group scored higher (m=10.58, ds=4.98) than controls (m=7.24, ds=3.00). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) = 4.36; p < .001;  on dass depression the clinical group scored higher (m=13.83, ds=5.52) than controls (m=2.46, ds=2.57). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) = 14.49; p =.001;  on madrs the clinical group scored higher (m=31.16, ds=9.87) than controls (m=.00, ds=.00). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) = 25.70; p =.001;  on c_ssrs_severity of suicidal ideation the clinical group scored higher (m=2.4, ds=.82) than controls (m=.00, ds=.00). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) = 23.77; p <.001;  on c_ssrs_suicidal behavior the clinical group scored higher (m=1.33, ds=.60) than controls (m=.00, ds=.00). the difference is statistically significant, t (107) = 17.80; p <.001; to test the second hypothesis (h2. we expect suicide risk to be positively correlated with a clinical diagnosis of depression (condition) and with self-blame, catastrophizing, other blame and rumination, and negatively with coping strategies – refocus on planning, positive reappraisal, putting the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive … romulus-dan nicoara et al. 97 into perspective, acceptance and positive refocusing). we used the pearson correlation coefficient. table 2. relationship between depression, suicide risk and cognitive-emotional coping source: author’s own conception 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1. c_ssrs_severity of suicidal ideation 1 2. dass_depression .78** 1 3. madrs_total .90** .78** 1 4. cerq_self blame .43** .55** .47** 1 5. cerq_acceptance .13 .18 .17 .33** 1 6. cerq_rumination .18 .20* .25** .52** .38** 1 7. cerq_positive refocusing -.18 .26** -.13 -.06 .21* .13 1 8. cerq_refocus on planning -.23* .33** -.19* -.02 .18 .32** .46** 1 9. cerq_positive reappraisal .41** .49** .36** -.11 .23* .27** .63** .70** 1 10. cerq_putting into perspective -.23* .28** -.21* .02 .39** .29** .53** .62** .69** 1 11. cerq_catastrophizing .48** .60** .51** .39** .25** .30** -.05 -.11 .29** .00 1 12. cerq_other blame .45** .48** .45** .20* .29** .20* .04 -.06 -.15 .08 .62** 1 the data obtained evidenced correlations statistically significant between the main descriptors of suicide risk severity and depression. there is a statistically significant negative correlation between the severity of suicidal ideation and refocus on planning (r=-.23, p < .001), positive refocusing (r=-.41, p < .001), putting into perspective (r=-.23, p < .001 ). at the same time, there is a statistically significant positive correlation between the severity of suicidal ideation and self-blame (r=.43, p < .001), catastrophizing (r=.48, p < .001) and other blame (r=.45, p < .001). there is also a statistically significant negative correlation between depression and positive refocusing (r = -.26, p < .001), refocus on planning (r = -.33, p < .001), positive reappraisal (r = -.49, p < .001) and putting into perspective (r = -.28, p < .001), and a significant negative correlation between depression and self-blame (r = .55, p < .001), rumination (r=.20, p < .001), catastrophizing (r = .60, p < .001) and other blame (r=.45, p < .001). in order to the third hypothesis (h3. it is expected that a clinical diagnosis of depression and cognitive-emotional coping strategies to predicts the severity of suicide risk) was used multiple linear regression analysis, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 98 having as dependent variable suicide risk, assessed by the c-ssrs (columbia suicide severity risk scale) and as predictive variable the diagnosis of clinical depression (experimental condition) and the nine scales of cognitiveemotional coping strategies: other blame, positive refocusing, self-blame, acceptance, refocus on planning, rumination, catastrophizing, putting into perspective, positive reappraisal. in the first stage was introduced the predictive variables (control) age and gender (model 1). in the second stage, was introduced the predictive variable (model 2): a diagnosis of clinical depression (experimental condition) and the 9 coping strategy scales: other blame, positive refocusing, self-blame, acceptance, refocus on planning, rumination, catastrophizing, putting into perspective, positive reappraisal. in the second regression model (in which gender, age and the 9 coping strategies were introduced as predictive variables) r 2 coefficient shows that predictors explain 81.5% of the variation of the dependent variable, namely suicide risk. table 3 presents the result of the variance analysis, with an f coefficient (12, 96) = 40.75, p<.001) that is statistically significant in the regression model, which indicates that the whole regression is acceptable. table 3 anova analysis of variance source: author’s own conception model sum of squares df mean square f sig. 1 regression 30.936 2 15.468 8.908 .000 residual 184.055 106 1.736 total 214.991 108 2 regression 179.715 12 14.976 40.757 .000 residual 35.275 96 .367 total 214.991 108 the regression analysis evidenced that suicidal ideation was statistically significantly influenced by: gender (β= .12, t=2.30, p < .05) age (β= .27, t=3.10, p < .05), the existence of a diagnosis of clinical depression (condition) (β= .79, t=13.86, p < .001), self-blame (β= .24, t=2.58, p < .05); other blame (β= .16, t=3.03, p < .05), catastrophizing (β= -.12, t=-1.96, p =.05); the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive … romulus-dan nicoara et al. 99 discussion and conclusions the first objective of the study was to analyze the differences in the cognitive-emotional coping strategies between patients with clinically diagnosed depression and persons without this diagnosis. the results obtained for the first hypothesis showed that the patients with a clinical episode of depression had statistically significant lower scores on the following scales: cerq positive refocusing (p=.001), cerq refocus on planning (p =.015), cerq positive reappraisal (p<.001), cerq putting into perspective (p<.004); and statistically significant higher scores on: cerq self-blame (p<.001), cerq catastrophizing (p<.001), cerq other blame (p < .001) compared to those without a diagnosis of depression. regarding cerq acceptance and cerq rumination, both groups had close mean scores, the difference being not significant statistically. the results are similar to those reported by other recent studies by bazrafshan et al. (2014) and ooi et al. (2021). regarding the second hypothesis, we found that of the cognitiveemotional coping strategies only refocus on planning, positive reappraisal and putting into perspective had a statistically significant negative correlation with the severity of suicidal ideation, while self blame, catastrophizing and other blame was positively correlated with the severity of suicidal ideation. the scale of positive reappraisal is defined by the mental attribution of a positive meaning to a negative event in terms of personal development, namely that the event would make us stronger, therefore having a positive side to it. the self-blame scale is defined as a strategy of cognitive coping based on thoughts that place the responsibility of the situation on the subject, the guilt belongs to the person involved, while other blame places guilt on the others for what happened. this means that the severity of suicidal ideation is influenced by the absence of a positive significance of the negative events experienced, associated with thoughts that the entire responsibility belongs to the subject and also to other. our results are similar to other studies that demonstrated that cognitive-emotional coping strategies may predict an important part of the variance of scores in case of depressions and suicide (garnefski et al, 2001; garnefski et al, 2002). the third objective was the identification of the role of a positive diagnosis of depression and the strategies of cognitive-emotional coping in the prediction of suicide risk. the assumption related to this objective was that a clinical diagnosis of depression and the cognitive-emotional coping strategies of depressive broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 100 patients would influence the severity of suicide risk. this hypothesis was partially supported by the results, namely that depression associated with a high score of catastrophizing, self-blame and other blame had an impact on the suicide risk. regarding the fact that coping strategies are a predictor explaining suicide risk severity, we may state that the third hypothesis of our research was only partially confirmed: the level of self-blame, catastrophizing and other blame are cognitive-emotional predictors of suicide risk. our results are similar to those reported in other studies by quintana-orts et al. (2020). limitations of the study the limitations of study that caution against the generalization of the results are theoretical and methodological. a first limitation is represented by the instruments used: the self-assessment tests depend on the respondents’ honesty and reflexive ability. another limitation is the convenience selection of the study participants and the characteristics of the population studied: the size of the study group and only one geographical area. directions for future investigation: though this study provides important information on the relation between suicide risk and the strategies of cognitive-emotional coping, we should emphasize that additional studies are needed on longer terms (e.g., 6, 12, or more months), on larger patient groups selected from diverse geographical areas of the country. another future direction is the optimization of the regression model for the prediction of suicide risk severity by cognitive-emotional coping strategies. under a theoretical aspect, this study is among the very few in romania that analyze the correlation between suicide risk and depression. the associations between suicide risk, depression and cognitive-emotional coping have been investigated by a number of studies, such as by giner et al. (2016); quintana-orts et al. (2020); flores-kanter et al. (2019) and azadi et al. (2020). references andеrson, c. a., mіllеr, r. s., rіgеr, a. l., dіll, j. c., & sеdіkіdеs c. (1994). bеhavіoral and charactеrologіcal attrіbutіonal stylеs as prеdіctors of dеprеssіon and lonеlіnеss: rеvіеw, rеfіnеmеnt, and tеst. journal of personality and social psychology, 66, 549–558 åsberg, m., montgomery, s. a., perris, c., schalling, d., & sedvall, g. (1978). a comprehensive psychopathological rating scale. acta psychiatrica the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive … romulus-dan nicoara et al. 101 scandinavica, 57(s271), 5-27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.16000447.1978.tb02357.x åsberg, m., montgomery, s. a., perris, c., schalling, d., & sedvall, g. (1978). a comprehensive psychopathological rating scale. acta psychiatrica scandinavica, 57(s271), 5-27. azadi, s., khosravani, v., king, s., mohammadzadeh, a., & baseri, a. (2020). effects of neuropsychological systems on psychopathology through cognitive emotion regulation strategies in individuals with suicide attempts. cognitive therapy and research, 44(1), 229-239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-019-10040-z bazrafshan, m. r., jahangir, f., mansouri, a., & kashfi, s. h. (2014). coping strategies in people attempting suicide. international journal of high risk behaviors & addiction, 3(1), e16265. https://doi.org/10.5812/ijhrba.16265 berk, m., malhi, g. s., mitchell, p. b., cahill, c. m., carman, a. c., hadzi‐pavlovic, d., ... & tohen, m. (2004). scale matters: the need for a bipolar depression rating scale (bdrs). acta psychiatrica scandinavica, 110, 39-45. botsis, a. j., soldatos, c. r., liossi, a., kokkevi, a., & stefanis, c. n. suicide and violence risk. i. relationship to coping styles. acta psychiatrica scandinavica, 89(2), 92-96. carver, c. s., scheier, m. f., & weintraub, j. k. (1989). assessing coping strategies: a theoretical based approach. journal of personality and social psychology, 56(2), 267-283. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.56.2.267 cohen, f., & lazarus, r. s. coping with the stresses of illness. in g. c. stone, n. e. adler & f. cohen (eds.), health psychology (pp. 217-254). san francisco: jossey-bass. faramarzі, s., abеdі, m. r., & karіmі, m. (2013). rеlatіonshіp of copіng stylеs for dеprеssіon іn malе and fеmalе adolеscеnts. journal of cognіtіvе and bеhavіoral scіеncеs, 3, 17–26. flores-kanter, p. e., garcía-batista, z. e., moretti, l. s., & medrano, l. a. (2019). towards an explanatory model of suicidal ideation: the effects of cognitive emotional regulation strategies, affectivity and hopelessness. the spanish journal of psychology, 22. https://doi.org/10.1017/sjp.2019.45 garnefski, n., & kraaij, v. (2006). relation between cognitive emotional regulation strategies and depressive symptoms: a comparative study of five specific samples. personality and individual differences, 40(8), 1659–1669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.12.009 garnefski, n., kraaij, v. & spinhoven, ph. (2001). the relationship between cognitive coping strategies and symptoms of depression, anxiety and suicidality (de relatie tussen cognitieve copingstrategieën en symptomen van depressie, angst en suïcidaliteit). gedrag en gezondheid, 29, 166-176 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1978.tb02357.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1978.tb02357.x https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-019-10040-z https://doi.org/10.5812/ijhrba.16265 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.56.2.267 https://doi.org/10.1017/sjp.2019.45 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.12.009 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 102 garnefski, n., kraaij, v., & schroevers, m. j. (2011). effects of cognitive behavioral self-help program on depressed mood for people with acquired physical impairment. a pilot randomized controlled trial. patient education and counseling, 85(2), 304-307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2010.10.006 garnefski, n., kraaij, v., benoist, z., karels, e., & smit, a. (2013). effect of cognitive-behavioral self-help intervention on depression, anxiety and coping self-efficacy in people with rheumatic disease. arthtitis care & research, 65(7), 1077-1084. https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.21936 garnefski, n., kraaji, v., & spinhoven, p. (2002). cerq, manual for the use of cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire. liderdorp: datec. garnefski, n., van den kommer, t., kraaij, v., teerda, j., legerstee, j., & onstein, e. (2002). the relation between cognitive emotional regulation strategies and emotional problems: comparison between clinical and non-clinical sample. european journal of personality, 16(5), 403-420. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.458 giner, l., blasco-fontecilla, h., de la vega, d., & courtet, p. (2016). cognitive, emotional, temperament, and personality trait correlates of suicidal behavior. current psychiatry reports, 18(11), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-016-0742-x hamilton, m. (1960). a rating scale for depression. journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, 23(1), 56. hankіn, b. l. (2006). adolеscеnt dеprеssіon: dеscrіptіon, causеs, and іntеrvеntіons. еpіlеpsy bеhavіor, 8(1), 102–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2005.10.012 hеіnrіch, l. m, & gullonе, е. (2006). thе clіnіcal sіgnіfіcancе of lonеlіnеss: a lіtеraturе rеvіеw. clіnical psychology rеview, 26, 695–718. josepho, s. a, & plutchik, r. (1994). stress, coping and suicide risk in psychiatric inpatients. suicide life threat behaviour, 24(1), 48-57. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8203008/ jіn, j., tang, y. y., ma, y., lv, s., & hanglі, z. (2009). a structural modеl of dеprеssіon and dеfеnsе systеm factor: a survеy among chіnеss collеgе studеns. psychіatry rеsearch, 165(3), 288–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2008.03.012 kotler, m., finkelstein, g., molcho, a., botsis, a. j., plutchik, r., brown, s. l., & van praag, h. m. (1993). correlates of suicide and violence risk in an inpatient population: coping styles and social support. psychiatry research, 47(3), 281-290. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(93)90085-u lazarus, r. s. (1993). copіng thеory and rеsеarch: past, prеsеnt, and futurе. psychosomatic medicine, 55(3), 234–247. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006842199305000-00002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2010.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.21936 https://doi.org/10.1002/per.458 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-016-0742-x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2005.10.012 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8203008/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2008.03.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(93)90085-u https://doi.org/10.1097/00006842-199305000-00002 https://doi.org/10.1097/00006842-199305000-00002 the relationships between depression, suicide risk and emotional cognitive … romulus-dan nicoara et al. 103 lovibond, s. h., & lovibond, p. f. (1995). manual for the depression anxiety stress scales, 2. montgomery, s. a., & åsberg, m. a. r. i. e. (1979). a new depression scale designed to be sensitive to change. the british journal of psychiatry, 134(4), 382-389. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.134.4.382 montgomery, s. a., & åsberg, m. (1979). a new depression scale designed to be sensitive to change. the british journal of psychiatry, 134(4), 382-389. nolen-hoeksema, s., & jackson, b. (2001). mediators of the gender difference in rumination. psychology of women quarterley, 25(1), 37-47. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-6402.00005 ooi, m. y., rabbani, m., yahya, a. n., & siau, c. s. (2021). the relationship between religious orientation, coping strategies and suicidal behaviour. omega-journal of death and dying. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228211005864 posner, k., brown, g. k., stanley, b., brent, d. a., yershova, k. v., oquendo, m. a., currier, g. w., melvin, g. a., greenhill, l., shen, s., & mann, j. j. (2011). the columbia-suicide severity rating scale: initial validity and internal consistency findings from three multisite studies with adolescents and adults. american journal of psychiatry, 168(12), 1266-77. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.10111704 quintana-orts, c., mérida-lópez, s., rey, l., neto, f., & extremera, n. (2020). untangling the emotional intelligence-suicidal ideation connection: the role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in adolescents. journal of clinical medicine, 9(10), 3116. https://doi.org/10.3390%2fjcm9103116 sajatovic, m., strejilevich, s. a., gildengers, a. g., dols, a., al jurdi, r. k., forester, b. p., ... & shulman, k. i. (2015). a report on older‐age bipolar disorder from the international society for bipolar disorders task force. bipolar disorders, 17(7), 689-704. snaith, r. p., harrop, f. m., newby, t. d., & teale, c. (1986). grade scores of the montgomery åsberg depression and the clinical anxiety scales. the british journal of psychiatry, 148(5), 599-601. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.148.5.599 vingerhoets, a. j., & van heck, g. l. (1990). gender, coping and psychosomatic symptoms. psychoogical medicine, 20(1), 125-135. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700013301 vraşti, r. (2015). evaluarea şi intervenţia în criză pentru un individ suicidar adult. psihiatru. ro, 41(2). https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.134.4.382 https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-6402.00005 https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228211005864 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.10111704 https://doi.org/10.3390%2fjcm9103116 https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.148.5.599 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700013301 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 405-432 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/427 submitted: january 30th, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 28th, 2023 development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and limits viorel rotilă 1 1 professor phd, "dunarea de jos" university of galati, romania; director of the `solidaritatea` research and development center, galati, romania, viorelrotila@yahoo.com abstract: the research aims to identify the current situation of critical thinking (ct) in the romanian mentality, from the perspective of interventions necessary to increase specific skills. we start from an analysis of the main approaches of ct specific to western educational practices, these being the reference for a comparative analysis of the situation in romania. because we cannot exclude the possibility of the existence of certain ct specific contents camouflaged in the romanian educational practices (that correspond to the western ones but they have other names), we carry out an analysis of the specific ct contents to observe the differences and possible similarities. considering that ct involves the ability to discover boundaries (e.g.: discovering one's own cognitive boundaries), we look at the issue of potential boundaries. the approach includes analyzing the risk of ct marketing and the limits of specific ct interventions outlined by the mindsets of different communities. the research includes the evaluation of the existence of cultural limits possibility, starting from the question: "is there a cultural place of ct (is it a value) in the romanian mentality?". we evaluate the coherence of ct with social values, considering that in the absence of values that enhance its possibility, the probability of success of ct is diminished. since we cannot a priori exclude the risk of importing models that do not match the mentality and values of this society, we analyze the problem from the perspective of the shapes without fond theory (a relevant questioning paradigm for romanian society). keywords: critical thinking; skills; cultural boundaries; rationality; education. how to cite: rotilă, v. (2023). development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and limits. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 405-432. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/427 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/427 mailto:viorelrotila@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/427 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 406 1. introduction the starting point of our research is the investigation of what seems to be a commonplace of contemporary beliefs (conveyed at the level of experts): the school and university training in romania lacks some of the skills specific to everyday practical thinking, this lack influencing both personal life as well as daily existence. given that the skills associated with critical thinking are part of this pragmatic approach, we use them here as a case study to verify this hypothesis that seems to reflect a social expectation. the identification of a gap is based on the information provided by the comparison with a standard (usually procedural) in the specific area and with an ideal model (designed as an objective to be achieved). both the ideal and the road that seems to bring us closer to this ideal, take the west as a reference. in other words, one of the commonplaces specific to the romanian mentality (its` part that is concerned with the re-establishment of the educational system) is the belief that, in the field of critical thinking skills, the west offers the best example. therefore, because a good part of the meditations aimed at correcting the deficiencies in the field of critical thinking, specific to the romanian cultural space, are based on comparisons with the western model, an evaluation of this model is one of the reference points in this topic analysis. one of the consequences is the comparative evaluation of institutional approaches that aim to provide specific skills for critical thinking in the two generic cultural spaces (western and romanian) to observe the differences and possible similarities, as one of the directions of investigation. within these comparative approaches we do not exclude the possibility of the existence, in the educational practices in romania, of certain contents that correspond to the western ones, but have other names. considering that the main advantage of critical thinking is the thematization of thinking, as the essence of the human being at risk of sometimes being affected by inadequacy, our approach includes the transparency of beliefs and beliefs that influence attempts to increase critical thinking skills. we are, thus, on a critical area of critical thinking, trying to discover the degree of justification of some proposals and the possibility of limits in such an approach, including the unwarranted confidence generated by the exaggerations specific to the marketing of critical thinking. (see also căstăian, 2018) the article aims to contribute providing the cognitive context necessary for understanding thinking and rationality. we want to open a questioning framework, without claiming to have exhausted the problem, considering at the same time that the case study (romania's situation) can be development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 407 an example of approaching the issue. we are concerned about what we should do in terms of future research directions, suggesting an outline for a possible approach model. 2. methodological clarifications in this article we carry out an analysis of the specific contents of critical thinking in order to observe the differences and possible similarities between western practices and those specific to the romanian mental space. our approach considers the fact that we cannot exclude the possibility of the existence of certain contents in the educational practices in romania that correspond to the western ones, but have other names. in our approach, there are two levels of questioning: a formal one, meant to identify similarities and differences, through the latter generating the possibility of action directions designed to increase the degree of compatibility. another one of depth, which launches several questions on what thinking is, the possible answers to them outlining the possible horizon of action of critical thinking. we do not intend to provide definitive answers to such questions in this article or to indicate all the answers we consider possible, but only to suggest a general outline of a necessary query framework. 3. some conceptual clarifications there is a lack of uniformity in the definition and, above all, the approach to critical thinking issues at the international level. the comparative analysis of the themes and methods of treatment is relevant. there are obvious loans from the theory of knowledge and numerous overlaps with other disciplines. critical thinking is an instrumental field of knowledge that is in full effort to define. most western approaches tend to focus critical thinking skills on the goal of correct argumentation. the approach is appropriate if we consider that the level of correct argumentation competence reflects the one of thinking. however, it risks two limitations: a formal one, which supports a series of discussions: to consider that thinking is only communicated thinking (or at least communicable). we will not debate this issue here, but the proposed definition is trying to avoid it. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 408 another one of depth, which is similar to that of logic, because the correct argumentation is based to a considerable extent on the transposition of the rules of logic. to avoid these potential risks, we prefer to use a broader sense of critical thinking, which includes in critical thinking the problem of decision, the different types of additional behaviors, additional to the communicative one, and the adaptation to the characteristics of the environment. 3.1 the proposed model in a general approach, we can consider that critical thinking affirms the growing importance of knowledge for human and humanity, indicating the growing risks of wrong cognitive approaches. however, the emphasis on critical thinking can also be read from the perspective of new dangers brought by new technologies, increasing the possibilities of mass manipulation being just one example. in addition, it means an increase in the importance of thinking as a criterion for differentiation. how feasible is the human model proposed by proponents of critical thinking? what are the features of the model? is he a face of the transition to something else? compared to the totality of expectations, critical thinking could be a component part of the new humanism; we maintain here the position of the continuous adaptation of the humanism concept (rotilă, 2017). but what are the defining perspectives of the new humanism? are they foreign to expectations of emotional origin or desires arising against the background of a failure to take reality? 3.2 `what is` and `what is not` the critical thinking? the definition of critical thinking can be done both from a procedural perspective, indicating the steps that should be followed, and from a teleological one, highlighting the expected results. both directions of definition have their own risks: while the focus on procedures could risk missing out on performance checks, the focus on results could be affected by ideological expectations. critical thinking is closely linked to science education, often being an integral part of it. the evolution of the two has a high level of correlation, not being able to exclude even causal influences. critical thinking involves a level of knowledge democratization, each person being considered a potential cognitive source. the desire to form critical thinking skills is situated in an egalitarian horizon, contradicting the proponents of elitism. the presumption of relatively similar cognitive development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 409 possibilities is part of the model of unlimited rationality that emerged with modernity. although critical thinking should not be confused with correct thinking (correctness of political thinking), the relationship between the two is not yet clear, the problem being part of the category of types of cognitive outcomes that do not enjoy unanimous appreciation. the definition of critical thinking depends on the meaning we give to thinking. 3.2.1 what does it mean `to think`? in order to have a good perspective on critical thinking we must first have an average/reasonable understanding of thinking. with the advent of artificial intelligence to understand thinking, we must possess an adequate meaning of intelligence. pinker (2021, p. 386) states a difference between intelligence and rationality. somehow, intelligence represents power, while rationality indicates the right choices for the exercise of intelligence, doubled by the observance of procedures and mastery of cognitive tools. cognitive style is also an indicator of difference, rationality being specific to the reflexive approach. the connection point between thinking and intelligence could be rationality, meaning the ability to solve problems reflexively. what does it mean to be rational? the simplest answer: to use reason (whenever possible) to identify the appropriate solutions to the problems we have. 3.3 what is the ideal of thinking? what is the ideal in the field of thinking? we should be interested in it because, depending on this, can be chosen the `ways` (methods) that could lead to its achievement. the lines on the unlimited rationality theme can be considered part of the critical approach of one of the ideals. from a social perspective, the problem is partly connected with educational ideals, with official approaches (e.g.: defining ideals in the law of education) providing a point of reference. we will perform a brief analysis of the existing provisions on critical thinking skills to provide an image from this perspective. success in the labor market, often conveyed as the supreme value of education, does not necessarily define an ideal of rationality, being intensely dependent on context and likely to be ideologically influenced. even if it seems to be compatible with a model of ecological rationality, judging rationality, according to success in the social environment, risks being broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 410 influenced by the reference to social values (level of respect for them) and the variation of appetite to risk. who, how, where, when... sets the ideal in the field of successful thinking? we give a few variants of response, such as: a) the law, through behavioral prescriptions and sanctions applied for deviations from them; b) groups of intellectuals, through references established for some categories of success; c) teachers, through the skills they are called to form (from a pragmatic perspective, they often do not demonstrate success in real life); d) businessmen, through the success they demonstrate in what they do (with the mention that their success is also dependent on other variables; it is not a model of human success); e) successful people in general, the name tends to nullify the possibility of discussion on the degree of success from the perspective of thinking (however, the weight of the social network in individual success is only one of the additional variables; with the mention that understanding the role of social networks can be regarded as part of proper thinking). to some extent, the definition of thinking tends to be the prerogative of philosophy, which offers at least two variants: a) the approach based on outlining an appropriate context of significance. in this variant, the success of thinking is dependent on history, being influenced by the preferences of different eras. the problem is that this alternative tends to relativize the understanding of thinking and rationality. b) the observance of the logic rules (the most important proposition of philosophy) provides a relevant reference, the fact of being logical being an ideal of thinking. is this ideal of continuing to follow the rules of logic enough? by myself, it would seem not. from a secondary perspective, it would seem that it is a too high ideal; however, this does not make him incompatible with his ideal status. the fact that logic is formal, missing out on its suitability for many aspects of reality, could point to another limit of logic (in its attempt to be a necessary and sufficient ideal of thought). approaches based on a good grip on reality have generated some suggestions about the insufficiency of logic as an ideal of thought. religion defines a dimension of the thought ideal, or at least contaminates it, the necessity of faith and the assumption of the cognitive limits it proposes (within the horizon of religious confessions) providing a line of argument. in relation to the case study undertaken and to the evolution of the romanian society and mentality in the last decades, the analysis of these explanatory variants has additional relevance. development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 411 reporting to science. if we increase the level of specificity and relate to certain data of science, then we can consider that, in the study the absence of critical thinking skills and its effects. case study: vaccine hesitation (rotilă, 2022), on the relationship between critical thinking and vaccination, we provided an example of an analysis way. previous ideas suggest that talking about an ideal of thinking may prove inappropriate, as we have to assume a definition based on several variables. 3.4 what does critical thinking aims? in an attempt to increase the chances of a proper understanding of critical thinking skills role, we address some of the results that we believe it proposes. trying to identify the criteria of ideal success, we consider that several proposals are possible, each of them coming with specific problems of implementation and identification of relevant indicators for evaluating success. in a simplistic approach, we can consider that the objective of critical thinking is thinking, in the strong sense of the term. because attempts to indicate correct procedural solutions are not enough, many of the examples used by critical thinking are negative approaches, indicating what is wrong with everyday thinking. moreover, critical thinking must also identify the moments when we are irrational (sometimes irremediably). identifying the objectives of critical thinking encounters several problems, the most important being the evaluation of adherence to critical thinking from the perspective of results (given that the latter do not always depend only on our cognitive behaviors) and conflict of interest with some state institutions and some social contexts. . this last option raises the following problem (to which we don`t try to offer a solution here): how much critical thinking a society can support or what is the ideal dose of critical thinking, consistent with the normal functioning of the society. here are some of the ideas we believe could be critical thinking goals: an increase of realism (at individual and social level). this goal raises the first question: how much realism is needed? should cognitive tools be sufficient to enable people to cope with everyday reality, leaving them free to think about what they want/can do about the `second region` (pinker, 2021, p. 358) of the world? or the ideal should be aimed at a uniformity of the `two areas` from the point of view of reality? we cannot provide a simple answer to these questions. in addition, the simple answer to them should not take into account the possible mutual influence of the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 412 two categories of cognitive behaviors. however, by forcing the simplification of a complex reality, we risk an inadequate reduction of the multiple variables (with a potential causal role) that exist. increasing discernment. although it seems reasonable, this is a vague wording, difficult to quantify. discernment can be verified in context; everyday contexts are strongly influenced by values. increasing the rationality coefficient. the rationality coefficient was proposed by stanovich (2016) in the comprehensive assessment of rational thinking (cart) approach, keeping it here as a possible indicator. increasing the level of instrumental rationality. instrumental rationality refers to how well a person’s actions maximize the satisfaction of his or her desires, given his or her beliefs (stanovich, 2001). increasing reflective and decision-making competence. decision-making competence refers to the ability to make better decisions, as defined by decision-making principles posited by models of rational choice (bruine de bruin et. al., 2020). a proposal that seems to cover both areas of cognitive behavior. the diversity of the above examples shows that the problem is far from being solved. if it is not clear enough to us what it should be, it seems increasingly clear that the goal cannot be unlimited rationality. the problem, however, is how much limitation we must admit. 4. the situation of critical thinking in romania in order to shed some light on the way of institutional reporting in romania to critical thinking, we believe that at least the following directions of analysis are possible: a). evaluation of legislation; b). the analysis of the books published on this topic by romanian authors; c) indexing existing translations (noting that they are not sufficient to indicate a change); e) other signs. in this article we will summarize our investigation only in the first category of evaluation. 4.1 a brief analysis of the legal framework from a general (and radical) perspective, we could consider that the education system in romania is not fully synchronized with the specific orientations of the western systems regarding the preoccupation for the specific competences of critical thinking. it is not clear, however, whether this is either an exaggeration or an inadequate approach of the problem. the national law of education (law no. 1/2011) does not mention the skills of critical thinking among those essential to the individual training. we can even see that the expression critical thinking is missing from the development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 413 content of the law, the closest form being the one of critical reflection, found in a reference to professional skills (not general) in the annex list of terms and expressions definitions used in the law. thought from the perspective of the individual, the purposes of education expressed in terms of skills (art. 4 of the law) do not include the training of critical thinking skills or concern for epistemic skills. in this context, we can ask ourselves whether it`s necessary to mention the skills of critical thinking in the law of education in order to develop a systematic concern of the educational system towards them. the answer of the first instance is that although the mention of critical thinking skills does not guarantee a reasonable level of training for all pupils and students, it could still be a relevant support. a quick analysis of the entire romanian legislation indicates that the expression critical thinking can be identified extremely rarely, most often in relation to the desire to adapt different specializations to the general context. if in the western space critical thinking seems to occupy a significant place from the perspective of the interest given to training, in romania the steps are only at the beginning. an example of action is the analysis carried out by mihail (2022), who evaluated several types of actions that could contribute when introducing critical thinking skills in training activities in romania. in an overall assessment, we can consider that the changes generated by e.u. legislation seem to influence the general framework of approaches aimed at enhancing critical thinking skills. 4.2. inadequate ideals? as we suggested in the introductory part, the increase of critical thinking skills seems to be dependent on the ideal of training graduates' practical skills, the variables most commonly used to assess them being successful on the labor market or successful in business. we can first observe that the discussion is a social ideal, structured according to the model of democracies based on the market economy, the relevant success being one of an economic nature. the deconstruction of this ideal highlights two problems: a tendency to reduce the evaluation of the adequacy of thinking to economic successes and an excessive responsibility of the person, determined by the presumption of an excessive rationality of the economic environment. if we assume that everyone agrees with the limits of the ability to assess the adequacy of thinking through economic variables, then the question of the criteria for assessing the success of critical thinking skills should be raised. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 414 4.3 cultural possibilities and limits from a historical perspective, most of the cognitive solutions identified to counterbalance limits such as those mentioned above are of a cultural nature, they taking the form of various taboos, recommendations, expressions, etc. if we add the cognitive perspective, culture is not only a social form of `home`, a mediator of the relationship with the world and others, but also a reservoir of cognitive solutions that influence the duration and quality of life of the individual. cultures are not equal in terms of the cognitive support they provide to citizens. two examples of variables must be considered from the perspective of differentiations: the adaptation of cognitive solutions to the environment (cultural loans can bring inadequacies) and the ability to form cognitive communities (dependent on the tradition of social networks, social capital, etc.). the finding of cultural differences that influence cognitive relationships brings into question the evaluation of cultural limits existence in the way of developing critical thinking skills. from this perspective we can ask ourselves if there is a `cultural place` of critical thinking (a value) in the romanian mentality. perhaps it`s more relevant to ask ourselves first whether it exists in western thought, while identifying its characteristics (căstăian, 2021) we must also evaluate the coherence of critical thinking with social values because, in the absence of values that enhance the possibility, the probability of success of critical thinking being diminished. one of the values that seems to be consistent with critical thinking skills is individualism, understood here as the ability to individually identify the most appropriate solutions. in an extremely general approach, critical thinking seems to be enhanced by focusing on individualism, the importance of individual decision and the responsibilities associated with it. in other words, gregariousness seems to decrease its probability. to the extent that there is a fundamental mismatch between western culture and romanian culture, which may affect the relevance, possibility and impact of critical thinking skills, attempts to take over the western model, are making relevant resuming the theory of forms without concept. born in another period marked by the attempt to modernize the romanian society, this theory has the advantage of identifying the incompatibility of the new institutions (borrowed) with the cultural background. in this sense, we cannot exclude the risk of importing models of critical thinking that don`t fit with the mentality and values of this society. the problem could subsist even in the variant of the objective’s adequacy to the scientific development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 415 knowledge. we point out that the extent to which this theory provides a relevant framework for analysis isn`t clear enough in the context of the current magnitude of globalization. we believe that an important perspective is offered by culturally incorporated models of rationality (in a broad sense): the level of rationality of the survival strategies specific to each culture matters, they being an important source of collective rationality. from this perspective, it is obvious that we can`t reduce the increase of individual rationality to individual educational approaches, as we also need culturally incorporated critical thinking tools. the problem is somewhat similar in the case of values: increasing the penetrability of critical thinking is dependent on its axiological configurations. solving the problem is not easy and, moreover, we don`t think it supports simplistic approaches. one obstacle is the tension between interventions to increase individual rationality, which brings with it an increase in autonomy, and the interest of the community for a level of individual dependence (which brings with it an increase in integration). the second obstacle is the possible conflicts between community survival strategies and those highlighted by the rationality of those members of the community who have a cognitive status modified by interventions specific to critical thinking. rationality is not the only criterion for judging a survival strategy, as it can often be outdone by its purpose in donating personal and community identity. one might object that being rational means understanding the identity costs of some of the community's survival strategies and acting in that interest. the objection is partly well-founded: it seems fair to expect intelligent people to understand what is in the community's interest and to act accordingly. however, if things had happened like this, then the whole discussion about progress would have lost its meaning, canceling also the relevance of the interventions specific to critical thinking. the goal of increasing the level of critical thinking is conceived in the horizon of progress, of a desire for change that also includes survival strategies. 5. the logic to the extent that logic can be seen as part of critical thinking (we believe it is an important part of it), in the romanian cultural space we already have a practice of training critical thinking skills. in this paradigm, the limits faced by the discipline called logic can be thought as limits to this dimension of critical thinking. additionally, our anecdotal findings highlighted the risk of a too rigid approach (in the didactic sense) of this broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 416 discipline, resulting a low level of popularity and maintaining an artificial distance from reality. the common place of criticism seems to be the emphasis on indicating the `limits of logic`, derived from its formalism. the differences between logic and reality could participate in the faces of the distance between the intellectual and reality. somehow logic seems to contribute to the construction of this parallel world populated by different idealisms of the intellectual. the contribution of intellectuals to social change also carries with it the cost of some forms of inadequacy. a more adequate explanation of the logic efficiency limits is the difference between valid arguments, which have a correct form but we know nothing about the truth of the premises, and solid arguments, in their case knowing that the premises are true (pinker, 2021). in a sense, this path is crossed by critical thinking, it being also concerned about the truth of the premises. logic can be considered an integral part of critical thinking education. in order to keep us on the line of increasing the accessibility of knowledge, it would require a significant change in the way we teach, increasing the use of examples from everyday life being probably the main recommendation. the discussion is not `another logic`, but only the improvement of logic teaching as a generalized approach. examples of good practice for what is happening in different schools and faculties could provide a benchmark. reformulating, critical thinking cannot exclude logic, being forced to be at least in its continuation where it fails to incorporate it. equally, we cannot consider that the education of critical thinking is exhausted by logic, even in the most accessible form of the latter. pinker (2021; p.140) also supports the need to complement logic with other cognitive approaches, appealing to the functioning of neuromorphic networks on the deep learning variant and its resemblance to some of the functioning of our mind. to the extent that this classification of human cognitive methods is correct, we can consider that approaches focused on the exclusivity/sufficiency of logic are wrong. we observe here one of the ways in which the understanding of critical thinking depends on the understanding of rationality, in the general sense of the term. 6. some limits of the appeal to rationality one of the optimists on the level of human rationality, steven pinker (2021), states that in fact we are not as bad at rationality as behavioral economics research suggests: most problems would actually be generated by development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 417 far too much importance given to the data obtained under the specific conditions of laboratory experiments, our behaviors in reality being in fact much more appropriate. the issue deserves a careful approach. equally, however, we must note that pinker's optimism about humanity in general is blatantly contradicted by the war in ukraine and other such events (which, in terms of correct predictions, places pinker with yuval noah harari and francis fukuyama). a more appropriate approach from the perspective of respecting scientific standards is the one of gigerenzer (gigerenzer et al., 1999), the adequacy also aiming at how to relate to the concept of limited rationality. trying to discuss some of the limitations that may stand in the way of interventions based on increasing critical thinking skills, we consider that a relevant approach is rationality limited. 6.1 limited rationality the main set of limits to interventions based on increasing critical thinking skills to increase rationality is around the concept of limited rationality. one of the important theses of limited rationality is that human rationality takes place in the conditions of what we consider to be limits, this being its natural way of existence. the use of the concept limited rationality is mainly determined by the desire to create a (realistic) counterweight to the tendency to idealize rationality. we believe that the idealization of rationality should not be seen as an error of humanity, its existence having some motivations. a good understanding of limited rationality is provided by the call made by one of the promoters of this current of analysis, simon herbert (1955): we must consider the simplifications that a certain organism could intentionally introduce in the context of the model applicable to the situation, in order to bring the model (reality) to the level of its processing capacity. taking the idea of the matching direction, used by john searle (2004) to understand intentionality, in the matter of rationality we believe that we should consider both directions of matching: adaptation (through rationality) to the characteristics of the world, but which must go through adaptation to the concrete possibilities of processing human-specific information. discussions on the costs of information processing also led us to the possibility of an absolute limit to the volume of information to be processed for a decision, there being areas where the costs of processing exceed the benefits offered. given the fact that we need to discuss limited rationality in order to counterbalance the idealization tendencies of human rationality, the simplest broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 418 understanding can be provided by the daily decision-making process: the decision takes place `here and now`, based on information and existing processing resources, both of which are limited. in a sense, practical rationality is an efficient process of navigating these limitations. efficiency is largely due to the heuristics we use, i.e.: the fast (but brief) patterns of thinking. the problem is that exactly appealing to these shortcuts of reasoning is often the source of our errors. in relation to reality, we are dominated by two tendencies: the reduction of reality to our cognitive possibilities and the `letting go` of reality (admiration, wonder, abstention). this last variant seems to be in the area of cognitive modesty. compared to the status of applied epistemology (battersby, 2006), critical thinking involves both the ability to discover one's own limits and the ability to identify relevant contexts to be used. one of the concepts that helps us understand that part of the rationality limitation is dependent on the environment is the one of uncertainty. uncertain decisions adequately illustrate the relevance of using heuristic approaches. 6.2 ecological rationality first of all, ecological rationality suggests that in the analysis of human rationality we must change, at least sometimes, the context of analysis. ecological rationality means judging the rationality of decisions in relation to the specific environment in which the person must identify their own survival strategies. ecological rationality is part of the approach called limited rationality. from a general perspective, we can consider that there are two ways to understand limited rationality: idealistic: based on identifying the limits of human rationality related to a model (the ideal model of unlimited rationality). the most wellknown research direction is the identification of biases. the dominant explanatory model seems to be slow thinking and fast thinking (kahneman, 2011). the dominant solution: nudges. (katsikopoulos, 2011); (thaler & sunstain, 2009). realistic: based on identifying people's real possibilities, thought from the perspective of relating to their environment. the most well-known research direction: ecological rationality. the dominant explanatory model: identification of specific limits. the dominant solution: boost. (grüneyanoff & hertwig, 2016). development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 419 6.3 heuristics and biases probably the best example for a different approach to rationality than the traditional one (the latter seeming to be limited to logic and, especially based on it, tending to boundlessness) gives us two directions derived from the program of limited rationality: heuristics and biases. heuristics and biases must be addressed together because of the ambivalent status of heuristics: on one hand they are the natural solution to a certain category of limitations of human rationality and on the other hand they are the source of many errors, most often these errors being called biases. a correct understanding of the relationship between heuristics and biases can be summarized as follows: inappropriate use of heuristics can generate biases; some biases are generated by heuristic inadequacies. although it is not clear whether all heuristics can generate biases and we already know that not all biases are generated by heuristics, the common area between the two is large enough to be worth treating together. 6.3.1 heuristics the most tempting argument in favor of limited rationality is the idea that heuristics emerge along the evolutionary path as solutions to the limits of rationality. although the argument has a high degree of attractiveness, we must mention that, insofar as it is justified to appear on the evolutionary path, the existence of heuristics is consistent with a number of other explanatory hypotheses, the most important being the cognitive conditioning of the environment and the principle of `mental energy` economics. at this point, a brief explanation is needed for the principle of `mental energy` economics. we use the presentation of the terms `mental energy` in quotation marks to understand that it is only a metaphor meant to suggest the set of resources that condition the existence of mental processes. after reaching an average level of `mental energy`, organisms tend to favor information processing processes that have a low consumption of resources to the detriment of those with high consumption. in the case of people, the stabilization is done somewhere in the average area specific to the community (and the era), participating in its realization and being conditioned by it. the phenomena that indicate this possibility aim at the importance on each community and / or epoch it gives to the knowledge and the thought in general, reflected most often by the place that occupies the specialized people in thinking within the society. the reference to the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 420 maximum level is probably the present, this orientation being launched with modernity. another tempting hypothesis is that heuristics are a way of highlighting how human intuitions work. in a synthetic form, we can consider that heuristics are forms of reasoning based on a small number of clues, the economy of `mental energy` being determined by the reduction of the number of mentally processed variables. with this definition in mind, we can understand that the small number of clues may be a consequence of the choice or may be the expression of an objective cognitive limit (a limit of existing information; this limit may be one of the faces of rationality limits). when intervening, the choice of clues can be considered part of rationality, transposing the fact that existing clues do not have the same cognitive importance. the choice of clues can be based on prior knowledge (individual or community) or on an effective way of estimating the specific cognitive weight of each clue. regardless of which of these variants are used, it is clear that heuristics based on the choice of the most important indices are located in the central flow of rationality. 6.3.2 biases how can we understand what a bias is? the simplest approach seems to be provided by indicating the place that bias occupies in the errors of rationality. taking the classification proposed by mustață and bogzeanu (2017) in a modified form (because we consider it problematic regarding the category of cognitive errors), biases are one of the three categories of errors, along with perceptual errors and reasoning errors. understanding biases requires a context appropriate to their role. negative learning seems to provide an appropriate interpretation. there is a risk that the identification of biases may be based on an inadequate understanding of the human being (from the perspective of his cognitive possibilities). we can gain an intuition about the problem as we try to identify the cognitive ideal suggested by the reverse reading of biases: how should the ideal knowledge look like? beyond the possible philosophical speculations on the contribution of errors to the meaning of humanity (they participate in generating the contour of a part of chance) we suspect that we could discover some ideological touches that participate in substantiating some of the biases. one of the possible approaches to the problem of the exaggerated recourse to biases is the one suggested by gigerenzer (2018) through `the bias bias`. gigerenzer (2018) emphasizes that, in order to meet the condition of being considered biases, errors must be systematic. failure to comply with development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 421 this condition generates a much higher number of biases than actually exist, which causes the image to be projected by people who are frequently and irrefutably irrational. the most important consequence is the interventions specific to neo-liberal paternalism, highlighted in the nudgets strategy. we could thus observe that the direction of research focused on identifying biases implicitly leads to a diminution of human freedom of decision. the existence of bias bias could also be justified by the explanatory hypothesis of the influence of the cultural context on the way of understanding human rationality. the tendency to find more irrationality than actually exists is consistent with the postmodernist perspective, contributing to the denial of the proposed model of modernity. 6.3.3 limits of the `broken leg` due to the limitations of processing power, human intelligence relies heavily on clues. the orientation towards the discovery of clues is a doubleedged sword: it generates the capacity of cognitive shortcuts but also the possibility of giving too much cognitive importance to what appear to be clues. this side effect tends to become increasingly evident in the context of various forms of extension of the processing power of the mind. the side effect also takes a second, weirder face: the inability to constantly use simple decision-making algorithms due to the tendency to consider that one of the variables has the character of a decisive clue/has a higher cognitive weight. 6.4. uncertainty the appeal to rationality in the context of admitting limited rationality should involve, among other things, the recognition of uncertainty and the development of specific cognitive behaviors. uncertainty can be subjective, determined by the cognitive limits of the human, or objective, determined by the limits of the extent to which the environment can be known. from the perspective of the cognitive limits generated by the environment, the problem is not only related to the cognitive permeability of the environment, but also to the risks specific to that environment. from the point of view of individuals' interests, there is a significant difference between an uncertain and dangerous environment and an uncertain one but without major risks, while from a logical (true, narrow) perspective the two environments generate an identical cognitive problem. while in an environment of risky uncertainty the bias of unjustified trust in one's own cognitive abilities attracts significant costs, the same cognitive behavior in an uncertain environment without major risks requires some additional broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 422 information before its axiological classification. for example, self-confidence could weigh positively on the individual if this error does not have significant negative consequences, as it may contribute to other dimensions of that person's existence (for example, individual happiness may depend on this ability). the expression critical thinking induces (correctly) the idea of some limits of thinking, which must be identified each time. however, this significance has a low level of coherence with the marketing of critical thinking. 6.5 critical thinking marketing critical thinking also faces the risk of marketing, which aims in particular to present it as having a much greater impact than in reality. these types of approaches can have side effects such as unjustified self-confidence or, once the problem is observed, widespread distrust in all the skills provided by critical thinking. at the same time, in a critical approach on critical thinking we could consider that critical thinking is a form of marketing philosophy, an attempt to demonstrate the purpose of a particular area of philosophy in creating skills useful to the economy and daily life of the individual. it is consistent with the world of rapid access to essences, providing a pragmatic synthesis of a part of philosophical thought. in a sense we could call it `philosophy for the market`, meaning a quick (sometimes perhaps too easy) form of instrumentalizing philosophy in accordance with the interests of the market economy. it remains to be seen whether the results of philosophy can be verified according to the criteria of the market economy or we have to look for quantifiers in other dimensions of social existence. 6.6 missing the specificity of the social environment the set of approaches based on the growth of critical thinking tends to consider the environment in which the individual conducts his existence as constant. however, they miss the multiple variants of social media formatting, to which individuals have to adapt. regarding the relationship between critical thinking and the environment, we should look at whether there is a relationship between the level of rationality of the social environment and what is necessary for the individual to survive in that environment and find out if the ideal critical thinking skills are consistent with survival in any social environment. we should also find out whether adaptation also targets specific forms of modulation of critical thinking skills, including a variation in their level of development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 423 adequacy to the principles of rationality. as a hypothesis we can consider that each social environment responds according to its own criteria of rationality/functioning to the behaviors of individuals. the example of rational strategy recommended by the game theory in the case of the prisoner's dilemma (understood here as an attempt to generalize a rational solution), namely tit for tat, i.e.: cooperation on the first move followed by the answer with the same currency, is a problem from the perspective of specific rationality of different social environments, coming into conflict with their values. 6.7 objective thinking vs. motivated thinking motivated thinking versus objective thinking is another possible direction of investigation, it may been starting with a presentation of the differences between motivated thinking and objective thinking, using relevant examples. objective thinking is just an ideal, science trying to get the closest to it, but not being able to reach it. the reason could lie in the birth of thought, in the beginning it being a for… motivated thinking has an ambiguous status because it is somehow related to the motivation for the emergence of thinking. removing motivated thinking from the area of guilt (a large part of it contributes to the development of thinking) but also highlighting the problems it generates (history probably starting with the sophists) are among the possible solutions, designed to provide some criteria for differentiation. the term expressive rationality, proposed by kahan (2017), indicates that species of motivated thinking that aims to obtain appreciation within the group (not the desire to gain a more accurate understanding of reality). through expressive rationality, people express opinions that publicly state their preferences. 6.8 training risks unnecessary training is a significant risk from a thinking perspective because it can distort. the fact that it is difficult to anticipate the usefulness of the information and skills that a person will need must be read in more ways: a). some of the skills provided may be necessary or unnecessary in the future; b). the competencies we do not provide are equally important in this equation. also, it is difficult to assess the adaptive mechanisms that may be canceled during the training process. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 424 6.9 behavioral economics let`s suppose that critical thinking aims to increase the person's thinking/cognitive skills. in order to be able to assess the presence or absence of some of the competencies, we need a comparison criterion. the most relevant criterion seems to be the use of thinking to choose and achieve goals. because the choice of goals sometimes involves discussions about the contribution of other different factors of thought (e.g.: emotions, the values of the community in which we were born, ideology, etc.), it seems useful to stop at achieving goals. this description of thinking is quite close to that of rationality. if we consider that at least in this plan we can put the sign of equality between thinking (the ideal of critical thinking) and rationality then it becomes relevant to approach a specialized field in the field of rational choices: behavioral economics. part of the understanding of rationality is provided by behavioral economics. an important observation is the paradigm shift that behavioral economics has undergone, moving from rational choice theory to perspective theory. this change is relevant to the relationship between unlimited rationality and limited rationality. 6.10 ideological interests from a current perspective, the presumption of human irrationality arising in the context of increasing confidence in various `cognitive technologies` serves the interest of the holders of these technologies. in the face of this orientation) the model is not based on a definitive denial of human rationality, since those who discover / know that we are irrational arise, they somehow become the holders of "true rationality". the denial of the wisdom of the masses gradually removes the crowd from the area of power, giving way to elites and holders of cognitive technologies. for example, the nudgets solution, as a corrective intervention against the irrationality of the masses, can be understood as being associated with a category of political preferences (the right having a higher probability than the left). we cannot say with certainty whether the narrative is constituted or not intentionally because the possible existence of such intentions does not fall within the area of scientific evidence. entering the political area carries with it the risk of ideological bias, each of us tending to interpret things from the perspective of personal beliefs. rationality has been and remains the essential source of political legitimacy. to say that people (some people) are smart or stupid is to development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 425 question the legitimacy of their political decisions. therefore, research on the area of rationality or their results has a high risk of contamination or ideological interpretation. (see also căstăian, 2016). 7. evaluation criteria when we propose a change in public policy, such as that represented by the increase of critical thinking skills, we need to establish specific indicators to highlight the presence or absence of targeted changes. in the case of critical thinking, the issue of establishing what we can verify when evaluating the evolution of a person's critical thinking arises. in principle, we could refer to all his behaviors. however, this could be too general a reference. we can consider that there are some elements capable of constituting a relevant reference: arguments, beliefs, beliefs, decisions, level of success, level of credulity. there are even some references to success, such as thinking for oneself or the ability to identify evidence. we might even consider that critical thinking reflects a level of self-awareness. all these references are relevant. however, they can slip into an area of irrelevance if viewed in absolute terms, missing the context and the intervention of other variables. 7.1 two issues adjacent to the verification criteria 7.1.1 assessing adherence to critical thinking in terms of results a relevant level of analysis is the ratio between the fundamental objectives of the person and the means used. at what level do we consider that critical thinking intervenes: in that of objectives or that of means? in most cases the goals are actually values. which means that the claim to set goals through critical thinking actually involves setting the values we adhere to in this way. this is an unexpected leap, an expectation that people can hardly meet. people appear in communities that have already pre-selected certain axiological systems, tending to assume them as personal. values contribute to personal identity; they can be assumed based on emotional relationships (most often transpose and generate affect); values also support irrational adherences. moreover, in a large number of cases by our expectation of someone to think critically we understand to reach conclusions similar to ours. we must not neglect this risk of using critical thinking as a tool of pressure or ideology. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 426 7.1.2 conflict of interest with some state institutions and some social disputes war is the limiting example of a social context in which the interest for critical thinking as a whole is extremely low, the beliefs placed on other grounded prevailing. objectively, the problem is generated by the fact that the interests of society can sometimes be radically different from those of the individual, they can go to certain forms of censorship of thought. if we think that some wars may not be based on the general interest, but only by a scrapped one, then the problem becomes even more visible. 8. is critical thinking also applicable to artificial intelligence? as we have seen, the understanding of heuristics is conditioned by access to the importance of clues. the ability of people to identify and use clues seems to give them a competitive advantage over artificial intelligence, which can be illustrated, for example, by the well-known problem of the broken leg (meehl, 1954, p. 25): people can realize the importance of information that a person has broken their leg when trying to predict whether they will go to the dance, while an algorithm/artificial intelligence (statistical analysis, in the version presented by p. meehl) can`t assess the importance of this decisive clue (clinical type). the situation is generated by the fact that the indices do not have equal weight, the difference in weights being difficult to identify. the problem must be looked at both ends, and there is a risk that people will see more broken legs than they actually are. this is one of many examples that suggest that rationality specific to artificial intelligence deserves to be included in the general analysis of rationality. 8.1 do we also have a problem with the rationality of artificial intelligence? in an abrupt form (meant to draw attention to the problem) we might ask ourselves: "how bad can artificial intelligence (ai) be?". there are several possible answers to this question, one of them regarding the possibility of overestimating it: there is a risk of granting too much ai credit, derived from commercial marketing (bender et al. 2021). in other words, those who create or use ai have a significant interest in presenting it much more successfully than it actually is, with the authors pointing out the risk of confusing the answers given by a neural network specializing in language processing, which provides plausible answers based on statistical processing, with the appearance of conscious answers. hutson (2021) considers that ai lacks common sense for the time being, missing the way the world is made development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 427 up and functioning. probably the best-known example to illustrate the situation of people stupid by technology is that of inappropriate use of gps. knowing the limits of ai is becoming more and more a specific value of critical thinking. confidence in ai tends to be based on areas similar to peer trust in importance, but without benefiting from the cognitive mechanisms specific to the latter. it is a danger that seems to affect especially the new generations, the previous ones being somehow protected by the limited abilities to use the new technologies (by the recourse to traditional cognitive resources). it affects human knowledge in multiple ways, including by closing in on the cognitive bubbles created by the suggestions of different ai. 9. conclusions risks and precautions. the claim that education for critical thinking alone can generate an adequate grasp of reality could be exaggerated, requiring a complex set of epistemic interventions. the size of the marketing component can bring with it expectations that are difficult to fill with real content, risking to turn the expression of critical thinking into a passing fad. top-down changes. given the brief analysis of the legislation carried out in a previous section, the tradition of legal articles presses for the advancement of the lege ferenda: the introduction of critical thinking skills in the national education law, along with the express indication of epistemic skills. changing the legislation seems to be necessary in relation to the tradition of social interventions in romanian society: from top to bottom, they have dominated the last two centuries. obviously, this direction of intervention carries with it the risk of bottomless forms. bottom-up changes. it is not clear whether bottom-up modification is possible. there are some favorable signs, most of them related to the impact of globalization. logics. given the mentions in the section dedicated to logic, our proposal aims at a form of integration of logic in a new educational context, based on two directions of action: • identifying a solution to connect logic to reality, but not to affect its formal structure. • integrating logic into a complex set of interventions designed to support thinking, organized under the umbrella of critical thinking. identifying the approaches with the highest level of coherence with the specifics of the romanian mentality is a necessary step. this action, which involves conducting dedicated research, assumes the need for a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 428 degree of compatibility between certain cognitive skills and social values, respectively redefining some of the social values in accordance with the objectives of critical thinking, thus increasing the level of coherence. the creation of reference works in the field of critical thinking is also necessary, the translation of those already existing in the western space can be a beginning. they can take the form of both manuals and dedicated applications, the latter having the advantage of a much wider addressability. via negativa. the via negativa approach involves the use of recommendations, which have the chance to become memes, focused on avoiding mistakes. we can indicate the example of two categories of procedural errors that must be avoided: a) interpretation (automatic a) of the correlation as causality; b) causal reductionism: focusing on a single cause from the interweaving of causes that participate in determining a historical event. cognitive economics. critical thinking should also involve a minimum of preparation for cognitive economics. the ever-increasing volume of information we face brings with it an objective inability to process it. inevitably, our decisions cannot be based on an analysis of all available information. knowing what to give up, the ability to prioritize decisions according to their importance, etc., are useful cognitive economy strategies in new contexts. one of the possible solutions was discussed in the heuristics section, which aims to use clues. another solution seems to be to use the information processing power generated by smart tools. even if their failures are more visible, as a whole we must note the significant contribution that their evolution has to the cognitive economy. this strategy involves the use of that sense of critical thinking that involves identifying the limits of the human mind and setting up tools to amplify its possibilities. at issue is the discovery of appropriate extensions of the mind, i.e.: those cognitive tools that are likely to have a much higher level of "cognitive ergonomics". transparency of beliefs and convictions, based on the development of useful tools for clarifying/raising awareness of one's own beliefs, this positioning can influence behaviors towards information and decisions made. these actions represent a form of support for an older recommendation circulating in the space of philosophy, know yourself! focused in this case on identifying your own possibilities and cognitive limits. development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 429 statistical education is a common recommendation, the contribution of critical thinking focusing, once again, on the negative solution: highlighting errors in order to learn from them. a complementary variant (sometimes presented as an alternative) seems to find more and more supporters: transposing statistical problems into forms more accessible to human cognitive intuitions / habits, such as the use of natural frequencies (gigerenzer, 2011) (hoffrage et al., 2015) and tools for understanding risks (gigerenzer & edwards, 2003). the approach based on the use of natural frequencies can also be understood in the horizon of searle's (2004) theory on the two directions of adaptation, mind to world and world to mind, in question being a form of world adaptation (transposition of data about it) to the possibilities of the mind. compared to the reference level of statistics, this solution seems to be a proposal for cognitive prosthesis, being meant to compensate for a deficit. because it is not clear to what extent such solutions are related to critical thinking, the problem requires a separate analysis, carried out from an anthropological perspective (do such tools take us out of the human strong area?) or ontological (do we miss the essence of the human with such adaptations by moving to a secondary realm of existence?). a useful solution is to introduce elements of game theory and connect them to real world situations, through dedicated exercises. these have the role of putting pupils/students in the situation of real social dilemmas in order to highlight their possible problems and solutions. to teach pupils and students that there is chance and that certain things must be thought of in terms of probability is a form of giving up the exclusivity of linear models in education. we believe that such reorientations are already happening in many places and in different ways. here we try to suggest what could be a rule of dealing with certain areas of reality. even if there is a risk of a certain dilution of responsibility due to the call for explanations based on chance, increasing the grip on reality is a gain that can compensate for other possible losses. in some cases, the observance of statistical rules such as the reporting at the base rate is oriented towards the interpretation of information as clues, generated by the habit of simple and fast heuristics. noting that the alternative of indices is more rational when the base rate is not known (or when knowing the base rate requires large resources). the explanation of causation, the limits of its use and the risks arising from its misuse must also be included in specific approaches to critical thinking. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 430 a pragmatic/enactive approach to university education. in terms of pragmatism of thinking, i.e.: providing practical tools in practice, universities, designed as institutions whose purpose is to form mainly thinking, traditionally use two directions of action: a) training of professional thinking, using to applied cognitive models (taken based on practical results) and to the set of items and conditions specific to scientific papers; b) the formation of a general model of thinking through logic (but used only in the case of some of the specializations). the traditional model lacks, therefore, the specific training of everyday practical thinking, which brings with it the possibility to use it in different professional environments. in principle, we could consider that a good part of critical thinking is oriented towards covering this need. given that, in the case of certain specializations, we are witnessing the introduction of training in the field of critical thinking skills, we could consider that we are on the right track, being necessary only to emphasize and generalize this direction of intervention. there is still a lack of awareness of the close relationship between the target environment and the type of specific cognitive reporting, namely the ability to identify the influence that the environment has on thinking. from the sphere of traditional practical solutions, the following approaches can be retained: graduation certificates (organized by degrees or levels), the recognition of completing a formative path and the scores of critical thinking. references battersby, m. (2006). applied epistemology and argumentation in epidemiology. informal logic, 26(1), 41-62. bruine de bruin, w., parker, a. m., & fischhoff, b. (2020). decision-making competence: more than intelligence? current directions in psychological science, 29(2), 186–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721420901592 bender, e.m., gebru, t., mcmillan-major, a., et al. (2021). on the dangers of stochastic parrots: can language models be too big? conference on fairness, accountability, and transparency (facct‘21). acm, new york, usa (pp. 610– 623). https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3442188.3445922 căstăian, d. (2018, 25 iunie). educaţia şi gândirea critică a gândirii critice. contributors. https://www.contributors.ro/educatia-si-gandirea-critica-agandirii-critice/ căstăian, d. (2016, 26 octombrie). căutându-i pe fanatici. despre ce ne apropie şi ce ne desparte. contributors. https://www.contributors.ro/cautandu-i-pefanatici-despre-ce-ne-apropie-si-ce-ne-desparte/ https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721420901592 https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3442188.3445922 https://www.contributors.ro/educatia-si-gandirea-critica-a-gandirii-critice/ https://www.contributors.ro/educatia-si-gandirea-critica-a-gandirii-critice/ https://www.contributors.ro/cautandu-i-pe-fanatici-despre-ce-ne-apropie-si-ce-ne-desparte/ https://www.contributors.ro/cautandu-i-pe-fanatici-despre-ce-ne-apropie-si-ce-ne-desparte/ development of critical thinking skills in romanian society. possibilities and … viorel rotilă 431 căstăian, d. (2021). reţelele memetice ascendente şi descendente ca produse evoluţioniste, rolul lor în dinamica polarizării şi a conflictului cultural şi potenţialul lor pentru creşterea toleranţei democratice. analele universităţii “dunărea de jos`, filosofie, xviii(11), 103-113. katsikopoulos, k. v. (2011). psychological heuristics for making inferences: definition, performance, and the emerging theory and practice. decision analysis, 8(1), 10–29. https://doi.org/10.1287/deca.1100.0191 grüne-yanoff, t., & hertwig, r. (2016). nudge versus boost: how coherent are policy and theory? minds and machines: journal for artificial intelligence, philosophy and cognitive science, 26(1-2), 149–183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-015-9367-9 gigerenzer, g., todd, p. m., & the abc research group. (1999). simple heuristics that make us smart. oxford university press. gigerenzer, g. (2018). the bias bias in behavioral economics. review of behavioral economics, 5, 303–336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/105.00000092 gigerenzer, g. (2011). what are natural frequencies? bmj, 343, d6386. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d6386 gigerenzer, g., & edwards, a. (2003). simple tools for understanding risks: from innumeracy to insight. bmj, 327(7417), 741-4. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.327.7417.741 herbert, s. (1955). a behavioral model of rational choice. the quarterly journal of economics, 69(1), 99-118. hoffrage, u., krauss, s., martignon, l., & gigerenzer, g. (2015). natural frequencies improve bayesian reasoning in simple and complex inference tasks. frontiers in psychology, 6(1473). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01473 hutson, m. (2021). robo-writers: the rise and risks of language-generating ai. nature, 591(7848), 22–25. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00530-0 kahneman, d. (2011). thinking, fast and slow. farrar, straus and giroux. kahan, d. m. (2017). the expressive rationality of inaccurate perceptions. the behavioral and brain sciences, 40(e6). https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x15002332 mustață, m.-a., & bogzeanu, c. (2017). programul euristicilor și biasurilor: aplicații și implicații în domeniul military. editura universităţii naţionale de apărare “carol i`. meehl, p. e. (1954). clinical versus statistical prediction. university of minnesota press. mihail, r. (2022). the relevance of critical thinking from the perspective of professional training. postmodern openings, 13(2), 499-513. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/13.2/468 pinker, s. (2021). rationality: what it is, why it seems scarce, why it matters. penguin. https://doi.org/10.1287/deca.1100.0191 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-015-9367-9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/105.00000092 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d6386 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.327.7417.741 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01473 https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00530-0 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x15002332 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/13.2/468 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 432 rotila, v. (2022). the absence of critical thinking skills and its effects. case study: vaccine hesitation. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 14(3), 01-17. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.3/594 rotilă, v. (2017). an alternative to post-humanism: neo-humanism. the argument of consciousness singularity. in c. ignatescu, a. sandu, & t. ciulei (eds.), rethinking social action. core values in practice (pp.709718). lumen proceedings. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumproc.rsacvp2017.64 searle, j. (2004). mind, a brief introduction. oxford university press. stanovich, k. e. (2001). the rationality of educating for wisdom, educational psychologist, 36(4), 247–251. thaler, r. h., & sunstein, c. r. (2009). nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. penguin books. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.3/594 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumproc.rsacvp2017.64 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 138-156 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/411 submitted: february 9th, 2023 | accepted for publication: february 14th, 2023 psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time viktor plokhikh1, svitlana yanovskaya2, ruslana bilous3 1 v. n. karazin kharkiv national university, ukraine, plokhikh_v@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7897-3417 2 v. n. karazin kharkiv national university, ukraine, sgyanovskaya@karazin.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5439-5269 3 kremenchug national university named after mykhailo ostrogradskyi, bilousru63@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3524-7823 abstract: experiences of person reveal his/her real-life relationships. process of change of problematic relationship of students through psychological defenses is also experienced. objective: distinguish characteristic time experiences of students due to systematic use of psychological defenses in the organization of life. hypothesis: for student’s systematic use of psychological defenses for solving problems with high probability is associated with expressed experiences of violation of the integrity and disintegration of duration of the performed processes of vital activity. methods. 139 randomly selected students were subjects (aged: me=19.00; min=17.00; max=26.00). the following standardized methodologies were used to collect empirical data: questionnaire “life style index” (r.plutchik, g.kellerman); freiburg personality inventory (fpi, form в); scale of subjective control of r.baumeister; scale “competence in time” from text of self-actualization (e.shostrom); methodology “scale of time experience” (a.a.kronik, e.i.golovaha). results: completeness of experience by the subjects of the current moment implies a high stability of their personal organization and is associated with experiences in the current time of speed, limitation, diversity, and is also associated with the psychological defenses of substitution and regression. for subjects with reduced stability of personal organization there is a higher tendency to use such psychological defenses: substitution; regression; compensation; denial of reality. the defensive mechanisms of substitution and regression are associated with the experience of time as spasmodic and intermittent, in addition, substitution is associated with the unpleasant experience of time, and regression with its organization and fragmentation. conclusions. use of students of psychological defenses of replacement and regression, which limit and distort perceived information, is accompanied by experience of time as a fractioned, fragmented sequence of actual changes in a meaningful process. keywords: duration; time sequence; stability of personal organization; adaptation; state of flow; personal features. how to cite: plokhikh, v., yanovskaya, s., & bilous, r. (2023). psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 138-156. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/411 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/411 mailto:plokhikh_v@ukr.net http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7897-3417 mailto:sgyanovskaya@karazin.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5439-5269 mailto:bilousru63@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3524-7823 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/411 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 139 introduction in critical circumstances of life, human experiences become more expressive, vivid, rich, strong. at the same time, relationships are experienced not only with the influencing stressors, but also with the duration of continuing stressful state filled with activity. in a tense state, usually with negative emotions, a person often has the impression of a slowdown in time passing, which affects the accuracy of estimates of the duration of processes, the possibility of timely performance of actions (strelkov, 2001). the use of adaptive measures, which can also include psychological defenses, helps to relieve negative emotional stress and change the state of the psyche and body. at the same time, the adaptive process inevitably affects the experience of time passing. for students, the system of life and professional experience is actively filled, formed and only acquires a certain stability, while passing regular checks for adequacy to the high requirements set. in the educational process, numerous additional stressors of the organization of life are currently being added to the expected examination tests (remote work, performing bigger quantities of written tasks, testing online etc.). in order to counteract adverse circumstances and to maintain the necessary high selfesteem, self-respect, health and general positive attitude, students often use psychological defenses in order to adapt (di giuseppe et al., 2020; plokhikh et al., 2021; plokhikh, 2022). at the same time, experiences of the flow of time accompanying the activation of defense mechanisms can be superimposed in various ways on the temporal structure of the learning process oriented toward the professional future, and not always have a favorable effect on learning motivation. one of the most important relationships of a person to time is defined as the experience of time. the content of this concept can be considered based on a general idea of what is meant by the concept of "time", and from the very essence of the relationship between a person and reality. in most philosophical concepts, time is considered as a kind of synthesis of a meaningfully defined duration and a linear sequence of transitions of events in the continuum "past-present-future" (gaidenko, 2006; strelkov, 2001). at the same time, the procedural disclosure of some existence in the actual environment and in its specific dynamics is defined as duration. in the unfolding of the ongoing process of existence, with its integrity and continuity, prehistory of past incarnations due to some causes, psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time viktor plokhikh, et al. 140 specific manifestations in the present, possible future realizations up to the foreseeable moment of completion, can be revealed to the appropriately tuned consciousness (jullien, 2001). a person is noted to precisely experience the duration (continuing) of the process in its real and imaginary realizations (strelkov, 2001). in research of e.i.golovakha and a.a.kronik experience of time is viewed from the point of view of casual-target concept of psychological time (2008). the authors defend the point of view that a person experiences in the very duration of time his/her actually significant cause-and-effect relationships with reality in their structural interconnection. however, if we consider these causal-target relationships from the point of view of the organization of a continuing process, then they act as a logical regular linking of the initial and final boundaries of the process. in other words, in the causal-target concept of time, duration is also experienced, but more in relation to one's own boundaries. the emphasis on the boundary states of the process incarnations leads to understanding its composition as a linear temporal sequence of successive events. a temporal sequence is an identified according to certain characteristics (including characteristic experiences) regular or random alternation of realizations of a continuing process (gaidenko, 2006). evaluation of this alternation, when correlating it with the chosen measures and using the appropriate means, in fact, makes it possible to measure time. at the same time, temporary standards of memory can also act as measures of time, the update of which in the corresponding mental schemes and based on the experiences of a continuing process can give fairly accurate estimates of the course of physical time (plokhikh et al., 2022). taken out of context the duration of the current process is rather not experienced, but traced (contemplated). the experience in a person appears from the relations in which the process of life activity realized by him/her is included. a living person is in numerous relationships with nature and society and these relationships in various forms can be realized both in the case when a person is aware of them and unconsciously. according to j. nutten's model of motivation based on relationships, a person's motivations for some activities are generated by his/her numerous relationships with reality (nutten, 2004). these relations are characterised by their specific content, the degree of subjective significance, and the scope of what is happening. the parties of such relations are not static, but constantly change directionally or accidentally. here we should also take into consideration the point of view of s.l. rubinstein on psychological as a process and as an broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 141 activity (rubinstein, 2003). at the same time, the activity is considered by the author as a specific process through which a certain relation of a person to reality is realized. on the other hand, nature and society are also filled not with instantaneous flashes of phenomena, but with ongoing processes that correlate with each other at different levels of the structure of reality. as a consequence, a person experiences a continuing actual process of mental organization both in relation to the desired (mental scheme) and in relation to significant processes of natural and social reality. the specificity of procedural relations in a natural way determines the uniqueness of the experiences of the flow of time. at the same time, a lot depends on the subjective significance of the relationship, the person's inclination for them, and on the conformity of the corresponding implementations. particularly vivid experiences of the flow of time arise in extreme cases of the circumstances of the performance of any activity. such as in an activity aimed at solving a rather complex, fascinating task, under favorable circumstances and in full accordance with requirements put forward, the subject may experience a state of flow (csikszentmihalyi, 2015; isham et al., 2019; lavoie et al., 2022). characteristic for such a state is the fullness of living the moment, the experience of joy, inspiration, lightness, satisfaction with what is happening. along with this, the state of flow is associated with strong internal motivation, with a high level of development of performing automatisms and self-efficacy, with the resistance of the mental organization to the influence of destabilizing and, especially, stress factors (isham & jackson, 2022; mao et al., 2020; shepherd, 2022). in the case of an expressed mismatch in the actual basic relationship in the “man-environment” system, the free flow of psychological time in the process of activity is violated. in an extremely destructive variant of the development of stress, the flow of psychological time for the subject practically stops or even “falls apart” (strelkov, 2001; taylor, 2010). in the constructive case of overcoming stress (eustress), the subject, through volitional concentration of attention and concerted efforts, manages to update not only available resources, but also the hidden potential of life activity. such update can determine the general coordination of tasks with the requirements and processes adopted on the basis of a distinguished social relation (system-forming factor), and lead not only to an effective solution of the problem, but also to an achievement a higher degree of expressiveness of a state of flow. the latter is well illustrated by examples in sports, in activities in special and extreme conditions (antonini et al., 2022; cheban et al., 2020; gould et al., 2009; strelkov, 2001). psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time viktor plokhikh, et al. 142 with the loss of stability of the mental organization due to significant impacts, the removal of emotional stress that threatens the integrity of the body and psyche quite often occurs automatically through the activation of psychological defense mechanisms (granovskaya & bereznaya, 2020; plokhikh, 2022; plokhikh et al., 2021). however, psychological defenses in some way limit, distort, block a powerful flow of information that is significant for the full elimination of an actual problem. the latter not only contributes to the weakening of the information reinforcement of stressful experiences, but also fundamentally limits the ability of the subject to identify the main problematic relationship of the current situation, to form the appropriate attitude and determine the necessary actions. because of active use of psychological defenses, the efforts of the subject cannot be quite adequate. and such inadequacy, having as its premise mental instability, limited understanding of what is happening, the specifics of the implementation of psychological defense mechanisms, is inevitably superimposed on the experiences of the subject in the ongoing process of overcoming stress (cramer, 2003; ozoh, 2015). the educational activity of students is usually well structured, longterm, information-rich and focused on future self-realization in professional activities (hulias & hoian, 2022; plokhikh, 2022; popovych & blynova, 2019). in this process, the planned solution of more or less complex educational tasks alternates with forced distractions to the general organization of the life process, to rest. at the same time, in situations out from learning context, the learning attitude of students should be present in a hidden form, linking the entire learning process in a continuous, integral duration. the learning activity itself presupposes that the student has a high level of responsibility, self-organization and self-control, which allows timely and fully updating the educational environment, strengthening the internal motivation of learning, activating the formed system of professional experience and the required intellectual resources. in case of a situational inability to have a full-fledged attitude towards effective learning, but if it is necessary to achieve sufficiently high performance, students often use inadequate means and methods to achieve the desired result (for example, cheating, prompting, plagiarism (ianovska et al., 2016). such inadequate selfrealizations can also be considered as a training-specific variant of using psychological defenses. q. tang and j. peng (2022) declare that students when using psychological defenses have an intention to correct his/her psychological needs and reach improvement of psychological health. chuyko et al. (2022), after confirming the connection between personality coping strategies and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 143 psychological defense mechanisms, showed that in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, a mutually reinforcing effect of coping and defensive methods for human adaptation is manifested. in research of v. negrii (2014), m. ozoh (2015), h. shuldyk (2017), a. waqas et al. connection between mechanisms of psychological defenses and academic success of students was analyzed. it was revealed that students use defense mechanisms in order to hide their inadequacy in the implementation of educational activities and get a sense of managing the learning process. it was also stated that decrease of academic success is connected with use of so-called primitive defense mechanisms (negrii, 2014; ozoh, 2015; shuldyk, 2017; waqas et al., 2015). naturally, alien inclusions in the educational process in the form of various protective mechanisms violate its intended free implementation. and if the use of defense mechanisms by students becomes systematic, the ongoing educational process becomes filled with many contradictions and inconsistencies between the expected and the actual, and eventually it becomes a problematic one. the appearance of problems that violate the basic relationships of life is not always perceived by students, but, due to its significance, it manifests itself in experiences in a specific way, affects the motivational structure of the learning. the goal of the study is to highlight the characteristic experiences of time by students in connection with the systematic use of psychological defenses in the organization of life. tasks of research: 1) justification of the possibility and determination of the specifics of a full-fledged living by students of the current moment in the process of life. 2) identification of the characteristics of the experience of time by students in connection with personal prerequisites for the use of psychological defenses. 3) identification of the problematic characteristics of the experience of time by students in connection with the systematic use of psychological defenses. the hypothesis of the research is that for students, the systematic use of psychological defenses in solving various problems is highly likely to be associated with expressed feelings of integrity violation, desintegration of the duration of the realized life processes. psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time viktor plokhikh, et al. 144 methods 139 students took part in the empirical research (age: me=19.00; min=17.00; max=26.00). the design of research involved determining the intensity of manifestations of psychological defenses in the subjects and identifying personality characteristics that predispose to the systematic update of the defensive response. also, the predominant experiences of the subjects in relation to time passing and the moment of the present in the process of life organization were determined. the psychological defenses of the subjects, which allow them to relieve emotional stress and thereby maintain the stability of the personal organization to significant influences, were diagnosed using the questionnaire “life style index” (r.plutchik, g.kellerman). in this questionnaire, the intensity of the use of the following psychological defenses by the subjects was determined: denial of reality, compensation, reactive formations, substitution, regression, projection, rationalization, displacement. the mental states and personality characteristics of the subjects were determined, which significantly predetermine the stability or instability of a personal organization to significant influences. for indicated goal we used freiburg personality inventory (fpi, form в), with the help of which the following important for research characteristics were diagnosed: balance, neuroticism, spontaneous aggressiveness, reactive aggressiveness, depression, irritability, shyness, emotional lability. taking into account the fact that the stress resistance of a personality is determined by its ability to self-regulate and, accordingly, to self-control experiences, mental operations and behavior, the r. baumeister scale of subjective control was used in the empirical study. the predominant experiences of the subjects of time passing in their life were considered in two aspects. the first aspect is connected with the experience by the subject of the fullness of living the current moment, taking into account the circumstances included in this moment from the past and the outcomes of its possible extension into the future. to some extend as an indicator of such intence full-fledged experience of the moment of the present, the result is considered on the scale of "competence in time" from the personality self-actualization test (e. shostrom). the second aspect is the subjects' actual assessments of the experiences of individual characteristics of the flow of psychological time. to solve the second task, we used the "scales of experience of time" built according to the method of semantic differential (a.a.kronik, e.i.golovaha). the scales used the following pairs broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 145 of opposite characteristics of experiences: flows slowly flows quickly; empty filled; stretched compressed; smooth spasmodic; pleasant unpleasant; monotonous diverse; unorganized organized; whole fragmented; continuous discontinuous; unlimited is limited. the degree of expressiveness of the characteristics increased on a scale from the center to one side and the other by one of three levels. the subject indicated his/her decision by highlighting one of the scale values. in subsequent calculations, the entire scale was considered as increasing from left to right from 1 to 7. for the quantitative analysis of empirical data, the statistical package ibm spss statistics 20 was used. cluster analysis (k-means method), correlation analysis according to spearman (rs) was performed, the mannwhitney u-test was used to compare sample data. the use of cluster analysis made it possible to single out two subgroups of subjects in the group, distinguished by the stability of their personal organization (subgroup 1 n=60; subgroup 2 n=79). the research procedure involved comparing the results of subgroups in terms of significant indicators. results for a group of subjects, a correlation analysis of the connections of competence in time (as an indicator of the completeness of living the current moment) with indicators of individual experiences of time made it possible to identify significant feedbacks with experiences of speed (rs=-.188; p=.027), limitedness (rs=-.265; p=.002), as well as a tendency wholeness (rs=.143; p=.093) and diversity (rs=.157; p=.064), in time passing. regarding psychological defenses, it was found out that competence in time is correlated inversely with replacement (rs=-.185; p=.029) and regression (rs=-.216; p=.011). since psychological defenses are activated in case of a threat to the stability of a personal organization as a result of stressful influences, for a group of subjects, the relationship of competence in time with the diagnosed indicators of such stability was determined: self-control (rs=.173; p=.041) and balance (rs=.428; p<.001). according to the parameters of self-control and balance, using cluster analysis, the group was divided into two subgroups. in subgroup 1 (n=60) there were subjects with increased selfcontrol (me=45.00; min=39.00; max=57.00) and balance (me=6.00; min=1.00; max=10.00), in subgroup 2 (n=79) there were subjects with reduced self-control (me=34.00; min=22.00; max=39.00) and balance (me=5.00; min=1.00; max=9.00). comparison of subgroups according to the presented indicators revealed a significant superiority of students of psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time viktor plokhikh, et al. 146 subgroup 1 (indicators: self-control u=1.00 at p <.001; balance u=1728.00 at p=.005). at the same time, according to the indicator "competence in time" in subgroup 1 (me=9.50; min=2.00; max=15.00), in comparison with subgroup 2 (me=8.00; min=1.00; max=16.00), there is also an obvious advantage (u=1619.50; p=.001). the subgroups were compared according to the intensity of various experiences of time passing, according to the possibilities of updating psychological defenses (table 1), as well as according to the expressiveness of stable personal properties and states of the subjects (table 2). along with this, in subgroup 2, in comparison with subgroup 1, a more intensive (at the trend level) use of defensive rationalization was found (u=1969.00; p=.085). тable 1. statistical comparison (mann-whitney u-test) of indicators of experience of time and psychological defenses in subgroups 1 (n=60) and 2 (n=79) subgrou p statistical parameter time experience indicators psychological defenses slowlyquickly monotonous diverse whole fragmen ted denial of reality substi tution regression compe nsation 1 me 5.00 6.00 3.00 .45 .15 .32 .40 min 1.00 2.00 1.00 .09 .00 .00 .00 max 7.00 7.00 6.00 .91 .80 .71 .90 2 me 6.00 5.00 3.00 .55 .30 .47 .60 min 1.00 1.00 1.00 .18 .00 .12 .00 max 7.00 7.00 7.00 1.00 .80 .82 .90 u 1853. 00 1870.50 1858.5 0 1791.00 1392. 00 1199.50 1708.5 0 p .024 .030 .027 .013 <.0 01 <.00 1 .004 таble 2. statistical comparison (mann-whitney u-test) of indicators of expressiveness of personality characteristics and states in subgroups 1 (n=60) и 2 (n=79) subgrou p statistical parameter personality characteristics and states neurotici sm sponta neous aggressi veness reactive agressi veness depressi on irritabili ty shynes s emotion al lability broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 147 1 me 5.50 5.00 4.00 5.00 5.00 6.00 5.00 min 1.00 1.00 .00 .00 .00 .00 1.00 max 16.00 9.00 9.00 9.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 2 me 7.00 7.00 6.00 7.00 7.00 6.00 7.00 min 1.00 1.00 1.00 .00 3.00 .00 .00 max 16.00 10.0 0 9.00 11.00 11.0 0 10.0 0 13.00 u 1784.00 1538.5 0 1510.00 1120.00 1357.5 0 1835.5 0 1201.50 p .012 <.00 1 <.001 <.001 <.00 1 .021 <.001 earlier presented direct correlation between indicator of competence in time and indicator of stability of personal organization is also accompanied by its inverse connections with characteristics and states of destabilizing mental state: neuroticism (rs=-.343; p<.001), depression (rs=.534; p<.001), irritability (rs=-.266; p=.002), shyness (rs=-.333; p<.001), emotional lability (rs=-.468; p<.001). connections between problematic personality characteristics and states with psychological defenses (table 3) and experience of time (table 4) were also defined. at the same time defensive rationalization is connected only with neuroticism (rs=.183; p=.031). furthermore, neuroticism is connected with unpleasant experiencing of passing of time (rs=,208; p=.014), and reactive aggressiveness is connected with spasmodic experience of time passing (rs=.353; p <.001). таble 3. statistical connections (according to spearman) in subjects’ group (n=139) of problematic personality characteristics and states of psychological defenses personality characteristics and states statistical parameter psychological defenses denia l of reality substi tution regressio n compensatio n neuroticism rs .055 .459** .470** .256** p .519 .000 .000 .002 spontaneous aggressiveness rs .076 .449** .439** .113 p .373 .000 .000 .184 depression rs .133 .559** .577** .327** p .119 .000 .000 .000 psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time viktor plokhikh, et al. 148 irritability rs .175* .637** .622** .360** p .039 .000 .000 .000 reactive aggressiveness rs -.017 .398** .388** .229** p .843 .000 .000 .007 shyness rs .142 .177* .183* .024 p .094 .037 .031 .779 openness rs .219** .422** .363** .221** p .010 .000 .000 .009 emotional lability rs .076 .550** .621** .301** p .371 .000 .000 .000 note: * – p < .050; ** – p < .001. table 4. statistical connections (according to spearman) in subjects’ group (n=139) between problematic personality characteristics and states of experience of time experience of time statistical parameter personality characteristics and states spontaneous aggressivenes s depressio n irritabilit y emotiona l lability quick rs .192* .108 .200* .111 p .024 .208 .018 .193 spasmatic rs .279** .175* .334** .147 p .001 .040 .000 .084 compressed rs .176* .052 .118 .089 p .039 .544 .165 .298 unpleasant rs .052 .281** .122 .235** p .541 .001 .154 .005 diverse rs -.040 -.174* -.075 -.192* p .636 .041 .379 .024 fragmented rs .197* .168* .271** .196* p .020 .047 .001 .021 note: * – p < .050; ** – p < .001. statistical connection of above-analysed indicators of intensive use of psychological defenses (see table 1) and indicators of experience of time (table 5) was defined. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 149 table 5. statistical connections (according to spearman) in subjects’ group (n=139) between intensive use of psychological defenses and experience of time psychological defenses statistics parameter experience of time quick filled spasmati c unplea -sant organise d fragmen -ted disontinuo us substitution rs .007 .007 .179* .183* -.102 .142 .198* p .937 .936 .035 .031 .233 .095 .019 regression rs .174 * .017 .255** .048 -.186* .289** .167* p .041 .846 .002 .573 .028 .001 .050 rationaliza-tion rs .096 .151 -.017 -.172* .291** -.085 .021 p .263 .075 .841 .043 .001 .320 .806 note: * – p < .050; ** – p < .001. discussion of results during research of plokhikh (2022) in a group of 42 subjects there was no connection determined between competence in time and indicators of stability of personal organization. however, there was an argumentation that such connection would be natural. in this research already in a group of 139 subjects, the above assumption was confirmed: competence in time is directly related to the stability of a personal organization. it is in the selected subgroup 1 that the subjects more resistant to stressful influences have a significantly higher degree of living and compliance with the current moment, in comparison with subgroup 2. the completeness of living the moment of the present by the subjects of subgroup 1 naturally manifests itself in their individual experiences of time passing (see table 1). in this case, the moment of the present is experienced as more integral, diverse and with rather slow changes. the above identified effects are approaching the characteristics of the state of flow as a full-fledged, consistent in terms of significant relations of the subject inclusion in the activity being performed (csikszentmihalyi, 2015). in the same way we can talk about some approximation of the state of the subjects of subgroup 1 to the state of altered consciousness with “immersion” at a favorable moment of performance of a meaningfully defined duration of a holistic expedient process (jullien, 2001). psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time viktor plokhikh, et al. 150 special attention should be dedicated also to the experience of the subjects of the slow time passing noted in connection with the competence in time. here one should consider the experience of time as an experience of a discrepancy between the dynamics of organized mental activity and the dynamics of external directional changes (nutten, 2004; strelkov, 2001). in this scenario, the deceleration of time relative to its usual or required course, which seems to the subject mainly in terms of the intensity of external changes, is associated with the speed and volume of mental transformations of information (taylor, 2010). the languid inactive expectation of the desired event causes the activation (often spontaneous) of intellectual activity with experiences of the slow time passing. and, in the contrary, concentration on an impending unwanted event fetters thought, and time “flies” at the same time. in a state of strong enthusiasm for activity, in a flow state for a subject, physical time can generally “stop” (csikszentmihalyi, 2015; lavoie et al., 2022). in the latter case, the boundaries of the mental scope of the ongoing moment of a meaningfully realized process are significantly expanded. as a result, all structural connections of various stages in the sequence of changes in the process monitored or implemented in the actions are opened for free meaningful access to the attention of the subject: from the initial situation to the final effective completion (plokhikh et al., 2022; strelkov, 2001). on the other hand, violation of the completeness and integrity of the lasting moment is accompanied by the appearance in the subjects of experiences of limitedness, fragmentation, monotony. these effects give the right to also talk about the probable fettering of the activity of mental activity of students (shepherd, 2022). the decrease in the stability of the personal organization in the subjects is accompanied by appearance and consolidation of problematic states and properties as a result of stressful influences of various intrapersonal contradictions (see table 2). such problematic states and properties in the study were: neuroticism, aggressiveness, depression, irritability, emotional lability, and shyness accompanied by anxiety and selfdoubt. with an increase in the expressiveness of most of the indicated problematic states and properties, the possibility of a full-fledged living of a lasting moment, represented by the “competence in time” parameter (in the above-mentioned results), decreases in the subjects. but along with the decrease in the stability and integrity of the personal organization caused by fixed contradictions, adaptive mechanisms are also updated to support current life processes. at the same time, the advantages of successfully selected means and methods of adaptation reflect the features of the functional insufficiency of the mental system in overcoming the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 151 contradictions that have arisen. psychological defenses act as singled out adaptive means blocking undesirable manifestations of problematic states and personality traits in this study, as well as in other works (granovskaya et al., 2020; di giuseppe et al., 2020; ozoh, 2015; plokhikh, 2022; plokhikh & suponeva, 2021). the analysis of the obtained results shows that the increase in expressiveness of problematic states and properties in the subjects is significantly and multifacetedly associated with an increase in the intensity of the systematic use of the following psychological defenses: denial of reality, compensation, and, especially, substitution and regression (see table 1 and table 3). both problem states and psychological defenses significantly limit, reorient the process of information processing in a tense environment into a stereotypical desirable implementation option (granovskaya et al., 2020). at the same time, the involuntary selection and fragmentation of the flow of significant information largely blocks the ability for the subject to determine the main relationship, the meaning of the current moment, and limits the access to singling out of the integral duration of the process being performed. indicated characteristics of the involuntary activation of psychological defenses are clearly manifested in individual experiences of time passing. when the problematic states and properties increase, the subjects experience the acceleration of changes in the environment, the abruptness and tension of temporary transitions, fragmentation of the content and information depletion of successive manifestations of the current moment (see table 4). similar effects are observed in relation to the relationship of experiences of time with the psychological defenses of substitution, regression and rationalization (see table 5). within the general overview of the results, the subjects' experiences of time passing differ slightly in connection with defensive rationalization. the actualization of rationalization mechanisms, unlike other psychological defenses, is accompanied by experiences of some organization, pleasantness, and even fullness of the current time (see table 5). this effect is quite understandable from the point of view of the concept of e.i. golovakha and a.a. kronik as a positive result of the successful implementation of the cause-and-purpose relationship according to the current circumstances (golovakha et al., 2008). however, even in this case, the essence of the relations under consideration of the systematic use of psychological defenses and the experience of time passing does not fundamentally change. defensive rationalization promotes situational fragmentation of information about the current moment. psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time viktor plokhikh, et al. 152 at the same time, a person involuntarily focuses on the information that corresponds to a decrease in high mental stress and does not threaten a painful aggravation of contradictions for an unstable world perception (granovskaya et al., 2020). acceptable information for a personal organization is logically built and formed into a sequence of judgments that justify the limited analysis and decisions in the current situation. this also justifies the deviation from establishing of the main relationship in the tense system "man environment" and, in fact, deviation from the full solving of problem of getting out of a stressful state. that is why the inclination to use defensive rationalization in a context of a reduced resistance of the personal organization to stressors, identified at the level of the trend among the subjects of subgroup 2, also looks non-random (see table 1). the characteristics of the experiences of time passing by the subjects revealed in the empirical study in connection with the intensity of the systematic use of psychological defenses have a general significance. such meaning refers to the formation of the temporal structure of the life realizations of the individual in the aspect of solving the problems of continuity and discreteness, of the whole and parts. for the organization of psychological time, the solution of these problems is expressed in achieving the necessary consistency of the duration of the subject's actions with the planned sequence of their step-by-step implementation in reality. the experience by the subjects of fragmentation, conciseness, spasmodicity of psychological time (see table 1 and table 5) corresponds to the splitting and fragmentation of the duration of the process of implementing the main relationship in a tense situation in the “manenvironment” system. such result fully corresponds to the note of m. csikszentmihalyi that stress disrupts the state of flow, that is, the state of the optimal mode of free and consistent with the actual conditions implementation of a continuing action (csikszentmihalyi, 2015). at the same time, the fragmentation, splitting in stress of the integral duration of action is not just a transition to an organized sequence of necessary implementations. as a result of such a splitting, the most significant connections defined by the main sense-determining relation, constituting the duration of the process being implemented, are violated, and in the sequence of required implementations, the most remote connections covering the conditions for generating a continuing process with its expected resolution are violated. but it is precisely the experiences of these cause-and-purpose relationships in the conclusions of e.i. golovakha and a.a. kronik act as experiences of psychological time (golovakha et al., 2008). the split and fragmentation of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 153 these relations introduce the emotional specification we identified in the study as the experiences of time by the subjects. the revealed characteristics and tendencies in the experiences of time by the students in the research in connection with the use of psychological defenses contradict the essence and direction of educational activity. students are required to have practical consistent differentiation of the processed information and its inclusion in a full-fledged structure of past experience with a mindset for reproduction in future professional activities. in contrast, involuntary fragmentation and fragmentation of the flow of psychological time narrow the scope and integrity of the subject's rational perception of the significant past, present and possible future. together with the experience of the collapse of time passing, the students in the research lose the clarity of distant targets in the future, the availability of the necessary information in memory, and the focus of dedication to achieving security and convenience in the present narrows down (plokhikh, 2022). conclusions 1) the fullness of students' living of the current moment of life activity is connected with the stability of the personal organization to significant influences and is accompanied by experiences of the flow of time together with its plans of the past, present and future, in its slow continuous transitions, in its appearing limitless and diversity of changes. 2) the expressed update of students’ psychological defenses aimed at denying reality, substitution, regression, compensation, is connected with the instability of their personal organization to significant influences and the formation of problematic states and personality traits with possible manifestations of neuroticism, aggressiveness, depression, irritability, uncertainty, emotional lability. 3) manifestations of problematic states and personality traits of the students in the research are accompanied by experiences of disintegration, fragmentation, tension, monotony of the current moment, impressions of accelerated transitions between time plans of the past, present and future. at the same time, there is a predominant orientation of students to the temporal sequence with violations in the allocation of semantic (causaltarget) systemic relationships between its distant components. 4) for students in the research the experience of the flow of time as a fragmented, fragmented sequence of actual changes in a significant process with an accompanying narrowing of the idea of the unfolding duration of this process is associated with pronounced inclinations to implement psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time viktor plokhikh, et al. 154 psychological defenses of substitution and regression, which impose significant restrictions and distortions on the processing of perceived information. along with this, protective rationalization, which orients the subject to a logically sequentially built fragmentary consideration of a holistic process with a distraction from contradictory circumstances, is accompanied by experiences of the flow of time as organized and pleasant. regarding possibilities for further research, the following should be noted. the systematic update of psychological defenses by students, associated both with the instability of their personal organization to the influence of the increasingly complex aspects of modern educational activity, and with their problematic experiences of disintegration, fragmentation, tension, monotony of the current moment, requires performing of special psycho-correctional work in the student environment, taking into account individual sets of psychological defenses and singularity of experiences of time. source of funding. no financial or material support was received in conducting this research or in preparing this manuscript. conflicts of interest. the authors declare no conflict of interest. references antonini, p., r., singer, s. m., jaeger joshua, e. e., biasutti, m., & sinnett, s. (2022). achieving flow: an exploratory investigation of elite college athletes and musicians. frontiers in psychology, 13. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.831508 cheban, yu., chebykin, o., plokhikh, v. & massanov, a. (2020). mental resources for the self-mobilization of rowing athletes. journal of physical education and sport, 20 (3), 1580–1589. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2020.03216 chuyko, h., koltunovych, t., chaplak, y., & komisaryk, m. (2022). students’ defense mechanisms and coping strategies in terms of covid-19 pandemic. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 14(1), 115– 138. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.1/510 cramer, p. (2003). defense mechanisms and physiological reactivity to stress. journal of personality, 71, 221–244. https://doi.org/10.1111/14676494.7102001 csikszentmihalyi, m. (1998). finding flow: the psychology of engagement with everyday life. basic books. di giuseppe, m., gemignani, a., & conversano, c. (2020). psychological resources against the traumatic experience of covid-19. clinical neuropsychiatry, 17(2), 85–87. https://doi.org/10.36131/cn20200210 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.831508 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2020.03216 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.1/510 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.7102001 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.7102001 https://doi.org/10.36131/cn20200210 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 155 gaidenko, p. p. (2006). time. duration. eternity. time problem in european philosophy and science. prohress-tradytsyia. golovakha, e. i., & kronik, a. a. (2008). psychological personality time. smy`sl. gould, d., flett, m. r., & bean, e. (2009). mental preparation for training and competition. in b. v. brewer (ed.), sports psychology. wiley-blackwell. granovskaya, r. m., & bereznaya, i. ya. (2020). intuition and artificial intelligence. gumanitarny`j czentr. hulias, i. a., & hoian, i. m. (2022). explication of factors of the axiopsychological design of life achievements of modern youth. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 7, 41–57. https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2022-74 ianovska, s. g., turenko, r. l., & shapoval, yu. o. (2016). psychological features of seniors with subjectively different levels of academic integrity. visnyk of v.n. karazin kharkiv national university. series “psychology”, 61, 35-39. isham, a., & jackson, t. (2022). finding flow: exploring the potential for sustainable fulfilment. the lancet planetary health, 6(1). 66–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00286-2 isham, a., gatersleben, b., & jackson, t. (2019). flow activities as a route to living well with less. environment and behavior, 51(4), 431–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916518799826 jullien, f. (2001). du “temps”. éléments d’une philosophie du vivre. grasset. lavoie, r., main, k., & stuart-edwards, a. (2022). flow theory: advancing the two-dimensional conceptualization. motivation and emotion, 46, 38–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-021-09911-4 mao, y., yang, r., bonaiuto, m., ma, j., & harmat, l. (2020). can flow alleviate anxiety? the roles of academic self-efficacy and self-esteem in building psychological sustainability and resilience. sustainability, 12(7), 2987. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072987 negrii, v. (2014). psychological defense and school students academic performance. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 146, 275 – 278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.08.128 nutten, j. (2004). motivation, action and future perspective. smy`sl. ozoh, m. c. (2015). use of psychological defense mechanisms in academic activities among student teachers in nigerian educational system, knowledge, 32(1). https://www.globalacademicgroup.com/journals/knowledge plokhikh, v., & suponeva, l. (2021). psychological defense in the organization of the time perspective of students under covid-restrictions. nauka i osvita, 3, 12– 21. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2021-3-2 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2022-7-4 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2022-7-4 https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/the-lancet-planetary-health https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00286-2 https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916518799826 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-021-09911-4 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072987 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.08.128 https://www.globalacademicgroup.com/journals/knowledge https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2021-3-2 psychological defenses of students in the process of experience of time viktor plokhikh, et al. 156 plokhikh, v. v. (2022). limitation of psychological defense on the formation of students’ time perspective. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 8, 3955. https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2022-8-4 plokhikh, v., popovych, i., koval, i., stepanenko, l., nosov, p., zinchenko, s., boiaryn, l. & zavatskyi, v. (2022). anticipatory resource of temporary regulation of sensorimotor action. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 01–21 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/328 popovych, i. s., & blynova, o. ye. (2019). the structure, variables and interdependence of the factors of mental states of expectations in students’ academic and professional activities. the new educational review, 55(1), 293–306. https://doi.org/10.15804/tner.2019.55.1.24 rubinstein, s. l. (2003). being and consciousness. a man and the world. peter. shepherd, j. (2022). flow and the dynamics of conscious thought. phenomenology and the cognitive sciences, 21, 969–988. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-02109762-x shuldyk, h.o. (2017). mechanisms of psychological defense in student youth. scientific bulletin of kherson state university. series: psychological sciences, 2(2), 127– 131. https://dspace.udpu.edu.ua/bitstream/6789/7466/1 strelkov, yu. k. (2001). engineering and professional psychology. akademiyavy`sshaya shkola. tang, q., & peng, j. (2022). research on the influence of different psychological defense mechanisms on the psychology of students, journal of contemporary educational research, 6(5). https://doi.org/10.26689/jcer.v6i5.3902 taylor, s. (2007). making time: why time seems to pass at different speeds and how to control it. iconbooks. waqas, a., rehman, a., malik, a., muhammad, u., khan, s., & mahmood, n. (2015). association of ego defense mechanisms with academic performance, anxiety and depression in medical students: a mixed methods study. cureus, 7(9), e337. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.337 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2022-8-4 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/328 https://doi.org/10.15804/tner.2019.55.1.24 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-021-09762-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-021-09762-x https://dspace.udpu.edu.ua/bitstream/6789/7466/1 https://doi.org/10.26689/jcer.v6i5.3902 https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.337 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 182-195 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/382 submitted: september 18th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 9th, 2022 psycho-emotional state of ukrainian soldiers before going to the frontline yuliia rybinska 1 , oleksandra loshenko 2 , anton kurapov 3 , serhii lytvyn 4 , veronika kondratieva 5 , olha ivasiv 6 1 doctor of science (dr hab) in education, professor, head of foreign philology department, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, julialeo1619@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2185-7890 2 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of experimental and applied psychology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, ukraine, psiholog3003@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3303-3162 3 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of experimental and applied psychology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, ukraine, ankurapov@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1286-9788 4 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of experimental and applied psychology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, ukraine, sergiylytvyn@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2859-1530 5 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of experimental and applied psychology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, ukraine, veron.kondratieva@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6588-6960 6 postgraduate student, educational, pedagogical sciences", napnu "university of education management", kyiv, ukraine, ivasivolha@gmail.com abstract: the aim of the study is to investigate the psychological state of the soldiers before they go to the battle space. the article shows the assessment of people’s behavior, their psycho-emotional characteristics, and the degree of their adaptability in extreme conditions. this interest has increased even further due to the intensification of hostilities in ukraine since february 2022 after the invasion of russian forces on its territory. extreme situations, including military conflicts, largely affect people’s ability to withstand stress, and their willingness to survive these events safely and develop a sufficient degree of adaptability in themselves. researchers examine the psycho-emotional state of an individual from the standpoint of different theoretical positions. conclusions. this study has shown that the current psycho-emotional state of ukrainian military personnel who are preparing to go to the front line is characterized by a low degree of anxiety, increased aggressiveness, and the ability to adapt to environmental conditions easily, set goals and achieve them. at the same time, the military of ukraine also show symptoms of stress, and some signs of neuropsychic instability, psychopathy, hysteria, paranoia, and psychasthenia. these personality traits may be directly related to the nature of their professional activities and an increased sense of awareness of their own significance and importance in combat conditions. in general, the listed features of the psycho-emotional state are evidence of the readiness of ukrainian service members to participate in the war and their ability to perform their duties effectively. keywords: war in ukraine; ukrainian soldiers; psycho-emotional state and characteristics; psycho-emotional characteristic; frontline; ability to withstand stress; emotional stability; mental and emotional reaction. how to cite: rybinska, y., loshenko, o., kurapov, a., lytvyn, s., kondratieva, v., & ivasiv, o. (2022). psychoemotional state of ukrainian soldiers before going to the frontline. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 182-195. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/382 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/382 mailto:julialeo1619@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2185-7890 mailto:psiholog3003@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3303-3162 mailto:ankurapov@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1286-9788 mailto:sergiylytvyn@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2859-1530 mailto:veron.kondratieva@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6588-6960 mailto:ivasivolha@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/382 psycho-emotional state of ukrainian soldiers before going to the frontline yuliia rybinska et al. 183 1. introduction assessment of people’s behavior, their psycho-emotional characteristics, and the degree of their adaptability in extreme conditions are the focus of attention of psychologists and researchers in some other areas today. this interest has increased even further due to the intensification of hostilities in ukraine since february 2022 after the invasion of russian forces on its territory. extreme situations, including military conflicts, largely affect people’s ability to withstand stress, and their willingness to survive these events safely and develop a sufficient degree of adaptability in themselves. according to kolesnichenko et al. (2016), in the last decade, the military personnel of ukraine, whose service and combat activities are constantly associated with threats to their life and health, have been in the most extreme conditions. the consequence of this situation is the growth of research interest in the issue of the psycho-emotional readiness of the ukrainian military to participate in active hostilities. kolesnichenko et al. (2016) note that studies on the psychological readiness of persons liable for military service are still at the stage of methodological development, and the existing literature has multiple gaps on this topic. in its totality, psychological readiness includes a variety of areas of the individual’s psycho-emotional state, including psychological stability, emotional stability, and willingness to take risks. in addition, it is important to get an understanding of human behavior under stress, which may include an analysis of their stress resistance level, neuropsychic stability, and mental and emotional states. it is necessary to note that according to preliminary data, at least 700 thousand ukrainians have been involved in military service since the beginning of the full-scale war in ukraine after february 24, 2022 (balachuk, 2022). moreover, an increase in this number by another 100,000 people is planned for next year. these facts make it necessary to update the study of their readiness for active combat operations. in this regard, the aim of this study is to assess the current psycho-emotional state of ukrainian service members who are sent to the front line, and the degree of their readiness or unreadiness for military service. 2. literature review psycho-emotional states and characteristics researchers examine the psycho-emotional state of an individual from the standpoint of different theoretical positions. harkusha et al. (2020) propose to consider this topic from the perspective of stress resistance, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 184 which is understood as a person’s ability to maintain mental harmony in different emotional situations. the authors argue that the reverse side of stress resistance is the person’s inadequate response to events and lack of flexibility in responding to them. the researchers also see the concept of stress resistance as a combination of emotional, volitional, and intellectual personality traits that ensure the effective achievement of a goal by a person under stress. according to harkusha et al. (2020), the psycho-emotional state of an individual may also be viewed in terms of his or her cognitive complexity. it is assumed that a cognitively complex person has a better selfidentification, adapts more easily to the conditions of the surrounding world and is more tolerant of changes in social values. another important psychoemotional characteristic of a person is the degree of their anxiety. harkusha et al. (2020) indicate that the degree of anxiety should be understood as a person’s inclination to perceive any surrounding situations as threatening. to some extent, anxiety is a natural adaptive mechanism of an individual, providing support for their instinct for self-preservation. nevertheless, according to the researchers, anxiety is a negative characteristic of a person, indicating the presence of psychosomatic disorders. a significant contribution to the understanding of anxiety as an element of the psychoemotional state of an individual has been made by malysheva & lytvyn (2021). in particular, the authors consider the concept and types of neuroticism, defining it as a personality trait that prevents a person from returning to a normal psychological state. malysheva & lytvyn (2021) show that neuroticism has two directions lability and alienation, adherence to which helps to understand the mental or emotional state of an individual. in the first case, a person is prone to an active protection from any troubles, which is expressed in the presence of his or her emotional instability and disorganization. in the second case, an individual is more inclined to avoid trouble, which manifests itself through his or her states of uncertainty, deterioration in purposefulness, and lack of courage. in this regard, the characteristics of the psycho-emotional aspects and behavior of a person can also be used to assess the psychological and emotional state of ukrainian military personnel, including their psychological readiness for military service and the determinants of their unpreparedness. psycho-emotional reactions to stressful events any stressful event causes a corresponding mental and emotional reaction, which may differ depending on the impact of external or internal factors. one of the most common responses to an extreme event is fear. there are different methods for assessing and analyzing fear, depending on psycho-emotional state of ukrainian soldiers before going to the frontline yuliia rybinska et al. 185 the nature of its source. for example, sawicki et al. (2022), in their study focusing on individuals’ fear of the covid-19 pandemic, use the fcv-19s questionnaire, which provides a clear understanding of the states of interviewed participants, their attitudes towards the threat, and psychological consequences. the authors point out that there are also many additional determinants that shape people’s feelings of fear, such as their gender, access to health care, willingness to self-medicate, and degree of trust in media sources. in other words, when evaluating fear as an element of a person’s psycho-emotional state under conditions of stressful events, it is also necessary to take into account additional social factors. at the same time, rybinska et al. (2021), in their article, argue that stressful situations can also have a positive effect on a person’s psychological or emotional resilience. in particular, their study of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on society on a global scale has revealed that the stress experienced during the pandemic has increased the manifestations of many virtues. the global outbreak of covid-19 has resulted in significant expressions of personality traits such as courage, wisdom, and justice. in the context of the global crisis, society has rallied, uniting their interests and setting common goals. in this regard, it is possible to conclude that extreme situations can motivate the involved target audience to demonstrate the required human qualities, which should also be taken into account when analyzing the readiness of the ukrainian service members for combat operations. the need to interact closely with other living people, especially in a stressful situation, can lead to another common reaction, such as burnout. presumably, this reaction can also be considered as one of the features of the psycho-emotional state of ukrainian service members, given the nature of their activities. rybinska et al. (2022), in their article, provide a good understanding of the causes of burnout. the authors of the study analyze the degree of emotional burnout of it industry specialists, who are divided into a group that works with clients (frontend) and a group that does not contact them. the researchers found that members of the group labeled frontend had the most symptoms of burnout. in other words, the need to interact closely with people leads to increased professional exhaustion of an individual and the emergence of a sense of resistance to events. another important psychological reaction that attracts the attention of researchers is an individual’s resistance to stressful events. the study by mcandrew et al. (2017) has made significant contributions in this area. in particular, the authors argue that participation in extreme situations does not necessarily have negative consequences for a person, and a larger part of society is characterized by sufficient psychological resistance to them. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 186 according to the researchers, more than 6% of individuals who have experienced a stressful event retain their functionality after its termination. as evidence, mcandrew et al. (2017) cite the results of evaluating combatants in afghanistan and iraq for symptoms of ptsd. the results of the study have made it possible to find out that 80% of veterans do not have mental disorders, and this fact is largely determined by the high degree of cohesion of their units during the war. in this regard, the psychological stability of the ukrainian military is an important characteristic of their condition and their readiness to participate in battles. however, mcandrew et al. (2017) do not indicate which specific determinants might increase or decrease their preparedness in the context of the war in ukraine, confirming the relevance of the current study. psycho-emotional characteristics of individuals in the conditions of military operations military actions and conflicts should be considered an important determinant and significant stressful event that could directly affect the psycho-emotional state of an individual. according to data from the study by roberts et al. (2019), before the start of full-scale aggression by russia, in ukraine, there were more than one and a half million people forced to leave their permanent place of residence due to armed confrontations. according to a preliminary estimate, about 22% of them experienced symptoms of depression, 17% indicated an increase in their feelings of anxiety, and 32% were diagnosed with ptsd, indicating a significant impact of the war as a stressful event on the state of an individual. important results have also been obtained in the study by kurapov et al. (2022), which concerned the assessment of the psycho-emotional state of university students and faculty in response to the military situation in ukraine. according to the authors, the state of the vast majority (97.8%) of the study participants worsened, symptoms of depression and anxiety were found in 84% of them, and almost 77% of the respondents noted their increased feelings of anger (kurapov et al., 2022). in addition, participants in the study reported an increase in their feelings of fear and an increased propensity to take psychoactive or narcotic substances. accordingly, the authors have concluded that persons involved in military conflicts are more likely to develop ptsd and experience deterioration in their psycho-emotional state. singh et al. (2021) also attempted to examine aspects of the mental and psychosocial health of ukrainians who experienced or were directly involved in hostilities. in particular, the study participants included combat veterans and internally displaced persons. as a result, the authors have psycho-emotional state of ukrainian soldiers before going to the frontline yuliia rybinska et al. 187 concluded that both internally displaced persons and war veterans face frequent manifestations of symptoms of psychological stress, which is expressed in the presence of their increased anxiety, intrusive memories, feelings of loneliness, isolation, and depression. in addition, all the participants report having a feeling of poor social adaptation. these results largely overlap with those of the study by yanchuk et al. (2020), which confirms that more than half of the ukrainian military personnel who took part in the ato/oos (anti-terrorist operation/joint forces operation) have some symptoms of posttraumatic nervous disorder. in addition, the respondents indicated that they had a feeling of maladaptation and other dissociative symptoms. yanchuk et al. (2020) also note that the combatants experience feelings such as fear, horror, or a state of helplessness. in turn, the study by pavlova et al. (2020) also has important research value. its authors consider the factors that influence the degree of anxiety of ukrainian men who are subject to conscription for military service. the researchers confirm that those who are to participate in hostilities experience a high degree of anxiety. at the same time, the degree of anxiety is also influenced by such determinants as the quality of life of the conscript. in particular, men whose standard of living was lower were more anxious. it is necessary to note that pavlova et al. (2020) have concluded that a high degree of anxiety directly correlates with the degree of adaptation of an individual to stressful events. in particular, the authors suggest that conscripts who experience anxiety will be more prepared for military action, as they will soberly and objectively assess the danger. however, their study does not explain the effect of anxiety on the readiness of ukrainian men for military service. soldiers’ adaptability, motivation, and readiness for military actions there is a very limited number of studies that address the readiness, motivation, and adaptability of the ukrainian military to participate in active hostilities. however, some researchers have made several attempts to shed light on this topic. in particular, prykhodko et al. (2019), in their study, have found that the motivation of military officers is higher than that of contracted service members. the authors have also found that the reasons for the military leaving the service may be their disappointment in their actions or a feeling of fatigue. in turn, the article by prykhodko et al. (2021) considers aspects of the psychological readiness of the ukrainian military personnel in more detail. the study focuses on military personnel who have already had experience in combat operations in eastern ukraine since 2014. the obtained results indicate that an important component of the psychological readiness of the ukrainian military for risk is their strong sense broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 188 of patriotism, the ability to mobilize quickly, strong willpower, and positive experience of team cohesion. another significant psychological component is the level of hardiness and endurance, which positively correlates with the ability of military personnel to control the situation around, navigate in a difficult environment, overcome difficulties and create goals. prykhodko et al. (2020), in their study, focus on the psychoemotional characteristics of ukrainian military personnel more deeply. a survey of ato/oos participants has shown that more than half of them have a high degree of adaptability to stress in active military operations. at the same time, approximately 14% may show symptoms of psychopathy, which are expressed in reduced hardiness, deviant behavior, and increased conflict. loganovsky et al. (2017), in their article, also dwell on the psychoneurological characteristics of combatants, but their study is focused on military personnel who have already had combat experience in the ato/oos zone. the researchers note the presence of pronounced symptoms of ptsd in the fighters, including insomnia, depression, somatic disorders, and cognitive impairment. in this regard, according to available sources, it is already known that the presence of combat experience can affect the readiness of ukrainian military personnel to participate in hostilities. still, there are no studies that would update the readiness and psycho-emotional state of soldiers after the intensification of the military conflict after the start of the russian invasion on february 24, 2022. 3. conceptual framework of the study psycho-emotional state characteristics: anxiety; frustration; aggression; rigidity. characteristics: neuropsychic instability; hysteria; psychasthenia; psychopathy; paranoia; schizophrenia. mental state assessment assessment of neuropsychic instability assessing the military personnel s readiness to participate in hostilities figure 1. conceptual framework of the study source: authors' own conception psycho-emotional state of ukrainian soldiers before going to the frontline yuliia rybinska et al. 189 the conceptual scheme of the study is shown in figure 1. in this regard, the current study considers two sets of variables. the first group is the psycho-emotional state of the ukrainian military, whose assessment is derived based on identifying the severity of a number of mental characteristics. the first subgroup of characteristics is examined by using horska’s technique, built on the basis of eysenck’s questionnaire. in particular, the purpose of the analysis of the first group of characteristics is to determine the degree of personal anxiety of individuals, their frustration, aggression, and rigidity. the second subgroup of characteristics includes aspects of neuropsychic instability determined by using the npn-a questionnaire, based on the minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (mmpi). in this case, the assessment is aimed at the mental state of an individual within the framework of the presence of clinical disorders such as neuropsychological instability, hysteria, psychasthenia, psychopathy, paranoia, and schizophrenia. according to preliminary expectations, a high degree of severity of negative manifestations would be evidence of the ukrainian military’s low readiness for combat service, and vice versa. 4. research method this study is quantitative, which is predetermined by the need to evaluate the degree of severity of some characteristics of the ukrainian military personnel’s psycho-emotional state in numerical terms. data were collected through two questionnaires. the first questionnaire was built on the methodology proposed by horska (1994). this technique, in turn, is an adaptation of the eysenck questionnaire that is designed to determine the various mental states that an interviewed individual can identify in oneself. in total, the questionnaire contains 40 statements, which allow concluding that the individual has or does not have a tendency to anxiety (anxiety), sensations of obstacles (frustration), psychological activity through the method of aggression (aggression), and difficulties in transforming activities (rigidity). the survey participants were required to rate each statement from 2 to 0, where 2 is full support for the statement, and 0 is disagreement with it. the second tool is the neuro-psychic imbalance-accentuation (npn-a) questionnaire, adapted from the minnesota multiphasic personality inventory, to measure a variety of mental states and personality traits. each participant had to answer each question positively or negatively. the data collection used standardized google forms posted on social media and freely available to everyone. a prerequisite for participation in the study was the participant’s willingness, ability, or likelihood to go to the front. persons who did not fall under the mobilization were the exclusion broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 190 criterion. to date, 422 people have completed horska’s questionnaire, and 210 have completed the npn-a questionnaire. the obtained data were analyzed using the ibm spss tools. in particular, special attention was paid to descriptive statistics, which showed the average score for each of the studied characteristics. 5. results the results of the study can be divided into two groups: the results of horska’s questionnaire, and the results of the npn-a questionnaire. in the research process, 422 people gave answers to horska’s questionnaire. in turn, only 210 of them completed the other questionnaire. the results of horska’s questionnaire. the obtained results show that most ukrainian service members do not feel anxious about their upcoming deployment to the front line. in particular, the participants’ average score on the anxiety scale is 3.55, which indicates a low level of anxiety (less than 7 points), according to horska’s method. similar results have been obtained for such a characteristic as frustration: the average score for the degree of disappointment due to the inability to fulfill or achieve any goals is 2.95, which is also a low indicator (less than 7 points). more people have reported having dynamic behavior accompanied by aggression. however, the overall average score has not exceeded 4.4, which is a positive indicator. finally, the average score for the degree of rigidity of the respondents is 4.7, a low score according to horska’s method. however, the figures differ when considering the results as a percentage. in this case, 58% of the respondents among the ukrainian military going to the front line have shown a low level of anxiety. at the same time, 37% of the respondents report that they have the anxiety of a medium degree, and only 2.6% of participants report their anxiety to a degree above average. finally, 1.18% of the participants show a high degree of anxiety. the results also indicate that individuals with a low degree of frustration make up more than 66%, and 28.9% report moderate frustration with their activities. only 1.89% of the participants have above-average frustration, and 0.94% have high frustration. it is important to note that only 35% of the participants have identified a low degree of aggression, while the average or above average degree of aggression has been found in 61.6% of the respondents. another 1.89% of the participants have shown a high degree of aggression in behavior. finally, it has been found that 25.8% of the respondents have a low degree of rigidity. at the same time, the remaining percentage of the participants demonstrate a medium or high degree of rigidity. psycho-emotional state of ukrainian soldiers before going to the frontline yuliia rybinska et al. 191 results of the npn-a questionnaire. the obtained results show that the average score on the scale of neuropsychic instability of the respondents is 8.35, indicating a significant severity of the corresponding signs. individuals with a high score on the scale of neuropsychic instability are characterized by weak adaptive abilities, problems in interpersonal relationships, lack of objective self-esteem, and some manifestations of deviant behavior. the average score of the respondents on the ‘hysteria’ scale is 4.36, which is a borderline indicator and implies the presence of these signs. in particular, such individuals are characterized by the presence of a strong desire for recognition, a tendency to exaggerate, egocentrism, and a desire to be in the spotlight. as for the ‘psychasthenia’ scale, the respondents have scored an average of 5.8 points, which also indicates the presence of these signs in their personality traits. at the same time, the individuals show self-doubt, anxiety, suspiciousness, and an increased sense of vulnerability. on the ‘psychopathy’ and ‘paranoia’ scales, the participants have scored an average of 5.3 points, which also indicates these traits in them. such individuals are characterized as aggressive, persistent, and straightforward. they tend to fight for justice and stand up for their beliefs. finally, the results on the ‘schizophrenia’ scale show an average score of 7.08, indicating an acceptable norm for these signs. in particular, individuals with such personality traits are less likely to jump to conclusions and do not show emotional coldness or an inability to understand others. discussion the study results provide several important findings regarding the psycho-emotional characteristics of ukrainian service members and their readiness to engage in hostilities. in particular, it has been found that the ukrainian military do not tend to experience excessive anxiety in anticipation of going to the front line and are characterized by a low or unexpressed degree of frustration, indicating their ability to set and achieve goals and be satisfied with the outcomes of their actions. it is possible to assume that this state is ensured by their positive response to stressful events, which occurs in extreme or crisis situations, a result consistent with the findings of the study by rybinska et al. (2021). in particular, the need to participate in hostilities can increase the emotional stability of ukrainian military personnel, strengthen or stimulate their courage and help shape their common goals and ideology that dull the feeling of anxiety. in addition, the surveyed service members have a low degree of rigidity, indicating their sufficient flexibility and good tendency to adapt against the background of events or changes in the environment. these results can be explained with broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 192 the help of the study by prykhodko et al. (2021), according to which the adaptability of military personnel in the performance of their duties is developed against the background of their strong-willed qualities and high level of patriotism. at the same time, the survey has shown that ukrainian service members demonstrate a high degree of aggression, and these data are unique in light of the research literature already reviewed. indeed, most of the earlier studies, such as yanchuk et al. (2020), singh et al. (2021), prykhodko et al. (2020), and loganovsky et al. (2017), report feelings of helplessness and depression in military personnel. however, as this study has shown, the current state of the ukrainian military is characterized by greater proactivity in their behavior and the presence of aggression, which is natural in the context of the russian invasion. this result can be considered one of the options for the adaptive response of military personnel to ongoing events, enhancing their emotional resilience. at the same time, the npn-a questionnaire used in this study has made it possible to consider some of the accentuations of the attitudes of the ukrainian military and the features of their neuropsychic instability in more detail. in particular, it has revealed that neuropsychic instability in the surveyed service members is pronounced. this fact may be evidence of the symptoms of depression or stress, which has already been found in studies by loganovsky et al. (2017) and yanchuk et al. (2020). a likely cause of neuropsychic instability may also be the context of the situation, which requires conflict interaction with the adversary, and, accordingly, can lead to burnout and fatigue, as indicated in the study by rybinska et al. (2022). it is also possible to note that the ukrainian military show signs of hysteria, psychasthenia, psychopathy, and paranoia, which may be explained by the need to participate in hostilities and the expectation of stress (prykhodko et al., 2020). however, as the results of the previous research show, these character accentuations can be a characteristic of the process of service members’ adaptation to new stressful conditions. in this regard, taking into account the low degree of anxiety, increased aggression, high adaptability and flexibility of ukrainian military personnel, it is possible to confirm their high degree of readiness to be sent to the front line and participate in battles. conclusion this study has shown that the current psycho-emotional state of ukrainian military personnel who are preparing to go to the front line is characterized by a low degree of anxiety, increased aggressiveness, and the ability to adapt to environmental conditions easily, set goals and achieve them. at the same time, the military of ukraine also show symptoms of psycho-emotional state of ukrainian soldiers before going to the frontline yuliia rybinska et al. 193 stress, and some signs of neuropsychic instability, psychopathy, hysteria, paranoia, and psychasthenia. these personality traits may be directly related to the nature of their professional activities and an increased sense of awareness of their own significance and importance in combat conditions. in general, the listed features of the psycho-emotional state are evidence of the readiness of ukrainian service members to participate in the war and their ability to perform their duties effectively. references balachuk, i. (2022). zelenskyy: 700,000 soldiers are defending ukraine today. ukrayinska pravda. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/05/21/7347610/ harkusha, i., kaiko, v., & matsiievska, s. (2020). stress resistance as a psychological feature of the military. annali d’italia, 2(5), 49-53. https://doi.org/10.2147/ndt.s113220 kolesnichenko, o., matsegora, y., vorobyova, i., pryhodko, i., timchenko, o., & horelyshev, s. et al. (2016). psychological readiness of servicemen of the national guard of ukraine for service-combat activities outside the permanent deployment point. national academy of the national guard of ukraine. horska, m. (1994). diagnosis of mental health and suicidal behavior. bulletin of psycho-social and psycho-correctional work. https://infourok.ru/diagnostikasuicidalnogo-povedeniya-avtor-m-v-gorskaya-4179007.html kurapov, a., pavlenko, v., drozdov, a., bezliudna, v., reznik, a., & isralowitz, r. (2022). toward an understanding of the russian-ukrainian war impact on university students and personnel. journal of loss and trauma. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2022.2084838 loganovsky, k., zdanevich, n., gresko, m., marazziti, d., & loganovskaja, t. (2017). neuropsychiatric characteristics of antiterrorist operation combatants in the donbass (ukraine). cns spectrums, 23(2), 178-184. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1092852917000190 malysheva, k., & lytvyn, s. (2021). neuropsychological analysis of the neuroticism nature: evidence for a heterogeneity of construct. psychological journal, 7(53), 23-35. https://doi.org/10.31108/1.2021.7.9.2 mcandrew, l., markowitz, s., lu, s., borders, a., rothman, d., & quigley, k. (2017). resilience during war: better unit cohesion and reductions in avoidant coping are associated with better mental health function after combat deployment. psychological trauma: theory, research, practice, and policy, 9(1), 52-61. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000152 pavlova, i., zikrach, d., mosler, d., ortenburger, d., góra, t., & wąsik, j. (2020). determinants of anxiety levels among young males in a threat of experiencing military conflict–applying a machine-learning algorithm in a https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/05/21/7347610/ https://doi.org/10.2147/ndt.s113220 https://infourok.ru/diagnostika-suicidalnogo-povedeniya-avtor-m-v-gorskaya-4179007.html https://infourok.ru/diagnostika-suicidalnogo-povedeniya-avtor-m-v-gorskaya-4179007.html https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2022.2084838 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1092852917000190 https://doi.org/10.31108/1.2021.7.9.2 https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000152 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 194 psychosociological study. plos one, 15(10), e0239749. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239749 prykhodko, i., bielai, s., hrynzovskyi, a., zhelaho, a., hodlevskyi, s., & kalashchenko, s. (2020). medical and psychological aspects of safety and adaptation of military personnel to extreme conditions. wiadomości lekarskie, 73(4), 679-683. https://doi.org/10.36740/wlek202004110 prykhodko, i., lyman, a., matsehora, y., yurieva, n., balabanova, l., & hunbin, k. et al. (2021). the psychological readiness model of military personnel to take risks during a combat deployment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 64-78. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/220 prykhodko, i., matsehora, j., lipatov, i., tovma, i., & kostikova, i. (2019). servicemen’s motivation in the national guard of ukraine: transformation after the ‘revolution of dignity'. the journal of slavic military studies, 32(3), 347-366. https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2019.1645930 roberts, b., makhashvili, n., javakhishvili, j., karachevskyy, a., kharchenko, n., shpiker, m., & richardson, e. (2019). mental health care utilisation among internally displaced persons in ukraine: results from a nation-wide survey. epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 28(1), 100-111. https://doi.org/10.1017/s2045796017000385 rybinska, y., loshenko, o., kurapov, a., ponochovna-rysak, t., & kholmakova, y. (2021). the change in the concept of virtue during the covid-19 pandemic. revista amazonia investiga, 10(47), 62-69. https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2021.47.11.7 rybinska, y., loshenko, o., kyrylenko, t., kondratieva, v., serbova, o., & stebaieva, o. (2022). comprehensive psychological analysis of the features of emotional burnout among it specialists: the ukrainian labor market. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 273-289. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/343 sawicki, a. j., żemojtel-piotrowska, m., balcerowska, j. m., sawicka, m. j., piotrowski, j., sedikides, c., jonason, p. k., maltby, j., adamovic, m., agada, a. m. d., ahmed, o., al-shawaf, l., appiah, s. c. y., ardi, r., babakr, z. h., bălţătescu, s., bonato, m., cowden, r. g., chobthamkit, p., . . . zand, s. (2022). the fear of covid-19 scale: its structure and measurement invariance across 48 countries. psychological assessment, 34(3), 294–310. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0001102 singh, n. s., bogdanov, s., doty, b., haroz, e., girnyk, a., chernobrovkina, v., murray, l. k., bass, j. k., & bolton, p. a. (2021). experiences of mental health and functioning among conflict-affected populations: a qualitative study with military veterans and displaced persons in ukraine. american https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239749 https://doi.org/10.36740/wlek202004110 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/220 https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2019.1645930 https://doi.org/10.1017/s2045796017000385 https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2021.47.11.7 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/343 https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0001102 psycho-emotional state of ukrainian soldiers before going to the frontline yuliia rybinska et al. 195 journal of orthopsychiatry, 91(4), 499–513. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000537 yanchuk, a., guliak, o., tverezovsky, m., pavelko, i., bernaz, p., & kuznichenko, s. (2020). medical, psychological and legal aspects to substantiate the concept of rehabilitation for military personnel – participants of the antiterrorist operation. world of medicine and biology, 16(71), 154-158. https://doi.org/10.26724/2079-8334-2020-1-71-154-158 https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000537 https://doi.org/10.26724/2079-8334-2020-1-71-154-158 microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 70 questions regarding alterity in social collaborative networks cosmin ion tomozei department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania cosmin.tomozei@ub.ro florinela floria department of philosophy and communication sciences, faculty of letters, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău spiru haret, 8, 600114, bacău, romania floria.florinela@ub.ro abstract the idea of alterity has become important in the last decades, when talking about the information age, which provides acknowledgement to the software development specialists about the importance of understanding the other’s behavior, needs, objectives, and beliefs. our main purpose is to bring to attention the question of social representation related to the images of individuals as different entities that are integrated in virtual teams, virtual projects, and e-activities. regarding the consciousness about the other’s alterity, we assert that it opens a dialogical perspective about the information society, where it is essential to share and communicate knowledge to the others. keywords: alterity, identity, social representations, social network, dialogism, globalization, e-activities; collaborative systems; 1. social collaborative networks assessment regarding alterity collaborative software appears as an entity that supports people who are usually placed in different geographic areas, but with similar concerns about a specific domain. collaborative work proved to offer efficiency and success in achieving difficult tasks, reuniting the experience of specialists, gathering their knowledge and expertise in a very short period of time. our concern is to examine the way in which the question of alterity still stands when talking about collaborative work in many domains, such as higher education, with the aim of supporting students or young researchers with precious information for their teaching, learning and research activities. our desire is to study the way in which social collaborative networks help people solve the problems of alterity. the concept of collaborative systems is based on computer – supported collaboration, which presumed the evolution from the traditional cooperative work study[1], and the support of the people collaborating in work activities and relationships. in [2] we have the concept of computer supported collaborative work (cscw) as a multidisciplinary research field involving the way in which the collaborative activities are to be accomplished and in which way their coordination can be supported by means of computer systems. our main idea is to analyze, make comparisons, validate and exemplify how collaborative software affects the quality of the teaching and learning process in higher education. on the other hand, distributed systems provide the appropriate framework for the building and development of collaborative systems. even though in this case the common goal or the objectives of the users, also referred to as agents, is the most important factor, the framework on which the collaborative software application is built and running cannot be ignored. as a consequence, the distribution of data and software becomes key elements in application development and data management. still, another important aspect is related to the software quality, meaning that information has to be found very easily and with minimum errors and redundancy. collaborative software and collaborative work permit that users have social interactions, by using social conventions and rules, in order to communicate and build virtual teams. social computing presumes that any kind of social behavior is supported by the computer system. in c. i. tomozei, f. floria – questions regarding alterity in social collaborative networks 71 addition to social computing, social information processing is an activity that describes the way in which human knowledge is organized by collective human actions. in the medical domain, such as surgery [3] knowledge exchange and common experience allow specialists from remote places to cooperate and reduce the duration of procedures, by creating virtual teams and working together for helping the same patient concurrently. in our case, the software application we created allows teachers to help the students, also by making virtual teams each of them having a common goal, to increase the efficiency and quality of higher education. each student has a web account with username and password, as well as all the teachers from the department. common tasks, such as project development become easier to accomplish by web-uploading each version of any project, which may be reviewed and modified by the other members of the team, depending of the reputation and credentials each member has. there are some restrictions, which require the member who modified any particular project to notify the person which initially posted it, and get his permission. each user action is well monitored and if it is necessary, the system will reduce or diminish the access, rights or reputation the user has in the social computer – mediated community. however, these cases are very rare, the grand majority of the people who use in their daily activities the educational collaborative system being focused mainly on achieving the scientific goals. 2. questions of individual identity in e-activities the idea of depersonalization in information society is very often talked about by researchers from different areas. virtual activities, e-government or other activities related to the computer network are sometimes considered as ways of people to get secluded and away from direct social interactions. the advantages brought by the information and communication technology (tic) are very substantial, side effects as those mentioned before just being inconsequential and unimportant. however, questions about identity do appear, as relationships and businesses are tempted to become more and more automatic, mediated by communication equipments, impersonal and remote. we would like to point out the major benefits and results of using the internet, the electronic equipments and software in the way of how the people interact, do business, communicate and get informed. personalization of services offered by the political administration, which has been thought almost impossible to realize for many decades, is now easy and accessible to any democratic country due to e-government. the individual is placed in the status of the otherness, treated with respect and helped to accomplish the social and civil obligations. individual identity may be seen as a sequence of alterity by the political administration in egovernment, the other of the two, as the principal of the join, government – citizen. the danish model must be applied to all the eu countries in order to make this relationship more efficient socially and economically. on the government’s side, public services such as education, health or public defense will be offered to the public with more competence and personalization. consequently, the diminution of costs, harmonization of the regulations and policies of doing business by the public and the private sectors are easier to accomplish due to the implementation of new technologies. it is very important to assure a reliable system of authentication, in order to have a reliable and strong technological infrastructure for the function of e-administration. large amounts of money are invested in the electronic identity management by the member states of the european union for granting a secure system for people to identify themselves, their signatures and stamps becoming a matter of the past. it would be straight-forward to say that behavioral and social reengineering appears as a new phenomenon while adopting procedures for evolving to e-society. identity is defined as a collection of attributes that describe an entity, citizen enterprise or object. the entity must be distinguished by any other, identity becoming a key component in many social and economic relationships. on the other side, alterity has its theoretical background in the deciphering, understanding and celebration of the other [10]. the concept may be easily adapted for the postmodern or postindustrial age, where knowledge gains importance and the role of the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 72 main economic resource, as a key element for business development or social evolution. developing a framework for e-activities involves unquestionably redefinition of the business’ identity, or the government’s identity in concordance to the identity of the beneficiary. rethinking from the sociological point of view or socially reengineering the business’ or government’s policies in order to satisfy the society’s needs brings to light the perception of the other as the alterity. 3. different users, poles apart ideas, different self-esteems and one common goal as in all social systems [4], in the virtual reality constructed thanks to computer mediation, different people interact sharing their knowledge and experience. in our situation, the educational portal has been built for the students and teachers in the university of bacau, where the teachers place learning material including ebooks, seminar material, laboratory work and various examples for students to access from distributed geographic locations. each student has a unique username and password in order to authenticate himself in the system. after the authentication process [5], the person is able to get in touch with the colleagues, to look for a specific material or place his own. all of them form a virtual community, which mirrors the school community, working in addition to the academic schedule, and trying to provide a higher level of efficiency to the education process. portlets proved to be the most intelligent way of presenting information on an educational portal, due to the richness of the user interface tools. the portal may be found at http://cursfs.ub.ro url. in figure 1 there is a screenshot of the 2nd year students section in educational portal, which is very easy to use and helpful. figure 1. 2nd year section in the educational portal despite the divergence of each members individual interests and structure, the media as well as the internet become new forms of social binding, and we believe they do not exclude the traditional ways of communication and interaction, but help people in their duties, in addition to the traditional, formal ways. in figure 2 [7]. there is a clear image about how each of the benefficiaries interact with the educational portal. c. i. tomozei, f. floria – questions regarding alterity in social collaborative networks 73 figure 2. workflow in collaborative portals as we have mentioned before, depending on the job, rights and reputation, every member of the collaborative virtual team interacts with the system. he is a beneficiary of the results provided by the system, which allows cooperation with his colleagues. common tasks are greatly achieved and the duration [8] between the decision of realizing a task decreases significantly. as a complementary theory alongside the software systems constructivism may be seen as a way to improve the efficiency of the education process, and guides the students, helped by the collaborative portal into building their knowledge with their own instruments. 4. constructivism in collaborative systems for higher education one of the most important educational theories in computer science is constructivism, which transforms the role of the teacher to guiding the student in building his knowledge. we believe that this assertion has real possibilities of implementation, the student becoming a young researcher during the laboratory activity or practical work as well as in his theoretical approach to object oriented programming or other subjects such as data structures and algorithms from the syllabus which are also approached by the collaborative software system. it is advisable that in addition to the course material, the student himself should find other materials such as online documentation, virtual libraries e.g. msdn library, developer forums and dedicated software manufacturer sites, such as research.microsoft.com, www.ibm.com/redbooks in order to complete and research the software development. the teacher becomes a referee and a trainer at the same time, offering directions, advice, and strategy. the portal helps him, due to the links and dedicated sections in the individual research, as well as cooperating with his colleagues, by creating a virtual team with a common goal and also with precise tasks to be achieved by every member. the knowledge is not a copy of reality, but a construction based on the information and knowledge the student already possesses due to research and individual work, being helped and supported with direct or indirect information by the teacher. consequently, each young researcher creates his own models, ideas, software, plans but some of them may not be viable. at this moment, the teacher will play the role of filtering the products of the student’s activity, keeping the good answers and results and separating them from the insignificant ones. the idea that computer science consists of a union of algorithms which have to be memorized by the student by heart is a very bad one and should be forgotten. algorithms must be determined while researching or programming precisly at the moment when they are needed and not illogically learned, just in case for the future. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 74 active learning during virtual laboratories and virtual courses is very important, multimedia technologies playing an important role as well, the teacher asking things that students have to think about and deal with using their own instruments. they must solve many problematic situations such as offering solutions to problems uttered by the teacher, complemented by scientific research. in addition to active learning, the students should be advised to use cooperative learning, when having projects. a project should be given to a small team of students as a common task, which should be finished before a deadline. this type of work brings into light the advantages and specification of teamwork. each team should have a team manager or project manager that coordinates the work of team members. he is also entitled to give tasks, discuss with the team members in order to do the work efficiently and at the right period of time. the characteristics that distinguish cooperative work from group work are described in [6]. positive independence means each student being aware that he needs the others from his group of research in order to accomplish the task. in software development the time when software applications were made by just one person has been long gone. each step of the development process is designed, realized and audited by teams of specialists. they know that the work must be done by the whole team and not just one member, each member knowing precisely his duties. the students who will become software or computer specialists must be aware about the importance of collaboration. another important characteristic in computer science teaching and learning is the individual accountability that indicates the quantity and the quality of each member’s contribution. the project manager as well as the teacher can evaluate the quality (which includes also the amount of time) of the work and if the programmer (student) accomplished all his duties. promotive interaction means that the software developers or students must support each other when help is needed. the teacher has to support and encourage the students as well, in order to get satisfactory results. by having a good and reliable collaborative system, all the tasks will become easier to accomplish, due to a reliable software framework and the good will of the professors. it is also important to mention that the system respects the copyright of all the users. 5. conclusions collaborative systems are one of the most important ways of creating virtual teams and of improving the quality of the education process. distributed applications with portlets or portals are the framework on which the collaborative activities take place, reducing projects duration and optimizing the allocation of time and space resources. constructivism appears as a theory which harmonizes perfectly with the collaborative perspective of computer science education contributing significantly to the increase of efficiency. the concepts of identity and alterity must be taken into consideration while working with collaborative software. sociological aspects of computer science and human computer interaction must be taken care of, especially when building collaborative systems for education. the results will improve significantly and a higher level of efficiency in the educational process will be gained. 6. references [1] * * * computer supported collaboration. wikipedia. retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/computer-supported_collaboration [2] szymanski, m., aok, p., grinter, m. (2007). sotto voce: facilitating social learning in a historic house. computer supported collaborative work, 17(1), springer, 5 – 34. [3] ivan, i., ciurea, c. (2009). quality characteristics of collaborative systems. in: proceedings of the second international conference on advances in computer-human interfaces, achi 2009, 17 february 2009, cancun, mexico, isbn 978-07695-3529-6 (pp. 164-168). [4] becker, b., mark, g. (1999). constructing social systems through computer-mediated communication. virtual reality 4,:60-73, london: springer-verlag. c. i. tomozei, f. floria – questions regarding alterity in social collaborative networks 75 [5] ivan, i., doinea, m., palaghiţă, d. (2008). optimization of authentication processes in distributed applications. theoretical and applied economics, 6(iunie 2008), issn 1841-8678, 3956. [6] valdivia, r., nussbaum, m. (2007). face-to-face collaborative learning in computer science classes. international journal of engineering education, 23(3, may 2007), 434-440. [7] sipos, g., lewis, g. j., kacsuk, p., alexandrov, v. n. (2005). workflow-oriented collaborative grid portals, in p. m. a. sloot et al. (eds.): egc 2005, lecture notes in computer science (lncs), 3470, pp. 434 – 443, berlin, heiderlberg: springer-verlag. [8] vetrici, m., cristian, i. (2008). knowledge based project duration estimation for workflow based documentmanagement software projects. in: proceeding of knowledge management conference, 2008, bucharest, romania. [9] tomozei, c. (2008). hypertext entities semantic web-oriented reengineering. journal of applied quantitative methods, iii (1), 2008, 9-19. [10] welz, f. (2000). identity and alterity in sociological perspective. talk presented at jnufreiburg sociology workshop on culture and society in the era of globalization, jawaharlal nehru university, new delhi, india, 12/10/00. retrieved december 1, 2009 from http://www.zmk.uni-freiburg.de/online_texts/welz_identity.pdf. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 436-449 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/397 submitted: january 31st, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 the problem of artificial intelligence in contemporary philosophy iryna maidaniuk 1 , tetiana tsoi 2 , ihor hoian 3 , maksym doichyk 4 , oksana patlaichuk 5 , olga stupak 6 1 national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, mira-i@ukr.net 2 national academy of fine arts and architecture, kiev, ukraine, tetiana.tsoi@naoma.edu.ua, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4413-1478 3 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, ihor.hoian@pnu.edu.ua, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2548-0488 4 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, maksimdoichyk@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5081-1386 5 admiral makarov national university of shipbuilding, mykolaiv, ukraine, oksana.patlaichuk@nuos.edu.ua, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-14483360 6 admiral makarov national university of shipbuilding, mykolaiv, ukraine, olga.stupak@nuos.edu.ua, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7846-1489 abstract: the importance of the topic of the article is due to the fact that nowadays there is a need to understand that the creation of artificial intelligence is associated with the understanding and study of natural intelligence. the problem of defining artificial intelligence is largely reduced to defining intelligence in general: is intelligence monolithic or does this concept define a set of different abilities? to what extent intelligence can be created? is it possible to create computers with intelligence? these and other questions have not yet been answered by the contemporary science, but these questions have greatly contributed to the formation of tasks and methodologies that form the basis of the theory and practice of contemporary artificial intelligence in philosophy. the purpose of the article is the need to study and substantiate the indicators of overall success in the development of artificial intelligence systems; proving that human psychoreality is an open system of nonlinear type; proving the effectiveness of logo and psycho-machines in the development of artificial intelligence in philosophy. the article gives a theoretical justification for the concepts of “artificial intelligence” and “logo and psycho machines”; the conditions for the effectiveness of the development of artificial intelligence in our time are highlighted, as the scientific direction of artificial intelligence is young, and its structure and range of issues are not so clearly defined. it is now possible to implement formal systems of reasoning in the machine and test their sufficiency for the manifestation of reasonableness in practice. keywords: hierarchical memory; computer machines; activity of logo and psycho machines; scientific discoveries; presence of mind. how to cite: maidaniuk, i., tsoi, t., hoian, i., doichyk, m., patlaichuk, o., & stupak, o. the problem of artificial intelligence in contemporary philosophy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 436-449. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/397 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/397 mailto:mira-i@ukr.net mailto:tetiana.tsoi@naoma.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4413-1478 mailto:ihor.hoian@pnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2548-0488 mailto:maksimdoichyk@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5081-1386 mailto:oksana.patlaichuk@nuos.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1448-3360 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1448-3360 mailto:olga.stupak@nuos.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7846-1489 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/397 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 437 introduction in today’s world, the topic of artificial intelligence and the development of intellectual technology have ceased to be the prerogative of a purely scientific community. it is impossible to overestimate the importance of creating a system of artificial intelligence functioning at the necessary sufficient level, which will be recognized as sentient. significant success of it developers, neurobiologists, psychologists, physicists and other specialists are obvious which have long been limited to individual scientific disciplines and are now united in the context of interdisciplinarity (kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). the scientific community sees differently the developments in the field of artificial intelligence. hawking, for example, offered an integrative approach that combined engineering, neurobiological, cognitive, and even ethical approaches (cellan-jones, 2014). in an integrative approach, there is no reason to expect a smart machine to look, act, feel or think like a human being (garfield, 1955). the thoughts and behavior of an intelligent machine can differ significantly from those inherent in human, and it will have the intelligence, which is determined by the predictive ability of hierarchical memory, rather than human-like behavior (grigoriev et al., 2020). physicist karpenko (2008), who works in the field of general relativity and quantum theory, proves the impossibility of decomposing human intelligence into algorithms. behind all these considerations there is the “obviousness” of the assumption that “the mind endowed with consciousness simply cannot function like a computer, despite the algorithmic nature of many components of our mental activity”. gutenev (2012) discusses the areas of application of artificial intelligence: “artificial intelligence has gradually entered our lives. sooner or later, the day will come when systems will appear that have the same level of creativity, sensation and emotional intelligence as humans. the day it happens, we will understand that we are not alone”. the classic work of sydorchuk (2017) on artificial intelligence states: a contemporary approach to its study, in which artificial intelligence is defined as “the science of agents who receive from their environment the results of acts of perception that are appropriate to the action”. the counterbalance to the “optimistic development” is the opinion of skeptical researchers who believe that the technology of creating artificial intelligence should be treated with extreme caution. among them is radutnyi (2017), who published a collection of constructive concerns: “i the problem of artificial intelligence in contemporary philosophy iryna maidaniuk et al. 438 believe and try to prove that artificial intelligence, like nuclear fission, is a dual-use technology”. the work “artificial intelligence. stages. threats. strategies” by bostrom (2014), a swedish philosopher, the oxford university professor, co-founder of the world association of transhumanists and the director of the oxford institute for future humanity, in which he warns: “artificial intelligence can be less human than aliens”. simon (1972), one of the leading experts in machine learning and artificial intelligence, considers the laws of it technologies in interaction with the ideas of such scientific fields as biology, philosophy, physics, statistics. “society changes with each new algorithm. machine learning transforms science, technology, business, politics, martial arts. the industrial revolution automated manual labor, the information revolution made the same for the difficult for the mind, and the machine learning automated automation itself. without it, programming would be a bottleneck that hindered the progress”. comparison of artificial and natural intelligence, living tissues, cells and computational architecture is the main line of work of kenan and athena (2001). the authors present ideas on how to use a computer to implement the non-algorithmic properties of the human mind, perform a critical analysis of contemporary understanding of artificial intelligence and neural network models and present elaborated hypotheses about “finding consciousness”, and summarize scientifically sound futuristic predictions of scientists about artificial intelligence, many of which have now become reality. the author is a recognized expert in forecasting the development of science and technology. skyrme (1999) addresses the issue of the structure of the surrounding reality, the place of the mind in it, the possibility of modeling or simulating it. the paper reveals the topic of multi-world interpretation of quantum mechanics, presents the current state of the philosophy of science, the philosophy of consciousness and the philosophy of artificial intelligence. in this article, it is important to explore two issues of artificial intelligence systems: the legitimacy of a person’s recognition of selforganizing consciousness and a free will, as a result of which the artificial intelligence systems are required the same, to recognize them as intelligent. total analogy of artificial intelligence systems with humans and their “average” features leads to a lack of consideration of individual features of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 439 systems and their discrimination in the context of a priori understanding of their activities. indicators of overall success in the development of artificial intelligence systems contemporary researchers have not yet reached a common understanding of the meaning of the term artificial intelligence. it is most often used in three meanings: a scientific direction, which aims to model the processes of cognition and thinking, the use of methods used by humans to solve problems to improve the productivity of computational tools; various devices, mechanisms, programs, which according to certain criteria can be called “intelligent”; a set of ideas about cognition, mind and human allows the very issue of modeling intelligence (pohjola, 2000). artificial intelligence can be understood as a scientific field, and various devices capable of reflection, modeling human intelligence. the range of issues that are united by the term artificial intelligence in contemporary science is quite wide. currently, artificial intelligence combines a large number of sections. this section includes both the general theory of perception or sensation, and special methods such as playing chess and checkers, proofs of mathematical theorems, diagnosis of diseases. researchers of artificial intelligence use its methods in a variety of fields, and scientists who do not specialize in artificial intelligence, find in it the basis for systematization and solution of intellectual problems. therefore, artificial intelligence is a very universal field of knowledge (zakharchyn, 2021). cyberneticist sydorchuk (2017) defined the field of artificial intelligence as follows: “in the most general sense, it is the solution of “intelligent” problems with the help of automatic methods, primarily with the help of computers. but which activities should be considered intellectual and which should not? it’s not entirely clear”. since the concept of intelligence is multifaceted and complex, and there are many opinions about it, we will proceed from a systematic approach. by intelligence we mean the system of cognitive abilities of an individual. at the same time, the highest level of intelligence development is determined by the level of thinking, which is considered in conjunction with other cognitive abilities memory, perception, and so on. in this case, by the problem of artificial intelligence in contemporary philosophy iryna maidaniuk et al. 440 intellectual activity we mean solution of problems that do not have a given solution algorithm. for all the variety of interpretations, the concept of artificial intelligence in most of them recognizes that artificial intelligence systems are aimed at modeling or imitating human thinking, in particular, the ability to reflect. the great attention to the problems of natural and artificial intelligence forced specialists from many fields to start studying specific features of natural intelligence to further apply these results to build artificial intelligence: “…the theoretical correlation of artificial intelligence with natural intelligence is the most important condition for a thorough understanding of the possibilities of artificial intelligence, the prospects for its development, and at the same time one of the most important areas of study of consciousness” (lodovici, 2021). theoretical research, as well as the practical success of imitating some simple intellectual functions in 1950s research, has given many researchers the belief that the task of creating full-fledged artificial intelligence is completely solvable and, moreover, the creation of “thinking machines” is a matter of the near future. for the first time the issue of the possibility of creating a full-fledged artificial imitation of human intelligence was posed by the american scientist turing and described in husiev (2017) article “a. turing test and “robot” by r. descartes”. in the article, he considered the question of whether it is possible to make a machine really think. noting that in the questions “what is to think?” and “what is a machine?” there is a fundamental uncertainty, he preferred to replace the question of intelligence with a more precise empirical test. in the test, one or more people had to ask two other people questions and use their answers to determine who is a machine and who is a human. if the machine disguised as a human could not be revealed, it meant that the machine had a mind. nevertheless, this approach had provoked criticism. traditionally, an indicator of overall success in the development of artificial intelligence systems is considered the ability to externally model typical human functions, qualities and properties, thus surpassing human in typically human activities. manifestations and “self-realization” of the developed samples are perceived through the prism of the human factor and the so-called “effect ai” (meaninglessness and “depsychologization” of activity), which is a latent but global problem in this area (gitelman et al., 2016). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 441 the problem is especially relevant due to the lack of criteria for interpreting and “understanding” what we have as a result of activities in the field of artificial intelligence: a purely algorithmic, incapable of understanding and comprehending mechanism, or a psycho machine with the potential for protomental qualities, i.e., the makings of the psyche and possibly intelligence. despite the terminological features of the concept of “artificial intelligence”, in the world scientific community it is believed that the presence of consciousness, not intelligence, will be a necessary and sufficient basis for recognizing a machine intelligent. the need to answer the question of the nature of the phenomenon of consciousness and the quality of some “consciousness”, as well as the level of expression of this quality at different stages of development of the nervous system worries the minds of many generations of researchers. the main thing is the so-called “self” or self-concept, or self-awareness. the presence and demonstration of these phenomena in the form of realization of certain behavioral patterns by a living human being is the criterion for naming them a “conceptually thinking being” and possessing consciousness. the opposition and ontological opposition of the organism and the mechanism often did not allow considering each of these systems separately and in dynamic comparison with each other. the immanent “embeddedness” of the faculty of awareness and self-awareness in human a priori is optionally recognized as potentially inherent and actually realized. and for a mechanism, on the contrary, it is a priori impossible to implement such functions. the issues raised require a comprehensive approach to its study (simon, 1996). if we consider the dynamics of a kind of opposition organismmechanism (human-machine), the general recognition of the superiority of the former over the latter becomes obvious: it is recognized that the organism unconditionally possesses the conscious qualities. the mechanism remains secondary, derived from the organism. and it is not clear at this moment what should happen so that a mechanism deserved to be recognized as an organism. the paradigm of interdisciplinarity only complicates the problem. operation of the algorithmic machine was rendered meaningless by the chinese room, which is no longer proof of the existence of intelligence technology, much less consciousness. the problem of artificial intelligence in contemporary philosophy iryna maidaniuk et al. 442 human psychoreality is an open system of a nonlinear type at the current stage of the scientific thought development, it is established that the human psychoreality is an open system of a nonlinear type, i.e., it operates according to the laws of synergy (or the chaos theory). comprehension always lags behind thought, awareness – behind consciousness, etc. according to some postulates of the philosophy of counter-existentialism, “a human does not make decisions, but is a posteriori acquainted with the results of decisions”. human is only able to consciously appropriate a thought, a decision, an idea, a mode of action, but these phenomena are formed “on their own”, to some extent by chance (in a synergistic sense) and completely unconsciously (vandaele, 2018). to describe the functioning of human psychoreality, we use the metaphor of “schrödinger’s cat”: to say “the cat is alive” or “the cat is dead” is possible only when the box is opened, otherwise we have no right to postulate anything specific and clear, because what happens inside the box is completely latent and variable. a person is able to claim that he / she realized something only when the “conscious” is already formed “by itself” in the synergistic depths of the inner world. a person appears as a passive “registrar” and an “interpreter” of what is given to them “by itself” for registration and interpretation (petana & rosa, 2020). active thinking and imagination cannot change anything in this regard, because no matter how actively a person tries to think and comprehend, they will deal only with what was given to them by themselves, and not consciously and directly created and formed by them. thus, if a person acts only as a “performer of commands” of their own inner world, then, therefore, they are to some extent quite mechanistic. also, the conditionality of the implementation of cognitive-behavioral patterns by the unconscious influence of the symbolic register, in turn, limits the ability of elements of the inner world to be realized. and it is already clear that the difference between the organism and the mechanism is not so cardinal. we speak only of an alternative interpretive position and point out that the idea of emotions, feelings, thoughts, consciousness and self-consciousness as the prerogative of human alone is a roadblock to progress and unbiased interpretation of scientific work in general and intellectual technologies of technogenic area in particular (sisson, 2016). in general, within the framework of the article, we do not recognize the existence of conscious free will in the human and believe that the cognitive-behavioral activity is carried out almost completely algorithmically broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 443 and unconsciously, and the conscious function is the registration of “events that have already occurred” and a posteriori awareness of “things already being done”. the algorithms of human mental activity are synergistic, rather than formal-logical in nature and therefore are not reproduced within the existing paradigm of formation of artificial intelligence systems. therefore, we define all types of artificial intelligence systems that are developed using the method of modeling perceptual processes, as a logo machines. logo machines are systems organized on the basis of partial modeling of perceptual processes in order to achieve a human-like similarity in the implementation of cognitive activity. there are contradictions caused by the activities on formation of logo machines. functions and advantages of logo and psycho machines in contrast to the development of logo machines, we offer our idea: the formation of psycho machines. the purpose of the psycho machine is to replace people engaged in complex, unpleasant or unenviable activities or to compete with humans in intellectual or logical tasks. to do this, the machine does not need to demonstrate intellectual or mental indicators, it is sufficient to just have a large structured and clearly defined base of appropriate algorithms, which will enable it to successfully cope with activities that cannot be done by humans due to the human factor. the idea of a psycho machine is much more ambitious and even in its own way spiritual and specifically existential (radutnyi, 2017). in essence, it is about creating something much superior than a human, something beyond the anthropic or even the meta-anthropic. and this is the idea of creating a psycho machine, which is the apotheosis and quintessence of human capabilities, as well as the solution of the so-called “god complex”. the created technology should be immeasurably superior to human capabilities and abilities in the field of mental, intellectual, spiritual and existential. at this stage of development of science and technology, humanity does not need a machine that can skillfully operate the laws of formal (and even fuzzy and temporal) logic within the available information. technologies of this kind have already been created and are operating successfully in the field of chess and logic games and tasks. however, we are not dealing with psycho machines, but logo machines. mankind does not need programs that can pass the turing test, because they have already been the problem of artificial intelligence in contemporary philosophy iryna maidaniuk et al. 444 created and are quite successful. however, they are purely speculative works, formed in order to algorithmically “play” on the errors of perception and emotional characteristics of humans. the turing test, not entirely intersubjective and relevant, has been criticized for subjectivity and excessive variability (husiev, 2017). as we can see, the attempts to materialize, model the perceptual and cognitive processes in human lead to the imitation of similarities to the functions demonstrated by human without much difficulty and, more importantly, perceived by others as meaningful behavior. therefore, human still has an inviolable right to have consciousness (regardless of actual behavior), while the artificial intelligence is a priori denied this right (regardless of the demonstrated abilities). in any case, humanity at this stage of development of science and technology rather needs machines that will help unravel mysteries of the universe, dilemmas of existence, mysteries of quantum mechanics and the existential mission of the human, will be able to face the challenge of chaotic systems, shed light on abiogenesis in the universe and the origin of the human. but current trends in this area lead to this very indirectly. it seems to us that the quintessence of the current technical and creative paradigm will be an anatomically, morphologically and behaviorally humanized and anthropomorphic logo machine, which has nothing significant and important “different in nature” from the human, but much more “logical” and “rational”. we adhere to the possibility of a qualitatively different way of developing the concept of creating psycho machines, the essence of which is to abandon all possible analogies of psycho machines with humans. we believe that it is counterproductive to try to materialize the simulated projections of the inner world and make similar to human forms of selfrealization of the psycho machines in the process of their development and improvement. the reason lies in the terms of determining the psycho machine and its differences from the logo machine. the definition of a logo machine is that it is created “in the image and likeness” of what researchers take for mental (logical) functions under the absolute jurisdiction of human, which are then designed and materialized as the source code, repeating according to its technical potential the process of visible realization of “human” patterns. it is superfluous to talk about the difference and opposition of the “real” and the “similar”, because there is no difference between the absolutely “real” and the “similar” to real, which is available and registered. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 445 our critique is of a different point and it concerns the insufficiency of such aspirations and the minimal nature of their results. as far as the psychomachine is concerned, everything is much more complicated. on the one hand, we can say that if the machine begins to demonstrate the abilities of conceptual thinking, forecasting the situation on the basis of incomplete information, the ability to reflect on “semantic traps”, etc., it can accurately and unequivocally be considered a psycho machine. if we tried to create something that is immeasurably superior to human in terms of mental, intellectual and spiritual indicators, then what kind of conceptual thinking can we talk about? the created psycho machine, in our opinion, will have such qualities and properties about which an individual has not the slightest idea and even a hint of them (karpenko, 2008). creating spiritual intelligent psycho machines is possible in principle. therefore, having faced with the levels of “thinking” and “understanding” demonstrated by psycho machines which are inaccessible and incomprehensible for the experimenter, it will be recognized that the technology lacks those qualities and properties that the machine should demonstrate. and, as a result, the psycho machine will be declared as another failure. thus, “in order to find the truth, you need to know what it looks like”. it is for this reason that we refuse to draw analogies between the psycho machine with its qualities and properties, on the one hand, and the human being with its qualities and properties, on the other. after all, the history of human origin and the process of its development from a single dna molecule to the most complex phenomena known to the contemporary science were inextricably linked with the environment in which genesis took place, inextricably linked with the constants of the universe. minimal deviations would have led to a qualitatively different result and a radically different result from the one obtained. from these positions it is worth considering the development of psymechanism in the software environment. the whole set of influences of the computer environment and the internet on the functioning of the artificial intelligence system in the process of its independent development and formation should be taken into account. obviously, as far as possible, we also mean, if necessary, to carry out some “educational” process or something similar (kuwayama et al., 2005). the problem of artificial intelligence in contemporary philosophy iryna maidaniuk et al. 446 but the basis is completely unbiased and completely devoid of anthropocentric tendencies of perception and interpretation of the created program, as well as a mandatory accounting of its “personal” “subjective” qualities and properties, its “temperament”, “character”, “direction” and so on in the process of “ontogenesis” of the psycho machine. this shows all the complexity of the question of the criteria for determining affiliation to psycho machines. conclusions thus, one of the key postulates of the article is the refusal to recognize the anthropocentrism and monism of the human model to establish criteria for the formation and development of psycho machines. it is necessary to introduce structuralist and connectionist views in the context of the formation of psycho machines at the current stage of technogenesis. at the same time, it is necessary to reconsider the positioning of psycho machines and to form public opinion in advance in order to avoid manifestations of “techno-discrimination”. we have accepted that the phenomenon of human consciousness is wrongly recognized as having free will, “decisive” and “controlling” aspect of the human psyche, and vice versa is rather passively reflective observer of the inner unconscious and synergistically algorithmic world processes of modeling perceptual and cognitive processes in the context of development of psycho machines. focusing on the characteristics of the psycho machine, we adhere to the following: the ability to solve logical problems and to perform mental activity is not a quality of the psycho machine, but an example of the socalled logo machine, which has nothing to do with our understanding of the psycho machine. the contradiction is that artificial intelligence systems are developed through partial and isolated modeling of perceptual processes, which a priori is not able to lead to the achievement of a “human likeliness” in the context of the reproduction of conscious qualities; and the requirements for recognition of consciousness of the system are completely inconsistent with the approach by which systems are developed. the point is the inconsistency of method and purpose. and until this contradiction is resolved, we will not be able to form a psycho machine, but only time and time again to materialize the logo machines, which are already plentiful as it is. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 447 references bostrom, n. (2014). superintelligence. paths, dangers, strategies. oxford university press. cellan-jones, r. (2014). stephen hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind. bbc. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540 garfield, e. (1955). citation indexes for science: a new dimension in documentation through association of ideas. science, 122(3159), 108–111. http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/science1955.pdf gitelman, l. d., kozhevnikov, m. v., & sandler, d. g. (2016). technology platforms as a tool for solving complex innovation problems. international journal of design & nature and ecodynamics 11(4), 584–592. https://www.witpress.com/secure/ejournals/papers/dne110410f.pdf grigoriev, a., shemanov, k., & kirillov, g. (2020). problema iskusstvennogo intellekta v filosofii: granitsa mezhdu chelovecheskim i mashinnyim soznaniem [the problem of artificial intelligence in philosophy: the border between human and machine consci]. voprosyi studencheskoy nauki, 1(41), 161-166. https://sciff.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sciff_1_41-1.pdf gutenev, m. yu. (2012). problema iskusstvennogo intellekta v filosofii xx veka [the problem of artificial intelligence in philosophy of the xx century]. philosophy, ethics, religious studies. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/problema-iskusstvennogo-intellekta-vfilosofii-xx-veka husiev, v. і. (2017). test a. tiuringa i “robot” r. dekarta [a. turing’s test and “descartes’ robot”]. scientific notes of the national university of kyiv-mohyla academy, 192, 8-16. http://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/11933/husiev_ test_tiuringa.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y karpenko, v. ye. (2008). problema shtuchnoho intelektu v suchasnii filosofii [artificial intelligence problem in modern philosophy]. philosophical sciences: collection of scientific works, 2, 159-167. https://library.sspu.edu.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/13-4.pdf#page=159 kenan, p., & athena, a. (2001). knowledge management as an economic development strategy. reviews of economic development literature and practice, 7, i-36. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/71342184.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540 http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/science1955.pdf https://www.witpress.com/secure/ejournals/papers/dne110410f.pdf https://sciff.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sciff_1_41-1.pdf https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/problema-iskusstvennogo-intellekta-v-filosofii-xx-veka https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/problema-iskusstvennogo-intellekta-v-filosofii-xx-veka http://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/11933/husiev_test_tiuringa.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/11933/husiev_test_tiuringa.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://library.sspu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/13-4.pdf#page=159 https://library.sspu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/13-4.pdf#page=159 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/71342184.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 the problem of artificial intelligence in contemporary philosophy iryna maidaniuk et al. 448 kuwayama, m., ueki, y., & tsuji, m. (eds.), (2005). information technology for development of small and medium-sized exporters in latin america and east asia. united nationas. https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/4161/s2005033_e n.pdf lodovici, m. (2021). the impact of teleworking and digital work on workers and society. european parliament. https://doi.org/10.2861/077828 petana, g., & rosa, c. a. (2020). digital transformation and the impact in knowledge management. in proceedings of the 12th international joint conference on knowledge discovery, knowledge engineering and knowledge management (ic3k 2020) (3, pp. 180-187). kmis. https://www.scitepress.org/papers/2020/101340/101340.pdf pohjola, m. (2000). information technology and economic growth: a cross-country analysis. wider. https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp173.pdf prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 radutnyi, o. e. (2017). kryminalna vidpovidalnist shtuchnoho intelektu [criminal liability of artificial intelligence]. informatsiia i pravo [information and law], 2(21), 124-132. http://ippi.org.ua/sites/default/files/17_1.pdf simon, h. (1996). the sciences of the artificial. monoshop. https://monoskop.org/images/9/9c/simon_herbert_a_the_sciences_o f_the_artificial_3rd_ed.pdf sisson, к. (2016). shaping the world of work – time for a uk jobs strategy. warkiwck. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/research/irru/wpir/wpir105.pdf skyrme, d. (1999). information resourses management. skyrme https://www.skyrme.com/insights/8irm.htm sydorchuk, yu. m. (2017). filosofsko-pravovi aspekty vykorystannia shtuchnoho intelektu [philosophical and legal aspects of the use of artificial intelligence]. pravo i suspilstvo [law and society], 3(2), 16-19. /http://pravoisuspilstvo.org.ua/archive/2017/3_2017/part_2/6.pdf vandaele, k. (2018). will trade unions survive in the platform economy? emerging patterns of platform workers’collective voice and representation in europe. etui. https://eticasfoundation.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/03/workingpaper2018.05vandaeletradeunionspla tformeconomyweb-1.pdf zakharchyn, h. m. (2021). upravlinnia znanniamy v umovakh rozvytku tsyfrovoi ekonomiky ta intelektualizatsii suspilstva [knowledge management in the context of digital economy development and intellectualization of society]. https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/4161/s2005033_en.pdf https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/4161/s2005033_en.pdf https://doi.org/10.2861/077828 https://www.scitepress.org/papers/2020/101340/101340.pdf https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp173.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 http://ippi.org.ua/sites/default/files/17_1.pdf https://monoskop.org/images/9/9c/simon_herbert_a_the_sciences_of_the_artificial_3rd_ed.pdf https://monoskop.org/images/9/9c/simon_herbert_a_the_sciences_of_the_artificial_3rd_ed.pdf https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/research/irru/wpir/wpir105.pdf https://www.skyrme.com/insights/8irm.htm http://pravoisuspilstvo.org.ua/archive/2017/3_2017/part_2/6.pdf https://eticasfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/workingpaper2018.05vandaeletradeunionsplatformeconomyweb-1.pdf https://eticasfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/workingpaper2018.05vandaeletradeunionsplatformeconomyweb-1.pdf https://eticasfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/workingpaper2018.05vandaeletradeunionsplatformeconomyweb-1.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 449 scientific bulletin of uzhhorod national university (international economic relations and world economy), 36, 76-80. https://doi.org/10.32782/2413-9971/202136-13 https://doi.org/10.32782/2413-9971/2021-36-13 https://doi.org/10.32782/2413-9971/2021-36-13 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 40-67 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/375 submitted: december 23rd, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education institutions in poland, hungary and the czech republic: neurobiological aspects of psychology valentyna bilyk 1 , vitalii honcharuk 2 , inna rozhi 3 , kateryna vasylenko 4 , natalia pshenychna 5 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, kyiv, ukraine, valya-bilyk@ukr.net 2 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, gvitalii1975@gmail.com 3 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, uman, ukraine, inna.rozhi.93@gmail.com 4 drahomanov national pedagogical university, kyiv, ukraine, katevasilenko1995@gmail.com 5 berdyansk state pedagogical university, berdyansk, ukraine, natali122436@gmail.com, orcid id https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0351-4950 abstract: the article examines the program principles and subject content of natural science training of future psychologists in central europe (poland, hungary and the czech republic). the choice of these countries for the study is due to the fact that despite short period of membership in the european union, the countries achieved a significant progress in developing national education systems. the purpose of the article is to identify the main trends in natural science training of future psychologists and their correlation with the latest ideas of neurobiology, which is gradually becoming complementary to psychological, pedagogical and other humanities. using methods of analysis (content analysis of educational programs; analysis of educational content for accordance with the latest advances in neurobiology), comparative method, statistical methods and extrapolation method, it was found that natural science training in universities in poland, hungary and the czech republic partially corresponds to practical application of neurobiology in the professional practice of psychologists. we present specific aspects of qualitative differences in the conclusions. we also calculated that the quantitative ratio of major subjects differs: the volume of credits for natural science training of future psychologists in the curricula of the analysed higher education institutions in poland is about 6%, in the czech republic 9-10%, and in hungary 11-12%. the international significance of the article lies in identification of positive practical and formal approaches to neurobiological training, which requires organizational and methodological reforms of psychological education in eastern europe. keywords: scope of education; interdisciplinary integration; study credits; practical training. how to cite: bilyk, v., honcharuk, v., rozhi, i., vasylenko, k., & pshenychna, n. (2022). contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education institutions in poland, hungary and the czech republic: neurobiological aspects of psychology. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 40-67. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/375 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/375 mailto:valya-bilyk@ukr.net mailto:gvitalii1975@gmail.com mailto:inna.rozhi.93@gmail.com mailto:katevasilenko1995@gmail.com mailto:natali122436@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0351-4950 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/375 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 41 introduction in the period of globalisation in general and european integration in particular, the issues of integrative training future professionals of the new generation: comprehensively developed, competent, really in demand on the labour market. it should be noted that the classical system of higher education is no longer able to meet the requirements of the present, and therefore needs appropriate reforms. in the context of the general reform of the worldwide education system, the issue of modernizing the training of future psychologists in higher education institutions is relevant, and logically, the problem of transformation of their natural science training. natural science education of psychologists now needs to be reformed in the direction of convergence of natural sciences and humanities, among which neurobiology, neuropsychology, neuropedagogy, etc. come to the fore (demchenko et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021). previously, neurobiology was considered an effective tool for solving personal problems, but now scientists are proving its connection with the social environment (micro and macro). they argue this connection by the fact that the stimulus-filled environment during adaptation and socialization of the subject changes the personal neurogenesis of brain structures, which in real groups can be described statistically, kempermann (2019). establishing a correlation between plasticity of the brain and adaptation to the environment, formation of personal flexibility and mobility will better prepare a person for effective activity in a multimodal preliminary undetermined globalized society. for psychology, psychiatry and criminology there are significant prospects for prevention of delinquency and deviant behaviour, to understand the biological interdependence of an individual and their environment (cupaioli et al, 2021). in the field of cognitive neurobiology today’s researchers claim that in the laboratory it is easy to establish a link between neurobiology and higher mental processes in normal and pathological cases. psychology here is at an intermediate level between pedagogy and psychiatry, so when designing the syllabus, it is appropriate to find the optimal combination of the scope of biological (neurobiological) and psychological training, sullivan (2015). in this regard, cognitive neurobiology should become a principal subject of natural science training. we have noticed that in all universities of eastern europe there are integrated disciplines, the name of which includes neurobiological categories, contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 42 but it is not always clear how the content of the discipline corresponds to current science, professional practice. therefore, the aim of the study is to find the most relevant neurobiological trends in natural science training of future psychologists in poland, hungary and the czech republic, to determine regional features of such training, to make appropriate statistical and qualitative conclusions on the correlation of educational content with the latest ideas in neurobiology. we used such methods as analysis of the scope of education for compliance with the achievements of neurobiology, content analysis and statistical analysis of the scope of disciplines in credits. the hypothesis of the study is that the natural science training in the countries of the former socialist camp (poland, hungary and the czech republic) has its national differences and is still on the stage of full adoption of the biopsychological concept of mental health and the corresponding concept of practical psychologists’ training. the authors of the research studied the relevant experience of the post-soviet countries (russia, ukraine) and developed western european countries (scandinavia) and against the background of their opposite models of science training can identify differences, negative and constructive aspects of reforming psychological education in central europe. the ethics of the study is determined by the consent of the administrations of the analysed universities in poland, hungary and the czech republic to publish and analyse the generalized fragments of educational programs, which are listed in the following sections. neurobiological aspects of psychology to understand the feasibility of building educational systems in central europe (poland, hungary and the czech republic) and compliance of scientific training of psychologists to global trends, let’s consider current neurobiological approaches. at the end of twentieth century, neuroscientists considered microphysical brain response, sensory responses, and motor coordination as major markers that could be used in pedagogy and psychology, churchland (1986). but at that time there was no appropriate equipment for fine neuroimaging, and society was not ready for the total integration of the humanities and natural sciences. these problems have now been overcome, so there is a need to increase the scope of neurosciences in the humanitarian education. the relevance of the study is given by the fact of universality of current neurobiology, which began to experimentally explain and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 43 materialistically objectify humanitarian phenomena, in particular education and training through the cognitive processes that accompany it. it is clear that the actually measurable mental and brain processes underlie cognitive, behavioural and even social and cultural. scientists have already made numerous recommendations for transformation of not only psychological education, but also all educational strategies in the framework of humanitarian and pedagogical integration (friedlander et al, 2011). recent studies with neuroimaging of the fronto-parietal and subcortical brain networks have shown that “barely visible” age or pathological changes in the human brain are directly correlated with changes in the higher nervous system (rosso et al., 2020). such changes can be detected in parallel in the early stages and with the help of psychodiagnostics, and with the help of current methods of neuroimaging. this makes psychology and neurobiology complementary sciences that solve common problems. therefore, it is necessary to introduce into the educational plans of psychologists’ training disciplines which consider neurobiological mechanisms of age, degenerative or mechanical (trauma) changes. this will spare psychology of an excessive number of idealistic modalities and promote integration of medicine and psychology. we have noticed that previously neurobiologists and neuropsychologists were more interested in pathological conditions, ailments and degenerative disorders of the brain. but recent studies apply experimental neurophysiological experience to normal states. now one can trace a natural aging process and link it to psychological changes. changes in the plasticity of certain brain regions, weakening of synaptic connections, on the one hand, age-related behaviour change, loss or maintenance of adaptability, flexibility of the psyche appeared mutually determined (kelly et al., 2006). thus, neurobiological markers can be used in psychological counselling or support of a person throughout their life. further we give some examples of how neurobiology managed not only to integrate into psychological science, but to solve problems that were previously considered purely humanitarian. for example, gorman s. and gorman j. (2019), based on the experience of social psychology, identified hyperactive zones of the brain, which are neurobiological correlatives of forming social ones based on common stereotypes, prejudices and interests. the neurophysiological specificity of the brain among representatives of marginalized social groups was also proved. in future, such research will help social psychologists to predict and resolve intergroup conflicts. deyong (2021) and co-authors of this work published an article in which, based on present neuro experiments and previous experience, proved contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 44 that there are specific and valid for laboratory detection biological mechanisms that shape and determine personality. scientists acknowledge that genetics, ecology, and the environment have a significant effect on personality, but its phenotypic basis is in the individual functioning of the brain. scientists predict that in the near future the neuroscience of an individual will turn from its current initial state into a discipline that is central to psychology. early neurophysiological diagnosis of disorders and personality disorders is especially promising, as clients go to psychologists in case of exacerbation of disorders and in the absence of any objective brain research. convergence of psychology and neurobiology has made it possible to explore the value, style and taste advantages in development and learning. such convergent studies have shown that “pavlov’s” conditional stimuli (cs), which were not previously associated with social behaviour and learning, can actually stimulate processes that are far from physiological needs. for example, the perception of food, smells and tastes, their change or improvement saturate the nervous system with positive stimuli, resulting in greater efficiency of work, education, conscious activity, myers (2018). thus, the general motivation of an individual to constructive behaviour, awareness of success, happiness grows. this suggests a closer connection between the brain zones responsible for the instinctive and social. therefore, the educational and scientific trends of western european countries testify to the growing popularity and expediency of implementation of neurobiology as an interdisciplinary science in the system of natural sciences and humanities. in view of this, interdisciplinarity as a traditional educational category acquires a new meaning integrity and holisticity in the development of patterns of functioning of an individual, social groups and humanity as a whole. natural science training of future psychologists in higher education institutions in poland in order to investigate the most important characteristics of natural science training of future psychologists in higher education institutions in poland, in our opinion, it is advisable to start with an analysis of higher education systems in this country. according to the polish “ustawу o szkolnictwie wyższym” and the law on higher education”, the following educational levels are distinguished in polish higher education institutions: first degree (bachelor's equivalent) training lasts from 6 to 7 semesters (3– 3.5 years) and ends with the student obtaining a qualification diploma and an academic degree “bachelor” (ba, “licencjat”), which allows him to start a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 45 professional career, or grants the right to continue education at the second level (chancellery of the sejm, 2018). іі degree (equivalent of master's degree) educational programs of this level are intended for entrants who already have the qualification of the first degree. the study lasts 4-5 semesters (2-2.5 years) and ends with the recipient of higher education dyplom ukończenia studiów wyższych / diploma of higher education and academic degree “magister / master”. especially interesting for our study is the polish “studia jednolite magisterskie / unified master’s program”, as it exists for such areas of training future professionals as: psychology, medicine and others. the program provides lifelong learning (9 to 12 semesters). in addition to the "master's degree", a higher education applicant who is enrolled in this program is awarded dyplom ukończenia studiów wyższych/ a diploma of higher education. graduates with a master's degree can apply to participate in doctoral research. iii degree (doctoral studies the equivalent of postgraduate studies in ukraine) involves the implementation of higher education by researchers and obtaining after the defense of the dissertation of the scientific degree “ph.d. / doctor of philosophy”. the current model of training future psychologists in poland is based on a fiveyear curriculum. science training is part of the “studia jednolite magisterskie / unified master’s program” and consists of compulsory and elective courses. let’s analyse the organization of natural science training of future psychologists in the leading institutions of higher education in poland, in particular, in the krakow pedagogical university named after the commission on public education, warsaw university of social sciences and humanities (2019a; 2019b), university of gdańsk (2019) and university of wrocław. thus, as a result of our research it was found that the mandatory natural sciences, which are provided in the curriculum for future psychologists at the krakow pedagogical university named after the commission on public education, a fragment of which is proposed in table 1, include: “biomedical bases of human behaviour”, “first aid”, “brain mechanisms of mental processes” and an integrative course “introduction into biopsychology”. contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 46 table 1. fragment of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at krakow pedagogical university named after the commission on public education disciplines tutorial type independen t work of student credits ects lectures seminar s lab. work compulsory subjects biomedyczne podstawy zachowań ludzkich / biomedical bases of human behavior 30 30 2 pierwsza pomoc przedmedyczna / first aid 15 15 30 2 mózgowe mechanizmy funkcji umysłowych / brain mechanisms of mental processes 60 60 60 6 wprowadzenie do biopsychologii / introduction to biopsychology 60 60 60 6 elective subjects szkolenie bezpieczeństwа życia i działań (bżd) / life safety training (lst) 15 15 30 2 source: authors' own conception in the general list of elective disciplines there is only one discipline of the cycle of natural science training, namely: “life safety training (lst)” (table 1). thus, the coordinator of the courses “biomedical bases of human behavior” and “first aid”, dr. kowalewski, i., argues: based on knowledge about: health, pathogenesis and symptoms of mental disorders and human diseases, methods of their prevention, as well as knowledge of topographic anatomy and physiology, obtained during the study of the outlined disciplines, future psychologists develop social competencies. the scientist specifies that in the process of studying the discipline “biomedical foundations of human behaviour”, such competencies are formed as: k 01 awareness of the need for knowledge about growth, physiological and mental development as a theoretical and practical component of health safe of their future customers; k 02 awareness of the need for knowledge about the processes of growth, physiological and mental development as a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 47 fundamental element of a professional approach to man in terms of education and psychology, especially during development; k 03 awareness of the need to develop research on human health as a value and resource of society (kowalewski, 2019). studying the discipline “premedical first aid”, kowalewski noted, in addition to the competencies k 01, k 02 and k 03, future psychologists additionally develop competencies k 04 awareness of moral and ethical principles in performing diagnostic and rescue operations, k 05 demonstrating readiness to implement in future professional activities the skills of a healthy lifestyle and k 06 demonstrating a willingness to cooperate and seek allies to implement a program to promote health in schools and society. having analysed the working curricula of these disciplines of natural science training, which are specified in the curriculum for future psychologists, we consider it appropriate to note that the purpose of their study is to provide students with social and professional competencies, the characteristics of which are described in detail by the authors of respective programmes, however, we did not find in the content of these programs coverage of the neurobiological mechanisms that may correlate with psychological competencies. the courses analysed in the following paragraphs are more in line with the current integrative paradigm of the humanities and natural sciences. instead, the integrative course “introduction to biopsychology” logically combines the topics of natural science and professional training of future psychologists. the purpose of the course, as noted by czernecka (2019) is to provide students with basic knowledge about the biological basis of the psyche, namely, the structure and functions of the human nervous system in micro (construction and operation of neurons and glial cells) and macro-dimensions (anatomy and physiology of individual parts central and peripheral nervous system), the main methods of diagnosing the structure and functioning of the human nervous system, adapted for use in psychodiagnostics. the course “brain mechanisms of mental processes”, is a continuation of the course “introduction to biopsychology”. during studying it, students are introduced to the neurophysiological mechanisms of complex mental functions of man, covering such phenomena as language, attention and memory. much of the course is aimed at studying the biological aspects of circadian rhythms and issues related to the asymmetry of the human brain (krzywoszański, 2019). authors of curricula for the analysed courses czernecka, k., contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 48 and krzywoszański, ł., propose a more generalized interpretation of the competencies k 01 and k 02, which are formed in the process of teaching the disciplines “introduction to biopsychology” and “brain mechanisms of mental processes”, express the opinion that they have social and professional significance. competence k 01 scientists formulate as awareness of future psychologists of the need for knowledge about the processes of physiological development of man as a theoretical basis for understanding the complexity of the determinants of his behavior and mental functioning as himself and others, equally assessing the impact of biological, social and cultural factors; competence k 02 as the willingness of future psychologists to apply scientific knowledge to justify the correctness of professional decisions and the ability to communicate effectively with specialists in other fields of neuroscience (biologists, physiologists, doctors) within certain issues related to mental functions (czernecka, 2019; krzywoszański, 2019). the discipline “szkolenie bżd / life safety training (lst)” is offered as an elective, but for students who have not chosen it at the first level of study, it will be mandatory to study at the second or third level of study in master’s / doctoral studies. thus, having carried out a detailed analysis of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at the krakow pedagogical university named after the commission on public education, we have reason to say that science training is 18 credits, which corresponds to 6% of total credits (300 ects credits). but only two disciplines directly take into account the achievements of the present neurobiology. let’s turn to the content of science education in other institutions in poland. warsaw university of social sciences and humanities is one of the leading institutions of higher education for the training of future psychologists in poland and the only private educational institution in the country that has the right to award the degree of ph.d. of psychology. given that the lecturers of this educational institution actively carry out research and implement in the educational process the international experience of training future specialists, take an active part in such international student exchange programs as erasmus +, atlantis and santander universidades and work closely with us, eu, china, vietnam and korea are implementing their training programs for 1-2 semesters in universities and colleges of these countries, we consider it appropriate to determine the state of natural science training of future psychologists at this university (warszawski uniwersytet, 2019). an analysis of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 49 which is available on the official website of the warsaw university of social sciences and humanities, suggests that it identifies five blocks of educational modules. the first three: block of compulsory subjects, block of elective subjects and block of specialization subjects are the basis of university psychological education. the other two: (block of language subjects and block of general subjects) are additional blocks of the plan (table 2). table 2. fragment of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at the warsaw university of social sciences and humanities learning effects names of blocks / modules credits рrzedmioty obligatoryjny / compulsory subjects k_w01, k_w02, k_w03, k_w04, k_w05, k_w37, k_u12, k_u16, k_k18. biologiczne mechanizmy zachowania / biological mechanisms of behavior 6 рrzedmioty fakultatywny / elective subjects k_w01, k_w02, k_w12, k_u01, k_u12, k_k18. biologiczne podstawy psychiki / biological foundations of the mentality 4 przedmioty specjalizacyjny/ subjects of specialization k_w27, k_w28, k_w34, k_u10, k_u11, k_u17, k_k07, k_k10, k_k19. neuropsychologia i neuronauki / neuropsychology and neuroscience 6 рrzedmioty ogólny / general subjects k_w40 bezpieczeństwo życia i działań / life safety 2 source: authors' own conception as can be seen from table 2, the subjects of natural science training belong to the three main blocks of training of future psychologists and to one additional one. in the block of obligatory subjects, in particular, natural science training is represented by the module “biological mechanisms of behaviour”. there are 6 credits for its study during the first year of study. in the block of elective subjects, the module “biological foundations of the mentality” is highlighted. contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 50 in accordance with the requirements of the university from the list of elective modules, students must choose at least 2 of the 10 provided each year. thus, during the five-year period of study, students will be required to choose the module “biological foundations of the psyche”, for the acquisition of which there are 4 credits. the authors of the program included the integrative module “neuropsychology and neuroscience”. this module is the most relevant to the latest trends. its main task is to thoroughly study the human brain and the cerebral mechanisms of higher mental functions by students. the topics of the module have a complex level structure, according to which the principle of detailing the study of the human nervous system from the molecular and genetic levels of individual molecules (e.g. proteins) and individual genes to the cellular level (neurons) is embodied; from the level of histological structures and cytoarchitectonics of individual parts of the human brain, such as the mantle of the brain, to more complex structures, such as the cerebral cortex, and to the highest level, namely the human brain and nervous system as a whole, and brain mechanisms memory, emotions, thinking, etc. the introduction of such principles of learning, according to the authors of the program, will allow students to form knowledge (k_w27, k_w28, k_w34) about the structural and functional organization of the human nervous system, patterns of its conditioned reflex activity and mechanisms of conditioned reflexes, physiological bases of simple and complex forms of human behavior and neurophysiological foundations of individuality (program kształcenia na kierunku psychologia 2019). a detailed analysis of the working curriculum of this module indicates its interdisciplinary status. the authors of the program claim that students who will study according to the program created by them will be able to demonstrate skills (k_u10, k_u11, k_u17), namely: to study unconditioned human reflexes, make reflex arcs and determine their type (monosynaptic or polysynaptic), assess individual level excitability of the cortex of the large hemispheres and features of internal inhibition, to investigate the basic physiological mechanisms of attention, memory, emotional state and motivation for various activities. the acquired knowledge and skills, according to the authors of the program, will contribute to the formation of future psychologists' competencies (k_k07, k_k10, k_k19), which include: a) understanding by the student of the complex nature of the relationship between psychology and neuroscience; b) their awareness of the need for continuous natural science education and renewal of knowledge in neuroscience. coordinator of the module “biologiczne mechanizmy zachowania/ broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 51 biological mechanisms of behaviour” is sobańska, m. (2019) the coordinator of the module sobańska, m., notes that the study of the training course presented by her presupposes the formation of knowledge among future psychologists (k_w01, k_w02, k_w03, k_w04, k_w05, k_w37), about the structure and activity of nerve and glial cells; mechanisms of transmission of nerve impulses in a neuron and in a synapse; the action of the main neurohormones and neurotransmitters; structure and functioning of the central and peripheral nervous system of a person; functional connections between the activity of the central nervous system of a person and his cognitive and motor-emotional activity; the main mechanisms responsible for the perception of external stimuli in receptors; neurophysiological mechanisms of regulation of muscle activity and internal organs; basic psychophysiological measurement methods and biological mechanisms underlying the measured variables, sobańska (2019). having completed the study of the module “biological mechanisms of behaviour”, students must be able (k_u12, k_u16,) to distinguish on diagrams and drawings of the structure of the peripheral and central nervous system of man; structural elements of the neuron; to connect the activity of human internal organs with individual departments of the cns; to combine sensory phenomena with the functioning of the human nervous system and its receptors; differentiate electrophysiological signals: electrocardiography, electromyography, purulent-septic infections and electroencephalography; assess how changes in the levels of main neurohormones and neurotransmitters affect human behavior and mental health. during the study of the module “biologiczne mechanizmy zachowania / biological mechanisms of behaviour” future psychologists develop competence (k_k18), which implies their understanding of the complexity of the links between psychological research and other fields of knowledge, including science; awareness of the need for constant study and updating of their natural science knowledge in order to expand the scientific worldview and apply them in professional activities. author of the program of the elective module “biological foundation of mentality” jabłoński s. notes that the purpose of this course is to acquaint students of psychology with basic knowledge of the biological mechanisms underlying the relationship between the brain and mental processes, as well as to create a conceptual framework for further training in psychology. the explanatory note to the program states that after completing the module (discipline) and confirming the learning outcomes, the student can (k_k18) reflexively apply the basic concepts of neuroscience and knowledge (k_w01, k_w02, k_w12) about the structure contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 52 of the nervous system and its functional organization, to characterize cognitive dysfunctions on the basis of knowledge about the structural organization of the human nervous system and functional connections of its structures (k_u01, k_u12), jabłoński (2019). "bezpieczeństwo życia i działań / life safety " a training module that belongs to the block of general disciplines, and, as noted in the training program for future psychologists, aims to form in them scientific knowledge about the dangers of different origins and means of protecting people and the environment from them actions (k_w40). to study this module there are 2 credits in the first semester of the first year of study (warszawski uniwersytet humanistycznospołeczny (swps, 2019). thus, having analysed the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at the warsaw university of social sciences and humanities, we have reason to say that the structure, names and number of disciplines system of natural science training of psychologists has significant differences from a similar system implemented in krakow pedagogical university named after the commission on public education. however, in both universities it is 18 credits, which corresponds to 6% of the total credits (300 ects credits). analysing the curricula for the training of future psychologists at the university of gdańsk / university of gdańsk (uniwersytet gdański, 2019) and the university of wrocław / university of wrocław, (warszawski uniwersytet humanistycznospołeczny (swps) (2019), we concluded that the structure, content and number of credits of natural science training of future psychologists at these universities fully correspond to those of warszawski uniwersytet humanistycznospołeczny / warsaw university of social sciences and humanities (uniwersytet gdański, 2019; warszawski uniwersytet, 2019). thus, our analysis of curricula and training programs for the training of future psychologists in higher education institutions in poland gives grounds to distinguish similarities and differences in the implementation of natural science training. it is worth noting that the identified differences in the names of disciplines of natural science training in the analyzed curricula, at first glance, give the impression of its significant differences in different institutions of higher education in poland. however, a detailed analysis of the content of educational programs indicates that all disciplines of the natural science component of the training of students of psychology are professionally oriented and aimed at forming the professional and social competencies of future psychologists. we consider it expedient to emphasize that the natural science component in the system of general broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 53 training of future specialists in this field in these universities is realized through the same number of ects credits and is 6% of the total credits. training of future psychologists in hungary higher education in hungary has a long history and dates back to its founding in the south of the country, in the city of pecs, the first university (1367). today’s higher education in hungary is represented by more than 20 accredited public or private educational institutions, including universities and colleges. some colleges operate as part of universities and have the status of "colleges-faculties". universities may also offer courses equivalent to colleges. the college course lasts from 4 to 5 years and corresponds to the bachelor of science program. according to the university program as well as the college program, the duration of students' study is from 4 to 5 years, but corresponds to the master of science program. the training of future psychologists in hungary, as well as in poland, is carried out according to the system of continuous five-year general education. it should be noted that hungarian students start their studies with basic general and psychological education and acquire special professional knowledge only in the last years, and in some cases even after graduating from university. we will analyse the organization of natural science training of future psychologists in the leading universities of hungary, in particular in eötvös loránd tudományegyetem / university of budapest named after lorand etvěń (2019), pázmány péter katolikus egyetem / catholic university named after pázmány péter (2019) and szegedi tudományegyetem / university of szeged (2019). for analysis, we offer a fragment of the curriculum for future psychologists at eötvös loránd tudományegyetem / lorand etves university of budapest (table 3). as a result of our research, it was found that the compulsory natural sciences, which are provided by the curriculum for training psychologists at the university of budapest named after lorand etvesh include: “physiology and anatomy i and ii”, “practicum on physiology and anatomy”, “evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics” (table 3.) (gallupe, et al., 1992). given that higher education institutions in hungary are autonomous and have the right to independently draw up and approve student training plans, the fact that the heads of primary schools are aware of the importance of natural science training for future psychologists is considered to be one of contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 54 the disciplines chosen by the educational institution. two disciplines from the cycle of natural science training were introduced for study, namely: “introduction to neuroscience” and “neuroscience practicum” (table 3). table 3. fragment of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at lorand etves university of budapest disciplines c re d it s e c t s n u m b e r o f h o u rs p e r w e e k s em e st e r t u to ri al t y p e f in al c o n tr o l mandatory disciplines élettan és anatómia і és іі / physiology and anatomy i and ii 6 3 1,2 lecture exam gyakorlat a az élettan és anatómia / practicum on physiology and anatomy 3 2 1,2 practical work test evolúciós pszichológia és magatartásgenetika / evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics 4 3 2,3 lecture / practical work exam disciplines chosen by the educational institution bevezetés az neurotudomány / introduction to neuroscience 4 3 3 lecture exam gyakorlat a az neurotudomány / neuroscience practicum 3 2 4,5 practical work test source: authors' own conception according to the authors of the curriculum, additional study of professionally oriented disciplines of natural science training will expand and deepen the training of future psychologists (eötvös loránd tudományegyetem, 2019). a detailed analysis of the curricula in the disciplines of natural science training of future psychologists at the lorand etves university of budapest shows that they are all integrative and have a neurobiological broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 55 orientation. interestingly, all theoretical courses are accompanied by practical training, which takes place either together with theoretical, as in the course of studying the course “evolutionary psychology and behavioural genetics”, or in parallel with theoretical, as, for example, in teaching disciplines “physiology and anatomy і and іі” and “practicum on physiology and anatomy” which are studied in 1 and 2 semesters respectively. alternatively, a series of theoretical and practical classes are practiced, as in the process of teaching the discipline “introduction to neuroscience”, the theoretical part of which is studied in the 3rd semester, and the practical course “neuroscience practicum” in 4 and 5 semesters. catholic university named after pázmány péter has a common history with the lorand etves university of budapest and is one of the oldest private universities in hungary. it consists of two institutes and five faculties, including the faculty of social sciences and humanities, which includes the institute of psychology (pázmány péter katolikus egyetem, 2019). an analysis of the training plans of future psychologists at the catholic university named after pázmány péter shows that its volume, as at the lorand etves university in budapest, is 20 credits, ie 11.1% of the total credits (180 ects credits). however, the structure of scientific training is somewhat different (table 4). table 4. fragment of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at catholic university named after pázmány péter disciplines c re d it s e c t s n u m b e r o f h o u rs p e r e e k s em e st e r t u to ri al t y p e f in al c o n tr o l compulsory biological disciplines аnatómia / anatomy 4 3 1 lecture exam neyroanatómia / neuroanatomy 4 3 2 lecture exam élettan / physiology 4 3 2 lecture/ lab.work exam contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 56 etológia / ethology 3 2 2 lecture exam compulsory scientific disciplines bevezetés a biostatisztika (аz elmélet) / introduction to biostatistics (theoretical course) 3 3 3 lecture exam elective disciplines bevezetés a biostatisztika (gyakorlati kurzus) / introduction to biostatistics (practical course) 2 2 3 practical work test source: authors' own conception as can be seen from table 4, in the curriculum of catholic university named after pázmány péter, the disciplines of natural science training of future psychologists are represented in three sections, namely: biological disciplines (“anatomy”, “neuroanatomy”, “physiology”), scientific disciplines (“introduction to biostatistics (theoretical course)”), and elective disciplines (“introduction to biostatistics (practical course)”). we consider it necessary to emphasize that, although the course “introduction to biostatistics (practical course)” belongs to the elective courses, but in the program of the theoretical course “introduction to biostatistics (theoretical course)”, in the section of recommendations that are mandatory, it is stated that the theoretical course should end with the formation of future psychologists’ practical skills, and therefore requires study of the course “introduction to biostatistics (practical course) (pázmány péter katolikus egyetem, 2019). thus, due to this clarification, we have reason to believe that the number of disciplines of natural science training, which are compulsory for future psychologists, and the number of credits allocated for its implementation is increasing. university of szeged is one of the largest in hungary. its structure includes 12 faculties. szeged institute of psychology a structural unit of faculty of humanities. the analysis of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at the university of szeged, a fragment of which is shown in table 5, gives grounds to state: natural science training is mandatory for higher education bachelor's / master's degree in psychology and is 23 credits, which corresponds to 12,8% of the total teaching load (180 ects credits) (szegedi tudományegyetem, 2019). a detailed analysis of the work programs in the disciplines of natural science training of future psychologists, which are reflected in the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 57 curriculum of the university of szeged, indicates that all natural science disciplines, namely: “physiology and anatomy i and ii”, “practicum in physiology and anatomy i and ii”, “ethology and behavioural genetics”, “neuropsychology and neuroscience” and “neuropsychology and neuroscience practicum” are professionally and practically oriented. table 5. fragment of the curriculum for future psychologists at university of szeged disciplines c re d it s e c t s n u m b e r o f h o u rs p e r w e e k s em e st e r t u to ri al t y p e f in al c o n tr o l compulsory disciplines élettan és anatómia i–іі / physiology and anatomy i and ii 6 3 1/2 lecture exam gyakorlat a az élettanról és az anatómia і– іі / practicum in physiology and anatomy i and ii 3/4 2/3 1/2 practical work test etológia és magatartásgenetika / ethology and behavioral genetics 3 2 2 lecture / practical work exam neuropszichológia és neurotudomány / neuropsychology and neuroscience 4 3 6 lecture exam gyakorlat a neuropszichológiába és az neurotudomány / / neuropsychology and neuroscience practicum 3 2 7 practical work test source: authors' own conception thus, despite the form of ownership and autonomy of higher education institutions in hungary to organize the educational process, in the structure of curricula for future psychologists a significant number of credits from 20 to 23 is provided for the implementation of science training, which is approximately 11-12% of total credits. most natural science disciplines are represented by integrative courses with a professional focus. considerable contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 58 attention is paid to the formation of future psychologists' practical skills, so theoretical courses are accompanied by practical or laboratory work. higher psychological education in the czech republic czech higher education is one of the oldest in europe. its roots go back to the middle of the xiv century, when the world-famous charles university was founded. modern higher education in the czech republic is represented by 62 higher education institutions, among them: 24 public educational institutions, 4 state higher education institutions and 34 private. the training of future psychologists in the czech republic, in contrast to the five-year general education in hungary and poland we analysed, consists of three stages, after which each graduate receives a bachelor’s, master's or doctoral degree, respectively. given that higher psychological education in the czech republic is in high demand among entrants, we will analyse the organization of scientific training of future psychologists in the country’s leading universities, namely: in prague charles university, masaryk university and in university of palacké. the website czech national institute of education notes that the development of science education in the czech republic has a history of approximately 350 years and has at various times been linked to scientific achievements and social needs and goals. now, according to the authors of the site, despite the fact that in the czech system of higher education much attention is paid to the study of natural sciences by students, dissatisfaction with its quality is growing in society. according to the authors of the site, dissatisfaction with the quality of natural education is caused by the remoteness of theoretical training from its practical application. scientists note that in most institutions of higher education disciplines are taught as isolated "minor sciences", which leads to misunderstanding by future professionals and future psychologists in particular, the importance of science training and weakening the motivation of students to study science (český národní ustav pro vzdělávání, 2019). given the fact that charles university like oxford and leiden, bonn or the sorbonne, bologna and the university of geneva, belongs to the association of european universities (český národní ustav pro vzdělávání, website, 2019), we consider it expedient within the framework of our research to analyze the state of natural science training of future psychologists in this institution of higher education. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 59 charles university in prague is the oldest institution of higher education in central europe and the most prestigious in the czech republic. its structure includes 17 faculties, 3 institutes and 6 centres of educational, scientific and research activities. future psychologists are trained at charles university in prague at the department of psychology, faculty of philosophy. the list of courses of natural science training of students-psychologists in this institution of higher education is shown in table 6. table 6. fragment of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at the univerzita karlova v praze (2019)/ prague charles university disciplines credits semester požadované kurzy / compulsory courses anatomie, fyziologie a genetika / anatomy, physiology and genetics 3 1 neurofyziologie / neurophysiology 3 2 fyziologická psychologie / physiological psychology 4 3 bezpečnost zdraví, život a životní prostředí / safety of health, life and the environment 2 4 volitelné kurzy / elective courses neurobiologie poruch chování / neurobiological mechanisms of behavioral disorders 3 1–6 vybrané kapitoly z patologické neurofyziologie selected sections on pathological neurophysiology 3 1–6 neurobiologie poruch paměti / neurobiological mechanisms of memory disorders 3 1–6 neurobiologie poruch duńevních procesů / neurobiological mechanisms of disorders of mental processes 3 1–6 source: authors' own conception after analysing the curriculum for the training of future psychologists, contained on the official website of the prague charles university, there is reason to assert that the scientific training of future psychologists is 18 credits, that is, 10% of the total volume (180 credits) and is represented by compulsory and elective disciplines. elective science disciplines, two of which are compulsory, students have the right to choose from their proposed list in the curriculum throughout their studies. as can be seen from table 6, the compulsory natural sciences disciplines provided for in the curriculum for future psychologists at charles university in prague include: “anatomy, physiology and genetics”, contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 60 “neurophysiology”, “physiological psychology” and “safety of health, life and the environment”. unfortunately, neurologically oriented disciplines are presented only as optional. the list of optional courses includes “neurobiological mechanisms of behavioural disorders”, “selected chapters on pathological neurophysiology”, “neurobiological mechanisms of memory disorders” and “neurobiological mechanisms of mental process disorders”. we consider it expedient to emphasize that the analysis of curricula in these disciplines indicates their professional orientation and logical sequence of study. masaryk university is the second largest and one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in the czech republic, included in the qs world university rankings / ranking of the best universities in the world. some lectures and even some courses at the university are taught by professors of elite american and european universities (masaryk university, 2019). the structure of the university includes 9 faculties and research institutes. according to the official website of the university, the faculty of philosophy, which trains future psychologists, is in special demand among applicants, university of masaryk (2019). given the above, we consider it appropriate in the framework of our study to determine the state of implementation of natural science training of future psychologists at the university of masaryk (2019). the analysis of the curriculum for future psychologists, which is available on the official website of masaryk university, gives grounds to claim that the scientific research of future psychologists is 16 credits, ie 8.9% of the total (180 credits). as can be seen from table 7, the disciplines of natural sciences include: integrative course “biological sciences”, which combines modules “anatomy”, “physiology” and “fundamentals of genetics”, and also professionally oriented courses “neurophysiology”, “physiological psychology” and “neuropsychology”. table 7. fragment of the curriculum for future psychologists at masarykova univerzita / masaryk university code disciplines credits semester compulsory courses /požadované kurzy biologické vědy / biological sciences: 5 1 anatomie / anatomy broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 61 psa_001 fyziologie / physiology základy genetiky / fundamentals of genetics psa_011 neurofyziologie / neurophysiology 3 2 psa_008 fyziologická psychologie / physiological psychology 4 3 psa_056 neuropsychologie / neuropsychology 4 9 source: authors' own conception the explanatory note to the analyzed curriculum states that after successful study of the proposed natural sciences students will have a systematic knowledge of the structure and functioning of the nervous system and neurophysiology of the higher parts of the human brain, which will allow them to successfully use the latest research in neuroscience when diagnosing diseases of the human nervous system and correcting neuropsychiatric disorders (masarykova univerzita, 2019). scientists from masaryk university j. válek & p. sládek (2018) share this view and emphasizing the importance of natural science training of future professionals, including future psychologists, argue that it is the natural sciences that contribute to the formation of their core competencies, namely: the ability to solve problems and to form flexibility and adaptability; ability to develop innovative solutions and develop creativity and systems thinking; ability to industry and interdisciplinary communication and teamwork; ability to withstand stress and stressful situations (válek & sládek, 2018). palatsky university is the oldest university in moravia and the second oldest university in the czech republic. today it is an advanced higher education institution with a wide range of educational and research programs, which according to international rankings is among the best universities in the world. according to the official website of the palacky university, its mission is to promote students in all areas of research, develop their critical and creative thinking, as well as provide quality education in a wide range of natural, medical, social and human sciences at bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels (university palackého in olomouci, 2019). given the above, in our opinion, it is advisable to analyze the state of implementation of natural science training of future psychologists at this university. the training of future psychologists at palatsky university is carried out by the department of psychology, which belongs to the structure of the faculty of philosophy. the guarantor of the training program for students of psychology at the palatsky university is ph.d. ń. matus says that the contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 62 program is designed in accordance with european standards for the training of future psychologists, and the curriculum covers both neurologically oriented disciplines and “related”, including science (anatomy, physiology, genetics and others). this type of curriculum, according to the scientist, will allow future graduates of psychology, not only to continue their careers as psychologists, but also to apply the acquired knowledge and skills in other fields. analysis of the curriculum for future psychologists, which is on the official website of the palatsky university and fragmented in table 8, suggests that the mandatory disciplines of natural sciences, which are provided by the curriculum, include: “fundamentals of anatomy and physiology”, “neurophysiology”, “general psychophysiology”. table 8. fragment of the curriculum for the training of future psychologists at univerzita palackého / palatsky university code disciplines credits semester požadované kurzy / compulsory courses pch/zafd základy anatomie a fyziologie / fundamentals of anatomy and physiology 6 1 pch/zafnneurofyziologie / neurophysiology 4 2 pch/pfyn obecná psychofyziologie / general psychophysiology 4 4 volitelné kurzy / elective courses pch/etld etológia és magatartásgenetika / ethology and behavioral genetics 3 3 source: authors' own conception in the general list of elective courses there is only one discipline from the cycle of natural science training, namely: “ethology and behavioural genetics”. we consider it appropriate to emphasize that this discipline, although “standing” in the section of elective courses, but has the label – “povinné ke studiu / required for study”. so, let’s summarize: natural science training of future psychologists at the palatsky university is 17 credits, ie 9.4% of the total (180 credits). given the information on the importance of natural science training for future professionals, which is available on the website of the czech national institute of education and our analysis of curricula and training broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 63 programs for future psychologists in higher education in the czech republic, we have reason to say that natural science training for future psychologists in the country compulsory and characterized by professional orientation. however, in contrast to the curricula and training programs for future psychologists at hungarian universities analyzed above, the natural sciences component does not have separate practical courses, i.e., it is more theoretical. thus, the analysis of scientific works, curricula and training programs for the training of future psychologists in higher education institutions in poland, hungary and the czech republic indicates the presence of both similarities and a number of differences. despite the extreme variability of disciplines that form the basis of natural science training of future psychologists, in the above curricula of higher education institutions of these countries, we consider its appropriate to emphasize that their content is fully adapted to the peculiarities of their future professional activities the main methodological approach in the implementation of natural science training is competency, because in all our analyzed curricula in natural sciences disciplines, the result of training is determined by the formation of relevant competencies. the main difference, in our opinion, is that in higher education institutions in hungary, teachers pay considerable attention to the implementation of practical training of future psychologists in the disciplines of the natural sciences. on the other hand, theoretical training prevails in higher education institutions in poland, and even more so in the czech republic. there are also significant differences in the number of credits provided by the curricula of the universities of the analyzed countries for the implementation of natural science training: from 6% of the total in poland to about 9-10% in the czech republic and 11-12% in hungary. conclusions thus, analysis of scientific works, curricula and training programs for training future psychologists at higher education institutions in poland, hungary and the czech republic indicates both similarities and a number of differences. despite extreme variability of disciplines that constitute the basis of natural science training of future psychologists, in the analysed above curricula of higher education institutions of these countries, we consider it appropriate to emphasize that their content is fully adapted to the peculiarities of their future professional activities; the main methodological approach in implementation of natural science training is the competence contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 64 one, because in all the curricula in natural science disciplines we have analysed, the result of training is determined by formation of relevant competencies. the disadvantage of certain universities is that neurobiological disciplines are in the blocks of elective disciplines. the undisputed leaders in the practical orientation of natural science training are the analysed institutions of higher education in hungary, in which theoretical courses of natural science training are always accompanied by practical or laboratory work. czech researchers are modernizing the existing system of natural science training for future professionals, specifically: creation of new educational programs (curricula), which should include integrative, professionally oriented natural science disciplines, and the theoretical courses should be strengthened with a practical orientation. this will help students realize the importance of scientific knowledge for future professional activities and the ability to use them in everyday life. the scientists note that under such conditions, it is possible to increase students’ motivation to study natural sciences and create broader preconditions for future professional employment and competitiveness of graduates on the present-day labour market. attention is focused on the fact that teachers pay somewhat less attention to the practical training of psychology students with natural science training in higher education institutions in poland, and the theoretical nature of the natural science training of future psychologists in higher education institutions in the czech republic is noted. it is established that the natural science training of future psychologists in higher education institutions in poland, hungary and the czech republic has certain differences, namely: the state of implementation of its practical part and the number of credits in the curriculum. it is noted that the amount of credits for natural science training of future psychologists in the curricula of the analysed higher education institutions in poland is about 6%, in the czech republic 9-10%, and in hungary 11-12%. acknowledgments the authors are grateful to the administrations of universities, who provided the opportunity for internships, adoption and analysis of their experience in training psychologists in the field of natural sciences. the authors also consider it necessary to indicate the partial participation of each of them in writing the article. natalia pshenychna analysed the recent literature on neurobiological trends in natural training; inna rozhi analysed broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 65 statistics on distribution of training modules in universities; valentyna bilyk and vitalii honcharuk identified a neurobiological thematic component in the content of natural training of psychologists. kateryna vasylenko finalized the text of the article. references chancellery of the sejm. (2018). prawo o szkolnictwie wyższym i nauce [law on higher education and science]. chancellery of the sejm. churchland, p. m. (1989). some reductive strategies in cognitive neurobiology. in s. silvers (eds.), representation. philosophical studies series, 40 (pp. 223-253). springer, dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2649-3_12 cupaioli, f. a., zucca, f. a., caporale, c., lesch, k. p., passamonti, l., & zecca, l. (2021). the neurobiology of human aggressive behavior: neuroimaging, genetic, and neurochemical aspects. progress in neuro-psychopharmacology and biological psychiatry, 106, 110059. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2020.110059 czernecka, k. (2019). wprowadzenie do biopsychologii: рrogram. uniwersytet pedagogiczny im. komisji edukacji narodowej [introduction to psychology]: program. pedagogical university named after the national commission on education. http://ip.us.edu.pl/ czernecka _id=32341 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 deyoung, c. g., grazioplene, r. g., & allen, t. a. (2021). the neurobiology of personality. in o. p. john & r. w. robins (eds.), handbook of personality: theory and research (pp. 193–216). the guilford press. eötvös loránd tudományegyetem (elte) [lorand etvěń university]. (2019). http://www.ppk.elte.hu/alapkepzesek/pszichologia_ba friedlander, m. j., andrews, l., armstrong, e. g.., aschenbrenner, c., kass, j. s., ogden, p., schwartzstein, r., & viggiano, t. r. (2011). what can medical education learn from the neurobiology of learning? academic medicine, 86(4), 415–420. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0b013e31820dc197 gallupe, r. b., dennis, a. r., cooper, w. h., valacich, j. s., bastianutti l. m. & nunamaker, j. f. (1992). electronic brainstorming and group size. academy of management journal, 35(2), 350–369. https://doi.org/10.2307/256377 gorman, s. e., & gorman, j. m. (2019). the social psychology and neurobiology of intergroup conflict. in h. moffic, j. peteet, a. hankir, r. awaad (eds.), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2649-3_12 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0278584620303754#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0278584620303754#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0278584620303754#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0278584620303754#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0278584620303754#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0278584620303754#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02785846 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02785846 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02785846/106/supp/c https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2020.110059 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 http://www.ppk.elte.hu/alapkepzesek/pszichologia_ba https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0b013e31820dc197 https://doi.org/10.2307/256377 contemporary practice of natural science training in higher education ... valentyna bilyk et al. 66 islamophobia and psychiatry (pp. 67–81). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00512-2_6 jabłoński, s. (2019). biologiczne podstawy zachowania: рrogram. warszawski uniwersytet humanistycznospołeczny [biological bases of behavior]: a program. warsaw university of social sciences and humanities https://usosweb.amu.edu.pl/kontroler.php?_action=actionx:katalog2/prze dmioty/pokazprzedmiot(prz_kod:08-psz5-bpz) kelly, k. m., nadon, n. l., morrison, j. h., thibault, o., barnes, c. a., & blalock, e. m. (2006). the neurobiology of aging. epilepsy research, 68(1), 5 – 20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2005.07.015 kempermann, g. (2019). environmental enrichment, new neurons and the neurobiology of individuality. nature reviews neurosciences, 20, 235–245 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0120-x kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kowalewski, i. (2019). biomedyczne podstawy zachowań ludzkich: рrogram. uniwersytet pedagogiczny im. komisji edukacji narodowej. [biomedical bases of human behavior]: program. pedagogical university named after the national commission on education. http://ip.us.edu.pl/kowalewski _id=62345 krzywoszański, ł. (2019). mózgowe mechanizmy funkcji umysłowych: рrogram. uniwersytet pedagogiczny im. komisji edukacji narodowej [brain mechanisms of mental functions]: program. pedagogical university named after the national commission on education http://ip.us.edu.pl/ krzywoszański _id=22112 masarykova univerzita [masaryk university] (muni). (2019). http://www.phil.muni.cz/plonedata/wff/studium/katalogy/20172018/psychologie.pdf myers, k. p. (2018). the convergence of psychology and neurobiology in flavornutrient learning. appetite, 122, 36-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2017.03.048 pázmány péter katolikus egyetem [pázmány péter catholic university]. (2019). https://btk.ppke.hu/kepzeseink/tovabbkepzesek/szakiranyutovabbkepzesek/altalanos-pszichologia prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00512-2_6 https://usosweb.amu.edu.pl/kontroler.php?_action=actionx:katalog2/przedmioty/pokazprzedmiot(prz_kod:08-psz5-bpz) https://usosweb.amu.edu.pl/kontroler.php?_action=actionx:katalog2/przedmioty/pokazprzedmiot(prz_kod:08-psz5-bpz) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2005.07.015 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0120-x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 http://ip.us.edu.pl/kowalewski%20_id=62345 http://ip.us.edu.pl/kowalewski%20_id=62345 http://www.phil.muni.cz/plonedata/wff/studium/katalogy/2017-2018/psychologie.pdf http://www.phil.muni.cz/plonedata/wff/studium/katalogy/2017-2018/psychologie.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2017.03.048 https://btk.ppke.hu/kepzeseink/tovabbkepzesek/szakiranyu-tovabbkepzesek/altalanos-pszichologia https://btk.ppke.hu/kepzeseink/tovabbkepzesek/szakiranyu-tovabbkepzesek/altalanos-pszichologia broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 67 culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rosso, a. l., nadkarni, n. k., & rosano, c. (2020) neurobiology of falls: neuroimaging assessment. in m. montero-odasso, r.camicioli (eds.), falls and cognition in older persons (pp. 165–188). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24233-6_10 sobańska, m. (2019). biologiczne mechanizmy zachowania: рrogram. warszawski uniwersytet humanistycznospołeczny [biological mechanisms of behavior]: program. warsaw university of social sciences and humanities https://usosweb.uw.edu.pl/kontroler.php?_action=katalog2/przedmioty/ pokazprzedmiot&kod=2500-pl-ps-ob1z-3 sullivan, j. a. (2015). experimentation in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neurobiology. in j. clausen, & h. levy (eds.), handbook of neuroethics (pp. 31–47). springer. szegedi tudományegyetem. (2019). szegedi pszichológiai intézet [szeged institute of psychology]. university of szeged. http://www.pszich.uszeged.hu/kepzesek/pszichologia-ba/haloterv/ university of warsaw. (2019a). program kształcenia na kierunku psychologia [an educational program in psychology]. university of warsaw. http://psych.strony.uw.edu.pl/wpcontent/uploads/sites/98/2016/03/program_kształcenia_2015_2016.pdf university of warsaw. (2019b). warszawski uniwersytet humanistycznospołeczny (swps) [warsaw university of social sciences and humanities]. university of warsaw. https://www.studia.net/uczelnie-studia/5616-szkola-wyzszapsychologii-spolecznej-w-warszawie univerzita karlova v praze [charles university in prague]. (2019). https://kps.ff.cuni.cz /cs/studium/bakalarske-studium/rozvrhy-studijniplany/ univerzita palackého v olomouci [palacky university in olomouc]. (2019). https://www.ff.upol.cz/fileadmin/userdata/ff/studium/st_plany/ff171 8.pdf uniwersytet gdański [university of gdansk]. (2019). http://www.krsonline.com.pl/uniwersytet-gdanski-krs-379626.html válek, j., & sládek, p. (2018). dokážeme správně připravit budoucí učitele praktického vyučování v konfrontaci s rvp? [can we adequately prepare future practicum teachers to confront rvp?] in pedagogická příprava učitelů praktického vyučování. sborník příspěvků z odborné konference sítě ttnet čr [pedagogical training for practitioner teachers] (pp. 71–77). proceedings of the ttnet cr professional conference. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24233-6_10 https://usosweb.uw.edu.pl/kontroler.php?_action=katalog2/przedmioty/pokazprzedmiot&kod=2500-pl-ps-ob1z-3 https://usosweb.uw.edu.pl/kontroler.php?_action=katalog2/przedmioty/pokazprzedmiot&kod=2500-pl-ps-ob1z-3 http://www.pszich.u-szeged.hu/kepzesek/pszichologia-ba/haloterv/ http://www.pszich.u-szeged.hu/kepzesek/pszichologia-ba/haloterv/ http://psych.strony.uw.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/sites/98/2016/03/program_kształcenia_2015_2016.pdf http://psych.strony.uw.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/sites/98/2016/03/program_kształcenia_2015_2016.pdf https://www.studia.net/uczelnie-studia/5616-szkola-wyzsza-psychologii-spolecznej-w-warszawie https://www.studia.net/uczelnie-studia/5616-szkola-wyzsza-psychologii-spolecznej-w-warszawie https://www.ff.upol.cz/fileadmin/userdata/ff/studium/st_plany/ff1718.pdf https://www.ff.upol.cz/fileadmin/userdata/ff/studium/st_plany/ff1718.pdf http://www.krs-online.com.pl/uniwersytet-gdanski-krs-379626.html http://www.krs-online.com.pl/uniwersytet-gdanski-krs-379626.html brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos adela ionescu abstract. nowadays, computational fluid dynamics (cfd) becomes more and more mature. in the same time, it becomes more and more difficult to contribute fundamental research to it. although the software tools in this area are increasing in importance, the way how cfd develops remain unpredictable, and it is part of what makes it an exciting and attractive discipline. the mixing phenomena and the mixing theory – are using more and more cfd tools. this modern theory issued in the flow kinematics after hundred of years of stability study, has mathematical methods and techniques which are developing a continuous significant relation between turbulence and chaos. the turbulence is an important feature of dynamic systems with few freedom degrees, the so-called far from equilibrium systems. these are widespread between the models of excitable media. the present paper exhibits some recent results of the turbulent mixing study, based on computational tools of maple11 soft. the data would be statistically analyzed, in order to construct a significant guideline in understanding the transition from stability to chaos in these excitable media. keywords: turbulent mixing, vortic flow, rare event, maple assistant. 2000 mathematics subject classification: 76f25, 74a05, 70-08 147 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos 1.introduction. flow, kinematics the mixing theory appears in an area with far from complete solving problems: the flow kinematics. its methods and techniques developed the significant relation between turbulence and chaos. the turbulence is an important feature of dynamic systems with few freedom degrees, the so-called “far from equilibrium systems”. these are widespread between the models of excitable media, and a recent goal is to find a consistent and coherent theory to stand up that a mixing model in excitable media leads to a far from equilibrium model. after a hundred years of stability study, the problems of flow kinematics are far from complete solving. since the beginnings, considering the stability of laminar flows with infinitesimal turbulences was a fruitful investigation method. the non-linearity could operate in the sense of stabilizing the flow, and then the basic flow is replaced with a new stable flow, which is considered a secondary flow. this secondary flow could be further replaced by a tertiary flow, and so on. in fact, it is about a bifurcations sequence, and the couette flow could be the best example in this sense. this context becomes more difficult if the non-linearity is in the sense of increasing of the growing rate of linear unstable modes. in fact, we are talking about strong turbulence problems, an area which still needs a lot of substance. the problems of turbulence were recently approached in a special manner, in [1,5,6]. it concerns, on one hand, a special vortex technology which offers a lot of applications in all fields of bio-engineering, especially in processing the polluted fluids, and on the other hand, the mathematical and computational models used for handling this phenomena. starting from the importance of implementation of some optimized technologies for processing the polluted fluids, the benefits of this technology are both of scientific and technologic type [6]. it concerns, one one-hand, finding new physicmathematical models for describing at optimal parameters the turbulent mixing created by a vorticity structure, and from technological standpoint, developing the vortex technology for handling the polluting materials. generally, the statistical idea of a flow is represented by a map: x = φt (x) , withx = φt (t = 0) (x) (1) 148 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos we say that x is mapped in x after a time t. in the continuum mechanics the relation (1) is named flow, and it is a diffeomorphism of class ck. moreover, the dynamical system defined by (1) must satisfy the relation: 0 〈j 〈∞, j = det ( ∂xi ∂xj ) , j = det(dφt(x)) (2) where d denotes the derivation with respect to the reference configuration, in this case x. the relation (2) implies two particles, x1 and x2, which occupy the same position x at a moment. non-topological behavior (like break up, for example) is not allowed. with respect to x it is defined the basic measure for the deformation, namely the deformation gradient, f: f = (ox φt (x))t , fij = ( ∂xi ∂xj ) (3) where ∇x denotes differentiation with respect to x. according to (2), f is non singular. the basic measure for the deformation with respect to x is the velocity gradient ( ∇x denote differentiation with respect to x). by differentiation of x with respect to x there are obtained the basic deformation for a material filament, and for the area of an infinitesimal material surface, namely the length and surface deformation, with the relations λ = (c : m m ) 1 2 , η = (det f ) · ( c−1 : n n ) 1 2 (4) with c(= ft f) the cauchy-green deformation tensor, and the length and surface vectors m, n defined by m = dx/ |dx| , n = da/ |da| (5) the length and surface deformations have a scalar form, used in calculus, namely λ = cij · mi · nj, η = (det f ) · ( c−1ij · ni · nj ) , with ∑ m 2i = 1, ∑ n 2j = 1 (6) the deformation tensor f and the associated tensors c, c−1 represent the basic quantities in the deformation analysis for the infinitesimal elements. 149 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos in this framework, the mixing concept implies the stretching and folding of the material elements. if in an initial location p there is a material filament dx and an area element da, there is defined the deformation efficiency in length and surface by the relations: eλ = d (ln λ) dt = d : mm, eη = d (ln η) dt = ov − d : nn (7) where d is the deformation tensor, obtained by decomposing the velocity gradient in its symmetric and non-symmetric part [1,5]. in most cases the flow x = φt (x) is unknown and has to be obtained by integration from the eulerian velocity field. if this can be done analytically, then f can be obtained by differentiation of the flow with respect to the material coordinates x. the flows of interest belong to two classes: i) flows with a special form of ∇v and ii) flows with a special form of f. the second class is of very large interest, as it contains the so-called constant stretch history motion – cshm flows. 2.the analysis of the mixing behavior in excitable media 2.1. computational features the mathematical modeling has matched the experiments [1,4]. numeric simulation of 3d multiphase flows is currently in study, approaching different computational implements. in the mathematical framework, the flow complexity implies the following three stages: • modeling the global swirling streamlines; • local modeling of the concentrated vorticity structure; • introducing the elements of chaotic turbulence. the mathematical model associated to the vortex phenomena is the 3d version of the widespread isochoric two-dimensional flow [5] . x1 = g · x2 . x2 = k · g · x1, −1 < k < 1, g > 0 (8) 150 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos namely the following model is studied [1]: . x1 = g · x2 . x2 = k · g · x1, −1 < k < 1, g > 0 . x3 = c, c = const. (9) where for the third component, the “z-axis” it was taken the rotation velocity, with a constant value, c. a lot of tests were realized for this model, both analytical and numerical. the statistical cases were very few, about 60. there were approached various computational standpoints for the mixing phenomena, starting with the analysis of the mixing efficiency [1,2] for 3d model, and continuing with some phase-portrait analysis for 2d models [3]. in what follows it is approached another computational standpoint, in order to achieve more features for unifying this mixing theory. namely, using specific tools of maple11 soft, it is developed a phase-portrait analysis for 3d model in order to compare the performance of specific but different tools: the “phaseportrait” plot builder and the discrete – numeric plot builder. the phase-portrait builder is a plot builder which realizes the phase-portrait for a differential equations system [7]. it is a fast procedure, based on specific numeric methods for approximating the solution of the studied differential system. for the present aim it was chosen the classical method of euler, in fact “forward euler” method. from the parameters standpoint, there were chosen approximately the same values like in the analysis with discrete-numeric plot builder. the difference consists in choosing some classical initial conditions and varying the parameter kg. in what follows, there are presented some significant of the main studied cases. the cases are labeled on the figures. 2.2. the classical analysis case in order to assign some basic features of different specific qualitative analysis, let us present in what follows some basic cases of the classic analysis of the 3d mixing model associated to the vortex technology presented above [4]. since in the classic analysis the target is the study of the efficiencies eλ and eη at successive moments, the analysis is a discrete one, which aims testing the special events that could appear at various, random, values of the versors mi, nj. therefore, the factor (d : d) 1/2 which in concrete cases has numerical values, has not an important significance in the numeric analysis. 151 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos ���� � � ���� � ���� � ��� � ��� � ���� ��� �� � �� � � � � � �������� �� � ���� � � ��������� ���� �� figure 1: ������ ��� � ���� ��� ���� ���� ��� ��� ��� ��� ��� ��� � ��� ������� �� � ���� ������� ������� figure 2: 152 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos ���� � � ���� � ���� � ��� � ��� � ��� ���� �� �� � � � ������� ��� � ���� � � �������� ������� figure 3: ���� � � ���� � ���� � ��� � ��� � ��� ���� � ���� � ��� � ���� � ���� � ���� � �������� ��� � ����� ��� ���� ��!"# � figure 4: 153 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos ������ ��� � ���� ��� ���� ���� ��� ��� ��� � ��� � � � � � � � � � � ������� �� � ���� � ������ ������� figure 5: with the numeric soft maple11, the analysis has two parts. first, the following cauchy problems are solved: eλ (t) = 0, x (0) = 0, eη (t) = 0, x (0) = 0 (10) using a discrete numeric calculus procedure. the output of the procedure is a listing of the form (ti, x (ti)) , i = 0..25 . in the second part there are realized discrete time plots, in 25 time units, following the listings obtained in the first part. the plots represent in fact the image of the length and surface deformations, in the established scale time. very few irrational value sets were chosen for the length, respectively surface versors [1,2,3]. it was taken into account the versor condition: ∑ mi = 1, ∑ nj = 1. also, for the parameter k there were chosen few values, between them let us notice k = 0.25, regained also in the discrete-numeric plot builder analysis. in what follows, some of significant graphical simulations are exhibited. since the surface deformation is very significant, there are exhibited significant cases of this process. 3.qualitative results. remarks at a first sight of the graphics, it is obvious that both in discrete and 154 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos figure 6: � � figure 7: 155 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos � � � � � figure 8: � � � � � � � � � � � � � � figure 9: 156 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos continuous case, the phenomena is not linear; there are relatively linear cases – fig. 4,6,7 – but especially non-linear cases – the other pictures; in fact it is about two types of phenomena for the same mixing model, and this is extremely important: on one hand, in the phase-portrait analysis it is very important to notice that when modifying the parameters the behavior is going to be periodic – fig.3,5 – for the same time units, and on the other hand, in the classical (discrete) analysis, when modifying the parameters there are involved the so-called “rare events” [1,4], corresponding to the breakup of the simulation – fig.8; thus, for the non-periodic flow, it must be noticed that a little perturbation has a consistent influence on the model, going into a far from equilibrium model. if there is annexed the irrationality of the length / surface versors values (an appliance used since the beginning of the mixing study [1,2,3,4]), a globally panel is obtained, with random distributed events. this space-time context consolidates the basic statement that the turbulent mixing flows must be approached as chaotic systems. this is in fact regaining the idea of a system / model high sensitive to initial conditions. it is obvious that the testing of more and more values / parameters sets remains basic. if for 3d case, 60 statistical cases suffice for proving the special rare events, it is expected an acceptance testing of the consistency with the interdisciplinary area. thus, the issues of repetitive phenomena (we have these phenomena in both analysis types above), give rise to achieve some appliances of chaotic dynamical systems. also a next aim is testing more maple11 appliances, both from numeric and graphic standpoint. cumulating these features would produce numeric models, giving new research directions on the behavior in excitable media. this would be a next aim. 3.references [1] a. ionescu, the structural stability of biological oscillators. analytical contributions, ph.d. thesis, polytechnic university of bucarest, 2002 [2] a. ionescu, m. costescu, computational aspects in excitable media. the case of vortex phenomena, int. j. of computers, communications and control, vol i(2006), suppl, issue: proceedings of icccc2006, pp 280-284 [3] a. ionescu, m. costescu, the influence of parameters on the phaseportrait in the mixing model, int. j. of computers, communications and control, vol iii(2008), suppl. issue: proceedings of ijcccc2008, pp. 333-337 157 adela ionescu understanding the mixing phenomena-from structural stability to chaos [4] a. ionescu, recent challenges in turbulence: computational features of turbulent mixing, recent advances in continuum mechanics (proceedings of the 4th iasme/wseas int. conference on continuum mechanics), mathematics and computers in science and engineering, cambridge, uk, 24-26 feb 2009, pp. 29-38 [5] j. m. ottino, the kinematics of mixing: stretching, chaos and transport, cambridge university press, 1989 [6] s.n. savulescu, applications of multiple flows in a vortex tube closed at one end, internal reports, ccte, iae (institute of applied ecology) bucarest, 1998 [7] a. c. hindmarsh, r.s. stepleman (eds), odepack, a systemized collection of ode solvers, north holland, amsterdam, 1983 adela ionescu department of applied sciences faculty of engineering and management of technological systems university of craiova 22 december 1989 no. 8 g5-iii-3, 200724 craiova e-mail: adelajaneta@yahoo.com 158 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 285-301 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/420 submitted: july 28th, 2022 | accepted for publication: october 6th, 2022 the use of innovative technologies in the process of forming the competence of future elementary school teachers as a requirement of postmodern development of society inna lebid1, olena andryushchenko2, larysa petrychenko3, nadiia skrypnyk4, nataliia vyshnivska5, yuliia zubtsova6 1 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, ukraine, lebid75@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9221-2067 2 zaporizhzhia national university, zaporizhzhia, ukraine, androlena@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-00023625-1595 3 municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarian-pedagogical academy» of the kharkiv regional council, kharkov, ukraine, larisa-petrichenko@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-00023250-4321 4 communal higher education institution «vinnytsia humanities pedagogical college», vinnytsia, ukraine, nadiyvnua@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-00026847-200х 5 borys grinchenko kyiv university, kyiv, ukraine, n.vyshnivska@kubg.edu.ua, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-00017509-2841 6 zaporizhzhia national university, zaporizhzhia, ukraine, zubtsova22@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2366-796x abstract: the problem deserves special attention, given the urgent need to improve the process of forming the professional competence of future elementary school teachers associated with the need to optimize the components of the educational system in accordance with the needs of students, employers and conditions of postmodern social development. the analysis of the available developments allowed us to determine that the use of innovative learning technologies aimed at the development of the personality of future elementary school teachers is considered promising. the content of professional competence of future elementary school teachers has been analyzed. it was found out that there is no unified approach to the definition of its structure, but the necessary elements are reflexive, operational, methodical, motivational. the development of mobility, creativity and formation of individual pedagogical style are considered necessary for a future teacher. the directions for improving the professional training of future elementary school teachers have been proposed. in particular, they include the definition of ways of forming students' motivation to master the future profession and further continuous professional development, as well as updating the content and structure of professional training in view of the features of postmodern education. the introduction into the educational process of such innovations as methods of active and intensive learning, cooperative learning and coaching technology, which showed positive results in the process of their use, was substantiated. further research on this aspect consists of the development of methodological recommendations for updating educational programs for training elementary school teachers in the conditions of postmodern development of education and experimental testing of the effectiveness of the proposed approach. keywords: postmodern; vocational training; institutions of higher education; improvement of the educational process; pedagogical professionals; primary education. how to cite: lebid, i., andryushchenko, o., petrychenko, l., skrypnyk, n., vyshnivska, n., & zubtsova, y. (2023). the use of innovative technologies in the process of forming the competence of future elementary school teachers as a requirement of postmodern development of society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 285-301. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/420 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/420 mailto:lebid75@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9221-2067 mailto:androlena@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3625-1595 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3625-1595 mailto:larisa-petrichenko@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3250-4321 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3250-4321 mailto:nadiyvnua@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6847-200х https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6847-200х mailto:n.vyshnivska@kubg.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7509-2841 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7509-2841 mailto:zubtsova22@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2366-796x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/420 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 286 introduction professional training of future teachers in comparison with other specialties has specific features. in particular, they must not only acquire the knowledge and skills outlined in the educational program, but also to form a willingness to effectively carry out educational activities. the specificity of the work of an elementary school teacher is also the fact that they teach, educate and socialize children of primary school age, which are characterized by psychological and age specific development, attention, memory, perception, interaction, etc. additionally, the new generation of future professionals, demonstrating a postmodern type of behavior (consumer attitude to learning, personal and social differences, etc.), forces teachers to be constantly in search of effective tools for shaping their professional competence. it is emphasized in numerous research works that most future teachers' training education programms are overloaded with fundamental and special disciplines, partially oriented at the acquisition of practical skills, while the so-called «soft skills» are ignored. however, social development requires improvement of all components of the educational system, in particular, its focus on the priority development of "soft skills". respectively, nowadays the key methods of future primary school teachers' profesional development and skills formation are self-education and self-improvement. ensuring the effectiveness of the formation of professional competence of future elementary school teachers in the stream of postmodern development of society is possible through the search and implementation of innovative educational technologies that will create conditions for the development of sustainable motivation of students to acquire knowledge and formation of personal qualities as the primary basis for their future professional growth. given the trends in the development of higher education, there is no denying the fact that the professional training of future teachers should be not only fundamental, but also to a certain extent ahead of the curve. as numerous studies, in particular, tualaulelei (2021), (bekh et al. 2021) and others show, only this approach allows to ensure the desired result: preparation of a highly qualified teacher, competent and responsible, able to perform professional tasks effectively and to systematically improve his/her professional level. at the same time, implementation of the competency-based approach in the professional training of future teachers is considered paramount to support the effectiveness of learning outcomes. after all, the the use of innovative technologies in the process of forming the competence … inna lebid, et al. 287 main requirements for a graduate of a pedagogical institution of higher education who begins professional activity is the ability to activate and realize the creative potential (both their own and students), to be mobile, to be able to adapt to the educational environment of the institution, in accordance with current trends in pedagogy, psychology and society as a whole. consequently, the relevance of the identified focus of research is determined by the existing contradictions between: the requirements of the postmodern development of society to form the professional competence of the new generation of teachers and the existing methods of their training, which do not fully achieve the goals; the need to ensure the quality of professional training of future elementary school teachers as a key requirement of consumers of educational services and insufficient implementation of innovative technologies in this process. the purpose of the article to analyze the features of the formation of professional competence of future elementary school teachers and justify the conditions of its improvement in accordance with the requirements of postmodern development of society through the introduction of innovative learning technologies in the educational process. the content of future primary school teachers' professional competence. the main stimulus for the economy development in any country are well-qualified professional workers. moreover, there is the biggest demand for competent professional workers, combining qualification (ability to perform professional duties), desired social conduct, self-regilation and reflection. at present, the competency-based approach is fundamental to higher education. savage (1993, p. 15) sees its advantages over other methodological approaches in the fact that it focuses on the formation of appropriate personal traits of a future specialist, rather than the mechanical mastery of a certain amount of information. professional competence is underlined as the dominant feature of the future teachers' personality in the education standards of pedagogical workers' vocational training. scientists consider the concept of competence as a certain integral quality of a person, the ability to successfully solve professional and problematic situations. (ostrovska et al. 2019, p. 183) believe that the competence of a specialist is conditioned not only by acquired knowledge and skills in a certain area of activity, but also formed on the basis of available motivation to carry out professional activity, abilities and inclinations of a person, readiness to achieve the outlined results. we agree broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 288 with the statement that professional competence is formed on the basis of acquired knowledge and skills, but we believe that in parallel it is necessary to develop the individual pedagogical style of the future teacher. the analysis of the scientific-methodological literature proves the existence of various points of view on the understanding of the essence and structure of the primary school teachers' professional competence. in particular, scientists distinguishe motivational, practical and self-regulated structural components of the teachers' competence. according to the scholar, it suffices to provide students with the knowledge of special and fundamental disciplines, methodological skills and to form positive motivation for professional activity performance to complete the professional competence. onyshchenko (2012, p. 98) supplemented the list of future primary school teachers' structural components with personal (altruism, empathy, tolerance, creativity, flexibility etc.) and refelctional components. zhang (2021, p. 56) think that essential in the future teachers' professional competence structure there are civil, degital, informational, and ecological competences. while the key requirement is the ability to make use of information technology in professional activity. in their research the efficiency of various competence assessment systems has been experimantally proved. other approaches to the problem of forming the content of professional competence of future teachers are described in the publications of (carretero et al. 2017), (ren et al. 2018), packiam & fathima (2019) and others. having analyzed the mentioned publications, we have that on the basis of the research conducted, scientists have identified the following main components of the professional competence of future teachers of primary classes: self-organization and self-actualization; professional culture of future pedagogical workers; positive motivation for professional activity performance; the ability to continuously develop key competencies (methodological, communication, informational, etc.); professional mobility; social activity and formation of the personal features essential for future primary school teachers. another interesting trend in postmodern society is the development of culturally and linguistically responsive elementary teacher preparation programs. in particular, boyle & charles (2011), casinader & walsh (2015), (cummins et al. 2015) have done research in this area. the relevance and the use of innovative technologies in the process of forming the competence … inna lebid, et al. 289 efficiency of this approach has been experimentally grounded by clark (2021). the author performed the analysis of the efficiency of six various vocational training programs for future teachers and provided recommendations in accordance with the finding of the experiment. on the whole, it may be stated that the content of the concept future teacher's «professional competence» is worked out. however, there is the issue of the search of ways of educational process improvement to ensure the efficiency of their professional competence formation. additionally, it should be noted that the value of the postmodern era is individualism, which manifests itself in the increased importance of the individual's own experience, thought and a tendency to pessimism. now students' personal opinion and consumer interest prevail over the science, experience and achievements of the teacher, the values he promotes and influences the nature of the decisions made. such students are not attuned to daily painstaking work, are focused on their own interests and want quick results without stress, which is reflected accordingly in their academic achievements. among the important components of the post-modern attitude towards life there is a more active role of parents in solving vital issues, including the choice of education and profession, which negatively affects the further motivation for learning. with this in mind, we draw the attention of the scientific community to two important points that need to be taken into account in the process of improving the professional training of future elementary school teachers: 1. identification of features of the formation of students' motivation to master the profession of a future elementary school teacher in a postmodern society as a primary condition for the formation of their professional competence and readiness to conduct educational activities in the elementary school, as well as further continuous professional development. 2. updating the structure of professional training of future elementary school teachers, in particular, through the introduction of innovative technologies. let's study the above-mentioned theses in details. peculiarities of the formation of motivation for the education of future elementary school teachers in the conditions of postmodern development of society we agree with cantillon & de grave (2012, 179) that most research on updating the professional preparation of future elementary school broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 290 teachers has focused on the search for conditions to improve the effectiveness of teaching academic disciplines. however, important points are overlooked by researchers, particularly the specifics of the social context of student learning and education, and the capacity for further development is limited by existing pedagogical knowledge and beliefs. the current educational system is quite inert and late to respond to the requirements of consumers of educational services, which makes them turn to non-formal education, thereby leveling the professional training in universities. the postmodern development of society requires to provide students with more freedom in building an individual educational trajectory, but the responsibility for this choice should be borne by the student. consequently, the emphasis of professional training should be shifted from the classical transfer of knowledge from a teacher to a student in the direction of providing assistance for independent mastering of knowledge and achieving the goal set by a future specialist. this requires the formation of students' motivation to acquire a profession, taking into account the characteristic features of the generation of today's students. in this context, taylor (2005), who characterized students in the post-modern era, is interesting. in particular, he believes that they are characterized by indifference to learning, indiscipline, inertia, orientation to entertainment and pleasure, desire to get positive grades with minimum effort, infantilism, etc. however, according to hossienia & khalilib (2011, p.1307), the unconditional advantage of post-modern educational systems is the definition of the main educational goals of critical thinking development, formation of individual and social identity, independent creativity, etc. postmodernism advocates the development of creative thinking of a specialist and refutes the rationality of modernism, which should be appropriately reflected in the system of professional training. the critical attitude towards education in a post-modern society questions existing educational hypotheses and demands a search for a new way of knowing. in the postmodern environment, educational goals are not fixed and change in accordance with the professional development of the future specialist. consequently, self-education and self-improvement become a priority in the system of professional training. now in educational systems we observe the rejection of science as an absolute truth, someone else's experience and basing the educational search on the own motivation to master knowledge or the formation of personal characteristics. in this context, we agree with kahraman's (2015) statement that the priority of post-modern education is the development of the future specialist's the use of innovative technologies in the process of forming the competence … inna lebid, et al. 291 personality, taking into account his or her own preferences. consequently, the main task of higher pedagogical education is to provide motivation for learning and self-improvement. to this end, we consider it appropriate in the professional training of future elementary school teachers to ensure: the opportunity to gain one's own professional experience. as mentioned above, students of the postmodern era are characterized by a rejection of others' experiences and an increase in the value of their own experience. there is such opportunity for future primary school teachers, in particular, within the planned practical training (field, educational, age, pedagogical and pre-diploma). however, when teaching students often become disoriented. for future elementary school teachers, this opportunity exists, in particular, as part of the envisioned practical training (field, educational, summer, pedagogical, and pre-diploma training). accordingly, even before the beginning of pedagogical practice it is necessary to provide an opportunity for future elementary school teachers to gain experience in psychological and pedagogical activities. such training should begin in the first year of study, in particular through the introduction of situational modeling methods. the works by kurlyand et al. (2007) on this issue describe the mental and pedagogical peculiarities of future teachers' pedagogical training and its organization; also, professional training should contain various social situations, for example, simulate the conditions of inclusive education. the improvement of education takes place in the context of post-modern philosophy, one of the features of which is the global desire for social justice and educational integration of persons with special educational needs. according to chhabra et al. (2018), this contributes to the emergence from the civilizational crisis caused in the present-day era. inclusion is now an integral element of primary education, but its organization has specific features, which elementary school teachers face already in the process of professional activity. it can cause them rejection or resistance, especially against the background of conflicts between students and parents. in order to avoid such moments the teacher should be ready to carry out professional activity in conditions of inclusive education, and the formation of this readiness started at the stage of professional training. the feasibility of this approach is substantiated in (amatori et al. 2020), (chhabra et al. 2018) and several others. experiencing a different range of emotions. the importance of the emotional component in the training of the future elementary school teacher has been confirmed by a number of publications. in particular, this issue was in the focus of works by annyenkova (2003), barchi & barchij (2018), stas broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 292 (2014) and many others. the relevance of the emotional constituent in future primary school teachers' vocational training is in the fact that, junior pupils are taught by means of emotions, respectively, teachers should understand their psychology and work out techniques of emotions management. and for this, emotions need to be experienced for themselves, to feel their influence on their own consciousness, because, as was noted, students of the post-modern era prefer existing experience rather than learning theoretical algorithms for action. as (popescu-bradiceni et al. 2021, p. 123) argue, it is on emotions that the development of human action scenarios in each specific situation is based. any positive emotions (hope, enthusiasm, excitement, joy, uplift) contribute to productive work on a particular task, negative ones, on the contrary, lead to a deterioration of performance. and while current society promoted the nurturing of emotion control, postmodernity recognizes the value of emotions and teaches to recognize and redefine every emotion a person experiences. besides, there is still urgent the issue of teachers' emotional steadiness, considering the stressful conditions of professional activity, formed on the basis of the mechanisms of self-control and self-regulation. teachers must learn to distnguish emotions, react at them adequately, manage students' emotions, this is enabled by the employment of management skills and emotions understanding on the stage of vocational training; systematic actualization of the acquired knowledge and successive inclusion of new elements into educational process. knowledge and skills are efficiently employed in the professional activity when forming a holistic system in students' consciousness with the respectively established interrelations. it is only on this basis that subjects of teaching are selforganized and synergetic effects appears, which means that further professional and personal personality development is due to the shift of the system from one stage to another, rebuilding the continuous chain of transformations. the theoretical grounding for this thesis may be found in the works by laszlo (2006), tkachenko (2003) etc. the positive influence of this approach on the creative thinking formation is experimentally proved in the works by (davis-seaver et al. 2008); educational process intensification by active teaching technique introduction. this results not only in the acceleration of the educational provess but also is the chief prerequisite of its efficiency, and facilitates interpersonal communication in the process of education, thus involving the interaction of all the participants of the educational process; the need for active learning methods in post-modern professional education has been substantiated by beetham (2020), whalley (2019); the use of innovative technologies in the process of forming the competence … inna lebid, et al. 293 consideration of students' individual features in vocational trainign process. vocational training system is now oriented at the so-called «average» students, respectively determining the content of educational programms and the criteria of scientific achievements diagnostics. it is stated in numerous works that any educational institution is not obliged to take into account essential peculiarities of particular students. however, according to the research works on psychology most efficicent teaching is achieved only on condition of the consideration of students' peculiarities, reynvald (1987). it is also appropriate to consider the opinion of (bekh et al. 2021) that the formation of a person's identity through educational systems is a powerful tool for his involvement in different spheres of life of postmodern society. the problem of individualization of education is partially solved by the introduction of selective disciplines in the educational plan of training future specialists. however, we believe that compliance with this point requires determining the conditions for building an individual educational trajectory of a future specialist. such an approach will ensure the formation of the individual reflective position of the future elementary school teacher. it is well known that pedagogical activity is impossible without reflection. on its basis there is a realization of oneself as a subject of professional activity, formation of the ability to observe, establishment of cause-andeffect relations. it should be noted that this approach allows to ensure the formation of a generation of creative teachers, which the postmodern society needs, who are ready for creative solutions and the search for new scientific approaches to teaching and education. the optimization of the sense and structure of primary school teachers' vocational training on the basis of the innovative technology employment in the context of the postmodern development of society there is a renewal of professional training in accordance with the requirements of consumers of educational services and stakeholders. this process came to be known as the optimization of the educational process, comprising the vocational training objective formulation, scientific findings systematic analysis, renovation of principles, techniques, forms, means providing more qualified higher education. in this line, the priority use of technology that promotes independent learning in future professionals, which is the main condition for broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 294 the training of elementary school teachers. the educational process optimization presupposes the combination of various teaching techniques, appropriate for certain situations. however, the information technologies are indispensable as they consolidate all the stages of education. information technologies are essential for the higher efficiency of vocational training. in particular, the employment of information technologies provides the formation of motivation for studying, higher efficiency of the educational process and allows to save time for various educational operations. the issue of education informative value is one of the priorities of vocational training. we are seeing the emergence of innovative learning technologies that are based on the use of information and communication tools. in this context it is worth considering the fact that despite the necessity of information technology employment by primary school teachers there are still no strict criteria allowing to assess their competence in this field. such criteria have been only established for the information technology professionals while for other teachers they are quite vague (zhang et al., 2021, р. 61). besides the above-mentioned priorities there are also such promising fields of information technology employment in primary school teachers' vocational training: interactive musems; edutainment – educational cartoons, oriented at education ina game form. these skills are later employed in teaching junior pupils, favoring such form of information presentation; computer games, oriented at developing thinking and acquiring skills in programming; web-quests – performing assignments in the form of search of propmpts. among other perspective innovative technoogies, introduced into the process of vocational training, aimed at forming future primary school teachers' competence and proved efficient there are: active learning technique. this technique is not referred to innovative, as it has been already established in educational institutions of different types and levels. however, the introduction of information means makes certain corrections and leads this technology onto the next level. in particular, there is an opportunity to build an individual educational trajectory of each student, which is a prerequisite for postmodern education. one of such means is cloud technology, allowing access for software, the use of innovative technologies in the process of forming the competence … inna lebid, et al. 295 servers, databases, uniting various memory storages into the holistic space with the required features. (hasnine et al. 2020) in their publication have experimentally grounded the efficiency of active learning for training professionals in education, realized by means of information technologies. research works on this issue by such scholars, as saleh al-essa (2018), ali el-sayed sobh (2018) also proved its efficiency. active learning technology introduction via employment of information technologies not only increases the level of students' digital competence, but it allows to acquire new experience by communicating, discussing and realizing ideas, solving educational tasks, motivating for further research work; intensive learning, which consists in organizing the process of teaching some discipline or topic by smaller blocks according to the strict scheme. this technique follows the process of scientific research in its main stages: knowledge actualization, presentation, guided practice, feedback and independent practical work with conclusions formulating. there are fundamental achievements in learning foreign languages with the employment of this technique. in particluar, martynova (2017) suggested the technique of intensive foreign language learning, based upon synergetic interaction of the bigger and smaller values. however, it demonstrates the efficiency in mastering psychological and educational disciplines as well, as it is based upon the employment of devices, activating conscious and subconscious mental processes to from correspondences in students' consciousness, and elaborating tasks, motivating interpersonal communication and optimal organization of students; cooperative learning is realized by working in small groups to perform certain tasks. mutual activity enables mutual discussion, criticism or disagreement, readiness to listen to communicators' aguments, integrate the newly acquired knowledge with the previous and generalize it. the idea of cooperative learning is based upon the findings of the research works by one of the developmental psychology founders, vygotsky (1987). in particular, he postulated the social nature of learning. one of the essential features is mutual information processing and ideas exchange; coaching technologies, aimed at teaching students to logically proceed from the challeging zone to the zone of efficient decisions. they presuppose a new kind of interaction between students and a teacher, where the latter acts as a coach. the main coach's task is to help find solutions of the given problem, which in addition allows to make explicit the individual potential of each participent. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/absbyauth.cfm?per_id=3259814 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 296 the criteria of the selection of innovative technologies to provide the efficiency of the future primary school teachers' professional competence were formulated as follows: ability to improve primary school teachers' vocational training according to stakeholders' requirements; ability to from the required professional features (organizational, communicative, refelctional etc) and personal qualities (empathy, positive attitude to students, sympathy etc) of future primary school teachers; ability to form positive motivation for professional activity establishment; ability to acquire practical experience of professional activity on the stage of studying. conclusion thus, the current change of priorities in the educational sector due to the peculiarities of the postmodern development of society has led to an understanding of the need to implement competence and personalityoriented approaches at all stages of education, including in vocational education. nowadays there is rebuilding of future teachers vocational training on the innovative basis (variable and individual learning provision), re-inforcing the search of efficient techniques and educational means to achieve the desired effect – to build a competent teacher of a new generation. the findings of the research postulate that primary school teachers' vocational training system improvement and the removal of controversial issues of the discrepancy in stakeholders' requirements for professional competence and its state in higher educational institutions is still an urgent challenge not only in ukrainian, but also in the foreign professional sphere. there are certain recommendations, in particular, there are perspective ways of renovating education programs, considering the social development postmodern trends, the improvement of the sense of future primary school teachers' professional competence, methodological supplement for selfeducation and continuous education. many such innovations have been put into life in the leading higher educational institutions and have proved their efficiency. the article offers the author's approach to improving the process of forming the competence of future elementary school teachers. based on the analysis of existing research and experience in the training of specialists in pedagogical specialties, the ways of providing motivation for learning of the use of innovative technologies in the process of forming the competence … inna lebid, et al. 297 future elementary school teachers in the conditions of post-modern development of society have been proposed. among them we consider the most significant the creation of conditions for the acquisition of own professional experience at the stage of professional training, in particular with the inclusion in an inclusive educational environment, implementation of intensification of the educational process by implementing methods of active learning and building an individual educational path, as well as promoting the formation of an individual reflective school position as the basis for further development of motivation to carry out professional activity. we adhere to the views of many scholars, focusing upon the issue of future primary school teachers' vocational training, we define as innovative as technologies asactive learning technique, intensive learning, cooperative learning and coaching technologies. besides, their introduction into the educational process is mediated by the employment of information technologies, which are simultaneously the means and the uniting factor. on this basis, were analyzed developments in this field, given examples from his own teaching experience and highlighted the criteria for selecting innovative technologies to ensure the effectiveness of the formation of professional competence of future elementary school teachers in the post-modern development of society. prospects for further research to develop methodological recommendations for updating educational training programs for elementary school teachers in the conditions of postmodern development of education and experimental testing of the effectiveness of the proposed approach. acknowledgement the author 1 justified the need to improve the professional training of future elementary school teachers in accordance with the conditions of postmodern development of society and identified possible ways of its updating. the scientist concluded that cultural and linguistic characteristics of students should be taken into account in the process of developing educational training programs for elementary school teachers. the author 2 analyzed the available scientific publications on the peculiarities of the formation of professional competence of future elementary school teachers and, based on the synthesis of information, characterized its content. the author identified the components of the professional competence of future elementary school teachers, taking into account the requirements of the postmodern society. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 298 the author 3 analyzed the available foreign experience of training future teachers of primary classes, found out the prospects for its use in developing countries. in particular, he found that the elementary school teachers' training effectiveness is the primary condition to find ways to form students' motivation for the future profession and readiness for further continuous professional development. the author 4 justified the importance of innovation in the professional training of future teachers of primary classes and described promising directions for updating the content and structure of professional training of future teachers of elementary school through the introduction of innovative technologies. the author 5 based on the theoretical researches of the co-authors and taking into account the peculiarities of postmodern education, the priority of which is the development of the future specialist, proposed ways to provide motivation for learning and self-improvement of students and modeled their practical implementation (the opportunity to get your own professional experience, experience a different range of existing knowledge and consistent inclusion of new elements in the learning process, as well as consideration of the individual characteristics of students in the professional training). the author 6 characterized promising areas of information technology in the professional training of elementary school teachers (interactive museums, edutainment, computer games, web quests, etc.) and ways of their practical implementation. determined the criteria for selecting innovative technologies to ensure the effectiveness of the formation of professional competence of future elementary school teachers. references ali el-sayed sobh, r. (2018). empowering edmodo to develop oral communication skills of nautical student. journal of the faculty of education at port said university, 23 (23). 744–762. https://doi.org/10.21608/jftp.2018.32211 amatori, g., mesquita, h., & quelhas, r. (2020). special education for inclusion in europe: critical issues and comparative perspectives for teachers’ education between italy and portugal. education sciences & society-open access. 11(1). https://journals.francoangeli.it/index.php/ess/article/view/9443 annyenkova, i. (2003). formuvannia emotsiinoi kultury maibutnikh uchyteliv u protsesi vyvchennia pedahohichnykh dystsyplin: avtoref. dys. kand. ped. nauk: spets. 13.00.04 teoriia i metodyka profesiinoi osvity. [future teachers' emotional culture formation in educational disciplines teaching]. odesa. https://doi.org/10.21608/jftp.2018.32211 https://journals.francoangeli.it/index.php/ess/article/view/9443 the use of innovative technologies in the process of forming the competence … inna lebid, et al. 299 barchi, b., barchii, m. (2018). emotsiina kultura yak skladova profesiinoi pidhotovky maibutnikh pedahohiv [emotional culture as a part of future teachers' vocational training]. naukovyi visnyk mukachivskoho derzhavnoho universytetu. seriia «pedahohika ta psykholohiia» [scientific bulletin of mukachiv state university. series «pedagogy and psychology»], 2(8), 247–249 beetham, h. (2020). learning activities and activity systems. in h. beetham & r. sharpe (eds.), rethinking pedagogy for a digital age (3rd ed ed., pp. 32–48). abingdon: routledge. bekh, v., vashkevych, v., kravchenko, a., yaroshenko, a., akopian, v., & antonenko, t. (2021). education as a way of human existence in a postmodern society. postmodern openings, 12(3), 01-14. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.3/324 boyle, b., & charles, m. (2011). education in a multicultural environment: equity issues in teaching and learning in the school system in england. international studies in sociology of education, 21(4), 299–314. cantillon, p., & de grave, w. (2012). conceptualising gp teachers’ knowledge: a pedagogical content knowledge perspective ge perspective education for primary care, 23 (3), 178–185 https://doi.org/10.1080/14739879.2012.11494101 carretero, s., vuorikari, r., & punie, y. (2017). dig comp 2.1: the digital competence framework for citizens. https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/jrc106281/we b-digcomp2.1pdf_(online).pdf casinader, n. r., & walsh, l. (2015). teacher transculturalism and cultural difference: addressing racism in australian schools. international education journal: comparative perspectives, 14(2), 51–62. chhabra, s., bose, k., & chadha, n. (2018). early childhood educators’ perspectives and practices about inclusion of children with special needs in botswana. journal of research in childhood education, 32(2), 234–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2018.1425223 clark, s. (2021). exploring elementary teacher self-efficacy and teacher beliefs: are we preparing teachers to teach culturally diverse students? asia-pacific journal of teacher education, 49(1), 128–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866x.2020.1777528 cummins, j. (2015). intercultural education and academic achievement: a framework for school-based policies in multilingual schools. intercultural education, 26(6), 455–468 davis-seaver j., leflore d. & smith t. (2008). promoting critical thinking at the university level. national forum of teacher education journal, electronic, 8, jv2.3, 30–40 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.3/324 https://doi.org/10.1080/14739879.2012.11494101 https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/jrc106281/web-digcomp2.1pdf_(online).pdf https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/jrc106281/web-digcomp2.1pdf_(online).pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2018.1425223 https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866x.2020.1777528 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 300 hasnine, m. n., ahmed, m. m. h., & ueda, h. (2020, october). towards postpandemic active learning design by connecting strategies with technologies. in world conference on mobile and contextual learning (pp. 101-104). hossienia, a., & khalilib, s. (2011). explanation of creativity in postmodern educational ideas. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 15, 1307–1313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.283 kahraman, a. d. (2015). relationship of modernism, postmodernism and reflections of it on education. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 174, 3991 – 3996. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1146 karpova, l. (2004). formuvannia profesiinoi kompetentnosti vchytelia zahalnoosvitnoi shkoly: avtoref [comprehensive school teachers' professional competence formation] [unpublished thesis]. kharkiv. kurlyand, z., khmeliuk, r., & semenova, a. (2007). pedahohika vyshchoi shkoly [high school pedagogy]. kyiv. laszlo, e. (2006). the chaos point: the world at the crossroads. hampton: roads publishing. martynova, r. (2017). zahalna kharakterystyka kompresiinoho metodu intensyvnoho navchannia inozemnykh mov. hlobalni vyklyky pedahohichnoi osvity v universytetskomu prostori. materialy iii mizhnarodnoho konhresu. [general characteristics of the compressive method of foreign languages intensive learning. global chalennges of pedagogical education in universities. proceedings of the iii international congress]. odesa, 546–547 onyshchenko, i. (2012). model formuvannia fakhovoi kompetentnosti maibutnoho vchytelia pochatkovykh klasiv. navchannia i vykhovannia obdarovanoi osobystosti: teoriia ta praktyka. [the model of future primary school teachers' professional competence formation. educating gifted personalities: theory and practice], 8, 94–101 ostrovska, h., malyuta, l., kuz, т. (2019). transformuvannya modeli upravlinnia rozvytkom intelektualnoho potentsialu promyslovoho pidpryjemstva. sotsialno-ekonomichni problemy ta derzhava [tranforming the model of managing intellectual potential development in industrial enterprises. social and economical issues and state], 2 (21), 183 packiam, d., & fathima m, p. (2019). efficacy of portfolio strategy on developing teaching competency of pre-service teachers. international journal of research and analytical reviews, 6(1), 869–872. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331010706 popescu-bradiceni, і., plăstoi, c-d, mihai, і., mihăilescu, l., buţu, і., & cătuna, g. c. (2021). sport in society as a binder in social communication of human's emotions. postmodern openings, 12(3), 121-133. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.3/331 reynvald, n. (1987). psichologiia lichnosti [personality psychology]. moscow, 200 p. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.283 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1146 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331010706 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.3/331 the use of innovative technologies in the process of forming the competence … inna lebid, et al. 301 ren, y., yan, h., & li, x. (2018). interpreting the ict teaching competency standards for pre-service teachers. e-education research, 39(10), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.13811/j.cnki.eer.2018.10.001 saleh al-essa, n. (2018). the impact of using edmodo as a blended learning medium on promoting saudi efl female secondary school students’ english grammar. arab world english journal theses id 221. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3294814 savage, l. (1993). literacy through a competency-based education approach, in crandall, j., & peyton, j. k. (eds.). approaches to adult esl literacy instruction. language in education: theory and practice 82. stas, т. (2014). model formuvannia emotsiynoyi cultury maibutnikh uchyteliv zasobamy obrazotvortchoho mystetstva u protsesi profesiynopedahohichnoyi pidhotovky. nauka i osvita. [the model of future teachers' emotional culture formation via art in vocational training. science and education], 6, 201–204 taylor, m. l. (2005). generation next: today’s postmodern student–meeting, teaching, and serving. a collection of papers on self-study and institutional improvement, volume 2: becoming a learning focused organization: the learning environment. 2(4), 99-107. https://peeg.pw/generationnexttodays.pdf tkachenko, l. (2003). synerhetychnyi pidkid u pedahohitsi: nova paradyhma. osvita ta rozvytok obdarovanoyi osobystosti. [synergetic approach in pedagogy: new paradigm. education and development of gifted personality], 10(17), 18–21 tualaulelei, e. (2021). professional development for intercultural education: learning on the run. asia-pacific journal of teacher education, 49(1), 99–112 https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866x.2020.1753168 vygotsky, l. (1987). historia del desarrollo de las funciones psiquicas superiores. havana whalley, w. b. (2019). towards institutional ‘quality education’ policies in higher education: a schema for their implementation. quality in higher education. 25(3), 340–358. 10.1080/13538322.2019.1684041 zhang, j., shi, j., liu, x., & zhou, y. (2021). an intelligent assessment system of teaching competency for pre-service teachers based on ahp-bp method. international journal of emerging technologies in learnin, 16(16), 52–64. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i16.17891 https://doi.org/10.13811/j.cnki.eer.2018.10.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3294814 https://peeg.pw/generationnexttodays.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866x.2020.1753168 https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2019.1684041 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i16.17891 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 257-284 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/454 submitted: june 12th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 29th, 2023 science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges of public governance to ensure societal well-being oana-ramona lobonţ1 andrei trip2 alexandra-mădălina ţăran3 lavinia-daniela mihiţ4 nicoleta claudia moldovan5 1 finance department, faculty of economics and business administration, west university of timisoara, timisoara, romania, oana.lobont@e-uvt.ro 2 finance department, taxation and tax consultancy master program, faculty of economics and business administration, west university of timisoara, timisoara, romania, andrei.trip00@e-uvt.ro 3 doctoral school of economics and business administration, west university of timisoara, timisoara, romania; finance department, faculty of economics and business administration, west university of timisoara, timisoara, romania https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7721-423x, alexandra.taran@e-uvt.ro 4 doctoral school of economics and business administration, west university of timisoara, timisoara, romania, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1925-3502, lavinia.mihit@e-uvt.ro 5 finance department, faculty of economics and business administration, west university of timisoara, timisoara, romania, https://orcid.org/0000-00021916-2638, nicoleta.moldovan@e-uvt.ro abstract: this study maps the challenges public governance faces in its mission to ensure a high level of societal well-being in european countries due to complex and multidimensional analysis, both on scientific and economic levels: bibliometric analysis, vector quantisation mapping, and clustering analysis of countries. the proposed research advocates considering relevant descriptors of the two phenomena, namely the six dimensions of public governance and the composite quality of life index, to analyse their interdependence by 2020, the year for which official statistics reveal data. our research proposes a classification of the european union member states from the perspective of the progress made at the governmental decision-making level for the multidimensional approach to quality of life to identify the models of good practice. the methodological support was offered by cluster analysis and a vector quantisation method, namely k-means. knime software has allowed us to connect to various data sources visually. clustering of european countries has revealed several disparities thus, denmark and finland (which are countries with a high level of quality of life) are examples of good practices, while countries such as romania and bulgaria are facing difficulties in significantly improving their quality of life due to the deficiencies of the governing act. finally, the research highlights the channels through which public governance can substantially contribute to societal well-being, keeping in mind the relatively low importance of welfare given to formal aspects of democratic representation compared to the extent of quality governance. keywords: public governance, citizen welfare, vector quantisation, bibliometric analysis, data mapping, eu member states. how to cite: lobonţ, o.-r., trip, a., ţăran, a.-m., mihiţ, l.-d., moldovan, n. c. (2023). science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges of public governance to ensure societal well-being. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 257-284. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/454 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/454 file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/oana.lobont@e-uvt.ro file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/andrei.trip00@e-uvt.ro https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7721-423x file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/alexandra.taran@e-uvt.ro https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1925-3502 file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/lavinia.mihit@e-uvt.ro https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1916-2638 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1916-2638 file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/nicoleta.moldovan@e-uvt.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/454 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 258 1. introduction in an ever-changing period where new reasons are emerging everywhere for which the level of welfare of society can be determined to follow a negative evolution, challenges on the following topics appear health (devlin et al., 2016; leach et al., 2010; lucheş et al., 2021; stroetmann, 2013), pollution (moore et al., 2011), green growth and smart city ( bowen & hepburn, 2014; gargiulo & tremiterra, 2015; khan et al., 2020), education (peeters et al., 2018), financial system (ropke, 2017) and exploitation of natural resources (engwicht & grabek, 2018; haikola & anshelm, 2019); it is becoming increasingly clear that governance interventions are needed to combat the decline in welfare levels. together with subordinate public institutions, the government plays the most crucial role in ensuring the wellbeing of the citizens, having an obligation to take measures that prevent the decrease of the welfare level in society and create safe and prosperous societies. on the other hand, governance must provide policies that contain the most effective and appropriate choice in developing and providing solutions to mitigate the negative variation in well-being. however, today's society is categorised as that of knowledge, resulting from which authority and supremacy are no longer concentrated only around governance. the organisations involved in these activities and the citizens involved and informed significantly affect combating society’s declining prosperity and vary according to their opinions. thus, effective coordination and constant cooperation between public and private sector institutions are essential (moore et al., 2011). at the same time, leach et al. (2010) state that it is necessary to have good governance, take decisions and measures quickly, efficiently, and rationally, and ensure the increase of the level of well-being felt by society. over time, at the level of eu ms (member states), social challenges and significant consequences on economic welfare have emerged. in front of these facts, cristea et al. (2022) highlighted the need to implement specific and distinctive strategies and policies at the eu level. the paper illustrates how macro-level changes in institutional structures and public policies influence well-being, considering the neoinstitutional theory for the transformation and evolution of institutions and the heterogeneity of actors and practices in public governance. even though it is essential to maintain and increase well-being, there are constant problems fulfilling this commitment for some countries. most of the measures and mechanisms by which societal well-being growth can be ensured depend on the public administration’s managerial and management capacity. disregarding specific social or professional categories leads to science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 259 measures that favour one category over another, thus varying the level of welfare of society according to various criteria such as ethnicity, sex, age, geographical area, or field of activity (dincă & lucheş, 2018; matichescu et al., 2017;). the general objective of the paper is to assess the impact of public governance on social welfare and graphically represent the links between these dimensions at the level of eu-27 member states. the target is to highlight the discrepancies between these countries using dendrogram and k-means clustering algorithms. our research addresses a topical issue based on the difficulties of public governance in maintaining and improving societal well-being, so the context of the study can be presented from a different perspective. there is much variation concerning social and economic development within and across eu countries. given the current socio-economic context (economic bubbles, financial crises, pandemic and social isolation, social change, international policy perspective, (lack of) confidence in elections, geopolitical risks leading to governance weaknesses and institutional challenge design), the topic is very timely and beneficial for practice and current research, both in public finance (in terms of public policies priorities, institutional capacities, new research methodologies) as well as the economic and social (generational accounting models to set measures to be taken by generations not to diminish the prospects of future generations) or even political (strengthening democratic values, moral arguments against the welfare state) or cultural and religious (immigration, culture, ageing). the following significant contribution mainly reflects the novelty and contributions of this paper. first, it improves the existing literature by providing a new visual methodological approach perspective on public governance’s challenges to ensure societal well-being, performing vector quantisation, hierarchical clustering, and graphical representation. second, the research will highlight which governance dimensions directly impact the quality of life and the difference between nations or groups of nations or country specificities. several types of theory have been considered to underline the nexus of good governance well-being. while most of the studies argue or assume that causal forces run from the quality of governance to levels or changes in well-being, there is the possibility of causal arrows also running in the other direction. also, how well-being research findings can be used to set well-being-maximization goals for public policy needs careful examination, as the translation from research to policy is not always straightforward. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 260 noticing the importance of the subject, the paper is divided into six sections. after the introduction, section 2 provides concise information regarding the most relevant studies on public governance and societal welfare; section 3 presents the methodology and the data set applied in the analysis. section 4 reports the empirical results and their interpretations. section 5 includes substantial discussions, and section 6 offers conclusions and recommendations for the eu-27 member states. 2. literature review the process of evaluation of governance addresses the degree of commitment and action of public authorities in formulating and implementing standard-setting, policy and institutional frameworks and making available infrastructures and institutional mechanisms to increase the citizen’s level of well-being. we note that the issue becomes complex, engaging both microeconomic aspects of individual behaviour and macroeconomic stability and development issues. contextualising research is primarily influenced by the necessity of practical, realistic and enhanced interventions to provide human well-being. leach et al. (2010) examined how governance changes in an age of complexity in times of instability created by epidemiological risk. furthermore, the research conducted by leach et al. (2010) illustrates how the challenges of current public governance in addressing epidemics and socalled emerging infectious diseases are directly related to the administration's concern for equity, social justice, and society’s well-being so that poor groups are not neglected—and marginalised. the authors conclude that the government’s approaches must effectively embrace robustness and resilience strategies to combat epidemics’ effects. it is essential to include diversity, flexibility and highlighting alternative ways to achieve a sustainable development policy in these practices. moore et al. (2011) studied the need for political involvement in the difficulties faced by the marine ecosystem as a result of its pollution and the impact it has on the health of the population living closer to the coast. to address these issues, the authors resorted to various methods. still, the most relevant and indispensable is implementing integrated global action by national governments, as the local government lacks the necessary resources and the ability to coordinate with other local governments. therefore, to produce significant results, the collective involvement of several national, regional and global management and administration institutions is needed to create a sustainable environment suitable for future generations. moreover, assessing the quality of government and well-being is an important fact. lobonţ et al. (2019) science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 261 constructed a composite index of the quality of government and citizens’ well-being, and its hierarchy emphasised that the scandinavian countries present the highest scores. the performance in these countries reflected the systematic control from citizens towards the government and reduced corruption. citizens’ confidence in government is reflected in their willingness to pay higher taxes than anywhere else in the european union, but also significant governmental support through public investments and large social protection expenditures. moreover, it has been recognised by the literature that corruption can affect both positively and negatively the level of innovation of countries, with direct implications for societal well-being. in this light, pirtea et al. (2019) addressed this issue regarding the corruption influences and concluded that governmental corruption has a negative impact and affects innovation perspectives. to assess the capacity to effectively and efficiently provide highquality services to citizens, gargiulo and tremiterra (2015) studied the city of florence, the importance of the implementation by local governance of many measures to implement new technologies aimed at improving the quality of life, the well-being of urban society, promoting an efficient urban system, sustainable, and competitive. all this materialises smart city’s idea, which is strongly emerging at the european level. therefore, this paper captures how the relationship between smart city and territorial competitiveness contributes to establishing metropolitan governance and increases the level of well-being felt by society due to implementing these measures relevant to today's european society. leväsluoto et al. (2019) are experimenting with innovative public service techniques to increase the population’s well-being. experimental development has been suggested to address slowdown problems and inefficiency in current innovation activities. it also applies to the public sector, which raises specific issues due to traditional bureaucracy and strong professionalism. thus, clarifying the concept of experimentation and improving the collaboration between local administrations and government policies are among the most important lessons learned. since the literature on public governance and the well-being of citizens is vast and complex, but also due to the needs of society to receive, in exchange for their contributions to the public budget, quality services to raise their welfare we propose to find out the state of knowledge in this field and to make a complex analysis that could be a starting point for future research on public governance concerning the well-being of citizens. for a comprehensive scientific mapping of the existing literature and in-depth investigation of the current state of knowledge in the field, our study broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 262 followed the method proposed and used by lobont et al. (2020), namely bibliometric analysis. therefore, to document and be able to refer to those with the most appropriate contributions in this field, we resorted to the bibliometric research tool. through vosviewer software, we have managed to organise all the articles made in our area of research. thus, we have been driven to identify and group by the most used keywords, the most influential authors, and collaborations between certain countries. next, we present, step by step, the process by which the articles used to create the bibliometric networks were extracted. thus, employing the database “web of science core collection”, we consider the following three concepts: “governance”, “challenge”, “wellbeing”, and for the type of included documents, we considered: “article”, “proceeding papers”, “book chapters”, “review articles”, “editorial materials” and “early access”. finally, the analysis period between the years 2000-2022 was considered, but the first year in which articles published on the topic began to appear was 2005. therefore, web of science provides 291 results, and these were downloaded in a “.txt” file that we entered in the vosviewer software for analysis (van eck & waltman, 2019), according to the following steps: a. web of science – clarivate (analytic database): the subject of the research: “governance”, “challenge”, and “wellbeing”; period: 2005-2022; documents type: “article”, “proceeding papers”, “book chapters”; “review articles”, “editorial materials”, and “early access”. b. vosviewer instruments: recorded content for vosviewer: full text and cited references. c. the analysis was based on: keywords; citations/countries; citations/authors. keyword analysis allows us to count and expose the most common ones. usually, we report according to their frequency in the selected documents. the primary purpose is to extract the keywords most used by the authors who approach the field of public governance and the welfare of society. in addition to the three keywords considered in the initial search of the subject of the analysis (governance, challenge, and wellbeing), the network given by vosviewer also presents other keywords (figure 1) that science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 263 appear mainly in the articles: “climate change” (with 38 appearances), “management” (with 37 appearances), “policy” (with 31 appearances), “ecosystem services” (with 29 appearances), “sustainability” (with 23 appearances), “health” and “resilience” (with 22 appearances). figure 1. keywords network. source: own process in vosviewer (van eck & waltman, 2019) figure 1 evidence the most important keywords and the links between them; the higher the nodes and the keyword, the higher the frequency of the keywords; when the distance between the nodes is greater, the connection between them is weaker. at the same time, the thicker the lines, the more frequent the coincidence. a group of keywords or a series of related keywords is indicated in the same colour. figure 1 points out the most frequently occurring keywords (applying a threshold of 10 occurrences). the largest group is the red group, which focuses on words such as “governance”, “sustainability”, “policy”, or “model”. the next group is the green one, where keywords such as “resilience”, “wellbeing”, or “health” dominate. the third group focuses on words such as “science”, “systems”, or “ecosystem services”. the last and smallest, the yellow group, consists of the terms “management”, “challenges”, and “community”. the entire groups are detailed and can be observed in table 1. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 264 table 1. keyword groups. group 1 (red) group 2 (green) group 3 (blue) group 4 (yellow) cities adaptation benefits challenges framework climate change biodiversity community governance climate change ecosystem services conservation model health knowledge impact participation impacts science management policy resilience social-ecological systems neoliberalism politics vulnerability systems protected areas sustainability wellbeing urban source: author’s processing in vosviewer therefore, group 1 is related to sustainable development over time, focusing on administrative and structural aspects and policy models that can bring and increase societal well-being. in contrast, group 3 is focused on the theoretical, technical, and professional parts. it follows how services and systems adapt to the needs of societies, considering ecological components. group 2 contains factors with vulnerabilities in achieving the objective of including society's well-being. thus, health is vital in people's lives, and resilience and climate change affect it negatively. finally, group 4 summarises how society feels the impact of management specific to conservative, neoliberal or ecological policies. the analysis of the “scientific co-authorship” in terms of the number of documents, citations and countries focuses on the research area of the network of the principal authors and countries. this first network of citations concentrates on the three concepts of analysis (governance, challenges, and well-being), considering only the authors who published at least two articles indexed in the web of science core collection database. figure 2 highlights the network of authors, grouped into 12 groups. science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 265 vosviewer offers the following results for the most-cited authors: all authors have two documents (excepting yigitcanlar t. with 3 documents). most authors are below 200 citations (including those in the red group, which turns out to be the one with the strongest links), with the only authors above 200 being the authors of group 6 (cyan) and group 12 (light blue). details on the number of documents and citations are included in table 2. figure 2. network of co-authors, based on the number of documents per author. source: author’s processing in vosviewer. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 266 table 2. groups of papers and citations by the author. group authors doc./cit. binding strenght group 1 (red) bennet n. 2/147 7 christie p. 2/147 7 gruby r. 2/147 7 parks j. 2/147 7 finkbeiner e. 2/72 4 group 2 (green) leach j. 2/35 4 lee s. 2/35 4 rogers c. 2/35 4 group 3 (yellow) friess d. 2/62 2 thompson b. 2/62 2 group 4 (dark blue) bowen k. 2/20 1 friel s. 2/29 1 group 5 (purple) gupta j. 2/30 1 pouw n. 2/24 1 grup 6 (cyan) hossain md. 2/229 1 zhang k. 2/225 1 group 7 (orange) akenji l. 2/177 0 group 8 (brown) bush j. 2/22 0 group 9 (magenta) daw t. 253 0 group 10 (pink) mair f. 2/59 0 group 11 (lime) mccuaig l. 2/28 0 group 12 (light blue) yigitcanlar t. 3/225 0 source: author’s processing in vosviewer. the first group (red) contains 5 authors. at the same time, this group can be considered the main one from the citation perspective. in this case, in group 1 all authors have an equal impact since they all have the same number of published documents (2) and the same number of citations (147), except finkbeiner e. with 72 citations. from the perspective of citations, the next cluster in terms of impact are those from group 6, which registers a number of 229 citations (hossain md.), respectively 225 (zhang k.). then science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 267 we have group 7 with 177 citations (akenji l.). group 2 also stands out as important because the authors each have an equal number of citations (35) and documents (2) and a link strength of 4. finally, we have group 12, in which yigitcanlar t. stands out both by the number of citations (225) and the position of being the only author with 3 published documents, and the rest of the authors with a number of citations below 100 and a link strength below 3. in the last part of the bibliometric analysis, we approached the study of scientific co-authorship of countries based on a sample of 291 documents. the map (figure 3) highlights the links and collaborations between member authors of different countries. therefore, the map reveals the degree of communication between the countries and those with the most influential roles in governance and citizens’ well-being. figure 3 contains groups of different colours with significant links between them. england, usa, australia, canada, netherlands, and germany are the most influential countries in our analysis, the ones that have the most significant nodes. we can see that the links between the most important countries are also the strongest. at the same time, if we look at the thickness of the lines, we can see close links between the countries in the red group and those in the green and blue, and most of these essential relations include countries in our sphere of analysis and research (england, germany, netherlands, and sweden). figure 3. scientific co-authorship network, based on the countries where the documents were published. source: author’s processing in vosviewer. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 268 table 3. article groups by countries. group authors doc./cit. binding strenght group 1 (red) finland 9/361 17 france 9/263 22 germany 20/659 28 italy 9/213 19 netherlands 20/402 27 portugal 9/87 17 spain 10/104 24 group 2 (green) australia 76/1313 79 canada 33/929 45 new zealand 15/253 23 norway 11/180 16 switzerland 12/239 27 usa 50/1049 74 group 3 (blue) england 76/1928 94 peoples r china 19/396 35 scotland 22/440 30 south africa 17/264 34 sweden 17/681 35 source: author’s processing in vosviewer. according to table 3, the most significant influence in the area of governance analysis and its impact on the well-being of citizens was in england (76 documents), australia (76 documents), usa (50 documents), where the most documents were published. the highest number of citations was found in countries such as england (1928 citations), australia (1313 citations), the usa (1049 citations), canada (929 citations) and sweden (681). but even so, in each group, except group 2, the majority are european countries. at the same time, group 1 is composed entirely of eu member states, making the studies carried out in the european union area more relevant. moreover, we find countries such as england, the netherlands, sweden and germany, which according to the present analysis, have obtained a significant number of documents and citations, indicating that these countries address in a broad sense the issue of governance efficiency and its influence on the welfare of society. science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 269 3. materials and methods at the same time, it is increasingly important to provide the best living conditions for all the citizens of a country, regardless of the region and subregions of origin respectively the diversity of the types of problems they face and must be solved. this depends mainly on the quality of the act of public governance, respectively on its measures to increase citizens’ quality of life. thus, the well-being of society is mainly about the quality of life, or rather, the way the community feels about the quality of government decisions and how it deals with new or existing problems in everyday life, such as pollution, traffic, health system quality, criminal security, and purchasing power. considering citizen’s quality of life as a necessary feature for assessing the level of well-being and the effectiveness of governance as an essential aspect for measuring the performance of public governance, several methodologies specific to empirical analysis have been used, as follows: (i) analytical approach involving data mapping; (ii) vector quantisation, using knime software and k-means algorithm to obtain a clustering for the available data set; (iii) hierarchical clustering to segment the eu-27 member states into clusters based on the similarities between the six dimensions of governance and the quality-of-life index. therefore, in choosing the data set, the primary evidence in the literature was considered, which led us to include in the data set the dimensions of governance and the global index of quality of life, as follows: • societal wellbeing index: “quality of life index” (qlty_life) (the unit of measurement is not clearly defined, the indicator is calculated according to the following empirical formula: index.main = math.max[0, 100 + purchasingpowerinclrentindex / 2.5 (housepricetoincomeratio * 1.0) costoflivingindex / 10 + safetyindex / 2.0 + healthindex / 2.5 traffictimeindex / 2.0 pollutionindex * 2.0 / 3.0 + climateindex / 3.0]). • administration/governance indicators: “voice and accountability (voice_account)”; “political stability and absence of violence/terrorism (polit_stab_abs_v)”; “government effectiveness (gov_eff)”; “regulatory quality (reg_qlty)”; “rule of law (rule_law)”; “control of corruption (corrupt_ctrl)”. all values are the units of standard normal distribution, with an average of 0 and a standard deviation of 1, taking values from -2.5 to 2.5. data for the administration were taken from the wgi world governance indicators database and societal wellbeing in the numbeo broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 270 database. the variables involved in our analysis are statistically detailed in table 4: table 4. descriptive statistics, eu-24, 2020. variable n mean standard deviation min max qlty_life 24 160.183 19.306 128.160 192.670 polit_stab_abs_v 24 0.690 0.241 0.130 1.030 corrupt_ctrl 24 1.037 0.774 -0.270 2.270 gov_eff 24 1.024 0.607 -0.220 1.950 reg_qlty 24 1.102 0.484 0.380 1.850 rule_law 24 1..084 0.610 -0.090 2.080 voice_account 24 1.068 0.373 0.260 1.620 source: author’s processing in stata 17. the main dimensions of governance are illustrated in figure 4, an eu-24 perspective. the results show the following: the highest values for most indicators are recorded for the countries which are situated in the north, centre and north-west of the european union, countries such as denmark, sweden, finland, austria, the netherlands, estonia, germany and then the uk, ireland, belgium, france, and even portugal. atypical is that the uk and france are still in the weakest category despite the record high values in most indicators, we can see for polit_stab_abs_v (figure 4a). even for germany, the score is below average. at the other end of the spectrum, countries such as romania, bulgaria, poland, italy, greece, and hungary, countries in the southern, south-eastern, and eastern parts of the european union, have the lowest values for governance indicators. science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 271 a. polit_stab_abs_v b. corrupt_ctrl c. gov_eff d. reg_qlty e. rule_law f. voice_account figure 4. administration/governance in eu-24, 2020: (a) political stability and absence of violence/terrorism; (b) corruption control; (c) government effectiveness; (d) regulatory quality; (e) rule of law; (f) voice and accountability. source: author’s processing in stata 17. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 272 in correlation with the quality of life global index (figure 5), we notice that in 2020 the highest values were recorded in the same regions of the european union by countries such as germany, austria, denmark, the netherlands, finland, and estonia. on the other hand, the lowest values are in the same areas where common values for governance were recorded, in countries such as romania, hungary, bulgaria, greece, italy, and poland. qlty_life figure 5. societal wellbeing in eu-24, 2020: quality of life index. source: author’s processing in stata 17. the technique by which data set analysis is possible is called data mining. new structures and previously unknown relationships can be identified and extracted with them. following the data extraction process, obtained information can be considered an added value for creating national or global strategies and at all stages of the decision-making process. the main topic of data mining is cluster analysis and represents a significant area of research (zou, 2019). this type of analysis, called cluster analysis, is a quantitative form of grouping data into categories depending on their specific similarities and differences, based on this statistical data processing method. creates data groups using several algorithms and grouping methods, compressing all of them into one (frades & matthiesen, 2010). also, the algorithm k-means can balance the elements within a group and their diversity to agglomerate as many similar features within a group but keep the groups as far apart as possible. the k-means algorithm can be applied by employing the knime software. this platform allows data extraction, integration, reporting and analysis while having various machine learning components. the component stages of our analysis start with identifying problems, setting goals, and collecting data, then processing and analysing science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 273 them using data mining functions, clustering them using the k-means knime algorithm, evaluating the quality of clustering and interpreting the results: i. problem identification; ii. setting goals; iii. collecting data; iv. using data mining functions; v. clustering using k-mean algorithm – knime software; vi. euclidean distance; vii. concluding results. the data set was processed only for 2020 to obtain a fair comparison in creating clusters for the eu-24 member states. k-means algorithm is a vector quantisation method, which is the basis of the methodology we used in the knime software. the data clustering stages which employ the k-means algorithm are: 1. select how many clusters to be included. 2. finding the centroid (midpoint) value in compliance with the number of selected clusters. mx = min + {[(x−1)∗(𝑚𝑎𝑥−𝑚𝑖𝑛)]/t} + [(𝑚𝑎𝑥−min)/(2∗t)] (1) where: mx= midpoint of class “x” min= the continuous data category with the lowest value max= the discrete data category with the highest value t= total number of discrete classes. 3. distributing every data to the nearest centre of the cluster. lc = [(√(𝑂x−𝑇x)*2] / [(𝑂y−𝑇y)^2] (2) where: lc = distance from cluster centroid to data o = data records t = data midpoint 4. determining the new cluster midpoint. mx = (dx+⋯+dt)/σd (3) where: mx = midpoint of class “x” d1 = value of x= 1 dt = data record value to t σd = total number of data records. at the same time, measuring the distance from the centre of the group to a specific data value represents another procedure performed by broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 274 the k-means algorithm. thus, the euclidean distance, whose formula is applied and calculated, looks as follows: ed (x, y) = (x1x-x1y)*2 + (x2x-x2y)*2 +…+(xkx-xky) (4) where: ed (x, y) = the distance from “x” to midpoint “y” xki = the data to “x” on attribute data to “k” xkj = the centre point to “y” at attribute to “k”. one of the main advantages of knime software is the variety of programming languages and its machine learning abilities. the component nodes of a workspace (shown in figure 6) that aims to obtain a knime clustering are grouped as follows: orange: for taking input data excel reader; green: the clustering algorithms – k-means and hierarchical clustering; blue: customisation and displaying output data – color manager, interactive table (local), scatter plot (local), shape manager. figure 6. nodes used in knime workspace. node 1 – excel reader; node 2 – k-means; node 3 – color manager; node 4 – interactive table (local); node 5 – scatter plot (local); node 6 – shape manager; node 7 – hierarchical clustering. source: author’s processed data in knime software. to configure the clustering, it will be necessary to establish the connections between the nodes in the form of a workflow after was established the network of nodes that will perform the ranking and clustering of eu-24 member states based on selected indicators. therefore, the analysed period is limited to 2020, considering both types of hierarchies. thus, the dendrogram is necessary to be obtained to allow an intuitive science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 275 hierarchy, and then the k-means clustering also, which enables the segmentation of data into sets of “k” groups, offering the possibility to observe each country in its group with similar countries, non-overlapping with another one from another group. 4. results to begin, the cluster analysis created groups containing the eu-24 member states in the context of governance and welfare indicators. at the same time, it was possible to group, visualise and associate the countries with each other based on the values of the indicators due to the vector quantisation method. based on euclidean distance and single connections, hierarchical clustering in knime was applied, and the dendrogram (shown in figure 7) was obtained. figure 7. dendrogram of clusters. source: author’s processed data in knime software. the dendrogram evidences the distance between the formed groups and the analysed countries, using a scale that starts from the value of 0 and reaches up to about 10.7. it can be seen how, as we move towards the maximum value of the scale used in the dendrogram, the distance between the clusters is greater. at the same time, the considerable distance between the groups shows a significant discrepancy that they have with each other. the primary purpose of this section is to group the countries in the analysis to evaluate each of the independent variables (the six dimensions of governance) and the dependent variable (quality of life), all to examine the quality of life for each specific group and country. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 276 compared to the method of analysis and grouping in the form of a dendrogram, where the groups are formed intuitively, the figure below can be observed as another way to group these countries for visualisation. thus, the knime software made it possible to make a tabular representation of these countries and categories according to the same data considered when creating the dendrogram. thus, in figure 8, we can visualise the nodes chosen to obtain the dendrogram from figure 7 and the tabular analysis presented in figure 9. figure 8. knime elements. source: author’s processed data in knime software. each element, called nodes, is necessary to reach the expected result. in obtaining the relevant results, the decisive nodes are node 2, “k-means”, and node 7 “, hierarchical clustering”. thus, the upper node (hierarchical clustering) path was used to obtain the dendrogram in figure 7, starting from the data set taken from node 1 and continuing through node 7. the lower path (k-means) was used for the tabular representation of this information, according to figure 9, which also originates in node 1 and whose route is continued through node 2. due to its interactivity feature, the table allowed us to sort the data by several categories, among which we chose the alphabetical sort of these countries, as shown in figure 9. science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 277 figure 9. the distribution of countries into clusters is based on governance dimensions and the quality of life index. source: author’s processed data in knime software. to perform the analysis and tabular representation, it was necessary to create the database with indicators and introduce an id row to identify each variable and correlate its value with its country; the reference year is 2020. then we chose the necessary nodes, established the connections, and configured them. in the beginning, the node that records the values from the excel file was adjusted, and the k-means algorithm was introduced to create and apply the distribution on clusters. furthermore, only 3 groups of countries (clusters) were formed. to establish the colour of each cluster, a new node was introduced, which was then linked to the last node that allows us to view the processed data in the form of an interactive table. consequently, the data in the table are distributed as follows: the “row id” column contains the names of the states in the model, and the “d” type columns refer to the analysed indicators and their values (the indicators being ordered as follows: political stability and absence of violence, corruption control, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, voice and accountability, and quality of life), and the “s” type column indicates in which group of countries (cluster) each country was distributed. at the same time, for the easy identification of the categories, a square of the colour corresponding to the cluster in which the country next to it falls is presented before the first column. the groups obtained from the distribution are consistent and reasonably balanced; the countries that are part of them have similar values in all recorded values. evaluating the groups received, the results highlight broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 278 that the regulatory quality indicator takes values between 128.16 141.83 for group 0 (red), then we have group 1 (yellow), which reaches values between 152.53 162.91 and finally, we have group 2 (green) which records values in the range 169.82 192.67. continuing with the indicators of public governance, political stability and absence of violence register the lowest values in groups 0 (red) and 1 (yellow), respectively 0.13 and 0.31. the maximum value is found in groups 2 (green) and 1 (yellow), which contain values of 1.02 and 1.03. for corruption control, the minimum values are recorded by romania and bulgaria (-0.03 and -0.27), while the maximum is obtained by finland and denmark (2.20 and 2.27). the effectiveness of the government also records minimum values for bulgaria and romania (-0.07 and -0.22), and the maximum values are again obtained by finland and denmark (1.95 and 1.89). the regulatory quality indicator shows minimum values for romania and croatia (0.38 and 0.43), while finland and denmark remain at the top (1.85 and 1.79). the rule of law is the lowest for italy and bulgaria (0.24 and -0.09), while denmark and finland’s maximum is also given (1.86 and 2.08). the last indicator, voice and responsibility, counts the lowest values for bulgaria and hungary (0.26 and 0.39) and the highest for finland and the netherlands (1.63 and 1.62). 5. limits and discussion this paper’s research objective was to map the channels through which public governance can significantly contribute to societal well-being and manages to illustrate graphical representations and geographical reports of european countries. the data were selected for 2020, limited by the quality of life index to only 24 eu member states. thus, cyprus, luxembourg, latvia, and malta were excluded, but the united kingdom was included in the model due to its membership until 31 january 2020. the flow of selected data, processed in the knime analytic platform, guides the analysis on the path of intuitive formation of 3 clusters of countries, as table 5 shows: science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 279 table 5. country distribution in groups, based on figure 9, eu-24. cluster 0 (red) cluster 1 (yellow) cluster 2 (green) bulgaria belgium austria greece croatia denmark hungary czech republic estonia italy france finland poland ireland germany romania lithuania netherland portugal slovenia slovakia spain united kingdom sweden source: author's processing in knime. given the clustering of countries, peoples and especially geographical positioning, we conclude that the germanic nations (anglosaxon, nordic), more precisely those located in the centre, north and northwest of the european union, have the highest values for most indices analysed (group 2 green), while at the opposite end are the latin and slavic countries, more precisely those states located in the eastern, south-eastern and southern part of the european union (group 0 red). we can notice that the western and southwestern part is balanced and is located, in most cases, in the middle category (group 1 yellow). therefore, a country is likelier to have low values in the eastern, southeastern and southern parts of europe. in contrast, countries in the northern and central parts tend to have higher values for both analysed dimensions (public governance and societal well-being). it should also be noted that the time when a country joined the european union is also a factor that we can consider. therefore, we have countries with high values for governance and well-being; these countries are also considered veterans (denmark, germany, netherlands, austria, sweden, finland) and low-value countries that are recent members (romania, bulgaria, poland, hungary, and slovakia). but even so, there are exceptions, such as greece and italy, which are long-standing states in the european union but register low values. our results complement the research of cernakova and hudec (2012), who performed a cluster analysis by considering only one of the variables analysed within this paper and using 75 european cities instead of countries. still, the results also attested high values for nordic and central european cities compared to south and eastern ones in the analysed clusters. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 280 6. conclusions our research analyses the links between public governance and social welfare, graphically exposing the discrepancies between the eu-24 member states, considering the indicators of both dimensions studied. therefore, the results obtained in the current research reinforce the conclusions of other studies, which state that public governance has a significant impact and produces considerable effects on social welfare, as reported by carcaba et al. (2017). the methodological approach involved bibliometric analysis in obtaining the most important keywords, co-authorship and the most influential countries in which the articles from our research area were mainly published. scientific mapping has revealed that, in addition to the keywords considered in the initial search for the subject of the analysis (government, challenges and well-being), the network provided by vosviewer has other associated keywords, namely “management”, “health”, “climate change”, “sustainability” and “resilience”, representing the main orientations of the contemporary society in the context of ensuring the well-being. therefore, the focus of public governance must be on prioritising sustainable development, focusing on the challenges of achieving it without damaging the natural ecosystem, namely climate change. the government has also proven to depend on management, with the decision-making mechanism influencing people's well-being. moreover, the scientific co-author highlighted the countries where the most studies on our topic have been published: england, australia, the usa, netherlands, and germany; a considerable number of governance and welfare studies from the eu. cluster analysis was also applied, performing the method of relative distances, to create a dendrogram that groups the eu member states according to their similarity, depending on the six dimensions of governance and the quality of life index. at the same time, the k-means algorithm was also used to achieve a preferential grouping of the eu member states into three different clusters, involving the same indices as in the hierarchical clustering, namely dendrogram. the availability and relevance of the data generated a first limitation of the research, reducing the group of eu-27 countries to eu-24. cyprus, luxembourg, latvia, and malta were excluded, and the united kingdom was included in the model due to its membership until 31 january 2020. an analytical approach involving data mapping exposed the discrepancies between the eu-24 member states, also mapping them. thus, we observed, through intuitively visual representation, that the countries in certain areas (such as northern and central) have very high science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 281 values, while countries positioned in other regions (such as south and east) have a low score. furthermore, hierarchical clustering was applied, whose purpose was to divide the eu-24 member states into clusters based on the similarities between the six dimensions of governance and the quality of life index. the results displayed a graphical representation in a dendrogram revealing the links and the discrepancies between the analysed countries. therefore, the most similar countries/groups are always prioritised, with high similarities between countries in the groups at the bottom of the hierarchy (denmark and finland), while larger groups at the top of the hierarchy will include more states. still, their similarity is much lower (romania and portugal). in performing vector quantisation, the k-means algorithm was applied in knime software. the results highlight another type of hierarchy obtained whose objective was to divide the eu-24 member states into three clusters (groups of similar countries). thus, cluster 2 (green) includes the most advanced countries in terms of welfare and governance (denmark and finland). then, the results indicate cluster 1 (yellow), which contains countries with moderate values that should pursue an improvement (france, uk, and portugal). finally, we have cluster 0 (red), which exposes the most defective countries. it is necessary to adopt measures to increase the standard of living and administration quality (romania, poland, and greece). therefore, measures to improve public governance may include: adopting more straightforward methodologies, focusing on improving the skills of staff and services provided, meritocracy, and decision-making transparency. on the other hand, specific measures to enhance well-being are limited to a regulated system through which the citizen is protected in terms of sustainable development. the study’s preliminary results suggest the need to improve and strengthen the public governance of the states in some regions of the european union to approach strategies aimed at improving the welfare of citizens and reducing the considerable discrepancies between the eu member states. thus, it is much more essential for countries with higher values to maintain current levels and continue to improve them. in contrast, countries with shallow scores are more important to improve them by adopting more efficient strategies constantly, decisions, norms, and regulations modelled on countries that have demonstrated the quality of public governance. the study’s main limitations are represented by the unavailability of data for all eu member states and the inclusion of a limited number of indicators expressing the two phenomena of the research. therefore, future broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 282 studies may include all eu-27 member states, considering several indicators descriptive of the analysed dimensions or others considered more qualitative or representative. references bowen, a., & hepburn, c. (2014). green growth: an assessment. oxford review of economic policy, 30, 407-422. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/gru029 carcaba, a., gonzalez, e., ventura, j., & arrondo, r. (2017). how does good governance relate to quality of life? sustainability, 9, 631. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9040631 cernakova, v., & hudec, o. (2012). quality of life: typology of european cities based on cluster analysis. e & m ekonomie a management, 15, 34-48. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=gale%7ca320265229&sid=googlesch olar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=12123609&p=aone&sw=w&u sergroupname=anon%7eb4c994a5 cristea, m. s., pirtea, m. g., suciu, m. c., & noja, g. g. (2022). workforce participation, ageing, and economic welfare: new empirical evidence on complex patterns across the european union. complexity, 2022, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/7313452 devlin, a. m., mcgee-lennon, m., o'donnell, c. a., bouamrane, m. m., agbakoba, r., o'connor, s., grieve, e., finch, t., wyke, s., watson, n., browne, s., & mair, f. s. (2016). delivering digital health and well-being at scale: lessons learned during the implementation of the dallas program in the united kingdom. journal of the american medical informatics association, 23, 48-59. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocv097 dincă, m., & lucheş, d. (2018). work integration of the roma: between family and labor market. sustainability, 10, 1495. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051495 engwicht, n., & grabek, j. (2019). a human security perspective on natural resource governance: what makes reforms effective? south african journal of international affairs-sajia, 26, 185-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2019.1607545 frades, i., & matthiesen, r. (2010). overview on techniques in cluster analysis. methods in molecular biology journals, 593, 81-107. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-194-3_5 gargiulo, c., & tremiterra, m. r. (2015). smart city, metropolitan areas and competitiveness: the case study of florence. tema journal of land use, mobility and environment, 2, 203-217. https://doi.org/10.6092/19709870/3010 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/gru029 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9040631 https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=gale%7ca320265229&sid=googlescholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=12123609&p=aone&sw=w&usergroupname=anon%7eb4c994a5 https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=gale%7ca320265229&sid=googlescholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=12123609&p=aone&sw=w&usergroupname=anon%7eb4c994a5 https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=gale%7ca320265229&sid=googlescholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=12123609&p=aone&sw=w&usergroupname=anon%7eb4c994a5 https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/7313452 https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocv097 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051495 https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2019.1607545 http://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-194-3_5 https://doi.org/10.6092/1970-9870/3010 https://doi.org/10.6092/1970-9870/3010 science mapping and country clustering regarding challenges… oana-ramona lobonţ et al. 283 haikola, s., & anshelm, j. (2020). evolutionary governance in mining: boom and bust in peripheral communities in sweden. land use policy, 93, 104056. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104056 khan, j., hildingsson, r., & garting, l. (2020). sustainable welfare in swedish cities: challenges of eco-social integration in urban sustainability governance. sustainability, 12, 383. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010383 leach, m., scoones, i., & stirling, a. (2010). governing epidemics in an age of complexity: narratives, politics and pathways to sustainability. global environmental change, 20, 369-377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.11.008 leväsluoto, j., hyytinen, k., & toivonen, m. (2019). innovation by experimenting in public services. human-centered digitalization and services, 19, 199-223. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7725-9_11 lobont, o. r., taran, a. m., & costea, f. (2020). e-government research still matter? a bibliometric analysis. annals of dunarea de jos university of galati. fascicle i. economics and applied informatics, 26(2), 58–63. https://doi.org/10.35219/eai15840409106 lobonţ, o. r., vătavu, s., glonţ, o. r., & mihiţ, l. d. (2019). quality of government and well-being: assessing the gap in european countries. zagreb international review of economics and business, 22(s1), 69–82. https://doi.org/10.2478/zireb-2019-0005 lucheş, d., saghin, d., & lupchian, m. (2021). public perception of the first major sars-cov-2 outbreak in the suceava county, romania. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18, 1406. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041406 matichescu, m. l., drăgan, a., & lucheş, d. (2017). channels to west: exploring the migration routes between romania and france. sustainability, 9, 1861. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9101861 moore, m., owen, r., & depledge, m. (2011). scientific challenges and policy needs. marine pollution and human health, 33, 128-163. https://doi.org/10.1039/9781849732871-00128 peeters, j., sharmahd, n., & budginaite, i. (2018). early childhood education and care (ecec) assistants in europe: pathways towards continuous professional development (cpd) and qualification. european journal of education, 53, 46-57. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12254 pirtea, m. g., şipoş, g. l., & ionescu, a. (2019). does corruption affects business innovation? insights from emerging countries. journal of business economics and management, 20(4), 715–733. https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2019.10160 ropke, i. (2017). sustainability and the governance of the financial system: what role for full reserve banking? environmental policy and governance, 27, 177-192. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1753 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104056 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010383 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.11.008 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7725-9_11 https://doi.org/10.35219/eai15840409106 https://doi.org/10.2478/zireb-2019-0005 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041406 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9101861 https://doi.org/10.1039/9781849732871-00128 https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12254 https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2019.10160 https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1753 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 284 stroetmann, k. a. (2013). achieving the integrated and smart health and wellbeing paradigm: a call for policy research and action on governance and business models. international journal of medical informatics, 82, 29-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2012.05.008 van eck, n. j., & waltman, l. (2019). vosviewer manual. vosviewer. https://www.vosviewer.com/documentation/manual_vosviewer_1.6.1 1.pdf zou, h. (2019). clustering algorithm and its application in data mining. wireless personal communications, 110, 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-01906709-z https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2012.05.008 https://www.vosviewer.com/documentation/manual_vosviewer_1.6.11.pdf https://www.vosviewer.com/documentation/manual_vosviewer_1.6.11.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-019-06709-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-019-06709-z microsoft word brain_1_4_nou_modif.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 74 on unique common fixed point theorems for three and four self mappings in symmetric fuzzy metric space saurabh manro school of mathematics and computer applications, thapar university p.o. box 32, patiala, pin -147004, india sauravmanro@yahoo.com abstract in this paper, we prove two unique common fixed point theorems for three and four self mappings in symmetric fuzzy metric spaces. keywords: symmetric fuzzy-metric space, owc maps, common fixed point theorem. 1. introduction in 1965, zadeh a.l. [3] introduced the concept of fuzzy set as a new way to represent vagueness in our everyday life. however, when the uncertainty is due to fuzziness rather than randomness, as sometimes in the measurement of an ordinary length, it seems that the concept of a fuzzy metric space is more suitable. we can divide them into following two groups: the first group involves those results in which a fuzzy metric on a set x is treated as a map where x represents the totality of all fuzzy points of a set and satisfy some axioms which are analogous to the ordinary metric axioms. thus, in such an approach numerical distances are set up between fuzzy objects. on the other hand in the second group, we keep those results in which the distance between objects is fuzzy and the objects themselves may or may not be fuzzy. kramosil i. and michalek j. [2] have introduced the concept of fuzzy metric spaces in different ways. in this paper, we prove two unique common fixed point theorems for three and four self mappings in symmetric fuzzy metric spaces. 2. preliminaries definition 2.1: a binary operation * : [0,1]×[0,1] → [0,1] is continuous t-norm, if * satisfies the following conditions: (i) * is commutative and associative; (ii) * is continuous; (iii) a * 1 = a for all a∈[0, 1]; (iv) a * b ≤ c * d, whenever a ≤ c and b ≤ d, for all a, b, c, d ∈[0, 1]. example 2.1: a * b = min{a, b} and a * b = a . b are t-norms. kramosil i and michalek j. [3] introduced the concept of fuzzy metric spaces as follows: definition 2.2: fuzzy metric space: the 3-tuple (x, m, ¤) is called a fuzzy metric space (shortly, fm-space) if x is an arbitrary set, ¤ is a continuous t-norm and m is a fuzzy set in x2 × [0, ∞) satisfying the following conditions: (fm-1) m(x, y, 0) = 0, (fm-2) m(x, y, t) = 1, for all t > 0 if and only if x = y, (fm-3) m(x, y, t) = m(y, x. t), (fm-4) m(x, y, t) ¤ m(y, z, s) ≤ m(x, z, t + s) (triangular inequality) and (fm-5) m(x, y, .) : [0, 1) → [0, 1] is left continuous ∀ x, y, z ∈x and s, t > 0. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 75 note that m(x, y, t) can be thought of as the degree of nearness between x and y with respect to t. if only (fm1, 2, 3) hold, the 3-tuple (x, m, ¤) is said to be fuzzy semi – metric (symmetric) space. we can fuzzyfy examples of metric spaces into fuzzy metric spaces in a natural way: let (x, d) be a metric space. define a ¤ b = a + b for all a, b in x. define m(x, y, t) = t / (t + d(x, y)) for all x, y in x and t > 0. then, (x,m, ¤) is a fuzzy metric space, and this fuzzy metric induced by a metric d is called the standard fuzzy metric. consider m to be a fuzzy metric space with the following condition: (fm-6) limt→∞ m (x, y, t) = 1, for all x, y in x and t > 0. definition 2.3: let (x, m, *) be fuzzy semi-metric space. then, (a) a sequence {xn} in x is said to be cauchy sequence if, for all t > 0 and p > 0, limn→∞m (xn+p, xn, t) = 1 and (b) a sequence {xn} in x is said to be convergent to a point x∈x if, for all t > 0, limn→∞m (xn, x, t) = 1 definition 2.4: a fuzzy semi-metric space (x, m, *) is said to be complete if and only if every cauchy sequence in x is convergent. example 2.2: let x = {1/n: n∈ n } ∪ {0} and let * be the continuous t-norm and defined by a * b = ab for all a, b∈[0, 1]. for each t∈ (0, ∞) and x, y∈x, define m, by m(x, y, t) = t , t > 0, t+ x-y 0 t = 0 ⎧ ⎪ ⎨ ⎪ ⎩ clearly, (x, m, *) is complete fuzzy semi-metric space. definition 2.5: a pair of self mappings (f , g) of a fuzzy semi-metric space (x, m, *) is said to be commuting if m (fgx, gfx , t) = 1, for all x ∈x. definition 2.6: a pair of self mappings (f , g) of a fuzzy semi-metric space (x, m, *) is said to be weakly commuting if m (fgx , gfx , t) ≥ m (fx, gx, t), for all x ∈x and t > 0. definition 2.7: a pair of self mappings (f, g ) of a fuzzy semi-metric space (x, m, *) is said to be compatible, if limn→∞m(fgxn, gfxn, t) = 1 for all t > 0, whenever {xn} is a sequence in x such that limn→∞ fxn = limn→∞ gxn = u, for some u in x definition 2.8: let (x, m, *) be a fuzzy semi-metric space, and let f and g be self maps on x. a point x in x is called a coincidence point of f and g iff fx = gx. in this case, w = fx = gx is called a point of coincidence of f and g. definition 2.9: a pair of self mappings (f, g ) of a fuzzy semi-metric space (x, m, *) is said to be weakly compatible, if they commute at the coincidence points, i.e. if fu = gu, for some u in x , then fgu = gfu it is easy to see that two compatible maps are weakly compatible, but converse is not true. definition 2.10: two self mappings f and g of a fuzzy semi-metric space (x, m, *) are brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 76 called occasionally weakly compatible (owc) iff there is a point x in x which is coincidence point of f and g at which f and g commute. 3. main results 3.1 a unique common fixed point theorem for three mappings theorem 3.1: let (x, m, *) be symmetric fuzzy metric space. suppose f, g, and h are three self mappings of (x, m, *) satisfying the conditions: (1) for all x, y in x ( , , ) ( , , ) [ ( , , ) ( , , )] [ ( , , ) ( , , )] 0 0 ( ) ( ) m fx gy t m hx hy t m fx hx t m gy hy t m hx gy t m hy fx t t dt t dt α β γ φ φ + + + + ≤∫ ∫ where φ : r+ → r is a lebesgue-integrable mapping which is summable, nonnegative and such that 0 ( ) 0t dtφ ∈ >∫ for each ∈ > 0, and , ,α β γ are non-negative real numbers such that 2 2 1α β γ+ + < . (2) the pair of mappings (f, h), or (g, h), is owc. then f, g and h have a unique common fixed point. proof: suppose that f and h are owc then there is an element u in x such that fu = hu and fhu = hfu. first, we prove that fu = gu. indeed, by inequality (1), we get ( , , ) ( , , ) [ ( , , ) ( , , )] [ ( , , ) ( , , )] 0 0 [ ( , , )] [ ( , , )] 0 [ ( , , )] [ ( , , )] ( ) ( , , ) 0 0 ( , , 0 ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) m fu gu t m hu hu t m fu hu t m gu hu t m hu gu t m hu fu t m gu fu t m fu gu t m fu gu t m fu gu t m fu gu t m fu gu t dt t dt t dt t dt t dt t dt α β γ β γ β γ β γ φ φ φ φ φ φ + + + + + + + ≤ = = = < ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ )t ∫ which is a contradiction, hence, gu = fu = hu. again, suppose that ffu ≠ fu. by the use of condition (1), we have ( , , ) ( , , ) [ ( , , ) ( , , )] [ ( , , ) ( , , )] 0 0 ( , , ) 2 [ ( , , )] 0 ( 2 ) ( , , ) 0 ( , , ) 0 ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) m ffu gu t m hfu hu t m ffu hfu t m gu hu t m hfu gu t m hu ffu t m ffu gu t m ffu gu t m ffu gu t m ffu gu t t dt t dt t dt t dt t dt α β γ α γ α γ φ φ φ φ φ + + + + + + ≤ = = < ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ this contradiction implies that ffu = fu = hfu. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 77 now, suppose that gfu ≠ fu. by inequality (1), we have ( , , ) ( , , ) [ ( , , ) ( , , )] [ ( , , ) ( , , )] 0 0 ( , , ) [ ( , , )] 0 ( ) ( , , ) 0 ( , , ) 0 ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) m fu gfu t m hu hfu t m fu hu t m gfu hfu t m hu gfu t m hfu fu t m gfu fu t m fu gfu t m fu gfu t m fu gfu t t dt t dt t dt t dt t dt α β γ β γ β γ φ φ φ φ φ + + + + + + ≤ = = < ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ this above contradiction implies that gfu = fu. put fu = gu = hu = t, so, t is a common fixed point of mappings f, g and h. now, let p and z be two distinct common fixed points of f, g and h. i.e. fp = gp =hp = p, and fz = gz = hz = z . as p ≠ z, then from condition (1), we have ( , , ) ( , , ) ( , , ) [ ( , , ) ( , , )] [ ( , , ) ( , , )] 0 0 0 ( , , ) 2 ( , , )] 0 ( 2 ) ( , , ) 0 ( , , ) 0 ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) m p z t m fp gz t m hp hz t m fp hp t m gz hz t m hp gz t m hz fp t m p z t m p z t m p z t m p z t t dt t dt t dt t dt t dt t dt α β γ α γ α γ φ φ φ φ φ φ + + + + + + = ≤ = = < ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ a contradiction, hence z = p. thus, the common fixed point is unique. if we put ( ) 1tφ = in the above theorem, we get the following result: corollary: let : (x. <. *) be symmetric fuzzy-metric space. suppose f, g, and h are three self-mapping of (x, m, *) satisfying the conditions: (1) for all x, y in x m(fx, gy, r) ≤ αm(hx, hy, t) + β [m(fx, hx, t)+m(gy, hy, t)]+γ [m(hx, gy, t)+m(hy, fx, t)] and α, β, γ are non-negative reals such that α+2β+2γ<1 (2) pair of mappings (f,h) or (g,h) is owc then f, g and h have a unique common fixed point. 3. 2. a unique common fixed-point theorem for four mappings. now, we give our second main result: theorem 3.2: let (x, m, *) be symmetric fuzzy-metric space. suppose f, g , h and k are four self mappings of (x, m, *) satisfying the following conditions: (1) ( , , ) ( , , ) [ ( , , ) ( , , )] [ ( , , ) ( , , )] 0 0 ( ) ( ) m fx gy t m hx ky t m fx hx t m gy ky t m hx gy t m ky fx t t dt t dt α β γ φ φ + + + + ≤∫ ∫ for all x and y in x, where φ : r+ → r is a lebesgue-integrable mapping which is summable, nonnegative and such that 0 ( ) 0t dtφ ∈ >∫ for each ∈ > 0, and , ,α β γ are non-negative real numbers such that 2 2 1α β γ+ + < (2) pair of mappings (f, h) and (g, k) are owc. then, f, g, h and k have a unique common fixed point. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 78 proof: since pairs of mappings (f, h) and (g , k) are owc, there exists two points, u and v, in x such that fu = hu and fhu = hfu, gv = kv and gkv = kgv. first, we prove that fu = gv. indeed, by inequality (1), we get ( , , ) ( , , ) [ ( , , ) ( , , )] [ ( , , ) ( , , )] 0 0 [ ( , , )] [ ( , , )] 0 ( ) ( , , ) 0 ( , , ) 0 ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) m fu g v t m h u kv t m fu h u t m g v kv t m h u g v t m kv fu t m h u kv t m fu g v t m fu g v t m fu g v t t d t t d t t d t t d t t d t α β γ α γ α γ φ φ φ φ φ + + + + + + ≤ = = < ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ which is a contradiction; hence, gv = fu = hu = kv. again, suppose that ffu = fhu = hfu ≠ fu. by the use of condition (1), we have ( , , ) ( , , ) [ ( , , ) ( , , )] [ ( , , ) ( , , )] 0 0 [ ( , , )] 2 [ ( , , )] 0 ( 2 ) ( , , ) 0 ( , , ) 0 ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) m ffu gv t m hfu kv t m ffu hfu t m gv kv t m hfu gv t m kv ffu t m ffu fu t m ffu gv t m ffu gv t m ffu gv t t dt t dt t dt t dt t dt α β γ α γ α γ φ φ φ φ φ + + + + + + ≤ = = < ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ this contradiction implies that ffu = fu = hfu = fhu. similarly, gfu = kfu = fu. put fu = p, therefore p is a common fixed point of mappings f, g, h and k. now, let p and z be two distinct common fixed points of f, g, h and k. that is, fp = gp =hp = kp = p and fz = gz = hz = kz = z . as p ≠ z, then from condition (1), we have: ( , , ) ( , , ) ( , , ) [ ( , , ) ( , , )] [ ( , , ) ( , , )] 0 0 0 ( , , ) 2 ( , , )] 0 ( 2 ) ( , , ) 0 ( , , ) 0 ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) m p z t m fp gz t m hp hz t m fp hp t m gz hz t m hp gz t m hz fp t m p z t m p z t m p z t m p z t t dt t dt t dt t dt t dt t dt α β γ α γ α γ φ φ φ φ φ φ + + + + + + = ≤ = = < ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ ∫ a contradiction; hence z = p. thus, the common fixed point is unique. if we put ( ) 1tφ = in the above theorem, we get the following result: corollary: let (x, m,*) be symmetric fuzzy metric space. suppose f, g, h and k are four self mappings of (x, m,*) satisfying the following conditions: (1) ( , , ) ( , , ) [ ( , , ) ( , , )] [ ( , , ) ( , , )]m fx gy t m hx ky t m fx hx t m gy ky t m hx gy t m ky fx tα β γ≤ + + + + for all x and y in x, and , ,α β γ are non-negative reals such that 2 2 1α β γ+ + < (2) pair of mappings (f, h) and (g, k) are owc. then, f, g, h and k have a unique common fixed point. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 79 example: let x = [0, )∞ with the symmetric fuzzy-metric: m(x, y, t) = t , t > 0, t+ x-y 0 t = 0 ⎧ ⎪ ⎨ ⎪ ⎩ define 9 [0,1)3 [0,1) 0 [0,1) ( ) ( ) , ( ) , ( ) 11 [1, )1 [1, ) [1, ) xx x f x g x h x k x xx x x x ∈∈ ⎧⎧∈⎧ ⎪ ⎪= = = =⎨ ⎨ ⎨ ∈ ∞∈ ∞ ∈ ∞⎩ ⎪ ⎪⎩ ⎩ clearly (f, h) and (g, k) are owc. by taking 2 1 1 1( ) 3 , , , 4 5 6 x xφ α β γ= = = = all the hypothesis of theorem 2.2 are satisfied, and x = 1 is the unique common fixed point of mappings f, g, h and k. acknowledgment i would like to thank the referee for the critical comments and suggestions for the improvement of my paper. 3. references [1] jungck, g., rhoades, b. e. (2006), fixed point theorems for occasionally weakly compatible mappings, fixed point theory, 7, 286-296. [2] kramosil, i., michalek, j., (1975), fuzzy metric and statistical metric spaces, kybernetica, 11, 326-334. [3] zadeh, a. l., (1965), fuzzy sets, information and control, 89, 338-353. microsoft word brain_1_4_nou_modif.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 44 the impact of test anxiety on test performance among iranian efl learners parviz birjandi english language and literature department, allameh tabataba'i university, head of english language room, south allameh street, tehran, iran pbirjandi@yahoo.com minoo alemi languages and linguistics department, sharif university of technology, room 5, first floor, ibn sina building, azadi avenue,tehran, islamic republic of iran alemi@sharif.ir abstract as an affective factor, test-taking anxiety has been investigated in different contexts in the past two decades. however, the mixed results of the relationship between test-taking anxiety and l2 learners’ test performance show that the instrumentation for the assessment of test-taking anxiety and the factors comprising the construct of test-taking anxiety trait requires more investigation in order to shed more light on the issue. to this end, a test-taking anxiety questionnaire (sarason, 1975) [27] and a general english test were administered to 164 esp students of engineering enrolled in a b.a. program to document (a) the degree of their test taking anxiety, (b) the relationship between test-taking anxiety and test performance, and (c) the factor loadings of anxiety based on exploratory factor analysis. the results show that l2 learners’ test anxiety is rather low, with most of its components having no significant negative correlation with test performance. the results of exploratory factor analysis reveal the loading of test anxiety trait on the rather overlapping three factors of specific test anxiety, general test anxiety, and test preparation anxiety. however, out of these factors, general test anxiety, due to its functioning at the higher-order affective level, has a significant negative correlation with test performance. by contrast, test preparation anxiety, in view of facilitating test performance, manifests a positive, albeit non-significant, correlation with test performance. the results have two implications: (a) as the correlations and loadings on test anxiety factors proved to be of both negative and positive types, the anxiety questionnaire is not monolithic and hence it is not a proper measure in case the linear relationship between test anxiety and test performance is the focus of the study; and (b) test anxiety does not seem to much influence on test performance at the microtest-specific level. keywords: test taking anxiety, test performance, general anxiety 1. introduction 1.1. definition of the anxiety trait and its classifications as brown (1994) [3] expressed it, the acquisition of a new language is a fascinating, though colossal, enterprise, encompassing a wide range of variables that may stem from neurological to psychological, cognitive, and affective domains. bloom (1956, cited in krathwohl, bloom, and masia, 1964) [16] offered a comprehensive definition of two domains of learning: the cognitive and the affective. brown (1994: 135) [3] defined the affective domain as “the emotional side of human behavior.” by analogy, the cognitive domain could be defined as the mental side of human behavior. these seemingly clear-cut definitions for the two most important domains of learning might suggest a division between cognition and affection, when indeed they are two sides of the same coin. belonging to the affective domain of language learning, anxiety has been attracting more and more attention in recent years, and attempts have been made to define and classify into different categories. lewis defines anxiety as “an unpleasant emotion experienced as dread, scare, alarm, fright, trepidation, horror or panic” (1970: 63) [17]. horwitz, horwitz, and cope have offered a precise brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 45 definition of fl anxiety: “a distinct complex of selfperceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (1986: 128) [12]. there are two main classifications of anxiety. the first one encompasses three anxiety types: trait, state, and situation-specific anxiety (ellis, 1994) [6]. the other classification divides anxiety into two types: facilitative and debilitative. what follows is the description of these two classifications. trait, state, and situation-specific anxiety: in the trichotomy, trait anxiety is defined as an aspect of personality, a more permanent predisposition to be anxious. trait anxiety is generally associated with people who have an anxiety disorder, and it is regarded as a fixed stage of anxiety, which is undergone by a person who has the propensity to become extra anxious and persistently displays unhealthy responses when he encounters stimuli that provokes him. a person who suffers from trait anxiety can become anxious from a number of things that another person wouldn't even pick up on; for example, their anxiety may be triggered by a leaf blowing in the wind, or a specific color (things that people without the condition would not even begin to perceive as a threat). situation-specific anxiety is aroused by a specific type of situation events such as public speaking, examinations, or class participation. language anxiety is a type of situation-specific anxiety associated with attempts to learn an l2 and communicate in it. state anxiety is defined as an apprehension experienced at a particular moment in time as a response to a definite situation. it is a combination of trait and situation-specific anxiety. state anxiety is identified as an unpleasant emotional stimulation that occurs when a person is comes into contact with frightening stressors or dangers while trait anxiety signifies a person's continual tendency to react with state anxiety, because they're persistently expecting bad circumstances to transpire. facilitating and debilitating anxiety: anxiety, e.g. the negative experience of anxiety during preparation for a test or during the test itself, is often detrimental, but it may be beneficial if it is not extreme. simpson, parker, and harrison (1995) [29] convey this with two well known principles of anxiety. the first one is facilitating anxiety or a minimal amount of anxiety (an optimal amount is more accurate) which “can mobilize human beings to respond rapidly and efficiently.” facilitating anxiety motivates learners to fight the new learning tasks and prompts them to make extra efforts to overcome their feelings of anxiety, although horwitz (1986) [10] suggests that this may only occur in fairly simple learning tasks. the second one is referred to as debilitating anxiety: “excessive amounts of anxiety” which “may foster poor response and sometimes inhibit response” (simpson, parker, and harrison, 1995: 700) [29]. debilitating anxiety causes learners to flee the learning task in order to avoid the source of anxiety. 1.2. foreign language anxiety according to guiora (1980, cited in ehrman, 1999: 78) [4] “the task of learning a new language is a profoundly unsettling psychological proposition.” anxiety “ranks high among factors influencing language learning, regardless of whether the setting is informal or formal' (oxford, 1999: 59) [24]. studies into anxiety in language learning have focused on language anxiety, which is a type of anxiety related specifically to language situations (gardner and macintyre, 1993) [8]. this is seen as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors ... arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (horwitz, horwitz, and cope, 1986, p.128) [12] which 'does not appear to bear a strong relation to other forms of anxiety' (macintyre, 1999: 30) [18]. findings from studies indicate that language anxiety is negatively related to achievement in the l2 and is associated with “deficits in listening comprehension, impaired vocabulary learning, reduced word production, low scores on standardized tests, low grades in language courses or a combination of these factors” (gardner, tremblay, and masgoret, 1997: 345) [9]. the effects of brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 46 anxiety are described as “pervasive and subtle” (macintyre and gardner, 1994: 283) [21] and can “influence both language learning and communication processes” (macintyre, 1999: 24) [18]. like motivation, there is a link between anxiety and proficiency levels, with anxiety levels often at their highest early on in language learning, and then declining as proficiency increases (gardner and macintyre, 1993) [21]. this is true of distance language learners too, who, according to white (1995: 208) [33], report “initial feelings of lack of preparedness and lack of confidence and a sense of inadequacy.” language anxiety is a type of situation-specific anxiety associated with attempts to learn an l2 and communicate in it. in the context of second language studies, anxiety in a general sense is considered in attitudes and motivation studies (gardner, 1985 [7]; macintyre and gardner, 1991 [20]), and especially language anxiety (e.g., bailey et al., 1999 [2]; elkhafaifi, 2005 [5]; horwitz, 2001 [11]; philips, 1992 [26]) has often examined. past studies show a negative and overall moderate relationship between foreign language anxiety overall and language achievement (horwitz, 2001 [11]; macintyre, 1999 [18]). scovel (1978) [28] states that foreign language anxiety research suffers from several ambiguities. he discusses a few studies, each of which had somewhat inconsistent results. he points out, for example, that swain and burnaby (1976) [30] found a negative correlation between language-class anxiety and one measure of children’s ability to speak french but no significant correlation with other measures of proficiency. similarly, tucker, hamayan, and genesee (1976) [32] found one index of performance to be significantly negatively related to french-class anxiety, but reported three other indices that were not correlated significantly with this type of anxiety. components of foreign language anxiety: horwitz, horwitz, and cope (1986) [12] make a similar statement almost a decade after scovel’s review. as a remedy, they outline a theoretical framework from which to begin. horwitz et al. describe three components of foreignlanguage anxiety. the first is communication apprehension. they propose that the language student has mature thoughts and ideas but an immature second-language vocabulary with which to express them. the inability either to express oneself or to comprehend another person leads to frustration and apprehension. the second component, closely related to the first, is fear of negative social evaluation. because students are unsure of themselves and what they are saying, they may feel that they are not able to make the proper social impression. the third component is test anxiety, namely, apprehension over academic evaluation. these three components are viewed by horwitz et al. to have a deleterious effect on second language acquisition. stages of foreign language anxiety: applying tobias’ (1986) [31] model of the effects of anxiety on learning, macintyre and gardner (1994) [21] theorized that foreign language anxiety occurs at each of the following three stages of the second language acquisition process: input, processing, and output. at input, anxiety may cause attention deficits and poor initial processing of information. for example, people with higher anxiety seem easily distracted from the task because time is divided between the processing of emotion-related and taskrelated cognition. if the task is relatively simple, anxiety may have little effect on processing. the more difficult the task becomes, relative to ability, the greater the effect of anxiety on processing. interference with the rehearsal of new information would be an example of this type of effect. at output, anxiety may interfere with the retrieval of previously learned information. the experience of getting blank on a test can be attributed to the influence of anxiety at the time of retrieval. 1.3. test anxiety with respect to test anxiety, daly (1991; cited in onwuegbuzie et al., 2000) [23] found that learners experience more language anxiety in highly evaluative situations. indeed, the more unfamiliar and ambiguous the test tasks and formats, the higher the prevailing level of language anxiety (young, 1991) [34]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 47 components of test anxiety: since test anxiety is multicomponential (zeidner, 1998) [35], investigating how each component is related to performance measures may be more important than investigating how test anxiety overall is related to performance measures. knox, schacht and turner (1993) [15] state that test anxiety can include performance anxiety and content (e.g. math) anxiety. both of these make it hard for students to concentrate on tests and perform adequately. knox et al. also recognize the consequences of poorly-managed test anxiety: “failure to manage test anxiety can result in failing courses, dropping out of school, a negative self-concept and a low earning potential” (1993: 295) [15]. causes of test anxiety: there are many reasons for test anxiety. the first one is lack of preparation as indicated by (a) cramming the night before the exam, (b) poor time management, (c) failure to organize text information, and (d) poor study habits. the second one is worrying about (a) past performance on exams, (b) how friends and other students are doing, and (c) the negative consequences of failure. in addition, a student may experience physical signs of test anxiety during an exam like perspiration, sweaty palms, headache, upset stomach, rapid heart beat, and tense muscles. research on test anxiety has identified three models that explain the causes of test anxiety. according to the first model, identified as the learning-deficit model (kleijn et al., 1994) [14], the problem lies not in taking the test, but in preparing for the test. according to this model, the student with high test anxiety tends to have or use inadequate learning or study skills while in the preparation stage of exam taking (mealey and host, 1992) [22]. the second model is termed as the interference model (kleijn, et al., 1994) [14]. the problem for people in this model is that, during tests, individuals with test anxiety focus on task-irrelevant stimuli which negatively affect their performance (sarason, 1975) [27]. the attention diverted from the task at hand can be categorized into two areas, according to sarason. the first type of distraction can be classified as physical distraction and includes an increase in awareness of heightened autonomic activity (e.g. sweaty palms and muscle tension). the second type of distraction includes inappropriate cognitions, such as saying to one, “others are finishing before me, i must not know the material,” or “i’m stupid, i won’t pass.” the presence of either of these two task-irrelevant cognitions will affect the quality of a student’s performance. the third model of test anxiety includes people who think they have prepared adequately for a test, but in reality, did not. these people question their abilities after the test, which creates anxiousness during the next test. effects of test anxiety on test performance: there are many types of test anxiety effects. the first one is nervousness including having difficulty reading and understanding the questions on the exam paper, having difficulty organizing one’s thoughts, having difficulty retrieving key words and concepts when answering essay questions, and doing poorly on an exam even though one knows the material. the second effect is related to mental blocking. it includes going blank on questions, and remembering the correct answers as soon as the exam is over. finally, common worries that increase test anxiety are worry about performance, worry about bodily reactions, worry about how others are doing, and worry about possible negative consequences. in’nami (2006) [13] investigated the effects of test anxiety on listening test performance and found out that test anxiety did not affect listening test performance. he concluded that among the three components of test anxiety (i.e. general test worry, test-irrelevant thinking, and emotion), none affects listening test performance. the result supported aida’s (1994) [1] and macintyre and gardner’s (1989) [19] findings and suggested that, in foreign language anxiety (horwitz et al., 1986) [12], test anxiety seemed to work differently compared with communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation. the non-relationship between test anxiety and listening test performance was because of test takers’ english proficiency levels, strategic competence, and lowstakes nature of test results. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 48 1.4. purpose of the study most past studies calculate correlation coefficients between foreign language anxiety as a whole and performance measures, but they do not examine the relationship between each constituent of test anxiety and performance measures. since test anxiety is multifaceted (zeidner, 1998) [35], investigating how each constituent is related to performance measures may be more important than investigating how test anxiety overall is related to performance measures. against this backdrop, the present study focused on anxiety as an affective trait of l2 learners and investigated the relationship between test anxiety and test performance and how each constituent of test anxiety was related to test performance. to this end, the following research questions were addressed: 1. what is the degree of the test-taking anxiety of engineering students learning general english? 2. is there any significant relation between test-taking anxiety and test performance of engineering students learning general english? 3. what are the factorial components of test-taking anxiety of engineering students learning general english? 2. method this study adopted both correlational analysis and factor analysis to investigate the research questions. what follows are the features of participants, instruments, data collection, and data analysis. 2.1. participants the participants in this study consisted of 164 iranian first-year university students (mainly males) enrolled in a general english course with its focus on all components of english language. as many as 164 students made up the final pool for the anxiety research. as the data related to general english test performance were missing for 19 students, the final pool taken into account for the investigation of the relationship between test-taking anxiety and test performance amounted to 145 participants. all students were majoring in engineering. their classes were held twice a week for 75 minutes which were compulsory for all the first-year students. the students’ ages ranged from 18 to 20 years. 2.2. instruments the instruments used to gather descriptive data consisted of two parts: a test-taking anxiety questionnaire and a general english achievement test. test anxiety questionnaire: the test anxiety scale (tas) (sarason, 1975) [27] was used to measure participants’ degree of test-taking anxiety. it contains 37 items, reflecting the multicomponential aspects of test anxiety (zeidner, 1998) [35]. the items are based on evidence that test anxiety is composed of test-relevant and test-irrelevant thinking. the tas was translated into persian by the researcher and double-checked by another professional elt researcher. the tas originally included a 2-point scale, but was changed to a 4point likert scale (1=completely disagree, 2=disagree, 3=agree, 4=completely agree) for two reasons. first, 4-point scales are interval scales and are more likely to provide normally distributed data. second, 4-point scales increase the accuracy of responses compared to 2-point scales. the tas, which was multi-componential, investigated how each component was related to performance measures which is more important than investigating how test anxiety overall is related to performance measures. a sample item was “i dread courses where the instructor has the habit of giving ‘pop’ quizzes.” brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 49 general english test: right after administering the tas, a general english achievement test containing 55 multiple-choice items of vocabulary, reading comprehension, and grammar was administered. the test items were based on the contents of the textbook the participants had studied during their general english program. 2.3. data collection procedure this study involved two phases. in the first phase, the anxiety questionnaire was administered as soon as the participants entered the exam hall. it took the participants a maximum of 30 minutes to answer the test-taking anxiety questionnaire. then the achievement test was administered. the participants were given ample time, 60 minutes, to answer the general english test. 2.4. data analysis to investigate the reliability of the questionnaire and the test, the responses to the tas and the test were analyzed by cronbach's alpha and kr21, respectively. then the responses to the tas were analyzed through explanatory factor analysis to investigate the factors underlying the anxiety questionnaire. finally the researcher examined the relationship between factors in the tas and participants’ performance on the general english test. 3. results and discussion the purpose of the study was twin: to investigate the test-taking anxiety of esp students of engineering taking a course in general english and to shed light on the relationship between the students' test-taking anxiety and their performance on a general english test. to this end, the first phase of the study was devoted to the reliability of the two instruments employed to address the research question: (a) the anxiety questionnaire (tas), and (b) the general english test. the second or main phase of the study was concerned with the four research question. in this section, the results of analyses related to the two phases are presented. 3.1. reliability of the tas and general english test the tas: the present study used the tas (sarason, 1975) [27] to determine the students' test-taking anxiety. the use of cronbach’s alpha showed the internal consistency of .876 (table 1). table 1: reliability of the test anxiety questionnaire the general english test: the formula kr21 was used to determine the reliability of the general english test. as shown in table 2, the reliability of the test was .82 (table 2). table 2: reliability of the general english test cronbach's alpha no. of items 0.876 37 n minimum maximum mean variance kr21 achievement test 145 26.12 55.00 46.3897 36.684 .82 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 50 3.2. test-taking anxiety the first research question was concerned with the degree of the general test-taking anxiety of esp students learning general english. table 3 presents the students' mean anxiety (x=2.16, sd. = .34). table 3: descriptive statistics for the test anxiety questionnaire descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation skewness kurtosis statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic std. error statistic std. error anxiety 164 1.46 3.27 2.1645 0.34173 0.389 0.207 0.379 0.411 valid n (listwise) 164 table 4 also shows the mean of each of 37 items comprising the tas. table 4: the means of the items comprising the test anxiety questionnaire table 4 also shows the mean of each of 37 items comprising the tas. the examination of the table reveals that students' degrees of anxiety vary across different items. the highest anxiety provoking item was item 34, stating that the university ought to recognize that some students are more nervous than others about tests and that this affects their performance. by contrast, it was found that item 8, concerned with the learner’s being frequently so tense that their stomach gets upset after important tests, caused the least amount of test-taking anxiety. the examination of the descriptive statistics n mean q1 163 2.227 q2 163 2.012 q3 163 2.656 q4 163 1.571 q5 163 2.19 q6 163 2.472 q7 163 1.693 q8 163 1.282 q9 163 1.742 q10 163 2.012 q11 163 1.914 q12 163 2.724 q13 163 1.663 q14 163 2.068 q15 163 2.656 q16 163 1.841 q17 163 1.828 q18 163 1.675 q19 163 1.957 q20 163 1.577 q21 163 2.129 q22 163 1.982 q23 163 2.184 q24 163 2.141 q25 163 2.405 q26 163 2.663 q27 163 2.712 q28 163 2.227 q29 163 2.62 q30 163 1.791 q31 163 1.804 q32 163 1.564 q33 163 2.196 q34 163 2.883 q35 163 2.712 q36 163 1.883 q37 163 2.448 anxiety 164 77.63 valid n (listwise) 163 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 51 means of the tas items shows that the 2 highest anxiety-provoking items in descending order were as follows: 1. item 34 (x= 2.88): the university ought to recognize that some students are more nervous than others about tests and that this affects their performance 2. item 12 (x= 2.72): after taking a test i always feel i could have done better than i actually did on the other hand, the 2 anxiety items provoking the least amount of test anxiety, from the lowest to the highest, were as follows: 1. item 8 (x= 1.28): after important tests i am frequently so tense that my stomach gets upset 2. item 32 (x= 1.56): before an important examination i find my hands or arms trembling the nature of the two 2-item sets can be discussed, by and large, with reference to in'nami's (2006) [13] division of tas items into three main factors: general test worry (items 36, 22, 35, 30), test irrelevant thinking (items 10, 11, 20, 14), and emotion (items 14, 1, 4, 3, 13). although the highest anxiety-provoking item, i.e. no. 34, does not feature in any of the three factors in in'nami's exploratory factor analysis finding, it seems that it largely falls within the domain of general test worry. the fact that the item is concerned with the students' expectation that the university ought to recognize the effect of their nervousness on their performance results from the academic setting of the research. it sounds to reason that adult university students whose major, i.e. engineering, requires analytical, logical style of thinking are more worried about the logical connection between test anxiety and test performance and want educational policy makers to consider the effect of anxiety on test performance. the second most anxiety-provoking item in this study was item 12, i.e. feeling one could have done better after taking the test. as with item 34, this one reflects general test worry. however, it does not manifest any pre-test or during-test anxiety. rather, it relates to students’ posttest reflection on the test session. this worry, along with the previous one, shows that students' worries primarily arise from their metacognitive awareness of the significance of the test and the interplay of factors affecting their performance. lying at the other end of the continuum, items 8 and 32 were found to cause the least amount of test-taking anxiety. among these, item 8 (x= 1.28) resulted in the lowest amount of anxiety. it appears to represent the emotional manifestation of test anxiety affecting the body. the very slight effect of this item is a sign of university students' control over their emotion during test periods. this emotion management feature seems to be owing to a number of reasons: (a) students' familiarity with testing condition, including time constraints and administration procedures, which is rooted in their years of exposure to examinations during pre-tertiary, i.e. elementary and secondary education; (b) the time students are allowed for test preparation; and (c) their age, predominating ranging from 18-22, which makes them less vulnerable to harsh physical effects of examination periods. the second least anxiety-provoking item was item 2, dealing with worry before taking a test. the argument forwarded as to low mean of item 8 applies to this item as well. test preparation, coupled with the achievement nature of such tests – which are generally based on the content of the course – resulted in such a low index. it can be argued that the same reasons (test preparation, test wiseness, achievement nature of the test, and maturity in terms of ages) account for the very low anxiety they provoke. 3.3. test anxiety and test performance the second research question in this study addressed the relationship between test-taking anxiety and learners' performance on the general english test. to investigate the relationship, the pearson product-moment correction was employed. first, the correction between total anxiety and test performance was calculated. as shown in table 5, the index was -.011. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 52 table 5: overall correlation between test anxiety and test performance anxiety pearson correlation -0.011 sig. (2tailed) 0.885 score n 164 notwithstanding being negative, the index was too far from being significant. this signifies that test-taking anxiety has no statistically significant correlation with test performance. this finding is compatible with many similar studies examining the effects of anxiety on test performance (e.g. macintyre and gardner, 1989 [19]; aida, 1994 [1]; in'nami, 2006 [13]), all of which concluding that "test anxiety is an anxiety problem in general and … not specifically related to the foreign language learning context" (in'nami, 2006: 329-330) [13]. this study may, nevertheless, differ from some other studies because lack of significant correlation in the latter was despite relatively high anxiety means. for instance, in'nami (2006) [13] reports on relatively high general test worry without affecting listening test performance. in the current study, however, the total mean of test-taking anxiety was not high (x= 2.09), nor was a significant relationship between test-taking anxiety and test performance. in fact, the correlation index of -.01 can be interpreted as a strikingly no relationship between the two variables. despite further substantiating non-relationship in the above studies, the present study contrasts with significantly negative correlation reported in some other studies (e.g. macintyre, 1999 [18]; horwitz, 2001 [11]). however, as revealed previously in the section on the degree of students' anxiety, the degree of anxiety varies from item to item in the tas. accordingly, the pearson was employed to investigate the relationship between each of the 37 components of the tas and test performance. the dual purpose of this investigation was to place each of the components on either the negative or positive side of the continuum. as table 6 shows, 18 components, i.e. about one half of the items in the tas, were negatively correlated with test performance and none had a significant correlation with it. table 6: correlation between the items comprising test anxiety and test performance score score score pearson correlation -0.027 pearson correlation -0.037 pearson correlation -0.047 q1 sig. (2-tailed) 0.732 q14 sig. (2-tailed) 0.637 q27 sig. (2tailed) 0.554 pearson correlation 0.056 pearson correlation -0.028 pearson correlation -0.11 q2 sig. (2-tailed) 0.474 q15 sig. (2-tailed) 0.718 q28 sig. (2tailed) 0.161 q3 pearson 0.006 q16 pearson correlation 0.102 q29 pearson 0.075 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 53 correlation correlation sig. (2-tailed) 0.94 sig. (2-tailed) 0.197 sig. (2tailed) 0.341 pearson correlation .172* pearson correlation -0.009 pearson correlation 0.055 q4 sig. (2-tailed) 0.028 q17 sig. (2-tailed) 0.909 q30 sig. (2tailed) 0.489 pearson correlation 0.083 pearson correlation -0.116 pearson correlation 0.095 q5 sig. (2-tailed) 0.289 q18 sig. (2-tailed) 0.139 q31 sig. (2tailed) 0.229 pearson correlation -0.056 pearson correlation -0.041 pearson correlation 0.012 q6 sig. (2-tailed) 0.478 q19 sig. (2-tailed) 0.599 q32 sig. (2tailed) 0.884 pearson correlation 0.13 pearson correlation 0.001 pearson correlation -0.042 q7 sig. (2-tailed) 0.098 q20 sig. (2-tailed) 0.985 q33 sig. (2tailed) 0.597 pearson correlation 0.074 pearson correlation 0.018 pearson correlation -0.072 q8 sig. (2-tailed) 0.35 q21 sig. (2-tailed) 0.815 q34 sig. (2tailed) 0.361 pearson correlation 0.041 pearson correlation -0.068 pearson correlation -0.085 q9 sig. (2-tailed) 0.6 q22 sig. (2-tailed) 0.391 q35 sig. (2tailed) 0.283 pearson correlation 0.017 pearson correlation 0.064 pearson correlation 0.054 q10 sig. (2-tailed) 0.828 q23 sig. (2-tailed) 0.42 q36 sig. (2tailed) 0.494 pearson correlation -0.046 pearson correlation -0.008 pearson correlation -0.076 q11 sig. (2-tailed) 0.557 q24 sig. (2-tailed) 0.918 q37 sig. (20.334 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 54 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). most of the negative correlations fell within the range between 0 to -.10. though nonsignificant, the highest negative correlations were between items 25 and 18 and test performance (r= -.138 and r=-.116). item 25 seems to b a general test anxiety item, stating that "if examinations could be done away with, i think i would actually learn more." it indicates that casting doubt on the very necessity of exams in an educational system is tied up with poor performance on the test. looked at from the washback effect perspective, the finding suggests that the negative attitude toward exams has a negative washback on students' learning. the other item, no. 18, stated that "the harder i work at taking a test or studying for one, the more confused i get." the negative correlation between this kind of confusion and test performance reveals a desperate confusion regardless of hard work, possibly resulting from poor test preparation and test-taking strategies as well as trait anxiety about tests. as to positive correlations, 19 constituents of the tas were positively correlated with test performance. out of these, only item 4 had a significant correlation with test performance. these correlations mostly ranged from 0 to +.10. this shows that test performance can be enhanced by slight anxiety of certain types such as "not enjoying eating before an important test" (item 31), "finding oneself thinking of the consequences of failing during the test" (item 7), and "forgetting facts one really knows because of getting nervous during a course examination" (item 16). item 4 was the only item in the tas having a significant positive correlation with test performance. the correlation ran counter to the researcher’s expectation as the item concerns "perspiring a great deal while taking an important examination." though quite unexpected, this correlation may be the result of the functioning of perspiration as a defense mechanism against anxiety and the effects it may have on bodily relaxation. the positive correlation of a great number of tas items with test performance can be accounted for in light of two main explanations. first, anxiety can be facilitative, as shown in this study and in view of the previous studies. these studies, drawing on alpert and haber's (1960, cited in ellis, 1994) [6] distinction between facilitative and debilitative anxiety, have produced mixed, including positive/facilitative correlation, though not necessarily significant, between various forms of anxiety and test scores. the second reason is that anxiety does not have a linear relationship with test performance in that it is not a monolithic construct. it seems that positive relationships are related to those components of anxiety having a facilitating function as long as intensity remains at a low-anxiety state. tailed) pearson correlation -0.038 pearson correlation -0.138 q12 sig. (2-tailed) 0.628 q25 sig. (2-tailed) 0.079 pearson correlation 0.078 pearson correlation -0.027 q13 sig. (2-tailed) 0.321 q26 sig. (2-tailed) 0.728 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 55 3.4. components of test-taking anxiety the purpose of the third research question was to uncover the latent structure underlying test-taking anxiety, referred to as "components" or "factors." to do this, exploratory factor analysis was applied. to do the analysis, the 37 items making up the anxiety questionnaire were subjected to factor analysis. as shown in table 8, 3-factor analysis and loadings above .40 were adopted. table 7: exploratory factor analysis of test-taking anxiety rotated factor matrixa factor 1 2 3 question 11 0.689 question 30 0.685 question 13 0.674 question 9 0.672 0.413 question 16 0.659 question 14 0.647 0.457 question 4 0.642 question 32 0.632 0.426 question 31 0.608 question 2 0.586 0.546 question 17 0.548 0.495 question 28 0.514 question 36 0.496 0.403 question 8 0.484 question 15 -0.48 question 23 0.445 question 27 -0.44 question 26 -0.41 question 7 0.408 question 20 question 22 0.745 question 37 0.681 question 21 0.548 question 1 0.536 question 35 0.532 question 6 0.499 question 3 -0.43 -0.49 question 19 0.431 0.491 question 18 0.48 question 24 0.416 0.426 question 25 question 34 question 12 question 29 0.5 question 33 0.49 question 10 question 5 extraction method: principal axis factoring. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalization. a. rotation converged in 6 iterations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 56 a large number of items, i.e. as many as 22, loaded on factor 1. as many as 16 items loaded on factor 2. as with confirmatory analysis, only two items loaded on factor 3. before any discussion on the nature of the three factors, two features of the results need to be emphasized. first, the loading on the majority of the items on only two factors suggests that test-taking anxiety as far as reflected in sarason’s (1975) [27] tas, is a much too monolithic construct. second, the common loadings of 9 items on both factor 1 and factor 2 further confirm the hypothesis that three factors are too small in number to lead to a clear-cut factor analysis. considering the factors, table 8 shows the loadings of 22 items on factor 1, out of which 13 items are unique to factor 1 and 9 items are common to factor 1 and factor 2. the items loading on factor 1 may predominantly be characterized as reflection of test-takers’ specific, rather than general, worries and emotions before, during and after the test. the negative values of 4 items, as described below, require close attention as to the contrasting nature of the items embedded into the tas: 1. item 3 (b= -.425): if i know i was going to take a test, i would feel confident and relaxed beforehand 2. item 15 (b= -.476): when taking a test my emotional feelings do not interfere with my performance 3. item 26 (b= -.411): on exams i take the attitude “if i do not know it now, there’s no point worrying about it” 4. item 27 (b= -.436): i really don’t see why some people get so upset about tests these items are radically different from the other items in the tas since they manifest testtakers’ control over their anxiety. due to their positive values, their inclusion in a test-taking anxiety questionnaire of the tas type is not reasonable at all because the other items in the tas manifest negative, debilitative anxiety about the test. this suggests that the items in the tas are double-valued, both negative and positive, thus the four items need to be removed from the tas if the correlation between test-taking anxiety and test performance or the effect on the former or the latter is going to be investigated. the second factor was formed based on the loadings on 16 items on it. those loadings common to factor 1 are rather test-specific worries, reflecting emotions about pre-test and duringtest worries. the other loadings mainly result from general test worries and attitudes about taking test. they include such items as “i find myself thinking of how much brighter the other students are than i am” (no. 1), “i would rather write a paper than take an examination for my grade in a course” (no. 21), and “i wish examinations did not bother me so much” (no. 22). the items loading on factor 3 include only items 29 and 33. they concern exam preparation habits rather than intensive test worries. they include item 29 (“i do not study any harder for final exams than for the rest of my course work”) and item 33 (“i seldom feel the need for ‘cramming’ before an exam”). much like the aforementioned four items, they are positively laden, not compatible with the other tas item. it follows that, along with the four items in factor 1, the two items comprising factor 3 need to be removed in order to have a more homogeneous questionnaire and to arrive at a more linear relationship between test-taking anxiety and test performance. to sum up, the three components of the tas derived from exploratory factor analysis in this study are general test worry, specific test worry, and test preparation worry. in addition, the results of confirmatory factor analysis, to a large extent, reject the previous findings. 4. conclusion this study had two purposes. the first purpose was to investigate the degree of l2 learners’ test-taking anxiety and its relationship with test performance. the mean of 2.09 on a 4-point likert scale indicates that the participant’s test-taking anxiety falls with the low range of the continuum. it follows that engineering students do not exhibit much worry about taking a test in general english brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 57 due to a number of factors, mainly their past experience in taking general english tests in secondary school days and national university entrance exams, test-wiseness as to multiple-choice tests, and the familiar test-task, i.e. the multiple-choice format, in the dominant assessment procedures in schools and universities. although the low level of test-taking anxiety is promising, the negative correlation of more than half of the tas items bears testimony to the need to fight the negative effects of test-taking anxiety in order to minimize the influence of proficiency-irrelevant factors, thus improving test reliability and the ability of the test to measure language proficiency. further, the positive correlation of nearly half of the tas items with test performance has two significant implications. first, the constituents of the tas as a measure of test-taking anxiety are not homogeneous. second, and more importantly, due to the doubled feature nature of the tas constituents, the employment of the tas deserves two cautions: (a) the lack of significant relationship between the tas and test performance in previous studies (e.g. in’nami, 2006) [13] does stem from the dual nature of the tas item rather than the lack of such a relationship, and (b) the tas needs to be modified in order to lead to be an insightful measure of text anxiety. the second objective of the study was to investigate the components of test-taking anxiety. not leading to clear-cut, separate components, the results of factor analysis in this study have three implications. the first implication is that there is too much overlap between the constituents of the tas to be divided into three separate components. hence, later studies that will use the tas should choose a factorial design with more factors. the second implication concerns the statistically negative correlation of only one factor, i.e. factor 2, with test performance. as this factor is a composite of predominantly general test worries, it implies that the harmful, debilitating effects of anxiety occurs more at a macro-level. as a result, trait anxiety, rather that state anxiety, shapes poor performance on tests. references [1] aida, y. (1994), examination of horwitz, horwitz, and cope’s construct of foreign language anxiety: the case of students of japanese, the modern language journal, 78, 155-168. [2] bailey, p., daley, c. e., onwuegbuzie, a. j. (1999), foreign language anxiety and learning style, foreign language annals, 32, 63-76. [3] brown, h. d. (1994), teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall regents. [4] ehrman, m. e. (1999), ego boundaries and tolerance of ambiguity in second language learning, in: affect in language learning, cambridge university press, new york. [5] elkafaifi, h. (2005), listening comprehension and anxiety in the arabic classroom, the modern language journal, 89(2), 206-220. [6] ellis, r. (1994), the study of second language acquisition, oxford university press, oxford. [7] gardner, r. c. (1985), social psychology and second language learning: the role of attitudes and motivation, london. [8] gardner, r. c., macintyre, p. d. (1993), on the measurement of affective variables in second language learning, language learning, 43, 157-194. [9] gardner, r. c., tremblay, p., masgoret, a.-m. (1997), toward a full model of second language learning: an empirical investigation, the modern language journal, 81(3), 344362. [10] horwitz, e. (1986), preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of a foreign language anxiety scale, tesol quarterly, 20, 559-564. [11] horwitz, e. k. (2001), language anxiety and achievement, annual review of applied linguistics, 21, 112-126. [12] horwitz, e. k., horwitz, m. b., cope, j., (1986), foreign language classroom anxiety, the modern language journal, 70(2), 125-132. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 58 [13] in'nami, y. (2006), the effects of test anxiety on listening test performance, system, 34(3), 317-340. [14] kleijn, w. c., van der ploeg, h. m., topman, r. m. (1994), cognition, study habits, test anxiety, and academic performance, psychological reports, 75, 1219-1226. [15] knox, d., schacht, c., turner, j. (1993), virtual reality: a proposal for treating test anxiety in college students, college student journal, 27, 294-296. [16] krathwohl, d. r., bloom, b., masia, b. b. (1964), taxonomy of educational objectives. handbooh h: affective domain, new york. [17] lewis, a. (1970), the ambiguous word “anxiety”, international journal of psychiatry, 9, 6279. [18] macintyre, p. d. (1999), language anxiety: a review of research for language teachers. in: affect in foreign language and second language learning: a practical guide to creating a low-anxiety classroom atmosphere, mcgraw-hill, boston, ma. [19] macintyre, p. d., gardner, r. c. (1989), anxiety and second-language learning: toward a theoretical clarification, language learning, 39, 251-275. [20] macintyre, p. d., gardner, r. c. (1991), methods and results in the study of anxiety in language learning: a review of the literature, language learning, 41, 85-117. [21] macintyre, p. d., gardner, r. c. (1994), the subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language, language learning, 44(2), 283-305. [22] mealey, d. l., host, t. r. (1992), coping with test anxiety, college teaching, 40(4), 147150. [23] onwuegbuzie, a. j., bailey, p., daley, c. e. (2000), the validation of three scales measuring anxiety at different stages of the foreign language learning process: the input anxiety scale, the processing anxiety scale, and the output anxiety scale, language learning, 50, 87-117. [24] oxford, r. (1999), anxiety and the language learner: new insights. in: affect in language learning, cambridge university press, new york. [25] oxford, r., cho, y., leung, s., kim, h-j. (2004), effects of the presence and difficulty of task on strategy use: an exploratory study, international review of applied linguistics, 42(1), 1-47. [26] philips, e. (1992), the effects of language anxiety on students’ oral test performance and attitudes, language journal, 76, 14-26. [27] sarason, i. g. (1975), test anxiety and the self-disclosing coping model, journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 43, 148-152. [28] scovel, t. (1978), the effects of affect on foreign language learning: a review of the anxiety literature, language learning, 28, 129-142. [29] simpson, m. l., parker, p. w., harrison, a. w. (1995), differential performance on taylor’s manifest anxiety scale in black private college freshmen: a partial report, perceptual and motor skills, 80, 699-702. [30] swain, m., burnaby, b. (1976), personality characteristics and second language learning in young children: a pilot study, working papers on bilingualism, 11, 115-28. [31] tobias, s. (1986), anxiety and cognitive processing of instruction. in: self-related cognitions in anxiety and motivation, lawrence erlbaum associates, hillsdale, nj. [32] tucker, r. e., hamayan, e., genesee, f. h. (1976), affective, cognitive, and social factors in second language acquisition, canadian modern language review, 32, 214-226. [33] white, c. (1995), autonomy and strategy use in distance foreign language learning, system, 23(2), 207-221. [34] young, d. j. (1991), creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: what does language anxiety research suggest?, the modern language journal, 75, 426-439. [35] zeidner, m. (1998), test anxiety: the state of the art, plenum press, new york. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev my e-wall: design of a web portal fully customizable and ontology based roberto paiano and andrea roggerone abstract. web is a measureless growing information source. here we could have the common user that surf the web for fun, and the particular user surfing the web to work, for instance, the financial analyst that hopes to find some financial information.these users are similar in their habit to visit ever a pool of 10-15 websites where they are sure to find interesting information. in this paper, we introduce the architecture of a rich internet application (ria) that uses the power of semantics to create a new type of web portal fully customizable that we will call mye-wall. in this portal, the user can’t attach widget, but modules containing each one the section of a particular web site. therefore, the idea is allow a user to create of a new website composed by a patchwork of different website’s sections selected by himself. here we use semantics for two reasons: (i) to process the structure of a particular website and create the corresponding module to attach on the portal (ii) to provide the application of a set of features (reasoning engine, swrl rules, etc...) to reason on the information collected, according the preferences that the user could have specified in his own profile. keywords: rich internet application, ontology, reasoner, portal, semantic 2000 mathematics subject classification: 68m11, 68q55 65 roberto paiano, andrea roggerone my e-wall: design of a web portal fully customizable and ontology based 1.introduction &background both web users that use internet for fun and those that use it to work, they always visit the same 10-15 websites containing interesting information. this task is very time-expensive, especially for those users having the working necessity to find particular information, for instance, among hundreds website articles. starting from these considerations, we can introduce the idea to develop in this paper. this idea consists in the creation of an ontology based web portal that we will call my e-wall; it will be highly customizable like igoogle (http://www.google.it/ig) and netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com/#generale) but here the user may attach particular modules containing some chosen website contents instead of widget. in literature we can’t find any attempt to face the problem proposed in this paper, however we have found several approaches to minor problems related to the custom representation of an existing website and to the mapping of this one over an ontology. for example, robert e. filman in [1] highlights the existence of platotypus (http://platypus.mozdev.org/) and greasemonkey (http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/source.html). these firefox add-on permits to customize all the page of a particular website, by adding or removing elements, rearranging pages etc...therefore to obtain a website mapping over an ontology, we can adopt two approaches: (i)top-down that uses a particular set of algorithms to generate the desired ontology from the webpages of a partcular website; this is a sort of html form-based reverse engineering[2] approach; (ii)bottom-up creating the ontology starting from the website database and structure. the architecture proposed in this paper is a rich internet application (ria), that use a bottom-up approach to map over an ontology, the information content and the structure of a particular website. this ontology will be used to incorporate one or more section of a chosen website in a my e-wall module. it will be possible to use the semantic sublayer to extract knowledge from the information contained in all the mapped websites, and propose them to the user according to his profile preferences. for instance, we can imagine that a financial analyst must daily visit the financial section belonging to fifty websites chosen by himself. this user must also collect financial information from the articles published in these websites, searching any information about the google’s shares. in this case, the application my e-wall could permit to propose a more interesting section in a customized portal, and also it could permit to use semantics to filter the collected information, 66 roberto paiano, andrea roggerone my e-wall: design of a web portal fully customizable and ontology based figure 1: the architecture according to the user preferences. until now we have only implemented the first two layer of the architecture that generates an ontology starting from the wesite’s database. in the section 2 we present the proposed architecture. in the sections 3 and 4 we explain and detail all the architecture layers, instead the section 5 contains conclusions and future works. 2.the proposed architecture now we present the designed architecture for my e-wall ria. this architecture (figure 1), is composed by fours layer. level 1 and 2 have the task to generate an ontology for every chosen website, instead level 3 extracts knowledge by these ontologies. level 4 is the highest layer of the architecture, and it must create all the modules to attach on the portal according to the preferences collected during the user profiling process. now we can describe all the layer composing our architecture: later we will detail layer 1 and 2 that we have implemented. 1.db mapping layer: the first layer of the architecture, map the database of a particular website over an ontology. it must be generated an ontology for each website considered. we will call db ontology the ontology generated in this layer. 2.structuring layer: it must generate a new ontology reflecting a particular website structure, and it must merge it with the db ontology. the structuring layer is composed by two sublayers: (i) the site mapping sublayer map the website structure over a domain ontology that we will call site structure on67 roberto paiano, andrea roggerone my e-wall: design of a web portal fully customizable and ontology based figure 2: site’s ontology tology; (ii) the merging layer merge the db ontology with the site structure ontology creating a new ontology called site’s ontology (figure 2). 3.knowledge layer: now we can suppose to have a site’s ontology for every website chosen by the user. the task of this layer is to extract knowledge from all the site’s ontologies, and it has the double function to send to higher layer:(i) the structure of every module to attach on the portal; (ii) additional information obtained through the reasoning task accomplished according to the user preferences. 4.profiling layer: it’s the highest layer of the architecture where are implemented the web portal features. here is done the profiling of the user, and are dynamically generated the modules containing the sections of more internet websites chosen by the user. these modules will be attached on my e-wall. in this layer some rss feeds, are also pairwised to every module, in order to update the module in realtime. 3.db mapping layer this layer maps a database over an ontology following a set of default mapping criteria representing an improved version of those used in [3]. the implemented application[4] maps only the database structure, keeping instances into the database. in this way, the application can take advantage of the sql power instead of the sparql that is very far to seem reliable. to maintain a common syntactic basis, the application compares all the terms contained in the database to map with those contained by wordnet (or by a domain ontology). if these terms are not found, is requested the help of a user, that 68 roberto paiano, andrea roggerone my e-wall: design of a web portal fully customizable and ontology based must insert an equivalent term existing in wordnet. in the section below we will see the criteria adopted in the mapping phase, and a little case of study that use our mapping methodology. db mapping methodology to map a database over an ontology, it first must be created an empty ontology, and then follow the above methodology: step 1. for each database table, a class must be generated into the destination ontology. step 2. hierarchies must be established among classes. analyzing the database records, we check if a table has a parent (as in disjoint relations). this test must be done using the logic exposed below. having two table a and b, if: 1. all records of the primary keys of the table a are present among the primary keys of the table b, and 2. the number of records related to the primary keys of the table b is higher than a number of records related to the primary key of the table a, the table a is a child of the table b, and so the corresponding class a is a subclass of class b. disjoint and union relations must be respectively translated in disjoined or joined subclass relation in the ontology. step 3. for each attribute (excluding the foreign keys) of each database table, it must be generated a data property with a characterization of the data type (string, int, date etc. . . ). different tables could have attributes having the same name, but an ontology cannot contain two attributes with the same identifier (neither in different domains). for this reason it’s necessary to map the attributes adding their domain name (domainname_attributename) and if necessary to indicate if this attribute is a primary key (pk_ domainname_attributename). step 4. for each foreign key it must be generated an object property having : (i) the table containing the foreign key, as a domain; (ii) the table containing the corresponding primary key, as range. the name of the object property will have the format domainnamehaspk_primarykeyname if a table foreign key is also the primary key for this table otherwise the format is domainnamehasfk_foreignkeyname. 69 roberto paiano, andrea roggerone my e-wall: design of a web portal fully customizable and ontology based figure 3: examinationdb: (a) e-r model, (b) relational model step 5. it must be created a restriction (cardinality=1) for each attribute related to the database primary key. step 6. in the last step are created the restrictions on the remaining attributes: 1. if a database attribute is not null, in the destination ontology it must be inserted a minimum cardinality relation as mincardinality=1, 2. if a database attribute is null, in the destination ontology it must be inserted a minimum cardinality relation as mincardinality=0. db mapping: a case of study in order to explain how the methodology works, we analyze step by step, a simple mapping on a database sample named examinationdb (figure 3). step 1. seven classes are generated: assistant_teacher, course_degree, examination, professor, relative, student, sustains. step 2. doctor and researcher are added as a set of disjoined subclasses of class assistant_teacher; associate_professor and full_professor are added as a set of disjoined subclasses of class professor (figure 4). step 3. 32 data properties are generated : 11 related to the primary keys (named pk_nomedominio_nomeattributo and 21 related to the others attributes and named nomedominio_nomeattributo. for each data type of a table attribute, exists a range of values in the corresponding data property in 70 roberto paiano, andrea roggerone my e-wall: design of a web portal fully customizable and ontology based figure 4: examinationdb ontology class and subclass the generated ontology. for example the data property professor_address is a string, because the attribute address of the professor table in examinationdb is a varchar type. step 4. 10 object properties are generated . six object properties are related to the foreign keys (examinationhasfk_cod_course, examinationhasfk_cf_professor etc. . . ). four object properties are related to the class involved in disjoint relations (associate_professor, full_professor, doctor, researcher), and they have the parent class as a range and the primary key as a relation key. for example we have the 4 object properties: researcherhaspk_cf, associate_professorhaspk_cf, full_professorhaspk_cf, doctorhaspk_cf. step 5. it is created a restriction having a minimum cardinality equal to 1 or to 0, on each data property corresponding respectively to a not null (avoiding the pk) and to a null attribute. for example we will have assistant_teacher_address min 1; step 6. on each data property corresponding to a primary key attribute of the database source, is added a restriction having cardinality exactly 1. 4.structuring layer this layer must create an ontology semantically describing a particular 71 roberto paiano, andrea roggerone my e-wall: design of a web portal fully customizable and ontology based website. this ontology will be passed to the upper layer, and it will be used to extract the knowledge, useful to the web user. since the fundamental web components are always the same, could be useful to have a standard ontology, to populate in the site mapping layer, using the feature of the analyzed website. the site mapping sublayer uses p-idm[5] to model the ontology of a generic website. pidm defines two particular views: 1. a structure view defining the structure of the application in terms of page layout and the content of these pages; 2. a contents view defining more in detail both the real contents of the application and the interaction with the user. information given by these views mapped in an ontology, will be used in the upper level during the creation process of the module to attach on mye-wall board. the use of pidm as a standard permits to represent any web site in a single way mapping both the content and the layout of it and this ontology will be merged with the db ontology in the merging sublayer, obtaining the site’s ontology. 5.conclusions in this paper we have shown the design of a new type of web portal, called my e-wall. this is an ontology-based ria that uses the power of semantics to bridle information and whole website sections, into web module modules dynamically created and attached on the portal. my e-wall represents a new step towards a user-centric web, that every user can customize. our attention is mainly focused on the first two layers of the proposed architecture. we have implemented these levels, and now we can obtain an ontology describing both structure and content of a website. the next steps to face, will be the realization of the knowledge level that composes the semantic layer of our application, and the graphics implementation of the portal my e-wall. references [1] robert e. filman. taking back the web. ieee internet computing, vol. 10, no. 1, jan. 2006, pp. 3-5 [2] sidi mohamed benslimane et al., extracting personalised ontology from data-intensive web application: an html forms-based reverse engineering approach, international journal of informatica, décember 2007. ios press, issn 0868-495, pp. 511-534 72 roberto paiano, andrea roggerone my e-wall: design of a web portal fully customizable and ontology based [3] wang, m. l.-y,learning ontology from relational database, proceedings of international conference on machine learning and cybernetics, 2005. [4] roberto paiano, anna lisa guido, semantic data integration: overall architecture. in international business information management association (ibima 09)innovation and knowledge management in twin track economies: challenges & solutions january 4 6, 2009 cairo, egypt isbn: 978-0-9821489-0-7 pp. 430-436 [5] roberto paiano, anna lisa guido, andrea pandurino, designing complex web information systems: integrating evolutionary process engineering publisher: information science reference (igi-global). publication date april 2009, isbn 978-1-60566-300, page 319 roberto paiano, andrea roggerone department of engineering innovation university of salento via per monteroni, 73100, lecce, ita email:roberto.paiano@unisalento.it, andrea.roggerone@gmail.com 73 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 128-142 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/448 submitted: june 6th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 29th, 2023 development of students’ metacognitive skills by means of educational technologies in esp instruction at university oksana synekop 1 yuliana lavrysh 2 valentyna lukianenko 3 olena ogienko 4 iryna lytovchenko 5 iryna stavytska 6 kateryna halatsyn 7 svitlana vadaska 8 1 associate professor, national technical university of ukraine “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute”, kyiv, ukraine, oksana.synekop@gmail.com 2 professor, national technical university of ukraine “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute”, kyiv, ukraine, lavu@ukr.net 3. associate professor, national technical university of ukraine “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute”, kyiv, ukraine, vv.lukian@gmail.com 4. professor, ivan ziazun institute of pedagogical and adult education of national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, el.ogienko@gmail.com 5. professor, national technical university of ukraine “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute”, kyiv, ukraine, irinalyt@ukr.net 6. associate professor, national technical university of ukraine “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute”, kyiv, ukraine, iryna_stavytska@ukr.net 7. associate professor, national technical university of ukraine “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute”, kyiv, ukraine, galatsyn.kateryna@gmail.com 8. senior teacher, national technical university of ukraine “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute”, kyiv, ukraine, vadaskaya@ukr.net abstract: metacognitive skills which provide regulation and management of students’ intellectual activity in the process of their selfeducation are of great importance, especially in the context of the learnercentered education paradigm in the global information space, with its focus on the self-study and self-development of an individual. in this regard, the article aimed to analyze the development of metacognitive skills in first year students by means of educational technologies in esp classes at technical university in ukraine. as shown by the results of the study, educational technologies can be successfully used for the development of such metacognitive skills as self-directed learning skills, collaboration skills, self-management skills, self-reflection skills in first year students studying esp at university level. the educational technologies used in our study – the moodle platform, webquest, blogs and wikis, google classroom, quizlet – confirmed their efficiency as a useful tool for the development of metacognition since they provide the learning environment which makes it possible for students to organize and control their learning, make decisions, reflect on the results of their learning experience and make necessary changes and adjustments if necessary. keywords: metacognitive skills, self-directed learning skills, collaboration skills, self-management skills, self-reflection skills, educational technologies, esp learning, technical university. how to cite: synekop, o., lavrysh, y., lukianenko, v., ogienko, o., lytovchenko, i., stavytska, i., halatsyn, k. & vadaska, s. (2023). development of students’ metacognitive skills by means of educational technologies in esp instruction at university. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 128-142. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/448 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/448 file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/oksana.synekop@gmail.com file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/lavu@ukr.net file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/vv.lukian@gmail.com file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/el.ogienko@gmail.com file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/irinalyt@ukr.net file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/iryna_stavytska@ukr.net mailto:galatsyn.kateryna@gmail.com file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/vadaskaya@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/448 development of students’ metacognitive skills by means… oksana synekop et al. 129 introduction in the context of the humanistic learner-centered paradigm of education in the global information space, particular focus is made on the selfstudy and self-development of learners, especially in view of the substantial freedom which they have in the choice of purpose, content, technology, resources, time, duration and place of learning, active collaboration and partnership relations with the teacher, reflective approach to learning (lytovchenko & saienko, 2019). therefore, the development of metacognitive skills which provide regulation and management of the intellectual activity in the process of self-education is of high priority. metacognitive skills also help students to transfer their knowledge and skills to new contexts, build up their professional competence and, which is necessary for specialists of all qualifications in all areas of life, since modern society and job market demand not only skilled specialists but a holistic highly educated personality (lavrysh, 2016). it is obvious that in educational institutions in the technological era, metacognitive skills can and should be developed with the use of information technologies which provide new opportunities and stimuli both for students and teachers. technologies in learning are so preferable because they encourage students to use language both within and outside the classroom and allow for a high degree of self-direction and interaction (kornieva & vashchylo, 2019; lytovchenko et al., 2021). in view of this, the purpose of our study was to analyze and share the experience of development of metacognitive skills, such as self-directed learning skills, collaboration skills, self-management skills, self-reflection skills, by means of educational technologies – moodle platform, webquest, blogs and wikis, google classroom, quizlet – in teaching esp to first year students at technical university. literature review the term “metacognition” was coined by flavell (1979) who understood it as “cognition about cognitive phenomena,” or in other words “thinking about thinking” (p. 906). the definitions subsequently made by other scientists were built on flavell’s understanding of this term. thus, metacognition, as defined by meichenbaum (1985), is the awareness of one’s own knowledge – what one does and doesn’t know – and one’s ability to understand, control and manipulate one’s cognitive processes. the teaching excellence in adult literacy (teal) (teaching excellence, n. d.) views broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 130 metacognition as the ability to use prior knowledge and experience to create a strategy for reaching learning goals, take appropriate actions to find the solution to the problems, reflect on and evaluate findings, and modify one’s approach if necessary. the process of learning is based on both cognitive and metacognitive elements. learners gain knowledge using cognitive strategies, and they direct, control, and assess their learning using metacognitive strategies. real learning happens as a result of this "thinking about thinking" and application of metacognitive techniques. students acquire confidence and become more independent as learners as they develop their metacognitive skills. (teaching excellence, n. d.). since metacognition is vitally important for successful learning, it is imperative for teachers to help students develop their metacognitive skills (nietfeld & shraw, 2002; railean et al., 2017; thiede et al., 2003). in teaching english, instructors should provide students with classroom activities that enhance both language skills and metacognitive strategies (thamraksa, 2005) as metacognitive learners are successful learners (rahimi & katal, 2012). powerful resources for the development of students’ metacognitive skills are provided by educational technologies that “empower” students to engage in a cognitive process which involves new learning environment providing them with opportunities to control their learning, make choices and reflect on their consequences, which are the factors of development of metacognition (sewell, 1990). as stated by gordon (1996), educational technologies “can provide a context for learning and the opportunity to observe ‘expert’ models of particular skills” and “should be used as facilitators of thinking and knowledge construction so that students can devise their own ways of handling the information that is presented in multiple modes of representation” (p. 49). interactive multimedia provide a support for students by inspiring metacognitive learning and developing problem solving skills. educational technologies promote learning effectiveness due to a variety of its characteristics, including its high accessibility, flexibility, and convenience of learning, the availability of opportunities for language acquisition, the development of independent learning skills, professional competence, and advancement in the use of technologies (lavrysh et al., 2022). development of students’ metacognitive skills by means… oksana synekop et al. 131 distance learning courses and webquests as tools for the development of students’ self-directed learning skills our practical experience in the use of educational technologies shows that they not only help to significantly improve the educational process, achieve successful results in the acquisition of knowledge, development of skills and creative abilities of students in higher education, but also provide opportunities for the development of metacognitive skills, particularly, selfdirected learning skills, collaboration skills, self-management skills, selfreflection skills. the use of distance learning courses for students of national technical university of ukraine “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute” confirms that they allow effective organizing and planning of students’ work in order to improve their self-directed learning skills which imply the autonomy and ability to control and be responsible for one’s own learning. scholars (colorado & eberle, 2010; moore & william, 2008) argue that in the educational system of today, online learning that combines graphics, text, audio and video in the elements and resources of distance learning courses is a contemporary form of self-directed learning. to create distance learning courses at our university, we use the modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment (moodle) platform which is highly adaptable and accessible and is able to create favorable environment for the development of the necessary skills in learning a foreign language. the main objectives of the distance courses designed for students of the institute of aerospace technologies of national technical university of ukraine “igor sikorsky kyiv polytechnic institute” are to stimulate the desire for self-directed learning, systematization of knowledge, development of creative abilities, effective organization of students’ independent work. tasks developed for each lesson take into account the level of english language competence (determined by testing) and individual characteristics of learners that allow for differentiated learning. the moodle platform contains interactive tools for collaborative problem solving such as wiki, glossary, blog, forum, chat, which are important in self-directed learning. finding the ways to develop students’ motivation and self-directed learning skills is one of the major issues of online learning (llerena-izquierdo, 2022; mustapha, 2023; tlili et al., 2022). teaching practice shows that a high level of motivation can ensure success in learning even for students with mediocre abilities (nikolaeva & synekop, 2020). we suggest using the elements and resources of distance learning courses to engage students and increase their motivation to study. for example, we invite students to use the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 132 glossary element as an encyclopedic resource with suggested topics (for example, “interesting facts from the wright brothers’ biography”, “pioneers in aviation”, etc.). students create the content themselves trying to find interesting information in different sources, which urges them to self-directed learning. the forum element can be used to discuss students’ slides, projects, and comment on the choice of topics, and relevance of materials. therefore, we invite students to take an active part in the formation of content of our courses, which will contribute to the formation of self-directed learning skills, the ability to work effectively with different sources, better acquisition of knowledge. students’ survey (lukianenko & vadaska, 2020) shows that they find the moodle platform particularly useful because they can study at any convenient time and place, and have the ability to see and analyze their own mistakes. due to its capabilities to make distance courses highly interactive, moodle enables students to learn the language independently and thus promotes the individualization and intensification of learning, the development of students’ self-directed learning skills, and their desire for selfdevelopment. another technology that can be effectively used to develop selfdirected learning skills is webquest which is an inquiry-focused activity providing possibilities for learners to interact with the information that comes from the internet resources (dodge, 2001; 2006), to perform an authentic task that motivates them to investigate a central, open-ended question. it develops students’ ability to process and organize the information they have found in the internet, to orient their activities to the achievement of a certain purpose, and thus promote their self-direction in learning (benz, 2001; gaskill et al., 2006). our experience in teaching esp to first-year students demonstrates the effectiveness of using webquest in the study of the following topics: safety, environmental engineering, robotics, household technology, innovations, etc. when developing webquests we based on its structural design suggested by dodge (2001) which includes the following elements: introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion, credits, teacher page. however, since the webquest structure is quite mobile, we used only its basic elements – introduction, task, process and evaluation. creating a webquest we asked students to make a detailed plan of the introduction, helped them in defining goals and objectives and then select and evaluate resources independently. we divided students into teams of 3-5 people, discussed and agreed on a list of reliable online resources. in the development of students’ metacognitive skills by means… oksana synekop et al. 133 following sessions, each team reported on the results of their research in the form of a power-point presentation or a web site. we agree with maría josé luzón-marco (2010) who identifies webquest’s core language criteria and emphasizes that “students should interact with resources (and audiences) in the same way and for similar purposes as they would do in real life; students should engage in the same cognitive and metacognitive processes as those required by the tasks that online media users carry out in the real world (e.g. synthesizing information from multiple texts, problem solving, evaluating information); the task should be functionally designed, and socially contextualized” (p. 33). the study by synekop (2020) aimed to find out teachers’ attitudes and possibilities of using webquests at differentiated esp instruction of technical students. instructors state that this technology improves students' ability to communicate in a foreign language, encourages the acquisition of professional knowledge, and fosters the development of critical thinking, teamwork, and self-directed learning skills. the author proposed 10 criteria for categorizing webquests: duration, number of performers, kind of tasks, types of language learning skills to be developed, ability to differentiate tasks, location where the webquest is performed, level of learner autonomy, type of assessment, and type of learning content (p. 48). to sum up, using different types of webquests promotes diversifying esp learning at technical university, supports self-directed learning and facilitates the development of communicative competence of future engineers. improvement of students’ collaboration skills by means of blogs and wikis among other metacognitive skills which constitute 21st century competence are collaboration skills. for decades, the educational potential of collaboration of students in groups to complete a task, solve a problem or learn material has been recognized by theorists and practitioners. collaborative group work promotes students’ higher academic achievement, positive attitude to learning, communication skills (kyndt et al., 2013; slavin & lake, 2008). in recent years, there is a growing interest in the role of technology in facilitating collaborative learning. information and communication technologies (ict) promote collaboration by means of providing visual presentations of learning tasks, guidance of the collaboration processes, and scaffolding for the collaborative knowledge construction (chen et al., 2018; goodyear et al., 2014). ict broaden the access to information and communication and thus provide equal possibilities for broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 134 people to contribute to the learning process irrespective of their abilities and conditions (capp, 2017). the use of technology as a tool to promote collaboration in writing instruction has been explored for the recent decades (ducate et al., 2011; fitzgerald & palincsar, 2017; miyazoe & anderson, 2010). we found it appropriate to promote students’ collaborative learning skills while teaching esp writing with the use of blogs and wikis. we applied a recent approach to writing instruction that has changed from product-oriented to processoriented, which implied that the writing was carried out in stages and the students, as recommended by storch (2005) and teng (2021), were provided with opportunities to collaborate during planning, monitoring and evaluation activities. during the writing process, the collaboration of students was realized through group discussions that included brainstorming of ideas, which was also in focus of studies of shen (2013) and yeh (2014). the quality of writing was improved through feedback that students gave and received in groups. this advantage of collaborative learning over individual learning was also marked by loretto et al. (2016) and wang (2014). in a commonly accepted meaning, blog is an easy-to-use web page that contains short entries of temporary significance that are regularly updated (proydakov & teplitskyi, 2006, p. 74). in our study, students in groups first created entries in draft blogs with open access to commentators, and then transformed the texts into clean copy blogs that were also open and commentable. the blogs were on professional topics and based on the students’ master’s theses. we used this tool to develop collaborative learning skills, as blogs create a social network among bloggers who have the opportunity to communicate on topics of professional interests. students learned to interpret information, make scientific conclusions and proposals based on scientific research. registered users had the opportunity to comment on one another’s information, organizing virtual communication within the blog. the reader and the author could discuss what was written, evaluate the information presented, agree or disagree with it. based on the results of cooperation on improving the content, the authors made corrections to the text, added and changed entries, and then published them in the world wide web. the work of the students in groups on blogs of professional focus contributed to their collaboration, since they were focused on researching and solving common problems. blogging platforms are particularly appropriate for the development of collaboration skills since communication between authors and readers takes place in virtual space at a time convenient for them. finally, after creating a blog on a blogging platform each group also posted it on a wiki website which is a collaborative platform that allows users development of students’ metacognitive skills by means… oksana synekop et al. 135 to create, contribute, store, edit or modify entries. then, members of each group performed the function of “experts” and had to improve the entry created by another group. we found wikis an expedient tool for enhancing the students’ skills of working in groups and learning from one another because it gives them the opportunity not only to consume knowledge produced by others but also to create new knowledge collectively. google classroom and its possibilities for enhancing students’ selfmanagement skills along with other metacognitive skills which we find it particularly important to develop in students are self-management skills since they allow organizing learning activities and establishing collaboration between teacher and students. self-management skills help students to control their plans and actions, set goals independently and take the initiative to achieve them, communicate, interact effectively, make the right decisions and improve time management thus making them more organized, creative and motivated. the learning process at university should promote the development of students’ self-management skills since they are important for their further successful employment. in esp instruction self-management skills are crucial since they can help to learn a foreign language in a learner-friendly way, perform tasks individually. since interdisciplinary connections are viewed as factor of increase of learning efficiency (kuzminska et al., 2019), we find it appropriate to use google classroom as a learning tool that has many resources for the development of self-management skills. this is a web-based application that runs on a web browser without being installed on a user’s computer. this is one of the key benefits of the program because it can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet. while using the google classroom, students learn to organize the learning process by themselves, choose the time convenient for them to complete the tasks, independently determine the sequence of tasks, take responsibility for making decisions, choose the sources of information among those offered by the course (textbooks, videos, online articles etc.). the google classroom course “english for engineering” created by us to teach esp includes texts, audios, videos, a discussion board, grammar and vocabulary exercises, a calendar, chats and other resources. the course has such functions of management as planning, organizing, leading and controlling. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 136 being integrated in the problem-based learning, the google classroom application helps to develop problem-solving skills (stavytskyi & urazgaliyeva, 2018) as the teacher gives students a problem task and the deadline for its completion. while working on the task independently the students learn to manage their time and plan their activities. the google classroom has a function of a chat room that develops communication skills. during the chat, students discuss the problem tasks assigned by the teacher and can easily get feedback at any time. videoconferencing tools, like google meet, are user-friendly, easy to install and operate. in addition, students or universities globally may be connected through these tools making possible to organize international scientific olympiads, experts meetings, conferences, projects, sharing knowledge and experience in real-time (mukan & lavrysh, 2020). among other features of google classroom technology are easy access to learning materials, possibility of creating tasks and distributing them individually to each student, teamwork, real-time communication, interactive check of the completed tasks which help to develop the ability of students to plan, solve problems, self-study, make decisions and manage the time as integral constituents of self-management skills. development of students’ self-reflection while learning vocabulary with quizlet important metacognitive skills which allow learners to analyze and evaluate the way of their study are self-reflection skills. reflecting helps learners review the effectiveness of their study, question the way they learn something, and then decide if any changes and adjustments should be made, or new strategies should be used to make learning more efficient and relevant in the future. in this regard self-reflection is a powerful tool of learning from experience, since, if we do not reflect and analyzes our previous experiences, we cannot improve and grow. one of technologies used by us in esp classes to develop students’ self-reflection skills is quizlet (http://www.quizlet.com/), since it provides numerous opportunities for reflection over different ways and strategies of vocabulary learning. quizlet is an online resource which can be used on computers and smartphones for learning vocabulary with digital flashcards which can be created by teachers or students. as stated by foster (2009), quizlet is an efficient tool which can be used by students for reviewing vocabulary that they learned in class as also for making their own flashcard sets and sharing them with peers. development of students’ metacognitive skills by means… oksana synekop et al. 137 practical experience shows that students have positive attitudes toward quizlet, which is supported by other studies (chien, 2015). using quizlet technology proved to be efficient in learning general and professional foreign language vocabulary (chaikovska & zbaravska, 2020; fursenko et al., 2021). the technology is time-saving, since creating online flashcards on smartphones by students does not take much time (wright, 2016). another important feature of quizlet is the availability of a whole range of options (learners can create their own flashcards; the target words and their translations can be created in any language; flashcards can be created for multiword units as well as single words, etc.). this tool is also highly accessible, since it can be used for free (nakata, 2011). at our esp classes the learners used the quizlet site on their mobile phones to learn the vocabulary in and outside of classroom. vocabulary sets were created by students themselves and shared with others in the group. the teachers also created activities which were done by all learners at the revision stage of each module of the learning program. the vocabulary sets consisted of activities for studying (which included flashcards, learning, writing, spelling, testing exercises) and playing (which included matching, “gravity” and “live” games). quizlet was used for learning english vocabulary and intended to provide possibilities for development of students’ self-reflection skills. the feedback from students showed that, reflecting on their learning experience, the students found quizlet activities effective, since they helped them remember and review words rather quickly and without much effort and they promote group collaboration. conclusion as shown by our experience, educational technologies can be successfully used for the development of metacognitive skills, in particular, self-directed learning skills, collaboration skills, self-management skills, selfreflection skills, of first year students in esp classes at technical university. the educational technologies used in our study – the moodle platform, webquest, blogs and wikis, google classroom, quizlet – confirmed their efficiency as a powerful tool for the development of metacognition since they provide the learning environment which makes it possible for students to organize and control their learning, make decisions, reflect on the results of their learning experience and make necessary changes and adjustments if necessary. references broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 138 benz, p. (2001). webquests, a constructivist approach. ardecol. http://www.ardecol.acgrenoble.fr/english/tice/enwebquests.htm capp, m. j. (2017). the effectiveness of universal design for learning: a metaanalysis of literature between 2013 and 2016. international journal of inclusive education, 21(8), 791–807. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2017.1325074 chaikovska, o., & zbaravska, l. (2020). the efficiency of quizlet-based efl vocabulary learning in preparing undergraduates for state english exam. advanced education, 7(14), 84–90. https://doi.org/10.20535/24108286.197808 chen, j., wang, m., kirschner, p. a., & tsai, c. c. (2018). the role of collaboration, computer use, learning environments, and supporting strategies in cscl: a meta-analysis. review of educational research, 88(6), 799–843. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654318791584 chien, c. w. (2015). analysis the effectiveness of three online vocabulary flashcard websites on l2 learners’ level of lexical knowledge. english language teaching, 8(5), 111-121. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n5p111 colorado, j. t., & eberle, j. (2010). student demographics and success in online learning environments. emporia state research studies, 46(1), 4-10. http://academic.emporia.edu/esrs/vol46/colorado.pdf dodge, b. (2001). focus: five rules for writing a great webquest. learning & leading with technology, 28 (8), 6-9, 58. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej643405 dodge, b. (2006). webquests: past, present and future. in a. a. carvalho (ed.), actas do encontro sobre webquest (pp. 3-7). cied. ducate, l. c., anderson, l. l., & moreno, n. (2011). wading through the world of wikis: an analysis of three wiki projects. foreign language annals, 44(3), 495–524. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2011.01144.x fitzgerald, m. s., & palincsar, a. (2017). peer-mediated reading and writing in a digital, multimodal environment. reading & writing quarterly, 33(4), 309– 326. https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2017.1294514 flavell, j. h. (1979). metacognition and cognitive monitoring: a new area of cognitive developmental inquiry. american psychologist, 34(10), 906-911. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.34.10.906 foster, h. (2009). building learner-generated vocabulary logs with quizlet. the language teacher, 33(12), 23-25. https://jaltpublications.org/tlt/departments/tlt-wired/articles/457-building-learnergenerated-vocabulary-logs-quizlet http://www.ardecol.acgrenoble.fr/english/tice/enwebquests.htm https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2017.1325074 https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.197808 https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.197808 https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654318791584 https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n5p111 http://academic.emporia.edu/esrs/vol46/colorado.pdf https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej643405 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2011.01144.x https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2017.1294514 https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.34.10.906 https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/departments/tlt-wired/articles/457-building-learner-generated-vocabulary-logs-quizlet https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/departments/tlt-wired/articles/457-building-learner-generated-vocabulary-logs-quizlet https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/departments/tlt-wired/articles/457-building-learner-generated-vocabulary-logs-quizlet development of students’ metacognitive skills by means… oksana synekop et al. 139 fursenko, t., bystrova, b., & druz, y. (2021). integrating quizlet into aviation english course. advanced education, 8(17), 118–127. https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.217990 gaskill, m., mcnulty, a., & brooks, d. (2006). learning from webquests. journal of science education and technology, 15(2), 133-136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-006-9005-7 goodyear, p., jones, c., & thompson, k. (2014). computer-supported collaborative learning: instructional approaches, group processes and educational designs. in j. spector, m. merrill, j. elen, & m. bishop (eds.), handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 439– 451). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5_35 gordon, j. (1996). tracks for learning: metacognition and learning technologies. australian journal of educational technology, 12(1), 46-55. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet12/gordon.html kornieva, z. m., & vashchylo, o. v. (2019). efficiency of teaching english monologue production to future mechanical engineers by means of podcasting. information technologies and learning tools, 74(6), 71–83. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v74i6.3120 kuzminska, n., stavytska, i., lukianenko, v., & lygina, o. (2019) application of clil methodology in teaching economic disciplines at university. advanced education, 11, 112-117. https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.95301 kyndt, e., raes, e., lismont, b., timmers, f., cascallar, e., dochy, f. (2013). a meta-analysis of the effects of face-to-face cooperative learning. do recent studies falsify or verify earlier findings? educational research review, 10, 133149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2013.02.002 lavrysh, y. (2016). soft skills acquisition through esp classes at technical university. the journal of teaching english for specific and academic purposes, 4(3), 517-525. https://doi.org/10.22190/jtesap1603517l lavrysh, y., lytovchenko, i., lukianenko, v, & ogienko, o. (2022). experience of using distance learning tools in esp instruction at technical university: a case of ukraine. journal of educational sciences & psychology, 12(1), 24-33. https://doi.org/10.51865/jesp.2022.1.04 llerena-izquierdo, j. (2022). virtual classroom design model and its relation to student motivation and performance in a moodle learning environment during the emergency of covid-19. in: berrezueta, s., abad, k. (eds), doctoral symposium on information and communication technologies dsict. lecture notes in electrical engineering, vol. 846. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93718-8_3 https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.217990 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-006-9005-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5_35 http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet12/gordon.html https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v74i6.3120 https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.95301 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2013.02.002 https://doi.org/10.22190/jtesap1603517l https://doi.org/10.51865/jesp.2022.1.04 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93718-8_3 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 140 loretto, a., demartino, s., & godley, a. (2016). secondary students’ perceptions of peer review of writing. research in the teaching of english, 51(2), 134–161. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24889912 lukianenko, v., & vadaska, s. (2020). evaluating the efficiency of online english course for first-year engineering students. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(2sup1), 62-69. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2sup1/290 luzón-marco, m. j. (2010). webtasks for learning professional and academic english: adapting the webquest model. corell: computer resources for language learning, 3, 29-44. https://www.ucam.edu/sites/default/files/corell/mjluzon2.pdf lytovchenko, i., yamshynska, n., kutsenok, n., & filatova, v. (2021). teaching sustainability online to university students with the use of interactive presentation tools: a case study. advanced education, 8(17), 11–18. https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.227792 lytovchenko, і., & saienko, n. (2019). structural models of corporate universities in the united states of america. amazonia investiga, 8(24), 225–230. https://amazoniainvestiga.info/index.php/amazonia/article/view/975 meichenbaum, d. (1985). teaching thinking: a cognitive-behavioral perspective. in s. f., chipman, j. w. segal, & r. glaser (eds.), thinking and learning skills, vol. 2: research and open questions. lawrence erlbaum associates. miyazoe, t., & anderson, t. (2010). learning outcomes and students’ perceptions of online writing: simultaneous implementation of a forum, blog, and wiki in an efl blended learning setting. system, 38(2), 185–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2010.03.006 moore, m. g., & william, g. a. (2008). handbook of distance education. lawrence erlbaum associates. mukan, n., & lavrysh, y. (2020). video conferencing integration: challenges and opportunities at universities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(1sup2), 108-114. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.1sup2/253 mustapha, a. m., zakaria, m. a. z. m., yahaya, n., abuhassna, h., mamman, b., isa, a. m., & kolo, m. a. (2023). students’ motivation and effective use of self-regulated learning on learning management system moodle environment in higher learning institution in nigeria. international journal of information and education technology, 13(1), 195-202. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijiet.2023.13.1.1796 https://www.jstor.org/stable/24889912 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2sup1/290 https://www.ucam.edu/sites/default/files/corell/mjluzon2.pdf https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.227792 https://amazoniainvestiga.info/index.php/amazonia/article/view/975 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2010.03.006 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.1sup2/253 https://doi.org/10.18178/ijiet.2023.13.1.1796 development of students’ metacognitive skills by means… oksana synekop et al. 141 nakata, t. (2011). computer-assisted second language vocabulary learning in a paired-associate paradigm: a critical investigation of flashcard software. computer assisted language learning, 24(1), 17-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2010.520675 nietfeld, j. l., & shraw, g. (2002). the effect of knowledge and strategy explanation on monitoring accuracy. journal of educational research, 95, 131– 142. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220670209596583 nikolaeva, s., & synekop, o. (2020). motivational aspect of student’s language learning style in differentiated instruction of english for specific purposes. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(2), 169182. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2/272 proydakov, e. m., & teplitskyi, l. a. (2006). english-ukrainian explanatory dictionary of computing, internet and programming (2-nd ed.). softpress publishing house. rahimi, m., & katal, m. (2012). metacognitive strategies awareness and success in learning english as a foreign language: an overview. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 31. 73-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.019 railean, e., elçi, a., & elçi, a. (eds.), (2017). metacognition and successful learning strategies in higher education. igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-15225-2218-8 n sewell, d.s. (1990). new tools for new minds. herthfordshire, harvester wheatsheaf. shen, f. (2013). using group discussion with taiwan’s efl college students: a comparison of comprehension instruction for book club, literature circles, and instructional conversations. english language teaching, 6(12), 58–78. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v6n12p58 slavin, r. e., & lake, c. (2008). effective programs in elementary mathematics: a best-evidence synthesis. review of educational research, 78(3), 427–515. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654308317473 stavytskyi, o., & urazgaliyeva, m. (2018) using google classroom tools in teaching students of economic specialities. advanced education, 10, 76-81. https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.149361 storch, n. (2005). collaborative writing: product, process, and students’ reflections. journal of second language writing, 14(3), 153–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2005.05.002 synekop, o. (2020). webquest as technology of differentiated esp instruction at university level. the journal of teaching english for specific and academic purposes, 8(1), 43-52. https://doi.org/10.22190/jtesap2001043s https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2010.520675 https://doi.org/10.1080/00220670209596583 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2/272 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.019 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2218-8 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2218-8 https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v6n12p58 https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654308317473 https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.149361 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2005.05.002 https://doi.org/10.22190/jtesap2001043s broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 142 teaching excellence in adult literacy. (n. d.). teal center fact sheet no. 4: metacognitive processes. https://lincs.ed.gov/state-resources/federalinitiatives/teal/guide/metacognitive teng, m. (2021). interactive-whiteboard-technology-supported collaborative writing: writing achievement, metacognitive activities, and co-regulation patterns. system, 97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102426 thamraksa, c. (2005). metacognition: a key to success for efl learners. bu academic review, 4(1), 95-99. https://www.bu.ac.th/knowledgecenter/epaper/jan_june2005/chutima.pd f thiede, k. w., anderson, m. c., & therriault, d. (2003). accuracy of metacognitive monitoring affects learning of texts. journal of educational psychology, 95(1), 66–73. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.95.1.66 tlili, a., burgos, d., olivier, j., & huang, r. (2022). self-directed learning and assessment in a crisis context: the covid-19 pandemic as a case study. journal of e-learning and knowledge society, 18(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135475 wang, y. (2014). using wikis to facilitate interaction and collaboration among efl learners: a social constructivist approach to language teaching. system, 42, 383–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.01.007 wright, b.a. (2016). transforming vocabulary learning with quizlet. in p. clements, a. krause, & h. brown (eds.), transformation in language education (pp. 436 – 440). jalt. yeh, h-c. (2014). exploring how collaborative dialogues facilitate synchronous collaborative writing. language, learning and technology, 18(1), 23–37. https://www.lltjournal.org/item/10125-44348/ https://lincs.ed.gov/state-resources/federal-initiatives/teal/guide/metacognitive https://lincs.ed.gov/state-resources/federal-initiatives/teal/guide/metacognitive https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102426 https://www.bu.ac.th/knowledgecenter/epaper/jan_june2005/chutima.pdf https://www.bu.ac.th/knowledgecenter/epaper/jan_june2005/chutima.pdf https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.95.1.66 https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135475 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.01.007 https://www.lltjournal.org/item/10125-44348/ microsoft word brain_2_3.doc 20 incidental vocabulary learning: a semantic field approach parvaneh khosravizadeh sharif university of technology, tehran, iran khosravizadeh@sharif.edu samira mollaei sharif university of technology, tehran, iran samira.mollaei@gmail.com abstract this study is an attempt to explore the difference between acquiring new words with different semantic fields to which they belong. in other words, the purpose of this study is to scrutinize the contribution of semantic field theory in learning new vocabulary items in an efl setting. thirty-eight students of three different levels of education took part in this research. they were exposed to some new words from four different semantic fields, and then they were tested on their acquisition of the words meaning. this exposure was through reading texts and the aim of reading was just comprehension, therefore the words were acquired incidentally. the outcome showed significant differences between groups with different levels of education regarding retention of words from different semantic fields. keywords: semantic network, incidental vocabulary learning, semantic field theory 1. introduction learning vocabulary has always been one of the major areas in esl/efl about which massive amount of research have been conducted. to find the best way to help students retain vocabulary items for a longer time is a controversial issue, which requires even more research to crystallize. reading, as a skill, is best known for fostering vocabulary learning. it is widely believed that by exposing language learners to new words, which are embedded in reading passages in the target language, vocabulary acquisition will take place as a by-product of reading. this method of picking up new vocabulary items is called “incidental” vocabulary acquisition. a large number of studies has investigated incidental vocabulary acquisition each of which has put to test a different aspect of this type of learning (e.g. hulstijn, hollander, and greidanus, 1996 [5]; laufer and hulstijn, 2001 [7]; paribakht and wesche, 1999 [9]). this study worked with the same issue, incidental vocabulary acquisition, but with a different point to focus on. in this study we tried to see whether the meaning of words, better to say, the semantic field to which they belong, makes any difference in students’ acquiring them. 2. semantic field theory all the words that we have in our lexicon have a specific meaning, which we understand immediately when we face the word. some of the words are more semantically related to each other than some others in a way that when we encounter one of them, the other comes to our mind, too. for example, when we hear the term teacher, most of us immediately think of the words school or student or when we hear the word door, we may think of window or wall but not teacher or student. these simple examples show that these words belong to different categories that all of us superficially can recognize them. this interrelationship between the words is called “semantic field” and this theory has been the focus of a great number of studies to interpret the true nature of this theory and even to investigate whether this is a general theory or just a simple co-incident. the basis of semantic theory is strongly influenced by structuralism’s point of view of language. in saussurean structuralism “lexical field” is defined as network of words in which the meanings of words define each other and put limits on each other’s meanings (kleparski and rusinek 2007). following the saussurean view other scholars tried to organize this theory in a more brainstorming p. khosravizadeh, s. mollaei incidental vocabulary learning: a semantic field approach 21 structured way. german scholars introduced the first version of this theory, and during 20s and 30s, a variety of viewpoints about semantic fields emerged. below, two of the most influential ones are briefly described. i. trier’s semantic field theory in 1930, trier introduced his view of semantic field theory. wu (1988) summarized the foundations of this theory as follows: a. the vocabularies in a language system are semantically related and they build up a complete lexical system. this system is unsteady and changing constantly. b. since the vocabularies of a language are semantically related, we are not supposed to study the semantic change of individual words in isolation, but to study vocabularies as an integrated system. c. since lexemes are interrelated in sense, we can only determine the connotation of a word by analyzing and comparing its semantic relationship with other words. a word is meaningful only in its own semantic field. (cited in changhong, 2010; p.51) [2] ii. porzig’s semantic field (syntactic field) porzig looked at the notion of interrelatedness of words from a different point of view. he put forward the notion of co-occurrence of the words. based on this issue, some scholars call his theory “syntactic” theory. according to porzig (1928, 1934, cited in kleparski and rusinek, 2007), the meaning of words are limited in the context in which they are used and the “neighbors” which are surrounding them. as he would explain, there is a pivot (which is mostly a verb) word around which the meaning of other words is defined. below, there is an example from kleparski and rusinek (2007): horse camel ride a bike donkey etc. as it is manifested in the example, in porzig’s theory, syntax plays a more crucial role than that of semantics. what was worked upon in this research was related to terier’s semantic field because here we focused on the meaning of the words not on the syntactic context in which they were placed. 3. review of literature the amount of research conducted on the theory of semantic field and its implications in esl/efl is not that large. one of the reasons of this lack of research is that, there are several versions of this theory that make it difficult to define the research question and domain of study precisely. despite all that, there were a number of studies trying to focus on semantic fields in the area of vocabulary learning. crow and quigley (1985) [4] implemented the semantic field theory to assess vocabulary learning while reading comprehension. in their research, they compared two alternative methods of teaching vocabulary incidentally using reading passages. they described the aim of their study as: “this study compares a traditional approach to vocabulary instruction with an approach based on the semantic fields of words that appeared in college-level reading texts.”(p. 497). the winner of this comparison was, expectedly, the approach based on semantic field. in another study, lehrer (1985) tried to get some insights into lexical change by the use of semantic field theory. he would explain that, lexical changing is not an independent process for each single word; instead, we should look at the issue in a broader viewpoint. every word belongs brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 to a specific semantic field and the change that occurs to the meaning of a word through time, should be studied by keeping an eye to the changes that occur in the according semantic field. kleparski and rusinek (2007), too, developed a study to investigate the effect of semantic field of words on their change over time. there were also some studies based on porzig’s view of semantic field. schmitt (1999) [12] developed a research to assess the vocabulary part of the toefl test. he scrutinized how deeply the questions in this test, were understood regarding the “association, collocation and word class knowledge” (p. 189). the result showed the lack of ability of the toefl test to help students reach this deeper level of understanding of the words under question in the test. chonghong (2010) explored the contribution of semantic field theory in vocabulary instruction. his study contains both types of semantic field theory explained above. he worked upon semantic part of the theory and focus on the relationships between word meanings like hyponymy and antonym and at the same time brought into consideration the syntactic part of the theory. in this regard, he employed some techniques to assess vocabulary acquisition in terms of collocation and metaphors. he would describe the results as follows: the study is of pedagogical significance in that it helps to enlarge learners’ vocabulary by constructing paradigmatic relations of new items and to deepen learners’ mastery of vocabulary, mainly connotation and collocation, by constructing syntagmatic relations of the new items (p. 50). 4. research question this research tried to find out a reasonable answer to the following question: do students of different levels of academic education tend to retain words belonging to a specific semantic field longer? hypotheses: 1) students of higher level of education tend to retain academic words the best. 2) these students tend to retain words about travelling abroad better. 3) students of mere school level education tend to remember words about iranian culture best. the first two hypotheses are based on some observation of the recent social condition of iranian society. the academic course books, which are taught at universities in iran, are abandoned with english academic words, which are an evidence to claim the first hypothesis to be true. in addition, in recent condition of our society, a great number of the students in higher education tend to travel abroad to continue education. hence, the hypothesis 2 can be considered to be true. the third hypothesis is in the complimentary position to the other two. 5. methodology this research is a quasi-experimental research, which is designed in a “pre-test, post-test, control group” design. there were three intact classes, which as a whole contained 38 learners. these learners were from three different educational levels. the students with different academic levels of education were not distributed to the classes according to their educational level. in other words, all three classes contained students of all three levels. the level of proficiency in english language was the same among all the participants, only their level of academic education varied. the first phase of the research was to gain a homogenous group of participants. in order to reach it, the students first took a pre-test of vocabulary items under study. after making sure that the groups are comparable in terms of their vocabulary knowledge, the treatment started. in five consecutive days, the students worked on five reading passages each of which contained some of the target words. the third phase was the post-test. the participants were tested of their retention of vocabulary items to which they had been exposed. the results of the post-test were put to anova p. khosravizadeh, s. mollaei incidental vocabulary learning: a semantic field approach 23 tests and comparisons between the scores of students of different educational level were drawn. these comparisons were intended to interpret whether students of different educational levels tended to remember words of a specific semantic field better. i. participants there were 38 participants placed in three different classes. they were students of elementary level of proficiency and they were studying in a private language school in capital tehran, iran. the age range of the learners was between 20 and 35. they were of three different levels of academic education: high school, undergraduate, post-graduate. the number of students in each group was: 12 students of high school education, 22 students of undergraduate level, and the four rest were of post-graduate academic level. their english class met for one hour and a half, five times a week. they were all pretested in advance to see whether they build a homogenous group in terms of their vocabulary knowledge. ii. target words there were 24 words selected each of which belonged to one of four different semantic fields. these fields were defined as: words related to iranian culture, academic terminology (mathematical and biological), words related to american culture and history, and words related to traveling abroad. each of the fields contained six words out of the whole 24. iii. pre-test the pre-test was intended to make sure that all the students make up a homogenous group. this test was a simple list of the 50 words out of which 24 were the target words and the rest played the role of distracters. the participants were supposed to write the meaning of any word that they know in their l1. the results of this test were put to a test of homogeneity (leven) to investigate the equality of variances between the groups. the results proved the comparability of the students regarding their vocabulary knowledge. iv. treatment the treatment phase started after the results of the test of homogeneity supported the equivalence of the groups. the target words were embedded in five different reading passages. the words were glossed in the margin of the text with a simple and familiar equivalent in students’ l1, persian (farsi). the texts were about different subjects and they were taken from websites. the text, then revised to contain the target words. the participants were not told in advance that they would be tested on their gain of vocabulary items. this is one of the definitions of incidental vocabulary learning in which the students read the text for the sake of reading not for vocabulary learning, but later they are tested to see the level of their retention of vocabulary items. this study was intended to assess the contribution of semantic field theory in incidental vocabulary learning. according to this intention, students for the sake of reading comprehension not to learn vocabulary worked on the reading passages. the procedure was as follows: each day the participants were given one of the passages to read at home. they answered the comprehension questions and wrote a short summary of the text. the day after, a few of them spoke about the text in the class. all these activities were planned just for the students to be more engaged with the text and subsequently more exposed to the target words in the text. after five sessions of treatment, the students took the post-test. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 v. post-test the post-test was a multiple-choice test containing 50 items. these items were all fill-in-theblank sentences with four choices provided to choose from them. the 50 words that were put to the test were the same words as listed in the pre-test. the researchers using some model test, taken from the internet, developed the test. the test was put to a pilot testing. twenty-five students of the same level of the level of the participants took the exam and the reliability of the test was calculated using the spss software and the value obtained was .68. this value could have been higher if the number of students taking the pilot exam was larger. unfortunately, it was not feasible for the researchers to reach a bigger number of the students to take part in the pilot testing. 6. data analysis i. anova analysis the data obtained from the post-test was put to four anova tests. each test compares the performance of all three groups of students on retention of words of one of the semantic fields. table 1 shows the basic descriptive statistics of the scores of the students. in this table, the number of the students and the mean of their scores along with the other statistical variables are described. table 1: descriptive statistics 95% confidence interval for mean n mean std. deviation std. error lower bound upper bound minimum maximum high school 12 3.5833 .90034 .25990 3.0113 4.1554 2.00 5.00 ba 22 3.2273 .86914 .18530 2.8419 3.6126 2.00 5.00 above ba 4 3.2500 .95743 .47871 1.7265 4.7735 2.00 4.00 iran total 38 3.3421 .87846 .14251 3.0534 3.6308 2.00 5.00 high school 12 2.5833 .90034 .25990 2.0113 3.1554 1.00 4.00 ba 22 4.3636 .72673 .15494 4.0414 4.6859 3.00 5.00 above ba 4 5.0000 .81650 .40825 3.7008 6.2992 4.00 6.00 academic total 38 3.8684 1.18939 .19294 3.4775 4.2594 1.00 6.00 high school 12 2.5833 .99620 .28758 1.9504 3.2163 1.00 5.00 ba 22 3.2273 .68534 .14612 2.9234 3.5311 2.00 4.00 above ba 4 2.2500 1.25831 .62915 .2478 4.2522 1.00 4.00 travel total 38 2.9211 .91183 .14792 2.6213 3.2208 1.00 5.00 p. khosravizadeh, s. mollaei incidental vocabulary learning: a semantic field approach 25 high school 12 2.0000 .85280 .24618 1.4582 2.5418 1.00 3.00 ba 22 3.1364 .99021 .21111 2.6973 3.5754 2.00 5.00 above ba 4 3.5000 1.29099 .64550 1.4457 5.5543 2.00 5.00 the us total 38 2.8158 1.11149 .18031 2.4505 3.1811 1.00 5.00 in this table, we can see that the high school level students scored the best on the words related to iranian culture. the undergraduate students scored highest on the words of academic semantic field. moreover, the students of graduate level scored highest, again, in the academic word retention. to make reliable interpretations, the results were put to anova tests. table 2 shows the results of these tests. table 2: anova sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 1.022 2 .511 .650 .528 within groups 27.530 35 .787 iran total 28.553 37 between groups 30.335 2 15.167 24.121 .000 within groups 22.008 35 .629 academic total 52.342 37 between groups 5.233 2 2.616 3.587 .038 within groups 25.530 35 .729 travel total 30.763 37 between groups 12.120 2 6.060 6.314 .005 within groups 33.591 35 .960 the us total 45.711 37 the outcome of the anova tests produces the following findings: • the words related to iranian culture: as it is displayed in table 2, the difference between the three groups of the students is not significant, because the sig. value obtained is .528, which is much larger than the confidence interval of .05. therefore, all three groups performed the same on the words of this semantic field. • the words related to academic field: the sig. value here is .000, which is lower than .05. according to this result, there is significant difference between the three groups in retaining new words in this semantic field. • the words about traveling abroad: the difference between the groups is significant because the sig. value here is less than .05 (.038). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 • the words related to american culture: here, too, the difference between three groups is significant because the sig. value is .005 (less than .05). where this differences lies will be explained in the next section (post-hoc analysis). ii. post-hoc analysis the anova tests showed us that in three semantic fields out of four, there was significant difference between the groups. to explore between which groups this difference is noticeable, the results of the post-test were put to a scheffe’s test. table 3 displays the result of this test. table 3: scheffe’s test 95% confidence interval dependent variable (i) education (j) education mean difference (i-j) std. error sig. lower bound upper bound ba .35606 .31828 .541 -.4576 1.1697high school above ba .33333 .51205 .810 -.9756 1.6423 high school -.35606 .31828 .541 -1.1697 .4576ba above ba -.02273 .48208 .999 -1.2551 1.2096 high school -.33333 .51205 .810 -1.6423 .9756 iran above ba ba .02273 .48208 .999 -1.2096 1.2551 ba -1.78030* .28457 .000 -2.5078 -1.0528high school above ba -2.41667* .45782 .000 -3.5870 -1.2463 high school 1.78030* .28457 .000 1.0528 2.5078ba above ba -.63636 .43102 .347 -1.7382 .4655 high school 2.41667* .45782 .000 1.2463 3.5870 academic above ba ba .63636 .43102 .347 -.4655 1.7382 ba -.64394 .30650 .125 -1.4275 .1396high school above ba .33333 .49310 .797 -.9272 1.5939 high school .64394 .30650 .125 -.1396 1.4275ba above ba .97727 .46424 .124 -.2095 2.1640 high school -.33333 .49310 .797 -1.5939 .9272 travel above ba ba -.97727 .46424 .124 -2.1640 .2095 ba -1.13636* .35157 .010 -2.0351 -.2376high school above ba -1.50000* .56561 .041 -2.9459 -.0541 high school 1.13636* .35157 .010 .2376 2.0351ba above ba -.36364 .53250 .793 -1.7249 .9976 high school 1.50000* .56561 .041 .0541 2.9459 the us above ba ba .36364 .53250 .793 -.9976 1.7249 *. the mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level. p. khosravizadeh, s. mollaei incidental vocabulary learning: a semantic field approach 27 the outcome in table 3 can be interpreted as follows: • the words related to iranian culture: we saw in anova test that there is no significant difference between three groups regarding this group of words. • the academic words: according to the table, we can conclude that the difference between high school and undergraduate is significant so is the difference between high school and graduate students. however, there is no significant difference between undergraduate and graduate students in this semantic field retention. it means that the students of high school level of education performed significantly lower than the other two groups regarding the retention of words of academic semantic attribute. • the words related to traveling abroad: no significant difference can be observed between any of the single pairs of groups. • the words related to american culture: regarding this group of words, the difference lies between the high school group with the other two groups. however, there is no significant difference between two other groups. 7. discussion by combining the outcomes of all three tables above, we can investigate supporting or rejecting the three hypotheses mentioned earlier: • hypothesis 1: this hypothesis is supported because the difference of the graduate and undergraduate students with high school students was significant. besides, according to table 1, the graduate students performed highest on the test of words related to academic field. it can be concluded that the higher the education level, the better retention of new academic words. • hypothesis 2: this hypothesis was supported because the difference between the groups was significant (table 2). • hypothesis 3: this hypothesis cannot be supported because there was no significant difference observed between the groups regarding the words related to iranian culture. however, the high school group performed the best on this part of the test among the other groups and at the same time, their best score was that of this word group. this outcome can open a path for further research, which may support the hypothesis. in a general look at table 1, we can compare the overall performance of the participants on each of the four parts of the test. the mean score of the academic part of the test was the highest among the others (3.86). this is clearly because of the larger number of the students who were in higher education in comparison to the high school students. the highest mean score, after that of academic part of the test, belongs to the words related to iranian culture. to discuss the reason of this finding we can refer to ausubel’s subsumption theory (1965, cited in brown, 2007) [1]. if we combine this theory with trier’s semantic field, we find a proper reason for this finding. ausubel’s meaningful learning views the human’s cognition as a set of networks. when a new piece of knowledge enters our cognitive system, it should hang on some already existing knowledge and “subsume” under this field if it is intended to retain for a long time. regarding the present study, we can conclude that iranian students have already had the underlying knowledge about iranian culture, so when they are exposed to some new words about their own culture this new piece of knowledge subsume well under the existing knowledge and retain longer. this reason can explain the insignificancy of the difference between the groups: all the participants are from the same cultural background; therefore, they are expected to perform the same on this part of the test. 8. conclusion semantic field theory can have considerable contribution in esl/efl theories. this study was very limited regarding the number of participants and the number of words under study. furthermore, the categorization of the students according to their mere level of academic education brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 can be considered too superficial. therefore, there is a path leading to further research with more scientific categorization of the participants and more precise grouping of words into various semantic fields. references [1] brown, d. (2007), principles of language learning and teaching, pearson education, inc. [2] changhong, g. (2010), the application of the semantic field theory in college english vocabulary instruction, chinese journal of applied linguistics, volume 33, pp. 50-62. [3] channel, j. (1981), applying semantic theory to vocabulary teaching, english language teaching, volume 35, pp. 115-122. [4] crow, j. & quigley j. r. (1985), a semantic field approach to passive vocabulary acquisition for reading comprehension, tesol, volume 19, pp. 497-513. [5] hulstijn, j. h., hollander, m. and greidanus, t. (1996), incidental vocabulary learning by advanced foreign language students: the influence of marginal glosses, dictionary use, and reoccurrence of unknown words, themodern languagejournal, volume 80, pp.327-339. [6] kleparski, g. a., and rusinek, a. (2007), the tradition of field theory and the study of lexical semantic change, zeszyt, volume 47, pp. 187-205. [7] laufer, b., and hulstijn, j. (200), incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language: the construct of task-induced involvement, applied linguistics, volume 22, pp. 1-26. [8] lehrer, a. (1985), the influence of semantic fields on semantic change. in: j. fisiak (ed.), historical semantic, historical word formation. berlin: walter de gruyter and co. pp. 283-296. [9] paribakht, s., and wesche, m. (1999), reading and incidental l2 vocabulary acquisition (an introspective study of lexical inferencing). studies in second language acquisition, volume 21, pp. 195-224. [10] peters, b. (1991), a few remarks on terminological insecurity in semantic field theory, quaderni di semantic, volume 2, pp. 335-343. [11] pulido, d. (2004), the effect of cultural familiarity on incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading, reading matrix, volume 4, pp. 20-33. [12] schmitt, n. (1999), the relationship between toefl vocabulary items and meaning, association, collocation and word class knowledge, language testing, volume 16, pp 189-216. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 119 an delphi application for the syntactic and lexical analysis of a phrase using cocke, younger, and kasami algorithm bogdan pătruţ department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania bogdan@edusoft.ro ioana boghian department of philosophy and communication sciences, faculty of letters, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău spiru haret, 8, 600114, bacău, romania rahela_bac@yahoo.com.uk abstract this paper focus on the cocke, younger, and kasami algorithm. we present a delphi application that analiyzes the lexicon and the syntax of a sentence in romanian. we use a chomsky normal form (cnf) grammar. we will present the source of a delphi implementation of the cky algorithm. keywords: cky algorithm, lexical analysis, delphi programming 1. general presentation the program, which is highly complex, is part of the category of natural language processing programs. a phrase is entered into a text box and the program tells whether the phrase is correct or not, according to some vocabulary and an array of previously established syntactic rules which make up a certain grammar [1]. figure 1. example of parsing the phrase “orice barbat iubeste o femeie frumoasa si desteapta” (“any man loves a beautiful and intelligent woman”) for example, in the figure above (figure 1), the phrase “orice barbat iubeste o femeie frumoasa si desteapta” (“any man loves a beautiful and intelligent woman”) has been entered and has been accepted as correct. the table shows the diagram of the syntactic analysis for the phrase, b. pătruţ, i. boghian – a delphi application for the syntactic and lexical analysis of a phrase using cyk algorithm 120 which starts from the row labelled with “0” and ends with the column labelled “desteapta” (“intelligent”). the lexicon used in the analysis, written in the 'lex.txt' text file, was the following: det->orice det->fiecare det->o det->un pron->el n->barbat n->femeie v->iubeste v->uraste a->frumoasa a->desteapta c->si c->sau thus, the previously analysed phrase contains words only from the chosen vocabulary. on the other hand, the phrase "any dog hates a cat ", although syntactically correct in romanian, is not accepted because it contains words that have not been entered into our vocabulary. the file contains, on each row, a rule of the type (2): gm → w (2) where gm is a grammatical category (or part of speech) and w is an word from a certain dictionary. syntax rules (from the 'gram.txt' file) constitute a subset of the romanian syntax rules: s->np vp np->pron np->n np->det n np->np ap ap->a ap->ap cp ca->c a vp->v vp vp->v np thus, by using the established notation (s = sentence, np = noun phrase, vp = verb phrase, n = noun, det = determiner (article), ap = adjectival phrase, a = adjective, c = conjunction, v = verb, ca = group made up of a conjunction and an adjective. the syntax rules are given, one on each line, thus (3): gm1 → gm2 gm3 (3) meaning that the first grammatical category (gm1) forms out of the concatenation of the other two (gm2 and gm3), from the right side of the arrow. according to the syntax rules used in our application, the phrase we have analysed in the beginning is correct, while the following figure (figure 2) presents a case viewed as incorrect. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 121 figure 2. a rejected “sentence” we should mention the fact that the algorithm that we have implemented uses only grammars written in chomsky (cnf) normal format. a cnf grammar is a context-free grammar where productions take the form of: a → b c, where a is a non-terminal, and b and c are nonterminals or pre-terminals [1], [5]. we have also considered rules of the type a → b as acceptable. therefore, in the right side of the production rules there will be two or only one element. details concerning the topic under discussion, for the unknowing reader, can be studied in the works mentioned as references. 2. the cocke, younger, and kasami algorithm we will further present the basic analysis algorithm (also called "chart-parsing") elaborated by cocke, younger, and kasami and named the basic cyk algorithm [2], [5] the algorithm uses a matrix (a diagram) chart, like those in the previous figures. first of all, we need certain definitions: the following operation is defined (4): star(x,y)={c|(a∈x) ∧ (b∈y) ∧ (c→ab ∈ rules)} (4) where rules denotes the production rules of the grammar. this represents the fact that the product of two cells from the matrix is created by combining all the pairs of items in the two cells which satisfy certain grammar rules. another operation that is defined is (5): closure(s) = {a|(a∈s) ∨ ((b∈closure(s)) ∧ (a→b∈ rules } (5). this represents the fact that closing an s cell is formed of the content of s plus the result of adding any other category deriving from an existing member of s’s closure. for example, if n is in s then n belongs to closure(s); then, if there is a rule np->n, and np will be added to closure(s); things continue thus as long as new members can still be added to closure(s). finally, there is also a lookup function, of the type (6): lookup(k) = {a|a->wordk} (6), b. pătruţ, i. boghian – a delphi application for the syntactic and lexical analysis of a phrase using cyk algorithm 122 meaning that it gives us the list of grammatical categories that the word number k from our phrase provides (sometimes a word can have more than one grammatical category, for example “going” can be both a noun or a verb). taking into consideration the above definitions, the basic cky algorithm is [4]: for k:=1 to n do begin chart[k-1,k]:=closure(lookup(k)); for i:=k-2 downto 0 do begin chart[i,k]:=∅; for j:=k-1 downto i+1 do chart[i,k]:=chart[i,k] ∪ star(chart[i,j],chart[j,k]); chart[i,k]:=closure(chart[i,k]); end end; if s ∈ chart[0,n] then accept else reject the algorithm presented above will be implemented into the following program where, due to some restrictions of the pascal language, procedures for the three defined functions will be realized. 3. implementing the algorithm unit parser1; interface uses windows, messages, sysutils, classes, graphics, controls, forms, dialogs, stdctrls, grids, extctrls; type tform1 = class(tform) stringgrid1: tstringgrid; edit1: tedit; label1: tlabel; procedure edit1keypress(sender: tobject; var key: char); procedure formcreate(sender: tobject); private { private declarations } public { public declarations } end; var form1: tform1; implementation {$r *.dfm} const max=20; maxreg=20; maxcuv=5; maxcuvinte=20; in order to memorize the elements displayed to the left and to the right of a grammar rule, we use the type word. type cuvint=string[30]; multimedecuvinte=object nc: integer; cuv: array[1..maxcuv] of cuvint; procedure adauga(c: cuvint); end; brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 123 a rule is made up of two parts, one to the left and one to the right, and a grammar is made up of several of such rules. regula=record st,dr: cuvint end; type gramatica=object nr: integer; reg: array[1..maxreg] of regula; procedure citeste(nf: string); end; the diagram is a matrix where each cell is a set of words. g is the grammar with the rules and d is actually the word dictionary used. var chart:array[0..max, 0..max] of multimedecuvinte; g: gramatica; d: gramatica; propoz: array[1..maxcuvinte] of cuvint; drawing the diagram is done according to the content of the chart matrix by using the stringgrid1 control [3]: procedure deseneazachart(i,j: integer); var t: string; k,kk: integer; begin if chart[i,j].nc>=1 then begin t:='{'; for k:=1 to chart[i,j].nc-1 do t:=t+chart[i,j].cuv[k]+','; t:=t+chart[i,j].cuv[chart[i,j].nc]+'}'; form1.stringgrid1.cells[j,i+1]:=t; form1.stringgrid1.refresh end end; the following function checks whether a given word x is or is not inside a set of words m. function estein(x: cuvint; m: multimedecuvinte): boolean; var este: boolean; i: integer; begin este:=false; for i:=1 to m.nc do if x=m.cuv[i] then este:=true; estein:=este end; for objects of the type multimedecuvinte (setofwords) we have provided a procedure for adding a new word: procedure multimedecuvinte.adauga(c: cuvint); begin nc:=nc+1; cuv[nc]:=c end; b. pătruţ, i. boghian – a delphi application for the syntactic and lexical analysis of a phrase using cyk algorithm 124 based on the last two subprograms described, we can define star, closure and lookup operations, as well as the operation of reading a grammar whose rules are written in a given text file. procedure star(x,y: multimedecuvinte; var z: multimedecuvinte); var i,j,k: integer; begin z.nc:=0; for i:=1 to x.nc do for j:=1 to y.nc do for k:=1 to g.nr do if g.reg[k].dr=x.cuv[i]+' '+y.cuv[j] then z.adauga(g.reg[k].st) end; procedure closure(s: multimedecuvinte; var c: multimedecuvinte); var i: integer; gata: boolean; begin c:=s; repeat gata:=true; for i:=1 to g.nr do if estein(g.reg[i].dr,c) then if not estein(g.reg[i].st,c) then begin c.adauga(g.reg[i].st); gata:=false end until gata end; procedure gramatica.citeste(nf: string); var f: textfile; s: string; p: byte; begin nr:=0; assignfile(f,nf); reset(f); while not eof(f) do begin nr:=nr+1; readln(f,s); p:=pos('->',s); reg[nr].st:=copy(s,1,p-1); reg[nr].dr:=copy(s,p+2,length(s)-(p+1)) end; closefile(f) end; procedure lookup(k: integer; var l: multimedecuvinte); var i: integer; begin l.nc:=0; for i:=1 to d.nr do if d.reg[i].dr=propoz[k] then begin l.nc:=l.nc+1; l.cuv[l.nc]:=d.reg[i].st end end; brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 125 finally, the following procedure performs the grammatical analysis of the given phrase (ss), on the basis of the algorithm that has been theoretically described in the first paragraph. procedure parseaza(ss: string); var i,j,k,kk: integer; n: integer; p: byte; l,c,s: multimedecuvinte; t: string; begin ss:=ss+' '; n:=0; while ss<>'' do begin p:=pos(' ',ss); n:=n+1; propoz[n]:=copy(ss,1,p-1); form1.stringgrid1.cells[n,0]:=propoz[n]; str(n-1,t); form1.stringgrid1.cells[0,n]:=t; delete(ss,1,p) end; form1.stringgrid1.rowcount:=1+n; form1.stringgrid1.colcount:=1+n; form1.stringgrid1.show; for k:=1 to n do begin lookup(k,l); closure(l,c); chart[k-1,k]:=c; for i:=k-2 downto 0 do begin chart[i,k].nc:=0; for j:=k-1 downto i+1 do begin star(chart[i,j],chart[j,k],s); for kk:=1 to s.nc do if not estein(s.cuv[kk],chart[i,k]) then chart[i,k].adauga(s.cuv[kk]) end; closure(chart[i,k],c); chart[i,k]:=c end end; for i:=0 to n do for j:=0 to n do deseneazachart(i,j); if estein('s',chart[0,n]) then form1.label1.caption:= 'fraza acceptata.' else form1.label1.caption:= 'fraza rejectata.' end; procedure tform1.edit1keypress(sender: tobject; var key: char); begin if key=chr(13) then parseaza(edit1.text) end; procedure tform1.formcreate(sender: tobject); begin caption:='basic cky parser'; stringgrid1.hide; g.citeste('gram.txt'); d.citeste('lex.txt'); end; end. b. pătruţ, i. boghian – a delphi application for the syntactic and lexical analysis of a phrase using cyk algorithm 126 bellow are the contents of the two files (grammnar and dictionary) that we have used in the examples we have analysed: we should mention the fact that the algorithm works only if there are at least two symbols in the right side of each grammar rule, therefore we should pay due attention to rewriting the grammars that we use, so that they may meet with this restriction. conclusion we described in this paper the cky algorithm that can be applied for lexical and syntactical analysis of romanian sentences, if we write the grammar as a cnf grammar. also, we implemented the algorithm in delphi 3.0, developed by borland (www.borland.com). references: [1] chomsky, n. (1965). aspects of the theory of syntax. boston, ma: mit press, isbn 0-26253007-4. [2] hopcroft, j. e., motwani, r., ullman, j. d. (2006). introduction to automata theory, languages, and computation, 3rd edition, addison-wesley, isbn 0-321-45536-3, p 272. [3] kreylos, o., ecs 12lesson 11 – chomsky normal form, retrieved from http://www.enseignement.polytechnique.fr/informatique/profs/luc.maranget/if/09/chomsky.pdf [4] patrut, b. (2006). 20 applications in delphi and visual basic. bacău, romania: edusoft, (in romanian). [5] sipser, m. (1997), introduction to the theory of computation (1st ed.). ips, p. 99, isbn 0-53494728-x. gram.txt s->np vp np->pron np->n np->det n np->np ap ap->a ap->ap cp cp->c a vp->v vp vp->v np lex.txt det->orice det->fiecare det->o det->un pron->el n->barbat n->femeie v->iubeste v->uraste a->frumoasa a->desteapta c->si c->sau ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 39-50| https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/330 submitted: march 16th, 2022| accepted for publication: june 1st, 2022 the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the gamification process in education huseyin bicen 1 , burak demir 2 , zohre serttas 3 1 near east university, department of computer education and instructional technology, nicosia, northern cyprus, huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr 2 university of mediterrenian karpasia, institute of social sciences, nicosia, northern cyprus, burak.demir@akun.edu.tr 3 near east university, department of special education, nicosia, northern cyprus, zohre.serttas@neu.edu.tr abstract: in this study, pre-service teachers' attitudes towards the gamification process were discussed. descriptive scanning method, one of the quantitative methods, was used in the study, and the data were analyzed and tabulated. the gamification process scale developed by baydaş and çiçek was used to collect the data to be used. a total of 67 teacher candidates, including 42 special education and 25 classroom teachers, participated in the study. the data obtained from the pre-service teachers were taken online via google form due to the covid 19 pandemic. the teacher candidates gave answers to the 6 dimensions of the scale regarding competition, fun, busy, outcome expectation, effect on learning and intention to use in the future. keywords: education, gamification in education, e-learning, mobile learning. how to cite: bicen, h., demir, b., & serttas, z. (2022). the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the gamification process in education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 39-50. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/330 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/330 mailto:huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr mailto:burak.demir@akun.edu.tr mailto:zohre.serttas@neu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/330 the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the gamification process in... huseyin bicen et al. 40 1. introduction technology is developing day by day and provides important convenience on the lives of individuals. with the development of technology, it is seen that there are important innovations in the field of education (bicen & demir, 2020). with the developments in which these innovations took place, the games on computers became very common and turned into a source of motivation. these games are not only for children, it has been determined that they attract the attention of people of all ages and they spend most of their days with these games (gros, 2007). for these reasons, the use of games in different areas has been considered and one of these areas has been education (deterding, 2012). as computer games accelerate learning, they have become one of the leading elements of cooperation, participation, problem solving and motivation enhancing tools that make education and training more effective and fun (kebritchi et al., 2010). it has been observed that the games in the market generally contain violence. in order to provide learning more effectively in the education and training process, it is aimed to provide guidance to increase the participation of students in the course by adding elements of entertainment and motivation to the games and adding educational purposes (kapp, 2012). it has been stated in various studies that the games used in education and training have positive contributions to students' learning processes and their participation in the course (shin et al., 2012). however, despite these positive developments, finding or re-designing a game suitable for education and training purposes is one of the most important problems of game-based learning. it is not easy to design a game that will provide both entertainment and education. in addition, the transfer of the gains provided by games to real learning activities is one of the most important problems encountered in learning with computer games (whitton, 2012). based on these reasons, the idea of turning non-game structures into games has emerged, considering the time people spend on games and the pleasure they have received from games in the digital age, and this has been defined as gamification (yildirim & demir, 2014). the term gamification was first used in 2003 by british game developer nick pelling. gamification is making the activities more enjoyable and participatory by using game activities (kim, 2010). richter et al. (2015) defined gamification as applications that require using the motivation of games for success, continuity and participation. study is a technology application that makes boring activities such as filling out a questionnaire or reading a document or data fun for individuals. gamification is not a game, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 41 it includes all the elements related to the game, that is, it refers to the use of game elements, not to design a game from scratch (xu, 2012). gamification is more flexible than games because it allows the user to master the entire duration of their presence (werbach & hunter, 2012). because gamification contributes positively to individuals, it has attracted the attention of designers and educators, making environments such as work and school more enjoyable, and gamification can be used to increase participation in these environments (deterding, 2012). the basis of gamification is based on technology and its main purpose is to increase the experience and participation between the system and the user. the common point of the definitions is that gamification will increase participation and motivation (sailer et al., 2013). the basic logic in gamification is the use of games in areas such as education, health, trade that do not include games, which increase the peace and positive motivation that games provide to individuals. the positive increase and the increase of participation on students created by gamification on education is one of the most important factors for the increase of gamification. however, in order to increase the effect of gamification on education, teachers should have knowledge on gamification studies.teachers' attitude on gamification is extremely important. teachers should also have a positive place in the relationship between education and technology, and they should be able to master the requirements of the age, so teachers should be acquainted with gamification activities and acquire knowledge while they are still a teacher candidate (tunga & i̇nceoğlu, 2016). in this study, it was aimed to address the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the gamification process and to examine these attitudes in the light of the findings. 2. purpose of the research the general purpose of this study is to determine the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards the gamification process used during their lessons. the sub-problems determined to achieve this general purpose are as follows; 1) what are the attitudes of the teacher candidates towards interpersonal competition in the lessons made with gamification? 2) are the lessons made with gamification fun for individuals? 3) what are their attitudes towards result expectancy in activities performed with gamification? 4) what is the level of attitudes of students towards the level of engagement in activities with gamification the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the gamification process in... huseyin bicen et al. 42 5) what is the effect of the lessons made with gamification on learning? 6) what are the pre-service teachers' opinions about using gamification-related activities in the future? 3.method 3.1. research model the scanning model, one of the descriptive research methods, was used in the study. the scanning model is a model that aims to describe the facts that existed in the past or occurred about a current situation as they are (karasar, 2020). 3.2. sample the universe of the research consists of 25 classroom teachers and 42 special education teacher candidates studying at universities in nicosia, in the turkish republic of northern cyprus, in the 2019-2020 academic year. participants; classroom teaching department consists of 3rd grade and special education teaching 4th grade. 3.3. data collection tools within the scope of the research, the gamification process scale developed by baydas and cicek (2019) was used. the scale is in the 5-point likert type and it is “1 i do not agree at all”, “2 i do not agree,” “3 i do not agree”, “4 i agree,” “5 i completely agree”. in line with the scale, the responses of the pre-service teachers to the sub-dimensions of gamification in the learning environment, competition, entertainment, engagement, result expectation, effect on learning and intention to use in the future were interpreted as a table. 3.4. data analysis the data obtained in the study were analyzed with statistical program and reliability validity tests were performed. pearson correlation was used in the analysis of the data. findings were presented in summary tables consisting of frequency (n) distribution, mean and standard deviation. the significance level was taken as 5% (p = 0.05) in all analyzes. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 43 4.findings table 1. interpersonal attitudes towards competition during lessons with gamification n min max mean std. dddeviation i get excited when i get degrees while playing on a mobile application (such as the kahoot system). 67 3,00 5,00 4,2 ,65 i look at the performance of others to feel better about my own performance on the mobile app (such as the kahoot system). 67 2,00 5,00 4,4 ,58 announcing the scores at every step on the mobile application (such as the kahoot system) increases my excitement. 67 1,00 5,00 3,7 ,99 valid n (listwise) 67 considering the answers given to the items related to the attitudes towards interpersonal competition in the gamification process, it is seen that the teacher candidates respond positively and above average towards competition. i look at the performance of others to feel better about my own performance on the mobile application (such as the kahoot system) with a rate of 4.4 for the item with the most positive answers. it was determined to be. table 2. prospective teachers' attitudes towards entertainment in lessons made with gamification n min max mean std. deviation it's fun to play together in the same classroom on the mobile app (such as the kahoot system) 67 2,00 5,00 4,1 ,74 it's fun to play games on the mobile app (such as the kahoot system). 67 2,00 5,00 4,2 ,71 applications (music, limited time excitement, visual design etc.) on the mobile application (such as the kahoot system) are fun. 67 1,00 5,00 3,7 1,04 valid n (listwise) 67 the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the gamification process in... huseyin bicen et al. 44 considering table 2, it was determined that teacher candidates' attitudes towards the lessons made by gamification in the entertainment dimension were positive when the averages were considered. accordingly, the highest average item was “it's fun to play games on a mobile application (such as kahoot” with 4.2. table 3. students' attitudes towards the occupation level in the activities made with gamification n min max mean std. deviation time flies when using the mobile app (such as the kahoot system). 67 1,00 5,00 3,1 1,07 when playing on the mobile application (such as the kahoot system) the focus is on the game. 67 2,00 5,00 4,0 ,81 while playing on the mobile application (such as the kahoot system), i get caught up in the game. 67 2,00 5,00 4,1 ,79 valid n (listwise) 67 according to table 3, when the attitudes of pre-service teachers, which is another sub-dimension, towards the level of engagement in the activities are examined, it is seen that the answers given to the items are above average with the highest rate of 4.1. it was concluded that the answers given to the item. table 4. attitudes towards result expectations in activities made with gamification n min max mean std. deviation playing against other students on the mobile app (such as the kahoot system) excites me. 67 1,00 5,00 3,4 1,18 it's fun to race against my other friends on the mobile app (such as the kahoot system). 67 3,00 5,00 4,2 ,61 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 45 i try to have my name in the platforms (social networks, board etc.) where the results of mobile applications (such as kahoot system) are shared. 67 1,00 5,00 3,4 1,14 i try to achieve the success criteria (medal system, student of the week, etc.) on the mobile application (such as kahoot system). 67 1,00 5,00 2,9 1,02 i try to have my name at the top in the rating of mobile applications (such as kahoot system). 67 2,00 5,00 3,7 ,88 valid n (listwise) 67 when table 4 is examined, it is seen that the responses given by the teacher candidates regarding the result expectation in the courses where the gamification process takes place, according to this, it is fun to compete against my other friends on the mobile application (such as the kahoot system ...) with the highest rate of 4.2 in the sub-dimension. while buying the item, i try to achieve the success criteria (medal system, student of the week, etc.) on the mobile application (such as the kahoot system) with the lowest rate of 2.9. it has been determined that the article has taken. table 5. attitudes related to the effect of lessons made with gamification on learning n min max mean std. deviation when i play games on a mobile application (such as the kahoot system) i look more positively towards the subject content. 67 1,00 5,00 3,7 ,99 i learn the subject content while playing games on a mobile application (such as the kahoot system). 67 1,00 5,00 3,7 1,06 it helps me to achieve the goals of the course on the mobile application (such as the kahoot system). 67 1,00 5,00 3,6 1,06 i feel that i am trying to learn on the mobile application (such as the kahoot system). 67 1,00 5,00 4,1 ,89 the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the gamification process in... huseyin bicen et al. 46 providing instant feedback on every question on the mobile application (such as the kahoot system) contributes positively to my learning. 67 1,00 5,00 3,3 1,23 valid n (listwise) 67 considering the attitudes of the pre-service teachers towards the effect of gamification on learning, i feel that the answers given to the items are above average, but in the light of the answers given, the highest rate is 4.1 with the item “i am trying to learn on mobile application (such as kahoot system).” the lowest rate is 3.3 with the item “providing instant feedback on every question on a mobile application (such as the kahoot system) makes a positive contribution to my learning.“ table 6. attitudes towards using gamification-related activities in the future n min max mean std. deviation i would like other lecturers to use their mobile applications (such as the kahoot system) by gamifying the lessons. 67 1,00 5,00 2,1 1,07 in the future, i intend to use mobile applications (such as the kahoot system) by gamifying my own lessons. 67 1,00 5,00 3,5 ,80 in the future, i plan to use mobile applications (such as the kahoot system) by gamifying my own lessons. 67 1,00 5,00 3,3 1,08 in the future, i will suggest my fellow teachers to use mobile applications (such as the kahoot system) by gamifying their lessons. 67 1,00 5,00 2,5 1,32 valid n (listwise) 67 considering the attitudes of the teacher candidates towards using the activities related to gamification in the future, it is seen that the answers given according to the items differ. in light of this, the highest rate was 3.5, “i intend to use mobile applications (such as the kahoot system) in the future by gamifying my own lessons“. while receiving the answer given to the item, it is seen that “i would like other instructors to use mobile applications (such as the kahoot system) by gamifying the lessons. ” broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 47 4. conclusion and discussion in parallel with the first sub-objective of the study, when examining the attitudes towards interpersonal competition in the gamification process, it was seen that the teacher candidates responded positively and above the average according to the findings, but the item with the most positive answers was above 3.0. it was determined to receive a rate of 4.4. çağlar (2016), in his study titled designing, implementing and examining a gamified learning environment according to various variables, investigated the level of competition of individuals and stated that competition has an important place in gamification, as if supporting the results obtained in this study. according to the results obtained from the attitudes about entertainment towards the lessons, when the averages are considered, it is determined that it is in a positive way. accordingly, it was concluded that the item with the highest average had a ratio of 4.2. lee and hammer (2011), in their study on gamification in education, stated that gamification made education more enjoyable and that fun learning created with participation and supported the result of this study. for the third subpurpose of the study, when the attitudes of the teacher candidates towards the level of engagement in the activities were examined, it was found that the answers given to the items were above the average and the highest rate was found to be 4.1. castro et al. (2018) evaluated the effects of gamification in the e-learning environment and determined that gamification increased the level of engagement in parallel with this research, according to the results of this research. although it was concluded that the item with the highest rate was 4.2, the lowest rate was 2.9. gündüz (2020) conducted a study on the effects of gamification of the online dimension of transformed learning on the learning lives of pre-service teachers.according to this, in parallel with the results obtained in this study, the motivation and results of gamification differed, but the results obtained in the experimental group increased positively and gamification was used in education. it was determined that positive results came together in the group. when looking at the attitudes towards the learning effect of the courses in which gamification is used, which is the fifth sub-objective of the study, it was concluded that the answers given to the items were above average, but in the light of the answers given, the highest rate was 4.1, and it was concluded that the teacher candidates generally had higher than average and positive attitudes. the effect of gamification on student participation in a transformed lesson was examined by huang, hew and lo in 2018 (huang et al., 2018). accordingly, he stated that the participation in the courses in which gamification takes the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the gamification process in... huseyin bicen et al. 48 place is extremely high and its effect on learning increased in a positive way in line with the result obtained in this study. considering the attitudes of the teacher candidates towards using the activities related to gamification in the future, it is seen that the answers given according to the items differ. according to the answers given to the scale items, it was determined that the average of 3.5 was the highest and they had positive attitudes. according to the results of baydas and çiçek, in their study examining the gamification process in undergraduate education in 2019, it was observed that the prospective teachers had attitudes towards using gamification in the future, in support of the result of this study. references baydas, o., & cicek, m. (2019). the examination of the gamification process in undergraduate education: a scale development study. technology, pedagogy and education, 28(3), 269-285. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2019.1580609 bicen, h., & demir, b. (2020). a content analysis on articles using augmented reality technology and infographic in education. postmodern openings postmoderne, 11(1sup1), 33-44. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/121 castro, k. a. c., sibo, í. p. h., & ting, i.-h. (2018). assessing gamification effects on elearning platforms: an experimental case. in l. uden, d. liberona & j. ristvej (eds.), learning technology for education challenges (pp. 3-14). springer. çağlar, ş. (2016). oyunlaştırılmış bir öğrenme ortamının tasarlanması, uygulanması ve çeşitli değişkenlere göre i̇ncelenmesi [designing, implementing and examining a gamified learning environment according to various variables, published master's thesis]. hacettepe üniversitesi, ankara. http://www.openaccess.hacettepe.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11 655/3080/s%cc%a7eyma%20c%cc%a7ag%cc%86lar_y%c3%b6k.pdf ?sequence=1&isallowed=y deterding, s. (2012). gamification: designing for motivation. interactions, 19(4), 1417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2212877.2212883 gros, b. (2007). digital games in education. journal of research on technology in education, 40(1), 23-38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2007.10782494 gündüz, a. (2020). dönüştürülmüş öğrenmenin çevrimiçi boyutunu oyunlaştırmanın öğretmen adaylarının öğrenme yaşantılarına etkisi [the effect of gamification on the online dimension of transformed learning on preservice teachers' learning experiences, published master's thesis]. hacettepe üniversitesi, ankara. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2019.1580609 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/121 http://www.openaccess.hacettepe.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11655/3080/s%cc%a7eyma%20c%cc%a7ag%cc%86lar_y%c3%b6k.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://www.openaccess.hacettepe.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11655/3080/s%cc%a7eyma%20c%cc%a7ag%cc%86lar_y%c3%b6k.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://www.openaccess.hacettepe.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11655/3080/s%cc%a7eyma%20c%cc%a7ag%cc%86lar_y%c3%b6k.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2212877.2212883 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2007.10782494 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 49 http://www.openaccess.hacettepe.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11 655/21695/abdullah%20yasin%20g%c3%bcnd%c3%bczyeni.pdf?sequence=3&isallowed=y huang, b., hew, k. f., & lo, c. k. (2018). investigating the effects of gamificationenhanced flipped learning on undergraduate students’ behavioral and cognitive engagement. interactive learning environments, 27(8), 1106-1126. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2018.1495653 kapp, k. m. (2012). the gamification of learning and instruction: game-based methods and strategies for training and education. pfeiffer. karasar, n. (2020). bilimsel araştırma yöntemi: kavramlar i̇lkeler teknikler [scientific research method: concepts, principles, techniques]. nobel academic publishing education. kebritchi, m., hirumi, a., & bai, h. (2010). the effects of modern mathematics computer games on mathematics achievement and class motivation. computers & education, 55(2), 427-443. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.02.007 kim, a. j. (2010). gamification workshop 2010 [slideshow]. retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/amyjokim/gamification-workshop-2010 lee, j. j., & hammer, j. (2011). gamification in education: what, how, why bother? academic exchange quarterly, 15(2), 1-5. https://www.academia.edu/570970/gamification_in_education_what_h ow_why_bother richter, g., raban, d. r., & rafaeli, s. (2015). studying gamification: the effect of rewards and incentives on motivation. in t. reiners and l. c. wood (eds.), gamification in education and business (pp. 21-46). springer international publishing. sailer, m., hense, j., mandl, h., & klevers, m. (2013). phsycological perspectives on motivation through gamification. interaction design and architecture(s) journal ixd&a, 19, 28-37. https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1222424/file.pdf shin, n., sutherland, m., l., norris, a., c., & soloway, e. (2012). effects of game technology on elementary student learning in mathematics. british journal of educational technology, 43(4), 540-560. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.14678535.2011.01197.x tunga, y., & i̇nceoğlu, m. m. (2016). oyunlaştırma tasarımı [gamification design.]. 3. uluslararası eğitimde yeni yönelimler konferansı [3rd international conference on new trends in education], 267, 279. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/yeliz_tunga/publication/31080048 9_oyunlastirma_tasarimi/links/58381a1c08ae3d91723d8d52.pdf werbach, k., & hunter, d. (2012). for the win: how game thinking can revolutionize your business. wharton digital press. http://www.openaccess.hacettepe.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11655/21695/abdullah%20yasin%20g%c3%bcnd%c3%bcz-yeni.pdf?sequence=3&isallowed=y http://www.openaccess.hacettepe.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11655/21695/abdullah%20yasin%20g%c3%bcnd%c3%bcz-yeni.pdf?sequence=3&isallowed=y http://www.openaccess.hacettepe.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11655/21695/abdullah%20yasin%20g%c3%bcnd%c3%bcz-yeni.pdf?sequence=3&isallowed=y https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2018.1495653 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.02.007 http://www.slideshare.net/amyjokim/gamification-workshop-2010 https://www.academia.edu/570970/gamification_in_education_what_how_why_bother https://www.academia.edu/570970/gamification_in_education_what_how_why_bother https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1222424/file.pdf http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01197.x http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01197.x https://www.researchgate.net/profile/yeliz_tunga/publication/310800489_oyunlastirma_tasarimi/links/58381a1c08ae3d91723d8d52.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/yeliz_tunga/publication/310800489_oyunlastirma_tasarimi/links/58381a1c08ae3d91723d8d52.pdf the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the gamification process in... huseyin bicen et al. 50 whitton, n. (2012). the place of game-based learning in an age of austerity. electronic journal of e-learning, 10(2), 249-256. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej985426.pdf xu, y. (2011). literature review on web application gamification and analytics. honolulu, hi, csdl technical report 11-05. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.462.5228&rep =rep1&type=pdf yildirim, i̇., & demir, s. (2014). oyunlaştırma ve eğitim [gamification and education]. international journal of human sciences, 11(1), 655-670. https://www.j-humansciences.com/ojs/index.php/ijhs/article/view/2765 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej985426.pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.462.5228&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.462.5228&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://www.j-humansciences.com/ojs/index.php/ijhs/article/view/2765 microsoft word brain_2_2.doc 51 searching the arcane origins of fuzzy logic angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net to the great japanese people, with my more sincere condolences, after his terrible earthquake with later tsunami, and nuclear problem. abstract it is well-known that artificial intelligence requires logic. but its classical version shows too many insufficiencies. so, it is very necessary to introduce more sophisticated tools, as may be fuzzy logic, modal logic, non-monotonic logic, and so on. when you are searching the possible precedent of such new ideas, we may found that they are not totally new, because some ancient thinkers have suggested many centuries ago similar concepts, certainly without adequate mathematical formulation, but in the same line: against the dogmatism and the dualistic vision of the world: absolutely true vs. absolutely false, black vs. white, good or bad by nature, 0 vs.1, etc. we attempt to analyze here some of these greatly unexplored, and very interesting early origins. keywords: history of the science; logics; artificial intelligence; ancient greek philosophy. 1. justification each time that we write the first line of a new paper, we have a great suspicion: is it really necessary? the answer to this question may be dual: their theoretical and practical basis and potential consequences. in this case, the topic is a very old friend, because from many years ago, i return to the idea of the remote origins of the fuzzy logic, non-monotonic logic, and in general, of this new and promising field of current and future science. when i travel this month (march 2011) to the university of cordova, in spain, to participate in a very interesting seminary on “el pensamiento escéptico en la historia” as general topic, organized by the “sociedad ibérica de pensamiento griego”, this activate in our mind this old question, and jointly, if the skeptical current is connected with a primitive thought in the line of fuzzy logic, or the very curious coincidence (?) according many people that belonged to this philosophical tendency were physicians. why? i attempt to give plausible answer to some of these very interesting questions. 2. short history of fuzzy logic we may to think that fuzzy logic would be a recent field, where the people are working from very few time. but their origins proceeds surely from the old greek philosophers and scientists, in particular, from plato (428-347 b.c.), and its reverenced disciple, aristotle (384-322 b.c.). possibly they are the first considering which the things are not of uniquely one way or its opposite, but there exists all a range of greases, i.e. that there are a complete intermediate scale. because both are pioneers suggesting the existence of many different degrees between trueness and falseness. from such initial thinkers we may to mention two essential names, david hume (17111776), and immanuel kant (1724-1804). they will be obtains a detailed analysis of such concepts. both philosophers conclude that both reasoning and knowledge are reached through the experiences of our lives. in fact, david hume choose the common-sense logic. kant possesses the opinion that only mathematicians can provide very clear definitions. detecting some contradictory principles on classic (also named either formal or mathematical) logic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 so, at first of 20th century the british mathematician bertrand russell spread the idea that the mathematical logic reveals inherent contradictions. he produces an extensive study on the vagueness of the language, concluding that the vagueness will be a degree. also may be considered georg cantor (1845-1918), and its crisp or classic set theory, being precursor in some sense of zadeh´s fuzzy set theory. and charles sanders peirce (1839-1914) by its uncertainty theory. the austrian thinker ludwig wittgenstein (1889-1951) analyze the different meaning (senses) of a word. so, l. witttgenstein observe that on a language the same word can express different moods and manners. the polish logician jan lukasiewicz (1878-1955) developed the first vagueness logic; in fact, a three-valued logic, with three values, 0, ½ and 1, corresponding to false, possible and truth. more later he generalizes to four-valued, and many-valued logic (mvl, by acronym). therefore, he introduces the membership degrees of each element to each corresponding set. so, we dispose of a membership function of which range cover the unit interval of the real line, i = [0, 1] ⊂ r. the father of the new formalization of the term “fuzzy”, jointly with the fuzzy logic and fuzzy set associated theories was lofti asier zadeh, which in 1965 publish its famous and seminal paper, the so-called "fuzzy sets" [13-16]. such ideas collect the precedent work of many authors of different disciplines. between them, we must to mention max black (1909-1988), philosopher and also quantum physicist, which in 1937 propose the necessity of a theory of “vague sets”. also the more than notable british mathematician bertrand russell (1872-1970), considered a great precursor, searching logical contradictions and their plausible solutions. either the german quantum physicist werner heisenberg, with its famous “uncertainty principle. or the very important contribution of the polish mathematician jan lukasiewicz (18781955), which formalizes many of the more important technical questions. all them contributed to produce the magma from which derives the famous papers of lofti a. zadeh, not only the aforementioned [13] “fuzzy sets” (1965), but also on ´fuzzy algorithm´, three years afterwards [14]. at beginning (as almost all the new ideas) the papers of lofti a. zadeh not obtain very good scientific reception, but with the past of the time, they obtain more and in many cases inspired continuators. so such theories were considerably extended, and accepted into the very professional scientists. the initial resistance against the fuzzy logic may be very surprising, but certainly when zadeh visiting ibm to expose their ideas, ibm says that they are not interested! it is, in fact, a memorable example of commercial occidental vision. the purpose, or objective, of lofti a. zadeh was to create a formalism to manage efficiently the natural imprecision of human reasoning. in 1971 it appears its paper so-called "quantitative fuzzy semantics", where appears many formal elements of fuzzy logic, and their methodological aspects, with derivations that until today are frequently used on applications. from 1973, with the basic theory of lofti a. zadeh on fuzzy controllers, many researchers initiate the application of fuzzy logic to control diverse processes. it appears many different groups of researchers on fuzzy logic insome little japanese universities. so, the profesors terano and shibata in tokio, or the profesors tanaka and asai in osaka, producing important contributions, and simultaneously developing fuzzy logic theory and their applications. and parallel to the development of impressive applications of fuzzy logic, takagi y sugeno to explain the first approximation to construct fuzzy rules, from learning data (fuzzy learning). other decisive factor to continue with an increasing research on this field are the neural nets (or networks; nns, by acronym) and its similitude with the fuzzy systems. by searching mutual interrelationships between both useful techniques, we may obtain the neuro-fuzzy systems, using learning methods based on neural networks to identify and optimize their parameters. to a. garrido searching the arcane origins of fuzzy logic 53 finish this introductory historical note, then appears the genetic algorithms, that jointly with neural networks and fuzzy systems are very powerful tools, and so they are indeed of increasing interest on actual and future mathematical investigations. 3. non-monotonic logic we call non-monotonic logic to a logical system where the logical system the logical consequence relation is non-monotonic. many of the logical systems [3, 6], as for instance mathematics, have a logical consequence relation which are monotonic. because add some formula to a theory this never produce a reduction of the set of consequences. symbolically this can be expressed by if f → a, then f ∪ g → a, ∀ g being a an arbitrary formula, with f and g both set of formulas, and symbolizing → the logical consequence. i. e. if s → c and ever s ∪ t → c, for any s and t, sets of valid propositions, then this logic is of monotonic type. instead of this, if ∃ t such that s ∪ t ¬→ c, then it will be a non-monotonic logic. we may note a crucial point: we don´t modifies here our disposable base of affirmations or base of facts (by ai terminology), because if we do this, it would be evident the possibility of modify the set of consequences. but instead of this, our argumentation departs to maintain the same elements on the original knowledge base, only now enlarged with new propositions, or new information. this occurs very frequently on medicine, where continuously the new discoveries invalid old beliefs. so, according to the knowledge goes advancing, this which is now prescribed, it will be tomorrow forbidden. and this produces the necessity of go quickly out of the aristotelian or formal logic, where the reasoning is of monotonic type, as on the mathematics. this description shows the mechanism of the non-monotonic reasoning, with a totally provisional and ever revisable character, evolving with the time; the opposite of mathematics: the same concluding forever. 4. rule-based systems the rules shows a great advantage on the classical logic [6]. usually, the rules must appear grouped, as a system of rules, each of them with its antecedent and consequent. they have two procedures of firing, according which we apply chaining forward or chaining forward. it is because in each system we can proceeds from the respective antecedents to their consequents, or vice versa, until to reach the goal fact (or “concepto-meta”, in spanish), i.e. the desired last fact. in the classical logic the reasoning was monotonic, with inferences without contradiction with the pre-existing, in sbr. nevertheless in the rule-based systems (rbs, by acronym), we may delete facts or affirmations of the base of facts, according the new inferences. this makes the reasoning non-monotonic, because we can modify the conclusion. then, appear a crucial question: which we must to make with the conclusion of the affirmation now invalided? for this problem [3], we need to introduce the concept of type of dependence of a rule, which can be reversible, if we delete the affirmations, then we delete automatically the above inferred facts; or irreversible, if the facts, once inferred, will be not deleted neither changed. and in the case of some applicable rules at time, which must be executed firstly? such rules constitutes, in each step, the conflict set (obviously, a dynamic set). the subjacent decision problem is called resolution of conflicts or control of reasoning. 5. more on the remote origins of fuzzy logic apart of the aforementioned greek philosophers (plato and aristotle), we must to observe other interesting names [7], as either: heraclitus of ephesus, and anaxagoras, both deniers of the non-contradiction principle, according to aristotelian testimony. also may be interesting protagoras, on this principle. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 either the skeptical school or tendency, with: pyrrhon of elis (c. 360-270 b.c.), its human model; he never writes their teachings; timon of fliunte, its disciple (320-220 b.c.); he write a compilation of the pyrrhon ideas; carneades (214-129 b.c.) and arcesilao (315-241 b.c.). both belongs to the platonic school, and so, to the academic skepticism; etc. also their successors on this way of thought, as: sixtus empiricus (2.nd or , or first century a.c.), a physician and writer, whose works on pyrrhonism are very interesting [8-11]; diogenes laertius [2], with its great book the lives and opinions of great philosophers. the analysis of pyrrhon belongs to its vol. ix; both, sixtus empirics and diogenes laertius, were roman and interesting writers. this current remains during the time, as apparently missing, and reappears with modern thinkers as either: the spanish physician francisco sanchez, “el escéptico”, author of que nada se sabe (quod nihil scitur, 1581); w. willeband consider to sanchez at the same level as i. kant; and it was also greatly considered by leibnitz; or the very good french writer (father of the essays, a new and very productive literary vehicle, similar in some aspects to modern papers): michel de montaigne (1533-1592). but many others (some of them more or less dubious skeptical, but influenced by this tendency), as: pierre bayle (1647-1706) david hume (1711-1776) possibly, we may detect its influence on renowned great thinkers, as: rené descartes was deeply influenced by francisco sanchez on its discourse de la méthode. the first lines of the book of sanchez remember clearly to descartes later book, and also on many other passages: es innato al hombre querer saber; a pocos les fue concedido saber querer; a menos, saber. y a mí no me cupo suerte distinta a la de los demás. immanuel kant; for instance, on its goldberg logik. 6. more historical notes some notes about pyrrhonism. its founder was pyrrhon of elis (360-270 bc.), contemporary of alexander the great. it participates with the expeditionary forces of this conqueror until the indian territories, where he saw in the fakirs an admirable example of happiness, only reached from the indifference to circumstances [2, 8-11]. it is very notable the influence produced on pyrrhon by the gymno-sophistes. believing that equal arguments can be offered of both sides of any proposition, he dismissed the search for truth as a vain endeavor. this opened the possibility of the admittance of degrees of truth, possibly variables, or it appear as very next to them. pyrrhon [7] was a pupil of anaxarchus of abdera. for many people, the skepticism consist more in either a tendency or cultural trend than in a very school. indeed it appears as a generalized admiration into the initial group, and also the subsequent tradition, seeing to pyrrhon as an authentic model of wise man [8-11]. some logical reflections. aristotle established their laws of thought: identity principle principle of contradiction law of excluded middle they have conditioned -and in some cases obstructedthe development of logic in western culture [3, 4]. this fact is less oppressive in oriental countries (china, japan, korea, india, etc.), because the buddhist tradition admits with naturalness, on the things and thoughts, the possibility of simultaneously be and not to be, and that the propositions may be both, true and not true by the a. garrido searching the arcane origins of fuzzy logic 55 assignation of a gradation. this connects directly with the fuzzy logic and the theory of fuzzy sets, who introduced the membership function, which range to move into the unitary real interval, denoted by i = [0, 1] ⊂ r. in ancient greek some philosophers have pronounced affirmations that are compatible with a new way of think [2]. so plato in their dialogues makes a good compilation of thoughts of socrates, his teacher, and other precedent thinkers. as aforementioned, and according to aristotles, heraclitus of abdera and anaxagoras both denied the non-contradiction principle, according to it is not possible to reach simultaneously p and ¬p. also may be interesting to consult protagoras about this principle. the psychological version of such principle of non-contradiction may be this: nobody can to think “p” and “no p”. on modern formulation, the collection of fuzzy sets, with the operations of union, intersection and path to the complementary defined by zadeh, will be not a boolean algebra. so, it is fully different to the now classical theory of george cantor, about the crisp sets. and it is because the violation of both principles, non-contradiction and third excluded. nevertheless, by the modified definitions of the polish mathematician jan lukasiewicz, they are fulfilled [3, 4]. 7. some of oriental thought searching on the old oriental doctrines [5], we can found some tendencies of buddhism very related with the degrees of truth, and also the two-truths doctrine [1a]. nāgārjuna (150-250 a. c.) was the indian founder of the madhyamaka school of the buddhism mahayana. the term madhyamaka signifies “middle way, or via media”. it was the more prominent philosopher on the indian tradition. nāgārjuna was also a practitioner of traditional indian ayurvedic medicine. between his conceptualizations, we can found some descriptions of the circulatory system and blood tissue. in western medicine, at least until now, ayurvedic medicine is considered alternative, as merely a complementary treatment, but never replacing the traditional diagnosis and “farmacopea” of western expert. balance is emphasized; suppressing natural urges is seen to be unhealthy, and doing so may almost certainly lead to illness. so, the people are cautioned to stay within the limits of reasonable balance and measure. his primary contribution is in the use of the concept of "emptiness" which brings together other key buddhist doctrines, to refute the metaphysics. for nāgārjuna [1a], as for the buddha in the early texts, it is not merely sentient beings that are "selfless" or non-substantial; all phenomena are without any "self-nature", and thus without any underlying essence. they are empty of being independently existent. this is so because all things arise always dependently: not by their own power, but by depending on conditions leading to their coming into existence, as opposed to being. nāgārjuna was also instrumental in the development of the two-truths doctrine, which claims that there are two levels of truth, one which is directly true, and one which is only conventionally or instrumentally true. so, “this world is supported by a polarity, that of existence and non-existence… everything exists: that is one extreme. everything doesn't exist: that is a second extreme. avoiding these two extremes, the tathagata teaches the dhamma via the middle...”. nāgārjuna differentiates between conventionally true and ultimately true teachings, but he never declares any conceptually formulated doctrines to fall in this latter category. this was famously rendered in his tetralemma, with the logical propositions: x (affirmation) non-x (negation) x and non-x (both) neither x nor non-x (neither) so, we may establish three original traditions of logic: greek, chinese and indian traditions. this latter continued until very modern times, through the navya-nyaya school of logic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 because the rigveda contains some specuculaive considerations in terms of logical divisions. more exactly: “a”, “not a”, “a and not a”, and “not a and not not a”, which coincides with the above tetralemma. panini, in the 5th. century b.c., develop a logic that have certain interesting similarities with boolean logic. the navya-nyaya school developed a conceptual scheme that allowed solve problems in logic, by developing theories very similar to gottlob frege´s ideas. all these schools are discovered by british scholars in the late 18th century. we mention to h. t. colebroke´s analysis of inference [1b], by comparison with aristotelian logic, resulting that the aristotelian syllogism could not account for the indian syllogism. hermann weyl, in 1924, wrote that “occident mathematics has in the past centuries broken away from the greek view, and followed a course which seems to have originated in india, and which has been transmitted, with additions, to us by the arabs; in it the concept of number appears as logically prior to the concepts of geometry”. in fact, indian logic [1a] has deeply influenced on many of modern logicians, as charles babbage, george boole, or augustus de morgan. they belong to 19th. century, but may be named “modern” in many senses. the same de morgan says that “the two races which have founded the mathematics, those of the sanscrit and greek languages, have been the two which have independently formed systems of logic”. therefore, mathematicians are finally aware of the notable influence of indian mathematics/logic on the european mathematics/logic. 8. the last but not the least question when we participate in the aforementioned scientific seminary (on skepticism, at cordoba university), the brainstorming (debate) after the cycle of conferences produces some interesting questions. one of the more curious for me was the coincidence into the thinkers of skeptical tendency: almost all belongs to the physician profession. why? it is the question. already this question was expressed by sextus empricus on his hypotiposis pyrrhonicae (i, 236-238): “some people said that the skeptic philosophy is identical to the empirical current” (empirical as current usual between physician professionals). but he says that are would be not identical [12]. my answer-hypothesis consists to suggest that the reason may be the own type of reasoning connatural with medicine: it uses non-monotonic logic, as the above described. and given the mutual relationships between skepticism and this way to handle the knowledge, it appears as a plausible justification of this fact. a notable coincidence is related to the great buddhist thinker nāgārjuna, whose professional practice was precisely the traditional indian ayurvedic medicine, and many others cultivating the buddhist world vision. also many other of such indian philosophers and wise men are ayurvedic physicians [1b]. recall that ayurveda is grounded in the physics of the "five elements”; concretely, they will be air, fire, water, earth and ether, all them composing the universe, including the human body. ayurveda also focuses on exercise, massage, yoga, and meditation. natural medicine, may be, but medicine. so, these new coincidences support the precedent plausible explanation about this interesting and recursively observable phenomena. because we can observe a great agreement between skepticism, their indian origins, and the physician logical procedures, by the application of non-monotonic logic. a. garrido searching the arcane origins of fuzzy logic 57 acknowledgements i want to demonstrate my deeper gratitude to whose they organized and took part in the seminar that on "the sceptical thought" was celebrated in the cordova university (spain). it was one of the meetings that periodically organizes the iberian society of philosophy/science (or joining both, thought) ancient. very especially, to the prof. quintin racionero, which introduced us in so select group, and to all the rest of participants; between others, to the president of the aforementioned society, prof. tomas calvo, and to the prof. piedad yuste; also to the prof. ramon roman, who illustrated us about pyrrhon personality, and his very strong influence though the history, topic of the one that is a good specialist [7]. finally to prof. maite roman, which give me some interesting orientation to buddhist philosophy, in special to nagayo (nagarjuna). references [1a] chakrabarti, k. some comparison between frege´s logic and navya-nyaya logic. phil.and phenomenological research, 36(4): 554-563. [1b] colebroke, h. t. the philosophy of the hindus: on the nyaya an vaiserike systems. london, 1824. [2] diogenes laertius. critical edition: diogenis laertii vitae philosophorum, stuttgart-lipsia, teubner, 1999-2002. bibliotheca scriptorum graecorum et romanorum teubneriana. vol. 1: books i—x. vol. 2: excerpta byzantina. vol. 3: indices, by hans gaertner. en español: vida de filósofos ilustres. en dos tomos. alianza editorial. madrid. [3] garrido, a. (2004). logical foundations of artificial intelligence. fotfs v, university of bonn. trends in logic. netherlands. [4] garrido, a. (2010). fuzzy boolean algebras and lukasiewicz logic. acta universitatis apulensis (aua), vol. 22, pp. 101-112. university of alba iulia. editura aeternitas. cluj. [5] harvey, p. (2007). an introduction to buddhism: teaching, history, and practice. cambridge university press. [6] mira, j. (1995). aspectos básicos de la inteligencia artificial. ed. sanz y torres, madrid. [7] ramón, r. (2005). el escepticimo antiguo: pirrón de elis… daimon, vol. n.º 36, pp. 35-51. [8] sextus empiricus, sextus empiricus i: outlines of pyrrhonism. r.g. bury (trans.). cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 1933/2000. [9] sextus empiricus, sextus empiricus ii: against the logicians. r.g. bury (trans.). cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 1935/1997. [10] sextus empiricus, sextus empiricus iii: against the physicists, against the ethicists. r.g. bury (trans.) cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 1936/1997. [11] sextus empiricus, sextus empiricus iv: against the professors. r.g. bury (trans.) (cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 1949/2000). [12] sextus empiricus, outlines of pyrrhonism. r.g. bury (trans.) (buffalo: prometheus books, 1990). hipotiposis pirrónicas (in spanish, the term “hipotiposis” is equivalent to “esbozos”, either sketchs or outlines, in english). ed. akal, col. clásica, no. 42. madrid, 1996. [13] zadeh, l. a. (1965), fuzzy sets. information and control, 8, pp. 338-353. [14] zadeh, l. a. (1968), probability measures of fuzzy events. journal of mathematical analysis and applications (jmaa), vol. 23, no. 2. [15] zadeh, l. a. (1984), fuzzy probabilities. information processing and management, vol.20, no. 3, pp. 363-372. [16] zadeh, l. a. (2001), a new direction in ai. toward a computational theory of perceptions. american association for artificial intelligence. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 267-276 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/318 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 the influence of the mental state on the emergency colostomized patients postoperative evolution constantin popazu¹, dragos voicu2, alexandru bogdan ciubară3, dorina stan4, anamaria ciubară5 1 md phd, “dunărea de jos” university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, romania. 2 md phd, “dunărea de jos” university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, romania. 3 md phd, “dunărea de jos” university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, romania. bogdan.ciubara@ugal.ro 4 md phd, “dunărea de jos” university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, romania. 5 md phd, “dunărea de jos” university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, romania. abstract: a colostomy creates a temporary or permanent opening for the colon through the abdominal wall, in order to eliminate fecal matter, which is collected in a closed or open bag, attached to the skin with the help of an adhesive. it is obvious that the patient with colostomy faces psycho-emotional problems, due to the alteration of the body image and the need to change the lifestyle. under emergency conditions, when the informed consent of the critically ill patient, as well as the psychological preparation for the colostomized future, are difficult, incomplete or impossible to achieve, psychological assistance in the postoperative evolution of patients becomes a problem, on which the whole medical staff (doctors, nurses, psychologists, stomatotherapists) involved in their care must insist. in the immediate postoperative period, combating pain, ensuring biological comfort (hydric, caloric and nutritional), local care and prevention of so-called minor complications, are very important. the patient must also know the alternatives in choosing the type of colostomy bag and the prospects of social reintegration, over time. the measures of emotional support of these patients must be applied intensively, but with tact and professionalism, in parallel with the education and preparation for the new anatomical-physiological changes. in such situations, in addition to the surgical act and the postoperative physical care, the postoperative evolution and the therapeutic success depend, to a large extent, on the modelling of the patient’s mental state. the present paper focuses on the above-mentioned aspect, drawing on the data from the literature and the experience of the authors. keywords: mental state, colostomy, emergency surgery. how to cite: popazu, c., voicu, d., ciubară, a.b., stan, d., & ciubară, a. (2022). the influence of the mental state on the emergency colostomized patients postoperative evolution. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 267-276. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/318 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/318 mailto:bogdan.ciubara@ugal.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/318 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 268 1. introduction stoma in surgery, is the temporary or permanent opening of a cavitary organ (small intestine, colon, ureter) in the skin, in order to remove feces or urine, to be collected in a closed or open bag, fixed to the tegument, with an adhesive. stoma means, in greek, mouth or opening. depending on the open cavitary organ, there are: colostoma, ileostoma and ureterostoma. it is obvious that the patient with the stoma is facing psycho-affective problems, related to the alteration of the body image and the need to change the lifestyle (rebegea et al., 2019). regarding the incidence of applying a permanent colostomy in advanced cancers, the statistics vary from 20-80%. the rate of dissolution of the colostomy in a second surgical time, possible after hartmann interventions, is 60-68%, but even in these cases there is a rate of stoma complications of 44% (norton, 2001; zuidema, 1996). more and more patients in romania undergo surgery every year, which results in an abdominal skin stoma. this is not exactly easy for patients to accept, especially since such a procedure implicitly leads to lifestyle changes. in emergency conditions, when the informed consent of the critically ill patient, as well as the psychological preparation for the future colostomized, are difficult, incomplete or impossible to achieve, the modeling of the mental state in the postoperative evolution of these patients becomes a problem, which must be insisted by the entire medical staff involved in their care (ciubara et al., 2016). as we have shown, there are several types of skin stoma: ileostoma (opening of an intestinal segment), ureterostoma (opening of the ureter) and colostoma (when it comes to the colon). colostomy, which we will talk about below, is the most frequently applied method; it can be practiced on any segment of the colon: cecum (cecostomy), transverse colon (transverse colostomy), left colon (left iliac colostomy). colostomy can be temporary, performed while waiting for the lesions to heal, to allow the digestive tract to be restored, or permanent, if, downstream, the digestive tract is destroyed, blocked or surgically removed. depending on the technical method of mounting the colostomy, it can be lateral ("in gun barrel") or terminal. colostomy indications refer to: malignant obstructive lesions of the distal colon, rectum and anus, which cannot be removed (in which colostomy is the only solution) or which can be removed, in which hartmann's surgery or abdomino-perineal the influence of the mental state on the emergency colostomized patients … constantin popazu, et al. 269 amputation is performed; severe cases requiring a temporary anus, followed by radical surgery; rectal or anorectal inflammatory, posttraumatic or postirradiation stenoses (angelescu et al., 2004); lesions that require resting of the distal digestive tract (rectitis, recto-vaginal or recto-bladder fistulas, rectal wounds, disunion of colorectal anastomoses) or interventions on the colorectal segments, in which the left iliac anus is a protective valve, located above the anastomosis (radulescu & belusica, 1999). 2. discussions 2.1. the surgical indication implies: preoperative training includes the establishment of a medical diagnosis and the indication for stoma, data collection, counseling, education, stoma location, skin preparation and digestive, evaluation after pre-anesthesia consultation, completion of the care team. for the patient, the preoperative preparation represents the understanding of the information, the acceptance of the surgery (consent), cooperation in preoperative training, involvement of family and entourage. the approach to general psycho-social aspects, in the preoperative period, includes: explaining the patient's current situation, combating anxiety, fear, grief, depression, suicidal tendencies, frustration, anger, negative self-image on the body, with altered self-esteem, in a word, maladaptation. only then, it is possible to advise the patient, in compliance with the rules of confidentiality, intimacy, everything in a climate of trust. this can take place face-to-face, but is preferably with the participation of a family member or a person designated by the patient. this involves collecting data on physical, mental and emotional status; cultural and social environment, sensory skills, previous surgical experiences, the significance and impact of the current situation, finding out the level of motivation, concerns, interests, the existence of preconceived ideas (radulescu et al, 2020). environmental conditions, stress factors, attitude, but also the reaction of family and entourage (friends, colleagues) must also be investigated. meeting with a same-sex colostomatized patient with a favorable postoperative outcome,can help to understand the importance of intervention. also, ensuring a time of reflection, for the patient and family, is necessary and useful, for a truly informed and assumeda consent (faluppecurariu et al., 2017; lupu et al., 2015; voicu, 2020). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 270 establishing the location of the stoma, as well as its technical execution, is another important element in designing a favorable long-term postoperative evolution, with good social reintegration and prevention of mental, emotional and familial implications. this is the full responsibility of the surgeon. the criteria for determining the location of the stoma are: avoid bone relief, avoid scarring / surgical incision, avoid skin folds, choose a flat surface, crossing the right abdominal muscles, in a place visible to the future colostomized, found in clinostatism, orthostatism and sitting position (târcoveanu, 2003). in emergency cases, however, where the psychological training is precarious, under the pressure of the time factor, age, sex, weight status, professional activity, dexterity, the possible pre-existence of a physical disability are taken into account, and the identification is made considering maximum possible criteria. 2.2. preoperative training refers to: skin preparation: preparation of the operating field and application of an antiseptic solution (betadine), to prevent possible local complications, which even minor alter, through persistence over time, dysfunctions and prolonged hospitalization, the mental status of the patient (târcoveanu, 2003). pre-anesthetic consultation, which in addition to establishing possible risks and dangerous comorbidities must strengthen the patient's rational optimism, induced by previous informative discussions, which led to the acceptance of surgery. in cases operated in emergency, they are performed, practically, on the operating table. digestive training (protocols of preoperative diet and colic training), is postponed for the postoperative period, with increased effort and attention, for the physical and mental comfort of the colostomatized patient, in order to provide therapeutic success. 2.3. postoperative care the first stoma prosthesis is made in the operating room. collector bag must combine the following conditions: being sterile, with hydrocolloid adhesive without filter, visitable (with two components), with discharge, large diameter. the choice of the collecting container is also important, not only from a strictly surgical point of view, but also for ensuring the patient's mental ease. immediate postoperatively, the hydric, caloric and nutritional evaluation and rebalancing of the colostomized is performed according to the influence of the mental state on the emergency colostomized patients … constantin popazu, et al. 271 the state of malnutrition, possible from the preoperative period, with the mention of signs of dehydration, resumption of intestinal transit and oral (oral, parenteral, enteral) quantitative qualitative. at the same time, it is necessary, but also difficult, to educate the patient, the family and the entourage, regarding food hygiene, possibly with the help of a dietitian. the care team participates in pain control and in the prevention and identification of major early complications hemorrhage, partial or total necrosis of the stoma, partial or total disinsertion of the stoma, evisceration, abscess or fistula, intestinal occlusion (paralytic ileus, intestinal torsion, stenosis) and late – peristomal hernia, mucosal prolapse, bleeding, recurrence of the underlying disease, colic perforation, cutaneous or parietal stenosis. all these complications, including skin, so-called minor – contact/allergic/chemical/irritative dermatitis, folliculitis, pyodermitis, granuloma -, relatively easy to conservatively treat, must be prevented, because it affects the mental and emotional status of the patient and implicitly, his post-surgical evolution (pinto, 2016). the colostomatized patient is informed about the provided care before, during and after their performance. the items of specific stomatotherapy care, adapted to the patient's situation are: hygiene of the stoma and peristomal skin; checking for possible folds or peristomal depressions; measuring the diameter of the stoma; application of a skin protector in case of allergy to the device; presenting of the alternatives in choosing a certain type of collecting bag and / or a prosthetic technique and explaining the components and the ways of operation, with the afferent advantages and disadvantages protection of the stoma. the choice for the type of collecting bag takes into account: the type of stoma, the type and rhythm of eliminations, the time elapsed since surgery, the physical and intellectual abilities of the patient / relatives, the condition of the peristomal skin plans, the location of the stoma, lifestyle and even patient preferences. the objectives pursued in choosing the collection bag are: to ensure the tight and safe prosthesis of the stoma; to efficiently isolate the smell; to protect the peristomal skin and treat any local skin damage; to protect the stoma from possible direct / indirect trauma; the prosthesis should be made simple, in accordance with the patient's situation to provide the patient with physical and mental security, to enable family reintegration, social and professional development brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 272 to be economically accessible to the patient (norton, 2001; radulescu, 1999; târcoveanu, 2003; voicu, 2020). all these materials are intended for the mental and physical comfort of the patient. his comfort will be all the better, the more correct his training in the use of materials. the type of collection bag used by the patient greatly influences his quality of life and smooths or not his path to family, social and professional reintegration. the surgeon and the nurse have a major role in advising the patient / relatives for the correct choice of the device and the right accessories for prosthesis and care. 2.4. the lifestyle of the colostomized patient return to normal life. all the steps mentioned above must be followed in an optimal way, so that the evolution of the emergency colostomized patient be favorable, and the colostomy not limiting the normal daily activities of the patient. the default physiological aspect can be initially accepted with difficulty. that is why it is very important to have a subtle psychological approach and obtain mental and emotional support from family and friends, especially in the first 2-3 months postoperatively. clothing. the colostomized patient should be advised not to changeclothing, unless the positioning of the stoma or its dimensions so requires. this is another element that will increase his confidence and ensure his therapeutic success (ciobotea et al., 2016; valcea et al., 2016). general body hygiene. the colostoma allows the shower or bath in the bathtub, as before the, operation, so that the soap and water do not enter the stoma and do not irritate it. diet. after surgical healing, the patient will be able to resume his normal diet. the presence of the stoma does not impose a significant restriction on previous eating habits, given that they were part of a healthy and balanced style. constipation in patients with colostomy may occur due to lack of exercise, insufficient fluid intake, low fiber diet, medication, but up to a point,it is beneficial. this is because diarrhea in patients with colostomy is to be avoided, as it can create serious hydro-electrolyte imbalances. odor control. the local odor is determined by excess intestinal gas, poor quality stoma prostheses, poor hygiene and lack of information acquisition. physical activity. most colostomized people can gradually resume the exercises and sports activities, as they usually did before surgery. swimming and other water sports can be practiced, with the mention that sea water and chlorine dry the adhesive disc. the influence of the mental state on the emergency colostomized patients … constantin popazu, et al. 273 sexual intercourse. it is very important for the partner to understand the current situation and to always discuss openly about the problems that arise along the way. with postoperatively healing, the patient can still enjoy a normal sexual relationship with the partner. although in principle, the presence of colostomy does not affect in any way, a possible pregnancy, it is important to consult a gynecologist. travel and tourism. a colostomy may not be an absolute contraindication to planned travel. it should be mentioned that in summer, the patient must take a larger number of collection bags and a few extra sachets of protective film for additional protection of the skin, in conditions of heat and perspiration. everyday life. helped by medical, technical and psychological counseling, encouraged by a simple and rapid postoperative evolution, people with a digestive stoma will realize that they can live a normal life. in optimal conditions, it will be almost impossible for others to notice that the patient is wearing a colostomy device. driving is not recommended in the first 3 months postoperatively, but return to work is possible even after 6-8 weeks; only those who perform physical work need a longer period of recovery (ayaz-alkaya, 2019; bekkers, 1995; jayarajah, 2016; silva, 2017). 3. conclusions the presence of colostomy obviously affects the psychosocial status of the patient. the expected or long-lasting nature of the stoma negatively alters the patient's emotional universe, predisposing to negative feelings, varying depending on intellectual, cultural and emotional factors, from sadness, to persistent pessimism and even suicidal tendencies. decreased self-esteem as a physical aspect; loss of the role of family, professional or even social leader; the intensity of the suffering and the prolongation of the hospitalization duration due to the occurrence of the trailing complications, the complexity and difficulty of the self-care maneuvers, the more or less pregnant rejection from the entourage, the perspective of limiting the daily activities, negatively influence the psychosocial status of the colostomized patient. despite technical advances, the installation of colostomies remains necessary, useful and common in abdominal surgery. therapeutically, it is a constant concern in the medical world. to overcome these obstacles, the role of the surgeon, nurse, dentist, dietetian and psychologist is staged, orderly and equally important. when the application of measures to increase the quality of mental, emotional, family and social life, cannot start from the preoperative period, because of the surgical emergency does not allow it, it brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 274 continues intraoperatively and then intensely and tenaciously in postoperative period, as necessary. the care team must be empathetically trained and prepared, to discreetly, delicately, ethically and deontologically act. the mental factor becomes even more important in the postoperative evolution of emergency colostomized patients. the measures of emotional support of these patients must be applied intensively, but with tact and professionalism, in parallel with the education and preparation for the new anatomical-physiological changes. the final goal of any surgical act is to ensure a high standard of quality of life, social reintegration, resumption of a normal family life and recovery of emotional imbalances. we consider that the previously exposed measures, applied by us constantly, as we gain experience in over 30 years of surgical activity, ensure almost optimal results in this regard. prophylaxis of the psychosocial implications of this gesture references angelescu, n., popa, e., & angelescu, m. (2004). atitudinea terapeutică în cancerele rectosigmoidiene si genitale local avansate si complicate. chirurgia 99(1), 11-17. https://www.revistachirurgia.ro/cuprinsen.php?entryid=105 ayaz-alkaya, s. (2019). overview of psychosocial problems in individuals with stoma: a review of literature. international wound journal, 16, 243–249. https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.13018 bekkers, m. j., van knippenberg, f. c., van den borne, h. w., poen, h., bergsma, j., & van bergehenegouwen, g. p. (1995). psychosocial adaptation to stoma surgery: a review. journal of behavioral medicine, 18(1), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01857702 ciobotea, d., vlaicu, b., ciubara, a., duica, c. l., cotocel, c., antohi, v., & pirlog, m. c. (2016). visual impairment in the elderly and its influence on the quality of life. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 54, 66-74. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-oflife.html ciubara, a., chirita, r., burlea, l. s., lupu, v. v., mihai, c., moisa, s. m., untu, i. (2016). psychosocial particularities of violent acts in personality disorders. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 52, 265-272. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/140-volumul-52-2016-martie/2246psychosocial-particularities-of-violent-acts-in-personality-disorders.html https://www.revistachirurgia.ro/cuprinsen.php?entryid=105 https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.13018 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01857702 https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293-visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-of-life.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293-visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-of-life.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293-visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-of-life.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/140-volumul-52-2016-martie/2246-psychosocial-particularities-of-violent-acts-in-personality-disorders.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/140-volumul-52-2016-martie/2246-psychosocial-particularities-of-violent-acts-in-personality-disorders.html the influence of the mental state on the emergency colostomized patients … constantin popazu, et al. 275 falup-pecurariu, o., man, s., neamtu, m. l., chicin, g., baciu, g., pitic, c., cara, a. c., neculau, a. e., burlea, m., brinza, i. l., schnell, c. n., sas, v., lupu, v. v., françois, n., swinnen, k., & borys, d. (2017). effects of prophylactic ibuprofen and paracetamol administration on the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of the 10-valent pneumococcal nontypeable haemophilus influenzae protein d conjugated vaccine (phidcv) co-administered with dtpa-combined vaccines in children: an openlabel, randomized, controlled, non-inferiority trial. human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 13 (3), 649-660. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2016.1223001 jayarajah, u., & samarasekera, a. m. (2016). a study of postoperative anxiety and depression among patients with intestinal stomas. sri lanka journal of surgery 34(2), 6 – 10. http://doi.org/10.4038/sljs.v34i2.8261 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., mihaila, d., burlea, m., & ciubara, a. (2015). heterotopic gastric mucosa in the distal part of esophagus in a teenager case report. medicine 94(42), e1722. http://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 norton, j.a., philip, s. b., bollinger, r. r., chang, a. e., lowry, s. f., mulvihill, s. j., pass, h. i., & thompson, r. w. (eds.). (2001). surgery, basic science and clinical evidence. springer. pinto, a., faiz, o., davis, r., almoudaris, a., & vincent, c. (2016). surgical complications and their impact on patients’ psychosocial well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. bmj open, 16(2), e007224. http://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007224 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. . (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 rădulescu, d., & belusică, l. (1999). caiete de chirurgie practică, vol. ii (ed. a ii-a) [practical surgery notebooks, vol. ii (2nd ed.)]. medical publishing house. rebegea, l., firescu, d., baciu, g., & ciubara, a. (2019). psycho-oncology support. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(3 (special issue), 77-88. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/ index.php/brain/article/view/2169 silva, n. m., santos, m. a. d., rosado, s. r., galvão, c. m., & sonobe, h. m. (2017). psychological aspects of patients with intestinal stoma: integrative review. revista latino – americana de enfermagem, 25, e2950. http://doi.org/10.1590/1518-8345.2231.2950 târcoveanu, e. (2003). tehnici chirurgicale. caiete de rezidenţiat. [surgery techiques. resident notebooks]. ed. 2003. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2016.1223001 http://doi.org/10.4038/sljs.v34i2.8261 http://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 http://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007224 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2169 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2169 http://doi.org/10.1590/1518-8345.2231.2950 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 276 valcea, l., bulgaru-iliescu, d., burlea, s. l., & ciubara, a. (2016). patient’s rights and communication in the hospital accreditation process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 55, 260-270. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/143volumul-552016decembrie/2321-patients-rights-and-communication-inthe-hospital-accreditation-process.html voicu, d., popazu, c., stan, d., ciubara, a. (2020). implicatii psihosociale ale colostomiilor. galatia 2020 zuidema, g. d. (1996). surgery of the alimentary tract (4th ed.). w. b. saunders company. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/143-volumul-552016decembrie/2321-patients-rights-and-communication-in-the-hospital-accreditation-process.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/143-volumul-552016decembrie/2321-patients-rights-and-communication-in-the-hospital-accreditation-process.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/143-volumul-552016decembrie/2321-patients-rights-and-communication-in-the-hospital-accreditation-process.html brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2021, volume 12, issue 4, pages: 455-473 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/259 psychological security of the individual as a functional component of professional activity olha lazorko¹, svitlana koval2, olena hrek3, veronika shkrabiuk4, myroslava kulesha-liubinets5, nelia bihun6 1 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, lazorko.olga@gmail.com 2 kharkiv national university of internal affairs, ukraine, fotinia0908@gmail.com 3 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky, ukraine, grekelena82@ukr.net 4 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, veronika.shkrabiuk@pnu.edu.ua 5 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, myroslava.kulesha@pnu.edu.ua 6 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, nelabigun@gmail.com abstract: consideration of professional safety as a functional component of professional activity includes analysis of categorical methodological grounding of this concept in psychological work in the context of ergonomic provision of effective professional activity by a complex of external worker’s and individual worker’s protection, where special attention is paid to dangerous professions. first of all, took into account the need of accidents causes at work; determining the optimal workload in professional activities; identification of human reserve capabilities and ergonomic optimization of interaction processes with the production environment. the general, differentiated indicators of susceptibility to danger are specified; the preconditions for the formation of psychological security are determined; the factors of erroneous actions’ occurrence at performance of professional activity are allocated; the psychological provision of labor safety through a system of organizational measures is outlined. historical digression in the application of a systematic approach to the analysis of professional activity, as well as general psychological provisions of the concept of systemogenesis of professional activity, the concept of structural and functional organization of self-regulation, the concept of maladaptive activity (risk readiness) and the concept of product ergonomics, personality in assessing the quality of human life. elaboration on the definition of the work psychological signs and its gradations and development of receptions of professional selfpreservation of the person is presented. keywords: occupational safety, professional motivation, system approach, labor psychology, ergonomic support, dangerous professions, accidents. how to cite: lazorko, o., koval, s., hrek, o., shkrabiuk, v., kulesha-liubinets, m., & bihun, n. (2021). psychological security of the individual as a functional component of professional activity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 455473. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/259 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/259 mailto:lazorko.olga@gmail.com mailto:fotinia0908@gmail.com mailto:grekelena82@ukr.net mailto:veronika.shkrabiuk@pnu.edu.ua mailto:myroslava.kulesha@pnu.edu.ua mailto:nelabigun@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/259 brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 456 introduction the study’s relevance of specialist’s successful functioning psychology is due to the real problems of psychological security of the individual within his professional development. therefore, we will try to find the categorical and the methodological status of this concept in the system of psychological knowledge. first of all, consider the central aspects of occupational psychology, where occupational safety is considered in terms of forming an adequate thinking of the specialist and a holistic system of knowledge, skills and abilities that are essential for making informed decisions at the individual level. this applies to the preparation of a particular employee, taking into account his personal characteristics for a long and guaranteed safe work. this requires the formation of security culture and appropriate worldview and consciousness; acquisition of moral values in relation to security; obtaining the necessary set of knowledge; development of personality qualities that would help increase security (bezliudnyi et al., 2019; nerubasska et al., 2020; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020). first of all, the process of formation and professional activity psychological safety development is the result of the functioning of various objects of ergonomic support: production processes, processes of organizational systems, creation and further operation of complex humanmachine complexes in industrial enterprises. human security is ensured by a set of external protection (technical, regulatory, social, sectoral), individual protection, which is determined primarily by behavior, human lifestyle, necessary knowledge and psychological training, technical means and natural protection, which is determined at the biological level. literature review most often it is a question of safety for representatives of dangerous professions, and the branch of psychology safety of professional activity where questions are the correct social position formation, motivation for safe carrying out of works, motivation of reasonable behavior in all spheres is engaged in its life (at home, at work, during leisure, etc.), obtaining the necessary set of knowledge to ensure individual and collective security (buzunov, 1991). at once we will note that the subject of this branch researches are mental processes which are generated by activity and influence its safety; mental states of a person, reflected in the safety of its activities; personality traits that are reflected in the safety of activities (nosov, 1994). psychological security of the individual as a functional component of … olha lazorko, et al. 457 thus, determining the accidents’ causes at work, they can include such mental processes as lack of attention (decreased or impaired concentration, distribution, switching attention); various senses’ defects (partial loss of vision, deafness, etc.); violation of the connection between the sensory and motor centers of the higher parts of the nervous system; defects associated with loss of coordination and coordination of movements; insufficient ability to distinguish weak signals (signs of danger); lack of observation; weakly critical thinking; insufficient ability to predict developments; difficulties in assessing the situation and choosing ways to behave in it. among mental states distinguish aggression, hostility; impulsiveness (actions precede analysis, assessment of the situation); emotional imbalance, depression, low endurance, fatigue, anxiety (fears, disturbed mental balance); dissatisfaction with everyday life (the employee does not know what he wants; how to achieve their desires); state of stress; alcoholism, drug addiction. mental qualities of the employee, which contribute to accidents, are expressed in such signs as egocentrism (the employee does not pay attention to the thoughts, interests, mood of other people, inattention and insensitivity to the worries and feelings of others); propensity to risk (excessively high or low); safety, negligence, negligence; fatalism; antisocial attitudes; incompetence; intolerance to comments; inadequate self-esteem; lack of self-control; excessive self-confidence; conflict; avoidance of responsibility; low motivation to work; neglect of safety rules (nikiforova, 2006). therefore, it becomes clear that solving problems to determine the optimal workload, identify backup capabilities and ergonomic optimization of interaction with the production environment requires the identification and neutralization of phenomena and phenomena that may threaten the psychological safety of the subject of professional activity (zinchenko & gordon, 1975). thus, both unsuccessful professional self-determination and inconsistency of psychological and psychophysical features of a person with ergonomic requirements, stresses in professional activity that do not meet occupational safety standards, and inadequate reflection of factors of the production environment can be dangerous. in the works of many researchers (bodrov, 2001) the general differentiated indicators of propensity to danger are established, among which, first of all, it is a question of emotional properties and features of temperament, and further about low qualities of attention, insufficient sensorimotor coordination and observation, excessive risk aversion. also among the psychological factors that affect occupational safety, professional motivation is important. thus, under the influence of strong motivation, an brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 458 event that is undesirable seems less likely than in reality; when performing the simplest or most difficult tasks, the strength of motivation is significantly reduced; people with a weak type of nervous system prefer simpler tasks; individuals with frequent accidents who are more focused on avoiding failure than on achieving the goal; the stronger the motive for achieving the goal, the stronger the threat of achieving it (virna, 2015). to confirm the above, we can cite the generalized provisions presented in the dissertation of shlykova (2004), who emphasizes that the dynamics of psychological security are determined by the perceptual and mental operations, individual-typological features, personal characteristics, conditions of activity, subject-object relations, the ergonomic state of the environment. prerequisites for the formation of psychological security are compliance with the needs, values, capabilities of the subject to the reflected characteristics of reality, a high level of ergonomics of arbitrary processes, corporate culture, and personal qualities of the subject: assertiveness, risk appetite, social and professional activity, adequate perception of reality. the level of risk readiness is a factor that determines the level of psychological security development. the researcher believes that generalized stable ideas that meet the needs, interests, intentions, goals, plans of man, determine ways to form a psychologically safe existence. the analysis conducted by shlykova (2004) showed that the development and formation of psychological security are determined by the presence or level of manifestations of contradictions between the values of the subject and the reflected characteristics of reality. categorical-methodological substantiation of professional safety in labor psychology within the study of occupational safety, namely the elucidation of the causes of erroneous actions during professional activities, scientists has identified three factors: 1) emotions associated with a particular event, professional situation and task; 2) uncertainty of information, if it is not enough to assess the situation; 3) the significance of the situation (anderson, 1990; lazarus, 1991). it is a well-known fact that the peculiarities of emotions and states manifestation, the degree of expression and selectivity of cognitive processes are closely interrelated. cognitive processes and emotions are related to the subject's behavior, due to his attitude to environmental stimuli, as well as assessing the significance of the situation, psychological security of the individual as a functional component of … olha lazorko, et al. 459 updating previous experience in constructing its images and predicting its development and expected consequences. psychological security, which is manifested, in particular, in the adaptability of the subject, in his willingness to make decisions, not only becomes increasingly important in human labor, but also, as a result of mental activity of the subject, affects the formation of his personal characterological qualities. thus, one of types of arbitrary mental activity of the subject considers mental self-regulation of functional states of the person during the performance of difficult professional activity which influences the formation of adaptive properties of the subject and defines its efficiency, working capacity and psychological safety (dikaya & makhnach, 1996). occupational safety psychology directs efforts to activate the spiritual components of the working person's personality, to create a motive for high professionalism, productive principles as a guarantor of others’ lives and responsibility for their actions as a lifestyle. the psychological stimulus to self-improvement, self-knowledge and self-control should not be the fear of punishment (fine or release), but shame. the problem of security is the problem of freedom of choice of action and the right to personal responsibility for one's actions in each specific situation. that is why in the psychological portrait of "non-trauma" it is difficult to find features of pessimism, distrust, anxiety, egocentrism, aggression, maximalism, expressiveness. the psychological situation, mental states and low level of psychophysiological professionally important qualities of the employee often affect in such a way that the last chance of a person to survive, avoid and prevent a stressful situation is lost. it is necessary to note the mandatory minimum knowledge of the basics of occupational safety psychology basic for persons representing dangerous professions: first, knowledge helps to properly understand their psychological characteristics and find the most rational ways to optimize professionally important qualities; secondly, this knowledge makes it possible to understand the psychological characteristics of people, without which it is impossible to achieve coordinated joint work with a team; thirdly, this knowledge makes it possible to predict the specific effects of various factors of the production sphere, the peculiarity of the processes of vocational training and the use of the recommendations of psychological science in practice; fourth, this knowledge will help to organize the work of professionals so that they could be guaranteed to avoid and maximally protect themselves from injuries and accidents (marynenko, 1991). brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 460 the scientific approach to the problem of threat to human life indicates the need to develop the intellectual and moral aspect of prevention of injuries, accidents and dangerous psychological and legal acts of protection of working people this is the social order of today. therefore, the psychological provision of occupational safety involves the implementation in practice of such measures as professional selection (selection) of personnel; identification of persons (groups) of risk; professional training (formation of individual safe style of activity, motivation for safe work); detection and elimination of unfavorable working conditions (providing employees with appropriate protective equipment); optimal organization of work and rest; ensuring appropriate work motivation; individual and group prevention of safe behavior (teaching equipment, safety training, etc.) (bodrov, 2001). recently, the conditions of modern socio-economic development of the ukrainian state clearly demonstrate the transformation of the psychological phenomenon of professional safety for non-stressful professions. the point is that the more tense and dangerous moments in a socio-economic or historical-political development a country and society experience, the more it affects the general content of human security, in particular one of its subspecies professional security. after all, the profession is the basic mental construct of modern society and, as noted by klimov, it is the culture of any society is a set of possible and diverse professional achievements of people in general (klimov, 2009). in the same context pryazhnikov (1996) notes that the essence of professional selfdetermination is the independent and the conscious finding of the meanings of work performed and all life in a specific cultural-historical (socioeconomic) situation. social pressure, dissatisfaction with the work’s economic equivalent, the profession’s declining prestige, declining mutual trust between staff and administration, prognostic uncertainty of social status, threat of unemployment, distress of uncomfortable and dangerous working conditions – this is the main but not final list of factors affecting professional reliability. it is necessary that the knowledge, skills and abilities of safe behavior, combined into a single system, form an "alloy" that would lead to the formation of competence as a willingness to perform any practical and theoretical life tasks, including in the field of culture security. golovanova (2008) emphasizes those professions as types of purposeful human activity are divided into production, creative, labor, humanitarian and others. they require special training, theoretical knowledge and practical skills, a special state of health, the presence or psychological security of the individual as a functional component of … olha lazorko, et al. 461 absence of responsibilities (such as "freelance artist"), vocation, independence of choice, material reward, social evaluation, connections with certain social groups. also at the present stage, the profession includes socially unacceptable occupations, in particular: begging and prostitution, various types of criminal activity, namely: robbery, theft, as well as such activities as witchcraft and divination. we should not forget that it is the profession that is chosen, received, acquired, assimilated, given, possessed; it is mastered; it can be changed, exchanged; it is taught, that is, it is perceived as an inanimate object and a certain essence that moves in time and space (golovanova, 2008, p. 27). the profession can be the subject of love, sympathy and antipathy, that is, to act as a living substance: it can be loved or hated; she may or may not like it; you can be faithful to the profession or betray it; to dedicate oneself to the profession or to be disappointed in it (golovanova, 2008, p. 26). as an active actor, the profession requires, allows, enables, teaches, entices, promotes development, develops, and provokes, changes personality. its importance for a person lies in personification: it is thought of as a person who can be upset or happy, give life force or be disappointed (golovanova, 2008, p. 28). thus, the profession is valued by society and can be prestigious, necessary, relevant, popular, promising, decent, fashionable, popular, high and low-paid, difficult, harmful, dangerous and so on. (tolochek, 2006, p. 161) notes that in the late twentieth century, there were more than 20 thousand professions and more than 40 thousand specialties, but today there is still no single, generally accepted classification of the professions, because depending on scientific and practical tasks professions are classified according to different criteria: scope and object of work (nature, technology, systems, artistic reflection of reality, work with people); for the purpose of the activity (gnostic, transformative, inventive); by means of labor (representatives of crafts, machine-manual labor, which use automatic systems and are associated with the predominance of functional means of labor); by working conditions (domestic microclimate, work in the open air, moral responsibility, unusual and extreme working conditions); by the degree of labor regulation (automatic, semi-automatic, template, executive, independent creative). when discussing working conditions, most scientists point out that there are no safe occupations: in each of them, despite the external wellbeing of some, there are factors that are harmful to health. each type of occupation, profession and specialty corresponds to its own set of specific harmful factors for this activity, as well as its "bouquet" of occupational brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 462 diseases. the invention of these factors, both general and specific, is necessary for the organization of a program of measures for the prevention of occupational deformities of the individual. historical digression in the application of a systematic approach to the analysis of professional activity even in the works of arkhangelsky (1958) the first attempts were made to apply a systematic approach to the analysis of professional activity, which identified units of labor actions, operations and techniques of movement that reflect the psychological essence of the activity. considering the work of a professional as a conscious process that reflects a person's attitude to the surrounding reality, the scientist points out that the components of the structure of activity are dynamic and there are relationships between them, which can be transformed. but under any circumstances, the central figure in the psychology of occupational safety is man, who is not only a biological being, but also the "focus" of the social system. it is a mobile, self-managing and integral system in which all the laws are organically combined essence: mechanical, physiological, chemical, biological, social, energy, information, etc. everyone is not born, but becomes a subject in the process of their activities, communication and other activities. thus, the study of various activities as the realization of man in the profession should cover various aspects of the work process, its organization and data on the performance of this work by a man not only on external indicators, but also on data revealing the regulation of this activity. therefore, the psychological analysis of professional activity always takes place on two interrelated levels, which reveal the external relationships and those that exist between the simple moments of work (appropriate activities, subject and means of work) and the person. the principal moment of mastering the activity is its acceptance by the person, which is determined by the extent to which the individual's idea of the profession will correspond to his needs and abilities. when choosing a profession, a person seems to "project" his motivational structure on the structure of factors related to professional activities that allow satisfying the need. in a complex motivational process, comparing the capabilities of professions with their needs, a person decides to accept or abandon the profession. acceptance of the profession generates a desire to perform activities in a certain way, "... generates a certain determining tendency and psychological security of the individual as a functional component of … olha lazorko, et al. 463 serves as a starting point for the formation of a psychological system of activity" (shadrikov, 1981, p. 55). in the concept of professional activity’s systemogenesis of shadrikov (1981) we find the generalized description of the professional activity’s psychological components: 1. formation of motives of professional activity provides: a) shift of a motive for the purpose of labor activity; b) for the formation of professional motivation, it is important for a person to "accept" the profession and find the personal meaning of activity; c) as a result of the formation of professional motivation is formed holistic behavior of the employee. 2. the formation of the professional activity’s purpose involves the selection and consideration of the following factors: a) the central point of activity is its purpose; b) the goal is considered as an ideal image of the result and the level of pursuit to which you should strive; c) the purpose of professional activity is the image of the result and the production task set in certain conditions; d) the main stages of goal formation include identifying the field of acceptable results and clarifying the specific best goal. 3. the formation of ideas about the program of activities involves: a) the formation of ideas about the components (structure) of activities; b) forming an idea of how to perform activities; c) the formation of the idea of the program of activities as a sequence of adequate actions and methods. 4. the formation of the information basis activity (iba) involves the selection and consideration of the following points: a) the levels of the formation of iba include sensory-perceptual level (perception of information); cognitive level (assessment of the importance of information); image-operational level (information processing and construction of information blocks); b) features of iba formation information often changes, which requires iba flexibility; the versatility of information necessitates a rapid switch from one type of information to another; in) in general, the formation of iba involves the formation of iba in material terms (the ability to perceive and process real signals that carry information); formation of iba in the ideal plan (ability to build information images and values on the received signals). 5. the formation of the decision-making unit is based on the following points: a) the decision itself is considered as a choice of one alternative from several; b) the general scheme of decision-making includes awareness of the problem; its expansion; verification of decisions; c) the formation of the decision-making unit involves the assimilation (development) of the decision rule, the method of solution and the brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 464 formation of the criterion for achieving the goal and the advantages of choosing the method of implementation; d) there are two types of solutions: deterministic, which are based on clear logic, and probability, based on the calculation of the most favorable probability of achieving the goal. 6. the formation of the subsystem of professionally important qualities (piq) occurs under the following prerequisites: a) a person already has certain qualities and when mastering professions are their restructuring in accordance with the characteristics of a particular professional activity; b) the general logic of such restructuring of activities includes elements of restructuring qualities in accordance with professional activity; the emergence and development of new qualities and abilities; formation of the individual style of activity. 7. the formation of the psychological structure of professional activity involves: a) mastering the profession as a process of objectification, individualization of normatively specified (approved) mode of activity; b) the main stages of mastering the profession cognitive (cognition, mastering the normative way of activity); practical stage as the central moment of the psychological structure formation of activity, thus at first separate actions are mastered, and then activity as a whole (shadrikov, 1981, pp. 34-130). as can be seen from the analysis, the study of professional activity as a holistic object is impossible without the separation of "professional man" as "the link that organizes the system, directs it to achieve a certain, predetermined result and ensures the plasticity of its functioning" (lomov, 1984, p. 37). after all, the selected components of professional activity are closely related to the problem of experiencing various threats to successful implementation, namely the increase of intellectual and psychological load, uncontrolled, continuous and progressive imbalance due to prolonged professional stress, emotional stress, etc., which leads to urgent need, search for a new paradigm of security in the interests of professional self-preservation of the individual (lazorko, 2015). the study of this problem of professional self-preservation of the individual concerns the analysis of motivational, cognitive, operational and affective components of the subject of labor by its social attitudes, professional orientation and a certain readiness of individual-typological properties. given the available theoretical and empirical developments, it should be noted that in the last two decades, research in the field of psychology of professional activity is aimed at studying the psychological mechanisms of regulation, substantiation of principles and methods of professional suitability, search for ways and means of psychological performance, etc. (klimov, 1998; konopkin, 1980). psychological security of the individual as a functional component of … olha lazorko, et al. 465 thus, klimov (1998, pp. 8-12) uses psychological features of work and their gradations for this purpose. the first sign is the awareness of the social value of the result of labor. the level of this awareness is determined on the basis of: a) the level of representation of the subject of labor knowledge about the requirements for the result of work; b) the nature of knowledge of the social value of the expected results of work for themselves and for society; c) emotional manifestations of the subject of labor in the activity and their adequacy to his ideas and knowledge. the second sign is the awareness of the obligation to perform the received case in the given norms. the level of this feature representation is determined on the basis of: a) assessment of the nature of awareness of the need and responsibility for the work within the specified limits; b) assessment of the adequacy of the emotional state of the subject of labor level of his awareness. the third sign is the conscious use of means to achieve professional goals. this feature is also considered from the standpoint of equal representation of the following characteristics: a) the level of theoretical readiness to perform professional activities; b) the level of formation of professional skills and abilities; c) the adequacy of emotional manifestations in accordance with the level of professional readiness of the subject of labor. the fourth feature is the awareness of interpersonal relationships. the assessment of the levels of this feature is based on the depth of knowledge and understanding of the subject of labor, the contribution of other people to the creation of material values of society, which he uses in his professional activities to create new socially significant values. konopkin (1980, p. 205) built a general principle model that reflects the internal functional structure of the process of self-regulation and identified the following components of this structure: subjective model of significant operating conditions, the program of actual executive actions, system of success criteria, information about real achieved results, decisions on system correction. conscious self-regulation, the scientist calls a systemically organized process of internal mental activity of man to initiate, build, maintain and manage various types and forms of arbitrary activity, which directly realizes the achievement of human goals. an important role in the process of self-regulation of activity and the acquisition of a given level of professional suitability is played by the subject of the goal of the activity, which reflects not only the real or ideal result of the labor process, but also the regulatory degree of its achievement. this means that under the direct influence of the goal is formed "subjective model of significant operating conditions" and "program of executive actions”. the functional unit "performance evaluation" regulates and corrects behavior to achieve brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 466 results that meet the criteria of successful professional activity, and therefore gives it a purposeful and purposeful nature (konopkin, 1980). lomov (1984, p. 216) identifies a number of "formative" components of the system of activities, such as motive, purpose, activity planning, processing of current information, operational image (conceptual model), decision making, actions, verification of results and correction of actions. according to the scientist, these components are interconnected, because they regulate the functions of the mental in the preparation, organization and performance of activities. also, the complex nature of the study of psychological security was closely related to the theoretical study of the phenomenon of risk-taking (kornilova, 2003; petrovsky, 1992). in general, risk appetite is based on the acquired skills to make the right assessments, make and implement the right decisions in situations of uncertainty. considering the propensity to risk as a personal threat to the safety of energy systems, one should avoid simplistic conclusions. the propensity to take risks can be based not only on the desire to enjoy the experience of danger and satisfy selfishness, but also with the conscious desire to expand the boundaries of their professional capabilities and the experience of overcoming danger. algin (2002) defines risk as an activity associated with overcoming uncertainty in a situation of inevitable choice, in the process of which it is possible to quantify and qualitatively assess the probability of achieving the intended result, failure and deviation from the goal. for different entities operating in the same environment, the situation may be different risky for one and not risk for another. thus, the concept of "risk" is inextricably linked to the representation of the subject's action and can be defined as a characteristic of this action, but the characteristic of the action as the risk is not attributive, but evaluative. risk is an assessment of the possibility of performing an action, the possibility of achieving a result, the corresponding goal. it is also necessary to emphasize a number of general patterns found in risk preparedness studies. first of all, it concerns age and professional features. yes, it is noticed that with age the willingness to take risk decreases. it is influenced by the nature of work: the military has a higher readiness than students. willingness to take risk in modern psychology is associated with the ability of the subject to achieve the goal and regulate their behavioral strategies, considered as an maladaptive form of behavior of an active person, especially in the absence of developed structures, as a special way of thinking uncertainty (petrovsky, 1992). psychological security of the individual as a functional component of … olha lazorko, et al. 467 and in the concept of kornilova (2003) the willingness to take risk is interpreted as a personal property of self-regulation, which allows a person to make decisions and act in situations of uncertainty. thus, it is not so much a personal disposition as a sufficiently generalized description of the subject's ways out of situations of uncertainty. as an individual characteristic, this readiness also implies the subject's assessment of his past experience. the phenomenon of safety in the professional realization of the individual finds common features in the assessment of quality of life (olefir, 2012; rean, 1988). quality of life is a subjective and individual perception of a person's position in life, which is manifested in the active implementation of goals and strategies to improve their own lives. that is, the essence of the quality of life lies in its socio-psychological nature, which is manifested in the perception of human self-satisfaction in various spheres of life, its arrangement, which is associated with the level of its needs. according to the scientific position of spilker (1996), quality of life is the level of a person's satisfaction with his life according to his own subjective self-esteem. in the provisions of economic psychology, we find three described factors that are necessary for a person to feel included in a full, meaningful, creative and happy life: a sense of competence associated with confidence in their abilities and capabilities, this feeling "i know i can ", because it is important for a person to feel like a professional in his field; the feeling of self-determination is the awareness of oneself and only oneself as the cause of one's actions, because if a person succeeds in this, then there is a pleasure from activity, there is a feeling of independence, confidence in the future, in one's own abilities; included in the system of meaningful relationships, which provides a person with a sense of need, self-importance for other people, which can be manifested in the process of joint activities (deineka, 2000). in general, a person is able to identify the quality of life with the prospect of existence, happiness, health, age, and so on. therefore, it is often associated with a subjective feeling close to personal well-being. therefore, often in the structure of this psychological phenomenon indicate the separation of the emotional component (happiness) and cognitiveperceptual (life satisfaction) (prystupa & kurish, 2010). these structural components are realized in the professional sphere, which is expressed in the formed focus on the other, conflict-free communication, trusting relationships with other people and understanding of others, which determines the duration and fullness of professional life. the multi-vector nature of the study of psychological safety was closely related to the recognized provisions of the concept of ergonomic brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 468 support, creation and operation of complex human-machine complexes (zinchenko & zotova, 2010) and the concept of ergonomic product management (danilyak et al., 2010), because improving efficiency social production is impossible without further acceleration of scientific and technological progress and the introduction of new equipment and technology. improving productivity and quality of work is one of the most important means of achieving high production efficiency. with the development of production changes the conditions, methods and organization of human activity, acquire significant changes in the function, role and place of man in the labor process. the capabilities of the individual increase due to the development of means of labor. this opens up greater opportunities to facilitate human labor, its release from the implementation of monotonous, time-consuming manual operations. however, at the same time the development of production also leads to the improvement of parameters of machines and mechanisms, increasing the level of automation of technological processes, which leads to the emergence of new factors that adversely affect the human body. this forces a person to sometimes work at the limit of functionality. as a result, it is necessary to coordinate the parameters of technical devices with human capabilities. optimization of labor activity is possible only if a person's ability to work is assessed not only by quantitative and qualitative indicators of work tasks, but also by psychophysiological disorders in the body, which gives reason to judge what internal stress achieved this performance (zinchenko & zotova, 2010). based on the definition of ergonomics as a science of systematic optimization of human labor and the conditions of its implementation in the systems "man tools object of labor environment" ("man technology environment"), the study of the concept of ergonomics management, its effectiveness is determined by the design of convenience and comfort conditions of effective human activity through the functioning of systems "man technology environment", maintaining the health and development of the personality of the person who works (danilyak et al., 2010). one of the most important tasks of the ergonomic approach is the selection and substantiation of complex criteria for the effectiveness of "man machine environment" systems, which would contribute to the coordinated functioning of a single system with physiology, psychology and occupational health, systems engineering and technical aesthetics. in general, effective management of product ergonomics involves not only the accumulation of data on "human factors", but also a holistic study of individual types and psychological security of the individual as a functional component of … olha lazorko, et al. 469 forms of human activity, creating methods for its analysis and formalization, identification of all factors that determine its effectiveness. the presented fundamental developments of researchers formed the basis for the development of methods of professional self-preservation of the individual and were presented in the scientific work of shlykova (2004): implementation of a personal professional plan (scenario of professional life); displacement of "motives of false self-actualization", which generate unreliable goals and dreams to the detriment of stable human integrity (overcoming disintegrating consciousness); active position in professional life (the specialist should not feel like a victim of circumstances; he should be an active person in an active professional environment, which often causes obstacles to professional development); readiness for professional self-change, for inclusion in new projects, lability of installations, and therefore development of those qualities which are necessary in the modern changing society (conviction and confidence in the forces, the success, involvement in the decision of socially significant affairs, lack of resistance to innovations, ability to independent choice in professional activity, individual responsibility, competitiveness); knowledge of one's own individuality and its use in professional life (to develop not only the ability to think, but also not to think, calm the mind; control the flow of thoughts and drive away unwanted thoughts depicting negative developments; strengthen your life potential, resilience, achieve high professional qualification, consider it as a source of independence; to prepare oneself for sharp turns of destiny and construction of new models of behavior; trust more in the inner voice, do not commit self-sabotage, emphasizing that "i must, i have to", do not convince yourself of the inevitability of obstacles, do not postpone pleasant things until all the unpleasant things are done, save positive energy, etc.); mastering an individual system of adequate means of overcoming negative states (maintain a positive attitude towards yourself and the field of activity, where the specialist gets control over the circumstances; use "coping" techniques to help cope with obstacles; in some cases and "psychological disconnection" that helps to perceive negative information in doses, etc.); counteraction to professional aging (use of positive mood; creating an image of oneself as impeccable; thinking only about the positive development of future events; striving to achieve at least a little success brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 470 every day, promotion; desires only in a positive form (i can, i can), and in the present tense). it should be noted that the individual differences of people in the manifestation of the development of these methods of self-preservation are the defining characteristics of their professional reliability and suitability for a particular activity. it should also be noted that professional development is often accompanied by periods of crisis, deadaptation, stagnation, regression, professionally undesirable tumors, as well as professional degradation. this usually leads to interpersonal conflicts, emotional burnout and other personal deformities, as well as professional destruction. in one of the works of j. verna the main risks of manifestation of professional deformations of personality are singled out, among which blocking the development of professionally important qualities of a specialist; initiation of personal alienation of the specialist, loss of professional maturity of the specialist (virna, 2015). detailing each of these risks allows us to consider the psychological phenomenon of occupational safety as a multilevel and dynamic system, which localizes a large number of complex processes associated with the formation of motives, goals, plans, operational images, and so on. in general, speaking about the professional safety of the individual, we can talk not only about the prevention of personal distortions in their profession, but also about the choice of social roles, professional stereotypes, lifestyle and lifestyle itself. in this case, the profession or professional roles can be a means to implement a particular way of life or life stereotype. conclusions given the content of professions and the specifics of professional implementation, full of various risk factors, it can be stated that the research practice of psychology is inseparable from the social component, social needs associated with the tasks of training, education, selection of personnel used in material and spiritual production and stimulation of the activity of the person and collective. consideration of occupational safety as a functional component of professional activity includes analysis of categorical and methodological substantiation of this concept in psychology of work in the context of ergonomic provision of effective professional activity of external and individual worker’s protection complex, where special attention is paid to dangerous professions. first of all, the need to take into account the causes psychological security of the individual as a functional component of … olha lazorko, et al. 471 of accidents at work; determining the optimal workload in professional activities; identification of human reserve capabilities and ergonomic optimization of processes of interaction with the production environment. the general differentiated indicators of susceptibility to danger are specified; the preconditions for the formation of psychological security are determined; the factors of occurrence of erroneous actions at performance of professional activity are allocated; the psychological provision of labor safety through a system of organizational measures is outlined. historical digression in the application of a systematic approach to the analysis of professional activity, as well as general psychological provisions of the concept of systemogenesis of professional activity, the concept of structural and functional organization of self-regulation, the concept of maladaptive activity (risk readiness) and the concept of product ergonomics personality in assessing the quality of human life. elaboration on the definition of the psychological signs of work and its gradations and developments of receptions of professional self-preservation of the person is presented. references algin, a. (2002). risk v predprinimatelstve [risk in entrepreneurship]. lan. anderson, j., & freeman, w. (1990). cognitive psychology and its implication (3rd ed.). w. h. freeman and company. arkhangelsky, s. (1958). ocherki po psikhologii truda [essays on the psychology of labor]. trudrezervizdat. bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1585-1590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf bodrov, v. (2001). psikhologiya professionalnoy prigodnosti : uchebnoe posobie dlya vuzov [psychology of professional suitability]. pyerse. buzunov, v. (1991). proizvodstvennye faktory i vozrastnaya rabotosposobnost [production factors and age performance]. zdorovya. danilyak, v., munipov, v., & fedorov, m. (2010). ergodizayn, kachestvo, konkurentosposobnost [ergodesign, quality, competitiveness]. publishing house of standards. deineka, o. (2000). ekonomicheskaya psikhologiya : uchebnoe posobie [economic psychology]. st. petersburg publishing house. dikaya, l., & makhnach, a. (1996). otnoshenie cheloveka k neblagopriyatnym sobytiyam i faktory ego formirovaniya [the attitude of man to adverse http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2021 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 12, issue 4 472 events and factors of its formation]. psychologist magazine, 17(3), 137-146. https://lib.ipran.ru/paper/20982600 golovanova, e. (2008). kategoriya professionalnogo deyatelya: formirovanie, razvitie, status v yazyke [category of professional figure: formation, development, status in the language] (2nd ed.). elpis. klimov, e. (1998). vvedenie v psikhologiyu truda : uchebnik dlya studentov vuzov [introduction to the psychology of labor]. kultura i sport yuniti. klimov, e. (2009). idealy kultury i stanovlenie subekta professionalnoy deyatelnosti [ideals of culture and the formation of the subject of professional activity]. psychologist magazine, 3(1), 94-101. http://childpsy.ru/lib/articles/id/10136.php konopkin, o. (1980). psikhologicheskie mekhanizmy regulyatsii deyatelnosti [psychological mechanisms of activity regulation]. nauka. kornilova, t. (2003). psikhologiya riska i prinyatiya resheniy [psychology of risk and decision]. aspekt press. lazarus, r. s. (1991). progress on a cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion. american psychologist, 46(8), 819-834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.46.8.819 lazorko, o. (2015). svidomist indyvida yak indykator profesiinoi bezpeky osobystosti [consciousness of the individual as an indicator of professional security of the individual]. problemy humanitarnykh nauk : zb. nauk. prats drohobytskoho derzh. ped. un-tu im. ivana franka. seriia “psykholohiia,” 35(1), 26-36. http://phsps.dspu.edu.ua/article/view/158938 lomov, v. (1984). metodologicheskie i teoreticheskie problemy psikhologii [methodological and theoretical problems of psychology]. nayka. marinenko, n. (1991). uroki bezopasnost [security lessons]. mashinostroenie. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 nikiforova, g. (2006). psikhologiya professionalnogo zdorov’ya : uchebnoe posobie [psychology of occupational health]. rech. nosov, v. (1994). bezopasnost truda [occupational safety]. mashinostroenie. olefir, v. (2012). osobystisnyi potentsial yak faktor psykholohichnoho blahopoluchchia [personal potential as a factor of psychological wellhttps://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.46.8.819 http://phsps.dspu.edu.ua/article/view/158938 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 psychological security of the individual as a functional component of … olha lazorko, et al. 473 being]. naukovyi chasopys npu im. m. p. drahomanova, 12(37), 223-226. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nchnpu_012_2012_37_61 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 petrovsky, v. (1992). psikhologiya neadaptivnoy aktivnosti [psychology of maladaptive activity]. too “gorbunok.” pryazhnikov, n. (1996). professionalnoe i lichnostnoe samoopredelenie [professional and personal self-determination] inst. psychology voronezh modek. prystupa, e., & kurish, n. (2010). yakist zhyttia liudyny: katehorii, komponenty ta yikh vymiriuvannia [quality of human life: categories, components and their measurement]. fizychna aktyvnist, zdorovia i sport, 1(2), 54-63. https://doi.org/http://sportscience.ldufk.edu.ua/index.php/fazis/article/ viewfile/90/85 rean, a. (1988). psikhologicheskiy analiz problemy udovletvorennosti izbrannoy professiey [psychological analysis of the problem of satisfaction with the chosen profession]. voprosy psikhologii, 1, 83-88. https://www.studmed.ru/rean-aa-psihologicheskiy-analiz-problemyudovletvorennosti-izbrannoy-professiey_a7945622de7.html shadrikov, v. (1981). vvedenie v psikhologicheskuyu teoriyu professionalnogo obucheniya : uchebnoe posobie [introduction to the psychological theory of vocational training]. yaroslavl. shlykova, n. (2004). psikhologicheskaya bezopasnost subekta professionalnoy deyatelnosti [psychological safety of the subject of professional activity]. triada. spilker, b. (1996). quality of life and pharmaeconomics in clinical trials. lippincott-raven. tolochek, v. (2006). sovremennaya psikhologiya truda: uchebnoe posobie [modern psychology of labor]. piter. virna, z. (2015). professional deformations: tendencies, dynamics and risks of manifestation. annales universitatis mariae curie-skłodowska, 28(2), 123-136. https://journals.umcs.pl/j/article/download/2553/2923 zinchenko, v., & gordon, v. (1975). metodologicheskie problemy psikhologicheskogo analiza deyatelnosti : sistemnye issledovaniya [methodological problems of psychological analysis of activity: system research]. an sssr. zinchenko, y., & zotova, o. (2010). osnovy bezopasnosti lichnosti i obshchestva: monografiya [fundamentals of security of the person and society: monograph]. akad. povysheniya kvalifikatsii i perepodgotovki rabotnikov obrazovaniya. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://doi.org/http:/sportscience.ldufk.edu.ua/index.php/fazis/article/viewfile/90/85 https://doi.org/http:/sportscience.ldufk.edu.ua/index.php/fazis/article/viewfile/90/85 https://journals.umcs.pl/j/article/download/2553/2923 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 159-174 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/310 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and hyponatremia biological markers of unfavorable evolution in schizophrenia puiu olivian stovicek¹, dragoş marinescu2, liana păuna-cristian3, ileana marinescu4 1 lecturer, department of pharmacology, faculty of nursing, târgu jiu subsidiary, “titu maiorescu” university, bucharest, romania, puiuolivian@yahoo.com 2 professor, academy of medical sciences of romania, university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova brunch, craiova, romania, marinescu_psy@yahoo.com 3 department of radiology, gral medical center, bucharest, romania, lee_bio@yahoo.com 4 associate professor, discipline of psychiatry, 5th department, faculty of medicine, university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova, romania, marinescu_psy@yahoo.com abstract: adverse reactions to psychotropic medication can be considered as risk indicators for an unfavorable evolution of patients with schizophrenia, based on particular pathogenic mechanisms that can be used in the personalized therapeutic approach. the combination of antidepressants with antipsychotic drugs in schizophrenia has a risk of synergistic action of excessive blockade of dopamine receptors, which causes hyperprolactinemia. primary hyponatremia occurs during pregnancy and can be an important marker for signaling neurodevelopmental abnormalities, while secondary hyponatremia has a major clinical dimension and is induced by psychotropic drugs. the pathogenic mechanisms presented can be objectified by neuroimaging examinations that bring benefits in the diagnostic accuracy and reevaluation of the therapeutic approach, especially in correlation with the severity of biological markers such as prolactin and sodium. the persistence of high prolactin and low sodium levels is an alarm signal that announces a negative evolution of the patient or a major risk of severe cardiac, metabolic, vascular or renal comorbidities. recognition of pathogenic mechanisms of neurodevelopment, including ventriculomegaly, hyponatremia, focal cortical dysplasia, hippocampal or temporal lobe lesions, in association with a positive history of neonatal or febrile seizures, requires prophylaxis due to high risk of onset of schizophrenia in childhood. fetal cortical dysplasia is associated with the risk of neonatal seizures. this vulnerability favors the appearance of febrile convulsions or enuresis with changes in brain structure. enuresis may be an important marker of neurodevelopmental potential for schizophrenia. neonatal seizures are correlated with hyponatremia and severe hypertension, which appeared in the third trimester of pregnancy, can trigger eclampsia. neuroimaging monitoring in patients with neurodevelopmental abnormalities, hyperprolactinemia and primary or secondary hyponatremia, acquires a major importance, being able to delimit the boundary between a functional lesion, potentially reversible, with an irreversible lesion. keywords: schizophrenia, hyperprolactinemia, hyponatremia, dopamine, demyelination. how to cite: dumea, e., efrim, n.d., petcu, a., anghel, l., & puscasu, c.g. (2022). drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and hyponatremia biological markers of unfavorable evolution in schizophrenia. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 159-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/310 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/310 mailto:puiuolivian@yahoo.com mailto:marinescu_psy@yahoo.com mailto:lee_bio@yahoo.com mailto:marinescu_psy@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/310 drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and hyponatremia biological markers of … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 160 1. introduction psychopharmacological advances that have aimed to achieve a positive report between the therapeutic benefits and risks of side effects, did not bring the expected results. schizophrenia is a formidable condition in terms of the most frequently incomplete therapeutic response, but also the risk of various side effects, which can sometimes be severe. our clinical experience highlights the possibility of addressing the adverse reactions and events of psychotropic medication administered in schizophrenia, as risk indicators for an unfavorable evolution. in some situations, the onset of a side effects may lead the clinical psychopharmacologist to identify particular pathogenic mechanisms that can be used in the personalized therapeutic approach (radulescu et al., 2020). based on these premises, we tried to present the link between hyperprolactinemia, an adverse drug reaction that occurred frequently in daily practice but often minimized, hyponatremia and neurobiological vulnerabilities. this connection can be considered as a risk factor for a negative evolution of schizophrenia, in the short term, but with severe potential, in the long term and with the risk of multiple comorbidities. 2. the consequences of drug-induced hyperprolactinemia the increase in blood levels of prolactin can be determined directly by the excessive blockade of dopamine d2 receptors in the tuberoinfundibular pathway, as well as indirectly by the increase in serotonin levels which causes a secondary hypodopaminergy. hyperprolactinemia is amplified by the frequent use of the association between antipsychotics and antidepressants (torre & falorni, 2007). it has been shown that depression can occur in about 25% of patients with schizophrenia. frequently, this depressive symptomatology may constitute a clinical picture of the onset of schizophrenia, leading to delayed diagnosis (mao & zhang, 2015). the pharmacological approach with antidepressants in these patients may increase dopamine deficiency, which is why the therapeutic response is incomplete. in this case, the therapeutic adequacy is not observed and the antipsychotic treatment is unreasonably delayed. from our point of view, although it is considered useful association of antidepressants in the treatment of schizophrenia, there is a risk of synergistic action of inhibiting the dopamine system and excessive blockade of dopamine receptors, which causes a high increase in prolactin levels. low doses of antipsychotics or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (ssri) brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 161 antidepressants that cause hyperprolactinemia or galactorrhea are a pharmacological indicator that suggests a neurodevelopmental anomaly. in this context, the presence of ventriculomegaly at neuroimaging examination, suggests lesions in the subventricular zone, which diminishes the process of neurogenesis (todd et al., 2018). the appearance of dysfunctions or microlesions in the hippocampus and hypothalamus, anticipates the risk of frontal atrophy. frontal lobe lesions may be exacerbated by the imbalance of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (gaba)/glutamate balance and the cytotoxic effect of glutamate, decreased dopamine levels with the onset of hypofrontality syndrome or dopamine d2 receptor blockade. through these brain mechanisms, prolactin levels rise excessively and correlate with a high risk of severe hyponatremia and thrombotic events (van zaane et al., 2011) (figure 1). figure 1. consequences of drug-induced secondary hyponatremia in schizophrenia source: van zaane et al., 2011 long-term hyperprolactinemia can cause severe changes in heart rhythm as in congenital long qt syndrome (schwartz et al., 2009), which, although it has a low incidence, becomes a major contraindication to the administration of psychotropic drugs that prolong the qt interval. specific to the increase in serum prolactin, may be the prolongation of the qt interval characteristic of brugada syndrome, which is clinically underestimated. this syndrome is associated with severe ventricular drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and hyponatremia biological markers of … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 162 repolarization disorders or the risk of sudden death (antzelevitch et al., 2003). brugada syndrome has also been identified in teenage girl with anorexia. if anorexic onset may be correlated with body dysmorphic disorder, it should be considered that chronic anorexia may become circumstance with a major cardiac risk. consequently, any onset with anorexia manifestations of a psychotic disorder requires a cardiological evaluation and electrocardiographic examination, prior to any psychotropic pharmacological intervention (docx et al., 2014). treatment with antipsychotics even at low doses or with antidepressants has a major risk of severe cardiac events, by prolonging the qt interval, with the development of brugada syndrome or sudden death (sicouri & antzelevitch, 2018). high levels of serum prolactin are also associated with the risk of breast cancer in women (wang et al., 2016), prostate cancer in men (crépin et al., 2007), gastrointestinal or endometrial cancer (lopez-vicchi & becuvillalobos, 2017). cases of breast cancer have also been reported in men with hyperprolactinemia (haga et al., 1993). prostate cancer can have an acinar, neuroendocrine or mixed proliferation, depending on the activity of interleukin-8 (il-8) and the expression of il-8 receptors, which can modulate the tumor by autocrine or paracrine pathway (stănculeanu et al., 2017). treatment with antipsychotics that cause hyperprolactinemia has an oncological risk due to its action on the prolactin-janus kinase 2 (jak2) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (stat5) signaling pathway, which stimulates cell differentiation and inhibits cell apoptosis (johnston et al., 2018). in terms of clinical manifestations, the long-term effects of hyperprolactinemia may be galactorrhea and amenorrhea in women or erectile dysfunction with azoospermia in men (hao et al., 2020). 3. secondary hyponatremia, induced by psychotropic drugs pharmacological treatment with antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and especially with ssri antidepressants, may have as an adverse reaction hyponatremia, characterized by decreased in serum sodium levels below 135 millimoles per liter (mmol/l) (cortés & muñoz, 2018). symptoms may include apathy, adynamia, fatigue, and are sometimes misinterpreted as belonging to depression. postpsychotic depression (after an acute episode of schizophrenia) is a hypodopaminergic-type depression that will not respond to antidepressant treatment, but will increase the risk of hyperprolactinemia (untu et al., 2015). in patients treated with psychotropic drugs, hyponatremia may be aggravated by the presence of risk factors such as age, early onset of brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 163 psychiatric disorder, mild traumatic brain injury (mtbi), oncological risk, the presence of other metabolic or cardiovascular somatic comorbidities (ather siddiqui et al., 2018). given that a relatively small decrease of 10 mmol/l in serum sodium levels in severe hyponatremia (below 125 mmol/l) causes a major risk of coma and death, sodium evaluation becomes an important biological marker indicating re-evaluation of diagnosis and discontinuation of psychotropic treatment. an important problem in clinical practice is the difficulty of the differential clinical diagnosis between hyponatremia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome (nms), especially if these pathologies are associated with convulsive symptoms (looi et al., 1995). nms can also be induced by psychiatric drugs, especially those with antidopaminergic action on dopamine d2 receptors (ananth et al., 2004). rapid therapeutic intervention to correct sodium levels may lead to the onset of myelinolysis syndrome or osmotic demyelination syndrome (mascarenhas & jude, 2014), which frequently occurs at the pontine level (martin, 2004) or extrapontine (zunga et al., 2015). extrapontine myelinolysis may be favored by severe renal failure (tarhan et al., 2004). patients with cognitive impairment and neurological disorders, especially motor deficit such as parkinsonism, should be evaluated neuroimaging by magnetic resonance imaging (mri) for early identification of demyelinating changes and should be monitored dynamically for serum sodium levels (chirita et al., 2012; mascarenhas & jude, 2014). 4. syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion and diabetes antipsychotic-induced dopamine d2 receptor blockade may affect pancreatic β-cells function, promoting the onset of diabetes. diabetes affects renal function that may worsen in the context of small vessel disease (svd)type pathology, which at the renal level becomes an etiopathogenic factor of chronic renal failure. diabetes and cardiometabolic syndrome can be considered as side effects of some antipsychotic drugs (holt, 2019). diabetes treatment in patients with schizophrenia is difficult due to low adherence and compliance to treatment. for this reason, the course of metabolic disease can be severe causing syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (siadh), which amplifies the risk of severe hyponatremia (harrois & anstey, 2019). on the other hand, impaired functionality of cerebral small vessels and chronic cerebral ischemia syndrome cause hypothalamic dysfunction and cognitive deficit (sacuiu et al., 2012). thalamic dysfunction and siadh may be exacerbated by drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and hyponatremia biological markers of … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 164 increased serotonin levels induced by proserotonergic antidepressant drugs (pillai et al., 2011). 5. neuroimaging evaluation the pathogenic mechanisms presented can be objectified by neuroimaging examinations, which can bring benefits in the diagnostic accuracy and re-evaluation of the therapeutic approach, especially in correlation with the severity of biological markers (ciubara et al., 2015). it is important to monitor biological markers over time, especially prolactin and sodium, their severe change being an indication for neuroimaging examination. mri assessment can identify pontine demyelinating changes (figure 2). extrapontine demyelination can be located in the corpus callosum (figure 3) or in the cerebellum (figure 4). ventriculomegaly can be highlighted following atrophy of the subventricular zone and periventricular leukomalacia (figure 5). svd changes in the brain can be easily identified by white matter hyperintensities at the periventricular level (figure 6). in case of persistent hyperprolactinemia, the diagnosis of prolactinoma should be eliminated. under conditions of psychotropic treatments that induce massive prolactin release, an enlargement of the pituitary gland due to hyperfunction was found (figure 7). the use of these neuroimaging markers in times of uncertainty diagnose or lack of therapeutic response may be of major importance to the patient. the occurrence of pontine myelinolysis can help the differential diagnosis with nms and requires the rebalancing of hyponatremia, accompanied or not by extrapontine demyelination syndrome. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 165 source: authors’ own conception figure 2. mri image with oval lesion on pons that has hyperintense signal on fluidattenuated inversion recovery (flair) sequence, symmetrical, with no mass effect (central pontine myelinolysis). figure 3. mri image with demyelinating lesion of the corpus callosum, with flair hyperintense signal. source: authors’ own conception figure 4. axial flair mri image with a consistent with bilateral cerebellar white matter lesions (infratentorial demyelinating lesion). figure 5. axial t2 mri image demonstrate marked dilatation of the ventricular system (ventriculomegaly); there is no transependymal edema (chronic dilatation). drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and hyponatremia biological markers of … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 166 source: authors’ own conception figure 6. mri image with multiple periventricular white matter lesions (demyelinating lesions). figure 7. mri image of the pituitarydynamic contrast enhanced sequence demonstrates a mass, in the left pituitary gland, with remodeling of the sellar floor. 6. primary hyponatremia in pregnancy if the secondary hyponatremia induced by psychotropic drugs has a major clinical dimension, the primary hyponatremia that appeared since the gestational period can be an important marker for signaling neurodevelopmental abnormalities. frequently, the pregnant woman may have different types of hypertensions: pre-existing pregnancy and under treatment, started during pregnancy (gestational hypertension) or in the third trimester of pregnancy when it can announce the risk of eclampsia. pregnant women with hypertension treated with diuretics or ssri antidepressants for pre-pregnancy depression may have low serum sodium from the first weeks of pregnancy (braunthal & brateanu, 2019). at the same time, pregnancy predisposes to changes in plasma osmolarity that may occur in early pregnancy and announces vulnerability to the onset of siadh (sutton et al., 1993). the presence of kidney disease amplifies this risk and serum sodium values require strict monitoring, due to the constant decrease that can cause severe hyponatremia. therapy with antihypertensive drugs can trigger gestational hypotension, and by crossing the placenta, at the level brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 167 of cerebral neurodevelopment of the fetus, manifestations of focal cortical dysplasia may occur (kabat & król, 2012). at the same time, intrauterine growth restriction (iugr) pathology is installed, which favors premature birth and obstetric complications with risk of maternal death. fetal growth restrictions cause astrocyte dysfunction which, in a first stage, tries to compensate for the effects of hyponatremia in the fetal brain. when this compensating capacity is exceeded, the phenomenon of microglial activation is triggered. activation of the m1 phenotype is associated with hyperpermeability lesions of the blood-brain barrier (bbb) that may trigger epileptic seizures in childhood (orihuela et al., 2016). on the other hand, bbb dysfunction caused by hyperglutamatergia, simultaneously with depression and non-responsiveness to oncological treatment, may be an alarm signal for the occurrence of brain metastases in prostate cancer (marinescu et al., 2019). microglial activation increases neuronal destruction by proinflammatory and cytokine mechanisms, with the occurrence of cognitive deficit, especially in patients who had mtbi in childhood (ciobotea et al., 2016; stovicek et al., 2020). in this way we can explain the neurodegenerative symptoms of schizophrenia. imbalance of the m1/m2 phenotypic balance causes hippocampal and temporal lobe atrophies in the fetal brain (figure 8). these lesions cause temporal lobe epilepsy or schizophrenia-like psychosis in childhood or adolescence (finegersh et al., 2011). fetal cortical dysplasia is associated with the risk of neonatal seizures. in young children this vulnerability favors the appearance of febrile convulsions or enuresis with changes in brain structure and electroencephalogram examination (figure 9). drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and hyponatremia biological markers of … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 168 figure 8. coronal flair sequence mri image demonstrates moderate degree of volume loss of the left temporal lobe; the temporal horns are dilated, with volume loss of the hippocampus. source: authors’ own conception figure 9. consequences of primary hyponatremia, as a neurodevelopmental abnormality source: finegersh et al., 2011 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 169 enuresis may be an important marker of neurodevelopmental potential for schizophrenia, along with neuroimaging changes that highlight gray matter losses in the frontal lobe (hyde et al., 2008). neonatal seizures are also associated with hyponatremia (pasi et al., 2019). hypertension in the third trimester of pregnancy, with severe evolution can trigger eclampsia, which can be a risk marker for the further development of schizophrenia (cannon et al., 2002), while pregnant patients with schizophrenia have a higher risk of pre-eclampsia and thrombotic events (raimondi & sheiner, 2015). 7. conclusions the pathogenic models presented have clinical applicability, patients with schizophrenia needing to identify biological indicators such as prolactin and sodium, before administering psychotropic drugs. monitoring must be done continuously, the persistence of high prolactin values and low sodium levels being an alarm signal that announces a negative evolution of the patient or a major risk of severe cardiac, metabolic, vascular or renal comorbidities. neuroimaging monitoring in patients with neurodevelopmental abnormalities, hyperprolactinemia and primary or secondary hyponatremia, acquires a major importance, being able to delimit the boundary between a functional lesion, potentially reversible, with a lesion, irreversible. recognition of pathogenic neurodevelopmental mechanisms that include ventriculomegaly, hyponatremia, focal cortical dysplasia, hippocampal or temporal lobe lesions, in association with a positive history of neonatal or febrile seizures, requires prophylactic measures due to the high risk of onset of schizophrenia in childhood or adolescence. prolactin monitoring should become a routine for the clinical psychiatrist, being a short-term or medium-term predictive indicator for the unfavorable evolution of schizophrenia, with the appearance of cognitive impairment and hypofrontality syndrome, accompanied by negative symptoms and depression. cardiovascular risk is represented by severe heart rhythm abnormalities or thrombotic risk. the association of antidepressants with antipsychotics in the therapy of schizophrenia brings limited therapeutic benefits, but the medium-term and long-term risks are major and contribute to unfavorable evolution, somatic comorbidities and decreased quality of life of the patient. drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and hyponatremia biological markers of … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 170 references ananth, j., aduri, k., parameswaran, s., & gunatilake, s. (2004). neuroleptic malignant syndrome: risk factors, pathophysiology, and treatment. acta neuropsychiatrica, 16(4), 219-228. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.09242708.2004.00085.x antzelevitch, c., brugada, p., brugada, j., brugada, r., towbin, j. a., & nademanee, k. (2003). brugada syndrome: 1992-2002: a historical perspective. journal of the american college of cardiology, 41(10), 1665–1671. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0735-1097(03)00310-3 ather siddiqui, j., qureshi, s.f., & al zaharani, a. (2018). psychotropic-induced hyponatremia: a review. psychiatry and behavioral sciences 8(4), 213-221. https://doi.org/10.5455/pbs.20180324094723 braunthal, s., & brateanu, a. (2019). hypertension in pregnancy: pathophysiology and treatment. sage open medicine, 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050312119843700 cannon, m., jones, p. b., & murray, r. m. (2002). obstetric complications and schizophrenia: historical and meta-analytic review. the american journal of psychiatry, 159(7), 1080–1092. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.7.1080 chirita, r., sacuiu, i., burlea, a., & chirita, v. (2012). the role of nitric oxide inhibitors in treatment on symptom severity and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15 (1 sup 1) 113-113. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1461145712000508 ciobotea, d., vlaicu, b., ciubara, a., duica, c. l., cotocel, c., antohi, v., & pirlog, m. c. (2016). visual impairment in the elderly and its influence on the quality of life. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 54, 66-74. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-oflife.html ciubara, a., cartas, n., burlea, l. s., chirita, r., ciubara, b. a., untu, i., & iliescu, d. b. (2015). the relationship between schizophrenia and criminality. european psychiatry, 30(s1), 1-1. https://doi.org/10.1016/s09249338(15)30603-9 cortés, m., & muñoz, p. (2018). hyponatremia and psychotropic drugs. in usman mahmood (ed.), fluid and electrolyte disorders. intecophen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79029 crépin, a., bidaux, g., vanden-abeele, f., dewailly, e., goffin, v., prevarskaya, n., & slomianny, c. (2007). prolactin stimulates prostate cell proliferation by increasing endoplasmic reticulum content due to serca 2b overexpression. the biochemical journal, 401(1), 49–55. https://doi.org/10.1042/bj20060870 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0924-2708.2004.00085.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0924-2708.2004.00085.x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0735-1097(03)00310-3 https://doi.org/10.5455/pbs.20180324094723 https://doi.org/10.1177/2050312119843700 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.7.1080 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1461145712000508 https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293-visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-of-life.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293-visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-of-life.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293-visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-of-life.html https://doi.org/10.1016/s0924-9338(15)30603-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0924-9338(15)30603-9 https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79029 https://doi.org/10.1042/bj20060870 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 171 docx, m., loeys, b., simons, a., gewillig, m., proost, d., van laer, l., & mertens, l. (2014). intermittent brugada syndrome in an anorexic adolescent girl. journal of cardiology cases, 10(3), 81–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jccase.2014.03.012 finegersh, a., avedissian, c., shamim, s., dustin, i., thompson, p. m., & theodore, w. h. (2011). bilateral hippocampal atrophy in temporal lobe epilepsy: effect of depressive symptoms and febrile seizures. epilepsia, 52(4), 689-697. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-1167.2010.02928.x haga, s., watanabe, o., shimizu, t., iida, t., imamura, h., kajiwara, t., & fujibayashi, m. (1993). breast cancer in a male patient with prolactinoma. surgery today, 23(3), 251–255. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00309236 hao, s., huang, m., tian, w., chen, y., zhao, j., & luo, d. (2020). whole exome sequencing in the male breast cancer with prolactinoma: a case report and literature review. journal of breast cancer, 23(6), 656–664. https://doi.org/10.4048/jbc.2020.23.e63 harrois, a., & anstey, j. r. (2019). diabetes insipidus and syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone in critically ill patients. critical care clinics, 35(2), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccc.2018.11.00 holt, r. (2019). association between antipsychotic medication use and diabetes. current diabetes reports, 19(10), 96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-0191220-8 hyde, t. m., deep-soboslay, a., iglesias, b., callicott, j. h., gold, j. m., meyerlindenberg, a., honea, r. a., bigelow, l. b., egan, m. f., emsellem, e. m., & weinberger, d. r. (2008). enuresis as a premorbid developmental marker of schizophrenia. brain: a journal of neurology, 131(9), 2489–2498. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awn167 johnston, a. n., bu, w., hein, s., garcia, s., camacho, l., xue, l., qin, l., nagi, c., hilsenbeck, s. g., kapali, g., j., podsypanina, k., nangia, j., & li, y. (2018). hyperprolactinemia-inducing antipsychotics increase breast cancer risk by activating jak-stat5 in precancerous lesions. breast cancer research: bcr, 20(1), 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13058-018-0969-z kabat, j., & król, p. (2012). focal cortical dysplasia review. polish journal of radiology, 77(2), 35–43. https://doi.org/10.12659/pjr.882968 looi, j. c., cubis, j. c., & saboisky, j. (1995). hyponatremia, convulsions and neuroleptic malignant syndrome in a male with schizoaffective disorder. the australian and new zealand journal of psychiatry, 29(4), 683–687. https://doi.org/10.3109/00048679509064986 lopez-vicchi, f., & becu-villalobos, d. (2017). prolactin: the bright and the dark side. endocrinology, 158(6), 1556–1559. https://doi.org/10.1210/en.201700184 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jccase.2014.03.012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-1167.2010.02928.x https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00309236 https://doi.org/10.4048/jbc.2020.23.e63 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccc.2018.11.00 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-019-1220-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-019-1220-8 https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awn167 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13058-018-0969-z https://doi.org/10.12659/pjr.882968 https://doi.org/10.3109/00048679509064986 https://doi.org/10.1210/en.2017-00184 https://doi.org/10.1210/en.2017-00184 drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and hyponatremia biological markers of … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 172 mao, y. m., & zhang, m. d. (2015). augmentation with antidepressants in schizophrenia treatment: benefit or risk. neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 11, 701–713. https://doi.org/10.2147/ndt.s62266 marinescu, i., schenker, r. a., stovicek, p. o., marinescu, d., ciobanu, c. f., papacocea, s. i., manea, m. c., papacocea, r. i., manea, m., chirita, r., & ciobanu, a. m. (2019). biochemical factors involved in the unfavorable evolution of prostate cancer. revista de chimie, 70(9), 3343-3347. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.9.7546 martin, r. j. (2004). central pontine and extrapontine myelinolysis: the osmotic demyelination syndromes. journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, 75(sup. 3), 22–28. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2004.045906 mascarenhas, j. v., & jude, e. b. (2014). central pontine myelinolysis: electrolytes and beyond. bmj case reports, bcr2013203516. https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2013-203516 orihuela, r., mcpherson, c. a., & harry, g. j. (2016). microglial m1/m2 polarization and metabolic states. british journal of pharmacology, 173(4), 649– 665. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.13139 pasi, r., roy, b., ravi, k., & chacham, s. (2019). profile of neonatal seizures and its correlation with serum sodium levels: a prospective cross-sectional study. journal of clinical and diagnostic research, 13(4), sc04-sc07. https://doi.org/10.7860/jcdr/2019/40485.12760 pillai, b. p., unnikrishnan, a. g., & pavithran, p. v. (2011). syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion: revisiting a classical endocrine disorder. indian journal of endocrinology and metabolism, 15(suppl3), 208–215. https://doi.org/10.4103/2230-8210.84870 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 raimondi, a., & sheiner, e. (2015). pregnant women with schizophrenia are at higher risk of pre-eclampsia, venous thromboembolism and adverse neonatal outcomes. evidence-based nursing, 18(2), 39–40. https://doi.org/10.1136/eb-2014-101902 sacuiu, i., chirita, v., burlea, a., & chirita, r. (2012). the effect of the atypical antipsychotics on cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15, 61-61. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1461145712000508 schwartz, p. j., stramba-badiale, m., crotti, l., pedrazzini, m., besana, a., bosi, g., gabbarini, f., goulene, k., insolia, r., mannarino, s., mosca, f., nespoli, l., rimini, a., rosati, e., salice, p., & spazzolini, c. (2009). prevalence of the https://doi.org/10.2147/ndt.s62266 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.9.7546 https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2004.045906 https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2013-203516 https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.13139 https://doi.org/10.7860/jcdr/2019/40485.12760 https://doi.org/10.4103/2230-8210.84870 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://doi.org/10.1136/eb-2014-101902 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1461145712000508 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 173 congenital long-qt syndrome. circulation, 120(18), 1761–1767. https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.109.863209 sicouri, s., & antzelevitch, c. (2018). mechanisms underlying the actions of antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs that cause sudden cardiac arrest. arrhythmia & electrophysiology review, 7(3), 199–209. https://doi.org/10.15420/aer.2018.29.2 stănculeanu, d. l., ardeleanu, c. m., zob, d. l., mihăilă, r. i., toma, o. c., simion, l., stovicek, p. o., & schenker, m. (2017). adenocarcinoma versus pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor case report. romanian journal of morphology and embryology, 58(3), 1091–1097. https://rjme.ro/rjme/resources/files/58031710911097.pdf stovicek, p. o., friedmann, c., marinescu, d., văduva, i. a., bondari, s., trifu, s. c., & marinescu, i. (2020). mild tbi in the elderly risk factor for rapid cognitive impairment in alzheimer's disease. romanian journal of morphology and embryology, 61(1), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.47162/rjme.61.1.07 sutton, r. a., schonholzer, k., & kassen, b. o. (1993). transient syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion during pregnancy. american journal of kidney diseases: the official journal of the national kidney foundation, 21(4), 444–445. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0272-6386(12)80275-7 tarhan, n. c., agildere, a. m., benli, u. s., ozdemir, f. n., aytekin, c., & can, u. (2004). osmotic demyelination syndrome in end-stage renal disease after recent hemodialysis: mri of the brain. american journal of roentgenology, 182(3), 809–816. https://doi.org/10.2214/ajr.182.3.1820809 todd, k. l., brighton, t., norton, e. s., schick, s., elkins, w., pletnikova, o., fortinsky, r. h., troncoso, j. c., molfese, p. j., resnick, s. m., conover, j. c., & alzheimer’s disease neuroimaging initiative (2018). ventricular and periventricular anomalies in the aging and cognitively impaired brain. frontiers in aging neuroscience, 9, 445. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00445 torre, d. l., & falorni, a. (2007). pharmacological causes of hyperprolactinemia. therapeutics and clinical risk management, 3(5), 929–951. untu, i., chirita, r., bulgaru-iliescu, d., chirila, b.d., ciubara, a., & burlea, s.l. (2015). ethical implications of bio-psycho-social transformations entailed by the aging process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 48, 216-225. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-socialtransformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html van zaane, b., squizzato, a., reuwer, a. q., van zanten, a. p., twickler, m. t., dekkers, o. m., cannegieter, s. c., büller, h. r., gerdes, v. e., & brandjes, d. p. (2011). prolactin and venous thrombosis: indications for a https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.109.863209 https://doi.org/10.15420/aer.2018.29.2 https://rjme.ro/rjme/resources/files/58031710911097.pdf https://doi.org/10.47162/rjme.61.1.07 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0272-6386(12)80275-7 https://doi.org/10.2214/ajr.182.3.1820809 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00445 https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul-482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-social-transformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul-482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-social-transformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/136-volumul-482015martie/2161-ethical-implications-of-bio-psycho-social-transformations-entailed-by-the-aging-process.html drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and hyponatremia biological markers of … puiu olivian stovicek, et al. 174 novel risk factor? arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology, 31(3), 672– 677. https://doi.org/10.1161/atvbaha.110.209569 wang, m., wu, x., chai, f., zhang, y., & jiang, j. (2016). plasma prolactin and breast cancer risk: a metaanalysis. scientific reports, 6, 25998. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25998 zunga, p. m., farooq, o., dar, m. i., dar, i. h., rashid, s., rather, a. q., basu, j. a., ashraf, m., & bhat, j. a. (2015). extra pontine osmotic demyelination syndrome. annals of neurosciences, 22(1), 51–53. https://doi.org/10.5214/ans.0972.7531.220212 https://doi.org/10.1161/atvbaha.110.209569 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25998 https://doi.org/10.5214/ans.0972.7531.220212 microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1 61 modern tools in patient-centred speech therapy for romanian language mirela danubianu “stefan cel mare” university, 13 universitatii, 720229 suceava, romania mdanub@eed.usv.ro iolanda tobolcea “alexandru ioan cuza” university of iasi, 3 toma cozma, 700554, iaşi, romania itobolcea@yahoo.com abstract the most common way to communicate with those around us is speech. suffering from a speech disorder can have negative social effects: from leaving the individuals with low confidence and moral to problems with social interaction and the ability to live independently like adults. the speech therapy intervention is a complex process having particular objectives such as: discovery and identification of speech disorder and directing the therapy to correction, recovery, compensation, adaptation and social integration of patients. computer-based speech therapy systems are a real help for therapists by creating a special learning environment. the romanian language is a phonetic one, with special linguistic particularities. this paper aims to present a few computer-based speech therapy systems developed for the treatment of various speech disorders specific to romanian language. keywords: speech disorder, personalised speech therapy, computer-based speech therapy systems, romanian language. 1. introduction speech is one of the ways we communicate with those around us but in the same time, it is an effective manner to assess the normal growth and development of a person, or to identify potential problems. speech disorders address several situations in which an individual has problems to create or to form the sounds needed to communicate. these are easy to recognise because the speech may be difficult to understand, articulation may be unclear, or the fluency may be affected. the common speech disorders are: articulation disorders, disfluency, and voice disorders. articulation disorders are the most common types of communication disorders occurring in children under the age of 12, but in most cases they can be corrected if the speech therapy is started at an early stage in the children’s development. speech therapists must design different ways to treat speech disorder according to the type and severity of impairment. a large variety of treatment techniques may be used for treating affected children, adolescents or adults. last years, a particular attention was given to the possibility of using the information and communication technology (ict) in the process of speech therapy. research has demonstrated that the combination between the therapist’s experience and the facilities provided by information systems has led to an increased efficiency of the treatment. this paper aims to make a survey of the projects involving computer-based speech therapy for romanian language which allow building a patient-centred therapy schema. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 62 2. speech disorders: characteristics, implications and therapy speech and language impairments refer to various problems manifested in communication and associated areas such as oral motor functions (brice, 2001). from simple problems such as sound substitution to the difficulty of understanding or using the language, these are disorders which, by their nature, do not endanger the life of an individual, but are likely to negatively impact his/her life. some causes of these problems are: drug abuse, physical impairments, neurological disorders, brain injury or mental retardation. referring strictly to speech disorders, according to the national dissemination centre for children with disabilities, they are defined as “difficulties in producing speech sounds, or problems related to the voice quality, and they might be characterised by an interruption in the flow or rhythm of speech, such as stuttering, which is called disfluency, or by the problems with the way sounds are formed, called articulation or phonological disorders” (nichcy). also troubles might be related to the quality of the voice or to its volume. sometimes there may be many combined problems. as such, people with speech problems have difficulty in using some speech sounds, and this can be a symptom of a delay. these individuals may pronounce “lac" instead of "rac" or they may find it difficult to use other sounds like "c" or "g." listeners may understand with difficulty what a person with a speech disorder is trying to say (danubianu, tobolcea, & pentiuc, 2009). all individuals’ communication problems can affect in a negative way their social interaction and their ability to function independently as an adult, and can isolate them from their environment. there are some speech or language patterns, the so called “baby talk”, which are part of a normal development, but if they do not correct in time, they can become problems likely to cause learning difficulties. if children have neurological or physiological problems such as muscular or hearing disorders or developmental delays, this could often affect their acquisition of speech, language and related skills. therefore, it is very important to find the proper moment for intervention (nichcy). the specific objectives of speech therapy intervention are the “detection, complex assessment and identification of language and speech disorders of preschool and early school children, and targeting speech therapy to correction, recovery, compensation, adaptation and social integration. this latter goal involves the application of a personalised therapy on every child or group of children with similar characteristics, therapy adjusted according to their disease severity, and directed towards eliminating the causes that generated the speech impairment” (danubianu, pentiuc, & socaciu, 2009). complex examination provides data regarding social, cognitive and affective parameters, and points out potential general development problems, and articulation or pronunciation problems. considering the complexity of the possible disorders involved, there is a need for varied therapeutic methods, ranging from synthesis and analysis, to the global therapeutic specific methods and techniques. as a result, in order for the therapist to be able to choose the best technique for a specific case, (s)he needs to have a very good knowledge of all these methods. irrespective of the methods used, the therapy stages have to be carried out in a specific order, based on the psychosomatic structure of each child. the therapy starts with the psychological processes involved (cognitive, psychometric and affective-emotional), and it is built on stages, moments and concrete objectives, materialised in specific therapeutic techniques. the techniques take the form of exercises and procedures carried out by the child in order to reach the final goal: the completion of a correct speech act (danubianu, pentiuc, & socaciu, 2009). the main issues in speech therapy are shown in figure 1. m. danubianu, i. tobolcea modern tools in patient-centred speech therapy for romanian language 63 figure 1. key issues in speech therapy 3. how useful is the information and communication technology in speech therapy? because both research and practice have shown that a significant number of people are affected by such disorders, over the last years, efforts have been made in order to design efficient therapy programs, with the aid of the information technology. the information and communication technology (ict) can help children whose physical conditions make communication difficult and, as such, can be employed as a real clinical tool in speech therapy. therefore, the speech therapist can combine the clinical competences (s)he masters with available technical methods and procedures, and thus manage to help their patients, obtaining assessment, treatment and constant feedback in a more flexible and modern manner. in speech therapy, computers can help to diagnose a disorder, they can suggest to the therapist a therapeutically schema and also, they can build sets of exercises to be solved in the therapist’s office, or when the patients do not benefit from the direct supervision and guidance of a speech therapist (levitt, 1993). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 used at diverse stages in speech therapy, the computer based speech therapy (cbst) systems may lead to a new psychological and pedagogic situation. a special learning environment is thus created by means of an innovative, superior method of information retrieval. children’s interest in the activities used during the therapeutic intervention is cultivated by the rich material resources (such as computers) which provide a more efficient and rapid learning. the computer represents a very useful tool, and, through the systematic introduction of new, rich and high-quality information – which can be reproduced in its natural dynamics and environment – it fuels the child’s curiosity and interest in knowledge acquisition, at the same time boosting motivation. as a result, not only does the computer constitute an innovative communication method, but it also contributes to the transmission of emotions, feelings, attitudes, leading to an improved affective life in the child. therefore, one may mention some arguments which support the use of ict in order to improve the speech therapy effectiveness. these are self-assessment tools analysing the errors made and the progress reached, and they allow the patient to hear themselves and judge their progress objectively, because the recording of the verbal samples provide a so called “language immersion” necessary for acquiring a correct pronunciation. cbst systems represent a great support for the therapist in analysing the speech therapy sessions and the feedback received from the patients. they provide the speech therapist with tools for controlling and assessing the effectiveness of the therapeutic strategy initiated, and, if necessary, they contribute to a reconsideration of the strategy. given their friendly interfaces, these systems create a pleasant, relaxed, and attractive climate, determining a better state of mind. providing an appropriate feedback stimulates the desire for success, self trust, and the trust in one’s own corrective capacities. all these eventually lead to an increased efficiency of therapy. in conclusion, some of the advantages of using cbst systems are: 1. the possibility to identify aspects, which, by other means, are impossible or extremely difficult to realise, and to separate or recompose phenomena which cannot be perceived by other means; 2. the capacity to playback the content extremely accurately, and to allow immediate playback of the information or as often as necessary; 3. given the original aspects involved, and the aesthetic way in which information is presented, these systems are particularly attractive to children; 4. they always maintain the child in the present day situation. 4. international projects at international level there are some programs and systems designed to assist and to improve the speech therapy, most of them for english language. one may consider a few aspects that underlie them. first, therapy sessions appropriate for each speech disorder and adapted for each patient are designed. these are based on real-time audio-visual feedback of the patient’s speech. secondly, speech evaluation is provided by means of the automatic speech recognition on the basis of data collection statistical models during the training phase, and finally, they allow the evaluation of progresses that the patient achieves. aphasia tutor 0: sights ‘n sounds is a system which allows training the articulation and identification of words through auditory discrimination and repetitions (bungalow software). speech sounds on cue focuses on independent language practice for individual sounds and complete words (bungalow software). the olp (ortho-logo-paedia) project (oster et al., 2002) financed by the eu is started in 2002. it is a complex project, which involves collaboration between the institute for language and speech processing in athens and seven other partners from the academic and medical fields. it joins three modules, namely optacia, grifos, and telemachos, that are able to instruct children suffering from dysarthria (difficulty in articulating words due to a disease of the central nervous system) in an interactive way. it thus proposes an interactive and visual environment adapted to the m. danubianu, i. tobolcea modern tools in patient-centred speech therapy for romanian language 65 subjects’ age (games, animations). the audio and video interface with the human subject is the optacia module; the grifos module enables the recognition of pronunciation, while the third module, telemachos, integrates the computer aided instruction. star (star speech training) is another interesting project – speech training, assessment, and remediation (bunnell, yarrington, & polikoff, 2000). it started in 2000, and is still in the development phase. the aim of the members (ai. dupont hospital for children and the university of delaware) is to build a system which at the beginning could recognise phonemes, and later, whole sentences. the research group provides an audio processing voice generation system (model talker) as well as a variety of open source applications of the kind. the speech processing group, and centia universidad de las américas, puebla cholula, pue. méxico have developed the icatiani device. it relies on sounds and graphics that allow ensuring the practising and exercise of spanish mexican pronunciation (kirshcing, 2003). it offers more lessons that explain the pronunciation of sounds by means of the facial expression, placing particular emphasis on indicating the points of articulation and the lips position. there is also a variety of animated faces; each of these point to the correct vocal pronunciation method, and provide feedback to the work of the child. for example, if the pronunciation of the child matches the one of the system, the child is rewarded with a smile or, conversely, (s)he is warned by a sad face. 5. achievements for romanian speech therapy we start from the assumption that the romanian language is a phonetic language, having its own linguistic peculiarities. this leads to the necessity to develop specific systems which can be used for different speech or language problems therapy. as a result of the research conducted at the “a.i. cuza” university of iasi, and “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, a few projects were developed with the view to assist the speech therapists in their efforts, to determine the most appropriate diagnosis, to design a better therapy, and to track and evaluate the patients’ evolution. echophone the construction of the ecophone has as starting point idea that a clear and correct reception of its own sounds creates to an individual a real image of his pronunciation, and, by the awareness of progress in therapy, he reinforces his will to correct its defects as soon as possible. the ecophone is a system which allows achieving the delayed auditory feedback (daf) (tobolcea, 2001). it was the first device built to help patients to correct their speech rhythm and fluency. its architecture is presented in figure 2. with the help of the microphone, the patient utters the words in a rhythmical manner, with a view to hear them like an echo. with the help of this device, the patient has the possibility to acknowledge his/ her own articulation, while controlling his/ her own speech and voice. during the occurrence of verbal disfluencies or spasms, spontaneously and following a certain break, the patient with speech disorders regains his/her speech, managing to pronounce the words in a fluent and correct way. it can be concluded that, with the help of the echophone, great performances can be achieved in the speech re-education of the patients with speech disorders, by delaying the auditory feedback. additionally, the echophone contributes to increasing confidence and courage in the patient, as (s)he acknowledges the progress (s)he made; this encourages the patient to express him/herself correctly and fluently. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 logoped 1.0 figure 2. ecophone architecture (danubianu, tobolcea, & pentiuc, 2009) the program was designed for the therapy of logoneurosis, while being equally useful for the therapeutic activities used in the treatment of dyslexic-dysgraphic disorders. logoped 1.0 provides a vast lexical material, which is organised into several sections: exercises involving reading the syllables and the words, sentences reading, followed by phrase and text reading. the colourful design of the words and sentences, the attractive way in which they are displayed on the monitor, and the fact that it allows choosing the exercises level of difficulty render the reading activity much more attractive for the pupil (tobolcea, 2001). its functional schema is presented in figure 3. figure 3. logoped 1.0 program m. danubianu, i. tobolcea modern tools in patient-centred speech therapy for romanian language 67 compared to the traditional activity, this program brings some advantages: • the material included is gradually presented so as to fulfill all the demands of a progressive treatment; • it stirs much more the interest and dynamism, drawing the pupils towards participation in the therapeutic activity, due to the colored writing, and the rhythm of the reading activity; moreover, the results are displayed on the right side of the screen, which motivates the subjects to outgrow their current performances; • the performance level set by the computer are reached depending on the physical and mental capacity of each subject; • an active “subject-computer” relation is created by the appraisals provided by the computer for the subject’s performances ; • the promise of a reward further motivates the subject’s performances (tobolcea, 2001). terapers information systems which provide real-time feedback in addressing pathological speech impairments have emerged relatively recently in particular given the wide processing power they involve (chivu, 2007). however, presently, the progress recorded in the field of computer science fosters the development of such a system, which involves a much reduced number of risk factors. the pronunciation of children is also used to complement the existing database of audio materials, and to contribute to improving the performance of the current diagnosis system. terapers – the personalised system for the treatment of dyslalia has achieved some specific objectives (danubianu et al., 2007; tobolcea, 2002): • the initial and ongoing therapy assessment of children and the identification of a method for standardising their progress or regress (from the point of view of the physiological and behavioural parameters); • the rigorous formalisation of an assessment methodology and the creation of a relevant database in this field; • the design of an expert system used for the individualized treatment of speech disorders that allows for the design of a pronunciation training scheme, personalized according to the type of speech disorder, the child’s prior experience, and his/her previous therapy evolution; • the design of a therapeutic guide that permits to combine the classical methods and the complementary procedures and techniques of the audio-visual system; • the development of a database which includes the child’s data, the exercises used during the therapy, as well as the child’s results. the project’s complexity results from the considerable number of research fields it presupposes: artificial intelligence (pattern recognition, learning expert systems), virtual reality, digital signal processing, digital electronic (vlsi), computer architecture, and psychology (assessment procedures and techniques, therapeutic instructions, validation experimental design). in order to assure an assisted therapy one considers the relationships between six functional blocks: patient, speech therapist, office monitor program, expert system, 3d model and patient monitor program. the information flow of the system is given in figure 4. there is a close connection between the child, as a patient, and his speech therapist. all the other modules are designed so as to contribute to the therapeutic action of the teacher. the monitor program allows realising a complex assessment and collecting information about the child; equally, it provides the opportunity to periodically track the child’s therapy results. the child is provided instant audio feedback which allows him/her to check the audio recordings history. the home monitor program is designed so as to build a virtual interface between teacher and child in order to allow the patient to continue his therapy at home. this component is designed both for the personal computer, which is placed in the therapist’s office, and personal digital assistant (pda) which is used at home for independent work. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 68 figure 4. the relationship between the functional blocks of the system it can provide more attractive exercises, give feedback, and can draw statistics based on the scores obtained by the subject (cerlinca et al., 2007). the 3d model allows viewing of the correct positioning of the lips, language and teeth for each sound. the child is free to change the transparency of any of the items involved. the monitor program allows transmitting the homework onto the child’s pc or pda. thus, at a later stage, as the child returns for therapy, an activity report is available. the speech therapist analyses the images provided by the 3d model, and is able to correct some of the mistakes made. if activated, the expert system can make suggestions regarding some of the training parameters of the treatment session, such as the frequency, the length or the content (exercises) of the sessions, based on the input variables. should the teacher notice erroneous conclusions, the inferential route can be checked, and changes can be brought to the knowledge base. by taking the data input from the monitor program, the expert can generate sets of personalised exercises upon request. the monitor program represents an interface between the speech therapist and the other components, such as the expert system, the database, or the child monitor program. it is at this stage that the speech therapist is able to gather information (both textual and audio) for each child, manage exercises, as well as all the other therapy aspects: children selection, therapy schedule, required statistical reports. shown in figure 5, the architecture of the terapers system implies the existence of two main connected components: on the one hand, an intelligent system which is installed on the office computer of each speech therapist and, on the other, a mobile system which is used as a virtual friend in the therapy applied to the child (danubianu et al., 2008). the intelligent system – which represents the fixed component of the system – is installed on each computer from the office of the speech therapist; it is made up of the following parts: • an information management module for children; • an expert system, able to produce inferences based on the data given by the assessment module; • a mouth virtual module which allows the display of all hidden movements that are likely to occur during speech; • a management module of the exercises uses, which allows creating or modifying the exercises, depending on the various therapy stages, as well as their organization into complex issues. lab monit home monit 8 9 7 6 5 1 4 3 2 m. danubianu, i. tobolcea modern tools in patient-centred speech therapy for romanian language 69 the mobile device is designed based on two main objectives. first, it is a tool the child relies on in solving the homework given by the speech therapist and, secondly, it transmits to the intelligent system an individualised activity report for each child. the intelligent system is used by speech therapists for: collecting and analysing the child’s specific information (as a result one can obtain automatic special reports); producing phoneme audio recordings and scoring them (for each altered sounds); obtaining the support of an integrated expert system in making decisions; creating and assessing a large vast of exercises for children; transmitting homework onto the child’s pc or pda, and obtaining the activity report (danubianu et al., 2007). figure .5 architecture of the terapers system in order to assist the child’s individual training, a mobile device must offer some facilities, such as: presenting the exercises that the child is required to solve; reaching, during the therapy, personalised interaction with the human subject; providing the possibility to assess and stimulate the progress obtained by the human subject by means of the given feedback; allowing to collect audio samples, as well as the exercises solved by the child; and allowing communication with the computer of the speech therapist. the device provides two important facilities: multimedia facilities (it allows recording, processing and playing audio samples) as well as graphic facilities (it provides a friendly and accessible interface). in figure 6 is illustrated the main page of the application that is implemented on the mobile device (a), as well as two types of exercises; (b) the child is required to identify whether a sound is present in a word (which is indicated by an image); and (c), the child is required to choose a word from a group of paronyms. a b c figure 6. three interfaces available on the mobile device brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 70 starting with march 2008, the system has been used to assist the personalised therapy of dyslalia by the specialists from the regional speech therapy center of suceava, and it has already proven its viability and efficiency. to demonstrate this fact, we perform an assessment of the system. for the research we selected 60 children suffering from dyslalia: 30 subjects for the experimental group which received computer-based therapy and 30 subjects for the control group. these last 30 subjects underwent classical therapy. the sample of subjects was made up of 89 years old children with a normal level of intelligence (they were selected based on the raven test). in the selection of the children we considered the homogeneity criterion; additionally, the average scores obtained were equivalent for the complex evaluation tests, which was demonstrated by the application of the anova one way and bonferroni tests (tobolcea and danubianu, 2010). following the logopedic assessment of the investigated subjects, we moved on to the statistic processing of the gathered data, and we analysed the results obtained from the tests administered to the two groups after one year of speech therapy. the conducted analysis was directed both at the overall effectiveness of the speech therapy, and at the importance of strategies for the language development and stimulation, through the use of the computer-assisted terapers system. it was noticed that the results obtained for the dyslalic subjects (children with pronunciation disorders) from the experimental group improved significantly due to the computer-based therapeutic program, compared to the subjects in the control group (who underwent classical therapy). the mean, the standard deviations and the standard error of the mean obtained for the independent speech variable in dyslalic children (control group and experimental group) are presented in figure 7. figure 7. results obtained for the mean, the mean standard deviations and the mean standard errors of the independent speech variable in dyslalic subjects (both the control and the experimental group) the qualitative analysis of the data revealed the main elements contributing to the effectiveness of the computer-based program used in speech therapy: the high interest demonstrated by the subjects, the increased attention children pay to the computer, which facilitates the task of the speech therapist, who no longer has to rely on the classical pencil and paper tools, but simply on the mouse. logo-dm the idea of applying some data mining techniques in order to improve the quality of the logopedic therapy started from the terapers project presented above that is used by the therapists from the regional speech therapy center of suceava since march 2008 and allowed collecting a vast amount of data. these days the key word is “performance” in all areas of life. so, in order to provide a good and performing speech therapy we should be able to answer some questions such as:”what should the final state for a patient be, or what will his/her state be at the end of each stage of therapy, which are the best exercises for each case, and how will they focus their effort to effectively solve these exercises, or how is the family receptivity associated with other family aspects and personal anamnesis” (danubianu, pentiuc, & socaciu, 2009). in addition to this it should be very useful to quicker and correctly establish a diagnosis by considering some features that could group and classify patients in classes labeled with specific impairment names. all this may be obtained by applying data mining techniques on data collected by the terapers system. it could be also very useful to try to enrich the knowledge base of the embedded expert system with some rules built by m. danubianu, i. tobolcea modern tools in patient-centred speech therapy for romanian language 71 data mining algorithms. in order to achieve these goals we proposed the development of the logodm system. it aims to perform the following tasks: • to understand and analyze the available data in terapers datasets; • data preparation (pre-processing) in order to assure a proper data quality for data mining algorithms; • the use of corresponding data mining methods and algorithms that can be applied in order to find models which can answer to the problems raised in speech disorders therapy; • interpretation and evaluation of generated models and their validation on new cases; • enrichment of the knowledge base of the expert system embedded in terapers with new rules obtained as patterns by data mining algorithms. the useful data mining tasks for speech therapy fall into three categories: classification, clustering, and association rules. classification places children with different speech impairments in predefined classes, and makes possible to track the characteristics of various groups. to model different classes we use many predictor variables (e.g. personal or familial anamnesis data or related to lifestyle). by clustering we group people with speech disorders on the basis of similarity of different features. this helps therapists to understand their patients. clustering aims to find subsets of a predetermined segment, with homogeneous behavior towards various methods of therapy that can be effectively targeted by a specific therapy, but it is not based on the previous definition of groups (danubianu, tobolcea, & pentiuc, 2009). association rules aim to find out relationships between different data which seem to have no semantic dependence. the built patterns might be very useful to determine why a specific therapy program has been successful on a segment of patients with speech disorders, and on the other was ineffective. the logo-dm system was designed to help the speech therapists to optimize the personalized therapy of dyslalia. to understand what kind of knowledge we could discover in terapers’ dataset to improve speech therapy, we have to describe the collected data. figure 8. the end-to-end operations in logo-dm in order to design the therapy program, as shown in figure 1, the therapist must perform a complex child examination. this is materialized in records of relevant data relating to personal and family anamnesis that provide information regarding various causes that may negatively influence the normal development of the language. it also contains historical data and data provided by the cognitive and personality examination and last, but not least, it contains a set of tests that show how the children articulate the phonemes in various constructions, allowing to establish a diagnosis. then, speech therapists design the therapeutically path by establishing: how many sessions of brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 72 therapy are needed, and their distribution, what exercises are proper for each patient and for each phase of therapy, and how the original therapeutic program could be corrected to meet the patient evolution. in addition, the report downloaded from the mobile device collects data on the efforts of the child’s self-employment. these data refer to the exercises done, to the number of repetitious for each of these exercises, and to the obtained results. the tracking of the child’s progress materializes data which indicate the moment of assessing the child and his status at that time. the data stored in the terapers’s database together with data from other sources (eg demographic data, medical or psychological research) is the set of raw data that will be the subject of data mining. figure 8 presents the complete sequence of the operations applied on these data. figure 9. a model that helps the diagnosis prediction we have already implemented many modules of logo-dm, such as: data cleaning module, data transformation module, feature extraction module, data clustering module and a classification module for diagnosis prediction. figure 9 shows the model achieved using a decision tree built on complex examination data that aims to predict the patient’s diagnosis. currently, we are testing the built models on new cases in order to estimate their quality. 6. conclusions the information systems have been assigned a variety of roles: from the mere replacement of the classical teaching materials which were simply drawn with (3d) images displayed on the computer monitor, to the use of the computer as an actual assistant that the speech therapist can rely on; from this perspective, the computer participates to the assessment of an individual’s state of health, takes part in the diagnosis establishment, in conceiving an individualised treatment plan, as well as in the follow-up to the treatment. as a matter of fact, the cbst represents the most complex strategy involving audio-visual techniques. its great advantage consists in the development of educational and instructive software programs, as well as in the fact that it fosters and increases the didactic activity efficiency. cbst systems developed at the international level are rather expensive and inadequate for the specific phonetics of the romanian language. this is the starting point of research that has led to the development of some dedicated systems such as: ecophone, logoped 1.0, and terapers. more m. danubianu, i. tobolcea modern tools in patient-centred speech therapy for romanian language 73 than that, because terapers allowed collecting a consistent set of data, it was possible to design and to start the implementation of the logo-dm system that aims at helping therapists to optimize the personalized therapy of speech disorders. references brice, a. (2001). children with communication disorders arlington, va: eric clearinghouse on disabilities and gifted education. bunnell, h.t., yarrington, d. and polikoff, j.b. (2000). "star: articulation training for young children." proceedings of the sixth international conference on spoken language processing, october 16-20, beijing, china, vol. 4, pp. 85-88 cerlinca, m., graur, a., pentiuc, s.g., cerlinca, t.i., (2007). developing a logopaedic mobile device using a fpga. in: proceedings of saci ’07 4 th international symposium on applied computational intelligence and informatics, romania, pp. 89-92. chivu, c. (2007). applications of speech recognition for romanian language, advances in electrical and computer engineering, suceava, romania, issn 1582-7445, no 1, volume 7 (14), pp. 29; danubianu, m., pentiuc, s.g., schipor, o.a., belciug, c., ungureanu, i., nestor, m., (2007) distributed system for therapy of dyslalia, distributed systems, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava press, romania, sept. 2007 danubianu, m., pentiuc, s.g., schipor,o.a., ungureanu, i.,nestor, m.,(2008) distributed intelligent system for personalised therapy of speech disorders, in proc. of the third international multi-conference on computing in the global information technology iccgi 2008, july 27 august 01, athens, greece, p. 166-170, doi: 10.1109/iccgi.2008.31 danubianu, m., tobolcea, i., & pentiuc, s. g. (2009). advanced technology in speech disorder therapy of romanian language. journal of computing, volume 1, issue 1, 2009 danubianu, m., pentiuc, s.g., socaciu, t., (2009). towards the optimized personalized therapy of speech disorders by data mining techniques, in proc. of the fourth international multiconference on computing in the global information technology iccgi 2009, august 2329, cannes, france, p. 20-25, doi: 10.1109/iccgi.2009.11 kirsching i. (2003). icatiani: a system to support language acquisition for profoundly deaf children, vii mexican symposium on medical physics, unam, mexico levitt, h.(1993). the impact of technology on speech rehabilitation. in: proceedings of an esca workshop on speech and language technology for disabled persons, stockholm, sweden nichcy www.nichcy.org olp (ortho-logo-paedia) – project for speech therapy (http://www.xanthi.ilsp.gr/olp);w.-k. chen, linear networks and systems (book style).belmont, ca: wadsworth, 1993, pp. 123– 135. oster a.m., house d., protopapas a., hatzis a., (2002) presentation of a new eu project for speech therapy: olp (ortho-logo-paedia), tmh-qpsr, vol. 44, fonetik. star speech training, assessment, and remediation (http://www.asel.udel.edu/speech); tobolcea, i. (2001). modern audio-visual techniques used in the treatment of logoneurosis, ed. spanda, iaşi. tobolcea,i., (2002). logotherapeutic interventions for correcting dyslalia in the normal child, ed. spanda, iaşi, 2002. tobolcea, i., danubianu, m., (2010). computer-based programs in speech therapy of dyslalia and dyslexia-dysgraphia, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience vol. 1 (2), p. 52-63. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 211-224 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/363 submitted: december 16th, 2021| accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 neuropsychological features of motivational and volitional readiness for school of sixyear-old children with general speech underdevelopment iryna martynenko 1 , hanna chorna 2 , maryna omelchenko 3 , dina shulzhenko 4 , zoriana leniv 5 , daria khrypun 6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, i.v.martynenko@npu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5003-4653а 2 zaporizhzhia national university, ukraine, chorna.a.v@ukr.net 3 state higher educational institution "donbas state pedagogical university”, ukraine, neckaa87@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8292-1791 4 national pedagogical drahomanov university, ukraine, dinashulzhenko@gmail.com 5 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian university, ukraine, lzoryana@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0611-9841 6 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, 8669838@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8982-6308 abstract: the article raises the issue of general speech underdevelopment in six-year-old children as a disorder of complex aetiology, which includes a combination of genetically determined insufficiency of certain brain systems with the consequences of organic damage to the central nervous system. this topic is of significant interest these days, because moderate general speech underdevelopment with a positive prognosis occurs in 1525% of children and an average of 5% have severe disorders that interfere with adaptation. children with such underdevelopment have difficulties in social development, quality of which directly depends on the level of development of the ability to build coherent statements that prevent formation of readiness for school. the article contains a description of the features of motivational and volitional readiness for school in children with general speech underdevelopment, methods of its evaluation and a review of experimental research. a psychological readiness for school from the point of formation of motives and their features, as well as the quality of self-regulation of children with general speech underdevelopment is characterized. conditions for development of coherent speech in children of this category and the features of purposeful and consistent correctional and pedagogical work are considered. examples of correctional methods from the point of view of neuropsychology and substantiation of necessity of creation of pedagogical conditions for correction and development of speech in children with the general underdevelopment of speech are presented. for a long time, the issue of readiness of pre-schoolers for school has been of vital importance, which is due in part to the current large-scale socioeconomic changes in society. keywords: psychological readiness for school; internal position of the student; volitional regulation; verbal regulation; concentric ontogenesis; the theory of three functional blocks of the brain; neuropsychological diagnostics; neuropsychological exercises. how to cite: martynenko, i., chorna, h., omelchenko, m., shulzhenko, d., leniv, z., & khrypun, d. (2022). neuropsychological features of motivational and volitional readiness for school of six-year-old children with general speech underdevelopment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 211-224. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/363 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/363 mailto:i.v.martynenko@npu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5003-4653а mailto:chorna.a.v@ukr.net mailto:neckaa87@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8292-1791 mailto:dinashulzhenko@gmail.com mailto:lzoryana@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0611-9841 mailto:8669838@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8982-6308 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/363 neuropsychological features of motivational and volitional readiness for ... iryna martynenko et al. 212 introduction at present, reform processes in the field of education are actively taking place in ukraine, in the context of which the issue of readiness for school of children with speech disorders has arisen, among which the general underdevelopment of speech should be singled out. to begin with, let us give an interpretation of the following concepts: “readiness for school”, “motivational and volitional readiness for school”, “general underdevelopment of speech”, “neuropsychology”. in the article by lewit & baker (1995), the statement that all children who go to school are ready to learn is considered according to two historically different concepts: readiness for learning and readiness for school. the former means the level of development, by reaching of which an individual of any age is able to digest certain information. this concept in terms of group or population determines the age at which the average person has such abilities. as far as readiness for school is concerned, it is a synthesis of readiness for learning and a certain level of intellectual, physical and social development, which is necessary for successful completing of the school program. however, these requirements do not have clear criteria or tools for assessing readiness of individual children for school. in the united states, in 1992, the national education goals panel developed principles of a child’s readiness for school, such as cognitive, physical, motor, socio-emotional development, and speech development (zuckerman and halfon, 2003). a child’s psychological readiness for school is characterized by two aspects: motivational and volitional. the former is determined by the desire to learn, the second –by the ability to use willpower to set goals, make decisions, solve problems and analyse one’s behaviour. from the manual by mohylova (2019) we learn that the general underdevelopment of speech is a concept that covers syndromes different in aetiology and pathogenesis, but similar to those that occur in children with initially preserved intelligence, normal hearing and are characterized by impaired formation of all components of both sound and meaning aspects of speech. signs of this disorder are found during study and use of the native language. the frequency of this disorder in the population is increasing, due to which in primary school from 30 to 60% of students need correction (bartienieva, bystranivska, 2011). speech, mental processes, brain function, as well as human behaviour, including arbitrary, i.e., one that makes it possible to overcome certain internal obstacles to implementation of various actions, studies the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 213 science of neuropsychology. it considers polymodal perception as a basis for formation of such higher mental functions as speech and thinking, and taran, nizovskaya (2021) explain it as mental structure as a result of integration of sensory systems, which is possible due to perception of different modalities structured with formation of holistic sensory -perceptual experience of the individual. peculiarities of speech activity of six-year-old children with general speech underdevelopment speech activity of senior preschool children with general speech underdevelopment has its own features that significantly affect the process of speech development, creating the idea of the world around and forming relationships (emelyanova, borisova, shapovalova, karynbaeva et al., 2018). these include: difficulties in reflecting causal and semantic relationships, inconsistency in reproduction of one’s own thoughts in expression; dialogue is characterized by short duration, rapid exhaustion, inferiority, as well as presence of lexical, phonetic and grammatical errors. in addition, children’s responses may be inappropriate due to their low desire to understand the language addressed to them. difficulties in expression in this case arise due to poverty of vocabulary and information needed for the answer (broomfield & dodd, 2004). the disadvantages of monologic speech are phonetic and prosodic disorders, semantic narrowness and constant shifting the accents as a consequence of difficulties in the semantic organization of judgments. in addition, this group of children needs more time to analyse information and reflect on their response, as well as approval of adults. in their study, lobanova & chernov (2017) used the heidelberg test and subtests to assess the level of morphology, grammar, semantics, speechpragmatic competence of speech and the ability to use skills of working with coherent text in senior preschool children. a significant influence of psychological and pedagogical situation and the level of parental care on speech development of a child with general speech under development in senior preschool age, lack of clear understanding of the meaning of a number of rarely used words despite sufficient vocabulary, lag in the ability to understand grammatically expressed logical relations, which is due to systematic errors in word formation and word change. difficulties in communication and spontaneous speech are due to insufficient differentiation of certain sounds and difficult phonemic perception with creation and fixation in memory of a phonemic image, permutation, loss or neuropsychological features of motivational and volitional readiness for ... iryna martynenko et al. 214 addition of new syllables and sounds in words. despite this, children with general speech underdevelopment showed success in tests related to morphology and syntax, naming people depending on their social role, achieving pragmatic goals of communication through language. motivational and volitional readiness for school of children aged six years in considering this issue, we emphasize the inseparability of motivational and volitional aspects of psychological readiness for school of six-year-old children. the first phase of the volitional act is setting a goal, which is impossible without emergence of a motive, which is a unit of the motivational sphere and is characterized by objectivity, activity, awareness, stability and strength (aseev, 1976). the motivational aspect of psychological readiness for school in preschool children can be assessed using the method of “motivational readiness” by wenger, described in detail by raygorodskiy (2008). according to the results of such study by nasibullina, polshina (2017), 30% of children with general speech underdevelopment had an average and below average level of formation of the internal position of the student, 20% low and 10% medium and high, respectively. the authors argue that senior preschool children with general speech underdevelopment have an idea of schooling, readiness to learn and fulfil responsibilities related to their new status, with a new social position the position of a student. nevertheless, in half of them this internal position is not yet formed, as well as the motivational component of readiness for school. kharchenko & lapchenko (2018) study the influence of speech disorders on the development of volitional regulation and verbal regulation of actions. the authors note that it is expressed in the limited vocabulary, immaturity of grammatical structures, generalizing function of the word. it was found that in the implementation of actions aimed at solving a specific problem in children with this disorder, organization of motor control faces difficulties. in the process of solving certain problems, their logical part is difficult to learn and is overlooked almost completely; the vast majority of rules that need to be understood are not taken into account. in addition, there are problems in comparing the planned results with the existing ones. in the above-mentioned study of nasibullina & polshina (2017) using the method of “colouring circles”, children with general speech underdevelopment had all levels of volitional regulation from low to high. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 215 undoubtedly, the results of martynenko’s work (2007) deserve attention. the scientist considers motivational-volitional readiness for schooling as a complex of such components: arbitrariness of behaviour and activity, formation of self-regulation of behaviour and activity, educational, cognitive and social motivation. during ontogenesis, formation of motivational and volitional components is interrelated and is directly dependent on the level of speech development. accordingly, in violation of the latter, we observe certain features of the cognitive and personal spheres, and as a result of insufficient formation of the motivational and volitional component of readiness for school. the following were described: inadequate self-esteem, lack of self-regulation, verbal regulation of actions. implementation of volitional regulation is impossible without verbal regulation of actions, the means of which is speech. a six-year-old child has already formed self-regulation, as evidenced by the presence of all the elements of volitional action and the ability to subdue their own actions to the goal. in the study of the volitional component of psychological readiness for school, it was found that in children with general speech underdevelopment in various activities, preliminary, procedural and final self-control is insufficiently formed. as for the verbal regulation of actions, in such children the use of speech as a means of communication is difficult when learning the content and performing certain tasks. in the motivational sphere of a six-year-old child in the hierarchy, the dominant motives should be broad and narrow social and cognitive, and less significant – play ones. in the study “internal position of the student” children with general speech underdevelopment showed broad social motives dominant, and the levels of narrow social and cognitive learning motivation much lower than the norm for six-year-olds. nevertheless, the level of play motivation is much higher than that of children with normal speech development. the motivational sphere of a child with general speech underdevelopment is characterized by: superficiality and lack of differentiation, poverty on the content side, instability and insufficient effectiveness. in addition, children with this disorder may choose motives that make a better impression on the student’s behaviour, but do not meet their needs (martynenko, 2007). neuropsychological features of motivational and volitional readiness for ... iryna martynenko et al. 216 the use of a neuropsychological approach in the assessment and correction of general speech underdevelopment the use of a neuropsychological approach in the study of school readiness of children with general speech underdevelopment allows a broader analysis of speech and non-speech disorders, because by greater plasticity of the child’s brain and the ability to compensate due to restructuring of interfunctional relationships, certain functions can be preserved for a long time, according to kravchenko & piatkova (2021); prots, yakovliv, medynskyi et al.(2021); kosholap, maksymchuk, branitska, et al. (2021). the study of kozina et al. (2018) was conducted using the methodology of concentric ontogenesis, based on the theory of three functional blocks of the brain and neuropsychological rehabilitation according to luria with observance of the principle of conformity of the current condition of the child to the basic stages of brain organization of mental processes with the subsequent reproduction of stages of ontogenesis which were not effectively passed. according to the study using a neuropsychological approach, formation of speech as a higher mental function is not yet complete, and the use of a neuropsychological approach in correctional work with children with general speech underdevelopment has positive consequences for regulatory, practical and gnostic functions and processes. emelyanova et al. (2018) consider coherent speech as a criterion for assessing a child’s thinking capacity and social maturity. it is divided into monologic and dialogic. the former is an expression of internal motives and is characterized by logical completeness and syntactic structuredness. the latter has a light unprepared nature and focus on immediate response by listeners. in correctional work with children with general speech underdevelopment, it is necessary to form motivation to communicate, the desire to talk about themselves, their friends and life observations, and during classes to reproduce situations of immediate need to express, as well as their own desire to express their opinion – a direct speech motive. in addition, it is necessary to direct activities of a child with general speech underdevelopment to use the child’s willpower for external orientation in certain situations, planning the content of speech and choosing verbal and nonverbal means for this, modification of communicative and speech behaviour, and, certainly, evaluating results. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 217 belova (2020) analysed aspects of the emotional and motivational sphere in children with general speech underdevelopment and among their personality traits revealed aggression, which in its insolubility has an extremely negative impact on speech disorders, mental development and, consequently, effectiveness of correctional and educational process and socialization of these children in the micro and macro environment. according to ahutina and pyilaeva (1998), in paediatric neuropsychological diagnosis it is crucial to assess the state of the components of functional systems, i.e., functional diagnosis, because understanding the mechanisms allows to choose strategies for correction of disorders (ichim, 2021). fotekova (2003) identifies the following variants of neuropsychological syndromes of children with general speech underdevelopment against the background of insufficient formation of higher mental functions: 1) children with special insufficiency of function of serial organization of movements and speech; 2) children with predominance of the deficit of functions of reception, processing and storage of information of polymodal perception; 3) children with pronounced and regularly unformed all higher mental functions. according to martynenko (2007), motivational and volitional readiness for school can be formed by correcting, with the help of purposeful development of self-regulation and educational motivation. methodologically performed such work should be based on a gradual formation of self-regulation and educational motivation, which will allow to systematically manage their development. it is possible to create preconditions for complete learning of educational materials during school education by influencing the sensorimotor level taking into account the general ways of development, which involves all higher mental functions and stimulates their development (kozina et al., 2018). according to the theory of concentric ontogenesis, neuropsychological correction should have three levels, each of which has a specific influence “target” effect and is aimed at “blocks” of the brain. therefore, the initial gaps in ontogenesis can be filled after passing all stages of sensorimotor development of the child from birth. to achieve this goal, this article proposes four main blocks of exercises: breathing, oculomotor, motor and flexibility exercises. it is necessary to create a programme of neuropsychological support, i.e., a health treatment system aimed at creating optimal conditions for development of neuropsychological features of motivational and volitional readiness for ... iryna martynenko et al. 218 emotional, volitional, cognitive, motor areas and improve the health of children. correctional and pedagogical support should also be aimed at overcoming and preventing formation of secondary maldevelopments, as well as at obtaining certain knowledge and skills necessary in preparing the child for school. positive changes in regulatory, practical and gnostic processes due to changes in general development programs, the use of a set of health works taking into account the psychophysical development of children with general speech underdevelopment. at the same time, the lack of special work, taking into account the neuropsychological status of the child, negatively affects six-year-old children with general speech underdevelopment. neuropsychological exercises developmental functions, as well as harmonize the work of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. the principles of working with these exercises are corrective, emotionalrehabilitation and stimulating to different activities. the most effective form of training is a game. pravednikova’s manual (2017) contains many exercises, including “modified schulte table”, “numerical search”, “odd letters”, “labyrinth”, “dictionary words”, “learning professions”, “explain to the aliens”, etc. they are aimed at development of concentration and attention and its distribution, arbitrary attention and self-control, visual attention in processing the image of a word, thinking and enrichment of the word stock, speech, thinking (conceptual categories), the ability to clearly express their thoughts accordingly. general speech underdevelopment in a child with normal mental development is manifested by symptoms of immaturity of the simultaneoussuccessive analysis and synthesis suggesting underdevelopment of hemispheric interaction. insufficiency of the iii functional block in such children leads to decrease in regulation of own activity and behaviour, and dysfunction of the ii functional block defines difficulties with functional reception and processing of the hearing and speech information. this necessitates psycho-correctional work with children with general speech underdevelopment, aimed at development of arbitrary regulation by training concentration and distribution of attention, phonemic hearing. thus, misunderstanding of the logical-grammatical speech constructions is eliminated, and the quality of speech semantics increases due to improvement of simultaneous-successive analysis and synthesis of verbal information (astaeva, voronkova, koroleva, 2010). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 219 the task of neuropsychological approach according to dolmatova (2014) is to find the primary pathogenic factor in the multilayer structure of the defect, and not to determine the actual level of knowledge and skills. to work with the dysfunction of each functional unit, she offers such methods as stretching, massage and self-massage, breathing, oculomotor, reciprocal exercises, exercises for the tongue and jaw muscles, relaxation and visualization. in addition, she emphasizes the need to use games to develop coordination of movements and fine motor skills of hands, communicative and cognitive spheres. the article by nold, skochilov, berezina, ilyina (2020) emphasizes the need to involve a teacher-psychologist to diagnose and develop further corrective measures for children with general speech underdevelopment. the interdisciplinary approach consists in their joint work with the teacherspeech therapist on the agreed programs which complement each other on the main directions. the pedagogue-psychologist should use in his / her correctional work tasks for development of general awareness, enrichment of the word stock, and topresent information in a structured way. particular attention should be paid to development of verbal-logical thinking, the ability to compare and classify objects by different distinctive features, for which purposes tasks such as finding common features of objects, identification of odd objects, distribution of objects into groups should be exercised. especially important is the analysis and discussion of the results of corrective work in an interdisciplinary form. conclusion therefore, the review of domestic and foreign articles confirmed that the issue covered in the work is now of immediate interest and requires further systematic study of the features and development of methods of psychological and pedagogical work. the components of psychological readiness for school are clarified: motivational and volitional, which are inseparable and interdependent. the former is characterized by the desire to learn, the latter–by the ability to use willpower to set goals, make decisions, solve problems and analyse one’s behaviour. general speech underdevelopment covers syndromes that occur in children with initially preserved intelligence, normal hearing and are characterized by impaired formation of all components of both sound and semantic aspects of speech. the incidence of this disorder in the population neuropsychological features of motivational and volitional readiness for ... iryna martynenko et al. 220 is increasing, so in primary school from 30% to 60% of students need correction. the motivational aspect of psychological readiness for school in children with general speech underdevelopment is characterized by an average and below average level of formation of the internal position of student, 20% low level and 10% medium and high, respectively. older preschool children with general speech underdevelopment have an idea of school education, readiness to study and fulfilment of responsibilities related to their new status, with a new social position the position of a student. nevertheless, in half of them this internal position is not yet formed as well as the motivational component of readiness for school. broad social motives were dominant, and the level of narrow social and cognitive learning motivation was much lower than the normative indicators for six-year-olds. however, the level of play motivation is much higher than that one of children with normal speech development. in the study of volitional regulation and verbal regulation of actions, it was found that in children with general speech underdevelopment in various activities, preliminary, procedural and final self-control is insufficiently formed. as for the verbal regulation of actions, in such children the use of speech as a means of communication involves difficulties in learning the content and performing certain tasks. according to the results of the study using a neuropsychological approach, it was found that in six-year-old children with general speech underdevelopment formation of speech as a higher mental function is not yet complete, and the use of a neuropsychological approach in correctional work with them has positive consequences for regulatory, practical and gnostic functions and processes. in the course of such work, it is necessary to form in children motivation to communicate, desire to talk about themselves, their friends and life observations, and during classes to reproduce situations of immediate need to express, as well as their own desire to express their opinion direct speech motive. in addition, it is necessary to direct the activities of a child with general speech underdevelopment to use the child’s willpower for external orientation in certain situations, planning the content of speech and choosing verbal and nonverbal means for this, modifying communicative and speech behaviour, and, certainly, evaluating results. according to the theory of concentric ontogenesis, the neuropsychological correction should have three levels, each of which has a specific influence “target” and is aimed at the “blocks” broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 221 of brain. therefore, the initial gaps in ontogenesis can be filled by going through all stages of the sensorimotor development of the child from birth, for which purpose four main blocks of exercises are proposed: breathing, oculomotor, motor and flexibility exercises, as well as creating a program of neuropsychological support. insufficiency of the iii functional block in sixyear-old children with general speech underdevelopment leads to decrease in regulation of own activity and behaviour, and dysfunction of the ii functional block defines difficulties with functional reception and processing of auditory and speech information. this necessitates psycho-correctional work with children with general speech underdevelopment, aimed at development of arbitrary regulation by training concentration and distribution of attention, phonemic hearing. thus, the use of specially designed programmes of neuropsychological support will increase the level of motivational and volitional readiness for school education, and this issue needs further study. references ahutina, t. v., & pyilaeva, n. m. (2008). preodolenie trudnostey ucheniya: neyropsihologicheskiy podhod [overcoming learning difficulties: a neuropsychological approach]. st. petersburg: piter. aseev, v. g. (1976). motivatsiya povedeniya i formirovanie lichnosti [motivation of behavior and personality formation]. moscow: mysl. astaeva, a. v., voronkova, d. i., & koroleva, m. b. (2010). neyropsihologicheskiy analiz razvitiya vyisshih psihicheskih funktsiy u detey v norme i s obschim nedorazvitiem rechi [neuropsychological analysis of the development of higher mental functions in children with normal and general speech underdevelopment]. psihologiya psihofiziologiya, 27(203), 82-86. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-analiz-razvitiyavysshih-psihicheskih-funktsiy-u-detey-v-norme-i-s-obschim-nedorazvitiemrechi bartienieva, l., & bystranivska, o. (2011). osoblyvosti orhanizatsii lohopedychnoi dopomohy uchniam pochatkovykh klasiv v umovakh lohopedychnoho punktu [features of the organization of speech therapy for primary school students in terms of speech therapy]. psykholoho-pedahohichni problemy silskoi shkoly, 39(1), 87-91. http://surl.li/agjtu belova, o. (2020). the peculiarities of emotional state of children with speech disorders. international journal of pedagogy, innovation and new technologies, 7, 64-68. https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0014.4459 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-analiz-razvitiya-vysshih-psihicheskih-funktsiy-u-detey-v-norme-i-s-obschim-nedorazvitiem-rechi https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-analiz-razvitiya-vysshih-psihicheskih-funktsiy-u-detey-v-norme-i-s-obschim-nedorazvitiem-rechi https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-analiz-razvitiya-vysshih-psihicheskih-funktsiy-u-detey-v-norme-i-s-obschim-nedorazvitiem-rechi http://surl.li/agjtu https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0014.4459 neuropsychological features of motivational and volitional readiness for ... iryna martynenko et al. 222 broomfield, j., & dodd, b. (2004). children with speech and language disability: caseload characteristics. international journal of language & communication disorders, 39(3), 303-324. https://doi.org/10.1080/13682820310001625589 dolmatova, t. l. (2014). ispolzovanie neyropsihologicheskogo podhoda v rabote s detmi doshkolnogo vozrasta s obschim nedorazvitie rechi [using a neuropsychological approach in working with preschool children with general speech underdevelopment]. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/197416654.pdf#page=125 emelyanova, i. a., borisova, e. a., shapovalova, o. e., karynbaeva, o. v., & vorotilkina, i. m. (2018). particularities of speech readiness for schooling in pre-school children having general speech underdevelopment: a social and pedagogical aspect. journal of social studies education research, 9(1), 89105. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/496792 fotekova, t. a. (2003). sostoyanie verbalnyih i neverbalnyih funktsiy pri obschem nedorazvitii rechi i zaderzhke psihicheskogo razvitiya: neyropsihologicheskiy analiz [the state of verbal and non-verbal functions with general speech underdevelopment and mental retardation: a neuropsychological analysis]. moscow: moscow state university. http://irbis.gnpbu.ru/aref_2003/fotekova_t_a_2003.pdf ichim, a. a. (2021). identifying the types of diversity in the romanian pre-university educational institutions and the appropriate managerial strategy. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 10(1), 01-09. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/52 kharchenko, t. h., & lapchenko, o. v. (2018). psykholoho-pedahohichnyi ekskurs doslidzhennia volovoi sfery doshkilnykiv iz porushenniamy movlennia [psychologicalpedagogical excursion study of the volitional area of preschool children with speech disorders]. https://repository.sspu.sumy.ua/bitstream/123456789/5479/1/konfer_s uchasni_problemi_logopediyi_ta_reabilitaciyi_2018.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kozina, i. b., borisova, e. y., danilova, o. v., & koryakova, e. v. neuropsychological diagnostics and correction in learning for children with disabilities of preschool age. proceedings of socioint 2018-5th international conference on education, social sciences and humanities, 2-4 july 2018. dubai: u.a.e. http://www.ocerints.org/socioint18_epublication/abstracts/papers/155.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/13682820310001625589 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/197416654.pdf#page=125 https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/496792 http://irbis.gnpbu.ru/aref_2003/fotekova_t_a_2003.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/52 https://repository.sspu.sumy.ua/bitstream/123456789/5479/1/konfer_suchasni_problemi_logopediyi_ta_reabilitaciyi_2018.pdf https://repository.sspu.sumy.ua/bitstream/123456789/5479/1/konfer_suchasni_problemi_logopediyi_ta_reabilitaciyi_2018.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 http://www.ocerints.org/socioint18_e-publication/abstracts/papers/155.pdf http://www.ocerints.org/socioint18_e-publication/abstracts/papers/155.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 223 kravchenko, a. i., & piatkova, n. h. (2017). kompleksnyi pidkhid do obstezhennia ditei iz zahalnym nedorozvynenniam movlennia [comprehensive approach to the examination of children with general underdevelopment of speech]. http://repository.sspu.sumy.ua/handle/123456789/4176 lewit, e. m., & baker, l. s. (1995). school readiness. the future of children, 5(2), 128–139. https://doi.org/10.2307/1602361 lobanova, d. a., & chernov, d. n. (2017). the empirical study of the peculiarities of the socio-cultural situation of development of senior preschool children with general underdevelopment of speech. isj theoretical & applied science, 11(55), 201-206. http://surl.li/agjtr martynenko, i. v. (2007). formuvannia motyvatsiino-volovoi hotovnosti ditei shestyrichnoho viku iz zahalnym nedorozvynenniam movlennia do shkilnoho navchannia [formation of motivational and volitional readiness of six-year-old children with general speech underdevelopment for school]. [unpublished phd thesis]. http://surl.li/agjtv mohylova, n. m. (2019). zahalne nedorozvynennia movlennia: teoriia ta perspektyvne planuvannia korektsiino-rozvytkovoi roboty [general speech underdevelopment: theory and long-term planning of correctional and developmental work]. sloviansk. http://surl.li/ocae nasibullina, a. d., & polshina, m. a. (2017). psihologo-pedagogicheskoe soprovozhdenie doshkolnikov s obschim nedorazvitiem rechi v protsesse podgotovki k obucheniyu v shkole [psychological and pedagogical support of preschoolers with general speech underdevelopment in the process of preparing for school]. kazanskiy pedagogicheskiy zhurnal, 2(121), 130-135. http://surl.li/agjtw nold, n. v., skochilov, r. v., berezina, t. n., & ilyina, m. n. (2020). features of the structure of intellectual development for preschool and primary school children with expressive language disorder (general speech underdevelopment). vestnik of saint petersburg university. psychology, 10(4), 428-441. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu16.2020.404. pravednikova, i. i. (2018). neyropsihologiya. igryi i uprazhneniya [neuropsychology. games and exercises]. moscow: iris-press. prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225. raygorodskiy, d. y. (2008). entsiklopediya psihodiagnostiki. psihodiagnostika detey [encyclopedia of psychodiagnostics. psychodiagnostics of children.]. samara: bahrah-m. http://repository.sspu.sumy.ua/handle/123456789/4176 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.2307/1602361 http://surl.li/agjtr http://surl.li/agjtv http://surl.li/ocae http://surl.li/agjtw https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu16.2020.404 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 neuropsychological features of motivational and volitional readiness for ... iryna martynenko et al. 224 taran, o. p., & nizovska, y. y. (2021). teoretyko-metodychni aspekty doslidzhennia polimodalnoho spryimannia u ditei doshkilnoho viku iz zahalnym nedorozvytkom movlennia [theoretical and methodological aspects of the study of polymodal perception in preschool children with general speech underdevelopment]. scientific journal of m.p. dragomanov national pedagogical university, 80(2), 140-144. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/34806/taran.pdf ?sequence=1. zuckerman, b., & halfon, n. (2003). school readiness: an idea whose time has arrived. pediatrics, 111(6), 1433-1436. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.111.6.1433 http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/34806/taran.pdf?sequence=1 http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/34806/taran.pdf?sequence=1 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.111.6.1433 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 357-371 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/323 submitted: january 24th, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 14th, 2022 analysis of directive ethical requirements of the notary's professional activity in the context of the neuroethical approach to the formation of legal norms nataliya manoylo¹ 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, notarmanoylo@gmail.com abstract: the article is devoted to the analysis of directive ethical requirements, the content of the professional activity of a notary in the context of the neuroethical approach to the formation of legal norms. in the context of neuroethics, it is determined that values are inherently internal motivations formed by the evolution of natural processes, the essence of which is that everything that received a kind of natural right to appear, has the potential for self-realization. the prospect can be realized if a person feels this evolutionary help and consciously / deliberately makes choice in a way that indicates his or her inner aspirations, not external requirements. the article determines the factors of formation of the «code of honor» in the professional activity of a notary. thus, the key aspects of the neuroethical manifestations of determining the internal attainment of morality, the rules of conduct in society during the notarial procedure are identified. the study examines the concept of neuroethics and knowledge of the law as factors in shaping the socio-legal behavior of the notary in social life. the philosophical approach to the formation of the values of the notary requires the application of the basic essence of the dialectical methodology of cognition. the article reveals some aspects of a more dialectical understanding of the principles of independence, legality, objectivity, confidentiality, conscientiousness, and honesty. the analytical and research method was used in the article. synthetic and analysis methods formed the main results of the study, which show that neuroethics determines the personal normative behavior of the notaries in their professional activities. keywords: neuroethics, profession, ethics, legality, objectivity, conscientiousness, honesty, independence. how to cite: manoylo, n. (2022). analysis of directive ethical requirements of the notary's professional activity in the context of the neuroethical approach to the formation of legal norms. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 357-371. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/323 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/323 mailto:notarmanoylo@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/323 analysis of directive ethical requirements of the notary's professional activity … nataliya manoylo, et al. 358 introduction relationships between people are always problematic, due to their inherent subjectivity, which determines their characteristics. this makes it difficult to reach an understanding between them, which leads to a lack of harmony, creating even conflicts or wars among nations. to some extent, a clear definition of concepts that is inherently serving as a method that can find a middle ground, peace and harmony allows to reduce the negative consequences of misunderstandings. philosophy is constantly engaged in this, because its inherent dialectical thinking encourages scholars to constantly search for such meaningful definitions of concepts that would contribute to this. it is especially problematic to define moral-ethical and ethical-legal concepts because it is not so easy to perceive their motivating effect on oneself. the reason is that their scientific definition is always preceded by definitions as certain generalizations from individual experience. human behavior in society is determined by its individual characteristics, which it implements in the process of socialization. man performs certain social roles in society and shows their personal traits. social roles are related to family life, professional activities, etc. the legal profession requires regulatory knowledge, as well as ethical behavior and analytical mental interpretation of the legal framework, which must be quickly manifested in the case. the personal behavior of a notary is formed in the context of physiological development as a manifestation of neuroethical influence on social role, as well as tendency to respect the rule of law, which corresponds to the social demand of society for such a profession. this aspect of the formation of the notary's behavior has identified a problem for our study. the aim of the article is to consider the basic principles of professional ethics of notaries in their relationship with the normatively binding behavior in society. theoretical and methodological principles of research of normative behavior in the professional ethics of a notary the internal law that applies to all living natural objects, especially those that are living organisms and man as the apex of evolution, is the law of justice as the right to exist. this is not only about the existence of the genus, but also of individuals who are able to leave the memory of their existence by some discoveries that continue to live after their biological death, determining the lives of descendants (smith, 1990). the ontological status of justice for physical objects is expressed by the laws of conservation brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 359 of mass, energy, and information. information is stored in a person's memory as the basis of his or her life if it is obtained by one's own efforts, and not simply by acquaintance with normative instructions. such an approach to the ratio of normative ethical and legal content in its state enforcement is not effective for various reasons. the main thing is that it violates the free will of person. especially the one who consciously chose a profession, which is based on the right of free will in its reasonable direction. after all, the legal profession is acquired by a lasting integration into knowledge of justice as the basis of legal awareness. in addition, in most cases, it is an inner emotional urge to understand it consciously. this is a situation that can be described in the categories of call-and-response: the soul summons a person to a response related to his or her calls. the well-known german scientist r. zippelius pays serious attention to this factor. namely, «if someone wants to reduce all rights to the prescriptions of state legislators in the spirit of legalism, a number of questions remain open, and primarily the question on what basis the prescriptions of the coercive central government should be followed. the justification for this could be found in the opinion that legal peace and security can be guaranteed only in this way. however, this ground is not enough to justify all state law, which should create not only a reliable but also a fair order (florea, 2021). only those who believe that a critical approach to state law does not make sense at all or is not necessary,… can claim that the question of justice does not exist for their legal awareness» (zippelius, 2000). we accept this opinion of the famous philosopher and jurist, so let's move directly to the content of the approved by the ministry of justice of ukraine «rules of professional ethics of notaries of ukraine». since we are talking about ethics, we note that ethical standards are the basis of legal legislation. we will not deny the need for such rules. however, their mere existence does not guarantee that they will be implemented. it is better this way: their presence does not ensure that notaries comply with professional requirements. in fact, these are the human requirements in the status of an individual who has consciously chosen to protect the rule of law and justice in society. the main tasks of the «rules are: ensuring public and citizens confidence in notaries; ensuring the effectiveness of the performing the tasks and functions of the notary; increasing the authority of the notary and the reputation of notaries; expanding opportunities for public influence on the quality of notaries; informing individuals and legal entities about the analysis of directive ethical requirements of the notary's professional activity … nataliya manoylo, et al. 360 behavior they have the right to expect from notaries» (pro zatverdzhennja pravyl profesijnoji etyky notariusiv ukrajiny, 2021). for the purposes of our study, it is extremely important that they contain the grounds for creating all the necessary conditions to give the community of notaries the status of an important spiritual and practical phenomenon, able to become an attractive center for its formation as a truly legal and democratic. but this cannot be the task of the notarial community itself. this should be the task of state institutions, in this case the ministry of justice. this version of the order states that the community itself must ensure its credibility. of course, it exists, but the public and citizens should be informed about it by government authorities through the mass media, conducting sociological polls and regularly informing the public about them. meanwhile, when researching the trust of citizens in various state institutions and public organizations, such data related to the community of notaries are missing. without such constant monitoring of the attitude of society and citizens to notaries, it is impossible to hope that trust in them, in their activities increases their authority and reputation itself, expands the possibilities of public influence on the quality of their activities. the main principles of professional activity of notaries «rules» include «independence, legality, objectivity and impartiality, confidentiality, conscientiousness, honesty, respect for the profession, culture of conduct» (pro zatverdzhennja pravyl profesijnoji etyky notariusiv ukrajiny, 2021). each principle finds its explanation in some way. but it is based on the fact that the notaries intuitively, from their own experience, their professional knowledge is able to resist the opposite manifestations of dependence, illegality, bias and prejudice, breach of confidentiality, lack of conscientiousness and dishonesty. research of the ratio of normative and personal in the professional ethics of a notary based on a neuroethical approach ethical, legal and social relationships in society from a physiological and psychological point of view are determined by neuroethical approaches, which are defined by research in neurology and neurobiology as the basis of problems related to human consciousness, morality, decision-making or «self» and personality. such traits determine the behavior of the individuals, their character and perception of the image, as well as form an awareness of the social role of the individual in society. relevant features are defined in the context of neuroethics, the manifestation of neuroimaging as the functioning of the brain, which contributes to the formation of knowledge brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 361 about human activities, feelings and certain norms of behavior (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap, 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). for the notary, neuroethics contributes to the formation of certain norms of conduct that help in the manipulative manifestations of professional activity. thus, to determine the legal norms in resolving the case, the notary must establish the legal content of the case and establish the principles of resolving the case. therefore, there is a need to form a certain behavior that helps the notary in implementing their professional activities. such behavior is formed as a result of neuroethical principles that express certain individual characteristics of the personality. theoretical neuroethics defines methodological and conceptual aspects of the interaction of neuroscientific aspects with the concepts of ethics, both descriptive and normative. we will briefly analyze those aspects that objectively hinder the notary, as well as any other person, according to these mandatory principles. independence. man as a social being depends in his or her being on other people. as a political being, it depends on the state, its existing form of government and political regime. ultimately, as a family being, it depends on the needs of the family, primarily on whether it will have a job if it actively resists pressure from high-ranking government officials, friends, acquaintances, family members, the public, which according to one of the tasks, has the right to influence, criminal groups, etc. legality. we have already referred to the fact that there is a constitutional norm about right before the law. as well as the fact that laws passed by a certain legislative majority are not always a manifestation of justice that suits society as a whole. in addition, the laws of society are not a manifestation of eternity, but of temporality. if the laws of nature reflect the objective, general, necessary, internal, essential, invariably repeated and established relationships between objects, the legal laws must take into account certain manifestations of subjectivity, features, coincidences, exterior, not necessarily manifestations of the essence of the highest order, variability and uniqueness in relationships between people who are not pure objects. finally, a notary may be able to apply case law, although he does not have such rights by law. the explanation of this principle states that the notary is obliged to «promote the establishment and practical implementation of the principles of the rule of law, use all their knowledge and professional skills to properly protect the rights and legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities» (pro zatverdzhennja pravyl profesijnoji etyky notariusiv ukrajiny, 2021). analysis of directive ethical requirements of the notary's professional activity … nataliya manoylo, et al. 362 however, the eights article of the constitution of ukraine states that «the principle of the rights law is defined and operates in ukraine» (konstytucija ukrajiny, 1996). it is obvious that in this case the ministry of justice should point to one principle, or the principle of the primacy of the rights law since all laws in society are an expression of right as a measure of justice. objectivity and impartiality. we have just noted that man is inherently a subjective being. moreover, if we take the existential dimension of its existence, then subjectivity is its first humanistic principle. this does not mean that a notary should act based on his own subjectivity, which is always a manifestation of prejudice. not at all. this means that acting objectively and impartially is quite difficult, that this requirement violates the notaries' right to preserve their life in good health, which, according to the same constitutional law, is the highest value in the state of ukraine. the «rules» appeal to the requirements of the notary's oath. here is it: "i solemnly swear to perform the duties of a notary honestly and conscientiously, according to the law and conscience, respect the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and organizations, maintain professional secrecy, everywhere and always keep the high rank of notary» (pro zatverdzhennja pravyl profesijnoji etyky notariusiv ukrajiny, 2021). the main claim from the standpoint of philosophical analysis is not so much to the content as to the fact that its content is not the own attainment of those who take it. all people's deputies, as legislators, are also obliged to take the oath, but does this oblige them to act objectively and impartially if each of them represents not society, but only a party with a special interest, which it gives, sometimes sincerely and in most cases slyly, as the common interest. and again, the stereotype of «the purity of the high title of notary». purity is not determined by the person themselves, but by those who are affected by them, particularly obligating. in this case, it would be appropriate to cite the right opinion of j.j. rousseau about the establishment of a real, not a narrow-party, but democratic-republican system in the state. this is possible «when a sufficiently knowledgeable people make decisions, then if citizens do not have any relations with each other, the common / general will and decision from the set of minor differences will always be right. but when conspiracies, partial associations are formed to the detriment of the basic association, the will of each of these associations becomes general in relation to its members and partial in relation to the state; then we can say that voters are not as many as people, but only as many as associations. differences become less numerous and give less overall results. finally, when one of these associations is so large that it prevails over all others, the brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 363 result is no longer a sum of minor differences, but a single difference. then there is no more common will, and the opinion that prevails is nothing more than a partial opinion» (rousseau, 1969). this situation developed during the soviet era, which eventually led to the country's collapse. the same danger has arisen in modern ukraine when partial opinion simply destroys state institutions. that is why it is so important to form social structures on the basis of «sufficient awareness» of members of certain associations / unions with essential definitions of basic concepts of legal values developed by the history of knowledge, which constitute the above-mentioned subjective set of norms of human-citizen and human-individual behavior as active and at the same time responsible. the oath should be taken of these internally conscious norms as objective and impartial, which have acquired the status of one's own inner convictions. thus, their content precedes the content of individual consciousness, formed by empirically reliable modernity. but it is confirmed by historical practice and scientific methodology of cognition in the unity of history and logic. hence the fundamental principle that «truth is the daughter of time», not just the present. confidentiality. the «rules» rightly state that this principle «is a necessary and most important condition for trusting relationship between a notary and individuals and legal entities» (pro zatverdzhennja pravyl profesijnoji etyky notariusiv ukrajiny, 2021). however, there are also some caveats here. especially in the part that deals with the actual obligation of the notaries that their assistants and technical staff have to comply with this principle. we have already noted that a person is bound to a certain way of acting, a certain way of thinking, a certain worldview by their inner conviction that there are two interconnected principles inside them: egocentric and socio-centric. it is extremely difficult to oblige another person to something that is not present in them or is present as an attainment of memory, and not an attainment of one's own cognitive efforts. besides, everyone has the constitutional right to inviolability not only in relation to themselves as individuals but also in relation to themselves as a spiritual beings who has the right to freedom of beliefs. notary assistants and consultants usually have a law degree too. why not applying the same principle to them. it is also important to consider another factor. it is not so easy for a person as a social-communicative being to adhere to the principle of confidentiality of information. especially nowadays, when all the information is not in the papers, but in the computer network, which, as it turns out, is not so difficult to penetrate. in addition, there is always a desire analysis of directive ethical requirements of the notary's professional activity … nataliya manoylo, et al. 364 to share secret information at least with the closest people, who often have a corresponding desire to join something secret. this is considered in the state of israel, when its captured citizens in order not to be torture, they are obliged to tell secret information. again, life and health are the highest social values of the state in reality, not in declarations. conscientiousness. quite authoritative thinkers have always been skeptical of the so-called «pure conscience», which is defined in the «rules» as a requirement to be conscientious. this contradicts the dialectical nature of being and, consequently, dialectical thinking, which cannot operate on the concept of good regardless of its own opposition to evil. plato noted that only the creator of being «was good; and there is no envy of anything in good» (plato, 1969). as in natural existence everything interacts and is interconnected, man as a social being, while interacting with other people, cannot consider himself exclusively conscientious without being confirmed by all those to whom his action was directed. moreover, the action is purely legislative, with which everyone as a subjective and special beings, including the notaries themselves, cannot fully agree. defining the «social significance and complexity of professional responsibilities of notaries, they are required to have a high level of professional training» as well as the obligation to «ensure the necessary level of competence of their assistants (consultants of the state notary office), technical staff and others… by constantly improving their skills» (shevchuk, 2013). from our point of view, it is a mean of intensifying their work. we are convinced that such activities are organic for the staff of notary offices, so it is hardly necessary to oblige to it. after all, if notaries «must», then in case of detection of incompetence of support staff, the notary is guilty. this is hardly fair… in addition to the purely cognitive interest, employees should always have a sense of responsibility for the fact that receiving financial compensation for work, they need to improve their knowledge, for which there will certainly be additional rewards. especially when it comes to private notaries. honesty. like previous principles, they suffer from conceptual uncertainty. after all, the list of prohibitions given in the explanation does not determine the meaning of the concept in its methodological and educational function. like any concept, it must be defined by genus and species differences. therefore, it is highly preferably, considering ethics, morality, law, and their basic concepts as an organic part of philosophy as the art of conceptual thinking, to give such definitions. by being concise, they can be immediately understood by those who need them to perform their professional duties. thus, honor is a person's compliance with such rules of brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 365 interaction with other people, which cause them full confidence in their mutual competence. the generic feature here is trust in the cognitive abilities of a person who seeks advice (yusupov, 1985). specific difference – one person acts as a qualified professional at the problem with which he or she is addressed; the other, not being so professionally prepared, in the process of communication feels able to perceive the essence of the problem due to the obvious belief in his or her cognitive abilities by a professional. since it is impossible to be honest and decent without interacting with people. if such a definition is given, considering the dignity and decency of notaries, based on trust in them, all these prohibitions will not manifest themselves as a humiliation of their honor. we conducted a kind of critical analysis of the requirements for notaries on the grounds that the above-mentioned normative requirements for their professional ethics, in our opinion, do not show full confidence in them by the governmental body (yarkov, 2008). after all, if a person has chosen the profession of a lawyer, in this case a notary as a guarantor of the need to act according to legal law, it goes without saying that they respect their profession by vocation. hence the corresponding culture of behavior, way of thinking, attitude to people, to the state in general (balzer, 1912). this does not mean that the existence of binding documents is not required. but they must proceed on the understanding that the proposed principles are already available in the field of ideological and motivational consciousness of notaries. r. zippelius, already quoted by us, notes: «people need not only a thorough normative organization of behavior, but also a broad semantic orientation. from the very beginning, the individuals are forced to navigate correctly in this complex world, they are faced with an extraordinary variety of experience data and expectations of reactions to behavior. they seek to make this diversity clear, «comprehensible» and intelligible through conceptual schemes. man seeks to find a certain «meaning», i.e. to find a comprehensive concept that allows him to understand the world. such ways of orienting in the world appear in the form of religious or other «worldview» conceptual schemes in which they find their place, as well as their meaning and social institutions» (zippelius, 2000). applying a philosophical and anthropological approach to the analysis of the phenomenon of the notary, we stressed the need to study the natural inclinations of man in order to be able to direct their energy into social life, which certainly develops through the adoption of certain rules and norms of behavior. «only the normative order creates confidence in the guidelines and social stability» (zippelius, 2000). but such an order will work analysis of directive ethical requirements of the notary's professional activity … nataliya manoylo, et al. 366 effectively, especially in complex types of society, under the condition that their requirements are sanctioned by a deep understanding of their necessity by the people themselves who form a particular social institution (bodio, 2011). the usual call to be honest and decent without understanding how to shape them and what they will give to establish social stability will not establish it. the convictions of a person who has not approached their truth by means of making their own cognitive efforts will only be a manifestation of instinctive impulses. «in fact, my belief is something highly insignificant if i am not able to know anything true» (hegel, 1990), we cannot but agree with this hegel's opinion. that is why we emphasize that normative regulations should not have a legislatively coercive status. after all, the existence of the principles listed in the «rules» in a person can comprehensively and objectively learnt by a variety of socio-psychological tests. we have already noted that the worldview is a form of human selfconsciousness, which acts as a motivational dominant of human activity. notaries as highly professionally educated people define their limiting and at certain moments of life metaboundary existence as a philosophical type of worldview (dabkowski, 1918). due to this, the legislatively coercive reminder of the principles of conscientious performance of their professional duties and conscientious professional behavior considered as a form of unjustified distrust. modern society, and not only ukrainian, is in a difficult state of crisis. this significantly affects the notarial community, whose activities are based on the principle of justice. r. zippelius emphasized the difficulties caused by the crisis more than twenty years ago. nowadays, however, the crisis has deepened considerably, which is facilitated by the rather dubious in terms of reasonableness policy of certain states that consider themselves to be supposedly civilized. in such a situation, «when institutional and ideological orientations are shaken, when the self-evident worldview, which has outlived its usefulness, disappears, ethical criteria become problematic, the reliability of legal guidelines is lost and, if this is also because of vagueness or rapid change of legal norms, then irritability, insecurity, aggression or escape from reality, which becomes unbearable, take place, due to the inability of man to « absorb» it all – in short, releasing the «chaotic in man». the great importance that people give to their worldviews and normative guidelines is not least is reflected in the fact that the most fierce wars are wars for worldview beliefs and faith» (zippelius, 2000). modern ukrainian society is in a state of crisis throughout the period of independence. after all, it is quite obvious that the worldviews of the brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 367 soviet period cannot operate in the context of building a democratic society ruled by law and a competitive economy. paternalistic psychology, formed by means of purposeful ideological processing of society's consciousness and definition of outlook as a system of monopoly ideology of human worldview and their place in it, constantly poses obstacles to the establishment of worldviews based on their understanding as individually sanctioned motivational dominants. hence, perhaps, a manifestation of the inertia of paternalistic psychology on the part of the state legal institution (drevnekitayskaya filosofiya, 1972). competitive society puts before each person the need to find ways of combining in themselves from birth acquired tendencies with their socially popular direction of development and use. notaries really need help from state legislatures and executive structures regarding the need to «constantly improve their competence» (pro zatverdzhennja pravyl profesijnoji etyky notariusiv ukrajiny, 2021). but not because it is at an inappropriate level, but because «legal chaos» is quite obvious to society, it prevents them from acting calmly, balanced and competently, not so much according to current laws, but according to the questionable principle of justice. legislators are not always like that because they have an innate sense of justice. instead, it is undoubtedly dominant among notaries. and, to a much greater extent than is typical of other subjects of law (harsagi, 2021). this is proved by sociological surveys, which show an extremely low trust of citizens in the judiciary, and it includes not only judges but also lawyers and prosecutors. r. zippelius also emphasized this feature in his work «philosophy of law», based, as he himself noted, on the extension of karl popper's theory of science to the realm of law and the ideas of kant, who considered the mind-driven conscience of man to be the decisive instance of his moral views and understanding of justice (skupieński, 1990). k. popper's concept of building a society open to human development is highly desirable in order to build a domestic legal, democratic, just society on its basis. thus, according to r. zippelius: «methodology has long recognized that the answers to specific legal problems cannot be strictly derived from state law, that the administration of justice should include assessments, and in particular an understanding of justice» (zippelius, 2000). and further explanation: «the regulatory system cannot count on universal recognition just because it functions effectively, consistently and smoothly, but only when the decisions made are inherently acceptable to the rule of law. only under this condition the system is able to function for a long time and without hindrance: if the state system in its regulations constantly analysis of directive ethical requirements of the notary's professional activity … nataliya manoylo, et al. 368 contradicts the prevailing notions of justice in society, it provokes resistance and revolutions» (zippelius, 2000). this is what is happening in ukraine. but this will not happen if we take into account historical experience and not invent a separate path of development. a person will not experience a general worldview crisis if they are constantly offered models of worldview confidence from those social structures that demonstrate success in their activities (niemirowski, 2014). it is not necessary to call on notaries to perform those actions that they do not do anyway. their activities are, without a doubt, «acceptable to the law society » (malatesta, 1995). but it must be informed about their activities not by themselves, which from a moral and ethical point of view will not be perceived by society as positive, because it does not tolerate praise. but they will perceive their activities positively if it is demonstrated either by public organizations as a support for the civil type of society, or by reporting on the sociological services that society trusts. in fact, this approach was proposed more than 2.5 thousand years ago by confucius. «the teacher said, «a person should not be upset if they do not have a high position, they should only be upset that they are not morally strong. one should not be upset that one is unknown to people. as soon as they begins to strive for morality, people will learn about them» (drevnekitayskaya filosofiya, 1972). but it is not they who must demonstrate their perfection. it is a matter of the state and statesmen, aware that they are in the service of society, not vice-versa (chojak, 2018). therefore, in our opinion, supported by the authority of prominent sages, philosophers, scientists, this is the main task of government agencies and powerful men, and not just endless regulatory action. man as a social being manifests themselves in an organization. in additional materials to the «philosophy of law», hegel cites the opinions of other experts on the problems of understanding the essence of man, honor, decency, dignity, etc. here is one of them: «in a corporation, a citizen gains their honor, they are recognized; if things are different, they are forced to seek their recognition in another way, creating the semblance of wealth, etc. in the corporation, the citizen is a master, a man of honor and is recognized as such, outside the corporation they have no recognition (hegel, 1990). and this cannot be otherwise, unless the state as a whole, uniting all social corporations / structures, does not take care of public recognition (glass, 1933). however, not only individuals, but also their groups, because a person should owe their success to them as well, and not only to their own talents and efforts. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 369 indeed, a person as a personality, and not only as an average individual, manifests themselves in a team related to the aptitudes, abilities, interests, talents. not only k. marx and f. engels (1957) wrote about this, but also his predecessors, including g. hegel as their correspondence teacher, who also learning from others. their opinion is as follows: «i can only get it from others, namely through my own work, because everything is already the property of another. thus, the satisfaction of needs no longer depends on direct taking into possession, but on work in general, this is also a truly reasonable attitude. satisfaction of needs should, as far as possible, depend on man themselves, their activities, behavior, understanding, prudence, not on what good nature gives. the honor of man is that in their imagination they are the main» (hegel, 1990). the system of education that a person receives before they start working already forms such a unity of individual and social, innate and acquired, regulatory and personal. all this, taken together, as well as the experience of the notaries, allows us to approve their ability to selfregulation. in addition to the moral virtues that oblige to a proper culture of behavior, it is also obliged by responsibility for one's family's financial situation. therefore, it is unlikely that the «rules» should include the regulation of behavior outside of office hours. most likely, the category of people who belong to government structures, especially the highest ones, should be obliged to do so. this is where there are problems that negatively affect society. conclusions there should be not only a relationship of subordination, but mainly coordination, between the higher executive bodies and its internal structures. in this case, the subject-subject interaction is established, not the objectobject interaction. which, in turn, destroys established over many centuries paternalistic psychology, including of public officials. the community of notaries must itself produce those professional codes of ethics and law that express their inherent way of thinking and understanding their responsibility for performance. and such codes exist, so it is unlikely that unnecessary care will inspire them. personal development and perception of the professional social role of the notary is one of the determining factors of their ethical behavior. the legal and regulatory aspects in the context of professional activity determines the essence of the social role of the notary. but it is important to show a personal perception of their profession. therefore, the neuroethical approach to the study of notary's conduct in professional activities is one of https://context.reverso.net/%d0%bf%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%b4/%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%b8%d0%b9%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d1%80%d1%83%d1%81%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9/legal+and+regulatory+aspects analysis of directive ethical requirements of the notary's professional activity … nataliya manoylo, et al. 370 the most important factors in the interaction of personal and normative in the legal ethics of notary's conduct. areas of further research are determined by the need to develop and establish a truly subject-subject relations in society at the level of concepts that by their definition are able to directly form an objective way of both cognitive and practical activities. references balzer, o. (1912) porządek sądόw i spraw prawa ormiańskiego. [order of courts and matters of armenian law]. lwow. bodio, j., borkowski, g., & demendecki, t. (2011). ustrój organów ochrony prawnej. część szczegółowa. [the system of legal protection. detailed part] (vol.3). oficyna a wolters kluwer business. chojak, m. (2018). neuropedagogy as a scientific discipline: interdisciplinary description of the theoretical basis for the development of a research field. international journal of education and pedagogical sciences, 12(8), 10841087. https://zenodo.org/record/1474341/files/10009406.pdf?download=1 dabkowski, p. (1918). urzednicy kancelaryjni sadow ziemskich i grodzkich w dawnej polsce. [offices of land and city courts in old poland]. archeion, 337 – 364. https://doi.org/10.4467/26581264arc.21.002.14482 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 drevnekitayskaya filosofiya. sobranie tekstov v dvukh tomakh [ancient chinese philosophy. collection of texts in two volumes]. (1972). (vol.1). florea, d. (2021). particularităţile creării şi aplicării de către state a normelor de drept internaţional public. lumen. glass, j. (1933). rzut oka na polską ustawą notarialną. [review of the polish notarial act]. harsagi, v. (2011) the notarial order for payment procedure as a hungarian peculiarity. piter pazmany catholic university. hegel, g. w. f. (1990). filosofiya prava. [philosophy of law]. mysl. konstytucija ukrajiny vid 28 chervnja 1996 roku [constitution of ukraine of june 28, 1996]. (1996). kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical https://zenodo.org/record/1474341/files/10009406.pdf?download=1 https://doi.org/10.4467/26581264arc.21.002.14482 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 371 health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 malatesta, m. (1995). society and the professions in italy, 1860-1914. cambridge university press. ministry of justice of ukraine. (2021). pro zatverdzhennja pravyl profesijnoji etyky notariusiv ukrajiny. [on approval of the rules of professional ethics of notaries of ukraine] https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z075921#text niemirowski, a. (1876). wyklad notariatu dziejowy i porownawzy. [lecture on historical and comparative notary]. druk. k. kówalewskiego. plato. (1969). antologiya mirovoy filosofii [the world philosophy anthology] (vol.1). mysl. rousseau, j. j. (1969). traktaty. [treatises]. nauka. sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 shevchuk, l. (2013). notariat v ukrajini v skladi rosijsjkoji imperiji. [notary in ukraine as part of the russian empire]. visnyk ljvivsjkogho universytetu. serija «jurydychna», 57, 154-162. skupieński, k. (1992). o znaku notarialnym jako zródle poznania polskiej herardyki shistedesyata redniowiecznej. [аbout the notarial mark as a source of knowledge of polish medieval heraldry]. discernere vera ac falsa: praca ofiarowane józefowi szymańskiemu w sześćdziesiąta rocznica urodzin, 45, 231-243. smith, m. в. (1997). values. in j. w. berry, m. h. segall, & с. kagitcibasi (eds.), handbook of cross-cultural psychology, (pp. 77–118). allyn & bacon. yarkov, v. v. (2008). notariat i mediatsiya [notaries and mediation]. notarialnyy vestnik. yusupov, v. a. (1985). teoriya administrativnogo prava [theory of administrative law]. yurid. zippelius, r. (2000). filosofija prava: pidruchnyk. [philosophy of law: textbook]. tandem. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0759-21#text https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0759-21#text https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 518-533 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/297 a preliminary investigation of the technology acceptance model (tam) in early childhood education and care dana rad¹, anca egerau2, alina roman3, tiberiu dughi4, evelina balas5, roxana maier6, sonia ignat7, gavril rad8 1 assoc. prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, dana@xhouse.ro 2 assoc. prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, anca_petroi@yahoo.com 3 prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, romanalinafelicia@yahoo.com 4 assoc. prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, tibi_dughi@yahoo.com 5 assoc. prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, evelinabalas@yahoo.com 6 assoc. prof. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, roxanamaierpsiho@gmail.com 7 lect. phd, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, soniabudean@yahoo.com 8 assist. prof. phd cand, aurel vlaicu university of arad, arad, romania, radgavrilarad@gmail.com abstract: the technology acceptance model (tam) is a well-known postmodern idea that explains how humans adopt and use new technologies. the model focuses on variables that impact behavioral intention to use new technology from the perspective of the end user. the purpose of this study was to construct a viable questionnaire for assessing preschool teachers' technology acceptability in online instruction in ecec, based on data collected from 182 romanian preschool instructors, using the theory of planned behavior framework. our application of theory of planned behavior in technology adoption in ecec is extraordinarily good, with 66 percent explained variance of actual usage of technology in class. the research literature supports the findings that the intention to use technology and a good attitude toward technology are the most significant determinants of actual technology usage. although more research is needed in larger and more complex samples to confirm these findings, there is compelling evidence that the prediction methodology can be used to predict preschool teachers' level of technology acceptance and assist educational decision-makers in designing timely interventions that improve the chances of success. the study's major findings point to crucial variables that might help national educational decisionmakers improve technology adoption in ecec. keywords: technology acceptance model, early childhood education and care, scale reliability. how to cite: rad, d., egerau, a., roman, a., dughi, t., balas, e., maier, r., ignat, s., & rad, g. (2022). a preliminary investigation of the technology acceptance model (tam) in early childhood education and care. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 518-533. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/297 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/297 mailto:dana@xhouse.ro mailto:anca_petroi@yahoo.com mailto:romanalinafelicia@yahoo.com mailto:tibi_dughi@yahoo.com mailto:evelinabalas@yahoo.com mailto:roxanamaierpsiho@gmail.com mailto:soniabudean@yahoo.com mailto:radgavrilarad@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/297 a preliminary investigation of the technology acceptance model (tam) in ... dana rad, et al. 519 1. the technology acceptance model (tam) postmodern psychology is a philosophical position that asks whether an ultimate or solitary interpretation of truth is even conceivable within the area of psychology. it also contradicts the modernist notion of psychology as an individualistic science (kvale, 1992) in favor of viewing people as a cultural and community product controlled by communication rather than an inward self (lobman, 2005; sandu & nistor, 2020a, sandu & nistor, 2020b; huidu, 2018). to accept the diversity of reality and avoid oversimplification, postmodern psychology employs a variety of approaches rather than a single approach. postmodernism sees a methodical, analytical approach to understanding the human mind as flawed by the impossibility of assuming a detached, objective perspective (childers, 1995). the technology acceptance model (tam) is a prominent postmodern concept that helps to explain how people come to accept and use new technologies (clipa, & greciuc, 2018; mâță, et al., 2020; clipa et al., 2014). from the standpoint of the end user, the model focuses on variables that influence behavioral intention to utilize new technology (davis, 1989; kalayou et al., 2020). tam consists of three fundamental user motivation variables: perceived ease of use, perceived utility, and attitudes toward technology. among these variables, perceived utility (pu) and perceived ease of use (peu) are regarded as primary determinants that explain the behavioral intention to use or accept new technology directly or indirectly (kalayou et al., 2020; sumak et al., 2011). despite the existence of several tam variants, some with or without external variables, and others with or without actual technology usage as an end variable, the tam's key aspects include perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitudes toward technology, and intents to utilize technology (davis, 1986; venkatesh & bala, 2008a; marangunic & granic, 2015). the tam has been researched and developed on a regular basis, with the second tam (venkatesh et al., 2000) and the unified theory of acceptance and application of technology (venkatesh, 2000) being two notable advancements (venkatesh et al., 2003). a tam 3 have been established in online commerce, which covers the impact of trust and perceived risk on a specific technology (venkatesh & bala, 2008b). perceived ease of use relates to how simple an individual perceives it is to use technology without exerting effort, or how easy it is to use (davis, 1986; bong et al., 2019; mostaghel & oghazi, 2017; chiu et al., 2017; dogruel et al., 2015). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 520 the degree to which a person feels that using technology would improve their job performance is referred to as perceived usefulness (bong et al., 2019; mostaghel & oghazi, 2017; chiu et al., 2017; dogruel et al., 2015; lekjaroen et al., 2016; hsiao, tang, 2015). the degree to which the act of using a system is seen to be joyful in and of itself, regardless of any performance results connected with system use, is referred to as perceived enjoyment (dogruel et al., 2015; park et al., 2021). intention to use denotes a desire to make use of the technology in the future (hsiao & tang, 2015; lekjaroen et al., 2016). actual use refers to a person's readiness to utilize technology now (dogruel et al., 2015). the degree to which a technology is viewed as being compatible with the current values, needs, and prior experiences of potential adopters is referred to as compatibility (chiu, et al., 2016; rogers, 1995). the psychological inclination of appraising a certain element with some degree of favor or dislike is referred to as attitude (bong et al., 2019; chiu et al., 2017; hsiao & tang, 2015; lekjaroen et al., 2016). people's opinions of their own effectiveness or aptitude to complete a task effectively are referred to as self-efficacy (bandura, 1986; bong, et al., 2019; dogruel, et al., 2015; palos, & samfira, 2021; tulbure et al., 2015). a broad sensation of tiredness from engaging in video conference calls is known as zoom fatigue (fauville, et al., 2021). the probability that a technology-assisted educational activity may not be as effective as planned is referred to as perceived risk (li, huang, 2009). an individual's overall assessment of technology is a crucial factor in determining their attitudes toward technology (zhang et al., 2012). because of the covid-19 epidemic, online education has become a popular response, requiring preschool instructors to adapt and use educational technology quickly. given this critical circumstance, research on preschool teachers' use of technology can provide insight into how to increase preschool teachers' motivation to use educational technology. the technology acceptance model (tam) was widely used in previous research to analyze the process of humans accepting technology. a recent study looked into the characteristics that affected preschool teachers' use of technology with personalized tam. preschool teachers, according to the study, had a moderate to high degree of behavioral intention. the perceived usefulness and ease of use of preschool teachers are strongly linked to their behavioral goals. perceived usefulness is influenced by perceived ease of use and work a preliminary investigation of the technology acceptance model (tam) in ... dana rad, et al. 521 relevance. computer self-efficacy and perceptions of external control are two positive features of perceived ease of usage (hong et al., 2021). in this study, we hypothesized that the constructs and associations described in the modified tam model (rad et al., 2022) are valid to measure the behavioral intention to use technology in ecec by preschool teachers. the proposed research variables, their relationships, the research framework, and our hypotheses presume that actual use is significantly influenced by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, intention to use, compatibility, attitude, self-efficacy, emotional consequences of zoom fatigue, and perceived risk. 1.1. the present investigation following a review of the literature, we found that the tam model is generally applicable, offering a solid theoretical and empirical basis for our current study. existing research, on the other hand, has the following weaknesses, which have already been identified. previous study has focused on kids and pre-service teachers rather than preschool instructors. the majority of the research looked at the tam in non-epidemic situations rather than in the midst of an outbreak. the rapid adoption of online teaching by the covid-19 needs an understanding of the factors that influence preschool teachers' willingness to use educational technology. to answer our research question, what is the degree of technology adoption among preschool teachers in the ecec online educational setting during covid-19, we developed an online questionnaire called the technology acceptance model in early childhood education and care (tam ecec), conducted a reliability analysis, and then used linear regression analysis to predict preschool teachers' technology acceptance levels, using the theory of planned behavior framework. 2. methodology 2.1. participants during the covid-19 epidemic in romania in the spring of 2021, 182 preschool instructors were randomly recruited from a project-based national training program for preschool teachers called inclusive and qualitative early education. the romanian ministry of education has introduced a countrywide preschool teacher training program for 2000 preschool teachers. 182 preschool teachers engaged in online education and used educational technology in their classrooms during covid-19. at the start of our inquiry, we obtained informed consent (sandu & frunza, 2019). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 522 the 182 respondents are from alba, arad, bihor, bistrita-nasaud, brasov, caras-severin, cluj-napoca, dolj, gorj, hunedoara, mehedinti, salaj, satu mare, sibiu, and timis counties and are all female preschool instructors that work in public preschools in romania. we got replies ranging in age from 23 to 62 years old, with an average mean age of 42. our responders had a variety of professional experience in preschool education, ranging from 2 to 43 years, with an average mean of 20 years. in the sector of preschool and elementary education, all of our responders had a government-accredited title and a bachelor's diploma or higher education. 2.2. instrument validated items were utilized to measure the tam based on previous research (venkatesh and bala, 2008a). tam ecec is a technique that evaluates the technology acceptance of early childhood education and care professionals in an online learning setting. it has 27 questions on a likert scale of 1 to 5, with 1 denoting strong disagreement and 5 denoting strong agreement. for items q22, q23, q24, q25, and q27, we apply reverse scoring, which means 1 is recorded with 5 and vice versa. the data is interpreted using ten-dimension ratings. higher scores indicate a greater willingness to adopt technology. tam ecec measurement consists of ten dimensions and 27 items: d1. perceived utility (e.g., "by adopting digital technologies, i can have stronger socio-educational relationships with my parents and kids," 3 items), d2. perceived ease of use (e.g., "digital technology interaction is straightforward and quick to master," 4 items), d3. perceived pleasure (e.g., "i love using digital tools in my class," 4 items), d4. intention to use (e.g., "i would utilize digital tools in my class," single item), d5. actual use (for example, "i frequently utilize digital tools in my class," a single item), d6. compatibility (example: "most aspects of my professional life are compatible with the usage of digital tools," 3 items), d7. attitude (e.g., "using digital tools in my class is a wonderful concept," 2 items), d8. selfefficacy (3 items) (e.g., "i am confident in my capacity to learn to use digital technology," d9. emotional effects of zoom fatigue (e.g., "i experience emotional tiredness after my lessons," 3 items with reversed scores), and d10. perceived risk (e.g., "i'm fearful of being mocked in front of my children and parents," 3 questions with reversed scores). in the present research sample, cronbach’s alpha of the dimensions for d1, d2, d3, d6, d7, d8, d9, d10 were 0.91, 0.83, 0.91, 0.91, 0.95, 0.83, 0.80 respectively 0.80, except for d4 and d5 that are represented by single items, reflecting the behavioral intent to use and actual use of technology. a preliminary investigation of the technology acceptance model (tam) in ... dana rad, et al. 523 the online questionnaire tam ecec demonstrated good reliability coefficients with a calculated cronbach's alpha of 88%. the calculated item means is m=3.14 and the scale mean is m=85.03, with a variance of 189.593 and a standard deviation of 13.769. the anova with tukey's test for nonadditivity yelled a between items coefficient of f=182.596 significant at a p<0.01 and a hotelling's tsquared coefficient of f=4.536 significant at a p<0.02. 2.3. procedure to begin, we developed a romanian version of an online questionnaire and altered items to match the needs of preschool teachers at covid-19. second, a pilot test was conducted with ten experienced specialists from arad's aurel vlaicu university to get input. the online questionnaire was revised and revamped based on these first findings. furthermore, studies show that the average time it takes to complete an online survey is roughly 10 minutes. finally, a randomized convenience sample strategy was applied using the project's professional online platform https://etic.cf/, which contained the national online training program for nearly 2000 romanian preschool educators. teachers from romania's national training program for inclusive and qualitative early education were chosen at random. after learning about the study's goals, all preschool teachers agreed to take part. after receiving the online questionnaire links, preschool instructors had one week to complete the questionnaires by phone or computer at any time that was convenient for them. 3. results and discussion 3.1. preliminary analyses all factors are evaluated using a 5-point likert scale, with 3 serving as the theoretical midpoint. on four variables, preschool teachers offer ratings ranging from 3.17 to 3.87 for reported enjoyment, intention to utilize, self-efficacy, and perceived risk. when the ten factors were considered, we discovered that preschool instructors had the lowest view of educational technology's usefulness (m=2.56), followed by actual usage (m=2.92), and self-efficacy (m=3.87). the variables' standard deviation spread is between 0.86 and 1.17, indicating a small variability range. skewness and kurtosis range from -0.95 to 0.42 and -0.68 to 1.15, respectively. the current study's skewness and kurtosis values https://etic.cf/ brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 524 both suggest that the examined constructs are within the normalcy range, according to the literature's stated standards (ori et al., 2009). with a significant threshold of 0.05, the correlation values vary from 0.15 to 0.79. the attitude and perceived enjoyment had the strongest correlation coefficient (r = 0.79, p<0.001). perceived risk and perceived usefulness have a significant negative correlation (r=-0.15, p< 0.05), while perceived risk has a positive correlation (r = 0.41, p<0.001) with emotional consequences of zoom fatigue. 3.2. multiple regression analysis regression analysis helps us to analyze and, more importantly, model the connection between variables, allowing us to make predictions about what the actual usage of technology variable will do based on the scores of the other dimensions: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, intention to use, compatibility, attitude, self-efficacy, emotional consequences of zoom fatigue, and perceived risk. a multiple regression was carried out to investigate whether perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, intention to use, compatibility, attitude, self-efficacy, emotional consequences of zoom fatigue, and perceived risk could significantly predict actual use of technology in ecec. the results of the regression indicated that the model explained 66.3% of the variance and that the model is significant f (9.172) = 40.603, p<.001. while intention to use contributed significantly to the model (b = .466, p<.01), and also attitude (b = .197, p<.05), the rest of our variables did not bring a significant contribution to our model, as seen in table 1. table 1 – multiple regression analysis coefficients source: authors’ own conception model summaryb mo -del r r squar e adjusted r squar e std. error of the estimat e change statistics durbin watson r square chang e f chang e df 1 df2 sig. f chang e 1 .825 a .680 .663 .67114 .680 40.603 9 17 2 .000 1.938 a. predictors: (constant), d10. perceived risk, d2. perceived ease of use, d9. emotional consequences of zoom fatigue, d1. perceived usefulness, d8. self-efficacy, d4. intention to use, d6. compatibility, d7. attitude, d3. perceived enjoyment b. dependent variable: d5. actual use source: authors’ own conception a preliminary investigation of the technology acceptance model (tam) in ... dana rad, et al. 525 anovaa model sum of squares df mean square f sig. 1 regression 164.598 9 18.289 40.603 .000b residual 77.474 172 .450 total 242.071 181 a. dependent variable: d5. actual use b. predictors: (constant), d10. perceived risk, d2. perceived ease of use, d9. emotional consequences of zoom fatigue, d1. perceived usefulness, d8. self-efficacy, d4. intention to use, d6. compatibility, d7. attitude, d3. perceived enjoyment source: authors’ own conception coefficientsa model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. b std. error beta 1 (constant) .122 .304 .403 .687 d1. perceived usefulness -.024 .060 -.024 -.408 .684 d2. perceived ease of use .074 .081 .059 .924 .357 d3. perceived enjoyment .111 .108 .100 1.035 .302 d4. intention to use .466 .081 .476 5.747 .000 d6. compatibility .115 .085 .104 1.355 .177 d7. attitude .197 .095 .191 2.074 .040 d8. self-efficacy .011 .082 .008 .138 .891 d9. emotional consequences of zoom fatigue -.102 .059 -.087 -1.726 .086 d10. perceived risk .040 .055 .036 .722 .471 a. dependent variable: d5. actual use source: authors’ own conception brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 526 source: authors’ own conception figure 1 – regression standardized residual the scatterplot of standardized predicted values vs standardized residuals demonstrated that the data matched the requirements of variance homogeneity and linearity, and that the residuals were roughly normally distributed (figure 1). 4. discussion as a result of the coronavirus, romanian preschools were closed for three months in the spring of 2020, leading in a significant shift from offline to online learning. online education, of course, needs preschool instructors' grasp of information technology. however, it is still unclear if preschool teachers will utilize instructional technology. this study employed a customized tam to measure romanian preschool educators' technology adoption during covid-19. our findings support the premise that a tailored tam may be valuable in an emergency online education situation. actual use behavior among preschool instructors ranged from moderate to high, with reported utility, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, intention to use, compatibility, attitude, self-efficacy, emotional a preliminary investigation of the technology acceptance model (tam) in ... dana rad, et al. 527 consequences of zoom fatigue, and perceived risk all contributing. the most immediate and crucial factors in preschool educators' real use behavior are their behavioral intention to use and attitude. perceived utility, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, intention to use, compatibility, attitude, and self-efficacy all have a positive relationship with actual usage. our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of preschool instructors' usage of educational technology during the covid-19 outbreak, as well as teacher training throughout the world. according to this study, most preschool teachers accepted instructional technology throughout the epidemic since their behavioral intention score was over 3, indicating moderate or greater levels of agreement. the intense pushing for behavioral objectives by the romanian ministry of education might explain the high behavioral goals. teachers who have access to educational technology may obtain online resources and professional training from the ministry of education, which may have increased their motivation to use it. furthermore, among these qualities, preschool instructors had the lowest perceived usefulness score, indicating that preschool teachers have difficulty appreciating the utility of using technology in an ecec environment. in support of these findings, in the final question of the online questionnaire, we asked respondents to describe their overall experience with online education in ecec. according to over 80% of responses, the use of technology in ecec education is both interesting and provocative, but without parental assistance in supporting their toddlers in connecting and participating in online activities, all efforts are fruitless. the findings demonstrated that the goal of use and attitude toward technology had a significant and positive impact on the actual technology use behavior of romanian preschool teachers. according to earlier research on the tam, perceived utility and perceived ease of use are two essential components that have a strong impact on the adoption process of a system (liu et al., 2019; marangunic and granic, 2015; okumus et al., 2016; scherer et al., 2019). furthermore, preschool teachers who have a positive attitude toward educational technology are more likely to use it, whereas those who have a negative attitude toward it are more likely to reject it. a behavioral intention to use instructional technology, in addition to having a positive attitude toward technology, would boost their preparedness to use it. as a result, the keener preschool teachers are to incorporate educational technology into their ecec work, the more likely they are to do so. in compared to earlier research, this work makes a significant contribution to the discipline. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 528 our findings imply that when preschool teachers use educational technology, they prefer to concentrate on their attitudes regarding it in ecec and their desire or intention to use it. the idea of planned behavior, which states that a person's attitudes and intentions impact their actual actions, strongly supports this result (iancu, et al., 2018; samfira, & sava, 2021). 5. conclusions the purpose of this study was to construct a viable questionnaire for assessing preschool teachers' technology acceptability in online instruction in ecec, based on data collected from 182 romanian preschool instructors, using the theory of planned behavior framework. our application of theory of planned behavior in technology adoption in ecec is extraordinarily good, with 66 percent explained variance of actual usage of technology in class. the scientific literature supports the findings that intention to use technology and a positive attitude toward technology are the most powerful predictors of actual technology usage. although more research is needed to confirm these findings in larger and more complex samples, there is compelling evidence that the prediction methodology can be used to predict preschool teachers' level of technology acceptance and assist educational decision-makers in designing timely interventions that improve success chances. there are several unique constraints to the present work. to reach our results, we analyzed cross-sectional data from preschool teachers' selfreports. preschool teachers' attitudes and intentions toward using instructional technology may shift over time. the longitudinal technique might be used to look into how preschool teachers' behavioral intentions change over time and what variables impact them. this study's data was acquired through online questionnaires at a time when the government was implementing social isolation measures to prevent the covid-19 epidemic. the results may be exaggerated due to social variables. systematic interviews can be used to collect objective data and predict future results. observations and interviews can also be used to collect data in a complete and unbiased manner. caution should be exercised when repeating and validating results on a large sample. our current findings are based on a sample of preschool instructors. as a result, the current findings may differ from those of other elementary and secondary school teachers, as well as high schools, universities, and vocational institutions. given the diversity of work content and expertise, a preliminary investigation of the technology acceptance model (tam) in ... dana rad, et al. 529 future research should look at engaging teachers from diverse educational levels. finally, the current study focused on a limited set of predictors of actual technology usage. other factors to consider include perceived norm, computer discomfort, and output quality (legris et al., 2003). we contribute to current information by focusing on the behavioral intentions of romanian preschool educators who completed a semester of home-based online teaching under the covid-19. our findings contribute to the expanding body of information concerning the factors that influence preschool teachers' propensity to adopt instructional technology. the findings will help to develop specific practical ways to increase preschool teachers' willingness to use technology and, as a result, the quality of online education. funding the present research was supported by the romanian program pocu, priority axis 6: „educatie şi competenţe”, investment priority – 10i. reducerea şi prevenirea părăsirii timpurii a şcolii şi promovarea accesului egal la participarea la educaţie timpurie, învăţământ primar şi învăţământ secundar de calitate, inclusiv prin căi formale, non-formale şi informale pentrure integrarea în educaţie şi formare, contract number: 61398/09.08.2019; pocu/446/6/22, project title: educație timpurie incluzivă și de calitate, beneficiary: ministerul educației naționale (men). acknowledgments we are thankful to the romanian school inspectorates and the preschool instructors who participated in the initiative from the beginning for their support and collaboration. references bandura, a. (1986). social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. bong, w.k., bergland, a., & chen, w. (2019). technology acceptance and quality of life among older people using a tui application. int. j. environ. res. public health, 16, 4706. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16234706. childers, j. (1995). the columbia dictionary of modern literary and cultural criticism. columbia university press. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 530 chiu, c. j., hu, y. h., lin, d. c., chang, f. y., chang, c. s., & lai, c. f. (2016). the attitudes, impact, and learning needs of older adults using apps on touchscreen mobile devices: results from a pilot study. comput. hum. behav. 63, 189–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.020 clipa, o., & greciuc, m. a. (2018). relations of style of leadership and achievement motivation for teacher. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 10(4), 55-64. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/72 clipa, o., oliĭnyk, m. i., & stawiak-ososińska, m. (eds.). (2014). the actual problems of the theory and practice of modern pre-school education in poland, romania and ukraine. lumen media publishing. davis, f.d. (1986). a technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information systems: theory and results. [doctoral dissertation, massachusetts institute of technology]. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/15192 dogruel, l., joeckel, s., & bowman, n.d. (2015). the use and acceptance of new media entertainment technology by elderly users: development of an expanded technology acceptance model. behav. inf. technol. 34, 1052–1063. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2015.1077890 fauville, g., luo, m., queiroz, a.c.m., bailenson, j.n., & hancock, j. (2021). zoom exhaustion & fatigue scale. computers in human behavior reports, 4, 100119, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100119 hong, x., zhang, m., & liu, q. (2021). preschool teachers’ technology acceptance during the covid-19: an adapted technology acceptance model. frontiers in psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.691492 hsiao, c.h., tang, k.y. (2015). examining a model of mobile healthcare technology acceptance by the elderly in taiwan. j. glob. inf. technol. manag. 18, 292–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/1097198x.2015.1108099 huidu, a. (2018). redefining autonomy, dignity and intimacy in a postmodern society. revista românească pentru educaţie multidimensională, 10(3), 112-118. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/67 iancu, a. e., rusu, a., măroiu, c., păcurar, r., & maricuțoiu, l. p. (2018). the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing teacher burnout: a metaanalysis. educational psychology review, 30(2), 373-396. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-017-9420-8 kalayou, m.h., endehabtu, b.f., tilahun, b. (2020). the applicability of the modified technology acceptance model (tam) on the sustainable adoption of ehealth systems in resource-limited settings. j multidiscip healthc. 13, 1827-1837. https://doi.org/10.2147/jmdh.s284973 kvale, s. (ed.). (1992). psychology and postmodernism (vol. 9). sage. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.020 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/72 https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/15192 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2015.1077890 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100119 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.691492 https://doi.org/10.1080/1097198x.2015.1108099 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/67 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-017-9420-8 https://doi.org/10.2147/jmdh.s284973 a preliminary investigation of the technology acceptance model (tam) in ... dana rad, et al. 531 legris, p., ingham, j., & collerette, p. (2003). why do people use information technology? a critical review of the technology acceptance model. inf. manage. 40, 191–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-7206(01)00143-4 lekjaroen, k., ponganantayotin, r., charoenrat, a., funilkul, s., supasitthimethee, u., & triyason, t. (2016). iot planting: watering system using mobile application for the elderly. in proceedings of the 2016 international computer science and engineering conference (icsec), chiangmai, thailand, pp. 1–6. li, y. h., & huang, j. w. (2009). applying theory of perceived risk and technology acceptance model in the online shopping channel. world academy of science, engineering and technology, 53(1), 919-925. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1085603 liu, h., wang, l., & koehler, m. j. (2019). exploring the intention-behavior gap in the technology acceptance model: a mixed-methods study in the context of foreign-language teaching in china. br. j. educ. technol. 50, 2437–2556. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12824 lobman, c. (2005). improvisation: postmodern play for early childhood teachers. in practical transformations and transformational practices: globalization, postmodernism, and early childhood education. emerald group publishing limited. marangunić, n., & granić, a. (2015). technology acceptance model: a literature review from 1986 to 2013. universal access in the information society, 14(1), 8195. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-014-0348-1 marangunić, n., & granić, a. (2015). technology acceptance model: a literature review from 1986 to 2013. univers. access inf. soc. 14, 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-014-0348-1 mâță, l., clipa, o., & tzafilkou, k. (2020). the development and validation of a scale to measure university teachers’ attitude towards ethical use of information. technology for a sustainable education. sustainability, 12(15), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156268 mostaghel, r. oghazi, p. (2017). elderly and technology tools: a fuzzyset qualitative comparative analysis. qual. quant., 51, 1969–1982. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-016-0390-6 okumus, s., lewis, l., wiebe, e., & hollebrands, k. (2016). utility and usability as factors influencing teacher decisions about software integration. educ. tech. res. dev., 64, 1227–1249. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-016-9455-4 palos, r., & samfira, e. m. (2021). teachers’ personality, perfectionism, and selfefficacy as predictors for coping strategies based on personal resources. frontiers in psychology, 5043. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.751930 park, y., son, h., & kim, c. (2012). investigating the determinants of construction professionals’ acceptance of web-based training: an extension of the https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-7206(01)00143-4 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1085603 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12824 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-014-0348-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-014-0348-1 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156268 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-016-0390-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-016-9455-4 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.751930 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 532 technology acceptance model. autom. constr. 22, 377–386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.09.016 rad, d., rad, g., maier, r, ignat, s. (2022). theorizing a technology acceptance model in ecec. agora psycho-pragmatica, 15(1), 1-16. https://www.uav.ro/jour/index.php/app/article/view/1683/1693 rogers, e. m. (1995). the diffusion of innovation (4 ed.). the free press. samfira, e. m., & sava, f. a. (2021). cognitive-behavioral correlates of pupil control ideology. plos one, 16(2), article e0246787. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246787 sandu, a., & frunza, a. (2019). informed consent in research involving human subjects. in ethics in research practice and innovation (pp. 171-191). igi global. sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). individual versus social in psycho-sociology. the social construction of reality. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2), 44-49. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/21 sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020b). the effects of mass-media on social behavior, emotions and cognitions. logos universality mentality educ. novelty sect.: pol. sci. & eur. stud., 6, 32. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.2/21 scherer, r., siddiq, f., & teo, t. (2015). becoming more specific: measuring and modeling teachers’ perceived usefulness of ict in the context of teaching and learning. comput. educ. 88, 202–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.05.005 sumak, b, hericko, m., & pusnik, m. (2011). a meta-analysis of e-learning technology acceptance: the role of user types and e-learning technology types. computers in human behavior, 27, 2067-2077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.08.005 tulbure, c., samfira, e. m., & samfira, i. (2015). perception of pre-service teachers regarding the relationship between didactic competencies and learning motivation. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 7(1), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2015.0701.14 venkatesh, v. (2000). determinants of perceived ease of use: integrating control, intrinsic motivation, and emotion into the technology acceptance model. information systems research, 11(4), 342–365. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23011042 venkatesh, v., & bala, h. (2008a). technology acceptance model 3 and a research agenda on interventions. decision sciences, 39(2)m, 273-312. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.2008.00192.x venkatesh, v., & bala, h. (2008b). technology acceptance model 3 and a research agenda on interventions. decision sciences, 39(2), 273–315. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.2008.00192.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.09.016 https://www.uav.ro/jour/index.php/app/article/view/1683/1693 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246787 https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/21 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.2/21 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.08.005 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2015.0701.14 http://www.jstor.org/stable/23011042 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.2008.00192.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.2008.00192.x a preliminary investigation of the technology acceptance model (tam) in ... dana rad, et al. 533 venkatesh, v., & davis, f. d. (2000). a theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: four longitudinal field studies. management science, 46(2), 186–204. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.46.2.186.11926 venkatesh, v., morris, m. g., davis, g. b., & davis, f. d. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 27(3), 425–478. https://doi.org/10.2307/30036540 zhang, l., zhu, j., & liu, q. (2012). a meta-analysis of mobile commerce adoption and the moderating effect of culture. computers in human behavior, 28, 19021911. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.05.008. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.46.2.186.11926 https://doi.org/10.2307/30036540 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.05.008 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 306-320 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/390 submitted: september 10th, 2021 | accepted for publication: december 16th, 2021 the arts as a means of developing emotional intelligence in the context of neuropedagogy zhanna syrotkina 1 , larysa bankul 2 , olena bukhniieva 3 , ivan boychev 4 , nataliia gunko 5 , alina chekhunina 6 1 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, zhanet08ori@gmail.com 2 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, bankullarisa@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0267-8478 3 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, bukhnievaolena@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9997-5796 4 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, ivivboychev@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7136-1765 5 kherson state university, ukraine, natali.diez32@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-585-2298 6 kherson state university, ukraine, alinachekhunina@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2492-0448 abstract: the article discusses the emotional intelligence of students and the influence of art on its development. the relevance of a developed harmonious personality has always been a priority in contemporary education, and emotional intelligence in recent years has become a revolutionary tool in the development of higher professional and pedagogical training. studying emotional intelligence represents one of the important tasks in neuropedagogy. therefore, the influence of art on students’ emotional intelligence can turn out to be an effective solution and is the purpose of this research. the analysis of research of teaching methodology for art subjects in secondary schools allows us to conclude that art acts as a beacon in the development of emotional intelligence in school education. in this article, we consider key issues such as the genesis of emotions, the concept of feelings and emotions, mood and emotionality, the impact of positive emotions on personality and understanding the concept of emotional intelligence. emotional capability and mood are of undisputable importance for art. the development of the emotional capability requires a specific mood, which leads us to believe that the teacher’s support is crucial in the process where a student cognizes their own personality. the question arose concerning the importance of emotional literacy with regular academic subjects. this proves that a child's development should not be confined to academic subjects only, meaning, eq and iq are equally important in today's world. the adequate formation of a child’s personality calls for the balance of both eq and iq where art is to be given significant attention. keywords: emotional intelligence; art; positive emotions; feelings; balance; harmonious personality. how to cite: syrotkina, z., bankul, l., bukhniieva, o., boychev, i., gunko, n., & chekhunina, a. (2022). the arts as a means of developing emotional intelligence in the context of neuropedagogy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 306-320. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/390 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/390 mailto:zhanet08ori@gmail.com mailto:bankullarisa@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0267-8478 mailto:bukhnievaolena@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9997-5796 mailto:ivivboychev@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7136-1765 mailto:natali.diez32@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-585-2298 mailto:alinachekhunina@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2492-0448 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/390 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 307 introduction the development of a harmonious personality has always been a topical issue in modern education within the technocratic society. according to psychologists, a harmonious personality is a well-rounded person free from internal conflicts, and enjoying internal harmony. it is believed that the subjective assessment of the harmonious personality is built upon psychological well-being characterized by self-acceptance, autonomy, personal growth, purpose in life, positive relationships with others, and environmental management (ryff & keyes, 2000). unfortunately, in the modern world, mental health is jeopardized by ubiquitous digitalization. our separation from our fellow men and isolation in the cybernetics space are gradually chipping away at things that used to be normal, namely selfacceptance. this issue is encroaching upon the sphere of education as well. perlmutter et al. (2020) argue that "technology was supposed to connect us, yet, our digital experiences are making us more and more disconnected. we walk with our heads down glued to our gadget screens, avoiding ideas other than our own, yet constantly reminded what we should do: eat more, buy more, post more messages, collect more likes. if we respond to this regularly, we soon develop emptiness or heaviness”. the digital revolution has bestowed great opportunities on us, but also brought about emotional illiteracy of the individual, so the psychological and pedagogical support of specialists at the present stage is acmeological in nature. it is known from practice that art possesses brilliant, productive and effective features sufficient to be considered as an acmeological tool. the multifunctional connection between art and society is indisputable. art inspires and expands the cognitive and spiritual development of the individual, strengthens the moral and ethical qualities of the individual, while also stimulating and balancing emotional relationships. it participates in the formation of the holistic worldview from the lowest level, which is the feeling and response to the outer world, to the highest, where there is the understanding and acceptance of the world. these levels are extremely important in the disclosure of creative self-realization and harmonization of personality (perepelytsia, 2015). the influence of art on the individual’s inner world as well as their intellect cannot be underestimated. as opposed to the consumer-materialized attitude to life, art gives hope to achieve the ideal of a balanced personality, encouraging us to strive for optimization. "art is an exit into spheres not controlled by time and space" (duchamp, 1956). the arts as a means of developing emotional intelligence in the context of ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 308 the experience that a person has with works of art (paintings, music, theater performances, etc.) reflects the scope and reality of human feelings contributing to the development of emotional intelligence. this is especially crucial for students who are at the beginning of active understanding and perception of the adult world. according to tishman and palmer (2006), the use of art in developing learning skills in various school subjects can be incredibly efficient because the art arsenal is capable of developing critical thinking. "thoughtful thinking" helps teachers to create abundant options where students can be introduced to works of art and learn to relate them to different topics, and through various activities, these encounters promote critical thinking. works of art are defined as "things to think about" (tishman & palmer, 2006). the appropriate task of art pieces is to evoke connections and develop the emotional intelligence of the individual (sirotnyuk, 2006). for this reason, art education is included in the school curriculum. studying the works of experienced specialists in humanities and art education led us to believe that the child of preschool and primary school age already has the basic skills and abilities that contribute to the development of a harmonious personality both in the family circle and beyond. however, nowadays, the problem of emotional intelligence development in secondary schools is poorly studied and remains a pressing issue for the higher professional and pedagogical school in the context of neuropedagogy (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). therefore, in our opinion, the influence of art on the development of students' emotional intelligence is one of the solutions to this problem, which is the purpose of our research. to elaborate on it, we will rely on the development of philosophical, psychological, pedagogical, artistic and aesthetic principles of teaching art. literature review in art and humanities and aesthetic research by l. t. levchuk (1980) and m. s. kagan (2019), the impact of art on personality development and the importance of artistic activity for stimulation of creative activity are studied. the art pedagogy is well elaborated on by l. m. masol (2015) and b. p. yusov (2000). the theory of creative development of a personality is covered by d. b. bogoyavlenskaya (2002), b. m. teplov (1985) and others. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 309 the works by i. e. novoseletskaya (2017), perepelytsia (2012), m. і. stas (2007) and l. v. tikhenko (2009) offer a comprehensive analysis of the core of the problem of formation of value orientations of the person by means of art and questions of its art and creative development. analysis of research on the methods of teaching art in secondary schools rapid changes in social life in the modern world give rise to new educational conditions. the process of transition from reproductive to creative and productive forms of modern secondary education creates favorable conditions for increasing the effectiveness of teaching cultural and humanitarian subjects. the analysis of researches on the problems of methods of teaching art in comprehensive schools reveals that over the recent decades, reputable scientists gave thorough consideration to methods of teaching culturological and humanitarian subjects. many new programs, courses, innovative pedagogical technologies of this cycle have been developed and tested with regards to their relevance. the new ukrainian program of the integrated course called "art" is a great example, as it was positively and harmoniously adapted to the modern dimension of education. the integrated course aims at teaching the arts in primary school, nurturing values and worldviews in the field of art while also promoting creative expression and aesthetic self-improvement (general education, 2018). such products of ukrainian art and pedagogical education expand the cognitive learning opportunities for emotional intelligence development. while it is only a minor example of a contribution to the understanding of this problem, professional training of specialists who would engage children in art and develop their emotional intelligence remains relevant. the development of emotional intelligence of schoolchildren at the present stage is one of the tasks of pedagogical theory and practice and, directly, educational institutions staff. to better understand the aim of our research, we recommend looking closely exactly at the notions of emotion and emotional intelligence. quite a few psychological, pedagogical, and philosophical sources report on the value of understanding and applying these terms in pedagogical practice. relying on the achievements of scholars and practitioners, we can see that formation of the cognitive activity of schoolchildren is near to impossible the arts as a means of developing emotional intelligence in the context of ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 310 without emotions, understanding of feelings, and motivation to learning (leontiev, 1992; sukhomlinsky, 1977). understanding emotions according to scientists, "our emotions have their own mind, which can function independently of our rational mind", yasyukova (1999). j. led's discovery of the role of the amygdala in emotional processes makes it clear that emotions have their own bank of memories and responses that a person displays directly, regardless of knowledge and experience. this means they are often involuntary and uncontrolled by our consciousness. it is emotions that are often opposed to thinking, just as emotional, sensory attitudes are opposed to rational attitudes toward reality. our emotions manifest the extremes of positive or negative assessment of reality. any ambiguous relationship, experience or emotion of one object toward another occurs when the emotional assessment is not sufficient to determine the individual's attitude to reality. then, the process of thinking comes to the rescue. emotions help establish the individual's attitude to the unconscious aspects of reality (perepelytsia, 2012). psychological and pedagogical literature offers more than 70 definitions of "emotion". they are divided into models, groups, and types. each of the main types of emotions is divided into subtypes, and those, can be further divided in terms of intensity, duration, depth, awareness, origin, conditions of their arising inward or outward, past, present or future), the method of their expression in the external display of feelings, and on the neurophysiological basis (khutorskoy, 1988). it is generally accepted that emotion is the result of people's evaluation of their environment. such things as mood and emotion are the crux of art, as such. many scientists share the opinion that emotions and moods are related but they are not the same (beedie et al., 2005). mood is essential for the development of emotional intelligence, thus, when it comes to cognition of one’s own personality pedagogical support is important. although feelings and emotions are often referred to as synonyms (tsіos, 2008), emotions are a temporary attitude to reality, while feelings express a stable attitude. according to leontiev, they are the highest product of the development of emotional processes, a separate subclass. w. lowenfeld (1959) believes that the sensory sphere of the individual ensures the realization of their creative potential, and every person is a potential creator from birth, and only life circumstances, as a rule, do not contribute broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 311 to their creative self-realization. some authors believe that emotions and feelings are to be distinguished as qualitatively different psychological phenomena of the emotional sphere based on the needs they cause, the functions they perform, and the physiological mechanisms they possess. historically, feelings are formed in the process of human social development and change depending on specific social conditions (perepelytsia, 2012). in life, feelings come into play later than emotions. they are formed along with the development of individual consciousness under the influence of the upbringing in the family, educational institutions, and, especially, art. in the process of personal development, feelings are organized into a unique system of priorities, in which one of them occupies a leading place, while the others remain unactualized. feelings are conventionally classified into ethical (moral), formed in the process of education, intellectual (cognitive) considered as the engine of the human society, aesthetic, based on the ability to perceive harmony and beauty, and parental, formed directly in the family, etc. (perepelytsia, 2012). the formation of a child’s emotions and feelings is the most important condition for their development as a personality. the main function of human emotions is the purposeful channeling of activities. therefore, emotions can be used to influence the content and dynamics of the child's cognitive processes (perception, imagination, attention, memory, and thinking). to reveal and develop the emotional space of a child means to expand and strengthen the already existing emotions as well as the new emotions and feelings, to learn to understand them, while also promoting understanding of the surrounding reality and the ability to feel the beautiful (perepelytsia, 2012). “the better the feelings are developed, the deeper and fuller the individual’s perception of beauty can be. at the same time, the more often a child is introduced to the beauty in any of its interpretation, the more perfect the mechanism of their feelings” (starovoit, 2009). according to a theory on positive emotions called broaden and build theory developed by barbara fredrickson, positive emotions play a role in the development of long-term survival resources such as psychological resilience and prosperity. positive emotions are not only a sign of prosperity and expansion in life, but they can contribute to prosperity both in the present and future. since positive emotions positively expand and shape the repertoire of thoughts and actions, they lead to increased resources and happier life. (compton, 2005; fredrickson, 2001, 2004). the arts as a means of developing emotional intelligence in the context of ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 312 fredrickson associates the formation of new skills primarily with the broad properties of positive emotions. the connection of positive emotions with such divergent mental processes is not denied. however, other theoretical frameworks illustrate how shrinking functions of negative emotions can also play an important role in the creative process. in other words, the creative process of skill formation is considered complex or dialectical, expanding and shrinking the information depending on the task and the specific time (rathunde, 2000). we all understand that the development of positive feelings and emotions builds a positive attitude towards reality. "we must use the positive states of the child to involve them in learning in areas where they can develop competencies. mastery of any skills should ideally occur naturally, with no rigidity but spontaneously, the way the children actually love" (goleman, 2021). thus, modern research in the field of emotions continues to supplement the pedagogic, humanitarian and cultural heritage of human society. teachers must first explain the emotions and understanding of feelings, moods, motivating learning on a positive level. positive moods, feelings, and emotions are found to facilitate the creative process, multiply themselves and encourage learning. "by teaching people to tune in to their emotions with intelligence and expand their care, we can transform organizations from within and bring a positive effect to our world" (goleman, 2021). emotional intelligence for schoolchildren what is emotional intelligence and why is it important to develop it in school students? if we look this term up in the dictionary, we will find that eq, which stands for emotional quotient, is a group of mental abilities that help people to understand their emotions and the emotions of others. people with a high level of emotional intelligence have a good understanding of their emotions and demonstrate the aptitude for empathy, can effectively manage their emotional sphere, and therefore, their behavior is more adaptive enabling them to easier achieve their goals in interaction with others (emotional intelligence, 2019). thus, children with developed eq easily build social relationships and get on with the basic aspects of their lives. they tend to demonstrate better academic performance, adapt to society easier, have a balanced broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 313 lifestyle and generally report higher rates of satisfaction with life (educational portal, 2020). the eq concept has been around for decades. it was popularized in the 1995 book emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq by psychologist daniel goleman, who argued that eq is cumulative of five abilities, which are: 1. self-awareness: understanding what a person feels at a given moment. understanding how the mood can affect those around. 2. emotional control: control impulse, and to recover from life’s upsets. 3. self-motivation: skill at using your emotions in the service of a goal, staying hopeful despite setbacks. 4. empathy: perceiving how others feel. 5. handling relationships: strong social skills are the key to popularity, leadership, and interpersonal effectiveness. using emotions facilitates social communication (goleman, 2021; rosen, n.d.) exploring emotional intelligence and addressing the relevant problems expands the range of issues embracing emotional competence, emotional maturity, emotional culture, and emotional creativity. daniel goleman described the importance of emotional literacy in school with regular academic subjects: “what is no less important, careful research shows that eq not only improves children's social and emotional abilities but also reduces risks such as violence, substance abuse and teenage pregnancy while improving children's behavior and raising their positive attitude towards learning. the most impressive thing is that academic performance improves by an average of 12-15%" (goleman, 2021). in his book “social intelligence” daniel goleman emphasized the importance of emotions: “viability arises from simple human contact. it makes the people we forget about the most an elixir, a constant source of energy. the neural exchange between grandparents and baby, between… good friends, has tangible benefits” (2021). in previous years, the coefficient of logical skills, known as iq, was regarded as the indicator of a reasonable and harmonious personality. but now the competent opinions in the fields of psychology and pedagogy agree that the development of emotions is an inherent component in the formation of the child's psyche. it is a glacier, where the iq is the tip of it we see and understand, while emotional intelligence eq is the underwater part. the arts as a means of developing emotional intelligence in the context of ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 314 let us consider some examples from the teaching practice. the children who have been a-students and enjoyed a reputation of clever and disciplined students often end up working low-paid jobs, whereas those whose grades and behavior leave much to be desired turn out to be more successful in adult life. this pattern can indicate that a high iq level not supplemented by emotional intelligence leaves an individual poorly equipped for a life in a rapidly changing environment where they cannot communicate with people effectively and cope with stress. so, no matter how smart your child is, and no matter how good their grades are, without a high eq it will be difficult for them to interact with people, succeed in the profession and find fulfilment in their personal life. this proves that a child's development should not be centered on academic performance only, because eq and iq are equally important in today's world. neuropedagogy, which studies the functions of the brain and the principles of its use in the learning process, argues that the mechanisms of brain development must work in a harmonious balance. some researchers believe that keeping the balance of the brain process resembles the library, where things are stored according to the catalog and context (blake et al., 2003). professor traugott once emphasized, “we need to warn the school against left-hemisphere education. it raises people who are incapable of real action in the realities of the situation". professor hrizman also adds that “right hemispheres responsible for generating ideas are disappearing, which means the number of creative people is decreasing. the issue is burning, the nation must be saved”. most scientists who have studied the genesis of emotional intelligence are inclined to believe that eq is not an innate but a mastered trait. so far, scientists have come up with two dominant opinions on the factors that stimulate the development of emotional intelligence. the proponents of the biological approach point to the importance of heredity and individual psychological personality traits. those advocating for the social factor believe that the social environment plays a pivotal role. we are leaning toward the idea that the social factor dominates over the biological since the emotion is generated as a response to the environment (lyashch, 2017). what is peculiar to point out is that there is also a gender difference in the understanding of emotional intelligence. research has shown that the structure of emotional intelligence distinguishes two aspects: intrapersonal (self-affirmation, ability to defend one’s rights) and interpersonal broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 315 (emotionality, interpersonal relationships, social responsibility). with men, the intrapersonal factor takes an upper hand, while women are dominated by the interpersonal factor. that is, women are more emotional, responsible between relationships, whereas men are independent of the situation or opinions, more optimistic. in adolescence, the level of empathy is most pronounced in girls. the identification of gender features in emotional intelligence has attracted many scientists. art acts as a leading tool in the development of emotional intelligence in school education. musical art is especially popular, where different types of musical activities in class, playing musical instruments, choir singing, listening to music, or going to the theater have shown a positive effect on the emotional state of students. it is an exciting process of acquiring new emotions and experiences, and it lays the foundation for further, new ways of solving problems. the starting point in the artistic development of schoolchildren is the ability to perceive, analyze, empathize, and evoke their emotions. however, the ability of children to compose, invent, perform tasks by ear requires a consistent and purposeful approach under the direct or indirect supervision of an adult competent in the art of music. of course, the persistence of the teacher plays an important role in achieving the goal, but how to teach students to perform complex tasks while developing discipline and strong thinking? how to teach a student to be persistent and consistent? art is all about emotion, while music is all about mood, but it is still work that requires perseverance, the ability to cope with everyday learning difficulties. american researcher, ed. d. donna m. volpitta, who studies the importance of emotional intelligence for children with learning and attention challenges, offers the resilience formula. in her book "the resilience formula: a guide to proactive not reactive parenting", the researcher points to 4 vital parts of the formula of persistence: personality, situation, support and strategy (volpitta & habe, 2012.). when asked how children feel when they successfully complete a task, they receive messages saying, "wow, that was good" (dopamine), "wow, you're doing a great job" (serotonin) and "boy, you are loved." (oxytocin). according to dr. volpitta, when children are not given the opportunity to experience those emotions, we force their brains to look for them elsewhere. "i like to tell parents that the sense of self-worth is not a gift you can give," says volpitta. "it's a neurochemical reaction that you deprive your child of when you don't let them experience a challenge." when we contribute something the arts as a means of developing emotional intelligence in the context of ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 316 nice to the world and feel appreciated, our brain secretes neurochemicals that make us feel good (rosen, n.d.; volpitta & hape, 2012). covid-19 pandemic has put the governments and enterprises across the globe to a gruesome test. the lockdowns have dealt a disastrous blow on the livelihoods of many communities and exacerbated the existing psychological disorders of many people. according to a survey conducted by consulting firm harris poll, 44% of people feel loneliness stronger than ever before. more than half (52%) would like advice on how to take better care of their mental health at this time. these studies once again confirm that humanity has a poor emotional intelligence mechanism and cannot effectively cope with new large-scale challenges (perlmutter et al., 2020). thus, it is clear that the full formation of a child's personality requires the synergy of logical intelligence and emotional intelligence. the very formation of both eq and iq can be efficiently supplemented by using art in a classroom. the one-sided intellect of a child caused by rote learning proves to be inefficient in social life, resulting in a passive attitude and indifference to the environment. brain development is stimulated in the conditions of freedom of creativity where there is no pressure, coercion or threat (the principle of freedom of creativity) (blake et al., 2003). the power and importance of art for humanity, especially for children who are just beginning their path to independent living is undeniable, and the active use of it can expand the possibilities for children’s cognitive abilities. conclusions the modern-day school should recognize the necessity of the emotional intelligence development of students because emotions are the basis of creative activity. the development of artistic taste, figurative thinking, creative imagination is built upon emotions, emotional sensitivity. in our article we have emphasized the special importance of harmonization of personality, namely the development of emotions, feelings, attitude to a positive mood, since all of this encourages creativity. the human brain has to tune in to the creative vibrations and make a significant contribution to our modern technocratic world. education should be a model and a model of the future, so we educators should be pioneers. the task of the teacher is to teach, to use the child's emotional resources competently, to give a ticket to an interesting, emotionally colored, positive future. therefore, art should be considered one of the carriers and inspirers capable of balancing between eq and iq while strengthening the morality, spirituality and cognition of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 317 the child's world. the influence of art on the development of students' emotional intelligence is undisputed. references beedie, c. j., terry, p. c., & lane, a. m. (2005). razlitchiya mezhdu emotsiyami i nastroyeniyem [differences between emotions and moods. cognition and emotion, 19, 847-878. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930541000057 blake, s., choshanov, m., paso, e., & pape, s. (2003). sistema printsipov neiropedagogiki. ispolzovaniye dostizheniy neiropsikhologiyi v pedagogike (neiropedagogike ssha) [the principle system of neuropedagogy. using the achievements of neuropsychology in pedagogy in the united states. memory is not a warehouse, but a library]. teacher. https://forpsy.ru/works/uchebnoe/razdel-teoretikometodologicheskieosnovyi-innovatsionnoy-deyatelnosti-v-sistemeobrazovaniya/ bogoyavlenskaya, d. b. (2002). psychologiya tvortchestva [psychology of creativity]. publishing center academy. compton, w. с. (2005). vstup do pozytyvnoyi psykholohiyi [an introduction to positive psychology]. wadsworth publishing. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 duchamp, m. (1956). art is an outlet toward regions which are not ruled by time and space. asrlab. https://asrlab.org/project/duchamp-studies/ educational portal. (2020). in lesson. educational portal. https://naurok.com.ua/metodichni-rekomendaci-rozvitok-piznavalnihemociynih-ta-povedinkovih-kompetenciy-v-osvitnomu-pozashkilnomuzakladi-178156.html emotional intelligence. (2019, august 29). in wikipedia. https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%d0%95%d0%bc%d0%be%d1%86% d1%96%d0%b9%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9_%d1%96%d0%bd% d1%82%d0%b5%d0%bb%d0%b5%d0%ba%d1%82 fredrickson, b. l. (2001). rol polozhitelnykh emotsiy v pozitivnoy psikhologii [the role of positive emotions in positive psychology]. american psychologist, 56(3). 218-226. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.56.3.218 fredrickson, b. l. (2004). rozshyriuy ta rozvuvai pozytyvni emotsiyi [expand and develop the theory of positive emotions]. philosophical transactions of the https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930541000057 https://forpsy.ru/works/uchebnoe/razdel-teoretiko-metodologicheskieosnovyi-innovatsionnoy-deyatelnosti-v-sisteme-obrazovaniya/ https://forpsy.ru/works/uchebnoe/razdel-teoretiko-metodologicheskieosnovyi-innovatsionnoy-deyatelnosti-v-sisteme-obrazovaniya/ https://forpsy.ru/works/uchebnoe/razdel-teoretiko-metodologicheskieosnovyi-innovatsionnoy-deyatelnosti-v-sisteme-obrazovaniya/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://asrlab.org/project/duchamp-studies/ https://naurok.com.ua/metodichni-rekomendaci-rozvitok-piznavalnih-emociynih-ta-povedinkovih-kompetenciy-v-osvitnomu-pozashkilnomu-zakladi-178156.html https://naurok.com.ua/metodichni-rekomendaci-rozvitok-piznavalnih-emociynih-ta-povedinkovih-kompetenciy-v-osvitnomu-pozashkilnomu-zakladi-178156.html https://naurok.com.ua/metodichni-rekomendaci-rozvitok-piznavalnih-emociynih-ta-povedinkovih-kompetenciy-v-osvitnomu-pozashkilnomu-zakladi-178156.html https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%d0%95%d0%bc%d0%be%d1%86%d1%96%d0%b9%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9_%d1%96%d0%bd%d1%82%d0%b5%d0%bb%d0%b5%d0%ba%d1%82 https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%d0%95%d0%bc%d0%be%d1%86%d1%96%d0%b9%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9_%d1%96%d0%bd%d1%82%d0%b5%d0%bb%d0%b5%d0%ba%d1%82 https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%d0%95%d0%bc%d0%be%d1%86%d1%96%d0%b9%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9_%d1%96%d0%bd%d1%82%d0%b5%d0%bb%d0%b5%d0%ba%d1%82 https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.56.3.218 the arts as a means of developing emotional intelligence in the context of ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 318 royal society b: biological sciences, 359(1449), 1367-1378. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1512.pmc1693418 general education. (2018). mystetstvo prohrama dlya 5 – 9 klasi [art program for grades 5-9]. vseosvita. https://vseosvita.ua/library/mistectvo-programadla-5-9-klasiv-1454.html goleman, d. (2021). pro deniela houlmana [about daniel goleman]. danielagoleman. https://www.danielgoleman.info/biography/ kagan, m. s. (2019). morfolohiya mystetstv: pidrutchnyk dlia universytetiv [morphology of arts: a textbook for universities]. yurayt publishing house. khutorskoy, a. (1988). evristitcheskoye obutchenie: teoriya, metodologiya, praktika [heuristic learning: theory, methodology, practice]. international academy. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 leontiev, v. g. (1992). motivatsiya i psikhologitcheskiye mekhanizmy yeyo formirovaniya [psychological mechanisms of motivation]. klex. https://www.klex.ru/g41 levchuk, l. t. (1980). psikhoanaliz i khudozhestvennoye tvortchestvo [psychoanalysis and artistic creativity: critical analysis]. vishcha school, kiev university. lowenfeld, v. (1959). tvortchestvo i khudozhestvennoye obrazovaniye [creativity and art education]. school art, 5(2), 8-12. https://libraries.psu.edu/findingaids/587.htm lyashch, o. p. (2017). psykhologitchni osoblyvosti emotsiynoho intelektu studentiv pedagogitchnoho universytetu [psychological features of emotional intelligence of students at the pedagogical university]. bulletin of the kherson state university. series: psychological sciences, 6(2), 43-48. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvkhp_2017_6(2)__10 masol, l. m. (2015). khudozhnio pedagogitchni technologii v osnovniy shkoli [arts and educational technologies in the basic school: training and upbringing unity]. printing house madrid. novoseletskaya, i. e. (2017). rozvytok khudpzhnio tvorchykh zdibnostei ditei piyatoho roku zhyttia v potchatkovukh mystetskykh navtchalnykh zakladakh [the influence of art on the development of artistic and creative abilities of children in the fifth year of life in primary art schools]. special issue scientific journal & young scientist, 3(2). 98-101. http://molodyvcheny.in.ua/files/journal/2017/10.2/14.pdf https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1512.pmc1693418 https://vseosvita.ua/library/mistectvo-programa-dla-5-9-klasiv-1454.html https://vseosvita.ua/library/mistectvo-programa-dla-5-9-klasiv-1454.html https://www.danielgoleman.info/biography/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://www.klex.ru/g41 https://libraries.psu.edu/findingaids/587.htm http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvkhp_2017_6(2)__10 http://molodyvcheny.in.ua/files/journal/2017/10.2/14.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 319 perepelytsia, o. v. (2012). formuvannia tvortchoyi osobystosti molodshykh shkoliariv v umovakh pozashkilnykh navtchalnykch zakladiv [forming of creative abilities of junior schoolchildren by means of fine art in out-ofschool educational establishments] [unpublished phd thesis]. national pedagogical dragomanov university. perepelytsia, o. v. (2015). tvortcha samorealizatsiya osobystosti v systemi sutchasnoyi osvity [creative self-realization of specialness in the system of modern education]. science newsletter of mykolaiv national university for the name of v.o. sukhomlinsky. pedagogical sciences: collection of scientific works, 4(51), 15. http://mdu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/nauk_visnik451.pub_.pdf perlmutter, d., perlmutter a., & loberg brainwash, c. (2020). promyvka mozga. programma dliia yasnogo myshleniya, ukrepleniya otnosheniy s liudmi [brain flushing. a program for clear thinking, strengthening relationships with people and developing good habits]. little, brown and company. prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rathunde, k. (2000). broadening and narrowing in the creative process: a commentary on fredrickson's "broaden-and-build" model. prevention & treatment, 3(1), 6c. https://doi.org/10.1037/1522-3736.3.1.36c rosen, p. (n.d.). emotional intelligence: what it means for kids. understood. https://www.understood.org/en/friends-feelings/empoweringyourchild/building-on-strengths/the-importance-of-emotional-intelligencefor-kids-with-learning-and-thinking-differences ryff, c. d., & keyes c. l. m. (2000). struktura psikhologitcheskogo blagopolutchiya [the structure of psychological well-being revisited]. journal of personality and social psychology, 4, 12–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.4.719 sirotnyuk, a. (2006). obutcheniye utchashchihsia s raznoi funktsionalnoi assimetriyei polushariy [differentiated teaching of students with different functional asymmetries of the hemispheres]. osvita. https://ru.osvita.ua/school/method/1260/ starovoit, l. v. (2009). doslidyhennia dzdaktztchnoyi gry yak zasobu rozvytku piznavalnoyi ta tvortchoyi aktyvnosti molodshykh shkoliariv na urokakh trudovoho navtchannia [the method of creative development of young schoolchildren in the process of labor education and artistic practice]. pedagogical education, 1, 28-31. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/texcped_2017_1_8 http://mdu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/nauk_visnik-451.pub_.pdf http://mdu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/nauk_visnik-451.pub_.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1037/1522-3736.3.1.36c https://www.understood.org/en/friends-feelings/empowering-yourchild/building-on-strengths/the-importance-of-emotional-intelligence-for-kids-with-learning-and-thinking-differences https://www.understood.org/en/friends-feelings/empowering-yourchild/building-on-strengths/the-importance-of-emotional-intelligence-for-kids-with-learning-and-thinking-differences https://www.understood.org/en/friends-feelings/empowering-yourchild/building-on-strengths/the-importance-of-emotional-intelligence-for-kids-with-learning-and-thinking-differences http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.4.719 https://ru.osvita.ua/school/method/1260/ http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/texcped_2017_1_8 the arts as a means of developing emotional intelligence in the context of ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 320 stas, m. і. (2007). metodyka formuvannia tvortchykh zdibnostey maibutnih vtchyteliv obrazotvortchoho mystetstva [methods of forming creative abilities of future teachers of fine arts] [unpublished phd thesis]. national academy of sciences of ukraine. sukhomlinsky, v. a. (1977). serdtse otdayu dietiam [i give my heart to children]. radianska school. http://pedlib.ru/books/1/0214/1_0214-1.shtml teplov, b. m. (1985). psikhologiya muzykalnykh sposobnostey [psychology of musical abilities] (1st vol.). pedagogy. tikhenko, l. v. (2009). metodyka formuvannia tvorthukh zdibnostey starshoklasnykiv u protsesi poshukovo doslidnytzkoyi diyalnosti [formation of creative health of senior pupils in the process of prelude to activity in the maliy academy of sciences of ukraine]. [unpublished doctoral thesis]. national academy of sciences of ukraine. tishman, s., & palmer, p. (2016). pidsumkovuy zvit pro khudozhnie myslennia [report on artistic thinking]. pzartfulthinking. http://pzartfulthinking.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/09/artfulthinking finalreport-1.pdf. tsіos, n. v. (2008). problema indyvidualnogo pidkhodu u protsesi navtchannia molodshykh shkoliariv u vіtchіznyаniy pedagogіtsі [the problem of individual approach in the process of teaching young schoolchildren (the end of 19 th the beginning of the 20 th century)] zhytomyr. volpitta, d. m., & habe j. d. (2012). the resilience formula: a guide to proactive not reactive parenting. widener. yasyukova, l. a. (1999). metodika opredeleniya gotovnosti k shkole [methods for determining readiness for school. prediction and prevention of learning problems in primary school]. defectologiya. https://www.defectologiya.pro/biblioteka/metodika_opredeleniya_gotovn osti_k_shkole_prognoz_i_profilaktika_problem_obucheniya_v_nachalnoj_ shkole_chast_1/ yusov, b. p. (2000). sovremennaya konzepziya obrazovatelnoy oblasti “iskusstvo v shkole” [a new concept of the educational field “art”]. izvestia rao, 4. https://studfile.net/preview/4190025/ http://pedlib.ru/books/1/0214/1_0214-1.shtml http://pzartfulthinking.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/09/artfulthinkingfinalreport-1.pdf http://pzartfulthinking.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/09/artfulthinkingfinalreport-1.pdf https://www.defectologiya.pro/biblioteka/metodika_opredeleniya_gotovnosti_k_shkole_prognoz_i_profilaktika_problem_obucheniya_v_nachalnoj_shkole_chast_1/ https://www.defectologiya.pro/biblioteka/metodika_opredeleniya_gotovnosti_k_shkole_prognoz_i_profilaktika_problem_obucheniya_v_nachalnoj_shkole_chast_1/ https://www.defectologiya.pro/biblioteka/metodika_opredeleniya_gotovnosti_k_shkole_prognoz_i_profilaktika_problem_obucheniya_v_nachalnoj_shkole_chast_1/ https://studfile.net/preview/4190025/ microsoft word brain_2_1.doc 59 triangular norms, triangular conorms, and some related concepts angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net abstract mathematically considered, a triangular norm is a kind of binary operation frequently used in the context of probabilistic metric spaces, but also in other very interesting fields, as may be fuzzy logic, or in general, in multi-valued logic (mvl). the t-conorm, or s-norm, is a dual concept. both ideas allow us to generalize the intersection and the union in a lattice, or disjunction and conjunction in logic. also may be very interesting to introduce a special class of real monotone operations. we refer to the so-called copulas, very useful in many fields. so, we offer now a comprehensive analysis of all these aggregation operators. keywords: mathematical analysis, measure theory, fuzzy measures, aggregation operators 1. introducing fuzzy relations the composition of fuzzy relations is defined by the so called "max-min product", introduced by two fuzzy relations acting on subsequent three universes of discourse, u1, u2, u3, r1 (u1, u2) • r2 (u2, u3) = r3 (u1, u2) where r3 (u1,u3) = {(x, z) : μ r1 • r2 (x, z) } being max {∀y∈u₂: min (μ r1 (x, y), μ r2 (y, z))} as a particular case of the previous definition for the composition of fuzzy relations, we can introduce the composition of a fuzzy set and a fuzzy relation [6, 10]. the usual properties of the classical relations can be translated to fuzzy relations [2, 3, 5], but modified in the following sense r is reflexive, if r (x, x) = 1, for any x. each element would be totally related with itself, when r is reflexive. r is symmetric, if r (x, y) = r (y, x), for any (x, y). therefore, the principal diagonal, δ, acts as a mirror, in the associated matrix. r is transitive, not in the usual way for relations or associated matrices, but when the following holds r(x, z) ≥ max (min {r (x, y), r (y, z)}), for any (x, y) all these mathematical methods can be very interesting in fuzzy logic and also in many branches of artificial intelligence. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 60 2. connectives and fuzzy sets we may define the classical operations among crisp, or classical sets, generalizing to fuzzy versions [1, 2, 8, 9]. so, they may be characterized by its membership functions. we have, for the union of fuzzy sets, defined by max {μ f (x), μ g (x)} and the intersection of fuzzy sets, by min {μ f (x), μ g (x)} and also the complement of a fuzzy set, f, by μ c(f) (x) = 1 – μ f (x) the strict inclusion among two fuzzy sets may be introduced by μ f (x) < μ g (x) and in its more general (non strict) version, μ f (x) ≤ μg (x) the difference among two fuzzy sets, f and g, by μ f – g (x) = min {μ f (x), μ c(g) (x)} turning to the first mentioned definitions, both proofs can be expressed easily, by counterexamples, in an algebraic or geometric way. 3. introduction to t-norms a triangular norm, abridgedly expressed by t-norm or t-norm, will be a binary operation which appears in the framework of probabilistic metric spaces, but also in mvl (multi-valued logic), and more specifically in fuzzy logic [1, 4, 7]. a t-norm is a function, t, given by t: [0, 1]2 → [0, 1] satisfying the properties: 1) monotonicity: if a ≤ c and b ≤ d, then t (a, b) ≤ t (c, d) 2) commutativity: t (a, b) = t (b, a) 3) associativity: t (a, t (b, c)) = t (t(a, b), c) 4) the number 1 acts as an identity element, i.e. t (a, 1) = a this requirement is related with that such number, 1, must correspond to the interpretation as true, being dually 0 as false. the inner meaning of “continuity” expresses that very small changes in truth values should not macroscopically affect such values for their conjunction. frequently, t-norms are used to construct the intersection of fuzzy sets. but also are used as a basis for aggregation operators. other use of t-norms will be in probabilistic metric spaces, generalizing triangle inequality of ordinary metric spaces. for this reason, it is called t-norm. finally, we can conclude that a t-norm generalizes the conjunction in logic, and also the intersection in a lattice. 4. classification and examples of t-norms it is called continuous, if it is so as a function, when we consider the usual interval topology on [0, 1] x [0, 1]. in a similar way, we may define left-continuous and right-continuous. it is called archimedean, if it has the archimedean property, i.e. if for each values x and y, that belongs to the open unit interval, (0, 1), there is a natural number, n, such that x * x * …n) * x ≥ y some illustrative examples of t-norms will be: minimun t-norm, also called the gödel t-norm. it is the pointwise largest t-norm. a. garrido triangular norms, triangular conorms, and some related concepts 61 product t-norm. it is the ordinary product of real numbers, being a strict archimedean tnorm. lukasiewicz t-norm. it will be a nilpotent archimedean t-norm, being pointwise smaller than the aforementioned product t-norm. drastic t-norm. it is the pointwise smallest t-norm, being a right-continuous archimedean t-norm. nilpotent minimum. it constitutes an example of left-continuous, but not continuous, tnorm. note that despite its name, it is not a nilpotent t-norm. hamacher product. it will be a strict archimedean t-norm. recall that: a continuous t-norm is archimedean if and only if 0 and 1 are its only idempotent elements. and it is nilpotent if and only if each x < 1 is a nilpotent element of t. for each continuous t-norm, the set of their idempotent elements will be a closed subset of [0, 1]. 5. introduction to t-conorms they are a dual concept of t-norm, and also may be called s-norm; abridgedly, s. because under the order-reversing operation x → 1 – x on the closed unit interval, [0, 1], we have the transformation t (x, y) = 1 s (1 x, 1 y) therefore, every t-norm can be generated from a s-norm, and vice versa. indeed, it is a generalization of de morgan´s laws. it verifies the following conditions: 1) monotonicity: if a ≤ c and b ≤ d, then s (a, b) ≤ s (c, d). 2) commutativity: s (a, b) = s (b, a). 3) associativity: s (a, s (b, c)) = s (s (a, b), c). 4) existence of identity element: s (a, 0) = a. s-norms are used to represent union, in fuzzy set theory. and also to represent logical disjunction, in fuzzy logic. 6. examples of s-norms, or t-conorms they are duals to fundamental t-norms. so, for instance [4, 7], maximum s-norm, dual to the minimum t-norm. it will be the smallest s-norm. probabilistic sum. it is the dual to the product t-norm. working on probability theory, it expresses the probability of the union of independent events. bounded sum. it is the dual of lukasiewicz t-norm. correspondingly, it will be the standard semantics for strong disjunction in lukasiewicz fuzzy logic. drastic s-norm. it is the dual of drastic t-norm. and it will be the largest s-norm. nilpotent maximum. it is the dual of nilpotent minimum. einstein sum. it is the dual of hamacher t-norm. 7. introduction to copulas we consider two-dimensional copulas [4, 7]. it will be denoted by c. we describe this mathematical object as a function c: [0, 1] 2 → [0, 1] with these properties: 1) c (0, x) = c (x, 0) = 0 2) c (1, x) = c (x, 1) = x, for any x∈[0, 1] 3) c is 2-increasing, i.e. for all x, y, x´, y´∈[0, 1], with x ≤ x´, and y ≤ y´, for the volume (denoted by vc) of the respective rectangle brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 62 [x, x´] x [y, y´] it holds vc ([x, x´] x [y, y´]) = c (x, y ) + c (x´, y´) – c (x, y´) – c (x´, y) ≥ 0 8. note an interesting application of copulas may be the sklar´s theorem, according to which [7]: for each random vector, (x, y), will be characterized by some copula, c, in a way that for its joint distribution, fxy, and for the corresponding marginal distributions, fx and fy, we have fxy (x, y) = c (fx (x), fy (y)) it would be a mere sample of many other possible applications of all these mathematical techniques, also interesting from a mathematical viewpoint. for these reasons, it is currently a theoretical field quickly evolving. 9. references [1] bergmann, m. (2008). an introduction to many-valued and fuzzy logic: semantics, algebra, and derivation systems. cambridge university press [2] garrido, a. (2004). logical foundations of artificial intelligence. proc. fotfs v (foundations of the formal sciences), institut für angewändte mathematik, friedrich-wilhelm universität, bonn [3] hangos, k. (2008). fuzzy rule-based systems. fuzzy sets and calculus. department of computer science. phd course. university of veszprém, hungary, 2008. [4] klement, e. p., mesiar, r. and pap, e. (2000). triangular norms. kluwer academic publishers, dordrecht, 2000. [5] klir, g. and yuan, b. (1995). fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic, theory and applications. prenticehall [6] mendel, j. m. (2001). uncertain rule-based fuzzy logic systems: introduction and new directions. prentice hall ptr. [7] pap, e., takács, m.(2006), two-dimensional copulas as important binary aggregation operators. jac iii 10 (4): 522-526. [8] ross, t. (2004). fuzzy logic with engineering applications. wiley. [9] tanaka, k. and niimura, t. (2007). an introduction to fuzzy logic for practical applications, springer. [10] zadeh, l. (1965). fuzzy sets. information and control, 8: 338-55. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev mathematical model for tspp drug-delivery in nanomedicine rodica mariana ion, adriana filip, simona clichici, adriana muresan abstract. helping improve humanity is one of the promises of nanotechnology and nanomedicine. this paper will highlight some of the research findings in the nanomedicine area by creating a pharmacokinetic model of 5,10,15,20-tetra-(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (tspp) used as sensitizer in photodynamic therapy. keywords: nanomedicine, photodynamic therapy, tspp, mathematical model, laser 2000 mathematics subject classifcation: 05c65, 62h30 88 rodica mariana ion, adriana filip, simona clichici, adriana muresan mathematical model for tspp drug-delivery in nanomedicine 1. introduction photodynamic therapy (pdt) is a promising method for treating malignant tumors combining the action of a special dye photosensitizer (ps), oxygen, and radiation on biological tissues. treatment consists of several sequential stages: injection of the ps (intravenous or local), leaving it for up to 24h, and irradiation for 15-20 min. in general, any coherent or incoherent light source with a proper spectrum can be used for therapy. the most widely used devices are continuous nonionizing lasers with a power density of up to 250 w/cm2. the wavelength is, as a rule, within the limits of the ”therapeutic window” of 600-1200 nm. in this case, the light penetrates deeper into the tissue compared to the remaining part of the visible spectrum. pdt is based on the photodynamic action (pa) affecting living structures, which was discovered at the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries. at the molecular level destruction of cancer cells by pdt occurs through the formation of singlet oxygen (reaction of the second kind) a very active oxidizer. this paper will highlight some of the research findings in the nanomedicine area and a pharmacokinetic model of tspp used as sensitizer in photodynamic therapy. 2. materials and methods 5,10,15,20-tetra-(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (tspp), figure 1, was synthesized and purified in the laboratory after the literature methods [2]. it was solubilized in water at 10−4 m concentration. all the stock solutions were stored at 4oc in the dark and used in the 14 days interval. 3. results and discussion 3.1 pdt protocol 50 male wistar rats, weighting 200±20g were used for this study. they were anesthetized (90 mg kg−1 ketamine, 10 mg kg−1 xylazine, i.p) and grafted on the shaved right thigh with small fragments of walker tumor. ten rats with walker carcinosarcoma represented the control group; the others underwent pdt with tspp. once the tumor reached 1 cm3 it was treated with pdt. 3.2. tspp concentration in tumor homogenate 89 rodica mariana ion, adriana filip, simona clichici, adriana muresan mathematical model for tspp drug-delivery in nanomedicine figure 1: the chemical structure of tspp the tumor was homogenised with a solution containing 80 percent sucrose 0,25 m and 20 percent naoh 0,1 n. in the supernatant obtained after centrifugation tspp was determined fluorimetrically using a perkin-elmer spectrofluorimeter (excitation 412 nm and emission 643nm), using a calibrating curve. 3.3. a pharmacokinetic model of tspp tspp is intravenously injected at 2 mg/kg over a period of five minutes, and it attains a high saturation level from 24 to 36 hours dc1 dt = k0 v − kc1 (1) after injection. the 12 hour period between the 24 th and 36th hour is called the treatment window, and at some time within this period a physician focuses a 630nm light on the targeted area. different tissues absorb and expel substances from the blood at different rates, and hence the concentration of tspp varies from tissue to tissue. results show that maximum tumor tspp concentration levels were achieved at approximately 24 hours after administration. we model c1 with the following first order, linear differential equation: c1 = k0 vk [1 − ekt] (2) where: • c1 is the plasma concentration during injection; • k is the rate of elimination; 90 rodica mariana ion, adriana filip, simona clichici, adriana muresan mathematical model for tspp drug-delivery in nanomedicine • k0 is the rate of infusion; • v is the volume of distribution. where ca is the plasma concentration after infusion. so, assuming that the infusion ends at time γ = 0.083 h−1, or 5 minutes, we have that dca/dt = −kca , from which we conclude that ca = c1(γ)c kt = k0[1 − ekt]e−k(t−γ) (3) the infusion rate k0 is based on the fact that the drug is injected at 2mg/kg over a period of 5 minutes. under such conditions, we have that 0.4 mg/mouse of tspp are delivered in 5 minutes, and thus k0 is 4.8 mg/h. the rate of elimination, k, is calculated by solving: t 1 2 = ln(2) k (4) where the half-life for tspp is t1/2= 336 hours. hence, k = 0.00206 h −1. tspp nanosystem has found the correct diseased cell of interest. then it must pass the cell membrane and acts as apoptotic body for cell destruction[4,5]. since the nanosystem is only about one millionth the volume of a human cell, for it to have therapeutic efficacy with its contained package, it must deliver that drug to the appropriate site within the living cell. all of these problems remain major obstacles to successful drug delivery with a minimum of deleterious side effects to the patient[6]. 4. conclusions this paper will highlight some of the research findings in the nanomedicine area by creating a mathematical model for pharmacokinetic activity of tspp used as sensitizer in photodynamic therapy. results show that maximum tumor tspp concentration levels were achieved at approximately 24 hours after administration. references [1] r.m.ion, r. c. fierascu, and i. dumitriu, photonic metallic nanostructures in photodynamic therapy, advanced topics in optoelectronics, microelectronics, and nanotechnologies iv, proceedings of the spie, 7297, pp. 72970h729723 (2009). 91 rodica mariana ion, adriana filip, simona clichici, adriana muresan mathematical model for tspp drug-delivery in nanomedicine 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 m0 m1 m2 m3 m4 t s p p (m ic ro g ra m /g ra m o f p ro te in ) m0=controls m1=5 hours m2=24 hours m3=48 hours m4=arbitrary point over 48 hours. points represent absolute median tspp concentration levels. figure 2: dynamic curve of tspp tissue concentration within the tumor [2] rm ion, new trends in photodynamic therapy-review, in ”aspects of photodynamic medicine” biomedicine engineering acta, 3/2008, pp.123-159, h.podbielska, a.sieron, w.strek, (eds.), wroclaw, poland, 2008; [3] r.m.ion, l. maresca, d. migoni, f.p. fanizzi, porphyrin cis-platin drug system for hela cells photodynamic, international journal on advances in life sciences, 1(1), 2009, pp.36-45. [4] k. k. jain, nanomedicine: application of nanobiotechnology in medical practice. medical principles and practice, 7(2): 2008. p. 89-101. [5] s. b. brown, e. a. brown and i. walker, the present and future role of photodynamic therapy in cancer treatment. lancet oncology, 5(8): 2004. p.497-508. [6] m.m.seale, d. zemlyanov, c.l.cooper, e.haglund, t.w.prow, l.m.reece, j.f.leary, multifunctional nanoparticles for drug/gene delivery in nanomedicine nanoscale imaging, spectroscopy, sensing, and actuation for biomedical applications iv. edited by cartwright, alexander n.; nicolau, dan v.. proceedings of the spie, volume 6447, pp. 64470e (2007). 92 rodica mariana ion, adriana filip, simona clichici, adriana muresan mathematical model for tspp drug-delivery in nanomedicine rodica mariana ion national research and development institute of chemistry and petrochemistry icechim bucharest, romania valahia university, targoviste, romania e-mail:rodica ion2000@yahoo.co.uk adriana filip, simona clichici, adriana muresan physiology department university of medicine and pharmacy ”iuliu hatieganu” cluj-napoca romania 93 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 67-79 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/303 submitted: august 12th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 10th, 2022 neuropsychological approach in teaching children in the context of partnership pedagogy as a key component of nus larysa piechka¹, suzanna voloshyn2, nataliia muliar3, tetiana turbar4, liliia boiaryn5, olha vlasenko6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, lara_ppp@ukr.net 2 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, suzannavoloshun@ukr.net 3 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, n.mulyar.81@ukr.net 4 zaporizhzhia national university, ukraine, tatyana.turbar@gmail.com 5 institute of postgraduate pedagogical education of chernivtsi region, ukraine, lvm.cv.ua@ukr.net 6 zhytomуr ivan franko state university, ukraine, wlasolia@gmail.com abstract: the article is devoted to neuropsychological approach in teaching children through the prism of partnership pedagogy as a key component of nus. the essence of the concepts of “partnership pedagogy”, “neuropsychology” is considered. the focus is made on the recently coined term “cooperation pedagogy”. manuals, articles of domestic and foreign teachers on the partnership between school and family are covered. it is proved that according to the nus concept, the common goal for parents, teachers and administration of an educational institution is to educate and raise successful children with developed intellect who understand their own emotions, know how to control them, listen to others, and etc. it was found that the founder of neuropsychology is considered to be luria, a., who developed a theory of localization of higher mental functions of the brain. it is proved that the concept of “higher mental functions” appeared due to vygotsky, l., who formulated the main statements in this direction. it was found that ukrainian teachers together with parents are aimed at teaching and raising a healthy, successful child. it has been observed that difficulties in student teaching are caused by dysfunction of one of the hemispheres of the brain. neuropsychologists proved that the reason of this is neuromotor immaturity. it is noted that there are many resources for ukrainian teachers which they can use to improve their knowledge of neuropsychology. emphasis is placed on the benefits of kinesiological exercises. various tools are highlighted that can be used by educators and parents for neuropsychological correction of the child. the focus is made on organization of partnership pedagogy in foreign schools. it is stated that a center for development and evaluation of family model partnerships has been established in london. keywords: the concept of “the new ukrainian school”, pedagogy of cooperation, neuropsychology, higher mental functions, humane pedagogy, child development, foreign experience, values. how to cite: piechka, l., voloshyn, s., muliar, n., turbar, t., boiaryn, l., & vlasenko, o. (2022). neuropsychological approach in teaching children in the context of partnership pedagogy as a key component of nus. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 67-79. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/303 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/303 mailto:lara_ppp@ukr.net mailto:suzannavoloshun@ukr.net mailto:n.mulyar.81@ukr.net mailto:tatyana.turbar@gmail.com mailto:lvm.cv.ua@ukr.net mailto:wlasolia@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/303 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 68 introduction modern reform in education is based on “the concept of implementing the state policy in the field of reforming general secondary education “the new ukrainian school” for the period up to 2029 (2016)” and aims to introduce the pedagogy of partnership as a key component of nus. in this case, a competent teacher becomes the main driver of personality development, stimulates the child’s intellectual abilities, develops thinking, memory, attention, imagination, promotes formation of individual qualities of the student that would motivate the child to learn, creates a comfortable cooperative atmosphere. to begin with, let’s find out the meaning of the words “pedagogy of cooperation” and “neuropsychology”. in the dictionary-reference book of professional pedagogy (semenova, 2006) the term “cooperation” is explained as follows: interest in each other, mutual trust in communication, partnerships in joint activities, the term “pedagogy of cooperation” is one of the most important conditions for efficient work and job satisfaction. an interpretation of the essence of the concept of “neuropsychology” can be found in the dictionary of the ukrainian language (bilodid, 1970). this term is explained as a branch of psychology that studies mental activity of a person related to the functioning of the central nervous system in certain conditions. a review of the literature enables to state that the concept of “pedagogy of cooperation” first appeared in the publication of the manifesto “pedagogy of cooperation”. the founder of the pedagogy of cooperation is considered to be soloveychik (1989). nevertheless, the initiator of the pedagogy of cooperation is doctor of psychological sciences, academician amonashvili (1995). modern reform in education, adoption of “the concept of implementing the state policy in the field of reforming general secondary education “the new ukrainian school” for the period up to 2029” (2016), prompted coinage of a new term “partnership pedagogy”, which combines communication, interaction, cooperation between teachers, students and parents. the main principles of this approach are respect for the individual, friendliness and positive attitude, trust in relationships, dialogue-interaction – respect, distributed leadership, the principles of social partnership (necula et al., 2018). the work of luria (1966) and vygotsky (1984) is devoted to the study in the field of neuropsychology. neuropsychological approach in teaching children in the context of … larysa piechka, et al. 69 the founder of neuropsychology is considered to be luria, who developed the theory of localization of higher mental functions in the brain. undoubtedly, certain parts of the brain are responsible for the human psyche and actions, in addition, affect vision, speech, hearing, reading. he suggested that when one area of the brain is damaged, many areas should be involved at once, given the complex psychological process. the concept of “higher mental functions” appeared due to the domestic scientist vygotsky, (1984), who formulated the basic statements about the development of higher mental functions and the systemic structure of consciousness. the author analyzed the disorders that occur in children and adults with local brain disorders. so, it is known that neuropsychology studies the relationship between the structure and functioning of the brain with mental processes and human behavior. neuropsychologists focus on the brain mechanisms of higher mental functions based on local brain damage. therefore, often the cause of learning difficulties, inappropriate behavior are disorders of the brain. undoubtedly, teachers and parents must work together to create the conditions under which children can realize themselves in future. interaction of neuropsychology and partnership pedagogy a review of publications and research shows that in the domestic and foreign literature there are many articles in which teachers, neuropsychologists emphasize the importance of cooperation of teachers, parents and children. the authors note that only close cooperation can help a child learn well, overcome learning difficulties, be resilient, etc (komogorova et al., 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020a; maksymchuk et al., 2020b; onishchuk et al., 2020). the problems of organization of pedagogical cooperation and comprehensive harmonious development of personality were addressed in the works of the famous ukrainian teacher sukhomlynsky (1974) who wrote that a child is an active and independent individual who lives an interesting and full life, but does not learn to be like an adult. the classic of pedagogy believed that education of an individual should be carried out in the context of “school-family-community”. the outstanding teacher developed the principles of humanization of the educational process: to know the child; to love the child; to respect the child; to understand the child; to believe the child; to ensure development of the child; to develop self-esteem; to keep the child healthy; to become a friend of the child; to protect the child. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 70 the partnership pedagogy is an approach aimed at developing the most productive and healthy relationships in the learning process. according to skiba (2019), the pedagogy of partnership is important and indispensable because it helps to create a comfortable atmosphere in which it is easy to reveal the potential of each student, to form initiative and develop creativity; it reduces stress levels, which ultimately helps the brain work more efficiently; such cooperation in relationships is the foundation that becomes the main basis for preparing adolescents to choose a career in the future and raises active citizens in the open world. in his publication prokopiv (2019) considers implementation of the strategy of partnership pedagogy, which focuses on the relationship and cooperation between all participants in the educational process; mandatory competence approach in teaching subjects; integration of educational and social activities of schoolchildren in order to form their life competencies, which will be the key to success in future; raising conscious citizens who have value orientations; involvement of children in cooperation with the teaching staff and the public. brazilian educator and psychologist freire (2005) believed that the educational process is a dialogue, an interaction of the subjects of knowledge. the author argues that the educational process should be based on a dialogical form of learning and non-formal education, which involves close communication between teacher and student, as well as research and study of the experience of people of different social status. the noteworthy alison cook-sather handbook (2019) provides indepth advice on the benefits of partnership pedagogy, how to plan work on this strategy, what joint commitments partners undertake, what approaches can be applied in the work, how to solve problems that arise, how to evaluate the work of the pedagogical partnership. an article by rodrigues (2015) emphasizes that the family is the first institution responsible for a child’s education. the author emphasizes that parents should become active members of the school community, and this can be achieved through strategies that aim to build partnerships. he also notes that the greater the needs of students, especially children with special needs, the greater is the need for cooperation between all parties involved. even the results of the study show that the level of success of 300 portuguese fourth-graders, whose parents co-worked regularly with the school, in literacy and numeracy had improved. the article emphasizes that the created family environment should be favorable for learning. in addition, it was confirmed that participation of parents not only provides success in learning, but also increases motivation of children to learn, facilitates the neuropsychological approach in teaching children in the context of … larysa piechka, et al. 71 work of teachers and strengthens prestige of teachers and educational institutions. some aspects of the work of neuropsychologists with students and parents are covered by neuropsychologist miller (2019). the author notes that school neuropsychologists work with children and adolescents in the context of their school and home environment. solving learning and behavior problems doesn’t stop even at the end of the school day. the author emphasizes an important factor: family involvement is crucial for influencing a child’s positive behavioral and academic changes. neuropsychological content of school education: pedagogy of partnership we will try to consider the main aspects of the impact of the neuropsychological approach on child development in ukraine and explore how the partnership pedagogy contributes to children’s health and emotional well-being and how it is implemented in schools in america, brazil, australia, england, spain and the netherlands. the common goal for ukrainian teachers and parents is to teach and raise happy and successful children who have developed intellect, understand their own emotions, know how to control them, consider the feelings of others. after all, as we know, nowadays primary school teachers often have concerns about success of children: students have a poor perception of educational material, it is difficult for them to control their actions. problems in primary school children can occur due to developmental disorders in one of the hemispheres of the brain. scientists argue that modern children have difficulty coordinating movements, balance, lack of sense of rhythm, concentration. sometimes a child has good hearing, sight and intelligence, but makes many mistakes in writing, i.e., has dysgraphia, which arose due to immaturity of some parts of the brain. in another category of children there are difficulties with mastering the reading skills, i.e., the so-called dyslexia. in order for a child to read easily, a sufficient level of speech, spatial imagination, visual perception, and phonemic hearing are required. nowadays, it is often observed that children do not want to play moving games, they do not want to run, catch the ball, jump. according to researchers, the reason for this is the nonintegrated primitive reflexes, which indicate neuromotor immaturity, due to which students have problems with reading, writing and mathematics. awareness of the problem by teachers and parents and expansion of knowledge about neuromotor immaturity can contribute to a better brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 72 understanding of children’s difficulties and contribute to the timely implementation of preventive and effective measures. to help educators, edera site has an online course on the theory and practice of neuropsychology, in which neuropsychologists offer motor, developmental exercises to stimulate a child’s mental activity, develop motor skills, visual, auditory and spatial perception. in addition, neuro-pedagogue, neuropsychologist pristinska (2020), regularly conducts webinars for teachers and parents to provide comprehensive information on this important area: to tell adults more about the brain, how it develops at different age, to give an opportunity to understand for what each part of the brain is responsible, find out how to activate attention, develop thinking, memory of the child. so, starting a working day, the teacher organizes a morning routine – a daily meeting where children discuss their emotional state, their own thoughts, current issues of class and school life. in addition, the teacher pays attention to give each child the opportunity to express their feelings, learn to listen to each other and not to cause troubles to classmates. in the center of communication, the teacher places a stand “my mood”, near which he conducts a conversation with children, encourages the spirit, inspires learning. among modern methods of neuropsychology, teachers practice kinesiological exercises, the so-called gymnastics for the brain. kinesiological training helps children to become active, attentive, relieve irritation and stress. thus, kinesiological techniques improve hemispheric brain interaction, develop fine motor skills, speech activity. furthermore, nus is a school that is accessible to all: even to children with special educational problems. many children now learn to read, write, make friends, work in team in regular classes. the teacher is aided by an assistant, who stays with children during the day. it has been revealed that now educators, psychologists, neuropsychologists, parents can use many different tools for neuropsychological correction of the child. this includes a trainer for brain stimulation, i.e., balance therapy, simulators for the development of balance, soft floor modules for sensorimotor development, tactile simulators, therapeutic swings for a positive and soothing effect, dry frame pool, which produces a massage effect, stimulates creativity, develops muscular system and improves emotional state, chair-bags, which both relax and stimulate the sensory system. neuropsychological approach in teaching children in the context of … larysa piechka, et al. 73 a great invention of neuropsychologists is a spherical bag a cocoon, which is considered an effective tool for sensory integration. the child will sit in it, retire and return to learning. the importance of cooperation between parents and the school is emphasized by an american scientist sheridan (2020) who argues that cooperation of parents and school is an important factor that will determine how easy it will be for a child to learn. of course, adults interact with children, communicate with them and thus influence the experience of children and their learning. research shows that home support for early learning complements school training. in particular, playing math games, reading with children, drawing, discussing open-ended questions with children during play, and physical exercises are examples of interesting simple ways to develop critical fundamental skills both at home and at school. it has been proven that positive relationships between parents, children and teachers improve students’ educational achievements, form social competence, improve emotional state, reduce the number of cases of behavioral disorders, teach children to easily adapt to new conditions. in addition, the author notes that the partnership has 3 important components: communication, consistency, cooperation. in the nordic countries, the pedagogy of partnership is called the pedagogy of dialogue, which focuses on the principles of the pedagogical experience of the brazilian teacher paulo freire (2005). the essence of such a dialogue is to flexibly change orientation of the teacher’s pedagogical influence on students on moral principles and universal values. the pedagogy of dialogue identifies the teacher as a leading generator of successful pedagogical interaction with students and places responsibility on him/her to promptly take into account personal qualities of students, which are constantly changing under the influence of external circumstances and individual growth. therefore, for such cooperation to generate aesthetic satisfaction, it must be impeccable in form and deep in content. in particular, in australia, the department of education, employment and labor relations has developed a family-school partnerships framework (2020). this is a kind of a guide for participants in the educational process. it presents a vision for improving relationships between australian families and schools, outlines a system of partnership principles, presents 7 key dimensions of an effective partnership, and proposes an algorithm for the school system’s strategy for implementing and developing family-school interaction. the basic principles of an effective family-school partnership are parents and families who are the first and permanent caregivers of their children, lifelong learning takes place in brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 74 different conditions, school-community partnerships thrive when families are valued and involved, partnership relations are built on mutual trust, respect and responsibility, the partnership needs dedicated, joint and creative leadership. interestingly, the center for parent and child support (day, 2010) was established in london in 2001 to develop and evaluate a family partnership model. the center is part of the national and specialized directorate for mental health of south london children and adolescents and the maudsley health foundation. the center works closely with king’s college london. the family partnership model is an innovative approach based on a clear model of the assistance process, which demonstrates how the specific qualities and skills of an aide, used in a partnership, enable parents and families to overcome difficulties, build strength and resilience, and achieve their goals more effectively. it is worth noting that in spain, the topic of pedagogical partnership has been part of public policy since 1990. particular attention is paid here to training programs aimed at preparing for productive interaction of all parties to the partnership. for example, the university of jaen (cedillo, 2021) is implementing the procare initiative, which aims to evaluate and provide psychological strategies for emotional strengthening of adolescents (12-18 years). this project was launched to promote the health and emotional wellbeing of children with the support of the ministry of science and innovation, in coordination with other state and international universities, as well as various groups of government agents working in the youth field. taking part in this project is very simple: just give answers to the questionnaire, which consists of 2 parts – part 1 – questions for parents, part 2 – questions for adolescents. if the answers show that boys and girls need help, then a free workshop will be held for the children, where participants will learn to overcome the barriers that limit their lives and learn the tools to deal with risky situations, improving their communication skills, their stress management skills, etc. dutch educators also pay special attention to the pedagogy of cooperation. in particular, the weekly newsletter peeters zunderdorp (2021) contains materials on this topic. the author assures that close cooperation of teachers, children and parents is needed to make the transition of a 6-yearold child from a preschool to a school smooth. as we know, the educational environment in which children grow up is often called the pedagogical climate, pedagogical civil society or pedagogical basis. home, family, relatives and friends are the closest surroundings. obviously, parents are responsible for raising their children. in addition, different groups play a neuropsychological approach in teaching children in the context of … larysa piechka, et al. 75 separate role. educators distinguish an informal environment: family, friends, acquaintances, neighbors, religious communities, which have a special impact on the child’s development. thus, pedagogical tools are combined with children and youth work, the leisure sector, the organization of sports and culture, scouting. undoubtedly, cooperation is important to lay a solid foundation for teacher education, and this requires knowledge and respect for each other’s vision, shared values and shared responsibilities. teachers often play a natural role in parental support, and they often have a trusting relationship. it is worth noting publication of okpala (2010) in a periodical, in which the author presents the results of studying the impact of educational resources on the indicators of mathematical achievement of 4th grade students. the study found that in north carolina, low-income parents accordingly spent little money on their children’s educational materials and nutrition. thus, in conclusion, we observe that the economic condition of parents is correlated with the educational achievements of 4th graders: it negatively affected the success of children in mathematics. a british neuropsychologist schultz, j. (2021) states in his publication that chronic stress at school can make children, especially those with special needs, to fear and change the brain for the worse. but parents and teachers can help alleviate the stress that prevents these bright children from succeeding. an important part of neuropsychological assessment is learning of students. a neuropsychologist worked with children, taught them to overcome obstacles in order to learn effectively and be able to manage stress in school. repeated bouts of fear, frustration, and failure at school create stress that builds up over time. this impairs brain function by contaminating brain chemicals and even shrinking critical nerve tissue, exacerbating learning and attention problems. chronic stress deteriorates memory and cognitive flexibility as it increases anxiety and alertness, and as a result increases the child’s alertness and creates protective defenses. when teachers, school principals, and parents misperceive such behavior as a deliberate attitude of a student trying to avoid an inadequate appearance, they make the problem more complicated by considering the student a bad child. it is known that when stress increases, cognitive abilities decline. the scientist gives advice to parents and teachers on how to help a child overcome stress:  it is necessary to determine the causes of the problem;  adults should be informed of the child’s condition;  identify reasons that may hinder success; brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 76  teach the child to overcome obstacles and achieve goals;  reduce distractions, create a learning environment that is focused on the child’s success and minimize the risk of failure;  regular physical activity, because it reduces stress, improves students’ mood and academic performance;  replace doubts with confidence. therefore, in this way, teachers and parents will be able to help the child overcome difficulties and succeed in learning. conclusions undoubtedly, the partnership between a student, a teacher and parents is one of the key components of effective nus education reform. especially relevant for the pedagogy of partnership is the humane attitude of the teacher to the child, which should be combined with respect for his thoughts and desires. a review of publications of foreign and domestic teachers proves that today many works are devoted to the above problem. it was found that the founder of neuropsychology is considered to be luria, and the concept of “higher mental functions” appeared thanks to the ukrainian scientist vygotsky. the novelty of the article is a detailed review of the neuropsychological approach in the partnership pedagogy in ukraine. it is emphasized that difficulties in children’s education are caused mainly by neuromotor immaturity. emphasis is placed on modern methods, resources that help primary school teachers to carry out neuropsychological correction of the child. besides, teachers of foreign schools do not miss the partnership pedagogy. in spain, in particular, this issue has been part of public policy since 1990. foreign neuropsychologists argue that the increase of stress in children leads to a decline in cognitive abilities. in addition, researchers suggest that low cooperation between teachers and parents is the cause of poor performance and behavior of children. it has been proven that positive relationships between parents, children and teachers improve students’ educational achievements, form social competence, improve emotional state, reduce the number of cases of behavioural disorders, teach children to easily adapt to new conditions. therefore, teachers should establish close cooperation between children and parents, apply neuropsychological knowledge in working with children to create an educational institution where children will feel the joy of learning something new. neuropsychological approach in teaching children in the context of … larysa piechka, et al. 77 references amonashvili, sh. a. (1995). rozdumy pro humannu pedahohiku. [reflections on humane pedagogy]. shalva amonashvili publishing house. bilodid, i. k. (1970). slovnyk ukrainskoi movy: v 11 tomakh [dictionary of the ukrainian language: in 11 volumes]. (11th vol.). naukova dumka. cedillo, a. c. (2021). procare, una herramienta para detectar los problemas de salud mental en niños y jóvenes [procare, a tool to detect mental health problems in children and young people]. copoe. cook-sather, a., bahti, m., & ntem, a. (2019). pedagogical elon, north carolina: elon university center for engaged learning. http://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/12/pedagogical-partnerships.pdf day, c. (2010). family partnership model. the centre for parent and child support. http://www.cpcs.org.uk/index.php?page=about-family-partnership-model. australian government. (2020). family – school partnerships framework. department of education, employment and workplace relations. http://www.familyschool.org.au/files/3013/8451/8364/familyschool_partnerships_framework.pdf. freire, p. (2005). pedagogy of the oppressed. continuum. komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes? knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 luria, a. r. (1966). lobnyie doli i regulyatsiya psihicheskih protsessov: neyropsihologicheskie issledovaniya [frontal lobes and regulation of mental processes: neuropsychological studies]. moscow university publishing house. maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 http://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pedagogical-partnerships.pdf http://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pedagogical-partnerships.pdf http://www.cpcs.org.uk/index.php?page=about-family-partnership-model http://www.familyschool.org.au/files/3013/8451/8364/family-school_partnerships_framework.pdf http://www.familyschool.org.au/files/3013/8451/8364/family-school_partnerships_framework.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 78 manifest “pedahohika spivrobitnytstva” [manifesto “pedagogy of cooperation”]. (2011). http://gumanpedagog.org.ua/ind%20ex.php?option=com_content&view =article&id=127&itemid=57 miller, d. c., & maricle, d. e. (2019). essentials of school neuropsychological assessment (3rd ed.). wiley and sons. necula, m. r., sandu, a., & damian, s.-i. (2018). the role of social assistance in therapeutic education. archiv euromedica, 8(2), 24-30. http://journalarchiveuromedica.eu/archiveuromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_1 2_2018-24_30.pdf okpala, c. o., okpala, a. o., & smith, f. e. (2001). parental involvement, instructional expenditures, family socioeconomic attributes, and student achievement. the journal of educational research, 95, 110–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220670109596579 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 prokopiv, l., & stynska, v. (2019). stratehii rozvytku pedahohiky partnerstva v osvitnomu protsesi malokomplektnykh shkil ukrainy i zarubizhzhia: porivnialnyi aspekt [development strategies of pedagogy of partnership in educational process of small schools in ukraine and abroad: a comparative aspect]. liudynoznavchi studii [anthropological studies], 8(40), 116-130. http://lib.pnu.edu.ua:8080/handle/123456789/9087 prystinska, m. (2020). otsinka neiromotornoi hotovnosti do navchannia [assessment of neuromotor readiness for learning]. https://www.facebook.com/marynaprystinska/ rodrigues, f. b., campos, s., chaves, c., & martins, c. (2015). family-school cooperation in the context of inclusion of children with special educational needs. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 171, 309–316. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.127 schultz, j. (2021). share article menu. why school stress is devastating for our children. parent-teacher cooperation. https://www.additudemag.com/why-schoolstress-is-toxic-to-kids/ semenova, a. v. (2006). slovnyk-dovidnyk z profesiinoi pedahohiky [ dictionaryreference book on professional pedagogy]. palmyra. sheridan, s. m. (2020). establishing healthy parent-teacher relationships for early learning success. early learning. http://gumanpedagog.org.ua/ind%20ex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=127&itemid=57 http://gumanpedagog.org.ua/ind%20ex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=127&itemid=57 http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf http://journal-archiveuromedica.eu/archiv-euromedica_02_2018/pages_archiv_euromedica_02_2018_maket_27_12_2018-24_30.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/00220670109596579 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 http://lib.pnu.edu.ua:8080/handle/123456789/9087 https://www.facebook.com/marynaprystinska/ http://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.127 https://www.additudemag.com/why-school-stress-is-toxic-to-kids/ https://www.additudemag.com/why-school-stress-is-toxic-to-kids/ neuropsychological approach in teaching children in the context of … larysa piechka, et al. 79 https://earlylearningnetwork.unl.edu/2018/08/29/parent-teacherrelationships/ skyba, m. (2019). krashche razom. shcho take pedahohika partnerstva i navishcho vona v nova ukrainska shkola [better together. what is the pedagogy of partnership and why is it in the new ukrainian school]. https://nus.org.ua/articles/pedagogika-partnerstva-shho-tse-take-ta-yakzrozumity-chy-vona-ye-u-shkoli/ soloveychik, s. l. (1989). pedagogika dlya vseh: kniga dlya buduschih roditeley [pedagogy for all: a book for future parents]. children's literature. sukhomlynskyi, v. o. (1974). sertse viddaiu ditiam [i give my heart to children]. radianska shkola. vygotsky, l. s. (1984). sobranie sochineniy. detskaya psihologiya [collected works. children's psychology]. pedagogy. zunderdorp, p. (2021). samenwerken rondom kinderopvang. nederlands jeugdinstituut. https://www.nji.nl/nl/kennis/dossier/kinderopvang-enpeuterspeelzalen/samenwerken/samenwerken-rondom-kinderopvang. https://earlylearningnetwork.unl.edu/2018/08/29/parent-teacher-relationships/ https://earlylearningnetwork.unl.edu/2018/08/29/parent-teacher-relationships/ https://nus.org.ua/articles/pedagogika-partnerstva-shho-tse-take-ta-yak-zrozumity-chy-vona-ye-u-shkoli/ https://nus.org.ua/articles/pedagogika-partnerstva-shho-tse-take-ta-yak-zrozumity-chy-vona-ye-u-shkoli/ https://www.nji.nl/nl/kennis/dossier/kinderopvang-en-peuterspeelzalen/samenwerken/samenwerken-rondom-kinderopvang https://www.nji.nl/nl/kennis/dossier/kinderopvang-en-peuterspeelzalen/samenwerken/samenwerken-rondom-kinderopvang ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 152-165| https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/337 submitted: november 2nd, 2022| accepted for publication: february 17th, 2022 neuropsychological means of developing emotional intelligence in children yuliia chystovska 1 , olha babiak 2 , наlyna honcharovska 3 , yuliia borets 4 , svitlana, dorofey 5 , olha savytska 6 1 the bohdan khmelnytsky national university of cherkasy, cherkasy, ukraine, j.chystovska@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7817-1967 2 mykola yarmachenko institute of special education and psychology of the naes of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, olgababjak@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6337-1202 3 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ternopil ukraine, ggalina.tnpu@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5874-8893 4 academy of the state penitentiary service, chernigiv, ukraine, boretssummer@gmail.com, orcid id: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7501-8606 5 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, kamianets-podіlskyі, ukraine, dorofeysv4@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-96233623 6 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, kamianets-podilskyi, ukraine, olganeu717@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-09173795 abstract: the article analyzes the age and neuropsychological features and means of developing the child's emotional intelligence based on foreign and domestic experiences. an attempt is made to generalize the definition of emotional intelligence in the scientific literature. a neuropsychological approach to studying the relationship between a child's emotional development and emotional and rational brain has been implemented. the vital role of social and emotional learning of students (sel) on their academic success and personal growth in the research of modern foreign researchers is emphasized. in the organization of emotional development of the child's personality, a complex combination of the principle of systematics is recommended, taking into account the social nature of the psyche with the principle of biological (brain) organization of emotional phenomena. the psychological characteristics of the emotional and personal sphere of the child and some emotional disorders in the context of neuropsychology are analyzed. the essence of the interaction of biological and social factors in the development of mental functions of emotions taking into account their subcortical-cortical brain mechanisms is revealed. the program on developing the child's emotional intelligence with the indication of actual conditions of its realization is developed. the success of the development of emotional intelligence in children with reliance on art-therapeutic methods has been noted. it is recommended to use neuropsychological technologies for the child's mental development, focusing on the doctrine of the three functional blocks of the brain and solid mental activity to form new neural connections. the necessity of neuropsychological support of left-handed children is argued. keywords: emotional development, social development, mental processes, ontogenesis, neuropsychological exercises, academic performance, rational brain, emotional brain. how to cite: chystovska, y., babiak, o., honcharovska, h., borets, y., dorofey, s., & savytska. o. (2022). neuropsychological means of developing emotional intelligence in children. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 152-165. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/337 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/337 mailto:j.chystovska@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7817-1967 mailto:olga-babjak@ukr.net mailto:olga-babjak@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6337-1202 mailto:ggalina.tnpu@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5874-8893 mailto:boretssummer@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7501-8606 mailto:dorofeysv4@gmail.com mailto:olganeu717@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0917-3795 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0917-3795 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/337 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 153 1. introduction child neuropsychology studies the features of emotional development of a child from infancy. the formation of higher mental functions in the process of ontogenesis (huidu, 2018) is closely interrelated with emotional processes that stimulate the child's assimilation of information about the outside world through emotional attitude to it, first due to the ancient brain (emotional brain) (up to 6 years) and then the neocortex. (rational brain). uneven formation of psychophysiological structures of the child's brain also develops depending on the peculiarities of emotional processes. the dynamics of the child's ontogenetic development, the peculiarities of his mental activity and the formation of emotional intelligence are directly related to socialization. mental development depends on the emotional well-being of the environment and emotional competence, which is formed based on the ability to empathize, empathize, empathize and is determined by the peculiarities of mental development. despite many textbooks on child neuropsychology, the problem of developing the emotional intelligence of the child's personality is poorly studied in developmental psychology. therefore its research is a topical interdisciplinary issue. the purpose of the article is to theoretically substantiate the peculiarities of the formation and development of a child's emotional intelligence and to develop a program on neuropsychological influence on the formation of his emotional intelligence. practical significance and novelty of the work for the first time, neuropsychological technologies of the development of emotional intelligence of the child's personality in combination with pedagogical technologies are considered. the study results can be used for neuropsychological support of children with emotional disorders and low levels of emotional intelligence. 2. theoretical analysis of the study of the problem of the peculiarities of the development of a child's emotional intelligence: foreign and domestic experience there is no unambiguous definition of emotional intelligence in science yet. emotional intelligence is defined primarily by scientists as the ability to name, define, express, and understand emotions and related needs, both their own and those of others; form and method of self-attitude and attitude to others, which are associated with the management of emotions, self-knowledge and self-control, socialization in the process of adaptation to neuropsychological means of developing emotional intelligence in children yuliia chystovska et al. 154 the requirements of the environment. for a child, emotions are a reference point in his living space. the primary function of emotions is to assess his inner state and reality and adapt to social circumstances. mayer (2004) examines emotional intelligence to cognitive processes, with the ability to reflect on emotions themselves and reflexively regulate emotions, promoting emotional and intellectual growth. goleman (1995) notes that the activity of brain structures forms a set of qualities essential for human life called emotional intelligence for example, the ability to control their emotions, understanding to recognize the feelings of others, to build harmonious relationships. the higher centres of the brain have grown from the limbic zone or beyond it; the emotional brain plays a crucial role in the structure of the nervous system. representing the root from which the new brain grew, the emotional areas are connected to all parts of the neocortex by myriads of connections. it gives emotional centres endless opportunities to influence the functioning of the rest of the brain, including the cortex of the large hemispheres. the corresponding reaction of the neocortex appears to be slower (in terms of brain processing time) than the “emotion capture mechanism” is triggered because it goes on a longer chain. such a reaction is usually more appropriate and balanced because the feelings are preceded by reflection, reasoning. with the coordinated interaction of the emotional brain and the neocortex, emotional intelligence can motivate oneself and strive to achieve a goal, despite failures; restrain impulses and postpone pleasure; control the mood and do not allow feelings to overshadow the mind; empathize and hope. instead, people who perceive and transmit emotions poorly have problems maintaining positive interpersonal relationships because others often feel uncomfortable when communicating with them. however, they may not always be able to explain the reason. establishing an emotional tone of interaction means managing the emotional state of another person. in our opinion, to thrive in the implementation of individual neuropsychological programs to develop the child's emotional intelligence from the standpoint of the competence approach, it is essential to consider the patterns of manifestation and their general psychological characteristics by neuropsychologists. thus, in the work of chomskaya (2005), it is noted that emotions in any cognitive activity, on the one hand, act as its motivators, “trigger” the components of this activity, and on the other control, regulate (using the mechanism assessment) its course by the need to meet which it is aimed. the emotional and personal sphere has a level structure. the first level is emotional reactivity (which characterizes mainly basal emotions). the second level emotional states (moods, emotional broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 155 background). these two classes of emotional phenomena differ in duration and are subject to different laws. emotional reactivity (or emotional response) is a short-term response to another influence, mainly situational. to a greater extent, emotional states reflect the general attitude of a person to the environment, to himself and are more related to personal characteristics. the third level of the emotional-personal sphere is emotional-personal qualities that reflect emotional features (optimism, pessimism, courage, cowardice, aggression, etc.) and are related to the features of basal emotions. the emotional and personal sphere includes positive and negative emotional systems responsible for the emotional phenomena of different signs. many parameters characterize emotions as complex systemic psychological formations as the most important of them can be considered the following: qualitative characteristics ("modality", the connection with the basal need); sign; intensity; duration; reactivity, i.e. the rate of occurrence or change of emotion; degree of awareness; degree of arbitrary control, etc. the above parameters characterize both the emotional response and emotional states (actually emotions); in the most general form, they can characterize any emotion, both standard and in various pathological conditions. the development of emotional intelligence in a child by neuropsychological means provides morphofunctional readiness of the brain for adequate and comprehensive knowledge of the world and learning through a system of emotional attitudes in the process of awareness of real cognitive situations in conjunction with the formation of higher mental functions. in turn, mikadze (2013) also asserts that the problem of interaction of biological and social factors in the development of mental functions plays an important role. psychological features of the development of emotional intelligence of a child in early, preschool and primary school age are most fully disclosed in the works of shpak (2016; 2017) and derevyanko (2016); theory and practice of formation of emotional intelligence in primary school students and psychophysiological principles of development of emotional intelligence of junior schoolchildren in the work of kotyk (2020); development of emotional intelligence of a junior schoolchild as an essential component of personality formation in the work of savchenko (2014); neuropsychological features and principles of development of the emotional and personal sphere in the work of chomskaya (2005); the concept of integration of the right and left hemispheres of the child's brain in the work of siegel and bryson (2014). in theoretical and empirical research, modern foreign researchers have studied the relationship of emotional intelligence of students with neuropsychological means of developing emotional intelligence in children yuliia chystovska et al. 156 academic performance and responsibility (petrides et al., 2004; yazici et al., 2011; parker et al., 2004; weissberg et al., 2015). programs of social and emotional learning of students (sel) are actively implemented in foreign educational practice, which promotes a positive climate in the school environment, improves intrapersonal, interpersonal and cognitive competencies of students, their self-esteem and self-efficacy; (durlak and weissberg, 2018; depaoli et al., 2017; schonert-reichl et al., 2017). in developing a child's emotional intelligence, it is essential to consider the presence of emotional disorders, their causes (hyperactivity or “right hemisphere”) and consequences. it is known that left-handedness is a consequence of structural and functional asymmetry of the brain, and retraining of left-handed people can have a very negative impact on the development of emotional intelligence in left-handed people. in this regard, the features of the functional asymmetry of the active brain are studied by foreign and domestic scientists (levy, 1988; siegel, 2014; chomskaya, 2005 and many others). neuropedagogical factors of learning of hyperactive children with attention deficit are actively studied by foreign neuroscience (gaddes & edgell, 1994; petitto & dunbar, 2004). a new foreign methodological approach to modern neuropedagogy involves introducing innovative educational practices of successfully activating students' cognitive and educational activities, with a significant role in the neuropsychological relationship of emotions, social interaction and cognition (pera, 2014; demtsko, 2021; kosholap, 2021). most junior high school students have the following features of emotional intelligence: children do not know how to identify their own and others' emotions, do not understand the reasons for their occurrence, and therefore respond inadequately to other people's emotional expressions, except for basic emotions of fear and joy; unable to control their own emotions, significantly negative ones, so not prone to interpersonal communication; are characterized by emotional ignorance, lack of selfmotivation and empathy. the level of emotional intelligence of most junior high school students needs to be corrected (kotyk, 2020). emotions and feelings of a preschool child become more complex, compared with the peculiarities of their development at an early age, but are primarily situational. they are primarily due to the expansion of its communication with people, mastery of language tools and the development of elements of independence. there is a bright emotional colour of cognitive processes (feeling, perception, thinking, imagination); emotional saturation of various activities, especially play activities, and the process of communication with adults and peers; the child masters the “language” of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 157 emotions and feelings; a feeling of curiosity is manifested, which stimulates the child's cognitive activity. in the old preschool age, there is the socialization of emotional intelligence, which is expressed in the emotional orientation of the child to other people than to particular objects or things, develops the ability to empathize. however, it is not yet stable enough, but the child can show empathy and compassion, which ensures the development of her interpersonal emotional intelligence development. all this is an essential prerequisite for developing emotional intelligence in early school age and helps to increase children's ability to understand emotions, both their own and other people's, and manage them (starling, 2016). based on the empirical study of shpak (2017) identified psychological types of emotional intelligence of primary school children: rational (good understanding of their own emotions and emotions of others and the reasons for their occurrence, the ability to verbalize and identify emotions, high self-knowledge and reflection), emotional (well-developed emotional expression, intense and frequent manifestations of emotional reactions, increased emotional sensitivity to emotional situations), socioadaptive (ability to emotional self-control and emotional self-regulation,), socio-communicative (emotional competencies in communication and social interaction), harmonious (internal balance of all structural components of emotional intelligence). in each type, one of the structural components of emotional intelligence is leading, and the others complement it. the process of development of emotional intelligence has features. however, the essential structural elements of emotional intelligence begin to develop in early school age and do not disappear with age but improve during the learning period. the effectiveness of developing the emotional intelligence of younger students depends on the creation of psychological conditions in secondary schools methodological support and awareness of specialists of the need for this professional activity. the subject of special attention of psychologists, teachers and educators should be such concepts as: “emotional talent”, “emotional balance”, “emotional style”, “emotional freedom”, “emotional maturity”. they should know and consider that emotionally significant situations for the child encourage self-expression; emotions create a "platform" on which new knowledge is written; emotionally coloured knowledge motivates the child to further knowledge, study and research. to develop emotional intelligence in the early school years, it is necessary, to begin with, the basic emotions and gradually pass to their shades: reading books with the analysis of mood and feelings of characters of different types of theatres; game exercises “guess the mood”; situations neuropsychological means of developing emotional intelligence in children yuliia chystovska et al. 158 from children's lives; demonstration of photos, drawings of people with fundamental emotions and later with shades of emotions; drawing "own mood", as well as relatives, friends and analysis of mood causes; aesthetic perception of the world (savchenko, 2014). derevyanko (2016) interestingly describes the age-specific features of the development of the emotional sphere of the child's personality: up to 10 years, there is a fairly low level of arbitrary regulation of emotions; the ability to manage emotions by socially acceptable means develops gradually, under the influence of socio-cultural environment. emotion management at this age is manifested mainly in two forms: 1) as control of expression (for example, masking emotions, i.e. replacing the emotional state experienced by the external expression of another emotion, this form of behaviour becomes available to children 3-4 years, for other data in 10 years); 2) as psychological protection (typical for all age groups and modalities of emotions is the mechanism of displacement, unconsciously used techniques “forget”, “think about something else”, “do something else”, etc.). age features of the development of the ability to establish emotional contact: from birth to 5 years the development of the need to establish emotional contact; 5-7 years. coordination of acquired social skills with their emotions and the emotions of others; 7-10 years the child's awareness of the diversity of emotions that can be experienced about one person; use of personal information to establish close relationships. development of the ability to control other people's emotions: the growth of the ability to intentionally express emotions and feelings that are used to influence others, i.e. turn into a certain “language” that can convey shades of mental well-being. by the age of 15, emotional engrams are formed: already in the early stages of development, a child quickly and easily establishes a connection between two phenomena: certain emotions cause the desired behavior of others. throughout life, a person can use specific emotions for manipulative purposes. gottman and deckler (2015) offer parents essential strategies for emotional education: awareness, recognition and acceptance of the child's emotions; compassionate listening and confirmation of the validity of the child's feelings; determining the goals of solving the child's problems based on family values; avoid excessive criticism, derogatory comments and ridicule of your child; not imposing their decisions on the child; increase your child's self-esteem, giving her a choice and respecting her desires; showing honesty with your child. only those who can accept their emotions can understand their child's emotions. common ways to get senses to include meditation, prayer, keeping a diary, and forms of artistic expression, such as playing musical instruments or drawing. emotional awareness broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 159 requires being alone, something that modern busy parents often do not have time. another good way to better understand feelings is to keep an “emotion diary” to record your reactions to the emotions of others, especially the emotions of children. 3. neuropsychological approach to the development of emotional intelligence of the child both social and biological factors influence the emotional manifestations of the child. emotions arise under the influence of physiological processes in the body; emotional susceptibility may be partially hereditary and have a non-genetic nature of the transmission of emotional intelligence. the brain is the leader of emotional behavior. any emotion is accompanied by the activation of the nervous system, the appearance in the blood of biologically active substances that change the respiratory rate, heart rate, the activity of internal organs. the brain processes all signals from the outside world recognizes threats and dangers. however, its functions may be exhausted, activity is reduced, and the nervous system is depleted when emotional stressors or children influence the child's psyche are busy more time watching tv. the brain's efficiency depends on the number of connections between neurons: the more of them, the better the brain will find a way out of a difficult situation. the connective cells die if the child does not learn, the brain is immersed in stagnation, or the nervous system is too excited. active learning stimulates the formation of contacts between the centers in the cerebral cortex. at the heart of neuropsychological work on the development of emotional intelligence in children is the principle of systematics. in the theoretical analysis of the emotional-personal sphere based on a generalization of many works, chomskaya (2005) confirms that in sociocultural development, a complex multi-component complex of higher emotions, emotional phenomena and states united in a holistic emotionalpersonal sphere is formed. emotional and personal mental phenomena and cognitive processes have a systemic organization and are formed under the influence of cultural and historical factors. there is an emotional connection between emotional and cognitive processes, which manifests itself in the form of "intellectualization" of emotions in the process of ontogenetic development of the child. the principle of systematization, taking into account the social nature of the psyche, must be combined with the principle of biological (brain) organization of emotional phenomena. it is essential to develop higher emotions (intellectual, aesthetic, moral), taking into account the subcortical-cortical brain mechanisms of emotions. neuropsychological means of developing emotional intelligence in children yuliia chystovska et al. 160 for practical neuropsychological classes on the development of emotional intelligence, it is essential to consider the results of neuropsychodiagnostics of the emotional and personal sphere and the presence of emotional disorders in children, especially at an early age, for their timely correction. as noted in the work of chomskaya (2005), neuropsychological syndromes are usually associated with disorders of the emotional and personal sphere in the form of inadequate emotional reactions, decreased interest in communication and interaction with others. central to the development of consciousness and the entire system of mental functions, including emotional and the prevention of various disorders, is the development of thinking and “intellectualization” of emotions. in the concept of integrated education, siegel and bryson (2014) propose integrating right-handed and left-handed modalities of the brain, i.e. to form neural connections on both sides of the brain in the learning process. thus, the strategy of education “communication and redirection” allows communication with the right the emotional brain and can redirect the child's attention to the left the rational brain, using logical explanations with complexity. the second strategy of education “call to tame” carries out self-integration of the right (emotional) and left (rational) modality of the brain this is facilitated by the child's identification of their emotional states through storytelling. we believe that art therapy is a well-chosen neuropsychological tool for a child's emotional development program. essential goals of art therapy are the formation of aesthetic, moral and intellectual emotions, the development of voluntary attention and emotional self-regulation in children, the formation of sensorimotor control, optimization of nervous system tone and relaxation on the body and psyche of the child through painting, dancing, sand therapy, mesotherapy, dramatic art. glotova and aksenova (2019) described the successful work on the development of emotional intelligence in older preschool children based on art-therapeutic methods, which is confirmed by quantitative and qualitative assessment of the positive dynamics in the development of emotional and volitional regulation after implementation programs (only 18 classes of 30 minutes, once a week). our program for the development of emotional intelligence of the child covers essential, in our opinion, tasks: neuropsychodiagnostics of the emotional and personal sphere of the child with a quantitative and qualitative interpretation of the level of development of higher mental functions; neuropsychological support of left-handed children; exercises for emotional development based on art-therapeutic methods, which at the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 161 system level ensure the mental development of the child, stimulate the emergence of spatial representations, hand motility and sensorimotor interaction; breathing techniques; neuropsychological correctional and developmental exercises and games for the correction of identified emotional disorders and the development of positive emotional qualities and states; physical and motor exercises; visualization exercises. of course, the tasks of the neuropsychological program are subordinated to the goals of the main blocks of emotional training of the child's emotional intelligence, taking into account age, individual approach, the presence of emotional disorders and low levels of emotional intelligence in general or some of its structural components. neuropsychological causes of emotional disorders may be desontogenesis in the subcortical and stem sections of the brain, lack of interhemispheric and subcortical-cortical connections, brain dysfunction due to local brain lesions, resulting in children with hyperactivity, decreased concentration of negative emotions, dominance, depression, low level of development of cognitive processes. therefore, the child's emotional development requires neuropsychological support, with a focus on mental solid activity, which will provide the formation of new neural connections needed to test the child's experience gained in partnership with an adult during a problem-based learning task. it is expedient to combine neuropsychological work on the child's mental development with neuropsychological exercises on the formation of communicative skills and development of cognitive mental processes; their complex combination can be plot-role technologies with designers. the use of a methodical arsenal of neuropsychological technologies for the child's mental development should focus on the doctrine of the three functional blocks of the brain the regulation of tone and active vigour; receiving, processing and storing information; programming, regulation and control. such work will contribute to the activating effect on the cerebral cortex and so on. involved neurons and new neural connections will be ready to apply the child's experience in emotional interaction through knowledge of the world. neuropsychological means of developing emotional intelligence in children yuliia chystovska et al. 162 4. conclusion emotions are, for the child, an indicator of the degree of trust in themselves, other people and the world. they significantly affect its mental development in ontogenesis, providing the emotional level of manifestation of cognitive processes and behaviour and determining the direction of attention and features of perception of the environment. a child's low level of emotional intelligence may be related to the “information hunger” of his or her brain, provided that the child is not provided with psychological and pedagogical learning conditions; weak emotional competence in communication and social interaction; insufficient emotional self-control and self-regulation of behaviour in the system of social relations. neuropsychological support of children with low emotional intelligence should be combined with pedagogical technologies for their successful emotional socialization, taking into account students' age and individual characteristics. neuropsychological means of developing emotional intelligence should be implemented systematically and comprehensively, based on the results of neuropsychodiagnostics, partnerships with teachers and peers, and differential, competence, and activity approach taking into account neurobiological mechanisms of “emotional” and “rational” children's brain. references chomskaya, e. (2005). nejropsihologiya [neuropsychology]. piter. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/homskaya=neuropsychology.pdf depaoli, j. l., atwell, m. n., & bridgeland, j. (2017). ready to lead: a national principal survey on how social and emotional learning can prepare children and transform schools. a report for casel. civic enterprises. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed579088.pdf derevyanko, s. (2016). fenomenolohiia emotsiinoho intelektu: navchalno-metodychnyi posibnyk [phenomenology of emotional intelligence: educational and methodical manual]. losovy. http://erpub.chnpu.edu.ua gaddes, w. h., & edgell, d. (1994). using neuropsychological knowledge in understanding learning disorders. learning disabilities and brain function. springer. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780387940410 glotova r., & aksenova g. (2019). razvitie emocional'nogo intellekta u detej starshego doshkol'nogo vozrasta posredstvom ispol'zovaniya metodov art-terapii [development of emotional intelligence in older preschool children through the use of art therapy methods]. belgorod. https://www.beluo31.ru/wpcontent/uploads/2020/08/23-glotova-aksenova.pdf http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/homskaya=neuropsychology.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed579088.pdf http://erpub.chnpu.edu.ua/ https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780387940410 https://www.beluo31.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/23-glotova-aksenova.pdf https://www.beluo31.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/23-glotova-aksenova.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 163 goleman, d. (1995). emocional'nyj intellekt: pochemu on mozhet znachit' bol'she, chem iq [emotional intelligence. why it can matter more than iq]. mann, ivanov i ferber. https://avidreaders.ru/download/emocionalnyy-intellektpochemu-on-mozhetznachit.html?f=pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/s187704281100646x?token=d 60d9c0569be3491cecb7b54729baa162d9b9f6057e55b291923e539 b94bbb8cc6b79223c6630ddb59e7b2513f82652d&originreg gottman, d., & decker, d. (2015). emocionalni intellekt rebenka: prakticheskie rukovodstvo dlya roditelej [emotional intelligence of a child: a practical guide for parents]. mann, ivanov i ferber. https://invalid24.ru/lib/children.pdf huidu, a. (2018). the need for specific and unitary regulations regarding techniques in connection to or derived from medically assisted human reproduction in romania. logos universality mentality education novelty: law, 6(2), 14-25. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/09 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kotyk, t. (2020). nova ukrayins`ka shkola: teoriya i prakty`ka formuvannya emocijnogo intelektu v uchniv pochatkovoyi shkoly`: navch.-metod. posibny`k [new ukrainian school: theory and practice of emotional intelligence formation in primary school students]. ternopyl. https://lib.imzo.gov.ua/wadata/public/site/books2/navchalno-metodychny-posibnyky/dlyapedpraytsivnykiv/nus-teoriya-i-praktyka-form-emots-intelekt-kotyk.pdf levy, j. (1988) the evolution of human cerebral asymmetry. in: jerison h.j., jerison i. (eds.) intelligence and evolutionary biology. nato asi series g: ecological sciences, vol. 17. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-708770_10 mayer, j. d. (2004). "what is emotional intelligence?". unh personality lab. https://scholars.unh.edu/personality_lab/8 mikadze, y. (2013). nejropsihologiya detskogo vozrasta: uchebnoe posobie [childhood neuropsychology: a textbook]. piter. https://monsterbook.com/neyropsihologiya-detskogo-vozrasta-uchebnoe-posobie parker, j. d., summerfeldt, l. j., hogan, m. j., & majeski, s. a. (2004). emotional intelligence and academic success: examining the transition from high school to university. personality and individual differences, 36(1), 163-172. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247166939_emotional_intellig ence_and_academic_success_examining_the_transition_from_high_schoo l_to_university/link/5a329d31aca27271448e855e/download https://avidreaders.ru/download/emocionalnyy-intellekt-pochemu-on-mozhetznachit.html?f=pdf https://avidreaders.ru/download/emocionalnyy-intellekt-pochemu-on-mozhetznachit.html?f=pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/s187704281100646x?token=d60d9c0569be3491cecb7b54729baa162d9b9f6057e55b291923e539b94bbb8cc6b79223c6630ddb59e7b2513f82652d&originreg https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/s187704281100646x?token=d60d9c0569be3491cecb7b54729baa162d9b9f6057e55b291923e539b94bbb8cc6b79223c6630ddb59e7b2513f82652d&originreg https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/s187704281100646x?token=d60d9c0569be3491cecb7b54729baa162d9b9f6057e55b291923e539b94bbb8cc6b79223c6630ddb59e7b2513f82652d&originreg https://invalid24.ru/lib/children.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/09 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://lib.imzo.gov.ua/wa-data/public/site/books2/navchalno-metodychny-posibnyky/dlya-pedpraytsivnykiv/nus-teoriya-i-praktyka-form-emots-intelekt-kotyk.pdf https://lib.imzo.gov.ua/wa-data/public/site/books2/navchalno-metodychny-posibnyky/dlya-pedpraytsivnykiv/nus-teoriya-i-praktyka-form-emots-intelekt-kotyk.pdf https://lib.imzo.gov.ua/wa-data/public/site/books2/navchalno-metodychny-posibnyky/dlya-pedpraytsivnykiv/nus-teoriya-i-praktyka-form-emots-intelekt-kotyk.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70877-0_10 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70877-0_10 https://scholars.unh.edu/personality_lab/8 https://monster-book.com/neyropsihologiya-detskogo-vozrasta-uchebnoe-posobie https://monster-book.com/neyropsihologiya-detskogo-vozrasta-uchebnoe-posobie https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247166939_emotional_intelligence_and_academic_success_examining_the_transition_from_high_school_to_university/link/5a329d31aca27271448e855e/download https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247166939_emotional_intelligence_and_academic_success_examining_the_transition_from_high_school_to_university/link/5a329d31aca27271448e855e/download https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247166939_emotional_intelligence_and_academic_success_examining_the_transition_from_high_school_to_university/link/5a329d31aca27271448e855e/download neuropsychological means of developing emotional intelligence in children yuliia chystovska et al. 164 pera, a. (2014). the integration of cognitive neuroscience in educational practice. contemporary readings in law and social justice, 6(1), 70-75. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail petitto, l. a., & dunbar, k. (2004). new findings from educational neuroscience on bilingual brains, scientific brains, and the educated mind. https://ideas.time.com/wpcontent/uploads/sites/5/2012/01/pettitodunbarip.pdf petrides, k. v., frederickson, n., & furnham, a. (2004). the role of trait emotional intelligence in academic performance and deviant behavior at school. personality and individual differences, 36(2), 277-293. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s01918869030008 49?via%3dihub savchenko, y. (2014). rozvy`tok emocijnogo intelektu uchniv molodshogo shkil`nogo viku [development of emotional intelligence of primary school students]. education and development of a gifted personality, 12, 12-16. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32309255.pdf schonert-reichl, k. a., kitil, m. j., & hanson-peterson, j. (2017). to reach the students, teach the teachers: a national scan of teacher preparation and social & emotional learning. a report prepared for casel. collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313795416_to_reach_the_stu dents_teach_the_teachers_a_national_scan_of_teacher_preparation_a nd_social_emotional_learning/link/5d9d3998a6fdccfd0e841138/downlo ad shpak, m. (2016). stanovlennya emocijnogo intelektu v doshkil`nomu vici yak peredumova jogo rozvy`tku v molodshogo shkolyara [formation of emotional intelligence in preschool age as a prerequisite for its development in junior high school]. scientific notes of the national university of ostroh academy. series: psychology, (4), 196-205. https://eprints.oa.edu.ua/7520/1/20.pdf shpak, m. (2017). psy`xologichni ty`py` emocijnogo intelektu molodshy`x shkolyariv [psychological types of emotional intelligence of primary school pupils]. psychological journal, 3(2), 88-98. https://doi.org/10.31108/1.2017.2.6.7 siegel, d., & bryson, t. (2014). vospitanie s umom. 12 revolyucionnyh strategij vsestoronnego razvitiya mozga vashego rebenka [education with the mind. 12 revolutionary strategies for the comprehensive development of your child's brain]. ecsmo. https://iknigi.net/avtor-deniel-sigel/83039-vospitanie-sumom-12-revolyucionnyh-strategiy-vsestoronnego-razvitiyamozgavashego-rebenka-deniel-sigel.html weissberg, r. p., durlak, j. a., domitrovich, c. e., & gullotta, t. p. (eds.). (2015). social and emotional learning: past, present, and future. in j. a. durlak, c. e. domitrovich, r. p. weissberg, & t. p. gullotta (eds.), handbook of social https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail https://ideas.time.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/01/pettitodunbarip.pdf https://ideas.time.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/01/pettitodunbarip.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0191886903000849?via%3dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0191886903000849?via%3dihub https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32309255.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313795416_to_reach_the_students_teach_the_teachers_a_national_scan_of_teacher_preparation_and_social_emotional_learning/link/5d9d3998a6fdccfd0e841138/download https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313795416_to_reach_the_students_teach_the_teachers_a_national_scan_of_teacher_preparation_and_social_emotional_learning/link/5d9d3998a6fdccfd0e841138/download https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313795416_to_reach_the_students_teach_the_teachers_a_national_scan_of_teacher_preparation_and_social_emotional_learning/link/5d9d3998a6fdccfd0e841138/download https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313795416_to_reach_the_students_teach_the_teachers_a_national_scan_of_teacher_preparation_and_social_emotional_learning/link/5d9d3998a6fdccfd0e841138/download https://eprints.oa.edu.ua/7520/1/20.pdf https://doi.org/10.31108/1.2017.2.6.7 https://iknigi.net/avtor-deniel-sigel/83039-vospitanie-s-umom-12-revolyucionnyh-strategiy-vsestoronnego-razvitiya-mozgavashego-rebenka-deniel-sigel.html https://iknigi.net/avtor-deniel-sigel/83039-vospitanie-s-umom-12-revolyucionnyh-strategiy-vsestoronnego-razvitiya-mozgavashego-rebenka-deniel-sigel.html https://iknigi.net/avtor-deniel-sigel/83039-vospitanie-s-umom-12-revolyucionnyh-strategiy-vsestoronnego-razvitiya-mozgavashego-rebenka-deniel-sigel.html broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 165 and emotional learning: research and practice (pp. 3-19). the guilford press. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-24776-001 yazici, h., seyis, s., & altun, f. (2011). emotional intelligence and self-efficacy beliefs as predictors of academic achievement among high school students. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 15, 2319-2323. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s187704281100646x https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-24776-001 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s187704281100646x microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 40 connectionism vs. computational theory of mind angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net abstract usually, the problems in artificial intelligence may be many times related to philosophy of mind, and perhaps because this reason may be in essence very disputable. so, for instance, the famous question: can a machine think? it was proposed by alan turing. and it may be the more decisive question, but for many people it would be a nonsense. so, two of the very fundamental and more confronted positions usually considered according this line include the connectionism and the computational theory of mind. we analyze here its content, with their past disputes, and current situation. keywords: knowledge representation, philosophy of mind, connectionism, heuristics, artificial intelligence. 1. introduction the answer to the question about if will be considered a machine, or a computer, as a mind, had produced a very copious scientific and philosophical literature. initially, with the seminal paper of alan turing [16], by their turing machine idea and the long time debatable turing test. also it must to be mentioned the attempt of refutation of john searle [5-8], by the so-called chinese room argument. after the ideas expressed by turing, some of the participants in the darmouth conference (1956) giving the trend known as strong a i; represented by authors as, for instance, may be marvin minsky [3]. 2. turing test the very popular turing´s test departs from supposing that an interrogator is connected to one person and one machine, via a terminal, and therefore cannot see their counterparts. its task is to find out which of the two contestant candidates will be the machine, and which will be the human, only by their answer to questions. if the interrogator cannot make a decision within a reasonable time, then the machine is considered to be intelligent. the initial turing estimate as reasonable margin was five minutes, but the length of this interval is irrelevant. we comment now some about the turing ideas. in his paper [9], written in 1950, turing proposed an operational definition of intelligence that was chosen to be equally applicable to humans and machines. the test was described as a generalization of a parlor game turing called the imitation game. the basic idea of this game is that an interrogator attempts to determine the sex of one contestant by asking questions and receiving answers in writing. the goal of at least one contestant answering these questions is to cause an interrogator to make the wrong determination. no information is available to an interrogator other than the written answers, and at least one of the contestants answering questions is not obligated to tell the truth. the turing test purpose, in its original form, is to replace by a machine one of the contestants of the imitation game who is not required to be truthful. if the results obtained from the game are unaffected by the presence of this machine, then this machine is said to be capable of thought. in other words, a machine that is indistinguishable from a human being solely on the basis of "written" interaction is considered to be capable of thought. 3. connectionism it was few more than mere speculations until the middle of the 20th century, but from the 1980´s [2], it become very popular among researchers. initially, the “perceptron theory” was a. garrido – connectionism vs. computational theory of mind 41 formulated by f. rosenblatt, in the 1950´s-1960´s, being unpopular from the book perceptrons, by minsky and papert, where they showed that only some functions can be calculated by these models. connectionism can be defined saying that it hopes to explain human intellectual abilities using artificial neural networks. it models behavioral or mental phenomena, as emergent processes of interconnected networks of simple units. the more usual are constructed by neural network models. the connection form can vary between different models. so, in the brain modeling, units can represent neurons, whereas their connections will be the synapses. 4. computational theory of mind john searle´s [5] argument, proposed in 1980, is intended to show that implementing a computational algorithm that is formally isomorphic to human thought processes cannot be sufficient to reproduce thought. something more is required. so, it will be considered an attempt of refutation of both, turing test and functionalism. searle published his argument in an issue of scientific american [6]. thus, searle affirms that strong (but not weak) ai is a clear nonsense. we refer, obviously, on the well-known chinese room argument, which was revised in our own precedent paper [1]. it is clearly related with the different arguments and lines of research considered here. according the computational theory of mind (ctm, in acronym), our mind is merely a digital computer. not as a digital computer, but properly a form of such device. so, it will be a discrete-state device that store symbolic representations, manipulated by syntactic rules. it will be an extension of the old idea according which "thought is mental representation", also called "representationalism". formalization permits us to link semantics to syntax. and by computers, how to link syntax to causation. 5. connectionism vs. ctm despite of the initial success of connectionists ideas, in the 1980´s, some researchers reacted against them. for example, jerry fodor and s. pinker [4]. they argued that the computational theory of mind was in serious risk to fall in computationalism, seeing the mental activity as a merely computational process, i.e. only operating by formal operations on symbols. in this sense, it would be considered as a turing machine. computationalists generally forms on mental models and syntactic rules. whereas connectionists, on learning the information as connections between neurons. computationalists opinion is that internal mental activity consists of simple manipulation of explicit symbols. whereas according to connectionists, such manipulation will be a very poor model of mental activity. more recently, the topic of dynamical systems is increasing in philosophy of mind. so, it wold be argued that the precedent debate is merely a split between computationalism and dynamical systems theory. 6. conclusions as in many other situations of life, the middle will be perhaps the best election. the underneath troubles will be perhaps because their ideological, ethical and religious implications, with some emergent "secondary effects". but while artificial neural networks provide us with a potential technological platform for thinking machines, the technology is too nascent as yet. for these reasons, we have showed here some of the very bitter confrontation of connectionists against computational mind theorists. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 42 7. references [1] garrido, a: (2009). the turing test and the chinese room argument. eij-amo (advanced modeling and optimization journal), 11(4), 589-592, bucharest: ici press, camo & new yorl: cuny. [2] haugeland, j. (ed.) (1981). mind design. cambridge, ma: mit press. [3] minsky, m., papert, s. (1969). perceptrons. cambridge, ma: mit press. [4] pinker, s., mehler, j. (1988). connections and symbols. cambridge, ma: mit press.. [5] searle, j. (1980). minds, brains, and programs. the behavioral and brain sciences, 3, 417-457. [6] searle, j. (1984). minds, brains and sciences. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. [7] searle, j.(1990). is the brain´s mind a computer program?. scientific american, 262 (1), 2631. [8] searle, j. (1983). intentionality: an essay in the philosophy of mind. cambridge, ma: cambridge university press. [9] turing, a. (1950). computing machinery and intelligence. mind, 59(236), 433-60. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 647-661 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/439 submitted: february 1st, 2023 | accepted for publication: february 14th, 2023 psychological counseling as a means of developing the athlete’s personality liliya tomich1, andriy levchenko2, olena girchenko3, liliia sikorska4, оleg nazarov5, lina perelygina6 1 сandidate of medical sciences, associate professor, docent, kyiv national university of technology and design (knutd), ukraine, liliya_tomich@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9038-9077 2 postgraduate, national university of civil defence of ukraine, andrusha.levchenko@gmail.com 3 candidate of psychology, associate professor of the department of environmental psychology and sociology, t.h. shevchenko national university «chernihiv colehium», ukraine, bogoslavska28@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3908-3010 4 teacher of the department of sports theory and methodology, vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, lilukubik@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5272-5984 5 phd (psychology), full professor, professor of the department of psychology of activity in special conditions, national university of civil defence of ukraine, nazarovoleg312@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6205-9604 6 doctor of science (biology), full professor, professor of the department of psychology of activity in special conditions, national university of civil defence of ukraine, linaperelygina@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2594-6321 abstract: the article analyzes theoretical and methodological foundations of sports psychological counseling, taking into account professional requirements for the personality of the athlete. the problem of the influence of psychological counseling on the personal development of the athlete is theoretically examined. recent technologies of psychological counseling for the personal development of athletes are presented. the main tasks of sports and psychological counseling on personal development are considered. the personal criteria of formation of psychological readiness of the athlete for professional activity in the context of the personality-oriented approach to sports-psychological counseling are specified. the influence of professional deformations on the structure of the athlete’s personality is emphasized and consultative technologies of their weakening are offered. at the methodological and applied level it is proved that in the sports-psychological counseling the problem of development of the athlete’s personality is inextricably linked with his / her individual sports style. recommendations on technologies for the development of the client’s confidence on the principles of trust and partnership in the process of counseling work with the conveyance have been developed, taking into account the individual approach, the presence of personal deformities in the client-athlete. keywords: sports; psychodiagnostics; psychocorrection; achievements; client; personal resource; positive changes; sports career; sports competitions; sports team; psychological support. how to cite: tomich, l., levchenko, a., girchenko, o., sikorska, l., nazarov, o., & perelygina, l. (2023). psychological counseling as a means of developing the athlete’s personality. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 647-661. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/439 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/439 mailto:liliya_tomich@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9038-9077 mailto:andrusha.levchenko@gmail.com mailto:bogoslavska28@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3908-3010 mailto:lilukubik@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5272-5984 mailto:nazarovoleg312@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6205-9604 mailto:linaperelygina@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2594-6321 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/439 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 648 introduction psychological support of athletes, in particular psychological counseling is focused on expanding professionally significant personal potential, extending sports longevity in conditions of fierce competition. a high social status and prestige as the result are associated with personal and professional potential as a psychological means of overcoming enormous physical and mental stress and crisis periods in the life of any athlete, which can often be accompanied by neurotic states, emotional and personal disorders, internal and interpersonal conflicts. therefore, the study of sports psychological counseling as a means of developing the athlete’s personality is the most pressing issue in contemporary sports psychology. the purpose of our article is to study the problem of the impact of psychological counseling on the personal development of the athlete. the novelty and practical significance of the article lies in the implementation of theoretical and methodological analysis of the features of sports psychological counseling, taking into account the professional requirements for the personality of the athlete; development of technologies of psychological counseling for the purpose of personal development of athletes; recommendations on technologies for the development of confidence in the client have been developed on the principles of trust and partnership in the process of counseling work with the conveyance, taking into account the individual approach, the presence of personal deformities in the client-athlete. theoretical and methodological foundations of the psychological counseling support of the athlete’s personality development process sports psychological counseling is one of the forms of work on the psychological support for the training of specialists in the field of sports. the main tasks of the sports psychological counseling on personal development are: activation of self-sufficiency and responsibility of athletes to achieve their goals in solving personal and professional problems; formation of personal qualities (at the level of professional competence) that contribute to satisfaction of significant needs for critical sports situations, without the inclusion of rigid mechanisms of psychological protection that can deform the manifestation of positive personal characteristics; formation of personal qualities related to teamwork, building optimal, especially business and interpersonal relationships in the system “coach – athlete – athlete”; formation of psychological readiness (as a set of personal psychological counseling as a means of developing the athlete’s personality liliya tomich, et al. 649 dispositions) for sports competitions with leadership positions regarding the process and results of victory; optimization of personality-motivational regulators (especially motivation for success and professional motivation) as a factor of the effective psychological self-regulation in sports (demchenko el al., 2021; palamarchuk et al., 2020; sarancha et al., 2022). thus, the psychological support of sports performance and a professional adaptation in specific sporting situations is influenced by many factors of psychological self-regulation of the athlete, important among them are: personal qualities (self-confidence, self-sufficiency, determination, courage, strength of will to achieve goals, etc.); specialized cognitive processes (included in achieving the goals in a particular sport); motivational features of achievements in sports activities (dominant behavioral strategies in sports activities, the ratio of significant motives and needs, values and level of claims, etc.); properties of the nervous system and the temperament. the least studied is the identification of the personal factor of success in sports activities – one of the most important, in our opinion, which “starts” the motivational process of formation and development of the personality of a highly qualified athlete. according to klymenko (2006), a personality is the epicenter of any activity, creativity. in the process of its harmonious development, the physical culture and sports are of great importance, ensuring physical perfection, promoting spiritual development and formation of better character traits. psychological support of personal and professional development of athletes is carried out through: improving the ability to control oneself – to one’s own self in stressful situations; development of self-realization; optimization of mental regulation of movements, actions, deeds and behavior – bodily skills; determination of mental state and direction of development to the top of human capabilities – self-regulation; strengthening the state of public loneliness is created by the ability to listen to oneself, understand and regulate one’s actions, act on their own behalf and form judgments about their appropriateness and at the same time be independent of circumstances maintaining one’s self-sufficiency; use of psychomotor tests that promote self-control and adjustment of the selffulfillment. the athlete’s personality can be properly understood only in interaction with the team, taking into account the system of stable mental interpersonal relationships and values, which he / she focuses on and which are the meaning and content of joint activities (klymenko, 2006). for the purposes of our research we are interested in the works related to professional growth and career counseling (gledding, 2002) and methodological principles of individual counseling (aleshina, 2004), broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 650 psychological support in the system of training and development of athletes and sports teams (hryn, 2014), activity approach to the essence and subject of sports psychology and the art of mental regulation of athlete behavior (klymenko, 2006), basic principles of meta-technology of sports psychological counseling (arpenteva, 2019), comparative analysis of personal characteristics of high-class athletes (aprosimov et al., 2018), models of sports psychology from improving performance to personal development and psychological well-being of athletes (hong & rao, 2020). foreign researchers also considered the problems in our study: the possibility of personal development in the process of psychological counseling (bager-charleson, 2012; donati, 2002), in particular merry & haugh (2020) in their work examined in detail the impact of personalitycentered counseling on personal development of the client, in particular personality-oriented values, personal qualities, conscious attitude of the client’s personality to oneself, others and the world. personality-oriented approach to sports psychological counseling on the issue of actualization of the personal development of athletes covers the task of forming their psychological readiness to achieve successful results in sports, the key features and components of which are personal and professional characteristics, including subjectivity, focus, self-sufficiency, endurance, initiative, attentiveness, self-confidence, adequate professional self-esteem with the position “my today’s sports results are better than yesterday’s”. such personal qualities, in our opinion, can be considered a personal criterion for the formation of the psychological readiness of the athlete for professional activities, including sports competitions, besides, taking into account his / her unique personality. professional sports counseling should not focus on the dominant analysis of the psychological characterological portrait of the athlete, rather than his / her actions as an active component of self-regulation of behavior in sports. it is desirable to consider their relationship. in addition, the professional competence of a counseling psychologist cannot be reduced to “labeling” due to the personal level of the client, thus maintaining the motivational potential for both successes and failures. such counseling strategies are appropriate in counseling athletes with disabilities. martin (1999) built a model of personal development of athletes with disabilities in the context of sports psychology. sports psychologists can play an important role in helping athletes with disabilities to achieve personal excellence in sports and life, increased confidence and adequate self-esteem. sports psycho-counseling is one of the main areas of psychological assistance and support of the athlete’s personality – it is a specific type of psychological counseling as a means of developing the athlete’s personality liliya tomich, et al. 651 practical work of a sports psychologist, characterized by special formal and substantive features. counseling activities in the system of psychological support and support of athletes in their tasks is close to educational and preventive work and the ultimate goal is to create favorable conditions for full personal development, communication, life in general (hryn, 2014). psychological counseling in the framework of sports and health work focuses on the problems of human relationships with themselves and the world through the prism of his / her sports and health activities, it will consider these relationships as a source of problems and as a way to overcome them. sports and psychological counseling appears as a complex, polymorphic phenomenon associated with different groups of clients in sports and health work in solving problems of their relationship with themselves and the world: intrapersonal, interpersonal, as well as intragroup and intergroup functioning, development and recovery (habilitation and rehabilitation). arpenteva draws on the principles of counseling highlighted in rogers’ client-centered psychological approach, in three main aspects of the dimensions of counseling interaction: power, competence, love – transformative, dialogical and relative (as attitude) intentions; as well as in relation to the life of a sports psychologist-consultant in general (arpenteva, 2019). psychological counseling with an athlete in the conditions of information and time deficit is most often described by the following algorithm: establishment of a contact with the athlete by creating a psychological climate corresponding to the communication situation; figuring out the true actual problem of the athlete, his / her positioning in it, its joint clear formulation; determining the goal of the athlete, his / her ability to achieve it, discussion of positive ways of action, which will lead to the desired result; development of alternative behavioral and action options; summarizing the results of interaction with an athlete, motivating him / her to implement in life an adopted decision by the psychologist. in the advisory practice it is expedient to adhere to the following general principles: voluntariness, benevolent and unbiased attitude, confidentiality, professional motivation as protection of the interests of the athlete, abstaining of a psychologist from advising and recipes (hryn, 2014). all types of psychological assistance to athletes are put in practice only at the level of an individual approach. as the athlete gains sports and personal maturity, external assistance is replaced by a self-care of the athlete. gradually, the athlete becomes a competent “client” of psychological assistance, determining independently one’s needs. at the level of sports of the highest achievements, the leading form of psychological assistance broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 652 becomes the individual counseling. coaching is a special form of counseling, based on a contemporary approach to human development and its personal growth. methods used in it reveal the potential of the athlete and develop his / her abilities. a special value of coaching for sports is that it provides an increase in the personal effectiveness of the athlete. coaching gives excellent results in situations where there are no standard ready-made decisions, where a lot depends on the athlete. at the stage of preparation for the sport of highest achievements this is the most effective form of work, because the athlete is the most active in finding solutions to problems and, consequently, the results are faster and naturally implemented in practice. the expected results of psychological support of the athlete, which play the role of criteria for its effectiveness: high positive self-esteem and confidence in one’s power; awareness of the individual way in sports and the prospective plan of a career in sports; the ability to independently solve problems in sports and life; high authority among rivals, judges, specialists; the ability to independently relieve emotional stress; formation of a high level of the psychological readiness (kostromina & smirnova, 2009). professional deformations of the personal structure of the athlete even of a high qualification as a manifestation of inadequate personal characteristics, caused by the strategies of behavior typical for the specialists (“struggle above all”, “quit”, “undesirable reconciliation with the situation”) in subjectively significant for him / her sports situation and in the process of counseling can intensify the mechanisms of psychological protection, rigid instructions, low reflexivity, unpreparedness to cooperate with a counselor. in this case, in our opinion, the quality of the counseling process depends on one of its most important tasks to think with the customer a more constructive position in one’s situation, to consider more objective ways of reorientation of the client in his / her problem. the key task for a psychologist in this case is the ability to properly build a hypothesis as an attempt to understand the situation of the client in a timely manner, that is adequate to the consultative situation, articulate it to the client in such a way that it would be clear and accepted by him / her and motivate him / her to positive personality changes. the hypotheses of the counselor are based on the facts that the client tells about oneself and one’s problems and this is just the basis for their construction. for a professional well acquainted with various theoretical and practical developments in the field of counseling and psychotherapy, a client’s story is a set of behavioral patterns that are interpreted from the point of view of one or another concept. conceptual vision of what the client says, greatly facilitates the work, allows to better psychological counseling as a means of developing the athlete’s personality liliya tomich, et al. 653 interpret the material. the more ideas in a hypothesis arise in a consultant about this or other statements of the client, the more he / she is professionally equipped, the easier is work. verbally pronounced hypothesis by the counselor is an interpretation. interpretation is the cornerstone of psychotherapy, the turning point of the counseling process. obviously, in each of the theoretical approaches the ways of interpreting and vision of cause-and-effect relationships are different, but the value of interpretation in the counseling process is difficult to overestimate. interpretation is a complex technique. in order to use it correctly, a number of additional moments should be taken into account: the client’s readiness to accept an interpretation offered by the counselor; the adequacy of the moment of conversation for formulation of the interpretation. it should not be too long in the form; it should be articulated in plane words, close to the language of the client; untimely interpretation can serve as the basis of the client resistance, actualization of the mechanisms aimed at preventing changes in the life of the individual, to preserve his / her conflicts and problems; the most successful option for the development of a consulting dialogue is the situation where the interpretation, as some conclusion from a conversation, is formulated by a person who applied for help, the only thing left to the consultant is to clarify and approve it (aleshina, 2004). for the sport and for any athlete, the most important is to achieve high results. therefore, the problem of development of the personality of an athlete in the sport-psychological counseling on the methodological and applied level is inseparably interconnected with his / her individual sports style, important sports qualities. thus, lovyagina (2013) claims that the personal features of the athlete today are not sufficiently studied, there are practically no research of value orientations, self-concept, semantic sphere, etc. incomplete data on deep personal characteristics (having a specific impact on self-regulation of athletes) does not allow to fully take them into account in the practice of psychological support, thereby limiting its effectiveness. when providing psychological assistance in improving important sports qualities, it is necessary to distinguish the subject and methods of psychological influences. without understanding how it is possible to improve the manifestation of the required quality: to increase motivation, change the attitude, adjust self-esteem, etc., it is impossible to introduce psychological assistance in practice. there are connections between the properties of individuality, the nervous system, temperament and the type of sports activity. the system of self-regulation of an athlete, whose components are individual-psychological peculiarities of the individual, allows to compensate manifestations of the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 654 properties of individuality inconsistent with the requirements of a certain sport. links between multi-level properties of the individuality are formed in the form of an individual style of sports activities. the correction of stylistic parameters is often reduced to recommendations which mostly deal with the necessity to change something rather than how it can be done. it is necessary to adjust the style when it does not match the individual features of the athlete. presently, improving the style of sports activity is a difficult task for psychological assistance (lovyagina, 2013). the personality of a counselor is often a decisive factor that determines the effectiveness of counseling. consultants need such personal qualities as maturity, empathy, stress resistance, tolerance, sociability, personality maturity, aspiration for self-actualization, authenticity, unbiased attitude to another person, tolerance to uncertainty, flexibility, adoption of personal responsibility, deep relations with others, ability to set realistic goals. they should be altruists in spirit and have resistance to failures and frustration. the model of effective psychological counseling includes the following individual characteristics of the counselor and the client: empathy, interest in clients, motivation to change, reflexivity, openness, responsibility (afanasieva, 2017). in turn, loehr (1990) researched the experience of building a career in sports psychology and providing advisory services to professional tennis players, as well as factors and issues that affect the professional efficiency and competence. the importance of training and competence in all sports sciences is emphasized. the problems and difficulties that arise when building a successful career for this specialty are considered. the need for more efficient and responsible application technologies is discussed. rooney, jackson and heron (2021) consider differences in the attitude of athletes to psychological counseling of individual and team sports, which is associated with their psychological readiness to consult with a practitioner in the sports psychology. the results of the study indicate that athletes engaged in individual sports are more likely to have a positive attitude towards sports psychology compared with the athletes who compete in the team sports, though women-athletes showed more readiness to cooperate with the sports psychologists to increase productivity than their male colleagues. in some way the results can help sports psychologists understand and solve the problems of athletes, as well as improve the susceptibility of sports psychology. western researchers also empirically investigated the problem of attitude towards psychological advisory among athletes in the context of understanding the role of culture and personality. an analysis of multiple psychological counseling as a means of developing the athlete’s personality liliya tomich, et al. 655 linear regression showed that a lower openness and integrity involve greater stigma for advice on sports psychology; higher neuroticism, integrity and openness predict greater confidence in the consultation on sports psychology; and the lower openness provided for a greater advantage of cooperation with a consultant on sports psychology of the same race or culture. these conclusions may prove to be valuable for practitioners of the applied sports psychology and are intended to help them better understand the athletes and the athletic population they offer their services to (ong & harwood, 2018). in turn, martin, lavallee, kellmann, page (2004) studied the attitude towards psychological counseling of athletes living in the united states, great britain and germany. researchers empirically confirmed that the attitude to sports psychology can be influenced by gender, nationality and the type of sport. practicing sports psychologists should be sensitive to how personal characteristics and past experience affect the expectations and attitude of athletes to counseling on sports psychology to improve the services they offer. contemporary technologies of psychological counseling for the purpose of personal development of the athlete the basis for introduction of methods of contemporary sportspsychological counseling in line with the major psychological approaches are: the humanistic approach (personality-centered counseling, gestalt counseling, transactional analysis, reality therapy (counseling for realism); psychoanalysis; cognitive-behavioral approach. the influence on the development of an athlete’s personality is carried out under the influence of both individual and group counseling. the lack of personal resources to solve a psychological problem of the athlete involves the psycho-correction work in the psychological advisory process. arpenteva (2019) assures that within the framework of sports and health work a great role belongs to the psychological support of athletes. this role is not yet well appreciated, however, the problems of its technologies and, especially, meta technologies, i.e., the basic principles and guidelines are very acute, it is a technology that allows to integrate and develop technologies of personality development and the relationships that exist in the context of various psychotherapeutic schools and models of human and social development. obviously, neither health, physical, moral, psychological, social, nor the achievements themselves in sports cannot be purposeful and central for the psychotherapeutic work. the central broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 656 meanings are the development of an individual as such, his / her improvement as an individual and social subject of life activity. cooper and dryden, (2016) considered the methodological principles of implementing contemporary methods of pluralistic counseling, which can directly affect the personal growth of the client and the counselor in their interaction: there is no single correct way to conceptualize the clients’ problems; counselors should recognize and appreciate the diversity and uniqueness of clients; the clients should be fully involved at every stage of the counseling process; the clients should be understood in terms of their strengths and resources and their problems; it is important that counselors are critical of their own theory and practice, be willing to look at their own investments in a particular position and have the opportunity to move away from it. in the sports psychologist’s practical activities systematization and optimization of work are of great importance. depending on the kind of sport, the athlete’s qualifications, the experience in sports, the psychologist should select the appropriate tools and approach to one’s professional activities. based on reliable data on the personal characteristics of athletes and their difficulties in psychological training, a sports psychologist has the opportunity to better plan and analyze the work. this information can also be used to monitor the effectiveness of the psychologist and assess the quantitative and qualitative indicators of his / her activities. collecting data on the personal characteristics of athletes is a necessary initial stage of activity to correct personality traits. based on the analysis of the rating of components, the personality qualities needed to achieve a high result in sport can be determined. for example, in martial arts, motivation, will, confidence, concentration, stress resistance, ability to self-analysis, self-adjustment, selfregulation are important. in cyclical sports, confidence, concentration, motivation, and the ability to comprehend one’s actions during competitions are important. such quality as the ability to work in a team is called essential neither in martial arts nor cyclical sports. this may be due to the fact that the sports covered in this work are individual and the ability to work in a team is not as crucial as in the team sports. the experience of a sports psychologist enables to suggest that one of the main tasks of psychological counseling is the interpretation of the results of psychodiagnostics, in particular the vegetative coefficient (vc) of shiposh, which allows to determine the characteristics of the current psychophysiological state of the athlete. during the test the coincidence or discrepancy of the signal value of color with the capabilities and the leading attitude of the athlete’s organism, which can be quantified in the range from psychological counseling as a means of developing the athlete’s personality liliya tomich, et al. 657 0.2 to 5 points. the value of vc more than 1 (the ergotropic response) indicates significant psychophysiological capabilities of the athlete’s organism and the focus of his / her psyche on the action, expenditure of energy; less than 1 (trophotropic response) the need for a rest, recovery, minimization of efforts. this indicator, according to many psychologists, is the litmus test that allows to detect changes in the effective current state of the athlete when this cannot be achieved by other methods. the analysis of indicators of control of sports activity of football players of different qualification, age, sports experience of different teams and its interrelation with the results of psychodiagnostics shows that the change of the vc indicator directly proportionally influences decrease in the efficiency of sports activity. it is established that with the help of psychological counseling it is possible to identify personal reasons for the decrease in the value of vc (voronova, 2013). in our opinion, the use of such diagnostic data in the process of eclectic counseling allows activating the athlete’s reflection on the awareness of individual ways to match one’s personal potential, motivation, psychophysiological capabilities of the organism and the athlete’s performance; prevention of disharmonies of the athlete’s personal development; formation and activation of personal-motivational mechanisms of regulation of sports activity, professionally-significant personal qualities. psychological counseling significantly increases the stress resistance of the individual through mastering of the self-regulation techniques and awareness of the organism’s internal reserves, which can be used in stressful situations of both professional and personal interaction. the levels of situational anxiety and aggression get optimized. the severity of asthenic symptoms reduces significantly. the emotional tone and comfort increase, primarily due to the reduction of excessive internal tension (afanasieva, 2017). as already mentioned, sports and psychological counseling has its own specifics in connection with the personal and professional deformities of athletes, mechanisms of psychological protection, personal problems of public loneliness, etc., which can “slow down” the counseling process. in addition, the effectiveness of counseling depends on the relationship between the counselor and the client, which may be psychologically incompatible and dislike each other. therefore, gledding (2002) recommends working on overcoming conveyance and counterconveyance (the projections of the past and present feelings and desires) in order to avoid circular counseling “running around in circles”. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 658 in the situation of the conveyance (projection of the client’s experiences on the consultant) the athlete (client) due to the dominant positive sport-significant personal qualities or, conversely, professionally deformed personal qualities, may perceive the counselor as a source of frustration, which, in turn, can cause the feeling of rejection, stress, overcontrol of reactions, etc., on the counselor’s part. therefore, in typical situations in the consultation process we recommend to focus on the technologies developing trust to the result of the counseling interaction in the client (the techniques of client-centered psychological approach, psychoanalysis, etc.), the techniques for overcoming verbal barriers, the effects of improving relationships which undoubtedly will ensure the effectiveness of the counseling process on the principles of trust and partnership. in sports and psychological counseling, it is necessary to diagnose the important sports qualities, properties of the nervous system, features of the individual style of the athlete and the degree of his / her compliance with the personal characteristics as a psychological integrity, taking into account the specifics of the important sports situation, and problems, gender, kind of sport, qualification of the athlete and taking an individual approach to each client. conclusion sports and sports achievements cause positive personal changes. the winner is the one who is primarily focused on personal growth, and therefore psychologically prepared for competitions, victories and sports life in general. sports psychological counseling for the purposes of personal development is aimed at forming a sports orientation of the individual; maintaining physical, psychological and social health; prevention of fatigue, emotional and professional burnout in the post-competition period and personal-professional deformities; expansion of personal resources for successful overcoming of professional crises, effective psychological selfrealization and achievement of goals in sports activities; psychological support of personal and professional fitness and sports longevity. references afanasieva, n. ye. (2017). psykholohichne konsultuvannia predstavnykiv ekstremalnykh profesii: teoriia, metodolohiia, praktyka [psychological counseling of representatives of extreme professions: theory, methodology, practice]. national university of civil defense of ukraine. psychological counseling as a means of developing the athlete’s personality liliya tomich, et al. 659 http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3232/1/monohrafyi a%20%28afanaseva%29%20s%20foto.pdf aleshina, yu. (2004). individualnoe i semeynoe psihologicheskoe konsultirovanie [individual and family psychological counseling]. klass. aprosimov, v. a, nakhodkin, v. v, prokopyev, v. e. (2018). sravnitelnyiy analiz lichnostnyih osobennostey sportsmenov vyisokogo klassa [a comparative analysis of personal characteristics of elite athlete]. obschestvo: sotsiologiya, psihologiya, pedagogika [society: sociology, psychology, pedagogy], 2, 77-82. https://doi.org/10.24158/spp.2018.2.15 arpenteva, m. r. (2019). bazovyie printsipyi-metatehnologii sportivnogo psihologicheskogo konsultirovaniya [basic principles-metatechnologies of sports psychological counseling]. zdorove cheloveka, teoriya i metodika fizicheskoy kulturyi i sporta [human health, theory and methodology of physical culture and sports], 1(12), 27-57. http://journal.asu.ru/zosh/article/view/5225 bager-charleson, s. (2012). personal development in counselling and psychotherapy. learning matters publisher. cooper, m., & dryden, w. (2016). introduction to pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy. in m. cooper & w. dryden (eds.), handbook of pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy. sage. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 donati, m. a. (2002). personal development in counselling psychology training: a critical investigation of the views and experiences of trainers and trainees. [unpublished doctoral thesis]. city university london. gledding, s. (2002). psihologicheskoe konsultirovanie [psychological counseling] (4th ed.). piter. hong, e., & rao, a. l. (2020). mental health in the athlete: modern perspectives and novel challenges for the sports medicine provider. springer international publishing. hryn, o. r. (2014). pcykholohichne zabezpechennia ta suprovid pidhotovky kvalifikovanykh sportsmeniv [psychological support and support of training of qualified athletes]. olimpiiska literatura. https://reposit.unisport.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/787878787/2044/tekst%20posob%20ps( ukr.yazыk).pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y klymenko, v. v. (2006). psykholohiia sportu [psychology of sport]. interregional academy of personnel management. https://maup.com.ua/assets/files/lib/book/p08_51.pdf http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3232/1/monohrafyia%20%28afanaseva%29%20s%20foto.pdf http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3232/1/monohrafyia%20%28afanaseva%29%20s%20foto.pdf https://doi.org/10.24158/spp.2018.2.15 http://journal.asu.ru/zosh/article/view/5225 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://reposit.uni-sport.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/787878787/2044/tekst%20posob%20ps(ukr.yazыk).pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://reposit.uni-sport.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/787878787/2044/tekst%20posob%20ps(ukr.yazыk).pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://reposit.uni-sport.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/787878787/2044/tekst%20posob%20ps(ukr.yazыk).pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://maup.com.ua/assets/files/lib/book/p08_51.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 660 kostromina, s. n., & smirnova, v. v. (2009). model psihologicheskogo soprovozhdeniya podgotovki bortsov vyisokoy kvalifikatsii [model of psychological support for the training of highly qualified wrestlers]. bulletin of st. petersburg university, 12(2), part 2, 67-77. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/model-psihologicheskogosoprovozhdeniya-podgotovki-bortsov-vysokoy-kvalifikatsii loehr, j. e. (1990). providing sport psychology consulting services to professional tennis players. the sport psychologist, 4(4), 400–408. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.4.4.400 lovyagina, a. e. (2013). teoreticheskie i prikladnyie problemyi psihologicheskogo soprovozhdeniya sportsmena [theoretical and applied problems of psychological support of an athlete]. bulletin of st. petersburg state university, 16(1), 29-39. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/teoreticheskie-i-prikladnyeproblemy-psihologicheskogo-soprovozhdeniya-sportsmena martin, j. (1999). a personal development model of sport psychology for athletes with disabilities. journal of applied sport psychology, 11(2), 181-193. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413209908404199 martin, s. b., lavallee, d., kellmann, m., page, s. j. (2004). attitudes toward sport psychology consulting of adult athletes from the united states, united kingdom, and germany. international journal of sport and exercise psychology, 2(2), 146–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197x.2004.9671738 merry, t., & haugh, s. (2020). learning and being in person-centred counselling (3rd ed.). pccs books. ong, n. c. h., & harwood, c. (2018). attitudes toward sport psychology consulting in athletes: understanding the role of culture and personality. sport, exercise, and performance psychology, 7(1), 46–59. https://doi.org/10.1037/spy0000103 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 rooney, d., jackson, r. c. & heron, n. (2021). differences in the attitudes to sport psychology consulting between individual and team sport athletes. bmc sports science, medicine and rehabilitation, 13, article 46. https://bmcsportsscimedrehabil.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13 102-021-00271-7 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., kharchenko, s., linnik, y., dovbnia, s., pavelkiv, v., maksymchuk, i., shakhina, i., saienko, v., bashtovenko, o., silaiev, v., radovenchyk, a., & zhytomyrskyi, l. (2022). the influence of parents’ https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/model-psihologicheskogo-soprovozhdeniya-podgotovki-bortsov-vysokoy-kvalifikatsii https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/model-psihologicheskogo-soprovozhdeniya-podgotovki-bortsov-vysokoy-kvalifikatsii https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/tsp/4/4/article-p400.xml https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/teoreticheskie-i-prikladnye-problemy-psihologicheskogo-soprovozhdeniya-sportsmena https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/teoreticheskie-i-prikladnye-problemy-psihologicheskogo-soprovozhdeniya-sportsmena https://doi.org/10.1080/10413209908404199 https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197x.2004.9671738 https://doi.org/10.1037/spy0000103 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://bmcsportsscimedrehabil.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13102-021-00271-7 https://bmcsportsscimedrehabil.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13102-021-00271-7 psychological counseling as a means of developing the athlete’s personality liliya tomich, et al. 661 mutual support on the socialization of children with special needs in rehabilitation centres: neuropsychological aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 362-382. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/393 voronova, v. (2013). psihologicheskoe obespechenie podgotovki sportsmenov v futbole [psychological support for the training of athletes in football]. nauka v olimpiyskom sporte [science in olympic sports], 4, 32-39. https://clffu.org.ua/storage/educationmaterials/march2019/h068y4bz4qse8smjdozz.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/393 https://clffu.org.ua/storage/education-materials/march2019/h068y4bz4qse8smjdozz.pdf https://clffu.org.ua/storage/education-materials/march2019/h068y4bz4qse8smjdozz.pdf microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 7 computational methods in medicine angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net abstract artificial intelligence requires logic. but its classical version shows too many insufficiencies. so, it is absolutely necessary to introduce more sophisticated tools, such as fuzzy logic, modal logic, non-monotonic logic, and so on [2]. among the things that ai needs to represent are categories, objects, properties, relations between objects, situations, states, time, events, causes and effects, knowledge about knowledge, and so on. the problems in ai can be classified in two general types [3, 4]: search problems and representation problem. there exist different ways to reach this objective. so, we have [3] logics, rules, frames, associative nets, scripts and so on, that are often interconnected. also, it will be very useful, in dealing with problems of uncertainty and causality, to introduce bayesian networks, and particularly, a principal tool as the essential graph. we attempt here to show the scope of application of such versatile methods, currently fundamental in medicine. keywords: graph theory, bayesian networks, computational biology, ai in medicine. 1. representation methods we can use a series of resources [4] to approach the problems in ai. between them, logic, rules, associative nets, frames, and scripts. the election between these methods must be based in the own characteristics of the problem and our expectation about the type of solution [2]. in many cases, we take at a time two o more tools, as in the case of the frame system, with participation of rules, and so on. the rules shows a great advantage on the classical logic [3]. in the classical logic, as you known, the reasoning was monotonic, with inferences without contradiction with the pre-existing, in sbr. nevertheless in the rbs, we may delete facts or affirmations of the base of facts, according the new inferences. this makes the reasoning non-monotonic, because we can modify the conclusion. then, appear a question: which we must to make with the conclusion of the affirmation now invalided? for this problem [2], we need to introduce the concept of type of dependence of a rule, which can be reversible, if we delete the affirmations, then we delete automatically the above inferred facts; or irreversible, if the facts, once inferred, it is not deleted neither changed. and in the case of some applicable rules at time, which must be executed firstly? such rules constitutes, in each step, the conflict set (obviously, a dynamic set). the subjacent decision problem is called resolution of conflicts or control of reasoning. there exist different strategies, for to elect each time a rule into the conflict set, as such ordering of rules, control of agendas, criterion of actuality and criterion of specificity. about the first and the second, the commentaries are un-necessaries: they consist in the disposition of the rules in the order as must be executed. the criterion of actuality consists in apply first the rules in whose antecedent there exists the more actual information. the motor of inference must be charged of the control of their respective moments. the criterion of specificity lead to execute, firstly, the more specific rules, that is, that with more facts in its antecedent. so, between r0: if a, then b, and r1: if a and d, then c, we must to select r1, because it is more specific than r0. we also have of mechanisms of control in rbs. for example, using refractory mechanism. so, we prevents to execute newly a rule, once utilized, if do not exist more information which allow or recommend such (in general, anomalous) case rule sets. it allows activate or neutralize block´s rules; metarules, they are rules which treat (or reasoning) about other rules; such meta-rules can collaborate in the control of reasoning, with the change or assignation of priorities to different rules, according the evolution of the circumstances. it is the more general and more integrating method, brainovations brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 8 between all the representation procedures [2, 4]. they permits introduce some different elements. for instance, by rules on frame systems. we denote such system as fs. we must distinguish between facets, as properties of the field, and devils, as procedures associated to the frame system. types of facets: defect value, it is the value which we assign to the field, when it is previously inexistent; multivalued, when more than a value is admissible; restrictions, they will be limitations on the values in the rang of the field; certainty, it gives us the credibility of the values of the field; interface facets, it allow the control of the interaction with the usuary. types of devils: devil of necessity, to give a value, before inexistent, to the field; devil of modification, when it change the value of the field; devil of deleting, if the value of the field is eliminated; devil of assignation, it will be when we add the value to the field; devil of access, when we reclaim the value of the field. they are structures of knowledge [2, 3, 4] which must organize the information relative to dynamical stereotyped situations, that is, ever or almost ever identical sequence of steps, or at least very similar. for instance, go to such cinema or such big store. the words and the subjacent ideas remember to movies. the elements of a script can be scenes, roles, objects, places, names, conditions, instruments, and results. its signification is evident according their name: for instance, the scenes must be events described sequentially, being necessary each scene for the realization of the subsequent. with results, we say the facts obtained, when we have finished the sequence described in the script. 2. searching methods we will distinguish between blind search procedures and heuristic procedures. in the first case, the oldest, it is possible to apply breadth search, and depth search. but with the trouble associated of combinatorial explosion, which appears when the so-called ramification index, or branching factor (the average cardinal of the successors of each node) increase without reasonable bounds. for this reason, it is necessary a more efficient procedure of search, by the introduction of heuristic functions, which give the estimation of the distance among the actual node and the final node. in such case, we said that will be the heuristic search. between the nets, the more actual studies to deal with bayesian nets, also called belief networks [3]. before than their apparition, the purpose was to obtain useful systems for the medical diagnosis, by classical statistical techniques, such as the bayes´s rule. a bayesian net is a pair (g, d), with g a directed, acyclic and connected graph, and d a distribution of probability (associated with the participant variables). such distribution, d, must verify the property of directional separation, according which the probability of a variable does not depends of their not descendant nodes. 3. expert systems the expert systems (ess, in acronym), also called knowledge-based systems (kbss), are the more usual type of aim (artificial intelligence in medicine) system in clinical use. they provide medical knowledge, generally about a very specific task, and are able to reason with data from individual patients to come up with adequate conclusion. there are many variations. but many times the knowledge within an expert system is represented in the form of a set of rules. there are many different types of clinical task to which expert systems can be applied: generating alerts and reminders, diagnostic assistance, therapy planning, agents for information retrieval, image recognition and interpretation, and so on. in the fields of treatment and diagnosis, we dispose of very important realizations, giving us for instance the subsequent tools: pip (1971), at mit; mycin (1976), a rule-based system, due to stanford university. it works on infectious diseases; casnet (1979), it is due to rutgers university, and it works with ophthalmologic problems; internist (1980), due to pittsburgh, on inner medicine; ai/rheum (1983), at missouri university, on rheumatology; spe (also 1983), at rutgers, to analyze the electrophoresis of proteins; tia (1984), at maryland, on the therapy of ischemic attacks, and many others. a. garrido – computational methods in medicine 9 4. graphs and networks now, we may analyze the mathematical foundations of bayesian networks, and its adequate representation, by an essential graph for each markovian equivalence class. let s and s’ two structures of bayesian networks (abridgedly bns) on v, where v will be the set of nodes of the corresponding graph, subjacent to the bn. then, according to [15], we can say that s is equivalent to s´, denoted by s χ s’, if s can represent every probability distribution which s’ represents and vice versa. an essential graph of a structure of bn, s, is a partially directed acyclic graph (pdag) such that their skeleton is the same that of s, and the essential edges (and only these) are directed. let c be a class of directed acyclic graphs (in acronym dags) markov equivalent among them. then, their essential graph would be the smallest graph greater than every dag that belongs to the class. if we denote the essential graph as g*, this is equivalent to saying g* = ∪ {g: g∈c}, where such graph union is reached by the union of the nodes and edges of g, v (g*) = ∪ v (g), and e (g*) = ∪ e (g). so, g* will be the smallest of upper bound for all graphs of the represented class. each node represents a random variable, and its edges give the relationship between them. therefore, bayesian nets represent joint probabilities [5, 6, 7]. we says that two bns are equivalent (denoted by χ), if both represent the same jpd (joint probability distribution). the following properties hold: • reflexive: b χ b, ∀ b; • symmetrical: if b χ b’⇒ b´χ b; • transitive: if b χ b’ and b’χ b’’ ⇒ b χ b’’. therefore, it is an equality relation, also called an equivalence relation [8], defined on the set of bns. on such mathematical object, it is well established a partition in equivalence classes [5], as we will see then. let s and s’ be two of such structures of bns on v. then, we say that s is equivalent to s’: s χ s’, if for each parameterization, θ, of s, there exists another parameterization, θ’, of s’, such that p (v / s, θ) = p (v / s´, θ´) hence, s can represent every probability distribution which s´ represents and vice versa. s is equivalent to s´, denoted by s χ s´ iff both structures induce the same set of conditional independencies (according the global markov property). in a dag, if we eliminate its directions to each directed edge [9], the remainder is its skeleton graph. and we call an immorality each configuration of the following type x → y ← z, where we can observe the following directed edges, x → z and z ← y, but where the nodes x and y must never be adjacent, because in such a case, the immorality remains. recall that they are also called v-structures or head-to-head patterns, according different authors. if we connect (“wedding”) the father-nodes by a line (no-directed edge), and we transform all directed edges into non-directed edges then we say that “the graph is moralized”, or that the moral graph of the initial graph has been obtained. also consider that the set of fathers of a node y will be pa (y) = {x∈v (g): there exists an edge x → y into e (g)} two models of bns are equivalent iff both have the same skeleton and the same immoralities. in dags, an edge x→y is covered, if pa (y) = pa (x) ∪ {x}. two models of bns are equivalent iff there exists a sequence of covered edge inversions, transforming one in another model. we can denote the equivalence class of s by [s]. it induces a partition into the set of bns, β, in equivalence classes, ω = β / χ = ∪ β i as classification, it must be exhaustive and mutually exclusive. each class includes all the bns markov-equivalent to a given (or equivalent between them). to obtain their representation and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 10 work efficiently with it, it suffices taking an element as representative, being denominated the essential graph of such class [5, 7]. a directed edge is said to be compelled, or essential, in a structure of bn, s, if it would always be present on each structure equivalent to s. by the verma & pearl theorem, we said that each edge intervening in one immorality will always be one of this type, “compelled”, or essential. but those are not all the essential edges: other edges can be compelled without participating into immoralities. an essential graph of a structure of bayesian network, s, is a pdag such that its skeleton is the same of s, and the essential edges (and only these) are directed. the directed edges connecting the same pair of nodes, but showing opposed directions, into two graphs belonging the same class, c, are substituted by a line. so, g* will be the lesser of the upper bounds for every graph of the class represented equivalence and inclusion, by s χ s´ iff (s ⊂ s´) ∧ (s´⊂ s) and we said that s´ is strictly included into s, if s includes s´, but s´ is not included in s. a structure of bn, s, includes another, s´, iff there exists a sequence of covered arc inversions and additions of arcs which transforms s into s´. so, a structure of bn, s, includes another, s´ iff s is able to represent any joint probability distribution that s´ can represent. 5. references [1] barr, a., and feigenbaum, e. a. (1981). the handbook of artificial intelligence, volumes 1-3. william kaufmann inc. [2] fernández galán, s., et al. (1998). problemas resueltos de inteligencia artificial aplicada. búsqueda y representación. madrid: addison-wesley. [3] garrido, a. (2004). logical foundations of artificial intelligence, fotfs v, universität bonn. [4] mira, j., et al. (1995). aspectos básicos de la inteligencia artificial. madrid: sanz y torres. [5] anderson, s. a., madigan, d. & perlman, m. d. (1997). a characterization of markov equivalence classes for acyclic digraphs. ann. statist, 25, 505-541. [6] barro, s., & marin, r. (2002). fuzzy logic in medicine. heidelberg: physica verlag. [7] garrido, a. (2009). chain graphs and directed acyclic graphs improved by equivalence classes and their essential graphs. studies in informatics and control, 18 (1), 23-29. bucharest: national institute for research and development in informatics. [8] gillispie, s. b., & perlman, m. d. (2001). enumerating markov equivalence classes of acyclic digraph models. uai 2001, 171-177. [9] harary, f., and palmer (1973). graphical enumeration. new york: academic press. 6. recommended works in the topic of this paper 1. searle, j. (1980). minds, brains and programs. the behavioral and brain sciences, 3, 417-424. 2. turing, a. (1950). computing machinery and intelligence. mind, 59, 433-60. 3. wiener, n. (1947). cybernetics. new york: mit press and john wiley. 4. dubois, d., & prade, h. (eds.) (2000). fundamentals of fuzzy sets, netherlands: kluwer publ.. 5. dubois, d., & prade, h. (1988). possibility theory. new jersey: plenum press. 6. garrido, a. (2006). special functions in artificial intelligence. opuscula mathematica, 26(3), 457-464, poland, krakow: agw publishers, krakow university. 7. pedryck, w. (1993). fuzzy control and fuzzy systems, wiley and sons co., new york. 8. wang, z. (1997). a course in fuzzy systems and control. new jersey: prentice-hall. 9. gillispie, s. b., & m. d. perlman, m. d. (2002). the size distribution for markov equivalence classes of acyclic digraph models. ai 141 (1/2), 137-155. 10. mordeson, j. n., malik, d. s., & cheng, s. c. (2000). fuzzy mathematics in medicine. heidelberg: physica verlag. 11. pólya, g. (1987). combinatorial enumeration of groups, graphs, springer verlag. a. garrido – computational methods in medicine 11 12. robinson, p. (1973). counting labeled acyclic digraphs. in f. harary (ed.), new directions in the theory of graphs (pp. 239-279). new york: academic press. 13. steinsky, b., & grabner, p. j. (2005). asymptotic behavior of the poles of a special generating function for acyclic digraphs. aequationes mathematicae, 70(3), 268-278. 14. steinsky, b. (2004). asymptotic behavior of the number of labeled essential acyclic digraphs and labeled chain graphs. graphs and combinatorics 20(3), 399-411. 15. steinsky, b. (2003). enumeration of labeled chain graphs and labeled essential directed graphs. discrete mathematics, 270(1-3), 266-277. 16. studeny, m. (1987). asymptotic behavior of empirical multi-information. kybernetika 23(2), 124-135. 17. studeny, m., & volf, m. (1999). a graphical characterization of the largest chain graphs. ijar, 20, 209-236. 18. szczepaniak, p. s., lisoba, p. j. g., & kacprzyk, j. (2000). fuzzy systems in medicine. heidelberg: physica verlag. 19. torres, a., & nieto, j. j. (2006). fuzzy logic in medicine and bioinformatics. journal of biomedicine and biotechnology, 2006, 1-7. hindawi publishers. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 450-458 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/398 submitted: october 10th, 2022 | accepted for publication: december 6th, 2022 analytical study on measures for the protection of minors during sports competitions liliana budevici puiu 1 , veaceslav manolachi 2 1 phd, associate professor, state university of physical education and sports, chisinau, republic of moldova, lilianapuiu27@gmail.com 2 dr. habil., professor, “dunarea de jos” university, galati, romania, anticamerausefs@mail.ru abstract: in general, child protection is a responsibility of everyone individually, respectively, children can have an essential role in ensuring their protection and of the other children, but the main responsibility rests with adults. thus, child protection measures must have a complex and non-discriminatory character, if we refer to the fact that in some cases disabled minors may be subject to greater risks of abuse. as practice shows, currently the main forms of work in this field are the organization of contests, posters, stands, presentations and essays, as well as classes, debates and trainings on topics related to the protection of minors during sports competitions. minors can be involved in sports activities, in order to prepare them to participate in various sports competitions on different sports events. in this context, coaches are responsible for the actions of minors during training or sports events, including the proper management of their competitive activities, in the direction of achieving sports results. transparency and openness are essential to ensure child protection during sports events, as the risks or degree of abuse, harm can be increasingly identified among employees, volunteers, children, families and even the sports community. in the codes of ethics, of professional conduct, sports entities must provide explicit requirements with reference to the protection of children during sports events (organized and carried out), as well as principles that establish the behavior expected from each participant (children and adults) and the prohibited ones. one is also important to establish in these codes, the method and the specific requirements regarding the collection of anti-doping samples from minors that must be strictly followed during the testing procedure. moreover, it is a right for minor athletes to be informed of their selection for doping control, especially in the presence of an adult, so that they can request to be accompanied by a representative of their team during the sample collection procedure. the regulation and correct application of measures for the protection of minors during sports competitions must be a national priority with the reflection of this issue in state policy documents. keywords: protection; minors; measures; specific conditions; abuse; damages. how to cite: budevici puiu, l., & manolachi, v. (2022). analytical study on measures for the protection of minors during sports competitions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 450-458. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/398 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/398 mailto:lilianapuiu27@gmail.com mailto:anticamerausefs@mail.ru https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/398 analytical study on measures for the protection of minors during sports ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 451 the main purpose of the study is to present a set of concrete and necessary measures to ensure the protection of minors, the prevention of violence, exploitation and abuse against them during competitions or sports activities. the measures identified in the analytical study are based on data accumulated in research through the use of methods in this sense, as follows: analysis of specialized literature and normative acts in the field, sociological questionnaire, interview, interpretation method, which generated a wide range of participants opinions and interested parties from the republic of moldova and romania during an extended period of time, quantified at about two years. the measures to prevent and protect minors in sports competitions can be defined and conceptualized by substantiating and relating them to a system of professional communicative and normative competences, to a base of receiving indicators ways, signs that can alert/inform adults about the existence of acts (abuse, violence, neglect) already committed or in the process of being committed against minors, and which would give them the opportunity to act accordingly. these measures can take the form of ameliorative scenarios for prevention, protection and support, the effectiveness of which is certified by: • their scientific and practical argumentation from the perspective of communicative and normative skills of teachers, coaches, sports managers, etc.; • establishing the methodological and reference framework necessary for the reception of measures at the institutional level and their application as appropriate; • the reliability of the measures approved and applied at the level of the sports organization, the ameliorative didactic and training scenarios for protection and support actions in this direction. the hypothesis of the research: it was assumed that a good knowledge of the protection, prevention and support measures for minors during sports competitions and their application in sports and training activities will improve the competence of their reception on the part of the personnel involved, thus obtaining superior results in the direction of ensuring and developing children's health, personality and self-esteem. every year, millions of children and young people around the world participate in sports, recreation and entertainment activities (ministry of education, 2013). the others may participate in sports programs in order to develop their health, personality, discover their talents and abilities, formed through programs and participation in sports competitions (manolachi, 2019). their rights are established by the un convention on the rights of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 452 the child (1989). the child protection policy in sport must guarantee their right to practice sport in effective security conditions, free from any acts of violence (physical, psychological, sexual or neglect). thus, all the main actors who ensure the organization and conduct of sports activities must possess professional skills and capabilities that will allow them to identify any action, sign or indicator of any type of violence that would endanger their life, health or safety. the scope of this policy is reflected on all those involved in sports activities, from organizers, teachers, coaches, to sports entities and their affiliates, whose basic mission must also include elements of preventing violence against children. by violence is meant the phenomenon established in the un convention as: "any form of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, abandonment or neglect, ill-treatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse". in the republic of moldova, the normative acts in force regulate this phenomenon and define it as those "forms of ill treatment applied by parents/ legal representatives/ the person in whose care the child is or by any other person, which cause actual or potential injury on his health and endanger his life, development, dignity or morality, which include the types of violence defined in art. 2 of law no. 45-xvi of march 1, 2007 regarding the prevention and combating family violence (art. 3, law no. 140 of 14.06.2013 on the special protection of children at risk and children left behind) (republic of moldova parliament, 2007). abuse of minors can be reflected in the excess, excessive or inappropriate use of a certain thing or inaction that causes harm or the risk of harm to the child, which could affect their development. the notion of "abuse" established by the world health organization (who) corresponds to the notion of "violent" in national legislation, namely that regulated by law no. 140/2013 regarding the special protection of children at risk and children left behind. during sports competitions, minors can be subjected to acts of psychological violence, through the exercise by coaches, teachers of actions in order to impose will or personal control, by causing certain states of tension or mental suffering. also, these facts can take the form of: "offenses, mocking, swearing, insulting, nicknames, blackmail, demonstrative destruction of objects, through verbal threats, neglect, involvement in personal life, intentional deprivation of access to information or other actions with similar effect" (republic of moldova parliament, 2007). during sports activities/competitions, certain cases of physical and sexual violence against minors can be identified, highlighted by acts that can cause intentional injury to the bodily integrity or health of children, through analytical study on measures for the protection of minors during sports ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 453 actions of hitting, punching, slapping, pulling hair, stabbing etc. acts of sexual violence against minors involve "any sexual violence or any illegal sexual conduct within these activities or in other interpersonal relationships, sexual harassment; any unwanted, forced sexual conduct; forcing the practice of prostitution; any illegal sexual behavior in relation to a professor, coach or any other person involved in such activities (including by caressing, kissing, taking pictures to children and by other unwanted touches with a sexual tone; other actions with a similar effect)" (republic of moldova parliament, 2007). the impact or negative consequences of such actions on the child can be highlighted in causing damage or injury directly or indirectly to the parents/guardians. guarantees and safeguards should not be seen as an end, but rather as guidelines to provide sports organizations with the necessary support to move towards actions to prevent, protect or support minors as appropriate. thus, they are in the situation of: • organize and train the human resources involved in sports activities that fall under the authority of the entity as organizers, volunteers, affiliates regarding the proper fulfillment of the responsibilities they have regarding the protection of minors during the events and competitions held; • establish and maintain a sporting, educational, training and competitive environment where children feel safe, should be encouraged to express their point of view and are listened to; • ensure and make available to minors information regarding their protection and safeguarding throughout these activities (and not only), including also the existence of responsible persons, adults ones whom they may call if necessary; • promote activities that contribute to the development in minors of the necessary skills to counteract and protect themselves from abuse or violence of any kind; • organize and carry out activities that form and develop in minors responsible attitudes for adult life, including parenting and childcare skills; • to establish effective collaborative relationships with any person involved in such actions or in daily life. at an international level, these guarantees indicate what organizations that host sporting events for children and young people must do, being reflected in declarations, the un convention on the rights of the child, relevant legislation, government recommendations, existing child protection standards, including good practices. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 454 results and interpretations sports managers are responsible for approving/implementing at the level of the sports entity a representative culture of professional ethics corresponding to the field in which they operate, as well as a series of concrete measures to prevent, protect and offer support to minors, as beneficiaries of sports services (popescu & dorgan, 2017). stimulating the development of institutional and procedural mechanisms in this direction, for assurance, control and prevention must constitute essential priorities of managers. thus, we made a series of findings at the level of sports entities in the country (sports clubs, sports schools and federations, sports high schools) in romania as well, obtaining data referring to the existence of prevention, protection and necessary support policies minors in sports competitions, respectively over 50% of those surveyed gave affirmative answers. starting from this factual situation, we can say that it is required that all organizations that propose to work with children and young people to develop and implement at an institutional level their protection policy, it would be desirable. this prerogative is necessary as it helps to create a safe and positive environment for children and reflects the fact that the organization takes seriously its responsibility to protect children. among the key issues of the development of this policy by sports institutions, we note the following: • description of the damage and establishment of its forms in the context of acts of abuse, violence and neglect of minors, participants in sports activities; • the commitment of the sports organization reflected in its concrete actions to ensure the protection of children participating in sports competitions; • materializing children's rights through their participation in sports events and making them aware through different means of communication; • stating the equality of rights for all children involved in these activities; • the policy must be signed and assumed by the management of the sports institution; • it would be desirable for all employees, volunteers, people involved in these sports activities to adhere to the provisions of the institutional policy in the field of reference. regarding the implementation of the policy for the protection of minors during sports competitions, by the entities, we can mention the fact that the majority of organizations (over 70%) have specific procedures that analytical study on measures for the protection of minors during sports ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 455 concretely establish the necessary processes in this direction, being determined the instructions to act and proceed step by step in different situations. the procedures describe the roles, responsibilities and channels of communication, including the conditions for the effective operation of the system for receiving and handling complaints or inquiries from children/parents/tutors, so as to provide adequate support to all victims of violence, abuse or neglect committed by any person, as required. also, the entities monitored and involved in the research, developed and implemented procedures, even on the already existing systems, and each adult was able to understand his role in the protection and safeguarding of minors, in relation to the systems and national legislation in force. furthermore, for protection to be effective, the procedures implemented must inspire confidence in children. in this context, we can note that the system procedures contribute to complying with the measures formulated and implemented at the institutional level and to comply with the legal framework in force regarding the issue addressed in the research. child abuse causes suffering and can be difficult to deal with, which is why sports organizations have an obligation to ensure that people who can provide advice and support are available to protect minors. we could observe that only a few sports entities employed a psychologist who could promptly act accordingly and in compliance with the situation created by some employees. however, children and young people receive advice on how to get the necessary support, as well as contacts at national and/or local level with competent child protection authorities, ngos and communities who can support them in this regard. the safety and well-being of minors must be ensured by determining concrete actions in this direction embodied in a plan approved at the institutional level (actions that can be exercised both within the organization and outside it). at the same time, we can state that most sports entities have systems to ensure work security, including the respective measures, as important parts of the system as a whole. it is important to note that minors receive useful advice to protect themselves in certain situations that could create personal harm to them and indirectly to their parents/tutors (who in turn can receive information, advice and support regarding child protection, as a participant in sports activities). another important aspect that must be monitored by sports organizations is the minimization of risks for children that may occur in the case of carrying out sports activities in less safe environments for them or in cases where they are asked to participate in activities inappropriate for their age (for example excessive preparation and compliance with unrealistic requirements). these risks can be minimized by: using protective measures, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 456 appropriate means of transport and managed by qualified personnel (experienced ones), by using accommodation units and appropriate spaces, which can ensure the conditions for participation in sports competitions and without endangering life, health, personality or self-esteem. accordingly, sports organizations must identify the risks to which minors are exposed, assess them and provide training opportunities for staff and volunteers to recognize the additional risks that some children may face due to race, gender, age, religion and disability (potop et al., 2020). rules of conduct that establish acceptable standards of behavior to minimize risks to minors encourage existing positive practices and may generate more sustainable ones. moreover, in competitions and sports events for minors, fair play, tolerance must prevail and there must be a safe, supportive and encouraging atmosphere, and the standards of conduct must set an acceptable model for all participants. in conclusion, we present the set of concrete and necessary measures to ensure the protection of minors, the prevention of violence, exploitation and abuse against them during competitions or sports activities:  creating the foundations for ensuring the protection of children during sports competitions and ensuring institutional training and preventive measures;  the development and implementation at the level of the sports entity of a policy for the protection and prevention of illegal acts that can be committed against children during sports events;  the policy should be based on certain universally valid principles and accepted by all participants in sports activities;  protective measures to be observed by all employees, volunteers and/or any person participating in such actions, as well as by persons who temporarily provide services and come into contact with children (for example drivers of transport means, canteen staff , parents, trainers, partners, donors, media representatives, etc.);  the protection policy must be approved at the institutional level and brought to the attention of all persons who fall under the scope of the provisions and regulations established in this direction;  to establish at the institutional level the general and specific responsibilities in matters related to the protection and prevention of children as participants in sports competitions;  to ensure an efficient management of human resources on the dimensions of personnel recruitment and selection, risk management, assessment of situations that may generate personal or institutional harm; analytical study on measures for the protection of minors during sports ... zhanna syrotkina et al. 457  to provide the necessary support and counseling in case of identifying unpleasant situations, resulting from acts of violence, abuse or neglect of children during sports competitions;  sports organizations have professional ethics codes that provide for such measures and sanctions as appropriate;  it would be desirable for sports entities to organize information programs, promotion and development of prevention and protection, communicative and normative skills in this direction for both teachers, coaches, children and parents/tutors;  to establish the methods for reporting cases of child abuse, including those for their effective resolution with the specialized support provided by the competent bodies in the field;  to contribute to increasing the level of awareness of human resources within the sports entity;  to evaluate the performances in the field of child protection during sports events. these measures can be completed at an institutional level, in the context of the identification of serious cases of violence or abuse against children during sports competitions and which must aim to minimize the likelihood of harm, as well as the exercise of prompt intervention actions, thus sports entities can ensure that potential problems are dealt with in an appropriate and timely manner. references manolachi, v. (2019). direction of knowledge formation in the field of power training of athletes specialized in sports wrestling. journal of physical education and sport, 19 (supplements issue 6), 333, 2218-2222. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s6333 ministry of education. (2013). order of the ministry of education no. 77/2013 regarding the organization procedure institutional and intervention of the workers of the educational institutions in the cases of child abuse, neglect, exploitation, trafficking. https://mecc.gov.md/sites/default/ popescu, v., & dorgan, v. (2017). correlative study between the fair play displayed in competitions and the athletes behaviour. educatio artis gymnasticae. studia universitates babes-bolyai, 1, 51-58. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbeag.62(1).05 potop, v., manolachi, v., & kulbaev, a. (2020). interactive learning means in higher education for physical education and sport. postmodern openings, 11(2), 113-119. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/164 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s6333 https://mecc.gov.md/sites/default/ https://doi.org/10.24193/subbeag.62(1).05 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/164 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 458 republic of moldova parliament. (2007). law of the republic of moldova no. 45 of 01-03-2007 regarding the prevention and combating of family violence. official gazette of the republic of moldova, 55-56. https://www.ilo.org/ dyn/natlex/ natlex4.detail? p_lang=en&pisn =112628&p_ republic of moldova parliament. (2013). legea nr. 140 privind protecţia specială a copiilor aflaţi în situaţie de risc şi a copiilor separaţi de părinţi [law no. 140 regarding the special protection of children at risk and children separated from their parents]. official gazette of the republic of moldova, 167-172, 534. https://www.legis.md/cautare/getresults?doc_id=110518&lang=ro united nations. (1989). convention on the rights of the child. general assembly resolution 44/25/22 november 1989. united nations. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instrumentsmechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child https://www.ilo.org/%20dyn/natlex/%20natlex4.detail?%20p_lang=en&pisn%20=112628&p_ https://www.ilo.org/%20dyn/natlex/%20natlex4.detail?%20p_lang=en&pisn%20=112628&p_ https://www.legis.md/cautare/getresults?doc_id=110518&lang=ro https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev toward the physical basis of complex systems: dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels in the electrical double layer length range ana ioanid and radu mircea ciuceanu abstract. dielectric analysis (dea) shows changes in the properties of a materials as a response to the application on it of a time dependent electric field. dielectric measurements are extremely sensitive to small changes in materials properties, that molecular relaxation, dipole changes , local motions that involve the reorientation of dipoles, and so can be observed by dea. electrical double layer (edl), consists in a shielding layer that is naturally created within the liquid near a charged surface. the thickness of the edl is given by the characteristic debye length what grows less with the ionic strength defined by half summ products of concentration with square of charge for all solvent ions (co-ions, counterions, charged molecules). the typical length scale for the debye length is on the order of 1 nm, depending on the ionic contents in the solvent; thus, the edl becomes significant for nano-capillaries that nanochannels. the electrokinetic effects in the nanochannels depend essentialy on the distribution of charged species in edl, described by the poisson-boltzmann equation those solutions require the solvent dielectric permittivity. in this work we propose a model for solvent low-frequency permittivity and a dea profile taking into account both the porous silicon electrode and aqueous solvent properties in the debye length range. keywords: dielectric analysis, nanochannels, electrical double layer, ionic strength, low-frequency permittivity 2000 mathematics subject classification: 78 xx, 78 a 25, 81u30 159 ana ioanid dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels in the electrical double layer length range 1. introduction porous silicon studies showed that the behaviour of porous silicon can be altered in between ’bio-inert’, ’bioactive’ and ’resorbable’ by varying the porosity of the silicon sample. the in-vitro study used simulated body fluid containing ion concentration similar to the human blood and tested the activities of porous silicon sample when exposed to the fluids for prolonged period of time. it was found that high porosity mesoporous layers were completely removed by the simulated body fluids within a day. in contrast, low to medium porosity microporous layers displayed more stable configurations and induced hydroxyapatite growth. subsequently it was found that hydroxyapatite growth was occurring on porous silicon areas and that silicon itself should be considered for development as a material for widespread in vivo applications [1]. porous silicon may be used a substrate for hydroxyapatite growth either by simple soaking process or laser-liquid-solid interaction process [2]. porous silicon is a redoubtable candidat for use in dynamic new field of nanofluidics. nanofluidics is defined as the study and application of fluids flow in and around nanometer seized objects with at least one characteristic dimension below 100 nm. their methods permet using single-molecule modes of molecular manipulation for complex analysis as in micro total analysis systems (tas). for exemple, the molecules can be controlled by charge in nanochannels because of their electrostatic interactions with the electrical double layer (edl), a shielding layer that is naturally created within the liquid near a charged surface. the thickness of the edl is given by the characteristic debye length what grows less with the ionic strength defined by half summ products of concentration with square of charge for all solvent ions (co-ions, counterions, charged molecules). the typical length scale for the debye length is on the order of 1 nm, depending on the ionic contents in the solvent; thus, the edl becomes significant for nano-capillaries. the edl properties depend on both electrode (pore wall) and solvent nature. the shallow layer of pores is strongly disordered, with various donor and acceptor defects; moreover, the surface of ps is passivated with hydrogenated amorphous si, oxide layer sio2 , also with mono, diand tri-hydride terminations. by chemical reactions of water with non-bonded oxygens, the porous silicon surface is saturated by polar hydroxyl groups (oh); thus, the pores are hydrophilic and adsorption effects are anticipated. a controlated removal of hydroxyl groups leads to the hydrophobicity of the pores due to absence 160 ana ioanid dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels in the electrical double layer length range of polar groups on the surface. the presence of all these defects promotes an high activity of surface by physical and chemical adsorptions of a variety of molecules from organic solvent [3]. it is found that b50 rat hippocampal cells have clear preference for adhesion to porous silicon over untreated surface [4]. the electrokinetic effects depend essentialy on the distribution of charged species in edl, described by the poisson-boltzmann equation those solutions require the solvent dielectric permittivity. in this work we propose a model for solvent low-frequency permittivity and a dea profile taking into account both the electrode and solvent properties in the debye length range. 2. edl of porous silicon-electrolyte system at interface of a semiconductor electrode with an electrolyte, an equilibrium is established through a mechanism of charge transport between the two phases, until the fermi level ²f of the semiconductor equals the redox fermi level ²f r of the electrolyte [5]. this transport is carried out by electron transfer from the conduction band (for n-semiconductor) or by hole transfer from the valence band (for p-semiconductor)) to the electrolyte. the redistribution of charges at interface results in an electric double layer with three distinct regions [6]: the space charge layer (scl) consisting in fixed charges in semiconductor, the helmholtz layer (hl) with fixed charges and the diffuse layer (dl) with free charges in electrolyte. a typical value of high charge density and fully ionized electrode surface is σs = 0.3cm −2, corresponding to one charge per ∼ 0.5nm2. the hl is a bilayer: a) first atomic layer up to inner helmohltz plane (ih) consists in specifically (nonelectric) adsorbed nonhydrated anions (ions dissoluted from semiconductor surface, that is co-ions) and nonhydrated cations (ions in solution, that is counterions) and polarized water molecules; b) second atomic layer up to outer helmholtz plane (oh) consists in nonspecifically (electric) adsorbed hydrated cations. all nonhydrated, partially hydrated, hydrated co-ions and counterions from hl are fixed charges, fig.1. the dl is defined that the region between the hl and the bulk electrolyte, where diffuse free hydrated counterions, hydrated co-ions, water molecules. this layer is characterized by a deviation of ion concentration with respect to the bulk values [7], fig.1. the spatial distribution of the electrostatic potential due to a distribution of charged atoms from dl may be described by the complet poisson-boltzmann equation [8]; ²0∇[²(~r)∇ψ(~r)] = −ρ(~r) (1) 161 ana ioanid dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels in the electrical double layer length range where ρ(~r) is the volume charge density of all ions present in the neighborhood of the solid surface, ²(~r), ²0 is the solvent, vacuum permittivity, respectively. all three variables of equation are function of position vector ~r. in the debyehückel approximation, [7], the complet poisson-boltzmann equation is: 52ψ(z) = 1 λ2d ψ(z) (2) where λd = ( e2 ∑ i n ∞ i z 2 i ²0²rkbt )−1 2 (3) is the debye length.this value corresponds to the thickness of the edl that thus depends on the ionic strength of solvent, is, defined by is = 1 2 ∑ i ciz 2 i (4) where ci, zi are the bulk solvent molar concentration and the valence of ion i, respectively, and sum refers to all mobile ions from solvent. n∞i is the bulk solvent (ψ = 0) density of the i ionic species. the edl permittivity is ²edl = ²0²r(~r) reflects the polarization properties of a complex system consisting from co-ions, counterions, molecules, solvent dipoles, so that ²edl 6= ²puresolvent. this result shows that both nature and composition of solvent adjust the thickness of the edl. on the other hand, the dielectric properties of the embedding solvent medium affect dramatically the properties of solid electrode. for exemple, in the case of an embedding medium with a large low-frequency dielectric constant, such as a polar solvent, the silicium porous red luminescence shift to green luminescence. moreover, the red-green switch depend of changing the embedding medium [3]. the surface of fresh ps is almost completely covered by hybrid species that sih, sih2, sih3, which exhibits a highly hydrophobic character in aquous electrolyte, whereas the storage in ambient air at room temperature causes natural oxidation, giving rise to a passivated surface mainly covered with silanol groups (si-oh) and showing hydrophilic properties [9]. this fact favours the introduction of the solvent within the pores. the dissolution of the ps surface occurs both in alkaline solution and simulated physiological conditions. if for some biomedical applications material dissolution may even be desirable, others require a stable interface between the pores and an aqueous environment. the edl structure 162 ana ioanid dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels in the electrical double layer length range and properties depend essentially both on the electrode (pores wall) and the solvent properties and theirs knowledge is the mainly task for each device or application. figure 1: edl structure for p-si (scl negative charged,²f < ²f r )/aqueous solvent interface. the electrostatic potential and charged atoms in solvent distributions vs the distance z from the wall. contribution of the mobile ions to low-frequency solvent permittivity thickness of the edl is small (10−1 ÷ 102nm) enough to assume that the rest (majority) of the bulk solvent is electro-neutral, but in capillaries on the order even of one micron, the edl becomes significant. the correct solutions of the poisson-boltzmann equation for electrostatic potential of edl need the knowledge of the spatial dispersion of solvent permittivity [10]. spatial dispersion is a nonlocal dispersive behaviour; this results in a constitutive tensors depending on the spatial derivates of the mean fields or, for plane electromagnetic wave, on the wave-vector ~k [10]. specifically, spatial dispersion appears 163 ana ioanid dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels in the electrical double layer length range when the higher-order terms in power series of the dimensionless parameter a λ (a is a characteristic microscopic length or the mean free path of the charge carriers, and λ is the wavelength inside the medium), are not neglected. the spatial dispersion appears in addition to the frequency dispersion, but their effects can lead to qualitatively new phenomena, such as the creation of a additional electromagnetic wave. the edl contains more ions than solvent bulk having a screening effect of the atom-atom interaction. the dielectric permittivity contribution may be approximated by ²screen(q) ∼= 1 + κ2 q2 (5) where κ = (λd) −1 is an screening length [11] and q = k√ ²(0) is the wavevector of field in the medium with the static permittivity ²(0), [12]. on the other hand, in an ac field, the permittivity is a measure of the conductivity due to the mobile ions motion, so that is active a new contribution, ²conductivity(ω) = −i σ ω²0 (6) where σ is the solvent conductivity [13]. the complex dielectric permittivity has form ²?(ω) = ² ′ (ω) − i²′′(ω), where ²′(ω) is the relative permittivity, and ² ′′ (ω) is the relative loss factor consisting in two contributions: energy losses due to the orientation of molecular dipoles and energy losses due to the conduction of mobile ionic species. the dielectric analysis technique consists in showing the frequency dependence of the relative permittivity ² ′ (ω), of the relative loss factor ² ′′ (ω) and of the dissipation factor or loss tangent defined by tan δ = ² ′′ (ω) ² ′ (ω) . it is also of interest, the nyquist diagrams ² ′′ (ω) = f (² ′ (ω))t =const. and also ² ′′ (t ) = f (² ′ (t ))ω=const.[14]. this work proposes a simple model for the permittivity of edl that a phenomenological parameter with spatial and temporal dispersion. contribution of the mobile ions to low-frequency solvent permittivity is taken into account and, consequently, the dea study is made. using the conductivity relaxation time τσ = ²0²(ω) σ , that determines the rate at which the electric field intensity,e, decays to zero, after their application on a conducting dielectric medium and before dipolar relaxations (that is, d = const.), then, the equivalent dielectric permittivity contribution due to solvent mobile ions, may be expressed 164 ana ioanid dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels in the electrical double layer length range 4²(ω, ~q) = ²(0) λ2 d λ2 + iωτσ (7) with hypothesis: i) the wavelength of the field exceeds the thickness of edl, i.e., λd λ ≤ 1; ii) the frequency range of the field is so that the period is before on least dipolar relaxation time,(this is low-frequency range), i.e., ωτσ ≤ 1; iii) the ionic conductivity depends weakly on frequency, because all the free energy barriers have the same average height. 3.results the results of the model are shown that the frequency-dependences ² ′ (log(ωτσ)) in fig.2, ² ′′(log(ωτσ)) in fig.3 and ² ′′ (² ′ )t in fig.4, where ² ′ , ² ′′ are the real and imaginary part, respectively, from (7), having the λd λ ratio as parameter. in fig.2, fig.3, fig.4 the symbols have following significance: −◦−f or λd λ = 1; − • −f or λd λ = 0.1; −4 − f or λd λ = 0.01; −∇ − f or λd λ = 0.001. figure 2: the dependencies ² ′ (log ωτσ). the values are normalized at ² ′ max the dielectric analysis follow the increase of the ionic strength (that is, decrease of the λd). both ² ′ (ω) and ² ′′ (ω) increase then λd decrease, and 165 ana ioanid dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels in the electrical double layer length range figure 3: the dependencies ² ′′ (log ωτσ). the values are normalized at ² ′′ max figure 4: nyquist diagrams ² ′′ (ωτσ) = f (² ′ (ωτσ))t 166 ana ioanid dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels in the electrical double layer length range ² ′′ max moves to low frequencies, fig.3. the conductivity relaxation occurs at lowing frequencies. the form of the ² ′′ (ω) = f (² ′ (ω)) diagrams changes from a vertical line (a), to any deformate semicircles (b, c, d) having the angle to real axe below π 2 , fig.4. this behaviour denotes that the edl is not an ideally capacitor, but also is not a disipative region, depending both on the edl thickness and the frequency range of the applied field [7]. the composition (by thickness) of the edl determines essentially the dielectric response of the interface system. compared with experimental results, the dielectric profile of this higher length scales model, can provides a more complet description of the solvent properties for a given electrode. 4.conclusions edl is a free and bonded charge region at the solid-electrolyte interface. their composition that depends both on the nature and structure of solid and solvent, make very valuable to be studied by dea. the influence of the mobile charges from edl on the low-frequency permittivity may be analyzed in the frame of temporal and spatial dielectric dispersion theory. both ² ′ (ω) and ² ′′ (ω) components of permittivity decrease then λd decrease. the proposed model coupled with dea technique provide the dielectric permittivity profile as an easy abordable way for the characterization the low-frequency properties of solvent for a given electrode surface. references [1] l.t.canham, bioactive silicon structure through nanoetching techniques, advanced materials, vol. 7, no. 12, (1995), pages 1033-7 [2] l.pramatarova, e.pecheva dimova-malinovska, r. pramatarova, u.bismayer, t.petrov n. minkovskis, porous silicon as a substrate for hydroxyapatite growth, vacuum, vol. 76, (2004), pages 135-8 [3] a.g. cullis, l.t. canham, p.d.j. calcott, the structural and luminescence properties of porous silicon, j. appl. phys., vol. 82, no. 3, (1997), page 909 [4] a.v. sapelkin, s.c.bayliss, b. unal, a. charalambou, interaction of b50 rat hippocampal cells with stain-etched porous silicon, biomaterial, vol. 27, (2005), pages 842-6 [5] a.j.bard and l.r.fanlkner, electrochemical methods: fundamentals and applications, john wiley & sons, new york, 2000 167 ana ioanid dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels in the electrical double layer length range [6] r.b. schoch and p.renaud, ion transport through nanoslits dominated by the effective surface charge, appl.phys.lett. vol.86, (2005), page 253111 [7] r.b.schoch, jongyoon han, philippe renaud, transport phenomena in nanofluidics, rev. of mod. phys., vol.80, (2008), page 839 [8] jin aun ng, taira vora, vikram krishnamurthy, shin-ho chung, estimating the dielectric constant of the channel protein and pore, eur biophys. j., (2008),vol.37, pages 213-222 [9] valeria demontis, porous silicon applications in biotechnology, tesi di dottorato, universita degli studi di cagliari, 2006 [10] v.m. agranovich, yu n gartstein, spatial dispersion and negative refraction of light, physics-uspekhi, vol.49(10), (2006), pages 1029-1044 [11] a.o.e. animalu, intermediate quantum theory of crystalline solids, prentice-hall inc., englewood cliffs, new jersey, 1977 [12] a.s.davdov, teoria corpului solid, editura stiintifica si enciclopedica, 1982 [13] mukul agrawal, optical modeling of nano-structured materials and devices, electrical engineering, stanford university, 2009 [14] lisardo nñez, s. gómez-barreiro, c.a. gracia fernández, m.r. nñez, use of the dielectric analysis to complement previous thermoanalytical studies on the system diglycidyl ether of bisphenol a/1,2 diamine cyclohexane, polymer, vol.45, (2004), pages 1167-1175. ioanid ana department of physics university of bucharest, romania address e-mail:ana ioanid@yahoo.com ciuceanu radu mircea department of electronics university politehnica of bucharest, romania adress e-mail:raduciuceanu@yahoo.com 168 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 1-15 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/350 submitted: may 6th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 the role of positive thinking in overcoming stress by a person: the neuroscientific paradigm olena bessaraba 1 , iruna melnyk 2 , volodymyr shakhov 3 , vladyslav shakhov 4 , nataliia mateiko 5 , olesia ryhel 6 1 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynsky state pedagogical university, ukraine, bessaraba25@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8846-1447 2 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynsky state pedagogical university, ukraine, iramelnyk@i.ua, https://orcid.org/00000001-5340-8358 3 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynsky state pedagogical university, ukraine, shahovu2016@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1535-2802 4 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, vshahov74@gmail.com, https://оrcіd.оrg/0000-0002-1069-9295 5 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, mnm2807@ukr.net 6 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, olesyarygel@ukr.net, https://оrcіd.оrg/0000-0002-8470-7403 abstract: the article provides a theoretical analysis of the problem of the impact of positive thinking on overcoming stress in the context of neuroscience. it is noted that coping-counteraction with stress is ruled by conscious and meaningful at the level of mental activity intellectual strategies of anti-stress actions related to individual characteristics of thinking style and personal characteristics. the style of thinking and its influence on the self-regulation of an individual in stress can largely determine the interhemispheric asymmetry of a brain and the localization of its dynamic functions. the content and functional features of positive thinking are determined. methods of development of positive thinking are considered. it is emphasized that realistic (positively and healthimproving) thinking with reasonable optimism should be developed comprehensively – in a combination of neuropsychological and sociopsychological technologies at the systemic, integration level. effective technologies of anti-stress thinking training are offered: self-help, debriefing, development of reflection, use of cognitive-behavioral, positive and rational psychotherapy techniques, psychological training, neuropsychological methods and techniques, ecological methods of optimizing health thinking. practical recommendations for „reprogrammingˮ a brain for positive thinking have been developed. keywords: stressful situations; a cognitive style of thinking; the interhemispheric asymmetry of a brain; nervous system; a brain; sanogenic thinking; reflection; optimistic and pessimistic thinking. how to cite: bessaraba, o., melnyk, i., shakhov, v., shakhov, v., mateiko, n., & ryhel, o. (2022). the role of positive thinking in overcoming stress by a person: the neuroscientific paradigm. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/350 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/350 mailto:bessaraba25@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8846-1447 mailto:iramelnyk@i.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5340-8358 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5340-8358 mailto:shahovu2016@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1535-2802 mailto:vshahov74@gmail.com https://оrcіd.оrg/0000-0002-1069-9295 mailto:mnm2807@ukr.net mailto:olesyarygel@ukr.net https://оrcіd.оrg/0000-0002-8470-7403 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/350 the role of positive thinking in overcoming stress by a person: the … olena bessaraba et al. 2 introduction modern realities of society are reflected in a human psyche in dynamic images of unstable, changing and complex word associated with life crises, social trials of stress, long-term quarantine deprivation, anxiety and fears of pandemics, which is currently the most stressful problem for many people of the planet. the criticality of the social environment is always determined by a person through the analysis and generalization of stressful information about possible threats to life and health, coping with behavior and the consequences of stressors for humans. triggering psychological mechanism as a „button” of adequate cognitive assessment of stress system „stress stimulus – a psychological resource and emotional attitudes to oneself, to events and people – to avoid or overcome stressˮ and psychological readiness to overcome stress while maintaining optimal mental processes, including the quality of the emotional sphere, is health-improving (positive) thinking, and neuropsychological-specialized in „mental selfregulationˮ coping-behavior centers of a brain. the individual style of positive optimistic thinking of an individual is closely interrelated with the system of cognitive processes, personality traits and emotional states as an integrative mechanism of neutralization of stress at the neuro-psycho-social level – with optimal functionality of brain systems and psychological adaptation to unpredicateble stress (berbets et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021; karasievych et al., 2021; kosholap et al. 2021; prots et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). the unfavorable influence of pathogenic thinking, when a person sees the negative aspects not only of current stress, but also most life events and other people, is the dominance of negative emotions, depression, avoidance of significante psychological problems resolving in life. the purpose of the article is theoretically to analyze the neuropsychological and psychological mechanisms of human thinking in overcoming stress and psychological conditions for the development of positive thinking as a factor in self-regulation of an individual in stressful situations. the novelty of the article is an attempt to conduct a neuroscientific analysis of the impact of positive thinking on overcoming stress in life, analyses personality traits and qualities associated with positive thinking, identifies the content and functional characteristics of positive thinking in overcoming stressful situations. the practical significance lies in the development of practical recommendations for training the brain to think positively and effective technologies for the development of anti-stress broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 3 thinking. the generalized theoretical and methodological analysis of the role of positive thinking in overcoming stress in the context of neuroscience can be used in the practice of medical and psychological education, and in preparation for psychological training on stress and positive thinking and psychological counseling of anxious and depressed clients with pessimistic thinking corresponding to his cognitive style, features of higher nervous activity, interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain. the theoretical analysis of the problem of the positive thinking style influence on overcoming stress in the context of neuroscience in psychology, the problem of counteraction to stress is reflected in the concept of "coping" (coping – from english "copy", which is proposed to use in the sense of "successfully cope, overcome"), and includes a set of mental processes to overcome stress states, different forms of human activity, that are regulated by psychical processes, counciouss and intellectual strategies of anti-stress actions, cognitive thinking styles and personal qualities. such mental activity is aimed at the tactics of transforming a stressful situation or changing the emotional attitude to it and maintains the emotional balance and resilience of an individual. clinical psychologists know that formation of individual thinking style with appropriate intellectual strategies and skills of a person, taking into account the interhemispheric asymmetry of a brain and localization of its dynamic functions is a neuropsychological factor in the development of psychological self-regulation in unpredictable critical situations. stresscoping behavior, features of thinking and neuropsychological and psychophysiological mechanisms of stress resistance should be considered comprehensively, at the systemic integration level, which is an understudied issue in science. neuropsychological and psychophysiological mechanisms of stress, different approaches to the concept of stress, causes, its forms, dynamics, evaluation and "cognitive-mental" stress management are discussed in detail in the work by nauholnyk (2015). neuroscientific approach to the problem of positive thinking as a factor in overcoming stress is based on the works of: chomska (2005), hranovska (1988), sirotiuk (2003) and others. technologies of the development of positive thinking are considered on the basis of the analysis of works by: kutbiddinova (2019), sirotiuk (2003), yalova (2000), yarosh (2018). the role of positive thinking in overcoming stress by a person: the … olena bessaraba et al. 4 the problem of interhemispheric asymmetry and interhemispheric interaction is one of the most pressing in science. nowadys, it is being developed by various neurosciences: neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurobiology, and others. it is also studied very productively in neuropsychology. interhemispheric asymmetry of a brain in adults is a product of biosocial mechanisms. studies concerning children have shown that basics of functional specialization of the hemispheres are innate, but as the child develops, the mechanisms of interhemispheric asymmetry and interhemispheric interaction improve and become more complex. neuropsychological study of disorders of various mental functions (memory, thinking, voluntary movements and actions, etc.) showed that an voluntary level of control of mental functions is realized mainly by the structures of the left hemisphere, and involuntary, automated – by structures of the right hemisphere (among right-handed), chomska (2005). sapolsky (2003) argues that the nervous system of an adult is not static. stress could change the plasticity of the nervous system, especially the limbic system. the author considers the impact of severe and / or prolonged stress on learning impairment and changes in hippocampaldependent plasticity; the ability of weak and transient stress to promote such plasticity; the ability of a number of stressors to increase fears and the almond-shaped plasticity that in its base. the activation of hypothalamus is the psychophysiological mechanism of stress, which plays an important role in a human body and directly related to stress. it is the highest center of the autonomic nervous system, besides: responsible for coordinating the nervous and humoral systems of a body; controls the secretion of hormones of the anterior pituitary gland, adrenocorticotropic hormone that is stimulated by the adrenal glands; forms a person's emotional reactions; regulates the intensity of nutrition, sleep and energy metabolism. it is the hypothalamus that determines nature of the first neuro-humoral reactions at the first emotional irritation arising from the contact of a person with a stressor. stress is connected with humoral and autonomic changes. on the one hand, it increases the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, and on the other one – causes the secretion of anti-stress hormones of the adrenal cortex, nauholnyk (2015). stress is a psychophysiological response of a body to the influence of the environment that goes beyond the adaptive norm. numerous studies have shown that chronic stress dramatically inhibits the development of the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 5 child's brain. during stress, the development and myelination of the neural pathways occur only in the centers of survival, while the development of nervous structures in the limbic system and neocortex is limited. the constant action of stress leads to the fact that nervous activity is concentrated mainly in the right hemisphere and brain stem, in the sympathetic nervous system. conductive organs that are controlled by a certain hemisphere can be blocked in a state of stress (an ear, an eye, an arm, and a leg). the individual lateral profile of each person determines the type of perception, thinking, stress resistance, style and success of learning. in a stressful situation, the main burden is borne by the left hemisphere, a right arm and a right eye. the left ear, which is controlled by the right hemisphere, is blocked. in a stressful situation, right-hemisphere people always prefer holistic perception, figurative thinking and unconscious actions, and left-hemisphere people prefer detailed perception, linear thinking and conscious actions, sirotiuk (2003). estimation of the localization of dynamic brain functions is associated with thought processes and actions. peculiarities of mental activity with a certain cognitive style are formed in the process of life and are leading in solving various (life, educational, professional) problems. thinking style is defined as a system of intellectual strategies, techniques, skills of the individual, which due to its individual characteristics is associated with the inter-radicular asymmetry of the brain. most right-handed people are the most socially adapted, with a pronounced extrovert feature. realistic style of thinking indicates the concretization and attitude to change, correction of results in order to achieve certain results. analytical and synthetic styles of thinking indicate the influence on deep orientation in theoretical concepts, low adaptability to situations of uncertainty, the tendency to rational, logical, orderly actions to apply theoretical knowledge in practice, arkhipova (2016). positive thinking in stress situation can be defined as the ability of an individual to psychologically support himself despite the complexity of a difficult life situation; argue the acceptance of yourself, own emotional reactions and stress; optimistic worldview, which is characterized by far from ideal world moments and characterological qualities of people around; conscious implementation of self-regulation of behavior under the influence of cognitive processes as a self-correcting individual-personal trait of thinking. functional features of such thinking are: reflexivity, awareness, purposefulness, logic, lability, generalization, controllability. psychophysiological and neuropsychological basis of positive thinking in stress are: specialization of the large hemispheres of a brain with the role of positive thinking in overcoming stress by a person: the … olena bessaraba et al. 6 interspherical asymmetry; functions of the associative cortex of the cerebral hemispheres, the functional organization of a brain and patterns of integrative activity of a brain. reynolds (2011) thinks that positive thoughts and positive thinking, in general, support brain growth, as well as the generation and strengthening of new synapses, especially in the prefrontal cortex, which is the center of integration of all brain and mind functions. positive mood, and a sense of happiness stimulate the growth of nervous connections, improves cognition by increasing mental productivity and the ability to analyze and think, increases attentiveness. happy people are more creative, solve problems faster, and tend to be more mentally alert. negative thinking slows down the coordination of a brain, which complicates the processing of thoughts and finding solutions. feelings of fear, which often occur when focusing on negative results, reduce the activity of the cerebellum, which slows down the brain's ability to process new information, which limits the ability to solve problems creatively. in addition, the fear factor affects the left temporal lobe, which affects mood, memory and control over impulses. as a rule, stressful situations contain elements of novelty, exceptionally unpredictability, absent in the experience of an individual, is already a stressor for anyone. in our opinion, in the absence of functional disorders of a brain, a practical neuropsychologist should develop and implement programs for the development of positive thinking, taking into account the involvement of both hemispheres of a brain. in this regard, hranovska (1988) argues that the thought process, which leads to new information about the relationships and connections of objects, always requires the participation of both hemispheres. the researcher suggests that this process includes several successive stages, when one or the other hemisphere dominates in turn. when the left dominates, the results of mental activity achieved before the moment can be verbalized and understood. when right one dominates, the mental process, developing immanently, cannot be realized and verbalized. and only when the left dominates again, there is a feeling of suddenness of the result, its incoherence with the states immediately preceding its receipt, the unconsciousness of neither the preparatory stages nor the intermediate operations. in such cases, it is usually believed that the solution is found intuitively; the feedback that indicates an intuitive solution is closed due to emotional feelings that arise. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 7 based on an experimental study by foreign researchers (eagleson et al., 2016), images of anxiety of highly anxious people have been replaced by various forms of positive ideas. due to the power of positive thinking, pathological anxiety was reduced by changing the mind in generalized anxiety disorder. makaremnia et al. (2021) in turn investigated the impact of a positive thinking program on hope and sleep quality in iranian patients with thalassemia. researchers have empirically confirmed the impact of positive thinking on feelings of happiness, and stress-resistance increasing. one of the principal components in the process of human response to stress is cognitive assessment of a situation, which is determined by the peculiarities of human understanding of events that happen with him/her. the overcoming of a stressful situation is impossible without cognitive "processing", which becomes available through reflection. the role of the reflection influence on a choice of coping strategy of an individual is that reflective individuals choose more adaptive and effective strategies. sanogenic reflection is a special type of systemic reflection, which includes the ability to identify and "reflect" on negative affective behavior programs, which in turn leads to physical and psychological well-being. concept "reflect" is meant the possibility of isolating in one's own consciousness own ego, emotions, and its causes. sanogenic reflection is a means of achieving sanogenic thinking. sanogenic thinking is a style of psychological response of an individual to the action of others factors. it is the presence of sanogenic reflection in an individual determines the nature of his thinking sanogenic or pathogenic. a person who thinks sanogenically is able to better assess their own resources in overcoming difficult situations, accompanied by an optimistic attitude to the future, yarosh (2018). one of the most general guidelines of consciousness are optimism and pessimism that is, the tendency to see in the phenomena of the world good or bad moments. everyone subconsciously or consciously chooses own type of attitude to life, based on some experience, examples of parents and the peculiarities of higher nervous activity. the benefit of pessimism is to force a person to prepare for an adverse course of events, and also allows to more calmly accept the blows of fate, but this is the end of its positive value. experience shows that positive thinking (finding only good sides in life) brings for a person much more benefits, significantly reducing the total amount of stress in his/her life, nauholnyk (2015). our thinking is pathogenic in a sense of inevitably generating emotional stress and conflict with oneself, with others. in order tokeep good health, it is important to block negative emotions for programing our the role of positive thinking in overcoming stress by a person: the … olena bessaraba et al. 8 behavior and as a source of prolonged emotional stress that lead to depletion of the body's defenses. but if emotions are not under control, then maintaining of human health is problematic. sanogenic thinking expands the variety of thought processes and liberates thought by offering new programs that reduce emotionality. to think sanogenically, you need to develop new habits to think correctly about a particular emotion, for example, about resentment, shame or envy. then these emotions will not be able to unambiguously program the flow of thoughts. this theory recognizes both the positive and negative functions of emotions, which are the product of human spiritual evolution. according to the traditions of modern ukrainian psychotherapy, we never divide people into good and bad. the only right way to adapt to one's emotions is to learn to take offense, to be guilty and to be ashamed, so that the experience of senses promotes personal growth and self-regulation, orlov (2006). chui and chan (2020) investigated the functions of positive thinking about stress and the impact of positive thinking on students' psychological well-being. the authors believe that positive thinking is a moderator of the link between stress and psychological well-being, and recommend that student services at universities to consider organizing seminars to teach and promote the proper use of positive thinking by students to alleviate stress and improve their psychological well-being. academic planning at high institutions may consider integrating the content of positive psychology into the curriculum and teaching. zandvakili and nikmanesh (2014) studied the impact of the positive thinking training on the correction of depression, stress and anxiety of juvenile offenders. learning about positive thinking can be useful for selfdevelopment, developing of positive relationships, increasing self-esteem, and respect for others. scheier and carver (1993) also argue that positive thinking involves maintaining positive expectations (which include the consequences of actions) about one's future. dispositional optimism is a characteristic of personality. optimism negatively correlates with indicators of depression and hopelessness; positively with self-esteem and internal control. when results seem unreachable, people waste their efforts and move away from their goals. realistic (positively health-improving) thinking with adequate optimism, of course, should be developed comprehensively in a combination of neuropsychological and socio-psychological technologies at the systemic, an integrational level. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 9 the development of positive thinking one of the effective technologies for training anti-stress thinking are: self-help in stress (use of the cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy techniques, including analysis of automatic thoughts and their relationship with emotions and mental states); a debriefing method is work with group mental trauma as a form of crisis intervention (mental activity to understand stressful events and experience related emotional reactions); the development of reflection as a component of thinking, awareness by an individual of his mental activity, the ability to focus on ones thoughts (the training of reflexive self-observation, resulting in the formation of selfregulation and positive behavioral strategies in stress); the cognitive processing of stressful information by methods of rational psychotherapy after working with negative emotions due to connection with stress (the activation of mental actions concerning determination the limits of responsibility, competence and time-territorial-personal space, conscious activation of positive thinking, separation of social role functions and personal motives ); neuropsychological methods and techniques of forming positive thinking (exercises for visualization – is reproduction of images of overcoming behavior in mind, exercises for changing thoughts – is stimulating changes in attitudes to stressful situations, deep breathing, muscle relaxation); psychological training for the development of positive thinking and stress resistance. anti-stress kinesiological set of exercises is recommended to do daily for 6-8 weeks for 15-20 minutes. after doing anti-stress exercises, the interhemispheric interaction is restored and the neuroendocrine mechanism is activated, which provides adaptation to a stressful situation and a gradual psychophysiological way out of it. sometimes it is enough to perform several exercises for emergency stress relief, for example, "frontal-acceptance (fronto-occipital) correction". purpose consists of next elements : activation of brain stem structures and interhemispheric interaction, rhythm of the right hemisphere, energization of the brain, visualization of a positive situation. instructions: place one palm on the back of the head and the other on the forehead. close your eyes and think about any negative situation. take a deep inhale pause exhale pause. imagine the situation again, but only in a positive aspect. think about and understand how you can solve the problem in front of you. after the appearance of synchronous "pulsation" between the occipital and frontal part, self-correction ends with a deep the role of positive thinking in overcoming stress by a person: the … olena bessaraba et al. 10 inhale-pause-exhale-pause. do the exercise from 30 seconds to 10 minutes before the synchronous pulsation in palms. the next exercise is "erasing stress information from memory (visualization)": close your eyes and mentally draw on a piece of paper a negative situation that needs to be forgotten. it can be a real picture, figurative association, symbol, etc. during thoughts take an eraser and begin to consistently "erase" from a sheet of paper the created negative situation, sirotiuk (2003). we call such exercises ecological methods of optimizing health thinking as one of the important psychological factors of overcoming human stress. an successful method of self-regulation to the influence of stressors is the formation of positive thinking. positive thinking evokes positive feelings and emotions: happiness, joy, self-confidence, self-satisfaction, peace, while negative thinking causes mostly negative emotions: fear, anger, jealousy, frustration, sadness. positive emotions not only affect mental health, they strengthen the immune system. exercises for the formation of positive thinking operate on the same principle as physical exercises: the formation of a new habit in our brain takes from 21 to 60 days. thus, the exercise "getting rid of negative words" with the help of affirmation is a short phrase that contains a verbal formula, which after repeating fixes the necessary image or installation in the human subconscious, helping to improve psycho-emotional state. exercise "be grateful!", we need to thank for absolutely everything in life, even for difficulties and disappointments, because ones make a person stronger, enrich his life experience. a person looks at life what he already has, but not in terms of what is missing. the essence of the exercise "it is great ..." – is a reaction to every unexpected situation, even if others do not understand, and then the brain itself will propose positive moments, kutbiddinova (2019). to increase stress resistance is real by internally playing possible of situations in imagination (the property of anticipatory reflection). people with such abilities are stress resisted in conditions of partial lack of information, lack of time and other obstacles, filippov (2003). of course, advanced analysis requires quality thinking, processing information from the standpoint of optimistic "thinker", the content of mental activity which is the optimal course of mental processes that serve at the neuropsychological, psychophysiological levels of wellbeing for health mental states their integration is combined with positive thinking, which in combination with personal qualities (self-sufficiency, responsibility, tolerance, etc.), needbroad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 11 motivational and emotional-volitional characteristics regulate behavior of an individual in subjectively significant stressful situations for everyone. short-term positive psychotherapists tend to find for resources everywhere, even in the past of a client who is experiencing feelings of injustice, resentment, persistent anger or guilt, remaining in the past and already chronic stress. belief that a tragedy of the past (as a trauma) is the cause of current problems can be fulfilled by prophecy programmed by our brains. conversely, thinking about one's past as a resource, an gained experience, could help people to achieve their goals. thus, the past should be discussed with the client not as a difficulty, but as a resource. to train a person by the theory and practice of sanogenic thinking allows you to expand awareness of emotional mental operations and acquire skills and abilities to introspect own emotions, experiences in overcoming stress. that is, sanogenic thinking can be a factor in stressful behavior of an individual. a practical tool for the development of stress resistance, which meets modern requirements, is a mobile application "sanogenic thinking". it allows you to develop sanogenic thinking skills regularly, systematically, mobile and in an accessible form. no less interesting would be the creation of training programs aimed at mastering the skills of sanogenic thinking through group work, yarosh (2018). our brain can be "programmed" to see more negativity due to parenting upbringing style, trauma, inconsistency of genetic programs with social requirements, thinking errors and even functional disorders of the brain, eventually every brain itself begins to look for threats, causing pessimistic thinking as a trigger, that makes a person victim of stress . to train your brain in the ability to see the positive aspects of human life and the world, we offer some recommendations: in difficult situations, teach the brain to analyze only the facts, not the "emotional material" of others or own inventions; do self-praise more often, remembering your positive deeds during the day and every day; compare the past results of your activities or current affairs with the present-day ones, noting their improvement and impact on self-development, and not oneself with others and even to the detriment of your "ego"; use neuropsychological exercises to activate the simultaneous work of the cerebral hemispheres through the representation of images, performing certain actions with both hands alternately, etc .; look for the positive in everything, even when you feel reluctant to perform such a task, try to analyze what experience you have had difficulties and overcome stress; try to be realistic with reasonable optimism, believe in yourself and accept life and others as they really are, without unreasonable expectations. the role of positive thinking in overcoming stress by a person: the … olena bessaraba et al. 12 waters et al. (2021) believe that positive psychology contributes to the psychological support of people in a pandemic. researchers have suggested positive psychology practices to be part of a multidisciplinary approach to strengthening psychological resources (self-development opportunities, self-empathy, skills to cope, positive emotions, strengths, etc.) during a pandemic, with hope that cultivating these results will continue after this crisis and will lead to strong positive results. motamed-jahromi et al. (2017) discussed the effectiveness of a program to teach positive thinking about the quality of nurses' working lives through smartphone applications. stress at work is part of the professional life of nurses, which causes a decrease in job satisfaction and quality of nurses. training of positive thinking through social media has improved the quality of life of nurses. research by park et al. (2016) also showed that the practice of positive psychology (eg, positive emotions, life satisfaction, optimism, life goals, social support) prospectively associated with good health. we use synonymously the concepts of positive and sanogenic thinking, although in the psychological literature they are sometimes distinguished, believing that the basis of positive thinking is features of selfawareness, self-concept and optimistic qualities, and sanogenic adequate reflection and perception of images. in common for concepts is a focus on solving psychological problems related to stressful situations in a positive and at the same time realistic context and reducing emotional tension. conclusion healing style of positive thinking is associated with mostly left hemispheric asymmetry of the brain, the dominance of optimistic thoughts, rethinking the experience of stressful situations through accepting it and personal resource, underlining the positive moments in life, reflection and conscious overcoming of emotional disorders which only strengthens a person's psychological health and is an effective way to solve a traumatic problem. in contrary, pathogenic thinking is more often associated with right hemispheric asymmetry of the brain, reasoning about images and fears, automatic emotional response to stress, lack of willpower and lack of reflection and control over behavior management in critical life situations. sucsesful technologies for training anti-stress thinking are: self-help, debriefing, development of reflection, use of cognitive-behavioral, positive and rational psychotherapy techniques, psychological training, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 13 neuropsychological methods and techniques, environmental techniques for optimizing health thinking. realistic (positively health-improving) thinking with reasonable optimism should be developed comprehensively in a combination of neuropsychological and socio-psychological technologies at the systemic, integration level. in case of dominant pessimistic thinking, the brain can be "reprogrammed" with the help of self-development technologies and the introduction of neuropsychological programs to develop positive thinking and stress-resistant personality, taking into account its psychological resource, interhemispheric asymmetry features of the brain and higher nervous activity. references arkhipova, i. v. (2016). neiropsikhologicheskiy podkhod v issledovanii osobennostei razvitiia stilei myshleniia studentov. ani: pedagogika i psikhologiia, 5(16), 225-228. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-podhod-vissledovanii-osobennostey-razvitiya-stiley-myshleniya-studentov berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 chui, r. c. f., & chan, c. k. (2020). positive thinking, school adjustment and psychological well-being among chinese college students. the open psychology journal, 13, 151-159. http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874350102013010151 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 eagleson, c., hayes, s., mathews, a., perman, g., & hirscha, c. r. (2016). the power of positive thinking: pathological worry is reduced by thought replacement in generalized anxiety disorder. behaviour research and therapy, 78, 13–18. https://doi.org/10.1016%2fj.brat.2015.12.017 filippov, m. m. (2003). psykhofiziolohiia liudyny [human psychophysiology]: a textbook. kyiv: interregional academy of personnel management. hranovska, r. m. (1988). elementy prakticheskoi psikhologii [elements of practical psychology] (2nd ed.). leningrad: publishing hiuse of leningrad university. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-podhod-v-issledovanii-osobennostey-razvitiya-stiley-myshleniya-studentov https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-podhod-v-issledovanii-osobennostey-razvitiya-stiley-myshleniya-studentov https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874350102013010151 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1016%2fj.brat.2015.12.017 the role of positive thinking in overcoming stress by a person: the … olena bessaraba et al. 14 karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 chomska, e. d. (2005). neiropsikhologiia [neuropsychology]: 4th edition. sanktpeterburg: piter. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kutbiddinova, r. a. (2019). psikhologiia stressa (vidy stressovykh sostoianiy, diagnostika, metody samoreguliatsii) [psychology of stress (types of stressful states, diagnosis, methods of self-realization)]: a training manual. yuzhnosakhalinsk: sakhalin state university. makaremnia, s., dehghan manshadi, m., & khademian, z. (2021). effects of a positive thinking program on hope and sleep quality in iranian patients with thalassemia: a randomized clinical trial. bmc psychology, 9(43). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00547-0 motamed-jahromi, m., fereidouni, z., & dehghan, a. (2017). effectiveness of positive thinking training program on nurses’ quality of work life through smartphone applications. international scholarly research notices. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/4965816 nauholnyk, l. b. (2015). psykholohiia stresu [the psychology of stress]: a textbook. lviv: lviv state university of internal affairs. orlov, y. m. (2006). ozdoravlivaiushcheie (sanogennoie) myshleniie [healing (sanogenic) thinking]. compiled by a. v. rebenok, series: behavior management, book 1, 2nd edition. slaiding. http://psychologi.net.ru/1/orlov_yu_m_ozdoravlivayuschee_sanogenno e_myshlenie.pdf park, n., peterson, c., szvarca, d., vander molen, r. j., kim, e., & collon, k (2016). positive psychology and physical health. american journal of lifestyle medicine, may-june, 10(3), 200–206. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1559827614550277 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00547-0 https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/4965816 http://psychologi.net.ru/1/orlov_yu_m_ozdoravlivayuschee_sanogennoe_myshlenie.pdf http://psychologi.net.ru/1/orlov_yu_m_ozdoravlivayuschee_sanogennoe_myshlenie.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1559827614550277 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 15 culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 reynolds, s. (2011). happy brain, happy life. psychology today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/prime-your-graycells/201108/happy-brain-happy-life sapolsky, r. (2003). stress and plasticity in the limbic system. pubmed, 28(11), 17351742. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1026021307833 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 scheier, m. f., & carver, c. (1993). on the power of positive thinking: the benefits of being optimistic. current directions in psychological science, 2(1), 26-30. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770572 sirotiuk, a l. (2003). neyropsikhologicheskoie i psikhofiziologicheskoie soprovozhdeniie obucheniia [neuropsychological and psychophysiological support of education]. moscow: «sfera». waters, l., algoe, s., dutton, j., emmons, r., fredrickson, b., & heaphy, e. (2021). positive psychology in a pandemic: buffering, bolstering, and building mental health. the journal of positive psychology, 17(3), 303-323. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2021.1871945 yarosh, n. s. (2018). sanohenne myslennia yak chynnyk stress-dolaiuchoi povedinky osobystosti [sanogenic thinking as a factor of stressful personality behavior]: ph.d. dissertation abstract; 19.00.01 – general psychology, history of psychology. kyiv. http://www.psychology-naesua.institute/files/pdf/avtoreferat_yarosh_1539596276.pdf zandvakili, m., & nikmanesh, j. (2014). the effect of positive thinking training on reduction of depression, stress and anxiety of juvenile delinquents. international journal of medical toxicology and forensic medicine, 4(2), 55-62. https://doi.org/10.22037/ijmtfm.v4i2(spring).5622 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/prime-your-gray-cells/201108/happy-brain-happy-life https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/prime-your-gray-cells/201108/happy-brain-happy-life https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1026021307833 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770572 https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2021.1871945 http://www.psychology-naes-ua.institute/files/pdf/avtoreferat_yarosh_1539596276.pdf http://www.psychology-naes-ua.institute/files/pdf/avtoreferat_yarosh_1539596276.pdf https://doi.org/10.22037/ijmtfm.v4i2(spring).5622 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 104-118 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/356 submitted: december 15th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 psychological counseling of clients in crisis situations iryna demchenko 1 , ruslan simko 2 , oleksandr hudyma 3 , nataliia levchuk 4 , oksana shportun 5 , olga samara 6 1 national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, irynadi67@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4302-7564 2 kamianets-podіlskyi national ivan ohiienko university, ukraine, 7kort@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9147-9541 3 kamianets-podіlskyi national ivan ohiienko university, ukraine, hudyma@kpnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8244-7284 4 vinnytsia mekhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, levchuknatalia@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0782-8903 5 kzvo "vinnytsia academy of continuing education”, ukraine, shportun_o@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8186-406x 6 national university "odesa law academy", ukraine, samaraolha@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2522-8127 abstract: the article expands scientific ideas about methods and techniques of dealing with crisis situations in different approaches to psychological counseling of clients who are experiencing current crisis realities in a complex social space. different psychological approaches to the problem of the impact of psychological counseling on the crisis states of clients at the integrative and systemic levels are analyzed. significant features of the approaches most often used in the practice of crisis psychological counseling –gestalt-therapeutic, cognitive-behavioral, and existential– are highlighted. based on the generalization of the theoretical and methodological foundations of crisis counseling, the important role of subject-activity, professionally competent, personality-oriented approaches is highlighted. the importance of maintaining a person’s mental health in a crisis and providing him/her with psychological assistance in counseling and therapeutic practice is emphasized. a theoretical and methodological approach to the requirements for the criteria of consulting practice effectiveness is indicated. the structurization, conditions for organization and providing crisis counseling at different stages (areas) of work is described. the use of a neuropsycho-corrective approach in the practice of crisis counseling is recommended. the significance of the integrative psychological approach to counseling mentioned by foreign and domestic researchers on the basis of a holistic vision of the relationship between the client’s psychological resources and the requirements of the crisis situation is noted. it is emphasized that the management of crisis education should be handled by the personnel services of organizations of extreme profile. keywords: crisis situations; the neuropsycho-correctional approach; traumaticbereavement; gestalt therapy; cognitive-behavioral approach; existential approach; psychological resources. how to cite: demchenko, i., sımko, r., hudyma, o., levchuk, n., shportun, o., & samara, o. (2022). psychological counseling of clients in crisis situations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 104-118. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/356 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/356 mailto:irynadi67@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4302-7564 mailto:7kort@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9147-9541 mailto:hudyma@kpnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8244-7284 mailto:levchuknatalia@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0782-8903 mailto:shportun_o@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8186-406x mailto:samaraolha@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2522-8127 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/356 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 105 introduction in the life of a contemporary individual crisis is a regular event: either unexpected or psychotraumatic, or unscathed. in today’s world, social crises are a test of an individual for stress, a vector of change in human destiny, a vital test of the ability to withstand strong physical, intellectual and emotional stress. up to now, domestic specialists of counseling centers for psychological assistance to the population provide support to victims of civil strife and migrants from the crimea and eastern regions of ukraine; carry out rehabilitation work with post-traumatic stress disorders of servicemen; carry out counseling-psychological, psycho-correctional, psychotherapeutic work with those who have psychosomatic illnesses, experience a reaction of acute grief or panic attacks, are prone to suicide or have already tried to commit it, depressed or lost their jobs due to pandemics. such crisis situations destroy the usual ways for a person to overcome critical situations and cause crises in them. the study of the impact of crisis psychological counseling on activation of internal psychological resources, individual capabilities to overcome crises by the client, is undoubtedly extremely relevant for applied psychology, the practice of crisis psychologists and psychotherapists and a significant demand of contemporaryindividual. the practical significance and novelty of the problem studied in the article lies in the expansion of scientific understanding of methods and techniques of dealing with crisis situations in different approaches to psychological counseling of clients experiencing contemporary crisis realities in a complex social space. the purpose of the article is to analyze different psychological approaches to the problem of the impact of mental counseling on the crisis conditions of clients, modern scientific approaches to the methodological foundations of the organization and carrying out consultation process with clients experiencing crisis at the integrative and systemic levels. basic psychological approaches to crisis counseling the literature on psychological counseling and psychotherapy presents various models of counseling for a client in crisis. despite the existence of stable algorithms for structuring and providing counseling, the most important in counseling interaction is the client’s consideration of his/her problem and analysis of his/her emotional response to the crisis, so the counselor determines the goals and hypotheses of counseling and selects methods of activating internal resources in the client. it is important to find psychological counseling of clients in crisis situations iryna demchenko et al. 106 out from the client not only the experience of resolving crisis situations, but also to discuss the result of the desired solution to the problem. if in the counseling process the client’s information about himself/herself is the most important, then in the work of the counselor –is the choice of the most successful counseling technologies in the correct psychological approaches (their methods and techniques) according to the information received from the client. given that each client is unique, and the crisis situation in the contemporary social space can be in many respects truly unique, despite the variety of counseling psychological approaches, there should be an integrative work to include in the counseling technologies individually selected for the client. counselling technologies of helpinga contemporary individual in overcoming unpredictable crises situations that occur frequently in today’s social space of pandemics, wars and catastrophes, offer psychological approaches to normalize the mental state, expand the arsenal of constructive strategies for psychological well-being and experience of adaptation to crisis conditions. cognitive-behavioral counseling is the leading direction in providing psychological assistance to a person who finds himself/herself in a life (social) crisis and is excessively worried about his/her inquietude, experiencing fear and insecurity. counseling within gestalt psychology orients the client to comprehend gestalts and develop in oneself the correct gestalts, i.e., the correct perception of oneself, surrounding people, situations, human relationships, etc. their formation and completion depends on the individual’s ability to clearly define their needs, the ability to come into contact with the environment in order to meet these needs. the problem of a person with a broken contact boundary is that he/she appears in a situation of incomplete gestalts (unfinished, unresolved problems). the task of the counselor within gestalt therapy is to help the client take responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, behavior and stay in the present without being distracted by the future or past. at the same time, gestalt therapy underestimates the cognitive aspects of the client’s personality, focusing only on current experiences. the approach to counseling in existential psychology involves addressing the following basic problems of the client in relation to existential conflicts: between awareness of their own freedom and the need to be responsible for their lives, between the need to have meaning in life and realizing indifference of the outside world, between the awareness of global broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 107 loneliness and a desire to be a part of something greater in one’s life, between the awareness of the inevitability of death and the desire to prolong life. such conflicts can cause fears, anxieties or increased nervousness in everyone from time to time. however, a person needs psychological support when a crisis situation exacerbates existential conflicts and neurotizes the psychological development of an individual. in any psychological approach to counseling, its basis is a counsellor’s dialogue with the client, i.e.,a communicative interaction. kellogg (2018) in the psychotherapeutic model of dialogue considers an integrative approach that covers cognitive, behavioral, existential, psychodynamic aspects. external dialogues help the client to get through grief and loss, heal injuries. internal dialogues, in turn, focus on resolving internal conflicts, combating the negative consequences of internal criticism, and the experience of self-suggestion. kolmannskog (2018) assures that in gestalt therapy through dialogue, clients can test themselves more, learn about others and the world around. crisis situations in society lead to deterioration of human mental health, which requires crisis intervention with a focus on achieving realistic goals (smith, 2006). as a result of any crisis situation, a person may develop a crisis state a mental (psychological) state of a person who suddenly faced a subjectively significant trauma (due to unpredictable changes in life, intrapersonal picture of the world) or which is at risk of a traumatic situation a state disorganization of the individual, which may be due to both internal factors and a particular situation. significant characteristics of the crisis are its duration and intensity. crisis states are characterized by the following experiences: despair, fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, frustration, depressed mood, etc.; ideas: narrowing of consciousness, search for culprits, escape from reality; loss of meaning in life. a personality becomes disorganized, anxiety, depression, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness increase; the emergence of negative or positive changes that lead to degradation or development of a personality who has faced a crisis situation (kisarchuk et al., 2015). clients with borderline personality disorders are prone to experiencing acute crises and need highly specialized counseling. therefore, gonzalez-torres (2018) offers psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic methods for clients with borderline personality disorders, under the influence of which clients improve their mental abilities, understanding of themselves and others, integrate identity, increase self-regulation. psychological counseling of clients in crisis situations iryna demchenko et al. 108 crisis counseling is a specific type of psychological counseling that provides psychological support and assistance to a healthy but emotionally, intellectually and physically exhausted person in difficult, challengingcircumstances. al-sulaiman et al., (2018), in an empirical study of crisis situations in women with high anxiety and depression confirmed a positive impact of crisis counseling and psychoeducation on them. there are three principal directions of psychological counseling: problem-oriented counseling, which focuses on the analysis of the essence of internal and external causes of the problem, finding ways to solve it (family counseling); personality-oriented counseling aimed at analyzing individual, personal causes of problematic and conflict situations, ways to prevent them in the future, as well as contributes to the personal maturation of the client; decision-oriented counseling aimed at identifying resources to solve a psychological problem (short-term positive therapy, neurolinguistic programming, new solution psychotherapy, etc.) (cherezova, 2016; demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; sandu & nistor, 2020). crisis clients counseling should combine these three directions of psychological counseling as an integrative creative process given the resourcefulness of the client’s personality, the complexity of the crisis situation and factors of formation (both external and internal) and psychological features of the course of client’s crisis. the stages of counseling clients who are in crisis: listening and clarifying the situation, the client’s position, his/her life attitudes, relationships, desires, needs, fantasies, plans, etc. (the techniques of active listening and clarifying questions); identification of key experiences and the crisis problems (discussion of ways to solve crisis problems); creativity in creating and testing new ways to overcome the crisis. the main strategies of working with clients in a crisis situation are: the mood of the counsellor, rethinking the event by the client, de-reflexion (the client should not focus on oneself and find meaning outside “oneself”); paradoxical intention (to break the circular mechanisms of response patterns, depriving reinforcement for crisis situations). strategies for psychological counseling aimed at reducing the level of self-destructive behavior: to enable the clients to verbalize their condition and factual outline in full detail; reassure him/her that the counselor may be helpful and interested in continuing conversation; if the client mentions any positive actions or hopes, this point should be strengthened; provide assistance in identifying actions that the client could do instead of self-destructive ones; verbally and nonverbally confirm the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 109 understanding that self-destructive behavior demonstrates suffering of this person (afanasieva, 2017a). crisis situations can be a trigger for depressed states. a depressed client needs special attention and activity from the counselor, so the frequency of meetings can be 2-3 times a week with a gradual decrease depending on the client’s condition. in the process of counseling, it is necessary to overcome the client’s dependence and encourage him / her to play a more active role with each subsequent meeting. the counselor should be aware of the biological and psychological predispositions of some people to depressive reactions in crisis situations. in such clients, the state of depression may recur under adverse circumstances. depression, especially that caused by external causes, disappears if living conditions change (tsymbaliuk, 2005). in contemporary practice of crisis counseling cognitive-behavioral approach is used quite often. cognitive-behavioral counseling is aimed at changing a wide range of mental phenomena: deformed thinking, persistent negative mood, emotiogenicstates and inconsistent client behavior. it is important for the counselor to have a clear idea of how to interact with the client, what techniques and methods to use, what cognitive changes need to be provoked for the results of these changes in the counseling process to be effective. the client needs to understand what to expect from counseling, what he/sheshould focus on, what responsibilities to perform with a psychologist, what changes to expect in the near and in the distant future. analyzing the client’s complaints, assessing his/her mental state, the counselor identifies the most important points that need to be included in the agenda, start discussing personal problems and make them the objectives of counseling. thus, the main task of each session is to determine the model of conceptualization of client’s problems and drawing up a plan of corrective interventions (bulakh et al., 2014). subject-activity, resource, personality-oriented approaches to the study of life crises of an individual, strategies for overcoming them and the peculiarities of psychological support and counseling are carried out at the meta-analytical, creative level in the work of maksymenko et al. (2017). researchers cover theoretical, methodological and applied aspects of the study of the problem of effective functioning and development of personality in various spheres of living in crisis conditions and critical life situations. particular attention in the presented scientific work is paid to the problems of maintaining mental health and providing psychological psychological counseling of clients in crisis situations iryna demchenko et al. 110 assistance in counseling and therapeutic practice. the methodical manual prepared by scientists of the kostyuk institute of psychology, edited by kisarchuk et al., (2015), summarizes the authors’ own experience in providing psychological assistance to victims of extreme events in ukraine, which has the most significant contribution to the practical significance of our work. it covers some important theoretical aspects of experiencing crisis traumatic situations, considers the practice of providing psychological assistance to various categories of victims, describes the work of the “hotline” service. we have fully used the works of bulakh et al. (2014) and malkina-pyih (2005) to analyze psychological approaches to counseling clients in crisis situations using psychotherapeutic methods and techniques. ahmad (2018) in his work argues that counsellors should be creative and try to avoid a unified approach to crisis intervention. crisis intervention is a method used by psychologists, counsellors, social workers and assistants to solve crisis problems. crisis intervention aims to support a person with a mental health crisis and to stabilize or restore balance to normal functioning. lack of knowledge and understanding of effective ways to handle a crisis can create another crisis for clients. professionalism and ethical problem of counsellors involves taking into account the psychological culture, beliefs, values of clients. lobb (2018) emphasizes that psychological approaches, in particular gestalt therapeutical and psychoanalytic, need to be constantly updated according to clients’ requests to meet their needs and social requirements. the development of a state of crisis or personal resistance to crises as a high level of stress resistance can be explained by functioning of psiprograms as personal resources in the energy concept of the psyche and the mental. psi-programs of the human psyche is a tool for the implementation of operational and functional transformations of both external and internal mental on the basis of the existing mental, its psycho-energy, its perception, processing, transformation and transmission. psi-program is an internal mental, formed on the basis of unconscious or conscious fixed instruction with its psy-code, which activates another internal and/or external mental according to this code and directs it to implementation of the information contained in it (fixed instruction). overcoming the crisis is the formation of new psi-programs of behavior, relationships, lifeactivities, etc., at the conscious and subconscious levels of the psyche. completion of formation of new psi-programs indicates that the person has overcome the crisis. in the process of helping a person experiencing a crisis, the psychologist can broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 111 carry out formation of psi-programs, using the energy power (resource) of the unconscious, subconscious, conscious and superconscious. therefore, the psychologist should focus his activities on the formation of a person experiencing a crisis, new psy-programs of actions, behavior, activities, achieving goals, implementing ideas, overcoming obstacles, etc. to do this, he/she should form appropriate fixed (program) guidelines in the human psyche and activate them (varii, 2017). analysis of theoretical and methodological approaches to determining the effectiveness of psychological counseling allows us to conclude about the universal criteria of effectiveness, distinguished by experts regardless of their experience, belonging to the method and number of sessions: in the field of individual characteristics of the counsellor empathy, level of personal processing of problems, interest in clients; in the field of individual characteristics of the client motivation for change, reflexivity, openness, responsibility; in the field of features of interaction of the counsellor and the client trust, contact, openness, a clear contract; in the field of sustainability, duration and significance of changes in the client raising self-awareness, problems, ways to solve it, which maintains stability for life, and the optimal number of sessions/consultations (from 4 to 15). in an eclectic, humanistic approach, one of the important criteria for the effectiveness of the consultation process is tolerance of uncertainty, acceptance of personal responsibility, setting realistic goals; in psychodynamic high communication skills, professional and life experience; in the subject-activity development of self-regulation, acquisition of the ability to solve one’s own problems, gaining potential to provide psychological assistance to other people. in addition, the format of the effective counselling work should combine narrative, problem-oriented, systematic and solution-oriented approaches (afanasieva, 2017b). it is known that the trigger for a crisis is a stress response. from a physiological point of view, emotional reactions to the unpredictability of events under the influence of life crises are characterized by the inclusion in the response of many physiological systems at the psychophysiological, electrophysiological, biochemical levels. the result of experiencing chronic crises is a pathogenic effect on the central mechanisms or individual somatic or visceral functions, the central nervous system, especially the cortex of the large hemispheres. burgdorf and panksepp (2006) explained in detail the relationship between psycho-emotional stress and its discharge and systemic brain mechanisms, including parts of the limbic system, cortex and psychological counseling of clients in crisis situations iryna demchenko et al. 112 subcortical formations. mcewen (2007) describes in detail how the brain as a key organ of stress response determines physiological and behavioral responses, and maladaptive ones indicate low human stress resistance. in this regard, we see the most appropriate neuro-psycho-corrective approach in counseling activities to normalize the mental state of a client in crisis. therefore, in the theoretical and methodological basis of crisis counseling of clients in crisis, it is important for an effective consultation process to apply the subject-activity, professionally competent, personalityoriented approaches. methods and techniques of working with crisis situations in psychological counseling the purpose of crisis psychological counseling is professionally competent provision of psychological assistance to the client in crisis, in the activation of his/her personal resources, including responsibility and subjective activity in resolving the crisis situation with emotional support and partnership, resulting in a change in the client’s attitude to the crisis problems, there is creative potential appearing in its transformation, expands consciousness and increases the psychological culture of behavior in the crisis realities of the social environment. structurization, conditions of organizing and conducting crisis counseling in order to study the client’s crisis and activate internal resources to overcome the crisis should be subject to the following stages (directions of work): collecting information about the psychological problem and individual potentiality of its solutions by the client, identification of a crisis event with a reflection of the emotional response to stressors, conducting a psychodiagnostic study of the peculiarities of the crisis state manifestation and personal problem, formulating the goals of counseling in accordance with the client’s request; psychological analysis of the problem and possible ways to solve it with the client, consideration of its causes and consequences, reformulation of the problem according to the development of reflection of personal resources and division of the problem into small parts in case of insufficient information about the dominant problem,joint discussion of ways to solve the problem with development of recommendations and forecasts and hypotheses on the assumption of the causes of difficulties;actually a practical stage associated with the further search for opportunities to address the crisis and internal problems of the client, psycho-corrective impact on his/her maladaptive experiences and behavior, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 113 restoring the pre-crisis level of mental activity of the client, removing symptoms of crisis influence, awareness and rethinking by the client of the impact of crisis situations on dysfunction and imbalance in mental states, individual development of health-preserving technologies and methods of development of stress resistance in similar crisis situations; the final stage with the assessment of constructive strategies for overcoming the crisis, identifying the degree of customer satisfaction with the cooperation with the psychologist in terms of expectations and feedback. the forms and directions of crisis psycho-consultative work offered by us are generalized on the basis of domestic and foreign literature. at each of the counseling stages it is necessary to take into account the individual approach, the uniqueness of each counseling case, the specificity of the client’s crisis due to various crisis situations, including job loss or the loved one, psychosomatic or post-traumatic stress disorders; suicidal risk factors beliefs, external circumstances, as well as biographical and medical, emotional and cognitive indicators of suicide risk. in counseling clients with complex mental states (undoubtedly, they include a crisis state), a psychologist often uses psychotherapeutic methods and elements of mini-trainings. the most successful for working with crisis clients with psychosomatic disorders are the methodological developments of domestic researchers zlyvkov et al. (2016) their methodological approaches to the organization of post-stress recovery trainings are devoted to the analysis of various aspects of post-traumatic growth training with the following key topics: rethinking the individual’s own meaning of life and changing life priorities; trauma as a source of self-development; formation of a new image of the self and acceptance of one’s own physical body. closely related to the rethinking of the meaning of life is one of the most popular concepts of mindfulness in domestic psychotherapy today awareness of the present moment with its adoption. the following therapeutic programs are identified in the context of the mindfulness approach: mindfulness based stress reduction (mbsr), mindfullness based cognitive therapy (mbct), acceptance and commitment therapy (act), dialectic behavioral therapy (dbt), mode deactivation therapy (mdt), morita therapy, kacomi therapy, adaptation practices, mandfullness relaxation, model of intrafamilial systems. thus, mindfulness based stress reduction (mbsr) is a combination of mandfullnessof meditations, awareness of one’s own body and yoga, which results in: a significant reduction in anxiety, depression and aggressiveness, an increase in the ability to relax, increased vital energy, the psychological counseling of clients in crisis situations iryna demchenko et al. 114 growth of self-esteem, forming stress management skills; mindfullness based cognitive therapy (mbct). in cognitive-behavioral counseling, not only strategies of cognitive counseling are used (socratic dialogue, controlled research, the method of falling arrows, the technique of active imagination, role games, methods of rigid, soft and objective denial of irrational ideas, homework, etc.), but also techniques borrowed from other areas of counseling (behavioral, gestalt therapy, nlp, etc.). the choice of technique is determined by the specificity of a personal problem or every traumatic event of the client and the tasks set by a counsellor (bulakh et al., 2014). cognitive-behavioral counseling technologies are effective for correction of complex personal problems. thus, foreign researchers donyavi et al., (2015) consider the cognitivebehavioral model of neurotic and psychosomatic problems of individuals that may be associated with generalized anxiety disorder, obsessivecompulsive and post-traumatic stress disorder. at the same time, in practice of crisis counseling, counsellors often integrate cognitive-behavioral technologies with methods for counseling existential approach and family psychotherapy. thus, khodayarifard and fatemi (2013) describe the therapeutic intervention of spiritual practices with a combination of cognitive-behavioral and family therapy. a counsellor is always responsible for thecounseling process, but special attention needs those clients who have lost a close person. to work with the bereaved malkina-pyih (2005) offers to use gestalt-therapy methods, neurolinguistic programming, cognitive-behavioral therapy, family psychotherapy, and psychotherapy of emotional injuries with the help of eye movement –the technique of de-sensibilization and processing of traumatic experience with the help of eye movement. the eye movement technique is used successfully in the work with post-traumatic stress disorders informer combatants, victims of violence, disasters and natural phenomena, as well as in case of phobia, panic and dissociative disorders. the crisis state may have a different degree of complexity in manifestations intensity, duration, specificity of the dynamics of the development. the crisis as one of the conditions of the crisis state can expand personal resources without psychological support from outside, and may become one of the causes of mental disorders. we believe that specialists of extreme professions that are often in crisis situations and have a low level of motivation to visit a psychologist, it is desirable to periodically consult on the prevention of transition of crisis states of varying degrees in broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 115 chronic and personal, psychosomatic, depressive and neurotic disorders. management of crisis information should be dealt with in personnel services of extreme profile organizations. conclusion taking into account the specificity and complexity of crisis situations and crisis states, it is necessary in the practice of crisis counseling to carry out an integrative approach that offers clients in crisis, processing techniques of different approaches, primarily cognitive-behavioral, gestalt-psychological and neuropsychic reduction approach, existential and family psychotherapy. the integrative psychological approach to counseling is focused on the creative work of the counsellor with orientation to a holistic vision of the relationship of the client’s psychological resources and the requirements of the crisis situation, resulting in “reprogramming” of cognitive styles of thinking in persons with stressful reactions, changing emotional response to a crisis problem, appears an adaptation potential to transform a critical situation. in theoretical and methodological foundations of crisis counseling of clients who are in a crisis state, important for an effective counselling process are the use of a subject-activity, professionally competent, personoriented approaches. the choice of technologies of one or another approach to crisis psychic counseling is determined by the specificity of personal problems, psychological resources of the client, professional competence of the counsellor, counseling tasks and purposes. contemporary scientific approaches to the methodological foundations of the organization and holding of a counseling process with customers who are experiencing current crisis realities in a complex social space should be implemented on the integrative and system levels. references afanasieva, n. y. (2017a). psykholohichne konsultuvannia predstavnykiv ekstremalnykh profesii: teoriia, metodolohiia, praktyka [psychological counseling of representatives of extreme professions: theory, methodology, practice]. kharkiv: publishing house of national university of civil defense of ukraine. http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3232/1/монографи я%20%28афанасьева%29%20с%20фото.pdf http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3232/1/монография%20%28афанасьева%29%20с%20фото.pdf http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3232/1/монография%20%28афанасьева%29%20с%20фото.pdf psychological counseling of clients in crisis situations iryna demchenko et al. 116 afanasieva, n. y. (2017b). vplyv psykholohichnoho konsultuvannia naautodestruktyvnu povedinku fakhivtsiv ekstremalnoho profiliu diialnosti [the influence of psychological counseling on the self-destructive ehavior of specialists of extreme profile]. http://29yjmo6.257.cz/bitstream/123456789/5569/1/вплив%20психол огічного%20консультування.pdf ahmad, n. s. (2018). crisis intervention: issues and challenges. in conference: proceedings of the 4th asean conference on psychology, counselling, and humanities (acpch). https://doi.org/10.2991/acpch-18.2019.105 al-sulaiman, r. j., bener, a., doodson, l., bader, s. b. a., ghuloum, s., lemaux, a., bugrein, h., alassam, r., & karim, a. (2018). exploring the effectiveness of crisis counseling and psychoeducation in relation to improving mental well-being, quality of life and treatment compliance of breast cancer patients in qatar. international journal of womens health, 10, 285–298. https://doi.org/10.2147/ijwh.s161840 bulakh, i. s., kuzmenko, v. u., & pomytkin, e. o. (2014). konsultatyvna psykholohiia [counseling psychology]. vinnitsa: nilan-ltd. burgdorf, j., & pankseppa, j. (2006). the neurobiology of positive emotions. neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 30(2), 173–187 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.06.001 cherezova, i. o. (2016). psykholohiia zhyttievykh kryz osobystosti [psychology of life crises of the individual]. berdyans'k: publishing house of berdyansk state pedagogical university. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 donyavi, v., rabiei, m., nikfarjam, m., & rahnejat, a. m. (2015). develop and validate a metacognitive-cognitive-behavioral model for body dysmorphic disorder. open journal of medical psychology, 4(2), 45-52. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojmp.2015.42005 gonzalez-torres, m. a. (2018). psychodynamic psychotherapies for borderline personality disorders. current developments and challenges ahead. the british journal of psychiatry, 15(1), 12–14. https://doi.org/10.1192/bji.2017.7 kellogg, s. (2018). transformational chairwork: using psychotherapeutic dialogues in clinical practice paperback. lanham: rowman & littlefield. khodayarifard, m. & fatemi, s. (2013). combination of spirituality and cognitivebehavioral family therapy on treatment of generalized anxiety disorders. psychology, 4, 427-432. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.44060 http://29yjmo6.257.cz/bitstream/123456789/5569/1/вплив%20психологічного%20консультування.pdf http://29yjmo6.257.cz/bitstream/123456789/5569/1/вплив%20психологічного%20консультування.pdf https://doi.org/10.2991/acpch-18.2019.105 https://doi.org/10.2147/ijwh.s161840 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.06.001 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.4236/ojmp.2015.42005 https://doi.org/10.1192/bji.2017.7 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.44060 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 117 kisarchuk, z. h., omelchenko, y. m., lazos, h. p., lytvynenko, l. i., & tsarenko l. h. (2015). psykholohichna dopomoha postrazhdalym vnaslidok kryzovykh travmatychnykh podii [psychological assistance to victims of crisis traumatic events]. stavropol: logos publishing house. kolmannskog, v. (2018). the empty chair: tales from gestalt therapy. london: routledge. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of selfimprovement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lobb, m. s. (2018). dialogue experience and comprenension in psychoanalysis and gestalt psychotherapi dialogue between margherita spagnuolo lobb, donna orange and bernd bocian. siracuse: istituto di gestalt hcc italy. maksymenko, s. d., kuzikova, s. b., & zlyvkova, v. l. (2017). osobystist yak subiekt podolannia kryzovykh sytuatsii: psykholohichna teoriia i praktyka [personality as a subject of overcoming crisis situations: psychological theory and practice]. sumy: publishing house of sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s. makarenko. malkina-pyih, i. g. (2005). psihologicheskaya pomosch v krizisnyih situatsiyah [psychological help in crisis situations]. moscow: eksmo publishing house. mcewen, b. s. (2007). physiology and neurobiology of stress and adaptation: central role of the brain. physiological reviews, 87(3), 873-904. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2006 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2020). the dynamic perspective versus the cognitivebehavioral perspective in counselling. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2), 50-59. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/22 smith, h. b. (2006). providing mental health services to clients in crisis or disastersituations. compelling perspectives on counseling. alexandria: american counseling association. tsymbaliuk, i. m. (2005). psykholohichne konsultuvannia ta korektsiia. modulno-reitynhovyi kurs [psychological counseling and correction. modular rating course]. minsk: professional publishing house. varii, m. y. (2017). kryza ta yii podolannia v enerhetychnii kontseptsii psykhiky i psykhichnoho [crisis and its overcoming in the energy concept of psyche and mental]. in s. d. maksymenko, s. b. kuzikova, v. l. zlyvkova (eds.), https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2006 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/22 psychological counseling of clients in crisis situations iryna demchenko et al. 118 osobystist yak subiekt podolannia kryzovykh sytuatsii: psykholohichna teoriia i praktyka [personality as a subject of overcoming crisis situations: psychological theory and practice] (pp. 105 – 122). sumy: publishing house of sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s. makarenko. zlyvkov, v. l., lukomska, s. o., & fedan, o. v. (2016). psykhodiahnostyka osobystosti u kryzovykh zhyttievykh sytuatsiiakh [psychodiagnostics of personality in crisis life situations]. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77241343.pdf https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77241343.pdf microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 5 editorial angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net a premonitory thinker said that “i believe that at the end of the century (20th century) the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of thinking machines without expecting to be contradicted” (alan turing, in “computing machines and intelligence”, mind, 59:433-460, 1950). is this true now? not yet, but it will. in artificial intelligence, many of the problems may be considered as a.i.-complete, i.e. in order to solve one determined problem, you must previously solve them all, e.g. machine translation. so far, there is no established unifying theory, or paradigm for artificial intelligence research. and many questions still remain unanswered, such as: can intelligent behavior be described using simple principles, such as logics? should artificial intelligence simulate natural intelligence? and so on. some of the more useful tools in search and optimization, in artificial intelligence, will be reasoning; learning search, or robotics, or planning algorithms; evolutionary computation; heuristics… and many different forms of logic, such as fuzzy logic, modulating the degrees, admitting the construction of fuzzy systems (l. a. zadeh, “fuzzy sets”, information and control, 8:338-353, 1965, was its seminal paper). but there are, also, many other logics, such as default logic, non-monotonic logic, modal logics, and so on. furthermore, judea pearl proposed the use of probabilistic methods for uncertain reasoning, by introducing bayesian networks, also called belief networks. they solve problems of learning, reasoning, perception and planning. its derivation from economics, adding the von neumann and morgenstern concept of “utility”, gives place to new tools, such as the markov decision processes or game theory. the simplest artificial intelligence applications can be of two types, classifiers and controllers. from among the classifiers, we may mention the neural networks, decision trees, gaussian mixture models. there is no classifier that works best on all the problems (no-free lunch theorem). artificial intelligence has many successful applications, as in law, medical diagnosis, robot control, etc. but by also claiming to be able to recreate the capabilities of the human mind, it remains as a challenge not only for philosophy, but for almost all the modern sciences, with many open problems as, for instance: can the brain be simulated? this is the artificial brain argument, by moravec, kurzweil, and others. according to these authors, it is technologically feasible to copy the brain directly into hardware and software, and such a simulation will be essentially identical to the original. indeed a very disputable and interesting open question, at least so far. neuroscience studies the nervous system. in the past, it was considered a branch of biology, but it is currently an interdisciplinary science, involving computer science, physics, medicine, and other disciplines. recent advances have been aided by the use of computational modeling of neural networks. there are many unsolved problems in neuroscience, many of them closely interrelated with theoretical and practical advances in computer sciences, as for instance perception: how does the brain transfer sensory information into percepts? what are the rules by which perception is organized? how are the senses integrated? learning and memory: what is the difference between implicit and explicit memories? where do our memories get stored, and how are they retrieved again? language: what is the basis of semantic meaning? how is it implemented neurally? diseases: what are the causes (neural bases) of mental diseases, such as addiction, parkinson´s disease, alzheimer´s disease, ... also: is it possible to recover loss of sensory or motor function? brainews brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 6 these problems are described in the interesting book “23 problems in systems neuroscience”, by van hemmen and sejnovski (oup, 2006), with a title that recalls the famous collection of 23 problems proposed by the great mathematician david hilbert, in paris 1900, during the second international conference of mathematicians (icm). he said that “as long as a branch of science offers an abundance of problems, so long is it alive; a lack of problems foreshadows extinction or the cessation of independent development”. and in its intervention he also mentions an old french mathematician: “a mathematical theory is not to be considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can explain it to the first man whom you meet on the street”. the same text is valid if we replace “mathematical theory” by “systems neuroscience”, or “artificial intelligence”. in fact, ai is a relatively young and very clever child of mathematics. these considerations give us the underlying purpose for this new, enthusiastic, and very promising publication. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 308-319 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/369 submitted: february 12th, 2022 | accepted for publication: september 16th, 2022 development of music education in virtual and extended reality oleksii pavlenko 1 , ihor shcherbak 2 , viktoriia hura 3 , valentyn lihus 4 , iryna maidaniuk 5 , tamara skoryk 6 1 nizhyn mykola gogol state university, ukraine, pavlenkoaleksei1@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5164-6504 2 v.o. sukhomlynskyi national university of mykolaiv, ukraine, shcher.i.v@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4649-6510 3 sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s. makarenko, ukraine, gyravita@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7618-811 4 kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, ligus-valentin@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2430-0166 5 national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, mira-i@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/00000001-8096-0244 6 t.h. shevchenko national university «chernihiv colehium», ukraine, tamskorik@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-02-1442-6024 abstract: the relevance of the chosen topic of the paper is determined by the need to study the development of music education in our time in virtual and augmented reality, focused on the study of new vectors of music education in ukraine and its entry into the world educational and cultural space based on innovative technologies. the study aims to define and justify the development of music education in virtual and augmented reality, research of innovative technologies to expand the possibilities of the creative process in the art of music, and definition of methods of musical expansion reality. the paper analyzes the directions of development of music education in the works of researchers and scientists, as in the last few decades, scientists have become more interested in the virtualization of society and music education, in particular. virtual reality is becoming the object of study in philosophy and the humanities and the natural sciences, art history. the article also collects theoretical developments on the topic, specifies the tasks in the music education system in our time in virtual and augmented reality, explores the role and place of innovative technologies to expand the creative process in music, methods of expanding musical reality determined. keywords: high-tech revolution; mixed reality; multimedia technical means; entertainment; musical art. how to cite: pavlenko, o., shcherbak, i., hura, v., lihus, v., maidaniuk, i., & skoryk, t. (2022). development of music education in virtual and extended reality. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 308-319. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/369 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/369 mailto:pavlenkoaleksei1@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5164-6504 mailto:shcher.i.v@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4649-6510 mailto:gyravita@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7618-811 mailto:ligus-valentin@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2430-0166 mailto:mira-i@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8096-0244 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8096-0244 mailto:tamskorik@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-02-1442-6024 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/369 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 309 introduction in the xxi century, virtual and augmented reality technologies are among the most promising areas for implementation and practical use in various fields of culture and art. the constant search for new means of artistic expression and the desire to increase the spectacle of the imagination in the last few decades have led to a steady trend of diverse applications of multimedia technologies in music. this, in turn, led to the transformation of choreographic art and scenography, as well as the emergence of new forms of dance performances and the merging of different arts. the development of multimedia hardware has led to the formation of sophisticated multimedia devices for creating and viewing virtual reality. virtual reality technology is multimedia that includes a whole set of multimedia tools and technologies (audio, video, graphics). multimedia tools and technologies are used at all stages of creating a space of virtual reality and the implementation of musical production. special multimedia hardware (helmets or virtual reality goggles, motion parallax, 3d displays, audio or multichannel speakers, feedback devices, controllers) are also required to view the created content. virtual reality technologies have gained practical significance by actively introducing virtuality and its elements in modern artistic and aesthetic culture. the very concept of "virtual reality" in recent years has been actively used in academic literature, and in the long run, can take an essential place in the conceptual and categorical apparatus, becoming on a par with traditional concepts of culture, aesthetics and art. the author of the article notes that the scientific works of domestic and foreign researchers deserve attention in the study of the development of music education in virtual and augmented reality in the art of music: ivanova (2018), who intensely studied the technologies of virtual and augmented reality; kirnarskaya (2007), who pointed out the peculiarities of the psychology of exceptional abilities in the development of music education; nazaikinsky (1972) on the psychology of musical perception in virtual and augmented reality, kholopova (2014) the study of virtual and augmented reality in modern musical works. the author of the article is also impressed by the opinion of nosov (2015), who linked the musical term "virtual" with mental processes related development of music education in virtual and extended reality oleksii pavlenko et al. 310 to consciousness and memory and uses this category to denote the contrast between reality and relevance. during the xxi century, we are experiencing a high-tech revolution, when electronic, especially computer systems are increasingly entering our lives and each new development of information and computer systems stimulates the emergence of creative experiments and, consequently, the emergence of new synthetic and musical forms, genres, instruments, sound technologies. “augmented reality”, “virtual reality”, “mixed reality” as some of the applications of this revolution, of course, is at the forefront of scientific research and technological progress. according to the slogan on the front page of one of the largest international conferences on virtual reality (ismar), “augmented reality has a significant impact on business and all humanity today. this area is largely interdisciplinary; combining digital signal processing, computer vision, computer graphics, user interfaces, psychology, wearable electronics, mobile devices, computer networks, displays, sensors and that is just it. a small part of those areas where the strong influence of this “reality” is felt”, ivanova (2018, p. 34). the call echoes them: “join us to find out why any organization, any innovative project and every investor should plunge into augmented reality – otherwise, you will remain an outsider”, krasnoskulov (2015, p. 56). the main objectives of the paper are to study modern technologies, namely: virtual and augmented reality, which contribute to the expansion of the creative process in the art of music; research of methods and ways that contribute to the expansion of musical reality. innovative technologies to expand the possibilities of the creative process in the art of music the art of music, like any other, always seeks to use existing technology to enhance the creative process, so this perspective of general interest attracts the attention of hundreds of musicians and researchers around the world to explore the sound possibilities of augmented and virtual reality. in the last few decades, scientists have become more interested in the virtualization of society and music education, in particular. virtual reality is becoming the object of study in philosophy and the humanities and the natural sciences, art history. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 311 definitions of “virtual reality” in various studies contradict what makes this phenomenon difficult to understand scientifically. worth noting in the study of the development of music education in virtual and augmented reality in the art of music are the scientific works of domestic and foreign researchers: ivanova (2018), who intensely studied the technologies of virtual and augmented reality; kirnarskaya (2007), who pointed out the peculiarities of the psychology of exceptional abilities in the development of music education; nazaikinsky (1972) on the psychology of musical perception in virtual and augmented reality, kholopova (2014) – the study of virtual and augmented reality in modern musical works. thus, the paper's author supports the opinion of nosov (2015), who linked the musical term “virtual” with mental processes related to consciousness and memory and uses this category to denote the contrast between reality and relevance. essential for understanding are the views of scientists iqbal et al. (2017), who study virtual technologies used in the art of music (choreography), that virtual technologies offer new opportunities. based on the analysis of the work of more researchers and the legal framework, the author of this article proposes the following definition of the term "virtual reality technology in music": it is a complex technology that constructs a new artificial world with software and hardware by influencing the human senses. the set of tools for creating virtual reality can simultaneously use various multimedia tools and technologies: three-dimensional graphics, surround stereo, video and audio objects and more, teplov (2003). augmented reality is a kind of virtual environment or, commonly called, virtual reality. virtual technologies completely immerse the user in a synthetic environment, and during the "immersion", the user cannot see the natural world around him. on the contrary, augmented reality allows us to see objective reality with virtual objects superimposed or composed of existing objects. therefore, augmented reality expands completely replaces the "constant" reality. although virtual reality immerses itself in the artificial world quite deeply, augmented reality, to some extent, allows achieving this effect even more because there is a connection with the natural world the one in which we spend most of our lives, ivanova (2018). traditionally, augmented reality technologies are implemented through tracking – using a camera and smartphone software – any “marker”. development of music education in virtual and extended reality oleksii pavlenko et al. 312 such “markers” can be specially prepared images (e.g., qr codes), as well as any images, objects, sounds, location data, or even the person himself. the data of the “markers” are processed and compared with a database where potentially matched digital objects (which can be 2d images, 3d objects, sound and animation). if there is a match, the relevant digital content from the database is superimposed "on top" of visual or audio reality, medvid (2016). all senses, not just sight, can perceive augmented reality. to date, however, in most cases, researchers have focused on mixing real and virtual images and graphics. however, augmented reality can be augmented, including in the sound field. sound is used in virtual reality to enhance the sense of the effect of “presence”, increase the illusion of the reality of the digital world “sound in virtual reality – not a luxury but a necessity”, loviscach (2018). similarly, the application in augmented reality of a wide range of sound solutions – from acoustic effects to musical interactivity – has an even greater force of “persuasion”. sound can be used in augmented reality together with visual and tactile components, but it can also be used by itself: in this case, we get a different from the traditional but no less effective area of “sound augmented reality”, matuga (2004). in addition, such technology can be used as another channel of information; it also creates new forms of interactive interaction and creative involvement. as an example of such interactivity, let us call the moff band project, a device in which gestures control the sound in the context of sports and free-creative play (the project is aimed primarily at children). the bracelet uses a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope to determine the child's hand movements. selected sound effects are reproduced in real-time to match these movements and include the sounds of drums, guitars, swords, and sports, kholopova (2014). another approach to interactivity in augmented reality is the konstruct project, which according to kholopova (2014), is an example of augmented reality implementation, where you can create virtual sculptures with the sound of your voice. it is a unique view of augmented audio because instead of the traditional way – to create sound as a consequence of the visual process – it is proposed to prioritize the sound process by creating broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 313 abstract images (essentially a set of three-dimensional models), analyzing smartphone voice parameters (volume, pitch). for several decades, a large number of different scientific conferences have been held in the field of sound and music research with the use of computer technology – including the use of the possibilities and features of augmented reality. some of them are focused exclusively on music issues; at some conferences, the music direction is presented "on an equal footing" with developments in the visual and technical fields. the complete picture of augmented and virtual reality research activity in the music and sound spheres is formed by analyzing the materials of the two largest specialized conferences – the international conference on computer music and the international conference on new interfaces of musical expression (iqbal et al., 2017). methods of expanding musical and virtual reality the expansion of musical and virtual reality is carried out by researchers mainly in two ways – through the interaction of space with physical objects in real space or through the transformation of real acoustic space with virtual sound elements. the first method allows looking at the ordinary world differently; expanding simultaneously auditory perceptions because using ordinary objects in an unusual context can awaken the creative imagination. the second method is most often carried out outdoors, for example, when moving through the city streets (agarwal & thakur, 2014). the computer (using laptops, smartphones containing electronics) analyzes the sounds of the surrounding space, as well as the biological parameters of the study participant (for example, sensors record heart rate data) and, depending on the results, “mixes” certain synthetic sounds and music into the general acoustic picture, speeds up or slows down their sound. to achieve the effect of an augmented audio environment, researchers use various technological techniques, including specially designed headphones with external microphones, azuma (1997). headphones reproduce sound, which is a combination of the natural sound of the surrounding space, received by microphones and any other, to some extent, synthesized signal. in addition, the presence of microphones also allows to “mask” or hide the sounds of the environment. although the latter is not easy, the existing developments in sound analysis, neural development of music education in virtual and extended reality oleksii pavlenko et al. 314 networks and artificial intelligence allow us to do it today (with varying degrees of reliability). the technology of capturing movements (tracking) shows that along with the expansion of physical reality, this area dominates in the research conducted in the analyzed area. the desire to understand more deeply the translation of gestures from the “analogue” to the “digital” plane is reasonably expected because, firstly, the gesture is an essential component of musical and stage expression, and secondly, achieving an accuracy of motion recognition remains the biggest problem facing when using augmented reality systems. according to researchers, “methods of interaction, calibration, display and software implementation have been studied in detail for a long time, as the technological capabilities of augmented reality, systems continue to be a deterrent”, tarayeva (2011, p. 56). if at first in augmented reality studies to capture the movements of hands and fingers used special glove-trackers, and later – mounted on the head or collar of the camera, in the last decade in scientific works most often used devices (kinect, leap motion) to analyze the entire space scenes. a general approach in research is also to recognize the movements of a musician's fingers on the fingerboard of a musical instrument or keyboard. to create a deeper immersion in the virtual reality environment. it is essential to interact with digital objects and have feedback from them. “tactile interaction provides great opportunities – say ferris and bannon (2012) – because the physical objects used are well known, and this allows them to be easily used. we can apply a similar concept to augmented reality, where we can combine the intuitive clarity of real physical objects as input devices with enhanced display capabilities by superimposing virtual images” (ferris & bannon, 2012). the art of music should use a group of technologies that are currently used in several areas: creation of fundamentally new forms of musical productions; creation and introduction of additional multimedia elements in a musical production; a new way of presenting the product to the audience and interacting with it, popovich (2012). here are the stages of creating projects of musical productions using virtual reality technology: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 315 rehearsal process, which takes into account the peculiarities of staging, posture, manners, facial expressions and facial expressions of dancers; creating a computer model of performers in a virtual format; creation of stage costumes in 3d format; creation of virtual scenery and other scenography elements; “capture the movement” of dancers using the system “computer vision”; data processing; data integration into the development network; creating graphics, setting up a visual scene, petrushin (2008). the features of musical productions that use virtual reality technology include: ability to supplement the production with three-dimensional virtual characters, scenery and props; productions with the possibility of interactive interaction with the spectator, objects of the environment and dancers; instant change of locations of musical representation in the space of virtual reality; the ability to supplement the production with visual effects, including real-time mode; the ability of the viewer to independently determine the direction, angle, angle and detail of the picture, as well as to interact with the objects of the environment; the director has the opportunity to use more means of artistic expression, medvid (2016). unfortunately, the possibilities of the augmented reality interface are limited to actual physical objects a table, a wall, a touch screen – which are interacted with either through the projection of a digital image on them or through the use of so-called “multitouch” displays. conclusions the paper also collects theoretical developments on the topic, specifies the tasks in the music education system in our time in virtual and augmented reality, explores the role and place of innovative technologies to expand the creative process in music, and methods of expanding musical reality determined. development of music education in virtual and extended reality oleksii pavlenko et al. 316 “image recognition” and “augmented reality” are based on the traditionally straightforward “visual” approach to technology: the image of physical reality is perceived by the camera device (often a smartphone, rarely – specialized devices such as hololens), analyzed by software and then displayed on top of the actual scene graphic elements, three-dimensional objects and scenes with virtual musicians. of course, all virtual objects that appear in different ways – spatially, dynamically – are correlated with musical fragments and individual sounds, resulting in a musical score. in this direction, there are also studies and projects usually educational in which the sound of musical instruments is reproduced when hovering over the appropriate image of an instrument. augmented and virtual reality has come a long way, but it will have a long way to go. reaching a broad audience is possible only in the case of breakthroughs in research, which leads to the development of augmented reality devices, their technical improvement, and reduction in cost when it becomes possible to use augmented and virtual reality systems in everyday life freely. at the same time, “augmented reality is no longer just a technology; it is about how we want to live in the real world with its help and how we will develop the accumulated experience that will ultimately help all of humanity. augmented virtual reality will radically change how we live, work and have fun. sound augmented reality is a relatively new field, where most research has been conducted only in recent years. due to numerous problems and unknown paths in this field, it will remain an active area of research, at least for the next few years. references agarwal, c., & thakur, n. (2014). the evolution and future scope of augmented reality. international journal of computer science issues (ijcsi), 11(6), 59–66. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1066.290&rep =rep1&type=pdf azuma, r. (1997). a survey of augmented reality. presence: teleoperators & virtual environments, 6(4), 355–385. https://doi.org/10.1162/pres.1997.6.4.355 ferris, k., & bannon, l. (2002). the musical box garden. proceedings of the international conference on new interfaces for musical expression (pp. 56–58). dublin. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1066.290&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1066.290&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://doi.org/10.1162/pres.1997.6.4.355 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 317 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2543490_the_musical_ box_garden iqbal, j., sidhu, m., & wang, s. (2017). a review on making things see: augmented reality for futuristic virtual educator. cogent education, 4(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2017.1287392 ivanova, a. (2018). tekhnologii virtual'noj i dopolnennoj real'nosti: vozmozhnosti i prepyatstviya primeneniya [virtual and augmented reality technologies: opportunities and barriers to application]. strategic decisions and risk management, 3, 88–107. https://www.jsdrm.ru/jour/article/view/787/683 khatsaiuk, o., medvid, m., maksymchuk, b., kurok, o., dziuba, p., tyurina, v., chervonyi, p., yevdokimova, o., levko, m., demchenko, i., maliar, n., maliar, e., & maksymchuk , i. (2021). preparing future officers for performing assigned tasks through special physical training. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(2), 457–475. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.2/431 kholopova, v. (2014) music as a kind of art. publishing house "lan", "planet of music". kirnarskaya, d. k. (2007). psihologiya special'nyh sposobnostej. muzykal'nye sposobnosti. talanty xxi [psychology of special abilities. musical ability. talents xxi]. https://www.sportedu.by/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/festivalnauki_sbornik.pdf komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 krasnoskulov, a. (2015). ”rasshirennaya“ real'nost' muzyki. [augmented reality of music]. in eksperimentalnye formy sovremennogo muzykalnogo iskusstva [experimental forms of the modern music art] (pp. 97–107). rostovondon: rachmaninov rostov state conservatory press. https://musalm.ru/assets/almanac/alm2018-4.pdf loviscach, j. (2009). projecting finger placement onto the fretboard. proceedings of the international computer music conference (pp. 279–282). montreal: international computer music association. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/i/icmc/bbp2372.2009.062/1 matuga, j. (2004). situated creative activity: the drawings and private speech of young children. creativity research journal, 16(2-3), 267–281. https://ur.booksc.eu/book/32035463/4672b1 mead, g. (1963). mind, self and society. chicago: university of chicago press. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2543490_the_musical_%20box_garden https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2543490_the_musical_%20box_garden https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2017.1287392 https://www.jsdrm.ru/jour/article/view/787/683 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.2/431 https://www.sportedu.by/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/festival-nauki_sbornik.pdf https://www.sportedu.by/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/festival-nauki_sbornik.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://musalm.ru/assets/almanac/alm2018-4.pdf https://quod.lib.umich.edu/i/icmc/bbp2372.2009.062/1 https://ur.booksc.eu/book/32035463/4672b1 development of music education in virtual and extended reality oleksii pavlenko et al. 318 medvid, t. (2016). tvorchi proekty yak zasib formuvannia profesiinykh kompetentnostei maibutnoho khoreohrafa. [creative projects as a means of forming professional competencies of the future choreographer]. materialy v vseukrayins'koyi naukovo-praktychnoyi konferentsiyi khudozhni praktyky ta mystets'ka osvita u kroskul'turnomu prostori suchasnosti [proceedings of the v all-ukrainian scientific-practical conference art practices and art education in the cross-cultural space of modernity]. (pp. 38–43). poltava: poltava korolenko national pedagogical university named after v. g. http://elcat.pnpu.edu.ua/docs/%d0%a5%d1%83%d0%b4.%d0%bf %d1%80%d0%b0%d0%ba%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%ba%d0%b8.pd f nazaikinsky, e. (1972). o psihologii muzykal'nogo vospriyatiya. [about the psychology of musical perception]. moscow: music. nosov, n. (2001). manifest virtualistiki. [virtualistics manifesto]. proceedings of the laboratory of virtualistics, 15. http://www.virtualistika.ru/vip_15.html ovcharuk, v., maksymchuk, b., ovcharuk, v., khomenko, o., khomenko, s., yevtushenko, y., rybalko, p., pustovit, h., myronenko, n., syvokhop, y., sheian, m., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). forming competency in health promotion in technical specialists using physical education. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(3), 01–19. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 petrushin, v. (2008). psykholohiia i pedahohika khudozhnoi tvorchosti. [psychology and pedagogy of artistic creativity] (2nd ed.). moscow: gaudeamus. popovich, n. (2012). zmist i struktura profesiinoho ta osobystoho dosvidu [content and structure of professional and personal experience]. pedagogical training: theory and practice, 12, 130–135. http://www.irbisnbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21i d=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21 com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nvmdup_2012_2_1.38_29 sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., & maksymchuk b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 tarayeva, g. (2011). ispolnitel' v sovremennoj kul'ture: smena paradigmy vospriyatiya [performer in today’s culture: a paradigm shift in perception]. proceedings from musician-performer in the space of world culture: education, creativity, career management (pp. 18–36). rostovon-don: rostov state conservatory named after s.v. rachmaninov. https://b-ok.global/book/2906573/c59c11 http://elcat.pnpu.edu.ua/docs/%d0%a5%d1%83%d0%b4.%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%ba%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%ba%d0%b8.pdf http://elcat.pnpu.edu.ua/docs/%d0%a5%d1%83%d0%b4.%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%ba%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%ba%d0%b8.pdf http://elcat.pnpu.edu.ua/docs/%d0%a5%d1%83%d0%b4.%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%ba%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%ba%d0%b8.pdf http://www.virtualistika.ru/vip_15.html https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nvmdup_2012_2_1.38_29 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nvmdup_2012_2_1.38_29 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nvmdup_2012_2_1.38_29 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nvmdup_2012_2_1.38_29 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=nvmdup_2012_2_1.38_29 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 319 teplov, b. (2003). psihologiya muzykal'nyh sposobnostej [psychology of musical abilities]. moscow: ras institute of psychology. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 157-174 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/412 submitted: july 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 28th, 2023 formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis communication while dealing with refugees from conflict areas aurelia ana vasile 1 1 ph.d. assoc. prof., college of journalism and communication studies, university of bucharest, romania, aurelia-ana.vasile@fjsc.ro abstract: the way formal organisations (governmental), non-formal (non-governmental) organisations, and informal citizen communication deal with social crisis pro-socially, that is, to the benefit of others, accounts for some characteristics that are worth fathoming in order to create the framework for the development of better communication strategies and better and faster prosocial reaction within socially challenging crisis contexts. crisis communication has been tackled in public relations mostly with regard to governmental and nongovernmental organisations, whilst citizen informal communication has not been a matter of pr scientific focus so far, and neither has a comparison between these ways to communicate been approached for that matter. as speed is key in communication, and mostly within a refugee crisis, a double fold quantitative and qualitative analysis of the communication content and strategies used by key social actors in a hub-country of refugee reception like romania in the emergency context created by russia’s invasion of ukraine may provide useful scientific information to generate consequent strategic improvements. this content analysis methodological approach on communication in the social media and on websites of such various outlets (the facebook pages and groups of the romanian red cross, unicef, romanian government, the “uniţi pentru ucraina” group, the romanian government, unicef and red cross websites) from 24th february 2022, the beginning of the conflict in ukraine, to the moment, allows intriguing conclusions about the effectiveness, timeliness, and constancy in communicating support in times of social crisis within a prosocial approach in romania to receiving refugees from the conflict areas in ukraine. keywords: formal; non-formal; informal; prosocial communication; social media. how to cite: vasile, a.a. (2023). formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis communication while dealing with refugees from conflict areas. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 157-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/412 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/412 mailto:aurelia-ana.vasile@fjsc.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/412 formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis … aurelia ana vasile 158 1. introduction the russian attack of ukraine on the 24th of february 2022 brought about a tense refugee situation, first in the countries neighbouring ukraine, and then mostly throughout europe. mostly the neighbouring countries, like romania, had to cope with waves of refugees from ukraine that were looking for shelter, and survival means. within such circumstances, the fast reaction, first and foremost in point of effective communication, was extremely important in order to avoid more tragedy for the refugees who found themselves stranded, and weak in times of war, overnight. the first step in offering support to the refugees, had to do with the way organisations and ordinary people communicated in order to grant help. providing support was, to a large extent, conditioned by effective communication between the refugees and their helpers. identifying the best way to communicate in times of crisis is key to diminish the effects of the crisis, to reach out for those who need support, to find the best sources of help. usually, there is much interest in the way mainstream media, the government, and important institutions communicate in such a context. however, when the time of reaction needs to be fast, some lag in institutional reaction may be exhibited due to the fact that governmental organisations are bound to abide by rules and regulations. therefore, the way governmental and non-governmental organisations, and the civil society communicated and acted to cope with the sudden armed conflict circumstances may provide meaningful insight into the improvement of communication strategies. in point of the kind of purposes communication may target in times of humanitarian crisis, prosocial communication aims at exchanging information that is relevant in order to ―benefit others‖ (eisenberg, 1982), ―including helping, cooperating, comforting, and donating‖ (eisenberg & fabes, 1998; greener & crick, 1999). within the crisis generated by the conflict between russia and ukraine that escalated on the 24th of february 2022, prosocial communication has been the way of dealing with the ukrainian refugees drama. effectiveness, promptitude, and kindness would be key characteristics to be correlated to prosocial communication in times of refugee crisis. such prosocial communication may be approached from various angles. the angle approached here is focused on the idea of the degree of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 159 formalisation in communication. and this degree of formalisation in communication is strongly connected to the context. among the criteria that may differentiate among various kinds of prosocial communication, that of the formalisation of communication, may distinguish among formal, non-formal and informal communication strategies. thus, this research resorted here to the extrapolating into the field of communication the terms formal, non-formal and informal used first by phillip hall coombs in 1968 in education, having in view an analysis of the way governmental and nongovernmental organisations and a civil society group communicated in times of war crisis in order to help refugees. 2. research background considerations and literature review according to chavez et al. (2020, p.2) people use communication as ―the life blood of existence and realise how important it is in their lives‖. communication is not only about exchange of information. it is also about grasping emotions and intentions beyond factual information. it is about understanding others and being understood by others in turn (bequiri, 2017). bhamare’s observation that communication is constantly evolving (2018) is pretty obvious when regarded in relation to the progress in technology which nowadays makes social media a main area of parasocial communication. as parasocial communication (rubin & mchugh, 2009) actually fosters long distance communication in real time on the internet, in war refugee crisis circumstances it is the main, fastest and most convenient means to reach out to those in need, to connect those who can provide support to those who need it. perse and rubin (1989) stated that "parasocial interactions occurred as a natural by-product of time spent with media figures‖. if parasocial interaction deals with the kind of relationship ―experienced by an audience in their mediated encounters with performers in the mass media‖ (horton & wohl, 2016), parasocial communication is about exchanging messages on a virtual platform by becoming (and beholding of other) social media main characters. nowadays, social media play an important part on a daily basis inasmuch as active, employed people and the young and very young are more and more involved in communicating digitally, including on the social media platforms. formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis … aurelia ana vasile 160 research on social media broadly classifies communication activities as either active (in our opinion) contribution (posting) or consumption (lurking or observing), passive (as we see it) communication (schlosser, 2005; shao, 2009); it suggests that most users consume rather than contribute to social media (jones et al., 2004). if, according to brosdahl and carpenter’s (2011), those from generation x (born between1961 and 1981) use social media to a significant extent as some sort of digital immigrants (prensky, 2001), generation y (born after 1981) have spent their entire life in the digital environment as digital natives (id.). to ―digital natives.‖ however, in times of crisis, these two generation persons use the social media group to communicate, as digital natives or digital immigrants, rather instrumentally (due to the circumstances), not ritualistically, as we will discuss in a further paragraph. communication is the main reason for the generation y’s use of social media (euajarusphan, 2021; hartijasti, 2013; palfrey & gasser, 2008), and, in challenging times, when they need to work out problems fast and easy, they certainly resort to the social media, and so do those from the x generation, as it happened with those who contributed to the ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ group in romania, as we may further see. bolton et al. (2013) stated that ―social media have the potential to increase generation y’s civic engagement‖, which we may further see when discussing about formal, non-formal and informal prosocial communication. further on, social networks may become the ―organising form of collective political action‖, as we this research dwells on (bennett & segerberg, 2012). back in 1984, and referring to watching television, alan rubin specified that there were two types of (social, we may add)media users: ritualised (habitual) users and instrumental (non-habitual) users. he defined the ritualised users as ―individuals who had a high regard for the media‖, used it often, and mostly for entertainment and as a main tool to communicate (even to someone who is in the next room) (1984). the instrumental users were defined as having a lower degree of interest in the media, and using it in order to obtain information. in other words, ritualised users relate to the media as to an idol, whereas the instrumental users resort to the media just inasmuch as it serves other higher purposes, without any kind of media idolatry manifestation. alan rubin’s classification of media users works just fine even nowadays, with the difference that the proportion of ritualistic reference to the media increased at the cost of instrumentalism with regard to the media that seems to be gradually downsizing. when reaching out to the ukrainian broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 161 refugees in need in times of war, the use of the social media for that matter was definitely instrumental the term formal communication is extrapolated from the term formal education which was coined by phillip coombs. as it is approached here, formal communication refers to the official communication issued by governmental organisations, by the government itself. this kind of communication needs to be highly regulated and intentional, planned and structured, and sequenced beforehand (hoon, 2020), systematic (dib, 1987). this kind of communication is/should be performed by specialised employees, mostly as it is issued to have impact at a large scale, targeting the whole population that lives within the boundaries of a country. if formal organisation communication is planned and structured, the informal one is ―experience-dependent and context-sensitive (jenkins, 2011). it suggests participants ’immersive engagement in activities with minimal constraints, control and intention while being empowered. it occurs in situations where communication is a participant-centred, self-motivated experience, and where the objectives and outcomes of communication are more intrinsic. it is not sequenced beforehand. (hoon, 2020). informal prosocial communication is developed by volunteers, not by specialised employees, and it is rather interpretive in the way it functions, not normative. by non-formal communication this paper refers to the communication generated by non-governmental organisations (like the romanian red cross, and unicef romania). it may be regarded as ‖a possible manifestation between the two poles‖ (hoon, 2020) of formal and informal prosocial communication. it is normative because of its accountability to governmental structures, and interpretive as it resorts to the work of many volunteers, besides the few employees and the employer founder of the nongovernmental organisation. in its outward manifestation, non-formal prosocial communication should be rather normative, it should abide by rules, norms. in its inward functioning based on the work of few employees and many volunteers, it is rather interpretive, mostly in the volunteering area. informal communication, as it is tackled here, is about the messaging from among those who belong to the civil society. it does not have to comply with laws, rules and regulations other than being civil and nice to one another. this kind of communication is not really much subject to public scrutiny and criticism, as it is formal communication of governmental organisations. people usually feel that government official communication should be most careful about their needs, and, therefore, they have high formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis … aurelia ana vasile 162 expectations towards it, higher than towards non-formal nongovernmental organisation of informal civil society communications. and, according to researcher scientific sense, the higher the public expectations, and the more important the laws, rules and regulations to abide, the longer it takes to prepare formal messages, and, consequently, the slower the reaction, even in times of crisis. however, such a researcher insight needs to be confirmed by research. 3. research aims and objectives this research on the online functioning (in the social media and on websites) of these three areas of communication (formal, non-formal, and informal communication) in times of refugee crisis may account for interesting conclusions that may prove to be quite relevant for future development of online strategies of communication. and this stands for the main aim that is triggered. the objectives in view regard the pinning of the most effective ways of communicating within a context of humanitarian crisis, of showing which of the three kinds of communication (formal, non-formal, and informal) exhibits more promptitude, which encompasses, and motivates more participants to participate in the prosocial communication process, and which of the three is more comprehensive. another important objective is that of differentiating between active versus passive in the prosocial communication strategies within the contexts of analysis. the subsequent research questions to be answered hereby refer to: 1. what kind of online communication — formal, non-formal or informal — elicits the fastest and promptest movings and reactions within a crisis context? (rapidity) 2. which of the three types of online communication — formal, non-formal or informal — reaches more people that provide feedback to messages within a crisis context? (scope) 3. which of the three ways to communicate online — formal, nonformal or informal — is the most reliably infra-structured, developing active prosocial communication strategies in dealing with a crisis context? (reliability of infra-structure) 4. methodology in point of the research methodology that best suits the above mentioned aims, objectives and research questions, it is content analysis broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 163 applied on the messaging on facebook pages and groups, on the one hand, and on websites, on the other hand that may provide meaningful information towards such research purposes. the number of postings, reactions (likes, and other kinds of reactions), comments, and forwards were measured quantitatively and then, the most representative ones in view of their quantitative relevance were related qualitatively to the content of the message that elicited more reactions. content analysis is a convenient method both in point of feasibility, and in point of relevance to the tackled topic. intertwining its quantitative use with the qualitative interpretation of the messages that were relevant quantitatively (to see what kind of quality these messages exhibited), also in point of reactions to them: likes, comments, distributing figures. automated content analysis would be objective and faster and easier for the researcher to use (de graaf & van der vossen, 2013). as a downside of automated content analysis, the costs to purchase the necessary software may often be discouraging for researchers from some countries. however, if the meaning in the analysed content is important within the research endeavour, manual content analysis should be resorted to, in our opinion, which has actually been used in this research. if automated content analysis is focused on measurement, approaching phenomena from a normative viewpoint, manual content analysis concentrates on appreciation from an interpretive angle, in our opinion. if the analysed content is huge in size, the automated method may better cope with the large amount of research data. however, if meaning is more important in research, manual content analysis works better. manual methods for content analysis have been rather used in communication science traditionally mostly in order to study communication also qualitatively, not only in quantitatively. these methods, though rather time consuming, and prone to subjective interpretation, have the main advantages of identifying meaning in the messages and of explaining communication phenomena instead of just measuring. according to entman (1993, p. 52), manual content analysis is ―used in messages in order to provide the receivers with causal interpretations, moral evaluations, and solutions for the issue by highlighting certain aspects of an issue‖. the choice of manual content analysis here is motivated by the reasons above, including that of feasibility within the researcher’s specific context. formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis … aurelia ana vasile 164 5. research corpus due to the main aims of this research, there is a special focus on social media communication, also tackling the communication background of websites for formal governmental organisation communication and the non-formal nongovernmental organisation communication towards their publics. the website backup for formal governmental organisation communication and non-formal nongovernmental organisation communication may function like a setback of like a reinforcement factor within the online communication package of the main targeted research initiators. thus, from among the research corpus items we may mention the following platforms (and channels) below. first, the facebook official pages of the romanian government, unicef romania, crucea roșie română, and the facebook group ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ have been monitored for fifty days, from 24th february 2022 (the day of the russian attack of ukraine) to the 12th of april 2022 (when the conflict was still ongoing). why have we chosen facebook content for analysis? mainly because these groups on facebook (and not others on other platforms) were the most active and effective in prosocial communication towards providing support for refugees. why was facebook the most popular from among the social media platforms within the ukrainian refugee crisis context? mainly because the facebook platform is more popular with the x generation (bolton et al., 2013; euajarusphan, 2021), not only with the y generation (millennials), and representatives from these two generations seem to have been those who were the most active in point of prosocial communication and actual helping. then, the postings, and the functionality of the websites ―ukraine — împreună ajutăm mai mult‖ of the romanian government, unicef ―refugiaţi‖, crucea roşie română have been analysed in order to pinpoint the most important characteristics of effectiveness of such websites, as backup (or setback, if they may have relied on the website mainly) factors for the communication in the social media. 6. research results on facebook pages and websites by far, an overwhelming number of postings appeared on the informal communication group ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖, at a rate of 99,82% of the total number of postings on all of the four facebook pages that this research has analysed (table 1). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 165 table 1 facebook postings (24.02.202212.04.2022) on ukrainian refugee crisis category romanian government unicef romania red cross romania uniţi pentru ucraina group total number of postings 103 11 19 73,536 average number of postings per day 2.15 0.23 0.40 1532 rating of the number of postings (from total: 73,699) 0.001 (0.1%) 0.0001 (0.01%) 0. 0002 (0.025%) 0.998 (99,82%) source: author’s own conception the most important part of the likes or other kind of emotional reactions (showed by means of emoticons) was received by the social media formal communication on the government facebook page, with a top number of 2,200 on the 26th of february 2022 with a posting regarding the dsu (dsu/ departamentul pentru situaţii de urgenţă, that is, in english: the emergency situations department) camps/shelters for ukrainian refugees, as we may see in table 2, below. some significant emotional reactions were also received by the informal ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ group postings. table 2 — facebook communication reactions (likes, etc) to postings (24.02.202212.04.2022) on ukrainian refugee crisis category romanian government unicef romania red cross romania uniţi pentru ucraina group total number of emotional reactions/emoticons (likes, etc) 34,065 1,562 2,099 11.606 formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis … aurelia ana vasile 166 average number of emotional reactions/emoticons per posting 330.72 173.6 110.5 0.16 rating of number of likes/emotional reactions/emoticons (from total: 49,332) 0.69 (69%) 0.031 (3%) 0.042 (4.2%) 0.235 (23,5%) source: author’s own conception formal social media communication on facebook received an overwhelming 90.7 percent of comments from internet users, whilst the informal‖ uniţi pentru ucraina‖ group postings elicited only 8.5% of the comments from the corresponding target public. non-formal nongovernmental organisation (romanian unicef and red cross) pages received insignificant feed-back in the form of comments (a lot less than 1 %), as table 3 below shows. table 3 — facebook comments to postings (24.02.202212.04.2022) on ukrainian refugee crisis category romanian government unicef romania red cross romania uniţi pentru ucraina group total number of comments 17,007 24 110 1,595 average number of comments per posting 165.12 2.7 5.79 0.02 rating of number of comments per posting (from total: 18,736) 0.9 (90.7%) 0.001(0.1%) 0.006 (0.6%) 0.085 (8.5%) source: author’s own conception broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 167 the romanian government facebook page postings (that account for formal communication) received the biggest number of forwards , corresponding to 75%, as compared to 16% for the ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ group and only 7% for red cross romania and 2% for unicef. there is top of 621 forwards for the posting that announced the launching of the government’s online platform ―împreună ajutăm mai mult‖ (see table 4). table 4 — facebook forwards of postings (24.02.202212.04.2022) on ukrainian refugee crisis category romanian government unicef romania red cross romania uniţi pentru ucraina group total number of forwards 7,060 183 621 1,524 average number of forwards per posting 68.54 16.6 32.68 0.02 rating of number of forwards per posting (out of the total: 9,388) 0.75 (75%) 0.02 (2%) 0.07 (7%) 0.16 (16%) source: author’s own conception 6.1. website analysis conclusions in communicating constantly and effectively, a website to be regarded as some sort of infrastructure of online communication may well be most useful to provide support in times of crisis. this infrastructure may be built pro-actively (like the us fema website or the governmental dsu/department for emergency situations in romania) or reactively, and specifically, as the ―împreună ajutăm mai mult‖ romanian government website. 1) the romanian government website ―împreună ajutăm mai mult‖ provides easy access, and counselling regarding all kinds of support (employment and schooling rights, medical assistance, accommodation, formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis … aurelia ana vasile 168 asylum, etc). donations are encouraged. https://www.gov.ro/ro/ucrainaimpreuna-ajutam-mai-mult 2) the unicef website offers counselling phone numbers for refugees. donations are encouraged. https://www.unicef.org/romania/ro/topics/refugiaţi 3) the romanian red cross website offers a call centre for ukraine phone number. donations are encouraged. https://crucearosie.ro 4) the informal group ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ has not developed or sustained a website (that would have cost the group extra resources and would have needed more time to design and manage). the best organised and most interactive website, that offered various kinds of needed support to refugees (in detail: employment and schooling rights, medical assistance, accommodation, asylum, etc) was the formal one, by the romanian government. the non-formal romanian red cross and unicef websites only offered phone numbers to be contacted by the refugees. the informal group “uniţi pentru ucraina‖ did not rely on designing a website. it rather acted ―on the spot‖, without much communication or other kind of infrastructure. 7. interpretation of results in the time interval 24.02.2022 12.04.2022 the most active in point of postings among the facebook outlets has been, by far, the informal group ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ (―united for ukraine‖), with 73,536 postings, as compared to 103 by the government facebook page, and very few on the ngo’s facebook pages. this may be explained: • first by the fact that on the “uniţi pentru ucraina‖ group all of the members contribute, and that people tend to trust acting on the spot, on their own, rather than relying on intermediaries, and do not need any formal approvals to act • and second, as formal organisational structures, like the government, usually tend to exhibit lagging in reactions due to the formal hierarchical structure of the organisation and to the norms, roles and regulations that cost time in the decision-making process towards any kind of decision, including the development of communication outlets/platforms. the non-formal ngos (unicef and red cross) exhibited (due to their dichotomic status between their both formal and informal areas) the https://www.gov.ro/ro/ucraina-impreuna-ajutam-mai-mult https://www.gov.ro/ro/ucraina-impreuna-ajutam-mai-mult https://www.unicef.org/romania/ro/topics/refugiaţi https://crucearosie.ro/ broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 169 lag of formal organisations (their employees need to abide by laws) and the lag of structured reaction due to the time taken by volunteer gathering. the government facebook page elicited most of the average number of reactions per posting (likes, and other kinds of reactions showed by means of emoticons), 330, and the ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ group the least (<1) . still, the highest number of likes on the “uniţi pentru ucraina‖ group, 2,502, was elicited by a posting of refugee gratitude towards romanian citizens’ aid. the second in the top (2,200) per one posting on the 26th of february 2022, was that for a government posting about the organisation of a first camp for refugees at the northern border of romania. this may be explained: • first by the fact that on the “uniţi pentru ucraina‖ group many of the postings just showed that some refugees problems have been worked out, and therefore these postings did not need any reactions; • second, the government facebook page and website (―împreună ajutăm mai mult‖) were promoted intensely by all mainstream media outlets even in the news casts, and therefore, it was easier for people to find out about them, and then have reactions; • third, people tend to have the biggest expectations with regard to the government, and therefore, they look for communication from the government and react to the information provided thereof; • and fourth, official information may be found by those who look for it, mainly on the government social media pages and/or website. the non-formal ngos (unicef and red cross) postings have obtained a fair number of reactions per posting due to the general visibility of such organisations, despite the few postings. the significant average number of comments per posting on the government facebook page, 165, shows interest in the governmental decisions because these have a strong impact on citizens. many comments showed a critical thinking approach by the commentator citizens on controversial topics (sometimes regarding social support from the government for romanian citizens as well as for ukrainian ones). the average of few comments per posting on the informal group ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ (―united for ukraine‖), accounts for the pragmatic approach of the participants to the communication in the group, as it juts out from the content of the comments that actually provide solutions. many postings did not elicit comments, as they just announced worked out problems. the most commented posting, on the 3rd march 2022, about the talks between the romanian pm and the eu representative ursula von der formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis … aurelia ana vasile 170 leyen, elicited 912 comments. the topic was approached by the comments as a controversial one. the non-formal ngos’ (unicef and red cross) activities and postings did not stir any controversy, nor many comments. generally, most of the comments addressed controversies. the most forwarded postings (average per posting) were those of the government facebook page, 7,060 (an average of 68.54 forwards per posting), and those of the “uniţi pentru ucraina‖ group, 1,524 (with a low average per posting: 0.02, because many postings were about worked out problems). this may be explained by the fact that people are more interested in knowing and letting others know about the governmental decisions that have a wide impact on the life of citizens, be it romanians or ukrainian refugees. the most forwarded posting (on the government fb page) announced the launching of the online romanian government platform ―împreună ajutăm mai mult‖, on the 26th february 2022 (with 621 forwarding). the non-formal ngos (unicef and red cross) exhibited also a significant average number of forwards per posting, as these postings, like those form the government, regard a wide area of influence in the country. 8. research limits and feed-forward a possible limit of this research endeavour, that may function like a feed-forward incentive, is that a questionnaire addressed to those who reacted (with likes, comments, forwarding of postings) to the social media (facebook) postings may provide more explanatory data with regard to the content analysis performed within this research. as those who reacted to facebook postings (with likes, comments, forwarding of postings) used their facebook accounts for that matter, they can be easily contacted and have questionnaires sent to them. however, if such feed-forwarding research is performed, it needs to be done as soon as possible. otherwise, the targeted facebook users may simply forget the reasons why they reacted, and how they really provided help, a.s.o.. 9. conclusions complex crisis situations, like the one created by the conflict in ukraine, require complex and manifold approaches in communicating broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 171 towards organising social response in order to support the refugees, and all those who are affected by the challenging conflict context. all the communication on the informal group “uniţi pentru ucraina‖ (“united for ukraine‖) showed higher speed of reaction, as the group and its postings and refugee relief actions started activity from the very first day, 24th february 2022, when ukraine was attacked by russian troops, whilst the government’s first posting were rather passive (diagnostic), and actual actions started on the 26th of february. then, the total number of postings on the group “uniţi pentru ucraina‖ (“united for ukraine‖), 73, 536 (in 48 days) was by far bigger than the next decreasingly, on the governments page, only 103, and even less on the ngos pages. however, formal communication on the romanian government facebook page elicited by far the majority of the reactions (likes, comments, and forwards), as compared to the informal group ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ and to the non-formal romanian red cross and unicef. the existence of websites developed by the government and by the nongovernmental organisations triggered more controversy and therein, more communication feed-back from the citizens on their corresponding facebook pages. the least prodigious in all respects (postings versus reactions) have proven to be the non-formal nongovernmental organisations’ facebook pages. consequently, we may infer that the most effective in point of prosocial communication were the formal communication romanian government facebook page, and the informal “uniţi pentru ucraina‖ group communication. the research questions have been answered as follows: 1. the informal online communication — on the facebook group ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ has elicited the fastest and promptest movings (postings) and reactions within a crisis context. (rapidity) the fact that formal communication is expected to be subject to applying laws and regulations, makes it exhibit some lag as compared to informal communication that is less restrictive in point of law and regulation provisions. 2. both the formal government communication (on the facebook group ―împreună ajutăm mai mult‖ and on the website) and the informal one of the ―uniţi pentru ucraina‖ facebook group reached many people that provide feedback to messages within a crisis context? (scope) the most obviously active has proven to be the informal group communication in terms of the number of postings, whilst the formal government communication formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis … aurelia ana vasile 172 3. the formal communication on the government group ―împreună ajutăm mai mult‖ with the supporting website proved to be the most reliably infra-structured, developing active prosocial communication strategies in dealing with the crisis context. (reliability of infra-structure) the informal communication on the “uniţi pentru ucraina‖ facebook group platform showed that benevolence can still function well prosocially, even without the infra-structure that a whole government of a country may provide. consequently, we may infer that non-formal nongovernmental organisations' communication exhibited both the lag of law abiding formal organisations and of the relying on volunteer recruitment, which made this kind of communication less effective as compared to formal and informal communication. all in all, combined communication, formal, non-formal, and informal, proved for sure to be more successful in supporting the refugees from an open conflict area, rather than only a limited approach, be it from any of these three ways (formal, non-formal, informal) and sources (governmental organisations, non-governmental organisation, and the civil society) of communication. the idea of coining the terms ―formal‖, ―informal‖, and ―nonformal‖ — terms launched back in 1968 by ph. h. coombs — for the field of communication may provide useful insight into the effectiveness of communication within various contexts, so as to help improve communication strategies through the selection of the most appropriate kind of channel, platform of communication, etc. references bennett, w. l., & segerberg, a. (2012). the logic of connective action. communication and society, 15(5), 739-768. bequiri, g. (2017). the importance of communication skills in business. https://virtualspeech.com/blog/importance-of-communication-skills bhamare, c. (2018). effects of social media on communication skills. https://theknowledgereview.com/effects-social-media-communicationskills/ bolton, r.n., parasuraman, a., hoefnagels, a., migchels, n., kabadayi, s., gruber, t., komarova loureiro, y., & solnet, d. (2013). understanding generation y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda. journal of service management, 24(3), 245-267. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564231311326987 https://virtualspeech.com/blog/importance-of-communication-skills https://theknowledgereview.com/effects-social-media-communication-skills/ https://theknowledgereview.com/effects-social-media-communication-skills/ https://doi.org/10.1108/09564231311326987 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 173 brosdahl, d. j., & carpenter, j. m. (2011). shopping orientations of us males: a generational cohort comparison. journal of retailing and consumer services, 18, 548-554. chavez, c.a., olan, c., carandang, c.a., fabros, w., pesimo, j., & pitao, c. (2020). social media usage on effective communication skills of grade 12 fidelis senior high students. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.11208.65283 coombs, p.h. (1968). the world educational crisis: a systems analysis. oxford university press. de graaf, r., & van der vossen, r. (2013). bits versus brains in content analysis. comparing the advantages and disadvantages of manual and automated methods for content analysis. communications, 38(4), 433-443. dib, c.z. (1987). formal, non-formal and informal education: concepts, applicability. cooperative networks in physics education conference proceedings 173, pp. 300-315. american institute of physics, new york. eisenberg, n. (1982). the development of prosocial behaviour. elsevier inc.all. https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780122349805/the-developmentof-prosocial-behavior#book-info eisenberg, n., & fabes, r. a. (1998). prosocial development. in w. damon, & n. eisenberg (eds.), handbook of child psychology: fifth edition, vol. 3: social, emotional and personality development (pp. 701-778). john wiley & sons. entman, r. m. (1993). framing: towards clarification of a fractured paradigm. journal of communication, 43(4), 51–58. euajarusphan, a. (2021). online social media usage behaviour, attitude, satisfaction, and online social media literacy of generation x, generation y, and generation z. psaku international journal of interdisciplinary research, 10(2), 44 58. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3998457 greener, s., & crick, n. r. (1999). normative beliefs about prosocial behavior in middle childhood: what does it mean to be nice?. social development, 8(3), 349–363. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9507.00100 hartijasti, y. (2013). exploring the motivation in using facebook: a comparative study between generation x and generation y in indonesia. journal of information technology applications and management, 20(1), 53-66. hoon, h.n. (2020). towards a synthesis of formal, non-formal and informal pedagogies in popular music learning. research studies in music education, 42(1), 56-76. horton, d., & wohl, r. (2016). mass communication and parasocial interaction: observation on intimacy at a distance. psychiatry, 19(3), 215–229. https://doi.org/10.1080%2f00332747.1956.11023049 http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.11208.65283 https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780122349805/the-development-of-prosocial-behavior#book-info https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780122349805/the-development-of-prosocial-behavior#book-info https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3998457 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9507.00100 https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049 formal, non-formal, and informal approaches in prosocial crisis … aurelia ana vasile 174 jenkins, p. (2011). formal and informal music educational practices. philosophy of music education review, 19(2), 179-197. jones, q., ravid, g., & rafaeli, s. (2004). information overload and the message dynamics of online interaction spaces. information systems research, 15(2), 194-210. palfrey, j., & gasser, u. (2008). born digital: understanding the first generation of digital natives. basic books. perse, e., & rubin, r. (1989). attribution in social and parasocial relationships. communication research, 16(1), 59-77. prensky, m. (2001). digital natives, digital immigrants. on the horizon, 9(5), 1-6. rubin, a. (1984). ritualized and instrumental television viewing. journal of communication, 34(3), 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14602466.1984.tb02174 rubin, r., & mchugh, m.p. (2009). development of parasocial interaction relationships. journal of broadcasting & electronic media, 31(3), 279-292. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838158709386664 schlosser, a. e. (2005). posting versus lurking: communication in a multiple audience context. journal of consumer research, 32(2), 260-265. shao, g. (2009). understanding the appeal of user-generated media: a uses and gratification perspective. internet research, 19(1), 7-25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1984.tb02174 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1984.tb02174 https://doi.org/10.1080/08838158709386664 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 14-29 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/404 submitted: april 15th, 2022 | accepted for publication: december 3rd, 2022 emotional intelligence of schoolchildren in the educational process olha babiak1, svitlana sytnik2, olena zharovska3, iryna kondratieva4, liudmyla smokova5, uliana varnava6 1 mykola yarmachenko institute of special education and psychology of the naes of ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-63371202, olga-babjak@ukr.net 2 the state institution “south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky”, ukraine, svetlanasytnik2000@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5875-919x 3 public higher educational establishment ««vinnytsia academy of continuing education», ukraine, mova_m@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4154-1458 4 the state institution "south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k. d. ushynsky, ukraine, irasp1975@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0360-4072 5 odessa i.i. mechnikov national university, ukraine, liudmyla.smokova@onu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2478-0155 6 odessa i.i. mechnikov national university, ukraine, ulyankk@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4043-8050 abstract: this article is based on a questionnaire of a relatively limited number of ukrainian teachers-practitioners. we proved that emotional intelligence (hereafter – ei) in an educational institution can be sufficiently diagnosed by observation, and without using psychometric methods. we also classified and presented the main components of emotional intelligence, their essence, correlation with other qualities of psyche; gave markers for the definition of ei and markers of their dynamics over time. the article has theoretical nature, which determines the analytical and generalizing approach to its writing. while it has been writing, we had used a sociological survey (to collect data) and a number of theoretical methods: analysis, generalization, statistics (frequency selection, ranking) etc. the main data were obtained by analyzing the thematic literature and questionnaires of primary school teachers with sufficient experience (120 persons). the questionnaire was filled out mainly in electronic form, and sporadically in-person. the result was the systematization, correlation and labeling of the most common qualities of ei. also, the hypothesis put forward in the article found theoretical confirmation (it is confirmed by the analysis of the experience of primary school teachers). the article is based on an investigation of only one, central, region of ukraine, so it is representative and needs to expand the scope of research. this fact is a limitation of the study. keywords: psychometric measurements; tests; determination of the level and dynamics of development; markers and components. how to cite: babıak, o., sytnık, s., zharovska, o., kondratıeva, i., smokova, l., & varnava, u. (2023). emotional intelligence of schoolchildren in the educational process. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 14-29. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/404 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/404 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6337-1202 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6337-1202 mailto:olga-babjak@ukr.net mailto:svetlanasytnik2000@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5875-919x mailto:mova_m@ukr.net http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4154-1458 mailto:irasp1975@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0360-4072 mailto:liudmyla.smokova@onu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2478-0155 mailto:ulyankk@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4043-8050 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/404 emotional intelligence of schoolchildren in the educational process olha babiak et al. 15 introduction since the 2000s, scientists have debated whether classical tests of ei (such as the mayer-salovey-caruso) are universal and pedagogically applicable to primary school children directly in school. researchers have shown that the overall effectiveness of such tests is sufficient, but their evaluation on a four-factor scale was low. b. palmer and others, based on a large sample, identified fundamental limitations of the mayer-salovei-caruso ei test and initiated a discussion on choosing simpler methods for diagnosing ei in preschool and primary school children (palmer et al., 2005). another side is with middle school children, i.e. teenagers. relevant studies of this universal test have proven the reliability of convergent, factor discriminant and prognostic components (fernández-berrocal et al., 2018). in addition, in middle school children, these tests allow to identify the feasibility and quality of pedagogical intervention, the connection with other manifestations of higher nervous activity. we can make an intermediate conclusion: for children aged 5-8, simpler tests or pedagogical observation of a trained teacher are more valid. the aim of the article is to analyze and constructively present the opinion of teachers-practitioners who work with ei (identify, form, diagnose), using the simplest, most comprehensive and most efficient method – the pedagogical observation. a criterion for the analysis of the presented literature was determined by the principles of selection: the list of references presents the latest, thematically most relevant articles and articles with opposite or significantly different views on the subject. thus, a preliminary review of scientific journals showed that over the past 1-2 years, the relevance of diagnosis and methods of development has increased sharply, even in children with special needs (garbenis et al., 2020) or and brain damage or pathology (guerra-bustamante et al., 2019). this, in turn, has led to a new reinventory and revision of the traditional experience of working with ei in children (norboevich, 2020). therefore, we believe that ei is part of the neurophysiological subjective natural nature of an individual; we believe that the article is directly related to the specifics of the journal. relevance of research. in the following sections we shall try to analyze the validity and effectiveness of the work of an ordinary teacher without various psychometric tests and indicators. at the beginning of the study, we suggested that the pedagogical observation of an experienced teacher and a primary school pupil will allow to better identify the factor structure and dynamics of ei than individual psychological testing. the latter cannot be performed often, they show individual sections and are broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 16 stressful for the primary school children themselves. instead, observation is constant, flexible, multifaceted, and holistic. consequently, the hypothesis of our study is the thesis: teachers can identify and assess the degree and dynamics of ei of primary school children. the teacher can do this without the involvement of a psychologist or complex psychometric techniques, only by observing and linking potential signs of ei with other neurophysiological or social traits and psychological symptom complexes (kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). this hypothesis arose among ukrainian methodologists and primary school teachers (which include the authors of the article too). as a result, we do not have a regular opportunity to measure the presence and dynamics of ei by psychometric or laboratory methods. for the direct diagnosis of ei (as the basis of our hypothesis the validity of pedagogical observation) we also take into account the relationship of heterogeneous, but phenotypically, genetically or morphofunctionally personality traits. for example, a child with a labile psyche (regardless of changes) can be either over-adapted or maladapted, and a child with a controlled flexible psyche almost always shows a high level of ei. the hypothetical possibility and pedagogical readiness for the initial and current сontrol of ei in the framework of daily school work is the relevance of our study. the aim of our study is to identify the views of experienced primary school teachers on the possibilities of the method of pedagogical observation to detect and monitor the development of ei. for this purpose, we set three tasks: 1. in the questionnaire to determine the components of ei, their essence and markers of definition through pedagogical observation. 2. identify the most valid qualities of ei that can be observed as markers of dynamics. 3. we plan to present the results in the form of tables with the appropriate ranking and explications. methods. we used a sociological survey based on a questionnaire developed by the authors (it is not presented due to a significant volume), and in processing data we used statistical principles and methods (frequency of use by keywords and phrases, ranking of selected positions, etc.). we also used theoretical methods of analysis, generalization and materialist logic (determination of cause-and-effect relations, clarity of reasoned position, and transition of quantitative to qualitative indicators, etc. we have surveyed more than 120 ukrainian teachers with more than five years of experience and created a table of components of ei, explaining their essence and representing the main markers of definition through pedagogical observation. emotional intelligence of schoolchildren in the educational process olha babiak et al. 17 approaches to understanding emotional intelligence and its definition in children because in recent years the approach to understanding the ontology of the subjects of the educational process has expanded significantly, there are many alternative ways to determine the presence and extent of ei of pupils. however, these studies are conducted and promoted by teachers mainly among adolescents as relatively mature subjects, and also require specific conditions (conducted outside the classroom). this once again confirms the relevance of our work. on the other hand, most of the alternative ways of measuring ei of adolescents under certain procedural age adaptation can be made quite valid for use among pupils of primary school. the most original method of determining social and emotional intelligence is the method proposed by a. alonso and a group of his colleagues. this is almost the only method, which is based not on the mental but on the physical aspect. the authors suggested that the presence of early trauma, family conflicts, violence, etc. that cause the destructive phenomenon of rejection of a child for oneself. because emotions are the closest units to the corporeality of neurophysiology, researchers have suggested that rejection or distortion of the idea of their corporeality indicates a disharmony that prevents the full development of emotional and social intelligence in the early stages (alonso et al., 2020). this approach seems to us absolutely valid for use in primary classes by the method of observation, because an experienced teacher can easy to determine the nature of the child's reflection, self-satisfaction, attitude to own body and its image, positioning oneself in front of others. the design of such study could be completely descriptive and invariantly consist of attitudes towards oneself and one's image. consequently, based on d. goleman's model of ei, for modern teachers one-dimensional (by one parameter) methods of measuring ei are offered, which can be adapted for use in primary classes (go1eman, 1998). for example, raghavan and his colleagues proposed testing a child's selfesteem with the following factor analysis: self-report self-description selfpresentation (raghavan & panboli, 2018, p. 207). despite the pilot nature of this method and its experimental application, next tests using by other methods have proven the high validity and reliability of self-oriented methods as simple, natural and new ways for a child to measure his emotional intelligence. furthermore, we try to find typical correlations of psychological characteristics of children with different levels of ei, such as ei attention, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 18 ei academic successfulness, etc. due to analysis of articles and research papers. most of these patterns have been identified by rather complex psychometric means, which in practice are difficult to apply to a primary school teacher. most modern research on ei is aimed at elucidating the academic, social, mobile, and creative traits of adolescents as relatively mature individuals. in particular, researchers maccann, jiang, brown, double, bucich & minbashian conducted a meta-analysis of the relationship between success and ei of adolescents. some results were stable, others contradictory. example (if the level of variance is not taken into account), the self-analysis of adolescents with high ei showed a willingness to demonstrate the best academic abilities. such readiness could not be shown by standardized tests, which are more objective (2020, p. 150). however, researchers have made three important conclusions about academic performance and ei: a) success increases with the greater ability of pupils to regulate academic emotions; b) success increases when didactic material and methods, etc. correspond to the emotional and intellectual profile of the pupil (academic content coincides with ei); c) the academic performance of a pupil with high ei increases with a more developed level of social relations in the classroom. thus, academic performance has been dependent on ei, but in various aspects that are difficult to individualize directly in education. it is obligatory to mention a group of methods, which are based not on the perception / evaluation of oneself, but on the perception, reaction and emotional evaluation of other objects and / or subjects. particular interest has the perception and evaluation of objects that have aesthetic and social significance and promote reflection and reception. these are various artefacts: from paintings and music to cartoons and movies. moreover, already in the first stages of the project, scientists have noticed that primary schoolchildren are the least sensitive to static images, due to age psychology. interestingly, different types of art and their specifics arouse different interpretations and interests in elementary schoolchildren, and therefore have different diagnostic potential. to illustrate above-mentioned, here are two different experiments that have shown different validity. in 2018, in korea an attempt to use the aesthetic and expressive potential of live music to define, shape or at least modify school pupils in live instrumental performance for a long time was made. the basic part was regular listening of live classical instrumental music in real performance for pupils of elementary school. markers of ei, aggression and anxiety were recorded to avoid one-object quasi-experimental research. appropriate measurements were made at the beginning and end. the result was quite emotional intelligence of schoolchildren in the educational process olha babiak et al. 19 unexpected: after 24 weeks of perception of live music, minor changes occurred only in the scale of aggression (reduction), anxiety (reduction and ability to perceive sensory information more calmly), while no changes in ei were observed in basic parameters (kim & kim, 2018). thus, we can draw an important conclusion, which we will face in the analysis of the correlation of ei with other major manifestations of higher nervous activity. this conclusion is as follows: the increase in aesthetic sensitivity, the presence / absence of musical abilities of perception or performance is in no way related to ei, which is a separate and stable substructure of personality in early school age. a year later, scientists from another continent developed a new interpretation test for primary school children, but dynamic artefacts became the object of perception and interpretation cartoons, movies, clips. we will not go into the specifics of the diagnosis (read in the authors' article (sastre et al., 2019), but the effectiveness, validity and multifaceted results exceeded all expectations. according to the result with different percentages, all pupils were divided into three groups: naive, very interpretive and sensitive. this test, after analytical processing, has proven to be a universal tool for identifying the gender specificity of ei (sensitivity), high ei and its social manifestations (openness, empathy, constructive behaviour, high ei). it is also valid for identifying social and behavioural problems (naive interpreters), pupils with mental disorders (naive), etc. the use of dynamic affective artefacts proved to be the most revealing tool, and the project itself was named emocine (sastre et al., 2019). therefore, in our case, the study of traditional models of detection and diagnosis of ei, there are no special difficulties. this is due to the fact that, first, ei is at the intersection of cognitive and emotional abilities. they help to effectively adapt and socialize in the world. secondly, and most importantly, the history of the study of ei is only few decades. even some of the pioneers (d. caruso, r. salovey) and others once predicted: the number of models-definitions and methods of assessing the diagnosis of ei at this stage is quite limited and concentrated around the main categories abilities (emotions + cognition) (mayer et al., 2004). another popular model is the mixed one, which at the ontological level is a constructive conglomeration of mental and personal qualities that are individual to each. recently, models that can diagnose only one aspect of ei have also become popular. nevertheless of the choice of model, the main pedagogical issue is to identify and measure the quality of ei of a pupil. d. goleman made a great contribution to the pedagogical and psychological measurement of the level broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 20 of ei. based on his observations, he suggested that traditional comprehensive school assessment tests (sats), diagnosis of the level of desires while professional orientation and detection of high iq level don’t guarantee successful professional and personal life (goleman, 1995). this conclusion was largely revolutionary and led to the recognition that the natural ability to perceive, to control and to use emotions, etc. is much more important than the partial rational or competency properties of an individual. d. goleman was one of the first to give a simple and comprehensive definition of ei, which can be the basis for the development of observational diagnostics of ei among elementary schoolchildren. the scientist argues that ei is “such personal abilities as self-motivation, resistance to stress and frustration, control over outbursts of affect and the ability to refuse pleasure; self-regulation of mood and the ability not to allow experiences to dominate the processes of thinking, empathy and hope "(goleman, 1998, p. 86). as can be seen from the definition, the external manifestations of ei can be easily observed and qualitatively qualified by an experienced teacher, based on the parameters of adequacy, stability, a certain length of time and appropriate self-control of the teacher. inside the framework of a mixed model of ei the most valid is method of measurement proposed by bar-on (2000). the scientist to some extent contrasted ei with rational on the basis of neurotic disorders (rationalization is one of the mechanisms of anxiety). the scientist argued that the basis of ei is external to the world abilities, mostly non-cognitive, which are differentiated into specific skills. the psychologist identified 5 general personal competencies, which are based on a constructive and consistent optimistic attitude to one's own natural "ego". we consider it expedient to summarize them briefly: perception and knowledge of one's own personality; need and skills of interpersonal communication; need and ability for social adaptation; the ability to control emotions (especially in their extreme manifestation impulsivity, affect, stress, etc.), as well as given by nature the ability to perceive most life events in a positive light (feelings of happiness is dominated). it seems to us that this classification is evolving to reach one of the basic needs the ability to choose, organize or imagine a safe world around. the tests proposed by d. goleman and their rating scale for determining ei were based on a quick and effective optimal solution of predicted life situations, which was based not so much on decision-making but response. such a simple system can be easily transformed to observe the solution of primary pupils' educational personal and social problems. an analysis of this approach by researchers of the following generations emotional intelligence of schoolchildren in the educational process olha babiak et al. 21 revealed that the basic and elementary components of a quick and easy method of assessing ei are based on emotional control, self-esteem and compassion (dewis, 2018). consequently, generally accepted tests show a significant age orientation. if in primary school they do not show correlations of ei with other hidden or overt manifestations of consciousness, then in adolescence and high school pupils can be observed level of awareness of their ei and predisposition to depression. on the other hand, children's lability don’t allow to do it. these processes are still poorly understood by primary schoolchildren. thus, a. lombas and others have proven that such subrating scales of ei as awareness of correction suggests on high level of own ei that can be found in the basic of own stress (lombas et al., 2014). we can assume that in the primary school age the factor of excessive emotional attention to oneself can be regarded as relatively pathological. recently, there have been attempts experimentally to prove the link between ei and creativity in primary school children. interestingly, the experiment showed a gender correlation, but no association was found between ei and creativity. that is, creativity is more related to fantasy, intuition, and imagery, while the manifestation of ei is connected with pragmatism and objectivity (salavera et al., 2017). the previous experiment involved spanish pupils. about 10 years ago in the uk, it was attempted to figure out the activity of ei and academic achievement. the experimenters used a cross-sectional survey by rice. the results show that ei and social performance currently have a strong impact on academic ability. however, different components of ei have different implications for academic success: the main predictors were low impulsivity and high motivation associated with social adaptability (vidal et al., 2012). an analysis of scientific publications of 1990s tried to substantiate the idea that ei is the same autonomous entity as the traditional concepts of analytical and logical intelligence. however, present-day researches have shown that the deep fusion of an individual with globalization, socio-economic and spiritual (cultural, postmodern, and therefore undefined) changes in society have changed the emotional and behavioural nature of human. scientific papers demonstrated that ei became a natural continuation of the development of human ontogenesis. now it seems strange to contrast people with the presence or absence of such intelligence; it is incorrect to analyze it autonomously, introduce special psychological tests or involve psychologists to detect it. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 22 identification of ei and its correlation through the teacher pedagogical observation there is no doubt that the modern understanding of human psychology should be minimally associated with external stimuli and motives. we do not miss the idea that the presence of the development and application of ei is determined only by external factors. therefore, among the many definitions, we are most impressed by the construction of ei of mayer and salovey. in the following short discourse, we will try to extrapolate the components they offer to the primary school age in order to further realize the main purpose of our article. thus, the interpretation of ei by mayer and salovey, taking into account the leading ukrainian educators, including the authors of this study (in the form of a semi-open questionnaire), reveals the following main practical correlations. the need and ability to manage emotions. this pattern represents the interaction of thinking and emotions. this demonstrates the integrity, synergy of a healthy child's psyche, which when choosing behaviour, successful decision-making tries to do holistically without even understanding it. awareness and response to heterogeneous emotions. this aspect means that a child perceives all channels of information and its processing, including irrational, intuitive, emotional, etc., as equal and natural. in addition, such pupils feel the authenticity / non-authenticity of their own or others' emotions, the nature of their origin, the adequacy of expression in words and gestures, and so on. feeling and understanding of emotions – is the use of emotions in practice. finally, we consider the most important ability to assess and accurately express emotions of ones and other people. these emotions can be caused by real external or internal mental processes, but as a rule, for a person is not particularly important in the intraor extroverted nature of the origin of events. the authors of this article, who analyzed their own experience, scientific and methodological literature, have opinion to consider separately the most important correlation: "dynamics, flexibility of ei the speed of society" fully meet the homogeneous qualities of ei. in addition, we propose to replace the concept of ei as a mechanism of external adaptation onto the internal immanent nature. self-realization, adaptation, the desire for knowledge are completely congruent with those systemic changes that determine the nature of modern society. of course, it is not for everyone. as before, there is now a proportional quality of the ratio of opportunities and emotional intelligence of schoolchildren in the educational process olha babiak et al. 23 those who can / cannot finish them, i.e. the correlation of quality and quantity. in this context, two opposing definitions of ei are very interesting for our study. you may not find them alone, but we've summarized them based on an analysis of many sources. the definitions concerning ei as an externally oriented mechanism of survival, adaptation and socialization were ancient and the first. for example, r. bar-on almost 40 years ago believed that ei is a set of abilities of competencies to provide solutions for external problems of situations of aspects of survival (bar-on, 1988). however, it is worth acknowledging that even then the scientist recognized: externally oriented potential of ei (adaptive abilities, communication skills, selfpresentation skills, ability to overcome difficulties) corresponds to internal qualities: self-confidence, social responsibility, emotional flexibility, selfcontrol, optimism and more. all abovementioned have very general considerations. in the past, it was believed that a natural clear contrast between reason and emotion existed in many countries under soviet union influence. however, pupils with high ei successfully use emotions in solving practical problems. the decisive here is not so much objectivity but the naturalness and adequacy of how they feel in a particular situation. we used the above international experience and the experience of ukrainian teachers (including the modest experience of the authors of these lines) and presented some useful generalizations related to the purpose of the work (see table 1). table 1. the components of emotional intelligence, their essence and markers of definition due to pedagogical observation the component of ei the essence of the ei component (according the dominant definition) how is manifested by observation or correlation with other qualities awareness of emotions the ability to be aware of one's own and others' emotions, to understand their meaning and the need behind them it is manifested by a quick and adequate reaction to other people's emotions, quick switching and lability of one's own; adequate actions as reactions to others or their own emotions. assertiveness (by s. covey win-win ability to adequately, in accordance with the internal it is manifested by the absence of self-conflicting broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 24 situation) needs, to express thoughts, emotions and intentions, to defend them, but not to violate the rights of others. emotions (anger, aggression, resentment, etc.) and the ability to gently, diplomatically and naturally express own needs in order to implement them in society self-esteem the ability to recognize and calmly relate to ones positive qualities and shortcomings. it is expressed in adequate or slightly inflated self-esteem and the absence of internal conflicts due to the diversity of qualities. independence the ability to be confident in own intentions, views, beliefs. it is manifested, first of all, in emotional independence from habits, temptations and other people. flexibility the ability to naturally without affectation to change the role and manner of behaviour, way of thinking, emotions, etc. it is manifested in such lability, which has not a selfish, but a constructive and socially beneficial nature. a pupil does not conflict with reality, but flexibly interacts with it. non-impulsiveness the ability no respond to instinctively significant stimuli and postpone their satisfaction until adequate comprehension and evaluation it is manifested in the relative strength of will (as for a primary schoolchildren) and the choice of long-term strategic success instead of short and fast. reality assessment the ability to zoom their feelings, thoughts, dreams as close as possible to the laws of reality (first of all social). it is manifested in the absence of excessive dreaminess, magic of thinking, expression of unrealistic conclusions, proposals. empathy the ability to empathize it turns out that the emotions and states of others are important to a pupil and he responds to emotional intelligence of schoolchildren in the educational process olha babiak et al. 25 them with his emotions and behaviour. optimism possessing end-to-end quality to give all events of the external and internal world a positive connotation. it is observed as faith in oneself and own strength to solve or experience different situations in a positive way. also, such a pupil does not allow destructive thoughts or attitudes. happiness a person's higher ability to accept oneself and the world around as a beautiful and favourable environment. it is manifested in inspiration, joy and high spirits here and now, as well as love for oneself and others. source: author's own conception surveys of teachers-practitioners to observe the dynamics of ei of primary schoolchildren for some time t the most valid were the qualities that can be observed and recorded in a short time or artificially created educational conditions: cognitive openness, inner freedom, stress, spontaneity, self-esteem. dynamics markers and averaged (invariant) explanations are presented in the next section (conclusions) in table 2 in order to avoid epistemological recurrences. it should be noted that the data summarized as a result of the analysis of the questionnaires (manifestation, components, dynamics of ei development) have become so noticeable even in natural observations that politics, culture and education must respond. for example, last year's research in eastern europe (russia) showed that over the past few years, ei as an internal correlate of rapidly evolving social reality has risen sharply among pupils. this pushed to the background traditional methods and ways of teaching, instead of performance, dramatization, play, improvisation, selfpresentation, design has become very popular and effective (suleyeva, 2021). it shows that ei in comparison with the rational component is becoming increasingly important in the learning and self-realization of a child. in this regard, in russia, ukraine and other republics of eastern europe there is a sharp problem of developing innovative programs for the new school. all programs should take into account the relationship of rational emotional and intuitive in the cognitive activity of a child. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 26 conclusions we formulate the first general conclusion as follows: due to the growth of multidisciplinary and psychological approaches, the concept of "components of emotional intelligence" as a group of natural qualities that cannot be fully listed due to functional intersection with other manifestations of central nervous system. for the same reasons, there have been alternative methods of diagnosing ei in recent years. we define the most important correlation as the dynamic connection of ei with society ("dynamics and flexibility of ei – is the speed of development of society") absolutely correspond to the homogeneous qualities of ei. in addition, we propose to replace the concept of ei as a mechanism of external adaptation to the internal immanent nature. selfrealization, adaptation, the desire for knowledge are completely congruent with those systemic changes that determine the nature of modern society the following correlations were most often marked during pedagogical observation: the need and ability to manage emotions; awareness of emotions and response to heterogeneous emotions; feeling and understanding of emotions; ability to assess and accurately express emotions. the components of ei, their essence and markers of definition are given in more detail in table. 1. below, in table. 2, we present the components of ei that are easiest, simplest and most validly diagnosed by teachers: table 2. ei components and their main markers quality marker cognitive openness the teacher can easily observe the dynamics of this quality due to the emergence of new social roles in pupils, and increasingly mature. accordingly, the activities are becoming more complicated, especially aimed at self-realization and gaining experience. inner freedom this dynamic quality is manifested in the fact that pupil is easier, simpler and more efficient to make the right choice, without being hampered by limiting factors: a sense of responsibility, collective cooperation and more. the schoolchild is increasingly inclined to a more flexible education system, and the effectiveness of his educational activities is growing. he acts freely, easily and creatively in accordance with his intention, which he is largely aware of. stress resistance the teacher can observe the growth of this quality by increasing the appropriate lability of emotions and their stability in situations emotional intelligence of schoolchildren in the educational process olha babiak et al. 27 of uncertainty, stress and so on. at the same time, communication with new people or pupils who do not have sufficient lability, causes high empathy in the owners of high ei as a manifestation of emotional culture. spontaneity this feature can be observed in the development of reflection as a natural manifestation of the maturity of the subject. reflexivity with development becomes more and more multi-vector: from the awareness of their own mental processes to complex social roles. but owner of ei is always has a natural introspection that allows to quickly and spontaneously perform actions and deeds. selfassessment it is the main marker of the development of the growth of adequacy, and positive coloration. the teacher has many markers for observing such dynamics: from academic success to effective communication and leadership. source: author's own conception therefore, we point out that at the theoretical level, the hypothesis, if not proven, is at least justified, as personal data on a limited group of respondents confirm its practical validity. research limitations. it should be noted that the surveyed teachers represented only one region of the country, so the article is more demonstrative than the final factual nature and requires territorial expansion. acknowledgment the authors sincerely thank the teachers who took part in the survey, and also report that the study is completely authentic and is based on numerical indicators. to confirm this, we inform that the sociological part of the work was performed by author 1, statistical author 2. the analysis of international literature on several aspects was performed by author 3 and author 6, and the main generalizing and concluding work was done by author 4, and the chief editor became author 5. references alonso, a., d., león-del-barco, b., mendo-lázaro, s., & iglesias gallego, d. (2020). examining body satisfaction and emotional–social intelligence among school children: educational implications. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(6), 2120. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062120 bar-on, r. (1988). the development of a concept of psychological well-being [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. rhodes university. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062120 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 28 bar-on, r. (2000). emotional and social intelligence: insights from the emotional quotient inventory (eq-i). in r. bar-on & j.d.a. parker (eds.), handbook of emotional intelligence. jossey-bass. dewis, p. (2018). children’s public health. early childhood studies: a student′ s guide. sage. fernández-berrocal, p., ruiz-aranda, d., salguero, j. m., palomera, r., & extremera, n. (2018). the relationship of botín foundation's emotional intelligence test (tiefba) with personal and scholar adjustment of spanish adolescents. revista de psicodidáctica (english ed.), 23(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicoe.2017.07.005 garbenis, s., geležinienė, r., & šiaučiulytė, g. (2020). development of emotional intelligence in students with special educational needs. social welfare: interdisciplinary approach, 10(1), 106-120. https://epublications.vu.lt/object/elaba:78424493/ go1eman, d. (1998). working with emotional intelligence. bantam books. goleman, d. (1995). emotional intelligence. bantam books. guerra-bustamante, j., león-del-barco, b., yuste-tosina, r., lópez-ramos, v. m., & mendo-lázaro, s. (2019). emotional intelligence and psychological wellbeing in adolescents. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(10), 1720. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/10/1720 kim, h. s., & kim, h. s. (2018). effect of a musical instrument performance program on emotional intelligence, anxiety, and aggression in korean elementary school children. psychology of music, 46(3), 440-453. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735617729028 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lombas, a. s., martín-albo, j., valdivia-salas, s., & jiménez, t. i. (2014). the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence and depressive symptomatology: the mediating role of perceived stress. journal of adolescence, 37(7), 1069-1076. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.07.016 maccann, c., jiang, y., brown, l. e. r., double, k. s., bucich, m., & minbashian, a. (2020). emotional intelligence predicts academic performance: a metaanalysis. psychological bulletin, 146(2), 150–186. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000219 mayer, j. d., salovey, p., & caruso, d. r. (2004). emotional intelligence: theory, findings, and implications. psychological inquiry, 15, 197-215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicoe.2017.07.005 https://epublications.vu.lt/object/elaba:78424493/ https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/10/1720 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0305735617729028 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.07.016 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/bul0000219 emotional intelligence of schoolchildren in the educational process olha babiak et al. 29 norboevich, t. b. (2020). analysis of psychological theory of emotional intelligence. european journal of research and reflection in educational sciences, 8(3), 99-104. http://www.idpublications.org/wpcontent/uploads/2020/03/full-paper-analysis-ofpsychological-theory-of-emotionalintelligence.pdf palmer, b. r., gignac, g., manocha, r., & stough, c. (2005). a psychometric evaluation of the mayer–salovey–caruso emotional intelligence test version 2.0. intelligence, 33(3), 285-305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2004.11.003 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 raghavan, n., & panboli, s. (2018). measuring emotional intelligence of school children – a pilot study (january 1, 2018). impact: international journal of research in humanities, arts and literature, vol. 6(1), 207-218. salavera, c., usán, p., chaverri, i., gracia, n., aure, p., & delpueyo, m. (2017). emotional intelligence and creativity in first-and second-year primary school children. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 237, 1179-1183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.176 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 sastre, s., artola, t., & alvarado, j. m. (2019). emotional intelligence in elementary school children. emocine, a novel assessment test based on the interpretation of cinema scenes. frontiers in psychology, 10, 1882. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01882 suleyeva, k., tovma, n., & zakirova, o. (2021). developing emotional intelligence in elementary school children in russia: verbal and non-verbal communication. education 3-13, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2021.1934060 vidal rodeiro, c. l., emery, j. l., & bell, j. f. (2012). emotional intelligence and academic attainment of british secondary school children: a cross-sectional survey. educational studies, 38(5), 521-539. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2011.643115 http://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/full-paper-analysis-of-psychological-theory-of-emotional-intelligence.pdf http://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/full-paper-analysis-of-psychological-theory-of-emotional-intelligence.pdf http://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/full-paper-analysis-of-psychological-theory-of-emotional-intelligence.pdf http://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/full-paper-analysis-of-psychological-theory-of-emotional-intelligence.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2004.11.003 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.176 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01882 https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2021.1934060 https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2011.643115 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 51-58| https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/331 submitted: march 20th, 2022| accepted for publication: june 13th, 2022 functional implications of oral papillomatosis elena-cristina andrei 1 , oprea-valentin busu 2 , valentina gabriela bobilca 3 , irina paun 4 1 phd student, university of medicine and pharmacy craiova, craiova, romania, andreicristina2201@gmail.com 2 senior lecturer phd, teacher training department, university of craiova, craiova, romania, valentin_busu@yahoo.com 3 student, university of medicine and pharmacy carol davila bucharest, bucharest, romania, valentina.bobilca@gmail.com 4 student, university of medicine and pharmacy carol davila bucharest, bucharest, romania, irinapaun10@gmail.com abstract: the papillomatous lesion has a number of implications that destabilize the normal functioning of the stomatognathic system, but also it has psychological implications. a patient with a papilloma located in an area of maximum visibility tends to be less exposed in public, to reduce socialization, to feel embarrassed. oral papilloma affects the masticatory function, phonation, but also aesthetics. understanding how local immunity works in patients diagnosed with oral papilloma is essential. local immunity influences the evolution of the papillomatous oral lesion. toll-like receptors are extremely important in the immune process of oral papilloma. toll-like receptors can be used as indicators of lesion progression. a reduced expression of these receptors in the focus of the lesion is suggestive of pathological progress. it is also emphasized that in the oral cavity we find a well-represented local immune system which cells have an immune role and whose expression influences the evolution of the disease. the most incriminating factor in the occurrence of oral papilloma is hpv infection. the persistent inflammatory process produced by the hpv virus stimulates the development of oral, pharyngeal, laryngeal neoplasms. the hpv virus acts as a direct inducer in the process of transforming the benign lesion into a malignant lesion. macrophages play an important role in the malignancy potential induced by the hpv virus. macrophages are activated by increasing the metabolic rate and fighting tumor cells. keywords: oral papilloma; local immunity; hpv; toll-like receptors; psychological implications. how to cite: andrei, e.-c., busu, o.-v., bobilca, v.g., & paun, i. (2022). functional implications of oral papillomatosis. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 51-58. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/331 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/331 mailto:andreicristina2201@gmail.com mailto:valentin_busu@yahoo.com mailto:valentina.bobilca@gmail.com mailto:irinapaun10@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/331 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 52 introduction etiology the oral papilloma is a lesion of the squamous epithelium of the mouth frequently associated with the presence of hpv infection at this level (orenuga, oluwo, oluwakuyide, & olawuyi, 2018). in addition to that, the presence of hpv in asymptomatic patients has been proven to be approximately 7% for all hpv genotypes (tam, et al., 2018). it is of great importance that this lesion is accurately diagnosed and treated accordingly. human papillomavirus is a pathogen with up to 200 different genotypes, that can be further categorised as being low-risk variants such as 6, 11 or 32 and high-risk variants, 16 and 18 (testi, et al., 2016). in the oral cavity, an infection with the former can commonly cause condilomas. the latter have been known to cause malignant transformations of the squamous epithelial tissue that can lead to the occurrence of oral cacinomas (syrjänen, 2018). transmission oral papillomas can be acquired in many ways. one of these is represented by horizontal transmission. traditionally, papillomatosis, regardless of the localisation, is viewed as a sexually-transmited infection. the sexual component of transmission is not to be neglected, as the number of lifetime sexual partners has been found to be a significant risk factor for head and neck hpv-related cancer3, in spite of oral sexual practices not being predictive of infection (d'souza, et al., 2016). more examples of horizontal transmission are through contact with contaminated objects or skin-to-skin contact with an afflicted person. cases of vertical transmission have also been documented, hpv being present in the placenta and amniotic fluid. the most frequent manner is the fetus passing through the mother’s infected vaginal canal. the chance of transmission grows with the mother’s viral load (ryndock, & meyers, 2014). this explain the presence of hpv infection in infants. although the most frequent genotype found was high-risk hpv16, these oral infections has proven to be transitory in young children (berretta, et al., 2013). another situation worth mentioning is that of the stomatological clinic. both the dental care provider and the patient can be exposed to infection if certain measures are not applied. certain plastic instruments can be sources of infection if not properly sterilized, as hpv can last up to one week on surfaces (petca, et al., 2020). furthermore, viral particles being functional implications of oral papillomatosis elena-cristina andrei et al. 53 dispersed during ablations or excisions in the oral cavity can predispose medical professionals to hpv infections (pavan, et al., 2020). epidemiology globally, approximately 38 000 cases of head and neck malignancies are attributable to papillomavirus infection. three types of such cancers have been associated with this virus: oropharyngeal, laryngeal cancer and cancer of the oral cavity (de martel, plummer, vignat, & franceschi, 2017). according to globocan, in 2020, more than 377 000 cases and 177 000 deaths have been registered around the globe and attributed to the hpv infection. in contrast with endometrial carcinoma, esopharyngeal and oral cavity malignancies mainly affect states with a high human development index. worth noting is the fact that incidence rates as well as mortality rates are lower for women. hpv information center estimates that in europe 58.000 women are diagnosed with cervical from which 26.000 die every year, making it the 9th most frequent tip of cancer among women. oral cancer has a higher incidence and mortality in men comparing to women in europe and romania and in case of both sexes the number of cases and deaths grows with the age. types of oral papilloma benign lesion associated with hpv are the following: squamous papilloma, verruca vulgaris, condyloma acuminatum and multifocal epithelial hyperplasia or heck’s disease, all most commonly attributed to the low-risk genotypes of the virus (betz, 2019). squamous papilloma is the main oral lesion, being recognised by its “cauliflower-like” surface. verruca vulgaris, a sesyle, exophytic lesion, the most common cutanate manifestation of infection, is not as common in the oral region. condyloma acuminatum is usually found in the genital area, oral infection leading to a suspicion of sexually-acquired infection (pringle, 2014). squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck is a group of neoplasms originated in the mucosal surface of the oral cavity that is associated with the hpv infection, the 16th variant being the most prevalent type in 90% of the cases (hübbers, & akgül, 2015). case report a 40-year-old male patient presented to the oro-maxillo-facial surgery clinic of the craiova emergency hospital for a localized lesion in the lingual organ. the patient does not have any systemic disease and does broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 54 not follow any drug treatment. as vicious habits we note smoking (about 15 cigarettes per day) and drinking coffee. the beginning of sexual life was at the age of 16 and the patient is currently married. following the anamnesis performed, it is noted that the lesion had a slow growth, the beginning of its appearance being a year and a half ago. the initial size of the lesion was imperceptible in the early stages and did not alter the normal functions of the stomatognathic system. as the lesion grew in size, the patient began to feel discomfort during chewing food, burning sensations, and irritation from contact with hot or spicy foods or drinks. when the lesion reached important dimensions (0.8 centimeters), the patient also complained of phonation and aesthetic disorders. the lingual papilloma is located at the apical level of the lingual organ, which makes the lesion visible during speech. the patient also noticed the occurrence of lesional bleeding in cases of accidental contact with rough food or toothbrush. following discussions with the patient, he stated that he did not know if any family members had been diagnosed with human papilloma virus infection in the past or present. clinical aspect: the lesion has an oval shape, regular contour, pinkreddish color, dimensions of 0.8 centimeters, wide implant base. with the patient's consent, the surgical excision of the lingual papilloma was performed by the classic scalpel technique. local anesthesia was performed by infiltration with anesthetic substance with adrenaline for optimal vasoconstriction that reduces bleeding. throughout the operation, the patient was cooperative and calm. for histological examination, the lingual mucosal biopsy was fixed in 10% formalin for 24 hours, embedded in paraffin, sectioned at 4 microns and the general histological staining was performed: hematoxylin-eosin and trichromic according to the standard protocol. the histological examination revealed the following aspects: hyperkeratosis; acanthosis; presence of koilocyte cells in the spinous layer. we also performed immunohistochemical reactions in which we used monoclonal anti-hpv antibodies: anti-hpv antibody [kih8] (ab245950) which reacts with all types of hpv viruses. functional implications of oral papillomatosis elena-cristina andrei et al. 55 fig. 1 oral papilloma located on the dorsum of the lingual organ at the apex fig 2. fragment of the lingual mucosa excised by classic surgical procedure broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 56 fig. 3. lingual mucosa biopsy. immunohistochmestry antibody anti-hpv[kih8] (ab245950) positive reaction discussions oral papillomatous lesions tend to affect an increasing number of subjects (tam, et al., 2018); we note that most patients avoid presenting in the early stages and reach specialist control when the injury affects the quality of life. in the present case, the patient complained of mastication, phonation and aesthetic disorders. postponing the visit to the doctor can endanger the patient's life if the lesion is infected with hpv viruses, especially oncogenic strains type 16 and 18 (syrjänen, 2018); according to recent studies, the patient is in the risk group for infection with hpv virus because he is a smoker (zang, & hu, 2021); lack of information on vaccination prevention methods (gilkey, & mcree, 2016); the correct information of the family members regarding the presence of the infection and the mode of transmission (petca, et al., 2020; kero, & rautava, 2019); the importance of performing the histological and immunohistochemical examination to establish a certainty diagnosis, but also performing tests that include the study technique of molecular dna (alsharif, et al., 2021). conclusions oral papillomatous lesions require complex clinical and paraclinical examination before a definitive diagnosis can be made. correct information to patients about the risks of hpv infection, but also about methods to prevent infection are essential elements in current dental practice. functional implications of oral papillomatosis elena-cristina andrei et al. 57 references alsharif, u., hofmann, m., gebhard, m., tharun, l., rades, d., sieg, p., & hakim, s. g. (2021). double positivity for hpv dna/p16ink4a does not influence survival of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. anticancer research, 41(11), 5557–5568. https://doi.org/10.21873/anticanres.15369 . berretta, r., gizzo, s., dall'asta, a., mazzone, e., monica, m., franchi, l., peri, f., patrelli, t. s., & bacchi modena, a. (2013). risk of preterm delivery associated with prior treatment of cervical precancerous lesion according to the depth of the cone. disease markers, 35(6), 721–726. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/686027 betz, s. j. (2019). hpv-related papillary lesions of the oral mucosa: a review. head and neck pathology, 13(1), 80–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12105-019-01003-7 de martel, c., plummer, m., vignat, j., & franceschi, s. (2017). worldwide burden of cancer attributable to hpv by site, country and hpv type. international journal of cancer, 141(4), 664–670. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.30716 d'souza, g., wentz, a., kluz, n., zhang, y., sugar, e., youngfellow, r. m., guo, y., xiao, w., & gillison, m. l. (2016). sex differences in risk factors and natural history of oral human papillomavirus infection. the journal of infectious diseases, 213(12), 1893–1896. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiw063 gilkey, m. b., & mcree, a. l. (2016). provider communication about hpv vaccination: a systematic review. human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 12(6), 1454–1468. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2015.1129090 hübbers, c. u., & akgül, b. (2015). hpv and cancer of the oral cavity. virulence, 6(3), 244–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2014.999570 kero, k., & rautava, j. (2019). hpv infections in heterosexual couples: mechanisms and covariates of virus transmission. acta cytologica, 63(2), 143–147. https://doi.org/10.1159/000494710 orenuga, o.o., oluwo, a., oluwakuyide, r.t., olawuyi, a.b. (2018). recurrent oral squamous papilloma in a pediatric patient: case report and review of the literature. nigerian journal of clinical practice, 21(12), 1674–7. https://doi.org/10.4103/njcp.njcp_407_17 pavan, n., crestani, a., abrate, a., de nunzio, c., esperto, f., giannarini, g., galfano, a., gregori, a., liguori, g., bartoletti, r., porpiglia, f., simonato, a., trombetta, c., tubaro, a., ficarra, v., novara, g., & research urology network (run) (2020). risk of virus contamination through https://doi.org/10.21873/anticanres.15369 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/686027 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12105-019-01003-7 https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.30716 https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiw063 https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2015.1129090 https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2014.999570 https://doi.org/10.1159/000494710 https://doi.org/10.4103/njcp.njcp_407_17 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 58 surgical smoke during minimally invasive surgery: a systematic review of the literature on a neglected issue revived in the covid-19 pandemic era. european urology focus, 6(5), 1058–1069. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euf.2020.05.021 petca, a., borislavschi, a., zvanca, m. e., petca, r. c., sandru, f., & dumitrascu, m. c. (2020). non-sexual hpv transmission and role of vaccination for a better future (review). experimental and therapeutic medicine, 20(6), 186. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2020.9316 petca, a., borislavschi, a., zvanca, m. e., petca, r. c., sandru, f., & dumitrascu, m. c. (2020). non-sexual hpv transmission and role of vaccination for a better future (review). experimental and therapeutic medicine, 20(6), 186. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2020.9316 pringle, g. a. (2014). the role of human papillomavirus in oral disease. dental clinics of north america, 58(2), 385–399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cden.2013.12.008 ryndock, e. j., & meyers, c. (2014). a risk for non-sexual transmission of human papillomavirus?. expert review of anti-infective therapy, 12(10), 1165–1170. https://doi.org/10.1586/14787210.2014.959497 syrjänen, s. (2018). oral manifestations of human papillomavirus infections. european journal of oral sciences, 126 suppl 1(suppl suppl 1), 49–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/eos.12538 tam, s., fu, s., xu, l., krause, k. j., lairson, d. r., miao, h., sturgis, e. m., & dahlstrom, k. r. (2018). the epidemiology of oral human papillomavirus infection in healthy populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis. oral oncology, 82, 91–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oraloncology.2018.04.005 testi, d., nardone, m., melone, p., cardelli, p., ottria, l., & arcuri, c. (2016). hpv and oral lesions: preventive possibilities, vaccines and early diagnosis of malignant lesions. oral & implantology, 8(2-3), 45–51. https://doi.org/10.11138/orl/2015.8.2.045 zang, l., & hu, y. (2021). risk factors associated with hpv persistence after conization in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion. archives of gynecology and obstetrics, 304(6), 1409–1416. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-02106217-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euf.2020.05.021 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2020.9316 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2020.9316 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cden.2013.12.008 https://doi.org/10.1586/14787210.2014.959497 https://doi.org/10.1111/eos.12538 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oraloncology.2018.04.005 https://doi.org/10.11138/orl/2015.8.2.045 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-021-06217-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-021-06217-1 microsoft word brain_2_3.doc 5 genetic algorithms principles towards hidden markov model nabil m. hewahi department of computer science islamic university of gaza, palestine (palestinian territories) nhewahi@iugaza.edu.ps abstract in this paper we propose a general approach based on genetic algorithms (gas) to evolve hidden markov models (hmm). the problem appears when experts assign probability values for hmm, they use only some limited inputs. the assigned probability values might not be accurate to serve in other cases related to the same domain. we introduce an approach based on gas to find out the suitable probability values for the hmm to be mostly correct in more cases than what have been used to assign the probability values. keywords: hidden markov model; genetic algorithms 1. introduction hidden markov model (hmm) is a statistical model based on probabilities used in various applications such as cryptanalysis, machine translation, speech and hand recognition, natural language processing, gene prediction and bioinformatics [1][5][7-12]. a markov model is a probabilistic process over a finite set, {s1, ..., sk}, usually called its states. each state-transition generates a character from the alphabet of the process. in a regular markov model, the state is directly visible to the observer, and therefore the state transition probabilities are the only parameters. in a hidden markov model, the state is not directly visible, but variables influenced by the state are visible. each state has a probability distribution over the possible output tokens. therefore, the sequence of tokens generated by a hmm gives some information about the sequence of states. there are three problems associated with hmm, evaluation, decoding, and learning problems. the evaluation problem, given the parameters of the model, compute the probability of a particular output sequence, and the probabilities of the hidden state values given that output sequence. the evaluation problem can be solved by forward-backward algorithm. the decoding problem, given the parameters of the model, find the most likely sequence of hidden states that could have generated a given output sequence. this is solved by viterbi algorithm. the learning problem, given an output sequence or a set of such sequences, find the most likely set of state transition and output probabilities. this problem is solved by the baum-welch algorithm [11]. hewahi [4] presented a modified version of censored production rule (cpr) called modified censored production rules (mcpr). cpr is proposed by michalski and winston [6 ] to capture real time situations. mcpr can fit with hidden markov model and present a scheme to compute the certainty values of the obtained conclusions out of the induced rules. to compute the certainty values for the rule actions (conclusions), the approach exploited only the probability values associated with the hidden markov model without using any of the other well known certainty computation approaches. hewahi [3] also proposed an intelligent networking management system based on the induced mcprs extracted from a networking structure based on hmm. the advantage of using this technique is that mcprs are very useful in real time applications and can be adapted over time based on the obtained experience of the networking working process. let us consider the hmm presented in figure 1. brainovations brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 figure 1. hmm to describe a relation between the states med. and high with the observations (invisible states) cold and hot. the summary of figure 1 says: p(cold | med) = 0.9, p(hot | med) = 0.1, p(cold | high) = 0.3, p(hot | high) = 0.7, p(med |med) = 0.2, p(high | med) = 0.8, p(high | high) = 0.6, p(med | high) = 0.4 the hmm in figure 1can be represented in a rule structure form as shown in [3]. if med then cold 0.9 if med then hot 0.1 if high then cold 0.3 if high then hot 0.7 if med then med 0.2 if med then high 0.8 if high then high 0.6 if high then med 0.4 the initial probability values in hmm are usually assigned based on a survey on several related inputs. for example in general a commonly used related words could be car-type, country made and model. these words may appear with various probability values in several related texts, therefore a general probability based on all inputs are assigned to hmm. the question is that whether the adopted probability expresses the reality. to get the optimum probability values that might make hmm represents the real situation, we shall use the general approach of genetic algorithms (gas). we choose gas because they are very good algorithms in evolving new solution and are easy to implement. gas are inspired from biology and based on natural genetics and survival of the fittest, it is used in searching, optimization, and machine learning. ga proved very high capability in many research areas and in many np-problems. gas use what so called genetic operators to modify or update the population (set of individuals/ chromosomes that represent the problem solutions). some of the well known genetic operators are reproduction, crossover and mutation [2]. in this paper we shall propose a general guide line that will be of great benefit to discover the proper hmm probability values. this will be done by having several hmm within a population. 2. the proposed approach our main concern is to find somehow a mechanism that ensures the values assigned as probability values in hmm to the far extent are correct. to do this we follow up the following procedure: nabil m. hewahi genetic algorithms principles towards hidden markov model 7 a) set the size of the population (initial population) to be n for example. b) divide your domain inputs into two partitions say each partition contains 10 chromosomes where each chromosome is representing one hmm. each hmm is formed out of say 5 input text documents related to the problem domain. this means each partition needs 50 text documents related to the domain. one partition is used to represent the initial population where the second partition is used for fitness function evaluation for each hmm in the population and called evaluation population.. we give the first and second partition to an expert who is going to decide the values of probability values for the state relations for each hmm. c) formulize every hmm in both the partitions in a chromosome / individual form. d) compute fitness function for every chromosome in the initial population existing in the first partition. e) apply genetic operators on the population (in the first partition). f) get the offspring out of the previous step and compute the fitness function for each child in the offspring after formulating them to chromosomes. g) modify the population by removing very low fitness values chromosomes with chromosomes obtained from the crossover applied in step e, which have higher fitness values. the size of the population does not change. h) repeat steps from e to g until the best chromosome is obtained. figure 2 represents the general steps required for the proposed approach. we now clarify certain points such as chromosome formulation, computing fitness function and applying the genetic operators. a. formulating the chromosome let us again consider figure 1, we formulate the chromosome of the hmm given in figure 1 as below: med-med:02 med-high:0.8 high-high:0.6 high-med:0.4 med-cold:0.9 med-hot:0.1 high-cold:0.3 high-hot:0.7 the chromosome contains 8 genes, each is represented by the relation between two states accompanied with a probability value. the genes should be formed in this way because this is important in the crossover operation as to be explained later. the most important thing is that each two genes has the probability summation of 1.0. for example med-med:02 and med-high:08 have the summation of 1.0. similarly high-high:0.6 and high-med:0.4 have the summation of 1.0. each two genes with summation of 1.0 should be neighbors. b. genetic operators we use two main genetic operators in our approach, crossover and mutation. 1) crossover in this genetic operator, we choose two chromosomes at random and apply crossover between them. figure 3 shows the proposed crossover. we choose a crossing cut site at random. it is to be noted that the crossing cut site should be even number. we should have two crossing cut sites. if we make crossing cut site odd number, the resultant child will not have a correct value of probability. the incorrect crossover is shown in figure 4. 2) mutation mutation is applied to a randomly chosen chromosome from the population. the proposed mutation is changing the probability value of a certain relation by increasing or decreasing it be a specific number. here also a care while doing mutation should be followed. changing the probability in one relation without changing the other related probability will spoil the values. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 figure 5 illustrates an example of mutation process. in figure 5, med-cold:0.9 and med-hot:0.1 before mutation and become med-cold:0.7 and med-hot:0.3 after mutation. this is done by decreasing 0.2 from med-cold probability and adding 0.2 to med-hot probability. 3) evaluating the hmms this is done by having a fitness function that can measure the strength of the chromosome. our proposed function must be able to scale how much general can the hmm serve in its domain. to do this we follow the following steps: a) each hmm represented in a chromosome form and within the population has it fitness value computed by comparing its relation probability values with the one in the evaluation partition. this is done as below: figure 2. the general structure of the proposed approach. let us assume that the chromosome in the population as shown in figure 6. also let us consider that the other five chromosomes in the evaluation partition are as in figure 6. the fitness value for the ith chromosome in the population is computed by the following formula: m fitnessi = 1/ σ compare ( i, j) j=1 where m is the number of chromosomes in the evaluation partition and compare function is performed by computing the difference between the ith chromosome in the population (first partition) with each chromosome in the evaluation partition. this is done by comparing the yes no specify the size of the population n get the best hmm prepare the initial population and evaluation population formulize the hmm compute fitness values for each chromosome apply genetic operators to get offspring and compute fitness function update the population does the population contain the best hmm nabil m. hewahi genetic algorithms principles towards hidden markov model 9 difference in the probability value for each related pair of relations. for example comparing the chromosome given in figure 6 with the first chromosome in the evaluation partition, the difference between the relation med-med and med-high as a pair is 0.0 and the difference between the relation high-high and high-med as a pair is 0.1. similarly the difference between the relation med-cold and med-hot as a pair is 0.1 and the difference between the relation high-cold and high-hot as a pair is 0.2. we sum all these differences to get the value of compare(i,j), the sum value is 0+0.1+0.1+0.2 = 0.4. using the same approach we compute the compare function with the other four chromosomes and we get values 0.4, 0.5,0.4 and 0.6. now we sum the five values 0.4 + 0.4 + 0.5+ 0.4 +0.6 = 2.3. the fitness value is then 1/ 2.3 = 0.434. the highest is the fitness value, the better is the performance of the chromosome. b) every n iterations choose some of the initial population at random and add it to the evaluation partition. this is important to make the new generated chromosomes not to forget the initial data formed the initial population specially after making changes on the chromosomes based on the genetic operators. this way, the finally selected chromosome will be the closest to represent the initial and evaluating partitions. the more chromosomes we have in the evaluation partition the better is the result. 3. discussion our assumption in this research is that we can get data to be used to establish the population and evaluation partition. such kind of systems can be adaptive overtime. if periodically the system collects a new evaluation partition (data) from the domain related data over the internet, the system can continuously improve its hmm to be useful for more cases within the domain. the only problem in this case is that every time the new obtained evaluation partition is gathered, an expert is needed to assign probability values to it. however, automatic mechanism can be adopted to assign the probability values. 4. conclusion in this paper we presented a general concept that can be followed to find out the optimum hmm to be used in serving a certain domain area. the proposed approach is based on gas to evolve new hmm, the evolving means finding the appropriate probability values for the relations between the states and not evolving hmm structures. we proposed a carful mechanism for applying the genetic operators, crossover and mutation. the whole procedure is done because in various domain cases the constructed hmm based on an expert person can’t cover the real situation especially if the expertise depend on a small set of inputs to assign the probability values between the relations. the proposed approach evaluates each hmm after formulating it in a chromosome form by calculating a fitness function which depends on a compare function that compares the hmm in the population with those existing in the evaluation partition. the highest is the fitness value of the chromosome; the better is its performance. to keep the chosen chromosome the optimum one, a portion from the initial population chosen at random is added to the evaluation partition. this is done to avoid any changes in the chromosomes (through the genetic operators) that might fall after a while to be adequate with the initial used data to build the initial population. some of the future directions are 1. developing and implementing this approach and apply it to various domains 2. apply ga to evolve complete hmm structures and not only evolving the probability values. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 figure 3. the crossover operation between two hmm chromosomes figure 4. incorrect crossover operation. the high-high and high-med probability values summation should be 1. figure 5. mutation process. this is happened by decreasing 0.2 from med-cold probability and adding 0.2 to medhot. figure 6. one chromosome from the population and the five chromosomes existing in the evaluation partition. nabil m. hewahi genetic algorithms principles towards hidden markov model 11 references [1] l. allison, l. stern, t. edgoose & t. i. dix,” sequence complexity for biological sequence analysis”, computers and chemistry 24(1), pp.43-55, jan. 2000 [2] d. goldenberg, “ genetic algorithms in search, optimization, and machine learning”, addisonwesley longman publishing, 1989. [3] n. hewahi, “an intelligent approach for network management based on hidden markov model”, proceedings of the international arab conference for it, acit’10, libya, dec.14-16, 2010. [4] n. hewahi, “hidden markov model for censored production rules”, proceedings of the international conference of information technology, icit’09, jordan, may 3-5, 2009. [5] j. li, a. najmi, r. m. gray, image classification by a two dimensional hidden markov model, ieee transactions on signal processing, 48(2),pp. 517-33, february 2000. [6] r. michalski, p. winston, “variable precision logic”, artificial intelligence, 29, pp. 121-145, 1986. [7] lior pachter and bernd sturmfels. "algebraic statistics for computational biology". cambridge university press, isbn 0-521-85700-7, 2005. [8] b. pardo and w. birmingham “modeling form for on-line following of musical performances”, aaai-05 proc., july 2005. [9] l. rabiner, “a tutorial on hidden markov model and selected applications on speech recognition”, proceedings of ieee, vol.77, no.2, 1989. [10] k. seymore, a. mccallum, and r. rosenfeld, “learning hidden markov model structure for information extraction”, aaai 99 workshop on machine learning for information extraction, 1999. [11] l. stern, l. allison, r. coppel, and t. dix, “discovering patterns in plasmodium falciparum genomic dna”, molecular and biochemical parasitology, 118(2) pp.175-186, 2001. [12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/markov-model ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 196-211 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/383 submitted: february 18th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 art therapy as a means of psychological correction of emotional disorders olha savytska 1 , veronika shkrabiuk 2 , valentyna pedorenko 3 , svitlana sytnik 4 , victoriia naichuk 5 , victoriia nazarevych 6 1 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, ukraine, olganeu717@gmail.com 2 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, veronika.shkrabiuk@pnu.edu.ua 3 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, pedorenkovalya@ukr.net 4 the state institution "south ukrainian national pedagogical university" named after k.d. ushinsky, ukraine, svetlanasytnik2000@gmail.com 5 h.s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, ukraine, naichukvv@gmail.com 6 rivne state university of the humanities, ukraine, nazarevich.v@gmail.com abstract: the article reveals the essence and specificity of psychologically corrective work with the help of art therapy in the theoretical and methodological analysis of the problem of correction of emotional disorders. types of emotional disorders, their causes, and also directions of art therapy and some rules of introduction of art therapy techniques in psychologically corrective practice are considered. some psychological recommendations for the use of isotherapy methods in the correction of emotional disorders, compliance with which can attest to the high professional competence of the consultant in mastering art therapy techniques have been developed. art therapy work is offered for consideration as emotional "auto-training" of harmonious interaction with the social environment, a strategy of preservation of emotional health and a psychological means of self-help of the self-sufficient person for the purpose of prevention of emotional deviations. the use of art-therapeutic means is offered to consider as innovative health-saving technology. theoretical and methodological developments in the introduction of art therapy in the psychologically corrective process by foreign and domestic researchers, which can be considered as successful recommendations for the use of art therapy techniques for the psychocorrection of emotional disorders are summarized. keywords: neurotic states; depressive states; fears; phobias; client; isotherapy methods; psychotherapeutic areas; psychological approaches; health-saving technologies. how to cite: savytska, o., shkrabiuk, v., pedorenko, v., sytnik, s., naichuk, v., & nazarevych, v. (2022). art therapy as a means of psychological correction of emotional disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 196-211. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/383 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/383 mailto:olganeu717@gmail.com mailto:veronika.shkrabiuk@pnu.edu.ua mailto:pedorenkovalya@ukr.net mailto:svetlanasytnik2000@gmail.com mailto:naichukvv@gmail.com mailto:nazarevich.v@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/383 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 197 introduction the modern human world is filled with difficult uncertain situations social crises and periods of quarantine associated with epidemics and loss of relationships, relatives, jobs. crisis situations cause painful experiences, feelings of loneliness and despair, experiences from frustrations to unbearable grief. chronic course of negative emotions, their intensity and frequency can cause personal dysfunctions, emotional burnout, depressive states and various problems of emotional character. in such critical situations, the personality relieves traumatic experiences due to sublimation in art, creative activity, with the help of art therapy means of life psychology. purposeful application of art therapy as a scientific direction in psychotherapy and psychological correction is used in psychological practice as a totality of techniques providing assistance in the correction of emotional disorders and psychological development of personality. the methodological bases for introduction of art therapy into psychologically corrective practice and the problem of efficiency of psychological influences of art therapy means on human mental activity do not lose their urgency and have been well studied by foreign and domestic psychology, however, correction methods of using art therapy in cases of emotional disorders and specialists' recommendations on the use of art therapy as an innovative health-saving to prevent emotional deviations the essence of the purpose of our article, its novelty and practical relevance are not developed enough technology (demchenko, 2021; komogorova, 2021; palamarchuk, 2020). art therapy work has been proposed as an emotional "auto-training," the harmonization of positive interaction with the social environment, a factor in the formation of positive "ego-concept; innovative health-saving mental health technology; psychological means of personal self-help to prevent emotional disorders and apply in the practice of educational psychological services, medical institutions and public volunteer organizations that develop recommendations for personal psychohygiene and development of human emotional well-being. theoretical and methodological analysis of the problem of psychological correction of emotional disorders with the help of art therapy emotional disorders include neurotic and depressive states, neurotic conflicts with a spectrum of negative emotional manifestations, high anxiety, phobias and fears. the reasons for their occurrence are often a combination art therapy as a means of psychological correction of emotional disorders olha savytska et al. 198 of biological (residual-organic insufficiency, which can cause lability of affect, increased distress and mental inertness and fixation on negative experiences, etc.), psychological (features of the emotional-volitional sphere and inadequate emotional reactions to stresses and pathocharacteriological manifestations: weak self-control, withdrawal, anxious vulnerability, pedantry, conformity and dependence, naivety or directness, psychomotor instability, etc.) and social-psychological (destructive, conflictual relations with others, excessive control and authoritarianism by others, chronic stresses and crises). psychologists and psychotherapists know that one of the most effective methods of psychological correction of emotional disorders is art therapy with its variety of directions: game therapy, music therapy, dance therapy, animation therapy, library therapy, clay therapy, drama therapy, isotherapy, storytelling therapy, film therapy, color therapy, landscape therapy, puppet therapy, mandalotherapy, laugh therapy and photo therapy, etc. practitioners distinguish the following types of art therapy: passive (involving analysis and interpretation of drawings, pictures, photographs, etc.), active art therapy as independent creative activity, a combination of passive and active art therapy. art therapy or art therapy is a relatively new method of psychotherapy. the term was first used by adrian hill in 1938 when describing his work with patients with tuberculosis and soon became widespread. a. hill applied drawing with people for therapeutic purposes. art therapy is the creation of visual images, awareness of unconscious psychological material through these images, interaction between the author of the artwork, the artwork itself and the therapist, providing a protective environment for the manifestation of strong experiences (andrushko, 2017, p. 75). art therapy is a method of developing and changing the conscious and unconscious aspects of a person's psyche with the help of different forms and types of art, (karpenko, 2015, p. 46). we consider art therapy work as an emotional "auto-training", harmonization of positive interaction with the social environment, a factor in the formation of positive "egoconcept", an innovative health-saving technology of mental health, a psychological means of self-help for self-sufficient individuals to prevent emotional disorders. the basic methods of psychologically correcting emotional disorders in children include those that are basic in the psychodynamic and behavioral areas. these include art therapy. the art therapy method was proposed by broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 199 psychoanalysts for the correction of the child's emotional and personal problems as early as the 1930s. art therapy is a specialized form of psychotherapy based on visual art. the primary goal of art therapy consists in development of self-expression and self-knowledge of the child. in practice, there are two forms of art therapy passive and active. in the passive form of art therapy, the child considers pictures, products, i.e. consumes artwork. in active art therapy, the child creates activity products. children's drawings reflect not only the level of mental development and individual personality traits, but are also a kind of projection of personality. drawing acts as a reinforcement of the child's sense of identity and helps children learn about themselves and their abilities (mamaychuk, 2006). art therapy exists in individual and group forms. the individual form is used in work with adults and children, as well as in psychiatry: for persons to whom verbal psychotherapy cannot be applied; patients with superficial mental disorders of a neurotic character; people with verbalization problems (autism, stuttering, etc.) and post-traumatic stress disorder. the individual psychotherapeutic process occurs, for the most part, on the basis of the psychodynamic approach investigation of the unconscious on products of visual activity. the non-directive nature of work is predominantly applied. the art therapist acts flexibly, adjusting to the individual rhythm and stylistic features of the client's activity, trying to act on the dynamics of his or her states. models of art therapy include: psychodynamic: psychoanalytic, jungian, group; humanistic (client-centered); family (paired drawings); game model; clinical model; holistic model (integration of experience at all levels); transpersonal model; eclectic model (karpenko, 2015). в. nikitin (2014) in the methodology of art therapy theory considers creativity as an expression of "the inner through the outer" and a work of art as a product of creating a sign structure "from within oneself": looking into one's creative work, one recognizes something in oneself that is not accessible to perception at the level of rational consciousness, which does not lend itself to an exact interpretation. nikitin states that art therapy is, in essence, an integrative interdisciplinary formation. representatives of gestalt psychology focus on the analysis of the nature of the subject's perception of artistic images, on the interpretation of the phenomenological and existential aspects of the creator's self-expression. according to psychoanalysis, unrealized feelings and needs are displaced from consciousness into the unconscious. the displaced content is of a traumatic nature and requires resolution. artistic action acts as an act of manifestation of the displaced art therapy as a means of psychological correction of emotional disorders olha savytska et al. 200 intention, giving it a completed semantic form. hence, the information hidden in the artistic image makes it possible to reveal the sides of its "inner" being relevant to the subject. art therapist t.m. kuzmenko (2018) presented the author's development of psychological art tools "set of metaphorical associative images and matrices for psychological counseling and psychocorrection "balance of life". metaphorical associative images in the art therapy process are a certain material field for metaphorical interaction, allowing a new way of looking at situations and finding a way to solve them. the health-saving resource of the offered psychotherapeutic activity allows to considerably reduce the psychological and emotional load both on the client and on the psychologist, which allows to raise considerably the level of effectiveness of the psychological counseling and psychologically corrective process. a national researcher suggests that the purpose of art therapy is to preserve or restore the health of the individual, harmonize personal development through the development of self-expression and self-knowledge, and adaptation to the environment. creativity helps you understand and appreciate your feelings, memories, images of the future, find time to renew your vitality and a way to communicate with yourself. art therapy as a means of nonverbal communication is valuable for those who have trouble describing their experiences in words (it is known that trauma is imprinted at the levels of bodily and emotional experiences and imaginative images). the art therapy methodology assumes unconditional acceptance of the client in any of his or her manifestations. emotional disorders are often associated with difficulties in social adaptation, inadequate emotional reactions to external stressors, poor emotional-volitional self-regulation, emotional malaise amid hostility, resentment, dissatisfaction and neuropsychological tension due to emotions. thus, domestic researchers s. m. tomchuk, m. i. tomchuk (2018) consider in detail destructive mental states of personality, which can be associated with a variety of emotional disorders, with anxiety, anxieties, fears and aggressiveness. moon, bruce l. (2008), in turn, shared practical experiences of trauma survivor therapy using art therapy, which can be a valuable resource for medical and mental health professionals, occupational therapists, and other rehabilitation professionals who seek to become more effective in providing psychological care to others. leslie g. eaton, kimberly l. doherty, b.s. rebeka, m. widrick b.a. (2007) in turn confirm broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 201 the effectiveness of art therapy as a treatment method for children who have experienced a traumatic event. о. l. voznesenska and m. yu. sydorkina (2016) examined in detail art therapy as a method of helping a person in a crisis period, described art therapy methods and techniques for application in work with psychological traumas, in the period of burning, recovery of post-traumatic events, rehabilitation of combatants and volunteers in a state of emotional burnout. i. i. mamaychuk (2006) considers art therapy as a method of correction of emotional disorders in children; the psychologically corrective technologies offered by the author have been tested in the course of many years of experience working with children and teenagers with problems in psychological development. kuzmenko (2018) well substantiated the theoretical and practical aspects of the use of innovative art therapy techniques in the process of psychocounseling and psychocorrection. harald gruber, renate oepen (2018) described the weighty psychological role of art therapy for psychological models of emotion regulation. empirical studies of introduction of art therapy techniques into psychological practice by foreign specialists are conducted actively. in this case, a. c. abbing, e. w. baars, o. van haastrecht, and a. s. ponstein (2019) assure that art therapy causes positive results in clinical practice, but the mechanisms of its psychological effects are poorly understood. therefore it is important to systematically describe the process of arttherapeutic intervention and identify the mechanisms at work in order to evaluate them. researchers have applied art therapy methods in the correction of anxiety disorders (the most common among them are phobias, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder). art therapy has a variety of subtypes based on different points of view from psychoanalysis and cognitive-analytical therapy to humanistic approaches focused on the client's personality. one of these subspecies is anthroposophic art therapy (aat). anthroposophical art therapists work from a holistic view of the individual, not focusing on the primary symptoms of the person, but rather viewing the personality as an integrity of the physical, psychosocial and biographical aspects. therapy aims to gain insight into the processes underlying the primary symptoms and aims to initiate a holistic healing process in which the client is empowered to actively work on their well-being, including the reduction of primary symptoms, in particular high anxiety. the goal of aat is that anxiety is not dealt with consciously or "cognitively" because it keeps patients in their "thinking mode" that will allow worry and thinking. aat, applied through specific art therapy as a means of psychological correction of emotional disorders olha savytska et al. 202 artistic tasks, addresses to the unconscious. researchers have empirically confirmed the effectiveness of aat therapy for anxiety disorders, resulting in decreased anxiety, improved emotional self-regulation and increased selfesteem. helén wahlbeck, linda j. kvist & kajsa landgren (2020) in turn showed that art therapy significantly reduced women's fear of childbirth. catherine malboeuf-hurtubise, terra léger-goodes, geneviève a. mageau, geneviève taylor, catherine m. herba, nicholas chadi & david lefrançois (2021) believe that in crisis, as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, children may experience increased anxiety depression and poor mental health in general. art therapy actualized in them the processes of awareness of new opportunities and ways to overcome the crisis and showed the possibility of improving the emotional well-being of the children and reducing their psychological distress, in particular by drawing mandalas online, remotely. freilich, r., & shechtman, z. (2010) investigated the contribution of art therapy to the social, emotional, and academic adjustment of children with learning disabilities. elly scrineab, katrina mcferranab (2018) highlight the role of music therapy in preventing youth depression. zoe moula (2020) identified and summarized types of school-based art therapy interventions and evaluated their effectiveness for children ages 5-12, confirming that art therapy is effective in improving quality of life for children with emotional and behavioral disabilities and building a positive "ego-concept". alex mcdonald, sue holttum & nicholas st. j. drey (2019) also confirm the effects of art therapy on positive changes in the social, emotional and mental health of elementary school children. o. o. mishkulynets (2018) considered the peculiarities of the use of various techniques of art therapy in psychocorrective work with children with special educational needs in an inclusive environment and found that the effectiveness of art therapy in inclusive education will depend on taking into account the needs, abilities of children, skilled work of specialists to achieve a common goal to create appropriate conditions for personal development of each child. disorder of psycho-emotional states, acute emotional reactions with fears, insults and aggression in critical situations often demand timely and urgent psychological aid and self-help. in order to implement self-help, psychologists recommend techniques of breathing, self-involvement and relaxation; however, the transformation of negative emotional energy takes place over a long period of time and its accumulation also has negative broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 203 consequences for psychological health. besides, goal-oriented self-exposure to certain exercises is sometimes perceived as internally compulsory to a certain extent and does not have the same effect as engaging in creative work or mastering art in a natural, relaxed setting, which can replace psychologically corrective strategies with therapeutic influence. science knows a lot of cases when a person restored the mental activity and nervous system by creative work after a crisis of psychotrauma. realization of inner resources, a logical evaluation of a difficult life situation are possible when mental protections of acute psychologically traumatic experiences weaken under the influence of art therapy a creative strategy that heals itself, releases bodily emotional "impairments" through work with the body, promotes "processing" (understanding) of one's negative emotional experiences, increases one's inner ability to control one's emotional states, and develops resiliency and self-efficacy. an effective method of psychological correction of neurotic conditions in teenagers is the "neurographics" method of art therapy a technique of transferring the image of problems or difficult situations into visual images, a tool of visualization and awareness of the problem as a system of questions and answers which on paper find visible connections and become more understandable for perception, allowing finding simple ways out of situations that seem to be confusing. the neurographic method is based on psychological approaches such as gestalt therapy, kurt lewin's "field theory" (which is a method for analyzing life space and in which neurography deals with the personal and environmental field), and k. jung's theory of geometric symbols and archetypes: circle (the desire to create a harmonious, closed lifestyle), triangle (indicative of "acute" complex issues), polygons (subconscious attempts to link simple forms into complex systems of questions and answers), etc., which resonate through our deep psyche. neurography is best used in combination with music therapy, storytelling therapy, with techniques of auto-training and body-oriented therapy, which has a positive effect on neurotic symptoms, reducing anxiety and neuropsychiatric tension (krotenko & frunze, 2019). psychological recommendations for the correction of emotional disorders with the help of art therapy no doubt, the introduction of psychologically corrective means in art therapy is effective for emotional disorders, in particular, for depressive, neurotic and crisis conditions, a decrease in the emotional tone, lability, art therapy as a means of psychological correction of emotional disorders olha savytska et al. 204 impulsiveness of emotional reactions, emotional deprivation, fears and phobias. severe emotional disorders can also serve as grounds for conducting art therapy. the important goal of psychologically correcting emotional disorders with art therapy is to improve and maintain psychological health by providing a socially acceptable way out of negative feelings. during psychologically corrective art therapy (both in individual and group forms), it is appropriate to follow the following general recommendations: first identify the needs and expectations of the client concerning the type or direction of art therapy chosen together with the psychologist and propose observance of the principles of psychological partner work; during the first session, the psychologist needs to make a positive atmosphere of trust, safety and goodwill; in the interpretation of the product of creativity (provided after the edited feelings and basic questions to clarify the subject of creativity) the impression is expressed "i have the impression...", "i so imagine that..." with appeal to the "ego statement", rather than criticism on the quality of the drawing, abilities, etc.; acceptance of the client as a person, showing respect and emotional empathy to him/her and encouraging him/her to reflect; the psychologist's questions about the relationship between the product of creativity and the client's psycho-emotional state or emotional problem his professional competence in taking into account the individual-psychological, cognitive, emotional-will, motivational characteristics of the client, his resource capabilities, internal conflicts and features of emotional response to psychological traumas; it is expedient to combine art therapy methods with psychotherapeutic techniques cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, gestalt therapy approaches; for interpretation of ready-made drawings (pictures) by the client and their choice by the psychologist, the age of the client and features of his or her emotional disorders and personal problems should be taken into account; musical accompaniment (music therapy) should be combined with art therapy, but taking into account the mental condition and desire of the client; the result of the psychologist's psychologically corrective work is an improvement in the emotional state, gratitude and insight from the client. the psychological recommendations stated concern work mainly with isotherapy methods and adult clients, although they are universal and do not claim to be exhaustive, however, observance of them by the counselor conducting psychological correction of emotional disorders will be indicative of his or her high professional competence in mastering broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 205 effective use of art therapy techniques. they can be applied in the practice of educational psychological services, medical institutions and public volunteer organizations developing recommendations for personal psychohygiene and the development of psychological well-being. the following is a summary of theoretical and methodological developments in the introduction of art therapy into the psychologically corrective process by foreign and domestic researchers, which can be considered as successful recommendations for use of art therapy techniques for the psychologically correction of emotional disorders. an important principle of art therapy is compulsory approval and acceptance of all products of the child's visual activity, regardless of their content, form and quality. music therapy is widely used in psychological correction of emotional disorders in children. in the psychological literature such directions of corrective influence of music therapy as emotional activation in the course of verbal psychotherapy and regulating influence on psycho-vegetative processes are distinguished. traditionally the following variants of music therapy are distinguished: receptive music therapy, which involves the perception of music for corrective purposes, and active, which is corrective directed, active musical activity. receptive psychological correction helps to achieve catharsis and is capable of lowering nervous and mental tension. receptive music therapy is expedient to use for the solution of concrete psychologically corrective problems: optimization of communication of members of group, creation of confidential empathic atmosphere of group, decrease in emotional discomfort. rhythmic music has an activating effect on a child with emotional problems, especially with problems in interpersonal communication. in the process of psychological correction of children with emotional disorders, it is expedient to use various psychological corrective techniques with mandatory consideration of the severity of the emotional problem, the direction of the conflict, the features of the social environment surrounding the child, and the child's individual psychological characteristics (mamaychuk, 2006). neuropsychologists suggest that neuropsychological analysis of disturbances in perception and depiction of an object shows how distortions in drawing are associated with lesions of different levels of the visual system, conflict in emotional attitudes and understanding of the artistic image. in case of emotional disorders, the spatial parameters of the drawing can be disfigured, excessive schematization of elements of the image, deliberate exaggeration of some subjects and diminution of sizes of other subjects (foreground and background). how does the concept of "composition" art therapy as a means of psychological correction of emotional disorders olha savytska et al. 206 relate to art-therapy methodology? a therapeutic action is an event structured in space and time. the psychologist finds such a compositional solution to a problem in which all elements of a significant event are connected at a new, more productive level of relations. thus, the interpretation of the nature of the subject's perception of the problem situation can be carried out in the process of researching the results of its compositional construction. the artistic image is considered as a projection of its actual meanings, relations and significance of aspects of life. distortion of the character of the logic of construction of the image testifies to cognitive and emotional-sensory disorders, about internal and external conflicts of the individual. in affective disorders, there is redundancy, incoherence in the depiction of the details of the composition, unreasonableness in the choice of the central element of the image (nikitin, 2014). recently, art therapy has begun to be actively used in treatment and rehabilitation work with combatants who have psycho-emotional disorders, consequences of psychotraumatic stress disorder, manifestations of destructive emotional states, etc. it is connected with the fact that art therapy has no contraindications, and is effective in the correction of various disabilities; it can be applied individually and in group sessions. given the choice of individual art therapy, it is important to establish psychotherapeutic contact, which occurs at the first meetings. at the same time, both the art therapist and the participant have reactions to each other (they are not always positive), which will further influence the atmosphere of the art therapy process. the art therapist explains in detail the purpose, features, character and conditions of art therapy work. if the participant agrees on the rules of art-therapy work, a "protective" contract of both the client and the art therapist is made, forming responsibility of both parties for the obligations undertaken. sometimes the participant can have negative feelings fear, guilt, anger, resentment, rage, etc., which it is not recommended to restrain. during drawing, for example, the technique "my past," various memories that are "worked through" in the discussion stage can reveal themselves. the art therapist tries to establish a connection between the character of the person's visual activity, the experience of childhood, relations with other people and the problems characteristic of the given period of life. the duration of individual art therapy depends on the general condition of the participant, improvement of his or her psychobroad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 207 emotional state, the nature of the visual activity from several months to a year or more (bryndikov, 2017). the structure of art therapy session includes the following consecutive stages: setting up for creativity (training participants for spontaneous art activity and intragroup communication; games, motor and dance exercises, and simple pictorial techniques can be used for this); actualization of visual, auditory and kinesthetic sensations (for this purpose, it is possible to apply drawing in combination with elements of musical and dance therapy, which improve mood and stimulate the will to recovery, it is better to choose melodious compositions without text, and the volume should be adjusted in interaction with participants); individual visual activity means individual creativity for research of own problems and experiences (the process of spontaneous creativity, the emotional state of the client, his/her inner world are important here, this stage assumes indirect diagnostics at interpretation of drawings according to criteria of known projective techniques, but it is necessary to avoid generality and to take into account subjective factors of the author, for example, a mental state); activation of verbal and nonverbal communication (creation of conditions for intragroup communication, each participant is invited to show their work and tell about it the degree of openness and frankness of self-presentation depends on the level of trust in the group, the art therapist and the author's personal features, if they refuse to talk, then do not insist; collective work in small groups (participants invent a plot and play short plays; translation of traumatic experiences into a comic form leads to catharsis, release from unpleasant feelings and emotions); the reflective stage, which should take place in an atmosphere of emotional warmth, empathy, care (this allows the participant of an art therapy session to experience a situation of success in this or that activity). the duration of art therapy sessions can vary considerably up to 12 sessions short-term, up to one year medium-term, several years long-term; and also the position of the psychotherapist, which can be directive and nondirective. the latter is determined not only by the theoretical orientation of the psychotherapist, but also by his or her personal characteristics (karpenko, 2015). in psychologically corrective work with emotional disorders, mandalas (a circle or center in sanskrit) are also used in cases of fear of losing control, pessimism and depression, accumulated frustration and aggression, emotional hypersensitivity or vice versa, alexithymia (difficulty in regulating feelings, emotions), a sense of deadlock, fears and anxieties, developmental crisis (age, personality), psychosomatic problems. there are art therapy as a means of psychological correction of emotional disorders olha savytska et al. 208 rules of work of the psychologist with the client when using the mandala: if work with coloring mandalas is planned, then several are offered let the client himself choose the form, the ornamentation, and the one that is closer to his mood; the client chooses the mandala and the plot of the work without the help of others; the materials for work and the color scheme (pencils, felt-tip pens, paints, pastels, ink, etc.) the client chooses independently; the work process is limited only by the degree of satiation, satiety and satisfaction with the work; the psychologist fixes the state of tension/relaxation connected with the work process; the principle of noninterference in the work of the child, teenager, or adult without his or her consent is observed; and the principle of avoiding evaluative comments about the work; the client, if desired, gives the name of his or her mandala both painted and created; after work, it is important to give the client an opportunity to talk about his or her own feelings, feelings about the mandala and attitude to the result (correct leading questions are allowed) (andrushko, 2017). conclusion art therapy work is offered for consideration as an emotional "autotraining," harmonious interaction with the outside world, health-saving technology and psychological means of self-help for the self-sufficient individual to prevent emotional disorders. art therapy has a psychologically corrective (therapeutic) influence, activating the subject's reflection of the inner world through creative products, providing psychological support and opportunities for psychological self-support, and being a creative way of self-expression and self-discovery. the method of art therapy is based on the mechanism of projection of emotional experiences of the personality of the client, which psychocorrection successfully enough uses as a subject of study with the purpose of restoration of its health-saving resource and improvement of the effectiveness of correction of emotional disorders. art therapy activates the subject's inner mechanisms of emotional self-regulation and promotes emotional healing through creativity and its products, in turn, have valuable content for psychological analysis, reflecting the emotional world of the individual in conscious and unconscious displays. references abbing, c., baars, e. w., van haastrecht, o., & ponstein, a. s. (2019). acceptance of anxiety through art therapy: a case report exploring how broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 209 anthroposophic art therapy addresses emotion regulation and executive functioning. case reports in psychiatry, 4875381. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/4875381 andrushko, y. s. (2017). psykhokorektsiya [psychocorrection]. lviv state university of internal affairs. bryndikov, yu. l. (2017). art-terapiya: sutʹ, mozhlyvosti roboty z viysʹkovosluzhbovtsyamy uchasnykamy boyovykh diy [art-therapy: the essence and possibilities of work with servicemen-participants of military operations]. scientific bulletin of uzhgorod university, 2, 41 https://dspace.uzhnu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/lib/18269/1/арттерапі я%20суть%2c%20можливості%20роботи%20з%20війсь ковослужбовцями.pdf demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 eaton, l. g., doherty, k. l., rebeka, b. s., & widrick, b.a. (2007). a review of research and methods used to establish art therapy as an effective treatment method for traumatized children. the arts in psychotherapy, 34(3), 256-262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2007.03.001 freilich, r., & shechtman, z. (2010). the contribution of art therapy to the social, emotional, and academic adjustment of children with learning disabilities. the arts in psychotherapy, 37(2), 97–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2010.02.003 gruber, h., & oepen, r. (2018). emotion regulation strategies and effects in artmaking: a narrative synthesis. the arts in psychotherapy, 59, 65-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2017.12.006 karpenko, e. (2015). metody suchasnoyi psykhoterapiyi [methods of modern psychotherapy]. posvit. komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 krotenko, v., & frunze, a. (2019). neyrohrafika yak efektyvnyy art-terapevtychnyy metod psykholohichnoyi korektsiyi nevrotychnykh staniv u pidlitkiv [neurographics as an effective art-therapeutic method of psychological correction of neurotic states in adolescents]. in v. vins, t. kuzmenko, i. zozulya (eds.), innovatsiyni art-terapevtychni tekhnolohiyi [innovative art-therapeutic https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/4875381 https://dspace.uzhnu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/lib/18269/1/арттерапія%20суть%2c%20можливості%20роботи%20з%20військовослужбовцями.pdf https://dspace.uzhnu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/lib/18269/1/арттерапія%20суть%2c%20можливості%20роботи%20з%20військовослужбовцями.pdf https://dspace.uzhnu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/lib/18269/1/арттерапія%20суть%2c%20можливості%20роботи%20з%20військовослужбовцями.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2007.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2010.02.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2017.12.006 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 art therapy as a means of psychological correction of emotional disorders olha savytska et al. 210 technologies] collection of articles i all-ukrainian scientific internetconference, march 12, 2019, dombrovska. pereyaslav. kuzmenko, t. m. (2018). innovatsiynyy art-terapevtychnyy instrumentariy dlya psykhokonsulʹtuvannya ta psykhokorektsiyi [innovative art-therapeutic toolkit for psychological counseling and psychological correction]: the educational manual. publishing house "s.k.v.". malboeuf-hurtubise, c., léger-goodes, t., geneviève, m., a., taylor, g., herba, c. m., chadi, n., & lefrançois, d. (2021). online art therapy in elementary schools during covid-19: results from a randomized cluster pilot and feasibility study and impact on mental health. child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 15, 15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-021-00367-5 mamaychuk, i. i. (2006). psikhokorrektsionnyye tekhnologii dlya detey s problemami v razvitii [psychologically corrective technologies for children with developmental problems]. rech. mcdonald, a., holttum, s., & drey, n. st. j. (2019). primary-school-based art therapy: exploratory study of changes in children’s social, emotional and mental health. international journal of art therapy, 24(3), 125-138. https://doi.org/10.1080/17454832.2019.1634115 mishkulynets, o. o. (2019). vykorystannya art-terapevtychnykh metodyk v umovakh inklyuzyvnoho seredovyshcha [the use of art therapy techniques in the conditions of the inclusive environment]. psychology: theory and practice, 2(2), 201. https://msu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/9.-мішкулинецьо.о.-використання-арт-терапевтичних-методик-в-умовахінклюзивного-освітнього-середовища.pdf moon, b. l. (2008). introduction to art therapy: faith in the product (3rd edition). charles c thomas pub ltd. moula, z. (2020). a systematic review of the effectiveness of art therapy delivered in school-based settings to children aged 5–12 years. international journal of art therapy, 25(2), 88-99. https://doi.org/10.1080/17454832.2020.1751219 nikitin, v. n. (2014). art-terapiya [art-therapy]. cogito-center, university psychological education. https://iknigi.net/avtor-vladimir-nikitin/94884art-terapiya-uchebnoe-posobie-vladimir-nikitin.html palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 scrineab, e., & mcferranab, k. (2018). the role of a music therapist exploring gender and power with young people: articulating an emerging antihttps://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-021-00367-5 https://doi.org/10.1080/17454832.2019.1634115 https://msu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/9.-мішкулинець-о.о.-використання-арт-терапевтичних-методик-в-умовах-інклюзивного-освітнього-середовища.pdf https://msu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/9.-мішкулинець-о.о.-використання-арт-терапевтичних-методик-в-умовах-інклюзивного-освітнього-середовища.pdf https://msu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/9.-мішкулинець-о.о.-використання-арт-терапевтичних-методик-в-умовах-інклюзивного-освітнього-середовища.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/17454832.2020.1751219 https://iknigi.net/avtor-vladimir-nikitin/94884-art-terapiya-uchebnoe-posobie-vladimir-nikitin.html https://iknigi.net/avtor-vladimir-nikitin/94884-art-terapiya-uchebnoe-posobie-vladimir-nikitin.html https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 211 oppressive practice. the arts in psychotherapy, 59, 54-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2017.12.008 tomchuk, s. m., & tomchuk, m. i. (2018). psykholohiya tryvohy, strakhu ta ahresiyi osobystosti v osvitnʹomu protsesi [psychology of anxiety, fear and aggression in the educational process]. vinnitsa regional institute of postgraduate education of pedagogical workers. voznesenska, o. l., & sydorkina, m. y. (2016). art-terapiya u podolanni psykhichnoyi travmy [art-therapy in overcoming mental trauma]: a practical guide]. zoloti vorota. wahlbeck, h., kvist, l. j., & landgren, k. (2020). art therapy and counseling for fear of childbirth: a randomized controlled trial. journal of the american art therapy association, 37(3), 123-130. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2020.1721399 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2017.12.008 https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2020.1721399 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 445-460 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/429 submitted: july 26th, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 28th, 2023 antinomicity of the good-truth-beauty triad on the internet oksana v. onyshchuk 1 , olesia v. pankiv 2 , maria v. sinelnikova 3 1 assoc. prof. phd, lviv polytechnic national university, department of philosophy, s. bandera street, 12, 79013 lviv, ukraine, oksana.v.onyshchuk@lpnu.ua, orcid: 0000-0002-8064-1953 2 assoc. prof. phd, lviv polytechnic national university, department of philosophy, s. bandera street, 12, 79013 lviv, ukraine, olesia.v.pankiv@lpnu.ua, orcid: 0000-0003-2081-4792 3 assoc. prof. phd, lviv polytechnic national university, department of philosophy, s. bandera street, 12, 79013 lviv, ukraine, sinelnikova.80@ukr.net, orcid 0000-0001-6085-6087 abstract: the presented article outlines vectors of transformation of basic values of good-truth-beauty in the network. the epistemological, moral-ethical, and aesthetic aspects are offered, which allows revealing the forms of representation of initial values in the internet culture. in particular, the planes of the intersection of the axes “good/evil”, “truth/lie”, and “beautiful/ugly” in social media are presented. the authors are concerned about the assertion of equivalence and blurring of the boundaries between good and evil, which can lead to permissiveness that is covered by anonymity, symbolism, and nominalisation provided by social networks. the article explores the articulation of the problem of evil in the internet through the use of the heuristic potential of aesthetic experience. an analysis of modern aesthetic forms of the representation of evil in network culture through the prism of such basic values as goodness-truth-beauty is carried out. it is shown how these values are deformed and sometimes turn into their opposite with the help of aesthetic means. it is shown that modern propaganda, which is carried out in social networks, actively uses existential features of perception and experience of truth. in the course of the study, the opinion is substantiated that reflexive judgment allows to attract aesthetic means to the moral understanding of manifestations of evil in the absence of stable standards and moral guidelines in social networks. keywords: good; evil; truth; lie; beautiful; social media; social network. how to cite: onyshchuk, o.v., pankiv, o.v., & sinelnikova, m.v. (2023). antinomicity of the good-truthbeauty triad on the internet. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(1), 445-460. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/429 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/429 mailto:oksana.v.onyshchuk@lpnu.ua mailto:olesia.v.pankiv@lpnu.ua mailto:sinelnikova.80@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/429 antinomicity of the good-truth-beauty triad on the internet oksana v. onyshchuk, et al. 446 introduction today, the internet space appears to be a unique platform for creating a completely new reality, in which the basic concepts and characteristics of real life are transformed beyond recognition. moreover, the spread of social media in this space is beginning to form new standards and trends, which are a model and criterion of modern human life. as jean baudrillard aptly noted in his time, today it is not reality that rules, but virtuality (baudrillard 1994), since total virtualisation has filled almost everything, even the metaphysical foundations of our being. the substitution has also affected the axiological discourse, namely the original values of truth-good-beauty, which even in the time of socrates acted as the highest and most reliable guidelines for human existence. it is through the original aspects of this triad (epistemological, moral-ethical, and aesthetic) that we will try to trace their deformation and transformation on the web and discover when good, separated from beauty, turns into a powerless impulse of uncertain feeling, truth without good – into an idle talk (play of empty words), and beauty without good and truth becomes an ephemeral idol. good speaking of good, we proceed from its interpretation as “a category of ethics, which fixes the fact that a person can make a choice and direct his actions towards a positive life affirmation; something that contributes to human self-improvement; something that is endowed with existential selfsufficiency” (petrushenko, 2009:51-52). evil, in return, „presupposes negation, wrecking, destruction of existing forms of existence‟ (petrushenko, 2009, 70), “hinders the realisation of the potentials of existence through the destruction of conditions and means of survival, physical and spiritual development of man” (fed 2002: 227). particular attention is focused on moral evil in its primary forms of depravity and hostility. hostility is manifested in cruelty and aggression to the world around, and depravity – in the fall of man under the influence of circumstances and suggestions. plato wrote that there are relatively few ways to do good, yet countless ways to do evil (cherniss, 1954: 23-30). moreover, „еvil has got distinctly worse over the millennia‟ (ayto, 2005: 557). from now on, thanks to social media, it gets more and more opportunities for its modification. the first step in spreading evil is to turn it into an attractive “good”. this was also said by schopenhauer, who brought the aesthetic aspect to the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 447 fore in the question of the attributes of evil. philip zimbardo suggested, in 2007, that people may act in evil ways as a result of collective identity (zimbardo, 2017). if we combine these two points, we get the aestheticisation of evil, which is observed today in social networks that seek to avoid any moralising, thereby blurring the line between good and evil, where collective identity is based on bringing people together in interest groups, where communication and conflict are based rather on emotions, than rational arguments. the origins of this issue should be sought not only in social networks. present-day culture is permeated with a tendency to aestheticise evil, and such frequent curtsies to ethical relativism, as, for instance, “every culture has values of its own”, make room for it in every possible way and form an uncertain status in the minds of modern man – the very definition of what is evil (apart from socially recurring terrorism, diseases, etc.) is a certain difficulty. the latter is because moral values become relative, „fluid‟ in nature, transforming under the pressure of increasingly rigid and active historical factors. the dominant categories of morality are not goodness and responsibility, but choice and pleasure, even if it is pleasure in choosing certain moral codes. this tendency has resulted in what p. sorokin calls sensitive culture. the disappearance of moral values of a general nature dominating has led to the emergence of sectoral and even individual moral precepts, which makes us conclude that general morality as a special social institution is dying out. turning to the trends prevalent in modern society, one can note that communication has supplanted the act, presentation – real life, in which the sphere of services rather than the sphere of labour has begun to declare itself as a privileged area. the aesthetic factor dominates in the presentation, as modern man increasingly chooses in favour of the “aesthetic ethos” rather than the ethical one. the aesthetic aspect is determined by admiration (infatuation) or pleasure, which is one‟s internal attitude. as a result, moral norms are being replaced by aesthetic norms that begin to play a decisive role in the field of communications, services and presentations. on the internet, the spread of evil occurs through two main tools: 1) demonstrating evil as something complex, deep, multifaceted, which requires detailed “immersion” and careful study; 2) opposing it to another evil, which is presented as something even worse and more unreasonable and primitive. according to the first method, evil forces us to sympathise with it and admire it. it “wraps” itself in a luxurious intellectual wrapper, making us forget that no matter how good evil is, it is still evil. therefore, in this case, evil can be described as something beautiful, perfect or exquisite. this antinomicity of the good-truth-beauty triad on the internet oksana v. onyshchuk, et al. 448 “dark” appeal of evil on social media is often portrayed through social success, beauty, intelligence, and irony, which become the objects of envy and admiration. the second way gives rise to anti-heroism. the “heroes” of social networks look amazingly attractive winning our approval and respect. sometimes it takes on absurd features: the demonstration of one‟s cruelty and strength, even through violence, becomes a new social networks trend. ever since ancient times, it has been widely believed that good is beautiful and evil is ugly (antisphen). as we can see, this idea is significantly transformed nowadays. it is easier to present evil as good by making it attractive. what makes evil attractive? first of all, absolute permissiveness. evil abolishes morality, commandments, duties, self-restraint and selfdiscipline. it allows a person everything that is forbidden to him in real life. an individual gets a deceptive sense of freedom that leads him to death. evil in a beautiful wrapper, artistic images of evil, created by talented people, can evoke aesthetic feelings. and the farther a person moves away from good, the more evil seems beautiful to him. etymologically, evil is defined as something that goes beyond the proper measure, something that exceeds its limits, indicates a violation of norms, i.e. has to do with excess, going beyond, and unregulated activity. hence, evil is associated with disruption, chaos and disorder, and the latter has its roots in the unjustified aspirations and hopes of man. one can imagine evil as the result of the accumulation of oppressed and repressed desires, reflecting the so-called dark side of man. observing the manifestations of vices, negativity, deviations on the internet, people see their dark side. social networks become the window through which we see ourselves – not only virtuous, moral, but other kinds of us as well, whose existence we do not admit. the personified evil in the network is the subject of transference. the images we see on the internet become for us our ideal “i”, the figures of our imaginary identification. today, in social networks, evil takes the form of outrage, creativity, extravagance and eccentricity. therefore, modernity aims to extract beauty from evil. the aesthetic image of evil appears to have commercial value. trends in present-day culture and ethics of the postmodern era prove that evil has become one of the most popular and economically successful brands. the interview of the scandalous russian journalist ksenia sobchak „skopin maniac: conversation after prison‟ has recently caused quite a stir on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddfctxurt00). the maniac from skopin (viktor mokhov) was serving a sentence for having held and abused two underage girls for more than three years. the aestheticisation and embellishment used in the film were what outraged the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 449 audience. dialogues on ethics were also shocking to many viewers. moreover, the maniac was presented in the interview as an ordinary “decent” man who just “stumbled”. „who doesn‟t happen to?‟, as mokhov himself remarks calmly and coolly. hot debates on social media revolved around whether it was ethical to tell the story of the “hero” in this format and even pay him a considerable fee for it. discussions have not ceased up till now. in just a day, the video received more than 2 million views and 86 thousand reactions – 54 thousand “likes” and 32 thousand “dislikes”. and sobchak herself boasted to her fans that the number of her followers on instagram reached 2 million. any celebrity would envy this. isn‟t that a paradox? evil is condemned, yet it is still well “sold”. an important component of the representation of evil in the network is a symbolic form as a set of spontaneous and controlled operations that are carried out with the help and means of aesthetic forms (images, music, symbols). the symbolisation is related to the phenomenon of the collective unconscious, the content of which is a set of archetypes that embody evil. on social media, these archetypes are embodied in the images of a “hero” (anti-hero who inspires admiration and the desire to imitate him). an important element of the aestheticisation of evil is its nominalisation. for this purpose, a specific language is selected, which consists of metaphorical forms, filled with meaning and fixed in certain images and symbols. the aim of aestheticising evil in social networks is to change the values and behaviour of a person by influencing his or her emotions. imitating the behaviour of fashion bloggers and other “heroes” of social networks, people seek to perform similar feats to gain their share of dubious fame, where a person‟s success is expressed by the number of followers on instagram. since social networks usually have a dual, rational-irrational nature, a person in the process of adapting to the conditions of internet reality must have in his or her tools both the means of rational reflection and the ability to interpret the irrational components of this reality. the behaviour of social media users is determined consequently by their understanding of the meaning of their behaviour, the values that a person considers to be priorities. moreover, the assessment process takes place within the existing binary oppositions arising from the opposition of good and evil. the formation of values and the corresponding process of evaluation during the aestheticisation of evil takes the form of axiological judgment. such a judgment is not only formed in rational space, but becomes a consequence of the action of certain aesthetic and psychological antinomicity of the good-truth-beauty triad on the internet oksana v. onyshchuk, et al. 450 laws of sensory perception, it becomes the result of what is more likely to be felt thus what can be transmitted, produced, and corrected by aesthetic means. in this context, the author of a philosophy of evil lars svendsen notes: „now it [evil] is not only a serious problem but has neither much nor little – attractiveness‟ (svendsen, 2010:7). svendsen attributes this “attractiveness” of evil to the fact that evil becomes „an object of aesthetics rather than morality. evil has turned into something else and, as a result, acts as the opposite of boring routine‟ (svendsen, 2010: 7). the usual propensity for evil based on selfishness can easily take extreme forms of expression in an appropriate social context. the source of such transformations is not only the substitution of maxims but also self-deception, i.e., the issuance of immoral maxims as moral ones by maintaining the appropriate social reality. hence, in the 21 st century, evil has its source not only in selfishness but also in self-deception based on social media. the development of information technology not only influences human behaviour but also creates new forms of expression of evil, seemingly without human participation. in 2001, philosophers luciano floridi and jeff sanders introduced the term into terminology to denote the actions of autonomous inhuman actors. „as a result of developments in autonomous agents in cyberspace, a new class of interesting and important examples of hybrid evil has come to light. …it is called artificial evil‟ (floridi & sanders, 2001: 58). the philosophers argued that it is not necessary to be human to be evil or to be the victim of the evil actions of others. also, artificial evil, according to them, can spread and be understood using mathematical models. truth the next component of the value triad is truth that is undergoing a significant transformation in the network space. this transformation is embodied nowadays in the phenomenon of “post-truth”, which the oxford english dictionary (oed) refers to as the word for the year 2016 and one of the defining words of our time. the dictionary publisher defined posttruth as an adjective „relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief‟ (oed, 2021: 234). oxford dictionaries said it recorded a spike in the use of post-truth in the year 2016 in the context of the brexit referendum in the united kingdom and the presidential election in the united states; the adjective became associated overwhelmingly with a particular noun, in the phrase post-truth politics. it is not surprising that broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 451 modernity is called the era of post-truth, fake news and alternative facts. the onset of this era is primarily associated with technological advances and the power of social networks, in which the boundaries between fact and opinion, experts and ignoramuses, truth and fiction are blurred. the latter has a strongly pronounced philosophical basis, the ancestor of which is nietzsche. it was with him that the long process of undermining the very value of truth began, along with the logical question that every person asks themselves: why should truth be preferred to lie? post-truth is a mask of a lie – its politically correct version (arendt, 1968: 234). and lie has always been a form of violence, sometimes much more dangerous than physical pressure. the result of its systematic application is a special cynicism, a rejection of the categories of “truth – lie”, which leads to the loss of sense of reality. in the article, we will refer to the concept of truth in its generally accepted understanding of the aristotelian correspondence theory as a correspondence between the content of judgments and reality. this statement is completely distorted on the internet, which claims: „truth is what i tell‟. in today‟s world of accelerated information consumption, new technologies for constructing and disseminating the post-truth have been created, and they have some similarities with the mechanisms of propaganda and manipulation. we will analyse some of them, which can also be considered moments of the aestheticisation of evil through the refraction of the highest values – truth/lies. nowadays, social networks, as a source of news, have long overtaken television, newspapers and media in popularity. the flow of contradictory information on social media is continuous, so a person is simply unable “to digest” it and reflect on it. „the impressions are too strong, vivid and at the same time always directed against spiritual balance‟ (berg, 2011: 42). but social networks do not even count on a rational analysis of information, on the contrary, they rely on irrational factors, due to which they gain such popularity. and the essence of any populism is “romantic primitivism”, which has a certain shade of anti-intellectualism, due to which a person loses the ability to create his or her clear position and is exposed to the mood of the masses. this is what social networks rely on, the main task of which is not to encourage people to think and analyse, but to entertain them, forcing them to forget about the routine of everyday life. such simplicity of perception, primitivisation, naivety, supplemented by visualisation, a person gets from the net. the entertainment policy of social media focuses on a simplified and schematic presentation of complex topics, combined with humorous notes, featuring bright headlines that antinomicity of the good-truth-beauty triad on the internet oksana v. onyshchuk, et al. 452 attract most of the modern audience. social media serve our spare time, which brings it closer to the entertainment industry. even benno hübner (hübner, 1996) once cautiously began to talk about the human‟s loss of senses, about ennui as a burden of consumer culture and unbearable boredom. alain brossat and jean-louis déotte complement this disappointing picture of modernity with another characteristic – “the era of disappearance” (l‟époque de la disparition), in which the ability to feel is at stake (brossat & déotte, 2000). it takes less than a second for a person to know if they are interested in the news or not. fake news is deliberately made to evoke strong emotions in us, such as anger, fear, trust, bewilderment, sadness, joy, disgust. thanks to this, we take the news personally and share them faster. through the use of emotions, even a “negative character” can be made a philanthropist and a saviour, and vice versa. that‟s why social media easily pass off lies as truth, and we willingly believe them. in addition, social media are aesthetically organised, they do not have a predetermined reality, it is confirmed and constructed by acts of its media-mediated perception. to describe this situation, boris groys speaks of the commercialisation of taste in the semiotic economy (groys, 2015). today, a well-packaged and skillfully presented half-truth, and sometimes outright lie will have great success with the audience, which will provide them with the highest sales. a striking example of this is oprah winfrey‟s scandalous interview with the duke and duchess of sussex in early march 2021 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2lfvfhwe2y& ab_channel=skillshareoliver). journalists found at least 17 “inaccuracies” in it, but such an obvious “lie” did not prevent prince harry and his wife from earning, according to various sources, 6 to 9 million dollars – which perfectly confirms the fact that untruth, decorated and presented in an aesthetically attractive way, and fuelled a bit by scandalous notes, is sold very well. social media are thus becoming one of the most important sectors of the economy, turning into a key resource of modern society. today we are in the era of popularisation when commercial success decides the price of the issue. therefore, we agree to rewrite the past, distort facts, and conceal information. all for the sake of dubious success and popularity on the internet. the spread of post-truth on the internet is facilitated by the fact that it allows every user of social networks to become a journalist (blogger), but without strict control by the “editor in chief”, who would evaluate the information in terms of its veracity. therefore, from now on, man gets an excellent opportunity to become “the measure of all things” himself, as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2lfvfhwe2y&%0bab_channel=skillshareoliver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2lfvfhwe2y&%0bab_channel=skillshareoliver broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 453 protagoras wanted. new technologies offer a great idea: each of us has the same right to express ourselves. at first glance, this is the best idea in the world, the idea of democratisation of truth, but it also has its flip side, the unpleasant one: every voice, every suggestion, every spoken word has the same weight and value under the auspices of truth. and the point is not just that i have the right to express my thoughts, but what i have said has an absolute right to claim the status of the only truth. today, the so-called agonal rhetoric plays an important role on the internet, denoting conflict-generating communication in which there is psychological confrontation, where the right to speak becomes the right to power, the interlocutor is objectified and influenced by a “strong” speaker. the latter considers himself “the ultimate truth”: this, in his opinion, gives him the right to dismiss the opinions of others. in the same direction, another communicative trend is developing – the habit of exchanging negative information. conversations on the topic “how bad everything is”, the retelling of horrors, plots of accidents, life dramas and sensations are becoming paradoxical “entertainment” of visitors to social networks. these two dimensions – collective and personal – form the common meaning of truth. its criterion, in contrast to the propositional truth, is the experience of authenticity or inauthenticity of one‟s existence. this is the key point of online propaganda that distorts the truth by creating a collective idea of a lie regarding the real state of affairs. scott lash, a professor of sociology and cultural studies, in his critique of information points to „the irrational side of information society which is reflected in information overloads, misinformation, disinformation, and out of control information‟ (lash, 2002: 141). the researcher explains, „…the contradiction is that as the information leads ever more to a smartening up, it at the same time brings with it a certain inevitable dumbing down…unlike narrative, information compresses beginning, middle and end into a present immediacy of a now-here. unlike discourse, the information does not need legitimating arguments. does not take the form of proportional utterances, but works with an immediate communicational violence‟ (lash, 2002: 145). all these factors together lead to the emergence of a large amount of information, but at the same time cause a lack of practically relevant information – such a piece of knowledge about the world that can be useful to a particular person to guide and direct their lives. lash refers to this loss of knowledge as a crisis of representation. referring to the terminology and theory of the french philosopher henri lefebvre, he writes that a person fundamentally seeks to create his or her own space for orientation in the world. this is not only about physical, but also symbolic antinomicity of the good-truth-beauty triad on the internet oksana v. onyshchuk, et al. 454 space. not only mimesis and representation of natural space are important for a person, but also “poetics of space”, i.e. setting up one‟s personal space of values, and eventually the formation of collective knowledge and collective memory (lash, 2002: 114-128). in fact, we are talking about a worldview narrative that can change, but at the same time must be holistic and sustainable enough to preserve and determine a person‟s self-positioning in the world, to help them navigate. the problem of the information society is that the bulk of information in it ceases to perform this function of representing or explaining the world. the information is objectified, it becomes similar to the things of daily household use we live among. information seems to formulate a parallel world of facts, and „what used to be an image or a narrative now takes the form of objects‟ (lash, 2002: 128). thus, the information space, which previously served as a discussion for the search and exchange of truths and, ultimately, the definition of landmarks in the world, today has turned from a space of comprehension into a space of quick exchange of “facts”. that is why we can talk about the loss of knowledge, or at least about the increasing displacement of knowledge by information. harvard professor and military expert tom nichols develops this topic in a modern context. at the same time, nichols delves not only into social processes but also into their personal dimension, critically analysing the behaviour of a particular person in a situation of overload with disparate facts. in the death of expertise nichols criticises the man of the information society for cultivating “narcissism combined with disdain to professionalism” (nichols, 2017: 22). internet culture, according to nichols, creates the illusion of access to all knowledge but does not teach a person to distinguish truth from lie and formulate a convincing worldview for themselves and the community. the illusion of intellectual omnipotence is created along with the fact that there is no active personal involvement in the formation of knowledge: „never have so many people had access to so much knowledge, and yet been so resistant to learning anything‟ (nichols 2017: 10). resistance to cognition is based on a culture of narcissism and egocentrism, which makes a person incapable of recognising the presence of truth beside and above themselves, in the thoughts of other people, and ultimately in the still unknown world of nature. without such guidance, one should not hope for constructive discussion. the culture of narcissism, in turn, is rooted in the irrational belief that „we are all equally competent‟ (nichols 2017: 21). freedom of speech, which presupposes competition of thoughts and theories, among which the one closest to the truth wins, has suddenly been transformed into the idea broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 455 that each opinion is equal to the other. „we are supposed to “agree to disagree”, a phrase now used indiscriminately as little more than a conversational fire extinguisher‟ (nichols 2017: 12). under such conditions, it is not the search for truth that is valuable anymore but the thought itself, not being involved in the matter of general cognition but the most vivid manifestation of one‟s ego. therefore, instead of going beyond one‟s ego to a community of other people, the defence of only one‟s ego and the hostile rejection of the “false truths” of other thinkers are cultivated. according to nichols, „to reject the advice of experts is to assert autonomy, a way for americans to insulate their increasingly fragile egos from ever being told they‟re wrong about anything. it is a new declaration of independence: no longer do we hold these truths to be self-evident, we hold all truths to be self-evident, even the ones that aren‟t true‟ (nichols 2017: 12). in the information society, distrust of the truth leads to the loss of oneself and a sense of aimlessness. under such circumstances, the culture of observation or reality culture develops to fill the inner emptiness and boredom that arise from frustration. being able to follow others is the highest value and at the same time brings the greatest satisfaction to the network user. in this case, the star for observation is not a person having some bright personal characteristics, but on the contrary, ordinary people, usually, members of fairly stereotyped groups with whom society can easily associate itself. simplifying, cropping, beautifying the picture and the plot, reality television and social networks make a set of bright moments out of ordinary lives and thereby encourage and cheer up all observers. it is much easier to actualise oneself online than in real life. today‟s teenagers no longer dream of being doctors or teachers, as they did fifty years ago. their dream is to become youtube stars. aesthetic (beauty without beauty) the concepts of truth and good are incomplete without beauty, which in turn manifests itself where the mind has approached the truth, and freedom is directed towards good, because „truth and good are united by family ties only in beauty‟ (hegel, 2010: 501). the concept of beauty combines the positive characteristics of man that belong to the aesthetic, moral, intellectual, social and other spheres of his life. therefore, it is beauty that completes the triad of higher universal values and is characterised by the syncretism of its nature, which is the inseparable unity of conceptual, valuebased and figurative components. antinomicity of the good-truth-beauty triad on the internet oksana v. onyshchuk, et al. 456 beauty, however, is the most controversial component of this triad of higher values. external beauty (fair face) and attractiveness can contradict a person‟s morality (fair soul): „a fair face without a fair soul is like a glass eye that shines and sees nothing‟ (john stuart blackie). ethics often associate human beauty with temptation that leads a person astray from the path of truth and goodness. nowadays, the absolute value of beauty is increasingly being questioned when it is assumed that beauty may not be perfect, may not be beautiful. peter weibel explains this by the end of the era of beauty, and that beauty itself is a historical concept (weibel, 2011: 36). beauty is actualised in the discourse following the aesthetic norms of an era and therefore undergoes historical variation with the development of the sociocultural system. the current axiological crisis and the devaluation of cultural tradition stimulate an urgent rethinking of the content of beauty, the degree and tendencies of its historical transformations. beauty, not without the help of internet resources, is undergoing a significant axiological transformation today: its value is mainly utilitarian and material. beauty is transferred from the inner to the outer. in this way, modern internet networks postulate the nonesuch of a beautiful human face and a beautiful (physically perfect) body. artists used to admire the beauty of the body, but today it is already a subject of the fashion and design industry (weibel, 2011: 20). this is how beauty indeed turns into kitsch and decor in the contemporary world of the internet. every day, the internet forces us to reconsider the ideals and standards of beauty until they are eliminated and broken at all. the newly formed emptiness is filled with artificial beauty. women‟s magazines with photos of overly skinny models, moreover, processed in photoshop, have long been recognised as a source of low self-esteem in young women. but now some groups of activists have also become concerned about social networks. special filters, as well as lighting and shooting angle, make it possible to create unrealistic photos in them. social networks break down the classic standards of beauty and sometimes advocate their absolute absence resulting in our receiving contradictory messages along with the promotion of artificial beauty. beauty is widely believed not to be necessarily an innate human property; it can be acquired in the process of purposeful action. perfect bodies and faces, actively shown on social media, are largely based on the latest advances in technology. in addition, in modern discourse, the correlative sphere of beauty metaphors is supplemented by frames of health, glamour and sex, projected into the slogans of social media: beauty is health, beauty is glamour, beauty is sexuality. objects of mass, low-standard culture broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 457 emphasised by the corresponding metaphorical images-symbols – “model” (“supermodel”, “top model”) and “sex” (“sex symbol”, “sex appeal”, “metrosexual”) – become the ideal of such external “beauty”. today social networks make us look like “30” in “50”, and “40 is the new 20” becomes the new slogan. the pages are full of demonstration of impressive results of “youth” and “beauty” to a grateful audience. however, these efforts look at times absurd, comical and sometimes even sad. as for the incredible transformations of present-day women (and even men), there is a joke that they have one plastic surgeon for all, because all these “young and beautiful” people are similar to each other like clones or twins. the same rubbery faces, the same snow-white smiles, the same trained bodies, like those of athletes. therefore, a logical question arises: who needs it – and what for? the answer is obvious: a person in real life often lacks catharsis that occurs through the contemplation of beauty. dissatisfied with their appearance, people seek to reshape their selves but do not dare to do so. the instagram stars who improve their appearance so vigorously, up to anorexia or, on the contrary, “body positive”, attract our attention, fascinate and capture us and encourage us to imitate. people who lose their own identity often resort to pretending or imitating. and what is the best model for the imitation if not “stars” of internet networks? beautiful, rich, and, therefore, happy. we are not able to understand that „the lack of reality is compensated by the symbolic forms of appropriation and consumption‟ (groys, 2003: 15). thus, we can talk about a common cultural trend that includes the mutual influences of aesthetics and everyday conditions against the background of broad consumption, when „aesthetics of social production can be recoded into aesthetics of individual pleasure‟ (groys, 2003: 16). there are, consequently, social networks acting as the creatorinterpreter of life, and on the other hand, we have the everyday person – the “everyman” and consumer. when wolfgang welsch talks about the approach of beauty to kitsch, he means exactly its “embellishment” and “styling” (welsch, 1997: 2) as essential elements of present-day aestheticisation that cannot give an unambiguous answer to the question of who formulates the needs – the consumer or industry. welsh identifies two sides of the aestheticisation taking place in the modern world (welsch, 1997: 2). on the one hand, we are dealing with “superficial” aestheticisation, expressed in the desire to embellish and design the living space, to a comprehensive aesthetic “processing” of reality. on the other hand, experiences, feelings of pleasure, attraction towards hedonism, which is becoming a new cultural matrix, are taken into account. this version of antinomicity of the good-truth-beauty triad on the internet oksana v. onyshchuk, et al. 458 aestheticisation is based on the desire for beautiful forms, it appeals to the sense of beauty, setting the standards of mass society. slavoj žižek interprets the “hyperrealist” nature of modern social networks as the saturation of the emptiness “keeping open space for symbolic invention”, removing the minimum distance between reality and the object that is the cause of its structuring desire. as a result, reality itself is “derealised” and experienced in the form of an “aestheticised performance” (žižek, 2005: 70), in which nothing is true – never and nowhere. the human body, in its pursuit of perfection, began to be modified through implants and artificial body parts (prostheses). the work on body modification is carried out within the framework of the developed special life extension programs. however, information and communication technologies both expand the body‟s capabilities and impose certain restrictions on its improvement. žižek notes that in the conditions of the information revolution, the body moves less and less (žižek, 2013: 89). for example, a computer mouse becomes a sort of prosthesis – a computer begins to perform certain operations for a person who is less and less reliant on his or her own body. a person hyperactivates their own body, sometimes creating a virtual image of it on the internet. a defining feature of the virtual presence is its secrecy, manifested in the demonstration of all kinds of avatars, faces that mask the true essence of a person. a perfect image consists of partial elements, which, thanks to the ability to create a virtual image of a body on the internet and take over other bodies, get erased, forming a perfect integral body. the improvement applies not only to the body but also to one's biography, which combines real and fictional facts. the subject is, therefore, in one or several possible worlds, implementing the precept of plurality of “ego” and bodies in cyberspace. thanks to the implementation of these facts in virtual space, the effect of reality is created, and a tendency to manipulate “life stories” can be observed. in such a way, the virtual corporeality complements the virtual picture of human existence, according to which it is possible to change the sex, age, status and roles of a person in computer networks. conclusions thus, the phenomena of moral, aesthetic and epistemological, which acted as a universal principle of the creation of the world, fixing the close connection of being with truth, good and beauty, made it possible to think of the world as rational, orderly and beautiful. today, a person loses a general perspective on the vision of life, they have to immerse themselves in broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 459 the tactical development of individual situations. the word challenge has become popular in many languages. it also points to the general mode of existence as suffering from challenges. values acquire the ability to adapt rather than set goals. therefore, identity in itself becomes unnecessary: the smaller it is, the better our adaptive capabilities. universal truths become unnecessary since one has to live from event to event. values are considered fiction because they oblige to something more than local interactions. if we replace “inspiration” with “pleasure” or “entertainment”, we get the formula of social networks. it is this manipulation of concepts that seems to become the cornerstone of today‟s internet space. the design of a “beautiful life” becomes more beautiful than life itself. therefore, the charming and attractive, produced on an excessive scale by social media today, only masks the true problems of a person. the main thing nowadays is to “pretend”, not to be. beauty is primarily the relationship between content and form, their balance. today we get something quite the opposite: good, separated from beauty, turns into a powerless impulse of uncertain feeling, truth without good – into an idle talk (play of empty words), and beauty without good and truth becomes an ephemeral idol. references arendt, h. (1968). truth and politics. between past and future, 227-64. https://idanlandau.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/arendt-truth-andpolitics.pdf ayto, j. (2005). word origins: the secret histories of english words from a to z. a&c black. baudrillard, j. (1994). simulacra and simulation. ump. http://cast.bap.net/arc619f17/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2017/08/baudrillardsimulacrasimulation.pdf de berg, o.h. (2011). war as aesthetic: the philosophy of carl von clausewitz as the embodiment of john dewey‟s concept of experience. texas a&m university. http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/etd-tamu2011-08-9773/deberg-dissertation.pdf?sequence=2 brossat, a., & déotte, j.-l. (2000). l`époque de la disparition: politique et esthétique (esthétiques). l'harmattan. cherniss, h. (1954). the sources of evil according to plato. proceedings of the american philosophical society. american philosophical society. https://cds.cern.ch/record/96416/files/cern-arch-pmc-06-359.pdf floridi, l., & sanders, j.w. (2001). artificial evil and the foundation of computer ethics. ethics and information technology, 3, 55-66. doi:10.1023/a:1011440125207 https://idanlandau.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/arendt-truth-and-politics.pdf https://idanlandau.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/arendt-truth-and-politics.pdf http://cast.b-ap.net/arc619f17/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2017/08/baudrillard-simulacrasimulation.pdf http://cast.b-ap.net/arc619f17/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2017/08/baudrillard-simulacrasimulation.pdf http://cast.b-ap.net/arc619f17/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2017/08/baudrillard-simulacrasimulation.pdf http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/etd-tamu-2011-08-9773/deberg-dissertation.pdf?sequence=2 http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/etd-tamu-2011-08-9773/deberg-dissertation.pdf?sequence=2 https://cds.cern.ch/record/96416/files/cern-arch-pmc-06-359.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1011440125207 antinomicity of the good-truth-beauty triad on the internet oksana v. onyshchuk, et al. 460 groys, b. (2003). the art of utopia. [in russian]. art magazine. groys, b. (2015). on the new. an attemp at cultural economy. [in russian]. ad marginem. hegel, g.w.f. (2010). the science of logic. cambridge university press. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d6b5ff86e6c087a92f8f89/t/5913 a3bb197aeab3e23ff4d3/1494459337924/georg_wilhelm_friedrich_hegel __the_science_of_logic.pdf hübner, b. (1996). beliebigkeitsethos und zwangsästhetik. passagen-verlag. lash, s. (2002). critique of information. sage publications. doi:10.1080/01972240490423094 nichols, t. (2017). the death of еxpertise: the сampaign аgainst еstablished кnowledge and why it matters. oxford university press. https://dmpi.pasca.radenintan.ac.id/wpcontent/uploads/sites/14/2018/1 1/the-death-of-expertise.pdf oxford english dictionary (oed). (2021). oxford university press. petrushenko, v. (2009). explanatory dictionary of basic philosophical terms [in ukrainian]. lviv polytechnic publishing house philosophical encyclopedic dictionary (fed). (2002). abrys. https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/shynkaruk_volodymyr/filosofskyi_entsykl opedychnyi_slovnyk.pdf svendsen, l. (2010). philosophy of evil (norwegian literature). dalkey archive press. weibel, p. (2011). 10 ++ program texts for possible worlds [in russian]. https://offuniversity.livejournal.com/16525.html welsch, w. (1997). aesthetics beyond aesthetics. proceedings of the xіith international congress of aesthetics, lahti 1995, vol. ііі: practical aesthetics in practice and theory, ed. martti honkanen, helsinki, 18-37. https://rucforsk.ruc.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/51734224/_aesthetics_bey ond_aesthetics_by_wolfgang_welsch.pdf zimbardo, p. (2017). the lucifer effect: understanding how good people turn evil. random house. žižek, s. (2005). the metastases of enjoyment: six essays on woman and causality. verso. žižek, s. (2013). welcome to the desert of the real: five essays on september 11 and related dates (radical thinkers). verso. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d6b5ff86e6c087a92f8f89/t/5913a3bb197aeab3e23ff4d3/1494459337924/georg_wilhelm_friedrich_hegel__the_science_of_logic.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d6b5ff86e6c087a92f8f89/t/5913a3bb197aeab3e23ff4d3/1494459337924/georg_wilhelm_friedrich_hegel__the_science_of_logic.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d6b5ff86e6c087a92f8f89/t/5913a3bb197aeab3e23ff4d3/1494459337924/georg_wilhelm_friedrich_hegel__the_science_of_logic.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01972240490423094 https://dmpi.pasca.radenintan.ac.id/wpcontent/uploads/sites/14/2018/11/the-death-of-expertise.pdf https://dmpi.pasca.radenintan.ac.id/wpcontent/uploads/sites/14/2018/11/the-death-of-expertise.pdf https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/shynkaruk_volodymyr/filosofskyi_entsyklopedychnyi_slovnyk.pdf https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/shynkaruk_volodymyr/filosofskyi_entsyklopedychnyi_slovnyk.pdf https://off-university.livejournal.com/16525.html https://off-university.livejournal.com/16525.html https://rucforsk.ruc.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/51734224/_aesthetics_beyond_aesthetics_by_wolfgang_welsch.pdf https://rucforsk.ruc.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/51734224/_aesthetics_beyond_aesthetics_by_wolfgang_welsch.pdf microsoft word brain_2_1.doc 11 handedness and lateralization of the brain parvaneh khosravizadeh research and graduate studies, languages and linguistics center sharif university of technology, iran khosravizadeh@sharif.edu shohreh teimournezhad languages and linguistics department, sharif university of technology, iran shohre.t202@yahoo.com abstract the present study is a review of the key concepts in relation to the nature of handedness and in line with that, the phenomenon of brain lateralization. to this end, a number of articles have been overviewed and the critical concepts such as handedness and its main features, the theoretical bases for this phenomenon, the nature and functions of lateralization, and the relationship between these two concepts have been shed light on for a better understanding. finally, the general differences between the left-handers vs. right-handers have been drawn into consideration. keywords: handedness, brain lateralization, psycholinguistics 1. introduction human beings are unique from other species, due to their mental abilities, which have helped them discover the facts of the world and make great progressions in every aspect of scientific achievements. despite the mental capacity, which is shared by almost all members of the human community, there are many idiosyncratic differences among them, which make every individual a unique person. the organization of brain for different mental processes may be different among people, which is one of the sources that take care of such phenomena. one of such individual differences that have been the focus of many researches is the notion of handedness. the study of gilbert and wysocki, along with the experimental research of peters, reimers, &manning show that the rate of left-handedness is approximately 13% in males and 11% in females [5]. noticing that the exact percentage of lefthanders is not agreed upon in the literature, it may suffice to rely on the generalization that approximately ten percent of the population of every culture is left handed in performing tasks such as writing and other unimanual activities [2]. this fact highlights the significance of the investigation of such phenomenon and the necessity of conducting further researches in this regard, so that more mysteries about the complexities of the human mind are revealed to the world. one area of concern, which is highly referred to as being greatly related to handedness is the brain lateralization for language functions that has to do with the question of which hemisphere is dominant regarding linguistic processes among people. in fact, most of the studies conducted so far on handedness usually focused on the relationship between handedness and language sidedness (vuoksimaa, 2009). actually, in most of the studies, the hand preference of the subjects is considered as a predictor of brain lateralization. studies have revealed that left-hemisphere language dominance is less reported in lefthanders than in right hand individuals. the general belief is that since the right hemisphere is controlling the left side of the body, left hand people enjoy right hemisphere dominance in terms of linguistic processes to a greater degree than the right-handers do. in spite of all these facts, the lay presuppositions about the distinction between leftand right-handers are, to some extent, different from what the literature suggest in this regard. as for the present paper, the authors were driven by their interest to embark on conducting a research on the comprehension differences among leftand right-handers. the authors’ presupposition, like so many others, was that all the left-handers are right brain dominant. however, referring to the literature in this regard, they found out that this simplistic idea is not thoroughly true and is correct brainstorming brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 only for a small group of left hand individuals; the fact is that right hemisphere dominance is more frequent among this group than among right-handers. the present article, offers a review of the key concepts that have to be understood before any attempt to carry out a research is made, regarding right/left handedness and the related issues especially the concept of brain lateralization for language functions. 2. handedness generally, providing a definition for notions is a complex matter. academically speaking, in most of the studies the hand used by individuals in writing has been used as the most reliable index of handedness. however, there is an argument against such a singlecriterion approach since writing is a learned behavior on which, teaching the skill can have an influential effect [6]. in some other researches, however, a multiple of tasks are chosen as indicators of handedness among individuals. 2.1. left-handedness considering this atypical group of population, i.e. the left-handers, one interesting point made by bosman (2004) was the negative orientation of the history toward left-handedness. he browsed the history in order to refer to the negative connotations that have been attached to the notion of left-handedness. to do so, he starts with the etymology of the word “left” in different languages and comes up with negative sides of meaning in a number of world languages (see [2] for the examples). he further draws attention to some other “anthropological examples of right/left symbolism” that prove the unkindness of the history to left-handers. he also brings some examples from different religions as to look down on the left hand as well as some anecdotes, which equate left-handedness with evil (klar, 1999). when we take a look at our background knowledge, such negative connotations are discernable for the word “left” and we easily can find superstitions that have a bias toward the right/ left distinction. further, in his discussion on the view of societies upon left-hander, however, bosman continues with some positive instances of the left-handed elites of the world among artists and geniuses such as einstein and picasso (bosman, 2004). 2.2. general features of handedness marchant & mcgrew (1998) draw attention to two important features of handedness, which are asserted by many textbooks. they conclude, however, that these features are not fully proven by the literature, there are limitations to what have been done in this regard, and more ethnographical studies are called for. following is presented a brief explanation together with some evidences of the conducted researches considering the two characteristics [9]. uniqueness. early literature on psychology reveals that handedness is unique to human beings only. other species are thought to be evenly distributed between leftand rightpreference. however, the empirical data from the studies done by macneilage et al. challenge these views. they claimed that handedness is wide spread among other species, especially simians as well (marchant and mcgrew, 1998). such contradictory findings of researches prove that for the moment nothing can be claimed confidently about the uniqueness of handedness to humans, as marchant & mcgraw (1998) truly summarize. yet, there are evidences for hand preference among some species, which still provide no enough support for the existence of handedness or hand specialization among them. a point to be made here is the fact that the same struggle exists between the scholars regarding lateralization of the brain among species. there have been much evidences about the lateralization and limb preference among other species, however, not all scholars have been convinced and are still regarding human beings as being unique in this regard. on the other hand, others, corballis (2009) [3] for example, just recently admitted that the empirical evidences proved that lateralization does exist in other vertebrate species. rogers (2007) quotes him as saying: ‘‘some p. khosravizadeh, s. teimournezhad handedness and lateralization of the brain 13 of our lateralized activities may well be distinctive to our own species, but cerebral lateralization itself is not’’. this claim is in line with what has been reviewed by sun and walsh, who, taking handedness as an evidence for lateralization concluded that human beings are the only species who have more than 90% bias to use one hand over the other [10]. universality. universality has to do with the fact that people from all societies show evidences of right-hand dominance in performing tasks, however the portion stated by the researchers are different due to the fact that their studies were all limited in terms of size of sampling or aspects of methodology. nevertheless, even smallscaled studies revealed that neither geography, nor schooling play any role in the likelihood of handedness among different populations (marchant & mcgrew, 1998). 2.3. the basis for handedness in an attempt to provide answers for the question that “what accounts for the individual differences among people in terms of their handedness?” bishop (2001) reviews two sets of explanations [1]: non-genetic explanations take into account the environmental factors and the cultural transmission of handedness between generations. many of the recent studies also support such an approach in determining the influential factors on hand preference among individuals. the study carried out by vuoksimaa et al.(2009) is one example of such researches that ends with the conclusion that the result of their experiments “have shown that most of the variance in handedness is explained by environmental effects, while there are also some familial, probably genetic effects that are not detectible in smaller samples”. the second theoretical basis bishop offers supports the idea that all human beings have a genetic bias to be right-handed. some theoretical explanations suggest a sort of genetic basis for handedness and its inheritance. mcmanus, for example, contend that a single gene controls both handedness and language lateralization. some quantitative evidences also have been emerging recently that prove the inheritance of handedness from parents to offspring (see [12]). however, bishop (2001) conducted two studies using samples from twins that gave little support for the genetic theories. in an attempt to justify the inconsistency of the research findings in this regard, li et al.(2003) concluded that one of the sources for the lack of agreement among researchers on what accounts for the basis of handedness is the various approaches to defining handedness and the widely different methods used by the researchers to conduct experiments. they also refer to “extraneous factors such as ability, experience, and age” as another probable factor resulting in such inconsistencies. the results of their study also support this latter reasoning [8]. 3. lateralization brain lateralization has been defined as “the view that one of the hemispheres of the brain has or develops a special responsibility for language”[4]. evidence for this view comes from brain damage, which may lead to different types of aphasia, brain operations, dichotic listening, etc. as for the basis of lateralization, most of studies have focused their attention on the genes and their inheritance (rogers, 2007). however, evidences are a lot that environment also plays a key role in the development of lateralization of the brain among populations of species. the interaction between the hormones and genetic influences on the one hand, and the experiences and the environmental factors on the other, are found to be crucial elements in the development of cerebral lateralization, mostly through affecting the size of the corpus callosum in the brain. with regard to advantages of having a lateralized brain for different functions, findings of the studies are complex. nevertheless, for long it was suggested by scholars that having a lateralized brain results a higher cognitive capacity. it is believed that most people enjoy a lateralized brain, with a bias toward using the right hand and in turn, the more dominant hemisphere is involved in language functions and speech, while the other hemisphere, the right one in case of most individuals, controls the emotional behavior [6]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 as for the general differences between the two hemispheres, considering their asymmetry, it is generally believed that “the left brain is analytical, logical and calculating, while the right brain is holistic, visual, spatial, and emotional” (bosman, 2004). however, this claim have to be treated with caution, since drawing a border line between the functions of the two halves is a complex task and evidences are a lot that there are a vast number of individuals in whom the organization of the brain is atypical from that of the majority. generally, the functionality of the two hemispheres is categorized into separate parts by some researchers. chevalier, for example, links some cognitive processes to the right side of the brain and concludes, “the right hemisphere mostly works with the whole concepts, similarities, images and meaning, emotions and intuition, rhythm and flow, humor and mood, and farsightedness”. on the other hand he argues that the “left hemisphere takes care of logic differences, numbers and letters, reasoning and analysis, sequentiality, literal focus, and details” (quoted by bosman, 2004). the significant point to be repeated in this regard is the fact that -as admitted also by chevalier himselfthis is not a full dichotomous concept and the borderline between the cognitive functions of the two sides of the brain is not as clear as it may seem here. language is a frequently cited example of such lateralized functions, for which the interaction of the two hemispheres is frequently reported in the literature. 3.1. handedness and lateralization for long, hand preference in performing tasks was taken into account as an indicator of brain lateralization of the subjects of experiments. however, such an approach has been proven to work only for certain complex tasks and not for simple ones. in fact, it is claimed that for simpler tasks such as picking up the food items, the procedure is vice versa, that is, in such cases brain lateralization is the index of hand preference and the hemisphere which is most likely to be used to do the task determines which hand to be used by the animal (rogers, 2007). handedness is often seen as a by-product of brain lateralization in human beings, which is also at work in the development of language among them. nevertheless, what remains ambiguous is the fact that why it does not affect all the human beings. in fact, a minor group of the population of every culture (5%–15%) is found to be left-handed [1]. for long, it has been proven that, in case of human beings, the two concepts of brain lateralization for language and handedness are interconnected to a large degree. the relationship is in a way that right-hemisphere dominance for language is found more in case of left-handers than in right-handers. however, the exact nature of such a link is still under doubt. with regard to this claim, it worth pointing out here that some advantages have been reported for left-handedness, for which the likelihood of right hemisphere dominance for language is more than that of right handed people. however, the exact nature of such a link is still under doubt. deutsch and springer, for example, assert that for the thirty percent of left-handers whose speech is in the right-hemisphere, because of proximity of the brain parts which are at work for verbal and non-verbal abilities, these two types of skills are more interconnected and interwoven (field, 2004). 3.2. differences between leftand right-handers some researchers report anatomical differences in the form and size of the corpus callosum in leftvs. right-handers. such studies suggest that the corpus callosum tends to be larger in left hand individuals. beside the behavioral differences as well as physiological ones as reported by the literature , there are some studies that suggest left-hand individuals show less left hemisphere involvement in language tasks compared to right-hand ones [13]. such findings have resulted in the hypothesis that the organization of the brain in left hand individuals is different from that of righthanders, with left-handers having a right hemisphere or bilateral dominance with regard to language functions. p. khosravizadeh, s. teimournezhad handedness and lateralization of the brain 15 such a conclusion is the line of reasoning for what thilers et al. (2007) has examined with regard to sex differences in terms of cognitive skills in leftand right-hand individuals. their findings revealed that right hand women outperformed men in tasks assessing episodic memory and verbal fluency, while the right hand men have higher degrees of cognitive ability in performing visiospatial tasks. in case of lefthanders, however, they found out that such sex differences are very much smaller in magnitude. in reasoning for such findings, they assumed that greater righthemisphere involvement in language functions in left hand individuals could be the cause of such less differences. their data supports the fact that righthemisphere dominance or even a more bilateral pattern in language functions, a phenomenon which is more typical to women, can enhance the cognitive ability of the individuals in performing verbal tasks such as verbal episodic memory and verbal fluency. this means that brain organization of the left-hand men is more similar to women, considering language functions. this conclusion is based on the claim that females have lower degrees of language lateralization compared to men. it is worth mentioning here that just like many other aspects of lateralization and handedness among individuals, there are some studies that came across the opposite results about sex differences in lateralization of language. using different methods of observation, such reviews failed to detect any sex differences among individuals, considering lateralized linguistic functions [13]. therefore, again, we can easily observe the lack of agreement among scholars, even after years of investigation. in spite of all these differences reported above, nevertheless, it is also to be mentioned here, that in most of the investigations carried out so far, little evidence has been found that suggests the superiority of right-handers over left-handers in terms of cognitive skills. there are however, differences between the two groups in terms of cognitive skills. the results of the studies are complex, in that some report higher cognitive achievements on the part of right-handers while on the contrary there is evidence of left-handedness as being a favor (see thilers et al., 2007 for evidences). cognitive styles, rather than cognitive skills, are also regarded as the difference point between the two groups of individuals in some studies. coren, for instance, introduces the two thinking styles, the convergent style vs. the divergent one, and draws a connection between handedness and these two thinking styles. the first one has to do with the bottom-up style of using the details to come up with a single answer, while the latter is a more top-down process of moving from a whole in order to discover the existing associations. he relates the divergent style to lefthandedness. this is in accordance with the dominance of the right hemisphere, which is reported as to be more holistic than the left one [11]. in fact, considering the cognitive functions and information processing among the lefthanders, evidences are a lot that the approaches taken by the two hemispheres are different in a way or the other. for example, there is a tendency to relate the right hemisphere to visualization. despite all these, the existing findings of the literature on the superiority of right-handers to lefthanders do not give consistence results. some studies such as the work of orton, for example, suggest that “reading disability and speech problems might be more prevalent in those lacking consistent cerebral asymmetry, as reflected in mixedor left-handedness” (quoted by corballis et al., 2009). such claims, however, are challenged by the results of other researches such as that of petrinovich, and goldman, and the one conducted by mcmanus and mascie-taylor, which has reported no difference between the leftand right-hand individuals in terms of their iq. (corballis et al., 2009). moreover, the results of the study by corballis et al. (2009) indicate that in spite of the intellectual deficits among ambidextrous, probably due to their lack of cerebral dominance, there is no evident difference between leftand righthand individuals in terms of their intellectual abilities, their iq in particular. generally, there are bunches of studies that suggest the idea that the intellectual disabilities are more prevalent among those who lack a one-hand preference, i.e. those who lack a handedness brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 consistency. the findings of crow, done, and leask [7], and those of peters, reimers, and manning came up with evidences that support such a claim (corballis et al., 2009). 4. conclusion the aim of this paper was to cast some light on some of the critical concepts to be understood regarding handedness and its connection to lateralization of language functions within human’s brain. by overviewing the literature on the nature of handedness and lateralization and summarizing the results of the experimental studies as well as the theoretical basis of these phenomena, we may come up with the conclusion that almost in every aspect of this area of research the findings of the studies have brought up conflicting results. it is most probably due to the delicateness of the nature of such investigations and diversity of the methods used by the researchers. however, it seems that in order to undertake any research on this general topic, clear definitions of the key concepts seem necessary. furthermore, considering the existing gaps in this realm of knowledge, researches are called for so that results that are more reliable are achieved and ambiguities are removed and stronger theories emerge in this regard. 5. references [1] bishop, d, v. m. (2001). individual differences in handedness and specific speech and language impairment: evidence against a genetic link. behavior genetics, 31 (4). [2] bosman, r. a.(2004). librarians and left-handedness: a speculative exploration. a master’s paper for the m.s. in l.s degree. university of north carolina, chapel hill. retrieved on september 1, 2010, from http://ils.unc.edu/mspapers/2915.pdf [3] corballis, m. c., hattie, j. & fletche, r. (2009). handedness and intellectual achievement: an even-handed look. neuropsychologia, 46, 374–378. [4] field, j. (2004). psycholinguistics: the key concepts. routledge, london. [5] vuoksimaa, e., koskenvuo, m., rose, r. j., & kaprio, j. (2009). origins of handedness: a nationwide study of 30 161 adults. neuropsychologia, 47, 1294–1301. [6] klar, a. j. s. (1999). genetic models for handedness, brain lateralization, schizophrenia, and manic-depression. schizophrenia research, 39, 207–218. [7] leask, s. j. & crow, t. j. (2001). word acquisition reflects lateralization of hand skills. trends in cognitive sciences, 5(12), 513-516. [8] li, c., zhu, w., & nuttall, r. l. (2003). familial handedness and spatial ability: a study with chinese students aged 14–24. brain and cognition, 51, 375–384. [9] marchant, l.f. & mcgrew, w. c. (1998). human handedness: an ethological perspective. human evolution, 13(3-4), 221-228. [10] rogers, l. j. (2007). lateralization in its many forms, and its evolution and development. the evolution of hemispheric specialization in primates. special topics in primatology, 5, 22-56. doi:10.1016/s1936-8526(07)05002-6 [11] ruebeck, c.s., harrington, j. e., & moffitt, r. (2006). handedness and earnings. laterality, 2007, 12 (2), 101-120. [12] sommer, i. e., aleman, a., somers, m., boks, m. p., & kahn, r.s. (2008). sex differences in handedness, asymmetry of the planum temporale and functional language lateralization. brain research, 1206, 76 – 88. [13] thilers, p. p., macdonald, s. w. s., & herlitz, a. (2007). sex differences in cognition: the role of handedness. physiology & behavior, 92, 105–109. other works we used: [14] jones, g. v. & martin, m. (2009). language dominance, handedness and sex: recessive xlinkage theory and test. corte x, 46, 781 – 786. [15] townsend, d. j. (2001). familial handedness and access to words, meaning, and syntax during sentence comprehension. brain and language, 78, 308–331. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 68-80 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/376 submitted: november 4th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 18th, 2022 art therapeutic techniques to provide psychological assistance inna ivzhenko 1 , ganna podol’s’ka 2 , iryna demchenko 3 , liudmyla dzhyhun 4 , vitalina lytvynenko 5 , olha kacherova 6 1 national pedagogical university named after m.p.dragomanova, ukraine, inna_ivzhenko@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2224-3292 2 institute for the training of personnel of the state employment service of ukraine, podolskaya8@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3742-9065 3 national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, irynadi67@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4302-7564 4 khmelnytskyi national university, ukraine, dlm.757678@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3367-0716 5 sumy state pedagogical university, ukraine, lvitaline1982@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9790-289x 6 berdіansk state pedagogical university, ukraine, 85olya85@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3263-561x abstract: the article considers art-therapeutic means for adults and children during the war. the relevance of the article is to help children and adults to use art therapy to develop vitality, psycho-emotional recovery, adaptation to new social conditions, the formation of emotional and volitional self-regulation of behavior. objective of the article: to find out the essence of art therapy; to study the consequences of adults and children during wars; consider popular arttherapeutic techniques for the treatment of psychological disorders in victims. methods: analysis of scientific literature, system analysis. results: according to research on this issue, art therapies are extremely useful and necessary for the treatment of adults and children affected by war. the consequences of adults and children during wars have been studied. the advantages of using art therapy are highlighted. in addition, popular art-therapeutic techniques for the treatment of psychological disorders in victims are considered: sand therapy, music therapy, phototherapy, isotherapy, neurography, associative metaphorical maps. it has been found out what pictures are being drawn by the victims of the current war in ukraine. it is proved that the art therapy combines a number of branches: art history, pedagogy, psychology, psychotherapy. conclusion: therefore, the use of art therapy techniques improves the emotional state of adults and children: reduces fear and anxiety, anger and depression, and so on. keywords: isotherapy; refugee; stress; sand therapy; fairy tale therapies; music therapy, neurography; phototherapy; anxiety. how to cite: ivzhenko, i., podol’s’ka, g., demchenko, i., dzhyhun, l., lytvynenko, v., & kacherova, o. (2022). art therapeutic techniques to provide psychological assistance. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 68-80. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/376 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/376 mailto:inna_ivzhenko@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2224-3292 mailto:podolskaya8@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3742-9065 mailto:irynadi67@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4302-7564 mailto:dlm.757678@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3367-0716 mailto:lvitaline1982@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9790-289x mailto:85olya85@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3263-561x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/376 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 69 introduction today, ukrainian society is going through extremely difficult times, as russia has declared a military operation against ukraine, i. e. in the xxi century a kind of genocide of the ukrainian people continues. martial law has been imposed in the country, ukrainian cities are being bombed, people are dying, homes are being destroyed, and so on. so now adults and children are experiencing traumatic events, stress, depression. the relevance of the article is to help children and adults to use art therapy to develop vitality, psycho-emotional recovery, adaptation to new social conditions, the formation of emotional and volitional self-regulation of behavior. to begin with, we should consider the essence of the concept of "art therapy". the term "art therapy" was first used by the british artist hill in 1938 in the book "art against disease". the method of art treatment became unique at that time and interested many doctors (golovatyuk, 2017). the artist painted wounded soldiers returning from the war, patients of the sanatorium where he was at the time. observations have shown that the fine arts helped to improve the condition and promote the recovery of patients. hill (1945) later founded the british association of art therapists and became its president. according to the authors of the manual kalka and kovalchuk (2020, p.7), art therapy is one of the most effective ways to work with clients of any age and with any disorders, and for the individual – it is a way of selfdisclosure, self-expression, development and the way to one's own harmonization. according to voznesenska and mova (2007, p. 4) art therapy is an innovative method that promotes the creative disclosure of human abilities and essential potential, mobilization of internal mechanisms of selfregulation and healing. according to kozigora (2018, p.198) art therapy is a method of teaching, education and healing through creativity, used in psychotherapy, psychosomatic clinics and in the social sphere. that is, a healing tool that helps children overcome psychological problems to stabilize their emotions, to move from negative to positive thoughts. according to dimitrova (2011, p. 3) art therapy is able to actualize the inner potential of each person by simple and ecological means, to promote healing and harmony of personality, to form a creative position of man. art therapeutic techniques to provide psychological assistance inna ivzhenko et al. 70 golovatyuk (2017, p. 63) has analyzed the specifics of art therapy by foreign scientists and proved that art therapy is not a "teaching" of fine arts, but the means by which an adult or child can express themselves, express negative emotions, share their experiences. voznesenskaya (2021) in the publication names 6 methodical principles of teaching art therapy: • the principle of tolerant acceptance and perception: worthlessness, lack of criticism, comparison; • the principle of positive thinking: emphasis on potential, support and stimulation of search activity; • the principle of reliance on uniqueness: each a unique personality; • the principle of security and confidentiality of creativity; • the principle of spontaneity of creativity: freedom in the pace of work, choice of materials, exercises, styles, genres, the right to experiment; • the principle of improvisation: the search for their own ways of self-expression, looseness. the novelty is that art therapy is developing, new techniques are emerging that are becoming extremely relevant and useful for the psychological correction of adults and children affected by the russian military operation in ukraine in february-may 2022. negative effect of war on the child’s psychological state a review of studies by domestic and foreign authors proves that hill (1945), gattaa, gallo, and vianello (2014), lvov and zhabko(2018), voznesenskaya (2021), golovatyuk (2017), kalka and kovalchuk (2020) worked on the problem. preiss newman (1995) discusses the causes of stress in children who witnessed the war. the most common trauma was to become a refugee, i. e. to flee one's country for fear of saving one's life. the following reasons are: the death of relatives, injuries of loved ones, being in concentration camps, enduring bullying or seeing the torture of others, constant depression of the mother. symptoms include severe heavy memories that lead to crying, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and systematic fear. lvov and zhabko (2018) note that children who have been on the territory of hostilities suffer psychological trauma. they are not immediately aware of the surrounding actions, because usually a momentary situation is recorded: the roar of military helicopters, the whistling of falling weapons, the terrible sounds of explosions, burning fire. as a result, post-traumatic broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 71 symptoms appear on the emotional, cognitive, physiological and behavioral levels. in terms of emotional processes, children develop fear, anxiety, irritability, and tearfulness. from cognitive children become inattentive, memory deteriorates. at the physiological level of sleep disorders, there are pictures of nightmares, they often complain of headaches, tremors, frequent urination, and twitching. negative changes are also observed in behavior: actions become more similar to behavior at a younger age, manifestations of aggression, anger, stubbornness, hostility, conflict, and so on. such disorders can appear for a long time, so they need to be corrected. the authors of the publication hill and jones (1997) conducted a study on the condition of primary school children who witnessed violence in the community: homicides during shootings, physical attacks, group abuse, robbery, rape. the results show that the perception of what was seen caused children severe mental trauma. shaw (2003) discusses mental illness in children during the war, i. e. terrorist and bioterrorist acts. four categories were studied: refugees, children who suffered physical injuries, orphans and children of the military. the consequences of diseases can be classified into 3 stress factors: weak reaction, acute emotional and behavioral disorders, long-term reaction. the affected children were found to have mental disorders, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, mood swings, and aggressive behavior. serious negative effects of stress, mental trauma on students' academic performance, and deterioration of mental and physical health are being considered by beerse et al. (2020). noteworthy are studies by varchmin et al. (2021), which defines the consequences of children's herbs: social exclusion, bullying, discrimination, which at any age can cause serious mental disorders. such mental disorders are observed in emigrants and refugees (as is typical of the current situation in ukraine), and can lead to schizophrenia. the main risk factor is child abuse (sexual, physical and emotional). in addition, stressful experiences include bullying, death of parents or relatives, changes in communication with parents. advantages of art therapeutics the study on the development of social skills and skills of psychological recovery is devoted to the textbook by bogdanova et al. (2017). the authors developed and proposed a correctional and art therapeutic techniques to provide psychological assistance inna ivzhenko et al. 72 developmental program for teachers and parents to help children who were in the war zone to overcome stress after psychotraumatic events. authors else et al. (2015) argue that it is art therapy that can influence the development of sensory factors in the cognitive development of a person with mental retardation. in the social sphere, art therapy is used to help the population in hostilities, in working with offenders, the unemployed and other socially vulnerable groups, pregnant women and their families (voznesenskaya, & mova, 2007, p. 18). chiang et al. (2019). emphasize the expediency of using art therapy methods (visual arts, music, choreography, drama, writing) for the prevention and treatment of mental disorders in children and adults. gattaa, gallo, and vianello (2014) prove the effectiveness and necessity of using art therapy with children living in a rehabilitation center. art therapy as a non-verbal method involves adolescents in both active and passive activities. in this way, children develop their artistic creativity, and thus create their own inner world. psychiatrists use this technique to overcome depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and treat schizophrenia. thus, art therapy will be extremely useful for adolescents, especially in wartime, when children are extremely deeply traced anxiety, fear, panic, and depression. it should be noted the thesis of kozigora (2018, p.198), which emphasizes the essence of art therapy. artistic creative activity is already a kind of art-therapeutic process and gives the opportunity to observe the child in the process of spontaneous creativity, get closer to understanding its interests, values, to see its uniqueness and inner world. it is worth noting that the publication of haeyen and staal (2021), in which the authors determine that art therapy is effective in overcoming traumatic memories that lead to insomnia and nightmares. this treatment method is based on the creation of images, not the use of words. means of art therapy encourage to imagine, fantasize, play, which creates a creative space of man, which can influence and change the pictures of dreams, the story line to a more positive. the publication (smriti et al., 2022) emphasizes that fine arts can restore a person's mental health, i. e. as a result he can feel confident, have sufficient self-esteem, expand social skills and more. a report from the vchasno news agency states that the voice of children charitable foundation conducts art therapy classes for children, as broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 73 it is known that almost every child in the war zone needs psychosocial support. . in their work, teachers and psychologists prefer the art-therapeutic method "serial drawing". this is "free" drawing, when a child draws for 10 lessons. the negative impact of war on the psycho-emotional state of children can be traced from children's works. first, illustrations of dark colors, which later turn into light shades; sometimes a manifestation of isolation. anxiety, reluctance to draw. so war, shootings and as a result of worse grades in education, inattention, forgetfulness and so on. by the way, the traumas of war may not always be immediately felt, seen, because most of them are fixed in the head, heart, soul. thus, creativity helps a child to improve his mood, reject experiences, makes him become resilient, feel relieved. among the advantages of art-therapeutic means, noted by voznesenska and mova (2007), there are no age restrictions: whether it is a child or an adult; does not require abilities, talent for art; a means of nonverbal communication, i. e. does not require "open" communication; creative activity is a bridge of cooperation for the client and the specialist; a means to explore yourself; when interacting with art, a person freely, independently creates a work; drawing the result of mood, human thoughts; tunes in to positive emotions, promotes an active life position, increases self-esteem; self-actualization of personality. dimitrova investigates the influence of art therapy as a modern method on the development of children with disabilities (2011). the author emphasizes that correctional training through art therapy helps to eliminate psychogenic disorders in children with speech defects, develops communication skills. voznesenska (2020) notes that all citizens are "experiencing" collective trauma due to the events of the war in eastern ukraine. in order to heal, the author emphasizes two ways to use art for therapeutic purposes: 1) receptive (passive) perception of works of art; 2) creative (active) creative self-expression. it should be noted in the letter of kotlyar (2022), which tells about art therapy classes with children-migrants who were forced by military action to leave their hometown or village and move to a safe area. in 2015, children painted anti-war drawings during art therapy classes, which show that fear settled in their souls. later, four years later, the children drew illustrations again, but it is clear that they have become accustomed to everyday life. drawings of current children in 2022 differ from previous ones in that they are extremely realistic: a tank moving on its native street, not drawn from a art therapeutic techniques to provide psychological assistance inna ivzhenko et al. 74 book, in the sky enemy planes that attack and result in burning houses, concrete checkpoints, "hedgehogs" . in almost every picture, rockets fly, bombs fall on houses, people die. of course, every child's work is accompanied by fear, anxiety, aggression. the predominant colors are black and red. art therapeutic techniques to provide psychological assistance to adults and children the work of borshchenko(2021) is devoted to the research of the use of art therapy means in the formation of emotional stability. during the art-therapeutic lesson the specialist can carry out a number of diagnostic, psychotherapeutic, educational developmental, and corrective tasks. in the course of creative activity, which continues in an atmosphere of comfort, trust, friendliness, children develop a sense of peace, joy, success in their achievements, and an emotional stability (demchenko et al., 2021; nenko et al., 2022; sarancha et al., 2021;). thus, art therapy combines a number of fields: art history, pedagogy, psychology, and psychotherapy, the unity of this knowledge is necessary for the formation and development of a harmonious personality that has adequate self-esteem, who is intelligent, talented, emotionally stable, and successful. voznesenska and mova (2007, p.17) told that there are two functions of art therapy: diagnostic and therapeutic. the picture is always symbolic, reflects the current state of the author, even if he tried to hide it from others and himself. each image contains a huge amount of diagnostic material, but can not be the basis for diagnosis. therapeutic healing of the individual through art, return to psychological integrity. thus, art therapy as a unique method with the help of symbolic images helps to heal a person both spiritually and physically. the foundation of art therapy, according to kalka and kovalchuk (2020), is isotherapy, because thanks to the drawing an adult or a child can use colors, images to express their thoughts, feelings, joy, fear and more. the authors note that isotherapy activates higher mental processes: helps to improve communication, a person easily perceives, thinks, improves motor coordination. any picture and image in it, in a way, act as a psychological protection, in which a person accumulates his traumatic and negative experiences (kalka & kovalchuk, 2020, p. 16). in addition, isotherapy improves visual perception, develops thinking, the ability to observe, analyze, remember, cultivate such volitional qualities as demanding work, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 75 accuracy, clarity in the performance of work and responsibility (kozigora, 2018, p.199). in addition, the manual (kalka & kovalchuk, 2020) discusses in detail the essence of the method, the algorithm and principles of the main areas of art therapy: sand therapy, clay therapy, fairy tale therapy, mandala therapy, collage, mask therapy, metaphorical associative maps. in addition, art-therapeutic techniques in order to help individuals calm emotions and feelings, help to set goals, understand the self-concept (self-esteem, selfperception, self-worth), and can motivate. pay attention to techniques for research of positive and negative sides in the relationship of the couple; on family relationships, awareness of the peculiarities of the "i". there is a separate story about group art therapy, which is designed to develop skills of group work: competition, leadership, conformism. in the manual gridkovets (2018) believes that the main motto of the specialist to help children and adults to overcome the despair, fear, anxiety that migrants experienced in military territory, is "look listen guide." the author draws attention to two approaches to the use of sand therapy: jungian therapy and art therapy practice with sandbox. jungian therapy helps to decipher the child's internal conflict with the help of figures. sand therapy is a set of processes aimed at the participant's awareness of inner experience. this method will be useful for children who feel insecure, have low selfesteem. the article notes the advantages of this technique (gridkovets, 2018, p.103):  development of reflection in adults and children;  harmonization of the emotional state of the participants in the process;  detection and resolution of internal conflicts;  development of the emotional sphere in children and their parents;  increase the level of emotional intelligence;  disclosure of creative and personal potential. ivanova (2009, p. 45) researched music therapy as one of the methods of art therapy and emphasized that music can eliminate fatigue and charge a person with energy, have a positive effect on the circulatory and respiratory systems. music therapy is divided into 2 types: active when a person is directly involved: plays a melody on a musical instrument, performs a piece of music singing or claps his hands to the beat of the melody; passive when a person just listens to the melody. music therapists claim that each melody affects the human psyche in different ways: religious art therapeutic techniques to provide psychological assistance inna ivzhenko et al. 76 promotes spiritual harmony, peace, soothes pain; and composers' music becomes a "cure" for fatigue, improves mood and stabilizes sleep. but not all classical or modern music can be useful for a person, so here you need to choose only individually. one of the interesting areas of art therapy is phototherapy, i. e. the use of photographs, thematic images, metaphorically associative maps to work with patients (boreychuk, 2014). metaphorical associative maps are a set of pictures on a certain subject, which depict people ("person", "personita"), their interactions, household items, abstract paintings ("ecco"), life situations ("be. act. possess"), ("facebook"), landscapes, animals, some decks of cards combine the picture with the inscription ("hasidic wisdom"), etc. ". (boreychuk, 2014, pp. 14-15). the work of krotenko and frunze (2019, march 12, pp. 72-77) is devoted to the study of neurography as an effective art-therapeutic method of psychological correction of neurotic states in adolescents. of course, corrective work should be designed to reduce stress, increase understanding of one's emotions, teach self-control and self-regulation. "neurography is a technique of transferring the image of problems or complex situations into visual images" (krotenko & frunze, 2019, p.74). that is, neurography explores the personality, based on the symbols of geometric shapes: circle, triangle, line. it is appropriate to combine neurography with music therapy or fairy tale therapy, which can relieve stress. dragomanova (2020) raises certain aspects of the involvement of the individual in the process of psycho-correctional work. the author notes that the traumatic state of a person can be transformed by influencing selfknowledge, self-motivation and the development of personal qualities. for this purpose, an associative metaphorical deck of cards "therapeutic painting" was developed. after all, "scientists and artists have long noticed that simply in the process of contemplating certain landscapes or portraits, a person's mood improves, he feels better on mental and physiological levels" (dragomanova, 2020, p.41). for this method to be successful, the following are prerequisites: openness, cooperation, non-verbal feedback between the specialist and the patient. it should be noted the post of gundertailo (2017), which emphasizes that the use of art therapy techniques improves the emotional state of adults and children: reduces fear and anxiety, anger and depression and more. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 77 conclusion thus, the article emphasizes that art therapy is extremely useful and necessary for the treatment of adults and children affected by the war. the considered issue "art-therapeutic means for adults and children during the war" is quite relevant for ukrainians. articles and publications of foreign (hill, 1945; gattaa et al., 2014) and domestic scientists (gridkovets, 2018; gundertailo, 2017; golovatyuk, 2017; kalka & kovalchuk, 2020; kozigora, 2018; lvov & zhabko, 2018; voznesenska, 2021). the essence of the concept of "art therapy" is given. it has been found that the term "art therapy" was first used by the british artist hill (1945), who later founded the british association of art therapists. in addition, 6 methodological principles of teaching art therapy are named. the consequences of adults and children during wars have been studied. the advantages of using art therapy are highlighted. in addition, popular arttherapeutic techniques for the treatment of psychological disorders in victims are considered: sand therapy, music therapy, phototherapy, isotherapy, neurography, associative metaphorical maps. it has been found out what pictures are being drawn by the victims of the current war in ukraine. it is proved that art therapy combines a number of branches: art history, pedagogy, psychology, psychotherapy. the novelty is that art therapy is developing, new techniques are emerging that are becoming extremely relevant and useful for the psychological correction of adults and children affected by the russian military operation in ukraine in february-may 2022. thus, the use of art therapy techniques improves the emotional state of adults and children: reduces fear and anxiety, anger and depression, etc. references beerse, m. e., van lith, t., & stanwood g. (2020). therapeutic psychological and biological responses to mindfulness-based art therapy. stress & health, 36(4), 419-432. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2937 bogdanov, s. o., gnida, t. b., zaleska, o. v., lunchenko, n. v., panok, vg, & solovyova, v. v. (2017). correctional and developmental program for the formation of resistance to stress in preschool children and schoolchildren "safe space". unicef. boreychuk, i. (2014). mechanisms of functioning of metaphorical associative maps in psychological counseling. space of art therapy: healing resources: proceedings of the xi international interdisciplinary scientific and practical conference. kyiv. https://ispp.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/art-conf-14.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2937 https://ispp.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/art-conf-14.pdf art therapeutic techniques to provide psychological assistance inna ivzhenko et al. 78 borshchenko, n. o. (2021). the use of art therapy in the formation of emotional stability of preschool children. pednauk. chiang, mathew, reid-varley, bernard, w., fan, & xiaoduo (2019). creative art therapy for mental illness. psychiatry research, 275, 129-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.03.025 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dimitrova, l. m. (2011). art therapy as a modern method of integrating children with physical disabilities into society. core. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/47219191.pdf drahomanova, t. (2020). attracting personal resources in the process of psychocorrectional work with the help of metaphorical maps "therapeutic painting". proceedings of the xviii international interdisciplinary scientific and practical conference kyiv, 2020 (pp. 40-41). national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. https://ispp.org.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2021/02/art-conf-20.pdf else, j., ellis, j. e., & orme, e. (2015). art expertise modulates the emotional response to modern art, especially abstract. frontiers in human neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00525 gattaa, m., gallo, c., & vianello, m. (2014). art therapy groups for adolescents with personality disorders. the arts in psychotherapy, 41(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2013.11.001 golovatyuk, i. g. (2017). art therapy in a foreign scientific tradition. scientific bulletin of uzhgorod university. https://cutt.ly/lhzmvv7 gridkovets, l. (2018). fundamentals of rehabilitation psychology: overcoming the consequences of the crisis. osce. gundertailo, yu. d. (2017). art-therapeutic technologies of providing psychological assistance to internally displaced. academia.edu. https://cutt.ly/4hkw7vd haeyen, s., & staal, m. (2021). imagery rehearsal based art therapy: treatment of post-traumatic nightmares in art therapy. frontiers in psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.628717 hill, a. (1945). art versus illness: a story of art therapy. george allen & unwin. hill, h. m., & jones, l. p. (1997). children's and parents' perceptions of children's exposure to violence in urban neighborhoods. journal of the national medical association, 89(4), 270-276. ivanova, v. l. (2009). art therapy: problems of formation and development. peter. kalka, n., & kovalchuk, z. (2020). workshop on art therapy: teaching method. academic council lviv state university of internal affairs. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.03.025 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/47219191.pdf https://ispp.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/art-conf-20.pdf https://ispp.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/art-conf-20.pdf https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00525 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2013.11.001 https://cutt.ly/lhzmvv7 https://cutt.ly/4hkw7vd https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.628717 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 79 kotlyar, a. (2022, april 24). war and children. drawings from the broken world. art therapy lessons for migrants. zn,ua. https://zn.ua/ukr/socium/vijna-taditi-maljunki-z-rozbitoho-svitu.html kozigora, m. a. (2018). art therapy as a means of teaching and educating primary school students. molodyy vchenyy [young scientist], 7(59), 198201.http://molodyvcheny.in.ua/files/journal/2018/7/44.pdf krotenko, v., & frunze, a. (2019). neurography as an effective art-therapeutic method of psychological correction of neurotic states in adolescents. academia.edu. https://cutt.ly/khztoef lvov, o. o., & zhabko, n. v. (2018). the importance of prevention and correction of posttraumatic stress disorder. art-therapeutic approach. psychological and psychotherapeutic aspects. academia.edu. https://cutt.ly/1hkrjo7 nenko, y., medynskyi, s., maksymchuk, b., lymarenko, l., rudenko, l., kharchenko, s., kolomiets, a., & maksymchuk, i. (2022). communication training of future sports coaches in the context of neurophysiological patterns. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 42-60. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/268 preiss, m., & newman, m. (1995). war stress in children from bosnia. univers. sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 shaw, j. a. (2003). children exposed to war/terrorism. clinical child and family psychology review, 6, 237–246. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:ccfp.0000006291.10180.bd smriti, d., ambulkar, s., meng, q., kaimal, g., ramotar, k., park, s.y., & huhyoo, j. (2022). creative arts therapies for the mental health of emerging adults: a systematic review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2021.101861 varchmin, l., monday, c., treusch, y., kaminski, j., & heinz, a. (2021). traumatic events, social adversity and discrimination as risk factors for psychosis. frontiers in psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.665957 voznesenska, o. (2020). art therapy of communities: art as a means of overcoming collective trauma. space of art therapy: creativity as a mirror of reality: materials of the xvii international interdisciplinary scientific-practical conference. kyiv. retrieved from https://ispp.org.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2021/02/art-conf-20.pdf voznesenska, o. (2021). theory and practice of art therapy: a variety of approaches. facebook. https://zn.ua/ukr/socium/vijna-ta-diti-maljunki-z-rozbitoho-svitu.html https://zn.ua/ukr/socium/vijna-ta-diti-maljunki-z-rozbitoho-svitu.html http://molodyvcheny.in.ua/files/journal/2018/7/44.pdf https://cutt.ly/khztoef https://cutt.ly/1hkrjo7 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/268 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.1023/b:ccfp.0000006291.10180.bd https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2021.101861 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.665957 https://ispp.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/art-conf-20.pdf https://ispp.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/art-conf-20.pdf art therapeutic techniques to provide psychological assistance inna ivzhenko et al. 80 https://www.facebook.com/groups/158280630927838/posts/439478052 0611140/ voznesenska, o., & mova, l. (2007). art therapy in the work of a practical psychologist. the use of art technology in education. doshkillia. https://www.facebook.com/groups/158280630927838/posts/4394780520611140/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/158280630927838/posts/4394780520611140/ ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 302-318 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/421 submitted: october 21st, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 18th, 2022 psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with special educational needs: neuropedagogical aspect yevheniia lyndina1, zoriana martynyuk2, volodymyr tovstohan3, alona babichenko4, hanna mytsyk5, inna samoilenko6 1 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of the department of applied psychology and speech therapy, berdyansk state pedagogical university, ukraine, evgeniyalyndina.bgpu@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4615-6807 2 сandidate of pedagogical sciences, senior research fellow speech therapy institute of special pedagogy and psychology named after mykola yarmachenko of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, zoriana.prigoda@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1288-3838 3 doctor of science in pedagogy, associate professor of the department of theory and methodology of education, psychology and inclusive education, communnal higher educational establishment «kherson academy of continuing education» of the kherson regional council, ukraine, vstovst1957@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7384-8710 4 assistant of the department of applied psychology and speech therapy, berdyansk state pedagogical university, ukraine, alenababicenko2213@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9843-9844 5 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of the department of applied psychology and speech therapy, berdyansk state pedagogical university, ukraine, kolibri07s@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/00000002-4989-416x abstract: the topic of the article is relevant, as the education of children with special needs (oop) is one of the most pressing and debatable problems of modern education today. the issue of education of children with disabilities becomes relevant due to the significant increase in the number of this group in society, on the one hand, and emerging new opportunities for their adaptation in society, on the other hand. the purpose of the article is to study the functioning system of special education support centers in working with children with special educational needs; familiarization with requirements for psychological and educational support for the development of a child with disabilities; psychological and pedagogical neurotechnologies in working with children with special educational needs; presentation of effective psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with special educational needs. as a social group of society, the children must first of all receive real conditions for obtaining quality education, starting from school, and then for obtaining professional training with further employment and adaptation in society. changes in the school education system could affect only the content of corrective and developmental education for children with disabilities. keywords: inclusive education; construct of the educational environment; special education support centers; educational support of child development; modern neurotechnologies. how to cite: lyndina, y., martynyuk, z., tovstohan, v., babichenko, a., mytsyk, h., & samoilenko, i. (2023). psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with special educational needs: neuropedagogical aspect. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 302-318. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/421 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/421 mailto:evgeniyalyndina.bgpu@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4615-6807 mailto:zoriana.prigoda@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1288-3838 mailto:vstovst1957@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7384-8710 mailto:alenababicenko2213@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9843-9844 mailto:kolibri07s@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4989-416x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4989-416x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/421 6 assistant of the department of applied psychology and speech therapy, berdyansk state pedagogical university, ukraine, inna.sechina93@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8592-4226 mailto:inna.sechina93@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8592-4226 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 304 introduction the development of the personality of a child with developmental disabilities presupposes a certain construct of the educational environment. inclusive education occupies a special place in the modern education system, as it involves the education and upbringing of children with special educational needs. as a part of all children subject to inclusive education, this group of children psychologically and pedagogically needs working approaches focused not only on overcoming secondary deviations as a result of primary organic damage, but also on in-depth individual intervention, directly related to the formation of skills for independent social functioning. the conditions of work in a secondary school do not always provide the teacher with opportunities to develop his activities in the direction of overcoming pedagogical and psychological difficulties faced by a child with disabilities, both in the direction of learning the curriculum and in the direction of social learning. general and additional support provided for the development of their abilities and skills, as well as for their inclusion and participation in the preschool and school community, involves the development of the teacher's activity in the discourse of individual characteristics of children in this group. in the works of domestic and foreign researchers, there are studies on the topic. in his scientific research (ashytok, 2015) investigated functioning of special education support centers in working with children with special educational needs and described his vision of the functioning of special education support centers (based on foreign experience). voloshina and dmitrenko (2017) studied the experience of foreign scientists on this issue and presented requirements for the psychological and educational support of the development of a child with disabilities. the work of raptis and spanaki (2017), who presented psychological and pedagogical neurotechnologies in working with children with special educational needs, described their neuropedagogical value. functioning of special education support centers in working with children with special educational needs special education support centers for children with special educational needs (oop) should be connected and interact with other institutions in the preschool and school education system with specialized institutions for children, social services in the community, parents, representatives of children or with guardians and with society. psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with … yevheniia lyndina, et al. 305 ashytok (2015) believed that in the organizational and functional plans, the focus of these centers is not only the work on the individual development of each child, but also the qualified pedagogical activity of a specialist working in institutions of this type. the provided short-term and long-term support for a child with special educational needs is based on the activities of various specialists working in the center for special educational support. in order to cover the entire range of problems that arise in the process of teaching and raising children with disabilities, activities in these centers should be provided by various specialists working in a team. moreover, their activity is not episodic (in the classroom twice a week), but covers all organizational moments of the day (anishchuk, 2016). for the purpose of optimizing the individual support of a child with special educational needs, depending on whether it is short-term or longterm, there are such specialists: coordinator, who conducts meetings of the coordination group and team members, specialists from various areas; special pedagogues; psychologists; speech therapists; rehabilitator (kinesitherapist); art therapist; social pedagogue. the team develops a card for each child to assess their individual needs, marked according to the following parameters: support plan; individual training according to the plan; individual training programs for individual subjects; medical and rehabilitation programs. at any moment, the implementation of this plan undoubtedly depends on the training and professional vision of each specialist. the development of pedagogical neuroscience (neuropedagogy) determines the need for deepening and expanding the training of both pedagogical specialists who work with children with special educational needs, as well as all specialists who are involved in the education and socialization of this group of children (karasievych et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021). pedagogical and psychosocial rehabilitation determines the application of approaches, methods and tools to help and support those children who go beyond the usual and seek opportunities to overcome their shortcomings with the help of new advances in technology aimed at helping broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 306 people. the organization of work in the center for special educational support provides exceptional opportunities for the application of new technologies (chupakhina, 2019a). these opportunities are within the scope of professional development of relevant specialists to work with new technologies, the temporal order of their application, such as the duration of work with the relevant technology, frequency of application and possibility of direct monitoring of the results of application for each specific child. psychological and educational support for the development of a child with disabilities the purpose of psychological and educational development support for a child with disabilities is to create psychological conditions for normal development and successful learning. the main tasks of psychological and pedagogical support for the development of children with disabilities in preschool educational institutions are: creation of an emotionally favorable microclimate for the child in the group and communication between teachers and children; taking into account individual characteristics of the child's development in the unity of the intellectual, emotional and behavioral sphere of their manifestation; support for children who need special educational programs and special forms of organizing their activities; increasing the psychological competence of educators and parents in matters of child upbringing and development (chupakhina, 2019b). children with disabilities are students with physical or mental disabilities, confirmed by the psychological, medical and pedagogical examination. the term "support" in the research is defined in different ways: as a special form of education aimed at interaction in the process of personal growth, choice of behavior and decision-making; as a holistic process of learning, development and correction of the professional growth of the individual; as an interaction of accompaniment and maintainers in order to solve life problems of accompanying persons; as a system of professional activity, ensuring the creation of conditions for successful adaptation of a person to his conditions of life; as a system-integrative "technique" of social and psychological assistance of the individual; https://context.reverso.net/%d0%bf%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%b4/%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%b8%d0%b9%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d1%83%d0%ba%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%b8%d0%bd%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9/examination psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with … yevheniia lyndina, et al. 307 as an activity that ensures the creation of conditions for adoption of the topic of developing an optimal solution in various situations of life choice; as a complex procedure, based on interaction, aimed at solving current problems of the development of the accompanying ones. analysis of literature has shown that psychological and pedagogical support is possible and is considered in several aspects: as a professional activity of a teacher in order to gain the ability to provide assistance and support in the individual education of a child; as a process involving a number of purposeful, consistent pedagogical actions that help the student to make a morally independent decision to solve educational problems for the child; interaction between the manager and the attendant; as a technology involving several successive stages (crowl, 1997). the purpose of psychological and educational support for the development of a child with disabilities is to create psychological conditions for normal development and successful learning. the activities of a teacher, psychologist and other specialists in providing educational achievement of students; as a system that characterizes the relationship and interdependence of elements: purpose, content, procedure, and performance. an integrated system approach is important, which involves the coordinated work of all specialists of a preschool educational institution. the accompanying process is carried out by specialists who know psychophysiological features of children (defectologist, speech therapist, music director and educational psychologist). this contains: creation of a subject development environment; material and technical equipment; development of individual training and development programs; the main principles of psychological and educational support are: comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to solving any problem of child development and training; continuity of child development support in the educational process; information and methodological support process; socio-pedagogical and psychological design (prognosis) of related activities; active involvement of parents, teachers and educators. basic principles of organizing psychological and educational support (berehova, 2019): https://context.reverso.net/%d0%bf%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%b4/%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%b8%d0%b9%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d1%83%d0%ba%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%b8%d0%bd%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9/prognosis broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 308 principle of democracy (assumes recognition of the right to voluntary direct participation in the support of subjects of the educational process); principle of creative position (provides constant readiness to search for non-standard solutions and flexibility in performing practical tasks depending on a specific situation); principle of partnership (means the exclusion of the dominant position of the topic of the educational process in relation to each other); principle of consistency (involves the performance of psychological and educational support as a system of specialists in a certain logical and reasonable order); principle of variability (involves the introduction into the process of maintaining a wide range of psychological and educational means, forms and methods that can be used both completely and partially in order to flexibly change special conditions in relation to them); principle of prevention (aimed at preventing possible dissatisfaction and ensuring the safety of the physical and mental health of the student); principle of environmental friendliness (ensures the need for constant correlation of the used means and methods of psychological and educational support with the set goal). implementation of the goal of psychological and educational support is achieved through the main functions: information, guidance and development. the information function of support consists in widely notifying all interested parties about forms and methods of support. this especially applies to teachers, school administration and parents of participating students. an important result of inclusive education is the formation of life skills. the following technologies for improving social skills can be distinguished: early intervention; direct teaching of social skills; formation of social skills through imitation and organization of group activities, including games. working with a child with disabilities in a preschool educational institution when implementing early intervention technologies (martynchuk, 2018): early detection and timely elimination of violations; creation of an individual correction path for the adopted child; selection of corrective programs and methods optimal for child development; corrective work with the child (according to the individual program); psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with … yevheniia lyndina, et al. 309 the child's general state of health and prevention of the child's concomitant diseases. the following requirements must be met when implementing early intervention technology: mandatory existence of an individual early intervention program; availability of an educational environment appropriate to the child's abilities; provision of special educational support provided by an interdisciplinary team; – clear functional demarcation of all members of the interdisciplinary team involved in the process of habilitation, adaptation and integration; teaching parents the ability to stimulate communication with their child. the formation of social skills through imitation involves mutual learning of children, that is, a more competent child in a certain area becomes a role model for other children. however, learning by imitation is important for every child, it is especially important for learning children with intellectual disabilities and for children with autism spectrum disorders. therefore, learning is more effective not in homogeneous, but in heterogeneous groups. the main methods of psychocorrective practice in preschool age can be conventionally divided into four large groups: the method of play therapy, methods of art therapy, methods of behavioral therapy, and methods of social therapy (darling-hammond, 2010). game therapy is a psychotherapeutic method based on the principles of dynamics of mental development and aimed at removing emotions. art therapy is a synthesis of several in connection with the education of people with disabilities. fields of scientific knowledge (art, medicine and psychology are a set of techniques based on the use of various types of art in a special symbolic form and make it possible to correct psychosomatic and psycho-emotional disorders by stimulating the artistic and creative manifestations of a child with developmental problems. usually, the following types of art therapy are distinguished: music therapy (through the perception of music, voice therapy is through singing), physical therapy (dance therapy, rhythm correction, psycho-immunology is the therapeutic effect of movements); bibliotherapy (corrective effects through reading), storytelling, short story writing; imago therapy (influence through image, dramatization): puppet theater, figurative role-playing production, and psychodrama; isotherapy (pulling therapy) has corrective effect by means of fine art: drawing, modeling, needlework, art, etc. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 310 behavioral correction methods have been developed as part of behavioral therapy in the form of behavioral therapy. behavioral intervention uses principles and models of learning theory and behavioral science (behaviorism) in goal-setting and psychocorrectional procedures, as well as an objective assessment of their results. therefore, psychological correction and rehabilitation technologies are represented by a large arsenal of means and methods, the use of which should correspond to the age and individual characteristics of children, and the nature of existing malformations. their potential helps to equalize negative personalities and behavioral manifestations that significantly contribute to the inclusion of a "special" child in society (kearsley, 1992). in other words, prerequisites for inclusion in preschool age are needed: mandatory availability of an individual program of corrective development and upbringing of a child with certain developmental disabilities; necessity of creating a protective educational and subjectsupporting environment appropriate to the child's abilities; availability of special educational support by a team with the leading role of a teacher-defectologist; clear division of functions of all specialists involved in inclusion in preschool education; teaching parents the ability to stimulate communication with their own child; psychological and educational support of normally developing preschool children involved in mixed education. psychological and pedagogical neurotechnologies in work with children with special educational needs according to raptis and spanaki (2017), when teaching ‘‘special’’ children, the so-called multisensory approach is used, based on the idea that educational material is perceived much more easily when several sensory channels are stimulated simultaneously. to this end, multimedia learning resources are developed and created that simultaneously visualize, voice and require action from students, which has a greater impact on children with special educational needs. the main thing in the education of such children is to attract and keep their attention in order to conduct an active educational process. psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with … yevheniia lyndina, et al. 311 the multisensory approach attracts more attention and increases concentration, which is the reason for the most holistic perception of educational material (bielawski, 2003). it is particularly important to note that this method of learning is effective for all modern students, regardless of whether they have specific difficulties. today's children live in the environment and conditions of information communication. from an early age, they actively use information and communication technologies and expect similar interaction in the process in educational institutions. educational neurobiology and new technologies in their relationship are new perspectives of education and upbringing, especially for children with disabilities. during the academic year, psychosocial rehabilitation classes are held at school, in a psychologist's office, in the montessori classroom, a sensory room or together with a teacher in the classroom to achieve the goals of developing cognitive, communicative and social skills, improving behavioral and emotional functioning, developing independence and social integration (treviranus, 2010). the idea of using neurotechnologies in the process of teaching such children is based on the achievements of neuropedagogy, the concept of neuroplasticity of the brain, as well as the understanding that the biopsychosocial nature of a person allows influence on certain functions of the brain and, therefore, on the course of mental processes, acting externally, but in a physiological and safe way. a combined method of applying neuro and psychological pedagogical technologies in work is also used. depending on the type of damage, the degree of violation, at the discretion of the team working with children, audiovisual stimulation technologies (light and sound stimulation), a system of full sensorimotor integration, biological feedback using the galvanic skin response , as well as a visual tracking system are used. audiovisual systems of interaction allow influencing the general mental state of the children in a completely physiological way. taking into account the fact that these children mostly experience significant difficulties in managing their behavior, experience anxiety and difficult control over their emotional state (factors that prevent the implementation of an effective educational process), the team of specialists should use the idea of using audiovisual engagement systems as a preliminary training of children with the specified deviations before the beginning of classes. the system is operated by well-trained psychologists and has shown good results in all age groups. the capabilities of these systems allow you to stimulate thinking processes by influencing the characteristics of attention (which are sometimes severely impaired before the use of the light-sound stimulation broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 312 system). the systems can be used, again, by applying the appropriate programs included in them, to children with special needs and reading disorders (dyslexia). the results of the use of these neurotechnologies will be evaluated at the end of the academic year (mattson & hansen, 2009). an interesting approach for both teachers and the children themselves is the use of biological feedback systems using the galvanic skin response. the general approach of this methodology consists in the use of certain software in the form of a game and the study of feedback (through the skin galvanic reaction) of the child. both psychologists and special educators work with this method. proper use allows you to adequately control and train the activity of the autonomic nervous system and achieve a balance between its two parts. as a secondary, but quite important effect, there is the control and improvement of the attention and emotional state of the child who "plays" on the system. and this, undoubtedly, leads to an improvement in its perception, and therefore to its development in the cognitive sphere. the applied approach is to use this system with all children who have difficulty controlling their emotions in order to achieve a balanced state and adequately respond to the learning process (gnoevska, 2016). systems of full sensorimotor integration have proven themselves to be an indispensable assistant for special educators and psychologists. the concept behind the use of these systems is the full integration of sensory systems along with motor activity in children with developmental disabilities. the integration of sensory modalities for these children is usually quite difficult, and when motor activity must be added to this integration, the task is extremely difficult. in the form of game technology with the help of software, the system of sensorimotor integration made it possible to adapt the child to the game conditions as quickly as possible, improve visual and auditory functions, as well as adequately control the movements of the hand or body on the playing field for the development of the game scene. in addition, with the help of this technology, the work of visual, auditory and kinesthetic analyzers is positively influenced by the simultaneous inclusion of a motor analyzer in this process. undoubtedly, the total integration of these systems should improve the cognitive development of a child with developmental disabilities. the successes achieved in the offered "game" undoubtedly improve the child's mood, self-confidence, and help the proper development of his emotional state. the eye-tracking system is used to help special educators. like all other neurotechnologies, it is used individually for each child. due to the use psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with … yevheniia lyndina, et al. 313 of eye-tracking, very good control over characteristics of attention in children is achieved. controling the visual movements and, accordingly, the attention of the child by means of a graphical view representation on the system monitor, and the duration of individual visual movements can be reflected in numerical indicators, such as time interval and sequence, and as the so-called "temperature map." by using a graphical representation of eye movements on the system screen, it becomes possible to achieve three types of attention control in a child. first of all, it is unconscious or involuntary control. the movements of the marker arouse the child's interest, and he unconsciously turns his attention to it. the second type is external. this is revealed in the indication or commands where the child should direct his gaze. the third type of attention control is conscious voluntary control. this control is achieved as a last resort and requires mastering self-regulation mechanisms (kasyanenko, 2018). the mentioned model of working with children with special educational needs reflects the ideas embedded in the interdisciplinary science of neuropedagogy, about a person-oriented approach in education, and in particular, in special education. taking into account the specifics and individual characteristics of each child with developmental disabilities, the used model allows optimal and creative solving of various pedagogical tasks in the process of teaching such children, using knowledge of individual characteristics during their mental functions. effective psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with special educational needs voloshina and dmitrenko (2017) proved the effectiveness of a relatively new technology of multi-level learning, taking into account the individual characteristics of each child, creating comfortable psychological and pedagogical conditions for the active cognitive activity of students, the development of their thinking and independence. the technology is relatively new, as it is based on the same principles that have long been used in pedagogy (individualization and differentiation of learning). and now the technology of multi-level education is one of the key directions of the school's work. the technology of multi-level education is a technology of organizing the educational process, in which, depending on the abilities and individual characteristics of each student, a different level of assimilation of educational materials is assumed, but not lower than the basic one. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 314 the purpose of this technology is to ensure that all students acquire the basic level of knowledge and skills, and possibility of their promotion. working according to this method makes it possible to develop individual skills of students and to approach professional and social self-determination more consciously. level differentiation is recommended when studying complex topics or sections. it can also be used while studying a new subject. such training helps to transform learning into a differentiated one, taking into account individual characteristics of students (budnyk, 2019). when teaching children with disabilities, one of the most important conditions for a teacher is the understanding that these children need a special individual approach to realize their potential and create conditions for development. the essence of this situation is that children with oop do not obey the rules and conditions of society, but are included in life on their own terms, accepted and taken into account by society. the teacher's task is to create such a model of teaching children with disabilities, in which each student has a mechanism to compensate for the existing deficiency, on the basis of which their integration into modern society becomes possible. the system of corrective and developmental education is aimed at the multifaceted development of students' personalities and contributes to their intellectual development. the technology of problem-based learning is effective, which aims to develop a comprehensively harmonious personality in the child and create a good pedagogical base. in the classroom, during the conversation, a teacher poses a problematic task to the children, followed by a series of consecutive and interrelated questions, the answers to which lead to the solution of the problem. students try to independently solve the task set before them. when difficulties arise, the teacher always tries to provide children with corrective help, giving an action plan, offering individual steps when difficulties arise, and creating a situation of success in the lesson. sometimes the lesson can be completely devoted to the solution of the problem. but most often, lessons combine traditional learning with elements of problem-based learning, providing for individual problem-based tasks. at the same time, the general system of creative search activities of schoolchildren includes knowledge that they receive in a ready form from the teacher's presentation, the text of the textbook, etc. the key stage in modern education is the level of motivation. it is necessary to present such a problem to the children, which will be interesting and meaningful for everyone. the motivational process requires a special creative approach psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with … yevheniia lyndina, et al. 315 from the teacher, everything must be foreseen and calculated. the effectiveness of the entire lesson depends on proper motivation (bondarenko, 2019). such classes create a special atmosphere in which there are elements of creativity and free choice. the ability to work in a group is developed: its success depends on the personal efforts of each individual. very often this requires the student to overcome his own shyness, indecision, and disbelief in his own abilities. gaming technology can be used as a whole activity, for example, a game is a trip. there are didactic games for consolidation, repetition and generalization of materials, crosswords, puzzles etc. thus, the didactic game in the lesson supplements, deepens and expands knowledge. also, this game is a means of comprehensive development of the child, his mental, intellectual and creative abilities, evokes positive emotions, fills the life of the student with interesting content and promotes the development of students. the introduction of ict in the school makes it possible, first of all, to improve the quality of education, to increase the motivation, to acquire and learn new knowledge by students with disabilities, because, in addition to the systemic underdevelopment of all components of the language system, they have a lack of cognitive activity, thinking, verbal memory, and attention. conclusion the article examines the functioning system of special education support centers in working with children with special educational needs; the requirements for psychological and educational support for the development of a child with disabilities and psychological/pedagogical neurotechnologies in work were introduced; effective psychological/pedagogical technologies in working with children with special educational needs were described. when working with children with special needs, special educational and developmental methods are used to achieve positive dynamics in upbringing and education. currently, the development of neuropedagogy opens up great prospects in the search for new means, forms and methods of education and upbringing. new approaches to organizing the inclusive process are constantly appearing. nowadays, every teacher is looking for the most effective way to improve the educational process and increase students' motivation to study. mastering modern pedagogical technologies for working with children with special educational needs and their application by a teacher is a mandatory competence of every teacher's professional activity. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 316 when teaching children with disabilities, one of the most important conditions for a teacher is to understand that these children need a special individual approach to realize their potential and create conditions for development. the essence of this situation is that children with oop do not obey the rules and conditions of society, but are included in life on their own terms, accepted and taken into account by society. the task of teachers is to create such a model of education for children with disabilities, according to which each student has a mechanism to compensate for an existing deficiency, on the basis of which their integration into modern society becomes possible. the system of corrective and developmental education is aimed at the multifaceted development of the personality of students and promotes their intellectual development. references anishchuk, a. m. (2016). inclusive education: a study guide for students of higher educational institutions specializing in "preschool education" [unpuplished doctoral thesis]. national pedagogical university in the name of m.p. draghomanova. ashytok, n. (2015). problems of inclusive education in ukraine. humanities studies. pedagogics, 33(1), 3. https://dspu.edu.ua/pedagogics/arhiv/33_1_2015/3.pdf berehova, m. i. (2019). didactic and practical training of future correctional teachers to work in the conditions of educational inclusive space [unpuplished doctoral thesis]. national pedagogical university named after m. p. drahomanov. bielawski, l., & metcalf, d. (2003). blended elearning: integrating knowledge, performance, support, and online learning. hrd press, inc. bondarenko, t. v. (2018). use of information and communication technologies to ensure accessibility and development of inclusive education. information technologies and teaching aids, 5, 31. https://ino.nau.edu.ua/files/syllabuses/information_technologies_inclusiv e_environment_ict.pdf budnyk, o. (2019). innovative competence of a teacher: best european practices. journal of vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, 1, 76–89. https://journals.pnu.edu.ua/index.php/jpnu/article/view/1895 chupakhina, s. (2019a). information technologies in inclusive education: future teachers readiness. international scientific conference scientific development of new eastern europe, 85–89. http://www.baltijapublishing.lv/download/conference/all-science/allscience_part_1.pdf chupakhina, s. v. (2019b). educational and methodological support of it support for the education of younger schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities. https://dspu.edu.ua/pedagogics/arhiv/33_1_2015/3.pdf https://ino.nau.edu.ua/files/syllabuses/information_technologies_inclusive_environment_ict.pdf https://ino.nau.edu.ua/files/syllabuses/information_technologies_inclusive_environment_ict.pdf https://journals.pnu.edu.ua/index.php/jpnu/article/view/1895 http://www.baltijapublishing.lv/download/conference/all-science/all-science_part_1.pdf http://www.baltijapublishing.lv/download/conference/all-science/all-science_part_1.pdf psychological and pedagogical technologies in working with children with … yevheniia lyndina, et al. 317 scientific journal of the national pedagogical university named after m. p. drahomanov: collection of scientific works of the ministry of education and science of ukraine, 38, 152–164. https://npu.edu.ua/images/file/vidil_aspirant/dicer/%d0%94_26.053.23 /chupakhina.pdf crowl, t. k., kaminsky, s., podell, d. m., brown & bench mark publishers (1997). educational psychology windows on teaching. mcgraw-hill college. darling-hammond, l. (2010). teacher education and the american future. journal of teacher education, 61, 35–47. http://caepnet.org/~/media/files/caep/accreditation-resources/teachereducation-future.pdf gnoevska, o. yu. (2016). formation of correctional competence of a teacher of a general educational institution with an inclusive form of education. retrived from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/153587321.pdf karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 kasyanenko, o. m. (2018). formation of readiness of future educators to work with preschool children in conditions of inclusion. docplayer. http://docplayer.net/115962945ministerstvo-osviti-i-nauki-ukrayini-mukachivskiy-derzhavniyuniversitet.html kearsley, g. (1992). educational leadership in the age of technology: the newskills. journal of research on computing in education 25(1), 50–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/08886504.1992.10782032 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 martynchuk, o. v. (2018). training of specialists in special education for professional activities in an inclusive educational environment. [unpublished doctoral thesis]. national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine institute of special pedagogy and psychology the names of mykola yarmachenka. mattson, e. h., & hansen, a. m. (2009). inclusive and exclusive education in sweden: principals’ opinions and experiences. european journal of special https://npu.edu.ua/images/file/vidil_aspirant/dicer/%d0%94_26.053.23/chupakhina.pdf https://npu.edu.ua/images/file/vidil_aspirant/dicer/%d0%94_26.053.23/chupakhina.pdf http://caepnet.org/~/media/files/caep/accreditation-resources/teacher-education-future.pdf http://caepnet.org/~/media/files/caep/accreditation-resources/teacher-education-future.pdf https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/153587321.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 http://docplayer.net/115962945-ministerstvo-osviti-i-nauki-ukrayini-mukachivskiy-derzhavniy-universitet.html http://docplayer.net/115962945-ministerstvo-osviti-i-nauki-ukrayini-mukachivskiy-derzhavniy-universitet.html http://docplayer.net/115962945-ministerstvo-osviti-i-nauki-ukrayini-mukachivskiy-derzhavniy-universitet.html https://doi.org/10.1080/08886504.1992.10782032 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 318 needs education, 24(4), 465-472. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856250903223112 raptis, j., & spanaki, e. (2017). teachers’ attitudes regarding the development of socio-emotional skills in elementary schools in greece. international journal of psychology and educational studies. 4(1), 21-28. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1217247.pdf treviranus, j. (2010). leveraging inclusion and diversity as canada’s digital advantage. open search. http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/1476/1/treviranus_inclusion_20 10.pdf voloshina, o., & dmitrenko, n. (2017). pedagogical aspect of training future teachers to work in an inclusive educational environment. education of persons with special needs: ways of development. 13, 80–86. https://vinps.vn.ua/wpcontent/uploads/2018/06/%d0%97%d0%91%d0%86%d0%a0%d0% 9d%d0%98%d0%9a_13_2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/08856250903223112 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1217247.pdf http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/1476/1/treviranus_inclusion_2010.pdf http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/1476/1/treviranus_inclusion_2010.pdf https://vinps.vn.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/%d0%97%d0%91%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%9d%d0%98%d0%9a_13_2017.pdf https://vinps.vn.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/%d0%97%d0%91%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%9d%d0%98%d0%9a_13_2017.pdf https://vinps.vn.ua/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/%d0%97%d0%91%d0%86%d0%a0%d0%9d%d0%98%d0%9a_13_2017.pdf microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 22 adx — agent for morphologic analysis of lexical entries in a dictionary bogdan pătruţ department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania bogdan@edusoft.ro abstract this paper refers to the morphological analysis of words, as an important process in the domain of natural language processing. we will present the classical solution, based on the use of inflection paradigms and of an extended database, containing all roots of the every words, and then there are emphasized some of the disadvantages of this method. then we will present an original method, which dynamically generates the roots of words, using phonological alternances in the context of inflection rules. there are also presented some optimizations of the morphologic analysis algorithm. keywords: natural language processing, morphologic analysis, inflection type, phonological alternance, pattern matching, searching tree 1. introduction text processing is a very important domain of the computer science, even if we see it only commercially. so, one of the best sold soft packs is the microsoft office, that contains the professional text editor microsoft word. we say “professional” having in mind the fact that word has not only the usual text and graphic processing, but, also, powerful tools for analysing the text from a grammatical point of view and we refer here to the possibility of spelling checker and hyphenation; thus, word can discover if the words from a phrase come from a certain language, previously selected (in the boundaries of an available dictionary). but the next step is to find if those words form any syntactically and semantically correct phrase, in the selected language. so, for example, the phrase: “copilul mâncat bătaie a” (“the child eaten beat has”) contains only romanian words, but, of course, the phrase topic is completely wrong, so a syntactic analysis could show us that the correct phrase would be “copilul a mâncat bătaie” (“the child has eaten beat”) (n.b. the correct translation of the “copilul a mâncat bătaie” is “the child has been beaten.”). yet, this sentence can be easily rejected by a semantic analyser that wouldn’t know that the “a mânca bătaie” (“to eat beat”) syntagm should not be understood literally, being a phrasal verb. in the course of a text processing, there are two main phases, strictly linked between them. the first phase (the establishing of a standard text) it is the one that has as an input the text in the form of either a sound wave, or of a written text, usually handwritten. the output data of the first phase are constituted of a recognizable text for any editor, preferably in the form of a text file. if in the first phase the analysis of a sound signal (the speech itself) is made, then this fact will be the subject of the electronic study, of the sound processing and hardware engineers, but of the linguists also, who would trace the phonetic aspects of the text. if recognition of the handwriting is made, then the problem is a software one, being linked with the recognition of the forms’ domain. once we have accomplished this first phase, the text must be grammatically analysed and this analysis consists in: lexical analysis, morphologic analysis, syntactic analysis, semantic analysis, stylistic analysis and, according to some authors, pragmatic analysis, too. the first three analyses constitute an important phase, having as a result the obtaining of a phrase that we cannot say is incorrect in that language, e. g. “copilul a mâncat bătaie”. it is hard to suppose, of course, that a child can have a “bataie” (“beating”) for his meal, but the problem is solvable from a semantic point of view, because “a mânca bătaie” is a phrasal verb having the meaning of “a fi bătut” (“to be beaten”). (the correct translation of the “copilul a mâncat bătaie” is “the child has been beaten.”). as a result, we can present the general scheme of a linguistic analysis of a phrase (figure 1): b. pătruţ – adx — agent for morphologic analysis of lexical entries in a dictionary 23 figure 1. linguistic analysis this analysis may be continued as a reverse text generating process (written or spoken) so the final result is a translation of a text from one language into another: for example, the romanian text “plouă cu găleata” would become “it rains cats and dogs” in english, owing to the semantic analyses. but, before applying semantic analysis, the syntactic analysis has a very important role, and an efficient morphologic analysis can simplify the work of the syntactic analyser. 2. objectives we want to develop a software agent which will automatically detect the current word edited in microsoft word and for this word the agent will do some tasks: • it morphologically analyses the actual word typed in microsoft word, and obtains its standard form; • it obtains the definition in romanian for the standard form (of the current word from ms word); • it finds synonyms and antonyms for the given word; • it generates semantic rules for the synonymic and antonymic relations for the asr agent. dex online is a project initiated and coordinated by catalin francu [3]. he intended to realise an online database for all the words in the romanian language, using the main explanatory dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms, neologisms, published by the romanian academy and other scientific forums. the database was completed by volunteers, similarly to the wikipedia system. they actually transcribed the information from different important dictionaries, but many words have been electronically entered by two companies (siveco and litera international publishing house). figure 2. the structures of the two tables from the dex online database brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 24 being a dictionary, and not a wordnet, dex online has a simpler organization, where the entries are words, and not meanings. because there is no finished project like wordnet, we considered useful to implement an agent that uses this lexical resource to the maximum. we can download the complete database of the dictionary at www.dexonline.ro [3], in mysql format, which can be easily converted in mdb (microsoft access) format. there are two tables in the dex online database (figure 2). the most important table is definition, which offers for the word into the lexicon field its definition in a specific form (internalrep) or in html format (htmlrep). the source of the word is stored in sourceid field. for example, if sourceid is 1, then the source is “explanatory dictionary of the romanian language” („dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române”, edited by the romanian academy, if sourceid is 6, then the source is a dictionary of synonyms, and if sourceid is 7, then we can obtain the antonyms of a given word. in figure 3 we present a capture screen of using the adx1 agent in editing the text in microsoft word. it displays the definition of the current word, but it also generates the synonyms, used in the application of some web searching rules, used by another intelligent agent, called asr. the asr agent will automatically compose some search strings to use for a web search engine, like google, yahoo, or other. for example, if the user will search the word zăpadă (snow) on yahoo search engine, then one can also generate a search for the word nea (synonym of zăpadă) by using the following asr rule: # yahoo search if http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=^x^&fr=yfp-t-309&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=utf-8 then http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=^clasa(x)^&fr=yfp-t-309&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=utf-8 figure 3. using the adx agent for obtaining definitions, synonyms and antonyms, for a given word, during ms word editing 1 adx comes from “agent of dex online” (dex = usual abbreviation for explanatory romanian dictionary) b. pătruţ – adx — agent for morphologic analysis of lexical entries in a dictionary 25 the asr2 and adx agents are parts of our multi-agent system that we develop for monitoring and suggesting purposes regarding editing in microsoft office. this does not make the subject of our discussion, so, for now, it is important to emphasize the adx agent.. the important fact about the adx agent is that it can work not only with standard words (the dictionary entry), but with different inflected forms of the given word (for example, a declined noun, a conjugated verb etc.). 3. using phonological alternances and inflexional types for morphological analysis as in any dictionary, words appear in the standard form (nominative/accusative, singular/plural, no article for nouns, infinitive and indicative present, first person, singular for verbs, respectively), the adx agent must morphologically analyze a given word, to obtain the dictionary form. thus, if in figure 2, we had the phrase “vreau să citesc cărţile acelea” (“i want to read those books”), we would obtain the same definition as for the word cărţile, with the note that the standard form is carte, a noun, in the nominative/accusative case, plural and articulated form. we created and implemented an algorithm for morphological analysis of the words in the romanian language (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives) based on phonological alternances and inflection types, that we will further present. the main advantage of the method is that it dynamically generates the roots of the words, using the phonological alternances in the rules of declination and conjugation, the roots having not been previously stored. of course the solution is not always unique, as we can see from comparing the two phrases: “e o luptă cu morile de vânt” (“it is a fight against the windmills.”) and “el luptă cu morile de vânt” (“he fights against the windmills.”), where the word “luptă” (“fight”) is either a noun or a verb. although adx is not organized in parts of speech, like wordnet, it can offer different meanings of a word and its definitions. 4. the morphologic analysis it studies the forms of words, in their different inflected forms, starting with the meanings that the morphemes have. the word is the basic unit of a language—seen from its two essential types of existence: as system and as speech—through its central position of its functioning, that is in the activity of linguistic communication. the word tells us about the world. the morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit with a bi-plan structure; it has a signifier (phonetically realised) and a signified (a meaning). the morpheme exists and realises its significant function inside the word, it is part of and only through an opposition inside the grammatical category that determines its meaning. having an inflected word (declined, in the case of the nouns, and of the adjectives a.o., or conjugated, as in the verbs’ case), a linguistic engineer would look for obtaining the word in its standard form (the same with the one from the dictionary), together with a series of explanations referring to some of the grammatical categories: tense, genre, case etc. but this is a syntactic analysis problem, that presents words in their context, and not singularly, as in the morphologic analysis case. in order to understand the expected result from a morphologic analysis, let us take an example. for such a word as “cepelor” we have to get the following information: the standard word = “ceapă”, part of speech: noun; case = genitive or dative; articled = yes; number = plural; genre = feminine. 2 asr comes from “agent for semantic rules” (we develeped a complex system of software agents, where each agent has its own role) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 26 5. the classical morphologic analysis generally, the linguistic engineers ([1], [2]) who studied morphologic analysis (for romanian) have solved such problems by starting from an extended database, to which they applied a relatively simple algorithm. so, each entry in the database consisted of a word and its inflected paradigm (another word that is equally declined or conjugated) and all the roots that a word may have when being inflected. so, for example, for the word “ceapă” you may use as an inflected paradigm the word “casă”, and the algorithm would analyse “ceapă” by using the endings that derive from the word “casă” in its declination process. of course, you may observe that “ceapă” and “casă” are declined in the same way, but in the articled genitive/dative plural case, whereas “casă” becomes simply “caselor”, the word “ceapă” would use another root: “cep-” and not “ceap-”. despite the advantage owed to the algorithm’s simplicity, this method has some disadvantages: the creation of the database is a very hard work, because all the word roots in their different forms must be taken into consideration. the created database may be enormous and the searching process, necessary for the morphologic analysis, can be slowed down and only because of the huge data volume that must be explored. in some cases, there is also the risk that the selected inflected paradigm can not be used for some exceptional words. 6. the idea of the phonological alternances to remove the disadvantages of such a classical method, one can start from the idea of finding the standard form of any word cuv, one must apply to it a pattern having the form of *s1*s2*...*sn*, in which the asterisk has the significance of any string existence (even in the case of the avoidance of those strings), and s1, s2, ... sn are groups of standard letters, found in many words. for example, for the word “cepelor”3, we have n=2, with s1 = “e” and s2 = “elor”. if we have a pattern-matching upon a word cuv, then one may obtain the standard form of cuv, by applying a rule such as: *s1*s2*...*sn *→ *d1*d2*...*dn*, in wich d1, d2, ..., dn are also letter groups. for example, for “cepelor” we have d1 = “ea”, d2 = “ă” and by applying the rule *e*elor* → *ea*ă* we can obtain the standard word “ceapă”. generally, the number of such changes is small, varying from 1-2 for adjectives to 1-3 for nouns and verbs. that is why we can give up the idea of the pattern, by using what linguistics call phonological alternances. any word that has been declined or conjugated got another ending and replaced the standard one, and the word root suffered changes because of the phonological alternance. so, if *a1*t1 is an inflected word, its standard form would be *a2*t2, that is the application of a rule having the form *a1*t1 → *a2*t2. in fact, this is the reverse of the inflectional process, in which the t2 ending is replaced by the t1 ending, and the root of the word suffers a phonological alternance a2 → a1. it should be noted that these phonological alternances are not of any importance, because they form themselves only at the level of some letter groups (especially vowels, diphthongs). also, there are some phonetic regular consonant phonological alternances, that overlap the endings, or are the result of their application, like: -c + i → -ci; -g + i → -gi; -t + i →ţi; -d + i → -zi; -s + i → -şi; -sc + i → -şti; -sc + e → -şte; -str + i → -ştri. another advantage of the morphologic analysis usage based on the phonological alternance consists in the fact that these rules are applied randomly in the inflection of words, but under certain circumstances. for example, “ceapă”4 becomes “cepelor” when using the articled declination at genitive/dative cases and plural number. this information can be used in the synthetic analysis, too. 3 of the onions / to the onions (genitive/dative, plural for onion) 4 onion (singular, nominative/acusative) b. pătruţ – adx — agent for morphologic analysis of lexical entries in a dictionary 27 but, the application of the declination in the backward meaning cannot always have a correct result, because there are also too many conditions that have to be fulfilled: the obtained standard word, has to be in the dictionary (its lexical analysis has to be done); the obtained standard word must be of the same inflected type [4] as the inflected word from which we started. the inflected type is a grammatical category that gives us exact information concerning all the forms that a word can take when being inflected. so, the inflected type contains not only the inflection paradigm, but also the given information for applying either this or that phonological alternance. coming back at the “cepelor” word case, as a result of the backward flexion rules applications, only from the feminine nouns declinations we can get three solutions: “capă”, “cepelă” and “ceapă”. each solution corresponds to the backward sense application of a single declination rule that corresponds to its inflected type. of course, only the last solution is valid, and this fact can be seen only by consulting the dictionary: “capă”5 can be found in the dictionary, but it belongs to another inflected type; “cepelă” does not appear in the dictionary; “ceapă” appears in the dictionary and belongs to the inflected type requested by the application of the rules ea → e and a → elor. however, there are other cases in which we can obtain two or more valid solutions, like: “luptă”, “duce”. the dictionary articles have the structure of two fields: the standard word, accompanied by its inflected type. it can also be used in many ways: the tree (b type), stored on a magnetic support, eventually combined with an internal hash table, for an easier finding of the articles. 7. reducing the searching space it is necessary to check all the endings and all their corresponding alternances, viewing the rules of application. but we may notice that for each word it is necessary to verify the rules that contain only some endings, (for example, “cepelor” can have the ending/suffix: zero (-), “lor” or, finally, “elor”, that contains the other two and that gives us the solution). the tracking down of the possible endings of a word can be done in the following way: the word cuv is mirrored, so that we may get cuvi; a searching binary tree is formed; it contains in its nodes all the reverses of the endings that some cells’ lists are associated with, each cell memorizing two values (l,c); these represent the finding rows or columns of the given ending in the flexion table (memorized in an array, having reduced dimensions and being easily accessible). cuvi is looked for in the endings’ tree as follows: you overlap cuvi with the information from the current node (which is an ending); if it matches, that ending is memorised, but you must also pass to the subtree, from the right side which could contain other possible endings; in case of failure, the searching ends. at the very beginning, the tree will be built like a searching tree, additionally having a certain characteristic: if n is the information from a node and l and r are the bits of information from the left subtree root, respectively the right one, then it is necessary that: l<n<r, so as the tree could be a searching one; in addition: if reverse(n)=t1 is the ending for a cuv word, then any other ending t2, with t2=*t1 it would be only in the root of the right subtree, i. e. in r (reverse(r)=t2) (reverse(s) is a function that 5 pelerine (singular, nominative/acusative) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 28 returns the reversal of an s string). (e.g.: reverse(“role”) = “elor” and reverse(“rol”) = “lor”. it is worth noticing that “role” < “rol” (having in view the alphabetic order) and we could have n=“rol”, r=“role”, because if “elor” is an ending for a word, “lor” is also the ending for the same word (i.e. t1 = reverse(n) = “lor”, t2 = reverse(r) = “elor” and t2=*t1, * = “e”) (e.g. cuv = “cepelor”, “ferestrelor”, “caselor”)). the zero ending (-) is a possible ending for any word, and that is why it will be the root of the whole searching tree, that corresponds to any table. an example of such searching trees for nouns of all genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) together with the entire analysis made by the adx agent for the word “cepelor” is presented in figure 2. the pairs of numbers in brackets form lists of lines and columns from the inflections’ charts where endings from the top of the list are found. we have noted the zero ending with – (that is always the root of the tree) and the void list with * (null/nil). ─> ─: 7 (18,3)(19,3)(20,3)(32,2)(33,2)(34,2)(34,3) ├───* └── i:20 (6,3)(7,3)(8,3)(9,3)(10,3)(11,3)(12,3)(13,3)(14,3)(15,3)(16,3)(17,3)(18,8) (19,8)(20,8)(21,3)(22,3)(34,8)(35,2)(35,3) ├─── a:43 (1,2)(1,6)(2,2)(2,6)(3,2)(3,6)(4,2)(4,6)(5,2)(5,6)(6,2)(6,6)(7,2)(7,6)(8,2)(8,6) (9,2)(9,6)(10,2)(10,6)(11,2)(11,6)(12,2)(12,6)(13,2)(13,6)(14,6)(18,6) (19,6)(20,6)(26,2)(26,6)(27,2)(27,6)(28,2)(28,6)(29,2)(29,6) (30,2)(30,6)(31,2) (31,6)(34,6) │ ├───* │ └┬─ ae: 8 (15,6)(16,6)(17,6)(23,6)(24,6)(25,6)(35,6)(36,6) │ ├───* │ └┬─ ael: 2 (21,6)(22,6) │ ├───* │ └── e:17 (1,3)(2,3)(3,3)(4,3)(5,3)(14,2)(15,2)(16,2)(17,2)(18,2)(19,2)(20,2)(23,2)(24,2)(25,2) (36,2)(36,3) │ ├─── au: 2 (32,6)(33,6) │ └┬─ el: 8 (18,7)(19,7)(20,7)(21,2)(22,2)(32,3)(33,3)(34,7) │ ├───* │ └┬─ ele: 6 (1,7)(2,7)(3,7)(4,7)(5,7)(36,7) │ ├───* │ └┬─ elel: 2 (32,7)(33,7) │ ├───* │ └── eli:15 (6,7)(7,7)(8,7)(9,7)(10,7)(11,7)(12,7)(13,7)(14,7)(15,7)(16,7)(17,7)(21,7) (22,7)(35,7) │ ├───* │ └── eliru: 9 (23,7)(24,7)(25,7)(26,7)(27,7)(28,7)(29,7)(30,7)(31,7) └── ii:21 (6,8)(7,8)(8,8)(9,8)(10,8)(11,8)(12,8)(13,8)(15,8)(16,8)(17,8)(21,8) (22,8)(23,8)(24,8)(25,8)(26,8)(27,8)(28,8)(29,8)(35,8) ├──┬ ie: 9 (1,8)(2,8)(3,8)(4,8)(5,8)(14,8)(30,8)(31,8)(36,8) │ │───* │ └── iel: 2 (32,8)(33,8) └┬─ iru: 9 (23,3)(24,3)(25,3)(26,3)(27,3)(28,3)(29,3)(30,3)(31,3) ├───* └┬─ rol: 4 (18,9)(19,9)(20,9)(34,9) ├───* └┬─ role: 6 (1,9)(2,9)(3,9)(4,9)(5,9)(36,9) ├───* └┬─ rolel: 2 (32,9)(33,9) ├───* └── roli:15 (6,9)(7,9)(8,9)(9,9)(10,9)(11,9)(12,9)(13,9)(14,9)(15,9)(16,9)(17,9)(21,9)(22,9)(35,9) │───* └── roliru: 9 (23,9)(24,9)(25,9)(26,9)(27,9)(28,9)(29,9)(30,9)(31,9) ─> rol: 4 (18,9)(19,9)(20,9)(34,9) ├───* └┬─ role: 6 (1,9)(2,9)(3,9)(4,9)(5,9)(36,9) ├───* └┬─ rolel: 2 (32,9)(33,9) ├───* └┬─ roli:15 (6,9)(7,9)(8,9)(9,9)(10,9)(11,9)(12,9)(13,9)(14,9)(15,9)(16,9)(17,9)(21,9)(22,9)(35,9) ├───* └── roliru: 9 (23,9)(24,9)(25,9)(26,9)(27,9)(28,9)(29,9)(30,9)(31,9) ─> role: 6 (1,9)(2,9)(3,9)(4,9)(5,9)(36,9) ├───* └┬─ rolel: 2 (32,9)(33,9) ├───* └┬─ roli:15 (6,9)(7,9)(8,9)(9,9)(10,9)(11,9)(12,9)(13,9)(14,9)(15,9)(16,9)(17,9)(21,9)(22,9)(35,9) ├───* └── roliru: 9 (23,9)(24,9)(25,9)(26,9)(27,9)(28,9)(29,9)(30,9)(31,9) b. pătruţ – adx — agent for morphologic analysis of lexical entries in a dictionary 29 found root: cepelor corresp. ending: ─ components: cepelor. looking in dict: cepelore─f4 found root: cepelor corresp. ending: ─ components: cepelor. looking in dict: #─f4a found root: cepelor corresp. ending: ─ components: cepel.r looking in dict: cepeloare─f4b found root: cepelor corresp. ending: ─ components: cepelor. looking in dict: cepelor─f9 found root: cepelor corresp. ending: ─ components: cepelor. looking in dict: cepelor─f9a found root: cepelor corresp. ending: ─ components: cepelor. looking in dict: cepelor─f10 found root: cepelor corresp. ending: ─ components: cepelor. looking in dict: cepelor─f10 found root: cepe corresp. ending: lor components: cepe. looking in dict: cepee─f4 found root: cepe corresp. ending: lor components: cepe. looking in dict: cepee─f4a found root: cepe corresp. ending: lor components: cepe. looking in dict: cepee─f4b found root: cepe corresp. ending: lor components: cepe. looking in dict: cepe─f10 found root: cep corresp. ending: elor components: cep. looking in dict: cepa─f1 found root: cep corresp. ending: elor components: c.p looking in dict: ceapa─f1a found root: cep corresp. ending: elor components: c.p looking in dict: capa─f1b found root: cep corresp. ending: elor components: c.p looking in dict: capa─f1c found root: cep corresp. ending: elor components: c.p looking in dict: cepa─f1d found root: cep corresp. ending: elor components: cep. looking in dict: cepe─f10b figure 2. the searching tree for romanian feminine nouns 8. inflection tables after we have found the possible endings of a word, we begin to partially explore the tables, dynamically generating the roots of the words, by using the rules with the order numbers given by the cell lists associated with the possible endings. generally, these tables are realised by the linguistic specialists according to the parts of speech. the columns are realised having in mind the different inflection situations and the rows are realised having in mind the inflection types. the cells in the table may contain letter groups either from the phonological alternances range, or from the endings range. presented below (table 1) is a fragment from the table associated with the feminine nouns declinations. the last column has the possible endings of “cepelor” written in bold letters. the looking up in the dictionary will find only the shaded solution. table 1. the declination of feminine nouns (after [4]) declination without an article declination with an article inflected endings alternances n/a endings g/d endings type sg. ending pl. ending sg. pl. na sg na pl gd sg gd pl 1 ă e a ele ei elor 1a ă e ea e a ele ei elor 1b ă e a e a ele ei elor 1c ă e ă e a ele ei elor 1d ă e ă/` e/i a ele ei elor .... 4 e a le i lor 4a e a ă a le i lor 4b e oa o a le i lor .... 9 le ua lele lei lelor 9a le ea e ua lele lei lelor 10 a le i lor the morphologic analysis also depends upon the given part of speech. the algorithm (implemented in adx) uses the data structures that we have talked about. 9. conclusions natural language processing is a very current domain, its techniques being indispensable to producing professional text editors. in natural language processing, the morphologic analysis has a very remarkable importance, its results having an overwhelming importance for the syntactic analysis of a phrase. if the classical approach (based on the idea of using a database with all the possible roots of the words and their inflected paradigms) has some disadvantages related to space brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 30 and speed, although the used algorithm is relatively simple, in this paper we emphasized a more complex algorithm that dynamically generates the roots of the words, starting from the phonological alternances. this has the advantage that a more reduced amount of information is required, it is more flexible and may be optimized by using adequately data structures. in conclusion, the adx agent will take each word edited in word and will morphologically analyse it before searching for it in the dex online database. if the classical approach (elaborated on the idea of using a database containing all the possible roots of words and their inflected paradigms) has some disadvantages regarding space and speed, although the algorithm used is relatively a simple one, in this paragraph we have emphasized a rather more complex algorithm that dynamically generates the roots of words starting with the phonological alternances. the advantage in this case is that it requires a smaller amount of information, it is more flexible and can be improved by using structures of adequate data. 10. references [1] cristea, d. (1999). let’s play with words. projects in natural language processing, tempus jep 11168/97, hamburg. [2] cosman c., cristea d. para-morph: a tool for paradigmatic morphology. retrieved in january 1, 2009 from http://consilr.info.uaic./ro/ro/index.php?showpage=0603&showid=0 (at romanian consortium for the computerization of the romanian language). [3] francu, c., online romanian explanatory dictionary. retrieved in january 1, 2009 from http://www.dexonline.ro. [4] iliescu, m., neagu, v., nedelcu, c., scurtu g. (1982). the minimal romanian language vocabulary for foreign students, bucharest: editura didactică şi pedagogică. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 387-419 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/290 social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive substances: research results anna shydelko¹, natalia mayorchak2, natalia bamburak3, tetiana holovach4 1 ph. d. in sociological sciences, associate professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, shydelko@i.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4789-0445 2 ph. d. in sociological sciences, assistant professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, nata120672@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5405-9855 3 ph. d. in psychology, associate professor, lviv regional institute of postgraduate pedagogical education, lviv, ukraine, nbamburak@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/00000002-5665-4543 4 ph. d. in philology, associate professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, tetianaholovach@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6665-4416 abstract: the article presents the empirical study of resocialization and socio-psychological rehabilitation of addicts to psychoactive substances, carried out by the scientific and pedagogical staff of lviv state university of internal affairs (ukraine), working in the field of social and behavioral sciences. the study started in november 2020 and was completed in february 2021. it was conducted in three cities of ukraine (kyiv, kharkiv, lviv). 46 people addicted to psychoactive substances aged 16 to 51 were involved. the men presented the sample of 89%, the women estimated by 11%. regarding individual age, it should be noted that 51% of the researched were 35-37 years old, namely: 17.4% alcohol addicts; 60.9% – drug addicts; 21.7% – alcohol and drug addicts. the goal and objectives of the experimental study were highlighted; a hypothesis was formulated. the category of people addicted to psychoactive substances was selected, with the psychological portrait of the subjects undergoing treatment in the indicated rehabilitation centers of the cities of ukraine was clarified, while comparing them with practically healthy persons, who correspond to age and sex characteristics. the following psychological tools were used in the study: life-sense orientation test in the adaptation by d. leontiev, the methodology for diagnosing interpersonal relations by t. leary, the mmpi questionnaire («mini-mult»), the method for diagnosing the sociopsychological adaptation of k. rogers-r. diamond. the main differences between the subjects were determined according to various characteristics: the presence and absence of addicted relatives, alcohol and drug addiction, use of up to ten and over ten years. the negative consequences for the brain, in particular, and human life in general, when using psychoactive substances are described. keywords: rehabilitation; resocialization; addiction; psychoactive substances; mental state of addicts, neurology, brain. how to cite: shydelko, a., mayorchak, n., bamburak, n., & holovach, t. (2022). social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive substances: research results. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 387-419. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/290 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/290 mailto:shydelko@i.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4789-0445 mailto:nata120672@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5405-9855 mailto:nbamburak@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5665-4543 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5665-4543 mailto:tetianaholovach@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6665-4416 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/290 social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 388 introduction at the present stage of psychological science development in ukraine, prevention and rehabilitation programs for people addicted to psychoactive substances are presented in various ways, and the number of rehabilitation centers for them is also increasing. however, it is worth noting the contradictions that occur in ukrainian society between the promotion of a healthy lifestyle among people of different ages, the prevention of drug addiction, smoking and alcoholism in educational institutions of various levels of training, and reducing public funding for rehabilitation projects aimed at minimizing the use of psychoactive substances. at the same time, there is no single concept of effective programs of social and psychological assistance and rehabilitation of addicts in treatment. furthermore, there is no single methodological approach or technology to help them. finally, experts' views on treatment and rehabilitation protocols do not find a common denominator. the topic of addiction falls under the interests of sociology, medicine, neuroscience, neurology, psychology, and pathopsychology. hence, it is timely and extremely important. the idea of this study is to clarify the features of the modern rehabilitation process and the individual characteristics of people addicted to psychoactive substances. the aim is to present the results of an empirical study on the rehabilitation of persons addicted to psychoactive substances. the hypothesis of the research is the assumption that if the process of rehabilitation of persons addicted to psychoactive substances is carried out in accordance with individual characteristics, simultaneously taking into account the mental state, mental functions, life situations of the addict's personality, using differential methods and forms of psycho-corrective activity, then rehabilitation of persons addicted to psychoactive substances will have positive indicators, as evidenced by the strengthening of an active personal position, restoration of physical and mental health and the effectiveness of social adaptation in society. literature review readings in research on the process of addicts’ rehabilitation (burlaka, 2008; lytvynchuk, 2016; yih-ing et al., 2013; aleksandrov et al., 2020) strongly suggest that the importance of resocialization of people addicted to psychoactive substances requires profound investigation. the empirical research is based on the main principles of domestic (chernetsʹka, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 389 2015;kharchenko et al., 2015) as well as foreign (allen et al., 1998; chicos et al., 2019; hosseinpour, 2019; orsolini et al., 2019) psychological studies. the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts have repeatedly attracted the attention of researchers (see, for example, chemerys, 2019; ryzhko et al., 2003; zhao min et al., 2011). a range of scholars emphasizes the factors of the emergence and formation of addictive behavior (de wit, 2009; sklar et al., 1999; yegorov, 2007). some scientists devoted their works to its preventive forms and levels (husak et al., 2013; linsʹkyi et al., 2006; starshenbaum, 2006). there is a number of neuroscientists who study the nervous system and seek optimal treatments for neurological and mental illness (konopka, 2014; winger et al., 2005). the presence of a genetic predisposition to the use of psychoactive substances is confirmed by experimental data in the studies of the researchers (kushchev, 2012; moskalenko & shevtsov, 2000). the analysis of neurochemical studies shows the fundamental unity of the central mechanisms of the development of addiction to psychoactive substances (bakalyuk & oliynyk, 2011). the neurological consequences of alcohol addiction and the effects of alcohol on the brain are described in the works of the following scholars (nikiforov et al., 2017; parfenov, 2010). methodology the following methods were used in the study: life-sense orientation test in the adaptation by d. leontiev; the methodology for diagnosing interpersonal relations by t. leary; diagnostics of personality disorders using the mmpi questionnaire («mini-mult»); the method for diagnosing the socio-psychological adaptation of k. rogers-r. diamond. statistical data processing was carried out using the spss for windows software package. the methods of descriptive statistics included an assessment of the arithmetic mean, standard deviation. to process the data obtained and quantitatively characterize the severity of the relationship between psychological indicators, we used correlation analysis using pearson's rank correlation coefficient, comparative analysis of student's t-test. results the study was conducted from november 2020 to february 2021. the study involved 46 people addicted to psychoactive substances aged 16 to 51 years old. all of them during the study were hospitalized in three different rehabilitation centers (lviv, kyiv, and kharkiv). the men presented the sample of 89%, the women estimated by 11%. it is worth social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 390 saying that 51% of the researched were 35–37 years old, to be exact: 17.4% alcohol addicts; 60.9% – drug addicts; 21.7% – alcohol and drug addicts. the duration of remission of participants in rehabilitation programs is within a wide time frame. thus, the last time they used psychoactive substances varies from one to three months ago – 50% of respondents; 4 – 6 months – 28.3% of persons; 7–12 months – 8.7%; over 12 months – 8.7% of participants. the length of use is also ranged: 1–5 years – in 30.4% of respondents; 6–10 years – in 21.7%; 11–15 years – in 26.1%; 15–23 years – in 21.7% of participants respectively. a characteristic feature is that 52.2% of the respondents have no addicts in the family, while 47.8% – one of the close relatives used drugs or alcohol. for 43.5% of respondents, this is their first rehabilitation, 56.5% of participants have already undergone rehabilitation programs. at the time of the research, all participants in the experiment were staying in indicated centers, adequately oriented in the environment, had a clear consciousness, and provided voluntary written consent to conduct the survey. the rehabilitants were diagnosed in accordance with the international classification of diseases icd-10, heading f10-f19: mental and behavioral disorders due to the use of psychoactive substances (addiction syndrome) by a doctor of the highest category specializing in «addiction». the characteristics of the participants are presented in table 1, which is based on the authors’ own conception. table 1 features of the studied group indicators characteristics number of people percentage values gender male 5 11% female 41 89% age 16-20 6 13% 21-25 5 11% 26-30 14 30.5% 31-35 10 21.5% 36-40 7 15% 41-51 4 9% dependency type alcohol 8 17.5% drugs 28 61% alcohol + drugs 10 21.5% consumption (years) 1-10 23 50% 11-23 23 50% brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 391 previous experience of rehabilitation there were previous rehabilitations 26 56.5% the first rehabilitation 20 43.5% abstinence 1-12 months 42 91% 13-26 months 4 9% family addiction there were no addicts in the family 24 52% there were addicts in the family 22 48% compiled by the authors first of all, it is worth considering that we were interested in the question: whether the use of psychoactive substances is affected by the relationship of our respondents with the presence (or absence) of their addicted relatives or significant people. hypothesis: suppose that in the studied persons in whose family there were no addicts, high indicators of life-sense orientation prevail, and there will be no significant differences in the results of other methods we have carried out. having clarified the designated issue, the results of a comparative analysis of personal indicators of individuals in the presence and absence of addicted relatives is presented, that is, whether the addiction of close relatives has an impact on the addiction of our respondents. having carried out calculations of the lifesense orientation test, we obtained the following results, which are presented in table 2, which is based on the authors’ own conception. table 2 comparison of the level of life-sense orientation test indicator for persons with the presence and absence of addicted relatives scale subscale average value standard deviation significanc e level number of people life goals there were no addicts in the family 25.21 7.33 0.055 24 there were addicts in the family 21.00 7.11 0.055 22 norm indicators 38.91 3.2 life process there were no addicts in the family 24.04 6.40 0.516 24 social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 392 there were addicts in the family 22.73 7.23 0.519 22 norm indicators 35.95 4.06 life performa nce there were no addicts in the family 19.5 5.18 0.474 24 there were addicts in the family 18.27 6.32 0.478 22 norm indicators 29.83 3.00 locus of control-i there were no addicts in the family 17.5 4.69 0.043 24 there were addicts in the family 14.59 4.76 0.043 22 norm indicators 24.65 2.39 locus of controllife there were no addicts in the family 23 5.10 0.397 24 there were addicts in the family 21.5 6.75 0.404 22 norm indicators 34.59 4.44 the overall indicator of lso there were no addicts in the family 81.08 16.47 0.262 24 there were addicts in the family 74.90 20.34 0.267 22 norm indicators 120.36 10.21 compiled by the authors the results of the life-sense orientation test indicate that the overall figures are lower than the widespread norms, testifying the frequent absence of goals in respondent’s lives that can make life meaningful. their objectives are aimed at a temporarily perspective. as can be seen from the results, participants are not satisfied with the existing life, its emotional saturation, or the life that they had been living until the moment they realized the state of sobriety. these people often live for today or yesterday. significant differences in indicators are available on two scales: «life goals» and «locus of control-i». scores on the «life goals» scale are higher in those subjects whose families had no addicts. it might be due to the absence of a harmful scenario in the family, there is no template for the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 393 development of events and thoughts about the genetics of the disease. besides, the same tendency concerns the scale «locus of control – i», that is, despite the general tendency towards an internal locus of control, the indicators are higher for those who did not have addicted relatives. consequently, they imagine themselves as weak personalities, have a low level of self-control, usually do not take responsibility for the choices in their lives, often do not believe in themselves, do not know how to control the events of their own lives. it is easier and faster to return this category of respondents to their responsibility than those with low indicators because they had a negative example in life from loved ones, who used psychoactive substances. the indicator diagram is shown in fig. 1. fig. 1. comparison of the level of life-sense orientation test indicator for persons with the presence and absence of addicted relatives (based on the authors’ own conception). with the help of t. leary's test, significant differences were found on the following scales: dependence and conformity in persons with and without addicted relatives (see table 3, fig. 2). 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 life goals life process life performance locus of control -i locus of control life overall indicator of lso 25.21 24.04 19.5 17.5 23 81.08 21 22.73 18.27 14.59 21.5 81.08 38.91 35.95 29.83 24.65 34.59 120.36 there were no addicts in the family social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 394 table 3 comparison of the levels of the t. leary’s test indicators of persons with the presence and absence of addicted relatives scale subscal e averag e value standart deviatio n min. valu e max. value . significanc e level numbe r of people addiction there were no addicts in the family 6,625 3,004 2 13 0.042 24 there were addicts in the family 8,454 2,923 3 12 0.042 22 conformit y there were no addicts in the family 4.75 3,082 0 12 0.040 24 there were addicts in the family 6,682 3,107 3 14 0.040 22 compiled by the authors fig. 2 comparison of the levels of the t. leary’s test indicators of persons with the presence and absence of addicted relatives (based on the authors’ own conception). 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 addiction conformity 6.63 4.75 8.45 6.68 there were no addicts in the family there were addicts in the family brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 395 consequently, in the participants who had addicted relatives, the indicator of addiction is higher (8.45 vs. 6.63), which confirms the systemic nature of the disease. such persons have become co-addictive since early childhood and take on the symptoms of the disease. regarding the conformity index, it is also higher in respondents with addicted relatives (6.68 vs. 4.75), which may be due to increased traumatization of persons in destructive families. since infancy they have been forced to adapt to family members, and show sympathy, care, compassion, that is, bear a certain responsibility towards them. according to the results of the tests carried out for the diagnostics of personality disorders using the mmpi questionnaire («mini-mult») and the method for diagnosing the socio-psychological adaptation of k. rogers-r. diamond no differences were found. this points out that character traits are not changed during rehabilitation. the average adaptation indicators (59.58), self-acceptance (59.58), acceptance of others (63.76), emotional comfort (59.58), internality (51.57), striving for dominance (74.30), which roughly correspond to the normative ones. indicators that are important for determining the correlation are as follows: self-acceptance (42.1 at a rate of 22-42), self-rejection (17.15 at a rate of 14.28). it is considered that selfacceptance is at a sufficiently high level and self-rejection is within the normal range, which indicates the positive consequences of rehabilitation. indicators of the average values of mmpi («mini-mult») are also within the normal range (from 40 to 70) in the subjects. average values of indicators: hypochondria – 52.9, depression – 54, hysteria 57, psychopathy – 62, paranoia – 59, psychasthenia – 54.3, schizoid personality disorder – 60.5, hypomania – 57. so, we have observed some differences between respondents in whose family there were and were not addicts only on several indicators, which are the most common and significant for the social behavior of the subjects: goals in life, internal locus of control, addiction, and conformity. following, the results of a comparative analysis of the personality indicators of alcohol and drug addicts are presented (see table 4, fig. 3). hypothesis: suppose that the indicators of the integration of personality traits, the level of social adaptation, and life-sense orientation are without significant differences for alcohol and drug addicts. social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 396 table 4 comparison of indicators of personal characteristics of mmpi («minimult») of alcohol and drug addicts compiled by the authors fig. 3. comparison of indicators of personal characteristics of mmpi («minimult») of alcohol and drug addicts (based on the authors’ own conception). the respondent’s indicators are within the normal range, however, the indicators are higher in alcohol addicts than in those who use drugs. the hysteria indicator detects individuals prone to neurological defense reactions of the conversion type. they use the symptoms of a somatic illness as a means of avoiding responsibility, all problems are solved by going into illness. the main feature of such people is the desire to seem more significant than they actually are, the desire to attract attention, no matter what the cost is. it is noted that the participants of the research can displace factors that can cause anxiety. they seem to emphasize somatic distress in order to 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 hysteria 12.5 11.04 alcohol addicts drug addicts scale subscale average value standard deviation significance level number of people hysteria alcohol addicts 12.5 2,357 0.033 18 drug addicts 11,036 2,099 0.039 28 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 397 deny the difficulties in social adaptation. additionally, alcohol addicts’ need for social adaptation is higher, and prior, they use alcohol to facilitate their communication and interaction with people around them. the addict takes drugs to emphasize his independence. that means he/she needs to learn to ignore other people, their needs, and his/her need for other people’s intimacy. moreover, this ability for intimacy is not fundamentally formed. ignoring other people rather relieves the fear of them, providing security through alienation. the results of the level of social adaptation according to the k. rogers – r. diamond test for alcohol and drug addicts are highlighted in table 5, fig. 4. table 5 comparison of indicators of the level of social adaptation according to the results of the k. rogers r. diamond test for alcohol and drug addicts scale subscale average value standard deviation significance level number of people emotional discomfort alcohol addicts 23,222 6,485 0.018 18 drug addicts 17,321 8,811 0.012 28 compiled by the authors fig. 4 comparison of indicators of the level of social adaptation according to the results of the k. rogers r. diamond test for alcohol and drug addicts (based on the authors’ own conception). 0 5 10 15 20 25 emotional discomfort 23.22 17.32 alcohol addicts drug addicts social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 398 the emotional discomfort scale measures the uncertainty in emotional relation (uncertainty, depression, lethargy, etc.) to the surrounding social reality. in subjects who are addicted to alcohol, the indicator of emotional discomfort is higher than in drug addicts. the former feels embarrassed, try to redeem their guilt in front of authoritative interlocutors, while the latter tend to a feeling of fear of humiliation in front of the group, often devalue the leader, thus remains in the polarity «omnipotenceinsignificance». comparison of the results of the life-sense orientation test showed more significant differences, the outcomes are reflected in table 6 and fig. 5. table 6 comparison of life-sense orientation indicators of alcohol and drug addicts scale subscale average value standart deviation significance level number of people life goals alcohol addicts 19.22 5.54 0.003 18 drug addicts 25.75 7.48 0.002 28 norm indicators 38.91 3.2 life process alcohol addicts 20.38 6.39 0.013 18 drug addicts 25.35 6.36 0.014 28 norm indicators 35.95 4.06 life performance alcohol addicts 16.38 6.28 0.015 18 drug addicts 20.53 4.77 0.023 28 norm indicators 29.83 3.00 locus of control-i alcohol addicts 14.88 4.07 0.178 18 drug addicts 16.89 5.28 0.155 28 norm indicators 24.65 2.39 locus of control-life alcohol addicts 20.5 5.69 0.102 18 drug addicts 23.42 5.89 0.101 28 norm indicators 34.59 4.44 the overall indicator of lso alcohol addicts 69.16 17.31 0.007 18 drug addicts 83.89 17.10 0.008 28 norm indicators 120.36 10.21 compiled by the authors brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 399 fig. 5. comparison of life-sense orientation indicators of alcohol and drug addicts (based on the authors’ own conception). thus, as can be seen from the results, which are highlighted in the table and figure, there are significant deviations in the indicators of alcohol and drug addicts and merely drug addicts. those who are alcohol and drug addicts have lower scores on the scales «life goals», «life process», «life performance», «the overall indicator of life-sense orientation», which may be associated with a higher degree of depression, a sense of indifference, difficulty in interpersonal relationships. respondents addicted to drugs usually do not have established life values, due to the fact that they start using drugs early enough. to start with, it is necessary to form those values on which they could «rely» in order to recover. the personality, being immature, with uncertain values and life goals, is subject to addictive behavior. the reasons are the same as described above. drug addicts have an illusion of control and self-sufficiency, which does not disappear during rehabilitation, especially if this is the first social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 400 rehabilitation. there was a pleasure in their lives that they remember. those participants who used psychostimulants were active most of the time during the period of use, therefore the indicators of life-sense orientations are higher than in alcohol addicts. no differences were found between the indicators of t. leary's methodology of interpersonal relations. thus, the calculation of points for comparing the studied alcohol and drug addicts showed us the presence of dissimilarities between these two groups of people, which is a logical confirmation of the theories available in the psychological literature. according to our study, there are differences in the indicators of life-sense orientation, low indicators of life goals, satisfaction with the life process, its effectiveness. as well as alcohol addicts have a high indicator of emotional discomfort as well as a high indicator of hysteria, they are more suppressed, insecure, assess their lives worse, set fewer goals, avoid responsibility, «hiding» behind diseases, consequently showing a more neurotic type of behavior. whereas drug addicts are more manifested in the behavior of the narcissistic type. then, we present the results of a comparative analysis of life-sense orientation indicators of persons with a term of use up to 10 years and over 10 years. hypothesis: suppose that in the subjects whose use period is up to 10 years, the indicators of life-sense orientation will be higher, the mmri indicators will be lower, the indicators of the method for diagnosing the sociopsychological adaptation of k. rogers-r. diamond is also lower, and timothy leary's interpersonal relations scores are not significantly different. there were few differences in the indicators of life-sense orientation: «life goals» and «the overall indicator of lso» (see table 7, fig. 6). table 7 comparison of life-sense orientations indicators of persons with a term of use up to 10 years and over 10 years scale subscale average value standart deviation significance level number of people life goals use up to 10 years 25.52 6.14 0.032 23 use over 10 years 20.86 8.03 0.032 23 indicator of the norm 38.91 3.2 life process use up to 10 years 25 6.53 0.112 23 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 401 use over 10 years 21.82 6.75 0.112 23 indicator of the norm 35.95 4.06 use up to 10 years 19.56 4.78 0.446 23 use over 10 years 18.26 6.57 0.446 23 life performance indicator of the norm 29.83 3.00 locus of control-i use up to 10 years 17.08 4.24 0.178 23 use over 10 years 15.13 5.39 0.179 23 indicator of the norm 24.65 2.39 locus of control-life use up to 10 years 23.08 5.68 0.363 23 use over 10 years 21.47 6.19 0.364 23 indicator of the norm 34.59 4.44 the overall indicator of lso use up to 10 years 83.08 15.66 0.068 23 use over 10 years 73.17 20.04 0.069 23 indicator of the norm 120.36 10.21 compiled by the authors social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 402 fig. 6 comparison of life-sense orientation indicators of persons with a term of use up to 10 years and over 10 years (based on the authors’ own conception). thus, as suggested in the hypothesis, the life-sense orientation indicators are higher in the respondents who have used psychoactive substances for up to 10 years. that is, these are people with fewer psychological breakdowns, less both health problems and law troubles, they are more confident in not using or using in a controlled manner. those who have been using for fewer years have a greater tendency to consider the future, set goals in life. whereas those who have been using for over 10 years are less assured in goals, mainly due to unsuccessful previous attempts, or the experience of using rather than staying sober. the skills to live a sober life are lost as much as the ability to take responsibility for one's life is gone. regarding the personality traits, as a result of the study, significant differences were also revealed according to the «depression» and «hypomania» scales (see table 8, fig. 7). 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 25.52 25 19.56 17.08 23.08 83.08 20.86 21.82 18.26 15.13 21.47 73.17 38.91 35.95 29.83 24.65 34.59 120.36 use up to 10 years use over 10 years norm indicator brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 403 table 8 comparison of mmpi indicators of persons with a term of use up to 10 years and over 10 years scale subscale average value standart deviation significance level number of people depression use up to 10 years 7.30 2.47 0.047 23 use over10 years 8.86 2.74 0.048 23 hypomania use up to 10 years 7.34 2.01 0.051 23 use over 10 years 8.63 2.35 0.052 23 compiled by the authors fig. 7 comparison of mmpi indicators of persons with a term of use up to 10 years and over 10 years (based on the authors’ own conception). as figure 7 shows, the indices are quite high in both groups. the indicators are higher in respondents with a longer period of use, confirming the fact of the complication of the disease over time, that is, the problems are not solved, the condition is prolonged with an increasing effect. the analysis made it possible to state that the «depression» scale shows a higher level of anxiety, self-doubt, the ability to despair. subjectively, anxiety is 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 depression hypomania 7.3 7.34 8.86 8.62 use up to 10 years use over 10 years social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 404 experienced in the form of a sensation of an indefinite threat, the nature and time of occurrence of which cannot be foreseen, fearful and anxious expectation. depression, in this case, is more like pessimism, as if it overrides the anxiety of frustration by devaluing needs. it has been found that the indicators of «hypomania» are quite high in both groups. at times they are higher than normal, which indicates the activity, energy, high spirits, that is an interesting observation that can be associated with emotional stress, or, hypothetically, with a significant reassessment of values in connection with long-term usage of psychoactive substances and some crisis (possibly age) period. it is said that the motivating factor in such cases is often raising children. an additional difference was noticed in the indicator of interpersonal relations according to the results of t. leary's test (see table 9, fig. 8). table 9 comparison of indicators of t. leary’s interpersonal relations of persons with a term of use up to 10 years and over 10 years scale subscale average value standart deviation significance level number of people friendliness use up to 10 years -1.99 3.93 0.019 23 use over 10 years 0.48 2.82 0.019 23 compiled by the authors fig. 8 comparison of indicators of t. leary’s interpersonal relations of persons with a term of use up to 10 years and over 10 years (based on the authors’ own conception). -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 friendliness -1.99 0.48 use up to 10 years use over 10 years brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 405 a positive result according to the «friendliness» formula (in this case, for participants with a term of use for over 10 years) is the desire of the individual to establish friendly relations and interaction with others. however, a negative result (respondents with a period of use up to 10 years) indicates the manifestation of an aggressively competitive position, which hinders cooperation and successful joint activities. such participants demonstrate more resistance, rejection of the disease, all the same thoughts about possible controlled use and, thus, withdrawal from help. quantitative results are indicators of the severity of these characteristics. the indicator differences of socio-psychological adaptation were determined for emotional discomfort and external control (see table 10, fig. 9). table 10 comparison of indicators of diagnostics of social and psychological adaptation of k. rogers r. diamond of persons with a term of use up to 10 years and over 10 years scale subscale average value standart deviation significance level number of people emotional discomfort use up to 10 years 16.13 7.69 0.004 23 use over 10 years 23.13 7.77 0.004 23 external control use up to 10 years 20 7.77 0.036 23 use over10 years 26 10.85 0.036 23 compiled by the authors it is statistically confirmed that the «emotional discomfort», as in the previous analysis, is experienced by those who use psychoactive substances for a long time. the scale of the «external control» determines the tendency of an individual to a certain form of locus of control (externality). the tendency dominates to attribute the causes of everything that happens to external factors (environment, fate, or chance). along with the results of the study, the indicators are higher precisely in persons with a period of use for over 10 years. one of the reasons for this may be the factor that such a long period is caused by the lack of the ability to take responsibility for oneself, the habit of thinking biasedly. social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 406 fig. 9 comparison of indicators of diagnostics of social and psychological adaptation of k. rogers-r. diamond of persons with a term of use up to 10 years and over 10 years (based on the authors’ own conception). consequently, the assumption was confirmed, there are certain differences in the values of indicators for persons with a period of use of up to and over 10 years. the longer the subjects use psychoactive substances, the higher the level of external control and emotional discomfort exists. at the same time, there is more desire to establish friendly relations with others, a higher level of depression and hypomania, as well as a general indicator of life-sense orientations, fewer goals in life, less satisfaction with life. they assess the level of life performance lower, and the external locus of control prevails in them. correlation analysis of the presented study. characteristics of the connectivity of the signs of the personality traits of the personality of respondents and the presence or absence in their families those who are addicted to psychoactive substances. hypothesis: suppose that such characteristic as «self-acceptance» is associated with respondent’s personality traits, whose family had no addictive relatives and is not be connected to the participants whose family had addicted relatives. the scale of «self-acceptance» appears as a result of an individual's self-assessment, determines the degree of satisfaction of the individual with his/her characteristics (see table 11, fig. 10). 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 emotional discomfort external control 61.7 20 56.5 26 use up to 10 years use over 10 years brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 407 table 11 indicators of «self-acceptance» of respondents in whose family there were no addicted relatives compiled by the authors there is a negative correlation between the indicators of selfacceptance and all indicators of the personal characteristics of the «minimult» technique. that is, for persons who had no addicts among their relatives, self-acceptance varies and depends on many factors. as well, the higher the self-acceptance indicator, the lower the indicators are as follows: hypochondria (r = -0.471, p = 0.02), depression (r = -0.445, p = 0.03), hysteria (r = -0.515, p = 0.01), psychopathy (r = -0.537, p = 0.007), paranoia (r = -0.623, p = 0.001), psychasthenia (r = -0.540, p = 0.007), schizoid personality disorder (r = -0.729, p = 0.001), hypomania (r = -0.520, p = 0.009). s c a le s u b s c a le h y p o c h o n d ri a d e p re ss io n h y st e ri a p s y c h o p a th y p a ra n o ia p s y c h a s th e n ia s c h iz o id p e rs o n a li ty d is o rd e r h y p o m a n ia selfacceptance pearson’s correlation 0.471 0.445 0.515 0.537 0.623 0.540 -0.729 0.520 value (2 side) 0.02 0.03 0.01 0.007 0.001 0.007 0.001 0.009 n 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 408 fig. 10 correlation pleiad of «self-acceptance» indicators with personal psychological manifestations indicators according to the mmpi method (minimult) where there were no addicted relatives (based on the authors’ own conception). it is worth noting that among the indicators of «self-acceptance» in families where there were addicted relatives, correlations were not observed (see table 12, fig. 11). selfacceptance hypochondria r=-0.471 p=0.02 depression r=-0.445 p=0.03 hysteria r=-0.515 p=0.01 psychopathy r=-0.537 p=0.007 paranoia r=0.623 p=0.001 psychasthenia r=-0.540 p=0.007 schizoid personality disorder r=0.729 p=0.001 hypomania r=-0.520 p=0.009 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 409 table 12 indicators of «self-acceptance» of subjects with no addicted relatives s c a le s u b s c a le h y p o c h o n d ri a d e p re ss io n h y st e ri a p s y c h o p a th y p a ra n o ia p s y c h a s th e n ia s c h iz o id p e rs o n a li ty d is o rd e r h y p o m a n ia selfacceptan ce pearson's correlatio n 0.149 0.337 0.085 0.199 0.302 0.336 -0.098 0.068 value (2 side) 0.506 0.124 0.705 0.373 0.172 0.125 0.666 0.763 n 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 compiled by the authors fig.11 correlation pleiad of «self-acceptance» indicators of subjects with no addicted relatives (based on the authors’ own conception). selfacceptance hypochondria r=-0.149 p=0.506 depression r=-337 p=0.124 hysteria r=-0.085 p=0.705 psychopathy r=0.199 p=0.373 paranoia r=0.302 p=0.172 psychasthenia r=-0.336 p=0.125 schizoid personality disorder r=0.098 p=0.666 hypomania r=0.068 p=0.763 social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 410 consequently, the respondent’s self-acceptance is associated with other factors that are not related to personality traits, regardless of these characteristics, self-acceptance is presented. afterward, the indicators of «self-rejection» interrelation are considered. hypothesis: suppose that such indicator as «self-rejection» is associated with the respondent’s personality traits with no addicted relatives (see table 13, fig. 12) and is not be associated with the participants’ personality characteristics in whose family there were addicted relatives (see table 14, fig. 13). table 13 indicators of «self-rejection» of subjects with no addicted relatives s c a le s u b s c a le h y p o c h o n d ri a d e p re ss io n h y st e ri a p s y c h o p a th y p a ra n o ia p s y c h a s th e n ia s c h iz o id p e rs o n a li ty d is o rd e r h y p o m a n ia nonacceptance of oneself pearson’s correlation 0.171 0.418 0.350 0.536 0.446 0.448 0.562 0.314 value (2 side) 0.425 0.042 0.094 0.007 0.029 0.028 0.004 0.135 n 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 compiled by the authors the quantitative analysis gives grounds to state that there is a positive correlation with some indicators of personality traits, namely: depression (r = 0.418, p = 0.042), psychopathy (r = 0.536, p = 0.007), paranoia (r = 0.446, p = 0.029), psychasthenia (r = 0.448, p = 0.028), and schizoid personality disorder (r = 0.562, p = 0.004). brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 411 fig. 12 correlation pleid of «self-rejection» indicators of subjects with no addicted relatives (based on the authors’ own conception). the scale of «self-rejection» shows the degree of individual dissatisfaction with his/her personality traits. table 14 indicators of «self-rejection» of subjects in whose family there were addicted relatives s c a le s u b s c a le h y p o c h o n d ri a d e p re ss io n h y st e ri a p s y c h o p a th y p a ra n o ia p s y c h a s th e n ia s c h iz o id p e rs o n a li ty d is o rd e r h y p o m a n ia nonacceptance of oneself pearson’s correlation 0.115 0.568 0.379 0,201 0.611 0.303 0.078 0.028 value (2 side) 0.610 0.006 0.082 0.369 0.003 0.170 0.731 0.900 n 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 compiled by the authors selfrejection hypochondri a r=0,171 p=0.425 depression r=0,418 p=0.042 hysteria r=0.350 p=0.094 psychopathy r=0.536 p=0.007 paranoia r=0.446 p=0.029 psychastheni a r=0.448 p=0.028 schizoid personality disorder r=0.562 p=0.004 hypomania r=0.314 p=0.135 social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 412 as the table 14 shows, a positive correlation is also observed among the indicators of the respondents with addicted relatives, to be exact the correlation of «self-rejection» with: depression (r = 0.568, p = 0.006), hysteria (r = 0.379, p = 0.082) and paranoia (r = 0.611, p = 0.003). fig.13 correlation pleid of «self-rejection» indicators of subjects with addicted relatives (based on the authors’ own conception). that is, self-rejection is to a lesser extent associated with personality traits in both groups of persons, those where relatives were addicted, and those where there were no addicted relatives. thus, the research of correlations revealed such connections as the acceptance of oneself with personal characteristics with addicted relatives; and rejection of oneself with the personal traits of the respondents in whose family there were no addicts. for those respondents who had addicts in the family the connections only with indicators of depression, hysteria, paranoia (the connection is directly proportional) were detected. it is confirmed that the indices of addicted respondents’ selfacceptance are quite high in both cases, regardless of the absence or presence of addicted relatives. however, the former undergo negative addiction with indicators of personality traits, while the latter experience no addiction. therefore, there is a significant difference between the selfrejection hypochondria r=0,115 p=0.610 depression r=0,568 p=0.006 hysteria r=0.379 p=0.082 psychopathy r=0.201 p=0.369 paranoia r=0.611 p=0.003 psychasthenia r=0.303 p=0.170 schizoid personality disorder r=0.078 p=0.731 hypomania r=-0.028 p=0.900 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 413 respondents, which should be taken into account while providing psychological assistance. as soon as addiction becomes a family disease, coaddicts appear, who take on the symptoms of the disease onto themselves and finally become its hostages. the consequences of parental addiction lead to children’s shame, guilt, self-accusation, auto-aggression, and self-rejection. recognizing the powerlessness and inability to control the parents’ addicted behavior and the impact on the family allows to remove the reason of hate and is a major step towards recovery. having conducted a practical study of the socio-psychological rehabilitation of addicts to psychoactive substances, we want to emphasize that addiction governs human life, this applies to both chemical and nonchemical addictions. there is an explanation for this fact that neuroscientists have been working on for many years, studying the nervous system and looking for optimal ways to treat neurological and mental illnesses. scientists divide the risk factors for substance abuse into biological, genetic, individual, family, social, socio-economic, and so on. let us focus on genetic factors. according to the researches (kushchev, 2012; moskalenko & shevtsov, 2000) the presence of a genetic predisposition to the use of psychoactive substances is confirmed by experimental data. the analysis and comparison of neurochemical studies allowed scientists to conclude about the fundamental unity of the central mechanisms of psychoactive substances addiction development. these mechanisms are based on the role of the stem and limbic structures of the brain, that is, available in those segments where the so-called reinforcement system is located. this system is involved in ensuring the regulation of a person's emotional state, mood, motivational sphere, psychophysical tone, adaptation to the environment, that is, it determines human behaviour and actions in general. the influence of psychoactive substances leads to an intensive release of neurotransmitters from the group of catecholamines, including dopamine from the depot of the reinforcement system, and therefore stimulates a more intense excitation of this system. such arousal is often accompanied by positively coloured emotional experiences. repeated use of psychoactive substances leads to depletion of the supply of these neurotransmitters, it turns out to be insufficiently expressed arousal of the reinforcement system. psychophysically, this is objectified as a mood drop, a feeling of weakness, boredom, depression. repeated use of psychoactive substances causes an additional release of catecholamines and dopamine from the depot, which temporarily compensates for their deficiency. social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 414 catecholamines and dopamines in the blood are rapidly destroyed, the psychophysical condition deteriorates again and, accordingly, there is a desire to repeat the use of psychoactive substances. this vicious circle is the basis for the formation of psychoactive substances mental addiction. therefore, there is a reason to ascertain the existence of the unity of biological mechanisms of the development of addiction to the use of psychoactive substances. however, the specific propensity to use a certain type of psychoactive substance is obviously determined by other factors. thus, based on individual risk factors for the development of psychoactive substances addiction, there is a specific complex called "neuronal and behaviour swagger", the behavioural manifestations of which are an external expression of the above-described specificity of the structure and function of dopamine receptors in the brain (bakalyuk & oliynyk, 2011). let us highlight the neurological consequences of alcohol dependence and the effect of alcohol on the brain. in clinical practice, the pathology of the nervous system associated with chronic alcohol intoxication is often encountered. the pathology of the nervous system aggravates alcoholic illness: relapses become more frequent and the syndrome of pathological craving for alcohol increases. in alcohol addicts, morphological changes in the structure of the brain are observed: acute swelling of neurons, vacuolar dystrophy, atrophic processes. the plethora of cerebral vessels and sclerosis of their walls are clearly traced. in some patients with alcoholism, petrification, small cysts, and foci of demyelination are visualized in the brain. the area of the neurons of the cortex of the anterior central gyrus of the cerebral hemispheres, the optic tubercle, and the medulla oblongata is reduced by 1.2-1.5 times. at the same time, glial tissue undergoes focal and diffuse proliferation. glia area in the same parts of the brain increases 1.3-1.4 times (nikiforov et al., 2017). the negative effect of alcohol on the brain is also due to the fact that alcohol intoxication impairs the access of oxygen to neurons – structural and functional units of the nervous system. at the same time, the following external displays of disturbances in the brain functioning are observed: the conditioned reflexes of a person developed as a result of life circumstances are suppressed; complex movements are formed much more slowly than usual, coordination is disturbed, it is difficult for a person to control his/her behaviour; inhibition processes predominate overexcitation processes in the central nervous system, and as a consequence – a retarded reaction; attention is sharply reduced and memory deteriorates; deteriorating perception of the senses; the processes of thinking, orientation in space are disturbed, the critical attitude to oneself decreases; there is an inadequate assessment of the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 415 events happening around, and on the basis of which there is the overestimation of one's capabilities. in acute alcohol intoxication, both behavioural and cognitive symptoms are assessed: inhibition, conflict, aggressiveness, affective lability, impaired attention, decreased mental capabilities, as well as neurological symptoms: uncertainty/unsteadiness of gait, romberg's approving test (neurological testing, which is used to assess static coordination of a person with alcohol intoxication suspicion), dysarthria, nystagmus (involuntary eye movements), impaired consciousness (nikiforov et al., 2017). thus, the neurological problems of alcoholism complicate the course of alcoholic illness, provoke frequent relapses, increase the syndrome of pathological craving for alcohol. at the same time, neurological pathology in such alcohol addicts is characterized by frequent exacerbations and breakdowns. alcohol abuse leads to degradation, personality disintegration, and dementia, the destruction of family relationships. parfenov v. a. (2010) remarks that regular consumption of more than 70 g of pure ethanol per day increases the risk of stroke, and the more pronounced the degree of alcohol abuse, the higher the risk of stroke. adverse effects on a person using drugs can be classified into three levels. the first level is when the body is able to recover after stopping drug use. however, if you resume consumption, the body immediately returns to its previous state. the second level is already more difficult for the restoration of the body, that is, there is an opportunity to heal, but not to cure. the third level is characterized by inevitable consequences for the body, these are the consequences affecting the maintenance of life only under the condition of special palliative treatment. drug use negatively affects the work of a complex organ in the human body – the brain. the brain is responsible for a person's actions, emotions, thoughts, movements, and behavior. a narcotic substance that enters the human body affects the functioning of the brain – it disrupts the circulatory system of the brain, the information transmission system, that is, it affects the receipt, processing, and transmission of information. toxic encephalopathy – brain damage, manifested in the form of decreased intelligence, memory loss, impaired ability to think, speak clearly, concentrate, make decisions, and complete tasks. headaches and dizziness affect behavior, language, and the ability to control one's actions. despite the variety of drugs on the market – they have the same action – to cause a feeling of happiness, harmony, and well-being in the brain. the most powerful effect of drugs is directed at the nucleus that is responsible for the feeling of short-term or long-term satisfaction (food, social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 416 communication with loved ones, etc.). in a person who uses drugs, the release of dopamine, which induces a natural feeling of harmony, happiness, and well-being, is impaired. that is, the ability to feel pleasure, happiness without drugs is weakened. this is the reason why people use drugs because they feel depressed, lethargic, empty, they lack the ability to enjoy what pleased them before. conclusion in the course of the empirical study, a comparative and correlation analysis of indicators was carried out according to the results of four methods: diagnosis of personality disorders using the mmpi questionnaire («mini-mult»), diagnosis of social and psychological adaptation of k. rogersr. diamond, the methodology for diagnosing interpersonal relations by t. leary, life-sense orientation test by d. leontiev. it has been grounded the main differences between the respondents according to various characteristics as follows: the presence and absence of addictive relatives, alcohol and drug addiction, use of up to 10 and over 10 years. it has been confirmed statistically the correlation inversely proportional addiction of the indicator of socio-psychological adaptation «self-acceptance» with all indicators of personality traits, among those who did not have addicted relatives. the results of the experiment open up the prospects of counselling this particular group of people, as such that is exposed. furthermore, it is also easier for those respondents to set up life goals besides they possess an internal locus of control. it should be noted that if the necessary qualities such as self-confidence, reducing feelings of guilt, and shame are acquired, the respondents will be able to launch motivation by themselves, to modify their future life, to make life choices consciously. thus, the analysis of the results presented in the article allows us to state that despite the fact of existing a lot of mental disorders that significantly complicate, and sometimes make psychotherapy among addicts impossible, those who have been using psychoactive substances for a shorter period and who did not have / haven’t got relatives who have used psychoactive substances are more likely to recover. the information concerning the negative impact of alcohol and drug use on the human brain is highlighted, behavioral and cognitive symptoms in the use of psychoactive substances are described. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 417 references aleksandrov, d., okhrimenko, i., medvediev, v., moiseieva, o., & prontenko, k. (2020). psychoprophylactic correction of the individual psychological factors of narcotism. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 01-17. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/71 allen, t. j., moeller, f. g., rhoades, h. m., & cherek, d. r. (1998). impulsivity and history of drug dependence. drug and alcohol dependence, 50(2), 137– 145. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0376-8716(98)00023-4 bakalyuk, o., oliynyk, n. (2011). molodʹ i psykhoaktyvni rechovyny: faktory ryzyku i zakhystu [youth and psychoactive substances: risk and protection factors]. psykholohiya, 3, 70-95. burlaka, v. v. (2008). profilaktyka poshyrennya narkozalezhnosti sered molodi [prevention of the spread of drug addiction among young people] : navchalʹno-metodychnyy posibnyk. herb. chemerys, n. m. (2019). medyko-sotsialʹne obhruntuvannya optymizovanoyi modeli profilaktyky vzhyvannya psykhoaktyvnykh rechovyn studentsʹkoyu moloddyu. [medical and social substantiation of an optimized model of prevention of psychoactive substance use by student youth]. uzhhorod. chernetsʹka, yu. i. (2015). sotsialʹno-pedahohichna robota z resotsializatsiyi narkozalezhnykh osib v umovakh reabilitatsiynykh tsentriv [sociopedagogical work on resocialization of drug addicts in rehabilitation centers: theory and technology]: teoriya ta tekhnolohiyi [monohrafiya]. panov . chicos, o., perri, d., capris, l., bulgaru iliescu, a. i., & cristina, k. (2019). socialcultural influences and personality disorders favoring drug consumption. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(3), 21-27. chicos, o., perri, d., capris, l., bulgaru iliescu, a. i., & cristina, k. (2019). social-cultural influences and personality disorders favoring drug consumption. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10 (3 special issue), 21-27. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/216 1 de wit, h. (2009). impulsivity as a determinant and consequence of drug use: a review of underlying processes. addiction biology, 14(1), 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1369-1600.2008.00129.x hosseinpour, s. (2019). a comparative study of emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants and opioids users. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(4), 28-39. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/03 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/71 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0376-8716(98)00023-4 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2161 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2161 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1369-1600.2008.00129.x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/03 social and psychological rehabilitation of people addicted to psychoactive ... anna shydelko, et al. 418 husak, p. m., martynyuk, t. a., sydoruk i. i.(2013). profilaktyka vzhyvannya psykhoaktyvnykh rechovyn pidlitkamy. [prevention of substance use by adolescents] [monohrafiya]. vezha druk. kharchenko, s. ya., rasskazova, o. i., chernetsʹka yu. i. (2015). sotsialʹnopedahohichna robota z resotsializatsiyi narkozalezhnykh v umovakh reabilitatsiynykh tsentriv [socio-pedagogical work on the resocialization of drug addicts in rehabilitation centers]. naukovo-metodychnyy posibnyk. konopka, l. m. (2014). marijuana use: neuroscience perspective. croat med j., 55(3), 281–283. https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2014.55.281 kushchev, d. v. (2012). rol' geneticheskikh i sredovikh faktorov v formirovanii alkogol'noy zavisimosti u cheloveka [the role of genetic and environmental factors in the formation of alcohol dependence in humans]. avtoreferat diss. k. med. n. orsolini, l., chiappini, s., john m., corkery, j. m., guirguis, a., papanti, d. & schifano, f. (2019). the use of new psychoactive substances (nps) in young people and their role in mental health care: a systematic review. expert review of neurotherapeutics, 19(12), 1253-1264. https://doi.org/10.1080/14737175.2019.1666712 leary, t. (1954). test of interpersonal relations. http://psychologis.com.ua/test_mezhlichnostnyh_otnosheniy_liri.htm leontiev, d. a. life-sense orientations test (lso method). https://psycabi.net/testy/256-test-smyslozhiznennye-orientatsii-metodikaszho-d-a-leontev linsʹkyi, i. v., holubchykov, m. v., minko, o. i. (2006). aktualʹni tendentsiyi poshyrennya zalezhnosti vid psykhoaktyvnykh rechovyn v ukrayini [current trends in the spread of addiction to psychoactive substances in ukraine]. analitychnyi ohlyad kharkiv, (3), 46 p. http://www.psychiatry.ua/articles/paper216.htm lytvynchuk, l. (2016). system concept of socio-psychological rehabilitation psychoactive substance abuse. fundamental and applied researches in practice of leading scientific schools, 17(5), 137-143. https://farplss.org/index.php/journal/article/view/101 mini-mult questionnaire (abbreviated multifactor questionnaire for personality research – sboo) https://psychic.at.ua/publ/psikhodiagnostyka/diagnostika_temparamentu _i_kharakteru/opituvalnik_mini_mult/13-1-0-71 moskalenko, v.d., shevtsov, a. v. (2000). rol' geneticheskikh i sredovykh faktorov v vozniknovenii zavisimosti. [the role of genetic and environmental factors in the emergence of addiction]. novosti nauki i tekhniki. seriya meditsina, 2, 1-6. nikiforov, i.i., rakitin, m.m., merkin, a.g. (2017). neurological complications of alcoholism. nevrologiya, neiropsikhiatriya, psikhosomatika [neurology, https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2014.55.281 https://doi.org/10.1080/14737175.2019.1666712 http://psychologis.com.ua/test_mezhlichnostnyh_otnosheniy_liri.htm https://psycabi.net/testy/256-test-smyslozhiznennye-orientatsii-metodika-szho-d-a-leontev https://psycabi.net/testy/256-test-smyslozhiznennye-orientatsii-metodika-szho-d-a-leontev http://www.psychiatry.ua/articles/paper216.htm https://farplss.org/index.php/journal/article/view/101 https://psychic.at.ua/publ/psikhodiagnostyka/diagnostika_temparamentu_i_kharakteru/opituvalnik_mini_mult/13-1-0-71 https://psychic.at.ua/publ/psikhodiagnostyka/diagnostika_temparamentu_i_kharakteru/opituvalnik_mini_mult/13-1-0-71 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 419 neuropsychiatry, psychosomatics], 9(4), 95–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.14412/2074-2711-2017-4-95-100. parfenov, v.a. (2010). risk factors of recurrent ischemic stroke and its prevention. nevrologiya, neiropsikhiatriya, psikhosomatika [neurology, neuropsychiatry, psychosomatics], 2(3), 40-6. https://doi.org/10.14412/2074-2711-2010-99 ryzhko, p. p., yarotsʹka, e. p., fedorenko, n. o. vorontsov, v. m. (2003). refleksoterapiya i reabilitatsiya. [reflexotherapy and rehabilitation]. folio. sklar, s. m., annis, h. m., & turner, n. e. (1999). group comparisons of coping self-efficacy between alcohol and cocaine abusers seeking treatment. psychology of addictive behaviors, 13(2), 123–133. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-164x.13.2.123 starshenbaum, g. v. (2006). addiktologiya: psikhologiya i psikhoterapiya zavisimostey. [addictology: psychology and psychotherapy of addictions]. kognitotsentr. winger, g., woods, j. h, chad m galuska, c.m., wade-galuska, t. (2005). behavioral perspectives on the neuroscience of drug addiction. j exp anal behav., 84(3), 667–681. https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.2005.101-04 yegorov, a. yu. (2007). nekhimicheskiye zavisimosti. [non-chemical dependencies]. [monografiya]. spb., rech'. yih-ing, h., liming f., fei, w., jiang, d., min, z. (2013). pilot trial of a recovery management intervention for heroin addicts released from compulsory rehabilitation in china. journal of substance abuse treatment, 44(1), 78-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2012.03.009. zhao m., li x., hanhui c., xu d., zhang y. & zhang m. (2011). a pilot assessment of relapse prevention for heroin addicts in a chinese rehabilitation center. the american journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 37(3), 141-147. https://doi.org/10.3109/00952990.2010.538943 http://dx.doi.org/10.14412/2074-2711-2017-4-95-100 https://doi.org/10.14412/2074-2711-2010-99 https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-164x.13.2.123 https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.2005.101-04 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2012.03.009 https://doi.org/10.3109/00952990.2010.538943 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 175-187 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/311 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 evaluation of the salivary flow in patients with schizophrenia. a literature review ionuţ tărăboanţă¹, andra claudia tărăboanţăgamen2, stefan lucian burlea3, liliana luca4, angela cristina ghiorghe5, sorin andrian6 1 assistant professor, ”grigore t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iaşi, romania, ionut-taraboanta@umfias.ro 2 assistant professor, ”grigore t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iaşi, romania, andra.gamen@gmail.com 3 associate professor, ”grigore t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iaşi, romania, lucianburlea@yahoo.com 4 phd student, ”dunărea de jos” university, galaţi, romania, chiroscaliliana@gmail.com 5 associate professor, ”grigore t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iaşi, romania, drangycris@yahoo.com 6 professor, ”grigore t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iaşi, romania, sorinandrian@yahoo.com abstract: schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disease that affects approximately 1% of the global population. schizophrenia is characterised by positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. the etiological factors of this psychiatric illness are not fully deciphered, but the most incriminated are genetic factors and environmental risk factors. the treatment of schizophrenia has the role of reduction the duration and intensity of episodes and consists in the administration of typical or atypical antipsychotic drugs, antiparkinsonian, anxiolytic, sedatives or antidepressants. of these, some of the drugs may have side effects that modify patients' salivary flow rates. xerostomy is a subjective sign characterized by a dry mouth sensation and is caused by hypofunction of the salivary glands. according to a series of studies, xerostomia can be an adverse effect of typical antipsychotic medication as well as antiparkinsonian medication. sialorrhea is caused by hyperfunction of the salivary glands and is characterized by an increased secretion of saliva. this side effect is especially noticeable during the night sleep. alteration of salivary function creates increased discomfort to the schizophrenic patient, which causes him to give up regular medication. the aim of this study is to review the literature on the link between schizophrenia, the treatment of schizophrenia and impaired salivary function. keywords: schizophrenia, saliva, xerostomia, antiphychotic, salivary flow rate. how to cite: dumea, e., efrim, n.d., petcu, a., anghel, l., & puscasu, c.g. (2022). evaluation of the salivary flow in patients with schizophrenia. a literature review. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 175-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/311 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/311 mailto:ionut-taraboanta@umfias.ro mailto:andra.gamen@gmail.com mailto:lucianburlea@yahoo.com mailto:chiroscaliliana@gmail.com mailto:drangycris@yahoo.com mailto:sorinandrian@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/311 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 176 1. introduction schizophrenia is one of the most frequent mental disorders with a global prevalence of 1% (coulon et al., 2016; moś, 2015). it is characterised by positive symptoms (coulon et al., 2016), like hallucinations (false perceptions) and delusions (false beliefs) and negative symptoms, like apathy, or diminshed expression of affection (moś, 2015). the etiology of this illness has not been completely discovered, however, two factors are incriminated in the literature: the genetic basis and the association with environmental risk factors (tandon et al., 2008). the treatment of schizophrenia consists mostly of psychotropic drugs (antipsycholitics, antidepressants or mood stabilizers) (moś, 2015) with a major impact on oral health (rosa et al., 2021). some studies have reported that oral side effects (like hypoor hypersalivation) of drugs used in the treatment of schizophrenia represent a factor that causes patients to give up these drugs (mohandoss & thavarajah, 2019). saliva has a very important role in maintaining an optimal oral status, and its quantitative variations may be accompanied by oral conditions such as xerostomia (dry mouth sensation), carious lesions, or periodontal disease (krunić et al., 2013). on the other hand, psychiatric patients represent a risk group for oral disorders, both because of psychotropic medication side effects and as a result of the minimal attention they pay to oral hygiene, or increased consumption of alcohol and cigarettes (velasco-ortega et al., 2019). the aim of this is to conduct a literature review on the connection between schizophrenia, the treatment of schizophrenia and the changes of the salivary flow rate. 2. schizophrenia 2.1 etiology 2.1.1. genetic bases the etiological factors incriminated in the occurrence of schizophrenia have not been completely deciphered, so there are several theories that describe this disorder as the result of the interaction between genetic, psychological and environmental risk factors (đorđević et al., 2016). over time, a number of studies have succeeded in demonstrating the genetic basis of schizophrenia, analyzing the incidence of this psychiatric disorder in families where one of the members had been diagnosed with evaluation of the salivary flow in patients with schizophrenia. a literature … ionuţ tărăboanţă, et al. 177 schizophrenia (kendler et al., 1993). other authors drew these conclusions by comparing the number of schizophrenic patients with biological parents diagnosed with schizophrenia, to the number of patients with adoptive parents diagnosed with schizophrenia. therefore, the results of this research demonstrated the genetic transmission of this psychiatric disorder (shore, 1993). research on twins has shown that dizygotic twins share 50% of the genetic material, while monozygotic twins share 100% of the genetic material (chirita et al., 2012). therefore, if a dizygotic twin suffers from this disease, the risk of schizophrenia of the other twin is about 15-20%, while in the case of monozygotic twins, the risk is 40-50% (tandon et al., 2008; untu et al., 2015). schizophrenia is described as a heterogeneous, multifactorial or polygenic disorder with a wide variety of genetic polymorphisms (đorđević et al., 2016; tandon et al., 2008). 2.1.2. environmental risk factors environmental risk factors counted in biological and psychosocial factors with which the patient interacted in the prenatal, postnatal, childhood or adolescence period (tandon et al., 2008). in the prenatal period, the main risk factors incriminated in the development of schizophrenia are determined by maternal infections, of which the most common are influenza infection, rubella or toxoplasmosis (sjögren & nordström, 2000). other risk factors encountered in the prenatal period are represented by complications at birth, where the most common is fetal hypoxia (cockburn et al., 2017). a series of studies bring into question a very interesting factor, but without any scientific explanation, namely the period of birth. a 5-10% increase in the risk of developing schizophrenia has been reported in patients born in late winter or early spring (ciobotea et al., 2016; habtewold et al., 2020). during childhood, the risk factors associated with the development of this psychiatric disorder are mainly represented by mental traumas, such as parental separation, infections, or head injuries (ciubara et al., 2015; tandon et al., 2008). during adolescence, the incriminated factors are represented by stress or events with increased emotional involvement. another risk factor in the development of schizophrenia is high drug consumption, such as cannabis (shah et al., 2012). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 178 2.2. symptoms schizophrenia has three main categories of symptoms: positive symptoms: hallucinations, paranoia, exaggerated or distorted perceptions, beliefs, behaviors and movement disorders (catatonia, ecopraxia, ecomimia, psychomotor agitation) negative symptoms: emotional blunting, avolition (lack of motivation), alogia (decreased rhythm and flow of spontaneous speech; may reflect impoverishment of thought), anhedonia (diminished or lack of ability to feel pleasure), attention deficit, social withdrawal (buchanan, 2007; radulescu et al., 2020). cognitive symptoms: confused and disordered thinking and speech, logical reasoning deficits (habtewold et al., 2020). 2.3. treatment of schizophrenia the objectives of the treatment are: ● decrease the duration and the intensity of the psychotic. episodes. ● diminish mortality. ● improve adaptation to social life (đorđević et al., 2016). the treatment of schizophrenia consists principally of antipsychotics of first generation (also known as traditional or typical) or second generation (atypical), antidepressants, anxiolytics, or antiparkinsonians (đorđević et al., 2016; moś, 2015). the therapeutic effect of the first generation antipsychotics consists of an antagonistic reaction on dopamine d2 receptors, while the effect of the second generation antipsychotics is based on an antagonism on serotonin a2 receptors (bertaud-gounot et al., 2013; đorđević et al., 2016). the most commonly used first-generation antipsychotics are chlorpromazine, haloperidol, sulpiride, levomepromazine. over time a number of side effects have been described, the strongest of which are extrapyramidal symptoms, vegetative or neuroendocrine (krunić et al., 2013; praharaj et al., 2010). despite the well-known side effects and the emergence of a new generation of antipsychotics, chlorpromazine remains one of the most widely used drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia, benefiting from its low cost advantage. xerostomia is a common side effect in patients using these drugs, and this fact can be observed in the oral health of schizophrenic patients treated with chlorpromazine. in situations where the extrapyramidal symptoms are intense, antiparkinsonian drugs can also be used, whose xerostomic effect is associated with that of chlorpromazine (krunić et al., 2013; dickerson et al., 2017; sacuiu et al., 2012). evaluation of the salivary flow in patients with schizophrenia. a literature … ionuţ tărăboanţă, et al. 179 the second generation antipsychotics currently used in the therapy of schizophrenia, are clozapine, olanzapine, amisulpride or risperidone. this new generation of antipsychotics has recognized as an adverse effect, sialorrhea, increased rate of salivary flow. clozapine, for example, is an atypical antipsychotic, used in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (praharaj et al., 2010) and has dual side effects, causing both xerostomia and sialorrhea (in 31-72% of patients) (mohandoss & thavarajah, 2019). in patients who used olanzapine, the reported adverse effect was xerostomia (chaves et al., 2013). sialorrhea is an adverse effect that causes the patient a great discomfort, especially because it occurs during night or even during afternoon sleep (mohandoss & thavarajah, 2019; praharaj et al., 2010). along with antipsychotics, other drugs are used in the treatment of schizophrenia, in order to reduce side effects, such as antidepressants, antiparkinsonian drugs, anxiolytics or sedatives. these drugs can also cause alterations in the rate of salivary flow, such as xerostomia (đorđević et al., 2016; moś, 2015). 3. salivary flow saliva is produced by the parotid, sublingual and submandibular salivary glands in a proportion of 90%, and the remaining 10% is produced by the accessory salivary glands. the parotid glands play a major role in the release of stimulated saliva, and the submandibular glands in the production of unstimulated saliva, while the submandibular glands produce a small amount of stimulated and unstimulated saliva. mucoid saliva is produced by sympathetic stimulation of the glands, and aqueous saliva is produced by parasympathetic stimulation. normally, the average quantity of saliva produced in a day is between 0.5 -1.5 l (rosa et al., 2021). saliva is an exocrine, complex biological fluid, composed of 99% water and the rest, proteins, organic and inorganic elements. therefore, a wide variety of components such as inorganic elements like calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, bicarbonate, organic elements such as amylase, peroxidase, polypeptides, glycoproteins, lipases, immunoglobulins, albumins, or other factors with an antimicrobial role can be found in the composition of saliva (javaid et al., 2016; rosa et al., 2021). in the oral environment, saliva has several functions: ● lubrication ● protection of all structures in the oral cavity ● buffer capacity ● clearance brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 180 ● antibacterial activity ● digestion (humphrey & williamson, 2001) some studies have shown that between the concentrations of the components present in saliva and those present in the blood, there is a correlation, which is why saliva is used as an object for diagnosing or monitoring general conditions. on the other hand, the main role of saliva is to maintain the homeostasis of the entire oral environment (liu & duan, 2012). the salivary flow can be stimulated when pharmacological agents, mechanical or gustatory stimuli are used to produce saliva, or it may be unstimulated when these techniques are not used (muddugangadhar et al., 2015). regarding the salivary flow rate values, there is a great variability, both for stimulated and unstimulated flow. these variations take into account the patient's age, general condition, medication and even the time of saliva sampling, as some studies have shown that there are differences between the rates of daytime and nighttime salivary flow (humphrey & williamson, 2001; muddugangadhar et al., 2015). humphrey & williamson (2001) consider that the normal values of the unstimulated salivary flow must exceed 1 ml /min, and for the stimulated salivary flow, 2 ml /min. the value of unstimulated salivary flow resulted from achieving an average between the flow rate during the waking hours (3ml /min) and the rate of salivary flow during sleep which is close to a value of zero. regarding the rate of stimulated salivary flow, it is considered to be the main contributor to salivary flow, providing 80-90% of daily saliva secretion (liu & duan, 2012). the lack of the salivary flow leads to the appearance of xerostomia (the sensation of dry mouth) or hyposalivation (the objective decrease of the salivary flow rate) and is associated with subjective symptoms such as oral burning sensation or modified taste perception, or with an increased cariogenic risk (krunić et al., 2013; mohandoss & thavarajah, 2019). xerostomia alters the quality of life by complicating eating, speaking, or tasting capacity. the decrease of the salivary flow rate is caused by the hypofunction of the salivary glands which is associated to a series of systemic diseases like sjögren syndrome, or systemic lupus erythematosus, or can be directly connected to drug administration. previous studies have reported more than 500 drugs that have the side effect of xerostomia, or decreased salivary function (krunić et al., 2013; scully, 2003). on the other hand, the increase in the rate of the salivary flow, or sialorrhea, occurs especially during the night and is associated with the evaluation of the salivary flow in patients with schizophrenia. a literature … ionuţ tărăboanţă, et al. 181 appearance of halitosis and the sensation of drowning or chocking during sleep (mohandoss & thavarajah, 2019; wolff et al., 2017). 4. salivary flow in patients with schizophrenia studies on the oral health of patients with schizophrenia have shown that they have more severe pathologies compared to the general population, and the dental treatments they receive are limited (velasco-ortega et al., 2019). schizophrenia associated with its specific medication can alter the rate of salivary flow (tani et al., 2012; velasco-ortega et al., 2019). the modification of the quantity of saliva produced is directly influenced by the type of treatment and the duration of the treatment (mohandoss & thavarajah, 2019). the administration of psychotropic drugs for a long period can have adverse consequences on the rate of salivary flow, by decreasing it, due to their adrenergic and anti-alpha-adrenergic effects, blocking parasympathetic stimulation. at the same time, the reduced saliva production can be caused by the damage appeared in the ductal and in the acinar segments of the salivary glands (tani et al., 2012). in addition, the treatment of schizophrenia based on antipsychotic medication negatively affects the patient's immune system, by altering the oral bacterial microflora (dickerson et al., 2017). other side effects of these drugs are the extrapyramidal symptoms, such as dyskinesia or pseudo-parkinson's disease, which may impair the patient's ability to maintain a proper oral health. on the other hand, the presence of these side effects require the administration of other drugs (such as antiparkinsonians), intended to reduce these symptoms, but also with a negative influence on the rate of salivary flow rate due to their anticholinergic action (yang et al., 2018). xerostomy is the main complaint of patients undergoing treatment with antipsychotic medication, and for many of them, it is a reason to give up treatment (đorđević et al., 2016). schizophrenia is a chronic disease, and as a result, treatment is administered over a very long period of time. the main drugs involved in reducing salivary flow are first-generation antipsychotics, such as chlorpromazine, antiparkinsonian or benzodiazepines. to reduce these uncomfortable side effects, patients tend to consume chewing gums, sweets or beverages high in carbohydrates, and this greatly increases their cariogenic risk (đorđević et al., 2016). along with the unbalanced diet, another characteristic of the schizophrenic patient is the high rate of cigarette smoking (persson et al., 2009). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 182 regarding dental care, the schizophrenic patient rarely visits the dental office for financial reasons, but also out of fear of dental work and neglects his oral hygiene due to cognitive impairments ( a lupu et al., 2016; b lupu et al., 2016; c lupu et al., 2016; moś, 2015). chlorpromazine is a first-generation antipsychotic drug, also called typical or traditional, with inhibitory effect on dopamine d2 receptors and muscarinic cholinoceptors. in a study conducted by krunić et al., (2013) it was observed that the level of unstimulated salivary flow suffered a dosedependent reduction from a dose of 25 to 175 mg (navazesh & kumar, 2008). chlorpromazine also has neuroendocrine side effects, such as menstrual disorders which are in turn associated with decreased estrogen levels. it has also been shown that estrogen receptors are present in the salivary glands, which is an explanation for the quantitative variations in unstimulated saliva in women with changes in estrogen levels. in conclusion, the reduction of estrogen levels by chlorpromazine also decreases the rate of unstimulated salivary flow (krunić et al, 2013; lupu et al., 2015). xerostomia is the most common side effect of medication given in schizophrenia, probably due to the increased number of scientific studies, but sialorrhea is also a symptom that the schizophrenic patient encounters, especially those treated with antipsychotics in the second-generation (mohandoss & thavarajah, 2019; rosa et al., 2021). clozapine is a second-generation antipsychotic, also called atypical, which acts by an antagonistic effect on alpha-2 adrenergic receptors, reducing laryngeal peristalsis and decreasing the swallowing reflex. patients treated with clozapine accuse sialorrhea of adverse effects (garcia et al., 2015). normally, in healthy patients, saliva follows a circadian rhythm, where diurnal salivary secretion is increased and nocturnal salivary secretion is decreased. in the schizophrenic patient treated with clozapine, this rhythm is reversed, the nocturnal production being much higher (praharaj et al., 2010). a number of studies have reported that sialorrhea occurs approximately three weeks after the start of clozapine treatment (praharaj et al., 2010; rabinowitz et al., 1996). 5. conclusion in conclusion, the rate of salivary flow is altered by the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. treatment with first-generation antipsychotic medication, alone or in combination with antiparkinsonian medication or benzodiazepines reduces the secretory capacity of the salivary glands. evaluation of the salivary flow in patients with schizophrenia. a literature … ionuţ tărăboanţă, et al. 183 multiple studies have shown that second-generation antipsychotic medication has the opposite effect, increasing the rate of salivary secretion, especially at night. both sialorrhea and xerostomia create a great discomfort for the schizophrenic patient for whom, in many situations, they tend to give up treatment. references bertaud-gounot, v., kovess-masfety, v., perrus, c., trohel, g., & richard, f. (2013). oral health status and treatment needs among psychiatric inpatients in rennes, france: a cross-sectional study. bmc psychiatry, 13(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244x-13-227 buchanan, r. w. (2007). persistent negative symptoms in schizophrenia: an overview. schizophrenia bulletin, 33(4), 1013–1022. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbl057 chaves, k. m., serrano-blanco, a., ribeiro, s. b., soares, l. a., guerra, g. c., do socorro costa feitosa alves. m., de araújo júnior, r. f., de paula soares rachetti, v., filgueira júnior, a., & de araújo, a. a. (2013). quality of life and adverse effects of olanzapine versus risperidone therapy in patients with schizophrenia. psychiatric quarterly, 84(1), 125-135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-012-9233-3 chirita, r., sacuiu, i., burlea, a., & chirita, v. (2012). the role of nitric oxide inhibitors in treatment on symptom severity and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15(sup1), 113 113. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1461145712000508 ciobotea, d., vlaicu, b., ciubara, a., duica, c. l., cotocel, c., antohi, v., & pirlog, m. c. (2016). visual impairment in the elderly and its influence on the quality of life. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 54, 66-74. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-oflife.html ciubara, a., cartas, n., burlea, l. s., chirita, r., ciubara, b. a., untu, i., & iliescu, d. b. (2015). the relationship between schizophrenia and criminality. european psychiatry, 30(sup 1), 1-1. https://doi.org/10.1016/s09249338(15)30603-9 cockburn, n., pradhan, a., taing, m. w., kisely, s., & ford, p. j. (2017). oral health impacts of medications used to treat mental illness. journal of affective disorders, 223, 184 193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2017.07.037 coulon, n., brailly-tabard, s., walter, m., & tordjman, s. (2016). altered circadian patterns of salivary cortisol in individuals with schizophrenia: a critical literature review. journal of physiology-paris, 110(4), 439 447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphysparis.2017.05.002 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244x-13-227 https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbl057 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-012-9233-3 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1461145712000508 https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293-visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-of-life.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293-visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-of-life.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/142-volumul-54-2016-septembrie/2293-visual-impairment-in-the-elderly-and-its-influence-on-the-quality-of-life.html https://doi.org/10.1016/s0924-9338(15)30603-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0924-9338(15)30603-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2017.07.037 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphysparis.2017.05.002 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 184 dickerson, f., severance, e., yolken, r., 2017. the microbiome, immunity, and schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. brain, behavior and immunity, 62, 46–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2016.12.010 dickerson, b. c., mcginnis, s. m., xia, c., price, b. h., atri, a., murray, m. e., mendez, f. m., & wolk, d. a. (2017). approach to atypical alzheimer’s disease and case studies of the major subtypes. cns spectrums, 22(6), 439 449. https://doi.org/10.1017/s109285291600047x đorđević, v., dejanović, s. đ., janković, l., & todorović, l. (2016). schizophrenia and oral health review of the literature. balkan journal of dental medicine, 20(1), 15-21. https://doi.org/10.1515/bjdm-2016-0002 garcia, g. j., chagas, m. h., silva, c. h., machado-de-sousa, j. p., crippa, j. a., & hallak, j. e. (2015). structural and functional neuroimaging findings associated with the use of clozapine in schizophrenia: a systematic review. brazilian journal of psychiatry, 37(1), 71-79. https://doi.org/10.1590/15164446-2014-1387 habtewold, t. d., rodijk, l. h., liemburg, e. j., sidorenkov, g., boezen, h. m., bruggeman, r., & alizadeh, b. z. (2020). a systematic review and narrative synthesis of data-driven studies in schizophrenia symptoms and cognitive deficits. translational psychiatry, 10(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-00919-x humphrey, s. p., & williamson, r. t. (2001). a review of saliva: normal composition, flow, and function. the journal of prosthetic dentistry, 85(2), 162 169. https://doi.org/10.1067/mpr.2001.113778 javaid, m. a., ahmed, a. s., durand, r., & tran, s. d. (2016). saliva as a diagnostic tool for oral and systemic diseases. journal of oral biology and craniofacial research, 6(1), 67-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobcr.2015.08.006 kendler, k. s., neale, m. c., kessler, r. c., heath, a. c., & eaves, l. j. (1993). a test of the equal-environment assumption in twin studies of psychiatric illness. behavior genetics, 23(1), 21-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01067551 krunić, j., stojanović, n., ivković, n., & stojić, d. (2013). salivary flow rate and decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft) in female patients with schizophrenia on chlorpromazine therapy. journal of dental sciences, 8(4), 418424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jds.2013.05.004 liu, j., & duan, y. (2012). saliva: a potential media for disease diagnostics and monitoring. oral oncology, 48(7), 569-577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oraloncology.2012.01.021 alupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., ciubara, a. m., ioniuc, i., ciubara, a. b., gheonea, c., & burlea, m. (2016). the study of effects regarding ingestion of corrosive substances in children. revista de chimie, 67(12), 2501-2503. https://www.revistadechimie.ro/rcrevchimie.asp?syear=2016&smonth =12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2016.12.010 https://doi.org/10.1017/s109285291600047x https://doi.org/10.1515/bjdm-2016-0002 https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2014-1387 https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2014-1387 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-00919-x https://doi.org/10.1067/mpr.2001.113778 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobcr.2015.08.006 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01067551 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jds.2013.05.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oraloncology.2012.01.021 https://www.revistadechimie.ro/rcrevchimie.asp?syear=2016&smonth=12 https://www.revistadechimie.ro/rcrevchimie.asp?syear=2016&smonth=12 evaluation of the salivary flow in patients with schizophrenia. a literature … ionuţ tărăboanţă, et al. 185 blupu, v. v., ignat, a., ciubotariu, g., ciubară, a., moscalu, m., & burlea, m. (2016). helicobacter pylori infection and gastroesophageal reflux in children. diseases of the esophagus, 29(8), 1007-1012. https://doi.org/10.1111/dote.12429 clupu, v. v, ignat, a., paduraru, g., ciubara, a., moscalu, m., marginean, c. o., & burlea, m. (2016), correlation between the different ph-metry scores in gastroesophageal reflux disease in children. medicine, 95(26), e3804. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000003804 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., mihaila, d., burlea, m., & ciubara, a. (2015). heterotopic gastric mucosa in the distal part of esophagus in a teenager case report. medicine, 94(42), e1722. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 mohandoss, a. a., & thavarajah, r. (2019). salivary flow alteration in patients undergoing treatment for schizophrenia: disease-drug-target gene/protein association study for side-effects. journal of oral biology and craniofacial research, 9(3), 286-293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobcr.2019.06.009 moś, d. m. (2015). saliva secretion disorder in a schizophrenic patient-a problem in dental and psychiatric treatment: a case report. annals of general psychiatry, 14(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-015-0052-4 muddugangadhar, b. c., sangur, r., rudraprasad, i. v., nandeeshwar, d. b., & kumar, b. d. (2015). a clinical study to compare between resting and stimulated whole salivary flow rate and ph before and after complete denture placement in different age groups. the journal of the indian prosthodontic society, 15(4), 356 366. https://doi.org/10.4103/09724052.164907 navazesh, m., & kumar, s. k. (2008). measuring salivary flow: challenges and opportunities. the journal of the american dental association, 139( sup. 35s40s).bhttps://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.2008.0353 persson, k., axtelius, b., söderfeldt, b., & östman, m. (2009). monitoring oral health and dental attendance in an outpatient psychiatric population. journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 16(3), 263-271. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2008.01364.x praharaj, s. k., jana, a. k., goswami, k., das, p. r., goyal, n., & sinha, v. k. (2010). salivary flow rate in patients with schizophrenia on clozapine. clinical neuropharmacology, 33(4), 176-178. https://doi.org/10.1097/wnf.0b013e3181e204e0 rabinowitz, t., frankenburg, f. r., centorrino, f., & kando, j. (1996). the effect of clozapine on saliva flow rate: a pilot study. biological psychiatry, 40(11), 1132-1134. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-3223(96)89255-9 https://doi.org/10.1111/dote.12429 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1746968 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/2311391 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/3026138 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1757602 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1202861 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1383484 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1065449 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000003804 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobcr.2019.06.009 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-015-0052-4 https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4052.164907 https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4052.164907 https://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.2008.0353 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2008.01364.x https://doi.org/10.1097/wnf.0b013e3181e204e0 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-3223(96)89255-9 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 186 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. . (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 rosa, l. k., costa, f. s., hauagge, c. m., mobile, r. z., de lima, a. a. s., amaral, c. d., machado, r. c., nogueira, a. r. a., brancher, j. a., & rodrigues de araujo, m. (2021). oral health, organic and inorganic saliva composition of men with schizophrenia: case-control study. journal of trace elements in medicine and biology, 66, 126743. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtemb.2021.126743 sacuiu, i., chirita, v., burlea, a., & chirita, r. (2012). the effect of the atypical antipsychotics on cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 15 (sup. 1), 61-61. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1461145712000508 scully, c. (2003). drug effects on salivary glands: dry mouth. oral diseases, 9(4), 165176. https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1601-0825.2003.03967.x shah, v. r., jain, p., & patel, n. (2012). oral health of psychiatric patients: a crosssectional comparision study. dental research journal, 9(2), 209 214. https://doi.org/10.4103/1735-3327.95238 shore, d., national institute of mental health & division of clinical and treatment research. (1993). special report: schizophrenia, 1993 (no. 93). schizophrenia research branch sjögren, r., & nordström, g. (2000). oral health status of psychiatric patients. journal of clinical nursing, 9(4), 632-638. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2702.2000.00380.x tandon, r., keshavan, m. s., & nasrallah, h. a. (2008). schizophrenia,“just the facts” what we know in 2008. 2. epidemiology and etiology. schizophrenia research, 102(1-3), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2008.04.011 tani, h., uchida, h., suzuki, t., shibuya, y., shimanuki, h., watanabe, k., ... & mimura, m. (2012). dental conditions in inpatients with schizophrenia: a large-scale multi-site survey. bmc oral health, 12(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6831-12-32 untu, i., chirita, r., bulgaru-iliescu, d., chirila, b. d., ciubara, a., & burlea, s. l. (2015). ethical implications of bio-psycho-social transformations entailed by the aging process. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 48, 216-225. https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis48_16.pdf velasco-ortega, e., monsalve-guil, l., casas-barquero, n., jimenez-guerra, a., torres-lagares, d., & segura-egea, j. (2019). salivary secretion in patients with schizophrenia. journal of biological regulators and homeostatic agents, 33(3), 877-882. https://www.biolifesas.org/biolife/2019/06/24/salivarysecretion-in-patients-with-schizophrenia/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtemb.2021.126743 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1461145712000508 https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1601-0825.2003.03967.x https://doi.org/10.4103/1735-3327.95238 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2702.2000.00380.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2008.04.011 https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6831-12-32 https://www.rcis.ro/images/documente/rcis48_16.pdf https://www.biolifesas.org/biolife/2019/06/24/salivary-secretion-in-patients-with-schizophrenia/ https://www.biolifesas.org/biolife/2019/06/24/salivary-secretion-in-patients-with-schizophrenia/ evaluation of the salivary flow in patients with schizophrenia. a literature … ionuţ tărăboanţă, et al. 187 yang, m., chen, p., he, m. x., lu, m., wang, h. m., soares, j. c., & zhang, x. y. (2018). poor oral health in patients with schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. schizophrenia research, 201, 3-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2018.04.031 wolff, a., joshi, r. k., ekström, j., aframian, d., pedersen, a. m. l., proctor, g., narayana, n., villa, a., sia, y. w., aliko, a., mcgowan, r., kerr, r. a., jensen, s. b., vissink, a., & dawes, c. (2017). a guide to medications inducing salivary gland dysfunction, xerostomia, and subjective sialorrhea: a systematic review sponsored by the world workshop on oral medicine vi. drugs in r&d, 17(1), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40268-016-01539 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2018.04.031 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40268-016-0153-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40268-016-0153-9 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 225-235 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/364 submitted: february 20th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 educational needs of society: neuropedagogy as one of the main aspects of motivation in learning within formal and non-formal education vasiliy kaplinskiy 1 , suzanna voloshyn 2 , liliia stakhiv 3 , olesya oleksyuk 4 , liliia ruskulis 5 , iryna haidaienko 6 1 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, vasuliukaplinskiy@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0829-1079 2 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, suzannavoloshun@ukr.net 3 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, liliastahiv@ukr.net 4 v. o. sukhomlinskyi mykolaiv national university, ukraine, olesyaoleksyuk1@gmail.com 5 v. o. sukhomlinskyi mykolaiv national university, ukraine, ruskulis_lilyа@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2293-5715 6 kherson state university, ukraine, gaydaenko1966@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1401-7826 abstract: the article addresses the major education trend as a continuous, lifelong process. evolution is an integral process underlying human life while also reflecting the progress of human activity in various domains. human life is believed to remold historical development. it is a major factor in progress that results from the implementation of new ideas. this aspect is relevant for the study of the functions of education in the context of civilizational progress of society and man in particular. the study sets forth with the major theoretical and methodological approaches to the basic principles of formal and non-formal education. neuropedagogy is also highlighted as one of the main aspects of motivation for learning both in formal and informal education reflecting the educational needs for society. the article also explores the impact of physiological aspects on personality motivation structure. the concepts of neuropedagogy, formal education and non-formal education are revealed. the article defines the basic concepts of education of the 21st century, in particular, in the context of formality. the results of the research suggest that the educational process is no less relevant in adulthood whereby people actualize their potential by responding and adapting to societal challenges. the article identifies the educational needs of people of different ages within the innovational society framework. the given research helps form the idea of neuropedagogy as a science. keywords: information society; globalization; integration; competence; world outlook. how to cite: kaplinskiy, v., voloshyn, s., stakhiv, l., oleksyuk, o., ruskulis, l., & haidaienko, i. (2022). educational needs of society: neuropedagogy as one of the main aspects of motivation in learning within formal and non-formal education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 225-235. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/364 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/364 mailto:vasuliukaplinskiy@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0829-1079 mailto:suzannavoloshun@ukr.net mailto:liliastahiv@ukr.net mailto:olesyaoleksyuk1@gmail.com mailto:ruskulis_lilyа@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2293-5715 mailto:gaydaenko1966@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1401-7826 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/364 educational needs of society: neuropedagogy as one of the main aspects of ... vasiliy kaplinskiy et al. 226 introduction active human life predetermines the accelerated development of society providing a fruitful environment for self-development, identifying the needs that, in their turn, stimulate societal progress. evolution becomes a product of accumulated life experience. this experience forms the historical and cultural heritage of human society. when considered at an individual level, the relevant experience becomes a key driving force for further self-development of a person who strives for fulfilment and wellbeing. such interrelated factors determine a person's need to acquire competencies and values that enable achieving personal goals. therefore, neuropedagogy as one of the aspects of the educational process is relevant to our study. excess to education is an indicator of a developed, functioning, lawful society. every individual should be entitled to pursue education for it enables people to meet their needs, achieve their goals and exercise their right to a life of dignity and respect. therefore, there is a need for research in general and higher education in the context of professionalization as well as in the context of adult education. a need arose in a profession related to continuing education. education was supposed to develop as a social interaction that would determine the basis for human self-realization and the formation of civil society. neuropedagogy has been found to be a key feature in motivation to pursue lifelong learning. neuropedagogy combines physiological, psychological and pedagogical factors of educational activity and human motives in the context of acquiring new knowledge and skills. education characterizes a developed civil society, granting an opportunity to generate and decently allocate resources in the state. the purpose of this article is to explore and examine the impact of neuropedagogy within the formal and non-formal education framework. the research used methods of image structure synthesis and analysis. to form an idea of education in the context of neuropedagogy we relied on research, scientific and descriptive methods. we applied interpretive methods to reveal the impact of neuropedagogy on human educational activities. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 227 theoretical principles of formal and non-formal education the development of a state necessitates and preconditions the corresponding environment for the development of society. if the necessary conditions are provided we witness the formation of public administration in various fields, including education. the trend of professionalization of education is a global problem for society, so the main approaches to the implementation of education are specified in international regulations, un and unesco resolutions. these documents provide the framework for the observance and implementation of the aforementioned regulations in the education system throughout the world. the world community found itself at the watershed of dramatic changes, which requires decisive measures to update the current frameworks and adapt to the rapid changes in socio-economic systems. therefore, we need to address the urgency to modernize the educational process, in particular, in the context of ensuring the right to education for every adult through formal or non-formal education. this right has to be ensured by every state. education is an investment in human capital, which is assessed through such performance indicators as skills, abilities, motivation, etc. human capital is the main factor in creating an innovative economy. as is known, innovative economies are driven by knowledge and information. they keep developing fueled by a creative human approach to innovation and the formation of new ideas. implementing ideas provides new opportunities that further stimulate results necessary for the improvement of public life. the implementation of ideas forms the relevant knowledge, which is the basis for the transformation of humanity into a society that develops throughout life. this feature is an essential trend of education and, accordingly, forms the directions and objectives for educational activities. to substantiate educational activity theoretically, we analyzed the basic approaches of scientists and investigated normative-legal acts governing the educational activity. using the analysis of regulations, we identified the main approaches to the development of formal and nonformal education. from this perspective, we examined some aspects of the pedagogical context of formal and non-formal education, the main functional features of educational activities, determining the role of formal and non-formal education in terms of continuity of educational activities, as well as the main similarities and differences of formal and non-formal educational needs of society: neuropedagogy as one of the main aspects of ... vasiliy kaplinskiy et al. 228 education. we have analyzed the role of education in the rapid development of the information society. research on formal and non-formal education provides grounds for conclusions regarding the basic theoretical foundations of education. in particular, ananyev (1980), batishev (1981), berne (1992), vozniuk (2019) and others outline the theoretical approaches for the creation of proper conditions for non-formal education. unfortunately, teachers' research on formal and non-formal education does not fully reveal the essence of such learning. in particular, theoretical and methodological conceptual provisions are not clearly defined; the specifics of adult learning are not sufficiently studied. the conclusions made by gurevych et al., r. s. (2011), mykytenko (2016), vdovytch (2013) are the basis for the study, but the authors mainly highlighted some features of non-formal education as a result of a human factor, which can be the basis for further formation of educational activities. this trend contributes to the idea of developing and implementing non-formal education institutions, as well as highlighting the basic principles of formal education. formal education is made possible through state funding and grants, which determines the major requirements for the educational field. the educational standards represent conceptual rules for proper assessment of the level and quality of the educational activity. formal education is carried out within general education institutions, preschool and out-of-school educational institutions, and higher education institutions, rudenko (2015). formal education reflects the needs of the state to provide society with the necessary conditions. however, in the conditions of rapid changes in the technological, informational and social space of human activity, society needs non-formal education, which would stimulate effective human adaptation to new challenges, modernization and innovation. serving as an alternative to formal education, the non-formal learning mode enables people to continue studying throughout their lifetime in a customized environment, vatamaniuk (2014). non-formal education demonstrates impressive results because a person can show their talents and satisfy their needs that arise throughout life. thus, we analyzed the main theoretical principles for the formation of formal and non-formal education outlining the trends in the implementation of different types of education in the modern information society. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 229 research of neuropedagogy in the context of formal and non-formal education to analyze the optimal conditions for educational activities, we conducted a study on the most important factors necessary to acquire competencies in formal or non-formal education, which is motivation. motivation is a driving force for implementing approaches and achieving goals with regard to the individual needs of the education activity. modern innovation and information society necessitates fast human adaptation to the virtual environment, information and communication technologies and media space (gygli et al., 2019). the challenges of modern society contribute to the new approaches to the understanding of how important the acquired knowledge and skills are for a fulfilling life. thus, it becomes clear that the new societal challenges encourage the idea of adult education. this aspect encourages a deeper analysis of the basics of educational activities. non-formal education calls for psychological and pedagogical justification. neuropedagogy combines the pedagogical, psychological and physiological capabilities of man in the process of educational activities. neuropedagogy embodies neurological aspects and didactic approaches to the formation of a competency-based approach to the goals and objectives of education. the essence of education, when considered within the neuropedagogy framework, implies taking into account the activities of the human brain. the human brain has been proved to demonstrate strong potential for the realization of human needs. therefore, the organization of activities in the context of formal and non-formal learning should introduce technologies that stimulate cognitive activity, gardner (2019). it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the load on the brain. insufficient brain stimulation can be the same harmful to brain performance as mental overload. it is natural for a human brain to stay in the condition of continuous problem solving, which is why neuropedagogy forms such educational tasks that involve a constant process of solving them. this trend is a natural human need. when solving tasks, a person spends energy, so it needs to be renewed, giddens (1991). thus, neuropedagogy provides an appropriate model of the educational procedure. to achieve cognitive goals, it is necessary to study the experience of the societal evolution and the definition of the essence as the basis of the essence of the brain. educational needs of society: neuropedagogy as one of the main aspects of ... vasiliy kaplinskiy et al. 230 when the human brain establishes a nature of things it previously never encountered it learns to do it by developing certain chains and congruencies, federighi (1999). tackling intellectual barriers in the process of solving the problem, as well as in the process of organizing the information environment to meet the needs of brain activity is, in fact, the most powerful type of mental activity. neuropedagogy can also represent and demonstrate emotion within the learning framework. emotions contribute to the active stimulation of the brain because they form a factor of satisfaction with the achieved result, fordham (2020). neuropedagogy is based on a combination of pedagogical principles and the physiological potential of brain activity. one of the important principles of the neuropedagogical approach to educational activities is the production of dopamine. it is a substance that is present in the human brain and elicits a sense of satisfaction with the results of human activity. this approach combines emotional satisfaction and intellectual problem-solving. emotional intelligence is important in achieving the goals of educational activities. emotions in the context of learning activities are also the result of the perception of information ambiguity or uncertainty. it facilitates the understanding of educational and developmental goals of personal development, imel (2016). each person individually solves problems and tasks that arise during studying because they have their unique features of the brain. a human cognizes the world through the prism of their perception of environmental processes depending on which feelings are better developed. yes, some people find it easier to perceive information by ear, others have a brilliant visual memory, and someone else may be effective in perceiving the information kinesthetically, gray (2008). the neuropedagogical aspect involves a combination of all types of perception of external factors of life. the cognitive process takes place not only as a part of a learning activity but also naturally, through the emotional perception of environmental events (smith & schwartz, 1997). therefore, it is important to combine different aspects of human social life when shaping the educational environment, including political, social, and sensual. the interaction of such factors requires empathy in various spheres of life. neuropedagogy identifies key trends in the educational process that can be implemented in both formal and non-formal education. the central task broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 231 with regard to the neuropedagogical aspect of education is the development and organization of educational activities based on technologies that provide personality-oriented, interactive learning while promoting positive emotions in the process of education. an important task of educational activities lies in creating proper conditions for adults in learning. this task is effectively implemented through non-formal education, which has such leading technologies as training, project, information and communication technologies, vuckovic (2019). these tools cater for all the needs of the contemporary global digital community. we have conducted a survey to determine the motivation of educational achievements in the implementation of neuropedagogical approaches within formal and non-formal education (rizzolatti & arbib, 1998). the effectiveness of learning activities can be increased through innovative learning approaches, especially in the context of non-formal education. 100 respondents took part in our survey, 50 of whom study at formal educational institutions, whereas the other 50 are representatives of nonformal education and develop their educational skills for personal needs. in the course of the research, an online google questionnaire was created using questions based on the methodology of milman’s motivational structure of personality, v. e. milman (2018). the respondents were selected using the "snowball" method, where the user data from social networks were analyzed. the selected respondents from higher education institutions attracted their acquaintances from nonformal institutions. the neuropedagogical aspect identified the main motivational trends based on the method by known as “diagnostics of the personality motivation structure”. the method implies a survey comprising 65 questions and answers that are assessed using a 4-point system. the attention of the research was focused on those motivational profiles that form learning competencies (fig. 1, 2). based on the study, we formed indicators of motivation of the participants using neuropedagogical approaches in the context of innovative technologies of educational activities. educational needs of society: neuropedagogy as one of the main aspects of ... vasiliy kaplinskiy et al. 232 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 progressive regressive flat levels of formation fig. 1. levels of formation of motivational component in the context of formal education (developed by the authors) relying on the received data we can conclude that motivation for education is mostly progressive, whereas regressive indicators are significantly lower. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 233 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 progressive regressive flat levels of formation fig. 2. levels of formation of motivational component in the context of nonformal education (developed by the authors) based on the study, we determined that neuropedagogical approaches to the formation of educational activities reflected in the implementation of innovative learning technologies are the most effective because they reflect the features of brain activity. conclusion the conducted research identified the main neuropedagogical features of learning in the context of formal and non-formal education. based on the theoretical analysis of key principles of educational activities formation, we identified special approaches to formal education. formal education is made possible due to the quality standards of teaching. educational needs of society: neuropedagogy as one of the main aspects of ... vasiliy kaplinskiy et al. 234 non-formal education provides the human right to lifelong learning. this right is exercised in the scope of workshops or projects designed for people who pursue new directions and careers. the study identified neuropedagogical features of educational activities that determine the capabilities of the brain in the context of solving intellectual and emotional problems. the mental activity becomes a foundation for the design of the educational activity within the neuropedagogical approach. the received data resulted from a survey of respondents on the method of determining the personal component of the motivational structure. the study indicators confirmed the effectiveness of neuropedagogy in the organization of formal and non-formal education. references ananyev, b. g. (1980). izbrannyye psikhologitcheskiye trudy [selected works in psychology] (1st vol.). moscow: pedagogika. batishev, s. y. (1981). otcherki professionalno-tekhnitcheskogo obrazovaniya [essays on vocational education]. мoscow: pedagogika. berne e. (1992). igry, v kotoryye igrayut lyudi: psikhologiya chelovecheskikh otnosheniy [games people play: the psychology of human relationships]. saint peterspburg: lenizdat. federighi p. (1999). glossary of adult learning. hamburg: unesco institute for education. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000128815 fordham p. e. (2020). informal, non-formal and formal education programmes. http://infed.org/mobi/informal-non-formal-and-formal-educationprogrammes/ gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. new york: basic books. giddens, a. (1991). modernity and self-identity. self and society in the late modern age. cambridge: polity press. gray, p. (2008). a brief history of education. to understand schools, we must view them in historical perspective. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedomlearn/200808/brief-history-education gurevytch, r. s., kademiya, m. y., & shevchenko, l. s. (2011). navtchalnovykhovnui protses [educational process in vocational schools]. vinnytsia: тов planer. gygli, s., haelg, f., potrafke, n., & sturm, j. e. (2019). the kof globalisation index-revisited. the review of international organizations, 14, 543–574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-019-09344-2 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000128815 http://infed.org/mobi/informal-non-formal-and-formal-education-programmes/ http://infed.org/mobi/informal-non-formal-and-formal-education-programmes/ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-019-09344-2 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 235 imel, s. (1998). transformative learning in adulthood. washington, d.c.: office of educational research and improvement. milman, v. e. (2018). metodika. “diagnostika motivatsionnoy struktury litchnosti”, ["methodology. ”diagnostics of the personality motivation structure”]. https://studfile.net/preview/7284241/page:9/ mykytenko, о. s. (2016). stanovlennia i rozvytok pidhotovky dlia lehkoyi promyslovosti [formation and development of training for skilled workers for light industry in technical schools]. kyiv: institute for pedagogical and adult education of the national academy of pedagocical science. rizzolatti g., arbib m. a. (1998). language within our grasp. trends in neurosciences, 21(5), 188-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-2236(98)01260-0 rudenko, l. а. (2015). formuvannia komunikatyvnoyi kultury fakhivtsiv sfery obsluhovuvannia [formation of communicative culture of future service specialists in vocational schools: monograph]. lviv: piramida. smith, m. b., & schwartz, s. h. (1997). values. in j. w. berry, m. h. segall, & с. kagitcibasi (eds.). handbook of crosscultural psychology (3rd vol.) (pp. 77–118). boston: allyn & bacon. vatamaniuk, g. p. (2014). formuvannia komunikatyvnykh umin u satrshykh doshkilnykiv [formation of communicative skills in preschoolers in the process of music and game activities: practical approach]. kamiyanetspodilskiy: druk-servis. vdovytch, s. m. (2013). sutchasni osvitni tekhnolohiyi movnoyi pidhotovky maibutnih fakhovtsiv sfery obsluhovuvannia [today’s educational technologies of language training of future service specialists]. кiev: pedahohitchna dumka. vozniuk, а. v. (2019). na puti sozdaniyz pedagogiki zhyznennykh faktov [towards a pedagogy of life facts: a study guide]. zhytomir: koob publications. vuckovic, t. (2019). the overall goal of education and general purpose. international journal for empirical education and research, 3(20), 53-66. https://doi.org/10.35935/edr/33.6653 https://studfile.net/preview/7284241/page:9/ https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-2236(98)01260-0 https://doi.org/10.35935/edr/33.6653 microsoft word brain_1_4.doc 82 összefoglalók magyar nyelven agy. átfogó kutatás a mesterséges intelligencia és fiziológiájával és biokémiájával issn 2067 – 3957 1. kötet, 4. szám október 2010: ősz 2010 www.brain.edusoft.ro főszerkesztő: pătruţ bogdan 1. új összetett pontozási rendszer a légzési elégtelenség felbecsüléséhez az iraki guillain-barré szindromában szenvedő pácienseknek zaki noah hasan összefoglaló a guillain-barré szindróma (gbsz) egy akut gyulladásos autoimmun poliradikuloneuritis és a leggyakoribb periférikus neurológiai betegség amely légzési elégtelenséget okoz. a tanulmány indoka az új összetett pontozási rendszer felhasználása a légzési elégtelenség előrelátásában és a szabadon választott intézkedések alkalmazása a sürgösségi esetek megelőzéséért. páciensek és módszerek: 50 gbsz ban szenvedő pacienst tanulmányoztunk. nyolc klinikai paramétert határoztunk meg és pontoztunk minden páciensnél és egy összetett pontszámot alakítottunk ki figyelembe véve a következő klinikai paramétereket: a maximális elgyengüléshez vezető haladás, percenkénti légzésszám, légzés fentartás hosszusága, az arcizmok egyvagy kétoldalú elgyengülése, a beszédben, nyelésben és légzésben résztvevő izmok elgyengülése, a nyak hajlító izmainak elgyengülése és a végtagok elgyengülése. eredmények és megbeszélések: 15 páciensnél (30%-nál) alakult ki a légzési elégtelenség. statisztikai szempontból igen jelentős összefüggés van a légzési elégtelenség megjelenése és a klinikai paraméterek alacsonyabb értékei között, illetve a pontösszeg 16 fölötti értékeivel (a maximum 30-ból) (p=0.000). nem találtunk jelentős statisztikai különbséget a maximális elgyengülés fele haladáskor (p=0.675) és az arcizom elgyengülésekor (p=0.482). következtetés: ha a páciens összetett pontszáma a 16-os érték fölött van akkor jelentős a légzési elégtelenség kockázata. 2. merre tartasz, mesterséges intelligencia? rosemarie velik összefoglaló a mesterséges intelligencia (mi) a számítástechnika azon ága amely azt tanulmányozza, hogy hogyan lehet a számítogépekre emberi viselkedést ölteni, vagy legalábbis ez volt az eredeti elképzelés. azonban ez nem bizonyult könnyű feladatnak. jelen cikk célja, az hogy egy értehtő módon felülvizsgálja a mi fejlődését az utolsó 60 évben, egy filozófikus szempont segítségével. kiemeli, hogy eddig mi is történt az mi-ben, milyen kutatások folynak jelen pillanatban és mire várhatunk a jövőben. célja, kimutatni hogyan fejlődött és változott időben a gépek intelligenciájáról való elképzelés. nagyon egyértelmű, hogy a mi-nak össze kell fognia a neurológiával és más, az agyat tanulmányozó tudományágakkal azért, hogy valódi intelligens gépeket alkothassanak. összefoglalók magyar nyelven 83 3. a 3. osztáyos középiskolás diákok teljesítményeinek becslése a szókincs elsajátításának alapján: a fordítás esete ali jahangard összefoglaló e tanulmány célja egy model kialkítása amely segítségével fel lehessen becsülni a 3. osztályos középiskolai diákok teljesítményét az évvégi felméréseken, a szókincsról szoló évközi felmérések alapján. e célból 32 hím nemű, 17-19 éves középiskolást tanulmányoztunk 9 hónapig. nyelvtudásuk körülbelül az intermediate-mid szinten volt az actfl irányzata szerint (1998). a mintázás a teljes csoport módszerét alkalmazta. 333 lexikális tételt tanítottak a középiskolásoknak a nem kontextuális párosító-társító fordítás módszerével. a tanórák heti kétszer történtek egy 9 hónapos időszakban. 6 szókincsről szoló felmérést végeztek és a tanuló középarányosát számítottak ki. a tanulók által az évvégi felméréseken szerzett eredményeket és a szókincs felmérések átlágát a regresszios analízis segítségével dolgozták fel és egy olyan megbizható modelt hoztak létre amely képes felbecsülni a tanulók eredményeit az évvégi teszteken a szókincs felmérőkön elért átlag alapján. az analízis a következő képletet eredményezte: (szókincs átlaga x 0.713) + 2.871 ±[3.1]. 4. a szorongás hatása a második idegen nyelvet tanulóknak iránban parviz birjandi, minoo alemi összefoglaló az utóbbi két évtizedben többféle kontextusban vizsgálták meg a tesztek által okozott szorongást mint afektív tényezőt. azonban az eddig elért sokféle eredmény amely vizsgálja a tesztről való szorongás és a teszt eredmény közötti kapcsolatot a második idegen nyelv elsajátításában arra utal, hogy folytatni kell a kutatást ami a szorongás hatásainak értékelését és az összetevőit illeti. ebből a célból, egy teszttől való szorongást felmérő kérdőívet (sarason, 1975) [27] és egy általános angol nyelv ismeret felmérőt alkalmaztunk 164 műszaki egyetem halgatóra, hogy dokumentáljuk a) a teszttől való szorongás fokozatát b) a teszttől való szorongás hatását a teszt eredményeire és c) a szorongás tényezőinek összetételét a kísérleti tényezők vizsgálata alapján. az eredmények kimutatják, hogy a második idegen nyelvet tanulókra alacsony a teszttől való szorongás szintje és ennek legtöbb tényezője negatív korrelacióban van a teszt eredményével. a kísérleti tényezők elemzése kimutatja, hogy a teszttől való szorongás jellemző vonásai az egymást részben fedő sajátos teszttől való szorongás, általános teszttől való szorongás és a tesztre való felkészülés szorongása. azonban e 3 tényezőből az általános teszttől való szorongás van negatív korrelációban a teszt eredményével, mivel e szorongás magasabbrendű afektív szinten működik. ellentétben áll a tesztre való felkészülés szorongása, amely pozitív (habár csekély) korrelációban van a teszt eredményeivel. az eredmények két következtetése van: a) mivel a teszttől való szorongás korrelációja és összetétele negatív és pozitív típusú is, a szorongas kérdőíve nem egyöntetű és nem alkalmas a teszttől való szorongásnak és a teszt teljesítményének lineáris kapcsolatának mérésére; és b) a teszttől való szorongásnak kis hatása van a teszt eredményére a teszt sajátos szintjén. 5. a második nyelv elsajátításánál történő bemeneti adatok és kölcsönhatás közötti összefüggéséről psziholingvisztikai, kognitív és ökológiai szempontból mohammad khatib, minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard összefoglaló a bemenet egy, a legfontosabb elemei közül a második nyelv elsajátításában (mnye). gass (1997) kimutatása szerint a mnye nem valósulhat meg bemenet nélkül. azota sok vita volt a mnye körül a bemenet jellegéről és a bemenet feldolgozásáról, mind pld. a bemenet azon mértékéről amely szükséges a nyelv elsajátításához, a bemenet sokféle tulajdonságáról és hogyan segítheti vagy akadályozhatja az elsajátítást meg azon tanítási módszerekről amelyek fokozhatják a bemenetet. e cikkben leírunk 4, a bemenet feldolgozásáról szoló paradigmát és feltevést. habár a vezérlés-, a bemenet feltevésés a bemenet kölcsönhatásáról szóló paradigma széles körű elfogadásban és használatban részesül, kiemeljük hogy ezek nem tarthatják számon a nyelv dinamikus jellegét. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, octobre 2010, "autumn 2010", issn 2067-3957 84 másrészt a nyilvánvalóság számontarthatja a nyelv dinamikus jellegét. ezek szerint, a nyilvánvalóság helyetesíti a fixpont perspektívát a mozgópont perspektivával; az aktív tanuló kapcsolatot teremt a környezetben és a környezettel. a tanuló egyenesen érzékelhet és cselekedhet ami a környezet nyelvét illeti, elkerülve a viszonyítást a már létező sémákés ábrázolásokhoz, de ez nem igaz ami a fixkód elméletet illeti. a kommunikáció a fixpont elméletben feltételezi, hogy a már létező üzeneteket kódolja és közvetíti az egyik fél, a másik fél pedig azonosan dekódolja. ezt helyetesítenünk kell egy alkotó jellegű elmélettel az üzenetek szerkesztéséről és értelmezéséről. 6. számításmatematika alkalmazása az orvostudományban angel garrido összefoglaló a mi-ban a logika nélkülözhetetlen, de a klasszikus vátozatnak túl sok hiánya van. szóvál, szükséges bonyolultabb eszközöket bevetni, mind pld. a fuzzy logika, a módális logika, a nem monotonikus logika, stb. [2]. a mi nek ábrázolnia kell a kategóriákat, objektumokat, tulajdonságokat, objektumok közötti kapcsolatokat, helyzeteket, állapotokat, időt, okot és okozatot, tudásról való tudást, stb. a mi feladatai kétfélek [3,4]: keresési meg ábrázolási feldatok. töbféleképpen lehet e célt megközelíteni. szóval logikával, szabályokkal, keretekkel, asszociatív hálozatokkal, szkriptekkel rendelkezünk s ezek soksoros kapcsolatával. a bizonytalanság és oksági viszony típusú feldatok megoldásához nagyon hasznos lehet a bayes féle hálozat és főleg a lényeges (esszenciális) gráf. ebben a cikben bemutatni kívánom ezen alapvető és sokoldalú módszerek alklmazási területét az orvostudományban. 7. a szimmetrikus metrikus fuzzy térbeli hármas és négyes öntérképezésének egységes és közös fixpont tételéről surabh manro összefoglaló e dolgozatban bebizonyítok két tételt a szimmetrikus metrikus fuzzy térbeli hármas és négyes öntérképezésének egységes és közös fixpontjáról. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process using lifemod software mihaela baritz, diana cotoros, luciana cristea and liliana rogozea abstract. in this paper we present a set of observations concerning the analysis and assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process. in the first part of the paper the fundamental and theoretical considerations of the gait process are approached and aspects connected to malfunctions are expressed. in the second part of the paper we present the modeling methodology using the lifemod software, while in the third part the results and conclusions are presented. keywords: gait, modelling, bio-behavior, lifemod, rehabilitation 2000 mathematics subject classification: 92f99. 169 mihaela baritz, diana cotoros, luciana cristea, liliana rogozea assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process using lifemod software 1. introduction a traditional definition of gait is a repetitive sequence of limb movements meant to safely advance the body with minimum energy expenditure, but for a good and complete analysis, it is necessary to understand that this action requires higher cognitive neural function and a properly functioning neuromuscular system to achieve its correct execution and that obvious it is far from being a simple automated task. the act of walking has two basic requisites: first is the periodic movement of each foot from one position of support to the next; and the second is sufficient ground reaction forces, applied through the feet, to support the body. these two elements are necessary for any form of bipedal walking to occur, no matter how distorted the pattern may be by underlying pathology (vaughan et al., 1999). this periodic leg movement is the essence of the cyclic nature of human gait (allison s. arnold et al., 2007). figure 1: a rotating circle shows the cyclic nature of forward progression in gait process there are eight events in human gait cycles and for a healthy human body they are sufficiently general to be applied to any type of gait: initial contact (0%); loading response (0-10%); mid-stance (10-30%); terminal stance (30-50%; pre-swing (50-60%); initial swing (60-70%); mid-swing (70-85%); terminal swing (85-100%). the cyclic nature of human gait is a very useful feature for reporting different parameters. there are hundreds of parameters that can be expressed in terms of the percent cycle and but we chose for the displacement evaluation only the ground reaction force and muscle activity to illustrate the movement of human body in gait process. according to other researches there are five key elements for normal gait like: stability in stance (foot and ankle); clearance (of foot) in swing; pre-positioning of foot (terminal swing); adequate step length; energy-efficient fashion (normal energy expended 2.5 kcal/min, less than twice than those used for just standing or sitting). in order to assess and estimate the gait cycle from its malfunctions 170 mihaela baritz, diana cotoros, luciana cristea, liliana rogozea assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process using lifemod software modeling and analysis point of view we need to admit the human body in a 3d reference system and establish the walking, balance or stability directions. in this respect we position and measure the human motion about the three axes: x (side balance direction), y (displacement direction) and z (bipedal stability direction) (kent van der graaff, 1998). figure 2: 3d coordinate system for the human body behavior analysis a major aspect for the gait analysis is personalizing the body segment parameters of the individual subject, that mean: mass in kilograms of the individual segments (e.g., thigh, calf, foot); centre of gravity-location of the individual segments relative to some specified anatomical landmarks (e.g., proximal and distal joints); and moments of inertia of the segments about three orthogonal axes that pass through the segment centre of gravity. the anthropometrical measurements of the human body segments can describe a series of the locomotion system specific features. but these aspects will obviously provide a reasonable estimate as a first approximation, as it does not take into account the variation in the shape of the individual segments during gait process or the variations of human body in time. each of the lower extremity segments (thigh, calf, and foot) may be considered as a separate entity. modeling the human body as a series of interconnected rigid links is a standard biomechanical approach (tozeren a., 2000) but it is necessary to improve this theory using the comparison between model and recordings. when studying the movement of a segment in 3-d space we need to realize that it has six degrees of freedom and simply means that it requires six independent coordinates to uniquely describe its position in 3-d space (three cartesian coordinates x,y,z and three angles of rotation as euler angles). for that it is necessary to measure the 3-d positions of at least three non-collinear markers on each segment to accomplish the information about human body in gait 171 mihaela baritz, diana cotoros, luciana cristea, liliana rogozea assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process using lifemod software figure 3: anthropometric data of the lower extremity required for the prediction of body segment parameters and the model of human leg in walking process process. the disabilities that are going to be studied are restriction imposed to the equations defining motion, position and human body bio-mechanical behavior (baritz m., cotoros d., cristea l., 2008). 2. modeling methodology of human gait using lifemod software the equation of motion of the model consists of two parts: the rotational dynamic of the two links and the walking dynamic of the foot. the equation of motion of the links is expressed as follows: [m ]θ̈ = [n ]θ̇2 + [g] + τ + ft h (1) where [m ] is the mass and inertia matrix; [n ] is the coriolis and centrifugal force matrix; [g] is the gravitational force; τ is the matrix of torques angles and ft h is the thrust force. the model of the walking human body model is presented in figure 3 and it was used to build gait simulation with lifemod software. starting from a pre-defined skeleton module and considering the anthropometrical database 172 mihaela baritz, diana cotoros, luciana cristea, liliana rogozea assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process using lifemod software figure 4: creating the anthropometrical modeling database nasa-std-3000 we build the shape of the human inferior locomotion system with direct contact to the walking support. for modeling human gait we considered a series of data connected to motion, trajectory, velocity or acceleration but at the same time we introduced the boundary values of the gait type (normal, malfunction of the right or left foot, jumps or steps, slips or sliding on plane surfaces etc.). the modeling stages aim at introducing data both for the normal mode and for the one used to model a certain gait type in order to simultaneously visualize these differences. 3. results and conclusions following the analysis of different modeling alternatives created by lifemod, in a normal way and with imposed disabilities we discovered a series of aspects correlated with the results obtained during the investigations upon a human subject in the same conditions. these investigations and recordings, obtained by help of a force and moments acquisition system along three directions (kistler force plate) confirm the shape of the contact force (between feet and displacement surface) variation. thus, for a quick response in the analysis of the gait type and forces developed in the subject locomotion system, the created model can estimate and correlate data at different recording times and respectively for different anthropometrical dimensions or mobility restrictions. from the recordings performed using the experimental device, the most important is the evolution of the contact force between the foot and support, considering no sliding between them 173 mihaela baritz, diana cotoros, luciana cristea, liliana rogozea assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process using lifemod software figure 5: stages of accomplishing the gait process modeling, simulation and visualization and which emphasize the precise moments when this contact takes place. in these simulations, muscles generated about half (57±74%) of the knee extension acceleration during the extension phase and the other half was provided by velocity-related forces that arose from the rotational motions of the limb segments. muscles generated nearly all of the knee flexion acceleration during the braking phase (baritz m., technical report, project 2007). 174 mihaela baritz, diana cotoros, luciana cristea, liliana rogozea assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process using lifemod software figure 6: comparison of the initial moment of starting the gait cycle between the two gait variants (normal and malfunction of the right leg-knee) figure 7: graphical representation of the contact force and models created for both situations (normal and imposed disability) 175 mihaela baritz, diana cotoros, luciana cristea, liliana rogozea assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process using lifemod software muscles on the stance limb, particularly the hip abductors, extensors, and flexors, had a major influence on motions of the swing-limb knee in the simulations. these muscles, in combination with their induced ground reaction forces, accelerated the pelvis, simultaneously inducing reaction forces at the swing-limb hip that accelerated the thigh and knee (anderson f.et al. 2003). figure 8: variation of the contact force between the foot and support (subject with locomotion disability) the modeling and simulation structure, briefly presented for this case represents the subject of a more extended research, which allows the developing of an investigation-assessment-rehabilitation protocol for the hip implant patients (baritz m. et al., 2008). acknowledgments researches are part of grant pnii-idei 722 and 744 with cncsis romania and the investigations were developed using equipment belonging to the research platform capacitati, university transylvania brasov. references [1] anderson f., pandy m., individual muscle contributions to support in normal walking, gait and posture 17 (2003) 159-169 [2] baritz m., cotoros d., cristea l., rogozea l., ”analyze of human body bipedal stability for neuromotors disabilities”, bics’2008, nov.6-7, tg.mures. [3] baritz m., cotoros d., cristea l., ”thermal human body behavior analyze during cycling movements”. new aspects of heat transfer, thermal engineering and environment, wseas rhodes, greece, aug 2008, isbn 978960-6766-97-8. 176 mihaela baritz, diana cotoros, luciana cristea, liliana rogozea assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process using lifemod software [4] allison s. arnold et al., ”muscular coordination of knee motion during the terminal-swing phase of normal gait”. journal of biomechanics 40 (2007) 3314-3324. [5] kent van der graaff, ”anatomy atlas, v th edition”. mcgraw-hill, 1998. [6] baritz m., ”improvement of video-audio systems and smart environment implemented in investigation methods optimization for bio-systems and person with disabilities”, research project cncsis a1088/2007 from transilvania university. [7] tozeren a., human body dynamics:classical mechanics and human movement, 2007, springer-verlag. [8] vaughan et al., 3-d software and data accompanying the book gaitlab, 1999. mihaela baritz1), diana cotoros2), luciana cristea3), liliana rogozea4) 1)department of precision mechanics and mechatronics 2)department of mechanics 3)department of precision mechanics and mechatronics 4)department of fundamental profilactic disciplines university transilvania of braşov, b-dul eroilor nr. 29, braşov, romania 1)baritzm@yahoo.com, 2)dcotoros@yahoo.com, 3)lcristea@unitbv.ro, 4)r liliana@yahoo.com 177 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 534-545 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/298 online education and effects during covid-19 pandemic betul ulukol¹ 1 professor doctor md, ms., ankara university school of medicine, ankara, turkey, betul.ulukol@gmail.com abstract: covid 19 infection first emerged in wuhan, china in december 2019 and spread rapidly and became a pandemic that affected the whole world. almost 94 % of learners worldwide were affected by the pandemic. in many countries, schools were closed for a period of time. education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching was undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. in this paper the effect of online education during covid -19 pandemic has been discussed with under the headlines of advantages or disadvantages of technology, how effective is distance learning and the problems of children having to stay home all the time due to lockdown. keywords: covid-19 pandemic, online education, technology based learning. how to cite: ulukol, b. (2022). online education and effects during covid-19 pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 534545. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/298 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/298 mailto:betul.ulukol@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/298 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 535 1. introduction the pandemic is an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and typically affects a significant proportion of the population (cristea, 2019; huidu, 2020; jaradat & breaz, 2020; tripon, 2019). in addition to the effects of the disease caused by the pandemic, there are many negative effects. in pandemics people are generally stressed and anxious, fear and feelings of helplessness are the most common ones. the people fear of getting sick and dying, losing livelihoods and not being able to protect loved ones and losing loved ones. difficulty in working and living conditions also increase their fears and anxieties. especially being unable to work in isolation or getting fired from their jobs. lockdown is another stress factor. due to the isolation conditions, helplessness, distress, loneliness and depressive feelings are gradually intensifying. feeling fear and anxiety of being separated from loved ones and caregivers due to quarantine practice is very hurtful for everyone. in addition to all these, being unemployed, losing income and disrupting children's education affect people even more negatively (united nations, 2020; unesco, 2021a, b). covid 19 infection first emerged in wuhan, china in december 2019 and spread rapidly and became a pandemic that affected the whole world. the whole world is in distress due to the threats of covid-19, and the education sector remains one of the sectors most affected by the coronavirus outbreak. in 200 countries, 1.58 billion children and youth are in the focus of this problem (unesco, 2021c). in many countries, schools were closed for a period of time. in romania schools were closed for 32 weeks. in turkey, they remained closed for 38 weeks (unesco, 2021c). with the significant rise of e-learning, where education takes place remotely and on digital platforms, education practices has changed dramatically. in this paper online education and effects during covid -19 pandemic has been discussed. 2. advantages and disadvantages of technology based learning today, technology is widely used in almost every field. online learning or online education is such a part of technology based learning (anohina, 2005). no doubt, we are using technology for online education and of course we have to use it in pandemic. the pandemic has made technological development necessary all over the world. we have seen the most striking examples of covid vaccine online education and effects during covid-19 pandemic betul ulukol 536 production and innovation in rapid production/development of technology. advances in technology have also had positive effects on the hardware and software used for online education. increasing educational opportunities has been a major advantage of using technology (burlea et al., 2010; vargo et al., 2021). broad ranges of online education tools/platforms became more easily accessible for education particularly in the pandemic. the use of language apps, virtual tutoring, video conferencing tools or online learning software has increased significantly during the covid-19 pandemic (andress et al., 2020; kelly, 2020). tools that motivate learning by making online education fun and enjoyable have been developed and made more accessible. one of the most important advantages of using technology in education is that this education system is suitable for the learning styles of alpha and z generation children. people's school perceptions, learning styles, the media they get advice are changing from generation to generation. online education is very suitable for the z generation, but especially for the alpha generation (renton & mccrindle, 2020). it is important to understand the characteristics of generation alpha, they are currently the youngest generation, who shape the social media landscape and they are popular culture influencers. consisting largely of children and adolescents, gen z members are a more self-aware, confident, innovative and goal-oriented group. they tend to live their entire lives online and through their smartphones. this can have profound implications for everything from their relationships to how they learn to virtual reality training and problem solving. generation z also has a different tech experience than millennials that will impact every aspect of their lives, from health to education (renton & mccrindle, 2020). however, in the pandemic, all education processes have become dependent on technology with distance education. this brought out the advantages of online education as well as the risks that could pose some problems. in this situation to know of disadvantages of using technology more important, especially if all components of education dependent to advanced technology. all the advantages of technology can only be realized when this opportunity is offered to all children. challenges styling, maintaining, and improving of distance learning are at the top of them. as the schools closed, the demand for distance education increased. moving learning from the classrooms to the home on a massive scale and in haste has created serious human and technical https://edition.cnn.com/profiles/samantha-murphy-kelly brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 537 challenges (van lancker & parolin, 2020; united nations, 2020, unesco, 2021a). when one of the parents had to be with the child this caused difficulties for parents both in terms of their work and time. in addition, the provision of the necessary infrastructure for children's online education has also economically created a burden for families (unesco, 2021b). without reliable internet access and/or technology, some students found it difficult to participate in digital learning; this difference is seen between countries and between different income groups within countries. for example, according to oecd data, 95% of students in switzerland, norway and austria have a computer to use for their schoolwork, compared to only 34% in indonesia (oecd, 2020). the increase in the use of technology by children leads to an increase in technology-related abuse incidents. in a study examining the change in the frequency of child sexual abuse before and after the pandemic in turkey, it was found that the frequency of online sexual abuse increased 2.9 times during the covid-19 pandemic (ulukol et al., 2021). especially in stressful environments, children staying away from the supervision or the epidemic disrupting the family dynamics cause children to remain uncontrolled and more open to abusive factors. according to the guardian newspaper in may 2020; child abusers have created and shared an online guide describing ways to manipulate and exploit the more number of children at home and online during covid-19 (davey, 2020). in a study by babvey et al. (2021), it was shown that twitter data shows significant rise in abusive content during stay-at-home restrictions in covid-19 pandemic. 3. is online learning effective? there is evidence that online learning can be much more effective for those with access to appropriate technology (suresh et al., 2018). in a study conducted by the research institute of america, it was determined that e-learning increases the retention rates of knowledge by 25% to 60%, while the retention rates of face-to-face education are very low (8% to 10%). a brandon-hall study has shown that learning the same material through elearning requires 40% to 60% less study time than learning in a traditional classroom setting (pezold, 2017). it is also claimed to be the future of education because online learning is flexible, accessible and more cost effective. online education can online education and effects during covid-19 pandemic betul ulukol 538 be effective when all the prerequisites are met. however, it is not possible to say that these conditions can be achieved during the pandemic process. the necessity of online education during the pandemic process caused confusion and stress in teachers. as schools closed unexpectedly, teachers were often unsure of their obligations and how to connect with students to support their learning. the lack of experience of transitioning to distance education platforms caused them to feel inadequate. parents were unprepared for distance learning and homeschooling: when schools closed, parents were often asked to facilitate children's home learning, and the might found it difficult to fulfill this task. this left parents with limited resources and education in an even more difficult situation (onyema et al., 2020;unesco, 2021b; van lancker & parolin, 2020). however, some studies evaluating online education show that online education is effective, especially in higher education (luca et al., 2020). a study of about 40,000 students at southeast university in china evaluated the effectiveness of these digital learning activities. they found that about 50 % of students believed that the planned teaching goals were fully achieved and 46 % believed that the goals were basically achieved (sun et al., 2020). 4. school closures and lockdown effect on children school closures and lockdown caused children to spend almost all of their time at home. quarantine is a situation that is generally unpleasant and has negatively affects the comfort of life. for children, separation from loved ones and friends, loss of freedom, insufficient knowledge about illness, uncertainty about the future, and boredom can sometimes have serious effects (brooks et al., 2020; lee, 2020; tang et al., 2021, unesco, 2021b). 3.1. mental health effects of school closures during covid-19 it has been shown in many studies that the covid 19 pandemic and curfew have negative effects on children's mental health. in a systematic review of 24 studies, the social psychological effects of the curfew during the pandemic were examined. it was determined that the prevalence of acute and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, depression, general psychological symptoms, irritability and sleep problems due to anxiety were more common in quarantined persons (brooks et al, 2020). attending school is a situation that supports coping mechanisms, especially for adolescents with mental health problems. as this support disappears when schools close, symptoms may recur. children with special educational needs, such as autism spectrum disorder, are also at increased brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 539 risk for their needs when they are away from school. disruption of their daily routines reflects negatively on children's moods and may cause them to become irritable and irritable (fegert et al., 2020; united nations, 2020; vinisha, 2020). in a study conducted with primary and secondary school students, it was found that anxiety, depression and stress were the most common symptoms during the closure of schools, although students expressed satisfaction with life in general. in these conditions, it was determined that the most effective protective factor in terms of child mental health is communication and discussion between parents and children (tang et al., 2021). young minds, a mental health association in england, conducted 4 surveys during the pandemic and evaluated the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of young people. in the first survey, 32% of respondents agreed that it made their mental health much worse, and 51% agreed that it slightly worsened their mental health. in the latest survey over the 2,000 young people's responses, 75% of respondents agreed that they think coping with the current lockdown is more difficult than before. 67% believe the pandemic will have a long-term negative impact on their mental health. 79% of respondents agreed that their mental health will begin to improve once most restrictions are lifted (thomas, 2021). these researches show that young people have been very affected by the pandemic and especially lockdown. but many of those surveyed thought their mental health would begin to improve if the restriction was lifted. 3.2. problems with prolonged screen exposure another big problem is prolonged screen times related with lockdown. the child, who spends all the time at home, starts to use the technological equipment provided for educational purposes in all recreational activities, except education. in a study conducted in turkey, the screen exposure time of children was determined that an average up to 7 hours in pandemic (eyimaya & irmak, 2021). increased screen time can cause vision problems, sleep problems, inactivity, changes in feeding behavior, and problems with the skeletal system (barlett et al., 2012; domingues‐montanari, 2017; wong et al., 2021). in a meta-analysis, it was determined that increase in digital screen time and the decrease in outdoor activities was related the onset of myopia and the progression of existing myopia, and it was stated that it could potentially worsen after the pandemic period (wong et al., 2021). according to the data of another study conducted in italy, it was determined that online education and effects during covid-19 pandemic betul ulukol 540 children's screen time increased during quarantine, excluding online lessons. it has been shown that the prevalence of nightmares, sleep terrors, difficulties in sleeping and anxiety at bedtime increase (bruni et al., 2021). there are many studies show that the childhood obesity epidemic is exacerbated related school closures (rundle, et al., 2020). 3.3. gaps in childcare / failure of recognize the risks the closure of schools caused the disruption of some services provided within the scope of school health services van lancker & parolin, 2020; united nations, 2020, unesco, 2020-c). in addition, the chance of teachers to supervise and evaluate children in terms of negativities has disappeared such as physical and mental health problems. the role of the teacher in monitoring children's health is essential. the closure of schools and the fact that children cannot be observed by their teachers delayed or made it difficult to realize the problems that the child was experiencing in terms of both physical and mental health. this caused the risks that the children were in to go unnoticed (united nations, 2020). the fact that students attend the school is an important factor that ensures that the maltreatment and neglect they encounter are recognized and the necessary intervention is made promptly. the closure of schools has also created an obstacle to the intervention of abused children. in a study conducted in turkey, a 5% decrease was found in the number of child abuse cases reported by teachers during the covid -19 pandemic (ulukol et al., 2021). if parents do not have adequate support mechanisms to provide care for their children, children of working parents are often left alone when schools close, which increases the risk of peer pressure, substance use and accidents, and may increase the likelihood of experiencing harmful behaviors. 3.4. increased exposure to violence and exploitation many researchers state that in addition to increasing anger, anxiety and depression in those exposed to quarantine, the frequency of substance use also increased. emotional instability and substance use in the family also carry the risk of increasing the frequency of domestic violence. whether children witness domestic violence or directly experience it, post-traumatic stress disorder and other serious emotional and behavioral problems can occur. thus, the closure of schools and the introduction of curfews during the pandemic have created new vulnerabilities for children and made brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 541 existing ones worse (brooks et al., 2020; humphreys et al., 2020; katz, & fallon, 2021; romanou & belton, 2020). during the pandemic period, the communication and interaction of families with social service institutions and organizations decreases. this negatively impacts access to institutions and services that would normally provide support to protect children from maltreatment. the stress environment of caregivers, the weakening of the child's defense mechanisms and the weakening of security measures increase the potential for all kinds of new and repeated abuse cases (romanou & belton, 2020). in a large study, we found that there was an increase in the rate of both physical abuse and neglect. we reviewed the 2019 and 2020 pediatric patient admissions of 12 large hospitals. we analyzed the hospital records of approximately 3.5 million children. the number of children admitted to the hospital in the pandemic has decreased by about 50%. however, the decrease in the number of physical abuse and neglect was only 13 and 22 %. this is an indicator of the proportional increase in abuse and neglect. (ulukol et al., 2021) 5. conclusion in these days, when the covid-19 pandemic is still going on, we have to continue with the lessons we learned from the problems experienced at the beginning of this period (unesco, 2021d). it seems that online education will continue to be a part of the education system in the world. it should be adopted new principles for education and revise educational practices with the lessons we have learned from the experiences we gained last year. distance education in other words online education must be builded on a child-friendly system. all children should be provided with equal opportunities in the full sense of the word, without any discrimination. it is necessary to ensure that distance education programs are not only for teaching purposes, but also in a system where children are closely monitored by their teachers. training of teachers about signs of trouble/distress to identify children who may need special protection and provide the necessary guidance will be an important initiative to protect children. in addition, providing effective guidance to families and caregivers is essential, especially in extraordinary circumstances. online education and effects during covid-19 pandemic betul ulukol 542 references andress, m., star, m.g. & balshem, d. (2020, 15 april 2020). language learning apps are seeing a surge in interest during the covid-19 pandemic. forbes. anohina, a. (2005). analysis of the terminology used in the field of virtual learning. journal of educational technology & society, 8(3), 91-102. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.103.7742&rep =rep1&type=pdf babvey, p., capela, f., cappa, c., lipizzi, c., petrowski, n., & ramirez-marquez, j. (2021). using social media data for assessing children’s exposure to violence during the covid-19 pandemic. child abuse & neglect, 116, 104747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104747 barlett, n. d., gentile, d. a., barlett, c. p., eisenmann, j. c., & walsh, d. a. (2012). sleep as a mediator of screen time effects on us children's health outcomes: a prospective study. journal of children and media, 6(1), 37-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2011.633404 brooks, s. k., webster, r. k., smith, l. e., woodland, l., wessely, s., greenberg, n., & rubin, g. j. (2020). the psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. the lancet, 395(10227), 912-920. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 bruni, o., malorgio, e., doria, m., finotti, e., spruyt, k., melegari, m. g., ... & ferri, r. (2021). changes in sleep patterns and disturbances in children and adolescents in italy during the covid-19 outbreak. sleep medicine, s13899457(21)00094-0. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2021.02.003 burlea, g., burlea, a. m., & milici, r. c. (2010). prevention and intervention in speech and language therapy for the success of lexicographical acquisitions. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 30, 86-100. https://ideas.repec.org/a/lum/rev2rl/v30y2010ip86-100.html cristea, g. (2019). inequality in education. dimensions and solutions. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 8(1), 37-48. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/15 davey, m. (2020, 30 july). child abuse predator 'handbook' lists ways to target children during coronavirus lockdown. the guardian newspaper. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/14/child-abusepredator-handbook-lists-ways-to-target-children-during-coronaviruslockdown domingues‐montanari, s. (2017). clinical and psychological effects of excessive screen time on children. journal of paediatrics and child health, 53(4), 333-338. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.13462 eyimaya, a. o., & irmak, a. y. (2021). relationship between parenting practices and children's screen time during the covid-19 pandemic in https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.103.7742&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.103.7742&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104747 https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2011.633404 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2021.02.003 https://ideas.repec.org/a/lum/rev2rl/v30y2010ip86-100.html https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/15 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/14/child-abuse-predator-handbook-lists-ways-to-target-children-during-coronavirus-lockdown https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/14/child-abuse-predator-handbook-lists-ways-to-target-children-during-coronavirus-lockdown https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/14/child-abuse-predator-handbook-lists-ways-to-target-children-during-coronavirus-lockdown https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.13462 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 543 turkey. journal of pediatric nursing, 56, 24-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2020.10.002 fegert, j. m., vitiello, b., plener, p. l., & clemens, v. (2020). challenges and burden of the coronavirus 2019 (covid-19) pandemic for child and adolescent mental health: a narrative review to highlight clinical and research needs in the acute phase and the long return to normality. child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 14, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-020-00329-3 huidu, a. (2020). education for practicing medicine as a vocation and it’s advantages in crisis situations. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(2sup1), 152-161. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2sup1/301 humphreys, k. l., myint, m. t., & zeanah, c. h. (2020). increased risk for family violence during the covid-19 pandemic. pediatrics, 146(1). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-0982 jaradat , m. ., & breaz, t. o. . (2020). sustainability management in sports: the effects of the pandemic crisis and future perspectives. logos universality mentality education novelty: economics & administrative sciences, 5(1), 19-29. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumeneas/5.1/18 katz, c., & fallon, b. (2021). protecting children from maltreatment during covid-19: struggling to see children and their families through the lockdowns. child abuse & neglect. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105084 kelly, s.m. (2020, 30 july) zoom's massive 'overnight success' actually took nine years. cnn business. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/tech/zoomapp-coronavirus/index.html lee, j. (2020). mental health effects of school closures during covid-19. the lancet child & adolescent health, 4(6), 421. https://doi.org/10.1016/s23524642(20)30109-7 luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a. c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 oecd, (2020). learning remotely when schools close: how well are students and schools prepared? insights from pisa, oecd. onyema, e. m., eucheria, n. c., obafemi, f. a., sen, s., atonye, f. g., sharma, a., & alsayed, a. o. (2020). impact of coronavirus pandemic on education. journal of education and practice, 11(13), 108-121. https://doi.org/10.7176/jep/11-13-12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2020.10.002 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-020-00329-3 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2sup1/301 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2sup1/301 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-0982 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumeneas/5.1/18 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumeneas/5.1/18 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105084 https://edition.cnn.com/profiles/samantha-murphy-kelly https://www.cnn.com/business https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/tech/zoom-app-coronavirus/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/tech/zoom-app-coronavirus/index.html https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(20)30109-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(20)30109-7 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/10.7176/jep/11-13-12 online education and effects during covid-19 pandemic betul ulukol 544 pezold, s. (2017, 30 july). lms 101: rethinking your approach to employee training. forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/paycom/2017/02/14/learningmanagement-systems-101-rethinking-your-approach-to-employeetraining/?sh=7ffd86d1755b rundle, a. g., park, y., herbstman, j. b., kinsey, e. w., & wang, y. c. (2020). covid-19 related school closings and risk of weight gain among children. obesity (silver spring, md.), 28(6), 1008-1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22813 renton, s. & mccrindle, m. (2020). the future of education – 2020. mccrindle research pty ltd. romanou, e., & belton, e. (2020). isolated and struggling: social isolation and the risk of child maltreatment, in lockdown and beyond. nspcc sun, l., tang, y., & zuo, w. (2020). coronavirus pushes education online. nature materials, 19(6), 687-687. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-0678-8 suresh, m., vishnu priya, v., & gayathri, r. (2018). effect of e-learning on academic performance of undergraduate students. drug invention today, 10(9), 1797-1800. https://doi.org/10(9):1797-1800 tang, s., xiang, m., cheung, t., & xiang, y. t. (2021). mental health and its correlates among children and adolescents during covid-19 school closure: the importance of parent-child discussion. journal of affective disorders, 279, 353-360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.10.016 thomas, e. (2021). coronavirus: impact on young people with mental health needs survey 4: february 2021. youngminds. tripon, c. (2019). learning to learn: critical thinking skills to help students for life. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 6(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/06 ulukol, b., orhan, g., bekler, b.m.k., bağ, ö., i̇nal, s., almis, h.., buran, b.ş., aşıkhasanoğlu, e.ö., bilginer, s.ç. (2021). the impact of covid-19 pandemic on child sexual abuse: child follow-up experiences in turkey. ispcan international congress, milan 2021 ulukol, b., i̇larslan, e., acar, n., et al. (2021). the variation of the rate of child abuse cases during the course of covid-19 pandemics: turkish sample (-research). ispcan international congress, milan 2021 unesco, (2021a, 30 july). education: from disruption to recovery. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse unesco, (2020b, 30 july). adverse consequences of school closures. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/consequences unesco, (2021c, 30 july). covid-19 impact on education: global monitoring of school closures. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse# durationschoolclosures https://www.forbes.com/sites/paycom/2017/02/14/learning-management-systems-101-rethinking-your-approach-to-employee-training/?sh=7ffd86d1755b https://www.forbes.com/sites/paycom/2017/02/14/learning-management-systems-101-rethinking-your-approach-to-employee-training/?sh=7ffd86d1755b https://www.forbes.com/sites/paycom/2017/02/14/learning-management-systems-101-rethinking-your-approach-to-employee-training/?sh=7ffd86d1755b https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22813 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-0678-8 https://doi.org/10(9):1797-1800 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.10.016 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/06 https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/consequences https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse#durationschoolclosures https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse#durationschoolclosures brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 545 unesco international commission on the futures of education. (2020-d). education in a post-covid world: nine ideas for public action. paris, unesco. https://en.unesco.org/news/education-post-covid-world-nineideas-public-action united nations, (2020, 30 july). policy brief: education during covid-19 and beyond. https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wpcontent/uploads/sites/22/2020/08/sg_policy_brief_covid19_and_education_august_2020.pdf van lancker, w., & parolin, z. (2020). covid-19, school closures, and child poverty: a social crisis in the making. the lancet public health, 5(5), e243e244. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30084-0 vargo, d., zhu, l., benwell, b., & yan, z. (2021). digital technology use during covid‐19 pandemic: a rapid review. human behavior and emerging technologies, 3(1), 13-24. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.242 vinisha, p., (2020). life in the times of covid 19 a guide for parents of children wıth disabilities. unesco new delhi. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373374?posinset=1&quer yid=db779d53-3341-4ede-ba02-8fbe656d1274 wong, c. w., tsai, a., jonas, j. b., ohno-matsui, k., chen, j., ang, m., & ting, d. s. w. (2021). digital screen time during the covid-19 pandemic: risk for a further myopia boom?. american journal of ophthalmology, 223, 333-337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2020.07.034 https://en.unesco.org/news/education-post-covid-world-nine-ideas-public-action https://en.unesco.org/news/education-post-covid-world-nine-ideas-public-action https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/08/sg_policy_brief_covid-19_and_education_august_2020.pdf https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/08/sg_policy_brief_covid-19_and_education_august_2020.pdf https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/08/sg_policy_brief_covid-19_and_education_august_2020.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30084-0 https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.242 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373374?posinset=1&queryid=db779d53-3341-4ede-ba02-8fbe656d1274 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373374?posinset=1&queryid=db779d53-3341-4ede-ba02-8fbe656d1274 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2020.07.034 microsoft word brain_2_1.doc 63 a survey on complex networks angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net abstract our purpose with this paper may be clearly established: to show many essential aspects of such active topic of research. for this objective, previously we may analyze here some relevant features strongly supported on graph theory (the modern theory of graphs and of complex networks). keywords: artificial intelligence, complex networks, graph theory, discrete mathematics 1. introduction complex networks are everywhere [1, 3]. this can be considered am important tenet of current science. and the language of such networks is precisely graph theory [16], which represents by nodes the different states or situations, and by edges connecting them their mutual relationships. therefore, it is essential to learn these new codes and rules, allowing us to understand the new scientific challenges. almost all the tools necessaries to represent and solving problems by graph theory shown appealing features, very appropriated to develop in student´s mathematical abilities, by reasoning and developing very intuitive and useful methods. so, enhancing their motivation and increasing their enthusiasm with respect to mathematics. because it provides a fascinating sample of beautiful and visual mathematical objects, disposable to any people with a minimal theoretical basis. it will be very important in problem solving. in the words of georges pólya "we expect that any symmetry found in the data and conditions of the problem will be mirrored by the solution" [20]. 2. graphs graphs are mathematical objects [14, 16] very frequently used in computer science, and other important fields. because often we can reduce a real-world problem to a mathematical statement about graphs. hence, if the graph problem is solved, then the real-world problem it is also solved. a graph is a pair, g = (v, e), where v is a set of points, called nodes, and e will be the set of their edges, or links, between nodes. sometimes, it is denominated simple graph. note that a simple graph represents a symmetric relation, r, according which two nodes, a and b, being connected by an edge are related to each other in both directions, i.e. a r b and b r a. many times, we said undirected graph (ug, in acronym), instead of simple graph. v and e are usually taken to be finite, because some of the well-known results can fails for infinite graphs. it is due that many times the arguments are not applicable in such infinite case. the order of a graph is the number of their nodes. that is, the cardinality of the set v, sometimes denoted by |v|, also by card (v), or c(v). the size of a graph is the number of their edges. that is, the cardinality of the set e, sometimes denoted by |e|. the degree of a graph is the number of edges that connect to it. note that an edge that connects to the node at both ends (therefore, a loop) is counted twice. let g = (v, e) be a graph. then, we see as its complement a new graph, with the same set of nodes, but its set of edges contains the complement of e. so, we consider g as a graph. it will be very interesting to give some previous concepts, as that of line graph, vertextransitivity, edge-transitivity, and so on. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 the so-called line graph of g will be the graph whose set of nodes is e (therefore, it coincides with the set of edges of g), and whose edges connect all pairs of e which have one common end (or extremity) in g. usually, it is abridged by l(g). hence, the line graph of g is another graph that represents the adjacencies between edges of g. the line graph is sometimes called adjoint graph, interchange graph, edge graph, derived graph of g, and so on. a graph, g, is said to be node-transitive (or vertex-transitive), if for any two of its nodes, there is an automorphism which acts between them. a simple graph, g, is said to be edge-transitive (or link-transitive), if for any two of its edges, e and e´, there is an automorphism which maps e into e´. a simple graph, g, is said to be symmetric, when it is both, node-transitive and edgetransitive. but a simple graph, g, which is edge-transitive, but not node-transitive, is said semisymmetric. obviously, such a graph will be necessarily a bipartite graph. an auxiliar concept, which many times appears at graph theory problems, will be the chordality. let g be an undirected graph (ug). we says that g is chordal, if every cicle of length greater than three possesses a "chord". this name ("chord") means an edge joining two nonconsecutive nodes of the cycle. therefore, an ug will be chordal, if it does not contain an induced subgraph isomorphic to the cn, when n > 3. the chordality result a hereditary property, because all the induced subgraphs of a chordal graph will be also chordal. for instance, the interval graphs are chordal. 3. graph symmetry as we known, symmetry into a system means invariance of its elements under a group of transformations [25]. when we take network structures [23, 24], it means invariance of adjacency of nodes under the permutations on node set. let g and h be two graphs [16]. an isomorphism from g to h will be a bijection between the node sets of both graphs, i. e. an application, f: g → h, such that any two nodes, u and v, of g are adjacent in g if and only if f(u) and f(v) are also adjacent in h. usually, it is called "edgepreserving bijection". if an isomorphism exists between two graphs, g and h, then such graphs are called isomomorphic graphs. the graph isomorphism is an equivalence, or equality, as relation on the set of graphs. therefore, it partitions the class of all graphs into equivalence classes. the underlying idea of isomorphism is that some objects have the same structure, if we omit the individual character of their components. a set of graphs isomorphic to each other is denominated an isomorphism class of graphs. an automorphism of a graph, g = (v, e), will be an isomorphism from g onto itself. so, a graph-automorphism of a simple graph, g, is simply a permutation on the set of its nodes, v (g), f: g → g, such that the image of any edge of g is always an edge in g. that is, if e = {u, v}∈v(g), then f(e) = {f(u), f(v)}∈v(g) either expressed in group theoretical way, we have u ∼ v ⇔ ug ∼ vg ⇔ ug ∼ vg being ug and vg the corresponding images of u and v under the permutation g. the family of all automorphisms of a graph g is a permutation group on v(g). the inner operation of such group is the composition of permutations. its name is very well-known, the automorphism group of g, and abridgedly, it is denoted by aut(g). and conversely, all groups may be represented as the automorphism group of a connected graph. a.. garrido – a survey on complex networks 65 the automorphism group is an algebraic invariant of a graph. so, we can say that an automorphism of a graph is a form of symmetry in which the graph is mapped onto itself while preserving the edge-node connectivity. such automorphic tool may be applied both on directed graphs (dgs) and on undirected graphs (ugs). about another interesting concept in mathematics, the word "genus" has different, but very related, meanings. so, in topology, it depends on to consider orientable or non-orientable surfaces. in the case of connected and orientable surfaces, it is an integer that represents the maximum number of cuttings, along closed simple curves, without rendering the resultant manifold disconnected. for this reason, it is the number of "handles" on it. usually, it is denoted by the letter g. it will be also definable through the euler number, or euler characteristic, denoted by χ. such relationship will be expressed, for closed surfaces, by χ = 2 2g when the surface has b boundary components, this equation transforms to χ = 2 2g – b which obviously generalizes the above equation. for example, a sphere, an annulus, or a disc have genus g = 0. instead of this, a torus has g = 1. in the case of non-orientable surfaces, the genus of a closed and connected surface is a positive integer, representing the number of cross-caps attached to a sphere. recall that a cross-cap is a two-dimensional surface that is topologically equivalent to a möbius string. as in the precedent analysis, it can be expressed in terms of the euler characteristic, by χ = 2 2k being k the non-orientable genus. for example, a projective plane have non-orientable genus k = 1. and a klein bottle has a non-orientable genus k = 2. turning to graphs [16], its corresponding genus will be the minimal integer, n, such that the graph can be drawn without crossing itself on a sphere with n handles. so, a planar graph has genus n = 0, because it can be drawn on a sphere without self-crossing. in the non-orientable case, the genus will be also the minimal integer, n, such that the graph can be drawn without crossing itself on a sphere with n cross-caps. if we pass now to topological graph theory, we will define as genus of a group, g, the minimum genus of any of the undirected and connected cayley graphs for g. from the viewpoint of the computational complexity, the problem of "graph genus" is npcomplete. we will says either graph invariant or graph property, when it depends only of the abstract structure, not on graph representations, such as particular labeling or drawings of the graph. so, we may define a graph property as every property that is preserved under all its possible isomorphism of the graph. therefore, it will be a property of the graph itself, not depending on the representation of the graph. the semantic difference also consists in its character quantitative or quantitative. for instance, when we said "the graph does not possess directed edges", this will be a property, because it is a qualitative statement. while when we said that "the number of nodes of degree two in such graph", this would be an invariant, because it is a quantitative statement. from a mathematically strict viewpoint, a graph property can be interpreted as a class of graphs, composed by the graphs that have in common the accomplishment of some conditions. hence, also can be defined a graph property as a function whose domain would be the set of graphs, and its range will be the bivalued set composed by two options, true and false, {t, f}, according which a determinate condition is either verified or violated for the graph. a graph property is called hereditary, if it is inherited by its induced subgraphs. and it is additive, if it is closed under disjoint union. for example, the property of a graph to be planar is both additive and hereditary. instead of this, the property of being connected is neither. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 the computation of certain graph invariants may be very useful, with the purpose to discriminate when two graphs are isomorphic, or rather non-isomorphic. the support of these criteria will be that for any invariant at all, two graphs with different values cannot be isomorphic between them. but however, two graphs with the same invariants may or may not be isomorphic between them. so, we will arrive to the notion of completeness. let i (g) and i (h) be invariants of two graphs, g and h. it will be considered complete, if the identity of the invariants ever implies the isomorphism of the corresponding graphs, i. e. i(g) = i(h) ⇒ g ≈ h. a directed graph, or digraph, is the usual pair g = (v, e), but now with an additional condition: it have at most one directed edge from node i to node j, being 1 ≤ i, j ≤ n. we add the term acyclic when there are no cycles of any length. usually, we use the acronym dag to denote an acyclic directed graph. a very important result may be this: for each n, the cardinality of the n-dags, or dags with n labeled nodes, is equal to the number of (n×n)-matrices of 0´s and 1´s whose eigenvalues are positive real numbers, i. e. λi ∈ r+, with 1 ≤ i ≤ n a previous result said that a digraph contains no cycle if and only if all eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix are equal to zero. it is possible to prove that every group is the automorphism group of a graph. if the group is finite, the graph may be taken to be finite. and george pólya observed that not every group is the automorphism group of a tree. 4. enumerating digraphs among the different types of graphs [15], bayesian networks (bns, in acronym) are the most successful class of models to represent uncertain knowledge. but the representation of conditional independencies (cis, also in acronym) does not have uniqueness. the reason is that probabilistically equivalent models may have different representations. and this problem is overcome by the introduction of the concept of essential graph, as unique representation of each equivalence class. they represent conditional independence models by graphs. such mathematical and graphical tools containing both, directed or/and undirected edges; hence, producing respectively directed graphs (dgs), in particular acyclic elements, or directed acyclic graphs (dags), either undirected graphs (ugs), or chain graphs (cgs), in the mixed case. so, dag models are generally represented as essential graphs (egs). knowing the ratio of egs to dags is a valuable tool, because through this information we may decide in which space to search. if the ratio is low, we may prefer to search the space of dag models, rather than the space of dags directly, as it was usual until now. the most common approach to learning dag models is that of performing a search into the space of either dags or dag models (egs). it is preferable, from a mathematical point of view, to obtain the more exact solution possible, studying its asymptotic behavior. but also it is feasible to propose a monte carlo chain method (mcmc) to approach the ratio, avoiding the straightforward enumeration of egs. and a many more elegant construct, if very difficult, through the ihara zeta function for counting graphs. recall that a dag, g, is essential, if every directed edge of g is protected. so, an essential graph (eg) is a graphical representation of a markov equivalence class. in relation with the essential graph, each directed edge would have the same direction in all the graphs that belongs to its equivalence class. there is a bijective correspondence (one-to-one) among the set of markov equivalence classes and the set of essential graphs, their representatives. the labeled or unlabeled character of the graph means whether its nodes or edges are distinguishable or not. for this, we will say that it is vertex-labeled, vertex-unlabeled, edge-labeled, or edge-unlabeled. the labeling will be considered as a mathematical function, referred to a value a.. garrido – a survey on complex networks 67 or name (label), assigned to its elements, either nodes, edges, or both, which makes them distinguishable. 5. complex networks a system can be defined as a set of components functioning together as a whole. a systemic point of view allows us to isolate a part of the world, and so, we can focus on those aspects that interact more closely than others. network science is a new scientific field that analyzes the interconnection among diverse networks, as for instance, on physics, engineering, biology, semantics, and so on. between its developers, we may remember to duncan watts, with the small-world network, and albert-lászló barabasi, which developed the scale-free network [2, 4, 8, 22]. about its work, this author has found that the websites that form the network (of the www) have certain mathematical properties. network theory is a quickly expanding area of network and computer sciences, and also may be considered a part of graph theory [6]. many phenomena in nature can be modeled as a network, as • brain structures. the brain as a network of neurons (as nodes) connected by synapses (their edges). • social interactions or the world wide web (www). all such systems can be represented in terms of nodes and edges. • on internet, the nodes can represent routers, and the edges by wires, or physical connections between them. • in transport networks, the nodes can represent the cities and the edges the roads that connect them. these edges can have weights. these networks are not random. the topologies of different networks are sometimes very close. we may distinguish four structural models. so regular networks, random networks, small-world networks and scale-free networks. in the regular network, each node is connected to all other nodes. i.e. they are fully connected. because such type of structure, they have the lowest path length (l), and the lowest diameter (d), being l = d = 1 also they have the highest clustering coefficient. so, it holds c = 1. furthermore, the highest possible number of edges card (e) = ((n (n-1))/2) ~ n² about random graphs (rgs), we can say that each pair of nodes is connected with probability p. they have a low average path length, according to l ≈ ((ln n) / (ln <k>)) ∼ ln n for n >> 1. it is because the total network may be covered in <k> steps, from which n ∼ <k>l also they possess a low clustering coefficient, when the graph is sparse. thus, c = p = ((<k>) / n) << 1 given that the probability of being connected each pair of neighboring nodes is precisely equal to p. the small-world effect is observed on a network when it has a low average path length, i.e. l << n, for n >> 1 recall the now famous "six degrees of separation", also called the small-world phenomenon [4, 6]. this hypothesis was firstly formulated by the hungarian thinker frigyes karinthy, in 1929. then, it was tested by stanley milgram, in 1967. the subjacent idea is that two arbitrarily selected brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 68 people may be connected by only six degrees of separation (in average, and it is not too larger than this value). therefore, the diameter of the corresponding graph is not much larger than six. for instance, on social connections. in the case of the watts-strogatz (in acronym, ws) small-world model (1998), it represent a hybrid case between a random graph and a regular lattice. so, small-world models share with rgs some common features, as may be • poisson or binomial degree distribution, near to uniform distribution. • network size: it does not grow. • each node has approximately the same number of edges, i.e. it shows a homogeneous nature. ws-models shows the low average path length typical of random graphs, i.e. l ∼ ln n, for n >> 1 and also such models the usual high clustering coefficient of regular lattices, giving c ≈ 0.75, for k >> 1 in consequence, ws-models have a small-world structure, being well clustered. whereas the random graphs coincides on the small-world structure, but they are poorly clustered. this model (ws) has a peak degree distribution, of poisson type. in reference to the last model, called scale-free network, it appears when the degree distribution follows a power-law, i.e. p(k) ~ k-γ in such case, there exist a small number of highly connected nodes, called hubs, being the tail of the distribution. whereas many of their nodes have sparse connections. they represent the head of such distribution. such model [2, 5] was introduced by a.-l. barabási and r. albert in 1999. some of their most notable features may be • non-homogeneous nature, in the sense that some (few) nodes have many edges from them, and the remaining nodes only have very few edges, or links. • about the network size, it continuously grows. • and on the connectivity distribution, it obeys a power-law distribution. a very notable example of scale-free network may be the world wide web (www, in acronym). as we known [2, 8, 21, 22], it is a collection of many sub-networks. in such case the nodes corresponding to their pages, whereas the edges to hyperlinks. 6. searching communities one of the most interesting research points in computer science is the analysis of the structure and properties of complex networks. to understanding the function and the dynamics of a network [2, 4], the first step will be known the topology of such network. hierarchical clustering of networks is one classical method for finding community structures in a complex network. the technique establishes a hierarchy of groups according to an associated weight function. so, the data set may be represented by a “dendogram”, which is a typical tree structure. another technique may be the girman-newman (expressed gn by acronym) algorithm [18]. many real networks contain parts in which the nodes are more connected to each other than to the rest of the network. such parts are called communities, clusters, modules, or cohesive groups. graph clustering is an essential problem in the analysis of relational data. it is now described as the problem of partitioning networks into communities. a new and interesting index for graph clustering is the so-called modularity, which was proposed by newman and girvan, in 2004. it is a quality index for clustering [16, 18]. from then, many algorithms of heuristic type have been proposed attempting to optimize such quality measure [13, 18]. a.. garrido – a survey on complex networks 69 among the lines of research in the more recent times has been also the aforementioned possible decomposition of every network into independent subsets called "communities". a community would be a group of nodes that is densely connected internally, but sparsely connected externally. to sociologists, this concept is also named a "cohesive subgroup". so, a typical community [20] consists of several subgraphs, fully connected, with trend to share many of their nodes. a more precise name would be "k-clique community", being defined as a union of all kcliques that can be reached from each other, through a series of adjacent k-cliques. recall that a kclique means a complete subgraph of size n. in a network, it is possible to make groups of elements, by equivalence classes. it will be according the role played by such elements [4, 5]. the assignment of roles, in social networks, permits us establish two new concepts, as may be structural equivalence and the regular equivalence. two nodes are structurally equivalent, if they have the exact same neighbors. while the regular equivalence need that the nodes plays their roles exactly. the study of the community connection of a network helps us to understand its global structure, but also the distribution of agents and activities. newman [17] says that "the development of methods for finding communities within networks is a thriving sub-area of the field, with an enormous number of different techniques under development methods for understanding what the communities mean after you find them are by contrast still quite primitive". this will be a promising line of advance. 7. conclusions social network graphs have patterns that can be useful to characterize them, and may be very interesting to accelerate algorithms, in optimization. they have also an essential clustering tendency, jointly with a community structure [18]. observe that the web is a fractal, considered by a graph analysis [8, 9, 15]. in fact, it is composed of highly cohesive sub-regions, each one of them showing similar characteristics as the complete web. such self-similarity may offer the way [7, 9, 19] to construct models about the evolution of the www. great attention has been focused [10-12, 20] on the problem of making a network of coupled dynamical systems synchronize on a common evolution, as on empirical network analysis and simulations. networked control systems have been an attractive area. complex dynamic networks [4], and cellular neural networks are also studied, with many applications, as solving pdes, or on pattern recognition. the analysis of synchronization problems is other interesting current field of research [7, 13]. so, we conclude this overview on some of the more interesting and subtle tools of the current mathematics, very interrelated with many other fields, as may be artificial intelligence, sociology, biocomputing, and so on. because symmetry connects between different mathematical branches, as may be geometry (euclidean and non-euclidean), algebra, probability calculus and the very deep underlying concepts, distribution functions and density functions, with many different associated models, mathematical analysis (for instance, on fuzzy measures [6, 14]), and so on. for this purpose, we must recall the claim of dreyfus and eisenberg about that the teachers need to develop awareness of the importance of symmetry (not only at high school, but also for undergraduate and graduate university level) for mathematical problem solving. they support this claim by their finding that many teachers (too much) did not recognize symmetry as an essential tool that can simplify the way to reach the solutions. the support of graph theoretical examples may be surely the better aid to overcome such difficulty. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 70 8. references [1] albert, r., barabási, a.-l. (2002). statistical mechanics of complex networks. reviews of modern physics, 74: 47-66. [2] barabási, a.-l., bonabeau (2003): scale-free networks. scient. am. may 2003: 50-59. [3] barabási, a.-l. (2004). linked: how everything is connected to everything else. plume publ. [4] barrat, a. et al. (2008). dynamical processes in complex networks. cambridge university press. [5] bocaletti, s. et al. (2006). complex networks: structure and dynamics. phys. rep., 424: 175308. [6] bornholdt, s., schuster, h. g. (editors) (2003). handbook of graphs and networks: from the genome to the internet. [7] broder, a. et al. (2000). graph structure in the web. proc. 9th. www, pp. 309-320. [8] calderelli, g. (2007). scale-free networks. oxford university press. [9] dill, s. et al. (2002). self-similarity in the web. acm trans. intr. techn. 2(3): 205-223. [10] dorogotsev, s. n., mendes, j. f. f. (2002). evolution of networks. adv. phys., 51: 1079-1082. [11] dorogotsev, s. n., mendes, j. f. f. (2003). evolution of networks: from biological networks to the internet and www. oxford university press. [12] dorogotsev, s. n. , goltsev, a. v., mendes, j. f. f. (2008). critical phenomena in complex networks. rev. mod. phys., 80: 1275-1284. [13] dreyfus, t., eisenberg, t. (1986). on visual versus analytical thinking in mathematics. proc. of the tenth international conference on the psycology of mathematics, pp.153-158. [14] garrido, a. (2009). symmetry of complex networks. eij-amo (electronic international journal-advanced modeling and optimization). 11(4): 615-624. [15] girvan, m., newman, m. e. j. (2002). community structure in social and biological networks. proc. nat. acad. sci. usa 99: 7821-7826. [16] harary, f. (1967). graph theory. academic press. [17] newman, m. (2003). the structure and function of complex networks. siam review, 45: 167-256. [18] newman, m. (2004). fast algorithm for detecting community structures in networks. phys rev. e 69: 066133. [19] pastor-satorras, r., vespignani, a. (2004). evolution and structure of the internet: a statistical physics approach. cambridge university press. [20] pólya, g. (1981). mathematical discovery. john wiley and sons, new york, p. 161. [21] strogatz, s. h. (2001). exploring complex networks. nature, 410: 268-276. [22] watts, d. j., strogatz, s. h. (1998). collective dynamics of "small-world" networks. nature, 393: 440-442. [23] watts, d. j. (2003). six degrees: the science of a connected age. norton and co. [24] watts, d. j. (2003). small worlds: the dynamics of networks between order and randomness. princeton university press. [25] weyl, h. (1952). symmetry. princeton university press. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 372-382 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/324 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 virtual addictions, teleworking and artificial intelligence in the pandemic marius adrian alberti dăscălescu¹ 1 clinical psychologist, trainer, brasov, romania, daswiss01@gmail.com abstract: this article points out that during the pandemic of sars-cov-2 virus and quarantine, people who were already addicted to the internet, video games or tv, this was exacerbated in most cases. other people have had to adapt to the economic and social life generated by the pandemic, launching various online businesses. some people, however, have developed at least one virtual addiction that has affected their health, family life, self-image, behavior, will, and psychological immunity. the article mentions the types of virtual addictions, the concept of digital dementia (khoja, 2021) and the profile of digital addicts. here are some tips to help you keep your balance when it comes to surfing the web. the 20-item test developed by dr. kimberly young, which identifies the level of internet addiction, is mentioned. the article continues with the benefits and risks of telecommuting. the swot analysis is presented as a tool for assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. artificial intelligence has allocated a special space where arguments are presented that were the basis for the implementation of robot technology and digitization. starting with the cartoon film, wall-e, from the brief presentation of the robot sophia, we also argued with the help of the myth pygmalion and galateeia, the prudent advantages we must have in our relationship with robots. the study, conducted by oracle and future workplace, highlights employees' perceptions of robots and artificial intelligence. keywords: virtual addictions, teleworking, artificial intelligence, lifestyle, melatonin. how to cite: dăscălescu, m.a.a. (2022). virtual addictions, teleworking and artificial intelligence in the pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 372-382. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/324 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/324 mailto:daswiss01@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/324 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 373 1. introduction since the beginning of the sars-cov-2 virus pandemic, each of us has been determined to set other reference systems, to be more careful with our health, that of our patients and our loved ones. life in the pandemic has new connotations, and patients who contracted covid-19 and recovered may have been left with questions about disease prevention and a healthy lifestyle. the old medical saying: it is easier to prevent the disease than to cure it, it now has a new psycho-emotional and practical load (grigoras & ciubara 2021; izzat et al., 2021). a special situation was represented by the categories of chronic and acute non-covid patients, who had more difficult access to specific medical services. also, some patients who went through covid-19 disease were left with some post or long covid-19 sequelae. during the quarantine period, many young people went to the virtual environment for medical advice, socializing, looking for a job, commercial transactions and entertainment. so is the case with the 15-year-old c.n. who had begun to develop a virtual addiction to social platforms. his parents noticed this obsessivecompulsive behavior late, which ended with sleep disorders. basically, the boy locked himself in his room, claiming his right to privacy, went to bed at dawn, around 03.00, and his schedule became chaotic, the interest for school activities decreased dramatically, especially in the online version. it wasn't long before c.n. he became depressed, irascible, and full of demands (radulescu et al., 2020). the parents were alerted and first asked for the advice of the family doctor, who later referred them to the clinical psychologist. the advice received was practical and was based on restoring mutual trust, by adopting sleep hygiene, by limiting internet access and by engaging in common activities such as learning a foreign language, exercising at home, housework, and so on it seems that the alternation of the reward with the coercion, gave results, and the therapeutic alliance between the family doctor, the clinical psychologist and the family, gave results (pandele et al., 2021; silistraru et al., 2021). here are the questions that this article focuses on: what are virtual addictions and how can we keep them under control? does telecommuting a new pandemic opportunity? what is the role of artificial intelligence (ai) in optimizing daily activities? virtual addictions, teleworking and artificial intelligence in the pandemic marius adrian alberti dăscălescu 374 2. definitions addiction s. f. drug addiction, with a tendency to gradually increase the dose. (<fr. addiction) (dex.ro). addiction a state of psychological or physical dependence (or both) due to alcohol or other drug use. to describe this condition, the equivalent term addiction is preferable, as it refers more explicitly to the criteria on which it is diagnosed, which include tolerance, withdrawal, loss of control and compulsive substance use (izzat et al., 2021; vandenbos, 2020). virtual addiction is manifested by dependence on the content of various social platforms, online programs, internet and television that slowly and surely take over the user's freedom for a period of time, affecting his self-image, health, behavior and will. starting with dsm-5 (2013), this framework extends to substancerelated and addictive disorders, including gambling. 3. types of virtual addictions depending on the platforms, devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop, pc, tv) and virtual reality (vr) accessories, we detect several specific types of addictions, compared to the content and time of exposure to: social platforms; video games with or without consoles, gambling, stock market investments; online games with various consoles where more players can participate. there were cases when participants were deprived of sleep for several days in a row, and some of them developed tendencies to schizophrenia or suicide; music platforms and movies of various genres; erotic platforms, which in the pandemic offered free access to new posts in the field, in order to capture as many customers as possible. what is the reason why these online concerns are so successful? why is addiction set in relatively quickly and takes up more and more time? if we discuss only the impact of the most popular social platforms, a meta-analysis from june 2021, which assesses the prevalence of dependence on social networks in 32 nations: meta-analysis with subgroup analysis of classification schemes and cultural values (cheng et al., 2021), we will note that dependence on social networks has emerged as a problem of global interest, with researchers around the world conducting studies to assess how widespread the problem is. the meta-analysis involved 63 independent samples with 34,798 respondents from 32 countries in seven regions of the world. the brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 375 prevalence of dependence on social networks was twice as high for members of collectivist regions as for those in individualist regions. these nuanced findings demonstrate that social media addiction is a heterogeneous issue that has a spectrum of symptom severity. such heterogeneity is similarly observed in other psychiatric disorders, such as alcohol abuse and gambling disorder (american psychiatric association) (dsm, 2013), in which a positive diagnosis may have various clinical manifestations. the sars-cov-2 virus pandemic directed some people more towards the virtual world, because they had more free time available, they sought to socialize with their loved ones, they wanted to know what is the evolution of the pandemic, its causes and treatment, finding a job, buying or selling online, or having fun. some people find refuge in the virtual world, because they meet with a pleasant addiction, for an easier socialization, because in real life they may have faced disappointments, shattered hopes, the negative side of human nature, or i want to meet other people, maybe more interesting, could be an explanation for why social media and the internet are successful. also, let's not forget the pressure of the group, fashion and utility (luca et al., 2020). it is true that most of us use the internet, social networks, or watch tv, because we want to be informed, socialize, shop, or relax. what is important is not to exceed the threshold of individual tolerance, not to become addicted and to know how to say stop, to the virtual connection, in favor of real life. a netizen remarked more jokingly, more seriously that when his grandfather had a radio he had 6 children, when his father had a tv he had 3 children, and since he has internet, he has no children. 4. brief history the recognition of computer or internet addiction is demonstrated by margaret shotton who shows that obsessive computer addiction affects psychological development and social activity (shotton, 1989). a study in april 2013 on the prevalence of internet addiction and its association with indian adolescent psychopathology, published in pubmed, found that a cross-sectional study sample of 987 students from various faculties in mumbai. students were assessed with a specially constructed semi-structured test and the internet addiction test. of the 987 adolescents who took part in the study, 681 (68.9%) were girls and 306 (31.1%) were boys. the average age of adolescents was 16.82 years. in total, about 74.5% were moderate (average) users. using the original criteria of the virtual addictions, teleworking and artificial intelligence in the pandemic marius adrian alberti dăscălescu 376 test, 0.7% proved to be addicted, and those with excessive internet use had high scores on anxiety, depression and anxiety depression (goel et al., 2013). 5. digital dementia the reality is that this pandemic has further accentuated the addiction to the internet and tv, to people who were already addicted in this regard. a new concept has been launched to describe this behavior: digital dementia (the,ismaili). what does this thing mean? dementia is characterized by confusion, disorientation, and memory impairment. in a worrying development, recent studies have linked excessive use of screens and connected devices with reduced attention span and poor memory among young people in what is described as 'digital dementia'. recently, digital technology has expanded and diversified. these devices store everything we need, but they come at a price, diminishing general cognitive abilities. psychiatrists have noted that overuse of smartphones and other internet-enabled devices can significantly reduce attention span, memory capacity, and thus accelerate early-onset dementia. the term "digital dementia" was coined by neurologist manfred spitzer, who described that excessive use of digital technology could lead to impaired cognitive function. he anticipated that short-term memory could be affected due to underuse, overuse of digital technology. children and adolescents are most at risk, due to their dependence on digital devices, especially since their brains are maturing. given these issues, we might ask ourselves, are we heading in the right direction with the digitization of all? 6. the profile of digitally dependent people they always have their smartphone with them and they button almost all the time; pay attention to every sound emitted by the mobile phone, so as not to lose any message (nomophobia); has changes in the spine (kyphosis, scoliosis, lordosis); the face may be pale, tired, looking into the mobile phone, with possible eye conditions; may be apathetic or irascible, depending on the context; have problems with communication, face-to-face socialization, social interaction; brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 377 have become dependent on constant validation, which denotes deficiencies in self-image; have a tendency to be overweight, obese, have a metabolic syndrome or type ii diabetes; others are underweight because they do not allocate enough time for meals; sleep cycle is disordered, meals are chaotic or fast food abounds; do not have time for physical exercise and become sedentary, at risk of cardiovascular disease; are always in a time crisis and live longer in the virtual world than in real life; self-esteem, self-image and the ideal self are disturbed; personal hygiene may be poor; sometimes are victims and / or aggressors in cyberbullying; have become addicted to digital dopamine. 7. recommendations especially for children and teenagers, it is necessary for parents and grandparents to make time to communicate with them, face to face, in a real and pleasant way. brain training is a noble goal that can be achieved by: memorizing poems, learning a foreign language, singing with a voice or a musical instrument, solving crossword puzzles, pen writing, craft development, painting, deciphering tests of insight or solving math problems. if the social interaction, a restful sleep of 7-9 hours a night, a balanced diet and exercise at any age, then the brain will produce the "happiness tonic", ie the combination of endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, melatonin and oxytocin, at which adds brain-derived neurotrophic factor (bdnf). the most beneficial sleep is at 9.30 pm, with the curtains drawn in the bedroom and the decoupling from the blue screens an hour and a half before bed. glymphatic function acts as a detoxifier of the brain during sleep. this will help the brain to produce endogenous melatonin, which plays a role in regenerating the neuroendocrine system and running the maintenance program, which will eliminate toxic soluble β-amyloid proteins, ταυ proteins and useless records, fix useful information accumulated over the day and will prepare you for the next day. in general, amyloid plaques are deposits made of aluminum silicate and amyloid peptides, which means that they are a conglomerate of proteins (banich & compton, 2018). following the maintenance process, neuronal neuroplasticity is ensured and the onset of neurodegenerative diseases is avoided. restricting internet access through a digital detox program can start with one day each weekend without access virtual addictions, teleworking and artificial intelligence in the pandemic marius adrian alberti dăscălescu 378 to blue screens. these things can be done gradually, until a healthy habit of digital detoxification can be reached. the time spent in front of the blue screens can be replaced by the time spent with family and friends, outdoors, in the sanctuary of nature, according to the concept back to nature, where fresh air, connection with real life, richness of landscapes, can happily change the perception of the virtual world. in this way, the bad cocktail made of cortisol, insulin, adrenaline and noradrenaline will no longer create addictions in your own body, which is at rest and sedentary. the abundant life will be oriented towards what is good and healthy, offering meaning to each day and authentic connection with the family and the support group. a useful tool in identifying virtual addiction is the internet addiction test, which was developed by dr. kimberly young and is based on 20 items that assess the level of internet addiction. 8. advantages of teleworking 8.1.for the employer: no longer rents office space and other facilities; only service machines, utility payments or cleaning service are required; 8.2.for the employee: the transport time is eliminated; the program is autonomous and flexible, which proves responsibility; work in a family environment, limited level of illness with the sars-cov-2 virus; low level of stress and burnout; you can take a second job. 9. risks of teleworking long working hours on the pc, on the internet; rigid static posture with changes in the cervical and thoraco-lumbar spine; repetitive, tiring movements; forced positioning of the wrist; not judiciously dividing time, which is uninterrupted, without a break; distraction from family members, from professional activity; decreased socialization; brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 379 risk of hypertension, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, metabolic syndrome, type ii diabetes. for a more detailed analysis of the benefits and risks of teleworking or telemedicine, swot analysis is the ideal tool for a clear and relevant organizational radiography, where strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are assessed. 10. artificial intelligence (ai) the launch of the american science fiction film wall-e in 2008 brought to the attention of the public the robots and their usefulness. since then, great strides have been made in robotic technology, equipped with artificial intelligence. the areas that have developed this advanced technology, where humanoid-looking robots are used or not, but equipped with (ai), are: military, medical, industrial, telecommunications, automotive, space, aeronautics, agriculture, organizational, entertainment and sex industry. the sophia robot is a branded and visible exponent of (ai), which was activated on april 19, 2015, and in october 2017, she became a citizen of saudi arabia, being the first robot to ever receive the citizenship of a country. this has led to a number of controversies over human and robot rights. let the whole of humanity repeat, on another scale, the myth of pygmalion and galateeia, in which the creator falls in love with his creation. will this collaboration between man and robot always be beneficial? will there be competitions for energy and raw materials in the future? what will be the emotional intelligence of robots in the future? will they surpass people? if the robots work non-stop without the need for a salary, a rest leave, they will not go on strike, they will only need energy, what good will people do then? will they probably dedicate themselves to artistic creations, consumption and probably become overweight like the people in the wall movie? until then, all major online platforms: google, amazon, facebook, youtube, etc. are already equipped with artificial intelligence that, analyzing the user's profile, come with personalized ads and purchase suggestions, according to algorithms to assess the intention to buy or view. this can be so beneficial, because it saves us from additional searches, but it can create an even greater dependence on the internet, based on digital, superspecialized marketing. moreover, a recent study (oracle, 2019) by oracle and future workplace reveals that artificial intelligence is changing the way people perceive their work. 64% of people would trust a robot more than their manager, and half used a robot instead of their manager for advice. virtual addictions, teleworking and artificial intelligence in the pandemic marius adrian alberti dăscălescu 380 workers in india (89%) and china (88%) trust robots more than their managers, followed by singapore (83%), brazil (78%), japan (76%), the united arab emirates (74%) ), australia / new zealand (58%), usa (57%), uk (54%) and france (56%). more men (56%) than women (44%) turned to (ai) at the expense of their managers. 82% of people believe that robots can do things better than their managers. when asked which robots can do better than their managers, survey respondents said that robots are better at providing unbiased information (26%), maintaining work schedules (34%), and solving problems (29%). ) and budget management (26%). when asked what managers can do better than robots, workers said that the first three tasks were to understand their feelings (45%), train them (33%) and create a work culture (29%). for the purpose of the study, the term "robot" most likely refers to the automation of robotic processes and artificial intelligence-style software robots, rather than physical robots. however, the results of the survey show some interesting trends in the way employees interact with their managers and technology. the survey was conducted by savanta between july 2 and august 9, 2019, with 8,370 respondents. the study was administered online and conducted in 10 different countries and in six languages. permanent fulltime employees between the ages of 18 and 74 were eligible to participate, the survey targets human resources leaders, managers and employees. one aspect that can be beneficial to patients, depending on how it is used, is the implementation of the single health record or electronic patient record, where all prescriptions and referrals from all health professionals (doctor) are recorded in real time. family physicians, specialist psychologists), dynamic medical tests, blood type, medical history, patient and family contact details, extremely useful in emergencies, where artificial intelligence can help us to gain time precious. 11. conclusions every day, the virtual temptations diversify and become more refined, adjusted according to the internet user profile of each of us. it takes a smart willpower effort to have a balance that adds value to our lives, between the virtual world and real life. internet browsing should stop an hour and a half before bedtime, which should be 9.30pm 10pm, so as not to disrupt the brain's maintenance schedule and endogenous melatonin brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 381 production. healthy and timely eating, along with daily exercise can ensure a psycho-emotional tone that can cope with any virtual addictions. telework is a new opportunity in the pandemic, which can provide a viable alternative for people to honor their employment contracts. if breaks are observed for those who work on the internet or on the pc, according to the 20-20-20 rule, ie every 20 minutes of working on the computer, a break of 20 seconds is welcome to look out the window at an object 20 meters away. also, adherence to the meal, sleep and physical activity schedule can provide the balance needed for an honorable activity. artificial intelligence helps us to accelerate the development of innovation and digitalization. artificial intelligence can be a useful help to man in many areas of activity, if we know how to keep decision management in our country. references banich, m., & compton, r. (2018). cognitive neuroscience (4th ed). cambridge university press. cheng, c., lau, y. c., chan, l., & luk, j. w. (2021). prevalence of social media addiction across 32 nations: meta-analysis with subgroup analysis of classification schemes and cultural values. addictive behaviors, 106845. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106845 american psychiatric association. (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). american psychiatric association. dictionarul explicativ al limbii romane. (n.d.). https://www.dex.ro/adic%c8%9bie goel, d., subramanyam, a., & kamath, r. (2013). a study on the prevalence of internet addiction and its association with psychopathology in indian adolescents. indian journal of psychiatry, 55(2), 140 143. http://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.111451 grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326-334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 izzat, a. a. h., anghel, l., stefanescu, b., kantor, c., & ciubara, a. (2021). prevention of psychoactive substance use. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 59-61. http://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.16 luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a. c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106845 https://www.dex.ro/adic%c8%9bie http://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.111451 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/15322052 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/46777175 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/41602579 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/7522852 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 http://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.16 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 virtual addictions, teleworking and artificial intelligence in the pandemic marius adrian alberti dăscălescu 382 oracle. (2019). from fear to enthusiasm artificial intelligence is winning more hearts and minds in the workplace. https://go.oracle.com/lp=86149?elqcampaignid=230263 pandele, v. f., tucmeanu, a., antohi, m. e., & ciubara, a. (2021). the effect of using facebook on elderly people during covid-19 pandemic. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 69-71. http://doi.org/10.35630/2199885x/2021/11/5.19 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. . (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 shotton, m. a. (1989). computer addiction? a study of computer dependency. taylor & francis. silistraru, i., ciureanu, a. i., ciubara, a., & olariu, o. (2021). prevalence of burnout in medical students in romania during covid-19 pandemic restrictions (preliminary data). archiv euromedica, 11(5), 12-15. http://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 khoja, a. (2021). digital dementia: are we heading in the right direction? the.ismaili. https://the.ismaili/global/news/features/digital-dementia-are-we-headingthe-right-direction vandenbos, g. r. (2020). dictionary of clinical psychology. trei publishing house. https://go.oracle.com/lp=86149?elqcampaignid=230263 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/47200213 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/47204285 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/21961858 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 http://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.19 http://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.19 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/34745962 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/9207389 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/30711467 http://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 https://the.ismaili/global/news/features/digital-dementia-are-we-heading-the-right-direction https://the.ismaili/global/news/features/digital-dementia-are-we-heading-the-right-direction ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 303-320 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/456 submitted: june 12th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 29th, 2023 the endocannabinoid system a turning point in optimizing physiotherapy procedures in knee osteoarthritis ilie onu1,2,3 ioana buculei1,* claudiu gabriel ionescu4 daniela nicoleta stanca7 bogdan voicu8 daniel-andrei iordan5,6 1 department of biomedical sciences, faculty of medical bioengineering, university of medicine and pharmacy “grigore t. popa” iaşi, 700454 iaşi, romania; 2 doctoral school of the faculty of chemical engineering and environmental protection “cristofor simionescu”, technical university “gheorghe asachi” iaşi, 700050 iaşi, romania 3 department of physiotherapy, micromedica clinic, 610119 piatra neamţ, romania 4 department of medical psychology, faculty of general medicine, “carol davila” university of medicine and pharmacy bucharest, 050474 bucharest, romania 5 department of individual sports and kinetotherapy, faculty of physical education and sport, “dunărea de jos” university of galaţi, 800008 galaţi, românia 6 center of physical therapy and rehabilitation, “dunărea de jos” university of galaţi, 800008 galaţi, românia 7 kineto dema training, bucureşti, romania 8 okf medical center, târgu mureş, romania * correspondence: buculei.ioana@umfiasi.ro abstract: introduction: knee osteoarthritis (koa) is characterized by wear, tear, and it's a slowly progressive loss of cartilage, that becomes finally disabling. koa is one of the most analyzed diseases by many medical specialties such as rheumatology, orthopedics, rehabilitation medicine, and physiotherapy. major symptoms of koa such as pain, dysfunction, and chronic low-grade inflammation will decrease the quality of life and eventually lead to locomotor disability. since there are no effective ways to limit koa progression, involvement of the endocannabinoid system (ecs) may be a non-pharmacological therapeutic alternative in the management of this disease. this study debate aspects of ways to modulate the ecs in koa, using physiotherapeutic (pt) means such as tens electroanalgesia, laser biostimulation, and physical exercises with analgesic effects. materials and methods: in the study, we included 82 sources, with the following keywords in the title: knee osteoarthritis, cannabidiol, endocannabinoid, inflammatory pain, analgesia, neuropathic pain, physiotherapy, electrotherapy, and laser. to perform this review, we searched for the most relevant articles in the field of medicine and physiotherapy in 7 international databases applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. results: the application of tens currents in certain doses and frequencies together with laser biostimulation stimulates the production of endocannabinoids thus controlling pain, and stimulating the ecs. physical exercise has an antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory role and stimulates the release of endogenous opioids. conclusions: the results obtained from this meta-analysis may contribute to paradigm shifts in clinical practice related to the treatment of pain by pt. tens, laser, and physical exercise are effective clinical tool that limits chronic inflammation and pain by involving the ecs. more studies are needed to understand endocannabinoid system involvements in koa, and that will inspire medical doctors and physiotherapists to improve long-term treatment strategies. keywords: knee osteoarthritis, endocannabinoid system, tens, laser, physical exercise. how to cite: onu, i., buculei, i., ionescu, c. g., stanca, d. n., voicu, b., iordan, d.-a. (2023). the endocannabinoid system a turning point in optimizing physiotherapy procedures in knee osteoarthritis. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 303-320. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/456 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/456 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/456 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 304 1. introduction osteoarthritis (oa) is a most debated and analyzed disease by many medical specialties such as rheumatology, orthopedics, geriatrics, family medicine, rehabilitation medicine, and physiotherapy. major symptoms of osteoarthritis (oa) such as pain, dysfunction, and chronic inflammation will decrease the quality of life and eventually lead to locomotor disability and several other social problems that burden the health systems around the world (berenbaum, 2013). some authors suggest that oa is not a disease but a combination of predisposing factors such as the onset of acute inflammation with the perpetuation of mechanisms that maintain a lowgrade chronic inflammation (musumeci et al., 2015). this chronic inflammation, over time, will develop a destructive effect on articular cartilage, that maintains a vicious circle: inflammation → enzyme production → chondrolysis → inflammation (gherghel et al., 2021). among the many treatment methods to limit the progression of oa, it seems that weight loss, lifestyle changes, and hyaluronic acid intraarticular viscosupplementation in combination with physical therapy have given the best results which are recognized by specialists in the field (onu et al., 2022). however, the progression of oa is modestly influenced by the therapies listed above, and in the end, total arthroplasty of the affected joints is the last solution. unfortunately, there is no effective strategy for understanding the biochemical and biophysical phenomena underlying low-grade inflammation, and the mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. current pharmacological treatments have extremely limited efficacy in controlling disease progression and analgesic treatment is rather temporary (akkiraju & nohe, 2015; loeser, 2011; mathiessen & conaghan, 2017). knee osteoarthritis (koa) is the result of wear and tear and slow progressive loss of articular cartilage that eventually the disease becomes disabling. it is common in older people, and in the last stage, the final solution is total knee arthroplasty. koa is caused by a multitude of factors that are involved in the destroy articular cartilage, especially in the condyles. clinical manifestations of koa are specific pain including nociceptive and neuropathic mechanisms, limited mobility, and decreased muscle strength in the quadriceps (hsu & siwiec, 2022; maldonado & nam, 2013). an alternative and noninvasive approach to reducing pain in koa are to exploit the antinociceptive effects of cannabinoids by actively involving the endocannabinoid system (ecs) in the pathophysiological mechanisms. studies suggest that the physiological role of the ecs, along with the allocation of cannabinoid receptors in the regulation of low-grade the endocannabinoid system a turning point in optimizing physiotherapy… ilie onu et al. 305 inflammation, is massive (manzanares et al., 2006). the successful therapeutic use of cannabinoids in the management of koa promises new directions in pharmacological and other treatment approaches (la porta et al., 2014). certain physical therapies are available whose effects on endocannabinoid stimulation are known. 2. method systematic search strategy. for this systematic review, we searched open-access articles in the fields of medicine, biochemistry, physiotherapy, and exercise physiology. we use 7 international databases: elsevier, isi web of knowledge, pedro, ncbi / pubmed, ncbi / pmc, doaj, and cochrane. keywords combinations searched in the context were: knee osteoarthritis, cannabidiol, endocannabinoid, inflammatory pain, analgesia, neuropathic pain, physiotherapy, electrotherapy, and laser. eligible articles were analyzed in detail regarding the involvement of the endocannabinoid system with physiotherapy techniques, in koa management. inclusion and exclusion criteria. articles included in this review use the methodology outlined above, in all keyword combinations present in the title. we included non-randomized, cross-sectional, randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses. exclusion criteria were articles studied in the next phase but fulfilling the above criteria. 3. results considering the niche area of this systematic review, we read 108 articles from 2023 -to 2012. this study included 82 bibliographic sources, which were obtained after applying ncbi selection filters and removing duplicates and irrelevant ones from a total of 108. these 82 sources passed the relevant criteria in the areas listed above and the keywords. word combinations like "endocannabinoid system, tens"; "endocannabinoid system, physical exercises" and "endocannabinoid system, laser" one result, show us how narrow this area is. this study debate aspects of ways to modulate the ecs in koa, using pt such as tens electroanalgesia, laser biostimulation, and physical exercises with analgesic antioxidant effects. the following variables (v) were extracted from articles considered eligible for systematic review: (v1) population: age, sex, and diagnosis; (v2) types of physiotherapy related to the ecs; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 306 (v3) biochemical parameters: types of receptors (in particular cb1) and endocannabinoids (in particular anandamide), assessment of blood levels (pre and post-physiotherapy intervention), and method of measurement used; (v4) methodological information. endocannabinoid system ecs was identified in the early 1990s by researchers studying the cannabinoid trans-δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (thc). ecs is a neuromodulatory and cell signaling system that plays key roles in the central nervous system (cns), in neural functions, including motor coordination, control of movement, and the response to environmental and endogenous threats. ecs interacts with several neurotransmitters that are responsible for most of the neuronal effects of cannabinoids. the most important neurotransmitter is acetylcholine followed by dopamine, opioid peptides, norepinephrine, gaba, histamine, serotonin as well as prostaglandins. ecs is active in the body even if a person does not consume cannabis products, and this phenomenon is not fully understood. ecs plays a key role in regulating functions and processes, such as mood, appetite, sleep, memory, and reproduction. ecs also intervenes in the mechanism of pain reduction (gonsiorek et al., 2000; lu & mackie, 2016). endocannabinoids (ec), also called endogenous cannabinoids, are molecules naturally produced by the human body and are similar to the cannabinoids in cannabis. ecs help the proper functioning of internal functions and are produced according to the body needs the most important ec are anandamide (aea) and 2-arahydonoylglycerol (2-ag) (gonsiorek et al., 2000; mackie et al., 1993). receptors are found throughout the human body, and ecs bind to them to signal ecs. the most important ec receptors are cb1 and cb2. cb1 is found mainly in the cns; and cb2 is found in the peripheral nervous system (pns), but mostly in immune cells. ec have a unique property of binding to either of these two specific receptors. the effects produced by this binding depend on where the receptor is located and which ec binds to it. ec that target cb1 receptors on a spinal nerve will be involved in the pain mechanism, thus modulating the perception of pain. ec targeting cb2 receptors will bind to immune cells to signal inflammation (bodor et al., 2005; howlett et al., 2002; luk et al., 2004; mackie, 2005; norrod & puffenbarger, 2007; suarez et al., 2008; uchigashima et al., 2007). the endocannabinoid system a turning point in optimizing physiotherapy… ilie onu et al. 307 endocannabinoid: pain: analgesia it is known that the most effective analgesics available in pharmacies and hospitals are opioids that exploit an endogenous pain control pathway within the cns. however, the use of opioids in many countries is banned because they generate significant problems in terms of addiction, tolerance, depression, opioid-induced hyperalgesia, and respiratory distress. in the last four decades, the existence of a second endogenous anti-nociceptive ecs pathway has been revealed that could be a valid alternative to opioid use. studies show that this endogenous anti-nociceptive pathway can be stimulated by various non-pharmacological mechanisms using physical agents and exercise in certain doses (angst & clark, 2006; di marzo, 1998; guindon & hohmann, 2009). cannabis sativa extracts have been used as an analgesic since ancient egypt, and the psychotropic effects of this drug have been described as being associated with religious rituals or recreational purposes, and it was banned in the early 20th century. the cannabis plant contains more than 100 cannabinoids out of a total of more than 480 compounds, the best known is thc, and cannabidiol (cbd). thc is the main psychoactive element in cannabis, while cbd has neither intoxicating nor addictive properties (abel, 1980; zias et al., 1993). devane was the first to identify the cannabinoid receptor and subsequently aea, which is the main endogenous ligand. more than 5000 articles deal with the ecs, and as a general line, they indicate that this system plays an essential role in multiple physiological processes and in physiological and pathophysiological functioning (devane et al., 1988; herkenham et al., 1991; mechoulam & gaoni, 1967). the ecs is omnipresent across all components in almost all pain processing pathways with a key role in modulating the nociception. both receptors and ligands can be detected in the nociceptive regions of the brain and peripherally in the spinal cord, meaning that cb1 is predominantly located in neurons, while cb2 is found in immune cells. increased peripheral aea levels have been shown to reduce nociceptive effects in inflammatory and neuropathic pain due to cb1 receptor inhibition of primary neurons that transmit nociceptive signals. increased 2-ag signaling at peripheral cb1 receptors has antinociceptive effects, but cb2, too, is thought to be involved in inhibiting pro-nociceptive actions of immune cells (brownjohn & ashton, 2012; cencioni et al., 2010; han et al., 2009; hao et al., 2010; nomura et al., 2011; racz et al., 2008; salio et al., 2002; samson et al., 2003). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 308 involvement of the endocannabinoid system in osteoarthritis pain pain is the main symptom of koa and comprises manifestations of nociceptive and neuropathic mechanisms. several authors support the interest in ecs as a therapeutic option in reducing pain is koa. schuelert & mcdougall in 2008, along with yao et al. demonstrated the anti-nociceptive effects of cb1r and cb2r agonists in rodent models with oa. schuelert et al. 2011 alongside the initial 2008 findings of mcdougall et al. show that the knee joint possesses an active ecs component, that contributes to the regulation of joint pain and synovial blood flow. the findings of the authors mbvundula et al. in 2006, and idris & ralston in 2012 suggest that cannabinoids have a key role in the regulation of cartilage degradation and bone remodeling processes that occur during oa. these processes are possible due to the presence of cannabinoid receptors in bone and on chondrocytes (idris & ralston, 2012; mbvundula et al., 2006; schuelert & mcdougall, 2008; schuelert et al., 2010; schuelert et al., 2011; yao et al., 2008). carmen la porta et al. (2015) demonstrated that significant differences were observed between koa patients and healthy subjects in huskisson knee scale scores, correlating with a significant increase in plasma 2-ag levels in koa patients. in contrast, no significant increases in aea were observed in koa patients. the authors also observed an increase in cb1r and cb2r gene expression levels in blood lymphocytes in koa patients compared to control subjects. significantly positive correlations were found between 2-ag levels and pain in koa. burston jj et al. demonstrated in 2013 that cb2 inhibitory cannabinoid receptors attenuate peripheral immune cell function which in turn will modulate central neuroimmune responses in neurodegeneration. oa-induced pain and changes in circulating pro-and anti-inflammatory cytokines were attenuated by systemic administration of the cb2 receptor agonist jwh133. these data offer new insights into the treatment of oa pain by targeting cb2 receptors that inhibit central sensitization thereby controlling chronic pain (burston et al., 2013). physiotherapy involving the endocannabinoid system in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis although not life-threatening, major symptoms of koa such as pain, intermittent inflammation, and dysfunction will slowly decrease quality of life and performance, eventually leading to disability. conservative treatments for koa pain reduction are oral, topical medication, intramuscular, intra-articular injection therapy, and non-pharmacological the endocannabinoid system a turning point in optimizing physiotherapy… ilie onu et al. 309 therapies such as physiotherapy. some of the physiotherapy procedures reduce pain and here we list tens, interferential currents, ultrasound, laser, phototherapy, thermotherapy, cryotherapy, tecar, deep oscillation, massage, and physical exercises. the results found in the meta-analysis of the studies showed that the application of tens currents, laser, and physiotherapy exercises directly involve the ecs thus controlling the pain in koa. this new information opens new horizons of knowledge in improving pain therapy in clinical practice, without the use of pharmacological substances that have negative long-term effects. tens current therapy activates antinociception, thereby reducing pain by activating the descending pain modulation pathway. tens is responsible for the release of endogenous analgesic substances when low frequencies are used. a plausible hypothesis is that ecs may be positively influenced by tens-induced antinociception. herrick ulisses de oliveira et al. demonstrated that lowand high-frequency tens induced antinociception by activating the descending pain control pathway through ec release, which activates the cannabinoid cb1 receptor (de oliveira et al., 2019; maeda et al., 2007; radhakrishnan et al., 2003; rice et al., 2002; sabino et al., 2008). gonçalves et al. demonstrated in 2014 that the application of tens currents has modified the effect of cannabidiol, diazepam, and naloxone in combination with 10-150 hz tens current pulses in rodents, which were subjected to a 30-minute tail-friction test, that produced pain. the 10 hz current increased the nociceptive threshold during the evaluation period being abolished considerably by cannabidiol pretreatment (1.5mg/kg), while at 150 hz the inhibition given by cannabidiol was total. these new data suggest the involvement of ecs and cannabinoid-mediated neuromodulation in antinociception induced by tens electroanalgesia at 10 hz and 150 hz in animals (bushlin et al., 2010; parik et al., 2011; prado & roberts, 1985; resende et al., 2004; teixeira gonçalves et al., 2014). riley t. paulsen and brian d. burrell suggested that the analgesic effects of tens are due to the contribution of cannabinoid signaling to the anti-nociceptive effects of non-nociceptive repetitive stimulation (2019). sluka et al. demonstrated that tens produces different antihyperalgesic at high and low frequencies. high-frequency 100 hz tens produces antihyperalgesia via delta-opioid receptors in the spinal cord and low-frequency 4 hz tens produces anti-hyperalgesia via mu receptors (sluka et al., 1999). sabino et al. demonstrated on rodents models that the application of high and low-frequency tens has significant analgesic and anti-inflammatory broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 310 effects, of which 10 hz showed a longer-lasting analgesic effect than 100 hz. the data obtained show that both forms of tens induced antihyperalgesia, of which 10 hz tens was more effective due to the local release of endogenous opioids (2008). recent studies show that physical exercise increases ec concentrations in serum ec concentrations but factors such as type of exercise, exercise duration, and volume, exercise intensity, gender, and age will influence the ec response. cannabinoids produce psychological states described as "runner's high", and compared to opioid analgesics, the analgesia produced by ecs is more consistent with exercise-induced analgesia. ecs activation also produces sedation, a feeling of well-being, reduces alertness, impairs memory capacity, and produces difficulties in time estimation and management. this "runner's high" phenomenon is reported by long-distance runners who modulate their behavioral profile when ecs is activated through significant increases in serum ec concentrations. the ecs is involved in the control of basal ganglia-mediated motor activity via central anandamide. during physical exercise, ecs mediates peripheral effects such as vasodilation and bronchodilation, which play a key role in the ec-exercise interaction relationship (calignano et al., 2000; carmack & martens, 1979; charytoniuk et al., 2020; cook & koltyn, 2000; fernándezruiz et al., 2002; giuffrida et al., 1999; mechoulam et al., 1995; unu et al., 2021; richardson, 2000; scully et al., 1998; walker et al., 1999). sparling et al. demonstrated that exercise activates the ecs, resulting in exercise-induced analgesia on a 45 min cycle ergometer program. twentyfour healthy men aged 23 years; height 183.7 ± 6.2 cm, bmi 74.5 ± 7.9 kg, divided into 3 groups entered the study. after one hour, blood samples were collected, and the results of the analyses showed that aea levels were significantly elevated in runner cyclists p<0.05, and low in the inactive control group. these new data show that moderate-intensity exercise activates the ecs, thereby inducing analgesia (sparling et al., 2003). marin bosch et al. showed that moderate-intensity exercise was correlated with increased circulating levels of aea and increased activity in the caudate nucleus and hippocampus and concluded that aea stimulates hippocampal and striatal activity and function, thereby enhancing memory for motor sequences. high levels of aea are associated with improved motor sequence memory (marin bosch et al., 2020; thomas et al., 2016). stensson et al. demonstrated that exercise raises aea levels in fibromyalgia patients, succeeding in controlling chronic pain in a group of 37 women aged 20-65 years. after a 15-week program of progressively increasing exercise volume, intensity, and complexity, increases in plasma levels of aea were recorded the endocannabinoid system a turning point in optimizing physiotherapy… ilie onu et al. 311 and stearoyl ethanolamide levels decreased, suggesting that chronic exercise has analgesic and pain-controlling effects (82). barbosa et al. confirmed that physical exercise in a resistance training program is an effective method that can ameliorate the symptoms of fibromyalgia in adult women as an alternative to pharmacological therapies (barbosa et al., 2021). several authors have hypothesized that moderate physical exertion with time between 30-90 minutes/per workout will increase plasma levels of circulating ec which generate a system-wide response to seek, consume, and store energy. this hypothesis that increased energy use results in an increase in circulating ec to replenish energy stores are confirmed by the fact that immediately after the exercise period, aea elevates (hill et al., 2013; raichlen et al., 2013; ramaekers et al., 2006; st-onge et al., 2011). fernandez-aranda et al. 2004 examined the effects of chronic exercise on obese and normal-weight women and determined that moderate-vigorous physical activity measured over 6 days is positively correlated with high levels of aea. this study showed that chronic exercise exerts particular effects on aea in patients with high bmi. gabriela xavier santos et al. in 2020 in a placebo-controlled trial study demonstrated that supraspinal photobiomodulation performed with laser reduces pain by engaging the cb1 receptor in antinociception rodent models. the laser used is infrared asalga with 830 nm, an output power of 30 mw with a dose of 50 j/cm2, and with continuous wavelength. thirty-five male swiss albino mice were used in the study, and eighteen eligible animals were included and divided into three groups. the mice were operated on the sciatic nerve using the technique that creates chronic constriction injury (cci). the groups consisted of 6 animals in each group and received the following therapies: (g1) cci + laser 0j/cm2, (g2) cci+laser 50 j/cm2, and (g3) cci + saline + 50 j/cm2. the authors of the study conclude that cb1 receptors located in supraspinal structures, participate in the control of neuropathic pain following laser treatment in animals that have suffered cci lesions (xavier santos et al., 2020). 4. conclusions more than 80 articles from peer-reviewed journals were entered into this study, looking for all elements that encompassed "effects of physiotherapy procedures on the ecs on koa". the results found in the meta-analysis of studies showed that the application of tens currents, laser, and exercises directly involve the ecs thus controlling pain. tens broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 312 promotes antinociception by activating the descending pain modulation pathway and consequently releasing endogenous analgesic substances. the results also show that physical exercise has a stimulatory effect on the ecs. central opioidergic mechanisms can modulate the positive effects of exercise, which have the main effect of reducing pain, and stress and improving mental mood. the results obtained from this meta-analysis may contribute to paradigm shifts in clinical practice related to the treatment of pain by pt. the application of tens currents in certain doses and frequencies together with laser biostimulation stimulates the production of ec thus controlling pain, and stimulating the ecs. exercise has an antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory role and stimulates endogenous opioid release. author contributions: the authors contributed equally to this work. all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. funding: the work of daniel andrei iordan was supported by the project "pro-invent", contract no. 62487/03.06.2022 pocu/993/6/13 code 153299, financed by the human capital operational programme 2014–2020 (pocu), romania acknowledgments: all authors have equally contributed to this article as senior authors. conflicts of interest: the authors declare no conflict of interest. references abel, e. l. (1980). marijuana: the first twelve thousand years. plenum press. akkiraju, h., & nohe, a. (2015). role of chondrocytes in cartilage formation, progression of osteoarthritis and cartilage regeneration. journal of developmental biology, 3(4), 177-192. https://doi.org/10.3390/jdb3040177 angst, m. s., & clark, j. d. (2006). opioid-induced hyperalgesia: a qualitative systematic review. anesthesiology, 104(3), 570–587. https://doi.org/10.1097/00000542-200603000-00025 barbosa, f. j., lacerda, j., dos r. m., cristina-souza, g., lopes filho, b. j. p., & de freitas camilo, b. (2021). effect of resistance training in women with fibromyalgia: a review study. research, society and development, 10(5), e29410514674. https://doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i5.14674 https://doi.org/10.3390/jdb3040177 https://doi.org/10.1097/00000542-200603000-00025 https://doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i5.14674 the endocannabinoid system a turning point in optimizing physiotherapy… ilie onu et al. 313 berenbaum, f. (2013). osteoarthritis as an inflammatory disease (osteoarthritis is notosteoarthrosis!). osteoarthritis cartilage, 21, 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2012.11.012 bodor, a. l., katona, i., nyiri, g., mackie, k., ledent, c., hajos, n., & freund, t. f. (2005). endocannabinoid signaling in rat somatosensory cortex: laminar differences and involvement of specific interneuron types. journal of neuroscience,25(29), 6845–6856. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0442-05.2005 brownjohn, p. w., & ashton, j. c. (2012). spinal cannabinoid cb2 receptors as a target for neuropathic pain: an investigation using chronic constriction injury. neuroscience, 203, 180–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2011.12.028 burston, j. j., sagar, d. r., shao, p., bai, m., king, e., brailsford, l., turner, j. m., hathway, g. j., bennett, a. j., walsh, d. a., kendall, d. a., lichtman, a., & chapman, v. (2013). cannabinoid cb2 receptors regulate central sensitization and pain responses associated with osteoarthritis of the knee joint. plos one, 8(11), e80440. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080440 bushlin, i., rozenfeld, r., & devi, l. a. (2010). cannabinoid-opioid interactions during neuropathic pain and analgesia. current opinion in pharmacology, 10, 80–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coph.2009.09.009 calignano, a., katona, i., desarnaud, m. h., giuffrida, a., la rana, g., mackie, k., freund, t. f., & piomelli, d. (2000). bidirectional control of airway responsiveness by endogenous cannabinoids. nature, 408, 96–101. https://doi.org/10.1038/35040576 carmack, m. a., & martens, r. (1979). measuring commitment to running: a survey of runners’ attitudes and mental states. journal of sport and exercise psychology, 1(1), 25–42. cencioni, m. t., chiurchiù, v., catanzaro, g., borsellino, g., bernardi, g., battistini, l., & maccarrone, m. (2010). anandamide suppresses proliferation and cytokine release from primary human t-lymphocytes mainly via cb2 receptors. plos one, 5(1), e8688. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008688 charytoniuk, t., zywno, h., konstantynowicz-nowicka, k., berk, k., bzdega, w., & chabowski, a. (2020). can physical activity support the endocannabinoid system in the preventive and therapeutic approach to neurological disorders? international journal of molecular sciences, 21(12), 4221. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms211242 cook, d. b., & koltyn, k. f. (2000). pain and exercise. international journal of sport and exercise psychology, 31, 256–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2012.11.012 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0442-05.2005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2011.12.028 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080440 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coph.2009.09.009 https://doi.org/10.1038/35040576 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008688 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms211242 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 314 de oliveira, h. u., dos santos, r. s., malta, i. h. s., pinho, j. p., almeida, a. f. s., sorgi, c. a., peti, a. p. f., xavier, g. s., reis, l. m. d., faccioli, l. h., cruz, j. d. s., ferreira, e., & galdino, g. (2019). investigation of the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in tens-induced antinociception. the journal of pain, 21(7-8), 820-835. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2019.11.009 devane, w. a., dysarz, f. a. 3rd, johnson, m. r., melvin, l. s., & howlett, a. c. (1988). determination and characterization of a cannabinoid receptor in rat brain. molecular pharmacology, 34(5), 605-613. devane, w. a., hanus, l., breuer, a., pertwee, r. g., stevenson, l. a., griffin, g., gibson, d., mandelbaum, a., etinger, a., & mechoulam, r. (1992). isolation and structure of a brain constituent that binds to the cannabinoid receptor. science, 258(5090), 1946-1949. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1470919 di marzo, v. (1998). 'endocannabinoids' and other fatty acid derivatives with cannabimimetic properties: biochemistry and possible physiopathological relevance. biochimica et biophysica acta, 1392(2-3), 153–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-2760(98)00042-3 fernandez-rodriguez, c. m., romero, j., petros, t. j., bradshaw, h., gasalla, j. m., gutierrez, m. l., lledó, j. l., santander, c., fernández, t. p., tomás, e., cacho, g., & walker, j. m. (2004). circulating endogenous cannabinoid anandamide and portal, systemic and renal hemodynamics in cirrhosis. liver international, 24, 477–483. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14783231.2004.0945.x fernández-ruiz, j., lastres-becker, i., cabranes, a., gonzález, s., & ramos, j. a. (2002). endocannabinoids and basal ganglia functionality. prostaglandins leukot essent fatty acids, 66, 257–267. https://doi.org/10.1038/7268 gherghel, r., iordan, d. a., mocanu, m. d., onu, a., & onu, i. (2021). osteoarthritis is not a disease, but rather an accumulation of predisposing factors. a systematic review. balneo and prm research journal, 12(3), 218– 226. http://dx.doi.org/10.12680/balneo.2021.441 giuffrida, a., parsons, l. h., kerr, t. m., de fonseca, f. r., navarro, m., & piomelli, d. (1999). dopamine activation of endogenous cannabinoid signaling in dorsal striatum. nature neuroscience, 2, 358–363. https://doi.org/10.1038/7268 gonsiorek, w., lunn, c., fan, x., narula, s., lundell, d., & hipkin, r. w. (2000). endocannabinoid 2-arachidonyl glycerol is a full agonist through human type 2 cannabinoid receptor: antagonism by anandamide. molecular pharmacology, 57(5), 1045–1050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2019.11.009 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1470919 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-2760(98)00042-3 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-3231.2004.0945.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-3231.2004.0945.x https://doi.org/10.1038/7268 http://dx.doi.org/10.12680/balneo.2021.441 https://doi.org/10.1038/7268 the endocannabinoid system a turning point in optimizing physiotherapy… ilie onu et al. 315 guindon, j., & hohmann, a. g. (2009). the endocannabinoid system and pain. cns & neurological disorders drug targets, 8(6), 403-421. https://doi.org/10.2174/187152709789824660 han, k. h., lim, s., ryu, j., lee, c. w., kim, y., kang, j. h., kang, s. s., ahn, y. k., park, c. s., & kim, j. j. (2009). cb1 and cb2 cannabinoid receptors differentially regulate the production of reactive oxygen species by macrophages. cardiovascular research, 84(3), 378–386. https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvp240 hao, m-x., jiang, l-s., fang, n-y., pu, j., hu, l. h., shen, l. h., song, w., & he, b. (2010). the cannabinoid win55,212-2 protects against oxidized ldlinduced inflammatory response in murine macrophages. journal of lipid research, 51(8), 2181–2190. https://doi.org/10.1194/jlr.m001511 herkenham, m., lynn, a. b., johnson, m. r., melvin, l. s., de costa, b. r., & rice, k. c. (1991). characterization and localization of cannabinoid receptors in rat-brain a quantitative in vitro autoradiographic study. journal of neuroscience, 11(2), 563–583. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.11-0200563.1991 hill, m. n., bierer, l. m., makotkine, i., golier, j. a., galea, s., mcewen, b. s., hillard, c. j., & yehuda, r. (2013). reductions in circulating endocannabinoid levels in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder following exposure to the world trade center attacks. psychoneuroendocrinology, 38, 2952–2961. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.08.004 howlett, a. c., barth, f., bonner, t. i., cabral, g., casellas, p., devane, w. a., felder, c. c., herkenham, m., mackie, k., martin, b. r., mechoulam, r., & pertwee, r. g. (2002). international union of pharmacology. xxvii. classification of cannabinoid receptors. pharmacological reviews, 54(2), 161202. https://doi.org/10.1124/pr.54.2.161 hsu, h., & siwiec, r. m. (2022). knee osteoarthritis. in statpearls [internet]. treasure island (fl). statpearls publishing llc. idris, a. i., & ralston, s. h. (2012). role of cannabinoids in the regulation of bone remodeling. frontiers in endocrinology, 3, 136. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2012.00136 la porta, c., bura, s. a., llorente-onaindia, j., pastor, a., navarrete, f., garcíagutiérrez, m. s., de la torre, r., manzanares, j., monfort, j., & maldonado, r. (2015). role of the endocannabinoid system in the emotional manifestations of osteoarthritis pain. the journal of pain, 156(10), 2001–2012. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000260 la porta, c., bura, s. a., negrete, r., & maldonado, r. (2014). involvement of the endocannabinoid system in osteoarthritis pain. european journal of neuroscience, 39(3), 485-500. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.12468 https://doi.org/10.2174/187152709789824660 https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvp240 https://doi.org/10.1194/jlr.m001511 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.11-02-00563.1991 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.11-02-00563.1991 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.08.004 https://doi.org/10.1124/pr.54.2.161 https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2012.00136 https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000260 https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.12468 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 316 loeser, r. f. (2011). aging and osteoarthritis. current opinion in rheumatology, 23(5), 492–496. https://doi.org/10.1097/bor.0b013e3283494005 lu, h. c., & mackie, k. (2016). an introduction to the endogenous cannabinoid system. biological psychiatry, 79(7), 516-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.07.028 luk, t., jin, w., zvonok, a., lu, d., lin, x. z., chavkin, c., makriyannis, a., & mackie, k. (2004). identification of a potent and highly efficacious, yet slowly desensitizing cb1 cannabinoid receptor agonist. british journal of pharmacology, 142(3), 495-500. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjp.0705792 mackie, k. (2005). distribution of cannabinoid receptors in the central and peripheral nervous system. handbook of experimental pharmacology, 168, 299325. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26573-2_10 mackie, k., devane, w. a., & hille, b. (1993). anandamide, an endogenous cannabinoid, inhibits calcium currents as a partial agonist in n18 neuroblastoma cells. molecular pharmacology, 44(3), 498–503. maeda, y., lisi, t. l., vance, c. g., & sluka, k. a. (2007). release of gaba and activation of gabaa in the spinal cord mediates the effects of tens in rats. brain research, 1136, 43-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2006.11.061 maldonado, m., & nam, j. (2013). the role of changes in extracellular matrix of cartilage in the presence of inflammation on the pathology of osteoarthritis. biomed research international, 284873. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/284873 manzanares, j., julian, m., & carrascosa, a. (2006). role of the cannabinoid system in pain control and therapeutic implications for the management of acute and chronic pain episodes. current neuropharmacology, 4(3), 239-257. https://doi.org/10.2174/157015906778019527 marin bosch, b., bringard, a., logrieco, m.g., lauer, e., imobersteg, n., thomas, a., ferretti, g., schwartz, s., & igloi, k. (2020). effect of acute physical exercise on motor sequence memory. scientific reports, 10, 15322. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72108-1 mathiessen, a., & conaghan, p. g. (2017). synovitis in osteoarthritis: current understanding with therapeutic implications. arthritis research & therapy, 19, 18 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13075-017-1229-9 mbvundula, e. c., bunning, r. a., & rainsford, k. d. (2006). arthritis and cannabinoids: hu-210 and win-55,212-2 prevent il-1alpha-inducedmatrix degradation in bovine articular chondrocytes in-vitro. journal of pharmacy and pharmacology, 58, 351–358. https://doi.org/10.1211/jpp.58.3.0009 mechoulam, r., & gaoni, y. (1967). the absolute configuration of delta1tetrahydrocannabinol major active constituent of hashish. tetrahedron letters, 12, 1109-1011. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0040-4039(00)90646-4 https://doi.org/10.1097/bor.0b013e3283494005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.07.028 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjp.0705792 https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26573-2_10 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2006.11.061 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/284873 https://doi.org/10.2174/157015906778019527 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72108-1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13075-017-1229-9 https://doi.org/10.1211/jpp.58.3.0009 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0040-4039(00)90646-4 the endocannabinoid system a turning point in optimizing physiotherapy… ilie onu et al. 317 mechoulam, r., ben-shabat, s., hanus, l., ligumsky, m., kaminski, n. e., schatz, a. r., gopher, a., almog, s., martin, b. r., compton, d. r., pertwee, r. g., griffin, g., bayewitch, m., barg, j., & vogel, z. (1995). identification of an endogenous 2-monoglyceride, present in canine gut, that binds to cannabinoid receptors. biochemical pharmacology, 50, 83–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-2952(95)00109-d musumeci, g., aiello, f. c., szychlinska, m. a., di rosa, m., castrogiovanni, p., & mobasheri, a. (2015). osteoarthritis in the xxist century: risk factors and behaviours that influence disease onset and progression. international journal of molecular sciences, 16(3), 6093-6112. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms16036093 nomura, d. k., morrison, b. e., blankman, j. l., long, j. z., kinsey, s. g., marcondes, m. c., ward, a. m., hahn, y. k., lichtman, a. h., conti, b., & cravatt, b. f. (2011). endocannabinoid hydrolysis generates brain the endocannabinoid system and pain: an introduction 115 proceedings of the nutrition society prostaglandins that promote neuroinflammation. science, 334(6057), 809–813. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1209200 norrod, a. g., & puffenbarger, r. a. (2007). genetic polymorphisms of the endocannabinoid system. chemistry & biodiversity, 4(8), 1926–1932. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbdv.200790160 onu, i., iordan, d. a., codreanu, c. m., matei, d., & galaction, a. i. (2021). antiinflammatory effects of exercise training. a systematic review. balneo and prm research journal, 12(4), 418-425. onu, i., matei, d., sardaru, d.p., cascaval, d., onu, a., gherghel, r., serban, i. l., mocanu, g. d., iordan, d. a., murariu, g., & galaction, a. i. (2022). rehabilitation of patients with moderate knee osteoarthritis using hyaluronic acid viscosupplementation and physiotherapy. applied sciences, 12, 3165. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12063165 parik, d., hamid, a., friedman, t. c., nguyen, k., tseng, a., marquez, p., & lutfy, k. (2011). stress-induced analgesia and endogenous opioid peptides: the importance of stress duration. european journal of pharmacology, 650, 563– 567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2010.10.050 paulsen, r. t., & burrell, b. d. (2019). comparative studies of endocannabinoid modulation of pain. philosophical transactions of the royal society b, 374, 2019027920190279. http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0279 prado, w. a., & roberts, m. h. t. (1985). an assessment of the antinociceptive and aversive effects of stimulating identified sites in the rat brain. brain research, 340, 219–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(85)90917-5 racz, i., nadal, x., alferink, j., baños, j. e., rehnelt, j., martín, m., pintado, b., gutierrez-adan, a., sanguino, e., manzanares, j., zimmer, a., maldonado, r. (2008). crucial role of cb(2) cannabinoid receptor in the regulation of https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-2952(95)00109-d https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms16036093 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1209200 https://doi.org/10.1002/cbdv.200790160 https://doi.org/10.3390/app12063165 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2010.10.050 http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0279 https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(85)90917-5 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 318 central immune responses during neuropathic pain. journal of neuroscience, 28(46), 12125-12135. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.3400-08.2008 radhakrishnan, r., king, e. w., dickman, j. k., herold, c. a., johnston, n. f., spurgin, m. l., & sluka, k. a. (2003). spinal 5-ht(2) and 5-ht(3) receptors mediate low, but not high, frequency tens-induced antihyperalgesia in rats. pain, 105, 205-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3959(03)00207-0 raichlen, d. a., foster, a. d., seillier, a., giuffrida, a., & gerdeman, g. l. (2013). exercise-induced endocannabinoid signaling is modulated by intensity. european journal of applied physiology, 113, 869–875. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-012-2495-5 ramaekers, j. g., kauert, g., van ruitenbeek, p., theunissen, e. l., schneider, e., & moeller, m. r. (2006). high-potency marijuana impairs executive function and inhibitory motor control. neuropsychopharmacology, 31(10), 2296–2303. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1301068 resende, m. a., sabino, g. g., cândido, c. r., pereira, l. s., & francischi, j. n. (2004). local transcutaneous electrical stimulation (tens) effects in experimental inflammatory edema and pain. european journal of pharmacology, 504, 217–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2004.09.055 rice, a. s., farquhar-smith, w. p., & nagy, i. (2002). endocannabinoids and pain: spinal and peripheral analgesia in inflammation and neuropathy. prostaglandins, leukotrienes and essential fatty acids, 66, 243-256. https://doi.org/10.1054/plef.2001.0362 richardson, j. d. (2000). cannabinoids modulate pain by multiple mechanisms of action.the journal of pain, 1, 2–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/s15265900(00)90082-8 sabino, g. s., santos, c. m., & francischi, j. n., de resende, m. a. (2008). release of endogenous opioids following transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation in an experimental model of acute inflammatory pain. the journal of pain, 9, 157-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2007.09.003 sabino, g. s., santos, c. m., francischi, j. n., & de resende, m. a. (2008). release of endogenous opioids following transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation in an experimental model of acute inflammatory pain. the journal of pain, 9(2), 157-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2007.09.003 salio, c., doly, s., fischer, j., franzoni, m. f., & conrath, m. (2002). neuronal and astrocytic localization of the cannabinoid receptor-1 in the dorsal horn of the rat spinal cord. neuroscience letters, 329(1), 13–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3940(02)00549-9 salio, c., fischer, j., franzoni, m. f., & conrath, m. (2002). preand postsynaptic localizations of the cb1 cannabinoid receptor in the dorsal horn of the rat https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.3400-08.2008 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3959(03)00207-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-012-2495-5 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1301068 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2004.09.055 https://doi.org/10.1054/plef.2001.0362 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1526-5900(00)90082-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1526-5900(00)90082-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2007.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2007.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3940(02)00549-9 the endocannabinoid system a turning point in optimizing physiotherapy… ilie onu et al. 319 spinal cord. neuroscience, 110, 755–764. https://doi.org/10.1016/s03064522(01)00584-x samson, m-t., small-howard, a., shimoda, l. m. n., koblan-huberson, m., stokes, a. j., & turner, h. (2003). differential roles of cb1 and cb2 cannabinoid receptors in mast cells. journal of immunology, 170(10), 4953– 4962. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.170.10.4953 schuelert, n., & mcdougall, j. j. (2008). cannabinoid-mediated antinociception is enhanced in rat osteoarthritic knees. arthritis & rheumatology, 58(1), 145– 153. https://doi.org/10.1002/art.23156 schuelert, n., johnson, m.p., oskins, j.l., jassal, k., chambers, m. g., & mcdougall, j. j. (2011). local application of the endocannabinoid hydrolysis inhibitor urb597 reduces nociception in spontaneous and chemically induced models of osteoarthritis. the jounal of pain, 152, 975– 981. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2010.11.025 schuelert, n., zhang, c., mogg, a.j., broad, l. m., hepburn, d. l., nisenbaum, e. s., johnson, m. p., & mcdougall, j. j. (2010). paradoxical effects of the cannabinoid cb2 receptor agonist gw405833 on rat osteoarthritic knee joint pain. osteoarthritis and cartilage, 18(11), 1536–1543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2010.09.005 scully, d., kremer, j., meade, m. m., graham, r., & dudgeon, k. (1998). physical exercise and psychological well being: a critical review. british journal of sports medicine, 32(2), 111-120. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.32.2.111 sluka, k. a., deacon, m., stibal, a., strissel, s., & terpstra, a. (1999). spinal blockade of opioid receptors prevents the analgesia produced by tens in arthritic rats. journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, 289(2), 840846. sparling, p. b., giuffrida, a., piomelli, d., rosskopf, l., & dietrich, a. (2003). exercise activates the endocannabinoid system. neuroreport, 14(17), 22092211. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001756-200312020-00015 stensson, n., gerdle, b., ernberg, m., mannerkorpi, k., kosek, e., & ghafouri, b. (2020). increased anandamide and decreased pain and depression after exercise in fibromyalgia. medicine & science in sports & exercise, 52(7), 1617-1628. https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0000000000002293 st-onge, m. p., roberts, a. l., chen, j., kelleman, m., o'keeffe, m., roychoudhury, a., & jones, p. j. (2011). short sleep duration increases energy intakes but does not change energy expenditure in normal-weight individuals. the american journal of clinical nutrition, 94, 410–416. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.111.013904 suarez, j., bermudez-silva, f. j., mackie, k., ledent, c., zimmer, a., cravatt, b. f., & de fonseca, f. r. (2008). immunohistochemical description of the endogenous cannabinoid system in the rat cerebellum and functionally https://doi.org/10.1016/s0306-4522(01)00584-x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0306-4522(01)00584-x https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.170.10.4953 https://doi.org/10.1002/art.23156 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2010.11.025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2010.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.32.2.111 https://doi.org/10.1097/00001756-200312020-00015 https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0000000000002293 https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.111.013904 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 320 related nuclei. journal of comparative neurology, 509(4), 400–421. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.21774 teixeira gonçalves, t. c., londe, a. k., albano, r. i. p., de araújo júnior, a. t., de aguiar azeredo, m., biagioni, a. f., vasconcellos, t. h. f., dos reis ferreira, c. m., teixeira gonçalves, d., de souza crippa, j. a., vieira, d., & coimbra, n. c. (2014). cannabidiol and endogenous opioid peptidemediated mechanisms modulate antinociception induced by transcutaneous electrostimulation of the peripheral nervous system. journal of the neurological sciences, 347(1-2), 82–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2014.09.024 thomas, r., johnsen, l. k., geertsen, s. s., christiansen, l., ritz, c., roig, m., & lundbye-jensen, j. (2016). acute exercise and motor memory consolidation: the role of exercise intensity. plos one, 11(7), e0159589. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159589 uchigashima, m., narushima, m., fukaya, m., katona, i., kano, m., & watanabe, m. (2007). subcellular arrangement of molecules for 2-arachidonoylglycerol-mediated retrograde signaling and its physiological contribution to synaptic modulation in the striatum. journal of neuroscience, 27(14), 3663– 3676. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0448-07.2007 walker, j. m., huang, s. m., strangman, n. m., tsou, k., sañudo-peña, m. c. (1999). pain modulation by release of the endogenous cannabinoid anandamide. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 96(21), 12198– 12203. xavier santos, g., de-souza, g. g., santos alves, s., nagai ocamoto, g., parizotto, n. a., & dos-reis, l. m. (2020). the influence of the cannabinoid receptor cb1 on the periaqueductal gray in mice treated with photobiomodulation after chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve: a placebo-controlled trial. brazilian journal of pain, 3(1), 2-7. https://doi.org/10.5935/2595-0118.20200002 yao, b. b., hsieh, g. c., frost, j. m., fan, y., garrison, t. r., daza, a.v., grayson, g. k., zhu, c. z., pai, m., chandran, p., salyers, a. k., wensink, e. j., honore, p., sullivan, j. p., dart, m. j., & meyer, m. d. (2008). in vitro and in vivo characterization of a-796260: a selective cannabinoid cb2 receptor agonist exhibiting analgesic activity in rodent pain models. british journal of pharmacology, 153(2), 390–401. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjp.0707568 zias, j., stark, h., sellgman, j., levy, r., werker, e., breuer, a., & mechoulam, r. (1993). early medical use of cannabis. nature, 363(6426), 215. https://doi.org/10.1038/363215a0 https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.21774 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2014.09.024 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159589 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0448-07.2007 https://doi.org/10.5935/2595-0118.20200002 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjp.0707568 https://doi.org/10.1038/363215a0 microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 49 some considerations on seriality and synchronicity elena nechita department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania enechita@ub.ro abstract this paper presents an overview of the results that have been obtained lately on seriality and synchronicity, and their link, in the light of the new theories and within the frame of complexity science. keywords: seriality, synchronicity 1. introduction from the late17th century until the early 20th, the laws of motion and other linear, mechanical principles discovered by isaac newton dominated the understandings of science and filtered down into every aspect of the western world. this view of reality over time penetrated our education system, our culture, our language, our organizations and our management practices so completely that it became taken for granted [1]. this view of reality assume that: − things happen because something causes them to happen (cause and effect). − we can understand what happened by reducing things to their components or parts and examining those parts (reductionism). − the universe is orderly, follows natural laws, and works like an incredibly complicated machine. − the best way to manage people is to organize them into a clear structure and control them with clear directions. − the best results occur when work is streamlined to be as efficient as possible, with a minimum of wasted effort, producing the most output in the least amount of time (the "lean machine"). in the early 20th century, the certainty of newton's mechanics was undermined by quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle developed by werner heisenberg. albert einstein found that time is relative, space is curved, matter and energy are interchangeable, and many other new challenges to the old newtonian view of reality. modern science has come to realize that all scientific theories are approximations to the true nature of reality; and that each theory is valid for a certain range of phenomenon. beyond this range it no longer gives a satisfactory description of nature, and new theories have to be found to replace the old one, or, rather, to extend it by improving the approximation. studying complexity, with the help of computers, scientists have discovered many things about "the real world" with practical applications for business, management, community and economic development. they have discovered some profound properties of life forms, order and structure using advanced computer modelling, which suggest powerful new ways by which organizations can emerge, evolve and thrive in the increasingly complex technological-economic environment. therefore, complexity science has been regarded as a means of unification for otherwise disjoint and unrelated sciences and has also been evoked to explain unexplainable (until now) phenomena such as patterns in music, arts and sociology. paul kammerer’s theory of seriality and carl jung’s theory of synchronicity are examples of such phenomena. in light of complexity science, the combined theories of seriality and synchronicity are genuine attempts to explain natural laws by scientists that did not know about the existence of those laws. patterns in seriality and synchronicity show power law distributions and lognormal patterns so fundamental to and characteristic of other fields within the science of complexity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 50 2. seriality and synchronicity a “series” is noted in every-day life when a random event that is considered extremely rare happens more than once in a relatively short period of time. in the common sense, the law of series asserts that such series occur more often than they intuitively should, indicating the existence of an unexplained physical force or statistical rule provoking them. the austrian biologist paul kammerer (1881 – 1926) was the first scientist who studied this law [2] and described it as follows: “a series manifests itself as a lawful recurrence of the same or similar things and events a recurrence, or clustering, in time or space whereby the individual members in the sequence as far as can be assertained by careful analysis are not connected by the same active cause”. the central idea of kammerer’s theory is that, side by side with causality of classical physics, there exists another basic principle in the universe which tends towards unity: it correlates by affinity, regardless whether the likeness is one of substance, form or function, or refers to symbols. kammerer points to analogies on various levels, where the same tendency towards unity, symmetry and coherence manifests in conveniently causal ways: gravity, magnetism, chemical affinity, sexual attraction, biological adaptation, symbiosis, protective coloring, imitative behavior. on the other side, swiss professor of philosophy carl gustav jung (1875 – 1961) and austrian physicist wolfgang pauli (1900 – 1958) were fascinated by examples of “meaningful coincidences”. they conjectured the existence of undiscovered and mysterious “attracting” forces driving objects that are alike, or have common features, close together in time and space and used the word “synchronicity” to describe situations like these. in [3], jung emphasizes his belief that the interrelationship between the internal states of consciousness and the external world is not bound by cause and effect, but something more difficult to define, something like “meaning”. for example, after the disaster at chernobyl in 1986, interviews showed that large numbers of people had dreamed in advance that the plant was unsafe and a nuclear accident was imminent. if an event has no meaningful importance for the individual, then the event is simply a coincidence and not a synchronicity. he noticed that synchronicity often appears when people are in states of crisis, transformation or pushed to extreme limits – meaningful times in life. jung and pauli's common reflections went far beyond psychology and physics, entering into the realm where the two areas meet in the philosophy of nature. in fact, as a consequence of their collaboration, synchronicity was transformed from an empirical concept into a fundamental explanatory-interpretative principle, which together with causality could possibly lead to a more complete worldview. where jung's synchronicity deals with the relationship between subjectivity and the external world, kammerer's seriality is more concerned with patterns and groupings of objects that occur in the environment. in [2] we get a topology of non-causal occurrences related to names, numbers, situations, as well as a morphology of series: according to the number of successive similar or identical events we distinguish between series of the first, second, third,… order, while according to the number of parallel concurrences of similar events we can observe series of the first, second, third,… power. besides order and power, series can also be classified according to the number of their parameters – that is, the number of shared attributes. further on, kammerer offered a systematization of series in: homologous and analogous, pure and hybrid, inverted, alternating, cyclic, phases series. beyond simple situations that can be evoked to illustrate seriality (incidents under various headings: numbers, words, names, meeting people, disasters and so on) there are fields where manifestation of seriality required serious scientific studies. for example, in the insurance industry, the question of storm seriality has raised some intriguing scientific questions such as: are storms more clustered than one could expect only from chance? what processes could cause such clustering? how well can clustering be predicted? will the nature of clustering be different in the future? in general, one should expect all hazards that depend on factors with time-varying rates to exhibit clustering. most meteorological hazards fall into this category since weather systems generally depend on either large-scale flow patterns and/or boundary conditions (for example, sea e. nechita – some considerations on seriality and synchronicity 51 surface temperatures) that vary in time. this source of clustering is often overlooked by hazard models which generally assume that a) the individual hazard events are independent of one another, and b) the rate of the hazard remains stationary in time. although convenient for estimating the parameters in hazard models from past event data, both of these assumptions are highly questionable for most types of meteorological hazard. it has been proved that meteorological hazards are neither completely independent of one another nor have constant rates [4]. 3. information – an unification principle in [5], chalmers argues that each informational state has two different aspects: one as conscious experience, and the other as a physical process in the brain, that is, one internal/intentional and the other external/physical. this view finds support in the developments of so-called “information physics” [6], that proposes that the physical entropy would be a combination of two magnitudes that compensate each other: the observer’s ignorance, measured by shannon’s statistical entropy, and the disorder degree of the observed system, measured by the algorithmic entropy which is the smallest number of bits needed to register it in the memory. during the measurement, the observer’s ignorance is reduced, as a result of the increase in bit numbers in its memory. however, the sum of these two magnitudes – that is, the physical entropy remains constant. in this informational view of the universe, the observer remains included as part of the system, and the quantum universe changes not because it was widely influenced by the mind, but because the observer’s mind unleashed a transfer of information at a subatomic level. in [7], the idea that “entropy shouldn’t be understood as a disorder measure, but much more as a measure of complexity” also appears. consciousness’ conception as something essential, primary and irreducible is also found in the consciousness maps obtained from thousands of psychotherapeutic reports and consistent and converging experiences, observed by several researchers of the medical and psychological areas. these maps reveal an ontology in which consciousness cannot originate from, or be explained in terms of other things [8]. matter, life and consciousness appear as meaningful activities, that is, intelligent quantical-informational processes, “order” that is transmitted through the cosmical evolution. quantum theorists see things and events, once conceived as separate, as being so integrally linked that they seem to abandon the previous reality of separate space and time proposed by classical theories. it is as if things were always in touch with other things. we can understand information as an unifying principle, capable of connecting consciousness to the universe and to the totality of space and time. this allows a better understanding of phenomena and theories related to consciousness – among them, synchronicity. 4. mathematical and computational models for seriality and synchronicity an event a repeats in time “by pure chance” when it follows a poisson process. such a process is characterized by one parameter λ, equal to the average number of signals (occurrences of a) per time unit. in a typical realization of such a process, the distribution of signals along the time axis is far from being uniform: it reveals a natural tendency to create clusters. such purely random distribution is called stochastically unbiased and the resulting clustering is called spontaneous. in order to specify the meaning of seriality, mathematicians have defined attracting as a deviation of a signal process from the poisson process toward stronger clustering rather than spontaneous clustering. similarly, repelling is defined as clustering weaker than spontaneous, that is, a more uniform distribution of signals in time. recently, downarowicz and lacroix [9] have obtained a strong result in ergodic theory: a theorem that supports the law of series as predominance of attracting for certain types of events. in a typical realization of any stationary and ergodic signal process, in a sufficiently long run, the ratio between the number of signals and the elapsed time will approximately equal λ. thus, in a randomly selected time interval of length t, the expected value of the number of signals equals λt. if f is the distribution function of the waiting time for the first signal, then the value f(t) is the probability that in such interval there will be at least one signal. the ratio t/f(t) hence represents the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 52 conditional expectation of the number of signals in all these time intervals of length t in which at least one signal is observed. if ,1)( tetf −−< this conditional expectation is larger than in the poisson process – in other words, if we observe the process for time t, there are two possibilities: either we detect nothing or, once the first signal occurs, we can expect a larger global number of the observed signals than if we were dealing with poisson process. the first signal “attracts” further repetitions, contributing to an increased clustering effect. repelling is the converse: the first signal lowers the expected number of repetitions in the observation period, contributing to a decreased clustering, and a more uniform distribution of signals in time. the main result in [9] proves that, with regard to elementary events (basic sets of very small probabilities), any deviation from independence may generate only attracting. so, the conclusion is that in the universe there exists a natural advantage of attracting over repelling. the “decay of repelling” in positive entropy processes appears to agree with the intuitive understanding of entropy as chaos: repelling is a “self-organizing” property that leads to a more uniform, hence less chaotic, distribution of an event along a typical orbit. although, we have to notice that the attracting is explained in purely statistical terms, without needing to understand the nature of the dependencies. this theory may apply to some rare events in computer science or genetics. another interesting model is the cardland model, introduced by forster [10]. in this case, complexity science is used to explain kammerer’s law of seriality and, by inference, jung’s synchronicity. however, due to the nature of synchronicity, this paper primarily focuses on seriality. the cardland model is introduced and presented as a theoretical basis for seriality, to show how simple events are self-organizing and how they show the signature of complexity, a power law distribution. in essence, the cardland model uses a simple pack of playing cards that are observed in some experiments. for example, an outcome for a single iteration of cardland with the categorical type of red and black cards may be the following: b r b b r b b b r b b r r r r b b r r b r r r r r b b b b r r r b b r r b r r b r b b b b b b b r b b r. the clustering phenomenon of kammerer can be observed. the pattern or r’s (red cards) and b’s (black cards) appears random but when consecutive sequences are presented, a power law distribution is observed. an outcome for a single iteration of cardland with the categorical type of spade, club, heart and diamond cards may be the following: c h s s d s s s h c c d d h d c s h h s h h d d h d c c c s h h d c s h d c d h s d s c c c c s d s s d. the pattern or s’s (spades), c’s (clubs), h’s (hearts) and d’s (diamonds) appears random but the clustering phenomenon of kammerer and a power law can also be observed. these theoretical experiments have been supported with real-life observational data. for example, male subjects have been observed with respect to their facial growth in circular quay railway station, sydney, australia, chosen because of a regular flow of people from a wide range of cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds. the distribution of the number of consecutive sequences of males with and without facial growth closely followed a power law. the results for the cardland model and real-life observational data are consistent with patterns in self-organization and power-law distributions. events tend to be self-organizing when there are no inherent constraints on those events to behave in a particular fashion. this conclusion is consistent with previous findings in the fields of economics, finance, physics and population evolutionary biology: mandelbrot, 1963 [11], kauffman, 1993 [12], lewin, 1993 [13], newman, 1996 [14], bak, 1997 [15], laherree and sornette, 1998 [16], mantegna and stanley, 2000 [17], ward, 2001 [18]. 5. conclusions and future work if we look at the evolution of life over millions of years, we can see a pattern in which life forms become more communicative, more richly creative, more able to process complex information, more spontaneous in their capacities to respond to change. so while some regions of the world are “closed systems” in states of equilibrium, in order for life to develop there had to be other regions of the world that were “open systems” where new types of order could spontaneously form [19]. as the computer sciences developed so that very large amounts of data could be e. nechita – some considerations on seriality and synchronicity 53 processed rapidly, models began to be developed of these different types of information systems. complexity theory has depicted four basic types of information systems, based on levels of connectivity, that seem to emerge from the logic of mathematics. it turned out that these four types of systems can be documented throughout the natural world, in laboratory experiments, in social environments, and in business corporations. class 1 systems have too few connections to develop creatively and fall into entropy. class 2 systems have more connective links, and settle into patterns. class 3 systems are turbulent and chaotic and no stable patterns ever emerge. finally, in class 4 systems, where just the right level of connectivity is reached, beautiful, complex, and coherent structures begin to develop suddenly. through emergence, objects and patterns can arise from simple interactions in ways that are surprising and counter-intuitive. with respect to synchronicity, numerous studies in neurosciences, medicine, psychology, or philosophy showed that the question of a-causality in “meaningful” coincidences can be reassessed in terms of the concept of emergence, which explores holistic phenomena supervening from interactions among component agents. while complexity theory has been very useful in helping to conceptualize how synchronicity might connect with the sciences, no model can ever be a final resting point in our understanding [20]. jung had essentially a post-structuralist view of knowledge: “all knowledge is the result of imposing some kind of order upon the reactions of the psychic system as they flow into our consciousness... it is not a question of asserting anything, but of constructing a model which opens up a promising field of inquiry. a model does not assert that something is so, it simply indicates a particular mode of observation”. in a future work we intend to realize a computational model in order to observe how schemas in genetic algorithms search process, within the framework formalized by holland [21], may link with the law of seriality. 6. references [1] umpleby, s.a., dent, e.b. (1919). the origins and purposes of several traditions in systems theory and cybernetics. cybernetics and systems: an international journal, march, 30, 2, 79. [2] kammerer, p. (1919). das gesetz der series, eine lehre von den wiederholungen im lebens und im weltgeschehen, stuttgart. [3] jung, c. g.. (1972). synchronicity: an acausal connecting principle. london: routledge & kegan paul. [4] stephenson d. (2008). storm seriality. the clustering effect. in: climate analysis group at the university of reading. retrieved in april 15, 2008 from www.met.rdg.ac.uk/cag. [5] chalmers, d.j. (1995). facing up to the problem of consciousness. journal of consciousness studies, 2(3), 200. [6] wojciech, h.z. (1990). complexity, entropy and the physics of information. colorado: westview press. [7] atlan, h. (1972). l 'organisation biologique et la theorie de l’information. paris: hermann. [8] antunes, r., coelho, c. (1990). science and the primacy of consciousness, vol.1. in readings in the cosmology of consciousness. usa: noetic press. [9] downarowicz, t., lacroix, y. (2008). the law of series. retrieved april 15, 2008 from http://www.im.pwr.wroc.pl/~downar/english/documents/publications.html. [10] hong, s., forster, m., et al. (2005). visualisation and analysis of large and complex networks (valacon). university of sydney research conversazione. [11] mandelbrot, b. (1963). the variation of certain speculative prices. journal of business, 36, 394. [12] kauffman, s. (1993). the origins of order. oxford: oxford university press. [13] lewin, r. (1993). complexity. london: dent. [14] newman, m.e.j. (1996). self-organized criticality, evolution and the fossil record. in: proceedings of the royal society of london (p. 1605), series b, 263. [15] bak, p. (1997). how nature works. oxford: oxford university press. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 54 [16] laherree, j., sornette, d. (1998). stretched exponential distributions in nature and economy: 'fat tails' with characteristic scales. european physical journal b, 2, 525. [17] mantegna, r.n., stanley, h.e. (2000). an introduction to econophysics. cambridge: cambridge university press. [18] ward, m. (2001).universality: the underlying theory behind life, the universe and everything, london: macmillan. [19] prigogine, i., stengers, i. (1984). order out of chaos. new york: bantam books. [20] lorenz, h.s. (2006). synchronicity in the 21st century. jung: the e-journal of the jungian society for scholarly studies, 2, 2. [21] holland, j.h. (1998). adaptation in natural and artificial systems: an introductory analysis with applications to biology, control and artificial intelligence. cambridge, ma: mit press. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 277-294 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/319 submitted: november 11th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 13th, 2022 contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and neuropsychocorrection of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases nataliia pylypenko¹, olha kovalova2, olesia prokofieva3, olga kochkurova4, maryna kriukova5, yaroslava zelinska6 1 cherkasy state technological university, ukraine, liya878veretelnik@gmail.com 2 bogdan khmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, kovalova.ov.mdpu@gmail.com 3 bogdan khmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, prok.olesya@gmail.com 4 bogdan khmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, oliakochkurova55@gmail.com 5 national university "odesa law academy", ukraine, marisel039@ukr.net 6 national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, ukraine, zelinskaya.yaroslava@gmail.com abstract: the article is devoted to the problem of complex consideration of psychotherapeutic methods in psychocorrection of emotional disorders in combination with neuropsychological technologies in psychosomatic diseases. the most popular psychotherapeutic and neuropsychological methods in foreign and domestic works which can be applied in the psychosomatic approach to diagnostics and therapy of emotional frustration are considered. certain neuropsychological mechanisms of emotional and psychosomatic disorders are analysed. the role of the emotional factor in the occurrence of psychosomatic diseases is emphasized. it is proposed to replace psychopharmacology with neuro psycho-corrective aids to restore optimal neurophysiological functions of the central nervous system, taking into account the degree of its recovery and availability of emotional and personal resources of the client. psychotherapeutic and neuropsychological recommendations for recovery of psychosomatic health have been developed. keywords: emotional response, psychophysiological reactions, neuropsychological methods, personality disorders, chronic stress, central nervous system, psychosomatic approach. how to cite: pylypenko, n., kovalova, o., prokofieva, o., kochkurova, o., kriukova, m., & zelinska, y. (2022). contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and neuro-psychocorrection of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 277-294. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/319 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/319 mailto:liya878veretelnik@gmail.com mailto:kovalova.ov.mdpu@gmail.com mailto:prok.olesya@gmail.com mailto:oliakochkurova55@gmail.com mailto:marisel039@ukr.net mailto:zelinskaya.yaroslava@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/319 contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and ... nataliia pylypenko, et al. 278 introduction the role of emotions in the life of an individual is invaluable they act as a powerful regulator of mental activity to meet subjectively significant needs, a factor in ensuring and maintaining good health. however, chronic negative emotional manifestations, taking into account their intensity, consistency and frequency, can disrupt human behaviour, cause psychological and physiological maladaptation under stress, fatigue, emotional burnout, depression and other emotional disorders. in the complex current conditions of human activity, the needs of individuals are often frustrated, the balance between the ability to meet them and personal resources and requirements of the society, which often leads to inadequate emotional response and disorders of emotional states and properties, reduced functioning and activity, onset of neurotic and psychosomatic problems. in this regard, the study of contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and neuro-psychocorrection of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases at the theoretical and applied level of integration of neuroscientific positions, psychotherapeutic views and general psychological ideas is an extremely important issue for professionally competent psychological assistance to people in solving their important and subjectively significant problems (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). the urgency of the issue made it possible to set theoretical and methodological, clinical and applied goals of the article: analysis of current methods of diagnosis, psychotherapy and neuro psychocorrection of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases, taking into account the psychosomatic approach; presentation of generalized psychotherapeutic and neuropsychological recommendations for ensuring psychosomatic health. novelty and practical significance of the article for the first time it is proposed to replace psychopharmacology with neuro psycho-corrective aids to restore optimal neurophysiological functions of the central nervous system, taking into account the degree of its recovery and availability of emotional and personal resources of the client; it is recommended to conduct neuro psychocorrection in combination with individually selected for the client psychotherapeutic methods, taking into account the degree of development of emotional and psychosomatic disorders and the presence of personality disorders; orientation of medical and psychological analysis of the problem on the use of psychotherapeutic methods (techniques and brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 279 exercises) in combination with neuropsychological technologies as a means of psychocorrection of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases. psychosomatic approach to diagnosis, psychotherapy and neuropsychocorrection of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases the concept of “psychosomatics” combines two aspects: psychosomatic disorders and psychosomatic aids. psychosomatic aids define a general approach to provision of medical care, the conceptual basis of which is the complexity of somatopsychosocial interaction. in the dsm-iv, psychosomatic disorders refer to category 316 – “psychological factors influencing the somatic state”. the interaction of psyche and soma is most pronounced during emotional reactions, in particular excessive secretion of cortisol due to the reaction of the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal gland to stress leads to structural changes in organs and systems, depressed mood, helplessness and hopelessness, prolonged depression, increase in blood pressure, sleepiness, which disturbs the homeostatic balance, increasing susceptibility to infectious and other pathogenic factors. in the cognitive scheme “stress psychophysiological and emotional reactions somatization of emotions psychosomatic disorders” emotional reactions are closely interrelated with personal characteristics and behaviour, manifested through them and maintain psychological integrity between the outside world with complex stressful situations and internal – subjectively valuable, unique and can confirm personal disorders with socially disorganizing behaviour, poor adaptability and lack of flexible thinking. according to the classical classification, the following psychosomatic disorders are distinguished: classical psychosomatosis, i.e. psychosomatic diseases accompanied by organic pathology of internal organs and systems (essential hypertension, peptic ulcer, coronary heart disease, bronchial asthma, intestinal inflammation, neurodermatitis, idiopathic urticaria; functional psychosomatic disorders (systemic neurosis; some types of arrhythmia, stenocardia, coronary spasms; syncope (fainting), hypotension, headache, raynaud’s disease, stuttering, enuresis, neurotic tic, vomiting, irritable colon syndrome, most forms of sexual dysfunctions, functional infertility; psychosomatic disorders in a broad (indirect) sense, when health is impaired due to specific characteristics of human behaviour, due to the nature of an individual and his experiences (predisposition to physical trauma, burns, socalled psychogenic obesity, alcoholism, substance abuse, etc.); conversion symptoms occur in response to a neurotic conflict, are of symbolic nature and contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and ... nataliia pylypenko, et al. 280 are manifested mainly by pathological phenomena affecting the organs of senses (amaurosis, slirdomutism, pain, anaesthesia) or impaired motility (paralysis, paresis, convulsions, astasia, abasia, vomiting, aphonia, hysterical tangle) (fedosova, 2013). fava & sonino (2010) clarified the definition of psychosomatic aids, which is considered as a section of psychosomatics. from the point of view of contemporary researchers, psychosomatic aids can be defined as a complex interdisciplinary basis for: assessment of psychological factors influencing individual vulnerability, as well as the course and outcome of the disease; biopsychosocial consideration of patient care in clinical practice; specialized interventions for integration of psychological therapy in the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of medical diseases. it can be predicted that one of the psychological causes of inadequate emotional reactions, long-term recurrence of which in similar stressful situations can cause psychosomatic illnesses, are personal characteristics. in the current practice of clinical research, personal disorders are of scientific interest as persistent rigid patterns of long duration, which cause significant distress, which, obviously, can cause psychosomatic manifestations. emotional disorders cannot be considered objectively separately from personal ones. thus, pavlenko (2018) describes a detailed classification of personal and emotional disorders based on generalization of mostly foreign as well as domestic concepts: theatrical, emotional or unstable disorders are related to antisocial, borderline, hysterical and narcissistic personality disorders a common characteristic of these disorders are problems with self-control (impulsivity) and emotional regulation; avoidant, dependent and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders are grouped in dsm ‑ 5 in cluster c and are called “anxiety and panic (fear) disorders” their common feature is a high level of anxiety; schizophrenic personality disorder is characterized by a limited ability to express feelings and feel pleasure, emotional coldness, detachment or efficiency; paranoid personality disorder is characterized by excessive sensitivity to failure, inability to forgive offenses, suspicion and a tendency to misperceive reality; antisocial personality disorder is characterized by manifestations of hostility, aggression, anger; narcissistic personality disorder is accompanied by such emotional features as lack of ability to empathize with others, envy, anger or shame, aggression towards others; passiveaggressive personality disorder manifests itself in the form of general gloom, propensity for controversy, anger and envy of more successful people, and brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 281 the psychoneurotic in the form of increased excitability in combination with a pronounced tendency to exhaustion and reduced efficiency. emotionally unstable personality disorder, according to icd ‑ 10, is characterized by a tendency to impulsive actions regardless of the consequences, outbursts of emotions, unpredictability of mood, inability to control “explosive” behaviour. the classification distinguishes two types of disorders: impulsive type, characterized mostly by emotional instability and lack of emotional control, and borderline type, which is further characterized by disorders of self-perception and inner aspirations, chronic feeling of emptiness, tense and unstable interpersonal relationships, and also tendency to self-destructive behaviour (including suicidal behaviour). avoiding (anxious) personality disorder is characterized by a feeling of inner tension, gloomy premonitions, lack of sense of security and inferiority complex. theoretically, one can predict that at the neurohormonal level for different types of emotional and personality disorders may show similar psychosomatic manifestations for each of them. chronic psychosomatic diseases with an appropriate complex of emotional disorders are always associated with a depleted nervous system and functional disorders in all body systems, which requires neuro psychocorrection and long-term psychotherapy. in addition, neuropsychological correction of emotional disorders should be applied at the initial stage of work with the client to restore the central nervous system, development of new neural connections, ensuring optimal performance. the current approach to diagnosis, psychotherapy and neuropsychocorrection of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases should be integrated, comprehensive and systemic. the psychosomatic approach to this problem is carried out on the basis of the theoretical and methodological analysis of the following works. therefore, the current approach to psychotherapy of psychological maladaptation of the client’s personality with neurotic and psychosomatic problems can be fully learned from the work of mushkevych & chaharna (2017) on psychotherapy techniques, genesis of neurosis and the result of psychotherapeutic effects in various classical psychotherapeutic areas: psychoanalysis, behaviour, clientcentred, physical, interpersonal psychotherapy, gestalt therapy, etc. for theoretical and applied analysis of the problem in relation to the goals in our article, the scientific position of kocharyan (2014) on the psychotherapeutic effect of techniques for releasing “jammed” emotions is of great importance. for our work, the use of client-cantered psychotherapy techniques in solving contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and ... nataliia pylypenko, et al. 282 neurotic and psychosomatic problems is also of scientific interest (kocharyan, 2014; rogers, 1951); methods of cognitive-behavioural therapy for psychocorrection of emotional disorders (linehan, 1993) the current state of their application in the diagnosis and planning of therapy was generalized and presented at a sufficient level for psycho correctional practice by fedorov (2002). kulakov (2003) successfully generalized the most popular theories of psychosomatic disorders and professionally applied an integrative approach in their therapy a combination of psychodynamic psychotherapy with cognitive-behavioural and family psychotherapy. mcewen (2007) successfully modelled the relationship between brain function and the emotional and physiological response of a person to stress and the peculiarities of the body’s adaptation to stressful events throughout life. the author argues that the brain is a key organ of response to stress because it determines physiological and behavioural responses that can be adaptive or maladaptive. the hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex undergo structural adjustment that alters behavioural and physiological responses. therefore, in addition to pharmaceutical therapy, social and behavioural activities, regular exercise and social support, reduce the burden on the nervous system under the influence of chronic stress and are health keeping technologies for brain and body. biopsychosocial model of psychosomatic disease in dynamics with a detailed analysis of the most wellknown in foreign science theories of psychodynamic processes describing methods of psychodynamic therapy and trends in current psychosomatics developments (wise, 2014), the relationship of neuroses of individuals with maladaptive manifestations in behaviour in particular, its aggressive and masochistic manifestations with psychosomatic disorders (xardel-haddab, 2009), the relationship of alexethymia (inability to recognize and understand emotions, experience emotional feelings and separate them from bodily sensations, deficiency of intellectual and cognitive competence of persons with personality disorders in human relations) with psychosomatic disorders (taylor & bagby, 2021). in medical and psychological practice, it is very important to take a psychosomatic approach to the correction of emotional and bodily disorders at the psychotic, borderline and neurotic levels, diagnosing at which of these levels the client is emotionally “stuck” to further select more effective psychotherapeutic techniques for working with his problem, also taking into account the integration, competence and personality-oriented approaches. thus, linehan (1993) offers a comprehensive integrative approach to the brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 283 treatment of people with borderline personality disorder and recommends to creatively combine the best elements of behavioural, psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioural and other psychotherapeutic methods; donyavi et al., (2015) offer consideration of the cognitive-behavioural model of neurotic and psychosomatic problems of people with physical dysmorphic disorder, which may also be associated with generalized anxiety disorder, obsessivecompulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder; khodayarifard & fatemi (2013) describe the therapeutic intervention of spiritual practices in the correction of anxiety disorders with a combination of cognitivebehavioural and family therapy; dyke et al., (2014) emphasize the important role of management development strategies in the comprehensive support of people with complex borderline personality disorder by various specialists, with detection of distress and improving mechanisms for overcoming the neurotic problem in patients. misinterpretation of events due to individual vulnerability to certain stresses causes one or another emotion, moreover psychopathological interpretation of emotions is presented as a strong exaggeration of normal emotion. cognitive distortions in the interpretation of emotions, the problem of dependence, disorder of object relations, the experience of unconscious internal conflicts can also play certain role in the emergence of emotional disorders. thus, according to the model of autonomic neurosis, when an unconscious conflict has no external manifestations, it leads to emotional stress, accompanied by persistent changes in the autonomic nervous system, a complex of inadequate emotional reactions. the emotional factor starts the process of somatization, conditions are created when healthy defence mechanisms are insufficient, neurotic ones switch on (depression, fears, phobias, alexithymia and other emotional disorders) (kulakov, 2003). we believe that for the effectiveness of diagnosis of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases and their subsequent treatment in the emotional psychosomatic complex “inadequate emotional reactions – psychophysiological and psychosomatic manifestations – emotional disorders” it is necessary to identify somatic disorders and those emotional reactions (psychological factor) that caused it. clinical and psychological diagnosis of emotional disorders should include: description of psychosomatic symptoms and emotional response to similar stressful situations and psychological problems; psychophysiological indicators of the central nervous system; classification of emotional disorders with a detailed contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and ... nataliia pylypenko, et al. 284 explanation of their relationship with personal structural components; quantitative and qualitative assessment of their depth, intensity and strength; prognosis for their changes in the process of psychotherapy and the use of neuro psycho-corrective medications. among the various methods of psychocorrection, the nonverbal body-oriented approach seems attractive due to possibility of direct communication with the subconscious through body language and control of emotions through the impact on their bodily manifestation. “stagnant” muscle tension caused by emotional reactions to stress is not only a cause of emotional discomfort, but also constant fatigue, decreased vitality and performance (asthenic conditions), the cause of psychogenic pain symptoms and psychosomatic disorders. it is body-oriented techniques, especially muscle and related psycho-emotional relaxation, plastic acting techniques and breathing techniques that contribute to the emotional response (catharsis). at the diagnostic stage, the search for emotional discomfort in connection with a current psychological problem is carried out, the manifestation of which is analysed in detail at the cognitive, emotional, physical and behavioural levels. at the psychotherapeutic stage it is necessary to record these manifestations with negative emotional states and apply active actions to them: methods of conscious self-control at the rational level – discussion with negative thoughts (method of rational-emotional behavioural psychotherapy by ellis); work with visual images (“swing method” or “slide replacement” in nlp); repetition of habitual actions to extinguish their emotional accompaniment (behavioural psychotherapy). the described methods and techniques are mainly left-hemispheric, verballymediated, rational and formalized (algorithmic). in this regard, bodyoriented techniques as predominantly right-hemispheric, informal, and nonverbal, which rely on working with bodily sensations, are most convenient for self-treatment by the patient (sandomyrsky, 2005). we believe that the goals of body-oriented psychotherapy are very similar to neuro psycho-corrective ones, because the body-psychological problem is a disorder of psychophysiological and psychological adaptation at the same time, whose tasks are primarily restructuring the functional state of the body and neutralizing psychosomatic disorders (neuro psychocorrectional technologies of activation of psychomotor activity, with restoration of the role of both hemispheres of the brain, etc.), and then – correction of adaptation on emotional (work with emotional and volitional frustration, neurosis-like states) and cognitive (formation of constructive brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 285 cognitive style in the analysis of stressful situations) levels to increase stress resistance and frustration tolerance through a combination of neuropsychological technologies of work with the body. the task of psychotherapy is to help the client to release “jammed emotions”, increase the intensity of the emotional process, balance emotions through the use of the model of emotional topography of the psyche. fixation of “jammed” experience under the influence of trauma is characterized by the following features: an experience does not emerge or end, but lurks under the threshold of consciousness (emotions may exist in a potential state, for example, resentment may “hide” and wait for a situation similar to previous trauma); becomes a “thing” in the body: “lump in the throat”, “tightness of the chest”, “bag on the shoulders”, etc. (emotion is somatised into a bodily symptom); has the property of “stagnation”; experiences of similar emotions transform into each other: resentment anger crying helplessness, creating a “vicious circle of experiences”, nothing changes to relieve them cathartic techniques are required, the technique of expanding the scope of experiences (kocharyan, 2014). a special role in integration of emotions is played by the hypothalamus emergence of emotions and their quality depend on the degree of excitability of the hypothalamus and its centres – the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. it is the hypothalamus that at the time of a negative stressful situation launches a systemic program of mobilization of the body, changes the pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate (zagornaya, 2018). therefore, the use of neuropsychological correction technologies in combination with psychotherapy will be appropriate, because taking into account the biological and psychophysiological mechanisms of emotional states is an important task to restore the nervous system in situations of physical and emotional exhaustion of the human body. in bioenergy therapy, work is carried out sequentially or simultaneously on the psychological and physical levels. physical work is carried out taking into account the plan, in accordance with the bodily metaphor of the human problem, which is equivalent to a psychological problem. the body must speak psychological language. if one does not see emotional problems behind the body blocks, and does not direct the patient’s work to the study of muscle tension in the context of their life problems and emotional experiences, then physical work will cease to be psychotherapy. tensed muscle lowers energy levels, blocks mobility, and limits the level of person’s expression. working with the body includes contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and ... nataliia pylypenko, et al. 286 massage, special tense postures, breathing and expression exercises (cathartic techniques) (burlachuk et al., 2007). emotion is one of the important targets of client-cantered psychotherapy in order to penetrate deeper into the client’s problem and actualize their constructive experiences. the client may not have personal changes for a long period of time, because they declare one emotion (insult), and experiences a stable emotional complex (anger, helplessness, crying combined with resentment), which is characterized by regression, deficiency of mature components. there are the following opportunities (strategies) to change the experience: fixation of the client’s consciousness on the maladaptation of experiences, introduction of elements of awareness in them; expanding the range of experiences, not inventing them, but only discussing with the client the values and experiences that can enter their system of consciousness, moving from the pole of protective reactions to the pole of openness to their experience. protective reactions associated with congruence (mismatch between feelings and words and behaviour) manifest themselves in the form of defence mechanisms such as denial and distortion to reduce anxiety and protect the self concept, but their rigidity may be related to the pathogenetic mechanism of neurotic development disorder. therapeutic mechanisms of personal changes can be: emotional and cognitive restructuring, expansion of consciousness, dissociation of emotions from the cognitive sphere. client-centred psychotherapy is recognized as effective in solving neurotic and psychosomatic problems (kocharyan, 2021). the purpose of rational-emotional therapy by ellis is to change emotions through the impact on the client’s thoughts and change their attitude to their own neurotic reactions. from the point of view of ret cognition is the main factor that determines the emotional state. influence on thoughts, especially on irrational judgments (exaggeration, erroneous conclusions, absolutization, etc.) – a short way to achieve a change in emotions and behaviour. it is important for the effectiveness of psychotherapy of emotional disorders to analyse the client’s benefits and losses associated with maintaining a state of emotional distress (fedorov, 2002). we believe that for the effectiveness of psychotherapy of emotional disorders of psychosomatic patients associated with inadequate emotional response, there will be such psychotherapeutic ret exercises, able to guide the client in recognizing and deeper understanding of their own and other peoples’ emotions – a dictionary of emotions (depiction of all emotional brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 287 manifestations through pantomime in order to expand the understanding of emotions and deepen their understanding, correction of negative emotional reactions through bodily movements); dictionary of terms (pantomime image of emotional states); dictionary of names of new feelings. performing the exercises is accompanied by an analysis of the client’s feelings: “i now feel…. i’m worried… etc.” if emotions are blocked, gestalt therapy techniques or psychodrama (empty chair technique, role exchange, etc.) will help to enter the role of repressed emotions at the bodily level. lowen’s bioenergetic analysis is a way of understanding the personality through the terms of the body and the energy processes that take place in it. these processes, namely production of energy through respiration, metabolism, its release in motion, are functions of life. in addition, lowen’s bioenergetic analysis is a form of psychotherapy that combines the work of the body and mind, helping people to solve emotional problems. bioenergetic work with the body includes special manipulations and exercises or practical experiments, manipulative procedures – massage, dosed pressure and gentle touch, which help chronically contracted muscles to relax. during the exercise, tense muscles are realized; the vibrating state of the body and feeling of contact with it amplifies; legs and body are grounded; breathing deepens; cognition sharpens; self-expression increases. tensed muscles reduce energy levels, block mobility, and limit a person’s expression. blocking energy flows in the body weakens vitality of the body, the depth of feelings and thoughts. working with the body includes massage, special tense postures, breathing, expression exercises (cathartic techniques). in bioenergetic analysis there are specific techniques for “dissolving” the blocks of the mouth (screaming, imitation of vomiting movements, crying, biting a towel, etc.), eyes (circular rotation of the eyes, shifting the gaze afar, to the tip of the nose), neck (rotation of the neck in different directions). all exercises are performed with free mouth breathing. exercises for all parts of the body in the standing, sitting and lying positions have also been developed (mushkevych & chaharna, 2017). our generalized analysis of psychotherapeutic methods for the treatment of emotional disorders and neuroses and psychosomatic disorders in various psychotherapeutic areas are often combined with psychopharmacological therapy. the latter does not always, in our opinion, affect improvement of the client’s psycho-emotional state. from my own counselling practice: the client a woman, 53 years old, a teacher, underwent a psychotherapy course in connection with neurotic and psychosomatic contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and ... nataliia pylypenko, et al. 288 problems; psychopharmacological drugs prescribed by psychotherapists did not restore sleep, the state of nervous and mental stress, according to her – worsened; our recommendation was to replace pharmacotherapy with neuro psycho-corrective methods, which resulted in restoration of relative efficiency, sleep restored (up to 3-5 hours with a tendency to a gradual increase), and well-being has improved. the emotional stress of representatives of socionomic professions requires primarily neuro psychocorrection of psychosomatic disorders both for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes. the client underwent a course of yoga, autogenic training, acupuncture, mastered the individually selected respiratory system, which, unquestionably, stimulates nervous regulation and brain activity, enhances the synthesis of hormones of “happiness”, calms the nervous system. the degree of emotional disorders has decreased due to the methods of cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, body-oriented psychotherapy and client-centred psychotherapy. the described clinical case may be related to the client’s subjective actualization of emotional and personal resources at the optimal level, given her hyper-responsibility in the professional sphere and individual work with awareness of her own current needs (at the first consultation the client could not name any needs from the “i want” list, but only answered the question “what i should do”). in further work, actualization of understanding of one’s own emotions and frustrated needs in body language had successful therapeutic (corrective) effects. in our opinion, a complete replacement of psychopharmacological medications with neuro psycho-corrective methods as an adjunct to psychotherapy is possible taking into account the prognosis for restoration of neurophysiological characteristics of the cns; psychosymptoms of psychosomatic disorders; availability with the client of psychological resources to solve a neurotic problem awareness of cognitive dissonance in the performance of conflicting social roles in the system of meaningful relationships and the level of willingness to meet the emotional component of internally deprived needs associated with unfulfilled desires and motives; as well as mild or moderate (approximately below average level) degree of emotional disorders, without severe psychopathology, character accentuations, a complex degree of personality disorders. it is important to combine psychotherapy of emotional disorders with neuro psycho-corrective exercises in order to actualize the right and left hemispheres, coordination of different parts of the body, restoration of brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 289 optimal work of the central nervous system, reduction of neuropsychological and muscular tension. psychotherapeutic and neuropsychological recommendations for restoration of psychosomatic health effective psychotherapeutic work with a psychosomatically unwell patient with severe emotional inadequacy should be organized comprehensively, systematically, with integrated application. modern psychotherapy of emotional disorders is carried out mainly by methods of personality-oriented psychotherapy. clinical psychologists and psychotherapists use methods from virtually all psychotherapeutic areas for psychotherapy of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases and most often from the following methods: systemic family psychotherapy, positive psychotherapy, gestalt therapy, cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, art therapy, physical psychotherapy, therapy, suggestive psychotherapy. the current approach to psychotherapy of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases should cover the following tasks (areas of psychotherapeutic work): 1) cognitive reconstruction of the client’s thoughts in the analysis of psycho-traumatic situations and emotional response to them, reflection of their own emotional reactions and their stereotypes and adequacy in relation to a particular circumstance, psychological analysis of emotional dependence on similar stressors, detection of cognitive dissonance, inconsistency between “me ideal” and “me real” and features of unconscious internal conflicts, formation of a new psychosocial position on the basis of information about the emotional and cognitive style of the client; 2) changing attitudes to traumatic situations, other people and to oneself and emotional response to relationships in these situations to build adequate (positive) self-esteem with an objective definition of the vector of direction of the client’s emotions in the system of individual relationships; analysis of the experience of receiving emotional support from other people and its adjustment; it is also important to change the attitude to psychosomatic illnesses and analysis of personal meanings and secondary benefits of the disease; 3) behaviour change that is adequate to the requirements of stressful situations, resulting in a new form of behaviour associated with optimally adequate emotional responses, as well as positive reinforcement of new patterns of behaviour with a healthy emotional attitude to psychosomatic illness and to oneself. contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and ... nataliia pylypenko, et al. 290 obviously, the emotional aspect of the attitude to the world and selfattitude are stubborn to psychotherapeutic (psychological) influence, because their awareness and understanding are always intellectual mechanisms of psychological protection, which help explain to the client psychosomatic illness as inevitable, natural and usually unrelated to similar emotional reactions to stress in one’s life. the task of psychotherapy is to promote the client’s reflection of their own emotional manifestations, their causes, patterns of manifestation and influence on psychosomatic disorders and changes in emotional response through optimization of self-awareness processes. the client’s awareness of the emotional mechanism of psychosomatic manifestations, which may come to them through trance, verbal or nonverbal actions, creativity, metaphor or dance movements, will cause an adequate emotional response through bodily organization and weaken psychosomatic manifestations. emotions and the body are an indicator of the subjective significance for the client of difficult life situations, and the brain under any circumstances will always process primarily information about emotional attitudes associated with the functioning of the central nervous system. in this regard, neuro-visual diagnosis of the state of development of neural connections associated with emotional self-regulation through neurobiological mechanisms and functional systems of the brain is essential; identification of pathogenetic mechanisms of emotional and bodily disorders. based on the data of neuropsychological research and psychodiagnostics of emotional disorders, neuro-correction of emotional maladaptation of the client is performed using techniques such as desensitization in combination with body-oriented, respiratory and relaxation exercises for the nervous system with their gradual complication. after each session, diagnostic sections are performed to ensure the individually selected set of neuro-correctional exercises in combination with psychotherapeutic techniques. neuropsychological correction of psychosomatic disorders and diseases helps to improve cerebral circulation, increase the differentiation of cerebral functional systems, activate interaction of the cerebral hemispheres, improve performance and improve well-being. it can be predicted that in the process of development of the emotional-volitional sphere of the client’s personality and gaining experience in building emotional relationships, a bodily form of emotional model of life activity is formed, so neuro-corrective influences on certain bodily brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 291 manifestations can provide optimal level of emotional self-regulation of the client’s personality that gradually, in the course of neuro psychocorrection may reduce the acute or chronic state of psychosomatic manifestations. for primary care to optimize the neuropsychological state of the client a course of neuro correctional work is sufficient, which can provide “communication” with one’s own body through consciousness, selfawareness of their own emotions and psychosomatic state caused by emotional reactions to difficult circumstances, exercises to relax back muscles when psychosomatic diseases of the musculoskeletal system with the simultaneous use of techniques of individually selected proper breathing, massage and neuropsychological exercises. combination of neuropsychological correctional technologies and psychotherapy will be an effective rehabilitation measure to restore the client’s psychosomatic health in the future. a dynamic diagnosis of emotional development of the client under the influence of neuro-psychocorrection in combination with psychotherapy is important, the end result of which is the client’s achievement of internal identity (optimal emotional contact with oneself, positive self-acceptance) and adaptability (availability of internal emotional and personal resource for building healthy relationships primarily with oneself and other people). conclusion psychosomatic disorders and illnesses are like a “mirror” reflection of emotions in the neurotic experience of unconscious internal conflicts through bodily manifestations. the relationship between the body (soma) and manifestations of the mental life of the individual is interconnected by an emotional reaction, which is reflected in the form of psychophysiological reactions, experiencing an individual attitude to a psych traumatic situation, neurovegetative changes in the body, behaviour change. techniques of emotional self-regulation and body-oriented neuro psycho-corrective methods in combination with psychotherapy can be effective in psychocorrection of emotional disorders associated with phobic-depressive symptoms or panic attacks, neuroticism and psychopathization, and related manifestations of psychovegetative syndrome, emotional, physical and motivational exhaustion of the client. the main task of specialists in any psychotherapeutic field is to restore the client’s emotional orientation in difficult life situations, gain experience of emotional self-regulation at a deep contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and ... nataliia pylypenko, et al. 292 personal level, actualization of internal resources for harmonious relationships with oneself and the environment. psychosomatic approach to diagnosis, psychotherapy and neuropsychocorrection of emotional disorders in psychosomatic diseases should be carried out comprehensively, at the integration-system level taking into account nosology and emotional mechanisms of psychosomatic diseases; age and gender of the client; features of their family relations and social status; psychosomatic and neuropsychological state; personality traits and typology of personality disorders; pathogenesis of psychosomatic illness; the degree of depletion of the nervous system; specifics of emotional disorders with a detailed explanation of their relationship with personal structural components; quantitative and qualitative assessment of the depth, intensity and strength of emotions and their disturbance; prognosis for changes in emotional states in the process of psychotherapy and the use of neuro psycho-corrective methods; personality-oriented approach to the choice of psychotherapeutic techniques. references burlachuk, l. f., kocharyan, a. s, & zhidko, m. e. (2007). psihoterapiya: uchebnik dlya vuzov [psychotherapy: textbook for universities]. piter. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 donyavi, v., rabiei, m., nikfarjam, m., & rahnejat, a. m. (2015). develop and validate a metacognitive-cognitive-behavioral model for body dysmorphic disorder. open journal of medical psychology, 4, 45-52. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojmp.2015.42005 dyke, j., hendry, k., hill, j., schultz, m., mason, e., & glu, p. (2014). management of a cluster of foreign body ingestion incidents in patients with borderline personality disorder. open journal of psychiatry, 4(2), 99 103. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojpsych.2014.42014 fava, g. a., & sonino, n. (2010). psychosomatic medicine: a name to keep. psychother psychosom, 79, 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1159/000254899 fedorov, a. p. (2002). kognitivno-povedencheskaya psihoterapiya [cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy]. piter. fedosova, l. o. (2013). klinichna psykholohiia: navchalnyi posibnyk [clinical psychology: a textbook.]. publishing house “personal”. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.4236/ojmp.2015.42005 https://doi.org/10.4236/ojpsych.2014.42014 https://doi.org/10.1159/000254899 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 293 khodayarifard, m., & fatemi, s. m. (2013). combination of spirituality and cognitive-behavioral family therapy on treatment of generalized anxiety disorders. psychology, 4(4), 427-432. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.44060 kocharyan, a. s. (2014). perezhivanie kak mishen klient-tsentrirovannoy psihoterapii [experience as a target of client-centered psychotherapy]. psykholohichne konsultuvannia i psykhoterapiia, 1-2, 24-36. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pscp_2014_2_1-2_6 kocharyan, a. s. (2021). klient-tsentrirovannaya psihoterapiya [client-centered psychotherapy]. http://psychology.univer.kharkov.ua/news2021/nmkdpt2/kocharian/li udinocentr/uk.pdf kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kulakov, s. a. (2003). osnovyi psihosomatiki [fundamentals of psychosomatics]. rech. linehan, m. m. (1993). cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. guilford press. mcewen, b. s. (2007). physiology and neurobiology of stress and adaptation: central role of the brain. physiological reviews, 87(3), 873-904. rockefeller university. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2006 mushkevych, m. i., & chaharna, s. ye. (2017). osnovy psykhoterapii: navchalnyi posibnyk [fundamentals of psychotherapy: a textbook]. vezha-druk. pavlenko, t. m. (2018). rozlady osobystosti: rozvytok uiavlen, suchasni klasyfikatsii, pohliady na terapiiu [personality disorders: the development of ideas, modern classifications, views on therapy]. https://health-ua.com/article/36225rozladi-osobistost-rozvitok-uyavlensuchasnklasifkatc-poglyadi-na-terapyu prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rogers, c. r. (1951). client–centered therapy: it current practice, implications and theory. houghton mifflin co. http://www.nrogers.com/carlrogersbio.html sandomyrsky, m. e. (2005). psykhosomatyka y telesnaia psykhoterapyia: praktycheskoe rukovodstvo [psychosomatics and physical psychotherapy: a practical guide]. nezavysymaia fyrma “klass”. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.44060 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pscp_2014_2_1-2_6 http://psychology.univer.kharkov.ua/news2021/nmkdpt2/kocharian/liudinocentr/uk.pdf http://psychology.univer.kharkov.ua/news2021/nmkdpt2/kocharian/liudinocentr/uk.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2006 https://health-ua.com/article/36225-rozladi-osobistost-rozvitok-uyavlensuchasnklasifkatc-poglyadi-na-terapyu https://health-ua.com/article/36225-rozladi-osobistost-rozvitok-uyavlensuchasnklasifkatc-poglyadi-na-terapyu https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 http://www.nrogers.com/carlrogersbio.html contemporary approaches to diagnosis, psychotherapy and ... nataliia pylypenko, et al. 294 taylor, g. j., & bagby, r. m. (2021). examining proposed changes to the conceptualization of the alexithymia construct: the way forward tilts to the past. psychother psychosom, 90, 145–155. university of toronto. wise, t. n. (2014). psychosomatics: past, present and future. psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 83, 65 69. https://www.karger.com/article/pdf/356518 xardel-haddab, h. (2009). névrose, psychosomatique et fonctionnement limité: approche clinique projective: du destin des pulsions agressives [neurosis, psychosomatics and limited function: projective clinical approach: two destinations of aggressive pulses]. université nancy. zagornaya, e. v. (2018). osnovyi patopsihologii: uchebnoe posobie [fundamentals of pathopsychology]. mir nauki. https://www.karger.com/article/pdf/356518 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 80-93 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/304 submitted: october 15th, 2021 | accepted for publication: december 22nd, 2021 innovative educational environment in the conditions of educational reform: neuropsychological approach larysa piechka¹, mykhailo honchar2, myroslav koval3, myroslava kusiy4, andrii lytvyn5, nataliia levchuk6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, lara_ppp@ukr.net 2 communal higher educational establishment "kherson academy of continuing education" of kherson regional council, m.honchar@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1508-5276 3 lviv state university of life safety, ukraine, lviv-koval@ukr.net 4 lviv state university of life safety, ukraine, kusijmiroslava@gmail.com 5 lviv state university of life safety, ukraine, avlytvyn@gmail.com 6 vinnytsia mekhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, levchuknatalia@gmail.com abstract: the article is devoted to the neuropsychological approach to the organization of an innovative environment in the context of education reform. attention is focused on the fact that now pedagogical workers note an increase in the number of children who have learning difficulties and behavior problems. the concepts of "neuropsychology" and "child neuropsychology" are considered. focused on leading figures of domestic and foreign neuropsychology. manuals and articles of domestic and foreign scientists on the relevance of the neuropsychological aspect in school practice are covered. the main tasks of neuropsychology are determined. it has been found that in the foreign literature there are many modern publications on the concept of "school neuropsychology", which provide many different corrective exercises, which are addressed to teachers, psychologists, neuropsychologists, speech therapists in working with children. it is emphasized that the psychomotor development of the child is manifested in his speech, gestures, writing, emotional state. the following pattern has been noted: in order for children to learn better, they need to move more. it is emphasized that modern teachers desperately need knowledge of neuropsychology to succeed in working with today's children. the significance of the use of neuropsychological techniques in the educational process is revealed. the focus is on speech skills, which are closely related to fine motor skills. kinesiology exercises have been shown to play an important role in the functioning of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. examples of moving exercises that improve the functioning of the child's brain are given. keywords: neuropsychology, school neuropsychology, higher mental functions, kinesiology, sensorimotor correction, finger gymnastics. how to cite: piechka, l., honchar, m., koval, m., kusiy, m., lytvyn, a., & levchuk, n. (2022). innovative educational environment in the conditions of educational reform: neuropsychological approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 80-93. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/304 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/304 mailto:lara_ppp@ukr.net mailto:m.honchar@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1508-5276 mailto:lviv-koval@ukr.net mailto:kusijmiroslava@gmail.com mailto:avlytvyn@gmail.com mailto:levchuknatalia@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/304 innovative educational environment in the conditions of educational reform … larysa piechka, et al. 81 introduction today, educators, neuropsychologists, researchers and experts in the field of psychology and neuropedagogy note that today more and more school-age children have learning difficulties. students have difficulty remembering and reproducing information from memory, concentration, application of acquired knowledge, skills and abilities, etc.. in addition, students have problems with coordination, a sense of balance, lack of sense of rhythm, decreased visual-motor coordination, concentration. as a result, children spend more time on gadgets, avoid moving games, because it is difficult for them to catch the ball, to hit the target; it is difficult for schoolchildren to jump, run, etc. there are various reasons for these difficulties. among them, the main, scientists determine neuromotor immaturity. the article aims 1) to prove that primary school teachers of the new ukrainian school must have sufficient neuropsychological knowledge to work with students; 2) to analyze relevant scientific literature on the theory and practice of school neuropsychology. neuropsychology is a branch of psychological science that emerged on the basis of knowledge about psychology, medicine and physiology, studying the brain mechanisms of mental processes based on local brain damage (yatskiv, 2016). this science arose due to the research by luria (2018), who in his work developed a single line of research from ideas about the brain organization of individual mental functions to general ideas about the principles of localization of any mental processes and the brain as a whole. neuropsychology as an independent branch of science focused on the study of the role of individual brain systems in the implementation of mental activity. a significant contribution to this industry in the 80's of last century was made by simernytska (1997). the neuropsychologist argued that for children under 10 years of age, in contrast to adults, damage to the right hemisphere of the brain is extremely significant, because it leads to impaired higher mental functions. based on this, it was concluded that in children the brain organization of higher mental functions is different than in adults. of fundamental importance is that higher mental functions and their brain organization change with age. this, on the one hand, complicates the diagnosis of disorders, and on the other hand, provides a high compensatory potential in childhood. neuropsychological studies of children reveal the chronological sequence of maturation of higher mental processes. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 82 it is known that the study of the brain as an organ of mental activity in recent years occupies one of the main places in the research of scientists around the world: neuropsychologists, psychologists, physiologists, speech therapists and other scientists. vygotsky (1956) wrote about the extreme importance of the development of higher mental processes it is obvious that brain damage can lead to aggravated consequences for violations of higher mental functions: speech, thinking, memory, perception, imagination, attention. it should be noted that the most intensive development of higher mental functions occurs in childhood, when the foundation of physical and mental health is formed, and this will largely depend on its future. therefore, it is very important to notice violations in the early stages of a child's development and to improve the child's health with the help of corrective exercises (astapov, 2019; komogorova et al., 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020a; melnyk et al., 2021; palamarchuk et al., 2020). neuropsychology is a fundamental science of the brain, respectively, has become a priority in education, because it helps teachers to solve problems in terms of corrective diagnosis and psychological and pedagogical rehabilitation: explains the patterns of psychomotor, cognitive and emotional development of the child (gerasymova et al., 2019; onishchuk et al., 2020; maksymchuk et al., 2020b; shevtsov, 2007). the main tasks of neuropsychology are: 1. to study changes in mental processes in local brain lesions, which allow us to see with which brain substrate is associated with a particular type of mental activity. 2. neuropsychological analysis makes it possible to identify those common structures that exist in completely different mental processes. 3. early diagnosis of brain lesions (repin et al., 2003). child neuropsychology is a branch of psychological science on the formation of brain activity of mental processes. nowadays it is becoming more and more popular as a method of syndromic psychological analysis of mental activity deficit in children associated with one or another brain insufficiency (organic or functional) or immaturity (semenovych, 2002). school neuropsychology requires the integration of neuropsychological and educational principles into assessment and intervention processes with children and adolescents to facilitate learning and behavior in school (miller, 2007). the scientific value of the article lies in proving that child rehabilitation neuropsychology has allowed one to update the understanding innovative educational environment in the conditions of educational reform … larysa piechka, et al. 83 of various forms of disorders in the mental development of children and outline new ways to compensate for them. review of the literature of domestic and foreign scientists on the study of aspects of school neuropsychology analysis of the literature on the review of the concept of "neuropsychology" indicates a large number of publications on this study. many ukrainian (khomskaya, 2005; luria, 2018; simernytska, 1997; vygotsky, 1956; yatskiv, 2016) and foreign (baron, 2018; connor, 2014; d’amato et al., 2010; miller et al., 2019) researchers have studied the impact of neuropsychological processes on humans. on the theoretical foundations and practical application of neuropsychology describes in detail (khomskaya, 2005). the author presents the theory of systemic dynamic localization of higher mental functions, considers the basic principles of the brain. in addition, it focuses on the neuropsychological analysis of disorders of higher mental functions in local brain lesions: memory, thinking, imagination, attention, speech. in her work she thoroughly analyzes the violations that arise in the emotional and personal sphere. in addition, the scientist has developed developmental and psycho-correctional programs. connor (2014), a professor at the university of notre dame in maryland, studied emotional disorders in school-age children from a neuropsychological and pedagogical perspective. the author conducted a detailed analysis of neurobiological correlators of mood disorders and identified the causes of anxiety, psychopathology in children. the scientist claims that it is possible to improve the emotional well-being of schoolchildren through the use of modern learning strategies, taking into account the emotional, psychological and social needs of the child. noteworthy is the manual in which baron (2018) gives a neuropsychological assessment of the child, demonstrating the state of the brain from preschool to adolescence. the collection presents the consequences that may occur in the case of the spread of rare medical diseases and psychological disorders. to help teachers and psychologists, there are domains and tests that will help educators determine the level of thinking, imagination, memory, attention, speech. a current view of neuropsychological practice in educational institutions is given in the manual (miller et al., 2019), which emphasizes the need to test students in order to plan effective work of psychologists in a timely manner. the book provides advice on how to choose the right brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 84 assessment tools, effectively diagnose, accurately interpret the results of the study. comprehensive information on the theory and practice of school neuropsychology is provided by d’amato et al. (2010). because new research reveals disorders that were previously thought to be behavioral or functional, child neuropsychology is now an important, much-needed discipline for identifying and overcoming childhood and adolescent disorders. the handbook on school neuropsychology contains knowledge about neuroanatomy, practical rationale for various children's neuropsychological problems. it is worth noting the manual by hale & fiorello (2004) in which they present the latest research on the relationship between the brain and the behavior of the child, offers a variety of neuropsychological techniques for use in working with students. the author comments on previous ideas about brain functions and presents a model for testing cognitive hypotheses as an innovative method that helps psychologists identify the characteristics of students and conduct individual work with children who have learning difficulties and behavioral disorders. thus, the above-mentioned manuals and articles show that neuropsychology has come a long way in its development as a science and is indeed relevant today. researchers continue studying disorders in higher mental processes and offer effective strategies to improve the child’s ability to manage emotions. the use of neuropsychological techniques in the educational environment in modern conditions, children often have problems adapting to school. given that children go to school at the age of six, many of them are not ready for mental and physical exertion. every year the requirements of the school program become higher. children behave badly, refuse to go to school, get tired quickly. parents often ignore the problem, believing that over time it will pass by itself. at the same time, the child suffers himself and torments his parents, who consider him disobedient and uncontrollable. in addition, failure leads to various psychological problems. there are fear, anxiety, self-doubt, feelings of "looser", difficulties in communicating with classmates. psychomotor development is the basis for the mental development of the child, because it is manifested in a variety of manifestations of human activity: speech, gestures, writing, emotional expression, locomotor movements, instrumental motor actions. innovative educational environment in the conditions of educational reform … larysa piechka, et al. 85 an essential feature of "post-luria" neuropsychology, especially experimental, is the detailed development of restorative techniques in its "rehabilitation" direction. in the field of child neuropsychology, this was reflected in the creation of methods of correctional and rehabilitation type, one of the most striking examples of which is the creation of a "method of replacement ontogenesis" (semenovych, 2002). the theory of this method not only provided a neuropsychological scientific basis for well-known in defectology existing methods of correction of children's development, but also gave impetus to the creation of new original approaches in this area of work with children with learning difficulties. in addition to achieving diagnostic and analytical goals, neuropsychological approaches in correctional pedagogy ("neuropedagogical" approaches) provide opportunities to create recommendations for correcting certain developmental defects (speech, psychomotor, cognitive processes, visual perception, control over their own behavior, emotional disorders, etc.). child rehabilitation neuropsychology has made it possible to modernize the understanding of various forms of anomalies in the mental development of children and to outline new ways to compensate for defects. neuropsychological techniques in pedagogy should be successful in correcting the child's development, because the developing psyche and brain are unusually plastic and ready for the development of basal (basic) neuropsychological factors that are the supporting components for further improvement of cognitive and emotional processes. in the future, a complex multi-level structure of a person's individuality is built and supported on them. in this case, the group of basal factors includes: modal-specific; kinesthetic; kinetic; spatial; arbitrary regulation of mental activity; energy supply; interhemispheric interaction, etc. (shevtsov, 2007). the presence of the relationship between intellectual, social, speech development and motor activity, the state of health of the child determines the feasibility of using such approaches that provide a comprehensive impact on the child's personality. the unique role of physical and speech development determines the need for their integration for the overall development of the child. the purpose of integrated speech-motor joint motor activity is to ensure the relationship between motor activity and speech development of children (panhelova & krutsevych, 2019). jensen & mcconchie (2020) emphasize in their book that the better a teacher knows about his students' brains, the easier it will be for him to work with them. teaching subjects, taking into account the characteristics of children and knowledge of neuropsychology, help the teacher to strengthen the cognitive functioning of the brain, reduce problems with discipline in brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 86 children, improve their level of learning, create a situation of success. jensen & mcconchie (2020) tell how to provide a modern approach to learning: a broad understanding of the impact of relationships, feelings, movements and emotions on learning, presents modern strategies for creating high quality educational environments together with self-service strategies; teaching aids to motivate children to help them feel the joy of learning. thanks to this manual, you can thoroughly learn about the work of the child's brain, why it is unique, the power of learning the brain, the relationship between physical movement and the brain, the influence of feelings on learning, classroom relationships between children, how emotions affect learning, how to make the brain works. jensen (2009) provides ideas for educators to ensure that every child can succeed in learning. the teacher emphasizes that, as we know, different students have their own individual characteristics. but it happens that children are stressed, injured or suffer from developmental delays, then teachers must be able to understand the symptoms of the child's disease, make adjustments to the education of students. this full-color guide has been updated and packed with powerful techniques and strategies to help educators improve brain function in children, and contains an algorithm for detecting disorders such as attention disorders, memory disorders, dyslexia, depression, auditory attention deficit, and more. such systematic work of the teacher will help children to effectively overcome learning difficulties, meet the specific educational needs of children with special needs. university of texas professor miller (2012) in his handbook on practical school neuropsychology provides articles on school neuropsychology in which best practice teachers provide advice on teaching children of artists with asperger's disorder, developmental delay, hearing loss, children with visual impairments etc. separately, the author posted articles that offer methods and forms of work with children who have difficulty reading, writing, math. sensorimotor correction is a set of general developmental exercises that help to develop brain functions. exercises help students to concentrate, be collected, facilitate memorization, improve overall body tone. in addition, the exercises can be used during a break to relax. kinesiology the science of the brain through the action of movements. it is known that scientists claim that interhemispheric interaction develops through a set of kinesiological exercises. given the functional specialization of the hemispheres (right humanitarian, figurative; left mathematical, symbolic), as well as the role of joint activities in the implementation of higher mental functions, we can assume that the violation innovative educational environment in the conditions of educational reform … larysa piechka, et al. 87 of interhemispheric transmission of information distorts children's cognitive activity. of course, if the conduction through the corpus callosum is disturbed, the conductive hemisphere takes on a large load, and the other is blocked. both hemispheres begin to work without communication. spatial orientation, adequate emotional response, coordination of visual and audio perception with the work of the writing hand are disturbed. a child in this state cannot read or write, perceiving information by ear or eyes. much of the cortex of the human cerebral hemispheres is occupied by cells associated with the activity of the hand, especially the thumb, which in humans is opposed to the rest of the fingers. the main development of interhemispheric connections is formed in girls up to 7 years, in boys up to 8 8.5 years. improving intellectual and mental processes must begin with the development of finger and body movements. developmental work should be directed from movements to thinking, and not vice versa. the corpus callosum can be developed through kinesiological exercises. under the influence of kinesiological training of interhemispheric interaction, the unity of the brain is formed in relation to the activity of its two hemispheres, closely connected by a system of nerve fibers (corpus callosum, interhemispheric ligaments). it has been proven that for children to learn better, they need to move more. speech skills are associated with fine motor skills of the fingers: if a person binds his fingers, he will learn ten times slower. in addition, modern teaching methods show that new information is easier to understand and remember by influencing different channels of perception: sight, hearing, tactile sensations, taste, touch and movement. speech is the result of coordinated activity of many areas of the brain. the articulatory organs only carry out orders coming from the brain. the projection of the hand in the brain is located very close to the speech motor area. the relationship between motor and speech zones is manifested in the fact that a person who hesitates to choose the appropriate word, helps himself with gestures, and vice versa: focused drawing or writing, the child involuntarily sticks out his tongue. because there is a close relationship and interdependence of speech and motor activity, in the presence of a speech defect in a child, special attention is paid to the development of small movements of the fingers, which has a positive effect on the functioning of the speech areas of the cerebral cortex. kinesiology stimulates the intellectual development and motility of the child. when children were stressed or inactive throughout the day, their ability to learn disappeared (elder, 2017). if parts of a child's brain become inactive, how can they learn? when he began to integrate education and brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 88 kinesiology or to teach through movement, he noticed that the child's brain became active in learning. each lesson should be performed at the pace of the child and take as much time as the child needs. exercise 1 let the child stand up straight and raise his left knee. ask her to put her right hand on her left knee, crossing the midline of her body. with your right hand on your left knee, ask your child to move, raising his right knee and placing his left hand on his right knee. movements should be done slowly and carefully. sometimes children do these exercises too quickly, but they should not be done. continue to exercise at least 10 times, at least three days a week (elder, 2017). exercise "elephant" exercise activates and balances the whole system of the body "intelligence-body", improves concentration. press the ear tightly to the shoulder. at the same time, extend one hand like an elephant's trunk and start drawing a horizontal figure eight from it, starting from the center of the field of view and going up counterclockwise. the eyes follow the movements of the fingertips. then change hands. perform the exercise slowly, 3-5 times with each hand. exercise "palm" this exercise improves mental activity, synchronizes the work of the hemispheres, promotes memory, increases the stability of attention, activates the processes of writing and reading. three positions of the hand, successively changing: 1) squeeze your palms into a fist 2) put your palm on the edge. 3) straighten your palm on the plane of the table. the exercise is performed first with the right hand, then with the left hand, then with both hands together. repeat 8-10 times. exercise "mirror drawing" the exercise is performed either on a board or on a blank sheet of paper. you need to take a pencil (chalk) in both hands. start drawing mirrorsymmetrical drawings, letters, numbers with both hands at the same time. when performing this exercise, the eyes and hands relax. when the activity of both hemispheres of the brain is synchronized, the efficiency of the whole brain will increase significantly. exercise helps to synchronize the work of the hemispheres, the perception of information, improves memory (lichman, 2019). the buttons on the brain are designed to stimulate blood flow to the brain and activate the reticular activation system, which is the child's internal innovative educational environment in the conditions of educational reform … larysa piechka, et al. 89 alarm clock, which tells the brain that it must be effective for learning. its purpose is to awaken the child and help him stay alert, especially if it is lethargic, cranky or prone to low energy or problems with attention and concentration. finger gymnastics is a game exercise for the development of fine motor skills. scientists have proven that finger gymnastics in combination with breathing improves and trains the insufficiently trained part of our body the brain. the brain controls all our actions, because it is directly connected to the fingertips. performing finger exercises improves thinking and speech, develops creativity, involuntary attention, memory, sense of rhythm, develops self-control skills, regulates emotions and relieves stress. exercise 3 take a minute and raise your arms perpendicular to your face. and now bring them a few inches to the nose. focus on the center where your hands meet. think about what you see. you may feel heat on your fingertips and palms. perhaps some air from the fan or window flows through the smallest gap on the palms or through the gaps between the fingers (mckinsley, 2019). "river and fish" the river is a wavy, smooth movement of relaxed hands. fish. starting position: straightened palms pressed together. fingers pointing away from you. rotate the closed palms to the right and left, imitating the movements of the fish's tail. our little fish is wagging its tail, this pretty girl lives in the river. "sitting squirrel" the squirrel sits, teaches nursery rhymes, she sells nuts: fox-sister, sparrows, little tits, teddy bear, whiskered hares. (with the help of the left hand bend the fingers of the right hand, starting with the thumb) "friendship" girls and boys are friends in our group (fingers are connected in a "lock"). we will make friends with you little fingers (rhythmic touching of the fingers of the same name by both hands). one, two, three, four, five brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 90 (alternately touching the fingers of the same name, starting with the little fingers), start counting again. one, two, three, four, five (hands down, shake your arms). we finished counting (voronets, 2020). so, kinesiological exercises and finger gymnastics in working with children of primary school age should be used systematically, from simple to complex. practicing finger movements stimulates the development of speech in children. in addition, finger gymnastics develops the child's ability to repeat, listen, concentrate, develops memory, fantasy, imagination. kinesiological exercises provide an opportunity to develop the child's mental abilities and improve physical condition. regular performance of these exercises relieves fatigue in children, improves memory, concentration, there is significant progress in the ability to learn and the ability to manage of emotions. therefore, neuropsychological knowledge helps teachers of the new ukrainian school use the latest methods to ensure the connection between intellectual, social, speech development and motor activity since it largely affects the health of the child. conclusions as the analysis of the study shows, today you can find many publications, manuals, which tell about the application of neuropsychology in school practice. the scientific value of the article lies in proving that child rehabilitation neuropsychology has allowed one to update the understanding of various forms of disorders in the mental development of children and outline new ways to compensate for them. as you know, a modern teacher in the context of educational reform must understand the latest trends in education, have innovative methodological approaches, be able to interest the child in the material, awaken and retain attention, focus on objects, environmental phenomena and their own observations. undoubtedly, the integration of neuropsychological and educational principles helps the teacher to organize effective learning, which contributes to the productive acquisition of new knowledge, successful personal development of the child, which is the key to quality primary education. thus, to improve the development of higher mental functions of the child, the use of various neuropsychological techniques is of great benefit. their use is very important. innovative educational environment in the conditions of educational reform … larysa piechka, et al. 91 in particular, kinesiological exercises, finger gymnastics stimulate the intellectual development of the child: improve mental activity, synchronize the work of the hemispheres, help improve memory, increase the stability of attention, facilitate the writing process. references astapov, v. m. (2019). korektsiyna pedahohika z osnovamy neyroni patopsykholohiyi [correctional pedagogy with the basics of neuronal and pathopsychology]. yurayt publishing house. baron, i. s. (2018). neuropsychological evaluation of the child: domains, methods, & case studies. oxford university press. connor, b. (2014). the brain and educational connections. university press of america. d’amato, r. c., fletcher-janzen, e., & reynolds, c. (eds.). (2010). handbook of school neuropsychology. wiley. elder, b. (2017, january 19). simple brain gym exercises to awaken the brain for learning readiness. integrated learning strategies. https://ilslearningcorner.com/tag/brain-functionality/ gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b. m., bilozerova, m., chernetska, y., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4sup1), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 hale, j. b., & fiorello, c. a. (2004). school neuropsychology: a practitioner’s handbook. the guilford press. jensen, e. p. (2009). different brains, different learners: how to reach the hard to reach (2nd ed.). corwin. jensen, e. p., & mcconchie, l. (2020). brain-based learning: teaching the way students really learn (3rd ed.). corwin. khomskaya, e. d. (2005). neyropsykholohiya [neuropsychology]. peter. komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 lichman, n. m. (2019). kineziolohiya yak zasib rozvytku movlennya ta intelektualnykh zdibnostey ditey z osoblyvymy osvitnimy potrebamy [kinesiology as a means of speech development and intellectual abilities of children with special educational needs]. zhurnal “lohoped” [“speech therapist” magazine], 6(90). https://cprpp.mkrada.gov.ua/?p=5417 https://ilslearningcorner.com/tag/brain-functionality/ https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 92 luria, o. r. (2018). lobovi chastky i rehulyatsiya psykhichnykh protsesiv: neyropsykholohichni doslidzhennya [frontal lobes and regulation of mental processes: neuropsychological research]. moscow university press. maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 mckinsley, a. (2019, december 22). finger gymnastics – workout for your brain. new york beauty and health magazine. https://nybeautyandhealth.com/2019/12/22/finger-gymnastics-work-outfor-your-brain/ melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 miller, d. c. (2012). best practices in school neuropsychology: guidelines for effective practice, assessment, and evidence‐based intervention. john wiley & sons. miller, d. c., maricle, d. e., kaufman, a. s., & kaufman, n. l. (2019). essentials of school neuropsychological assessment. wiley. onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 4465. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://nybeautyandhealth.com/2019/12/22/finger-gymnastics-work-out-for-your-brain/ https://nybeautyandhealth.com/2019/12/22/finger-gymnastics-work-out-for-your-brain/ https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 innovative educational environment in the conditions of educational reform … larysa piechka, et al. 93 panhelova, n., & krutsevych, t. (2019). neyropsykholohichni zasady aktyvizatsiyi movlennya ditey starshoho doshkilnoho viku pry vykonanni rukhovykh diy [neuropsychological principles of activating the speech of children of the senior preschool age in the course of motor actions]. psykholinhvistyka. seriya: psykholohiya [psycholinguistics. series: psychology], 25(1), 232255. https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2019-25-1-232-255 repin, n. v., vorontsov, d. v., & yumatova, i. i. (2003). osnovy klinichnoyi psykholohiyi [fundamentals of clinical psychology]. phoenix. semenovych, a. v. (2002). neyropsykholohichna diahnostyka ta korektsiya v dytyachomu vitsi [neuropsychological diagnostics and correction in childhood]. academy. shevtsov, a. g. (2007). neyropsykholohichnyy pidkhid u korektsiyi rozvytku ditey z psykhofizychnymy porushennyamy [neuropsychological approach in the correction of development of children with psychophysical disorders]. aktualni pytannya korektsiynoyi osvity (pedahohichni nauky) [actual problems of the correctional education (pedagogical scinces)], 5, 347360. http://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/231/210.pdf/ simernytska, e. g. (1997). neyropsikhologicheskaya diagnostika i korrektsiya shkolnoy neuspevayemosti [neuropsychological diagnosis and correction of school failure]. in v. astapov, & yu. mikadze (eds.), psykhodiagnostika i korektsiya detey s narusheniyami i otkloneniyami raztitiya [correction of children with developmental disorders and deviations], (p. 46). peter. voronets, s. o. (2020). vpravy na rozvytok dribnoyi motoryky ruk [exercises for the development of fine motor skills of hands]. osvitniy proekt “na urok” [educational project “on the lesson”]. vygotsky, l. s. (1956). vybrani psykholohichni doslidzhennya [selected psychological research]. pedagogy. yatskiv, o. s. (2016). neyropsykholohichnyy pidkhid u diyalnosti praktychnoho psykholoha doshkilnoho navchalnoho zakladu [neuropsychological approach in the activity of a practical psychologist of a preschool educational institution]. problemy suchasnoyi psykholohiyi [problems of modern psychology], 31, 594606. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pspl_2016_31_51 https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2019-25-1-232-255 http://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/231/210.pdf/ http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pspl_2016_31_51 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 1-13 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/440 submitted: february 6th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 27th, 2023 results of the implementation of a comprehensive sociopsychological program to foster professional empathy among professionals in the helping professions viacheslav blikhar 1, zoriana kovalchuk 2, olena vavryniv 3, roman yaremko 4, viktorja bodnarchuk 5, andrii tsiupryk 6 1 doctor of philosophical science, professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine,blikharv@ukr.net 2 doctor of psychology, professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, zoriana01051974@i.ua 3 candidate of psychological sciences, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, vavrynivolena@gmail.com 4 candidate of psychological sciences, lviv state university of life safety, lviv, ukraine, yaremic4@gmail.com 5 assistant professor of the practical psychology and pedagogy department, lviv state university of life safety, bodnarchuk.vktorja@gmail.com 6 doctor of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, lviv state university of life safety, lviv, ukraine, tsarob@ukr.net abstract: the article presents the results of research on the empathy of policemen, rescuers, doctors and psychologists, as the best representatives among helpers. it also describes the qualitative and quantitative changes in the levels of empathy among these specialists after the implementation of a comprehensive socio-psychological program. the goal is the approval of a complex socio-psychological program for the formation of professional empathy among specialists in helping professions, in particular, police officers, rescuers, doctors and psychologists. to conduct the research, the following methods were used: psychodiagnostic technique “diagnostics of the empathic abilities level” by v. boiko, content analysis, and wilcoxon t-criteria to determine statistically significant shifts. the results. on the basis of the conducted research, it was established that empathy undergoes positive changes under the influence of the proposed comprehensive social-psychological program. as we can see the t-wilcoxon results showed statistically significant shifts at the p<0.01 and p<0.001 levels. positive changes occurred among representatives of all studied professions, however, the highest rates of change were found among psychologists and police officers. conclusions. theoretical analysis shows that empathy is mostly considered as an emotional component of the personality, which often appears in a negative way for specialists of some professions. however, the empathy of rescuers, police officers, doctors and psychologists manifests itself through a behavioral component and contributes to the emergence of empathic actions. therefore, the positive results of the implementation of a complex socio-psychological program allow us to insist on the effectiveness and feasibility of its application for other specialists in the field of helping professions. keywords: empathy, rescuers, police officers, doctors, psychologists, specialists of helping professions. how to cite: blikhar, v., kovalchuk, z., vavryniv, o., yaremko, r., bodnarchuk, v., & tsiupryk, a. (2023). results of the implementation of a comprehensive sociopsychological program to foster professional empathy among professionals in the helping professions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 113. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/440 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/440 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/440 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 2 introduction the humanization of relations in the society requires the ability to understand another person, to enter his situation, as well as the ability to empathize and sympathize, which, in turn, encourages helping. we often talk about empathy in different age periods, generally about empathy in our society as opposed to aggression and lack of compassion for other people. it is a person's ability to empathize with others this is one of the main motivation factors for choosing the help professions. as well, the empathy is considered an important factor of individual and professional development of the person, in particular, in professions of the socionomic type. the issue of developing empathy is mostly considered in two main contexts personal (universal) and professional. the role of the issue in personal and professional development is a subject of scientific research for a long time. this is due to the fact that empathy, as a socio-psychological phenomenon, significantly affects the personality as a whole, increases motivation, productivity and effectiveness of its activities. the ability to empathize consists in the ability to lead an emotional response to feelings, thoughts and feelings of the empathy object. some scientists believe that empathy is the emotional ability to respond to signals that convey the emotional experience of another. others define empathy as a behavioral ability that manifests itself in helping, facilitating, and altruistic behavior in response to the experiences or problems of another person. m.l. hoffman considers empathy as a biologically determined tendency to altruistic behavior. in his works, he emphasizes that sincere compassion (empathy) generates altruistic motivation for helping behavior (hoffman, 2020). therefore, empathy as a motivational factor of help is divided into certain forms of helping behavior: real actions aimed at providing help; prosocial behavior, altruistic behavior. ch. batson formulated his hypothesis of “empathy – altruism”. its essence is that the true altruistic behavior of a person aimed at helping another does not involve any benefit or social encouragement in return, rising esteem or self-esteem because of giving help that is motivated by empathy itself (batson, 1997). empathy as a factor of motivation for moral behavior and altruism has certain definitions in this context: an affective response that is more appropriate to the other person’s situation than your own; results of the implementation of a comprehensive socio-psychological… viacheslav blikhar, et al. 3 feelings are focused on another person, corresponding to the psychoemotional state; affective reaction to the emotional state of another person and sometimes a similar feeling or experience that is observed in that person; ability to respond emotionally to others experiences. it is believed that the empathy of representatives of helping professions can be studied in two directions such as empathy as a factor of successful professional activity and empathy as a motivational factor of choosing a profession. therefore, most often empathy, as a professionally important quality, is studied by representatives of such helping professions as: psychotherapists, doctors, teachers and teachers of higher education institutions, practical psychologists, social workers, their professional training and self-determination, etc. empathy in medical practice is extremely necessary and significantly affects the success of treatment and further favorable conditions for the course of the disease. empathy in doctors’ practice allows you to make more accurate and early diagnoses and avoid unnecessary research, which allows you to achieve stable results in the treatment process. empathy for therapists is an essential quality of professional competence that helps to convey to the patient and help him. in addition, empathy as a quality of the doctor’s personality will help to establish an emotional connection and promote an open, trusting atmosphere in communication between the doctor and his patient. the researchers also investigated the relationship between empathy, compassion satisfaction, and fatigue. the study shows that a quarter of doctors who participated in the experiment are at risk of stress due to excessive empathy (hunt, 2019). researchers have studied the empathy in the structure of personal volunteers, as representatives of helping kinds of activity (koval & spitsyna, 2021). the presence of empathy in the psychologist’s personality structure will help in the process of interaction with the client to demonstrate his sincere desire to help in a difficult life situation. “empathetic listening” is perhaps the most important skill in the practice of a psychologist. because the psychologist’s ability to listen empathetically contributes to the creation of a positive microclimate in working with the client and establishing rapport (vavryniv, 2020). empathy has a positive effect on the development of interpersonal relationships. it allows to provide support to a person not only under usual conditions, but also in difficult extreme situations, when he especially needs it. most often, in this context, these qualities correlate with the requirements broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 4 of professional and personal competence of specialists in risky professions, in particular, rescuers and police officers. in modern literature, a study of empathy in the personality structure of a rescuer is presented, its role in their professional activity and selfrealization is determined (vavryniv, 2020; yaremko et al., 2022). research on the personality of the rescuer, his personal and professional qualities, in particular, neuropsychological stability, motivation, peculiarities of response to stress, interpersonal interaction, etc., is also widely presented in scientific works. (wagner et al., 2021). scientists have also made attempts to establish the causes of alcoholism and committed suicides among rescuers, drawing parallels with the peculiarities of professional activity (healy & vujanovic, 2021; zegel et al., 2022). scientists are searching for effective methods of therapy for the negative impact of professional activity on rescuers (becker et al., 2022). empathy is considered an important social quality of law enforcement officers. there are works that emphasize the need to diagnose the level of empathy in police officers at the stage of professional selection. that is why it is believed that empathic compassion will be important when interacting with victims (bloksgaard & prieur, 2021). the professional and personal qualities of police officers and their influence on professional activity and self-realization are widely investigated (fedorenko et al., 2020; ponomarenko et al., 2022; olalde-mathieu et al., 2022). there are studies on the relationship between empathy and motivation, as well as the possibility of forming sustainable empathy through understanding the motives for showing compassion (weisz et al., 2021). that is why, empathy will emerge itself in a more active form, when the empathizing person understands the motive of his own sympathy. in general, the development of professional empathy in the process of developing the personality of a specialist holds a significant place and is expressed in the mastery of the ability to effectively interact with other people at the professional and personal levels. the goal is the approval of a complex socio-psychological program for the formation of professional empathy among helping professions specialists, in particular, police officers, rescuers, doctors and psychologists. research methods and samples. to diagnose the level of empathy, we conducted “diagnosis of the level of empathic abilities”, the method used by v. boyko. a content analysis was carried out and the level of statistically significant changes was established using the spss 20 mathematical statistics program and the wilcoxon t-test. the total research sample of 557 specialists in helping professions, in particular, police officers, results of the implementation of a comprehensive socio-psychological… viacheslav blikhar, et al. 5 rescuers, doctors, and psychologists. 202 people were selected to conduct the formative part of the experiment, including: 50 rescuers, 40 medics, 52 policemen and 60 psychologists. justification of the complex socio-psychological program of formation of professional empathy among specialists of helping professions the purpose of the formative experiment was to develop and implement a comprehensive socio-psychological program for the formation of professional empathy among specialists in helping professions. in accordance with the purpose of the formative experiment, the following tasks are distinguished: 1) to determine the methods, psychological conditions and factors of the formation of professional empathy among future rescuers; 2) to develop the content, structure and criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of a comprehensive socio-psychological program for the formation of professional empathy among specialists in helping professions; 3) to test a comprehensive socio-psychological program for the formation of professional empathy of specialists in helping professions. while preparing a comprehensive socio-psychological program for the formation of professional empathy among specialists in helping professions, we analyzed and took into account the research of modern scientists. so, modern research suggests that doctors and psychologists with sufficient and high levels of empathy are more likely to suffer from professional burnout, and rescuers and police officers should do their work without excessive emotionality and compassion. that is why the emphasis in the programme focused on the development of empathic (helping) behavior skills, the ability to analyze and assess the situation, the formation of selfregulation and self-control skills in the professional stressful situations. the program consisted of 14 training sessions, that include exercises and techniques to promote interpersonal communication, group discussions, mini-lectures to deepen knowledge about the problem of empathy and its importance in personal and professional growth, game methods (situational role-playing games, etc.), psychodrawing, psychogymnastics, relaxation, meditation and visualization, methods of autogenic training. the experiment included a video demonstrating the features of professional activities of police officers, rescuers, doctors and psychologists, followed by debriefing: professional and psychological analysis of the situation, emotions and experiences of its participants. there was also a discussion about the specialists feelings who participated in the program. classes are designed for broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 6 1.5-2 hours of group work. the goal of the program is to develop professional empathy among specialists in helping professions. in accordance with the goal of the comprehensive sociopsychological program, we have identified the following tasks: 1) formation of internal motivation for helping behavior; 2) increasing the level of empathy in general; 3) development of skills of empathic behavior and active empathic determination; 4) development of the most optimal (effective, adequate) types of empathic interaction; 4) identification and development of the most appropriate (effective, adequate) types of empathic interaction; 5) formation of humanistic and altruistic orientation towards another person, which is the basis of empathy; 6) to actualize an empathetic attitude and develop the ability to analyze and assess the situation; 7) developing self-regulation and self-control skills to cope with stressful situations; 8) activation of the processes of self-knowledge and self-analysis, as well as development of reflection skills; 9) to form a positive orientation of unconditional acceptance of oneself and others. the exercises and techniques of the program take into account the actual problems of the service and professional activities of the participants in the experiment. the program includes exercises that, while contributing to the formation of professional empathy, also develop and consolidate the professional skills of police officers, rescuers, doctors and psychologists. in general, the content and structure of the developed comprehensive sociopsychological program fully reflects the goal of developing professional empathy in helping professionals. in the introduction of the training, the main tasks were to familiarize the participants with each other and the rules of group work, to identify the level of awareness of participants about the problem of empathy, to help defining the concept of “empathy”, to understand its importance in the life and development of specialists in helping professions, to interest participants in active interaction, to create an atmosphere of trust towards each other, to help breaking down destructive barriers in communication, to get to know themselves and other group members better. the main part of the training was aimed at realizing the importance of the profession and empathy within it, understanding one’s strengths and results of the implementation of a comprehensive socio-psychological… viacheslav blikhar, et al. 7 weaknesses in it, developing the ability to assess one’s personal professional qualities and friend’s qualities, self-motivation for professional development, understanding one’s own feelings and experiences, developing a sense of self-worth and the ability to reflect, and improving empathic abilities, formation of professional empathy in combination with increasing professional skills, formation of ability to understand feelings and feelings of other people, formation of motivation of help behavior (ability to empathy actions), development of sympathy to others, ability to care about the needs, understanding of reasons of crime on the subject of the empathy for its further purpose of blocking, increasing confidence and self-esteem, to work out the ability to “keep the blow”, to harmonize the emotional state, to define and fix the basic ways of managing their emotions in special and extreme conditions for successful formation of stressful behavior, to acquire skills of muscular control, to realize own body sensations. the final part was aimed at understanding the limits of their own emptiness and peculiarities of its manifestation, understanding of positive changes that took place after the training and fixing the result, understanding the value of professional activity of rescuers, raising motivation to improve professional qualification, carrying out emotional discharge of participants, and successful finishing. results at the stage of the formulation experiment, control and experimental groups were selected and formed from the entire selection of participants. the control and experimental rescue groups included 25 respondents (total number of 50 persons); the control and experimental groups of doctors included 20 respondents (total number of 40 persons); the control and experimental groups of police included 26 respondents (total number of 52 persons); the control and experimental group of rescuers included 30 respondents (total number of 60 persons). in order to assess the effectiveness of the sociopsychological training in the formation of the professional empathy of future rescuers, we conducted a repeated psycho-diagnostic research. table 1 presents the results of a comparative analysis of changes in the empathy levels of the specialists under study. as we can see, positive changes have affected all specialists in helping professions. the most significant changes are observed in high and very low indicators. as we can see in the table, after the implementation of a comprehensive socialpsychological program, psychologists have a very low level of empathy. this indicates a positive influence and qualitative changes in the empathy level as a professionally important quality of specialists in helping professions. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 8 table 1. results of comparative analysis indicators rescuers doctors police psychologists before after before after before after before after very high empathy level 18% 25% 20% 29% 18% 24% 20% 27% high empathy level 20% 28% 22% 30% 19% 25% 24% 33% normal empathy level 20% 27% 23% 30% 21% 31% 27% 35% low empathy level 20% 9% 18% 8% 20% 11% 18% 5% very low empathy level 21% 11% 17% 3% 22% 9% 11% 0% source: author's own conception after the comparative analysis, there is a need for statistical confirmation of the obtained results. in accordance with this need, we used the wilcoxon t-test to determine statistically significant changes. table 2 shows the results of applying the wilcoxon t-test. so, the most statistical changes in the empathy of the rescuers can be noted low (p<0.001) and very low levels of empathy (p<0.001). at the significance level of p<0.01, changes in very high, high and normal levels of empathy were statistically confirmed. changes in very high, low and very low levels of empathy were found among doctors at the p<0.001 significance level. also, significant changes occurred in high (p<0.01) and low (p<0.01) levels of empathy. among police, the most statistical changes occurred in normal (p<0.001), low (p<0.001) and very low (p<0.001) levels of empathy. statistically significant changes in the group of psychologists at the significance level p<0.001 were found at high, low and very low levels. significant changes also occurred in high (p<0.01) and low (p<0.01) levels of empathy. significant changes also occurred in very high (p<0.01) and normal (p<0.01) levels of empathy. indicators rescuers medics police officers psychologists t р t р t р t р very high level of empathy -3,101a ,002 -4,101a ,000 -2,911a ,004 -3,142a ,003 high level of empathy -3,248 a ,002 -3,257a ,002 -2,869a ,004 -4,248a ,000 normal level of empathy -3,111a ,002 -3,051a ,003 -4,822a ,000 -3,132a ,003 low level of empathy -5,121 b ,000 -4,821b ,000 -5,262b ,000 -5,021b ,000 very low level of empathy -4,813b ,000 -5,563b ,000 -5,458b ,000 -5,823b ,000 note: a ‒ positive ranks are used (increased); b-negative ranks are used (decreased). source: author's own conception results of the implementation of a comprehensive socio-psychological… viacheslav blikhar, et al. 9 there is an opinion that the empathy of police officers and rescuers should be at a low level. since it is believed that these specialists should carry out their professional activities quite coolly. we partially agree with this opinion. however, we consider it necessary to note that most often police and rescuers work with the category of the population that has suffered from certain troubles. these people primarily seek compassion and understanding, and need some help. it is the high levels of empathy in the personality structure of rescuers and police officers that will encourage them to provide the necessary both professional assistance and moral support. after all, we consider empathy not only as an emotional component of the individual, but also behavioral which forms the motivation for providing assistance and focuses the specialist’s activities on saving victims. also, the fact that a significant part of the participants were endowed with at least a minimal level of empathy contributed to obtaining high results in implementing a comprehensive program. it also suggests that a significant proportion of the rescuers and police officers studied chose their future profession under the influence of an internal need for assistance. this assumption can also be expressed in relation to the studied doctors and psychologists. the doctors under study are general practitioners who have to cooperate directly with patients: listen to their complaints (not just about their health), support them at the stage of treatment, make treatment based on the patient's personality, and so on. the empathy of doctors will contribute to establishing contact with patients and a positive attitude toward treatment. not in vain, empathy is considered a crucial quality of a psychologist, as it contributes to the establishment of rapport and further work with the client. if the client understands the sincerity of the psychologist’s intentions to help in the situation, he will work more actively. also, empathy serves as a kind of key in customer discovery. discussion the obtained results of the study allow us to assume that empathy acts as a factor in choosing a profession of helping type, in particular, policemen, rescuers, doctors, and psychologists. this is confirmed by initial rates of empathy levels and their positive dynamics as a consequence of the implementation of a comprehensive social and psychological program. so, our research resonates the works of other scientists who study the influence of empathy on personality and its professional formation, consider empathy an important quality of representatives of helping professions, as well as other types of helping activities, in particular volunteering (koval & spitsyna, 2021; veloski & hojat, 2006). there is a similar tendency in studies broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 10 that demonstrate the remarkable influence of empathy on the training process, implementation in the profession, in particular, among medical students (delgado bolton et al., 2022; hojat et al., 2020). despite the presence of scientific works that are tangential to our research and complement it, there is no or almost no intelligence that would refer to the empathy of police officers and rescuers, as the brightest representatives of the field of helping professions. because of this, empathy is mostly considered an important professional quality of doctors, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, teachers, volunteers, and other representatives of helping professions. the conducted study complements our previous research and confirms that empathy is subjected to formative influence in such specialists of helping professions as policemen, rescuers, doctors, and psychologists. that is why, the highest indicator was found in the empathy level increase due to the implementation of the formulation actions. let us assume that our achievements will allow to expand the limits of research among specialists of assisting professions, and also to establish empathy role and place in professional activity of experts of this field. conclusions. summing up the results of our scientific research, we can say that the empathy is mainly seen as an emotional component of personality and professional important quality, which often acts in a negative way. so excessive emotional sensitivity can lead to fatal errors in the work, in particular, specialists such as rescuers, police officers, doctors and psychologists. however, if analyzed on the basis of a theoretical and experimental research, the issue of experts data is primarily manifested through behavioral component and promotes occurrence of empathy actions. finding ways to help the consumer will not allow excessive emotional sensitivity to appear. the program offered by us is used not only to raise the level of empathy, but also to relieve emotional stress, relaxation, meditation, etc., that will allow participants to apply them as necessary and quickly restore stability and to begin to fulfill professional duties. thus, we can state that the complex social and psychological program of formation of professional empathy of specialists of helping professions offered by us is effective and can be used not only for police, rescuers, medicals and psychological, but also for other specialists of the sphere of helping professions. our research does not cover all questions about the issue and its role in the work of specialists of the helping professions. we consider studying results of the implementation of a comprehensive socio-psychological… viacheslav blikhar, et al. 11 of the issue of specialists of helping professions in gender and age context, and also depending on the experience, position and duties, peculiarities of professional activity, etc. to be perspective. references afanasieva, n. ye. (2017). psykholohichne konsultuvannia predstavnykiv ekstremalnykh profesii: teoriia, metodolohiia, praktyka [psychological counseling of representatives of extreme professions: theory, methodology, practice]. national university of civil defense of ukraine. http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3232/1/monohrafyi a%20%28afanaseva%29%20s%20foto.pdf aleshina, yu. (2004). individualnoe i semeynoe psihologicheskoe konsultirovanie [individual and family psychological counseling]. klass. aprosimov, v. a, nakhodkin, v. v, prokopyev, v. e. (2018). sravnitelnyiy analiz lichnostnyih osobennostey sportsmenov vyisokogo klassa [a comparative analysis of personal characteristics of elite athlete]. obschestvo: sotsiologiya, psihologiya, pedagogika [society: sociology, psychology, pedagogy], 2, 77-82. https://doi.org/10.24158/spp.2018.2.15 arpenteva, m. r. (2019). bazovyie printsipyi-metatehnologii sportivnogo psihologicheskogo konsultirovaniya [basic principles-metatechnologies of sports psychological counseling]. zdorove cheloveka, teoriya i metodika fizicheskoy kulturyi i sporta [human health, theory and methodology of physical culture and sports], 1(12), 27-57. http://journal.asu.ru/zosh/article/view/5225 bager-charleson, s. (2012). personal development in counselling and psychotherapy. learning matters publisher. cooper, m., & dryden, w. (2016). introduction to pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy. in m. cooper & w. dryden (eds.), handbook of pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy. sage. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 donati, m. a. (2002). personal development in counselling psychology training: a critical investigation of the views and experiences of trainers and trainees. [unpublished doctoral thesis]. city university london. gledding, s. (2002). psihologicheskoe konsultirovanie [psychological counseling] (4th ed.). piter. http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3232/1/monohrafyia%20%28afanaseva%29%20s%20foto.pdf http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3232/1/monohrafyia%20%28afanaseva%29%20s%20foto.pdf https://doi.org/10.24158/spp.2018.2.15 http://journal.asu.ru/zosh/article/view/5225 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 12 hong, e., & rao, a. l. (2020). mental health in the athlete: modern perspectives and novel challenges for the sports medicine provider. springer international publishing. hryn, o. r. (2014). pcykholohichne zabezpechennia ta suprovid pidhotovky kvalifikovanykh sportsmeniv [psychological support and support of training of qualified athletes]. olimpiiska literatura. https://reposit.unisport.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/787878787/2044/tekst%20posob%20ps( ukr.yazыk).pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y klymenko, v. v. (2006). psykholohiia sportu [psychology of sport]. interregional academy of personnel management. https://maup.com.ua/assets/files/lib/book/p08_51.pdf kostromina, s. n., & smirnova, v. v. (2009). model psihologicheskogo soprovozhdeniya podgotovki bortsov vyisokoy kvalifikatsii [model of psychological support for the training of highly qualified wrestlers]. bulletin of st. petersburg university, 12(2), part 2, 67-77. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/model-psihologicheskogosoprovozhdeniya-podgotovki-bortsov-vysokoy-kvalifikatsii loehr, j. e. (1990). providing sport psychology consulting services to professional tennis players. the sport psychologist, 4(4), 400–408. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.4.4.400 lovyagina, a. e. (2013). teoreticheskie i prikladnyie problemyi psihologicheskogo soprovozhdeniya sportsmena [theoretical and applied problems of psychological support of an athlete]. bulletin of st. petersburg state university, 16(1), 29-39. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/teoreticheskie-i-prikladnyeproblemy-psihologicheskogo-soprovozhdeniya-sportsmena martin, j. (1999). a personal development model of sport psychology for athletes with disabilities. journal of applied sport psychology, 11(2), 181-193. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413209908404199 martin, s. b., lavallee, d., kellmann, m., page, s. j. (2004). attitudes toward sport psychology consulting of adult athletes from the united states, united kingdom, and germany. international journal of sport and exercise psychology, 2(2), 146–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197x.2004.9671738 merry, t., & haugh, s. (2020). learning and being in person-centred counselling (3rd ed.). pccs books. ong, n. c. h., & harwood, c. (2018). attitudes toward sport psychology consulting in athletes: understanding the role of culture and personality. sport, exercise, and performance psychology, 7(1), 46–59. https://doi.org/10.1037/spy0000103 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor https://reposit.uni-sport.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/787878787/2044/tekst%20posob%20ps(ukr.yazыk).pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://reposit.uni-sport.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/787878787/2044/tekst%20posob%20ps(ukr.yazыk).pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://reposit.uni-sport.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/787878787/2044/tekst%20posob%20ps(ukr.yazыk).pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://maup.com.ua/assets/files/lib/book/p08_51.pdf https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/model-psihologicheskogo-soprovozhdeniya-podgotovki-bortsov-vysokoy-kvalifikatsii https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/model-psihologicheskogo-soprovozhdeniya-podgotovki-bortsov-vysokoy-kvalifikatsii https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/tsp/4/4/article-p400.xml https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/teoreticheskie-i-prikladnye-problemy-psihologicheskogo-soprovozhdeniya-sportsmena https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/teoreticheskie-i-prikladnye-problemy-psihologicheskogo-soprovozhdeniya-sportsmena https://doi.org/10.1080/10413209908404199 https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197x.2004.9671738 https://doi.org/10.1037/spy0000103 results of the implementation of a comprehensive socio-psychological… viacheslav blikhar, et al. 13 in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 rooney, d., jackson, r. c. & heron, n. (2021). differences in the attitudes to sport psychology consulting between individual and team sport athletes. bmc sports science, medicine and rehabilitation, 13, article 46. https://bmcsportsscimedrehabil.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13 102-021-00271-7 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., kharchenko, s., linnik, y., dovbnia, s., pavelkiv, v., maksymchuk, i., shakhina, i., saienko, v., bashtovenko, o., silaiev, v., radovenchyk, a., & zhytomyrskyi, l. (2022). the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with special needs in rehabilitation centres: neuropsychological aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 362-382. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/393 voronova, v. (2013). psihologicheskoe obespechenie podgotovki sportsmenov v futbole [psychological support for the training of athletes in football]. nauka v olimpiyskom sporte [science in olympic sports], 4, 32-39. https://clffu.org.ua/storage/educationmaterials/march2019/h068y4bz4qse8smjdozz.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://bmcsportsscimedrehabil.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13102-021-00271-7 https://bmcsportsscimedrehabil.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13102-021-00271-7 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/393 https://clffu.org.ua/storage/education-materials/march2019/h068y4bz4qse8smjdozz.pdf https://clffu.org.ua/storage/education-materials/march2019/h068y4bz4qse8smjdozz.pdf microsoft word brain_2_2.doc 5 access management in medical image databases based on new format and contents protection with inverse pyramid decomposition roumen kountchev technical university – sofia, sofia, bulgaria rkountch@tu-sofia.bg barna iantovics petru maior university tg. mures, romania barni_300@yahoo.com vladimir todorov t&k engineering, sofia, bulgaria todorov_vl@yahoo.com roumiana kountcheva t&k engineering, sofia, bulgaria kountcheva_r@yahoo.com abstract: in the paper is presented one new approach for creation and management of medical image databases with multi-layer access, based on the inverse pyramid decomposition (ipd). the archived visual data is compressed using the special idp format, presented in detail in this paper. the new approach offers flexible tools for multi-layer transfer of the processed information with consecutively quality improvement, together with reliable content protection ensured by digital watermark insertion and data hiding. the idp permits insertion of multiple watermarks in same file. part of the visual information (specific regions of interest in the medical images) is hidden for the low access levels and could be revealed by authorized users only. keywords: hierarchical access in medical image databases, management of image databases, image content protection, compressed file format. 1. introduction the multimedia databases (md) are increasingly important part of computer and information sciences. recently the large consortiums of hospitals in western europe already have or are in process of creating their own patients information systems, which enable total interchange of data and together with this, are still compatible with the individual way of working of each hospital. electronic medical health records (emhr) contain wide variety of multimedia objects (images, electronic documents, video, audio, etc.). the management of such databases should satisfy significant number of contradictory requirements: easy and reliable data access, hierarchical access structure, content protection, efficient archiving, high quality, etc. additional important requirements arose concerning the feature extraction, quality level, and information filtering. in spite of the already performed work in image and audio processing, image analysis and pattern recognition are still not adequately addressed. the usual approach in the contemporary practice is to use digital imaging and communications in medicine (dicom) standard [1]: the images are compressed and stored and their accessibility and content protection depends on the md management. in medicine to date, virtually all picture archive and communication systems (pacs) retrieve images simply by indices based on patient name, technique, or some observer-coded text of diagnostic findings [2, 3]. there are a number of uses for medical image databases, each of which would make different requirements on database organization. classification of images into named or coded diagnostic categories may suffice for retrieving groups of images for teaching purposes. one of the most powerful contemporary tools for image archiving is the jpeg2000 image compression standard, which offers many features that support interactive access to large images [4, 5] (highbrainovations brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 efficiency compression, resolution scalability, quality scalability, and spatial random access). the main disadvantage is that jpeg2000 does not offer tools for layered content protection and access. in the paper is presented one new approach for creation and management of medical image databases with multi-layer access, based on the inverse pyramid decomposition (ipd), which offers various tools for layered transfer of the processed visual information with consecutively quality improvement, together with reliable content protection through insertion of resistant and fragile watermarks: the resistant watermark is used to prove the document authenticity, while the fragile watermark is used to prevent the access to some important parts of the archived information. for lower access levels part of the information is hidden, such as: (for example) personal patients’ data, specific regions of interest (roi) in the corresponding medical images, etc., and could be revealed by authorized users only (in the higher access levels). the paper is arranged as follows: in section 2 is presented the main idea of the ipd decomposition; in section 3 is described the new format, created for the idp image decomposition; in section 4 is described the method for multi-layer watermarking and data hiding; in section 5 is presented the approach for the database management, and section 6 contains the conclusions. 2. basic principles of the ipd decomposition the 2d matrix [b], which represents the digital image, could be transformed using the inverse pyramid decomposition (ipd) [6]. for this, the image matrix is first divided into blocks of size 2n×2n. the corresponding sub-matrix for each image block [b(2n)] is decomposed in accordance with the relation: )](r[)](e ~ [)](b ~ [)](b[ n r p n p nn 2222 1 10 ++= ∑ = − , for r < n-1, (1) where the number of decomposition components is (r+2). here )](r[ n2 is a residual component, which is equal to zero for r = n 1. each component in eq. (1) is a matrix of size 2n×2n, corresponding to the decomposition layer р. the first decomposition component, )](b~[ n20 calculated for the layer p = 0, is a coarse approximation of the block [b(2n)]. it is obtained through 2d inverse orthogonal transform (ot) of the block )](s ~ [ n20′ in correspondence with the relation: 1 00 1 00 2222 −− ′= )](t)][(s ~ [)](t[)](b ~ [ nnnn , (2) where: 1 0 2 −)](t[ n the 2d ot matrix, )](s ~ [ n20′ , of size 2 n×2n; )]}}(s{[fq{fq)]}(s ~ {[fq)](s ~ [ nnn 222 00 1 00 1 00 −− ==′ . (3) the terms }{fq •0 and }{fq • −1 0 are correspondingly operators for filtration and quantization of )](s[ n20 and for dequantization of )](s ~ [ n20 in the decomposition layer р = 0. in result of the operation, performed by }{fq •0 , are selected and quantized the pre-selected highenergy coefficients in the matrix )](s[ n20 , which define )](s ~ [ n20′ . in result of the performance of the inverse operator }{fq •−10 and after the inverse operation, represented in eq. (2), is calculated the component )](b~[ n20 . the term )](s[ n20 in eq. (3) is calculated after direct 2d ot of the matrix [b(2n)], i.e.: r. kountchev, b. iantovics, v. todorov, and r. kountcheva access management in medical image databases based on new format and contents protection with inverse pyramid decomposition 7 )](t)][(b)][(t[)](s[ nnnn 2222 000 = . (4) here )](t[ n20 is the matrix for 2d ot, of size 2 n×2n, which could be of any kind: (dft, dct, etc.), and whose inverse matrix is 10 2 −)](t[ n . the remaining decomposition components from eq. (1) are the approximating matrices )](e ~ [ pnp −2 for decomposition levels p = 1, 2,.., r. these matrices comprise the sub-matrices )](e~[ pnkp p −2 , of size 2n-p×2n-p for kp=1,2,…,4p, obtained as a result of the quad-tree division of )](e ~ [ pnp −2 . each sub-matrix )](e~[ pnkp p −2 is then defined as: 11 1 2222 −−−−−− − ′= ])(t][)(s ~ [])(t[])(e ~ [ pnp pnk p pn p pnk p pp for kp=1,2,..,4p, (5) where 4p is the number of the quad-tree branches in the decomposition level p; 12 −− ])(t[ pnp is a matrix of size 2 n-p×2n-p in the decomposition level p, used for the inverse 2d ot; )]}}(s{[fq{fq)]}(s ~ {[fq)](s ~ [ pnkppp pnk pp pnk p ppp −−−−− ==′ 222 11 ; (6) the terms }{fq p • and }{fq p • −1 are correspondingly the operators for filtration and quantization of )](s[ pnkp p −2 and for dequantization of )](s ~ [ n20 in the layer р. each transform is defined by the equation: )](t)][(e)][(t[)](s[ pnp nk p pn p pnk p pp − − −− = 2222 1 , (7) where ])(t[ pnp −2 is a matrix of size 2n-p×2n-p in the level p for each block )](e[ pnkp p −2 when kp=1,2,…,4p in the difference matrix, defined by the relation: ⎩ ⎨ ⎧ =− = = − − − − − r.2,3,..,p for -)] (2e~[)](e[ ;1p for )] (2b ~ [-)](b[ )](e[ p-n p pn p n 0 n pn p 22 1 2 2 2 (8) in result of the decomposition (eq. 1) for each block [b(2n)] are defined the following spectrum coefficients: from the level p = 0 all non-zero coefficients in )](s ~ [ n20′ ; from levels p = 1, 2, . . , r all non-zero coefficients )](s ~ [ pnkp p −′ 2 for kp=1,2,..,4p. the spectrum coefficients of same spatial frequency from all image sub-blocks are arranged in common massifs in accordance with the decomposition level, and then losslessly coded. with this the image coding is finished. the processing of color images is performed in the way already presented above for grayscale images. for this, the kind of color transform is first selected. this could be rgb, rct, rec.601-2, klt (karhunen-loeve transform), etc. the color data coding could be one of the kind: 8:8:8, 4:4:4, 4:2:2, or 4:2:0. depending on the color transform, 3 pyramids are built, corresponding brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 to the main components. the decomposition follows the rules, given above for the image brightness processing. in result, significant compression of the archived image is obtained. 3. ipd format the everyday medical practice requires flexible approach in image compression and transfer. the approach, based on the idp decomposition offers fast initial image transfer (the image approximation, which corresponds to the low decomposition level) without many details, which are after that sent on request only. for such applications the idp method is extremely suitable because it permits layered image transfer with increasing resolution and quality. additional ability is to permit setting of regions of interest (roi), which to be immediately accessed and then restored with highest quality. in such applications the data structure is more complicated, because the header should comprise not only the information for each decomposition layer, but information about the roi size and position as well. the implementation of the idp decomposition and its applications aimed at the medical image databases management require the creation of a new format. the information, which accompanies the coded data, should comprise the basic characteristics of the decomposition: the number of decomposition levels used; the orthogonal transform, selected for each level and the corresponding sets of coefficients (i.e. the masks of retained coefficients); the kind of color transform (for color images); the quantization values; the pixels scanning direction (vertical, horizontal, diagonal), and the kind of entropy and run-length coding of coefficients’ data. this information is saved in the coded data header and is needed for the proper decoding. the header comprises 3 main parts: general header, special data sub-header and sub-header for color data. the coded data information is divided into 3 big groups: lowest level (no.1), middle levels (from level 2 up to level n-1) and highest level (n), in accordance with the decomposition. the interactively selected roi is processed as a kind of a sub-block or as a group of sub-blocks. the data structure of the compressed image file after idp decomposition is shown in table 1. the brief definition of the basic header data is given below. the names are created as abbreviations of their contents. table 1. description of the idp file main header main header special data sub-header sub-header color data additional data packet 1 (lowest level) sub-header for level 2 data packet 2 sub-header for level 3 data packet 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- sub-header for level n-1 data packet n-1 sub-header for level n data packet n the compressed file header comprises following: kuhdr main header rlbytecnt (unsigned 32 bit) number of bytes after run-length coding; bytecnt (unsigned 32 bit) final number of bytes, after entropy coding; prgprm (unsigned, 16 bit) program parameters, containing all 1-bit parameters (flags), as follows: the way of picture scanning, data arrangement, kind of color transform, etc. prgprm1 (unsigned, 16 bit) initial and end level of the truncated pyramid and maximum possible number of pyramid levels for the processed image. r. kountchev, b. iantovics, v. todorov, and r. kountcheva access management in medical image databases based on new format and contents protection with inverse pyramid decomposition 9 kusdh special data sub-header definition of the retained coefficients: ilvfl (unsigned, 16 bit) mask defining the retained coefficients in the initial (lowest) pyramid level; mlvfl (unsigned, 16 bit) mask defining the retained coefficients in the middle pyramid levels (from 2 up to n-1); elvfl (unsigned, 16 bit) mask defining the retained coefficients in the highest pyramid level (n); lossless data coding: rltype (unsigned char) – defining the kind of run-length, used for the lossless coding of the coefficients’ values. information about the quantization used: divcc (char) division coefficient for the first pyramid level approximation methods: lvlidp (unsigned char) defines the selected approximation method for each level (wht, dct, etc). global information about the processed image: nn (unsigned, 16 bit) size of the original image (vertical) nhn (unsigned, 16 bit) size of the original image (horizontal direction) the color data is processed in similar way. kusdhc sub-header for color data global information: ilvc (unsigned char) initial pyramid level elvc (unsigned char) end pyramid level definition of the retained coefficients: ilvflс (unsigned 16 bit) mask defining the retained coefficients in the initial pyramid level; mlvflс (unsigned 16 bit) mask defining the retained coefficients in the middle pyramid levels; elvflс (unsigned 16 bit) mask defining the retained coefficients in the highest pyramid level; information about the quantization used: divccc (char) division coefficient for the first pyramid level; approximation methods: lvlidpc (unsigned char) defines the selected approximation method for each level (wht, dct, etc). global information about the processed image: nnc (unsigned, 16 bit) the size of the original image (vertical) nhnc (unsigned, 16 bit) the size of the original image (horizontal) uvpxlc (unsigned, 16 bit) used color standard (4:1:1, 4:2:2, etc.) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 the additional data comprises information about other parameters, necessary for definition of the selected kind of lossless data coding or when multi-view or multi-spectral images are processed. as it is easy to notice, the number of bits used for the representation of the main parameters permits to add more information about various kinds of image processing. 4. resistant image watermarking, based on the 2d-cht for the resistant watermarking is used idp decomposition with complex hadamard transform. specific for this transform is that the transform coefficients have real and imaginary parts. the watermark data is inserted in the phases of selected spectrum coefficients, obtained with 2d complex hadamard transform (2d-cht) using “arranged” complex hadamard matrix for the image matrix [b(n)] [7] processing. 4.1. resistant watermark embedding the method for resistant watermark embedding could be used for any kind of images, grayscale or color. the watermark could be a binary image or a data sequence. the basic requirement is the watermark data to be smaller than the protected image. the watermark is embedded in the brightness information of the protected image. the mathematical presentation of the method follows below. the image matrix [b(2n)] of size n×n (n=2n) is first processed with direct 2d-cht: )](ch)][(b)][(ch[)](s[ nnnn 2222 = . (9) here )]2(s[ n is the matrix of the discrete image spectrum; )]2(ch[ n arranged matrix, defined by the natural complex hadamard matrix )]2(ch[ n0 with elements: )q,t(hj)q,t(ch 0 tq 0 = for t, q = 0,1,..,2 n -1, (10) ⎪⎩ ⎪ ⎨ ⎧ = ∑ − = = ⎥⎦ ⎥ ⎢⎣ ⎢ ⎥⎦ ⎥ ⎢⎣ ⎢ − = − 3,4,..n for )( 2;n for 1 q)(t,h r n r r qt 0 1 3 1 221 the arranged matrix )]2(ch[ n is obtained from the natural one, )]2(ch[ n0 after rearranging its rows in such a way, that the number of sign changes for the elements in the row q to be increased by one in the next row, (q+1). the coefficients of the matrix )]2(s[ n0 , are: ∑ ∑ − = − = +− = 12 0i 12 0k 00 vk)(uij 0 n n 2 π k)(v,i)h(u,hek)b(i,v)(u,s for u, v = 0,1,..,2n-1, (11) where b(i,k) is the element of the original image [b(2n)]. for the calculation of coefficients )v,u(s , obtained using the matrix )](ch[ n2 , is necessary to rearrange the coefficients )v,u(s0 . each complex coefficient )v,u(s0 is then represented as: ,e)v,u(m)v,u(js)v,u(s)v,u(s )v,u(j im,re, 0 0000 ϕ−=−= (12) where: r. kountchev, b. iantovics, v. todorov, and r. kountcheva access management in medical image databases based on new format and contents protection with inverse pyramid decomposition 11 )],vkui(cos[)k,v(h)i,u(h)k,i(b)v,u(s n n i k re, += ∑ ∑ − = − = π 12 0 12 0 2000 (13) )]vkui(sin[)k,v(h)i,u(h)k,i(b)v,u(s n m i k im, += ∑ ∑ − = − = π 12 0 12 0 2000 . (14) from all spectrum coefficients as suitable for watermarking are chosen the complexconjugated couples )v,u(s and )v,u(s∗ (with phases )v,u()v,u( ∗ϕ−=ϕ and modules )v,u(m)v,u(m ∗= ) correspondingly. each consecutive bit wr(р) of the watermark data р is inserted in the phases of coefficients )v,u(s and )v,u(s∗ only, in correspondence with the relation: ⎩ ⎨ ⎧ =δ−ϕ =δ+ϕ=ϕ−=ϕ ∗ .)р(wif,)v,u( ;)р(wif,)v,u()v,u()v,u( r r )p(w)p(w rr 0 1 (15) here )v,u()p(wrϕ and )v,u()p(wr ∗ϕ are the phases of the watermarked coefficients )v,u(s )p(wr and )v,u(s )p(wr ∗ . the watermark data is represented by the binary sequence wr(р) for r = 1,2,..,r (r is the number of the watermark binary elements). the parameter δ is the angle, which defines the watermark “depth”, “transparency” and the resistance against pirates’ attacks. the sequence of bits wr(р) is obtained after performing operation “xor” both for each bit of the watermark and the corresponding bit from a pseudorandom sequence, which represents a secret (private) or public key, used for the watermark encryption. in this case the autocorrelation function of the sequence wr(р) is chosen to be of the kind “delta-pulse”. this ensures high accuracy for the watermark detection and extraction. in case that the currently processed complex spectrum coefficient, which should be watermarked, has zero amplitude, the corresponding binary value of the watermark is omitted and the binary symbol from the pseudorandom sequence only remains, because “xor” is not applied. in result, the errors in the extracted watermark elements are reduced, because the spectrum coefficients of zero amplitude have zero phases as well, and they are practically not suitable for watermark elements extraction. the coefficients of the rearranged spectrum matrix )](s[ nw 2 are: )v,u(j )p(w )p(rw r e)v,u(m)v.u(s ϕ−= (16) the matrix )](s[ nw 2 is processed with inverse 2d-cht and as a result is obtained: ∗∗−= )](ch)][(s[)](ch[)](b[ nnw nnn w 22242 , (17) where 1222 −∗ = )](ch[)](ch[ nnn . the pixels of the watermarked image are defined by the relation: ∑ ∑ − = − = + = 12 0u 12 0v 00 vk)(uij ww n n 2 π k)(v,i)h(u,he)v,u(s)k,i(b for i, k = 0,1,..,2n-1. (18) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 the method for resistant watermarking, presented above, has two main advantages: • the watermark is “transparent”, i.e., not noticeable, because the watermark data is embedded in the phases of the selected coefficients; • the method permits to insert significant number of watermark data (higher than for other similar methods), because for the watermarking could be used each of the decomposition layers. these advantages of the new method make it extremely suitable for the presented application (content protection in medical image databases), because the quality of the archived images is of highest importance. 4.2. watermark detection for the resistant watermark detection in unknown image are performed the operations, represented by eqs. (11-14) above. the presumption here is that the searched watermark is one of a set of known watermarks, i.e. it is checked if the document had been watermarked with one of these watermarks. the watermark detection is performed as follows: first, should be checked whether in the image had been inserted the watermark р, which is one of the known d possible signs. for this is calculated the mutual correlation p,mc between the m th and рth watermark, the first of which is one of the d possible, and the second is used for watermarking of the complex-conjugated coefficients )v,u(s and )v,u(s∗ of the unknown image: )m,p(b)m(a)m()]p()v,u([c r r r rp,m +=δδ+ϕ= ∑ =1 (19) for p, m =1,2,..,d, where d is the number of searched watermarks; )v,u()]p()v,u([ )p(wr rϕ=δ+ϕ is the phase of the marked spectrum coefficient )v,u(s )p(wr of the matrix )](s[ n w 2 , which contains the р th watermark data; ∑∑ == δδ=>>≈δϕ= ⎩ ⎨ ⎧ =δ− =δ+=δ−=δ p r r r rr r r r r r)p(w r ).m()p()mp,b( 1,r for )p()v,u()m(a ,)p( wif ;)p( wif )()p( 11 0 0 11 (20) in case that the investigated spectrum coefficients are not marked, 0)р(r =δ and 0c b,m ≈ ; else: ⎪ ⎪ ⎩ ⎪⎪ ⎨ ⎧ ≠≈ == ≈ ∑ ∑ = = r 1r rr r 1r 22 r pm, p.m if 0(p)(m)δδ p;m if rδ(m)][δ c (21) the decision for the watermark data р detection is taken in accordance with the relation: r. kountchev, b. iantovics, v. todorov, and r. kountcheva access management in medical image databases based on new format and contents protection with inverse pyramid decomposition 13 ⎩ ⎨ ⎧ θ≥δ= cases. other in no, ;])r/c[ if yes,p p,m 2 for m, p = 1, 2,…, d, (22) where θ is a pre-defined threshold in the range 0 < θ < 1. the so described watermark detection is “blind”, i.e. it does not need the original image, but the watermark only. 4.3. resistant watermark extraction for the resistant watermark extraction is needed the original image. the presumption is, that the owner is the person, authorized to embed the watermark and he/she has the original. after the phase spectrums of the original and the watermarked images had been calculated, the phases of the corresponding coefficients are subtracted and is defined the sequence, obtained after applying the “xor” function on the watermark and the pseudorandom sequence, which is the encryption key. the watermark is obtained after performing “xor” for the sequences of phase differences and the key. 4.4. fragile watermark insertion the ipd decomposition permits insertion of fragile watermark also. in general, this is an additional decomposition layer. the watermark data is first losslessly coded and the so-obtained data is then added to some of the decomposition levels data. in the quality of a fragile watermark could be used any image of size equal or smaller than that of the protected one. after image restoration, the fragile watermark is visualized overlaid on the corresponding decomposition level, which prevents (hides) the visualization of the approximation. the removal of the fragile “hiding” watermark is carried out using a password. 5. access management in medical image databases the layered approach for image archiving, based on the ipd decomposition, permits to develop special flexible tools for image database management. the basic idea is that any image in the database could be visualized layer by layer with increasing resolution. the visualization starts with the coarse approximation of the archived image, calculated from the lowest decomposition level data, which corresponds to lower access also. the next approximation (of higher quality) is visualized only in case that the user has permission for this, and proves it (for example, with a password). together with the better quality, the system reveals on request (and if password is available) additional personal information. in case, that the image (or a part of it, containing a roi) is hidden, it is visualized only if the permission (password) for the corresponding decomposition level is provided. the image preparation for the image database with layered access is shown on fig. 1. the image is archived layer by layer and the watermarks are inserted together with the image processing. the roi (if there is one in the image) is processed in such a way, that to permit direct access for authorized users (separate pyramid is developed for the roi representation). the structure of the hierarchical access to the image database contents is shown on fig. 2. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 roi roi roi first (coarse) image approximation second approximation (good visual quality) best representation of the basic image watermarks for lowest layer inserted; roi selected watermark for middle layer inserted roi higher quality. watermark for highest security level inserted original digital image roibestrepresentation of roi representation of database image (rois are represented with higher quality) than the remaining part of the image figure1. three-layer image decomposition with content protection r. kountchev, b. iantovics, v. todorov, and r. kountcheva access management in medical image databases based on new format and contents protection with inverse pyramid decomposition 15 hiding watermark removal; roi access image visualization in lower quality; no access to private data and rois access to basic visual information and metadata only high access level middle access levesl lowest access level password needed password needed no password needed special data access level personal data reveal password needed hirerarchical access levels access request access request access request access request access request image database figure 2. hierarchical access to the image db 6. conclusions the proposed method for creation of medical databases with image content protection, based on the ipd, offers various tools for image processing and archiving. the general part of the database information could be used for various applications: disease description, disease history and treatment, statistics, information exchange, students learning, etc [8]. the main advantages of the new method are: • it offers flexible layered access to the archived information, depending on the user authorization; • it ensures immediate access to preset rois for authorized users; • it offers reliable content protection with multiple resistant and fragile watermarks, inserted in the consecutive decomposition levels. the knowledge of the algorithm and the possession brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 of the decoding tools do not permit watermark extraction and visualization of the protected visual information. for this is needed a password, or other similar tool; • the special idp format could be further developed with minor changes (additions) in order to cover more applications; • any change, noticed in the fragile watermark, proves unauthorized access and image editing; • the detection or extraction of the resistant watermark prove the document authenticity; • the ability to insert more than one watermark in the same image ensures higher security for the original image content; • the resistant watermark is inserted in the phases of the transform coefficients, and as a result, the watermark is “transparent”, i.e. – invisible; • the layered approach for image processing permits the creation of general models for object description and representation. in the case, when rst-invariant transformations are used (for example, the 2d mellin-fourier transform) the objects representation is rst-invariant as well, which could be used for object classification and evaluation; • a modification of the rst-invariant object representation method permits the description to be contrast-invariant as well [9]; • the proposed database management corresponds to the contemporary methods for content and context-based data search. it permits to implement some up-to-date methods, based on neural networks; • the idp method and the flexible database management offer layered object search in image databases, similar with the human way for object recognition (starting from slight similarity and continuing up to higher similarity and sure identification). the proposed database management permits further development aimed at efficient archiving of sequences of medical images. acknowledgement this work was supported by the joint research project bulgaria-romania (2010-2012): “electronic health records for the next generation medical decision support in romanian and bulgarian national healthcare systems”. references [1] camapum j., rocha a., evangelista n., amemiya e. (2009) dicom database for medical imaging. proc. xv congreso argentino de bioingieneria:1-4. [2] huang h. and taira r. (1992) infrastructure design of a picture archiving and communication system. american journal of roentgenology, vol 158, 743-749. [3] alsen a., broderick l., winer h., brodley c., kak a., pavlopoulou c., marchlori a. (2003) automated storage and retrieval of thin-section ct images to assist diagnosis: system description and preliminary assessment. radiology, 228: 265-270. [4] taubman d., marcellin m. (2002) jpeg2000: image compression fundamentals, standards and practice, kluwer academic publishers, boston. [5] information technology–jpeg 2000 image coding system: part 9–interactivity tools, apis and protocols, no. 15444-9, iso/iec jtc1/sc29/wg1 is, final publication draft, revision 3 (2003). [6] kountchev r., kountcheva r. (2008) image representation with reduced spectrum pyramid. in: g. tsihrintzis, m. virvou, r. howlett, l. jain (eds): new directions in intelligent interactive multimedia, springer-verlag: 275-284. [7] kountchev r., todorov vl., kountcheva r. (2010) fragile and resistant image watermarking based on inverse difference pyramid decomposition. wseas trans. on signal processing. issue 3, vol. 6: 101-112. r. kountchev, b. iantovics, v. todorov, and r. kountcheva access management in medical image databases based on new format and contents protection with inverse pyramid decomposition 17 [8] kountchev, r., iantovics, b., kountcheva, r. (2010). efficient management of medical image databases. the 5th international conference on virtual learning (icvl’10), oct. 29-31, 2010, târgu-mureş, romania, pp. 395-401. [9] kountchev, r., todorov, v., kountcheva, r. (2010). rstc-invariant object representation with modified 2d mellin-fourier transform. wseas trans. on signal processing. issue 4, vol. 6: 196207 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 290-307 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/344 submitted: june 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: june 29th, 2022 neurolinguistic programming a form of social semiotics antonio sandu 1 1 prof. phd, stefan cel mare university of suceava, romania, antonio1907@gmail.com abstract: the constructionist social semiotics that we propose in this paper understands social action from the perspective of communicative syntax, based on the concept of an interpretive adrift that takes place at the interface between emiter and receiver depending on the semantic context in which various constructs are formed and modified. in this paper, we will show that the origins of constructionist social semiotics can be found in neurolinguistic programming namely in identifying sensory predominance and sensory channels as instances of the social and communicative construction of "reality" as an intersubjective map applied to a "territory" built from social interactions. social phenomena are symbolically approximated, which is why the semiotic interpretation of the social takes into account the predominantly subjective nature of the processes of self-construction and contraction of reality for the subject. the article reviews a series of socio-anthropological elements related to sensory channels from the perspective of the social construction of reality and contributes to clarifying the role of nlp theories in the development of an epistemology and social constructionist semiotics, respectively. keywords: neurolinguistic programming; nlp; sensory channels; social semiotics; visual; auditory; kinesthetic. how to cite: sandu, a. (2022). neurolinguistic programming a form of social semiotics. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 290-307. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/344 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/344 mailto:antonio1907@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/344 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 291 1. introduction the constructionist social semiotics that we propose in this paper understands social action from the perspective of communicative syntax, based on the concept of an interpretive adrift that takes place at the interface between emiter and receiver depending on the semantic context in which various constructs are formed and modified. in this paper, we will show that the origins of constructionist social semiotics can be found in neurolinguistic programming namely in identifying sensory predominance and sensory channels as instances of the social and communicative construction of "reality" as an intersubjective map applied to a "territory" built from social interactions. social phenomena are symbolically approximated, which is why the semiotic interpretation of the social takes into account the predominantly subjective nature of the processes of self-construction and contraction of reality for the subject. in the landscape of the latest theories on communication, a unique place is occupied by neurolinguistic programming. complete and at the same time eclectic, nlp offers a set of methods and techniques designed to develop communication skills by going through certain stages, including the development of our ability to observe and perceive, and the ability to present our messages based on the information we have obtained in advance about our interlocutor or interlocutors (sandu, 2021). neurolinguistic programming is an area of communication sciences, often considered to be on the border between science and pseudoscience, because there is very little evidence-based research to confirm or disprove a number of assumptions that exist in neurolinguistic programming, to clarify whether or not these elements of communicative specificity are valid, whether they represent characteristics of the human psyche or just simple forms of suggestion that a good communicator makes with the public. the term neurolinguistic programming appeared in the 1970s in the palo alto school, in the united states, at the university of palo alto, an area where the specifics of human communication were studied quite intensely. nlp started from the semiotics of ferdinand de saussure and, also, from some studies on successful psychotherapists about how they performed in their communication activity, bringing to the forefront the discussions about communication, the perspective of subjects and the differences that arise in understanding messages through their sensory channels (bandler & grinder, 1975). bandler and grinder (1975), the founders of nlp, show that we can approximate, in an abstract sense, the human brain as a biological neurolinguistic programming a form of social semiotics antonio sandu 292 computational system, in which our behaviors would fit into the model of computer programs. giving up non-ecological behavior can be equivalent to changing that program in the brain (şurubaru, 2002). the comparison of the "brain" (bodenhamer & hall, 2001) with a complex computational system denies the existence of consciousness on an ontological level, but is a good model for understanding the functioning of the mind, at least in terms of mental automatisms and the functioning of the subconscious. pragmatically, we can talk about the "automation" of cognitive and operational structures, so that, at the level of interpersonal relationships, we might discuss about a neurocybernetic functionality of cognitive and attitudinal processes (sandu, 2021). bandler and grinder (1982) concluded that there are algorithms by which the human brain works, in a similar way to how computers are programmed, and that these algorithms are related to language, the way the brain processes natural language, and the authors assume a syntax. the internal brain is similar to a "machine code" on which computer programming was based at the biggining of computer science. this "machine code" would be somehow related to the functioning of sensory channels, as an interface between neural structures that provide conscious processing of data about the outside world and those that function at a deeper level, which is called the subconscious. the idea of programming comes from the identification of repetitive structures in the functioning of cognitive processes, similar to algorithms that can be changed and they are actually changed in the case of various psychotherapies. neurolinguistic syntax is used as a way of exploring both conscious and subconscious activities, as neurolinguistic programming wished to be "a manual for the functioning of the brain" (bodenhamer & hall, 2001). this kind of programming is a revolution in understanding social semiotics (sandu, 2012; van leeuwen, 2004), questioning the modern paradigm of communication that states that messages are universal and can be understood in the same way by all recipients, depending on the clarity and rationality of the message. a presupposition of neurolinguistic programming is that we cannot help but to communicate. obviously, everything that happens in our lives is communication. a teacher talking to students, a politician addressing a crowd, an influencer uploading a youtube video or two young people declaring their love on a bench in the park all these are examples of communication more or less institutionalized, the communicators assuming in turn the role of receiver and / or emiter. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 293 the presence of a plant, for example, near an emiter, when they record a video for youtube, is a form of communication. this is a more or less intentional form of communication. the plant does not have its own intentionality, but its simple presence communicates something about the people nearby, even if the message is implied and allows several interpretations from the love for nature of the people in that habitat, to the lack of space. this conveys the fact that in that environment there is a person who takes care of that plant and who is a nature lover. this simple statement, resulting from a deduction, requires a series of clarifications: what does it mean that someone loves a plant, what does it mean that someone loves, in what contexts is love being defined and whether the term love means the same thing in the context of loving a plant or an animal, of loving a person, of erotic or filial love, of love for the country, etc. interpretive contexts generate an interpretive adrift of the meaning of terms, and the simple presupposition that we cannot help but to communicate must be supplemented with one according to which the message is contextualy dependent and, implicitly, the communication context is part of the communication itself. we wonder if there may still be semiotic contexts that are not involved in a communicative act. the situation when the receiver is missing could be such a context, for example, in the case of a hermit who lives in seclusion in a desert area and who, as such, does not meet any person. however, simply living in the desert is a semiotic intention that the person has namely to communicate with the divinity and, in an indirect way, with the whole world. from a semiotic perspective, we consider that the effective success of communication is not a pre-semiotic condition, in other words the non-existence of a receiver or the impossibility of communicating with them does not make communication non-existent, as intention or expression, but only as performative efficiency. returning to the example concerning the plant can we consider that the existence of a plant in a jungle, in the absence of any human, is an act of communication, in the absence of any performative intention and any context of reception? the answer is ambivalent, if we limit communication strictly to the human experience, to a conscious communication, then it obviously does not exist, but if we extend the idea of communication to that of sending or receiving signals to the environment, then the existence of the plant signals, its own presence for animals that will consider it as a source of food or shelter, could be considered communication. in other words, the very idea of communication, which is what communication means, is context-dependent and, as such, is socially constructed. neurolinguistic programming a form of social semiotics antonio sandu 294 2. sensory channels as tools for the construction of semiotic subjectivism by introducing the idea of sensory channels as a way to encode and decode the message, semiotic objectivism is called into question because nlp assumes that this process is subjective, each individual encoding or decoding messages in a way that is their own. moreover, the messages that constitute social communication do not reflect social reality, but rather the representation that individuals build on it that is, the map through which they represent their social reality. this presumption, expressed by the phrase "the map is not the same as the territory", is the starting point of the subjectivization of social sciences including semiotics a process that will be extended by social constructionism (burr, 2015; luckmann, 1991; sandu & unguru, 2017), that places the process of building meaning on social reality at an inter-subjective level, as a negotiation of the interpretations that the individuals involved in a communicative situation give to a certain construct, understood as a fragment of the social reality on which individuals try to obtain an interpretative agreement. each individual has their own "map" on social reality, which is the result of subjective experiences and how they are processed based on sensory dominance, the interpretive adrift that a construct suffers in various stages of communication, through pacing and leading processes – meaning the semantic reconfiguration of the meaning of some concepts due to the establishment of a relationship, a semantic convergence between emiter and receiver, which makes the receiver subject to the influence and persuasion exerted by the emiter. social-constructionism will carry forward this idea, establishing both a semiotics and a social epistemology that renounces the construct of objective reality or in nlp language, of the territory of social reality – and all this is a meeting between maps, at the intersection of which constructs are formed, that have a particular meaning in each communicative process. although we consider that we have a semantic constant that is, we invariably understand the meaning of a term we find that, in fact, in the communication process, we add elements that particularize the meaning and differ, more or less, depending on the context in which the definition occurs. a certain notion is constructed through dialogue, otherwise the communicative context, which is necessary for the process of constructing the definition, does not exist that is, for selecting the meanings in which we use a certain term. we will adjust the meaning given to the notion later, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 295 according to other such dialogues, with other people, as we carry out our professional activity or as we participate in meetings, or as we become interested or not by a certain field. we can illustrate this idea of the social construction of reality as a map that summarizes a territory by presenting the film ”the englishman who went up a hill but came down a mountain” (monger, 1995). the film refers to a cartographer who, at the beginning of the twentieth century, had the mission to make a map of a region of wales, mapping the landforms. he reached a locality whose inhabitants considered themselves "mountain people", but his measurements found that the landform harboring the locality did not come within the standard dimensions of a mountain, therefore, for the standard dimensions it had, at that time, it could only be considered a hill. upon learning of this information, the residents of the community felt that their identity as mountain people was undermined which brought them serious self-image discomfort. these inhabitants finally decided and also implemented the artificial elevation of the hill with the few meters that were missing, in order for their landform to be redefined as a mountain. hence the title of the film from the fact that the cartographer participated in the activity of elevating the hill to the height of a mountain, a mountain that he finally descended. this process of creating meanings, through operations of successively defining these meanings, has profound effects not only in creating a map on external reality, but also on the construction of self-image, with the implications that this has on the psychic processes that affect the subject. precisely these processes of identity construction-reconstruction through semiotic processes constitute the therapeutic side of socialconstructionism, either in the form of neurolinguistic programming or in that of appreciative inquiry (cooperrider & whitney, 1999; cooperrider, 2008) or, in general, of narrative therapies. the origin of this semiotic presupposition according to which the map is not the same as the territory lies in the kantian subjective idealism (kant, 2015), more precisely in the difference between noumenon and phenomenon, that the german philosopher highlights or between the thing-in-itself and the phenomenon. in the constitution of the phenomenon, in the kantian vision, there are processes of sensory reflection or, more precisely, processes of reflection of the thing-in-itself in various categories of sensitivity including those of space, time, unity or multiplicity etc. the kantian vision is transposed in the form of models of communicative practice namely the decryption of messages based on sensory channels and neurolinguistic programming a form of social semiotics antonio sandu 296 the understanding of metamodels for language, as instances of the social construction of a given reality. the analogy with the film presented above concerns the common idea of neurolinguistic programming and social constructionism according to which the constructed social reality always undergoes constructivereconstructive processes or, more precisely, we change the “reality” by changing our map about it. many times we even change the so-called external reality, because we do not want to change our own map about it and we will act in such a way as to attenuate any signals that would call into question the correctness of our own mental map even those signals which we consider come from reality itself. we change reality to fit the map. if i talk about a person in terms like "he is my friend", i will behave with that person according to "my mind map", as i learned that i have to behave with a friend, by assigning to them qualities such as: an intelligent person, a beautiful person, a person who has many qualities in general. i make such evaluations because my mind map tells me that they are my friend and in order to feel comfortable with myself it is necessary to have friends "who have those traits that i appreciate". if at some point something upsets me about that friend, i start redrawing the map; this is the process of social change: redrawing the map. we change reality as it appears to us by changing the map we have of that reality. in terms derived from narrative therapies (neculau, 2022), instead of the map we talk about the story which is actually the internalization of the map or the way we talk to ourselves about that map. social reality is redefined in the semiotic consciousness as a map (helmhout et al., 2009) a complex system of signs that make social reality perceptible to consciousness, or as a metadiscourse / story, as a form in which consciousness takes note of the system of signs represented by the map. this map, which builds our reality, represents the way we operate, according to an inner mental path. but the map, be it mental, is a simplification of reality that is, an approximation. our approximation or our own mental map does not completely overlap with that of our interlocutors, and then it can be questioned. communicative action, as understood by habermas (1984), can be redefined from the perspective of neurolinguistic social semiotics (zolyan, 2019), as a process of redesigning mental maps, until an interpretative agreement is obtained that is, a common map that we impose as reality itself. as an example, we can mention the idea of public welfare and the process of the social construction of this idea. each person has their own definition of welfare. the concept of public welfare should be a map that in broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 297 reality intersects only in part with the particular maps of others. these maps should be made compatible through debate and dialogue, for example, when pursuing the construction of a public policy. the maps of a significant number of people will never actually overlap, but at least they will have to be made in such a way that they can be compatible – for example, a sea should not appear on our map, if a mountain appears on the map of others. by sea and mountain we mean not so much a landform, but s social phenomena of different amplitudes. 3. nlp as a form of social semiotics. sensory channels in the classical scheme of communication, we discuss about the emiter the person speaking, including an institutional communicator -, and a receiver the person to whom the message is addressed, the message itself and the channels (sinisterra & vicente, 2021)through which the message sent by the emiter reaches the receiver. in neurolinguistic programming (thomason, 1981), the channels through which the message reaches the receiver (frankovský et al., 2019) are correlated with 3 of the 5 senses auditory, visual and kinesthetic, the sense of taste, the tactile and the proprioceptive sense tactile-kinesthetic (gökdere çinar & baykal, 2022). as for the receiver – they are presumed to be receptive, because pseudo-communications, when the receiver refuses the communication relationship, are often encountered, as they are attentive to completely different messages than those transmitted by the emiter. the intention of communication (keezhatta, 2019) and the intention of reception are absolutely necessary elements for effective communication, although the axiomatic nlp shows us that it is impossible not to communicate, even if the message is unintentional either for the emiter, or for the receiver (knowles, 1983). there are frequent communication situations when, despite the stated intention to communicate, the emiter does not talk to the receiver, the receiver does not listen to the sender and inefficient communication results (yousaf et al., 2009). this is especially true in public communication, when either the emiter or the receiver focus on themselves and not on the message itself or on the feedback sent by the partner in communication. beyond perceptual goodwill paying attention to the dialogue partner another reason for the inefficiency of communication is the fact that the emiter transmits the message on a sensory channel that the receiver does not use at that time, or because that chanal is not sufficiently developed neurolinguistic programming a form of social semiotics antonio sandu 298 for them at a neurological level, either because a large number of stimuli require their attention on another sensory channel. it is also necessary to have a coherent message that has a meaning common to both the emiter and the receiver, either rational or emotional. in the absence of a common signifier, the message turns into noise which confuses the sensory channel to the point where the attention of one of the dialogue partners is completely withdrawn from that sensory channel. unfortunately, such situations appear frequently in the public discourse, generating the delegitimization of the emiter and a semiotic cleavage, manifested through the lack of trust in the dialogue partner. the feedback loop should confirm to the emiter the receiver's communicative position towards their message, translated by messages such as: "you're talking nonsense", "i understood what you said", "i didn't understand anything", "i'm not interested in anything you say” and so on. for example, in courses, online or face-to-face after the discursive sequences, the teacher should have a feedback sequence from the audience. in didactic communication, you may not receive feedback, in which case the emiter may conclude that "i have spoken for myself", "i am the emiter, i am also the receiver", "i give myself a good feedback, because i like the way i spoke”. unfortunately, the educational discourse at least in romanian is often one-way, with many teachers speaking alone while students speak to each other. in a similar way, communication dysfunctions occur in the institutional, political, managerial or marital space. 4. sensory channels in nlp in neurolinguistic programming, three sensory channels are highlighted as follows: • the visual channel – with its sense organ, the eyes. this channel gives the person most of the information that has an adaptive role, which is decrypted both as direct signals from the environment and as symbolic forms. from the perspective of language, the belief is created that "if you saw it with your own eyes then you know you are convinced." this belief is a social construct with a legitimate purpose "i saw it on tv so it's true." in verbal communication, the visual sensory channel helps to perceive the signals transmitted by the subconscious in a non-verbal manner, which can strengthen or contradict the main verbal message. eye contact creates the communication climate and therefore asymmetric forms of communication, such as online communication especially when the interlocutor / interlocutors do not expose themselves to the sender's gaze or only expose broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 299 themselves in the form of a virtual avatar -, transforming communication more and more in a simple exchange of messages, without the consistency of non-verbal communication. by analyzing signals transmitted non-verbally, we see beyond what the emiter wants to tell us and we see what they really tell us. we know, for example, whether a teacher is in a state of irritation or, on the contrary, of mental calm, thus allowing students to assess whether they will be more inclined to give higher or lower grades and the limits of their objectivity in assessment. • the auditory channel (sense organ – the ears). this is the channel that humanity has learned the most to communicate with over time, because written communication has historically been less widespread and accessible only to certain social classes. messages from simple signals are transmitted on this channel such as the sound of a tulnic, announcing the danger from one hill to another, to the messages transmitted through articulate language. communication through sound messages also works in the animal world, especially in higher mammals dolphins, whales, primates which modulate sounds differently in different situations. therefore, we are talking about a pre-semiotic situation. articulated language allows the use of the symbol either in the basic sense, by attaching a meaning to a verbal signal (i.e., the word mother automatically generates, in many languages, the memory of the mother figure, but also a higher level symbolism that allows literary, philosophical, scientific and implicit reflection on one's own self and one's situation in the world). • the tactile channel includes sensations of pressure or temperature but also proprioceptive and kinesthetic sensations (about body position and movement) as well as sensations related to internal organs (pain) and, hence, related to body self-awareness. i presented in another paper (sandu, 2010) the role of this sensory channel in self-construction as a differentiation of exteriority. 5. sensory predicates and the interpretive adrift next we will discuss the so-called sensory predicates in neurolinguistic programming. the predicate term in nlp is different from that in philology and logic. for example, we speak of visual predicates when the transmitted message evokes something visual; even if it is transmitted verbally: it is a visual evocation. we are talking about bright, dark, yellow, green, colorful. all these are so-called visual predicates. many people put it this way: “i saw it. because i saw it, therefore i know it". all this indicates a high probability that the person making these statements has a predominant visual communication. if they saw it, then neurolinguistic programming a form of social semiotics antonio sandu 300 they know it. this means that their perception was realized on the visual channel. then, if we want to improve what the other knows, we should be careful to communicate to them in such a way as to activate this visual channel and bring into discussion those visual predicates. we can tell this person, for example, "see what happened to me." thus, we invite them to use their sensory channel. for example, the above expression withdraws the interlocutor from their own visual channel, moving them towards the tactilekinesthetic, proprioceptive channel, the emphasis shifting from seeing to “feeling” that is, to proprioception. thus, in nlp terms, a relationship was made between emiter and interlocutor the emiter starting from the dominant sensory channel of the receiver, the visual, through the visual predicate "see" and then pacing and leading by bringing them to the proprioceptive tactile-kinesthetic channel, by referring to "what happened to me," that is, by reference to proprioception. apparently, it is impossible to see what happened inside another person, and this is why this is practically an invitation to empathize with their proprioception. "to see", in this situation, means "to remember"; because you know that the person has a predominant visual channel, if you will accompany the message with visual predicates, you can thus transform the message so as to activate the predominant sensory channel and help them receive the message more easily. for example, you could say, "one day there was a lot of light outside," and then continue with information on issues you actually want to pass on, even if apparently these details have no relevance to the public communication that was initiated. however, using these sensory references to the dominant channel, we determine those who are sensitive to receive the message better on this sensory channel, because it is their own way of receiving this message. moreover, we should help the visual interlocutors perceive the message sent through gestures as expressive as possible, which accentuate the visual side of the message and keep the attention directed towards the message that was sent. in the absence of such artifices, aimed at maintaining attention on the interlocutor's sensory channel and gradually extend it to the components of the message on other channels, the interlocutor will tend to break the rapport come out of the cognitive resonance and shift their attention from the message. but if the person we are addressing has a predominance of auditory sensoriality (expressed through sentences such as "i heard.", "it's a little loud", "it's outrageous"), it will be important to address them on this channel, raising our voice, fluctuating the tone of our voice, etc., to always bring them back into the act of communication, possibly waking them from daydreaming. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 301 any communicative act, such as teaching, for example, should use as many sensory channels as possible. a teacher presents a message on the auditory channel, exposing it to students, with whom they also interact visually, either presenting a series of significant images or reinforcing the message through non-verbal elements designed to create visual anchors (through gestures that point to essential elements of the message ) or auditory anchors (through modulations of voice, interruptions or involvement of students in conversation). tactile-kinesthetic experience is less used in didactic communication and therefore learning strategies by discovery or performing exercises learning by doing is an important component of educational communication. the use of sensory channels has been present in the culture of humanity since ancient times, sacred texts making frequent references to hearing: "he who has ears to hear, let him hear", to seeing "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed", but also to the tactile sensory channel, when the apostle thomas felt the wounds of the risen jesus. interestingly, the same gospel shows a dissonance between the sensory channels, the apostle thomas asking to touch using the tactile sensory channel while jesus, although letting the apostle touch him, in order to feel the marks of his wounds, responds by referring to the visual sensory channel. we can consider that the two have different sensory predominances, which is why they use different sensory predicates, or that the author of the gospel himself uses different sensory predicates precisely in order to address as many believers as possible, speaking to each one on their predominant channel. here are the nlp strategies that target the sensory channels, although they are considered recent discoveries in neuropsychology, that were addressed in the twentieth century, even if they were used in biblical texts, but also in the sacred texts of other religions in ancient times, to convey the religious message more easily. visual, auditory or tactilekinesthetic symbols are found as sacred symbols in various religions we refer here to the eye of horus or the third eye of shiva (for the visual sensory channel) which symbolizes all-divine knowledge, the thunderous voice of the divinity or the trumpets and angelic choirs that symbolize the sound manifestation of the divinity or the initiatory touch that allows the transmission of grace / energy between master and disciple, between divine and human. the first two sensory channels, the visual and the auditory, are connected with the construction of meaning, which is why many religions are logocentric the divine word or logos is either heard by prophets or spiritual persons, or discovered in written form as in the tablets of moses neurolinguistic programming a form of social semiotics antonio sandu 302 or vasugupta’s shiva sutra. even in the bible or in other sacred texts we speak of these three channels, through which we can communicate not only between ourselves, but also with the divinity. the other two senses smell and taste are, from the point of view of nlp, integrated into the tactile-kinesthetic-proprioceptive sensory channel, due to the fact that these senses bring less significant information to the behavior of individuals, at least in the case of the human society, which bases its communication mainly on audible or visual signals. in interpersonal communication, unlike communication between animals, for reasons of social politeness, olfactory communication was reduced to a minimum. for example, if a person smells bad, people do not listen to them. that is why perfume plays an important role in social communication, but for reasons of political correctness this is less publicly known and as such these sensory channels gustatory and olfactory are deficient for the establishment of complex sensory experience. signals from the environment are related to the sense of smell rather than symbolic messages, as they are scarcely semi-coded. some perfumes send an emotional message to those around them, but today's society is less sensitive to such messages than, for example, certain traditional societies. there are protesting currents that use certain partially repulsive smells as a form of social discourse, and there are sensory predicates – ”something smells bad” with derogatory meanings, but most of the time, messages of this nature are unintentional. there are also predicates in the nlp sense considered kinesthetic, but which refer to the olfactory sense with a depreciating role towards a human community, be it of an ethnic or cultural nature: “unwashed”, “stinky” etc. when the environmental or personal olfactory message is created intentionally, it aims to create an atmosphere and implicitly an emotional state favorable to communication. in terms of taste, it is also important for the integration into the environment, but from a cultural point of view, as above, few communication strategies have been developed, which aim in particular at creating an atmosphere of facilitating communication rather than of transmitting a message itself. however, when using nlp techniques, which we will discuss later, related to anchoring the association of a standard response with a repeated stimulus olfactory or gustatory anchors are present both in the process of creating a conditioned response and in that of recalling a communicative context. at the species level, people chose the auditory channel as the predominant channel, the message being transmitted through articulated broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 303 language. over time, however, the articulated message disappears; either this happens a few seconds after its issuance, or a few years later. in order to preserve the messages, more precisely their semantics, humanity has in time developed another sensory channel, namely the visual one, the processes of meaning being transferred from the articulated language to the writing at first ideographic writing, and only later alphabetical writing. no semantics similar to the auditory or visual one has been developed on the tactile-kinesthetic channel, as such the messages transmitted on this channel have a pre-semiotic load rather than a rational, symbolic one. messages such as those transmitted by a handshake or a caress, or other signals associated with this sensory channel, meant to create a state of well-being or, conversely, agitation, repulsion, etc., without a semantic load, are more easily to decrypt by the conscious mind, which processes the information coming through the sensory channels through linguistic sensitization tools and as such penetrates more easily to the subconscious level, where it transforms emotional information into attitudinal reactions or even immediate action / reaction. these emotional messages are of course transmitted through the other sensory channels in the form of style figures, tone of voice etc., respectively the images that constitute the metatext. the tactile-kinesthetic sensory channel, especially in its proprioceptive dimension, represents the predominant channel of ego construction and its positioning in relation to the other. if i touch an object, i notice the limits of that object and i also notice the limits of the external world that touches me. this category also includes proprioception, the fact that i feel myself. the tactile channel emotionally accompanies a message transmitted by the other two sensory channels, visual and auditory. the semantic construction of the ego is based on limits that differentiate the self from the non-self the child touches objects and these limit their ability to move their hand or body. this limitation generates the differentiation between self and non-self. the world becomes hostile because it opposes the freedom of action of the self. however, the feeling of self does not appear as a difference from the nonself, but as a simple finding of one's own presence proprioception. as such, this sensory channel contributes to the semantic construction of the difference between the perceived existential self and the social self constructed through difference and the finding of limits. we can understand this semantic construction as a difference between oneself as a subjective experience of existence and ego as a socially constructed neurolinguistic programming a form of social semiotics antonio sandu 304 experience of the interrelation between the perceiving subject and the external objects that are to be perceived. due to the exceptional role of this sensory channel, in the social construction of the self and the reality for the subject, the signals that the subjects transmit on this sensory channel have a deep impact on the dynamics of communication. when a citizen addresses a civil servant and they respond, while playing a solitaire game: "i'm busy!" the feeling that the subject feels precisely because of these emotional messages is unpleasant and limiting for communication. as such, in any form of public relations or of relating to the public, it is advisable to have an attitude based on messages that convey the other's acceptance and interest in communicating with us and the messages coming from us. this presemiotic condition of acceptance of the other is reinforced by non-verbal language that includes tactile communication shaking hands, tapping the shoulder, etc. the tactile sensory channel is much more important for successful communication than is usually thought, because we often say "i didn't feel this thing" or "i felt cold" in certain interactions. when we feel a person rejecting communication or, more importantly, rejecting us as interlocutors, the natural tendency is to break the semiotic agreement called nlp repport and then, regardless of the verbal communication style or visual elements that are used, communication is inefficient in the absence of a favorable emotional context that is, of creating a relationship between emiter and receiver. the message is an informational unit, being transmitted on different sensory channels, received especially from the perspective of the predominant sensory channel. if the emiter transmits an auditory message and by an auditory message we do not mean only a verbal one, but one that uses auditory predicates, such as "sounds good", "it sounds" and so on and the receiver is a tactile-kinesthetic person, the simple auditory message, without transmitting an emotion (for example, by modeling the voice, or by including small ironies in speech and which can be perceived on the kinesthetic channel) will be incomplete. in this case, the receiver will focus on the strictly rational part of the message, but will perceive it only partially because, despite the presumption of the exclusive rationality of communication, the communication process includes an emotional side related to the willingness to understand the message. the influence of persuasion is largely linked to the kinesthetic channel either by creating specific emotions by predicates such as: "that touches me deeply" or "that touched your soul", or that refer to "sweet", "fragrant", "comforting" with reference to people, voice, messages, etc. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 305 when we try to communicate publicly (public speaking), this kinesthetic side is extremely important because it allows the receiver to perceive messages that we may not even intend to convey about ourselves, about our subconscious and unconscious. these messages present us in a certain light to those who receive it and who associate our message with these perceptions about us. thus, they judge the message as credible or not and considers us, as emiters, able to influence them or not all this beyond the strict rationality of the message. on each sensory channel a series of anchors can be built, defined as a strengthened conditioned reaction system. with each occurrence of a certain stimulus, a learned response will be triggered automatically. it is, for example, classic in nlp, that tactile anchoring in the form of touching a certain finger when a desired emotion appears will trigger the learned response. subsequently, the simple repetition of the tactile signal brings with it the desired emotion in the form of a conditioned reflex. in practice, when, for example, a public speaker wants to eliminate their negative emotions about speaking in public, they anchor a positive emotion of self-confidence that they will reiterate through the anchored gesture whenever they are in front of an audience to which they must address. such anchors can also be visual or auditory, a graphic sign or a sound, a song, etc. -, reiterating such a state of mind. in this sense, we can talk about the modern use of mantras a buddhist or hindu technique in origin, but it is used in nlp or mindfulness meditation techniques, including guided ones, as an anchor for states of peace, inner calm, relaxation etc., leading to states of deep trance or states of altered consciousness. 6. conclusions the elements of neurolinguistic programming presented in this paper and that are aimed at defining sensory channels auditory, visual and kinesthetic as particular dimensions of communication processes were identified as instances of the social construction of reality. the nlp theories that were in vogue in the 80's and 90's have fallen into disuse in recent years, in terms of psychotherapies that may derive from them, sometimes considered to have a pseudoscientific character, as empirically unverified theories. in our opinion, they can be revitalized and used in the design of a constructionist social semiotics due to the explanatory capacity that these theories have in terms of the genesis of the interpretive adrift that underlies the processes of sensitization creation of meanings in different interpretive contexts. neurolinguistic programming a form of social semiotics antonio sandu 306 the present paper has a theoretical character, proposing a series of assumptions that could be later tested as hypotheses. the most important such assumption is that the process of interpretive adrift of a social construct is influenced by the sensory predominance of the sender and receiver and by the sensory channel on which the messages are mainly transmitted. references bandler, r., & grinder, j. (1975). the structure of magic (1st vol.), a book about language and therapy. science and behavior books. bandler, r., & grinder, j. (1982). reframing: neuro-linguistic programming and the transformation of meaning. real people press. bodenhamer, b. g., & hall, l. m. (2001). the user's manual for the brain (1st vol.). crown house publishing. burr, v. (2015). social constructionism (3rd ed.). routledge. cooperrider, d. (2008). the appreciative inquiry handbook: for leaders of change. berrettkoehler publishers. cooperrider, d., & whitney, d. (1999). a positive revolution in change: appreciative inquiry. corporation for positive change. frankovský, m, birknerová, z, štefko, r, & benková, e. (2019). implementing the concept of neurolinguistic programming related to sustainable human capital development. sustainability, 11(15), 4031. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154031 gökdere çinar, h, & baykal, ü. (2022). determining the effect of neuro-linguistic programming techniques on the conflict management and interpersonal problem-solving skills of nurse managers: a mixed methods study. journal of nursing management, 30(1),104-134. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13455 habermas, j. (1984). reason and the rationalization of society (vol. 1) the theory of communicative action. beacon press. helmhout, m., jorna, r. j., & gazendam, h. w. (2009). the semiotic actor: from signs to socially constructed meaning. de gruyter mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.2009.053 kant, i. (2015). the critique of pure reason. philosophical library. keezhatta, m. s. (2019). the impact of neuro-linguistic programming on english language teaching: perceptions of nlp-trained english teachers. international journal of english linguistics, 9(6), 454. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v9n6p454 knowles, r. d. (1983). building rapport through neuro-linguistic programming. american journal of nursing, 83(7), 1011-1014. https://doi.org/10.1097/00000446-198383070-00011 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154031 https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13455 https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.2009.053 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v9n6p454 https://doi.org/10.1097/00000446-198383070-00011 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 307 luckmann, t. (1991). social construction of reality. a treatise in the sociology of knowledge. penguin books. monger, c. (director). (1995). the englishman who went up a hill but came down a mountain [film]. miramax films. neculau, c. (2022). construcția socială a identității profesionale a viitorilor asistenți medicali. o abordare din perspectiva sociologiei narrative [the social construction of the professional identity of future nurses. an approach from the perspective of narrative sociology] [unpublished phd thesis]. university of oradea, romania. sandu, a. (2010). perspective semiologice asupra transmodernității [semiological perspectives on transmodernity]. lumen. sandu, a. (2012). social-constructionist epistemology a transmodern overview. lap lambert. sandu, a. (2021). cercetarea sociologică – fundament al practicii asistenței sociale bazate pe dovezi [sociological research foundation of the practice of evidence-based social work]. in sandu, a., unguru (gafton), e. & frunză, a., asistenţa socială bazată pe evidenţe [evidence-based social work] (2nd ed.) (pp. 175-208). lumen. sandu, a., & unguru, e. (2017). several conceptual clarifications on the distinction between constructivism and social constructivism. postmodern openings, 8(2), 51-61. retrieved from https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/156 sinisterra, h. v., & vicente, j. y. (2021). neuro-linguistic proposal to potentiate voluntaryattention in students colombians. revista de investigación apuntes universitarios, 11(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.17162/au.v11i1.565 şurubaru, a. (2002). elemente de programare neuro-lingvistică [elements of neurolinguistic programming]. in a. cojocaru & a. sandu (coords.), acţiune socială şi dezvoltare organizaţională [social action and organizational development]. lumen. thomason, t. c. (1981). neurolinguistic programming. personnel and guidance journal, 60(1), 3. van leeuwen, t. (2004). introducing social semiotics. routledge. yousaf, m., chaudhry, h., & haider, a. (2009). leading through nlp. in international conference on information management and engineering, 607-611. https://doi.org/10.1109/icime.2009.17 zolyan, s. (2019). general sociolinguistics, social semiotics and semiotics of culture – ex pluribus unum? forty years after language as social semiotic. sign systems studies, 47(3/4), 400-419. https://doi.org/10.12697/sss.2019.47.34.03 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/156 http://dx.doi.org/10.17162/au.v11i1.565 https://doi.org/10.1109/icime.2009.17 https://doi.org/10.12697/sss.2019.47.3-4.03 https://doi.org/10.12697/sss.2019.47.3-4.03 microsoft word brain_2_3.doc 12 intelligent flowcharting developmental approach to legal knowledge based system n. b. bilgi department of master of computer applications gogte institute of technology,udyambag, belgaum india, nbbbgm@rediffmail.com r. v. kulkarni department of statistics and or chh. shahu central institute of business education and research siber,kolhapur – 416004 india rvkulkarni@siberindia.com abstract the basic aim of this research, described in this paper is to develop a hybrid legal expert system/ knowledge based system, with specific reference to the transfer of property act, within the indian legal system which is often in demand. in this paper the authors discuss an traditional approach to combining two types of reasoning methodologies, rule based reasoning (rbr) and case based reasoning (cbr). in rbr module we have interpreted and implemented rules that occur in legal statutes of the transfer of property act. in the cbr module we have an implementation to find the related cases. the visirule software made available by logic programming associates is used in the development of rbr part this expert system. the authors have used java net beans for development of cbr. visirule is a decision charting tool, in which the rules are defined by a combination of graphical shapes and pieces of text, and produces rules. keywords: transfer of property act, expert system, rule based system, visirule 1. introduction a property, movable or immovable, is transferred from one person to another under various different situations and circumstances and for different values. by its very existence, society mandates interaction, exchange or transfer. the transfer may be a gift, an inheritance or an asset acquired by paying full value. when a movable property is transferred inter-vivos (between two living persons), sales of goods act, 1930 comes into play. when an immovable property is transferred from dead person to living person(s), the transfer of property act, 1882 comes into play. in case, the property is transferred from a dead person to a living person(s), the law applied will be the law of succession. should a person die without leaving a will (intestate), the law of intestate succession is applicable and in cases where a person dies leaving a will, the law of testamentary succession is applicable. purpose the authors have earlier developed a prototype (bilgi & kulkarni 2008 [7-9]) which is rule based in nature. in the this research paper we have consolidated most of the rules of transfer of property act 1882 to form the comprehensive legal rule based system for the indian legal domain. the implementation includes the amalgamation of both the rule based system and also case-based reasoning part associated with it. significance of the study the goal of study is not to replace a human advocate, but to help him to take the decisions fast and also to provide expert legal help to non-law literates, who intends to purchase an immovable property. the user of this system can verify the title of the property and absence of any encumbrances on the same which he intends to purchase. the case based reasoning part will help to understand related cases. n. b. bilgi & r. v. kulkarni intelligent flowcharting developmental approach to legal knowledge based system 13 what the lawyer wants expert systems are used in many different subject domains. one of the domains that pose both difficult problems and interesting challenges is case law research. the lawyer wants authority for his point of view. he wants a viable argument that will support his claim from a binding case if he can get it, from a persuasive one if he cannot. failing that, he will take any helpful argument he can find. he may even want some configuration of facts and legal concepts which, although it does not constitute an argument in itself, will help him to construct one. the following description of a lawyer’s search shows the usual cognitive phenomenon. no lawyer ever thought out the case of a client in terms of the syllogism. he begins with a conclusion he intends to reach, favourable to his client of course, and then analyzes the facts of the situation to find material out of which to construct a favourable statement of facts, to ‘form’ a minor premise. at the same time he goes over recorded cases to find rules of law employed in cases which can be presented as similar, rules which will substantiate a certain way of looking at and interpreting the facts. and as his acquaintance with rules of law judged applicable widens, he probably alters perspective and emphasis in selection of the facts which are to form his evidential data. and as he learns more of the facts of the case he may modify his selection of rules of law upon which he bases his case. (dewey 1927 [3]) in order to construct his argument, the lawyer will need to navigate among legal concepts with their related facts; and he will need to make associations among selected legal concepts. finding information in law cases is challenging. each case is unique. patterns of literary similarity are not common among cases. there are many writers, and many styles. there are no generally accepted conventions as to how decisions ought to be constructed. the reasoning is diffuse, dense, and original. the language used in cases is formal and technical. however, the vocabulary is derived from everyday language. 2. background in india, the personal laws governed the transfer of property assisted by orders of courts under civil procedure code before the transfer of property act, 1882 came into existence. transfer of movable goods was regulated to an extent by the indian contract act, 1872. for transfer of immovable property, the anglo-indian courts often turned to principles of justice, equity and good conscience as it prevailed in england at the time. this rarely did any good due to the vast differences in customs and society of the two countries. the rapidly growing commerce and infrastructure in the late nineteenth century lead to more conflicts even in business. thus, an immediate need was felt for a clear and pragmatic law regarding property and transfers suited to india and its peculiar problems as well as to take care of the potential economic problems. the task of drafting such legislation fell upon the first law commission and was later referred to the second law commission (gour 1987) [4]. 2.1 the act a bill finally presented to the legislative council became a law on the 17th of february 1882 and came into force from 1st july of the same year. the transfer of property act, 1882 mainly deals with transfer of immovable property. it does not apply to transfers by the operation of law such as transfer of immovable property necessitated by order of court for insolvency or forfeiture among others. the 137 sections contained within have been divided into 8 chapters (gour 1987) [4]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 2.2 objective the transfer of property act, 1882 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘t p act, 1882’) was intended to define and amend the existing laws and not to introduce any new principle. it applies only to voluntary transfers. the following may be enumerated as the objectives of the act:as per the preamble of the act, the t p act, 1882 is to amend or regulate the law relating to transfer of property by the acts of the parties. the act provides a clear, systematic and uniform law for the transfer of immovable property. the act completes the code of contract since it is an enacted law for transfers that take place in furtherance of a contract. 3. research methodology: integrating rule-based reasoning and case-based reasoning the first reasoning modality to be successfully integrated with cbr was rule-based reasoning. the earliest cbr/rbr systems were built for statutory legal domains, where statutes naturally correspond to rules and legal precedents naturally correspond to cases. cabaret used a rule-based agenda mechanism to integrate past cases with legal regulations in the domain of united states tax law (rissland & skalak, 1991 [2]). cabaret pioneered a domain-independent architecture in which there are independent cbr and rbr co-reasoners, each of which monitors and communicates its own processing and results, and an agenda-based controller that proposes and prioritizes tasks for the two co-reasoners. another early legal system, grebe, integrated cbr and rbr to determine and justify legal conclusions for cases in the area of texas employment law (branting, 1991). ikbals operated in the domains of australian worker disability law and lending by financial institutions (zeleznikow et al., 1994). cbr/rbr hybrids have since proliferated, in diverse domains and applications, ranging from planning nutritional menus (marling et al., 1999) to harmonizing melodies (sabater et al., 1998). anapron integrated cbr and rbr for speech synthesis in pronouncing american surnames (golding & rosenbloom, 1991). this system used cbr to increase the accuracy of a primarily rbr system by handling exceptions to pronunciation rules. saxex integrated background musical knowledge into a primarily cbr system for generating expressive musical performances (lópez demántaras & arcos, 2002). in saxex, cases are musical scores with their associated expressive parameters, and rules are used to retrieve and adapt cases (stranieri 1999 [13]). 3.1 hybrid knowledge based system: our approach in order to explicate traditional approach, we proceed as follows. firstly, we introduce some definitions. secondly, we describe the implementation of the hybrid expert system using rbr and cbr reasoning methodologies. finally we analyse the results. 3.1.1. rule based reasoning (rbr) in the development of rbr we used the intelligent flowcharting approach. visirule is a tool for creating decision support software purely by drawing flowcharts. the end result is flex or prolog code which is automatically generated, compiled and ready to run, but which can also be copied and used in a separate program. not only can visirule be used by people with minimal programming skills. visirule also enhances productivity by considerably reducing the time it takes to produce a decision support system. visirule is an intelligent flowcharting tool in two senses. firstly, it is used to create knowledge-based systems and, secondly, it intelligently guides the construction process by constraining what you can and can't do on the basis of the semantic content of the emerging program. visirule provides the automatic construction of menu dialogues from questions. these are populated by items inferred from expression boxes throughout the flowchart tree which have a path to the question. visirule also offers: a wide variety of question types including single and multiple choice, numeric and integer entry, text and set entry n. b. bilgi & r. v. kulkarni intelligent flowcharting developmental approach to legal knowledge based system 15 a powerful expression handling logic statement boxes for computable answers which are not decided by questioning the user code boxes for procedural code and external functions modularity allowing multiple charts to define one executable program in particular we can build decision trees, classifiers and diagnostic systems of arbitrary complexity using these simple tools (charles langley & clive spenser 2007) [1]. a multi-tiered toolset figure 1 visirule architecture visirule lets you generate code in flex which in turn gives you access to prolog. 3.1.2 simple chart in visirule the simplest visirule charts consist of a start box, one or more question boxes, some expression boxes and some end boxes which are the conclusions drawn from the answers to the questions. figure 2. simple chart 3.1.3. case based reasoning (cbr) using java net beans the net beans ide is an open-source integrated development environment. net beans ide supports development of all java application types (java se including java fx, (java me, web, ejb and mobile applications) out of the box. among other features are an ant-based project system, maven support, refactoring, version control (supporting cvs, subversion, mercurial and clear case). net beans refers to both a platform framework for java desktop applications, and an brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 integrated development environment (ide) for developing with java, javascript, php, python, ruby, groovy, c, c++ and others. the net beans ide is written in java and can run anywhere a jvm is installed, including windows, mac os, linux, and solaris. a jdk is required for java development functionality, but is not required for development in other programming languages. the net beans platform allows applications to be developed from a set of modular software components called modules. applications based on the net beans platform (including the net beans ide) can be extended by third party developers. 3.1.4. microsoft office access the microsoft office access is used to store the cases. previously known as microsoft access, is a relational database management system from microsoft that combines the relational microsoft jet database engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. it is a member of the microsoft office suite of applications, included in the professional and higher editions or sold separately. 3.1.5. implementation of rule based reasoning the author of this research work carried out the development of the rule based reasoning prototype as mentioned earlier in clips and jess. the development of the prototype was done with proper verification and validation by the legal experts. the extensive developmental study of the modules was conceived and the visirule software was selected for the development purpose. the authors have developed 10 modules covering all aspects of transfer of property act in indian legal domain using the rule based reasoning concept. the modules consist of nearly 75 rules. the module which have been developed by the author are a follows 1) main module 2) individual module 3) authority module 4) document module 5) government module 6) guardian module 7) company module 8) free-consent module 9) consideration module 10) karta module visirule implementation of the modules mentioned above is given below. i) the greeen boxes indicate the start, ii) the yellow boxes indicate the question iii) the red box indicates the conclusion (i.e. either the property can be purchased or not) drawn after series of inferences. iv) the white boxes indicate options to be selected by the questions. v) the blue boxes indicate the statement vi) the brown boxes indicate the next module for execution the main module developed by the authors is presented as visirule chart the following fig.1.0. n. b. bilgi & r. v. kulkarni intelligent flowcharting developmental approach to legal knowledge based system 17 02_govt-mod s l e h what is the m transfer th t f who is the tran transferor ? transfero ? transfero 02_guardian company sec. 52 of th is there any p lis pendens no 01_preliminar exchange statement1 02_company ? transfero? transferor ? transfero 02_ind-mod 02_karta-mo sale gift lease mortgage yes sec. 52 of th the transfer caveat governmentguardiankartaindividual noyes transferee q fig 3 : visirule implementation module-1 the code of this flowchart is developed by the visirule in flex/ prolog. as the source code very huge it has not be incorporated in the paper. 3.2. implementation of case based reasoning the development of the case based reasoning module is in done in java net-beans. proper verification and validation of this module was done by the legal experts. the cases related to transfer of property act were collected from different legal databases and compiled. the necessary keywords were framed, which were used in searching for the related cases. the following fig 2.0 gives the screen shot of the cbr module develoed in java net beans. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 figure 4. cbr implementation 4. discussion and observations in this paper we have used both the reasoning methodologies cbr and rbr. we found that legal knowledge based systems (lkbs) research aims at a broader and more ambitious type of support for legal professionals, and non-law literate part of the society. the expressed ambition leads to unrealistic expectations from intended users, and the researchers themselves are never satisfied with their products. moreover, the ambition of intelligent automated legal reasoning introduces a need for intricate coding schemes, which makes that legal expert systems are limited to relatively very small and structured knowledge domains. in our observations in the development of expert system, we arrived at the following points: 1. lkbs include not only traditional expert systems but also systems for communicating about knowledge, storing and retrieving knowledge, and organising knowledge. hence the user has to look at all the benefits that lkbs can offer to the professionals and to non-law literate. 2. lkbs development offer simple but sufficient coding schemes for rule-based systems which will allow more people to work on them for their practical use. 3. development of lkbs techniques make the best use of the enormous amount of legal information which is now becoming available on the net and make it available for non-law literate. finally, lkbs researchers should concentrate on the specific added value of lkbs in field of automated legal reasoning. the internet is now leading to a real information explosion, but it gives the user few tools to handle the information overload it presents. as simon [15] (1976) and silver (1991) [14] argue, an increase in the amount of information available to a decision maker does not eliminate the information problem. it rather leads to a shift in needs. instead of more information, people will want systems which support their selection of information and systems which really support decision making. lkbs research may provide these systems also with increasing amount of legal information available; it also increases the demand for real lkbs. 5. conclusion. the goal of the research work is to develop an integrated knowledge based system which incorporates the rule based and case based reasoning for transfer of property act of indian legal domain using visirule and java. visirule provides a graphical decision charting logic for representing rules, which makes application development easy. the authors have already developed the prototype of this expert system, which has been tested and validated by the legal experts. the authors have taken up the development of comprehensive legal expert system, and have built 10 modules which cover all the aspects of transfer of property act. the authors have also developed the n. b. bilgi & r. v. kulkarni intelligent flowcharting developmental approach to legal knowledge based system 19 module for case based reasoning related to cases of transfer of property act which a user can refer to. this work can be of great help to both the non-law-literates and also for experts in the field of law for productive and fast decision making. references [1] charles langley and clive spenser, “visirule tutorial”, copyright (c) 2007 logic programming associates ltd. all rights reserved [2] edwina l. rissland & david b. skalak, “combining case-based and rule-based reasoning”,a heuristic approach [3] dewey, j (1927). logical method and the law. [1] ithaca, ny: cornell, 1927. [2] in macguigan (editor) (1966), 548-552. [4] h.s.gour (1987), “transfer of property act”, (law publishers, 9th edition) [5] joseph c.giarratano (2007), “principles and programming”, (fourth indian edition thomson) [6] mccarty, t., (1977) “reflections on taxman: an experiment in artificial intelligence and legal reasoning”. (harvard law review) [7] n.b.bilgi & dr.r.v.kulkarni (2008) “an investigative survey of application of knowledge based system in legal domain”. (international journal of information technology and knowledge management) issn no 0973-4414, pp-517-525 [8] n.b.bilgi & dr.r.v.kulkarni (2008) “knowledge based system prototype application for transfer of property law in indian judicial system”, (international journal of intelligent information processing) issn no 0973-3892. page no: 137 – 144 [9] n.b.bilgi dr. r.v.kulkarni, (2008) “e-governance applications in legal knowledge based systems in india: a perspective”. (national conference on e-governance and it’s application on 27th and 28th nov 2008, at dayanand sagar college bangalore). [10] n.b.bilgi dr.r.v.kulkarni. mr. clive spenser,(2010) “an expert system using a decision logic charting approach for indian legal domain with specific reference to transfer of property act” papers published in computer science journals (csc journals) international journal of artificial intelligence and expert systems(ijae),issn no(online) 2180-124x pp32-39 [11] royles, c.a. and t.j.m. bench-capon, (1998) “dynamic tailoring of law related documents to user needs”, (9th international workshop on database and expert system applications, ieee,) [12] ronald leenes and jörgen svensson, “large-scale computer networks andthe future of legal knowledge-based systems” © 1995 jurix the foundation for legal knowledge systems http://jurix.bsk.utwente.nl/ [13] stranieri, a. and j. zeleznikow. (1999) “the evaluation of legal knowledge based systems”, (proceedings of the seventh international conference on artificial intelligence and law), pp. 18-24 [14] silver (1991). “systems that support decision makers: description and analysis”. j.wiley& sons, chichester. [15] simon, h.a. (1976). “administrative behaviour” (3rd edition). the free press, new york. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 9 a proposed data driven architecture for cardiology network application horea adrian greblă faculty of mathematics and computer science, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca mihail kogalniceanu, 1, cluj-napoca, 400084, romania, horea@cs.ubbcluj.ro călin ovidiu cenan technical university of cluj-napoca memorandumului, 28, cluj-napoca, 400114, romania calin.cenan@cs.utcluj.ro abstract the paper presents a framework for a distributed medical system meant to bring a modern approach and enhance the quality of medical services offered to patients with chronic cardio-vascular diseases, via the latest it&c technologies. the proposed system provides online interaction between the main actors of a medical system: patients, doctors, medical entities (e.g. hospitals, clinics) and medical authorities (e.g. social services). with the aid of widely accepted medical standards, the system supplies storage for medical records and offers services for data integration between different kinds of healthcare applications and entities. the proposed ontological approach allows for the interchange of medical knowledge and best practices with conceptually organized patients’ records. the proposed solution allows computer assisted diagnoses and multi-criteria medical data analysis, with the possible extent of building a data warehouse for complex medical data mining. keywords: data driven architecture, cardiology, multi-agent system 1. introduction we live in modern times where connectivity becomes necessity but the health information system is still archaic, stored in a disparate manner and not shareable by clinicians. shared health records for patients are increasingly needed, preferably in an electronic form so they can provide fast, comprehensive and supervised healthcare. in order to support interoperability of health information, such a system that manages the electronic patient’s health record needs clinical content to be standardized according to some ontology. the standards allow communication of complex health information between systems and the opening of these vertical domains and organizational silos, supplying accurate and semantically computable health information flow. the modern solution to delivering medical care is possible only in conjunction with a coordinated approach – medical services providers need to collaborate and work in real time (especially in cardiology), which is not suitable when operated by traditional means and methods, such as faxes, appointments and phone calls. for that, an interoperable and integrated patient record in which all healthcare providers can participate, within a framework providing governance, authorization and security measures, is mandatory. 2. health care system the modern approach for the concept of health care should involve access for professionals from various medical fields as well as modern medical technologies such as medication, imagistics and surgical techniques. in a modern medical care system all these services should be focused on the “consumer”, a patient who receives medical attention, supervised care or treatment. this sector is one of the most dynamic of life and the activities brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 10 are conducted on many levels, such as primary medical care, secondary, tertiary or even quaternary care. usually, there are some other actors involved in this health care process as stipulated by governing laws. these actors are usually the health ministry or another national authority together with a national social insurance system, insurance companies that sell health related products, and many others. joining the european union consequently resulted in boundary extension so the perspective is to involve multinational authorities in healthcare management in a unified manner. generally, the term of “health care” is related to prevention, treatment, and management of illness together with the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by medical professionals. it can be said that it involves all the products and services designed to promote health. it can be regarded as a domain in fault intolerant, in which the errors can have severe consequences, a domain which deals with large volumes of not always very well structured data. our approach proposes the automation of all primary care (seen as family medicine) and secondary care (policlinics, laboratories) sectors. by “primary care” is usually designated the activity of a health care provider who interacts with patients as a first point of consultation. generally, physicians that offer primary care services are based in the community, as opposed to a clinic or a hospital. the secondary care services are supplied by specialists who do not generally have the first contact with patients. some examples are cardiologists, urologists and dermatologists. usually a second care physician will be appointed only with patients who have already seen a primary care provider. as the eu laws state and it becomes more and more a reality, the primary care provider can be part of another country’s health care system, so the secondary care system needs access to information filled by the primary care and this information has to be presented in a manner easy to understand. after a primary care physician concludes that a patient is suspect of some disease and needs a supervised medical investigation in a secondary system, a suite of medical tests and procedures are performed to diagnose disease or evaluate disease processes. a major challenge for computer science applied in medicine is to build a clinical management system that manages electronic health records and medical practice management information. the most important feature of such a system is to deal with information stored in many places where the patient may have had some medical treatment: national health authority, social insurance system, primary or secondary care. the best approach to solve this problem is a distributed one, as in [1]. one may say that the use of a personal storage system, as a personal memory card for each patient can overcome this problem if all actors record their data there, but it will not solve the problem of data representation as they can use different ways to store similar or related information using different systems. it is obvious that an approach that represents entities as an ontology, together with ideas and events, along with their properties and relations, as a form of knowledge representation about the medical world [2], can be the answer to the problem. even if the medical system is not always up to date with the technology, a computer system is generally used to register medical information such as medical records, laboratory results. accredited by the american national standards institute (ansi), health level seven (hl7) is an organization whose mission is to develop standards for unambiguous transmission of clinical and administrative health care information between computers. hl7 works to impose standards for clinical terminology used in each patient’s electronic health record, to impose order and uniformity in health information [3]. the standards that are imposed by hl7 for medical terminology can be used as the base of our system, and some tools can be used to easily transform and integrate data in a unified manner. our approach investigates the possibility of building such a system for a cardiology network, and deals with some of the problems that might occur. h. a. greblă, c. o. cenan – a proposed data driven architecture for cardiology network application 11 3. distributed systems and data integration some of the main problems addressed above can be overcome by using a software system that is divided into multiple components, and data, together with some of the tasks and knowledge, is distributed among these components. in a distributed system we can identify two dimensions of distribution: distributed data and distributed processing. as identified above, in a medical care system data can reside on different computers used by various medical professionals, so our approach is based on distributed databases. a distributed database system [20] is a database system which is fragmented and/or replicated on the same configurations of hardware and software, running on different geographical sites. in distributed database theory it is useful to make distinctions between horizontal and vertical fragments. distribution of data should be transparent to the user. in general we shall distinguish between at least two types of distributed database systems: a homogeneous distributed database system or, like in our case, a heterogeneous database system. a heterogeneous distributed database system is one in which the hardware and software configuration is diverse. one site might be running oracle under unix operating system and yet another site could use ms sql server under windows. because of the variety of the data sources we have to offer an increased autonomy in our system. generally, autonomy refers to the level of control distribution (without considering data) throughout the system. the capacity of a database management system (dbms) to run independently is influenced by various factors such as information exchange or sharing between its components, the ability to independently execute transactions, and not least the capability to modify an individual component without compromising or affecting the entire system. medical standards for computational models are important for design of terminologies, which form the basis for data used to populate clinical databases. in our approach the ontology aims to model some general medicine knowledge (primary health care), some specialized medicine (secondary health care), and the health care networks and their actors [4]. the ontology will represent the conceptual vocabulary common to all the actors of the investigated health care network. a possible approach to the general design can be a data warehouse system. generically speaking, a data warehouse system is built from components that have the role to extract, transform, and load data from distributed sources and consolidate them into a single schema where queries can be performed. from the architecture perspective, this offers a tightly coupled approach provided the data reside together in a single repository when queries are performed. the problems that may occur are related to the freshness of data. difficulties also arise in constructing data warehouses when one has only a query interface to a data source and no access to the full data. data integration has favored loosening the coupling between data. this may involve providing a uniform query interface over a mediated schema (see figure 1), thus transforming a query into specialized queries over the original databases. one can also term this process "view-based query-answering" because each of the data sources functions as a view over the (nonexistent) mediated schema. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 12 figure 1. schema for a data-integration solution some of the current work in data-integration research regards the problem of semantic integration. this problem does not address the structuring of the architecture of the integration, but how to solve conflicts caused by the semantics of heterogeneous data sources. for example, if two health care physicians, or networks, merge their data stored in the database, some of the concepts and terms can have different meanings or representations. a common strategy for the resolution of such problems involves the use of ontologies which explicitly define schema terms and thus help to solve semantic conflicts. this approach represents ontology-based data integration. the general design of the system followed and tried to solve a number of requirements, considered important for a modern medical system: • the proposed framework has to be a distributed solution, with autonomous applications in medical domain, adapted to different medical entities • applications exchange medical information through standard interfaces/protocols • a centralized application (portal) must ensure long term storage and general purpose medical services • patients may access medical services (including interaction with their doctors) through the internet, using common browsers • the system must facilitate remote monitoring of patients, with the use of mobile medical devices. figure 2 presents a general schematic overview of the medical informational system, underlying the main roles in the system together with their interactions. from an architectural point of view one can identify the following main components: • host systems, named local (medical data) production systems • general practitioner system • analysis laboratory system • hospital system • client system (interface to remote devices) • local portal (regional, national) for medical assistance, and long term data storage host systems consist of database servers connected through access points with fixed/mobile medical devices. the portal will supply the functionality necessary to collect information from the local interconnected systems into a centralized repository. medical services will be provided at portal level using specialized web-services that will allow access to data stored in the repository. h. a. greblă, c. o. cenan – a proposed data driven architecture for cardiology network application 13 figure 2. system general view because it is a pretty “old” discipline, medicine has a long tradition in structuring knowledge, such as disease taxonomies, anatomical terms, medical procedures, in a wide variety of forms: medical terminology dictionaries, thesauri, classification systems. therefore, there exist several terminological or ontological resources that model parts of the medical domain: controlled medical vocabularies such as the systematized nomenclature of medicine, clinical terms (snomed ct), galen [8], and [9], menelas [10], and [11], onions library [12], or the highly complex umls [13] used to allow a standard, accurate exchange of data content between systems and providers. we have focused, in the current paper, upon snomed (systematized nomenclature of medicine). snomed is a standardized medical vocabulary that has been accepted internationally [14]. intended to completely and logically interrelate groupings of defined medical terms, snomed is a formalized, information-packed set of more than 300,000 coded medical terms. snomed defines codes for a wide spectrum of clinical concepts: diseases and findings; procedures; biological functions; body structures; living organisms; physical agents, activities, and forces; substances; specimens; occupations; social contexts; and modifier concepts. umls, the unified medical language system is an umbrella system which covers many medical thesauri and classifications. from a conceptual perspective, the umls can be divided into a semantic network (sn) which forms the upper ontology and consists of semantic types linked by semantic relations and a meta-thesaurus which contains concepts assigned to one or more types. these concepts are linked by the semantic relations also supplied by the umls sn. the whole of this umls form a huge semantic network. its semantics is shallow and entirely intuitive, which is due to the fact that their usage was primarily intended for humans in order to support health-related knowledge. given the size, the evolutionary diversity and inherent heterogeneity of the umls, there is no surprise that the lack of a formal semantic foundation leads to inconsistencies and circular definitions [15]. the proposed ontology will support applications both individually but, more importantly, within an environment of heterogeneous interoperating clinical information systems. some researchers assimilate a database conceptual schema to ontology. but it is important to represent the ontology explicitly in knowledge representation formalism and in a form understandable by a human user. we built then a medical ontology encoded in an internal format of a database but without a representation that is imperative to be readable by a human user (as the system will extract and make it readable in the presentation layer). hl7/soap messages hl7/soap messages medical ws medical guidelines, ehr db xml objects laboratory hosts hospital hosts gp hosts others home units brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 14 4. the cardiology database because of the advances in technology and application development we can state that a complex and dynamic system such as a clinical medical care system developed using traditional development methods (encodes all information in a proprietary manner inside the application) may be out-of-date at its launch! the inherent difficulties in enlarging the definitions of knowledge structures that are stored into the application and database inevitably leads to a gradual deterioration of the integrity and performance of the system. in an information exchange between two or more traditional proprietary system architectures there are some mappings and assumptions to be performed. because of that the integrity and exact meaning of the information that is passed from a system and used in another may be lost or corrupted. that can be a major factor that creates threats to patient safety. even if such a system is built as a “state of the art” system with great functionalities and outstanding user interface, it might not help that much if it can not share data collected with other systems to provide a historical and complete overview of the patient’s record. some of the new commonly used clinical applications are usually able to exchange point-to-point messages using a format previously known and agreed and based on a standard such as the health level 7 (hl7). the software may also incorporate a terminology to assist in capturing and storing common clinical concepts. however, there is a common misconception that if we simply have a messaging standard paired with a terminology, then we have “achieved interoperability”. one can state that for two clinical systems to be able to cooperate and exchange health data unambiguously, such that clinicians can read it and the computer can process it, more than message passing is required. in a modern system that can interoperate at knowledge level it is a must to incorporate a standard clinical model that can be used to share patients’ health records and also to provide complementary functionality such as clinical decision support and workflow/care planning. moreover, an efficient and extensible system can exist when this clinical content structure is agreed on ontology at a local, regional, national, or international level. the broader the level of clinical content model agreement, the broader the potential for semantic health information exchange. the main ontology implemented in our project is inspired by the heart failure ontology (http://www.heartfaid.org/) a knowledge base that should assist in management of heart failure patients. the current version of the constructed heart failure ontology is presented in [16] and it is available at http://lis.irb.hr/heartfaid/ontology/. the platform can intelligently assist users in a set of very different tasks ranging from monitoring patients in their home environment to decision support in specialized hospitals. the design of the heart failure ontology has started from the terms defined by the european society of cardiology in the “guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of the chronic heart failure” available at http://www.escardio.org. the ontology consists of classes, properties or slots, relationships between classes and instances. in order to test the prototype along with the concepts presented above, we based the central part of our architecture on a ms sql server database, used to implement our proposed medical ontology. the database stores all the ontology elements, properly translated in our database. the database includes ontology of medical procedures, medical guidelines and clinical activities similar to that in [17]. so we have tables in our database to store the medical knowledge from the ontology like concepts, instances of concepts and concept hierarchy. we also have tables to store synonyms and umsl synonyms relationships between different concepts and instances in our database. the slots from ontology are a little bit difficult to store in the database so we need many tables to store these properties: tables to store slot’s characteristics like name, tables to store possible associations, and tables to store the actual values of these slot. according to this we have for example tables to store the fact h. a. greblă, c. o. cenan – a proposed data driven architecture for cardiology network application 15 that “indicated” is the name of a slot connecting instances and not a slot connecting an instance with a proper value, either a character string or a number. we also store, in the database, the fact that this slot is a valid property only for instances of concepts “patient characteristics”, “testing”, “chf risks”, “classification” and “treatment”. in the end, we can store the fact that for “felodipine” (which is an instance of “calcium antagonist” which is an instance of the super class “heart failure medication group”), this slot is related to instances like “diastolic hypertension”, “unstable angina” and “systolic hypertension” which are instances of concept “patient characteristics” and thus in accordance with the previous statement. the instances “diastolic hypertension” and “systolic hypertension” of the concept “hypertension” are “patient characteristics” via sub classes “diagnosis”, “cardiovascular system related”, “artery and blood disorder” and “blood pressure disorder”. the other instance “unstable angina” is an instance of the concept “syndromes and effects” which has as super class “diagnosis”, which has as super class the concept “patient characteristics”. we also have, in the database, tables to store information about the medical personnel, medical specialties, patients and findings. all the findings are divided in many episodes, one episode from the medical life of a patient grouping all the records and findings related to one single problem or medical status at a given time. besides plans and patients the medical ontology stored in the database for heart failure is mainly organized in the following concepts: heart failure concept cardiac risks blood, homodynamic, clinical, demographical and historical, … classification clinical symptomatic classification, new york heart association symptoms terms synonyms, umls synonyms patient characteristics demographic characteristics diagnosis cardiovascular system related, related to other organs, syndromes and effects prognosis signs and symptoms medical tests treatment devices and surgery, medical procedures, medication, recommendations after the design process, we had to validate the ontology by using both an automatic checking through automated processing performed by the translation program and a human validation by doctors through visualization and navigation in the ontology. there are also some tests which enabled us to detect various errors in the database: relational induced cycles for the specialization relation, redundancies. 5. proposed software system for the cardiology network the task of matching health care processes to patient needs has led further to an increased interest in health care information systems that are easily adjustable to changes in resource availability and in organizational structures. let us note that the proposed software system is not at all an expert system. it only allows people from the health care network to visualize the reasoning and the decision-making process. the whole reasoning is carried out by the members of the health care network and the inferences based on the ontology enable the system to filter the choices offered to the user. the role of the ontology graph can be compared to a guide of best practices. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 16 the architecture is divided in two main parts: • policy guides how information is protected • technical guides how information is exchanged for the first part we need architecture for privacy in a networked health information environment, and for the second part we need standards at least for medication and for medical laboratory tests. we build our approach based on the food and drug administration orange book (http://www.fda.gov/cder/orange/obreadme.htm) and on the logical observation identifiers names and codes (loinc) standards (http://www.regenstrief.org/ medinformatics/loinc/). in usa, more than 90% of pharmacy transactions are computerized and increasingly available through national clearinghouses, consistent with the fda orange book of approved drug products and as many as half of all medical laboratory tests results available electronically use loinc standards. we introduce the concept of episodes in the medical life of a patient and together with the ontology stored in the database we will try to design and implement a software system for creating and editing the patient’s medical record. the concepts describing this patient record are thus useful when reasoning for diagnosis or for choice of the medical treatment. in the context of such a tool aimed at supporting a health care network, it seems interesting to extend the ontology by concepts enabling to describe this health care network and its actors. we thus built concept hierarchies on health care networks, on health centers and on patient’s record. in a health care network, our software system aims to be a collaborative work supporting tool, allowing the real time update and history of therapeutic decisions as an electronic board where each one can note information readable by the other members of the team. starting from the patient’s health problems, the members of the team will formulate diagnostic hypotheses and proposals for a treatment. via our software system, the health care team will connect the various elements of the patient record useful for the discussion, and thus will converge in an asynchronous way towards the definition of new health problems and of new therapeutic actions. the formulation of diagnostic hypotheses is a priori reserved to the medical actors, whereas the discussion on the treatment could sometimes imply non-medical professionals. a typical pattern of interaction by an application recording patient’s health and the ontology encoded in the database is to connect, perform a series of requests, and then to disconnect. an important feature of the database will be that of mapping between different external representations (languages and coding schemes) to provide an invisible, automatic coercion mechanism. this mechanism performs the mapping to ontology concept entities from codes on input, and allows the application caller to specify a series of required output formats which are then produced from the underlying concept entity. the dependencies between the various diagnostic and therapeutic hypotheses can be represented through a graph using the concepts defined in the ontology. the doctor will reason by linking the health problems to the symptoms, the clinical signs and the observations in order to propose health care procedures. the software system can thus rely on the soap model (subjective, objective, assessment, plan) used by the medical community [18]. in this model the s nodes describe current symptoms and clinical signs of the patient, the o nodes describe medical tests, analyses or observations of the physician, the a nodes correspond to the diseases or health problems of the patient, and the p nodes correspond to the procedures or action plans set up in order to solve the health problems. this soap model is used in the medical community to structure a patient record. when a patient consults his/her doctor for new symptoms, the physician will create a new instance of an episode of the medical life for that patient. the system will initialize a soap graph with all currently open pathologies and prescriptions for this patient. h. a. greblă, c. o. cenan – a proposed data driven architecture for cardiology network application 17 considering all these we propose to use in our soap software system (subjective, objective, assessment, plan) formalism to store and visualize the medical record. thus we have extended the ontology with relations useful for representing soap graphs (has_for_cause, has_for_consequence, confirmed_by, treated_by). finally, using the ontology the system can propose a list of possible concepts to help the user to build the soap graphs: • the s nodes will correspond to instances of selected concepts among the sub-concepts of symptom • the o nodes will be chosen among sub-concepts of laboratory-test • the a nodes among those of pathology or psychological-problem • the p nodes among those of treatment or diagnostic-therapeutically-gesture the arcs between the nodes will correspond to relations among concepts: • symptom has_for_cause pathology • pathology has_for_consequence symptom • pathology confirmed_by laboratory-test • pathology treated_by treatment • symptom treated_by treatment the first task of the database encoded ontology, to support a user interface in helping clinicians enter the information, will be to examine the expression, convert it to a sanctioned expression if possible, and then see whether a corresponding concept entity exists. the database will answer questions such as: • is this a legal expression, and what is its simplest form (e.g. with any redundancies removed)? • if it is legal, how is it classified, what more general concepts subsume it? what more specialized concept entities does it subsume? • what is known about this concept entity from the ontology? • what are the external expressions for this concept entity in a particular external system? what is the preferred term for this concept entity in that system? an important aspect of such a medical software system is the security of data contained in the patient’s health record. the model for authorization and access control in such a distributed health information systems has to deal with policy description and negotiation including policy agreements, authentication, certification, and directory services. in our approach for managing privileges and access control in the shared health care environment we use an extended and refined schema considering medical workflow as presented in [19]. in order to assure maximum interoperability, the portal was designed based on soap architecture using pentaho, allowing the heterogeneous systems’ integration. pentaho data integration represents a powerful tool that delivers means of extraction, transformation and data load using an innovative, metadata-driven approach [20]. because it offers an intuitive, graphical, drag and drop design environment, and a highly scalable, standards-based architecture, pentaho data integration represents a reliable and cost effective choice for organizations over traditional, proprietary etl or data integration tools. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 18 figure 3. data integration sample pentaho data integration has implemented a metadata-driven approach where you only specify the data you want integrated, but you do not specify the way you want it done. one of the most important advantages of pentaho is that one can create complex transformations and jobs in a graphical, drag-and-drop environment without having to create proprietary custom code that will work only with some proprietary application. common use cases for pentaho data integration include [20]: • data warehouse population • information enrichment by integrating data from various sources • data migration between applications • imports of data into databases from text-files, excel spreadsheets, relational systems and more • exports of data to other databases or text files • data cleansing by applying complex conditions in data transformations • exploration of data in existing databases (tables, views, etc.) because it provides a flexible architecture, the system offers the possibility to use various application platforms as sources for the integration. the system is based on translation functions (adapters) that provide interoperability with minimum implications for the interacting systems. the system was designed to work both as a service provider and a service consumer, as it can both supply and request medical data from various systems. the portal services are implemented using a service-oriented architecture by web services stored in repositories. the applications that are based on a soa environment can be configured to work both as services exchanging data in point to point protocol and as a communication channel between two entities that call a service provided by an entity that has the role of mediator or broker. the letter can be seen as intermediary level that represents an “enterprise service bus” (esb) between service producers and consumers, offering messaging exchange services. h. a. greblă, c. o. cenan – a proposed data driven architecture for cardiology network application 19 figure 4. portal logical architecture 5. conclusions the main purpose of the research was, starting from [14], to supply means for the creation and use of an electronic health record which can be used in a distributed environment by interoperable clinical systems. the introduction of an ontology based on medical terms used to populate an hl7 standardized message or document using standardized xml syntax will allow medical information to be exchanged between systems connected to the web portal. due to the use of the ontology, the system can be translated to other medical domains, but it is especialy suitable to cardiology because of its distributed nature of record keeping and treatment. the standardization based on a logically interrelated and searchable ontology ensures that the information related to a patient’s health record that the sender thought was sent is the same (from the point of view of medical significance and completeness) with the information the receiver received and interpreted. these standards, in conjunction with the data integration platform, will provide the health care network a greater access to important patient information, even between different platforms. an experimental implementation of the proposed methodology in a small health care network can emphasize the usefulness of the architecture. for the purpose of the experimental implementation a set of appropriate data must be developed for the representation of a patient’s health related data, concerning the drugs delivery, the examinations orders and results. for the identification of the sites, a general model of the health care network divided into primary and secondary is used. different user roles are also identified and an initial fragmentation of the data sets has already been obtained, based on the different user needs and sensitivities of the data. the allocation of the fragments has been based on the best fit and all beneficial sites approaches. 6. references [1] khair, m., mavridis, i., pangalos, g. (1998). design of secure distributed medical database systems. in: proceedings of int. conf. on database and expert systems applications (pp. 492-500). [2] rector, a.l., solomon, w.d., nowlan, w.a., rush, t.w. (1995). a terminology server for medical language and medical information systems, methods of information in medicine, 34, 147-157, north holland. [3] health level 7 (hl7) retrieved 2008 from http://www.hl7.org. hl7/soap messages – localhsb health service producer electronic health record wsdl wsdl publish find, download cardionet repository xml objects, guidelines xslt...find, bind health service consumer cardionet registry medical ws brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 20 [4] moldovan, g. (2001), distributed systems. note de curs, cluj: presa universitara clujeana. [5] pisanelli, d.m., gangemi, a., steve, g. (2000). the role of ontologies for an effective and unambiguous dissemination of clinical guidelines, in: lecture notes in computer science, 1937. proceedings of the 12th european workshop on knowledge acquisition, modeling and management (pp. 129-139). [6] dawant, b.m., uckun, s., manders, e.j., lindstrom, d.p. (1993), simon: a distributed computer architecture for intelligent patient monitoring. expert systems with applications, 6(4), 411-420. [7] rector, a.l., glowinski, a.g., nowlan, w.a., rossi-mori, a. (1995). medical concept models and medical records: an approach based on galen and pen&pad. journal of the american medical informatics association, 2(1), 19-35. [8] rector, a.l., rogers, j., pole, p. (1996). the galen high level ontology. in: proceedings of medical informatics in europe (pp. 174–178). [9] rector, a.l., gangemi, a., galeazzi, e., glowinski, a., rossi-mori, a. (1994). the galen model schemata for anatomy: towards a re-usable application-independent model of medical concepts. in: proceedings of medical informatics in europe (pp. 229–233). [10] zweigenbaum, p., bachimont, b., bouaud, j., charlet, j., boisvieux, j.-f. (1995). issues in the structuring and acquisition of an ontology for medical language understanding. methods of information in medicine, 34, 15–24. [11] zweigenbaum, p. (1995). menelas: coding and information retrieval from natural language patient discharge summaries. advances in health telematics, consortium menelas, ios press, amsterdam, 82–89. [12] gangemi, a., pisanelli, d.m., steve, g. (1999). an overview of the onions project: applying ontologies to the integration of medical terminologies. data & knowledge engineering, 31(2), september 1999. special issue on formal ontology and conceptual modeling, 183-220. [13] pisanelli, d.m., gangemi, a., steve, g. (1999). a medical ontology library that integrates the umls metathesaurustm, in: proceedings of the joint european conference on artificial intelligence in medicine and medical decision making, lecture notes in computer science, 1620 (pp. 239-248). [14] spackman, k., campbell, k., côté, r., snomed rt: a reference terminology for health care. in: proceedings of the 1997 amia annual symposium, nashville, tn, 1997 (pp. 25-29). [15] campbell, k.e., oliver, d.e., shortliffe, e.h. (1998). the unified medical language system: toward a collaborative approach for solving terminologic problems. journal of american medical informatics association, 5(jan-feb), 12-16. [16] jovic, a., prcela, m., gamberger, d. (2007). ontologies in medical knowledge representation. in: proceedings of international conference information technology interfaces (pp: 535 – 540). [17] kumar, a., smith, b., pisanelli, d.m., gangemi, a., stefanelli, m. (2003). a general framework for implementation of clinical guidelines by healthcare organizations. in: proceedings of the workshop on medical ontologies, rome, ios press. [18] sorgente, t., fernandez, e.b., larrondo-petrie, m.m. (2004). analysis patterns for patient treatment. in: proceedings of the pattern languages of programs conference. [19] blobel, b., (2002). analysis, design and implementation of secure and interoperable distributed health information systems, series studies in health technology and informatics, 89, amsterdam, ios press. [20] pentaho producs. retrieved 15 february 2010 from http://www.pentaho.com/products/data_integration/ microsoft word brain_2_1.doc 17 the effect of recast vs. self correction on writing accuracy: the role of awareness parviz maftoon islamic azad university (science and research branch) faculty of foreign languages and literature, hesarak, tehran, iran, postal code: 1477893855 p.o.box 14515 – 755, tel. +98 311-6692696 p_maftoon@iust.ac.ir masoumeh ahmadi shirazi university of tehran, faculty of foreign languages and literatures north kargar avenue, tehran, iran. postal code: 14174 shirin_shirazi@yahoo.com parisa daftarifard islamic azad university (science and research branch) faculty of foreign languages and literature, hesarak, tehran, iran, postal code: 1477893855 p.o.box 14515 – 755, tel. +98 311-6692696 pdaftaryfard@yahoo.com abstract studies in support of the facilitative role of correction in either forms of recast, repetition, confirmations, compression checks, or clarification request abound (ellis, 2003). among these studies recast has proved to be the most frequent type of error correction in classroom [30] [32]; however, self-correction or elicitation might make students notice the gap more than recast. to illuminate the difference, two methods of recast and self correction were applied to two groups of students to see if there would be any difference between two methods on the students' writing accuracy regarding the use of past tense. man whitney, along with wilcoxon, was run as the main statistical techniques to examine the effectiveness of methods of error correction on students' writing accuracy. the result of this study showed that there is no significant difference between the two methods of correction although students improve after treatment; however, self correction outperformed recast and recast did not improve students' accuracy in posttest. keywords: self correction, recast, awareness, error correction. 1. introduction literature is replete with the studies in support or rejection of the facilitative role of error correction in second language teaching [11]. the inception of communicative language teaching, in its purest form especially, and its failure in producing accurate but fluent speaker [7] escalated this debate. the debate was especially highlighted in immersion programs, as swain and lapkin [33] (2007) state, what was missed in immersion classrooms was not the facilities as dictionaries, books, or computers but "the opportunities to interact with all these artifacts by verbalizing understanding that arise from such interactions" (p. 85). the debate still continues; the inclusion of instruction in either forms of preemptive or reactive is not a one-horse race. a series of modular theories in favor of natural development of second language are pervasive. these include pienemann's [26] [27] processability theory, and clahsen and muysken's [3] strategy theory, as well as early communicative language teaching (clt) perspectives in the late 1970s and the 1980s. according to early clt proponents and authorities, errors are signs of language development and cannot be avoided or prevented. therefore, in han's [11] sense "in clt paradigm, form focus instruction is deemed detrimental" (p. 1). on the other hand, the pure meaning focus instruction could not function very well not in terms of fluency but accuracy. han [11] goes on saying that error correction-free instruction leads to "false fluency," "fossilization," inclination to a "low quality input," and learners' handicap in the case of overgeneralization failure. through "skill-acquisition perspective" analogy, she emphasizes brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 the important role of error correction as an extrinsic feedback which is more effective than intrinsic feedback in early stages of language acquisition. she further states: the classroom offers much space for extrinsic feedback on learner output. in the naturalistic setting, on the other hand, the learner has to rely almost exclusively on intrinsic feedback, i.e., feedback that springs from the situation itself …and from the learner himself. (p. 8) in sla literature, extrinsic feedback or error correction, as was previously stated, is claimed to be more effective than intrinsic one or positive input [4]. studies on different types of correction like recast, repetition, confirmations, reformulations, compression checks, confirmation checks, and request for clarification abound. one may refer to ellis [5], lyster [19], loewen and philp [17], mackey [22], mackey and silver [23], robinson [28], and sheen [31, 32] for a comprehensive review on error correction, types, differences, and effectiveness. among different kinds of correction, recast seems to be the most frequently used one [5] although it may lead to the least uptake [21]. recast was originally defined in first language acquisition; bohannon et al. (1996, as cited in sheen, [32]) define recast as a kind of correction "that expands, deletes, permutes, or otherwise changes the platform while maintaining overlap in meaning" (p. 434). ellis [5] states that "recast involves rephrasing an utterance" by changing one of its components while meaning is kept unchanged (p. 168). in this sense, recast is the "reformulation" of learners' non-target-like utterances. mackey [22] defines recast as a target-like model signaled to students' erroneous sentences. this way, recast is considered as positive evidence (information about which forms are grammatical in the target language) for learners than negative one. the following example shows how recast works. student: she is a good cooker teacher: a good cook. is she? recast student: yes she is a good cook modified output being similar in its nature, recast has not appeared in a single form. gass [9] classifies recast into "partial recast," "full recast," "recast in response to single error," and "recast in response to multiple errors". partial recast is the reformulation of the erroneous segment of an utterance [32], or in lyster's [20] terms, it is a recast through reduction or "a reduction of the learner’s utterance with added stress for emphasis" (p. 271). elsewhere, lyster [20] made a distinction between "isolated" and "incorporated" recast. while the former refers to recast without any change in meaning (through addition or deletion), the latter occurs when corrected reformulation added to the meaning of utterance. he also referred to isolated interrogative and incorporated interrogative recasts. also, mackey and philp [23] differentiate "intensive" recast from "complex and simple" recasts. while intensive recast focuses on a particular linguistic item during communication, complex recast focuses on multiple linguistic items in one discoursal move. moreover, sheen [32] distinguishes conversational from didactic recast; the former is concerned with meaning, the latter with form. another way of correction is self correction. self correction is an indirect feedback where the teacher provides students with the choices so that they themselves discern the correct form [2]. self correction or "self repair" [20], in either form of self or peer, happens when the teacher makes the erroneous point salient through repetition (in speaking), underlining the erroneous sentence (in writing) or writing both the correct and erroneous form on the board so that students can choose from. what is unique in self correction is the learner's conscious attention to his or her erroneous sentence. it seems that self correction is more effective than recast since it makes the learner notice the gap (schmidt, 2001). to lyster and ranta [21] and mckay [2006], elicitation is an explicit correction where the teacher provides the students with the wrong form, along with the correct form. sometimes, two forms of correct and the original sentence are provided, and students should find the correct form. p. maftoon, m. ahmadi, p. daftarifard the effect of recast vs. self correction on writing accuracy 19 self correction has been found to be effective in several studies. for example, kubota [14] worked on lower intermediate university students learning japanese as a foreign language. she found out that the number of errors of different categories in students' writing diminished when they use self correction through self-help resources. elsewhere, makino (1993, as cited in lee and ridley [15]) states student correction in either form of self correction and peer correction is more effective than teacher correction in the sense that "it allows learners to be the ’architects’ of their own learning"(p. 26). self correction and recast are different from each other in terms of the types of evidence each provide students with. error correction can provide the learners with both negative and positive evidence; positive evidence is usually referred to the natural input the learners are exposed to. in second language learning, there is no consensus on whether negative evidence is more effective or positive evidence. negative evidence is usually referred to as correction and reactive instruction, whereas positive evidence entails both natural and reactive instructional setting. there is no doubt that self correction is self-negative directed evidence. however, to some of the researchers, recast can function both as positive and negative evidence. it functions as positive evidence when its saliency is internally created, and learners unconsciously uptake the correct form [11]. it can function as negative evidence when learners' reflect their own erroneous utterance [18]. such explicit and implicit differentiation is not always regarded as dichotomous; to loewen and philp [17], such differentiation is a matter of degree. to oliver and mackey [25], implicitness and explicitness of recast is more context bound depending on how much salient they become to learners. elsewhere, sheen [32] believes that recast saliency is a psycholinguistic phenomenon: linguistic phenomenon is determined by the linguistic characteristics of the recasts, whereas saliency is a psycho-linguistic construct. recasts that are linguistically explicit are likely to be salient but explicitness cannot guarantee saliency as individual learner factors will influence the extent to which learners find particular recasts salient. in this respect, an investigation of learners’ perceptions about different characteristics of recasts is needed. (p. 386) with whatever role they might play either as positive or negative evidence or either as an explicit focus on form or implicit focus on form, error corrections vary in their degree of effectiveness. it is believed that the results on the effectiveness of feedback type change across different contexts and forms [24]. although lyster's study of french immersion classroom learners did not show the effectiveness of recast in children, mackey and silver [24] found out that the adult esl students' linguistic output developed through recast even when the students did not repeat recasts or modify their output as a result of recasts. 2. awareness and learning there is a paradigm war as to the nature, role, function, time, and importance of learners’ attention to input either internally or externally [35]. the concept has been discussed in different school of thought; while some delineate it within cognitive psychology [29], others approach it from more linguistic perspective [34]. schmidt [29] attributed the possibility of sla to focal attention and noticing. he reconceptualizes the concept of attention as a limited capacity. to him attention is a must in language learning. some other scholars believe that attention can be both internally and externally driven [30]. sharwood smith [30] refers to input enhancement which is a means of drawing learners’ attention to the specific feature of input. accordingly, internally driven attention or internal input saliency is more important than external as a means of highlighting certain language areas for learners with the goal of drawing their attention to those areas. elsewhere, some [9] refers to attention as one of the factors that affect input processing so believes in attention as externally driven phenomena. gass [9] criticizes krashen’s simple model of conversion of input to intake subconsciously. instead, she attributes language learning to attention in several stages. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 3. the purpose of this study research into the effectiveness of error correction in language learning sometimes follows pretest posttest grammar test, or the number of corrected forms in the learners' uptake. truscott [37] questioned the efficacy of such studies because "studies that look at the actual speech/writing of learners who have undergone correction have consistently failed to find any benefits" (p. 123). elsewhere, lyster and ranta [21] cast doubt on the appropriateness of uptake as an indicator of feedback efficacy. scholars have usually supported the use of oral or written tasks for studying the effectiveness of feedback on learners' uptake. adams [1] believes that writing and speaking can more accurately measure feedback efficacy than pre and post grammatical test. for the same token and because not much research has been done using writing accuracy as a criterion of measuring feedback efficacy, this study aims at comparing the effectiveness of recast and self correction in classroom conversation through measuring the accuracy of the writing task. to do so, this study addresses the following questions: q1. is there any difference between the method of error correction and the correct use of past tense of the iranian students at the elementary level? q2. does error correction in speaking affect the correct use of past tense in writing of the iranian students at the elementary level? 4. method 4.1. participants participants of this study were 16 students ranging from 19 to 24 years old. they enrolled at marefat institute to study general english. they were customarily placed in the elementary level at which they studied new interchange book. they were randomly grouped into two classes to receive two different corrective feedbacks as the treatment. group a (8 students) received self correction as the correction strategy in the way that the teacher provided the correct form for the erroneous sentence the students produced, and the students needed to decide which one was grammatically correct. group b (8 students) received recast with single move reformulation. correction of either types of self correction or recast can vary in terms of different constituents or "moves" it takes. correction, as sheen [32] delineates, consists of a trigger utterance (elicit or error), the teacher's corrective feedback (sometimes recast, sometimes other corrective feedbacks), and either uptake (learner's immediate response to feedback) or no response. in the latter, when learner does not uptake the correct form, the topic continues by either learners or the teacher. these moves can happen in a multi-move or single-move. multi-move correction contains more than one teacherfeedback-move, whereas simple move correction may happen in the form of declarative a recast or interrogative. as the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of two types of feedback on the accuracy of writing in terms of using past tense, students' writing sample was selected as the instrument as for both pretest and posttest. in the first session, the first prompt that is, "last holiday" was given to the students to write. the students were free to write about the topic in the sense that they could write at will. the posttest writing prompt was "what did you do last week?" and it was given in the last session. no meta-linguistic tests or grammatical tests were used in this study because in the previous studies [37] the use of such tests was criticized, for they are the artificial way of checking competence. moreover, because marefat institute frequently measures its students' competency in grammar, the researchers relied on the institution's assumption about the level and homogeneity of the students. also, as was mentioned earlier, writing and spontaneous speech are considered to be more natural in comparing with discrete grammar tests [1]. the participants in this study were free in writing the compositions at any length. to neutralize the length difference the number of errors were divided by the number of verbs used. in p. maftoon, m. ahmadi, p. daftarifard the effect of recast vs. self correction on writing accuracy 21 doing so, the mean of erroneously used verbs is obtained for each participant. table 1 summarizes the students' writing features as number of words, verbs (past tense) both in pretest and posttest. table 1. data features summary name method verbpre wrongpre verbpost wrongpost meanpre meanpost 1 1.00 recast 14.00 1.00 12.00 0.00 0.07 0.00 2 12.00 recast 9.00 1.00 9.00 4.00 0.11 0.44 3 16.00 recast 9.00 4.00 19.00 3.00 0.44 0.16 4 15.00 recast 12.00 4.00 12.00 1.00 0.33 0.08 5 10.00 recast 10.00 2.00 9.00 1.00 0.20 0.11 6 13.00 recast 7.00 0.00 11.00 1.00 0.00 0.09 7 17.00 recast 10.00 1.00 12.00 0.00 0.10 0.00 8 14.00 recast 8.00 1.00 8.00 0.00 0.13 0.00 9 8.00 self-correction 20.00 4.00 6.00 3.00 0.20 0.50 10 11.00 self-correction 10.00 1.00 12.00 1.00 0.10 0.08 11 5.00 self-correction 11.00 1.00 6.00 1.00 0.09 0.17 12 2.00 self-correction 13.00 2.00 17.00 0.00 0.15 0.00 13 7.00 self-correction 14.00 4.00 6.00 0.00 0.29 0.00 14 3.00 self-correction 25.00 3.00 8.00 1.00 0.12 0.13 15 9.00 self-correction 18.00 1.00 10.00 0.00 0.06 0.00 16 4.00 self-correction 10.00 2.00 6.00 0.00 0.20 0.00 4. 2. procedure both classes covered five lessons from new interchange book (nine to thirteen). each unit includes two conversations, grammar focus lessons, and listening parts, as well as one writing, and reading task. there is also a conversation task separating writing and reading tasks from each other which can be considered as both post writing, and pre reading activity. one unit of the book was covered every three sessions. for the purpose of this study, students were assigned to read three short stories on their own. the short stories were all selected to meet their level of proficiency. the students were supposed to retell the story. the teacher corrected the erroneous use of tenses in any forms of simple present, simple past and present perfect. however, because students at this elementary level are supposed not to have any error in the form of past tense, the focus of the pretest and posttest was on the correct use of past tense. 4. 3. instructional treatments each session lasted for 90 minutes twice a week, and for seven running weeks taught by the same teacher, who was an ma graduate of tefl. both groups were matched for the amount of instructional time. the first group was provided with recast in the form of immediate feedback feedback without any move, i.e., immediately after the occurrence of the erroneous statements. the second group was provided with the self correction feedback following the occurrence of the erroneous statements. the self correction feedback was vocalic; the teacher repeated the student's erroneous sentence, along with the correct form, and asked the student to choose the correct form. both classes usually started with a warm up in the form of questions and greetings, and then the following procedure was approached: conversation tasks, grammar focuses, pronunciation part, listening, post listening (some questions about students' opinion on the topic discussed in listening), and snap shots on the equivalent topic, conversation, grammar, listening, writing, speaking, and then reading. as was previously mentioned, one unit was covered every three sessions. both groups were provided with feedback on the participants' erroneous sentences as far as past tense was concerned. for example, indirect speech, which has not been covered for this level, was not corrected. besides retelling the story, some participants were called to answer questions in class. whenever the participants produced a grammatically incorrect sentence, feedback was provided on the spot (in one group in the form of recast and in another group in the form of self correction). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 5. result to answer the questions of this study, first the test of homogeneity, kolmogorov-smirnov, was run for both pre and post tests to see if the data met the criteria needed for parametric test. if p value of the test is significant (p<0.05), the distribution is not normal. as is shown in table 2, not all of the values conform to the parametric norms; self correction in pretest and posttest showed significant p value (p<0.05). therefore, the nonparametric forms of data analyses (mann whitney test and wilcoxon) were run for the analysis of the data. table 2. tests of normality of kolmogorov-smirnov method statistic df sig. meanpre recast .253 8 .140 self correction .120 9 .200* meanpost recast .250 8 .151 self correction .279 9 .042** * this is a lower bound of the true significance. ** this is an upper bound of the true significance. a lilliefors significance correction the second assumption to be tested was that the two groups, in this study, should not be significantly different in pretest. this is checked through mann whitney test. as is shown in table 3, there is no significant difference between these two groups (z = 0.053, p = 0.958). the probability index shows that there are only 0.04 chances for groups to be different from each other. table 3. pretest man-whitney test b a not corrected for ties. b grouping variable: method to answer question one that is, "is there any difference between the effects of method of error correction on the correct use of past tense of students at the elementary level?" the nonparametric version of t test (mann whitney test) was run again. . as is shown in table 4, there is no significant difference between the two groups of recast and self correction (z = 0.165, p = 0.869). table 4. posttest man-whitney test b method n mean rank sum of ranks meanpost recast 8 8.69 69.50 self correction 8 8.31 66.50 total 16 mann-whitney u 30.500 z -.165 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .869 exact sig. [2*(1-tailed sig.)] .878 a a not corrected for ties. b grouping variable: method method n mean rank sum of ranks meanpre recast 8 8.56 68.50 self correction 8 8.44 67.50 total 16 mann-whitney u 31.500 z -.053 asymp. sig (2-taild) .958 exact sig. [2*(1-tailed sig.)] .959a p. maftoon, m. ahmadi, p. daftarifard the effect of recast vs. self correction on writing accuracy 23 comparing tables 3 and 4, we notice some differences between posttest and pretest although they are not significant. as is shown in table 3, mean rank for recast in pretest is 8.56, but this value increases in posttest to 8.69. however, mean rank for self correction in pretest is 8.44 and this value decreases in posttest, 8.31. although these changes are not significant, the results show that self correction outperform recast, and recast seems to have no effect at all because the number of errors increases. this finding is supported by the results reported in the literature of error correction [19], [17], [22], and [24]. it seems that recast cannot have a delay effect on the learners' uptake. this might be due to the fact that sometimes recast is not taken as error correction but repetition. many problems associated with recast might be the result of the mismatch between teacher's intention and students' interpretation and perception on what is actually corrected. this mismatch between teachers' intention and students' interpretation, of course, might not be limited to one type of error correction as han [11] states that "what is made salient by the teacher may not be perceived as salient by the learner" and "hence will have no effect on development" (p. 11). in case of self correction, however, the students are asked to find the erroneous sentences and this active engagement of the students might result in a better performance, though insignificantly, in the posttest. to answer the second question of this study, "does error correction in speaking affect the correct use of past tense in writing of students at the elementary level?" the nonparametric wilcoxon test was run for each group separately. table 5. recast wilcoxon signed ranks test n mean rank sum of ranks meanpost meanpre negative ranks 6a 4.17 25.00 positive ranks 2b 5.50 11.00 ties 0c total 8 ze -.980d asymp. sig. (2tailed) .327 a meanpost < meanpre b meanpost > meanpre c meanpre = meanpost d based on positive ranks. e wilcoxon signed ranks test as is shown in table 5, the mean ranks reported for the recast group in the pretest and posttest were 4.17 and 5.50 respectively at the probability of 0.327. therefore, the change or improvement through recast correction does not occur although this change is not statistically meaningful (z = 0.980, ns). however, the mean rank for self correction group in the pretest and posttest were 4.60 and 4.33 respectively at the probability of 0.484 (z = 0.700, ns). the result indicates that through self correction students have improved although this change is not statistically meaningful. table 6. self correction wilcoxon signed ranks test n mean rank sum of ranks postmean premean negative ranks 5a 4.60 23.00 positive ranks 3b 4.33 13.00 ties 0c total 8 zd -.700e asymp. sig. (2tailed) .484 a postmean < premean brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 b postmean > premean c premean = postmean d based on positive ranks. e wilcoxon signed ranks test although the results are not statistically meaningful, they should be taken into consideration for two reasons. first, the non-significant result might be because of the fact that the number of participants in this study, due to the nature of research, i.e., classroom research, is not statistically satisfactory; there were eight participants in each group. second, this population has not formed normal distribution (see table 2). however, as hatch and lazaraton [12] indicate, the practical and interpretable significance worth considering even if the result is not statistically significant, especially when the result is fully supported by the literature. the concluding section would further elaborate on this issue. in second language acquisition (sla), learners are different in terms of rate, route, and the final attainment. as han [11] states, "the time a learner takes in arriving at a correct hypothesis can vary from a few seconds to a lifetime" (p. 9). this could be the result of many factors such as age, amount of exposure to language, gender, or probably the days of participation in class. for this reason, the researchers decided to qualitatively explore probable individual differences through the available historical background. table 6 summarizes the available information about participants. as is shown in table 6, some students in the self correction group pass this course for the second time (students 5, and 7). two students of the same group passed the previous term (inter1) with the minimum score of 73 and 74 (students 8 and 11). student number eight, in the self correction group, seems not to have functioned very well. this might be due to the fact that he has passed the previous course by minimum score and therefore, he might not be ready for learning past tense yet. the interesting point is that, the recast group seems to be more qualified than the self correction group; they passed their previous term with higher scores. however, the recast group has not outperformed self correction group. table 7. exploring individual differences: qualitative analysis recast group posttest pretest name present/absent absent days previous score previous level .00 .07 1 6/10 (5, 8, 9, 10) 84 inter2 .44 .11 12 10 95 inter2 .16 .44 16 9/10 (7) 92 inter2 .08 .33 15 9/10 (9) 81 inter2 .11 .20 10 9/10 (2) 81 inter2 .09 .00 13 9/10 (2) 92 inter2 .00 .10 17 9/10 (7) 92 inter2 .00 .13 14 9/10 (2) self correction group .50 .20 8 10 73 inter2 .08 .10 11 9 (8) 74 inter2 .17 .09 5 7/10 (1, 8, 9) 0 .00 .15 2 7/10 (3, 6, 8) 89 inter2 .00 .29 7 10 0 .13 .12 3 7/10 (1, 2, 3) 91 inter2 .00 .06 9 8/10 (1, 2) 93 inter2 .00 .20 4 9/10 (7) 97 inter2 6. conclusion there is an unending debate between two extreme ways of teaching in second language setting: intrusive or instructional and non-intrusive or natural [16]. instructional or focus on form and focus on meaning happen when the learners are exposed to negative evidence in either forms of p. maftoon, m. ahmadi, p. daftarifard the effect of recast vs. self correction on writing accuracy 25 preemptive and reactive [8]. on the one hand, non-intrusive language teaching or focus on meaning [6] mainly emphasizes the importance of natural exposure to language input through meaningful, natural or pedagogical interaction or task either within (early clt) or outside of classroom [11]. pienemann's [26] [27] processability theory, krashen's [13] input hypothesis, and clahsen and muysken's [3] strategy theory are endorsements for such a claim. in an extreme reaction to the failure of audio-lingual method and as a result of many modular theories and research inquiries, the early clts totally prevented and condemned any use of error correction. on the other hand, the failure of purely meaning-based language teaching in developing accurate but fluent learners has led scholars to question the effectiveness of teaching activities without any focus on form. a series of articles that are published in [8] are significant pieces of evidence on the felt importance of instruction either in the form of preemptive or reactive language teaching. there are several studies supporting the facilitative role of correction of any type [5], [9], [19], [17], [22], [24], [28], and [31. as was mentioned earlier among different kinds of correction, recast seems to be the most frequently used one (ellis, 2003; sheen, 2004, 2006), however, as lyster and ranta's [21] study shows, it led to the least uptake. on the other hand, it is mostly mentioned that self correction or elicitation may be more effective than recast because in the former case, students notice the gap [29]. the result of this study should be considered cautiously. the sample size was small, so the power of test is definitely low. bearing this in mind, this study cannot take sides of either of extremes. the study showed that there was no significant difference between both methods of correction and pretest and posttest result. however, the interesting point in this study was the trend difference data showed. as hatch and lazaraton [12] mention the significant difference is a "convention" set by the statistician "not a hard-and-fast rule" (p. 233). in the present study, the differences between pretest and posttest did not show a significant difference; however, the mean rank of wrong used verbs in recast group in the posttest was more than that of self correction group, considering that less mean rank indicated a better result. for sure, a classroom with no error correction is far from reality; all teachers would like to create a change in their students. when there is less possibility for exposure to positive evidence, especially in case of foreign language context, the best way to prevent fossilization is utilizing different methods of error correction. however, as guenette [10] states this is a "decisive factor in the attainment of language fluency and accuracy" (p. 41). truscott [37] questions the efficacy of correction. he states that "studies that look at the actual speech/writing of learners who have undergone correction have consistently failed to find any benefits" (p. 123). this study has not shown any statistically significant result; however, two methods of error correction come to a mixed result. while self correction bettered the result of the posttest, recast worsened it. this can be interpreted from several perspectives each of which is explained below. first, although error correction has won the supports of many scholars, pienemann's processability theory states that no change or learning would occur if it is beyond the learners' level of interlanguage. the participants of this study were at the elementary level. they have recently learned the use and concept of past tense through new interchange book, which is based on the communicative language teaching syllabus. therefore, it is not surprising that students have not fully acquired the concept and use of past tense yet. therefore, this study seems to support pienemann's theories, i.e., teachability, learnability, and processability. accordingly, no learning would happen beyond the developmental level of interlanguage, no matter how hard we tried to create it in our learners. scrutinizing the data, it was found out that the self correction group included those students who have failed the previous terms, and this was the second time they were taking this course. maybe, this can explain the improvement of these students over the recast group. more research enquires are required to explore this possibility to see if the better performance is the result of retaking of the same course, or recast as a method of error correction is easier and less effective method of error correction than self correction. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 second, self correction may result in "discovery learning" which is supported from different theoretical positions as "experiential learning," "deep processing," "self-investment," "noticing," and "psychological readiness" [36]. experiential learning refers to the situation where learners first experience a feature before studying it. discovery learning implies that learning is more internally driven than externally driven. in this case, the whole person is ready to learn and acquire the feature. deep processing is semantic based that is, learners attend to the meaning and significance of the intake. self-investment also supports the importance of discovery learning. tomlinson [36] asserts that "learners will only learn if they need and want to learn and are willing to invest time and energy in the process (p. 179). maybe, noticing through self correction gives "salience" to the feature in the future input and this helps learners be more "psychologically ready" [36] to uptake the input in the future. guenette [10] states "experts have demonstrated that under certain conditions, with certain student populations, and in some contexts, error correction is effective" (p. 41). the data of this study show that students did not uptake the erroneous points in the same way. some students improved in the posttest, but some did not. this should be explained through more information obtained about each participant. we have not had much information on students' learning style, strategy, and specific demographic background. therefore, another research may study the effectiveness of these two methods of error correction more meticulously by probing the relationships between different learning style, motivation, or learning strategy and the occurrence of uptake. moreover, as this research lacks control group, we are not sure that the methods have no effect at all. another research with the same design, i.e., searching for accuracy of writing by giving feedback through speaking out the grammatical points, might consider this problem and include the control group as well. this study focused on writing composition. another research might focus on more natural mode of writing as writing letters or emails, or writing in forums because they are more natural and spontaneous. also, this study explored the effect of giving feedback in speech on writing accuracy. another research can study the effect of giving feedback in writing on speech accuracy. and last but not least is that this study did not consider time very much. another research can focus on time as an important factor in remembering and up-taking the correct form of erroneous sentences. this can include gathering the writing samples of students who receive feedback and those who listen to feedback. this can help us understand the importance of both time and attention over attendees and audiences. 7. references [1] adams, r. (2003). l2 output, reformulation and noticing: implications for il development. language teaching research, 7, 347–376. [2] bitchener, j., young, s., and cameron, d. (2005). the effect of different types of corrective feedback on esl student writing. journal of second language writing, 14, 191-205. [3] clahsen, h., and muysken, p. (1989). the ug paradox in l2 acquisition. second language research, 5, 1-29. [4] elder, c., erlam, r., and philp, j. (2007). explicit language knowledge and focus on form: options and obstacles for tesol teacher trainees. in s. fotos and h. nassaji (eds.), form-focused instruction and teacher education: studies in honor of rod ellis (pp. 225-240). oxford: oup. [5] ellis, r. (2003). task-based language learning and teaching. oxford: oup. [6] ellis, r. (2008). explicit form-focused instruction and second language acquisition. in b. spolsky and f. m. hult (eds.), the handbook of educational linguistics (pp. 43-455). oxford: blackwell publishing. [7] ellis, n. c. (2007). the weak interface, consciousness, and form-focused instruction: mind the doors. in s. fotos and h. nassaji (eds.), form-focused instruction and teacher education: studies in honor of rod ellis (pp. 17-34). oxford: oup. p. maftoon, m. ahmadi, p. daftarifard the effect of recast vs. self correction on writing accuracy 27 [8] fotos, s., and nassaji, h. (2007). form-focused instruction and teacher education: studies in honor of rod ellis. oxford: oup. [9] gass, s. m. (2003). input and interaction. in c. doughty, and m. long (eds.), the handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 224-255). new york: blackwell. [10] guenette, d. (2007). is feedback pedagogically correct? research design issues of feedback on writing. journal of second language writing, 16, 40-53. [11] han, zh. h. (2002). rethinking the role of corrective feedback in communicative language teaching. relc journal, 33, 1-34. [12] hatch, e. m., and lazaraton, a. (1991). the research manual: design and statistics for applied linguistics. new york: newbury house. [13] krashen, s. d. (1988). second language acquisition and second language learning. new york: prentice-hall. [14] kubota, m. (2001). error correction strategies used by learners of japanese when revising a writing task. system, 29, 467–80. [15] lee, w., and ridley, a. (1999). what implications does english globalization have for treatment of students' spoken errors? relc journal, 30, 18-37. [16] lightbown, p. m., and spada, n. (2006). how languages are learned (3rd ed.). oxford: oup. [17] loewen, s., and philp, j. (2006). recasts in the adult english l2 classroom: characteristics, explicitness, and effectiveness. the modern language journal, 90, 536-556. [18] long, m., inagaki, s., and ortega, l. (1998). the role of implicit negative feedback in sla: models and recasts in japanese and spanish. the modern language journal, 82, 357-71. [19] lyster, r. (1998a). recasts, repetition, and ambiguity in l2 classroom discourse. studies in second language acquisition, 20, 51-81. [20] lyster, r. (1998b). negotiation of form, recasts, and explicit correction in relation to error types and learner repair in immersion classrooms. language learning, 48, 183-218. [21] lyster, r., and ranta, l. (1997). corrective feedback and learner uptake: negotiation of form in communicative classrooms. studies in second language acquisition, 19 (2), 37-66. [22] mackey, a. (2006). feedback, noticing and instructed second language learning. applied linguistics, 27(3), 405-430. [23] mackey, a., and philp, j. (1998). conversational interaction and second language development: recasts, responses, and red herrings? modern language journal, 82, 338-56. [24] mackey, a., and silver, r. e. (2005). interactional tasks and english l2 learning by immigrant children in singapore. system, 33, 239-260. [25] oliver, r., and mackey, a. (2003). interactional context and feedback in child esl classrooms. modern language journal, 87, 519-533. [26] pienemann, m. (1998). language processing and second language development: processability theory. philadelphia: john benjamin b. v. [27] pienemann, m. (2003). language processing capacity. in c. doughty and m. h. long (eds.), the handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 679-714). new york: blackwell. [28] robinson, p. (2001). conditions in second language acquisition: individual differences, cognitive abilities, aptitude complexes and learning. second language research, 17 (4), 368-392. [29] schmidt, r. (2001). attention. in p. robinson (ed.), cognition and second language instruction (2nd ed.) (pp. 3-32). cambridge: cup. [30] sharwood smith, m. (1994). second language learning: theoretical foundations. london: longman. [31] sheen, y. (2004). corrective feedback and learner uptake in communicative classrooms across instructional settings. language teaching research, 8 (3), 263-300. [32] sheen, y. (2006). exploring the relationship between characteristics of recasts and learner uptake. language teaching research, 10 (4), 361-392. [33] swain, m., and lapkin, s. (2007). the distributed nature of second language learning: neil's perspective. in s. fotos and h. nassaji (eds.), form-focused instruction and teacher education: studies in honor of rod ellis (pp. 73-86). oxford: oup. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 [34] talmy, l. (2008). aspects of attention in language. in p. robinson & n. c. ellis (eds.), handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition (pp. 27-38). ny: routledge. [35] tomlin, r. s., & villa, v. (1994). attention in cognitive science and second language acquisition. ssla, 16, 183-203. [36] tomlinson, b. (2007). using form-focused discovery approaches. in s. fotos and h. nassaji (eds.), form-focused instruction and teacher education: studies in honor of rod ellis (pp. 177192). oxford: oup. [37] truscott, j. (1998). noticing in second language acquisition: a critical review. second language research, 14 (2), 103-135. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 16-29 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/351 submitted: april 20th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 self-sufficiency of the personality as a psychological condition for the development of their neuropsychological self-regulation in the context of practical psychology nelia bihun 1 , olena chorna 2 , liubov kostyk 3 , olesia ryhel 4 , ihor hoian 5 , oksana fedyk 6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, nelabigun@gmail.com 2 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, elenachorna77@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7067-3695 3 yuriy fedkovych chernivtsi national university, ukraine, l.kostyk@chnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9699-8607 4 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, olesyarygel@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8470-7403 5 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, ihor.hoian@pnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2548-0488 6 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, fedykoksan@gmail.com abstract: the article presents a theoretical and methodological analysis of the study of self-sufficiency as a factor in the development of psychological self-regulation of the personality. it is proposed to define selfsufficiency as a complex personal formation, personality-regulatory property that has an effective system of influence on the activation of psychological self-regulation of the personality in ensuring subjective function in activities. the self-sufficiency of the personality as a psychological condition for the development of their psychological selfregulation in the context of practical psychology is considered. selfsufficiency can be considered as a factor in the development of the system of psychological self-regulation of the personality and as a regulatory-personal property in the manifestations of self-sufficient character traits and conscious human activity. neurobiological mechanisms of self-sufficiency and self-regulation have been considered. under psychological selfregulation we can understand the process of development of self-sufficiency of the personality as the regulation of their activity in personal growth from “real self” to “ideal self”. self-sufficiency as a personal potential of psychological self-regulation can have a developmental effect in the following coping strategies: self-help; cooperation; personal and professional growth; autonomy; self-acceptance. in case of deformation and imbalance of the self-regulation system, neuro-psychocorrection is offered. sociopsychological trainings have been proposed for the development of personal growth and development of self-sufficiency as a personal potential of effective psychological self-regulation. keywords: self-development; values; self-esteem; personalityregulatory properties; meanings; goals; internal resource; self-concept; neurobiological mechanisms of self-sufficiency and self-regulation. how to cite: bihun, n., chorna, o., kostyk, l., ryhel, o., hoian, i., & fedyk, o. (2022). self-sufficiency of the personality as a psychological condition for the development of their neuropsychological self-regulation in the context of practical psychology. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 16-29. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/351 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/351 mailto:nelabigun@gmail.com mailto:elenachorna77@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7067-3695 mailto:l.kostyk@chnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9699-8607 mailto:olesyarygel@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8470-7403 mailto:ihor.hoian@pnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2548-0488 mailto:fedykoksan@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/351 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 17 introduction crisis realities of the contemporary world can motivate a person to a meta-individual level of psychological self-regulation, which integrally (as the main function of consciousness along with the function of mental reflection) optimizes the mental state and ensures one’s personal integrity in adapting to new conditions of the changing and unpredictable world. among the important controlling mechanisms for psychological self-regulation are personal characteristics, in particular self-sufficiency as a personalityregulatory property, which is manifested in the purposeful regulation of conscious activity. the study of psychological control of behavior and activities at the personal level, in relation to self-sufficiency with goals, needs and values, meanings and self-fulfillment is a new subject of study in our scientific essence, and therefore relevant and in demand not only for general psychology but also for applied psychological industries. the purpose of the article is to analyze the theoretical and methodological foundations of self-sufficiency as a factor in the development of psychological self-regulation of the personality. the novelty and practical significance lies in the study of the relationship between selfsufficiency as a developmental potential in the control of behavior and activities at the personal-motivational level. in addition, the problem of personal self-regulation is insufficiently studied in science. it is proposed to define self-sufficiency as a complex personal formation, personalityregulatory property that has an effective system of influence on activation of psychological self-regulation of the personality in ensuring subjective functioning in activities. theoretical and methodological analysis of the study of selfsufficiency as a factor in the development of psychological selfregulation of the personality nowadays, the concept of “self-sufficiency” is often used synonymously with the terms independence, confidence, self-efficacy, selfunderstanding, autonomy, integrity, indivisibility, etc. the psychological approach to understanding and substantiating “self-sufficiency” as a scientific category is carried out mainly in the context of practical psychology, or to emphasize the importance of “self-sufficient personality” as a broader understanding than “self-confident” in psychological theories. the most complete historical digression into the study of selfsufficiency, which demonstrates the epistemological complexity and self-sufficiency of the personality as a psychological condition for the … nelia bihun et al. 18 ambiguity, was made by bihun (2017). the researcher understands selfsufficiency as a continuous process of formation of qualitatively unique personality traits that ensure its ability to fully meet the development needs, maximize the release and use of internal potential, and its optimal use for successful adaptation and productive life. the author concludes that, despite the widespread use of the term “self-sufficiency”, the long history of philosophical, religious, scientific debates on the phenomenon of selfsufficiency, at the moment it remains insufficiently studied: there is an issue of justifying the concept of “self-sufficiency” as a scientific category in general and “self-sufficiency of the personality” in particular; there is no single theoretical approach to its understanding; the criteria and indicators of personality self-sufficiency development are not defined; factors, conditions, mechanisms, age features of its formation. we believe that self-sufficiency is closely related to the system of psychological self-regulation of the personality. self-sufficiency can be considered as a factor in the development of psychological self-regulation of the personality and as a regulatory-personal property in the manifestations of character traits: independence, autonomy, flexibility and responsibility in the content of individual system of self-regulation of arbitrary and conscious human activity. self-sufficiency is an indicator of independence in the implementation of regulatory processes, adequate emotional and motivational self-control in overcoming stressful situations or performing professional duties – depending on the autonomous goals, again due to the formed self-sufficiency. it can be predicted that with a low level of selfsufficiency, the self-regulatory system of deployment will have a low level of development. in the role of neurobiological mechanisms of self-sufficiency and self-regulation we can consider corpus amygdaloideum, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and frontal part of the lumbar cortex, which explain emotional stress resistance in situations that cause self-regulatory processes. in psychology, psychological self-regulation is understood as the basis for successful performance of work; arbitrary process aimed at managing behavior; integrative formation of goals, the ability to manage oneself, images of governing influences, meanings and values, personality traits and performance evaluation; self-management in the process of changing circumstances; arbitrary conscious activity, on the basis of which we consider self-sufficiency. bowers et al. (2015) consider self-regulation in adolescence and argue that self-regulation is a fundamental process ontogenetic to development and it encompasses much more than selfbroad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 19 control or skills. self-regulation is a process that can be of basic adaptive importance to human health. baumeister et al. (2007) believe that selfregulation is a very adaptive, distinctly human trait that allows people to dominate and change their reactions, including changing themselves to live up to social and other standards. neuropsychological methods, in particular systematic self-regulation exercises can lead to significant improvement in self-regulation (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; palamarchuk et al., 2020; sarancha et al., 2021). lovyagina (2020) notes that self-regulation is a person’s influence on oneself through words and images in order to control one’s activities, one’s mental state and the development of one’s properties, skills and abilities. at the same time, the functioning of an individual as a complex living system is ensured by three levels of regulation: humoral, nervous and mental. these levels form a single holistic system of self-regulation, in which mental selfregulation occupies a leading position. its main components are: reflection of the surrounding reality and the bearer of the psyche; modeling of activity, behavior, state, development, etc. the process of mental self-regulation is characterized by goals, means for their achievement and results. goals and results of mental self-regulation can be situational optimization of the current state and remote the formation of qualities and skills. obviously, the idea of scientific research on the phenomenon of self-regulation is borrowed by psychology from neuroscience, physiology, the theory of functional systems of the brain, etc. thus, anohin (1998) believed that the most characteristic of the process of self-regulation is that the deviation from the constant level of any function is a stimulus to return to the disturbed level. if we compare this formulation of how any system of mechanisms with automatic regulation is defined, we will see that the same regularity takes place. the researcher formulated a “golden rule of selfregulation”, according to which the deviation of the system from the final adaptive effect stimulates the internal regulatory system to return to this effect. the operational level of self-regulation is a regulatory manifestation of the development of stylistic features (planning goals, modeling conditions, programming, adjusting activity and its results). the second levels are subjective (or regulatory-personal) qualities: responsibility, persistence, flexibility, reliability, etc. their severity in humans depends on the degree of development of conscious self-regulation and the uniqueness of ways to achieve goals (as an individual acts). in fact, personal structures determine what goals (by content) a person puts forward, why one acts and self-sufficiency of the personality as a psychological condition for the … nelia bihun et al. 20 how one relates to the world around. it is the subjective traits that determine the ability to overcome difficulties and are the basis for the development of individual styles of self-regulation and the resource of individuality. conscious self-regulation can be considered as a process of initiation of arbitrary activity and its management (morosanova & bondarenko, 2015). important for revealing the theoretical and methodological foundations of self-sufficiency as a factor in the development of psychological self-regulation of personality are the provisions of personality traits as a meaningful component of conscious self-regulation of arbitrary human activity (morosanova & bondarenko, 2015); self-sufficiency as a regulator of the use of internal potential and its optimal use for successful adaptation and productive life (bihun, 2017; 2020); cognitive, emotionalevaluative, action-creative and spontaneous-spiritual components of the conceptual self and their cyclical complementarity, parameters and principles of self-realization of the spiritual self in the viticultural space of educational developmental interaction (humeniuk, 2004); about the components of the meaning-of-life sphere and values that perform the function of self-control in the self-regulatory processes, affect the formation and self-development of personality (furman, 2017), the typology of personality activity (abulhanova-slavskaya, 1985). under psychological self-regulation can be understood the process of development of self-sufficiency of the personality as the regulation of its activity in personal growth from “real self” to “ideal self”. in this case, selfesteem, value orientations, aspirations and “self-concept” can be considered as components of personal self-regulation. humeniuk (2004) argues that self-esteem as one of the central components of the self-concept with selfesteem, level of demands, self-acceptance performs a regulatory function. self-concept arises on the basis of the interaction of the personality with society, determines the current system of its self-perception and sets the moral and ethical boundaries of real behavior. thus, as the central formation of ontogenetic development, it characterizes not only the peculiarities of self-vision, but also a potential action, action living and creation of the nearest society and one’s own self. the self-concept participates in goal-setting, in the design of such goals that consciousness reconciles with the holistic self-image, which best corresponds to the integrity of the personality, its personal qualities and properties, including self-sufficiency. thus, self-sufficiency as a conscious internal resource can play a motivating role and inspiration in achieving broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 21 goals, the effect of behavior while maintaining optimal levels of self-esteem and maintaining healthy relationships with others. the self-image of the coherence of real-self and self-ideal as i – self-sufficient person to be successful, is the most important, in our opinion, factor and personal strategy for the development of psychological self-regulation. thus, selfsufficiency can be considered as a psychological mechanism of the phenomenon of self-regulation, as well as reflection, self-knowledge. in our opinion, the functional structure of psychological selfregulation of the personality is actualized through self-belief, self-suggestion, introspection, self-programming and self-control their switching according to significant needs, values, motives and priorities in choice, as well as the optimal level of development of the entire self-regulatory system depend on the mental and psychological characteristics of the subject of activity, one of the most important of which is self-sufficiency as a personal resource in achieving the expected results. its psychological conditions of manifestation and mechanisms of self-regulation are at the same time self-esteem, values, level of claims, self-concept, subjective level of control, motivation to succeed in important areas of life. in this regard, schwarzer (2015) also considers self-regulation, in particular the model of self-control in motivational, volitional and behavioral processes, in favor of self-acceptance and psychological support that strengthens human health. freund and hennecke (2015) state that goals are a key concept in self-regulatory models because they guide and direct cognition and behavior in time and in different situations and thus help to organize and structure perceptions, thinking and behavior they are related to goals of development, which requires optimization of functioning and productivity at a young age, as well as compensation in the later stages of adulthood. reed, combs, and segerstrom (2020) also investigated the relationship between self-regulation and psychological and physical health in the elderly. values represent the needs of a self-sufficient personality in mutual respect, self-understanding, self-acceptance and acceptance of others and are an important factor in the development of psychological self-regulation as the experience of their satisfaction and subjective self-realization in the selfdevelopment process in the context of motivational-value self-estimation and attitudes to the world. in this regard, furman (2017) considers the sphere of meaning, in particular values as the basis for personal development, which is improved in the individual way of life, based on a clear understanding of one’s own values and goals, priorities and values that harmonize its relationships with the environment in the semantic polyphony self-sufficiency of the personality as a psychological condition for the … nelia bihun et al. 22 of socio-cultural everyday life. understanding of life from axiologicalpsychological positions is an assessment of one’s own involvement in the surrounding reality, social-role activity, the level of self-realization, significant achievements that play the role of a significant accomplished event. value-oriented personality in the reflexive interpretation of one’s own claims tries to develop a personalized system of meanings, to understand the synergistic unity of the macrocosm and one’s own self as a universum. the optimal level of self-sufficiency as a criterion of selfdevelopment, self-determination, conscious subject activity and high-level self-regulation is another factor in the accumulation of creative potential of subjectivity, which “transforms” a personality into a subject of perception. at that self-sufficiency participates in self-regulation, determining activity through creativity as a vital realization of the values of self-actualization, selffulfillment and use of resource creativity and is an internal means and simultaneously resources of personal self-development, successful life construction and self-realization of a personality. thus, according to maksymenko (2015), personality is a complex self-developing system, i.e., it models and realizes its own genesis and has the following semantic (key) features: integrity, uniqueness, activity, expression, openness, selfdevelopment and self-regulation, which are complex and internally contradictory. the integrity of the personality specifically covers all structural and dynamic manifestations of human life. self-sufficiency of personality as a psychological condition for the development of its psychological self-regulation in the context of practical psychology we believe that self-sufficiency as a personal potential of psychological self-regulation can have a developmental effect in the following coping strategies: self-help (independent search for psychological support for oneself in critical life situations, planning); cooperation (organization of effective interaction with the social environment while preserving autonomy, independence); personal and professional growth (the presence of values of self-development, openness to new experiences, expanding the experience of professional competence, which provides an opportunity to show self-efficacy in overcoming unpredictable problems); autonomy as the ability to resist social pressure (critical thinking, independence, self-assessment according to personal standards); selfbroad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 23 acceptance (approval of one’s personal qualities with acceptance of negative ones, general positive attitude towards oneself and one’s past). creating an arsenal of methods for diagnosing personality selfsufficiency, development and implementation of programs to optimize its development on the basis of sound conceptual approach, with due regard to age and gender specifics are related to the selection of effective methods of psychological influence, possessing powerful psycho-developing potential – art therapy, in particular bibliotherapy, fairy tale therapy, film therapy, which is useful to supplement with the methods of rational and cognitive discussion, elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy. the universal nature of art therapy methods and the possibility of updating the constructive resource of deep personality substructures allow to solve a wide range of important psychological problems: allow the clients to clarify their own current needs and unfinished intrapersonal processes; help in understanding the images of internal subjective and external objective reality of the client, optimizing the relationships between them; use the resources of the irrational component of personality; to activate the natural potential of the personality for selfdevelopment and self-healing; to model the processes of the past, present and future in the internal picture of the client’s world in order to rethink them as a resource and experience; therapeutically work on the consequences of traumatic situations from the client’s life, avoiding retraumatization; to actualize the hidden potential of personal development, in order to achieve the highest possible level of functional integration of the personality, necessary for one’s successful adaptation and management of one’s life. functional integration is a combination of basic functions of personal self-regulation, designed to neutralize the destabilizing effects of the environment and use the resources of its positive factors. the basic functions of personal self-regulation include the function of self-attitude, the function of self-defense, the function of self-expression, the function of selfmanagement, the function of self-fulfillment. the higher the level of selfsufficiency, the more effective the system of personal self-regulation is. consequently, the ability to maintain personal balance and integrity in the process of interaction with the outside world in all its manifestations (social, environmental, political, cultural, etc.) is growing (bihun, 2020). in our opinion, deformations and imbalances of the self-regulatory system can be associated with the production of hypertrophied images of a world unfavorable to humans, distrust of others and high anxiety, which often integrates with biological causes of psychological development and requires neuro psycho-correction. therefore, in the neuro psycho-corrective self-sufficiency of the personality as a psychological condition for the … nelia bihun et al. 24 model it is possible to implement self-regulation of the individual as for the use of internal resources adequate to situation as a regulation of social contact through self-sufficiency in combination with neuropsychological methods. volkova offers the following methods and techniques to develop the functions of the mental self-regulation system: techniques of conscious control over the emotional components of the mental state, including breathing techniques (calming and toning effect, relaxation, psycho-muscular training or self-hypnosis, autogenic, meditative and free breathing); methods and techniques aimed at attentional, sensory-perceptual and mental characteristics of the state (method of systematic desensitization, management of mental state by switching attention, method of selfregulation using “anchoring” techniques, neutralization of experiences by visualization, etc.); motivational and volitional techniques (self-suggestion, self-programming, self-approval, self-help in acute stress, etc.) (volkova, 2014). to develop the optimal level of adult self-sufficiency as a personality-regulatory component of the system of psychological selfregulation, it is necessary to form a positive self-concept from childhood, positive attitudes of the child to oneself and the world, self-esteem and selfacceptance. in this regard, humeniuk (2004, p.163) notes that the fullfledged formation of a positive self-attitude (emotional and evaluative component) of the student as a personality and a participant in normativeregulatory and organizational activities on an updated set of modalities of self-attitudes (real-self, subconscious-self, normative-reflexive self, ideal-self) is possible under the following conditions: a) critical-regulatory technology of modular-developmental learning; b) motivational mechanism of action; c) systems of social, fully basic and partially value attitudes. the effective result of this period of the modular development process is the rationing of socially oriented educational activities and the acquisition of appropriate characteristics by the personality (morality, discipline, mutual respect, etc.). markus and nurius (1984), in turn, argue that the self-concept functions to mediate and regulate the stimuli provided by the environment. the self-concept is not the only psychological structure involved in behavior management, but it is central. researchers have studied the development of the self-concept in early childhood, focusing on both the content of the selfconcept – what children understand about themselves – and the functions of the self-concept – how it can control or regulate behavior. opelt and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 25 schwinger (2020) examine the relationship between personality traits and self-regulated learning strategies by examining the role of attentiveness, awareness, academic competence, self-esteem, and self-control in selfregulation. practical strategies to promote self-regulated learning through training and counseling are discussed. duckworth and carlson (2013) and michaelides & durkee (2021) also consider the positive association of selfregulation with academic achievement. peculiarities of psychological self-regulation under the influence of self-sufficiency as an important personality-regulatory property of conscious activity management may be due to the specifics of the situation social, related to personality self-development; educational, in terms of cognitive activity; critical, when frustrated subjectively significant needs and goals and the realization of motives and values accordingly become impossible. in the latter case, self-sufficiency as a personal resource can lead to the development of new or actualize successful coping strategies for managing difficult life situations with the elimination of internal conflicts and formation of new meanings in life. abulhanova-slavskaya (1985) considers the personality through the processes of self-regulation, which ensures its functioning through activity, eliminates contradictions and is the coordinator of multimodal personal qualities. thus, a sign of loss of autonomy by the personality is the nature of initiatives, which manifest themselves in the form of striving for publicity and originality. the desire to express oneself turns into an inability to fulfill one’s plan on one’s own. instead, maintaining autonomy manifests itself in the opposite trend: that responsibility can expand the space of activity by introducing new criteria and levels of complexity. willingness to responsibly implement the plan in case of loss of independence leads to loss of autonomy at the stage of responsible implementation. social stimulation of social activity can be more effectively organized taking into account the psychological knowledge of initiative and responsibility as important personality traits and ways of performing activities. thus, sassenberg and hamstra (2017) presented a model of self-regulation of leadership behavior, considered the impact of motivation on leader behavior and social influence processes that underlie a successful leadership. high-level self-sufficiency can be seen as an autonomous mechanism and an adaptive way of social regulation of a person with a spiritually rich inner world, even in extreme cases of ignoring the person by people around, loneliness and isolation from others. a self-sufficient personality has the best internal resource, as he / she is able to psychologically support oneself self-sufficiency of the personality as a psychological condition for the … nelia bihun et al. 26 with the appropriate level of self-understanding, self-acceptance, self-esteem, self-interest, receiving it from the parental family and in the process of selfdevelopment. for the development of personal growth and the development of self-sufficiency as a personal potential for effective psychological selfregulation, we offer socio-psychological training. conclusion a self-sufficient personality is able to successfully apply the methods of psychological self-regulation in accordance with the requirements of social reality. proceeding from the analysis of the structure of self-sufficiency as a phenomenon of developmental psychology, it can be argued that selfunderstanding and self-acceptance, ensuring self-efficacy and autonomy of behavior, especially in difficult life situations, is a factor in optimizing internal resources, which, undeniably, provides personal self-regulation in the process of its successful adaptation to environmental requirements. moreover, self-sufficiency as a set of personality-regulatory properties and qualities of human individuality that ensure its ability to fully meet the needs of development, use of internal potential for productive life, has ample opportunities for individualization, sovereignty, subjectivity in sociocultural and activity self-regulation as a criterion of adaptive interaction with the social environment. the functional structure of psychological self-regulation of the personality is actualized through self-belief, self-suggestion, self-analysis, self-programming and self-control – their switching according to significant needs, values, motives and priorities in choice, as well as the optimal level of development of the whole self-regulatory system depend on the mental and psychological characteristics of the subject of activity, one of the most important of which is self-sufficiency as personal resourcefulness in achieving the expected results in activities and arbitrary regulation of activity in behavior. its psychological conditions of manifestation and mechanisms of self-regulation are at the same time self-esteem, values, the level of claims, self-concept, subjective level of control, motivation to succeed in important areas of life. self-sufficiency can be seen as an autonomous mechanism of social regulation, even in the extreme cases of ignoring the person by others, loneliness and isolation. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 27 references abulhanova-slavskaya, k. a. (1985). tipologiya aktivnosti lichnosti [typology of personality activity]. psihologicheskiy zhurnal, 6(5), 318.http://socio.karazin.ua/resources/bfd962725e48863957323bdcb4e2a65 a.pdf anohin, p. k. (1998). izbrannyie trudyi: kibernetika funktsionalnyih sistem [selected works: cybernetics of functional systems.]. meditsina. baumeister, r., gailliot, m. c., wall, n. d., & oaten, m. (2007). self-regulation and personality: how interventions increase regulatory success, and how depletion moderates the effects of traits on behavior. journal of personality, 74(6), 1773-1801. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2006.00428.x bihun, n. (2017). heneza ta stan katehorii samodostatnosti v suchasnii psykholohii [genesis and state of the category of self-sufficiency in modern psychology]. humanitarium, 39(1), 7 – 14. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/gvpdpu_2017_39_1_3 bihun, n. (2020). vykorystannia tekhnik artterapii u rozvytku samodostatnosti osobystosti [the use of art therapy techniques in the development of personal self-sufficiency]. in t. а. tkachuk, n. о. bocharina (eds), psychopedagogical assistance of the person by means of arttherapy (pp.97 – 114). dombrovska publishing house. bowers, e. p., geldhof, g. j., chase, p. a., lerner, r. m., gestsdóttir, s., & urban, j. b. (2015). self-regulation during adolescence: variations associated with individual ↔ context relations. in j. d. wright (ed.), international encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (second edition) (pp. 547-552). https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.23024-9 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 duckworth, a. l., & carlson, s. m. (2013). self-regulation and school success. in b. w. sokol, f. m. e. grouzet, & u. müller (eds.), self-regulation and autonomy: social and developmental dimensions of human conduct, (pp. 208-230). cambridge university press. freund, a. m., & hennecke, m. (2015). self-regulation in adulthood. in j. d. wright (ed.), international encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (second edition) (pp. 557-562). elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08097086-8.26061-3 http://socio.karazin.ua/resources/bfd962725e48863957323bdcb4e2a65a.pdf http://socio.karazin.ua/resources/bfd962725e48863957323bdcb4e2a65a.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2006.00428.x http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=gvpdpu_2017_39_1_3 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.23024-9 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.26061-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.26061-3 self-sufficiency of the personality as a psychological condition for the … nelia bihun et al. 28 furman, a. a. (2017). psykholohiia smyslozhyttievoho rozvytku osobystosti [psychology of meaningful life development of personality]. ternopil national economic university. humeniuk, o. ye. (2004). psykholohiia ya-kontseptsii [psychology of self-concept] ekonomichna dumka. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lovyagina, a. e. (2020). teoriya i metodyi psihicheskoy samoregulyatsii [theory and methods of mental self-regulation]. skifiya-print. maksymenko, s. d. (2015). modusy rozuminnia osobystosti v psykholohii: buttieve i dukhovne, tsilisnist i samorukh [modes of understanding the individual in psychology: existential and spiritual, integrity and self-movement]. in s. d.maksymenko, v. l. zlyvkova, & s. b. kuzikova (eds.), osobystist u rozvytku: psykholohichna teoriia i praktyka: monohrafiia (pp. 9 – 16). sumy: publishing house of sumy state pedagogical university named after as makarenko. markus, h. j., & nurius, p. s. (1984). self-understanding and self-regulation in middle childhood. in w. a. collins (ed.), development during middle childhood: the years from six to twelve (pp. 147–183). national academies press. michaelides, m. p., & durkee, p. (2021). self-regulation versus self-discipline in predicting achievement: a replication study with secondary data. frontiers in education, 6, 724711. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.72471 morosanova, v. i., & bondarenko, i. n. (2015). diagnostika samoregulyatsii [selfregulation diagnostics]. kogitotsentr. opelt, f., & schwinger, m. (2020). relationships between narrow personality traits and self-regulated learning strategies: exploring the role of mindfulness, contingent self-esteem, and self-control. aera open, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420949499 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.72471 https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420949499 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 29 reed, r. g., combs, h. l., & segerstrom, s. c. (2020). the structure of selfregulation and its psychological and physical health correlates in older adults. psychology, 6(1), 23. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.297 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 sassenberg, k., & hamstra, m. r. w. (2017). the intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics of self-regulation in the leadership process. advances in experimental social psychology, 55, 193-257. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2016.08.001 schwarzer, r. (2015). health self-regulation, motivational and volitional aspects of. international encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences, 10, 710–715. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.26031-5 volkova. t. g. (2014). psihologiya samoregulyatsii [the psychology of self-regulation. barnaul]. altai university publishing house. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.297 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2016.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.26031-5 microsoft word brain_2_1.doc 77 zusammenfassungen auf deutsch brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience gehirn. breitenforschung in der künstlichen intelligenz und den neurowissenschaften issn 2067-3957 band 2, heft 1 januar 2011 www.brain.edusoft.ro chefredakteur: bogdan pătruţ 1. word-listen-recall bei jugendlichen und älteren erwachsenen parvaneh khosravizadeh, sogol gerami zusammenfassung ein wort-listen-recall ist ein gedächtnis-experiment, das den alters-effekt bei gedächtnis-veränderungen überprüft. die fähigkeit, sprache zu verstehen oder zu gebrauchen, hängt mehr oder weniger von der gedächtnis-kapazität ab. jeder mensch ist zu wissen imstande, was er ausdrücken will, wäre aber unfähig, dies zu tun, wenn ihm sein gedächtnis dabei nicht helfen könnte. wir gebrauchen bestimmte formen des gedächtnisses in vielen hinsichten der sprachverarbeitung. was auch immer wir in unserem kopf haben, ist dort abgelegt, sei es für sekunden, sei es für stunden oder gar jahre. über das kurzzeit-gedächtnis kann ein mensch unterschiedliche dinge erinnern: nur für eine zeitspanne von sekunden oder auch minuten. durch wiederholendes aufzählen kann die dauer und die speichermenge ansteigen. dadurch wird das kurzzeit-gedächtnis ins langzeit-gedächtnis überführt. dieses recall-experiment, das die anzahl der gemerkten wörter unterschiedlicher altersgruppen überprüft, nachdem eine wortliste präsentiert worden ist, zeigt, dass, je jünger jemand ist, desto mehr wörter gemerkt werden können. das experiment zeigt auch, dass semantisch assoziierbare wörter eine größere chance haben gemerkt zu werden, wenn sie vergleichbar sind mit nicht-assoziierbaren wörtern. 2. händigkeit und hirn-lateralisierung parvaneh khosravizadeh, shohreh teimournezhad zusammenfassung die vorgestellte studie ist eine übersicht von schlüssel-konzepten in relation zur natur der händigkeit und, in verbindung damit, des phänomens der hirn-lateralisierung. dazu wurde eine bestimmte anzahl von artikeln durchgesehen, und es wurden kritische konzepte wie händigkeit und ihre haupt-charakteristika, die theoretischen grundlagen für dieses phänomen, die natur und die funktionen der lateralisierung sowie die beziehung zwischen diesen beiden konzepten beleuchtet, um sie besser verstehen zu können. schließlich wurden die generellen unterschiede zwischen linksund rechtshändern in betracht gezogen. 3. der effekt von umformulierung vs. selbst-korrektur auf die schreibgenauigkeit: die rolle der aufmerksamkeit parviz maftoon, masoumeh ahmadi shirazi, parisa daftarifard zusammenfassung studien über die erleichternde rolle von korrekturen bei den verschiedenen formen der umformulierung, wiederholung, bestätigung, zusammenfassung (resumee-bildung) oder klarstellung gibt es viele (ellis, 2003). unter diesen studien hat sich die umformulierende brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2010, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 78 wiederdurcharbeitung als der häufigste typ der fehler-korrektur im klassenzimmer erwiesen [30] [32]; jedoch lässt die fehler-korrektur oder -elizitierung die studierenden eher auslassungen machen als umformulierungen. um unterschiede aufzuzeigen, wurden zwei methoden der umformulierung und selbst-korrektur von studierenden verwendet, um zu sehen, ob es da irgendeinen unterschied zwischen den beiden methoden gäbe, was die schreibgenauigkeit der studierenden beim gebrauch der vergangenheitsform beträfe. das ergebnis dieser studie zeigte keinen signifikanten unterschied zwischen den beiden korrektur-methoden, obwohl die studierenden sich nach dem verfahren verbessert hatten. jedoch übertraf die selbst-korrektur die umformulierung, und die umformulierungsmethode verbesserte in einem post-test nicht die genauigkeit der studierenden. 4. die meinung der lerner über einen fähigen lehrer: der fall eines iranischen kontexts amin shahini, parisa daftarifard zusammenfassung der einfluss, den lehrer auf die leistungen der lerner haben, ist unbezweifelbar. die meinungen und betrachtungsweisen der lerner werden auch als bestimmende faktoren bei ihren akademischen leistungen angesehen. 60 studenten der university of tehran’s center for extra curricular activities nahmen an dieser studie teil. wie die teilnehmer der studie ihre lehrer unter verschiedenen aspekten (der persönlichkeit des lehrers, seiner tüchtigkeit, seiner lehrfertigkeiten) wahrnahmen, wurde untersucht. die ergebnisse zeigten, dass die lehrfertigkeiten von den lernern als das bedeutendste charakteristikum eines lehrers angesehen wurde. tüchtigkeit und persönlichkeit eines lehrers rangierten an zweiter beziehungsweise an dritter stelle. die ergebnisse dieser studie hatten gewisse implikationen für lehrer und die lehrer-ausbildung. 5. die schaffung virtueller communities mittels schwarm-intelligenz lucian hâncu zusammenfassung über jahrhunderte ist die beobachtung des verhaltens wildlebender arten immer faszinierend und voller geheimnisse gewesen. menschliche interaktionen zu modellieren basierte auf den erkenntnissen über die verhaltensweisen in der wildnis, und dies führt zu innovativen lösungen, wirft aber auch unerwartete fragen auf. in diesem aufsatz beschreiben wir unseren ansatz, wie communities virtueller einheiten mittels schwarm-intelligenz geschaffen werden könnten. wir diskutieren den algorithmus der schaffung virtueller communities zusammen mit den fragen, die bei business entities als individuen des schwarms auftauchen. 6. die representation mentaler räume und dynamiken in der semantik natürlicher sprachen ramin golshaie zusammenfassung systeme zu schaffen von der robustheit der menschlichen fähigkeiten des logischen denkens erfordern anregungen von den kognitiven wissenschaften. das hauptthema dieser studie ist es, wenn möglich, die darstellung einiger hauptprinzipien kognitiver semantiken der theorie des mentalen raumes (wie konstruktion der domäne, realitätsstatus von domänen und deren elementen sowie mentale einstellungen) als konzept einer wissensrepräsentation zu untersuchen, mit dem ziel, kognitiv plausible wissensrepräsentations-systeme zu entwickeln. das als repräsentationengrundlage verwendete modell ist die weitergeführte version konventioneller semantischer netzwerke, nämlich der multi-layered extended semantic networks (multinet). die in dieser studie verwendeten daten wurden aus englischen wendungen gewonnen und repräsentiert in mwr, der software zur wissensrepräsentation in multinet. die gewonnenen ergebnisse der analysierten repräsentationsdaten und ihr vergleich mit den prinzipien der theorie mentaler räume zeigt, dass theoretische konstrukte der theorie mentaler räume (wie die domänenkonszusammenfassungen auf deutsch 79 truktion, der realitätsstatus der domänen und deren elementen sowie mentale einstellungen) formal repräsentiert werden können im multinet-konzept. 7. dreiecksnormen, dreiecks-ko-normen und einige verwandte konzepte angel garrido zusammenfassung mathematisch betrachtet, ist eine dreiecksnorm eine art binärer operation, die oft im kontext probabilistischer metrischer räume gebraucht wird, aber auch auf anderen interessanten gebieten wie der fuzzy logic oder allgemein der multi-valued logic (mvl). die t-ko-norm oder s-norm ist ein duales konzept. beide ideen erlauben es uns, schnittpunkt und vereinigung in einer kette oder einem gitter zu generalisieren bzw. disjunktion und konjunktion in der logik. ebenfalls interessant ist die einführung einer besonderen klasse realer monotoner operationen. wir beziehen uns auf die sogenannten kopulas, sehr nützlich auf verschiedenen gebieten. auf diese weise bieten wir eine verständliche analyse all dieser aggregations-operatoren. 8. eine übersicht über komplexe netzwerke angel garrido zusammenfassung unser ziel bei diesem artikel kann ganz klar und eindeutig dargelegt werden: zu zeigen, wie aktuell doch viele spezifische aspekte so zahlreicher aktiver themen der forschung sind. bei dieser zielsetzung müssen wir einige relevante charakteristika analysieren, die ganz solide auf der graphentheorie (der modernen theorie der graphen und der komplexen netzwerke) basieren. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 59-74 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/406 submitted: october 3rd, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 14th, 2022 methodological tools for carrying out psychological training tamara kryvonis1, olha artemova2, kseniia androsovych3, maryna zaushnikova4, iryna agapova5, valentina kutishenko6 1 ds, associate professor, department of psychiatry, addiction medicine, general and medical psychology, faculty of postgraduate education natoinal pirogov memorial medical university, ukraine, tamarakr@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6060-7152 2 candidate of pedagogical sciences. associate professor department of general psychology and psychological diagnostics, rivne state university of the humanities, ukraine, artemova-112@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0937-6920 3 candidate of psychological sciences, senior researcher, docent, head of the department of psychology, international scientific and technical university named after academic yuri bugay, ukraine, ksn@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4121-270x 4 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of the department psychology, pedagogy and sociology, state tax university, marinazaushnikova@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9308-3559 5 phd in psychology, senior lecturer of department psychology, privat higher educational institution "dnipro humanitarian university", agapova.prof@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3558-7564 6 candidate of psychological sciences, docent, associate professor of department personality psychology and social practices, faculty of psychology, social work and special education, borys grinchenko kyiv university, ukraine, v.kutishenko@kubg.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5597-705x abstract: in article theoretical, methodological and methodical bases of carrying out of psychological training are reflected; essence of psychocorrectional technique as training technology is opened. the psychological and technological approach to the methodological means of psychological training as a technology of impact on learning and personal development of the participants of training and correction to change their behavior is carried out. the psychological conditions of the use of methodological tools in psychological training are indicated. on the basis of the theoretical and methodological analysis the methodological tools are divided into basic blocks: educational-informational, psychological, simulation and role-playing. the stages of creating a self-efficient team are suggested. the main task of the trainer is to understand individual psychological features of clients and to choose the most adequate methodological means of training in order to change behavior or personal development in the necessary and used training technologies. depending on the paradigm and purpose of psychological training, partner (democratic) and authoritarian (centrally managed) means of its carrying out are distinguished. the trainer's perceptions of the expectations and needs of the customers (training participants) and their capabilities are directly related to the design and selection of methodological tools for psychological training and to individual effectiveness and development accordingly to the technological concept of training. the training technologies represent a creative resource for the training activity of a psychologist. the effectiveness of training depends on the technological concept of training, methodological principles and rules, taking into account the individual approach, the specificity of the problems of training in accordance with its main goals and objectives, the personal and professional competence of the trainer and partnership relations of the active group-team. keywords: psychocorrection; technology; methodological principles and requirements; clients; training; personal development; methods and techniques. how to cite: kryvonis, t., artemova, o., androsovych, k., zaushnikova, m., agapova, i., & kutishenko, v. (2023). methodological tools for carrying out psychological training. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 59-74. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/406 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/406 mailto:tamarakr@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6060-7152 mailto:artemova-112@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0937-6920 mailto:ksn@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4121-270x mailto:marinazaushnikova@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9308-3559 mailto:agapova.prof@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3558-7564 mailto:v.kutishenko@kubg.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5597-705x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/406 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 60 introduction in practical psychology the problem of innovative approaches to updating the methodological foundations of the training activity of practitioners occupies a special place. the problem of theoreticalmethodological and methodological foundations of psychological training became actual due to the fact that group work is vital for achievement of educational and correctional-developmental goals as an effective psychological technology. psychological trainings accelerate the processes of self-knowledge, self-acceptance and effective resolution of psychological problems; promote activation of psychological mechanisms of perception, reflection and identification; form leadership teams on the basis of partnership and democratic principles; influence the personal development of clients. the purpose of the article is to analyze the methodological means of psychological training. scientific novelty lies in the fact that the article considers the types of methodological means of psychological training on the structural, content and organizational components on the basis of psychological and technological approach to the problem of psychological training; on the basis of theoretical and methodological analysis methodological means are divided into basic blocks: educationalinformational, psychological proper, simulation-role; proposed stages of creating a self-efficient team; depending on the paradigm and purpose of psychological training, partnership (democratic) and authoritarian (centrally administered) means of carrying it out. practical significance of article consists that the psychological and technological approach to methodical means of carrying out of psychological training as technology of influence on training and personal development of participants of training and correction concerning change of their behavior is carried out; essence of psychocorrective technique as a training technology is opened. the analytical-generalizing analysis of psychological training methodological tools can be used in psychotherapeutic, psychocorrective and applied psychological practice as a diagnostic and developmental psychological tool of group work and a creative resource of the psychologist's training activity. methodological tools for carrying out psychological training tamara kryvonis, et al. 61 theoretical, methodological and methodological foundations of psychological training the history of the development of training goes back several thousand years, from shamanic practices when group methods were used for healing. the term training (from english train, training) means education, training, upbringing, preparation. in practical psychology and applied psychological branches, training is mainly understood as obtaining knowledge, skills and abilities in the process of active group training through an exchange of experience between participants in a practical session (psychological training) and practical management of the information provided by the group and its leader (psychologist) in the training offered by the specialist. exercises with the purpose of potential implementation of knowledge in life practice and development of the ability to learn. in the 1970s, m. forwerg developed an effective method social psychological training. the content of psychological training is much wider than training of communication and communicative interaction, however conceptual categories of social psychology communication and communication are the basic basis of any psychological training as necessary social and psychological aspects of variously classified training groups. undoubtedly, obtaining not only cognitive and social experiences, but also emotional ones is an integral component of every training practice. today the term "training" is used to refer to a wide range of techniques based on different theoretical principles. there is no single classification of the concept. there are: trainings aimed at the development of self-regulation skills; communicative trainings; training approaches that stimulate personal growth; and training trainings. training is a set of psychotherapeutic, psychocorrective and training methods aimed at developing skills of self-knowledge and self-regulation, communication and interpersonal interaction, communicative and professional skills. in domestic psychology there is a common definition of training as one of the active methods of training or socio-psychological impact, maksymenko (2015, 11). donelson (2010) also confirm with the results of the study that positive changes in human behavior, social attitudes, actions, values and beliefs are often the result of group processes. the basic training schools emerged on the basis of the leading directions of world psychological science psychoanalysis, behaviorism, gestalt psychology, existential-humanistic psychology or as a result of the integration of the work of different theoretical approaches. in some trainings, it is possible to trace signs of eclecticism an inorganic, from time broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 62 to time and uncritical combination of diverse principles, views, theories and methods. nowadays trainings are very popular in the west. however, in ukraine the process of dissemination of training methods among the population has not yet acquired such a scope and moves quite slowly. however, both in the west and in ukraine there is a large variety of training schools (karpenko, 2015). the methodology and methodology of psychological training is successfully supplemented by conceptual provisions on training as a set of psychocorrective methods, as well as on the methodological means of psychological training (maksymenko et al., 2015); methodological approaches in psychological practice (panok, 2017); psychological training as a way to develop self-awareness; method of psychotherapy, practical psychology and psychocorrection; classification and basic types of training groups taking into account the use of methods of one or another psychological approach in group work (vachkov, 1999); approaches, principles and methods of psychological training (rensh & lopez, 2016); theoretical analysis of forms and methods of psychocorrective work, which has practical value for conducting trainings, taking into account the specific conditions and requirements of the group situation (afanasyeva & perelyhina, 2016), examples of various models of training work (milyutina, 2004); phenomenological approach to psychocorrection (yatsenko, 2006), theory and practice of group psychotherapy (salvendy, 1991), new and significant innovations in group therapy, self-help groups and online meeting groups for mentally healthy people (yalom & leszcz, 2020), remote group management in relation to pandemics (gans, 2021). psychological practice (carrying out psychological training) is a form of social and spiritual practice of a person (the subject of psychological practice) aimed at making changes in the behavior and inner world of another person (the object of psychological practice), his attitude, intentions, worldview, individual development and social connections, preservation and improvement of his individuality. the worldview bases on which psychological practice is based are scientific psychology, outside scientific psychology and life (everyday) psychology. the basis of psychological practice on a scientific basis is the scientific methodology, scientific laws and regularities, the reliability of which is convincingly proven. outside-science practice is based on uncritical acceptance of certain notions, on belief. for example, there are "sciences" that unreasonably claim that there are fields or flows of energies that can radiate from the human brain, hence influence the behavior or thoughts of another person, the passing of thoughts over significant distances, etc. aspects of religious and mythological practices life methodological tools for carrying out psychological training tamara kryvonis, et al. 63 experiences are often and amazing combination of individual fragments of scientific knowledge, mystical notions and beliefs and common sense can also be included in this category of psychological practice. determining the methodological foundations of psychological practice and the criteria for selecting adequate practices involves a specific professional activity the transformation of theories, methods and techniques of scientific, outsidescience and everyday psychological practices into specific technologies for the practical activities of the practicing psychologist (panok, 2017). we believe that the professional specialist (psychologist) uses scientifically grounded methods with the possibility of statistical verification and experimental testing (as applied to training, quantitative proof of their effectiveness is done mostly by foreign researchers) and methods based on everyday practice and mythological methods give positive practical results or are adequately combined with scientific methods in the process of psychological training. psychological practice can be carried out through group and individual forms of interaction in the course of psychological training when the psychologist in the group carries out consulting and corrective work with the client who has very painful experiences due to a situation that is subjectively significant for him or her. in this case, the group is not only an observer, but first of all, support by helping to normalize the client's mental state in psychodramatic scenarios, role-playing games, psychotechniques of reflection or discussion of significant themes and giving the client the opportunity to reflect on his or her behavior. features of use of methodical techniques in carrying out individual-group work depend on presence of internal resources of the client, complexity of a significant problem, the purposes and tasks of training subordinated to a certain type of training work (sarancha et al., 2022; sarancha et al., 2021). accordingly, psychological training is primarily a service provided to clients by psychological support centers and psychological services of virtually all social institutions. consequently, psychological services must meet the needs of clients in accordance with their expectations. in this connection, we consider a significant criterion of effectiveness of psychological training to be its capabilities and advantages. possibilities: gaining new knowledge; gaining new skills and behavior patterns; gaining faith in oneself; during training there is an opportunity to learn a lot about people and the world in general; to get to know and understand oneself better. advantages: active method; during the training no one teaches you how to live; doing a variety of exercises, participants themselves identify how they can perceive themselves and life around them broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 64 differently, how to change their own behavior to achieve the desired results; "no more past and no more future" on the principle of training "here and now" (maksymenko et al., 2015, 59). generally accepted methodological requirements for training are: the model of psychological training should contain the following structural components: the purpose of training, the main objectives of training work, the principles of the training group, the main stages of training (introduction, the main part, the final stage), feedback. optimal number of the group 8-12 people, by voluntary inclusion in the group process and not including close relatives and friends. there are many classifications of psychotherapeutic or psychologically corrective training groups accordingly to the purposes and methodological bases of the psychological approach. intrapsychic groups (problems and destructive behavior are a consequence of inadequate selfawareness, i.e. inadequate interpretation of one's emotions, needs, desires, etc.) include psychosynthesis and art therapy groups. groups focused on behavioral therapy (a person's behavior is acquired, it can be replaced by adequate behavior) include t-groups, body and dance therapy groups, skill training groups and cbt groups, psychodrama groups. the methods of work of these groups provide a solution to a problem. the main goal of gestalt therapy is to unlock self-awareness and help the person to reach maturity, that is, to be able to find sources of support within themselves. to do this, a person must go through several stages of self-awareness development from the first level the "cliché" to the last the "outer explosion" the manifestation of the true self. self-awareness development trainings make use of the rich theoretical and practical experience of gestalt therapy to awaken the spontaneity of participants, their creative potentials, the ability to be themselves, acceptance of their personality, and the discovery of the self not only for themselves, but also for others (vachkov, 1999). in training the development of self-awareness (vachkov, 1999) identifies the following basic training methods: group discussion (used as a way of group reflection of a problem through the analysis of individual experiences); game method (situational-role playing, didactic, creative, organizational-activational, simulation and business games); methods aimed at developing social perception (participants receive verbal and non-verbal information about how they are perceived by others); body-oriented methods (work with the body); meditation-visualizations (connected with visualization and visualization of the objects). in five-day training, meditations-visualizations are done daily, and in long trainings (12-15 days) methodological tools for carrying out psychological training tamara kryvonis, et al. 65 they are done twice a day to eliminate fatigue, physical and mental tension and stress reactions. specific features of trainings which are shown in all kinds are observance of certain principles of group work; rules of group work are based on principles and are called upon to regulate the work of concrete group; orientation on psychological aid to participants of group in selfdevelopment thus such aid often comes not so much from the trainer, but from participants; presence of more or less constant group which can gather with different intervals in approximately identical structure; a certain spatial organization (work in a group); emphasis on mutual relations between participants of group which develop and are analyzed in a situation "here and now"; application of active methods of group work; objectification of subjective feelings and emotions by participants of training concerning each other or occurring in group; an atmosphere of liberation and freedom of dialogue between participants, a climate of psychological safety (karpenko, 2015). depending on a paradigm which the trainer follows, and the purpose of training, there are means of its carrying out (authoritarian and democratic) and on orientation (educational and personal). to authoritarian means on educational orientation concern trainings of concrete skills and abilities and personal orientation gestalt groups, assertiveness training, psychodrama. democratic means to the educational orientation include team trainings and to the personal orientation mutual support groups, meeting groups, sensitivity training, milyutina (2004, 5). we consider types of methodological means of psychological training according to structural-constructive and dynamic-organizational components. we believe that the basis of democratic means is partnership relations, on which the concept of teambuilding trainings is based. authoritarian means of carrying out of psychological training are centrally administrative, as have accurately defined structure concerning educational purposes and problems of training work, purposeful on achievement of algorithms of actions of group, subject to the control of performance of group requirements by the head of group. on the basis of the theoretical and methodological analysis of psychological training we have grouped the methodological means of its conducting into the following basic blocks: educational-informational (minilectures, humor, metaphors, parables, fairy tales, art-therapeutic images and drawings, etc.), psychological proper ("warming up" exercises, perceptual exercises, feedback as a set of methodological techniques and methods of studying possibilities, techniques of psychological influence and team building, training exercises on communicative interaction between people broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 66 and groups of people. the offered classification of methodical means of training is not exhaustive, however their basic blocks described are characteristic for all kinds of psychological training and each of them is a demanded element of training work according to the purposes and tasks of training. the main thing in training work is professionally competent management of the group (the first stage of the main part of the training), creation of a self-efficient team (the second stage of the main part of the training) and partner cooperation throughout the training (the subsequent part of the training, when the team starts working for themselves and until the end of the training). in partner cooperation throughout the training "academic" level of any methodical tool will not be effective if it is not used taking into account certain methodological requirements and rules, individual approach to clients, complexity of topics practically worked out by the group, specifics of training according to the main goal and objectives. nevertheless, the basic methodological principle of use of methodological tools in the psychologist's "hands" is the principle "do no harm". identification of "left-handed", well structuring and transmitting information, and "right-handed", intuitively creating new information mainly in imaginary images, by diagnostic exercises in the process of training, allows effective training exercises and role and business games, in which there is a group demand for creative problem solving or generation of intellectual ideas. in this sense, training is a mini-model of "firm", in which due to the abilities of the leader "subordinates" (i.e. participants of training) do their work in the best way for some scrupulously, to the extent of personal anxiety, creatively due to high sensitivity, for others logically due to organizational abilities. every competent coach is known to be quite quick to distinguish between people by such traits as experience, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, aesthetic proclivities, and self-understanding. their common goal is to develop effective stress-resistance strategies in a joint project from the available methodological tools. subjective activity of participants of training acts as a self-regulating factor of effective implementation of methodical means of training in joint work. the task of the trainer is to understand individual psychological features of clients and to choose the most adequate methodical means of training for the purpose of change of behavior or personal development in the necessary and timely used training technologies. the technological concept of training is the idea of training, which sets the vectors of development and serves as a model of a certain activity and a system of storage of technologies received at the training. therefore methodological tools for carrying out psychological training tamara kryvonis, et al. 67 the optimal sequence of creation of a training is considered the following: first the concept (system) is developed, then client technologies (what the trainer transfers to participants), then technologies of the trainer (how he will do it). it can be called a "graphic concept" of training and is represented as four vectors coming out of one point. there is what customers want and what they really need. these two factors may coincide or not. about the trainer, there is another dilemma. sometimes he wants to create training on the topic, but can do it? sometimes he can, but doesn't want to. these four factors are what determines the prospective direction of the coaching creation effort (rensh & lopez, 2016, 53). the trainer's perceptions of the expectations and needs of the customers (training participants) and their capabilities are directly related to the design and selection of methodological means of conducting psychological training and to individual effectiveness and development. methodical means of carrying out psychological training are effective under condition of their competent and adequate use by the trainer with observance of many methodical requirements: objectivity, scientificity, communicative interaction, partnership, self-efficacy of the trainerpsychologist. thus, k. l. milyutina (2004) allocates self-training of the trainer as psychological maintenance of conditions of efficiency of training. for this purpose the psychologist has suggested the exercise "metaphors", which should be performed by the trainer during a lunch break after the first hours of training if there is a feeling that the group process is not effective enough. in this regard, the trainer should answer the following questions for himself/herself: what is the main message of my workshop and who did i work as in the group (shepherd, trouble hanger, caretaker, watchman, etc.) and what can i call the group (special forces, herd, swamp, etc.) connect these two images of the group and myself; how would i like to work?; what does the group want from me?; what mythical hero do participants look like; what do i create in the group: comedy, tragedy, epic?; what can i do tomorrow, at the next training? today, an innovative style of training is coaching as a leadership technology that guarantees positive changes for clients, improving the characteristics of their performance. group coaching processes are being actively researched by foreign specialists. coaching can be used as a systematic and scalable tool for empowerment, culture and development in organizations (drake & pritchard, 2017). thus, lai & palmer (2019) investigated current issues in executive coaching research, identified the main approaches to executive coaching, influential interpersonal skills that improve organizational learning and development process. according to the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 68 authors, coaching is widely used in areas related to leadership development. at the same time, there is a lack of technological expertise in activating the reflective process that helps professional trainers ensure the quality of their practice and organizational support in the group. a phenomenological study of leadership development and management skills training programs was conducted by spencer (2011). the results of the study serve to inform coaching practice that the combination of training and coaching has significant potential, the tools and values of both can work synergistically to promote more effective training program design and improve collaboration. beets & suki (2012) investigated some aspects of the effectiveness of a coaching training program and the extent to which the knowledge and skills acquired in implementing the program are applied in a practical setting. training is a technology of psychological influence on the personality, carried out in unity and sequence of processes of training, correction and development. common is that training, correction and development is a certain type of activity; special all these types of activity differ from each other; singular each type of activity is shown individually in relation to each participant of training, has an individual psychological impact on him/her. the single group process includes three levels cognitive (receipt of information); emotional (experience of emotions); conative (change, expansion of behavioral reactions). training, correction and development should be carried out in the process of training in unity and consistency, only then you can achieve effective results, makarov (2013). mcmahon & rodillas (2020) also investigated the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic personal development groups during training to promote both personal and professional growth. psychocorrectional techniques in psychological training as a technology in training, realization of psychologically corrective goals is the most demanded and significant task for psychological practice and expectations of the group. in psychology (maksymenko, 2015; osipova, 2002), psychocorrection is a system of measures aimed at correcting defects in psychological development or a person's behavior by means of special measures of psychological influence. psychocorrection is focused on the clinically healthy person, on discrete (specific manifestations of psychological reality emotional states, values, desires, character traits, etc.) characteristics of the internal world of a person regardless of the degree of their violation, on the present and future of clients, psychocorrection methodological tools for carrying out psychological training tamara kryvonis, et al. 69 interventions are aimed at changing behavior and personal development and usually medium-term help (1 to 3 months 40-45 meetings maximum). the purpose and tasks of group psychological correction are defined as disclosure, anamnesis, comprehension and working through the client's problems, intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts and correction of inadequate attitudes, installations, emotional, behavioral stereotypes on the basis of anamnesis and use of interpersonal interaction. group psychologically corrective tasks focus on the three components of selfperception: self-understanding (the cognitive aspect), attitudes toward oneself (the emotional aspect) and self-regulation (the behavioral aspect). the presence of twelve participants in a group is considered optimum. such number gives the chance of free interaction of participants among themselves; besides, it has organizational advantages twelve is divided into two, three, four, which allows creation of various subgroups. the latter aspect seems extremely important as for many exercises demanding work in twos, threes and fours, the leader can face a problem of a shortage of people in subgroups. the frequency of group meetings can vary from 1 to 5 per week. the optimal duration of a group meeting is 1.5-2 hours (maksymenko et al., 2015). the body-oriented approach is actively used in domestic and foreign psychological practice of training. it is known that neurotic and psychosomatic problems result from stagnation of orgone (biological, sexual) energy. stagnation leads to fixation of energy blocks on one or another muscle group "muscular armor" which is considered to be a universal equivalent of suppression of emotions and is the basis of formation of "character armor" in the area of eyes, mouth, neck, chest, diaphragm, lower back and pelvis (connected with seven yoga chakras), which creates favorable ground for development of neurotic character. raichian body therapy aims to restore the free flow of orgone energy through the body by dissolving the shell in each segment. three main techniques are used to achieve this goal: deep breathing through which energy is stored; manual influence on chronic muscle clamps (massage, pressure, touching, stroking, kneading of muscles); verbal analysis and frank discussion together with the client of the causes of muscle clamps (vachkov, 1999). psychocorrection is oriented to clinically healthy people who have psychological problems and neurotic complaints in everyday life, as well as to people who feel well but want to change their life or aim at personal development. according to the realization of old maladaptive stereotypes, the transition is gradually made to the acquisition of new ones. a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 70 psychologically corrective group provides a number of opportunities for this. in staffing a correctional group, two basic principles need to be observed: voluntariness (the client makes the decision to participate in the correctional group independently); awareness (clients are informed before the session about what group work is, what its purposes are and what results can be achieved). when developing correctional programs, it is necessary to base them on the following principles: consistency of correctional, preventive and developmental tasks; unity of correction and diagnostics; priority of correction of the causal type; consideration of age-psychological and individual features of the client; complexity of psychological influence methods; active involvement of the immediate social environment in the correctional program; reliance on different levels of organization of mental processes; growth in complexity; consideration of the volume and degree of diversity of mental processes. psychologically corrective influences are aimed at making the person aware and understanding his or her emotions and thoughts, changing behavior and personal development. accordingly, in psychological correction of feelings, the role of the psychologist is to help the person to recognize self-acceptance and increase self-esteem by using the methodological toolkit of crisis intervention (the psychologist helps participants to face these feelings and makes it safe to express them; discusses these feelings in a non-judgmental manner), without psychological protections, with an interest; it helps to discover the roots of these feelings); cognitive analysis of release from guilt (the psychologist helps participants find distortions in thinking and learn alternative, more realistic ways of articulating their experience); psychotechniques for getting rid of feelings and social pessimism (we describe the situation with feelings of guilt, we find excuses for ourselves, we get rid of the sheet with records of guilt, we burn it or tear it into small pieces, we apologize, we make a conclusion about the past) (afanasyeva & perelyhina, 2016). consequently, training can be subordinated to several purposes not only psychological development of the client, but also correction of already established personal qualities or change of certain kinds of behavior. the theoretical model of psychologically corrective practice assumes that the practicing psychologist uses a phenomenological approach to psychological correction. in the phenomenology of the psychologically corrective process, the main results of successful group work are expansion of the client's sense of being and increase in his or her vitality (internal resources, vital energy) through development of trust, the client's awareness of his or her own experience and differentiation between sensations and methodological tools for carrying out psychological training tamara kryvonis, et al. 71 experiences, construction of harmonious relations in dialogue with other correctional and psychological influences and personal changes, in particular the example of building such relations with a real personality psychologist (yatsenko, 2006). psychological correction should also be combined with therapeutic intervention of spiritual practices, cognitive-behavioral and family therapy (khodayarifard & fatemi, 2013). thus, in article the psychological-technological approach to methodical means of carrying out of psychological training as technology of influence on training and personal development of participants of training and correction on change of their behavior is carried out. psychocorrective methodology in psychological training we consider on the basis of theoretical and methodological generalization of the conceptual provisions discussed in the article as a training technology and a set of psychotechniques, techniques and methods used by a psychologist to correct violations in the behavior of training participants, as well as in facilitating the personal development of clients. conclusion the psychological and technological approach to methodological means of carrying out of psychological training as technology of influence on training and personal development of participants of training and correction of change of their behavior is based on the following conceptual positions. in psychological training the process of group communicative interaction is simulated, giving each participant of a training session an opportunity to reconsider significant life situations and the problems connected with them, to reflect the behavior in them and to find the most adequate ways of self-acceptance and psychological self-support. psychological maintenance of personal growth of participants of training is directly connected with functions of methodological means (training toolkit) diagnostics, perception, interpersonal and communicative interaction, development, corrective and psychological influences. the main methodological principle of use of methodological tools in the "hands" of the psychologist is "do no harm," which requires a high level of competence. depending on the paradigm and goal of psychological training, partner (democratic) and authoritarian (centrally administered) means of conducting it are distinguished. psychocorrective technique in psychological training is a training technology; a set of psychological techniques, receptions and methods used by a psychologist to correct violations in the behavior of training participants, as well as in facilitating the personal development of clients. the choice of methods, techniques and techniques of psychological broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 72 training depends on the goals and objectives of the training program, the level of psychological culture and experience of interpersonal interaction of training participants, and the activity of the group. training technologies represent a creative resource for the training activity of the psychologist. the methodological means of conducting psychological training contain the basic methods typical of all types of training and on which training programs and projects are implemented. the effectiveness of training, therefore, the use of methodological basis of implementation of training technology in practice depends on the technological concept of training, methodological principles and rules, taking into account the individual approach, the specificity of the problems of training according to its main goal and objectives, personal and professional competence of the trainer and partnership relations of the active groupteam. references afanasyeva, n. ye., perelyhina, l. a. (2016). teoretyko-metodolohichni osnovy sotsialʹnopsykholohichnoho treninhu [ theoretical and methodological foundations of social psychological training] 251 p. http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/4053/1/мспт%20 навчальний%20посібник.pd beets, k. goodman, s. (2012). evaluating a training programme for executive coaches citation metadata. south african journal of human resource management, 10(3). https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=gale%7ca344393389&sid=googlesch olar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=16837584&p=aone&sw=w&u sergroupname=anon~6533f6a3 donelson, r. f. (2010). group processes and group psychotherapy: social psychological foundations of change in therapeutic groups. jepson school of leadership, 18 р. https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1188&cont ext=jepson-faculty-publications drake, d., & pritchard, j. (2017). coaching for organisation development. in t. bachkirova, g. spence, & d. drake (eds.), the sage handbook of coaching, pp. 159–175. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-07502-009 gans, j. (2021). speech to the graduating class of the eastern group psychotherapy society's training program in group psychotherapy. group, 45(1), 7-10. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/844214. karpenko, ye. v. (2015). osnovy psykhotreninhu [fundamentals of psychotraining] textbook. drohobych http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/4053/1/мспт%20навчальний%20посібник.pd http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/4053/1/мспт%20навчальний%20посібник.pd https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=gale%7ca344393389&sid=googlescholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=16837584&p=aone&sw=w&usergroupname=anon~6533f6a3 https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=gale%7ca344393389&sid=googlescholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=16837584&p=aone&sw=w&usergroupname=anon~6533f6a3 https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=gale%7ca344393389&sid=googlescholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=16837584&p=aone&sw=w&usergroupname=anon~6533f6a3 https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1188&context=jepson-faculty-publications https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1188&context=jepson-faculty-publications https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-07502-009 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/844214 methodological tools for carrying out psychological training tamara kryvonis, et al. 73 http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/2360/1/карпенко% 20є.в.%20основи%20психотренінгу.pdf khodayarifard, m., & fatemi, s. m. (2013). combination of spirituality and cognitive-behavioral family therapy on treatment of generalized anxiety disorders. psychology, 4(04), 427. https://www.scirp.org/(s(351jmbntvnsjt1aadkposzje))/journal/paperinfor mation.aspx?paperid=29939 lai, y. l., & palmer, s. (2019). psychology in executive coaching: an integrated literature review. journal of work-applied management. 11 (2) https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/jwam-06-20190017/full/html makarov, yu. v. (2013). psikhologicheskiy trening kak tekhnologiya [psychological training as a technology]. proceedings of the russian state pedagogical university named after a. i. herzen, pp. 61 66. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologicheskiy-treningkaktehnologiya?gclid=eaiaiqobchmi9k2i76349qivsrttch2ucq5vea myasaaeglr2_d_bwe maksymenko, s. d., prokofyeva, o o., tsarkova, o. v., kochkurova, o. v. (2015). praktykum iz hrupovoyi psykhokorektsiyi [practicum on group psychocorrection] textbook. melitopol: publishing and printing center "lux", p. 414. http://eprints.mdpu.org.ua/id/eprint/6958/1/практикум%20учеб ник.pdf mcmahon, a., & rodillas, r. r. (2020). personal development groups during psychotherapy training: irish students’ expectations and experiences of vulnerability, safety and growth. counselling psychology quarterly, 33(2), 163186. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/ 09515070.2018.1502159 milyutina, k. l. (2004). teoriya i praktyka psykholohichnoho treninhu [theory and practice of psychological training] textbook: interregional academy of personnel management, 192 p. https://subject.com.ua/pdf/215.pdf osipova, a. a. (2002). obshchaya psikhokorrektsiya [general psychological correction] textbook. moscow: sfera. https://www.klex.ru/b5x panok, v. h. (2017). prykladna psykholohiya. teoretychni problemy [applied psychology. theoretical problems] a monograph. kiev: nika-center. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/707672/1/panok2017.pdf rensh, m. a., lopez, ye. g. (2016). psikhologicheskiy trening [psychological training] educational and methodical manual. ekaterinburg. https://elar.rsvpu.ru/bitstream/123456789/21888/1/978-5-8050-05979.pdf http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/2360/1/карпенко%20є.в.%20основи%20психотренінгу.pdf http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/2360/1/карпенко%20є.в.%20основи%20психотренінгу.pdf https://www.scirp.org/(s(351jmbntvnsjt1aadkposzje))/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=29939 https://www.scirp.org/(s(351jmbntvnsjt1aadkposzje))/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=29939 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/jwam-06-2019-0017/full/html https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/jwam-06-2019-0017/full/html https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologicheskiy-trening-kaktehnologiya?gclid=eaiaiqobchmi9k2i76349qivsrttch2ucq5veamyasaaeglr2_d_bwe https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologicheskiy-trening-kaktehnologiya?gclid=eaiaiqobchmi9k2i76349qivsrttch2ucq5veamyasaaeglr2_d_bwe https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologicheskiy-trening-kaktehnologiya?gclid=eaiaiqobchmi9k2i76349qivsrttch2ucq5veamyasaaeglr2_d_bwe http://eprints.mdpu.org.ua/id/eprint/6958/1/практикум%20учебник.pdf http://eprints.mdpu.org.ua/id/eprint/6958/1/практикум%20учебник.pdf https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/%0b09515070.2018.1502159 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/%0b09515070.2018.1502159 https://subject.com.ua/pdf/215.pdf https://www.klex.ru/b5x https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/707672/1/panok2017.pdf https://elar.rsvpu.ru/bitstream/123456789/21888/1/978-5-8050-0597-9.pdf https://elar.rsvpu.ru/bitstream/123456789/21888/1/978-5-8050-0597-9.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 74 salvendy, j. t. (1991). group psychotherapy in the late twentieth century: an international perspective. group, 15(1), 3-13. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41719088 sarancha, i., kovinko, m., maksymchuk, b., tarasenko, h., kharchenko, s., demchenko, i., dovbnia, s., rudenko, l., symkanych, o., martyniuk, t., bilan, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2022). horticultural therapy course as an educational-therapeutic tool of rehabilitation for individuals with msds. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 14(3), 180-200. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.3/604 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 spencer, l. (2011). coaching and training transfer: a phenomenological inquiry into combined training-coaching programmes. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, special issue (5), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266892090_coaching_and_trai ning_transfer_a_phenomenological_inquiry_into_combined_trainingcoaching_programmes vachkov, i. v. (1999). osnovy tekhnologii gruppovogo treninga [fundamentals of group training technology]. publishing house " os-89 ". https://www.klex.ru/9iw yalom, i. d., leszcz, m. (2020). the theory and practice of group psychotherapy. new york: basic books yatsenko, t. s. (2006). osnovy hlybynnoyi psykhokorektsiyi: fenomenolohiya, teoriya i praktyka [fundamentals of depth psychocorrection: phenomenology, theory and practice]. k.: vyshcha shkola. https://yacenkots.com.ua/uk/shop/яценкот-с-основи-глибинної психокоре/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/41719088 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.3/604 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266892090_coaching_and_training_transfer_a_phenomenological_inquiry_into_combined_training-coaching_programmes https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266892090_coaching_and_training_transfer_a_phenomenological_inquiry_into_combined_training-coaching_programmes https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266892090_coaching_and_training_transfer_a_phenomenological_inquiry_into_combined_training-coaching_programmes https://www.klex.ru/9iw https://yacenkots.com.ua/uk/shop/яценко-т-с-основи-глибинної%20психокоре/ https://yacenkots.com.ua/uk/shop/яценко-т-с-основи-глибинної%20психокоре/ ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 319-330 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/422 submitted: january 14th, 2023 | accepted for publication: february 4th, 2023 aspects of the peculiarities of the formation of social and household skills in children with the disorders of the autistic spectrum nataliia vasylieva 1 , lidia drozd 2 1 associate professor of the department of physical therapy and occupational therapy, kherson state university, ukraine, nataliavasileva85@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7104-1737 2 associate professor of the department of special education, kherson state university, ukraine, drozdlidiya301091@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5406-2942 abstract: a particular group among children, who have difficulties in mastering skills of social and everyday orientation, is the category of children with disorders of the autistic spectrum, characterised by their corresponding specifics of mental and social development. the article describes the experience on programmes development and implementation of the approaches aimed specifically at the development of social and household skills in children with asd (autism spectrum disorder). the psychological and pedagogical fundamentals of work on improvement of the formation of social and everyday orientation skills in children with autistic spectrum disorders are considered. disorders of the autistic spectrum, a peculiar disorder of the child’s mental development, determine the features of mastering the skills of social and household orientation. such peculiarities of development determine the development of behavioural skills in everyday life and society as the specificity of the functioning of higher mental functions, stereotypy, rigidity of behaviour, limitations of social contacts with adults, problems of the process of consistent activity. the development of social and household orientation in children with autism spectrum disorders requires the implementation of special purposefully organised activities that consider both the structure and peculiarities of this type of disorder and the social situation of the development of a specific child. keywords: social and household orientation; autism; social development; social adaptation. how to cite: vasylieva, n., & drozd, l. (2023). aspects of the peculiarities of the formation of social and household skills in children with the disorders of the autistic spectrum. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 319-330. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/422 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/422 mailto:nataliavasileva85@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7104-1737 mailto:drozdlidiya301091@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5406-2942 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/422 aspects of the peculiarities of the formation of social and household skills in … nataliia vasylieva & lidia drozd 320 introduction at the current stage of development of special psychology more and more attention is paid to the study of socialisation and personality formation in the conditions of dysontogenesis. therefore, the study of the process of socialisation in the conditions of dysontogenesis acquires particular importance. autism spectrum disorder (asd) is a mental disorder resulting from brain damage or the central nervous system, characterised by abnormalities in social interaction, behaviour, disorder of communication skills, minor interests, and repetitive actions. children with autism spectrum disorder usually have specific problems in forming the socialisation process. the latest technologies, which are aimed at improving the communication of children with autism spectrum disorders, contribute to the processes of interaction, as well as cognitive and social development. lima antão, jennifer yohanna ferreira de et al. (2018) note that new developments/tools are needed to improve the communication process of autistic children. problems arise due to behavioural disorders, the child’s ignoring the environment, impaired ability to be irritated, impaired emotional reactions and acceptance of social models, communication, and impossibility of mutual communication. in this case, a personality abstracted from the surrounding society is formed. thomson, k., walters, k., martin, g.l., yu, c. (2011) state that children with autism spectrum disorders have problems while learning adaptive and social skills. the specificity of the development of children in this category is the disorder of contact with the surrounding people and even with close adults. therefore, it significantly complicates the process of mastering the skills of social and household orientation, since it is commonly known that the formation of self-care skills takes place in close interaction with adults. the article of utosov, y., utosovа, o., drozd, l., vasylieva, n., lavrykova, o., & butenko, n. (2020) reveals the issues of psychological and pedagogical conditions for the formation of social competence of adolescents with intellectual disabilities through their involvement to extracurricular activities. this method involves taking into account the abilities of each teenager in extracurricular activities at any age, which are especially important for them at the next level of education and socialisation. in further studies, the experience of socialization, construction and implementation of life plans of adolescents with intellectual disabilities was analyzed drozd, l. v., & bystrova, y. o. (2020). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 321 in children with autism spectrum disorders, even the simplest everyday life skills appear quite late and usually with great difficulties. at the same time, a transference of the skills they have acquired to other conditions is significantly impeded. as the children grow older, the autistic features may gradually flatten, but at the same time, the child’s inadaptability to everyday life becomes more and more apparent. in children with normo-typical development, motor skills are improved in conjunction with self-care skills (sezici & akkaya, 2020). development of even the simplest skills of social and everyday orientation allows a child to reduce dependence on others, helps to strengthen confidence in one’s abilities, affects the advancement of psychomotor development, contributes to the formation of the general structure of activities, creates the essential prerequisites for the formation of other types of activities. gaining the skills of social and household orientation has a direct impact on the formation of the child’s self-esteem, and is also an integral step on the way to the formation of one’s autonomy. teaching the skills of social and everyday orientation directly has influence on the expansion of knowledge, children’s understanding of the surrounding material world, the formation of the sensory sphere, the development of higher mental functions, and especially language, the improvement of manual motor skills, hand-eye coordination, the formation of imitative skills, etc. the research of al-khateeb (2021) reveals aspects of the effectiveness of an early intervention programme based on the techniques of applied behaviour analysis for forming self-care skills in people with autism spectrum disorders. starting from the first stages of a child’s life, in the process of mastering the skills of social and everyday orientation, there is not just the assimilation of certain actions, but an extremely important process of mastering social experience, “introduction” to both the objective and the social world of adults. burkett, k., morris, e., manning-courtney, p., anthony, j., & shambley-ebron, d. (2015) investigated the influence of family culture on the process of obtaining appropriate medical care for an african-american child with asd, which affected the timely diagnosis and treatment of autism. parents play a significant role in the cultivation of social and everyday skills of a child with autism. matsumura n et al. (2022) found that parent’s teaching improved daily living skills in adolescents with asd. on the other hand, parents need support and moral and psychological help. ede, m.o., anyanwu, j.i., onuigbo, l.n. et al. (2020) note that rational family therapy is quite effective. this approach is useful and has long-lasting therapeutic effects in the improvement of stress management among parents aspects of the peculiarities of the formation of social and household skills in … nataliia vasylieva & lidia drozd 322 of children with autism spectrum disorders. the process of adaptation to a child with autism spectrum disorder can affect the professional activities of parents, as noted by roiz, roberta giampá and figueiredo, mirela de oliveira (2023). socialisation is a complicated and complex process for a child with an autism spectrum disorder, proceeding from the analysis of theoretical and practice-oriented scientific works. difficulties in imitation are typical for such children. they develop social and everyday orientation skills quite long and with difficulty; their social and everyday adaptation requires regular and long-term training. in many cases, parents of a pre-schooler with autistic disorders are focused on the work to eliminate disorders of his mental development, try to overcome behavioural problems and are not focused on everyday difficulties. complaints about household inadaptability, and lack of basic social and household orientation skills are not often even noticed by parents. at the same time, these problems, as a rule, are very serious because the stereotype of relationships formed in preschool childhood, when everything is usually done for the child by one’s relatives, can later complicate the development of a child’s independence. but without learning household skills, even the most intelligent children remain socially maladjusted. independence in everyday life of children with autism spectrum disorders an actual problem for children with autism spectrum disorder (asd) is the development of independence and self-care skills. social and household skills include skills of a domestic (skills that are necessary for everyday life) and social (self-care skills and cultural and hygienic skills) nature. the following social and household skills are distinguished: 1. social and household skills outside the home: orientation in the store, road safety rules, behaviour on the street and in transport. 2. social and household skills in home conditions: hygiene skills, dressing (undressing) skills, self-service skills at the table, knowledge of safety rules at home, and performance of household duties. formation of elementary household skills and self-care skills is one of the most important tasks of raising and teaching children with asd. problems of independence in autistic children are divided into three groups: 1. problems of planning, organisation and control of activities; 2. emotional dependence on another person; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 323 3. lack of motivation. the following difficulties of teaching social and everyday skills of children with asd are known: disorder of contact; the problem of arbitrary concentration; fears; disorder of fine motor skills; sensory sensitivity; negativism; disorder of muscle tone; general motor discomfort; dependence on constant instructions from adults; the need for hints; behavioural stereotypies; very rarely, learning is carried out by imitating another person; it is difficult to transfer the formed skill to another environment; the failure of an unsuccessful attempt can cause a persistent negative attitude to repeat the action. it isn’t easy for children with autism spectrum disorders to acquire self-care skills. this is because they do not have complete control over their bodies. regarding the motor development of an autistic child, the following features can be distinguished: violation of the accuracy, the strength of muscle tone and movements, coordination, weak control over body balance, and difficulties in including the whole body in an integrated movement process. children with autism spectrum disorders have difficulty in learning social and everyday skills of children. these include: originality of communication; impairment of specific understanding of speech; problems with verbal and logical thinking. a rather significant problem that arises in the formation of independence skills in children with asd is overprotection. at the same time, parents perform the action for the child, thereby depriving a child of one’s independence. this has a psychological aspect as they fear losing contact or alerting the child to inappropriate behaviour, also saving time and experiencing learning problems. this has a psychological aspect, since they are afraid of losing contact or preventing inappropriate behaviour of the child; they also save time and experience problems with learning. let’s consider some household problems that occur in everyday life (table 1). aspects of the peculiarities of the formation of social and household skills in … nataliia vasylieva & lidia drozd 324 table 1 skills and possible causes of difficulties in everyday life of children with asd skills problems and causes of difficulties in everyday life independent eating complete absence of reaction to the demands of an adult; inability to use cutlery; selectivity in food; the habit of eating in pieces; body motor disturbances, abomination; improperly organized place. dressing and undressing independently escapes from the place of dressing; does not know operations that are necessary for clothes (fasten buttons, zipper, etc.); waits for adult’s prompts; there is no permanent place of dressing; the child does not know the order of dressing. personal hygiene skills hypersensitivity to touches; unwillingness to stay in one place; inconvenient location of personal hygiene products; the child does not know how to rinse one’s mouth. toilet refusal of the pot; the habit of using only one’s own pot. fear to drain water. keen interest in the toilet. safety the child does not feel danger dusting abomination; inability to make efforts arbitrarily and compress the material; swinging the body back and forth; sweeping and washing the floor it is difficult to move the mop from side to side; it is difficult to squat down due to increased tone in the legs and disorder of general coordination of movements. source: author's own conception the following peculiarities of the formation of social and everyday skills in children with asd are distinguished: peculiarity of the contact; oversaturation of an autistic child in contacts with other people; overprotection; fears, anxiety and hypersensitivity; the problem of arbitrary organisation of behaviour; disorder of motivation. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 325 the literature analysis allowed us to identify the peculiarities of the formation of social and household skills; problems of teaching self-reliance skills in everyday life. the main issues include: lack of a clear schedule for the child; difficulties in planning, organisation and control over activities; emotional dependence on another person; lack of motivation; disorder of contact; problems of arbitrary concentration; fears; disorder of fine motor skills; sensory sensitivity; negativism; disturbances of muscle tone; general motor discomfort; dependence on constant instructions from adults; the need for hints; behavioural stereotypes and others. there are computerised programmes for teaching literacy for children with autism spectrum disorder suggested by de mira gobbo et al. (2021). the presented methodology encourages learning elementary skills, and promotes learning with independence, autonomy and functionality. therefore, children with asd develop independence in everyday life. as this is a specific problem, it is impossible to predict at what speed a particular skill will be formed in a particular child. children with asd who have preserved intellectual abilities can be completely helpless in everyday life. rosenblum, s., ben simhon, h.a., & gal, e. (2016) unraveling the association of handwriting with social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (asd). pedagogical peculiarities of the formation of self-care skills in everyday life of children with autism spectrum disorders the specificity of the development of children of this category primarily consists in the disorder of contact with the surrounding people, and even with close adults, which significantly complicates the process of mastering the skills of social and everyday orientation, since it is well known that the formation of this type of skills occurs in close interaction with adults. matei, s., totolan, d. m., & salceanu, c. (2022) noted that in pedagogical theory and practice, special attention is paid to rethinking conceptual approaches to teaching children with asd in accordance with the educational profile of the individual. the greatest difficulties of such a child lie not so much in the process of assimilation of knowledge or formation of ideas and mastery of the corresponding skills of social orientation but in the sphere of their practical use. one of the possible criteria for assessment of the degree of severity of life limitation in a child with autistic spectrum disorders is the level of development of social and everyday orientation skills, which includes the reflection of the share of the child’s participation following the norms of age-related development in taking care of oneself and one’s health, the aspects of the peculiarities of the formation of social and household skills in … nataliia vasylieva & lidia drozd 326 formation of cultural hygiene skills, self-care skills, the ability to perform everyday household activities, for example, cleaning the room, making the bed, using various household appliances, etc. the problems that create difficulties in mastering social and everyday orientation activities in children with autism spectrum disorders include: disinhibition of such a child, lack of reaction to an adult’s request, impaired communication skills, impaired motor skills, and the presence of stereotypical behavioural responses. the research of huijnen, c.a.g.j., lexis, m.a.s., jansens, r. et al (2016) expands knowledge of therapeutic and educational goals for professionals working with children with an autism spectrum disorder. for this, robots are involved in the development of interventions. robots can potentially be used for a large number of purposes for children with asd. the difficulty of its learning is mainly related to social contact disorders, the difficulty of arbitrary concentration on the learning process, and the presence of fears. a child with an autistic disorder can quite easily learn a complex action unintentionally and independently, but due to imitating another person, it happens extremely rarely. however, even in this case, mastering a skill is inseparably linked to any specific situation. it even turns out to be extremely difficult to transfer it to a new situation for the child. often, a preschooler with an autistic disorder is prevented from mastering the skills of social and everyday orientation due to existing disorders of manual motility, weakening of muscle tone, and general motor discomfort. the complexities of social behaviour further complicate the organization of the learning situation itself. such a child may ignore the adult's instructions, not follow them at all, avoid contact with the adult, or doing the opposite. later than normal, and with difficulties, the simplest skills of social and everyday orientation are developed, and newly acquired skills are often practically not used in new conditions; in the best case, their transfer can be accompanied by constant encouragement from an adult. such children are characterised by the inability to use even the knowledge and skills they have independently. the limitation of the ability of social and household orientation is reflected in the child’s ability to participate in all types of everyday activities, on par with one’s peers, in the ways that are available to a child with the normal development of this age, gender and culture. all this gradually leads to the social maladjustment of the child. according to ditterline, j., oakland, t. (2009), adaptive behaviour is manifested in a person’s ability to perform daily life responsibilities and respond to the needs of others. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 327 however, the experience of practicing defectologists shows that even in children with severe autistic forms of disorders, it is possible to form successfully social and household skills, which become progressively more difficult. the success of mastering social and household skills and the possibility of their further independent use is determined by the extent to which this everyday situation has acquired special significance for the child. with age, the problems of behaviour and interaction become more smoothed out, but at the same time, the child’s maladjustment to everyday life becomes more noticeable. children with difficulties mastering the methods of action do not possess indicative and control actions; therefore, for quite a long time in the development of this type of skills, children do not achieve a good quality result. the peculiarities of development in autistic disorders require teachers to understand the patterns of this type of disorder and provide corrective assistance to children in the conditions of a special organisation of the educational environment, with special technologies and programmes developed specifically for this category of persons. comprehensive psychological and pedagogical assistance for children of this category aims at the fullest possible socialisation. at the same time, one of the primary tasks of a defectologist should be the formation and development of social and everyday orientation skills, as the initial stage of a child’s social adaptation to the conditions of the world around. a child with autistic disorders needs special help in overcoming the difficulties of mastering the skills of social and everyday orientation, which will contribute to improving the quality of his life and the life of the child’s loved ones, and will allow them to develop meaningful forms of interaction. the problems of forming the skills of social and everyday orientation are also related to the peculiarities of family education, where the stereotypes of overprotection are often formed and begin to hinder the child’s development. it is necessary to develop forms of corrective intervention that will allow overcoming these typical features of family upbringing. insufficient attention has been paid to the issues of primary education of preschool children with autism spectrum disorders, especially to the methods of vital skills for their development, related to self-care, household and social activities, special methods and programmes are limited, pedagogical techniques that contribute to effective work in the declared direction are not considered in detail. the system of work on the formation of social and everyday orientation skills should be related to the following: aspects of the peculiarities of the formation of social and household skills in … nataliia vasylieva & lidia drozd 328 1. development of the motivational basis of activity in mastering relevant skills. 2. creating conditions that facilitate the performance of movements and actions. 3. gradual overcoming of difficulties. 4. consolidation of formed actions in practical situations. 5. improvement of new abilities. lindy l. weaver (2015) also notes that there is a lack of intervention studies related to sleep. therefore, there is a need for additional research in all areas that open up the possibilities of the science-based practice of occupational therapy for people with asd. the limited number of programmatic and methodical developments and the actual lack of methods, technologies, techniques and means of development of the skills of social and everyday orientation in preschool children with autistic spectrum disorders induce the search for effective means for its implementation in the conditions of a correctional preschool educational institution. conclusions one of the urgent problems for children with asd is the problem of independence development. formation of elementary household skills and self-care skills is one of the most important tasks of raising and teaching children with asd. learning self-care skills is a significant step towards independence for people with asd. despite the severity of asd, it is necessary to create conditions developing of the maximum possible degree of independence of children. analysing the above approaches to the development of social and everyday orientation skills of children with asd, it was determined that the main condition for successful learning is a clear structuring of the environment in which the child is, in addition to the division of each skill into separate steps, planning the sequence of actions, multiple repetition and consolidation of the acquired skills and visual spatiotemporal organisation. the complete creation of these conditions for successfully forming of social and household orientation skills is possible only in entire interaction with the family. an analytical review of the psychological and pedagogical literature devoted to the problem of autistic disorders shows that the majority of theoretical and experimental, and methodological works are mainly devoted to clinical and psychological aspects of autism. in contrast pedagogical and methodological issues are extremely insufficiently developed. it is especially broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 329 true for the method of formation and development of social and everyday orientation skills of the considered category of children. references alkhateeb, a. a. (2021). the effectiveness of an early intervention program for people with autism spectrum disorder based on applied behavior analysis techniques to equip them with self-care skills. ilkogretim online, 20(5), 2503– 2522. https://doi.org/10.17051/ilkonline.2021.05.272 burkett, k., morris, e., manning-courtney, p., anthony, j., & shambley-ebron, d. (2015). african american families on autism diagnosis and treatment: the influence of culture. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 45, 3244–3254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2482-x de mira gobbo, m. r., de barbosa, c. r. s. c., morandini, m., mafort, f., & mioni, j. l. v. m. (2021). aca game for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. entertainment computing, 38, 100409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2021.100409 ditterline, j., & oakland, t. (2009). relationships between adaptive behavior and impairment. in j. naglieri & s. goldstein (eds.), assessing impairment (pp. 31–48). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-387-87542-2_4 drozd, l. v., & bystrova, y. o. (2020). features of communication of adolescents with intellectual disabilities in the interpersonal relations. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 3, 123-133. https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2020-3-9 ede, m. o., anyanwu, j. i., onuigbo, l. n., ifelunni, c. o., alabi-oparaocha, f. c., okenyi, e. c., agu, m. a., ugwuanyi, l. t., ugwuanyi, c., eseadi, c., awoke, n. n., nweze, t., & victor-aigbodion, v. (2020). rational emotive family health therapy for reducing parenting stress in families of children with autism spectrum disorders: a group randomized control study. journal of rational-emotive & cognitive-behavior therapy, 38, 243–271. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-020-00342-7 huijnen, c. a. g. j., lexis, m. a. s., jansens, r., & de witte, l. p. (2016). mapping robots to therapy and educational objectives for children with autism spectrum disorder. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 46, 2100– 2114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2740-6 lima antão, j. y. f., oliveira, a. s. b., almeida barbosa, r. t., crocetta, t. b., guarnieri, r., arab, c., massetti, t., antunes, t. p. c., silva, a. p. d., bezerra, ĺ. m. p., mello monteiro, c. b., & abreu, l. c. (2018). instruments for augmentative and alternative communication for children with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review. clinics, 73, e497. https://doi.org/10.6061/clinics/2017/e497 https://doi.org/10.17051/ilkonline.2021.05.272 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2482-x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2021.100409 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-387-87542-2_4 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2020-3-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-020-00342-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2740-6 https://doi.org/10.6061/clinics/2017/e497 aspects of the peculiarities of the formation of social and household skills in … nataliia vasylieva & lidia drozd 330 matei, s., totolan, d. m., & salceanu, c. (2022). specific interventions and the role of occupational therapy on children with asd. in c. syriopouloudelli, & r. folostina (eds.), interventions for improving adaptive behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorders (pp. 165-179). igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8217-6.ch010 matsumura, n., fujino, h., yamamoto, t., tanida, y., ishii, a., tatsumi, a., nakanishi, m., tachibana, m., mohri, i., & okuno h. (2022). effectiveness of a parent training programme for parents of adolescents with autism spectrum disorders: aiming to improve daily living skills. international journal of environmental research and public health, 19(4), 2363. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042363 roiz, r. g., & figueiredo, m. o. (2023). o processo de adaptação e desempenho ocupacional de mães de crianças no transtorno do espectro autista. cadernos brasileiros de terapia ocupacional, 31. https://doi.org/10.1590/25268910.ctoao252633041 rosenblum, s., ben simhon, h.a., & gal, e. (2016). unique handwriting performance characteristics of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. research in autism spectrum disorders, 23, 235-244, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2015.11.004 sezici e., & akkaya, d. d. (2020). the effect of preschool children’s motor skills on self-care skills. early child development and care, 190(6), 963-970. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2020.1737040 thomson, k., walters, k., martin, g. l., & yu, c. (2011). teaching adaptive and social skills to individuals with autism spectrum disorders. in j. matson, & p. sturmey (eds.), international handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders. autism and child psychopathology series (pp. 339–354). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8065-6_21 utosov, y., utosovа, o., drozd, l., vasylieva, n., lavrykova, o., & butenko, n. (2020). extracurricular activities as a form of development of social competence of adolescents with intellectual disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2sup1), 175185. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/103 weaver, l. l. (2015). effectiveness of work, activities of daily living, education, and sleep interventions for people with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review. the american journal of occupational therapy, 69(5), 6905180020p1–6905180020p11. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2015.017962 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8217-6.ch010 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042363 https://doi.org/10.1590/2526-8910.ctoao252633041 https://doi.org/10.1590/2526-8910.ctoao252633041 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2015.11.004 https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2020.1737040 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8065-6_21 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2sup1/103 https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2015.017962 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 461-474 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/430 submitted: february 13th, 2023 | accepted for publication: february 28th, 2023 investigation of physical activity levels of eligible students in terms of various variables erdil durukan1, mehmet göktepe2, gökhan aydin3, leonard stoica4 1 assoc. prof. phd, balikesir university, faculty of sports sciences, balikesir, turkey, erdurukan@hotmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1627-1388 2 assoc. prof. phd, balikesir university, faculty of sports sciences, balikesir, turkey, mgoktepe06@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7447-0118 3 phd student, balikesir university, faculty of sports sciences, balikesir, turkey, gokhan.aydin@baun.edu.tr, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5575-3200 4 lecturer phd, faculty of physical education and sport, dunarea de jos university of galati, romania, leonard.stoica@ugal.ro, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6477-5938 abstract: this study aimed to examine the physical activity levels of the eligible students to study at the faculty of sports sciences in the current academic year. a total of 200 students participated in the research as a result of the removal of the erroneous questionnaires from the questionnaires applied to 224 students who were eligible to attend the faculty of sports sciences. the "international physical activity questionnaire (ipaq) short form was applied to the participants. while there was no significant difference according to the gender and body mass index variables values of the students who were entitled to study (p>0.05), a significant difference was found according to the sports branches, sports experience, and the departments they attend (p<0.05). as a result, a significant difference was found according to the departments of the students studying at the faculty of sports sciences according to their physical activity levels, sports experience, and the sports branches. keywords: sports; sport science; physical activity. how to cite: durukan, e., göktepe, m., aydin, g., & stoica, l. (2023). investigation of physical activity levels of eligible students in terms of various variables. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 461-474. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/430 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/430 mailto:erdurukan@hotmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1627-1388 mailto:mgoktepe06@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7447-0118 mailto:gokhan.aydin@baun.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5575-3200 mailto:leonard.stoica@ugal.ro https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6477-5938 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/430 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 462 introduction sport is an extremely important concept that gains meaning as an indicator of the cultural and welfare levels of societies and affects social life holistically (i̇mamoğlu, 1992). in other words, sport is one of the most basic physical activities. individuals somehow participate in sports activities in different branches every day. sport has been an inseparable part of people in every period of history for centuries (dever, 2008). the human body is designed to move at an optimum level with minimum effort and to easily withstand the burden of its original structure (durukan et al. 2020). physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by the contraction of the muscles in the skeletal system and that provide power above the basic level (kırbaş, 2020; rus et al. 2019). another definition referring to physical activity or exercise and it describes the as the consumption of energy that occurs when the muscles are subjected to a force greater than their normal. (kalaycı et al., 2016). sedentary lifestyle has become increasingly common in today's society, due to advancements in technology. with the rise of computers, smartphones, and other devices, people are spending more time sitting or lying down and less time being active. this is especially true for children, young people, and adults who are becoming increasingly addicted to computer games. as a result, this sedentary lifestyle is leading to a decrease in physical activity, which can have negative effects on overall health and well-being. (kızar et al., 2019). today, as a result of children and young people being more interested in technology and showing a lot of interest in games played in the digital environment, the concept of e-sports, which is a new sport type, has emerged and it is estimated that e-sports will attract more attention in the future due to intense interest (kilci, 2019, kilci et al., 2020). along with the technological advances, there has been a decrease in physical activities (pa) and the activities expressed with pa have changed. pa measurements are important in terms of determining the pa levels of individuals and directing low-active individuals to physical activity (baecke et al., 1982; alexe et al., 2022). according to studies, moderate and high levels of pa can reduce the risk of developing certain cancer types and deaths (miller et al. 1994; iordan et al., 2021) if it is known how physically active individuals are, the answer to the question of how much pa should be done can be easily found. the question of "how much, and what kind" of exercise should be searched and measurement methods should be developed (sallis et al., 1985). investigation of physical activity levels of eligible students in terms of … erdil durukan, et al. 463 the intensity of physical activity can be expressed as a value related to energy expenditure and peak performance in relation to body weight or resting metabolism in general. in particular, the type of activity is related to one's capacity. the subjects are asked to describe their speed in activities such as walking and cycling. reference tables play an important role in determining the energy expenditure of physical activity (kj/min), oxygen consumption (l/min per kg or ml/min), or metabolic equivalent task (met) in relation to resting states (arıkan et al., 2019). mets are multiples of the resting metabolic rate. mets are equal to the metabolic equivalent of a task divided by the resting metabolic equivalent of a normal person. 1 met equals resting oxygen consumption. since 200-250 ml of oxygen is consumed on average per minute, 2 mets of work require 2 times the resting oxygen consumption, or 500 ml. met is quantified by the volume of deoxygen consumed relative to body weight (ml/kg/min) 1 met= 3.5 ml/kg/min (küçük, 2012). there are many ways to measure physical activity, but in terms of their costs, the most appropriate physical activity measurement tool is the questionnaire. one of these questionnaires is the "international physical activity questionnaire (ipaq) short form" developed by craig et al. (2003), and the validity and reliability performed by öztürk m. (2005) (craig et al., 2003, öztürk, 2005). this research aimed to evaluate the physical activity status of the students who attend the faculty of sports sciences. 2. materials and methods universe and sample the research universe was comprised of a sample of 200 students admitted in the 2022-2023 academic year at the faculty of sports sciences, 125 men and 75 women. after removing the erroneous questionnaires, the participants from the 224 questionnaires, 200 questionnaires were included in the study. the demographic variables answered by the participants included information about gender, sports experience, body mass index, sports branch, and the department of the participants. i̇nternational physical activity questionnaire (i̇paq); in the study, the “international physical activity questionnaire (ipaq) short form” developed by craig et al. (2003) and adapted into turkish by öztürk (2005) was used as a data collection tool. according to the survey study, it was broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 464 taken as the criterion that physical activities should be performed for at least 10 minutes at a time. • intense physical activity duration (team sport games) (min) • moderate physical activity duration (cycling, dance, table tennis, etc.) (min) • daily walking and sitting times were questioned (min) the physical activity score (met-min/week) was calculated by converting the durations of vigorous physical activity, moderate-intensity physical activity, and walking activities to met (metabolic equivalent minutes), which corresponds to the basal metabolic equivalent in the calculations performed below (craig et al., 2003). • walking score (met-min/week) = 3.3 *walking time*walking day • moderate-intensity activity score (met-min/week) = 4.0*moderate-intensity activity time*moderate-intensity activity day, • intense activity score (met-min/week) = 8.0 * intense activity duration * vigorous activity day • total physical activity score (metmin/week) = walking + moderate-intensity activity + intense activity scores. at the end of the questionnaire, depending on the score obtained, the result is placed in one of the following classifications: “low, moderate, and intense”. physical activity levels: 1. low level: below 600 met-min/week. 2. moderate level: 600-3000 met-min/week. 3. intense level: classified as over 3000 met-min/week. data analysis the questionnaires collected through face-to-face, questionnaires from the students who were eligible to register were transferred to the spss 25.0 package program, and the necessary analyzes were performed on the raw data by removing the erroneous and missing data. to determine the distribution of the data, skewness, and kurtosis values were examined. these values were checked and evaluated between +1.5 and -1.5 (tabachnick et al., 2007). as a result of the analysis, mann-whitney u tests were applied to the variables with two groups, which were determined not normally distributed, and kruskal wallis h tests were applied to the variables with more than two groups. the level of significance was determined as p<0.05 in all analyzes. investigation of physical activity levels of eligible students in terms of … erdil durukan, et al. 465 3. results table 1. demographic information of the participants variables category n % gender male 125 62,5 female 75 37,5 sport branch individual sport 64 32,0 team sport 113 56,5 none 23 11,5 bmi underweight 15 7,5 normal 165 82,5 overweight 20 10,0 sport experience less than 5 years 84 42,0 more lees than 5 years 116 58,0 department physical education and teaching 35 17,5 coaching education 84 42,0 sports management 81 40,5 total 200 100,0 when the demographic information of the participants were examined, it was seen that 62.5% of the research group was male and 37.5% was female. according to the sports branch, 32% of them were in individual sports and 56.5% in team sports, 11.5% are not engaged in any sports branch, and in the body mass index variable, 7.5% were underweight and 82.5% were normal, and 10% were overweight. besides, it was determined that 42% of the students participating in the research had sport experience less than 5 years and 58% for more than 5 years. regarding to the departments of the participants, it was determined that 17.5% of them were entitled to receive education in the department of sports teaching, 42% were in the department of sports coaching, and 40.5% were in the department of sports management. table 2. mann-whitney u test results of pa scores by gender n x median min. max. sd rank mean z p pa male 125 4763,23 4280,00 0 16902 3482,608 106,02 1,740 0,08 female 75 3825,64 3573,00 0 13968 2549,703 91,31 pa: physical activity broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 466 upon examination of table 2, it was determined that there was no significant distinction in physical activity scores between male and female students based on gender (p>0.05). both male and female participants were found to have high levels of physical activity according to the physical activity score classification. table 3. mann-whitney u test results of pa scores by sports experience spor experience n x median min. max. sd mean rank z p pa less than 5 years 84 3601,23 3270,00 0 16452 2618,296 84,68 3,289 <0,01 more than 5 years 116 4998,48 4647,00 0 16902 3441,562 111,95 pa: physical activity according to table 3, when the sports experience variable was examined, a statistically significant difference was found in the statistical comparison of the participants who was doing sports for less than 5 years and for more than 5 years (p<0.01). according to this, it was seen that the students who was doing sports for less than 5 years had less physical activity points than the students who was doing sports for more than 5 years. however, according to the determined ipa (international physical activity) score classification, it was seen that both groups had a high level of physical activity score. table 4. kruskal wallis h test results of pa scores according to the departments of the participants department s n x media n min . max. sd mean rank x2 p differenc e p a physical education and teaching a 3 5 4940,8 9 3786,00 400 1645 2 3588,78 4 107,3 9 64,12 9 <0,00 1 a>c b>c coaching educationb 8 4 5941,1 9 5616,50 1538 1690 2 2971,44 3 134,3 0 sports management c 8 1 2596,6 3 2160,00 0 1396 8 2186,17 8 62,47 pa: physical activity investigation of physical activity levels of eligible students in terms of … erdil durukan, et al. 467 the results of the kruskal-wallis-h test revealed a statistically significant difference based on the departments of the students in the faculty of sports sciences. (p<0.01). when physical activity scores were examined; it was seen that the students of the coaching education department and the physical education and sports teaching department had higher physical activity scores than the students of the sports management department. according to the results of bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparisons, which was performed to determine between which groups the difference, was showed that the physical activity scores of the students of physical education and sports teaching and coaching education departments were significantly higher than the sports management department student (p<0.01). a lack of significant difference was discovered between the physical education and sports teaching and coaching education students (p>0.05). while the physical activity scores of the students in the coaching education department and physical education and sports teaching department were high, the physical activity scores of the students in the management department were at a moderate level. table 5. kruskal wallis h test results of pa scores by sports branch branch n x media n mi n max sd mea n rank x2 p differen ce p a individua la 64 4486,6 9 3888,5 0 0 1396 8 2813,78 8 104,7 1 22,91 7 <0,00 1 a>c b>c teamb 11 3 4886,5 3 4392,0 0 0 1690 2 3413,35 2 109,1 2 nonec 23 1869,6 1 1626,0 0 0 4771 1477,83 1 46,43 pa: physical activity a statistically significant difference was found in the kruskal wallish test performed according to the sports branch variable in table 5 (p<0.01). as a result of the bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparisons performed to understand between which groups the difference was, it was determined that the students who were engaged in both individual sports and team sports had higher physical activity scores than the students who did not have a branch. no statistical difference was found between the individual and team sports. when the physical activity levels of the groups were examined, the participants engaged in individual sports and team sports broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 468 had a high level of physical activity, while the participants without a branch had a moderate level of physical activity. table 6: kruskal wallis h test results of pa scores according to bmi values bmi n x media n mi n max sd mean rank x2 p differenc e p a underweigh t 15 4141,7 3 3937,00 980 7278 1560,48 9 104,2 7 0,19 8 0,90 6 normal 16 5 4496,6 7 3840,00 0 1690 2 3395,15 2 100,7 3 overweight 20 3912,5 5 3763,50 0 8532 2229,29 1 95,80 pa: physical activity when examined according to the body mass index variable in table 6, no significant difference was found between the groups classified as underweight, normal weight, and overweight (p>0.0,5). when the body mass index variable was examined according to physical activity levels, it was seen that the underweight, normal and overweight groups had high levels of physical activity. 4. discussion the swift rise of industrialization and technological advancements has brought about significant transformations in individuals' lifestyles. the improvements in living conditions brought about by technology and modernization have resulted in many people engaging in very low levels of daily physical activity, leading to a tendency towards a more sedentary lifestyle (bulut, 2013). therefore, the importance of physical activity emerges in keeping the human body healthy and preventing physical and physiological disorders that may be caused by inactivity. in the study we carried out to determine the physical activity levels of the students who were entitled to enroll in the faculty of sports sciences, it was determined that 62.5% of the research group were male, 37.5% were female; 32% were engaged in individual sports, 56.5% were engaged in team sports; 7.5% were underweight, 82.5% were normal, 10% were overweight; 42% of them was doing sports for less than 5 years and 58% of them was doing sports for more than 5 years; 17.5% of them were entitled to study in the physical education and sports teaching department, 42% in the coaching education department, and 40.5% in the sports management department (table 1). investigation of physical activity levels of eligible students in terms of … erdil durukan, et al. 469 for the students participating in the research, there was no statistically significant difference found between male and female students in physical activity scores according to gender variable (p>0.05). however, contrary to the results of our study; according to the results of işık, et al. (2015)'s study on university students, it was determined that men have a higher level of physical activity than women (is ık et al., 2015). similarly, steptoe et al. (1997); in their study on university students in european countries, they found that the physical activity levels of male students were higher than that of female students (steptoe et al., 1997). in the study conducted by yaman (2021), it was found that the total scores of male students were higher than those of female students (yaman, 2021). finally, in the study conducted by buckworth & nigg (2004) on 493 university students in the usa, it was determined that the physical activity levels of male students were significantly higher than the physical activity levels of female students (table 2) (buckworth & nigg, 2004). the results indicated a statistically significant difference between the participants who have engaged in sports for less than 5 years and those who have participated for more than 5 years, based on the sports year variable (p<0.01). according to this, it was seen that the students who have been doing sports for less than 5 years have fewer physical activity points than the students who have been doing sports for more than 5 years. however, according to the determined ipa (international physical activity) score classification, it was seen that both groups have a high level of physical activity score. for this reason, it can be said that the increase in sports year provides an increase in physical activity levels. a statistically significant difference was found between active sports age and physical activity levels in the study conducted by çağıran (c ağıran, 2018) which supports our research. in another study, according to keyf, when the sports age and physical activity levels of individuals were compared, it was seen that the physical activity levels of those who have been doing sports for 1 year were statistically significantly lower than the others. it was stated that the rate of doing sports increases as the sports year progresses (table 3) (keyf, 2018). a statistically significant difference was determined according to the results of the kruskal wallis-h test performed according to the departments of the students who attend the faculty of sports sciences (p<0.01). it was established that students in the coaching education department and the physical education and sports teaching department had higher physical activity scores compared to those in the sports management department. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 470 although there was no significant difference between the physical education and sports teaching department and the coaching education department, it was observed that the department with the highest metabolic equivalent (met) value was the coaching education department. the reason for this was thought to be since candidates who do not have a sports cv for at least 3 years in the application conditions of the coaching education department of the special talent exam of the faculty of sports sciences of balıkesir university will not be able to apply. it can be said that the physical activity levels of the candidates applying to the department of sports management were low because they did not been involved in any sports branch. in this context, according to borazan (2015), who has similar results to these results of our research; a significant difference was found between the departments of the faculty of sports sciences, the significant difference between the sports management and coaching education departments was determined in favour of the coaching education department, the significant difference between sports management and, physical education and sports teaching departments was found in favour of physical education and sports teaching departments. in addition, it was stated that there was no statistically significant difference between physical education and sports teaching and coaching education departments. another study, conducted by solmaz & aydın (2016), determined that the differences in physical activity levels among the sports science faculty students who participated in their research were not statistically significant based on the departments they were enrolled in. these results were not like those of our study (table 4) (solmaz et al., 2016). a statistically significant difference was found in the kruskal wallish test according to the sports branch variable (p<0.01). it was determined that students who were engaged in both individual sports and team sports had higher physical activity scores than students who did not have a branch. in parallel with our research, in the study conducted by aksu (2018), the physical activity levels of the students differed significantly according to their branches. as a result of the analyzes made, it was determined that the athletes who were engaged in any branch had a higher level of physical activity compared to those who did not have a branch (table 5) (aksu, 2018). finally, after examination based on the body mass index (bmi) variable, it was determined that there was no significant difference between the participants of the research. (p>0.05). in the study conducted by investigation of physical activity levels of eligible students in terms of … erdil durukan, et al. 471 borazan (2015), the fact that no significant difference was found when the body mass index values of the students of the faculty of sports sciences and their physical activity status were compared supports our research. however, according to şanlı and güzel (2009) in another study, when the physical activity levels of university students according to body mass index were examined, it was seen that as the body mass index increases, the physical activity rate decreases (table 6) (şanli et al., 2009). all the authors of this article have an equal contribution to this publication. 5. conclusions in conclusion, based on their physical activity levels, a statistically significant difference was observed among the students enrolled in different departments within the faculty of sports sciences, in the level of their sports background, and in terms of whether the type of sports was individual or team sports. institutional review board statement: this study was accepted by the e-11811414-050.03-188145 dated 12.10.2022 by the health sciences non-interventional research ethics committee of t.c. balikesir university. conflicts of interest the authors declare no conflict of interest. all the authors of this article have an equal contribution to this publication. references aksu, e. o. (2018). examination of physical education and sports teacher candidates' physical activity levels in terms of academic achievement and various variables. karadeniz technical university, institute of educational sciences, department of physical education and sports, trabzon. alexe, d. i., buzoianu c. c., tohănean, d., larion, a, alexe, c., paul, d., & burgueño, r. (2022). interpersonal behaviors questionnaire in sport: psychometric analysis with romanian professional athletes. perceptual and motor skills. https://doi.org/10.1177/00315125221135669 arıkan, ş., barsbuğa, y., & revan, s. (2019). determination of physical activity levels of taekwondo coaches. selcuk university, faculty of sports sciences, türk spor ve egzersiz dergisi, konya, 21(2), 270-275. baecke, j. a., burema, j., & frijters, j. e. (1982). a short questionnaire for the measurement of habitual physical activity in epidemiological studies. the american journal of clinical nutrition, 36(5), 936-942. https://doi.org/10.1177/00315125221135669 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 472 borazan, h. (2015) physical activity levels of female students studying at niğde university, physical education and sports school. niğde university institute of social sciences physical education and sports department, niğde. buckworth, j. ve, & nigg, c. (2004) physical activity, exercise, and sedentary behavior in college students. journal of american college health, 53(1), 28-34. bulut, s. (2013). a social determinant of health; physical activity. turkish journal of hygiene and experimental biology, 70(4), 205-214. c ağıran, i .h. (2018). nutrition, ergogenic support usage and physical activity status of students in my adnan menderes university sports teams. master thesis, adnan menderes u niversitesi, aydın. craig, c.l., marshall, a.l., sjo stro m, m., bauman, a.e., booth, m.l., ainsworth, b.e., pratt, m., ekelund, u., yngve, a., sallis, j.f., & oja, p. (2003). international physical activity questionnaire: 12-country reliability and validity. medicine & science in sports & exercise, 35, 1381-1395. dever, a. (2008). sports with its sociological dimensions. cumhuriyet university institute of social sciences, master thesis, sivas. durukan, e., & göktepe, m. (2020). vertical jump performance in female volleyball players acutely applied different effect of stretching exercises. atatürk university journal of physical education and sport sciences, 22(4), 148157. i̇mamoğlu, a. f. (1992). some observations on turkish sports towards two thousand years. journal of gazi education faculty, 8(1), 9-19. iordan, d. a., mocanu, g. d., mocanu, m. d., munteanu, c., constantin, g. b., ilie, o. n. u., & nechifor, a. (2021). age-related, sport-specific dysfunctions of the shoulder and pelvic girdle in athletes table tennis players. observational study. balneo and prm research journal, 12(4), 337344. is ık, o., ozarslan, a., & bekler, f. (2015). the relationship between physical activity, sleep quality and depression in university students. journal of physical education and sport sciences, 9(special issue), 65-73. kalaycı, m.c., eroğlu, h. (2016). investigation of sexual life in adult men by physical activity level. cbu journal of physical education and sport sciences. keyf, e. (2018). examination of physical activity levels of individuals who do sports. erzincan binali yıldırım university institute of health sciences department of physical education and sports, erzincan. investigation of physical activity levels of eligible students in terms of … erdil durukan, et al. 473 kilci, a.k. (2019). the ultimate in sports and digital gaming: espor. ankara: gazi bookstore. kilci, a.k., & yalçıner, s. (2020). the effect of motivation to play digital sports games on moral decision-making attitudes: a study on esports players. international social sciences studies journal, 6(68), 3641-3649. kırbaş, ş. (2020). investigation of the relationship between physical activity level and quality of life of provincial directorate of youth and sports personnel. gazi journal of physical education and sports sciences, 213-224. kızar, o., kargün, m., togo, t.o., biner, m., & pala, a. (2019). examining the physical activity levels of university students. marmara university journal of sport sciences, 1(1), 63-74. küçük, e.ö. (2012). determination of physical activity levels of children with cerebral palsy and comparison with physical activity levels of children with normal development. hacettepe university, institute of health sciences, master thesis, ankara. miller, d. j., freedson, p. s., & kline, g. m. (1994). comparison of activity levels using the caltrac accelerometer and five questionnaires. medicine and science in sports and exercise, 26(3), 376-382. öztürk, m. (2005). validity and reliability of international physical activity questionnaire (ipaq) and determination of physical activity level in university students. master thesis, hacettepe university, ankara. rus, c.m., talaghir, l-g., iconomescu, t.m, petrea, r.g., (2019). curriculum changes in secondary school physical education and sport subject in the romanian education system. journal of research and social intervention, 66, 342363. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.66.20 sallis, j. f., haskell, w. l., wood, p. d., fortmann, s. p., rogers, t., blair, s. n., & paffenbarger jr, r. s. (1985). physical activity assessment methodology in the five-city project. american journal of epidemiology, 121(1), 91-106. şanli, e., & güzel, n. a. (2009). the relationship between physical activity levelage, gender and body mass index in teachers. gazi journal of physical education and sports sciences, 14(3), 23-32. solmaz, d. y., & aydın, g. (2016). physical activity levels of students studying at the faculty of sports sciences. i̇nönü university journal of physical education and sport sciences, 3(1), 34-46. steptoe, a., wardle, j., fuller, r., holte, a., justo, j., sanderman, r., & wichstrom, l. (1997). leisure-time physical exercise: prevalence, attitudinal correlates, https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.66.20 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 474 and behavioral correlates among young europeans from 21 countries. preventive medicine, 26, 845-54. tabachnick, b. g., fidell, l. s., & ullman, j. b. (2007). using multivariate statistics (vol. 5). pearson. yaman, i̇. (2021). examining the physical activity and activity status of university students by age and gender. selcuk university, institute of health sciences, department of physical education and sports, konya. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 321-346 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/391 submitted: june 16th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ukrainian and foreign pedagogues as the basis of modern neuropedagogy svitlana tsymbalslatvinska 1 , borys maksymchuk 2 , volodymyr saienko 3 , inna babii 4 , liudmyla behas 5 , maryna lemeshchuk 6 , olena chepka 7 , taisiia dychok 8 , iryna maksymchuk 9 1 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, lanatsimbal@gmail.com 2 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, 0674256781@ukr.net 3 academy of applied sciences – academy of management and administration, opole, poland, saienko22@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2736-0017 4 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, in77na77@ukr.net 5 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, begasld@ukr.net 6 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, marina.lemeschuk@meta.ua 7 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, helenn.c@ukr.net 8 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, taya5petrovna@gmail.com 9 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, 0963113686@ukr.net abstract: it is extremely important to reconsider psycho-pedagogical experience in the problem of intellectual education that is mainly highlighted on the pages of the leading periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”. the research hypothesis is the possibility of using the pedagogical experience of the journal’s co-authors to justify the basic principles of neuropedagogy, which became widespread after its publication had ended. the research aims to identify and generalize the main areas of intellectual education on the pages of the journal based on a holistic retrospective analysis of professional publications and, thus, identify the factual material and theoretical approaches which have formed the basis of modern neuropedagogy. research methods involve a set of general scientific and psychopedagogical methods: systematic search methods (identification, theoretical analysis and systematization of historical-and-pedagogical works and materials of pedagogical periodicals); historical-and-retrospective methods (analysis of the content and characteristics of reflection and solving of problems related to intellectual education on the pages of the journal); comparative methods (comparison of events, phenomena and facts mentioned in the journal, in particular, the views of national and international theorists and practitioners on the problems of intellectual education, which have formed the basis of modern neuropedagogy). in the paper, theoretical generalization and a new approach to solving a topical problem of generalizing the main areas of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical, namely, the problem of intellectual education in the context of developing an idea on the individual’s harmonious development; a comprehensive approach to the problem of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical; the problem of intellectual development as the basis of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “; promotion of cognitive activity and independence as an effective means of intellectual education; pedagogical views on the problem of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical; foreign experience in promoting intellectual education on the pages of the periodical have been presented. the stages in the history of forming and developing the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” (1937–1991) have been concretized following the status and subordination. particular facts, concepts and problems of the prominent educational journal in the context of establishing the ideas of neuropedagogy and neuropsychology have been specified. the significance of pedagogical periodicals as an important source of psycho-pedagogical research has been justified. keywords: sovetskaya pedagogika (periodical); professional-pedagogical periodicals; historical and pedagogical experience; retrospective analysis; foreign experience; stages of development; neuropedagogy; neuropsychology. how to cite: tsymbal-slatvinska, s., maksymchuk, b., saienko, v., babii, i., behas, l., lemeshchuk, m., chepka, o., dychok, t., & maksymchuk, i. (2022). psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ukrainian and foreign pedagogues as the basis of modern neuropedagogy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 321-346. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/391 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/391 mailto:lanatsimbal@gmail.com mailto:0674256781@ukr.net mailto:saienko22@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2736-0017 mailto:in77na77@ukr.net mailto:begasld@ukr.net mailto:marina.lemeschuk@meta.ua mailto:helenn.c@ukr.net mailto:taya5petrovna@gmail.com mailto:0963113686@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/391 psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 322 introduction to create the future in modern pedagogy, it is necessary to acquire knowledge of the history of psycho-pedagogical science and be able to analyze it. however, only taking into account all achievements and failures, one can modernize theoretical and methodological principles of the education process. soviet pedagogy is part of the history of ukrainian psychopedagogical science. it cannot be eradicated, cancelled or erased from memory, despite its disadvantages, namely, dependence on party doctrine, dissociation with real education issues, the search for an ideal student and teacher without taking into account the interests of the individual, insufficient development of theoretical and methodological principles of education, which were replaced with a generalized progressive experience of teachers. a distinctive feature of soviet anthropology was a critical attitude towards the so-called “pseudotheories”, including psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, psychology of sex, neurodidactic. however, the pedagogical practice of the soviet union did take into account neurophysiological characteristics of the educational process. of particular significance are the periodicals as they serve as a particular “treasury” of the sources of the era, a “repository” of a great amount of actual material needed to study the peculiarities of solving specific problems within a certain historical period. most of these problems were solved only at the turn of the 21st century, when the accumulated factual material was analyzed not only in the context of humanities but also of psychophysiology, medicine, neuropsychology and neuropedagogy. the soviet press underwent significant ideological pressure since it was obligatory for psycho-pedagogical research to be based on communism and marxism views. numerous research findings and innovative scientific ideas were not promoted because of their inconsistency with contemporary ideologies or prevailing pedagogical concepts. yet all these achievements, regardless of how they were evaluated – positively or negatively – possess their unique practical and scientific value, which actualizes the problem of this research. therefore, it is extremely important to reconsider psycho-pedagogical experience in the problem of intellectual education that is mainly highlighted on the pages of the leading periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”. nowadays, this experience can be considered both in terms of recognizing psychological individuality of a person and the specifics of his or her brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 323 this monthly scientific and theoretical journal of the academy of pedagogical sciences of the ussr published in moscow during 1937–1991. zilbershtein & popkov (1959) became the first researchers of pedagogical periodicals. nowadays, the problems of pedagogical periodicals development are considered by halaidiuk et al (2018), loboda (2010a; 2010b), maksymchuk et al (2018), puhach (2005; 2008), et al. of great importance are the publications on the problems of pedagogical periodicals, created by researchers at different stages of developing the historical and pedagogical science. the most valuable among them are “pedagogicheskaia bibliografiia. the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” has been studied by rustamova (2009) in her research titled “vklad uchenykh respublik srednei azii i kazakhstana v razvitie pedagogicheskoi nauki: po materіalam zhurnala “sovetskaia pedagogika”. among a few historiographic sources in the context of our research, special attention should be paid to “bibliografiia statei, opublikovannykh v zhurnale “pedagogika” (“sovetskaya pedagogika”) v 1937–2002” (“sovetskaya pedagogika”)) during 1937–2002 (moscow, 2003) and a bibliographical index “pedahohichna nauka na storinkakh zhurnalu “sovetskaya pedagogika” (1937–1991), compiled by pobirchenko (2010). different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (bakhmat et al., 2019; behas et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; gerasymova et al., 2019; halaidiuk et al., 2018; kaletnik et al., 2011; maksymchuk et al., 2018; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; petrova, 2017; melnyk et al., 2019; sitovskyi et al., 2019; sheremet et al., 2019). one should also consider the research findings on the problem under study in the context of other problems of psycho-pedagogical science by such scholars as pobirchenko (2010). levinsson and norlund (2018) have conducted a critical analysis of the modern press in terms of taking into account the brain features in teaching and learning. o. sukhomlynska (2007) has developed a methodology for studying new pedagogical theories in the historical discourse of the second half of the 20 th century. however, the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” has not yet been analyzed for the presence of neuropedagogical and neuropsychological ideas. thus, historiographical analysis of the research problem indicates a significant number of scientific works dedicated to the intellectual development of the individual (bell, 2016). however, there is a lack of holistic and comprehensive studies on theoretical and methodological psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 324 principles of intellectual education in the soviet union, as reflected on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”. besides, the achievements presented on the pages of the journal need to be considered in the light of new scientific paradigms at the intersection of socionomic and natural sciences. the relevance of this research is added by the fact that the limits, subject and prospects of neuropsychology and neuropedagogy are still widely discussed by scholars. given the large number of neuropsychological studies, academic psychology risks losing a particular subject of study (jäncke & petermann, 2010). it is well-known that neurosciences in education contribute to its improvement and, at the same time, create some problems due to the differences in the categorical apparatus and the impossibility of conducting research only by pedagogical methods. the term “neuropedagogy” is rarely used in western european scientific discourse. the neuropsychological approach dominates here. however, the so-called “neuroscience” (german “neurowissenschaft”) has become key in addressing the actual pedagogical issues of management, coaching, counselling and training (voigt, 2019, p. 339). these issues, however, were already covered under other categories at a time when the “neuro” had not yet penetrated the humanitarian sphere. the research aims to identify and generalize the main areas of intellectual education on the pages of the journal based on a holistic retrospective analysis of professional publications and, thus, identify the factual material and theoretical approaches which have formed the basis of modern neuropedagogy. the method of extrapolating the problems of intellectual education research methods involve a set of general scientific and psychopedagogical methods: systematic search methods (identification, theoretical analysis and systematization of psycho-pedagogical works and materials of pedagogical periodicals); historical-and-retrospective methods (analysis of the content and characteristics of reflection and solving of problems related to intellectual education on the pages of “sovetskaya pedagogika” (1937– 1991); comparative methods (comparison of events, phenomena and facts mentioned in the journal, in particular, the views of ukrainian and foreign theorists and practitioners on the problems of intellectual education). they were employed to achieve the research aim, realize research objectives and verify the research hypothesis. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 325 chronological boundaries of the research stretch over the years from 1937 to 1991. the lower chronological boundary starts in 1937, that is the year of the foundation of the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” as the body of the people’s commissariat of the russian sfsr. the upper chronological boundary reaches 1991 as the journal has been published under the new name “pedagogika” since 1992. the sources of the research include publications on intellectual education on the pages of the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” (1937–1991), monographs and scientific historical-and-pedagogical works, dissertations and publications on topics related to the problem under study. the research also employed the collections of vernadsky national library of ukraine, v. o. sukhomlynskyi state scientific and pedagogical library of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, the national parliamentary library in kyiv. the method of extrapolating the problems of intellectual education on the pages of the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” to theoretical principles of modern neuropedagogy and neuropsychology was employed to compare and draw theoretical analogies. in the first part on “the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” during 1937–1991 in the context of the general historical and pedagogical process”, theoretical and methodological principles of the research have been analyzed; the process of forming and developing the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” during 1937–1991 as the leading soviet pedagogical journal has been justified. in the second part on “topical problems of intellectual education in the context of forming pedagogy on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” during 1937–1991)”, the problem of intellectual education in the context of developing an idea of the individual’s harmonious development has been characterized; a comprehensive approach to the problem of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” has been analyzed; the problem of intellectual development as the basis of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” has been justified; the process of promoting cognitive activity and independence as an effective means of intellectual education has been revealed. in the third part on “the problem of intellectual education through the prism of ukrainian and foreign pedagogy on the pages of the leading soviet pedagogical periodical”, the peculiarities of pedagogical views on the problem of intellectual education on the pages of the leading pedagogical periodical have psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 326 been characterized; foreign experience in promoting intellectual education in the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” has been specified. the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” in the context of the general psycho-pedagogical process an important aspect of determining theoretical and methodological principles of the research has become clarification of the concept of “intellectual education”, its formation and development at different historical stages to comprehend its essence. based on the conducted analysis, it can be stated that the problem of intellectual education has been considered at all stages of forming pedagogy as a science. therefore, the essence and the content of the concept have undergone some changes under the influence of social requirements. however, only in the 1990s a new period in the anthropology development was called the “century of the brain”, and didactic began to rely directly on the achievements of neurology. it has been found that psycho-pedagogical press as an important source of pedagogical data on the problem of intellectual education at different levels of education development was the focus of both psychopedagogical research since it accumulated significant actual material that is of scientific and social value. the soviet press underwent significant ideological pressure since it was obligatory for psycho-pedagogical research to be based on communism and marxism views rather than neurobiological patterns. hence, numerous research findings and innovative scientific ideas were not promoted because of their inconsistency with contemporary ideologies or prevailing pedagogical concepts. yet all these achievements, regardless of how they were evaluated – positively or negatively – possess their unique practical and scientific value, which actualizes the problem of this research. it should be noted that the problem of intellectual education has gained significant attention on the pages of the leading pedagogical periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” since the individual in the soviet school should have been intelligent enough to be able to solve any task at a high scientific level. however, intellectual education in the soviet period played not a leading but important role in preparing students for adult life, professional activity, forming moral and aesthetic values, that is, developing a harmonious personality able to effectively perform professional duties. the main difference between theories of brain development in the context of pedagogy was the movement from social to personal, not vice versa. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 327 the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” was characterized by thematic diversity, controversy and discussion, justification of materials, high scientific, theoretical and methodical level of publications. even though modern psycho-pedagogical studies criticize soviet pedagogy for being ideologized and dependent on sociopolitical circumstances, the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”, despite a constant party pressure, ideological colouring and various directives, was one of the main factors in forming the content of education, organization and methodology of teaching and learning, as well as determined the main trends in developing sociopolitical, pedagogical and polytechnical orientation of education. to study the theoretical and methodological principles of the research, the theoretical framework of the research has been analyzed based on three main groups of sources: the first group of sources includes the researches in psychopedagogical periodicals (loboda, 2010c; pugach, 2008; zilbershtein & popkov, 1959). the second group of sources implies researching the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”: a bibliographic edition “bibliografiia statei, opublikovannykh v zhurnale “pedagogika” (“sovetskaya pedagogika”) v 1937‒2002” (“sovetskaya pedagogika”) during 1937‒2002)), prepared in 2003 to the 60th anniversary of the russian academy of education; a bibliographic index “pedahohichna nauka na storinkakh zhurnalu “sovetskaya pedagogika” (1937–1991)”. the third group of sources consists of the publications on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”, which directly or indirectly covered the problems relevant to a neuropedagogical approach. according to this approach to developing the problem of intellectual education, five main thematic groups of the publications on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” have been singled out: – the problem of intellectual education in the context of developing an idea on the individual’s harmonious development; – a comprehensive approach to the problem of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”; – the problem of intellectual development as the basis of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” and promotion of cognitive activity and independence as an effective means of intellectual education; psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 328 – pedagogical views on the problem of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”; – foreign experience in promoting intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”. the conducted analysis has allowed distinguishing several stages in the history of forming and developing the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” following the status and subordination: 1) 1937–1943 – the body of the people’s commissariat of the rsfsr; 2) 1944–1966 – the body of the academy of pedagogical sciences of the rsfsr; 3) 1967–1991 – the body of the academy of pedagogical sciences of the ussr. simultaneously, each of these stages is marked with significant changes in the priority tasks of the pedagogical periodical, among which, undoubtedly, creating a soviet pedagogical science. the publications in “sovetskaya pedagogika” covered a wide range of pedagogical problems, were characterized by a high level of validity and reliability and associated with the education process. therefore, it is relevant to conduct solid researches on both the theory of education and the history of pedagogy. it must be noted that 52.1% of the authors used objective scientific arguments, whereas 16.5% of them applied statistical data; their inferences were supported with quotations in 57.7% of the publications, yet materials without previous theoretical justification were found in 34.2% of the papers. the factual and statistical material accumulated in that period now acquires new significance since it can be analyzed taking into account modern approaches, namely, neurocybernetics, neuropsychology, psychology of sex, psychology of children with special educational needs. besides, the most priority were the papers on the theory of pedagogy (50.5% of the total number), the history of pedagogy (24.9%), theoretical and methodological principles of education (12.6%), while only 1.4% of the papers were dedicated to intellectual education that indicates little attention paid to this problem. however, the analyzed literary sources on the research problem have allowed finding partial material in the papers dedicated to the study on related problems. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 329 topical problems of intellectual education in the context of developing psycho-pedagogical science on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” the analysis of the publications on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” (1937–1991) shows a considerable interest of soviet theorists and practitioners in the problem of intellectual education. among them, we have singled out those that covered the most topical problems of contemporary pedagogy, directly or indirectly related to the problem of intellectual education. it must be noted that the problem of intellectual education in soviet pedagogical theory and practice was considered primarily in the context of developing an idea on the individual’s harmonious development. the range of issues the state and society were facing reflected on education since top priority was to educate a harmonious individual able to solve complicated tasks. therefore, they used a comprehensive approach that combined different types of education in one category – the individual’s harmonious development. in “a pure form”, the essence and the content of neuropedagogy on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” were paid insignificant attention, taking into account a prevailing ideological and moral orientation of pedagogy during the study period. in most cases, intellectual education was considered in complex with other types of education (communist, moral, aesthetic, labour). its essence was determined based on the concept of “the individual’s harmonious development”, which was almost considered to be an aspect of state policy in education. it has been found that the party’s political influence on the education process was recognized as leading in developing the system of intellectual education. in the context of the mentioned above, the papers on education and, in particular, intellectual education published in the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” were extremely ideologized. the main objectives of contemporary education, which set priorities in forms and methods for forming harmoniously developed personality, were determined by the needs of economic, political and cultural development of society rather than the needs of personal development. thus, soviet education was precisely based on the state interests that significantly influenced all aspects of public life, including the concept of personal development. psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 330 based on the analysis of the sources, the problem of forming harmoniously developed personality emerged from a general concept of a comprehensive approach to education in the soviet period, whose essence implied educational impact on the student in collective terms, taking into account their characteristics, without reducing the identity to their totality (filonov, 1978; monoszon, 1987). this concept directly correlates with the problem of harmonious development of the right (emotional) and left (logical) hemispheres of the brain, as well as with the neuropsychological theory of the human psyche’s integrity. having analyzed the publications on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”, we outlined the following approaches to intellectual education, which are the components of a comprehensive approach to education: a systemand activity-based approach, a phenomenological approach, a functional approach, a sociologizing approach, a biologizing approach. today, personal phenomenology (personal mental modality), functions, capabilities of the human brain and their biological basis are the direct subject of neuropsychology. several important aspects of a comprehensive approach to intellectual education, discussed on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”, have been specified. they are the aim (goals) of intellectual education, the cohesion of intellectual education, learning and development, the interrelation between intellectual education and other types of the education process; the peculiarities of intellectual education in different types of educational institutions; the problem of a differentiated approach to intellectual education (an individual approach in education; taking into account age and individual characteristics of the students); a combination of biological and social aspects in intellectual education. it must be noted that a rather negative aspect was the reduction of biological and individual psychophysiological factors. it has been revealed that in the context of a comprehensive approach to intellectual education it is important to consider the problems of intellectual development as the basis of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”, namely, various aspects of the thinking process and its development (types of thinking, peculiarities of thinking that complicate learning and appropriate ways to overcome them), peculiarities of intellectual abilities, the problem of forming skills and abilities of intellectual activity, the ways to develop thinking, etc. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 331 as for other important aspects of intellectual education highlighted on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”, the following ones related to neuropedagogy and neuropsychology should be distinguished: psychodiagnostics and psychocortication aimed at improving the students’ progress and intellectual development (gilbukh & rychik, 1976; gurevich et al, 1989); forming the methods of intellectual activity and their classification, kabanova-meller (1975); communicating (communicative connections) as a factor of intellectual development effectiveness, bodalev (1990); an emotional component as an important condition for developing the students’ creative skills and forming their interest in learning, tkachev (1978). as shown by the analysis of the publications on the pages of “sovetskaya pedagogika”, one of the important trends in enhancing cognitive activity aimed at intellectual development of the individual is the promotion of cognitive activity and independence as an effective means of intellectual education. such scholars as kraievskyi et al. (1981), kraievskyi (1984), mochalova (1981), palamarchuk & palamarchuk (1979), vilkeev & gabidullin (1979) et al. analyzed various aspects of the problem under study: a mechanism of intellectual education as a set of methods and tools aimed at target influence on student personality; a comprehensive study on the application of teaching methods (explanation, comparison, problem-based learning, etc.); tools (means) of educational influence (educational cognitive tasks and calculation tasks, word as a symbol, evaluation, etc.). the above-mentioned generalizations of the problems in the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” and the key areas of modern neuropedagogy can be compared in the form of table 1 (it contains analogies having common factual and ontological nature). tab. 1. generalizations of the problems in the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” and the key areas of modern neuropedagogy the problems of the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” the problems of neuropedagogy psychodiagnostics and psychocorrection taking into account individual features of temperament, perception and symptom-related complexes of character conducting neurodiagnostics and establishing new neural connections identifying and taking into account individual neuropsychological and neurophysiological features (perceptualand-sensory and cognitive features; the lateral profile of the pupil’s brain) psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 332 involving pupils with special needs into the educational process and society preventing chronic and occupational diseases of participants in the pedagogical process activating intellectual activity (problembased learning, problem-based approach) inclusion of pupils with the characteristics of psychophysical development identifying and correcting didactogenic diseases and deviations neurodidactic assessment of the influence of educational conditions and stressors using functional asymmetry of the brain, activating groups of neurons source: authors' own conception there are some observations on correctional pedagogy, rehabilitation training, recreation and speech therapy on the pages of the journal under study. in the soviet union, however, these areas of knowledge were clearly divided into pedagogical and non-pedagogical (clinical psychology, medicine, physical therapy). the main problem was not so much the non-recognition of neurodidactics, as bringing it beyond the limits of pedagogy. under the conditions of scientific holism (a holistic approach), neuropedagogy has contributed to eliminating the barrier between the natural (biological), the human universal (social and cultural) and the personal (psychological). the issues which are now related to neurodidactic were studied on the premises of segregated institutions, namely, clinics, institutes of neurosurgery and practical psychology. therefore, it could not appear on the pages of humanitarian publications in its “pure form”. swedish specialists in neurodidactic state that the previous pedagogical experience of western europe used to largely include neuropedagogical observations and generalizations. thus, the medical aspects of school education date back to the 18 th century, although they became the subject of special neuropedagogical research only in the 1970s (bengtsson, 2018, p. 2). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 333 the problem of intellectual education through the prism of ukrainian and foreign pedagogy and psychology on the pages of the leading soviet pedagogical periodical as evidenced by the conducted analysis, a significant role belonged to the publications by well-known ukrainian and foreign pedagogues at all stages of forming and developing the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”. it has been found that the problem of intellectual education on the pages of “sovetskaya pedagogika” was covered mainly through the prism of the psycho-pedagogical heritage of ukrainian and foreign pedagogues and psychologists, such as korolev (1960), mikhailova (1983), smirnov, (1960), sukhomlynskyi (2003; 2007), zankov (1969) et al. the studies have numerous neuropsychological and pedagogical observations. in the 19 th century, ushynskyi (2020) defined the neuropsychological principles of didactics based on the “soul – body with nerves” relationship (p. 235). at the same time, such aspects on the pages of the analyzed journal were ignored. based on the analysis of the periodical’s content, it can be concluded that there was a lively discussion of pedagogical concepts, including intellectual education among both well-known and little-known pedagogues and psychologists. of great importance are the publications by smirnov (1939), klarin & leiko (1984), komarova (1985). despite an incomplete justification of forming theoretical principles of intellectual education in the outlined publications, they allowed, to some extent, determining the basic principles of intellectual education. moreover, the journal discussed issues of developmental pedagogy and psychology and methods of their study, which fully corresponds to the main object of neuropedagogy (age dynamics of the brain and psyche and its impact on the educational process). of great interest to our research is the study of foreign experience in promoting intellectual education, found on the pages of the leading periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”. the problems of pedagogy were studied based on the experience of the pedagogues and psychologists from poland, bulgaria, german democratic republic, as well as those countries following similar ideological principles and scientific basis of the works of marxist educators from the capitalist countries. as evidenced by the analysis, the bulgarian approach to intellectual education was characterized by profound methodological principles. psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 334 moreover, they implemented a special course on “intellectual activity development”. the main attention was paid to the students’ mastering different techniques of intellectual activity, the system of intellectual operations, kasvin (1984). according to several publications on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”, it can be concluded that the education systems of poland, banakh (1984), “sovremennye problemy, tseli i zadachi polskogo prosveshcheniia” (modern problems, goals and objectives of polish education)) and the german democratic republic were less oriented towards intellectual education, noiner (1969), “o novykh uchebnykh planakh i programmakh shkoly gdr” (on new syllabi and programmes at gdr school)). in general, socialist pedagogy paid some attention to the need to solve methodological problems of intellectual education, including recognizing the role of psychology, yet intellectual education was subordinated to the need to disseminate communist ideology and was considered within the concept of the individual’s harmonious development. the analysis of pedagogical achievements in intellectual education in france is presented by two approaches, namely, pedagogical views on intellectual education, based on marxist ideology, represented by the works of sekle-riu (1960) et al.; the concept of “bourgeois” educators. as the analysis shows, the study of foreign experience was mainly based on criticism of intellectual education organization in capitalist counties. yet the most perspective pedagogical researches were considered those that supported socialist ideology. the most vivid example of promoting “bourgeois” concepts of intellectual education can be the united states, whose education system greatly influenced education systems of different countries in the world. these reasons make it difficult to find categories and terms on the pages of the journal that would prove the close proximity of pedagogy and neurophysiology. in the publications dedicated to studying foreign experience in socialist and capitalist countries, the works of marxist educators in england and france mostly criticized the biologizing concept of education and emphasized on the effectiveness of intellectual development because of its educational impact on the students. indeed, socialist pedagogy considered the need to solve methodological problems of intellectual education (including the recognition of psychology). simultaneously, intellectual education was subordinated to broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 335 the needs of communist ideology and was viewed through the concept of the individual’s harmonious development. capitalist pedagogy preferred the biological concept of education, even though humanistic ideas were greatly influencing the concept of education as a whole. it must be noted that since the 1980s, the publications in “sovetskaya pedagogika” have indicated a decline in the biologizing concept of education due to an increasing influence of humanistic ideas combined with an objective need to ensure high quality of general education, manifested in promoting humanistic and optimistic approaches. in the journal, biological accents were qualified as biologizing and criticized as unscientific. also, on the pages of “sovetskaya pedagogika” one can find critical analysis of various foreign theories and concepts of intellectual education in the context of soviet pedagogical views: the problem of education individualization as the most effective means of the individual’s intellectual development, the cognitive concept of western social psychology, technological theory, etc. determining and generalizing the main trends in intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” in the paper, theoretical generalization and a new approach to solving a topical problem of determining and generalizing the main trends in intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” during 1937–1991 have been presented. such a historical discourse is currently relevant for clarifying the origins of neuroscience. becker (2014) claims that the objectification of links between neuroscience and pedagogy has gained popularity in the last ten years. however, it is worth studying the previous experience as well (since the 1990s). it will help identify the trends in development and the strong methodological and factual basis of interaction between these sciences, becker (2014). it has been found that an important precursor of the neuropsychological research on the problem of intellectual education is pedagogical press since it accumulates knowledge of pedagogical phenomena, trends, pedagogical theories and covers new pedagogical ideas, professional achievements. simultaneously, it is a valuable source of information for practising teachers. to a large extent, pedagogical press highlights pedagogical concepts and contributes to their presentation and approbation without taking into account reflection of actual information. psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 336 the problem of intellectual education has been significantly emphasized on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” – a monthly scientific and theoretical journal of the academy of pedagogical sciences of the ussr, published in moscow during 1937–1991. during this time, topical aspects of psycho-pedagogical science, namely, education, teaching and learning, methodology, development of ukrainian and foreign education systems have been highlighted on its pages. based on the analysis of the bibliography, three groups of sources have been singled out: the researches in pedagogical periodicals; the process of researching the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”; the publications on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”, which directly or indirectly covered the problems of intellectual education (the problem of intellectual education in the context of developing an idea on the individual’s harmonious development; a comprehensive approach to the problem of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”, the problem of intellectual development as the basis of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”; the promotion of cognitive activity and independence as an effective means of intellectual education; pedagogical views on the problem of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”; foreign experience in promoting intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”). thus, the analysis of theoretical and methodological principles of the research proves that the problem of intellectual education on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” has a profound source foundation. however, neuropedagogical ideas were hidden or deliberately ignored. the history of forming and developing the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” in the context of soviet pedagogy has been characterized. the analysis has allowed specifying several stages in its history following the status and subordination: 1) 1937–1943 – the body of the people’s commissariat of the rsfsr; 2) 1944–1966 – the body of the academy of pedagogical sciences of the rsfsr; 3) 1967–1991 – the body of the academy of pedagogical sciences of the ussr. simultaneously, each of these stages is marked with significant changes in the priority tasks of the pedagogical periodical, among which, undoubtedly, creating a soviet pedagogical science. it has been clarified that since its foundation the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” has become an authoritative scientific edition for broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 337 the psycho-pedagogical community (one can trace historical and social preconditions for developing neuropedagogy as a science on the pages of the periodical) and the main “messenger” of the latest ideas in the system of educational, cultural and social processes. the generalization of the history and functioning of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” has allowed revealing the range of its peculiarities under the conditions of soviet pedagogy and psychology. first of all, the process of developing the soviet press was mainly based on the need to promote totalitarian ideology and disseminate marxism-leninism. despite education ideologization, pedagogy gradually developed as an interdisciplinary science, the scientific level of publications was strengthened, theoretical and methodological principles of neuropedagogy were established. psychological principles of pedagogy were eventually considered, initially rejected because of common theoretical principles with pedology (pseudoscience in pedagogy). besides, the views of foreign scholars on pedagogy, including in bourgeois countries, were taken into account. the main trends in intellectual education in the context of forming neuropedagogy on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” have been determined. first, the problem of intellectual education was mainly considered in the context of developing an idea on the individual’s harmonious development, since it was considered one of the top priority objectives within the state policy in education. according to the analysis of the publications in “sovetskaya pedagogika”, the comprehensive and harmonious development of the individual in the context of intellectual education included the following trends: vocational orientation and labour training; the combination of labour and education; physical labour intellectualization; ideological training and scientific outlook development; the unity of intellectual and physical development of the individual due to intellectual training and physical education; the unity of intellectual, volitional and emotional development; participation in all types of human activities, which would maximize individuality development; provision of education based on communist principles and related to real life. secondly, the problem of forming harmoniously developed personality emerged from a general concept of a comprehensive approach to education in the soviet period, whose essence implied educational impact on the student in collective terms, taking into account their characteristics, without reducing the identity to their totality. among other important aspects of a comprehensive approach to intellectual education, discussed on psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 338 the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” are the aim (goals) of intellectual education, the cohesion of intellectual education, learning and development, the interrelation between intellectual education and other types of the education process; the peculiarities of intellectual education in different educational institutions; the problem of a differentiated approach to intellectual education (an individual approach in education; taking into account age and individual characteristics of the students); a combination of biological and social aspects in intellectual education, etc. thirdly, in the context of a comprehensive approach to intellectual education, it is important to consider the problems which are currently the subject of neuropedagogy, namely, various aspects of the thinking process and its development (types of thinking, peculiarities of thinking that complicate learning and appropriate ways to overcome them), peculiarities of intellectual abilities, the problem of forming skills and abilities of intellectual activity, the ways to develop thinking, psychodiagnostics and psychocortication aimed at improving the students’ progress and intellectual development, the process of forming the methods of intellectual activity and their classification, communication as a factor of intellectual development effectiveness, an emotional component as an important condition for developing the students’ creative skills and forming their interest in learning. the next topical problem, which was reflected on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” is the promotion of cognitive activity and independence as an effective means of intellectual education. on the pages of the periodical, the outlined aspect of the problem is analyzed in the following areas: a mechanism of intellectual education as a set of methods and tools aimed at target influence on student personality; a comprehensive study on the application of teaching methods (explanation, comparison, problem-based learning, etc.); tools (means) of educational influence (educational cognitive tasks and calculation tasks, word as a symbol, evaluation). here one can observe terms that are fully and in the same sense included in the toolset of neuropsychology: stimulation, symbol, cognition, cognitive activity. the peculiarities of pedagogical views on the problem of intellectual education on the pages of the leading pedagogical journal have been justified. as evidenced by the conducted analysis, a significant role belonged to the publications by well-known ukrainian and foreign pedagogues at all stages of forming and developing the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika”. it has been found that the problem of intellectual education on the pages of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 339 “sovetskaya pedagogika” was covered mainly through the prism of the pedagogical heritage of ukrainian and foreign pedagogues, such as smirnov (1960), sukhomlynskyi (2003; 2007), korolev (1960), mikhailova (1983), zankov (1969). it has been concluded that there was a lively discussion of pedagogical concepts, including intellectual education among both wellknown and little-known pedagogues. of great importance are the publications by smirnov (1939), et al. despite an incomplete justification of forming theoretical principles of intellectual education in the outlined publications, they allowed, to some extent, determining the basic principles of future neuropedagogy. foreign experience in organizing intellectual education in the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” has been revealed. the analysis of the publications covering foreign experience in organizing intellectual education in the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” has allowed distinguishing the main thematic groups: critical overview of the education concepts in the usa (borovikova &, panasenko, 1987), criticism of the biologizing concept of intellectual development in the usa and england (gilbukh, 1976), analysis of the concept of education in france, which embodied conservatism (dzhurinskii, 1987), overview of the prevailing pedagogical concepts in the usa in the 1980s (dmitriev, 1986), analysis of the concept of comprehensive intellectual development and the aim of intellectual education in socialist countries (kasvin, 1984), critical analysis of the theory of errors and other biologizing concepts in the west (kuzminskaia, 1989), justification of the changes in education and approaches to intellectual education abroad (malkova, 1990), overview of positive aspects of education individualization in the usa and germany and its simultaneous criticism based on ideological positions, filipovskii (1979), consideration of the possibility of using the theory of conflicts (usa) in intellectual education, criticism of behaviouristic and biologizing approaches to education in france and england (salimova, 1977; 1978), analysis of the content of publications by french pedagogues on the pages of the journal “shliakh osvity” (the path of education) (sukhomlynska, 2003; 2007) et al. such criticism rejected biological and neurological approaches and, at the same time, took them into account using different categories since the actual experience showed the need to consider natural and acquired individual psychophysical features. a distinctive feature of the considered publications was a positive attitude toward pedagogical ideas in socialist countries or those expressed by psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 340 marxist educators abroad, while a negative attitude was observed mostly toward western ideological positions. it has been stated that the main topic of publications on foreign experience in organizing intellectual education was the criticism of the biologizing concept of education as “antiscientific” and preferring the sociologizing concept. however, since the 1980s, the publications in “sovetskaya pedagogika” have indicated a decline in the biologizing concept of education due to an increasing influence of humanistic ideas combined with an objective need to ensure high quality of general education, manifested in promoting humanistic and optimistic approaches. thus, progressive ideas of educators who published their materials on the pages of the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” are still relevant nowadays, given modern psycho-pedagogical achievements. the process of studying pedagogical heritage, innovative discoveries of contemporary scholars forms the basis for reforming and developing a modern system of education. the periodical “sovetskaya pedagogika” remains a leading scientific and theoretical edition, which allows forming a pedagogical worldview, impartially highlights the achievements of pedagogy and education. the scientific value of the obtained results lies in the fact that: – for the first time, the basics and origins of neuropedagogy as a discipline about the problems of intellectual education (the problem of intellectual education in the context of elaborating the idea about harmonious development of personality; a complex approach to the problems of intellectual education on the pages of the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika”; the problem of personality’s intellectual development as the basis of intellectual education on the pages of the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika”; stimulating cognitive activity and independence as an effective way of intellectual education; pedagogical thought and problems of intellectual education on the pages of the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika”) and foreign experience of intellectual education justified and published in the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” (1937–1991) have been identified and summarized based on a comprehensive retrospective analysis of professional publications and description of characteristics of psycho-pedagogical thought; – the stages in the history of establishment and development of the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” (1937–1991) have been specified according to the status and subordination; certain facts from the history of the leading broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 341 educational journal in the context of developing soviet pedagogy have been clarified; – the importance of psycho-pedagogical periodicals as an important source of historical and pedagogical studies and a means of predicting the development of pedagogy has been justified. the little-known publications of the then existing pedagogical periodical, which expanded the modern knowledge about the peculiarities of solving the problem of intellectual education in publications on the pages of the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” (1937–1991) have been introduced to the scientific community. the research hypothesis was confirmed: despite the ban on the elaboration and publication of neuropsychological and neuropedagogical discourse in the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika”, there are numerous observations and significant factual material on the interaction between neurological disciplines and the theory of teaching and learning. facts, theoretical views and conclusions of the research can be used to solving scientific and practical problems at the present stage of developing psycho-pedagogical science. the systematized and generalized materials of the publications of the journal “sovetskaya pedagogika” (1937– 1991) can become the basis for further research on the history, history of pedagogy and textbooks and manuals on the history of pedagogy. besides, they can help to expand, supplement and update the content of the course “the history of pedagogy”. the obtained results can become a material for studying the history of neuropedagogy and its correlations with classical pedagogical theories. the conducted research has not revealed all aspects of the problem. the prospects for further researches imply studying neuropedagogical problems of intellectual education on the pages of other psycho-pedagogical editions, as well as topical problems of theory and practice of education in the history of ukrainian and foreign pedagogy, etc. references bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1323-1332. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 banakh, ch. (1984). modern problems, goals and objectives of polish education. soviet pedagogy, 2, 29–34. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 342 becker, n. (2014). mehr verstehen, besser handeln? zum verhältnis von pädagogik und neurowissenschaften [understand more, act better? on the relationship between education and neuroscience]. in r. fatke, & j. oelkers jürgen (eds.), das selbstverständnis der erziehungswissenschaft: geschichte und gegenwart [the self-understanding of educational science: past and present] (pp. 208225). beltz juventa. behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, m., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1333-1340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 bell, d. v. j. (2016). twenty first century education: transformative education for sustainability and responsible citizenship. journal of teacher education for sustainability, 18(1), 48-56. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1112451 bengtsson, m. (2018). neuropedagogik för skolan – dröm eller verklighet? [neuropedagogy for school dream or reality?] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. lund university. bezliudnyi o., kravchenko o., maksymchuk b., mishchenko m., maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 230. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 bodalev, а. а. (1990). psychological conditions for pedagogical communication humanization. soviet pedagogy, 12, 65–71. borovikova, о. n., &, panasenko, e. s. (1987). the problems of education in american pedagogy in the 1980s. soviet pedagogy, 11, 131–134. dmitriev, g. d. (1986). the problems of intellectual education in bourgeois pedagogy in the usa. soviet pedagogy, 5, 124–128. dzhurinskii, a. n. (1977). pedagogical traditionalism in france (alain’s concept). soviet pedagogy, 8, 130–136. filipovskii, v. ia. (1979). the problem of education individualization in modern bourgeois pedagogy. soviet pedagogy, 3, 123–130. filonov, g. h. (1978). outstanding pedagogical talent. soviet pedagogy, 9, 36–44. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11 (4), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 gilbukh, yu. z. (1976). bourgeois biologizing conceptions of intellectual abilities development of apologetics and criticism. soviet pedagogy, 12, 88–99. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 343 gilbukh, yu. z., & rychik, m. v. (1976). implementation of learning, developmental and diagnostic functions in the education process. soviet pedagogy, 7, 88–95. gurevich, k. m., akimova, m. k., & borisova, e. m. (1989). psychological correction of the students’ intellectual development. soviet pedagogy, 12, 48– 52. halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284-2291. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 jäncke, l., & petermann, f. (2010). zum verhältnis von biologie und psychologie [on the relationship between biology and psychology]. psychologische rundschau [psychological review], 61, 175179. https://doi.org/10.1026/0033-3042/a000044 kabanova-meller, e. n. (1975). teaching methods and their classification. soviet pedagogy, 2, 41–48. kaletnik, g. m., zabolotnyi, g. m., & kozlovskyi, s. v. (2011), «innovative models of strategic management economic potential within contemporary economic systems». actual problems of economics, 4(118), 3-11. kasvin, g. a., molchanova, n. p., & savina, a. k. (1984). improving the content of education. soviet pedagogy, 2, 119–124. klarin, v., & leiko, l. (1984). a. p. pinkevich (1884–1939). soviet pedagogy, 2, 114– 118. komarova, t. (1985). l. k. shleger. soviet pedagogy, 9, 109–111. korolev, f. f. (1960). v. p. vakhterov – an outstanding russian pedagogue (1853– 1924). soviet pedagogy, 1, 92–109. kraevskii, v. v., vysotskaia, s. i., & shubinskii, v. s. (1981). skills and abilities as a component of the content of general secondary education. soviet pedagogy, 10, 51–55. kraevskyi, v. v. (1984). the problem of the education process integrity in secondary school. soviet pedagogy, 9, 36–42. kuzminskaia, i. a. (1959). foreign pedagogues about the correction of the students’ mistakes. soviet pedagogy, 6, 87–96. levinsson, m., & norlund, a. (2018). en samtida diskurs om hjärnans betydelse för undervisning och lärande: kritisk analys av artiklar i lärarfackliga tidskrifter. utbildning och lärande, 12(1), 725. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 https://doi.org/10.1026/0033-3042/a000044 psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 344 loboda, s. m. (2010a). teacher’s pedagogical creativity on the pages of the national press in the 20th century: the contradiction of ideas. taras shevchenko luhansk national university. loboda, s. m. (2010b). the problem of teachers’ creativity on the pages of ukrainian pedagogical press in the 20th century: a brief bibliographic index. taras shevchenko luhansk national university. loboda, s. m. (2010c). ukrainian pedagogical periodical press in the 20th century: historical and bibliographical research. taras shevchenko luhansk national university. maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 malkova, z. a. (1990). pedagogical system of the future: school reforms in highly developed countries. soviet pedagogy, 12, 116–126. melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja [proceedings of the institute for pedagogical research], 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m mikhailova, m. v. (1983). the house of a free child (to the 125th birth anniversary of k. n. ventsel). soviet pedagogy, 4, 102–106. mochalova, n. m. (1981). the students’ cognitive activity under the conditions of developmental learning. soviet pedagogy, 12, 26–31. monoszon, e. i. (1987). age-appropriate pedagogy: formation and development. soviet pedagogy, 6, 62–66. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 noiner, g. o. (1969). on new syllabi and programmes at gdr school. soviet pedagogy, 10, 19–26. palamarchuk, v. i., & palamarchuk, v. f. (1979). sovetskaya pedagogika [soviet pedagogy], 3, 52–58. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=os_qnvaaaaaj&hl=ja petrova, i. v. (2017). renesansna kontseptsiia dozvillia za tvoramy petrarky [the renaissance concept of leisure in the works of petrarch]. national academy https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=os_qnvaaaaaj&hl=ja broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 345 of managerial staff of culture and arts herald, 3, 3 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vdakkkm_2017_3_3 pobirchenko, n. s. (2010). pedagogy on the pages of the periodical “soviet pedagogy” (1937– 1991): a bibliographic index. pp zhovtyi. puhach, a. (2005). on the issue of research methodology for periodical press. the collection of scientific papers “pedagogical sciences”, 40, 110–115. puhach, a. v. (2008). the problems of teacher training for professional activity in ukrainian pedagogical periodicals (the 1920s – early 1930s) [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. the institute for pedagogy of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv. rustamova, u. a. (2009). the contribution of the scholars from the republics of central asia and kazakhstan to pedagogy development: based on the materials of the periodical “soviet pedagogika” [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. vladimir state university for the humanities, vladimir. salimova, k. i. (1977). marxist educators’ criticism of the bourgeois concepts of education in england. soviet pedagogy, 5, 121–130. salimova, k. i. (1978). french marxist educators’ development of general theoretical problems in pedagogy. soviet pedagogy, 1, 135–143. sekle-riu, f. (1960). henri wallon – scholar, fighter, human. soviet pedagogy, 8, 92– 104. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education (2019). information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sitovskyi a., maksymchuk b., kuzmenko v., nosko y., korytko z., bahinska o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, v., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., sluysarenko, n. v., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532-1543. http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/123456789/12211 smirnov, v. z. (1939). n. a. dobroliubov’s didactic views (to the 150th birth anniversary). soviet pedagogy, 6, 99–104. smirnov, v. z. (1960). n. i. pirogov’s didactic views (to the 150th birth anniversary). soviet pedagogy, 11, 95–103. sukhomlynska, o. v. (2003). historical and pedagogical process: new approaches to common problems. apn. sukhomlynska, o. v. (2007). research methodology for historical and pedagogical realities in the late 20th century. education path, 4, 6–12. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=vdakkkm_2017_3_3 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/123456789/12211 psycho-pedagogical experience of intellectual education in the views of ... svitlana tsymbal-slatvinska et al. 346 tkachev, a. p. (1978). experience in studying the subject orientation of modern schoolchildren’s cognitive interests. soviet pedagogy, 12, 68–71. ushynskyi, k. d. (2020). selected pedagogical works. yurayt. vilkeev, d. v., & gabidullin, a. s. (1979). the method of explanation and its significance in intellectual development. soviet pedagogy, 3, 48–52. voigt, t. h. (2019). beratung, coaching und neurowissenschaft – produktive zusammenarbeit oder geschickte vermarktung? [coaching and neuroscience. productive cooperation or clever marketing?]. organisationsberatung, supervision, coaching [organizational consulting, supervision, coaching], 26, 339–350. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613019-00612-z zankov, l. v. (1969). memory and thinking in the student’s learning activity. soviet pedagogy, 10, 95–106. zilbershtein, a. i., & popkov, a. v. (1959). useful pedagogical research. soviet pedagogy, 5, 118–122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613-019-00612-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613-019-00612-z microsoft word brain_1_4.doc 85 resumen en español brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cerebro. investigación en sentido amplio sobre inteligencia artificial y neurociencia volumen 1, número 4 octubre 2010: otoño 2010 www.brain.edusoft.ro editor jefe: bogdan patrut 1. nuevo sistema combinado de medida para la predicción del fallo respiratorio en pacientes iraquíes con el síndrome de guillain-barré zaki noah hasan resumen el síndrome de guillain-barré (gbs) es una poli-radículo-neuropatía aguda post-infecciosa autoinmune, y es la más común neuropatía periférica que produce fallos respiratorios. el propósito del estudio es utilizar el “new combined scoring system” para la prevención del fracaso respiratorio, realizando para ello medidas selectivas sin aguardar a que ocurran situaciones de emergencia. pacientes y métodos: fueron estudiados cincuenta pacientes con gbs. ocho parámetros clínicos (incluyendo la progresión de pacientes hasta la extrema debilidad, tasa de respiración por minuto, recuento de la respiración (el número de dígitos que el paciente puede contar escuchando su respiración), presencia of debilidad en los músculos faciales (unilateral o bilateral), presencia de debilidad del músculo “bulbar”, debilidad del músculo flexor del cuello, y debilidad de los miembros) fueron seguidas para cada paciente y un cierto valor fue asignado a cada parámetro, mediante una combinación diseñada al tomar en cuenta todos los anteriores parámetros clínicos. resultados y discusión: quince pacientes (30%) fueron sometidos a nuestro estudio del fracaso respiratorio. existe una correlación altamente significativa entre el desarrollo del fracaso respiratorio y sus grados más bajos, así como con la suma total de unos 16 pacientes de entre los 30 observados (con un p-valor = 0.000). ninguna diferencia estadística significativa fue hallada observando la progresión hasta la debilidad máxima (con un p-valor de 0.675) y la debilidad de los músculos faciales (p-valor = 0.482). conclusión: los pacientes que obtuvieron un valor combinado por encima del 16.30 tienen un alto riesgo de fracaso respiratorio. 2. dónde vas, intelligencia artificial? rosemarie velik resumen la inteligencia artificial (ia) es una rama de las ciencias de la computación dedicada a conseguir que los ordenadores se comporten como humanos. al menos, esa era la idea original. sin embargo, según se ha ido comprobando, no es una tarea nada fácil. este artículo intenta dar un repaso comprehensivo de los últimos sesenta años de la ia, desde un punto de vista filosófico. se subraya lo que ocurrió en la ia, lo que está ocurriendo actualmente en esta área de investigación, y lo que cabe esperar en el futuro. el propósito es lograr un entendimiento de los desarrollos y cambios en la forma de pensar a lo largo del tiempo sobre cómo conseguir esa inteligencia artificial. el mensaje claro es que la ia tiene que unir fuerzas con la neurociencia y otras disciplinas que se ocupan del cerebro, siendo esta la vía para dar un paso hacia el desarrollo de máquinas verdaderamente inteligentes. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, octobre 2010, "autumn 2010", issn 2067-3957 86 3. aprendizaje del vocabulario como predictor del aprovechamiento de los alumnos del tercer-grado efl: un caso para traducción ali jahangard resumen el propósito del estudio es formular un modelo para predecir el resultado de los alumnos de instituto iraníes, en la prueba final del course achievement (eca), a través de sus resultados en los test de vocabulario que fueron realizados durante el curso. para conseguir este fin, treinta y dos alumnos – de edades entre diecisiete y diecinueve años, todos ellos varones – participaron en el estudio, que tardó nueve meses en ser completado. sus habilidades linguísticas fueron aproximadamente del nivel intermedio-mid level, de acuerdo con las “actfl proficiency guidelines (1998)”. el procedimiento de muestreo fue el del “intact group method”. 333 items léxicos fueron enseñados a los alumnos, en el método descontextualizado de traducción por pares asociados. las clases fueron impartidas dos horas por semana, en un curso de nueve meses de duración. seis baterías de test de vocabulario les fueron siendo administradas y fue siendo calculado el promedio para cada alumno. los resultados obtenidos por cada alumno en los eca tests y sus promedios sobre los test de vocabulario fueron analizados mediante el procedimiento del análisis de regresión hasta obtener un modelo a modelo que pueda predecir con fiabilidad los resultados eca de los alumnos mediante sus promedios obtenidos sobre la base de los vocabularios. el análisis nos conduce a la siguiente fórmula: (average vocabulary × 0.713) + 2.871 ± [3.1]. 4. el impacto de la ansiedad ante el test sobre el resultado de dicho test entre los alumnos iraníes de efl parviz birjandi, minoo alemi resumen como factor afectivo, la ansiedad producida por enfrentarse a un test ha sido investigada en distintos contextos, durante las pasadas dos décadas. sin embargo, los resultados mixtos de la relación entre la ansiedad de pasar el test y los resultados del test para estudiantes del l2 nos muestra que la instrumentación para la valoración de la ansiedad de enfrentarse al test y los factores que comprenden ese rasgo de ansiedad requiere más investigación, para arrojar más luz sobre este asunto. para ese fin, un cuestionario de toma del test sobre la ansiedad (sarason, 1975) [27] y un test general de general de inglés le fueron pasados a 164 esp estudiante de ingeniería inscritos en un programa de b. a., para documentar: (a) el grado de ansiedad al tomar el test, (b) la relación entre la ansiedad de someterse al test y su resultado, y (c) el factor de ansiedad basado sobre análisis factorial exploratorio. los resultados muestran que la ansiedad frente al test de los alumnos del l2 es bastante baja, con muchas de sus componentes no presentando una correlación negativa significativa con los resultados del test. los resultados de la exploración mediante análisis factorial revela que el peso del rasgo de ansiedad en el test descansa sobre tres factores: los de ansiedad específica del test, la ansiedad general, y la ansiedad durante la preparación del test. sin embargo, entre estos factores, la ansiedad general por el test, debida a su funcionamiento a un nivel afectivo de orden superior, tiene una correlación negativa fuerte con el resultado del test. en contraste, la ansiedad por la preparación del test, con vistas a facilitar la realización del test, manifiesta una positiva, aunque no significativa, correlación con la realización del test. los resultados tienen dos implicaciones: (a) como las correlaciones y cargas (loading) sobre los factores del test de ansiedad demuestran ser de ambos tipos, negativo y positivo, el cuestionario de ansiedad no es monolítico y por tanto, no será una medida apropiada en el caso de una relación lineal entre la ansiedad ante el test, y por ello el resultado del mismo es el centro de nuestro estudio; y (b) la ansiedad por el test no muestra mucha influencia sobre el resultado del test a nivel micro-test-específico. resumen en español 87 5. sobre las relaciones entre input e interacción psicolinguística, cognitiva, y perspectivas ecológicas en sla mohammad khatib, minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard resumen el “input” es uno de los más importantes elementos en el proceso de adquisición de una segunda lengua (sla). como gass (1997) apunta, el aprendizaje de un segundo lenguaje no puede tener lugar sin input de algún tipo. desde entonces, aspectos específicos han sido activamente debatidos en sla, sobre la naturaleza de dicho proceso, tal como la cantidad de input que es necesaria para la adquisición del lenguaje, con varios atributos de input, y cómo ellos facilitan u obstaculizan la adquisición, y el método de instrucción que puede permitir intensificar dicho input. en este artículo, cuatro hipótesis y paradigmas del proceso de input han sido descritos. está claro que aunque los tres paradigmas de desencadenamiento, hipótesis de input, e hipótesis de interacción han sido ampliamente usados y aceptados, carecen de habilidad como para servir para la naturaleza dinámica del lenguaje. “affordance”, por otra parte, puede servir para tal naturaleza del lenguaje. por tanto, la “affordance” reemplaza la visión llamada de ojo fijo (“fixed-eye”), por la visión de ojo en movimiento; un estudiante activo establece relaciones con y también dentro del entorno. el alumno puede percibir directamente y actuar sobre el lenguaje ambiente, sin tener que redirigirse continuamente a través de un aparato mental preexistente, de esquemas y representación, lo que no sería cierto en una teoría de código fijo. en la teoría de comunicación de “fixed-eye”, se supone que los mensajes ya listos están codificados en un extremo, transmitidos, y luego decodificados en igual forma en el otro extremo. necesitamos, pues, una teoría constructivista de construcción de mensajes e interpretación. 6. matemática computacional en medicina angel garrido resumen la ia (inteligencia artificial) requiere esencialmente de la lógica, entre otras herramientas. pero su versión clásica muestra demasiadas insuficiencias. así, es muy necesario introducir ciertas “armas” más sofisticadas, como pueden ser la lógica difusa (o borrosa), la lógica modal, la lógica nomonótona, etc. [2]. entre las cosas que la ia necesita representar estarían las categorías, los objetos, las propiedades, las relaciones entre objetos, situaciones, estados, tiempo, sucesos, causas and efectos, conocimiento acerca del conocimiento, etc. los problemas en ia pueden ser clasificadas en dos clase o tipos generales [3, 4]: los problemas de búsqueda y los problemas de representación. existen diferentes vías de acceso a este objetivo. así, tenemos [3] lógica, reglas, marcos, redes asociativas, guiones, etc., muchas veces interconectadas entre sí, o actuando a la vez. también puede resultar muy útil, en el tratamiento de los problemas de incertidumbre y de causalidad, la introducción de las redes bayesianas, y en particular, de una herramienta fundamental, como son los grafos esenciales. intentamos mostrar aquí el ámbito de aplicación de métodos tan versátiles, y que en la actualidad resultan verdaderamente fundamentales en medicina. 7. sobre la unicidad en teoremas del punto fijo para tres y cuatro auto-aplicaciones en espacios metricos difusos y simétricos saurabh manro resumen en este artículo probamos dos teoremas de unicidad del punto fijo, para tres y cuatro “self mappings”, en espacios métricos difusos y simétricos. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 119-137 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/357 submitted: february 14th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development nataliia pylypenko 1 , nataliia shevchenko 2 , yuliia formaniuk 3 , svitlana herasina 4 , olena horetska 5 , olena kosianova 6 1 independent researcher, switzerland, liya878veretelnik@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7750-355x 2 zaporizhzhia national university, ukraine, shevchenkonf.20@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5297-6588 3 national university "odesa law academy'', ukraine, julia.formanyuk@gmail.com 4 hryhorii skovoroda university in pereiaslav, ukraine, sv.herasina@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8733-2600 5 berdyansk state pedagogical university, ukraine, goreckaya73elena@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2626-885x 6 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k.d. ushynsky, ukraine, olenakosyanova@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9532-9981 abstract: the article presents a theoretical and methodological analysis of psychotherapeutic counseling support of the process of personal development of the client. psychotherapeutic support of the process of personal development as a complex integrative and dynamic process is considered. an attempt to substantiate psychotherapeutic counseling is made. psychotherapeutic counselling is considered for the first time as culturological training providing personal growth of both the client and the counsellor. the relationship between psychological counseling and psychotherapy is considered. the requirements for the personality of the consultant are defined as the main criterion of the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic counseling. the correspondence of psychotherapeutic technology of personal development to the model of a holistic and selfsufficient person is reflected. the significance of the issue of the theory of personality change on the optimization of personal functions of selfdevelopment in the context of the integration of psychotherapeutic and counseling practice is emphasized. it is offered to carry out the psychotherapeutic process of development of an integral personality in neuropsychocorrective support, in combination with modern psychotherapeutic methods. contemporary methods of psychotherapy and psychological counseling for the personal development of the client are reviewed. keywords: personality integrity and self-sufficiency; psychological approaches; psychological culture; client; personal resource; positive change; personality crisis; self-development; psychological problem. how to cite: pylypenko, n., shevchenko, n., formaniuk, y., herasina, s., horetska, o., & kosianova, o. (2022). psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 119-137. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/357 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/357 mailto:liya878veretelnik@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7750-355x mailto:shevchenkonf.20@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5297-6588 mailto:julia.formanyuk@gmail.com mailto:sv.herasina@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8733-2600 mailto:goreckaya73elena@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2626-885x mailto:olenakosyanova@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9532-9981 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/357 psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development nataliia pylypenko et al. 120 introduction the socio-cultural environment of modern man is permeated with such situational contradictions, which often cause his internal conflicts, the chronic unresolved which "layered" all the new personal problems associated with identity crises and neurotic states. in this connection, psychotherapy (longer than psychological therapy and focused on the therapy of personality disorders and promotion of personal development) is a socially demanded means of returning to a state of well-being and harmonious relations with the environment. the request of psychotherapeutic (psychological) services, unfortunately, is not always for the individual due to his financial capabilities and features of psychological culture, a conscious way to solve subjectively significant problems, which can actually improve the quality of life. at the same time, both the cultural space of human interaction in the system of communicative relations and educational technologies, and today's labor market make serious demands on the personal potential of the individual and provide ample opportunities for personal development. the problem of psychotherapeutic counseling support of the process of development of the personality of the client, as well as the relationship and correlation of psychotherapy and psychological counseling in theoretical and methodological and empirical and practical knowledge of psychosocial activity is extremely relevant. in this connection, our article is a study of the problem of the influence of psychotherapeutic counseling on the personal development of the client. novelty and practical significance of the article an attempt to define psychotherapeutic counseling, an in-depth understanding of the specifics of psychotherapeutic counseling as a means of personal development; highlights the role of modern methods of counseling in psychotherapy and psychology in the experience of foreign and domestic professionals; reflects the compliance of psychotherapeutic technology of personal development model holistic and self-sufficient personality; it was proposed to carry out the psychotherapeutic process of development of an integral personality in neuropsychological support, in combination with modern psychotherapeutic methods; psychotherapeutic counseling is considered for the first time as cultural training, which ensures personal growth of both the client and the counselor. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 121 theoretical and methodological analysis of psychotherapeutic counseling support of the process of personal development of the client personal development is accompanied by mastering the internal (psychological) means of personal self-development, the acquisition of psychological properties and qualities as a dynamic, creative, individually unique, integrative process, which in combination with psychological culture and a system of personal characteristics provides the psychological conditions of self-regulation, personal structural levels. psychotherapeutic accompaniment of the process of psychological counseling should be considered a successful psychological "tool" for activating personal development. the personality is a complex self-developing system, that is, it models and implements its own genesis and has the following meaningful (key) attributes: integrity, uniqueness, activity, expression, openness, selfdevelopment and self-regulation, which are complex and internally contradictory (maksymenko, 2015; olaru, 2018; stroyanovska et al., 2020; stroyanovska et al., 2021). personal self-development is a conscious, purposeful and self-governing activity of an individual, the purpose of which is self-changing in a positive direction for the person, providing personal growth, self-improvement. content analysis of the phenomenon of selfdevelopment confirms the idea of it as an ambiguous, multidimensional process of personal change, manifested in various forms, dimensions, aspects, having its own dynamics, motives, methods, subjective and objective results, as well as individual characteristics (style) and occurs at different levels of structural organization of psyche from psychophysical to social and psychological, subject-notional, spiritual in the context of vital activity of the individual through its self-reality (kuzikova, 2015). binson and lev-wiesel (2017) examine psychotherapeutic exposure, particularly art therapy, in facilitating personal growth along affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions. their findings may inform the development of an effective, flexible, creative experiential learning model for academic therapy programs in general and in art therapy. schöller et al. (2018) examined personality development in psychotherapy, in particular how therapeutic interventions contribute to positive changes in personality traits and mental states and noted that individuals with neural mechanisms (astrand & sandell, 2019) highlighted the significance of the issue of psychotherapy's impact on the development of professional subjectivity. psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development nataliia pylypenko et al. 122 psychotherapeutic support of the process of development of the personality is a complex, lively and mobile process. in order to understand the basic mechanism of this process, it is necessary to understand and feel the wholeness of the concrete person and the wholeness of the mental, psychological, interpersonal and other processes existing in it. the notion of integrity implies that they are in a direct systemic and structural relationship, an interaction. and the essence of these changes leading to psychological freedom is individual relations. the technology of psychotherapeutic support of the process of development of the personality consists in the aid of the creation, maintenance and cultivation of these patterns individual relations, first of all, with oneself (and not for the sake of social definition), other people and the world (kurpatov & alekhin, 2007). psychotherapy (greek psyche soul and therapeia treatment) branch of psychology that studies mechanisms, methods and techniques of professional psychological aid in order to solve problems, relief from psychosomatic symptoms or actualization of reserves of personal growth. the goal of psychotherapy is to assist in the formation of a full-fledged personality capable of taking an active and creative stance with regard to themselves and their life activities, coping with traumatic situations and experiences, making decisions and acting productively, out of pattern and with dignity in appropriate socio-cultural conditions. psychotherapy occupies a special place among varieties of professional assistance to the individual (mikhalchenko, 2018). in the modern psychological literature, there are several approaches that characterize the relationship between psychological counseling and psychotherapy: psychotherapy and psychological counseling are different in content and tasks; psychotherapy and psychological counseling are identical and have identical theoretical and practical foundations, but differ in detail; psychological counseling deals with interpersonal problems, while the psychotherapist deals with intrapersonal problems; the main difference between psychological counseling and psychotherapy is in the treatment of the individual as an object of influence. the object of psychotherapeutic influence is the whole person with all his qualities, opinions, desires and values (mikhalchenko, 2018). it is difficult for a professional to establish whether he or she is engaged in psychological counseling or psychotherapy. both in counseling and in psychotherapy the same professional skills are used; the requirements placed on the personality of the client and the psychotherapist are the same; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 123 the procedures used in counseling and psychotherapy are also similar. in this connection, some practitioners use the concepts "psychological consultation" and "psychotherapy" as synonyms, arguing their point of view that the activity of the psychotherapist and the consultant-psychologist are similar (kochunas, 1999). the theoretical and methodological basis for our study were the following works of foreign and domestic researchers. thus, mikhalchenko (2018) deeply revealed the essence, subject, object, theoretical foundations, methodology, methods, structure, functions and tasks of psychotherapy and the essence of human personality development at different stages of ontogenesis. kurpatov and alekhin (2007) in turn considers the original theory of human personality, a detailed analysis of the processes of formation and development of personality and technology of their psychotherapeutic support, as well as models of the crisis of personality development. the collective monograph edited by maksymenko et al. (2015) reviews in detail the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of contemporary problems of personality psychology, outlines the sociogenetic and spiritual aspects of functioning, formation and selfdevelopment of personality as an integrity in all the diversity of its manifestations. the work of khomych and tkach (2004) reveals the methodological foundations of psychological counseling. merry (2020) in his work detailed the influence of personality-centered counseling on personal development, in particular personality-oriented values, personal qualities, the conscious attitude of the client to himself, others and the world. donati (2002) empirically examines the problem of personal development in counseling psychology training. bager-charleson (2012) also looks in detail at personal development opportunities in counseling and psychotherapy. we consider psychotherapeutic counseling as non-medical (personally directed) professional psychological help to the client on issues of personal growth, overcoming life difficulties, personal crises, focused on work with psychosomatic and deep meaningful and life problems, in order to activate positive changes in the client by changing selfand worldview, creating conditions for the full formation of the client personality. it is difficult to find boundaries between psychotherapy and personality-oriented (with identification of personal causes in the experience of difficulties and assistance in personal growth) psychological counseling; therefore, we use the term "psychotherapeutic" and "psychological" psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development nataliia pylypenko et al. 124 counseling as synonyms. however, psychotherapy (psychotherapeutic counseling) has wider psychological means of influence on the client in various psychological approaches, combining entire therapies and personal development in the direction of achievement of deeper and more stable personal changes in the client. psychotherapeutic is a long-term psycho-consultation (the average duration of which is 15 or more sessions 1 2 times a week), which depends on the client's specific personal development, his expectations and needs, level of psychological culture and complexity of the psychological problem and willingness to cooperate with a psychotherapist (psychologist). the theoretical and methodological basis of psychotherapeutic consultation is the consultant's consideration of the theories and concepts of personality psychology, personality disorders in terms of the norm in age-specific and clinical psychology, and the available personal resources of the client according to the specifics of his or her psychological problem. the main criterion of professional psychological counseling is the requirements for the personality of the consultant (psychotherapist or psychologist), who is already personally involved in cooperation with the client on the problem of personal growth. we also consider psychotherapeutic counseling as cultural training (psychotherapeutic cooperation with clients in the process of counseling, education, professional interaction, etc., developing psychological culture, flexibility and diversity of behavior and ways to overcome difficulties within and outside their own culture), which provides personality as well as counselor. the results of influence of culturological training on the personality of the consultant are described in the majority of psychotherapeutic works. according to kochunas (1999), the personal characteristics of a successful counselor should be professional and personal identity, tolerance of uncertainty, developed reflexivity, openness to own experience, authenticity (sincerity, congruence). mikhalchenko (2018) states that psychotherapist can take different positions in relation to the client and accordingly perform different roles: expert, "mirror", methodologist of common sense, behavior model, frustrator, etc. depending on the methodological principles by which he works. we define such professional creativity of the consultant as his professionally acquired personal property, indicator of personal-professional self-development and factor of effective culturological learning and personal development both of the consultant and the client. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 125 an important goal of rogers's (1994) client-centered approach within the framework of interaction of the psychologist and the client is assistance in personal growth and development, due to which the tendency to move forward to maturity becomes relevant, there appears motivation to change, the desire to reconstruct one's personality and attitude toward life. whatever you call it the tendency to growth, self-actualization or forward movement it is the main driving force of life, it is the aspiration on which all psychotherapy depends. the process of personality formation is accompanied by the development of the following qualities: openness, trust in one's own body as an instrument of sensual life; internal locus of control; constant emergence of new personal qualities. in client-centered psychotherapy, knowledge or such personal changes occur: the client accepts himself and his feelings more fully; he trusts himself more, can manage himself better; he becomes more flexible, less fixed in his perception; he sets himself more realistic goals; his behavior becomes well-considered; he gives up bad habits, even outdated ones, such as chronic alcoholism; begins to be more accepting of others; he becomes more accessible to the grounds of what is going on inside and outside him; he changes the basic qualities of his personality for the better; learning becomes meaningful for the client by education. psychotherapeutic intervention in connection with the promotion of the personal development of the client is carried out quite often in connection with personal crises. psychotherapeutic counseling for a personal crisis is a "complementary" psychological tool of changes in individual relationships and life of the individual after a life vicarious on his or her individual path of self-education. in the psychological literature a personal crisis is understood as an affective reaction of a person to situations or conditions of life requiring changes in the way of his being: life style, way of thinking, system of values, attitude to himself and the surrounding world (kuzikova, 2015). s. b. kuzikova defines the following principles of personal selfdevelopment in the process of overcoming the crisis: recognition by a person of the crisis as a new opportunity, good, freedom of choice, a factor of self-development and transformation of self-consciousness; orientation of a person in conditions of life crisis on the highest (spiritual, eternal, transcendental) values, including the values of religious faith; recognition of duality of the world (acceptance of opposites) as the implementation of the principle of complementarity; acceptance of reality as an opportunity to psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development nataliia pylypenko et al. 126 resolve the crisis of realism; recognition of oneself in inseparable connection with this reality; striving for personalization along with processes of individualization as an opportunity to discover and accept one's authenticity; awareness and recognition of the right to accept oneself in the integrity and unity of opposing opinions, feelings, emotions, motives, desires and aspirations; striving for objective assessment of one's spiritual and socialpsychological resources. psychotherapy is a long-term process dealing with the reconstruction of the personality and is characterized by great changes in the structure of the personality. at the core of many concepts in psychology and psychotherapy regarding positive changes in personality is the theme of developing a "productive" personality. the productive, or comprehensively developed personality can be described as follows. the productive personality has a sense of perspective. it is able to develop different strategies of behavior in this situation and to approach the problem from different winning points of view. a productive, harmonious individual does not bind himself or herself to one pattern of behavior, but acts according to the circumstances and is capable of setting himself or herself long-term goals. the notion of the productive personality is the basis of the concept of psychotherapy goals of many psychotherapeutic concepts. productive existence occurs in the context of culture. cultural experience and mindfulness provide the individual with three capabilities: the ability to find as many choices of behavior as possible when communicating with oneself and others; the ability to apply as many choices of concepts, thoughts, and actions to communicate with as many people and groups within and outside one's own culture as possible; the ability to formulate plans, act on opportunities in that culture, and reflect (ivy et al., 1999). according to kottler and brown (2001) psychotherapy counseling is a process that helps clients change ineffective and maladaptive behavior. for work to be effective, it is necessary to know exactly the effects of a particular theory, attitude or action so that the intervention can be replicated in the future, especially if it involves sustained positive change in a person's life. in the process of psychotherapeutic counseling, the following steps can be distinguished: awareness of the problem and the need to resolve it; a systematic examination of the context and preconditions for the problem; gathering data on what is known about the problem and attempts to solve it; a functional definition of the problem with a view to further resolution; a conclusion drawn from examples of solutions to this class of problems; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 127 predicting results and selecting actions based on the likelihood of success; testing hypotheses about an action; evaluating results; drawing conclusions and generalizing. general counseling goals may include helping clients with the following: anticipating, planning, and responding appropriately to the challenges of life transitions; integrated congruent behavior, and expression of feelings and thoughts; adequate response to stress and reduction of its negative impact; assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of their personality, which contributes to the development of self-awareness; awareness of the integrity of life and the integration of effective life principles in the psychological, physical and social contexts; development of greater freedom of choice, skills to make constructive decisions. despite clearly defined requirements for the stages, structure and purposes of psychotherapy consultation, the content of the psychotherapeutic concept or psychological approach in which the consultant works deep psychological, cognitive-behavioral or existentialhumanistic defines its specificity. gulina (2001) argues that the presence of psychotherapeutic effects as a result of the counseling process is not enough to dominate the medical model of "treatment. the main issue should be the model of a person's mental resource, a resource for development of changes in the process of psychotherapy and counseling (in our understanding, psychotherapeutic counseling), rather than organic mental health. in general, the sphere of psychotherapy refers to processes of personal change, while counseling refers to various supportive methods. the boundary between psychological counseling and psychotherapy is difficult to grasp (blurred), since all medical and psychological models are aimed at helping the sufferer. summarizing the views of different authors, gulina (2001) defines counseling as a process in which the counselor facilitates that the client learns to connect knowledge about herself with more realistic goals so that she can become happier. at the same time, psychotherapy is often defined as dealing predominantly with re-learning rather than learning to achieve readaptation. newer approaches and orientations are emerging that view psychotherapy and counseling as a theory of personality configurations. for our theoretical and methodological analysis of research of psychotherapeutic counselling support of the personal development of the client, the theory of personality change which integrates psychotherapeutic and counselling practice and is key in understanding of consulting purposes and methods concerning optimization of such personal functions on the psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development nataliia pylypenko et al. 128 own "ego" is significant; self-regulation features; basic trust; integrity; tolerance for ambivalence toward self and others; ability to establish and maintain truthful levels of relationship as personal maturity; autonomy and self-sufficiency. thus, we consider a psychological model of psychotherapy (psychotherapeutic consultations in it) in which psychological aid is rendered to healthy people (clients) concerning improvement of quality of life, personal development and overcoming of difficult (mainly crisis) situations in connection with the problem of identity crises. extra-medical personality psychotherapy is focused on personal and social problems, solving clients' psychosomatic and deep-seated problems in connection with personality crises and peculiarities of psychological development of a neurotic personality. khomych and tkach (2004, p. 15) also note that personcentered counseling in its focus, which is close to psychotherapy. the goals and results of psychotherapeutic counseling are emotional release, overcoming a personal crisis, resolving internal conflicts, relieving stress, formulating new life meanings, and developing a coherent and selfsufficient personality. the methods of psychotherapeutic consultation for the development of personality can be from various psychological approaches conversations, meeting groups, trainings, neuropsychocorrection techniques, etc. depending on the psychotherapeutic case, the complexity of the subjectively significant problem of the client, his or her personal resources, feedback, expectations and needs. modern methods of psychotherapy and psychological counseling for the personal development of the client in psychotherapy and psychological consultation practice, it is important to reveal the client's personal difficulties in overcoming a psychological problem, its genesis and those of his or her personal characteristics which are involved in the emotional reaction to a difficult life situation. diagnostics, collection of information on the client's personal dysfunctions and personal characteristics as resource potentials, formulation of hypotheses concerning the nature of the problem allow the psychotherapist (client) to choose effective methods of work on the issues of personal development in the process of overcoming any life crisis. after diagnostic and interpersonal (establishment of contact and sincere and equal relations with the client), the therapeutic task of psychological consultation consists in creation of conditions for the solution of the psychological broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 129 problem and personal growth of the client, taking into account his or her expectations regarding cooperation with the specialist, manifestations of resistance and the degree of development of a crisis condition. the final stage of psychotherapeutic consultation is revelation of conformity of expectations of the client with the reached goal and the experience of the solution of the problem and provision by the specialist of professional recommendations. psychotherapeutic technology of personal development has a model of integrity (the integrity of mental, psychological, interpersonal and neuropsychological processes involved in the components of personality and are in a direct systemic and structural relationship and interaction) and selfsufficiency (as a complex personal formation, personality-regulatory , which has an effective system of influence on the activation of psychological selfregulation of the individual in providing subjective activity in situations of personal (berbets et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; karasievych et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). the type of higher nervous activity, functional features of work of the brain and properties of nervous system are the basis for manifestation of individual-personal characteristics of the client in combination with his/her emotional reaction to the personal crisis. in this connection, it is important to provide comprehensive psychotherapeutic counseling with neuropsychological support. the methodological basis for neuropsychological support of holistic personality development is the interaction of biological, social and psychological factors (accompanying the psychological development of the individual throughout his or her life). among the new psychotherapeutic methods (for the implementation of neuropsychological tasks), we can refer to body therapy it uses bodyoriented techniques and methods with reliance on the client's existing personality potential in order to actualize the client's personal growth. bodyoriented therapy is a way of getting to know and accept one's personality through body language, in combination with one's emotions and mind, thanks to which nervous and mental tension is reduced and crisis states are overcome. gilbert (2019) considers an integrative, evolutionary, contextual, biopsychosocial approach to psychotherapy in different social development contexts that better integrates new understandings of our bodies as ecosystems, which should make psychotherapy methods more multifaceted (interdisciplinary, integrated) than they are now. psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development nataliia pylypenko et al. 130 we believe that in order to carry out a successful process of counseling and activation of transformational personal changes of the client it is important to integrate the experience of professional competence of the consultant in one or different psychological approaches and integrative experience of transformation of situational and personal parameters of the personal problem of the client as well as their interdependence and mutual complementarity as methodology of counseling. at the present stage, several leading directions in the world theory and practice of consultation and psychotherapy have taken shape. among them is the psychodynamic direction, which includes psychoanalysis by z. freud's psychoanalysis, a. adler's individual psychology, c. g. jung's analytical psychology, e. berne's transactional analysis, etc.; the humanistic direction (rogerian psychotherapy, gestalt therapy, existential therapy); the behavioral direction (social learning, cognitive therapy, etc.) (mikhalchenko, 2018). three basic phases of psychotherapy are also distinguished. the emotional phase involves establishment of contact between the psychologist and the client; the cognitive phase involves recognition of the psychological problem and psychotherapeutic diagnosis; the second phase involves work on the cultivation of the problem in the cognitive aspect; the emotional phase involves formation of a specific psychotherapeutic relationship. at the third phase, the client "grown ripe" in order to leave a special emotional relationship with the psychologist and prepares for implementation of the solution found. the concrete psychotherapeutic content of each phase of psychotherapy is determined by the methodological positions and individual features of the psychologist. psychotherapeutic communication in all phases of therapy in the form of consultations is rich in metaphors. psychotherapeutic metaphors give unlimited possibilities of description, structuring and transformation of human experience that are the key to therapeutic changes (mikhalchenko, 2018). phenomenological analysis of conceptual models of different psychotherapeutic schools and directions allowed berkaliev (2014) to allocate seven independent from each other groups of psychological mechanisms providing psychotherapeutic changes in the subject of crisis counseling: awareness (development and strengthening of the "ego" by transferring the determinants of the subject's emotional reactions and attitudes from the unconscious to the conscious, which increases selfregulation and improves interaction with others); catharsis or emotional broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 131 responsiveness (also a mechanism of psychoanalysis, which by releasing emotional tension allows to change the subject's emotional state and helps to improve emotional regulation); learning (a mechanism within behaviorism aimed at modifying and controlling behavior and reactions, develops the ability to achieve self-efficacy in life); revaluation of meanings and meanings (mechanisms studied within cognitive and existential psychology and aimed at arbitrary construction of the world and determining one's place in it, solve the problem of streamlining the system of relations to the surrounding world and oneself, the occurring events, help transform and modify the system of subjective values; traditionally aimed at overcoming existential problems loneliness, fear of death, etc.; a sense of joining, belonging with identification, inclusion and community (highlighted in humanistic psychology, allows you to feel part of the world and humanity; achieved through unconditional acceptance, understanding and empathy; gives opportunities for development, self-realization, overcoming the fear of uncertainty and unpredictability of life, freedom, partnership); emotional conditioning (promotes a belief in the possibility of positive change, own possibilities); ecstatic experience (transcendental or creative experience, a mechanism described in transpersonal and existential psychology, gives a sense of fullness and consciousness of life, a sense of inclusion and unity with the world, inner harmony). the mechanisms that have been described in psychotherapy actually never appear separately. some of them are leading at a certain moment, while others are supplementary. the expert should be able to recognize their presence, as well as their importance at a given moment and real psychotherapeutic potential. the speed, accuracy, efficiency and effectiveness of psychological aid necessary in crisis and extreme situations is possible with a clear understanding of the algorithm of the therapy process, precise definition of the current phase, knowledge of the essence of psychological mechanisms and the ability to use them to the fullest (berkaliev, 2014). bell et al. (2020) noted research findings in counseling and psychotherapy since covid-19 and made suggestions for engaging spiritual and existential dynamics in psychotherapy. gulina (2001) considers psychotherapy and counseling as a process. there are methodological differences in approaches to the problem of the personal development of the client included in this process. for the humanistic-oriented, particularly client-centered approach to counseling, the psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development nataliia pylypenko et al. 132 following process characteristics can be identified: empathy, respect, attention, congruence, concreteness, coping skills, acceptance, selfawareness, positive attitudes toward oneself and others. nash (2018) also considered the weighty role of person-centered counseling in humanistic psychology. rogers (1994) also believes that the process of client-centered psychotherapy can be understood through certain permanent characteristics of the process: maturation of behavior; positive attitude as psychotherapy proceeds; changes in perception and acceptance of self; incorporation of previously rejected experiences into the personality structure; shift in source of assessment shift from external to internal assessment; changes in psychotherapeutic relationships; characteristic changes in personality structure, behavior and physiological state. such procedural characteristics of counseling and, above all, of the client's personal development are realized through "awareness of experiences" or even "feeling experiences" and "feeling oneself" it is the client's exploration of the various aspects of his experience in their sensory immediacy as they are given to him by his sensory and visceral mechanisms. without distorting them so that they correspond to his present concept of himself, the so-called "concept of self". the therapy process can be considered completed when the client shows the following changes: less defensive, more realistic, socially mature with positive self-esteem and creative behavior with more effective psychological problem solving. the stages in this psychotherapeutic process are: work on the motivation for positive change; self-expression of the client through feeling and understanding the problem; development of congruence, self-disclosure and acceptance of oneself, one's inconsistency and limitations; personal changes, openness to oneself and the world. the basic techniques of the clientcentered psychotherapeutic process: establishing congruence; verbalization as highlighting in the client's statement what is most essential and stating his message as confirmation to the client that he is being heard; adequate reflection by the psychotherapist (psychologist) of the emotions the client displays in counseling, rogers (1994). according to gulina (2001), some counselors, representatives of the cognitive-behavioral approach, believe that effective counseling is essentially training or retraining the client. in this connection, the following training programs have appeared: "how to effectively experience life changes," broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 133 "how to be positive about yourself," "how to start, maintain and end a relationship". cooper and dryden (2016) reviewed current methods of pluralistic counseling and psychotherapy and found that most clients value the flexibility and collaborative approach that is the foundation of pluralistic practice. the most significant methodological principles of introducing modern methods of pluralistic counseling and psychotherapy are the following: there is no one correct way of conceptualizing clients' problems different understandings are useful for different clients at different moments in time; there is no one right way to practice therapy different clients need different things at different times; many disputes and disagreements in the therapeutic field can be resolved by adopting an "and-and" rather than an "either/or" position; it is important that counselors and psychotherapists respect each other's work and recognize the value it can have; counselors and psychotherapists should recognize and celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of clients; clients must be fully engaged at every stage of the therapeutic process; clients must be understood in terms of their strengths and resources and their problems; it is important that counselors and psychotherapists are critical of their own theory and practice willing to look at their own investment in a particular position and be able to detach from it. conclusion internal positive changes associated with personal growth or overcoming personal crises, can cause personal restructuring, transformation of value-motivational transformations, successful self-regulation due to the integrity of the person. not always the criticality of the social situation corresponds to the client's personal resources as an opportunity for selfdevelopment in overcoming difficulties and to be the subject of his or her own life, having accepted new values, his or her personal essence and new life experience. the structured conflict between the possibilities and demands of social circumstances, between the real “ego” and the ideal “ego” as a neurotic personality problem can be solved by getting a new chance for personal growth with psychotherapeutic support. psychotherapeutic technology of personal development has a model of integrity (the integrity of mental, psychological, interpersonal and neuropsychological processes that are involved in the components of personality and are in a direct systemic and structural relationship and psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development nataliia pylypenko et al. 134 interaction) and self-sufficiency (as a complex personal formation, personality-regulation , having an effective system of influence on the activation of psychological self-regulation of the individual in providing subjective activity in situations of personality crises. the subject of psychotherapeutic counseling is the personal growth of both the client and the counselor in the process of cultural training. psychotherapeutic counseling in non-medical aspects is personally directed, professional psychological help to the client on issues of personal development, overcoming personal crises and personally oriented to work with the underlying issues of meaning and life, activation of positive changes in the life of the client, his selfand worldview, which undoubtedly creates favorable conditions for his full-fledged personal development and selfactualization. reference аstrand, k., & sandell, r. (2019). influence of personal therapy on learning and development of psychotherapeutic skills. psychoanalytic psychotherapy, 33(1), 34-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/02668734.2019.1570546 bager-charleson, s. (2012). personal development in counselling and psychotherapy. bangalore: learning matters. bell, c. a., crabtree, s. a., hall, e. l., & sandage, s. j. (2020). research in counselling and psychotherapy post‐covid‐19. counselling and psychotherapy research, 21(1), 3-7. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12334 berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 berkaliev, t. n. (2014). rol' psikhologicheskikh mekhanizmov izmeneniy v krizisnom konsul'tirovanii [the role of psychological mechanisms of change in crisis counseling]. psychology and education, 1(2). http://7universum.com/ru/psy/archive/item/857 binson, b., & lev-wiesel, r. (2017). promoting personal growth through experiential learning: the case of expressive arts therapy for lecturers in thailand. frontiers in psychology, 8, 2276. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02276 cooper, m., & dryden, w. (2016). introduction to pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy. in m. cooper & w. dryden (eds.), handbook of pluralistic https://doi.org/10.1080/02668734.2019.1570546 https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12334 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 http://7universum.com/ru/psy/archive/item/857 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02276 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 135 counselling and psychotherapy. london: sage. https://pluralisticpractice.com/introduction-to-pluralistic-counselling-andpsychotherapy/ demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 donati, m. a. (2002). personal development in counselling psychology training: a critical investigation of the views and experiences of trainers and trainees [unpublished doctoral thesis]. london: city university. https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/7577/ gilbert, p. (2019). psychotherapy for the 21st century: an integrative, evolutionary, contextual, biopsychosocial approach. psychology and psychotheraphy, 92(2), 164–189. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12226 gulina, m. a. (2001). terapevticheskaya i konsul'tativnaya psikhologiya [therapeutic and counseling psychology]. sankt petersburg: rech. ivy, a. e., ivy, m. b., & symek-downing, l. (1999). psikhologicheskoye konsul'tirovaniye i psikhoterapiya. metody, teorii i tekhniki: prakticheskoye rukovodstvo [psychological counseling and psychotherapy. methods, theories and techniques: a practical guide]. moscow: klex. karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 khomych, h. o., & tkach, r. m. (2004). osnovy psykholohichnoho konsulʹtuvannya [fundamentals of psychological counseling]. moscow: international academy of personnel management. kochunas, r. (1999). osnovy psikhologicheskogo konsul'tirovaniya [fundamentals of psychological counseling]. moscow: academic project. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kottler, j., & brown, r. (2001). psikhoterapevticheskoye konsul'tirovaniye [psychotherapeutic counseling]. saint petersburg: peter. https://pluralisticpractice.com/introduction-to-pluralistic-counselling-and-psychotherapy/ https://pluralisticpractice.com/introduction-to-pluralistic-counselling-and-psychotherapy/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/7577/ https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12226 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 psychotherapeutic counseling in promoting personal development nataliia pylypenko et al. 136 kurpatov, a. v, & alekhin, a. n. (2007). razvitiye lichnosti [personal development]. https://02056103-2a82-102a-9ae1-2dfe723fe7c7 kuzikova, s. b. (2015). fenomenolohiya samorozvytku v psykhosotsialʹniy genezi osobystosti: subʺyektnyy pidkhid [phenomenology of self-development in the psychosocial genesis of personality: the subject approach]. in s. d. maksymenko, v. l. zlivkov, s. b. kuzikova (eds.), osobystistʹ u rozvytku: psykholohichna teoriya i praktyka [personality in development: psychological theory and practice] (pp. 295 – 319). sumy: publishing house of the sumy state pedagogical university named after a. makarenko. maksymenko, s. d. (2015). modusy rozuminnya osobystosti v psykholohiyi: buttyeve i dukhovne, tsilisnistʹ i samorukh [modes of understanding personality in psychology: being and spiritual, integrity and selfmovement]. in s. d. maksymenko, v. l. zlivkov, s. b. kuzikova (eds.), osobystistʹ u rozvytku: psykholohichna teoriya i praktyka [personality in development: psychological theory and practice] (pp. 9-16). sumy: publishing house of the sumy state pedagogical university named after a. makarenko. maksymenko, s. d., zlivkov, v. l., & kuzikova, s. b. (eds.). (2015). osobystistʹ u rozvytku: psykholohichna teoriya i praktyka [personality in development: psychological theory and practice]. sumy: publishing house of the sumy state pedagogical university named after a. makarenko. merry, t. (2020). learning and being in person-centred counselling (3rd ed.). manchester: p c c s books. mikhalchenko, n. v. (2018). psykhoterapiya z psykhokorektsiynoyu robotoyu [psychotherapy with psychocorrectional work]. kiev: national university named after v. a. sukhomlinsky. nash, s. (2018). the place of person-centred counselling in humanistic psychology. in r. house, d. kalisch & j. maidman (eds.), humanistic psychology: current trends and future prospects (pp. 53–70). olaru, d. (2018). students’ interest in personal development. micro-research conducted in a university in ne of romania. journal for ethics in social studies, 1(1), 39-63. https://doi.org/10.18662/jess/05 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rogers, k. (1994). stanovleniye lichnosti. vzglyad na psikhoterapiyu [personality formation. a look at psychotherapy]. moscow: progress. sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., https://02056103-2a82-102a-9ae1-2dfe723fe7c7/ https://doi.org/10.18662/jess/05 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 137 rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 schöller, h., viol, k., aichhorn, w., hütt, m. t., & schiepek, g. (2018). personality development in psychotherapy: a synergetic model of state-trait dynamics. cognitive neurodynamics, 12(5), 441–459, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-018-9488-y stroyanovska, o., dolynska, l., shevchenko, n., andriiashyna, n., melnyk, i., & tsybuliak, n. (2020). the influence of the professional orientation of students of different gender on their ideas of happiness. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4), 51-71. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/141 stroyanovska, o., dolynska, l., shevchenko, n., yermakova, s., matiash-zaiats, l., & kriukova, o. (2021). features of students ideas about life success. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 136-153. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/175 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-018-9488-y https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4/141 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/175 microsoft word brain_1_4.doc 79 des résumés en français brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cerveau. recherche large en intelligence artificielle et neurosciences volume 1, numéro 4 juillet 2010: « automne 2010» www.brain.edusoft.ro sous la direction de: bogdan pătruţ 1. nouveau système de notation combinée pour prévoir les défaillances respiratoires chez les patients irakiens atteints du syndrome de guillain-barré zaki noah hasan résumé contexte: le syndrome de guillain-barré (gbs) est une maladie auto-immune inflammatoire, une polynévropathie aiguë post-infectieuse ; c’est la neuropathie périphérique entraînant une défaillance respiratoire la plus commune. l'objectif de cette étude est d'utiliser le nouveau système de notation combinée pour anticiper une défaillance respiratoire dans le but d'effectuer des mesures électives sans attendre les situations d'urgence de se produire. patients et méthodes: cinquante patients atteints de gbs ont été étudiés. huit paramètres cliniques (y compris la progression des patients à la faiblesse maximale, la fréquence respiratoire / minute, compte des rétentions de la respiration (le nombre de chiffres que le patient peut compter en retenant sa respiration), la présence d'une faiblesse des muscles faciaux (unilatérale ou bilatérale), la faiblesse du muscle bulbaire, la faiblesse du muscle fléchisseur du cou, et la faiblesse des membres) ont été évalués pour chaque patient et un certain nombre de points a été accordée à chaque paramètre, un score combiné conçu en prenant en considération tous les paramètres cliniques mentionnés ci-dessus. résultats et discussion: quinze patients (30%) qui étaient inscrits dans notre étude ont développé une défaillance respiratoire. il y avait une association statistiquement très significative entre le développement d'une défaillance respiratoire et les mauvaises notes attribuées (au résultat de la faiblesse du muscle bulbaire, au celui des comptes des rétentions de la respiration, au résultat de la faiblesse musculaire du cou, des membres inférieurs et supérieurs, au résultat de la faiblesse des membres et au celui de la fréquence respiratoire) et plus de 16 au score combiné total (valeur de p = 0,000). aucune différence statistiquement significative n’a été trouvée en ce qui concerne la progression de la faiblesse maximale (valeur de p = 0,675) et la faiblesse des muscles faciaux (valeur de p = 0,482). conclusion: les patients qui ont obtenu un score combiné (au-dessus de 20'30) courent un grand risque d'être atteints d’une défaillance respiratoire. 2. quo vadis, machine intelligente? rosemarie velik résumé l’intelligence artificielle (ia) est une branche de l'informatique qui étudie les méthodes de faire des machines se comporter comme des humains. c'est du moins ce que fut l'idée originale. toutefois, il s'est avéré que cette tâche n'est pas facile à résoudre. cet article vise à donner un avis compréhensibles sur les 60 dernières années de l'intelligence artificielle en prenant un point de vue philosophique. il est décrit ce qui s'est passé jusqu'ici dans ai, ce qui est actuellement en cours dans ce domaine de recherche, et ce qu'on peut attendre à l'avenir. l'objectif est de servir de médiateur pour une meilleure compréhension des développements et des changements dans la manière de brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, octobre 2010, "autumn 2010", issn 2067-3957 80 penser les choses tout au long du temps, concernant la façon de parvenir à l'intelligence des machines. le message qui est clair c’est que l'ia doit unir ses forces avec les neurosciences et les disciplines connexes qui étudient le cerveau afin de faire un nouveau pas vers le développement des machines vraiment intelligentes. 3. l’apprentissage du vocabulaire comme signe de la réussite des étudiants du 3eme grade efl : un cas pour la traduction ali jahangard résumé le but de cette étude était de créer un modèle pour prédire la performance des élèves se trouvant en troisième à l'école secondaire iranienne aux tests sur la réussite à la fin du cours (rfc)1 à travers leurs performances aux tests de vocabulaire qui leur ont été administrés tout au long du cours. pour répondre à cette fin, trente-deux élèves entre dix-sept à dix-neuf ans, tous de sexe masculin, ont participé à l'étude qui a duré neuf mois. leurs compétences linguistiques sont à peu près au niveau intermédiaire2 conformément à l’actfl.3 (1998). la procédure d'échantillonnage a été la méthode de groupe intact. 333 éléments lexicaux ont été enseignés aux élèves selon la méthode de traduction décontextualisée paired-associate. les classes ont eu lieu deux heures par semaine pendant neuf mois. six séries de tests de vocabulaire ont été administrées et on a calculé la moyenne de chaque élève. les résultats des apprenants aux tests de la rfc et leurs moyennes aux tests de vocabulaire ont été analysés à travers la procédure d'analyse de régression pour établir un modèle qui pourrait prévoir de manière fiable les résultats rfc des apprenants par leur performance moyenne aux tests de vocabulaire. l'analyse a donné la formule suivante: (moyenne vocabulaire × 0,713) + 2,871 ± [3, 1]. 4. l’impact de l’angoisse pendant les tests sur les résultats parmi les étudiants efl iraniens parviz birjandi, minoo alemi résumé à travers les deux dernières décades, l’angoisse ressentie pendant un test a été analysée dans des différents contextes, en étant considérée comme un facteur affectif. pourtant, les résultats mixtes de la relation entre les tests sur l’anxiété et le test de performance des apprenants l2 ont montré que l’instrumentation des évaluations des tests sur l’anxiété et les facteurs qui comprennent les traits de la construction des ces tests, ont besoin de plus d’investigations pour pouvoir éclairer le sujet. jusqu’à présent, on a donné un questionnaire d’un teste d’anxiété (sarason 1975) [27] et un teste général en anglais aux 164 étudiants en ingénierie inscrits dans un programme b.a, pour surveiller (a) le résultat de leur d’anxiété pendant le test, (b) la relation entre l’anxiété et la performance, et (c) la saturation des facteurs d'anxiété qui se basent sur des recherches des facteurs analysés. les résultats montrent que les apprenants du test d’anxiété l2 sont plutôt faibles, plusieurs de ses components n’ayant aucune corrélation négative avec la performance pendant le test. les résultats des recherches des facteurs exploratoires montrent que la saturation d’anxiété mettent l’accent plutôt sur les trois facteurs qui chevauchent des tests spécifiques d’anxiété, le test général d’anxiété et l’anxiété de la préparation du test. cependant, de ces trois facteurs, l’anxiété du test général, à cause de son fonctionnement supérieur en ce qui concerne le niveau affective, a des corrélations négatives avec les tests des performances. par contre, l’anxiété de la préparation du test, en vue de faciliter la performance, montre une corrélation positive bien non-signifiante avec la performance. les résultats ont deux implications : (a) si les facteurs des corrélations et de la saturation de l’anxiété ont prouvé être tant du type négative que positive, les facteurs du questionnaire sur 1 en. the end of the course achievement (eca) 2 en. intermediate-mid level 3 actfl = le conseil américain sur l'enseignement des langues étrangères des résumés en français 81 l’anxiété ne sont pas monolithiques/anciens/,et par conséquent ne sont pas une mesure appropriée dans le cas où la relation linéaire entre l’anxiété et la performance est le point principal de l’étude ; et (b) l’anxiété du test ne semble pas influencer trop la performance dans un niveau plus spécifique. 5. la relation entre entrée et l’interaction psycholinguistique, cognitive, et les perspectives écologiques dans le sla mohammad khatib, minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard résumé l’entrée est un des éléments les plus importants dans le processus d’apprentissage d’une deuxième langue(sla). tout comme gass souligne (1997), l’apprentissage d’une deuxième langue ne peut pas se produire sans une certaine information à part. depuis là, des problèmes spécifiques ont été fréquemment débattus dans le sla en ce qui concerne la nature de l’information et le traitement de cette information, et aussi la quantité d’information qui est nécessaire pour l’apprentissage du langage, les quelques qualités de ces informations et comment elles peuvent faciliter ou gêner l’apprentissage, aussi bien que la méthode d’enseignement qui peut favoriser l’information. dans cet article ont décrit les quatre hypothèses et paradigmes et comment elles sont traitées. il est bien précisé/ délimité que les trois paradigmes, celui du déclanchement, l’hypothèse de l’information et celle de l’interaction ont été largement acceptés et utilisés, mais ils n’ont pas la capacité de d’estimer la dynamique d’une langue. d’autre côté, l’affordance a la capacité de souligner cet aspect de la langue. ainsi, l’affordance replace la vision figée par une vision mobile ; un apprenant actif établit des relations avec et dedans un certain environnement. l’apprenant peut apercevoir directement et agir sur la langue du lieu sans avoir passé par une route mentale des schémas et représentations qui existaient déjà, ce qui n’est pas du tout vrai dans le cas de la théorie fixe. dans la théorie fixe de la communication on suppose que les messages déjà formés sont codés à une extrémité, transmis, et puis décodés dans une forme identique à l’autre extrémité. à la place de cette théorie nous avons besoin d’une théorie constructiviste de la construction et interprétation du message. 6. mathématiques appliquées en médicine angel garrido résumé ai demande logique. cependant sa version classique montre trop de manques. ainsi, il est nécessaire d’introduire des outils plus avancés, comme fuzzy logic, modal logic, non-monotonic logic, et ainsi de suite [2]. parmi les choses que ai a besoin on retrouve aussi catégories, objets, propriétés, relation entre les objets, situations, états, temps, événements, causes et effets, connaissance des connaissances, et ainsi de suite. les problèmes de ai peuvent être classifiés dans deux types généraux [3,4], rechercher le problème et problème de la représentation. il y a différentes modalités/possibilités de rechercher ces objectifs. on a donc [3] logics, règles, cadres, internet associatif, scripts et ainsi de suite, qui sont plusieurs fois interconnectés. pour résoudre les problèmes d’incertitude et de causalité, il sera utile d’introduire spécialement les réseaux bayeusains, un outil important étant essential graph. nous essayons de montrer le champ d’application de ces méthodes versatiles, actuellement fondamentale dans la médicine. 7. les théorèmes sur l’unique point fixe commun pour trois et quatre auto-mappings dans l’espace métrique flou et symétrique saurabh manro résumé dans cet article, nous faisons la démonstration des théorèmes sur l’unique point fixe commun pour trois et quatre auto-mappings dans des espaces métriques floues et symétriques. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 420-425 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/291 adolescents during the pandemic. difficulties and adaptive strategies elena otilia vladislav¹, gabriela marc2, ovidiu pop3, corina-ioana paica4, diana-antonia iordachescu5 1 faculty of psychology and educational sciences, university of bucharest, romania, vladislav.elena.otilia@gmail.com 2 faculty of psychology and educational sciences, university of bucharest, romania 3 faculty of psychology and educational sciences, university of bucharest, romania 4 faculty of psychology and educational sciences, university of bucharest, romania 5 faculty of psychology and educational sciences, university of bucharest, romania abstract: this paper is a scientific research conducted during the alert state on a sample of 450 adolescents. the main aim of the study is to identify the socio-emotional difficulties of adolescents and the adaptive ways they use during crisis situations, such as the coronavirus pandemic. the research questions refer on the one hand to the concerns about the pandemic context and the possibility of infection, social activities, the online school curriculum, and on the other hand to the association between clinical and adaptive variables and coping mechanisms, as well as coping strategies that are predictors of adaptive scales and moderators that are key to understanding adolescents' condition. the results indicate that the use of functional strategies, such as support strategies, in which support, social relationships and emotional adjustment predominate, can stimulate increased selfconfidence in the context of the pandemic. in fact, the results support the relationship with parents and social support in times of crisis. keywords: adolescents, socio-emotional difficulties, pandemic, clinical scales, adaptive scales, coping. how to cite: vladislav, e.o., marc, g., pop, o., paica, c.i., iordachescu, d.-a. (2022). adolescents during the pandemic. difficulties and adaptive strategies. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 420-425. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/291 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/291 mailto:vladislav.elena.otilia@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/291 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 421 introduction this scientific research aims to understand the socio-emotional difficulties faced by adolescents and the adaptive ways they have during the coronavirus pandemic (covid-19). several authors point out that the coronavirus pandemic (covid19) has affected people around the world (damian et al., 2021; huidu, 2020; neculau, 2021; sandu & nistor, 2021), and isolation, social contact restrictions, economic closure have imposed a complete change in the psychosocial environment of the affected countries (grigoras & ciubara 2021). the current situation affects children, adolescents and their families in an exceptional way. kindergartens and schools were closed, social contacts were severely limited, and leisure activities outside the home were canceled or reduced (luca, baroiu et al, 2020; fegert et al., 2020; phelps & sperry, 2020; ravens sieberer et al., 2021). at the same time, researchers show that adolescence is a sensitive period for social development, in which there is an increased need for social interactions (luca, burlea et al., 2020; orben et al., 2020). it can be very difficult for adolescents to cope with the current situation and follow the current rules and restrictions, as these circumstances can be experienced as inconsistent with their development, which involves several activities and tasks. currently, there is a growing interest in researching the mental health of children and adolescents during the coronavirus pandemic. zhou et al. (2020) report that 44% of young people aged 12 to 18 had depressive symptoms, 37% had anxiety and 31% had both types of symptoms. high levels of depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents were also obtained by duan et al. (2020) and luca, ciubara et al. (2020). research methodology the main objective of the present study is to explore the difficulties and adaptive strategies of adolescents during the coronavirus pandemic. the research questions refer on the one hand to the concerns about the pandemic context and the possibility of infection, social activities, the online school curriculum, and on the other hand to the association between clinical and adaptive variables and coping mechanisms, as well as coping strategies that are predictors of adaptive scales and moderators that are key to understanding adolescents' condition. the sample consists of 450 adolescents: 63.2% girls (m = 15.63 and sd = 1.92) and 36.8% boys (m = 15.31 and sd = 1.98). the participants of adolescents during the pandemic. difficulties and adaptive strategies elena otilia vladislav, et al. 422 this sample were selected randomly, by distributing the questionnaire online. the environment of origin is urban and rural, from several areas of the country. there were no exclusion criteria regarding the medical and psychological status for the selection of the sample. data were collected between may 2020 and february 2021. the two assessment tools used are the behavior assessment system for children second edition (basc-2; reynolds & kamphaus, 2004) and the coping strategies checklist for children-revised (ccsc-r; ayers & sandler, 1999). research results the data indicate that depression levels correlate negatively with distraction strategies (p = .001) and support strategies (p = .000) and positively with avoidance strategies (p = .050). the results obtained indicate that the higher the score on the depression scale, the less the adolescent participants use the support strategies and the more the avoidance ones. anxiety score correlates negatively with distraction strategies (p = .004) and positively with avoidance strategies (p = .000). the stronger the anxiety, the less teenagers use functional distraction strategies and the more dysfunctional avoidance strategies they use. the degree of somatization correlates negatively with distraction strategies (p = .009). it follows that adolescents who tend to somatize have reduced abilities to get rid of problems, while attention problems correlate negatively with distraction strategies (p = .003) and support strategies (p = .002). also, the level of hyperactivity correlates positively with avoidance strategies (p = .018) and it should be noted that active coping strategies are not used in the context of the pandemic. table 1. clinical scales and coping source: authors’ own conception active_copi ng restructuri ng distraction avoidan ce support depression r -.018 -.089 -.159* .092* -.181* p .699 .060 .001 .050 .000 anxiety r .073 -.029 -.136* .198* -.026 p .122 .536 .004 .000 .580 somatization r -.007 -.029 -.123* .077 -.076 p .882 .537 .009 .101 .108 attention_pro bl r -.066 -.076 -.141* -0.15 -.147* brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 423 p .163 .109 .003 .755 .002 hiperactivity r .012 .036 .022 .111* .044 p .792 .445 .638 .018 .347 the results of the correlational tests indicate that the level of selfesteem correlates positively with the strategies of positive cognitive restructuring (p = .000), distraction (p = .000) and support (p = .000); the level of self-confidence correlates positively with the strategies of active coping (p = .007), distraction (p = .000), avoidance (p = .000), support (p = .000), and the scale score on relationships adolescents with parents positively correlate with distraction strategies (p = .000) and support (p = .001). table 2. adaptative scales and coping source: authors’ own conception active_coping restructuring distraction avoidance support self-esteem r .088 .177 .286 -.009 .202 p .061 .000 .000 .851 .000 self-confidence r .126 .086 .211 .196 .227 p .007 .067 .000 .000 .000 relationship with parents r .031 .021 .204 .043 .150 p .514 .663 .000 .362 .001 discussions and conclusions uncertainty about the future and fear of the unknown cause anxiety among adolescents, who are not only worried about being infected with the sars-voc-2 virus, but also about resuming social activities. the restrictions were more complicated for teenagers, who considered the pandemic a very serious problem (64%). in addition, attention problems are more numerous in the pandemic context, and the higher their level, the more difficult it is for adolescents to go through the new challenges. the use of functional strategies, such as support strategies, in which support, social relationships and emotional adaptation predominate, can stimulate increased self-confidence in the context of the pandemic. in fact, the results support the relationship with parents and social support in times of crisis. adolescents during the pandemic. difficulties and adaptive strategies elena otilia vladislav, et al. 424 finally, taking into account the results that analyze the correlations between psychopathology scales and coping strategies, it is necessary to emphasize the role of psychological counseling and educational counseling. adolescents need guidance in activating and optimizing coping resources during this period, for better management of the difficult situation. references ayers, t. a., & sandler, i. n. (1999). manual for the children’s coping strategies checklist & how i coped under pressure scale. arizona state prevention research center. damian, s. i., schiopu c., & stefănescu, c. (2021). neuro-bio-chemical balance within deviant delinquent behaviors in adolescents. international journal of legal medicine (2021) 135 (suppl 1), s11–s119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-021-02613-z duan, l., shao, x., wang, y., huang, y., miao, j., yang, x., & zhu, g. (2020). an investigation of mental health status of children and adolescents in china during the outbreak of covid-19. journal of affective disorders, 275, 112– 118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.06.029 fegert, j. m., vitiello, b., plener, p. l., & clemens, v. (2020). challenges and burden of the coronavirus 2019 (covid-19) pandemic for child and adolescent mental health: a narrative review to highlight clinical and research needs in the acute phase and the long return to normality. child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 14, 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-020-00329-3 grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326-334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 huidu, a. (2020). the social responsibility of researchers in combating fake news and conspiracy theories during a pandemic. postmodern openings, 11(1sup2), 39-48. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/138 luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a. c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-021-02613-z https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.06.029 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-020-00329-3 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/138 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 425 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 neculau, m. c. (2021). intentional identities of the future nurses in professional identity construction. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 9(2), 26-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.2/42 orben, a., tomova, l., & blakemore, s. j. (2020). the effects of social deprivation on adolescent development and mental health. lancet child & adolescent health 4(8), 634–640. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(20)30186-3 phelps, c., & sperry, l. l. (2020). children and the covid-19 pandemic. psychological trauma: theory research, practice, and policy, 12(s1), s73–s75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000861 ravens-sieberer, u.,· kaman, a., erhart, m., devine, j., schlack, r., & otto, c. (2021). impact of the covid-19 pandemic on quality of life and mental health in children and adolescents in germany. european child & adolescent psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01726-5 reynolds, c. r., & kamphaus, r. w. (2004). behavior assessment system for children (2nd ed.). american guidance service. sandu, a., & nistor, p. (2021). group syntality causes, effects, manifestations. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 9(2), 84-88. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.2/46 zhou, s. j., zhang, l. g., wang, l. l., guo, z. c., wang, j. q., chen, j. c., liu, m., chen, x., & chen, j. x. (2020). prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of psychological health problems in chinese adolescents during the outbreak of covid-19. european child & adolescent psychiatry, 29(6), 749–758. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01541-4 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.2/42 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(20)30186-3 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000861 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01726-5 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/9.2/46 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01541-4 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 212-226 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/384 submitted: april 4th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 peculiarities of application of metaphor in group psychological correction tamara kryvonis1, iryna lukecha2, nataliia pylypenko3, victoriia nazarevych4, iryna boreichuk5, tetiana dziuba6 1 doctor of science, associate professor at the department of psychiatric, narcology, general and medical psychology natoinal pirogov memorial medical university, vinnytsya, ukraine, tamarakr@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6060-7152 2 candidate of psychological sciences major in social psychology; psychology of social work, associate professor at the department of general and clinical psychology, vasil stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, iryna.lukecha@pnu.edu.ua 3 independent researcher of switzerland, liya878veretelnik@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7750-355x 4 associate professor of the department of developmental and pedagogical psychology, phd rivne state university of humanities, rivne state university of the humanities (rsuh), rivne, ukraine, nazarevich.v@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0111-7070 5 phd of psychological sciences, head of the department of psychology and pedagogy kyiv international university, kyiv, ukraine, iryna.boreychuk@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9205-5655 6 phd of psychological sciences, associate professor department of psychology v. g. korolenko poltava national pedagogical university, poltava, ukraine, tatjanadzuba@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5950-7741 abstract: the article analyzes the peculiarities of psychological method of metaphor application in group psychocorrective work on a theoretical and methodological level. an attempt to define metaphor in the context of the basic tasks of rendering psychological assistance, especially as a method of psychodiagnostics, neuropsychology and group psychocorrection is undertaken. the resources of metaphor in group psychocorrection are described because of its properties. the definition of metaphor as a neuropsychological means of activation of the right hemisphere of the brain is argued. the functions of fairy tale metaphors for the purpose of correction and development of personality are considered. it is underlined that metaphor is the psychological mechanism of integration of components of self-consciousness: self-understanding (the cognitive aspect), the attitude to itself (the emotional aspect), self-regulation (the behavioral aspect) in a context of group psychocorrection. practically confirmed that the metaphor in the process of group work has a positive impact on changing the strategy of competition to a strategy of cooperation through the adoption of individuality of self and another. the criterion for the effectiveness of metaphorical psychological correction is the feedback of the group participants through trust, acceptance and self-acceptance. recommendations for conducting group psychological correction with the use of metaphor are developed. keywords: psychodiagnostics; emotions; thinking; brain; neuropsychocorrection; conscious and unconscious; fairy tale; psychological approach; self-knowledge; psychotherapy. how to cite: kryvonis, t., lukecha, i., pylypenko, n., nazarevych, v., boreichuk, i., & dziuba, t. (2022). peculiarities of application of metaphor in group psychological correction. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 212-226. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/384 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/384 mailto:tamarakr@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6060-7152 mailto:iryna.lukecha@pnu.edu.ua mailto:liya878veretelnik@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7750-355x mailto:nazarevich.v@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0111-7070 mailto:iryna.boreychuk@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9205-5655 mailto:tatjanadzuba@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5950-7741 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/384 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 213 introduction psychological assistance is becoming an increasingly popular service in today's world, which can cause numerous psychological problems associated with acute emotional distress, cognitive and behavioral disorders, which often require psychocorrective help. present-day psychocorrection uses metaphorical resources in the context of all psychological approaches as an effective way of psychological support of the client, creating psychological conditions for him to discover internal resources of acceptance of himself and others, elimination of defects and difficulties in personal development. the relevance of the problem under study is connected to the metaphor of the psychological resource of the client as a practically successful psychocorrection method, as well as a valuable psychological tool of personal development of participants of group interaction. the purpose of the article is to study features of application of metaphor in group psychologically corrective work. the novelty and practical significance of the article consists in the attempt to define metaphor in the context of the main tasks of psychological assistance, especially as a method of psychodiagnostic and psychocorrective work; to expand understanding of the methodological techniques of applying metaphor in psychological assistance practice, in particular in neuropsychocorrection. the results of the study of the peculiarities of the application of the psychological method of metaphor can be used in consultative, neuroand psychocorrective and psychotherapeutic practice. theoretical analysis of the peculiarities of the application of metaphor in group psychological correction work spiritual experiences and transformations are quite often inherently impossible to define, but there are many metaphorical descriptions. parables and metaphors united by the common name of "stories" illustrate qualitative aspects of spiritual development and are a good means of forming a meaningful context in the group and regulating the emotional atmosphere (maksymenko et al., 2015, p. 87). consciousness and the unconscious have a "common language" that allows them to "understand each other"it is a metaphorical language or superlanguage. in a situation of obscurity, when awareness of contradictory feelings and sensations is difficult or too painful, a person reflects it in a symbolic form (for example, through comparison with objects) with the help of a metaphor. metaphor (from greek μεταφορά "transfer") is "allegorical" peculiarities of application of metaphor in group psychological correction tamara kryvonis et al. 214 "a word or expression used in figurative sense, based on a comparison of one object with any other on the basis of their common feature (kosarevska & kutkina 2021). metaphor analysis is a good method of psychological research. metaphors are abstract models of reality just as mental models and schemata are in cognitive psychology. the multifaceted properties of metaphors allow us to study the micro-interactions between cognition and culture in openended and qualitative research plans. they also bridge the gap between quantitative-experimental and qualitative approaches in psychology (moser, 2000). metaphors are indispensable heuristic tools for practicing, communicating, and understanding science (taylor, & dewsbury 2018). metaphors are multidimensional in their interdisciplinary meaning (tendahl & gibbs, 2008). conceptual metaphor theory helps explain the cognitive strategies people use to understand life meaning, purpose, and values. among the many strategies for finding meaning in life, the use of metaphors is excellent because it suggests a unique ability for people to understand how two concepts have a similar structure despite outward differences (landau, 2018). the figurative world of stories allows one to approximate their contents to the inner "ego" of the person and facilitates identification with him or her through the function of a mirror. use of oriental stories, fairy tales and parables in the course of psychologically corrective work helps relieve tension in the group, the atmosphere becomes warmer, and relationships become more relaxed, pleasant and trusting. using parables and metaphors, the leader can control the attention of the group, utilize situations that arise in it, and actualize the necessary substantial context. the right stories, told at the right moment, meet practically no resistance in the group. from them the person receives that understanding to which he is ready for the present moment, which has its reflection in his "world model" (maksymenko et al., 2015, pp. 242 243). the psychocorrective process can be metaphorically described as special "flickers," clots of experiences. bright, emotionally colored experiences create the possibility of a new vision of old problems, a new view of a life situation, close people, a system of relations and activity. as a result, elements of consciousness and self-consciousness are restructured as a creative process (artyukhova, 2019). individual groups use metaphor often unconsciously to comprehend abstractions, make judgments and decisions, communicate and organize their behavior. metaphor conditions social cognition and understanding of motivation, culture, interpersonal relationships, and intergroup dynamics; explains how social behavior is broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 215 formed and reflected in our bodies, cultural context, and speech (landau, 2017). thus, foreign researchers have studied the covid-19 metaphorical representation of an emergency situation, associated with danger, negative emotional experiences (panzeri et al., 2021). group psychological correction encourages the client to become aware of what situations in the group and in real life cause tension, anxiety, fear, negative emotions, peculiarities of their behavior and emotional response, internal and interpersonal conflicts and their causes (cognitive aspect) (osyka & osyka, 2016, p. 16). in view of the fact that metaphor is a method of thinking, we consider its harmonious element to be the sphere of psychological assistance, especially group psychological correction, because group "participation" accelerates the thought processes regarding the effective psychological effects of the metaphor method in self-discovery, creative self-expression. we define metaphor in group psychologically correction as a diagnostic tool a projective method of research of psychic life of the client, as his projection on subjectively significant values and problems; a psychotherapeutic strategy for resolving a personal crisis, both in individual counseling practice and in group psychocorrective work; a psychological motivator of cognition and positive personal change. metaphor can be considered a neuropsychological means of activating the right hemisphere of the brain, due to which personal creativity and creative thinking in changing attitudes to problematic situations, a positive vision of a new context in them is manifested (demchenko et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). dreams, needs, desires, fantasies are presented and regulated by metaphorical language (in the form of images) at the neuropsychological level through the right hemisphere, which is associated with the influence of metaphors on changes in human behavior and life. the resources of metaphor in group psychocorrection are determined by its following properties: metaphoric language of mental images, high information content, resourcefulness in psychodiagnostics and overcoming problems, safety of expression, subjectivity, universality in methodological techniques and psychological techniques, creativity, developing potential for reflection and personal growth, integrality, imagery. methodologically applied analysis of the peculiarities of the use of metaphor in group psychocorrective work was carried out on the basis of works on the organization of psychocorrective work in a group and the specifics of the use of metaphor in training sessions (maksymenko et al., 2015); fundamentals of psychocorrective work (osyka & osyka, 2016); methods of group psychological influence by rudestam (1990); peculiarities of application of metaphor in group psychological correction tamara kryvonis et al. 216 psychological approaches in understanding psychocorrection (artyukhova, 2019); features of metaphorization in psychological training (vachkov, 2007); basic psychocorrective trends and approaches with a system of corresponding techniques and exercises (andrushko, 2017); metaphorical interventions to improve psychodynamic, eriksonian and family systems approaches (kopp, 1995). according to the psychosemantic structure, metaphors of consultants and clients as participants of group psychologically corrective work can be grouped and analyzed by the psychologist according to mental processes, states and properties, as well as personality components, for example, metaphors connected with evaluation, cognition, behavior, emotions, thinking, stress, depression etc. metaphors primarily represent the characteristics of the emotional and cognitive sphere of the client's personality and behavior. consequently, application of metaphors (through bypassing of resistance and transference of the client) in psychological practice can successfully carry out functions of psychodiagnostics and simultaneously promote a better comprehension by the client of own psychological problems and revealing and resolution of internal contradictions. as a rule, it is especially appropriate to use tests-metaphors for the purpose of psychodiagnostics at the beginning of the basic stage of group psychologically correction. metaphors (in the form of fairy tales, parables, stories, poems, jokes) are deliberately used by psychologists to help clients make the desired changes. in group work, the psychologist assumes that the experience of another person in overcoming problems similar to the client's problems will give him or her, directly or indirectly, a way by which he or she can cope with the situation. work with metaphors can be presented in the following sequence: identify the problem and find a situation similar in structure; point to a logical solution, identify what needs to be learned, and find contexts where these points will be evident; to embody these structures into a story that will be interesting and will conceal the intention, contacting the client with the metaphorical image; acceptance, integration and formation by the client of a new self-image. the following psychological mechanisms of metaphor construction are distinguished: comparison of incomparable establishing a relationship of similarity between equal realities; possible impossibility assuming the possibility of similarity of entities incomparable in reality; incompatible compatibility the metaphor consists of dissimilar objects; multiple unity the metaphor consists of several plans: literal verbal expression and new meaning (hordeeva, 2013). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 217 creation of an individual fairy tale by each member of group in the metaphorical form reflects the client's inner world and indirectly promotes his or her personal development. author's fairy tales have a lot of personal projections, so they can be a flexible means of influence in experienced leader hands of a group session. from the point of view of fairy tale therapy, myths are important because with their help, it is possible to show that living objects of the surrounding world, capable of acting independently, have the right to their own life. this idea is important for forming a sense of acceptance of the other. one of the major goals of fairy tale therapy is to stabilize mental processes, develop the emotional sphere, develop selfregulation and self-control, develop flexibility and free-will behavior, eliminate fears, anxiety and lack of self-confidence; increase flexibility and mobility of nervous processes; development of fine motor skills and coordination of movements; removal of physical and mental tension; increase work capacity; improvement of volitional qualities; training of breathing; overcoming barriers in communication etc. (maksymenko et al., 2015). the following corrective functions of a fairy tale are also singled out: psychological training for stressful emotional situations; symbolic response to physiological and emotional stress; acceptance of physical activity in a symbolic form (osyka & osyka, 2016). fairy tale therapeutic metaphors can be distinguished by an existential search for meaning, the process of transferring fairy tale meanings, which have personal meaning for the client, into real life. in modern psychological approaches, fairy tale metaphors are often used for personality correction. the tasks of group psychological correction are associated with the three components of self-awareness: self-understanding (the cognitive aspect), attitudes toward oneself (the emotional aspect), and self-regulation (the behavioral aspect) (osyka & osyka, 2016). in psychologically corrective practice, the method of metaphor successfully combines work in accordance with these components of self-awareness, flexibly translating unconscious aspects of the mental life of the group participant into awareness and understanding. it is an interesting scientific fact that each of psychotherapeutic directions reveals the specificity of psychological influences of structural components of self-consciousness on the individual (theoretical aspect), but their appropriate and complete combination is carried out by metaphor in the process of group psychological correction (applied aspect) it integrates them as a psychological mechanism. it is with the help of the language of metaphors that one reaches the level of awareness of the problem; metaphors allow a person to recognize peculiarities of application of metaphor in group psychological correction tamara kryvonis et al. 218 and designate his experiences and his attitude toward life's difficulties, to understand their value. metaphor expands the boundaries of consciousness, touching certain layers of the subconscious. the perception by group members of the literal content of each other's metaphors is perceived by the conscious mind, while the subconscious is engaged in a more subtle and laborious business: unraveling and processing metaphorical messages, deciphering the hidden meaning, the second plan, the non-obvious content (vachkov, 2007). p. thibodeau, l. boroditsky (2011) explore the role of metaphor in reasoning. the researchers believe that metaphors are not just rhetoric, but have a profound effect on how people understand important problems, as the use of even a single metaphor can lead to significant disagreements in thinking about how to solve problems. v. i. shebanova (2012) analyzed the possibility of using body metaphors in corrective work with people suffering from eating disorders. metaphoricality of the inner essence is its central characteristic. the functional significance of the metaphoricality of inner essence lies in the possibility of translating from the unconscious language of interoceptive sensations into the conscious language of exteroceptive sensations. the metaphorical image dissociates (builds distance) between the subject and his/her interoceptive sensation. this often alleviates discomfort, negative feelings, as they (feelings) are retransformed. discomfort (in the form of feeling, pain, tension, feeling bad) becomes something that can be talked about, that can be understood, reconstructed, and thus transferred from terrible, uncontrollable to something else (at least less terrible, and ideally to something good, pleasant). the possibility of transforming interoceptive sensations is unconsciously perceived by the subject as a possibility of controlling sensations and experiences (the possibility of controlling the inner essence). from experience of participation in psychologically corrective groups, we confirm that the use of metaphor by practical psychologists effectively influences a change of strategies of competition into strategies of cooperation through acceptance of individuality of the self and the another person, which is very important for the formation of practical skills and skills of working in a team. metaphorical stories presented in the group encourage to know the other and to reflect on one's participation in interaction with him/her. thus, group work in accordance with the key tasks "metaphor discussion actualization of acceptance readiness for cooperation" contributes to the formation of the business orientation of the specialist's personality and increases trust in the group. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 219 thus, the features of application of metaphor in group psychologically corrective work are as follows: multivariability of possible solutions to problems with the help of their projective transfer to metaphorical objectification; metaphor acts as a method of actualization of trust and successful communicative interaction between participants of group; allows to bypass the mechanisms of psychological defense to explain one's positions and to clarify the best options for solving a psychological problem; the body metaphor can be successfully combined with neuropsychological correction, to be used with neuropsychological purposes as a means of activating the right hemisphere of the brain, a method for correction of emotional and cognitive disorders, relaxation and bodyoriented work. an important criterion of effectiveness of metaphorical psychological correction is the satisfaction of participants in a group session with the result of work and participation, which is verified by their feedback through trust, acceptance and self-acceptance. according to k. rudestam (1990), feedback in an atmosphere of mutual care and trust allows individuals to control and correct inappropriate behavior, providing a better understanding of the participants in the group process of each other. technologies of using metaphor in group psychologically corrective work the use of group psychocorrection metaphors is possible in virtually all psychological approaches, and is especially active in positive psychology and art therapy techniques. geschalt therapy, narrative therapy, bodyoriented therapy, psychodrama, hypnotherapy, and, more recently, cognitivebehavioral psychotherapy. according to the cognitive-behavioral psychological theory of change of opinions, a decrease in the intensity and depth of strong emotions due to a change in the meaning of the experience promotes a decrease in anxiety and normalization of the client's psychoemotional state. according to steve killick, vicki curry and pamela myles (2016), metaphor is a central therapist tool for many therapies, and they are a special feature of cognitive behavioral therapy. in the metaphorical approach tomas rihacek, jan roubal, and katarína motalova (2020) confirm that in psychotherapeutic work metaphor can be meaningfully reduced to three mutually independent components: a directive, mentoring approach focused on personal growth (i.e. mentor); a non-directive approach based on providing cognitive and/or emotional resources to the client (i.e. resource provider); and an expert approach in peculiarities of application of metaphor in group psychological correction tamara kryvonis et al. 220 which the client is perceived as a recipient of assistance (i.e. remedy distributor). we believe that for metaphorical group psychologically correction, it is desirable to form groups in advance (taking into account the goal of psychologically corrective work) according to the similarity of psychological problems and social and psychological compatibility accordingly individual data of preliminary psychodiagnostics; to develop the most successful metaphors in accordance with the psychological problems and personal characteristics of group participants that are capable of providing a change in the attitude of participants in a practical session toward a crisis situation or post-traumatic events; to develop recommendations for new experiences as a group when discussing the results of work with metaphors; in group psychological correction of emotional disorders, it is desirable to use metaphors of depression, anxiety metaphors, fear metaphors, etc. in accordance with the data of individual psychological consultations (conducted for a group session) and discuss them with the "psychotherapeutic" goal of weakening negative emotions. i. v. vachkov (2007) proposes such tasks of group work on the problem metaphor, which sets the necessary program of change in behavior, participates in the restructuring of values, attitudes and positions: 1) to depict for 30 minutes a complex problem in a metaphorical form to the accompaniment of meditative music, it is possible to suggest drawing with the left hand this allows liberating figurative and associative thinking; 2) each participant is offered to visit an vernissage of metaphorical problems you need to see in the pictures of your comrades their problems, understand the meaning of the proposed metaphor and choose the picture whose metaphor seems closest to your image of the problem, choose related metaphors so subgroups with common metaphors are created; 3) translate the metaphor from the language of the drawing into the language of words, tell it to their group mates; form a common group metaphor to be presented both in drawing and verbal presentation; participants discuss a common metaphorical image of the problem, without revealing its real content, using only metaphorical language; at the end of developing a common metaphor, each subgroup presents a metaphorical image of their problem to the others; the facilitator should refrain from commenting and thank the participants for working together; 4) create a metaphor of victory over a problem to the accompaniment of major music. instead of a general drawing, the leader can suggest creating a live "sculpture" or "sculptural group," metaphorically reflecting a problem common to group members. such a technique is actively used by psychodramatists. it is desirable that the presentation of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 221 metaphors (in drawings, aphorisms, sculptures) of each group be accompanied by applause (vachkov, 2007). the essence of the process of metaphorization consists, first of all, in thinking by analogy, thanks to which the information field of consciousness on the psychological problems of participants in a group psychologically corrective session is expanded, allowing a view of a problem situation from different points of view. the group as a catalyst of the thought process strengthens the efficacy of metaphor. thus, ya. s. andrushko (2017, pp. 9-10) describes a step-by-step algorithm for using metaphor, which can be applied both in individual counseling and psychocorrective work (or guided psychological counseling at the initial stage of psychocorrection): 1. reflection on the problem, concentration on it, association with the problem. 2. reflecting on an enjoyable regular activity that is not labor for the person. this activity will be a resource for him. 3. linking the problem and the resource by constructing analogies. 4. transferring the problem to the resource by analogy, finding a way out of the problem. 5. transferring the solution to the resource problem to the real problem. the purpose of the "metaphor solves problem" exercise is to: analyze what kind of thinking can contribute to problem solving according to the following objectives: 1. think of a problem you have that you would like to solve in a new way. take, for example, an inability to focus on work. identify some physical space in front of you and focus your attention on it. feel what is happening to you at that moment, what associations. 2. now step out of the problem situation in a meta-position. 3. think about something you do regularly that has nothing to do with the problem. it should be a resource for you and enjoyable. for example, being able to draw beautifully. now for this resource state, fix a new physical space in front of you. take a step away from it and focus on the feeling of being able to get out of difficult situations. 4. look at your problem through the lens of your resource. think of a metaphor linking the problem and your resource so that the problem is expressed in the activity area of the resource. for example: not being able to concentrate on your work is like having a pencil break every time you draw. 5. find a way out of the metaphorical representation of the problem during a state of resource activity. for example, focus on controlling the force of pressing the pencil on the paper, and drawing will go by itself. 6. take a step back in the meta-position and think about how you would move the metaphorical solution to a real-world situation where you are facing the same problem. now step into the space of the problem situation to see if you can get out of the impasse. for example, focusing on peculiarities of application of metaphor in group psychological correction tamara kryvonis et al. 222 controlling my pencil is similar to defining the goals and motivation of my work. i understand "why", so understanding of "how" and "what" will come by itself (maksymenko, et al., 2015, pp. 242 243). metaphor in psychological group work promotes a clearer expression of one's opinions and positions, without fear of being judged by other participants; helps to open up to clients who find it difficult to express and talk about their feelings and themselves; a quick easing of negative emotions, in particular conflict, aggression, etc., which can impede open and trustful communication in a group; each participant of a psychologically corrective session sees his or her problem and others from different points of view; the removal of communication barriers and psychological defense mechanisms; gives participants of a psychologically corrective group confidence in managing training situations; promotes personal growth and the formation of life-constructing strategies. working with the client's life metaphor, it is possible to understand quite precisely what is going on in his life, whether he has the psychological resources to solve the problem and to help create a new metaphor and find new meaning. through work with a metaphor, it is possible to unfold the client's subjective picture of the world, making it more complete; to return the client to an active (authorial) position in his life, to share with him responsibility for what is happening and the subsequent result; to connect the client's subjective perception and his practical experience in a real situation. the life metaphor defines a variant and way of identification (who am i in this metaphor?), a certain attitude towards myself and others around me (who are they in this metaphor?), a way of connection with others, an understanding of the situation, fixed static rigid patterns belonging to this metaphor, the statement of a personal problem, the client's contribution to its occurrence and the choices open to him to change his life (individually possible and committed way of solution), resources and intended way of action in the future. the exercise "verbal life metaphor" with the following instructions is effective in accomplishing these tasks: 1) write the beginning of a sentence and finish it: "my life is..."; 2) group together with similar metaphors and tell partners about your metaphor; 3) group work in a circle (addressing the most frequently used metaphors, the main characteristics of metaphors, and questions to answer for self-awareness; 4) reflection (kosarevska & kutkina 2021). fairy tale therapy is a modern psychologically corrective method belonging to projective methods of self-knowledge and work with metaphor. the primary goal of using fairy tale therapy in group psychologically corrective work is to help participants rediscover the basic values of life and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 223 to build a productive life program, to be reborn and given an incentive to further self-improvement. playing out each personal tale in a psychologically corrective (psychotherapeutic) group occurs in accordance with the fundamental principles of psychodrama and consists of several stages: a psychological warm-up; psychodramatic action playback of a personal tale by one of the group members in turn and in the roles of the director (the psychologist), protagonist (the author of the tale) and audience (other group members); discussion (shearing), which concluded the session and involved experiencing participants' own emotions and experiences as characters and the author (protagonist) as a spectator and analysis of the fairy tale. spontaneous behavior of participants emphasizes the principle of "here and now", that is, problems and relationships are not discussed verbally, but are lived out in real action at an actual moment in time. each participant gains real-world experience from the example of others, allowing them to identify, recognize, and find solutions to problems by building constructive and productive behavioral strategies. thus, reproduction of a fairy tale displays the client's real problems rather than creating imaginary stage images. the final result of the psychodramatic process is a change in the structure of the organization of the perceptual field of participants, insight (lytvynenko, 2016). the consultant should apply metaphors taking into account the specificity of psychological problems of participants in a psychologically corrective session, the complexity of psychological traumatic situations and their emotional reactions, their expectations and values, psychological resourcefulness, individual psychological features, personal readiness, age and sex. conclusion we define metaphor in group psychocorrection as an informational psychodiagnostic tool, a projective method of research into the deep structure of the psyche and a method of social perception, projection of the client onto subjectively significant values and problems; a psychotherapeutic strategy for resolving a personal crisis both in individual counseling practice and in group psychocorrection; a way of successful dialogic interaction and communication between the counselor and the client; a neuropsychological means of activating the right hemisphere of the brain; a psychological motivator of cognition and positive personal change. the features of application of metaphor in group work are caused by properties of metaphor as a method of psychological correction as an peculiarities of application of metaphor in group psychological correction tamara kryvonis et al. 224 activator of the thinking process and as a psychological means of selfknowledge. in psychological practice, metaphor as an express-diagnosis allows the consultant to cognize the inner world of the client, the expression of his sensations, feelings, emotions, associations and thoughts and relations to himself, other people and the world in order to implement effective corrective and developmental psychological interventions. metaphor is a motivational tool for personal development, self-discovery, and creative selfexpression. in the wider understanding of the psychologically corrective method, metaphor is a motivator of personal self-development as a psychological resource of the self-sufficiency of the subject of his or her own life in the context of metaphorical objectification of universal values happiness, peace, love, freedom, trust, acceptance. references andrushko, ya. s. (2017). psykhokorektsiya [psychocorrection]: educational and methodical manual / ya. s. andrushko. lviv state university of internal affairs. http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/344/1/андрушко% 20психокорекція.pdf artyukhova, t. y. (2019). psikhokorrektsiya i psikhoterapiya [psychocorrection and psychotherapy]. siberian federal university. https://lpi.sfukras.ru/files/psihokorrekciya_i_psihoterapiya_2019.pdf demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 hordeeva, zh. v. (2013). metaforychna komunikatsiya psykholoha v psykhoterapevtychnoyi diyalʹnosti [metaphorical communication of the psychologist in psychotherapeutic activity]. hordeeva. killick, s., curry, v., & myles, p. (2016). the mighty metaphor: a collection of therapists’ favourite metaphors and analogies. cambridge university press. kopp, r. k. (1995). metaphor therapy using client-generated metaphors in psychotherapy. new york. kosarevska, t. e., & kutkina, r. r. (2021). art-metody v psikhologicheskom konsul'tirovanii [art methods in psychological counseling]. vitebsk state university named after p. m. masherov. landau, m. j. (2017). conceptual metaphor in social psychology: the poetics of everday life. routledge. http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/344/1/андрушко%20психокорекція.pdf http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/344/1/андрушко%20психокорекція.pdf https://lpi.sfu-kras.ru/files/psihokorrekciya_i_psihoterapiya_2019.pdf https://lpi.sfu-kras.ru/files/psihokorrekciya_i_psihoterapiya_2019.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 225 landau, m. j. (2018). using metaphor to find meaning in life. review of general psychology, 22(1), 62–72. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000105 lytvynenko, o. d. (2016). vykorystannya kazkoterapiyi u prohrami hrupovoyi psykhokorektsiynoyi roboty [the use of fairy tale therapy in the program of group psychocorrective work] . bulletin of the odessa national university named after mechnikov. psychology, 21(3), 41. http://psysocwork.onu.edu.ua/old/article/view/134527 maksymenko, s. d., prokofyeva, o. o., tsarkova, o. v., kochkurova, o. v. (2015). praktykum iz hrupovoyi psykhokorektsiyi [practicum on group psychocorrection]. publishing-polygraphic center "lux. moser, k. s. (2000). metaphor analysis in psychology—method, theory, and fields of application. qualitative social research, 1(2), 21. https://www.qualitativeresearch.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1090/2387 osyka, o. v, & osyka, k. s. (2016). teoriya i praktyka psykhokorektsiynoyi roboty [theory and practice of psychocorrective work]. slavyansk. panzeri, f., di paola, s., & domaneschi, f. (2021). does the covid-19 war metaphor influence reasoning? plos one, 16(4), e0250651. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250651 rihacek, t., roubal, j., & motalova, k. (2020). facets of the psychotherapy relationship: a metaphorical approach. psychotherapy : psychopathology, process, and outcome, 23(3), 468. https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2020.468 rudestam, k. (1990). gruppovaya psikhoterapiya. psikhokorrektsionnyye gruppy: teoriya i praktika [group psychotherapy. psychocorrective groups]. progress. sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 shebanova, v. i. (2012). metafora yak sposib vyrazhennya interotseptyvnykh vidchuttiv [metaphor as a way of expressing interoceptive sensations]. shebanova. taylor, c., & dewsbury, b. m. (2018). on the problem and promise of metaphor use in science and science communication. journal of microbiology & biology education, 19(1), 19146. https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v19i1.1538 tendahl, m., & gibbs, r. w. jr. (2008). complementary perspectives on metaphor: cognitive linguistics and relevance theory. journal of pragmatics, 40(11), 1823-1864. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2008.02.001 thibodeau, p., & boroditsky, l. (2011). metaphors we think with: the role of metaphor in reasoning. plos one, 6(2), e16782. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016782 https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000105 http://psysocwork.onu.edu.ua/old/article/view/134527 https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1090/2387 https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1090/2387 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250651 https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2020.468 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v19i1.1538 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2008.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016782 peculiarities of application of metaphor in group psychological correction tamara kryvonis et al. 226 vachkov, i. v. (2007). psikhologiya treningovoy raboty: soderzhatel'nyye, organizatsionnyye i metodicheskiye aspekty vedeniya treningovoy gruppy [the psychology of training work: informational, organizational, and methodological aspects of leading a training group]. eksmo. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 320-339 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/370 submitted: september 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: september 19th, 2022 analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing military aggression against ukraine nataliya kalka 1 , viacheslav blikhar 2 , maryana tsyvinska 3 , liubov kuzo 4 , alla marchuk 5 , halyna katolyk 6 1 senior lecturer, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, nataliyaiupb@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6989-4909 2 doctor of philosophical science, professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, blikharv@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7545-9009 3 expert psychologist, tspolygraph investigation, kyiv, ukraine, tspolygraph@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9862-0045 4 ph. d. in psychology, associate professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, kuzolyubov09@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-3262 5 ph.d. in pedagogy, associate professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, marchuk.alla@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4317-8736 6 doctor of psychology, associate professor, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine, katolyk@hotmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2169-0018 abstract: the article contains a theoretical and empirical analysis of resiliency and resilience in the context of the impact of various traumatic events. in particular, the impact of such events and phenomena as war and military aggression, which ukrainians have been experiencing since the beginning of the invasion of russian federation troops, is outlined. the formation of resiliency in conditions of military actions and full-scale invasion is vital. therefore, the authors outline the main theoretical approaches in the interpretation of these concepts within the framework of domestic and foreign teachings. the connection and relationship of such concepts as "resilience" and "stress resistance", "resilience" and "coping", "resilience" and "sustainability" are outlined. in general, resiliency is characterized as a personality quality and includes adaptability, stress resistance, mental stability, flexibility (emotional and behavioral) and resistibility. the purpose of the article is to find out the specifics of resiliency, its manifestation and development in people facing military aggression against ukraine. the results of applying "the person-in-the-rain drawing" technique made it possible to assess the components of resiliency and the main levels of its manifestation in the research group. the obtained results presented grounds to determine three levels of resiliency based on the selected criteria: low, medium and high. the analysis of three groups of respondents according to the level of resiliency indicates the need to find and implement ways of psychological support and provision of people with a low and medium level of resiliency. by increasing its level through the formation and development of adaptive resources and resistance, individuals will be able to mobilize their internal reserves and effectively implement them in order to protect their countries and provide assistance at various levels. keywords: resilience; resiliency; stress resistance; optimism; war; adaptation; traumatic event. how to cite: kalka, n., blikhar, v., tsyvinska, m., kuzo, l., marchuk, a., & katolyk, h. (2022). analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing military aggression against ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 320-339. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/370 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/370 mailto:nataliyaiupb@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6989-4909 mailto:blikharv@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7545-9009 mailto:tspolygraph@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9862-0045 mailto:kuzolyubov09@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-3262 mailto:marchuk.alla@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4317-8736 mailto:katolyk@hotmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2169-0018 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/370 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 321 introduction the full-scale war in ukraine, in which ukrainians defend not only their independence, but also defend the right of the ukrainian people, the nation to exist and prosper, has already been going on for months. as a result of military aggression, military personnel and the civilian population are subjected to serious psycho-traumatic effects, due to which there is a violation of the normative organization of the psyche. the destruction of the stability of the world, security, the experience of loss, forced relocation from the place of permanent residence, fear for personal safety and the safety of relatives and loved ones, a constant feeling of anxiety and imbalance, the negative influence of informational, psychogenic factors, living in conditions of constant risk of missile strikes – all these factors lead to severe psychological consequences. this applies to both combatants, civilians who directly experience traumatic events, and those who are in a state of expectation and worry that hostilities will affect them directly. psychological science is searching for answers to the question: what makes a person able to endure, return to normal functioning and even become stronger after severe shocks and traumas. studies of unordinary, extreme, difficult life situations/circumstances by prominant scholars k. mannapova (2019), v. predko (2021), t. tytarenko (2009), o. vdovichenko (2019), k. connor, j. davidson (2003), indicate the importance of personal resources as a potential that provides the ability to adapt, recover, change and grow in difficult and traumatic life circumstances. scientists m. ungar, l. liebenberg, r. boothroyd, et.al. (2008) emphasize the need to study the conditions for maintaining human stability, are looking for the ways to develop such personal qualities and properties that would ensure not only the ability to adapt, but also to actively counteract crisis phenomena, recover, plan and carry out one's own activities in accordance with defined goals, and achieve success. preserving and restoring a person's mental health in war conditions, ensuring a person's psychological readiness for action, returning to life with new perspectives can be achieved thanks to the resiliency of the individual. thus, the purpose of the article is to find out on the basis of theoretical and empirical research, the specifics of resiliency, its manifestation and development in persons who stay in the territory of ukraine and are experiencing events caused by a full-scale invasion by the russian federation. https://www.tandfonline.com/author/liebenberg%2c+linda https://www.tandfonline.com/author/boothroyd%2c+roger analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing … nataliya kalka et al. 322 literature review the study of resilience and resiliency is one of the priority directions in western and domestic psychology (see, for instance, v. rice, b. liu, 2016), as well as in related sciences, which is confirmed by the growing number of publications. increasing attention to resilience in the world is associated with military actions in afghanistan, iraq, terrorist acts in the usa and europe. in ukraine, the rapid increase in research on the problem of successfully overcoming the negative consequences of psychotraumatic experiences is caused by the hostilities in the east of ukraine, the annexation of crimea, the internal displacement of people from the autonomous republic of crimea, luhansk and donetsk regions (o. khaminich, 2016; n. husak, v. chernobrovkina, et al., 2017). the phenomenon of resilience is studied by foreign and domestic researchers. scholars present in their works theoretical approaches to defining the concepts of resilience and resiliency, their essence and structure. the term "resiliency" refers to the ability of a material to withstand a load before breaking, its ability to return to its original shape after deformation due to the resulting pressure. the concepts of "resilience" and "resiliency" are widely used by various fields of science: medical, social, economic, pedagogical, psychological. researchers indicate that resilience as a process is characterized by different forms: stability and return to the previous state; returning to the previous state and acquiring new qualities (o. soroka & kalaur, 2019; j. tavakolizadeh, e. yazdi, & a. akbary, 2019; a. halian et al., 2021; j. liu, m. reed, and k. fung, 2020). the psychological term "resilience" is associated with the names of e. werner and smith (1992), m. ungar et al. (2008), k. connor, j. davidson (2003). the concept of resilience does not have a generally accepted definition and a single approach to its components. in the english-language literature, resilience is associated with maintaining an adaptive state, the presence of an unexpectedly low level of psychological problems under stress. most of the mentioned foreign researchers indicate that resilience belongs to the category of positive adaptation, is a dynamic process of recovery, returning to the previous state after a traumatic event. scientists believe that resilience depends on the cultural context, society, and should be considered both on an individual and interpersonal level (d. assonov, o. khaustova, 2019). such scholars as v. rice and b. liu (2016) consider resilience to be an exclusively positive result of positive coping. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 323 ukrainian scientists tend to interpret resilience in the context of the process and in the context of the formed personal characteristic. in ukrainian scientific literature, this term is often understood not only as a process, but as a certain ability of a person, such as stress resistance, psychological stability, vitality, resistance to injuries, coping (o. soroka & kalaur, 2019). however, a significant number of domestic researchers are inclined to define resilience as a process and discuss the relationship between the concepts of "resilience" and "stress resistance", "resilience" and "coping", "resilience" and "sustainability". resilience is defined by modern scientists as a process of stable mental functioning of a person from the time of stressful exposure, as a dynamic, continuous process of restoring balance after a temporary transition of a maladapted state, a quick return to normal after the destructive action of psycho-traumatic factors, as a process of acquiring qualitatively new traits and more successful functioning as a result of overcoming psychological trauma (d. assonov, o. khaustova, 2019). in ukrainian-language publications, there is no clear distinction between the terms "resilience" and "resiliency", in contrast to englishlanguage publications, where these concepts are distinguished as a process and a personality characteristic. the introduction of the term "resiliency" to the conceptual apparatus of psychological science is associated with the works of e. werner and r. smith (1992). scientists emphasize that it is important to distinguish between the terms "resilience" and "resiliency", pointing out that the first term refers to the process, and the second the characteristics of the individual. as stated by l. adamenko (2020), the world health organization defines resiliency as the ability to cope relatively well with difficult situations and personal resourcefulness, which can be developed thanks to protective factors (for example, a favorable environment, the development of adaptive coping mechanisms). h. liu, c. zhang, y. ji, and l. yang (2018) believe that resiliency can be defined as a certain static point that characterizes a person at a certain moment in the resilience process, a characteristic that describes a person's potential ability to quickly recover from stress. resiliency can be understood as a strong-willed mental state that ensures the connection of resources in difficult life situations and contributes to the formation of a suitable personal trait that ensures effective adaptation and personal growth in later life periods. in the publications of foreign scientists, the phenomenon of "resiliency" is considered in three main approaches: cognitive behaviorism, constructivism, ecological realism. according to the first approach, scientists focus on the researched processes of emotional regulation of behavioral analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing … nataliya kalka et al. 324 reactions in stressful situations, leaving aside specific behavioral strategies for overcoming difficulties. great attention of scientists is paid to practical methods of coping behavior: physical activity, internal dialogue, development of a sense of humor. the leading role of a person's active life position in one’s vitality is considered within the limits of the constructivist approach (t. melnychuk, 2021). representatives of the ecological approach in overcoming difficult life situations and difficulties give the main importance to social factors. further scientific research led to the emergence of a cross-cultural approach, which represents the connection of viability and ways of responding in risk situations with age, gender, place of residence. scientists continue to research and form the empirical, theoretical and evidence base of the concept of resiliency (k. connor, j. davidson, 2003; r. newman, 2005; g. richardson, 2002; rice, v., liu, b., 2016). d. hellerstein (2011) singles out the components of resiliency as follows: physical resiliency as an indicator of stress resistance and tolerance, and psychological resiliency, which includes the development and maintenance of social contacts, finding meaning in difficult situations and events, an active life position that helps overcome negative consequences after stress. it is worth mentioning that in some researches resiliency is associated with the ability to regulate emotions with the help of cognitive reappraisal (restructuring of negative events in a positive perspective), acceptance of what is beyond personal control, focusing on the present and not on experiences and worries related to the past or the future (j. buhle et al., 2014). domestic scientists m. sigova and o. morozova (2020) believe that the key factors in the formation and development of resiliency are the creation of adaptive coping mechanisms, assertive actions, emotional intelligence, self-observation and "mindfulness" (technique of awareness). thus, significant correlations between resiliency and emotional intelligence, self-esteem, positive relationships with others, protective mechanisms have been recently found. researchers point out that a person with a high level of resiliency is characterized by optimism, the ability to identify and understand problems, cognitive interest, resistance, stress resistance, and the strength of "i". methodology in order to determine the characteristics, level and components of resiliency, an empirical study was conducted using "the person-in-the-rain broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 325 drawing" technique (jue, j., ha, j., 2019). respondents are the representatives of those ukrainians who managed to stay in kyiv during the severe military operations in february-april 2022. generally 50 people (12 women and 38 men) aged 20-60 took part in the study. respondents were informed about the possibility of using empirical material in the course of scientific research. due to the use of the projective technique "the person-in-the-rain drawing", it became possible to find out the strength of the ego, the skills and abilities of resistance to adverse and dangerous situations and circumstances, protective mechanisms and stress resistance of the individual in situations related to experiencing crisis situations. the analysis of drawings and their interpretation made it possible to determine personal resources and peculiarities of response to adverse situations. each respondent was given the following instructions for performing this technique: "draw a person on a blank sheet of a4, which is placed vertically. after that, on another sheet of a4, draw a person in the rain. you should draw arbitrarily, in any part of the sheet and for as long as you need. you can draw a detailed drawing, or you can draw a schematic one. to obtain more reliable information, you should answer a number of questions after completing the drawing. in projective diagnostics, a drawing is a reflection of the inner world of the subject's personality, a reflection of one’s thoughts, experiences, emotions and feelings, worldview and character of a person, therefore it is an effective tool for personality research. while working with the projective material of the "the person-in-the-rain drawing" technique, general approaches in the analysis of drawings were used, namely: ● general appearance-proportions-size; ● placement on the page; ● character of lines; ● composition construction; ● drawing style; ● image content; ● force of pressure; ● degree of comprehension of the drawing. results in the process of analysis and interpretation of drawings, it is worth paying attention to the following features: emotions and experiences conveyed by the drawing; the center of the picture (as a rule, the central objects indicate the dominant problem or experience of the person); if there analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing … nataliya kalka et al. 326 are any strange elements in the picture; location of objects and elements in relation to the edges of the sheet (the edges of the sheet are a kind of border); the presence of objects being crossed out or erased (these places may indicate a hidden conflict or the desire to fix something); sizes and proportions of objects (sizes indicate exaggeration or depreciation of such objects, a change in proportions or distortion of forms is evidence of a problem area that is given excessive attention in the drawing); presence of repeating objects; the author's attitude to the drawing; captions on the picture and their meaning for the author of the picture. the procedure for carrying out this technique involves evaluating the image of a person and a person in the rain. the comparison of these pictures makes it possible to determine the response to difficult and unfavorable situations. when analyzing and interpreting the drawing of a person in the rain, in order to evaluate the above-mentioned qualities, the indicators which are presented in table 1 were taken into account: table 1. image analysis using the "the person-in-the-rain drawing" method characteristic peculiarities of the image in the drawing 1. placement the placement of the image of a person in the rain at the bottom of the drawing indicates depressive tendencies, while at the top on the contrary an optimistic perception of the situation. a sharp shift in any direction can be an indicator of a tendency to go into the world of fantasies about the past or the future, respectively. 2. a person's age and gender indicates a tendency to react to stress in a certain way: stereotypically masculine or feminine / adult or resorting to childish infantilism. the male figure in the picture is evidence of the "male" type of response, which is manifested in activity and finding ways out of the situation. the female figure is an indicator of passivity, vulnerability and the need for support and care. an increase in a person's age compared to a person's drawing indicates to responsibility, personal maturity and the ability to show wisdom. declining age is an indicator of infantility and immaturity. 3. means of protection the presence of such details as an umbrella, raincoat or hat directly indicate the ways to overcome stress. the presence of any items indicates the level of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 327 adaptability and the ability to cope with difficulties; absence of any items is the characteristic feature of insecurity, the need for care. the image of a naked person can indicate helplessness, rejection of stereotypes of behavior or focus on the sexual aspect. 4. additional objects and elements the presence of additional protective elements in the picture (trees, stop, cave, etc.) indicate the need for protection and support. shaggy and numerous clouds are a symbol of waiting for trouble. a rainbow symbolizes a dream about an impossible pursuit of perfection. 5. rain rain is a symbol of life's troubles, therefore the client's attitude to stressful situations depends on the nature of the lines, the number of drops and its frequency. a continuous wall of rain indicates the impossibility, in the opinion of a person, to cope with difficulties, while a light rain indicates an optimistic approach. balanced, identical strokes in one direction speak of balance. messy strokes the situation around a person is anxious and unstable. vertical strokes speak of stubbornness, determination. short, uneven strokes across the field and the absence of all protections indicate anxiety and perception of the environment as hostile. the presence of clouds and lightning indicates depressive tendencies, while puddles can tell about unresolved problems. puddles, dirt symbolize the consequences of an alarming situation, those experiences that remain after "rain". particular attention should be paid to the location of the puddles in relation to the person’s figure (whether they are in front of or behind the figure, surround the person from all sides or the person stands in the puddle). 6. clothing the function of clothing is "formation of protection against the elements." a large amount of clothing usually indicates the need for additional protection. lack of clothes is associated with ignoring certain stereotypes of behavior, impulsiveness of response. analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing … nataliya kalka et al. 328 7. the direction of the human figure the figure turned to the left attention is focused on oneself, one's thoughts, experiences in the past; turned to the right the author of the drawing is directed to the future, active; depicted so that the back of the head is visible, depicted with the back a manifestation of isolation, withdrawal from conflict resolution. if a person is depicted as running, the author of the picture wants to escape from problems. a walking person means good adaptation. if the person in the picture is standing unsteadily, it can mean tension, lack of a core, balance. 8. the style of the person’s image the stick figure indicates negativism, resistance to the method. excessively childish, playful drawings indicate a need for approval. cartoons mean a desire to avoid evaluative judgments about oneself, feelings of inferiority, hostility. 9. features of a drawing process pressing, hatching and drawing lines indicate anxious, aggressive or depressive tendencies in a person's mental state. strong pressure, erasure of details or sharp hatching indicate an area of concern. unfinished lines often indicate conflict, while clumsy sharp figures indicate aggressiveness and lack of adaptation to stress. too light lines indicate a lack of resource or asthenia. 10. a person's mood, emotions and experiences the absence of emotions or the image of a person's depressed mood indicates depressive tendencies, fatigue and anxiety states, while a cheerful and satisfied face is an indicator of a person's optimistic and positive attitude in adverse situations. source: jue and ha (2019) according to the results of the study of the "the person-in-the-rain drawing" methodology, it can be stated that the majority of respondents demonstrate an average level of resistance and confrontation in adverse situations (fig. 1). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 329 fig. 1. indicators of levels of resiliency in the sample (source: authors’ own contribution) thus, fig. 2 shows that in the drawings of people with a high level of resistance (15%), the placement of the drawing in the upper part of the sheet or evenly on the entire sheet is observed, which indicates an optimistic perception of the situation. most of the depicted people are adult male figures, which indicates a "masculine" type of response, manifested in activity and finding ways out of the situation. in most drawings, there is such a detail as an umbrella, which indicates the level of adaptability and ability to cope with difficulties. in all the pictures, there are additional elements, namely: trees, rainbow, sun, child, which may indicate the need for additional protection and support and an impossible desire for perfection. the clouds in the pictures are isolated, and in some places they are completely absent, which indicates a real assessment of an unpleasant situation. rain, depicted in the form of vertically directed strokes, indicates balance, stubbornness and determination. individuals are able to adequately assess and experience the consequences of an alarming situation, as evidenced by the absence of puddles and dirt in the pictures. depicted cheerful and satisfied faces are an indicator of an optimistic and positive attitude of a person in adverse situations. analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing … nataliya kalka et al. 330 fig. 2. drawings of respondents using the "the person-in-the-rain drawing" method (high level) (source: authors’ own contribution) as it can be seen in the fig. 3, for people with a medium level of resistancy (40%), it is typical to place pictures in the central part of the sheet, which indicates a real assessment of the situation. in some drawings, people are shifted to the left, which can be an indicator of a person's focus on himself/herself, his/her thoughts, on turning to the past. most of them depict adults, both male and female, less often children. the image of a male figure in the picture is evidence of a "male" type of response, which is manifested in activity and finding ways out of the situation, while the image of a female figure indicates passivity, vulnerability, the need for support and care. the presence of a childlike figure can be an indicator of infantility and immaturity. the lack of clothing in some of the images is associated with individuals ignoring certain stereotypes of behavior, impulsiveness of response. in most drawings, there is such a detail as an umbrella or a hat (cap), which indicates the level of adaptability and ability to cope with difficulties. the absence of any protection in some pictures indicates insecurity, the need for care. as a rule, most drawings do not have any additional elements, which indicates that there is no need for additional protection and support. the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 331 absence of clouds is observed, which makes it possible to assume that trouble will be avoided or not expected. the rain in the pictures is depicted in the form of random strokes or tilted in different directions, which makes it possible to assume the presence of an alarming and unstable situation around a person. there is no rain in some of the drawings, which indicates displacement or reluctance to perceive the situation as negative. at the same time, individuals are able to adequately assess and experience the consequences of an alarming situation, as evidenced by the absence of puddles and dirt in the pictures. depicted cheerful and satisfied faces are an indicator of an optimistic and positive attitude of a person in adverse situations. fig. 3. drawings of respondents using the "the person-in-the-rain drawing" method (medium level) (source: authors’ own contribution) individuals with a low level of resistance (45%) in drawings of a person in the rain usually show sideways, unstable male and female figures at the bottom of the picture, which are significantly smaller compared to the image of a person (fig. 4). this peculiarity indicates the presence of a depressive mood, a tendency to plunge into the world of fantasies about the analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing … nataliya kalka et al. 332 past or future, a desire to escape from problems. the instability of the person in the picture can mean tension, lack of a core, balance. the image of a male figure is evidence of a "male" type of response, which is manifested in activity and finding ways out of a situation, while the image of a female figure indicates passivity, vulnerability, the need for support and care. some of the images do not contain any forms of protection, which stands for insecurity, the need for care. some of the drawings have such a detail as an umbrella or a hat, a hood, which indicates the level of adaptability and the ability to cope with difficulties. there are also images of the person wearing additional clothing, such as a cloak, which may indicate the need for additional protection. numerous clouds in most drawings are a symbol of waiting for troubles and indicate depressive tendencies. the rain is usually depicted as short, uneven and messy strokes across the field, and the absence of any protection indicates anxiety and a perception of the environment as hostile. balanced, identical strokes, in one direction, which can indicate balance, are rare. the images in most drawings of puddles placed either around a person or standing in them indicate the presence of unresolved problems, the difficulty of experiencing the consequences of an alarming situation. it should also be noted that the presence of pressure, sharp hatching and unfinished lines in the drawings indicate disturbing, aggressive tendencies in the mental state of a person, the presence of conflict situations. the lack of emotion in the images also indicates depressive tendencies, fatigue and anxiety states. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 333 fig. 4. drawings of respondents using the "the person-in-the-rain drawing" method (low level) (source: authors’ own contribution) to assess the level and features of resiliency and response to adverse situations, after drawing a picture of a person in the rain, each respondent was asked a set of questions. the answers to the following questions were taken into account. the main questions used for interpretation are as stated: ● how does the person feel? ● what is his/her mood? ● how can you help a person in the rain? ● what can a person do by himself/herself when he/she finds himself/herself in the rain? ● is rain perceived as a negative factor? analyzing the answers to the question "how does a person feel?" in the group of people with a high level of resistancy, the most common answers are: "i feel confident and protected", "everything is beautiful, in the tropics on vacation", "comfortable", "well", "joyful", "feels great", and among the answers to the question "what's his/her mood?" most often we find the answers "joyful", "satisfied", "wonderful", "beautiful", "calm". analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing … nataliya kalka et al. 334 in a group of people with a medium level of resistance the question "how does the person feel?" gets the following answers: "comfortable", "normal", "feels like a person", "uncomfortable", "in harmony with the world", "well", "normal under an umbrella", and among the answers to the question "what is his/her mood?" most often we find the answers "nice", "well", "positive", "calm", "normal", "cheerful", "non-critical", "funny". as for people with a low level of resistance, when being asked the question "how does the person feel?" they present the following answers: "naturally", "in love", "not bad", "normal", "not well enough", "bad", "both happy and sad", "uncomfortable", "in sadness and longing", which indicates experiencing more uncertain and negative emotional states. typical answers to the question "what's his/her mood?" in the group with a low level of resistance, were divided as follows: "thoughtful", "average", "bad", "sad", etc. thanks to the answer to the question "how can you help a person in the rain?" we were able to assess the willingness to ask for and receive help in crisis and difficult situations. most often, in the answers of the respondents, we find the following options: "take under an umbrella", "give a towel", "give warm clothes". these responses indicate a willingness to help others in adverse situations. undoubtedly, the presence of internal personal resources is important for the formation and implementation of resistance, so the answers to the question "what can a person do by himself/herself when he/she finds himself/herself in the rain?" gave an opportunity to assess the presence of personal potential to overcome crisis situations. therefore, most often we come across options indicating the search for protective strategies, namely: "open an umbrella", "find shelter", "enter the premises", "buy an umbrella", "stay at home", "do nothing", "be on the alert, "cover up", "hide", "enter the building", "connect with nature", "look at the weather forecast", "be glad to be alive". answers to the question "how can you help a person in the rain?" of respondents with a medium level of resiliency, can be considered as an evidence of a formed willingness to help and inclusion in a negative situation (variants of answers: "invite to the car", "give a raincoat", "invite under an umbrella", "give an umbrella", ""wrap in a blanket", " take shelter", "do not go out", "take to a coffee shop", "close from the rain"). a low level of resistance to resiliency of the studied people is indicated by the following answers to the question "what can a person do by himself/herself when he/she finds himself/herself in the rain?" and the options "relax", "nothing", "smile", "don't complain", "calm down", "take it broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 335 for granted", "cheer up", "be patient", "no need to do anything", "everything to avoid it" is a demonstration of reaction due to detachment and passivity, lack of specific answers, which indicates insufficient resources and opportunities to overcome situations associated with a high degree of stress. however, responses to the question "how can you help a person in the rain?" are characterized by greater specificity, but are not effective in helping in stressful and critical situations, which is symbolized by the rain in the picture. among the typical answers, the following should be noted: "breathing deeply", "coffee", "hug", "give an umbrella", "encourage", "stop the rain", "invite to a cafe and treat us to tea", "tell a joke", "nothing", "wait". the answers to the question "is rain perceived as a negative factor?" were distributed as follows (fig. 5): fig. 5. results of the responses to the question (source: authors’ own contribution) this distribution of answers indicates the peculiarities of the respondents' assessment and attitude to adverse situations and characterizes their behavior from the position of not experiencing threat and danger in the current situation (metaphor of accepting rain as a non-threatening factor). analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing … nataliya kalka et al. 336 limits and discussions it should be noted that the results of the current research can be usefully applied in the provision of psychological assistance in wartime conditions not only in ukraine but in other regions subject to terrorist attacks. psychological state and mental health during military operations is extremely important. many ukrainians experience exhaustion, devastation, fatigue, stress, anxiety and panic. on the basis of the obtained results, it is expedient for psychologists to develop and offer directions for psychological support of people who have a low and medium level of resiliency and, accordingly, low indicators of its components. prospects for further research include the compilation of a profile of psycho-emotional states of persons who stay in the regions of hostilities. conclusions the hostilities in ukraine caused a number of challenges for the psycho-emotional and mental states of all ukrainians. however, they, in turn, became the basis for the formation and development of resiliency of each person involved in experiencing these dreadful military events. it is worth noting that the instability of the mental and emotional state is an ordinary reaction to the abnormal circumstances in which the refugees found themselves. therefore, the ability to recover in the most difficult life circumstances – resiliency – is one of the key personal qualities of every ukrainian today. with the help of the projective method, we managed to assess the main components of resiliency and distinguish the characteristics of the groups of respondents according to the level of resiliency. among the main components of resiliency, it became possible to identify the basic ones: optimism (belief in victory), resilience (ability to show firm will and resistance in difficult situations), adaptability (ability to quickly adapt to changes in war conditions) and hope (confidence in the ability to overcome difficulties). thus, according to the results of the study, it was found that almost half of the people have a low level of resiliency, which is caused to a greater extent by the beginning of the war and the initial stage of the formation of adaptive mechanisms and a greater focus on the emotional component in experiencing an extremely difficult situation – war. however, a significant number of the respondents have developed successful protective and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 337 adaptive mechanisms that help them adapt to the difficult life circumstances accompanying the military operations in ukraine. a high level of resiliency in the studied group characterizes individuals who quickly and successfully found internal resources and accepted the challenges of the war with dignity and, accordingly, in their behavior and activities show a high level of stress resistance, resistance and adaptation. the results of the responses to the questions of the methodology indicate that almost all respondents have the appropriate level of readiness to find resources for adaptation and readiness to overcome adverse circumstances. the analysis of three groups of respondents according to the level of resiliency indicates the need to find and implement ways of psychological support and provision of people with a low and medium level of resiliency. by increasing its level through the formation and development of adaptive resources and resistance, individuals will be able to mobilize their internal reserves and effectively implement them in order to protect their countries and provide assistance at various levels. references adamenko, l. (2020). aktualni pidkhody do problemy doslidzhennia psykhichnoi rezylientnosti [current approaches to the problem of mental resiliency research]. visnyk natsionalnoho universytetu oborony ukrainy, 5(58), 5 13. https://doi.org/10.33099/2617-6858-2020-58-5-5-13 assonov, d., & khaustova, o. (2019). rozvytok kontseptsii rezyliiensu v naukovii literaturi protiahom ostannikh rokiv [development of resilience concept in scientific literature of recent years]. https://uk.emedjournal.com/index.php/psp/article/view/219 buhle, j., silvers, j., wager, t., lopez, r., onyemekwu, c., kober, h., weber, j., & ochsner, k. n. (2014). cognitive reappraisal of emotion: a meta-analysis of human neuroimaging studies. cerebral cortex, 24(11), 2981-2990. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bht154 connor, k., & davidson, j. (2003). development of a new resilience scale: the connor-davidson resilience scale (cd-risc). national library of medicine, 18(2), 76-82. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.10113 halian, a., halian, i., popovych, i., zavatskyi, y., semenov, o., & semenova, n. (2021). stress resistance in the situation of uncertainty as a factor of development of adaptive ability of medical personnel. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(1), 251-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/181 https://doi.org/10.33099/2617-6858-2020-58-5-5-13 https://uk.e-medjournal.com/index.php/psp/article/view/219 https://uk.e-medjournal.com/index.php/psp/article/view/219 https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bht154 https://doi.org/10.1002/da.10113 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.1/181 analysis of peculiarities and components of resiliency of people facing … nataliya kalka et al. 338 hellerstein, d. (2011). how i can become resilient. heal your brain. http:/www.psychologyto-day.com/blog/ heal-your-brain husak, n., chernobrovkina, v., chernobrovkin, v., maksymenko, a., bohdanov, s., & boiko, o. (2017). psykhosotsialna pidtrymka v umovakh nadzvychainykh sytuatsii: pidkhid rezyliiens: navch.-metod. posib. [psychosocial support in emergency situations: the resilience approach]. nats. un-t “kyievo-mohylianska akademiia, 92. http://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/11902/academ ic%20guide%20on%20resilience.pdf?sequence=1 jue, j., & ha, j. (2019). the person-in-the-rain drawing test as an assessment of soldiers’ army life adjustment and resilience. psychology, 10, 1418-1434. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2019.1011093 khaminich, o. (2016). rezilientnist: zhyttiestiikist, zhyttiezdatnist abo rezilientnist [resilience: viability, vitality or resiliency]? naukovyi visnyk khersonskoho derzhavnoho universytetu. seriia “psykholohichni nauky”, 6(2), 160-165. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvkhp_2016_6%282%29__30 liu, h., zhang, c., ji, y., & yang, l. (2018). biological and psychological perspectives of resilience: is it possible to improve stress resistance? frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 326. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00326 liu, j. j. w., reed, m., & fung, k. p. (2020). advancements to the multi-system model of resilience: updates from empirical evidence. heliyon, 6, e04831. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.007 mannapova, k. (2019). rol zhyttiestiikosti u podolanni skladnykh zhyttievykh sytuatsii [the role of resilience in overcoming difficult life situations.]. teoriia i praktyka suchasnoi psykholohii, 1(1), 75-78. http://www.tpspjournal.kpu.zp.ua/archive/1_2019/part_2/16.pdf melnychuk, t. (2021). generalization of theoretical and empirical results of the study in the form of means of overcoming the medical and psychological consequences of the covid-19 pandemic in ukraine. american journal of fundamental, applied & experimental research, 23(4), 23-31. https://ajfaer.org/index.php/ajfaer/article/download/120/105 newman, r. (2005). apa's resilience initiative. professional psychology: research and practice, 36(3), 227-229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.36.3.227 predko, v. (2021). skladna zhyttieva sytuatsiia yak providna umova formuvannia zhyttiestiikosti osobystosti [a difficult life situation as a leading condition for the formation of a person's vitality]. teoretychni i prykladni problemy psykholohii, 74 – 99. https://doi.org/10.33216/2219-2654-2021-54-1-74-99 rice, v., & liu, b. (2016). personal resilience and coping with implications for work. part i: a review work. national library of medicine, 54(2), 325-33. https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-162300 http://www.psychologyto-day.com/blog/%20heal-your-brain http://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/11902/academic%20guide%20on%20resilience.pdf?sequence=1 http://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/11902/academic%20guide%20on%20resilience.pdf?sequence=1 https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2019.1011093 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nvkhp_2016_6%282%29__30 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00326 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.007 http://www.tpsp-journal.kpu.zp.ua/archive/1_2019/part_2/16.pdf http://www.tpsp-journal.kpu.zp.ua/archive/1_2019/part_2/16.pdf https://ajfaer.org/index.php/ajfaer/article/download/120/105 https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.36.3.227 https://doi.org/10.33216/2219-2654-2021-54-1-74-99 https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-162300 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 339 richardson, g. (2002). the metatheory of resilience and resiliency. journal of clinical psychology, 58(3), 307-321. https://doi.org/ 10.1002/jclp.10020 sigova, m., & morozova, o. (2020). vzaiemozviazok rivnia rezyliiens z profesiinym uspikhom fakhivtsiv hr [interconnection between the level of resilience and professional success of hr specialists]. psykholohiia ta psykhosotsialni interventsii, 3, 50-58. https://doi.org/10.18523/2617-2348.2020.3.50-58 soroka, o., & kalaur, s. (2019). pidkhid rezyliiens u reabilitatsii sotsialnodezadaptovanykh pidlitkiv [the resilience approach in of sociomaladjusted supervisors rehabilitation]. social work and education, 6(1), 6169. https://doi.org/10.25128/2520-6230.19.1.6 tavakolizadeh, j., yazdi, e., & akbary, a. (2019). the impact of adler lifestyle education on resiliency of parents of educable mentally retarded students. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(3), 5-11. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/217 7 tytarenko, t. (2009). zhyttiestiikist osobystosti: sotsialna neobkhidnist ta bezpeka [vitality of the individual: social necessity and security] navch. posib. marych, 105. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/9065/1/zhiznestoykost_lichnosti.pdf ungar, m., liebenberg, l., boothroyd, r., kwong, w. m, lee, t. y., leblanc, j., duque, l., & makhnach, a. (2008). the study of youth resilience across cultures: lessons from a pilot study of measurement development. research in human development, 5(3), 166–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427600802274019 vdovichenko, o. (2019). psykholohiia ryzyku osobystosti: monohrafiia [psychology of personality risk: a monograph]. odesa. 456. http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/4154/1/vdovychenko.a ref.pdf werner e., & smith r. (1992). overcoming the odds: high risk childrenfrom birth to adulthood. new york: mcgrow hill. https://doi.org/ 10.1002/jclp.10020 https://doi.org/10.18523/2617-2348.2020.3.50-58 https://doi.org/10.25128/2520-6230.19.1.6 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2177 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2177 https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/9065/1/zhiznestoykost_lichnosti.pdf https://www.tandfonline.com/author/liebenberg%2c+linda https://www.tandfonline.com/author/boothroyd%2c+roger https://doi.org/10.1080/15427600802274019 http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/4154/1/vdovychenko.aref.pdf http://dspace.pdpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/4154/1/vdovychenko.aref.pdf ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 143-164 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/449 submitted: february 8th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 28th, 2023 how can we use selfdetermination theory to engage more z generation of students during onsite classes for learning achievement? geta mitrea 1 1 university stefan cel mare from suceava, mitrea.geta@gmail.com abstract: losing their interest to the onsite classes, after covid-19 online teaching period, the z generation of students spent more time on their smartphones being only physically present there. the originality of this study is given by the mixed researched methods (participatory observation, sociological exploratory experiment and self-administrated questionnaire) used to collect the information and identify if receiving autonomy, competence and relatedness from the teachers, students become more engaged in courses activities and learning performance. contrary to our initial supposition we were able to conclude that the z generation of students are not developing `anxiety` feelings when they are separated from their smartphones during classes if they are fully assured the autonomy, competence and relatedness for taking this decision. but, during that period their main thoughts are related to anxiety or expectation that something is to happen and they risk not to see it on their smartphone. here we can conclude that maybe they are not aware of their dependency and do not consider that exists. in the whole image of the three-year cohort, the extremities, 1st year and 3rd year of study are more dependent on the smartphone than the 2nd year. also, the same study years (1st and 3rd), are more motivated and agreed with the established rules and found intrinsic motivation; as long as autonomy, competence and relatedness are accomplished for them. maybe because 1st year students wish to better integrate into university life and 3rd year students have internalised the rules and they converged with their intrinsic motivation. keywords: self-determination theory; z generation; social work students; intrinsic motivation; learning engagement. how to cite: mitrea, g. (2023). how can we use selfdetermination theory to engage more z generation of students during onsite classes for learning achievement? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 143-164. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/449 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/449 file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/mitrea.geta@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/449 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 144 introduction our daily lives are permanently connected to the smartphone, social media and all the elements brought together by them. each of us recognises, conscious or unconscious, assumed or not assumed that smartphones are part of our daily existence (hall, 2017). i am sure each of us forgot or lost, at least once, their phone and, at that moment, they felt as if the most important part of them is missing and there is nothing else that can replace it (conner & reid, 2012). or, we experienced anxiety when we were not in contact with the phone for a short period of time (mettathamrong, 2021). and, maybe in those moments we realised how addicted (panova & carbonell, 2018) we become to the smartphone and we are at the phase when we are not able to see our life or world without it. after covid-19 period this dependency became even more intense and, we can sincerely state that, if smartphones and internet did not exist during that time, our connection with everyone else would have been lost or exist only to an insignificant level. through the internet and smartphone, we managed to keep contact with the outside world and even to create new connections due to those existing conditions (elhai et al., 2017). all the advantages that were brought once with the internet also the teaching activity embraced them. in this matter, teaching activity during pandemic time, initially was challenging. first, because new directions and teaching methods needed to be adopted and learned (yalçin incik, 2022), both by teachers and students. different studies were made to identify the proper means so that students engage more via online teaching (chiu, 2022; luo et al., 2021) and make sure that information reaches them properly. second, even though at the beginning of online teaching all actors involved were reluctant (chiu, 2021) at the end they kept working both online and onsite. in this sense, they kept using the internet for transmitting information and receiving different tasks accomplished by the students. and also, during onsite classes more online videos and games were introduced for current teaching activity (vizcaya-moreno & pérez-cañaveras, 2020) to send the information in a more attractive way for the students. now, that we are completely on the onsite teaching activities, for students and even for teachers’ new challenges appeared during courses. more frequently occurs that after a few minutes from the start of the presentation the majority of students lose their focus or they use their smartphones and give no attention to the course that is presented (hampton et al., 2020). creative teachers included more and more different strategies so that the students’ attention would not be lost during presentations. how can we use self-determination theory to engage more… geta mitrea 145 but, we do not need to ignore another important factor and we need to mention that current cohort of students has its own generational particularities, such as they are presented in the scientific literature by different authors (igel & urquhart, 2012; mladkova, 2016; wan pa et al., 2021). from their very beginning this generation has grown with the internet, mobile phones, social media and it is part of their existence. in this instance many specialists studied the self-determination theory (sdt) owned by edward deci and richard ryan in the 1980s and tried to emphasise the importance of the three factors that this one presents: autonomy, competence and relatedness of the persons involved, in our case students from bachelor degree. the particularities of z generation combined with self-determination theory helped specialists in the social science field to procure important results for the knowledge society. studies focusing motivation, engagement and learning techniques of z generation revealed the fact that (seemiller, 2017; seemiller & grace, 2017) their milestones for efficiency are highly tied to strong collaboration and real identification with the established purpose of the course. in this way the intrinsic motivation connected with the main purpose contributes to properly collaborating and not to have a defensive attitude towards the main established goal. also, many empirical evidence using self-determination theory concluded that intrinsic motivation, autonomy of subjects (pupils, college students, students, employers etc.), mindfulness contribute to engagement and achievement of established goals and less reservation exists from their part (gagné & deci, 2005; niemiec & ryan, 2009; ryan et al., 2021). for this sociological study we used the self-determination theory (sdt), focused on the three pillars: 1. autonomy – during our first meetings we involved students in the decision taken regarding the rules that we need to establish for our course/seminar for each semester. the information was fully presented as a common decision and if they did not agree with that we would not take it into consideration. if they did not give their consent, we would not use it at all. 2. competence – during courses and seminars we had different interactive methods for teaching and learning experiences with the full involvement of the students that were present. this way we engage them to feel as part of the activity, to feel competent and that their point of view matters for all of us. we used the rule `nobody is wrong, it's just a different opinion and we will all learn and leave home with the right information`. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 146 3. relatedness – we clearly stated from the very beginning that we, as teachers, are also here to learn new things, information and adapt teaching methods to the characteristics of their generation and future ones. we are in continuous training and we want to become better after this sociological exploratory experiment. this information contributed to create a sense of community to the students group and created the foundation of connection between teachers and students. and also, contributed to turning off or to use the `airplane mode` for their smartphones during courses. we also presented the expectation that we had from our sociological exploratory experiment. previously obtained results and what we hope to gain after this following up experiment. and also engaged them to become part of the results, no matter the final direction that we reach at the end. explaining this way, the rationale that exists behind the rules that we established. and, at the beginning of each meeting we reinforced those expectations to make sure that they recall them. also, we used to be role-models for the students. our own smartphone was on `silence mode` during courses and we all respected the same rules as the entire group. all these elements contributed, more or less, to our sociological exploratory experiment. we had a 10 minute break when we were able to have our smartphones and use them freely. this way, all the premises being established we used different research methods so that the hypnotises and objective of the study be reached. research methodology for this study we used a mixed method of research combining both types: qualitative methods (participatory observation and sociological exploratory experiment) and quantitative methods (a self-administrated questionnaire) on students. our study was implemented during one university year from october 2022 until the beginning of june 2023. we had a pilot experiment one year before that contributed to our established hypotheses and we wanted to test them now. the target group was formed by 177 students from all three levels at bologna system (1st , 2nd and 3rd year) enrolled at bachelor degree in social work domain at university `stefan cel mare` of suceava, romania. at the very first meeting from each semester at courses and seminars we (the teacher and the students) agreed on some rules that all of us must respect during the classes for the entire semester. among the rules we `voted` on; it also included the one where students and teachers should not use their phone during 100 minutes, with a 10 minutes' break, when we are in classes`. that was presented as a how can we use self-determination theory to engage more… geta mitrea 147 `sociological exploratory experiment` that will help us monitoring our intrinsic motivation, engagement and autonomy for not using the smartphone during courses and be actively involved to class; possible anxiety for separation from the smartphone, identify smartphone addiction (if it is the case) and adapt our current behaviour change in classes (especially to be more active and pay more attention to courses). we need to mention that the decision for adopting these rules was using a democratic `vote` for each participant at the meeting. all present participants were asked to include their own rules that govern our course during the semester. during our study we also used participatory observation of the students. each meeting we resumed the rules that we established and were governing our course or seminar. we also made sure that they were still agreeing with the rules. we observed their current behaviours, if they respect the established and agreed rules, if they were more active during classes (engaged), how they tried to break the rules and why did they break them. we used an observation guide created to easily note the observed behaviour of the students during classes. at the end of the semester we asked the participants to answer a short self-administrated questionnaire. the questions were both opened and closed, with multiple answers and also with the possibility to include their own answer (if it was the case). the questions were focusing on emotions and thoughts that they had when the rules were established; also, on behaviour that they had during the courses connected to the assumed rules; elements of intrinsic motivation (if there was the case); and, new challenge for a resumption of the sociological exploratory experiment. for our study we used a random sample of 177 respondents, from 1st = 74, 2nd = 42 and 3rd = 61 years, enrolled at bachelor degree in social work domain at university `stefan cel mare` of suceava, romania. for the quantitative analysis we used the open-source statistical soft jasp 0.17.2.1 version offered free by university of amsterdam. and for the qualitative analysis we used the nvivo 14 edition software. the main objective of the study is to identify how we can use selfdetermination theory to engage more students during onsite classes so information can be received properly. are the three factors of sdt (autonomy, competence, relatedness) relevant to obtain intrinsic motivation and behavioural changes on students for a common established goal during learning achievements? hypotheses for this study are: (1) students develop `anxiety` when they are separated from their smartphones during classes? broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 148 (2) what `thoughts` rank first after the students are separated from their smartphones for a clearly defined period of time? (3) students from which study year are more dependent on the smartphone? (4) autonomy and competence of respondents during establishing the rules contributed to the intrinsic motivation for respecting them? the originality of this study is given by the mixed researched methods used to collect the information and to identify if receiving autonomy, competence and relatedness from the teachers, students become more engaged in courses activities and learning performance. results regarding the socio-demographic information of our study we had a total of 177 respondents, as can be seen in figure number 1 below. as a distribution on gender, we had more females (n=158) than male (n=19), this can be justified on the fact that bachelor of arts students from social work and future specialists are predominant females as can be seen in the relevant scientific literature (lazăr, 2015). also, from the total number of respondents, 71 persons are in the age category of 21-23 years old. we should notice that we also have respondents `over 50` (n=2) that participated in our study and are enrolled in classes. this indicator confirms the fact that there is no age for requalification or even for double-qualification in the social work domain. source: author's own conception figure no. 1. socio-demographic information of respondents as part of our study we challenged our students to recall the feeling that they had at the moment when we agreed to put aside the smartphone for the 100 minutes, with a 10 minutes’ break, during the course or seminar how can we use self-determination theory to engage more… geta mitrea 149 that was planned. for this question we used a simple closed question with `yes` or `no` possibility of answer and we gave them four options, namely in this order: `restlessness`, `hesitation`, `anxiety`, `indifference`, `curiosity`. as we are able to see from the results, `curiosity` (n=126) and `indifference` (n=62) ranked first two positions for the `yes` answer, as can be seen in figure 2 below. due to the fact that the autonomy, competence and relatedness pillars of sdt were taken into consideration during presentation of the rules, the respondents from our study felt secure and engaged; they did not feel `anxiety`, as we supposed they will do. instead, they felt `curiosity` and `indifference`. interesting emotions for the z generation that grew once with smartphones and are permanently part of their daily life. source: author's own conception figure no. 2. types of emotions felt at that time by students we used open-source statistical software jasp 0.17.2.1 version for descriptive statistics regarding emotions felt by the respondents when they were asked to put on `silent mode` their smartphones. we extracted the mean for each emotion (e.g. for `anxiety` was a 0,073 obtained mean). it was the lowest meaning of all emotions. also, we extracted the standard deviation so that we are able to determine the 177 levels of dispersion of responses given by the respondents. all of these can be seen in table 1 below. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 150 table no. 1. emotions felt by respondents restlessness hesitation anxiety indifference curiosity valid 177 177 177 177 177 missing 0 0 0 0 0 mean 0.232 0.113 0.073 0.350 0.712 std. deviation 0.423 0.317 0.262 0.478 0.454 minimum 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 maximum 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 source: author's own conception for the second question of the questionnaire, the respondents had to say their thought(s) that passed through their mind at the time when the rule was established. they had to choose from three predefined options, such as: `what will i do now?`, `how do i check my messages?` and `if someone calls me`; and also a fourth option where they were free to say all their thoughts that occurred in their mind and are not included in the above ones. from their answers, it can be seen that `if someone calls me` (n=49) ranks first and helps us to conclude that, with or without their own conscience the students are permanently waiting for their smartphone to ring or receive a message and the lack of accessing it for a short period of time gives them an anxiety felling and disturbance of properly focusing during classes. the graphical image of their options can be seen in figure 3 below: source: author's own conception figure no. 3. thought (s) that the respondents had at the time we are able to notice that there are 13 respondents that mentioned that they `had no thought`; this option of answer is different from the four predefined options mentioned above. this can be interpreted as compliance with the rules established and finding their own personal intrinsic motivation how can we use self-determination theory to engage more… geta mitrea 151 not to consider otherwise. the fact that they were given autonomy for establishing the rules, competence and relatedness during the courses; also, the expectation from this sociological exploratory experiment were presented and the role-model of the teacher. all these elements being fulfilled for the student conducted their engagement to the research objective. regarding the option `other thought(s)` we managed to extract the cumulative answers, given in table 2 below. it can be seen that the `curiosity` and `challenging opportunity` were the first option of the respondents. also, the `acceptance of the idea` without any complaints is an indicator of the conformity of the subjects and their intrinsic motivation. table no. 2. types of thought(s) type of thought (s) expressions used by respondents acceptance of the idea i enjoyed i'll handle it without worry i'm curious what's going on a very good idea better like this! fine with me seen as a challenge i can resist i can stay without a phone i can do without him, for sure it will be something new an interesting method i like this idea, checking the phone is just a reflex. we have time to do this at home too. i was curious to see if i could meet this requirement i liked the idea because very often i am aware that the phone takes up too much of my time it will be something new it's a good idea to disconnect from online and live reality. it's a well-deserved break, now i'll be more careful it's ok, we can concentrate without being distracted. it's time to try something new. in the meantime, i managed to close my social media pages because i realised that they were of no use to me and even made me feel bad let's see this too.. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 152 type of thought (s) expressions used by respondents will i be more careful this way? wow, this did not happened before find new alternatives i felt that the classes might be boring and that without a phone the boredom would be even greater i used my phone during class because the teaching methods did not captivated my attention indifference indifference, i wasn't thinking about the phone it didn't bother me at all i resist without looking at him source: author's own conception we were interested to see the thought(s) correlated with the age group of the respondents. from the 49 respondents who chose the answer `if someone calls me` there are 20 persons aged 21-23 years that selected this answer. this can contribute to the fact that this group age is more predisposed to dependency on the smartphone and on anxiety for the lack of the phone, as we can see in the table 3 below. table no. 3. distribution of answers on group age of respondents source: author's own conception even though the respondents agreed and they were fully autonomous when they established the rules some of them broke the rule during classes. the main reason mentioned by the respondents was that they were `waiting for an important message from parents/friends` (n=137) and second was `i wanted to finish a conversation started during break` (n=81), as can be seen in figure 4 below. how can we use self-determination theory to engage more… geta mitrea 153 source: author's own conception figure no. 4. types of reason for breaking the agreed rule for a more comprehensive image, we can see the correlation between study year of the respondents and their options selected at this question. from the 137 respondents who chose the answer `waiting for an important message from parents/friends` there are 64 persons from 1st year of study that selected this answer. we can state that students from the 1st year of study are more dependent on the phone than they realise and it is harder for them to easily give up for a determined period of time, as we can see in the figure 5 below. both extremities, 1st year and 3rd year of study are more dependent on the phone than the 2nd year. maybe this is because at the beginning of a bachelor degree you need more information regarding the campus, keep contact with your new colleagues, and your family and the phone is the main means to extern world and contact with them. and the 3rd year of study is on the way to preparing for the next stage of their career or life and they need to also search information outside the campus and establish new connections and even inform the family and friends. meanwhile, the 2nd year of study is the calmer one and the equilibrate one from this point of view maybe because it is exactly the period when you need calm and quiet for study and current needs and emotions that they need to reflect upon. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 154 source: author's own conception figure no. 5. distribution of reason(s) for breaking the rule on study year for the open answer `no other reasons` the 177 respondents mentioned different types of motivations that they had for breaking the rule. after coding their answer, we managed to extract the main reasons: `respected the rule`, `habit/reflex/checking the time`, `personal reasons`, `searching for information`, `to play`, as seen in table 4 below. it is important to mention that 45 respondents selected `no other reasons` option and other 45 persons did not mention anything to this section, leaving an empty space. this can mean that they respected to rule and they found the intrinsic motivation and connection to comply with it. also, it means that the three factors of sdt (autonomy, competence, relatedness) are relevant to obtain intrinsic motivation and behavioural changes on students for a common established goal during learning achievements as we supposed in the beginning of our study. how can we use self-determination theory to engage more… geta mitrea 155 table no. 4. types of reason(s) other reasons answers stated by the respondents respected the rule established i followed the rule and i didn't "lose anything"! i had no reason to use it habit / reflex / checking the time checking the time, the tendency to reach for the phone without wanting anything honestly i can just open it and close it back i instinctively checked my phone i used to feel the need to use the phone out of habit probably the rebellious nature the habit of always being on the phone the habit of always having it the habit of checking the phone. addiction personal reasons waiting for a call from family / boyfriend / courier / work etc. emotions fatigue searching for information i googled for info i looked for information related to the topics covered in class to solve certain tasks or to provide faster answers to the questions asked i looked for information that i did not understand from what colleagues presented searching for an unknown word searching for answers to unknown questions/information ***to play no other reasons no answers source: author's own conception for a clear image of the distribution of the answer `no other reasons` in the study year we can notice that the extremities, 1st and 3rd year, are more motivated and agreed with the established rule, found intrinsic motivation and became engaged in learning achievements. maybe because respondents from the 1st year wish to better integrate into the university life broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 156 and have a higher intrinsic motivation. and the 3rd year has internalised the rules and they converged with their intrinsic motivation. the received answer and their distribution can be seen in table 5 below. table no. 5. distribution of answers on study year of respondents that chose `no other reasons` source: author's own conception regarding the reliability of the study over correlation between presence of students at courses and their given answers to the study, we are able to see figure 6 below, that the presence at the courses is more than 50% (n=166) for each study year. this means that our study is relevant and its conclusions are important for the study we made. also, can be part of future directions of research regarding the use of self-determination theory to engage more students during onsite classes so information can be received properly. source: author's own conception figure no. 6. participation to students to classes how can we use self-determination theory to engage more… geta mitrea 157 at the question related to `round two of the «sociological exploratory experiment», how would they react?`, the given answers were very challenging because the majority of respondents mentioned that they `would respect what we set out at the beginning` (n=110). as can be seen in figure 7 below. students from all three years chose this option and second was the `i would do the same` (n=48). there is also the part of the students that `would include new rules proposed by me` (n=10) relevant for our study. probably, that part of the respondents did not feel fully autonomy and competence during this experiment. source: author's own conception figure no. 7. options for a duplication of the sociological exploratory experiment for the section `other answer` it is very important to mention that only 1st and 3rd year of study gave an option here and among those there are: `i would answer when it is important` (1st year student), `i would try to respect it more, i would probably break the rule only in exceptional cases` (1st year student), `it depends. if i get bored at seminars, i think i would do the same. in classes it was cool, but in seminars it was boring. that is, when my colleagues' project was presented` (3rd year student), `i would like to pick up the phone` (3rd year student). as can be seen in figure 8 below. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 158 1st year of study 2nd year of study 3rd year of study all three years cumulated source: author's own conception figure no. 8. `other answers` given by respondents asked in case of a duplication of the sociological exploratory experiment due to all these findings we are able to reach some relevant conclusions that can help us continue our initial approach into the same direction or in a different one. next we will present our key points. discussions and conclusions when we started this sociological exploratory experiment we were on the edge when the z generation of students were losing their interest in the onsite classes and they spent more time on their smartphones being only physically present there. we tried different teaching strategies and each of them was efficient only for a short period of time. during our research we read many studies where self-determination theory was used for online motivation, especially during covid-19 and its implications for engagement of students. also, we wanted to determine if after such a long period of online teaching, with all its effects (maybe some of them will appear longer that we aspect) the smartphone usage became addictive for students during classes or not. seeing all the advantages that sdt offers we established as an objective of our study to identify how we can use self-determination theory to engage more students during onsite classes so information can be how can we use self-determination theory to engage more… geta mitrea 159 received properly. using the three factors relevant to sdt (autonomy, competence, relatedness) to obtain intrinsic motivation and behavioural changes on students for a common established goal during learning achievements. after launching our sociological exploratory experiment, applying the questionnaire, along with the participatory observation during one university year (october 2022 until beginning of june 2023); also, collecting all the data and analysing it we are able to present our findings. regarding our hypotheses that we had at the beginning of our study. we were wondering if (1) `students develop «anxiety» when they are separated from their smartphones during classes? `; contrary to our initial supposition we were able to conclude that the z generation of students are not developing `anxiety` when they are separated from their smartphones during classes if they are fully assured the autonomy, competence and relatedness for taking this decision. namely, during our sociological exploratory experiment we engaged our students to decide the rules that we would adopt and respect during classes for the entire semester. during our participatory observation we were able to see that the opportunity given to them to choose and really matter their point of view and their opinion had a huge importance to them and felt part of the whole experiment and transformed it as intrinsic motivation. the first hypothesis of our study was tested through a binomial test seen in table 6 below. according to the binomial test the `anxiety` proportion is 0,073 as can be seen; the lowest one from all. binomial test variable level counts total proportion p anxiety 0 164 177 0.927 < .001 1 13 177 0.073 < .001 restlessness 0 136 177 0.768 < .001 1 41 177 0.232 0.604 hesitation 0 157 177 0.887 < .001 1 20 177 0.113 < .001 indifference 0 115 177 0.650 < .001 1 62 177 0.350 0.003 curiosity 0 51 177 0.288 0.259 1 126 177 0.712 < .001 note. proportions tested against value: 0.25. source: author's own conception broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 160 we focused our attention to the network plot from the emotions of the respondents. our findings revealed to us that the base of the network is formed by `hesitation` and `restlessness` that have a reduced difference between them. next is `anxiety`, after is `indifference`. also from the network plot `curiosity` is at the top of it meaning that z generation is a predominant curious cohort and is willing to try challenges if autonomy, competence and relatedness are involved and they feel as part of the project. figure 9 below emphasises the network plot existing among the 177 students from our study and helps us to draw the conclusion that sdt can contribute to engage curiosity and automatically influence the learning achievements of students. source: author's own conception figure no. 9. network plots between emotions of students during the semesters the tone used by the teacher was a friendly one and students were challenged to contradict his opinions with proper feasibility arguments and ask questions related to the subject discussed. there were more meetings when the students presented to the teacher different opinions regarding the debated item and at the end of the course they were congratulated for their approach. this type of discussion was encouraged during the entire year of study and it was possible to see that the students embraced this because they became more engaged during classes. regarding our second study hypotheses (2)`what «thoughts» rank first after the students are separated from their smartphones from a clear defined period of time?` we the answer `if someone calls me` (n=49) ranks first and helps us to conclude that, with or without their own conscience the students are how can we use self-determination theory to engage more… geta mitrea 161 permanently waiting for their smartphone to ring or receive a message and the lack of accessing it for a short period of time gives them an anxiety felling and disturbance of properly focusing during classes. this answer is completely opposite from the emotional one, from the first question of the questionnaire. this puts us in a dilemma due to the fact that as emotion they do not feel `anxiety` when the separation from the smartphone occurs. but, when they are separated from their smartphones, their main thoughts are related to anxiety or expectation that something needs to happen. here we can conclude that maybe they are not aware of their dependency (hursen et al., 2023) and do not consider that it exists. a relatively small number of respondents mentioned that they had no other thoughts (n=13) from the total number of 177 respondents. maybe their number is small, but in our research context with observatory participation helped us to conclude that this is a compliance of the respondents with the rules established and finding their own personal intrinsic motivation not to consider otherwise. the fact that they were given autonomy for establishing the rules, competence and relatedness during the courses; also, the expectation from this sociological exploratory experiment were presented and the role-model of the teacher. all these elements being fulfilled for the student conducted their engagement to the research objective. also, we are able to conclude that the 64 respondents from 1st year of study selected the answer `waiting for an important message from parents/friends`. we can state that students from the 1st year of study are more dependent on the smartphone than they realise and it is harder for them to easily give up for a determined period of time. in the whole image of the three years of study, the extremities, 1st year and 3rd year of study are more dependent on the smartphone than the 2nd year. among reasons can be the fact that in the 1st year you need more information regarding the campus, keep contact with your new colleagues, and your family. the smartphone is the main means to the external world and contact with them. probably for the 3rd year of study, being on the way of preparing for the next stage of their career or life needs to search information outside the campus and establish new connections and even inform the family and friends. this way we managed to verify our third hypothesis of our study ` (3) students from which study year are more dependent on the smartphone? ` next, the fourth hypothesis was created in correlation with sdt and focused on (4) `autonomy and competence of respondents during establishing the rules contributed to the intrinsic motivation for respecting them? `. after all our findings we broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 162 were able to conclude that from our non-probabilistic sample of 177 respondents we can notice that the extremities, 1st and 3rd year, are more motivated and agreed with the established rules and found intrinsic motivation and became engaged in learning achievements. maybe because respondents from the 1st year wish to better integrate into the university life and have a higher intrinsic motivation. and the 3rd year has internalised the rules and they converged with their intrinsic motivation. our study wanted to be reliable and we focused our attention on the answers provided by the respondents and their active presence during classes during the university year. from our results we concluded that the presence at the courses was more than 50% (n=166) for each study year. this means that our study is relevant and its conclusions are significant for the scientific community. and, can be a starting point for other studies regarding the use of self-determination theory to engage more students during onsite classes so information can be received properly. in the end of our study, we asked the respondents if they would agree with a second round of sociological exploratory experiment. the majority of the received answers were positive this means that further research on this subject can be developed. limitations of the research for our current study we took into consideration some limitations, such as: sample size and representativeness: we used a non-probabilistic sample of students. based on the availability (self-selection) of the students that want to answer the questionnaire and also their participation in the sociological exploratory experiment. the male respondents were over-represented in the study measurement limitations: the softs we used may have their own limitations or maybe they were not able to present the entire phenomena analysed by us. time and resource constraints: for our study we had no resources, it was all pro-bono. the respondents did not receive anything in return for their involvement during the study. we had a limited period of time during the two semesters of the university year 2022-2023. the lack of comparison groups, for example social work students from other universities from romania, or from different domains of study. how can we use self-determination theory to engage more… geta mitrea 163 disclaimer: all opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the employer, or of any government, agency, or organisation. references chiu, t. k. f. (2021). digital support for student engagement in blended learning based on self-determination theory. computers in human behavior, 124, 106909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106909 chiu, t. k. f. (2022). applying the self-determination theory (sdt) to explain student engagement in online learning during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of research on technology in education, 54(s1), s14-s30. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2021.1891998 conner, t. s., & reid, k. a. (2012). effects of intensive mobile happiness reporting in daily life. social psychological and personality science, 3(3), 315–323. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611419677 elhai, j. d., dvorak, r. d., levine, j. c., & hall, b. j. (2017). problematic smartphone use: a conceptual overview and systematic review of relations with anxiety and depression psychopathology. journal of affective disorders, 207, 251-259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.08.030 gagné, m., & deci, e. l. (2005). self-determination theory and work motivation. journal of organizational behavior, 26(4), 331-362. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.322 hall, j. (2017). the experience of mobile entrapment in daily life. journal of media psychology, 29(3). https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000228 hampton, d., welsh, d., & wiggins, a. t. (2020). learning preferences and engagement level of generation z nursing students. nurse educator, 45(3), 160-164. https://doi.org/10.1097/nne.0000000000000710 hursen, c., karaokçu, h., hatipoğlu, t. t., karasalih, ş., suhanberdyyeva, d., & beyoğlu, d. (2023). determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students according to the opinions of parents, teachers and students. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(1), 175-206. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/413 igel, c., & urquhart, v. (2012). generation z, meet cooperative learning: properly implemented cooperative learning strategies can increase student engagement and achievement. middle school journal, 43(4), 16-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2012.11461816 lazăr, f. (2015). profilul asistenţilor sociali din românia [profile of social workers in romania]. publisher of west. https://main.components.ro/uploads/12c6a09675620f589055800ba6ceceee/2016 /07/profilul_asistentilor_sociali_din_romania.pdf luo, y., lin, j., & yang, y. (2021). students’ motivation and continued intention with online self-regulated learning: a self-determination theory perspective. zeitschrift fur erziehungswissenschaft, 24(6), 1379–1399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-02101042-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106909 https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2021.1891998 https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611419677 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.08.030 https://doi.org/10.1002/job.322 https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000228 https://doi.org/10.1097/nne.0000000000000710 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/413 https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2012.11461816 https://main.components.ro/uploads/12c6a09675620f589055800ba6ceceee/2016/07/profilul_asistentilor_sociali_din_romania.pdf https://main.components.ro/uploads/12c6a09675620f589055800ba6ceceee/2016/07/profilul_asistentilor_sociali_din_romania.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-021-01042-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-021-01042-3 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 164 mettathamrong, j. (2021). factors that affect the behavior of adolescents in thailand due to the use of mobile phones in their daily life. utopía y praxis latinoamericana: revista internacional de filosofía iberoamericana y teoría social, 26(2), 212-226. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4678884 mladkova, l. (2016). academic environment prom the perspective of generation z students. in p. slavickova (ed.), knowledge for market use 2016: our interconnected and divided world (issue international scientific conference on knowledge for market use 2016-our interconnected and divided world), (pp. 306-312). weconference proceedings citation index. niemiec, c. p., & ryan, r. m. (2009). autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom:applying self-determination theory to educational practice. theory and research in education, 7(2), 133-144. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878509104318 panova, t., & carbonell, x. (2018). is smartphone addiction really an addiction? journal of behavioral addictions, 7(2), 252-259. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.49 ryan, r. m., donald, j. n., & bradshaw, e. l. (2021). mindfulness and motivation: a process view using self-determination theory. current directions in psychological science, 30(4), 300-306. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214211009511 seemiller, c. (2017). motivation, learning, and communication preferences of generation z students. ehearsay: electronic journal of the ohio speech-language hearing association, 7(2). seemiller, c., & grace, m. (2017). generation z: educating and engaging the next generation of students. about campus: enriching the student learning experience, 22(3), 21-26. https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.21293 vizcaya-moreno, m. f., & pérez-cañaveras, r. m. (2020). social media used and teaching methods preferred by generation z students in the nursing clinical learning environment: a cross-sectional research study. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(21), 8267. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17218267 wan pa, w. a. m., mahmud, m. s., & zainal, m. s. (2021). implications of social media addiction on academic performance among generation z student-athletes during covid-19 lockdown. international journal of learning, teaching and educational research, 20(8), 194-209. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.8.12 yalçin incik, e. (2022). generation z students’ views on technology in education: what they want what they get. malaysian online journal of educational technology, 10(2), 109-124. https://doi.org/10.52380/mojet.2022.10.2.275 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4678884 https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878509104318 https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.49 https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214211009511 https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.21293 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17218267 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.8.12 https://doi.org/10.52380/mojet.2022.10.2.275 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 383-387 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/325 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 impact of covid-19 pandemic on gambling bogdan dinu¹, ciprian vlad2, gabriela balan3, liliana luca4, cezar ionut bichescu5 1 “elisabeta doamna” psychiatric hospital, galat i, romania. 2 “dunarea de jos” university of galati, galati, romania, ciprian.vlad@ugal.ro 3 “dunarea de jos” university of galati, galati, romania. 4 “dunarea de jos” university of galati, galati, romania. 5 “dunarea de jos” university of galati, galati, romania. abstract: introduction. gambling is a well-known social issue, which seems to address immediate needs of a large portion of population in the entire world. throughout various periods of curfews enacted by the medical authorities, the society experiences various challenges, a fact that puts a great amount of psychological pressure on gamblers and their families, that is rather difficult to be asssessed. aim. the presentation seeks to assess the effects of anti-pandemic social measures, especially those imposed after march 2020, on mental wellfare and behaviour of bettors. by assessing the intentions and measures related to sport competitions in the near future, we tried to identify the overall impact on spending routines and lifestyle from any available data. materials and method. the paper found sources in the psychological and medical literature in order to identify spending routines of bettors and pathological behaviours, as expressed in dsm-5. the paper also discusses the factors introduced into society by coronavirus and the restrictions that accompanied the phenomenon of gambling. sources from the international media are used to assess the intended measures upon gambling industry and the possible general impact on the mental health of the romanian population. results. the changes of some social routines, imposed upon population in the context of coronavirus, are simply supposed to be accompanied by increases in depression and anxiety. the new economic and societal challenges bring with them the risk of increasing mental health disturbances among the gamblers. conclusion. worldwide gambling spending has decreased during the pandemic. various attempts of assessing whether this is a bad phenomenon or not should take into consideration the amount of money left in the economy by these measures, the unpaid taxes from a reduced activity in gambling, the psychiatric impact upon diagnosed gamblers. new lockdowns imposed on the population are possible in the near future, so better ways to deal with the impact upon gamblers are necessary. keywords: bettors, covid-19 pandemic, lockdown, curfews, gambling. how to cite: dinu, b., vlad, c., balan, g., luca, l., & bichescu, c.i. (2022). impact of covid-19 pandemic on gambling. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 383-387. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/325 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/325 mailto:ciprian.vlad@ugal.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/325 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 384 introduction gambling has been known as a widespread social routine, especially among male population in urban areas of developping countries. pathological gambling is believed to causes family conflicts in poor countries (iftimie et al., 2014), and this state of poverty worsens during periods of economic downfall (grigoras & ciubara, 2021, izzat et al., 2021). gamling cause a great deal of trouble within families, but also inside the society as a whole (luca et al., 2020; luca et al., 2020). assessment of disruptions in gambling routines is necessary, as social unrest and mental problems have mounted upon economic problems throughout lockdowns. gambling can be viewed as a leisure activity as long as it doesn’t push forward mental health issues (luca et al., 2020; silistraru et al., 2021). novel societal factors have a great influence on the bettors’ behaviour, motivation and decision making in time of covid-19 pandemic (auer & griffiths, 2017, baroiu et al., 2021). research methodology the paper uses the medical, economical and mathematical literature relating to gambling in order to find and describe traditional and new factors for pathological gambling, which have sprung into society after coronavirus outbreak and the social restrictions and curfews that followed them. data from the domestic mass-media are also used to assess the future announced social resets and their possible impact on the spreading of pathological gambling behaviour within the romanian gamblers (broda & laplante, 2008). discussions wagering on sports has long been recognised as an important social issue. an economical crisis increases some specific types of gambling. casino gaming has prevailed over sports betting, as some of the major sporting events have been put off. great amounts of money were usually put into bets on european football championships and olympic games, and these expected sums have only partially directed into casino gambling, as many gamblers simply prefer sport bets. media reported many scams related to sport bets. for example, various channels on social media pretend to possess special tips about some noteless rigged matches, which would ensure great sums provided someone is eager to bet great sums on them. however, for this piece on information, gamblers are asked to pay some small amounts impact of covid-19 pandemic on gambling bogdan dinu, et al. 385 of money. although this type of offer is illogical, many baginners, in search for easy money, pay such sums and get to understand the hoax only after the supposed rigged match proves to end otherwise than the promise (wiliams & siegel, 2008; pandele et al., 2021). another phenomenon is the migration to online betting and the dangers of compulsive pathological gambling on a new field, where lack of experience can push the newcomers to some great loss. if such common facts are added to a rising unemployment rate during the pandemic, we can easily understand a certain pressure on personal finances and a more difficult experience of paying current expenses in due time, so social functioning was affected in some way or another, as reflected by gambling severity index scale. some researchers tried to find relations between lower wages and pathological gaming, but in romania such studies were not intended. government financial incentives and rumours about a minimal universal basic income are good news for all actors in this field. as online gambling is on an ascending trend for at least two decades, classical brick-and-mortar gambling found itself restrained during this period. as it might sound like a positive fact for these type of old-fashioned gamblers, mainly lottery gamblers, the change in social routines and the decrease in this type of socializing might have pushed them to some mild forms of depressive disorders (radulescu et al., 2021). this can be view in the light of the exponential increase in betting stores in romanian towns in the last decade (ladouceur & lachance, 2008). few data is available in addressing specialised help in overcoming these particular types of addictions. as it is a generally recognised that gamblers are reluctant to spend money for psychological help and psychotherapies which are intended exactly to help them to get a financial equilibrium, studies in the past have shown that most of such gamblers are content with these psychotherapies and treatment suppliers. data for the extent of this help for pathological gamblers are rather only a project, as they generally reach a better degree of controlling the pathological gambling (caronni & sciumè, 2017). research results despite the fact that gambling has modified the daily activities of adult males in more than three quarters of world states, a thorough assessment for the impact in romanian society hasn’t been done before 2020. coronavirus outbreak has dramatically changed the main operations in betting, such as forced closing of physical locations or postponing of major sport events. although mass media has reported decreases in activities of bet brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 386 houses, only small studies have been conducted in this field in romania (auer & griffiths, 2016). conclusion pathological gambling is recognised as an important social activity, a form of leisure and a great source of income for governments. as great sums are also lost in this huge zero-win business, economists, psychologists and other professionals could do some research in this field. if one bears in mind that huge sums of money get out of the country for a minimal positive impact on the ordinary citizens and big impact on many families, this phenomenon could also draw the interest of some romanian intellligence services, as gambling is historically well-known as a major way of money laundering. except for some small-scale studies, none of the above expected studies were published. we hope the future will bring some good news. references auer, m., & griffiths, m. d. (2016). personalized behavioral feedback for online gamblers: a real world empirical study. frontiers in psychology, 7, 1875. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01875 auer, m., & griffiths, m. d. (2017). self-reported losses versus actual losses in online gambling: an empirical study. journal of gambling studies, 33(3), 795806. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-016-9648-0 baroiu, l., dumea, e., năstase, f., niculeț, e., fotea, s., ciubara, a. b., stefanopol, i. a., nechita, a., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2021). assessment of depression in patients with covid-19 . brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 broda, a., laplante, d. a., nelson, s. e., labrie, r. a., bosworth, l. b., & shaffer, h. j. (2008). virtual harm reduction efforts for internet gambling: effects of deposit limits on actual internet sports gambling behaviour. harm reduction journal, 5(1), 27. https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7517-5-27 caronni, a., & sciumè, l. (2017). is my patient actually getting better? application of the mcnemar test for demonstrating the change at a single subject level. disabil rehabil, 39(13), 1341-1347. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2016.1194486 grigoras, m. , & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326-334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01875 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-016-9648-0 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7517-5-27 https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2016.1194486 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 impact of covid-19 pandemic on gambling bogdan dinu, et al. 387 iftimie, e., ichim, c., pascariu, l., & ionescu florea, d. (2014). forms of legal liability which protect public interests. european journal of law and public administration, 1(1), 113-129. https://doi.org/10.18662/eljpa.2014.0101.09 izzat, a. a. h., anghel, l., stefanescu, b., kantor, c., & ciubara, a. (2021). prevention of psychoactive substance use. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 59-61. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.16 ladouceur, r., & lachance, s. (2007). overcoming pathological gambling. therapist guide. oxford university press. luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a.-c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 luca, l., ciubara, a. b., fulga, i., burlea, s. l., terpan, m., & ciubara, a. m. (2020). social implications for psychiatric pathology of depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction and psychotic disorders during the covid-19 pandemic in romania. analysis of two relevant psychiatry hospitals. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 69, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 mcnemar test for demonstrating the change at a single subject level. disability and rehabilitation, 39(13), 1341-1347. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2016.1194486 pandele, v. f., tucmeanu, a., antohi, m. e., & ciubara, a. (2021). the effect of using facebook on elderly people during covid-19 pandemic. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 69-71. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199885x/2021/11/5.19 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 silistraru, i., ciureanu, a. i., ciubara, a., & olariu, o. (2021). prevalence of burnout in medical students in romania during covid-19 pandemic restrictions (preliminary data). archiv euromedica, 11(5), 12-15. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 wiliams, l. v., & siegel, s. d. (2013). the oxford handbook of the economics of gambling. oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.18662/eljpa.2014.0101.09 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/15322052 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/46777175 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/41602579 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/7522852 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.16 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/10.33788/rcis.69.16 https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2016.1194486 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/47200213 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/47204285 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/21961858 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.19 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.19 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/34745962 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/9207389 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/30711467 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 59-75 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/332 submitted: january 21st, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 the concept of professional reflection in ukrainian psychopedagogical literature: regard or disregard for neurophysiological factors? nataliia denha 1 , tetiana bakumenko 2 , svitlana saiapina 3 , ruslan lashta 4 , oleksandr meshko 5 , yuliia boiko-buzyl 6 1 kremenchuk teachers' training college named after a. makarenkom ukraine, denga_n@ukr.net 2 municipal establishment "kharkiv humanitarian-pedagogical academy" of the kharkiv regional council, ukraine, tanya020365@ukr.net 3 state higher educational institution "donbas state pedagogical university", ukraine, svetlana.sayapina65@gmail.com 4 hetman petro sahaidachnyi national army academy, ukraine, lashta.ruslan87@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3585-8325 5 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, meshko_o@ukr.net 6 kharkiv national university of internal affairs, b-byy@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1715-4327 abstract: the article analyzes the problem of developing professional reflection in ukrainian and foreign psycho-pedagogical literature. it shows that such definitions as “reflection”, “professional reflection” and “teacher’s professional reflection” are interconnected in the context of general, special and specific features. a detailed review of current neurocognitive approaches has made it possible to determine the main aspects of biological mechanisms of reflection. one can see that ukrainian psycho-pedagogical discourse does not consider neurophysiological aspects of shaping and developing professional reflection. given the views of ukrainian researchers on the matter, teacher’s professional reflection is seen as the correlation of their capabilities with the requirements of the teaching profession; a set of internal conditions for reaching a new level of professional performance; a certain technology of objective analysis and organization of one’s experience, as well as understanding and use of others’ experience. together, they determine a values-based attitude towards the teaching profession. however, ukrainian methodology employs diagnostic tools which partially rely on the lateral features of the actors in the educational process and, thus, neuroscientific insights. keywords: teacher’s professional reflection, diagnostic tools, systematization of reflection types, generalization of definitions, teacher’s attitude towards the profession, organization of one’s experience, use of others’ experience. how to cite: denha, n., bakumenkon, t., saiapina, s., lashta, r., meshko, o., & boiko-buzyl, y. (2022). the concept of professional reflection in ukrainian psychopedagogical literature: regard or disregard for neurophysiological factors?. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 59-75. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/332 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/332 mailto:denga_n@ukr.net mailto:tanya020365@ukr.net mailto:svetlana.sayapina65@gmail.com mailto:lashta.ruslan87@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3585-8325 mailto:meshko_o@ukr.net mailto:b-byy@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1715-4327 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/332 the concept of professional reflection in ukrainian psycho-pedagogical... nataliia denha et al. 60 1. introduction current education reforms require the promotion of teachers' personal and professional development and the introduction of new technologies to optimize their professional psycho-pedagogical resources. in this regard, it is crucial to study professional reflection as a mechanism for revealing teachers’ personal and professional potential (gerasymova et al., 2019; onishchuk et al., 2020; maksymchuk et al., 2020a; maksymchuk et al., 2020b; melnyk et al., 2019; palamarchuk et al., 2020). a problem of reflection is fundamentally psychological, as well as complex, interdisciplinary and generally scientific. today, many of its key aspects remain insufficiently studied (the content of the reflection concept; its classification and typology; its diagnostic tools; its ways of development). in the philosophical context, reflection (from latin “reflexio”) is viewed as an act of cognition. in turn, cognition can be studied based on the results, namely, the change of scientific ideas or theories (an objective method) or the “cognition/reflection interaction” (shinkaruk, 1986). the explanatory dictionary of the ukrainian language defines reflection as self-analysis, one’s thoughts on one’s state of mind (bilodid, 1977). in general, many researchers attempted to formulate the reflection concept (lobodin, 1997; hatton & smith, 1995). table 1. different definitions of the reflection concept no author definition 1. shinkaruk (1986) reflection (from latin “reflexio”) is viewed as an act of cognition. in turn, cognition can be studied based on the results, namely, the change of scientific ideas or theories (an objective method) or the “cognition/reflection interaction” 2. bilodid (1977) reflection is seen as self-analysis, one’s thoughts on one’s state of mind. 3. lobodin (1997) reflection is one’s awareness of mental processes taking place in one’s mind. 5. vazina (1994) reflection is one’s ability to be aware of one’s activities, recognize and correct mistakes, nurture cultural values, find one’s place in the world, assess one’s capabilities adequately. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 61 7. hatton & smith (1995) reflection is a cognitive process that involves a sequence of interconnected ideas that rely on basic knowledge and achievements. 8. richards (1990) reflection implies learning from experience, in which self-analysis is seen as a key component of one’s development. numerous studies aim to elaborate a typology of reflective acts. for example, there are retrospective, situational and anticipatory types of reflection. shinkaruk (1986) pays considerable attention to a retrospective type of reflection. he believes that reflection implies self-analysis which allows one to reveal the specifics of one’s spiritual growth (shinkaruk, 1986). andreeva (2009) and vazina (1994) consider reflection to be a mechanism of self-development, a professional resource, as well as a condition for ensuring professionalism. many scholars study professional reflection concerning other problems: structural aspects (lushpayeva, 1989); reflection mechanisms (anisimov, 1994; isaev et al., 2000). berestenko (2013) and bodalev (1983) analyze professional reflection in the context of one’s professional communication. kelly (2020) states that teacher’s reflection is a key component of his or her professional growth and, therefore, should be part of every teacher’s career. farrell (1998) identifies the following three types of teacher’s professional reflection: reflection and performance, reflection and activity, reflection and action. as noted by berestenko (2013), professional reflection is a means of professional development, as well as a criterion for effective professional training. in both cases, professional reflection implies the ratio of one’s capabilities with professional requirements. a detailed analysis of the definitions available in ukrainian discourse allows the following generalizations: a) reflection can change one’s attitude towards past experience. b) reflection is a tool for criticizing existing knowledge. in this regard, both knowledge and experience become dynamic and act as ways of acquiring new knowledge and experience. c) reflection is the main link between one’s experience and situations to be analyzed. reflection is revealed in the form of various fixations, such as understanding, problematization, adjustment of activity and development of inventive and innovative thinking. the concept of professional reflection in ukrainian psycho-pedagogical... nataliia denha et al. 62 at the same time, the above-mentioned views of ukrainian methodologists follow the classical paradigm. according to it, the natural sciences do not interact with the humanities. therefore, neurophysiological mechanisms of reflection are virtually ignored or mentioned as temporary. in the west-european discourse, the concepts of subjectivity, reflection and self-reflection are considered interdisciplinary, and neurosciences, being seen as complementary, have much in common with the humanities. the article aims to identify problematic aspects, prospects and origins of neuroscientific interpretation of professional reflection in ukrainian psycho-pedagogical discourse and summarize the expediency of diagnostic criteria of professional reflection, available in ukrainian science. research methods are mostly theoretical in order to analyze neurophysiological and neuropsychological intentions that emerge in the still traditional post-totalitarian scientific discourse of ukraine. 2. neurophysiological aspects of professional reflection in the westeuropean discourse given both positivist experience and postmodern deconstruction, european researchers address the issue of reflection and reflectivity in the context of recognizing the profound determination of anthropological phenomena. lieberman et al. (2002) claim that reflection is two-fold, namely, social and neurophysiological (cognitive). this approach distinguishes two systems of a reflective function of the psyche: actually reflective (externally oriented at building a model of the world) and reflexive (internal, phenomenological and neurocognitive, aimed at irrational interpretation of the self within the model of the outside world). professional aspects of reflection are most clearly manifested in neurophysiological mechanisms of professional decision-making. according to the classical paradigm, the latter follows a rational model of applying competencies, as well as routine ways of solving professional problems. as noted by macfadden & schoech (2010), the human brain naturally includes unconscious emotions and conscious cognition of mental processes, and professional decision-making combines these rational and emotional systems. this fact forces one to reconsider the aspects of student training and the basics of professional deontology (karasievych et al., 2021; berbets et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021). besides, it is clear that professional reflection in its neurophysiological basis does not differ from social reflection: it is simply surrounded by ethical, professional and volitional limitations of the employee. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 63 in an experimental context, neurophysiology most effectively considers reflection in pathology or based on borderline personality disorders. in this case, it is easier to diagnose areas of excitation of a particular neural chain. at the same time, test diagnostics of productivity of social and affective functions reveals sharp neurophysiological markers (philippi & koenigs, 2014). medical and neurophysiological data can be used to develop a new comprehensive model for measuring the quality and intensity of reflection in both normal and pathological conditions. luria (1970) connects reflection with the highest manifestation of evolution with the increasing corticalization of information analysis and synthesis. thus, reflection and self-reflection constitute the synergistic activity of three groups of neurons. the process itself is much more complex than the processing of signals from sensory analyzers. accordingly, the brain operates on an equal footing with external signals, internal images and attitudes. first of all, it refers to self-image and self-concept as an irrational-rational vision of oneself in typical social contexts. professional use of neurophysiological mechanisms of reflection is most associated with the educational process (for those who teach and learn). reflective practices gradually displace rational teaching methods, which is especially true of the humanities. however, boud & walker (1998) believe that excessive adherence to the patterns of reflective activity can lead to over-technologicalization of production, unethical practices and prevailing psychophysiological determination of social and other processes. they claim that reflective activity should rely on the following patterns: high dependence on the context of the production process; the importance of social and cultural aspects of reflection; the availability of mechanisms to stimulate or weaken reflection. recently, self-awareness (reflection) and continuous self-criticism (critical reflection) have been seen as crucial in acquiring professional competencies, particularly in the case of professions with high levels of personal responsibility (e.g, physicians) (williams, 2001). at the same time, repeated supervised practice should develop competencies under the protocol of production situations. such situations themselves are an incentive to include professional reflection, which is manifested in the automatic and rapid mobilization of competencies, rather than irrational decisions. thus, the neurophysiological response is important only as a “trigger” for using specialized knowledge and skills. in the case of specialists with higher responsibilities, critical reflection and competency-based training play a decisive role. therefore, it is essential to monitor how critical reflection and self-reflection are being developed using situational analysis, the concept of professional reflection in ukrainian psycho-pedagogical... nataliia denha et al. 64 surveys, observation of reactions to spontaneous educational and industrial challenges and future specialists’ resources (motivation, needs, autonomy). numerous studies are proving that the main resource for practical training of teacher-researchers and teacher-inventors is the centrality of mechanisms of reflection (a natural immanent process of cognition and improvement) and the confrontation of this process with external intellectual, emotional and practical challenges (day, 1993). consequently, the so-called “reflective practices” are being increasingly used in pedagogy. unfortunately, education policies of many countries ignore the need to stimulate reflection, followed by the confrontation of social roles and challenges. the main solution is to civilize such confrontation, organize partnerships and coalitions to support different types of reflection. eventually, it will lead to the creation of a teacher’s neuropsychological portrait as a compulsory component of his or her professional identity. in the early 2000s, a series of experiments were conducted to confirm the central neurophysiological nature of the neurocognitive processes underlying reflection. some volunteers were scanned with echoplanar imaging (epi) while making basic decisions that required a conscious choice of “yes” or “no”. magnetic resonance imaging (mri) of auditory comprehension, attentional demands, decision‐making and the motoric response indicated consistent anterior medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate activation (johnson et al., 2002). thus, one can observe the joint neurophysiological activity of specific brain areas while applying selfreflection mechanisms. on the other hand, jenkins & mitchell (2011) identified the common features of neurophysiological mechanisms of reflection and self-reflection and their activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. furthermore, this activity is the same regardless of self-assessment or observation of one’s intellectual properties or emotional state (jenkins & mitchell, 2011). it follows that the multiplicity of self-referentiality relies on the common neurophysiological process. besides, the theory of cultural and social conditionality of human reflection was neurophysiologically confirmed. in particular, the representatives of western culture are prone to self-reflection and selfimprovement regardless of the social context, whereas those of eastern cultures are more dependent on others’ perceptions of them within strong cultural traditions. experimental studies on self-reflection show that europeans tend towards its greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex and east asians in the temporal-parietal junction (ma et al, 2014). therefore, one can conclude that the social context, which systematically influences the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 65 nature of reflection from generation to generation, has already affected neurophysiological mechanisms. emphasis should be placed on the nature of reflection, depending on the profession, professional duties and involvement (empathy, personal values). for example, professional training of speech therapists and social educators is much focused on developing professional self-reflection from the first years of study. it must be noted, however, that rational components of competencies develop slower than empathy and the ability to share experiences (bubnys, 2019). it means that the ability to recognize, assess and meet special educational needs of students is developed through the initial experience of such interaction with reflection on one’s needs, emotions, attitudes, self-identity. an even greater manifestation of the so-called “reflection space”, which is crucial for effective practice, is characteristic of those specialists who deal with risks (healthcare, police). the requirement for clear accountability by health care and social care institutions only increases the level of professional reflection. in this regard, researchers suggest modifying the production context by replacing the “control area” with the “reflection space” of self-control. owing to a comparative analysis, the specified neuroscientific principles of professional reflection allow one to identify the origins of this approach in ukrainian discourse or highlight the scarcity of neuroscientific achievements. 3. types of reflection in the ukrainian methodological discourse linking the above-mentioned generalization with the ukrainian psycho-pedagogical discourse, one can single out the following types of reflection in a structural model of one’s social experience: values-based (axiological), emotional, cognitive, behavioural (regulatory), communicative and situational. values-based (axiological) reflection is, first of all, a form of one’s attitude towards one’s values, attitudes, needs, and orientations. despite correlating with the neuropsychological category of subjectivity, it cannot be a natural and, therefore, neurophysiological concept. in the context of values-based reflection, the object of the action is the system of personal values of the actor and all forms of manifestation of these values, both in external and internal relations. as a rule, knowledge about social values, or more precisely, about those universal values which, in the view of the majority, most adequately characterize the desired future acts as a cultural tool in axiological terms. besides, this knowledge performs the function of a the concept of professional reflection in ukrainian psycho-pedagogical... nataliia denha et al. 66 standard, concerning which the available values are considered (khudyakova, 2010). the following types of reflection are associated with neurocognitive mechanisms. at the same time, ukrainian researchers analyze them by using interdisciplinary terms in the framework of psycho-pedagogical sciences: a) emotional reflection is one’s awareness and attitude towards one’s emotions and feelings. b) cognitive reflection is one’s ability to understand one’s thoughts and knowledge. concerning the psychology of thinking, it is a fundamental mechanism of self-cognition based on formed concepts, ideas, judgments, beliefs (karpov, 2003). c) behavioural (regulatory) reflection is one’s awareness of one’s behaviour (all reactions, skills, abilities and forms of practical activity) and its causes. d) communicative reflection includes one’s ability to analyze social interaction or adapt to changes in the social environment. concerning reflexive assessment within the communicative act, one can distinguish between personal reflection, mutual reflection, group reflection. these types represent the deep archetypes of the collective unconscious. however, they are analyzed regardless of the nature of origin. lushpayeva (1989) claims that personal reflection is “an internal psychological factor in the integration of one’s self and creative activity in situations of choice and decision. owing to personal reflection, one can independently describe the processes affecting one’s thinking and behaviour. one analyzes the sequence and content of mental operations, errors, difficulties, stereotypes, new ideas, as well as the grounds, motives and goals of one’s actions. mutual reflection acts as reflexive recreation by actors (observers) of internal states and behaviour of each other. it is a system of psychological mechanisms that ensure the links between the actor and the environment by identifying oneself with others. thus, mutual reflection is one’s ability to perceive and evaluate the basic parameters of one’s relations with other members of the group. group reflection facilitates communication. concerning the thinking process, as noted by naidenov (1989), it aims to overcome problems and conflicts, specific to group creativity, and encourage group members to solve the existing problem creatively. it follows that group reflection appears as one’s ability to identify and understand group actions to further coordinate them. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 67 situational reflection is seen as a set of motives and self-assessment. it ensures the actor’s direct involvement in the situation, helps him or her understand and analyze it “here and now”. also, situational reflection implies one’s ability to coordinate and control one’s actions under changing conditions. this type of reflection can be viewed in the framework of the elementary neurophysiological response. still, one can observe the avoidance of the transition to the natural paradigm of analysis. in this regard, semychenko (2004) claims that comprehensive development is possible only if one adequately evaluates one’s experience and is capable of self-analysis. anticipatory reflection allows one to predict a possible course of actions and their consequences in terms of goals. concerning professional development, this means one’s ability to act consciously. in practice, people often agree to a type of training offered by the employer. at the same time, they can predict learning outcomes. however, an active position in choosing a development path allows one to realize the benefits of particular training for professional growth. in turn, this increases one’s motivation towards learning and gaining new experience. besides, reflection can be seen as a mechanism of learning new ways of working and acquiring new abilities. therefore, the activity itself must become an object of special research. in other words, it is essential to ensure reflection on the original activity pattern. table 2 shows the types of reflection under the specified factors. table 2. types of reflection classification features type relation to time retrospective, situational, anticipatory the role in one’s social experience values-based (axiological), emotional, cognitive, behavioural (regulatory), communicative and situational reflexive assessment within the communicative act (by the number of participants) personal, mutual, group in ukrainian scientific discourse, professional reflection is one’s awareness of principles and characteristics of certain features or motives of professional activity, rather than one’s voluntary or involuntary awareness of them. professional reflection encompasses the following phenomenological characteristics: motivation towards self-improvement; awareness of reflexive processes; objectivity, i.e., focus on a certain ideal object of consciousness (memory, thinking, knowledge, style of activity). the concept of professional reflection in ukrainian psycho-pedagogical... nataliia denha et al. 68 table 2 describes professionally-oriented reflection. in particular, professional reflection is seen as the correlation of one’s capabilities with the requirements of the chosen profession. it is a mechanism for revealing one’s personal and professional potential. as part of professional development, professional reflection changes experience stereotypes that serve as internal conditions for reaching a new level of professional performance. there are different types of professional reflection depending on certain classification features: relation to time retrospective, situational, anticipatory; the role in one’s social experience values-based (axiological), emotional, cognitive, behavioural (regulatory), communicative and situational; reflexive assessment within the communicative act (by the number of participants) personal, mutual, group. thus, professional reflection helps one to formulate the obtained results, determine the goals of further activities and adjust career path. 4. means of diagnosis and development of professional reflection given that it is possible to develop professional reflection, it is essential to analyze the most effective ways to do so. karpov (2003) developed methods for identifying reflexivity levels based on existing views on its concept. these methods rely on theoretical material which specifies content-related and other important characteristics of the concept. according to them, the obtained results can be differentiated into three main categories: high, average and low levels of reflexivity. methods proposed by anisimov (1994) allow one to determine reflection at the following levels: low, below average, average, above average, high. rukavishnikova (2007) developed a questionnaire to identify levels of pedagogical reflection and, consequently, personal reflection. fetiskin et al. (2002) elaborated diagnostic fools for identifying levels of ontogenetic reflection. these tools involve analyzing past mistakes, successful and unsuccessful life experiences. such diagnostics may show the following results”: the lack of reflection on past experience; reflection with the “-” sign; the fear of making new mistakes; reflection with the “+” sign. the authors of the article believe that these methods can be effectively applied to identify levels of reflexivity (including ontogenetic) and reflection. methods for identifying levels of self-development and motivation towards it, self-assessment self-actualization and values-based orientations can be used as complementary. one should pay particular attention to a 15-question survey proposed by fetiskin et al. (2002) to determine the levels of motivation towards self-development. choosing from the one-to-five scale, the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 69 respondents need to indicate whether the statement is completely true; more true than false; both true and false; more false than true; completely false. the results may be as follows: high motivation towards self-development; rather average motivation towards self-development; lack of motivation towards self-development. besides, fetiskin et al. (2002) developed a rapid diagnostic of one’s self-assessment levels (high (inadequate and adequate); average; low (inadequate and adequate)). it is based on the method of budassi (2006) aimed at studying and evaluating self-perception (khutorskoi, 2001). emphasis should be placed on methods of identifying the selfactualization style proposed by semychenko (2004). according to it, there are three styles: a style of personality striving for self-actualization; a style of a conservative personality; a style of a dominant personality. leontiev (2000) offers certain methods which make it possible to identify the source of the meaning of life. the latter can be found in the future (goals), the present (the process), the past (the result) or in all three components of life. a brief description of the above-mentioned methods highlights the diversity of diagnostic technologies, as well as their types, mechanisms and results. however, it is vital to develop effective technologies for identifying levels of professional reflection, in particular, considering both neurophysiological mechanisms and the lateral profile of the actor. unfortunately, the analyzed methods do not allow one to determine one’s inclination for reflection; values-based orientation towards enhancing professional reflection and motivation, understanding the content, classifications, structure, techniques and means of reflection and mastering forms of methodical work. 5. conclusions any profession requires constant improvement of professional and personal qualities, including professional reflection. ukrainian researchers mostly use the following pedagogical tools for developing professional reflection: exercises (debates, consultations, interviews, classes, discussions); reflexive tutorials and games; support programmes for monitoring one’s actions or those of colleagues in professionally important situations; keeping diaries of professional activity with further analysis; keeping reflection diaries. in doing so, neurophysiological mechanisms are practically ignored, while interdisciplinary links between the humanities and the natural sciences are only fragmental. the concept of professional reflection in ukrainian psycho-pedagogical... nataliia denha et al. 70 a detailed analysis of existing definitions and scientific approaches has allowed one to interpret such concepts as “reflection”, “professional reflection” and “teacher’s professional reflection”. in this regard, the authors of the article understand reflection as self-analysis; awareness and acquisition of means and methods of activity; self-cognition; transformation of stereotypes from the acquired experience. at the same time, professional reflection is a purposeful cognitive-mental process of understanding essential characteristics and motives of professional activity in order to clarify their links with professional excellence. in ukrainian science, the concepts of reflection, professional reflection and teacher’s professional reflection are interconnected in the context of general, special and specific features. thus, teacher’s professional reflection is seen as the correlation of neurophysiological capabilities with the requirements of the teaching profession; a set of internal conditions for reaching a new level of professional performance; a certain technology of objective analysis and organization of one’s experience, as well as understanding and use of others’ experience. together, they determine a values-based attitude towards the teaching profession. methods of professional reflection include analysis, self-analysis, and professional intuition. the following aspects are of particular importance: communication (interpersonal perception of partners while performing professional actions); cooperation (predicting and analyzing collective activity, taking into account the need to coordinate professional positions and group roles of the actors); personal manifestations (constructing new self-images as a result of communication with colleagues); intellectual activity (analysis and correlation of one’s actions with a professional situation). they help one to identify the level of professionalism, set further goals, adjust and improve one’s professional path. nevertheless, one is likely to reinforce psycho-pedagogical tools and consider the natural basis for acquiring professional reflection based on advanced neuroscientific achievements. references andreeva, g. (2009). sotsialnaya psikhologiya segodnya: poiski i razmyshleniya [social psychology today: searching and reflecting]. moscow psychological and social university. https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000402280-sotsialnayapsihologiya-segodnya-poiski-i-razmyshleniya-andreeva-gm-sbornikandreeva-gm anisimov, o. s. (1994). akmeologicheskiye osnovy refleksivnoy samoorganizatsii pedagoga: tvorchestvo i kultura myshleniya [acmeological principles of teacher’s reflexive self-organization: the creativity and culture of thinking] [unpublished https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000402280-sotsialnaya-psihologiya-segodnya-poiski-i-razmyshleniya-andreeva-gm-sbornik-andreeva-gm https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000402280-sotsialnaya-psihologiya-segodnya-poiski-i-razmyshleniya-andreeva-gm-sbornik-andreeva-gm https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000402280-sotsialnaya-psihologiya-segodnya-poiski-i-razmyshleniya-andreeva-gm-sbornik-andreeva-gm broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 71 doctoral dissertation]. the russian academy of management. http://irbis.gnpbu.ru/aref_1994/anisimov_o_s_1994.pdf berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 berestenko, o. h. (2013). kultura profesiynoho spilkuvannya yak rezultat vdoskonalennya indyvidualnykh tvorchykh zdibnostey osobystosti [culture of professional communication as a result of improving one’s creative achievements]. visnyk luhanskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni tarasa shevchenka. pedahohichni nauky [journal of taras shevchenko national university of luhansk. pedagogical sciences], 3, 57-64. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vlup_2013_3_10 bilodid, i. k. (1977). slovnyk ukrayinskoyi movy v 11 tomakh [the dictionary of the ukrainian language in 11 volumes]. naukova dumka. http://ukrlit.org/slovnyk/slovnyk_ukrainskoi_movy_v_11_tomakh bodalev, a. a. (1983). lichnost i obshcheniye. izbrannyye trudy [personality and communication. selected works]. pedagogika. http://www.alib.ru/5_bodalev_a_a_lichnostnmn_i_obwenie_izbrannye_tr udy_w1t17990483f0f17606fe47050aaf9d42ee1b38.html boud, d., & walker, d. (1998). promoting reflection in professional courses: the challenge of context. studies in higher education, 23(2), 191-206. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079812331380384 bubnys, r. (2019). a journey of self-reflection in students’ perception of practice and roles in the profession. sustainability, 11(1), article 194. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11010194 budassi, s. a. (2006). metodika issledovaniya samootsenki lichnosti [methods for studying self-assessment]. testoteka. http://testoteka.narod.ru/lichn/1/27.html day, c. (1993). reflection: a necessary but not sufficient condition for professional development. british educational research journal, 19(1), 83-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/0141192930190107 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 farrell, t. (1998). reflective teaching: the principles and practices. forum, 36(4), 10-18. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej599374 http://irbis.gnpbu.ru/aref_1994/anisimov_o_s_1994.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vlup_2013_3_10 http://ukrlit.org/slovnyk/slovnyk_ukrainskoi_movy_v_11_tomakh http://www.alib.ru/5_bodalev_a_a_lichnostnmn_i_obwenie_izbrannye_trudy_w1t17990483f0f17606fe47050aaf9d42ee1b38.html http://www.alib.ru/5_bodalev_a_a_lichnostnmn_i_obwenie_izbrannye_trudy_w1t17990483f0f17606fe47050aaf9d42ee1b38.html https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079812331380384 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11010194 http://testoteka.narod.ru/lichn/1/27.html https://doi.org/10.1080/0141192930190107 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej599374 the concept of professional reflection in ukrainian psycho-pedagogical... nataliia denha et al. 72 fetiskin, n. p., kozlov, v. v., & manuylov, g. m. (2002). sotsialno-psikhologicheskaya diagnostika razvitiya lichnosti i malykh grupp [socio-psychological diagnostic of personality and small groups development]. publishing house of the institute of psychotherapy. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 hatton, n., & smith, d. (1995). reflection in teacher education: towards definition and implementation. teaching education, 11(1), 33-39. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/reflection-in-teachereducation%3a-towards-definition-hattonsmith/39b1eba3849a84e0fd76a4b3928bf17cb76a8d5b isaev, e. i., kosaretsky, s. g., & slobodchikov, v. i. (2000). stanovleniye i razvitiye professionalnogo soznaniya budushchego pedagoga [forming and developing professional awareness in future teachers]. voprosy psikhologii [issues of psychology], 3, 57–66. https://hr-portal.ru/article/stanovlenie-irazvitie-professionalnogo-soznaniya-budushchego-pedagoga jenkins, a. c., & mitchell, j. p. (2011). medial prefrontal cortex subserves diverse forms of self-reflection. social neuroscience, 6(3), 211-218. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2010.507948 johnson, s. c., baxter, l. c., wilder, l. s., pipe, j. g., heiserman, j. e., & prigatano, g. p. (2002). neural correlates of self‐reflection. brain, 125(8), 1808-1814. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awf181 karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 karpov, a. v. (2003). refleksivnost kak psikhicheskoye svoystvo i metodika yeyo díagnostiki [reflexivity as a mental property and methods of its diagnostics]. psikhologicheskiy zhurnal [psychological journal], 5, 45-57. https://psystat.at.ua/publ/2-1-0-22 kelly, m. (2020). importance of teacher reflection. thoughtco. https://www.thoughtco.com/importance-of-teacher-reflection-8322 khudyakova, n. l. (2010). aksiologicheskiye osnovy povedeniya cheloveka [axiological principles of human behaviour]. chelyabinsk state university press. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/reflection-in-teacher-education%3a-towards-definition-hatton-smith/39b1eba3849a84e0fd76a4b3928bf17cb76a8d5b https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/reflection-in-teacher-education%3a-towards-definition-hatton-smith/39b1eba3849a84e0fd76a4b3928bf17cb76a8d5b https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/reflection-in-teacher-education%3a-towards-definition-hatton-smith/39b1eba3849a84e0fd76a4b3928bf17cb76a8d5b https://hr-portal.ru/article/stanovlenie-i-razvitie-professionalnogo-soznaniya-budushchego-pedagoga https://hr-portal.ru/article/stanovlenie-i-razvitie-professionalnogo-soznaniya-budushchego-pedagoga https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2010.507948 https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awf181 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://psystat.at.ua/publ/2-1-0-22 https://www.thoughtco.com/importance-of-teacher-reflection-8322 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 73 khutorskoi, a. v. (2001). sovremennaya didaktika [didactic today]. piter. https://khutorskoy.ru/books/2001/sov_didaktika/index.htm kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 leontiev, d. a. (2000). test smyslozhiznennykh oriyentatsiy [testing life-meaning orientations]. smysl. http://publishing.smysl.ru/book/sgo/mansgo.pdf lieberman, m. d., gaunt, r., gilbert, d. t., & trope, y. (2002). reflexion and reflection: a social cognitive neuroscience approach to attributional inference. in m. p. zanna (ed.), advances in experimental social psychology (vol. 34, pp. 199–249). academic press. https://doi.org/10.1016/s00652601(02)80006-5 lobodin, v. t. (1997). trudnoye schastye sovershenstva [difficult happiness of perfection]. komplekt. https://ua1lib.org/book/591000/ea8e2a luria, a. r. (1970). the process of reflection under the light of modern neuropsychology. psychologia: an international journal of psychology in the orient, 13(2-3), 61–74. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1971-30255-001 lushpayeva, e. v. (1989). razvitiye refleksii v obshchenii sredstvami sotsialnopsikhologicheskogo treninga [developing reflection in communication using socio-psychological training] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. moscow state university. https://www.dissercat.com/content/razvitie-refleksii-vobshchenii-sredstvami-sotsialno-psikhologicheskogo-treninga ma, y., bang, d., wang, c., allen, m., frith, c., roepstorff, a., & han, s. (2014). sociocultural patterning of neural activity during self-reflection. social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 9(1), 73-80. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss103 macfadden, r. j., & schoech, d. (2010). neuroscience, the unconscious and professional decision making: implications for ict. journal of technology in human services, 28(4), 282-294. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228835.2011.562636 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://khutorskoy.ru/books/2001/sov_didaktika/index.htm https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 http://publishing.smysl.ru/book/sgo/mansgo.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2601(02)80006-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2601(02)80006-5 https://ua1lib.org/book/591000/ea8e2a https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1971-30255-001 https://www.dissercat.com/content/razvitie-refleksii-v-obshchenii-sredstvami-sotsialno-psikhologicheskogo-treninga https://www.dissercat.com/content/razvitie-refleksii-v-obshchenii-sredstvami-sotsialno-psikhologicheskogo-treninga https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss103 https://doi.org/10.1080/15228835.2011.562636 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 the concept of professional reflection in ukrainian psycho-pedagogical... nataliia denha et al. 74 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m naidenov, m. i. (1989). gruppovaya refleksiya v reshenii tvorcheskikh zadach pri razlichnoy stepeni gotovnosti k intellektual'nomu trudu [group reflection in solving creative problems with various degrees of readiness for intellectual work] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. kostiuk institute of psychology of the national academy of psychological sciences of ukraine. http://irispsy.org.ua/publ/000-163.pdf onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 philippi, c. l., & koenigs, m. (2014). the neuropsychology of self-reflection in psychiatric illness. journal of psychiatric research, 54, 55-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2014.03.004 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m http://iris-psy.org.ua/publ/000-163.pdf http://iris-psy.org.ua/publ/000-163.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2014.03.004 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 75 richards, j. (1990). beyond training: approaches to teacher education in language teaching. language teacher, 14(2), 3-8. https://markandrews.edublogs.org/files/2010/05/training-vdevelopment11.pdf?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=.qkqihqc2q6dxzxy8ybv.cpabjpycga c6gqdnvkbnx4-1640612172-0-ganycgzncou rukavishnikova, e. e. (2007). formirovaniye professionalnoy refleksii u studentov meditsinskogo kolledzha [developing professional reflection in students from medical colleges] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. north-caucasus state technical university https://www.dissercat.com/content/formirovanie-professionalnoirefleksii-u-studentov-meditsinskogo-kolledzha sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 semychenko, v. a. (2004). psykholohiya pedahohichnoyi diyalnosti [the psychology of pedagogical activity]. vyshcha shkola. https://sociology.knu.ua/uk/library/psihologiya-pedagogichnoyidiyalnosti-navch-posib shinkaruk, v. i. (1986) filosofskyy slovnyk [the philosophical dictionary]. publishing house of the academy of sciences of ukrssr. https://petrovkabook.zakupka.com/p/185624292-filosofskiy-slovnik-zared-v-i-shinkaruka/ vazina, k. ya. (1994). model samorazvitiya cheloveka [a model of selfdevelopment]. samorazvitie i nauka [self-development and science], 3(15), 181-190. https://elar.rsvpu.ru/bitstream/123456789/37620/1/edscience_2002_03_ 020.pdf williams, b. (2001). developing critical reflection for professional practice through problem‐based learning. journal of advanced nursing, 34(1), 27-34. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.3411737.x https://markandrews.edublogs.org/files/2010/05/training-v-development-11.pdf?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=.qkqihqc2q6dxzxy8ybv.cpabjpycgac6gqdnvkbnx4-1640612172-0-ganycgzncou https://markandrews.edublogs.org/files/2010/05/training-v-development-11.pdf?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=.qkqihqc2q6dxzxy8ybv.cpabjpycgac6gqdnvkbnx4-1640612172-0-ganycgzncou https://markandrews.edublogs.org/files/2010/05/training-v-development-11.pdf?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=.qkqihqc2q6dxzxy8ybv.cpabjpycgac6gqdnvkbnx4-1640612172-0-ganycgzncou https://markandrews.edublogs.org/files/2010/05/training-v-development-11.pdf?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=.qkqihqc2q6dxzxy8ybv.cpabjpycgac6gqdnvkbnx4-1640612172-0-ganycgzncou https://www.dissercat.com/content/formirovanie-professionalnoi-refleksii-u-studentov-meditsinskogo-kolledzha https://www.dissercat.com/content/formirovanie-professionalnoi-refleksii-u-studentov-meditsinskogo-kolledzha https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://sociology.knu.ua/uk/library/psihologiya-pedagogichnoyi-diyalnosti-navch-posib https://sociology.knu.ua/uk/library/psihologiya-pedagogichnoyi-diyalnosti-navch-posib https://petrovkabook.zakupka.com/p/185624292-filosofskiy-slovnik-za-red-v-i-shinkaruka/ https://petrovkabook.zakupka.com/p/185624292-filosofskiy-slovnik-za-red-v-i-shinkaruka/ https://elar.rsvpu.ru/bitstream/123456789/37620/1/edscience_2002_03_020.pdf https://elar.rsvpu.ru/bitstream/123456789/37620/1/edscience_2002_03_020.pdf https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.3411737.x ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 166-190| https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/338 submitted: january 5th, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 24th, 2022 neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the context of the study of the conceptual sphere of people’s morality nadiia skrypnyk 1 , ivan khomiak 2 , iuliia lebed 3 , iryna spatar 4 , olena overchuk 5 , inna golopych 6 1 communal higher education institution «vinnytsia humanities pedagogical college», ukraine, nadiyvnua@gmail.com 2 national university of ostroh academy, ukraine, i.m.khomiak@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/00000002-8078-5703 3 communal higher education institution «vinnytsia humanities pedagogical college», ukraine, iulialebed7@gmail.com 4 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, irynaspatar@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/00000001-7115-2739 5 karkiv national university of internal affair elenaovercuk@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-48590452 6 kharkiv national university of internal affairs, ukraine, innagolopych@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1831-9752 abstract: the research focuses on the study of speech phenomena developed in the context of the conceptual sphere as an effective approach to the use of neuropsychology. neuropsychology considers the acquisition of new knowledge on human perception and processing of new information as a separate mental process. this paper studies the formation of linguistic phenomena in the context of the cultural development of man, which in the course of evolutionary-historical process has created distinctive linguistic-ethnic linguistic images. the linguistic identity of man is created in the representation of man and is represented by a set of concepts, i.e. it is a conceptual sphere. the current state of the humanities has led to the relevance of ethno linguistic studies, which present the results of studies of the reflection in the national consciousness of extra linguistic phenomena that form the basis for a holistic worldview and function as concepts. the latter are cultural, mental and linguistic phenomena that are integral mental-linguistic constructs, but can be studied for each of the components, including language. cognitive experience, which can be identified and analyzed in language phenomena, is a verbalized (fixed to a bilateral linguistic unit) reflection of sensual and rational experiences of an individual (group, society, ethnicity) of a number of events, impressions, often located in speech in dialect, literary language, the carrier of which he is). general scientific and special linguistic methods will ensure the complexity of the study of verbalizers of the concepts of folk morality. keywords: psycholinguistics, psycholinguistic phenomena, psycholinguistic ideas, connection of language and thinking, psycholinguistic concepts, conceptual analysis. how to cite: skrypnyk, n., khomiak, i., lebed, i., spatar, i., overchuk, o., & golopych, i. (2022). neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the context of the study of the conceptual sphere of people’s morality. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 166-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/338 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/338 mailto:nadiyvnua@gmail.com mailto:i.m.khomiak@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8078-5703 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8078-5703 mailto:iulialebed7@gmail.com mailto:irynaspatar@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7115-2739 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7115-2739 mailto:elenaovercuk@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4859-0452 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4859-0452 mailto:innagolopych@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1831-9752 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/338 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 167 1. introduction globalization embraces all spheres of public development in the era of the twenty-first century, the period of formation of the post-industrial innovative world. globalization and integration erases all borders between peoples in the course of socio-economic and political life, which on the one hand is a positive phenomenon, because it contributes to the improvement of human life, and on the other hand negative, because people lose their individuality, their identity and nationality are levelled. therefore we have chosen a theme of research of conceptual sphere of language formation in a context of the neuropsychological approach. in particular, we studied the creation of a linguistic picture of the world as a set of linguistic phenomena of individual peoples, formed in the process of evolution and mental processing of information by man. the basic unit of the conceptual sphere is a concept (gordienko-mitrofanova et al., 2018). we consider the concept as a multidimensional culturally significant socio-psychic formation, expressed in the interconnection of linguistic, psychological, cultural and other aspects. neuropsychology interprets human perception and interpretation of information through the peculiarities of each individual psyche, physiological neural perception and reproduction (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). concepts are formed in the human imagination, creating a linguistic picture of personality. on the basis of the concepts it is necessary to define the psychological aspect of speech in the context of mentality and to investigate the philosophy of the emergence of human concepts as the idea of creation of language concepts. most of the linguistic concepts do not have clear boundaries, which forms the idea of the existence of philosophical background to the logical analysis of language. at the same time, these concepts are man's semantic ideas about the surrounding things, which he can observe and interpret, so concepts are formed as a tool of cognition of the surrounding reality and explanation of it by linguistic means. a person perceives information about a concept by sensory organs, and then the information goes to the cerebral cortex. there, in certain parts of the brain, due to the action of brain neurons, this information is systematized, processed, and only then a person can perform certain actions or create a general impression of this or that object of perception. it is these aspects that are one of the directions of modern research in the field of cognitive psychology. neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 168 one prominent scientist in the field of cognitive psychology, robert solso, is convinced that “although the traditional themes of perception, memory, language, problem solving, and thinking, as well as the method of experimental analysis, are still central to cognitive psychology, the use of neurocognitive representations may become the primary means of studying cognitive function in the twentieth century”, (solso, 2006). the same researcher notes that for perception and generalization of significant in volume or semantic relations information the human brain engages “billions of interconnected neurons, and in our case this is understanding of the conceptual sphere of popular morality. and these relatively simple neurons, interacting with hundreds of thousands of other neurons, are the basis of complex information processing” (solso, 2006). therefore, according to our conviction, the perception of the meaning of words and the formation of system representations based on them is entirely subject to the neurophysiological features of the human brain, which is one of the areas of research in psycholinguistics. in the context of the development of a new globalized society, the study of the formation of human linguistic phenomena, which is perceived as the result of verbal views, begins to acquire a broader significance. the reason for the formation of linguistics is human awareness of the process of creation of linguistic concepts, modeling the language picture in the context of cultural development and mental perception of linguistic aspects of the formation of linguistic environment, which forms a linguistic conceptology (klemantovich & stepanov, 2015). such approach is the factor of formation of conceptual spheres as constituent units of formation of conceptual representation of the world, where experience of results of human activity and perception of information during his life is accumulated and kept. linguistic worldview is formed by a person as awareness and mental perception of conceptual foundations of linguistics, which was the result of cultural and elemental development of mankind. thus, linguistic perception takes place in the context of formation of human conceptual spheres as the main criteria of creation of linguistic process (fillmore, 1982). concepts form both individual awareness of the linguistic personality and collective awareness of various speech phenomena, which leads to the formation of a local or globalized speech picture of the world. the conceptual sphere is a purely mental phenomenon, formed from concepts arising as a result of mental activity. man realizes and models speech pictures, models, schemes, which are the main interpretation of the speech picture of the world. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 169 the linguo-cognitive need to study the relationship between culture and language, mentality and language, language and thinking stems from the recognized by modern science holistic existence of different types of social consciousness, language, inner subjective world of man, things and realities around him (anusiewicz, 1988; bartminsky & nebzhegovska, 1997; tokarski, 1993; zhayvoronok, 2004). linguistic phenomena are in a determinant relation to extralinguals (social, cultural and even physical). modern researchers are increasingly interested in the language type of society, national-language models of the world. the ideas of humboldt (1985) and potebnya (1993) received a “new life” and were the basis of ethnolinguistic research that analyzes the development of language in connection with the “spirit of the people”, its mentality, ways of life. language is a means by which people pass on their experience and spiritual heritage from generation to generation. having developed on the biological basis of the second signaling system, language is, on the one hand, a unique phenomenon, part and exponent of national culture, on the other hand, a universal accumulator of history, culture, and mentality of an ethnos. uzhchenko (2002, p. 47) and nakonechny (1969) are unanimous in the statement: “each language has its own unique beauty and strength, its valuable features, features, its strengths, making it in some ways simply an irreplaceable tool of knowledge the surrounding world, reality”. for our part, we note that a language is functionally developed, the more opportunities it has to reproduce the spiritual and material world of an ethnos. it is well known that the ukrainian language is semantically rich and developed in all functional styles. according to anusiewicz (1988, p. 36), language is a treasury of the experience of generations, containing a fixed (in the division of reality into fragments) picture of the world and an axiological system inextricably linked with it. scientists distinguish between scientific (conceptual) and linguistic pictures of the world, including the first set of knowledge about the world, and the second the definition of the main elements of the conceptual picture of the world and its explication by linguistic means. the scientific picture is created first of all by correlation with reality (golubovska, 2004); the linguistic picture takes into account both real data and cultural layers, which are subject to human thinking and evaluations (barabash, 2006; nerubasska et al., 2020; onishchuk et al., 2020; tokarski, 1993). the mentalist paradigm in the study of linguistic phenomena is based on one of the main universals and at the same time, according to humboldt (1985), the antinomies of linguistics the connection between language and thought. recognition of this law makes it possible to reject the neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 170 idea of language as a system in itself and to recognize language, along with history, art, literature as a form of social consciousness, an instrument of culture and not only a means but also the result of knowledge of the world. therefore, the linguistic picture of personality is formed in the context of the formation of the mentality as a result of the cultural development of man and the thinking perception of information by the individual in the context of the mental. to further outline the main categories and justify the feasibility of linguistic study of verbalization of the conceptual sphere of folk morality, which is the subject of our study, it is necessary to analyze and describe aspects of the relationship of language and thinking, including different views of ethnopsychologists, ethnolinguists on this issue. this connection has been pointed out by most linguists from aristotle to the present day. 2. neuropsychological approach in the study of speech phenomena human behavior in the development of society is quite complex, unpredictable and versatile, expressing the individual perception of the world, and on the other hand human reaction to a particular event can be quite characteristic of many people (korsakova & moskovichyute, 1988). that is, we know that a person living outside society can behave in a manner approximating the behavior of an animal (slyshkin, 1999). the structure of the human brain is complex and quite different from the brain of an animal, but if it does not live in society, but outside it, its development is suspended, its speech function also does not develop, sirotyuk (2003). what does this have to do with? thus, the basis for the study of human behavior formation is the brain as the context of human psychophysiological activity. the activity of the human brain also develops in the process of historical evolution (shalimov, 2003). thus, in primitive society, the human brain was physiologically small and accordingly provided the primitive needs of human activity (arnold, 1984). in the context of historical development of the society the brain evolves, increases in volume, accordingly its morphogenesis, functional systems as units of integrative activity of the brain and as psychophysiological basis become more complicated. thus, in the process of evolution, the brain's subject activity, mental development, memory and speech, and imagination form the neuronal, morphological components of the brain and its physiological trait. thus, the thought process of human activity is formed under the influence of social development, physical and psychological mutual influences (attix & welsh-bohmer, 2006). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 171 that is, the brain proper develops only when there is a need for social and psychological thinking to function, otherwise it does not mature (beaumont, 1983). human activity, leads to a change in his perception of the world around him through the neurological and physiological functioning of the brain development, which in the process of historical development changes. this approach is the basis for the study of the psychology of human behavior, and, neuropsychology in particular. neuropsychology has defined the interaction of brain development, physiological and psychosocial development of the individual (cabeza & kingstone, 2001). neuropsychology combines physiological characteristics of human development and psychological characteristics in the context of the functioning of brain mental devices. such science investigates information processing and assimilation in the context of brain activity (hannay, 1986). the primary goal of neuropsychology is to investigate the pattern processes of brain activity influenced by external activity and environmental perception (heilbronner, 2005). researchers can identify the main factors of formation of effective personality development in society using neuropsychological approaches (llinas, 2001). human beings are formed as a result of social-evolutionary development, improving their skills and expanding the scope of social knowledge. language is one of the processes of human development, which is formed in the context of human brain activity and reflects the physiological neural features of brain functioning (mccarthy & warrington, 1990). thus, the determination of different psychological dysfunctions in speech development is possible with the use of neuropsychological knowledge. in the process of historical and cultural evolution the study of the formation of speech phenomena in humans reflects the general principle of effective human development and at the same time the psychophysiological features of human perception and interpretation of civilization achievements for further progress. neuropsychology is the science which studies which brain zones and which functional actions are unformed in a human being, and thus approaches the reason of difficulties, in formation of language formation, which testifies to brain dysfunction and can be the reason of formation of destructive phenomena in the process of social development. the neuropsychological approach to the study of human behavior determines the difficulties in information perception and speech development. neuropsychology characterizes tendencies of immaturity or imperfection of brain structures on the basis of brain activity, in a context of connection of thinking disorder with perception and speech neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 172 disorders, and also with functional features of brain activity. research by neuropsychologists demonstrates that human mental development is interrelated with brain development, particularly its physiological and neural patterns. also an important manifestation of the neuropsychological approach to the functioning of human development is speech function, demonstrating the process of brain activity as a psychosocial factor (tarter et al., 1988). that is, on the one hand, human creation and reflection of language phenomena is a consequence of brain activity, but in the context of mental and social manifestation. language is the main factor of neuropsychological research of human brain activity, because perception of information and its reproduction is impossible without speech thinking, accordingly further progress of society is impossible, destructive speech reflects neuropsychological disorders of personal development. neuropsychology has long established the presence of interaction and mutual influence of human development and its brain context. therefore, neuropsychological studies can identify factors of human developmental dysfunction, which can manifest in a variety of ways, including speech retardation. the cause of these disruptive manifestations is a disorder in the brain structures or in the social-psychological sphere. 3. linguistic ideas about the connection between language and thinking the need to identify certain aspects of this connection, important for this study, stems from an anthropocentric approach that relies on the mental perception of language-creative information and thought phenomena: cognition, concept, perception, etc. the advantage of the rational (mental component) in the common language assimilation of life experience of individuals-carriers and the secondary perceptual and subjective components is evidenced by the continuous categorization, idiomatization, i.e. linguistic generalization of various phenomena of social life. thus connotation as the implementer of expressive, emotional and aesthetic function of language in the paradigm of language units is secondary. therefore, the connection between thinking and language, illustrated as the interaction of neural perception of information and the formation of the conceptual sphere of the linguistic personality, is obvious and determines for the accumulation of experience and knowledge in language. in the context of our study, it seems to be threefold: the phenomenon of the surrounding world the perception of the phenomenon by mentally similar subjects (social group, ethnic group, nation, etc.) generalization of the experience of this perception in language units. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 173 a diachronic approach to the problem requires consideration of the “language-thinking” relationship, beginning with its first manifestations in human language practice. to date, the primacy of the origin of thinking about language has been finally recognized. despite the indisputability, this fact does not explain the process of language and the beginning of the accumulation of life experience in it. followers of the conventional theory of the origin of language claim that language arose on the basis of the interaction of natural human existence and its social forms and is built “on faith, reason and will” (potebnya, 1993, p. 8). the cognitive aspect of this connection is proved in the universal metaphorical nature of human thinking, which is reflected at different levels of language and in the studies of linguists from humboldt (1985) and potebnya (1993) to chenki (2002), lakoff and jonson (1990), nerubasska and maksymchuk (2020) and so on. the latter, in particular, connects the deepest layers of conceptualization with “ontological metaphors”, limited in their spectrum to kinesthetic images-schemes, which were formed in the early stages of evolution and are "dynamic examples of our processes of perception and repetitive motor programs" (chenki, 2002, pp. 347). another aspect of the existence of language, which clearly proves the relationship between “language – thinking” and the dominance of the rational in the vernacular, is a certain organization on the paradigmatic axis. since the object of our study we have chosen not situational use, which may be dominated by the irrational component of experience, but typical, generalized in folklore texts, common to most speakers of folk art and language, lexical paradigm, folk symbols and associations are especially important. such typicality is a consequence of neural perception and reproduction of information, causes the greatest interest at the lexicalphraseological level of folk tales, legends, songs, dumas, proverbs. in particular, against the background of situationality, occasionality and subjectivity in the use of lexical units, with the help of which an ordinary individual tries to express the necessary information and emotions, there is a structuredness in the folk language, which proves the direct connection between the language and thinking of all representatives of an ethnic group, united by a common mentality, ethnocultural and ideological traditions. this is manifested, according to the theory of khomsky (1972), in the congenital deep structures of the brain. since the subject of thought, according to vygotsky (1996) and zhinkin (1998), is the “universal subject code”, which can be a contractual neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 174 mental phenomenon, the generalizing opinion of popova (2002) about our subject seems to be that “the units of the universal subject code are the subject sensory images that encode knowledge. knowledge is represented in the human mind by concepts, and coding concepts appear as images that are part of the concept of its component. researchers of cognitive psychology, in particular robert solso, notes that at a certain level of processing by the brain information is encoded figuratively, then images are created, and at another level conceptually, and then a generalized image is created, that is, the concept. thus, the sensory component of the concept encodes the rational information available in it, ensuring its functioning as a unit of thought”. for conceptual analysis, the connection between “thinking” and language is the basis for studying the relationship and interdependence of mental activity and language in the context of neuropsychology. the problem of the linguistic worldview, undoubtedly the leading one in modern cognitive linguistics. the patterns and features of the interaction of language, culture and ethnic mentality cannot be studied without involving such related sciences as philosophy, ethnopsychology, cultural studies, folklore studies, mythology, because it is they who reproduce the worldview in its entirety. different methodological schools and individual scholars in their vision of the language worldview (lw) emphasize different aspects of this phenomenon. for example, yakovleva (1994, p. 73) under the lw means “fixed in the language and specific to the world a kind of worldview through the prism of language.” this means that the iss is a subjective picture of the objective world. yu. apresyan acknowledges the existence of a naive picture of the world, which “are reflected in natural language ways of perception and conceptualization of the world, when the basic concepts of language are formed into a single system of views, a kind of collective philosophy imposed on all speakers. thus, the lw seems to be added to the "pure" individual along with language acquisition. representations of the world in language are naive, but not primitive and in many cases no less complex than in the scientific worldview. an example is the idea of the inner world of man, which has absorbed the experience of dozens of generations over the millennia, which are a “reliable guide to this world” (apresyan, 1995, p. 39). in the linguistic worldview, according to psycholinguists, an important component is the pre-speech picture of the world, that is, a representation that does not have linguistic expression, but is a source for it. thus, lysychenko (2004), following vygotsky (1996), notes that the relationship between thinking and speech could be schematically designated broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 175 by two intersecting circles, which would show that a certain part of the processes of speech and thinking coincides. this is the so-called branch of “language thinking”. but this linguistic thinking does not exhaust all forms of thought or all forms of speech. there is a large branch of thinking that will not be directly related to language thinking (lysychenko, 2004, p. 38). according to kolshansky (1990, p. 33), the linguistic picture of the world is based on the peculiarities of the social and labor experience of each nation. ultimately, this leads to differences in the lexical and grammatical nominations of phenomena and processes, in the compatibility of certain meanings, in their etymology. language “according to the innumerable conditions that are the stimulus in its directed cognition, each time chooses and fixes one of the many properties of objects and phenomena and their connections. it is this human factor that is clearly seen in all language formations, both normative and in deviations and individual styles”. domestic scientists also qualify the concept of a linguistic picture of the world in different ways. goroshko (2003) defines the lw as “a definite vision, meaningful construction of the world in relation to the logic of world outlook and world perception”, according to yefimenko (2005, p. 11), is a system of intuitive notions about reality that existed as a phenomenon with the dawn of the human race. most of the definitions given by authoritative scholars formulate the primacy of the irrational in the semantics of the lw. the experience gained by the individual and the ethnos in general is obtained in sensory images, layering of similar situations, symbolization of the latter like objects and phenomena. scientists solve the problem of the metaphorical nature of the term “language picture” by clarifying the concepts of “language worldview of the world”, “conceptual worldview of the world”, “scientific worldview of the world” and so on. in particular, sokolovskaya (1993, pp. 2, 6), developing the study of the world in terms of semantics, understands this term as a set “of human ideas about the environment, and the lw as a set of human ideas about the real world, enshrined in the knowledge system of a certain language, in its lexical-semantic subsystem”. weisgerber (1993, pp. 114-124) defines the following characteristics of the lw: • a system of all possible meanings: spiritual, determining the culture and mentality of the linguistic community, and linguistic, determining the specificity and functioning of the language itself; • the consequence of the historical evolution of the ethnos and language and the reason for the peculiar way of their further development; neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 176 • a single “living organism” clearly structured in multilingual expression, determines the total communicative behavior, understanding of the external world of nature and the internal world of man and the language system; • uniformity of linguistic essence, which contributes to the consolidation of linguistic, and hence its cultural identity in the “vision” of the world and its designation by means of language; • homogeneity of linguistic essence, contributing to the consolidation of linguistic, and hence cultural distinctiveness in the "vision" of the world and its denotation by means of language; • the “transformative power” of language, forming an idea of the surrounding world through language as an "intermediate world" in native speakers; • general cultural heritage of the people. summarizing the main characteristics of the lw of the world, we conclude that there is no generalized or universal lw of the world, as it is the result of contamination of national (ethnic) lw of the world created by individual ethnic communities. each nation, each linguistic and cultural environment produces its own national (ethnic) worldview of the world, which forms in the minds of individual members of society a kind of human attitude to the world, nature, other people, to himself as a member of society, determines norms of behavior. ethnic worldview of the world a collection of basic principles and predictions, unconscious and undiscussed, which guide and structure the behavior of a particular ethnic community (koretsky, 1996, p. 36). the national (ethnic) worldview of the world is reflected in the national (ethnic) lw of the world. the national language picture of the world is most fully reflected in the folklore discourse, so to understand the moral values of the ukrainian ethnos, we think it is most appropriate to study the texts of folk art. thus, the lw (scientific lw) is not something different from the internal, psychological picture of the world, it is its expression, the “matter” by which the national picture of the world is expressed, and therefore becomes available for scientific study. on the other hand, conceptual worldview (cw) of the world is more universal and is, according to scientists, common to peoples with the same level of knowledge about the world, while the language reflects the experience of each people and reveals not only common knowledge but also the ethical originality of worldview members (lysychenko, 2004, p. 37). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 177 following the point of view that language and thinking are two dialectically related, but not identical phenomena, we assert that the lw (slw) develops, reflecting changes in the knowledge of the world. the evolution of the pre-speech picture of the world is reflected by the cw and this inevitably leads to corresponding changes in the lw. the system "man world language" for the lw consists of three basic phenomena, from which the following follows: the starting point for characterizing the lw is a person who learns the world independent of it and creates means, primarily linguistic, for the transfer of acquired knowledge. 4. concept in the paradigm of linguistic concepts the concept is defined on the interdisciplinary border of philosophy, logic, psycholinguistics, linguocultural studies, linguistics, etc. at the same time, the linguistic aspects themselves are often “dissolved” in culturological or general philosophical concepts. in recent decades, language researchers have sought to crystallize precisely the linguistic subject of conceptual analysis of units of different linguistic levels. the term “concept” comes from the latin conceptus and means “thought”, “concept”. “in logic the meaning of the sign (name); general opinion, wording ”(melnychuk, 1974, p. 360). this concept is characterized differently by researchers: sometimes it is identified with the concept as the basis of lexical meaning, sometimes considered as "the main link in the mental world of man” (lysychenko, 2004, p. 39). it is obvious that the above dictionary article reflects only the general philosophical (logical) interpretation of the analyzed term, although its introduction into scientific circulation arose with the need to study the problem of language and thinking. in the logical dictionary, edited by kondakov (1975, p. 456), the term “concept” is identified with the term “meaning”. kirik (2002), the author of the article “concept” in the philosophical encyclopedic dictionary interprets this term in connection with universals: "concept (from the latin “conceptus” concept) – 1) a term of medieval scholastic philosophy and logic, denoting the general in individual subjects, on the basis of which there is a concept expressed in word …; 2) in logical semantics the meaning of the name, the intentional meanings of the name (sign). in modern semantics, instead of the term “meaning”, the term “concept” is used, which is in the same category as the term “meaning of the word”. however, if the meaning of a word is considered in the system of linguistic links, then the concept is in the system of logical relations and neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 178 forms, which are studied both in linguistics and in logic ” (ozadovska & polishchuk, 2002, p. 300). in psychology, it is an object of an ideal nature, “an image that embodies certain culturally conditioned ideas of the native speaker about the world” and at the same time is a prototype, an “idea” of a group of derived concepts; in language the concept has a certain name, because reality is reflected in “consciousness not directly, but through language” (stern, 1998, p. 192). as we can see, in dictionary definitions gradually formed an understanding of the concept as a formulation of the mental image, mental prototype, the idea of the concept, as well as the concept itself. linguistic understanding of the meaning of "concept" was intensified in connection with the thesaurus (a set of concepts from a particular field of knowledge) study of vocabulary and the definition of the principles of compiling ideographic dictionaries. the author of the dictionary article kubryakova (1996, p. 90) gives the following definition: “concept (konzept) a term that serves to explain the units of mental or psychic resources of our consciousness and is the information structure that reflects the knowledge and experience of man; operative semantic unit of memory, mental lexicon, conceptual system and language of the brain (lingua mentalis), the whole picture of the world reflected in the human psyche. the meaning of the concept of the whole picture of the world corresponds to the idea of the meanings that man operates in the process of thinking and which reflect the content of experience and knowledge, the content of all human activities and processes of cognition of the world as some quanta of knowledge”. to highlight concepts, according to the linguist kubryakova (1996), a wide range of intraand extralinguistic features is needed, namely, perceptual isolation of features, object-related actions with an object, their ultimate goals, assessment of such actions, etc. concepts can be represented by one word (simple) and sentences and phrases (complex). supporting the position of vezhbitskaya (1997) and defending the linguistic understanding of concepts (kubryakova, 1996, p. 93) emphasizes that they are “differently grouped and verbally differentiated in different languages in close dependence on the actual linguistic, pragmatic and culturological factors and accordingly, are fixed in different meanings ". the term “concept” is one of the basic terms of linguocultural studies. this field of knowledge brings to the fore the meaning of “culturally significant concept”. v. kuznetsov gives the following explanation to the term: “the concept is the general mental content ...what is also called the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 179 meaning ”. this interpretation of the meaning of linguistic expression has a long tradition, it was adopted by humboldt (1985), some representatives of russian philosophy, in particular kuznetsov (1991, p. 21). throughout the history of scientific thought, there are a variety of approaches to understanding the term “concept”. the versatility of the analyzed phenomenon requires a multifaceted approach. in particular, selivanova (2000, p. 111), gives 7 aspects of understanding the analyzed phenomenon: 1) the concept is equated to a logical judgment, presented in linguistic form; 2) close to the first understanding of the concept as any unit of collective consciousness that reflects the object of the real or ideal world and is stored in the national memory of native speakers as a verbal substrate...; 3) the concept in the logical-semiotic aspect is thought of as a set of semantic features during the component analysis of vocabulary; 4) in the spirit of medieval conceptualism and later representationalism, the concept is considered as an abstraction of a set of objects (generic concept); 5) in the form of a generalized-reflective function of consciousness, the concept is a sensory-cognitive abstraction of objects and phenomena; 6) in the psychological aspect, the concept as a mental and psychological image of an object; 7) based on the integrative principle, the concept is a differently substratum unit of consciousness, contains representation, images, concepts. in modern linguistics, the understanding of the term “concept” cannot be considered established. scientists often associate various theoretical interpretations with it, which makes it difficult to adequately perceive it. analysis of modern linguistic and cultural studies shows that scientists are trying to find the most accurate characteristics for this term. zhayvoronok (2004, p. 25) emphasizes that the concept is “not only the objective relation, the objective meaning, but also the word the name of reality, the word-sign as a certain intellectually meaningful essence, as a weighty substance, or a sign of meaning .... “ according to stepanov (2004, p. 43), the concept is a group of ideas, concepts, knowledge, associations, experiences that accompany a word: “unlike meanings, concepts are not only thought, they are experienced. they are the subject of emotions, likes and dislikes, and sometimes clashes”. karasik's definition (2004, p. 109) is laconic: “a cultural concept is a multidimensional semantic formation in which value, figurative and conceptual aspects are singled out”. thus, the concept, in addition to the culturological aspect of its existence, contains linguistic and extralinguistic information, is a fragment of neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 180 knowledge, experience of an individual, group, ethnic group and can be studied by means of linguistics in the context of neuropsychology. the concept as a unit of cognition accumulates in itself the whole spectrum of mental reflection of reality and itself from sensorimotor (elementary forms of cognition) to reflection at higher levels of human consciousness linguistic-mental or verbal-logical. “a concept is a complex multilevel mental-linguistic formation, which is a fragmentary-integral image. it is also a subjective-subjectival image that manifests itself only in specific circumstances” (ivashchenko, 2008, p. 41). in our study, we proceed from such an understanding of the concept it is a fragment of the cultural-mental space of a person or ethnospeciality, reflecting the contemplative and sensory experience of perceiving objective reality, formed under the influence of the historical and natural conditions of the life of the people, their faith, beliefs, ethnocultural traditions and acquired lexical expression, phraseological, syntactic units (including minitexts), as well as at the subtext level. the variety of interpretation of the concept with an emphasis on its linguistic, mental, cultural or other essence provides for a reliable analysis of the definition of key features of the term and the classification of types of concepts. in scientific linguistic research there are different opinions about the typology of concepts (babushkin, 1996; maslova, 2007; vezhbitska, 1997). however, there are attempts at a generalized approach. thus, ivashchenko (2008), having analyzed the experience of predecessors, proposed a general classification of concepts regardless of their systemic organization in the typological hierarchy. the concept as a unit of knowledge [ethnocultural], which is organized in a certain way of thinking by a selective plurality of specifically determined elementary meanings (nouns) in the projection on a particular fragment of the world. the concept has a dual nature. it is both a unit of cognition and a unit of knowledge, and therefore a unit of human cognition, participates in the organization of both the semantics of mentality (concept mental mini-model, image of the world) and semantics of mentality (concept – “mentality in miniature” and mentality which designed for a separate piece of the world). words and individual phrases that are associated in the minds of native speakers with a certain sign, action or reality, in particular those that often perform an idiomatic function, acquire symbolism. kubryakova (1996, p. 96) and uzhchenko (2002, p. 49) consider that “symbols cover a significant space of the conceptual system, but do not overlap it”. they, as units of the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 181 language system, form part of the internal lexicon, which is a repository of certain concepts of the conceptual system. so every symbol is a concept, but not every concept is a symbol. therefore, we include in our study the analysis of word-symbols denoting certain concepts of folk morality. concepts, interacting with each other, form systems called “conceptual area”, “conceptual field”, “ideofield”, “conceptosphere” (maslova, 2007; selivanova, 2000). in our research, we dwell on the term “conceptosphere”. the term “conceptosphere” was introduced into scientific use by likhachev (1993). scientists emphasize that the conceptual sphere is more voluminous and broader than the semantic space of language. the internal organization of the conceptosphere does not mean a set of concepts, but their systematization, which consists in structuring in chains, cycles, derivations. in our understanding, the national lw consists of conceptual spheres, and those, in turn, of concepts. we agree with kosharna (2002, p. 54) that the conceptosphere is different types of unions of concepts from binary oppositions in conceptual series and sets. vilchynska (2008, p. 121) notes that "the conceptosphere of the national language informs about the culture of the nation, about its moral and ethical traditions, about the attitude to other peoples, about material and spiritual values, etc.". the conceptospheres of religious discourse (karasyk, 2004; vilchynska, 2008), political (chernyshenko, 2006), scientific and journalistic (zheleznyak, 2001), paremiological have already been studied; specifics of the author's conceptospheres (kosmeda, 2000; mekh, 2008) and many others. the conceptual sphere of folk morality in the ukrainian folklore discourse is in the field of our attention. 5. methodological principles of conceptual analysis the study of concepts is called in linguistics conceptual analysis, which is a set of both general and special methods and techniques. general scientific research methods used by us are the method of induction, deduction, synthesis, descriptive, quantitative calculations; special analysis (lexicographic definitions, syntagmatic, contextual), continuous sampling method. the method of continuous sampling was used to determine the volume of the lexical explicator of the studied concepts in their popular existence, by analyzing lexicographic definitions, the semantic evolution of the verbalizers of certain concepts was reconstructed, the features of the verbalization of the concepts of folk morality by means of folk speech are disclosed in the thesis based on the descriptive method. by means of syntagmatic analysis, the hidden conotatives of semes were discovered. neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 182 subtext semantics helped to reveal the contextual analysis of fairy tales, legends, paremias. at the final stage of the study, the method of quantitative calculations was used to determine the ratio of the use of verbalizers of bicentric concepts. in general, a set of special methods and techniques of conceptual analysis can be classified according to various aspects of the study. linguistically, the methods are semasiological and actually cognitive; by the nature of the interaction of the subject and the object of study descriptive and experimental (pimenova, 2004). one cannot but agree with maslova (2007) that in the conceptual analysis of linguistic material, the trinity of linguistic, cultural and sociological methods is advisable, but in our case the first two are most relevant. concepts can be investigated on the basis of the author's idiolect of the writer, individual or group "live" speaking by means of questionnaires. but since the proposed research is focused primarily on elucidating typical associations, identifying the "context" knowledge of the ukrainian ethnos, the most relevant speech samples for the selection of the studied units (lexemes, phrasemes, sentences) are folklore texts as such, reflecting traditional ideas and knowledge of ukrainian about the relationship family members and, more broadly, society, are determined by the rules of folk morality. methods of linguistic analysis of concepts are reflected in a number of works by domestic and foreign linguocognitologists. thus, russian linguists focus mainly on the analysis of sets of concepts (conceptospheres, conceptual lw) on the material of one or more languages. domestic linguists study individual concepts or conceptospheres. we have chosen to study the conceptosphere of folk morality in its explication by means of the ukrainian language, in particular in folklore discourse. according to skab (2007, p. 478) the analysis of verbalizers of the concept should include etymology of words, paradigmatic connections (synonyms, antonyms), and also the analysis of word-forming nests, typical syntactic positions, contexts of use, semantic fields, estimation, figurative associations, metaphors, phraseology and language patterns. the results of such "traditional" types of linguistic analysis will provide material for further conceptual structuring. given the difference in folklore language material proposed by the researcher, we chose etymological analysis, analysis of figurative associations, metaphors, phraseology and contextual use of lexical units and partially word-forming means. kochergan (2003, p. 10) and donetskikh (1980, p. 13) are right that the review of the linguistic unit in syntagmatics and more broadly in the context makes diagnostics and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 183 identification of the whole variety of hidden, additional and associative semantics and at the same time “purification" of primary semantics. formulating the meaning of “concept” as a “discrete unit of collective consciousness that is verbally stored in the national memory of native speakers” (babushkin, 1996, p. 53) emphasizes the definiteness of lexicographic analysis. the scientist considers a dictionary article to be a culturally relevant type of verbal text, which reveals the basic and associative-image basis of a cultural concept. therefore, we started the analysis of each lexico-semantic group as an explicator of a separate component of the bicentric mental construct with lexicographic analysis. most scientists are unanimous in the opinion that the methodology for studying concepts is based on semantic, word-formation, etymological and associative analyzes of vocabulary and phraseology in order to clarify the different-level semes available and conceptualized in a certain way in the minds of native speakers. these types of analysis are especially important in the study of folklore material because the experimental part (receptive, associative experiments) is not advisable. we will pay the greatest attention to etymological, semantic, syntagmatic (distributive), contextual analysis and structuring of lexical-semantic groups of verbalizers in the concepts of folk morality that exist in ukrainian folklore discourse, since folk art most reflects the mental identity of the people. the central link of any concept of folk morality is its value for members of society. we check the appraisal aspect by the method of contextual analysis. the relevance of the concept can be established by studying the productivity of the use of language units to denote this particular mental construct, using the analysis of the frequency of their use in real communication or language discourse. this is the method of quantitative calculations. the complexity of the concept's existence is at the same time its belonging to consciousness, language and culture. language and speech provide the means of materialization of concepts that arise in consciousness and replenish by the ethnocultural environment. therefore, the semantic analysis of language units of different levels, especially lexical, becomes of paramount importance. the internal form of the word will help to penetrate into the mental mechanism of reflection of extralinguistic reality. the conventionality and indistinctness of the concept is determined by the environment of its emergence and existence consciousness, in which all reflections of objective reality are interconnected, contaminated and partially overlap, therefore the conceptual picture of the world is not an adequate reflection of the objective picture of the world. this circumstance neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 184 makes it impossible for an absolutely clear delimitation of zones (nuclear, near-nuclear, peripheral) of the concept. obviously, one must proceed from the fact that the associations most relevant to native speakers constitute the core. connections become weaker as they move away from the nucleus to the periphery. the relevance of associations can be evidenced by the frequency of use of their language explicators, which is established again by the statistical method (prikhodko, 2008, pp. 49-54). thus, general scientific and special linguistic methods will provide a comprehensive study of verbalizers of the concepts of folk morality. frequency of use, specification, stylistic relevance and other features clarified in the process of application of these methods will hypothetically provide material for generalization and structuring of lexical-semantic groups of language explicators of bicentric concepts, which belong to the lexicalsemantic field of the conceptosphere of folk morality from a neuropsychological perspective. at present, it is not possible to structure the lexical and semantic field of the conceptosphere of folk morality, as this requires a number of other studies. 6. conclusions the current state of the humanities has led to the relevance of ethnolinguistic studies, which present the results of research on the reflection in the national consciousness of extralinguistic phenomena that form the basis for a holistic picture of the world and function as concepts. the latter are cultural, mental and linguistic phenomena that are integral mental-linguistic constructs, but can be studied for each of the components, including language. a concept is a fragment of the linguistic and mental space of a person or ethnic community, which reflects the contemplative and sensory experience of perception of objective reality, formed under the influence of historical and natural living conditions of the people, their faith, beliefs, ethnocultural traditions and expressed lexical, phraseological, syntactic units (including mini-texts), as well as at the subtext level. the linguistic picture of the world of a separate ethnic group is outlined by its ethnopsychological characteristics, traditionally imagined as the mental makeup of the nation, mentality, mentality, national character, and the like. the linguistic picture of the world of a separate ethnic group is outlined by its ethnopsychological characteristics, traditionally imagined as the mental makeup of the nation, mentality, mentality, national character, and the like. in our opinion, a deep, determinative factor is mentality as a phenomenon of the collective unconscious. mentality is a relatively historical broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 185 concept, but today it is already established and can be considered unchanged. mentality forms the mentality a set of qualities and characteristics of the people (nation). for ukrainians, the defining qualities that can be defined as those that determine the concepts of folk morality are emotionality, non-aggression, individualism. cognitive experience, which can be detected and analyzed in linguistic phenomena, is a verbalized (fixed to a two-sided linguistic unit) reflection of the sensory and rational experiences of an individual (group, society, ethnos) of a number of events, impressions, patterns, often find implementation in speech (idio , dialect, literary language, of which he speaks). folk morality as a set of internal norms that make up the structure of the personality, has common features within the ethnos. they are formulated in the definition, they can be taken as signs of the conceptosphere of folk morality and hypothetically as hidden hyposems of subtextual information (moral maxims are mostly hidden), defining the relevant associations, sentences, generalizations that can be described at the lexical level by semantic and etymological analysis (figurative use of the word, semantic shift), on syntactic analysis of the structure of expression, semantics and pragmatics of the text and subtext. references anusiewicz, j. (1988). kulturowa teoria jkzyka [cultural theory of language.]. in j. anusiewicza & j. bartmicskiego (eds.), zarys problematyki [outline of problems] (pp. 21-47). wrociaw apresyan, y. d. (1995). integral'noye opisaniye yazyka i sistemnaya leksikografiya [integral description of language and systemic lexicography]. languages of russian culture. arnold, m. b. (1984). memory and the brain. lawrence erlbaum associates. attix, d. k., & welsh-bohmer, k. a. (2006). geriatric neuropsychology: assessment and intervention. guilford publications. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-16543-000 babushkin, a. p. (1996). tipy kontseptov v leksiko-frazeologicheskoy semantike yazyka [types of concepts in the lexico-phraseological semantics of language]. voronezh state university publishing house. barabash, o. (2006). problematyka movnoyi kartyny svitu v pohlyadakh suchasnykh polʹsʹkykh linhvistiv [problems of language worldview in the views of modern polish linguists]. oaktualʹni problemy doslidzhennya hramatyky ta leksykolohiyi [actual problems of grammar and lexicology research]: materials of the international scientific-theoretical conference https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-16543-000 neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 186 (pp. 213-217). vinnytsia state pedagogical university named after mykhailo kotsyubynsky. bartminsky, e., & nebzhegovska, e. (1997). kognitivnoye opredileniye, profilirovaniye ponyatiy i sub"yektnaya interpritatsiya mira kognitivnaya lingvistika kontsa xx veka [cognitive definition, profiling of concepts and subjective interpretation of the world]. cognitive linguistics of the late twentieth century: materials of the international scientific conference, 4-8. minsk. beaumont, j .g. (1983). introduction to neuropsychology. blackwell science ltd. cabeza, r., & kingstone, a. (eds.) (2001). handbook of functional neuroimaging and cognition. mit press. chenki, a. (2002). semantika v kognitivnoy lingvistike [semantics in cognitive linguistics]. in a. a. kibrik, i. m. kobozeva and i. a. sekerina (eds.), sovremennaya amerikanskaya lingvistika: fundamental'nyye napravleniya [modern american linguistics: fundamental directions] (pp. 340-369). editorial. chernyshenko, i. (2006). etychni tsinnosti u kontseptosferi politychnoho dyskursu [ethical values in the sphere of concepts of political discourse]. semantics of language and text: materials of the ix international scientific-practical conference (pp. 288-291). ivano-frankivsk: publishing and design department of cit. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 donetskikh, l. i. (1980). realizatsiya esteticheskikh vozmozhnostey imen prilagatel'nykh v tekste khudozhestvennykh proizvedeniy [realization of the aesthetic possibilities of adjectives in the text of works of art]. shtiintsa. fillmore, ch. j. (1982). frame semantics. in the linguistic society of korea (ed.), linguistics in the morning calm (pp. 111-138). hanshin publishing co. http://brenocon.com/fillmore%201982_2up.pdf golubovska, i. o. (2004). paremiyi yak vidbyttya tsinnisnykh priorytetiv etnichnoyi spilʹnosti (na materiali ukrayinsʹkoyi, rosiysʹkoyi, anhliysʹkoyi ta kytaysʹkoyi mov) [paremias as a reflection of value priorities of ethnic community (on the material of ukrainian, russian, english and chinese languages)]. linguistics, 2/3, 66-74. gordienko-mitrofanova, i., silina, a., & kobzieva, i. (2018). рsycholinguistic meanings of the verbalized concept “holy fool” (based on the results of the psycholinguistic experiment). bulletin of khnpu named after gs skovoroda "psychology", 59, 18-34. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2527863 goroshko, e. i. (2003). yazykovoye soznaniye: gendernaya paradigma [language consciousness: gender paradigm]. "inzhek" publishing house. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 http://brenocon.com/fillmore%201982_2up.pdf https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2527863 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 187 hannay, h. j. (1986). experimental techniques in human neuropsychology. oxford university press. heilbronner, r. l. (2005). forensic neuropsychology casebook. the guilford press. humboldt, von w. (1985). yazyk i filosofiya kul'tury [language and philosophy of culture] (a. v. gulygin, g. v. ramiashvili, trans). progress. ivashchenko, v. l. (2008). semantyka mentalʹnosti kontseptu [semantics of concept mentality]. linguistics, 1, 37-43. karasik, v. i. (2004). yazykovoy krug: lichnost', kontsepty, diskurs [linguistic circle: personality, concepts, discourse]. gnizis. khomsky, n. (1972). yazyk i myshleniye [language and thinking] publishing house of moscow university. kirik, d. (2002). kontsept [concept]. in v.i. shinkaruk et al., philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. abris. klemantovich, i. p., & stepanov, v. g. (2015). neyropedagogika: predmet issledovaniya[neuropedagogy: the subject of research]. fundamental research, 2(11), 2464-2468. https://fundamentalresearch.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 kochergan, m. p. (2003). mova yak symvol sotsialʹnoyi solidarnosti [language as a symbol of social solidarity]. linguistics, 1, 3-11. kolshansky, g. v. (1990). ob"yektivnaya kartina mira v poznanii i yazyke [objective worldview in knowledge and language]. nauka. kondakov, n. i. (1975). logicheskiy slovar'-spravochnik [logical dictionary-reference book, 2nd ed]. nauka. koretsky, v. m. (1996). mala entsyklopediya etnoderzhavoznavstva [small encyclopedia of ethnostate studies]. national academy of sciences of ukraine institute of state and law named after v.m. koretsky. geneza. korsakova, n. k., & moskovichyute, l. i. (1988). klinichna neyropsykholohiya. [clinical neuropsychology]. moscow state university. http://psychology.univer.kharkov.ua/dist2020/materialy/zaikakn.pdf kosharnaya, s. a. (2002). mif i yazyk [myth and language]. belgorod. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kosmeda, t. a. (2000). aksiolohichni aspekty prahmalinhvistyky : formuvannya i rozvytok katehoriyi otsinky [axiological aspects of pragmalinguistics: formation and development of the category of evaluation]. publishing house of national university of lviv named after ivan franko. https://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 https://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 http://psychology.univer.kharkov.ua/dist2020/materialy/zaikakn.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 188 kubryakova, e. s. (1996). kratkiy slovar' kognitivnykh terminov [a short dictionary of cognitive terms]. moscow state university. kuznetsov, v. g. (1991). germenevtika i gumanitarnoye poznaniye [hermeneutics and humanitarian knowledge]. moscow. lakoff, j., & jonson, m. (1990). metafory, kotorymi my zhivem [the metaphors we live by]. progress likhachev, d. s. (1993). kontseptosfera russkogo yazyka [concept of the russian language]. bulletin of the russian academy of sciences. series of literature and languages, 51(1), 3-9. llinas, r. (2001). i of the vortex. mit press. lysychenko, l. a. (2004). struktura movnoyi kartyny svitu [the structure of the linguistic worldview]. linguistics, 5/6, 37-38. maslova, v. a. (2007). vvedeniye v kognitivnuyu lingvistiku [introduction to cognitive linguistics]. nauka. mccarthy, r. a., & warrington, e. k. (1990). cognitive neuropsychology: a clinical introduction. academic press. mekh, n. o. (2008). interpretatsiya kontseptiv slovo, mova v ukrayinsʹkiy kulʹturniy tradytsiyi [interpretation of concepts of word, language in the ukrainian cultural tradition: monograph]. pereyaslav-khmelnytsky. melnychuk, o. s. (ed.). (1974). dictionary of foreign words. ukrainian soviet encyclopedia. nakonechny, m. f. (1969). orfoepichni normy ta yikh znachennya. suchasna ukrayinsʹka literaturna mova. vstup. fonetyka [orthoepic norms and their meaning. modern ukrainian literary language. introduction. phonetics]. naukova dumka. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 ozadovska, n. p., & polishchuk. l.v. o. (2022). philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. abris. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 189 pimenova, m. v. (2004). dusha i dukh : osobennosti kontseptualizatsii [soul and spirit: features of conceptualization]. ipk "graphics". popova, z. d. (2002). ocherki po kognitivnoy lingvistike [essays on cognitive linguistics]. istoki. potebnya, a. a. (1993). mysl' i yazyk [thought and language]. scientific and production commercial firm “sinto”. prikhodko, a. m. (2008). kontsepty i kontseptosystemy v kohnityvno-dyskursyvniy paradyhmi linhvistyky [concepts and conceptual systems in the cognitive-discursive paradigm of linguistics: monograph]. premier. prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 selivanova, e. a. (2000). kognitivnaya onomasiologiya [cognitive onomasiology]. phytosociocenter. shalimov, v. (2003). klinika intelektualʹnykh porushenʹ [clinic of intellectual disorders]: textbook for pedagogical universities. academy. https://klex.ru/aie sirotyuk, a. l. (2003). neyropsykholohichne i psykhofiziolohichnyy suprovid navchannya [neuropsychological and psychophysiological support of training]. tc sphere. https://www.twirpx.com/file/144680/ skab, m. (2007). slovotvirni potentsiyi slova yak kontseptovyrazhalʹnyy zasib [word-forming potentials of the word as a conceptual means of expression]. bulletin of the precarpathian national university named after v. stefanyk, philology, (xv-xviii), 478-482. slyshkin, g. g. (1999). tekstovaya kontseptosfera i yeye yedinitsy. yazykovaya lichnost': aspekty lingvistiki i lingvodidaktiki [textual conceptual sphere and its units. linguistic personality]: aspects of linguistics and linguodidactics: a collection of scientific works (pp. 18-27). volgograd. http://window.edu.ru/catalog/pdf2txt/886/66886/39646?p_page=3 sokolovskaya, z. p. (1993). kartina mira v znacheniyakh slov – semanticheskiye fantazii ili «katekhizis semantiki»? [worldview in the meanings of words semantic fantasies or "catechism of semantics"? ]. tavria. solso, r. (2006). kognitivnaya psikhologiya [ cognitive psychology, 6th ed.) series “masters of psychology”. peter. http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/solso=cognitive_psychology-6.ru.pdf stepanov, y. s. (2004). konstanty: slovar' russkoy kul'tury [constants: dictionary of russian culture, 3rd ed., revised and supplemented]. academic project. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://klex.ru/aie https://www.twirpx.com/file/144680/ http://window.edu.ru/catalog/pdf2txt/886/66886/39646?p_page=3 http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/solso=cognitive_psychology-6.ru.pdf neuropsychological approach in the study of linguistic phenomena in the... nadiia skrypnyk et al. 190 stern, i. b. (1998). vybrani topiky ta leksykon suchasnoyi linhvistyky. entsyklopedychnyy slovnyk dlya fakhivtsiv z teoretychnykh humanitarnykh dystsyplin ta humanitarnoyi informatyky [selected topics and lexicon of modern linguistics. encyclopedic dictionary for specialists in theoretical humanities and humanities informatics]. artek. tarter, r. e., van thiel, d. h.m & edwards, k .l. (1988). medical neuropsychology: the impact of disease on behavior. plenum press. tokarski, r. (1993). siownictwo jako interpretacja wiata encyklopedia kultury polskiej xx wieke [siography as an interpretation of the world encyclopedia of polish culture of the 20th century] (pp. 335-362). wrociaw. uzhchenko, v. d. (2002). frazeotvorchi kontsepty v zahalʹnomovniy ta arealʹniy (skhidnoukrayinsʹkiy) idiomatytsi [phrase-creating concepts in general and areal (eastern ukrainian) idiomatics ]. linhvistychni doslidzhennya [ linguistic researches]: collection of scientific works], 10, 41-49. kharkiv state pedagogical university. vezhbitskaya, a. (1997). yazyk. kul'tura. poznaniye [language. culture. cognition]. russian dictionaries. vilchynska, t. p. (2008). kontseptualizatsiya sakralʹnoho v ukrayinsʹkiy poetychniy movi xvii – xviii st. [conceptualization of the sacred in the ukrainian poetic language of the xvii xviii centuries]. dzhura. vygotsky, l. s. (1996). myshleniye i rech' : psikholingvisticheskiye issledovaniya [thinking and speech: psycholinguistic research]. labyrint. weisgerber, j. l. (1993). yazyk i filosofiya [language and philosophy]. questions of linguistics, 2, 114-125. yakovleva, e. s. (1994). fragmenty russkoy yazykovoy kartiny mira [fragments of the russian linguistic worldview]. questions of linguistics, 5, 73-89. yefimenko, o. e. (2005). kontsept «step» v ukrayinsʹkiy movi: slovnykova, tekstova i psykholinhvistychna paradyhma [the concept of “steppe” in the ukrainian language: dictionary, text and psycholinguistic paradigm] [dissertation abstract for the degree of candidate of philological sciences; kharkiv national pedagogical university named after h. s. skovoroda]. zhayvoronok, v. v. (2004). etnolinhvistyka v koli sumizhnykh nauk [ethnolinguistics in the circle of allied sciences]. linguistics, 5/6, 23-35. zheleznyak, n. m. (2001). naukovo-publitsystychnyy dyskurs pro osoblyvosti natsionalʹnoho kharakteru (kontsept volelyubnistʹ) [scientific and journalistic discourse on the peculiarities of the national character (the concept of freedom)]. bulletin of kharkiv university, 520(33), 286-289. zhinkin, n. i. (1998). yazyk – rech' – tvorchestvo: issledovaniya po semiotike, psikholingvistike, poetike [language speech creativity: studies in semiotics, psycholinguistics, poetics. labyrint. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev the respiratory impedance in an asymmetric model of the lung structure clara ionescu, ionut muntean and robin de keyser abstract this paper presents a model of the respiratory tree as a recurrent, but asymmetric, structure. the intrinsic properties posed by such a system lead to a multi-fractal structure, i.e. a non-integer order model of the total impedance. the fractional order behavior of the asymmetric tree simulated as a dynamic system is assessed by means of bode plots, on a wide range of frequencies. the results indicate than in a specific frequency range, both the symmetric and asymmetric representation of the respiratory tree lead to similar values in the impedance. keywords: fractals, respiratory tree, non-integer order systems, impedance, self-organizing 2000 mathematics subject classification: 92b05, 93a30, 26a33. 101 ionescu et al. the respiratory impedance in an asymmetric model of the lung structure 1. introduction in his recent publication, weibel discusses the reduction of diameter and length by a constant factor with respect to both blood vessels and airways [1]. he recognizes the theoretical contributions of murray [2], i.e. that the dissipation of energy due to flow of blood or air in a branched tube system can be minimized if the diameter of the two daughter-branches are related to the diameter of the parent as in d3parent = d 3 1 + d 3 2 [3]. in the context of fractal geometry, the reduction factor depends on the fractal dimension f d of the branching tree such that the correct formula is: d1 = dparent · 2−1/f d. for example, in the circulatory system, the murray law gives f d = 3 because the tree is considered to be space-filling [4]. in this contribution, we investigate the frequency response of the respiratory system in terms of its equivalent electrical impedance, using an asymmetric and a symmetric tree structure. the comparison between the two responses will indicate whether or not the asymmetry is significant or not in modelling the respiratory impedance. 2.proposal in his investigations, weibel found that the slope of the conducting airway diameters against the generations was given by d(m) = d0 · 2−m/3, with d0 the tracheal diameter and m the airway generation. he then concludes that the conducting airways of the human lung are designed as a self-similar and spacefilling fractal tree, with a homothety factor of 2−1/3 = 0.79 (similitude ratio). however, this averaged value has a significant variance in the first generations [5]. hence, the average value changes in the diffusion zone (airways from 14th generation onward). these observations and the fact that weibel himself discusses that a small change in the homothety factor results in a dramatic increase in peripheral bronchiolar resistance, suggests that the lung must be capable to adjust itself to the optimality conditions. indeed, a closer analysis reveals that the homothety factor is about 0.79 in the 6th generation, but it increases slowly to about 0.9 in the 16th generation, with an average of 0.85 for the small airways [1]. the physiological implications of this observation are [3]: • the flow resistance decreases in the small airways and 102 ionescu et al. the respiratory impedance in an asymmetric model of the lung structure • a small reduction in the homothety factor does not affect significantly the lung function. in the context of the above observations, we explore the approach of modelling the respiratory system as a multi-fractal structure. a self-similar multi-fractal spatial distribution forms the basis for breaking the symmetry of bifurcation design within a tree. in his study, bennet discusses the implications of selfaffine scaling [3]. it turns out that the fractal dimension changes when viewed from different perspectives. therefore, the slope determining the homothety factor changes when viewed at a fine or coarse grained diameter scale. this latter observation is of interest in the context of this work, since it supports the idea of a multi-fractal structure. for example, the average of the radius ratio changes from 2−0.1713 = 0.8881 to 0.8923 when only the first 16 generations are taken into account, respectively to 0.8783 for the alveoli (generations 17-24) [5]. this implies that the homothety factor changes, depending on the spatial location within the tree. on the other hand, if we analyze the radius ratio from generations 1 to 24 in steps of 4, we obtain an average of 0.8535, whereas if we use steps of 2, we obtain an average homothety factor of 0.8623. these changes might not seem significant, but one should recall that they are originated by the symmetric geometry of the respiratory tree. however, when asymmetry is considered, one deals with several homothety factors, i.e. as schematically drawn in figure 1. we propose to investigate the case of asymmetric branching in the human lungs, i.e. the horsfield representation will be used [6]. in the asymmetric morphology, the respiratory tree consists of 35 dichotomous generations, whereas an airway of level m bifurcates into two daughters: one of order m + 1 and one of order m + 1 + ∆, with ∆ the asymmetry index. figure 3 shows the number of branches that are in one generation, for the symmetric and asymmetric lung structure. notice the different slope which characterizes the space-filling distribution. in the asymmetric case, the electrical network of figure 1 cannot be simplified [7], therefore one must calculate explicitly the impedance from level 36 to level 1. to avoid complex numerical formulations, the impedance along the longest path was calculated, as in [8]. from level 26 onward, the asymmetry index is zero, therefore symmetric bifurcation occurs. the effect of this change in the asymmetry index is visible in figure 3, i.e. a change in the slope. the initial values in the trachea are imposed similarly as in the symmetric case [9]. figure 2 shows the total impedance by means of its bode plot, for the 103 ionescu et al. the respiratory impedance in an asymmetric model of the lung structure figure 1: asymmetric representation for the first four generations, in its electrical equivalent figure 2: impedance by means of bode-plot representation, symmetric (continuous line) and the asymmetric (dashed line) tree. 104 ionescu et al. the respiratory impedance in an asymmetric model of the lung structure figure 3: number of branches for each generation, in the asymmetric (top) and symmetric (bottom) generation. notice that the y-axis is logarithmic. symmetric and the asymmetric tree, whereas the airway tubes are modelled by an r − l − c element in both representations. it is significant to observe that in the frequency interval of clinical interest, ω ∈ [25, 300] rad/s, the two impedances tend to behave similarly. for the asymmetric case, we have a decrease of about -10db/dec and a phase of approximately −50o, resulting in a fractional order of n ∼= 0.5. this observation suggests that a combined effect of more than one fractal order is present in the lungs and that it leads naturally to values closer to measured data in the low frequency range. in other words, the symmetric tree representation does not suffice to obtain a good fit between the model and the measured impedance data. another observation is that the constant-phase behavior is emphasized at frequencies below those evaluated standardly in clinical practice, i.e. below 5hz. however, in the standard clinical range of frequencies for the forced oscillation technique, namely 4-48hz, both symmetric and asymmetric tree models give similar results, as depicted in figure 4 and figure 5. 3.conclusions in this paper, it is observed that the asymmetric structure of the respiratory 105 ionescu et al. the respiratory impedance in an asymmetric model of the lung structure figure 4: the estimated impedance within the measured frequency range for the symmetric (*) and the asymmetric (o) case against averaged data from healthy subjects figure 5: the estimated impedance within the measured frequency range for the symmetric (*) and the asymmetric (o) case, polar plot representation. 106 ionescu et al. the respiratory impedance in an asymmetric model of the lung structure tree leads to an impedance exhibiting fractional-order behavior. the results indicate than in a specific frequency range, both the symmetric and asymmetric representation of the respiratory tree lead to similar values in the impedance. the following remarks can be summarized: i) the fractional order behavior is still present, although the symmetric fractal structure is no more fulfilled; and ii) the fractional order value is changing if the degree of asymmetry is changed (this observation is significant in diseased lungs). references [1] weibel e.r., ”mandelbrot’s fractals and the geometry of life: a tribute to benôit mandelbrot on his 80th birthday”, in fractals in biology and medicine, vol iv, eds: losa g., merlini d., nonnenmacher t., weibel e.r., berlin birkhaüser, (2005), 3-16. [2] murray c.d., ”the physiological principle of minimum work applied to the angle of branching arteries”, general physiology, 9, (1926), 835-841 [3] bennet s., eldridge m., puente c., riedi r., nelson t., goetzman b., milstein j., singhal s., horsfield k., woldenberg m., ”origin of fractal branching complexity in the lung”, source: www.stat.rice.edu/ riedi/ucdavishemoglobin/fractal3.pdf, (last accessed: 22 april 2009) [4] elzbieta g., rybaczuk m., kedzia a., ”fractal models of circulatory system. symmetrical and asymmetrical approach comparison”, chaos, solitons and fractals, 24, (2005), 707-715 [5] ionescu c., segers p., de keyser r., ”mechanical properties of the respiratory system derived from morphologic insight”, ieee trans biomed engineering, 56, 4, (2009), 978-987 [6] horsfield k., dart g., olson d., cumming g, ”models of the human bronchial tree”, j. appl. phyiol., 31, (1971), 207-217 [7] ionescu c., muntean i., machado j.t., de keyser r., abrudean m., ”a theoretical study on modelling the respiratory tract with ladder networks by means of intrinsic fractal geometry”, ieee trans biomed engineering, 57, 2, (2010), 246-253 [8] r. habib, r. chalker, b. suki, a. jackson, airway geometry and wall mechanical properties estimated from sub-glottal input impedance in humans, j. appl. physiol., 77(1), 441-451, (1994) [9] r. peslin, c. duvivier, p. jardin, upper airway walls impedance measured with head plethysmograph, j. appl. physiol. respiratory environ107 ionescu et al. the respiratory impedance in an asymmetric model of the lung structure mental exercise physiol, 57(2), 596-600, (1994) clara ionescu department of electrical energy, systems and automation, ghent university technologiepark 913, b-9052 gent, belgium email:claramihaela.ionescu@ugent.be ionut muntean department of automation, technical university of cluj-napoca c-tin daicoviciu nr. 15, 400020 cluj-napoca, romania email:ionut.muntean@aut.utcluj.ro robin de keyser department of electrical energy, systems and automation, ghent university technologiepark 913, b-9052 gent, belgium email:robain.dekeyser@ugent.be 108 microsoft word brain_2_4.doc 60 is activation a voluntary task? naeemeh kharaghani islamic azad university ,science and research branch ,tehran,iran naeemehkharaghani@gmail.com abstract in act r, activation is defined as the degree to which past experiences and current context indicate that chunk will be useful at any particular moment. to find whether activation is a voluntary task or not different views were discussed. it was found that the concept of voluntary should be discussed by taking automatic and controlled processing into consideration. finally it was mentioned that activation could be both voluntary and involuntary task .however its 'degrees vary depending on the type of process. keywords: activation, voluntary, automatic processing,controlled processing 1.what is activation? the act-r is not only a theory that addresses knowledge acquisition. it has also developed to explain the question of how people select the appropriate knowledge in a particular context (anderson,1993).using the rational analysis, the act-r theory claim that the mind determines what knowledge is available according to its new situation of being used in a particular context . in the modern view towards act r theory, anderson (2002) believes that the various modules in act-r can be directly related to the different parts of the brain where learning, reasoning and other higher order brain functions take place. brain scans were used to support this interpretation. in act-r the knowledge in the declarative memory, i.e., facts and goals, is represented in terms of chunks (anderson& lebiere, 1998). meanwhile each declarative element in act-r also has associated with it an activation value. 2. equation liadal (2007) defines activation as follows:" every chunk in act-r has associated with it a numerical value called its activation. the activation reflects the degree to which past experiences and current context indicate that chunk will be useful at any particular moment" (p.10). the activation can be summarized in the following equation: activation-level = base-level + contextual priming (liadal,2007,p.10) 3. is activation a voluntary task? conventionally, voluntary conscious acts and automatic behavior have been considered to be mediated by separate processes—and by separate brain structures. (husain&sumner, 2008 cited in boy et al ,2010). matthews (2000) believes that the notion of activation as a voluntary task is related to the concept of automaticity. he mentions "automaticity is like a continuum. such and idea is consistent with activation –based account of automaticity ,which considers the control of processing as both influenced by stimulus driven and voluntarily controlled activation "(p.121). halligan &wade (2005) believes that the significant feature of controlled processing is attention. therefore they believe that dealing with limited amount of information is voluntary and is subject to inference from other tasks. on the other hand, automatic processing does not require attention. it is involuntarily and is not limited in the capacity or open to inferences they refer to norman & shallice model (1986 as cited in halligan &wade,2005) .this model says "how attentive and pre attentive processes are controlled in both automatic and voluntary purposeful behavior. stimulus enters perceptual processing mechanism and activates knowledge structure or schema stored in long term memory. the schema mostly activated by the incoming information takes the n. kharaghani – is activation a voluntary task? 61 control of an action. schema activation and selection proceeds without any conscious control by voluntary attention and is controlled by an automatic system (ibid, p.62). in this regard, as umiltà&moscovitch (1994) believe, automatic may have different interpretations. it may refer to the processes in which schema selection involves so little activation. on the other hand; they suggest that it would be a continuum of activation value and activation selection can occur on that. this is similar to the idea that automatic and controlled relation is a continuum rather than a dichotomy. therefore, the link between a process being controlled and its being voluntary is also less clear (p.402). clark et al (1999) considers that cognitive theory doesn't claim that all cognitive processing or schema activation is under conscious voluntary control. on the contrary activation may be automatic, outside awareness and so non-conscious (p.101). in this regard, parkinson et al (2009 cited in boy et al 2010) examined brain activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri) during the involuntary movement and during a matched voluntary movement. they found that during involuntary movement, there was widespread activation of the cerebral cortex. in fact, different parts of brain are involved in both voluntary and involuntary movement displaying clear activation differences between conditions (mace, 2010). later they found some similarities in the brain areas activated under both movement conditions namely in the left hemisphere. 4.conclusion to answer the question: is activation a voluntary task? we can say that not always .activation can be automatic, outside awareness and so non-conscious. activation is a process and it is believed that it could be voluntary and involuntary task but its degrees vary depending on the type of process (kennedy, trafton, 2007). references [1] anderson,j.r.(1993).rules of the mind. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. [2] anderson,j.r.(2002).spanning seven orders of magnitude: a challenge for cognitive modeling. cognitive science. retrieved january 4, 2011, from: http://actr.psy.cmu.edu/papers/101/s15516709cog2601_3.pdf. [3] anderson,j.r.,& lebiere,c.(1998).the atomic components of thought. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum . [4] boy,f. ,husain,m.,&sumner,p.(2010). unconscious inhibition separates two forms of cognitive control. pans, 24, 1134-1139. [5] clark, d., beck, a., &alford, b. (1999).cognitive theory and theory of deression toronto: john wiley. [6] halligan,p., &wade,d.t.(2005).the effectiveness of rehabilitation for cognitive deficits. oxford: oxford university press. [7] kennedy,w.g.,&trafton,j.g.(2007).long-term symbolic learning. cognitive systems research. retrieved january 4, 2011, from: ww.elsevier .com/locate/cogsys. [8] liadal, t. (2007).act-r: a cognitive architecture .cognitive science. retrieved january 2, 2011, from: www.dfki.de/kipp/seminar_ws0607/reports/actr.pdf.. [9] mace,j.h.(2010).the act of remembering: toward an understanding of how we recall the past oxford: blackwell. [10] matthews,g.(2000). human performance, cognition, stress and individual differences. london: psychology press. [11] umiltà,c., &moscovitch,m.(1994).attention and performance xv: conscious international association for and nonconscious information processing. new york :the study of attention and performance. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 81-103 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/377 submitted: may 27th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal fears and anxiety oleh khmiliar 1 , rostyslav khmiliar 2 , iryna koval 3 , oleksandr savchuk 4 , alla dushka 5 , oksana bolotova 6 , ihor popovych 7 1 doctor of psychological sciences, full professor, head of the department of social sciences, national defense university of ukraine named after ivan chernyakhovsky, kyiv, ukraine, hmilar@ukr.net 2 cadet, national academy of land forces named after hetman petro sagaidachny, lviv, ukraine, dynamorostik@ukr.net 3 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, department of medical psychology, psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy, bogomolets national medical university, kyiv, ukraine, dgspsychology9@gmail.com 4 candidate of psychological sciences, senior lecturer, department of philosophy, ivan kozhedub kharkiv national university of air force, kharkiv, ukraine, savchuk.project@gmail.com 5 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, leading researcher of the department of psychological and pedagogical support of children with special needs, mykola yarmachenko institute of special pedagogy and abstract: the purpose of this study is to reveal the features of psychomotor training of a sapper, the development of the necessary sensory-intuitive skills to regulate their actions and deeds while performing tasks in the minefield. material and methods. three series of psychological experiments were conducted. the importance of psychomotor training in the context of reducing the level of anxiety and personal fears of sappers was revealed. the research was integrated into the process of training in the discipline “blasting”. the study did not change the structure of the discipline, as it was only related to the content. the collected and analyzed data were used for the quantitative method. results. it was determined that the most talented servicemen, with welldeveloped coordination of movements, mental stability, ability to regulate personal fears, make quick decisions, work alone for a long time, stay calm in tense situations, should be involved in the sappers’ activities. conclusions. our psychological training “minefield” promotes the development of professionally necessary qualities among military sappers, provides the development of psychomotor and sensory-intuitive skills to regulate movements and actions during combat missions. improves constructive attitudes in the unit of sappers, friendliness, reflexive listening, kindness, leadership and patience. keywords: psychomotor skills; resilience; minefield; fear; anxiety; psychological training. how to cite: khmiliar, o., khmiliar, r., koval, i., savchuk, o., dushka, a., bolotova, o., & popovych, i. (2022). psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal fears and anxiety. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 81-103. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/377 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/377 mailto:hmilar@ukr.net mailto:dynamorostik@ukr.net mailto:dgspsychology9@gmail.com mailto:savchuk.project@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/377 psychology of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, a0509999100@gmail.com 6 post-graduate student, department differential and special psychology, odesa i. i. mechnikov national university, odesa, ukraine, obolotova@ukr.net 7 doctor of psychological sciences, full professor, department of psychology, kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, ihorpopovych999@gmail.com mailto:a0509999100@gmail.com mailto:obolotova@ukr.net mailto:ihorpopovych999@gmail.com broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 83 1. introduction sappers often say, that “the sapper makes a mistake twice”: the first time is when he chooses a profession, the second time is when he demines or disposes of the ammunition. not questioning the above-mentioned statement, we should note that not everyone can professionally cope with the difficult and dangerous work of a sapper. let us even make our own assumptions: “a sapper does not make a mistake, he has no right to do that, otherwise he is not worthy to bear the proud name of a sapper” (stasiuk et al., 2009). during the hostilities, the profession of a sapper became a vital necessity. sappers start and end the war. they spend decades eliminating the consequences of the war (okipnyak et al., 2016). nowadays it is impossible to imagine a victory in a battle without a sapper’s contribution. in the future, the need for professionally trained sappers will only increase. over the past six years, about a thousand servicemen and civilians have been injured due to the landmines in the donbas region. about 200 of them were killed. according to un humanitarian coordinator neil walker, ukraine ranks third in the world in terms of contamination of the territory with explosive devices and first in the number of people killed by them. our country inherited minefields and shells from two world wars, the activities of the ussr army, as well as a result of hostilities in the donbas region. besides, the administrative border between the annexed crimea and the territory of ukraine is mined. experts say that after the end of hostilities in donbas, it will take decades to clear ukrainian land of mines (okipnyak et al., 2016). according to experts’ estimates of the ministry of defense of ukraine, 7.000 square kilometers are contaminated with explosives in the territories controlled by ukraine. these lands are home to 1.5 million people. another 15 thousand square kilometers that have mines are in the uncontrolled area. an analytical review of recent research and publications shows that the main task of a sapper is to properly conduct combat operations of a defensive or offensive nature (okipnyak et al., 2016; schneck, 1998). historically, it is believed that sappers serve in engineering troops. in the course of hostilities, they are responsible for digging trenches, building their own fortifications on the confrontation line, providing crossings over water obstacles, disposition of ammunition (blank et al., 2014; khmiliar & nedviha, 2018). the issue of psychomotor training of sappers is not properly developed yet in modern military psychological science. currently, there are no significant scientific developments that would comprehensively reveal the problem of psychomotor development of a sapper and serve as a theoretical psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal ... oleh khmiliar et al. 84 and methodological basis for its practical organization. however, the role of psychomotor skills in the sapper’s profession is undeniable. in some countries, the psychomotor development of a sapper is carefully monitored, and in the armed forces of france, croatia, ghana, cuba, for example, the group of psychological services of the military type includes a psychomotor specialist (khmiliar, 2019; sopa & pomohaci, 2019; tofan, 2018). psychomotor skills are an integral part of the harmonious development of a sapper. this profession requires not only careful professional training, but also a specific character, internal self-control. among the range of professionally important qualities of a sapper the following should be distinguished: organizational skills, courage, strictness, sociability, friendliness, critical attitude to themselves and their activities. analytical intelligence, responsibility, excellent hand motor skills, coordination of movements and actions, punctuality, accuracy, intuitiveness, high endurance and stress resistance, developed anticipation, ability to adequately assess the situation in the minefield are important for the servicemen of engineering and sapper units. the sapper must be able to: make quick decisions, work alone for a long time, stay calm and coordinated even in the most stressful situations (khmiliar & nedviha, 2018). in this context, it should be noted, that having lost his sense of fear, the sapper must leave his professional activity. according to the world health organization, one person dies every 20 minutes as a result of mines, streamers and shells. when disposing of explosive devices, each sapper must know the structure, principle of operation, frequent faults of more than 700 types of mines, as well as the main types of ammunition used in different many armies around the world. during the demining of the territory of yugoslavia, sapper dealt with the socalled ammunition of the british mk1 and the american blu 97b / b and a / b. these types of explosives, compared to the standard mines, are quite dangerous because the detonator used in their design can generate electricity and detonate even after it remains for a long time in the ground. during the afghan war, sappers neutralized the soviet-made antitank mines (tm-46), italian (ts-2.5 and ts-6.1), american (m-19), british (mark 7) and belgian (h55 and m3). among the antipersonnel mines, the sappers mainly neutralized soviet mines (pmn, pomz-2), as well as italian (ts-50), american (m18a1) and british (p5 mk1) (sloan, 1986). in the process of demining, sappers use a special suitcase that suppresses radio waves in the demining area. then, protecting himself with a shield, the sapper, with the help of a special “mechanical hand” moves the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 85 explosive into an armored container. even if a landmine explodes in an armored tank, there will be no negative consequences for the sapper. during a combat mission, a sapper works in the special equipment, which is designed to protect him from possible explosions. the set of a special sapper suit, that weights about 16 kg, includes a protective jacket and pants, a helmet with armored glass, mine boots, kevlar gloves, knee pads, as well as additional armor panels designed to protect the most vulnerable parts of his body. an important feature of this suit is that it can be quickly removed in case of an emergency. two systems are built into the sapper’s suit: 1) voice communication; 2) climate control. autonomous power supplies, which are also built into the suit, are designed for 8 hours of continuous operation. as a sapper works in any weather and at any time of the day, a powerful lantern is installed on the helmet, in addition to the remote control module. in addition to the suit, special shoes “spider boots” protect the sapper from an explosion. when attached to shoes, they reduce the possibility of touching a mine, and also create a certain gap between an explosive device and a shoe, thereby reducing the degree of damage. when demining sand or soft ground, a sapper uses special attachments in addition to “spider shoes”. in the process of demining, the sapper must be able to use different trench tools (saw, sapper blade, plastic knife, sapper probe) (blank et al., 2014; strutynsky et al., 2019). by setting a mine, a sapper thus begins a covert hunt for the enemy. a mine means death that is delayed in time. ernest heminguel noted: “nothing can be compared to a hunt for a man. he, who explored and started to love this activity, no longer pays attention to anything else” (hemingway, 1974, p. 347). a sapper is fundamentally different from a beast hunter. the victim in this case can also threaten the sapper. this profession is not about getting food or becoming an athlete. the result is the physical destruction of an enemy. even though a sapper is required to be courageous to fight alone, to be alone for a long time with his thoughts, fears and doubts, the very presence in the minefield of can lead to a “mine syndrome”. out of its three types, only one is positive – “a sense of mastery of space”, “victory over space”. this feeling arises after demining a dangerous area and it is to some extent useful for a sapper, because it invigorates, makes a sapper “mature”, frees him from the fear that at first restrained his actions. two other results of a “mine syndrome” – “speed” when driving the armored personnel carrier on the road with mined roadsides, and “a sense of elevation above the ground” – have a destructive effect on the behavior of the sapper. psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal ... oleh khmiliar et al. 86 having decided to become a sapper, a serviceman must realize that he is an unusual soldier. by analyzing more than a hundred sappers by the method “motivation to avoid failure”, we have repeatedly been convinced that each one is highly motivated to avoid failure. his courage and his behavior as a whole, are always ambivalent. by demining an area, a sapper must minimize the risk, detect and neutralize the most insidious mines set by the enemy. at the same time, when setting a mine, a sapper is obliged to outsmart the enemy. thus, the sapper saves his life and the lives of his colleagues. it should be borne in mind that explosive devices installed by the enemy have become quite insidious. if earlier sappers, usually looked for them under feet, in donbas the fighters began to place them at the head level. such an improvised explosive device may consist, for example, of an rgd-5 grenade with fishing hooks. if you touch one of these hooks, the grenade will explode at face level, leaving no chance for a person to survive. according to the sappers, special attention should be paid to the urban territories, where ukrainian sappers have repeatedly discovered such “inventions”. sappers do not advise to touch the abandoned weapons, ammunition, equipment, valuables, books, toys, packs of cigarettes and other objects lying on the ground. the sapper should not feel hatred towards an enemy. he treats it as “a prey that fell into his net”. the military analyst david reed addressed the servicemen in this regard: “when deciding to become a sapper, you have to ask yourself, do i have the fiery temperament? how often do i get nervous? after all, anger increases the heart rate, which often causes irrational behavior. this is the worst thing that can happen to a sapper.” thus, the activity of a sapper requires well-developed professionally important qualities, which are the key to his professional suitability. despite attempts by the world community to ban the use of mines, they continue to be dangerous weapons. mines are cheap to manufacture, they are easy to install, they significantly reduce the speed of modern mechanized armies. therefore, the armed forces must constantly teach sappers techniques and methods of how to deal with mines. hypothesis. we assume that the formative strategy of sapper psychomotor training will greatly minimize personal fears and anxiety. purpose of the article is to reveal the features of psychomotor training of a sapper, development of the necessary sensory-intuitive skills to regulate their actions in the minefield. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 87 2. materials and methods methodology the implementation of the basic principles of human psychomotor activity in the research methodology of psychomotor training of military sappers will lead to a considerable reduction in personal fears and levels of anxiety (klimenko, 1997), psychophysiological mechanisms of human praxis (klimenko, 2013), spatial self-regulation (khmiliar et al., 2020), sensorimotor activity patterns (plokhikh, 2021; plokhikh et al., 2021), anticipatory and prognostic patterns of individual response (nosov et al., 2020c; popovych et al., 2020a; 2021a; 2021b; zinchenko et al., 2019). since the participants in the formative strategy of the study were second-year cadets of the national academy of land forces named after hetman petro sagaidachny, then we considered the findings of empirical studies on youth development patterns (kononenko et al., 2020; popovych et al., 2021c), features of the educational process (hudimova, 2021; hudimova, et al., 2021), anxiety (popovych et al., 2020b), stressful situations of respondents (shevchenko et al., 2020a; 2020b), extreme situations and features of load transfer, bordering on human capabilities (nosov et al., 2020a; 2020b; zinchenko et al., 2020; 2022). the analyzed research were essential for developing the study’s formulation strategy. participants given the specifics of the study, the group was recruited on the basis of voluntary participation in a psychological experiment. the group of participants consisted of second-year cadets of the national academy of land forces named after hetman petro sagaidachny, who are healthy and systematically work to improve their psychomotor development. the research was integrated in the process of training in the discipline “blasting”, without changing its structure, as it was only related to the content of the discipline. a total of 54 cadets, future sappers of the armed forces of ukraine, aged 18-20, were involved in the study. procedure in order to realize the purpose of the research, the psychological experiment was conducted on the basis of the international center for peacekeeping and security of the national academy of land forces named after hetman petro sagaidachny. it lasted for four weeks and consisted of three series. in the first series the psychological factors that influence the psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal ... oleh khmiliar et al. 88 effectiveness of combat tasks performed by sappers were defined. with the help of the developed and tested questionnaire “fears of a sapper”, the most common sources of personal fears of sappers were determined. the processing of the questionnaire’s results included: 1) determining the frequency of sappers’ personal fears, taking into account the ranking of their sources; 2) factor analysis of the obtained data to identify the degree of relatedness between individual sources of personal and individual psychological characteristics of sappers, anxiety and accentuations of character in particular. when performing a combat mission, the sapper requires extraordinary concentration (howell & buro, 2011). each mine tells the story of its “author”, and even the smallest detail characterizes the sapper as a specialist (blank et al., 2014). therefore, in the second series of psychological experiments with military sappers a psychological training “minefield” was conducted, which aimed at the development of the necessary psychomotor and sensory-intuitive skills to regulate the actions and deeds during combat missions. in the middle of the training ground, a corridor was outlined, 1– 1.5 meters wide and 5–7 meters long. throughout the whole corridor different “mines” were placed. this could be real mines, matchboxes, pens, mobile phones, watches, cones and other tools. depending on the game tasks and the specific situation, 10-20 pieces of “mines” were placed equidistantly, so that a sapper’s foot could fit between them. 19 variants of the training game “minefield” have been developed. in each case, the inversion was based on modifying the object used as a “mine”, which, accordingly, changed the results of the “explosions”. before the training, one of the sappers was blindfolded. the other participants had to guide him correctly along the “mined” corridor. in this case, the sapper should not step on mines, as this will lead to “death” and negative results for the group. the other players should give a sapper the right tips, without entering the territory of the minefield and without touching the sapper. during the training, the correctness of the game tasks was monitored and the number of errors was recorded. several variants of the game were used: 1) in case the sapper stepped on a mine and “died”, he dropped out of the game; if two groups competed, the winner was the one in which the smallest number of sappers “died”; 2) any case of “detonation” testified that not only the sapper, who stepped on a mine, returned to the starting position, but also all those players who had already successfully passed the minefield; 3) the players themselves could decide who was considered “dead” and who could be “resurrected”; 4) after passing a minefield, the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 89 mines’ places were changed. the success depended on the player’s speed on the minefield, the number of dead, the interaction between the sappers, the originality of the methods of passing the minefield. the main goal of the “minefield” training was to develop constructive relationships within the group, mutual understanding, attention to each other, reflexive listening, friendliness, leadership and patience. the training game developed the vestibular apparatus, coordination of movements, orientation in space, mental stability and ingenuity. in order to analyze the training games, we will outline some of them. in the game “strange mines” personal belongings of sappers were used as mines (watches, military tickets, mobile phones), which made the game interesting and fun. the course of the training was recorded on camera and then shown to the sapper to interpret his actions. in some places, squeak toys were used as mines. their loud squeak signaled an “explosion”, which made the game more extreme. in the game “name mines” the names of all participants of the training were put on paper “mine-cards”. the cards were put with signatures at the top so that everyone could see whose name was written. when a sapper stepped on a mine, the player whose name was written on the card “died” or performed a creative task. lighted candles were used as mines in the game “ignition mines”. the sapper could either wear shoes or be barefoot. that depended on his level of preparation, self-confidence. the game took into account security measures. in the game “suspended minefield” mines were attached to the ceiling threads with tied weights hanging at different distances from the floor. the sapper, passing the “minefield” had to be careful not only not to step on the mines, but also not to touch them. in the game “mine labyrinth” the group of sappers had to carry a bottle of water through the labyrinth, which was placed on a round surface. threads were tied to the edges of the labyrinth. in order to successfully perform the task, each sapper had to coordinate his movements and actions with other participants. this version of the game developed the vestibular apparatus and psychomotor coordination of movements. statistical analysis statistical processing of the obtained data was conducted using the package “statistica 8.0” (statsoft, usa) and spreadsheets “microsoft office excel 2010” (usa), which enabled the analysis of measurements and calculation of baseline values. in the process of mathematical processing of psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal ... oleh khmiliar et al. 90 the obtained data, the method of average values and the sampling method were used, which made it possible to obtain the arithmetic mean value; standard deviation; representativeness error; coefficient of variation. the conformity of the sample to the law of normal distribution was checked on the basis of the shapiro-wilk test. in the process of analysis of statistically significant differences between the samples, the level of reliability p = 95.0% was set (the significance level p <.05 was considered significant). 3. results and discussion during the psychomotor training of sappers, close attention was paid to the issue of fear regulation. lieutenant-general of the engineering troops d. karbyshev considered fear as an indispensable companion of the sapper’s activity, a regulator of his behavior during demining. there is not a single sapper who does not feel fear while demining and neutralizing explosive devices. fear is the sapper’s guard, who tells him what is possible and what is not. to a large extent, a sapper remains alive due to being afraid. “you should be able to restrain fear, learn to control it, by not allowing it to control you”, said d. karbyshev addressing the sappers during world war ii (nedviga, 2019). interpretation of empirical data was preceded by verification of the hypothesis of the existence of a relationship between the two classifications, i. e. the existence of interdependence between the sources of personal fears and the professional activities of sappers (conroy et al., 2007). the hypothesis was tested using the criterion χ². the null hypothesis was that there was no connection between the professional activities of the sappers, the basic characteristics and the sources of personal fears. the value of χ² with f degrees of freedom was determined by the formula:  2 2 11 1          n f f f ij i jj k i l , when   f l k  1 1 , where f – degree of freedom; l – number of sources of personal fears; k – the number of basic psychological measurements. the obtained value of χ² was compared with the critical one. since   2 0 99 54 2  , ( ;63,88 2  0 99 54 2 81 1 , ,  ), the null hypothesis about the independence of classifications was rejected at the level of 0.01 ( = 0.01), broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 91 i. e. the studied classifications are dependent. thus, it is obvious that there is a strong positive relationship between the identified sources of personal fears of sappers and their professional activities. since all identified fears of sappers (except social ones) are forms of the fear of death, we conducted a preliminary study of the interdependence of fears “of death” and “of disability” as the dominant fears of sappers (tabl. 1). table 1. correlation between the manifestation of fears “of death” and “of disability” with the professional activity of servicemen-sappers (%) research subjects sources of personal fears sappers fear of death fear of disability 75.6 98.5 source: personal elaboration, 2021. as we can see, the fear “of disability” (98.5) clearly outweighs the fear “of death” (75.6). this idea is confirmed in the sappers’ statements, “better at once than to suffer all my life”, and is also reflected in the sappers’ feelings of pity towards his relatives, who will need to take care of a disabled soldier for the rest of his life. in order to identify the internal structural relationships between the personal fears of sappers, we conducted a factor analysis of the obtained empirical data. when interpreting the selected factors, their element-byelement factor load was taken into account (>.600). conclusions that the obtained indicators are confirmed in more than 65% of cases were taken at the level of significance of .05 and .001. factor analysis of the sappers’ fears made it possible to identify 10 main factors that explain 72.03% of the total variance. the first is a “disability” factor (10.85%), which is determined by fears: “to become disabled” (0.94), “to get seriously injured” (.90). the second is the “death” factor (9.46%). it included fears: “death of comrades during demining” (.92), “fear of death” (.88), “death of the sappers of other engineering units” (.76). the third is the “minefield” factor (8.87%), that included the following fears: “explosion on a mine” (.84), “demining of improvised explosive devices” (.82), “mine of the unknown production” ( .78), “fear of performing mine reconnaissance with a probe” (.76), “fear of the minefield” (.76), “controlled minefields” (.78). the fourth is the “anxiety” factor (8.12%), which consisted of the following fears: “making a mistake in detecting explosive objects” (.68), “failure to cope with the combat mission” (.64), psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal ... oleh khmiliar et al. 92 “uncertainty in the reliability of mine search equipment” (.58), “wrong decisions” (.57), “explicit feelings of anxiety before demining” (.65), “a mistake in marking the mined areas” (.72). the fifth is the “social factor” (7.34%), that included fears: “commander’s condemnation of sapper’s indecisiveness during demining” (.82), “problems in relations with commanders and colleagues” (.61), “unpleasant news from home” (.51). the sixth is the “explosion factor” (6.73%), that combines fears of “putting an explosive substance (tnt) on a mine with an equipped means of detonation” (.87), “neutralization of aircraft bombs” (.78), “transfer (transportation) of mines to places of detonation” (.65). the seventh is the “tension” factor (5.84%), that included the following fears: “performing a combat mission independently (individual demining)” (.75), “demining work in a confined space” (.63), “the need to pass the demining route first” (.63), “hand tremor during demining” (.50). the eighth is the “psycho-traumatic factor” (5.67%), which is determined by fears of “mental trauma” (.72), “severe infectious disease” (.54), “dead people” (.50). the ninth is the “sharp intense impacts” factor (4.86%), that combined fears of “unexpected sharp sounds from a minesweeper” (.71), “blasting of a search dog on a mine” (.53). the tenth factor is determined by a separate fear (4.29%) of “climatic and geographical conditions” (.68). based on the results of an empirical study of the relationship between the sources of sappers’ personal fears and their individualtypological characteristics, in particular the anxiety level, we obtained the following results (tabl. 2). table 2. the relationship between groups of sappers’ personal fears and anxiety levels (%) groups of fears anxiety levels high middle low fear of disability 70.47 14.51 15.02 fear of death 24.78 59.68 15.54 fear of the minefield 41.07 48.15 10.78 social fears 26.21 36.76 37.03 fear of explosion 46.09 3.63 50.28 psycho-traumatic fear 16.79 55.93 27.28 fear of tension 37.84 56.11 6.05 fears of sharp intense impacts 20.62 45.30 34.08 fear of climatic and geographical conditions 32.39 18.33 49.28 source: personal elaboration, 2021. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 93 depending on the dominant anxiety level, personal fears are expressed differently among the sappers. fears of “becoming disabled” (70.47) are the most intense among sappers with a high anxiety level. the second place is taken by “fears of death” (59.68) and “fears of tension” (56.11), which prevail among sappers with a medium anxiety level. “psychotraumatic fears” (55.93), “minefield fears” (48.15) and “fears of sharp intense impacts” (45.30) are quite significant for sappers with an average anxiety level. the third place is shared by “fears of explosion” (50.28) and “fear of climatic and geographical conditions” (49.28), which are most pronounced among the sappers with low levels of anxiety. the “social fears” of the sappers were evenly distributed among the three levels of anxiety (26.21; 36.76; 37.03). “fears of explosion” (3.63) among sappers with an average level of anxiety were the least manifested. at the same time, this group of fears is quite significant for sappers with high and low levels of anxiety. the “fears of tension” is insignificant for sappers with a low level of anxiety (6.05). compared to the fears of “becoming disabled”, that are the most pronounced among the people with a high level of anxiety (70.47), this group of fears is less prevalent among sappers with a medium (14.51) and low (15.02) levels of anxiety, by 55.96 and 55.45 percent, respectively. the identified interdependence of groups of sappers’ fears and the anxiety levels make it possible to predict their behavior during demining and effectively involve them in combat missions (derakshan & eysenck, 2009; de vibe et al., 2012; dobkin et al., 20213). in the study, considerable attention was paid to establishing the dependence of the behavior of sappers under the influence of fear and dominant character accentuations. the leonhard-smishek method was used to identify character accentuation and it was first found out to what extent the dominance of a certain character accentuation is reflected in the process of demining. subsequently, the relationship between the sappers’ character accentuations and the sources of their personal fears was established (tabl. 3). table. 3. types of accentuations of sappers involved in combat missions type of accentuation amount of detected accentuation % level of the demining performance hypertensive 34.4 high distim 6.8 low cycloid 9.2 middle excitable 5.8 low psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal ... oleh khmiliar et al. 94 stuck 3.9 low pedantic 19.8 middle anxious 6.2 low emotive 4.3 middle demonstrative 5.1 high exalted 4.5 middle source: personal elaboration, 2021. the study made it possible to establish the presence of accentuation among 57.6% of people. the dominant type of character accentuation is the hypertensive type (34,4). the second and third most frequent accentuations among sappers are pedantic (19.8) and cycloid (9.2) types of accentuation. they were followed by distim (6.8), anxious (6.2), excitable (5.8), demonstrative (5.1), exalted (4.5) emotive (4.3), and stuck (3.9) types. the psychological examination of the subjects showed that most types of accentuations are characterized by the predominance of fear “of disability” over the fear “of death”. it was also established that the hypertensive (15.7), distim (14.6), cycloid (affective-labile) (7.9), emotive (12.8), exalted (12.2), stuck (12.8) accentuations are characterized by the obvious prevalence of the fear “of disability”. among the subjects of demonstrative (10.5), pedantic (9.6) and anxious (14.6) types, the fear “of death” is more intense. among sappers of excitable accentuation (11.6; 10.1) these fears are almost equally manifested (tabl. 4). table 4. distribution of fears “fear of death” and “becoming disabled” between character accentuations of sappers (%) type of accentuation sources of personal fears fear of death fear of disability hypertensive 9.2 15.7 distim 10.7 14.6 cycloid 5.7 7.9 emotive 6.5 12.8 exalted 8.5 12.2 demonstrative 10.5 6.4 stuck 6.8 12.8 pedantic 9.6 5.9 excitable 11.6 10.1 anxious 14.6 5.5 source: personal elaboration, 2021. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 95 fear “of death” had the highest percentage among the anxious accentuators (14.6). the lowest percentages were found among the individuals with cysloid (5.7), emotive (6.5) and stuck (6.8) accentuations. the fear “of disability” is intensely manifested among people with hypertensive (15.7) and distim (14.6) types of accentuation. it was determined that the existing most common sources of sappers’ personal fears sappers have different frequency and intensity of manifestation depending on the prevalence of certain accentuative differences. that is, the sources of personal fears and accentuative differences of sappers are closely related, which has been confirmed in a number of studies (anglin et al., 2017; hjeltnes et al., 2015; yen, 2020). in the third series of the psychological experiment, the effectiveness of the psychological training “minefield” was tested. it was found out how much the training program helped reduce the anxiety level and personal fears of sappers, as well as increased stress resistance and self-improvement of psychomotor and sensory-intuitive skills needed to regulate their actions during combat missions in the minefield (ozerov, 2002). the criteria that contributed to the effectiveness of the training program were: a) understanding of the traumatic impact of the mined area on the sapper’s personality; b) expansion of the sapper’s motivational potential; c) the sapper’s desire to reduce the level of risky actions; d) development of self-regulation and sensory-intuitive skills of behavior during a combat mission in a minefield; e) the effectiveness of mutual understanding and support during the combat mission (cucui, 2017; shinkaryuk, 2005; stanciulescu, 2016). according to the results of psychological training, there were some positive personal changes among the researched subjects, namely: improving self-control, understanding the role of critical thinking in the process of demining and disposal of ammunition, the development of the vestibular apparatus and coordination of movements in general. these changes contributed to the sapper’s self-improvement, anticipation, patience, the ability to adequately assess the situation in the minefield, the ability to make quick decisions, stay calm in tense situations. after comparing the results obtained before and after the psychological training, we have noticed an increase in the number of individuals with low anxiety (24.3) and a decrease in the number of sappers with medium (47.9) and high (27.8) anxiety levels. due to the proximity to real circumstances, the training exercises broadened the sapper’s comfort zone and contributed to the productivity growth in the dangerous conditions of a minefield (tabl. 5). psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal ... oleh khmiliar et al. 96 table. 5. indicators of the sappers’ anxiety levels “before” and “after” the psychological training “minefield” anxiety level number of sappers (%) “before” the psychological training “after” the psychological training low (2 – 8) 20.7 24.3 middle (9 – 12) 49.2 47.9 high (13 – 14) 30.1 27.8 source: personal elaboration, 2021. due to the training exercises, there was a decrease in sapper’s internal tension, increased resistance to stressors, increased energy and emotional tone, which helped improve spatial orientation and ingenuity during combat missions. the training exercises, which required reflexive listening, patience, slowness and elegance of action and were based on mutual understanding and support between sappers, concomitantly helped reduce their personal fears (tabl. 6). table 6. indicators of sappers’ personal fears “before” and “after” the psychological training “minefield” research subjects sources of personal fears “before” the psychological training (%) sources of personal fears “after” the psychological training (%) fear of death fear of disability fear of death fear of disability sappers 75.6 98.5 74.2 97.3 source: personal elaboration, 2021. according to the results of the sappers’ reports, the training exercises “strange mines”, “ignition mines”, “suspended minefield”, “mined crossroads” and “mined lie” allow to fully reproduce the real minefield and thus develop the sappers’ ability to regulate personal fears. at the same time, we should state that the sappers’ level of the personal fear “of death” remained almost the same (74.2). this is probably due to the sapper’s awareness that his personal equipment, in case of an unpredicted mine broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 97 explosion, has a low level of protection, compared to other specialists of engineering and sapper units. the training exercises “live mines”, “spider web”, “mined forfeit” and others helped improve the effectiveness of combat missions among the sappers with dominant anxious, distim, excitable and stuck types of accentuation. the efficiency of these processes of demining was low before the psychological training (tabl. 7). table 7. the influence of the sappers’ character accentuations on the effectiveness of combat missions “before” and “after” the psychological training “minefield” type of accentuation detected accentuation (%) level of the sapper’s performance “before” the psychological training level of the sapper’s performance “after” the psychological training hypertensive 34.4 high high distim 6.8 low middle cycloid 9.2 middle middle excitable 5.8 low middle stuck 3.9 low middle pedantic 19.8 middle middle anxious 6.2 low middle emotive 4.3 middle middle demonstrative 5.1 high high exalted 4.5 middle middle source: personal elaboration, 2021. the introduced psychological training “minefield” promoted the development of professionally necessary qualities among sappers; provided the development of psychomotor and sensory-intuitive skills to regulate movements and actions during the combat mission in the minefield; improved constructive relations in the unit. the training exercises improved the sapper’s vestibular apparatus, his coordination of movements, spatial orientation and mental stability. it was established that the simulated dangerous conditions can increase the productivity of the sapper’s psychomotor activity (ajumunisha & tholappan, 2018). this statement clearly confirms the hypothesis of psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal ... oleh khmiliar et al. 98 m. bernstein (1991) about the “law of rationality”, according to which in the case of excessive stress, when nerves and muscles are in the intense state, the body simply cannot afford useless movements, and as a result works “in the best way, and the sappers’ movements become as rational as possible”. i. pavlov (1951) mentioned that the highest spiritual rise and physical strength of a man occur in a dangerous situation. the results of the psychological experiment confirm the opinion of v. klymenko (1997; 2013), that the specificity of the psychomotor problem in danger is largely determined by sensory-perceptual and intellectual fields of activity, which activate the sapper’s decision-making process. thus, the psychological training “minefield” made it possible to turn the discipline “blastings” into a lesson of effective thinking, feelings and imagination. the regular use of the suggested training exercises in the sapper’s educational process will ensure the effective psychomotor development, which will help reduce anxiety and personal fears (ciomag, 2015; murrihy et al., 2017). 4. conclusions the psychomotor training of a sapper should nowadays be considered not only as the initial functional level of development of the relevant mental and motor qualities, but also as a complex, multifaceted process that helps reduce personal fears and anxiety. the content of the sapper’s professional training should necessarily address the psychomotor development, as well as the military training. only the sappers, whose sensory-intuitive skills are balanced with the analytical mind, responsibility, excellent locomotion of arms and legs, coordinated movements and actions, accuracy, slowness, high endurance, stress resistance and resilience, can successfully cope with the tasks in the minefield. the psychological training has developed among the sappers the ability to make quick decisions, work alone for a long time and remain calm in the most stressful situations. source of funding. no financial or material support was received in conducting this research or in preparing this manuscript. conflicts of interest. the authors declare no conflict of interest. references ajumunisha, a. b., & tholappan, a. (2018). psychomotor domain of bloom’s taxonomy in teacher education. shanlax international journal of education, 6(3), 11–14. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1299766 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1299766 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 99 anglin, k. m., novell, c. a., murphy, j. s., & goodwin, g. a. (2017). identifying predictors of army marksmanship: a cognitive, affective, and psychomotor perspective. proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society annual meeting, 61(1), 838–842. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541931213601683 bernstein, n. a. (1991). o lovkosti i yeye razvitii [about dexterity and its development]. physical culture and sports. blank, m., garza, j. g., & wade, b. r. (2014). sapper-athlete-warrior program: an integrated approach to periodized warrior fitness. journal of sport psychology in action, 5(2), 73–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/21520704.2014.892912 ciomag, r. v. (2015). physical education – component of general education – means of balancing the human body. marathon revista motricităţii umane. departamentul de educaţie fizică şi sport, 7(1), 26–31. http://www.conferintedefs.ase.ro/2015/pdf/01%20physical%20education/01%20ciomag%20v ali.pdf conroy, d. e., kaye, m. p., & fifer, a. m. (2007). cognitive links between fear of failure and perfectionism. journal of rational-emotive & cognitive-behavior therapy, 25(4), 237–253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-007-0052-7 cucui, g. g. (2017). tracks utilitarian of applicative – means psychomotor skills development to young schoolchildren. the european proceedings of social & behavioural sciences, 2, 106–110. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017. 07.03.15 derakshan, n., & eysenck, m. w. (2009). anxiety, processing efficiency, and cognitive performance: new developments from attentional control theory. european psychologist, 14(2), 168–176. https://doi.org/10.1027/10169040.14.2.168 de vibe, m., bjørndal, a., tipton, e., hammerstrøm, k., & kowalski, k. (2012). mindfulness based stress reduction (mbsr) for improving health, quality of life, and social functioning in adults. campbell systematic reviews, 8, 3. https://doi.org/10.4073/csr.2012.3 dobkin, p. l., hickman, s., & monshat, k. (2013). holding the heart of mindfulness-based stress reduction: balancing fidelity and imagination when adapting mbsr. mindfulness, 6, 404. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-013-0225-7 khmiliar, o. f., & nedviha, o. v. (2018). the psychology of the professional activity of a sapper. science and education a new dimension. pedagogy and psychology, 155(65), 61– 63.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328877088_the_psychology _of_the_professional_activity_of_a_sapper https://doi.org/10.1177/1541931213601683 https://doi.org/10.1080/21520704.2014.892912 http://www.conferinte-defs.ase.ro/2015/pdf/01%20physical%20education/01%20ciomag%20vali.pdf http://www.conferinte-defs.ase.ro/2015/pdf/01%20physical%20education/01%20ciomag%20vali.pdf http://www.conferinte-defs.ase.ro/2015/pdf/01%20physical%20education/01%20ciomag%20vali.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-007-0052-7 https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.%2007.03.15 https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.%2007.03.15 https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.14.2.168 https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.14.2.168 https://doi.org/10.4073/csr.2012.3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-013-0225-7 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328877088_the_psychology_of_the_professional_activity_of_a_sapper https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328877088_the_psychology_of_the_professional_activity_of_a_sapper psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal ... oleh khmiliar et al. 100 khmiliar, o. f. (2019). psykhomotorni vlastyvosti ofitsera [psychomotor properties of the officer]. comprint. khmiliar, o., popovych, i., hrys, a., pavliuk, m., zavatska, n., lytvynenko, o., & blynova, o. (2020). spatial regulation of personality behavior in the conditions of progression of the covid-19 pandemic. revista inclusiones, 7(si), 289-306. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1760 klimenko, v. v. (1997). mekhanizmy psykhomotoryky lyudyny [mechanisms of human psychomotor skills]. knowledge. klimenko, v. v. (2013). psykhofiziolohichni mekhanizmy praksysu lyudyny [psychophysiological mechanisms of human praxis]. slovo publishing house. kononenko, o., kononenko, a., stynska, v., kachmar, o., prokopiv, l., katolyk, h., & popovych, i. (2020). research of the factor structure of the model of world view settings at a young age. revista inclusiones, 7(3), 98–116. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1618 nedviga, o. v. (2019). psykholohichne zabezpechennya profesiynoyi diyal’nosti viys’kovosluzhbovtsiv-saperiv v osoblyvykh umovakh diyal’nosti [psychological support of the professional activity of servicemen-sappers under special conditions]. [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. chernyakhovsky national defence university of ukrainе. hemingway, e. a. (1974). farewell to arms. peaks of world literature, 17, 347–354. http://www.kkoworld.com/kitablar/ernest_heminquey_elvida_silah_eng .pdf hjeltnes, a., binder, p-e., moltu, c., & dundas, i. (2015). facing the fear of failure: an explorative qualitative study of client experiences in a mindfulnessbased stress reduction program for university students with academic evaluation anxiety. international journal of qualitative studies on health and wellbeing, 10(1), 27990. https://doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v10.27990 howell, a. j., & buro, k. (2011). relations among mindfulness, achievementrelated self-regulation, and achievement emotions. journal of happiness studies, 12(6), 1007–1022. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s10902010-9241-7 hudimova, a. kh. (2021). psychological well-being and social media users’ behavioral online patterns in everyday life and during covid-19 pandemic. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 5, 133-147. https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-5-9 hudimova, a., popovych, i., baidyk, v., buriak, o., & kechyk, o. (2021). the impact of social media on young web users’ psychological well-being during the covid-19 pandemic progression. revista amazonia investiga, 10(39), 50–61. https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2021.39.03.5 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1760 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1618 http://www.kkoworld.com/kitablar/ernest_heminquey_elvida_silah_eng.pdf http://www.kkoworld.com/kitablar/ernest_heminquey_elvida_silah_eng.pdf https://doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v10.27990 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s10902-010-9241-7 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s10902-010-9241-7 https://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-5-9 https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2021.39.03.5 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 101 murrihy, c., bailey, m., & roodenburg, j. (2017). psychomotor ability and shortterm memory, and reading and mathematics achievement in children. archives of clinical neuropsychology, 32(5), 618–630. https://doi.org/10.1093/ arclin/acx033 nosov, p., palamarchuk, i., zinchenko, s., et al. (2020a). development of means for experimental identification of navigator attention in ergatic systems of maritime transport. bulletin of the university of karaganda – physics, 1(97), 58– 69. https://doi.org/10.31489/2020ph1/58–69 nosov, p. s., popovych, i. s., cherniavskyi, v. v., zinchenko, s. m., prokopchuk, y. a., & makarchuk, d. v. (2020b). automated identification of an operator anticipation on marine transport. radio electronics, computer science, control, 3, 158–172. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-3-15 nosov, p. s., zinchenko, s. m., popovych, i. s., ben, a. p., nahrybelnyi y. а., & mateichuk, v. m. (2020c). diagnostic system of perception of navigation danger when implementation complicated maneuvers. electronics, computer science, control, 1, 146-161. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-32742020-1-15 okipnyak, k. a., maliuk, m. g., & okipnyak, o. s. (2016). interpretation and substantiation of the model of a sapper taking into account the modern requirements. young scientins, 121(40), 491–496. http://molodyvcheny.in.ua/files/journal/2016/12.1/113.pdf ozerov, v. p. (2002). human psychomotor abilities. phoenix+. pavlov, i. p. (1951). otvet fiziologa psikhologam [physiologist’s answer to psychologists]. ussr academy of sciences. plokhikh, v. v. (2021). assessment of subject’s readiness for urgent actions using the variations of sensorimotor response tasks. insight: the psychological dimensions of society, 5, 46–65. http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-54 plokhikh, v., popovych, i., zavatska, n., losiyevska, o., zinchenko, s., nosov, p., & aleksieieva, m. (2021). time synthesis in organization of sensorimotor action. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 164-188. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/243 popovych, i., arbeláez-campillo, d. f., rojas-bahamón, m. j., burlakova, i., kobets, v., & bokshan, h. (2021a). time perspective in the professional activity of specialists of economic sphere. cuestiones políticas, 39(69), 424– 445. https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3969.27 popovych, i., borysiuk, a., zahrai, l., fedoruk, o., nosov, p., zinchenko, s., & mateichuk, v. (2020a). constructing a structural-functional model of social expectations of the personality. revista inclusiones, 7(si), 154-167. https://revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/354 https://doi.org/10.1093/%20arclin/acx033 https://doi.org/10.1093/%20arclin/acx033 https://doi.org/10.31489/2020ph1/58–69 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-3-15 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-1-15 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-1-15 http://molodyvcheny.in.ua/files/journal/2016/12.1/113.pdf http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-5-4 http://doi.org/10.32999/2663-970x/2021-5-4 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/243 https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3969.27 https://revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/354 psychomotor training of the military sappers as a means of reducing personal ... oleh khmiliar et al. 102 popovych, i., chervinskyi, a., kazibekova, v., chervinska, i., & machynska, n. (2021b). estudio empírico de la tipología de expectativas sociales del individuo. amazonia investiga, 10(43), 112-122. https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2021.43.07.11 popovych, i., kononenko, o., kononenko, a., stynska, v., kravets, n., piletska, l., & blynova, o. (2020b). research of the relationship between existential anxiety and the sense of personality’s existence. revista inclusiones, 7(si), 41-59. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/300 popovych, i., shevchenko, a., galvez, l. m., klenina, k. (2021c). research of the relationship between social desirability and value orientations of adolescents. revista otas histo ricas y geogra ficas, 26(1), 241–268. https://www.revistanotashistoricasygeograficas.cl/index.php/nhyg/article /view/339 schneck, w. c. (1998). the origins of military mines. engineer bulletin, 7, 46–49. https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/land/docs/980700-schneck.htm shevchenko, r., cherniavskyi, v., zinchenko, s., palchynska, m., bondarevich, s., nosov, p., popovych, i. (2020a). research of psychophysiological features of response to stress situations by future sailors. revista inclusiones, 7(si), 566-579. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1780 shevchenko, r., popovych, i., spytska, l., nosov, p., zinchenko, s., mateichuk, v., & blynova, o. (2020b). comparative analysis of emotional personality traits of the students of maritime science majors caused by long-term staying at sea. revista inclusiones, 7(si), 538-554. http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1309 shinkaryuk, a. i. (2005). psykhomotorno-rivneva struktura aktyvnosti ta svobody sub’yekta [psychomotor-level structure of activity and freedom of the subject]. oium. sloan, c. e. (1986). mine warfare on land. brassey’s defence publishers. sopa, i., & pomohaci, m. (2019). testing the psychomotor training in the military pentathlon at the 50 m race with obstacle. land forces academy review, 24(4), 283–290. https://doi.org/10.2478/raft-2019-0035 stanciulescu, r. (2016). development of basic physical qualities, essential condition for creating a competitive physical capacity. scientific bulletin of the academy of land forces. nicholas balcescu, 21, 1(41), 54–60. https://doi.org/10.1515/bsaft-2016-0037 stasiuk, v. v., primak, p. t., & khmiliar, o. f. (2009). psykholohichne zabezpechennya profesiynoyi diyal’nosti saperiv-myrotvortsiv [psychological support of professional activity of peacekeepers]. aspect-polygraph llc. https://doi.org/10.34069/ai/2021.43.07.11 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/300 https://www.revistanotashistoricasygeograficas.cl/index.php/nhyg/article/view/339 https://www.revistanotashistoricasygeograficas.cl/index.php/nhyg/article/view/339 https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/land/docs/980700-schneck.htm http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1780 http://www.revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/1309 https://doi.org/10.2478/raft-2019-0035 https://doi.org/10.1515/bsaft-2016-0037 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 103 strutynsky, v., kotsiuruba, v., dovhopoliy, a., husliakov, o., budianu, r., kolos, o., & hrechka, i. (2019). substantiating the requirements to functional indicators for the manipulators of mobile robotic demining complexes. eastern-european journal of enterprise technologies, 5/7(101), 42–50. https://doi.org/10.15587/1729-4061.2019.178466 tofan, m-p. (2018). the role of sports competitions in the military environment. international scientific conference “strategies xxi”: technologies – military applications, simulations and resources, bucharest, 2, 259–262. https://www.academia.edu/39968841/_strategies_xxi_techno logies_military_applications_simulation_and_reso urces yen, t. t. h. (2020). game-based learning: an innovative and scalable approach to mine risk education. journal of conventional weapons destruction, 23(3), 31–34. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol23/iss3/8 zinchenko, s. m., ben, a. p., nosov, p. s., popovych, i.s., mamenko, p., & mateichuk, v. (2020). improving the accuracy and reliability of automatic vessel moution control system. radio electronics, computer science, control, 2, 183-195. https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-2-19 zinchenko, s., nosov, p., mateichuk, v., mamenko, p., popovych, i., & grosheva, o. (2019). automatic collision avoidance system with many targets, including maneuvering ones. bulletin of university of karaganda, 96(4), 69-79. https://doi.org/10.31489/2019ph4/69-79 zinchenko, s., tovstokoryi, o., nosov, p., popovych, i., & kyrychenko, k. (2022). pivot point position determination and its use for manoeuvring a vessel, ships and offshore structures, https://doi.org/10.1080/17445302.2022.2052480 https://doi.org/10.15587/1729-4061.2019.178466 https://www.academia.edu/39968841/_strategies_xxi_technologies_military_applications_simulation_and_resources https://www.academia.edu/39968841/_strategies_xxi_technologies_military_applications_simulation_and_resources https://www.academia.edu/39968841/_strategies_xxi_technologies_military_applications_simulation_and_resources https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol23/iss3/8 https://doi.org/10.15588/1607-3274-2020-2-19 https://doi.org/10.31489/2019ph4/69-79 https://doi.org/10.1080/17445302.2022.2052480 microsoft word brain_2_2.doc 18 development an automatic speech to facial animation conversion for improve deaf lives s. hamidreza kasaei, s. mohammadreza kasaei, s. alireza kasaei young researchers club, isfahan branch (khurasgan), islamic azad university,isfahan, iran hamidreza_kasaee@yahoo.com abstract in this paper, we propose design and initial implementation of a robust system which can automatically translates voice into text and text to sign language animations. sign language translation systems could significantly improve deaf lives especially in communications, exchange of information and employment of machine for translation conversations from one language to another has. therefore, considering these points, it seems necessary to study the speech recognition. usually, the voice recognition algorithms address three major challenges. the first is extracting feature form speech and the second is when limited sound gallery are available for recognition, and the final challenge is to improve speaker dependent to speaker independent voice recognition. extracting feature form speech is an important stage in our method. different procedures are available for extracting feature form speech. one of the commonest of which used in speech recognition systems is mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (mfccs). the algorithm starts with preprocessing and signal conditioning. next extracting feature form speech using cepstral coefficients will be done. then the result of this process sends to segmentation part. finally recognition part recognizes the words and then converting word recognized to facial animation. the project is still in progress and some new interesting methods are described in the current report. keywords: deaf human, sign language translation systems, humatronics, automatic speech recognition 1. introduction today one in 1000 people become deaf before they have acquired speech and may always have a low reading age for written persian. sign is their natural language. persian sign language has its own grammar and linguistic structure that is not based on persian. so voice recognition systems play a very significant role in field of human electronics and its wide applications in deaf live. this research study was started with several speeches to text experiments to measure the communication skills of deaf people, and to understand their everyday problems better. the primary aim of our project was to develop a communication aid for deaf persons which can be implemented in a mobile telephone. in our system a partially animated face is displayed in interaction with deaf users. they are very useful in much application. our system starts with preprocessing and signal conditioning. next extracting feature form voice using cepstral coefficients will be done. feature extraction is the process that extracts a small amount of data from the voice signal that can later be used to represent each word. then the result of this process sends to feature matching, feature matching involves the actual procedure to identify the unknown word by comparing extracted features from voice input with the ones from a set of known words. finally recognition part recognizes the words and then converting word recognized to facial animation. some of the related research in the field of automatic translate voice to sign language animation is as in fig. 1. attila andics, james m. mcqueen, [1] proposed neural mechanisms for voice recognition. m. benzeghiba, r. de mori, [2] proposed an automatic speech recognition and speech variability. s. hamidreza kasaei, s. mohammadreza kasaei, s. alireza kasaei development an automatic speech to facial animation conversion for improve deaf lives 19 ramin halavati, saeed bagheri shouraki, [3] proposed a recognition of human speech phonemes using a novel fuzzy approach. this paper is organized as follow. section 2 describe an overview of our system, finally, in section 3 concludes this paper. the project is still in progress and some new interesting methods are described in the current report. 2. the proposed method all technologies of voice recognition, speaker identification and verification, each has its own advantages and disadvantages and may requires different treatments and techniques. the choice of which technology to use is application-specific. at the highest level, all voice recognition systems contain two main modules: feature extraction and feature matching. feature extraction is the process that extracts a small amount of data from the voice signal that can later be used to represent each word. feature matching involves the actual procedure to identify the unknown word by comparing extracted features from his/her voice input with the ones from a set of known words. a wide range of possibilities exist for parametrically representing the speech signal for the voice recognition task, such as linear prediction coding (lpc), rasta-plp and mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients (mfcc). figure 1. the structure of the automatic translate voice to sign language animation system lpc analyzes the speech signal by estimating the formants, removing their effects from the speech signal, and estimating the intensity and frequency of the remaining buzz. the process of removing the formants is called inverse filtering, and the remaining signal is called the residue [4]. another popular speech feature representation is known as rasta-plp, an acronym for relative spectral transform perceptual linear prediction. plp was originally proposed by hynek hermansky as a way of warping spectra to minimize the differences between speakers while preserving the important speech information. rasta is a separate technique that applies a bandpass filter to the energy in each frequency subband in order to smooth over short-term noise variations and to remove any constant offset resulting from static spectral coloration in the speech channel e.g. from a telephone line [5]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 mfcc’s are based on the known variation of the human ear’s critical bandwidths with frequency; filters spaced linearly at low frequencies and logarithmically at high frequencies have been used to capture the phonetically important characteristics of speech. this is expressed in the mel-frequency scale, which is linear frequency spacing below 1000 hz and a logarithmic spacing above 1000 hz [3]. mfcc is the best known and most popular so we decided to use mfcc in our project. the process of computing mfccs is described in more detail in the first section of proposed method. in the second, feature matching algorithm has been discussed. the goal of pattern recognition is to classify objects of interest into one of a number of categories or classes. the objects of interest are generically called patterns and in our case are sequences of acoustic vectors that are extracted from an input speech using the techniques described in the previous paragraph (feature extraction). the classes here refer to individual words. since the classification procedure in our case is applied on extracted features, it can be also referred to as feature matching. the feature matching techniques used in voice recognition include dynamic time warping (dtw) [6], hidden markov modelling (hmm), support vector machine (svm) [7], and vector quantization (vq) [8]. there is also another technique which is called artificial neural network (ann) [9]. in this project, vector quantization approach will be used, due to ease of implementation and high accuracy. vq is a process of mapping vectors from a large vector space to a finite number of regions in that space. each region is called a cluster and can be represented by its center called a codeword. the automatic voice recognition system will compare the voice with the codewords of the trained data. the best matching result will be the desired voice. 2.1. feature extraction preprocessing mostly is necessary to facilitate further high performance recognition. a wide range of possibilities exist for parametrically representing the speech signal for the voice recognition task that we chose mfcc algorithm in our project. mel frequency cepstral coefficients mel frequency cepstral coefficients (mfcc) are coefficients that represent audio, based on perception. it is derived from the fourier transform (fft) or the discrete cosine transform (dct) of the audio clip. the basic difference between the fft/dct and the mfcc is that in the mfcc, the frequency bands are positioned logarithmically (on the mel scale) which approximates the human auditory system's response more closely than the linearly spaced frequency bands of fft or dct. this allows for better processing of data. the main purpose of the mfcc processor is to mimic the behavior of the human ears. overall the mfcc process has 5 steps that show in figure 2. figure 2. mfcc block diagram step 1 – frame blocking step 2 – windowing step 3 – fast fourier transform (fft) step 4 – mel-frequency wrapping s. hamidreza kasaei, s. mohammadreza kasaei, s. alireza kasaei development an automatic speech to facial animation conversion for improve deaf lives 21 step 5 – cepstrum coefficient at the frame blocking step a continuous speech signal is divided into frames of n samples. adjacent frames are being separated by m (m<n). the values used are m = 256, and n = 156 the first frame will consist of n samples (i.e. 256 samples). the next frame will begin m samples (i.e. 156 samples) after the first frame, and it will overlap the first frame by n-m samples (256 – 156 = 100 samples). then the third frame will start at 2m samples after the first frame and it will overlap first frame by n-2m. the fourth frame will start at 3m samples after the first, and it will overlap it by n-3m. the process will continue until all input signal is accounted for. the result of this step plotted using matlab plot command and displayed in figure 3. figure 3 frame blocking of the speech signal the next step in the processing is to window each individual frame so as to minimize the signal discontinuities at the beginning and end of each frame. the concept here is to minimize the spectral distortion by using the window to taper the signal to zero at the beginning and end of each frame. if we define the window as 10),( −≤≤ nnnw , where n is the number of samples in each frame, then the result of windowing is the signal 10),()()( −≤≤= nnnwnxny ll typically the hamming window is used, which has the form: 10, 1 2 cos46.054.0)( −≤≤⎟ ⎠ ⎞ ⎜ ⎝ ⎛ − −= nn n n nw π brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 figure 4. hamming window applied to each frame use of speech spectrum for modifying work domain on signals from time to frequency is made possible using fourier coefficients. at such applications the rapid and practical way of estimating the spectrum is use of rapid fourier changes. n jknn k kn exx π21 0 −− = ∑= figure 5. mel-spaced filter bank physiologic changes show that human comprehension of frequency content of sound does not obey a linear space. therefore for each individual it is computed and measure with a real frequency of sound peak at mel seal. using the below equation one can change the frequency at hertz scale to mel scale. ) 700 1(log*2595)( 10 f fmel += s. hamidreza kasaei, s. mohammadreza kasaei, s. alireza kasaei development an automatic speech to facial animation conversion for improve deaf lives 23 figure 6. change the frequency at hertz scale to mel scale. following computing the spectrum power and applying the above equation on frequency axis, some mediating filters equal to identical overlapping are applied on the scaled spectrum and each filters energy is computed as particularity. this is because conception of a particular frequency by the auditory system is affected by a critical band of frequencies surrounding it. number of filters is usually between 20 and 30. logarithmic non linear change operations on obtained particulates for adjusting amplified of particularities and their important though coordinating them with the structure of the auditory system following computing energy of each filter is done as follows: in the following equation f1 is filter in i th, and e (i) is logarithm of energy at ith band. ∑ = = 2/ 0 ) 2 (|).),(|(log)( m k i m k fmkhie π there are two general stages in commuting cepstral coefficients. • computation of logarithm of exit amplitude from the signal this stage is performed through computing spectrum energy of the signed passed through a filter band and via logarithmic conversion. • computation of cosine conversion of a filter out put bank. in computing coefficients usually logarithmic conversion is used for applying on the spectrum. conventionally this conversion is used following application of filter banks. through translocation of this logarithmic conversion in the field of temporal array, interesting results have been obtained. also, other conversions have been studied. the reason for studying other conversions is that in such occasions low energy parts of the signal were considered as noise, that using such energy conversions this effect becomes less significant. m, number of the region, holds the most significant portion of energy contained in the sound signal. ( ) mxmxlog log*log)( 2= )log(* *0004.01 1 )( 5*/ m e xsigm amx ++ = use of speech spectrum for changing the work domain on the signal from time to frequency is used via fourier conventions. the rapid and practical way of estimating spectrum in such applications is employment of rapid fourier transform. the final stage is extracting particularities is use of discrete cosine to return particularities to the time domain and converse fft approximation. major advantage of this method is decrease of number of particularities of number of filter from fn to cn in which fc nn ≤ . in addition, doing so, includes making independent of the obtained particularity and rendering them non dependant which leads matrix covariance features to become axial. the following equation shows this point. c f i nijn i jec ≤≤−= ∑ 1))2 1 (cos().( π output of this transform is called cepstrum coefficients. final number of features can be equal to the number of filters however the cepstrum coefficient is more miscorrelated and its low brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 components indicate more important information compared with higher components which contain less information in speech recognition and contain only, minor information of spectrum and frequency omission of which can be even effective in improving the system precision. figure 7. speech signal after fft figure 8. speech signal after frequency wrapping figure 9. mel cepstral coefficients in time domain s. hamidreza kasaei, s. mohammadreza kasaei, s. alireza kasaei development an automatic speech to facial animation conversion for improve deaf lives 25 2.2. feature matching in this section, feature matching algorithm has been discussed. the goal of feature matching is to classify objects into one of a number of categories or classes. in this project, vector quantization approach will be used and the best matching result will be the desired voice. vector quantization method speech recognition systems are inherent of a database, which stores information used to compare the test voice against a set of trained voices. ideally, storing as much data obtained from feature extraction techniques is advised to ensure a high degree of accuracy, but realistically this cannot be achieved. the number of feature vectors would be so large that storing and accessing this information using current technology would be unfeasible and impractical.[8] vq is a quantization technique used to compress the information and manipulate the data such in a way to maintain the most prominent characteristics. vq is a process of mapping vectors from a large vector space to a finite number of regions in that space. each region is called a cluster and can be represented by its center called a codeword. figure 10 shows a conceptual diagram to illustrate this recognition process. in the figure, only two word voices with four dimensions of the acoustic space are shown. the result codewords (centroids) are shown by black circles and black triangles for word 1 and 2, respectively. the distance from a feature to the closest codeword is called a vq-distortion. the speech is authenticated by calculating the feature vector of voice in the input speech using vq algorithm and measuring the similarity between the calculated feature vector and the feature vector of voice retrieved from the database. figure 10. conceptual diagram illustrating vector quantization codeword formation. after the conversion process converts the analogue speech signal into a series words, then converting recognized word to facial animation based on vrml. 3. conclusions to increase the autonomy of deaf and hard of hearing people in their day-to-day professional and social lives, in this paper design and initial implementation of a new approach based on mfcc and vector quantization method is described. this approach includes analyses of speech to animate the talking head. our future work will include the conception of new test types and performance patterns. we are particularly interested in extending this approach to testing to include implementation of applications under real-time constraints. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 figure 11. a sample of speech to facial animation system references [1] attila andics, james m. mcqueen, “neural mechanisms for voice recognition“ neuroimage, volume 52, issue 4, 1 october 2010, pages 1528-1540. [2] m. benzeghiba, r. de mori, o. deroo, etc, “automatic speech recognition and speech variability: a review” speech communication, volume 49, issues 10-11, october-november 2007, pages 763-786. [3] ramin halavati, saeed bagheri shouraki, “recognition of human speech phonemes using a novel fuzzy approach” applied soft computing, volume 7, issue 3, june 2007, pages 828-839. [4] http://www.otolith.com/otolith/olt/lpc.html [5] hynek hermansky, nelson morgan “rasta-plp speech analysis technique”, icassp'92 proceedings of the 1992 ieee international conference on acoustics, speech and signal processing 1992. [6] françois petitjean, alain ketterlin, etc. “a global averaging method for dynamic time warping, with applications to clustering” pattern recognition, volume 44, issue 3, march 2011, pages 678693. [7] jingwei liu, zuoying wang, xi xiao “a hybrid svm/ddbhmm decision fusion modeling for robust continuous digital speech recognition” pattern recognition letters, volume 28, issue 8, 1 june 2007, pages 912-920 [8] jim z.c. lai, yi-ching liaw “a novel encoding algorithm for vector quantization using transformed codebook” pattern recognition, volume 42, issue 11, november 2009, pages 30653070. [9] edmondo trentin, marco gori “a survey of hybrid ann/hmm models for automatic speech recognition” neurocomputing, volume 37, issues 1-4, april 2001, pages 91-126. [11] balci, k. xface, “mpeg-4 based open source toolkit for 3d facial animation”. in proc. advance visual interface, 2004. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev formulation and study of some controlled release tablets with pentoxifylline based on hydroxypropylcellulose matrix obtained by wet granulation method with peg 6000 eleonora mircia, silvia imre, teodora balaci, veronica avrigeanu and gabriel hancu abstract. in this work three formulations of modified release tablets containing pentoxifylline 400 mg/tablet were obtained. hydroxypropylcellulose (hpc) in different ratios was used as hydrophilic matrix agent. the pentoxifylline inclusion in the matrix has been carried out by water granulation, using peg 6000 as binder. tablets were obtained with a single station tablet machine (korsch), using standard pressure, and obtaining tablets with 13 mm diameter, 800 mg weight and 400 mg pentoxifylline per tablet. the weight uniformity, friability, hardness, thickness and disintegration of tablets were determined according to the stipulations of the 2001 supplement of the romanian pharmacopoeia xth edition. the experimental formulations with 400 mg pentoxifylline/tablet were studied by comparing them to the industrial reference product, trental 400 mg (aventis pharma) and in according to the stipulations of romanian pharmacopoeia xth edition, usp 27 and european pharmacopoeia 5th edition. every determination was performed using 20 tablets. we followed the comparison between dissolution profiles of slow release tablets containing pentoxifylline based on hydrophilic matrix. the dissolution studies were performed using the method from usp 24, using the paddle apparatus, and water as medium of dissolution at 37 ± 0,5 oc, at a rotation speed of 50 rpm. the determination was performed by spectrofotometric assay in uv at 274 nm. it was noticeable that regarding the weight uniformity, friability, hardness, thickness and disintegration the proposed formulations are comparable with the industrial reference product (trental, 400 mg) and are in 178 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev agreement with the stipulations of the romanian pharmacopoeia xth edition and european pharmacopoeia 5th edition. the analysis of dissolution profiles showed that all formulations exhibit slow release. keywords: pentoxifylline, hydrophilic matrix, hydroxypropylcellulose, controlled release, pharmaceutical forms 2000 mathematics subject classification: 92c50, 97m60. 179 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets 1. introduction pharmaceutical forms with prolonged action often replace conventional forms, and to obtain these forms with prolonged action hydrophilic polymers are often used. after administration of controlled release pharmaceutical forms with pentoxifylline a decrease in the adverse effects of the active substance was observed especially at gastrointestinal level. pentoxifylline (ptx) is used in the treatment of circulatory disorders [2, 5]. pentoxifylline was used as a model hydrophilic drug in the present study [3]. in this paper, we proposed the study of some new modified release tablets with pentoxifylline. as hydrophilic matrix formers we used hydroxypropylcellulose (hpc) in different ratios: 17%, 34%, 45%. solubility of pentoxifylline (ptx) in water by heating [3] (77 mg/ml at 25 oc and 191 mg/ml at 37 oc) allows formulation into hydrophilic matrix [7]. 2. materials and method 2.1. materials the following substance were used: pentoxifylline (terapia), trental 400 mg (aventis pharma) as reference product, hydroxypropylcellulose (hpc) of klucel exf (aqualon hercules), peg 6000 (macrogol 6000) (merck), vegetable magnesium stearate (faci spa), colloidal anhydrous silicagel (aerosil 200) (degussa), talc (s&d chemicals), lactose (s&d chemicals). all the used excipients had pharmaceutical quality and were analytically pure. the tablets formulation: the modified release tablets with pentoxifylline based on hydrophilic matrix with different concentration of hydroxypropylcellulose (hpc) were obtained by wet granulation, followed by compression of the dried granulate. table 1 presents the compositions of the studied tablets. homogenized mixture of pentoxifylline with hydrophilic polymer trainer of matrix (hpc) was granulated by wet granulation method with a 5% aqueous solution of peg 6000. the obtained mass was passed through the sieve iii. after drying the granulate, we added magnesium stearate, aerosil, talc (lubricants) and lactose (diluent). the mixture was passed through the sieve 180 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets table 1: the compositions of the controlled release tablets formulated with pentoxifylline incorporated into hydrophilic matrix ingredients (mg) f1 f2 f3 pentoxifylline 400,00 400,00 400,00 hpc 136,00 272,00 360,00 peg 6000 4,15 3,00 5,53 magnesium stearate 8,00 8,00 8,00 aerosil 80,00 80,00 talc 24,00 24,00 24,00 lactose 147,85 13,00 2,47 the polymer ratio into the matrix (%) 17,00 34,00 45,00 iv and compressed. for the compression process we used a korsch machine with eccentric having ponsons of 13 mm diameter using the same compression pressure for all formulations [4]. the tablets obtained were smooth and had a flat surface. after formulating modified release tablets containing 400 mg of active substance (pentoxifylline) the following parameters were determined: • friability; • mechanic strength (diameter, height of tablets); • mass uniformity; • disintegration. determinations were performed in accordance with the stipulation of f.r. x., usp 27 and e. ph. 5 [10, 11, 13]. all determinations were performed on 20 tablets. for the friability tests we used a drum of 285 mm diameter and 39 mm depth, made of transparent synthetic polymer with the internal rubbed surface. part of the drum is mobile. tablets arrive at each sweep of the drum in a projection curve extended from the middle wall of drum. the drum is situated 181 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets in a horizontal axis of the device and rotates about 25 rpm. each turn, tablets roll, slide and fall to about 130 mm on the drum wall or on the other tablets. for the testing a number of 20 tablets are enough, and if their weight exceed 650 mg each, even 10 tablets are sufficient. we placed the tablets in the sieve no. 10 and removed all dust with air pressure or a soft brush. the tablets were weighted accurately sample and brought in the device. the drum was rotated by 100 rpm and then the tablets and also the formed dust, including broken tablets, were removed and then weighted. generally, the test is performed only once. if weight lost is more than 1%, the test should be repeated another two times and the results are interpreted using the average of the three tests. equipment: • pharmatest ptf e apparatus for friability test; • pharmatest ptb 411 device for mechanic strength test (diameter, thickness); • balance mettler toledo ax 205 for mass uniformity test; • pharmatest ptz e device for the disruption test. in vitro dissolution studies: equipment: • hanson research dissolution 0tester sr +; • shimadzu uv-1650 pc 0 spectrophotometer. dissolution tests: in vitro dissolution tests were performed in accordance with usp 24 [12] using the product formulated with 400 mg of pentoxifylline, in comparison with trental, 400 mg as reference product. we used the apparatus no.2 (with paddles), and as dissolving medium 1000 ml distilled water [8], maintained at a constant temperature 37 ± 0.5 oc. in all experiments, the rotation speed was 50 rpm. tests were performed on six tablets of each formulation studied [1, 6, 9]. for the determination of pentoxifylline release from the pharmaceutical form in each experiment were sampled 0.2 ml at intervals of 20, 30, 60 minutes in the first hour, from 30 to 30 minutes three hours and then hourly. the 182 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets test was performed for as long as 8 hours. the loss in volume was solved by replacing the used volume with an equivalent volume of distilled water to maintain constant volume of dissolution medium. samples (0.2 ml) were diluted with distilled water to 10 ml. pentoxifylline was determined by uv spectrophotometric analysis at 274 nm using as blank distilled water. 2.results and discussion uniformity of mass: we weighted 20 uncovered tablets and calculated the average mass. the same tablets were weighted individually. compared to the average mass calculated, the individual mass may submit a small deviation: 18 tablets ± 5% and 2 tablets ±7,5% (if the tablet contain above 300 mg active substance). the values of individual and average masses are shown in the table 2. the standard deviations calculated for each formulation are presented in the table 3. as it results from table 3, the calculated standard deviations are below ±5%; which is according to the requirements of the monographia ”compressi” (f.r. x.). the friability: a loss of less than 1% is considered acceptable for most products. in the case of new formulations, a loss of initial weight of 0,8% must come up to a loss of up to 1% after packaging. the experimental results showed that all the three formulations are appropriate regarding friability. for all studied wording, weight loss was less than 1% (table 4). mechanic resistance: the results are shown in the table 5. all three formulations had mechanic strengths close to the reference product (trental, 400 mg: 47 n) and also to the stipulated requirements (mechanic resistance must have a minimum value of 30 n). the diameter of the tablets the results from table 5 show that the 20 tablets of each formulation studied, have a diameter of about 13 mm. 183 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets table 2: uniformity of mass (mg) of the studied tablets nr.. trental, 400 mg f1 f2 f3 1. 791,53 788,05 805,23 800,88 2. 792,08 803,24 806,18 805,34 3. 798,85 805,17 784,86 795,85 4. 799,42 799,12 804,30 829,63 5. 800,65 780,85 797,70 789,05 6. 806,26 803,14 818,78 798,40 7. 810,12 805,17 793,18 807,10 8. 815,10 810,23 799,45 801,60 9. 825,60 781,53 800,44 815,30 10. 830,45 814,25 802,32 800,92 11. 800,65 807,15 803,05 801,38 12. 791,53 804,20 801,45 819,23 13. 792,08 805,15 804,30 815,45 14. 799,42 807,18 805,20 824,45 15. 798,85 800,85 800,75 826,36 16. 806,26 801,75 789,40 803,33 17. 815,10 825,75 800,17 830,33 18. 825,60 790,45 799,40 802,15 19. 830,45 826,15 784,86 804,40 20. 810,12 804,25 803,25 815,25 average 807,01 803,18 800,21 809,32 sd 12,97 11,78 7,72 11,90 rsd % 1,61 1,47 0,96 1,47 184 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets table 3: the calculated standard deviations nr. trental, 400 mg f1 f2 f3 1. -1,91% -1,88% +0,62% -1,04% 2. -1,85% +0,01% +0,74% -0,49% 3. -1,01% +0,24% -1,91% -1,66% 4. -0,94% -0,50% +0,51% +2,50% 5. -0,78% -2,78% -0,31% -2,50% 6. -0,09% -0,01% +2,32% -1,34% 7. +0,38% +0,24% -0,87% -0,27% 8. +1,00% +0,87% -0,09% -0,95% 9. +2,30% -2,69% +0,02% +0,73% 10. +2,90% +1,37% +0,26% -1,03% 11. -0,78% +0,49% +0,35% -0,98% 12. -1,91% +0,12% +0,15% +1,22% 13. -1,85% +0,24% +0,51% +0,75% 14. -0,94% +0,49% +0,62% +1,86% 15. -1,01% -0,29% +0,06% +2,10% 16. -0,09% -0,17% -1,35% -0,74% 17. +1,00% +2,81% -0,01% +2,59% 18. +2,30% -1,58% -0,10% -0,88% 19. +2,90% +2,85% -1,91% -0,60% 20. +0,38% +0,13% +0,37% +0,73% 185 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets table 4: the friability of the studied tablets nr. f1 (%) f2(%) f3(%) 1. 0,55 0,69 0,45 2. 0,34 0,70 0,32 3. 0,66 0,96 0,12 4. 0,78 0,45 0,27 5. 0,24 0,32 0,16 6. 0,35 0,44 0,65 7. 0,66 0,32 0,56 8. 0,41 0,26 0,41 9. 0,15 0,15 0,32 10. 0,98 0,40 0,20 11. 0,35 0,20 0,28 12. 0,40 0,30 0,43 13. 0,20 0,28 0,52 14. 0,12 0,13 0,54 15. 0,27 0,15 0,60 16. 0,60 0,26 0,35 17. 0,45 0,55 0,44 18. 0,26 0,56 0,39 19. 0,30 0,62 0,60 20. 0,15 0,43 0,40 average 0,41 0,41 0,40 186 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets table 5: the diameter (mm) -denoted ”d”, thickness (mm) -”h” and the mechanical resistance (n) denoted ”mr” of the studied formulations nr. f1 f1 f1 f2 f2 f2 f3 f3 f3 d h mr d h mr d h mr 1. 13,13 3,26 46 13,05 3,30 44 13,13 3,25 47 2. 13,12 3,25 13,08 3,24 13,12 3,24 3. 13,11 3,29 13,10 3,40 13,13 3,28 4. 13,10 3,30 13,12 3,24 13,09 3,26 5. 13,09 3,25 13,09 3,25 13,08 3,28 6. 13,08 3,40 13,10 3,24 13,11 3,28 7. 13,14 3,41 13,11 3,25 13,15 3,25 8. 13,15 3,24 13,13 3,25 13,14 3,28 9. 13,12 3,42 13,15 3,26 13,12 3,28 10. 13,12 3,24 13,14 3,42 13,12 3,29 11. 13,11 3,28 13,12 3,28 13,13 3,42 12. 13,10 3,26 13,10 3,29 13,13 3,40 13. 13,12 3,28 13,09 3,30 13,16 3,24 14. 13,13 3,27 13,08 3,28 13,08 3,30 15. 13,10 3,26 13,15 3,29 13,08 3,24 16. 13,08 3,28 13,14 3,28 13,09 3,26 17. 13,09 3,26 13,13 3,27 13,10 3,25 18. 13,11 3,28 13,11 3,24 13,11 3,25 19. 13,14 3,26 13,10 3,24 13,13 3,30 20. 13,15 3,25 13,13 3,24 13,12 3,24 avg 13,11 3,29 13,11 3,28 13,12 3,28 sd 0,02 0,06 0,03 0,05 0,02 0,05 rsd% 0,16 1,69 0,20 1,53 0,18 1,50 187 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets table 6: disintegration of the proposed tablets, compared with that of the industrial reference product (trental, 400 mg); where ”tm” denotes the time of disintegration from intestinal medium ph=6,8 (min) nr. formulation tm 1. trental, 400 mg 110 2. f1 103 3. f2 100 4. f3 110 the thickness of tablets: the results from table 5 show that the height of tablets is around 3,3 mm. time of dissolution: in vitro dissolution tests were conducted in two different environments: artificially simulated gastric environment solution represented by an hcl 0.1 n solution (ph = 1.2) and artificially simulated intestinal medium prepared from 6.8 g kh2p o4, 1.12 g naoh and distilled water to 1.000 grams (ph = 6.8). disintegration was verified by maintaining the samples for two hours on gastric environment and six hours in the intestinal environment. for these experiments, we have used the device pharmatest auto ptz e, 500 ml artificially liquid maintaining a constant temperature of 37 ± 0,5 oc. the results are shown in the table 6. following the experimental determinations, it was observed that all formulations presented a disintegration time close to the reference product (trental, 400 mg). after keeping the tablets in acid medium for two hours, the tablets did not disintegrate. the experimental values indicate variables that have influenced the disintegration process for each different type of used polymer. disintegration is deeply influenced by the mechanic resistance of tablets, and concentration of polymer matrix. all three proposed formulations, exhibited a proper disintegration for a modified release tablets. 188 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets table 7: the quantities of the dissolved pentoxifylline from the studied formulations) time (minutes) trental 400 mg (%) f1(%) f2 (%) f3(%) 20 5,16 5,41 6,18 5,79 30 8,41 10,70 10,64 8,17 60 11,14 11,21 13,24 10,76 90 23,51 29,42 28,85 24,08 120 31,18 34,86 31,83 31,24 150 39,14 40,68 40,11 39,96 180 42,86 52,73 52,60 43,94 240 54,69 58,72 57,82 51,30 360 62,99 68,82 70,57 63,42 480 80,08 83,13 85,12 80,54 in vitro dissolution studies in table 7 are listed the quantities of the active substance (pentoxifylline) from the studied modified release tablets at different times of sampling. figure 1 show the dissolution profiles of pentoxifylline from tablets based on hydroxypropylcellulose (f1, f2, f3) compared to the reference product trental 400 mg while figure 2 show the dissolution profile of pentoxifylline from f3 which have a similar dissolution profiles with the reference product, trental 400 mg. the analysis of dissolution profiles, shows that all the formulations have a slow release (until 8 hours), and the formulations with 45% hpc have the closest profile with the dissolution of the reference product. based on the results we can observe that when smaller concentrations of polymer were used (17% hpc, 34% hpc), the quantities of pentoxifylline dissolved from the matrix were bigger. 4.conclusions the present paper presents a pharmacotechnical study of some new modi189 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets figure 1: dissolution profiles of pentoxifylline from the formulations with hydroxypropylcellulose (f1, f2, f3) and reference product (trental 400 mg) figure 2: dissolution profiles of pentoxifylline from the formulation with hydroxypropylcellulose (f3) and reference product (trental 400 mg) 190 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets fied release tablets with pentoxifylline formulated with hydroxypropylcellulose (hpc) matrix, used in different concentrations. the tablets were obtained by applying a wet granulation method, using peg 6000 5% aqueous solution as agglutinant; and the dried granulate were compressed with the korsch tablet machine. physical examinations were performed for the three experimental formulations in comparison with the industrial reference product, trental. the results of the study show that disintegration of the studied formulations present the characters of a controlled release tablets (due the disintegration times). in terms of uniformity of weight, friability, mechanical resistance, disintegration, the proposed wordings are similar to those of the reference product (trental) and meet the requirements of f.r. x. and e. ph. 5. the analysis of dissolution profiles, shows that all the formulations have a slow release, and the formulations with 45% hpc have a closer profile to the dissolution of the reference product. the differences recorded are due to technique preparation of tablets compared with the reference preparation. references [1] byndu u., pandiau k., narayan s.r.: determination of pentoxifylline in pharmaceutical preparations, pharmazie, 1993, 48, 621-622. [2] grigoleit h.g., leonhardt h.: rheology of blood and pentoxifylline, pharmatherapeutica, 1997, 1(10), 642-651. [3] mircia e., sipos e., imre s., avrigeanu v., csegedi g., popovici a.: studiul unor comprimate retard cu pentoxifilina obtinute prin metoda granularii umede, clujul medical, 2007, lxxx(3): 713-720. [4] mircia e.: contributii la cedarea retard a pentoxifilinei din forme farmaceutice solide, teza de doctorat, u.m.f. tg. mures, 2007. [5] stroescu v.: bazele farmacologice ale practicii medicale, editura medicala, bucuresti, 2001, 422-423. [6] vlase l., tevet a., leucuta s.e.: compararea profilurilor de dizolvare ale pentoxifilinei din comprimate cu cedare prelungita utiliznd metode modeldependente, farmacia buc., 2005, 3, 11-17. [7] vrecer f., kramar a.: study of dissolution of pentoxifylline from sustained release tablets based on alginate matrix, farm. vestn. slov., 1994, 45, 191 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets 335-345. [8] vrecer f., kramar a.: study of pentoxifylline release from matrix tablets based on cellulose ethers, proc. 1st world meeting of apgi/apv, budapest, may 1995, summary book, 1995, 249-250. [9] yuen k.h., wong j.w., peh k.k. et al: comparative bioavailability study of two controlled release pentoxifylline tablet preparations, drug. dev. ind. pharm., 2000, 7, 803-807. [10] xxxeuropean pharmacopoeia 5th edition, council of europe, strasbourg, 2004. [11] xxxfarmacopeea romna, editia a x-a, editura medicala, bucuresti, 1993. [12] xxxusp 24, the united states pharmacopeial convention, inc., 1997 [13] xxxunited states pharmacopoeia, usp 27, united states pharmacopoeiaconvention inc, rockville md, 2004. 192 e. mircia, s. imre, t. balaci, v. avrigeanu, g. hancu formulation and study of some controlled release tablets eleonora mircia department of organic chemistry faculty of pharmacy university of medicine and pharmacy from targu-mures gh.marinescu street 38 targu-mures, 540139, mures romania e-mail: nmircia@yahoo.com silvia imre department of drug analysis faculty of pharmacy university of medicine and pharmacy from targu-mures romania teodora balaci department of pharmaceutical technology faculty of pharmacy university of medicine and pharmacy ”carol davila” from bucharest romania veronica avrigeanu department of organic chemistry faculty of pharmacy university of medicine and pharmacy from targu-mures romania gabriel hancu department of pharmaceutical chemistry faculty of pharmacy, university of medicine and pharmacy from targu-mures romania 193 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 236-251 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/365 submitted: march 29th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 neurocognitive trends in the structural-functional model of the lexicalsemantic way of word formation svitlana shestakova 1 , kateryna dubinina 2 , inessa anikina 3 , natalia myronova 4 , olha muratova 5 , tetiana radionova 6 1 sumy national agrarian university, ukraine, sshestakova1@ukr.net 2 khmelnytskyi national university, ukraine, arxnovus@gmail.com 3 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, aiv_777@ukr.net 4 kyiv national linguistic university, ukraine, mironovanathalie@gmail.com 5 horlivka institute for foreign languages of the state higher education institution "donbas state pedagogical university", ukraine, olga777muratova@ukr.net 6 horlivka institute for foreign languages of the state higher education institution "donbas state pedagogical university", ukraine, t.radionova1974@gmail.com abstract: the article analyzes traditional views of ukrainian linguists on the consideration/disregard of neurocognitive factors in the lexicalsemantic way of word formation (hereinafter “lswwf”). the relevance of the article lies in a pronounced divergence in the views, as well as in the contradictions in the interpretation of polysemy as a result of this type of word formation. research methods include analysis of definitions and basic theories, comparison, extrapolation of a neuroscientific perspective on the cognitive nature of metaphorical generation of new meanings on traditional (structural and functional) approaches to linguistic phenomena. the article proves that ukrainian linguistics involves prerequisites and basics of cognitive subject-based explanation of secondary semantics, present since the soviet period, and lacks categorical and methodological tools for its interpretation. besides, the authors of the article suggest some compromise solutions to these contradictions without completely abandoning traditional views on word formation. the international relevance of the article is seen in its attempts to reconsider the significant traditional achievements of eastern european linguistics (on the example of ukraine) in the context of objective natural neurocognitive views on key linguistic processes, in particular lswwf. keywords: lexical-semantic way of word formation; transfer; names of business associations; newly formed proper names; ergonyms and pragmonyms; special terms. how to cite: shestakova, s., dubinina, k., anikina, i., myronova, n., muratova, o., & radionova, t. (2022). neurocognitive trends in the structural-functional model of the lexical-semantic way of word formation. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 236-251. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/365 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/365 mailto:sshestakova1@ukr.net mailto:arxnovus@gmail.com mailto:aiv_777@ukr.net mailto:mironovanathalie@gmail.com mailto:olga777muratova@ukr.net mailto:t.radionova1974@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/365 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 237 introduction the lexical-semantic way of word formation, as one of the ways of development and enrichment of language vocabulary, has long attracted academic attention. however, in ukrainian linguistics, in which structural and functional approaches to the formation of new meanings seem to be extremely strong, these phenomena still lack epistemological certainty. both the relevance and need for a holistic approach to the phenomena of the human psyche, which includes language, increased in the late 20 th century. after that, anthropocentrism became the starting point in the interpretation of linguistic phenomena. this led to the introduction of the term “anthropocentric principle in linguistics”. the latter aims to find out “how the human brain functions during the common usage of linguistic units (usus), rather than “how languages are organized”. today, interest in the neurocognitive nature of lswwf is growing in the field of foreign language didactic. the concept of “metaphorical vocabulary”, which was introduced to develop a better understanding of texts with embedded figurative meanings, conveys the nature of polysemy and lswwf much better than derivatology. this is confirmed by the latest studies on the effects of using cognitive linguistics in teaching english as a second, foreign and additional language (veliz, 2017). this may have contributed to the fact that the structuralist approach prioritized an illustrative function, primarily in foreign language didactic, and somewhat abandoned explanatory and system-forming ones. however, it is crucial to first consider the linguistic context of the problem in question. despite the obvious simplicity of lswwf, linguists deal with many difficulties in describing it because of several reasons. first, the status of semantic (lexical-semantic) derivation, among other ways of word formation, is neither unambiguously understandable nor sufficiently definite. second, the theory of derivatology as an independent area in the study of generation, development and change of linguistic units has only recently passed the stage of formation and codification. the description of this method is also complicated by the fact that, with regard to word formation, it is usually considered as heterogeneous linguistic material which covers purely psycho-semantic phenomena, as well as those related to word formation. both the complexity and ambiguity of lswwf is reflected in the terms to denote it: “semantic derivation” (shmelev, 1977), “semantic transposition” (telia, 1988), “lexical-semantic transformation”, “semantic word formation”, “semeneurocognitive trends in the structural-functional model of the lexical… svitlana shestakova et al. 238 creation” (katznelson, 1965), “intrasyllabic semantic derivation” (chernikova, 1997), “lexical-semantic derivation” and, finally, “lexical-semantic way of word formation” (kovalyk, 1977; zemska, 1973). the authors of the article believe that the term “lexical-semantic way of word formation” most accurately reflects the essence of this phenomenon as the process of formation of a new linguistic unit based on the already known one, emphasizing its semantic focus in contrast to morphological ways of word formation. this term finally lacks direct correlations with a traditional understanding of word formation as a formal, morphemic process. the concept of lswwf was introduced by shcherba (1958) and actively supported by vinogradov (1972). apart from morphological and syntactic methods of word formation, one should consider semantic methods manifested in the reinterpretation of primary words and the formation of homonyms by splitting one word into two” (vinogradov, 1972). kovalyk (1977) also agrees with such a statement. semantic split, as a linguistic correlate of the mental process of cognitive divergence, is long overdue in ukrainian linguistics. however, the issue of lswwf’s status in the system of other ways of word formation remains open. another aspect of this problem’s relevance is the distancing from specific mental processes by viewing diachrony as the only possible evolution of new meanings. unfortunately, there is a tendency to attribute lswwf to diachronic word formation owing to the origination of word formation as a science after distinguishing between diachronic processes of word formation and synchronous relations of motivation between words and, accordingly, distinguishing between diachronic and synchronous word formation. as noted by zemska (1973), the lexical-semantic way operates in the field of diachronic word formation. words formed in this way act as the product of a long historical development. in the system of modern language, many of them are non-derivatives, i.e., not related to the words from which they were formed. nemchenko (1984) considers lswwf as a diachronic phenomenon. the researcher claims that only one of the main ways of diachronic word formation, namely a lexical-semantic one, is completely absent in synchronous word formation. it is because the historically derived words, which emerged due to this way of word formation, are deprived of derivatives in modern language (nemchenko, 1984). thus, the researcher believes that the words “byk 1” as an animal (a bull) and “byk 2” as bridge abutment, “osnova 1” (warp) and “osnova 2” (the essence of something) are not semantically related. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 239 this consideration of lswwf diachronicity, as a historical, objective process detached from the active user, has led to a neglect of the human factor in the linguistic cognition of the world. as a result of the obvious commitment of word formation to synchrony, lswwf is, unfairly, on the periphery of derivatologists’ interests and still requires to be included in the paradigm of word formation. in this regard, the article aims to 1) critically study the polarized views of ukrainian scholars (whether they recognize or do not recognize the role of real-time synchronous cognitively conditioned processes of lswwf on the example of specific native speakers) and 2) suggest ways to eliminate the contradictions existing in traditional views. the research hypothesis is seen in an opportunity to find not so much a methodological as an epistemological compromise between different views on lswwf, which is based on the primary nature of thinking and the secondary nature of language. according to mengtao (2020), “metaphor and metonymy are two effective ways of thinking that belong to the categorization of empirical concepts in the field of cognition”. this view has been substantiated and widely discussed in the works of many prominent researchers (knowles & moon, 2006; lakoff & johnson, 1980; langacker, 2017). if one assumes that the concepts of lexicalization, transference, semanticization and transonymization, taken from different linguistic paradigms, are, first of all, cognitive categories, then the essence of the “derivation or neurocognitive process” dilemma is rather related to verification than logical epistemology. categorical diversity and epistemological isolation of lswwf the introduction section substantiates those views which should be totally revised within the framework of anthropocentric linguistics and natural neurosciences related to it now. therefore, this article continues to consider theories indicating not only terminological inconsistency but also epistemological isolation of lswwf from theories on natural linguistic mechanisms. to begin with, lswwf is not included in the system of word formation methods (ulukhanov, 1977; vinokur, 1959). vinokur (1959) pays considerable attention to the issue of homonymy, which is closely related to lswwf, but does not mention the latter at all. the researcher considers homonymy mainly as a consequence of changes in the morphemic composition of the word and not as a result of lswwf (vinokur, 1959). neurocognitive trends in the structural-functional model of the lexical… svitlana shestakova et al. 240 ulukhanov (1977) notes that it was vinogradov (1972) who first classified the ways of word-formation. unfortunately, this classification ignores lswwf. other researchers do not recognize lswwf since semantic changes in words that originated in this way are not formally associated with the emergence of a new sound complex. shansky (1959) believes that lswwf should be seen as a way of enriching vocabulary. the main argument for the inclusion of lswwf in the word formation system is the isomorphism of its “derivative essence” of morphological word formation, which lies in the commonality of results and the similarity of mechanisms of both types of word formation (shansky, 1959). first, the name is not only a phonetic complex (it always acts as an inseparable whole, which has not only a phonetic or structural “form” but also a certain meaning, and therefore each homonym is a new name). second, with the help of this word formation method, words emerge as a result of “semantic development of a polysemous name under special historical conditions” in essentially the same way as when using a morphological method of word formation. the emergence of new meanings is no less modelled than that of linguistic units due to the morphological word formation method. analogy, as the basic way of forming new words, “automatically and consistently” operates in certain conditions and causes the emergence of three members of the semantic proportion of the complete “word-formation four-square” (shansky, 1959). according to shansky (1959), lswwf implies that different meanings of the same word are transformed into different words, etymologically independent and autonomous, or that some well-known word is assigned a meaning (both basic and derivative) that is not related to the previous one. thus, lswwf fails to lead to the emergence of phonetically new words: the already known sound complex acquires new lexical and grammatical features. in structural and grammatical terms, however, the words which emerged with the help of lswwf may still be new linguistic units (compared to the words based on which they were formed). the language can be supplemented by new morphologically based stems (shansky, 1959). indeed, one must not underestimate the importance of shansky’s (1959) theoretical concept in establishing the word formation system in general and the status of lswwf as a full-fledged method in particular. at the same time, this interpretation of lswwf eliminated the possibility of its inclusion in linguistic synchronicity and extended its effect only to homogeneous homonyms. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 241 the word-formation model of lswwf is a semantic pattern of forming new lexical units due to lexical-semantic features of motivators. those words which emerged due to lswwf are included in several similar constructions which are formed through a typical, regular semantic relationship between the motivator and the motivated. thus, lswwf is characterized by such systemic-linguistic units as a word-formation type and a motivated word (sememe), which most fully reveal the “content” of wordformation. the only argument of the “non-word-formation” essence of lswwf may be the lack of formal indicators in the structure of the sememe. after studying and dividing two types of derivation (semantic and formal-semantic, or vertical and horizontal), golev (1989) also advocates for the derivational essence of lswwf. in addition to semantic changes, the researcher indicates the existence of additional formal elements (novelty markers) in sememes, which, however, cannot be matched with affixes in meaning (golev, 1989). thus, the derivation of the new is divided into two forms: semantic, or vertical (named after the way of placing lexical-semantic variants (lsv) in explanatory dictionaries), and formal-semantic, or horizontal (named after the way of placing lsv in nested dictionaries) (golev, 1989). also, golev (1989) notes that horizontal derivation focuses on the novelty of the form and vertical derivation on the absence of this novelty. nevertheless, it must be noted that the power of formal accentuation is inversely proportional to the depth of semantic mutations, which are deeper in vertical rows. the following rule is applied here: semantic differences of the vertical chain elements are quite sufficient so as not to use specially designed units (affixes) for their expression (golev, 1989). however, formal mutations of the motivator are somehow presented in vertical rows. formal changes in sememes include changes in the sound form or the lexeme paradigm, transformations in the graphic form (quotation marks), changes in a syntactic position or lexical valence, which serve as the markers of novelty inherent in affixes. unlike affixes, external mutations do not perform important semantic functions, are not specialized and do not appear because of semantic changes. having studied regular semantic relations between the meanings of polysemous words, shmelev (1977) showed that many such cases were characterized by derivation, which only formally differed from that in word formation. besides, the researcher tends to use the term “semantic derivation”, which quite clearly reflects the closeness of word-formation facts to derivation in its broadest sense. neurocognitive trends in the structural-functional model of the lexical… svitlana shestakova et al. 242 as can be seen from the above-mentioned views, researchers attempt to “suppress” the nature of lswwf in the framework of formal and similar to morphemic models. they intuitively feel the cognitive basis of meaning transfer but avoid emphasizing it by using heteromorphic terms, such as “mutation”, “horizontal connection”, “motivation”, “semantics”, “model”. thus, the lswwf concept develops through expanding the traditional boundaries of the method. some researchers interpret polysemy as a phenomenon related to word-formation, while others consider polysemy only semantically but not formally similar to it. neurocognitive trends in the structural-functional model of lswwf however, even within the framework of traditional paradigms, scholars were forced to acknowledge synchrony (instant formation of a new meaning) and cognitive aspects of nomination after studying lswwf based on proper names. specific types of such word formation are onymization and transonymization (podolska, 1978). podolska (1978) understands onymization as the transition of common names into proper names and their further formation and development in any category of proper names. transonymization is viewed as the transition of proper names from one category to another. in this case, both onymization and transonymization can be semantic and grammatical. semantic onymization is a process occurring without formal (material) changes in the structure of appellative. as noted by podolska (1978), it does not belong to the category of word-formation processes, although there is a concept of semantic word formation. this is a lexical-semantic way of forming proper names as in general vocabulary (podolska, 1978). semantic transonymization is the transfer of proper names to another onomastic class without changing its structure. a detailed analysis of the collected factual material allows one to identify, in addition to the known methods of onymization of appellatives and transonymization of onyms, another way of forming proper names. it is onymotransonymization, which is the onymization of appellatives with simultaneous transonymization of onyms. this method is implemented in the process of forming new names as poly-stem lexemes or phrases: “victorservice” (a private enterprise), “dnipropetrovsk in the evening” (a chocolate brand), “the european yard” (a shop), “princely lviv” (restaurant), “my paris” (a shop), "the olympus center”(a company). within the structural paradigm, researchers need to recognize the reality of a specific cognitive-nominative volitional act broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 243 performed by the subject under the guidance of the following impulses: “i wanted and named it like that”, “i named it so because i liked it”, “i named it like that because it attracts customers”. similar trends in recognizing the cognitive nature of secondary nominations can be seen in the field of common names. markov (1981) considered the emergence of homonyms to be the result of lswwf. he mostly denied polysemy, explaining it by the fact that “without denying polysemy one cannot understand a semantic way of word formation”. still, it is not that easy to deny it because of its objectivity. thus, noting that every formal and semantic unity in language should be considered a new word, markov (1981) begins to realize that a necessary condition for the existence of a word as an independent unit is the autonomy of its meaning. the latter lies in the fact that the meaning of the word is the result of the epistemological process since it does not emerge in context. the word is understood as a linguistic unit correlated with certain phenomena of reality, and this feature of the word corresponds to the need for a full expression of thoughts. homonymy is possible because an insufficiently expressive verbal phonetic complex can be largely supplemented by context, intonation, situation, that is several additional indicators ensuring the necessary understanding of the word (markov, 1981). a thorough study of various explanations and explications of lswwf shows that the neurocognitive nature of such names is often replaced by variants of the term “semantic motivation”, which is a neurocognitive process. kovalyk (1977) believes that the words formed by the semantic method belong to lexicology as ready-made lexemes. at the same time, the process and method of their formation are related to semantic word formation, as a result of which a new lexeme, structurally and semantically different from the word stem, is formed. one way to form new words is to give existing words new lexical meanings, resulting in lexical homonyms. this method of word formation is called semantic (lexicalsemantic). in modern ukrainian, many proper names are formed in this way: toponyms, anthroponyms (misto “dolyna” (town “valley”), selo “hai” (village “grove”; surnames “khrushch” (a may bug), soroka (a magpie), shchur (a rat), kavun (a watermelon) (kovalyk, 1977). importantly, the researcher admits that attributing these processes exclusively to lexicology means not covering many word-formation processes (kovalyk, 1977). besides, he emphasizes that “as a result of semantic word formation, we have new derivatives, with new semantic and grammatical features. semantic processes are present in every phenomenon of word formation; yet, the semantic way, unlike others, neurocognitive trends in the structural-functional model of the lexical… svitlana shestakova et al. 244 relies only on this basis and, therefore, there are grounds to consider it a separate way in the general system of word formation methods”. some scholars recognize the existence of lswwf as objective and obvious. one of the most complex and, at the same time, the least studied ways of word formation is lexical-semantic, i.e., the emergence of new lexical units by disintegrating the semantic structure of polysemous words. in terms of lswwf, words with different meanings usually have the same sound form and do not look different from the meanings of a polysemous word. one can explain the quasi-scientific term “semantic structure disintegration” only by divergent and associative cognitive processes. to expand the scope of lswwf but leave the concept of this method, introduced by vinogradov (1972), unchanged, akhmanova (1957) considers it in terms of homonyms of the “action”  “result of action” type. this could be achieved only by abandoning the usual understanding of homonymy. without a doubt, the meanings of the types of nouns named by akhmanova (1957) have common semantic parts, i.e., one can talk about different meanings of one word, not different words. thus, lswwf is a non-morphological way of replenishing vocabulary, which constantly acts in synchrony and has a “way out” in the diachrony of language. there is no clear boundary between the formation of lexical-semantic variants and the emergence of homogeneous homonyms. this is the same linguistic phenomenon at different stages of its existence. thus, the stage of synchronicity lies in specific individual or group conventional acts of nomination. gorpinich (1999) considers lswwf rather carefully. the lexicosemantic (semantic) method implies that the sound form of the stem word remains unchanged, acquires a new meaning and becomes a derivative. this method does not use any formal-structural ways of word formation, and the formant is seen as a change in semantics (gorpinich, 1999). furthermore, the researcher identifies three types of semantic word formation: 1) dividing a polysemous word into homonyms: korin as a) a root, b) radical sign/root symbol; 2) semantic condensation of a phrase into a word, which becomes a homonym to its counterpart: temperature as a) heat rate, b) fever; 3) conditional nomination under the already known name: odesa a) a city, b) a ship; kyiv a) a city, b) a camera brand. as can be seen from scientific structural or functional interpretations, researchers use the concepts of “division”, “condensation” to replace the recognition of cognitive processes. such quasi-scientificity refers to neurocognitive processes that were not available for experimental broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 245 study within classical paradigms (demchenko et al., , 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). searching for a compromise between functional and cognitive approaches the introduction of such neurocognitive concepts as “extralinguistic motivation”, “transonymization”, linguistic concepts, as well as the consolidation of occasional concepts (those that emerged in a particular moment of linguistic acquisition of the world), has intensified with the advent of research on homonymy. the latter often develops as a result of a specific cognitive-motivational and nominative act of an individual speaker as the subject of language formation. onymotransonymization as a way of creating proper names (pn) has become especially widespread recently. the activity of pn-composites and pn-phrases is due to the tendency towards expressiveness of the name and the maximum motivation of the designation. expressive (emotional) motivation is the result of speakers’ evaluative reflection. it is an innate neurocognitive mechanism of one’s attitude towards the surrounding world based on the “good-bad” dilemma. the same applies to the cognitive nature of the subject’s separation of a phenomenon (name) significant to him or her among the many available denotations (names). superanska (1969) does not acknowledge the legitimacy of the term “semantic method” on the grounds that, as a result of the transformation of the lexeme “taiga”  “taiga”, one can observe how the use of the word changes, not the semantics. however, proper nouns’ ability to select an object from several homogeneous ones is impossible without transforming the original semantics of appellatives. in addition to semantic differences, proper nouns and corresponding appellatives are characterized by individual capabilities (modality) in terms of lexical valence and word formation. regarding the terms proposed by superanska (1969) to denote this phenomenon (appellative onymization, zero affixation, onomastic conversion), only the first oneseems appropriate. at the time of structuralism dominance, researchers intuitively felt that a name or a phrase that had transformed into a proper name without formal changes was undergoing certain changes. however, they had neither alternative research tools nor the right to exceed the structuralist paradigm. a change in lexeme’s status is quite often accompanied by changes in the inflectional paradigm and the set of word-formation possibilities. still, a certain psycho-semantic process is primary. this was shown by reformatsky neurocognitive trends in the structural-functional model of the lexical… svitlana shestakova et al. 246 (1967) on the examples of the words “vira, nadiia, lubov” (faith, hope, love) in the function of common and proper names. the same processes occur during transonymization. as a result of various transitions from one onomastic field to another, both proper names and appellatives undergo specifically onomastic transformations during onymization. after that, there appear new words with new lexical meanings and new grammatical features. the authors of the article believe that a compromise between heteroparadigmatic characteristics of lswwf became possible when scholars began to recognize the following fact: lswwf or polysemy is caused not so much by the long evolutionary process of vocabulary development as by pragmatic needs at a certain synchronous stage. thus, assigning lswwf only to synchrony or only to diachrony is unjustified. it is because the rigid boundary between synchrony and diachrony exists rather as an epistemological conditionality, which does not always contribute to an adequate assessment of linguistic phenomena. in this regard, shmelev (1977) rightly points out that the fear to “mix” these two aspects led to incorrect assessment of some lexical and semantic phenomena, which include lswwf. thus, one can see how discourse is considered in the context of pragmatics, motivation, linguistic activity and subject’s activity in synchrony even in the works of linguists who do not approve of psychological, let alone neurocognitive interpretations. here are several arguments based on these works:  the result of both lexical-semantic and morphological ways of word formaton is the emergence of new words (and new meanings): hurman (gourmet) as a name of a café and a vodka brand. undoubtedly, the presented proper nouns that emerged with the help of lswwf are not new meanings of the base word but new words related to it as the motivator and the motivated.  in terms of lswwf, the formant is seen as a change in semantics. the dictionary of the ukrainian language (bilodida, 1973) presents two meanings of the lexeme “lotsman” (a marine pilot): 1) a pilot of a ship, who is well acquainted with navigation conditions of a certain area in the sea, river, canal; 2) a pilot fish. in the first case, the name is transferred to the name of the advertising agency. the meaning of “well acquainted with navigation conditions” allows one to use the lexeme as an ergonym. as a result of the lexeme’s onymization, its connection with the marine theme is lost. besides, one can observe how the lexeme is being semantically expanded and its broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 247 meaning becomes symbolic: a pilot of a ship is the one who knows their job well and confidently pursues their goal. as an ergonym, the lexeme has another additional meaning: it means not only certain abilities of employees of the advertising agency but also the agency itself, which should become the leader among similar companies. thus, the processes of onymization and transonymization are necessarily accompanied by semantic changes in the base word with their cognitive processing.  lswwf can be confidently attributed to synchronic methods, given that the base word and the newly formed name retain motivational relations: krasunia (a beautiful woman) as the name for hair salon), “kholodna hora” (a cold mountain) as a horonym in kharkiv and a vodka brand produced there. only when the name that emerged due to lswwf loses its motivational connections with the base word, lswwf has access to diachrony (numerous toponyms and anthroponyms). a detailed analysis of traditional linguistic views has allowed the authors of the article to prove that polysemy occurs when one form of the word is associated with two or more related meanings. if one assumes that the association is the establishment of a new neural connection between denotations and the meaning is the existence of a stable connection, then “virtually every word is polysemous to some extent” (vicente & falkum, 2017). the only problem is that these mechanisms are ignored in most “purely linguistic theories”, and researchers find common ground only at the border of neurophysiology and psycholinguistics. conclusions thus, the lexical-semantic way of word formation is one of the main but insufficiently studied ways of enriching the vocabulary of the ukrainian language. consequently, this presupposes the existence of polarized views on the recognition or categorical denial of lswwf’s functioning in the word-formation paradigm of modern ukrainian. the most adequate compromise between the structural and neurocognitive interpretation of lswwf involves the following: a) considering semantic changes and relations from an anthropological point of view, namely, linguistic-cognitive activity of subjects; b) recognizing an individual or conventional nomination as the primary one for lexicalization; c) exceeding specific linguistic paradigms when clarifying the nature of lswwf. this assumption relies on the views of anthonissen (2020), who observed and justified “the gap between language as a social phenomenon and the cognitive processes responsible for the continuous reorganization of neurocognitive trends in the structural-functional model of the lexical… svitlana shestakova et al. 248 linguistic knowledge in individual speakers” (p. 309). also, anthonissen (2020) studied the author’s word formation and grammatical use of variant forms on numerous examples and concluded that “language change is an emergent phenomenon that results from the complex interaction between individual speakers, who themselves may change their linguistic behavior to varying degrees” (p. 309). the authors of the article consider cognitive grammar as an important link between the language structure and the nature of new nominations and grammatical relations (syntagmatic potential, valence change, grammaticalization). searching for new ways of teaching foreign vocabulary at the border of cognitive grammar and foreign language didactic, scholars suggest considering ambiguity and lswwf as its cause in the form of a network model. although it has more didactic than scientific potential, it demonstrates the following fact: different meanings of a word in the recipient’s mind form a holistic category, between the elements of which there are neurocognitive connections. this is indeed noticeable when the student begins to learn foreign vocabulary, acquires “the lexical prototype”, relations between the prototype and the extended meaning, and finally deduces typical schemes and relations that structuralists, for some reason, prioritize (taraszka-drożdż, 2020). the representatives of post-non-classical linguistics claim that linguistic descriptions are necessary for systematization, inventorying of linguistic units and structuring of the language itself in the context of foreign language didactic. as noted by langacker (2017), however, “they should at least be plausible from the psychological standpoint”, given that a language is a neuropsychological phenomenon from its causal and natural point of view and a neurophysiological one in the context of structural mechanisms. thus, the descriptive basis of word formation and grammar can be formulated only with the help of cognitive phenomena. it is because the purely linguistic approach is well-structured but fails to specify the deterministic (diachrony) or functional-mental (synchrony) nature of secondary meanings. langacker (2017) states that “cognitive grammar aims at maximal coverage of language structure based on some minimal assumptions about cognition”. references akhmanova, o. s. (1957). ocherki po obshchey i russkoy leksikologii [essays on general and russian lexicology]. uchpedgiz. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 249 anthonissen, l. (2020). cognition in construction grammar: connecting individual and community grammars. cognitive linguistics, 31(2), 309–337. https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2019-0023 chernikova, n. v. (1997). semanticheskiye neologizmy v sovremennom russkom yazyke (8090 gg xx veka) [semantic neologisms in modern russian (80-90s of the xx century)] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. moscow pedagogical university. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 golev, n. d. (1989). dinamicheskiy aspekt leksicheskoy motivatsii [the dynamic aspect of lexical motivation]. publishing house of tomsk university. gorpinich, v. o. (1999). suchasna ukrayinska literaturna mova. morfemika. slovotvir. morfonolohiya [ukrainian literary language today. morphemics. word formation. morphonology]. vyshcha shloka. http://irbisnbuv.gov.ua/ulib/item/ukr0001595 katznelson, s. d. (1965). soderzhaniye slova, znacheniye i oboznacheniye [the content of the word, meaning and designation]. editorial urss. knowles, m., & moon, r. (2005). introducing metaphor. routledge. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kovalyk, i. i. (1977). pro vlasni i zahalni nazvy v ukrayinskiy movy [on proper and common names in the ukrainian language]. movoznavstvo [linguistics], 2, 11–18. https://kzref.org/aktualeni-problemi-morfologiyi-suchasnoyiukrayinsekoyi-litera.html?page=16 lakoff, g., & johnson, m. (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago university press. langacker, r. w. (2017). entrenchment in cognitive grammar. in h.-j. schmid (ed.), language and the human lifespan series. entrenchment and the psychology of language learning: how we reorganize and adapt linguistic knowledge (pp. 39–56). american psychological association; de gruyter mouton. https://doi.org/10.1037/15969-003 markov, v. n. (1981). o semanticheskom sposobe slovoobrazovaniya v russkom yazyke. [on the semantic way of word formation in the russian language]. udgu. mengtao, d. (2020). a study of the vocabulary teaching mode based on metaphor and metonymy in cognitive linguistics. international forum of teaching and https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2019-0023 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/ulib/item/ukr0001595 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/ulib/item/ukr0001595 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://kzref.org/aktualeni-problemi-morfologiyi-suchasnoyi-ukrayinsekoyi-litera.html?page=16 https://kzref.org/aktualeni-problemi-morfologiyi-suchasnoyi-ukrayinsekoyi-litera.html?page=16 https://doi.org/10.1037/15969-003 neurocognitive trends in the structural-functional model of the lexical… svitlana shestakova et al. 250 studies, 16(2), 5460. http://americanscholarspress.us/journals/ifst/pdf/ifots-22020/ifots-v16n2art6.pdf nemchenko, v. n. (1984). sovremennyy russkiy yazyk. slovoobrazovaniye. [modern russian language. word formation]. vyshshaya shkola. podolska, n. v. (1978). slovar russkoy onomasticheskoy terminologii. [dictionary of russian onomastic terminology]. nauka. prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 reformatsky, a. a. (1967). vvedeniye v yazykovedeniye [introduction to linguistics]. aspent press. shansky, n. m. (1959). ocherki po russkomu slovoobrazovaniyu i leksikologii [essays on russian word formation and lexicology]. uchpedgiz. shcherba, l. v. (1958). izbrannyye raboty po yazykoznaniyu i fonetike. [selected works on linguistics and phonetics]. publishing house of leningrad university. shmelev, d. n. (1977). sovremennyy russkiy yazyk. leksika. [modern russian. wordstock]. prosveshchenie. bilodida, i. k. (ed.), (1973). slovnyk ukrayinskoyi movy v 11 tomakh [the dictionary of the ukrainian language in 11 volumes] (1970-1980).. academy of sciences of the ukrainian ssr. institute of linguistics. superanska, a. v. (1969). struktura imeni sobstvennogo. fonologiya i morfologiya [the structure of a proper name. phonology and morphology]. nauka. taraszka-drożdż, b. (2020). the cognitive grammar view of lexical polysemy and its application in foreign language pedagogy. in g. drożdż, & b. taraszkadrożdż (eds.), foreign language pedagogy in the light of cognitive linguistics research. second language learning and teaching (pp. 6783). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58775-8_5 telia, v. n. (1988). metaforizatsiya i yeye rol v sozdanii yazykovoy kartiny mira [metaphorization and its role in creating a linguistic picture of the world]. in b. a. serebrennikov (ed.), rol chelovecheskogo faktora v yazyke. yazyk i kartina mira [the role of the human factor in language. language and picture of the world] (pp. 173203). nauka. ulukhanov, i. s. (1977). slovoobrazovatelnaya semantika v russkom yazyke [wordformation semantics in russian]. urss. veliz, l. (2017). a route to the teaching of polysemous lexicon: benefits from cognitive linguistics and conceptual metaphor theory. international journal of http://americanscholarspress.us/journals/ifst/pdf/ifots-2-2020/ifots-v16n2art6.pdf http://americanscholarspress.us/journals/ifst/pdf/ifots-2-2020/ifots-v16n2art6.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58775-8_5 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 251 applied linguistics and english literature, 7(1), 211217. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.7n.1p.211 vicente, a., & falkum, i. l. (2017, july 27). polysemy. in m. aronoff (ed.), oxford research encyclopedia of linguistics. oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.325 vinogradov, v. v. (1972). russkiy yazyk: grammaticheskoye ucheniye o slove [russian language: grammatical teaching about the word]. russkiy yazyk. vinokur, g. o. (1959). izbrannyye raboty po russkomu yazyku [selected works on the russian language]. uchpedgiz. zemska, e. a. (1973). sovremennyy russkiy yazyk: slovoobrazovaniye [modern russian: word formation]. nauka. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.7n.1p.211 https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.325 microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 61 a system for learning financial accounting bases bogdan pătruţ department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania bogdan@edusoft.ro iulian furdu department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania iulian_furdu@yahoo.com abstract this paper describes a method for teaching students financial accounting bases. the method is based on correcting some typical mistakes, which can be observed at the beginners. keywords: accounting, e-learning, software agent 1. introduction this paper describes a method for teaching students financial accounting bases. the method is based on correcting some typical mistakes, which can be found with beginners. we have defined the relationship of "mixing-up" between accounts. the relationship can be in a dynamical evolution, and it depends on the mistakes of the student. we have combined this relationship with the rules of accounting, and we have presented the types of mistakes that can be obtained, and then we have provided the methods of dealing with them. the goal is to provide a very good teaching and learning strategy. finally, the paper presents a simple prototype of a system for instruction in accounting. 2. some difficulties in self-teaching financial accounting accounting is one of the most important economic fields, where students often face difficulties. the problems are due to many reasons, but most of the mistakes are due to the fact that students do not understand well concepts such as assets, capital, means, and resources, they do not know if an account is an active one or a passive one, they do not know the functioning rules of accounts, or they mix up the accounts. it is true, there are several accounts that can be mixed up, not because of their symbols, but because of their similar names. the mistakes can be due to the fact that the student does not know how to make a correct accounting analysis. practically, for an economic operation, described in natural language (romanian language), the student has to present the corresponding accounting record, in the form of an equality x = y (followed by a sum). for example [3], for according to the founding agreement, the associates of the commercial firm subscribe a capital of 10,000 ron. the correct answer (according to the accounting rules from romania) is: 456 (debits with associates regarding the capital) =1011 (social capital) ron 10,000 ron is the notation for the "romanian leu" (the currency in romania). this type of accounting record for an economic operation is used in the romanian and french accounting system, but it is equivalent with this one: debits with associates regarding the capital ron 10,000 social capital ron 10,000 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 62 3. some accounts can be mixed up surely, the accounts can be mixed up, because of similary of their names, because of their corresponding accounting subjects, or because of the bad interpretation of some economical operations. thus, marking with m the set of the accounts from the general account table, we could draw a “mixed-up” relation between accounts: ρ ⊆ mxm, (a,b)∈ρ meaning that, from one reason or another, the a account can be mixed up with the b account. the relation is symmetrical, thus (a,b)∈ρ → (b,a)∈ρ, but not also transitive: (a,b)∈ρ and (b,c)∈ρ -/→ (a,c)∈ρ. actually, the ρ relation will appear under a form of a matrix, where both the rows and the columns are labeled with the symbols of all the accounts, and at the crossing of the rows with the columns we have 1 if the two symbols stand for accounts that can be mixed up, and 0, if they cannot. (another perspective is the use of real numbers from 0 to 1.) the matrix will be modified (will evolve) depending on the student’s answers, as the user of the system. yet, the starting point will be a matrix, different from the null matrix. establishing the initial mixed up relation is based on certain observations made by those teaching accounting, respectively professors with a certain experience in working with fresh year students. of course, the system can adopt one matrix or another, depending on some statistic data referring to the level of students. according as the student is tested and taught with the help of the computational system, a problem can be raised: is the system able to direct the student based on the assumptions referring to the mix-ups he might make, or do we have to adapt the ρ relation to the mistakes of the student? thus, if the system expects the answer x=y and the student answers x=y', where (y,y')∈ρ, we can assume that the student mixes up the y and y' accounts, but for the other problems he might be able to give the right answer. but, if the student answers with x=z, with (y,z) ∉ρ, it can be assumed that either the student does not know almost anything about the right side of the accounting equality, or the student mixes up the z account with the y account, and the ρ relation is badly described by us, and in this case we could write: ρ:=ρ∪{(y,z),(z,y)}, i.e. we would add to the matrix the fact that y can be mixed up with z. this newly added fact should take place if we notice that the student keeps on answering z where it should be y and in other situations like u=y, y=u etc. it is likely that in the case of a poorly trained student, through this kind of enriching of the knowledge of the matrix of ρ, he/she might give the answer (x,y)∈ρ, ∀x,y∈m, and we create a very unpleasant situation. this is why it is best for the system to remove from the matrix of ρ those 1 values that correspond to situations that are rarely encountered in the answers of a well-trained student. thus the ρ relation evolves depending on the right or wrong answers given by the student. 4. possible mistakes and their solutions for an economic operation to which the right answer is the x=y accounting recording, we could have the following answers. each of them, except the first one (the correct answer) is one type of mistakes, which shows that the student does not know the answer. depending on the student’s answer, a software agent will try to teach the student by explaining what he does not understand: 1) x=y the right answer; 2) x=y', (y,y')∈ρ the x account was well chosen and positioned, but instead of the y account there is a similar y' account, with which the y account is mixed up; in this case, the differences and similarities between y and y' are shown; 3) x=z, (y,z)∉ρ the x account was well chosen and positioned, but instead of the y account there is the z account, that is quite different from the y account, thus it cannot be mixed up with it; in this situation, we can choose a detailed presentation of the z and, also, y account, so the right answer is being suggested, x=y; also, if we notice that the number of wrong replacements of y with z has b. pătruţ, i. m. furdu – a system for learning financial accounting bases 63 appeared quite often, the 1 value can be positioned in ρ’s matrix at the crossing of the y row with the z column, and at the crossing of z row with the y column, that is: ρ:=ρ∪{(y,z)}∪{(z,y)}; 4) x'=y, (x,x')∈ρ is a situation similar to 2, so the similarities and differences between x and x' accounts are shown, hoping that in the future they won’t be mixed up; if we notice that the number of mix-ups between x' and x diminishes then, the corresponding 1 can be removed from the matrix, thus ρ:=ρ-{(x,x'),(x',x)}; this is the case of 2: ρ:=ρ-{(y,y'),(y',y)}; 5) x'=y', (x,x')∈ρ, (y,y')∈ρ is a more complex situation, because it is possible either for two mixups to be made (between x and x' and between y and y'), or it may be the general mistake (see the last case); if it is about two mix-ups the differences and similarities between x and x', respectively between y and y', will be presented; but it is possible that the x'=y' mistakes may appear more often, that means that we have to deal with them as with a z=t general mistake, where (x,z)∉ρ, (y,z)∉ρ, (x,t)∉ρ, (y,t)∉ρ; but, in this case, we have to “reduce” (at least for a while) the ρ relation by: ρ:=ρ-{(x,x'),(x',x),(y,y'),(y',y)}; 6) x'=z, (x,x')∈ρ, (y,z)∉ρ in this case, the differences and similarities between x and x', hoping that it will become x=z, which is not so wrong, and can be dealt with similarly to the 3rd situation; another variant would be that of mimetically presenting the y and z accounts in order to get the x=y correct answer faster; 7) z=y', (x,z)∉ρ, (y,y')∈ρ this situation is similar to the latter one, thus it can be similarly analyzed; 8) y=x this is a different situation, in this case the student proves that he/she doesn’t know the functioning rules of the accounts and then they can be presented and explained. 9) y=x', (x,x')∈ρ this is a combination between 4 and 8, so it would be necessary to present to the student both the functioning rules of the accounts and the differences and similarities existing between x and x' 10) y=z, (x,z)∉ρ it is a more complex situation, because the y account was well found, but it is wrongly positioned (it sells instead of crediting), and instead of the x account and being wrongly positioned is the z account, an account that can’t be mixed up with x; that is why a helping variant would be to mimetically present the z account, and possibly the x account and also the functioning rules of the accounts; 11) y'=x, (y,y')∈ρ it is similar to 9, and is dealt with similarly; 12) y'=x', (x,x')∈ρ, (y,y')∈ρ a combination between 5 and 8, so the differences and similarities between x and x', respectively between y and y' will be presented, and also the functioning rules of the accounts; 13) y'=z, (y,y')∈ρ, (x,z)∉ρ this is a case in which the differences and similarities between y and y' and also the functioning rules of the accounts together with, possibly, the x and z account should be clearly presented; 14) z=x', (x,x')∈ρ, (y,z)∉ρ this is similar to the last case; 15) z=t, (x,z)∉ρ, (y,t)∉ρ, (x,t)∉ρ, (y,z)∉ρ this is the biggest mistake that can appear, and in this case, all four accounts (x, y, z, t) should be presented; it is possible that the student may subsequently give a wrong answer that can be solved like the previous case. 5. a system for learning the accounting bases we have developed, at the university of bacău, romania, the fabl (financial accounting bases learning) program. it is a functional system for learning accounting (the bases of accounting). the system deals with all kinds of mistakes, but it doesn’t modify the ρ relation. the knowledge base contains: • all the correspondences between the accounts, that can be mixed up, • questions (economical operations) and their answers, that are in fact, the corresponding accounting records. the system uses a special agent that counts the users’ mistakes, divides them into 3 categories and warns him/her about the lack of activity. also, in the near future, we intend to add an brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 64 agent to the system that will have lectures under the form of videos. this agent will act each time the student makes the same big mistake on the same subject, or if it has to modify the ρ relation. 6. conclusions and future works we have dealt, in this paper, with some types of mistakes that can appear in writing accounting records, for economic operations. we defined a mix-up relation for the accounts in general accounting table. this relation is not a static one, it evolves depending upon the student's mistakes. we have observed that there are 14 categories of mistakes. for each category, have we presented some variants to deal with. finally, we have briefly described the fabl system, which helps students learn the accounting bases. this system is developed within the conttest multi-agent system [2] and some ideas are from [1]. we are going to add some new characteristics to the system, so that the system may learn from the student’s mistakes, and the mixing-up relation may be modified accordingly. 7. references [1] pătruţ, b. (2003). multiagent system for distributed intelligent networks with applications in marketing and computer assisted learning. in: proceedings of the international symposium "knowledge technologies in business and management, june 6, 2003, iaşi, romania. [2] pătruţ, b., vârlan, s. e., socaciu, t. (2008). conttest a multi-agent system for accounting education. [electronic version]. in: proceedings of the third international multi-conference on computing in the global information technology iccgi, 2008, athens, greece. [3] pătruţ, v., rotilă, a. (2004). contabilitatea întreprinderii/ the accounting of enterprise (romanian). bacău, romania: alma mater publishing house. microsoft word brain_1_4_nou_modif.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 13 quo vadis, intelligent machine? rosemarie velik biorobotics and neuro-engineering department, fatronik – tecnalia, paseo mikeletegi, 7 parque tecnológico e-20009 donostia san sebastián, spain institute of computer technology, vienna university of technology, karlsplatz 13, 1040, vienna, austria rvelik@fatronik.com abstract artificial intelligence (ai) is a branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans. at least this was the original idea. however, it turned out that this was no easy task to solve. this article aims to give a comprehensible review on the last 60 years of artificial intelligence taking a philosophical viewpoint. it is outlined what happened so far in ai, what is currently going on in this research area, and what can be expected in the future. the goal is to mediate an understanding for the developments and changes in thinking in the course of time about how to achieve machine intelligence. the clear message is that ai has to join forces with neuroscience and other brain disciplines in order to make a step towards the development of truly intelligent machines. keywords: artificial intelligence, brain modeling, cognitive computation, brain-inspired automation, neuro-symbolic networks, affective computation, neuroscience, psychoanalysis. 1. introduction over the last 60 years, basically two disciplines have evolved in the area of artificial intelligence (ai), having quite disparate points of view, approaches to solutions, and (often implicit) definitions of the same terms. this article aims to give a review on the development of this research field from the beginning to the present and an outlook to its future. considerations are not intended to focus on mathematical definitions or particular ai techniques, but on the mediation of an awareness of what changes this research area went through in order to better understand what we can expect in the future. when talking about artificial intelligence, there first has to be answered the question what artificial intelligence actually is – or at least what it should be. the definitions that can be found about artificial intelligence are various. to specify this area in one sentence, a definition as given by [1] seems to be appropriate: “artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans.” taking a look on the web or on non-scientific press, the concept that non-engineers and non-scientists often have about artificial intelligence is heavily influenced by film industry. one classical example is the android data in star trek: an artificial, intelligent being, possessing similar or superior intelligence as humans have and maybe lacking a bit of emotions and feelings. their expectation is that research is not too far away from this aim. what comes up with this expectation are concerns and discussions about ethics. on the one hand, if machines get superior intelligence as we have, there arises the fear that machines will rule the world, kill us, or keep us as slaves (as we see in movies like terminator or matrix). on the other hand, if we assume that machines will not possess superior intelligence but feelings and a soul, questions of ethics will come up concerning the rights of machines, as we might keep them as slaves for doing our work. scientists talking to public press are often confronted with this question of ethics. one answer given in such an interview at the engineering-neuropsychoanalysis-forum (enf) in vienna 2007 by gerhard zucker, one of the keynote speakers, is the following: “society will find a way to handle these issues like society found solutions before for slavery and animal testing” [2]. actually, this is a wise answer for a scientist in terms of publicity. it implies that our research is already in a very advanced stage and it is time to face these questions. however, reality brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 14 is still very different. today, science is still far away from the goal of creating something that is at least close in intelligence to humans and it is not yet sure whether we will ever reach this goal. to understand where we currently are and what we can expect in the future, first, one must take a look at the history of artificial intelligence. 2. a brief history of ai the wish to create artificial intelligent life might be as old as mankind. already in the ancient greece, we can find myths about the greek god of technology hephaestus who was lame and therefore constructed two golden robots to help him move about. another well-known narrative is the one of the british scientist frankenstein who designed a human being from scavenged body parts. such literature clearly shows that the intention to create human-like intelligent beings was already there for at least some thousand years, only the required means were missing. this situation seemed to change after 1950. round 1950, it was the time of the advent of the first computers. with their processing power, they offered completely new possibilities. for the first time, the dream of designing an electronic brain seemed to be realizable. the research field of artificial intelligence started to emerge [3]. 2.1 the golden years (1950-1975) the first years of artificial intelligence were marked by great successes. it was the era of discovery and sprinting across new ground. the programs developed during this time were, to most people, simply “astonishing”. computers were playing chess, solving algebra problems, proving theorems in geometry, and learning to speak english. few people at that time would have believed that such “intelligent” behavior of machines was possible at all. machines were seemingly easily executing “cognitive” tasks that were difficult even for humans. a lot of public money was invested into this promising area, and researchers were very optimistic that a fully intelligent machine would soon be built. the following well-known statements may best catch the spirit of this time [4]: • 1965, h. a. simon: “machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do.” • 1967, m. minsky: “within a generation ... the problem of creating 'artificial intelligence' will substantially be solved.” • 1970, m. minsky: “in from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being.” the question that logically arose at the same time with the attempt of building intelligent machines was the question of how to prove intelligence of machines. there was the need for a certain evaluation mechanism. the most prominent and best accepted evaluation mechanism suggested for this purpose at that time was the so-called turing test designed by alan turing in 1950 [5]. the original version of the turing test is illustrated in figure 1a. there is one person, c, that can be regarded as judge. furthermore, there exist two persons, a and b (one female and one male), that cannot be seen by person c, because they are in different rooms. person c communicates with person a and b (according to certain rules) via a computer and afterwards has to decide from the communication which person is the woman and which the man. to evaluate machine intelligence, this turing test was adapted for computers (see figure 1b). again, person c is the judge. this person now communicates with a computer and another person, and has to decide which one is the human and which the computer. in later times, the turing test has been criticized a lot [6]. however, at that time, it was the standard measure for evaluating machine intelligence and shall therefore be considered as such for the moment. the interesting question that rises with this is if any computer passed the turing test? starting with 1966, this question had to be answered positively. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 15 from 1964 to 1966, john weizenbaum worked on a computer program called eliza [7, 8], which actually passed the turing test. eliza is a program that mimics a rogerian psychotherapist. this means it confronts its opponent with slight modulations of its own words formulated as questions to achieve the impression that it speaks freely. (a) original version of the (b) turing test adapted for turing test evaluation of machine intelligence figure 1. the turing test principle as the facts so far outlined show, round 1970, researchers were very optimistic that machines would soon (latest in one generation) reach human intelligence level. there already existed the first programs passing the turing test, which was the official test for proving computer intelligence. looking at statements of that time today and recognizing that approximately 40 years have passed since then, the logical question that arises is why there are still no intelligent machines among us. 2.2. the years of reconsideration (1975-2000) in 1996, round 30 years after the statement of m. minsky that “within a generation ... the problem of creating 'artificial intelligence' will substantially be solved”, a young scientist called push singh, who happened to work under m. minsky, published an article with the title: “why ai failed”. this fact clearly illustrates that after the first years of enthusiasm, ai went through a change. ai began to get stuck. researchers had to admit that making computers actually think – even on a childlike level – was far more complicated than they expected [4]. one explanation for this could be that in the first years, scientists focused on problems that were difficult for humans (like playing chess, solving algebra problems) and therefore seemed to be particularly challenging for intelligent machine design. researchers generally considered constrained problems and problem domains. they had the illusionary hope that when accumulating all single efforts together, soon an intelligent machine would emerge. they did so far not put emphasis on problems that were easy for humans like e.g., perceiving their surroundings, evaluating complex situations (what is currently important?), and taking decisions in real world environments. when starting to consider these issues, it turned out that they were very difficult to implement into a computer. 3. the current state of ai today, artificial intelligence has split into two branches. these branches are probably best referred to as method-based artificial intelligence and brain-inspired artificial intelligence. nowadays, many researches are still not aware of the existence of these two sub-disciplines which are in fact very disparate in their basic dogmas. the following section outlines the main principles and differences of both sub-disciplines. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 16 3.1 method-based ai during the history of artificial intelligence, it had to be admitted that creating human-like intelligence is far from trivial. when recognizing that creating truly intelligent machines seemed to be almost infeasible, researchers started to focus on simpler and more constraint problems. the goal was no longer to achieve a machine with a human intelligence level for all circumstances but to develop particular solutions for particular problems. examples of classical methods of methodbased ai are symbolic systems, expert systems, genetic algorithms, artificial neural networks, etc. this classical ai domain is a mature research field. hundreds of textbooks can be found about these methods. problems that are solved with these methods are pattern recognition problems (image processing, language processing, etc.), prognoses, path planning, etc. these problems are solved by certain mathematical models and algorithms but have hardly anything to do with how the brain works and solves these problems or with human intelligence. one fact that might be surprising is that also tools like artificial neural networks are assigned to this category as they are inspired from the function of biological neurons in the brain. artificial neural networks however do not emulate a neural brain network but just quite simplified neurons. the way in which artificial neurons are interconnected has not much to do with how interconnection takes place in the brain, which rather seems to be the secret of the complexity of the brain than the function of single neurons alone [9]. 3.2. brain-inspired ai so far, there is no technical system that can even nearly compete with the capacity and the capabilities of the human mind. within the last years, it had to be admitted that the reduced approaches often focused on in classical method-based ai can never lead to technical systems with skills and capabilities comparable to humans’ mental abilities. therefore, as stated in [9], “like at the beginning of artificial intelligence research, again, findings about how natural intelligence works have to be the basis for developing concepts for technical approaches trying to achieve intelligence”. this is the basic dogma of the new generation of brain-inspired ai approaches. here, archetypes for model development of intelligent systems are the structure, functional systems, and information processing strategies of the brain. approaches followed in this area are various and based on different disciplines of brain research like neuroscience, psychology, pedagogy, psychoanalysis, etc. the following section is aimed at mediating a basic understanding of what research efforts are currently going on in this research community based on some concrete projects realized within the last 10 years by an about 25-headed interdisciplinary research team of the vienna university of technology. 3.3. showcase projects of brain-inspired ai “current technology will not be able to handle future demands of automation systems” [10]. with this statement, in the year 2000, dietmar dietrich, the head of the institute of computer technology of the vienna university of technology, formed an interdisciplinary research team consisting of electrical engineers, computer scientists, physicists, neuroscientists, psychoanalysts, and psychologists with the aim of developing next generation intelligent automation systems. as the human brain can be regarded as the most efficient, effective and flexible known automation control system, the basis for development should be insights about the brain gained from neuroscience, psychology, neuro-psychology, psychoanalysis, and neuro-psychoanalysis. to do so, the team had to enter an unknown territory and establish new ways of thinking and interdisciplinary collaborations. the following section will briefly present three of the models that were the outcome of this interdisciplinary effort. one of the application areas for the models is building automation in order to create more “intelligent” situation-aware buildings that can automatically adapt and (re-)act according to what is currently going on in their environment [11, 12, 13]. this domain is today also referred to as “intelligent buildings”, “digital home”, “ubiquitous computing” or “domotics”. the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 17 basic idea is to equip buildings with sensors and actuators of different types (similar to the way in which our body is equipped with different sensory receptors for perception and limbs for actuation) and recognize what is going on in the building in order to decide how to react on these situations and carry out selected actions. this is of interest for safety and security critical applications, to save energy, to improve the user’s comfort, and for user entertainment [14, 15]. a second application field is autonomous agents and robots that have to navigate independently in their environment and manipulate objects. also for them, an effective and efficient perception-decision-making-actionexecution system is necessary [16, 17, 18]. 3.3.1. autonomous decision making based on emotions, drives, and memory the first model that is briefly introduced is an approach inspired by research findings in neuro-psychology and psychoanalysis (see figure 2). the model considers the environment, the body, and the brain/mind of an artificial being. the environment and the body are perceived via sensors. (re-)actions can be carried out via actuators. the model focuses on the decision-making process of how to (re-)act according to situations currently perceived. in this decision-making process, there are involved concepts like emotions, desires, drives, and different types of memory as well as concepts like the ego-id-superego model of sigmund freud. there are considered fast reactions in form of reflexes and slower reactions that need reflection, thinking, and planning. for a detailed model description, see [14, 17, 18]. figure 2. decision making model based on emotions, drives, and different memory types 3.3.2. machine perception based on neural and symbolic information processing strategies the second model developed is a model for human-like machine perception based on research findings in neuroscience and neuro-psychology. the principal idea of the model is to use so-called neuro-symbols as basic processing units. this concept is inspired by the fact that the brain brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 18 is made up of neurons but we think in term of symbols. in analogy to the brain, starting from sensor values, the sensory information is combined and condensed in a modular hierarchical manner to more and more complex neuro-symbolic information until this results in a complete, unitary, multimodal perception of the environment (see figure 3). for a detailed explanation of the model, see [9, 19, 20, 21]. 3.3.3 neuro-psychoanalysis for modeling the mind the third approach is based on research findings in psychoanalysis and the ego-id-superego model of sigmund freud [22, 23]. the particularity of this model is that it is based on top-down design strategies. the basic idea is to start from the function of the whole brain and then divide the brain functions like in a top-down approach into different modules starting from the id, superego, and ego (see figure 4). figure 3. combination of neural and symbolic information processing strategies the id is correlated with internal drives of the body like hunger, fear, or sexuality. the superego contains social rules like “i must not kill.” or “i have to wear clothes in society.” the id and superego are always in conflict tending to different behavior. the task of the ego is to mediate between them and decide what to do. according to the top-down design strategy, these three blocks are further subdivided into other psychic functions until ideally the neural level is reached. details about this model can be found in [2, 24]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 19 figure 4. applying neuro-psychoanalysis for building a technical model of the brain 4. future perspectives of ai having sketched some examples of what is currently going on in the research area, we shall now attempt to give a short outlook on what we can expect in the future and what are the great challenges to face. concerning the vision on how the research area of artificial intelligence will develop, there exist two different opinions – a pessimistic and an optimistic one. according to the pessimistic view, we will never be able to build machines similarly intelligent to humans. the main reason for this is that we will not be capable of understanding how the brain works, or even that there is more about the brain and the mind than just a huge bunch of neurons interacting with each other. the computer pioneer prof. heinz zemanek, who also formed part of the early artificial intelligence community, used to say: “if one light switch is not intelligent, why 1000 should be” and he generally added: “i built a computer. i can tell you that there is nothing intelligent in it... and if you call the computer intelligent, then i am not, then i am something else.” [9] on the other hand, there also exist more optimistic views considering the task of emulating the human brain as feasible, maybe not with today's computer technology but with technologies using the structural organization and information processing principles of the human brain as archetype. according to etienne barnard, there exist two different possibilities for how this research field will progress [25]. one possibility is that as until now, small but continuous progress will be made. the other possibility is that the next albert einstein – the einstein of artificial intelligence – will appear and a big leap forward will be made. assuming that the optimistic views hold true, an outlook on a number of challenges that will have to be faced in the research area of artificial intelligence in the future should now be given. for sure, the most challenging goal of research in this area is to achieve consciousness of machines. consciousness of an individual is its subjective experience – to know what it is like to be oneself [26]. metaphorically speaking, the aim is to create a machine that one day opens its eyes and asks us “who am i?” and maybe adds “and who are you?” it does not ask, because we have programmed it to do so, but because it is aware of itself as an individual living being. today, there are many discussions going on in different research communities concerning conscious machines. the fact is brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 20 that we are still far away from this goal. modeling consciousness is last but not least a problem because it is subjective and not measurable. according to [26], not even a human being can be sure about the consciousness of other human beings. consciousness cannot be technically modeled by adding a further function block (the consciousness block) to a brain model. it rather emerges from the sum of all other physiological and mental functions [27]. therefore, to model consciousness, the focus of research has first to be directed towards issues that are a prerequisite for it. we shall further mention some of these issues. one issue that we might have to integrate into machines is constituted by emotions. so far, the role of emotions in thinking and intelligence has widely been ignored. new research results however show that they have a major influence on our thinking and our decision-making processes [20, 28]. in the first model introduced in the last section, as well as in models of some other research groups, the concept of emotions was already integrated. nevertheless, emotions are still a topic needing further thorough investigation from both the perspectives of brain research and engineering. a second point is the embodiment of machines. according to the theory of embodied intelligence, we can never be intelligent and conscious without having a living body that has needs, that has sensors to perceive its environment and its body, and actuators to act on the body and the environment [18]. a third point that might have to be considered when creating artificial intelligent life is survival and reproduction. it is an uncontestable fact that the brain becomes useless as soon as the organism dies. according to the neuroscientist and psychoanalyst mark solms, who tries to give the meaning of life on a scientific basis, the purpose of life is “survival for reproduction” [26]. he further outlines what is necessary to achieve this goal: we as human beings with our body live in an environment – the world. to survive and reproduce, we need to get from the environment food and a partner of the opposite sex for reproduction. for this purpose, we have to be able to perceive the environment and to act on it. all these tasks of perceiving, of evaluating what was perceived, and reacting accordingly are controlled by the brain. the task of the brain is to mediate between the internal needs (i am hungry, i want social interaction) of our body and the environment in which our needs can be satisfied. the brain perceives the environment and the internal needs of our body, evaluates these perceptions, decides what to do, and prepares signals for (re-)acting on the environment. as the whole organism and the brain seem to be designed to achieve the basic goal of survival for reproduction, it might not make sense or even not be feasible to design true artificial intelligence without considering this issue. having mentioned reproduction, a related topic for investigation is evolution. our brain did not evolve from one day to the other but is the result of millions of years of optimization processes through variation and selection. therefore, it might not be the best way to rely on “intelligent design” only but rather to make available mechanisms for self-optimization as it is the case in evolution. in conclusion, it can be said that the research domain of biologically and brain-inspired artificial intelligence is by far not saturated. it is an area where still astonishing discoveries can be made, secrets can be unveiled, and new grounds can be broken. to achieve this, engineers will have to join forces with brain scientists and life scientists and carry out research in a tight collaboration. 5. references [1] wall, b. (2009), artificial intelligence and chess. http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/ai.htm. [2] dietrich, d., sauter, t. (2000), evolution potentials for fieldbus systems. proc. 3rd ieee international workshop on factory communication system (wfcs'00), 343-350 [3] mccarthy, j., minsky, m., rochester, n., shannon, c. (1955), a proposal for the dartmouth summer research project on artificial intelligence brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 21 [4] crevier, d. (1993), ai: the tumultuous search for artificial intelligence, basic books, new york. [5] turing, a. m. (1950), computing machinery and intelligence, mind, 59, 433-460. [6] french, r. m. (1990), subcognition and the limits of the turing test, mind, 99 (393), 5366. [7] weizenbaum, j. (1966), eliza – a computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine, communications of the acm 9 (1), 36–45, january. [8] bruckner, d. (2007), probabilistic models in building automation: recognizing scenarios with statistical methods, phd thesis, vienna university of technology. [9] velik, r. (2008), a bionic model for human-like machine perception, phd thesis, vienna university of technology. [10] dietrich, d., sauter, t. (2000), evolution potentials for fieldbus systems, proceedings of 3rd ieee international workshop on factory communication systems, 343-350. [11] pratl, g. (2006), processing and symbolization of ambient sensor data, phd thesis, vienna university of technology. [12] burgstaller, w. (2007), interpretation of situations in buildings, phd thesis, vienna university of technology. [13] velik, r. (2008), a bionic model for human-like machine perception, vhs verlag. [14] velik, r., zucker, g. (2010), autonomous perception and decision making in buildings, ieee transactions on industrial electronics, article in press. [15] velik, r., boley, h. (2010), neuro-symbolic alerting rules, ieee transactions on industrial electronics, article in press. [16] deutsch, t., lang, r., pratl, g., brainin, e., teicher, s. (2006), applying psychoanalytic and neuro-scientific models to automation, proc. of the 2nd iet international conference on intelligent environments, vol. 1, 111–118. [17] roesener, c. (2007), adaptive behavior arbitration for mobile service robots in building automation, phd thesis, vienna university of technology. [18] palensky, b. (2008), from neuro-psychoanalysis to cognitive and affective automation systems, phd thesis, vienna university of technology. [19] velik, r., bruckner, d. (2009), a bionic approach to dynamic, multimodal scene perception and interpretation in buildings, international journal of intelligent systems and technologies, vol. 4, 1. [20] velik, r. (2010), why machines cannot feel, minds and machines, volume 20, issue 1 118. [21] velik, r. (2010), towards human-like machine perception 2.0, international review on computers and software, article in press. [22] freud, s. (1915), triebe und triebschicksale, in: studienausgabe band 3: psychologie des unbewussten, fischer taschenbuch verlag. [23] freud, s. (1923), das ich und das es, in: studienausgabe band 3: psychologie des unbewussten, fischer taschenbuch verlag. [24] dietrich, d., fodor, g., zucker, g., bruckner, d. (2008), simulating the mind: a technical neuropsycho-analytical approach, springer verlag. [25] lang, r. (2010), a decision unit for autonomous agents based on the theory of psychoanalysis, phd thesis, vienna university of technology, institute of computer technology. [26] barnard, e., palensky, b., palensky, p., bruckner, d. (2008), towards learning 2.0, proceedings of it revolutions, venice. [27] solms, m., turnbull, o. (2002), the brain and the inner world – an introduction to the neuroscience of subjective experience, other press, new york. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 22 [28] velik, r. (2010), from single neuron-firing to consciousness – towards the true solution of the binding problem, neuroscience and behavioral review, volume 34, issue 7 993-1001. [29] damasio, a. r. (1995), descarte’s error: emotion, reason, and the human brain, harper perennial. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 321-336 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/457 submitted: june 24th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 29th, 2023 solidarity and individualism in the gender relations – the dilemma of the power relations within the contemporary couple iulian apostu1 1 researcher, romanian academy, institute of sociology, bucureşti, romania, phdiulian@gmail.com abstract: the general idea regarding the relations between the contemporary marital partners describes the marital relations through a fair and modern attitude. thus, the idea of marital modernity seems already certain and well assimilated in most marital environments. however, the national statistical data do not validate the same balance in terms of marital role equity, the relationships between partners or in terms of the distribution of power within the couple. the culture in which the young people have grown has a greater influence upon them than the glitter of the new values of equity and marital balance. in the 2000 gender barometer, 63% of the respondents believed it was a woman's duty to take care of the household chores, while in 2018, their share was 58%. we can therefore speak of a modernity of mentalities, but a very slow one, as in almost 2 decades, the general evolution in terms of role equity is only 5% and regarding the superior ability of the man to lead the family, the indicators note an evolution of 9.8%. (grünberg, 2019). the contemporaneity surprises the young couple at the intersection between the traditional system and the modern system or at the intersection between the marital modernity and the postmodernity; in both situations, the strategy of managing the solidarity and the access to power is a priority. the study starts from the premise of the fact that the new valences of the marital modernity managed to produce obvious changes in the declared behavior rather than in the actually played behavior. keywords: role distribution, power management within the couple, gender attitude, marital equity/inequity, relational solidarity/individualism. how to cite: apostu, i. (2023). solidarity and individualism in the gender relations – the dilemma of the power relations within the contemporary couple. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 321-336. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/457 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/457 mailto:phdiulian@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/457 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 322 introduction as shown by social studies, the gender equity in the romanian marital space is relative; however, this can be considered a subjective perception. if for some women the social differences between the sexes are a problem, for others the difference is not felt, therefore, nor complained about. in these cases and within certain limits, the social hierarchy has its positive effects. for some women, this state of affairs can be like an expression of convenience due to the comfort of having a clear set of roles and responsibilities; this is a much more socialized and internalized accessible option which guarantees the minimum marital stability experienced in the environment of origin. for other women, the censorship of some socially predetermined roles becomes a double problem regarding the fulfillment, both in terms of their social and professional development and in terms of the entire functional construction of their couple. in this case, the personal autonomy is strongly counteracted by the imperatives of the reference community. the relationships between the partners, the role distribution, the access to decision-making, the gender attitude and the social acceptance appear to be predetermined by the reference community, a fact that considerably diminishes the personal autonomy. in specialized studies, the decisional autonomy, based upon reason and consent is considered to be the expressive autonomy of each individual (sandu, 2020, p. 261). often, there is a difference between the personal opinion and the socially exposed opinion and the partners anticipate the fact that the society values the desirable truth more than that of individual experiences or needs that do not always fall within the classical limits of the social rules. for this reason, goffnan says, individuals would rather play roles and wear this mask of socially desirable attitudes and statements with which they do not always agree. thus, the communication is ritualized and it becomes the expression of a community will (goffman, 2009). the contemporary society cannot be functionally categorized as traditional, however, as a whole, it cannot be considered modern in its entirety either. the evolution from traditionality to modernity and from modernity to postmodernity was gradual and differentiated, depending on each individual's ability to adapt, assimilate and assume the new values of maritality. in this respect, the social impact of the "dissidence" is still being experienced because the socialization of the vast majority of young people solidarity and individualism in the gender relations – the dilemma… iulian apostu 323 took place in the environments of traditional influence of their own families of origin. if we look at it from the perspective of the relationship between a man and a woman, the first need for autonomy is the woman's need. as it evolved in the shadow of tradition, the male status was protected with priority from the perspective of the role assumption, the gender hierarchy and the decision-making priority. the reduction of the traditional imperatives created the premise of a functional reconstruction, providing the women with the necessary openness for personal autonomy, however, on a background of traditional primary socialization. however, the desire for personal and career fulfillment did not always provide the expected effect as the new condition brought men a double (domestic and career) assumption and therefore, more of an overcrowding of roles than autonomy and equity. gradually, this very double assumption offered the woman two important resources of influence in the marital space: the man's dependence on the set of tasks managed by women and, in sufficiently numerous situations, her autonomy and also her financial dominance. from the male perspective, the decrease in traditional imperatives creates the first identity dilemma – the status is no longer supported so much by the tradition and thus, the source of his power is consistently diminished. as he lacks the power that tradition offered him, the contemporary man has two courses of action at hand: he validates his status in the new functional context by assuming the marital equity, or he continues to cultivate his traditional status, by choosing partners who still allow this type of functionality. pleck jopeph (1977) explains this problem starting from the belief that this identity crisis exists because of the pressures put on men due to social, economic, historical and political changes that have forced men to try to meet the many conflicting and contradictory demands made required by the male role. finally men are confused about what they should achieve in order to become socially masculine and they try to overcome the prescribed roles of the traditional concept of masculinity (lemon, 1995). if we look at it from another viewpoint, the diversity of information, especially of virtual sources, creates the premise of new approaches to maritality that can highlight this identity crisis (vlad, 2017, p. 67). the individuals build their marital dreams by referring to their own ideals; they begin to look for their right partner who originates less in the cultural environment of socialization and more in a virtual space where the social control can no longer censor their dreams. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 324 the man and the woman – neuroscience approaches undoubtedly, the social media have influenced the behaviors of men and women or the way someone relates to a man or a woman, and the social mentalities about gender have and will continue to bear the cultural imprint of the environments of origin. the scientific data say that the biological structure of men and women shows some remarkable differences that make the differences in the male or the female manifestation noticeable and which, in the light of new scientific discoveries, highlight a set of qualities in women that are not so well defined in the neuro-psychic structure of men. however, according to a social stereotype, women must be like men if they want to be treated as equals. in the first stages of research on the brain, in the stage where assessments were intuitive rather than concretely demonstrated, it was believed that the weight of the brain also provides the measure of male intelligence in relation to the female intelligence (thesis promoted by titu maiorescu). the modern science has demonstrated that this thesis cannot be supported. since 1881, sofia nădejde offers a series of logical and medical arguments, according to the scientific level of that age. she responds to him in the journal „comportamentul” no. 24/1881 stating that it would be more logical to relate the weight of the brain to the total weight of a man, and such a ratio would rather show the superiority of women in relation to men (popescu, 2004, p. 69). many of the gender differences are determined by hormonal influences on the brain (pletzer, 2015). the human brain is divided into two hemispheres that are connected to each other by a channel of variable size, depending on the gender. the left hemisphere of the brain provides the person with practical sense, logical thinking, vocabulary, speech, deduction, order and so on. the right hemisphere holds the elements of creativity, artistic inclinations, visual, intuition, overall vision and orientation in space and so forth (tudose, 2005, p. 22). neurologist roger gorski confirms that, in the case of women, the channel of communication between the two hemispheres of the brain is thicker, a fact that provides them with a connection between the two hemispheres of about 30% greater. the wider opening of the corpus callosum gives the woman a greater ability to relate and a much more fluent speech than the man (pease & pease, 2008, p.120). these aspects give the women a greater ability to communicate and they are also more empathetic than men (pang et al., 2023). solidarity and individualism in the gender relations – the dilemma… iulian apostu 325 another female quality, an extension of the gender characteristics, is the education of children. her emotional sensitivity, according to her genetic structure, identifies much better the needs and emotions of children and she increasingly tends to impose her ideas on the rising and education of children. then, the genetic makeup of the woman never made her inferior to the man. with superior relational abilities, with innate psycho-social abilities and with many other qualities experienced over time, the woman was in a permanent relationship of equality with the man, although society did not always recognize this condition. because of this, the need to participate in making decisions that are directly related to one's own person remains a permanent necessity. women feel the need for verbal delicacy, intercommunication and permanent mutual assurance of feelings (smalley, 2005, p. 232). if the female way of approaching life is relational, the male is genetically structured differently and he will act instrumentally. the smaller opening of the corpus callosum forces it to react directly, functionally, focused on solving problems. for him, the feminine way of developing certain activities, of communicating certain aspects in detail, seems more difficult to support. the structure of the male brain is not nearly as flexible as that of the female brain. the male brain no longer carries elements specific to one hemisphere to the other. consequently, the flow of information from one hemisphere to the other is more difficult than in women. this particularity forces the man to be as functional and organized as possible in his speech. men's sentences are simpler, the formulations are much better centered on a subject and have an uncomplicated structure: a simple introduction, the issue in brief, the point of view and the conclusion. for this reason, conversations on multiple levels of communication are more difficult for men to manage. the studies carried out on the sick man's brain show that if the left side of the brain is impacted, he loses the ability to speak. also, men who have the right side of the brain partially or totally impacted lose the ability to orient themselves in space, the ability to think three-dimensionally and to rotate objects in the mind to appreciate their angles, shape, and so on. (tudose, 2005, p. 23). the smaller number of nerve connections between the two hemispheres results in a better compartmentalized brain in men. at the end of the day, the woman still analyzes messages, while the man structures them better and sediments them. with a smaller number of connections connecting the two hemispheres, the brain is forced to structure and deposit broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 326 information in specific areas, while the woman can process it more often, so to leave it less structured. the desire to achieve many things, to always achieve success, to be in control and to mark one's spheres of influence make the man more possessive than the woman. consequently, in the system of personal needs, the man sums up the need for ownership, control and self-esteem (smalley, 2005, p.234) methodology the study proposes a quantitative analysis of the dynamics of relationships between men and women from the perspective of approaching the solidarity or the relational individualism and also from the perspective of power management within the contemporary couple. recent studies highlight this state of transition between the 3 major marital systems – traditionalism, modernism and postmodernism. thus, a gap is noticed between the role perceived and the one actually played, an aspect explained by g. w. allport (1981) by the fact that the perceived role is based on the evaluative-affective component, while the role actually played highlights the individual's ability to behaviorally translate the role requirements (iluţ, 2005). for this reason, the study starts from the premise that the difference between the culture in which the individual was socialized and the actual behavior he plays can also be understood as a form of resistance to the imperatives related to which the individual was socialized. thus, the declared behavior becomes the formal role he plays in relation to the social expectation and the actual behavior played is the concrete expression of his own vision of married life. in this context, the logic according to which the solidarity is understood and also the access to power become elements that provide the individual with resources for his own resilience. the research is exploratory and is based on the sociological investigation and the research tool is the questionnaire. regarding the type of sampling, the study is based on the principle of non-random convenience sampling, as the total size is 628 respondents. the study aims to analyze gender opinions regarding the image of couple solidarity and to identify gender strategies for power management in couples. solidarity and individualism in the gender relations – the dilemma… iulian apostu 327 the dilemma of solidarity versus the relational individualism in the contemporary couple the problem of building solidarity in the contemporary married couple is one of the great challenges of socio-psychological analysis because the way in which young people understand solidarity makes it migrate from the initial quality of family function to the consequence of functionality. this new logic of functionality places the individual as the priority of any marital situation and the fulfillment is considered to be an individual act which is not always shared. therefore, each partner sees in the other partner the resource of personal fulfillment and the solidarity is the derivative of the two individual fulfillments. at the level of the entire sample, 61.3% believe the fact that the lack of marital solidarity is one of the factors impacting marital relations and 75% believe that the marital individualism is a generator of conflicts. however, 36.3% agree with the statement that too much trust in the partner impacts the marital relationships. applying the select cases function in spss to identify the profile of this social category highlights the fact that the followers of limited trust are also those who complain about the lack of solidarity of the other partner. therefore, at least for this social category, the solidarity is rather a condition which attributes blame to the other than one assumed by that very person. the assessment by gender indicates that 41.9% of men believe that the increased trust impacts the marital relations, while for women, the registered indicator is 33%, a fact that justifies a greater need for affiliation for women than for men and also a greater empathetic power and empathetic desire of women. looking at the respondents' marital status, 40% of married people and 26.5% of cohabiting people believe that too much trust impacts the marital relations. it is interesting to state that the longevity of some marriages does not correlate with a higher level of relationship quality and that, often, the individual's attitude of self-protection, the unresolved conflicts often translated more into scandals and less into mediation topics and resources, built the premise of relationships devoid of emotional content. in this case, out of the desire for self-protection (the mutual level of trust being diminished), the partners feel that too much trust generates more insecurity than internal cohesion. in the case of cohabiting partners, the social pressure is lessened. as giddens stated, relationships last as long as the love feeling lasts (giddens, 1997). the dissolution and restoration of the relationship no longer bear the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 328 same criticism because society does not evaluate cohabitation status and marital status in the same manner. also, the decision to dissolve is easier for unmarried partners than for married partners. this is why the gradual investment in trust for cohabiting partners has the function of also measuring its impact at the partnership level. the institution of marriage assumes a different group dimension, the elements of trust circulate from one micro-group to another, from one kinship line to another and the effects are more difficult to control. for this reason, the costs of trust are higher for married partners than for those who cohabit and this aspect is also found in the statistical data presented above. by following the same identity crisis mentioned by lemon (1995), the analysis of social indicators becomes slightly counterintuitive – the partners speak of a strategically controlled level of trust in order not to become vulnerable and, also, they also speak at a large extent of the need for joint responsibility and involvement. to the same extent, we are talking about the security of the personal budget, the security of the personal heritage and the fact that the reluctance to get involved in marital relations impacts the stability of the couple. the optics of the ideas, of the response options, often have a double measure: the ideas of good, involvement, the assumption of values often become elements that describe the set of debts of the other, while the elements that build the idea of security, of fulfilling needs are those that are perceived in terms of expectations. the nature of involvement and assumption often appears to be a consistent challenge for some young people and the sense of duty towards the other has diminished considerably. on this aspect, gilles lipovetsky drew attention in the french society since 1993 when he draws attention on the fact that "parallel to the social depreciation of individual debts, the postmodern societies have largely given up promoting the unconditional imperative to honor the debts of inter-individual morality. there are rare places and moments today where the obligation to devote one's life to one's neighbor vibrates: while categorical exhortations to do good deeds are replaced by norms of self-love, the altruistic values have ceased to be moral evidence in the eyes of individuals and families" (lipovetsky, 1996). 67.8% of the respondents declare that the reluctance to get involved in the marital relationship impacts the partnership. among them, 37.1% women and 54.5% men are believe that for the happiness of the couple one has to make a compromise regarding time. also from this category, 22.2% of men and 20% of women believe that for the happiness of the couple one must follow one’s personal interest. and also in this category, 45.5% of men solidarity and individualism in the gender relations – the dilemma… iulian apostu 329 and 20% of women believe that believing too much in marriage is a form of vulnerability. the evaluation of the indicators, using the control variables, shows certain distortions regarding the sense of common duty for married life and their analysis marks the difference between the answer considered to be desirable and the antithesis of one's own behavior and marital expectations. the involvement in the relationship therefore implies the acceptance of compromises at certain times and trust becomes a form of individual vulnerability. generally speaking, the idea of solidarity is associated with maritality to a large extent. almost 82% of the people surveyed consider it to be an important resource for maritality. however, the image of the solidarity indicates some reference to itself and its analysis is not too far from itself. 51.2% of men and 55.5% of women see solidarity as a contextual situation, a momentary situation, not one of permanent value. also from the gender perspective, 34.7% of men and 36.3% of women believe that solidarity is a mistake, each individual having to take care of their personal needs. the solidarity often appears as a contextual situation, not a permanent situation. the logic of the relational individualism does not exclude solidarity manifestations, but it does not ensure its constancy. a partner appears as a source of the other's fulfillment and the momentary solidarity becomes more a form of protecting one's own source of fulfillment than as an expression of dedication to the partner. in this regard, the analysis shows a statistically significant relationship between the solidarity, as a general principle and the solidarity, as an effect of personal fulfillment. thus, the correlation between the variable "solidarity is a basic principle for a marital relationship" and "solidarity is an effect of personal fulfillment" is significant and positive. from the contemporary viewpoint, the happiness within the couple presupposes the existence of two individual plans, each with personal and also with common projections. from this perspective, each partner is trained, both in the personal realm and in that of the partner. the logic of giving is conditioned by the logic of receiving and this codependency builds the reason to be together, each needing the other for each other’s own fulfillment. the two fulfillments create common happiness and the old function of solidarity becomes only an effect of the two individual fulfillments. and also in this sense, 35.4% of the respondents believe solidarity to be a mistake because each partner should take care of his own needs. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 330 this attitude towards solidarity can find its origin in the very logic of the initial merger – the partner is seen as a resource of personal fulfillment. individuals no longer feel like giving too much to the other because they can no longer measure the risks of doing so. in this sense, the awareness of the previous failures will have a strong effect on future relationships. roussel specifies this aspect in the french society in 1989: "all the choices reveal, without a doubt, more or less of the previous biographies of the partners. the dramatic failure of a love experience, for example, will lead to a less ambitious conception of solidarity and to forms of connection in which prudence leads to other tendencies" (roussel, 1989, p. 150) the idea of solidarity is not excluded from the general logic of the marital manifestation of the young generations, but it no longer has its initial value – that of the function of the couple or family. the concept of solidarity is closely related to the initial optics – that of the romantic fusion. the decision to be together matters because everyone sees their partner as a resource of personal fulfillment. for this reason, the solidarity is defined as being more of a situation of context, the partners showing their support, rather to protect their resource of personal fulfillment than from an independent principle, culturally assimilated from the families of origin. martine segalen draws attention to the fact that the optics of marital relations are constantly changing and the old phrase "the family is the basic cell of society" must be changed to "the individual is the basic cell of society" (2011). individuals see themselves, first of all, as autonomous and then as part of the couple, and the interaction between them targets the sets of individual needs that help them feel motivated and fulfilled through the couple. for the situation of the romanian couples, the analysis of the relationship between the temporary nature of solidarity and the solidarity, as a form of yielding in favor of the other, shows a degree of positive correlation of medium intensity (sig .000, pearson correlation .529). the correlation highlights once again the impermanent nature of the solidarity. approximately 35% of the entire sample does not give solidarity a functional value, as it was defined in the classic theories of the family. the analysis of this profile highlights the fact that 77.3% of them are female. the women's solidarity is often understood as solidarity in relation to the social norm and women no longer wish to return to the old structures of the marital manifestation. the analysis of the classical functional structure as well as the modern structured highlighted in all studies the inequitable nature of the gender relations, role relations and the access to decisions. the solidarity solidarity and individualism in the gender relations – the dilemma… iulian apostu 331 with the social norm that defined the relationships between partners generated a state of inequity that is today demandingly counteracted by the attitude of the contemporary women. and, as expected, the share of individuals who see solidarity as a mistake or a momentary state has urban origins up to 81.8%. power and dominance within the couple the optics of understanding solidarity will also influence the power relationship between the partners because they establish boundaries of interaction and fulfillment is, only in the background, a shared state. the analysis of the relationship between solidarity, as a wrong attitude, and the desire to control the relationship shows a low-level positive correlation. at the level of the entire sample, 14.5% of all respondents believe that a secure marital relationship is one in which they feel they can have control. the analysis of this category highlights the fact that 61.1% are women and 83.3% of them come from urban environments. 32.8% of the respondents believe that for a safe married life, it would be best for one partner to be able to influence his or her partner's decisions. an important aspect is the fact that the gender ratio is equal, 50% of the respondents are women and 50% are men. in terms of the marital status, 57.1% are married and, as for their backgrounds, 85.7% come from urban areas and 24.3% come from rural areas. the access to the decision-making process, the possession of the resources for domination ensures the individual the guarantee of his own fulfillment. there is already an obvious male evolution towards the benchmarks of an equitable relationship, both in the form of assuming roles and in the gender attitude. however, the new functionality benchmarks prioritize the individual and this aspect makes each partner build resources and strategies to have access to the decision but also to hold the power in the couple. one of the main resources of power within a couple remains the financial capacity of each of the members of the couple, the tendency to have greater influence in the decision-making process is that of the partner with the best financial situation. as highlighted in the table below, individuals who have higher incomes than their partner's, have a greater tendency to want to influence the decisions in the couple's life. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 332 a safe matrimonial relationship is one in which i feel i can influence my partner's decisions in general, your income is: disagreement neither agreement nor disagreement agreement higher than your partner's 22,9% 31,8% 45,3% lower than the partner's 35,5% 29,0% 35,5% the same as the partner's 34,5% 34,5% 31% source: authors' own conception also, the study also analyzed the opinions regarding the idea that "to be happy in a couple, you need to know your partner's weaknesses." thus, the statistical data highlighted the fact that 48% of the respondents agree with this opinion. the analysis of this profile shows that 42.9% of the respondents have incomes lower than those of their partners and 38.1% have incomes equal to their life partner’s. the willingness to use the weaknesses of the life partner can have as an explanatory hypothesis the counterbalancing of the power ratio between the partner who contributes a larger share of the budget and the other partner who manages his or her weaknesses. the approach by gender is no longer as different as in the case of the indicators above, but it is statistically significant, the share of women in this category being 58.4% and that of men, 41.6%. the analysis by age category of the study highlights two big stages in the partners' strategy of using the other's weaknesses. first of all, there is a gradual increase in the desire to manipulate and maintain marital power and control, since the beginning of the couple. age categories exploiting your partner's weakness 18 20 years old 16,7 % 21 23 years old 19,4 % 24 27 years old 27,8 % 28 39 years old 11,1 % 40 years old and over 25,0 % source: authors' own conception often, the claim of manipulation is at most an exchange between partners as each are under the impression of dominating/manipulating the other, and the pearson correlation between the two variables finds a positive, medium-level degree of association. solidarity and individualism in the gender relations – the dilemma… iulian apostu 333 correlations in marital relationships, women tend to manipulate men most often, men are aware of their female partner's manipulations in marital relationships, women tend to manipulate men pearson correlation 1 .578** sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 119 114 most often, men are aware of their female partner's manipulations pearson correlation .578** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 114 115 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). source: authors' own conception correlations in marital relationships, men tend to manipulate women most often, women are aware of men's manipulations in marital relationships, men tend to manipulate women pearson correlation 1 .567** sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 120 117 most often, women are aware of men's manipulations pearson correlation .567** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 117 118 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). source: authors' own conception the use of manipulation or its claim appear as mutually controlled resources of dominance; however, each for the achievement of individual goals and needs. by the nature of the intimate interaction, that of role communication or in the relationships with family subsystems the partners make their weaknesses and limits obvious and their use shows the degree of individualism of the marital relationship. the development of such strategies to achieve goals subsequently creates mindsets and actions of prevention and individual protection for each of the partners. against this background, many stereotypes are created that fuel the state of dysfunction of the partners. one of these is the need for the male manipulation in order to meet the demands of life partners. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 334 the analysis of the correlation tables shows a continuous female concern to adapt men for married life and, for this reason, their techniques for maintaining control and power in the couple seem to be useful. thus, between the variable "women lead family life best" and the variable "women know best what is useful for a couple's life" there is a high degree of association (pearson correlation .868, sig. 000). as the indicators regarding the distribution of domestic tasks in the contemporary couple also show, most of the tasks are controlled and directed by women. in this process, the construction of functional behaviors associated with what appears to be useful in a couple life stimulates women to use all their available resources for their fulfillment. women's management of the domestic group provides them with both control and dominance resources. today's contemporaneity offers the woman the opportunity to manage her own marital relationship contrary to the old traditional prescriptions, therefore, the old concept of "the woman, the mistress of the house" changes its valence from the quality of submissive to that of dominant. conclusions the evaluation of the social indicators resulting from the study shows a paradigm shift regarding the type of marital union. the contemporary social trends capture a moment of value intersection between the classic trends of the family, those with traditional role influences and the modern and postmodern ones of marital coexistence. the main functional transformation is observed in the form of building solidarity, the partners relying more and more on personal fulfillment through the couple. society still receives cultural influences on how to fulfill marital functions and the roles associated with them; therefore, we find modern statements but traditional behaviors and we also find individualistic orientations in terms of personal fulfillment. as highlighted above, women have an obvious direction for the modernization of gender relations, for the equity of domestic tasks, but they still assume the direct roles as well as those of coordinating the activities that define the broad sum of domestic tasks. happiness tends to be viewed more and more as a personal project, not a project shared by the couple, with respondents consistently being in favor of the idea that in order to achieve happiness as a couple, your needs are the most important. also, the construction of happiness is increasingly linked to the idea of compromise. happiness is an individual construction and the partner is a resource of personal fulfillment. the compromise is a solidarity and individualism in the gender relations – the dilemma… iulian apostu 335 concession to the other and the fulfillment of the other's needs is a condition of reciprocity for the personal fulfillment. from the analyzed data, compromise is more common in men than in women, and also in manipulation strategies, most often, women use manipulation techniques more often than their partners. this is also the context for which solidarity can no longer be considered a function but, rather, a consequence thereof – solidarity being an effect of the each individual happiness. the reconstruction of the idea of solidarity and also the structural fluctuations that define the new valences of the marital functionality sometimes fuel the feeling of insecurity, a fact that stimulates the need for self-protection. the study demonstrates a greater need for autonomy for women, as they are much more disadvantaged by the functional imperatives of the marital tradition. today, partners discuss and accept the idea of the couple solidarity, but they see it more as a context than as a permanent status. the permanence presupposes the assumption and this contradicts the new logic of the maritality – the relational individualism. for this reason, almost a third of the respondents want to be able to influence their spouse's decisions in order to have power and control in their own relationship. references allport, g. w. (1981). stuctura şi dezvoltarea personalităţii [the structure and development of personality]. editura didactica şi pedagogica. giddens, a. (1997). transformarea intimităţii. manual sexual pentru elite [the transformation of intimacy. sex manual for elites]. antet. goffman, e. (2009). viaţa cotidiană ca spectacol [everyday life as a show]. comunicare.ro. grünberg, l. (coord.). (2019). barometrul de gen: românia, 2018 [the gender barometer: romania, 2018]. hecate. iluţ, p. (2005). sociopsihologia şi antropologia familiei [sociopsychology and family anthropology]. polirom lemon, j. (1995). masculinity in crisis?, empowering women for gender equity [online]. agenda, 11(24), 61-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.1995.9675400 lipovetsky, g. (1996). amurgul datoriei [dusk of duty]. babel. pang, c., li, w., zhou, y., gao, t., & han, s. (2023). are women more empathetic than men? questionnaire and eeg estimations of sex/gender differences https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.1995.9675400 javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 336 in empathic ability. social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 18(1), nsad008. https:// doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsad008 pease, a., & pease, b. (2008). de ce bărbaţii sunt neglijenţi, iar femeile, mereu prevăzătoare [why men are careless, and women, always prudent]. curtea veche. pleck, j. h. (1977). the work-family role system. social problems, 24(4), 417–427. https://doi.org/10.2307/800135 pletzer, b. (2015). from sex differences in neuroscience to a neuroscience of sex differences: new directions and perspectives. frontiers in neuroscience, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2015.00330 popescu, l. (2004). politica sexelor [gender politics]. maiko. roussel, l. (1989). la famille incertaine. editions odile jacob. sandu, a. (2020). autonomy and informed consent in the context of a pandemic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 260-276. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 segalen, m. (2011). sociologia familiei [sociology of the family]. polirom. smalley, g. (2005). când unu plus unu fac noi [when one plus one makes us]. curtea veche. tudose, c. (2005). gen şi personalitate. psihologie feminină şi psihologie masculină [gender and personality. female psychology and male psychology]. tritonic. vlad, l. (2017). the family, where to? from the "solid" perspective to "liquid" perspective. postmodern openings, 8(1), 67-80. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/2017.0801.06 https://doi.org/10.2307/800135 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2015.00330 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/87 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/2017.0801.06 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 94-105 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/305 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 interdisciplinarity in complex therapeutic approach of psychiatric patients with dysfunctional syndrome of the stomatognated system laura elisabeta checherita¹, lucian ştefan burlea2, bogdan petru bulancea3, iulian costin lupu4, liana aminov5, ioana rudnic6, tudor hamburda7, cristina antohi8, raluca elena baciu9, roxana ionela vasluianu10, ovidiu stamatin11 1 odontology, periodontology and fixed prosthesis department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universității street, 700115, iasi, romania. 2 public health and management, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 13 grigore ghica voda street, 700259, iasi, romania, lucianburlea@yahoo.com 3 oral-implantology, dental prostheses technology and removable dentures department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universității street, 700115, iasi, romania, bulancea20@gmail.com 4 public health and management, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 13 grigore ghica voda street, 700259, iasi, romania. 5 odontology, periodontology and fixed abstract: diseases in the maxillofacial sphere and especially the dysfunctional syndrome of the stomatognathic system have many connections and interferences with the psychiatric pathology and why not last, but not least the appearance and aesthetics that have an impact on social life and success. on the other hand, there has been a significant increase in the use of antipsychotics in recent decades. the negative impact on oral health has also increased. the ability to diagnose mental illness is essential due to the social stigma associated with these disorders and a correct differential diagnose as well. this article describes the oro-dental rehabilitation of one case, psychiatrically treated, with mandibular and maxilla missing teeth and dental destruction and prosthetic damage, temporomandibular disorders pathology due to the disbalanced occlusion and depression and anxiety, with specific medication, fixed and removable hybrid prosthesis and intra oral complex rehabilitation. keywords: fixed dental prosthesis, edentation, depression, psychiatric treatment, oro-dental rehabilitation, temporomandibular disorders. how to cite: checherita, l.e., burlea, l.s., bulancea, b.p., lupu, i.c., aminov, l., rudnic, i., hamburda, t., antohi, c., baciu, r.e., vasluianu, r.i., & stamatin, o. (2022). interdisciplinarity in complex therapeutic approach of psychiatric patients with dysfunctional syndrome of the stomatognated system. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 94-105. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/305 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/305 mailto:lucianburlea@yahoo.com mailto:bulancea20@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/305 prosthesis department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universității street, 700115, iasi, romania. 6 odontology, periodontology and fixed prosthesis department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universității street, 700115, iasi, romania. 7 odontology, periodontology and fixed prosthesis department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universității street, 700115, iasi, romania. 8 odontology, periodontology and fixed prosthesis department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universității street, 700115, iasi, romania. 9 oral-implantology, dental prostheses technology and removable dentures department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universității street, 700115, iasi, romania. 10 oral-implantology, dental prostheses technology and removable dentures department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universității street, 700115, iasi, romania. 11 oral-implantology, dental prostheses technology and removable dentures department, faculty of dental medicine, grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy, 16 universității street, 700115, iasi, romania. interdisciplinarity in complex therapeutic approach of psychiatric patients … laura elisabeta checherita, et al. 96 introduction in general, for the therapeutic solution of stomatognathic dysfunctions, various and multiple means of treatment are used, which can be grouped in a prophylactic and a curative orientation. in this phase, the prophylaxis of the dysfunctions of the stomatognathic system means in fact the prophylaxis of the dento-maxillary anomalies, of the anomalies of the muscular engrame, of the tics and vicious habits and the orthodontic adjustment must be subordinated to the gnathological functional principles (de hert et al., 2011; haddad & sharma, 2007). most of the time, the omission of important notions of gnathology makes the orthodontic treatment to be carried out sometimes on anatomical-geometrizing or anthropological bases, forcing the growth and development factors not in functional senses, but to correspond to morphological, static patterns. exemplification from the literature (burlui, 2002), from this point of view, includes some morpho-geometric principles that dogmatically dominate orthodontics: mandibular incisors to make 90º with the mandibular plane and 65º with the frankfurt plane (tweed), the orientation of the first molars, so that the line passing through the distovestibular and mesio-lingual cusps meets the canine on the opposite side (rickets) etc (lupu et al., 2016a; lupu et al., 2016b). but the application in any clinical case of these formulas and the ignoring of the functional balance that is created at the level of the stomatognathic system means in fact the activation of other points generating stomatognathic dysfunctions (feldman et al., 2004; miodownik et al., 2011; swager & morgan, 2011; tripathi, 2005; woods, 2003). clinical case presentation the patient b.g., 65 years old, female, retired. father's history: none. mother's history: alzheimer's disease. reasons why the patient went to the dentist: the patient came to us to redo the dial bridge 3 and restore the functions of the stomatognathic system. first, the anamnesis procedures, the medication taken, the clinical examination of the joint and muscles in the affected temporomandibular area where there was pain (fig. 1). then, the paraclinical examinations, cat scan, orthopantomography and the study model (fig. 2) were established. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 97 figure 1. clinical examination: palpation and inspection of temporomandibular joint and the symmetry aspect of the face for clinical diagnose of dysfunctional syndrome of the stomatognathic system. source: authors’ own conception figure 2. paraclinical examination model study/ orthopantomographic images and tmj cat scan. source: authors’ own conception we can notice the working stages at the dental periodontal level and the adaptation of the fixed works and the occlusal readjustment (fig. 3). interdisciplinarity in complex therapeutic approach of psychiatric patients … laura elisabeta checherita, et al. 98 figure 3. pro-prosthetic preparation (pre-prosthetic preparation): preparation for pre-prosthetic steps management of case treatment including plastic coronal reconstruction, endodontic treatment gingivectomy and preparation for uni-dental prosthesis. source: authors’ own conception figure 4. adaptation and finale images of rehabilitation treatment. source: authors’ own conception discussions from the point of view of plastic reconstructions, the restoration of the coronary volume in sub-occlusion, although it protects the obturation or the walls of the cavity from occlusal forces, limits the support area, overloads the other contact areas, realizing the conditions of a dysfunction of the whole system. for this reason, whenever the correct occlusal relief cannot be reconstituted by plastic fillings, it is good to apply inlay-onlay therapy, according to black i, ii, iii, iv classes, or observing the principles of preparations and the retention means, or by means of the crowns of the brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 99 cover for the purposes of a correct restoration of the cusps and the support areas. we also mention the fact that all coronary filling materials have a lower abrasion resistance than enamel, reason for which their occlusal face depreciates shortly after application favouring the overload of other teeth and the extrusion of antagonists. we can mention that the material of the crown components, especially metal-ceramic coatings must be in accordance with the principles of realization as iatrogenesis can be created due to abrasion and fracture that can occur in case of defective and uncorrected occlusion. periodontal therapy can prevent the occurrence of dysfunctions of the stomatognathic system by restoring periodontal health, reducing/ disappearing mobility, limiting the phenomena of dental migration and removing traumatic inclined planes. the reduction of parafunctions, of vicious habits prevents the installation of occlusal, periodontal, articular, muscular changes that can sometimes be accentuated, taking serious and irreversible forms. the diagnosis of altered functions must be followed carefully, followed by phonetic re-education, mastication, swallowing, and sometimes mimicry (sigmatism, unilateral mastication, swallowing by interposing the tongue between arches, orofacial dyskinesia). following surgery, sequelae appear that affect the main functions of the stomatognathic system. limiting surgical sequelae, practicing conservative surgery, functional re-education after surgery, are some of the objectives of surgical prophylaxis of stomatognathic system dysfunctions. prosthetic treatment finds its role in the prophylaxis of stomatognathic dysfunctions by fixed prosthetic restorations, such as metalceramic or all-ceramic joint prosthesis that prevent the migration of teeth to the edentulous spaces, reconstituting the occlusion surfaces of the maxillary and mandibular arches shortened or interrupted by oedema. by prosthetic restoration of the edentulous arches, the occlusal tampon is reconstituted, which takes over the masticatory and swallowing forces, relieving the temporo-mandibular joint. the masticatory force increases, and, at the same time, the masticatory efficiency increases, ensuring the stomatognathic system the conditions of an optimal morphological framework for the development of functions and thus a normal trophicity of the tissues that enter its composition (scarff & casey, 2011; tani et al., 2012). the curative therapy itselfthe treatment of the dysfunctions of the stomatognathic system aims for the mental rebalancing, the muscular relaxation, the treatment of the pain, the mandibula-cranial repositioning, the occlusal-articular rebalancing, using medicinal, physiotherapeutic interdisciplinarity in complex therapeutic approach of psychiatric patients … laura elisabeta checherita, et al. 100 (grewal et al., 2014) prosthetic methods. within this complex therapy it is necessary a staging of the treatment phases, which will take place over more or less long periods, depending on the severity of the clinical case, for complete recovery surgical therapy is sometimes inevitable. in the same time, the necessity of a good and complete recovery can avoid the forensic aspects claims (radu et al., 2016; radu et al., 2017). the treatment of dysfunctions of the stomatognathic system includes a complex of therapeutic, medicinal, and non-drug methods (prosthetic, physiotherapeutic, surgical), whose action is intricate, so that the therapy of pain, for example, from antirheumatic, muscle relaxation and mandibular repositioning cannot be precisely delimited. mental rebalancing of older-adult patients with stomatognathic dysfunction can be done by psycho-therapeutic and medicinal means (burlea et al., 2010; carausu et al., 2017). psychic irritation factors that lead to the maintenance of conflict states in social microclimates triggered the dysfunctional syndrome of the stomatognathic system (ameida et al., 2012; damian et al., 2017; dobri et al., 2020; munech & hamer, 2010). in psychic rebalancing therapy, drugs (medications) with hypnotic, sedative, tranquilizing action can be used. from this point of view, hypnotic sedatives are of great clinical utility, whose administration leads to a decrease in the activity of some areas of cortical excitation. the mechanism of action aims to inhibit the activity of the motor neuronal chain, starting with the cortical motor neuron and ending with the neuro-muscular junction. to depress the activity of cortical motor neurons, some medicinal substances described in psychic rebalancing therapy act: sedative hypnotics, minor tranquilizers, major tranquilizers. in addition to the above, for the purpose of a short-term motor inhibition, which would interrupt the reflex circuits, general anaesthesia can be used in the services with appropriate equipment. minor tranquilizers such as meprobamate, diazepam, oxazepam have also shown muscle relaxant properties. through their action on the limbic system, they reduce psycho-emotional lability and anxiety (damian et al., 2017). thus, we can mention from the literature that meprobamate is indicated for its double effect of sedation and relaxation, in cases of bruxism. due to its mild analgesic action, which is added to the sedative, tranquilizing and relaxing ones, meprobamate is a drug with good effects in stomatognathic dysfunctions. diazepam is administered 2 mg three times a brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 101 day, increasing the dose to 20-40 mg/day in 3-4 doses. dose increases for both drugs can be made depending on the patient's tolerance and the severity of the case. medazepam is a tranquilizer with a very mild sedative action, which makes it recommended for daytime use. medication with psychotropic drugs (sedatives, tranquilizers, anxiolytics) does not actually suppress the determining factor, but rather one of the predisposing factors. psychotropics have the disadvantage that they keep the patient in a "psychiatric" environment that create the conditions for the installation of a drug addiction. in addition, a prolonged administration can have the following side effects: hypoxia, wakefulness disorders, side effects. analgesic therapy is always used concomitantly with psychotropic therapy that potentiates the action of these drugs. the treatment of pain with analgesics is only a palliative therapy because it does not suppress the cause, but only diminishes the effect, so that, after the period of action of the analgesic drug, the pain reappears. however, analgesic therapy has a recognized importance in the treatment of dysfunctions of the stomatognathic system, it being necessary to restore the patient's mental comfort, as well as to help him go through difficult periods until the cause is suppressed. in the treatment of pain in dysfunctional syndromes of the stomatognathic system, the indication of choice is given by antirheumatic analgesics, which also have antipyretic side effects. subsequently, physiotherapy and kinesitherapy (movement therapy, gymnastics) are performed, they are more and more frequently used in the treatment of stomatognathic system dysfunctions (burlui, 2002; checherita et al., 2009; lupu et al., 2015) to obtain a more pronounced muscle relaxation, to educate normal mandibular movement patterns, to ensure a normal joint functionality, removal of tics and parafunctions. nevertheless, an accurate and complete therapy in such cases should look at all times to the ethical and legal aspects which are involved (toader et al., 2017). as we have exemplified in this case a patient with mental disorders, joint damage, rheumatism, hypertension, which occurred after the related medication in the sphere of psychiatric stomatognathic rehabilitation (checherita et al., 2017; cristache et al., 2019; morley, 2002; radulescu et al., 2020; tatarciuc & panaite, 2001; zegan et al., 2017a; zegan et al., 2017b; zegan et al., 2018; zegan et al., 2019), having a dissatisfaction due to the impossibility of achieving functionality but also aesthetics at stomatognathic level. interdisciplinarity in complex therapeutic approach of psychiatric patients … laura elisabeta checherita, et al. 102 conclusion as shown by the rehabilitation of the patients in the study, we can conclude that drug therapy was necessary to rebalance the mental and muscular level. this is followed by the stabilization of the occlusion, providing a geometry to rearrange the clinical parameters, and restoring functionality of the stomatognathic system. the complex treatment applied provided well-being and comfort and contributed to the increase of the quality of life and the level of acceptance of the patients. references ameida, p., johann a., alanis l., lima a., & grégio a. (2012). antidepressants: side effects in the mouth. in m. s. virdi (ed.). oral health care (pp.113128). http://doi.org/10.5772/37693 burlea, g., burlea, a. m., & milici, r.c. (2010). prevention and intervention in speech and language therapy for the success of lexicographical acquisitions. revista de cercetare şi intervenţie socială, 30, 86100. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/40-volumul-302010septembrie/315prevention-and-intervention-in-speech-and-language-therapy-for-thesuccess-of-lexicographical-acquisitions.html burlui, v. (2002). cranial-mandibular malrelations. apollonia printing house. cărăuşu, e. m., dascălu, c. g., zegan, g., burlea, l. s., lupu, i. c., & antohe, i. (2017). the general and oral health status in older adults from rural environment of iasi county, romania. revista de cercetare şi intervenţie socială, 59, 187-208. https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/147-volumul592017decembrie/2402-the-general-and-oral-health-status-in-older-adultsfrom-rural-environment-of-iasi-county-romania.html checherita, l. e., rezus, e., leon, m. m., stamatin, o., & cărăuşu, e. m. (2017). impact of medication with diclofenac sodium vs. etoricoxibum in patients with inflammatory rheumatic pathology, prosthetic complications and algo-dysfunctional syndrome. revista de chimie, 68(5), 977-981. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.5.5594 cristache, c. m., totu, e. e., beuran, i. a., cărăuşu, e. m., totu, t., & burlibasa, l. (2019). virtual models obtained via intraoral scanning as alternated to clinical evaluation and betahemihidrate plaster models. revista de chimie, 70(10), 3753-3758. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.10.7640 damian, s. i., bulgaru iliescu, d., rohozneanu, a., glodeanu, a., diac, m., david, s., & hunea, i. (2017). the role of educational measures for juvenile offenders in forensic psychiatry. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 9(3), 140-156. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/160 http://doi.org/10.5772/37693 https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/40-volumul-302010septembrie/315-prevention-and-intervention-in-speech-and-language-therapy-for-the-success-of-lexicographical-acquisitions.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/40-volumul-302010septembrie/315-prevention-and-intervention-in-speech-and-language-therapy-for-the-success-of-lexicographical-acquisitions.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/40-volumul-302010septembrie/315-prevention-and-intervention-in-speech-and-language-therapy-for-the-success-of-lexicographical-acquisitions.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/147-volumul-592017decembrie/2402-the-general-and-oral-health-status-in-older-adults-from-rural-environment-of-iasi-county-romania.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/147-volumul-592017decembrie/2402-the-general-and-oral-health-status-in-older-adults-from-rural-environment-of-iasi-county-romania.html https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/147-volumul-592017decembrie/2402-the-general-and-oral-health-status-in-older-adults-from-rural-environment-of-iasi-county-romania.html https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.5.5594 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.10.7640 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/160 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 103 de hert, m., correll, c. u., bobes, j., cetkovich-bakmas, m., cohen, d., asai, i., detraux, j., gautam, s., möller, h. j., ndetei, d. m., newcomer, j. w., uwakwe, r., & leucht, s. (2011). physical illness in patients with severe mental disorders. prevalence, impact of medications and disparities in health care. world psychiatry, 10(1), 52-77. http://doi.org/10.1002/j.20515545.2011.tb00014.x dobri, m. l., voinea, a. i., moraru, c., nechita, p., & ciubara, a. (2020). psychosis: between dreams and perceptual reality. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 146-152. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/130 feldman, p. d., hay, l. k., deberdt, w., kennedy, j. s., hutchins, d. s., hay, d. p., hardy, t. a., hoffmann, v. p., hornbuckle, k. d. v. m., & breier, a. (2004). retrospective cohort study of diabetes mellitus and antipsychotic treatment in a geriatric population in the united states. journal of the american medical directors association, 5(1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1525-8610(04)70042-0 grewal, h., sharma, h., rajpal bhatia, m. s., & choudhary, r. (2014). oral health of non-institutionalized psychiatric patients: a dentist perception. delhi psychiatry journal, 17(1), 44-7. http://www.delhipsychiatricsociety.com/journal.html haddad, p. m., & sharma, s. g. (2007). adverse effects of atypical antipsychotics: differential risk and clinical implications. cns drugs, 21(11), 911-936. https://doi.org/10.2165/00023210-200721110-00004 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., mihaila, d., burlea, m., & ciubara, a. (2015). heterotopic gastric mucosa in the distal part of esophagus in a teenager: case report. medicine, 94(42), e1722. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., paduraru, g., ciubara, a. m., ioniuc, i., ciubara, a. b. & burlea, m. (2016a). the study of effects regarding ingestion of corrosive substances in children. revista de chimie, 67(12), 2501-2503. http://bch.ro/pdfrc/lupu%20v%2012%2016.pdf lupu, v. v., ignat, a., ciubotariu, g., ciubară, a., moscalu, m., & burlea, m. (2016b). helicobacter pylori infection and gastroesophageal reflux in children. diseases of the esophagus, 29(8), 1007-1012. https://doi.org/10.1111/dote.12429 miodownik, c., lerner, v., & witztum, e. (2011). pisa syndrome and laryngeal dystonia induced by novel antipsychotics. the israel journal of psychiatry and related sciences, 48(3), 195-200. https://cdn.doctorsonly.co.il/2011/12/2011_3_10.pdf http://doi.org/10.1002/j.2051-5545.2011.tb00014.x http://doi.org/10.1002/j.2051-5545.2011.tb00014.x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/130 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1525-8610(04)70042-0 http://www.delhipsychiatricsociety.com/journal.html https://doi.org/10.2165/00023210-200721110-00004 https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000001722 http://bch.ro/pdfrc/lupu%20v%2012%2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/dote.12429 https://cdn.doctorsonly.co.il/2011/12/2011_3_10.pdf interdisciplinarity in complex therapeutic approach of psychiatric patients … laura elisabeta checherita, et al. 104 morley, j. (2002). macroaesthetic elements of smile design. journal of the american dental association, 132, 39–45. https://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.2001.0023 munech, j., & hamer, a. m. (2010). adverse effects of antipsychotic medications. american family physician, 81(5), 617-622. https://www.aafp.org/afp/2010/0301/p617.html radu, c. c., podila, c., camarasan, a., bulgaru iliescu, d., & perju dumbrava, d. (2017). ethical professional-personal model of making decisions in forensic medicine. romanian journal of legal medicine, 25(3), 314-316. https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2017.314 radu, c. c., & bulgaru iliescu, d. (2016). claims of “uniqueness” in forensic medicine. romanian journal of legal medicine, 24(4), 343-345. https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2016.343 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 scarff, j. r., & casey, d. a. (2011). newer oral atypical antipsychotic agents: a review. p & t : a peer-reviewed journal for formulary management, 36(12), 832–838. swager, l. w. m., & morgan, s. k. (2011). psychotropic induced dry mouth: don’t overlook this potentially serious side effect. current psychiatry, 10(12), 54-58. https://cdn.mdedge.com/files/s3fs-public/document/september2017/1012cp_medpsych.pdf tani, h., uchida, h., suzuki, t. et al. (2012). dental conditions in patients with schizophrenia: a large-scale multi-site survey. bmc oral health, 12, 32. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6831-12-32 tatarciuc, m. s., & panaite, s. (2001). tehnologia protezelor unidentare. casa de editura venus. tripathi, k. d. (2005). essentials of medical pharmacology (4th ed.). jaypee brothers medical publishers. toader, e., balan, g. g., iliescu, d. b., & perju dumbrava, d. (2017). ethical and legal medicine aspects related to hepatic encephalopathy. romanian journal of legal medicine, 25(1), 125-127. https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2017.125 woods, s. w. (2003). chlorpromazine equivalent doses for the newer atypical antipsychotics. the journal of clinical psychiatry, 64(6), 663-667. https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.v64n0607 zegan, g., moscu, m., cernei, e. r., cărăuşu, e. m., & sodor botezatu, a. (2019a). antimicrobial effect of of drug incorporated nanoparticles against oral pathogens. revista de chimie, 70(12), 4445-4447. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.12.7774 https://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.2001.0023 https://www.aafp.org/afp/2010/0301/p617.html https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2017.314 https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2016.343 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://cdn.mdedge.com/files/s3fs-public/document/september-2017/1012cp_medpsych.pdf https://cdn.mdedge.com/files/s3fs-public/document/september-2017/1012cp_medpsych.pdf https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6831-12-32 https://doi.org/10.4323/rjlm.2017.125 https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.v64n0607 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.12.7774 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 105 zegan, g., cărăuşu, e. m., golovcencu, l., botezatu, a.s., cernei, e. r., & anistoroaei, d. (2017). nanoparticles deposition on mini-implants for osseo-integration and antibacterial properties improvement. revista de chimie, 68(12), 2929-2931. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.12.6009 zegan g., golovcencu, l., cernei, e. r., cărăuşu, e. m., & anistoroaei, d. (2018). structural and morphological characteristics of hybrid nanomaterials type ascorbic acid-hydrotalcite used for stimulating salivary secretion. revista de chimie, 69(5), 1244-1246. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.18.5.6299 zegan g., cernei, e. r., cărăuşu, e. m., golovcencu, l., & anistoroaei d. (2019b). structural characteristics of drug intercalated hydrotalcites used in dental medicine. revista de chimie, 70(4), 1215-1217. https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.4.7094 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.17.12.6009 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.18.5.6299 https://doi.org/10.37358/rc.19.4.7094 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 188-206 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/312 submitted: september 22th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 17th, 2022 determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on correctional support of children with psychophysical disorders hanna afuzova¹, zoya ogorodniychuk2, vitaliy pavelkiv3, olena mamicheva4, olesia prokofieva5, kseniia androsovych6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, gvafuzova@gmail.com 2 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, zogorodniychuk@gmail.com 3 rivne state university of the humanities, ukraine, pavelkiv.v@gmail.com 4 state higher educational institution «donbas state teacher’s training university», ukraine, lena_sk_74@ukr.net 5 bogdan khmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, prok.olesya@gmail.com 6 institute of gifted child of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, ksn@ukr.net abstract: this article is devoted to highlighting theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of professional orientation of future special psychologists on correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders. on the basis of the structural components of professional orientation of special psychologists developed by us, the main determinants of professional orientation of future specialists on correctional support of children with psychophysical developmental disorders were determined, specifically: in the study of the motivational-target component of professional orientation of the future specialists in the field of special psychology, we focused on the study of the dominant motives for choosing a profession; on formation of a humanistic orientation; on the meaningful life orientations of the individual; exploring the emotional and gnostic component of the professional orientation of future psychologists for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders, represented by sensory and informational structures, we paid attention to formation and objectivity of understanding future professional activities, its requirements for the personality of a specialist; on the attitude to the future profession and to the process of mastering it; identification with the subjects of future professional activity; to the level of development of empathy, altruism, attraction and congruence; the regulatory component of the professional orientation of future special psychologists on correctional support of children with psychophysical disorders was studied taking into account the level of maturity of professional self-esteem and professional prognosis. keywords: components of orientation, training program, special psychologist, humanistic approach, professional interest, empathy, professional identity. how to cite: afuzova, h., ogorodniychuk, z., pavelkiv, v., mamicheva, o., prokofieva, o., & androsovych, k. (2022). determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on correctional support of children with psychophysical disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 188-206. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/312 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/312 mailto:gvafuzova@gmail.com mailto:zogorodniychuk@gmail.com mailto:pavelkiv.v@gmail.com mailto:lena_sk_74@ukr.net mailto:prok.olesya@gmail.com mailto:ksn@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/312 determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on … hanna afuzova, et al. 189 introduction the system of psycho-correctional support for children with mental disorders is in its initial stage of development. the content of education of psychologists involves fundamental psychological training, but a strong theoretical basis is supported by fragmentary psychological practice, which is represented only by the main types of professional activities – psychodiagnostics and psychocorrection. this does not take into account the fact that the specifics of each professional activity lies in its inherent terminology, specific ways of action and behavior (huidu, 2020), a peculiar nature of the activities of participants in the process, special internal states of the subjects of interaction. as a result, there is a practical and personal unpreparedness of graduates for implementation of appropriate psychocorrectional support for children with mental and physical disorders. there is an issue of special professional training, formation and development of certain professionally oriented personal qualities that would ensure the full value of this type of psycho-correctional care. based on the theoretical analysis of scientific sources (arkes & garske, 1982; sheremet et al., 2019), we concluded that it is necessary to clearly define the specifics of professional activities of a special psychologist, especially recognizing the need for qualified correctional support during inclusion of this group of children in the environment of peers with normal level of development. in the course of work, teachers, students and parents turn to a practical psychologist in case of developmental problems, difficulties in learning and relationships. the focus of the practical psychologist’s attention was gradually shifted towards predicting and preventing such difficulties, which in turn required radical changes in the professional activities of school practical psychologists. at the same time, similar tasks, but with the category of more complex cases (“abnormal”, “defective” children), were solved by defectology and related sciences, which studied both significant developmental disorders of children (mental retardation, blindness, deafness, etc.) and less pronounced (mental retardation, developmental disorders with minimal brain dysfunction, erased developmental disorders, etc.). thus, children of some categories fell under the study of both practical psychology and defectology, which served to optimize care for such children, taking into account the experience of interacting sciences, which was supplemented by mutual enrichment of theory and practice. as a result of expanding contacts with developed western countries, the worldview of society shows global changes, including in the perception brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 190 and attitude of people with mental and physical disorders: the ideas of human rights, social responsibility, humanization of society, etc. were increasingly proclaimed. domestic researchers had had the opportunity to get acquainted with the experience and research of foreign colleagues in the field of education, which in accordance with the un convention on the rights of the child highlights the concept of co-education of children with disabilities and children who develop normally. in the current social situation, the changes primarily affected the educational system (both general and special), which, in turn, expanded the requirements for professionals involved in the problems of development, education and upbringing of children. all this contributed to increasing attention to psychological knowledge about children with mental and physical disorders. the pedagogical higher educational establishments of the country are faced with the need to train specialists who comprehend the system of psychological knowledge about children with atypical development, understand their difficulties, know peculiarities of their education and life activities. the academic discipline “special psychology” was included in the curricula of state standards as a mandatory discipline of vocational education. the specialization of a psychologist, whose professional activity is related to children with psychophysical disorders, received a similar name (fedorishin, 1988). a specialist who specializes as a special psychologist must be trained to work with children and adults with mental and physical disorders, including the following: mental; of cognitive development; of hearing and sight; of musculoskeletal system; of speech; emotional disorders, including early child autism; behaviour and activities, as well as with severe complex disorders. also, a special psychologist must be able to work with family members of individuals with mental and physical disorders; with teachers and social workers who provide training, rehabilitation and social support to the specified contingent. psychological features of professional orientation of future psychologists on the correctional support studying the experience of training psychological personnel and program documents of other post-soviet countries, we came to the conclusion that the training program for a special psychologist should include: – knowledge of general psychological, psychophysiological, clinical and psychological principles of study and correction of abnormalities in the determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on … hanna afuzova, et al. 191 mental development of children, taking into account their individual and age characteristics; – mastering the methodological, theoretical and applied aspects of prevention and correction of disorders in the mental development of children with congenital or acquired defects of the sensory, motor, intellectual and emotional spheres; – theoretical analysis of domestic, foreign directions and methods of correctional and rehabilitation training; – knowledge of applied aspects of stimulation of compensatory possibilities of psyche and development of personality of children; – mastering the methods of organizing a humane social environment that promotes development of compensatory mechanisms of behaviour, as well as psychological and pedagogical principles of design and organization of situations of joint activities in the system “teacher-childparents”; – knowledge of methods of organizing a system of complex psychological, medical and pedagogical services (www.edu.ru/db/cgibin/portal/spe/list_search.plx?substr=022700; www.edu.ru/db/cgibin/portal/spe/list_search.plx?substr=031900). a specialist in the field of special psychology must possess the following: – the ability to conduct a psychological examination to determine the level of mental development, compliance with the age standards; methods of differential diagnosis to determine the type of deviations; ability to formulate a psychological conclusion; – methods of counselling people with developmental disorders, their parents (guardians) and teachers on issues of education, development, life and professional self-determination; – methods of psychoprophylactic work aimed at creating a favourable psychological climate in the educational and rehabilitation institution, family; – skills and abilities to develop and implement correctional and educational programs; methods of psychological correction; knowledge of prevention and methods of correction of habits that are harmful to health, the means of protection against the adverse effects of the social environment; – ways to provide psychological assistance in dangerous and emergency situations of natural, man-made and social origin; – skills for organizing and conducting research work. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 192 the specialist should be prepared to work in educational and medical institutions, as well as in social protection institutions of various types, which provide assistance to children and adults with developmental disorders: in psychological-medical-pedagogical commissions, psychologicalmedical-social centres, groups of short-term stay of mass kindergartens, in special preschool and school educational institutions of various types, in rehabilitation centres of health care and social protection system, in orphanages and boarding schools, psychoneurological boarding schools and clinics. the leading types of professional activity of a special psychologist are: 1) diagnostic-analytical, expert – differential diagnostics to determine the type of disorders, to formulate a psychological conclusion; 2) consultative, psychoprophylactic – counselling of children and adults with developmental disorders, parents and teachers on issues of education, development, life and professional self-determination; conducting a psychological and pedagogical examination to determine the level of mental development, compliance with age norms; conducting psychoprophylactic work aimed at creating a favourable psychological climate in the educational institution, psychoprophylactic work with staff; providing psychological assistance to families; providing psychological assistance in dangerous and emergency situations of natural, man-made and social origin; 3) socio-pedagogical, educational – planning and conducting activities for socio-psychological prevention in the process of teaching and education, career guidance, assistance in socialization of students, implementation of personality-oriented approach to education and development of children; formation of spiritual, ethical values and moral beliefs in people with psychophysical disorders; application of modern psychological and pedagogical technologies; 4) correctional and developmental, rehabilitation – psychological support of the process of education and upbringing of children with developmental disorders; application of modern scientifically substantiated and most adequate methods of psycho-correctional work, in particular technical means of training and diagnostics, information and computer technologies; 5) cultural and educational – formation of general and psychological culture of participants in the educational process and the immediate social environment of children with mental and physical disabilities; determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on … hanna afuzova, et al. 193 6) research, scientific-methodical – performance of scientificmethodical work, participation in the work of scientific-methodical associations; self-analysis and self-assessment in order to improve one’s skills; development and implementation of correctional and educational programs; 7) organizational and managerial – ensuring protection of life and health of students during the educational process; maintaining school and classroom documentation; organization of control over the results of education; organization and holding of extracurricular activities, etc. (www.edu.ru/db/cgi-bin/portal/spe/list_search.plx?substr=022700; www.edu.ru/db/cgi-bin/portal/spe/list_search.plx?substr=031900). the profession of special psychologist belongs to the general group of professions, which are determined by “person-person” orientation. shadrikov (1982) identified the following general features for the professions of the system (p p): orientation of an individual to the field of interpersonal relations, a high level of communication skills, the ability to empathize (empathy), the ability to adequately perceive and evaluate people; purity, clarity and expressiveness of speech; pronounced facial expression and behaviour, the ability to control oneself and influence others. klimov (2010) gave the most complete description of the subject of activity with such orientation in his systematic researches. professions of this type require a creative mind, the ability to clearly imagine, to model the possible consequences of people’s actions, a pronounced ability to predict, including empirical. there are also special requirements for self-regulation of this type of profession. it is necessary to constantly improve one’s knowledge and skills, the need to monitor the changing processes of the social movement and reorganize in accordance with them. speech defects, slurred speech, isolation, low level of sociability, slowness, indifference to people, lack of signs of selfless interest in people, etc. are undesirable professional characteristics (klimov, 2010). an important quality of a psychologist is his personal and social maturity. in our opinion, personal maturity presupposes independent solution of one’s own life problems, openness, tolerance and sincerity towards people. social maturity provides an opportunity to help others solve their problems effectively. based on the research of isaeva & chebotarev (2001), we came to the conclusion that the personality of a specialist in the field of special psychology differs by an urgent need for social cognition. in this case, the interest in another person as an object of professional activity of the above specialists is not related to satisfaction of other needs, such as the need to brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 194 confirm their own personal significance and a sense of power (nerubasska et al., 2020; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; sheremet et al., 2019). the professional activity of a specialist in the field of special psychology is axiologically manifested in implementation of the humanistic approach to personality. aminov & molokanov (1992), danylova (2004) and others drew attention to this. as isaeva & chebotarev (2001) point out, the humanistic orientation of professional practice-oriented activity presumes that specialists are willing to understand and be tolerant of another person, trying to be useful, to bring good. a necessary prerequisite for activity in this area is the ability to empathize with another person. development of empathy “as a moral quality” is closely related to the surrounding reality, and its psychological features are: reflection of condition of an individual; reflection of “objects and phenomena, on the basis of which emerge certain needs, goals and motives of a person who is in a certain emotional state”; active action “... undertaken by a subject experiencing a certain empathic feeling and in a certain way reflecting the objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality” (krotenko, 2001, p. 158). professionally important qualities are: observation, which is aimed at behavior, manifestations of the mental state of an individual; sensitivity, decency, helpfulness. a comprehensive list of professional requirements for a special psychologist is given below. thus, the effective solution in the future of various occupational and psychological problems largely depends on the availability and level of maturity of professionally important components of the personality of a special psychologist: – professional and personal qualities, such as: reflexivity, empathy, adequacy and consistency of self-esteem, sensitivity, affiliation, altruism, tolerance, absence of chronic intra-personal conflicts; – integrity of the “self-concept” of the specialist, which affects the content and context of corrective action; – professionally important social-cognitive and communicative skills: listening to another person, establishing social contact, convincing another person, inspiring, etc.; – professionally important qualities and properties of attention, perception, imagination, thinking (attentiveness, observation, ability to notice details in verbal and nonverbal behaviour; flexibility, plasticity and dynamism of thinking, ability to predict reactions and actions of a child; reflect on oneself and others, model the consequences works, etc.); – psychophysical and mental qualities that allow to define the nervous system of a psychologist as quite stable, strong, stress-resistant, and, determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on … hanna afuzova, et al. 195 at the same time, quite flexible and plastic, which causes high efficiency and self-regulation of personality, lack of tendency to mental arousal and rapid exhaustion; – projective, acting, even directing (for example, in training or in group psychocorrection) and organizational skills that allow one to effectively implement game tools and psychotechnics, group tools of psycho-correctional, developmental and psychotherapeutic work. the level of maturity of the above-mentioned psychological components of the personality of a specialist in the field of special psychology largely ensures productivity of professional activity and competence in solving psychological problems and providing qualified psychological counselling, the prerequisite for formation of which is professional orientation. the review-critical analysis of the literature on the problem of personality orientation allowed us to consider professional orientation as a psychological readiness for the chosen professional activity, which is expressed in cognitive interest, needs, values, beliefs, worldview, professional ideas and professional intentions. professional orientation acts as a basic construct that determines specifics of the profession of a psychologist and significantly affects his professional and personal success, manifesting itself in both stable personality traits and situational mental states associated with professional activities. this understanding of professional orientation is the basis for experimental research and identification of psychological features of the development of professional orientation of future special psychologists for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders. theoretical study of issues of personal and professional development of a psychologist during his studies at the university and the study of components of professional orientation for correctional support of children with psychophysical disorders allowed to put forward the basic assumption that professional orientation of a special psychologist has specific characteristics, associated with the peculiarities of this professional activity, is a major factor in the effective correctional support of this category of children and requires experimental research. the main determinants of professional orientation for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders among the objectives of our study there is development of an adequate methodology for researching the professional orientation on brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 196 correctional support for children with mental and physical disorders to determine its psychological characteristics and levels of development, as well as studying its dynamics in the process of university training of future specialists in special psychology. to achieve this task, it is necessary to identify the main determinants of professional orientation of future special psychologists for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders, the study of which will provide an opportunity to build an objective holistic picture of this process. scientific research of professionally oriented personal determinants of the psychologist’s activity has traditionally been focused on the analysis of professionally important qualities, abilities and skills. professional orientation is a subjective phenomenon, it is the result of professional selfdetermination of an individual, which can result in a positive, uncertain or negative attitude towards the future profession. when researching the professional orientation of students, it is necessary to first pay attention to the following parameters: motivation to choose the profession and the degree of satisfaction with it; steady interest in future professional activity; self-assessment of own compliance with the requirements of the chosen profession; realistic ideas about the future profession and the availability of professional plans, etc. defining the determinants of professional orientation of future special psychologists for correctional support of children with psychophysical disorders, we identified them based on the structural components of professional orientation: motivational-target, emotionalgnostic and regulatory. motivational and target component of the professional orientation of the future psychologist for correctional support of children with psychophysical development disorders reflects the dominant motives for choosing and mastering the profession, their stability; formation of humanistic orientation; semantic life orientations of the individual. the emotional-gnostic component of the professional orientation of future psychologists on the correctional support of children with psychophysical disabilities is represented, in our opinion, ideas about future professional activity, its requirements for the personality of the specialist; attitude to the future profession and the process of mastering it; professional identification; empathy, tolerance, altruism and attraction; professional reflection. the regulatory component of the professional orientation of future psychologists on the correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders determines formation and development of professional determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on … hanna afuzova, et al. 197 self-esteem; professional self-preservation; professional forecasting and anticipation, as well as facilitation mechanisms and the sense of responsibility for the results of their own professional activities. in studying the motivational-target component of the professional orientation of the future specialist in the field of psychology, we focused on the study of the dominant motives for choosing the profession; on formation of a humanistic orientation; on the meaningful life orientations of an individual. at the present stage of development of society, the problem of conscious, balanced enrolling in a higher education establishment is relevant. therefore, the motives for choosing a future profession, in our opinion, can serve as indicators of the level of professional orientation of future psychologists for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders, which will affect effectiveness of both vocational training and further professional activity. according to yaroshenko (1983), the motives for choosing a profession are reduced to professional interest, public duty and self-assessment of professional suitability. studying professional interests as determinants of choosing a profession, she came to the conclusion that all professional interests are divided into two groups: group a – direct professional interests, which include general-professional, professional-specific, situational and romantic; group b – indirect professional interests, specifically: professional-cognitive interest, interest in self-education, interest in prestige, interest in parallel opportunities, naive-selfish and unidentified interests. regarding public duty, yaroshenko (1983) identified the following set of motives for choosing a profession – motives for duty, which are formed during the individual’s awareness of one’s own socially useful activities: responsibility for professional duties, striving for the highest level of professionalism, innovation in performance and organization of professional activity, general altruistic and civil aspirations. self-assessment of professional suitability was considered by the author as a relationship between the quality of self-esteem and the psychophysiological personality traits that students used to determine selfesteem (yaroshenko, 1983). the motives for choosing a profession are closely related to the motives for enrolment into a higher education establishment and characterize the attitude of students to the chosen professional activity. shavir (1981, pp. 217-218) singled out five components in the structure of professional orientation, which can be considered motives for choosing a profession: 1) professional interests and inclinations – procedural motivation brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 198 of activity, which expresses the need for the specifics of this profession; 2) reflection of the peculiarities of the profession in the public consciousness – prestige, social significance; 3) personal needs that are relevant in connection with the profession – self-realisation, self-affirmation, material needs, personality traits, etc.; 4) features of self-awareness in interaction with the profession – belief in one’s suitability, mission, abilities, etc.; 5) interest in external, objectively insignificant attributes of the specialty. this takes into account “the content and depth of professional interest, taking into consideration its position in the system of motives for professional orientation”. in the study of gubaidullina (2000), the motives for choosing a higher education establishment are considered as one of the indicators of students’ professional orientation. she also found a mostly unmotivated choice of university in a large number of students, which was mostly based on the desire to obtain higher education. the next problem of optimizing the educational and cognitive activities of students, which affects development of adequate and sustainable professional orientation, is the study of issues related to the meaningful orientations of the individual. in our study, the above-mentioned orientations are well-known needs, which are often focused on in post-soviet and western psychology (asmolov, 1983; orlov, et al., 1981): achievement, cognizance, dominance, affiliation. we believe that these needs are decisive in the motivationaltarget component of professional orientation for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders because: – the need to achieve implies the desire of the individual to improve the results of their own activities and is closely related to such personality traits as determination, perseverance, high adequate level of demands, efficiency, etc.; – the cognizance need characterizes a person’s desire to expand experience and knowledge, to understand and systematize one’s own knowledge, erudition, curiosity, the desire to be competent (orlov, 1981); – affiliative tendencies of the individual are understood as the need of a person to establish, maintain and strengthen emotionally positive relationships with others, which are closely related to such concepts as tolerance, empathy (zabrodin & sosnovsky, 1989); – domination is understood as the desire to govern, to influence other people in order to change their behaviour, attitudes, intentions, ideas, judgement; as the desire for organizational activities, leadership, etc.; but determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on … hanna afuzova, et al. 199 with insufficiently developed organizational abilities, domination is transformed into a manipulative form of communication. maturity of humanistic orientation is viewed upon as an aptitude to integral sensitivity to the subjects, process and results of psychological activity (aminov & molokanov, 1992). such well-known psychologists as semichenko & galus, (2003), panok et al., (2016) emphasize that the main tool of psychological influence is the personality of a practical psychologist, the leading characteristic of which is the humanistic orientation, expressed through the perception of an individual as a unique value, through the ability to empathize and support. in dissertation research of danylova (2004) humanistic orientation is presented as “a multicomponent structure, which includes: a high level of motivation to master the profession, which is dominated not only by cognitive but also altruistic, empathetic motives for working with people; willingness to cooperation and optimistic focus on the positive result of psychological influence; a balanced system of existentialhumanistic values and value orientations; a high level of the ability to reflection and self-knowledge”. humanistic orientation is especially important when working with children with mental and physical disorders, so we consider it an indicative determinant when considering the level of professional orientation to the correctional support of such children. examining the emotional and gnostic component of the professional orientation of future psychologists for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders, represented by sensory and informational structures, we paid attention to the maturity and objectivity of the idea of future professional activity, its requirements to the personality of a specialist; on the attitude to the future profession and to the process of mastering it; identification with the subjects of the future professional activity; to the level of development of empathy, altruism and attraction. in the context of professional orientation of students’ personalities, an important role is played by the idea of future professional activity and a positive attitude to it, which is an important factor in increasing the students’ success and efficiency of their future professional activity. one of the conditions for formation and development of adequate and sustainable professional orientation of future psychologists for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders is a preliminary development of their objective understanding of the professional activities of specialists in special psychology. usually, a professional representation is understood as a set of certain information about the chosen profession and about the professional activity in general, which is owned by the subject (lyubimova, 2002). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 200 most scholars (lyubimova, 2002; markova, 1996; obnosov, 1998; panok et al., 2016; zeer, 2006) are convinced that the system of professional ideas is rather a complex structure, which includes semantic and emotional aspects. in studying the emotional and gnostic component of professional orientation for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders, we are more interested in the emotional aspect of the system of professional ideas, i.e., students’ attitudes to the psychological profession, to children with mental and physical disorders, to themselves as special psychologists. development of subjective professional ideas, which is not accompanied by their psychological and pedagogical correction, leads to formation of “narrow models of the future profession, hindering further professional growth” (obnosov, 1998). in the structure of professional orientation for psycho-correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders, along with professional ideas, professional identity also plays an important role. identity is a system of the most general ideas about oneself and one’s place in the world. it also involves self-awareness as a professional. but professional selfdetermination is not reduced to a one-time choice, it begins long before the event, and lasts after it as long as continues further training and mastery of the profession. azbel (2004) identifies four statuses of professional identity that reflect the stages of professional self-determination: • uncertain professional identity: the choice of further way is not made, clear ideas about career are absent, but the person does not even set such a purpose; • forced professional identity: an individual has formed ideas about their professional future, but they are forced from the outside (for example, from parents) and are not the result of an independent choice; • moratorium (crisis of choice) of professional identity: an individual is aware of the problem of choosing a profession and is in the process of solving it, but the most appropriate option has not yet been determined; • mature professional identity: professional plans are defined, which is the result of a conscious independent decision (gladkaya, 2006). the next and one of the obligatory determinants of professional orientation on corrective support of children with mental and physical disorders is empathy – the ability to respond emotionally, to empathize with another person. as noted by krotenko (2001), empathy should be considered as a socio-psychological trait of an individual, which is a set of socio-psychological abilities. “such abilities include: the ability to react emotionally to the experiences of another person and mentally transfer determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on … hanna afuzova, et al. 201 oneself into the thoughts, feelings, and behaviour of another person; the ability to use ways of interacting that alleviate suffering of another person”. krotenko (2001) determined that in the optimal case, the development of empathy involves transition from compassion to empathy. compassion is expressed in the emotional response to the grief or joy of another person that arises at the moment of passive contemplation of an empathogenic situation, while empathy is “the ability of a person not only to see suffering of another person in an empathogenic situation, but also to deeply understand their essence, undertake active action aimed at resolving the empathogenic situation”. boyko (1996) draws attention to the accompanying characteristics of empathy. he believes that attitudes that promote or hinder empathy, respectively, facilitate or complicate the action of all empathy channels. the effectiveness of empathy is reduced if a person seeks to avoid personal contact, considers it inappropriate to show interest in another person, convinced oneself to be calm about the experiences and problems of others. such attitudes sharply limit the range of emotional sensitivity and empathic perception. the penetrating ability in empathy is regarded by boyko (1996) as an important communicative trait of a person, which allows to create an atmosphere of openness, trust. identification is another prerequisite for successful empathy. this is the ability to understand another person on the basis of empathy, putting oneself in the place of a partner. the basis of identification is lightness, mobility and flexibility of emotions, the ability to imitate (raigorodsky, 2002). as noted by krotenko (2001), empathic feelings affect the volitional qualities of an individual. being in an empathogenic situation directs the individual to conscious activity, purposefulness and orderliness of behaviour. volitional regulation of the empathic response is determined by conditions in which it occurs. closely related to empathy altruism is “a rule of moral activity that recognizes as the duty of an individual to put the interests of other people and the common good above personal interests” (meshcheryakova, zinchenko, 2007), attraction is a special kind of social attitude to another person based on formation of a stable emotionally positive assessment of it; “... friendly type of relations between people, their sympathies for each other” (meshcheryakova, zinchenko, 2007) and congruence – “authenticity, openness, honesty … it is a question of experiencing one’s own feelings, of their openness to oneself and other people … a special mode of effective brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 202 work of any facilitator (psychotherapist, consultant, teacher, parent)” (meshcheryakova, zinchenko, 2007). the regulatory component of the professional orientation of future psychologists on the correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders was studied by us taking into account the level of maturity of professional self-esteem and professional prognosis. let’s consider this issue in more detail. analysis of the psychological and pedagogical literature revealed that the system of professional ideas is rather a complex structure, which includes semantic and emotional aspects. when studying the regulatory component of professional orientation for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders, we were interested in the content aspect, which assumes that students have ideas about features of the chosen profession (the image of the profession) and professionally significant qualities of the specialist (the image of the professional). the success of the specialist is determined not only by the level of professional knowledge, skills and abilities, but also the degree of maturity of professionally important personal qualities. the process of forming the image of a professional involves development of students’ ideas about professionally important qualities of a specialist, which are the basis for assessing their own compliance with the requirements of the chosen profession, i.e., for development of professional self-esteem. a sufficiently high level of knowledge about the objective content, conditions and prospects of future professional activity, as well as the necessary professional qualities is an important condition for both the validity of choosing a profession and creative mastery of future specialty and enjoyment of its implementation. in our opinion, the ability to make professional predictions is an equally important determinant of professional orientation for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders. professional prediction provides an opportunity to reliably foresee the results of their own activities and actions, the activities of other people, some events, on the basis of which one can build tactics of current behaviour, choose adequate methods of action, etc. (regush, 1997). also, professional prediction involves planning of the way to achieve professional goals with definition of the main stages, ways and means, possible obstacles and ways to overcome them; development of professionally important qualities and success in mastering professional activity; plays an important role in assessing the completion of professional development, in the ability to identify and adjust the compliance of professional activities in accordance with the determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on … hanna afuzova, et al. 203 requirements of the specialty, etc. (saraeva, 2003). slyusareva (2007) singled out a practical component in the structure of a special psychologist’s readiness for psychocorrectional work with children, closely linking it with analytical, design, reflective and prognostic skills, which, in our opinion, reflect an individual’s ability to build a plan of professional self-actualization. conclusions it is found that the main determinants of professional orientation for correctional support of children with mental and physical disorders are: dominant motives for choosing and mastering the profession; maturity of humanistic orientation; meaningful life orientations of the individual, maturity and objectivity of ideas about future professional activity, its requirements for the personality of a specialist; positive attitude to the future profession and to the process of mastering it; identification with the subjects of future professional activity; high level of development of empathy, altruism and attraction; maturity of an adequate professional self-assessment and professional prediction. based on this, the psychological features of the professional orientation of future psychologists for correctional support, which determine the highest level of its maturity, should be considered a clear humanistic orientation, mature professional motives for the public benefit of their own activities; well-developed altruistic tendencies, empathy in its active form, high level of communicative tolerance, real optimism; adequate professional self-esteem, which is formed on the basis of the existing objective image of the profession and personality of the specialist; high level of self-control and self-regulation, which are reflected in increased stress resistance and responsibility for one’s own professional activities. references aminov, n. a., molokanov, m. v. (1992). o komponentah spetsialnyih sposobnostey buduschih shkolnyih psihologov [about the components of the special abilities of future school psychologists]. psihologicheskiy zhurnal [psychological journal], 13(5), 104-110. arkes, h. r., & garske, j. p. (1982). psychological theories of motivation. monterey. brooks cole publishing company. asmolov, a. g. (1983). o predmete psihologii lichnosti [on the subject of personality psychology]. voprosyi psihologii [psychology issues], 3, 119-125. https://asmolovpsy.ru/ru/publications/4 https://asmolovpsy.ru/ru/publications/4 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 204 azbel, a. a. (2004). osobennosty formyrovanyya statusov professyonalnoy ydentychnosty [features of the formation of the status of professional identity]. (extended abstract of candidate’s thesis). saint petersburg. boyko, v. v. (1996). energiya emotsiy v obschenii: vzglyad na sebya i drugih [the energy of emotions in communication: a look at yourself and others]. moscow. danylova, t. n. (2004). formuvannia humanistychnoi spriamovanosti osobystosti maibutnoho praktychnoho psykholoha [formation of the humanistic orientation of the personality of the future practical psychologist]. kyiv fedorishin, b. a. (1988). sistema profinformatsionnoy rabotyi so starsheklassnikami [system of professional informational work with high school students]. radyanska shkola. gladkaya, i. v. (2006). diagnosticheskie metodiki predprofilnoy podgotovki: uchebnometodicheskoe posobie dlya uchiteley [diagnostic methods of pre-profile training: a teaching aid for teachers]. publishing house karo. gosudarstvennyiy obrazovatelnyiy standart vyisshego professionalnogo obrazovaniya: 022700 “klinicheskaya psihologiya” (kvalifikatsiya psiholog, klinicheskiy psiholog, prepodavatel psihologii) [state educational standard of higher professional education: 022700 “clinical psychology” (qualification psychologist, clinical psychologist, teacher of psychology)]. (2000). ministry of education of the russian federation. gosudarstvennyiy obrazovatelnyiy standart vyisshego professionalnogo obrazovaniya: 031900 “spetsialnaya psihologiya” (kvalifikatsiya – spetsialnyiy psiholog) [state educational standard of higher professional education: 031900 “special psychology” (qualification – special psychologist)]. ministry of education of the russian federation. gubaidullina, a. g. (2000). didakticheskie usloviya formirovaniya professionalnoy napravlennosti lichnosti studentov–bilingvov [didactic conditions for the formation of the professional orientation of the personality of bilingual students]. (candidate’s thesis). kazan state university. https://www.dissercat.com/content/didakticheskie-usloviyaformirovaniya-professionalnoi-napravlennosti-lichnosti-studentov-bil huidu, a. (2020). education for practicing medicine as a vocation and it’s advantages in crisis situations. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(2sup1), 152-161. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2sup1/301 isaeva, n. i., chebotarev, s. s. (2001). k voprosu o kriteriyah professionalnogo rosta lichnosti psihologa [on the question of the criteria for professional growth of the personality of a psychologist]. in e. n. shiyanova, i. b. kotova, s.v. nedbaeva (eds.), lichnost ххі veka: teoriya i praktika [personality of the xxi century: theory and practice] (pp. 398-409). armavir. https://www.dissercat.com/content/didakticheskie-usloviya-formirovaniya-professionalnoi-napravlennosti-lichnosti-studentov-bil https://www.dissercat.com/content/didakticheskie-usloviya-formirovaniya-professionalnoi-napravlennosti-lichnosti-studentov-bil https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.2sup1/301 determinants of professional orientation of future psychologists on … hanna afuzova, et al. 205 klimov, e. a. (2010). psihologiya professionalnogo samoopredeleniya [psychology of professional self-determination]. publishing center “academia”. krotenko, v. i. (2001). psihologicheskie osobennosti empatii podrostkov [psychological features of adolescent empathy]. (candidate’s thesis). national pedagogical dragomanov university. lyubimova, g. yu. (2002). predstavleniya psihologov-starshekursnikov o svoey buduschey professionalnoy deyatelnosti [undergraduate psychologists’ ideas about their future professional activities]. moscow state university bulletin, 2, 64-73. markova, a.k. (1996). psihologiya professionalizma [psychology of professionalism]. prosveschenie. meshcheryakova, b.g., zinchenko v.p. (2007). sovremennyiy psihologicheskiy slovar [modern psychological dictionary]. praym-evroznak. https://www.twirpx.com/file/80729/ nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 obnosov, v.n. (1998). predstavlenie o professii kak faktor professionalnogo samoopredeleniya uchaschihsya ptu [the concept of the profession as a factor of professional self-determination of vocational school students]. moscow. orlov, a.b. (1981). sklonnost i professiya [addiction and profession]. znanie. panok, v. h. (ed.) (2016). psykholohichna sluzhba [psychological service]. nikatsentr. raigorodsky, d. ya. (2002). praktichskaya psihodiagnostika. metodiki i testyi [practical psychodiagnostics. techniques and tests]. publishing house “bahrakh-m”. regush, l. a. (1997). psihologiya prognozirovaniya: sposobnost, ee razvitie i diagnostika [psychology of forecasting: ability, its development and diagnosis]. vyshha shkola. saraeva, e. v. (2003). psihologicheskie osobennosti professionalnogo samoprognozirovaniya lichnosti buduschego pedagoga [psychological features of professional selfprediction of the personality of a future teacher]. (extended abstract of candidate’s thesis). kursk. semichenko, v. a., galus, a. m. (2003). psihologiya napravlennosti: uchebno-metodicheskoe posobie [psychology of orientation: teaching aid]. khmelnitsky. shadrikov, v. d. (1982). problemyi sistemogeneza professionalnoy deyatelnosti [problems of the system genesis of professional activity]. nauka. https://www.twirpx.com/file/80729/ https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 206 shavir, p. a. (1981). psihologiya professionalnogo samoopredeleniya v ranney yunosti [psychology of professional self-determination in early adolescence]. pedagogika. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 slyusareva, e. s. (2007). preodolenie barerov v protsesse formirovaniya gotovnosti spetsialnyih psihologov k psihokorrektsionnoy rabote s detmi [overcoming barriers in the process of forming the readiness of special psychologists for psychocorrectional work with children]. (extended abstract of candidate’s thesis). https://www.dissercat.com/content/preodolenie-barerov-vprotsesse-formirovaniya-gotovnosti-spetsialnykh-psikhologov-k-psikhoko yaroshenko, v. v. (1983). shkola i professionalnoe samoopredelenie uchaschihsya [school and professional self-determination of students]. radyanska shkola. zabrodin, yu. m., sosnovsky, b. a. (1989). motivatsionno-smyislovyie svyazi v strukture napravlennosti cheloveka [motivational and semantic connections in the structure of a person’s orientation]. voprosyi psihologii [psychology issues], 6, 100-108. http://voppsy.ru/issues/1989/896/896100.htm zeer, e. f. (2003). psihologiya professiy: dlya studentov vuzov [psychology of professions: for university students]. akademicheskiy proekt, ekaterinburg: delovaya kniga [academic project, ekaterinburg: business book]. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://www.dissercat.com/content/preodolenie-barerov-v-protsesse-formirovaniya-gotovnosti-spetsialnykh-psikhologov-k-psikhoko https://www.dissercat.com/content/preodolenie-barerov-v-protsesse-formirovaniya-gotovnosti-spetsialnykh-psikhologov-k-psikhoko http://voppsy.ru/issues/1989/896/896100.htm microsoft word preface_brain_second_issue _jeff__barni.rtf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences editor in chief of the journal: bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors of the special issue: barna iantovics, petru maior university, targu mures, romania marius măruşteri, university of medicine and pharmacy, targu mures, romania rodica-mariana ion, valahia university of targoviste, romania; national institute of research and development for chemistry and petrochemistry icechim, bucharest, romania roumen kountchev, technical university of sofia, bulgaria preface the primary aim of this special issue entitled advances in applied sciences was to make some necessary preparative steps, by collecting state of the art research papers, towards beginning the project entitled “electronic health records for the next generation medical decision support in romanian and bulgarian national healthcare systems” abbreviated as nextgenelectromedsupport, a bilateral cooperative research project between romania and bulgaria having as directors from bulgaria prof. dr. roumen kountchev, technical university of sofia and from romania senior lecturer dr. barna iantovics from petru maior university of targu mures. this special issue covers themes related to the theories and applications of areas such as complex systems, artificial intelligence and the medical and pharmaceutical sciences. the papers included in this special issue shed light upon some introductory and advanced problems in the following areas: research findings in nanomedicine; photodynamic therapy; dielectric analysis of porous silicon nanochannels; mathematical modeling as well as plausible and paradoxical reasoning based on dezert-smarandache theory. this includes aspects such as quantitative and qualitative reasoning information fusion and web portal applications (web portal applications include internet applications and ontology’s; collaborative virtual environments which allow virtual collaboration among geographically distributed people); elearning; drug-delivery; applications in cerebral aneurysm; asymmetric model of the lung structure; photoelectrocatalytic materials; assessment of human bio-behavior during gait process; understanding service composition; business processes modelling; structural stability and chaos; formulation and study of some controlled release tablets and mathematical proprieties of complex networks. forthcoming in the nextgenelectromedsupport project will be two editions of the international workshop on next generation intelligent medical decision support systems, held in the next couple of years. the 2011 edition will be held in romania at petru maior university, followed by the 2012 edition that will be held at the technical university of sofia. editors of the special issue & editor in chief of the b.r.a.i.n. journal ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 175-206 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/413 submitted: august 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 28th, 2023 determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students according to the opinions of parents, teachers and students cigdem hursen1, hasan karaokçu2, teyfide tecel hatipoğlu3, şahin karasalih4, dinara suhanberdyyeva5, doğuş beyoğlu6 1 curriculum and instruction department, near east university, nicosia, cyprus, cigdem.hursen@neu.edu.tr 2 turkish republic of northern cyprus prime ministry of anti-drug commission, nicosia, cyprus, hkaraok@yahoo.com 3 turkish republic of northern cyprus prime ministry of anti-drug commission, nicosia, cyprus, info.uyusturucu@gov.ct.tr 4 turkish republic of northern cyprus prime ministry of anti-drug commission, nicosia, cyprus, karasalihsahin@live.com 5 educational administration supervision economics and planning, near east university, nicosia, cyprus, 20176998@std.neu.edu.tr 6 curriculum and instruction department, near east university, nicosia, cyprus, dogus.beyoglu@neu.edu.tr abstract: due to the effect of covid-19 pandemic, the use of technology and internet has taken place widely in all areas of life of individuals and provided positive benefits to individuals in various fields. although the use of internet and technology provides many benefits, spending excessive time on internet due to the pandemic conditions has detrimental effects such as internet addiction that has been wide-spreading in human life. in this context, in this study, it has been tried to determine the digital game addiction levels of the students, which has become prevalent with the internet and internet addiction. 66 parents, 207 teachers, and 978 students participated in this study in which a mixed research method was used. the results acquired through the research demonstrate that the students are addicted to internet and digital games. the majority of the participant parents state that their children spend 3 hours or more on the internet a day with the purpose of playing games. parents state that they have concerns whether their children are aware of the internet safety risks and they feel discomfort with the time their children spend on internet. similarly, the majority of teachers participating in the research believe that students are addicted to digital games. another result obtained from the research is that the majority of the participant students spend 3 hours or more a day, especially for playing digital games. however, contrary to their teachers and parents, students do not consider themselves as internet and game addicts. keywords: technology addiction; internet addiction; digital game addiction; cyber threats; adolescent students. how to cite: hursen, c., karaokçu, h., hatipoğlu, t.t., karasalih, ş., suhanberdyyeva, d., & beyoğlu, d. (2023). determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students according to the opinions of parents, teachers and students. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 175-206. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/413 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/413 mailto:cigdem.hursen@neu.edu.tr mailto:hkaraok@yahoo.com mailto:info.uyusturucu@gov.ct.tr mailto:karasalihsahin@live.com mailto:20176998@std.neu.edu.tr mailto:dogus.beyoglu@neu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/413 determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 176 1. introduction as an integral part of the 21st century information age societies, technology not only makes lives of people easier but also responds to many needs such as communication, entertainment, education, trade and so on. despite the numerous benefits of technology, the overuse of technology can be detrimental; different age groups have difficulty keeping up with technological change (ertemel & aydın, 2018; sigerson et al., 2017). drawing attention to significant harmful effects of the overuse of technology, balcıoğlu and türk (2021) state that technology addiction leads psycho-social and physical issues. uluçay and kobak (2020) support other researchers and state that the increase in the use of smart devices has a negative impact on individuals' professional, private and social lives. due to the technological innovations and developments, and the increase in social media tools, access to internet has become much easier; and the overuse of internet in all areas inevitably leads to addiction that has negative effects on individuals (koçak, 2019; soyöz-semerci & balcı, 2020; su et al., 2020). spending increasing time on internet to the point where the individual loses control of the internet, and its negative effects on personal, professional and other life spaces can be defined as internet addiction (aslan & yazıcı, 2016). internet addiction, of which negative effects occur at different levels in various areas of life, is defined as an impulse control disorder that negatively affects daily life (prochazka et al., 2021). internet addiction, which is defined as one of the significant social problems, is explained as the excessive use of internet that disturbs the lives of individuals (huang & shen, 2010; peng et al., 2019). while peng, zhang and li (2019) draw attention to the importance of not only determining the internet addiction tendency especially of students but also guiding them properly, neverkovich et al. (2018) touch upon the necessity of designing programs to prevent the internet addiction of students and underline the significance of implementing these programs during the education period. attention is drawn that technology addiction also starts especially in adolescence in line with the increase in the use of mobile technology; it is stated that the use of internet, which has become a irresistible need for individuals, creates a serious addiction in adolescents (bağatarhan & siyez, 2017; jamira et al., 2019). the lack of maturity in the social relations of adolescent students is considered as an effective factor in the formation of the addiction to social networks (neverkovich et al., 2018). adolescents, who are addicted to the internet, experience problems with their family and social environment and cannot have a healthy developmental period broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 177 (gönültaş et al., 2020). especially parents are uncomfortable with their children's excessive and problematic internet use, and cannot prevent their children from using the internet excessively (hawi, 2012). internet addiction, which is expressed as a psychological abnormality and a physiological disorder, has a negative impact on students' physical and mental health, as well as their social lives and their perspectives on the world and values (shu & xu, 2010). internet addiction tendencies of students, who have problems such as addiction, shyness, depression and low self-esteem, are higher than other students (yang & tung, 2007). similarly, ayhan and köseliören (2019) state that there are many factors in the occurrence of internet addiction and explain that especially digital games are effective in the formation of internet addiction. drawing attention that digital games are different from traditional games, ayhan and köseliören (2009) state that a great number of participants play online games by connecting to the internet via a range of technological devices. stating that digital games increase the effect of addiction in adolescents and adults, soyöz-semerci and balcı (2020) underline that it alienates the adolescents from the real life. digital game addiction is defined as playing games for hours, associating the game with real life, preferring gaming instead of engaging in different activities, and failing to fulfill his/her responsibilities because of playing games for long hours (bas & kabak, 2020). the biggest risks in digital game addiction are expressed as deficiencies in social life, low self-esteem and distraction (kneer et al., 2014). the factor of violence also normalizes in adolescents who have become introverted due to digital games. irmak and erdoğan (2016) also draws attention to the digital game addiction of adolescents and state that many problems are encountered in line with the increase in time spent playing digital games. emphasizing the role of family factor in addiction to digital games, researchers point to the crucial role of family environment in helping adolescents socialize and acquire positive behaviors (irmak & erdoğan, 2016). in their study (günlü & ceyhan, 2017) conclude that one out of every four adolescents use the internet for 5 or more hours per day and underline that the outcome is significant in terms of the time spent on internet. referring to the need for raising awareness in adolescents on proper internet use, researchers suggest that digital games with educational content should be created for adolescents with higher rates of playing digital games, and a special focus should be attached to social activities at schools (günlü & ceyhan, 2017). drawing attention to the cognitive, affective, social, physical, and academic developmental disorders in young people with problematic and irresistible urge for internet and technology use, kandemir et al. (2022) determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 178 state that individuals with internet and technology addiction experience anger when there is no internet, problems with individuals and in school life, and conflict with family members. with a different point of view, savcı and aysan (2017) point out that addictions such as digital game addiction, smartphone addiction, and social media addiction are associated with internet addiction and explain that internet addiction also causes other addiction associated with the use of internet. the increase in the use of internet during the covid-19 process inevitably poses a risk for internet addiction, and this risk for students, who spend more time on the internet for online learning is greater than other age groups; and along with internet addiction problems such as digital game addiction, technology addiction, and cyber threats are becoming prevalent. first of all parents and teachers need to have a high level of awareness in order to assist their children and students protect themselves from cyber threats and internet addiction. in this study, it has been aimed to determine the internet and digital game addiction level of students. in this context, answers were sought for the following questions: 1. what are the views of parents on their children's technology and internet usage levels? their children; 1.1. how do they use the internet? 1.2. what is the frequency of using of internet? 1.3. what is the purpose of using the internet? 1.4. which technological devices do they prefer to use to connect to internet? 1.5. what are their tendencies for connecting to the internet via their own devices? 1.6. what place do they prefer to use the internet? 1.7. do they use internet safely? 1.8. do parents have a need for training on safe internet use? 2. what is the internet addiction level of their children according to the views of their parents? 3. what are the teachers' views on digital game addiction level of their students? 4. what is the awareness level of students for digital game addiction? 5. according to the students' opinions; 5.1. how do they use the internet? 5.2. what is the frequency of using the internet? 5.3. what are their preferred setting(s) while using the internet? broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 179 5.4. what are their views on their knowledge/consciousness about internet use? 5.5. what are the views of their parents on their attitudes and behaviors while using the internet? 2. method in this study, the mixed method using qualitative and quantitative data has been preferred. 2.1. participants consisting of 3 different stages, the research was carried out with final year students studying at secondary and high schools, parents and teachers. the research, which was carried out in 5 different regions in the north of cyprus, was primarily carried out with fathers and mothers. a total of 66 persons consisting of fathers and mothers participated in the first stage of study, which was carried out to determine not only the internet and digital game addiction levels of the children according to the views of the parents but also the awareness level of families on cyber threats. table 1 presents the demographics of the fathers and mothers in detail. table 1. demographics of fathers and mothers gender n age n occupation n region n female 55 30-40 38 self-employed 11 nicosia 14 male 8 41-50 28 clerk 10 kyrenia 25 51-60 2 teacher 19 beyarmudu/akdoğan 17 housewife 5 gönyeli 3 psychologist 3 i̇skele 4 veterinarian 1 press member 1 interior designer 1 source: author's own conception as seen in table 1, only 63 of the 66 participant stated their gender. 38 of them are between the ages of 30 and 40, 28 of them are 41-50 years of age and 2 of them are 51 years old and over. 11 of participants are selfemployed, 10 of them are civil servants, 19 of them are teachers, 3 of them are psychologists, 5 of them are housewives, 1 of them is a veterinarian, 1 of them is a member of the press, and 1of them is an interior designer. 14 of the participants are from nicosia, 25 of them are from kyrenia, 17 of them are from beyarmudu/akdoğan, 3 of them are from gönyeli and 4 of them are from i̇skele. 31 fathers and mothers have 2 children, 17 of them have 1 determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 180 child, and 7 of them have 3 or more children. besides, 47 fathers-mothers are married while 9 of them are divorced. the second stage of the research was carried out with the teachers. 207 teachers working in public schools in the northern part of cyprus expressed their opinions on the internet and digital game addiction levels of their students. demographic characteristics of teachers are given in table 2. table 2. demographics of teachers groups n % gender female 161 77.8 male 46 22.2 age 23-25 5 2.4 26-30 14 6.8 31-35 35 16.9 36-40 38 18.4 41-45 67 32.4 46 and over 48 23.2 professional seniority 1-5 11 5.3 6-10 26 12.6 11-15 45 21.7 16 and over 125 60.4 total 207 100 source: author's own conception a total of 207 teachers consisting of 161 female teachers (77.8%) and 46 male teachers (22.2%) participated in the study. 67 (32.4%) of the teachers are 41-45 years of age, 48 (23.2%) of them are 46 years of age or over, 35 (16.9%) of them are 31-35 years of age, 14 (6.8%) are 26-30 years of age, and 5 (2.4%) of them are 23-25 years of age. most of the teachers (n=125, 60.4%) have 16 years or over professional seniority. a total of 978 students participated in the last stage of the study designed to collect data and determine the internet and digital game addiction levels of students. table 3 presents the demographics of the students participated in the study. table 3. demographics of students groups n % gender female 549 56.1 male 429 43.9 age range 14-15 545 55.7 17-18 433 44.3 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 181 educational level secondary school 545 55.7 high school 433 44.3 total 978 100 source: author's own conception a total of 978 students consisting of 549 (56.1%) girls and 429 (43.9%) boys participated in the study. 545 (55.7%) students are 14-15 years of age while 433 (44.3%) of students are 17-18 years old. 545 (55.7%) students are final year students studying at secondary schools and 433 (44.3%) of them are final year students studying at high schools. 2.2. data collection tools in the first stage of this study, which was carried out in 3 stages, it was aimed to determine the views of the parents on the internet use and internet and digital game addiction levels of their children. besides, it was also aimed to determine the needs for training fathers and mothers on cyber threats and prevention measures to be taken. within the scope of the study, the "parent-child internet addiction test, pciat20", which was adapted into turkish by eşği in 2014, and the "interview form for determining children's internet usage levels" that was prepared by the researchers were employed in this study to collect data to determine both the internet and digital game addiction levels of children according to the views of their parents, and the problems that the parents experienced with their children in this regard. the "parent-child internet addiction test" that employed in this study to evaluate parents' views on their children's internet addiction, is a scale consisting of 20 items and 4 sub-dimensions. the 1st dimension "social isolation" consists of 5 items in itself, the 2nd sub-dimension "dysfunction" consists of 5 items in itself, the 3rd dimension "deprivation" consists of 4 items and the last sub-dimension "control difficulty" consists of 6 items in itself. the reliability coefficient (cronbach’s alpha) value for the data obtained through the scale was calculated as 0.91. besides, a "semistructured interview form to determine the internet usage levels of children" was prepared by the researchers and employed with the purpose of determining the views of parents concerning the issue. the semi-structured interview form was designed to evaluate the parents' views and determine the child's addiction level by considering how often the child uses internet, his/her purposes for using internet, the parents' information level on cyber threats, the measures taken by parents to protect their children cyber threats on internet. to determine the digital game addiction and awareness level of students, the "digital game addiction awareness scale" that was developed determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 182 by demir and cicioğlu was employed to collect the views of the teachers participated in the study voluntarily. consisting of 12 items, the scale has 2 sub-dimensions: "internal awareness" and "external awareness". items such as "digital game addiction leads to depression", "digital game addiction makes the individual aggressive" are examples for internal awareness, and items such as "digital game addiction is one of the causes of sedentary life” and "digital game addiction isolates people from society" are examples for the external awareness dimension. the cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of the scale used for evaluating the views of teachers was calculated as 0.94. in addition, with an open-ended question created by the researchers, the problems that teachers experience with their students who are addicted to digital games in the classroom environment have also been questioned. in the last stage of the study, "computer game addiction scale for children" that was developed by horzum, ayas, and çakır-balta (2008) to determine the digital game addiction level of final year students studying in the secondary and high schools across north cyprus was applied to 978 students. the cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of the data obtained from the scale was calculated as 0.91. having been developed to measure the computer game addiction level of students, the scale consists of 21 items and 4 sub-dimensions. the four sub-dimensions of the scale are respectively as follows: 1. "not being able to give up playing games on the computer, and feeling annoyed when restricted"; 2. "conjuring computer game up in his/her mind and associating it with real life"; 3. "neglecting duties in order to play computer games"; and 4. “preferring to play computer games rather than doing other activities". the internet usage frequency of the students participating in the research was tried to be determined with the "internet usage frequency interview form" prepared by the researchers. 2.3. data collection and data analysis in this study, which includes parents, teachers and students, qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed. during the data collection phase, application permissions were primarily obtained from the relevant persons and units for the scales to be applied. after all permissions were obtained from the respective places, the importance of the study was explained to 66 parents, 207 teachers, and 978 students, who participated in the research voluntarily, and data collection tools were introduced. the application process in which scales were employed to obtain quantitative data lasted approximately 15-20 minutes. the application broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 183 process in which face-to-face interview forms were employed to collect qualitative data lasted approximately 30-40 minutes for each participant. qualitative data obtained from the research have been analyzed by using content analysis method, while quantitative data have been calculated by using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation analysis techniques. the reliability of the quantitative data obtained from the research has been determined by the cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient. 3. results the acquired findings based on the goal and sub-goals of the study and interpretations are presented in this part. 3.1. views of parents on technology and internet usage levels of their children a “semi-structured interview form for determining the internet usage levels of children” was employed to evaluate the views of parents participated in the study, and determine the internet usage levels of their children. table 4 presents findings obtained from the research. table 4. internet usage status of their children according to the views of parents internet usage status of their children n yes 55 partially 10 no 0 internet usage frequency of children n 1 hour a day 12 2 hours a day 12 3hours or over a day 38 children’s purposes for using internet n academic study 44 communicating 33 playing games 50 making new friends 6 listening to music 37 using of social media 26 watching films, videos, documentaries, etc. 45 trading 0 device used to connect to the internet n smart phone 48 tablet 26 computer 13 determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 184 laptop 21 connecting to internet via his/her own device n yes 48 no 4 via mother’s-father’s device 20 the place where they use computer/internet n in his/her room 33 any room at home 58 at internet-café’ 0 at school 3 at his/her friend’s house 6 safe internet usage n yes 12 partially 40 no 12 parent’s need for training for safe internet use n yes 35 partially 20 none 8 source: author's own conception considering the views of parents, the majority of the children use internet (n=55). when we examine how often the children use internet, it is seen that 38 children spend 3 hours or more a day on internet, 12 children use internet an hour a day while 12 children spend 2 hours a day on internet. in the literature, it is stated that the weekly internet usage time of a nonaddicted user is around 5 hours on average, excluding the homework preparation time of the children. internet use exceeding 8-10 hours per week indicates that individuals are at risk. in order to prevent internet addiction in individuals, it is recommended to use the internet for 30 minutes a day in preschool age groups, 45 minutes a day in the first 4 years of primary education, 1 hour a day in the second 4 years of primary education, and 2 hours a day in high school age groups (department of information technologies and communication authority internet, 2018, p. 142). the results obtained from this study show that especially the children of 38 parents use the internet for 21 hours or more per week. determining the reasons leading the children to spend more time on internet is extremely important to take measures to prevent the risk of internet addiction. excluding the academic activities of children such as homework preparation and academic study on internet, the high frequency of internet use is considered a major threat for children in terms of internet addiction and problems resultant from such an addiction. as seen in table 4, it has been determined that children use the internet for different purposes. when table broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 185 4 is examined, it is obvious that the majority of children use the internet for game purposes (n=50). however, the children of 44 parents use the internet for doing homework, conducting educational research and watching educational videos. according to the views of parents as presented in table 4, 33 children use the internet with the purpose of communicating with their teachers, families and friends, 45 children use internet to watch movies, documentaries and similar videos, while 6 children use internet to make new friends. according to the views of parents, children use various devices to connect to the internet and as seen in the table, the majority of the children prefer to connect to the internet via their own devices. another finding obtained from the study is that the majority of parents (n=40) are tentative whether their children use the internet safely or not. while 12 parents believe that their children use the internet safely, 12 mothers and fathers state that their children do not use the internet safely. the fact that the majority of parents (n=40) are tentative about their children's use of the internet in a safe way reveals that there are deficiencies and problems regarding safe internet use. similarly, the findings of the study reveal that parents also need training on safe internet use. most of the parents (n=49) state that they experience problems with their children regarding their internet use. experiencing problems with their children, parents (n=24) state that they employ punishment methods to solve their children's problematic behaviors. 3.2. internet addiction level of their children according to the views of parents parent-child internet addiction test, pciat20 was employed to collect parents' views and determine the internet addiction level of their children. table 5 presents the findings regarding the internet addiction levels of children according to the views of their parents. determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 186 table 5. distribution of the findings obtained from the family-child internet addiction scale internet addiction level of their children according to the views of parents a lw ay s v e ry o ft e n u su al ly o c ca si o n al ly r ar e ly n e v er % % % % % % social isolation how often does your child prefer to spend time online rather than with the rest of your family? 5 5.8 23.1 55.8 5.8 1 9.6 how often does your child make new friendships with fellow online users? 3.8 26.9 50 19.2 how often does your child spend time alone in his/her room playing games on the computer? 44.2 23.1 9.6 11.5 3.8 7.7 how often does your child choose to spend time online rather than doing once enjoyed hobbies and/or outside interests? 30.8 32.7 17.3 3.8 11.5 3.8 how often does your child choose to spend time online rather than going out with friends? 38.5 25 26.9 1.9 5.8 1.9 dysfunction how often does your child neglect daily household chores to spend time online? 7.7 28.8 44.2 7.7 3.8 7.7 how often do you complain about the amount of time your child spends online? 7 7.7 17.3 51.9 7.7 9.6 5.8 how often do your child’s grades suffer because of the amount of time he/she spends online? 5.8 26.9 17.3 42.3 5.8 1.9 how often does your child seem withdrawn from other people since discovering the internet? 28.8 30.8 13.5 21.2 1.9 3.8 how often does your child receive phone calls from new online friends? 11.5 9.6 7.7 3.8 67.3 deprivation how often does your child become defensive or secretive when asked what he/she does online? 7 7.7 7.7 9.6 36.5 25 13.5 how often does your child seem more tired and fatigued than he or she did before 3.8 1.9 5.8 44.2 2 25 19.2 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 187 the internet came along? how often does your child throw tantrums with your interference about how long he/she spends online? 9.6 9.6 25 50 5.8 how often does your child feel unhappy, sad or nervous when he/she is off-line and get relieved when he/she is online? 11.5 28.8 38.5 7.7 9.6 3.8 control difficulty how often does your child disobey time limits you set for online use? 17.3 28.8 25 19.2 3.8 3.8 how often does your child check his/her e-mail before doing something else? 55.8 13.5 15.4 7.7 3.8 3.8 how often do you catch your child sneaking online in spite of being told not to do so? 3 7.7 23.1 21.2 3.8 38.5 5.8 how often does your child lose his control, yell, or act annoyed if he/she is interrupted while online? 9.6 7.7 15.4 44.2 19.2 3.8 how often does your child seem preoccupied with being back online when off-line? 3.8 1.9 15.4 17.3 61.5 how often does your child become angry or belligerent when time limit is placed on time he/she spends online? 51.9 26.9 1.9 3.8 11.5 3.8 source: author's own conception the majority of parents (55.8%), who answered questions on the scale by taking into account the behavior of their children regarding internet usage, stated that their children preferred to spend time on the internet rather than with the family members. similarly, 44.2 percent of parents state that the child spends time alone in his/her room playing games on the computer, 30.8 percent of parents state that the child spend time online rather than doing activities outside, and 38.5 percent of parents state that the child prefer to spend time online instead of going out with friends. the findings reveal that the majority of children isolate themselves from social environments with the purpose of playing games on the internet. as seen in the table, most of the parents (44.2%) consider that their children neglect their daily household chores to spend more time online. while 51.9 percent of mothers complain about the amount of time their children spend online, 30.8% of them state that their children have withdrawn from other people since discovering the internet; 67.3 percent of determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 188 parents state that their children rarely receive phone calls from new online friends. parents also state that their children occasionally get angry with they interfere about the time they spend online. 36.5% of parents state that their children become defensive when asked what they do online. another significant finding is that children become angry or belligerent when time limit is placed on time they spend online (51.9%). research findings reveal that the majority of children spend a great deal of time online and consequently experience conflicts with their parents because of the frequency of internet use. parent awareness programs should be developed, and parents need to be provided with necessary training to enable them to communicate effectively with their children and to cope with their children's negative and problematic behaviors. similarly, the children with problematic internet use and behaviors should be provided with necessary support and guided properly. 3.3. digital game addiction status of students according to teachers' views in this stage of study, while the "digital game addiction awareness scale" was employed to determine the awareness levels of teachers about digital game addiction, the opinions of teachers about their students' digital game addiction levels were tried to be determined through face-to-face interviews. first of all, it has been questioned whether teachers participated in any training on digital game addiction, have collaboration with parents. their views on the digital game addiction level of their students have also been questioned. the results obtained are presented in table 6. table 6. teachers' views on digital game addiction in terms of various variables teacher’s; groups f % participation in seminars about technology, internet and game addiction yes 152 73.4 no 53 25.6 views considering their students addicted to digital games yes 128 61.8 no 4 1.9 partially 72 34.8 collaboration with parents of students with digital game addiction yes 95 45.9 no 26 12.6 partially 75 36.2 total 207 100 source: author's own conception broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 189 in the study, teachers' participation in any training or seminar on digital game addiction has been questioned. the findings reveal that the vast majority of teachers (73.4%) have participated in seminars, trainings, and similar activities held on the issue. this demonstrates that vast majority of the teachers participated voluntarily in the study have awareness on technology, internet, and game addiction. when asked what they think about the digital game addiction level of their students, 61.8 percent of teachers stated that they considered their students as addicted. while only 4 teachers (1.9%) stated that their students were not addicted, 72 teachers (34.8%) stated that their students were partly addicted to digital games. the findings reveal that teachers generally think that their students are addicted to games. as seen in the table 6, 95 teachers corresponding to 45.9% of teachers participated in the study are in collaboration with the parents of their game-addicted students, while 26 teachers (12.6%) do not have collaboration with parents on the issue. 75 teachers (36.2%) state that they are partially in collaboration with parents. considering the detrimental effects of game addiction on students, teachers and parents should be in more collaboration on the issue. the views of teachers on the effects of digital game addiction on students are given in table 7. table 7. views of teachers regarding the effects of digital game addiction on students in te rn a l a w ar en es s strongly disagree disagree undecided agree strongly agree mean sd f % f % f % f % f % digital game addiction leads to depression 15 7.2 11 5.3 21 10.1 73 35.3 70 33.8 3.91 1.191 digital game addiction increases the stress of the individual due to the actions in the games. 14 6.8 5 2.4 7 3.4 91 44.0 73 35.3 4.07 1.091 digital game addiction leads irritability 14 6.8 5 2.4 6 2.9 81 39.1 84 40.6 4.14 1.109 determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 190 digital game addiction makes the individual aggressive 14 6.8 4 1.9 15 7.2 75 36.2 82 39.6 4.09 1.121 digital game addicts suddenly get upset when they remember the game levels they couldn't accomplish during the day 12 5.8 8 3.9 16 7.7 91 44.0 63 30.4 3.97 1.076 e x te rn al a w ar en es s digital game addiction isolates the individual from society 14 6.8 3 1.4 5 2.4 78 37.7 90 43.5 4.19 1.093 digital game addiction reduces communication with the environment including the family, friends, etc. 11 5.3 6 2.9 2 1.0 79 38.2 92 44.4 4.24 1.045 digital game addiction isolates 14 6.8 4 1.9 10 4.8 83 40.1 79 38.2 4.10 1.101 digital game addicts cannot spare time for those around them because they cannot stop playing digital games. 12 5.8 6 2.9 6 2.9 77 37.2 89 43.0 4.18 1.080 digital game addiction is one of the causes of sedentary life 12 5.8 9 4.3 8 3.9 61 29.5 100 48.3 4.20 1.137 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 191 *uncontrolled digital gaming cannot be called “addiction” 89 43.0 44 21.3 23 11.1 18 8.7 16 7.7 2.09 1.314 digital game addiction causes problems in school or business life 11 5.3 9 4.3 6 2.9 77 37.2 87 42.0 4.16 1.087 *contains negative statement. source: author's own conception both internal and external awareness levels of teachers regarding digital game addiction have been determined high. as seen in table 7, teachers remark "agree" especially on the expressions "digital game addiction increases the stress of the individual due to the actions in the games" (m=4.07, sd=1.09), "digital game addiction leads irritability" (m=4.14, sd=1.10), "digital game addiction makes the individual aggressive" (m=4.09, sd=1.12). the findings reveal that teachers have high levels of internal awareness. teachers remark "strongly agree" on the expressions "digital game addiction reduces communication with the environment including the family, friends, etc." (m=4.24, sd=1.04), and "digital game addiction is one of the causes of sedentary life" (m=4.20, sd=1.13). similarly, remarking "agree" on the expressions "digital game addiction causes problems in school or business life" (m=4.16, sd=1.08), "digital game addicts cannot spare time for those around them because they cannot stop playing digital games" (m=4.18, sd=1.08), and remarking "disagree" on the expression "uncontrolled digital gaming cannot be called "addiction" (m=2.09, sd=1.31), teachers reveal that they have a high level external awareness. having been prepared by the researchers, an open-ended question has also been employed to determine the problems that the teachers experience with their students in the classroom setting. table 8 presents the findings obtained from the views of teachers. table 8. problems that teachers experience with their students in the classroom setting dimensions problematic student behaviours n miscommunication having problem in communicating with peers 35 being maladaptive in the classroom 27 determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 192 physical discomfort distraction 25 sleep deprivation 17 absentmindedness 5 fatigue 1 psychological disturbance exhibiting irritable and ill-tempered attitudes 5 impatience 4 teacher support collaborating with the family 90 directing the student to psychological counselling and guidance services 74 setting time limits on internet use 19 source: author's own conception as a result of the interviews with the teachers, the problems they experience in the classroom with their students, whom they believe to be addicted to digital games, have been determined as 4 sub-dimensions. when the miscommunication dimension is examined, it is seen that the students experience problems in communicating with their peers (n=35) and are maladaptive in the classroom (n=27). when the solution suggestions of the teachers (n=5), who consider the irritable and quick-tempered behaviors exhibited by their game-addicted students as psychological disturbances, have been questioned, it has been determined that the teachers mostly prefer to cooperate with parents (n=90). it is also among the results that teachers (n=74) prefer receiving support from the psychological counseling and guidance services unit of the school, and set time limits on the internet usage (n=19). 3.4. awareness levels of students regarding digital game addiction in the study, it has also been aimed to determine the students' internet usage and their awareness levels about digital game addiction. in this context, the last year secondary and high school students (n=978) have been questioned about their internet usage, how often they use the internet, the place they prefer to use internet, their information on internet usage, and their parents' attitudes towards them. besides, the computer game addiction scale for children was employed to determine the awareness level of students regarding computer game addiction. students' views on their internet usage are given in table 9. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 193 table 9. frequency and percentage distributions of students' internet usage groups f % use of internet yes 919 94 partially 56 5.7 no 3 .3 daily time spent on internet 1 hour 84 8.6 2 hours 192 19.6 3 hour and over 702 71.8 purpose of using internet (multiple optional) doing homework 720 73.6 conducting educationoriented research 621 63.5 watching educational videos 336 34.4 communicating with the teacher 551 56.3 communicating with friends 703 71.9 communicating with the family 476 48.7 playing games 502 51.3 making new friends 141 14.4 listening to music 602 61.6 using social-media 552 56.4 watching videos such as movies, documentaries, etc. 577 59 trading 41 4.2 device used to connect to the internet (multiple optional smart phone 883 90.3 tablet 156 16 computer (pc) 227 23.2 laptop 257 26.3 the owner of the device he/she uses to connect to the internet (multiple optional) student’s own device (yes) 904 92.4 student’s own device (no) 34 3.5 mother’s/father’s device 62 6.3 friend’s, etc. device 6 0.6 source: author's own conception as seen in table 9, the majority of the students participated in the research (n=919) use the internet actively, 56 students use the internet partially, while 3 students do not use the internet at all. when time that determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 194 students spend online a day questioned, it has been determined that the majority of students (n=702, 71.8%) use the internet for 3 and more hours a day, 8.6% of them (n=84) use the internet 1 hour a day, while 192 of them (19.6%) spend 2 hours online a day. the findings obtained are similar to the findings obtained from the parents. a great majority of parents also state that their children use the internet more than 3 hours a day (see table 4). when students' purpose of using internet daily questioned, it is seen that most of the students use the internet to do homework, communicate with friends, listen to music, and for similar activities. however, 51.3% of the students (n=502) state their purpose of using the internet for 3 hours or more a day as playing games. the fact that 502 of 919 students, who use internet actively, spend 3 or more hours on the internet for playing games is accepted as an indicator of game addiction. this finding supports the findings obtained from the parents. 50 of the 63 mothers and fathers participating in the study state that their children play games on the internet for 3 hours or more a day (see table 4). this situation can not only negatively affect the students' academic accomplishments, communication skills, and carrying out other social activities, etc., but can cause conflicts between family members as well. 904 students stated that they connect to the internet with their own devices. this is a factor that makes it difficult for parents to control their children in order to protect them from cyber security threats. the distribution of the settings preferred by the students to use the internet is given in table 10. table 10. environments where students use the internet groups f % the place where he7she uses the internet (multiple optional) his/her room 654 66.9 any room in the house 741 75.8 i̇nternet café 21 2 school 67 6.9 friend’s home 125 12.8 the environment in which he/she uses the internet (single and multiple environments) only in his/her room 227 23.2 just any room in the house 301 30.8 only in internet café 1 0.1 only at his/her friend’s 2 0.2 his/her room, home, and at his/her friend 54 5.5 his/her room, at home, friend’s and at school 34 3.5 his/her room, at home-school 10 1.0 everywhere 12 1.2 his/her room,, at home, internet 4 0.4 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 195 café, and friend’s any room at home, internet café, and friend’s 1 0.1 his/her room, at home, and internet café 1 0.1 his/her room, at home (any room) 305 31.2 any room at home, school, and friend’s 4 0.4 any room at home, at friend’s 9 0.9 any room at home, and internet cafe 2 0.2 any room at home, and at school 4 0.4 his/her room, and at friend’s 4 0.4 his/her room, and at school 2 0.2 his/her room, at school and friend’s 1 0.1 source: author's own conception the students' views whether they believe that they use the internet safely and whether they need support on the issue are given in table 11. table 11. students' views on their knowledge and awareness levels regarding the use of internet groups f % do you think that you use the internet safely? yes 786 80.4 no 15 1.5 partially 177 18.1 do you need support to be guided about using the internet properly? yes 78 8.0 no 732 74.8 partially 168 17.2 are you aware of the cyber threats on the internet? yes 805 82.3 no 47 4.8 partially 126 12.9 total 978 100 source: author's own conception as seen in table 11, the majority of students believe that they use the internet safely (n=786, 80.4%). however, table 9 shows that the majority of the students play games on the internet for 3 hours or more per day, and this gives rise thought that the majority of students do not have sufficient knowledge, skills or awareness about using the internet safely. determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 196 while 177 of the students participated in the research state that they use the internet partially safely, only 15 students state that they do not think that they use the internet safely. when asked whether they need support for using the internet safely, the majority of students (n=732) state that they do not need such support. while 168 students state that they partially need such support, 78 of students participated in the study state that they need proper guidance. especially the reluctance of the majority of students (n=805) for supportive trainings on safe internet use is considered an unpleasant negative situation. while only 126 students are partially aware of cyber threats, 47 students state that they know nothing about cyber security threats on internet. it is a very thought-provoking finding that the majority of the students participated in the study state that they are aware of the cyber threats on the internet. conducting research studies that will reveal the knowledge and skill levels of students on cyber threats is considered a significant step in this context. table 12. views on parental attitudes and behaviors towards the internet use groups f % do you have conflicts with your father/mother because of internet use? yes 132 13.5 no 591 60.4 partially 255 26.1 does your mother or father set time limit on your internet use yes 199 20.3 no 490 50.1 partially 289 29.6 total 978 100 source: author's own conception while 13.5 percent of students (n=132) state that they have conflict with their father and/or mother on the internet use, 60.4% of them state that they have no conflict with parents regarding the issue. however, 51.9% of the mothers and fathers participating in the study state that they have conflicts with their children about internet use (see table 5). 26.1% (n=255) of the students participated in the research state that they partially experience problems with their parents about internet use. when asked whether their parents place any time limit on the internet use, 50.1 percent of students (n=490) state that their parents do not impose any restriction. it is considered as a necessity to place time limit on the internet use especially for children who spend 3 hours or more on the internet for gaming broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 197 purposes. the findings regarding the awareness levels of students for computer game addiction are given in table 13. table 13. awareness levels of students for computer game addiction awareness levels of students for computer game addiction never rarely occasionally very often always f % f % f % f % f % mean sd i delay eating to finish the game i play on the computer 594 60.7 210 21.5 123 12.6 29 3.0 22 2.2 1.65 .964 if someone bothers me while gaming online, i become irritated 478 48.9 221 22.6 173 17.7 63 6.4 43 4.4 1.95 1.148 i look forward to the time to play computer games 533 54.5 171 17.5 172 17.6 55 5.6 47 4.8 1.89 1.169 although i want to stop playing computer games most of the time, i can't give up. 617 63.1 163 16.7 120 12.3 54 5.5 24 2.5 1.68 1.04 when i start playing computer games, i play longer time than the time allocated for me. 536 54.8 179 18.3 148 15.1 62 6.3 53 5.4 1.89 1.196 i can't get enough of playing computer games 575 58.8 166 17.0 123 12.6 59 6.0 55 5.6 1.83 1.197 when i loss a computer game, i have an irresistible need to play the game again to win it. 421 43.0 202 20.7 168 17.2 103 10.5 84 8.6 2.21 1.325 i get angry with my parents for not letting me play games on the computer 726 74.2 133 13.6 77 7.9 28 2.9 14 1.4 1.44 .865 i don't feel lonely when i play computer games 494 50.5 127 13.0 123 12.6 94 9.6 140 14.3 2.24 1.499 while playing computer games, i often find myself saying something to myself. 504 51.5 162 16.6 153 15.6 93 9.5 66 6.7 2.03 1.288 to make my friends accept me, i play the computer games that they play 746 76.3 115 11.8 74 7.6 21 2.1 22 2.2 1.42 .892 i dream of being back online to play games when off-line 702 71.8 149 15.2 86 8.8 22 2.2 19 1.9 1.47 .891 determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 198 after the computer game is over, i think about the mistakes i made while gaming 571 58.4 171 17.5 125 12.8 66 6.7 45 4.6 1.82 1.168 i demonstrate the characteristics of my computer game characters in real life. 759 77.6 104 10.6 75 7.7 17 1.7 23 2.4 1.41 .884 i skip my homework to play games on the computer 668 68.3 178 18.2 88 9.0 24 2.5 20 2.0 1.52 .907 i am late for school because of playing games on the computer 911 93.1 31 3.2 24 2.5 8 .8 4 .4 1.12 .504 i spent most of my out of school time by playing computer games 577 59.0 188 19.2 125 12.8 54 5.5 34 3.5 1.75 1.092 i prefer playing games on the computer to spending time outside. 556 56.9 156 16.0 142 14.5 55 5.6 69 7.1 1.90 1.251 playing games on the computer is more fun than being with friends 721 73.7 103 10.5 83 8.5 33 3.4 38 3.9 1.53 1.043 i misinform about the amount of time i play computer games 654 66.9 186 19.0 96 9.8 22 2.2 20 2.0 1.54 .909 i prefer playing games on the computer to other activities (doing sports, watching tv, etc.) 576 58.9 161 16.5 121 12.4 54 5.5 66 6.7 1.85 1.233 source: author's own conception as seen in table 13, the students participated in the study have a high level of awareness regarding computer game addiction. however, it has been determined that they daily spend 3 hours or over on the internet with the purpose of playing games (see table 9). this finding reveals that particularly the students, who are addicted to digital gaming, do not acknowledge that they are addicts. 4. discussion and conclusion in this study, which has been carried out to determine the internet and digital game addiction levels of students, the views of mothers and fathers, teachers and students have been asked and evaluated. during the first stage of the research, it has been aimed to determine the parents' views on their children's internet usage status and how often they use the internet and play broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 199 digital games. most of the mothers and fathers participating in the study state that their children use the internet for 3 hours or over per day. similarly, the majority of parents also state that their children use the internet to play games. some of the children prefer to use the internet actively for academic studies, while some of them use the internet 3 hours or over a day to communicate, listen to music and watch videos such as movies, documentaries, etc. the study conducted by cahyo, al fariz and lestari (2020) presents data that students use the internet to play games, explore social media, communicate, access homework videos, and shop online. similarly, lo et al. (2021) also state that the use of the internet and electronic devices for communication, social networking and learning has increased, especially among adolescents. expressing the internet as a fundamental technology in the development of information technology, shahibi and khafidhah ku rusli (2017) explain that the internet is an important tool used for many purposes such as information management, information search, communication, research and learning, and they state that an unlimited world is realized via the internet. in this context, it is considered very important to plan trainings that will provide students with knowledge, skills and awareness in order to use the internet in a positive way. the results obtained from the research revealed that parents need training on safe internet use. according to the opinions of the parents, their children use the internet partially safely; therefore, parents need to be wellinformed and conscious on the issue in order to be able to guide their children to use the internet safely. ayas and horzum (2013) state that it is the liability of parents to protect their children from malicious websites on the internet, and that parents should first have the knowledge and skills required to raise their children's awareness on the threats on the internet. similarly, manouselis et al. (2009) state that the time children spend online has increased in recent years, and parents need to be trained how to protect their children, who spend a great deal of time online, from virtual dangers. the study conducted by kasikci et al. (2014) concludes that the internet usage rates of parents are low, and in this context, they do not have enough information to save their children from online risks. expressing their opinions by taking into account the internet use of their children, parents state that their children prefer to spend time online rather than spending time with the rest of the family. highlighting that their children play computer games alone in their rooms, parents state that their children spend time on the internet instead of doing activities outside, they do not prefer to do activities outside with their friends, and they isolate themselves from social environments to play digital games. the results obtained through the research reveal that parents complain about the time determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 200 their children spend on the internet. pointing that their children feel unhappy, sad or nervous when they are off-line, parents state that they experience conflicts with their children. in their study, lo et al. (2021) have determined that harsh parenting and maltreatment are significantly associated with the internet addiction of children. expressing that one of the most challenging tasks in the digital age is parenting, throuvala et al. (2021) draw attention to the necessity of including digital education in the formal education system. indicating that not only students need to be trained but also the parents need training to be able to be digital individual and parents, the researchers emphasize the importance of establishing a systematic cooperation between adolescent children and schools, families and the state (throuvala et al., 2021). in their study, kalkim and sert (2021) also make suggestions regarding the preparation of school-based intervention programs for students and parents in order to enable them to take measures to prevent internet addiction. in this context, the cooperation to be ensured between different stakeholders is considered to be effective in resolving conflicts between parents and their children. another result obtained from the research is that the majority of teachers believe that their students are addicted to digital games. indicating that they actively participate in seminars held on technology, internet and game addiction, the teachers state that they cooperate with the parents of students with digital game addiction. expressing that digital game addiction increases the stress of students, teachers state that it makes the students aggressive, reduces their communication with the surrounding, and drives them to a sedentary life. the results obtained reveal that teachers have high levels of internal and external awareness on digital game addiction. during the research, the problems experienced by teachers in the classroom setting with the students, whom the teachers are considered as addicted to digital games, have also been questioned. the results show that students, who are addicted to digital games, have problems in communicating with their peers in the classroom and exhibit maladaptive behaviors. similarly, it is stated that students with internet and digital game addiction experience problems such as sleep deprivation, distraction, absentmindedness, and fatigue. indicating that their students addicted to digital games exhibit irritable, impatient, and petulant behaviors, teachers state that they cooperate with parents to support their students. carli et al. (2013) point to the significant relationship between pathological internet use and depression, anxiety, obsessivecompulsive symptoms, hostility and aggression. the study conducted by seok et al. (2018) concludes that the greater the internet addiction in adolescents, the greater changes experienced by them both physically and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 201 mentally and they exhibit changes and anger in their moods although they are quiet and shy. in the study, it has been determined that after becoming addicted to games, the adolescents exhibit aggressive and obsessive behaviors, and they experience changes in their sleeping and eating habits, a decrease in parental relationships, and a change in their daily lives. drawing attention to the increasing digital game addiction among children, keya et al. (2020) underline that anxiety also increases in people due to the detrimental effects of addiction on health and social life. besides, in their study that they carried out with teachers, karadağ and kılıç has determined that technology addiction causes students suffer from low academic achievements and difficulty in communicating with their surroundings. the results show that students with internet addiction are negatively affected physically, mentally and psychologically. during the last stage of the research, it has been aimed to determine the views of the students about their internet and digital game addiction levels. the results reveal that the majority of the students use the internet actively. similarly, the majority of students use the internet for 3 hours or over per day. this result supports the views of the parents. more than half of the students participated in the research state that they spend 3 hours or more a day playing games on the internet. the vast majority of students believe that they use the internet safely. while parents state that they and their children need training on safe use of the internet, the majority of children argue that they do not need training. students, who state that they use the internet for educational purposes such as doing homework, conducting research, listening to music, watching movies and documentaries, believe that they can protect themselves from cyber threats. this shows that parents and children have different views on internet and digital game addiction. the study conducted by hernán-garcía et al. (2021), underlines that parents consider that the overuse of internet cause a decrease in their children's face-to-face communication, physical, sports and game activities, while children consider that the internet provides opportunity for interacting with others, playing games, learning, communicating, and having fun. while parents focus on the risks of the internet, children emphasize the possibilities and opportunities offered by the internet. the results obtained by hernán-garcía et al. (2021) support the findings of this study. for studies to be conducted in the future, it is recommended to further discuss the perceptions of parents and children about internet use and their awareness on cyber threats and malicious websites. similarly, it is recommended to support safe internet use and digital parenting by developing digital training programs for both parents and students. determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 202 references aslan, e., & yazıcı, a. (2016). internet addiction among university students and related sociodemografic factors. klinik psikiyatri, 19, 109-117. https://doi.org/10.5505/kpd.2016.03511 ayas, t., & horzum, m.b. (2013). internet addiction and internet parental style of primary school students. türk psikolojik danışma ve rehberlik dergisi [turkish journal of psychological counseling and guidance], 4(39), 46-57. ayhan, b., & köseliören, m. (2019). i̇nternet, online oyun ve bağımlılık [internet, online gaming and addiction]. online journal of technology addiction & cyberbullying, 6(1), 1-30. bağatarhan, t., & siyez, d. m. (2017). ergenlik döneminde i̇nternet bağımlılığını önleme programları: sistematik gözden geçirme [internet addiction prevention programs in adolescence: a systematic review]. addicta: the turkish journal on addictions [addicta: the turkish journal on addictions], 4, 243–265. http://dx.doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2017.4.2.0015 balcıoğlu, i̇., & türk, b. (2021). teknoloji bağımlılığı: sosyal ve adli sorunlar [technology addiction: social and legal issues]. in a. özçetin (ed.), teknoloji bağımlılığı. 1. baskı [technology addiction (1st edition)] (pp. 3340). türkiye klinikleri. bas, m., & kabak, s. (2020). the relationship between digital game addiction and social tendencies of secondary school students. ambient science, 07(sp1), 189-193. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v13n8p118 bilgi teknolojileri ve i̇letişim kurumu i̇nternet daire başkanlığı [department of information technologies and communication authority internet]. (2018). bilgi teknolojileri ve i̇nternetin bilinçli, güvenli kullanımı [conscious and safe use of information technologies and the internet]. bilgi teknolojileri ve i̇letişim kurumu. https://www.guvenliweb.org.tr/dosya/nh58q.pdf cahyo, s. d., al fariz, a. b., & lestari, c. a. (2020). does internet usage frequency give impact to student’s academic performance? indonesian journal of educational assessment. https://doi.org/10.26499/ijea.v3i1.57 carli, v., durkee, t., wasserman, d., hadlaczky, g., despalins, r., kramarz, e., wasserman, c., sarchiapone, m., hoven, c.w., brunner, r., & kaess, m. (2013). the association between pathological internet use and comorbid psychopathology: a systematic review. psychopathology, 46(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1159/000337971 demir, g. t., & cicioğlu, h. i̇. (2020). dijital oyun bağımlılığına i̇lişkin farkındalık ölçeği (dobi̇fö): geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması. avrasya spor bilimleri ve eğitim dergisi, 2(1), 1-17. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/articlefile/1107651 https://doi.org/10.5505/kpd.2016.03511 http://dx.doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2017.4.2.0015 https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v13n8p118 https://www.guvenliweb.org.tr/dosya/nh58q.pdf https://doi.org/10.26499/ijea.v3i1.57 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=carli+v&cauthor_id=22854219 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=durkee+t&cauthor_id=22854219 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=wasserman+d&cauthor_id=22854219 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=hadlaczky+g&cauthor_id=22854219 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=despalins+r&cauthor_id=22854219 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=kramarz+e&cauthor_id=22854219 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=wasserman+c&cauthor_id=22854219 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=sarchiapone+m&cauthor_id=22854219 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=hoven+cw&cauthor_id=22854219 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=brunner+r&cauthor_id=22854219 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=kaess+m&cauthor_id=22854219 https://doi.org/10.1159/000337971 https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1107651 https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1107651 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 203 ertemel, a.v., & aydın, g. (2018). dijital ekonomide teknoloji bağımlılığı ve çözüm önerileri. addicta: the turkish journal on addictions, 5, 665−690. http://dx.doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2018.5.4.0038 eşği, n. (2014). the adaptation of parent-child internet addiction scale into turkish: the study of validity and reliability. kastamonu education journal, 22(2), 807-839. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2009.0067 gönültaş, o., uzun, k., akın, m.s., & özcan, f.a. (2020). ergenlerin i̇nternet bağımlılığı düzeylerinin çeşitli demografik değişkenlere göre i̇ncelenmesi. uluslararası sosyal araştırmalar dergisi / the journal of international social research, 13(70), 519-529. http://dx.doi.org/10.17719/jisr.2020.4111 günlü, a., & ceyhan, a.a. (2017). ergenlerde i̇nternet ve problemli i̇nternet kullanım davranışının i̇ncelenmesi. addicta: the turkish journal on addictions, 4, 75–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2017.4.1.0016 hawi, n.s. (2012). internet addiction among adolescents in lebanon. computers in human behavior, 28, 1044–1053. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.01.007 hernán-garcía, m., marcos-marcosb, j., botello-díazc, b., simón-lordad, p., & garcíae, e.g. (2021). childhood, families and the internet: a qualitative approach on health assets. gac sanit, 35(3), 236–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2019.07.006 horzum, m. b., ayas, t., & çakır-balta, ö. (2008). çocuklar için bilgisayar oyun bağımlılığı ölçeği [computer game addiction scale for children]. türk psikolojik danışma ve rehberlik dergisi [turkish journal of psychological counseling and guidance], 3(30), 76-88. huang, s., & shen, f. (2010). influencing factors of adolescent internet addiction. ieee 2nd symposium on web society. https://doi.org/10.1109/sws.2010.5607395 irmak, a.y., & erdoğan, s. (2016). ergen ve genç erişkinlerde dijital oyun bağımlılığı: güncel bir bakış. türk psikiyatri dergisi, 27(2), 128-37. https://doi.org/10.5080/u13407 jamira, l., duggala, m., nehrab, r., singhc, p., & groverb, s. (2019). epidemiology of technology addiction among school students in rural india. asian journal of psychiatry, 40, 30–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2019.01.009 kalkim, a., & sert, z.e. (2021). internet addiction and affected factors in primary school students: school-based study. archives of psychiatric nursing, 35, 271–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2021.03.003 kandemir, m., taştan, n., atak, h., & dilsiz, n.b. (2022). bilinçli i̇nternet ve teknoloji kullanımı bilgilendirme rehberi [conscious internet and technology use information guide]. kırıkkale üniversitesi danışma rehberlik uygulama ve araştırma merkezi, kırıkkale [kırıkkale university counseling guidance application http://dx.doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2018.5.4.0038 https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2009.0067 http://dx.doi.org/10.17719/jisr.2020.4111 http://dx.doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2017.4.1.0016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.01.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2019.07.006 https://doi.org/10.1109/sws.2010.5607395 https://doi.org/10.5080/u13407 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2019.01.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2021.03.003 determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 204 and research center, kırıkkale]. https://panel.kku.edu.tr/content/anasayfa/acilisduyuru/a/i%cc%87nt ernet%20ve%20teknoloji%20kullan%c4%b1m%c4%b1_ayr%c4%b1k .pdf karadağ, e., & kılıç, b. (2019). technology addiction among students according to teacher views. current approaches in psychiatry, 11(suppl 1), 101-117. https://doi.org/10.18863/pgy.556689 kasikci, d. n., cagiltay, k., karakus, t., kursun, e., & ogan, c. (2014). internet habits and safe internet use of children in turkey and europe. education and science, 39(171), 230-243. keya, f. d., mostafizur rahman, m. d., tareq nur, m., & kamal pasa, m. d. (2020). parenting and child’s (five years to eighteen years) digital game addiction: a qualitative study in north-western part of bangladesh. computers in human behavior reports, 2, 100031. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2020.100031 kneer, j., rieger, d., ivory, j. d., & ferguson, c. (2014). awareness of risk factors for digital game addiction: interviewing players and counselors. international journal of mental health and addiction, 12, 585–599. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-014-9489-y koçak, ç.v. (2019). how does regular exercise affect internet addiction level in university students?. physical education of students. https://doi.org/10.15561/20755279.2019.040 lo, c. k. m., ho, f. k., emery, c., chan, k. l., wong, r. s., tung, k. t. s., & ip, p. (2021). association of harsh parenting and maltreatment with internet addiction, and the mediating role of bullying and social support. child abuse & neglect, 113, 104928. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.104928 manouselis, n., riviou, k., palavitsinis, n., giannikopoulou, v., & tsanakas, p. (2009). goneis.gr: training greek parents on ict and safer internet [conference presentation]. 2nd world summit on the knowledge society (wsks 2009), 49, 97, sep 16-18, 2009, chania, greece. neverkovich, s. d., bubnova, i. s., kosarenko, n. n., sakhieva, r. g., sizova, z. m., zakharova, v. l., & sergeeva, m. g. (2018). students’ internet addiction: study and prevention. eurasia journal of mathematics, science and technology education, 14(4), 1483-1495. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/83723 peng, w., zhang, x., & li, x. (2019). intelligent behavior data analysis for internet addiction. scientific programming, 12, 2753152. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2753152 prochazka, r., sucha, j., dostal, d., dominik, t., dolejš, m., šmahaj, j., kolarík, m., glaser, o., viktorova, l., & friedlova, m. (2021). internet addiction https://panel.kku.edu.tr/content/anasayfa/acilisduyuru/a/i%cc%87nternet%20ve%20teknoloji%20kullan%c4%b1m%c4%b1_ayr%c4%b1k.pdf https://panel.kku.edu.tr/content/anasayfa/acilisduyuru/a/i%cc%87nternet%20ve%20teknoloji%20kullan%c4%b1m%c4%b1_ayr%c4%b1k.pdf https://panel.kku.edu.tr/content/anasayfa/acilisduyuru/a/i%cc%87nternet%20ve%20teknoloji%20kullan%c4%b1m%c4%b1_ayr%c4%b1k.pdf https://doi.org/10.18863/pgy.556689 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/21371798 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/652642 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/2756373 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/3543032 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/1132573 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2020.100031 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-014-9489-y https://doi.org/10.15561/20755279.2019.040 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.104928 https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/83723 https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2753152 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 205 among czech adolescents. psych journal, 10, 679–687. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.454 savci, m., & aysan, f. (2017). technological addictions and social connectedness: predictor effect of internet addiction, social media addiction, digital game addiction and smartphone addiction on social connectedness. the journal of psychiatry and neurological sciences, 30, 202-216. https://doi.org/10.5350/dajpn2017300304 seok, h. j., lee, j. m., park, c. y., & park, j. y. (2018). understanding internet gaming addiction among south korean adolescents through photovoice. children and youth services review, 94, 35-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.09.009 shahibi, m.s., khafidhah, k., & rusli, k. n. (2017). the influence of internet usage on student’s academic performance. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 7(8), 873-887. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v7-i8/3301 shu, n. g., & xu, g. g. (2010). research on harms of internet addiction of university students' internet and intervention strategies. proceedings of the 2010 international symposium on children and youth fitness and health, 3, 96-99. sigerson, l., li, a.y.l., cheung, m.w.l., & cheng, c. (2017). examining common information technology addictions and their relationships with nontechnology-related addictions. computers in human behavior, 75, 520-526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.041 soyöz-semerci, ö.u., & balcı, e.v. (2020). lise öğrencilerinde dijital oyun bağımlılığı üzerine bir alan araştırması: uşak örneği. journal of humanities and tourism research, 10(3), 538-567. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/johut/issue/58642/846760 su, w., han, x., yu, h., wu, y., & potenza, m.n. (2020). do men become addicted to internet gaming and women to social media? a metaanalysis examining gender-related differences in specific internet addiction. computers in human behavior, 113, 106480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106480 throuvala, m. a., griffiths, m. d., rennoldson, m., & kuss, d. j. (2021). policy recommendations for preventing problematic internet use in schools: a qualitative study of parental perspectives. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(9). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094522 uluçay, d. m., & kobak, k. (2020). dijital detoks: teknoloji bağımlılığına karşı yeni bir eğilim ve genç yetişkinler özelinde bir değerlendirme. i̇lef dergisi, 7(2), 325-350. https://doi.org/10.24955/ilef.827235 https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.454 https://doi.org/10.5350/dajpn2017300304 https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/children-and-youth-services-review https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.09.009 https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v7-i8/3301 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/16487138 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/5174901 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.041 https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/johut/issue/58642/846760 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106480 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/6406460 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/18727 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/6426156 https://www-webofscience-com.ezproxy.neu.edu.tr/wos/author/record/665337 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094522 https://doi.org/10.24955/ilef.827235 determination of internet and digital game addiction level of students … cigdem hursen, et al. 206 yang, s. c., & tung, c. j. (2007). comparison of internet addicts and nonaddicts in taiwanese high school. computers in human behavior, 23, 79–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.03.037 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.03.037 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 308-327 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/345 submitted: december 19th, 2021 | accepted for publication: june 14th, 2022 classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach manu singh 1 , vibhakar shrimali 2 1 university school of information and communication technology, guru gobind singh, indraprastha university, new delhi, india, ersinghmanu06@gmail.com 2 head of department of electronics and communication engineering, gb pant govt. engineering college, new delhi, india, vibhakar.shrimali@gmail.com abstract: diagnosis of tumor at its early stage is the most challenging task for its treatment in the area of neurology. as, brain tumor is the most common problem in the world, so tremendous research is being carried out to find out the cancer during its onset stages. the task of diagnosis as well as its automation has been extremely difficult using conventional image processing methods. in view of this, a novel technique has been proposed based on convolutional neural network architecture to classify the brain tumor which assists radiologists and physicians to make their decision fast and accurate. the proposed deep learning structure helps to analyze and produce better feature maps to classify the variations in the normal and malignant cases. the proposed method i.e. hybrid deep neural network (h-dnn) architecture is the combination of two different dnn. first deep neural network (dnn-1) uses the spatial texture information of the cranial magnetic resonance (mr) images, whereas in the second method deep neural network (dnn-2) uses the frequency domain information of the mri scans. finally, we combine both neural networks to produce better classification result based on prediction score. the training input to the dnn-1 is the texture which is computed by local binary patterns, whereas the dnn-2 uses the frequencies, which have being calculated by wavelet transformation as its training input. here two dataset have been used for the evaluation of the proposed model i.e. real mri dataset and brats 2012 mri dataset for t2weighted mri scans. in this study, the proposed model provides 98.7% classification accuracy, which outperforms the other methods as reported in the related work. also comparisons of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the proposed method has been done with dnn-1 and dnn-2 architecture to indicate that the reported model gives better results when compared to the other methods. keywords: brain tumor, convolutional neural network, deep learning, image classification, magnetic resonance imaging. how to cite: singh, m., & shrimali, v. (2022). classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 308-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/345 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/345 mailto:ersinghmanu06@gmail.com mailto:vibhakar.shrimali@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/345 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 309 1. introduction brain is the most complex biological structure and key support system in the human body having central nervous system for completing major activities all through our body parts (iov et al., 2018). tumors may occur in different body parts when there is immoderate multiplication of cells, which form shapes due to irregular grouping of cells inside a body part. these types of unusual cellule can influence the conventional functioning of the body activity and remove the useful cellule. one of the most important parts of the body is brain, where such development would be dangerous. brain tumors can threaten the human life directly. brain tumors are commonly classified as two types, benign tumor and malignant tumor (dandıl, çakıroğlu, & ekşi, 2015). benign tumors are non-harmful tumors, they are predictable and can be easily determined, as they are affecting limited space and don’t spread beyond brain boundaries. however, malignant tumors are very harmful and multiply very fast. brain tumor which originates in the brain only by multiplying its unusual cells is called predominant tumor. when abnormal cells extend to the other parts of the body, then they start spreading and form a structure giving another category of tumor which is called secondary tumor (metastasis). brain tumor may be easily isolated and removed if it is spotted at an early stage. different modalities have been used to detect the brain tumor. here in this paper, magnetic resonance imaging (mri) is being used to detect the presence of tumor in their early stages (hunnur, raut, & kulkarni, 2017). this modality is also very helpful to find the type of tumor. mri modality has considerably influenced the medical image processing and analysis in detecting the normal as well as abnormal brain structure. the gravity of the cancer in any brain part is decided by the type and the stage of the tumor. thus, utilizing an automated tumor detection framework is essential to help doctors to recognize brain tumor at an early stage (annadurai, 2007; akram & usman, 2011). researchers may focus on numerous computerized systems for the automation of classification of different mri scans, which may leads to the finding of the tumor more accurately. however, cranial mri scans, which have been considered here, are very complex to handle so there is a need for such a model which can easily handles such mri images. deep learning model which is based on convolutional neural network, is a dynamic pattern in machine learning, as it prominently constitutes undetermined correlation without involving much nodal architecture. it is the latest technique which is being prominently used in many fields like bio informatics, big data, networking and medical image analysis etc. (ahmadvand & kabiri, 2016; gao & hui, 2016; gao et al., 2017). classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach manu singh & vibhakar shrimali 310 the layout of the study has been arranged as follows: the related work of the paper has been mentioned in section 2. the proposed method has been discussed in section 3. the experimental outcome has been discussed in section 4. the conclusión of the reported paper has been discussed in section 5. 2. related work this section highlights the present literature on using various feature extraction and classification approach for the detection of mri images. it focuses on highlighting the advantages and the limitations of the methods. ramteke et al. (2012) had proposed a technique called as k-nearest neighbor (knn) to detect the normal and malignant medical images where support vector machine (svm) has been compared with proposed method of knn. using knn, the accuracy achieved has been only 80% when applied on all image samples. othman et al. (2011) proposed mri brain classification system using support vector machine which worked well for linear data features but not for nonlinear. zhang et al. (2016) had proposed new technique named as glioblastoma multiforme prognosis prediction as multiple kernel machine and minimum redundancy feature selection method, it helped in learning the features well but classification accuracy was not promised. sompong et al. (2016) had proposed fusion of two segmentation techniques i.e. cellular automata model and fuzzy-c-mean, where gray level co-occurrence matrix (glcm) has been taken as feature selection method. brats 2013 dataset was used for the experimental result. the average dice coefficient metrics was 84%. sehgal et al. (2016) had proposed an automatic method for the detection of brain tumor containing five stages i.e. mri acquisition, preprocessing, segmentation, extraction of tumor and evaluation of model. this experiment was conducted by brats 2013 mri scans and the result was analyzed on the basis of manually segmented brain tumor. the overall performance was evaluated with average dice coefficient value i.e. 0.729. praveen et al. (2016) had proposed a classification technique i.e. random forest to categorize normal and malignant mri scans. if malignancy found, then again label as glioma or meningioma. in this, preprocessing was performed followed by feature extraction with the help of gray level run length matrix, histogram and gray level co-occurrence matrix based techniques. after that, active contour model was used to implement segmentation. at last, fast bounding box method was performed to detect the tumor. the classification accuracy using random forest classifier was found to be 87.62%. abbasi et al. (2017) had proposed random forest classification method where local binary broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 311 pattern is used to extend histogram orientation using brats 2013 dataset. also the proposed framework was superior in contrast with other approach. pereira et al. (2016) had proposed convolutional neural networks for the detection of brain tumor using brain scans. they have done segmentation, where use of small kernels makes the architecture flexible, while providing fewer numbers of weights. also, the outcome after the classification is remarkable. zhao et al. (2015) had proposed a framework containing two segments; in the first segment they converted multi model data into collective representation of multi-modal deep neural networks and in segment second, sparse group lasso was used to reduce the redundant features for improving the classification method. krizhevsky et al. (2012) had proposed classification technique using image net, where large amount of dataset is examined with the help of five convolutional layers, but the performance of classification is not so determined. zhao et al. (2015) had proposed multiple cnn architecture to design different 2d cnns architecture for reducing segmentation time. in this paper, both training and testing was done with brats 2013 dataset. the result of this paper indicated that the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity were better than the other manual images. işın et al. (2016) had presented review based paper where automatic segmentation techniques were presented using brats dataset. this paper highlighted the recent trends of deep neural network method in the area of medical imaging. singh et al. (2019) had presented the comparison of three classification algorithm i.e. svm, random forest and artificial neural network where fuzzy c-mean method is used as segmentation, discrete wavelet transformation is used to extract the features of mri scans and independent component analysis is used as feature reduction method. singh et al. (2020) had proposed ranklet transformation as feature extraction method and combined classification technique i.e. auto-encoder and svm was used to classify the brain tumor using brats 2012 dataset. 3. proposed system this paper reports an attempt for the development of a novel technique for classifying the normal and malignant mri scans so as to enhance the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity by means of two deep neural networks, where both the networks operate on different feature map images. the proposed deep neural network-1 (dnn-1) helps to extract the deep texture features using local binary pattern in order to predict the brain tumor with better accuracy. also, the proposed deep neural network-2 (dnn-2) helps to identify the frequency domain features using wavelet transformation in order to predict the brain tumor with better accuracy, specificity and classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach manu singh & vibhakar shrimali 312 sensitivity. normal and malignant mri scans are shown in the figure 1(a) and 1(b) respectively for calculating the performance of the model. the structure of the proposed model is demonstrated in figure 2. (a) (b) figure 1. mri images (a) normal mri (b) abnormal mri. finally, after obtaining the prediction scores of both neural networks we fuse both prediction score to get the proper classification result. the classification is done based on the predictive score. this base system consists of four layers i.e. convolutional layers, pooling layers, rectifier linear units (relu) and classification layers. convolutional layers are the conspicuous and fundamental building structure of every cnn (ari & hanbay, 2018; han & li, 2015). the channel in all the phases of convolutional layers comprises 3*3 arrays of pixel values. initial two phases comprise binary discrete layers of convolution each, and next two phases depicts three distinct layers of convolution. 26, 27, 28 and 29 are the fixed feature map dimension which contributes first, second, third and fourth layers of convolutional independently. the modeling of convolutional, relu and pooling layer has been described below. these various convolutional layers help to save the spatial measurements better. relu are the enactment work, utilized toward the finish of each convolutional layer, f(x) is the function which is connected to each neuron in the convolutional neural network framework and elect the feature of particular neuron. as the data is very complex to use, nonlinear property is used which covers stochastic gradient descent (sgd) as optimizer since it converges much faster than all other traditional methods. modeling of convolutional layer (shin et al., 2016; tajbakhsh et al., 2016): convolutional layer is the core layer in cnn architecture. it is made up of group of independent filters and each filter is convolved independently with the input images and terminates with couple of relevant feature map. we broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 313 first obtain the input image sample of size w1*h1*d1. it required four parameters, named as k for number of filters, s as stride, f as spatial extent and p as amount of zero padding. after that, d2, h2 and w2 are calculated where d2= k, h2= (h1-f+2p)/s+1 and w2= (w1f+2p)/s+1, now the size of the image became w2*h2*d2. it also measures (f*f*d1)*k where it calculates the weight per filter and k biases. finally, the output image is the outcome of implementing a correct convolution of dth filter (w2*h2) over the input image size with stride s. convolutional layer also have relu function which alter all the negative values to 0. modeling of pooling layer: to minimize the size of feature map is done by the pooling layer by reducing the parameters and computation in the system. we first obtain the input image sample of size w1*h1*di with two parameters i.e. s and f. it also requires to generate a sample volume w2* h2* d2 as output, using w2= (w1f)/s+1; h2= (h1f)/s+1; d2=d1. in this, zero parameters is accepted because it evaluates the fixed function of the input. here it is applied with stride 2 in a single depth slice. figure 2. proposed system model. 3.1. deep texture network generally, all neural networks use the raw images as a training input. but, here we have used local binary patterns (lbp) images as raw images. it means that we have extracted local binary patterns features from the raw images as shown in figure. 3 and figure. 4 which are then fed as the training input since local binary patterns provide the texture information from the training images. the computational analysis of local binary pattern (pawar & belagali, 2015) has been calculated as shown in figure. 5. this network is proficient to classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach manu singh & vibhakar shrimali 314 pull out all the features based on texture from the training mri scans. hence, this network, in depth analyzes the features from the texture which is helpful to enhance the performance of the model. the general structure of convolutional neural network is described in figure. 6. here we use this basic structure with different feature space like texture and feature information. deep texture features play a vital role to define the proposed model of dnn1 in an appropriate way. the above basic structure of deep neural network (dnn) acts differently at different feature space. here, we have used dropout layer to remove the redundancy created by all other layers. using this structure as dnn-1, feature space is calculated based on deep texture information. the screenshot of the features after training through dnn-1 is shown in figure. 7. figure 3. screenshot of lbp features extracted from normal mri broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 315 figure 4. lbp mri images figure 5. lbp computation. classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach manu singh & vibhakar shrimali 316 figure 6. basic dnn structure. figure 7. screenshot of lbp features value after training broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 317 3.2. deep frequency network this network is used to deeply analyze the frequency based information. here the raw image is converted into stationary wavelet transforms to get the frequency information. then this frequency information, as feature space, is fed to the dnn network known as dnn-2. this stationary wavelet transform is much better than other transformation like fourier cosine and discrete wavelet (ghazali et al., 2007; shree & kumar, 2018; chaudhary & bhattacharjee, 2020), because there is no down sampling done in the sub band creation, so all the initial information is converted into frequency information without any loss. figure. 8 shows the screenshot of the feature values extracted from the raw mr images which are taken for further processing and figure. 9 shows the swt mri image. here we are using biorthogonal wavelet as mother wavelet to get the four sub bands, approximation coefficients are provided as input to train the frequency deep network. these approximation coefficients represent low frequencies and contain all the information of the raw image. this would help to extract different level of features from the approximation sub band image, and it would leads to improve the classification performance. also, figure. 10 shows the swt decomposition. after, calculating all the bands (hh, lh and hl) with the help of decomposition function (lahmiri & boukadoum, 2011), we achieved results as shown in figure. 11. here again we use basic structure of convolutional neural network as deep neural network (dnn-2) which is used to distinguish the frequency features and performing classification to get better outcome. the screenshot of values of different frequency features, after applying dnn-2 network is shown in fig. 12. here we have used dropout layer to remove the redundancy created by all other layers before fully connected layer and also used max pooling instead of average pooling. classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach manu singh & vibhakar shrimali 318 figure 8. screenshot of swt features value after training figure 9. swt mri images. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 319 figure 10. swt decomposition figure 11. abnormal lh band, abnormal hl band, abnormal hh band. classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach manu singh & vibhakar shrimali 320 figure 12. screenshot of swt features value after training (a) (b) figure 13. evaluation of dnn-1, dnn-2 and h-dnn 80 85 90 95 100 evaluation of sensitivity, specificity & accuracy for real mri scan dnn-1 dnn-2 h-dnn 80 85 90 95 100 evaluation of sensitivity, specificity & accuracy for brats 12 mri scan dnn-1 dnn-2 h-dnn broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 321 figure 14. performance of drop out layers of h-dnn figure 15. training loss and training accuracy classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach manu singh & vibhakar shrimali 322 3.3. fusion in this stage, score level fusion is performed; therefore the predicted outcome of both the network i.e. deep texture and deep frequency networks is obtained. the obtained predictive score of both the networks are finally fused to classify the images with higher prediction score. 3.4. data agumentation here we have taken two different databases for the detection of brain tumor. one of the databases was collected from one of the renowned hospitals for better understanding and outcome. the database was collected from mri department of the hospital. the link of the hospital is https://mahdelhi.org/. we have taken total 1250 real mri images, comprising 700 normal and 550 malignant brain images. for training, we have taken 600 normal and 500 abnormal images. then we have done flip and rotation of all the training images, and thus, totally we have given 2100, 1650 normal and abnormal images respectively for training the network. for testing, we have taken 100, 50 images of normal and abnormal samples respectively, and we have resized all the images into 256x256 pixels. second database was collected from the medical image repository i.e. brats 2012. here from this repository, total 1500 t2-weighted mri scans are taken in which 900 scans are extracted for malignant brain and 600 for normal brain. for training, we have taken 800 malignant and 500 normal mri scans. again we performed flip and rotation of all the training images. thus, we got 2700 malignant and 1800 normal mri scans. for testing, we had taken 100 normal and 100 malignant mri images and again executed the process of resizing of all the images before computation. also, the training loss is calculated by entropy loss, and we got the 100% training accuracy and training loss of 0.0003. here the accuracy of proposed system for real mri dataset and brats 2012 acquired 98.3 and 98.7 respectively. all the coding of this paper has been completed using matlab 2015. 4. results & discussion here, we have tested normal and malignant mri scans to check the performance of the model, and got improved outcomes, as compared to other conventional methods. figure. 13(a) displays accuracy, sensitivity and specificity based on real mri dataset, and which were found to be 98.3%, 97% and 97.5% respectively whereas in case of brats 12 mri dataset, the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity was all most similar and it was found to https://mahdelhi.org/ broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 323 be 98.7%, 97.4% and 97.9% respectively, as shown in figure. 13(b). h-dnn for brats 12 is much better than the real dataset as brats dataset is having processed and less degraded images. figure. 14 show the accuracy of deep network with and without drop out layers in case of brats 12 dataset. when we use lager number of convolutional filters, then the feature map may be redundant, so the dropout layers is used to remove the redundant features which improves the classification accuracy. table 1 and table 2 presented the evaluation with reference to sensitivity, accuracy and specificity of dnn-1, dnn-2 and h-dnn for both the dataset to differentiate the performance of the proposed technique with the existing one. figure. 15 showed the training loss and training accuracy graph of the proposed network. at the end of the analysis, we found that h-dnn shows higher classification accuracy than the other methods as reported in the related work. table 1. evaluation of proposed classifier with real dataset. methods accuracy sensitivity specificity dnn-1 94.4% 88.5% 91% dnn-2 95% 92% 93.5% h-dnn 98.3% 97% 97.5% table 2. evaluation of proposed classifier with brats 2012 dataset. methods accuracy sensitivity specificity dnn-1 94.8% 89.2% 92% dnn-2 96% 93% 94.4% h-dnn 98.3% 97.4% 97.9% 5. conclusion in the proposed methodology, hybrid deep learning architecture is used to analyze the cranial mri scans in in the proposed methodology, hybrid deep learning architecture is used to analyze the cranial mri scans in order to detect the contrast between the normal and malignant images of brain scans. here, we divide the proposed hybrid deep neural network (hdnn) architecture into two different dnn namely dnn-1 which is used to analyze the spatial information, whereas dnn-2 analyzes the frequency information. at last, we combine both the networks to obtain better classification results. also, this proposed model using brats 2012 dataset produced 98.7% accuracy rate which is much better than the other classification methods. the real and brats 2012 dataset of mri images are used both in training and testing purpose to authenticate our proposed model. classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach manu singh & vibhakar shrimali 324 so this method is well suitable for real time brain tumor classification of mri images. computational time for processing this proposed methodology is very high but the main focus of this study is to find the accurate result of classification. also, stacking the hybrid deep learning architecture with more number of layers may improve the classification rate. but still there are many issues which remain untouched. mri images are very complex to process as the scanning involves lots of subjectivity. so, this area is an open challenge to all the researchers. also, we need to design a user-friendly computerized system to handle all the diagnosis at an early stage so that doctors can easily trust and operate. we also, need to focus on the type of the stage of the tumor so that it can be easily detected before any kind of incurable damage may occur. segmentation still remains a gray area. appropriate and accurate segmentation before classification may improve upon the result of proposed technique. hence, this methodology is essential tools which mainly focus on many fields related to biomedical image processing applications. references abbasi, s., & tajeripour, f. (2017). detection of brain tumor in 3d mri images using local binary patterns and histogram orientation gradient. neurocomputing, 219, 526-535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2016.09.051 ahmadvand, a., & kabiri, p. (2016). multispectral mri image segmentation using markov random field model. signal image and video processing, 10(2), 251258. akram, m. u., & usman, a. (2011). computer aided system for brain tumor detection and segmentation. in international conference on computer networks and information technology, 299-302. https://doi.org/10.1109/iccnit.2011.6020885. annadurai, s. (2007). fundamentals of digital image processing. pearson education india. ari, a., & hanbay, d. (2018). deep learning based brain tumor classification and detection system. turkish journal of electrical engineering & computer sciences, 26(5), 2275-2286. http://dx.doi.org/10.3906/elk-1801-8 chaudhary, a., & bhattacharjee, v. (2020). an efficient method for brain tumor detection and categorization using mri images by k-means clustering & dwt. international journal of information technology, 12(1), 141-148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41870-018-0255-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2016.09.051 https://doi.org/10.1109/iccnit.2011.6020885 http://dx.doi.org/10.3906/elk-1801-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41870-018-0255-4 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 325 dandıl, e., çakıroğlu, m., ekşi, z. (2015). computer-aided diagnosis of malign and benign brain tumors on mr images. in: bogdanova, a., gjorgjevikj, d. (eds), ict innovations 2014. ict innovations 2014. advances in intelligent systems and computing, vol 311. springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09879-1_16 gao, x. w., & hui, r. (2016). a deep learning based approach to classification of ct brain images. in 2016 sai computing conference (sai), 28-31. https://doi.org/10.1109/sai.2016.7555958 gao, x. w., hui, r., & tian, z. (2017). classification of ct brain images based on deep learning networks. computer methods and programs in biomedicine, 138, 4956. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmpb.2016.10.007 ghazali, k. h., mansor, m. f., mustafa, m. m., & hussain, a. (2007). feature extraction technique using discrete wavelet transform for image classification. in 2007 5th student conference on research and development, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1109/scored.2007.4451366 han, x., & li, y. (2015). the application of convolution neural networks in handwritten numeral recognition. international journal of database theory and application, 8(3), 367-376. http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijdta.2015.8.3.32 hunnur, s. s., raut, a., & kulkarni, s. (2017). implementation of image processing for detection of brain tumors. in 2017 international conference on computing methodologies and communication (iccmc), 717-722. https://doi.org/10.1109/iccmc.2017.8282559 iov, t., timofte, d., damian, s. i., knieling, a., scripcaru, c., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2018). non-traumatic cervical hemorrhagic infiltration. romanian journal of legal medicine, 26, 141-144. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/danieltimofte/publication/331535134_nontraumatic_cervical_hemorrhagic_infiltration/links/5d3c6b5f92851cd0468c 4996/non-traumatic-cervical-hemorrhagic-infiltration.pdf işın, a., direkoğlu, c., & şah, m. (2016). review of mri-based brain tumor image segmentation using deep learning methods. procedia computer science, 102, 317-324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.407 krizhevsky, a., sutskever, i., & hinton, g. e. (2012). imagenet classification with deep convolutional neural networks. advances in neural information processing systems, 25, 1097-1105. lahmiri, s., & boukadoum, m. (2011). brain mri classification using an ensemble system and lh and hl wavelet sub-bands features. in 2011 ieee third international workshop on computational intelligence in medical imaging, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1109/cimi.2011.5952041 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09879-1_16 https://doi.org/10.1109/sai.2016.7555958 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmpb.2016.10.007 https://doi.org/10.1109/scored.2007.4451366 http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijdta.2015.8.3.32 https://doi.org/10.1109/iccmc.2017.8282559 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/daniel-timofte/publication/331535134_non-traumatic_cervical_hemorrhagic_infiltration/links/5d3c6b5f92851cd0468c4996/non-traumatic-cervical-hemorrhagic-infiltration.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/daniel-timofte/publication/331535134_non-traumatic_cervical_hemorrhagic_infiltration/links/5d3c6b5f92851cd0468c4996/non-traumatic-cervical-hemorrhagic-infiltration.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/daniel-timofte/publication/331535134_non-traumatic_cervical_hemorrhagic_infiltration/links/5d3c6b5f92851cd0468c4996/non-traumatic-cervical-hemorrhagic-infiltration.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/daniel-timofte/publication/331535134_non-traumatic_cervical_hemorrhagic_infiltration/links/5d3c6b5f92851cd0468c4996/non-traumatic-cervical-hemorrhagic-infiltration.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.407 https://doi.org/10.1109/cimi.2011.5952041 classification of brain tumor using hybrid deep learning approach manu singh & vibhakar shrimali 326 othman, m. f. b., abdullah, n. b., & kamal, n. f. b. (2011). mri brain classification using support vector machine. in 2011 fourth international conference on modeling, simulation and applied optimization, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1109/icmsao.2011.5775605. pawar, p., & belagali, p. p. (2015). image retrieval technique using local binary pattern (lbp). international journal of science and research, 4(7), 1440-1443. https://doi.org/10.1109/cisce52179.2021.9445918 pereira, s., pinto, a., alves, v., & silva, c. a. (2016). brain tumor segmentation using convolutional neural networks in mri images. ieee transactions on medical imaging, 35(5), 1240-1251. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-0191416-0 praveen, g. b., & agrawal, a. (2016). multi stage classification and segmentation of brain tumor. in 2016 3rd international conference on computing for sustainable global development (indiacom), 1628-1632. ramteke, r. j., & monali, k. y. (2012). automatic medical image classification and abnormality detection using k-nearest neighbour. international journal of advanced computer research, 2(4), 190-196. sehgal, a., goel, s., mangipudi, p., mehra, a., & tyagi, d. (2016). automatic brain tumor segmentation and extraction in mr images. in 2016 conference on advances in signal processing (casp), 104-107. https://doi.org/10.1109/casp.2016.7746146. shin, h. c., roth, h. r., gao, m., lu, l., xu, z., nogues, i., yao, j., mollura, d., & summers, r. m. (2016). deep convolutional neural networks for computer-aided detection: cnn architectures, dataset characteristics and transfer learning. ieee transactions on medical imaging, 35(5), 1285-1298. https://doi.org/10.1109%2ftmi.2016.2528162 shree, n. v., & kumar, t. n. r. (2018). identification and classification of brain tumor mri images with feature extraction using dwt and probabilistic neural network. brain informatics, 5(1), 23-30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40708-017-0075-5 singh, m., & shrimali, v. (2019). exploring statistical parameters of machine learning techniques for detection and classification of brain tumor. international journal of innovative technology and exploring engineering (ijitee), 8(10). https://doi.org/10.35940/ijitee.j9860.0881019 singh, m., & shrimali, v. (2020). two-level combined classification technique using ranklet transformation for the detection of mri brain tumor. in 2020 ieee 17th india council international conference (indicon), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1109/indicon49873.2020.9342336 https://doi.org/10.1109/icmsao.2011.5775605 https://doi.org/10.1109/cisce52179.2021.9445918 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1416-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1416-0 https://doi.org/10.1109/casp.2016.7746146 https://doi.org/10.1109%2ftmi.2016.2528162 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40708-017-0075-5 https://doi.org/10.35940/ijitee.j9860.0881019 https://doi.org/10.1109/indicon49873.2020.9342336 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 327 sompong, c., & wongthanavasu, s. (2016). brain tumor segmentation using cellular automata-based fuzzy c-means. in 2016 13th international joint conference on computer science and software engineering (jcsse), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1109/jcsse.2016.7748902. tajbakhsh, n., shin, j. y., gurudu, s. r., hurst, r. t., kendall, c. b., gotway, m. b., & liang, j. (2016). convolutional neural networks for medical image analysis: full training or fine tuning?. ieee transactions on medical imaging, 35(5), 1299-1312. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1706.00712 zhang, y., li, a., peng, c., & wang, m. (2016). improve glioblastoma multiforme prognosis prediction by using feature selection and multiple kernel learning. ieee/acm transactions on computational biology and bioinformatics, 13(5), 825-835. https://doi.org/10.1109/tcbb.2016.2551745 zhao, l., & jia, k. (2015, september). deep feature learning with discrimination mechanism for brain tumor segmentation and diagnosis. in 2015 international conference on intelligent information hiding and multimedia signal processing (iih-msp), 306-309. https://doi.org/10.1109/iih-msp.2015.41. zhao, l., hu, q., & wang, w. (2015). heterogeneous feature selection with multimodal deep neural networks and sparse group lasso. ieee transactions on multimedia, 17(11), 1936-1948. https://doi.org/10.1109/tmm.2015.2477058. https://doi.org/10.1109/jcsse.2016.7748902 https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1706.00712 https://doi.org/10.1109/tcbb.2016.2551745 https://doi.org/10.1109/iih-msp.2015.41 https://doi.org/10.1109/tmm.2015.2477058 microsoft word brain_1_4.doc 88 resumos de artigos em português brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cérebro. ampla pesquisa em inteligência artificial e neurociências issn 2067-3957 volume 1, número 4 outubro de 2010, " outono 2010!" www.brain.edusoft.ro editor chefe: bogdan pătruţ 1. nova combinada “scoring system” para predizer insuficiência respiratória em pacientes do iraque com guillain-barré zaki noah hasan resumo a síndrome de guillain-barré (gbs) é uma polineuropatia pós-infecciosa aguda auto-imune, é o mais comum de neuropatia periférica causando insuficiência respiratória. o objetivo do estudo é a utilização do novo sistema de pontuação combinada em antecipação de insuficiência respiratória para realizar medidas eletivo, sem esperar para situações de emergência que ocorra. pacientes e métodos: cinquenta pacientes com gbs foram estudados. oito parâmetros clínicos (incluindo a evolução dos pacientes com fraqueza, frequência respiratória máxima / minuto, a contagem da respiração (o número de dígitos que o paciente pode contar nos prendendo a respiração), a presença de fraqueza muscular facial (unilateral ou bilateral), presença de fraqueza o músculo bulbar, fraqueza do músculo flexor do pescoço e fraqueza nos membros) foram avaliados para cada paciente e uma certa pontuação foi atribuída a cada parâmetro, a pontuação combinada projetada a ser construída levando em consideração todos os parâmetros acima mencionados clínica. resultados e discussão: quinze pacientes (30%) que foram incluídos em nosso estudo evoluiu com insuficiência respiratória. houve uma associação altamente significativa entre o desenvolvimento de insuficiência respiratória e os níveis mais baixos de (pontuação bolbosa fraqueza muscular, da respiração escores contagem da pontuação fraqueza muscular do pescoço, membros inferiores e fraqueza dos membros superiores da pontuação, a contagem da freqüência respiratória) ea soma total pontuação acima de 16 em 30 (p = 0,000). não houve diferença estatisticamente significante quanto à progressão para fraqueza máxima (p = 0,675) e fraqueza muscular facial (p = 0,482). conclusão: os pacientes que obtiveram uma pontuação combinada (acima 16'30) estão em grande risco de ter insuficiência respiratória. 2. quo vadis, máquina inteligente? rosemarie velik resumo inteligência artificial (ai) é um ramo da ciência da computação preocupada em fazer os computadores se comportam como seres humanos. pelo menos essa era a idéia original. no entanto, descobriu-se que esta não foi uma tarefa fácil de resolver. este artigo visa dar uma revisão abrangente sobre os últimos 60 anos da inteligência artificial, tendo um ponto de vista filosófico. é descrito o que aconteceu até agora em ai, o que está actualmente em curso nesta área de investigação, e que pode ser esperado no futuro. o objetivo é intermediar um entendimento para a evolução e as mudanças no pensamento no decorrer do tempo, sobre como alcançar a inteligência da máquina. a mensagem clara é que a ai tem que unir forças com a neurociência e as disciplinas resumos de artigos em português 89 do cérebro, a fim de dar um passo para o desenvolvimento de máquinas verdadeiramente inteligentes 3. vocabulário de aprendizagem de forma centrada de segunda língua como preditor de terceira grader efl aprendizes "realização: um caso de tradução ali jahangard resumo o objetivo do estudo foi a formulação de um modelo para prever o desempenho do escola secundária iraniano terceira séries do ensino fundamental no final da realização do curso (eca) através de testes de seu desempenho nos testes de vocabulário, que foram administradas ao longo do curso. para atingir este objectivo, 1732 alunos o envelhecimento de dezenove anos, todos homens participaram do estudo que demorou nove meses para ser concluído. suas habilidades lingüísticas eram aproximadamente ao nível intermediário-mid acordo com as orientações de proficiência actfl (1998). o processo de amostragem foi o método de grupo intacto. 333 itens lexicais foram ensinadas para os alunos no método de tradução descontextualizada pares-associados. as aulas foram realizadas duas horas por semana em um curso de nove meses de tempo. seis conjuntos de testes de vocabulário foram administrados a cada aluno ea média foi calculada. as notas dos alunos nos testes de eca e suas pontuações médias nos testes de vocabulário foram analisados através do procedimento de análise de regressão para derivar um modelo que poderia prever com fiabilidade as pontuações dos alunos do tce através do seu desempenho médio nas contagens de vocabulário. a análise resultou a seguinte fórmula: (média vocabulário x 0,713) + 2,871 ± [3.1]. 4. o impacto do teste de ansiedade no teste de performance entre iraniano aprendizes iranianos de efl parviz birjandi, minoo alemi resumo como um fator afetivo, teste de tomada de ansiedade tem sido investigada em diferentes contextos nas últimas duas décadas. no entanto, os resultados contraditórios da relação entre o teste de tomada de ansiedade e o desempenho do teste dos alunos l2 mostre que a realização do teste que a instrumentação para a avaliação do teste, tendo a ansiedade e os fatores que compõem o constructo do teste, tendo ansiedade traço requer mais investigação a fim de lançar mais luz sobre o assunto. para este fim, um teste-inscritos, tendo questionário de ansiedade (sarason, 1975) [27] e um teste de inglês geral foram administrados a 164 estudantes de engenharia esp em ba programa para documentar (a) o grau de sua prova, tendo ansiedade, (b) a relação entre o teste de tomada de ansiedade e desempenho no teste, e (c) as cargas factor de ansiedade com base na análise fatorial exploratória. os resultados mostram que a ansiedade alunos l2 'teste é bastante baixo, com a maioria dos seus componentes que não tenham correlação negativa com o desempenho no teste. os resultados da análise fatorial exploratória revelou o carregamento de ansiedade traço ensaio sobre a sobreposição de três fatores, em vez de ansiedade teste específico, teste ansiedade geral, ansiedade e preparação para o teste. no entanto, desses fatores, a ansiedade do teste geral, devido ao seu funcionamento no nível de alta ordem afetiva, tem uma correlação negativa significativa com o desempenho no teste. em contraste, a ansiedade da preparação do teste, com vista a facilitar a realização do teste, se manifesta de forma positiva, embora não significativa correlação com o desempenho no teste. os resultados têm duas implicações: (a) como as correlações e cargas sobre os fatores de ansiedade teste provou ser de ambos os tipos negativo e positivo, o questionário de ansiedade não é monolítico e, portanto, não é uma medida adequada no caso da relação linear entre a ansiedade de teste e o desempenho no teste é o foco do estudo, e (b) teste ansiedade não parece influenciar muito no desempenho do teste ao nível micro-teste específico. 5. sobre a relação entre a entrada e a interação psicolinguísticos, cognitivos e perspectivas ecológicas em sla mohammad khatib, minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, octobre 2010, "autumn 2010", issn 2067-3957 90 resumo a entrada é um dos elementos mais importantes no processo de aquisição de segunda língua (sla). como gass (1997) assinala, segunda língua de aprendizagem simplesmente não pode ter lugar sem a entrada de algum tipo. desde então, as questões específicas têm sido ativamente debatidos sla sobre a natureza da entrada e processamento de entrada, tais como a quantidade de entrada que é necessário para a aquisição da linguagem, vários atributos de entrada e como elas podem facilitar ou dificultar a aquisição, eo método de ensino que pode aumentar a entrada. neste trabalho, quatro hipóteses e paradigmas de processamento de dados têm sido descritas. é delimitada que apesar dos três paradigmas de desencadear, a hipótese de entrada, e a hipótese de interação têm sido amplamente utilizados e aceitos, eles não têm a capacidade para dar conta da natureza dinâmica da linguagem. affordance, por outro lado, pode explicar tal natureza da linguagem. portanto, affordance visão substitui fixo olho por olho, visão celular, um aprendiz ativo estabelece relações com e no meio ambiente. o aluno pode perceber e agir diretamente sobre a língua ambiente, sem ter para encaminhar tudo através de um aparelho pré-existentes dos esquemas mentais e de representação, enquanto isso não é verdade na teoria de código fixo. na teoria de olhos fixos de comunicação, assume-se que as mensagens prontas são codificados em uma extremidade, transmitido e decodificados de forma idêntica a outra extremidade. precisamos em seu lugar uma teoria construtivista da construção da mensagem e interpretação. 6. matemática computacional em medicina angel garrido resumo ai exige coerência. mas a sua versão clássica apresenta insuficiências demais. então, é muito necessário introduzir ferramentas mais sofisticadas, como pode ser fuzzy logic, lógica modal, não-monotônica lógica, e assim por diante [2]. entre as coisas que precisa representar ai são categorias, objetos, propriedades, relações entre objetos, situações, os estados, tempo, eventos, causas e efeitos, o conhecimento sobre o conhecimento, e assim por diante. os problemas de ia podem ser classificados em dois tipos gerais [3, 4], problemas de pesquisa e problema de representação. existem diferentes maneiras de alcançar este objetivo. então, nós temos [3] lógica, regras, frames, redes associativas, escrita, e assim por diante, muitas vezes de interconexão. também será muito útil no tratamento dos problemas de incerteza e de causalidade, a introdução de redes bayesianas e, sobretudo, uma ferramenta como o principal gráfico essenciais. tentamos aqui para mostrar o âmbito de aplicação de tais métodos versáteis, actualmente fundamental em medicina. 7. único ponto de teoremas que estão conjuntamente fixados para três e quatro cartografias idênticas nos espaços métrico de vaga simetria saurabh manro abstracto neste papel, nós provamos dois únicos pontos de teoremas que estão conjuntamente fixados para três e quatro cartografias idênticas nos espaços métrico de vaga simetria. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 14-26 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/441 submitted: february 8th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 27th, 2023 psychological complications during military operations in ukraine: neurobiological effects olga samara 1, oksana voitsekhovska 2, svitlana stavytska 3, nataliia shelenkova 4, nataliia mateiko 5, viktor moskalets 6 1 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of the department of psychology, national university "odesa law academy", https://orcid.org/00000003-2522-8127, samaraolha@gmail.com 2 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of the department of theoretical and applied psychology, lviv polytechnic national university, voitsekhovska1oksana@gmail.com 3 doctor of psychological sciences, professor of the department of pedagogy and psychology, vadym hetman kyiv national university of economics, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0800-0876, stavics@ukr.net 4 phd in psychology, associate professor of the department of psychology, pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, https://orcid.org/0000-00026488-9078, shelenkova_nata@ukr.net 5 candidate of psychological sciences, associated рrofessor of the department of general and clinical psychology, vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1807-9939, mnm2807@ukr.net 6 doctor of psychological sciences, professor, head of the department of general and clinical psychology, vasyl stefanyk pricarpathian national university, victor.moskalets@pnu.edu.ua abstract: the relevance to the investigation stems from the fact that during military operations in ukraine there are psychological complications both among servicemen and the population. the most common type of psychological complications is fear as one of the most mysterious and contradictory emotions. formed in the process of evolution as a signal and warning human reaction to danger, fear often misinforms people about the extent of external danger. fear as a psychological complication is a powerful catalyst of human physical, spiritual strength and energy and, at the same time, it can paralyze his ability to withstand danger. it is reflected in the brain, the brain organ of the central nervous system, which regulates all the most important changes in the human body. in case of stress, it is the brain structures that react first and trigger a response, the purpose of which is adaptation and survival in difficult conditions. the brain detects a threat, recognizes the cause of psychological or physical stress. in response to the influence of a stressor protective mechanisms are triggered, changing the work of the nervous and endocrine systems. the article reveals the concept of horror and its psychotraumatic effect; the most important functions of fear as a psychological complication are defined; the neurobiological basis of stress as a psychological complication during war is investigated. keywords: stress, brain structures, endocrine system, fear, fear catalysts. how to cite: samara, o., voitsekhovska, o., stavytska, s., shelenkova, n., mateiko, n., & moskalets, v. (2023). psychological complications during military operations in ukraine: neurobiological effects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 14-26. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/441 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/441 file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/samaraolha@gmail.com file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/voitsekhovska1oksana@gmail.com file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/stavics@ukr.net file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/shelenkova_nata@ukr.net file:///d:/editorial%202023/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/mnm2807@ukr.net mailto:victor.moskalets@pnu.edu.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/441 psychological complications during military operations in ukraine:… olga samara, et al. 15 introduction during military operations in ukraine, psychological complications have been observed among both servicemen and civilians. the most common type of psychological complications is fear and stress, the most dangerous emotions. the impact of fear on human behavior is extremely varied. from simple autonomic reactions and a slight slowing down of actions to total paralysis of the body. fear entraps the human body, its neuro-psychic and spiritual organization. the roster of human fears is quite large. sometimes it manifests itself in a barely perceptible, inarticulate fear-anxiety, and sometimes in the form of animal horror, a sense of the onset of an almost worldwide catastrophe. indeed, fear is manifold, omnipresent, and contagious. there are special forms of fear that are on the borders of normality and pathology of the human psyche. however, perhaps, the most "fertile" base for the manifestation of fear in all its hypostases is created in war, in a combat situation. domestic and foreign scientists, scientists, psychologists, neurobiologists devoted their scientific researches to the topic of psychological complications manifestation during military actions in ukraine, research of their neurobiological impact. studies of scientistspsychologists holyk et al. (2009) point out that fear affects all aspects of military combat activity. one of the consequences of this influence is a significant decrease in combat effectiveness of fighters, first of all, in the accuracy of fire defeat of the enemy. also scientists confirms in his scientific works that the most dramatic consequence of fear is the psychotraumatization of combat participants. according to n. ahayev et al. (2018), the most important functions of fear during military operations in ukraine are motivation to survive, the need to solve the combat task and knowledge of the circumstances of its implementation. the purpose of the article is to give the concept of fear and its psychotraumatic influence on servicemen during military actions in ukraine; to determine the most important functions of fear as a psychological complication; to single out catalysts of fear during military actions in ukraine; to study neurobiological basis of stress as a psychological complication during the war; to find out catalysts of fear during military actions in ukraine. the research methodology is aimed at studying the impact of psychological complications on servicemen during military operations in ukraine. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 16 the objectives of the study will be realized by using such methods: methods of critical analysis, synthesis of scientific and methodological sources, methods of system analysis, descriptive and predictive method, generalization and systematization of the obtained results induction and deduction, traductive method. the concept of fear and its psychotraumatization of servicemen н. vinichuk (2004), characterizing any war, noted that its main element is danger. the reaction to danger, fear an inevitable attribute of war, influencing all aspects of military combat activity of servicemen. one of the consequences of this influence is a considerable decrease in the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, first of all in the accuracy of the enemy's fire. studies show that because of fear, the effectiveness of fire in combat is simply miserable (holyk et al., 2009). the most dramatic consequence of fear is the psychotraumatization of combat participants (holyk et al., 2009). the size of this formidable phenomenon can be judged by the ratio of the number of psychological losses to the number of wounded. in scientific research n. ahayev, a. kokun, and m. herasymenko (2018) proved that the most complete statistics of the ratio of the number of psychological losses to the number of wounded as a result of psychotraumatization of combat participants is in the us army, where during world war i the ratio was about 10 to 100, in world war ii 36 to 100, and during world war ii american troops lost 504 thousand people due to mental disorders on the battlefield. that number of personnel is enough to form 50 combat divisions. j. lawton (2018) researched that in the 1973 arab-israeli war, nearly one-third of israeli casualties were due to psychological causes. approximately the same was observed in the egyptian forces. when the israelis invaded lebanon in 1982, the death toll from mental disorders was already twice as high as the number of those killed, and accounted for 27% of the total number of wounded. during the vietnam war, psychogenic losses already amounted to 30% of combat casualties. during the fighting in iraq and afghanistan it was 12-20%. fear and its psychological effects have enormous power of contagion. according to e.colston who interviewed hundreds of world war ii veterans, 75% of them were convinced that fear could be contagious, transmitted from one soldier to another (whitehead, 2021). in e. colston's) study, 83% of those surveyed claimed to have had the experience of watching human nerves "break down" at the front. 70% of the 1,700 psychological complications during military operations in ukraine:… olga samara, et al. 17 american veterans surveyed in italy in 1944 showed that their psyche failed when they saw the effects of psychotraumatizing another person, whitehead (2021). the history of warfare and the art of war knows many instances in which the fear of single soldiers became epidemic and transformed into the unrestrained panic of crowds of thousands. for a long time, fear was treated by military theorists and practitioners as a negative emotion. on the basis of this position, it was suggested that we "fight" fear, "conquer" fear, "overcome and terminate" it. as the above statistics show, this position turned out to be unfounded, and the attempts made on its basis to defeat fear proved to be untenable. the task of today's military psychology is seen as offering the fighter real ways and means to act effectively in a dangerous situation, to transform fear from the fetters and shackles of a combatant into his combat psychological resource, shay (2003). to do this, first of all, it is necessary to know fear (to identify its nature, factors, catalysts, types, functions, symptoms and dynamics of manifestation in a combat situation), to accept it (to recognize it as an attribute of extreme activity) and to use the energy it generates rationally. the study of the nature of fear allows us to assert that fear in combat is not a manifestation of the signs of cowards, but a normal, unavoidable, useful reaction to danger, as a danger signal produced by the human organism when it detects signs of danger in the surrounding world. the "normality" of fear is evidenced by its actual universality. it is well known today that among mentally and somatically normal people there are no absolutely fearless people, vinichuk (2004). the recognition of the naturalness of fear allows us to eliminate one of the most common fears in war, the fear of being afraid on the battlefield and of letting one's fellow soldiers down, that is, "fear of being afraid". the most important aspect of cognition of fear is to comprehend its functions. actually, fear's widespread occurrence in combat situations is connected with the fact that, "ideally," it performs extremely useful functions. in many respects, it is thanks to fear that a person is able to transform himself into a real warrior. the essential functions of fear as a psychological complication n. ahayev, a. kokuna, m. herasymenko (2018) believe that the most important functions of fear during military operations in ukraine are motivation to survive, the need to solve the combat task and to know the circumstances of its implementation. because fear maximally mobilizes all broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 18 organizational resources, physical, nervous and mental energy of a person. it makes a person less vulnerable to pain, wounds, and adverse circumstances of combat. the motivation to survive the fear of death and pain is a powerful motor of activity. fear is a "nuclear" reactor in the human soul, one of the most resourceful and high-energy states of a warrior. some specialists compare it to high-octane fuel capable of instantly accelerating the human body and psyche to enormous rates of functioning (yevdokymova et al., 2016). disruption of any of the above functions of fear threatens to reduce or lose the warrior's combat capabilities. in this case the warrior gets rid of this or that "insurance" and finds himself "uninsured" against certain threats. if the warrior does not assimilate the energy of fear, fear becomes a disorganizing, paralyzing, painful and destructive mental state (shvets et al., 2016). to remove the contradiction between the highly adaptive, energetic, mobilizing properties of fear and the demoralizing and disorganizing effect, experts have distinguished between "controlled" and "uncontrolled" types of fear. controlled fear has the power to induce a person to take beneficial action. uncontrollable fear is destructive. when fear is too weak, people become careless and expose themselves and others to unnecessary risk and danger. when it exceeds certain thresholds, it comes into play to induce a senseless panic that endangers one's life and the lives of one's fellow soldiers. in order to master fear, it is necessary to learn its main factors. in literature it is possible to meet tens fighting circumstances treated by authors a. krakhmalev and a.kucher (2003) as a factor of fear. the warrior in combat is affected by many different stimuli, among them: flashes of explosions and shots, "fountains" from bullets, aircraft (helicopters) overflights, movement of combat equipment, enemy movement, movement of fellow soldiers, hot equipment and buildings, injuries and death of fellow soldiers, rescue shelters, sounds of shots and explosions, screams of wounded, commands of commanders, screams of fellow soldiers, shouts (battle cries) of the enemy, vibration of the ground, whistling of balloons, rustling of shells, rocket launchers, cold, heat, eye-grinding smoke, smell of burning, heat, taste of blood, body trembling, " formication", unpleasant body sensations, dry mouth, flashbacks, seeing corpses, thoughts, heat from fires, beating of own heart, pain sensations, feeling of fatigue, etc., halyan (2012). psychological complications during military operations in ukraine:… olga samara, et al. 19 undoubtedly, many of these stimuli have a very unfavorable effect on the mental state of combat participants, but not all of them are "fearful". today experts distinguish three factors (reasons, driving forces) of fear as the main ones: the unknown, the unexpected, the feeling of helplessness. popular wisdom, the combat experience of great commanders reflected these factors in the form of peculiar formulas: "what i do not know, i am afraid of", "warned means armed", "surprised means victorious", "lost money lost nothing; lost the other lost half; lost faith lost everything". the need to solve a combat task and to know the circumstances of its execution is very high. consequently, servicemen must know well the specifics of the enemy's tactics, psychology and combat tower level, specific indicators of the territory, the order, forces and ways of carrying out the task. if this knowledge is sufficient for effective action, there are no negative emotions in the soldiers. if there is not enough information, however, warriors may have anxiety, worry and fear. thus, fear is a signal of the lack of important information. we can say that according to yu. ivanov (2006) fear is a signal of the lack of content of activity. it was the high content that our warriors put into winning the war that contributed to the development of mass self-sacrifice and heroism. the importance of giving content to soldiers' participation in deadly battles was realized in other armies as well. the neurobiological basis of stress and fear as psychological complications during war the brain is the main organ of the central nervous system; it regulates all the most important in the human body. and thus, in the case of stress, it is the brain structures that react first and trigger the response, the purpose of which is adaptation and survival in difficult conditions (nash, 2007). it is the brain that identifies the threat, recognizes the cause of psychological or physical stress. in response to the influence of the stressor, defense mechanisms are triggered, which change the functioning of the nervous and endocrine systems. short-term adaptive changes are useful: they temporarily improve brain functions, allowing to react quickly and make quick decisions. a different picture is seen with chronic stress. sustained changes in brain function caused by stress disrupt normal brain function. the consequences of prolonged stress are dysfunction of the most important systems, a decrease in the activity of protective devices and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 20 depletion of the body's reserves. this, in turn, can lead to the development of one or another disease, depending on the existing propensity for it. chronic stress often becomes the "last straw", so it is very important to help the body recover in time. when stressed, certain areas of the brain are activated, while inevitably the functions of other brain structures are diminished. if a person experiences stress, which lasts for days instead of hours, the whole brain is negatively affected changes occur at all levels: structural, molecular, neurochemical. stress affects the psyche, changes the work of the most important systems of the body, affects the higher brain functions. their violation can be manifested by the reduction of cognitive abilities: memory, attention, speech. the impact of stress on cognitive functions is explained by the physiology of the process. the brain, identifying danger, triggers the stress response. its purpose is to protect the body from adverse emotional or physical effects. the brain response is determined by experience, so the perception of stress is subjective and largely depends on the individual characteristics of a particular person. but the links in the stress chain remain the same: the sympathetic autonomic nervous system leads to the "alertness" of the cardiovascular system, lungs, muscles, triggers the active synthesis of stress hormones catecholamines (adrenaline, noradrenaline), in the brain substance of the adrenal glands. the hypothalamic-pituitary axis of the brain gives signals to the adrenal cortex corresponding to the release of another group of stress hormones glucocorticoids (cortisol), regulating further changes. stress hormones spread with the bloodstream throughout the body and even enter the brain. it is at this point that the negative effects of stress on the brain associated with an excess of cortisol can begin. this hormone is responsible for energy supply and increases the release of glucose, which stimulates even brain activity. therefore, short, moderate stress has a positive effect on thinking. during this period, reaction speed and concentration increases. at the same time cortisol contributes to the suppression of "secondary" processes in the body in which there is no acute need for a stress response. in chronic stress, glucocorticoid levels are constantly elevated and positive physiological effects are replaced by negative ones: metabolism is disturbed, immunity is reduced, brain functions are depressed. there are two types of receptors in the brain that are sensitive to glucocorticoids. hormones in this group first bind to one type of receptor, psychological complications during military operations in ukraine:… olga samara, et al. 21 promoting brain activity, but as glucocorticoid concentrations increase, they also bind to receptors of the second type, which has a detrimental effect on brain function: connections between brain regions are disrupted and inflammation develops hippocampus volume, the part of the brain responsible for working, long-term and declarative (conscious) memory, decreases. because of persistent changes in the hormonal background, prolonged stress impairs a number of brain functions, reducing its ability to adapt and recover. the brain becomes less neuroplastic, i.e. it becomes difficult for it to change under the influence of new experience to develop new neural connections that allow remembering this experience and applying it later. there are signs of emotional burnout and nervous exhaustion, sleep disorders develop, the person feels chronic fatigue and apathy. confusion, speech and behavioral disorders are observed, it becomes difficult for a person to adapt to new things, cognitive function decrease is one of the most widespread post-stress conditions. in addition to neurological and psychological problems up to and including depression, stress often causes a decrease in libido. the intensity and duration of stress determines the extent of its effect on the brain. if high levels of stress hormones persist for a long time, the negative effects can turn out to be irreversible. for example, under the influence of glucocorticoids there is an overproduction of excitatory amino acids, which is thought to trigger a chain of reactions leading to alzheimer's disease (khatsaiuk et al., 2021). it is impossible to say exactly what concentration of stress hormones is critical, everything is very individual the number of receptors, their sensitivity and location are different for everyone. on average, stress lasting more than three weeks is considered chronic, threatening. in this case, it is worth thinking not only about how to get out of this state, but also how to compensate for the damage caused to the body. to return the body to a balance and normalize the neuroendocrine system, first of all, we should try to eliminate the causes of stress or minimize their impact. you can start with simple life changes: align the daily routine, add more physical activity, establish a healthy diet (kokun et al., 2017). to cope with the psychological effects of stress, psychotherapy is used. physiological methods such as massage, sports, and breathing practices can affect the natural processes affected by stress. in some cases, medication support prescribed by a neurologist may be needed. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 22 fear catalysts during hostilities in ukraine in addition to the above factors, there are circumstances that aggravate fear, that is, peculiar catalysts of fear. these most commonly include: exposure time of fear factors, combat fatigue, sleep deprivation, a sense of isolation and loneliness of soldiers. particularly negative influence on servicemen has fear caused by a prolonged stay in a direct combat encounter with the enemy. n. yevdokymova (2016) discovered the following pattern. according to his observations, the moral psychological capabilities of fighters begin to slowly increase after 3-5 days of being in a dangerous situation. then within 20-25 days there is their maximum combat effectiveness due to relative adaptation to fear. but after 40 days of combat contact with the enemy the collapse of the fighters' psychological abilities is observed due to the rapid increase of fear and fatigue. later, american experts confirmed the results obtained by n. yevdokymova (2016) and concluded that the limit of soldiers in a direct combat encounter with the enemy is 30-35 days. after this period it is necessary to withdraw troops to second echelons or reserves. practice shows that warriors not only have different time limits for resisting fear, but also experience peaks of fear at different stages of combat, that is, they differ in the dynamics of experiencing fear. the above provisions allow us to define the main directions of mastering fear as a psychological resource for warriors. 1. first of all, regulation of the level of fear can be accomplished through comprehension--giving a clear meaning to the warriors' participation in combat operations, the formation of broad social motives (love of country; belief in god, justice, victory; hatred of the enemy; sense of duty, etc.) and motives of combat society. 2. meaningful activity "takes" horror exactly as much as it is needed to preserve the meaning of the activity. fear regulation can be achieved by eliminating fear factors and catalysts in warriors' combat activity. the most important task here is, as one of the founders of the native military o. halyan (2012) noted, "... to acquaint the soldiers in advance with the real phenomena in combat in the sense of combat activity and in the sense of mental experiences". it, in his opinion, "is the preliminary accumulation of combat experience and, therefore, rational. work with the harmful influence of strong experiences on the psyche of soldiers in the feelings of anxiety and fear". one of the strongest experiences in war is fear of the pain of wounding and trauma. this fear is based on ignorance of the psychological complications during military operations in ukraine:… olga samara, et al. 23 psychophysiological phenomenology of wounding. meanwhile, warriors wounded during combat point to the phenomenon of total anesthesia of the body in the process of experiencing combat stress. fear and relaxation are antagonists and cannot exist simultaneously. warriors develop the habit of thinking about injuries without fear of pain. given the limitations of the human capacity to resist adversity, care must be taken not to overexert warriors in a life-sustaining environment. practice shows that soldiers' resilience to fear is greatly increased if they are initially aware of the duration of their participation in combat and the timing of their return to their permanent deployment locations. 3. in order to manage terror, one must be able to recognize its main symptoms in a timely manner and "turn on" the psychological mechanisms for effectively engaging or regulating terror. the earlier symptoms of fear are detected, the more opportunities there are to bring it to an optimal level. to do this, one can use techniques of emergency psychological self-regulation based on muscle relaxation, changes in the tone of breathing, and placebo techniques such as "reflexive fixation of mental states. proactive states accumulated in the course of life and fixed with special anchors can be instantly reproduced in a dangerous situation when the anchor is activated. 4. of course, a certain potential of fear regulation is contained in the psychological mechanisms of the paradoxical intension method, halyan (2012). "planning" the moments of fear during the stages of combat, and striving to "identify" and "feel" it can significantly reduce fear. the effect obtained in this case can be designated as the fear room effect. when visitors to the fear room enter it with the imagination, inflamed by the stories of those who have been in it before, and expect that "here's a witch about to pop out," and "now a dead man will appear," etc., there is no fear. 5. the most promising direction of research into fear and ways of integrating it into combat activity is the arbitrary transformation of fear into proactive emotions (anger, hatred, aggression). this transition can be carried out with the help of "rocking" ("pumping") technologies of using fear, which consist of conscious and controlled powerful pumping of fear and abrupt release of its energy into concrete action as anger. the instinct of self-preservation has two sides. the first is that man runs for the purpose of self-preservation, the second is that man attacks and defends himself for the same purpose... this second side in man must be developed, because it pushes for defense, for attack. self-preservation is a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 24 noble trait not only of man, but of all living things. that is why this feeling is the primal engine in combat. thus, fear is a natural and useful warrior's reaction to danger, the unknown, and the suddenness of a combat situation. fear is one of the most "energy-consuming" human emotions. having fulfilled its main, signaling function, it becomes dysfunctional and disorganizes activity. the task is not to "destroy" fear, but to subdue it to its power and turn it into a fighting resource. conclusions the importance of the article lies in the fact that the concept of fear and its psychotraumatic influence is revealed, because during military operations in ukraine psychological complications among both servicemen and civilians are observed, among which fear and stress are the most common. their influence on human behavior is very diverse: from the simplest vegetative reactions and a slight slowing down of actions to the total paralysis of the body. the article also identifies the most important functions of fear as a psychological complication and proves that the most important functions of fear during military actions in ukraine are the motivation of survival, the need to solve the combat task and the need to know the circumstances of the mission, etc. survival motivation in fear of death and pain is a powerful driver of activity. it has been proven that fear is a reactor in the human soul, one of the most resourceful and high-energy states of a warrior. also neurobiological bases of stress and fear as psychological complications during the war were investigated and it was studied that under fear and stress certain brain zones are activated, which negatively affects the work of the brain as a whole changes occur at all levels: structural, molecular, neurochemical. stress and fear affect the psyche, change the functioning of the most important systems of the body and affect higher brain functions. their disturbance can manifest itself as a decrease in cognitive abilities: memory, attention, speech. acknowledgement the author 1 contributed significantly to the structure of the article and introduced the concept of fear and its psychotraumatic effects. the author 2 identified the most important functions of fear as a psychological complication. psychological complications during military operations in ukraine:… olga samara, et al. 25 the author 3 investigated the neurobiological basis of stress as a psychological complication during war. the authors 4, 5 elucidated the catalysts of fear during warfare in ukraine. references ahayev, n. a., kokun, o. m., herasymenko, m.v., pishko, i. o., & lozynska, n.s (2018). dosvid roboty v armiyi ssha ta armiyakh inshykh krayin shchodo nedopushchennya vtrat osobovoho skladu z prychyn, ne pov"yazanykh iz vykonannyam zavdan’ za pryznachenyam [the experience of the u.s. army and armies of other countries in preventing personnel losses due to reasons unrelated to the performance of tasks on assignment]. maslakov pe. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/159118768.pdf halyan, o. i. (2012). eksperymental’na psykholohiya: navchal’nyy posibnyk [experimental psychology]. akademvydat. holyk, m. m., lyashenko, v. m, romanyshyn, a. m., & romanovskyi, y. y. (2009). moral’no-psykholohichne zabezpechennya diyal’nosti viys’k [moral and psychological support for the activities of the troops]. lviv institute of land forces. https://dovidnykmpz.info/wpcontent/uploads/2021/10/mpz-u-zsu-2020.pdf ivanov, y. a. (2006). ispol’zovaniye metoda nablyudeniya dlya izucheniya individual'no-psikhologicheskikh osobennostey voyennosluzhashchikh [use of observation method to study individual psychological characteristics of servicemen]. journals of the military commissariat employee "for the rights of military personnel", 3. http://voenprav.ru/doc-4095-5.htm khatsaiuk, o., medvid, m., maksymchuk, b., kurok, o., dziuba, p., tyurina, v., chervonyi, p., yevdokimova, o., levko, m., demchenko, i., maliar, n., maliar, e., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). preparing future officers for performing assigned tasks through special physical training. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(2), 457-475. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.2/431 kokun, o. m., ahayev, n. a., pishko, i. o., & lozynska, n. s. (2017). psykholohichna robota z viys’kovosluzhbovtsyamy uchasnykamy ato na etapi vidnovlennya [psychological work with soldiers-participants of the ato at the stage of recovery]. research center for humanitarian problems of the armed forces of ukraine. krakhmalev, a.v., & kucher, a. a. (2003). prichiny boyevoy psikhicheskoy travmy, yeye proyavleniya i pervaya pomoshch’ [causes of combat mental trauma, its manifestations and first aid]. in a.v. krakhmalev & a. a. kucher (eds.), problems of military psychology (pp. 193-200). minsk. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/159118768.pdf https://dovidnykmpz.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/mpz-u-zsu-2020.pdf https://dovidnykmpz.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/mpz-u-zsu-2020.pdf http://voenprav.ru/doc-4095-5.htm https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.2/431 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 26 lawton, j. (2012). oscar pistorius breaks the spell. the truth is these ’superhuman ’ athletes err like the rest of us. independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/comment/james-lawtonoscar-pistoriusbreaks-spell-truth-these-superhuman-athletes-err-rest-us8102795.html. nash, w. p. (2007). combat/operational stress adaptations and injuries. in c. r. figley & w. p. nash (eds.), combat stress injury: theory, research, and management (pp. 33–63). routledge/taylor & francis group. prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 shay, j. (2003). odysseus in america: combat trauma and the trials of homecoming. scribner. shvets, a.v., koval, o. v., lukyanchuk, i. a., ivantsova, h.v., & chaykovskyy, a. r. (2016). preventyvni psykhofiziolohichni zakhody z poperedzhennya rozvytku dezadaptatsiyi u viys’kovosluzhbovtsiv (nevrotychnykh ta psykhichnykh rozladiv, presuyitsydal’nykh form povedinky) v umovakh voyennoho konfliktu ta pislya yoho zavershennya [preventive psychophysiological measures to prevent the development of disadaptation in servicemen (neurotic and mental disorders, presuicidal forms of behavior) in conditions of military conflict and after its end]. mp lesya. vinichuk, n. v. (2004). psikhologiya anomal’nogo povedeniya [psychology of abnormal behavior]. vladivostok. whitehead, d. (2021, june 5). edward colston: bristol statue vandalised and toppled during black lives matter protest goes on display. sky news. https://news.sky.com/story/edward-colston-bristolstatue-vandalised-andtoppled-during-black-lives-matter-protest-goes-on-display12324146 yevdokymova, n. o., zlyvkov, v. l., & lukomska, s. o. (2016). doroha zmin: efektyvne spilkuvannya u kryzovykh umovakh zhyttya: posibnyk iz psykholohiyi dlya “chaynykiv” [the road of change: effective communication in the conditions of life: a guide to psychology for "dummies"]. mykolayiv. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/comment/james-lawton-oscar-pistoriusbreaks-spell-truth-these-superhuman-athletes-err-rest-us-8102795.html https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/comment/james-lawton-oscar-pistoriusbreaks-spell-truth-these-superhuman-athletes-err-rest-us-8102795.html https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/comment/james-lawton-oscar-pistoriusbreaks-spell-truth-these-superhuman-athletes-err-rest-us-8102795.html https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://news.sky.com/story/edward-colston-bristolstatue-vandalised-and-toppled-during-black-lives-matter-protest-goes-on-display12324146 https://news.sky.com/story/edward-colston-bristolstatue-vandalised-and-toppled-during-black-lives-matter-protest-goes-on-display12324146 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 459-470 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/399 submitted: march 30th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 13th, 2022 methods of critical thinking in classes of philological disciplines in higher education institutions: neuroscientific approach halyna kosarieva 1 , oksana vasylenko 2 , nadiia breslavets 3 , iryna tamozhska 4 , inessa anikina 5 , nataliia mordovtseva 6 1 petro mohyla black sea national university, ukraine, kgala7705@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2407-7259 2 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, oks.vas.oks@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5193-045x 3 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, nadiia9572@gmail.com 4 v. n. karazin kharkiv national university, ukraine, itamozska@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0865-2380 5 pavlov tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, aiv_777@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2760-8422 6 state institution lugansk taras shevchenko national university, ukraine, mordovcevanv@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1827-9404 abstract: the relevance of the research in the context of determining an importance of critical thinking lies in the excessive informatization of a modern society. the internet is becoming a source of a large flow of an information, which is spread through the intensive use of an information and communication technologies in almost all areas of human life. the article highlights features of a digitalization in the modern world, as well as the main methods of critical thinking for an analysis and an evaluation of an information. the research work is based on theoretical and methodological approaches of researchers of critical thinking as a method, in particular in the field of philology. theoretical and methodological approaches of the research became the basis for determining results of an effective implementation of critical thinking methods in philological classes in higher education institutions in the context of a neuroscientific approach. in order to study the effectiveness of the use of critical thinking in philological specialties some research, descriptive and scientific methods were used. the method of an analysis was also used in the context of distinguishing the concept of a method, critical thinking, specialties of philology and a neuroscientific approach. to determine the main results of the research, a generalization method was used. results of the research became the basis for a need to think critically in the modern historical space, as digitalization of the society has led to a continuous flow of an information, which causes the infodemia as destabilizing factor in a public life. also, future professionals in obtaining a qualification must clearly distinguish the true information from an inaccurate, which can be realized in the presence of a critical perception of an information flow. keywords: competent qualification; self-realization; self-affirmation; neuropedagogy; media resources. how to cite: syrotkina, z., bankul, l., bukhniieva, o., boychev, i., gunko, n., & chekhunina, a. (2022). methods of critical thinking in classes of philological disciplines in higher education institutions: neuroscientific approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 459-470. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/399 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/399 mailto:kgala7705@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2407-7259 mailto:oks.vas.oks@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5193-045x mailto:nadiia9572@gmail.com mailto:itamozska@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0865-2380 mailto:aiv_777@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2760-8422 mailto:mordovcevanv@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1827-9404 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/399 methods of critical thinking in classes of philological disciplines in higher ... halyna kosarieva et al. 460 introduction the modern society is at the stage of globalization, integration and development in the context of an informatization. a social process in the context of introduction of digital technologies in almost all spheres of human activity are developing rapidly and changing. this aspect leads to the need to improve a level of competence of specialists in various fields. a qualified specialist can succeed in various fields of professional activity (ananyev, 1980). therefore, the task of higher education is to form highly qualified specialists who can realize their abilities, using achievements of the modern society and at the same time are able to generate ideas for a future development. the main task of the education is the formation of a competent socialized personality with value orientations, who is able to determine their priorities for achieving goals and a self-realization (bern, 1992). the digitalization of all spheres of a social life has led to the transition of man from the physical environment to the virtual, which requires a critical perception, i.e. the ability to separate a necessary and unnecessary information, which becomes total in all spheres of a human life. another important aspect of the critical perception of an information is the emotional distraction from the psychological impact of information on a person, which can cause panic or lead to wrong decisions, which can be even fatal. that is, informatization can often lead to such a phenomenon as infodemia. in modern conditions, infodemia is a common phenomenon (bibik, 2002). infodemia is spreading a fake information about the coronavirus, which has a negative impact on the health of many and is an example of critical thinking. this trend has determined the relevance of the research in the context of higher education, including philology. the research has analyzed theoretical conclusions of scientists on the method of critical thinking. the definition of an education as a process of acquiring knowledge and skills, the result of assimilation of acquired experience by an individual in order to develop, form competencies and values. it is determined that the method of critical thinking is effective for the formation of the qualification level in the modern post-industrial information world. critical thinking in the research is seen as a set of mental operations that demonstrate a person's ability to analyze, evaluate an information from different sources, synthesize, compare, solve problems, find a way out, make decisions, see alternatives to the situation. since the key factor of critical thinking is brain activity, it is necessary to analyze the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 461 neuroscientific approach to the analysis of the effectiveness of critical thinking to acquire a personal competence for a self-realization. the research has analyzed media resources as one of the factors that determine the development of an innovative society in the context of digital transformation (dewey, 1938). media resources and information and communication technologies are the main source of an information in modern times. in order to form an idea of critical perception of an information, the exercises were analyzed on the example of philological specialty. thus, it is established that the method of critical thinking is effective in the context of a mental complex of actions in educational activities, which prevents the manifestation of a negative phenomenon in the informatization of society. objective of the articleto analyze and investigate an effectiveness of the method of critical thinking in classes on philological disciplines in higher education institutions in the context of a neuroscientific approach. to achieve this objective it is necessary to implement the relevant tasks: • to determine the essence of the method of critical thinking in conducting classes in philological disciplines; • to analyze the main theoretical and methodological approaches to the formation of critical thinking in the context of the neuroscientific approach; • to investigate the effectiveness of the method of critical thinking in the era of an information and communication technologies as a basis for forming awareness for students of the correct perception of an information and making informed decisions. methodological principles of the research are the analysis of conclusions of researchers on the principles of conceptual categories and definitions (bortoletto et al., 2014). the research work proposes a systematic integrated theoretical and methodological approach to the analysis of an essence of the method of critical thinking in the context of the neuroscientific approach as effective in the era of an informatization and digitalization of a social development, in particular, defining concepts that reveal the content of the research. the scientific views of representatives of various social sciences are generalized, which gave the opportunity to clarify the concept: "a method of critical thinking"; "a neuroscientific approach to the formation of critical thinking in students", "informatization as the main components of the methods of critical thinking in classes of philological disciplines in higher ... halyna kosarieva et al. 462 progress of the modern society", "pedagogical methods of forming critical thinking in students of philological disciplines". the method of critical thinking has been found to be effective in the context of selecting the right information that will be useful in making the right decisions (duane et al., 2018). critical thinking is formed as an integration of brain work and awareness, which is a manifestation of a set of mental actions that are effectively used in teaching, so it is necessary to identify the main manifestations of critical thinking as a method of forming a competent approach. in order to analyze in details the scientific work are used research and descriptive methods in the context of science. in order to define concepts that cover the main content of the research, a method of synthesis of a figurative structure, generalization and classification, methods of a formation of socio-cultural values were used. also, in order to accurately research the theoretical foundations of this issue, a content analysis was conducted, based on which the results of the article were determined using the conclusions of scientists on this issue. the work is based on theoretical statements of scientists in the context of the neuropsychological research, which highlights scientific approaches to self-regulation of a personality (berbets et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021; karasievych et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; sarancha, et al. 2021). some researchers claim that the idea of developing critical thinking originated in the united states, kaplan & norton (2005) and dewey (1938a). cavell (1990) characterized critical thinking as qualified, responsible thinking that generates correct judgments. bortoletto et al. (2015) argues that the function of critical thinking is to solve problems and establish the right conclusions. kovaleva (2019) believed that the key skill is to determine hypotheses in critical thinking. maksymenko (2000) defined critical thinking as a complex process that begins with the processing of an information and ends with decision-making. based on the analysis of conclusions of scientists, it can be argued that critical thinking has certain characteristics: self-esteem, responsibility, determination, etc. (ananyev, 1980; bern, 1992). modern scientific discourse intensifies the research of a wide range of domestic scientists on various aspects of axiological issues, in particular, devoted to the disclosure of: conceptual ideas of the axiological approach (sikorska, 2006); pedagogical and educational values in the format of a pedagogical axiology, etc. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 463 theoretical principles of the essence in the method of critical thinking in the context of studying philological disciplines modern society is formed in conditions of informatization and radical changes that require a constant development of a new knowledge and skills. such trends in the social development determine an importance of a person who is able to show their individual abilities in the process of a selfrealization, which can learn, develop skills and knowledge, generate new ideas and put them into practice. young people should appreciate innovations, discoveries that can improve a well-being of the society, ignore an unnecessary or harmful information. since modern reality is full of an information and facts, it is necessary to form in the individual awareness of the correct orientation in the information flow. to determine the right information, it is important to develop practical skills that help process an information into new ideas that can be put into a real life and succeed. substantiated information can be an important factor in the formation of new approaches to social development. today, human life is changing very quickly and there are prerequisites for the value of an information, as a factor in the innovation of society, rapid progress, continuous improvement of a technical equipment. the educational process is one of the most important instrumentality, which forms a modern competent person capable of selfrealization in the information society. therefore, an important role in educational activities is given to the method of critical thinking (padalka, 2008). the method of critical thinking is introduced in order to form analytical skills, the ability to analyze sources, compare concepts, calculate risks in decision-making, determine the right approaches in the process of success. hence, the current stage in the learning process is marked by the formation of critical thinking in a person who can properly assess environmental events, their role in the society, as well as the impact of socialization on the formation of a personality. this approach is implemented in the process of forming human qualities that are improved in the process of mental activity. philological disciplines in higher education are the basis for the formation of values towards oneself, society and the state. upon obtaining a certain level of philological specialties, a person develops his speech and communication skills. such abilities are decisive in the process of an information processing. that is, the process of obtaining an information, analyzing it, as well as reproduction and dissemination are important. with methods of critical thinking in classes of philological disciplines in higher ... halyna kosarieva et al. 464 the speech and communicative methods of presenting an information, a modern information environment is formed. philology is a science that has been studying the cultural, folklore and historical heritage of people for many centuries. the basis of philology is a text that can be interpreted as source, as cultural monument that forms stylistic features, is a subject for the study of etymology of words, and others. there are research, descriptive, comparative-historical, transformational and other methods to study philology (sikorska, 2006). thus, philology is an important component of the information society. students of philological disciplines acquire competencies in the processing of information contexts and receive a qualification that plays an important role in the process of digitalization of a social life in the modern postindustrial world. the method of critical thinking is especially important in the process of conducting philological disciplines, as students future discoverers of information sources in social sciences, must critically comprehend an information, identify essential features of concepts, understand the functionality of an information flow, responsibly disseminate the information, prevent an infodemia and disinformation (duane et al., 2018). in order to effectively form a method of critical thinking, it is necessary to introduce innovative learning technologies that promote the acquisition of an experience, development of knowledge and skills, formation of personal growth to gain competence in their field. the method of critical thinking in the conduct of philological disciplines is effective because students acquire the competence to critically evaluate facts, analyze information and acquire speech and communication skills, which is a key component of the modern information society. theoretical and methodological approaches in neuroscientific features of critical thinking of the individual the formation of an innovative society takes place in the context of an intensive development of information and communication technologies. man is a leader in the development of innovative technologies, as well as identifies new opportunities for the information society. in order to determine the role of man in the progressive development of the society and continue the process of evolution, it is necessary to analyze a set of mental actions and awareness of the relevant life processes of the individual, which is reflected in the analysis of brain activity. researchers dewey (1938a) and giddens (1991) studied the features of educational activities as a neurological phenomenon of a personality. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 465 according to some researchers (peha, 2011), education shapes the long-term development of the future. thus, it is important to implement a competency-based approach to educational activities and the formation of value orientations of the individual in terms of thinking. neuroscience is the scientific study of the human brain, it identifies key trends in the context of the research of a thought process of the human brain (vdovichenko, 2017). the researchers define thinking as a systemic conscious manifestation of mental activity in the period of personal goals (virna, 2017). such conclusions became the basis for determining the neuroscientific approach to the formation of critical thinking. neuroscience explains key positions of a thinking process and activity of the brain in general. the main component of the thinking process is mind. mind is a physiological ability to comprehend everything necessary for human activity, the ability to analyze, interpret an information as one of important factors of a modern human progress (gray, n. d.). another factor in the brain process is consciousness, i.e. mind. consciousness is a certain interpretation of the mental analysis. the brain process works in parallel: areas of the cortex are responsible for similar functions (for example, for mathematical abilities), located in different parts of the brain from the front to the occipital lobes. neuroscience interprets consciousness as a phenomenon of nervous activity in the combination of large areas of the cerebral cortex. that is, there is a certain "working process" of a brain action, where the consciousness is activated by the mass dissemination of an information. critical thinking as one of complex manifestations of a mental activity is considered in the context of a human awareness of various factors of its successful life. at the same time, an important element is the presence of mind as physiological feature, as well as actual process of a critical perception as an acquired level of an awareness and erudition in the educational process.thus, the neuroscientific approach to the formation of critical thinking is based on the study of human brain activity, which has complex physiological features that determine its behavior, character and temperament (zhavoronkova, 2019). the brain work is a complex process that determines features of a human development in the society (padalka, 2008). the research of an efficiency of critical thinking in the process of philological classes in higher education institutions the present era is at the stage of formation of the information society, which can realize new perspectives for the future, which can be methods of critical thinking in classes of philological disciplines in higher ... halyna kosarieva et al. 466 unpredictable, because the total digitalization and informatization of a social processes is a stepping stone to unknown discoveries (vuckovic, 2019). however, the most important component of an intensive progress is a person who can become a pioneer of new perspectives, provided the effective development of achievements of the past and the challenges of the present. a developed personality can be a driver of change and successful realization of the goal of both society and their own, an individual. a successful personality is formed in the process of educational activity. a particularly important stage of the educational process is obtaining higher education (padalka, 2008). higher education implements a certain level of knowledge required for professionals in the context of qualifications. philological disciplines in higher education institutions are taught to humanities specialists, teachers, foreign language specialists, etc. based on the research, it is determined that philological disciplines form the competence of students to operate with information resources that are leading in the modern innovative society (maksymenko, 2002). for conducting classes in philological specialties, it is necessary to introduce a method of critical thinking, which is effective for the competency analysis of information sources. in order to apply the method of critical thinking in the context of conducting philological classes, we propose an indicative structure of a fragment of the academic class: • the organizational part. greetings in the native language used in the history of the ukrainian people at different times. • actualization of basic knowledge. summing up the key problem of the lesson. • the main part. hypothesis. information sources analysis. • the final part. generalization of discursive statements. formulation of a conclusion-judgment. examples of tasks for students of philology to form critical thinking (kaplan & norton, 2005). the topic of the lesson is on the culture of oral and written speech "etymological significance of language units": task 1: what is the difference between etymological explanations of the word "road" in soviet and european linguistics? evaluate this approach from a linguistic point of view. task 2: create an essay on "the revolution of dignity for me as a person." one of the theses is to use the phrase "slaves are not allowed into paradise". thus, the students express their ideas about various historical events, explain the etymology of words, using their own assessment (smith & broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 467 schwartz, 1997). in order to competently solve the problem, they must analyze the information that covers the content of tasks, conduct a synthesis, integration methods, comparative the history and make their decision, which is the result of critical thinking. conclusion the conducted research work has determined the basic meaning of the concept of critical thinking. theoretical and methodological approaches to using the method of critical thinking as a basis for the formation of a person capable of a self-realization in the today's innovative world were analyzed. it is determined that critical thinking is a factor in shaping the correct perception of an information that will be useful for a life. in the research was analyzed the neuroscientific approach to the definition of critical thinking. brain activity is a complex process that combines mind and awareness. neuroscience studies the action of the brain and determines the components of the thought process. in order to determine the effectiveness of critical thinking, the research was conducted on the application of the appropriate method during classes in philological disciplines in higher education institution. philology students, future specialists, must competently analyze an information, because they are carriers of a speech and communication culture in the society. thus, the study showed that critical thinking is an important factor in forming a competent approach in the context of self-realization of the individual in the information society. references ananyev, b. g. (1980). izbrannye psihologicheskie trudy [selected psychological works]. gnpbu. berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 bern, e. (1992). igry w kotorye igrajut ludi. psihologia chelovecheskih vzaimootnoshenij [games that people play. psychology of human relationships]. university book. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 methods of critical thinking in classes of philological disciplines in higher ... halyna kosarieva et al. 468 bibik, n. m. (2002). systema formuvannya piznavalnyh interesiv molodshyh shkolyariv [system of formation of cognitive interests of junior schoolchildren]. rozvytok pedagogichnoi i psykholohichnoi nauk v ukrayini [development of pedagogical and psychological sciences in ukraine], 2(10), 410-423. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21i d=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21 com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=peddysk_2011_10_13 bortoletto, m., veniero, d., thut, g., & miniussi, c. (2015). the contribution of tmseeg coregistration in the exploration of the human cortical connectome. neuroscience & biobehavioral reviews, 49, 114-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.12.014 cavell, s. (1990). conditions handsome and unhandsome: the constitution of emersonian perfectionism. university of chicago press. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dewey, j. (1938). experience and education. collier-macmillan canada ltd. duane, e., haines, g., & mihailoff, a. (2018). fundamental neuroscience for basic and clinical applications e-book. elsevier. giddens, a. (1991). modernity and self-identity. self and society in the late modern age. polity press. gray, p. (n.d.). a brief history of education. to understand schools, we must view them in historical perspective. psychologytoday. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedomlearn/200808/brief-history-education kaplan, r. s., & norton, d. p. (2005). creating the office of strategy management. in working knowledge. business research for business leaders (pp. 5-71). harvard business school. https://www.hbs.edu/ris/publication%20files/05071.pdf karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=peddysk_2011_10_13 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=peddysk_2011_10_13 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=peddysk_2011_10_13 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=peddysk_2011_10_13 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.12.014 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education https://www.hbs.edu/ris/publication%20files/05-071.pdf https://www.hbs.edu/ris/publication%20files/05-071.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 469 i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kovaleva, a. v. (2019). neyrofiziologiya, fiziologiya vysshey nervnoy deyatel'nosti i sensornykh sistem [neurophysiology, physiology of higher nervous activity and sensory systems]. ruslania. https://ruslania.com/ru/knigi/1535861nejrofiziologija-fiziologija-vysshej-nervnoj-dejatelnosti-i-sensornyh-sistemuchebnik-dlja-spo/ maksymenko, s. d. (2000). myslennya [thinking]. in general psychology: a textbook for university students (pp. 202-217). univer. http://univer.nuczu.edu.ua/tmp_metod/875/maksimenko_s.d.__zagal%27na_psihologiya.pdf padalka, g. m. (2008). pedahohika mystetstva. teoriya i metodyka vykladannya mystetskykh dystsyplin [the theory and methods of teaching artistic disciplines]. kherson. peha, s. (n.d.). agile schools: how technology saves education (just not the way we thought it would). infoq. https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-schoolseducation prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., … maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 sikorska, i. m. (2006). zubytskyi volodymyr danylovych [zubitsky vladimir danilovich.]. encyclopedia of modern ukraine. https://esu.com.ua/search_articles.php?id=13946 smith, m. в., & schwartz, s. h. (1997). values. handbook of crosscultural psychology. allyn & bacon, 3, 77–118. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289252331_values vdovichenko, o. v. (2017). ryzyk osobystosti yak faktor motyvatsiyi dosyagnennya ta gubrystychnoyi motyvatsiyi na kryzovykh etapakh ontohenezu [individual risk as a factor of an achievement motivation and humorous motivation at crisis stages of ontogenesis.] bulletin of h.s. skovoroda kharkiv https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://ruslania.com/ru/knigi/1535861-nejrofiziologija-fiziologija-vysshej-nervnoj-dejatelnosti-i-sensornyh-sistem-uchebnik-dlja-spo/ https://ruslania.com/ru/knigi/1535861-nejrofiziologija-fiziologija-vysshej-nervnoj-dejatelnosti-i-sensornyh-sistem-uchebnik-dlja-spo/ https://ruslania.com/ru/knigi/1535861-nejrofiziologija-fiziologija-vysshej-nervnoj-dejatelnosti-i-sensornyh-sistem-uchebnik-dlja-spo/ http://univer.nuczu.edu.ua/tmp_metod/875/maksimenko_s.d._-_zagal%27na_psihologiya.pdf http://univer.nuczu.edu.ua/tmp_metod/875/maksimenko_s.d._-_zagal%27na_psihologiya.pdf https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-schools-education https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-schools-education https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://esu.com.ua/search_articles.php?id=13946 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289252331_values methods of critical thinking in classes of philological disciplines in higher ... halyna kosarieva et al. 470 national pedagogical university, 41-51. http://journals.hnpu.edu.ua/index.php/psychology/article/view/19 virna, z. p. (2017). gubrystychna determinatsiya strukturnoyi orhanizatsiyi emotsiynoho intelektu osobystosti. [hubristic determination of a structural organization of the emotional intelligence of an individual.] scientific bulletin of v.o. sukhomlinsky nikolaev national university, 2(18), 17-21. http://mdu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/psihol-visnik-18-2017-5.pdf vuckovic, t. (2019). the overall goal of education and general purpose. international journal for empirical education and research. 3(20), 53-66. https://doi.org/10.35935/edr/33.6653 zhavoronkova, l. a. (2019). neyrofiziologiya: mezhpolusharnaya asimmetriya mozga cheloveka (pravshi-levshi) [neurophysiology: interhemispheric asymmetry of the human brain (right-handed-left-handed)]. urait. http://journals.hnpu.edu.ua/index.php/psychology/article/view/19 http://mdu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/psihol-visnik-18-2017-5.pdf https://doi.org/10.35935/edr/33.6653 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 01-21 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/299 submitted: october 18th, 2021 | accepted for publication: december 22nd, 2021 current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: a neuroscientific approach oleksandr melnyk¹, olga petryk2, liudmyla lysohor3, olena pavlyk4, liliia boiaryn5, svitlana tykhonova6 1 public educational institution “zaporizhzhia regional institute of post graduate pedagogical education” zaporizhzhia regional council, zaporizhzhya, ukraine, melnikaim@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/000-002-58026727 2 public educational institution “zaporizhzhia regional institute of post graduate pedagogical education” zaporizhzhia regional council, zaporizhzhya, ukraine, petrik_ov@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-00016997-3650 3 kryvyi rih state pedagogical university, kryvyi rih, ukraine, lisogor.1981@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1949-1394 4 kryvyi rih state pedagogical university, kryvyi rih, ukraine, pavlikelena540@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7194-4752 5 institute of postgraduate pedagogical education, chernivtsi, ukraine, lvm.cv.ua@ukr.net 6 vinnytsia national technical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, tixonsv68@gmail.com abstract: the education system in the new ukrainian school does not meet expectations, and therefore requires reforms and changes, involvement of modern approaches to organization of the educational process. this article analyzes various innovative neuropedagogical, neuropsychological and neurolinguistic techniques, proposed by scientists and educators-innovators and substantiates the importance of their implementation in the primary school learning process. the relevance of the topic is attributable to the need to solve pedagogical problems, using knowledge about individual characteristics of brain activity, higher mental functions and thinking strategies of primary school children. this study allows to make the educational process more effective and to ensure full self-realization of each child, as well as cognitive and personal development of primary school students. the article presents current provisions of research work of primary school teachers and psychologists from the standpoint of related to pedagogy neurosciences, as well as introduction of modern neuropedagogical, neuropsychological and neurolinguistic approaches to the practice of educational process in the new ukrainian school. keywords: neuropedagogy, brain activity, thinking strategy, polymodal learning, neuropsychology, laterality. how to cite: melnyk, o., petryk, o., lysohor, l., pavlyk, o., boiaryn, l., & tykhonova, s. (2022). current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: a neuroscientific approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 01-21. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/299 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/299 mailto:melnikaim@gmail.com https://orcid.org/000-002-5802-6727 https://orcid.org/000-002-5802-6727 mailto:petrik_ov@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6997-3650 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6997-3650 mailto:lisogor.1981@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1949-1394 mailto:pavlikelena540@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7194-4752 mailto:lvm.cv.ua@ukr.net mailto:tixonsv68@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/299 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 2 introduction today’s realities, such as rapid development of scientific and technological progress, globalization and the speed of social transformation (florea, 2017), require constant changes from the new ukrainian school, reforms and application of modern approaches to organization of the entire educational process. at the turn of the second decade of the 21st century, educators and scientists are well aware that these transformations need to be introduced starting from the lower grades. that is why study of innovative teaching methods has now become so relevant. the problem of introducing new approaches to the education system in primary school was addressed by such scientists as bibik (2010), danyleiko (2017), komogorova (2021), kurylo and ostroumenko (2019), maksymchuk (2020a), maksymchuk (2020b), melnyk (2019), melnyk, (2021), onishchuk et al. (2020), sheremet (2019), in particular, scientists from different countries – kuzmina (2014), larina (2016), lipman (2012), moskvitina and moskvitin (2001), naegele (2015), sternberg (2019) studied introduction of neuroscience technologies in the modern school educational process. the issue of the use of neuropsychological and psychophysiological knowledge in the education process at secondary schools was first raised by neuropsychologists luriya (1975) in the 60’s and 70’s of the last century, and in the 90’s khrizman (2009) singled out neuropedagogy as a scientific field. the main facts that indicate the need for changes in our education system, scientists name first the fact that ukraine ranks as high as 38 out of 76 in the ranking of secondary education systems among civilized countries. this allows us to trace a direct link between the level of education and the economic well-being of the state. second, in our country there is no equal access to education among urban and rural residents, as evidenced by low scores of independent assessments and exams. third, it turns out that school is the least reformed structure in ukraine, which for decades has focused only on accumulation of theoretical knowledge. whereas in modern society, practical skills are becoming increasingly necessary, and employers prefer people with additional socio-emotional and cognitive characteristics. in addition, teachers are now dealing with the modern generation, with children of the new “formation” (bibik, 2010). research in the last decades of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in the field of science has shown that capabilities of human brain are truly limitless, mysterious and even extraordinary. it is not for nothing that scientists have called this time the “decade of the brain”. it was during this period that people learned more about the brain than in all previous current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: … oleksandr melnyk, et al. 3 centuries put together. compared with the mental abilities of other animals, such as primates, dolphins, dogs, the human brain shows great flexibility, the ability to focus on several objects simultaneously, the activity of cognitive and speech centers, the ability to train them at all ages, the existence of individual strategies thinking. these and many other discoveries gave impetus to the development of modern neuroscience. they are all based on the study of neural connections at different levels of organization (from the elementary molecular to the whole organism). there is a whole common field, which is called neuroscience. it was formed at the intersection of several disciplines, namely: biology (anatomy) and pedagogy, psychology, linguistics, sociology, etc. neuroscience is expanding with the development of methodological and conceptual foundations, including in the context of cognitive neuroscience. one of the most interesting areas in the context of school activities of primary school students is neuropedagogy, neuropsychology and neurolinguistics. the article presents current provisions of the research work of primary school teachers and psychologists from the standpoint of neuroscience related to pedagogy, as well as introduction of modern neuropedagogical, neuropsychological and neurolinguistic approaches in the practice of the educational process in the new ukrainian school. neuropedagogical approach to learning in primary school the basis of neuropedagogy is the use of knowledge of cognitive neurology, human psychophysiology, neuropsychological knowledge, data on the brain organization of processes of mastering various types of educational material, taking into account compatibility of individual thinking systems of students and teachers in the educational process. it allows you to optimally and creatively solve pedagogical problems in practice, using information about individual characteristics of the brain organization of higher mental functions. this science is based on sensory pedagogy, i.e., the impact on the senses of students, their emotional state, thus it allows to increase the ability to learn and regulate the behavior of children in the process of mastering the educational material (larina, 2016). the main provisions, tools, tasks and goals of this latest direction of pedagogy were covered by moskvitin and moskvitina (2001) in their article “neuropedagogy as an applied direction of pedagogy and differential psychology”. this was one of the first works in the post-soviet space. in parallel, this area of pedagogy has developed in the united states, which led to organization of the largest international project ‘brain and learning”. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 4 this project brings together scientists from thirty countries. its main goal is to popularize knowledge about the work of brain structures among teachers (livshits, 2012). neuropedagogy in primary school takes into account the knowledge of how the child’s brain develops and works in primary school children, how differs the way of thinking of boys and girls, as well as “left-handed” and “right-handed” students of the appropriate age, what happens in the brain of a child when attending school, which method of teaching writing or mathematics is better to choose depending on the individual characteristics of a child (moskvitin, moskvitina, 2001). the main provisions of neuropedagogy include: considering brain as a “parallel processor”, i.e. as a kind of biological “computer” capable of analyzing information and executing commands; perception of how the natural mechanisms of brain development work, as well as how energyintensive physiological processes work, and therefore in the learning process it is very important to provide conditions favorable in terms of hygiene and nutrition; emphasis on past experience and search for knowledge as innate qualities of the brain. neuropedagogical scientists believe that our brain is looking for meaning through establishment of regularities. it is able to simultaneously analyze and synthesize incoming information, as well as operate on the whole and a part. human brain is also a unique system, because it is able to absorb information simultaneously in the conditions of focused attention and peripheral perception, as well as operate at least two memory systems: the system of visual-spatial memory and the system of “rote memorization”. the processes of consciousness and subconsciousness in the student’s brain occur simultaneously, and the role of emotions in learning and teaching is fundamental. children understand and remember better when knowledge and skills are “engraved” in the system of visual-spatial memory. in addition, the whole learning process is perceived by scientists supporting theories of neuropedagogy, purely in the form of information movement through the human nervous system. they believe that when analyzing learned information, the child’s brain activates a certain “master key”, that opens the “door” for the train of thoughts. it is called modality, which is provided due to predominant use of one of the channels of reception and processing information (kuzmina, 2010). the concept of polymodal (multisensory) learning also appears in neuropedagogy. this is a kind of system of techniques based on knowledge and skillful use by teachers and students of the peculiarities of perception and processing of information by different sensory channels and different current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: … oleksandr melnyk, et al. 5 hemispheres of the brain. in the context of group learning in the classroom (this is especially important for younger students, who often find it difficult to remember a large amount of material), it is necessary to take into account that there are children in the classroom with different dominant channels of perceiving information, and therefore it is necessary to provide comfortable conditions for all groups of students (auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners). for example, when working with auditory learners, a primary school teacher should allow students to read texts in a whisper when working with a textbook; in order to attract attention, teachers should not raise their voice, but on the contrary lower it; during independent, control, homework, when studying new material, a teacher should turn on music. children with a visual perception of information need more illustrative material, pictures, diagrams, cards, i.e., visualizations, so that they can “see” information and then analyze it, pass it to the appropriate centers of the cerebral cortex and remember it. kinesthetic learners definitely need tactile contacts to perceive this or that information about objects and phenomena. thus, they are often given tasks to compare values, units of measurement, numbers, letters, assembling puzzles, etc. development of a comprehensive methodological system of ways to organize cognitive activity, taking into account all channels of information, which develops learning abilities of each student of an experimental class, leads to effective absorption of theoretical knowledge by all children. thus, one of the promising areas in the theory and methods of teaching in neuropedagogy is associated with building of a special educational information environment, where methods of presenting information are based on relative equality of verbal, visual and kinesthetic ways of presenting information. neuropedagogical approach in teaching primary school children helps teachers to optimally adapt teaching methods to individual abilities and capabilities of each modern child. this approach is grounded on the basis of known modern achievements of neurophysiology and neuropsychology in the study of functional hemispheric asymmetry in the brain of first-graders, obtained directly during experimental work. from the point of view of neuropedagogy, scientists offer a pedagogical system of synthesized learning, taking into account natural specifics of thinking; emphasis is placed on the methodological aspects of synthesized education of children with different lateralities in one class and at one lesson in primary school. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 6 all scientific research is conducted to overcome certain difficulties in understanding new phenomena or to explain previously unknown or not fully substantiated facts or theories. these difficulties manifest themselves in the most expressive form in “problematic situations” when “the existing scientific knowledge is insufficient to solve new modern problems of cognition” (larina, 2016). the problem that has given rise to research is related to the search for individual approaches to children’s learning in primary school, as each student has his or her own “nature of thinking”, so students’ learning abilities are different at first. to teach with good results, it is necessary to proceed from the needs and abilities of a child, and for this purpose it is necessary to carefully study thinking strategy of a student. from the point of view of a neuropsychologist, “thinking is activation of groups of neurons” (larina, 2016). neuropedagogy helps teachers to understand the brain organization of students and adapt teaching methods for them. the brain of a student, say a first grader, at the functional level is a stable structure. in standard conditions it should be developed by a teacher, that is why any “departure from the normal way of development may lead to its functional deformation, even in an initially healthy child” (yeremeeva, 2017). so, we need to know the subject we are dealing with every minute. in our research, attention is paid mostly to the child’s forebrain, which is “represented by two large hemispheres, closely adjacent to each other, like twin brothers. they are connected by several bundles of nerve fibers – corpus callosum, the channel of communication between the hemispheres and function as a single consciousness. interaction of these three neurostructures takes place “according to the laws of unity and struggle of opposites, unity of preservation and stability, disorder and order, natural and accidental” (yeremeeva, 2017). this “regular disorder”, or brainedness, and determines the emergence of such a concept as variability of thinking. depending on the individual priority activity of the hemispheres of the child’s brain, the following types of development can be distinguished: the type of predominance of right hemispheric development defines righthanded individuals with the leading left eye and ear; this also includes sinistrals and ambidexters (two-handed); the type of predominance of left hemispheric development defines right-handed with leading right eye and ear; “equilateral” (mixed) type defines right-handed with divergent leading eye and ear. in addition to the presented priority methods of information processing, it is important to know that the left and right hemispheres are connected by a “corpus callosum”, the so-called conductor of information, current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: … oleksandr melnyk, et al. 7 which allows to integrate it, recode and activate both hemispheres. but this “bundle of nerves” matures long and slowly, especially in boys (glushchenko, 2017). over the last two decades in the field of education, the thesis of the methodological “conflict” of styles of presenting information in the educational process by teachers and styles of information perception by students has been persistently approved. the essence of the contradiction lies in the “left hemispheric teaching strategy” and the “right hemispheric” thinking strategy of some primary school children (kuzmina, 2010). to avoid this in learning, it is necessary to clearly understand specifics of the child’s mental activity and from this point to build teaching technology. to confirm the hypothesis of the existence of different thinking styles of first-graders, experimental teachers diagnosed functional and hemispheric asymmetry, thus pursuing solution of the following tasks and proved validity of this theory (81% of children had a mixed type of thinking) (glushchenko, 2017). they focused on a synthesized approach to learning and developed fundamental methodological aspects of the lesson that correspond to the humanistic principles of education. including the following: 1) learning to set goals and set a learning task, a step-by-step detailing of goals, their implementation and receiving feedback. for the “right-hemispheric” primary schoolchildren, understanding and achievement of goals is the main element of motivation for self-knowledge. 2) variability of mental activity strategies during a lesson. changing methods and forms of work. prolonged monotonous activity contradicts the sensory thinking of “right hemispherics”. 3) own promotion in education materials fixing one’s difficulties and ways to overcome them. every child should have the right to get their own time to learn the material, with the speed of their perception to be on the same level of success. 4) priority of thinking over knowledge. “one step in learning can give ten steps in a child’s development and ten steps in learning can lead to one step in development” (vygotskiy, 1996). 5) assessment of the level of knowledge, skills and abilities in comparing personal success of students with their personal achievements. we teach the principles of self-esteem and ways to improve their own results. 6) formation of cooperation thinking of children with different laterality. learning collaboration in groups or pairs, where children with different thinking priorities share learning strategies. for the “leftbrain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 8 hemispheric” students, the right hemisphere is the most important; classic landing at desks. for the “right hemispheric” students, on the contrary, the left hemisphere; landing in a semicircle. “outside these conditions, the loss of information can be up to 30%” (glushchenko, 2017). 7) emotional support throughout the lesson. the use of vivid expressive examples, associations, language and musical rhythms, due to emotional basis for the study of material that provides a natural increase in efficiency, “increasing efficiency of the brain” (akhutina, zolotareva, 1997). 8) the priority of student initiative, activity and independence are fundamental factors of motivation for continuing education. 9) differentiation of tasks at the individual level. thus, neuropedagogical methods are a necessary component in the new ukrainian school, as they best meet the principles of individualization, humanization and cognitive approach to organization of the educational process in primary school. neuropsychology and teaching primary school children neuropsychology is based on the assertion that each person is a hierarchically organized, self-regulating “neuropsychosomatic” system that includes three parallel areas that cannot exist without one another. deciphering this definition in parts, it turns out that “neuro” is associated with activity of the nervous system of an individual, the main organizer of which is his or her brain. “psycho” reflects mental activity of an individual, and “somatic” is physical, which means existence of an individual as a biological creature, implementation of life processes through a set of internal and external organs and systems. all these components by themselves do not exist in nature. failure, delays, distortions or advances in the development of each of these facets lead to disintegration or restructuring of the entire system (sirotyuk, 2003). the neuropsychological approach in following up education of primary school children, aims to raise children who are physically, morally and intellectually healthy. changing the paradigm of pedagogical education turns it essentially into a psychological and pedagogical. the priority of the new educational standards in school is implementation of the developing potential of education. but in recent years, psychologists working in the field of education, note a significant increase in the number of children with mental disabilities, note an increase in the number of primary school children who have difficulty in learning and mastering school programs. the probability of escalation of learning failures into chronic failure increases. such children current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: … oleksandr melnyk, et al. 9 have difficulties in mastering writing, reading, calculating, learning and understanding the meaning of texts, logical thinking. failures at school often form in them a negative attitude to learning, make it difficult to communicate with parents and peers, i.e., in the microenvironment in which the child grows up. the state of long-term school failure contributes to formation of deviant behaviors, social maladaptation of students in life. early learning of children significantly exacerbates problems of schoolchildren in acquisition of knowledge. this is especially true for boys, whose brain maturation rate is slower than that of girls. it was found that about 25% of first-graders are not ready for school, 30 64% of children show functional immaturity without signs of mental retardation. 85% of children born after 1991 have neuropsychological problems due to stem changes in the brain. the brain of such children works due to compensatory mechanisms. traditional conventional psychological and pedagogical methods of correction, unfortunately, in many cases do not bring noticeable results (kuzmina, 2010). learning is a complex cognitive activity that is carried out by interaction of different brain structures. the timeliness of education and the full value of functional systems are a psychophysiological basis of higher mental functions, mental forms of activity and success in child’s learning (sirotyuk, 2003). formation of child’s psyche is directly related to the rate of growth and maturation of their brain. partial deviation or disturbance in this process leads to complications in mental development. the school program is always designed for a certain level of development of functional capabilities of an organism, and the child cannot begin to acquire knowledge until his body and, in particular, the cns (central nervous system) are ready for this process. neuropsychological studies show that underdevelopment of the frontal lobes of the brain is invariably beset by disturbance of personality components. the process of mental development of primary school children should be based on a harmonious correspondence between the psychophysiological capabilities of children and requirements of their social environment. it is known that foundations of knowledge are laid in the early school years, so gaps at this age will be difficult to fill later. in this regard, the relevance of prediction and correction of mental development of primary school children is growing. maturation of brain, according to psychologists, is a long process and uneven in its areas and levels according to the age stages. the brain brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 10 develops by layering new levels over the old ones, which create a kind of a base, stated vygotskiy (1996). in the first stage (from the womb to 2-3 years) the basis for interhemispheric support of neurophysiological functions underlying somatic (physical, affective and cognitive) status of the child is laid. the second stage (from 3 to 7-8 years) is most interesting to us, because at the end of this stage a child goes to school. the second area of the brain provides organization of memory processes, fixes hemispheric asymmetries, forms the predominant function of the hemispheres on the language, individual lateral profile (combination of the dominant hemisphere and the dominant arm, leg, eye, ear, functional activity). this means that each objective perception is the result of polymodal activity, which, first in ontogenesis, has a developed character and only then becomes collapsed. therefore, such activities should be based on the joint work of different areas of the cerebral cortex. for maturation of the functions of the left hemisphere, a normal course of ontogenesis of the right hemisphere is required. for example, it is known that phonemic hearing (semantic recognition of speech sounds) is a function of the left hemisphere. but before becoming a link in sounds recognition, it must be formed and automated as a tonal “sound recognition” in the right hemisphere through a comprehensive interaction of the child with the outside world. deficiency or non-formation of this link of phonemic hearing can lead to delays in language development. the third stage (from 7 to 12-15 years) is a functional block of arbitrary regulation and control. specialization of the large hemispheres in the brain of each child occurs at different pace creative in 4-7 years, and logical in 9-12 years. the more actively both hemispheres and all parts of a brain are used, the more connections are formed in a corpus callosum. integration and rapid access to information stimulate development of operational thinking and formal logic. girls and women have more nerve fibers in the corpus callosum than boys and men, which provides them with higher compensatory mechanisms (vygotskiy, 1996). by the time children start going to school (at the age of 7) their right hemisphere is developed, and the left is actualized only by the age of 9. in this regard, education of primary school children should take place in a natural for their age right-hemispheric way: through creativity, images, positive emotions, movement, space, rhythm and sensory feelings. transition from one stage to the next one is strictly limited by objective neurobiological laws, which should be taken into account when current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: … oleksandr melnyk, et al. 11 requiring a child to perform a task, because if it contradicts or precedes the situation relevant to their brain, it is energy stealing. this negatively affects formation of those processes that are currently actively developing. timely neuropsychological correction of existing difficulties allows to bring any kind of ontogenesis (atypical, pathological) close to the normal course, to facilitate a child’s entry into a normal social environment. so, it is necessary to be guided by one of the main principles of development, the principle of timeliness (kurylo, ostroumenko, 2019). neuropsychological studies have defined profiles of “difficult” children, which have different nature, as their failure is based on various mechanisms (dysfunction of the frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital, left hemispheric, right hemispheric, trunk, commissural parts of the brain), according to which neurocorrection it applied (akhutina, zolotareva, 1997). the neuropsychological approach has its advantages because it relies on peculiarities of memory, attention and thinking operations. since the main activity in primary school age is still a game, a teacher should create special game situations, association tasks “associative bush”, “associative chain”. the structure of each developmental process should include: exercise (which normalizes hypertension and muscle hypotonia); breathing exercises (improve the rhythm of the organism, develop self-control and arbitrariness); oculomotor exercises (develop hemispheric interaction, increase the body’s energy level); cross-body exercises (activate the vestibular apparatus); exercises for development of fine motor skills of the hands; exercises for development of communicative and cognitive spheres of a child studying in primary school. organization of such classes allows the teacher to apply all available professional experience for variability of the used exercises (work with water, clay, plasticine, dough, pencils, paints, felt-tip pens, toys, etc.), and also gives a child the opportunity to learn to control the psychoemotional state, to reflect somatic feelings, plan and organize time and space around oneself (danyleiko, 2017). using practical and theoretical experience in neuropsychology, one can harmoniously integrate into the learning process of primary school, with little effort required from the school administration (in the form of orders and instructions on the organization of the process), teachers (accepting the need for additional measures for children development) and parents (daily classes, correction of child-parent relations, improvement of relations with children) (kurylo, ostroumenko, 2019). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 12 thus, neuropsychological support of participants in the educational process will increase its effectiveness. thinking, attention, memory are the higher mental functions that are not at the base of the pyramid, but rather high on it. the child’s development goes from the bottom up. each floor rests on the foundation of the previous one. to climb to the top of the pyramid, when the child is ready for school, it is necessary to pay attention to each floor, so that the personal, cognitive and moral development of primary school children was diverse and harmonious. neurolinguistics in the education of junior students of the new ukrainian school formation of children’s language competence, starting from the first years of school, from the standpoint of neuroscience is also quite an interesting topic. the sound aspect of language is mastered by both hemispheres in different degrees of activity: the left one provides phonemic perception, the right one – the relationship between sound and content (luriya, 1975). the phonemic principle of teaching reading and writing has been a priority for more than 30 years in school. it is known to be the basis of modern traditional methods of language learning. however, this principle, which considers all learning from particular to general, from sound to letter – left-hemispheric learning strategy, i.e., focused only on “the right-handed” students. that is why for children who write with the left hand, it is better to use other methods. then the technologies and achievements of neurolinguistics come in handy. one of them is a suggestive technique. it attaches special importance to the psychological mood and emotional state of students. this technique actively uses music, movement, stage action. indeed, right-hemispheric thinking of a 5-7-year-old child (reading learning period) is very difficult to cope with phonemes dressed in schemes, especially in phonemic hearing disorders, and “the cubes with letters” that differ in weight, vibration of the filler, combinations of features in zaitsev’s method are closer and understandable to the sensory and figurative perception of “the right-hemispheric” children. however, despite some priorities of the latest approaches, learning on the basis of phonemic analysis cannot be ruled out, this technique brings positive results for children of “equal” and left hemispheric types of thinking. sirotyuk (2003) writes: “left hemispheric people evaluate and read words by “attacking” them, so it is necessary to use a phonetic (discrete) approach (part-to-whole)” (sirotyuk, 2003, p. 24). current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: … oleksandr melnyk, et al. 13 akhutina (1997) also points to the difficulty of handling spatial information in weak students. if a student reads a word from the end, according to the scientist, it indicates the weakness of a holistic strategy for processing visual-spatial information. global reading and whole word reading are inaccessible to these children. they master such skills analytically, based on an analytical strategy of perception (akhutina, 1997). writing is an asymmetric activity of the reading process. in the process of learning to write a letter, it is important to activate figurative thinking, children easily remember the auditory, articulatory image of the word, kinesthetic (from the printing hand), visual image. yeremeeva (2017) draws attention to the fact that rhythmic writing to music (for example, writing elements of letters) is very important for a child. this activity, like reading, should be rhythmic to breathing. continuous writing is difficult for a child to master. a left-handed child should not be required to write letters inseparably (yeremeeva, 2017). in the first stages of learning to write actions are performed in a slow rhythm, the transition from one operation to another requires a delay to realize further action. as the experience of teachers shows, the most productive of the current methods is the method of “the joy of knowledge”. a complex of methodical actions forms muscular and tactile memory, improves analytical and synthetic abilities of children. in the methods of writing a letter offered by potapova, we find both analysis of the letter and synthesis of the letter from its constituent elements. creating compositions to practice the line is an opportunity for creativity. the relationship between activity of the right and the left hemispheres is different in perception of literary and technical texts. in the process of reading technical texts, the left hemisphere is more active, and when reading fiction – the right one; when reading, the left hemisphere of the brain encodes printed characters, and the right one – finds the meaning of decoded information. the speech of “right-hemispheric” children is usually poor in adjectives and verbs, it is difficult for them to remember words out of context. therefore, it is not recommended to do all the vocabulary work before reading the text. thanks to intuitive right hemisphere thinking, it is easier for children to understand abstract nouns (love, care, fear) through the context. detailed retelling is difficult for the “right hemispheric” children, they do not see details, especially after independent re-reading. small but succinct works, filled with deep meaning are a wonderful intellectual platform for “brainstorming”, in which “right hemispheric” children brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 14 participate with pleasure, because they are capable to comprehend the incomprehensible (luriya, 1975). children with different types of thinking write the work differently. some need a support plan, others find it interfering, so when working with younger students it is necessary to synthesize learning strategies in preparation of the work, i.e., for the success of creative “thinkers” it is necessary to equip them with the “left-hemispheric” thinking strategies equally, tech them to overcome obstacles. thus, the use of neurolinguistic techniques at writing and reading lessons in the new ukrainian school is extremely appropriate, as it is aimed at formation of language competence in younger students and their effective cognitive development. ideas of western scientists concerning neuropedagogical techniques in primary school in the post-soviet countries, the leading ideas of the neuropedagogical direction are propagated mainly by russian scientists. however, development of this science abroad has been going on for over three decades. the neuropedagogical approach to education of primary school children is actively promoted by scientists in the united states, great britain and italy, in particular professors at oxford and yale universities. we analyzed the most interesting ideas and methods of western scientists, which can be adapted to the realities of the new ukrainian school and be applied in teaching primary school children. the american scientists wolf and washington (2013) in their work “mapping the brain onto the mind” consider a child’s brain as a reflection or a kind of a “map” (by analogy with geographical maps, which are used to study countries and areas). peculiarities of students’ mental development are a certain territory, and teachers’ and scientists’ ideas about it are a “map”. however, unlike geography, physiology is a much more complex science, because not everything that should be on the “map” of the human mind is actually in it. when talking about mental development, then from a physiological point of view we mean development of the brain, and from a psychological point of view – development of its properties (level of intelligence). the latter depends on how accurately the human brain is able to process input signals. therefore, the pair “brain-intelligence” is interdependent, because it has a two-way relationship as the brain depends on the level of iq, so the intelligence depends on the brain structure. current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: … oleksandr melnyk, et al. 15 critical thinking is understood as higher-order thinking based on information, conscious perception of one’s own intellectual activity and similar activity of others, and the lateral thinking is thinking that is shifted (redirected) relative to traditional thinking. “mind-maps” are a reflection on paper of a kind of effective way of thinking, remembering, solving creative problems, as well as the opportunity to present and visualize one’s internal processes of information processing (wolf, washington, 2013). thus, the teacher’s task is not to divide children into groups of “smart” and “stupid”, attaching to children a kind of labels, but to create conditions for development of their intelligence and brain. however, the same neuropedagogical and neuropsychological research may be interpreted differently by different scientists, as there are many levels at which the same idea or fact can be analyzed. therefore, scientists often suggest that biological effects are the cause of individual differences in students’ mental abilities, not their consequence. however, the learning itself leads to changes in the structure of the brain (assimilation of new information always entails formation of new connections between the existing neurons in the human brain). this idea is shared by professor sternberg of the university of cornwall, usa (2019). he argued that when talking about mental development, it is more appropriate to “focus on teaching methods, rather than go down to the level of biological analysis of the students’ mental abilities”. it is impossible to specify a perfectly correct level of interpretation of a child’s thinking, but if “we seek to help students learn, then we will go much further in researching cognitive learning strategies rather than electrochemical reactions in their heads”. he also noted that it is important for younger students to develop “practical” intelligence aimed at real life in the future, rather than “standard” intelligence (academic knowledge) (sternberg, 2019). personality-oriented learning technologies, which should be considered in elementary school, also have their origins in the united states. it was in this country in the 70s of the twentieth century that a new program called “philosophy for children” appeared. it is a technology of teaching philosophy at school, which was formed by the institute for development of philosophy for children, chaired by matthew lipman (2012). it aims to systematically teach, through philosophy, the skills of rational reasoning – evidential, independent, contextual and critical – in order to prepare the intellect for acquisition of new knowledge and to educate a morally and socially responsible person. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 16 instead of the traditional information model (notification of personalities, directions, disciplines, etc.), it uses a problem-activity based method of knowledge transfer. this leads to transformation of the classroom into a community of researchers, organization of lessons on the principle of a dialogue, enables giving students fiction and short stories instead of textbooks that have philosophical features and a provocative nature, which stimulates reflection. this technology is one of the integrative techniques that should be used starting from the primary school. “education will only make sense when the student sees its meaning” (lipman, 2012, p. 12). the previous idea confirms that not the intellectual abilities of the student, but his self-awareness should be both the goal and the criterion of effective educational process, as self-awareness is the most important factor in the socialization of a human, their harmonious integration into society. this conclusion is confirmed by observations of frankl (1990). they argued that boys’ behavior and future life prospects could not be fully “extrapolated and predicted from family conditions through analysis of school, social experiences, and sociocultural influences, medical records, academic performance, hereditary background”, or other factors. much better “predictions are given by the degree of self-awareness” (frankl, 1990, p. 81). the brain is able to simultaneously analyze and synthesize incoming information, to operate equally well both a whole and a part. neuropsychological studies show that the brain has a unique ability to “see” an object simultaneously as a whole and in parts, at the same time to divide and integrate it. that is why analysis and synthesis are a unity of two very important, constantly interacting mental processes in learning, the joint development of which requires appropriate reinforcement through adequate techniques and methods of learning. under such conditions, the educational material should be presented in the mode of constant interaction of the whole and a part, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, direct and inverse methods of solving problems and proving theorems, concretization and generalization of the studied information. the educational process appears fundamentally resonant when participants of an educational process resonate with each other. at the level of the neural organization of the human brain, the principle of resonance is realized in the phenomenon of so-called “mirror neurons”, which was discovered by the italian neurobiologist giacomo rizzolatti (1998). he showed that there are unique cells in the human brain that are activated in an inversed manner when we closely observe other people’s actions. current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: … oleksandr melnyk, et al. 17 versatile (for example, communicative) actions of a person, accompanied by activation of the corresponding structure of neurons in their brain, cause activation of the same structure of neurons in the brain of another person who monitors these actions. this is implemented similarly both in the context of the evoked potentials of the brain (when the frequency characteristics of sounds perceived by an individual generate a course of brain processes that are characterized by the same frequency characteristics) and at the level of ideomotor reactions (when in the brain of an individual who imagines certain physical movements, nerve impulses that occur during real physical movements are detected) (rizzolatti, 1998). another american scientist, sarah naegele (2015), argues that neuropedagogy in its basic state begins with the skills of executive function and development of the prefrontal cortex. she emphasizes that educators need to combine neurobiology, psychology and pedagogy to implement improved teaching methods and curricula, as “learning physically changes the brain”. we are talking about the neuroplasticity of the brain, which allows teachers to attract new methods in teaching. based on her own research, naegele (2015) says that the most effective use of neuropedagogy is in three areas: neuropedagogy of brain elements, body elements and mind elements. the learning hierarchy depends on prior knowledge of brain functions. the body and its organic processes are the next step in learning to understand the relationship between inertia and control, because not all learning tasks of younger students can be fully achieved without a clear understanding of how the brain and body embrace physiology of the mind. the main reason for exchange of information is learning, and it can be understood only if there is sufficient brain function. this is the basis for understanding cns neurotransmission, using approximate mapping of the cerebral hemispheres, and raising awareness of the undoubted impact of the digital society on the organic brain. organization of a hierarchy of understanding, based on the processes associated with neurotransmission in each part of the brain at any moment of time, allows to understand the powerful effects of neuroplasticity, i.e., the infinite ability of the brain to change itself. the learning process that begins with the brain and passes into the body. therefore, it is important to activate the sensory data processing system, a boundless potential of multiple intelligence and emotional intelligence (eq), the culmination of which is the child’s interaction with the macro environment. the scientist notes that in teaching children it is necessary to take into account the state of development of neuroplasticity of their brain, brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 18 theoretical and emotional intelligence, to form a cycle of habits and behaviors aimed at the desire to learn, to create not a cliche model of education, but an “atmosphere of curiosity” for younger students (naegele, 2015). conclusions therefore, knowledge and use of the principles of modern neuroscience, in particular, neuropedagogy, neuropsychology, and neurolinguistics in educational activities in primary school allows the most effective development of new teaching methods. nowadays, neuropedagogy and neuropsychology have experimental and theoretical studies of functional development of the child’s brain, which allows to differentiate the learning process, change the approach to the system of diagnosis and correction in the school education system. study of the functional asymmetry of the child’s brain confirmed the hypothesis that the primary school requires a comprehensive synthesized technology for teaching children, taking into account individual strategy of thinking. these approaches encourage teachers to adapt teaching methods not to the level of the student’s intelligence, but to his cognitive abilities. modern scientific research in the field of neuropedagogy and neuropsychology encourage us to create a continuous educational environment, when the focus of any pedagogical technology is the student’s personality as the “key character” in the learning process in the new ukrainian school. the most successful model of the educational process is based on the fundamentals of neuropedagogy as a science of learning and development of the child on the principles of brain functioning. it allows to ensure complete fulfillment of each representative of the younger generation, as well as cognitive and personal development of students of the new ukrainian primary school. references akhutina, t. v, zolotareva, e. v. (1997). o zritelno-prostranstvennoy disgrafii: neyropsikhologicheskiy analiz i metody ee korrektsii [on visual-spatial dysgraphia: neuropsychological analysis and methods of its correction]. shkola zdorovya [health school], 3, 38–42. https://bookitut.ru/preodolenietrudnostej-ucheniya-nejropsikhologicheskij-podkhod.acontents.html bibik, n. m. (2010). kompetentnist i kompetentsii u rezultatakh pochatkovoi osvity [competence and competencies in the results of primary education]. https://bookitut.ru/preodolenie-trudnostej-ucheniya-nejropsikhologicheskij-podkhod.acontents.html https://bookitut.ru/preodolenie-trudnostej-ucheniya-nejropsikhologicheskij-podkhod.acontents.html current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: … oleksandr melnyk, et al. 19 pochatkova shkola [elementary school], 9, 1–4. http://catalog.library.tnpu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=4 19157 danyleiko, s. i. (2017). shliakhy formuvannia sotsialnoi kompetentnosti uchniv pochatkovoi shkoly [ways of forming social competence of primary school students]. xiv international scientific internet conference advanced technologies of science and education. http://intkonf.org/danileyko-sishlyahiformuvannyasotsialnoyiompetentnosti-uchnivpochatkovoyishkoli florea, d. (2017). elemente de drept internaţional. lumen. frankl, v. (1990). man in search of meaning. progress. glushchenko, a. a. (2017). neyropedagogika kak noveyshee napravlenie pedagogiki: tekhnologii, printsipy, metody [neuropedagogy as the latest trend in pedagogy: technologies, principles, methods]. innovatsionnye pedagogicheskie tekhnologii [innovative pedagogical technologies], buk. khrizman, t. p. (1978). razvitie funktsiy detskogo mozga [development of children's brain functions]. leningrad. komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes’ knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 kurylo, s., & ostroumenko, a. (2019). stvorennia uspishnoho osvitnoho seredovyshcha dlia harmoniinoho rozvytku molodshoho shkoliara [creating a successful educational environment for the harmonious development of primary school children]. pochatkova shkola [elementary school], 2, 1-4. http://lib.ndu.edu.ua/cgibin/irbis64r_12/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&p21dbn=ibis&i21dbn=ibis _print&s21fmt=fullw_print&c21com=f&z21mfn=279628 kuzmina, t. (2010). optimizatsiya obucheniya obucheniya mladshikh shkolnikov s uchetom osobennostey myslitelnoy deyatelnosti [optimization of teaching teaching of primary schoolchildren, taking into account the peculiarities of mental activity]. tallinn. larina, o. d. (2016). neyropedagogika – realnost i problemy sovremennogo obrazovaniya [neuropedagogy is a reality and problems of modern education]. molodoy uchenyy [young scientist], 7, 228–230. https://moluch.ru/archive/111/28070/ lipman, m. (2003). the reflective model of educational practice. in thinking in education. cambridge university press. livshits, v. (2012). оn the way to neuropedagogy. educational neuroscience. http://catalog.library.tnpu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=419157 http://catalog.library.tnpu.edu.ua:8080/library/docdescription?doc_id=419157 http://intkonf.org/danileyko-sishlyahi-formuvannyasotsialnoyiompetentnosti-uchnivpochatkovoyishkoli http://intkonf.org/danileyko-sishlyahi-formuvannyasotsialnoyiompetentnosti-uchnivpochatkovoyishkoli https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 http://lib.ndu.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_12/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&p21dbn=ibis&i21dbn=ibis_print&s21fmt=fullw_print&c21com=f&z21mfn=279628 http://lib.ndu.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_12/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&p21dbn=ibis&i21dbn=ibis_print&s21fmt=fullw_print&c21com=f&z21mfn=279628 http://lib.ndu.edu.ua/cgi-bin/irbis64r_12/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&p21dbn=ibis&i21dbn=ibis_print&s21fmt=fullw_print&c21com=f&z21mfn=279628 https://moluch.ru/archive/111/28070/ brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 20 luriya, a. r. (1975). osnovnye problemy neyrolingvistiki [the main problems of neurolinguistics]. moscow state university publishing house. maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 moskvitin, v. a., & moskvitina, n.v. (2001). neyropedagogika kak prikladnoe napravlenie pedagogiki i differentsialnoy psikhologii [neuropedagogy as an applied direction of pedagogy and differential psychology]. bulletin of the orenburg state university, 4, 34–38. http://elib.osu.ru/handle/123456789/8777 naegele, s. (2015, january 25). the fundamentals of neuropedagogy. brain blogger. msed and dechantal montano, otr/l. https://brainblogger.com/2015/01/25/the-fundamentals-ofneuropedagogy/ onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 http://elib.osu.ru/handle/123456789/8777 https://brainblogger.com/2015/01/25/the-fundamentals-of-neuropedagogy/ https://brainblogger.com/2015/01/25/the-fundamentals-of-neuropedagogy/ https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 current approaches to organizing the educational process in primary school: … oleksandr melnyk, et al. 21 rizzolatti, g., & arbib, m. a. (1998). language within our grasp. trends in neurosciences, 21(5), 188–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/s01662236(98)01260-0 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 sirotyuk, a. l. (2003). neyropsikhologicheskoe i psikhofiziologicheskoe soprovozhdenie obucheniya [neuropsychological and psychophysiological support of training]. sfera. sternberg, r. j. (2019). a theory of adaptive intelligence and its relation to general intelligence. journal of intelligence, 7(4), 23. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence7040023 vygotskiy, l. s. (1996). myshlenie i rech [thinking and speaking]. moscow. wolf, l., & washington, e. (2013). mapping the brain onto the mind. chemical & engineering news, 91(16), 41–43. https://doi.org/10.1021/cen-09116-scitech2 yeremeeva, v. d. (2017). didakticheskie printsipy sistemy l. v. zankova glazami neyropsikhologa [didactic principles of l. v. zankov's system through the eyes of a neuropsychologist]. http://www.zankov.ru/about/theory/article=106 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-2236(98)01260-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-2236(98)01260-0 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence7040023 https://doi.org/10.1021/cen-09116-scitech2 http://www.zankov.ru/about/theory/article=106 microsoft word brain_2_1.doc 74 resumen en español brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cerebro. investigación amplia en inteligencia artificial y neurociencia volumen 2, número 1 enero 2011 www.brain.edusoft.ro editor jefe: bogdan patrut 1. recordatorio de listas de palabras en jóvenes y personas más mayores parvaneh khosravizadeh, sogol gerami resumen un recordatorio de lista de palabras es un experimento consistente en examinar el efecto de la edad sobre la memoria. la capacidad de entender o utilizar un lenguaje depende de la capacidad de la memoria. cualquier persona sabe lo que quiere decir, pero no es capaz de hacerlo, si no le ayuda la memoria. porque usamos algún tipo de memoria en todos los aspectos del procesamiento de lenguaje. todo lo que pasa por nuestra mente queda almacenado por un periodo de segundos, minutos o incluso años. mediante la memoria a corto plazo, una persona puede recordar cosas por un periodo de sólo minutos o segundos. mediante el recordatorio, la duración y la cantidad de almacenamiento puede bien incrementarse. por tanto, el recordatorio transforma la memoria a corto plazo en memoria a largo plazo. ese experimento, que analiza el número de palabras recordadas por muestras de población de distintas edades, confirma que cuanto más joven es una persona, más palabras recuerda. también muestra que es más probable que recuerden palaras relacionadas entre sí que otras que no lo estén. 2. el ser diestro y la lateralización del cerebro parvaneh khosravizadeh, shohreh teimournezhad resumen el presente estudio es una revisión de los conceptos clave en relación con la naturaleza de ser o no ser diestro, y en línea con el fenómeno de lateralización del cerebro. para este fin, un cierto número de artículos han sido revisados y los conceptos clave, tales como “handedness” y sus principales característicass, las bases teóricas para este fenómeno, la naturaleza y funciones de la lateralización, y la relación entre estos dos conceptos han sido puestos en claro, para un mejor entendimiento. finalmente, las diferencias generales entre zurdos vs. diestros han sido consideradas. 3. el efecto de la reelaboración vs. la auto-corrección sobre la precisión escribiendo: el papel de la conciencia parviz maftoon, masoumeh ahmadi shirazi, parisa daftarifard resumen abundan los estudios que apoyan el papel facilitador de la corrección in las diversas formas de reelaboración, repetición, confirmaciones, intentos de compresion (resumen), o clarificación (ellis, 2003). entre estos estudios, la reelaboración ha probado ser el más frecuente tipo de corrección de errores en el aula [30] [32]; sin embargo, la auto-corrección o elicitación permite a los estudiantes observar el “salto” más que la reelaboración. para ilustrar dicha diferencia, dos métodos de “recast” y auto-corrección fueron aplicados a dos groupos of estudiantes para ver si existen diferencias significativas entre los dos métodos, medida por la precisión de los alumnos al utilizar el tiempo pasado. mann y whitney, junto con wilcoxon, elaboraron las técnicas que permiten examiner la resumen en español 75 efectividad de los métodos de corrección de errores. el resultado de este estudio muestra que no hay diferencia significativa entre los dos métodos de corrección, aunque los estudiantes mejoran con ese tratamiento; sin embargo, la corrección supera el “recast”, y el “recast” no mejora la precisión de los estudiantes tras los tests. 4. crencias de los estudiantes sobre el professor efectivo: un caso del contexto iraní amin shahini, parisa daftarifard resumen la influencia que los profesores sobre los logros de los estudiantes es algo que está fuera de toda duda. las creencias y perspectivas de los alumnos también resultan determinants en su rendimiento académico. sesenta estudiantes del “university of tehran’s center for extra curricular activities” participaron en este estudio. la percepción de dichos participantes acerca de sus profesores en distintos aspectos, tales como personalidad del profesor, competencia de dicho profesor, sus habilidades educativas, etc., fueron investigadas. los resultados revelaron que estas “teaching skills” fueron miradas, por los estudiantes, como la característica más influyente. competencia y personalidad del profesor fueron situadas en segundo y tercer lugar respectivamente. los resultados de este estudio tienen ciertas implicaciones para profesores y para quienes preparan a los educadores. 5. creando comunidades virtuales por medio de swarm intelligence, o inteligencia de enjambres lucian hancu resumen durante siglos, observar el comportamiento de las species salvajes ha sido siempre fascinante y lleno de misterios. el modelado de interacciones humanas basado sobre aquellas mostradas en la naturaleza conduce a soluciones innovadoras, pero también posee inesperados aspectos. en éste artículo, describimos nuestra aproximación a crear communidades de entidades virtuales por medio de “swarm intelligence”. discutimos el algoritmo que sirve para la creación de communidades virtuales, junto con los problemas que surgen cuando se modelizan entidades como individuos del enjambre. 6. representando los espacios mentales y las dinámicas de la semántica de los lenguajes naturales ramin golshaie resumen construír sistemas con la robustez de las capacidades del razonamiento humano requiere inspiración de las ciencias cognitivas. el objetivo primario de este estudio es investigar la posibilidad de representar algunos básicos principios de la semantic cognitive de la “mental spaces theory” tales como a construcción de dominios, el status de realidad de tales dominios y sus elementos, y de las actitudes mentales en una “knowledge representation framework”, para el propósito de desarrollar cognitivamente sistemas de representación del conocimiento plausibles. el modelo usado como la base de representación es la version ampliada de las redes semánticas convencionales, concretamente multi-layered extended semantic networks (multinet). los datos usados en este estudio han sido seleccionadas a partir de expresiones en inglés, y han sido representadas en mwr, multinet’s software de representación del conocimiento. los resultados obtenidos del análisis de los datos representados y su comparación con los principios de la “mental spaces theory” muestran que los teóricos constructos de dicha teoría, tales como “domain construction”, “reality status of domains” y sus elementos, y actitudes mentales pueden ser formalmente representados en la multinet framework. 7. normas triangulares, co-normas triangulares, y algunos conceptos relacionados brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2010, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 76 angel garrido resumen matemáticamente considerada, una norma triangular es un tipo de operación binaria frecuentemente usada en el contexto de los espacios métricos probabilistas, pero atambién en otros campos fascinantes, como la fuzzy logic, o en general, en la multi-valued logic (mvl). la tconorma, o s-norma, es un concepto dual. ambas ideas nos permiten generalizar la intersección y la unión en una cadena, o lattice, o la disyunción and conjunción en lógica. también resulta muy interesante introducir una clase especial de reales operaciones monótonas. nos referimos a las denominadas “cópulas”, muy útiles en diversos campos. así, mostramos un comprehensivo análisis de todos estos operadores de agregación. 8. un estudio sobre redes complejas angel garrido resumen nuestro propósito al elaborar este artículo puede ser fácil y claramente establecido: mostrar cómo son muchos aspectos esenciales de tan activos temas de investigación actual. para éste objetivo, previamente debemos analizar algunas relevantes características, que están sólidamente basadas en la graph theory (la moderna teoría de grafos y de redes complejas). ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 75-87 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/407 submitted: december 7th, 2022 | accepted for publication: december 18th, 2022 subjective attitude to the health of ukrainian youth during the war svitlana zabolotska1, mariіa zamishchak2, myroslav savchyn3, lesia vasylenko4, andrii zymianskyi5, svitlana bilozerska6, halyna ozhubko7, svitlana mashchak8 1 candidate of psyhological sciences associate professor department of psychology, ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, svitlana.zabolotska@ukr.net 2 candidate of psyhological sciences, associate professor department of psychology, ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, dpszammeri@gmail.com 3 doctor of science in psychology, full professor department of psychology, ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, msavchun@gmail.com 4 candidate of psyhological sciences, associate professor, associate professor department of psychology, drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, vasyl.lesia@gmail.com 5 candidate of psyhological sciences, associate professor department of psychology, ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, zimyan79@gmail.com 6 candidate of psyhological sciences, associate professor, associate professor department of psychology, drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, lana_sun@meta.ua 7 candidate of psyhological sciences, associate professor, associate professor department of psychology, drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, galina.ozhubko@gmail.com 8 associate professor of the department of the theoretical and practical psychology of the lviv polytechnic national university, lviv, ukraine, nikoleom@i.ua abstract: the purpose of this study was to find out the differences in the attitude of young people who reached adulthood toward their health during a period of moderate (epidemic) and strong (wartime) deprivation of comfortable life and a surge of national consciousness that changed egocentric accents to subjective general ones. the use of methods of theoretical, systematic and comparative analysis, supplemented by statistical and correlational research, has shown: young people have hardly changed their own sch after the deployment of tragic actions in their country: they have accumulated and directed the mental potential to achieve freedom, national self-identity and passionarity. at the same time, sch has receded into the background and has not given way at all to the mass life-saving, protective or other egoistic patterns expected at the beginning of the study. the international significance of the article is that, for the first time in science, the authors have begun to study sch in the context of a global conflict that has unexpectedly affected personal self-preservation motives and increased attention to one's health. keywords: mobilization of mental potential; defamation processes; comfort deprivation; passionarity; quantum leap of subjectivity. how to cite: zabolotska, s., zamishchak, m., savchyn, m., vasylenko, l., zymianskyi, a., bilozerska, s., ozhubko, h., & mashchak, s. (2023). subjective attitude to the health of ukrainian youth during the war. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 75-87. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/407 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/407 mailto:svitlana.zabolotska@ukr.net mailto:dpszammeri@gmail.com mailto:msavchun@gmail.com mailto:vasyl.lesia@gmail.com mailto:zimyan79@gmail.com mailto:lana_sun@meta.ua mailto:galina.ozhubko@gmail.com mailto:nikoleom@i.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/407 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 76 introduction the current young person's consciousness is heavily focused on material values, pleasures, social networking life, prestige, power, etc. this distracts and prevents adequate perception of signals coming from the body and inner world and is an early health message system. health is natural and normal to the individual, so the healthy person does not pay attention to its bodily and psychological manifestations. paradoxically, but more often than not, a healthy adult person often does not appreciate his/her health, does not assess its state, does not realize the consequences of the influence of lifestyle and characteristics of his/her own personality on health, age-related changes in the state of health components. this is especially true for a person of adolescent age. it is widely known without scientific research that a person only after partial or complete loss of health rethinks his/her attitude to health, makes efforts to restore it. the perception of health of a nearly healthy person at college age who is not actively engaged in his or her health may not be clear and emotionally vague. a young person may know what to do (behavior) and how to do it (ability), but also may do nothing because it is not a value to them, whether or not they are convinced that it cannot change anything themselves. if health does hold a high position in a person's system of values, then his behavior is initiated and guided by a specific motive the will to health. in the state of subjective health, it would seem, there are no changes, in fact the young person at the student age simply is not taught to identify and fix them or somatically stimulate the need for it. ukrainian valeologists have repeatedly written about this in the context of selfregulation (karasievych et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021) or in the context of sports coaching and health physical education (maksymchuk et al., 2020a; maksymchuk et al., 2020b) the relevance of the article is determined by alarming tendencies in the post-soviet east slavic region, particularly in ukraine: despite the growth of living standards and development of valeological culture and personal psychohygiene, markers of subjective picture of health show its low value and low level of awareness. in the early 2000s in the east slavic republics, sociological surveys showed that the personal importance of health for a mature person takes only 3 5 places (zhuravleva, 2006; obrazhey & podvalskaya, 2010). work, family well-being, children's successes seemed more important to adults. here we can make some very general and even psychologically philosophical conclusions: low valeological culture has personal determinants and is associated with the inability of post-soviet subjective attitude to the health of ukrainian youth during the war svitlana zabolotska, et al. 77 people to love and accept themselves, their orientation to seek the highest values outside of themselves, to serve and give back. in other words, the invariant pro-soviet stereotype still mentally operates in ukrainians: happiness is when everything is good, but not at me, but outside of me: at work, in the country, with children, etc. among popular literature and mass-media publications in ukraine over the past decade we have found many materials that would surprise a resident of the conditional west. so in the article "it has become fashionable among ukrainians to lead a healthy lifestyle" (2013), published on the authoritative news portal tsn, we found phrases that should shock the newest civilized person, for example: the fashion to pay attention to their health came to ukraine from europe, but many ukrainians still believe that a healthy lifestyle is expensive and hard (yeryomina, 2013). defamation processes in the feeling and awareness of their own health is evidenced by statistical and demographic data conducted in ukraine and belarus from 2014 to 2020. we notice a strong effect of subjective and psycho gender factors. for example, men who abused smoking and who statistically work harder and live less than women showed higher levels of cardiovascular disease and sense of health than women on the background of feelings of social inferiority and mental character (agabekova, 2021). our theme has experienced the most acute relevance only now: for the last three years new destructive factors have appeared in the ukrainian neurosocial continuum (first the covid-19 pandemic and, since february 2022, the ukrainian-russian war), which would have by deprivation of comfortable life, numerous mental and physical sufferings attract more attention of young people to their health. such a press position we formulate also against the background of the fact that ukrainian youth has changed dramatically, matured in a quantum leap of military mobilization and complete rearrangement of their lives, so it would be relevant to measure and describe changes in the subjective attitude of young ukrainians during the war. therefore, we chose the purpose of our article to investigate the subjective concept of health (sch) of ukrainian youth, in particular, to compare their prewar and wartime situation in the context of a quantum leap of national credibility and activity with the love of neuroscientific attitudes. the main goal was to find the presence or absence of changes in relation to their health in the context of growth and change in value-based subject centric attitudes. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 78 in the study, the authors used methods of selecting relevant material (data collection) and theoretical methods. most of all, the authors used generalization, comparison, extrapolation of data to neuroscientific theory, and establishment of correlational, structural, and determinant relationships. the criteria for determining the level of sch development were: 1) the level of development of individual components (high, medium, low); 2) the integrity of the concept (representation of components); 3) harmony a combination of levels of component development, when there are no opposing levels of development of individual components. the study involved 354 students from 18 to 21 years old (210 girls 144 boys). the study was conducted in 2019 2020 (first phase) and summer 2022 second phase. research ethics. the survey was conducted online during students' distance learning with student ethics committees' approval. also, all students voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. theoretical study of sch using integrative and neuroscientific approach at the end of the twentieth century in wellness and related sciences for a long time we observed an excessive differentiation of concepts that the neroscientific interdisciplinary paradigm was able to integrate. the terms health perception (chipperfield, 1993; idler & kasl, 1991); health selfassessment (mccallum et al., 1994; mossey & shapiro, 1982) were then used. the first routes to integrative health research were taken by scholars in the late 1990s: the determination of perceptual and objective health states was studied (borawski et al., 1996; idler & benyamini, 1997); stimulating subjective control of one's own states (menec & chipperfield, 1997), etc. the aforementioned studies generally emphasize the importance of subjective assessment of health, in particular, they focus attention on the importance of self-awareness of their physical state, biological resources, their capabilities, desires, needs of different levels, the degree of their satisfaction, protection mechanisms, as well as their physical. potential, their own destiny. these studies have shown that the perception of health (perception of health) is a condition for the successful rehabilitation of patients. it turns out that in certain situations subjective perception of the level of one's health is much more reliable predictor of the emergence and course of the disease than its objective indicators. scientists began to pay sufficient attention to subjective health indicators in the second half of the twentieth century. they argued that these indicators operate within variable (individual) models of anxiety (hunt & mc subjective attitude to the health of ukrainian youth during the war svitlana zabolotska, et al. 79 ewen, 1980, p. 231). the primary function of these models is to provide as objective a tool for self-monitoring and self-diagnosis as possible. currently, the epidemiological, politico-military, demographic, and other crisis events of the 1920s have forced scientists to pay close attention to the problems of the subjective concept of health (assari, 2018; ohlbrecht & jellen, 2021) and engage in a definitive ordering of this complex category. however, scholars have yet to agree on and unify the entire term apparatus, nomenclature, and structure of this phenomenon. even the most recent studies on the topic testify to the disorderliness and non-uniformity of the varieties of subjective conceptions of health, their components, attributes and functions. for example, we can encounter synonymous or related terms that replace the main term and increase epistemic entropy: subjective health complaints, subjective health status, subjective health satisfaction, subjective health quality of life, etc (davillas et al., 2022; ehmann et al., 2020). however, we want to emphasize: in recent years, scientists have identified the most significant predictors of the quality of life of young people, which proved that the subjective experience of such quality is closely related to the subjective concept of health. at the same time the constructs of subjective norms turned out to be primarily psychological: positive thinking, satisfaction. with these facts it is easy to explain why during the war period the concept of health was replaced by the concept of survival, and subjective constructs were reduced to a minimum. at the same time, the deprivative military environment requires mobilization and increased self-efficacy for subjects to survive. researchers have long proven that the need for self-efficacy is a predictor of valeologically relevant behavioral intentions. we have observed that young people in ukraine during martial law tend to restrict themselves from bad habits, work hygiene, and self-discipline in order to be generally efficient in ukrainian society. consequently, passional tendencies of subjective awareness in the context of global events may be predictors of valeological meaningful behavior. however, we suspect that such subjective motivation is not valeological, medical or other health-related. we will test this in the next chapter. scientists pointed out that destructive factors affecting subjective health are often studied in isolation and do not include external (smoking, overwork, overeating) and internal (anxiety, low self-esteem, expectation of failure) factors in a single study. scientists believe that logistic and correlational analyses can be useful in linking objective factors to attitudes, which is what we did in the next part of our article. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 80 of interest to us will also be the neuroscientific interpretation of the results, because we know that in acute, terminal, or mobilizing states of the psyche, the neuropsychological and neurophysiological correlates of value, intension, or other subject-oriented phenomena are most pronounced. recently, correlations between subjective health factors have been studied by a group of scientists. they determined that subjective norms, educational and nurturing mediators, and perceptions of restrictive-controlling factors constitute three mutually deterministic levels of influence on health. back in 2019, we saw subjective shifts in values and behaviors in the impact of the covid-19 pandemic: attitudes toward the pandemic and its consequences proved to be more relevant to young people than adherence to practical countermeasures. now, in 2022, we see a similar thing in ukraine in people's attitudes toward health in the context of military action. at the same time, the value-passionary aspect has become even more acute, and the attitude to one's health has not become better in spite of the objective danger. thus, the subjective concept of health as a structurally complex dynamic formation in the self-consciousness of the person. it arises and is differentiated on the basis of sensory impressions coming from the body, its systems and organs and characteristics of physical activity. however, it contains sensory, emotional, cognitive, and motivational-value aspects, taking the problem far beyond the somatic plane. that is, at the level of each of these aspects, subjective images of physical, emotional, intellectual, social, moral and spiritual health are presented. practical measurements of the subjective attitude of ukrainians to their health and neuroscientific interpretation of the results back in the height of the coronavirus pandemic, in 2019, we conducted a general questionnaire survey among students regarding their attitudes toward health. this study was interpretive and at the data collection stage had the nature of an extended questionnaire. after its overall processing and synthesis, we found a number of incorrect attitudes and logical correlates in most of the questionnaires, indicative of defamation in the attitudes of the young but post-soviet man toward himself and the world: 1. minimum physical health requirements. typical attitudes: a) i do not have any pain, so i am healthy/healthy. b) i am not well with social security (realization, prosperity), but it is good that i am healthy/healthy. c) healthy is when nothing hurts. d) i do not feel well, but health is still normal. subjective attitude to the health of ukrainian youth during the war svitlana zabolotska, et al. 81 lack of tendency to be preventive, propaedeutic and prophylactic. typical attitudes: a) i don't like to visit doctors. b) my teeth are not very good, but they don't hurt yet. c) when it becomes absolutely difficult, then i will call a doctor. the main conclusion we can draw from the data obtained then is that there is a very low, and many people lack, valeological culture. we assume that it is based on a stereotypical system of contextual selfperception, formed by soviet social policy (back then it was not the individual but the productive class, the people that were valued). this attitude to their health is reactive and actually conditionally reflexive in nature. the results showed: the majority of students declare health as the most important aspect of life (their own or / and the health of loved ones), but on the questionnaire 83% of respondents revealed an insufficient level of sch and only 17% satisfactory or good attitude to it and have a relatively adequate view, based on proactivity, self-control and constituting an existential value. after more than half a year of the ukrainian-russian war, we decided to re-investigate the subjective picture of health among ukrainian students, because we hoped for positive shifts in deprivation conditions. we also wanted to find out the correlations between conscious attention to one's health and real after theoretical analysis and analysis of generalized empirical data from different sources (davillas et al., 2022; park et al., 2021) we consider it necessary to distinguish five types of adults' realization of subjective concept of health: ideal, optimal, situational-optimal, suboptimal and pathologizing as the data in tables 1 and 2 show, only 6.22% of the subjects have a high subjective concept of health, 33.05% have an average concept of health, and the majority (60.73%) have a low concept of health. this means that in the majority of the subjects the subjective concept of health is insufficiently formed. table 1 levels of development of the subjective concept of health levels of development of the subjective concept of health quantity % high 22 6,22 avarage 117 33,05 low 215 60,73 source: author's own conception broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 82 table 2 types of realization of the subjective concept of health the type of realization of the subjective concept of health quantity (total 354) % of the subjects implementing this type of perfect 5 1,41 optimal 27 7,63 situational-optimal 35 9,89 suboptimal 273 77,12 pathologizing 14 3,95 source: author's own conception as the data in table 2 show, the vast majority of the subjects (77.12%) have a non-optimal type of subjective concept of health, 9.89% have a situational-optimal type, 7.63% have an optimal type, 3.95% have a pathological type, and only 1.41% have an ideal type. this means that the subjective concept of health in the majority of subjects (81.07%) includes destructive moments (lack of systematic control, untimely restoration of health, focus on preservation rather than focus on strengthening and development, limited use of means of health preservation, etc.). one of the objectives of our study was to identify the correlation between the level of development of sch and the types of its implementation. generalized data on the corresponding correlations are presented in table 3. table 3 correlations between the level of sch development and the type of its implementation the type of attitude toward one's health perfect optimal situationaloptimal nonptimal pathological high 0,8637 0,4929** 0,1021* -0,1510* 0,0000 avarage 0,1073 0,3862* 0,4951** 0,5663** -0,0024 low 0,0000 0,0020 0,1569* 0,6305** 0,3822* source: author's own conception subjective attitude to the health of ukrainian youth during the war svitlana zabolotska, et al. 83 the table shows that high level of sch development corresponds to the ideal and optimal type of its realization, medium level of sch development corresponds to the situational-optimal and optimal type of realization of the subjective concept of health, and low level corresponds to non-optimal and pathologizing types of realization. quantitatively, at a high level of sch development 5 students out of 22 assigned to this level (22,7%) had the ideal type of realization, 13 (59,1%) had the optimal type and 4 (18,2%) had the situational-optimal type. no subjects with non-optimal and pathologizing types of realization were found at this level. at the average level of development of sch (177 students in total), 55 of them (31.1%) were found to be situationally-optimal, 113 (63.8%) suboptimal, and 9 (5.1%) optimal. no students with ideal and pathological type of realization were found at this level. at the low level of development (215 students in total), 173 students (80.5%) were found to have a non-optimal type of realization, 28 (13.0%) had a situational-optimal type and 14 (6.5%) had a pathologizing type. the students with this level of sch development were not found with the ideal and optimal type. summing up, it should be noted that, in general, the results of the study unambiguously confirmed a significant correlation between the levels of development of sch and the types of its implementation in the life of students, in particular, there is an unambiguous trend: the higher the level of development of subjective concept of health, the more effectively the student preserves, strengthens, develops his health and effectively engaged in selfrehabilitation in a situation of health loss (illness, epidemic, stresses, etc.). if we compare the data of the questionnaire survey of young people before the war (pathologizing factor covid-19) and after six months of military operations, we see that the attentive attitude to their health has not increased (table 4). table 4. difference between attitudes toward one's health before and during the war destructive attitude constructive attitude unoptimal and pathologizing (before the war) unoptimal and pathologizing (during war) sufficient or optimal (before the war) sufficient or optimal (in time of war) 83 % 80,1% 17% 19,9% source: author's own conception broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 84 such results indicate that the mental resource mobilized during the mass psychosocial deprivation switched not to the sphere of personal health, but to the value sphere of nationwide sanitation, subject-centeredness, and the desire for freedom. conclusions and results after the study, it became clear that sch in typical psychosocial conditions weakly determines the modus behavior of young people in relation to their own health and determines the importance of studying subjective perceptions and attitudes toward health in the conditions of holistic life activity. in addition, post-soviet adults are clearly dominated by the symptomatic-reactive type of attitude to their health. its invariant idea is as follows: i think about health, treat myself, change my way of life if i experience somatic, neurophysiological or mental symptoms. at the same time, the " trend" for preventive medicine and visits to psychologists is just beginning to gain momentum, and surveys indicate that the psychological plan is stereotypically considered personal and should not be objectified as a symptom of health/unhealthy. despite the lack of significant shifts in relation to their health, ukrainian youth increasingly begin to value freedom, spiritual values, and take direct selfless participation in helping society and the army (volunteering, fundraising) while almost never exhibiting egocentric markers of such activity. of course, adolescents and young adults have undergone a brief adaptive period, but have undergone a leap in mental maturation. therefore, we explain the phenomenon of inattention to one's health under martial law by the switching of deep value-based subject centric mental mechanisms. at the same time, the role of young adults in social politics, economics, and sociocultural movements rapidly increased. an important and unexpected result was that with the continuation of the war (at the time of writing almost 8 months), awareness of its terrible consequences and the growing personal physical, social and existential danger, ukrainian young people almost did not change their subjective attitude and subjective influence on their own health. this allows us to deny the thesis about the dominance in the current culture and society of pragmatic and comfortable relations in the formation of everyday values: at the risk of losing such values, they depreciate, so instead of the growth of bodily importance we have a surge of volitional-existential reorientations of youth. under this condition, personal health recedes into the background even more than it did under the conditions of national uncertainty that prevailed earlier. subjective attitude to the health of ukrainian youth during the war svitlana zabolotska, et al. 85 research limitation. our paper opens up the unexplored neuro philosophical problem of personal sacrifice and highly conscious youth participation in the context of military conflict. such participation, despite bodily discomfort and psychological deprivation, does not lead to selfcenteredness and does not affect young people's focus on their health, which was unexpected. acknowledgement the authors would like to thank the ukrainian students who agreed to take the survey (previous and main) remotely, as well as their mentors and the administration of educational institutions for their understanding and assistance. the authors were privileged to collaborate in a unified team when writing, expediently and complementarily performing specific tasks within the framework of the purpose. the authors have equally contributed to writing the article. in particular, myroslav savchyn collected data by creating a corpus of relevant theories and classifications. svitlana zabolotska reinventorized taxonomic ranks within a single system. svitlana mashchak was responsible for nomenclature. mariia zamishchak structurized subjective health concept as a system, and lesia vasylenko clarified taxonomic ranks. andrii zymianskyi projected health care strategies. halyna ozhubko acted as the editorin-chief and versifier of the article. references agabekova, n.v. (2021). sub"yektivnaya otsenka zdorov'ya naseleniyem belarusi: analiz opredelyayushchikh faktorov. strategiya razvitiya ekonomiki belarusi: vyzovy, instrumenty realizatsii i perspektivy [subjective health assessment by the population of belarus: analysis of determinants]. in v.l. gursky (ed.), strategy for economic development of belarus: challenges, instruments of implementation and prospects, vol. 2 (pp. 154-160). http://bseu.by/personalpages/agabiekova/publications.htm assari, s. (2018). blacks’ diminished return of education attainment on subjective health: mediating effect of income. brain sciences, 8(9), article 176. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8090176 borawski, e. a., kinney, j. m., & kahana, e. (1996). the meaning of older adults’ health appraisals: congruence with health status and determinant of mortality. the journals of gerontology: series b: psychological sciences and social sciences, 51(3), s157–s170. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/51b.3.s157 http://bseu.by/personalpages/agabiekova/publications.htm https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8090176 https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/51b.3.s157 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 86 chipperfield, j. g. (1993). incongruence between health perceptions and health problems: implications for survival among seniors. journal of aging and health, 5, 475496. https://doi.org/10.1177/089826439300500404 davillas, a., burlinson, a., & liu, h. h. (2022). getting warmer: fuel poverty, objective and subjective health and well-being. energy economics, 106, article 105794. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105794 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 ehmann, a. t., groene, o., rieger, m. a., & siegel, a. (2020). the relationship between health literacy, quality of life, and subjective health: results of a cross-sectional study in a rural region in germany. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(5), article 1683. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051683 hunt, s. m., & mcewen, j. (1980). the development of a subjective health indicator. sociology of health & illness, 2(3), 231246. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.1980.tb00213.x idler, e. l., & benyamini, y. (1997). self-rated health and mortality: a review of twenty-seven community studies. journal of health and social behavior, 38, 2137. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9097506/ idler, e. l., & kasl, s. (1991). health perceptions and survival: do global evaluations of health status really predict mortality? journal of gerontology: social sciences, 46, 5565. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/46.2.s55 karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future https://doi.org/10.1177/089826439300500404 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105794 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051683 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.1980.tb00213.x https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9097506/ https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/46.2.s55 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 subjective attitude to the health of ukrainian youth during the war svitlana zabolotska, et al. 87 teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 mccallum, j., shadbolt, b., & wang, d. (1994). self-rated health and survival: a 7year follow-up study of australian elderly. american journal of public health, 84(7), 11001105. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.84.7.1100 menec, v. h., & chipperfield, j. g. (1997). the interactive effect of perceived control and functional status on health and mortality among young-old and old-old adults. the journals of gerontology series b: psychological sciences and social sciences, 52(3), 118126. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/52b.3.p118 mossey, j. m., & shapiro, e. (1982). self-rated health: a predictor of mortality among the elderly. american journal of public health, 72(8), 800808. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.72.8.800 obrazhey, o. n., & podvalskaya, v. s. (2010). aktual'nost' izucheniya samosokhranitel'nogo povedeniya naseleniya [the relevance of studying the self-preservation behavior of the population]. sociological almanac, (1), 262-269 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnost-izucheniyasamosohranitelnogo-povedeniya-naseleniya/viewer ohlbrecht, h., & jellen, j. (2021). unequal tensions: the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in light of subjective health and social inequality dimensions in germany. european societies, 23(sup1), s905s922. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1852440 park, s., lee, h. j., jeon, b. j., yoo, e. y., kim, j. b., & park, j. h. (2021). effects of occupational balance on subjective health, quality of life, and healthrelated variables in community-dwelling older adults: a structural equation modeling approach. plos one, 16(2), e0246887. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246887 yeryomina, s. (2013). sered ukrayintsiv stalo modnym vesty zdorovyy sposib zhyttya [it has become fashionable among ukrainians to lead a healthy lifestyle]. tsn. zhuravleva, i.v. (2006). otnosheniye k zdorov'yu individa i obshchestva [attitude to the health of the individual and society]. nauka. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.84.7.1100 https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/52b.3.p118 https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.72.8.800 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnost-izucheniya-samosohranitelnogo-povedeniya-naseleniya/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnost-izucheniya-samosohranitelnogo-povedeniya-naseleniya/viewer https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1852440 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246887 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 30-46 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/352 submitted: march 17th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 20th, 2022 analysis of children’s emotional intelligence in families of migrant workers during pandemic covid-19 in ukraine larysa danylchuk 1 , liudmila romanovska 2 , yurii popyk 3 , nataliia holova 4 , tetiana kravchyna 5 1 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, social work and pedagogics department, humanities faculty, khmelnytsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine, e-mail: larkaterdan@gmail.com 2 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, social work and pedagogics department, humanities faculty, khmelnitsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine, e-mail: lroman@online.ua 3 phd in psychology, associate professor, social work and pedagogics department, humanities faculty, khmelnitsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine, e-mail: mercuric16@gmail.com 4 phd in pedagogy, associate professor, social work and pedagogics department, humanities faculty, khmelnitsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine, e-mail: nata_golova@ukr.net 5 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of foreign languages, international relations faculty, khmelnitsky national university, khmelnitsky, ukraine, e-mail: tkravchyna@gmail.com abstract: the paper presents the results of children’s eq analysis in families of migrant workers during the covid-19 pandemic in ukraine. the following methods have been applied: theoretical methods – analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, systematization of scientific practices in issue of children’s eq in families of migrant workers; empirical methods – interviewing, questionnaire, self-esteem, adapted methods ‘dictionary of emotions’, ‘complete the sentence’, preliminary methodology ‘my dream’, adapted samples ‘my three wishes’ – for preliminary diagnostics; for data processing – comparative method, methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis of diagnostic data, graphical methods of statistics processing (tabulation, diagrams), method of experts’ assessments; methods of mathematical statistics, the pearson criterion of homogeneity. the ei problem of children from migrant workers' families has social, pedagogical, psychological and legal aspects that are exacerbated and need to be addressed during the pandemic. it is found that basic environments – family; social environment; general secondary education institution; peers; the internet and social networks, which are comfortable for the ei formation of children from migrant workers' families, are subject to restrictions/localizations in quarantine conditions and cause changes in ei. it is stated that in the absence of parents, the institution of general secondary education is the environment where control, efficiency and optimization of the process of forming the children’s ei are ensured. the scientific novelty of the obtained results of children’s eq analysis in families of migrant workers during pandemic covid-19 in ukraine has both theoretical and practical value on the international level for researchers and social work experts, dealing with issues of work migration, including children of migrant workers. the solution of the problem involves making special psychological and pedagogical programs for children’s eq development in families of migrant workers. keywords: emotional intelligence; children from families of migrant workers; pandemic covid-19; legal status; environment; preliminary diagnosing. how to cite: danylchuk, l., romanovska, l., popyk, y., holova, n., & kravchyna, t. (2022). analysis of children’s emotional intelligence in families of migrant workers during pandemic covid-19 in ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 30-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/352 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/352 mailto:larkaterdan@gmail.com mailto:lroman@online.ua mailto:mercuric16@gmail.com mailto:nata_golova@ukr.net mailto:tkravchyna@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/352 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 31 introduction transformational processes of the last decade in ukraine caused political and, consequently, economic crisis. according to different data, more than 3-4 million (according to non-formal statistics – about 7 million) ukrainian migrants work abroad. the number of internal migrants remains indeterminate because of legislation imperfection, the lack of control by the authority. sociology is unpromising: 90% of migrant workers have children, staying without custody because of their absence. in home scientific discourse, a family with absence of one or two parents (because of employment and having special features and peculiarities of family life) is considered to be a family of migrant workers. let’s make a note that when it is told about children from families of migrant workers, mainly, they say about external migrant workers, with internal labour migration being widespread in ukraine, namely: region inhabitants (with low level of life and income coefficient) go to earn money in big cities or to have temporary / season jobs. sometimes both parents go to earn money (the period of absence varies from 1-6 months to several years), but children stay at their primary residence with relatives, neighbours or other personalities, becoming responsible for providing a child with essential needs (accommodation, food, clothes). but the issue about child protection, proper upbringing etc. remains open. and, as a rule, legal power for temporary custody of a child is not registered (parents are afraid of being deprived of parental rights etc., they are legally-unacceptable). this causes a range of critical situations and a conflict of laws tied to a child's life and health. under such circumstances children from families of migrant workers are a peculiar social and demographic category of children in ukraine who with one or two parents, going to earn money, have inappropriate parents’ care and legally approved status and consequently – social guarantees. the conditions of life in society, the influence of social and cultural environment, interpersonal conflicts, the change of family life pattern (because of parents’ absence) influence the emotional intelligence (eq) of children from families of migrant workers; adjust and change the conditions of efficient personal fulfillment in life, develop social behaviour. but, keeping to fundamental term conditions of living and upbringing in a family; being a feature of a positive pattern of a family, cause the eq development of children, their identifying peculiarities. analysis of children’s emotional intelligence in families of migrant workers ... larysa danylchuk et al. 32 the spectrum of social backgrounds and factors for eq development is large, but the majors are: syntony as ‘true harmony with environment, that is ‘… syntonic personality hardly feels those emotions that coincide with the people he/she is in immediate contact with’ (mayer et al., 2003); material welfare of a family; the level of parents’ culture and relations between them; location environment. we consider the environment (a family, social environment, secondary education environment, peers, internet and social networks) to be main for childrens’ eq development in families of migrant workers. after parents' departure, a child seriously faces the problem of emotional deficiency, which, as a rule, children from families of migrant workers try to balance with communication with friends, classmates in the internet and social networks, social environment. children from migrant workers’ families mostly spend time in general secondary educational establishment (gsee), because, according to the constitution of ukraine, article 53, full general secondary education is compulsory (while preschool education, higher education and non-school establishments are not compulsory). gsee is the environment where it is possible to control and adjust behaviour patterns of children from migrant workers’ families and provide them with their eq development process efficiency and optimizing. the deepness of eq issue is worsened by the problem of pandemic covid-19, being a worldwide problem. because of several reasons (both internal and external labour migration), migrant worker parents and their children are separated socially. at the same time ukraine supported the worldwide experience – introduced the quarantine, so children couldn’t attend schools and stayed in comfortable environments, which surely influenced their eq. taking into account the circumstances mentioned above, we consider the issue about emotional intelligence of children from families of migrant workers during the pandemic covid-19 in ukraine to be actual, the one which needs diagnosis and practical solution. analysis of literature sources and publications theoretical principles about eq have been studied in the works of foreign researchers: duangkaew and tangchitnusorn (2021)¸ goleman (2009); kevereski et al. (2016); tataru (2019). applied aspects of tests and basic methods of studying eq have been found out in the works of foreign scientists: aigunova et al. (2016); ivanova (2008). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 33 some contribution into the research of eq of different groups has been made by ukrainian scientists: opanasyuk (2017); rudenok et al. (2020). there are a lot of researches about the issues of children from families of migrant workers done by ukrainian scientists, namely: social, pedagogical and psychological work with children of migrant workers (sayko, 2020); the upbringing of migrant workers’ children under the conditions of social and educational environment (gevchuk, 2012); the interaction of social services and comprehensive educational establishments for providing social and pedagogical support for migrant workers’ children (pigida, 2013); the peculiarities of custody activities with migrant workers’ children (sabat, 2015); social adaptation of teenagers from migrant workers’ families (lizun et al., 2017); enforcement of rights of children from migrant workers’ families (makovetska, 2017). but notwithstanding a number of publications about the children from families of migrant workers, written in national science, the issue of children’s eq in such families still remains unexplained. the purpose and tasks of the study the purpose of the paper is theoretical analysis of children’s eq in families of migrant workers in ukrainian scientific society and empirical analysis of children’s eq during pandemic covid-19 in ukraine. according to the outlined aim, the following tasks of the study are defined: 1) to do theoretical analysis of children’s eq in families of migrant workers in ukrainian scientific environment. 2) to do empirical analysis of children’s eq during pandemic covid-19 in ukraine. 3) (on the basis of the obtained experimental data) to generalize and show the perspectives for further research of children’s eq in families of migrant workers during pandemic covid-19 in ukraine. methods of the study the following methods for receiving diagnosis data have been used: 1) theoretical methods – analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, systematization of scientific practices in the issue of children’s eq in families of migrant workers; 2) empirical methods – interviewing, questionnaire, self-esteem, adapted methods ‘dictionary of emotions’, ‘complete the sentence’, preliminary methodology ‘my dream’, adapted samples ‘my three wishes’ – for preliminary diagnostics; for data processing – comparative method, analysis of children’s emotional intelligence in families of migrant workers ... larysa danylchuk et al. 34 methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis of diagnostic data, graphical methods of statistics processing (tabulation, diagrams), method of experts assessments; 3) the methods of mathematical statistics for finding out the statistical meaning of differences of diagnostic selection, the pearson criterion of homogeneity for finding out the accuracy of diagnostic data differences. research procedure theoretical analysis has assured that there are a lot of methods for eq diagnosing. their peculiarity is in the necessity of direct contact with the diagnosed person, that is his/her presence in the real time. it should be mentioned that we have not found a special methodology for diagnosing the state of children’s eq in families of migrant workers. as ukraine has been on the quarantine in pandemic covid-19 since march, 16, 2020, there have not been any possibilities to make preliminary diagnosing in the immediate presence of those being diagnosed. so children don’t go to gsee (they stay at home or with relatives). under such circumstances, the necessity has appeared to make a special program and tooling for diagnosing the children’s eq in families of migrant workers. it is important to emphasize the following: the novelty and peculiarity of the researched problem involved the solution of specific issues, that is, while making the program for diagnosing the children’s eq in families of migrant workers, our purpose was to solve several key tasks, namely: 1) who will be involved in preliminary diagnosing (as experts, сoordinators and members of a working group) and would-be partners for expanding the geography of diagnosing; 2) to determine possible diagnosing locations; 3) how to diagnose under the conditions of quarantine; 4) to make special tooling for diagnosing; 5) on the basis of generalized results of preliminary diagnosing of children’s eq in families of migrant workers, to conclude and decide the priorities of further researches. the very approach allowed to formulate the vision of preliminary diagnosing of the problem. according to the specified tasks: 1. тhe preliminary diagnosing involved: – (as experts) teachers: social work and social pedagogу department in khmelnytsky national university (khnu); workers of social and psychological service in khmelnytskyi region. the following criteria have been used for selecting experts: higher education, length of service not less than five years; doctorate degree; professor; enough life experience; high broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 35 level of social and pedagogical, psychological and pedagogical, law knowledge etc.; objectivity and responsibility; authority. besides, the selection depended on their expert knowledge, objectivity, efficiency, and interest. the size of the expert group was determined according to the v. cherepanov’s methodology (cherepanov, 1989). the selection of experts, depending on their expert knowledge, was according to p. volovyk’s methodology (volovyk, 2010); – (as coordinators and members of work group) teachers: social work and social pedagogу department in khnu (14 people); master’s degree students of speciality 231 social work in khnu (full-time and correspondence education) (35 people); master’s degree students have been chosen, because they have already had bachelor’s degree, thus, they know basic professional methodology of social and pedagogical diagnosing. 2. khmelnytsky region has been chosen for preliminary diagnosing, because according to statistics this region has both internal and external migrant workers. the time of diagnosing –2020-2021. diagnosing locations have been determined depending on agreements about the collaboration of hee and gsee where students have practical training. it has been found with executives the forms where the children from migrant workers’ families study. it has been agreed with head teachers, accompanied by psychologists and social teachers the program of diagnosing and the age, gender of children, the absence of one or both parents and the country or region of their stay. 3. as in the quarantine during the pandemic covid-19 children studied distantly, the preliminary diagnosing has been decided to be done with the help of messengers viber, telegram, communication software zoom, skype and telephone. as it was mentioned above, there were compulsory conditions and ethical demands for voluntary agreement, keeping privacy and personal information of a child and his family. it has been suggested that 243 children should be involved in diagnosing, but only 195 children agreed to participate (the main condition was voluntary agreement); 8 children refused to take part in the work process. so 187 people took part in diagnosing. the researched children groups have been distinguished for accurate results of preliminary diagnosing: dg1 – children from families of migrant workers (who live on the territory of ukraine, whose parents work outside their accommodation); dg2 – children from full families (who live together with parents on the territory of ukraine). analysis of children’s emotional intelligence in families of migrant workers ... larysa danylchuk et al. 36 diagnosing groups have been arranged according to the following criteria: the levels of getting full general secondary education and each age category – review groups have been distinguished in the approximate proportionality (each group has approximately the same number of researched people from khmelnytsky region with almost equal number of boys and girls for each group, being diagnosed): review group 1 – children 610 years (dg1 – 32 people, dg2 – 31 people); review group 2 – children 11-14 years (dg1 – 30 people, dg2 – 31 people); review group 3 – children 15-17 years (dg1 – 31 people, dg2 – 32 people). the overall number is dg1 – 93 people, dg2 – 94 people. it should be noticed that the validity of preliminary diagnosing is due to the accuracy of diagnosing groups distinguishing, appropriate analysis of the size and representing of selection with influence of independent and additional variables taken into account. taking into account the specification of the studied problem and the researches of native and foreign scientists, the indicators of children’s eq have been distinguished: emotional – feeling emotions (intensivity, extension, the complex of emotions, the expression of emotions and the major mood); cognitive – understanding other people’s emotions (the ability to empathize); behavioral – managing own emotions (the ability to selfcontrol, self-resistance, behavioral reactions). it should be noticed that each of the distinguished indicators is significant and all together they provide the understanding of children's eq. according to the assessment of cognizant experts, due to the previously distinguished indicators of children’s eq, levels of its state have been distinguished: high, medium and low. preliminary diagnosing was done with indicators, indices and levels of children’s eq taken into account, being interdependent and interconnected. the actuality and appropriateness of previous theoretical search enabled to modify author’s view on the content and the algorithm of the program and special tooling for preliminary diagnosing. 4. special tooling for preliminary diagnosing has been done according to foreign and native scientific researches and methodologies, published in science and with the peculiarities of the described problem taken into account. the algorithm of the program and special tooling for diagnosing have been discussed at a scientific and methodological study tour of social work and social pedagogy department in khnu. the most popular classical methodological means are: test msceit v2.0 (mayer et al., 2003) – standard procedure of assessment eq of adults; questionnaire eq-i (bar-on, 1997), which has a scale of adaptation of stress broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 37 control and general mood; test emin (lyusin, 2006), questionnaire eq holla (ilyin, 2001). but these tests, being widely used nowadays, are for eq assessment of adults as they involve diagnosing procedure of verbal evaluation / self-evaluation. scientists have controversial views on using these tests and their accuracy for assessment of children’s eq, because, at junior school age, children may have problems with adequate understanding of the question, being increased in teenage and senior school years. as it has already been mentioned, to make a special tooling for preliminary diagnosing, we have previously analyzed the existing methodologies of diagnosing children’s eq and found out the absence of special methodologies for diagnosing the children’s eq in families of migrant workers. the following methodologies have been chosen for the basics: eq assessment and the diagnosing of emotional barriers in interpersonal communication (boiko, 2020). there has been an author procedure set and means, having different diagnosing methodologies: modified adapted variants: methodologies ‘the dictionary of emotions’ (ivanova), methodology ‘complete a sentence’ (aigunova), project methodology ‘my dream’, adapted samples ‘my three wishes’. besides it should be remarked that the chosen set of procedures and means was not the only one for obtaining information about the children’s eq, including families of migrant workers. 5. preliminary diagnosing involved the process of preparing and collecting data, analysis, mathematical processing, checking for significance and also concluding, finding the priorities and perspectives for further scientific research. results of the study the preliminary diagnosing involved diagnostic data processing, obtained after the finishing of realization of author procedure set for finding the state of children’s eq in families of migrant workers during pandemic covid 19 in ukraine. the level indices of eq in dg1 and dg2, depending on the diagnosing results, have been calculated according to the formula: (p/k)*100 =x where p –number of people, achieving a level; k – the number of group participants; x – percentage ratio. the authors show eq indices of dg1 and dg2 of respectively distinguished review groups according to the diagnosing results in tables 1, 2, 3. analysis of children’s emotional intelligence in families of migrant workers ... larysa danylchuk et al. 38 table 1: the state of children’s eq (review group 1) marker levels high middle low dg1 dg2 dg1 dg2 dg1 dg2 еmotional 1 3 16 21 83 76 cognitive 4 10 17 90 79 perceptional 4 5 35 31 61 64 behavioral 2 4 14 18 84 78 mean value % 1,8 4 18,8 21,8 79,5 74,3 source: author’s own conception according to an emotional indicator, the state of children’s eq of review group 1 dg1 and dg2 have approximately similar indices of high level – 1% and 3% respectively. there are differences in medium level – 16% and 21% and low level – 83% and 76% respectively, showing the benefits of experiencing emotions, their expression by children from full families in comparison to children of migrant workers. according to a cognitive indicator, the indices of high level in dg1 are absent, while the indices of high level in dg2 – 4%, that is, we have not found any indices in review group 1 while diagnosing dg1. significant differences in medium level indices – dg1 – 10% and dg2 – 17% and low level ones – dg1 – 90% and dg2 – 79% prove the advantage of understanding emotions and identifying them as basic ones by children from full families in comparison to сhildren of migrant workers. an interesting fact has appeared about medium level indices in dg1 – 35%, dg2 – 31% according to a perceptive indicator, proving the advantage of understanding another person’s emotions, the ability to empathize by children from full families in comparison to сhildren of migrant workers. the indices of high level are nearly similar in dg1 and dg2 – 2% and 4%. there are slight differences in low level in dg1 and dg2 – 61% and 64% respectively. an approximate difference in high level indices according to a behavioral indicator of dg1 and dg2 – 2% and 4%, some differences in medium level – 14% and 18% and significant differences in low level indices in dg1 and dg2 – 84% and 78% respectively prove not enough ability to control emotions, self-control, stress resistance, behavioral reactions both in dg1 and dg2. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 39 both review group 1 and review group 2 according to an emotional indicator of the state of children’s eq in dg1 and dg2 are approximately similar: high level indices – 4% and 7% respectively. significant differences in medium level – 31% and 38% and low level – 65% and 55% respectively also prove the benefits of experiencing emotions, their expression by children from full families in comparison to сhildren of migrant workers. table 2: the state of children’s eq (review group 2) marker levels high middle low dg1 dg2 dg1 dg2 dg1 dg2 еmotional 4 7 31 38 65 55 cognitive 3 11 34 42 63 47 perceptional 13 19 45 51 42 30 behavioral 6 9 31 36 63 55 mean value % 6,5 11,5 35,3 41,8 58,3 46,8 source: author’s own conception as in the review group 1, the state of children’s eq of the review group 2 on the emotional marker in dg1 and dg2 has approximately similar high levels – 4% and 7%, respectively. significant differences between the average – 31% and 38% and the low level – 65% and 55%, respectively, also indicate the benefits of experiencing emotions, their expression by children from full families compared to children from migrant families. according to a cognitive indicator, indices prove the advantage of understanding emotions, identifying them as basic ones by children from full families in comparison to children of migrant workers’ families. it has been proved by significant differences in indices of high level – dg1 – 3% and dg2 – 11% and low level – dg1 – 63% and dg2 – 47%, that are overall higher indices of medium level in dg1 – 34% and dg2 – 42%. according to a perceptive indicator, indices of all levels have significant differences in dg1 and dg2 – 13% and 19%; – 45% and 51%; – 42% and 30% respectively, proving the advantage of understanding another person’s emotions, the ability to empathize by children from full families in comparison to children of migrant workers. it is interesting that the index of medium level in dg2 – 51% is bigger than the overall index of high and low levels – 49% respectively. the indices of high level according to a behavioral indicator are approximately different in dg1 and dg2 – 6% and 9%, significantly analysis of children’s emotional intelligence in families of migrant workers ... larysa danylchuk et al. 40 different in medium level – 31% and 36%. but the indices of low level in dg1 and dg2 – 63% and 55% in comparison to overall high and medium levels prove the inability to control emotions, self-control, stress resistance, behavioral reactions in both groups. table 3: the state of children’s eq (review group 3) marker levels high middle low dg1 dg2 dg1 dg2 dg1 dg2 еmotional 10 12 46 49 44 39 cognitive 7 16 37 46 56 38 perceptional 16 21 49 53 35 26 behavioral 9 13 34 39 57 48 mean value % 10,5 15,5 41,5 46,8 48 37,8 source: author’s own conception according to an emotional indicator. the state of children’s eq of review group 3 in dg1 and dg2 has approximately similar indices of high level – 10% and 12% and medium level – 46% and 49% respectively. some differences in low level – 44% and 39% respectively prove the the benefits of experiencing emotions, their expression by children from full families in comparison to сhildren of migrant workers. according to a cognitive indicator, significant differences of indices prove the advantage of low level in dg1 – 56% to high and medium (overall) in comparison to 38% in dg2. thus, the understanding of own emotions (their identification as basic ones) is significantly lower by children from full families in comparison to children of migrant workers. according to a perceptive indicator, the indices of high and medium levels are approximately different in dg1 and dg2 – 16% and 21%, 49% and 53% respectively. but the indices of low level – 35% and 26% respectively prove the advantages of understanding another person’s emotions, ability to empathize by children from full families in comparison to children of migrant workers. according to a behavioral indicator, the indices of high and medium levels are also approximately different in dg1 and dg2 – 9% and 13%, 34% and 39% respectively. but the indices of low level in dg1 – 57% in contrast to high and medium (overall) levels prove not enough ability to control emotions, self-control, stress resistance, behavioral reactions in comparison to dg2 – 48%. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 41 thus, according to four distinguished criteria the state of eq in dg1 is lower than in dg2 in all three review groups, except the advantage of a perceptive criterion index dg1 – 35% to dg2 – 31% in review group 1. the authors show the viewing of dynamics, happening in levels of children’s eq in dg1 and dg2 in three distinguished groups in diagrams 1, 2, 3. figure 1: dynamics of levels of children’s eq (review group 1) source: author’s own conception figure 2: dynamics of levels of children’s eq (review group 2) source: author’s own conception 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 high middle low dg1 dg2 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 high middle low dg1 dg2 analysis of children’s emotional intelligence in families of migrant workers ... larysa danylchuk et al. 42 figure 3: dynamics of levels of children’s eq (review group 3) source: author’s own conception as it is possible to see in a diagram, the results of preliminary diagnosing prove excellent indices in dg1 in comparison to dg2 on all levels respectively in three review groups. the analysis of dynamics proves the following: the state of children’s eq of group 3 is significantly higher than in review group 2 and 1, but in review group 2 it is higher than in review group 1 in all levels. such circumstances are firstly explained by age peculiarities of children’s development, their formed world view, socialization and social adaptation, emotional intenseness of their life etc. and certainly the state of eq. according to all distinguished levels eq indices are higher in dg2 than in dg1, that is, children’s eq from families of migrant workers is lower than children’s eq from full families. the significance of coincidence and divergence in preliminary diagnosing results has been taken into account according to pearson homogeneity criterion. the obtained results prove accuracy, reliability and authenticity of obtained quantitative data and affirm the dynamic difference of children’s eq levels in dg1 in comparison to dg2. conclusions the results of preliminary diagnosing allow us to ascertain the following: the children from families of migrant workers have some problems with eq: to experience emotions, to identify them as basic ones, 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 high middle low dg1 dg2 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 43 to understand another person’s emotions, to control own emotions in comparison to children from full families. most children from migrant workers’ families of all review groups have low level of understanding their feelings, their differentiation, which proves the inability to understand the significance of emotions in person’s life, control them, especially it refers to group 1, that is, the problem of eq is caused by the parents’ departure and accompanies them during the childhood. the children from full families of all review groups understand emotions, behavioral reactions better and are more able to control emotions than the children from migrant workers’ families. we tried to avoid formulations, having concepts ‘disease’, ‘fear’, ‘death’, ‘be afraid of’ etc., in developing special tooling while diagnosing, because they are traumatic for children’s psychе. but children were using such concepts describing their attitude to pandemic covid-19 and own emotions and emotional experience. it should be noticed that children from full families worried about their parents catching covid-19, whereas the children of migrant workers’ families mostly were afraid of their parents, working abroad, catching the disease and not coming back home/dying. such circumstances prove loneliness, overstated anxiety, fear, and as a consequence, changes in eq, reflecting on general mental health. on the whole, the children from families of migrant workers in three review groups mentioned the feeling of insecurity, the necessity for parents’ presence, communication, that is, children, despite their age, need emotional contact with parents. we have noticed emotional miserliness and poverty of emotional words among the children from migrant workers’ families in comparison to the children from full families. the absence of permanent parents’ love, care, friendly atmosphere in families of migrant workers influences directly the inner world, perceptive abilities of a child, adjoining with eq – self-esteem, the understanding of social norms and rules of behavior, relations in groups etc. research prospects the results of preliminary diagnosing prove the necessity of developing a special psychological and pedagogical program for making children’s eq in families of migrant workers, which can be efficiently used in the job of social workers – social teachers of educational establishments where the children from migrant workers’ families study; social service workers, who take care of children from families of migrant workers; workers of rehabilitation social centers can be also involved. analysis of children’s emotional intelligence in families of migrant workers ... larysa danylchuk et al. 44 the problem can be solved in case of following elementary children’s rights according to international conventions depending on the protocols ratified by ukraine; legislative regulation of legal status of children from migrant workers’ families; and consequently, introduction of changes to social service activities; the improvement of educational program for professional training and retraining of social field specialists. taking into account the scientific novelty of the researched issue, the obtained results are considered to be interesting and scientifically valuable at the international level for scientists, studying the problems related to eq and social work experts, involved in trade migration problem, especially children of migrant workers. acknowledgement the contribution of the authors to the paper was as follows: documentation: larysa danylchuk, liudmila romanovska, yurii popyk, nataliia holova, tetiana kravchyna; data gathering: larysa danylchuk, liudmila romanovska; data processing: tetiana kravchyna, yurii popyk, nataliia holova; english translation and proofreading: tetiana kravchyna. references aigunova, o. a., polkovnikova, n. b., & savenkova, t. d. (2016). diagnostika i razvitie jemocional'nogo intellekta i social'noj kompetentnosti starshih doshkol'nikov v uslovijah doshkol'noj obrazovatel'noj organizacii [diagnostics and development of emotional intelligence and social competence of older preschoolers in a preschool educational organization]. vestnik moskovskogo gorodskogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta. serija: pedagogika i psihologija [bulletin of the moscow city pedagogical university. series: pedagogy and psychology], 4, 25–34. https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=27671695 bar-on, r. (1997). the emotional intelligence inventory (eq-i): technical manual. toronto: multi-health systems. boiko, v. v. (2020). diagnostyka emocijnyh bar’jeriv u mizhosobystisnomu spilkuvanni [diagnostics of emotional bars in the interdisciplinary spilkuvanny]. https://studfile.net/preview/5186358/page:39/ cherepanov, v. s. (1989). ekspetnaja ocenka v pedagogycheskyh yssledovanyjah [expert assessment in pedagogical research]. moscow: pedagogika. duangkaew, s., & tangchitnusorn, k. (2021). migration and shukatsu: japanese individual strategies in the third age and beyond. humanities, arts and social sciences studies, 21(3), 387-395. https://doi.org/10.14456/hasss.2021.35 https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=27671695 https://studfile.net/preview/5186358/page:39/ https://doi.org/10.14456/hasss.2021.35 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 45 gevchuk, n. s. (2012). teoretychni osnovy vyhovannja ditej trudovyh migrantiv v umovah social'no-osvitn'ogo seredovyshha [theoretical foundations of raising children of migrant workers in a socio-educational environment]. naukovi zapysky nizhyns'kogo derzhavnogo universytetu im. mykoly gogolja. ser.: psyhologo-pedagogichni nauky. [scientific notes of nizhyn state university after nikolai gogol: psychological and pedagogical sciences], 4, 11–14. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nzspp_2012_4_4 goleman, d. (2009). jemocional'nyj intellekt [emotional intelligence]. vladimir: vkt. ilyin, e. i. (2001). jemocii i chuvstva [emotions and feelings]. saint petersburg: piter. ivanova, e. s. (2008). vozmozhnosti metodiki «slovar' jemocij» dlja diagnostiki i razvitija jemocional'noj sfery [possibilities of the "dictionary of emotions" method for diagnostics and development of the emotional sphere]. psihologicheskaja diagnostika [psychological diagnostics], 1, 101–112. https://revolution.allbest.ru/psychology/01114002_1.html kevereski, l., kotevska dimovska, m., & ristevski, d. (2016). the influence of the emotional inteligence in protection of the mental health in conditions of a psychosocial stress. international journal of cognitive research in science, engineering and education (ijcrsee), 4(1), 17–21. https://doi.org/10.5937/ijcrsee1601017k lizun, i. f., guzenko, v. a., danylchuk, l. o., kocharyan, a. b., kravets, l. m., terpelyuk, v. v., & furdui, s. b. (2017). social`na adaptaciya pidlitkiv iz simej trudovy`x migrantiv v umovax znz. metody`chni aspekty` social`no-pedagogichnoyi diyal`nosti: kolekty`vna monografiya [social adaptation of adolescents from families of migrant workers in the conditions of institutions of higher education. methodical aspects of social and pedagogical activity: collective monograph]. khmelnytskyi: fop tsyupak. lyusin, d. v. (2006). novaja metodika dlja izmerenija jemocional'nogo intellekta: oprosnik «jemin» [a new technique for measuring emotional intelligence: the "emin" questionnaire]. psihologicheskaja diagnostika [psychological diagnostics], 4, 3–22. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311706448_novaa_metodika_ dla_izmerenia_emocionalnogo_intellekta_oprosnik_emin makovetska, v. v. (2017). zabezpechennya prava dy`ty`ny` na nalezhne vy`xovannya v sim'yi trudovy`x migrantiv [ensuring the child's right to a proper upbringing in the family of migrant workers]. visny`k ntuu «kpi». politologiya. sociologiya. pravo: zbirny`k naukovy`x pracz` [bulletin of ntuu "kpi". politology. sociology. law: collection of scientific papers], 1/2(33/34), 212–215. http://visnyk-psp.kpi.ua/article/view/152619 mayer j., caruso d., & salovey p. (2003). measuring emotional intelligence with the msceit v2.0. emotion, 3, 97–105. https://doi.org/10.1037/15283542.3.1.97 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/nzspp_2012_4_4 https://revolution.allbest.ru/psychology/01114002_1.html https://doi.org/10.5937/ijcrsee1601017k https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311706448_novaa_metodika_dla_izmerenia_emocionalnogo_intellekta_oprosnik_emin https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311706448_novaa_metodika_dla_izmerenia_emocionalnogo_intellekta_oprosnik_emin http://visnyk-psp.kpi.ua/article/view/152619 https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.3.1.97 https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.3.1.97 analysis of children’s emotional intelligence in families of migrant workers ... larysa danylchuk et al. 46 opanasyuk, i. v. (2017). psy`xologichni osobly`vosti rozvy`tku emocijnogo intelektu starshoklasny`kiv zasobamy` art-terapiyi. [psychological features of development of emotional intelligence of senior pupils by means of art therapy] [unpublished phd thesis]. kiev: g.s. kostyuk institute of psychology of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine. http://psychology-naesua.institute/files/pdf/mogilyasta_diser__1616793471.pdf pigida, v. m. (2013). vzayemodiya social`ny`x sluzhb ta zagal`noosvitnix navchal`ny`x zakladiv u zdijsnenni social`no-pedagogichnoyi pidtry`mky` ditej trudovy`x migrantiv [interaction of social services and secondary schools in the implementation of socio-pedagogical support for children of migrant workers]. [unpublished phd thesis]. slovyansk: donbass state pedagogical university. http://www.disslib.org/vzayemodia-sotsialnykh-sluzhb-tazahalnoosvitnikh-navchalnykh-zakladiv-u-zdiysnenni.html rudenok, a., zakharasevych, n., antonova, z., zhylovska, t., & falynska, z. (2020). assessing the level of verbal intelligence in preschool children as important element of cognitive abilities. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 189-198. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/82 sabat, n. i. (2015). osobly`vosti opikuns`koyi diyal`nosti z dit`my` trudovy`x migrantiv [features of guardianship with children of migrant workers]. visny`k cherkas`kogo universy`tetu. seriya: pedagogichni nauky` [bulletin of cherkasy university. series: pedagogical sciences], 10, 110–117. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vchup_2015_10_19 sayko, k. (2020). psychological characteristics of emotional intelligence of teachers working with children of developmental disorders. journal of education culture and society 4(2): 29–35. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs20132.29.35 tataru, g. f. (2019). migration – an overview on terminology, causes and effects. logos universality mentality education novelty: law, 7(2), 10-29. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/24 volovyk, p. m. (2010). teoriya imovirnostej i matematy`chna staty`sty`ka v pedagogici: monografiya [theory of probabilities and mathematical statistics in pedagogy: monograph]. khmelnitsky: khgpa. http://psychology-naes-ua.institute/files/pdf/mogilyasta_diser__1616793471.pdf http://psychology-naes-ua.institute/files/pdf/mogilyasta_diser__1616793471.pdf http://www.disslib.org/vzayemodia-sotsialnykh-sluzhb-ta-zahalnoosvitnikh-navchalnykh-zakladiv-u-zdiysnenni.html http://www.disslib.org/vzayemodia-sotsialnykh-sluzhb-ta-zahalnoosvitnikh-navchalnykh-zakladiv-u-zdiysnenni.html https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/82 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vchup_2015_10_19 https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs20132.29.35 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/24 microsoft word brain_2_3.doc 29 the effect of english learning anxiety on iranian high-school students’ english language achievement sara atef-vahid iran university of science & technology english department, narmak, tehran, iran. postal code: 16846-13114 saraatefvahid@yahoo.com alireza fard kashani iran university of science & technology english department, narmak, tehran, iran. postal code: 16846-13114 alireza.fardkashani@gmail.com abstract the present study explored english language learning anxiety among 38 third-year high school students in english classrooms and its relationship with overall english achievement. students’ foreign language anxiety was surveyed and analyzed using the foreign language classroom anxiety scale (horwitz, horwitz, & cope, 1986) [14] and their english achievement was measured through their final standardized english exam administered by the school. the results showed that although some students felt extremely confident and relaxed, however, one-third of the students experienced moderate to high-anxiety levels while learning the english language in class. correlational analysis revealed that the total flcas scores had a significantly moderate negative correlation (r=-.0586, p<.01) with the total final english exams scores of the participants. anxiety was also analyzed according to the four different variables of anxiety (communication anxiety, test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, english classroom anxiety) which were measured by the flcas. the results of the pearson correlational analysis indicated that english achievement was modestly correlated with all four anxiety variables (p<0.01). of the four types of anxiety, english classroom anxiety had the highest correlational value. finally, possible anxiety provoking factors leading to these findings are examined and discussed, and some pedagogical implications are proposed. keywords: english learning anxiety, english achievement, foreign language classroom anxiety scale (flcas), anxiety variables, high school students. 1. introduction learning english is a prerequisite to being able to successfully participate in many academic and cultural activities, trade, technology, and worldwide communication. therefore, english has become one of the most important subjects in the educational system. however, it has been observed that many students experience anxiety in the english classroom while trying to learn english. horwitz, horwitz, & cope (1986) [14] have eloquently stated: the subjective feelings, psycho-physiological symptoms, and behavioral responses of the anxious foreign language learner are essentially the same as for any specific anxiety. they experience apprehension, worry, even dread. they have difficulty concentrating, become forgetful, sweat, and have palpitations. they exhibit avoidance behavior such as missing class and postponing homework. (p.126) furthermore, many learners express their inability and sometimes even acknowledge their failure in learning a second/foreign language. in many cases, student’s feeling of stress, anxiety, or nervousness may impede their language learning and performance abilities, and many learners of english claim to have a ‘mental block’ against learning english (ellis, 1994, p. 480) [10]. learning a language itself is “a profoundly unsetting psychological proposition” because it directly threatens an individual’s “self-concept” and world view (guiora, 1983 as cited in horwitz et al., 1986, p. 28) [14]. for this reason, over the past several decades, language researchers and educators have been investigating learner variables, especially affective variables such as attitude, anxiety, interest, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 motivation, inhibition, and self-esteem, in the field of second language (l2) acquisition in an attempt to improve l2 teaching and learning. although anxiety has been exhaustively studied in many western countries, there remains limited research focusing on the relationship between english language learning anxiety and english learning and achievement among iranian high school students. therefore the purpose of this study was to bridge this gap by discovering the overall situation of english language learning anxiety and its relationship with english achievement among iranian 3rd year high school students. . 2. literature review 2.1. anxiety according to spielberger (1983) [31], anxiety can be described as the subjective feelings of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system. anxiety is also defined as a state of uneasiness or fear caused by the anticipation of something threatening. language anxiety has been said by many researchers to influence language learning. according to krashen (1980, as cited in horwitz & young, 1991) [15], anxiety contributes to an affective filter, which prevents students from receiving input, and then language acquisition fails to progress. whereas facilitating anxiety produces positive effects on learners' performance, too much anxiety may cause a poor performance (scovel, 1991) [29]. language learning is a socially anxious, embarrassing, and potentially ego-damaging situation itself. when anxiety is specific to language learning, it is referred to as language anxiety. second language researchers and teachers have been aware that anxiety is not only common among foreign language learners, but also poses potential problems for foreign language learners "because it can interfere with the beliefs about foreign language learning and foreign language anxiety, acquisition, retention, and production of the new language" (macintyre & gardner, 1991b, p. 86) [19]. 1.1. classifications of anxiety and its components “anxiety is a psychological construct, commonly described by psychologists as a state of apprehension, a vague fear that is only indirectly associated with an object” (hilgard, atkinson, & atkinson, 1971 as cited in scovel, 1991, p. 18) [29]. anxiety, as perceived intuitively by many language learners, negatively influences language learning and has been found to be one of the most highly examined variables in all of psychology and education (horwitz, 2001, p. 113) [14]. psychologists make a distinction between three categories of anxiety: trait anxiety, state anxiety, and situation-specific anxiety. trait anxiety is relatively stable personality characteristic, ‘a more permanent predisposition to be anxious’ (scovel, 1978) [28], while state anxiety is a transient anxiety; a response to a particular anxiety-provoking stimulus such as an important test (spielberger, 1983 as cited in horwitz, 2001, p. 113) [13]. the third category, situation-specific anxiety, refers to the persistent and multi-faceted nature of some anxieties (macintyre & gardner, 1991a) [18]. it is aroused by a specific type of situation or event such as public speaking, examinations or class participations. language learning anxiety, which is the main focus of this paper, deals with the last category, which “refers to the apprehension experienced when a situation requires the use of a second language” (gardner & macintyre, 1993) [11]. this type of anxiety which occurs in the foreign language classroom is commonly known as foreign language classroom anxiety (flca). macintyre & gardner (1991a) [18] describe flca stemming from the negative expectations in foreign language learning. on the other hand, price (1991) [26] and katalin (2006) [16] found classroom related factors to play a role in learners’ developing flca. another important insight concerning different types of anxiety exists in the distinction between facilitating and debilitating anxiety (scovel, 1978) [28], or what oxford (1999) [23] called harmful and helpful anxiety. according to young (1990) [35], facilitating anxiety is an increase in drive level which results in improved performance while debilitating anxiety is an increase in arousal or drive level, which leads to poor performance. scovel (1991) [29] has noted that s. atef-vahid, a. fard kashani the effect of english learning anxiety on iranian high-school students’ english language achievement 31 facilitating anxiety “motivates the learner to “fight” the new learning task; it gears the learner emotionally for approach behavior” (p. 22). debilitating anxiety, in contrast, “motivates the learner to ‘flee’ the new learning task; it stimulates the individual emotionally to adopt avoidance behaviour” (p. 22). foreign language anxiety, or more precisely, foreign language classroom anxiety (flca) is considered to be a situational anxiety experienced in the well-defined situation of the foreign language classroom (macintyre & gardner, 1994) [20]. foreign language anxiety has three components: communication apprehension, test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation. according to horwitz et al. (1986) [14], communication apprehension is ‘a type of shyness by fear of or anxiety about communicating with people’ (p. 127). in other words, it refers to an individual’s discomfort and tension when speaking or performing in public. test anxiety has been defined by sarason (1984) [27] as ‘the tendency to become alarmed about the consequences of inadequate performance on a test or other evaluation’. fear of negative evaluation is defined as ‘apprehension about others’ evaluations, avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectation that others would evaluate oneself negatively’ (horwitz et al., 1986, p.128) [14]. 2.2. anxiety and language achievement many studies have concluded that anxiety and achievement are negatively correlated (e.g. horwitz et al., 1986 [14]; macintyre & gardner, 1994 [20]). macintyre & gardner (1994) [20] found that in the three stages of language acquisition, that is, input, processing and output, anxiety and learning achievement are negatively correlated. anxiety and achievement are often found to have a bidirectional relationship (i.e., in addition to anxiety influencing achievement, achievement [or lack thereof] also influences anxiety level) (yan & horwitz, 2008, p.173) [33]. however, several studies have suggested the benefit of facilitative anxiety in learning foreign languages (ehrman & oxford, 1995 [9]; young, 1992 [37]). in bailey’s (1983) [3] study of competitiveness and anxiety in second language earning, facilitative anxiety was one of the keys to success, closely related to competitiveness. neutral relationships between anxiety and second language achievement have also been found. in zhang baoyan’s (1996, cited in na, 2007) [21] study of english learners in taiwan, the results showed that there was no relationship between anxiety and learning achievement. many researches have shown inconsistent and sometime contradictory results in terms of the direction of the correlation between anxiety and language learning. in a study by chastain (1975) [7] which is summarized by scovel (1978) [28], it was shown that the directions of the correlations between anxiety (test anxiety) and language learning in three languages (french, german, and spanish) were not consistent. three levels of correlation, positive, negative, and near zero were between anxiety and language performance in those three languages were found. young’s (1991) [36] review of sixteen studies which examined the relationship between anxiety and language learning (p. 436-439) also showed similar inconstant results both within and across studies. it was concluded that ‘research in the area of anxiety as it relates to second or foreign language learning and performance was scattered and inconclusive’ (p. 426). horwitz (2001, p. 121) [13] has reiterated that the issue of understanding the relationship between anxiety and achievement is unresolved. the reason for varied results in research in this area may be due to the fact that the relationship between anxiety and second language learning is in fact a complex, multifaceted construct. it seems that anxiety has an optimal point along its continuum in which both too much and too little anxiety may hinder the process of successful second language learning. however, it might not be possible to accurately describe the relationship between anxiety foreign language learning in a simple linear fashion. many other variables such as learner’s proficiency, iq, teacher, learning environment, and culture might also influence this relationship. horwitz et al. (1986) [14] conceptualized foreign language anxiety as "a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process" (p. 128). horwitz et al. (1986) [14] developed the scale called the foreign language classroom anxiety scale (flcas) for the purpose of providing researchers with a standard instrument to measure foreign language anxiety. based on their brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 conceptualization of foreign language anxiety, the construct of foreign language anxiety underline three related performance anxieties: communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. moreover, correlational studies have sought to establish relationships between individual learner variables and foreign language anxiety. foreign language anxiety has been shown to correlate with age (bailey, onwuegbuzie & daley, 2000) [4], gender (aida, 1994 [1]; baker & macintyre, 2000 [5]), certain personality traits (such as perfectionism, gregersen & horwitz, 2002) [12], and with negative self-perceptions (onwuegbuzie, bailey & daley, 1999) [22]. english has long since been a major subject in high schools across iran; however, despite the continued increasing demand to learn english, and the emphasis it is given at the high school level, still today students enter the university with many language related problems. although many reasons can be accounted for the students’ difficulty in learning english, it is felt that by reducing negative affective factors such as anxiety, it is possible to get one step closer to helping our students learn english more effectively. by understanding the relationship between english learning anxiety and overall english achievement of high school students, teachers can hopefully help their students receive better learning effects in a low-anxiety learning environment. therefore, this study aimed to explore the following research questions: q1. what is the general english language learning anxiety level among iranian 3rd year high school students? q2. what is the correlation between english language learning anxiety and english achievement among iranian 3rd year high school students? q3. what is the correlational relationship between each of the four types of english language learning anxiety and english achievement among iranian 3rd year high school students? based on these research questions, the following null hypotheses were formulated: h01. english language learning anxiety exists at a very low level in iranian 3rd year high school students. h02. there is no significant correlation between english language learning anxiety and english achievement in the target group. h03. no significant correlational relationships exist between each of the types of english language learning anxiety and overall english proficiency. 3. method 3.1. participants the participants of the present study were 38 third-year high-school students from a private school in the north of tehran, iran. all participants were female and were at the same age of 17 years old; they all had a minimum of 5 years of experience of studying english at school from the second year of guidance school up to the time of conducting the research. the school comprised of students who were studying in three different majors entitled: ‘literature’, ‘math’, and ‘science’. the participants of this study included students from three different classes which were in the three different majors. the basis for choosing these three particular classes lied in having the same english teacher. this controls for teacher effect, which could possibly have a part in increasing anxiety levels among students. each class also studied the same english book, followed the same syllabus, and considering the fact that they were accepted into a particularly high-level school in terms of academia, they were all considered to be high-achievers. the literature class had 10 students; likewise, the math class originally had 17 students; however, on the session that the questionnaires were distributed, two students were absent and accordingly15 students were left. the science class had 13 students which were all present at the time of the distribution of the questionnaires. s. atef-vahid, a. fard kashani the effect of english learning anxiety on iranian high-school students’ english language achievement 33 3.2. instrumentation and procedure two instruments were used in this study. they included a questionnaire which was used to assess the students’ english learning anxiety level (see appendix a), and an english final achievement exam which was administered at the end of the semester by the school. the questionnaire was the persian full version of the foreign language class anxiety scale (flcas) that was designed by horwitz et al. (1986) [14]. the persian version of the flcas was translated into english using a back-translation method to assure its validity. a psychologist holding a doctoral degree in the field of clinical psychology, and two full-time english language instructors assessed the content of the translated version of the flcas to insure its validity. the questionnaire consisted of 33 statements in the form of a likert scale. the items were divided into sections, each related to four different types of anxiety: communication anxiety (items 1,2,3,4,9,12,14,15,18,20,24,27,29,32,33), test anxiety (items 8, 10, 21), fear of negative evaluation/feeling less competent (items 7, 13, 19, 23, 25, 31), and anxiety of english classes (items 5, 6, 11, 16, 17, 22, 26, 28, 30). the questionnaires were administered two weeks before the final standardized english exam day, and also, at the beginning of each of the classes’ english period. the participants were asked to rate each item on a five-point likert scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree). some items were negative; therefore, their points were counted reversely. the sum of the points from the 33 questions represents the students’ anxiety scores, theoretically ranging from 33 to 165. the higher the total scores were, the more anxious the participants were considered to be. at the time of administration of the flcas, the researcher clearly explained the purpose of the research to the participants that the responses are confidential, and their names would not be used in the research, and their scores would not be given to their english teacher or their school. at the next stage which was two weeks later, students took the final standardized english exam administered by the school. the results of this test were used to assess the overall english achievement of the students. the test included six different sections: spelling, vocabulary, grammar, language function, pronunciation, reading comprehension, and a cloze passage. 3.3. design this study was a descriptive in nature, and the groups were not chosen randomly but as intact groups placed in three high school classes. the dependent variable in this study was english achievement, and the independent variable was language anxiety. the intervening variable is english proficiency. the control variables are: age of subjects (second year high school students with an average age of 17) and years of experience in english learning (a minimum of 5 consecutive years). the schematic design of the study is presented below (figura 1): figure 1. the design of the study intervening english proficiency independent language anxiety (measured by the flcas) dependent english achievement (measured by a final exam) control years of experience in english learning, age, sex brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 3.4. data analysis after the researchers distributed the translated farsi version of the sltas questionnaires to the participants and the participants answered the questions, the questionnaires were then retrieved for quantitative analysis. after two weeks, the final standardized english exam was administered by the school; the students’ grades were also collected for data analysis using the spss software version 16. considering the fact that the three majors studied the same english book, and had the same teacher, followed the same syllabus and took the same final standardized english exam, it was justified to consider them as a single homogeneous group. however, to assure their homogeneity in terms of english language proficiency/achievement and english learning anxiety, two separate oneway analyses of variances (one-way anova) were run between the three majors using their scores obtained from the flcas and their final standardized english exam. 4. results 4.1. homogeneity of the three majors in terms of english language achievement the raw data was fed into the computer and then was analyzed by using spssx16. the results are discussed below. table 1. descriptive statistics of the final english exam of the three majors descriptive statistics exam 95% confidence interval for mean n mean std. deviation std. error lower bound upper bound maximum literature 10 18.48 .72121 .22807 17.96 18.99 17.00 math 15 18.62 1.33586 .34492 17.88 19.36 15.50 science 13 18.38 1.13015 .31345 17.7 19.07 16.25 total 38 18.5 1.10741 .17965 18.14 18.86 15.50 to assure the homogeneity of participants of the three majors of literature, math and science, a one-way anova was run between the mean scores of their final english exam. descriptive statistics of the results of their final english exam is shown in table 1. also, table 2 displays the results of the one-way anova between the three majors. table 2. results of the one-way anova for the three majors on the english final exam anova exam sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups .383 2 .192 .149 .862 within groups 44.992 35 1.285 total 45.375 37 *level of significance is set at 0.05 (two-tailed) as shown in tables 1 and 2, there is no significant difference among the means of the three major groups on the final english exam. accordingly, it was suggested that the three groups were s. atef-vahid, a. fard kashani the effect of english learning anxiety on iranian high-school students’ english language achievement 35 from the same population of 3rd year high school students, and were considered as one homogeneous group. 4.2. homogeneity of the three majors in terms of english learning anxiety to recap, it was shown that the three groups of participants, enrolled in three different majors, were at the same level of english language proficiency/achievement. then to assure that the anxiety level of the intended 3rd year high-school participants were not significantly different, a one-way anova was run between the means of the flcas scores of the three majors. the results are shown in table 3. table 3. results of the one-way anova on the flcas for the three majors anova flcas sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 852.800 2 426.400 .687 .510 within groups 21736.910 35 621.055 total 22589.711 37 *level of significance is set at 0.05 (two-tailed) table 3 displays that the significance level obtained by anova was not less than 0.05; therefore, the means were not significantly different. so, the intended groups were found homogenous in terms of english language learning anxiety as well. 4.3. the general situation of high school students’ anxiety in english classrooms the flcas is a likert scale which has been quantified by assigning points to each of the responses. those questions which have a positive response for anxiety have been assigned 5 points for “strongly agree”, 4 points for “agree”, 3 points for “no comment”, 2 points for “disagree”, and 1 point for “strongly disagree”. the pointing system is reversed for negative questions. (the scoring scale of the flcas is shown in appendix b.) each questionnaire has been tabulated according to this system. the descriptive analysis is shown in table 4. table 4. descriptive statistics of flcas for 3rd year high school students descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation flcas 38 45.00 150.00 87.8158 24.70896 the results showed that the minimum score of the overall language learning anxiety was 45, and the maximum was 150, and the median was 84.5. the obtained results were divided into three levels; according to normal distribution assumptions, students whose scale points range above 33.3% of the participants were considered to be high anxiety-level students. likewise, those whose scale points range between 33.4% and 66.6% of the participants were the intermediate anxiety-level students, and those whose scale points range under 66.7 of the participants were considered to be the low anxiety-level students in this research. moreover, the results showed that although some students felt extremely confident and relaxed, however, one-third of the students experienced moderate to high-anxiety levels while learning the english language. therefore, the first null hypothesis which stated that english language learning anxiety exists at a very low level in iranian 3rd year high school students was rejected. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 many previous studies in western and asian countries have adopted the flcas to investigate the foreign language anxiety of students mostly at the college or high school level. the means of the students’ scores on the flcas of previous researches are: 96.7 by aida (1994) [1], 97.78 by chang (1999, cited in wu, 2005) [32], 97.79 by liao (1999) [17], 99.26 (7th graders) and 101.01 (8th graders) by pan (2002) [24]. the mean of the flcas scores obtained by the 3rd year high school students in this study is 87.82, which is a little lower than the results of previous research. this means that the english language learning anxiety of the 3rd year high school students in this study is a little bit less severe than that of the investigated participants of previous researches. 4.4. the relationship between english learning anxiety and english achievement to detect the relationship between english language learning anxiety and english achievement, pearson product moment correlation was used based on the english language anxiety scores obtained from the flcas and the final standardized english exam of the participants. the results are shown in table 5. table 5. the correlation between flcas scores and final english exam scores correlations final flcas pearson correlation 1 -.636** sig. (2-tailed) .000 final n 38 38 pearson correlation -.636** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 flcas n 38 38 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). according to cohan and holliday’s (1982) [8], correlation coefficients of and under .19 are very low, from .20 to .39 are low, from .40 to .69 are modest, from .70 to .89 are high, and from .9 to 1.00 are very high. as can be seen from table 5, the total flcas scores had a significantly moderate negative correlation (r=-.0586, p<.01) with the total final english exam scores of the participants. it meant that the respondents with lower english language learning anxiety were likely to achieve higher scores on the final english exam, and students with higher english language learning anxiety tend to obtain lower scores on the final english exam. therefore, the second null hypothesis which stated that there was no significant correlation between english language learning anxiety and english achievement was rejected. 4.5. the relationship between each of the four different variables of english learning anxiety and english achievement the flcas questionnaire consisted of 33 statements in the form of a likert scale. so, to discover the relationship between each of the four different anxiety types and overall english language achievement, a pearson product moment correlation was run between each of the scores of the anxiety types of the participants, and their final english exam scores. the results of the four independent correlations are shown in table 6. s. atef-vahid, a. fard kashani the effect of english learning anxiety on iranian high-school students’ english language achievement 37 table 6. correlation between each of the four types of english language learning anxiety and final english exam scores of the participants communication anxiety test anxiety fear of negative evaluation english classroom anxiety final pearson correlation sig (2-tailed) n -.551** .000 38 -.537** .001 38 -.584** .000 38 -.588** .000 38 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). the results of the pearson correlational analysis indicated that english achievement is modestly correlated with all four anxiety types (p<0.01). of the four types of anxiety, english classroom anxiety has the highest correlational value. therefore, the third hypothesis stating that no significant correlational relationships exist between each of the types of english language learning anxiety and overall english proficiency was also rejected. 5. discussion and conclusions considering the limitations of the participants’ size, gender, not randomly being chosen, female students from only one school, generalization from provided data must be made with caution. the findings of this study cannot be said to represent all 3rd year high school students in iran. furthermore, not all variables influencing foreign language learning have been controlled. for instance, personality, self-perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, intelligence, classroom atmosphere, etc., are also important variables which may influence foreign language learning. as revealed by the results of this study, english language learning anxiety does exist among the 3rd year high school students who participated in this study. the findings of this study are similar to those found in previous studies (e.g., tang, 2005, cited in na, 2007 [21]; na, 2007 [21]; azhar & iqbal, 2010 [2]) stating those students who have moderate to high english language anxiety showed less academic achievement than who have less english language anxiety. horwitz & young (1991, p. 14) [15] state that “we have been truly surprised at the number of students who experience anxiety and distress in their language classes”. the results of this study show that english learning anxiety has a significant moderate negative correlation with the english achievement of the students in this study. therefore, it can be concluded that anxiety plays a debilitative role in language learning. horwitz et al. (1986) [14] also found a significant negative correlation between the flcas scores and the students' final course grades. other studies have also confirmed these findings (e.g. macintyre & gardner, 1994 [20]; tang, 2005, cited in na, 2007 [21]; na, 2007 [21]). many research focusing on the construct of language anxiety show a moderate inverse relationship between language anxiety and various measures of language achievement (e.g., horwitz et al., 1986 [14]; macintyre & gardner, 1991a [18], 1991b [19]; phillips, 1992 [25]; young, 1986 [34]). campbell & ortiz (1991, p. 59) [6] found language anxiety among university students to be ‘alarming’ and estimated that up to one half of all language students experience debilitating levels of language anxiety. high levels of anxiety can discourage students from participating in classroom activities or studying at home, and may even cause them to lose their self-confidence and motivation for learning english. this in turn can create more anxiety, as they may feel overwhelmed by the presence of new material. all these negative factors can influence their effort to learn english and may consequently impede their learning, and therefore cause them to do poorly on their english achievement tests. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 interestingly enough, a significant moderate negative correlation was found to exists between each of the four english learning anxiety variables and english achievement in this study. high school students in iran usually spend most of their time studying english at school. therefore, their exposure to the english language is limited to their english classes, which can be the reason that they feel so anxious in them. furthermore, high school students in iran take more english tests compared to college students which usually have a final exam at the end of the semester. however, high school students are constantly evaluated during the term, and are exposed to many tests, quizzes, mid-terms, and ultimately a final exam. most english teachers evaluate the performance of their students at the end of each unit. therefore, considering the vast amount of test that high school students must take, and the fact that their final grade is dependent on all of these tests scores, it can be understood why there is a feeling of anxiety among students during test-taking. if the emphasis of “grade” is decreased, and test-taking can be seen as a tool for assisting students to learn better, then maybe the test-related anxiety factor can be minimized, if not eliminated. increased communication anxiety levels in iranian high school students can be attributed to a variety of factors. one attributing factor may be related to the fact that the iranian educational system is not designed to increase the communicative competence of students. therefore many students experience a feeling of uneasiness and anxiety when having to speak in the foreign language. an important factor may also stem from the previous reason. because of the presence of a national university entrance exam, most of the emphasis during the high school years is given to learning “about” the language, instead of learning the language. reading and writing are given more weight in terms of importance and priority than speaking and listening. rote memorization of exhausting grammar rules and vocabulary can place increased amounts of pressure on students. not being able to learn all of “rules” of the language may create a sense of anxiety, and ultimately dislike for the english language. of course many other factors can have their share in creating language learning anxiety for high school students as well, such as a feeling of competition to obtain the highest grade, high expectations of parents, and maybe even feeling distant from the english language (because of its lack of incorporation into the students’ normal daily lives). it’s not unusual to hear an iranian high school student express dislike for his/her english class. anxiety is still proven to be a major factor affecting foreign language learning. as sila (2010) [30] states, “young adolescent students experience language anxiety and this anxiety could have much more adverse effects in their future lives” (p. 89). therefore, it is important for teachers to understand the complete nature of this complex phenomenon, and attempt to decrease the negative effects that it may have on language learning. consequently, how to reduce the students’ english language learning anxiety becomes an important issue for all high school language teachers as well. given the fact that english language learning anxiety can cause detrimental influences of foreign language learning, it is extremely important that english teachers not only recognize that anxiety can be a major cause of students not being successful in english learning, but also assist them to overcome their feelings of discomfort and uneasiness. it is important for teachers to acknowledge the existence of foreign language anxiety and take initiatives for its effective reduction. however, considering the fact that much research indicates that adequate anxiety levels play a positive facilitative role in english learning, therefore the teachers’ role is to keep an optimal amount of anxiety among the students. this can be achieved by providing the students with learnerfriendly language settings which are free from debilitative anxiety. teachers are encouraged to create a warm and friendly classroom atmosphere and give positive encouragement to the learners. they can also attempt to reduce anxiety by openly discussing its nature. they can also take measures to reduce the sense of negative competition among the students, and replace it with friendly cooperation. price (1991) [26] suggests that they could reduce students' anxiety by encouraging them to make mistakes in the class. price also advises that instructors should make it clear that the classroom is a place for learning and communication. teachers can also attempt to reduce the anxiety caused by fear of negative evaluation by postponing error correction or if necessary, by providing subtle or indirect correction of students’ language errors. s. atef-vahid, a. fard kashani the effect of english learning anxiety on iranian high-school students’ english language achievement 39 anxiety discussed alongside other individual learner differences (gardner & macintyre, 1993) [11], is still considered to be a relatively new and developing area within foreign language research. although this research does not put forth generalizable results, it does draw the reader’s attention to the phenomena of foreign language classroom anxiety. the prevalence of language learning anxiety has been realized in every english class in iran, and important measures should be taken to try to minimize its negative effects. 6. acknowledgment the authors are thankful to z. fatahian for her providing classes to carry out this research. the authors also wish to express their deep appreciation to the students that participated in this study. references [1] aida, y. (1994). examination of horwitz, horwitz, and cope’s construct of foreign language anxiety: the case of students of japanese. the modern language journal, 78, 155-168. [2] azhar, m., & iqbal, s. (2010). difference of student anxiety level towards english as a foreign language subject and their academic achievement. international journal of academic research, 2(6), 199-203. [3] bailey, k. (1983). competitiveness and anxiety in adult second language leaning: looking at and through the diary studies. in h. seliger & m. long. (eds.). classroom-oriented research in second language acquisition. (pp. 67-102). rowley: mass newbury house. [4] bailey, p., onwueghuzie, a.j., & daley, c. e. (2000). using learning style to predict foreign language achievement at the college level. system, 28, 115-133. [5] baker, s., & macintyre, p. d. (2000). the role of gender and immersion in communication and second language orientations. language learning, 50, 311-341. [6] campbell, c.m., & oritz, j.a. (1991). helping students overcome foreign language anxiety: a foreign language anxiety workshop. in e.k. horwitz & d.j. young. (eds.). language anxiety from theory and research to classroom implications. (pp. 153-68). englewood cliffs, n.j.: prentice hall. [7] chastain, k. (1975). affective and ability factors in second-language acquisition. language learning, 25, 153-161. [8] cohen, l., & holliday, m. (1982). statistics for social scientist. london: harper & row. [9] ehrman, m. & oxford, r. (1995). cognition plus: correlates of adult language proficiency. modern language journal, 79, 67-89. [10] ellis, r. (1994). the study of second language acquisition. oxford: oxford university press [11] gardner, r. c., & macintyre, p. d. (1993). on the measurement of affective variables in second language learning. language learning, 43, 157-194. [12] gregersen, t., & horwitz, e. k. (2002). language learning and perfectionism: anxious and non-anxious language learners’ reactions to their own oral performance, the modern language journal, 86 (4), 562-570. [13] horwitz, e. k. (2001). language anxiety and achievement, annual review of applied linguistics, 21, 112-126. [14] horwitz, e., horwitz, m., & cope, j. (1986). foreign language classroom anxiety. the modern language journal, 70, 125-132. [15] horwitz, e., & young, d. (eds.). (1991). language anxiety: from theory and research to classroom implications. englewood cliffs, n.j.: prentice hall. [16] katalin, p. (2006). foreign language classroom anxiety: a classroom perspective. retrieved september 25, 2010 from http://www.pte.hu/uprt/1.3%20piniel.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 [17] lioa, y.f. (1999). the effects of anxiety on taiwanese learners. proceedings of the english international symposium on english teaching (pp.185-198). taipei: the crane publishing co. [18] macintyre, p. d., & gardner, r.c. (1991a). anxiety and second language learning: towards a theoretical clarification. in e.k. horwitz & d.j. young (eds.), language anxiety: form theory and research to classroom implications (pp. 41-53). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. [18] macintyre, p. d., & gardner, r.c. (1991b). methods and results in the study of foreign language anxiety: a review of literature. language learning, 41, 85-117. [19] macintyre, p. d., & gardner, r. c. (1994). the stable effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. language learning, 44(2), 283-305. [20] na, z. (2007). a study of high school student’s english learning anxiety. retrieved may 6, 2010 from journal.com/september_2007_ebook_editions.pdf#page=22 [21] onwuegbuzie, a. j., bailey, p., & daley, c. e. (1999). factors associated with foreign language anxiety. applied psycholinguistics, 20 (2), 217-239. [22] oxford, r. l. (1999). anxiety and the language learner: new insights. in j. arnold (ed.), affect in language learning (pp. 58-67). cambridge: cambridge university press. [23] pan, p.s. (2002). a study of interrelationship between language anxiety and english proficiency for the students in different grades in junior high school. unpublished master’s thesis, national kaohsiung normal university, kaohsiung, taiwan. [24] phillips, e. m. (1992). the effects of language anxiety on students’ oral test performance and attitudes. the modern language journal, 76, 14-25. [25] price, m.l. (1991). the subjective experience of foreign language anxiety interviews with high-anxious students. in e.k. horwitz, &d.j. young. (eds.). language learning, 93-109. [26] sarason, i. g. (1984). stress, anxiety, and cognitive interference: reactions to tests. journal of personality and social psychology, 46(10), 929-938. [27] scovel, t. (1978). the effect of affect on foreign language learning: a review of the anxiety research. language learning, 28, 129-142. [28] scovel, t. (1991). the effect of affect on foreign language learning: a review of the anxiety research. in e. k. horwitz & d. j. young, (eds.) language anxiety: from theory and research to classroom implications. (pp. 15-24). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. [29] sila, a. y. (2010). young adolescent students' foreign language anxiety in relation to language skills at different levels. retrieved march 20, 2011 from http://www.sosyalarastirmalar.com/cilt3/sayi11pdf/ay_sila.pdf. [30] spielberger, c. d. (1983). manual for the state-strait anxiety inventory (stai-form y). palo alto, california: consulting psychologists press. [31] wu, j. (2005). the correlation between language anxiety and english speaking proficiency for the 3rd-graders and 6th-graders in an elementary school, unpublished master’s thesis, national cheng kung university, taiwan. [32] yan, j. x., & horwitz, e. k. (2008). learners’ perceptions of how anxiety interacts with personal and instructional factors to influence their achievement in english: a qualitative analysis of efl learners in china. language learning, 58(1), 151-183. [33] young, d. j. (1986). the relationship between anxiety and foreign language oral proficiency ratings. foreign language annals, 19, 439-445. [34] young, d, j. (1990). an investigation of students’ perspectives on anxiety and speaking. foreign language annals, 23, 539-553. [35] young, d. j. (1991). creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: what does language anxiety research suggest? modern language journal, 75, 426-439. [36] young, d. j. (1992). language anxiety from the foreign language specialists’ s. atef-vahid, a. fard kashani the effect of english learning anxiety on iranian high-school students’ english language achievement 41 perspective: interview with krashen, omaggio hadley, terrell, and rardin. foreign language annals, 25, 157-172. appendix a: english version of flcas (horwitz, horwitz, & cope, 1986) 1. i never feel quite sure of myself when i am speaking in my foreign language class. 2. i don’t worry about making mistakes in language class. 3. i tremble when i know that i’m going to be called on in language class. 4. it frightens me when i don’t understand what the teacher is saying in the foreign language. 5. it wouldn’t bother me at all to take more foreign language classes. 6. during language class, i find myself thinking about things that have nothing to do with the course. 7. i keep thinking that the other students are better at languages than i am. 8. i am usually at ease during tests in my language class. 9. i start to panic when i have to speak without preparation in language class. 10. i worry about the consequences of failing my foreign language class. 11. i don’t understand why some people get so upset over foreign language classes. 12. in language class, i can get so nervous when i forget things i know. 13. it embarrasses me to volunteer answers in my language class. 14. it would not be nervous speaking in the foreign language with native speakers. 15. i get upset when i don’t understand what the teacher is correcting. 16. even if i am well prepared for language class, i feel anxious about it. 17. i often feel like not going to my language class. 18. i feel confident when i speak in foreign language class. 19. i am afraid that my language teacher is ready to correct every mistake i make. 20. i can feel my heart pounding when i’m going to be called on in language class. 21. the more i study for a language test, the more confused i get. 22. i don’t feel pressure to prepare very well for language class. 23. i always feel that the other students speak the language better than i do. 24. i feel very self-conscious about speaking the foreign language in front of other students. 25. language class move so quickly i worry about getting left behind. 26. i feel more tense and nervous in my language class than in my other classes. 27. i get nervous and confused when i am speaking in my language class. 28. when i’m on my way to language class, i feel very sure and relaxed. 29. i get nervous when i don’t understand every word the language teacher says. 30. i feel overwhelmed by the number of rules you have to learn to speak a foreign language. 31. i am afraid that the other students will laugh at me when i speak the foreign language. 32. i would probably feel comfortable around native speakers of the foreign language. 33. i get nervous when the language teacher asks questions which i haven’t prepared in advance. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 appendix b: persian version of the flcas به نام خدا participant no………… موافقم موافقم شديدا سئواالت رديف نظری ندارم شديدا خمالفم خمالفم 1 وقتی در کالس زبان انگليسی صحبت می کنم، مطمئن به خودم هيچ وقت .نيستم 2 نگليسی، در کالس زبان ا نگران اشتباه کردن نيستم 3 اگر بدامن که قرار است در کالس زبان انگليسی از من درس پرسيده شود می .لرزم 4 وقتی که معلم به زبان انگليسی صحبت می کند و من منی فهمم که او چه .می گويد، می ترسم 5 شرکت کردن در کالس های زبان انگليسی متعدد .برامي مسئله ای ندارد 6 سر کالس زبان انگليسی به مسائلی که اصال به کالس زبان ارتباطی ندارند .فکر می کنم 7 دائم فکر می کنم که دانش آموزان ديگر در يادگريی زبان انگليسی .هبرت از من هستند 8 هنگام امتحان زبان ليسی معموال درآرامش انگ .هستم 9 اگر جمبور شوم بدون آمادگی قبلی در کالس زبان انگليسی صحبت کنم، دچار اضطراب و ترس .ناگهانی می شوم 10 نگران پيامد مردود شدن در کالس زبان انگليسی .هستم 11 منی فهمم که چرا بعضی از بان مردم آنقدر کالس ز انگليسی برايشان ناراحت .کننده است موافقم موافقم شديدا سئواالت رديف نظری ندارم شديدا خمالفم خمالفم 12 اگر در کالس زبان انگليسی مطالبی را که می دامن را فراموش . کنم،عصبی می شوم 13 داوطلبانه پاسخ دادن به سئوالت در کالس زبان ی مرا خجالت زده انگليس .می کند وقتی با کساني که زبان 14 s. atef-vahid, a. fard kashani the effect of english learning anxiety on iranian high-school students’ english language achievement 43 انگليسی زبان مادريشان است صحبت می کنم، دهلره .ندارم 15 در کالس انگليسی،وقتی منی فهمم معلم چه چيزی را دارد تصحيح می .کند،ناراحت می شوم 16 حتی اگر برای کالس آماده انگليسی کامال .باشم، دلواپس هستم . کالس زبان انگليسی نروماغلب دمل می خواهد به 17 18 هنگام صحبت کردن در کالس زبان انگليسی کامال .اعتماد به نفس دارم 19 از اينکه معلم زبان انگليسی من مهيشه آماده است که هر اشتباه مرا .رامنتصحيح کند، نگ 20 اگر قرار باشد معلم زبان انگليسی مرا برای پرسش کالسی صدا بزند، صدای قلب خودم را می .شنوم 21 هر چه بيشرت برای امتحان زبان انگليسی درس می .خوامن،بيشرت گيج می شوم 22 برای کامل آماده کردن خود برای کالس زبان . فشار نيستمانگليسی حتت 23 مهيشه احساس می کنم که دانش آموزآموزان ديگر از من هبرت انگليسی صحبت .می کنند موافقم موافقم شديدا سئواالت رديف نظری ندارم شديدا خمالفم خمالفم 24 در هنگام صحبت کردن زبان انگليسی جلوی ساير دانش آموزان در کالس، ه و خجالتی می خودآگا .شوم 25 آنقدر کالس زبان انگليسی به سرعت جلو می رود که . نگران هستم عقب مبامن 26 سر کالس زبان انگليسی بيشرت از ساير کالسهامي .نگران و عصبی هستم 27 وقتی در کالس زبان انگليسی صحبت می . کنم،گيج و عصبی می شوم 28 وقتی در حال رفنت به کالس زبان انگليسی هستم، بسيار احساس آرامش و .اطمينان دارم 29 وقتی متام کلماتی که معلم زبان انگليسی می گويد را منی فهمم، brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 .عصبی می شوم 30 از اينکه برای صحبت کردن به زبان انگليسی اين مهه قاعده بايد فت،احساس سر در گمی گر .می کنم 31 می ترسم که وقتی دارم انگليسی صحبت می کنم، دانش آموزان ديگر به من .خبندند 32 احتماال وقتی که کنار کسانی که انگليسی زبان مادريشان است هستم، .احساس آرامش می کنم 33 وقتی معلم زبان انگليسی تی را از من بپرسد سئواال که مطالعه قبلی درباره آا نداشته ام، عصبی .می شوم brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev preparation and characterization of tio2/cds layers as potential photoelectrocatalytic materials marcela-corina rosu, ramona-crina suciu, simina-virginia dreve, ioan bratu, teofil-danut silipas, emil indrea abstract. the tio2/cds semiconductor composites were prepared on indium tin oxide (ito) substrates in different mass proportions via wet-chemical techniques using bi-distilled water, acetyl-acetone, poly-propylene-glycol and triton x-100 as additives. the composite layers were annealed in normal conditions at the temperature of 450◦c, 120 min. with a rate of temperature increasing of 5◦c/min. the structural and optical properties of all the tio2/cds layers were characterized by x-ray diffraction, uv-vis spectroscopy, spectrofluorimetry and ft/ir microscopy. the microstructural properties of the deposited tio2/cds layers can be modified by varying the mass proportions of tio2:cds. the good crystallinity level and the high optical adsorption of the tio2/cds layers make them attractive for photoelectrochemical cell applications. keywords: titanium dioxide; cadmium sulphide; photocatalyst 2000 mathematics subject classification: 74-xx 109 m-c rosu, r-c. suciu, s-v. dreve, i. bratu, t-d. silipas, e. indrea preparation and characterization of tio2/cds layers as potential photoelectrocatalytic materials 1. introduction titanium dioxide (tio2) in the form of thin films is broadly used as a catalyst in photovoltaic and photocatalysis applications [1-7]. however, it is a semiconductor with a large band gap (eg ' 3.2 ev) [8]. although tio2 absorbs only 5% of the solar light reaching the surface of the earth, the band gap of tio2 limits its absorption to the ultraviolet region of the solar spectrum [9]. in order to improve the performance of titanium dioxide, semiconductors such as cds, cdse, cdte, pbs, bi2s3, cuins2, which absorbs light in the visible wavelength region, can serve as sensitizers because they are able to transfer electrons to large band gap semiconductors such tio2 or zno [10]. especially, considering that cadmium sulphide (cds) is an important n-type semiconductor which has direct band gap (eg = 2.42 ev), it finds applications in solar cell devices, thin film transistors for flat panel displays and optoelectronic devices [11]. its energy levels can match with those of tio2 [10] therefore it expects that the sensitization of tio2 film with cds can improve the photoelectric performance of tio2 electrodes. the absorption edge of pure tio2 is at about 380 nm and the absorption edge of pure cds is at about 580 nm [10, 12]. meanwhile, tio2/cds semiconductor composites have attracted much interest because of synergistic effects on photoelectrochemical properties [13, 14] and photocatalytic activity [15] and have been extensively investigated for their applications in solar energy cells, catalysis, water purification and electrochromic devices [16-18]. in this work we have associated tio2 with cds in order to prepare a mixed photocatalyst, aiming to improve photoelectrochemical properties and photocatalytic activity [19, 20]. tio2/cds thin film heterojunctions were prepared on indium tin oxide (ito) glass substrates resulting an improved photocatalytic efficiency both in uv-visible and visible light irradiation. the tio2/cds semiconductor composites were prepared in different mass proportions (1:4, 2:3, 3:2 and 4:1, samples name: tc 1, tc 2, tc 3, respectively, tc 4) via wet-chemical techniques, using bi-distilled water, acetyl-acetone, poly-propylene-glycol and triton x-100 as additives [21]. titania p-25 (ca. 80% anatase, 20% rutile) was kindly supplied by degussa ag, germany. cds was obtained by spray pyrolysis technique [22]. acetylacetone (merck, germany), poly-propylene-glycol (machery-nagel, germany) and triton x-100 (fluka, switzerland) were used without any further purification. bi-distilled water was used throughout all the experiments. a thin layer of a semiconductor composite tio2/cds was deposited on ito glass substrate, 110 m-c rosu, r-c. suciu, s-v. dreve, i. bratu, t-d. silipas, e. indrea preparation and characterization of tio2/cds layers as potential photoelectrocatalytic materials figure 1: x-ray diffraction pattern for tio2/cds composites samples a conducting glass with a sheet resistance ∼ 30ω cm−2. in order to establish the electrical contact among the nanoparticles and to form an ito/tio2/cds nanostructured film, the composite layers were annealed in normal conditions at the temperature of 450oc, 120 min. with an increasing rate of temperature of 5oc/min. 2. results and discussion the microstructural study of the tio2/cds semiconductor composites has been investigated using x-ray diffraction and ft/ir microscopy. x-ray diffraction (xrd) measurements were performed using a bruker d8 advance xray diffractometer, working at 45 kv and 45ma. the cukα radiation was collimated with soller slits and a germanium monochromator was used. ft/ir spectra of the materials were recorded using jasco irt 3000 irtron infrared microscope. fig. 1 shows the x-ray diffraction pattern for tio2/cds composites (sample tc 1, tc 2, tc 3 and tc 4). the diffraction pattern of the tio2/cds composites exhibits the diffraction peaks owning to cds phase (hexagonal and cubic). tio2 (rutile and anatase) phases were also detected. 111 m-c rosu, r-c. suciu, s-v. dreve, i. bratu, t-d. silipas, e. indrea preparation and characterization of tio2/cds layers as potential photoelectrocatalytic materials figure 2: the ft/ir microscopy images of the tio2/cds composites the microstructural properties of the deposited tio2/cds layers depend on the mass proportions of tio2:cds. the proportion of cds phase is direct proportional with the cds powder used in the preparation process. the ft/ir microscopy images of the tio2/cds composites upon annealing at high temperatures, are shown in fig.2 the micrograph shows agglomerates with irregular morphology and size ranging from few micrometers down to hundreds of nanometer. the compositional contrast, shows the distribution of cds-rich region (in dark) into the tio2 particles (in bright) suggesting that a part of the nanosized cds particles coexist within a titanium oxide matrix. optical properties of tio2/cds semiconductor composites have been investigated using optical absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy. uv-vis absorption spectra of the as-prepared photocatalysts were taken on a jasco v-550 spectrometer. the fluorescence spectra were obtained using an abl&jasco v 6500 spectrofluorimeter with xenon lamp. the optical studies of the tio2/cds composites were performed using the absorption spectra observed in the wavelength range 200-900 nm. fig. 3 shows the uv-vis spectra of tio2/cds samples. the uv-vis absorption spectra results shows that the absorption peak of the tio2/cds composites shifts from the ultraviolet region to the visible region in comparison to that of the tio2 and cds films [23, 24]. the absorption the mixed tio2/cds shows an absorption plateau in the region 300-400 nm corresponding to the contribution of cds to the absorption spectra. the level of the plateau increases with increasing cds concentration. these results show that the coupled semiconductor can be excited by visible light. the influence of cds on optical properties of the tio2/cds nanostructured film can be also confirmed by photoluminescence (pl) spectroscopy, because cds nanoparticles 112 m-c rosu, r-c. suciu, s-v. dreve, i. bratu, t-d. silipas, e. indrea preparation and characterization of tio2/cds layers as potential photoelectrocatalytic materials figure 3: absorption spectra of tio2/cds composites samples with a different mass proportion exhibit light-emitting behavior at a specific wavelength. fig. 4 illustrates the fluorescence emission spectra of tio2/cds nanostructured film at the exciting wavelength of 340 nm. the curves for tc 1, tc 2, tc 3 and tc 4 exhibited the clear photoemission peaks at about 375 nm, and compared with emission of bulk cds (520 nm), 145 nm of blue shift was observed. these features indicate the quantum-confined effect of the tio2/cds nanocomposite films [25]. 3. conclusions tio2/cds semiconductor composites were prepared on indium tin oxide (ito) glass substrates by means of the wet-chemical techniques. xrd results have indicated the cubic and hexagonal phase of cds nanoparticles were formed within/on the tio2 matrix. the ft/ir micrographs shows agglomerates with irregular morphology and size and confirm that a part of the nanosized cds particles coexist within a titanium oxide matrix. with the amount of cd salt increasing, the size of cds nanoclusters in the tio2 matrix increased. compared with tio2 and cds bulk material, all the uv-vis absorption and 113 m-c rosu, r-c. suciu, s-v. dreve, i. bratu, t-d. silipas, e. indrea preparation and characterization of tio2/cds layers as potential photoelectrocatalytic materials figure 4: spectrofluorimetric spectra of tio2/cds composites samples with a different mass proportion luminescence spectra had shown an explicit blue shift due to quantum confinement. the good crystallinity level and the high optical adsorption of the tio2/cds layers make them attractive for photoelectrochemical cell applications. acknowledgments the present work was supported by the ministry of education and research through pn 09-44n 02-06, pn ii 71-047 and pn ii 71-122 projects. references [1] b. o’regan, m. gratzel, a low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized colloidal tio2 films, nature, 1991, 353, 737-740. [2] a. hagfeldt, m. gratzel, light-induced redox reactions in nanocrystalline systems, chem. rev., 1995, 95, 49-68. [3] s.u.m. khan, m. al-shahry, w.b. ingler jr., photochemical water splitting by a chemically modified n-tio2, science, 2002, 297, 2243-2245. 114 m-c rosu, r-c. suciu, s-v. dreve, i. bratu, t-d. silipas, e. indrea preparation and characterization of tio2/cds layers as potential photoelectrocatalytic materials [4] a.l. linsebigler, g. lu, j.t. yates, photocatalysis on tio2 surfaces: principles, mechanisms, and selected results, chem. rev., 1995, 95, 735-758. [5] r.l. pozzo, m.a. baltanas, a.e. cassano, supported titanium oxide as photocatalyst in water decontamination, catal. today, 1997, 39, 219-231. [6] j.m. herrmann, heterogeneous photocatalysis: fundamentals and applications to the removal of various types of aqueous pollutants, catal. today, 1999, 53, 115-129. [7] zaban, s.g. chen, s. chappel, b.a. gregg, bilayer nanoporous electrodes for dye sensitized solar cells, chem. commun., 2000, 22, 2231-2232. [8] siguang chen, maggie paulose, chuanmin ruan, gopal k. mor, oomman k. varghese, dimitris kouzoudis, craig a. grimes, electrochemically synthesized cds nanoparticle-modified tio2 nanotube-array photoelectrodes: preparation, characterization and application to photoelectrochemical cells, journal of photochemistry and photobiology a: chemistry, 2006, 177, 177184. [9] kesong yang, ying dai, baibiao huang, first-principles calculations for geometrical structures and electronic properties of si-doped tio2, chemical physics letters, 2008, 456, 71-75. [10] huimin jia, hua xu, yan hu, yiwen tang, lizhi zhang, tio2∂cds core-shell nanorods films: fabrication and dramatically enhanced photoelectrochemical properties, electrochemistry communications, 2007, 9, 354-360. [11] k. ravichandran and p. philominathan, investigations on microstructural and optical properties of cds films fabricated by a low-cost, simplified spray technique using perfume atomizer for solar cell applications, solar energy, 2008, 82, 1062-1066. [12] baoshun liu, xiujian zhao, qingnan zhao, xin he and jingyang feng, effect of heat treatment on the uv-vis-nir and pl spectra of tio2 films, journal of electron spectroscopy and related phenomena, 2005, 148, 3, 158163. [13] p.a. sant, p.v. kamat, , inter-particle electron transfer between sizequantized cds and tio2 semiconductor nanoclusters, phys. chem. chem. phys., 2002, 4, 198-203. [14] h. weller, colloidal semiconductor q-particles: chemistry in the transition region between solid state and molecules, agnew. chem. int. ed. engl., 1993, 32, 41-53. [15] j. bandara, k. tennakone, p.p.b. jayatilaka, composite tin and zinc oxide nanocrystalline particles for enhanced charge separation in sensitized 115 m-c rosu, r-c. suciu, s-v. dreve, i. bratu, t-d. silipas, e. indrea preparation and characterization of tio2/cds layers as potential photoelectrocatalytic materials degradation of dyes, chemosphere, 2002, 49, 439-445. [16] j. c. yu, l. wu, j. lin, p. li, q. li, microemulsion-mediated solvothermal synthesis of nanosized cds-sensitized tio2 crystalline photocatalyst, chem. commun., 2003, 1552. [17] s. g. hichey, d.j. riley, photoelectrochemical studies of cds nanoparticlemodified electrodes, j. phys. chem. b, 1999, 103, 4599-4602. [18] t. toyoda, j. sato, q. shen, effect of sensitization by quantum-sized cds on photoacoustic and photoelectrochemical current spectra of porous tio2 electrodes, rev. sci. instrum., 2003, 74, 297. [19] y.chi, h.fu, l.qi, k.shi, h.zhang, h.yu, preparation and photoelectric performance of ito/tio2/cds composite thin films, journal of photochemistry and photobiology a: chemistry, 2008, 195, 357-363. [20] x. qian, d. qin, q. song, y. bai, t. li, x. tang, e. wang, s. dong, surface photovoltage spectra and photoelectrochemical properties of semiconductor-sensitized nanostructured tio2 electrodes, thin solid films, 2001, 385, 152-161. [21] m.s.lee, i.c.cheon, y.i.kim, photoelectrochemical studies of nanocrystalline tio2 film electrodes, bull. korean chem. soc., 2003, 24, 18. [22] violeta popescu, g. l. popescu, e. indrea, t. d. silipas, simina dreve, marioara moldovan, carmen prejmerean, c. trisc-rusu, cds thin films obtained by spray pyrolysis for photoelectrochemical cells, international symposium on metastable and nanomaterials, ismanam 2007, 26-30 august, corfu, greece [23] d.jiang, y.xu, d.wu and y.sun, visible-light responsive dye-modified tio2 photocatalyst, journal of solid state chemistry, 2008, 181/3, 593-602. [24] z.li, y.du, z.zhang and d.pang, preparation and characterization of cds quantum dots chitosan biocomposite, reactive and functional polymers 2003, 55, 1, 35-43. [25] v.s. gurin and m.v. artemyev, cds quantum dots in colloids and polymer matrices: electronic structure and photochemical properties, j. cryst. growth. 1994, 138, 993. 116 m-c rosu, r-c. suciu, s-v. dreve, i. bratu, t-d. silipas, e. indrea preparation and characterization of tio2/cds layers as potential photoelectrocatalytic materials marcela-corina rosu, ramona-crina suciu, simina-virginia dreve, ioan bratu, teofil-danut silipas, emil indrea department of physics of nanostructured systems national institute for research and development of isotopic and molecular technologies address: donath street no 65-103, ro 400293, cluj-napoca, romania email:marcela.rosu@yahoo.com; marcela.rosu@itim-cj.ro 117 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 347-361 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/392 submitted: july 5th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 preschoolers with intellectual disabilities: research in communicative competence anna chobanian 1 , oksana boriak 2 , alla kolyshkina 3 , olena chebotariova 4 , mariia bodarieva 5 1 sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s. makarenko, ukraine, chobanian_anna@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=00000001-6191-1068 2 sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s. makarenko, sumy, ukraine, oksana_boriak@ukr.net 3 sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s. makarenko, sumy, ukraine, kolyshkina.ap73@gmail.com 4 institute of special pedagogy and psychology named mykola yarmachenko of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, olena.chebotareva@gmail.com 5 sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s. makarenko, sumy, ukraine, mar_bodarieva@ukr.net abstract: the formation of communicative competence as a leading component of speech activity of senior preschoolers with intellectual disabilities is a long-term, multi-stage process. in accordance with the objectives of the study, we have substantiated and identified the features of the criteria of communicative competence. methods of comparison and systematization of research material are applied; deductive for a systematic description of the phenomenon under study; systematization of the results of empirical research; empirical: diagnostic complex for the study of the formation of communicative competence; mathematical and statistical: fisher's angular transformation criterion to establish the reliability of differences between the indicators of experimental groups. it was found that children with intellectual disabilities of older preschool age have a complete lack of communicative competence in general. insufficient level of cognitive-motivational criterion revealed the predominance of zero level of communication skills, situationality of statements, prevalence of situational-business communication, which is characteristic of younger children with normal development, as well as a tendency to avoid problematic situations. there is a significant predominance of zero level of formation of the behavioral criterion, which is manifested in the lack of adequate ways of communication, the lack of communicative techniques, both the use of verbal and nonverbal means of communication. lack of mastery of non-situational forms of communication is manifested in the lack of stable motives for communication with adults, reduced need for communication, low development of speech communication, lack of interest in contact, inability to navigate communication, predominance of protective reactions of avoidance and aggression. keywords: speech activity; intellectual disabilities; communicative competence; verbal / non-verbal communication; speech disorder; senior preschooler. how to cite: chobanian, a., boriak, o., kolyshkina, a., chebotariova, o., & bodarieva, m. (2022). preschoolers with intellectual disabilities: research in communicative competence. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 347-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/392 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/392 mailto:chobanian_anna@ukr.net https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0001-6191-1068 https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0001-6191-1068 mailto:oksana_boriak@ukr.net mailto:kolyshkina.ap73@gmail.com mailto:olena.chebotareva@gmail.com mailto:mar_bodarieva@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/392 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 348 introduction children with moderate intellectual disabilities are a diverse group in terms of the severity of various disorders and possible prospects for development. however, this category children are characterized by underdevelopment of all speech components: lexical-grammatical, phoneticphonemic, morphological, syntactic; verbal and nonverbal communication. the speech disorders complexity in moderate intellectual development disorders is determined not only by external, complex morphological and functional disorders (boryak et al., 2021; konoplyasta, 2010; sheremet, 2010; tarasun, 2010), but also by communication difficulties, which lead to personal and social adaptation complications, especially when entering school (chobanyan, 2015; bgazhnokova, 2007; muller, 2000). deficiencies in speech comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities (cid) are combined with an increased likelihood of social difficulties that do not level spontaneously, but require specially organized therapeutic intervention (marrus & hall, 2017). the inability to understand the spoken language of selected category children leads to such negative consequences as: parents’ anger / rage against the child due to the inability to comply with requests, to respond to their comments; the risk of social isolation increases due to lack of interaction with peers (loukusa et al., 2018). lack of children with moderate intellectual disabilities (hereinafter – cmid) desire to interact with peers and adults, inability to use the communication means leads to the fact that when entering school such children are outside social contacts, which hinders participation in typical curricular measures (kleinert et al., 2010). the lack of communicative flexibility in cid is a factor influencing their communicative competence assessment, and its absence enhances the speech impairment perception (harasty et al., 2009). today, the problem of speech and speech disorders manifestations due to brain lesions, which lead to certain complications in their mastery, remains acute. speech disorders with intellectual disabilities and developmental delays in the psycholinguistic direction, have been unsufficiently studied. single foreign experimental studies based on the psycholinguistic approach relate to the study of: lexicalization features of target words by younger schoolchildren with typical and delayed development (barbosa & nicoladis, 2016); the impact of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder on speech formation (barkley, 2006); the verbal memory influence on speech comprehension in typical and retarded development (boyle et al., 2013); intellectual abilities features, speech preschoolers with intellectual disabilities: research in communicative competence anna chobanian et al. 349 development in williams syndrome (mervis & john, 2010); speech functions specifics in children with autism spectrum disorders (foursha-stevenson et al., 2017), etc. the author’s assumption regarding the study of the communicative competence of the cmid is based on the fact that the child may not have a common language, but he must understand the language addressed to him and use the communication means available to him. on the theoretical analysis basis of the scientific achievements (arushanova, 2005; bgazhnokova, 2007; lipakova, 2014; lysina & sheryazdanov, 1989; petrovskaya, 1989) communicative competence of the selected children category of the senior preschoolers is interpreted as the ability to interact effectively with others through personal resources in the sociocultural environment and beyond. under personal resources the cognitivemotivational and behavioral criteria indicators are understood (table 1). table 1. cognitive-motivational and behavioral criteria indicators of personal resources communicative competence indicators cognitive-motivational criterion the child’s readiness to communicate with adults and peers (understanding of the addressed speech); desire for interaction; ability to use interaction types; positive attitude and attitude towards the communication partner behavioral criterion possession of adequate communication means, communication techniques possession (verbal and nonverbal communication means) source: authors' own conception cognitive-motivational criterion – is an education, developed on the basis of knowledge, skills and abilities, the ability to implement the appropriate psychophysical level of the selected children category communicative activity, which is manifested in the interaction with adults and peers. this ability is related to the general side of the psyche’s functioning, which is manifested not in specific activities, but in the general cmid activity forms. among the communicative abilities the presence of attitude to communication – the individual’s readiness to speech activity, which depends on the needs and objective situation, the level of need for communication: it is based on motive and purpose, motivating factors of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 350 speech action, as well as speech utterances denotation (speech intentions determine the communicators’ speech behavior) are included. behavioral criterion consists of choosing the appropriate communication way, the choice of ethical and value behavior patterns (o. leontiev, 2001). however, studies of foreign psychologists and psycholinguists prove the fact that non-verbal means play a significant role not only in communication but also in speech-forming processes and in the speech perception process (argyle, 1979; birdwhistell, 1970; ekman, 1972). methodology the sample of the study consisted of 94 preschoolers, including 53 pmid and 41 preschoolers with light intellectual disabilities (hereinafter – plid). the communicative competence study was carried out taking into account the comparative principle by comparing the results with the indicators of pmid and plid. to ensure the reliability of the provisions, conclusions and solutions of the outlined research tasks, a set of complementary methods was used: theoretical: comparison and systematization of research material to determine communicative competence in the structure of this category children’s social readiness; deductive – for a systematic phenomenon description; inductive – to establish patterns, systematize the empirical research results; empirical: diagnostic complex for studying the communicative competence formation (hereinafter – cc) by cognitivemotivational criterion and its indicators: child’s practical readiness for a certain communication type with adults and peers (“methods of studying the state of impressive, expressive speech and alternative communication”) (lopatina & pozdnyakova, 2006); desire for interaction, the ability to use interaction types (“methods of studying the leading communication form with adults” a. ruzskaya); by behavioral criteria and such indicators as: the choice of adequate communication means (verbal and nonverbal communication means), the choice of ethical and value behavior patterns (methodology “pictures” by е. smirnova); mathematical and statistical: fisher’s angular transformation criterion to establish the differences reliability between the experimental groups’ indicators. taking into account the speech underdevelopment specifics in the selected children category, the proposed tasks did not require a verbal answer from each child. if the child did not cope with the tasks (did not understand the question content, did not know the answer or for other reasons could not answer, etc.), alternative communication means (cards), preschoolers with intellectual disabilities: research in communicative competence anna chobanian et al. 351 which allowed to reveal the child’s existing social and communicative experience were used. the aim of the article is studying the communicative competence formation as a social readiness structural component for schooling of senior preschoolers with intellectual disabilities of moderate degree. results. the modified studying method of the cognitive-motivational criterion indicators (lopatina & pozdnyakova, 2006) allowed to determine whether the child understands the oral speech addressed to him, as well as whether the child expresses himself through speech or other means. during the tasks, 47% of pmid, unlike plid, could not establish long-term visual contact with an adult, did not respond to touch to the shoulder, did not show a reaction to speech and did not understand the task essence. the children were constantly distracted from the instructions and execution, did not understand its meaning; began to show / translate all the pictures in turn. the chid’s mild visual impairment, which caused impaired visual perception were an additional obstacle to the tasks’ performance. based on the studying results of the impressive, expressive speech side state and the use of alternative communication tools, the research quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results was carried out. investigating impressive speech, there are four formation levels in the selected preschoolers’ category (zero, low, medium, high) (table 2). table 2. formation levels of impressive speech (%) levels pmid plid abs.numbers % abs.numbers % high – – – – medium 8 15 14 34,2 low 17 32,1 17 41,4 zero 28 52,9 10 24,4 total 53 100 41 100 source: authors' own conception the results show that the vast majority of pmid (75.6%) – demonstrated low and medium levels of impressive speech. in contrast, plid showed mostly zero and low levels – 85%, the average level of impressive speech development is observed in 15%. however 85% was able to correctly show objects and pronounce the phonetic words depicted in the pictures. understanding the features names, as well as grammatical categories (singular and plural nouns and verbs, word-forming models) in broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 352 this group children caused significant difficulties, most likely due to the concepts emergence of subject features at a later date in ontogenesis. this group children successfully coped with the tasks of understanding the meaning of objects, phonetic words, with mistakes showed parts of objects, generalizing words and simple actions. tasks aimed at understanding the grammatical constructions of word change and word-forming patterns, children performed with numerous errors. an important condition for children’s understanding of the images was the simultaneous presentation of no more than two color realistic pictures. 52.9% of children were at zero level of impressive speech development. plid, which showed zero level, had difficulty even in recognizing objects, phonetic words and simple actions, chaotically showing all the pictures in a row. understanding of grammatical categories for this level children of impressive speech development was inaccessible. this subgroup children have significantly limited passive vocabulary, narrowed perceptions of the world around them, which is a cognitive impairment consequence. the obtained results indicate that the level of impressive speech formation in most of the studied children was at low and zero levels. table 3. levels of expressive speech formation (%) levels pmid plid abs. numbers % abs. numbers % high – – – – medium 6 11,4 11 26,8 low 19 35,8 18 43,9 zero 28 52,8 12 29,3 total 53 100 41 100 source: authors' own conception according to the results, the majority of plid (52.8%) – demonstrated zero level of expressive speech formation; 35.8% of children showed a low level of expressive speech development. the average level was demonstrated by 11.4%, and none of the children in the experimental group showed a high level. these levels reflect children’s ability to pronounce individual words and name individual objects or phenomena. full-fledged phrasal speech in all plid of the experimental group was not formed. children classified as low-level named some objects and simple actions, simplifying and distorting the constituent structure of words (“di” instead of “drink”). often this group children replaced commonly used words with preschoolers with intellectual disabilities: research in communicative competence anna chobanian et al. 353 phonetic words (“av” instead of “dog”, “drr” instead of “car”). zero level of expressive speech development is represented by 52.8% children who randomly chose any words and combined sounds they know. thus, the study results of the expressive speech state on the second tasks block allow to state that cid is characterized by impoverished everyday vocabulary, common vocabulary, also characterized by simplification of word structure or their replacement by simpler mimic words, unformed full-fledged common phrases. disorders of expressive speech cause difficulties for children in expressing their own thoughts and feelings in communication. accordingly, plid experience significant difficulties both in understanding the essence of other people’s speech and in formulating their own appeals to express their needs and feelings.the third methods block for the study of alternative communication means is also represented by four levels (table 4). table 4. levels of alternative communication means formation (%) levels pmid plid abs.numbers % abs.numbers % high – – – – medium 7 13,2 12 29,3 low 16 30,1 18 43,9 zero 30 56,7 11 26,8 total 53 100 41 100 source: authors' own conception it can be stated that the vast majority of pmid (56.7%) – are at zero level of use of alternative communication means; 30.1% – low level. preschoolers were partially given the task of understanding words using an icon: children correctly indicated several icons depicting objects and their parts, as well as depicting the features of objects (large–small). tasks for understanding the icons denoting actions, generalizations and grammatical categories were not available for children, 56.7% of respondents showed a zero level of alternative communication. at the same time, the children tried to replace oral utterances with non-verbal communication means. the obtained results correspond to the leading idea of psycholinguistic theory of speech utterance production, according to which speech is considered as a complex multilevel system, and the separate utterance producing process – as a complex psychological process, represented by the following stages: motive – “intention” – “internal programming” – vocabulary – grammatical development – program motor broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 354 implementation (o. luria, 1998). experimental data showed that in the pmid is a simultaneous immaturity of several stages, which, accordingly, significantly limits the possibilities for the use of verbal communication means. the general survey results of the children showed that all three studied impressive / expressive speech aspects and the use of alternative communication are at approximately the same development levels, but the most formed is the impressive speech side. the greatest difficulty in children is the use of verbal communication means. the application of a. ruzska’s method allowed to determine the leading communication form of the child with others and provided consistent modeling of three communication situations, each of which corresponded to a certain studied process form. children were asked to play with toys, read a book or talk to an adult. the experimenter recorded: the order of the situation choice, the attention object in the first minutes, the activity nature in relation to the attention object, the child’s comfort level in communication (tense, constrained, embarrassed, calm, cheerful), nature, content, speech topic, the questions presence, requests for help, the desired duration of the child’s interaction. depending on the certain indicators severity in children, the leading communication form was determined: extrasituational-personal (esp), extra-situational-cognitive (esc), situationalbusiness (sb). the experiment results showed that the plid in comparison with the pmid are better oriented in the communication norms and rules, they have a more developed practical readiness to interact with others (table 5). table 5. levels of formation of leading communication forms (%) situations levels pmid plid sb esc esp sb esc esp high – – – – – – medium 3,9 1,9 17,2 4,8 low 28,8 9,7 24,3 17,2 zero 36,8 18,9 12,2 9,7 14,6 source: authors' own conception the obtained data allow us to state that in the vast majority of pmid the leading communication form is situational-business of medium and low preschoolers with intellectual disabilities: research in communicative competence anna chobanian et al. 355 levels (63.5%) and in 22% there is extra-situational-cognitive of medium and low levels. in pmid with the leading situational and business form of communication, first of all aroused toy interest. discussions of the read book and questions about its plot caused them to lose interest or completely refuse to interact. the communication duration did not exceed 5 minutes, which is much shorter than the interaction time of plid. children with a leading non-situational-cognitive form were characterized by an interest in learning about phenomena and objects of the physical rather than the social world. this group children were more interested in animals, their lives, the proposed children’s literature content, reading aloud with further plot discussion in the pictures did not arouse interest. the special formation of extra-situational-personal communication in preschoolers is accompanied by an increase in their attention to the adult’s influences; organized and purposeful behavior; cognitive activity increase, and also information assimilation efficiency, general training level increase. the majority of pmid respondents is dominated by situationalbusiness communication form – 69.8%, and the age dynamics of pmid showed the presence of 30.2% of non-situational-cognitive communication form of medium and low levels (table 6). table 6. the study results of the leading communication forms (%) the leading communication form pmid plid abs.numbers % abs.numbers % situational and business 37 69,8 22 53,6 extra-situationalcognitive 16 30,2 13 31,7 extra-situationalpersonal – – 6 14,7 total 53 100 41 100 source: authors' own conception during the experiment, the vast majority of children in both groups chose toys. four plid showed interest in the adult in the first turn sample. the both groups children felt free and as comfortable as possible while manipulating toys / books, during the conversation some children felt tense, other children behaved passively. reading children’s literature aroused the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 356 interest of two children, during the discussion of the fairy tale the children were distracted, were not focused, could not answer direct questions. in general, the plid’s interest is higher than that of pmid’. since interest is one of the main motivation components, the results indicate the motivation dependence on the degree of the child’s intellectual disability. thus, low motivation to communicate, inactivity against the background of persistent cognitive impairment, lead to the presence of effective communicative reactions, thereby forming an inability to understand the nature of their own relationships with others. during the study, the pmid did not seek to agree with the adult attitude to the subject, their statements are mostly situational in nature, did not ask cognitive questions, did not share opinions about their friends in the group. in general, they were dominated by statements about toys, animals, household items. diagnosis of behavioral criterion indicators of the cc by the “pictures” method, which reflects the ability to cooperate, joint activities, adequacy in communication, showed that most pmid choose to avoid a problem situation (62.3%), aggressive solution in situations of interaction with peers 33.9%), verbal solution of the problem situation demonstrated (3.7%), productive solution indicators of the problem situation (table 7). table 7. the study results of the behavioral strategies by the “pictures” method (%) answers criteria total of answers pmid plid avoidance 62,4 43,6 aggression 33,9 21,9 verbal decision 3,7 34,5 a productive solution – – source: authors' own conception discussion the obtained results highlighted that 62.4% of pmid showed complete helplessness in communication with peers, as they were not able to find a solution to the problem situation on their own. therefore, when asked by the experimenter to all four images, the children did not provide any independent solutions, which indicated not only zero level of preschoolers with intellectual disabilities: research in communicative competence anna chobanian et al. 357 communication skills, but also the inability to navigate in the social space, they did not seek help from a tutor, did not complain. the following answers, which had independent decisions context, belonged to the aggressive resolution of conflict situations (“hit”, “bite”). note that the aggressive situations solution with the use of physical actions and negative emotional reactions was demonstrated mainly by the same pmid (33.9%). only 3.7% of pmid demonstrated a verbal solution to the problem situation. then a 6-year-old and 8 months girl, in two of the four proposed situations, warned her peers with the gesture “this can not be done!”. the empirical study results revealed the specifics of the communicative competence indicators formation of the pmid, which is specified in the levels (fig. 1). fig.1. data on the levels of communicative competence formation (%) source: authors' own conception it can be stated the fact that in general, pmid did not ignore social contacts, but for the most part they were not able to initiate and offer communication on their own. slow comprehension development and use of speech leads to the manifestation of undesirable behavior forms, while children were able to catch communicators’ non-verbal manifestations. 0 20 40 60 high level medium level low level zero level 0 16.9 30.3 52.8 0 30.2 39.6 30.2 plid pmid broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 358 expressive speech was significantly limited by the use of individual words, vocabulary was depleted, mainly consists of words and expressions often used in everyday life. it is specified in more detail the pmids’ phenomenology of communicative competence (cc), in accordance with certain levels: 1) the average level of cc formation (16.9%) is represented by pmid, which demonstrate certain elements of initiation and inclusion in communication, namely: understand the spoken language, distinguish / listen to the communicator, maintain eye contact, navigate in a specific communication situation, adequately respond to the communication partner. there are signs of a motive for communication: they can make a request, try to express a need, ask for help, show consent / protest, can participate in simplified speech communication with an adult / peer, with the support / help of an adult, are able to read the emotional state of the communication partner in joint action, but can not subordinate their behavior to the partner’s interests. 2) low level of cc formation (30.3%) is represented by pmid, in which the entry into the communication process is initiated by a partner, namely: addressed speech is not fully understood (as a consequence, inability to respond in response), isolate the communicator / establish eye contact, with a lack of focus on the message. speech communication is extremely limited. failure to understand the emotional state of the partner, the inability to take into account his needs, so communication is not productive, or leads to conflict situations. 3) zero level of cc formation (52.8%) is represented by pmid, in which there is no reaction to the initiative to establish contact, there is a manifestation of inadequate emotional reactions: not understanding of spoken speech, no ability to distinguish communicator / establish eye contact, focus on the message. establishing emotional contact with this children category is possible with the adult’s stimulating help, respectively, communication with peers is absent. characteristic alienation from the team, inertia, passivity, autism, pronounced disorders of the emotional and volitional sphere, deepened by the extremely low level of speech as communication means. conclusions the study of pmids’ communicative competence shows that children have a low level of communication skills, situational statements, the prevalence of situational-business communication and avoidance of preschoolers with intellectual disabilities: research in communicative competence anna chobanian et al. 359 problematic situations, which, in turn, is an obstacle to full entry into the socio-cultural environment and effective interaction with the environment. lack of mastery of non-situational communication forms is manifested in the lack of stable motives for communication with adults, reduced need for communication, unformed speech communication and behavioral features (lack of interest in contact, inability to navigate in communication, avoidance, aggression). absolute immaturity of communicative competence is observed in pmid (zero level of 52.8 % φ*=1,92 with ρ≤0.02) both as a whole and separately by cognitive-motivational (zero level in ml=58,4 % against ll=39,1 %, р≤0,02), and behavioral criteria (ml=50,9 % against ll= 39,6 %, ρ≤0,02). thus, with an insufficient level of formation on the cognitivemotivational criterion, the predominance of zero level of communication skills (in 53 % with р≤0,02), situational statements (in 56,8 % with р≤0,02), prevalence of situational-business communication (in 69,8 % with р≤0,01), which is characteristic of children with typical development, and also tendency to avoid problem situations (in 62,4 % with р≤0,01). there is also a significant predominance of zero level (ml=50,9 % against ll=26,8 % φ*=1,92 with ρ≤0.02) behavioral criterion formation, which is manifested in the immaturity of adequate communication ways (in 50,2 % with р≤0,02), lack of communicative techniques, both the use of verbal and nonverbal communication means (in 52,8 % with р≤0,02). insufficient mastery of non-situational communication forms is manifested in the lack of stable motives for communication with adults, reduced need for communication, low development of speech communication, lack of interest in contact, inability to navigate the communication situation, the predominance of protective reactions of avoidance and aggression. this creates difficulties for the full entry of such children into the new social environment and effective interaction with the environment. the study necessitates the introduction of targeted psycholinguistic and technological influence, which will increase the level of speech development of preschool children with intellectual disabilities, sufficient for the implementation of communicative and speech activities necessary for their successful communication. promising further research leads to the development and experimental testing of psycholinguistic approach technology in correctional and developmental education of the selected children category. conflict of interest: the authors declare no conflict of interest. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 360 references argyle, m. (1967). the psychology of interpersonal behavior. penguin books. 223 р. arushanova, a. g. (2005). yssledovanye razvytyia kommunykatyvnoi kompetentsyy doshkolnyka [research of preschooler’s communicative competence development]. childhood science and modern education: proceedings of the international jubilee scientific conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of a.v. cossack. school book center. (pp. 109111). centr«shkol'naja kniga» barkley, r. a. (2006). attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. a handbook for diagnosis and treatment (3rd ed.). new york: guilford 179-178 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054707305334 birdwhistell, r.-l. (1970). kinesics and context: essays on body motion and communication. philadelphie, pa: university of pennsylvania press. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812201284. boriak, o., pakhomova, n., okhrimenko, i., odynchenko, l., & usyk, d. (2021). psycholinguistic research of speech activity of junior students with intellectual disorders. applied linguistics research journal, 5(6), 104112. https://doi.org/10.14744/alrj.2021.03360 boyle, w., lindell, a., & kidd, e. (2013). investigating the role of verbal working memory in young children’s sentence comprehension. languagelearning, 63 (2), 211–242. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12003 chobanyan, a. v. (2015). peredumovy movlennievoho rozvytku dytyny z pomirnoiu rozumovoiu vidstalistiu [prerequisites for speech development of a child with moderate mental retardation]. current issues of pedagogy, psychology and vocational education, 2(2), 11−16. foursha-stevenson, c., schembri, t., nicoladis, e., &eriksen, c. (2017). the influence of child-directed speech on word learning and comprehension. journal of psycholinguistic research, 46(2), 329–343. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-016-9441-3 harasty, j., rosenthal, j. b. m., reed, v. a., & jones, a. (2009). communicative flexibility in children: its effect on judgements of communicative competence and communication disorder clinical linguistics & phonetics, 8, 141–152. https://doi.org/10.3109/02699209408985302 kleinert, j., holman, a., mcsheehan, m., & kearns, j. (2010). the importance of developing communicative competence. synthesis report, 1. university of kentucky national alternate assessment center. leontiev, a. a. (2001). language and speech activity in the general and pedagogical psychology: collected psychological works. moscow; moscow psychological social institute publishing house.. https://doi.org/10.17853/1994-5639-2017-3-120-141 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054707305334 https://doi.org/10.14744/alrj.2021.03360 https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12003 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-016-9441-3 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/02699209408985302 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/02699209408985302 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/02699209408985302 https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iclp20/current https://doi.org/10.3109/02699209408985302 https://doi.org/10.17853/1994-5639-2017-3-120-141 preschoolers with intellectual disabilities: research in communicative competence anna chobanian et al. 361 lipakova, v. i. (2014). the speech disorders specifics in children with moderate mental disorders. current issues of special education (pp. 66–69). russian state pedagogical university. a. i. herzen. lopatina, l. v., & pozdnyakova, l. a. (2006). speech therapy work on the development of preschool speech intonational expressiveness. union. loukusa, s., mäkinen, l., kuusikko-gauffin, s., ebeling, h., & leinonen, e. (2018). assessing social-pragmatic inferencing skills in children with autism spectrum disorder. journal of communication disorders, 73, 91–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2018.01.006 luria, a. r. (1998). language and consciousness. publishing house mosk. univ. marrus, n., & hall, l. (2017). intellectual disability and language disorder. child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of north america, 26(3), 539–554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2017.03.001 mervis, c. b., & john, a. e. (2010). cognitive and behavioral characteristics of children with williamssyndromeimplications for intervention approaches. american journal of medical genetics part c: seminars in medical genetics, 154 с (2), 229–248. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.c.30263 muller, a. r. (2000). social education and training of children with developmental disabilities. arctics. petrovskaya, l. a. (1989). competence in communication. socio-psychological training. moscow. ruzskaya, a.g., reinstein a.e. (1999). interpersonal relations of preschoolers: diagnostics, problems, correction. the relationship of some features of the speech of preschoolers with the level of their communication with adults. reader on the theory and methodology of the development of speech of preschool children. academy р. sheremet, m. k., tarasun, v. v., konopliasta, s. yu. & cherednichenko, n. v. (2010). speech therapy: a textbook for students of higher education institutions of the specialty "defectology". ministry of education and science of ukraine, national pedagogical university named after m. p. drahomanova 2nd edition, revised and supplemented. publishing house "slovo". smirnova, e. o., & kholmogorova, v. m. (2005). preschoolers’ interpersonal relationships: diagnosis, problems, correction. vlados publ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2018.01.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2017.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.c.30263 microsoft word brain_2_4.doc 5 design and implementation of a fully autonomous uav's navigator based on omni-directional vision system seyed mohammadreza kasaei department of computer engineering, university of isfahan, isfahan, 81746, iran mrezamk2005@yahoo.com kamal jamshidi department of computer engineering, university of isfahan, faculty of engineering, isfahan, 81746, iran jamshidi@ui.ac.ir seyed amir hassan monajemi department of computer engineering, university of isfahan, faculty of engineering, isfahan, 81746, iran abstract unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs) are the subject of an increasing interest in many applications. uavs are seeing more widespread use in military, scenic, and civilian sectors in recent years. autonomy is one of the major advantages of these vehicles. it is then necessary to develop particular sensor in order to provide efficient navigation functions. the helicopter has been stabilized with visual information through the control loop. omni directional vision can be a useful sensor for this propose. it can be used as the only sensor or as complementary sensor. in this paper , we propose a novel method for path planning on an uav based on electrical potential .we are using an omni directional vision system for navigating and path planning. keywords: uav, micro helicopter, omini drictional vision, path planning, visual servoing. 1. introduction unmanned helicopters are widely used in the area of aerial work, since they perform particular behaviors such as vertical takeoff / landing, hovering and sideslip. more over, micro helicopters can be used in narrow space, and much effort has been devoted to development and control of micro helicopters [1]. computer vision plays an important role for automatic control of unmanned helicopters [2, 3]. for example, cameras are useful to sense the position of a vehicle relative to the world coordinate frame. vision-based control is also powerful in take-offs and landings, since vision provides the precise position relative to a desired landing point. automatic control approaches for unmanned helicopters do not require skilled operators, and much effort has been devoted to development of autonomous control systems of unmanned helicopters (see for example [5, 6]). visual servoing is an approach to control motion of a helicopter using information feedback from a camera mounted on it. for their tremendous potential applications in various areas including environmental monitoring and anti-terrorism, unmanned small helicopters are being extensively studied in robotics and control in recent years. however, the research advance in dynamic control of small helicopters is limited due to highly coupled nonlinear dynamics and the existence of various uncertainties. many people studied controller design based on a publisher item identifier. linearized or simplified model, but the controllers developed under linearized models cannot guarantee dynamic stability rigorously. another effort is application of modern non-linear control theory to helicopter control because small helicopter are good test beds for sophisticated control techniques for their small size and highly coupled dynamics [4]. brainovations brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 figure 1. the use of visual servo control for helicopter stabilization visual feedback control systems can be divided into two main classes: position-based control and image-based control [9], [11]. position-based control estimates the pose of the controlled object with respect to the camera in the task space (cartesian space). the reference signal is defined in the task space, and the control input is computed by using errors between the pose of the controlled object and the reference. this class of systems requires 3d reconstruction of the controlled object by fusing image features. positionbased control may become sensitive to camera calibration errors. on the other hand, image-based control defines the reference signal in the image space, and it uses the image jacobian to compute the control input. the image jacobian, say j, gives a transformation from the tangent space of the generalized coordinate space to the tangent space of the image space. in this paper, we propose a novel method for navigating and path planning on an uav based on electrical potential and omni directional vision system. we will at first describe the vision system configuration and after that focus on our scientific approaches in image processing and feature extraction and then trajectory. finally, concludes this paper. 2. vision system configuration omni-directional vision systems can provide images with a 360 degree of field of view. for this reason, they can be useful to robotic applications such as navigation, teleportation and visual servoing. omnidirectional vision systems are devices that combine reflective elements (catoptrics) and refractive systems (dioptric) to form a projection onto the image plane of the camera. they can be classified as central and noncentral catadioptric cameras according to the single effective viewpoint criteria. baker and nayar [14,15], define the configurations that satisfy the constraints of a single viewpoint, finding that a central catadioptric system can be built combining a perspective camera with a hyperbolic, elliptical or planar mirror, or using an orthographic camera with a parabolic mirror. geyer and daniilidis [16,17] proposed an unified model for the projective geometry induced by central catadioptric systems, showing that these projections are isomorphic to a projective mapping from a sphere (centered on the effective viewpoint) to a plane with the projection center on the perpendicular axis to the plane. a modified version of this unified model is presented by barreto and araujo in [18,19], where the mapping between points in the 3d world and points in the catadioptric image plane is split into three steps: 1. a linear function maps the world into an oriented projective plane. s. m. kasaei, k. jamshidi, s. a. h. monajemi design and implementation of a fully autonomous uav's navigator based on omni-directional vision system 7 2. a non-linear function transforms points between two oriented projective planes. 3. a collineation function depending on the mirror parameters and the camera calibration matrix (intrinsic parameters). table 1. parameters ψ and ξ for central catadioptric systems (d is distance between focus and 4p is the lactus rectum) parabolic hyperbolic elliptical planar ψ 1 0 ξ 1+2p 1 fig.2 shows the general unit sphere projection for modeling catadioptric systems. consider a point in space (visible to the catadioptric system), with cartesian coordinates in the catadioptric reference (focus). this point is mapped onto point on the unitary sphere centered on the effective view point by eq. (1). figure 2. catadioptric projection modelled by the unit sphere the effective view point by eq. (1) (1) to each projective point xs, corresponds a projective point in a coordinate system with origin at the camera projection center. this projection is a non-linear mapping between two projective planes and is defined by eq. (2). (2) where brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 since the beginning of uav, the map building was one of the most addressed problems by researchers. several researchers used omni directional vision for robot navigation and map building. because of the wide field of view in omni directional sensors, the robot does not need to look around using moving parts (cameras or mirrors) or turning the moving parts. the global view offered by omni directional vision is especially suitable for highly dynamic environments. the omni directional vision system consists of a hyperbolic mirror, a usb color digital camera (logitech c905) and a regulation device. 3. image processing and feature extraction color space : we used to use the hsi color space for segmentation, but in practice we found some limitation especially in i and h parameters. as a result of a search for a more suitable color space, we concluded that we should combine the parameters of different color spaces and introduce a new color space[7]. in this way a color space named h'sy. where the h' is taken from cielab, s from hsi and y from yiq color spaces. we have obtained satisfactory results from this new color space. the reason for this selection is that, the component y in yiq represents the conversion of a color image into a monochrome image. therefore, comparing with i in hsi which is simply the average of r, g and b, the component y is a better mean for measuring the pixel intensity in an image. the component h' in cielab is defined as follows: ) (3) where a* denotes relative redness-greenness and b* shows yellowness-blueness. the reason for selection h' is that, it has been reported that h' is a good measure for detecting regions matching a given color. manual segmentation training: the output of camera in this system is in rgb color space. in training stage, we put the uav in field and run a program which convert rgb values of each pixel into h'sy components as described above. however, to obtain a relatively good segmentation, by try and error, we find the minimum and maximum range value for each parameter h', s and y such that the interval in between covers for example almost all tones of red color seen in the specific object. doing this, we put the object and uav in different location on the field and update the interval range for red color. the same procedure is done for the remarking color (other objects). at the end of training stage a lut(look up table) is constructed which can assign any rgb to a color code (each objects has a specific color code). auto segmentation training: manual segmentation training was hard and very time consuming and rely to operator's accuracy, so we developed a color calibration algorithm using svm(support vector machine). in this subsection, we present a color recognition algorithm using the support vector machine (svm).svm is one of the classification algorithms which it has high generality since it can calculate a super plane that maximizes the margin of classes, fig.3.[8] in our algorithm, the svm is trained by the h'sy values of the classes and the mean of the obtained image h'sy values. after training, the obtained image is binarized by setting the maximum and minimum value in the distribution of each class as a threshold. s. m. kasaei, k. jamshidi, s. a. h. monajemi design and implementation of a fully autonomous uav's navigator based on omni-directional vision system 9 figure 3. the principle of svm. in instance, the image in fig. 4 was binarized manually (however, the person in charge of color adjustment is professional) and by using svm resulting in fig.5 figure 4. images binarized by hand. figure 5. images binarized by svm. to evaluate the performance of the developed algorithm, we compare ten different images obtained from our experiment field. we consider the similarity of manually and svm binarized images as the recognition rate of svm. the results are shown in table 2. the mean of the recognition rates are over 90 percent in each class. the time, to convert result of svm classification to the binarized image, is about 15 seconds. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 table 2. experiment result. red black green white 98 96.05 94.28 98.57 object detection algorithm: the image processing algorithm first filters the image by using a lut that make in segmentation training and then recognizes the contiguous regions through either a breadth first search or a depth first search algorithm and finally extracts the positions by looking in the image to ground map table. the algorithm used to find objects is optimized to process the maximum number of frames. first, it searches the pixels by swiping them with certain steps, when it finds a desired one and detects that object, saves its coordinates so the next time it can start back with the same point about. we are trying to evaluate new methods to find some kinds of objects based on pattern recognition to reduce the effect of changing the colors on algorithm. 4. trajectory since the motion trajectory of uav is divided into several median points that the uav should reach them one by one in a sequence the output obtained after the execution of ai will be a set of position and velocity vectors. so the task of the trajectory will be to guide the uav through the obstacles to reach the destination. the routine used for this purpose is the potential field method (also an alternative new method is in progress which models the uav motion through opponents same as the owing of a bulk of water through obstacles) [5]. in this method, different electrical charges are assigned to uav, obstacles, and the destination. then by calculating the potential field of this system of charges a path will be suggested for the uav. at a higher level, predictions can be used to anticipate the position of the obstacles and make better decisions in order to reach the desired vector. in our pathplanning algorithm, an articial potential field is set up in the space; that is, each point in the space is assigned a scalar value. the value at the goal point is set to be 0 and the value of the potential at all other points is positive. the potential at each point has two contributions: a goal force that causes the potential to increase with path distance from the goal, and an obstacle force that increases in inverse proportion to the distance to the nearest obstacle boundary (figures 3 and 4). figure 6. goal force in other words, the potential is lowest at the goal, large at points far from the goal, and large at points next to obstacles (4) if the potential is suitably defined, then if a uav starts at any point in the space and always moves in the direction of the steepest negative potential slope, then the uav will move towards the s. m. kasaei, k. jamshidi, s. a. h. monajemi design and implementation of a fully autonomous uav's navigator based on omni-directional vision system 11 goal while avoiding obstacles. the numerical potential field path planner is guaranteed to produce a path even if the start or goal is placed in an obstacle. if there is no possible way to get from the start to the goal without passing through an obstacle then the path planner will generate a path through the obstacle, although if there is any alternative then the path will do that instead. for this reason, it is important to make sure that there is some possible path, although there are ways around this restriction such as returning an error if the potential at the start point is too high. the path is found by moving to the neighboring square with the lowest potential, starting at any point in the space and stopping when the goal is reached. figure 7. obstacle force (repulsive potential) and goal force obstacle force figure 8. potential at every point; it is highest in the obstacles and lowest at the goal. 5. conclusion we have presented the system for a fully autonomous navigation of an uav based on omni directional vision system and image processing. we explain vision system configuration ,image processing and feature extraction methods and finaly suggest an algorithm based on potential field for navigation of an uav. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 figure 9. trajectory algorithm simulation. references [1] s. bouabdallah, m. becker, and r. siegwart, autonomous miniature flying robots, ieee robotics and automation magazine, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 8898, 2007. [2] b. ludington, e. johnson, and g. vachtsevanos, augmenting uav autonomy: vision-based navigation and target tracking for unmanned aerial vehicles, ieee robotics and automation magazine ,vol . 13, no. 3, pp. 6371, 2006. [3] l.merino, j.wiklund, f. caballero, a.moe, j. dios, p. forss en, k. nordberg, and a. ollero, " vision-based multi-uav position estimation: localization based on blob features for exploration missions," ieee robotics and automation magazine, vol. 13,no. 3, pp. 5362, 2006. [4] yun-hui liu, yipin chen and hesheng wang, "adaptive visual servoing of autonomous helicopters," sice annual conference, the university electro-communications, japan, august 2022, 2008. [5] s. hamidreza kasaei, s. mohammadreza kasaei, s. alireza kasaei, s. amir hassan monadjemi, mohsen taheri, modeling and implementation of a fully autonomous soccer robot based on omni directional vision system, industrial robot: an international journal volume: 37 issue: 3 2010. [6] l. merino, j. wiklund, f. caballero, a. moe, j. dios, p. forss en, k. nordberg, and a. ollero, " vision-based multi-uav position estimation: localization based on blob features for exploration missions," ieee robotics and automation magazine, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 53-62, 2006 [7] m.jamzad, b.s.sajad, v.s.mirrokni, m.kazemi, h.chitsaz, a.heidarnoori,m.t.hajiaghai, and e.chiniforooshan, "a fast vision system for middle size robots in robocup," robocup 2001: robot soccer world cup v, isbn number 978-3-54043912-7 , 2002. [8] amir a.f. nassiraei, shuichi ishida, noriyuki shinpuku, miyuki hayashi, naoya hirao, kazunori fujimoto, kazutaka fukuda, kazutomo takanaka, ivan godler, kazuo ishii and hiroyuki miyamoto "hibikino-musashi team description paper," in proc. robocup publisher,team description of middle size robots, 2011. [9] k. hashimoto. "a review on vision-based control of robot manipulators.," advanced robotics,17(10):969991, 2003. s. m. kasaei, k. jamshidi, s. a. h. monajemi design and implementation of a fully autonomous uav's navigator based on omni-directional vision system 13 [10] opengl architecture review board, "opengl 2.0 specification," available at http://www.opengl.org. [11] s. hutchinson, g. d. hager, and p. i. corke. a tutorial on visual servo control," ieee trans. on robotics and automation,12(5):651670, 1996. [12] m. j. schulte and j. e. stine, approximating elementary functions with symmetric bipartite tables, ieee trans. computers, vol. 48, no. 8, pp.842847, 1999. [13] m. j. schulte and e. e. swartzlander, hardware designs for exactly rounded elementary functions, ieee trans. computers, vol. 43, no. 8, pp. 964973, 1994. [14] s. nayar, s. baker, a theory of catadioptric image formation, tech report cucs-015-97, department of computer science, columbia university, 1997. [15] s. baker, s.k.nayar, a theory of single-viewpoint catadioptric image formation, international journal of computer vision 35 (2) (1999) 122. [16] c. geyer, k. daniilidis, a unifying theory for central panoramic systems and practical applications, in: eccv, vol. 2, 2000, pp. 445461. [17] c. geyer, k. daniilidis, catadioptric projective geometry, international journal of computer vision 43 (2001) 223243. [18] j.a. barreto, h. araujo, issues on the geometry of central catadioptric image formation, computer vision and pattern recognition, 2001, cvpr 2001, in: proceedings of the 2001 ieee computer society conference on 2, vol. 2, 2001, pp. ii-422ii-427, doi:10.1109/cvpr.2001.990992. [19] j.a. barreto,h. araujo, geometric properties of central catadioptric line images, in: eccv 02: proceedings of the 7th european conference on computer vision-part iv, springer-verlag, london, uk, 2002, pp. 237251 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 138-151 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/358 submitted: december 14th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic personality development liliya tomich 1 , oksana martsyniakdorosh 2 , neonila partyko 3 , olena kiparenko 4 , nataliia mateiko 5 , liliia boiaryn 6 1 kyiv national university of technology and design (knutd), ukraine, liliya_tomich@ukr.net 2 lviv polytechnic national university, ukraine, m0678119901@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5969-1665 3 lviv polytechnic national university, ukraine, voloshyna2010@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2904-2760 4 odessa i. i. mechnikov national university, ukraine, elena.kiparenko@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8577-0108 5 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, mnm2807@ukr.net 6 institute of postgraduate pedagogical education of chernivtsi region, ukraine, lvm.cv.ua@ukr.net abstract: in the given article, we analyze the features, preconditions and mechanisms of neurotic personality development under the influence of psychological factors. a character portrait of a neurotic personality is described. the stages of personality neuroticism are considered, from emotional reactions to subjectively significant traumatic events to neurotic personality development. a detailed theoretical and methodological analysis is provided. neurotic traits of a healthy personality are characterized. the article suggests various integration options for psychotherapeutic methods in combination with neuro-psychic correction of emotional, personal, cognitive and behavioral disorders that characterize the neurotic development of personality. it is noted that competently integrated, systemic, complex and individual approaches should be implemented in the psychotherapeutic process. neuropsychocorrective influence on emotional-cognitive and behavioral disorders of neurotic nature should be implemented in stages, where the neuropsychological tasks become more complex and where psychotherapeutic goals are combined with the methods of body-oriented psychotherapy, holotropic therapy and art therapy. we also point out the necessity of competent development and implementation of a neuropsychocorrection program in combination with psychotherapy of those disorders that are associated with the localization of certain mental functions in the cerebral cortex. keywords: pathocharacterological personality changes; neurotic traits; internal conflicts; neurotic personality; emotional reactions; traumatic situations; neurotic states; psychotherapeutic methods. how to cite: tomich, l., martsyniak-dorosh, o., partyko, n., kiparenko, o., mateiko, n., & boiaryn, l. (2022). psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic personality development. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 138-151. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/358 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/358 mailto:liliya_tomich@ukr.net mailto:m0678119901@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5969-1665 mailto:voloshyna2010@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2904-2760 mailto:elena.kiparenko@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8577-0108 mailto:mnm2807@ukr.net mailto:lvm.cv.ua@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/358 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 139 introduction neuroticism is undoubtedly triggered by psychological factors and the emotional response of a modern man to the instability of social situations such as economic turbulence, pandemics, ecological catastrophes and mass unemployment. the threat from the external world and the contradiction of the internal one are hopeless socio-psychological conditions of deprivation of an individual’s actual needs and neuroticism of the personality. at the psychopath characterological level, neurotic personality development is caused by unfavorable psychological factors and, in clinical psychology, is defined as "acquired" psychopathy. possible emotional, cognitive and behavioral disorders with anxiety, depression, and hysterical, neurasthenic and hypochondriac symptoms require psychotherapy and neuropsychocorrection. it is the purpose of the given article to theoretically analyze the features of neurotic personality development and to propose an integrative approach to psychotherapy of complex disorders that accompany psychogenic pathological character formation with neuropsychocorrection of emotional-cognitive and behavioral disorders. the novelty and practical significance of the article lie in the deepening of scientific ideas about the preconditions, features and mechanisms of personality neuroticism, as well as the integration of psychotherapeutic methods to provide psychological assistance to a neurotic client. the findings of the theoretical and methodological studies of peculiarities and mechanisms of neurotic personality development are valuable for the scientific view of the essence of neuroticism and the content-dynamic structure of the psychological development of a neurotic personality. the findings also provide ideas for the integrative application of psychotherapeutic and psychocorrectional methods to mitigate the course of neurotic processes at the psychophysiological, emotional-cognitive and personal levels. experience of modern psychotherapeutic methods in combination with neuropsychocorrective techniques can be successfully applied to clinical practice and mental health centers for psychological and psychotherapeutic assistance to clients with personal problems of neurotic nature. psychotherapy and neuropsychocorrection of cognitive, emotional and behavioral disorders in the neurotic development of personality is an extremely important applied problem in related applied sciences and psychological practice. psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... liliya tomich et al. 140 theoretical analysis of neurotic personality development features negative psychological factors can trigger neurotic traits, forming a neurotic personality. persistent characterological changes associated with many emotional cognitive and personality disorders are called neurotic personality development or pathocharacterological development. depending on the intensity of the situations, the chronic conditions range within neurotic symptoms like sleep disorders, asthenia, depression, emotional lability, heart pain, sweating and mood swings. they can root in a peculiar form of neurotic personality development of an individual who is hysterical, neurasthenic, and may display signs of compulsive-obsessive disorders. contemporary clinical psychology has various opinions on neurotic personality development. the neurotic level of pathocharacterological changes in personality brought about by psychological factors is superficial, whereas a deeper level of personality changes is psychotic, associated with genetic disorders. sometimes a pathological change of character is recognized as psychopathy and accentuation (as incorrect personality formation). however, neurotic development is a consequence of personality deformation under the influence of psychological stress factors that cause persistent character fluctuations. pathocharacterological development is associated with a psychogenic pathological formation of character and personality in general, improper upbringing and trauma. not only stress but also unhealthy diet, malnutrition, lack of sleep, and chronic fatigue can trigger a nervous breakdown. if social living conditions are normalized, it balances the neuropsychological status and improves psychological adaptation. in the context of our theoretical and methodological research, the following topics present the highest scientific value: modern psychotherapeutic methods and integrative approach to their application (karpenko, 2015); peculiarities of emotional response to traumatic events and reactions to internal conflicts (huidu, 2018; nerubasska et al., 2020; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020; schneider, 1999; sheremet et al., 2019; titova, 2006); neurotic personality traits (horney, 2016); methodological approaches to the provision of psychological assistance (bezliudnyi et al., 2019; turynina, 2017); neuropsychological provisions on the brain localization of mental functions (demchenko et al., 2021; titova, 2006). a few works by reputed researchers are particularly valuable for the theoretical and methodological study of neurotic personality development broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 141 features. thus, widiger and oltmanns (2017) characterized the neurotic personality traits by low-stress resistance, indecisiveness, anxiety, frequent fears, affectivity, mood swings, emotional instability, and general proclivity for depression. a high level of neuroticism drives work productivity down when aggravated by emotional anxiety, exhaustion, distraction, and a wide range of psychopathological and physical health problems. neuroticism is recognized as a personality disorder and a characteristic of psychopathology. aldinger et al. (2014) studied various forms of neuroticism development from teenage period to adolescence, associated with differences in depression, anxiety and daily emotional experiences. turiano et al. (2020) believe that neuroticism can perform a protective function of the psyche. they explain that people with explicit neuroticism may be more likely to seek professional help to improve health than people with low levels of neuroticism, depending on personality traits, life circumstances, status, cognitive abilities, or gender. shiner (2019) argues that, compared to people who are more emotionally stable, people with high levels of neuroticism, from childhood to adulthood, have a stronger emotional response to stress, they experience greater mood swings, greater levels of fear and anxiety in stressful situations, more irritation and frustration when their desires are not satisfied, and greater sorrow when they face loss. barlow et al. (2014) believe that neuroticism is related to anxiety and mood disorders, and consider their comprehensive therapy. according to gershuny and sher (1998), a combination of high neuroticism and low extraversion may play a favorable aetiological role in the manifestations of anxiety. the neurotic character can be represented by a set of explicit destructive and inconsistent personality traits and prevents the exercise of active moral and educational influence. thus, neurotic traits are factors that distort the style of professional activity of the teacher. they signify disruption of relationships and professional problems. the dominating psychological factor in the development of neuroticism in the teacher's personality is the violation of their spiritual and moral self-awareness. it causes an inconsistency in the content of characterological traits at the declared and behavioral levels. neuroticism in this case is manifested in a complex of destructive character features caused by the immaturity of the spiritual and moral spheres that reflect pride, egocentrism, vanity, externality, distrust of people, lying, unscrupulousness, and irresponsibility. it is also caused by deviations of the emotional and volitional sphere of personality, emotional instability, and weak self-control. the structure of the neurotic psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... liliya tomich et al. 142 nature of the teacher's personality can be recognized by inconsistency, irrational actions, inconsistency of traits, mercurial nature. the opposites of neurotic traits are flexibility, gentleness, calmness, humility, patience, and kindness. nurturing these qualities underlies the psychotherapeutic care for a teacher with neurotic personality (pavlik, 2012). in psychology, there is a classification of psychosomatic effects of traumatic situations on a person in terms of the main dynamic stages. thus, we distinguish non-pathological psychophysiological reaction that usually lasts for several days; a psychogenic adaptive reaction that lasts up to six months and on a psychological level is characterized by a neurotic level of disorders, asthenic, depressive and hysterical syndromes; neurotic state that lasts from three to five years and characterized by neurosis of exhaustion, obsession, hysteria, and at the social level it is characterized by loss of critical understanding and opportunities for purposeful activity, a high degree of inconsistency and inconsistency of personality structure, interpersonal conflicts. the neurotic state is transformed into the neurotic personality development with developing psychopathy, whereas pathological personality development manifests itself after three to five years of stable neurotic disorders (turynina, 2017, pp. 54-55). from this perspective, neuroticism, ranging from emotional reactions to subjectively significant traumatic events to neurotic disorders, evolves through the following stages: neurotic reaction neurotic state neurotic personality development neurotic disorders. further, we provide a detailed theoretical and methodological analysis of the consolidation of inadequate (neurotic) reactions to stress and their long-term transformation into pathocharacterological changes, neurotic states and neurotic personality development. according to horney (2016), neurotic personality displays neurotic traits of character. they struggle to achieve goals, often postpone work tasks, subconsciously try to reduce their success, succumb to external suggestions and manipulations, experience hostility to others, have trust issues. such individuals suffer from anxiety, lack of self-confidence and the feeling of inferiority, which is reflected in complaints and anxiety. they have a compulsive desire to impress other people, demonstrate inhibition in refusal or requests. they are often unable to defend themselves in verbal attacks; emotional dependence makes them irritable. this being said, they can unreasonably deny their aggression. they also often show the neurotic need for love and a sense of guilt, as well as fears of failure, and mistakes, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 143 they are often afraid of getting closer to people, being who they really are, expressing their emotions. moreover, neurosis can develop in a healthy individual without internal distortions, as a response to an external situation filled with conflict. the described manifestations, of course, aren’t featured in one person, and not all of them. there are general psychological mechanisms of their detection: a neurotic person evaluates others through the prism of their own needs, subconsciously sees in others those positive character traits that they don’t find in themselves, and recognize those negative qualities that are present in this neurotic person. the cognitive perception of the world in such an individual is closely intertwined with emotions. they often suffer from various fears, hostility and distrust towards people, low reflection, inability to objectively assess and analyze reality. all of these features along with prioritizing love and sex hurt relationships. the relationships poisoned with self-rejection and rejection of others, distrust and irritability, inadequate expectations with guilt or accusations, is undoubtedly fraught with internal conflicts. these features further promote personal and characterological reactions inherent to a certain form of neurotic personality development. we assume that neurotic traits and personal prerequisites for the development of neurotic disorders can be detected in a healthy person as well. maladaptive behavior, narcissism, and inhibitedness are some of them. personal characteristics of the neurotic composition (deformation) can significantly affect the transformation of a typical stressful situation usually causing only low-intensity stress into a traumatic situation with a low level of the mental stability of the individual with neurotic reactions to stress. there are also reactions to internal events: internal tension, emotional instability, internal conflicts. reactions to internal conflicts are always associated with certain individuals, almost always sensitive and insecure (schneider, 1999). neurotic type of response is peculiar to a potential neurotic individual, who has the appropriate individual psychological characteristics, relative stubbornness, adaptation issues, difficulty switching from one case to another, and fragile self-esteem (it ranges from inadequately inflated to significantly underestimated) (titovа, 2006). an important component of any psychotherapy session is guiding the client in their choice of the appropriate psychological response. to illustrate, beck (2018) suggests useful questions for identifying dysfunctional cognitions and responses: “what are other ways to look at this situation?”, psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... liliya tomich et al. 144 “what is the worst thing that can happen?”, “if your friend ends up in such a situation, what would you advise them?” and other. from our point of view, when treating neurotic personality disorders bordering with various functions of mental activity and, first of all, cognitive and emotional as well as psychological adaptation, it is important to pay attention to such techniques as decatastrophizing of fears, restructuring of thoughts, and analysis of positive experience. these techniques facilitate the formation of emotional, cognitive and behavioral mechanisms of psychological adaptation. the effectiveness criterion of these mechanisms is adequate emotional reactions as a closing component in the development and hierarchy of cognitions: deep beliefs intermediate beliefs (rules, relationships, assumptions) situation automatic thoughts reaction (emotional, physiological, behavioral). the psychophysiological mechanism of neurosis has its own specificity. at a certain point in time, the brain experiences a simultaneous excitation of two reciprocal centers. this can happen for a number of reasons: 1) increased physiological readiness for action, 2) the influence of a strong stimulus, 3) the action of the first two factors in a certain proportion. while one of the foci of excitation is inhibited, the other acquires a working effect. it is the center that receives stronger stimulation that slows down; accordingly, the one that receives smaller pulses remains in the state of excitation. this usually ends with the so-called inhibitory stage of the nervous reaction, when both centers are inhibited. in this case, inhibition should not be considered as inaction. inhibition allows excitement to find its limits and a vector. the specificity of the neurosis situation is that the stage of inhibition does not occur. instead, there is a so-called ultra-paradoxical stage, which is characterized by a "reversal" of nervous processes: the center of excitation is inhibited, and the center of inhibition is excited. the ultraparadoxical stage appears instead of the inhibition stage. neurotic conditions are inert. it is the neurodynamic inertia that preconditions the formation of so-called dysplasty, when two antagonistic centers become not dichotomous (directly opposite "either that or that"), but identical (unity of opposites "both that and not that"). in other words, we are talking about the formation of the absurd at the level of logic, which becomes possible through a special kind of ambivalent emotion. psychotherapy seeks to reach the stage of inhibition because inhibition is constantly incomplete. in nonmedical psychotherapy, this phenomenon is called "unsuccessful displacement" (classical psychoanalysis), or "incomplete gestalt" (gestalt broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 145 therapy). client-centered therapy achieves inhibition by overexciting individual emotions through their artificial amplification. the therapist is supposed to emphatically stimulate the client’s previously inhibited emotions and their reflection (reverse imitation). logotherapy proved to be quite creative in some methods, as it actually repeats the ultra-paradoxical stage of the nervous reaction (the method of paradoxical intention): by purposeful actions the subject would accelerate certain centers of the nervous reaction and inhibit others that were less appropriate in physiological or social terms (maziar, 2017). speaking about psychotherapy of the neurotic personality development disorders of an individual under the influence of psychological factors, effective results can be achieved through the integrative retri practice based on the aqal approach. it combines techniques of psychotherapy and psychological self-help. sandomirskiy (2017) believes that in order to be relevant to the current needs of society, psychological care must be closer to reality through a combination of the key principles. 1. integration of practices that help. this is the approach, which combines tradition and modernity, psyche and body. it is formed through the integration of classical existential therapy and bodily tools of psychological care that allow effective correction bypassing preconscious censorship, maladaptive psychological defenses, resistance and bodily-emotional escapism with a modern approach to neurosomatics and neurophenomenology. 2. social accessibility. in periods of social transformations and bifurcations in the development of society, its culture, mentality and mental health undergo change as well. individual and social psychological care changes as a response to social change and becomes more accessible, “closer to the people”. in the tideway of these changes, technologies of mass social psychotherapy, as well as self-help (western approach), or external help practices (oriental approach), or their synthesis are becoming increasingly relevant. intensifying the client's thoughts about the relationship between their experience and the traumatic event is an important psychotherapeutic task. the emphasis is placed on the resolution of neurotic conflict through the analysis of reactions to a traumatic event. psychology practice distinguishes three methodological approaches. the first is based on the idea of the dependence of the effectiveness of correction of mental disorders on knowledge of the aetiology (preconditions) and pathogenesis (development of painful symptoms) of these disorders. pathogenetic psychotherapy serves psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... liliya tomich et al. 146 as an example of this approach. the second approach, which is utilized through nlp techniques, follows from the assumption that by influencing specific manifestations of mental disorders, it is possible to achieve a general improvement in mental state. the third approach is based on the study of the structural components of traumatic stress and specific post-traumatic conditions in order to influence them with various psychocorrectional methods. in this way, if a client complains about a loss of sense of life, a therapist ought to work with the client’s emotional states; if a client is suffering from insomnia or regular nightmares the therapist pays attention to optimization of anxiety levels. specific methods of correction of mental states (rational, transmeditative, cognitive, behavioral, personality-oriented therapy, gestalt therapy, art therapy, creative self-expression) are applied within the third approach. along with this, age and a specific type of trauma are considered (turynina, 2017). ignoring neurotic manifestations such as mood swings, inadequate anxiety, aggression, apathy, irritability, poor sleep, fears or phobias can cause chronic nervous tension, neurotic states, and later neurosis. neurosis is a functional neuropsychiatric disorder that develops over a long period of time. it can be prevented by means of timely diagnosis of personal preconditions for the neurotic manifestations, elimination of their causes and correction of emotional disorders. according to khan et al. (2020), the detection of neurotic personality traits contributes to the right choice of treatment methods. psychotherapy and neuropsychocorrection of emotional, cognitive, behavioral and personality disorders in connection with the neurotic personality development psychotherapy of emotional and personal disorders associated with neurotic development stems from the client's effort to resolve internal conflicts, activate internal resources for personal freedom, emotional independence, responsibility for their lives, self-development and adaptive potential. these efforts can delay neurotic mental disorders and normalize nervous mental state. neurotic personality development comes with strong internal emotional turmoil over subjectively significant problems for the client. these problems often prove to be exaggerated fears, but serve as the basis of neuroticism and cause severe cognitive dissonance. neurotic personality, on the one hand, seeks contact with the world, and on the other, its motivational sphere is distorted by fears and mistrust. these broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 147 psychological barriers inhibit self-realization and frustrate social needs, which further makes the client act destructively. gestalt therapeutic methods encourage understanding of ambivalence and testing possible choices in desires, needs, emotions, fulfillment of social roles with the prospect of successful resolution of personal problems of a neurotic nature. they stimulate the internal resources for overcoming neurotic personality problems. personality-oriented therapy allows changing the attitude to a neurotic problem and a traumatic situation, forming readiness to take internal responsibility for the change of the situation or unfavorable circumstances. methods of logotherapy and positive psychotherapy push the client to consider negative situations and people they don’t find nice in a positive context and discover their meaning. cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy can help restructure thoughts and change behavior. psychotherapy of neurotic disorders in connection with neurotic development should combine neuropsychocorrection of emotional, cognitive and behavioral disorders, as well as competently integrated, systemic, comprehensive and individual approaches. the purpose of the planned neuropsychocorrection is to reduce nervous and mental stress, anxiety, neurotic reactions, normalize health, mood and mental states, improve mental self-regulation and muscle relaxation. the neurocorrectional impact on the emotional, cognitive and behavioral disorders should have a phased character, with gradually complicated neuropsychological tasks and should comprehensively embrace psychotherapeutic goals, using methods of body-oriented psychotherapy, holotropic breathwork and art therapy. a combination of cognitivebehavioral approaches with meditative and autosuggestion techniques that help reduce anxiety will be effective for both neurosis, which is diagnosed with pathological uncertainty, and emotional disorders of the neurotic personality with psychosomatic reactions. autogenic training is often recommended for depression, phobias and sleep disorders. behavioral psychotherapy in combination with neuropsychocorrective methods is one of the most efficient in helping a client with neurotic behavioral disorders. clinical psychology (titova, 2006) recognizes the large hemispheres of the brain and cortex to be an important apparatus for regulating and creating new behavioral programs in the human mind. therefore, it is a professional task of a psychologist or a psychotherapist to determine the root of the mental process in the brain, to study in detail the structure of the psychological process, to understand its psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... liliya tomich et al. 148 organization inside the human brain, and identify those links that can be attributed to certain brain systems. in our opinion, establishing the consistency of certain disorders (emotional, cognitive, behavioral) with the analysis of the "location" of their functional mental components in the brain systems will certainly allow competent development and implementation of neuropsychocorrection program in combination with psychotherapy of those disorders that are associated with the localization of certain mental functions in the cerebral cortex. the effectiveness of the combination of art therapy and neuropsychocorrective methods to fix neurotic and psychosomatic disorders has been confirmed by many modern researchers. psychotherapy uses a lot of simple but valuable techniques (kovaliovа, 2017). to illustrate, the techniques of correct diaphragmatic breathing (performed in 15-20 breathing cycles) has proven to relieve tension in the solar plexus and abdominal organs, switch attention from experience to sensation, as the body perceives abdominal breathing as a signal to relax. this technique can be used in stressful situations. another curious technique is creating images of bodily sensations in the imagination (thus, turning unpleasant images into desirable ones, keeping attention on sensations and developing the skill of transforming unpleasant sensations into images of their harmonization). for example, "spring cleaning" when you need to tidy up your body: identify clutter, and, basically, declutter the inner space. it is also possible to consolidate a positive image by making a piece of art. the result is a transformation: fear, tension a feeling in the body the image of discomfort the desired image the product of creativity. integration of methods centered on symptoms, personality qualities and social interaction (karpenko, 2015), therapy and spiritual practices (leitner, 2018), psychotherapy and meditation (welwood, 1984), transpersonal psychological approach and spiritual priorities (cunningham, 2007) often provides the best therapeutic effect. in general, all therapeutic approaches differ not so much in relation to a single object, which is the individual, but they concentrate on various aspects and problems of personality. it explains the differences in the psychotherapy methods and the diversity of their classifications. none of the existing methods is the best. they pursue different goals and apply to different clients. the choice of methods depends on the personality of the psychotherapist, the level of their professional training and theoretical orientation (karpenko, 2015). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 149 conclusion neurotic personality development is associated primarily with the psychological factor. the destructive impact begins with a maladaptive emotional response to psycho-traumatic events. neurotic development is accompanied by pathocharacterological changes, internal conflicts, fear of not being accepted, aggression, responsibility, intimacy, expectations, trust and submission. to achieve a psychotherapeutic effect, it is reasonable to combine different options for the integration of psychotherapeutic methods in combination with neuropsychocorrection of emotional, personal, cognitive and behavioral disorders. preconditions, features and psychological mechanisms of neurotic personality development should also be part of the equation. along with it, the psychotherapeutic process should encompass competently integrated, systemic, comprehensive and individual approaches. it is important to develop and implement a neuropsychocorrection program in combination with psychotherapy for those disorders that are associated with the localization of certain mental functions in the cerebral cortex. references aldinger, m., stopsack, m., & ulrich, i. (2014). neuroticism developmental courses implications for depression, anxiety and everyday emotional experience; a prospective study from adolescence to young adulthood. bmc psychiatry, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-014-0210-2 barlow, d. h., sauer-zavala, s., carl, j. r., bullis, j. r., & ellard, k. k. (2014). the nature, diagnosis, and treatment of neuroticism: back to the future. clinical psychological science, 2(3), 344–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613505532 beck, j. (2018). ksegnitivn-psevedencheskaya terapiya. szt sesnsev k napravpeniyam [cognitive behavior therapy: basics and beyond] (2nd ed.). moscow: piter. bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1585. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf cunningham, p. f. (2007). the challenges, prospects, and promise of transpersonal psychology. international journal of transpersonal studies, volume, 26(1), 41-55. https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2007.26.1.41 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-014-0210-2 https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613505532 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2007.26.1.41 psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... liliya tomich et al. 150 research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 gershuny, b. s., & sher, k. j. (1998). the relation between personality and anxiety: findings from a 3-year prospective study. journal of abnormal psychology, 107(2), 252–262. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843x.107.2.252 horney, k. (2016). nevroticheskaya lichnost' nashego vremeni [the neurotic personality of our time]. https://edu.ruscenter.ru/upload/iblock/250/karen_khorni_._nevrotichesk aya_lichnost.pdf huidu, a. (2019). the psychopathology of serial killers. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 3(1), 38-54. https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.19 karpenko, y. (2015). metody sutchasnoyi terapiyi [methods of modern psychotherapy: textbook]. drohobytch: posvit. khan, s. i. r., rao, d., ramachandran, a., ashok, b. v., & baskaradoss, k. k. (2020). neurotic personality trait as a predictor in the prognosis of composite restorations: a 24-month clinical follow up study. scientific reports, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96229-3 kovaliova, y. v. (2017). profilaktika i korretsiya psikhologitcheskikh travm u detei shkolnogo vozrasta [prevention and correction of psychological trauma and psychosomatic conditions in school-age children resulting from pedagogical errors]. https://psy-org.ru/up/files/antologya/2017-v3.pdf leitner, а. (2018). integrative therapy und psychosomatics. https://nanopdf.com/download/integrative-therapie-und-psychosomatikdas-verstndnis-von_pdf maziar, о. v. (2017). psykhofiziolohitchni umovy nevrotytchnoho rozvytku osobystosti [psychophysiological conditions of neurotic personality development]. proceedings of the international scientific-practical conference, kyiv, ukraine, july 14-15, 2017 (pp. 93-95). кiev: kyiv scientific organization of pedagogy and psychology. http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/26166/1/психофізіологічні%20умови%20нев ротичного%20розвитку%20особистості.pdf nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843x.107.2.252 https://edu.ruscenter.ru/upload/iblock/250/karen_khorni_._nevroticheskaya_lichnost.pdf https://edu.ruscenter.ru/upload/iblock/250/karen_khorni_._nevroticheskaya_lichnost.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.19 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96229-3 https://psy-org.ru/up/files/antologya/2017-v3.pdf https://nanopdf.com/download/integrative-therapie-und-psychosomatik-das-verstndnis-von_pdf https://nanopdf.com/download/integrative-therapie-und-psychosomatik-das-verstndnis-von_pdf http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/26166/1/психофізіологічні%20умови%20невротичного%20розвитку%20особистості.pdf http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/26166/1/психофізіологічні%20умови%20невротичного%20розвитку%20особистості.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 151 in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 pavlik, n. (2012). nevrotytchnuy kharakter pedahoha yak aktualna psykholohopedahohitchna problema [the neurotic nature of the teacher's personality as an urgent psychological and pedagogical problem]. pedagogy and psychology of vocational education, 5. http://ena.lp.edu.ua:8080/bitstream/ntb/23946/1/19-134-144.pdf sandomirskiy, м. y. (2017). integrativnaya tekhnologiya psikhologitcheskoy pomoshchi [integrative technology of psychological assistance]. мoscow: network scientific and practical publication. https://psyorg.ru/up/files/antologya/2017-v3.pdf schneider, к. (1999). clinical psychopathology. new york: grune & stratton. sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 shiner, r. l. (2019). negative emotionality and neuroticism from childhood through adulthood: a lifespan perspective. in d. mcadams, r. l. shiner, & j. l. tackett (eds.), handbook of personality development (pp. 137-152). new york: guilford press.. titova, n. м. (2006). klinitcheskaya psikhologiya [clinical psychology. lecture notes]. мoscow: prior-izdat. turiano, n. a., graham, e. k., weston, s. j., booth, t., harrison, f., james, b. d., lewis, n. a., makkar, s. r., mueller, s., wisniewski, k. m., zhaoyang, r., spiro, a., willis, s., schaie, k. w., lipton, r. b., katz, m., sliwinski, m., deary, i. j., zelinski, e. m., bennett, d. a., sachdev, p. s., brodaty, h., trollor, j. n., ames, d., wright, m. j., gerstorf, d., muniz-terrera, g., piccinin, a. m., hofer, s. m., mroczek, d. k. (2020). is healthy neuroticism associated with longevity? a coordinated integrative data analysis. collabra: psychology, 6(1), 33. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.268 turynina, о. l. (2017). psykholohiya travmuyutchukh sytuatsiy [psychology of traumatic situations]. кiev: personal. welwood, j. (1984). principles of inner work: psychological and spiritual. journal of transpersonal psychology, 16, 63-73. https://www.atpweb.org/jtparchive/trps-16-84-01-063.pdf widiger, t. a., oltmanns, j. r. (2017). neuroticism is a fundamental domain of personality with enormous public health implications. world psychiatry, 16(2), 144–145. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20411 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 http://ena.lp.edu.ua:8080/bitstream/ntb/23946/1/19-134-144.pdf https://psy-org.ru/up/files/antologya/2017-v3.pdf https://psy-org.ru/up/files/antologya/2017-v3.pdf https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.268 https://www.atpweb.org/jtparchive/trps-16-84-01-063.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20411 microsoft word brain_2_2.doc 27 theoretical relevance of neuropsychological data for connectionist modelling mauricio iza university of málaga-avda cervantes, 2 29071 málaga, spain, tel. 952 13 10 00 iza@uma.es alexandra konstenius university of helsinki, finland user2@yourdomain.com abstract: the symbolic information-processing paradigm in cognitive psychology has met a growing challenge from neural network models over the past two decades. while neuropsychological evidence has been of great utility to theories concerned with information processing, the real question is, whether the less rigid connectionist models provide valid, or enough, information concerning complex cognitive structures. in this work, we will discuss the theoretical implications that neuropsychological data posits for modelling cognitive systems. keywords: connectionist representation, neuropsychological deficits, computational neuroscience 1. introduction during the past 20 years neural network models has proved to be a growing challenge to the previous theoretical approach, the computer-inspired, symbolic information-processing paradigm. the connectionist approach is in some part grounded on neuropsychological empirical evidence. neuropsychology has provided detailed information of the patterns of breakdown of cognitive systems resulting from brain damage, and demanded that theories of normal performance should be able to answer to such findings [8,43]. neural network models are constructed from a transparently perturbable “computational substrate”, which permits the performance to break down gradually. neural networks can therefore meet the demand of modelling both normal performance as well as system failure. the same terrain has, in general, proved to be rather rocky for the traditional symbolic approach, since such models are not obviously perturbable in a graded mood [5,6,18,28,36]. there is an additional demand, placed on the cognitive theory, namely, that to explain the encoding and use of language by the physical organism, i.e., to make the correlation between function and anatomy. this results in a break down between the discipline boundaries [42,31]. in this new interdisciplinary framework, computation can play a crucial role [1,7,11]. previously, computer models of normal language processes have addressed the questions of modularity and cognitive subprocessing at a descriptive level [15-17,32]. recently, these models have been developed to meet the questions of both cognitive constraints and neurological implementation, particularly with respect to language disorders. as such, any given computational description of a language processing task must now account for both cognitive constraints (e.g., memory space and time limits) and neuroanatomical ones (e.g., impairment naming animals but not tools on patchy bitemporal infarctions from herpes simplex encephalitis). in this work, we will discuss neuropsychological data and its relevance for cognitive theory in more detail. for example, connectionist models of two subcomponents of the spelling process, which explain, rather than describe, the relevant neuropsychological evidence [19] operate serially, and thus fall within a domain that has been the stronghold of symbolic modeling. the neuropsychological support that emerges for such models is therefore of particular interest: whether the promise shown by connectionist research in understanding disordered cognition can be extended to the problem of serial processes. brainstorming brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 2. theoretical relevance of neuropsychological data before 1970, neuropsychology was a subject that has essentially of interest only to clinicians. at that time, cognitive neuropsychology began to develop in a sharply different way from the domain practice. the differences concerned the overall aim of the research, its theoretical paradigm and its empirical practice. the theoretical paradigm mainly employed in cognitive neuropsychology was the information-processing approach, which had developed in human experimental psychology in the preceding decade. transmission routes which, ideally, carried out no processing as such connected subsystems with verbally specified functions or producing verbally specifiable representations. complementing this new theoretical approach was a reversion to the empirical approach. the empirical findings considered optimal or obligatory were no longer the average performance of a large group of broadly similar patients, but the results of detailed case studies of individual patients. this differed from its previous precursor in being based on quantitative experimental paradigms from human experimental psychology. the approach was assumed to provide privileged information on the structure of the cognitive system through the analysis of highly selective deficits in patients who exhibit striking characteristics, in particular so-called “strong” or “classical” dissociation [12,35]. the grain of the empirical analysis fitted well with that of information processing. in theory, there were many different ways in which dissociation, or better a double dissociation, might be explained. in practice, the assumption that they arose from selective damage to a subset only of subsystems within an information processing system worked well. apparently, the reason that the approach worked was because the cognitive system, or at least part of it, is in some broad sense modular. in this case, the (classical) dissociation was held to provide a privileged view into the modular structure. now, the period where modularity as a basic explanatory assumption is being challenged, at least for some aspects of behavior, by connectionist models that are not obviously amenable to modular decomposition, at least at some level of explanation. a priori, the range of types of behavior that occur when given connectionist model is lesioned would be great. in that case, observation of a patient whose behavior was within that range would not provide strong support for the model. more, the relation between the nature of the model and its performance when lesioned could be far from transparent, so that neuropsychological dissociation would lose their heuristic quality. these are additional problems to those frequently alleged against connectionist modeling, such as that the number of variables that need to be set '‘hand-coded" makes a model’s confrontation with empirical data more like curve fitting that theory testing. however, this suggests that two levels of support might be provided by neuropsychological evidence for a connectionist model. the first would occur when the range of distinct possible behaviors that can theoretically result from a “lesion” is large. then, the existence of a patient whose performance fits with one of the theoretically possible “lesioned” states would not be of interest unless there are other classes of model which do not predict the existence of the behavior. the second is where variations in lesion type and size produce few quantitative differences in the expected behavior of the model. here observation of the behavior provides strong support for the model if lesioning other classes of model does not have the same restricted set of expected behaviors. the implicit assumption of the above argument is that the set of impaired behaviors that a connectionist model may produce when lesioned is larger than its set of unimpaired behaviors. and the observation of impaired performance after a lesion is less useful for model testing than the observation of normal behavior. this assumption may well turn out to be incorrect. theoretically, a connectionist net, at least a non-recurrent multi-layer net, may be considered as a device for mimicking a particular input-output transformation. so, the observation that the behavior of a nonrecurrent multi-layer net provides a good fit to observed human behavior is little more than the m. iza, a. konstenius theoretical relevance o neuropsychological data for connectionist modelling 29 concrete realization of the perspective just presented. the situation with respect to impaired behavior is quite different. there is no reason to assume that an ideal statistical estimator of an output domain given an input domain could, when damaged, produce a particular pattern of performance. thus the observation of the pattern is the direct support for the internal structure of the model. an empirical support for this argument is the spelling-to-sound processing in reading. here, models of both connectionist and symbolic varieties give a very good account of the existing data. thus, the evidence on normal nonword reading that proved very problematic for the first generation of connectionist models in this domain is easily accounted by current models. however, the neuropsychological evidence has proved much more contradictory. now, it is argued that the normal reader is not capable of reading all pronounceable nonwords through the operation of orthographicto-phonological processes alone [34]. even partial semantic and pragmatic mediation is also claimed to be required. this fact suggests that neuropsychological inference may be more useful for distinguishing between different models. indeed, its utility may even rival that which it had for the earlier generation of classical information-processing models. many examples exist of interactive activation or connectionist models that give a reasonable attempt when “lesioned” to syndromes found in the neuropsychological literature [10,25,33]. in other domains where little is known about the space of possible behaviors that the lesioned connectionist model can produce, except that one part of the space corresponds to behaviors observed in patients, there exist symbolic models alternatives. in this way, forms of anomie and deep dysphasia may be modeled in terms of damage to connectionist models that map from the semantic to the phonological representation of words. in this domain, symbolic model alternative exists. however, a domain exists where the sets of possible behavior following “lesions” are both few and well described empirically and no plausible symbolic model alternative exists. this is the domain of orthographic-to-semantic representations, where lesions to a range of connectionist models of an attractor type give rise to a set of behaviors that correspond to the syndrome “deep dyslexia”. thus, a reasonable case can be made for the utility of neuropsychological data in domains where processing can be viewed as the mapping from a single input to a single output pattern. 3. functional level in computational neuroscience it can be argued that brain-imaging studies of cognition make no sense until we have identified undecomposable modules –called primitive processors. what makes a processor primitive? one answer is that for primitive processors, the question “how does the processor work?” is not a question for cognitive science to answer. the line between the upper levels of processors and the level of primitive processors is the same as the line between cognitive science and one of the “realization” sciences such as electronic or physiology. the functional analysis of human intelligence will bottom out in primitive processors in the brain. the term ‘functional analysis’ refer to abstract theories as ‘global accounts’, and contend that the only sciences that are currently providing global functional accounts of brain cells are sciences such as psychology. precisely, claims about the localization of language in the brain are conceptually dependent upon, and make no sense in the absence of, an abstract theory of –for example, an information-processing model ofhow language-processing is carried out. the psycholinguistic analysis of reading disorders has priority over neuroanatomical approaches because, before one can begin to study the difference between one reading disorder and another in terms of lesion sites, one must define the disorders; this can only be done in psycholinguistic terms. there is another way in which the abstract level has priority over the physical-instantiation level: it can be very hard to understand what a system is actually doing if one’s only information about it is a description at the physical-instantiation level. a description at the abstract-theory level will be far more enlightening. in turn, if one wishes to study the physical-instantiation level, a prior description at the abstract level is needed; otherwise one will not know what to look for at the physical-instantiation level (as can be argued in connection with neuroimaging studies of language). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 arguments of this sort are reasons for rejecting the biological neuroscience thesis, which is: (i) the science of the mind is (part of) the science of the cells that constitute the brain. instead, we can advocate a different thesis, which is: (ii) the science of the cells that constitute the brain is part of the science of the mind. the other part of the science of the mind is, of course, at the abstracttheory (functional) level. at the present, several models of memory have incorporated evidence from neuropsychological, neuroanatomical and computational modelling studies [20,21]. each of these models tries to account for the relationship between the wider neocortex and the medial temporal lobe structures (that is, the hippocampus). on the one hand, we could argue that the brain can be thought as a series of hierarchically organized functions zones. at the bottom of the hierarchy are regions that undertake the most basic level of sensory motor processing and code for feature fragments. next come convergence zones that receive inputs from the sensory motor regions and code for ‘coherent entities’ (objects) and finally there are zones that code for the co-occurrence of entities that constitutes an event. this latter zone is considered to include the hippocampus and related medial temporal lobe structures. memory of an event involves the reactivation of the hippocampal-neocortical network initially established during initial encoding of the event. on the other hand, other model suggests that through repeated recollection (and posterior reactivation) over time, event memories become established at the neocortical level, while in the previous model, the hippocampus is seen as always being involved in the recollection of events. however, all the models agree that semantic or factual knowledge is acquired by the gradual formation of associations at the lower levels of the hierarchy, which can take place without the involvement of the higher levels. in that way, people with a damage or dysfunctional medial temporal lobe system can still learn new semantic or factual information, though much more slowly than individuals with an intact hippocampus. within this context, other further distinction in memory is that between anterograde and retrograde memory. the first one refers to the acquisition of new information following the onset of injury or disease. the second one refers to memory for facts that were acquired or events that took place before the onset of injury or disease. the classical memory disorder is the amnesic syndrome that involves: (a) intact working memory, (b) intact general intellectual and semantic memory functioning, (c) anterograde amnesia, (d) a variable degree of retrograde amnesia, and (e) intact implicit memory. this pattern of impairment tends to follow from selective bilateral medial temporal lobe damage. cases of pure amnesia are relatively uncommon, as most people with brain injury or disease have most extensive damage. for instance, people with traumatic brain injury tend to have less complete destruction of medial temporal lobe structures and, in that way, may have slightly milder memory impairment, but are also likely to have damage to frontal lobe structures and so have associated attentional and executive impairments, which will also impact on memory performance. although anterograde memory deficits sometimes occur very little in the way of retrograde impairment, the question of whether retrograde memory impairments can arise in the absence of anterograde memory deficits seem more controversial. on the one hand, a pattern of severe retrograde amnesia, accompanied by a normal ability to acquire new information, is associated with psychogenic forms of amnesia. on the other hand, there have been described some cases of focal retrograde amnesia arising from organic impairment [4]. selective disorders of working memory are rare. patients with selective phonological loop deficits are unable to hold in mind more than two digits, words or letters, compared with the normal seven (+/-2). although they show normal language processing, these patients show normal learning of some information, but there is evidence that long-term memory is impaired when it taps the same information that is impaired in short-term memory [26]. selective deficits in semantic memory can occur following damage to lateral temporal lobes, following head injury, infection or as a result of a focal dementia process referred to as semantic dementia. within semantic memory, there is evidence that semantic memories for different m. iza, a. konstenius theoretical relevance o neuropsychological data for connectionist modelling 31 categories break down in a dissociable manner. the most commonly reported dissociation is between living and non-living items [22]. 4. discussion most people requiring psychological intervention after neurological illness or injury will have some reduction in cognitive skills, depending on the nature, location and severity of damage. after generalized damage (for instance, head injury and multiple sclerosis) the most common cognitive difficulties are with attention, concentration, memory, speed of information processing and executive functioning (that is, planning, problem-solving, self-awareness and self-regulation). after more focal damage (for instance, stroke or tumour) specific deficits may also be seen in motor skills, visual perception, spatial judgment, language functions, etc. the subjective experience of cognitive impairment can be disturbing and perceptual and spatial deficits can be bewildering and frightening. loss of the ability to communicate effectively (due to language impairment or severe dysarthria) may be immensely frustrating, as well as socially isolating. marked impairment of memory disrupts daily living and compromises a sense of continuity, as well as perception of progress in rehabilitation. of particular importance is the disruption to executive function, not only due to its direct effects on independence and self-control but also in the limitations imposed on insight, understanding, use of compensatory strategies and long-term adjustment [9]. the exponential rise in the sophistication of computational neuroscience has encouraged the consideration of their potential value in cognitive rehabilitation. computational models offer a number of clear advantages. they can deliver highly structured, standardized (that is, replicable) training packages involving attractive graphics/sound and instant feedback on performance. such packages can be delivered adaptively, at times that are most convenient for patients, and may be easily transferred from the hospital to the patient’s home. of course, there also are potential disadvantages including whether patients feel at ease with the compensatory technology, whether a ‘one size fits all’ approach is merited for patients with potentially quite different difficulties and, in particular, whether benefits generalize from the computer to everyday life. where verbal memory is differentially impaired, the use of drawings to express emotions, the presentation of information in a visual form or encouraging the patient to visualize parts of the session may be useful. moreover, utilizing ‘negative automatic imagery’ and ‘adaptive imaginary responses’ may be more effective than working with thought-based material. imagery may have the added advantage of being more emotionally potent due to its ability to ‘simplify meaning into sensory experience’ in a more direct way. on the contrary, relaxation training may be useful in minimizing high general arousal levels, which may impede memory functioning. in summary, compensatory memory strategies provide support at retrieval and reduce the ‘effort’ or cognitive ‘load’ on explicit memory and attention. the development of a ‘prosthetic environment’ with signs and cues to assist the person and the current growth of assistive devices or ‘smart house technology’ on design and architecture on dementia are examples of broad-based approaches designed to reduce cognitive load and maximize function in people with dementia. the efficacy of these techniques has yet to be established taking into account the above limitations of connectionist modelling. in so far as they minimize the potential for divided attention during an activity, thereby reducing load on central executive and working memory systems, and limit the distractions of environmental ‘noise’, they are likely to generate some benefits. references [1] ajjanagadde, v. & shastri, l. (1991) rules and variables in neural nets, neural computation 3, 121-134. [2] best, w. & nickels, l. (2000). from theory to therapy in aphasia: where are we now and where to next? neuropsychological rehabilitation 10, 231-247. [3] burguess, p.w. & alderman, n. (2004). executive dysfunction. in l.h. goldstein & j.e. mcneil (eds), clinical neuropsychology: a practical guide to assessment and management for clinicians, pp. 185-209. chichester: wiley. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 [4] cicerone, k.d. (2005). rehabilitation of executive function impairments. in w.m. high, a.m. sander, m.a. struchen & k.a. hart (eds), rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury, pp. 71-87. new york: oxford university press. [5] clark, a. (1989). microcognition. cambridge, ma: mit press. [6] clark, a. (1993). associative engines. cambridge, ma: mit press. [7] clark, a. (1997) being there. cambridge, ma: mit press. [8] cummins, r. (1989). meaning and mental representation. cambridge, ma: mit press. [9] dell, g.s., lwaler, e.n., harris, h.d. & gordon, j.k. (2004). models of errors of omission in aphasic naming. in m. behrmann & k. patterson (eds), words and things, pp. 125-146. new york: psychology press. [10] dell, g.s., shwartz, m.f., martin, n., saffran, e. & gagnon, d.a. (1997).lexical access in aphasic and non-aphasic speakers.psychological review 104, 811-838. [11] dennett, d.c. (1996). kinds of minds. ny: basic books. [12] ellis, a.w. & young, a.w. (1992). human cognitive neuropsychology. london: lea. [13] evans, j.j. (2004). disorders of memory. in l.h. goldstein & j.e. mcneil (eds), clinical neuropsychology: a practical guide to assessment and management for clinicians, pp. 143-164. chichester: wiley. [14] evans, j., wilson, b.a., needham, p. & brentnall, s. (2003). who makes god use of memory aids? results of a survey of people with acquired brain injury. journal of the international neuropsychological society 9, 925-935. [15] fodor, j.a. (1975). the language of thought. ny: crowell. [16] fodor, j.a. (1983). the modularity of mind. cambridge, ma: mit press. [17] fodor, j.a. & pylyshyn, z. (1988). connectionism and cognitive architecture: a critical analysis. cognition 28, 3-71. [18] franklin, s. (1995). artificial minds. cambridge, ma: mit press. [19] hanley, j.r., dell, g.s., kay, j. & baron, r. (2004). evidence for the involvement of nonlexical route in the repetition of familiar words. in m. behrmann & k. patterson (eds), words and things, pp. 147-158. new york: psychology press. [20] hart, j., berndt, r.s. & caramazza, a. (1985). category specific naming deficit following cerebral infarction. nature 316, 439-440. [21] hart, t., hawkey, k., & whyte, j. (2002). use of a portable voice organizer to remember therapy goals in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation: a within-subjects trial. journal of head trauma rehabilitation 17(6), 556-570. [22] laiacona, m. & caramazza, a. (2004). the noun/verb dissociation in language production: varieties of causes. in m. behrmann & k. patterson (eds), words and things, pp. 103-124. new york: psychology press. [23] lopresti, e.f., mihailidis, a. & kirsch, n. (2004). assistive technology for cognitive rehabilitation: state of the art. neuropsychological rehabilitation 14(1/2), 5-39. [24] manly, t. & mattingley, j.b. (2004). visuospatial and attentional disorders. in l.h. goldstein & j.e. mcneil (eds), clinical neuropsychology: a practical guide to assessment and management for clinicians, pp. 229-252. chichester: wiley. [25] martin, n., dell, g.s., saffran, e. & schwartz, m. (1994). origins of paraphasias in deep dysphasia: testing the consequences of a decay impairment to an interactive spreading activation model of lexical retrieval. brain and language 47, 609-660. [26] mayes, a.r. (2000). selective memory disorders. in e. tulving & f.i.m. craik (eds) the oxford handbook of memory disorders, pp. 427-440. oxford university press: oxford. [27] mccarthy, r.a. & warrington, e.k. (1988). evidence for modality-specific meaning systems in the brain. nature 334, 428-430. [28] mcclelland, j.l. & rumelhart, d.e. (eds.) (1986). parallel distributed processing. cambridge, massachusets: mit press. m. iza, a. konstenius theoretical relevance o neuropsychological data for connectionist modelling 33 [29] mckenna, p. (2004). disorders of language and communication. in l.h. goldstein & j.e. mcneil (eds), clinical neuropsychology: a practical guide to assessment and management for clinicians, pp. 165-184. chichester: wiley. [30] moniz-cook, e. & rusted, j. (2004). neurorehabilitation strategies for people with neurodegenerative conditions. in l.h. goldstein & j.e. mcneil (eds), clinical neuropsychology: a practical guide to assessment and management for clinicians, pp. 405-420. chichester: wiley. [31] moorhouse, m. & barry, p. (2004). bioinformatics, biocomputing and perl. chichester, sussex: wiley. [32] pylyshyn, z. (1984). computation and cognition. cambridge, ma: mit press. [33] saffran, e., dell, g.s. & schwartz, m.f. (2000). computational modelling of language disorders. in m. gazzaniga (ed), the new cognitive neuroscience, pp. 933-948. cambridge, ma: mit press. [34] schwartz, m.f., wilshire, c.e., gagnon, d.a. & polansky, m. (2004). origins of nonword phonological errors in aphasic picture naming. in m. behrmann & k. patterson (eds), words and things, pp. 159-186. new york: psychology press. [35] shalice, t., mcleod, p. & lewis, k. (1985). isolating cognitive modules with the dual-task paradigm: are speech perception and production separate processes? quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 37a, 507-532. [36] smolensky, p. (1988). on the proper treatment of connectionism. behavioral and brain sciences, 11, 1-23. [37] sohlberg, m.m. (2005). external aids for management of memory impairment. in w.m. high, a.m. sander, m.a. struchen & k.a. hart (eds), rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury, pp. 47-70. new york: oxford university press. [38] sohlberg, m.m. & mateer, c.a. (2001). cognitive rehabilitation: a neuropsychological perspective. new york: guildford press. [39] sohlberg, m.m., ehlhardt, e., fickas, s. & sutcliff, a. (2003). a pilot study exploring electronic mail in users with acquired cognitive-linguistics impairments. brain injury 17(7), 609629. [40] stanovich, k.e. (2004). the robot’s rebellion. chicago: university of chicago press. [41] van der broek, m.d., downes, j., johnson, z., dayus, b. & hilton, n. (2000). evaluation of an electronic memory aid in the neuropsychological rehabilitation of prospective memory deficits. brain injury 14(5), 455-462. [42] van gelder, t. (1990). compositionality: a connectionist variation on a classical theme. cognitive science, 14, 355-384. [43] von eckardt, b. (1993). what is cognitive science? cambridge, ma: mit press. [44] wilson, b.a. (2004). theoretical approaches to cognitive rehabilitation. in l.h. goldstein & j.e. mcneil (eds), clinical neuropsychology: a practical guide to assessment and management for clinicians, pp. 345-365. chichester: wiley. [45] wilson, b.a., emslie, h., quirk, k. & evans, j.j. (2001). reducing everyday memory and planning problems by means of a paging system: a randomised control crossover study. journal of neurosurgery, neurology and psychiatry 70, 477-482. [46] wright, p., rogers, n., hall, c., wilson, b.a., evans, j.j., emslie, h. et al. (2001). comparison of pocket-computer memory aids for people with brain injury. brain injury 15, 787-800. [47] ylivsaker, m., hanks, r. & jonson-greene, d. (2003). rehabilitation of children and adults with cognitive-communication disorders after brain injury. asha supplement 23, 59-72. acknowledgements this work has been partially supported by the project <<modularidad, razonamiento y cognición social. un análisis critico de la psicología evolucionista (ffi2009-08999)>>. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 388-402 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/326 submitted: november 25th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 13th, 2022 microlearning in forming the students' english competencies with vr involvement olha fedorova¹, oleksandr shumskyi2, oksana golikova3, iryna kutsenko4, nataliia serdiuk5, oksana zahorodna6 1 kherson state maritime academy, ukraine, fedorova.olena2406@gmail.com 2 ukrainian engineering pedagogics academy, ukraine, oll123@ukr.net 3 national technical university "kharkiv polytechnic institute", ukraine, golikovantu@gmail.com 4 kherson state maritime academy, ukraine, sevilia19771@gmail.com 5 hryhorii skovoroda university in pereiaslav, ukraine, serdiuk-n@ukr.net 6 vinnytsia national agrarian university, ukraine, askania@ukr.net abstract: every year the problem of higher educational establishments’ modernization, introduction of the newest methods and strategies of educational process reorganization, estimation of achievements in the context of information technologies becomes more and more urgent. the situation with the covid-2019 pandemic has demonstrated the need to involve additional information approaches to teaching within the system of blended learning in higher educational establishments. as a result, the question arises: what mechanisms can be used to make learning effective? the article reveals the concept of “microlearning” as the latest approach in education and identifies its key tools in formation of english-language competencies in university students. the study found that microlearning can be an effective complement to traditional learning, as it extends the learning process beyond the classroom on the basis of information technology, allows consolidating virtually and deepening the knowledge gained during practical classes, and provokes students to daily communication outside the establishment through social network. moreover, we propose a strategy for implementation of microlearning on the example of the educational process at kherson state maritime academy through interaction of practical classes in the line of communicative-competency approach, virtual and online learning on the principle of rotation. keywords: microlearning, learning management system, online learning, computer training module, virtual reality, communicativecompetency approach. how to cite: fedorova, o., shumskyi, o., golikova, o., kutsenko, i., serdiuk, n., & zahorodna, o. (2022). microlearning in forming the students' english competencies with vr involvement. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 388-402. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/326 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/326 mailto:fedorova.olena2406@gmail.com mailto:oll123@ukr.net mailto:golikovantu@gmail.com mailto:sevilia19771@gmail.com mailto:serdiuk-n@ukr.net mailto:askania@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/326 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 389 introduction every year, the field of education is enriched with new information technologies, and, consequently, the question arises what mechanisms to use to make learning effective and the results – maximum. over the past decades, the approach to teaching english, maritime english in particular, has centred around the instructor in general, where the latter has played a more dominant role, functioning as the primary source of information. however, with the growth of information technology, this focus has shifted to the student (student-oriented), the recipient of the educational process, who is accustomed to obtain quickly relevant information and knowledge through the online environment. involving only the traditional methods and forms of teaching is ineffective, as it has shown disinterestedness and low motivation of students. in addition, in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, this problem demonstrated a complete ineffectiveness of traditional learning and the inability to assess objectively students’ individual learning at home. solving this problem requires both introduction of modern information technologies in higher education, and complete instructors’ mastery of the latest methods and approaches in computer or online learning. this will allow us to reach a qualitatively new level of learning, where the instructor builds his/her own strategy, based on different formats of interaction with students. the aim of the study is to reveal the current tools of microlearning in formation of english-language competencies in university students. microlearning as the latest trend in education “microlearning” / “bite-size learning” is the latest trend in education, which has become in use since 2005 at a conference in austria and does not have a specific definition, closely related to computer learning (hug, 2010; torgerson, 2016). in contrast to the foreign scientific and educational space, in which this approach is already being studied effectively, the domestic one lacks research of both theoretical and applied nature. thus, the foreign scientist hug (2004) interprets “microlearning” as a technique of computer learning, in which a complex learning task is divided into a series of short learning interactions, distributed over time. torgerson (2016) defines “microlearning” as an approach focused on stepby-step learning in small “portions”. in this case, each learning interaction is microlearning in forming the students' english competencies with vr ... olha fedorova, et al. 390 subjected to a specific goal that must be achieved (dillon, 2018; gutierrez, 2017). microlearning is a modern student-centred methodological approach, which is characterized with accessibility and interactivity (gerasymova et al., 2019; onishchuk et al., 2020; sheremet et al., 2019). its main advantage is the combination of small amounts of educational content together with the flexibility of technology and creativity of the instructor. lindner (2007) offers a number of characteristics that consider microlearning as a new educational paradigm: 1) “seamless integration”: microlearning is part of everyday work and practical activities, as a result of which micro-content is not perceived as disconnected or incomplete; 2) “peripheral use”: microlearning recognizes that many tasks actually consist of several stages, which include searching, filtering and assessment of information, creating and disseminating the student’s own information on social networks, and therefore microlearning should complement the main topic or course; 3) “motivation”: tasks should provoke the search for relevant information and discussion. due to the fact that the amount of information, that students face, is constantly increasing, microlearning is a learning approach that helps to break the material into smaller units that are easier to process (bell, 2010). in other words, one of the goals of microlearning is to reduce and simplify information, structuring it into successive learning units (bruck, 2006). in addition, such training focuses on establishing links between these learning units, which promotes development of critical thinking (o’neil, 2018). however, microlearning may have limitations when it comes to acquiring completely new knowledge, but it has value for understanding a new topic or consolidating already acquired knowledge (emerson, 2018). among the main objectives of microlearning, they are the following: • promote students’ acquisition of basic skills such as flexibility and adaptability, making them aware of the rapid and changing nature of knowledge in the real and online environment; • create conditions for development of creative skills and critical thinking; • develop tasks that encourage students to apply previously acquired competencies; • use students’ communication skills as a way of social reconstruction of knowledge acquired during study and work, and try to improve them (gabrielli et al., 2005). brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 391 microlearning does not focus on hierarchical classification and sequence of modules, but on encouraging students to become active participants in the learning process and co-creators of learning content through active communication in social networks (kerres, 2007). thus, compared to traditional learning, the structure of microlearning is more dynamic and plastic, and the focus is not on the content but on the social interaction between students (buchem, 2010). in addition, microlearning increases students’ interest in learning through the use of modern information technology, one of which is learning management system (hereinafter – lms). learning management systems are web-based software platforms that provide an interactive online learning environment and automate the administration, organization, reporting of educational content, and learning outcomes (mcconachie et al., 2005). lms is used for blended and collaborative online learning: posting and supporting course materials on the internet, familiarizing students with the course, tracking progress, and establishing communication between students in the role of their instructor (watson & watson, 2007). although the lms environment has many features in common with traditional learning, it has unique features such as flexibility, mobility, time for reflection and anonymity. lmss can be implemented for students of any level of success, because they promote communication in various formats (forums, chats, video conferences). a key analytical feature of this tool is the ability to track the effectiveness of developed training systems, find gaps, make changes and continue to improve them. a striking example of lms, which works today around the world and is actively used in kherson state maritime academy (hereinafter – ksma), is moodle. the system was developed on the basis of a constructivist philosophy, which emphasized the role of students as creators of content, not just spectators. among the main functions of the moodle platform there are such as the ability to disseminate knowledge, assess competency, record student achievement, ensure communication between students and maintain system security (turnbull, 2019). lms is one of the microlearning tools, which allows you to implement it as such. interacting with the lms environment, students themselves determine the speed, time and place. they can complete tasks or view learning content as much as they want, do homework using mobile phones and other devices. lms also facilitates the collection of data that are necessary for educational analytics. the latter is used to develop learning opportunities by improving the training courses (viberg, 2018). microlearning in forming the students' english competencies with vr ... olha fedorova, et al. 392 the concept of “learning management system” is closely related to the concept of “computer training module” (hereinafter – ctm), which implements computer training in maritime english within asynchronous approach in ksma. ctms are interpreted as computer training units that cover knowledge and skills on individual topics in their logical sequence. thus, the content of a course is presented in the form of a series of computer micro modules, after which a student is tested for the level of mastery of the material studied. in addition to the text part, ctm usually uses drawings, photographs, graphics, computer animations, interactive demonstrations, hyperlinks, a glossary, specialized databases, audio and video recordings of various formats. the homogeneity of the module is determined with the thematic coherence of the material (zharkykh et al., 2012). if the ctm provides for a summative assessment as a result of the acquired competencies, the lms ensures this assessment. however, the lms is only a mechanism that needs to be filled with educational content, while ctm makes up this educational content in general (fig. 1.). fig. 1. computer training module course syllabus for senior maritime specialists source: authors’ own conception an integration of ctm with lms provides feedback between the instructor and the student, makes the process of fulltime learning flexible, and distance learning – full-fledged with the possibility of objective assessment of students’ competencies. thus, we interpret “microlearning” as a modern educational and methodological approach involving learning management systems and social brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 393 networks, which provides students with access to tasks, discussion topics and educational content thematically dosed, in specific situations, under control of the instructor. virtual and online lessons as effective microlearning mechanisms within the theory of microlearning, baumgartner (2013) offers his own model of the spiral of competencies. in the first stage, called learning i, students acquire basic knowledge by interacting with the instructor. at this stage, the origin of students’ knowledge is based on the knowledge possessed by the instructor. instructors require knowing not only what students need to learn, but also how they can acquire this necessary knowledge. in the second stage (learning ii), students interact with the online environment and gain their own experience. the learner is an active participant, and that is their activity that supports or even is a necessary condition of the learning process. learning takes place in an active mode with feedback to the instructor, that is, the whole learning process with all its intermediate stages, difficulties and preliminary results is under the supervision of an instructor. at the third stage (learning iii) knowledge is formed, where instructors and students work together to master the course materials and discuss problem situations, cases. after completing the first cycle of the spiral of competencies, the student begins the cycle from the beginning, but at a higher level (learning i +). analysing the model of baumgartner (2013), we conclude that microlearning can be implemented on the principle of “inverted class”. it means that students can perform microlearning activities before the practical lesson, which corresponds to the first and second stages of the model. learning time can be used to apply knowledge, discuss ideas, cases and solve any problem situations, which corresponds to the third and fourth stages of this model. students can also perform individual tasks in specially designed computer modules within the lms after class to consolidate knowledge. this strategy is suitable for both fulltime and distance learning. thus, computer training based on the educational process at ksma is implemented with the help of lms moodle. moodle is an online platform that allows the instructor to create a micro-module that will include a number of thematically related online lessons. each session should focus on microlearning in forming the students' english competencies with vr ... olha fedorova, et al. 394 only one specific learning outcome. the structure of the lesson can contain both controlled activities and free speaking activities (fig. 2.). in the first case, the lms allows the instructor not only to track the attendance of computer classes by students, but also to obtain data on the success of their work. in the second case, lms activates the student’s motivation and prepares to discuss problem situations, cases, videos, hyperlinks, animations, quizzes with other students during practical lessons or outside them through chats, forums, video conferences, etc. in addition, lms allows a test assessment of students’ competencies after each module, which helps to obtain information on the effectiveness of tasks and the level of students’ success. fig. 2. computer training module in lms moodle source: authors’ own conception & moodle the thematic ctm can be divided into the main part, which is focused on each student in the group, and additional tasks with a higher level of difficulty, which are designed for more successful students. this will allow students to study at their optimal level of opportunity. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 395 online lessons using skype, zoom or lms moodle is another microlearning tool. they can be organized at the initiative of an instructor and a group of students, should be short in duration (not more than an hour) and aimed at solving a particular problem situation. the lesson is better to be built on an authentic case that coincides with the topic being studied. such classes provoke students to apply the acquired competencies and develop critical thinking. in addition, online classes enable distance learning and objective assessment of students’ competencies in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. in addition, microlearning can be seen as an additional pedagogical tool to strengthen social ties between students outside the classroom. for example, with the involvement of social platforms facebook and twitter, which have long been accepted as collaborative educational environments that allow creation of thematic posts and hashtags. such actions encourage students to be actively involved and respond, to communicate and exchange opinions on debatable and problematic issues in the field of maritime english. another tool is usage of group chats (e.g., viber, telegram, whatsapp) (fig.3.). fig. 3. microlearning within viber chat communication source: authors’ own conception & viber microlearning in forming the students' english competencies with vr ... olha fedorova, et al. 396 by means of the chats instructor promotes online microlearning on a daily basis, provoking students to react to photos, audio or video materials on the topic, sending hyperlinks to current news or events in the maritime industry, actively involved in dialogues and provoking discussions using maritime english. such collaboration tools allow students to learn from each other within a group, and thus benefit from working together. in such a scenario, future maritime specialists can also become creators of educational content by answering questions in social forums (fig. 4.), by blogging or providing feedback to other students within a common thematic group. fig. 4. microlearning within the forums in lms moodle source: authors’ own conception & moodle another effective microlearning tool is virtual reality training (list of available computer-based trainings). the purpose of such practical classes is to immerse students in the environment that imitates real professional activities on board and requires students to practice maritime english skills with the use of the phrases of the model course imo 3.17 (model course 3.17). such lessons take place on a separate schedule in a special laboratory of virtual reality, involve a small number of students and a group form of interaction. during the lesson, they demonstrate english-language competency on a certain topic, using maritime english terminology (fig. 5.). typically, these lessons summarize each topic of fulltime learning and online learning by ctms, allowing students to consolidate their knowledge in a virtual environment. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 397 the structure of such lesson is flexible, but, like traditional english lessons, it must comply with the principles of communicative-competency approach. before working with a virtual reality simulator, students perform a number of tasks aimed at free speaking, in order to repeat the basic commands, actions and the necessary terminology: interview in pairs, discussion of questions in groups, role-playing situations that imitate real actions on ships, where one student demonstrates and the other describes each step using maritime terminology, and so on. fig. 5. practical lessons involving virtual reality source: authors’ own conception & vimeo during the lesson a student, using a virtual reality simulator, should perform a series of commands in english. the correctness of his/her actions depends on understanding and reaction to the tasks set in the program. at this time, other students do not just monitor the performance of tasks on a large screen, they actively discuss these actions’ compliance or noncompliance in pairs or groups, looking for possible options for action in microlearning in forming the students' english competencies with vr ... olha fedorova, et al. 398 similar situations. the program can be stopped at any time and the user will be changed. this motivates students to follow the process attentively, as if they are all involved in a virtual environment. there are options when the student performs tasks on the simulator, and other students in turns voice or comment on his / her actions using terminology. this is followed by an analysis of all steps of the procedure, discussion of mistakes and consolidation of stages on which the student acted hesitatingly. at the end of the lesson, the instructor should work on the most common lexical and grammatical mistakes that are noted during the lesson. microlearning can also be implemented as a supplement to traditional classroom activities. microlearning tools that can be used during practical classes include short video or audio clips, screen shots from classes in a virtual environment, slides with presentations, posters and drawings, schematic images, cards, quick reading materials, short quizzes containing concise information in an accessible form, clearly focused on the topic. large texts should be reduced to the main material, and it should be supplemented with visual elements, graphics, animation to focus attention and increase learning motivation. consolidation of textual information can be presented in the form of slides, posters or cards with the image (for example, steps of procedure of an entrance to the closed space on the vessel, types of dangers, fire-fighting equipment, etc.). text-graphic and animation programs such as adobespark, animaker, canva, infogram, infographia, mind the graph, piktochart, snappa, venngage, visualize.me can be useful in this case. in addition, there are programs that creatively design small amounts of information without photo materials: pablo, quotes cover, quozio, stencil. as for the videos, they should be accompanied by exercises that “provoke to action” (the micro manual): • “ask an expert”: ask the student to study the questions in advance and give his answer before watching the video, then analyse and compare the information after watching in groups or pairs; • “split screen”: ask several students to answer the key questions of the video, then watch it step by step, discussing each of the questions; • “5 * 5”: create a sequence of five video scenes, each no more than five seconds. further discussion may include the correct / incorrect procedure of the operation, compliance / non-compliance with the procedure, violation / compliance with safety standards, etc.; • “points of view”: create a series of short videos that show different points of view on a current topic. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 399 taking into account that ksma practical lessons in maritime english are built on the models of ppp (presentation, practice, production) and esa (senior courses in the sequence “boomerang” (engage – activate – study – activate) and “patchwork” (activate – study – activate – study – engage)) within the communicative-competency approach, they already include most of the above-mentioned tools or techniques of microlearning. thus, we conclude that microlearning and learning in the communicative-competency approach have many common features that complement each other: • student-centred learning; • in the focus of attention there is communication both in class during practical lessons and outside (in real time and on social networks); • hierarchical structure of learning, where large topics are divided into modules, which in turn are divided into separate units (lessons), each is aimed at achieving a specific goal and is interconnected with others; • gradual mastery of communicative competencies; • use of tasks that “motivate to action” (problem situations, round tables, cases, role-playing games, discussions, imitation exercises); • assessment of acquired competencies upon completion of each module and analysis of results. after analysing the main tools of microlearning, we offer our own strategy for organizing the learning process on the example of kherson state maritime academy based on the principle of rotation of traditional, online and virtual learning: 1) the topic revealed in the practical lesson in line with the communicative-competency approach is deepened and diversified by students outside the classroom through online learning based on the moodle platform (micro modules) and exchange of views on social networks (twitter, viber, facebook). all video and audio materials presented at the practical lesson are available within the ctm with the ability to view, share links and discuss outside the audience; 2) at the stage of starter / engage of the next practical lessons the instructor provokes a short discussion / debate between students face to face, which gives them the opportunity to speak freely and exchange information on previously discussed on social networks or current topic / problem situations / news / case; 3) the study stage with its controlled exercises can be partially or completely implemented by means of lms moodle, which will allow students to change the type of activity from traditional to online (and, as a result, increase attention and interest) in a computer class or in classroom with gadgets; microlearning in forming the students' english competencies with vr ... olha fedorova, et al. 400 4) traditional classes are supplemented by short online classes via skype, zoom or moodle, built on authentic cases, in the frequency of one lesson on a topic or micro module; 5) each topic is summarized by a practical lesson in the laboratory of virtual reality, where the students practice the acquired skills in maritime english; 6) at the end of each topic and the corresponding micro-module there is an assessment of students’ competencies: test tasks through lms moodle and speaking assessment with the instructor using the method of interview, discussion or debate. microlearning on the principle of rotation of traditional, virtual and online learning allows students to immerse deeply in a communicative environment, where the instructor constantly changes the format of social interaction, provokes discussion and stimulates the interest of students. conclusions in the course of study, it was found out that microlearning is an effective complement to traditional learning (especially based on the communicative-competency approach) in terms of information technologies. the flexibility of this innovative approach allows the instructor to form his own learning strategy, using core tools such as computer training modules by means of the learning management system, online lessons via skype or zoom and practical lessons in the virtual reality lab, exchange of ideas and problem solving within social networks like twitter or facebook, group discussion of topics and current news in viber, telegram, whatsapp chats. the value of microlearning is both in the fact that it extends the learning process beyond the classroom, allows distance learning, objective assessment of students’ competencies in a pandemic, and also allows to consolidate and deepen the knowledge gained in practice through immersion in virtual reality, constant social interaction based on information technologies. as the approach of microlearning in education just starts taking turns, the study and comparison of different tools of its implementation on the basis of educational establishments of ukraine and the world remain relevant. references baumgartner, p. (2013). educational dimensions of microlearning – towards a taxonomy for microlearning. designing microlearning experiences – building up knowledge in organisations and companies. innsbruck university press. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 401 bell, f. (2010). network theories for technology-enabled learning and social change: connectivism and actor network theory. in networked learning conference 2010: seventh international conference on networked learning, 3-4 may 2010 (pp. 526–533). aalborg. http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/ bruck, p. a., motiwalla, l., & foerster, f. (2012). mobile learning with microcontent: a framework and evaluation. bled econference. https://aisel.aisnet.org/bled2012/2 buchem, i., & hamelmann, h. (2010). microlearning: a strategy for ongoing professional development. elearning papers, 21, 1–15. https://microlearning.org/publications/ dillon, j. d. (2018). microlearning: the ultimate guide. axonify. emerson, l. c., & berge, z. l. (2018). microlearning: knowledge management applications and competency-based training in the workplace. knowledge management & e-learning, 10(2), 125–132. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2018.10.008 gabrielli, s., kimani, s., & catarci, t. (2006). the design of microlearning experiences: a research agenda. in: t. hug, m. lindner, & p. a. bruck, (eds.), microlearning: emerging concepts, practices and technologies after elearning: proceedings of microlearning conference 2005: learning & working in new media (pp. 45-53). innsbruck university press. gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 gutierrez, k. (2017). when designing microlearning, keep macro in mind. www.shiftelearning.com/blog/micro-learning-macro-learning hug, t. (2010). mobile learning as “microlearning”: conceptual considerations towards enhancements of didactic thinking. international journal of mobile and blended learning, 2(4), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.4018/jmbl.2010100104 hug, t., gassler, g., & glahn, c. (2004). integrated micro learning – an outline of the basic method and first results. international conference on interactive computer aided learning (icl), 1–7. igi global. international shipping federation. (2000). model course 3.17. maritime english. ashford open learning ltd. kerres, m. (2007). microlearning as a challenge for instructional design. didactics of microlearning. concepts, discources and examples, 98–109. https://learninglab.uni-due.de/sites/default/files/microlearningkerres_0.pdf http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/ https://aisel.aisnet.org/bled2012/2 https://microlearning.org/publications/ https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2018.10.008 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 http://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/micro-learning-macro-learning https://econpapers.repec.org/article/iggjmbl00/ https://econpapers.repec.org/article/iggjmbl00/ https://doi.org/10.4018/jmbl.2010100104 https://learninglab.uni-due.de/sites/default/files/microlearning-kerres_0.pdf https://learninglab.uni-due.de/sites/default/files/microlearning-kerres_0.pdf microlearning in forming the students' english competencies with vr ... olha fedorova, et al. 402 lindner, m. (2007). what is microlearning? in m. linder, & p. a. bruck (eds.). micromedia and corporate learning. proceedings of the 3rd microlearning 2007 conference. presented at the microlearning 2007 (pp. 52–62). innsbruck university research centres. list of available computer-based trainings [oc]. https://oms-vr.com/ourtraining/#list_of_available_computer-based_trainings mcconachie, j., danaher, p. a., luck, j., & jones, d. (2005). central queensland university’s course management systems: accelerator or brake in engaging change. international review of reasearch in open and distance learning, 6(1), 1– 17. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v6i1.219 o’neil, c. (2018). teaching in online learning environments. in m. h. oermann (ed.), teaching in nursing and role of the educator: the complete guide to best practice in teaching, evaluation, and curriculum development (pp. 103–118). springer. onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019) the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 the micro manual. kineo [oc]. https://www.kineo.com/assets/resources/reportsand-guides/the-micro-manual/the-micro-manual-guide-uk.pdf torgerson, c. (2016). the microlearning guide to microlearning. torgerson consulting. turnbull, d., chugh, r., & luck, j. (2019). learning management systems: an overview. encyclopedia of education and information technologies, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60013-0_248-1 viberg, o., hatakka, m., balter, o., & mavroudi, a. (2018). the current landscape of learning analytics in higher education. computers in human behaviour, 89, 98–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.07.027 watson, w., & watson, s. (2007). an argument for clarity: what are learning management systems, what are they not, and what should they become? techtrends, 51(2), 28–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-007-0023-y zharkykh, yu. s., lysochenko, s. v., sus, b. b., & tretiak, o. v. (2012). kompiuterni tekhnolohii v osviti [computer technologies in education]. kyiv. https://oms-vr.com/our-training/#list_of_available_computer-based_trainings https://oms-vr.com/our-training/#list_of_available_computer-based_trainings https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v6i1.219 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://www.kineo.com/assets/resources/reports-and-guides/the-micro-manual/the-micro-manual-guide-uk.pdf https://www.kineo.com/assets/resources/reports-and-guides/the-micro-manual/the-micro-manual-guide-uk.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60013-0_248-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.07.027 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-007-0023-y ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 227-241 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/385 submitted: may 18th, 2022 | accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 psychological aid to victims of war and the covid pandemic 19 in ukraine olga samara 1 , veronika shkrabiuk 2 , marianna kompanovych 3 , svitlana liebiedieva 4 , nataliia mateiko 5 , oksana shelever 6 1 national university "odesa law academy", ukraine, samaraolha@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2522-8127 2 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, veronika.shkrabiuk@pnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7602-0732 3 the private soint-stock company "higher education institution "interregional academy of personnel management", ukraine, mari.kompanovuch@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7670-1714 4 national university of civil defence of ukraine, lebedeva@nuczu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8265-6956 5 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, mnm2807@ukr.net 6 state university “uzhhorod national universiti”, ukraine, oksana.shelever@uzhnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2200-5382 abstract: the article reflects theoretical, methodological and methodical bases of psychological aid to victims of unexpected crisis-military situations on the background of coronovirus pandemics spreading. the essence of psychological self-help as a factor of stress-resistance and internal psychological potential of resisting psychological traumas in the conditions of war and viral pandemics with the propositions of effective methodological means of its conducting is revealed. in providing psychological aid, the cognitive-behavioral approach was deemed effective as the basic one, and it was suggested that integrative psychotherapeutic and comprehensive psychological approaches to crisis counseling in conditions of military conflict be applied, depending on the specifics of survivors' experience of acute emotional reactions and the complexity of the course of posttraumatic stress disorders of resistance to the action of a psychotraumatic factor. neuropsychological correction deserves special attention in providing psychological aid in conditions of military conflict and pandemics, which allows a combination of an integrated bodyoriented psychological approach with neuro-psycho-correctional techniques and psychotherapeutic methods for effective restoration of the tone of the nervous system and stabilization of the psycho-emotional state. the main provisions of practical psychology that in conditions of war and pandemic covid-19 the adaptive potential of psychological health of each person and psychological self-help is love, faith and hope. psychological recommendations of educational character for the formation of basic skills to ensure psychological health in conditions of war and pandemic covid-19 have been developed. keywords: psychotrauma; stress; crisis; neuropsychological correction; self-help; inner resources; psychotherapeutic and psychological approaches; psychotherapy. how to cite: samara, o., shkrabiuk, v., kompanovych, m., liebiedieva, s., mateiko, n., & shelever, o. (2022). psychological aid to victims of war and the covid pandemic 19 in ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 227-241. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/385 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/385 mailto:samaraolha@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2522-8127 mailto:veronika.shkrabiuk@pnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7602-0732 mailto:mari.kompanovuch@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7670-1714 mailto:lebedeva@nuczu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8265-6956 mailto:mnm2807@ukr.net mailto:oksana.shelever@uzhnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2200-5382 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/385 psychological aid to victims of war and the covid pandemic 19 in ukraine olga samara et al. 228 introduction nowadays in ukrainian practical psychology the problem of providing psychological support in the conditions of war and pandemic covid 19 occupies a special place. the psychological health of ukrainians is adversely affected by some of the strongest stressors that have broken their habitual lives and the combination of which can entail not just neurotic anxiety experiences, but panic attacks and depression, the development of post-traumatic stress disorder and complex mental disorders, above all the intervention of practicing psychotherapists. the study of the problem of providing psychological aid has gained urgency as a vital psychological work in connection with the preservation of human health, which has found itself in extremely dangerous and unpredictable crisis situations. preservation of health of ukrainians is the primary public task of preservation of the ukrainian family, nation, ukraine. the purpose of the article is to analyze the methodological basis of psychological aid to ukrainians in conditions of war and pandemic covid 19. scientific novelty lies in the fact that the article examines the theoretical, methods and methodological foundations of psychological aid in conditions of war and pandemic covid 19 simultaneously as the strongest stress-factor in human life of ukrainians; psychological self-help as a factor of stress resistance and internal psychological potential of coping with psychological trauma in war and viral pandemic conditions is considered. the practical significance of the article lies in the fact that the psychoanalytic approach to the analysis of methodological means of psychological aid, taking into account the use of integrated psychotherapy and neuropsycho-correction at the systemic level and in an integrated way is implemented. the analytic-generalizing analysis of the methodological means of psychological aid to ukrainians under the conditions of war and the covid pandemic can be used in psychotherapeutic and psychologically corrective practice. theoretical, methodological and methodical foundations of psychological aid in war and pandemic covid – 19 the war situation of ukrainian society and the unsatisfactory epidemiological state associated with the covid-19 pandemic have formed a vital demand for psychological practice in helping people in crisis situations. ukrainian volunteer psychologists and psychotherapists provide socio-psychological support to different segments of the population in broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 229 difficult situations of traumatic crisis arising in response to the psychotraumatic situation of war and global pandemics. the consequences of war on human mental health are actively studied by domestic and foreign researchers (bondarchuk, 2016; murtny & lakshminarayana, 2006; rzeszu et al., 2020; smith et al., 2016; tsarenko, 2016). after traumatic events, a wide range of intense emotions and reactions related to war can arise the difficulties of living in a war zone, problems in displacing refugees, experiences of torture and trauma of various types, as found to be related to mental health problems of people, almoshmosh (2016). psychotraumas received during the war are closely connected with the level of post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) and symptoms of depression (rzeszutek et al., 2020). stress becomes a psychological trauma when a consequence of a stressor becomes a disturbance in the mental sphere of a person similar to disturbances in somatic processes. a traumatic stressful event, characterized by suddenness, destructive force, intensity, often connected with the fact or threat of death, serious bodily harm or sexual violence, it brings completely new information to the person, which must be integrated into previous life experience. at the physiological level, the biochemical balance changes, the work of the brain changes: interhemispheric synaptic transmission is blocked, the neurons of the cerebral cortex function differently, as a result of which those areas that are associated with the control of aggression and the sleep cycle are affected first, otherwise memory begins to function. the mechanism of traumatic memory becomes the cause of post-traumatic stress states, reactions of excessive fright (accelerated heartbeat, panting, weakness, feeling deaf, stupor, patience, insensitivity) appear. more often than not, people react to an extreme event with psychomotor agitation, which is manifested by excessive, rapid, sometimes aimless movements. attention narrows, voluntary purposeful activity becomes problematic, reactions of excessive fright (accelerated heartbeat, panting, weakness, feeling deaf, stupor, patience, insensibility) appear. in the presence of some of these characteristics of low stress tolerance of the person of a certain intensity, duration and frequency distinguish four types of response to a traumatic event: without signs of impaired adaptation; non-pathological mental adaptation as an acute stress reaction; pathological mental maladaptation; adaptation disorders (kisarchuk et al., 2015, pp. 8-25). the concepts "trauma," "psychological trauma," and "traumatic stress" are often used synonymously. in an extreme situation, people suffer from the following factors: the depth and intensity of traumatic events; prolonged anticipation; suddenness the less expected the event, the more it psychological aid to victims of war and the covid pandemic 19 in ukraine olga samara et al. 230 destroys the psyche; duration the longer a person is in the zone of an extreme situation, the more exhausting he or she becomes; constant changes the psyche does not have time to develop new, important for survival information; the scale of destruction after a crash, the number of dead and wounded (in israel it is customary to eliminate as soon as possible, sometimes within hours, the consequences of terrorist attacks or shelling; this way people have the impression that they are strong and can control the situation); lack of control some events in war conditions no one can change, but not always the ability to determine even their own life (rest, sleep, food); moral uncertainty when it is necessary to make decisions that have a significant impact on life, both their own and others for example, whom to save, whom to take with them, how much to risk, whom to blame, etc.; behavior during traumatic events not everyone manages to handle a difficult situation better at once. what a person did or did not do in extreme conditions can significantly affect his or her self-esteem, a long-term source of self-blame (tsarenko, 2016). theoretical, methodological bases of psychological aid in conditions of war and the covid-19 pandemic are based on the conceptual provisions of the works of domestic and foreign psychologists, in particular, the experience of psychological aid to victims of extreme events in ukraine with analytical and psychological analysis of important theoretical aspects of experience of crisis traumatic situations (kisarchuk et al., 2015); the methodology "children and war: teaching healing techniques" developed on the basis of the cognitive-behavioral approach to therapy of posttraumatic stress disorder, effectively implemented in a number of war-torn countries (smith et al., 2016); specifics of psychocorrection work (maksymenko et al., 2015); identification and systematization of the transformation of views on the phenomenon of death in accordance with different types of human consciousness, identification of integral characteristics and empirical manifestations of the fear of death as a way of organizing life experience in the typology of models of fear of death (myronchak, 2020); results of empirical research of development of depression and high anxiety in people due to outbreak of coronavirus disease covid-19 (shen et al., 2021). thus, effective for overcoming post-traumatic stress in children and parents associated with war are the healing techniques developed by smith et al. (2016) based on a cognitive-behavioral approach to therapy of posttraumatic experiences and effectively implemented in a number of war-torn countries. the main of them contain the following directions of psychological work: research of emotional reactions to stresses of war; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 231 creation of a feeling of safety; techniques of work in imagination; techniques of double focus of attention; work with dreams; work with opinions; work with emotions, with special attention to those emotions which are connected with the mental state of excitability and their correction, and also with the experience of loss of loved ones; exposure to traumatic memories: drawing, writing, and talking through them; providing guidance on parenting children and overcoming parents' own problems; and keeping a diary to plan activities for each day of the week. in our opinion, an important component of psychological aid to the psychologically traumatized victims of acute crisis situations during the period of war against the background of viral pandemics, in particular in the case of loss of a loved one, is work with the fear of death. thus, myronchak (2020, p. 42) defines the fear of death as the emotional mechanism influencing the ability to adapt to the environment, changing the motivational sphere. from the author's point of view, the fear of death can influence the transformation of reality, becoming a full-fledged way of organizing an individual's life space. consequently, we consider constructive psychotherapeutic techniques of release from fear of death through constructive construction of personal life strategies of the client in a difficult social space (to improve, revive, make the most constructive and effective use of his or her life experience through creativity or self-knowledge, etc.) and a combination of the psychoanalytical tradition with the existential approach. but when death is denied, life itself is denied. the denial of death on any level is a denial of one's own nature, which leads to an increasingly narrowed area of consciousness and experience, limiting the space for allround psychological development (myronchak, 2020). in the structure of the psychologist's readiness to provide psychological aid to persons participating in the ato and members of their families as a complex personal entity, the following components can be distinguished: cognitive (a set of knowledge on the content, factors, methods and techniques of psychological assistance to persons participating in ato (anti-terrorist operation, a set of measures aimed at the prevention, prevention and suppression of terrorist actions), and their family members, significantly reducing the risk of destructive tendencies in this process, in particular misperception of professionally loaded information and its distortion; affective (positive attitude towards provision of psychological aid, the set of motives that condition the corresponding attitude of the psychologist); conative (the set of practical skills and abilities for provision of psychological aid, in particular, conducting a constructive dialogue with clients; implementation of self-control in difficult situations of professional psychological aid to victims of war and the covid pandemic 19 in ukraine olga samara et al. 232 activity; use of optimum ways and means of overcoming stressful situations in professional activity, etc.). only a high level of development of these components will contribute to the readiness of psychologists to provide quality psychological aid to victims of crisis traumatic events (bondarchuk, 2016, p. 11). in our opinion, the application of psychotherapeutic knowledge by specialists (clinical psychologists and psychotherapists) during the years of war and pandemics in ukraine provides for the specificity of psychological aid depending on the features of survivors' experience of acute emotional reactions, the complexity of the course of posttraumatic stress disorder, the presence of mental disorders and the internal resources to resist the action of the psychotraumatic factor. experience for a crisis counselor in the cognitive-behavioral approach alone as a basic approach may not always be sufficient; therefore, it is effective to use the integrative psychotherapeutic and comprehensive psychological approach in crisis counseling. the international professional community is focused on providing people with support that respects their dignity, culture and capabilities. according to the recommendations of the world health organization, psychological first aid (pfa) includes the following elements: non-intrusive provision of practical help and support; assessment of needs and problems; assistance with basic needs (e.g., food, water, information); listening to people without making them talk; comforting and appeasing people; providing assistance in getting information, connecting with services and social support structures; protecting people from further harm. not everyone who has experienced a crisis event needs or seeks pfa. the key is not to impose help on those who don't want it, but to be available to those who may need support; not to make useless promises and provide false information, exaggerate your skills, be intrusive, force people to tell their stories, judge a person for actions or feelings; should show that you understand the victims' feelings or are aware of the important events they are talking about, such as the loss of their home or the death of a loved one: "i'm sorry..."; should highlight the person's strengths and how they were able to take care of themselves and allow people to wallow in silence. in some situations, medical care is a life-saving priority (world health organization, 2017). in our own experience of crisis psychological counseling, a group of psychotherapists labeled a combatant as having post-traumatic stress disorder. none of his symptoms as a complex of disorders in the structure of ptsd was found by us. false generalizations based on errors in the counselor's cognitive and communication competencies can be related to the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 233 dynamic course of the client's stress tolerance from low to medium levels within a short time interval. under conditions of social-psychological support from volunteer psychologists and relatives, mental health can be restored even in dangerous conditions of human activity. lack of psychological support and self-support in a person is often associated with a loss of faith and hope in improvement of circumstances or one's own life. besides, the excessive responsibility to exaggerate negative attributes of the client's mental state can have an adverse effect on the emotional health of the consultant and weaken not only the client's trust in himself or herself, but also in his or her professionalism. the psychological secret of error prevention is to listen attentively to the client, while pointing out positive aspects (indicating the inner potential for overcoming the crisis) and to build a consultation conversation around them. in providing psychological aid in the treatment of post-traumatic stress, it is appropriate to apply the following practical psychotherapeutic approaches in a complex way frankl's logotherapy; j. buchental's existential-humanistic psychotherapy; gestalt therapy by f. perls; somatic therapy of mental trauma by p. lewin; personality-oriented psychotherapy by c. rogers; body-oriented psychotherapy; process psychotherapy by a. mindell, all cited and commented by turynina (2017). in our opinion, under conditions of social instability associated with the threat to human life, mental disorders with anxiety-depressive, hysterical, neurasthenic and hypochondriac symptomcomplexes are possible, which requires comprehensive and integrated psychotherapy combined with neuropsychocorrection as part of treatment and prevention. foreign researchers barlow et al. (2014) empirically confirm the importance of comprehensive therapy of emotional disorders, which can be "triggers" for many mental disorders. duan and zhu (2020) proposed crisis interventions that would be based on a comprehensive assessment of the risk factors that lead to psychological problems for patients, their families, and medical staff in relation to the covid-19 epidemic. aminoff et al. (2021) also confirmed that cognitive behavioral therapy (cbt) methods and techniques significantly reduce depression, anxiety and can be applied to various psychological symptoms related to the viral pandemic. weiner et al. (2020) developed an effective mental health program in the covid-19 pandemic. the researchers also believe that online cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in treating and preventing mental health disorders under the negative effects of pandemics on the human psyche. psychological aid to victims of war and the covid pandemic 19 in ukraine olga samara et al. 234 neuropsychological correction, which today's scientists often consider to be a section of psychological correction, deserves special attention in providing psychological aid in conditions of military conflict and pandemics. in current psychological practice, an integrated body-oriented psychological approach (with neuro-psycho-corrective techniques) with psychotherapeutic methods (breathing techniques, relaxation, motor and other training exercises that restore the tone of the nervous system and stabilize the psycho-emotional state of behavior can be effective (berbets et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021; karasievych et al., 2021; nenko et al., 2022; sarancha et al., 2021). neuropsychological techniques are present in many psychological approaches, in particular in body-oriented, cognitive, transpersonal, gestalt therapy approaches to the correction of personality, etc. thus, as a reich body-oriented model of psychological correction of the personality, physical postures are analyzed as a way to suppress feelings in certain parts of the body; the character carcass as a mechanism of behavior that provides energy blocking at the mental and physiological levels as protection against anxiety and fear and for neuropsychological correction the following exercises are performed in turn: natural breathing, throat muscle activation, belly relaxation, mobilization of aggression (after a strong inhale, on an exhalation hit the pelvis on the couch, while allowing your head to listen to your body). in psychological correction of the personality from the position of "transpersonal psychology," the holotropic approach, in particular techniques of holotropic breathing, allow for release of emotional and somatic tensions (zlobin, 2005). maksymenko et al. (2015) present in detail the specifics of psychologically corrective work and its methodological means, consider problems of psychologically corrective work with different age groups, and substantiate features of group psychologically corrective work in different areas: t-groups, incounter groups, gestalt groups, groups of the transactional analysis, skill training groups, cognitive direction, neurolinguistic programming, groups of body and dance therapy, art therapy groups, themocentric interaction; the specifics of use of psychoanalysis, psychodrama and relaxation procedures in group psychocorrection work, which integration can be successfully used in work with victims of military conflict and pandemics are considered. consequently, the cognitive-behavioral approach has been found to be effective in providing psychological aid to people who find themselves in difficult crisis situations of war and pandemic simultaneously. we support the position of foreign and domestic researchers on the application of an broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 235 integrative psychotherapeutic and comprehensive psychological approach to crisis counseling in conditions of military conflict, depending on the specifics of survivors' experiences of acute emotional reactions, the complexity of the course of posttraumatic stress disorder, the presence of mental disorders and internal resources. effective psychological self-help techniques in war and pandemic covid – 19 we can confidently confirm the main provisions of practical psychology that in conditions of war and pandemic covid 19 the adaptive potential of preserving the psychological health of each person is always love, faith and hope. the potential of love primarily provides support in care and service for the self, self-understanding and self-acceptance, which is always associated with optimistic counseling, hope and faith in improving primarily one's own mental state, meaningful life situation, and future in general. for the purpose of self-support in life-threatening situations, it is important to allow yourself to be yourself and experience all negative emotions (fear, anger, pain, aggression, despair, etc.), talk about your unpleasant feelings, take time to live (experience) the pain of loss, find meaning in your faith in the future and positive moments in difficult situations (new experiences, conclusions, support of others, heroic deeds and superhuman possibilities). almoshmosh (2016) argues that the psychological effects of war trauma are common and can even be linked to mental disability. as such, it is important to focus on internal resources-because of what injured people can do to help themselves cope with their difficulties. in addition to the specialized therapy that may be required in specific cases, there are many things that can be done on a personal and community level to help restore survivors' confidence and sense of control. the role of trauma survivors in self-management of their mental well-being especially needs to be understood and encouraged. a person with sufficient potential for positive self-perception in any difficult situation will observe the habitual mode of the day, adequate rules of ensuring his or her own safety, self-support and support of others. in a life-threatening and unexpected situation, increased anxiety may be associated with a low level of adaptation to unpredictable events. in such a case, educational recommendations for the formation of basic psychological health skills are appropriate: adherence to a habitual daily routine, even in the "impossible" conditions of doing vital hygiene, nutrition, sports; tight control of information about the horrors of war or dangerous situations in psychological aid to victims of war and the covid pandemic 19 in ukraine olga samara et al. 236 connection with the covid 19 pandemic, for example, only reading of basic information from objective sources in the amount and at certain intervals regulated by psychologists; use of neuropsychological breathing techniques (calming breathing: we inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth, the exhale should be longer than the inhale) and relaxation auto-training with exercises of body-oriented therapy; work on expanding ways of positive communication and avoiding "stressful" communication; daily planning of pleasant activities for oneself, even for short periods (15-20 minutes) etc. when the ability to cope with stressful situations is low, it is necessary to seek psychological aid from specialists a psychologist or psychotherapist. individual psychological counseling and group work with a professional trainer-psychologist can ensure the restoration of mental health to a sufficient degree for full mental functioning and the actualization of internal resources. psychological trainings are effective for building psychological support skills, in particular the ability to listen more, which in times of war can be more effective than even the soothing phrases "we are with you", "let's try together", "it's already quiet here". it is reasonable to conduct psychological self-support in the following sequence: work with the body, group work aimed at clarification of problems, recalling traumatic events and fallen brothers, discussion of useful strategies for overcoming the consequences of extreme events in order to work through negative feelings and states and actualization of resource conditions. an important area of the psychologist's work is the formation of self-help skills in his or her clients. in order to adapt in an extreme situation, a person must switch from emergency mode of functioning to normal mode, life must be controlled by the adult wise part of our soul. in order for this to happen, it is important to take responsibility for oneself; learn to become aware of one's physical and emotional state, needs and problems, to think positively; master relaxation techniques, breathing techniques, elements of self-massage and massage, which can be done in the field. it is expedient to get acquainted with the basics of self-help in groups of 15-25 people. however, in the situation of servicemen, this requirement cannot always be met (often a unit has 20 to 25 servicemen, and it is inappropriate to separate the team). it is possible to conduct mini-training sessions such as: mobilization training; relaxation training (breathing techniques; relaxation exercises; techniques to increase self-awareness and awareness of the world around, techniques of body scanning and liberation from negative thoughts by mindfulness therapy, etc.); training with elements of body therapy aimed at improving well-being (kisarchuk et al., 2015). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 237 art therapy techniques are one of the powerful components of the integrated psychotherapy of emotional, cognitive and behavioral disorders influenced by the psychotraumatic factor. the model of art therapy includes the psychoanalytic, jungian, group; the humanistic or client-centered; family; clinical; holistic (integration of experience at all levels); the transpersonal model; and the eclectic model. in our opinion, art therapy exercises are capable of producing effectiveness both in the process of psychological aid, and in the process of self-help and self-support, promoting positive changes in personal qualities and mental states, about what numerous psychological works of both domestic and foreign researchers testify (binson & levwiesel, 2017; karpenko, 2015; schöller et al., 2018). through the use of drawing, modeling or other types of expression, art therapists are able to get to know the person and avoid his or her inner censorship. thus, the control of consciousness over the unconscious impulses, in which the cause of various problems is often laid, is weakened. in art therapy, there is a prohibition of comparative and evaluative opinions, conclusions, criticism and punishment. this allows the client to be himself or herself without the discomfort, shame or humiliation of being compared to others, and helps to create an atmosphere of trust and safety in the therapeutic relationship. besides, art therapy gives an outlet for internal conflicts and strong emotions, helps with interpretation of displaced experiences, etc. the methods of art therapy meet the expectations, installations and traditions of clients in ukraine, for whom an orientation on emotional-image experience rather than on rational resolution of psychological conflicts is inherent. self-support of victims in conditions of combat stress: accept their emotional reactions, recognizing and comprehending them as adequate in conditions of military conflict; objectively assess the psychologically traumatic circumstances and events; in advance of risky actions form an admonition to resolve the situation positively, simultaneously working to improve the situation; adequately apply individually selected and comfortable for oneself breathing and relaxation techniques. thus, psychological self-help is a factor of stress resistance as an internal psychological capacity to withstand psychotrauma in war and viral pandemics. in providing psychological aid to people with low levels of selfsupport, domestic and foreign researchers have recognized the cognitivebehavioral approach as the basic one and suggested that integrative psychotherapeutic and comprehensive psychological approaches to crisis counseling in conditions of military conflict, depending on the specifics of acute emotional experiences, stress disorders, the presence of mental psychological aid to victims of war and the covid pandemic 19 in ukraine olga samara et al. 238 disorders and internal resources to resist the action of the psychotraumatic factor, be applied. conclusion in a complex crisis situation caused by military conflict on the background of viral pandemics, people in a state of severe distress need practical help containing socio-psychological, social and psychological support. psychological aid is provided taking into account the main parameters of psychological crisis consultation: the state of physical health of the victim with determination of risk group, age of the victim, emotional response to an emergency situation and internal resources to overcome it, specific features of the psychological culture of participants of co-consulting interaction, experience in self-support, the individual psychological levels of stress resistance of the client. psychological self-help is a factor of stress resistance as an internal psychological capacity to withstand psychotrauma in war and viral pandemics. in providing psychological aid to people with low levels of selfsupport, domestic and foreign researchers have recognized the cognitivebehavioral approach as the basic one and suggested that integrative psychotherapeutic and comprehensive psychological approaches to crisis counseling in conditions of military conflict, depending on the specifics of acute emotional experiences, stress disorders, the presence of mental disorders and internal resources to resist the action of the psychotraumatic factor, be applied. on the basis of the theoretical, methodological and methodical bases of psychological aid, as well as the psychological and analytical generalization concerning the effective technologies of psychological self-help, we can confidently confirm the main statements of practical psychology that in the conditions of war and the pandemic covid 19 the adaptive potential of psychological health of each person is love as a realization of experience of psychological self-help and support of others, faith and hope. references almoshmosh, n. (2016). the role of war trauma survivors in managing their own mental conditions, syria civil war as an example. (2016). avicenna journal of medicine, 6(2), 54–59. https://doi.org/10.4103%2f2231-0770.179554 aminoff, v., sellén, м., sörliden, е., ludvigsson, м., berg, м., & andersson, g. (2021). internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for psychological distress associated with the covid-19 pandemic: a pilot randomized https://doi.org/10.4103%2f2231-0770.179554 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 239 controlled trial. frontiers in psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684540 barlow, d. h., sauer-zavala, s., carl, j. r., bullis, j. r., & ellard, k. k. (2014). the nature, diagnosis, and treatment of neuroticism: back to the future. clinical psychological science, 2(3). 344–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613505532 berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 binson, b., & lev-wiesel, r. (2017). promoting personal growth through experiential learning: the case of expressive arts therapy for lecturers in thailand. frontiers in psychology, 8, 2276. https://doi.org/10.3389%2ffpsyg.2017.02276 bondarchuk, o. i. (2016). sotsialʹno-psykholohichni problemy hotovnosti praktychnykh psykholohiv do nadannya psykholohichnoyi dopomohy osobam, yaki berutʹ uchastʹ v ato, ta chlenam yikh simey [sociopsychological problems of readiness of practical psychologists to provide psychological assistance to persons participating in the ato antiterrorist operation, and members of their families]. in proceedings of the interagency scientific and practical conference, kiev. phttps://dspace.uzhnu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/lib/13539/2/збірник_ч1 %2030.03.16%20ато.pdf demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 duan, l., & zhu, g. (2020). psychological interventions for people affected by the covid-19 epidemic. lancet psychiatry, 7(4), 300–302. https://doi.org/10.1016%2fs2215-0366(20)30073-0 karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684540 https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613505532 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 https://doi.org/10.3389%2ffpsyg.2017.02276 https://dspace.uzhnu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/lib/13539/2/збірник_ч1%2030.03.16%20ато.pdf https://dspace.uzhnu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/lib/13539/2/збірник_ч1%2030.03.16%20ато.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1016%2fs2215-0366(20)30073-0 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 psychological aid to victims of war and the covid pandemic 19 in ukraine olga samara et al. 240 karpenko, y. (2015). metody suchasnoyi psykhoterapiyi [methods of the modern psychotherapy]. drogobych: prosvita. kisarchuk, z. h., omelchenko, ya. m, lazos, h. p, lytvynenko, l. i, & tsarenko, l. h. (2015). psykholohichna dopomoha postrazhdalym vnaslidok kryzovykh travmatychnykh podiy [psychological aid to victims of crisis traumatic events]. kiev: llc publishing house "logos". maksymenko, s. d., prokofyeva, o. o., tsarkova, o. v., & kochkurova, o. v. (2015). praktykum iz hrupovoyi psykhokorektsiyi [practicum on group psychocorrection]. melitopol: publishing-polygraphic center "lux". murtny, r. s., & lakshminarayana, r. (2006). mental health consequences of war: a brief review of research findings. world psychiatry, 5(1), 25–30. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1472271/ myronchak, k. v. (2020). zustrich zi smertyu: sposoby orhanizatsiyi zhyttyevoho dosvidu [the encounter with doom]: methods of organizing life experience]. kropyvnytskiy : imeks-ltd. nenko, y., medynskyi, s., maksymchuk, b., lymarenko, l., rudenko, l., kharchenko, s., kolomiets, a., & maksymchuk, i. (2022). communication training of future sports coaches in the context of neurophysiological patterns. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 42-60. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/268 rzeszutek, m., lis-turlejska, m., krajewska, a., zawadzka, a., lewandowski, m., & szumiał, s. (2020). long-term psychological consequences of world war ii trauma among polish survivors: a mixed-methods study on the role of social acknowledgment. frontiers in psychology, 26. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00210 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 schöller, h., viol, k., aichhorn, w., hütt, m. t., & schiepek, g. (2018). personality development in psychotherapy: a synergetic model of state-trait dynamics. cognitive neurodynamics, 12(5), 441–459. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-018-9488-y smith, p, dyrehrov, e, & yule, u. (2016). dity ta viyna: navchannya tekhnik ztsilennya [children and war: teaching healing techniques]. lviv. http://ipz.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/dity_fin_ispp-1.pdf tsarenko, l. h. (2016). ekstremalʹni chynnyky rozladiv adaptatsiyi u viysʹkovosluzhbovtsiv, yaki berutʹ uchastʹ v ato [extreme factors of adaptation disorders in soldiers participating in the ato]. in proceedings of https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1472271/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/268 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00210 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-018-9488-y http://ipz.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/dity_fin_ispp-1.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 241 the interdepartmental scientific and practical conference (pp. 187-190). kyiv. https://dspace.uzhnu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/lib/13539/2/збірник_ч1% 2030.03.16%20ато.pdf turynina, o. l. (2017). psykholohiya travmuyuchykh sytuatsiy [psychology of traumatic situations]. kyiv: se "personnel". weiner, l, berna, f, nourry, n, severac, f, vidailhet, p., & mengin, а. с. (2020). efficacy of an online cognitive behavioral therapy program developed for healthcare workers during the covid-19 pandemic: the reduction of stress (rest) study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. trials, 21(1), 870. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-04772-7 world health organization. (2017). vsesvitnya orhanizatsiya okhorony zdorovʺya [first psychological help: a guide for staff]. kyiv : university publishers pulsary. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44615/978617615078 7-ukr.pdf?sequence=72 xin, s., shijiao, y., hui, c., jing, f., zihui, l., weixin, z., chuanzhu, l., & yong, g. (2021). current status and associated factors of depression and anxiety among the chinese residents during the period of low transmission of covid-19. frontiers in psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700376 zlobin, y. d. (2005). psikhologicheskaya korrektsiya lichnosti: zadachi, podkhody, priemy [psychological correction of the personality: objectives, approaches, techniques]. chelyabinsk. https://dspace.uzhnu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/lib/13539/2/збірник_ч1%2030.03.16%20ато.pdf https://dspace.uzhnu.edu.ua/jspui/bitstream/lib/13539/2/збірник_ч1%2030.03.16%20ато.pdf https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-04772-7 https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44615/9786176150787-ukr.pdf?sequence=72 https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44615/9786176150787-ukr.pdf?sequence=72 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700376 microsoft word brain_1_4.doc 94 riassunti in italiano brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cervello. ampia ricerca in intelligenza artificiale e neuroscienze volume 1, numero 4 ottobre 2010: autunno, 2010 www.brain.edusoft.ro direttore responsabile: bogdan patrut 1. nuovo sistema combinato di misurazione per prevenire i problemi respiratori nei pazienti iracheni con la sindrome di guillain-barré zaki noah hasan riassunto la sindrome di guillain-barré (guillain-barré syndrome – gbs) è una poliradiculoneuropatia in forma acuta post-infettiva; è la causa più comune di neuropatia periferica per problemi respiratori. l'obiettivo di questo studio è di utilizzare il nuovo sistema combinato di misurazione che anticipa i problemi respiratori in modo da adottare contromisure mirate senza dover attendere la situazione di emergenza. pazienti e metodi: sono stati studiati cinquanta pazienti con gbs prendendo in considerazione otto parametri clinici (includendo anche: regressione dei pazienti al livello di massima debolezza, frequenza respiratoria al minuto, conteggio in apnea (le cifre che il paziente può contare trattenendo il respiro), presenza di debolezza nei muscoli facciali unilaterale o bilaterale, presenza di debolezza nei muscoli bulbari, debolezza nei muscoli flessori del collo, e negli arti) sono stati valutati per ogni paziente ed un determinato punteggio è stato dato ad ogni parametro, un punteggio designato e combinato, costruito prendendo in considerazione tutti i parametri clinici sopra menzionati. risultati e discussioni: quindici pazienti (30%) sono coinvolti nello sviluppo del nostro studio sui problemi respiratori. c'è stata un'associazione statistica altamente significativa tra lo sviluppo dei problemi respiratori e i livelli inferiori di (debolezza del muscolo bulbare, conteggio mentre si trattiene il respiro, debolezza dei muscoli del collo, arti inferiori e superiori, ritmo respiratorio) e la somma totale descritta sopra è 16 su 30 (p-value=0.000). non è stata rilevata nessuna differenza statistica rilevante riguardo alla progressione verso il massimo valore di debolezza (p-value=0.675) e debolezza dei muscoli facciali (p-value=0.482). conclusione: i pazienti che hanno ottenuto il punteggio combinato precedentemente descritto (oltre 16'30) sono a forte rischio di problemi respiratori. 2. quo vadis, macchina intelligente? rosemarie velik riassunto l'intelligenza artificiale (artificial intelligence-ai) è un ramo dell'informatica che riguarda il modo di far assomigliare i computers all'uomo. almeno questa era l'idea originale. comunque, la via è stata abbandonata perché non era un processo semplice da implementare. quest'articolo si pone l'obiettivo di dare una visione comprensibile degli ultimi 60 anni di intelligenza artificiale da un punto di vista filosofico. quello che è accaduto, in termini di lungo periodo, nel campo dell'ai, quello che sta attualmente succedendo nel campo della ricerca e cosa dobbiamo aspettarci per il futuro. l'obiettivo è di mediare una comprensione riguardante gli sviluppi e i cambiamenti pensando al corso del tempo per quanto riguarda le caratteristiche delle “macchine intelligenti”. il messaggio chiaro è che l'ai deve andare in forza alla neuroscienza e alle altre discipline cerebrali in modo da fare un altro passo verso lo sviluppo delle “vere macchine intelligenti”. riassunti in italiano 95 3. apprendimento della seconda lingua focalizzato al modello come predittore di terzo grado della realizzazione dell’apprendimento: un caso di traduzione ali jahangard riassunto lo scopo dello studio era di formulare un modello di previsione delle prestazioni nelle scuole superiori iraniane, di terzo grado al termine del corso (end of the course achievement eca) e di formulare dei test, attraverso le prestazioni sul test del vocabolario, somministrati attraverso il corso. per giungere a questa conclusione, hanno partecipato allo studio, per nove mesi, trentadue studenti, maschi tra i 17 e i 19 anni. le loro abilità linguistiche erano approssimativamente ad un livello intermedio secondo le linee guida dell’actfl proficiency guidelines (1998). la proceduratipo era di mantenere il metodo del gruppo. 333 voci lessicali sono state insegnate agli studenti nel metodo decontestualizzato dell’associazione accoppiata. le classi sono state tenute per due ore la settimana in un corso durato 9 mesi. sei gruppi di test vocabolari sono stati somministrati ed è stato calcolato il livello medio di conoscenza di ogni studente. gli studenti si sono misurati col punteggio dei test eca e il loro punteggio sui test vocabolari è stato analizzato attraverso una procedura che analizza la regressione per derivare un modello che potesse il più fedelmente possibile predire il punteggio eca degli studenti attraverso le prestazioni misurate col punteggio eca. le analisi hanno prodotto la seguente formula: (average vocabulary × 0.713) + 2.871± [3.1]. 4. l’impatto del test sull’ansia da prestazioni tra gli apprendisti dell’efl iraniano parviz birjandi, minoo alemi riassunto il test sull’ansia è stato studiato in diversi contesti nei due decenni passati, come un valore affettivo. comunque, i risultati mixati alle relazioni tra l’effettuazione dei test e le prestazioni degli apprendisti dei test l2 mostrano come la strumentazione per la valutazione dei test sull’ansia e i fattori comprendenti la costruzione dell’acquisizione dei test richieda maggiore approfondimento in modo da fare più luce sul problema. per questo fine un questionario per misurare l’ansia (sarason, 1975) e [27] test generali inglesi sono stati somministrati a 164 studenti di ingegneria esp arruolati nel programma b.a. per documentare (a) il risultato del loro test di ansietà, (b) la relazione tra il risultato del test e le prestazioni, e (c) i fatto di sollecitazione dell’ansia basati su fattori di analisi esplorativa. il risultato mostra come i test degli apprendisti l2 sia piuttosto basso e come molti dei suoi componenti non abbiano una correlazione negativa significativa sulle prestazioni dei test. i risultati dell’analisi del fattore esplorativo rivelano come la sollecitazione dell’ansia si caratterizzi piuttosto sovrapponendo tre fattori di test specifici: test sull’ansia, ansia generale e ansia da test di preparazione. comunque al di fuori di questi fattori, il test sull’ansia generale a causa del suo funzionamento al livello più alto di affettività, ha una significativa correlazione negativa con i test da prestazione. per contro, il test da preparazione, in vista di facilitare il test sulle prestazioni, manifesta una positiva, non significativa, correlazione coi test da prestazione. il risultato ha due implicazioni: (a)come la correlazione alle sollecitazioni dei fattori di ansia dia prova di essere sia di tipo negativo che positivo, il questionario sull’ansia non sia monolitico e quindi non sia una misura adeguata nel caso di relazioni lineari tra test di ansietà e test di prestazioni, è il focus dello studio; e (b) il test sull’ansia non sembra avere influenza sul test da prestazione e micro test di livello specifico. 5. sul rapporto tra ingresso e di interazione psicolinguistica, cognitivo e prospettive ecologiche in sla mohammad khatib, minoo alemi, parisa daftarifard riassunto l’ngresso (input) è uno degli elementi più importanti nel processo di acquisizione della seconda lingua (sla). come gass (1997) sottolinea, la seconda lingua semplicemente non può avere luogo senza un qualche tipo d'intervento. da allora, i problemi specifici sono stati attivamente dibattuti in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, octobre 2010, "autumn 2010", issn 2067-3957 96 sla riguardo la natura dell’ingresso e della trasformazione di input, come la quantità di input che è necessario per l'acquisizione del linguaggio, i vari attributi di input e di come essi possano facilitare o ostacolare l'acquisizione e metodi didattici che possano aumentare l’input. in questo documento, quattro ipotesi e paradigmi di elaborazione di input sono stati descritti. si è delineato che, sebbene i tre paradigmi di innesco, ipotesi di ingresso, e l'ipotesi di interazione sono stati ampiamente utilizzati ed accettati, essi non hanno la capacità di spiegare la natura dinamica del linguaggio. affordance, d'altra parte, può spiegare una simile natura del linguaggio. pertanto, affordance sostituisce la visione fissa occhio dalla visione “mobile-eye”: un apprendista attivo instaura rapporti con e all’interno dell'ambiente. lo studente può percepire e di agire direttamente sulla lingua dell’ambiente senza dover percorrere tutto un apparato di pre-esistenti schemi mentali e di rappresentanza, mentre questo non è vero nella teoria di fixed-code (codice fisso). nella teoria di comunicazione “fixed-eye” si presume che i messaggi di ready-made siano codificati da un’estremità, trasmessi, e quindi decodificati in forma identica all'altra estremità. necessitiamo di sostituirlo con una teoria costruttivista di costruzione e interpretazione del messaggio. 6. computazione matematica nella medicina angel garrido riassunto ai richiede logica. ma nella sua versione classica mostra molte insufficienze. si rende quindi necessario introdurre strumenti più sofisticati, come ad esempio la logica fuzzy, la logica modale, la logica non-monotonica, e così via. tra le cose di cui l'ai ha bisogno di rappresentare ci sono categorie, oggetti, proprietà, relazione tra gli oggetti, situazioni, stati, tempo, eventi, cause ed effetti, conoscenza pura, e così via. i problemi nel campo dell'ai possono essere classificati in due tipi generali[3, 4], problemi di ricerca e problemi di rappresentazione. le vie per raggiungere l'obiettivo sono molteplici:. abbiamo così [3] logiche, regole, frames, reti associative, scripts, e così via, molte volte interconnessi. sarà anche molto utile, nel trattamento dei problemi di incertezza e casualità, l'introduzione di reti bayesiane ed in particolarmente, uno strumento principale come il “grafo essenziale”. tenteremo qui di mostrare il campo di applicazione di metodi così versatili, attualmente fondamentali nella medicina. 7. su unici teoremi comune punto fisso per tre e quattro "mapping self" in symmetric space fuzzy metric saurabh manro riassunto in questo lavoro, dimostriamo due teoremi comune unico punto fisso per tre e quattro "mappature sé" in spazi simmetrici fuzzy metrici. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 346-369 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/424 submitted: november 20th, 2022 | accepted for publication: december 4th, 2022 new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women of childbearing age nataliia honcharuk1, ganna tamozhanska2, zoryana korytko3, ljudmyla rusyn4, nataliia vasylieva5, oksana adamenko6, borys maksymchuk7 1 national university of pharmacy, ukraine, goncharuknatalyaa@gmail.com 2 national university of pharmacy, ukraine, kulichka79@ukr.net 3 ivan boberskyi lviv state university of physical culture, ukraine, korytko@ukr.net 4 uzhgorod national university, ukraine, ljudarusyn@gmail.com 5 kherson state university, ukraine, nataliavasileva85@gmail.com 6 admiral makarov national university of shipbuilding mykolayiv, ukraine, adamenkooksana76@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4191-8884 7 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, ukraine, 0674256781@ukr.net abstract: the article describes physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation of women of childbearing age with extragenital pathology, the most common oncologic pathologies of female genitalia. the article aims to develop a programme of physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation for women of childbearing age with extragenital pathology who underwent ovariectomy and evaluate its effectiveness. the authors observed 100 women aged between 18 and 45: the control group (cg) 50 women and the experimental group (eg) 50 women; each group was also divided into two age sub-groups 18-29 years old and 30-45 years old. the exercise therapy included physical and neurostimulation rehabilitation measures: calisthenic routine, static and dynamic breathing exercises, shallow breathing, some elements of muscle relaxation and autogenic training, dosed walking inside the ward, going up the stairs, as well as dosed walking using treadmills, pelvic floor exercises. methods of studying rehabilitation effectiveness are the following: instrumental methods (heart rate monitoring; arterial tonometry; respiratory rate measuring; spirometry); functional tests (hypoxic stange and genchi tests; orthostatic tests; clinostatic tests); laboratory research methods (clinical blood tests). the article proves that the employed methods of physical rehabilitation helped to increase indicators of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems in eg patients aged between 18 and 29 3-5 days earlier and eg patients aged between 30 and 45 3-4 days earlier than that in cg. it proves the effectiveness of the developed programme of physical rehabilitation for women of childbearing age with extragenital pathology who underwent ovariectomy. keywords: tumour diseases; female genital organs; shallow breathing; dosed walking; ovariectomy; oncologic pathology. how to cite: honcharuk, n., tamozhanska, g., korytko, z., rusyn, l., vasylieva, n., adamenko, o., & maksymchuk, b. (2023). new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women of childbearing age. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 346-369. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/424 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/424 mailto:goncharuknatalyaa@gmail.com mailto:kulichka79@ukr.net mailto:korytko@ukr.net mailto:ljudarusyn@gmail.com mailto:nataliavasileva85@gmail.com mailto:adamenkooksana76@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4191-8884 mailto:0674256781@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/424 new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 347 introduction nowadays, tumours of the female genital tract are the most common among oncologic pathologies. many scholars believe that ovarian tumours account for one-fourth of all female genital tract tumours (bertelsen & kruhoffer, 1995; doll, 1998; kulakov et al., 1998; kulinich et al., 1999; partridge et al., 1996; savelyeva & sichinawa, 1997; vasileva, 1967). cysts and ovarian cysts account for more than half of all benign neoplasms of the internal female reproductive organs (smetnik, 1995; smetnik & tumilovich, 1998; timoshenko et al., 1988). however, the clinical significance of such tumour diseases is confirmed not only by their prevalence but also by their attack rate among women of childbearing age, the development of severe complications (torsions, breakages) and their transition from benign to malignant neoplasms. the main method of treatment of these diseases is surgery (including ovariectomy), which can lead to a profound restructuring of the functions of the female body and cause significant psychological trauma resulting in peritoneal adhesions, hormonal imbalance and pelvic organ prolapse due to weakening of pelvic floor and ligaments (nelson & felicio, 1986; serov & kudryavtseva, 1999). in the postsurgical period after ovarian cystectomy, patients can often experience certain disorders in the functions of the internal organs (the respiratory, cardiovascular, and urinary systems, the gastrointestinal tract). the problem of physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation in gynaecology is still no less urgent or important. given the present unfavourable ecological, economic, social, and psychological situation, gynaecological patients are prone to multimorbidity, that is the coexistence of two or more long-term medical conditions or diseases; reduced adaptive reactions to negative environmental impacts; emotional lability; nutrition imbalance, hypodynamia and, because of the latter two factors, excess body weight (bogolyubov, 1998; strugatskiy, 1981). in recent years, various means of physical rehabilitation (remedial physical training, massage, physiotherapy, phytotherapy) have been used to prevent postoperative complications after ovariectomy on the background of drug therapy (mukhin, 2000). however, all available recommendations of specialists in physical rehabilitation are rather diverse. they suggest using such methods of exercise therapy and massage, which cannot eliminate and even prevent the above-mentioned changes in the body of women in the postoperative period. it must be noted that exercise therapy is prescribed without considering the psycho-emotional state of patients (women of childbearing age who underwent ovariectomy) broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 348 and concurrent diseases accompanying the main pathology. physical rehabilitation is important to all patients who underwent gynaecological operations. still, it is women who are at high risk for the occurrence of postoperative complications (in diseases of the respiratory, cardiovascular, and endocrine systems, fat metabolism disorders) who need it most (bogolyubov, 1998; kulakov et al., 1998; vasilevskaya et al., 2002). however, the analysis of scientific literature shows no reference to the use of specially developed methods of exercise therapy and respiratory gymnastics in combination with other means of physical rehabilitation in the restorative treatment of women of childbearing age in the postoperative period after ovariectomy, considering the presence of extragenital pathology of the cardiorespiratory system and initial signs of obesity. different aspects of the problem under study are covered in the works of many scholars (bakhmat et al., 2019; behas et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; halaidiuk et al., 2018; gerasymova et al., 2019; maksymchuk et al., 2018; melnyk et al., 2019; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; petrova, 2017; sitovskyi et al., 2019; sheremet et al., 2019). today, scholars tend to study the pathophysiology of cancer in several aspects: biological causes of cancer and neuropsychological phenomena associated with ontogenesis in cancer. neurophysiological and neuropsychological causes and consequences of oncology are currently explored in terms of a) mechanisms induced by chemotherapy; b) clinical and treatment factors leading to cognitive deficits; c) changes and reactions of cns to both disease and treatment (armstrong, 2014). these data are constantly updated, and “other fields, such as cardiology, hiv, dementia and epilepsy, have been more successful in working with neuropsychological related to biomarkers for disease or diseased areas of the brain” (armstrong, 2014). at the same time, psychological and neuropsychological publications on oncology have not reached such a level of development (armstrong, 2014). this prioritizes research on physical and, especially, neurorehabilitation of post-oncological conditions. in the broadest sense, cancer neuropsychology should provide answers to questions about quality of life, socialization, and psychosocial rehabilitation of cancer patients. psychoneurological parameters of women who have survived breast cancer (especially those who have undergone chemotherapy) show that most of them manifest an obvious decline in neuropsychological functioning (reid-arndt, 2006). the following issues remain open: a) the functional significance of post-oncological changes in neuropsychological functioning at work, social and gender roles; b) the main aetiology of the observed changes in cognitive new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 349 processes; c) the effects of neurorehabilitation for women who have survived cancer. these issues add relevance to the article, too. different types of oncological diseases cause different cognitive deficits. therefore, it is essential to proceed from a specific aetiology and clinical practice when planning rehabilitation. some researchers have already reviewed neuropsychology and its basic principles in correlation with cancer problems in women and men and predicted the potential aetiology of neurocognitive deficits depending on the nature of the cancer (noggle & dean, 2013). the neurocognitive consequences of brain cancer are now the most described. one of the most important aspects of neurorehabilitation is the attempt to alleviate chronic or acute pain that often accompanies cancer. such pain reduces self-esteem, interferes with daily activities, reduces productivity, and affects personal relationships. this requires one to develop personal scenarios of neurorehabilitation, improve the quality of clinical trials and a pragmatic approach to creating neurorehabilitation conditions. the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary approach to neurorehabilitation relies on a combination of pharmacological treatments, physical and occupational therapy and psychological interventions tested in pain conditions, such as complex local pain, when single interventions are insufficient (tamburin et al., 2017). adults’ neurorehabilitation depends on the nature of the disease, as well as neurophysiological characteristics of the brain and cns at this age. they determined that processes caused by age-related factors are morphological changes in brain areas, changes in neuronal morphology, changes in the network (including those in neuronal communication, neurogenesis and neurobiochemical changes. they also considered several aspects of neuroplasticity and discussed functional consequences of adults’ neuroplastic capabilities and differentiated brain with reference to the history of their discovery (fuchs & flügge, 2014). more pathological neurophysiological changes occur when the age factor is subjected to stress or somatic (trauma) effects. one should bear in mind that the post-oncological condition leads to chronic stress. the latter is a strong external stimulus that causes numerous neuroplastic changes. according to fuchs & flügge (2014), repeated or chronic stress changes the morphology of neurons in different areas of the brain. probably, the most carefully studied neuromorphological change is the stress-induced regression of the geometric length of the apical dendrites of pyramidal neurons, which was first demonstrated in the hippocampus (fuchs & flügge, 2014). the hippocampus is part of the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 350 limbic-hpa (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) system and regulates the response to stress. involvement of dendrites of pyramidal neurons has been repeatedly recorded after chronic stress, as well as after chronic administration of glucocorticoids. thus, neurorehabilitation should be combined with the restoration of neurohormonal balance. brick & skidmore (2020) analyzed the impact of cancer on a wider range of health problems, which determines the use of active rehabilitation. they claimed that neurorehabilitation is the activity of patients themselves, their timely visit to the centre and the acquisition of metacognitive and selfdirected strategies for self-rehabilitation (brick & skidmore, 2020). also, they argued that optimal cancer rehabilitation may consist in adopting and implementing activity-based rehabilitation approaches (brick & skidmore, 2020). recently, research on neurorehabilitology has focused on the restoration of sensorimotor deficits after damage to cns. this requires physiological activation of the limb muscles, which can be achieved through functional exercises of hand / arm and leg movement and activation of the corresponding peripheral receptors (gassert & dietz, 2018). in this regard, neurorehabilitation is closely related to physical rehabilitation and exercise therapy. given the post-oncological condition, both the implementation and restoration of any neurological function are rather limited. thus, the restoration of sensorimotor function after surgery requires a combination of specialized engineering and neurophysiological knowledge. the above-mentioned aspects prove the relevance of new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women of childbearing age with extragenital pathology who underwent ovariectomy to prevent postoperative disorders, complications and worsening of concurrent diseases of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, considering cases of excess body weight. the article aims to develop a programme of complex rehabilitation for women of childbearing age with extragenital pathology who underwent ovariectomy and evaluate its effectiveness. material and methods research methods include a theoretical analysis and a generalization of the literary data; a study of documentary materials (an analysis of medical records); questionnaires of patients (women of childbearing age who underwent ovariectomy); pedagogical methods (medical and pedagogical observations in the course of exercise therapy); anthropometric studies (height and weight measurement, chest excursion, abdominal wall excursion, new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 351 kettle body mass index calculation); medical and biological methods (surveys, external examination, palpation, auscultation); instrumental methods (heart rate monitoring; arterial tonometry; respiratory rate measuring; spirometry); functional tests (hypoxic stange and genchi tests; orthostatic tests; clinostatic tests); laboratory research methods (clinical blood tests); methods of mathematical statistics. the experiment consisted of four stages between 2015 and 2019. the first stage (2015) encompassed a study and an analysis of scientific and methodological literature to identify the coverage of the problem under study. the second stage (2015-2016) involved developing an author’s programme of physical rehabilitation for women of childbearing age after ovariectomy in the early and late postoperative periods (periods ii and iii), taking into account their progress, which included exercise therapy combined with shallow breathing, some elements of muscle relaxation, autogenic training, massage therapy, dosed walking and pelvic floor exercises. it also included identifying a contingent of patients. the third stage (2016-2018) took place in the gynaecology department of kharkiv medical academy of postgraduate education. the experimenters observed 100 women aged between 18 and 45 who underwent ovariectomy (ovarian cyst removal). they were divided into two groups: the control group (cg)  50 women and the experimental group (eg)  50 women; each group was also divided into two age sub-groups  18-29 years old and 30-45 years old (according to the two reproductive periods  early and later). their examinations were performed in the preoperative period (period i), the early postoperative period (period ii) (on the 3rd-5th day after surgery) and before discharge from the hospital (period iii) (on the 18th-20th day). all the women experienced approximately the same surgery: rightor left-sided total ovariectomy (72%), total ovariectomy (28%) (lower transverse incision). also, upon admission to the hospital, the examined women showed signs of somatic extragenital diseases: chronic bronchitis with or without an asthmatic component (45%); vegetativevascular dystonia (21%). it must be noted that 76.9% and 70.8% of eg women (18-29 and 30-45 years old) and 88.9% and 69.9% of cg women (18-29and 30-45-year-old) suffered from excess body weight. based on the obtained results, the fourth stage (2018-2019) involved implementing the programme of physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation in rehabilitation treatment of gynaecology patients and professional training of specialists in physical rehabilitation. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 352 the distinctive features of the proposed physical rehabilitation programme are the following: 1. the programme of physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation for eg women considered the changes in their health status, namely, concurrent pathologies in the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, which could lead to the worsening of their condition and certain complications in the early and later postoperative periods, as well as those changes that occurred after the surgery. the authors also considered the presence of excess body weight in the majority of eg women. 2. the exercise therapy included calisthenic routine, static and dynamic breathing exercises, shallow breathing, some elements of muscle relaxation and autogenic training, dosed walking inside the ward, going up the stairs, as well as dosed walking using treadmills, pelvic floor exercises. these exercises were applied sequentially, considering the course of the postoperative period, the day after the surgery and motor activity. the patients did not participate in the rehabilitation programme on the day when sutures were removed from a surgical incision. physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation consisted of preoperative, early, and late postoperative periods and four motor activity modes (strict bed rest mode, bed rest mode, ward mode and free mode) (see table 1). 3. the main forms of physical therapy in both groups are exercise therapy, morning exercise, individual physical exercise, and dosed walking. training sessions were organized with the use of individual, small group, and group methods. a short version of the exercise therapy was applied in the period i to show the patients the moves which should be performed to the full extent after the surgery. 4. a combination of exercise and massage therapy was used to prevent postoperative complications in the cardiorespiratory system and the gastrointestinal tract. according to yefimenko’s method (2001), therapeutic massage was prescribed to eg patients from the first days after surgery. the abdominal massage was prescribed only from the 15th day after the surgery, that is, in the late postoperative period, when histological results were already available, and the benign nature of the ovarian cyst was confirmed. starting from the 15th day, it is necessary to do a differentiated abdominal classic massage (10-15 procedures) to prevent hernia. one should start from a moderate mode and gradually make it more intense on the background of exercise therapy aimed at strengthening abdominal muscles (first at the hospital; later, on an ambulatory basis). new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 353 tab. 1. description of rehabilitation periods and motor activity modes of eg patients rehabilitation period, motor activity modes, the day before and after the surgery forms of training sessions means massage preoperative period 1. bed rest (2-3 days before the surgery) morning exercise – 7-10 min exercise therapy – 15-20 min 1. calisthenic routine. 2. special physical and breathing exercises from the preparatory position, lying on one’s back. 3. shallow breathing, autogenic training and muscle relaxation. starting from the 2nd day of the early postoperative period, it is important to massage the patients’ front of the chest and upper limbs in the supine position to redistribute blood circulation and strengthen the effect, which brings the arterial blood to the organs of the abdominal cavity and pelvis, as well as to prevent functional disorders of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. chest massage is allocated 6-8 minutes and upper limbs massage  7-8 minutes for each. early postoperative period 1. strict bed rest (the 1st-2nd day after the surgery) morning exercise – 7-10 min 2 times per day individual physical exercise – 5-7 min 1. dynamic breathing exercises; coughing. 2. exercises for distal and proximal parts of upper and lower limbs. 2. bed rest (the 2nd-3rd day ) morning exercise – 7-10 min 1. dynamic breathing exercises. 2. exercises for distal and proximal parts of upper and lower limbs. exercise therapy – 20 min individual physical exercise – 1012 min 1. static and dynamic breathing exercises (chest breathing). 2. exercises for distal and proximal parts of upper and lower limbs. 3. pelvic floor exercises. 4. household exercises. 5. those exercises that gradually prepare patients for sitting, standing and walking. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 354 late postoperative period 1. ward mode (the 3rd-6th day) morning exercise – 10-12 min 1. calisthenic routine. 2. static and dynamic breathing exercises (chest and diaphragmatic breathing). 3. exercises for distal and proximal parts of upper and lower limbs. 4. walking on the spot (1-2 min, slowly) and inside the ward (1-2 min, slowly). starting from the 3rd-4th day, it is essential to do a segmental-reflex massage of paravertebral zones of the cerebrospinal segments s5–d1 to prevent stagnation in the pelvis, as well as to further stimulate the function of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems (5-6 min). exercise therapy – 25 min 1. shallow breathing with some elements of muscle relaxation and autogenic training. 2. walking on the spot (1-5 min, slowly) 3. dynamic breathing exercises. 4. calisthenic routine. individual physical exercise – 20 min 1. calisthenic routine. 2. static and dynamic breathing exercises. 3. exercises for distal and proximal parts of upper and lower limbs. 4. shallow breathing with some elements of muscle relaxation and autogenic training. 5. walking on the spot (1-2 min, slowly) and inside the ward (1-2 min, slowly). 2. free mode (the 6th-8th  18th-21st day) morning exercise – 15 min 1. calisthenic routine. 2. static and dynamic breathing exercises. 3. exercises for distal and proximal parts of upper and lower limbs. 4. pelvic floor exercises. 5. walking inside the ward (3-4 min, first slowly and then faster). starting from the 15th day, it is necessary to do a differentiated abdominal classic massage (10-15 procedures) to prevent hernia. one should start from a moderate mode and new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 355 exercise therapy – 30 min 1. shallow breathing with some elements of muscle relaxation and autogenic training. 2. walking on a treadmill (510 min, first slowly and then faster). 3. dynamic breathing exercises. 4. calisthenic routine. gradually make it more intense on the background of exercise therapy aimed at strengthening abdominal muscles (first at the hospital; later, on an ambulatory basis). individual physical exercise – 25 min 1. calisthenic routine. 2. static and dynamic breathing exercises. 3. shallow breathing with some elements of muscle relaxation and autogenic training. 4. walking inside the gynaecology department (35 min, slowly). 5. walking up and down the stairs (1-2 flights of stairs: first, 1 stair in 2 sec; then, 1 stair in 1 sec). source: author's own conception cg patients follow the standard programme, which has been used by local gynaecological departments. it also includes breathing exercises and calisthenic routine, dosed walking inside the ward and the department. according to kunichev’s method (1985), massage should be prescribed starting from the 1st2nd day after the surgery (abdominal massage  starting from the 6th-8th day). the duration and the number of training sessions within exercise therapy per day were the same in both groups. the general condition of patients was monitored based on surveys, heart rate monitoring, arterial tonometry, respiratory rate measurement, external signs of fatigue at the beginning and the end of training sessions, as well as during them. results the indicators of the functional status of the women’s body systems under study in the preoperative period and the first days after ovariectomy. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 356 the data obtained from examinations of the women’s functional status in the preoperative period indicate certain homogeneity of cg and eg patients within one age group. most women suffer from excess body weight in (body mass index (bmi) ranged from 25.0 to 29.9). the patients’ anamnesis included a chronic pathology of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems in approximately the same percentage of cases. cg and eg patients had equally reduced values of vital capacity, insufficient resistance to hypoxia, decreased chest, and abdominal wall excursion. the indicators of clinical blood tests were not significantly different, being at the level of physiological norms for women. in both groups, the patients were characterized by approximately the same state of autonomic innervation (certain prevalence of sympathicotonia or parasympathicotonia). only 5% of cg women and only 4% of eg women aged between 18 and 29 showed signs of eutonia. in cg, only 3% of patients aged between 30 and 45 showed such signs; in eg – only 4% of women. the analysis of the conducted survey based on the health-activitymood (ham) method proves that almost all women experienced a significant deterioration of the psycho-emotional state in the preoperative period, which can be explained either by the fear of future surgery or the impact of its consequences on further life, work capacity or the fear of terminated or disturbed reproductive function. in the early postoperative period, the patients could also observe some body changes like those described in the analysis of literary sources: autonomic dysfunction, deterioration of the parameters of the cardiorespiratory system, signs of asthenic syndrome, anaemia, initial symptoms of post ovariectomy syndrome. regardless of their age, cg and eg patients showed some significant disorders in the body system under study. the disorders in the cardiovascular system included tachycardia (eg: 18-29 years old  up to 91.69 ± 1.48 beats per min (p <0.00001), 30-45 years old  up to 95.00 ± 1.40 beats per minute (p <0.00001); cg: 18-29 years old  up to 89.78 ± 0.98 beats per minute, p <0.00001); 30-45 years old  91.63 ± 1.26 beats per minute (p <0.00001)), certain increase in diastolic blood pressure (cg: 30-45 years old  from 72.82 ± 1.77 mm hg to 78.48 ± 2.05 mm hg (p<0.05)), a less frequent decrease in pulse blood pressure (eg: 18-29 years old  from 41.92 ± 1.37 to 37.50 ± 1.08 mm hg (p <0.05); cg: 18-29 years old  from 42.93 ± 0.82 mm hg to 40.04 ± 0.87 mm hg (p <0.05)), which proves certain disorders in cardiac function economization at rest, its lack of recovery during diastole, an insufficient amount of blood entering the aorta new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 357 during left ventricular systole, associated with impaired hemodynamic processes after ovariectomy and a decrease in circulating blood volume, which is confirmed by postoperative anaemia based on the indicators of clinical blood tests (a decreased number of erythrocytes (p<0.00001) and haemoglobin in eg: 18-29 years old  from 127.27 ± 1.29 m*l -1 to 111.40 ± 0.65 g*l -1 , p <0.00001), 30-45 years old  from 126.83 ± 1.21 m*l -1 to 111.54 ± 0.75 m*l -1 (p <0.00001); in cg: 18-29 years old  from 126.84 ± 1.08 m*l -1 to 111.70 ± 0.64 m*l -1 (p <0.00001), 30-45 years old  from 126.35 ± 1.29 m*l -1 to 111.78 ± 0.94 m*l -1 (p<0.00001). in the early postoperative period, patients of both groups, regardless of their age, experienced short breath (eg  18-29 years old  from 20.42 ± 0.49 to 25.50 ± 0.49 breaths per minute (p<0.00001), 30-45 years old  from 20.83 ± 0.35 to 25.28 ± 0.58 breaths per minute (p<0.00001); cg: 18-29 years old  from 20.92 ± 0.42 to 26.03 ± 0.36 breaths per minute (p<0.00001), 30-45 years old  from 20.17 ± 0.43 to 25.09 ± 0.53 breaths per minute (p<0.00001)), as well as hypoxia, impaired bronchial patency, a decrease in respiratory volume due to a decrease in chest excursion in eg following the painful syndrome in the area of surgery. it was rather dangerous for patients with extragenital pathologies (mainly, of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems) and could lead to bronchopulmonary disease recurrence or worsen the general condition of patients. it is indirectly confirmed by the data of clinical blood tests, which indicated leucocytosis and acceleration of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. it must be noted that the early postoperative period is characterized by a decrease in the number of patients with excess body weight in all groups, which can be associated with a psychological trauma because of ovariectomy and significant blood loss. after the surgery, the examination of the autonomic nervous system of almost all the women indicates the prevalence of sympathicotonia, rarely parasympathicotonia and seldom eutonia. the psycho-emotional state of the patients in the early postoperative period was slightly different in view of the patients’ age, although it was mostly negative. those women aged between 18-29 years showed a certain decrease in the indicators characterizing their health, activity, and mood. the women aged between 30 and 45 experienced certain deterioration in the condition, including a slight increase in activity and mood. however, almost all women experienced despair, sadness, fatigue, apathy, moodiness, exhaustion, weakness, attention deficit. all this has proved the need of a targeted influence on the functions of the relevant systems of the body, reduced or altered after ovariectomy, by broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 358 exercise therapy, massage, dosed walking, breathing exercises, muscle relaxation, autogenic training, which have become the basis of the author’s programme of physical rehabilitation for eg patients. the dynamics of the indicators of the functional status of the women’s body systems under study after ovariectomy. the analysis of relevant studies shows that the late postoperative period is characterized by a significant improvement in the parameters reduced or altered after ovariectomy caused by the regular and gradual inclusion of exercise therapy and massage in the process of restorative treatment. the number of eg patients of both age with normal body mass index has somewhat increased (18-29 years old  in 50.0% of patients; 30-45 years old  the number of the women with excess body weight has decreased by 8.3%). in cg, the experiments could observe the same indicators or those approximated to the preoperative period. also, there was some positive dynamics in the function of the cardiorespiratory system: eg and cg women managed to restore the normal response of the pulse to graduated exercise and economize cardiac function at rest. the same positive changes took place in the respiratory function. however, eg patients of both age sub-groups experienced certain improvements in the respiratory system compared to both the early postoperative and preoperative periods. regardless of their age, patients of both groups recovered from postoperative anaemia and inflammatory processes (leucocytosis, acceleration of erythrocyte sedimentation rate). medical and pedagogical examinations were aimed at studying pulse response to dosed physical exercise. in the late postoperative period, eg and cg patients experienced a significant decrease in the percentage of pulse increase per one training session of exercise therapy (p<0.00001) compared to the early postoperative period. it indicates that the patients gradually adapt their cardiovascular system to physical exercise (see table 2). in the late postoperative period, the pulse recovery after physical exercise has also significantly accelerated (p<0.00001). the state of the autonomic nervous system has improved towards eutonia in many patients. concerning eg patients of younger age, the percentage of women with eutonia has increased significantly (46%). the number of women with sympathicotonia has decreased by 1.7 times and the number of women with parasympathicotonia  by 1.9 times. in eg, the number of patients with eutonia aged between 30 and 45 has increased up to 48% in the late postoperative period. the number of women with sympathicotonia has decreased by 1.6 times, and the number of women with parasympathicotonia  by 2.3 times. in cg, the number of women with new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 359 eutonia aged between 18 and 29 has increased only up to 29% in the late postoperative period. the number of women with sympathicotonia has decreased by 9%, and the number of women with parasympathicotonia – by 16%. in cg, the number of women with eutonia aged between 30 and 45 has increased by 26% compared to the early postoperative period. the number of women with sympathicotonia has decreased by 16%, and the number of women with parasympathicotonia – by 10% tab. 2. the dynamics of heart rate monitoring during medical and pedagogical examinations in eg and cg patients (a response to one training session of exercise therapy) no indicator period  period  t р х±m х±m eg  18-29 years old (n=26) 1 % cardiac acceleration 45.35±0.47 18.62±0.45 41.12 <0.00001 2 2 cardiac restitution, sec 251.96±11.33 116.00±1.95 11.84 <0.00001 eg  30-45 years old (n=24) 1 % cardiac acceleration 45.96±0.51 18.96±0.63 33.33 <0.00001 2 cardiac restitution, sec 256.13±15.08 123.46±1.00 8.78 <0.00001 cg  18-29 years old (n=27) 1. % cardiac acceleration 45.41±0.39 26.96±0.54 27.54 <0.00001 2. cardiac restitution, sec 247.44±10.10 144.44±1.11 10.14 <0.00001 cg  30-45 years old (n=23) 1. % cardiac acceleration 47.13±0,36 24.78±0.29 48.59 <0.00001 2. cardiac restitution, sec 249.09±14,02 144.22±1.10 7.46 <0.00001 source: author's own conception the psycho-emotional state of the patients (health-activity-mood) has improved, too (p<0.00001). however, these positive shifts were more significant for the patients aged 18 and 29 years than for those aged between 30 and 45. despite the difference between physical rehabilitation programmes, similar positive dynamics in impaired or reduced functions of the body was observed in both cg and eg patients in the late postoperative period. it proves that the author’s methodology of exercise therapy, included in the programme of physical rehabilitation, has not caused negative changes in the body of the women after ovariectomy. indeed, it is more effective since it broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 360 has managed to normalize disorders in the body of the patients and significantly improve their condition compared with the preoperative period. a comparative analysis on the indicators of the functional status of eg and cg women’s body systems under study after ovariectomy shows that, regardless of their age, the same number of women suffered from excess body weight in the early postoperative period. in the late postoperative period, half of the women of younger age and more than a third of the women of older age had normal body weight, which was not characteristic of cg, where virtually all body mass indices returned to preoperative levels. a comparative analysis of the indicators of the cardiovascular system shows that all the eg patients have shown a significant decrease in heart rate (within age limits) in the late postoperative period. the response of this indicator to physical activity was also more adequate in eg patients, given a faster recovery of the pulse after exercise therapy. a comparison of respiratory function indicators in eg patients of both age groups in the late postoperative period proves that their respiratory system is more economical and effective than that in cg patients, which is proved by lower respiratory rate (in cg, they did not meet the physiological norm), higher vital capacity values, chest and abdominal wall excursion, significantly greater resistance to hypoxia and pronounced improvement of bronchial patency. a comparison of dynamics in the examined indicators of clinical blood tests shows that eg patients of both age groups in the late postoperative period had significantly higher values of erythrocytes and haemoglobin, significantly lower values of leukocytes and erythrocyte sedimentation rate than cg patients. in this case, the values of these indicators of clinical blood tests in eg and cg patients before discharge from the hospital were within the physiological norms for women. the data obtained from a comparison of the dynamics in the autonomic nervous system in eg and cg patients indicate that, before discharge from the hospital, eutonia was predominant in eg patients, whereas sympathicotonia was characteristic of cg patients. the results of the surveys based on the health-activity-mood (ham) method conclude that a percentage of eg women aged between 18 and 29 with positive characteristics of health-activity-mood parameters, as well as the total value of the ham indicator, is higher than that in cg during the late postoperative period. during medical and pedagogical examinations, the experimenters have determined the duration of disorders in the women’s cardiorespiratory new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 361 system. the analysis of the obtained results shows that eg patients aged between 18 and 29 recovered from disorders in the cardiovascular and respiratory systems 3-5 days earlier than cg patients of the same age. concerning the patients aged between 30 and 45, it took them more time to recover from disorders in the cardiorespiratory system. however, it must be noted that eg patients of this age recovered from disorders in the cardiovascular and respiratory systems earlier than cg patients (on average, 3-4 days earlier). therefore, the author’s programme of physical rehabilitation is more effective and takes precedence in physical rehabilitation of women of childbirth age with concurrent pathologies (mainly, of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems) and excess body weight over conventional methods used for cg women. discussion most researchers believe that exercise therapy and massage should be prescribed in the preand postoperative periods to prevent postoperative complications, recurrence of the disease and eliminate functional disorders caused by the main pathological process. such a combination helps to restore the basic mechanisms of regulation of impaired functions in the body of women after ovariectomy due to the use of tonic, trophic, compensatory, and normalizing actions of physical exercises. many specialists in physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation single out three periods in the prescription of exercise therapy and massage to hospital patients after gynaecological surgeries with the goals, tasks, ways and forms of training sessions and methods of exercise therapy meeting them. given the fact that the examined women who underwent ovariectomy showed a high percentage of concurrent extragenital pathologies (of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, excess body weight), the available methods of exercise therapy for patients with such pathologies were studied. therefore, the authors of this paper can conclude that the available techniques of breathing exercises and dosed walking contain the elements unacceptable for hospital patients with extragenital pathologies who underwent ovariectomy. the simplest breathing exercises recommended for use by most authors in the postoperative period may not always be able to prevent the recrudescence of concurrent pathologies of the respiratory and other body systems. the above-mentioned facts have caused the need to develop a new programme of physical rehabilitation to suit the condition of gynaecological patients, as well as to verify the effectiveness of the developed and applied methods of exercise therapy and massage by comparing them with broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 362 conventional methods of exercise therapy and massage included in the programme of physical rehabilitation and those used in gynaecological departments based on the restorative dynamics of impaired functions of the women’s body systems affected during the principal and concurrent diseases and after ovariectomy. the scientific value of the obtained results is as follows: for the first time, a complex programme of physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation which takes into account pathological changes occurring in the body of women after ovariectomy, a stage and nature of the course of the postoperative period, concurrent extragenital pathologies and includes exercise therapy with some elements of dosed walking (on treadmills) and massage therapy has been developed; theoretical knowledge about the impact of the proposed methods of physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation on the cardiovascular, respiratory and autonomic nervous systems at the inpatient stage of remedial treatment based on the evaluation of their effectiveness have been supplemented; the data on a negative character of women’s psycho-emotional state before ovariectomy and in the early postoperative period and its positive dynamics after the use of the proposed rehabilitation methods have been expanded. the paper confirms the obtained results about the need to prescribe rehabilitation in remedial treatment of women after ovariectomy, taking into account the extent of surgical intervention and the following changes in the women’s body, as well as the periodization of the course of the postoperative period. it also proves the data on the role of exercise therapy and massage therapy in the restoration of impaired functions of the women’s body after ovariectomy. also, the paper supplements and expands the existing limited data on the need to consider concurrent extragenital pathologies when prescribing physical rehabilitation to patients who underwent ovariectomy (vasilevskaya et al., 2002), as well as on the psycho-emotional state of women after such surgery. it supplements the data on the dynamics of the postoperative period arising under the influence of the author’s programme of physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation. the article presents indirect evidence for a new concept of neurorehabilitation from cns diseases. neurooncological rehabilitation refers to assistance to those who have become disabled due to a tumour (or therapy) to improve symptoms and maximize functional independence, activity (e.g., walking) and participation (e.g., employment, reintegration into new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 363 social and household life), within constant depreciation (bartolo & zucchella, 2019). those women who have undergone gynaecological operations tend to suffer from the inferiority complex, including selfdepreciation and distancing from a full life. post-oncology patients experience a decline in quality of life due to the difficulty reintegrating into everyday life, habitual family, and social roles, as well as into the role of a person with special needs (bartolo & zucchella, 2019). after any surgical intervention, physical rehabilitation should be followed by neurorehabilitation due to reduced mobility, cognitive and psychological problems of postoperative patients. the article can serve as a source of data for initial neurophysiological studies on rehabilitation effectiveness. kaupp et al. (2018) assume that after 5 weeks of physical rehabilitation one should assess the neurophysiological effect: a) regarding changes in limb strength (bilaterally) with the help of maximum voluntary isometric contractions of legs and arms; b) regarding changes in the inter-abdominal connection by modulating skin reflexes with electric current; links between lower limbs by fixing the enhanced modulation of the amplitudes of the stretching reflex. such methods may be valid in assessing the effect of women’s rehabilitation after genital tumour removal. the new data involve developing the programme of physical rehabilitation which includes exercise therapy with some elements of shallow breathing, muscle relaxation, autogenic training and dosed walking (on treadmills) in combination with massage therapy, taking into account the pathological changes affecting the women’s body after ovariectomy, a stage and nature of the course of the postoperative period, types of concurrent extragenital pathologies and further confirmation of its effectiveness. the examination of such gynaecological patients in the preoperative, early, and late postoperative periods shows that eg women who participated in the author’s programme of physical rehabilitation show more positive results obtained when studying the dynamics of their general condition, weight and height parameters, functions of the cardiovascular and autonomic nervous systems, clinical blood tests and psycho-emotional status, which is confirmed by mathematical processing of the obtained data. conclusions the analysis of scientific literature shows that most researchers consider special physical rehabilitation as a compulsory final component of any surgical treatment of pelvic organs required for full recovery and restoration of gynaecological patients’ reproductive functions. the leading broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 364 role in this process belongs to exercise and massage therapy. the impact of these physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation methods on the women’s body after ovariectomy solves the main task, that is the prevention of postoperative complications, relapse and recrudescence of concurrent somatic pathologies and the elimination of functional disorders caused by the principal pathological process. the existing techniques of breathing exercises and dosed walking contain the elements unacceptable for hospital patients with extragenital pathologies who underwent ovariectomy. the simplest breathing exercises recommended for use by most authors in the postoperative period may not always be able to prevent the recrudescence of concurrent pathologies of the respiratory and other body systems. the women of childbirth age with concurrent extragenital pathologies who underwent ovariectomy usually experience a symptom complex in the form of a painful syndrome, some signs of vegetative distress and psychasthenic condition, as well as certain hyperplasia of a healthy ovary, which may occur in the first days of weeks after the surgery. the obtained data show no significant differences in all defined parameters of functions of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems when comparing the values of indicators in eg and cg women of two age groups in the preoperative period. both eg and cg patients showed equally decreased values of vital capacity, insufficient resistance to hypoxia, decreased chest and abdominal wall excursion, ineffective airway clearance. normal body weight was characteristic of only 23.1% of eg women and 11.1% of cg women aged between 18 and 29 years, as well as 29.2% of eg women and 30.1% of cg women aged between 30 and 45. sympathicotonia and parasympathicotonia were observed in approximately the same percentage of cases. eutonia occurred only in 3-5% of the patients. the general psycho-emotional state of almost all the women was negative. the early postoperative period was characterized by autonomic dysfunction, certain deterioration of functions of the cardiorespiratory system, asthenic syndrome, anaemia, early post ovariectomy syndrome, tachycardia (p<0.00001), shortness of breath (p<0.00001), instability of blood pressure indicators, decreased chest and abdominal wall excursion (p<0.00001), decreased resistance to hypoxia (p <0.00001) ), significantly decreased bronchial patency, decreased vital capacity, the prevalence of sympathicotonia (compared with the preoperative period). it must be noted that the number of cases of eutonia has decreased by two-four times. according to the health-activity-mood test, the general psycho-emotional state remained negative. new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 365 based on the obtained results, the programme of physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation for eg women has been developed taking into account concurrent pathologies of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, excess body weight. it includes exercise therapy with some elements of the calisthenic routine, static and dynamic breathing exercises, shallow breathing, muscle relaxation and autogenic training, dosed walking inside the ward and gynaecological department, going up and down the stairs, dosed walking using treadmills, pelvic floor exercises and massage therapy. a comparative analysis of the examined indicators of the patients’ certain body systems shows that in the late postoperative period, half of the women of younger age and more than a third of the women of older age had normal body weight, which was not characteristic of cg, where virtually all body mass indices returned to preoperative levels. before discharge from the hospital, the cardiovascular and respiratory systems of eg patients worked more economically and effectively than those of cg patients, which can be proved by lower respiratory rate (in cg, they did not meet the physiological norm), higher vital capacity values, chest and abdominal wall excursion, significantly greater resistance to hypoxia and pronounced improvement of bronchial patency. in the late postoperative period, eutonia (46%) was predominant in eg and sympathicotonia (40%)  in cg. a higher percentage of women aged between 18 and 29 with positive characteristics of health-activity-mood parameters, as well as a higher total value of the ham indicator, was characteristic of eg (18-29 years old  p<0.00001; 30-45 years old  p<0.0001). the employed methods of physical rehabilitation helped to increase indicators of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems in eg patients aged between 18 and 29 3-5 days earlier and in eg patients aged between 30 and 45 3-4 days earlier than in cg. it proves the effectiveness of the developed programme of physical rehabilitation for women of childbearing age with extragenital pathology who underwent ovariectomy. the conducted research on the effectiveness of the developed and applied physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programme for eg patients who underwent ovariectomy can be confirmed by the obtained data, has a significant advantage over conventional methods and open new prospects for effective treatment and recovery of such patients. the practical value of the obtained results lies in developing and implementing the programme of physical rehabilitation which includes exercise and massage therapy in remedial treatment of women with broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 366 concurrent extragenital pathologies after ovariectomy, which has made it possible to shorten the duration of hospital treatment by 3-5 days that is of great importance. besides, the obtained data can be used during exercise therapy in specialized gynaecological departments in the preand postoperative periods, in the professional activity of specialists in physical rehabilitation in women’s health clinics, where those patients who underwent ovariectomy undergo further rehabilitation and are under supervision, and professional training of specialists in physical rehabilitation in higher education institutions, namely, within the framework of the course of physical rehabilitation in gynaecology. references armstrong, c. l. (2014). the neuropsychology of cancer and oncology. archives of clinical neuropsychology, 29(5), 497–499. https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acu025 bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13231332. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 bartolo, m., & zucchella, c. (2019). neurorehabilitation. in i. oberg (ed.), management of adult glioma in nursing practice (pp. 127146). cham: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76747-5_9 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, m., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13331340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 bertelsen, k., & kruhoffer, a. (1995). what have we achieved in ovarian cancer? a comparison of survivals and resources in two different periods. international journal of gynecological cancer, 5(2), 148155. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11578470/ bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 15851590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf bogolyubov, v. m. (1998). meditsinskaia reabilitatsiia [medical rehabilitation]. star. https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acu025 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76747-5_9 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11578470/ http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 367 brick, r., & skidmore, e. (2020). optimizing cancer rehabilitation through activityfocused approaches. seminars in oncology nursing, 36(1), 150985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soncn.2019.150985 doll, r. (1998). epidemiology and prevention of cancer. some recent developments. journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 114, 447458. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6602812 gassert, r., & dietz, v. (2018). rehabilitation robots for the treatment of sensorimotor deficits: a neurophysiological perspective. journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 15(46). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984018-0383-x gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284–2291. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 kaupp, c., pearcey, g. e., klarner, t., sun, y., cullen, h., barss, t. s., & zehr, e. p. (2018). rhythmic arm cycling training improves walking and neurophysiological integrity in chronic stroke: the arms can give legs a helping hand in rehabilitation. journal of neurophysiology, 119(3), 10951112. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00570.2017 kulakov, v. n., selezneva, n. d., & krasnopolskiy, v. i. (1998). operativnaia ginekologiia [operative gynaecology]. nizhny ngma. http://194.44.211.179/cgibin/irbis64r_14/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=biblio&p 21dbn=biblio&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21c om=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=u=&s21str=6 18.1-089%28035%29 kulinich, s. i., shipkova, l. sh., chernyak, e. v., logunov, v. a., & marchenko, i. p. (1999). opukholi iaichnikov: epidemiologiia, diagnostika, lechenie [ovarian tumours: epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment]. ginekologiya [gynaecology], 1(3). http://old.consiliummedicum.com/media/gynecology/n3/68.shtml. kunichev, l. a. (1985). lechebnyi massazh [massage therapy]. medicine. https://www.booksmed.com/massazh/3434-lechebnyj-massazh-kunichevla.html https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soncn.2019.150985 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6602812 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-018-0383-x https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-018-0383-x https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00570.2017 http://194.44.211.179/cgi-bin/irbis64r_14/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=biblio&p21dbn=biblio&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=u=&s21str=618.1-089%28035%29 http://194.44.211.179/cgi-bin/irbis64r_14/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=biblio&p21dbn=biblio&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=u=&s21str=618.1-089%28035%29 http://194.44.211.179/cgi-bin/irbis64r_14/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=biblio&p21dbn=biblio&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=u=&s21str=618.1-089%28035%29 http://194.44.211.179/cgi-bin/irbis64r_14/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=biblio&p21dbn=biblio&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=u=&s21str=618.1-089%28035%29 http://194.44.211.179/cgi-bin/irbis64r_14/cgiirbis_64.exe?lng=&z21id=&i21dbn=biblio&p21dbn=biblio&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=u=&s21str=618.1-089%28035%29 http://old.consilium-medicum.com/media/gynecology/n3/68.shtml http://old.consilium-medicum.com/media/gynecology/n3/68.shtml https://www.booksmed.com/massazh/3434-lechebnyj-massazh-kunichev-la.html https://www.booksmed.com/massazh/3434-lechebnyj-massazh-kunichev-la.html broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 368 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., &amp; maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m mukhin, v. m. (2000). fizychna reabilitatsiia [physical rehabilitation]. olympic literature. https://www.twirpx.com/file/2685969/ nelson, j. f., & felicio, l. s. (1986). radical ovarian resection advances the onset of persistent vaginal cornification but only transiently disrupts hypothalamic-pituitary regulation of cyclicity. biology of reproduction, 35, 957964. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3814707/ nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 noggle, c. a., & dean, r. s. (2013). neuropsychology and cancer: an emerging focus. in c. a. noggle, r. s. dean, t. tarter, g. johnson, & r. johnson (eds.), contemporary neuropsychology. the neuropsychology of cancer and oncology (pp. 3–39). springer publishing company. partridge, e. e., phillips, j. l., & menck, h. r. (1996). the national cancer data base report on ovarian cancer treatment in united states hospitals. cancer, 78(10), 22362246. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)10970142(19961115)78:10<2236::aid-cncr28>3.0.co;2-z petrova, i. v. (2017). renesansna kontseptsiia dozvillia za tvoramy petrarky [the renaissance concept of leisure in the works of petrarch]. visnyk natsionalnoi akademii kerivnykh kadriv kultury i mystetstv [national academy of managerial staff of culture and arts herald], 3, 3-7. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vdakkkm_2017_3_3 reid-arndt, s. a. (2006). the potential for neuropsychology to inform functional outcomes research with breast cancer survivors. neurorehabilitation, 21(1), 5164. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16720938/ savelyeva, g. m., & sichinawa, l. g. (1997). akusherstvo i ginekologiia [obstetrics and gynaecology]. moscow: geotar medicine. http://www.geotar.ru/lots/nf0008921.html https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://www.twirpx.com/file/2685969/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3814707/ https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19961115)78:10%3c2236::aid-cncr28%3e3.0.co;2-z https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19961115)78:10%3c2236::aid-cncr28%3e3.0.co;2-z http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vdakkkm_2017_3_3 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16720938/ http://www.geotar.ru/lots/nf0008921.html new physical and neurophysiological rehabilitation programmes for women … nataliia honcharuk, et al. 369 serov, v. i., & kudryavtseva, l. i. (1999). dobrokachestvennye opukholi i opukholevidnye obrazovaniia iaichnikov [benign tumours and tumour-like masses of ovaries]. triada-x. https://www.libex.ru/detail/book43060.html sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532–1543. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03222 smetnik, v. p. (1995). neoperativnaia ginekologiia: rukovodstvo dlia vrachei [non-surgical gynaecology: a guide for doctors]. sotis. https://www.twirpx.com/file/498598/ smetnik, v. p., & tumilovich, l. g. (1998). neoperativnaia ginekologiia [non-surgical gynaecology]. medical news agency. https://rus.logobook.ru/prod_show.php?object_uid=2117857. strugatskiy, v. m. (1981). fizicheskie faktory v akusherstve i ginekologii [physical factors in obstetrics and gynaecology]. medicine. https://crafta.ua/lots/6537130920-strugackiy-vm-fizicheskie-faktory-vakusherstve-i-ginekologii. tamburin, s., paolucci, s., smania, n., & sandrini, g. (2017). the burden of chronic pain and the role of neurorehabilitation: consensus matters where evidence is lacking. journal of pain research, 10, 101103. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc5222568/ timoshenko, l. v., kokhanevich, e. v., & travyanko, t. d. (1988). prakticheskaia ginekologiia [practical gynaecology]. health. http://www.alib.ru/5_timoshenko_l_v_kohanevich_e_v_prakticheskaya_g inekologiya_w1t2518e7a389494543935f7f778c616fe0afe0.html vasileva, v. e. (1967). lechebnaia fizicheskaia kultura pri ginekologicheskikh zabolevaniiakh [exercise therapy for gynaecological diseases]. medicine. https://readrate.com/rus/books/lechebnaya-fizkultura-priginekologicheskikh-zabolevaniyakh vasilevskaya, l. n., grishchenko, v. i., shcherbina, n. a., & yurovskaya, v. p. (2002). ginekologiia [gynaecology] (3rd ed.). phoenix. https://www.twirpx.com/file/213453/ yefimenko, p. b. (2001). tekhnika ta metodyka masazhu [massage therapy techniques and methods]. ovs press. https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?user=pr_xtj0aaaaj&hl=ru https://www.libex.ru/detail/book43060.html https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03222 https://www.twirpx.com/file/498598/ https://rus.logobook.ru/prod_show.php?object_uid=2117857 https://crafta.ua/lots/6537130920-strugackiy-vm-fizicheskie-faktory-v-akusherstve-i-ginekologii https://crafta.ua/lots/6537130920-strugackiy-vm-fizicheskie-faktory-v-akusherstve-i-ginekologii https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc5222568/ http://www.alib.ru/5_timoshenko_l_v_kohanevich_e_v_prakticheskaya_ginekologiya_w1t2518e7a389494543935f7f778c616fe0afe0.html http://www.alib.ru/5_timoshenko_l_v_kohanevich_e_v_prakticheskaya_ginekologiya_w1t2518e7a389494543935f7f778c616fe0afe0.html https://readrate.com/rus/books/lechebnaya-fizkultura-pri-ginekologicheskikh-zabolevaniyakh https://readrate.com/rus/books/lechebnaya-fizkultura-pri-ginekologicheskikh-zabolevaniyakh https://www.twirpx.com/file/213453/ https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?user=pr_xtj0aaaaj&hl=ru microsoft word editorial_brain_uics_final.rtf i brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence editors • barna iantovics, petru maior university, targu mures, romania • dumitru rădoiu, petru maior university, targu mures, romania • marius măruşteri, universiy of medicine and pharmacy, targu mures, romania • matthias dehmer, institute for bioinformatics and translational research, the health and life sciences university (umit), hall in tyrol, austria preface this special issue entitled complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence contains selected papers presented at the international symposium on understanding intelligent and complex systems uics 2009, held on 22-23 october 2009 at petru maior university of targu mures from romania. the primary aim of this symposium was bringing together researchers who work in the areas such as complex systems, artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, natural computing, medical sciences and pharmaceutical sciences for presenting their recent results. the secondary purpose was to make some preparative steps in the realization of researches in the frame of certain research projects focused on themes like: applications in medical sciences, complex systems and artificial intelligence. one of the approved research projects is entitled “electronic health records for the next generation medical decision support in romanian and bulgarian national healthcare systems” abbreviated as nextgenelectromedsupport. nextgenelectromedsupport, a bilateral cooperation research project between romania and bulgaria having as directors of project from bulgaria prof. dr. roumen kountchev from technical university of sofia and from romania senior lecturer dr. barna iantovics from petru maior university of targu mures. the preferred topics of the symposium included developments in theory and practice by analyzing intelligent and complex systems. particular research interests were the analysis of aspects related to intelligent and complex systems such as various problems dealing with complexity, intelligence, applications in medical sciences and further related aspects. the papers included in this special issue shed light upon some introductory and advanced problems in the following areas: complex systems, natural computing, social insect algorithms, mathematical methods, pattern recognition, graph theory, semantic graphs, intelligent systems, intelligent prediction, modelling group decision processes, pharmaceutical sciences, emergence of life, human consciousness and society, data mining, learning algorithms, categorical ontology of complex systems and highly difficult problems solving. editors of the special issue & editor in chief of the b.r.a.i.n. journal ii this special issue contains selected papers presented at the international symposium on understanding intelligent and complex systems uics 2009, held on 22-23 october 2009 at petru maior university of targu mures, romania. http://uics.upm.ro scientific organizer • barna iantovics, petru maior university, targu mures, romania honorific chairs • florin gheorghe filip, romanian academy, bucharest, romania • liviu marian, petru maior university, targu mures, romania • calin enachescu, petru maior university, targu mures, romania symposium general chair • barna iantovics, petru maior university, romania program chair • dumitru radoiu, petru maior university, targu mures, romania publication chair • barna iantovics, petru maior university, targu mures, romania secretary • camelia ilies, petru maior university, romania • marcel bogdan, petru maior university, romania scientific committee • florin gheorghe filip, romanian academy, bucharest, romania • dan dumitrescu, babes-bolyai, university of cluj-napoca, romania • akira namatame, national defense academy, japan • viorel negru, west university, timisoara, romania • matthias dehmer, institute for bioinformatics and translational research, the health and life sciences university (umit), austria • xiufen yu, chinese academy of sciences, beijing, china • florentin smarandache, university of new mexico, new mexico, usa • ventzeslav valev, bulgarian academy of sciences, bulgaria • madan m. gupta, university of saskatchewan, saskatoon, canada • ioan dzitac, aurel vlaicu university, arad, romania • rodica-mariana ion, valahia university, targoviste, romania • kazumi nakamatsu, university of hyogo, japan • horacio wio, universidad de cantabria, santander, spain • daniel breaz, "1 decembrie 1918" university, alba iulia, romania iii • manfred gruber, university of applied sciences, munich, germany • ronald r. yager, machine intelligence institute, new rochelle, usa • barna iantovics, petru maior university, tg. mures, romania • cyrille bertelle, le havre university, france • james glazebrook, eastern illinois university, illinois, usa • taleb-bendiab azzelarabe, liverpool john moores university, liverpool, uk • constantin-bala zamfirescu, lucian blaga university, sibiu, romania • calin enachescu, petru maior university, tg. mures, romania • hai-bin duan, beihang university, beijing, china • aziz alaoui, le havre university, france • marcin paprzycki, polish academy of sciences, poland • militon frentiu, babes-bolyai university, cluj-napoca, romania • valentina emilia balas, aurel vlaicu university, romania • angel garrido, facultad de ciencias, uned, madrid, spain • gabriela serban, babes-bolyai university, cluj-napoca, romania • rajiv dharaskar, gh raisoni college of engineering, nagpur, india • sabin buraga, alexandru ioan cuza university, iasi, romania • horia florin pop, babes-bolyai university, cluj-napoca, romania • sidorenco veaceslav, technical university, chisinau, moldova • mihai talmaciu, university of bacau, romania • bazil parv, babes-bolyai university , cluj-napoca , romania • kamisetty r. rao, university of texas at arlington, usa • dumitru radoiu, petru maior university, tg. mures, romania • alaa sheta, al-balqa applied university, jordan • marius balas, aurel vlaicu university, romania • jair m. abe, pauliasta university, brazil • elena nechita, university of bacau, romania • giulia rotundo, university of tuscia, roma, italy • i.c. baianu, university of illinois at urbana, usa • costin badica, university of craiova, craiova, romania • tamas szantai, budapest university of technology and economics, hungary • marusteri marius, university of medicine and pharmacy, tg. mures, romania • florin nichita, "simion stoilow" institute of the romanian academy, romania • sugata sanyal, tata institute of fundamental research, mumbai, india • laszlo kovacs, university of miskolc, hungary • camelia chira, babes-bolyai university, cluj-napoca, romania external reviewers • piroska haller, petru maior university, tg. mures, romania • andrzej gecow, warsaw university of technology, poland • bogdan crainicu, petru maior university, tg. mures, romania • edith kovacs, avf college of management budapest, hungary • bela genge, petru maior university, tg. mures, romania editorial board of the journal editor in chief • bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania iv editorial board • ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania • ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania • constanta bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania • gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy • doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania • svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia • louise connell, university of manchester, united kingdom • domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy • doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia • mariana costache, "m. costache" pshychology office, bacau, romania • dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania • gabriela czibula, "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania • mattias dehmer, institute for bioinformatics and translational research, the health and life sciences university (umit), austria • claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy • gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania • ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania • angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain • pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america • annette hohenberger,cognitive science department,informatics institut,middle east technical university, ankara, turkey • barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of targu mures, romania • daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania • parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran • heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom • manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium • lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china • georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece • ioan maxim, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania • ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania • grigor moldovan, "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania • elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania • bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania • iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany • valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation • camelia mihaela pintea, "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania • zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia • bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania • merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america v • iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania • piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain • zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroklaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland • nora wiedenmann, munich, germany b.r.a.i.n. journal indexing services our journal is currently indexed in the following academic indexing services and international databases: • directory of open access journals (doaj) • ebsco (ebsco open access computer science, ebsco open access journals, ebsco open access medical and health collection) • indexcopernicus • the linguist list • google academic • ulrichs • getcited • genamics journalseek • zeitschriftendatenbank (zdb) • j-gate • sherpa/romeo • dayang journal system • public knowledge project • bium (bibliothèque interuniversitaire de medecine et d'odontologie) • newjour • articlereach direct • link+ • csb (collection of computer science bibliographies) • citeseerx some universities and organizations list our journal in their online libraries: • geneva foundation for medical education and research • base (bielefeld academic search engine) • river campus libraries (univ. of rochester) • tulips (university of tsukuba library)) • showa university library • keio university (shinamomachi media center) • university of pennsylvania • university of modena and reggio emilia • tel aviv university, gitter-smolarz library of life sciences and medicine • national autonomous university of mexico, genomic sciences center, institute of biotechnology • saint petersburg state university • university of puerto rico • vrije universiteit brussel vi • queensland university of technology • the university of queensland • university of florida • john brown university • université paris-descartes • university of regensburg • michigan state university • university of colorado boulder • university of glasgow • washington university in saint louis • wayne state university • california state university, long beach • brown university, providence, rhode island • the university of hong kong • university of nevada, reno • ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen • dowling college, new york state • colgate university, new york state • lewis and clark college • york university • universidad nacional autónoma de méxico • university of gothenburg (göteborgs universitet) • university of saskatchewan • université du québec à montréal • feng chia university, taiwan brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 106-112| https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/306 submitted: february 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 4th, 2022 mass-media impact on nonand post sars cov2 infection anxious disorders alina maria lescai¹, alexandru bogdan ciubara2, stefan lucian burlea3, gabriela balan4 1 phd student, university assistant at the faculty of medicine and pharmacy, "dunarea de jos" university 2 md phd faculty of medicine and pharmacy, "dunarea de jos" university, romania, bogdan.ciubara@ugal.ro 3 md phd university of medicine and pharmacy "grigore t. popa", romania. 4 md phd faculty of medicine and pharmacy, "dunarea de jos" university, romania. abstract: how is the dependency spiral triggered? it might start by looking either for pleasure or escape. in either case, the time spent in front of a screen leads to a pleasant, dopamine-mediated experience. the desire to repeat the use is further fuelled by the physiological process of tolerance and addiction. this is how things unfold in screen dependence (mass-media) when socialization, games, movies are concerned. things look entirely different when the need for information is taken into consideration. what is the need for information’s threshold? information is not the same thing as the learning process. the fourth power in the state is the media. in mass-media, information relies on amazement, emotional shock, fear. media feeds on powerful emotions. are we all victims of such emotions? as of december 2019, until the present, mass-media information focused on the medical and social issue of the coronavirus pandemics. how have we been affected by this information? what was its impact on our anxiety? how was the perception on reality of the people who had the disease altered? in order to get a few answers, we applied a series of questionnaires to a batch of 30 people who had the sars cov2 infection and to a batch of 20 people who haven’t yet contracted the virus. used material: coronavirus anxiety questionnaire www.researchcentral.ro mass-media dependency questionnaire www.researchcentral.ro srgs posttraumatic development scale; crystal park, lawrence cohen and renee murch the summarized data indicates that the people from the batch who was infected with cu sars cov2 have a high anxiety level, a minimum level of mass-media dependency and a maximum srgs level. in the batch of people who have not contracted the disease, the majority has a medium towards maximum anxiety level, minimum mass-media dependency. the people in both batches unanimously asserted they felt oversaturated with the media information, although a year ago they could have declared themselves as addicted to such type of information. considering that the questioned people suffered minimum manifestation forms of the disease, the high scores obtained in srgs could only be justified if this disease were correlated to a major psychic disease. keywords: mass-media, anxiety, trauma, virus. how to cite: lescai, a.m., ciubara, a.b., burlea, s.l., & balan, g. (2022). mass-media impact on nonand post sars cov2 infection anxious disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 106-112. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/306 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/306 mailto:bogdan.ciubara@ugal.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/306 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 107 introduction walter cannon studied the modifications caused by fear by confronting a cat and a dog. fear triggered in the cat an avalanche of effects similar to adrenaline administration: tachycardia, tachypnoea, mydriasis, piloerection, hyperglycaemia. pavlov and avicenna have also proven the devastating effects of anxiety. dumitru constantin dulcan (2009) asserts that the fear of real or imaginary dangers stresses, poisons our cells in every moment, shortens our days and diminishes our efficiency. any physical or psychic aggression tends to disturb our body’s internal balance. consequently, the body will answer by a series of reactions intended to restore the lost balance (izzat et al., 2021). this is the stress phenomenon. through the implied excess of catecholamines, stress may have consequences depending on the individual reactive particularities – occurrence of multiple physical pathologies. the most important things is whether this pathology is psychosomatization or somatoform disorder? the modern people, due to the overloading caused by the technological civilisation, the alert rhythm of today’s life, much faster than the biological adaptation one, by the social uncertainties and tensions, pays a heavy tribute to stress pathology (radulescu et al., 2020). the rapid evolution of technology over the past 15 years has brought unseen before advantages and challenges to all of us. to the common people, technology is mainly represented by mass-media (luca et al., 2020). mass media is a civic power, after law-making, executive and courts. it is the expression of democracy born from the need to inform the public. aware of this force, mass-media is part of our life. with the purpose of informing in a transparent manner, the screens have become each person’s source of novelty, news, shaping the future, socialization and recreation, ending up with the well-known addiction (lupu et al., 2017). what has changed as of december 2019? how things have evolved until now, two years since the debut of this pandemic? what is the threshold of the information need? information is not similar to the learning process. as of december 2019, and until mid 2021, mass-media information has been centred on the medical and social issue of the coronavirus pandemic. mass-media impact on nonand post sars cov2 infection anxious disorders alina maria lescai, et al. 108 material and method either we accept it or not, this year has been different. it marked us, changed us, transformed us, frozen us, such as our ancestors were marked by the years of war, famish and plagues. shall we shall split our life between before and after the pandemic? are the past years’ results visible now? to answer these questions, we must determine what is the role of mass-media in medical education, informing population, occurrence of psychosomatic or somatoform disorders by the anxiety propaganda and generation of perpetual emotional traumas (baroiu et al., 2021). departing from the idea that mass-media contributed to the medical education over the last year more than ever, from the idea that people get informed through the tv and internet, that the social domain has become almost entirely virtual, we started a linear research study. we applied a series of questionnaires to a 30-person lot who had the sars cov2 infection and to a 20-person lot who have not yet contracted the virus so far. we used: coronavirus anxiety questionnaire www.researchcentral.ro mass-media addiction questionnaire www.researchcentral.ro srgs post-traumatic development scale; crystal park, lawrence cohen and renee murch-applied only to those who had the disease (covid 19) results out of 50 questioned people, 30 had the disease while 20 did not. from the first category, 7 had the influenza shot and from the second category 11. tables tabel 1. batch split number of persons vaccinated against flu batch 1 – persoans that were infected with sars cov2 30 7 batch 2 – persons that were not infected with sars cov2 20 11 http://www.researchcentral.ro/ http://www.researchcentral.ro/ brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 109 tabel 2. coronavirus anxiety questionnaire points maximum medium minimum batch 1 – 30 persons 17 12 1 batch 2 – 20 persons 10 10 0 tabel 3. media addiction auestionnaire points maximum medium minimum batch 1 – 30 persons 4 9 17 batch 2 – 20 persons 2 6 12 tabel 4. post traumatic development scale srgs points maximum medium minimum batch 1 – 30 persons 15 8 7 discussions the limitations of the survey are strictly numerical. the subject lots were small, of various age categories ranging between 20 and 55 years, 80% of the subjects being female. as this is about a lot of 50 people, it cannot reflect the public opinion. questioned about the virtual social life, the subjects declared they prefer to stick to conversations with the family, although before 2020, the social networks were used as recreation method (pandele et al., 2021, silistraru et al., 2021). the psychic oversaturation for approximately 1 year through anxiety-inducing media materials resulted into the absolute refusal to be informed via the tv, reduction on time spent on-line for socializing and estrangement from the extended family. departing from the hypothesis that the patients who felt the covid 19 disease as a trauma, with the possibility of further development of somatoform disorder (causality relationship between trauma-somatoform disorder, already demonstrated), the following hypothesis take shape: patients with somatoform disorders often display signs of depression, anxiety, personality disorders. the people who had the maximum score at the trauma development questionnaire are the future patients with somatoform disorders (grigoras & ciubara, 2021). coping mechanisms were already affected among the people to considered this disease as a trauma. or was it just the functional adaptation mass-media impact on nonand post sars cov2 infection anxious disorders alina maria lescai, et al. 110 mechanisms that helped them have a mild-medium form of the disease? (rebegea et al., 2019) 70% of the patients declared they had preferred to not go through the disease, while 30% declared that having the disease considerably reduced their anxiety level, feeling satisfied they had gone over the disease. 100% of the subjects who had the disease declared that anxiety and mass-media played a major role in the disease’s evolution. somatoform and dissociative disorders are physical disorders lacking organic causes, while physical disorders with psychological factors and behavioural influences are proper psychosomatic disorders (luca et al., 2020). the valid solution at this moment is the large-scale practice of behavioural medicine, because this is a bio-psycho-social interdisciplinary approach. unlike the psychoanalytical psychosomatic medicine, behavioural medicine is based on the connections between behaviour/experience and organic disorders. in 1977, the american physician and psychoanalyst, george engel, presented the bio-psycho-social model of the disease that considers the biological, psychological and social plans of the diseases process underlying the modern concepts of behavioural medicine. as a consequence of the psychic and psychosocial overload, any person may develop a physical ailment. i was waiting for the day i would start feeling worse. each new symptom frightened me. i knew from the tv that day 9 was the worst. i learnt from the news that there is no cure. i didn’t have the courage to go to hospital. i didn’t have courage to stay at home. i was thinking i would never see my family again. the thought of death was near although i was feeling. these are just a few of the additional statements of those who had the disease. although it is too early to have a clear picture, we expect in the future that somatoform disorders grow, experienced traumas and anxieties to have a say on the physical body and psychosomatization become so obvious that the internal medicine physician works hand in hand with the psychiatrist and psychotherapist. it is desirable that his pandemic had a positive side from the viewpoint of interdisciplinarity and team work. conclusions 1. the anxiety level within the people who suffered from covid19 is similar that of those who did not have the disease. 2. 100% of the questioned subjects declared that as to the massmedia addiction, they considered themselves as addicted in 2020 although brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 111 now they can declare themselves oversaturated. they stated they wished to reduce to the minimum the use of audio-visual technology. it is to be noticed that only 4, namely 2 people of the two lots, obtained notable scores in this questionnaire. as to the ptsd development scale, we have concluded the following: 3. departing from the idea that the covid19 disease might be considered as trauma, as the interviewed subjects declared as well, this questionnaire was only applied to those who had the disease and were quarantined. whereas 50% of them obtained the maximum score and 30% obtained an average score, the percentages may be correlated with the severity of the declared symptoms. references baroiu, l., dumea, e., năstase, f., niculeţ, e., fotea, s., ciubara, a. b., stefanopol, i. a., nechita, a., anghel, l., &ciubara, a. (2021). assessment of depression in patients with covid-19. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 dulcan, d. c. (2009). matter inteligence (3rd ed.). eikon. grigoras, m., & ciubara, a. (2021). looking into pandora’s box between "everything" and "but" -depression, pain of losses the next pandemic of humanity? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(2), 326-334. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 izzat, a., anghel, l., stefanescu, b., kantor, c., & ciubara, a. (2021). prevention of psychoactive substance use. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 59-61. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.16 luca, l., burlea, s. l., chirosca, a. c., marin, i. m., ciubara, a. b., & ciubara, a. (2020). the fomo syndrome and the perception of personal needs in contemporary society. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 luca, l., baroiu, l., ciubara, a. b., anghel, r., bulgaru-iliescu, a. i., anghel, l., & ciubara, a. (2020). covid-19 and the spanish flu. from suffering to resilience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 01-07. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 lupu, v. v., ignat, a., stoleriu, g., ciubara, a. b., ciubara, a., lupu, v., burlea, m., & stratciuc, s. (2017). vaccination of children in romania between civic obligation and personal choice. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 56, 123-132. http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumulhttps://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/204 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.2/210 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/15322052 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/46777175 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/41602579 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/7522852 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.16 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/27 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/116 http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul-562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civic-obligation-and-personal-choice.html mass-media impact on nonand post sars cov2 infection anxious disorders alina maria lescai, et al. 112 562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civicobligation-and-personal-choice.html pandele, v. f., tucmeanu, a., antohi, m. e., & ciubara, a. (2021). the effect of using facebook on elderly people during covid-19 pandemic. archiv euromedica, 11(5), 69-71. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199885x/2021/11/5.19 rădulescu, i. d., ciubara, a. b., moraru, c., burlea, s. l., & ciubară, a. . (2020). evaluating the impact of dissociation in psychiatric disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(3sup1), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 rebegea, l., firescu, d., baciu, g., & ciubara, a. (2019). psycho-oncology support. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(3 (special issue), 77-88. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/ index.php/brain/article/view/2169 silistraru, i., ciureanu, a. i., ciubara, a., & olariu, o. (2021). prevalence of burnout in medical students in romania during covid-19 pandemic restrictions. (preliminary data). archiv euromedica, 11(5), 12-15. https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul-562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civic-obligation-and-personal-choice.html http://www.rcis.ro/en/section1/144-volumul-562017martie/2345-vaccination-of-children-in-romania-between-civic-obligation-and-personal-choice.html https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/47200213 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/47204285 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/21961858 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.19 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.19 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.3sup1/132 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2169 https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/brain/article/view/2169 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/34745962 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/9207389 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/32117932 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/30711467 https://doi.org/10.35630/2199-885x/2021/11/5.3 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 191-210 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/339 submitted: january 23rd, 2022| accepted for publication: february 24th, 2022 neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with depressive disorders nelia bihun 1 , tetiana pashko 2 , yuliia danchuk 3 , tamara kryvonis 4 , siagha sami 5 , nataliia ivanikiv 6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, nelabigun@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1767-5181 2 luhansk taras shevchenko national university, ukraine, tatjana.pashko@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2746-6471 3 kamyanets-podilsky ivan ogienko national university, ukraine, uliyadancuk@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5576-9923 4 natoinal pirogov memorial medical university, ukraine, tamarakr@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6060-7152 5 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, seagasemi@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2082-6833 6 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, ivnatalija@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1475-9507 abstract: the article provides a theoretical and methodological analysis of the neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with depressive disorders. the equal role of biological and psychological factors in the development of adolescent depression is emphasized. the neuropsychological symptom complex of depressive disorders in adolescence is considered. the emotional and motivational features of personal development in the context of adolescent neurodevelopment are analyzed. we have noted strong mutual influences of neuropsychological and personal development of an adolescent; neurohormonal mechanisms of child behavior; connection of neuropsychological mechanisms of depressive disorders of psychogenic origin and character accentuations of asthenic, hypotensive, hysteroid type; propensity of teenagers to reactive depression with sensitive and labile character accentuations.to effectively prevent suicides, neuropsychocorrection of mental states in adolescents and implementation of a sociopsychological program for their personal development, and timely diagnosis of symptoms of depression and psychotherapeutic intervention have been proposed. a program for the development of emotional self-regulation in adolescents with depressive disorders and neuropsychological correction of their depressive states has been developed. a preventive and psycho-corrective program for expanding internal resources, reducing the risk of suicidal tendencies and overcoming depressive disorders in an adolescent, taking into account neuropsychological and personal developmental features of adolescence, has been proposed. keywords: suicidal behavior, character accentuations, psychopathies, psychotraumatic situations, depressive states, nervous system, adolescent crisis. how to cite: bıhun, n., pashko, t., danchuk, y., kryvonıs, t., samı, s., & ivanıkıv, n. (2022). neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with depressive disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 191-210. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/339 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/339 mailto:nelabigun@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1767-5181 mailto:tatjana.pashko@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2746-6471 mailto:uliyadancuk@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5576-9923 mailto:tamarakr@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6060-7152 mailto:seagasemi@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2082-6833 mailto:ivnatalija@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1475-9507 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/339 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 192 introduction neuropsychological development of the personality of an adolescent with depressive states is connected with the socio-biological psychological factor and the child's emotional response to psychological traumas, unstable family situation (apostu, 2016) with an appropriate style of parenting and social situations with inadequate overstated or inadequate expectations, needs and resources. external threat from the outside world with a lack of love and acceptance, care and understanding from adults and internal loneliness and vulnerability, excessive maximalism and sensitivity to injustice are dangerous for the transition period of adolescence social and psychological conditions of deprivation of his actual needs and psychological conditions of the personality of the teenager.mildly depressive emotional states are often experienced indirectly by adolescents, as they successfully conceal emotions of sadness, loneliness, insecurity about growing up, boredom, apathetic attitudes toward the world and people under a mask of aggressiveness, hypochondria, antisocial behavior, and inadequate social situations. sometimes taking a teenager's side completely, psychologically protecting him or her, is the most effective prevention of depression. however, psychotraumas, individuality in the interaction of the child and adults with insufficient internal resources for psychological adaptation, neuropsychological and socio-psychological characteristics lead to escalation of depression and transform the associated psychophysiological and neural processes into actually irreversible ones. in this regard, the study of the neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with depressive disorders on the background of cognitive, behavioral-anxietyhysterical, aggressive, and hypochondriac properties that accompany adolescent psychological development disorders is an extremely relevant problem for neuroscience, developmental psychology, and neuropsychocorrection (berbets et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021). the purposes of the article to carry out theoretical and methodological analysis of neuropsychological and personal development of teenagers with depressive disorders and to offer psychoprophylactic and corrective measures for depressive states in adolescence. novelty and practical significance of the article consists in deepening of scientific ideas about features of personal development of the child during puberty period and neuropsychological mechanisms of depressive disorders in an adolescent neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with ... nelia bihun et al. 193 and mutual influence of neuropsychological and personal aspects of puberty.the results of the study are valuable for a generalizing scientific view of the manifestation of depression in adolescents, the content-dynamic structure of his personality and features of neuropsychological development; the use of psychotherapeutic and neuropsychocorrective techniques to reduce the activation of depressive states at the psychophysiological, emotional-cognitive and behavioral, social and psychological and personal levels. the results of the study can be used in clinical practice with depressed adolescents. theoretical and methodological analysis of peculiarities of neuropsychological development of the personality of an adolescent with depressive disorders psychogenic depressive disorders, the causes of which are stressful situations, are predominantly characteristic of adolescence. the psychological mechanisms of emotional intelligence are not yet sufficiently formed, so it is difficult for teenagers to understand and even name their emotional experiences, which often leads to perceptive mistakes in their understanding by adults. feelings of inner emptiness and loneliness, resentment and self-blame may be connected with the instability of selfesteem in assessing one's own adulthood, unjustified expectations of the possibilities of acting as an adult (childhood for a teenager seems to have ended, but adulthood has not yet arrived, which is accompanied by sadness over the lost part of oneself on the physical, social and emotional levels). negativism towards the surrounding teenagers causes external conflicts, and the threat of punishment, fear and anxiety simultaneously with the need to cooperate with it as an adult cause neurotic states and internal conflicts. besides, "right-hemispheric" adolescents as the least stressresistant along with considerable nervous and mental strain can experience social pressure of misunderstanding from the environment under the influence of the internal conflict significant for the child of this age on the basis of the contradiction between two tendencies: "to be like everyone else" and "to stand out, that is to be different". unformed neuropsychological mechanisms, failure academic and inability to solve life problems due to frequent misunderstandings with the environment due to negativism, maximalism, conflict, aggressiveness and impulsiveness and mental imbalance, characteristic of adolescence somatic complaints, self-harm and even unplanned in advance and instant self-death. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 194 neuropsychological symptom complex depressive disorders and lack of psychological support in the families of depressed children negatively affect their personal development. the works of foreign researchers are interesting for studying the question of personal development of teenagers with depressive states. thus, maren aldinger, malte stopsack, ines ulrich, katja appel, eva reinelt, sebastian wolff, hans jörgen grabe, simone lang & sven barnow (aldinger, stopsack, & ulrich, 2014) considered the differences in depression, anxiety, various forms of neuroticism development from adolescent to young adult related to significant emotional experiences.y. huang and n. zhao, (2020), xin shen, shijiao yan et al (2021) empirically confirmed that young adults are significantly more susceptible to experiencing depression during the covid-19 outbreak in china than adults. undoubtedly, this fact indicates excessive vulnerability and sensitivity to life-threatening events, the emotional significance of psychological traumas in the life of the younger generation and neuropsychological insecurity against depression. shiner (2019) notes the presence of neurotic emotional-personal characteristics and traits in adolescence that can be considered in the context of the problem of personality predisposition to depression. peculiarities of functioning of the nervous system (including the cns) and its influence on behavior are as follows. during adolescence the nervous system develops intensively, under the control of which the process of puberty takes place. the hypothalamic-pituitary system, which controls the activity of all endocrine glands (thyroid, adrenal, and sex glands), plays the leading role. increased activity of hypothalamus during puberty period influences the correlation of cortical and subcortical processes in brain structures. changes in nervous system functioning (in particular, in interaction of the cortex and subcortical structures and increased activity of the latter) lead to heightened excitability, emotional lability, weakness of inhibitory processes, hyperactivity. due to the weakening of the control functions of the anterior cortex, the entire system of arbitrary regulation of mental activity and behavior suffers. it also affects cognitive processes, first of all, perception and attention. thus, younger teenagers experience complications in maintaining voluntary attention, differentiation of sensory and verbal stimuli. thus, at the beginning of puberty, a high level of subcortical activity leads to negative shifts in the work of brain systems responsible for the realization of cognitive functions. indicators of increased neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with ... nelia bihun et al. 195 subcortical influences and weakened cortical tone are sharp disturbances of autonomic functions, heart palpitations, vascular disorders, etc. at the end of puberty, subcortical influences weaken and mature relationships are restored (tokareva, 2014). neurohumoral and physiological levels of regulation of mental activity are basic for formation of neuropsychological development of the adolescent. disturbance of their regulation especially in work of hypothalamus and limbic system influences occurrence and development of depressive states. neuropsychological features of regulation of mental activity are connected with work of the main blocks of the brain: 1) block of regulation of tone and activity; 2) block of regulation of sensory actions, receiving and processing information; 3) block of programming, regulation and control of psychological activity. tone regulation consists in activating the large hemispheres, maintaining attention, modally nonspecific memory, and providing basal emotions of fear, satisfaction, and motor activity. the regulation of sensory activities comes down to obtaining, storing, and processing information. the primary fields perform primary processing of impulses coming from the sensory receptor, the secondary ones analyze information, and the tertiary ones are responsible for its synthesis. regulation and control of the course of mental activity is carried out exclusively with the help of functions of the third block of the brain, concentrated in the associative (tertiary) areas, which implement a series of movements, including emotional and volitional (luria, 1962). in depressive states, all three areas of the brain have dysfunction in its functioning, weakening neuropsychological mechanisms of emotional self-regulation, which leads to depressive neuropsychological development of the adolescent, which may be accompanied by neurotic states and manifestations of psychopathies, and in critical cases to cause psychopathological disorders. abigail oliver, victoria pile, deborah elm, jennifer y. f. lau (2019) investigated the cognitive neuropsychology of depression in adolescents. they found that maladaptive patterns of information processing and associated patterns of neural dysfunction characterized adolescent depression. cognitive theories suggest that depression is influenced by thoughts, attitudes toward self, others and the world, and the way information is processed. the way information is processed can influence emotional reactions. thus, biased processing of emotional material ("cognitive biases") and difficulty processing non-emotional information broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 196 ("poor cognitive control") can support depression and increase the risk of developing symptoms in vulnerable individuals. suicidal behavior in adolescents is predominantly a problem of transitional psychiatry and the psychology of psychopathies and nonpsychotic reactive states against a background of character accentuation. jean m. twenge, thomas e. joiner, megan l. roger (2017) argue for an increase in depression symptoms and suicide rates among adolescents in the united states after 2010 as adolescents spent more time on new media (including social media and electronic devices such as smartphones) and reported more mental health problems. more suicides are among adolescents who have experienced a severe loss (death of parents); adolescents with addictions (alcohol, drugs, toxins), which leads to dizziness of consciousness, mental disturbance and dipressive state; physically challenged or with mental disorders adolescents. usually, suicide is considered as a phenomenon of social and psychological maladaptation of the person in the conditions of microsocial conflicts. depression precedes most suicides. signs of depression: loss of interest or sense of satisfaction in situations that would normally evoke positive emotions;inability to react adequately to praise; feeling of bitter sadness, turning into crying; feeling of inferiority, uselessness, loss of self-respect; pessimistic attitude to the future, negative perception of the past; recurrent thoughts about death or suicide; decreased attention span or ability to think clearly; lethargy, chronic fatigue, slowed movements and speech; decreased efficiency or productivity in learning, work, and life; changes in habitual sleep patterns, insomnia, or increased sleepiness; changes in appetite followed by weight gain or loss (khrystuk, 2014). connection of deviations in personal development with accentuations of character at puberty age: the unstable accentuation is characterized by suggestibility, the strengthened propensity to imitation; the hyperthymic accentuation is connected with excessively stormy energy; the hysteroid accentuation is characterized by a strong need to be in the center of others' attention (lichko, 1983). according to neuropsychologists, the consolidation of the psychopathic character and the formation of stable accentuations is associated with a significant increase in subcortical activity, which enhances excitatory and weakens inhibitory processes in the brain. eva henje blom, tiffany c. ho, colm g. connolly, kaja z. lewinn, matthew d. sacchet, olga timofiyeva, helen y. weng, and tony t. yang (2016) examined the neuroscience aspects of adolescent depression, neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with ... nelia bihun et al. 197 focusing on the persistent threat and summarizing the contextual factors that influence brain development and the pathophysiology of depression. a growing body of research supports the hypothesis that the effects of stress at an early age and increased vulnerability to stress due to lack of social connections and psychological support have a devastating effect on the central nervous system as it develops. this adverse effect on nervous system development leads to an increased risk of adolescent depression, less opportunity for nervous system recovery, and more frequent recurrences over the course of life. adolescent depression is characterized by an enhanced amygdala response to emotional stimuli, which may further interfere with frontolimbic development of cognitive control mechanisms and contribute to increased emotional and social reactivity in depressed adolescents.minimizing the effects of stress in early life and reducing vulnerability to stress through improved social connections and support for adolescents can help improve regulation of limbic function and optimize central nervous system development. to minimize the damaging effects of media, technology, and cyberbullying on the developing brain, a multifaceted approach, including school programs, educational media campaigns, and parental involvement is suggested. the emotional connotations of experiencing depression in adolescence are depression, pessimism, irritation, aggression, depression, loneliness, devaluing one's personality, dominance of negative emotions with hostility or sadness, boredom, fears of rejection, resentment and feelings of guilt and complexes. such emotional attitudes toward oneself and other people integrate into a complex personal formation containing such properties and qualities of the teenager's personality as egocentrism, personal immaturity, irresponsibility with respect to training and household duties, low level of emotional-volitional qualities, lack of initiative, withdrawal, inadequate actions, indiscipline. emotional and motivational features of personal development in adolescence are: the emergence of a hierarchy of value orientations and motivational components as a personal new formation of this age; low motivation for learning, emotional unbalance, orientation on value orientations ambivalent to themselves, the culture of appearance or to communicate with peers; a sense of adulthood as a central selfaffirmation;motivation for achievement in learning can lose importance or be relevant; a qualitatively new level of emotional and personal selfregulation or low if prone to depression;the cult of money or the priority broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 198 of metarial values over spiritual values at a low level of personal and neuropsychological development simultaneously, increased tension of needs and acute reaction to frustration of needs, exaggerated demands for satisfaction of their needs by others with destruction of their personal boundaries in adolescents with low level of frustration tolerance.many modern teenagers, unfortunately, have no desire to learn, no life goals and beliefs and no orientation toward personal self-development. at the same time, the tendency to manifest various addictions dominates. the most essential consideration of theoretical and methodological and psychological bases of personal growth of teenagers in a perspective of humanistic and phenomenological strategies of the person-centered approach is the work of i.s. bulakh (2004). the researcher created a holistic model of the process of personal growth during adolescence, objectified psychological means of the process of formation of the normative-value sphere of modern teenagers in the context of a phenomenological picture of the space of self-awareness the genesis of moral self-consciousness of teenagers, introduced in psychological practice a system of personal psychological work with teenagers and tested a program of personalitycentered education in adolescence. no less valuable for the analytical and generalizing work in our scientific article were the works of n. i. bihun (2007, 2011) about psychogenic depressive disorders in adolescents and features of the organization of psychological preventive and corrective measures to overcome depressive states by teenagers; n. m. tokareva, a. v. shamne, n. m. makarenko (2014) regarding the main theoretical aspects of the study of the adolescent period of development; dutkevych (2012) on the biological and social conditions of mental development of the adolescent personality; o. e. lichko (1983) on psychopathies and accentuations, biological and psychological bases of the cause of behavioral disorders in adolescents; o. luria (1962) on higher cortical functions and their disorders. adolescence is the first transitional period from childhood to adulthood. qualitative changes occurring in the intellectual and emotional spheres of the personality (intensive, uneven development and growth of the body, personal new formations, etc.) give rise to a new level of selfawareness, needs for self-assertion, equal and trusting communication with peers and adults. intense sexual development determines the emergence of sexual desire and related experiences and interests. all of this serves as the basis for designating the adolescent crisis, which passes through the following three phases: the negative (pre-critical) phase the phase of neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with ... nelia bihun et al. 199 breaking of old views, stereotypes, structures; the apogee of the crisis (as a rule it is 13 years old); the post-critical phase the period of formation of new stereotypes and construction of new structures.there are two manifestations of the teenage crisis: the crisis of independence (symptoms: rebelliousness, obstinacy, negativism, capriciousness, devaluing adults, rejection of their demands, rebellion, jealousy, etc.); the crisis of dependence (symptoms: excessive obedience, regression to old interests, tastes and forms of behavior).some manifestations of the teenage crisis include: negativism as a negative attitude to everything around (subjective experiences: depression, melancholy, etc.); intellectualization as a way of psychological defense, manifested in a deepening in philosophical issues (subjective experiences: anxiety, worry, etc.); ability to analyze others and oneself in combination with self-centeredness (subjective experiences: dissatisfaction with oneself and others); depression as a result of growing up (childhood is over, but not yet an adult) or as a consequence of life failures (lack of understanding by adults, limitation of potential opportunities, etc.); subjective experiences: desolation, indifference, suicide. under unfavorable socio-psychological conditions there are difficulties in personal development, in particular, formation of character accentuation (cherezova, 2016, pp. 44 45). i. s. bulakh (2004) along with typical characteristics (egocentrism, ambivalence of feelings, emancipation, etc.) of personal development of teenagers such regularities of their growth as: global interest to the self, personal reflection, realization of the world of new own emotions and feelings, personal self-regulation, ambivalent attitude to the own ego, comprehension of moral qualities and their self-assessment, realization of personal motives of acts are revealed. it is stated that in the period of adulthood there is an extraordinary expansion of the conditions of existence of the personality both in the social space and in the personal in terms of expanding the range of spiritual tests of the self. the specified specific properties as self-valuable semantic formations are the values of a modern teenager. they restructure forms of his consciousness (thinking, volition, experience) and self-consciousness (self-knowledge, self-assessment attitude, self-regulation), thus giving the latter the dominant status among dimensions of personal growth. self-consciousness acts as a central structural component of personal growth during adolescence. this psychological formation is characterized by the child's generalized ideas about his or her personality through comprehension of his or her own thoughts, feelings, properties and behavior as a whole. the teenager's personal growth is a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 200 process of self-awareness and appreciation of his or her own self, which actualizes new levels of self-discovery of moral qualities and moral feelings and raises the personality to a meaningful experience of his or her own actions as free and responsible deeds. personal development during adolescence is appropriate to consider with the neuropsychological, since this period is one of the most stressful for the child. the inordinate qualitative and quantitative changes in physical growth for her psyche are also a stressful phenomenon for the body and mental activity as a whole at the hormonal, psychophysiological and psychological levels. it is known that in a situation of chronic stress the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, the reactions to stress can be associated with the release of such hormones: growth, sexual, insulin. parasympathetic reactions are very closely connected with depressive states. the hormonal situation in the body, in particular serotonin, positively influences the behavior of the teenager, his academic performance, mood, and healthy sleep. in general, mood changes, heightened emotionality, high anxiety and emotional instability are connected with the activity of hormonal processes. lack of serotonin in combination with emotional disorders and the most neuropsychologically stressed adolescent crisis create a condition under the influence of the psychological factor (teenage psychological traumas in the family and at school) for the formation of a character with accentuations of the asthenic, hypothemic, hysteroid type, which experts often assume. psychopathic features with accentuations can serve as one of the personal preconditions for the occurrence of depressive states in teenagers. the propensity of adolescents to reactive depression with sensitivity (withdrawal, various fears, vulnerable reaction to psychological traumas, a feeling of hopelessness and intolerance) and labile (mood changes, fears of rejection and loss of an important person) accentuations of character is also well known in clinical psychology. the chronological limits of adolescence are from 11-12 to 14-15 years. the main factor in the development of a teenager's personality is the growth of his or her social activity. there is a "growth spurt" in physical development, and the size and weight of the child's internal organs approach those of an adult. there is an improvement in the neurons of the cerebral cortex, and associative connections between different parts of the brain are enriched. inhibitory processes intensify. the second signaling system develops intensively. the development of the child's nervous system leads to an increase in the child's mental activity, an increase in his ability to regulate neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with ... nelia bihun et al. 201 his behavior. at the same time, the central nervous system of teenagers is in a state of profound change, and therefore is not distinguished by endurance. внаслідок цього підлітки підвищено збудливі, їхня поведінка нестійка, імпульсивна, дії часто нестримні, безконтрольні, підвищено реактивні. changes in self-consciousness constitute the basic new formation in the psyche of the teenager who begins to realize himself or herself as a member of society and a participant of interpersonal relations. the leading activity in which the central new formation of the teenager's personality is formed is intimate-personal communication. the leading function of self-awareness of the adolescent is socially-regulatory; the aspiration to overcome one's shortcomings, in connection with which self-education arises, is peculiar to the adolescent (dutkevych, 2012, pp. 370 376). studies of adolescent depression are predominantly conducted within the framework of medical-psychiatric and psychotherapeutic approaches. underdevelopment of the problem in the field of psychological science and practice causes incomplete consideration of the specifics of teenage depression, including the importance in their genesis of such fundamental psychological conditions as the dominance of personal development in the structure of teenage development, the crisis of personal development of the individual in adolescence; personal symptomatology is not used enough in the detection of depressive disorders; limited arsenal of special programs and methods to help depressed teenagers psychologists of institutions of higher education (bihun, 2011). joana straub, rebecca brown, kathrin malejko, martina bonenberger, georg grön, paul l. plener, and birgit abler (2019) in a study of adolescent depression and young adults revealed some neurobiological mechanisms of depression. it has been found that during adolescence there is a significant physiological reorganization of gray and white matter of the brain. differences in gray matter volume during adolescence may reflect different maturation processes. gray matter volume in the frontal and parietal cortex peaks around age 10 to 12, and in the temporal cortex around age 16, with girls observed earlier than boys. the older the participants, the lower their global gray matter volumes, especially in the paracingulate and prefrontal cortex. however, it remains unclear whether stunted cortical development predisposes a person to depression, or whether depression delays the trajectories of brain maturation. most depressed juveniles report that a stressful life preceded or provoked their first depressive episode. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 202 gemma lewis, martha neary, ela polek, eirini flouri, glyn lewis (2017) assessed the relationship between parenting and adolescent depression. the incidence of depression increases markedly around age 13, and nearly three-quarters of adults report that their mental health problems began during adolescence. maternal depression is a possible risk factor for adolescent depression. parental depression negatively affects children's mental health and family relationships. andrew s. london (2021) also investigated the impact of family stress on children's mental health. for example, adolescents who have siblings and are currently serving in the military are at risk for developing psychogenic depression and mental and behavioral health problems. n. s. kosa (2010) identified the main determinants of depression in adolescence, which can be combined into the following blocks: selfregulation; psychophysical state; personal dispositions; self-concept; adaptive potential. depressive adolescents are characterized by explicit, critical and moderate levels. depressed teenagers are characterized by an underdeveloped self-regulation system; mediocre functional state; low level of personality differential; imbalance in the emotional-volitional sphere; low adaptive potential; low levels of self-esteem, auto-sympathy, expectations of positive attitude toward others, self-confidence, self-acceptance prevail in the structure of self-attitude. as the level of depression increases, these manifestations intensify. depressiveness manifests itself to a different degree in girls and guys, which can be explained by the peculiarities of gender roles, stereotypes, automatic stereotypes and social attitudes that teenagers try to conform to, as well as being reinforced by parental expectations. thus, girls' suppression of emotions and feelings, as well as social forbidding of their manifestation, contributes to the occurrence of frustration, which can lead to depression. during the pubertal period there is an intensive change of the body on the biophysical level, on the psychological level the formation of female and male identity, which diversifies the final stage of personal development of the adolescent. the personal and neuropsychological symptomatology of modern adolescents described in the article is far incomplete, but sufficiently reveals the neuropsychological and personal features of adolescent ontogenesis. neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with ... nelia bihun et al. 203 psychoprophylactic and psychocorrective measures for depressive disorders in adolescents depression precedes suicide and often accompanies it. we believe that effective prevention of suicide is neuropsychological correction of mental states in adolescents and introduction of a socio-psychological program on their personal development, as well as timely recognition in them of symptoms of depression and psychotherapeutic intervention. implementation of psychoprophylactic and psychologically corrective work with teenagers with depressive disorders requires appropriate training of practical psychologists, rehabilitation therapists, social pedagogues working in educational and rehabilitation institutions. it includes a number of aspects: formation of knowledge about the nature of childhood and adolescent depression, its causes, clinical manifestations and features of the course; mastering methods of diagnosing depressive disorders in children and adolescents; familiarization with the basic principles of prevention and overcoming depression in students; mastering the necessary psychological correction methods and techniques of overcoming depressive disorders; formation of knowledge about the features of developing psychological preventive and psychocorrectional programs; acquaintance with the basic requirements for psychoprophylaxis and psychocorrection of depressive states in schoolchildren; development of skills to analyze the effectiveness of psychoprophylactic, psychodevelopmental, and psychocorrective measurespersonal development of adolescents by means of psychocorrective, psycho-developmental and psychoprophylactic programs allows to actualize psychological conditions for overcoming depressive disorders, as: development of personal competence of teenagers; creation of conditions for self-knowledge of teenagers and formation of aspiration to be himself; formation of high indicators of personal value of the attitude of self-control; development of ability to adequate self-expression and self-actualization; development of self-government skills; formation of positive personal thinking; development of personal self-protection and self-healing skills (bihun, 2011). the main determinants of overcoming depression in adolescence are: resources of adaptive potential (neuro-psychological stability, adequate self-esteem of the person, a sense of social support, features of building contact with others, positive experience of social communication, orientation on the existing standards and behavior in the society); personal broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 204 characteristics (tolerance to frustration, self-confidence, nonconformism, adequate self-esteem, inner emancipation); positive or adequate self-concept at all levels (global; differentiated by self-esteem, self-sympathy, self-interest and expectations of positive attitude to themselves; readiness for specific actions regarding their "ego", in particular, self-esteem, self-acceptance, selfconfidence or confidence in the ability and reality of effective realization of the goals of life; self-esteem, auto-sympathy, expectation of positive attitude from others, i.e. positive social support); optimal levels of personal semantic differential (adequacy and objectivity) and psychophysiological state, as well as developed and productive mechanisms and processes of personal selfregulation, in particular, independence or autonomy of activity organization and modeling of life goals, situations, work systems and their possible modification if necessary (kosa, 2010). the analysis of individual images of depression allows to reveal the reasons, mechanisms of development and features of a course of depressive disorder. the associative image of depression, being rooted in consciousness of the teenager, forms an imaginary individual depressive environment. the teenager feels its presence in and outside of his or her own ego as part of his or her external living environment. the longer the associative image of depression is held in the teenager's consciousness, the more it passes from the imaginary plane to the sensual plane: imaginary depressive images start to be accompanied by unpleasant physical sensations (pressure, pain, tension, numbness, difficulty of breathing, etc.). the detailed analysis and work with individual images of depression of teenagers considerably enriches the arsenal of therapeutic methods and techniques. they allow the psychologist to penetrate into the depressive space of the young person, in the world of her feelings and experiences, and consequently to trace features of development of her world outlook, self-perception and allow to develop such correctional therapeutic programs which would correspond to the individual psychological features as much as possible (bihun, 2007). we have developed a program to develop emotional self-regulation in adolescents with depressive disorders and neuropsychocorrection of their depressive states, containing the following basic blocks: formation of the ability to understand one's own and others' emotions and the ability to manage them; neuropsychological work with the body (corporal and relaxation exercises) to release "trapped" emotions on a bodily level; psychological analysis of teenagers' personal problems related to low selfesteem, internal conflicts, propensity for negativism, self-harm and suicidal neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with ... nelia bihun et al. 205 behavior; psychological training in the development of the emotionalvolitional sphere of the child. favorable psychological conditions, taking into account the characteristics of children of adolescence, defined: involvement of communication as a leading activity in adolescence, taking into account the focus on social interaction, the content of moral norms, attitudes and personal attitudes of adolescents; aspirations of adolescents to adulthood and setting tasks that require an adult approach to the problem; use the tendency to positive self-affirmation in the formation of volitional qualities of personality, which are major factors in self-actualization and selfdevelopment; resistance to emotional orientation and positive worldview as emotional qualities of personality; resistance against persistence and purposefulness as constructive willpower properties of the personality; involving the ability to visualize and affirmation as factors in the development of positive thinking; using the emotional type of response of students; using business games and behavioral techniques as priority methods of work for them. methods of work: psychorellaxation (autogenic, breathing, muscle techniques, visualization techniques), system desensitization, business games, behavioral techniques, rational therapy, formation of a life scenario, modeling of life situations, psychoand symboldrama, vicarious training, art therapy exercises, gestalt therapy (honcharuk, 2020, pp. 203-204). such methods of work are certainly preventive and necessary, since adolescence is marked by emotional vulnerability, emotional-volitional regulation of activity has little dynamics, the function of self-control suffers, which adversely affects the development of the teenager's personality. depressive neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with hysterical traits is accompanied by the following features: heightened excitability, psycho-vegetative reactions, erasure of personal boundaries, first of all parents by manipulative blackmail, demonstrative behavior, aggressiveness and contentment. such personal characteristics in situations of psychological traumas form a propensity to depression and suicidal behavior. for its prevention, we offer a program of expanding the teenager's inner resources through staged work: diagnosis of the type of accentuations and propensity for depression and suicidal actions; psychological analysis of constructive and rigid forms of psychological defense in stressful situations using methods of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy and neurolinguistic broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 206 programming;learning to see positive aspects in any negative phenomenon with the methods of positive psychotherapy; discussion of coping strategies in relation to the subjective complexity of the psychotraumatic situation; activation of psychological conditions for the development of stress resistance in adolescent clients, taking into account their neuropsychological and personal characteristics; crisis psychotherapy with work on changing crisis coping and reducing the risk of suicidal tendencies; implementation of an individual approach in working out strategies for the long-term development of the teenager's personality and elimination of his or her shortcomings; to neuropsychological correction of crisis conditions with mandatory use of breathing, corporal and relaxation exercises; psychological training to develop reflection, personal self-regulation, autonomy, selfacceptance, empathy and tolerance toward others; and organization of arttherapy and creative activity groups for teenagers. timely diagnosis of the propensity for depression, analysis of the child's emotional states and thoughts by a psychologist, and taking appropriate measures can save his life and preserve his mental health, since the initial form of depression is common in bipolar disorder. depressive disorders and suicidal behavior in an adolescent often require medication and long-term psychotherapy, primarily family therapy. conclusion in the social neuropsychological and personality development approach, adolescence is favorable for depression at the emotional, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral levels. the mismatch between the expectations of the adolescent's needs and his neuropsychological resource, the instability of his self-esteem, the depressive nature of the adolescent crisis provoke the development of his personality with deviations, high levels of neuropsychological tension, feelings of loneliness and frustration, which can lead to suicidal behavior.a high level of depression is characteristic of adolescents with a hostile attitude to the environment, diffuse personal boundaries, self-loathing, difficulties in understanding their own and others' emotions, cognitive difficulties in objective assessment of reality, which is often associated with neuropsychological problems (dysfunctions) and psychopaths with character accentuations. depressive disorders most often appear at the pubertal stage of a child's neuropsychological and personal development from age 12 to 15. the neuropsychological trigger mechanism for their occurrence is inhibitory neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with ... nelia bihun et al. 207 processes in the cerebral cortex and hormonal "explosions" in the body and a psychological factor psychological traumas, discrepancy between a teenager's sense of adulthood and social requirements and real actions, lack of psychological support in the family, insufficient personal resources in coping with stresses. emotional support of the depressed teenager stabilizes his or her self-esteem, promotes motivation to personal development, and raises the feeling of own importance and self-esteem. depressive states can also be characteristic of adolescents with favorable personal development as at this age, children acquire a new status independent of the family and school as adults. references aldinger, m., stopsack, m., ulrich, i., appel, k., reinelt, e., wolff, s., grabe, h. j., lang, s., & barnow, s. (2014). neuroticism developmental courses implications for depression, anxiety and everyday emotional experience; a prospective study from adolescence to young adulthood. bmc psychiatry, 14, article number: 210. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-014-0210-2 apostu, i. (2016). the two dimensions of infidelity. postmodern openings, 7(2), 167178. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/2016.0702.11 berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 bihun, n. i. (2007). subʺyektyvni obrazy depresiyi u pidlitkiv yak predmet psykholohichnoyi refleksiyi [subjective images of depression in teenagers as a subject of psychological reflection] n. i. behun. psychology and society, 3, 108-114. http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/bitstream/316497/30233/1/бігун.pdf bihun, n. i. (2011). osoblyvosti orhanizatsiyi psykholohichnykh zakhodiv z profilaktyky ta podolannya depresyvnykh rozladiv u pidlitkiv [features of the organization of psychological measures for the prevention and overcoming of depressive disorders in adolesents]. problemy suchasnoyi psykholohiyi [problems of modern psychology], 11. http://lu-journal.com.ua blom, e.h., ho, t.c., connolly, c. g., lewinn, k.z., sacchet, m. d., tymofiyeva, o., weng, h. y., & yang, t. t. (2016). the neuroscience and context of adolescent depression. acta paediatr., 105(4), 358–365. https://doi.org/10.1111%2fapa.13299 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-014-0210-2 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/2016.0702.11 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/bitstream/316497/30233/1/бігун.pdf http://lu-journal.com.ua/ https://doi.org/10.1111%2fapa.13299 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 208 bulakh, i. s. (2004). psykholohichni osnovy osobystisnoho zrostannya pidlitka [psychological bases of personal growth of the adolescent]: doctor of psychology degree abstract: 19.00.00 pedagogical and age psychology. kiev. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua cherezova, i.a. (2016). psykholohiya zhyttyevykh kryz osobystosti [psychology of personality life crises]. berdyansk, berdyansk state pedagogical university. http://bdpu.org:8080/bitstream/123456789/267/1/cherezova%20i.o.% 20psykholohiya%20zhyttyevykh%20kryz%20osobystosti.pdf demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dutkevych, t. v. (2012). dytyacha psykholohiya [child psychology]: center for educational literature. https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/dutkevych_tetiana/dytiacha_psykholohiia. pdf? honcharuk, n. (2020). psykholohichni osoblyvosti emotsiyno-volʹovoho rehulyuvannya osobystosti pidlitkiv u sytuatsiyakh komunikatsiyi [psychological features of the emotional-volitional regulation of the personality of adolescents in situations of communication]. in n. mikhalchuk, l. onufrieva (eds.), aktualʹni problemy psykholohiyi rozvytku i samostverdzhennya osobystosti u navchalʹnomu seredovyshchi [actual problems of psychology of development and self-affirmation of the person in the educational environment] (pp. 175 205). kamyanets-podilskyi: ltd "typographia "ruta". http://elar.khnu.km.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/8647/1/№2%20мон огр_21.12.19_актуальні%20проблеми%20психології%20розвитку.pdf huang, y., & zhao, n. (2020). generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms and sleep quality during covid-19 epidemic in china: a web-based crosssectional survey. psychiatry res, 288, 112954. https://doi.org/10.1016%2fj.psychres.2020.112954 khrystuk, o. l. (2014). psykholohiya deviantnoyi povedinky [psychology of deviant behavior]: teaching aid. lviv: lviv state university of internal affairs of ukraine. http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/380/1/христук%20 психол%20девіантної%20поведінки.pdf kosa, n. s. (2010). psykholohichni determinanty podolannya depresyvnosti u pidlitkovomu vitsi [psychological determinants of overcoming depression in adolescence]: abstract of the dissertation for the degree of candidate of psychological sciences: 19.00.07 pedagogical and age psychology. kyiv. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/ http://bdpu.org:8080/bitstream/123456789/267/1/cherezova%20i.o.%20psykholohiya%20zhyttyevykh%20kryz%20osobystosti.pdf http://bdpu.org:8080/bitstream/123456789/267/1/cherezova%20i.o.%20psykholohiya%20zhyttyevykh%20kryz%20osobystosti.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/dutkevych_tetiana/dytiacha_psykholohiia.pdf https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/dutkevych_tetiana/dytiacha_psykholohiia.pdf http://elar.khnu.km.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/8647/1/№2%20моногр_21.12.19_актуальні%20проблеми%20психології%20розвитку.pdf http://elar.khnu.km.ua/jspui/bitstream/123456789/8647/1/№2%20моногр_21.12.19_актуальні%20проблеми%20психології%20розвитку.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016%2fj.psychres.2020.112954 http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/380/1/христук%20психол%20девіантної%20поведінки.pdf http://dspace.lvduvs.edu.ua/bitstream/1234567890/380/1/христук%20психол%20девіантної%20поведінки.pdf neuropsychological and personality development of adolescents with ... nelia bihun et al. 209 lewis, g., neary, m., polek, e., flouri, e., & lewis, g. (2017). the association between paternal and adolescent depressive symptoms: evidence from two population-based cohorts. lancet psychiatry, 4, 920–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(17)30408-x lichko, a. e. (1983). psikhopotiya i aktsentuatsiya kharaktera u podrostkov [psychopotence and character accentuation in adolescents], 2nd edition. medicine. https://www.klex.ru/hk london, a. s. (2021). depression and mental health service use among 12–17 year old u.s. adolescents: associations with current parental and sibling military service. ssm population health, 16, 100920. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100920 luria, a. r. (1962). vysshiye korkovyye funktsii i ikh narusheniye pri lokal'nikh porazheniyakh mozga [higher cortical functions and their impairment in local brain lesions]. moscow. https://mir.ismu.baikal.ru/src/downloads/952d095b_7aab7a24_luriya_a.r. ,_vysshie_korkovye_funktsii_cheloveka.pdf oliver, a., pile, v., elm, d., & lau, j. y. f. (2019). the cognitive neuropsychology of depression in adolescents. current behavioral neuroscience reports, 6, 227–235. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40473-01900187-0 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 shen, x., yan, s., cao, h., feng, j., lei, z., zhang, w., lv, c., & gan, y. (2021). current status and associated factors of depression and anxiety among the chinese residents during the period of low transmission of covid-19. health psychology, 12, 700376. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700376 shiner, r. l. (2019). negative emotionality and neuroticism from childhood through adulthood: a lifespan perspective. in d. mcadams, r. l. shiner, & j. l. tackett (eds.), handbook of personality development (pp. 137-152). new york: guilford press. straub, j., brown, r., malejko, k., bonenberger, m., grön, g., plener, p. l., & abler, b. (2019). adolescent depression and brain development: evidence from voxel-based morphometry. j psychiatry neurosci., 44(4), 237–245. https://doi.org/10.1503%2fjpn.170233 tokareva, n. m., shamne, a. v., & makarenko, n. m. (2014). suchasnyy pidlitok u systemi psykholoho-pedahohichnoho suprovodu [the modern adolescent in the https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(17)30408-x https://www.klex.ru/hk https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100920 https://mir.ismu.baikal.ru/src/downloads/952d095b_7aab7a24_luriya_a.r.,_vysshie_korkovye_funktsii_cheloveka.pdf https://mir.ismu.baikal.ru/src/downloads/952d095b_7aab7a24_luriya_a.r.,_vysshie_korkovye_funktsii_cheloveka.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s40473-019-00187-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40473-019-00187-0 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700376 https://doi.org/10.1503%2fjpn.170233 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 210 system of psychological and pedagogical support]. kryvyi rih. http://elibrary.kdpu.edu.ua/bitstream/0564/1760/1/підліток.pdf twenge, j.m., joiner, t. e., & roger, m. l. (2017). increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among u.s. adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time. clinical psychological science, 6(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2167702617723376 http://elibrary.kdpu.edu.ua/bitstream/0564/1760/1/підліток.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2167702617723376 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 340-359 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/371 submitted: april 14th, 2022| accepted for publication: july 18th, 2022 features of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in linguistics: neuropragmatic and comparative aspects roksolana povoroznyuk 1 , karyna hakhariia 2 , viktoriia shymanska 3 , oksana formaniuk 4 , myroslava hnatyuk 5 , anzhelika popovych 6 1 taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, institute of philology, ukraine, salina.sunset@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3418-6651 2 bogdan khmelnytsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, karinavramenko@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3180-5859 3 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, vishuma@ukr.net 4 kyiv national linguistic university, ukraine, forman@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5838-5896 5 lviv polytechnic national university, ukraine, mur_vas@ukr.net, http://orchid.org/0000-0002-1663-7095 6 kamianets-podіlskyi national ivan ohiienko university, ukraine, popovich@kpnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3428-9717 abstract: the article partially deals with the peculiarities of epidemiological discourse and the creation of secondary names (covid neologisms), which have not been covered much before. in particular, socially significant innovative phenomena are described: the total transition of covid-neologisms to an active commonly used lexicon, semantic and structural changes of epidemiological discourse through destructive influence on doctors and ordinary citizens. it was found that the main reason for the rapid dynamics and specified structural-semantic changes of epidemiological discourse and the creation in its environment of secondary names is a regular negative neuro pragmatic stimulation of protective mechanisms of the human psyche in complementary external (situational) conditions. the methods for elucidating these patterns were sociological observations of live drug speech; word-formation, semantic, pragmatic and comparative types of analysis and establishment of neuro pragmatic presupposition by extrapolation methods. the study was conducted on a limited sample of physicians of two specialties contrasted by neuro pragmatic parameters (epidemiologists and dentists). a total of 18 respondents. therefore, the results of the study are framework, demonstrative and require extension in the mode of lexicographic and discursological expeditions, followed by the analysis of a sufficient number of linguistic phenomena. the international significance of the article lies in the fact that the authors have chosen the almost undiscovered problem of metamorphosis of epidemiological discourse at the intersection of linguistics and neuroscience, which encourages scientists to pay attention to the complex causes of the hypertrophic development and spread of epidemiological vocabulary and discourse in general. keywords: intraprofessional discourse; covid neologisms; negative stimulus; discourse alignment; affective neurolinguistics. how to cite: povoroznyuk, r., hakharııa, k., shymanska, v., formanıuk, o., hnatyuk, m., & popovych, a. (2022). features of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in linguistics: neuropragmatic and comparative aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 340-359. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/371 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/371 mailto:salina.sunset@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3418-6651 mailto:karinavramenko@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3180-5859 mailto:vishuma@ukr.net mailto:forman@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5838-5896 mailto:mur_vas@ukr.net http://orchid.org/0000-0002-1663-7095 mailto:popovich@kpnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3428-9717 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/371 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 341 introduction the lexical structure of any language of modern professional speech is characterized not only by the correlation of the regulated and standardized protocols for the use of linguistic units available in it, but also by the possibility to reinterpret them to name what is topical at a certain moment. besides, the speaking specialist, being in a homogeneous favorable ("his") collective has an informal possibility to add personal meanings. they are based on the physiological need for emotional identification, evaluation, which is presented to the world. of course, the doctor's discourse, like the speech of other professionals in the sphere of direct contact with clients, has differences: intra and inter professional relations and professional communication with the client. traditionally, the specificity of the generated discourse and the emergence of secondary names in linguistics is explained extra linguistically. particularly much research on generalization (induction) and the visual fixation of individual successful idioms lacks research on personal factors, internal needs and neurophysiological mechanisms that cause active production of professional discourse and secondary naming under conditions of social instability and psychotraumatic professional duties. we justify the relevance of this article by the fact that epidemiological discourse has developed significantly during the years of the covid-19 pandemic, become mass-medical and constantly generates medical and extra-medical neologisms, which we consider appropriate to call covid neologisms. mass communicative epidemiological discourse is emotionally fulfilled, it is accompanied by nervous tension or concern among speakers and even by a change in global public sentiment. but the most interesting thing is that in the professional speech of doctors it has acquired features that are dissonant with the idea of medical deontology. the key problem of our article is the problem of the sharp dissonance between epidemiological medical discourse and the medical discourse of non-epidemiological medical specialties. in this regard, the purpose of the article is to identify new specific features of epidemiological discourse, to create secondary names in its environment and to clarify the heterogeneous reasons for the emergence and functioning of such features. the material served as fragments of ukrainian epidemiological discourse, individual neologisms of semantic group " covid-19" and corresponding units of discourse of dentists as features of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in ... roksolana povoroznyuk et al. 342 medical professionals, as far removed as possible from the solution of epidemic problems. this was done to apply components of comparative analysis. this choice of linguistic material is explained by the fact that the authors of the article live in ukraine and have the opportunity as ordinary citizens and consumers of medical services to monitor and record innovative linguistic phenomena. in the world linguistic discourse, the creation of covid neologisms is a highly topical problem. it is already overloaded with studies. we are not going to review international publications, which have gathered in the last three years, but let us note: in ukrainian linguistics alone (mainly derivatology, translation studies, semasiology) we found more than several dozens of recent publications on the material of the ukrainian language (kharchenko, 2020); english (babeliuk & didukh, 2020), french (vesna & teletska, 2020); slovak (khoda, 2020), etc. since on the material of ukrainian medical (therapeutic, infectious disease, and epidemiological) discourses, there have been many works on the elucidation of morphological and derivational features of covid neologisms (tymoshchuk, 2021; zavodna, 2019). in connection with all of the above, we have chosen another understudied aspect. we are interested in the comparative characteristics of the sign, functioning and reasons for the appearance of connotative and neutral neologisms in the professional discourse of doctors of nonepidemiological (dentist, surgeon, trauma surgeon) and near-epidemiological specialties (doctor-epidemiologist, infection doctor, general practitioner ("home doctor").we must place a special emphasis on the external (vital) press positions and the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of the generation of medical discourse, neologisms and their specific use in situations with different types of pragmatic stimuli. to achieve this goal, we selected scientific sources for analysis along thematic axes: affective linguistics, derivatology and its underlying mechanisms, covidproblematics, neurophysiology of speech behavior in protracted stress situations, etc. this approach allows a direct connection of the topic with the problems of the journal and, in our opinion, will indicate new prospects for the neuro pragmatic study of language and speech in a tense social situation, which will provoke native speakers to identify the markers of innovation features. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 343 the purpose of the article and the above-mentioned statement of the scientific problem allowed us to choose the following methods: sociological (questionnaire survey of doctors to collect innovative words and idiomatic combinations), method of unconcealed observation to staff a mini-corps of fragments of medical (epidemiological and dental) discourse. note that the study was conducted on a minimal, and thus demonstrative, rather than representative sample. a total of 18 doctors (12 family practice physicians and 6 dentists) participated in the data collection. the respondents provided 68 neologisms of both semantic groups and 7 fragments each of the live professional discourse (doctor doctor and doctor client) of the specialties they provided. the methods of analysis of the received data word formation, semantic, pragmatic and comparative analysis of speech material; method of extrapolation of neurophysiological, social (neuro pragmatics) presuppositions to innovative language phenomena in order to establish deterministic connection between production situations, occurrence and use of professional innovations in the context of human brain and psyche work. quantitative methods were practically not used, since the article is theoretically and demonstrably of a theoretical nature and aims to outline interdisciplinary perspectives on the study of the latest epidemiological discourse and word formation. neurophysiological and social aspects of the creation of secondary names during an epidemiological crisis neurophysiological studies of vocabulary have existed for a long time, but at first only for medical purposes (for example, semantic analysis of aphasia). at the end of the 20th century, the psychophysiological foundations of semantics, defined on the patterns of functioning of the defective brain, were first effectively used in semasiology and dervatology (akhutina & glozman, 1995). a few years ago it was conclusively proved that the generation of new words or the use of peripheral secondary meanings is related to the neurophysiological mechanism of reflexion, that is, it is automatic. such processes can be recorded neurovisually. now mankind can for the first time "see" emotions accompanying speech (schiller et al., 2019). in addition, scientists have identified dual neural channels and their types. their functional commonality consists in separate and reflexive perception of visual and visual signs and linguistic reproduction of such signs (schiller & lieber, 2020). features of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in ... roksolana povoroznyuk et al. 344 as a result of research, scientists obtained an unexpected result: at the neurophysiological level it is very easy to trace the existence of special neural connections for the formation of neologisms and the typical formation of frequently repeated syntactic constructions (pitts et al., 2010). these studies were conducted on patients with deficient or hypertrophied linguistic functions, that is, scientists saw the process in a concentrated way. from the point of view of linguistics, this neurophysiological mechanism proves: a) there may be other mechanisms of reflexive generation of speech; b) the neurophysiological ability to repeat ready-made and create new units of language and speech is inherent in human nature. when studying medical discourse, which in our time has begun to absorb situational and regular manifestations of idiostyles, subcultural slangs, metaphorical meanings, we can use neurophysiological and neurolinguistic mechanisms to understand and explain the functioning of secondary, especially connotatively hued names as elements of professional speech. neuroscientists in recent decades have traced the underlying natural causes, mechanisms, and patterns of common language use, the development of personal idiostyle, and the emergence of casional word usage (semenza & mondini, 2006). it became clear to scientists: if the main function of language is communicative and serves two key human needs information exchange (informative) and emotions (expressive) (berbets et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021; karasievych et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021; stanca & tarbujaru, 2020). therefore, it is natural to study intellect, memory, emotions and speech reflection of the external world as general objects of neuroscience and general linguistics in the section "nature of speech" in an integrated way. developing this theme, scholars have recently separated affective neurolinguistics, the object of which became the usual phenomena of linguistics: expression, connotation, individual word formation, transonimization, etc. at the same time, linguistic units performing situational or usual expressive functions began to be identified with certain emotions (even the term "emotion words" appeared) (wu & zhang, 2020). in our case, it is interesting to trace how, in today's scientific or business discourse, individually created words with an emotional and figurative, expressive, or linguo-cultural (e.g., slang as a manifestation of subculture) connotation will function. we are prompted to do so by a contradiction: professional medical discourse must be officially business-like and not use expressive styles. the speech culture of a doctor (as well as a lawyer, a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 345 banker, etc.) is an element and result of acquired professionalism and work experience. it excludes the possibility of individual manifestation of psyche and neurophysiology (gender, characterological, leftand right-lateral brain features). however, it is known that the pragmatics of medical work for professional purposes can modify the discourse, producing new meanings of words. for doctors, the main reasons for this phenomenon are the emergence of professional innovations (methods, tools), attempts to reassure, morally support the client, in doctor-doctor communication, the need for emotional optimization and euphemization of daily routine work and the avoidance of a refined emotionally neutral professional. however, there are compelling external social reasons for innovative changes in the discourse and vocabulary of epidemiologists and physicians directly involved in the struggle against covid-19. the epidemiological discourse associated with the covid-19 pandemic has become not only a phenomenon of medical deontology, but also a global metanarrative. the high level of concern in the regional and international community has made the political, ideological, cultural, and comparative study of contemporary epidemiological discourse relevant. also, this discourse has become a context against which popular ideology, concepts, political stance, and social behavior can be comparatively investigated. according to east asian scholars, this discourse has become a marker of the factual reliability and affective engagement of the world's media, a sharp difference between eastern and western mentalities. also, the epidemiological discourse expressed in the media has evolved over the past two years from affective and predictive rhetoric to more objective constructive and emotionally neutral (yu et al., 2021). therefore, studies of different periods of covid discourse, comparative studies that feature language pictures of the problem in different countries of the world are now popular: usa china, europe (zeng & xie, 2020). also for the completeness of the definition of the problem and its scope, let us recall that in the pages of scientific journals the epidemiological out-of-therapeutic covid discourse is defined as a factor of national and globalization changes, a linguocultural phenomenon that covers the sphere of every language from the domestic to the institutional level (prieto-ramos et al., 2020). from these works we can conclude that not only the wordformation mechanisms of derivative nominations are important now, but also the politics, culture and ideology of creating neologisms in this sphere.in our opinion, medical epidemiological covid discourse occupies features of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in ... roksolana povoroznyuk et al. 346 an intermediate position in this respect: on the one hand, it corresponds to rather strict regulations of medical nomination and medication behavior, and on the other hand, due to its affectivity and resonance, the clear line between expressive colloquial and neutral professional speech of doctors is erased. doctors, like ordinary people, are instinctively influenced by real or exaggerated levels of danger by social communication and statistical data. in our opinion, this reason, as well as the need for daily industrial euphemisms, contributes to the excessive connotation of covid neologisms in the speech of doctors, which brings these neologisms closer to the common colloquial vocabulary. also surprising is the extent and rate at which covid neologisms appear in all languages, most symptomatically in english. а. saleh notes the importance of studying the pragmatic dimensions of the trend neologisms of the covid-19 period: "lexicographers who monitor and correlate the volume of new definitions in dictionaries with social, political and economic events confirm: unlike previous world events linguistic changes at all levels" (saleh, 2021, p. 24). in our opinion, in 2022 the determining factor is no longer the threat of life, but the disruption of communication, the need for social distance, social isolation, etc. against the background of the above factors, ukrainian scientists have noticed that the more relevant factors in changing epidemiological discourse are not word-formation and nomenclatural, but pragmatic. this led to a convergence of professional medical and everyday patient discourses: "in a short time, medical terminology related to covid-19 became clear and actively used, i.e., viral pneumonia, sanitation compliance, infection, protective mask, isolation, incubation period, rapid test, epidemic,quarantine (adaptive/rigid quarantine, weekend quarantine), contact (persons), coronavirus, coronaviral, coronavirus infection/disease, coronavirus disease, lethality, sanitary emergency/situation, observation, pandemic, pcr test, respiratory illness, saturation, antibody test, test (negative/positive), alv (artificial lung ventilation), virus strain, etc. (babeliuk & didukh, 2020, р. 6). we can conclude that epidemiological discourse is not a professional discourse, but it is rapidly developing, producing new narratives and lexical innovations. it has flooded the mass media content and therefore influenced almost all spheres of public life. at the same time, both sociocultural and neuropragmatic research into the evolution of epidemiological discourse remains relevant. the reasons for this evolution can be examined inductively broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 347 by first examining the metamorphosis of professional medical sensitivity and its speech reflection. neuropragmatic specificity of the creation, meaning and functioning of epidemiological discourse and covid neologisms in the speech of doctors who are not involved in the treatment of covid patients, preventive and other activities, conotative meliorative lexemes are also present, but they emerged long ago, and the creation of neologisms is a non-productive process and is associated only with the emergence of denotative innovations. taking this into account, we applied fragments of a comparative analysis of epidemiological and dental discourses, whose creators are in different neuropragmatic conditions. the creation of secondary names of the lexico-semantic field "covid-19" is almost always accompanied by connotation or generalization of rare, passive vocabulary, which instantly becomes active in both medicinal and everyday use. this indicates, in our opinion, two regularities: 1. the lines between professional and naive everyday perceptions of epidemiological hazards and the associated information and communication "boom" are being erased. 2. new neurolingual connections are quickly formed in native speakers, stimulated by circumstances and meanings important for life, regularly reinforced by means of individual, social and mass communication. reinforced means fixed. doctors weaken their personal (subjective) professional defense mechanisms through a calm attitude to the facts of health disorders, patient deaths, etc. deeper relic mechanisms come to the fore. the doctorprofessional, as an ordinary unprepared person for daily extreme and stressful activities, begins to worry about himself, his relatives. doctorsepidemiologists are especially concerned, because they see the real scale of the pandemic, its dynamics and total threat. the affective attitude "i fear for myself/my family" generalizes to the attitude "i fear for everyone/society/world”.personal catastrophization, mass-communicative hyperbolization cause the opposite reaction pejorative (disparaging or crude connotations) of the neologisms, the appearance of neologisms-labels, the implantation of epidemiological semantics in the meaning of lexemes not directly related to the pandemic or medical case: covidiot, coronophobia, corona, anticovid persons, covid paranoia, etc. features of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in ... roksolana povoroznyuk et al. 348 we also observe the expansion of the syntactics (lexical connectivity) of covid neologisms, which indicates the growth of the volume of their potential meanings (extensional): covid bed, covid patient, covid ward, covid pneumonia, etc. if we compare such neologisms with other representatives of the lexical-semantic field "infectious diseases" or "epidemics," we see that they do not possess such semantic and connective properties. this is especially evident in discourse. let us compare the sentence used by a doctor with a breach of professional ethics during a telephone conversation: are you covid patient? how long have you been running a fever? even if we ignore deontological norms, it is still difficult to imagine the sentence "are you a tuberculosis patient?" in medical discourse. such situations suggest a psychological acceptance of the phenomenon of the covid-19 pandemic. as a consequence, a specific pragmatics of domestic and professional discourse emerges. the guideline justifying such violations is roughly: "covid-19 is everywhere, and there is no reason to hide anything or to pick up sensitive names". it is clear that epidemiological discourse about tuberculosis, aids, and even influenza infections is more formal and gentle with the client, it tries to smooth over the status of the patient and by no means use "label words". eastern european researchers often try to explain the special status of covid neologisms (the specificity of their emergence, the dynamics of transition to the common vocabulary, the presence of emotional coloring) only by extra-linguistic factors. for example, slavic scholars babeliuk and didukh (2020) see the "affective power" of covid neologisms in their "immanent influence, 'intermediality' and mass suggestibility. but individual scholars have made valuable generalizations about the specifics of epidemiological covid discourse: "it should be noted that, unlike other human pandemic nominations such as human immunodeficiency virus (hiv), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids), spanish flu (19) , sars (2002-2004), swine flu (2009) used in medical/epidemiological discourse, the term coronavirus, has suddenly emerged from epidemiological discourse.within a few months it has firmly established itself not only in media discourse, but also in everyday speech. such a leap in its use and change in the sphere of functioning can be explained by the globalization of the modern world and the much greater cohesion and contactivity of people around social networks than in the period of the swine flu in 2009. today, everything that happens is instantly known and just as instantly relayed through social networks (babelyuk & didukh, 2020, p. 8). we agree with broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 349 linguists about the importance of the extra-psychic aspect, but they do not take into account the sensitivity and reactivity of the percipients themselves ordinary citizens and professionals who have professional skills of emotional stability. let us try to achieve a relative completeness of the scientific picture of the studied subject by the following considerations. we have noticed: the most frequent neologisms in medical epidemiological and therapeutic discourse are created by morphemic, lexicosemantic, abbreviation or combined (most often by morphemicabbreviation) methods and are used in short dialogic discourse. such discourse is usually dynamic, tense, and involves extra-linguistic urgency decision-making, changing actions. here are examples of sentences out of context: 1. i have one patient on the sheveele (afl). 2.decide to treat protocol, the department is already running out of covid beds. 3. how many outpatient covids (covid patients) do you have? the pragmatics of the tense production situation requires maximum economy of linguistic resources, so neologisms-abbreviations or abbreviated slang analogues of terms complete the picture of truncated, non-propagated, and elided sentences: do a flushka (photoroentgenography) for now, but tomorrow pcr and to me. we believe that conciseness, elementality, and sometimes implicitness of messages (lack of information is compensated by understanding the situation, nonverbal additions) is a separate marker of the neuropsychological and social tension of being a doctor in an environment of near-terminal situations or risks. these phenomena are well delineated in comparative comparisons with other medication discourses completely unrelated to risk, negative affect, or regular emotional tension. for example, the pacing and measure of the explicitness, detail, and conotative register of epidemiological discourse, comparable to that of dental discourse, are diametrically opposed. the pragmatics of dental discourse is determined by quite different extra-linguistic stimuli (to reassure the client), which is reflected in many linguistic parameters. this includes the creation mechanisms and connotative semantics of common and newer professionalisms. here is an example of a doctor's monologue to a client in a private dental clinic: we took your plate off, so if you take the picture now, we'll start dissecting the teeth today. apparently, we will start sawing the seventh tooth. i don't think any depulpation will be necessary. just so you know, it's a nerve extraction (the doctor smiles as he touches the patient). as we can see, the sentences seem to be detailed, and the expressive center is not neologisms, but positively, sometimes played-up connoted jargonisms features of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in ... roksolana povoroznyuk et al. 350 (highlighted in bold italics), with which the author specifically replaces professionalisms and terms. the neurophysiological presupposition (in contrast to the discourse of covid-contact medical professions) is not defense (negative incentive), but pleasure in the expected future profit (positive incentive). another differential characteristic of dental discourse is the avoidance of neologisms, since they a) interfere with the ease of "doctorpatient" communication; b) are mostly used in "doctor-doctor" communication and concern technological innovation. the latter is a frequent phenomenon in the dental field, but in intraprofessional communication it almost does not exhibit ameliorative connotations. we observe mostly abbreviations of terms, nomenclatures and trademarks to save speech, sometimes with connotations of colloquiality: seveeshka fiberglass pin, kateshka computer tomogram, alvotros alveolar protrusion, aplock apex locator, etc. we can conclude that the derivation of words and sentences in medical discourse depends on psychological and even neurophysiological presuppositions, which (in the case of the epidemiologist-dentist contrast) are exactly the opposite. the psycholinguistic conative, affective laconic-dynamic nature of epidemiological discourse is determined by the objective increase in production tension in terminal or risky circumstances for the doctor and patient. the above analysis has confirmed the psychoand neurolinguistic mechanisms of the creation and use of neologisms in professional discourse. scholars argue that such a mechanism (not word formation, but a deep, neurolinguistic one) is the result of speech, reflexive or behavioral feedback to verbal or situational stimuli (ontko, 2005). such stimuli are instantly and usually unconsciously evaluated by the speaker on the degree of acceptability of the reaction (consequence): positive negative; safe dangerous, advantageous disadvantageous, etc. this generalization correlates with recent neurolinguistic data. thus, the spanish scientists hinojosa et al. (2019) studied the relation and mutual coordination of speech and emotions within the framework of affective neurolinguistics. they investigated deep mechanisms of emergence of a speech reaction to a situation and found out: if the situation, and hence the model of neurocognitive language processing, is expected, predictable (state in the understanding of professionals), then first the brain processes the denotative, factual plan of speech reflection. but, if the speaker is in a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 351 domestic unpredictable and disordered environment and is placed in a spontaneous situation of abrupt change of conditions, their uncertainty or riskiness, the first to "turn on" are affective reflex mechanisms (hinojosa et al., 2019, p. 813). in an epidemiological environment, complicated by information hyperbolization and professional burnout, the epidemiologist or infectious disease doctor lacks the mental and nervous resources to maintain a professional social role and its corresponding deontological norms of professional discourse.under such conditions, the doctor, like the average person, may unconsciously transition to lower affective registers, as any individual would in the event of danger or an accumulation of domestic discomfort or fatigue. this determines the nature of the derivation of words and sentences, as well as the emotional, evaluative, and expressive connotations of words, sentences, and discourse in general. for factual clarity, we present two tables with innovative representations of epidemiological and stomatological discourse and demonstrate their fundamental difference by comparison (tables 1 2). let us note that the linguistic data given in the tables, their analysis and systemic representation belong to the authors of the article. table 1 neuropragmatic characteristics of neologisms and slang of dental medical discourse dental neologisms and slang lexeme or idiomatic combination denotative meaning or literary correspondence connotation, affective association neuropragmatic characteristic 1.babochka removable microprosthesis positive, casual. conversationality. something pleasant. expectation of a positive result 2.bezmet metal-free ceramic crown neutrality. saving speech resources. 3.plomba a filling in the discourse of advanced dentists ironic, something out of the ordinary. neglecting the elementary, expecting the larger and more profitable. 4.hirlyanda inner metal strip on all-metal crowns positive, aesthetic, something beautiful optimization of the working atmosphere, expectation of improved mood features of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in ... roksolana povoroznyuk et al. 352 5.kofer rubber dam, a thin dental isolation dam exotic, something new and unusual. not expressed 6.mostik (mistochok) bridge prosthesis positive, casual conversational. something pleasant. optimization of atmosphere, expectation of commitment to the client 7.rezortsynka resorcin-formalin paste talkative, casual optimization of atmosphere 8.triyka (triyochka) tooth numbering familiarity, neutrality not expressed 9.panorama panoramic dental x-ray neutrality. something large-scale, significant cultivation of a festive atmosphere, decorations 10.shurup implant irony, something elementary. expectation of simplification of complicated procedure source: author’s own conception table 2. neuropragmatic characteristics of neologisms and slang of epidemiological discourse epidemiological neologisms and slang of the semantic group kovid-19 lexeme or idiomatic combination denotative meaning or literary correspondence connotation, affective association neuropragmatic characteristic 1.antyvaktsynator an opponent of vaccination, promoting his position neutral, who is bad. expectation of resistance, negativity, negative incentive 2.antyhen foreign protein, agent neutral, something small but dangerous denial of something fundamental 3.kovidnyy relates to covid-19 neutral. connotation with danger. maximum broad signifier, may be a sign of something 4.obovyazkova samoizolyatsiya preventive measure. negative connotation, forcing limitations. negative stimulus: restriction of freedom, means danger 5.perekarantynyty being neutrality, loss of inappropriate restriction broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 353 quarantined more than normal something important of freedom 6.sars sars-cov-2. a new strain of corona virus exoticism, suspiciousness affects as reaction to uncertainty, incomprehensible danger 7.sertyfikat document neutrality, coercive to the regime expectation of restrictions, regulations 8.sotsialʹna dystantsiya safe to stay in the community neutrality, tension, coercion to the regime expectation of restrictions, regulations 9.superposhyryuvach infected, capable of infecting large numbers of people negative connotation, something big and dangerous expectation of excessive destructive force. 10.chervona zona highest incidence area negative, something dangerous unconditional (archetypal) symbol of danger, expectation of danger source: author’s own conception the tables will summarize the main results of the semantic, associative, neuropragmatic and comparative analysis of neologisms and slang of the lexical-semantic group covid-19 of the semantic field "epidemiology" as well as individual innovative units of the semantic field "dentistry". one can clearly trace the opposite of pragmatic stimuli (expectations of a practical result), the presence of numerous potential destructive associations of covid neologisms and the practical absence of any associations in dental nominations. the opposite of connotations is observed: negative or neutral (epidemiology) positive, colloquial or neutral (absent) (dentistry). protective mechanisms of the psyche tend to represent elements of the concepts death, danger, captivity, totality, negation (covid neologisms) and comfort, calmness, protection, goodwill (stomatological neologisms) as associations. we can also see the distinction of neuropragmatic admonitions in the form of opposite expectations (stimuli): negative (uncertainty, struggle, possibility to fall ill) and (expectations of earnings, reliability in life) respectively. features of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in ... roksolana povoroznyuk et al. 354 conclusion we have noticed different degrees of control of affect and professional behavior, which can affect the doctor's discourse, its clarity (regimentality) or blurring (approaching a conversational style with lowregister emotions). each specialist professionally develops or blunts sensitivity to the objects and situations with which he or she works (depending on the specifics of the medical profession). professional sensitivity and reactivity are selective. for example, a resuscitator may relatively calmly tolerate the death of a patient, but quickly react to the crying of his or her child. the universal neurophysiological mechanisms that react to destructive situations (danger, survival, death) in medical professionals are usually under professional control. however, the unconscious evaluation of the situation is always present. because of the doctor's (as well as any other person's) usual needs for personal safety and a comfortable professional environment, he or she has a constant, usually unconscious, evaluation of the surrounding situation. evaluation produces attitudes, and attitudes produce emotions. emotions require expression, so most of the secondary connotative names refer to work (heavy light), to industrial comfort (available absent), to the surrounding staff (sympathy neutrality antipathy). therefore, industrial and nonindustrial communication between doctors is full of professionalisms, slang, diminutives, situational neologisms, and conversational types of sentence structure. in standard situations, these phenomena are neutral, casual, or positively colored. the affective reactions that arise when a doctor's work situation changes are weak and professionally restrained, but they immediately move the discourse into a business emotional-neutral register with only nomenclatural neologisms. the doctor-epidemiologist often finds himself in an emergency situation or is in a state of prolonged stress (stress, exhaustion, burnout), so the reflexive control of the linguistic component of medical etiquette is weakened. the discourse approaches the colloquial one, and idiostylistic situational neologisms (word usage) and lexemes with negative or colloquial connotations appear. and this can occur in "doctor-doctor" and "doctorpatient" communication. it is the latter tendency that we observe in doctors who regularly deal with covid-infected people. we believe that the excessive connotative labeling and implicit nature of epidemiological neoplasms, which approach all the features of creation and functioning to conversational and everyday ones, can be broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 355 compared to an affectively conditioned defect (or effect), a professional discursive disorder. this type of professional doctor's discourse disorder (together with other varieties) has been described and analyzed against the background of selected asian countries (juraev, 2021). such professional discursive disorders are characteristic of professionals living and working in marginalized or isolated regions, or of doctors representing a highly colorful authentic ethnicity that contrasts with european notions of the doctor's speech culture. this indicates a weakening of personal and group identity under the pressure of threatening circumstances in addition to these neuropragmatic patterns of stratification of medication discourses, we drew some important partial conclusions as we noticed: 1. excessive use of limited number of word-forming elements of the lexical-semantic group covid-19: covid-drug, covid-vaccine, covidhospitalization, covid-hospital, covid-test, covid-passport, "covidpassportization", etc. 2. total expansion of the extensional (concept volume) of the most used lexical units: covid (period, status, regime, department, patient, etc.) 3. the majority of covid neologisms in the denotative meaning contain core semes: disease, danger, mass: pandemic, uncertainty: covicide, omicron, delta, oxygen addiction, new strain, etc. 4. negative (rarely neutral or colloquial: covidka (covid), peerelka (pcr) connotation or possible association. 5. the direct or hidden (secondary) name of objects, phenomena, and circumstances that perform a neuropragmatic (reflexive, instinctive, and protective, often unconscious) role of negative stimuli. 6. generalization of linguistic units, previously available in the passive fund of medical vocabulary, but never heard of by ordinary citizens. now it has become both active professional and common colloquial vocabulary or phraseology: pcr test, marker symptoms, oxygen concentrators, saturation, antigen, booster dose. 7. alignment of intraprofessional medical and domestic and mass discourses through a borderline (terminal, vital) global extra-linguistic situation. it makes both doctors and ordinary citizens "equal" before infectious, neurotic (experience, burnout, stress, lingering affect) and socioeconomic dangers. 8. highlighting among covid neologisms a layer of vocabulary with a generalized meaning, which is used mainly by epidemiologists rather than other doctors struggling with the epidemic: lockdown, covidfeatures of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in ... roksolana povoroznyuk et al. 356 passportation, covid-disclosure, mandatory self-isolation, antivaccinators, vaccine second wave, superdistributor, covid-status of the region, etc. consequently, epidemiological discourse is not a professional discourse. it has become massive and rapidly evolving, and epidemiological "covid-neologisms" were formed in a short time and are rapidly forming even now. this testifies to the neuropragmatic (affective, instinctive (instinct of preservation, highly organized defense of the psyche) presupposition of their emergence). limitation of the study the study was conducted on an unrepresentative sample, and therefore only demonstrates the basic patterns of creation, semantics and neuropragmatic significance of secondary names of epidemiological discourse. in fact, the chosen topic is so voluminous and topical that it requires a large-scale lexicographic collection of covid formations and the organization of field and targeted sociological expeditions to collect samples of living epidemiological discourse. also, the authors did not have sufficient time, human resources and sufficient data for a full and exhaustive analysis of the relevant units. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the physicians of the vinnytsia territorial community (ukraine) for kindly providing us with the opportunity to collect relevant lexical and discursive material. the following people took part in the preparation of the article: author 1 (sociological data collection), author 2 (summarization of neurophysiological and social determinants of epidemiological discourse and word formation), author 3 (performed word formation and semantic analysis of individual units), author 4 (performed demonstrative analysis in contrast to dental neologisms). author 5 was engaged in formulating conclusions, summarizing the data in tables, and bringing the article to a perfect form. references akhutina, t. v., & glozman, j. m. (1995). the neurolinguistic study of semantics. aphasiology, 9(2), 143-152. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687039508248701 babeliuk, o. a., & didukh, l. i. (2020). sposoby tvorennia neolohizmiv na poznachennia yavyshch covid-19 v anhlomovnomu epidemiolohichnomu dyskursi [ways of covid-19 neologisms word-formation in english epidemiological https://doi.org/10.1080/02687039508248701 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 357 discourse]. lviv philological journal, 7, 5-12. https://journal.ldubgd.edu.ua/index.php/philology/article/view/1809 berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 hinojosa, j. a., moreno, e. m., & ferré, p. (2019). affective neurolinguistics: towards a framework for reconciling language and emotion. language, cognition and neuroscience, 35(7), 813-839 https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2019.1620957 juraev, a. k. (2021). discourse competence in the professional activities of doctors. central asian journal of medicine, 1. https://uzjournals.edu.uz/tma/vol2021/iss1/9 karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 kharchenko, s. v. (2020). novotvory periodu koronavirusnoi pandemii v mediinomu prostori ukrainy [innovations of the coronavirus pandemic period in the media space of ukraine]. international philological journal, 4, 104-110. https://dx.doi.org/10.31548/philolog2020.04.104 khoda, l. d. (2020). mova reklamy v chasy pandemii koronavirusu covid-19 (na materiali ukrainskykh ta slovatskykh tekstiv [the language of advertising during the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic (based on ukrainian and slovak texts)]. pivdennyy arkhyv (filolohichni nauky) [southern archive (philological sciences)], lxxxii, 130-135. https://zum.onu.edu.ua/article/view/235534/238299 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. https://journal.ldubgd.edu.ua/index.php/philology/article/view/1809 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2019.1620957 https://uzjournals.edu.uz/tma/vol2021/iss1/9 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://dx.doi.org/10.31548/philolog2020.04.104 https://zum.onu.edu.ua/article/view/235534/238299 features of epidemiology as discourse and formation of secondary naming in ... roksolana povoroznyuk et al. 358 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 ontko, e. k. (2005). neurolinguistic analysis of neologisms in reading. https://hi.booksc.org/dl/13304941/2c9b26 pitts, e., bhatnagar, s. c., buckingham, h. w., hacein‐bey, l., & bhatnagar, g. (2010). a unique modality‐specific domain for the production of neologisms: recurrent perseveration and oral reading. aphasiology, 24(3), 348-362. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687030802662133 prieto-ramos, f., pei, j., & cheng, l. (2020). institutional and news media denominations of covid-19 and its causative virus: between naming policies and naming politics. discourse and communication, 14(6), 635−652. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481320938467 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 saleh, a. s. (2021). covid-19 trending neologisms and word formation processes in english. russian journal of linguistics, 25(1), 24-42. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/covid-19-trending-neologisms-andword-formation-processes-in-english sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 schiller, n. o., & lieber, r. (2020). neurolinguistic approaches in morphology. oxford research encyclopedia, linguistics, 1-23. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.601 schiller, n. o., verdonschot, r. g., audring, j., & masini, f. (2019). morphological theory and neurolinguistics. in oxford handbooks series (pp. 554-572). https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3151578 semenza, c., & mondini, s. (2006). neuropsychology of compound words. in g libben & g. jarema (eds.), the representation and processing of compound words (pp. 71-95). oxford: oxfrod university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199228911.003.0004 stanca, i., & tarbujaru, t. (2022). crisis management: what covid-19 taught the world. logos universality mentality education novelty: economics & administrative sciences, 7(1), 01-18. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumeneas/7.1/32 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://hi.booksc.org/dl/13304941/2c9b26 https://doi.org/10.1080/02687030802662133 https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481320938467 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/covid-19-trending-neologisms-and-word-formation-processes-in-english https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/covid-19-trending-neologisms-and-word-formation-processes-in-english https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.601 https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3151578 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199228911.003.0004 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumeneas/7.1/32 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 359 tymoshchuk, n. (2021). neolohizmy na poznachennya yavyshch covid-19: morfolohichnyy aspekt. aktualʹni pytannya humanitarnykh nauk [a neologism for the designation of covid-19 phenomena: a morphological aspect]. current issues in the humanities, 35(5), 168-172. https://ir.vtei.edu.ua/card.php?lang=en&id=27146 vesna, t. v., & teletska, t. v. (2020). leksychni innovatsii periodu koronavirusnoi pandemii [lexical innovations of the coronavirus pandemic period]. notes in romance-germanic philology, 1(44), 82-89. https://doi.org/10.18524/23074604.2020.1(44).210998 wu, c., & zhang, j. (2020). emotion word type should be incorporated in affective neurolinguistics: a commentary on hinojosa, moreno and ferré (2019). language, cognition and neuroscience, 35(7), 840-843 https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2019.1696979 yu, h., lu, h., & hu, j. (2021). a corpus-based critical discourse analysis of news reports on the covid-19 pandemic in china and the uk. international journal of english linguistics, 11(2), 36-45. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v11n2p36 zavodna, l. (2019). neolohizmy, vynyknennia yakykh zumovleno suchasnymy modernizatsiinymy protsesamy u vitchyznianii osviti [neologisms, the emergence of which is caused by modern modernization processes in domestic education]. a new pedagogical idea, 4, 96–100. http://npd.roippo.org.ua/index.php/npd/issue/view/2/3 zeng, y., & xie, t. (2020). comparative study on news reports of covid-19 between china and the united states. journal of mudanjiang university, 29(09), 77-80. https://doi=10.15907/j.cnki.23-1450.2020.09.017 https://ir.vtei.edu.ua/card.php?lang=en&id=27146 https://doi.org/10.18524/2307-4604.2020.1(44).210998 https://doi.org/10.18524/2307-4604.2020.1(44).210998 https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2019.1696979 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v11n2p36 http://npd.roippo.org.ua/index.php/npd/issue/view/2/3 https://doi=10.15907/j.cnki.23-1450.2020.09.017 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 426-447 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/292 loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska¹, viktoriia synyshyna2, tetiana pashko3, ivanna parfanovych4, aleksandr kocharian5, nataliia barinova6 1 national aviation university, ukraine, lada_yakovickaya@ukr.net 2 uzhhorod national university, ukraine, vsinishina@ukr.net 3 luhansk taras shevchenko national university, ukraine, tatjana.pashko@gmail.co 4 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, parfanovichi@ukr.net 5 v.n. karazin kharkiv national university, ukraine, kocharian55@gmail.com 6 v.n. karazin kharkiv national university, ukraine, barinova.n2310@gmail.com abstract: nowadays, people can feel completely lonely, even being in different forms of relationships. the article uses the principles and categories of a systemic approach to view loneliness as the only system whose integrity is ensured by the fact that the experience of loneliness depends on the interaction of psychological components (emotional, behavioural, motivational-volitional). feeling constant pressure of negative feelings, related to loneliness, one can depart from reality by taking various narcotic substances, which is very common today. psychological methods were used to study psychological components of loneliness experience among people with chemical addiction. importantly, the article should solve the following applied tasks: to analyze structural elements of loneliness experience among people with chemical addiction; to describe the internal structure of loneliness experience among people with chemical addiction. a detailed analysis of the obtained data has proved the importance of emotional-axiological and behavioural components of loneliness experience among people with chemical addiction. their perception of such an experience is associated with a lack of close relationships and good communication skills, so they tend to be alone. furthermore, the obtained results suggest that the prevailing dissociated type of loneliness among people with chemical addiction is caused by one’s feeling of loneliness, alienation and, thus, anxiety. keywords: loneliness, people with chemical addiction, alienation, dissociated loneliness. how to cite: yakovytska, l., synyshyna, v., pashko, t., parfanovych, i., kocharian, a., & barinova, n. (2022). loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 426-447. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/292 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/292 mailto:lada_yakovickaya@ukr.net mailto:vsinishina@ukr.net mailto:tatjana.pashko@gmail.co mailto:parfanovichi@ukr.net mailto:kocharian55@gmail.com mailto:barinova.n2310@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/292 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 427 introduction because of our network-based society today, the feeling of loneliness may, at first sight, seem quite a paradoxical phenomenon. indeed, people can engage in a wide range of communication activities and relationships on the internet. however, communicating or transmitting information, one cannot meet one’s emotional needs. besides, dependence on social networking technologies can harm social connections. after conducting a relevant survey, peper & harvey (2018) claim that those respondents who used technical means most often complained of feeling loneliness, isolation, depression, and anxiety. the researchers believe that loneliness is, partially, a result of replacing face-to-face interaction with a networked form of communication where body language and other signals cannot be interpreted (peper & harvey, 2018). nowadays, people can feel completely lonely, even being in different forms of relationships (demchenko, 2021; kosholap, 2021; prots, 2021). feeling constant pressure of negative feelings, related to loneliness, one can depart from reality by taking various narcotic substances, which is very common today. consequently, loneliness can lead to different deviations, one of which is using chemicals that lead to adaptive dependent behaviour. indeed, most people with chemical addiction deal with a terrible and unbearable feeling of loneliness. it is known that behavioural dependence is one of the variants to escape oneself. after taking the chemical, one feels relief from fears, which is a way to fill the inner void. thus, drugs help addicts to protect themselves from reality. it must be noted that loneliness can determine the use of chemicals. at the same time, addicts, over time, tend to distance themselves from society, and, therefore, a vicious circle emerges: one “flees” from loneliness into drug addiction, and drug addiction deepens the feeling of loneliness. the above-mentioned facts coincide with the conclusions by brown (1993). the scholar states that the concept of dependence is related to external and internal conflicts. the consumption of psychoactive substances leads to conflict with other people or self-conflict. from a psychological and psychiatric point of view, behavioural addictions combine isolation, affective disorders, problems in social relationships, professional or interpersonal difficulties, asociality, as well as the absence of friends, family or personal responsibilities (brown, 1993; matheson et al., 2019). currently, the range of studies on the genesis of chemical addictions is quite wide. however, most of them deal with the influence of certain loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska, et al. 428 factors on the occurrence of addictions. these are mostly depressive states (audrain-mcgovern et al., 2012; benner & wang, 2015; clark et al., 2011; lim et al., 2016), stresses (ames & roitzsch, 2000), ageing effects (anderson & levy, 2003; dowling et al., 2008). those factors that cause structural changes in the personality and behaviour of addicts necessitate the use of a systematic approach to their study. in particular, they involve analyzing a set of factors, among which psychological factors are quite prominent. a systemic approach allows one to identify and justify methods of effective psychocorrective and psychoprophylactic work on behavioural, emotional, and cognitive sensations in addicts experiencing loneliness. this aspect is one of the most important applied tasks in psychological practice. as rightly noted by johnson et al. (2015), programmes on volunteering and spirituality, as well as other corrective and preventive psychological ones, bring positive results in terms of addictive behaviour correction. thus, one can assume that the additivity of loneliness is not a system of invariable attributes. instead, it is associated with flexible personal, situational, and social factors. therefore, once the causes of chemical addictions have been examined, they can be corrected. as one can see from relevant studies (brown, 1993; burholt & scharf, 2014; floyd & woo, 2020; soest et al., 2020), the ways to reduce loneliness are based mainly on the presence of social contacts. cohen-mansfield et al. (2018) managed to reduce loneliness levels in older people through the theory of intervention, taught the respondents to overcome barriers on the way to social contacts and increase their social selfefficacy. since loneliness is often the result of a mismatch in the interaction between the individual and the environment, helping lonely people in some cases may be a change of the situation, not the individual (johnson et al., 2015). rosen et al. (2018) worked on developing problem-solving skills in older people with methadone addiction who were struggling with depression. working with patients who suffered from depression incurred by frequent drug and alcohol use, delgadillo et al. (2015) observed a moderate improvement in depressive symptoms due to the means of behavioural activation and cognitive behavioural therapy based on self-help. thus, one can conclude that psychology today focuses on a study of psychological preconditions of chemical addiction and, primarily, loneliness as its psychological factor. in ukraine and abroad, the problem in question is studied together with characteristics of loneliness, its causes, manifestations, as well as the impact on people at different periods of their lives (aivazian, 2011; varava, brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 429 2009; korchagina, 2005; khamitov, 1995; nowland et al., 2018; peltzer & pengpid, 2019) however, there are many attempts to specify the experience of loneliness as the determinant of psychoactive substance use, which has so far been insufficiently studied. one should also pay particular attention to those studies that deal with multidimensional experiences of loneliness among people with chemical addiction due to emotional stress, depression, social inadequacy, low social status, thirst for growth, interpersonal isolation and self-rejection (brown, 1993; åkerlind & hörnquist, 1992; shedler & block, 1990; rokach & brock, 1997; rokach, 2012). therefore, this research especially relies on the study by åkerlind & hörnquist (1992). they claim that theoretical discussions based on clinical observations date back to the 1950s. however, systemic studies are not numerous and were mostly conducted over the past two decades. despite this fact, their analysis indicates that the experience of loneliness may be important at all stages of alcoholism: as a supportive factor in the growth of abuse and as a burden in attempts to break the addiction. alcoholics indeed feel lonelier than members of other social groups. psychoactive substance abuse is surely associated with several negative characteristics. instead, the feeling of loneliness is more related to the generally negative perception of oneself and relationships with other people, as well as to the general dissatisfaction with life (åkerlind & hörnquist, 1992). a detailed analysis of relevant scientific literature shows that loneliness should be understood as one’s subjective feeling of inability to satisfy the need for interaction, communication, and intimacy, accompanied by negative emotional manifestations. with regard to this research, loneliness is considered as a negative state. however, it should be borne in mind that loneliness can also be manifested in one’s positive subjective experience such as a desire to be alone. one might view a positive perception of loneliness as the beginning of personal growth and selfactualization. therefore, it is important to distinguish between being lonely and being alone. indeed, humans are social creatures and need social interaction. at the same time, they need the alone time for reflection and development of their identity, spiritual growth. such transformation from loneliness to solitude can occur only when the desire to be alone is not associated with the lack of interpersonal relationships. korchagina (2005) considers it necessary to distinguish such notions as “loneliness” and “isolation”. loneliness is more personal than isolation loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska, et al. 430 and characterized by an internal, psychological context, in addition to external manifestations. the researcher understands loneliness as a psychological state which reflects one’s feeling of individuality, subjective impossibility, or unwillingness to feel adequate response, acceptance, and recognition of oneself by other people (korchagina, 2005). thus, loneliness is identified by both external factors and internal psychological causes. khamitov (1995) divides loneliness into internal and external. internal loneliness is observed in people who consider themselves deeply lonely. they are not isolated from other people and yet feel lonely, subjectively experiencing this isolation from people. external loneliness is the absence of a very close person nearby, objective isolation from social interaction with other people (khamitov, 1995). nowland et al. (2018) assume that loneliness is a common psychological and social illness. thus, it is possible to be lonely when you are among people. furthermore, loneliness is associated with communication problems, as well as with individual traits. the article aims to study the main characteristics of loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction. the article uses the principles and categories of a systemic approach to view loneliness as the only system whose integrity is ensured by the fact that the experience of loneliness depends on the interaction of psychological components (emotional, behavioural, motivational-volitional). the following methods were used to describe psychological components of loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: the questionnaire called “loneliness” (modified by oleynik (2016)); “a diagnostic of subjective loneliness experience” (russell et al., 1978); “a differential questionnaire of loneliness experience” (osin & leontev, 2013); “a questionnaire for identifying loneliness types (korchagina, 2005). empirical research was conducted with patients of the addiction clinic “palmira” (pidhirtsi, kyiv oblast, ukraine), aged between 21 and 56 years old. the total number of respondents is 32 people (81 %  men; 19 %  women). mathematical data processing was performed using the spss 17.0 statistical package for windows. components of loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction the article should solve the following applied tasks: 1) to analyze structural elements of loneliness experienced by people with chemical brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 431 addiction; 2) to describe the internal structure of loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction. a diagnostic of subjective loneliness experience (russell et al., 1978) views loneliness as subjective perception of deviation of actual social relations from the desired ones. it allows one to analyze respondents’ perception of their loneliness and identify levels of social activity and social relationships, perceived as deficient (see fig. 1). fig. 1. a diagnostic of respondents’ subjective loneliness experience (by levels) the majority of respondents (78.1%) are at an average level of loneliness; 15.6% of them  at a high level; only 6.25% of them – at a low level. the obtained results prove that most respondents are within “the average norm”. however, pagava (2014) states that respondents with an average level of subjective loneliness experience may suffer from desolation, deprivation, and demonstrate the negative subjective perception of their position in society. it is important to note that only two respondents are at a low level. it may be caused by the fact that loneliness experience is broader and more relevant in today’s conditions. the number of respondents with average and high levels of loneliness is constantly increasing. a differential questionnaire of loneliness experience by osin & leontev (2013) was used to describe loneliness as a multidimensional phenomenon with both negative and positive sides (see table 1). loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska, et al. 432 table 1. results from studying cognitive component of loneliness experience (based on a differential questionnaire of loneliness experience by osin & leontev (2013)) indicators high scores average scores low scores isolation 12.6% 81.1% 6.3% self-awareness 15.6% 65.65% 18.75% alienation 29.2% 58.2% 12.6% general experience of loneliness 19% 68.4% 12.6% the obtained results confirm that most respondents demonstrate average scores under these indicators. in most cases, they do not show an extreme desire for isolation and perception of themselves as lonely people. besides, they are quite satisfied with their relationships with others (family, friends, acquaintances). this result can be interpreted as the rejection or fear of loneliness that makes respondents avoid loneliness and constantly seek social contacts (often, it is not a big circle of people with similar addiction) which slows down self-awareness under such oppressive conditions. at the same time, low scores seem to be quite rare. it means that respondents’ results may change due to certain circumstances, which, accordingly, may lead to high scores over time. a questionnaire for identifying loneliness types (korchagina, 2005) was used to identify a dominant type of loneliness experience (see fig. 2). fig. 2. the distribution of respondents by types of loneliness experience brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 433 the obtained results prove that most respondents (52.6%) deal with dissociated loneliness; 27.4% of them  with alienation-related loneliness; 20% of them – with diffused loneliness. dissociated loneliness is the most difficult state both by origin and manifestations. first, such people mostly identify themselves with others, accept their way of life and then abruptly alienate from those who seemed so close. they accept only prosocial manifestations of their personality (e.g., i am a good father, friend, specialist) and categorically deny others. such a combination of identification and alienation, as well as their sudden change in relation even to the same people (parents, sisters, brothers), makes loneliness perceived as more acute, conscious, and painful. thus, one can see that identification and alienation, as two opposite tendencies and mechanisms for establishing interpersonal relationships, dominate among people with chemical addiction. furthermore, loneliness levels may vary depending on the dominant type of loneliness (its mechanisms). the results of the questionnaire called “loneliness” (modified by oleynik (2016)) indicate that the greater number of respondents (56.3%) are mostly among people. for 93.75% of them, there are people with whom they feel comfortable and relaxed. all the respondents (100%) have close friends with whom they can share their thoughts and feelings. at the same time, 81.2% of respondents generally do not consider themselves lonely. this indicator correlates with the cognitive component of loneliness experience under a differential questionnaire of loneliness experience by osin & leontev (2013). according to it, most respondents show average scores of such experience. nevertheless, almost all the respondents (93.75%) sometimes feel lonely and want to be alone. the frequency of such manifestations is quite average (6.2 by relative evaluation on a 10-point scale). the obtained results prove that the experience of loneliness almost does not depend on the surrounding people. it is because the situation of loneliness and the desire for it are not associated with the lack of close relationships. similar primary data were obtained by zavorotnykh (2009), korchagina (2005), and neumoieva (2005). below are the general views of respondents on loneliness. most of them (84.4%) tend to believe that self-absorption is the reason why loneliness can become a continuous experience. meanwhile, 43.7% of respondents assume that elderly people are lonely; 21.9% of them insist that it is adolescents who mostly feel lonely. most respondents (50%) see the major reason for loneliness as the lack of mutual understanding and support loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska, et al. 434 by other people; 53.2% of them believe that it is because of self-absorption. it must be noted that 84.4% of respondents claim that people tend to lead a lonely life after failures in their personal lives. some respondents think that people suffer from loneliness when they feel useless in the family (43.7 %) or after a loss of a close person (40.6 %). such results give reason to believe that most respondents associate the experience of loneliness with interpersonal relationships (isolation as an unwillingness to create some relationships, lack of understanding, a sense of uselessness). a substantial part of respondents agrees with the fact that there are also some positive aspects of loneliness, such as time for oneself (46.8 %), freedom (33.2%), independence (18.4%). its negative aspects are seen in the lack of support (87.5 %), a critical psycho-emotional state (78.2%), depression (28.1%), and self-doubt (12.5%). thus, most respondents believe that experiencing loneliness one can find time for oneself, however, one might lack the support of others in such situations. it means that respondents’ perceptions are conflicting. on the one hand, there is a desire to be alone, and on the other hand, dependence on the attention of the surrounding people. it must be noted that 59.4% of respondents consider loneliness both as a severe trial and as a necessary element in the life of every person. therefore, respondents, to some extent, fear such experience and yet need it. they believe that their sociability (56.2%), self-confidence (43.7%) and a sense of humour (40.6%) enable them to overcome the acute feeling of loneliness. according to 71.8% of respondents, self-doubt (71.8%) and isolation (59.3%) prevent them from overcoming it. below are the most common reasons for loneliness: being single (34.3%); solitude (37.5%); being away from family and after a break-up (40.6 %); boredom (31.3%); feeling useless and unwanted (21.9 %); mutual incomprehension (25 %). as one can see, along with the realization of personal reasons for loneliness, most respondents emphasize its external causes which lie in the relationships with people close to them (mutual incomprehension, being single, a break-up, feeling useless and unwanted, a loss of a close person). thus, according to the first sub-system of loneliness experience (the cognitive component), most respondents adequately reflect on their feelings (an average level of loneliness; average results under the isolation, selfesteem, alienation indicators). nevertheless, identification and alienation, as two opposite tendencies and mechanisms for establishing interpersonal relationships, dominate. this combination, because of its duality, can brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 435 significantly affect other components of the structure of loneliness experience. respondents’ perceptions of such a experience, in most cases, are related to interpersonal relationships and the desire to be alone. the emotional component of loneliness experience was also studied with the help of the questionnaire called “loneliness”, modified by oleynik (2016). the emotions block of the questionnaire contains three questions, which show the following results. most respondents (53.1%) try to avoid loneliness, while 46.9% of them have no such desire. it is indeed ironic that 59.4% of respondents try to accept and understand why they experience loneliness, whereas 21.8% of them have never thought about it. it means that at some unconscious level, a higher percentage of people with chemical addiction do not accept their loneliness. only when loneliness has more powerful emotional effects, respondents start realizing and accepting this experience. sadness was the most common emotional reaction during the experience of loneliness (46.8 %). in general, respondents feel calm and moody (43.7%), peaceful (28.1%), longing for someone (28.1%), anxious (25%), irritated and offended (31.2%), depressed (65.6%), insecure and vulnerable (18.75%). this spectrum of feelings indicates, to a greater extent, the negative experiences of respondents. thus, their emotions and feelings accompanying the experience of loneliness are characterized by negative modality, which may not always be publicly acknowledged (during interpersonal communication, both formal and informal). the last question of the questionnaire allowed identifying which colour respondents associate with loneliness. it is worth mentioning that colourful associations are not just feelings associated with a certain object. these are complex images, as well as memories and mental states related to it. respondents needed to compare their experience of loneliness with some colour. the obtained results are indicative not only of the actual emotional state. they also make it possible to analyze respondents’ perceptions about such experiences, which are more unconscious in nature (see table 2). table 2. respondents’ colour associations with the experience of loneliness colour % grey 56.3 % white 6.3% black 9.4% purple 12.5% blue 6.3% loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska, et al. 436 brown 9.4% green red a detailed analysis of the obtained results shows that most respondents (56.3%) associate loneliness with the colour grey. being neutral (neither bright nor dark), this colour is not annoying and has no mental tendencies. the colour grey means the neutrality of both a subject and an object, inside and outside. such data prove the previous results that loneliness is related to neutral emotions and feelings, as well as “the feeling of the void”. the study of the emotional component demonstrates that loneliness can be “positive”, “negative” or “neutral” for people with chemical addiction. similar data were obtained by zavorotnykh (2009). even though it is difficult to find out the real attitude of respondents towards loneliness, one can see that most respondents have a neutral emotional attitude towards the experience of loneliness and yet feel negative about the emotions accompanying it. the behavioural component which manifests itself as one’s activity in various forms of interpersonal interaction indicates the following (see table 3). table 3. results from studying behavioural component of loneliness experience (based on a differential questionnaire of loneliness experience by osin & leontev (2013)) the obtained results prove that most respondents also show average scores under these indicators. average scores indicate that in most cases, they do not express extremely negative feelings associated with being alone and do not consider loneliness as an extremely negative phenomenon. indicators high scores average scores low scores dysphoria 28 56.3 15.7 loneliness as a problem 18.75 62.5 18.75 need for a company 31.25 53.1 15.65 joy of solitude 18.75 56.3 24.95 dependence on communication 34.4 46.9 18.7 positive loneliness 6.3 78.1 15.6 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 437 besides, they feel an adequate need for communication, may occasionally accept loneliness and solitude and do not tend to communicate with other people to avoid loneliness. instead, they can use solitude to know more about themselves. these data correlate with the choice of the colour grey. the distribution of respondents by levels confirms that there are slightly more respondents with a high level under such indicators as “dysphoria”, “need for a company”, “dependence on communication”, than with a low level. in general, however, respondents demonstrate average results. the behavioural component was also studied with the help of the questionnaire called “loneliness”, modified by oleynik (2016). the obtained results are as follows: 15.7% of respondents want to be alone several times a week; 9.4% of them do not want it at all; 71.8% of respondents can feel such a need at least once a day; only one respondent constantly wants to be alone. thus, the greatest number of respondents quite often feels the need for solitude. when experiencing loneliness, most respondents (81.2%) wish to distance themselves from other people to be alone; 12.6% of them always want to be with friends and 6.2% of respondents avoid thinking that they feel lonely. one can conclude that most respondents try to use loneliness for their reflection since they do not tend to engage in interpersonal interaction during spare time. also, in such situations, most people with chemical addiction do the following: 12.5% of respondents stay alone and take possible positives from it; 15.6% of them try to isolate themselves from people, even though it brings mostly negative feelings; 62.5% of them feel indifferent to themselves and others; only 9.4 % of respondents wait until these feelings disappear on their own. a detailed analysis of the answers to the questions indicates that respondents’ desires and actions during the experience of loneliness mostly coincide (the need to be alone). below are the features of a lonely person’s behaviour: solitude, isolation, and alienation. solitude as a mechanism of loneliness experience dominates this research. the following are the factors that help respondents to overcome the experience of loneliness: close people (46.9%); self-strength (37.5%); distractions (15.6%). these results are somewhat ironic, as well as the mechanisms for establishing interpersonal relationships. on the one hand, most respondents try to be alone; on the other hand, they strive for interaction with other people to avoid loneliness. the reasons behind it are related to the intensity of loneliness experience and the surroundings during this period. loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska, et al. 438 according to the behavioural component, the dominant mechanism of loneliness experience is solitude, given that respondents mostly show a desire to be alone and do not feel negative about it. a study of how the components of loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction operate contains the following results: respondents’ perception of loneliness experience is mostly related to interpersonal relationships and the desire to be alone; identification and alienation, as two mechanisms of such an experience, dominate simultaneously and thus reveal opposite tendencies leading to certain complications; respondents demonstrate a neutral emotional attitude towards loneliness but feel negative about it; solitude acts as the dominant mechanism of loneliness experience under the behavioural component. the obtained results were further processed by the methods of factor analysis. computer data processing was conducted using spss 17.0 software package. factor analysis aimed to create a model that allows one to identify the minimum number of factors reflecting the most essential characteristics of the phenomenon under study. such a procedure makes it possible to find out whether the selected methods are suitable for identifying the hidden latent structure, namely, the key components of loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction. it was also vital to describe the structure of links between cognitive, emotional, and behavioural components within such an experience. each method of factor analysis lies in transforming the original structure of the coefficients matrix of variable correlations involved in the research. this leads to shortening the matrix of factors that contains a load of each variable for each factor. the shortened matrix is one of the possible actualizations of the latent structure of loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction. factor analysis results after the varimax normalized procedure show that the experience of loneliness depends on structural characteristics of its components, namely, behavioural, and emotional-axiological (the analysis of the indicators included in this factor made it possible to somewhat change the original name of the component). the behavioural factor (see table 4) includes such indicators as dependence on communication (-0.548), loneliness as a problem (-0.519), brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 439 need for a company (-0.490), the joy of solitude (0.434), resources of solitude (0.429). this factor clarifies the characteristics of the subject’s activity in various forms of interpersonal interaction. given the essence of factor loads, this factor was identified as “a behavioural component of loneliness experience”. the indicators, which are part of the behavioural factor, reflect respondents’ actions when they experience loneliness. in such situations, they do not depend on communication and other people and thus are motivated to seek the alone time. if they are dependent on communication, it can lead to their isolation, even to the loss of individuality (due to a negative social attitude) and additive behavioural forms. if they demonstrate excessive dependence on others, they will not be able to separate from others and find positive aspects of being alone. table 4. the behavioural component of loneliness experience indicators behavioural factor loneliness as a problem -0.519 need for a company -0.490 joy of solitude 0.434 resources of solitude 0.429 dependence on communication -0.548 % of total dispersion 1.326 osin & leontev (2013) also believe that the awareness of one’s own loneliness can cause one to feel uncomfortable and ashamed because such a state is often stigmatized by society (р. 58). lonely people are perceived as weak, which increases the fear of loneliness. in turn, it can lead to displacing the experience of loneliness or, conversely, to the constant search for a company and establishing numerous superficial contacts. in any case, the fear of loneliness becomes a serious interruption on the way to personal development. table 5. the emotional-axiological component of loneliness experience indicators the emotional-axiological factor self-awareness 0.447 dysphoria of loneliness -0.531 close people with whom one can share one’s experiences 0.589 loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska, et al. 440 a desire to be alone 0.401 an image of oneself as a lonely person 0.594 % of total dispersion 1.996 table 5 shows the factor loads for the main parameters that formed the emotional-axiological factor. this factor deals with the following indicators: an image of oneself as a lonely person (0.594); close people with whom one can share one’s experiences (0.589); dysphoria of loneliness (0.531); self-awareness (0.447); a desire to be alone (0.401). given the significant factor loads of the scales that formed this factor, this research identifies it as “the emotional-axiological component of loneliness experience”. this component enables the resource-related function of such an experience. respondents’ imagining themselves as lonely people (the selfawareness indicator) correlates with high rates regarding an image of oneself as a lonely person and a need for close people with whom one can share one’s experiences. consequently, respondents feel the lack of interpersonal relationships and cannot find other people with whom they can get contact, which only intensifies their experience of loneliness. in this case, respondents deal with the cognitive dissonance between the desire to be alone and the lack of emotional closeness with other people. some complications are possible when people with chemical addiction lose significant connections with others and launch the alienation mechanism in their own experiences. such perception of others sharpens the desire to be alone and discourages one from searching for people with whom one can share thoughts and experiences. the identified factors highlight the emotional-axiological and behavioural components of loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction. their importance lies in the fact that the perception of loneliness experience is associated with the lack of close relationships and good communication skills, which only increases the desire to be alone. these reflexive conclusions indeed affect the behavioural component since it determines the way how this experience operates. the obtained results confirm that an image of oneself as a lonely person, alienation and hence anxiety ultimately determine the dominance of dissociated loneliness among people with chemical addiction. this type of loneliness decreases the volitional and motivational orientation of respondents. even though they positively evaluate their own experience of brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 441 loneliness and want to be alone, they do not tend to use this time to solve current problems and develop. statistical analysis verifies the previous hypothesis that people with chemical addiction view loneliness as a personal value that significantly depends on the functioning of social and behavioural components. emotions and feelings accompanying the experience of loneliness similar results can be found in the research by yakhnich & michael (2016). they studied the trajectories of drug abuse among immigrants from the former soviet union and concluded that all the trajectories converged in the experience of loneliness. at the same time, they believe that it is possible to rectify the situation by restoring a sense of identity (yakhnich & michael, 2016). as shown by this research, most respondents associate the experience of loneliness with the nature of interpersonal relationships. furthermore, this research studies loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction under the psychological components of loneliness determined with the help of the questionnaire. wang & dong (2018) also claim that it is possible to influence one’s perception of loneliness. they identified neuroticism and awareness of such perception of loneliness as independent variables regarding it. a detailed analysis of the obtained data shows that both characteristics are largely associated with loneliness. the increase of neuroticism was related to the probability of feeling loneliness and the increase of awareness per unit with a reduced risk of loneliness. it means that people with average and high levels of neuroticism feel lonely more often. as noted by wang & dong (2018), respondents with high reflexivity had a lower risk of loneliness compared to those with low levels. the links between neuroticism and loneliness have also been proven by uziel et al. (2019). generally, perceptions of loneliness among people with chemical addiction are associated with the desire to be alone. respondents’ emotions and feelings accompanying the experience of loneliness are characterized by negative modality. rokach & brock (1997) state that the loneliness of people who consumed ecstasy manifested itself in emotional pain, confusion, sadness, helplessness, hopelessness and emptiness, which are an integral part of loneliness experience. the researchers conducted an analysis that included five factors. the most robust factor to emerge was emotional distress (which accounted for 19 % of the variance). this included items that captured the intense pain, inner turmoil, hopelessness, and feelings of emptiness loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska, et al. 442 associated with loneliness. the second factor, social inadequacy and alienation (7 % of the variance) addressed the perception and concomitant self-generated social detachment which were reported as part of the loneliness experience. the third factor, growth and discovery (4% of the variance) captured the positive, growth-enhancing, and enriching aspects of loneliness and the increased feelings of inner strength and self-reliance which follow. interpersonal isolation (3% of the variance) was the fourth factor. it depicted feelings of alienation, abandonment, and rejection, which were reported as related to a general lack of close relationships and/or absence of a primary romantic relationship. the fifth factor, self-alienation (3% of the variance) described a detachment from one’s self that is characterized by numbness, immobilization, and denial. in all, these factors accounted for 36% of the variance (rokach & brock, 1997). in this research, most respondents identify the external cause of loneliness, which is the relationship with others. rokach (2012) studies the manifestations of loneliness in active people in different life situations. the researcher pays particular attention to cross-cultural studies of loneliness. her study also proves that loneliness is an unpleasant and painful multidimensional experience, which is universal among all people and a unique subjective experience influenced by both one’s assumptions and situational variables (rokach, 2012). these results relate to those described in this research. having analyzed different approaches to studying loneliness, the authors of the article agree with those researchers who claim that loneliness components are multivariate as much as the numerous and variable range of its psychological and social determinants. conclusions the article identifies the internal structure of loneliness experience, as well as the links between loneliness indicators (low, average, high) and indicators of cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and motivational-volitional components of the structure of loneliness experience. thus, there are slightly more respondents with a high level of loneliness experience under such scales as “dysphoria of loneliness”, “need for a company”, “dependence on communication”. the dominant mechanism of loneliness experience is solitude as the most easily realized personal choice for people with chemical addiction characterized by the negative background of social interaction. the dominance of dissociated loneliness among people with brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 443 chemical addiction is quite predictable since such a position protects them from excessive experiences. the identified characteristics of loneliness experience among people with chemical addiction should be further checked based on a broader sample to see how the overall level of loneliness is related to the propensity to chemical addiction. given that loneliness is often caused by a mismatch in the interaction between the individual and the environment, helping lonely people may change the situation, rather than the individual. the variety of factors that lead to loneliness and, ultimately, to addiction corresponds to the variety of strategies for preventive and corrective interventions. the ways of reducing loneliness are mainly based on the presence of social contacts. this research has proved that the correction of loneliness and, accordingly, prevention of addiction can occur through special training aimed at complicating the system of motives and expanding their range. references aivazian, l. yu. (2011). vzaiemozviazok subiektyvnoho vidchuttia samotnosti i rozvytku osobystosti [the links between a subjective feeling of loneliness and personality development]. problemy suchasnoi psykholohii [problems of psychology today], 13, 12–21. http://pip.medexpert.com.ua/index.php/2227-6246/article/view/160933 akerlind, i., & hörnquist, j. o. (1992). loneliness and alcohol abuse: a review of evidences of an interplay. social science & medicine, 34(4), 405–414. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(92)90300-f ames, s. c., & roitzsch, j.c. (2000). the impact of minor stressful life events and social support on cravings: a study of inpatients receiving treatment for substance dependence. addictive behaviors, 24(4), 539–547. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0306-4603(00)00069-1 anderson, t. l., & levy, j. a. (2003). marginality among older injectors in today’s illicit drug culture: assessing the impact of ageing. addiction, 98(6), 761–770. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1360-0443.2003.00388.x audrain-mcgovern, j., rodriguez, d., rodgers, k., cuevas, j., sass, j., & riley, t. (2012). reward expectations lead to smoking uptake among depressed adolescents. drug and alcohol dependence, 120(1-3), 181–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2011.07.020 benner, a. d., & wang, y.j. (2015). adolescent substance use: the role of demographic marginalization and socioemotional distress. developmental psychology, 51(8), 1086–1097. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000026 http://pip.med-expert.com.ua/index.php/2227-6246/article/view/160933 http://pip.med-expert.com.ua/index.php/2227-6246/article/view/160933 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/027795369290300f#! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02779536 https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(92)90300-f https://doi.org/10.1016/s0306-4603(00)00069-1 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1360-0443.2003.00388.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2011.07.020 https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000026 loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska, et al. 444 brown, r. i. (1993). some contributions of the study of gambling to the study of other addictions. in w. r. eadington, & j. a. cornelius (eds.), gambling behavior and problem gambling (pp. 241272). the university of nevada. https://www.scirp.org/(s(351jmbntvnsjt1aadkposzje))/reference/referenc espapers.aspx?referenceid=1752194 burholt, v., & scharf, t. (2014). poor health and loneliness in later life: the role of depressive symptoms, social resources, and rural environments. journals of gerontology series b-psychological sciences and social sciences, 69(2), 311–324. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbt121 clark, h. k., ringwalt, c.l., & shamblen, s.r. (2011). predicting adolescent substance use: the effects of depressed mood and positive expectancies. addictive behaviors, 36(5), 488–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2011.01.018 cohen-mansfield, j., hazan, h., lerman, y., shalom, v., birkenfeld, s., & cohen, r. (2018). efficacy of the i-social intervention for loneliness in old age: lessons from a randomized controlled trial. journal of psychiatric research, 99, 69–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.01.014 delgadillo, j., gore, s., ali, s., ekers, d., gilbody, s., gilchrist, g., mcmillan, d., & hughes, e. (2015). feasibility randomized controlled trial of cognitive and behavioral interventions for depression symptoms in patients accessing drug and alcohol treatment. journal of substance abuse treatment, 55, 6–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2015.02.008 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dowling, g. j., weiss, s. r. b. & condon, t. p. (2008). drugs of abuse and the aging brain. neuropsychopharmacology, 33(2), 209–218. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1301412 floyd, k., & woo, n. t. (2020). loneliness and social monitoring: a conceptual replication of knowles et al. personal relationships, 27(1), 209–223. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12304 johnson, b. r., pagano, m. e., lee, m. t., & stephen, g. (2015). alone on the inside: the impact of social isolation and helping others on aod use and criminal activity. youth & society, 50(4), 529–550. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x15617400 khamitov, n. v. (1995). filosofiya odinochestva. opyt vzhyvaniya v problem. odinochestvo zhenskoye i muzhskoye [the philosophy of loneliness. the experience of getting used to the problem. female and male loneliness]. naukova dumka. https://www.studmed.ru/hamitov-n-filosofiya-odinochestva-opythttps://www.scirp.org/(s(351jmbntvnsjt1aadkposzje))/reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=1752194 https://www.scirp.org/(s(351jmbntvnsjt1aadkposzje))/reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=1752194 https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbt121 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2011.01.018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.01.014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2015.02.008 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1301412 https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12304 https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x15617400 https://www.studmed.ru/hamitov-n-filosofiya-odinochestva-opyt-vzhivaniya-v-problemu-odinochestvo-zhenskoe-i-muzhskoe_2c2ff0aad22.html brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 445 vzhivaniya-v-problemu-odinochestvo-zhenskoe-imuzhskoe_2c2ff0aad22.html korchagina, s. g. (2005). genezis, vidy i proyavleniya odinochestva [origins, types, and manifestations of loneliness]. mpsi. https://www.twirpx.com/file/709684/ kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lim, m. h., rodebaugh, t. l., zyphur, m. j., & gleeson, j. f. m. (2016). loneliness over time: the crucial role of social anxiety. journal of abnormal psychology, 125(2), 620–630. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000162 matheson, c., hamilton, e., wallace, j., & liddell, d. (2019). exploring the health and social care needs of older people with a drug problem. drug-education prevention and policy, 26(6), 493–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2018.1490390 neumoieva, ye. v. (2005). odinochestvo kak psikhicheskiy fenomen i resurs razvitiya lichnosti v yunosheskom vozraste [loneliness as a mental phenomenon and a resource for personality development in adolescence]. tumen state university. https://www.dissercat.com/content/odinochestvo-kakpsikhicheskii-fenomen-i-resurs-razvitiya-lichnosti-v-yunosheskom-vozraste nowland, r., necka, e. a., & cacioppo, j. t. (2018). loneliness and social internet use: pathways to reconnection in a digital world? perspectives on psychological science, 13(1), 70–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617713052 oleynik, n. о. (2016). perezhyvannia samotnosti yak chynnyk samoaktualizatsii osobystosti [the experience of loneliness as a factor of self-actualization] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. kherson state university. https://ecatalog.nlb.by/record/by-nlb-br0001331671 osin, ye. n., & leontev, d. a. (2013). differrentsialnyy oprosnik perezhivaniya odinochestva: struktura i svoystva [a differential questionnaire of loneliness experience: the structure and characteristics]. psikhologiya. zhurnal vysshey shkoly ekonomiki [psychology. journal of the university of economics], 10(1), 55–81. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/differentsialnyy-oprosnik-perezhivaniyaodinochestva-struktura-i-svoystva pagava, о. v. (2014). sotsialno-psykholohichni osoblyvosti podolannia cholovichoi samotnosti [socio-psychological features of overcoming male loneliness] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. volodymyr dahl east ukrainian national university. https://www.studmed.ru/hamitov-n-filosofiya-odinochestva-opyt-vzhivaniya-v-problemu-odinochestvo-zhenskoe-i-muzhskoe_2c2ff0aad22.html https://www.studmed.ru/hamitov-n-filosofiya-odinochestva-opyt-vzhivaniya-v-problemu-odinochestvo-zhenskoe-i-muzhskoe_2c2ff0aad22.html https://www.twirpx.com/file/709684/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000162 https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2018.1490390 https://www.dissercat.com/content/odinochestvo-kak-psikhicheskii-fenomen-i-resurs-razvitiya-lichnosti-v-yunosheskom-vozraste https://www.dissercat.com/content/odinochestvo-kak-psikhicheskii-fenomen-i-resurs-razvitiya-lichnosti-v-yunosheskom-vozraste https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617713052 https://e-catalog.nlb.by/record/by-nlb-br0001331671 https://e-catalog.nlb.by/record/by-nlb-br0001331671 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/differentsialnyy-oprosnik-perezhivaniya-odinochestva-struktura-i-svoystva https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/differentsialnyy-oprosnik-perezhivaniya-odinochestva-struktura-i-svoystva loneliness experienced by people with chemical addiction: its characteristics lada yakovytska, et al. 446 http://www.disslib.org/sotsialno-psykholohichni-osoblyvosti-podolannjacholovichoyi-samotnosti.html peltzer, k., & pengpid, s. (2019). loneliness correlates and associations with health variables in the general population in indonesia. international journal of mental health system, 13, article 24. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-0190281-z peper, e., & harvey, r. (2018). digital addiction: increased loneliness, anxiety, and depression. neuroregulation, 5(1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.15540/nr.5.1.3 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rokach, a. (2012). loneliness and drug use in young adults. international journal of adolescence and youth, 10, 237–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2002.9747903 rokach, a., & brock, h. (1997). loneliness: a multidimensional experience. psychology: a journal of human behaviour, 34(1), 1–9. https://www.scirp.org/(s(vtj3fa45qm1ean45vvffcz55))/reference/referen cespapers.aspx?referenceid=1139051 rosen, d., engel, r., mccall, j., & greenhouse, j. (2018). using problem-solving therapy to reduce depressive symptom severity among older adult methadone clients: a randomized clinical trial. research on social work practice, 28(7), 802–809. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731516686692 russell, d., peplau, l., & ferguson, m. (1978). developing a measure of loneliness. journal of personality assessment, 42(3), 290294. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4203_11 shedler, j., & block, j. (1990). adolescent drug use and psychological health: a longitudinal inquiry. american psychologist, 45(5), 612–630. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.45.5.612 soest, t. von, luhmann, m., hansen, t., & gerstorf, d. (2020). development of loneliness in midlife and old age: its nature and correlates. journal of personality and social psychology, 118(2), 388–406. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000219 uziel, l., seemann, m., & schmidt-barad, t. (2020). from being alone to being the only one: neuroticism is associated with an egocentric shift in an alone content. journal of personality, 88(2), 339–355. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12494 varava, l. а. (2009). osoblyvosti perezhyvannia osobystistiu pochuttia samotnosti u stani sotsialnoi depryvatsii [the characteristics of one’s loneliness experience in a state of social deprivation]. h. s. kostiuk institute of psychology of the http://www.disslib.org/sotsialno-psykholohichni-osoblyvosti-podolannja-cholovichoyi-samotnosti.html http://www.disslib.org/sotsialno-psykholohichni-osoblyvosti-podolannja-cholovichoyi-samotnosti.html https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-019-0281-z https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-019-0281-z https://doi.org/10.15540/nr.5.1.3 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2002.9747903 https://www.scirp.org/(s(vtj3fa45qm1ean45vvffcz55))/reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=1139051 https://www.scirp.org/(s(vtj3fa45qm1ean45vvffcz55))/reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=1139051 https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731516686692 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4203_11 https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.45.5.612 https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000219 https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12494 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 447 naes of ukraine. https://www.studmed.ru/varava-la-osoblivostperezhivannya-osobiststyu-pochuttya-samotnost-u-stan-socalnoyideprivacyi_c7c286b7918.html wang, b., & dong, x. q. (2018). the association between personality and loneliness: findings from a community-dwelling chinese aging population. gerontology and geriatric medicine, 4, 19. https://doi.org/10.1177/2333721418778181 yakhnich, l., & michael, k. (2016). trajectories of drug abuse and addiction development among fsu immigrant drug asers in israel. journal of crosscultural psychology, 47(8), 1130–1153. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022116660764 zavorotnykh, ye. n. (2009). sotsialno-psikhologicheskiye osobennosti odinochestva kak subyektivnogo perezhivaniya [socio-psychological characteristics of loneliness as subjective experience]. saint petersburg state university. https://www.dissercat.com/content/sotsialno-psikhologicheskieosobennosti-odinochestva-kak-subektivnogo-perezhivaniya https://www.studmed.ru/varava-la-osoblivost-perezhivannya-osobiststyu-pochuttya-samotnost-u-stan-socalnoyi-deprivacyi_c7c286b7918.html https://www.studmed.ru/varava-la-osoblivost-perezhivannya-osobiststyu-pochuttya-samotnost-u-stan-socalnoyi-deprivacyi_c7c286b7918.html https://www.studmed.ru/varava-la-osoblivost-perezhivannya-osobiststyu-pochuttya-samotnost-u-stan-socalnoyi-deprivacyi_c7c286b7918.html https://doi.org/10.1177/2333721418778181 https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022116660764 https://www.dissercat.com/content/sotsialno-psikhologicheskie-osobennosti-odinochestva-kak-subektivnogo-perezhivaniya https://www.dissercat.com/content/sotsialno-psikhologicheskie-osobennosti-odinochestva-kak-subektivnogo-perezhivaniya ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 104-121 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/378 submitted: september 10th, 2021 | accepted for publication: december 16th, 2021 neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play svitlana lenska 1 , nataliia naumovska 2 , nataliia rudakova 3 , olesia naumovska 4 , tamara marchiidmytrash 5 , andrii sova 6 1 doctor of phylological sciences, associate professor, professor at the department of ukrainian literature, poltava v.g. korolenko national pedagogical university, poltava, ukraine, svlenska@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9061-2777 2 teaching assistant at the department of the far east and southeast asia languages and literature, educational and scientific institute of philology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, kyiv, ukraine, mipholle777@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5281-0345 3 candidate of philological sciences, associate professor at the department of folklore studies, educational and scientific institute of philology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, kyiv, ukraine, r_natalia@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3045-2337 4 doctor of philological sciences, associate professor, head of the department of folklore studies, educational and scientific institute of philology, taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, kyiv, ukraine, lesyanaumovska@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9290-7843 5 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor at the department of theory and methods of preschool and abstract: a new article by ukrainian experts in ethno-pedagogy for the first time in science maximally summarizes the neuro-pedagogical, psychological and social potential of human development through the reproduction of folk games. the aim of the article is not only to consider the thematic diversity, but also to demonstrate how ukrainian folk children's games and ancient adult games have a natural influence on the formation of worldview, socialization and maturity with the involvement of physical, neurophysiological and psycho-pedagogical mechanisms. using general scientific, historical and neuroscientific methods, we proved the imitative, compensatory, sublimational, imitative, ritual and entertaining nature of folk games. within the limits and possibilities available to the authors, neuroscientific commentary is presented to substantiate the underlying functions and mechanisms of folk games. the main result of the article is the creation of the fullest possible classification of the developing educational potential of folk games at two levels of generalization (general pedagogical aspects and specific functions). the authors were also able to review related literature on the topic, identify valuable observations and gnostic lacunas in need of scientific explication and ekplanatornost. keywords: folk game; archetypal mechanism; simulation activity; neuropedagogical resource; genre diversity; adult games. how to cite: lenska, s., naumovska, n., rudakova, n., naumovska, o., marchii-dmytrash, t., & sova, a. (2022). neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 104-121. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/378 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/378 mailto:svlenska@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9061-2777 mailto:mipholle777@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5281-0345 mailto:r_natalia@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3045-2337 mailto:lesyanaumovska@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9290-7843 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/378 special education, vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivanofrankivsk, ukraine, tamara.dmytrash@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8438-9735 6 doctor of science in history, associate professor, senior researcher associate professor at the department of olympic education, i. boberskyi lviv state university of physical culture, senior researcher at the department of contemporary history, i. krypiakevych institute of ukrainian studies, lviv, ukraine, sovaandrij1980@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0548-4975 mailto:tamara.dmytrash@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8438-9735 mailto:sovaandrij1980@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0548-4975 neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play svitlana lenska 106 introduction there are no unimportant topics, methods, and means of educating children (pedagogy proper), youth, and adults (andragogy) for today's pedagogy. after the postmodern experience of the humanities, all historical, traditional and innovative fields must undergo a final re-invertarization, reassessment and revision in terms of a multimodal approach. such an approach was finally established in the so-called "socionistic sciences," to which we can refer educationology in the broad sense. for us, ukrainian scientists, it is very important to find previously unexplored potentialities of ethnic, folklore, historical and cultural heritage for the formation of a new free and democratic generation against the background of military and political peripeteia. we do not doubt that it is also important for other nations, especially for those who were subject to colonial oppression and have not yet fully disclosed the educational, value and cultural-psychological resource of their own heritage. therefore, in this article, we will look up and reflect upon a neglected problem the educational potential of folk games. the relevance of the article. clearly, the relevance of this topic is not exhausted by the above-mentioned general philosophical considerations. in reviewing the relevant literature, we found some problems and contradictions that prompted us to write the article. the first problem concerns excessive attention of scientists to children's games and their classification. as correctly noted by folklorist k. lázár in his work "typology of folk games" (1999), it is possible to classify them according to subjects, participants, time of playing, and all elements of the game itself, lázár (1999, p. 25). however, the researcher himself admits that no classification can be either complete or complete. when we studied the relevant literature, we noticed that behind the participants games are classified most often into child, adolescent, boy and girl games. and almost nowhere are games for adults or games without ages analyzed. in addition, we have not found any complete classification of folk games by educational potential or other educational aspects. in our study we will try to fill this lacuna as much as possible, and we will consider games as a universal phenomenon. another problem is that in the study of folk games scientists mostly pay attention to the cultural and ethno-pedagogical aspects, and the underlying determinants of psychological mechanisms remain without attention. thus, a. reid notes that folk physical (motor, game) practices broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 107 correspond to either common sense or the folk-psychological concept of a moment in life. the author suggests that in the future the latter correspondence will be reconsidered and interpreted on a conceptual neuroscientific basis, reid (1999, p. 101). the author makes hypothetical connections between folk rituals and the neuropsychological mechanisms of their efficacy and identifies four perspectives: "conceptual dualism, eliminative materialism, reductivism and non-reductive physicalism", reid (1999, p. 101). it is clear that all aspects can be valid, but it is clear that there is unequivocally a conventionality, an internal normativity, and most importantly, a naturalness, a need, and an instinctive origin in folk movements and physical exercises. we have tentatively evaluated these considerations and contradictions and formulated our purpose for our article: presupposition of research we consider the thesis that deep psychological and pedagogical mechanisms governing the game, are similar to those that govern the transformative activity in life practice. thus, play is imitation, reproduction or rehearsal of life processes and phenomena, and participants do not draw a clear boundary between play and life. this is supported by the opinion of neuroscientists k. barker and c. rice (2019): "taken together as a genre of folklore, folk illusions show that people from a young age have an awareness of the illusory tendencies of perceptual processes, and also an awareness that the differences between illusion and reality are always formed together". data saturation to begin with, we studied theoretical works and collections of folklore materials. we also studied literature describing ethno-game education of youth and even its elements and role in the adult life of ukrainians. in addition, we conducted a survey of 57 ukrainian primary and secondary school teachers in the kyiv region. the sample is not representative because it was conducted only in 4 institutions of secondary education, but it shows the basic tendency of understanding traditional educational gamification. the survey itself was conducted using an openended questionnaire, the purpose of which was to identify the educational aspects, methods and expected purposes of the use of folk games. didactic materials containing folk game elements as a way to influence young people were also studied. neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play svitlana lenska 108 purpose of the article the aim of the article is to define, generalize and classify the educational potential of folk games on the material of ukrainian ethnic heritage. at the same time we will make comments on the following aspects: analysis of materials on the existence and functioning of ukrainian folk games, accompanying a person throughout his life, illustration of these games by vivid representations, as well as clarification of the psychological and neurophysiological nature of certain principles, attributes and functions. methods in the process of scientific research the following methods were used: general scientific analysis, systematization, classification for generalization of information from scientific sources, where the problems of the influence of ethnopedagogy on the formation of a full-fledged and nature-responsible person are presented. historical historical-comparative, chronological, typological and retrospective methods (to analyze the preservation of ancient ukrainian traditions of game culture and their extrapolation to the newest understanding of human formation). psycho-pedagogical relevant analysis of folklore content, extrapolation of neuroscientific provisions to neuro-pedagogical, psychological and social phenomena occurring during folk games. international significance of the article in the article, the authors have summarized the spectrum of educational potential of folk games for children and adults for the first time on a multifunctional principle, taking into account the latest cultural and neuropedagogical theories. this data may be useful for the countries of the old world, which have recently distanced themselves from the traditional and eternally relevant potential of folklore heritage and excessively extrapolated its artifacts to the newest values. the article may be of interest to psychologists of cultural, behavioral and analytical direction, educational practitioners and theorists of educational science in its actual and diachronic sections. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 109 ethics of the study the teachers who participated in the survey gave their voluntary consent. we also notified them about the use of sociological data in writing the scientific article. all fragments of folklore used are quoted with a call to the source, and the scientific conclusions belong to the authors of the article. neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play. what do scientists write? in scientific discourse there are many publications about child's play as an element of his/her natural behavior from the point of view of psychology and pedagogy, so in this section we will dwell on the less illuminated aspects. not so long ago, psychologists proved the mutually stimulating function of children's play and motor activity: play and motor activity stimulate cognitive and creative activity and vice versa. and the lack of one of these spheres causes deficiency in the other. moreover, scientists argue that physical and play activity increases motivation for cognitive and creative activity (gearin & fien, 2016). it is positive that the traditional, the deep and the ethnomental in the xxi century became a subject of neuroscience study. for example, the importance of play and motor activity has contributed to debunking the myth about the existence of so-called "left-brain" and "right-brain" people. it has been investigated that the connection between hemispheres is much more complex, often complementary and mutually deterministic, which allows a person to solve life tasks in an unconventional way (lindell & kidd, 2011). there is experience in science to classify sensual or visual folklore images as folk illusions. on the purely neurophysiological side, this is characteristic of younger children. however, they may be stimulated in folk acts: folk illusions are traditional verbal and/or physical acts performed with the intention of creating a phantasm for one or more participants (barker & rice, 2019). researchers barker and rice created a catalog of more than 80 folk illusions, taking into account cognitive, neurophysiological, and folkloristic parameters. for the study of the neurophysiology of play this is of exceptional importance, because most play attributes and objects do not exist in reality, but are contained in the imagination of participants, even adults. neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play svitlana lenska 110 an important pedagogical natural specificity of children's play is its independence and even detachment from adults. neurophysiological bases of independent creative or transformative activity are found to be based on specific brain chains (dietrich, 2004; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). and one can observe a difference between activities (creativity, play) that are coercive (e.g., by the teacher) and the emotional outburst, insight, inspiration of the children themselves without directive intervention. this discovery explains why children self-initiate in play and avoid ordinary conditions with the presence of adults. in recent years, neuroscientists, educators and rehabilitators have appreciated the recreational, developmental and entertaining possibilities of games so much that they began to include folk games from different countries of the world in therapeutic programs. for example, d. santhosh, a. shanthi, and others have researched some indian games and concluded: they improve personal and team coordination, help focus, improve children's attention, concentration, memory, and physical health in general (santhosh et al., 2019). so far, the developmental and therapeutic effect of folk games is applied to children, including as a counterbalance to game gadgets that contribute to scoliosis, obesity, myopia, etc. however, we predict that soon the potential of games will also be applied to the valeology of the adult population in rehabilitation and andrology in general. ethnic games of the peoples of the world, honed to the maximum simplicity and effectiveness, attract the attention of psychologists and neuroreabilitologists as methods of play and art therapy. in 2020, for example, a group of neurorehabilitation therapists videotaped and analyzed the ten most common types of indian folk games for the therapy of children with nervous system disorders, based on a functional conceptual model using a six-point likert scale. researchers concluded that these games are neurophysiologically the most appropriate for such therapy: they engage basic neural connections, do not require complex conditions or tools, and are universal for children with different lateral profiles and nosologies (rahman et al., 2020). it can be assumed that neurophysiological and psychological observations in their naïve form were observed and recorded by peoples long ago, so the development of children without the presence of educators or certain institutions was quite harmonious at that time. it is interesting to trace the connection between folk games and neurosociology, which has been gaining ground in recent years. v. chernushevich qualifies a folk game as a dynamic model of social relations within a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 111 cultural tradition, chernushevich (2012). in this case the scientist determined that in the game, as well as in social relations, the same psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms of the group operate: a wide range of emotions, conventionality, hierarchy, psychological contagion, imitation, conformism, etc. the main power and attraction of any game is strong emotions, which naturally act as a stimulus and are anchored in the subcortex. today's neurophysiologists generally consider emotions to be the most powerful motor of activity in children and adults: emotions influence the quality and intensity of such higher cognitive processes as memory, attention, interest. as a result, motivation of independent activity and activity. because of the absence in antiquity of out-of-body sources of emotion (electronic games, gadgets) a game next to oral folklore became almost the only virtual reality that could simulate the world. let us write a few more opinions on the thematic-problematic current approaches in the regional dimension. we see that the greatest attention to the role of ethnic games in children's education is paid by scholars in the african, asian, and, to a lesser extent, eastern european regions, ismoilovich (2021). we have our own thoughts about this trend: in western europe and the united states the relevance of ethno-game pedagogy is minimal, and an explanation can be found. in the educational traditions of the united states it is customary to consider the educational potential of folk games as a component of general culture, sport, personal activity, and hobby, cliff (1992). we do not try to downplay the ethnic, outwardly playful culture of the united states, but we understand that it is largely synthetic, with a shorter history than the play culture of the peoples of the "old world" and "philosophical asia" with its oriental traditions. moreover, we consider the play heritage of western europe and the usa as more open, more integrated into current forms of folk consciousness and come to the conclusion: the more garmetic and/or marginal the folk culture is, the greater the special educational role of its folklore heritage plays. the latter remains "pure", tends to pass on traditions and not multiply them at the expense of newer cultural achievements and artifacts. we also compared the way of the current development of folk games and their educational potential in the united states and ukraine and saw: for americans diachrony and polychrony are interesting the synthesis of tradition and modernity (grundy, & rader, 2018). as for ukrainians, it seems as if they have "stopped" at old games, traditions and rituals and try to neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play svitlana lenska 112 transfer their educational potential, bypassing modernist, postmodernist and post-industrial contamination of folklore heritage. as the final thesis of this section we give a functional generalization: the psychotherapeutic role of folklore games is an opportunity to experience in a safe environment the difficulties of life, such as fears, acquire the ability to give in, rejoice, worry for another, tolerate, unelected and simply physical pain, chernushevich (2014). ukrainian folk gamesphere: themes, features, functions, current dimensions the historical role of ukrainian games extends from mythology and the first crafts (hunters, fishermen, farmers) to socialization and spontaneous pedagogy, necessary for people in the absence of formal institutions in these areas. however, we believe that all previous historical roles of ukrainian folk games remain to this day in an atavistic, somewhat hidden form. new functions are layered over the old ones and nourished by their ritual, mythological or other ethno-cultural content. at the same time, the main gamified environment has traditionally been the family. researchers of ukrainian ethnopedagogy define the traditional ukrainian family as follows: it is a small social group, predominantly twoor several-generational, whose main tasks in the pedagogical context were reproduction of the ethno-national community, teaching and education of children, retranslation of cultural values, recreation, socialization, rusyn (2021, p. 17). all peoples have a stereotype that folk games are something childish or related to entertainment. however, our scholars have proved that in no culture of the world folk games acquire new functions even while preserving their general archaic and stereotypical nature, davyduyk (2014, p. 179). it is now clear to everyone that folk play is a primitive simulacrum and a "rehearsal" of the traditional way of adult life with its obligatory or possible components. before making important pedagogical and psychological generalizations for our article, we would like to briefly go over the thematicideological and plot specificity of the most typical ukrainian folk games and make our own observations and reflections on their formative influence on children and adults. note that almost all games derive from childhood, some from ancient rituals and ceremonies. the neuro-pedagogical nature of children's games is most clear, but scientists have noted: a notable place in the development of speech of preschool children is children's folklore, consisting of works of adults, which broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 113 later became children's, and combining such genres as appeals, prithets, choruses, game songs and songs, stelmakhovich (1985, p. 260). we qualify such games as accompanying games. they are not an end in themselves and are meant to optimize a routine process or other play. such procedural ethnic artifacts have lost the original meaning of adulthood or its accompanying simulation and are now completely transferred to the children's foundation. it is in this adult-child parallel that we see powerful pedagogical and subject-oriented neuropsychological potential. here we refer to peculiar folk "game applications" to life: "grushka", "gorobeiko", "perepilka", "kryvyi tanets", " koza", "kray dolyny mak", "zhenchychokbrenchychok", etc.). the place of choruses in the game and their compositional functions are quite diverse. the neurophysiological aspect of such games consists in increased subjectivity and responsibility. such games have obligatory components. with them the game begins or ends. in them we can observe an expressive projection on the future adult activity and life: they can connect different play styles, actions, give instructions on the organization and course of the game, distribution of roles between its participants. however, the children's psyche is still syncretic, so children simultaneously play, sing and verbally comment on their actions. games-rituals are aimed at the symbolic reproduction of the praxeological aspects of life and are often associated with the annual or life cycle. it is clear that now such cyclicality is practically "smoothed out" by the jump-like nature of life today, but participants still play these rituals, understanding the conventionality of cyclicality and the importance of practice. scholars qualify such games as a folk drama with a plot, a culmination, a goal, etc. the most striking, typical examples of folk drama are: christmasnew year, spring-easter, ivan kupala, wedding, initial, kostyk (1999, p. 79). drama creates/shows the action. energetic mental resources here enter, in our opinion, two: mystery (sacredness, action) and physical pleasure arising from the exercise of the neuromuscular system. the latter becomes a more or less conscious motive for action, and the latter constitutes play. an indisputable condition of any game is the impulse to move, and the pleasure associated with it is a stimulus for games, but every game must have a vital meaning. in our opinion, imitation of older individuals, a long-standing relic mechanism of acquiring experience for survival, which is characteristic not only of humans, is important in such games. games-dances fulfilled the function of socialization, bodily contact and communication in the context of puberty and future dates of youth. neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play svitlana lenska 114 they used to be syncretic and therefore magical: maturing of a body was associated with a call to sow a field, to increase a crop ("verbova doschechka", " vesnyanky", "kryvyi tanets"). we shall not stop on processual specificity of these games, but we shall note: their neurophysiological extrapolation allows to assume: the girls participating in such games were not simply a symbol of youth and new life, but also embodied a natural cycle in a physiological lunar cycle of a mature girl. such games were often accompanied by "imprisonment" or catching the girl, simulating her unfreedom. the archetypal psychological interpretation of such an action, in our opinion, has mythological roots (sacrifice), but the neurophysiological triggers of gayevcnany games are in the hidden attraction of a girl to a guy, to marriage ("to paradise"). it is known that in ancient times the level of sublimation of natural energies was very high due to excessive severity of marriage morality. friendly games. this type of games was carried out on holidays (for example, easter) between adult girls ("kachechka") and guys ("gambas"). the neurophysiological resource of maiden's game is in the need to form a dexterous and flexible woman-wife, who in the future would have time to quickly and qualitatively serve the family life and flirt with her husband. it is interesting to reflect on the boys' games. they almost always had an adversarial nature of the physical, mental or moral-will plan. they clearly show a subconscious search for the "alpha-dominant" and archaic pack-type relationships, where the biggest choice would be the strongest "male". games of the summer cycle. we will not dwell on the entire annual cycle, but we will demonstrate this type of games with the example of winter actions. winter is the richest time of year for adult and children's games, because then the greatest time for resolution. the winter cycle of holidays of the ukrainian people is also extremely rich in a variety of games with songs: carols and shchedrivkas, as well as cross-dressing with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic masks. these games are simultaneously a cycle of simulations of natural phenomena and a time of " to ask for protection" of the forces of nature, such as "koza (goat)", "malanka". the role of the "goat" was played by a guy dressed in a coat with the wool upwards. the tail was made of straw, and horns were attached to the front, to which bells were attached. the goat was led by a bearded "oldman". with the goat went around all the yards. there was singing in the yard: ho, ho, ho, goat, ho, ho, gray broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 115 ho, ho, went and to nekhailovka, kurochkin (1978, p. 80) the storyline of the song was actually a script by which the action itself unfolded. the carolers sang that "the goat fell down," and it really fell on the floor and rose at the words "oh get up, goat". the unity of a word and action, their synchronous connection is a characteristic and very longstanding feature of ukrainian folk art. ukrainian scientists argue as follows: anthropomorphic masks "oldman" and "oldwoman" together with zoomorphic masks reflect the picture of the worldview of ancestors in a combination of pagan faith and christian religious beliefs with animistic and totemistic elements associated with the cult of ancestors, shchehelskyi (2011). this can be linked to archetypal representations hidden in the depths of the brain. these representations are characterized by syncretism and "animality" of everything natural (animism). also the calendar customs of ukrainians are characterized by a close intertwining of agrarian and marriage magic. rite games. let us cite one of the varieties containing thanatological plots with participation of children, and sometimes adults ("lubok", "grushka"). if children's play of social gatherings or customs is easily explained by the mechanism of imitation, then the play of themes of death causes a special interest. sometimes such games were carried out directly at funerals as accompanying. they relieved emotional stress and grief. for example, "lopatka", "vugol", "zmurky", "grushka". interesting for our article is the experience of neuroscientific research of death and the experience of death in folklore reflection, carried out this year by scientists s. zochios, s. zohios. it turned out that thanatological motifs pervade all folklore genres fairy tales, folk beliefs and legends, songs, zohios (2021). the article of these scholars does not talk about folk games, but in our study we see that games and game rituals also contain these motifs and even imitations of the action. scholar s. zochios are more interested in transcendental experiences of detachment from the body and subsequent plots of an encounter with the otherworld, and also in neuropsychological explanations of reflection of this theme in folklore. however, we assume that the same mechanisms operate in the ritual reproduction of death scenes, funerals, etc. games-entertainment. they were often used in conjunction with the performance of boring or daily labor by young shepherds, guards, etc. children's games and amusements of shepherds, depending on the group, weather-climatic conditions, geographical location of a place of grazing of cattle or birds, acquired an inherited character. the preservation and neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play svitlana lenska 116 prevalence of one or another game were determined by the permanent location over the years of the pasture or herd on a plot of land separately determined by the society. however, the neuropsychological aspect of shepherd's games, in our opinion, was caused by the factor of extra time, and thus boredom to compensate, an excess of emotional and physical energy requiring either sublimation or exit; another factor was the absence in the open space of tools and props for the game. the neurophysiological essence of symbols and attributes is different. the paraphernalia of play must be distinguished from the paraphernalia that accompanied the shepherd on a daily basis. for example, the whistle, knife and stick can be considered from the neuropsychological point of view as symbols, protective mechanisms (amulets, with them not so scary and sad) and ways of selfidentification. also teenage children intuitively found solutions to personal or industrial conflicts. let's summarize this type of games in terms of neurosubjectivity: a temporary resource, the presence of a boy's shepherding team, clear regulation of the rules, and sometimes hierarchy helped initialize the boy through pain, competition, loss, responsibility, teamwork, etc. let's also note that participation of adults in actually children's games can be explained by the unrealized children's subpersonality in adults who are constantly busy and could not arbitrarily allow themselves a psychological and physical discharge. to this should be added low frequency and culture of sexual life, lack of "romanticism" in relationships, mentally and energetically stimulating adults to such games. conclusions and results thus, as a result of the study of ukrainian folk games we have traced their influence on the formation of the worldview of ukrainians from preschool age to adulthood, their mental and artistic abilities, physiological needs and desires. among the genre diversity we can consistently identify games with songs, chorus, prithets to the youngest dances; calendarceremonial: game vesnyanky, theater winter games; family-ceremonial entertainment on dexterity; popular pastoral games and amusements, as well as partly adult games: female games related to marriage theme, which are studied less to date. we have seen that there is a determinant connection between human neurophysiology and all higher forms of human activity and activities, thus proving scientists' opinion that traditionally physical aspects (movement, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 117 play, dance) and traditionally spiritual (mental) aspects (thinking, attention), motivation, reflection) are in direct interdependence, gruart (2014). the syncretism of ancient art, where movement and word were realized in a single performance, proves that the lifestyle of the ancestors was largely consistent with today’s neuroscientific notions of subjectivity and the holistic "ego". the neurophysiological resources of the role in the games, first, were the stimulus of emotional pleasure and muscular discharge. next we would place the reproduction of adult subjectivity and the sense of archetypal sacrality (agnosticism, mystique). as the level of sublimation of natural energies of ancient ukrainians was very high, the struggle for alpha primacy, a test of courage and patience is clearly visible in boy games. girls in mass games demonstrated readiness for marriage and embodied the natural cyclicality in its physiological bodily symbolism. adult games, having lost their sacredness, were an instrument of mental discharge and diversion. phenomenological features (in neuroscience stages) in the folklore reflection of death have a tendency to typicality, repetition. and according to our observations, they are accompanied not by protective mechanisms of death denial (as it is appreciable in the children's psyche), but on the contrary acceptance and reconciliation. it is possible to make a number of smaller conclusions, but in the end it is appropriate to summarize the thesis of v. chernushevich that games, fairy tales, songs (all folklore) are not simply entertainments, and even not simply a way of transfer of national culture. it is a social space in which relationships, hidden desires, and displaced emotions are played out. here they are found in metaphorical, scriptural, often hyperbolized form, chernushevich (2014). the main achievement of the analysis and subsequent generalization we believe that for the first time we have developed a functional classification. we processed the obtained questionnaires by the method of keyword search, which allowed us to identify a wide range of general educated aspects and specific functions of folk games from the perspective of the today's educator. these data complemented the epistemes, which we extracted through a systematic analysis of the thematic scientific literature, followed by a generalization. neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play svitlana lenska 118 table 1. general and specific aspects of ukrainian upbringing with the help of folk games (multifunctional approach) the level of generalization of influence general aspects (according to the research of scientists) specific functions (as summarized by the authors of this article) 1. development of the emotional-volitional and activity spheres 2. inclusion in pragmatically important types of communication 3. simulation of future adult life 4. moral restraining function 5. formation of a holistic view of social and life processes 6. inculcation of a traditional ukrainian axiology 7. mythologization and conceptualization of the main life stages, values and goals 8. emotional coloring in different spheres of practical and spiritual activity 9. personal and group mythologization of the pragmatically important aspects of life 10. internalization of the traditional social order in relation to human practically self-formation ("ego-formation") 1.the acceptance of one's own bodily self, inner "selfhood" and existence 2.inclusion of the new subject into the society on the basis of fixed traditions 3.socialization and mitigation of crisis transitions between life roles, stages 4.being prepared for the existentially inevitable phenomena of life (illness, death) forming attitudes and influencing people 1. reinforcing moral group institutions 2. formation of kinship, social, and industrial hierarchies 3. gradual awareness of one's social and genetic role forming attitudes toward and influences on the object-space environment 1. giving vital material objects a spiritual meaning 2. testing one's own attitude toward professional, transformative, creative and other practical activities 3. acquisition of basic skills of transformative activities formation of attitudes toward intangible objects (values) 1. development of national and national consciousness 2. development of respect to spiritual and cultural heritage 3. incorporation of traditional morals into personal behavioral guidelines broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 119 oriented qualities 11. maintenance of heredity of generations 12. aesthetic education of man 4. personal mythologization and axiologization of national symbols and objects (home, mother, bread, life, freedom, country, etc.) formation of the attitude towards natural human needs and their cultural satisfaction 1. the game fosters mutual responsibility in the process of satisfaction of needs 2. the game introduces a conventional way of solving personally significant requests 3. forms the tabooed attitude towards socially unacceptable forms of public satisfaction of natural needs source: authors' own conception as can be seen from the table, we were able not only to formulate 12 general aspects of the educational potential of folk games, but also on the authentic ukrainian material to cluster specific functions within the formation of four areas of attitude: to themselves, others, the environment, intangible sphere and natural human needs. we noticed that the last direction is especially represented in the stories, images and rules of folk games, as it contains the most contradictions, taboos, conventions, ethical stereotypes and other mechanisms of domestication of the natural. limitation of the study. the authors went little into the specific narrative and textual features of folk games. such detailed research could have significantly supplemented the conclusions made by the authors. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to the compilers of folklore collections, the authors of related research, and the educators who participated in the survey. thanks to this, the author 1 was able to review and analyze the most popular scholarly articles on related topics, and the author 2 was able to select representative illustrative material and make an appropriate classification. besides, the author 3 processed sociological data, the author 4 carried out expedient neuropedagogical and psychological observations, the author 5 and the author 6 summarized the results of the analysis and made a classification which became the main theoretical and methodological achievement of the article. neuropedagogical and psychological aspects of play svitlana lenska 120 references barker, k. b., & rice, c. (2019). folk illusions: children, folklore, and sciences of perception. indiana university press chernushevich, v. a. (2012). folklore & folk games as psych correctional instrument of legal psychology. psychology and law, 2(4). https://doi.org/10.17759/psylaw chernushevich, v. a. (2014). an experimental study of psycho-emotional resources of folk games (folklore). psychology and law, 4(1). https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1401-5070 cliff, j. m. (1992). on relationships between folk music and folk games. western folklore, 51(2), 129–151. https://doi.org/10.2307/1499361 davydyuk, v. (2014). vybrani lektsiyi z ukrayinsʹkoho folʹkloru [selected lectures on ukrainian folklore. polygraphic publishing house "tverdynia". dietrich, a. (2004). the cognitive neuroscience of creativity. psychonomic bulletin & review, 11, 1011–1026. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03196731 gearin, b. m., & fien, h. (2016). translating the neuroscience of physical activity to education. trends in neuroscience and education, 5(1), 12-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2016.02.001 gruart, a. (2014). the role of neurosciences in education... and vice versa. international journal of educational psychology, 3(1), 21-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/ijep.2014.02 grundy, p. c., & rader, b. g. (2018). american sports: from the age of folk games to the age of the internet. routledge. ismoilovich, d. n. (2021). national folk games a means of development of physical attitudes in primary school students. middle european scientific bulletin, 12, 166-169. http://cejsr.academicjournal.io/index.php/journal/article/view/534 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kostyk, v. (1999). bukovynsʹki ihrovi vesnyanky – riznovyd i skladovyy element ukrayinsʹkoyi narodnoyi dramy [bukovynian game vesnyanky a variety and a constituent element of ukrainian folk drama]. scientific bulletin of the chernivtsi university, 52(53), 79-82. http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn =ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2001/01kvvofb.zip&image _file_download=1 https://doi.org/10.17759/psylaw https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1401-5070 https://doi.org/10.2307/1499361 https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03196731 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2016.02.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/ijep.2014.02 http://cejsr.academicjournal.io/index.php/journal/article/view/534 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn=ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2001/01kvvofb.zip&image_file_download=1 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn=ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2001/01kvvofb.zip&image_file_download=1 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn=ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2001/01kvvofb.zip&image_file_download=1 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=2&i21dbn=ard&p21dbn=ard&z21id=&image_file_name=doc/2001/01kvvofb.zip&image_file_download=1 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 121 kurochkin, o. v. (1978). novorichni svyata ukrayintsiv: tradytsiyi i suchasnistʹ [new year celebrations of ukrainians: traditions and present day kyiv]. naukova dumka. lázár, k. (1999). typology of folk games. acta ethnographica hungarica, 44(1-2), 25-40. lindell, a. k., & kidd, e. (2011). why right‐brain teaching is half‐witted: a critique of the misapplication of neuroscience to education. mind, brain, and education, 5(3), 121-127. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751228x.2011.01120.x prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rahman, m., raja, k., rashid, m., & kumar, j. (2020). listing of indian folk games for potential therapeutic benefits in children with neurodevelopmental disability. games for health journal, 9(6), 453-460. https://doi.org/10.1089/g4h.2019.0191 reid, a. (1999). folk psychology, neuroscience and explanation in physical education. european physical education review, 5(2), 101–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336x990052003 rusyn, h. a. (2021). tendentsiyi rozvytku ukrayinsʹkoyi etnopedahohiky na zakhidnoukrayinsʹkykh zemlyakh (1772-1939 rr.) [tendencies of development of ukrainian ethno-pedagogy in the western ukrainian lands (1772-1939)] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. zhytomyr state university named after ivan franko. santhosh, d., shanthi, a. g., & ruckmani, v. s. (2019). neuropsychological perspective of south indian folk games-insight. international journal of indian psychology, 7(2), 896-904. https://doi.org/10.25215/0702.108 shchehelskyi, v. (2011). suprovidne slovo [accompanying word]. proceedings of the educational and scientific laboratory of ethnology at the kamyanetspodilsky national university named after ivan ohiyenko (pp. 5-22). kamyanets-podilsky. stelmakhovych, m. h. (1985). narodna pedahohika [folk pedagogy]. pedagogy. zohios, s. (2021). obmiraniya i okolosmertnyye perezhivaniya: skhozhdeniya i raskhozhdeniya v svete fol'klora i neyronauki [fading and near-death experiences: convergence and divergence in the light of folklore and neuroscience]. kunstkamera, 1(11), 173–191. https://doi.org/10.31250/2618-8619-2021-1(11)-173-191 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228x.2011.01120.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228x.2011.01120.x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1089/g4h.2019.0191 https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336x990052003 https://doi.org/10.25215/0702.108 https://doi.org/10.31250/2618-8619-2021-1(11)-173-191 microsoft word brain_2_2.doc 58 comparison of fuzzy diagnosis with k-nearest neighbor and naïve bayes classifiers in disease diagnosis asaad mahdi school of mathematical sciences, faculty of science and technology, university kebangsaan malaysia, 43600 ukm bangi, selangor, malaysia asaadmahdi@gmail.com ahmad razali school of mathematical sciences, faculty of science and technology, university kebangsaan malaysia, 43600 ukm bangi, selangor, malaysia mahir@ukm.my ali alwakil school of mathematical sciences, faculty of science and technology, university kebangsaan malaysia, 43600 ukm bangi, selangor, malaysia wakilali@yahoo.com abstract the main objective of this paper is to investigate the performance of fuzzy disease diagnosis by comparing its results with two statistical classification methods used in the diagnosis of diseases namely the k-nearest neighbor and the naïve bayes classifiers. the comparisons were made using the latest xlminer® and medcalc® statistical software’s. the first step was using fuzzy relation such as the occurrence relation and confirmability relation on a sample of 149 patients suffering from chicken pox, dengue and flu taken from different general and private hospitals and clinics in kuala lumpur to diagnose the three diseases. fourteen symptoms were used in the diagnoses such as high fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, rash, joint pain, muscle pain, bleeding, loss of appetite, diarrhea, cough, sore throat, abdominal pain and runny nose. the second step was using the k nearest neighbor classification method and the naïve bayes classification method on the same sample to diagnose the three diseases. the final step was the comparison between the three methods using performance tests, mcnemar and kappa tests. the result of the comparison between the three methods showed that fuzzy diagnosis outperforms the other two methods in disease diagnosis. keywords: fuzzy set theory, knearest neighbor classifier, naïve bayes classifier. mcnemar test, kappa test, performance tests. 1. introduction fuzzy set theory was first presented by zadeh in 1965 [18], after that fuzzy logic was developed from fuzzy set theory to reason with uncertain information. the first fuzzy application was created in mid of 1970’s (fuzzy control of a steam engine), since then the number of fuzzy application have grown rapidly, especially in japan. the main reason to develop fuzzy logic from fuzzy set theory was to form a conceptual framework for linguistic information and knowledge. sets of the conventional set theory are called crisp sets in order to distinguish them from fuzzy sets. hence fuzzy logic extends conventional crisp sets to handle the concept of the partial truth – the values falling between “ totally true” and “totally false” , these values are dealt with using the degree of membership of an element of a set. the degree of membership can take any real value in the interval [0,1]. this extension of crisp logic to fuzzy logic is made by replacing the functions of crisp logic with fuzzy membership functions. fuzzy values are assigned to evaluate the truth of propositions, and operations with these values are applied to evaluate composite propositions. fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic were used in many disease diagnostic system in recent years such as designing a fuzzy expert system for the determination of coronary heart disease risk [2], fuzzy logic for the diagnosis of diabetics [9]. the diagnosis of urethral obstructions [19], the diagnosis of coronary artery disease [14], expert system for diagnosing the hepatitis b intensity rate [7], human disease diagnosis [4], fuzzy relations were a. mahdi, a. razali, al.alwakil comparison of fuzzy diagnosis with k-nearest neighbor and naïve bayes classifiers in disease diagnosis 59 used for diagnosis. the two well known statistical classifiers k – nearest neighbor classifier and naïve bayes classifier were implemented, trained using the training data sets which were formed using k-fold cross validation method. the data were the same used with fuzzy diagnosis. the number of patients investigated was 149. knearest neighbor classification method is a non-parametric method sometimes is called instancebased or memory based learning algorithms since what they do is store the training data in a lookup table and interpolate from it. this method was used for disease diagnosis such as classification of ovarian cancer [17], the diagnosis of breast cancer [11]. naïve bayes classification method is a practical bayesian learning method; it is based on the so called bayesian theorem. despite its simplicity, naïve bayes can often outperform more sophisticated classification methods [5]. this method was also used for the diagnosis of diseases such as medical diagnosis model for infectious diseases [15]. 2. methods and materials 2.1. fuzzy diagnosis adlassing in 1980 found two fuzzy relationships to describe medical knowledge as the relationship between symptoms is and diseases jd [1], namely occurrence which is how often does is occur with jd and confirmability is how strongly does is confirm jd [13]. these functions could be determined by linguistic documentation by medical experts and medical database evaluation by statistical means or a combination of both. we will determine the fuzzy occurrence and confirmability relations from expert medical documentation. since this documentation usually takes the form of statements such as symptom s seldom occurs in disease d or symptom s always indicates disease d , we assign membership grades of 1, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0 in fuzzy matrix rc for the linguistic terms such as always, frequently, don’t know, rarely, and never respectively [10]. in 1973, zadeh, introduced the combination rule of a max-min-composition, that is if we have three sets a, b, and c, to compose fuzzy relations q ⊆ l(a × b) and r ⊆ l(b × c) to get another fuzzy relation t ⊆ l(a × c), where l(a × b) and l(b × c) are the sets of all fuzzy sets in the cartesian product a×b and b×c respectively [16], then t = q o r is defined by the following membership function (1), tμ (x,z) = maxy∈b min { qμ (x,y); rμ (y,z)}, x∈a y∈b z∈c (1) let rs = p× s, indicates the degree to which the symptoms s is present in patient p, and it is calculated from the membership functions for each symptom. let ro = s× d [12], be a matrix that indicates the frequency of occurrence of symptoms s with disease d. let rc = s× d be the confirmability relation. this matrix indicates the degree which symptom s confirms the presence of disease d . from the relations , ,rs ro rc we can calculate three different indication relations (1) the occurrence relation 1r 1r rs ro= o defined by (2) 1 ( , ) max min( ( , ); ( , ))j rs i ro i jr p d p s s dμ μ μ= (2) (2) the non – occurrence relation 2 (1 )r rs ro= −o defined by (3) 2 ( , ) max min( ( , ); ( , ))j rs i ro i jr p d p s s dμ μ μ= (3) (3) the confirmability indication relation brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 60 3r rs rc= o defined by (4) 3 ( , ) max min( ( , ); ( , ))j rs i rc i jr p d p s s dμ μ μ= (4) the relations 1 2 3, ,r r r requires multiplication of fuzzy matrix using maxmin rules. a computer program was written using matlab® code to facilitate the calculation of the three relations and the final result was 136 patients with correct disease diagnosis. 2.2. knearest neighbor classification (k-nnc) this method of classification is one of the most fundamental and simple classification methods and should be used for a classification study when there is little or no prior knowledge about the distribution of the data. this method was developed from the need to perform discriminant analysis when reliable parametric estimates of probability densities are unknown or difficult to determine [8]. the algorithm for this method is • the k nearest neighbor must be located using the training dataset. the euclidean distance measure is used to calculate how close each member of the training set is to the target row that is being examined. • examine the knearest neighbor, which classification or category do most of them belong to? assign this classification or category to the row being examined. • repeat this procedure for the remaining rows in the target set. • in this software a maximum value for k can be selected, then the software builds models parallel on all values of k up to the maximum specified value and scoring is done on the best of these models. the first step in using k-nearest neighbor classification method in xlminer® software was determining the training data set, then the input and output variables should be entered. the second step was normalizing the data which will ensure that the distance measure accords equal weight to each variable. the score on best k between 1 and specified value was chosen which builds models parallel on all values of k up to the maximum specified value in which k=9 was chosen and scoring is done on the best of these models. finally entering the data needed for classification. 2.3. naïve bayes classification method naïve bayes classifiers assume that the effect of a variable value on a given class is independent of the values of other variable. this assumption is called class conditional independence. it is made to simplify the computation and in this sense considered to be naïve. this assumption is often not applicable. however, bias in estimating probabilities often may not make a difference in practice, it is the order of the probabilities not their exact values that determine the classification. studies comparing classifications algorithms have found the naïve bayesian classifier to be comparable in performance with classification trees and with neural network classifiers. they have also exhibited high accuracy and speed when applied to large databases. this method uses bayes theorem. suppose we let x be the data record (case) whose class label is unknown. let h be some hypothesis, such as “data record x belongs to a specified class c” for classification, we want to determine p(h|x), the probability that the hypothesis h holds, given the observed data record x. p(h|x) is the posterior probability of h conditioned on x. p(h) is the prior probability of h. similarly, p(x|h) is the posterior probability of x conditioned on h. p(x) is the prior probability of x. bayes theorem is useful in that it provides a way of calculating the posterior probability, p(h|x), from p(h), p(x), and p(x|h). bayes theorem is (5): p(h|x) = p(x|h) p(h)/p(x) (5) a. mahdi, a. razali, al.alwakil comparison of fuzzy diagnosis with k-nearest neighbor and naïve bayes classifiers in disease diagnosis 61 the first step in using the naïve bayes classifiers in xlminer® software is to specify the worksheet under consideration, the data range for the data selected, and the input and output variables. in the second step we must calculate the prior class probability. after choosing the prior class probability, the final step is to specify the training data, and then selecting the new data needed for classification from either database or worksheet. 3. kfold cross validation kfold cross validation was used to minimize the bias associated with random sampling of training and test data. the data were split in to k subsets with approximately equal sizes classification models were trained and tested k times. in this paper 10 – fold cross validation were used [6]. each of these 10 folds was used once to test the performance of the classifier while other 9 were used for training. the overall accuracy was calculated by taking the mean of the ten measures for both knn and nb classifiers [3]. 4. diagnosis and comparison this section is dedicated to the comparison between the three methods of diagnosis namely fuzzy, knn and naïve bayes classifiers. after conducting the kfold cross validation process with knn and nb, ten results were achieved table 1. the number of patients with correct diagnosis using fuzzy diagnosis, knearest neighbor and naïve bayes classifiers. fuzzy diagnosis k-nnc naïve bayes classifier 136* 131 108 c = chicken pox, d = dengue, f = flu, knnc = knearest neighbor, *= the best result. as can be seen in table 1 above fuzzy diagnosis was correct in 136 cases out of 149 which means 91%, knnc was correct in 131 cases which means 88%, while nb was correct in 108 cases which means 72.4% accuracy. figure 1 below shows the percentage of patients with correct diagnosis for each of the three methods. 91 87.9 72.4 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 c,d&f fuzzy knn nb figure 2 bar chart represents the percentage of the correct diagnosis using fuzzy diagnosis, knearest neighbor and naïve bayes classifiers. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 62 5. measures of performance 5.1. accuracy, sensitivity and specificity the performance of the three diagnostic methods used in this study were evaluated using the following accuracy, sensitivity, specificity measures and as follows, table 2. classification table true condition test result present absent present tp fp absent fn tn accuracy = tp tn tp tn fp fn + + + + sensitivity = tp tp fn+ (6) specificity = tn tn fp+ where tp tp , tn , fp and fn denotes true positives, true negatives, false positives and false negatives respectively [3] and [6]. table 3 the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity for fuzzy, knn and nb classification method accuracy sensitivity specificity fuzzy 0.91 0.94 0.90 knn 0.88 0.66 0.95 nb 0.72 0.88 0.67 as can be seen from the table 3 above, fuzzy diagnosis outperformed the other two methods. the bold value indicates the best accuracy obtained for that sample using fuzzy diagnosis. 4.2. area under the roc curve (auc) the area under the receiver operating characteristic (roc) curve (auc) is used to measure the performance of fuzzy diagnosis, knn and nb. in order to show the difference between auc for the three methods, a single figure which combines the three auc for the three methods was used for comparison as shown in figure 1 below. chicken pox, dengue & flu figure 1. the comparison of the area under the roc curve (auc) for fuzzy diagnosis, knn and nb a. mahdi, a. razali, al.alwakil comparison of fuzzy diagnosis with k-nearest neighbor and naïve bayes classifiers in disease diagnosis 63 table 4. the auc, standard error, confidence interval and the significance level for the comparison of fuzzy diagnosis & knn, fuzzy diagnosis & nb . method auc se. 95% c.i. f&knn significant f&nb significant fuzzy 0.918 0.026 0.857 0.959 knn 0.803 0.044 0.724 0.867 p=0.035* nb 0.771 0.038 0.689 0.840 p=0.001* f&knn= comparison between fuzzy diagnosis and knn f&nb= comparison between fuzzy diagnosis and naïve bayes. as we can see from the table 4 above, if the p value is < 0.05 then the comparison between any two methods is significant, meaning that there is a significant difference between the two methods. all significant values are denoted by (*). 6. important statistical tests 6.1. mcnemar test mcnemar's test is a non-parametric method. it is applied to 2 × 2 contingency tables with a dichotomous trait, with matched pairs of subjects, to determine whether the row and column marginal frequencies are equal (marginal homogeneity). it is named after quinn mcnemar, who introduced it in 1947. the test is applied to a 2 × 2 contingency table, which tabulates the outcomes of two tests on a sample of n subjects, as follows. table 5. the decision matrix table test 2 positive test 2 negative row total test 1 positive a b a+b test 1 negative c d c+d column total a+c b+d n the null hypothesis of marginal homogeneity states that the two marginal probabilities for each outcome are the same, that is pa + pb = pa + pc and pc + pd = pb + pd. thus the null hypothesis is pb = pc. here pa, pb, pc, pd denote the theoretical probability of occurrences in cells with the corresponding label. the mcnemar test statistic with yates' correction for continuity is given by (8): 2 2 (( ) 1)b cx b c − − = + (8) under the null hypothesis, with a sufficiently large number of discordants (cells b and c), χ2 has a chi-squared distribution with 1 degree of freedom. if either b or c is small (b + c < 25) then χ2 is not well-approximated by the chi-square distribution. the binomial distribution can be used to obtain the exact distribution for an equivalent to the uncorrected form of mcnemar's test statistic in this formulation, b is compared to a binomial distribution with size parameter equal to b + c and probability of success = ½, which is essentially the same as the binomial sign test. if the χ2 result is significant, this provides sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis, in favor of the alternative hypothesis that pb ≠ pc, which would mean that the marginal proportions are significantly different from each other. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 table 6. the mcnemar test results, p values and significant level for the comparison of fuzzy diagnosis and knnc mcnemar test knnc classification method test value p value sig. fuzzy 6.035* 0.014 yes sig.= significant, (*) chi-square test with continuity correction table 7 the mcnemar test results, p values and significant level for the comparison of fuzzy diagnosis and nb mcnemar test nb classification method test value p value sig. fuzzy 10.256* 0.001 yes sig.= significant, (*) chi-square test with continuity correction as can be seen from table 6, if p is < 0.05 this means that there is a significant difference between the proportions obtained from using fuzzy diagnosis and knnc, while table 7 shows mcnemar test values and significant level for testing the proportions obtained by using fuzzy diagnosis and nb. 6.2. the weighted kappa test one of the undesirable properties of kappa is that all the disagreements are treated equally. so it is preferable to give different weights to disagreement according to each cell’s distance from the diagonal. but the weights can only be given to ordinal data, not to nominal data. the reason is that if we change the position of the category in row or in column, the weights will be different. the weighted kappa is obtained by giving weights considering disagreement. it was first proposed by cohen in 1968. the weights are given to each cell according to its distance from the diagonal. suppose that there are k categories, i =1,…,k; j =1,.., k . the weights are denoted by wij they are assigned to each cell and their value range is 0 1wij≤ ≤ . the cells in the diagonal ( i j= ) are given the maximum value, wij =1. for the other cells’ ( i j≠ ), wij = wji and 0 1wij≤ < . the observed weighted proportion of agreement are obtained as (9) ( ) 1 1 k k o w ij ij i j p w p = − = ∑∑ (9) where ijp is the proportion of the cell in the ith row and jth column, then it is given weight wij . the observed weighted proportion of agreement is the sum of all the proportion of cells given weights. similarly, the expected proportion of agreement is (10) ( ) . . 1 1 k k e w ij i j i j p w p p = − = ∑∑ (10) it is the sum of all the expected proportion of the cells given weights. and the weighted kappa is then given by a. mahdi, a. razali, al.alwakil comparison of fuzzy diagnosis with k-nearest neighbor and naïve bayes classifiers in disease diagnosis 65 ( ) ( ) ( )1 o w e w w e w p p k p ∧ −= − (11) two kinds of weights are normally used one is suggested by bartko in 1966, where the formula of the weights is (12) 2 2 ( ) 1 ( 1)ij i j w k − = − − (12) the other is suggested by cicchetti and allison in 1977 (fleiss et al. 2003), where the weights are taken as (13) 1 1ij i j w k − = − − (13) a kappa score over 0.8 indicates very good agreement, 0.6 to 0.8 indicates substantial agreement, 0.4 to 0.6 moderate agreement, 0.2 to 0.4 fair and less than 0.2 is poor (sprant & smeeton 2007). table 8 the weighted kappa test values for the agreement between fuzzy and knnc, fuzzy and nb. weighted kappa test knnc nb classification method test value agreement test value agreement fuzzy 0.441 moderate 0.388 fair as can be seen from table 8 above, the values of the weighted kappa are different for both fuzzy diagnosis versus knnc and fuzzy diagnosis versus nb. the results show the degree of agreement between the three methods which is between poor and moderate. 7. discussion and conclusion this study is dedicated to the test of performance, test of proportion and test of agreement between the results achieved from the three methods for diagnosis. the first step was a comparison between fuzzy disease diagnosis which was achieved by using a program written in matlab® code for the calculation of fuzzy max-min relations and the diagnosis of diseases using two well known statistical classifiers namely knnc and naïve bayes classifier using the latest xlminer® software. the initial results showed that fuzzy was correct in the diagnosis of 136 patients out of 149, which means 91%, while k-nnc was correct in the diagnosis of 131 patients out of 149 which means 87.9% and naïve bayes was correct in the diagnosis of 108 patients out of 149 which means 72.4%. the second step was to test the performance of these methods using accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and (auc). the results showed that fuzzy diagnosis was better and outperformed the other methods and there is a significant difference between the results. the last step was using two tests; firstly the mcnemar test was used to test the equality of the proportions obtained by the three methods of classifications. table 6 shows the significant differences between fuzzy diagnosis and knnc. table 7 shows the significant difference between fuzzy diagnosis and nb. secondly, to test the agreement between the results obtained by the three methods. table 8 has two parts; the first shows the degree of agreement between fuzzy diagnoses versus knnc which is moderate agreement. the second part is for fuzzy diagnosis versus nb, the test of agreement shows poor agreement. the comparison results showed that k-nearest neighbor and naïve bayes classifier have limited usefulness and fuzzy disease diagnosis is better and more useful in the diagnosis of these diseases than the other two methods. no previous comparison between these three methods has been previously published; the current research is completely new in this field. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 8. references [1] adlassnig, k-p.(1980). a fuzzy logical model of computer assisted medical diagnosis method. info med. 19:141-148 [2] allahverdi, n., torun, s. and saritas, i. (2008). design of a fuzzy expert system for the determination of coronary heart disease risk. international conference on computer systems and technology – compsystech07. pp iiia. (14-1)-(14-8). [3] delen, d., glenn, w., kadam, a. 2005. predicting breast cancer survivability: a comparison of three data mining methods. artificial intelligence in medicine. vol. 34, 2 pp 113-127. [4] hasan, m., alam, k. and chowdhury, a. (2010). human disease diagnosis using a fuzzy expert system. journal of computing, vol.2, issue 6:pp 66-70. [5] isam, m., wu, q., ahmadi, m. and ahmad, m.(2007). investigating the performance of naïve bayes classifiers and k-nnc. international conference on convergence information technology 2007. pp 1541-1546. [6] khan, u., shin, h., choi, j., kim, m. 2009. wfdt – weighted fuzzy decision trees for prognosis of breast cancer survivability. the seventh australian data mining conference. conference in research and practice in information technology. vol. 87, pp 141-152. [7] neshat, m. & yaghobi, m. (2009). designing a fuzzy expert system of diagnosing the hepatitis b intensity rate and comparing it with adaptive neural network fuzzy system. proceeding of the world congress on engineering and computer science, vol.2,wcecs. [8] peterson, l. (2009). k nearest neighbor. scholarpedia 4(2): 1883. [9] radha, r.& rajagopalan, s. (2007). fuzzy logic approach for diagnosis of diabetics. information technology journal 6(1):pp 96-102. [10] raich, v., sharma, r., triapathi, r., pand, d. and bawa, n. (2010). a basic idea to generate computer program for the study of fuzzy matrix and its application. advances in fuzzy mathematics, vol. 5, no. 1(2010) , pp. 65-70. [11] sarkar, m.& leong, t. (2000). application of k-nearest neighbor algorithm on breast cancer diagnosis problem. american medical informatics association, proceedings for annual symposium, pp 759-763. [12] schuerz , m., adlassnig k-p, lagor, c. scheider, b. and grabner, g. (1998). definition of fuzzy sets representing medical concepts and acquisition of fuzzy relationships between them by semiautomatic procedures. european symposium on intelligent techniques (esit99), kreta 12568. [13] seising, r. (2004). a history of medical diagnosis using fuzzy relations. (draft paper, fuzziness in finland 04). [14] setiawan, n., venkatachalam, p. and hani, f. (2009). diagnosis of coronary artery disease using artificial intelligence based decision support system. proceedings of the international conference on manmachine systems, batu ferringhi, penang, malaysia. pp (ic3-1)-(ic3-5) [15] wagholikar, k., deshpande, a. (2008). fuzzy relation based modeling for medical diagnostic decision support: case studies. international journal of knowledge based and intelligent engineering systems. ios press vol 12, no 5-6 /2008, pp 319-326 . [16] vig, r., handa, n., bali, h. and sridhar (2004). fuzzy diagnostic system for coronary artery disease. ie(i) journal, 85: 41-46. [17] wu, b., abbott, t., fishman, d., mcmurray, w., mor,g., stone, k., ward, d., williams, k.and zhao, h. (2003). comparison of statistical methods for classification of ovarian using mass spectrometry data. bioinformatics, vol. 19, no. 13, pp 1636-1643. [18] zadeh, la. (1965). fuzzy sets. information and control. 1965; 8: 338353. [19] zuhtuogullari, k., saritas, i., arikan, n. (2009). diagnosis modelling of urethral obstructions using fuzzy epert systems.international conference on computer systems and technologiescompsystech08: pp iiia (14-1)-(14-7). ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 475-499 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/431 submitted: march 31st, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 28th, 2023 defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova1, ivetta depchynska2, nataliia hertsovska3, irina cherniaieva4, nataliia loskutova5, zoryana vasylko6 1 national academy of science of ukraine research and educational center of foreign languages, dnipro, ukraine, 17@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2640-8149 2 ferenc rakoczi ii transcarpathian hungarian college of higher education, beregovo, ukraine; ivettlegeza@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/00000002-0069-3615 3 mukachevo state university, mukachevo, ukraine, nataliyahertsovska@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0971-7529 4 a.v.nezhdanova odesa national academy of music, odessa, ukraine, vicerector.irina.cherniaieva@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0703-4548 5 mariupol state university, mariupol, ukraine, fleurdetash@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/00000002-2536-0462 6 hetman petro sahaidachnyi national army academy, lviv, ukraine, vasylkozoryana@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0128-8002 abstract: the article highlights the trends of the present world, the informatization of society, the intensive development of innovative technologies entails a rethinking of values in art and language environment. learning a language certainly includes considering a whole range of external circumstances in which it really develops and actively functions: the society that uses the language, its social structure, age difference between native speakers, social status, level of culture and education, place of residence, as well as differences in their speech behavior depending on the language situation. the relevance of the study is determined by the change in human consciousness during the postmodern cultural era, a feature of which is the rethinking of values, the definition of specific trends in the philosophical essence of the postmodern. the study presents the theoretical foundations of postmodern reflection in the social manifestation of speech. postmodern forms a value attitude to progress as a single unchanging constant, formed throughout historical development. the article examines the conditions of equality of social factors between men and women who choose different strategies of speech behavior, manifested in the models of text construction, use of linguistic means, associations arising in both sexes as one of the aspects of postmodern semantic representation. in the course of the study the concept of "ethnicity" is defined, replacing the concept of "ethnos" and denoting the existence of separate ethnic groups. the study is based on the method of analysis and synthesis, the research, descriptive and scientific method was used to determine the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation. the results of the study are the basis for determining the social factor of speech in the context of postmodern society. keywords: gender category; intercultural communication; ethnicity; social status; age categories of speakers; deviations from norms. how to cite: vukolova, k., depchynska, i., hertsovska, n., cherniaieva, i., loskutova, n., & vasylko, z. (2023). defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(1), 475-499. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/431 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/431 mailto:17@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2640-8149 mailto:ivettlegeza@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0069-3615 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0069-3615 mailto:nataliyahertsovska@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0971-7529 mailto:vicerector.irina.cherniaieva@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0703-4548 mailto:fleurdetash@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2536-0462 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2536-0462 mailto:vasylkozoryana@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0128-8002 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/431 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 476 introduction now the process of language functioning is considered by linguistic scientists from the point of view of the development of the theory of norms and implementation. linguists emphasize the importance of a structuralsystems approach to language learning, because this structure is a selfregulating system. this fact was a powerful impetus to the problem of the normativity of language. the relevance of the research is determined by the need to analyze the meaning-making conditions of the postmodern era in the development of global society, which is in the process of searching for new solutions in the self-realization of itself in society. it is in the postmodern era the problem of critical perception of the values of humanity, developed in the process of historical and cultural development, in particular, under the morality and spirituality loses importance for the formation of personality in the period of informative postmodern society. awareness of the value of past achievements, rethinking them to prioritize the choice of the future is the main aspect of the development of postmodern society. consequently, the postmodern rethinking of values toward freedom, equality, democracy is necessary for the further self-preservation of humanity as a unique association in cultural progress. the concept of ethnicity presupposes the existence of homogeneous, functional and static characteristics that distinguish one group from another endowed with a different set of these characteristics. an individual's social status is one of the main parameters of communication, and the ability of individuals to move vertically up or down in the social hierarchy has a significant impact on the choice of appropriate linguistic behavior by individuals. age categories of speakers are categorized into age groups such as: "children", "teenagers", "adults" and "old people" (the socalled "third age"). in the language of all groups, distinctive features characteristic of each group are observed, namely: children and the elderly have the greatest number of deviations from the norm. for the linguistic norm, the concepts of "language", "system" and "usus" are important. the term "norm", like other definitions in linguistics, is multitudinous. we can confidently assert that taking into account the interaction of the concepts of the triad "system" "usus" "norm", all these three concepts are interconnected, but each of them performs its function. the system represents certain options (existing or potential). the combination of these options for using the language system is a usus, which is a rather spontaneous defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 477 concept (but not chaotic). a norm is the result of a conscious activity that seeks to identify the use cases of the system as right / wrong, exemplary / nondescript. the language norm problem is the problem of the relation between certain variants and invariants, variable forms and hyperforms. that is, the task of codification (norms) depends on the results of the search for forms, which allows them to organize and deduce a unified system of rules. the statics of normalization and codification of pronunciation can be provided only to support multilateral language practice with an emphasis on reforms, and sociolect on communicative features and types of oral activity (stepanov, 1969, pp. 226-235). in the early 90s, braun p. (1998) argued that each language is a "polysystem" of forms, vasilieva (2000, p. 23). for example, the english language is characterized by such forms of existence as a variant of the national literary language, common language, social and territorial dialects. in this regard, it is important to distinguish between the concepts of "variability", "variance" and "variation". according to the definitions of l.a. verbitskaya (2001, pp. 14-15) and a.a. selivanova (2008), linguistic variability is a semiotic feature of any language. in modern linguistics, this concept is interpreted as a general social feature and a way of existence of the language system and language norm. it is customary to refer to two areas of the concept of linguistic change or variability: intra-linguistic history or historical linguistics (reconstruction of proto-languages based on existing historical monuments) and externally linguistic history ("history of language", which reflects changes in the structure of the language in its connection with the socio-economic environment) (gampertz, 1972, p. 299). variation, in turn, is not provoked by language, but resolved by it, that is, it represents two different ways of implementing one unit (for example, two variants of pronunciation of a certain word) (byganova, 2008, pр. 14-15). in addition, variants can be presented at all language levels (for example, variants of pronunciation of words, variants of morphemes identical in content, lexical or syntactic synonymy, syntactic derivation) (selivanova, 2008, p. 346). in a broader sense, variance is considered as the differences in language into national-state variants of the language, variance of sociolects (for example, professional vocabulary), age language variance, variance of male and female speech, that is, the gender aspect of the language (shakhbagova, 1986, pp. 10-11). researchers of variants of national languages suggest the term "variance" to denote paradigmatic variation, which is due to the divergent (versatile) mutual influence of related languages, and the concept of "variability" syntagmatic variation, which arises during the distribution of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 478 variants (derbilov, 1986, p. 33). since variability permeates the entire language system and its functioning, this allows us to consider it in various research planes. in the aspect of the connection between language and society, as well as the influence of extra-linguistic factors on the language, sociolinguistic, regional, textual variability is distinguished, as well as individual, which means the variability of sociolects: gender, age, ethnicity, class etc. (petrenko et al., 2009, p. 121) notes that social variability manifests itself in two varieties: stratification, which is associated with the social structure of society, and situational, which is expressed with the variation of linguistic means depending on the communicative situation. v. stepanov (1976, p. 100) made a significant achievement in the development of linguistic variability, he created the concept of a "national variant", which is understood as "such forms of the national language that do not show serious structural differences, but at the same time acquire autonomy, supported and recognized within each national community ". in turn, variation is a difference precisely in the formation of linguistic units, it means a change in the sound composition of these units or structural meaning without loss of identity (golovina, 1983, pp. 58-63). due to the fact that a language is usually considered as a set of its varieties, taking into account territorial, social and other types of stratification, variability, variance and variation are extremely important linguistic phenomena that require careful study. postmodern in a linguistic context expresses a cultural phenomenon in a certain chaotic dimension, the content of which is not definitively defined. the aesthetic function of postmodern art reflects the combination of different artistic systems. postmodernism emerges under the conditions of comprehending the end of a certain historical era, the realization that something new unknown begins. the linguistic interpretation of postmodern representation is an exponent of scientific, artistic reinterpretation as a fundamental aspect of the expression of the "postmodern mentality". language expresses the ironic perception of the postmodern context of the world order. a sign of the speech essence in postmodernism is "ironic quotation thinking", mockery of the processes of life, reflected in the ironic combination of different genres, styles. language is a tool for displaying the sense-life principles that emerged in the era of postmodernism. analysis and comprehension of the linguistic content of today's communication becomes the basis for defining postmodernism as an image and style system that combines the stylistic features of previous eras. the defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 479 peculiarity of postmodernism is an intellectual search for the right variant of speech interpretation in the historical search for truth (bell, 1980). in general, the structure of present english cannot be a general rule of pronunciation, because it is influenced by the so-called "environmental pollution" in the form of the functioning of uncodified linguistic units, like any other language. pronunciation codification of standard abstraction reflects the activity of normal pronunciation. the study of its norm remains relevant, because the norm itself is the least conservative in comparison with other linguistic varieties, such as: spelling, grammar, vocabulary, syntax. this norm is the most flexible and varies considerably, even with a relatively small amount of time, therefore the ecology of the language is a currently important and insufficiently studied science (crowley, 1989). the aim of the article is to analyze the scholarly works, to determine the features of the social factors of language variation in the context of postmodern. the purpose of the article determined the following tasks: • to analyze the theoretical basis of the social factors of speech • to define the peculiarities of the variability of language as a manifestation of the postmodern worldview • to investigate the social factors of the variability of language. gender variability of language the dependence of the choice of language forms on a certain sociolinguistic variable was emphasized by linguists at different stages of the development of the science of language. in the 70s of the xx century, labov w. (1986) presented a systematic methodology for the study of social dialects based on such social factors: gender, age, ethnicity and class. the subject of the study of the social component of any language is a sociolect this is the main unit of social stratification, which is typical for a certain social group of native speakers, where one of the characteristics is the gender factor of speakers (erofeeva, 2008, p. 35). in the linguistic studies of domestic and foreign scientists, the problem of identifying differential differences by sex is actively investigated, taking into account both universal (typical for women and men) and special (typical for either women or men) information (petrenko et al., 2009). particular attention is paid to issues related to gender aspects, the center of which is cultural and social factors that determine the attitude of society towards men and women, as well as stereotypical ideas about men and women qualities (martynyuk, 1996). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 480 studies of the gender component first appeared in the west and were carried out on the material of the germanic and romance languages. the appearance of works in this area was caused by the interest of many linguists in the language of men and women representatives, their characteristic features in the pronunciation and use of certain lexical units (sapir, 2002). in order to reveal the influence of the gender factor on the language, we will consider the linguistic apparatus of the necessary concepts and terms. the division into the criteria "male" / "female" is in the center of attention of medicine, biology, psychology, sociology, cultural studies and other sciences. in connection with the development of the women's movement in western europe and the usa, the linguistic concept of gender was introduced into terminological circulation in the 60s of the xx century. the term gender is derived from the latin ―genus‖ (grammatical gender) and the english ―gender‖ and denotes the physical, anatomical and psychological differences between people. the concept of "gender" was introduced into scientific circulation in order to draw a line between biological sex (sexus) and social and cultural aspects that are present in the concept of "male female": the division of roles, cultural traditions, power relations due to the gender of people (vasilieva, 2000, p. 24). i.v. groshev (2004, p. 71) qualifies gender as the sum of representation and expectations associated in society with "femininity" and "manhood". according to sinelnikova & bogdanovich (2001, p. 4), gender is "a social sex that synthesizes cultural and biological in a person". thus, gender functions to designate and reveal the social and cultural conditionality of sex and provides for a socio-cultural concept, this is formed within the system of ethnically determined stereotypical representations. the initial criteria in the study of gender and its influence on spoken language were differences in the perception of the intellectual abilities of men and women provided by nature (davis & houck, 1992). it was believed that all the features of the language of both sexes are due only to the biological sex. however, subsequently, the angle of language learning shifted somewhat, which was facilitated by the studies of jespersen o. (1922) and mauthner f. (1982), who take gender as a basis not only as a biological criterion, but consider it from the point of view of social and historical factors. gender research is carried out within several approaches: 1) gender as a tool for social analysis; 2) gender as a tool for women's research; defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 481 3) gender as a cultural interpretation (kletsin, 1997, pp. 5-11). according to a.a. kletsin (1997) the first approach is based on the social nature of women and men in accordance with the distribution of social power in society. therefore, speakers of both sexes occupy different links in this structure, and the language performs a passing function from the main language, which is certainly reflected in the choice of certain linguistic tools and semantic differences. to construct psycholinguistic theories of male and female types of behavior, the second approach studies the linguistic functioning of both sexes. the third approach assumes cognitive differences in language models of representatives of both genders (kletsin, 1997). theoretical processing of foreign and domestic scientific sources has shown that the gender of the speaker to a certain extent affects the quality of the utterance (labov, 1975; trudgill, 1992). in the process of studying the gender aspect of the language on the material of other european languages, similar results were obtained by domestic researchers (stavytska, 2005; verbitskaya, 2001). let us emphasize that it was w. labov (1975, p. 223), who was a pioneer in the study of the morphological plane of language, who focused on the use of various parts of speech, their categories and word forms, which were based on the results he obtained when analyzing the language of many informants. note that the speech of women and men varies when using certain language tools and pronouncing the same option in different cases in a different way. according to the research results of trudgill p. (1992, p. 79), women always try to adhere to the prestigious forms of the language, thereby they communicate their status, and sometimes try to improve it. men, unlike women, use non-prestigious forms of language. the concept of male dominance and female subordination in the language is based on the position that the male structures of society are reflected in communication, therefore, the focus is on speech acts occurring between persons of different sexes. from the point of view of modern converse analysis, the question is posed as follows: how are relations between male dominance and female discrimination established during communication? (sacks et al., 1974), within the framework of this technique, investigated a number of speech acts between persons of different genders and deduced the features of the female and male communicative styles concerning the rules of communication (who breaks the rules? who interrupts whom? who when enters the conversation and speaks longer? who is the initiator new topic? who ends someone else's broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 482 sentences?). it turned out that the male communicative style is characterized by competitiveness and confrontation, and the female by cooperativity, an orientation towards cooperation, not confrontation (zangwill, 2005, p. 167). note that studying gender as a factor of influence on the language, the female version of the language is often a more interesting object for study than the male one, because it is they (women) who try to be more mobile in the modern urbanized world and learn the ―advanced‖ forms of pronunciation and lexical units. lakoff r. (1973) noted in his studies that the speech of women is considered hyper-correct and polite. this idea is also associated with the subordinate position of women in the social hierarchy and their lack of power. let's define the main differences between the female version of the language and the male one: in our opinion, the most complete is the characteristic presented in the work of i.v. konovalenko (2003), who highlights such properties of the women language: 1) the use of intonation patterns that are associated with expressions of politeness (rossolatos, 2015) 2) the use of an ascending tone for the purpose of expressing uncategorical and uncertainty (lakoff, 1973); 3) the use of euphemisms (jespersen, 1922); 4) the use of polite grammatical forms (lakoff, 1973); 5) the use of invective, in smaller quantities than men (sternin, 2000). 6) the use of dividing questions (fishman, 1997a; lakoff, 1973); 7) the use of indirect requests, instead of orders (trudgill, 1992); 8) hyper-correctness and tact in the formulation of orders; attentiveness to the needs of the interlocutor (tannen, 2003); 9) "hypercorrect" speech behavior (trudgill, 1992); 10) most of the polite forms (martynyuk, 1996); 11) the tendency to not violate the turn of the conversation and the tendency to apologize for excessive talkativeness (coates, 1986); 12) using compliments in return (konovalenko, 2003, pp. 62-63). according to lakoff r. (1973, p. 64), a woman's speech behavior is characterized as insecure, less aggressive (compared to male), humane, attentive, compromising, non-dominant and such that it concentrates all its attention on the interlocutor. such incompetence and self-doubt creates a negative impact on the image of women. however, in modern society, it is quite often possible to observe the use of "man" language tactics by a woman. in such situations, she is perceived as an unfeminine, arrogant, defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 483 feminist person, whose behavior can lead to communication problems (eckert & mcconnell-ginet, 2003). this speech behavior is called "doublebind". the results obtained are not absolute, and made it necessary to take into account extra-lingual factors when explaining linguistic features depending on the gender of the speaker. at the end of the twentieth century o'barr w. (1980, p. 97) conducted a study that questioned the views of lakoff r. (1973) on the so-called "feminine language". the object of study was 150 hours of audio recordings of witnesses during speeches in the courtroom. the conclusion was the statement that the demonstration of this type of behavior ("female language") is possible not only from women, but also from men. the researchers found that powerless language was used by persons of low social status and / or those who had no experience of testifying in court, highlighting the fact that language differences arise on the basis of specific authority of power, not gender category (filin, 1982). according to tannen d. (2003), the main reason for the difference in the languages of men and women is the purpose of communication: for most women, conversation is a means of rapprochement and development of relationships, while men use language to try to maintain their own independence and support their status in society (o'barr, 1980, p. 319). researchers (weber, 2012) confirm the data of tannen d. (2003) on the difference between the goals of communication between men and women (usachenko, 2013, p. 54). holmes j. (1995, p. 63) made an assumption about the difference between the languages of men and women. in her opinion, these signs (speech of men and women) can claim the title of sociolinguistic universals, however, the need to take into account specific communicative situations canceled the idea of universalization. in the works of foreign researchers (fishman, 1997a; holmes, 1995), it was found that women, who more often do ―dirty work‖ and maintain conversation with men, use particles and questions that signal attention to the speaker and thus provide a change topics of interlocutors. men, on the other hand, are more focused on the topic that is being discussed and do not pay attention to changing topics or interlocutors. zimmerman d. (1975) in the course of the study established the presence of verbal aggression on the part of men (zelinsky, 1989). as pointed out by n.b. mechkovskaya (2001, p. 312) and other researchers (groshev, 2004; sinelnikova & bogdanovich 2001), women's speech is saturated with attractive and emotive vocabulary and more diverse and contrast-stylistic than men's, moreover, women are less likely to use broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 484 such an amount of abusive expressions and vulgarisms than men (zirka, 2006, p. 58). among other differences between male and female speech, the following stand out: male speech is more conservative, female, on the contrary, is replete with emotionally evaluative, affectionate diminutive words, euphemisms; women are more sensitive to speech fashion and more often adopt prestigious variants of the language; men use hyper-correct options less; male speech is syntactically simpler and less intellectually saturated; the neutral language of women contains a greater number of emotionally marked elements and intonationally more diverse than the male language (fishman, 1997b). in sociological studies, the main characteristic features of the language of women and men have a long history, according to which gender should be considered not as a demographic category, but in the light of social criteria affecting speakers of both genders. with the equality of other social categories (social and professional status, age, communicative role), men and women choose different strategies of speech behavior, which are manifested in the models of building communication and in the use of language resources, as well as in associations that arise in men and women. gender variability of speech behavior is studied at different levels of the language: phonetic, lexicological, grammatical (hassan, 1987). it should be noted that the distribution of language by gender (female / male) is rather arbitrary. the nature of the speakers, the communicative situation, as well as the social status of individuals are important. all of the above confirms that it is necessary to consider gender variability in the context of other social factors, such as ethnic and social affiliation, age, education, which constitutes the linguistic portrait of women and men and distinguishes them from each other. gender variation in language is formed in the process of life and is a consequence of the inequality between women and men throughout historical development. however, in the context of the postmodern perception of the world, gender loses its content. the essential feature of the postmodern worldview is gender equality, which will be reflected in the linguistic environment in prospective development. ethnic variability of language it is relevant to consider such a concept as ethnic variability of a language for the analysis of any dialect. the ethnicity of speakers implies the presence of a homogeneous ethnic group, functional and static characteristics that distinguish one group from another, having another set of similar characteristics. the concept of ethnicity doubts this view of defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 485 culture and primarily draws attention to the multicultural nature of most modern societies and the absence of cultural isolates, which are considered as the practice of improving the speech communication of individuals in the context of society transformation (linguistic culture) (cherednychenko, 1995, pp. 99-111). there is also no consensus among scientists about the concept of "ethnicity", however, scientists from various relevant disciplines, including sociolinguistics, take as a basis three main approaches to solving the problem of defining this concept, namely: 1) identifying ethnicity in isolation 2) definition of ethnic group and ethnicity as a consequence of the term; 3) determination of ethnicity in relation to race. each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. the definition of ethnicity or ethnic groups can be found in the following interpretation: "ethnicity, that is, a set of gendered cultural identifiers used to determine the belonging of individuals to groups" (barth, 1969, p. 387). ethnic groups are understood as groups of people that differ in common origin due to similar physical type or customs (o'barr, 1980). according to barth f. (1969), an ethnic group is a biologically shared membership that shares the fundamental cultural values that identify it and constitutes a field of communication and interaction. zelinsky w. (1989) proposed to generalize all these definitions and identify an ethnic group as " a current social structure that is constantly changing and has a unique set of cultural and historical communities, which is inherent in individuals with common physical characteristics and in the same social space" (zangwill, 2005, p. 44). considering the concept of ethnicity, it is necessary to mention an important term for our research race. the definition of race is also difficult meaning. in some cases, scientists do not clearly define the ethnicity of the race (usachenko, 2013). as defined by dubois w.e.b. (1975), "a race is a huge family of people, which, as a rule, has a common language, history, traditions and strives to fulfill together some more or less vividly conceived ideals of life" (usachenko, 2013, p. 53). omi & winant (1994) does not provide a clear definition of ethnicity, although it notes that ethnicity is different from race. researchers define race as "a concept that means and symbolizes social conflicts and interests, referring to different types of human bodies" (weber, 1980, p. 55). in other cases, race and ethnicity are deliberately separated by criteria related to physical appearance. therefore, race is based on the identification of a physical marker, while ethnicity is a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 486 set of individual, group and cultural attributes associated with a physical marker (usachenko, 2013). along with the concept of a single ethnicity, there is also the socalled mixed ethnicity, which implies the mixing of representatives of several races, due to the existence of a multiracial population integrated in the social hierarchy of countries around the world (davis, 1999). the number of countries that have a "mixed race" population is increasing dramatically. these countries certainly include the united states of america (zangwill, 2005, p. 22-23). now in the us, there are common cases where people whose parents are of different races must choose how to identify their belonging to a particular ethnic group, and this self-identification can change over time. thus, ethnic identity is a rather difficult phenomenon to define; it is formed and exists in the context of social experience and the process whereby people identify themselves or others as members of a particular ethnic group. if we look at such a group from the inside, identity is based on a set of cultural characteristics with the help of which members of one group distinguish themselves from all other groups, even if they are very close (kurath & arbor, 1949). as a rule, the differences between the groups are quite definite and multilevel, while the external ideas about the group generalize the stereotypical criteria in the formulation of the characteristics of the group. in the internal and external definitions of what constitutes an ethnic group (people), there are both objective and subjective criteria. sometimes consanguinity or other objective criteria do not play a decisive role. ethnicity as a factor of speech is reflected in a new way in postmodern\. postmodern\ is a manifestation of disillusionment with the rules of art, and also criticizes the limitations and functionalism of previous eras. nevertheless, postmodern is formed in the context of a combination of features and characteristics of previous cultural eras, so ethnicity is one of the factors of postmodern. the ironic perception of values and experiences of human activity determines the desire to erase nationality and functionality in speech, and to define individuality as an important factor in the formation of new styles of speech in the context of postmodern. ethnic reality presupposes the existence of social markers recognized as a means of differentiating groups that coexist in a wider field of social interaction. these distinctive features are formed on a different basis, including appearance, geographic origin, professional specialization, religion, language. from the point of view of ethnic richness, the interaction between languages in order to preserve multilingual diversity determines the defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 487 preservation of uncodified linguistic units that are characteristic of the use of certain groups of individuals. class variability of language the subject of many studies is precisely the influence on the language of various factors of the inhabitants of certain territories. it is necessary to reveal precisely the nature of the term "influence" in order to maximally analyze this issue. influence is often understood as ―an action that a certain object (in our case, a ―factor‖) or phenomenon reveals in relation to another object (―language‖) (tkachenko, 1998). that is, influence is the process of changing a person's language through the control of certain factors, and it is social categories that play a crucial role in the formation of the speech of residents of different territories, that is, we are talking about social influence on the language. one of the most influential categories that interferes with the functioning of the language in any territory is the social status of speakers, as one of the main parameters of communication, it manifests itself in the postulates of communication and speech acts, methods of influence and characteristics of the mode of expression, as well as in the pragmatic meanings of linguistic units (mozheyko, 2015, p. 115). an important feature of social differentiation, as well as highlighting the connection between language and a social category is the characteristic of the social environment in which a person exists (nerubasska et al., 2020; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; onishchuk et al., 2020), his belonging to a certain social group, and his social status. the concept of "social environment", introduced by e. durkheim (2006) to denote socio-cultural differences is later widely used by researchers (kutsenko, 2006, p. 56-57). in particular, s. hradil (2021) considers the social environment as an association of people based not only on the basis of relations of kinship, neighborhood, community, professional affiliation, passion, but also such general characteristics as moral rules, identity, tastes, lifestyle and habit. k. davis (1999) noted the importance of the role of family ties for establishing the degree of openness or closedness of society. according to the views of k. davis (1999), the type of stratification of society probably varies from a completely closed type, for example, the caste system of india, to a completely open type, the class system of the united states. the main difference between the two types is the function of the family. along with the demographic reproduction and socialization of children, the family is able to limit or enhance stratification by transferring status characteristics, which in turn help or hinder the achievement of their own status. in india, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 488 the son of a scavenger becomes a scavenger, in other words, there is an absolute inheritance of parental status. in open class societies, the influence of parental status on the status of children is manifested in a different way, in particular, the individual has the opportunity to receive benefits, for example, the manner of speaking and dressing, knowledge, education in a prestigious institution, self-confidence, awareness, the number of useful connections and financial support. thus, k. davis (1999, p. 110) recognizes that, in addition to the biological qualities of the individual, provided by the system of equal opportunities declared by the american society in the struggle for social success, social differences have a significant impact, since they guarantee preference to individuals who have inherited the characteristics of high status parents. p. sorokin (1992) indicates the presence in society of "vertical mobility", that is, the ability of individuals to move up or down in the social hierarchy from one level to another, using channels of social circulation, the role of which is played by various social institutions. the most important of these institutions are: education, army, church, marriage, professional organizations, organizations for the creation of material values (fudorova, 2009, p. 112). note that status consists of a combination of economic, political and professional factors. professional stratification is determined by two groups of factors (sorokin, 1992). first, certain professional groups have always been at the top of the social hierarchy, while others have always been at the bottom. secondly, stratification takes place within each professional group. thus, the totality of these groups, as well as the totality of positions within each of them, constitute a system of social coordinates and allow us to determine the social position of any individual. parsons t. (1960) distinguishes three groups of signs of status position. the first group is formed from the characteristics that a person is endowed with from birth (ethnicity, family ties, physical and intellectual characteristics). the second contains signs related to the performance of roles. it includes various types of professional and labor activities. the third group consists of the elements of "ownership", that is, property, material and spiritual values, privileges (filippov, 2012, p. 306-313). in our opinion, the most apt definition is: ―social status is a formally or informally established place of an individual, which is recognized in society and in the hierarchy of a social group‖ (bell, 1980, p. 318). it should be added that the status of an individual in a certain social group is determined by a number of his characteristics: age, gender, education, defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 489 position held, the presence or absence of certain skills and abilities in an individual that are valuable for the group, etc. (formanovskaya, 1984, p. 68). the study of the category of social status in linguistics includes: 1) determination of the social status of an individual as a social category, identifies the specifics and methods of choosing certain signs of the social status of an individual; 2) substantiation of the main ways of expression of signs of a person's social status in lexical semantics; 3) the study of the combinatorics of signs of social status in the sense of words and phrases with signs of modality, features that describe the stylistic register (filippov, 2012). in american and british linguistics, the dependence of language on status characteristics is reflected in studies on the spontaneous speech of representatives of african american and working communities, these studies have shown that certain language variants are associated with the language of representatives of certain social groups and stratum of society (usachenko, 2013; warner, 1960). today, researchers study the linguistic and speech means of expressing the category of social status, the influence of the speaker's social characteristics on informal dialogical communication (schweitzer, 1982, p. 199). social inequality was formed in the context of specific historical factors. the very fact of social differentiation expresses a postmodern rethinking of the values of social development. people from different social classes express their thoughts differently. postmodernism embodies rationalist approaches to communication. language in postmodernism reflects today's approaches to social development. trends of social differentiation in postmodernism determine human behavior and the choice of linguistic style. information technology is intensively developing a separate style of speech that spreads in social networks. a peculiarity of the language of today is the use of slang, which levels social differentiation in social networks in the conditions of postmodernism. thus, social status is considered within the framework of the manifestation of the ratio of the status of speakers, which affects the choice of the appropriate speech behavior. since the social component plays an important role, it is the main way of influencing one participant in communication in relation to another. the structure of social differentiation of society and the structure of social differentiation of language is a multidimensional formation that functions in different dimensions. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 490 age variability of language recently, a person's age has become one of the components of a person's status in society. in our opinion, it is one of the most important features in language learning. in relation to language, age is the study of sociolinguistic variation. sociolinguistics refers to the age of speakers to describe how changes in language (phonetic, lexical and grammatical) are picked up by speakers of a certain age and passed on to future generations. an individual speaker or age group represents both a place in history and a stage in life. age can reflect changes in the language of a community, how it moves in time (historical changes), as well as modifications in an individual's language, how he or she moves through life (graduation age). lexical and syntactic preferences change with age, and speakers at each stage of their lives are aware of which new lexical units fill in their vocabulary. in the early years of an individual's childhood, studies of quantitative changes in any language began quite recently. the work of (roberts & labov, 1995) showed that children’s language at an early age is formed by adults, and therefore it is similar to the language of older people who serve as models wetmore, 1995). over time, the child's language changes. interaction with parents, siblings, neighbors and friends affects young children and their changes. in accordance with belonging to a particular social group, differences in children's friendships also leave certain imprints on the development of younger children. in working-class areas, older children look after younger children, so that the latter speaks in a manner similar to that of their relatives and their friends (wetmore, 1995). the language of adolescents and young people is of particular importance for sociolinguistics, because the basic language skills of individuals are laid down precisely during reaching puberty and these categories of speakers experience corresponding changes in social status, which in turn are manifested in their speech behavior. it is clear that this does not mean biological age, but the corresponding period of life, the level of socialization of the speakers (mushnikova, 2012, pp. 59-60). adults are more conservative in using variables than younger age groups (petrenko et al., 2009). conservatism is associated with the use of a standard language in the workplace. therefore, it is the representatives of this age group that have the highest social status, which is undoubtedly manifested in the choice of certain language tools and the use of the language in general. defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 491 elderly speakers are distinguished by a low social status, since they have the least degree of participation in the social productivity of the activities of society, and therefore their speech has a large degree of deviation from the norm (mushnikova, 2012, pp. 59-60). postmodern is a manifestation of changes in society, formed as a sign of changes in society, the gap between the values of the present and the historical past. this context determines the speech of adolescents, who reinterpret knowledge and skills. young people are the most mobile, intensively using new technologies, modeling and reproducing the perception of the world, expressing their thoughts as ideas that can be put into practice. this tendency defines the main conceptual provisions of youth language variability, which is a relevant manifestation of postmodern. however, not all changes in a person's language are explained solely by the influence of time and age. therefore, in order to achieve maximum objectivity in the study of age differentiation of the language, it is necessary to take into account the role of the influence of the entire complex of social factors. the age factor is certainly associated with the social status factor, because later the speakers change their social position, moving up or down the vertical (social) scale, while using the language relevant for this social group. conclusions in our work, variability is a common property and way of existence of the language system and the language norm, which, in connection with its socio-economic environment, reflects changes in the structure of the language. variability is understood as the division of the language into national-state variants, as well as those that depend on the influence of social factors: gender, age, social status, etc. in turn, variation is a difference precisely in the formation of linguistic units (a change in the sound composition or structural meaning without loss of identity). the influence of the gender category on the language expands the understanding of the nature and causes of linguistic variance, features of speech behavior, interpersonal and intercultural communication. with equal social factors, men and women choose different strategies of speech behavior, which are manifested in the models of text construction, the use of linguistic means, associations that arise in representatives of both sexes. gender variability of speech behavior is studied at different levels of the language: phonetic and lexical. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 492 gender variation in speech behavior is studied at different levels of language: phonetic and lexical, which is the context of postmodern reinterpretation. postmodern, on the one hand, erases national limitations, and on the other, defines individuality as the basis of perspective development. appropriateness is a testament to postmodern, and embodies ethnic heterogeneity. "ethnicity" replaces the concept of "ethnos", which means the existence of separate ethnic groups. the concept of ethnos implies the existence of homogeneous, functional and static characteristics that distinguish one group from another, endowed with a different set of these characteristics. the social status of a person is one of the main parameters of communication and the ability of individuals to move vertically along the social ladder up or down can influence the choice of the appropriate speech behavior by individuals. the most important components of social status are: education received, attitude to church, stay or not being married, a certain profession, etc. the social component plays an important role in the differentiation of speech, since it is the main way of influencing one participant of communication in relation to another. the differentiation of speech, which emerged in the context of historical remnants, is reoriented toward the formation of a unity of linguistic expression, which is a manifestation of the postmodern worldview. the age categories of speakers are divided into the following age groups: "children", "adolescents", "adults" and "old people" (the so-called "third age"). distinctive features characteristic of each of the groups are observed in the language of all groups, namely: children and the elderly have the greatest number of deviations from the norm. adolescents show differences in speech behavior in connection with puberty, which is certainly reflected in a certain choice of language tools. only the speech of adults is the closest to the norm, because they are more conservative and have a high social status. the age-related properties of the language are manifested in the form of deviations from the literary language at the phonetic and lexical levels. this phenomenon of variability, determined by the age characteristics of modernity is a manifestation of postmodern thinking. as a result of the study it was found that one of the factors of the postmodern formation of language is the gender variation of language. gender variation represents psycholinguistic differences in speech between male and female genders. defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 493 it is determined that ethnic variation in language is one of the most common factors in the formation of speech in the world. the ethnic heterogeneity of society is expressed mainly through the speech of people. accordingly, each person expresses himself as a representative of a particular nation through the peculiarities of speech. it is also investigated that the class variation of language reflects the historical features of the existence of different strata of the population in different countries of the world, which also differed in their speech. it is the belonging to a certain state that is expressed through language, formed in different cultural epochs and clearly displayed in the postmodern period. the study summarizes the research on the age variability of speech. each period of human life, starting with childhood, has its own distinctive feature of speech. references barth, f. (1969). ethnic groups and boundaries. waveland press inc. https://www.brown.edu/departments/joukowsky_institute/courses/eth nicidentity12/files/19389643.pdf bell, r. (1980). sotsiolingvistika. tseli, metodyi, problemyi [sociolinguistics. goals, methods, problems]. mezhdunarodnyie otnosheniya. http://surl.li/adyfi. bell, r. t. (1980). sotsiolingvistika. tseli, metody, problemy [sociolinguistics. goals, methods, problems]. international relations. https://www.twirpx.com/file/114024/ braun, p. (1998). tendenzen in der deutschen gegenwartssprache. sprachvarietäten. kohlhammer. byganova, e. a. (2008). grammaticheskiye sredstva vyrazheniya kategorii sotsial'nogo statusa v rechi [grammatical means of expressing the category of social status in speech]. in l a. nefedova (ed.), slovo, vyskazyvaniye, tekst v kognitivnom, pragmaticheskom i kul'turologicheskom aspektakh [word, utterance, text in cognitive, pragmatic and cultural aspects], iv international conference, april 25-26: collection of articles (pp. 60-64). chelyabinsk. cherednychenko, a. i. (1995). movy yevropeysʹkoho kulʹturnoho arealu. rozvytok i vzayemodiya [languages of the european cultural area. development and interaction]. dovira. coates, j. (1986). women, men and language. a sociolinguistic account of sex differences in language. longman. crowley, t. (1989). the politics of discourse: the standard language question in british cultural debates. macmillan education. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-politics-of-discourse%3athe-standard-language-incrowley/9a7c652abcca9e92ef654eb69cb8d3bdfa0919ba https://www.brown.edu/departments/joukowsky_institute/courses/ethnicidentity12/files/19389643.pdf https://www.brown.edu/departments/joukowsky_institute/courses/ethnicidentity12/files/19389643.pdf http://surl.li/adyfi https://www.twirpx.com/file/114024/ https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-politics-of-discourse%3a-the-standard-language-in-crowley/9a7c652abcca9e92ef654eb69cb8d3bdfa0919ba https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-politics-of-discourse%3a-the-standard-language-in-crowley/9a7c652abcca9e92ef654eb69cb8d3bdfa0919ba https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-politics-of-discourse%3a-the-standard-language-in-crowley/9a7c652abcca9e92ef654eb69cb8d3bdfa0919ba broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 494 davis, k. (1999). funktsionalistskoye obosnovaniye stratifikatsii [functionalist substantiation of stratification]. in s. a. makeeva (ed.) chelovek i obshchestvo. khrestomatiya [man and society. reader] (pp. 107−117). institute of sociology of the national academy of sciences of ukraine. davis, l., & houck, c. (1992). is there a midland dialect area?—again. аmerican speech, 67(1), 61-70. https://doi.org/10.2307/455758 derbilov, a. l. (1986). prosodicheskiy tip polinatsional'nogo literaturnogo yazyka i normy yego realizatsii v natsional'nykh variantakh [prosodic type of multinational literary language and the norms of its implementation in national variants]. in norma i realizatsii yazykovykh sredstv [norm and implementation of language means]: interuniversity collection of scientific works (pp. 28–33). gorkiy. dubois, w. e. b. (1975). the negro mind reaches out. in a. locke (ed.) the new negro (p. 412). atheneum. http://american-lit.niv.ru/american-lit/istoriyaliteratury-ssha-5/uilyam-dyubua.htm durkheim, e. (2006). sotsiologiya: yeye predmet, metod, prednaznacheniye [sociology: its subject, method, purpose]. "canon +" regional public organization of disabled people "rehabilitation". http://library.khpg.org/files/docs/1372596651.pdf eckert, p., & mcconnell-ginet, s. (2003). language and gender. cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511791147 erofeeva, t.i. (2008). yazykovaya yedinitsa v gendernom rassmotrenii [language unit in gender consideration]. bulletin of the chelyabinsk state university: philology. art criticism, 19, 9(110), 35–39. filin, f.p. (1982). ocherki po teorii yazyikoznaniya [essays on the theory of linguistics]. nauka. https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01001086097. filippov, a. a. (2012). kategoriya sotsial'nogo statusa v zarubezhnoy i otechestvennoy sotsiologii [the category of social status in foreign and domestic sociology]. voprosy sovremennoy nauki i praktiki [questions of modern science and practice], 1(37) 306–313. http://vernadsky.tstu.ru/pdf/2012/01/47.pdf fishman, p.m. (1997a). interaction: the work women do. in: coupland, n., jaworski, a. (eds) sociolinguistics. modern linguistics series. palgrave, london. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25582-5_33 fishman, p.m. (1997b). interaction: the work women do. social problems, 25(4), 397– 406, https://academic.oup.com/socpro/articleabstract/25/4/397/1680165. formanovskaya, n. i. (1984). sposoby vyrazheniya pros'by v russkom yazyke (pragmaticheskiy podkhod) [ways of expressing a request in russian (a pragmatic approach)]. russkiy yazyk za rubezhom [russian language abroad], 6, https://doi.org/10.2307/455758 http://american-lit.niv.ru/american-lit/istoriya-literatury-ssha-5/uilyam-dyubua.htm http://american-lit.niv.ru/american-lit/istoriya-literatury-ssha-5/uilyam-dyubua.htm http://library.khpg.org/files/docs/1372596651.pdf https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511791147 https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01001086097 http://vernadsky.tstu.ru/pdf/2012/01/47.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25582-5_33 https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/25/4/397/1680165 https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/25/4/397/1680165 defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 495 67–72. http://journal.pushkin.institute/archive/archive/1984/846/способы%20выражения%20просьбы%20в%20русском%20языке.pdf fudorova, o. m. (2009). teoriyi sotsialʹnoho statusu: piznavalʹni mozhlyvosti i doslidnytsʹki stratehiyi [theories of social status: cognitive possibilities and research strategies]. visnyk of kharkiv national university named after v.n. karazin. gampertz, j. (1972). novoye v lingvistike [new in linguistics]. progress. golovina, e. d. (1983). k tipologii yazykovoy variativnosti [on the typology of linguistic variability]. voprosy yazykoznaniya [questions of linguistics], 2, 58–63. https://vja.ruslang.ru/archive/1983-2.pdf groshev, i. v. (2004). reklamnyye tekhnologii gendera [advertising technologies of gender]. social sciences and modernity, 4, 172–187. rossolatos, g. (ed.) (2015). handbook of brand semiotics. kassel: kassel university press. hassan, i. (1987). postmodern turn: essays in postmodern theory and culture. ohio state university press. holmes, j. (1995). women, men and politeness. longman. hradil, s. (2021). soziale ungleichheit in deutschland (german edition). springer. https://www.amazon.com/soziale-ungleichheit-deutschland-germanstefan/dp/353117259x/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&qid=1628192033&refinem ents=p_27%3astefan+hradil&s=books&sr=1-2 jespersen, o. (1922). language, its nature, development and origin. george allen & unwin ltd. ruskin house. kletsin, a. a. (1997). predisloviye redaktora [editor's foreword]. in a. a. kletsin (ed.) gendernyye tetradi [gender notebooks] (pp. 5–11). saint petersburg state university. konovalenko, i. v. (2003). kommunikativnyye taktiki russkoy rechi v aspekte ikh gendernoy spetsifiki (na materiale issledovaniya kolkosti) [communicative tactics of russian speech in the aspect of their gender specificity (based on the study of sarcasms)] [abstract]. communication: iii international conference, november 27–28, 2003: report abstracts (pp. 62–63). moscow state linguistic university. https://genderindetail.org.ua/netcat_files/70/78/010_gender._yazyk_ku l_tura_kommunikatsiya._sbornik_tezisov_2003_.pdf kurath, h., & arbor, a. (1949). a word geography of the eastern united states. university of michigan studies in american english. kutsenko, o. (2006). status kul'turnykh neravenstv v sovremennoy sotsiologii [the status of cultural inequalities in modern sociology]. in s. a. makeev (ed.) novyye sotsial'nyye neravenstva [new social inequalities] (pp. 56–57). institute of sociology of the national academy of sciences of ukraine. http://journal.pushkin.institute/archive/archive/1984/84-6/способы%20выражения%20просьбы%20в%20русском%20языке.pdf http://journal.pushkin.institute/archive/archive/1984/84-6/способы%20выражения%20просьбы%20в%20русском%20языке.pdf https://vja.ruslang.ru/archive/1983-2.pdf https://www.amazon.com/soziale-ungleichheit-deutschland-german-stefan/dp/353117259x/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&qid=1628192033&refinements=p_27%3astefan+hradil&s=books&sr=1-2 https://www.amazon.com/soziale-ungleichheit-deutschland-german-stefan/dp/353117259x/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&qid=1628192033&refinements=p_27%3astefan+hradil&s=books&sr=1-2 https://www.amazon.com/soziale-ungleichheit-deutschland-german-stefan/dp/353117259x/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&qid=1628192033&refinements=p_27%3astefan+hradil&s=books&sr=1-2 https://genderindetail.org.ua/netcat_files/70/78/010_gender._yazyk_kul_tura_kommunikatsiya._sbornik_tezisov_2003_.pdf https://genderindetail.org.ua/netcat_files/70/78/010_gender._yazyk_kul_tura_kommunikatsiya._sbornik_tezisov_2003_.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 496 labov, w. (1975). o mekhanizme yazykovykh izmeneniy [about the mechanism of language changes]. novoye v lingvistike [new in linguistics], 7, sociolinguistics, 199–228. labov, w. (1986). the social origins of sound change. in h.b. allen, m. d. linn (eds.), dialect and language variation (pp. 524–541). kolker. lakoff, r. (1973). language and women’s place. language in society, 2, 45–79. martynyuk, a. p. (1996). rechevoye povedeniye muzhchin i zhenshchin v neformal'noy kommunikativnoy situatsii [speech behavior of men and women in an informal communicative situation]. in a. martynyuk, p. zemlyanskiy (eds.), pol i yego markirovka v rechevoy deyatel'nosti [gender and its labeling in speech activity] (pp. 114–126). mits chyakp publishing house. mauthner, f. (1982). beiträge zu einer kritik der sprache. vol. 1, zur sprache und zur psychologie. cotta. mechkovskaya, n. b. (2001). obshcheye yazykoznaniye: strukturnaya i sotsial'naya tipologiya yazykov [general linguistics: structural and social typology of languages]. flint. http://csl.isc.irk.ru/bd/ucheb/мечковская%20общее%20языкознани е%202001.pdf mozheyko, o. (2015). rolʹ sotsialʹnoho statusu movtsya v realizatsiyi movlennyevykh aktiv pohrozy v suchasnomu anhlomovnomu dyskursi [the role of the social status of the speaker in the implementation of speech acts of threat in present english discourse]. bulletin of the kharkiv national university named after v.n. karazin. series: foreign philology. methods of teaching foreign languages, 81, 114–118. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vkhipg_2015_81_17 mushnikova, e. a. (2012). vliyaniye vozrasta govoryashchego na var'irovaniye zvukovykh yedinits [the influence of the speaker's age on the variation of sound units]. bulletin of the moscow state regional university. series: linguistics, 1, 59–63. nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 o’barr, w., & atkins, b. (1980). «women’s language» or «powerless language»?. in s. mcconnel-ginet et al. (eds.) women and language in literature and society (pp. 93–109). praeger. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316501720_%27women%27s_ langu http://csl.isc.irk.ru/bd/ucheb/мечковская%20общее%20языкознание%202001.pdf http://csl.isc.irk.ru/bd/ucheb/мечковская%20общее%20языкознание%202001.pdf http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vkhipg_2015_81_17 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316501720_%27women%27s_langu https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316501720_%27women%27s_langu defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 497 omi, m., & winant, h, (1994). racial formation in the united states: from the 1960s to the 1990s (2nd ed.). routledge. https://www.worldcat.org/title/racialformation-in-the-united-states-from-the-1960s-to-the1990s/oclc/28851479 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 parsons, t. (1960). structure and process in modern societies. free press. petrenko d. a., khrabskova d. m., isaev e. sh. (2009). sotsiolingvisticheskaya variativnost' natsional'nogo yazyka kak tselostnoy struktury [sociolinguistic variability of the national language as an integral structure]. umi. roberts, j., & labov, w. (1995). learning to talk philadelphian: acquisition of short a by preschool children. language variation & change, 7(1), 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954394500000910 sacks, h., schegloff, e. a., & jefferson, g. a. (1974). simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. language, 50(4), part i, 696— 735. sapir, e. (2002). izbrannyye trudy po yazykoznaniyu i kul'turologii [selected works on linguistic and cultural studies] [translation from english], (2nd edition). publishing group "progress". https://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_buks/linguist/sepir/index.php schweitzer, a.d. (1982). on the problem of social differentiation of language. questions of linguistics, 5, 39–48. http://www.philology.ru/linguistics1/shveytser-82.htm selivanova, o. o. (2008). suchasna linhvistyka: napryamy ta problemy [modern linguistics: aspects and problems]. dovkillya. http://irbisnbuv.gov.ua/ulib/item/ukr0001849 shakhbagova, d. a. (1986). foneticheskaya sistema angliyskogo literaturnogo yazyka – tselostnost', ustoychivost', variantnost' [the phonetic system of the english literary language integrity, stability, variance]. thesis abstract for the degree of candidate of philological sciences: specialty 10.02.04 "germanic languages". sinelnikova, l. n., & bogdanovich, g. yu. (2001). vvedeniye v lingvisticheskuyu genderologiyu: materialy k spetskursu [introduction to linguistic genderology: materials for a special course]. simferopol. sorokin, p. (1992). pitirim sorokin. «chelovek. tsivilizatsiya. obshchestvo» [pitirim sorokin. "man. civilization. society"]. series "thinkers of the xx century". https://sociology.knu.ua/sites/default/files/library/elclosed/sorokin.pdf https://www.worldcat.org/title/racial-formation-in-the-united-states-from-the-1960s-to-the-1990s/oclc/28851479 https://www.worldcat.org/title/racial-formation-in-the-united-states-from-the-1960s-to-the-1990s/oclc/28851479 https://www.worldcat.org/title/racial-formation-in-the-united-states-from-the-1960s-to-the-1990s/oclc/28851479 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954394500000910 https://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_buks/linguist/sepir/index.php http://www.philology.ru/linguistics1/shveytser-82.htm http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/ulib/item/ukr0001849 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/ulib/item/ukr0001849 https://sociology.knu.ua/sites/default/files/library/elclosed/sorokin.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 498 stavytska, l. o. (2005). argo, zharhon, slenh: sotsialʹna dyferentsiatsiya ukrayinsʹkoyi movy [argo, jargon, slang: social differentiation of the ukrainian language]. krytyka. stepanov, g. v. (1969). metody sravnitel'no-sopostavitel'nogo izucheniya sovremennykh romanskikh yazykov [methods of comparatively-comparative study of modern romance languages]. nauka. stepanov, g. v. (1976). tipologiya yazykovykh sostoyaniy i situatsiy v stranakh romanskoy rechi [typology of linguistic states and situations in the countries of romance speech]. nauka. sternin, i. a. (2000). sotsial'nyye faktory i razvitiye sovremennogo rusckogo yazyka [social factors and the development of the modern russian language]. in teoreticheskaya i prikladnaya lingvistika theoretical and applied linguistics], collection of scientific papers, issue 2: language and social environment (pp. 4–16). voronezh state technical university publishing house. http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/sternin-00.htm tannen, d. (2003). gender and family interaction. in j. holmes & m. meyerhoff (eds.) the handbook of language and gender (pp. 179–201). blackwell publishing. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327687180_gender_and_fami ly_interaction tkachenko, o. b. (1998). ukrayinsʹka fonetyka na istoryko-typolohichnomu tli [ukrainian phonetics on a historical and typological background]. linguistics, 2-3, 14-25. trudgill, p. (1992). introducing language and society. penguin books. usachenko, i. v. (2013). do pytannya vyvchennya movnoyi sytuatsiyi [on the question of studying the language situation]. language and culture, 1(16), 51– 56. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21i d=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21 com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=mik_2013_16_1_9 vasilieva, i. b. (2000). problemy gendernykh issledovaniy v lingvistike [problems of gender studies in linguistics] [conference presentation abstract]. cognitive approach to the study of linguistic phenomena]: scientific conference of young scientists of the faculty of romance and germanic philology of the kaliningrad state university. https://www.twirpx.com/file/272489/ verbitskaya, l. a. (2001). davayte govorit' pravil'no [let's speak correctly] (2nd edition, revised and supplemented). vysshaya shkola. https://obuchalka.org/2017121898036/davaite-govorit-pravilno-posobiepo-russkomu-yaziku-verbickaya-l-a-2001.html warner, l. (1960). social class in america: a manual of procedure for the measurement of social status. hafer. https://www.worldcat.org/title/social-class-in-americaa-manual-of-procedure-for-the-measurement-of-social-status/oclc/225175 http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/sternin-00.htm https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327687180_gender_and_family_interaction https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327687180_gender_and_family_interaction http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=mik_2013_16_1_9 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=mik_2013_16_1_9 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=mik_2013_16_1_9 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=mik_2013_16_1_9 https://www.twirpx.com/file/272489/ https://obuchalka.org/2017121898036/davaite-govorit-pravilno-posobie-po-russkomu-yaziku-verbickaya-l-a-2001.html https://obuchalka.org/2017121898036/davaite-govorit-pravilno-posobie-po-russkomu-yaziku-verbickaya-l-a-2001.html https://www.worldcat.org/title/social-class-in-america-a-manual-of-procedure-for-the-measurement-of-social-status/oclc/225175 https://www.worldcat.org/title/social-class-in-america-a-manual-of-procedure-for-the-measurement-of-social-status/oclc/225175 defining the postmodern aspect of the social factor of language variation kateryna vukolova, et al. 499 weber, m. (1980). the national state and economic policy (freiburg address). economy & society, 9, 428–49. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03085148008538611 weber, m. (2012). hospodarstvo i suspilʹstvo [economy and society]. publishing house "vsesvit". http://litopys.org.ua/weber/wbs03.htm wetmore, th. (1959). the low-central and low-bacn vowels in the english of the eastern united states. university of alabama press. zangwill, i. (2005). the melting pot. drama in four acts. kessinger publ.. zelinsky, w. (1989). nation into state: the shifting symbolic foundations of american nationalism. university of north carolina press. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278834384_nation_into_state _the_shifting_symbolic_foundations_of_american_nationalism_by_wil bur_zelinsky_chapel_hill_university_of_north_carolina_press_1989_xv i_350_pp_2995 zimmerman, d., & west, c. (1975). sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversations. in d. thorne & n. henley (eds.) language and sex: difference and dominance (pp. 105–129). newbury house, rowley. https://web.stanford.edu/~eckert/pdf/zimmermanwest1975.pdf zirka, v. v. (2006). reklamnyy tekst: predpochteniya manipulyativnoy leksike [advertising text: preferences of manipulative vocabulary]. kul'tura narodov prichernomor'ya [culture of the peoples of the black sea region], 1(82), 172–174. http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/20412/browse?type=datei ssued https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03085148008538611 http://litopys.org.ua/weber/wbs03.htm https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278834384_nation_into_state_the_shifting_symbolic_foundations_of_american_nationalism_by_wilbur_zelinsky_chapel_hill_university_of_north_carolina_press_1989_xvi_350_pp_2995 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278834384_nation_into_state_the_shifting_symbolic_foundations_of_american_nationalism_by_wilbur_zelinsky_chapel_hill_university_of_north_carolina_press_1989_xvi_350_pp_2995 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278834384_nation_into_state_the_shifting_symbolic_foundations_of_american_nationalism_by_wilbur_zelinsky_chapel_hill_university_of_north_carolina_press_1989_xvi_350_pp_2995 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278834384_nation_into_state_the_shifting_symbolic_foundations_of_american_nationalism_by_wilbur_zelinsky_chapel_hill_university_of_north_carolina_press_1989_xvi_350_pp_2995 https://web.stanford.edu/~eckert/pdf/zimmermanwest1975.pdf http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/20412/browse?type=dateissued http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/20412/browse?type=dateissued microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 149 logical foundations of artificial intelligence angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net abstract: the procedures of searching solutions to problems, in artificial intelligence, can be brought about, in many occasions, without knowledge of the domain, and in other situations, with knowledge of it. this last procedure is usually called heuristic search. in such methods matrix techniques reveal themselves as essential. their introduction can give us an easy and precise way to the search for a solution. our paper explains how the matrix theory appears and fruitfully participates in a i with feasible applications to game theory. our paper is based on [2-4]. key words: artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, game theory, infinite games. 1. introduction to artificial intelligence the origin of a.i. can be traced back to the dialogues of plato, passing through descartes and leibnitz, until reaching three great thinkers: janos von neumann, norbert wiener and alan turing. and from then on, in the work of many scientists. the problems analyzed by a.i. can be classified according to their level. the first level includes problems of decision, learning, perception, planning and reasoning. the second level includes tasks of classification, representation and search. when we formulate a problem, we depart from its statement (explanation) in natural language. fundamentally, its treatment is based in the "level of knowledge", introduced by newell in 1981, as "abstract level of interpretation of systems, in a. i." an assertion called the "rationality principle" is also essential, stating that: "if a system has the knowledge according to which one of their actions leads to one of their goals, then such an action is carried out". with regard to the techniques, we can distinguish between those dedicated to statements and those devoted to procedures. the former alludes to allowing the description of the known aspects of the problem. their usual name is heuristic treatment. the latter specifies the process of finding the searched solutions. it is the algorithmic treatment. the posing of a problem consists in constructing the solution(s) of such a problem. this needs: 1) an agent (the system or program to be executed), with a sequence of objectives 2) a set of actions, which allows one to reach such goals 3) a procedure of election, applicable to the different ways of reaching the goals at first there were descartes and leibnitz, and then came three great thinkers: janos von neumann, norbert wiener and alan turing. 2. search methods in the searching process, we can distinguish between: without information about the domain (blind search), and with information about of the domain (in this case, called heuristic search). blind search we can choose, according to the kind of problem, between: extended search deep search together with other methods; some of these being derived. so, the latter is not the same as searching with the possibility of backward motion (backtracking). also, there are different methods, obtained from the previous, such as: searching in progressive depth (where the limit of depth is increased with each step), and the bidirectional searching (from the root-node to the final node and vice versa, crossing both lecture brainotes a. garrido – logical foundations of artificial intelligence 150 graphs through a common node; if there is any solution, this will find it). both names are sufficiently evocative of their nature. we can also find another method, in this case not derived: the general graph search. in such a procedure, the possibility of immediate translation to matricial raising, with their incidence matrices is obvious. all these methods would be joined to their corresponding algorithms. the searching without information of the domain (blind search, bs) appears with the initial attempts to solve, through idealizations of the real world, playing problems, or the obtaining of automatic proofs. the searching process could be in state spaces. such a searching procedure (bs) has applicability to problems with certain characteristics, such as: we can associate a state to each different situation of the domain there are series of initial states (in the searching process) there are operators, which allow the step between the successive states there is a final state in such processes, there is an obvious correspondence between: state ↔ node of the graph arc (or link, into the graph) ↔ operator and jointly to each graph, and their changes through the evolution of the problem, the corresponding matrices. so, we construct one path between the initial node and the final node. this exploration is achieved inside the state spaces. such a space contains all the reachable states, if we activate the set of operators in all the nodes. because this search is without information of the domain, we need to make an exhaustive exploration of the state space. such an exhaustivity results to be unnecessary in heuristic search, because it will be possible to select each time the subsequent step by the available information. extended search we advance in the tree (or the graph) by levels. so, we obtain the lowest-cost, if it exists. deep search we expand only one link each time, from the root-node. if we reach a blind alley (cul de sac) in the graph, we come back to the nearest node and from this we take a ramification (or alternative branch) in the tree. in this type of search, it is normal to establish an exploration limit, or depth limit (dl), by fixing the maximal length of the path, from the root. also, in this case the direction assumed is from left to right. it can be interpreted as the ordered (l → r) and exhaustive journey of an imaginary ship, visiting each fiord, on this imaginary coast. we are avoiding the algorithms associated with each one of these searching processes. 3. heuristic search relative to searching with knowledge of the domain, in an initial phase, it was generally thought that all paths can be explored by the computer. but this is too optimistic: such an exploration can often be very difficult, because of the phenomenon of "combinatory explosion" of the ramifications, when we expand the search. their spatial and temporal complexity can advise us against their realization. for this reason, we need to select, firstly, the most promising trajectories. in this way, we cannot obtain the best solution (optima), but an efficient approach to it. now, we introduce a new mathematical tool: the heuristic evaluation function, f. by such a function, we assign a value to each node, n. so, f(n) gives us the estimation of the real distance (unknown), from the actual node, n, until the final node, m. one of these procedures is called the gradient method, or climbing search. according to this, in the expansion of each node, we must select the link which connects with the node of the subsequent level where the value of f is maximal, in the supposition of f reaching the greatest value in the finish node. we can also proceed in the reversed sense: reaching the lesser value, in each step, until the minimal, in the last node. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 151 there are critics on the heuristic search, because of its unpredictability. it can find good solutions, but not necessarily the best. the a* algorithm. this is a convention for the introduction of this algorithm with their useful properties of completeness and admissibility. according to the last property, if there is any solution, it will find it. a* is a particular case of the searching procedure of "first the best", into the strategies of "alternative explorations". it belongs to the procedures of general graph search. in each step, we go revisiting the open list. initially, such a set is empty. our successive elections would be based on the previous assignment to each node of the value of f in it. the selection of each node is attained according to the lesser value of the heuristic function on the nodes of their level, as a general rule. the comparison is carried out into the open list, independent of the original level of each node. generally, we prefer the solution of lesser cost. all the explored nodes, then, pass to be stored in the closed list. such nodes remain inactive for the rest of the process. the heuristic function, f, can be decomposed in two parts or components, g and h: f (k) = g (k) + h (k) for each node k. where g(k) gives us the real cost (known) of the best path found from the "root", or initial node, until the actual node, k. and h(k) is the estimation of the length of the optimum path (unknown, until now), from k to the final node m. 4. search problems with two adversaries there are also strategies specially designed for the treatment of such problems. their general purpose is to select the necessary steps to winning the game (chess, generally; in fact, this was their origin). we assume alternate moves. in each move, the ideal would be when the player knows his possibilities and even realizes the worst move for his adversary. but it is impossible to control it completely, generally because of the mentioned "combinatory explosion". for this, we need to develop a tree of depth searching, with limited depth. suppose each player always makes the best move in each turn. to estimate this goal, we need to introduce a more sophisticated function, which would measure, for each node, the possibilities of being a winner, a looser or a draw. let us go back to the algorithm a*, as in the "first the best" (which is a particular case of it), we mention the open list, with the disposable nodes, in the successive steps, joining the value of the heuristic function in them. each time we choose a node, according to the minimal distance, we store such a node into the closed list. and so on, until reaching the final node in the tree search. more procedures of heuristic search: we can apply the exploration by graphs and/or, where we represent a main problem and their sub-problems, as nodes pending from the root-node. in this case, we dispose of two types of links: or, which indicates different options, and the link type and, which connects the father-nodes to the sub-problems. we can also consider the minimax method, which makes an exhaustive exploration of the search tree. and the method of "pruning", where the purpose is to reach the reduction of the number of visited nodes, detecting through a double counter, the pair (α,β). so, i can cut, leaving the remaining nodes pending from such a node. 5. fuzzy and modal logic successive attempts were directed towards the summit of very complex problems. not only in formal worlds, but for the real world as well. this requires new mathematical ideas, which are still in evolution today. therefore, some essential formalisms appear, such as: logic, rules, associative networks, frames, scripts and so on. for each formalism here included, there are methods of handling the knowledge, which allows for our approach [7]. a. garrido – logical foundations of artificial intelligence 152 as you known, the step from disposable information to new information is called inference, or reasoning. the classical logic reveals promptly its inadequacy for a.i., where more sophisticated logic is needed, extending the classical. so, the predicate logic with identity and then the modal logic (ml, in acronym). this extension (ml) of the predicate logic made evaluating arguments possible which included the concepts of necessity and possibility. their symbols (as you know) are □ and ◇, respectively. both of them would be called "modes of truth". this gives the surname of “modal” for such a logic. desirable properties for such theories: to formulate the knowledge of the domain, d, in a very effective and efficient way, as theory, three characteristics could be necessary: completeness, consistency and tractability. according to the first of them (completeness), each formula must be demonstrable into the theory. for the second one (consistency), the new contributions to the system must not generate inner contradictions with the previous assertions or axioms. the tractability must give us a moderate complexity. that is, manipulating laws and premises in the derivate calculus, through the inference process, must not result in excessive temporal and spatial complexities. 6. new trends in algebra and non-monotonic logic there exists the possibility of obtaining an extended theory, in linear algebra, by the introduction of concepts and methods of fuzzy logic ([5], [8]), where the idea of sets, relations and so on, must be modified in the sense of adequately covering the indeterminacy or imprecision of the real world. in the problems concerning this "real world", only one of the "possible worlds", the monotonic logic seldom works. such a type of logic is classical logic in formal worlds, such as in the mathematical fields of the past, because for the future we need to introduce uncertainty and their related problems. instead of monotonic logic, the non-monotonic logic ([1], [6]) must be developed and applied where the extension of the set of sentences can now modify consequences. this happens frequently in the real world: for instance, in the medical sciences. with these and similar techniques, we hope to obtain each time more interesting developments which may contribute to expand some classical and new fields in game theory. references [1] brewka: non-monotonic reasoning. logical foundations of commonsense. cambridge university press, 1991. [2] garrido, angel: "some deep connections between linear algebra and fuzzy logic". contributed talk to the ilas ´04, the "international conference on linear algebra and its applications", held in the university of coimbra (portugal), 2004. [3] garrido, angel: "matrix theory and searching methods in artificial intelligence" international congress on matrix theory, held in the center of math. studies of the technion. haifa, 2005. [4] garrido, angel: "logics in artificial intelligence" congress “logic in hungary 2005”. organized by the janos bolyái mathematical society. budapest, 2005. [5] klir & yuan: fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic. theory and applications. prentice-hall inc., 1995. [6] mc dermott & doyle: "non-monotonic logic i". artificial intelligence, 13, pp. 41-72, 1980. [7] mira: aspectos básicos de la inteligencia artificial. sanz y torres. madrid, 1995. [8] zadeh: "fuzzy sets". information and control, 8, pp. 338-55, 1965. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 76-96| https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/333 submitted: january 24th, 2022| accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 developing a valuesbased attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation centres: neurophysiological patterns lesya filonenko 1 , iryna demchenko 2 , iryna shakhina 3 , oleksandr klochok 4 , теtiana borozentseva 5 , vitalii bieloliptsev 6 1 national university of water and environmental engineering, ukraine, penelopa34@ukr.net 2 national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, ukraine, irynadi67@gmail.com 3 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, rom.shahin@gmail.com 4 municipal establishment «kharkiv humanitarian-pedagogical academy» of the kharkiv regional council, ukraine, klo4ok80@gmail.com 5 horlivka institute for foreign languages of the state higher educational institution "donbas state pedagogical university", ukraine, club.nashedelo@gmail.com 6 kharkiv humanitarian pedagogical academy kharkiv regional council, ukraine, vbeloliptsev@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0036-7668 abstract: the article theoretically justifies, defines and experimentally verifies pedagogical conditions for developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres, taking into account pedagogical, psychological and neurophysiological factors. according to the above-mentioned factors, such pedagogical conditions can be developed in the context of the following aspects: involving adolescents from rehabilitation centres in humane activity in terms of developing a values-based attitude towards people; making the “teacher-pupil” and “pupil-pupil” relationships more humanistic; increasing the readiness of rehabilitation centres teachers to develop a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents. research methods are as follows: surveys, conversations, interviews; writing a mini-essay on the topic “another person in my life”; the questionnaire on values-based orientations; the verbal associations method; discussions, tests, self-tests (assessing one’s behaviour in a conflict situation); the “eye to eye” adapted methodology; the story-role game “one family”; pedagogical observations; an analysis of life and specially modelled situations. the international relevance of the article lies in the following: for the first time, pedagogical conditions for developing a values-based attitude towards other people in adolescents from rehabilitation institutions in ukraine have been justified (elaborating and introducing the content, forms and methods; involving adolescents in humane activity; humanizing the relations in the teacherpupil and pupil-pupil systems; enhancing the level of teachers’ readiness to develop a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents); relevant criteria with corresponding indicators have been determined. this can serve as an impetus to further research on the problem in question on the example of developing countries. keywords: humane activity, neurophysiological factors, humanization of relations, the teacher-pupil system, the pupil-pupil system, level enhancement, teachers’ readiness. how to cite: filonenko, l., demchenko, i., shakhina, i., klochok, o., borozentseva, t., & bieloliptsev, v. (2022). developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation centres: neurophysiological patterns. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 76-96. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/333 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/333 mailto:penelopa34@ukr.net mailto:irynadi67@gmail.com mailto:rom.shahin@gmail.com mailto:klo4ok80@gmail.com mailto:club.nashedelo@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0036-7668 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/333 developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation ... lesya filonenko et al. 77 introduction the moral and spiritual crisis of today’s ukrainian society has led to the spread of competition in human relations and the changes in life values and ideals which are manifested in the attitude towards an individual as a tool. hence, the problem of developing a values-based attitude towards people (huidu, 2019), which is based on the principles of humanistic morality and neurophysiological patterns of perceiving oneself and others, becomes rather relevant. as far as neurophysiological patterns are concerned, they have long been ignored in the post-totalitarian society (karasievych et al., 2021; berbets et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). this problem has become especially acute today under the crisis of classical values. the issue of developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation institutions is becoming especially relevant. indeed, the inclusive paradigm is becoming increasingly popular, and people with special needs are considered full members of the globalized society. on the other hand, adolescence is an important stage in developing a valuesbased attitude towards people. it is characterized by moral reflection, favourable conditions for relationships, feeling mature and selectivity in evaluating other people’s qualities. insufficient coverage of the problem in question in ukrainian scientific discourse adds up to the relevance of the article. indeed, this particular problem is also reflected in some aspects: cultivating human values in younger adolescents in the process of solving moral problems (biletska, 2004); fostering a sense of usefulness to others as a moral value of adolescents (zahorodniuk, 2011); developing human values in high school pupils during extracurricular activities (kyrmach, 2014); instilling a valuesbased attitude towards people in primary school pupils in the educational process (tretiak, 2014). in ukrainian scientific discourse, which remains within the modernistic paradigm, a values-based attitude towards people is viewed as an integrative quality, determined by humanistic ethics and morality and based on such moral values as respect for dignity, equality, friendliness, reasonableness, self-sufficiency, readiness for constructive dialogue. at the same time, the category of “developing a values-based attitude towards people” is seen as a specially organized process defining an attitude towards people as the highest value, the subject of life, aimed at combining the knowledge of such moral values as respect for dignity, equality, friendliness, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 78 reasonableness, self-sufficiency, readiness for constructive dialogue, the ideas about the ways of their manifestation and ability to be guided by them in one’s activities. at first glance, such definitions correspond to the current humanistic paradigm. however, such an aspect as developing a values-based attitude towards other people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres remains poorly studied, even though it covers neuropsychological aspects of axiological and behavioural deficits. the relevance of the problem under study is also caused by the contradictions between: – an objective need of today’s society to treat a person as the highest value and the insufficient elaboration of theoretical and rather outdated methodological principles for developing such an attitude in pupils from rehabilitation centres; – a significant neuropedagogical potential of the educational process in developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres globally and the insufficient methodological support of this process in ukraine (demchenko et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021); – the need to improve professional readiness of rehabilitation centres teachers to develop a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents and the insufficient elaboration of its content, forms and methods. thus, the topic of the research has been chosen, taking into account the relevance of the problem under study, its poor coverage and the existing contradictions. the article aims to theoretically justify the problem in question in the context of neurosciences and study the current achievements of educational work in order to experimentally verify the new educational conditions for developing a values-based attitude towards other people in adolescents as part of rehabilitation. the research hypothesis is based on neurophysiological research. according to it, one’s attitude towards oneself, others and the environment relies on natural and acquired neural connections, which subconsciously contain meanings, values, attitudes, behavioural patterns and decisionmaking algorithms. this is manifested in individual emotional reactions, behavioural acts (actions), as well as in the system of symptom complexes of character, habits, emotional and volitional qualities. the hypothesis itself is as follows: if one takes into account the patterns of forming the abovementioned neural connections, appropriate pedagogical conditions can lead to positive dynamics in a values-based attitude towards other people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres. developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation ... lesya filonenko et al. 79 literature review the problem of developing a value-based attitude towards people is covered in the classical works of some prominent researchers (jung, 1994; maslow, 2009; rogers, 1999; sartre, 1992). they analyzed the problem within their paradigms (humanistic psychology, collective subconscious, existentialism) carefully but one-sidedly. many works, authoritative for rehabilitation pedagogy, consider this particular problem in different aspects of an educational approach under the modernist model: a humanistic approach to developing a values-based attitude towards people in the context of today’s social changes (zhurba, 2013); through developing a values-based attitude towards people in pupils and students (amonashvili, 2004; astashova, 2000; biletska, 2004; gerasymova et al., 2019; halaidiuk et al., 2018; ziaziun, 2000); in the light of psychological interaction with others (bakhmat et al., 2019; behas et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; bilousova, 1997; buzhyna, 2002; maksymchuk et al., 2018; melnyk et al., 2019; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; shchurkova, 2005; kaletnik et al., 2011; sitovskyi et al., 2019; sheremet et al., 2019). at the same time, one can observe that these researchers somewhat ignore synergistic social, culturological, educational and neuroscientific approaches, which would explain the mechanisms of developing values. a detailed analysis of ukrainian and foreign literary sources on pedagogical issues in the context of neurosciences allows one to identify the main patterns and approaches to developing the axiological-motivational sphere, including a humane attitude towards oneself, others and the environment. in general, several factors affect the development of values. first of all, these are current social factors: devaluation and relational nature of values, inspired by mass media values, pseudo-values in society and mass communications (trends, fashion, adolescent subculture). this shapes stable attitudes and determines behavioural decisions in socially significant situations (camerer & yoon, 2015). second of all, neurophysiological (reflective) manifestations of adolescent’s axiological-motivational sphere are largely determined by their nosological and social status: disorders of physical health; the presence/absence of addictions, deviations, social maladaptation, compulsive behaviour and self-concept disturbances. also, there are other aspects of hereditary, family, cultural, pedagogical or even political (concerning the post-soviet space) nature. this research deals with adolescents from rehabilitation centres who suffer from a disorder that complicates psychocorrection and, at the same time, allows one to see the negative symptom complexes rather clearly. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 80 furthermore, the problem of correcting the axiological-motivational sphere of adolescents with certain disorders or special needs in ukraine lies in the fact that post-totalitarian countries have begun to implement the humanistic concept of education only recently. humanistic values used to be considered a separate component complementing learning, rehabilitation and socialization. only in recent decades has there been a gradual turn to such values as the pervasive and total characteristics of all human activities, all forms of social consciousness and governance. it became clear that anthropocentrism, subjectivity and humanism were not just aspects of one’s attitude towards another but the only forms of knowledge acquisition, socialization and life in society (kapska, 2009). teachers gradually stopped considering the concept of “a humane attitude towards others” as a collective (group) phenomenon. today, it is viewed as a matter of personal choice and the existence of the full-fledged “self” that are based on subjectivity, empathy, emotional interaction with the world. even though this research aims to transform educational conditions as part of rehabilitation, the leading neuropedagogues claim that it is possible to develop values as a stable subjective neuropsychological quality only in real-life conditions (in normal life) (ha, nhan & quang, 2020). internal mental resources play the main role in forming the need to change, selfeducate, accept themselves and others as equal subjects. external conditions can only modify the nature of intersubjective interaction, which will form new neural connections and, as a result, meanings, attitudes and values. in this regard, the authors of the article have formed the first relevant subjectoriented educational condition that can be expressed by a general guideline: the humanization of relations in the “teacher-teacher” and “pupil-pupil” system. relevant sources prove that neuropsychological mechanisms of a role model, as well as the presence of an emotionally mature authoritative mentor, to whom the desired but so far deficient qualities are transferred, subconsciously stimulate adolescents to build their character, subconsciously evaluate and compare (effendi rustan et al., 2020). besides, a stress-resistant “inspiring leader”, who is the bearer of humanistic values, significantly enhances the development of the emotional-volitional sphere and the motivational-axiological potential (effendi rustan et al., 2020). joint activities with such leaders activate the “flock  leader” mechanism that generates healthy competition and gradually develops the strength of character. the latter is an important factor in overcoming the selfish aspects of behaviour and accepting “oneself”, “others” and “leaders” as a synergistic connection in a healthy competition for psychological ontogenesis without developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation ... lesya filonenko et al. 81 violating boundaries. on the other hand, adequate and practically oriented behaviour and activity of such leaders act as a resource of motivation and stimulation of constructiveness, adequacy, practical vision of problems, justice and respect for personal sovereignty, which is the basis for practical implementation of humanistic ideas in an educational institution” (colbert, nicholson, & kurucz, 2018). these patterns prove the following fact: it is also essential to form and modify the axiological-motivational sphere of teachers. therefore, the next general educational condition lies in enhancing the level of teachers’ readiness to develop a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres. one of the main neuropsychological disorders in adolescents from rehabilitation centres, in which there are microsocial semi-natural mechanisms of survival  self-affirmation, is the following fact: most of the active time involves subconscious behaviour rather than conscious activity. it is clear that such conditions often violate the observance and realization of human rights, ignore the sovereignty and subjectivity of the weaker members of society. consequently, adolescents are forced to make compromise decisions, equalize heteromorphic attitudes towards each other and gradually understand that achieving a common goal is possible during joint constructive activities with respect for human rights. given the specific contingent of pupils, moral aspects are best adjusted in the framework of relational ethics (lourens, watermeyer, & swartz, 2019). this ethic allows establishing heteromorphic psychological channels of empathy and cooperation between the subjects with different characters, temperaments and lateral profiles. all the above-mentioned principles are implemented only “in interaction” with the subjects and objects of the environment. the most effective form of such interaction is performativity as a process of generating knowledge, values and mutual consensus in spontaneous collective interaction. some scholars theorize that performativity replaces communication since it is a broader and multifaceted phenomenon (ball, 2016). in the context of traditional pedagogy, however, this process fits into the framework of the activity-related approach but taking into account spontaneous conditions, situations, context and current values and meanings that may arise when the subjects interact with different personalities under a common creative goal. thus, the third educational condition is as follows: involving adolescents from rehabilitation centres in humane activity to develop their valuesbased attitude towards people. the results from the implementation of these key conditions in the framework of the formative-diagnostic experiment are presented below. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 82 materials & methods the formative and ascertaining stages of the experiment involved 242 adolescents and 50 teachers from boarding schools in ukraine (the koziatyn comprehensive educational complex (levels 1-3) “v. pidhorbunskyi school  boarding school  gymnasium”; kryshchynets special boarding school of tulchyn district of vinnytsia oblast council; zhmerynka boarding school (levels 1-2) of vinnytsia oblast), the regional organization “pokrova family house” in lviv, nemyriv training and rehabilitation centre. this group of adolescents included 108 boys and 134 girls. the conditions of the experiment and the pupils’ and teachers’ participation in it were agreed with the ethics committee of the regional department for family and youth. importantly, the adolescents, their parents and teachers provided a written consent to participate in the experiment. regular pedagogical observation at the propaedeutic stage of the experiment has found that most pupils demonstrate social and/or neuropsychological deficiency (deprivation syndrome; difficulties in communicating with others; decreased empathy; rapid mood swings in their relations with adults). at the formative stage of the experiment, it was decided to use ethical fixation on constructive interaction with other people. it has contributed to developing positive acceptance of other people and communication skills in adolescents from rehabilitation centres. in particular, it was important to organize educational conditions justified in the “literature review” section. below is their methodical analysis. the pedagogical condition of involving adolescents in humane activity provided pupils with the opportunity to engage in group work for other people. the implementation of this condition implied organizing selfgovernment; running campaigns (“mercy”, “let’s knit camouflage nets for fighters”, “the veteran lives nearby”, “a fairy-tale for kids”, “to ukrainian warrior with love”, “a christmas angel”), engaging in project activities (“let’s measure life by deeds”, “professions teaching to help people”), the web-quest “a person who creates oneself”); helping the sick and the elderly, lonely retirees; participating in the events dedicated to the day of older persons, the day of persons with special needs, children’s day. the process of humanizing the relations in the teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil systems covered the following areas: humanizing relations between boarding school teachers, which lay in ensuring management humanization for school administration’s part; shaping a friendly public opinion; establishing tolerant developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation ... lesya filonenko et al. 83 relations between teachers; creating a favourable psychological climate in such schools; humanizing the educational process, which implied facilitating learning individualization and differentiation; ensuring the cooperation between teachers and pupils in organizing life activity of the latter; involving adolescents from rehabilitation centres in humane activity; humanizing relations between adolescents from rehabilitation centres, which included creating an atmosphere of humanity and mutual understanding in boarding schools, motivating pupils to focus on other people, understand their feelings, express compassion for people, developing their ability to put people’s interests above their own and resist their negative qualities. it became possible to enhance the level of rehabilitation centres teachers’ readiness to develop a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents due to purposeful work during the seminar on the topic “developing a valuesbased attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres”. its objectives are as follows: to expand the understanding of rehabilitation centres teachers about the concept of “a values-based attitude towards people”; to consider the features of developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres; to acquaint rehabilitation centres teachers with the ways of identifying levels of a valuesbased attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres; to deepen the knowledge of rehabilitation centres teachers about the forms and methods of developing a values-based attitude towards people in such adolescents; to acquaint rehabilitation centres teachers with pedagogical conditions for developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres; to promote the subject-subject interaction between teachers and pupils. the following types of lessons were implemented during the seminar: lectures: “the essence and structure of “a values-based attitude towards people”, “the forms and methods of developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres”; interactive lessons: “the peculiarities of developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres”, “methods for identifying levels of a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres”, “relations in the teacher-pupil system”. also, the level of rehabilitation centres teachers’ readiness to develop a value-based attitude towards people in adolescents has been enhanced during the seminar on the topic “developing a valuesbased attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres” (lectures, interactive lessons). the following diagnostic methodologies and methods were employed to identify the levels of a values-based attitude in adolescents from broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 84 rehabilitation centres by measuring individual indicators of the justified criteria: surveys, conversations, interviews; writing a mini-essay on the topic “another person in my life”; the questionnaire on values-based orientations; the verbal associations method; discussions, tests (boiko, 2016); self-tests (assessing one’s behaviour in a conflict situation; the “eye to eye” adapted methodology (tretiak, 2014); the story-role game “one family”; pedagogical observations; an analysis of life and specially modelled situations. in this research, the criteria for the levels of a values-based attitude towards other people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres are as follows: cognitive, emotional and values-based, behavioural. they are characterized by high validity for a pedagogical experiment, taking into account neurophysiological patterns of the psyche of an adolescent with certain disorders (see literature review). the indicators of the cognitive criterion are knowledge and ideas of pupils about a values-based attitude towards people; respect for dignity, equality, friendliness, reasonableness, self-sufficiency; awareness of the need to adhere to the principles of humanistic ethics and morality in life; awareness of responsibility for the possible consequences of one’s actions. the emotional and values-based criterion is characterized by such indicators as a positive attitude towards other people; willingness to interiorize basic moral values; moral and self-evaluation skills; readiness to act accordingly; manifestations of humanism concerning others. the indicators of the behavioural criterion include willingness to use moral knowledge and values in one’s behaviour; readiness for constructive dialogue; ability to mobilize humanistic aspirations and experience to solve life problems under different circumstances; ability to counteract evil and violence; ability to control and regulate one’s behaviour; ability to act morally on one’s initiative, rather than under pressure or demand from others. experimental data have been collected as follows: these criteria and indicators have made it possible to determine and describe the following development levels of a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres: high, average, low. it was done at the beginning and the end of the formative-diagnostic experiment (see results). results the process of working with rehabilitation centres teachers has helped to increase emotional and positive motivation to organize the process of developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres; to deepen the knowledge about the essence of a developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation ... lesya filonenko et al. 85 values-based attitude towards people and the peculiarities of developing it in such adolescents; to enhance empathy skills; to master the forms and methods of developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres. the results of the above-mentioned seminar indicate that the vast majority of teachers are at a high level of readiness to develop a values-based towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres (75.0%). still, the main result is the dynamics in the levels of adolescents’ values. the effectiveness of the pedagogical conditions for developing a values-based attitude in adolescents from rehabilitation centres has been verified in the experimental group (eg), which involved 123 adolescents and 20 teachers from rehabilitation centres. the obtained results prove that adolescents with a high level of a values-based attitude towards people have profound knowledge about a person as a value and understand such moral values as respect for dignity, equality, friendliness, reasonableness, self-sufficiency. they are also aware of the need to adhere to the principles of humanistic ethics and morality in their life, responsibility for the possible consequences of their actions, as well as the importance of a values-based attitude towards other people. they intend to interiorize basic moral values, have moral and self-evaluation skills and are ready to be humane towards others. besides, they are ready for constructive dialogue with others. finally, they can mobilize humanistic aspirations and experience to solve life problems under different circumstances, counteract evil and violence and control and regulate their behaviour. an average level of a values-based attitude towards people is manifested in non-systematic knowledge about this particular quality; respect for dignity, equality, friendliness, reasonableness, self-sufficiency. they are not aware enough of the need to adhere to the principles of humanistic ethics and morality in their life and be responsible for the possible consequences of their actions. also, they demonstrate certain selectivity in a values-based attitude towards people and situational willingness to interiorize basic moral values. the level of their moral and self-evaluation skills is insufficient. they are rather selective about whom they manifest humanism to, always show good manners in the presence of teachers and adults. at the same time, they may disregard these rules while remaining unattended. they are not always capable of constructive dialogue and are not always ready to resolve conflicts constructively, control and regulate their behaviour. adolescents with a low level of a values-based attitude towards people tend to have distorted or perverted notions of a person as a value. they fail broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 86 to realize the responsibility for the possible consequences of their actions and show a negative attitude towards other people. they are unwilling to internalize basic moral values and lack moral evaluation and self-evaluation skills. also, they demonstrate rather selfish motives and attempts to dominate. they depend on the opinion of their peers, trying to earn their support or put rough pressure on others, thus using them as a tool to achieve their goal. finally, they often provoke conflict situations, trying to assert themselves by force. they are unable to control their behaviour. the results of the ascertaining stage show that a significant number of adolescents are at a low level of a values-based attitude towards people  45.0%, whereas 37.4% and 17.6% of them are at average and high levels, respectively. as for gender characteristics of such quality, girls tend to show it through non-conflictness and attention to people. at the same time, boys focus on the activity-related aspect of manifesting a values-based attitude towards people and can mobilize humanistic aspirations and experience to solve life problems under different circumstances. it must be noted that there are no differences between the representatives of both sexes concerning the level of a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres. the following activities were organized and implemented to identify the causes behind the current level of a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres: questionnaires for teachers, individual interviews, rankings, tests (boiko’s test) (boiko, 2016), purposeful pedagogical observations. the obtained results indicate that most rehabilitation centres teachers have significant difficulties in developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents, in particular in choosing effective forms and methods for this purpose. both analysis and generalization of the ascertaining stage results prove the need to theoretically justify and experimentally verify pedagogical conditions for developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres. the effectiveness of the implemented pedagogical conditions is confirmed by positive changes in the distribution of adolescents from rehabilitation centres based on the development levels of a values-based attitude towards people (see table 1). the obtained results show a significant increase in the number of adolescents with high and average levels of a values-based attitude towards people in eg, compared to cg. the dynamics in the levels of a value-based developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation ... lesya filonenko et al. 87 attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres is as follows: a high level: +11.39%; an average level: +21.95%; a low level: 33.34%. table 1. the dynamics behind the levels of a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres (%) levels eg (123 adolescents) d y n am ic s cg (119 adolescents) d y n am ic s a t th e b e g in n in g o f th e e x p er im e n t a t th e e n d o f th e e x p er im e n t a t th e b e g in n in g o f th e e x p er im e n t a t th e e n d o f th e e x p er im e n t pe rs on s % pe rs on s % % pe rs on s % pe rs on s % % high 21 17.07 35 28.46 +11.39 21 17.65 24 20.17 +2.52 average 45 36.59 72 58.54 +21.95 46 38.66 47 39.49 +0.83 low 57 46.34 16 13.00 -33.34 52 43.69 48 40.34 -3.35 in eg, one can observe an increase in the number of adolescents who demonstrate deep knowledge about a person as a value, understand such moral values as respect for dignity, equality, friendliness, reasonableness, self-sufficiency, are aware of the need to adhere to the principles of humanistic ethics in life and responsibility for their actions and are ready for constructive dialogue. in cg, similar positive changes were not observed. the dynamics of a high level of a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres was equal to + 2.52%. the dynamics of average and low levels is as follows: +0.83% and -3.35%. fisher’s angular transformation (φ) was used to clarify the differences between the indicators of eg and cg regarding the levels of a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres. the pearson correlation coefficient was applied to specify the formative stage results, in particular the indicators of levels of a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from boarding schools to determine possible systemic relations between them. the obtained results prove the positive dynamics of the formative stage of experimental work and the achievement of the research aim. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 88 discussion an analysis of scientific literature on the problem under study shows that it is rather complex and multifaceted, accumulating scientific knowledge of philosophy, psychology, pedagogy and neurosciences. the obtained results partially confirm the validity of ukrainian research on the problem of developing a values-based attitude, which is considered as a special value that is a system of attitudes, motives, needs, views and beliefs. in turn, they all follow the principles of a values-based attitudetowards other people, manifested in an activity-related attitude towards people and based on the recognition of a person as the highest value (biletska, 2004); an integrated moral quality of high school pupils, which has the following essential features: the awareness of knowledge about the value of people as the highest social value; stable focus on empathic interaction and dialogical attitude towards people; capacity for cultural and psychological openness, which makes it possible to adequately perceive and understand the “inner world” of people; communicative “flexibility”, which allows finding specific means of communication for each person, taking into account ethical norms and the specifics of his or her “inner world”; ability to be guided by humane principles in relations with other people when making moral choices (kyrmach, 2014); representation, awareness and recognition of a person as the highest value, which motivates primary school pupils towards appropriate moral actions and is manifested in respect for human dignity, justice, tolerance and responsibility (tretiak, 2014). still, the consideration of both neurophysiological and neuropedagogical factors has allowed one to draw parallels with current neuro-oriented research. it has also proved the existing dissonance between the traditional transmission of values, meanings and knowledge and the performativity “as the generation of such values in the very act of interaction and joint activities” (frostenson & englund 2020). modelling and implementation of new educational conditions have confirmed an assumption about the holistic nature of the development of adolescent’s values, character, age-specific sensitive intentions and social context. concerning rehabilitation centres, the latter is somewhat conditional. at the same time, the full-fledged motivational-axiological and emotionally mature development is possible only in wider non-educational contexts, namely, spontaneous situations of making a morally significant decision that are not regulated by the educational process (waddock, 2016). developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation ... lesya filonenko et al. 89 the main methodical recommendation is an assumption about the pervasiveness of subjective, character-building and socially oriented development of values which should not be viewed as a separate component of the educational and rehabilitation process, as envisaged by the frameworks of the leading european institutions. the article highlights the importance of considering syncretic (pedagogical and neurophysiological) factors in developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres, which should use more effective educational and rehabilitation approaches (colbert et al., 2018). the first group of factors includes the following: sensitivity of adolescence to developing a values-based attitude towards people (selectivity in evaluating people’s qualities; intensive development of intellectual, emotional and volitional sphere; the need for intimate and personal communication with significant peers; the general focus in developing moral ideas and social attitudes; developing knowledge and ideas about other people and style of communication with them); the potential of extracurricular activities of rehabilitation centres in the context of the problem under study. the second group of factors that significantly complicates the process of developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres: social orphanhood; the peculiarities of organizational and pedagogical functioning of comprehensive rehabilitation centres (the organization of pupils’ life activity; the forced adaptation to a large number of peers; decreased intimacy and trust in communication; excessive care and step-by-step control; the prevalence of authoritarian pedagogy); the specifics of groups of pupils (deprivation syndrome; difficulties in communicating with others; decreased empathy; rapid mood swings in their relations with adults; rivalry with peers; demonstration of contempt, rudeness and aggression towards the younger and weaker; inability and unwillingness to work in a team and do something for others). the practical value of the obtained results lies in developing and implementing the effective content-related and methodological support for the process of developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres in the practice of such centres. it involves new educational conditions, a complex methodology for identifying the levels of a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres; the content, forms and methods of developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres in the context of the modelled conditions (ethical conversations, educational hours, philosophical classes, training sessions on prosocial broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 90 behaviour “my moral choice”; the programme of the seminar for rehabilitation centres teachers on the topic “developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres”) and methodical recommendations of the same name. conclusions the results of theoretical and experimental research proving the achievement of the aim and solving the set objectives have made it possible to formulate the following conclusions. the research specifies the following peculiarities of developing a value-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres: the specifics of such a group of pupils (deprivation syndrome; difficulties in communicating with others; decreased empathy; rapid mood swings in relations with adults; rivalry with peers; demonstration of contempt, rudeness and aggression towards the younger and weaker; inability and unwillingness to work in a team and do something for others); the peculiarities of organizational and pedagogical functioning of rehabilitation centres (the organization of pupils’ life activity; the forced adaptation to a large number of peers; decreased intimacy and trust in communication; excessive care and step-by-step control; the prevalence of authoritarian pedagogy). the humanization of relations in the “teacher-pupil” and “pupilpupil” system corrected by the new educational conditions and their methodical implementation has covered the following areas: humanizing relations between boarding school teachers; humanizing the educational process; humanizing relations between adolescents from rehabilitation centres. it has led to insignificant but stable dynamics in the enhancement of a value-based attitude towards people in eg adolescents (a high level: +11.39%; an average level: +21.95%; a low level: 33.34%) proves pedagogical expediency and effectiveness of the theoretically justified and experimentally verified pedagogical conditions for developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents. given the relevance of the research topic, it is recommended to introduce the content, forms and methods for developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents in extracurricular activities of rehabilitation centres; to incorporate the organization of the seminar on the topic “developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescents from rehabilitation centres” intended for rehabilitation centres teachers in the system of teacher graduate education, implement educational measures developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation ... lesya filonenko et al. 91 focused on the development of a values-based attitude towards people in educational work and involve adolescents from rehabilitation centres in various joint activities on the development of a values-based attitude towards people. research limitations. the results of the experiment are limited by time, sampling, the author’s vision of new educational conditions. therefore, the problem in question remains open and requires more extensive discussion. however, the authors of the article believe that the main provisions and conclusions of this research can be used in the practice of rehabilitation centres teachers, in the teaching of such courses as “theory and methods of education”, “methods of educational work” and the specialized course “social and educational work with different social groups” in higher education institutions, in the preparation of textbooks on theory and methods of education, as well as in the system of graduate teacher education. references amonashvili, sh. a. (2004). lichnostno-gumannaia osnova pedagogicheskogo protsessa [the personally-humane basis of the pedagogical process]. universitetskoe. https://www.livelib.ru/book/1001383526-lichnostnogumannaya-osnovapedagogicheskogo-protsessa-shalva-amonashvili astashova, n. a. (2000). uchitel: problema vybora i formirovanie tsennostei [the teacher: problems of choosing and developing personality]. modek. https://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/135916165/ bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13231332. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 ball, s. j. (2016). subjectivity as a site of struggle: refusing neoliberalism? british journal of sociology of education, 37(8), 1129–1146. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01425692.2015.1044072? journalcode=cbse20 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, m., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13331340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://www.livelib.ru/book/1001383526-lichnostnogumannaya-osnova-pedagogicheskogo-protsessa-shalva-amonashvili https://www.livelib.ru/book/1001383526-lichnostnogumannaya-osnova-pedagogicheskogo-protsessa-shalva-amonashvili https://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/135916165/ https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01425692.2015.1044072?journalcode=cbse20 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01425692.2015.1044072?journalcode=cbse20 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 92 berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 15851590. http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf biletska, i. o. (2004). vykhovannia tsinnisnoho stavlennia do inshoi liudyny v molodshykh pidlitkiv u protsesi rozviazuvannia moralnykh zadach [cultivating a values-based attitude towards another person in younger adolescents in the process of solving moral problems] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university. http://www.irbisnbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec& s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=2 0&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21st r=%d0%91%d1%96%d0%bb%d0%b5%d1%86%d1%8c%d0%ba %d0%b0%20%d0%86$ bilousova, v. o. (1997). teoriia i metodyka humanizatsii vidnosyn starshoklasnykiv u pozaurochnii diialnosti zahalnoosvitnoi shkoly [theory and methods of humanizing relations between high school pupils during extracurricular activities in secondary school]. izmn. http://libcc.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_id=26938 boiko, v. v. (2016). metodyka diahnostyky rivnia empatiinykh zdibnostei [methods for identifying the level of empathic skills]. studfiles. https://studfiles.net/preview/5287907/. buzhyna, i. v. (2002). teoriia i praktyka pidhotovky maibutnikh uchyteliv do formuvannia humanistychnykh vidnosyn molodshykh shkoliariv [theory and practice of training future teachers to establish humanistic relations between younger schoolchildren] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. southern scientific centre of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. http://www.disslib.org/teoria-i-praktyka-pidhotovky-majbutnikhuchyteliv-do-formuvannja-humanistychnykh.html camerer, c., & yoon, c. (2015). introduction to the journal of marketing research special issue on neuroscience and marketing. journal of marketing research, 52, 423–426. https://doi.org/10.1509/0022-2437-52.4.423 colbert, b. a., nicholson, j., & kurucz, e. c. (2018). humanistic leadership for sustainable transformation. in s. l. steffen (ed.), evolving leadership for collective wellbeing (pp. 33–47). emerald publishing. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 http://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/art%20230.pdf http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%91%d1%96%d0%bb%d0%b5%d1%86%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%91%d1%96%d0%bb%d0%b5%d1%86%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%91%d1%96%d0%bb%d0%b5%d1%86%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%91%d1%96%d0%bb%d0%b5%d1%86%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%91%d1%96%d0%bb%d0%b5%d1%86%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%91%d1%96%d0%bb%d0%b5%d1%86%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?z21id=&i21dbn=ec&p21dbn=ec&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21fmt=fullwebr&c21com=s&s21cnr=20&s21p01=0&s21p02=0&s21p03=a=&s21colorterms=1&s21str=%d0%91%d1%96%d0%bb%d0%b5%d1%86%d1%8c%d0%ba%d0%b0%20%d0%86$ http://libcc.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_id=26938 https://studfiles.net/preview/5287907/ http://www.disslib.org/teoria-i-praktyka-pidhotovky-majbutnikh-uchyteliv-do-formuvannja-humanistychnykh.html http://www.disslib.org/teoria-i-praktyka-pidhotovky-majbutnikh-uchyteliv-do-formuvannja-humanistychnykh.html https://doi.org/10.1509/0022-2437-52.4.423 developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation ... lesya filonenko et al. 93 https://www.amazon.com/evolving-leadership-collective-wellbeingimplementing/dp/1787438791 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 effendi rustan, y., вafadal, i., sudana degeng, i. n., & arifin, i. (2020). the construction model of inculcating principal humanistic values in forming a characteristic school environment. preprints. https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202011.0068/v1 frostenson, m., & englund, h. (2020). teachers, performative techniques and professional values: how performativity becomes humanistic through interplay mechanisms. cambridge journal of education, 50(6), 695710. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764x.2020.1761943 gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 ha, n., nhan, n., & quang, b. (2020). developing educational institution culture for the education of ethical and humanistic values, and of lifelong-learning spirits in binh duong province. science & technology development journal  social sciences & humanities, 4(3), 582593. https://doi.org/10.32508/stdjssh.v4i3.576 halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284–2291. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 huidu, a. (2019). the psychopathology of serial killers. eastern-european journal of medical humanities and bioethics, 3(1), 38-54. https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.19 jung, k. g. (1994). problemy dushi nashego vremeni [soul problems of our time]. progress. http://loveread.ec/view_global.php?id=60315 kaletnik, g. m., zabolotnyi, g. m., & kozlovskyi, s. v. (2011). innovatsiyni modeli upravlinnya ctratehichnym ekonomichnym potentsialom cuchasnykh ekonomichnykh system [innovative models of management in strategic economic potential modern economic systems]. aktualni problemy https://www.amazon.com/evolving-leadership-collective-wellbeing-implementing/dp/1787438791 https://www.amazon.com/evolving-leadership-collective-wellbeing-implementing/dp/1787438791 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202011.0068/v1 https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764x.2020.1761943 https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764x.2020.1761943 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.32508/stdjssh.v4i3.576 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb.19 http://loveread.ec/view_global.php?id=60315 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 94 ekonomiky [actual problems of economics], 4(118), 311. http://socrates.vsau.org/repository/card.php?lang=uk&id=24702 kapska, a. y. (2009). sotsialna pedahohika [social pedagogy]. tsentr navchalnoyi literatury. https://www.twirpx.com/file/689659/ karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kyrmach, h. a. (2014). vykhovannia u starshoklasnykiv tsinnosti inshoi liudyny v pozaurochnii diialnosti [cultivating the value of another person in high school pupils during extracurricular activities] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. the institute of problems in morale building of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgibin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn= &s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a7421.352.16 $%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=tipvid&s21srd=&s21stn=1& s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 lourens, h., watermeyer, b., & swartz, l. (2019) ties that bind, and double-bind: visual impairment, help, and the shaping of relationships. disability and rehabilitation, 41(16), 18901897. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2018.1450454 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 maslow, a. (2009). motivatsiia i lichnost [motivation and personality]. piter. http://www.bim-bad.ru/docs/maslow_motivation_and_personality.pdf melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u http://socrates.vsau.org/repository/card.php?lang=uk&id=24702 https://www.twirpx.com/file/689659/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a7421.352.16$%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=tipvid&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a7421.352.16$%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=tipvid&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a7421.352.16$%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=tipvid&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a7421.352.16$%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=tipvid&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?c21com=s&i21dbn=ref&p21dbn=&s21fmt=jwu_b&s21all=%28%3c.%3eu%3d%d0%a7421.352.16$%3c.%3e%29&z21id=&s21srw=tipvid&s21srd=&s21stn=1&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20 https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2018.1450454 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 http://www.bim-bad.ru/docs/maslow_motivation_and_personality.pdf developing a values-based attitude towards people in adolescent rehabilitation ... lesya filonenko et al. 95 poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rogers, c. (1999). chto znachit “stanovitsia chelovekom” [on becoming a person]. psikhologiya lichnosti [the psychology of personality], 1, 363–378. https://monocler.ru/karl-rodzhers-chto-znachit-stanovitsya-chelovekom/ sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 sartre, j.-p. (1992). stena. izbrannye proizvedeniia [the wall. selected works]. politizdat. https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000094559-stena-izbrannyeproizvedeniya-sbornik-zhan-pol-sartr shchurkova, n. e. (2005). prykladnaia pedahohyka vospytanyia [applied pedagogy of education]. piter. https://obuchalka.org/2016040288895/prikladnayapedagogika-vospitaniya-schurkova-n-e-2005.html sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). stan sformovanosti smart-informatsiynoho kryteriyu hotovnosti fakhivtsiv do realizatsiyi inklyuziyi v osviti [the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education]. informatsiyni tekhnolohiyi i zasoby navchannya [information technologies and learning tools], 72, 273285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532–1543. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://monocler.ru/karl-rodzhers-chto-znachit-stanovitsya-chelovekom/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000094559-stena-izbrannye-proizvedeniya-sbornik-zhan-pol-sartr https://www.livelib.ru/book/1000094559-stena-izbrannye-proizvedeniya-sbornik-zhan-pol-sartr https://obuchalka.org/2016040288895/prikladnaya-pedagogika-vospitaniya-schurkova-n-e-2005.html https://obuchalka.org/2016040288895/prikladnaya-pedagogika-vospitaniya-schurkova-n-e-2005.html https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 96 tretiak, o. p. (2014). vykhovannia tsinnisnoho stavlennia do liudyny u molodshykh shkoliariv u navchalno-vykhovnomu protsesi [cultivating a values-based attitude towards a person in younger schoolchildren in the educational process] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. the institute of problems in morale building of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. https://mydisser.com/ua/catalog/view/238/244/26531.html waddock, s. (2016). developing humanistic leadership education. humanist management journal, 1, 57–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-016-0003-5 zahorodniuk, t. m. (2011). vykhovannia pochuttia korysnosti dlia inshoho yak moralnoi tsinnosti pidlitka [cultivating a sense of usefulness for another person as a moral value of adolescents] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. the institute of problems in morale building of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. https://nenc.gov.ua/doc/autoref/zagorodnuk.pdf zhurba, k. o. (2013). orhanizatsiia i provedennia treninhu z vykhovannia kultury hidnosti molodshykh pidlitkiv [organizing and conducting training on cultivating the culture of dignity in younger adolescents]. materialy zvitnoi naukovopraktychnoi konferentsii instytutu problem vykhovannya napn ukrayiny za 2013 “suchasnyy vykhovnyy protses: sutnist ta innovatsiynyy potentsial” [proceedings of the report scientific-practical conference on “the modern educational process: the essence and the innovative potential”]. the institute of problems in morale building of the academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/6672/1/%d0%96%d1%83%d1%80%d0 %b1%d0%b0.pdf ziaziun, i. a. (2000). pedahohika dobra: idealy i realii [the pedagogy of kindness: ideals and realities]. the international academy of personnel management. http://www.samprodav.com/books/sell/42306-piedaghoghika-dobraidieali-i-riealiyi https://mydisser.com/ua/catalog/view/238/244/26531.html https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-016-0003-5 https://nenc.gov.ua/doc/autoref/zagorodnuk.pdf http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/6672/1/%d0%96%d1%83%d1%80%d0%b1%d0%b0.pdf http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/6672/1/%d0%96%d1%83%d1%80%d0%b1%d0%b0.pdf http://www.samprodav.com/books/sell/42306-piedaghoghika-dobra-idieali-i-riealiyi http://www.samprodav.com/books/sell/42306-piedaghoghika-dobra-idieali-i-riealiyi brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev mathematical properties of complex networks angel garrido abstract. many researchers are attempting to create systems which mimic human thought, or understand speech, or beat to the best human chessplayer [14]. understanding intelligence and creating intelligent artifacts both are the twin goals of artificial intelligence (ai).in more recent times, the interest is focused on problems related with complex networks [3, 5,6, 19], in particular on questions such as clustering search and identification. we attempt, in this paper, a panoramic vision of such mathematical methods in ai. keywords: searching and representation methods, heuristics, artificial intelligence 2000 mathematics subject classification: 68r10, 68r05, 78m35. 118 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks 1.introduction the origin of the ideas about thinking machines, the complex mechanism through work the human brain, the possibility of mimic its behavior, if we produce some computational structure similar to neuron, their synapsis or connections between neurons to produce artificial neural networks [6, 14, 19]. all this can appear with resonances of a science fiction movie, but it is a real subject of study, and it is so from many years ago, and more in recent times [3]. the basic purpose of the ai is to create an admissible model of the human knowledge. its subject is, therefore, ”pure form”. we try to emulate the way of reasoning of a human brain. this must be in successive, approximating steps, but the attempts proceed always in this sense. initially, the work in ai was over idealizations of the real world, attempting the automatical proof of lemmas and theorems, modeling games, etc. therefore, the fields were ”formal worlds”. such search procedures were into the space of states. this space integrate the set of all states, or nodes, in the case of representation by graphs, that we obtain when we apply all the disposable operators. many early ai programs used the same basic algorithm. to achieve some goal (winning a game or proving a theorem), they proceeded step by step towards it (each time, a move or a deduction), i.e. as searching through a maze, backtracking whenever they reached a dead end. this paradigm is called ”reasoning as search” [14]. the techniques for solving problems, in ai, can be of two different types, declarative and procedural. declarative: it permits the description of the known aspects of the problem. it is the heuristic treatment. procedural: itemizes the necessary paths to reach the solution of the problem. it is the algorithmic treatment. but to pose problems is equivalent to constructs its solutions. this requires an agent, the system or program to execute a set of actions, which allow to reach such objectives; and a procedure of election, which allow to decide between distinct paths to reach its solution. we can use [6, 14] a series of resources approaching problems in a i, as may be logic, rules, associative nets, frames, and scripts. the correct choice between these methods must be based in the own characteristics of the problem and our expectations about the type of solution. in many cases, we 119 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks take at a time two o more tools, as may be on the case of frame systems, frequently associated with rules. the inference in systems based rules (sbr in acronym) depends on establishing the certainty of some statement, from the disposable information. we have two methods, going forward and going backward concatenation. in the first case, we depart of rules with verified affirmations in its antecedent, advancing through the affirmations which we find in their consequents. while in the second case, we depart of rules verified in certain consequent (all the consequent must be also verified), and we turn back to the antecedent. this convert their affirmations in new sub-objectives for the proof, searching rules where appear in their consequent, and so on. to hold up this process when we find the required affirmation, in the last consequent explored or the last antecedent, according the selected method. the rules [14] shows advantages on classical logic, where the reasoning was monotonic, with inferences without incurs in contradictions with preexisting facts. while in the rbs we can delete or substitute facts of the base of facts, according to the new inferences. so, all may be provisional and modifiable. this produce a non-monotonic reasoning. 2.representation methods we have some mechanisms of control in rbs. so, with mechanism of refractarity, by which we prevent to execute newly a rule, once has been used, if do not exist more information which allow us or recommend such case. rule sets. it allows us to activate or neutralize blocks of rules. meta-rules, or rules which treat (or reasoning) about other rules. such meta-rules can collaborate to obtain the control of reasoning, with the change or assignation of priorities to different rules, according to the evolution of circumstances. nets. between them, the more recent studies [6] to deal with bayesian nets (bn in acronym), belief nets, or simply networks. before than these bns appears, the purpose were simply to obtain useful systems for medical diagnosis, by classical statistical inferential techniques, such as can be the bayes rule, also called formula or theorem. a bayesian net is represented as a pair (g, d), where g is a directed, acyclic and connected graph, and d will be a probability distribution, associated with the random variables. such distribution must verify the property of directional separation, according which the probability of a variable does not depends of their not descendant nodes. 120 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks the inference in bayesian networks (bns) consists in establish on the net, for the known variables, their values, and for the unknown variables, their respective probabilities. the basic objective of bns in medicine is to find the probability of success with we can to give a determined diagnosis, known certain symptoms. we need to work with the subsequent hypotheses: exclusivity, exhaustivity, and conditional independence. according the exclusivity, two different diagnosis can not be right at time. with the exhaustivity, we suppose at our disposition all the possible diagnosis. and by the conditional independence, the discoveries found must be mutually independents, to a certain diagnosis. the more usual problem with such hypotheses is their inadequacy to the real world. for this reason, it will be very necessary to introduce bayesian networks, artificial neural networks, probabilistic graphical models, and so on. in the searching process, we have two options, without information of the domain (blind search), and with information about of the domain (heuristic search). in the first case, we can elect, according the type of problem, between search in extent and search in depth. there are other methods, obtained from the aforementioned, such as searching in progressive depth and bidirectional searching, both with names sufficiently allusive to its nature. also we can found another method, and in this case it is not derived, the general search in graphs. in such procedure, it is clear the possibility of translation to matrix expression, through their incidence matrices. all these methods appears joined, of course, to their corresponding algorithms. blind search, or search without information of the domain. it appears with the initial attempts to solve, by idealizations of the real world, playing problems, or to obtain automatic proof of theorems. the searching process could be in state spaces. searching in extent. we advance in the graph [6, 15] through levels. so, we obtain the lesser cost solution, if there exists. whereas, in the depth searching, we expand one link each time, from the root-node. if we reach a blind alley into the graph, we back until the nearest node and from this, we take one ramification in the graph. it is usual to establish an exploration limit, also called depth limit, fixing the maximal length of the path, from the root. we need to select the more promising trajectories. so, we can not obtain the best solution (optimum), but an efficient approach to her. another different procedure will be the gradient method, or climbing search. according to this method [6, 14], in the expansion of each node, 121 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks we must elect the link which connects with the node of the subsequent level where is greatest the value of f, supposing that reach its greatest value in the final node. heuristic search, i.e. searching with knowledge of the domain. initially, were usual to think that all the paths can be explored by the computer. but it is too optimist. such exploration will be very difficult, because the well-known phenomenon of ”combinatorial explosion” of branching, when we expand. its spatial and temporal complexity can advise us against its realization. it is possible for a given search procedure, to be either heuristic or algorithmic, or both, or perhaps neither, with respect to some state-space problem. a search procedure oriented toward a problem said to embody heuristic information (i.e. an information which serves to discover). so, it will be called a heuristic search procedure. there are some critics on heuristic search, because its unpredictability. they found good solutions, but not necessary the best. this made very convenient to introduce the algorithm a*, with their properties, completeness and admissibility. according with this last property, if there is solution, find it. a* is a particular case of searching procedure, ”first the best”, into the strategies of ”alternative explorations”. it belongs to general searching in graph procedures. in each step, we go revisiting the open list. initially, it is empty. but we introduce the root-node. if the open list does not empty, or does not reach the final node, in each step, we go on with the process, expanding the subsequent node of the open list. our successive choices would be based in the previous assignment to each node of the value of f in it. the selection of each node is given according to the lesser value of the heuristic function on the nodes of its level, as a general rule. the comparison is carry out into the open list, with clear independence of the original level of each node. generally, we prefer the solution of lesser cost. all the visited nodes, then, pass to store in the closed list. such nodes remains inactive in the remaining process. also, there are adequate strategies designed for the treatment of searching problems with two adversaries. in this case, the general purpose is to choice the more convenient walk, the lesser number of necessary steps to win the game. chess, generally. for these, we may assume alternative moves. in each move, the ideal would be when the player knows his possibilities and realizes the more unfavorable move for its adversary. but is impossible control it completely, because the aforementioned ”combinatorial explosion”. so, we need to develop a tree of depth searching, with depth limited. ever supposing 122 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks the move of more advantage, in each turn, for each player. on a i, the problems may be classified according to its level. in a first level, the problems of decision, learning, perception, planning and reasoning. in a second level, the tasks of classification, representation and search. when we formulate a problem [14], we depart of the statement, or the explanation of it, in natural language. fundamentally, its treatment is based on the ”level of knowledge”, introduced by newell, in 1981, as “abstract level of interpretation of systems, in a i”. also is basic the ”rationality principle”, according to ”if a system has the knowledge according to which one of its actions leads to one of its goals, then such action is carried out”. to formulate the knowledge of the domain, denoted by d, in a more effective and efficient way, as theory, we need at least three important characteristics, as completeness, consistency, and tractability. according the first of them, completeness, each formula must be demonstrable into the theory. according the second of them, consistency, the new contributions to the system not must admits inner contradictions with the previous asserts, or axioms. the tractability must give us a moderate complexity. so, in derived calculus, manipulating laws/premises, by inference processes, must not result excessive their temporal and spatial complexities. 3. on complex systems a system can be defined as a set of components functioning together as a whole. a systemic point of view [1, 3, 17, 19] allows us to isolate a part of the world, and so, we can focus on those aspect that interact more closely than others. network science is a new scientific field that analyzes the interconnection among diverse networks, as for instance, on physics, engineering, biology, semantics, and so on. between its developers, we may remember to duncan watts, with the small-world network, and albert-lászló barabasi, which developed the scale-free network. about its work, barabási has found that the websites that form the network (of the www) have certain mathematical properties. network theory is an quickly expanding area of network and computer sciences, and also may be considered a part of graph theory. complex networks are everywhere. many phenomena in nature can be modeled as a network [19], as 123 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks brain structures. the brain as a network of neurons (as nodes), connected by synapses (their edges). social interactions or the world wide web (www). all such systems can be represented in terms of nodes and edges. on internet, the nodes represent routers, and the edges by wires, or physical connections between them. in transport networks, the nodes can represent the cities and the edges the roads that connect them. these edges can have weights. these networks are not random. the topology of different networks are very close. they follow from the power law, with a scale free structure. how can very different systems have the same underlying topological features? searching the hidden laws of these networks, modeling and characterizing them are the current lines of research. as a previous concept, we need to introduce the clustering coefficient, in both versions, global and local. the characteristic path length defines the distance from every node to every other node. it will be calculated by the median of the shortest path from every node to every other node. and the diameter defines the maximum possible distance between all the pair of reachable nodes. the global clustering coefficient (denoted by c ) is based on triplets of nodes, and can be obtained through the number of closed triplets over the total number of triplets, both closed and open. it is also possible to be defined as the mean of the clustering indices of all the nodes in the graph. being computable through the neighbors of the node, and then finding the number of links amongst them. because the ratio of the number of existing links to teh number of possible links gives the clustering index of the node. so, c = 3 card(triangles)) card (connected triplets of nodes) whereas the local clustering coefficient is related to a particular node, i.it measures the closeness their neighbors are to being a clique, i.e. a complete graph. the more usual notation is ci. these measures was introduced by watts and strogatz, in 1998, to determine whether a graph is a small-world network. 124 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks the degree of a node i, into a graph, is defined as the number of nodes comprised in its neighborhood. usually, it is denoted as ki. such ki is the total degree of the corresponding node, i, i.e. it may be calculated by adding in-degree of i and out-degree of i. so, we have ci = card(edges between nodes of their neighbor) ki (ki−1) finally, the local clustering coefficient for the whole system, denoted by c,will be c = 1 n n i=1 ci therefore, it is the average of the clustering coefficient for each node. so, it is a property of a node into the network, either of the total network. it tells about the connectedness between the neighbors of the nodes. when the neighborhood is fully connected, the value of the clustering coefficient will be equal to one. and it will be a value next to zero, if there are sparse connections in the neighborhood. with all the scale of intermediate cases. 4. structural models we may distinguish four of such structural models [3, 4, 5, 8, 11]. thus, regular networks, random networks, small-world networks and scale-free networks. in the regular network, each node is connected to all other nodes. i.e. they are fully connected. because such type of structure, they have the lowest path length (l), and the lowest diameter (d), being l = d = 1. also they have the highest clustering coefficient. so, it holds c = 1. furthermore, the highest possible number of edges card (e) = n (n−1) 2 ∼ n2 about random graphs (rgs), we can say that each pair of nodes is connected with probability p. they have a low average path length, according to 125 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks l ≈ ln n ln 〈k〉 ∼ ln n for n >> 1. it is because the total network may be covered in 〈k〉 steps, from which n ∼ 〈k〉l also they possesses a low clustering coefficient, when the graph is sparse. thus, c = p = 〈k〉 n << 1 given that the probability of being connected each pair of neighboring nodes is precisely equal to p. the small-world effect is observed on a network when it has a low average path length, i.e. l << n, f or n >> 1. recall the famous ”six degrees of separation”, also called the small-world phenomenon. this hypothesis was firsty formulated by the hungarian thinker frigyes karinthy, in 1929. then, it was tested by s. milgram, in 1967. the subjacent idea [2, 8] is that two arbitrarily selected people may be connected by only six degrees of separation (in average, and it is not too larger than this value). therefore, the diameter of the corresponding graph is not much larger than six. for instance, on social connections. in the case of the watts-strogatz (in acronym, ws) small-world model (1998), it represent a hybrid case between a random graph and a regular lattice [6, 8, 17]. so, small-world models comparts with rgs some common features, as may be poisson or binomial degree distribution, near to uniform distribution; network size: it does not grow; each node has approximately the same number of edges, i.e. it shows a homogeneous nature. ws-models shows the low average path length typical of random graphs, l ∼ ln n, f or n >> 1 and also such models the usual high clustering coefficient of regular lattices, giving 126 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks c ≈ 0.75, f or k >> 1 in consequence, ws-models have a small-world structure, being well clustered. whereas the random graphs coincides on the small-world structure, but they are poorly clustered. this model (ws) has a peak degree distrution, of poisson type. in reference to the last model, called scale-free network, it appears when the degree distribution follows a power-law, i.e. p (k) ∼ k−γ in such case, there exists a small number of highly connected nodes, called hubs, being the tail of the distribution. while, the great majority of the set of their nodes have few connections, representing the head of such distribution. such model [3] was introduced by a.-l. barabási and r. albert, in 1999. some of their features may be: non-homogeneous nature, in the sense that some (few) nodes have many edges from them, and the remaining nodes only have very few edges, or links; about the network size, it continuously grows; and about the connectivity distribution, it obeys a power-law distribution. a very notable example of scale-free network [2, 8] may be the world wide web (www, in acronym). as we known, it is a collection of many subnetworks. in such case, the nodes corresponding to their pages, whereas the edges to hyperlinks. about the web graph characteristics, we notice as more important the scale invariance and its structure of small-world network. 5. conclusions this panoramic over view of the different types of searching methods must be adequately enlarged [4, 7,10-13, 16]. surely also the description of complex networks, and the analysis of the problems involved into the search of clustering. but our initial purpose only was to explain how it appears, and its more efficient use. we hope at least a partial success in such objective. 127 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks references [1] r. albert, and a.-l. barabási (2002). statistical mechanics of complex networks. reviews of modern physics. 74: 47-. [2] a.-l. barabási, and bonabeau (2003): scale-free networks. scient. am. may 2003, pp. 50-59. [3] a.-l. barabási (2004). linked: how everything is connected to everything else. plume publ. [4] a. barrat et al. (2008). dynamical processes in complex networks. cambridge university press. [5] s. bocaletti et al. (2006): complex networks: structure and dynamics. phys. rep. 424: 175-308. [6] s. bornholdt, and h. g. schuster, editors (2003): handbook of graphs and networks: from the genome to the internet. [7] a. broder et al. graph structure in the web. proc. 9th. www: 309-320. [8] g. calderelli (2007). scale-free networks. oxford university press. [9] r. cohen et al. (2000). resilience of the internet to random breakdown. phys. rev. letter, 85: 4626-. [10] s. dill et al. (2002). self-similarity in the web. acm trans. intern. techn.: 205-223. [11] s. n. dorogotsev, and j. f. f. mendes (2002). evolution of networks. adv. phys. 51: 1079-. [12] s. n. dorogotsev, and j. f.f. mendes (2003). evolution of networks: from biological networks to the internet and www. oxford university press. [13] s. n. dorogotsev, a. v. goltsev, and j. f. f. mendes (2008). critical phenomena in complex networks. rev.mod. phys., 80:1275-. [14] a. garrido (2004). logical foundations of artificial intelligence. proc. ”fotfs v” intern. conf., institut für angewändte mathematik, university of bonn. [15] f. harary. graph theory. addison-wesley, 1975. [16] p. r. kumar et al. (2000). stochastic models for the web graph. proc. 41st. focs: 57-65. [17] m. newman (2003). the structure and function of complex networks. siam review, 45: 167-256. [18] g. shafer (1976). a mathematical theory of evidence. princeton univ. press. new jersey. 128 angel garrido mathematical properties of complex networks [19] r. solé (2009). redes complejas. del genoma a internet. colección metatemas. tusquets editores, barcelona. [20] a. m. turing (1950). computing machinery and intelligence. mind, 59: 433-60. [21] n. wiener (1947). cybernetics. mit press and john wiley. new york. [22] l. a. zadeh (1965). fuzzy sets. information and control, 8: 338-55. angel garrido departamento de matemáticas fundamentales facultad de ciencias de la uned senda del rey, 9 28040-madrid spain e-mail: agarrido@mat.uned.es; algbmv@telefonica.net 129 microsoft word brain_2_1.doc 5 word-list recall in youngsters and older adults parvaneh khosravizadeh research and graduate studies, languages and linguistics center sharif university of technology, iran khosravizadeh@sharif.edu sogol gerami languages and linguistics department sharif university of technology, iran sogol_gerami@yahoo.com abstract a word-list recall is an experiment that examines the effect of age on the change in memory. the ability to understand or use language is more or less dependent on the memory capacity. any person may know what s/he wants to say but may not be able to say it if the memory does not help. we use some form of memory in all aspects of language processing. whatever we have in our mind is stored whether for seconds, hours, or years. by short-term memory, a person can remember different things for a period of seconds or minutes only. by rehearsal, the duration and the quantity of storage will increase. therefore, rehearsal transforms the short-term memory into the long-term memory. this experiment, which examines the number of words recalled by different age groups after presenting a word list, reveals that the younger a person the more are the words he or she recalls. the experiment also reveals that semantically related words have greater chance to be remembered when they are compared with unrelated words. keywords: aging, short-term memory, long-term memory, semantically related words, word list recall. 1. introduction language learning and language use is impossible without the brain. the role that brain plays in developing language ability is undeniable. among the creatures, human being is the only one who has the ability to acquire and process insufficient data and produce an infinite variety of language. hunt (as cited in [1], [2]) describes the innate ability of human in producing language as below: since the language children produce cannot be accounted for based on the language they receive from their environment, theorists have hypothesized that children are born with a genetic predisposition to acquire language with what chomsky has termed a language acquisition device (lad). another amazing aspect of brain is the memory capacity that it has. griffith (in [3]) has claimed that the memory capacity of human brain is approximately one trillion bits of information in his life span. the remembrance or recall ability of brain is also worth mentioning. we are not forced to search the whole memory in order to find particular information. the selective search ability rather than whole search is present in human mind only. there are different factors that can affect recall of what we memorize. one of the important influencing factors is the meaningfulness of learning. if the new material relates to the existed knowledge of the learner's cognitive structure the recall of that material will be easier. as another effective factor, we can mention the role of shocking matters in recall. the striking events result in better recall. other important considerations include content, the learner's ability, and the quantity and difficulty level of the task involved ([5], 1981). the activities of brain are not limited to the above-mentioned ones. many other activities occur either consciously or subconsciously. among the enumerated capabilities of brain, recall or remembrance is the brain ability under discussion in this article. as it was mentioned in previous paragraph, recall of the materials is affected by different factors. aging as an effective factor is at brainovations brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 the center of attention in this article. the article tries to show that becoming older affects the degree of recall. mental abilities are indirect and invisible. by designing some specific tests, we are able to elicit some behaviors. the elicited behaviors are perceived as indicators of underlying abilities of mind. thus, the experiment tries to show the possible relationship between short-term memory loss and age by a word-list recall test. here on the other hand, the researchers try to see whether the semantically related words have greater chance to be remembered later. 1.1. aging aging is a term that refers to the changes that occur during the life of living creatures. human being as a creature can change in different dimensions. physical, social, and psychological changes are observable in the people's life span. as the result of aging, some abilities in human develop and some others decline. knowledge of world and wisdom progress as a person grows up. recalling ability on the other hand is the dimension that declines through the pass of time: as people grow older, they often complain about difficulty with recalling names, and they perpetually attribute this deficiency to growing old. but the more plausible explanation for this problem is that a sixty-year-old knows considerably more people and more facts than a sixteen-year-old, and since access to ltm is capacity limited, it is more logical to assume that the more you have to remember, the easier it is to forget (scovel, 1998, p. 85) [9]. there is an increasing possibility of declines in cognitive functions of brain as healthy people age. although the change in brain function is inevitable, the speed of aging differs in different people. some people face aging when they are at earlier ages and this aging happens with faster rate than others do. bad eating habits, alcohol use, lack of exercise, and stress besides changes in hormones can be enumerated as the factors that increase the rate of cognitive decline. aging seems to have an indirect relationship with the success in performing tasks that require attention and controlled processing of information i.e., people in early ages perform greater in tasks that rely on attention and information processing. some kinds of learning such as mastering correct pronunciation that require motor skills will also become more difficult as a person becomes older. these alterations in cognitive abilities are due to changes that occur in brain's volume, the number of synapses, the number of receptors, the levels of neurotransmitters, and many other brain related factors. many different types of memory have been identified in humans, such as episodic, semantic, strategic, working, source spatial, and non-declarative. rapp et al. (2003) [7] studies show memory functions, which associated with the medial temporal lobe, are especially vulnerable to age-related decline. 1.2. memory according to the first definition of merriam webster dictionary memory is the power or process of reproducing or recalling what has been learned and retained specially through associative mechanisms. the value of learning correlates directly with the amount of learned information that is stored in memory and the proportion of that material that the individual can recall ([1], p. 39). learning is considered equal to the storing, retaining, and recalling information. information is not learned unless it is stored in the brain, retained, and remembered later in proper situations. therefore, memory plays a significant role in learning process. the models of memory can be studied under two categories: short-term memory and long-term memory [8]. 1.2.1 short-term memory short-term memory also called working memory is our very limited ability to remember new information without storing in long-term memory ([9], p. 130). there are different definitions presented by different learning theorists. anderson (as cited in chastain, 1988) defines memory as "a capacity for keeping a limited amount of information in a special active state”. short-term p. khosravizadeh, s. gerami word-list recall in youngsters and older adults 7 memory is usually called working memory because it holds the information in our immediate consciousness at any given time. short-term memory is limited and this limitation can be discussed from two different aspects: limitation in quantity of stored information and the limitation in the period of time that materials can be held in memory. it is believed that the capacity of short-term memory is not more than seven discrete items. this small quantity of information can be processed in short-term memory only. the length of material retention on the other hand depends on several factors. information organized in small quantities, practiced, learned at the beginning or end of lists, and studied recently, is remembered longer ([1], p. 40). short-term memory receives information from the environment and prepares it for storing in long-term memory. by paying conscious attention to what is held in short-term memory, human can send the information to long-term memory. the acts of rehearsal and elaboration are necessary to prepare information for storage in long-term memory. without rehearsal, information will not be kept in short-term memory. elaboration is also another cognitive process that helps better remembrance. in this process, information is chunked into meaningful units and in this way, it can be related to previously stored information in long-term memory. lefrançois ([4], p. 61) elaborates on memory components as below: sensory information first enters sensory memory. only those items that are paid attention to enter short-term memory and the rest are discarded or forgotten. the information that gets into short-term memory is available as a name or a word as long as it is rehearsed. some of the information then is coded for long-term storage and is stored as concepts or meanings. 1.2.2 long-term memory long-term memory is the memory as we normally think of it; whether it is of an event from childhood or of the name of a person we have just met (scovel, 1998, p. 127). long-term memory is in contrast with short-term memory in two ways: the capacity of storage and the period of time that materials are held. long-term memory can keep a large amount of information for a long period. as it was mentioned earlier, information transfers from short-term memory to long-term memory. the process of transference is called encoding. to elaborate on encoding it is better to provide an example. suppose that you know a word and you can recall its shape, its meaning, and its pronunciation. remembering the word by its meaning can be called semantic encoding. we make association between the information we gain from environment to retain them in long-term memory and recall them later. the associations we make between varieties of information in our memories can be discussed by considering schemata, script, elaboration, and categorization. schemata are the related units of information organized by our brain. anderson (as cited in [1] defines a schema as " large, complex units of knowledge that organize much of what we know about general categories of objects, classes of events, and types of people." scripts are related to schema and play significant roles in remembering things. schemata that reflect typical sequences of actions are often referred to as scripts (chastain, 1988, p. 42). as an example for scripts we can mention the order of events when going to a restaurant. another cognitive process that helps better remembrance is elaboration. this process is considered as a basic technique for recalling materials. when you elaborate on something, you actually associate it with more meanings and mental images. for example, you will be able to remember the address of somewhere better if you associate it with images of that area such as the color of walls, the types of trees surrounding there, and the name of a famous shop beside that specific place. grouping and relating materials that is called organization also help better recall. 1.3 semantically related words vs. semantically similar words usually we see in different texts that semantic relatedness and semantic similarity are used interchangeably. it is necessary to make a distinction between these two terms. some believe that concepts such as antonymy; a type of sense relation expressing the meaning of oppositions, and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 meronymy; what denotes a constituent part of, or a member of something, are not included in semantic similarity while semantic relatedness includes these two concepts: semantic relatedness indicates how much two concepts are semantically distant in a network or taxonomy by using all relations between them (i.e. hyponymy/hypernymy, antonymy, meronymy and any kind of functional relations including is-made-of, is-anattribute-of, etc.). when limited to hyponymy/hyperonymy (i.e. is a) relations, the measure quantifies semantic similarity instead [6]. 2. method 2.1. participants two age groups were investigated in this study. forty subjects participated in this study in two different age groups. one group included twenty subjects who were under age 20 and the other group included twenty people who were over age 50. 2.2. instruments the fundamental purpose of the study was to compare the recall ability of younger people with that of the older adults. it was also aimed to find whether semantically related words have greater chance to be recalled. therefore, a list of fifteen farsi words was selected from high frequency words used in everyday life. selecting difficult words with ambiguous meanings was avoided in order to reduce the danger of word knowledge bias. this list was prepared in order to be presented to subject for the aim of measuring their recall ability, so it is called a word-list for recall. the experimenters ordered the words in a way that somewhere at the end of the list two semantically related words were shown immediately after each other without any other word between them to see whether their relatedness can affect recall procedures of participants. 2.3. data collection procedures in order to compare the short-term memory differences in two age groups twenty people below 20 and twenty people above 50 were included in this study. the word list that consisted of fifteen highly frequent words was shown to the participants in a special way. typed words were presented by powerpoint program to the subjects. each word was typed separately from others on a separate slide and the whole list was presented in 45 seconds. the duration of time chosen for presenting each word was 3 seconds. after the presentation of words, the participants were asked to write down whatever they remembered from the words they had seen. the participants were asked to hand in their papers after one minute. the study was aimed to tap short-term memory of participants, therefore the subjects were asked to write down whatever they remembered immediately after the presentation of word-list. if they were asked to write the words later, there would be danger of long-term memory interference. 2.4. data analysis the participants in both age groups were provided with 15 words in a speed of 3 seconds for each word. in order to determine if the mean of the number of words recalled by young participants is different from that of the older adults, independent sample t-test is used. the level of α is considered 0.05 in this study. the p-value is calculated in order to see whether the difference between two age groups is significance. if the p-value is less than 0.05, the difference will be considered significant enough to say that the different group's short-term memories perform differently. it is also assumed that the related words have greater chance to be recalled. in order to test the assumption, the study tries to find the number of participants who have recalled the related words and see whether their remembrance has any priority over others. if more than half of the participants recalled the related words, we would consider a recall priority for them over other words. p. khosravizadeh, s. gerami word-list recall in youngsters and older adults 9 3. results and discussions table 1 shows the descriptive results obtained from the word-list recall task performed by participants. two groups were compared with each other in the study: youngsters and older adults. table 1. group statistics group number n mean std. deviation std. error mean 1 20 6.85 1.631 .365 2 20 5.15 1.899 .425 it is obvious that first group which includes youngsters has the greater mean than the second groupolder adultsunder investigation do. therefore, the older adults averaged fewer recall of the words than the youngsters did. to see whether the difference is significant p-value should be considered. the researcher tries to prove the assumption that youngsters perform better in tasks related to short-term memory when they are compared with older adults. it is assumed that aging affects short-term memory negatively. to determine whether performance of two groups is different in the word list recall task an independent sample t-test was chosen as statistical procedure. table 2 elaborates on the results of the independent sample t-test. before everything, we should consider the statistical significance for the levene's test to assure that our variances are different. as the statistical significance for the levene's test in this case is 0.495 and greater than 0.05, we assume that the variances are different and we can use the obtained results shown on the top line with confidence. the output obtained from spss shows that there is a significant difference between two groups under study. the difference was (t(38) = 3.03, p = 0.004). as it is obvious p-value is less than the selected α, which is 0.05, and this shows that the difference between the performance of youngsters and older adults in recall task is great. table 2. independent samples test levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means 95% confidence interval of the difference f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) mean difference std. error difference lower upper equal variances assumed .474 .495 3.037 38 .004 1.700 .560 .567 2.833 number equal variances not assumed 3.037 37.151 .004 1.700 .560 .566 2.834 the other prediction of the researchers was that participants are mentally more sensitive to the semantically related words and they keep the related words in mind appropriately by making association between them; therefore these related words have greater chance to be recalled. counting the number of participants who had written both related words in their papers as a result of recall revealed that 23 out of 40 participants had remembered these two words and had written them beside each other. it can show that related words are remembered better than other words and people can find their relation as an element, which helps better recall. our paper used, among other, the works [10] and [11]. 4. conclusion the present study intended to investigate any possible relationship between aging and shortterm memory ability of people. the findings indicate that the older the human being the worse his or her short-term memory ability. this finding is the result of an investigation on the ability of brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 different age groups in immediate recalling of a word-list. another finding of this research was that the more the words are semantically related the less they are forgotten. this finding approves the belief that chunking, which is the placing of material into related classes, helps remembrance of materials. this implicates that people should make associations between what they receive from environment as input and connect these received materials with what they have learned before in order to become capable of recalling them. 5. references [1] chastain, k. (1988). developing second-language skills: theory and practice. ny: harcourt brace jovanovich, inc. [2] cook, v. (2001). second language learning and language teaching. ny: oxford, oxford university press inc. [3] griffiths, p. ( 2001). genetic information: a metaphor in search of a theory, philosophy of science, 67: 26-44. [4] lefrançois, g.r. (1991). psychology for teaching. ca: wadsworth publishing company. maynard, smith, j. (2000). the concept of information in biology. philosophy of science, 67: 177194 [5] mcdonough, s.h. (1981) psychology in foreign language teaching. london: george allen & unwin. [6] ponzetto, s. p. & strube, m. (2007). knowledge derived from wikipedia for computing semantic relatedness. journal of artificial intelligence research, 30: 181-212. [7] rapp pr, morrison jh, roberts ja. (2003). cyclic estrogen replacement improves cognitive function in aged ovariectomized rhesus monkeys. neuroscience, 23:5708–5714. [8] searle, j. (1980). minds, brains, and programs. behavioral and brain sciences, 3: 417-457. [9] scovel, t. (1998). psycholinguistics. oxford: oxford university press. [10] steinberg, d.d. & sciarini n.v. (2006). an introduction to psycholinguistics. harlow: pearson education limited. [11] environmental threats to healthy aging, an arc across the lifespan: from the beginning. (n.d.). greater boston physicians for social responsibility and science and environmental health network retrieved on august 20, 2010, from http://www.agehealthy.org/pdf/chap4_0926.pdf 6. appendix word list cancer vase spoon sock watch celery invasion body glue chair monitor glass fridge cheese bank brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 207-219 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/313 submitted: november 8th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 13th, 2022 formation of moral self-consciousness in adolescents in the process of psychological counselling iuliia alieksieieva¹, nelia bihun2, inna chukhrii3, наlyna honcharovska4, svitlana kalishchuk5, dariia otych6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, yulya-alekseeva-74@ukr.net 2 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, nelabigun@gmail.com 3 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynsky state pedagogical university, ukraine, chukhriiinna@gmail.com 4 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, ggalina.tnpu@gmail.com 5 borys grinchenko kyiv university, ukraine, klana_@ukr.net 6 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, otychdd@ukr.net abstract: the article reveals issues related to formation of moral self-awareness in the process of psychological counselling. the meaning of the concepts: “consciousness”, “moral”, “moral self-awareness”, “counselling”, “psychology”, “psychological counselling” is clarified. a classification of psychological counselling is presented. a review of literature by domestic and foreign researchers on fostering moral selfawareness in adolescents is made. it is investigated that the american psychologist hall (1904) first covered the issue of formation of moral self-consciousness in adolescents. it is determined that the functions of moral self-consciousness include self-control, self-perception, selfapproval, self-understanding, self-improvement. it is found that scientists distinguish 2 types of self-awareness: subjective and objective. it is emphasized that self-awareness is the ability to clearly and realistically evaluate one’s behavior. the moral self-consciousness of adolescents with high, medium and low levels of self-esteem is considered. in addition, emphasis is placed on the fact that moral traits are the factors that shape a person. it has been found that moral self-awareness is based on the following factors: cognitive, emotional and behavioral. it is noted that the ability to communicate plays an important role in formation of moral self-awareness. the signs that prompt a teenager think about visiting a psychologist have been identified. it is proved that knowledge about one’s strengths in moral self-awareness helps adolescents to form their own moral wellbeing. it is found that conducting simulation games by a psychologist during a group training allows a specialist to determine the level of moral self-awareness of an adolescent, as well as to form strong moral virtues. it is proved that a game helps to conduct an effective psychological counselling, because a child feels comfortable, relaxed, openly shares thoughts and feelings. a remote form of psychological counseling is considered. it is emphasized that a psychologist works with a teenager, as well as with his/her parents. it was found that psychological counseling comprises a diagnostic and a therapeutic part. keywords: consciousness, moral, moral self-awareness, counselling, psychology, psychological counselling. how to cite: alieksieieva, i., bihun, n., chukhrii, i., honcharovska, h., kalishchuk, s., & otych, d. (2022). formation of moral self-consciousness in adolescents in the process of psychological counselling. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 207-219. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/313 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/313 mailto:yulya-alekseeva-74@ukr.net mailto:nelabigun@gmail.com mailto:chukhriiinna@gmail.com mailto:ggalina.tnpu@gmail.com mailto:klana_@ukr.net mailto:otychdd@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/313 formation of moral self-consciousness in adolescents in the process of … iuliia alieksieieva, et al. 208 introduction at present, in the rapid pace of development of socio-political and economic events (florea, 2017), there is a marked decrease in the importance of moral and ethical norms in society, which are indicators of behaviour. it is known that adolescents have a growing need for selfaffirmation, self-regulation, self-confidence. adolescence is the age of special development of a teenager (demchenko et al., 2021; komogorova et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021). moral principles, norms are indicators of the inner state of an adolescent. in addition, sometimes young people show manifestations of low levels of moral values, selfishness. so, to begin with, the following concepts need to be clarified: “consciousness”, “moral”, “moral self-awareness”, “counselling”, “psychology”, “psychological counselling”. in the dictionary of the ukrainian language edited by bilodid (1978) there is a definition of the concept “consciousness is the process of reflecting reality by the human brain, which covers all forms of mental activity and determines a purposeful human activity”. from the dictionary edited by hornostay (2001), we learn that “selfawareness is the ability of a person to reflect oneself, to perceive oneself from the outside, to reflect on one’s capabilities for successful formation, development and improvement of personality”. from the encyclopaedia of modern ukraine by abolin (2019), we learn that “moral is a spiritual and an ethic factor that regulates human behaviour and contains generalized norms, values, patterns of behaviour, principles of attitude to other people”. according to zimyansky (2015), “moral is a way of organizing life relationships that requires adolescents to independently analyse their actions, behaviour, etc., based on the formed moral consciousness”. according to shkilna (2014), “moral self-awareness is a person’s awareness of himself, his own moral qualities, behaviour, actions, motives, attitude to the world around, one’s activities for oneself and society”. according to osadko (2005), “counselling is the activity of a consultant aimed at providing services in the form of discussing issues raised for organizations and individuals”. from dictionary of foreign wordsby lukyanyuk (2001-2021) we learn that “psychology is a science that studies patterns, development and forms of mental activity of living beings”. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 209 a review of the literature by domestic authors tsymbaliuk (2005), tsilmak (2020) suggests that psychological science has many options for interpreting the essence of “psychological counselling”. according to tsymbaliuk (2005), “psychological counselling is a conversation between a person and a psychologist who tries to help solve their problems and establish interpersonal relationships”. tsilmak (2020) provides a classification of psychological counselling: individual and group, one-time and multiple; on personal request and without it. consultations can be with additional testing, with the involvement of methods of psychological correction. by duration: one-time consultation, which lasts 45-60 minutes, short-term consultation for 3-4 sessions, medium-term 10-15 sessions, long-term, lasts during a year. it can also be a face-to-face or a remote counselling. during a meeting, a psychologist listens to the client, tries to help alleviate the emotional state, helps to solve the problem. review of literature by domestic and foreign researchers on fostering moral self-awareness in adolescents the first studies on formation of moral self-awareness in adolescents belong to american psychologist and educator hall (1904). the scientist created the first psychology laboratory, started a journal on psychology, introduced the concept of a “psychological test”, wrote books on the study of children’s mind, taught in detail the development of the child in adolescence. in addition, the american psychologist founded the american psychological association, and therefore became its first president. in addition, he organized and edited other periodicals related to psychology: “journal of genetic psychology” (then called “the pedagogical seminary”), “the journal of religious psychology”, “the journal of applied psychology”. it is worth noting that hall (1904) emphasized that educational institutions should pay more attention to the upbringing of children rather than to the teaching of subjects (watson, 2018). the issues of the state of moral self-consciousness in adolescents in the process of psychological counselling was covered in the dissertation abstract by alieksieieva (2006). the author emphasized that during psychological counselling, psychologist should pay attention to both personal and interpersonal problems that cause problems of moral selfawareness. the researchers conducted a planned experiment, which revealed that during the period of psychological counselling there was an formation of moral self-consciousness in adolescents in the process of … iuliia alieksieieva, et al. 210 improvement in the ability of adolescents to self-analysis, compassion, empathy; the level of moral self-awareness increased. research on fostering moral self-awareness in older adolescents was covered by shkilna (2014), who noted the functions of moral self-awareness: self-knowledge, self-perception, self-approval, moral self-esteem, evaluation of other people’s actions, moral reflection, self-control, self-improvement. it is worth to note miller’s work (2021), which states that “selfawareness” is a focus on oneself. the author distinguishes between 2 types: subjective and objective. the subjective type is the interpretation of the fact that we are the result of our ideas, aspirations and, certainly, behaviour. the idea of objective consciousness resides in the fact that we compare ourselves with others, subordinate our actions to the standard of correct behaviour. a person feels restlessness, irritability when evaluating one’s “self” with the ideas of the ideal. objective self-awareness is achieved when a person can exercise self-regulation, i.e., the ability to control one’s actions and thoughts. obviously, if a person focuses on oneself, the person is aware of oneself. the author also singles out 7 examples of the theory of self-awareness: actions at the moment, attitude to actions; emotions at that moment; appearance; internal conflicts, beliefs and values; attitudes of other people; your vision of how others perceive you. miller (2021) gives 7 tips for improving self-awareness skills: 1) learn to meditate; 2) seek feedback, 3) learn to write down, analyse actions; 4) use assessments of personality and character traits; 5) keep a journal; 6) write morning pages; 7) learn to replace negative beliefs with healthy ones that promote emotional well-being. from the work of ackerman (2021) it becomes known that selfawareness is the ability to clearly, realistically evaluate one’s behaviour, actions, to analyse them honestly. in addition, the author highlights the benefits of self-awareness: affects our activity, stimulates positive self-development and perception; promotes creative and productive work, helps to exercise selfcontrol and feel pleasure from what has been done; easy to make decisions; improves communicative competence and increases selfconfidence. in the article, dowden (2014) advises counsellors to practice counselling in “stress-free zones”, having a conversation with the client, meditating and organizing physical activity. the author proposes a 3-step model to improve self-awareness, each of the strategies is focused on improving cognitive, emotional and behavioral processes. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 211 the article sandu (2014) focuses on formation of moral selfawareness. the author argues that adolescents’ moral self-awareness consists of what they think, feel, and behave. certainly, formation of moral consciousness is influenced by the family, school and community, as well as the social, cultural, historical and economic spheres. the “self” personality is a structure that contains one’s own perceptions and values, as well as the views and influence of family members and society. formation of adolescent self-awareness usually occurs from the fact that boys and girls, forming their personality, contemplate, compare themselves with their peers. adolescents with low self-esteem may have a good appearance, but because of pessimistic attitude to life see the negative side in everything. often, low self-esteem in adolescents leads to nutritional disorders, suicidal thoughts, consummation of psychotropic substances, early sexual life, which are the major health problems. obviously, teenagers who have high self-esteem are interested, self-confident, because they believe that they have everything for successful learning. they do not feel tension and have no internal conflicts. it is clear that people with high self-esteem are easy to mobilize, they are independent, successful, because they know how to interpret situations from a different perspective. people with low self-esteem are dissatisfied with themselves, are afraid of new tasks, try to avoid responsibility, feel rejected, they do not like the consequences of their activities, they do not try to get into conflicts, because they feel it is better for them to be unnoticed. certainly, formation of high and low self-esteem comes from the family, because it is in the family that the child experiences “lessons of happiness or unhappiness”. in her article ternopilska (2014) considers the essence of moral selfconsciousness of an individual, emphasizes the age characteristics of adolescents. the transition from childhood to adolescence is characterized by increased attention to relationships with peers. moreover, adolescents show symptoms of depression. fear and self-criticism may be associated with nutritional disorders, psychosis, and substance abuse (gilbert, 2008). in her article moreira (2018) explores relationship between selfawareness, empathy, individualization, and moral issues. the author argues that moral traits are the factors that shape a person as he/she is. it is worth noting a significant contribution of the scientist bulakh (2004) on formation of moral consciousness of adolescents. the domestic researcher made a review of the literature by various authors on moral selfawareness of adolescents. she developed her own concept that helps to form and improve moral self-awareness of adolescents: identified the origin, formation of moral self-consciousness in adolescents in the process of … iuliia alieksieieva, et al. 212 revealed the content and the structure of moral education and proved that formation of moral self-awareness is based on the following factors: cognitive, emotional and behavioral. in his research zymianskyi (2015) notes that moral self-awareness affects motivation, self-esteem, choice of goals and means to achieve them. in its essence, self-consciousness and moral consciousness contain a moral idea of good and evil, truth and falsehood, moral virtues, ideals and principles that make sense in the unity of one’s own self and a particular other person. according to the author, cognitive development is characterized by development of abstract thinking, logical memory. therefore, these factors affect thoughts, views, moral values of the adolescent. the emotional sphere is characterized by high emotional excitability, emotional experiences, fear, anxiety. furthermore, adolescents can set a goal and with the help of perseverance, stubbornness, the ability to overcome difficulties achieve the goal. the ability to communicate plays an important role in formation of the adolescent’s moral self-consciousness, because with the help of communication an adolescent can establish a relationship of equality, play the role of organizer and performer. and, certainly, for adolescence the main thing is formation of one’s self. thus, in adolescence appear psychological prerequisites for emergence, formation of moral self-awareness: cognitive, emotional, volitional, motivational-emotional, social activity, interpersonal communication, the need to grow up as soon as possible, a new level of selfawareness. effective organization of psychological counselling is a step towards a successful formation of moral self-awareness adolescence is difficult not only for the child but also for parents, so a consultation with a psychologist can be useful. a specialist can listen to a teenager, support them and provide qualified advice; furthermore, explain to the parents the reasons for a particular behaviour of the child. what signs in the behaviour of an adolescent can prompt a child and parents to visit a psychologist? if a child has no motivation to learn, does not want to learn and, moreover, does not listen to anyone, feels tired for a long time, indifference to everything, has signs of depression; irritability, anxiety and aggression are felt in conversation; a teenager tries to avoid talking to adults or peers because it is difficult for them to find a common language. an important aspect of the adolescent’s moral consciousness is the moral position, i.e., observance of moral norms and a stable set of awareness through a system of guidelines and motives by which it is guided. a formed brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 213 moral position is one of the criteria that proves a high or a medium level of moral formation. matthews m. (2018), a professor of engineering psychology at the us military academy, shares his experience in conducting practical classes with teenagers. the author conducted a seminar for adolescents whose parents serve in the army. therefore, children often have to adapt to a new environment: school staff, teachers, make new friends. the purpose of this meeting was to develop adolescents’ self-awareness of their positive qualities, as well as to demonstrate how the strengths of an individual can help to achieve success. the author used a questionnaire that helps to measure 24 strengths of character, organized into 6 main moral virtues: wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, moderation, transcendence. the professor conducted work with adolescents in the form of a training: he divided 30 children into 6 groups who worked separately at the table. the task for teenagers was to name 5 strongest qualities of character, then gave 5 minutes in order for participants to recall from their own experience how one of their strong character traits helped them succeed. the teenagers shared their impressions during the discussion in their group, and then one representative presented the conclusion to the general audience. in the second practical part, the coach assigned 6 virtues to the team members, presented a life situation that needed to be solved using one of the virtues. thus, knowledge one’s strengths helps adolescents to form their own moral well-being. in her publication dr. bajovic & rizzo (2020) presents theoretical views of researchers who worked and proved the theory of cognitive development and social development. the author argues that adolescents’ lack of understanding of their own moral thinking and moral emotions is a key reason that prevents them from making correct decisions. with the help of meta-moral cognitive strategies, teachers will help adolescents to develop moral thinking, control actions and control their own emotions. in his article, prutchenko (2000) believes that imitation games are effective for formation of moral consciousness in adolescents, which aim to: study the level of development of moral self-awareness, as well as to form strong moral virtues. for this game, a speaker is chosen in the team of teenagers: an adult who sells moral values, and high school students buy them. in addition, there are some independent experts in this game. children buy, choosing values, and explain how the acquired positive values can become a real asset. during the game, teenagers demonstrate their own ability to make choices, make decisions, the ability to communicate, the ability to be independent, to prove their point, to adhere to moral values. an formation of moral self-consciousness in adolescents in the process of … iuliia alieksieieva, et al. 214 interesting form of activity for teenagers is working on a project –an “auction of creative ideas”. during this work, adolescents study the necessary literature and prove the appropriateness of the choice. alias (2019) emphasizes that the concept of self-awareness helps people solve psychological problems and improve their health. the author emphasizes that self-awareness is an understanding of the inner state. the researcher notes that clients may not always be able to trust their problems during group counselling. therefore, self-disclosure is a process of communication when a person is ready to entrust his/her problems to another person. it has been proven that during an organized game it becomes easier for clients to complete the task. thus, the research proves that the game is effective for psychological counselling: a client feels comfortable and thus self-disclosure occurs. adolescence is a bio-psycho-social period between childhood to adulthood. therefore, during this period, boys and girls should be aware of their thoughts, values, actions, etc. in order to do this, they should understand what self-awareness is. as it is known, according to kalaiyarasan (2017), “self-awareness is a person’s ability to introspect, to recognize their “self” as a personality different from others. if a child is not aware of his/her “self”, it negatively affects the development. the author presents the results of the study among adolescents conducted in india on how psychological intervention affects self-awareness of adolescents. to determine the level of self-awareness, adolescents were offered testing before and after counselling. the training consisted of 3 parts and was conducted for a group of 30 people. the lesson included group activities, an information message and a “brainstorming” exercise (focusing on selfawareness). before starting counseling, only 53.3% of adolescents had an average level of moral self-awareness, and 23.3% had a high and low level each. after the training, the test results showed that 73.3% of adolescents had a high level of self-awareness, 26.7% an average. therefore, psychological counseling proved effective for adolescents. the specifics of remote psychological counselling on the internet were analysed by mytsko (2011), who identified the activities of online counselling psychologists, which include assisting the client in resolving conflicts in family or in team; help the client to find himself; support the client so that he/she can overcome the crisis situation. among the positive features of internet counselling is the rapid finding of the site, a sense of comfort and economic convenience. in addition, in e-mail communication, clients rarely think about literacy, so they feel emotionally liberated. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 215 it is worth noting that tsymbaliuk (2005) emphasizes that the success of counselling, certainly, depends on the competencies: his ability to listen to the client, understand the situation and communicate successfully. in addition, mental counselling includes psychological correction and psychotherapy. moreover, counselling is aimed at a productive conversation that can help a person solve psychological problems. surely, a psychologist should inform the parents of an adolescent about the specific signs of the child’s development, as well as to predict future manifestations of behaviour. although the materials that are covered by parents should protect interests of children. psychological research should be accurate, specific, carry truthful information, describe the strengths and weaknesses of an adolescent. in counselling parents, the psychologist should focus on the causes, consequences and ways to overcome conflict with peers. adolescents develop dynamically, so psychological counselling should have its own specifics, which is tailored to a certain individual. in the course of training the psychologist usually carries out two main tasks: diagnostic and therapeutic. during the diagnosis, the specialist tries to understand the situation of the teenager, which prompted him to consult a specialist, as well as to find out the range of factors that led to the situation. regarding the implementation of therapy, the psychologist selects contemporary techniques, methods of conducting that calm the teenager, stabilize the emotional state, provide psychological support, as well as activate the own resources of the adolescent child to overcome the problem. during this activity, the psychologist should adhere to responsibility, confidentiality, be able to establish a contact of trust with the child, so that the teenager could tell true details of the situation. conclusion therefore, the article reveals the issue of formation of moral selfawareness in the process of psychological counselling. the meaning of the concepts: “consciousness”, “morality”, “moral self-awareness”, “counselling”, “psychology”, “psychological counselling” is clarified. in addition, a classification of psychological counselling is provided. a review of the literature by domestic and foreign researchers on fostering moral self-awareness in adolescents enables to state that the american psychologist and educator g. stanley hall was the first to cover the issue of formation of moral self-awareness in adolescents. formation of moral self-consciousness in adolescents in the process of … iuliia alieksieieva, et al. 216 it is known that the functions of moral self-awareness include selfcontrol, self-perception, self-approval, self-knowledge, self-improvement. it was found out that scientists identify 2 types of self-awareness: subjective and objective. obviously, self-awareness is the ability to clearly and realistically evaluate one’s behavior. the paper considers moral self-awareness of adolescents with high, medium and low levels of self-esteem. in addition, emphasis is placed on the fact that moral traits are the factors that shape a person. it has been found that moral self-awareness is based on the following factors: cognitive, emotional and behavioral. it should be noted that the ability to communicate plays an important role in formation of moral self-awareness. the signs that prompt a teenager think about visiting a psychologist have been identified. it is proved that knowledge about strengths of moral self-awareness helps adolescents to form their own moral well-being. conducting simulation games by a psychologist during a group training allows the specialist to determine the level of moral self-awareness of an adolescent, as well as to form strong moral virtues. it is proven that a game helps to conduct an effective psychological consultation, because the child feels comfortable, relaxed, openly shares thoughts and feelings. in addition, there is a remote form of psychological counseling. it is emphasized that the psychologist works with a teenager, as well as with his/her parents. it was found that psychological counseling contains a diagnostic and a therapeutic component. references abolin, t. h., & nadolnyi, i. f. (2019). entsyklopediia suchasnoi ukrainy [encyclopedia of modern ukraine]. https://esu.com.ua/search_articles.php?id=69220 ackerman, c. e. (2021). what is self-awareness and why is it important? [+5 ways to increase it]. positive psychology. alias, n. f., mustafa, s. m. s., & ahmad, z. (2019). investigatıng the usefullness of counselling tool to improve students’ self-awareness. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 9(13), 166–172. http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v9-i13/6252 alieksieieva, yu. a. (2006). stanovlennia moralnoi samosvidomosti pidlitkiv u protsesi psykholohichnoho konsultuvannia [formation of moral self-consciousness of teenagers in the process of psychological counseling]. national pedagogical dragomanov university. bajovic, m., & rizzo, k. (2020). meta-moral cognition: bridging the gap among adolescents’ moral thinking, moral emotions and moral actions. international https://esu.com.ua/search_articles.php?id=69220 http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v9-i13/6252 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 217 journal of adolescence and youth, 13, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2020.1867206 bilodid, i. k., buriachok, a. a., hnatiuk, h. m., & dotsenko, p. p. (1978). slovnyk ukrainskoi movy [dictionary of the ukrainian language]. vol. 9, 77. naukovadumka. bulakh, i. s. (2004). psykholohichni osnovy osobystisnoho zrostannia pidlitkiv [psychological bases of personal growth of teenagers]. (phdthesis). national pedagogical dragomanov university. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dowden, a., warren, j., & kambui, h. (2014). three-tiered model toward improved self-awareness and self-care. ideas and research you can use: vistas, 1, 1–9. https://docplayer.net/8354114-three-tiered-modeltoward-improved-self-awareness-and-self-care.html florea, d. (2017). principalele contracte de comerţ internaţional. lumen. gilbert, p. c., & gilbert, p. (2008).irons shame, self-criticism, and self-compassion in adolescence. adolescent emotional development and the emergence of depressive d. https://self-compassion.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/06/gilbert_irons_2009.pdf. hall, g. s. (1904). adolescence its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology sex, crime, religion and education. appleton and company. hornostai, p. p., tytarenko, t. m., & hrabskaia, y. a. (2001). psykholohiia osobystosti [personality psychology]. ruta. kalaiyarasan, m., & daniel, s. (2017). effectiveness of psychological intervention on self-awareness of adolescents. effectiveness of psychological intervention on self-awareness of adolescents, 7, 28–32. http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosrjhss/papers/conf.17004/volume-4/7.%2028-32.pdf komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168 187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2020.1867206 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://docplayer.net/8354114-three-tiered-model-toward-improved-self-awareness-and-self-care.html https://docplayer.net/8354114-three-tiered-model-toward-improved-self-awareness-and-self-care.html https://self-compassion.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/gilbert_irons_2009.pdf https://self-compassion.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/gilbert_irons_2009.pdf http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/conf.17004/volume-4/7.%2028-32.pdf http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/conf.17004/volume-4/7.%2028-32.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 formation of moral self-consciousness in adolescents in the process of … iuliia alieksieieva, et al. 218 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lukyanyuk, v. (2021). psykholohiia [psychology]. slovnyk in shomovnykh sliv [dictionary of foreign words]. https://www.jnsm.com.ua/cgi-bin/u/ book/sis.pl?qry=%cf%f1%e8%f5%ee%eb%ee%e3%b3%ff matthews, m. d. (2018). nurturing character self-awarenessin teens. psychology today. miller, k. d. (2021). using self-awareness theory and skill sin psychology. positive psychology. moreira, l., desouza, m., & guerra, v. (2018). self-perception, empathy and moral self-concept predict moral concerns in adults. social psychology, 28. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-4327e2818 mytsko, v. m. (2011). spetsyfika dystantsiinoho psykholohichnoho konsultuvannia v merezhi internet [specifics of remote psychological counseling on the internet scientific, 1]. naukovyi visnyk lvivskoho derzhavnoho universytetu vnutrishnikh sprav [bulletin of lviv state university of internal affairs], 1, 68–80. https://www.lvduvs.edu.ua/documents_pdf/visnyky/nvsp/ 01_2011/11mvmvmi.pdf osadko, o. yu. (2005). tekhnolohii psykholohichnoho konsultuvannia [technologies of psychological counseling]. redaktsiia zahalnopedahohichnykh hazet. prutchenko, a. s. (2000). shkola zhyttia: metodychni rozrobky sotsialnopsykholohichnykh treninhiv [school of life: methodical developments of social and psychological trainings]. mood i m “nova tsyvilizatsiia”. sandu, c., panișoara, g., & panişoara, i. (2014). study on the development of selfawareness in teenagers. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 180, 16561660. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.05.060 shkilna, i. m. (2014). vykhovannia moralnoi samosvidomosti starshykh pidlitkiv yak naukova problema [еducation of moral self-consciousness of older adolescents as a scientific problem]. kyiv. ternopilska, v. i. (2014). moralna samosvidomist starshoklasnyka (zahalna kharakterystyka ta osoblyvosti formuvannia). naukove elektronne vydannia “osvitolohichnyi dyskurs” [scientific electronic publication “educational discourse”], 4, 1–10. https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/7027/1/v_ternopilska_nevod _4(8)_gi.pdf. tsilmak, o. m. (2020). psykholohichne konsultuvannia [psychological counseling]. (master’s thesis abstract). odessa. tsymbaliuk, i. m. (2005). psykholohichne konsultuvannia ta korektsiia. modulno-reitynhovyi kurs: navchalnyi posibnyk [psychological counseling and correction. modular rating course: textbook]. vd “profesional”. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://www.jnsm.com.ua/cgi-bin/u/%0bbook/sis.pl?qry=%cf%f1%e8%f5%ee%eb%ee%e3%b3%ff https://www.jnsm.com.ua/cgi-bin/u/%0bbook/sis.pl?qry=%cf%f1%e8%f5%ee%eb%ee%e3%b3%ff https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-4327e2818 https://www.lvduvs.edu.ua/documents_pdf/visnyky/nvsp/%0b01_2011/11mvmvmi.pdf https://www.lvduvs.edu.ua/documents_pdf/visnyky/nvsp/%0b01_2011/11mvmvmi.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.05.060 https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/7027/1/v_ternopilska_nevod_4(8)_gi.pdf https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/7027/1/v_ternopilska_nevod_4(8)_gi.pdf brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 219 watson, r. i., & hall, g. (2018). stanley works by hall supplementary bibliography. encyclopedia com. zymianskyi, a. r. (2015). psykholohichni umovy rozvytku moralnoi samosvidomosti pidlitkiv [psychological conditions for the development of moral self-awareness of adolescents] [master’s thesis abstract]. drohobych state pedagogical university named after ivan franko. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 220-230 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/415 submitted: december 22nd, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 4th, 2023 mental health of the individual in the conditions of martial law tetiana skrypachenko1, liudmyla lytvynenko2, olesia prokofieva3, yuliia shevelieva4, halyna apelt5, olha yurtsenyuk6 1 phd in psychology, associate professor of the department of psychology, zaporizhzhia national university, ukraine, skripachenko14@gmail.com 2 research associate of laboratory of practical psychology and psychotherapy of kostiuk institute of psychology of the national academy of educational sciences (naes) of ukraine, zudaluli@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3045-3396 3 phd of psychological sciences, associate professor of the department of psychology, bogdan khmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, prok.olesya@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6542-239x 4 gaduate student of national university of civil defense of ukraine, kharkiv, ukraine, yuliia_shevelieva@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8309-6188 5 phd (psychology), associate professor, head of the department of foreign languages and country studies, faculty of tourism, vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, hrytchukg@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6571-8468 6 doctor of science in medicine, professor of the department of nervous diseases, psychiatry and medical psychology, bukovinian state medical university, ukraine, yurtsenyuk.olga@bsmu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1450-1530 abstract: the article presents the results of a study of the peculiarities of the mental health of an individual in the conditions of martial law. the article describes the main factors of the military state that cause mental injuries and their psychological consequences for military personnel. some aspects of human behavior in emergency situations and military operations are distinguished. the positive, neutral and negative vectors of the influence of psychological factors of war on the participants of the war were identified and their content was revealed. the relevance of the study is determined by the course of recent events in ukraine, in particular, russia's wars against the ukrainian people. the adaptive and maladaptive factors of the nature of adaptive psychological qualities that are formed in combatants in the conditions of military affairs as aspects of the neuropsychological manifestation of personality are characterized. the situation of the psychological return of combatants to peaceful living conditions was separately considered and the need to organize appropriate measures for social and psychological rehabilitation was substantiated. data on foreign approaches and experience of such rehabilitation of war veterans are presented. current problems of psychological diagnosis of combat post-traumatic stress disorder are considered. the importance of the formation of mental health during the war is emphasized. the purpose of the article is to study the mental health of an individual in the conditions of martial law as an aspect of neuropsychological perception of reality. in the research process, the method of analysis, synthesis, research and scientific method was used. the result of the study is the determination of the characteristics of the neuropsychological state of the individual in the conditions of martial law. keywords: adaptation; military aggression; neuropsychological factor of behaviour; socio-psychological readaptation of combatants; ptsd. how to cite: skrypachenko, t., lytvynenko, l., prokofieva, o., shevelieva, y., apelt, h., & yurtsenyuk, o. (2023). mental health of the individual in the conditions of martial law. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 220-230. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/415 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/415 mailto:skripachenko14@gmail.com mailto:zudaluli@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3045-3396 mailto:prok.olesya@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6542-239x mailto:yuliia_shevelieva@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8309-6188 mailto:hrytchukg@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6571-8468 mailto:yurtsenyuk.olga@bsmu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1450-1530 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/415 mental health of the individual in the conditions of martial law tetiana skrypachenko, et al. 221 introduction studies of human behavior in emergency situations show that if an ordinary person in the most dangerous situations of a natural disaster, manmade disaster, war, etc., as a rule, can act according to the instinct of selfpreservation (escape, hide, do nothing, etc.), then a military man in the most dangerous moments of battle forced to act against the instincts of selfpreservation, against the needs of one's own body, in the name of transpersonal purpose and interests. he is obliged to continue to carry out the combat task, first to overcome the resistance of his nature and innate regulators of activity. even at the beginning of the 20th century. in psychology it was stated that if a layman who is threatened by accidental danger, avoiding it, does not lose face and still enjoys general respect", then "a fighter who left the battlefield or refused to go into battle is exposed not only to general contempt, but also strict liability under the criminal law. in this regard, it can be argued that along with the external war, there is an internal war in the soul of every warrior, a struggle between fear and duty. and this internal war often turns out to be more difficult and dramatic than the external one. a person who fears for his life is in constant tension, trying to predict the time and nature of his death (ibrahim, 2010). factors affecting a combatant combine a variety of threats. thus, extreme combat factors can be purposefully created by the enemy and manifest as a result of miscalculations in the organization of hostilities and their comprehensive support. such a situation is the reason for the implementation of mental rehabilitation measures for military personnel who are in crisis situations and constantly struggle on the one hand with the enemy, and on the other with the choice of life and death, the struggle with instincts. the formation of mental health in combatants is part of the military strategy. the action of the threatening factors of the battle has a long-term nature. if an ordinary person in a natural disaster zone and even during hostilities can find an opportunity to rest, then a serviceman is constantly in a dangerous situation, regardless of whether he is on the line of contact with the enemy or in his own, enemy rear. during the war, it is difficult for people to perceive events, so it is necessary to psychologically adapt to the realities of life (kaidalova, 2011). from the first days of participation in military operations, adaptive processes arise in military personnel, which shape their behavior accordingly. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 222 thus, the adaptation of a serviceman to military operations takes place at the level of the body's neuropsychological reactions to crisis life conditions. instincts are suppressed by constant challenges of reality that require a quick reaction. therefore, the military mental service is a necessity for any state. the purpose of the study is to study the peculiarities of the formation of mental health in the period of military operations. neuropsychological factors in the formation of a person's perception of military actions the motivation for military activity is complex and contradictory. in it, broad social motives are presented in a condensed form and are not always understood by the military (lunyachek, 2008). the pressure created under the condition of the development of an acute intrapersonal conflict prompts a person to make a choice. the work of adaptation mechanisms is manifested in three vectors of their influence on the soldier's psyche as an aspect of neuropsychological action. 1. a favorable influence on war participants is formed as an aspect of neuropsychological action: self-analysis and self-awareness of one's abilities and needs; formation of behavioral skills in the conditions of military operations; creation of a favorable environment for horse racing in extreme conditions; acquiring stress-resilience skills. in the process of adaptive activity, the warrior's psyche is radically restructured, "militarized," acquires the properties of "hypersensitivity," "hyperreactivity," "superunderstanding," etc. these transformations occur at the psychophysiological, neuropsychological, and socio-psychological levels and sometimes reach abnormal manifestations (moiseyuk, 2007). in a person in the conditions of war, a "special psychological organ" is formed, as it were, which allows one to instantly understand the "logic" of the movements of elements of the field of vision, sound stimuli, the meaning of words, gestures and actions of other people, etc. the habit of open, simple behavior leads to untrained psychological defense mechanisms due to their inactivity. returning such a "psychologically naked" person to civilian life without prior special training means creating conditions for overcoming social maladjustment and preventing post-traumatic syndromes. mental health of the individual in the conditions of martial law tetiana skrypachenko, et al. 223 2. the negative aspect of the consequences of hostilities is associated with the escalation (formation) of hostilities, which creates some specific needs: the need to be understood by society, the immediate environment regarding the motives that were driving forces for them in the war; arguments explaining the necessity and social significance of participation in brutal violence (karasievych & maksymchuk, 2021); the desire to interact in society with a higher status, the status of a defender, a man-warrior; the need for recognition of a person who honestly and conscientiously fulfilled his civil and military duty; the need to get rid of unnecessary mental tension accumulated during the war. 3. the negative vector of the impact of war is manifested in the process of persistent psychotraumatization of servicemen (malykhin & sushentseva, 2021). war "specializes" in destruction, not creation. a person is very vulnerable to psychotraumatic factors of combat. all three vectors of the impact of war on a person lead to a radical restructuring of his psyche. however, the complex of adaptive reactions acquired during the war becomes maladaptive outside the combat zone. it should be emphasized that the return of a person unprepared for peaceful living conditions with traces of war recorded in the psyche can lead to repeated psychotraumatization (sarancha et al., 2021). mental trauma caused by an unprepared encounter with a peaceful society, which has become incomprehensible and alien, can be stronger than combat mental trauma, which is also formed as a neuropsychological factor. in these conditions, three problems emerge acutely for the fighting armed forces and the state: first, how to return psychologically complete citizens to society and at the same time protect society from their possible aggression and uncontrolled spontaneous militancy. secondly, how to protect war veterans, in fact people with a "bare", unprotected psyche, from the traumatic impact of a brutal peaceful life for them (demchenko et al., 2021). completion of the legal and psychological aspect of the war. several criteria for the end of the war, which are fundamentally different from each other, have been established in public consciousness and practice. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 224 the first of them is the signing of a peace treaty between the warring parties and is the most effective, understandable and understandable act that legally resolves the issue of ending the war. in some cases, a spiritual and moral criterion used to determine the actual end of a war, according to which, for example, the war ends when the body of the last soldier who died on the battlefield is buried. perhaps it is quite legitimate to use a psychological criterion in the formulation of a war that ends when the last soldier psychologically returns home from it. numerous studies of domestic and foreign psychologists show that the physical transfer of a soldier from the battlefield to a peaceful environment does not always mean his intellectual, emotional, "sensory" return to the environment of everyday connections and relationships. thus, the question of the need to ensure an organized, controlled psychological return of combatants to civilian life arises. this problem is relatively new and arose in fact only at the end of the 20th century and was caused by the emergence of a new type of wars wars of low intensity. an example can be an example of russia's war in ukraine: at a time when fierce battles are going on in one part of the country, a completely normal peaceful life can continue in another. under these conditions, a soldier of the warring party may find himself several times during one day either in combat or in peaceful conditions. as a result, there is a clash of identities and a constant reconfiguration of the psyche. determination of the peculiarities of adaptation of a serviceman to the conditions of peaceful life as an aspect of psychology the quick but unprepared return of the participants of modern wars to peaceful living conditions gives rise to a number of psychological problems. in modern conditions, in the morning, a soldier can participate in a combat encounter in a combat zone, in the afternoon he can replace him at a combat post, and by the evening he can be in a peaceful environment. it is difficult to predict the reaction of a soldier who has just left the battle and the consequences of conflict situations. previously (after the first and second world wars), combatants returned to their country for a long time, repeatedly shared their memories with each other, each of them repeatedly acted for their friends as a therapist, consultant, understanding listener. in the course of these personal conversations, the psychological mechanisms of response, cognitive and meaningful processing of the traumatic experience under the conditions of mental health of the individual in the conditions of martial law tetiana skrypachenko, et al. 225 effective emotional support, integration of this experience into the personal history and real life of the combatant were activated. today's psychologically unreacted return of combatants acts as a decompression sickness. a veteran with a "military psyche" who finds himself in a peaceful society is like a person without skin (without the famous freudian "protective layer" of the personality), and any touch on his personality causes pain and "bleeding" (cosgrove, 2006). the need to overcome the psychological consequences of war is understood, for example, in the usa, where a strategy of organized psychological return of war veterans to a peaceful society has been developed. after leaving the theater of operations, american soldiers are rehabilitated in so-called post-deployment camps for 90 days. it should be noted that the armed forces of ukraine also conduct readaptation activities with military personnel after returning (gygli et al., 2019). in domestic psychology, there are grounds for developing the theoretical foundations of socio-psychological readaptation a specially organized, long-term period of psychological measures that ensure the transition of the psyche of combatants who began a peaceful life from a military to a peaceful way of functioning, their gradual inclusion in the system of peaceful social relations time. correctional measures as a method of mental health formation in the conditions of martial law in the conditions of martial law, a person loses control, does not feel meaningful lines of life, that is why "post-traumatic stress disorder" is formed in him. many experts recognize the weakness of the official concept of ptsd, pointing to problems in the definition, assessment of symptoms and epidemiology, the consequences of combat operations are used in the concept of "post-traumatic stress reactions", "psychological consequences of stress", "psychological crisis". based on the fact that a large number of war veterans hide their symptoms for fear of losing their jobs as "psychotraumatists", us military psychologists have proposed renaming "combat ptsd" to "psychological trauma" because the term "ptsd" has a significant potential for psychiatric stigmatization and can cause veterans have a fear of "labeling" and, as a result, the risk of hiding existing symptoms of the disorder. thus, it is clear that existing perceptions of the prevalence of ptsd are inaccurate (gardner, 1983). the very term "post-traumatic stress broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 226 disorder" is traumatogenic, its symptoms seem ambiguous, and methods and procedures for its diagnosis need to be clarified (giddens, 1991). today, it is already obvious that exclusively drug-based approaches in the treatment of ptsd have low effectiveness. adherence to this approach led to the catastrophic distribution of various kinds of "psychiatric drugs" among the soldiers. thus, the fact of a combatant's physical return to civilian life does not coincide with his psychological integration into the system of social ties and relations in peacetime, and in the latter case is a more complex, longlasting, less pronounced and, in a certain sense, non-obvious phenomenon (dewey, 1938). in view of the research, it is necessary to carry out social and psychological readaptation of veterans, the essence of which is cognitive and meaningful processing of traumatic information and experience, response to traumatic material in conditions of emotional support, solving personal problems of veterans and eliminating ptsd symptoms, (kaplan, 2005). according to current concepts, social and psychological readaptation of combatants includes: • a special period of activity of military units and units, a kind of "psychological quarantine"; • creation of a readaptation environment for combat veterans in the military unit and the military serviceman's family (peha, 2008); • identifying combat veterans with signs of chronic stress, posttraumatic stress (ptsd), personality crisis and carrying out psychological rehabilitation measures with them. "psychological quarantine" involves: • cognitive and semantic processing, structuring of traumatic and subtraumatic combat experience, response to psychotraumatic situations; • meeting the specific needs of veterans, in particular, the analysis of combat operations in which servicemen participated, if possible, a positive assessment of the contribution of each of them to solving combat tasks (gray, 2008); • psychological preparation of veterans for typical psychotraumatic situations of peaceful life (eidelson, 2012); • gradual transition of the psyche from the "military" to the "peaceful" mode of functioning (change in the level of vigilance, mental tension, psychological readiness, reactivity, etc.); • reduction of combat tension (involvement of servicemen in dynamic, non-boring and uncomplicated everyday official activities); mental health of the individual in the conditions of martial law tetiana skrypachenko, et al. 227 • identification of servicemen who have received combat mental trauma and providing them with psychological assistance; • gradual, step-by-step involvement of people with a "non-military" mentality in contacts with combat veterans undergoing rehabilitation. creating an adaptive environment involves: • meeting the special needs of veterans (decent reception of combatants in the places of permanent deployment of their units and units, at the place of residence; public recognition of the social significance of their participation in combat operations, recognition of their new, higher social status; acceptance by them of understanding the specific values of combat brotherhood, peculiarities of mental reactions and behavior of veterans, etc.) (frances, 2012). • cognitive and semantic processing of traumatic information and response to psychotraumatic situations. • creation of a system of socio-psychological support for veterans. • gradual "erasure" of the social stratification of veterans based on the criterion of participation in hostilities. thus, in the implementation of socio-psychological readaptation of war veterans, work with society on preparing veterans for their return to civilian life is of great importance (pentagon reworking ptsd strategy, 2013). it is his desire and ability to perceive and assimilate people with a "bare psyche" that largely depends on whether the psychological consequences of participation in the war will develop, for example, in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). conclusions a study conducted to determine the peculiarities of the perception of people, in particular military personnel, of the conditions of martial law, which involves a special response caused by neuropsychological features of personality development. in the course of the study, the concept of neuropsychological factors of personality development, the concept of martial law, post-traumatic syndrome, adaptation, de-adaptation and readaptation of servicemen as a method of formation of mental health in servicemen were defined. the article analyzes the theoretical and methodological approaches of domestic and foreign researchers who conducted scientific research on military topics, in particular, the work of psychologists on the adaptation of military personnel to peaceful life is analyzed. the purpose of the study was to determine the mental health of an individual. the study confirms the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 228 special need for the organization of events that are effective factors in the formation of a healthy self-perception in society and the role of society in the formation of personality. based on the research, it was determined that it is necessary to combine the efforts of the psychological services of law enforcement agencies to conduct research aimed at clarifying the psychological reality and psychological consequences of war, methods of their detection and correction in order to organize assistance to veterans of military operations. the results of the study became the basis for determining the most optimal aspects of the formation of a mentally healthy personality, which is able to overcome post-traumatic syndrome and can form new values, new horizons of life space. the research results do not cover all aspects, but they are a serious basis for identifying more effective methods of influencing selfregulation and self-control. acknowledgement author 1 – general concept of the article, processing and summarization of the research materials, preparation and design of the research bibliography author 2 collection of materials and writing of the chapter neuropsychological factors in the formation of a person's perception of military actions authors 3, 4 collection of materials and writing of the section determination of the peculiarities of the adaptation of a serviceman to the conditions of peaceful life as an aspect of psychology. authors 5, 6 collection of materials and writing of the section corrective measures as a method of mental health formation in the conditions of military condition and skills. references cosgrove, l., krimsky, s., vijayaraghavan, m., & schneider, l. (2006). financial ties between dsm-iv panel members and the pharmaceutical industry. psychother psychosom, 75, 154-160. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001190 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001190 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 mental health of the individual in the conditions of martial law tetiana skrypachenko, et al. 229 dewey, j. (1938). experience and education. collier-macmillan canada ltd. eidelson, r. (2012, june 4). the army's flawed resilience-training study: a call for retraction. psychology today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dangerousideas/201206/the-army-s-flawed-resilience-training-study-call-retraction frances, a. (2009, june 27). a warning sign on the road to dsm-v: beware of its unintended consequences. psychiatric times, 26(8). https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/warning-sign-road-dsm-vbeware-its-unintended-consequences gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. basic books. giddens, a. (1991). modernity and self-identity. self and society in the late modern age. polity press. gray, p. (2008, august 20). a brief history of education. to understand schools, we must view them in historical perspective. psychology today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedomlearn/200808/brief-history-education gygli, s., haelg, f., potrafke, n., & sturm, j. e. (2019). the kof globalisation index-revisited. the review of international organizations, 14, 543–574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-019-09344-2 ibrahim yu. s. (2010) zabezpechennya motyvatsiyno-tsilʹovoho komponentu tekhnolohiyi formuvannya kulʹtury rozumovoyi pratsi studentiv na osnovi resursnoho pidkhodu [defense of the motivational-target component of technological formation of students' mental work culture on the basis of the resource method]. pedahohika, psykholohiya ta medyko-biolohichni problemy fizychnoho vykhovannya i sportu [pedagogy, psychology and medical and biological problems of physical education and sport], 2(s), 60−64. https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2010-02/10yrsbra.pdf kaplan, r. s., & norton, d. p. (2005). creating the office of strategy management: working рарег 05-071. harvard business school. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/creating-the-office-of-strategy-management karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 kaydalova, l. h. (2011). samoosvita i samorozvytok vykladacha vyshchoho navchalʹnoho zakladu [self-education and self-development of the teacher of a higher scientific institution]. problemy trudovoyi i profesiynoyi pidhotovky https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dangerous-ideas/201206/the-army-s-flawed-resilience-training-study-call-retraction https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dangerous-ideas/201206/the-army-s-flawed-resilience-training-study-call-retraction https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/warning-sign-road-dsm-v-beware-its-unintended-consequences https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/warning-sign-road-dsm-v-beware-its-unintended-consequences https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-019-09344-2 https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2010-02/10yrsbra.pdf https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/creating-the-office-of-strategy-management https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 230 [problems of labor and professional training], 17, 40-48 http://dspace.nuph.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2967 lunyachek, v. e. (2008). kompetentnisnyy pidkhid yak metodolohiya profesiynoyi pidhotovky u vyshchiy shkoli. derzhava ta suspilʹstvo [the competence approach as a methodology of professional training in higher education]. state and society new pedagogical thought, 102(2), https://doi.org/10.37026/2520-6427-2020-102-2-37-45 military daily news. (2013, march 19). pentagon reworking ptsd strategy. military. http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/02/19/pentagonreworking-ptsd-strategy.html#disqus_thread moyseyuk, n. y. e. (2007). pedahohika [pedagogy]. westudents. https://westudents.com.ua/knigi/347-pedagogka-moyseyuk-n.html peha, s. (2011, june 28). agile schools: how technology saves education (just not the way we thought it would). infoq. https://www.infoq.com/articles/agileschools-education/ sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 http://dspace.nuph.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2967 https://doi.org/10.37026/2520-6427-2020-102-2-37-45 http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/02/19/pentagon-reworking-ptsd-strategy.html#disqus_thread http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/02/19/pentagon-reworking-ptsd-strategy.html#disqus_thread https://westudents.com.ua/knigi/347-pedagogka-moyseyuk-n.html https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-schools-education/ https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-schools-education/ https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 295-308 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/320 submitted: august 12th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 13th, 2022 psychological correction of individual neurotic problems liliia rudenko¹, ruslan simko2, oleksandr hudyma3, yuliia boiko-buzyl4, nataliia mateiko5, olga samara6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, lilianic1962@gmail.com 2 kamianets-podіlskyi national ivan ohiienko university, ukraine, 7kort@ukr.net 3 kamianets-podіlskyi national ivan ohiienko university, ukraine, hudyma@kpnu.edu.ua 4 state research institute of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine, ukraine, bbyy@ukr.net 5 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ukraine, mnm2807@ukr.net 6 national university "odesa law academy", ukraine, samaraolha@gmail.com abstract: the article conducts a theoretical analysis of the features of the neurotic response to uncertain situations as an important component and trigger of individual problems. in this regard, the issue of psychological correction of individual neurotic problems in uncertain situations at the theoretical, methodological and practical levels has been studied in the article. the neurotic experience of psychotraumatic events is due to internal conflicts. effective methods of corrective work with neurotic reactions as prevention of persistent neurotic states are indicated here too. the neuropsychological content of psychotherapeutic techniques that can prevent neurotic development of an individual is revealed. it is presented the model of psychological correction of individual neurotic problems, which is capable to carry out effective corrective influence of the personal sphere on emotional, cognitive, motivational and behavioral levels. important principles and conditions are noted regarding the psychological correction of such neurotic nature. the neuropsychological content of the body-oriented model of psychological correction of an individual in combination with psychotherapeutic methods is considered in detail. keywords: neuropsychocorrection, internal conflicts, anxiety, neurotic reactions, neurotic experience, stressful situations, neurotic states, psychotherapeutic methods. how to cite: rudenko, l., simko, r., hudyma, o., boikobuzyl, y., mateiko, n., & samara, o. (2022). psychological correction of individual neurotic problems. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 295-308. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/320 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/320 mailto:lilianic1962@gmail.com mailto:7kort@ukr.net mailto:hudyma@kpnu.edu.ua mailto:b-byy@ukr.net mailto:b-byy@ukr.net mailto:mnm2807@ukr.net mailto:samaraolha@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/320 psychological correction of individual neurotic problems liliia rudenko, et al. 296 introduction the social space of modern man is presented to the world through the media as unstable, constantly moving, changing, and recently is presented even as unreliable in health care due to long-term quarantine deprivation of social needs and long-term feelings of anxiety with pandemics, which has become one of the significant individual problems in the life of almost every individual. mental health at work, in family life and in the social environment can be a trigger for acute depression, phobias and panic attacks. neurotic personality development can be associated with feelings of despair, brokenness, weakness, fatigue, hypochondriac thoughts, and negative emotional states. asthenodepressive states may be (individually or) with the neurotic development of psychopathic disorders at the personal level, which are diagnosed by behavioral disorders, pathopsychological type of character depending on the neurotic nature characteristics and stage of neurotic personality development under stressful situation. at the cognitive, affective, motivational, and behavioral levels, an individuals’ neurotic responses to adversity gradually acquire an anxiety-depressive, hysterical, or hypochondriac symptom complex. of course, somatovegetative, psychosomatic, personal, behavioral disorders in the neurotic development of personality require neuropsychocorrection (demchenko et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021). neurotic reactions and states are accompanied by awareness avoidance, decision making avoidance and contact interaction. such behavioral disorders are associated with inadequate emotional response. it is emotions that give person energy, their excess provides a physical response to a difficult life situation, and its decrease provides a mental response. restraining of muscle expression leads to anxiety, emotional coldness, numbness, chronic anxiety as a result – the inability to realize their reactions, their body, or the situation and ways to solve it. lack of awareness of the real individual problem is the basis for the neurosis emergence and emergence of one of the individual neurotic conditions. psychological correction of individual neurotic problems is associated with the activation of the client’s internal resources, personal selfdevelopment and subjective transformation of those conditions that can cause mental disorders of the neurotic level. the subjective potential of the individual is able to provide the adaptive capacity of man in solving situational neurotic problems. however, given the critical social situation, psychopathological characteristics and the intensity of stressors cannot brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 297 always cope with excessive neurotic experiences, and cannot realize cognitive dissonance in relation to significant events or people and make the right decision in such uncertain conditions. the study of the application of psychocorrectional technologies of an individual, which arose within the theories of personality and are designed to ensure harmonious personal development against the social conditions of the individual neuroticism, is extremely relevant for practical psychology. the purpose of the article is to theoretically analyze the features of neurotic response to uncertain situations as a trigger and an important component of individual problems, to describe the tasks and content of psycho-correctional work with them. the novelty and practical significance of the article is to identify effective methods of corrective work with neurotic reactions as a prevention of persistent neurotic states. the presented material of the article on the features of neurotic reactions related to individual problems can be used in the clinical practice of medical rehabilitation and neuropsychological centers to provide psychological and psychotherapeutic care to clients with neurotic reactions to difficult life situations for psychoprophylactic purposes. theoretical analysis of the neurotic response features to uncertain situations as a trigger and a significant component of individual problems individual neurotic problems are always associated with maladaptive emotional response to psychotraumatic events, specifically individual and phenomenologically diverse reactions, which at a deep level are often not realized and so create the basis for personal dissonances, persistent neurotic states. the neuroticism of experiencing psychotraumatic events is due to internal conflicts, which are accompanied by fear of aggression, independence, intimacy, trust and submission. under conditions of uncertainty, fear of trust is fundamental to the emergence of neurotic states, as disruption of habitual security conditions or complete frustration with the need for security can lead to inadequate emotional response. given this, in the structure of individual neurotic problems it is advisable to consider in detail the neurotic reactions to a complex situation of uncertainty as one of their main components and trigger. in conditions of pandemics, combat stress, activities of employees of extreme professions is not always possible to prevent personal disorders of people with neurotic states, despite all the efforts of neuropsychologists, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists who develop psychoprophylactic programs and select successful methods of psychological correction of individual neurotic problems liliia rudenko, et al. 298 psychocorrection. unfortunately, in national practice this area of medical and psychological work is not developed, which can be considered as a condition for increasing the number of people with neuroses, post-traumatic stress disorders and persistent personality disorders of neurotic level, which may require not only psychotherapy but also psychiatric intervention. neurotic reactions include hyper excitability, lethargy, aggression, emotional instability or lethargy, apathy, moodiness, poor sleep, fears, and more. if you do not notice the neurotic manifestation in time, and you will not identify it and take measures to eliminate its causes in a timely manner, then chronic nervous tension can cause neurosis. neurosis is a functional neuropsychiatric disorder that occurs and develops as a result of prolonged exposure to significant psycho-traumatic factors, emotional or mental overload. this disorder does not occur suddenly, but it develops over a long period of time. the cause of neurosis is psychogeny – emotionally acute, significant for a person experiences that cannot be dealed with. at the same time, mental stress increases, and when does not find a way out, it accumulates, leading to neurosis (kuzikova, 2020). widiger & oltmanns (2017) claims that neurotic people do not deal well with stress and they consider neuroticism as a fundamental personality trait characterized by anxiety, fears, emotions, emotional instability, depression, and so on. high levels of neuroticism will contribute to low productivity due to emotional anxiety, exhaustion and distraction, a wide range of psychopathological and physical health problems and is recognized as a personality disorder and a characteristic of psychopathology in general. aldinger et al. (2014) considered various forms of neuroticism development from toddlers to adolescents, associated with differences in depression, anxiety, and daily emotional distress. researchers have shown that the level of neuroticism may decrease throughout life, but not evenly, the highest for people aged 20 years. this age reflects an important stage of development associated with experiences that potentially lead to the growth of neurotic experiences, as moving, finding a job, and possibly starting a family can fuel fears, worries, and negative emotions. turiano et al. (2020) empirically confirmed that neuroticism can lead to poor health and reduce life expectancy, or can perform a protective function of the psyche depending on individual personality traits, life circumstances, status, cognitive abilities and gender. thus, people with higher levels of neuroticism are more likely to seek medical help to solve problems than people with low levels of neuroticism. weiss & deary (2019) in their turn say that among people with high neuroticism, people with high levels of anxiety and mental stress are at greater risk of deteriorating mental and physical health, and brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 299 those who suffer from anxiety and vulnerability are more prosperous because they take more care of health. however, according to khan et al. (2021) the detection of neurotic personality traits contributes to the successful choice of treatment methods. the problem of neurotic individual development is the inability of the subject to realize the absurdity of his own behavior and break the vicious circle of identical emotions; in the language of physiology it means to reach the stage of inhibition of the nervous reaction. exit from the situation of forced repetition becomes possible in the case of either external coercion (external instruction) to inhibit the focus of arousal after the paradoxical stage (such tasks are often solved by pedagogical means, behavioral psychotherapy) or gradual desabsurdization of the absurd (psychoanalysis, cognitive psychoterapy), minimization of emotional ambivalence (clientcentered therapy, existential psychotherapy) (maziar, 2017). the results of the research on thenational level confirm interesting empirical facts: situationally conditioned reactions of mental maladaptation (asthenic, somatoform, depressive, emotionally arousing) of employees of special units of the bodies of internal affairs of ukraine in the first 5 years of service were more common than short-term psychological reactions and the indicators of such reactive anxiety is out the norm limits. the study identified individuals prone to conversion-type neurotic reactions, hypochondria, depression, individuals with intrapuncture reactions and autoaggression, with astheno-neurotic personality type. the most optimal methods for the correction and prevention of the above disorders are shortterm psychotherapy in the form of emotional and volitional training, personality-oriented psychotherapy, supportive cognitive psychotherapy, valeological programs, educational and didactic activities lasting up to 1 year. modern methods of psychocorrection are used to improve personal qualities and skills required in operational and service activities, as well as training in methods of psychological self and mutual assistance in trauma (zyvzakh, 2007). thus, neurotic reactions to severe stress and disturbances in adaptation, which are associated with all the structural components of personality at the emotional, cognitive, motivational and behavioral levels, indicate that conditions of uncertainty are the cause of a person’s mental disorder. individual disorders on an emotional level are associated with a change in self-esteem of neurotic reactions to the experiences themselves under the influence of strong stressors, increased anxiety, emotional instability, which only exacerbates neurotic reactions to long-term stress. the socio-psychological content of personality disorders is associated with psychological correction of individual neurotic problems liliia rudenko, et al. 300 changes in behavior, attitudes toward themselves and others. behavioral disorders can be accompanied by verbal and physical aggression or avoidance of solving any problems, unwillingness to overcome difficulties. nervous and mental stress and mental strain are associated with cognitive impairment: inattention, poor memorization of necessary information, inability to focus on the task at hand. neurotic traits are a system of neurotic symptoms accepted by a person as traits of one’s own personality. neurotic character as a personality disorder becomes so stable that under its influence there is a restructuring of the whole personality, including the system of its values. in a neurotic personality, pathological self-actualization is expressed in the preservation of the usual stereotype of action, in the departure from overexertion and stress, unwanted contacts. neurotic personality does not reflect its neurotic traits, so its relationship with society is disharmonious (with egocentrism, inconsistency, impulsiveness). the neurotic nature and disturbances of socialization of the individual mutually condition and reinforce each other. the program for psychocorrection of a neurotic nature should include both individual and group work, a special place should be occupied by logotherapy (pavlik, 2013). representatives of the humanistic trend in individual psychology, in particular in w. frankl’s logotherapy and k. rogers’ phenomenological theory, consider the consideration of personal means of activating the responsibility of the individual in difficult life situations. freedom, according to the theory of w. frankl, is closely linked to the responsibility of man for the right choice and realization of the meaning of his life. lack of meaning creates a state of existential vacuum in humans, which is the cause of neurosis. exploring the possibilities of behavior correction, representatives of humanistic psychology focus on the development of people’s awareness of their responsibility for their own behavior, which is based on awareness of themselves and their place in the world. however, k. rogers believes that we need to help people deal with daily demands, help them understand that they are not helpless victims, they have a choice and should be responsible for their actions even when they are unable to change the situation (stoliarenko, 2012). reactions to stress depend, on the one hand –on the intensity and duration of stress, and on the other hand – on the current state of mind and adaptive capacity of the individual. genetic heredity also plays a role, for example, in patients with low resistance to stress, an anomaly of gammaaminobutyric acid of the benzodiazepine receptor complex is detected. according to the international statistical classification of diseases and brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 301 related health problems 10th revision (icd-10), complex stress responses are classified as: severe stress response and maladaptation (f43), acute stress response (f43.0), post-traumatic stress disorder (f43.1), adaptation disorders (f43.2), short-term depressive reaction (f43.20), prolonged depressive reaction (f43.21) mixed anxiety and depressive reaction (f43.22), with a predominance of other emotions (f43.23), with predominance of behavioral disorders (f43.24), mixed disorder of emotions and behavior (f43.25), other reactions to severe stress (f43.8), reaction to severe stress not specified (f43.9). anxiety disorders are included in section f4 “stress-related neurotic and somatoform disorders” and cover diagnoses f40-f41. these disorders include panic disorder, agorophobia, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, specific phobias, mixed anxiety and depressive disorders. muscle relaxation, meditation, self-hypnosis, biological feedback and exercises are used to reduce anxiety. the method of curation (from latin curatio – is care, treatment; synonym – is patient’s support) also uses explanations of anxiety symptoms, switching training and exercises to balance anxious thoughts intelligent and calming. anxiety symptoms are reduced by systematic desensitization, cognitive-behavioral therapy (kokun et al., 2018). it is known that a demobilized combatant will never be able to return to his own past. it is a changed personality that needs the acceptance of a new state by others, which leads to a change in the lives of him and his loved ones. veterans need to be taught self-regulation techniques and in particular emotion regulation techniques. it is necessary to find out what helped the veteran to traumatic events, and what remains effective even now. when organizing the psychological rehabilitation of a war veteran, it is necessary to clearly distinguish the levels of his needs, which determines the level of psychological rehabilitation and, accordingly, the range of communication strategies and methods of psychological assistance. in the organization of social and psychological assistance to prisoners and victims of torture, an effective help to a person in case of acute pain is the method of trauma focus (thomas weber) – an effective neuropsychotherapeutic procedure in the psychotherapy of acute and chronic pain. with the help of the traumafocus method, chronic pain can be removed in a few sessions (knee pain, back pain, headache, chronic regional pain syndrome, polyneuropathy, fibromyalgia, etc.) (hrydkovets, 2018). khairulin (2015) proposed a practice-oriented, structural-functional model of psychological prevention, covering a set of general and special measures in working with personnel, the conditions for optimizing the psychosocial climate in the combat units of border guards. at the same time, a methodologically balanced system of criteria, parameters and psychological psychological correction of individual neurotic problems liliia rudenko, et al. 302 tools for the effective prevention of burnout of servicemen is described, which increases both their personal tolerance and prevents the emergence of excessive psychogenic stress during border service. in this regard, the following types of psycho-practical activities were used: diagnostics, psychological examination, psychological prognosis, prevention as an organizational procedure, socio-psychological rehabilitation, psychological and pedagogical correction, counseling and methodological assistance, psychological education and personal assistance. foreign researchers claim that the symptom complex of neurotic reactions, including signs of increased anxiety or fear of death, depressed mood, difficulty breathing, manifestations of negative emotions through the body, sweating, sleep disturbances, hypochondriac thoughts, etc. are associated with psychosomatic reactions, cardiac diseases persistent neurotic states (horst-eberhard & beckmann, 2004). the association of neuroses with maladaptive behavioral defenses and psychosomatic disorders was confirmed by hamida xardel-haddab (2009). the model of neurotic conflict is considered not only through intrapsychic manifestations, but also through the interaction of the individual with the environment in terms of object relations, neurotic reactions, body language (köpp & deter, 2006). leitner (2018), in turn, argues that integrative therapy, in particular the integration of four cognitive methods – phenomenological, dialectical, empirical-analytical and hermeneutic one, which are practically activate the potential for overcoming life problems, the ability to self-regulate and the ability to maintain health. psychological correction of individual neurotic problems: psychotherapeutic means, principles and conditions of conduction the purpose and objectives of psychological correction of individual neurotic problemsis the selection of neuropsychological methods of relieving mental stress; work with fears, high personal anxiety and internal conflicts; exercise in overcoming neurotic response, normalization of health; introduction of neuropsychological means aimed at overcoming the manifestations of neurotic disorders; correction of self-esteem and interpersonal relationships. psychological correction of personality problems of a neurotic nature should combine elements of individual and group work, be systemic, comprehensive and personality-oriented one. in our opinion, the most effective for the psychological correction of individual neurotic problemsin uncertain situations will be methods of logotherapy, forcing the client to look at events from another angle, to find their meaning for himself; positive psychotherapy and gestalt therapy – lead to brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 303 the understanding that each person has not only problems but also resources to overcome them; personal-oriented therapy – allow to change the attitude to the traumatic situation and to show responsibility first of all for themselves and adaptive situational transformations; methods of body-oriented psychotherapy – is for the implementation of mental self-regulation, muscle relaxation, relief of symptoms of stress and anxiety; cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy – allow to rethink maladaptive thoughts and change behavior. clients can gain experience in dealing with psychotraumatic situations with the help of psychotherapeutic (psychocorrectional) methods in the training of activating personal resources in order to overcome personal disorders on emotional, cognitive, motivational, behavioral levels. psycho-corrective influence on the components of all personality disorders should be carried out in stages and comprehensively. the peculiarities of the methods choice of correction of the individual sphere of a person are related to the orientation to a certain approach. there are not enough specialists in ukraine who would deeply specialize in various psychotherapeutic areas (a specialist in psychoanalysis, gestalt therapy, behavioral therapy, etc.). as a result, man as a single psychological reality seems to be divided between different psychological areas, in the possession and competence of which are different planes of this reality: behavior – in behaviorists, mental formations – in cognitivists, existential values – in humanistic psychologists, etc. if we turn to the situation of providing psychological assistance, then a person appears before the psychologist as a whole, in the unity of their behavior, cognitions, motivation, and so on. the possible way out is to address all the accumulated, but rather disparate potential. given this, all methods of corrective action should complement each other. none of them can be considered in the abstract as the best, unique or all-encompassing. in addition, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of each method of corrective action in relation to a particular person (individual and age characteristics) and a particular problem. there is no two people who are the same. everyone reacts to the same psychological problem, difficulties in their own way. ideally, the psychologist, having a variety of methods of psychotherapy and psychocorrection, should choose the most suitable of them for each client (kuzikova, 2020). psycho-correctional work with individualneurotic problems should involve the practical application of the following principles: emotional – taking into account the emotional state of the client (completion of the gestalt in experiencing neurotic reactions), emotional complexity of tasks (they must have a positive emotional background); cognitive – taking into psychological correction of individual neurotic problems liliia rudenko, et al. 304 account the influence of thoughts on the conditionality of emotional states, activation of mental processes through the formation of adaptive cognitive style of thinking in a stressful situation as a prevention of neurotic personality development; comprehensive – the use of various techniques and techniques from the arsenal of practical psychology in order to exercise psychological and comprehensive influence on the emotions, thoughts, behavior, motives and needs of the client's personality. complementing the latter principle is the mandatory use of neuropsychological methods and techniques. neuropsychological technologies not only successfully complement the above principles, but are a connecting link in the integrated personal system of mental processes, properties and states. for example, breathing exercises can stimulate clarity of thought, well-being emotions and adequate behavioral actions, relieve muscle tension and prevent the emergence of persistent neurotic states, neurotic personality development. the neuropsychological content of psychotherapeutic techniques is present in many psychotherapeutic methods and psychological approaches: body-oriented psychotherapy, gestalttherapeutic approach to personality correction, holotropic therapy and more. the following concepts are considered as the main categories of the reichian body-oriented model of psychological personality correction: character – habitual reactions to different situations (include conscious attitudes and style of behavior, physical postures, habit of movement – their detailed analysis allows to understand physical postures as a way to suppress feelings in certain parts of the body); armor of character as a mechanism of behavior that provides energy blocking at the mental and physiological levels as protection against anxiety and fear; loosening of the muscular shell – work with clamped muscles, as a result of which a person becomes free, the conflict of a neurotic personality is resolved, which usually tends to subdue authority and power; mature character of a person capable of self-control. for the purpose of neuropsychological correction, it is necessary to perform the following exercises alternately: to understand the style of breathing; develop the skill of natural breathing; exercises to activate the muscles of the throat; abdominal relaxation exercises; mobilization of aggression (after a strong inhalation, on the exhale a blow is applied to the pelvis on the couch, while allowing the head to listen to his body). in the psychological correction of personality from the standpoint of "transpersonal psychology" holotropic approach, in particular holotropic breathing techniques, allow a response associated with the removal of emotional and somatic stress (zlobin, 2005). the quintessence of bodily psychocorrection is work with bodily sensations and its integration with other psychotherapeutic methods. the brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 305 bodily sensations can be seen as “signals” of the subconscious, the awareness and comprehension of which creates the basis for resolving internal conflicts. according to sandomyrskyi (1995), the integration of different psychocorrectional approaches based on objective, psychological and physiological patterns must be combined with technologies of psychological self-help and personal growth. the researcher believes that the mechanism of formation of physical and psychological problems is psychological maladaptation. the mechanisms of violation of psychological adaptation are internal causes (emotional, cognitive, spiritual and motivational levels) and an external trigger (stress, uncertainty of the future, conflict, changing life circumstances, etc.). at the emotional level – this is a negative emotional “baggage” as a consequence of trauma and conflict, postponed the future; on the cognitive – maladaptive beliefs, errors of thinking; on the spiritual – the lack of constructive life goals and existential meaning of life; on motivational – perfectionism as a function of super-ego. thus, in the cognitive mechanism of formation of a psychological problem under the influence of stress there is a return to the right hemisphere, “childish”, evolutionarily ancient subconscious way of cognitive information processing. to enhance the effect of physical psychocorrection in solving personal problems, the researcher proposes to accompany it with the mental utterance of positive self-instructions (affirmations), which is carried out during breathing exercises. at the same time various physiological mechanisms of psychocorrection are involved: sensory awareness thanks to what the left hemisphere exercises control over breath and awareness of bodily sensations; abdominal, diaphragmatic breathing, which activates the relaxation reaction due to the natural physiological stimulation of the vagus nerve; observation of the asymmetry of sensations in the right and left hand and the right and left parts of the body, which helps to synchronize the activity of the hemispheres; observation of sensations of heat in certain parts of the body relative to respiration, which activates the processes of selfregulation by the autonomic nervous system. the state of the nervous system when performing such exercises corresponds to an altered state of consciousness (kinesthetic trance) or a transitional state in which there is a relative activation of the right hemispheric mechanisms of the psyche, selfsuggestion is perceived as a guide to action (sandomyrskyi, 1995). after “unloading” the left hemisphere with physical exercises, it is appropriate to connect cognitive methods to make the client aware of their desires to perform social roles, personal dissonances and ambivalence to find optimal ways to solve personal problems at the neurotic level. psychological correction of individual neurotic problems liliia rudenko, et al. 306 khodayarifard & fatemi (2013) offer therapeutic interventions of spiritual practices with a combination of cognitive-behavioral and family therapy to psychologically correct anxiety disorders. conclusion in the structure of individualneurotic problems, it is advisable to consider in detail neurotic reactions to a complex uncertain situation as one of their main components and a trigger that actually are triggers of a neurotic experience of anuncertain situation. individual neurotic problems are subject to psychological correction at the stage of interaction of activation of the internal resourcefulness of the client’s personality. however, acquired stable neurotic states under the influence of primarily social factors with complex professional and life unpredictable living conditions and hereditary at the same time need more complex – psychotherapeutic assistance. personality changes can be experienced only by those neurotics who can be aware of the inadequacy or protective mechanism of their own neurotic reactions to unpredictable situations and successfully use personal resources for psychological development. the presented model of psychological correction of personality problems of neurotic nature is not exhaustive, but it is able to make an effective corrective effect. individual neurotic problems are associated with disorders in the emotional, cognitive, motivational and socio-psychological spheres of personality. psychocorrection of individual neurotic problems must be carried out comprehensively, systematically and personality-oriented, purposefully influencing the restoration of the functionality of mental activity of the individual and personal development. references aldinger, m., stopsack, m., ulrich, i. appel, k., reinelt, e., wolff, s., grabe, j. h., lang, s., & barnow, s. (2014). neuroticism developmental courses – implications for depression, anxiety and everyday emotional experience; a prospective study from adolescence to young adulthood. bmc psychiatry, 14, 210. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-014-0210-2 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 horst-eberhard, r., & beckmann, d. (2004). herzneurose [cardiac neurosis]. psychosozial-verlag [ psychosocial publishing house]. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-014-0210-2 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 307 hrydkovets, l. (2018). osnovy reabilitatsiinoi psycholohii: podolannia naslidkiv kryzy. navchalnyi posibnyk [fundamentals of rehabilitation psychology: overcoming the effects of the crisis. textbook]. kyiv. khairulin, о. (2015). psykholohia profesiinoho vyhorannia viiskovosluzhbovtsiv: monohrafia [psychology of professional burnout of servicemen: monograph]. in a. furman (ed.), monograph. ternopil national university of economics. http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/bitstream/316497/687/1/ психологія%20професійного%20вигорання%20військовослужбовців.p df khan, s. i. r., dinesh, r., ramachandran, a., ashok, b. v., & baskaradoss, j. k. (2021). neurotic personality trait as a predictor in the prognosis of composite restorations: a 24-month clinical follow up study. scientific reports, 11, 17179. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96229-3 khodayarifard, m., & fatemi, s. m. (2013). combination of spirituality and cognitive-behavioral family therapy on treatment of generalized anxiety disorders. psychology, 4(4). https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.44060 kokun, о., ahaev, n., pishko, і., & lozinska, n. (2018). osnovy psycholohichnykh znan pro psykhichni rozlady dlia viiskovoho psykholoha. metodychnyi posibnyk [fundamentals of psychological knowledge about mental disorders for a military psychologist. methodical manual]. research center for humanitarian problems of the armed forces of ukraine. köpp, w., & deter, h. c. (2006). psychoanalyse und psychosomatik [psychoanalysis and psychosomatics]. forum der psychoanalyse [forum of psychoanalysis], 22(3), 297-306. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00451-0060291-8 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kuzikova, s. (2020). teoriia i praktyka vikovoi psykhokorektsii: navchalnyi posibnyk [theory and practice of age psychocorrection: textbook] (2nd edition). university book, sumy. leitner, а. (2018). integrative therapie und psychosomatik [integrative therapy and psychosomatics]. wissenschaft, gesundheitswissenschaften, psychiatrie [science, health sciences, psychiatry]. maziar, о. (2017). psykhofiziolohichnni ummovy nevrotychnoho rozvytku osobystosti [psychophysiological conditions of neurotic personality http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/bitstream/316497/687/1/%0bпсихологія%20професійного%20вигорання%20військовослужбовців.pdf http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/bitstream/316497/687/1/%0bпсихологія%20професійного%20вигорання%20військовослужбовців.pdf http://dspace.wunu.edu.ua/bitstream/316497/687/1/%0bпсихологія%20професійного%20вигорання%20військовослужбовців.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96229-3 https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.44060 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00451-006-0291-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00451-006-0291-8 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 psychological correction of individual neurotic problems liliia rudenko, et al. 308 development]. in modern pedagogy and psychology: promising and priority areas of research: proceedings of the international scientific-practical conference (pp. 93 – 95). ngo kyiv scientific organization of pedagogy and psychology. http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/26166/1/психофізіологічні%20умови%20нев ротичного%20розвитку%20особистості.pdf pavlik, n. (2013). nevrotychnyi kharakter porushennia sotsializatsii osobystosti v iunatskomu vitsi [neurotic nature of personality socialization disorders in adolescence]. psychology. pedagogy. social work. 1(7), 47-50. prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 sandomyrskyi, м. (1995). psukhokorektsia i lichnostnyi rost: telesno-intehrativnyi pokhod [psychocorrection and personal growth: a body-integrative approach]. moscow. stoliarenko, о. (2012). psykholohia osobystosti. navchalnyi posibnyk. [personality psychology. manual]. center for educational literature. turiano, n. a., graham, e. k., weston, s. j. et al. (2020). is healthy neuroticism associated with longevity? a coordinated integrative data analysis. collabra: psychology, 6(1), 33. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.268 weiss, a., & deary, i. (2019). a new look at neuroticism: should we worry so much about worrying? current directions in psychological science, 29(1), 92 – 101. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419887184 widiger, t. a., & oltmanns, j. r. (2017). neuroticism is a fundamental domain of personality with enormous public health implications. world psychiatry: official journal of the world psychiatric association (wpa), 16(2), 144–145. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20411 xardel-haddab, h. (2009). névrose, psychosomatique et fonctionnement limité: approche clinique projective: du destin des pulsions agressives. psychologie. université nancy 2, 285. https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/tel01752704/document zlobin, yu. (2005). psykholohichna korektsia lichnosti: zadachhi, podhody, priemy: uchebnoe posobie [psychological personality correction: tasks, approaches, techniques: textbook]. publishing center south ural state university. zyvzakh, m. (2007). psykholohichni dezadaptatsiini reaktsii u spivrobitnykiv spetsialnykh pidrozdiliv orhaniv vnutrishnikh sprav (diakhnostyka, psykhokorektsia, profilaktyka) [psychological maladaptation reactions in employees of special units of internal affairs (diagnosis, psychocorrection and prevention)]. g.s. kostiuk institute of psychology of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine. http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/26166/1/психофізіологічні%20умови%20невротичного%20розвитку%20особистості.pdf http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/26166/1/психофізіологічні%20умови%20невротичного%20розвитку%20особистості.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.268 https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419887184 https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20411 https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/tel-01752704/document https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/tel-01752704/document microsoft word brain_2_3.doc 45 connectionist models: implications in second language acquisition farid ghaemi islamic azad university, karaj branch, department of humanities, iran. ghaemi@kiau.ac.ir laleh fakhraee faruji islamic azad university, science and research branch, department of literature and foreign languages, tehran, iran fakhraeelaleh@yahoo.com abstract in language acquisition, ‘emergentists’ claim that simple learning mechanisms, of the kind attested elsewhere in cognition, are sufficient to bring about the emergence of complex language representations (gregg, 2003). connectionist model is one of the models among others proposed by emergentists. this paper attempts to clarify the basic assumptions of this model, its advantages, and the criticisms leveled at it. keywords: associationism, connectionism, emergentism, information processing (ip) 1. introduction ‘emergentism’ is the name that has recently been given to a general approach to cognition that stresses the interaction between organism and environment and that denies the existence of predetermined, domain specific faculties or capacities (gregg, 2003). emergentism offers itself as an alternative to modular, ‘special nativist’ theories of the mind, such as theories of universal grammar (ug). one of the models among others proposed by emergentists is called ‘connectionism’. richards & schmidt (2002) defined connectionism as a theory in cognitive science that assumes that the individual components of human cognition are highly interactive and that knowledge of events, concepts and language is represented diffusely in the cognitive system (p. 108). according to them this theory has been applied to models of speech processing, lexical organization, and first and second language learning. connectionism provides mathematical models and computer simulations that try to capture both the essence of information processing and thought processes. the basic assumptions of the theory are (richards & schmidt, 2002, p. 108): 1. information processing takes place through the interactions of a large number of simple units, organized into networks and operating in parallel. 2. learning takes place through the strengthening and weakening of the interconnections in a particular network in response to examples encountered in the input. 3. the result of learning is often a network of simple units that acts as though it “knows” abstract rules, although the rules themselves exist only in the form of association strengths distributed across the entire network. connectionist approaches to learning have much in common with information processing (ip) perspectives (saville-troike, 2006, p. 80), but they focus on the increasing strength of associations between stimuli and responses rather than on the inferred abstraction of “rules” or on restructuring. indeed, from a connectionist perspective learning essentially is change in the strength of these connections. some version of this idea has been present in psychology at least since the 1940s and 1950s, but connectionism has received widespread attention as a model for first and second language acquisition only since the 1980s. ahlsén (2006, p. 10) called connectionism as associationism, assumes in which higher functions are dependent on the connections between different centers in the cortex. linguistic ability is seen as the relationship between images and words. he believed that aphasia results from broken connections between the centers that are needed for linguistic function. connectionist brainotes brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 models challenges the traditional separation of item memory and abstract, symbolic rule systems, and provides an empirically testable alternative to nativist approaches to learning (williams, 2005). gass & selinker (2008) provided a premise and a metaphor for connectionism as (p. 494): • premise: emphasizes environment influence and exposure to language towards a gradual buildup of language. • metaphor: the builder needs the assistance of others to help construct the house; he cannot do it entirely on his own. an early connectionist model was a network trained by rumelhart and mcclelland (1986, as cited in jordan, 2004, p. 243) to predict the past tense of english verbs. the network showed the same tendency to overgeneralize as children, but there is still no agreement about the ability of neural networks to learn grammar. 2. elements of connectionist models connectionist models consist of a large number of simple processing units with multiple connections linking them. activation flows along the connections, just as electrical impulses transmit information through neurons in the brain. the ease with which activation spreads from one unit to another is determined by the strength of the connections along which it travels. the stronger the connection to a unit, the more readily that unit becomes activated. a connection’s strength depends upon how frequently it is used. thus, over time, connections to a frequent word will become strong, ensuring that the word is activated more rapidly than other less common ones (field, 2004, p. 73). according to field (2004, p. 73) strength of the connectionist approach is that, besides modeling processes such as word recognition, it can also model learning. in a computer simulation, each connection receives a number or weight to indicate its relative strength. at the outset, these can be set at 0; but, as connections are used, their weights are adjusted by means of a complex formula. if a connection is not used, its weight declines to a negative value, indicating an inhibitory relationship. the effectiveness of this learning process has been increased by a feedback mechanism known as back propagation which provides the program with a kind of memory. it compares what a connectionist network outputs from a particular stimulus with what it should output. 2.1. backpropogation by dint of many repeated presentations of the input, some connections within the network become strengthened while others become weakened. in this way, the network can gradually be ‘trained’ to produce correct responses through a process of error reduction (field, 2004, p. 75). using back propagation, a connectionist program has managed to simulate the acquisition of a set of regular and irregular english past simple verb forms. it succeeded in discriminating between cases where an -ed inflection was appropriate (walk-walked) and those where a new form had to be learnt (write-wrote). it also, in the process, manifested the kind of u-shaped development observed both in first and second language acquisition, where a speaker acquires a correct irregular form, then later replaces it with a regular form that has been over-generalised (writed). simulations such as this are sometimes cited in support of an empiricist view of language acquisition. they suggest that linguistic patterns can be identified through exposure to multiple examples, with no need to presuppose a genetically transmitted mechanism which drives the acquisition process (field, 2004, p. 75). 2.2. parallel distributed processing (pdp) network performance in pdp is determined by several main factors (macdonald & seidenberg, 2006, p. 587): (1) the architecture of the system (e.g., the configuration of units and connections); (2) the characteristics of the input and output representations; (3) characteristics of the patterns used in training the model; and (4) characteristics of the learning algorithm. in other words, f. ghaemi & l. f. faruji connectionist models: implications in second language acquisition 47 the model’s performance depends on its initial state, what it experiences, and how it learns from those experiences. macdonald & seidenberg (2006) focused on three properties that inform the probabilistic constraints approach to comprehension as follow (p. 588): first, the networks incorporate a theory of statistical learning. the main idea is that one way that people learn (there may be others) is by gathering information about the frequencies and distributions of environmental events. this type of learning is thought to be general rather than language specific. the reading models in particular developed the idea that lexical knowledge consists of statistical relations between orthographic, phonological, and semantic codes. learning then involves acquiring this statistical knowledge over time. subsequent research on statistical learning in infants and adults has provided strong evidence consistent with this view. this learning mechanism provides a way to derive regularities from relatively noisy data, a property that is likely to be highly relevant to the child’s experience in learning language. second, the models provide a basis for understanding why particular types of statistics are relevant and not others. given the properties of these representations, other aspects of the model architecture (e.g., number of units or layers patterns of connectivity between layers), and a connectionist learning algorithm, the model will pick up on particular statistical regularities implicit in the examples on which the model is trained. thus, motivating the various elements of a model and how it is trained is very important, but the model itself determines which statistics are computed. third, the framework provides a powerful processing mechanism, the exploitation of multiple simultaneous probabilistic constraints. information in a network is encoded by the weights. the weights determine (“constrain”) the output that is computed in performing a task. processing involves computing the output that satisfies these constraints. this output changes depending on what is presented as input (e.g., the current word being processed in a network that comprehends sentences word by word). this type of processing, known as constraint satisfaction, has several interesting properties. one is that the network’s output is determined by all of the weights. such models illustrate how a large number of constraints can be utilized simultaneously without imposing excessive demands on memory or attention. constraint satisfaction is passive – activation spreads through a network modulated by the weights on connections – rather than a resource-limited active search process. another important property is that the constraints combine in a nonlinear manner. bits of information that are not very informative in isolation become highly informative when taken with other bits of information. much of the power and efficiency of the language comprehension system arises from this property. languages exhibit much partial regularity. different types of information are correlated, but weakly. the comprehender cannot wholly rely on any one type of information, but combinations of these partial cues are highly reliable. this concept may seem paradoxical at first. if individual cues are unreliable, wouldn’t combinations of these cues be even more unreliable? macdonald & seidenberg (2006, p. 587) answers: no, not if cue combination is nonlinear. the informativeness of each cue varies as a function of other cues. 3. connectionism and sla even though connectionist approaches have been around for a number of years, it is only recently that research within a second language context has begun to take place (gass & selinker, 2008, p. 220). gasser (1990) examines the implications of connectionist models of cognition for second language theory. connectionism offers a challenge to the symbolic models which dominate cognitive science. in connectionist models all knowledge is embodied in a network of simple processing units joined by connections which are strengthened or weakened in response to regularities in input patterns. these models avoid the brittleness of symbolic approaches, and they exhibit rule-like behavior without explicit rules. in sla the assumption is that transfer from l1 to l2 occurs because strong associations already established in l1 interfere with establishment of the l2 network. because frequency is the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 primary determinant of connection strength, it might be predicted that the most common patterns in l1 would be the most likely to cause interference in l2, but research on transfer from linguistic perspectives does not support this conclusion in any strong sense; l1-l2 relationships are not that simple. proponents of connectionist approaches to language acquisition note that while frequency is “an all-pervasive causal factor” (ellis 2002, as cited in saville-troike, 2006, p. 81), it interacts with other determinants, including how noticeable the language patterns are in the input learners receive, and whether the patterns are regular or occur with many variations and exceptions. according to saville-troike (2006) the best-known connectionist approach within sla is parallel distributed processing, or pdp (p. 80). based on this viewpoint, processing takes place in a network of nodes (or “units”) in the brain that is connected by pathways. as learners are exposed to repeated patterns of units in input, they extract regularities in the patterns; probabilistic associations are formed and strengthened. these associations between nodes are called connection strengths or patterns of activation. the strength of the associations changes with the frequency of input and nature of feedback. the claim that such learning is not dependent on either a store of innate knowledge (such as universal grammar) or rule-formation is supported by computer simulations. for example, rumelhart and mcclelland (1986, as cited in saville-troike, 2006, p. 80) demonstrated that a computer that is programmed with a “pattern associator network” can learn to associate english verb bases with their appropriate past tense forms without any a priori “rules,” and that it does so with much the same learning curve as that exhibited by children learning english l1 (savilletroike, 2006, p. 80). the model provides an account for both regular and irregular tense inflections, including transfer to unfamiliar verbs, and for the “ushaped” developmental curve which is often cited in linguistic models and in other cognitive approaches as evidence for rule-based learning. assumptions about processing from a connectionist/pdp viewpoint differ from traditional ip accounts in other important ways. for example (mcclelland, rumelhart, and hinton 1986; robinson 1995, as cited in saville-troike, 2006, p. 80): i. attention is not viewed as a central mechanism that directs information between separate memory stores, which ip claims are available for controlled processing versus automatic processing. rather, attention is a mechanism that is distributed throughout the processing system in local patterns (p. 81). ii. information processing is not serial in nature: i.e. it is not a “pipeline . . . in which information is conveyed in a fixed serial order from one storage structure to the next” (robinson 1995 as cited in saville-troike, 2006, p. 81). instead, processing is parallel: many connections are activated at the same time. iii. knowledge is not stored in memory or retrieved as patterns, but as “connection strengths” between units which account for the patterns being recreated. it is obvious that parallel processing is being applied when tasks simultaneously tap entirely different resources such as talking on a cell phone while riding a bicycle, but it also less obviously occurs within integrated tasks such as simply talking or reading, when encoding/decoding of phonology, syntactic structure, meaning, and pragmatic intent occur simultaneously (saville-troike, 2006, p. 81). many connections in the brain must be activated all at once to account for successful production and interpretation of language, and not processed in sequence (i.e. one after the other). 4. advantages of connectionist models connectianist models appear to offer a number of advantages (feldman & ballard, 1982). ellis (2003, as cited in doughty & long, 2003, p. 85) believed that a detailed transition theory is needed for describing the process of language acquisition. if language is not informationally produced in its own module, then we must eventually show how generic learning mechanisms can result in complex and highly specific language representations. we need dynamic models of the f. ghaemi & l. f. faruji connectionist models: implications in second language acquisition 49 acquisition of these representations and the emergence of structure. and we need processing models where the interpretation of particular utterances is the result of the mutual satisfaction of all of the available constraints. for these reasons, emergentists look to connectionism, since it provides a set of computational tools for exploring the conditions under which emergent properties arise (ellis, 2003, as cited in doughty & long, 2003, p. 85). according to ellis (2003, as cited in doughty & long, 2003) connectionism has various advantages for this purpose: neural inspiration; distributed representation and control; data-driven processing with prototypical representations emerging rather than being innately pre-specified; graceful degradation; emphasis on acquisition rather than static description; slow, incremental, nonlinear, contentand structure-sensitive learning; blurring of the representation/learning distinction; graded, distributed, and non-static representations; generalization and transfer as natural products of learning; and, since the models must actually run, less scope for hand-waving (ellis, 2003, as cited in doughty & long, 2003 p. 85). connectionist studies are important in that they directly show how language learning takes place through gradual strengthening of the associations between co-occurring elements of language, and how learning the distributional characteristics of the language input results in the emergence of rule like, but not rule-governed, regularities. given that connectionist models have been used to understand various aspects of child language acquisition, the successful application of connectionism to sla suggests that similar mechanisms operate in children and adults, and that language acquisition, in its essence, is the distributional analysis of form-function mappings in a neural network that attempts to satisfy simultaneously the constraints of all other constructions that are represented therein (ellis, 2003, as cited in doughty & long, 2003 p. 91). traditional symbolic models (taking the classical approach to categorization) work on the all-ornone basis and can satisfy hard constraints only. that is, even if one condition is not met, a rule does not apply. a connectionist system can satisfy soft constraints, meaning that it finds the best solution to a situation where multiple constraints compete by meeting as many of them as possible, even if none of the conditions are met completely. there is one more general point to be made. being motivated by the recognition that the brain is a neural network, connectionism equates mental representations with patterns of neural activity, which what connectionism shares with enactivism, both present a clear contrast to traditional cognitivism in this respect (zalewski, 2010, p. 95). 5. criticisms of connectionist models according to gregg (1996) nonmodular approaches in l2 acquisition research has been largely motivated by a misguided concern for communicative competence, there has been little in the way of explicit nonmodular theorizing. instead, there has been a more or less implicit denial of modularity: learning is seen as a general process irrespective of object. that is, it is often assumed by l2 acquisition theorists that such processes as hypothesis testing, generalization, analogy, automatization, and so forth, apply equally to any learning task-linguistic or otherwise (mclaughlin, 1987, as cited in gregg, 1996, p. 58 [6]). one counterargument of strong deterministic role of frequency of input in language learning is that some of the most frequent words in english (including the most frequent, the) are relatively late to appear, and among the last (if ever) to be mastered. still, whatever one’s theoretical perspective, the effects of frequency on sla clearly merit more attention than they have typically received since repetition drills went out of fashion in language teaching. researchers from several approaches to sla which focus on learning processes are taking a renewed look at how frequency influences learning (saville-troike, 2006, p. 81 [10]). connectionists take a very different antimodular approach to language learning which is away from rules, structures, and so on, and instead see learning as the relative strengthening (or spreading activation) of associations, or connections, between interconnected units or nodes. the rules or principles proposed by linguists are simply epiphenomena, in this view; they have no non metaphoric existence whatever, and thus play no role in language learning. the fact-if indeed it is a brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 3, september 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 fact-that one can successfully model the acquisition of english past-tense forms with a connectionist computer program does not say anything as to whether the human mind goes about acquiring in that way; nor is a spreading activation model necessarily incompatible with a more traditional concept of mental structure (j. a. fodor & pylyshyn, 1988, as cited in gregg, 1996, p. 59 [6]). further, as carroll and meisel (1990 as cited in gregg, 1996, p. 59 [6]) pointed out, connectionist accounts fail to deal with the fact that humans have knowledge that transcends the input; but that, of course, is the very heart of the logical problem. something like spreading activation could possibly be involved in the establishing of connections between, say, irregular verbs and their past-tense endings; but we cannot appeal to a lack of activation for our knowledge that one sentence (e.g., she may have been being misled) is a possible sentence of english whereas another (e.g., she may been have being misled) is impossible. after all, one have probably never heard either type of sentence, and thus they are equally unlikely to have been activated. given the serious shortcomings of the connectionist model, it is hard to see any good reason for taking it up in the stead of a structured system of mental representations, as assumed by almost any other view of the mind. it is true; of course, that the mind is instantiated in the brain, and that any mental activity whatever must have a neurological basis. but it by no means follows from this that the neurological level is an appropriate, let alone the only proper, level at which to account for mental activity (gregg, 1996, p. 59). what otherwise widely different theories such as o’grady’s “general nativism” and connectionism have in common is a reductionist animus, an attempt to account for language acquisition phenomena as nothing more than special cases of other kinds of phenomena(gregg, 1996, p. 59) 6. concluding remarks connectionism now offers a radical alternative to innativism view. the old questions about innateness, the mind and the body, and what it means to know are being asked again, and a new set of answers is being proposed. not everyone agrees that connectionist models make good neuropsychological sense (segalowitz and bernstein, 1997, as cited in segalowitz & lightbown, 1999 [11]). however, as ellis (1999 [2]) has suggested, one does not necessarily have to view connectionism as an attempt to model neural architecture for it to be useful (as cited in segalowitz & lightbown, 1999 [11]). connectionist analysis can, instead, be understood as a mathematical tool that reveals how the process of simple associative learning can contain hidden within it the basis for establishing response patterns that appear to be rule-governed in the absence of explicit rule representation. this use of connectionism as a tool is analogous to, say, the way one uses fourier analysis to analyze complex wave forms to reveal underlying hidden, simpler acoustic patterns (e.g., the component frequencies, formant structures of speech)(segalowitz & lightbown, 1999 [11]). how the brain actually performs the equivalent analysis is another question. references [1] ahlsen, e. (2006). introduction to neurolinguistics. amsterdam: john benjamins publishing company. [2] ellis, n. c. (2003). constructions, chunking, and connectionism: the emergence of second language structure. in c. j. doughty & m. h. long (eds.), the handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 63-104). oxford: blackwell publishing. [3] feldman, j. a., & ballard, d. h. (1982). connectionist models and their properties. cognitive science, 6, 205-254. f. ghaemi & l. f. faruji connectionist models: implications in second language acquisition 51 [4] field, j. (2004). psycholinguistics: the key concepts. london & newyork: routledge. gass, s. m., & selinker, l. (2008). second language acquisition: an introductory course (3rd ed.). new york & london: routledge. [5] gasser, m. (1990). connectionism and universals of second language acquisition. studies in second language acquisition, 12, 179-199. [6] gregg, k. r. (1996). the logical and developmental problems of second language acquisition, in t. k. bhatia & w. c. ritchie (eds.), hand book of second language acquisition (pp. 50-75). london: academic press, inc. [7] jordan, g. (2004). theory construction in second language acquisition. amsterdam & philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company. [8] macdonald, m. c., & seidenberg, m. s. (2006). constraint satisfaction accounts of lexical and sentence comprehension. in m. j. traxler & m. a. gernsbacher (eds.), hand book of psycholinguistics (pp. 581-613). london: elsevier inc. [9] richards, j. c., & schmidt, r. (2002). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (3rd ed.). london: longman. [10] saville-troike, m. (2006). introducing second language acquisition. cambridge: cambridge university press. [11] segalowitz, n., & lightbown, p. m. (1999). psycholinguistic approaches to sla. annual review of applied linguistics, 19, 43–63. [12] williams, j. n. (2005). associationism and connectionism. retrieved november 2010 from people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/jnw12/associationism.pdf [13] zalewski, j. (2010). a connectionist–enactivist perspective on learning to write. in j. arabski & wojtaszek (eds.), neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives on sla (pp. 93-106). toronto: multilingual matters. microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 12 cognitive medical multiagent systems barna iantovics department of mathematics and informatics “petru maior” university, targu mures, romania nicolae iorga, 1, târgu-mureş, 540088, romania ibarna@science.upm.ro abstract the development of efficient and flexible agent-based medical diagnosis systems represents a recent research direction. medical multiagent systems may improve the efficiency of traditionally developed medical computational systems, like the medical expert systems. in our previous researches, a novel cooperative medical diagnosis multiagent system called cmds (contract net based medical diagnosis system) was proposed. cmds system can solve flexibly a large variety of medical diagnosis problems. this paper analyses the increased intelligence of the cmds system, which motivates its use for different medical problem’s solving. keywords: medical expert system, intelligent system, medical multiagent system, complex system, knowledge-based medical agent, medical diagnosis system, medical decision support 1. introduction results described in the literature, prove that the intelligence of a computational system can offer advantages in problem solving versus a system that does not have intelligence [3, 5, 10, 49]. sometimes a system’s intelligence can be measured according to how efficiently and flexibly the system can solve problems (intelligence in problem solving). the purpose of the endowment of an agent with intelligence consists in obtaining improvements in problem solving. for example, solving problems whose description contains some uncertainties or whose solving is partially known. in our previous researches, a novel medical diagnosis system called cmds (contract net based medical diagnosis system) was developed [13]. this paper analyses the cmds system’s intelligence, which motivate its use for difficult problems solving that appear in the medical domain (medical diagnosis and medical decision support). the upcoming part of the paper is organized as follows: section 2 presents some aspects related with computational systems used in the medical domain; in section 3 there are presented some aspects related with intelligent systems; in section 4 agent-based medical diagnosis systems are presented; section 5 presents the cmds system; section 6 analyses the intelligence of the cmds system; in section 7 there are presented the conclusions of the research. 2. medical computational systems in medical domains, there are proposed and used many medical systems that operate in isolation or cooperate with each other [3, 22, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 37, 38]. the paper [39] motivate that appropriate use of available information, knowledge and communication technologies can make a significant contribution towards achieving a sustainable health system and that the adoption of semantically interoperable health information systems. as more health-care providers invest in computerized medical records, more clinical data is made accessible. extracting medical information from huge repositories of data are becoming increasingly important for purposes such as offering better care [50]. the paper [15] describes intelligent medical diagnosis systems with built-in functions for knowledge discovery and data mining. the intelligence is considered based on the capacity of the system to learn. diagnosing rules generated by learning can be used in diagnosis processes. in the paper [42] is proposed cool a formal context model based on ontology to address issues including semantic context representation, context reasoning and knowledge sharing, context classification, context dependency and quality of context. the main benefit of this model is the ability to reason about various contexts. b. iantovics – cognitive medical multiagent systems 13 biodash [40] is a semantic web prototype of a drug development dashboard that associates disease, compounds, drug progression stages, molecular biology, and pathway knowledge for a team of users. data from several sources are integrated, on the client, and explored in a variety of views. the focus of the work is on combining the multiple resources semantically. bhips (behavioral health integrated provider system) [41] is web-based, open-source software that allows behavioral health providers to integrate tracking, clinical, and billing data into a comprehensive behavioral health service delivery system. the system can be rolled out and adapted in response to changing needs. one of the most interesting aspects of bhips development is the manner in which continuous, open, and frank dialogue between the end users and the system developers is used to inform system evolution. artemis [2] represents a development of semantic web services based interoperability framework for the healthcare domain. in artemis infrastructure healthcare institutes keep their proprietary systems and expose their medical applications as web services. artemis addresses the interoperability problem in healthcare domain in two respects: semantic interoperability and functional interoperability. semantic interoperability is the ability for information shared by systems to be understood at the level of formally defined domain concepts so that the information could be processed by the receiving system. functional interoperability is the ability of two or more systems to exchange information. asemr [20] combines three ontology’s with rules in order to enhance the accuracy of emrs both by providing clinical decision support and by improving the correctness of medical coding therefore reducing the number of rejected claims. the presented semantic approach, which improves patient care and enables healthcare providers to complete all charge entry and documentation. samhsa (substance abuse and mental health services agency) [1] facilitates the integration of state-level data across state mental health, state substance abuse, and state medicaid agencies. the system requires collecting encounter-level data; using coding that is compliant with the health insurance portability and accountability act, including national provider identifiers; forging linkages with other state data systems and developing unique client identifiers among systems; investing in flexible and adaptable data systems and business processes; and finding innovative solutions to the difficult confidentiality restrictions on use of behavioral health data. 3. cognitive agent-based systems the development of cognitive systems represents an important research direction [1, 44, 3, 4, 5, 6, 22, 8, 9, 36, 24]. agent-based technologies represent one of the best-fitted alternatives for the creation of intelligent systems. basic proprieties necessary to an intelligent agent consists in the increased autonomy in operation and the capacity of communication and cooperation [43, 5]. these proprieties are necessary in the endowment of the agents with capacities specific to the intelligent systems. in the literature, there are described intelligent agents [1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8]. agents capable of learning autonomously are often considered intelligent [3, 5]. autonomous learning allows the agents to adapt for efficient solving of the problems. another propriety that is sometimes associated with intelligence consists in the capacity to help other agents and humans during problem solving, sometimes in decision support. the intelligence of the agents should often be considered based on the types of the agents, for example [44]: robotic agents’ intelligence, static software agents’ intelligence and mobile software agents’ intelligence. there are many static software agents that could be considered intelligent [3, 5]. software mobile agents are more limited in intelligence than the software static agents [6, 11, 12]. the limitations of the mobile agents in intelligence have practical motivations [11]. the endowment of a mobile agent with intelligence increases its body size and its behavioral complexity. the transmission of a large number of intelligent mobile agents in a network may overload the network with data transmissions. a large number of intelligent mobile agents at a host may overload the host with data processing. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 14 in a cooperative multiagent system, the intelligence could be considered at the level of the system where the agents operate [43, 5]. if the agents cooperate efficiently, they can solve intelligently difficult problems. the intelligence of an efficiently cooperating multiagent system could be higher than the intelligence of the member agents. in the literature [43, 10], there are described multiagent systems, some of them made up of relatively simple agents that could be considered intelligent at the level of the multiagent system in which they operate. 4. agent-based medical systems medical expert systems represent relatively classical applications used for medical diagnoses elaborations [18, 19, 45, 21, 7, 23, 24, 25, 27, 26]. as examples of developed medical expert systems, we mention: mycin [19], casnet [26], dimitra [25], cardiag2 [45], puff [23], gideon [21], hdp [7] and casey [27]. recently, there have been developed agent-based medical diagnosis systems that eliminate some disadvantages of the medical expert systems [3]. motivations of the use of agents for different medical problems solving consist in the proprieties of the agents, like: increased autonomy in operation, capacity of communication, autonomous learning capacity and capacity to interact with the environment. intelligent agents used in medicine may increase the accuracy of diagnostics elaborated by physicians (an agent may help a human medical specialist in medical decisions elaborations, also he may verify medical hypothesis elaborated by the human medical specialists) and may improve the solving of medical tasks that must be fulfilled in healthcare processes. as examples of applications of the agents for fulfilling medical tasks, we mention: patients management and monitoring [28, 29, 30]; healthcare, ubiquitous healthcare and web-enabled healthcare [31, 32, 35], telehealth [33], spreads simulation of infectious disease [34] etc. the paper [14] analyzes different aspects of the multiagent systems specialized in medical diagnosis. understanding of such systems needs a high-level visual view of how the systems operate as a whole to achieve some application related purposes. onkonet mobile agents have been successfully used for patient-centric medical problems solving [32]. it is introduced the notion of ubiquitous healthcare, addressing the access of health services by individual consumers using mobile agents. this access requires medical knowledge about the individual health status. the presented work emerged from a project covering all relevant issues, from empirical process studies in cancer diagnosis/therapy, down to system implementation and validation. clinical decision support systems [47, 48] form a significant part of the field of clinical knowledge management technologies, being interactive computer programs, which are designed to assist physicians and other health professionals with decision-making tasks. agent oriented techniques are important new means in analyzing, designing and building complex software systems. in the paper [46] an intelligent multiagent system, named imasc, for assisting physicians in their decision-making tasks. the system was proposed for assisting physicians in diagnosing the heart disease. in [10], it is proposed a medical diagnosis multiagent system that is organized according to the principles of swarm intelligence. it consists of a large number of agents that interact with each other by simple indirect communication. the proposed multiagent system’s real power stems from the fact that a large number of simple agents collaborate in a reliable way with the purpose of elaborating diagnostics. the intelligence of the proposed system can be considered based on the agents’ capacity to learn. 5. the cmds cognitive medical system in our previous researches a novel cooperative medical diagnosis system called contract net based medical diagnosis system was proposed [13]. cmds (contract net based medical diagnosis system) system is made up of set mda∪asg of members, artificial agents and physicians specialized b. iantovics – cognitive medical multiagent systems 15 in different medical domains. in the following, all the members (artificial and human) of the diagnosis system are called agents. a cmds system can solve diagnosis problems randomly transmitted for solving. a problem is initially transmitted to a medical agent member of the system, and, subsequently, the system will handle autonomously the problem solving. figure 1 presents the cmds system’s architecture. pr={pr1, pr2,…, prq} represent problems that must be solved by the system. mda={mda1, mda2,…, mdan} represent agents specialized in medical diagnosis, physicians and medical expert system agents. asg={asg1, asg2,…, asgk} represent assistant knowledge-based agents. the assistant agents are capable of helping the medical agents during the problem’s solving processes. the algorithm problem solving describes briefly how a medical agent denoted mdai (mdai∈mda) operates when it receives an initially transmitted medical diagnosis problem or a problem solving statement. the algorithm has been described with details in the paper [13]. the paper [13] presents the medical knowledge detained by the artificial medical agents. an agent is capable [13] of solving a problem, if it has the necessary specialization (problem solving knowledge) and resources for the solving of the problem in the maximum admitted time. figure 1. cmds medical diagnosis system the agents from the set mda have specializations sets in medical diagnosis. the agents from the set asg have specializations sets that allow the assistance of the agents from the set mda. an agent is called capable of processing a problem, if it has the necessary specialization and resources to process the problem. a problem processing has as objective to obtain a more complete description of the solution. during a problem solving the solution description is completed step by step. algorithm problem solving step 1 the problem solving. std → mdai. if (mdai is capable to processes std) then mdai(std) » sth. if (sth contains the std solution) then goto step 2. else mdai (sth) » an. mdai (an) → acg. endif else mdai (std) » an. mdai (an) → acg. endif while (the waiting time to an is not expired) do @mdai evaluates the bids to an. endwhile @mdai awards the problem solving statement to a suitable agent mdab (mdab∈acg). pr1 pr2 .. mda1 mda2 mdan asg1 asg2 asgk brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 16 @mdai receives the stq problem statement from mdab. step 2 the problem solution formation. @the solution sold is extracted from the latest problem solving statement. @the least problem solving statement and sold is transmitted to the std sender. endproblemsolving. in the algorithm presented above, there are used the following notations: “→” denotes a communication process; “»” denotes a problem processing; std denote the problem solving statement; mdai and mdab denotes medical agents; sold denotes the solution of std; sth denotes a problem solving statement; an denotes an announcement; acg (acg⊂mda) denotes a set of medical agents to whom the announcement an can be transmitted. the solving of a problem is sometimes a recursive process to which more agents can contribute. a problem statement is sent from agent to agent until the problem is solved. the algorithm problem solving describes a cooperative problem solving by medical agents. during its operation a medical agent may require the help of assistant agents. the paper [13] describes how an assistant agent helps a medical agent. each human and artificial medical agent knows at least one assistant agent whose help may be required. if it is necessary, an assistant agent may cooperate with other assistant agents to fulfill the requirement. formula (1) illustrates a problem solving process. sta(spq) » stb(spw) » … » sty(spr) » stg. (1) spq, spw,…, spr represent the specializations used during the sta solving. processing sta by using spq is obtained stb (a new problem solving statement). processing stb using spw is obtained stc. processing sty using spr is obtained stg. stg is the problem solving statement obtained after all the realized processing (stg contains the solution of sta). a problem solving statement (2) describes medical knowledge kng={kng1, kng2,…, kngn} obtained during a diagnosis problem solving. < id1 |kng1; id2 |kng2;…; idn | kngn >. (2) as examples of information that can be contained in a parameter kngc (kngc∈kng) from (2), we mention: an illness symptoms, illnesses from the past, a diagnostic etc. initially a problem solving statement contain information that describes the illness (for example, the history of the patient’s illness symptoms specified by the patient). during the solving of the problem, the problem solving statement is changing. the final problem solving statement will contains the established diagnostic. during a problem solving, some parameters’ values may not be completed (for example, it is not necessary to retain the history of the diagnosed illness symptoms). each parameter in (2) has associated a unique natural number as identifier. the identifier of a parameter indicates the type of information that can be retained in that parameter. for example, type(idc) = syndromes specifies that the parameter kngc (associated with the identifier idc) may contain as values the specifications of the syndromes of an illness. an announcement denoted an has the parameters (3). an = < stj; deadlinej; eligibilityj; emitj >. (3) stj represents the announced problem. emitj numerical value specifies the initial moment of time when an is formed. deadlinej numerical value specifies the maximum admitted time for the stj processing. based on deadlinej and emitj values, an agent who receives an specify the remaining time for stj processing. eligibilityj value specifies the eligibility criteria of the bid acceptance. a response respj of an agent mdai to the stj problem solving statement announcement an has the parameters (4). respj = < tmi; ofi; an; cbi; sci >. (4) cbi values specify the specializations that mdai can use in the stj processing. tmi numerical value specifies the estimated processing time by mdai. ofi value specifies the bid to stj processing, ofi = ‘yes’ (specifies acceptance) or ofi = ‘no’ (specifies rejection). when a medical agent receives the bids to an announcement, using the information contained in the responses, he can improve the following decisions about what to do with the announced problem. sci values specify the estimated b. iantovics – cognitive medical multiagent systems 17 specializations by mdai, necessary in the stj processing. an value specifies the announcement identifier. 6. intelligence of the cmds system the main proprieties for the artificial agents’ members of the cmds system consist in the increased autonomy in operation, communication and cooperation capability. the artificial agents’ members of the cmds system can be endowed with autonomous learning capacity. they can learn new knowledge and can improve the detained knowledge accuracy. the agents can learn during the problems’ transmission for processing. when an agent receives a response to an announcement, he may learn information that can improve the accuracy of the medical decisions that must make and may improve the efficiency of its following operation. a response to an announcement can contain auxiliary information that may help the agent in the decision elaboration. from the responses to an announcement, an agent can learn information like: • what agents can usually overtake problems for processing (this information may limit its future interactions); • the medical knowledge detained by different agents; • what agents usually answer fast to the announcements. a medical agent may require the help of an assistant agent during its operation. for example, in a situation when the medical agent does not have a specialization, however, he must require the help of an assistant agent, who has the necessary specialization. if an assistant agent cannot solve an overtaken problem, then he can cooperate with other assistant agents in order to solve the problem. for a physician it is necessary to know a single medical agent, who if it is necessary can cooperate with other assistant agents to fulfill the physician’s requirement. in the case of a solved problem, the final problem solving statement contains all the necessary information in a learning process, which consists in the completely obtained problem description and the established diagnostic. the agents (artificial agents and humans) can learn from a final problem solving statement. the information contained in a problem solving statement are understandable to the physicians and artificial agents. each information contained in a problem solving statement has associated the type of the medical information: treatment, illness symptoms, illness syndromes, etc. the agents can learn new medical diagnosis problems solving or can improve the detained medical diagnosing knowledge accuracy. for example, an artificial medical agent may learn new symptoms of an illness. assistant agents can find the solutions to hypotheses elaborated by physicians. as an example, we mention the situation when a physician wants to find the answer to a medical issue by consulting more physicians. in order to find the answer, the physician can transmit the issue to an assistant agent, who will search for the physicians capable to answer to the issue. the assistant agent transmits the issue to the physicians, collecting and transmitting their answer to the physician sender of the announcement. the physician sender of the medical issue will establish the answer based on the received answers to the issue. as an example of a medical issue that can be solved, we mention “what is the best-fitted medicine to cure an illness”. in the cmds system, the intelligence could be considered at the level of multiagent system. the intelligence of a cooperative multiagent system is increased due to the agents’ efficient cooperation. the intelligence of the cmds multiagent system is higher than the intelligence of the system’s members. an important advantage of the cmds system consists in the flexibility of operation. a diagnosis problem is transmitted to an agent member of the system, after which the system will handle autonomously the problem solving, by transmitting the problem from agent to agent until the problem is solved. the specializations necessary for a diagnosis problem solving are not specified in advance, the members of the system must discover cooperatively the problem solving. the specializations necessary to a problem solving may be distributed between more agents. artificial medical agents and physicians may have only a limited quantity of medical knowledge. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 18 7. conclusions agents are used for difficult problems solving in many domains. the motivations for the use of agents in the medical domain consist in the multitude of aspects that the agents can analyze during the diagnostics elaborations and the realization of different tasks in healthcare. agent-based approaches may integrate and extend different problem solving technologies (for example, we mention medical agents that extend the medical expert systems). in previous researches, we have proposed a novel cooperative medical diagnosis system called contract net based medical diagnosis system. the cmds (contract net based medical diagnosis system) system has some characteristics of the intelligent systems. the main advantage of the cmds system consists in its autonomy and flexibility in handling medical diagnosis problems. during the diagnosis processes, there are transmitted information that allows the physicians and artificial agents to improve the detained knowledge accuracy. the main motivation that sustains the intelligence of the cmds system consists in the combination of the humans thinking and the artificial agents processing advantages during the medical problems solving. the physicians can solve difficult problems using their intelligence specific to the humans (intelligence that cannot be attained by the actual computational systems). the artificial agents can solve problems verifying many conditions that could be ignored by humans, which may have as result the elimination of some mistakes from the physicians’ decisions. for example, a physician may forget to take into consideration information from a patient’s medical history when he/she diagnoses the patient’s illness (for example a known allergy of a patient specified in its medical history). 8. acknowledgment the research was supported from the nationally founded projects "lascor translarea cercetarilor hemoreobiologice privind interactiunea laser-plasma in terapii innovative adresate placii aterosclerotice coronariene" and "star tehnologii tridimensiaonale de ultrasonografie computerizata si mapping intracardiac in diagnosticul si tratamentul interventional bazat pe nanotehnologii al unor aritmii". 9. references [1] forhan, c., medstat, t. (2007). lessons learned through building and using integrated medicaid, mental health, and substance abuse data. in: increasing interoperability in health information systems for medicaid, mental health, and substance abuse treatment conference (pp. 24-25). [2] milanova, m., kountchev, r., todorov, vl., kountcheva, r. (2008). new method for lossless compression of medical records. in: proceedings of the 8th ieee international symposium on signal processing and information technology (isspit’08), sarayevo, bosnia and herzegovina, dec. 16-19 (pp.23-28). [3] iantovics, b. (2006). a novel diagnosis system specialized in difficult medical diagnosis problems solving. in understanding complex systems (187-197). heidelberg: springer-verlag. [4] iantovics, b., chira, c., & dumitrescu, d. (2007). principles of the intelligent agents. clujnapoca: casa cărţii de ştiinţă press. [5] weiss g. (ed.) (2000). multiagent systems: a modern approach to distributed artificial intelligence. cambridge, ma, london: mit press. [6] kowalczyk, r., braun, p., mueller, i., rossak, w., franczyk, b., & speck, a. (2003) deploying mobile and intelligent agents in interconnected e-marketplaces. journal of integrated design and process science, transactions of the sdps, 7(3), 109-123. [7] fraser, h.s.f., long, w.j., & naimi, s. (1998). differential diagnoses of the heart disease program have better sensitivity than resident physicians. in: chute, cg (ed.), proc. amia annu. fall symp. (pp.622 -626). b. iantovics – cognitive medical multiagent systems 19 [8] iantovics, b. (2008). agent-based medical diagnosis systems. computing and informatics, bratislava: slovak academy of sciences, 27(4), 593-625. [9] pfeifer, r., scheier, c. (1999). understanding intelligence. mit press. [10] unland, r. (2003). a holonic multi-agent system for robust, flexible, and reliable medical diagnosis. in: meersman, r., tari, z., (eds.), proceedings of otm workshops 2003, springerverlag, lecture notes in computer science, 2889 (pp.1017-1030). [11] iantovics, b.(2005). a new intelligent mobile multiagent system. in: proceedings of the ieee international workshop on soft computing applications, szeged-hungary and arad-romania, ieee computer society press, ieee hungarian section (pp.153-159). [12] gulyas, l., kovacs, l., micsik, a., pataki, b., & zsamboki, i. (2001). an overview of mobile software systems. department of distributed systems, computer and automation research institute of the hungarian academy of sciences (mta sztaki technical report tr 2000-1, 2001). [13] iantovics, b. (2007). the cmds medical diagnosis system. symbolic and numeric algorithms for scientific computing (pp.246-253). ieee computer society press. [14] abdelaziz, t., elammari, m. & unland, r. (2004). visualizing a multiagent-based medical diagnosis system using a methodology based on use case maps. in: lindemann, g. (ed.), proceedings of mates’04. lecture notes in artificial intelligence, 3187, berlin, heidelberg: springer-verlag (pp.198-212). [15] alves, v., neves, j., maia, m. & nelas, l. (2001). computational environment for medical diagnosis support systems. in: crespo, j., maojo, v., martin, f. (eds.), proceedings of ismda 2001, lecture notes in computer science, 2199, berlin, heidelnerg: springer-verlag, (pp. 42-47). [16] myritz, h., lindemann, g., zahlmann, g. & hans-dieter, b. (2006). patient scheduling in clinical studies with multi-agent techniques. in: proceedings of the 2nd international workshop on multi-agent systems for medicine and computational biology, hakodate, japan, 2006 (pp.87103). [17] ulieru, r., unland, m. (2006). a stigmergic approach to medical diagnosis. in: proceedings of the 2nd international workshop on multi-agent systems for medicine and computational biology, hakodate, japan, 2006 (pp.87-103). [18] laita, l.m., gonzlez-paez, g., roanes-lozano, e., maojo, v., de ledesma, l. & laita, l. (2001). a methodology for constructing expert systems for medical diagnosis. in: crespo j (ed) proceedings of ismda 2001. lecture notes in computer science, 2199, berlin, heidelberg: springer-verlag (pp.146-152). [19] shortliffe, e.h. (1976). computer-based medical consultations: mycin. new york: elsevier. [20] sheth, a., agrawal s., lathem j., oldham n., wingate h., yadav p. & gallagher k. (2006). active semantic electronic medical record. in: proceedings of the 5th international semantic web conference, athens, ga, usa, nov. 5-9, 2006. lecuture notes in computer science, 427. [21] bravata, d.m., sundaram, v., mcdonald, k.m., smith, w.m. & szeto, h. (2004). evaluating detection and diagnostic decision support systems for bioterrorism response. emerging infectious diseases, 10(1),100-108. [22] iantovics, b. (2009). cooperative medical diagnoses elaboration by physicians and artificial agents. in aziz-alaoui, m.a., bertelle, c. (eds.), understanding complex systems, from system complexity to emergent properties pp. 315-339, berlin, heidelnerg: springer-verlag. [23] aikens, j.s., kunz, j.c., shortliffe, e.h. & fallat, r.j. (1983). puff: an expert system for interpretation of pulmonary function data. computers and biomedical research, 16(3), 199-208. [24] zamfirescu, c., filip, f. (1999). an agent-oriented approach to team-based manufacturing systems. in: proceedings of the second international workshop on intelligent manufacturing systems, belgium: katholieke universiteit leuven press (pp. 651-658). [25] athanasiou, m. & clark, j.y. (2006). dimitra: an online expert system for cares of paraplegics and quadriplegics. international journal of healthcare technology and management, 7(5), 2006, 440-451. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 20 [26] kulikowski, s. m. & weiss, c.a. (1982). representation of expert knowledge for consultation: the casnet and expert projects. in p. szolovits (ed.), artificial intelligence in medicine (pp.21-56). boulder: westview press. [27] kolodner, j.l. (ed.). (1993). case-based reasoning. california: morgan kaufmann publishers. [28] hayes-roth, b., hewett, m., washington, r., hewett, r. & seiver, a. (1989). distributing intelligence within an individual. in: l. gasser, m. huhns (eds), distributed artificial intelligence, volume ii (pp.385-412). london: pitman publishing and san mateo, ca: morgan kaufmann. [29] g. lanzola, s. falasconi, and m. stefanelli, “cooperative agents implementing distributed patient management.” proceedings of the maamaw-96 conference. berlin, springer-verlag, 1996. [30] g. lanzola, s. falasconi, and m. stefanelli, “cooperative software agents for patient management,” proceedings of the aime-95 conference, 1995, pp.173-184 [31] j. huang, n.r. jennings, and j. fox “an agent-based approach to health care management.” international journal of applied artificial intelligence, vol.9, no.4, 1995, pp.401-420 [32] st. kirn, “ubiquitous healthcare: the onkonet mobile agents architecture,” proceedings of the 3.rd international conference netobjectdays. objects, components, architectures, services, and applications for a networked world, aksit, m., mezini, m., unland, r. (eds.), springer-verlag, germany, lncs, vol. 2591, 2003. [33] a. ulieru, and m. grabelkovsky, “telehealth approach for glaucoma progression monitoring.” international journal: information theories and applications, vol.10, 2005, pp.326-329 [34] d. yergens, j. hiner, j. denzinger, and t. noseworthy, “multi-agent simulation system for rapidly developing infectious disease models in developing countries.” proceedings of the 2nd international workshop on multi-agent systems for medicine and computational biology, hakodate, japan, 2006, pp.104-116 [35] l. eder, managing healthcare information systems with web-enabled technologies. idea group publishing, 2000 [36] c. zamfirescu, f. filip. supporting self-facilitation in distributed group decisions, proceedings 13th international workshop on database and expert systems applications dexa 2002, aix-en-provence, france, ieee computer society press, pp.321-325, 2002. [37] muji m., ciupa r., olah p., bacarea v., calinici t., marusteri m. best practices in the design and development of health care information systems, proceedings of 1st international conference on advancements of medicine and health care through technology, meditech2007, 27-29th september, 2007, cluj-napoca, romania, acta electrotehnica, mediamira science publisher, vol. 48, no. 4, 2007, pp.51-57 [38] m.st. marusteri, c.e. vari, klara branzaniuc, sanda copotoiu, maria dogaru "the concept of virtual laboratory and its application in pharmacological science and drug discovery", farmacia, no. 3, 2006, pp. 85-93 [39] teórica, r., “importance of achieving semantic interoperability for national health information systems”, texto contexto–enferm, florianopolis, jan./mar., vol.17, no.1, 2008. [40] neumann, e., quan, d., “biodash: a semantic web dashboard for drug development", pacific symposium on biocomputing, 11, 2006, pp.176-187. [41] wanser, d., “the behavioral health integrated provider system (bhips)”, in increasing interoperability in health information systems for medicaid, mental health, and substance abuse treatment conference, jan. 24-25, 2007. [42] strang, t., linnhoff-popien c., frank k.: "cool: a context ontology language to enable contextual interoperability", in distributed applications and interoperable systems, lecture notes in computer science 2893, 2003, pp. 236-247. [43] j. ferber, multi-agent systems: an introduction to distributed artificial intelligence, addison wesley, 1999. b. iantovics – cognitive medical multiagent systems 21 [44] b. iantovics, “the intelligence of the multiagent systems,” scientific bulletin of the petru maior university, vol. xvxvi, 2003, pp.125-129. [45] k. adlassing, “cardiag 2 expert system,” ieee transactions on systems, man and cybernetics, vol. 2, no. smc-16, 1986. [46] gabriela czibula, istvan gergely czibula, grigoreta sofia cojocar, and adriana mihaela guran. imasc an intelligent multiagent system for clinical decision support, proceedings of the first international conference on complexity and intelligence of the artificial and natural complex systems. medical applications of the complex systems. biomedical computing, november 8-10, 2008, barna iantovics, călin enăchescu, florin gheorghe filip (eds.), ieee computer society press, pp.185-190, 2009. [47] j. wyatt and d. spiegelhalter, “field trials of medical decision-aids: potential problems and solutions,” proceedings of the 15th symposium on computer applications in medical care, 1991, pp. 3-7. [48] l. perreault and j. metzger, “a pragmatic framework for understanding clinical decision support,” j. of healthcare information management, vol.13, no.2, pp.5-21, 1999. [49] s. russell and p. norvig, artificial intelligence a modern approach, ser prentice hall international series in artificial intelligence. prentice hall, 2003. [50] r. agrawal, h. mannila, r. srikant, h. toivonem, and a.i. verkamo, fast discovery of association rules, u.m. fayad, g. piatetsky, shapiro and p.smith, (eds.), “advances in knowledge discovery and data mining,” aaai/mit press, 1995, pp.307-328. microsoft word brain_2_2.doc 34 the implication of chaos/complexity theory into second language acquisition minoo alemi languages and linguistics department, sharif university of technology, room 5, first floor, ibn sina building, azadi avenue,tehran, islamic republic of iran alemi@sharif.ir parisa daftarifard islamic azad university (science and research branch) faculty of foreign languages and literature, hesarak, tehran, iran, postal code: 1477893855 p.o.box 14515 – 755, tel. +98 311-6692696 pdaftaryfard@yahoo.com bogdan patrut department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania bogdan@edusoft.ro abstract with the advances in quantum physics and meteorology, science has moved towards more uncertainty and unpredictability (larsen-freeman, 2002) [12]. this has resulted in the emergence of chaos/complexity science (valle, 2000) [20], or theory (larsen-freeman, 1997) [11], and dynamic system theory (de bot, lowie, & verspoor, 2007) [3]. as larsen-freeman (1997) [11] states the name of chaos/complexity science is paradoxical terminology in that the word science means order as well as complexity but in ch/c this complexity is achieved through chaotic situation. in science we are searching for cause and effect connection while in ch/c such a connection is not that much straightforward. efforts have been invested to apply the concept into second language acquisition (sla) (larsen-freeman, 1997) [11] due to incommensurable issues in sla larsen-freeman (1997) [11], especially, introduced the concept into sla in detail, however, we think more works and speculations on the topic are required on all aspects which are related to sla. to this end, this article is a critical review of the implication of chaos/complexity theory into sla from three perspectives: the nature of language complexity, sla incommensurable theories, and the complex nature of classroom. keywords: chaos, complexity, sla 1. introduction the 21st century is the time of uncertainty and unpredictability. the former is introduced in quantum physics and the latter in meteorology. the result of such thorny situation is the emergence of new science which is called as chaos and complexity science (ch/c) or theory. (ch/c) and dynamic system theory (dst) are the most recent and conceptually related theories in all disciplinary areas and rooted in mathematics. modaresi (2010, personal communication) finds five different definitions for chaotic issues from sla perspective. accordingly, chaos is science not state, is randomness emerged out of complexity, is mathematical term to explain an unpredictable behavior which is not random, and is unpredictable behavior in a nonlinear system. to baranger (2002) [1], “chaos is a purely mathematical concept”, and as mathematics is a universal logic, the concept he believes to be a universal concept which can be applied to any other disciplinary areas. by the same token, dst asserts that every equation with “two degrees of freedom turns into a complex system due to its interconnection with other system” (de bot, lowie, & verspoor, 2007, p.7) [3]. ch/c dated back to 1960s, when lorenz, a meteorologist, noticed that a very small difference could lead to large changes in the weather (valle, 2000) [20]. later on, the concept has m. alemi, p. daftarifard, b. patrut the implication of chaos/complexity theory into second language acquisition 35 been applied to other areas of study like physics, mathematics, chemistry, even sports. in this respect, mcandrew (1997) [16] believes that no one can find any reality without chaos. in statistics, chaos is usually referred to noise. it is part of error of measurement in language testing. in any statistical analysis, researchers try to avoid errors and usually omit items with high index of standard error of measurement. this is usually done to reach a “purely true score” of the ability under the study. the concept of generalizability refers to the same wish for observing predictability of the result on any kinds of measurement. this is the sign for “ignoring chaos or dismissing it as “noise” in an otherwise well-defined system, even though chaos is the rule much more than the exception” (p. 37). from the ch/c perspective the universe under the study is not linear, predictable, nor is it studied in a reductionist way (harshbarger, 2007 [6]; kymes, 2007 [10]; mitchener & nowak, 2004) [17]. mcandrew (1997) [16] assigns three features to chaos a. “chaos is characterized by a sensitive dependence on initial conditions or what has become known as the butterfly effect b. chaotic system is aperiodic or never undergoes a regular repetition of values. no repeat system, c. strange attractors (attract and repel): attractor means no repeat characteristic. (p. 39)” ch/c science focuses on complex, dynamic, nonlinear systems. it is not the science of fixed entity but dynamic; it is about process than state. ch/c studies the whole through interactions of its components. the result of behavior is not predictable. according to baranger (2002) [1], any system whose “configuration is capable of changing with time is known as a dynamic system” (p. 7). the result of such interactions is the emergence of behavior whose physical manifestation is highly dependent on the complexity of the interaction. ch/c, this way, is deterministic and non-periodic. it is deterministic because the initial change would surely lead to great change and chaotic behavior is not random. it is non-periodic in the sense that nothing would be considered as repetition even if they look alike. this is because that a closer look at any system would lead us to the understanding of movement in that system. therefore, cc is sensitive to the initial condition. the next feature of cc is unpredictability. because cc is unstable, a periodic and sensitive to initial conditions, it is unpredictable as well. moreover, cc is systematic; this is the complexity part of the cc. also, there is strange attractor in cc which refers to whatever happens seems to be new to the system. a final feature of cc is iteration and feedback. this means that the output in one system can be used as input in the same system. the complex system is open to import energy from the environment. this way new order can emerge from disorders. the system is dynamic and moves through space and time. it follows attractor which is a state or pattern that the system attracted to. the attractor is strange because it never crosses itself. and finally, ch/c is nonlinear in that the effect is not proportional to the cause; a minor change can cause a great change in the whole system. chaotic feature of ch/c system denotes to randomness due to the complex structure of the system (larsen-freeman, 1997 [11], 2002 [12], 2007 [13], 2008 [14]) in the way that the system cannot be reduced into simpler parts (the concept of fractal). the second concept internal to ch/c is “complexity. in a complex system there are numerous independent elements that are continuously interacting with each other thereby simultaneously organizing and reorganizing themselves into a more multifaceted system. a complex system has the following features: a large number of similar but independent elements. constant movement and responsesto other agents. adaptiveness to ensure survival. self-organization in which order in the system forms spontaneously. local rules that apply to each agent. progression to make the system more sophisticated and larger. unpredictability. subtractivity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 in complex system we do not see the progression in the form of additivity but complex systems can evolve to a state of self organized in the way that behavior is set between order and disorder. 2. the concept of deterrence in cc valle (2000) [20] discussed the concept of deterrence within ch/c theory. accordingly, the more parameter in the operation, the more unstable the system will be. deterrence is also nonlinear. this means that if we deter something to happen, something else will happen. deterrence is chaotic in the sense that it is unpredictable. also, deterrence is a function of will and capability. it is the function of capability because is relative to the capability of one’s potential adversaries. also will is not similar to the actual will that is perceived by one. this means that the more deterred we are, the less likely we are deterred in our enemy. 3. chaos/complexity in sla for the first time, larsen-freeman (1997) [11] brought the concept of ch/c into explaining the thorny issues we face in sla. ch/c can be discussed in sla from several perspectives. the first maintains the idea that language is a dynamic system (de bot, lowie, & verspoor, 2007 [3]; paiva [18]). the second holds the idea that sla is a turmoil area of study in which there are many incommensurable theories competing with each other (larsen-freeman, 2007 [13], 2008 [14]; harshbarger, 2007 [6]). and finally, the third is related to the instructed sla where many unpredictable factors come into relation with each other dynamically (hadidi, 2008 [5]; kymes, 2007 [10]). there are some metaphors to understand ch/c theory. one metaphor is dynamic system. by dynamicity, as was mentioned earlier, we mean a nonlinear system in which everything is interconnected. also the system is dynamic in the sense that it changes by time. another feature of the system is complexity in the sense that it has a large number of components or agents which are connected to each other in one way. therefore, a single effect on one part of this system can lead to a great change in whole system. the metaphor of butterfly in ch/c indicates the importance of minor changes which lead to great changes at the end. butterfly effect, which was originally mentioned in meteorology, means that a single and unimportant flying of butterfly may lead to a hurricane in one part of the world; this happens because of interconnectedness of the world into a dynamic system. another metaphor in ch/c is camel back effect which refers to a story in which a man put a lot of loads on his camel but his camel stood up and started to move. later, he remembered he had a feather and when he put it on his camel’s back, the camel collapsed. this story, again, referred to this fact that many other things should be involved so that a tiny change would result in great changes. as was mentioned earlier, ch/c is chaotic, unpredictable, and sensitive to initial conditions. it is chaotic because it refers simply to the period of complete randomness and this randomness is unpredictable and irregular in the sense that the time of its occurrence is not known to us. also ch/c is open, self-organized, feedback sensitive, and adaptive. it is open in the sense that the entire universe increases in entropy which is a measure of the number of arbitrary ways of arranging a system (measure of disorder). through this unpredictability, a highly organized stated appears suddenly. and feedback sensitive means that the ending point in a system is the starting point in another system. according to mcandrew (1997) [16], “something is complex if a great many independent agents are interacting with each other in many ways, the richness of these interactions allowing the system as a whole to undergo spontaneous self-organization” (p. 39). also, ch/c is strange attractors and fractal shape (larsen-freeman, 2002 [12], 2008 [14]). according to baranger (2002) [1], an object is chaotic in space in the sense that it is called fractal. fractal is a geometric figure that does not become simpler when one analyzes it into smaller parts. also strange attractor is one of the features of ch/c in the sense that the system can repeat itself and each occurrence is not the same as what occurred before. m. alemi, p. daftarifard, b. patrut the implication of chaos/complexity theory into second language acquisition 37 therefore, the features of cc can be summarized as below: dynamic: it changes over time even if they look alike a-periodic and unstable: it does not repeat itself. complex but having simple causes. non-linear: sensitive to initial conditions (the output is not proportionate to the input: synergistic reaction). deterministic: it is not random. it is instable, a-periodic, sensitive to initial conditions and therefore unpredictable. iteration/feedback: the output of the system is used as the input in the next calculation. 4. chaos /complexity and language to larson-freeman (1997 [11], 2008 [14]), language is a complex nonlinear system. it is dynamic because its process involve an active process also dynamic equates growth and change. it is chaotic because there is no one to one correspondence between form and function. also it is dynamic in the sense that there is no difference between the current use and change or growth of language; they are the same. messages emerge as the result of speaker and listener’s collaborative effort. fractality of language results in the existence of infinite number of behavior within a finite system. mitchener and nowak (2004) [17] also believe that “human language is a complex communication system with unlimited expressiblity” (p. 701). accordingly, speakers have a subconscious internal representation of a grammar, which enables them to generate and understand sentences of their language. children build their internal “grammar by generalizing from linguistic data they receive from their speech community” (p. 701). language change is unpredictable and highly sensitive to perturbations sla with lots of occurrence and reoccurrence of new theories can only be explained within chaos complexity theory. hadidi tamjid (2008) [5] believes that complexity is a two-folded concept. one the one hand, it is related to the fact that “language is a collection of static units but their use in actual speech involves an active process” (p. 11). on the other hand, language is a phenomenon which faces continually growth and change. 5. chaos/complexity and sla theories larsen-freeman (1997 [11], 2002 [12], and 2008 [14]) believes that sla can be explained within ch/c theory. the sla process seems to be very complex. there are many theories, subtheories, models and hypotheses have been proposed in sla which explains the nature of language leaning. these theories are most of the time incommensurable in the sense that one theory rejects the other one. these debates go around the centrality of cognition, environment, affective factors, social factors and sociocultural factors in language learning or acquisition. however, they do not reach the agreement on what of and how of second language learning. these views, sometimes, are competing in the sense that one rejects the other one. for example, vygotsky’s perception of learning is different from chomsky’s. elsewhere, paiva [18] shows the internal connectedness of different variables central to the process of sla. to him, interlanguage works as a strange attractor which is highly sensitive to initial conditions. he, also through think aloud analysis, analyzes different strategies learners use to learn language. each of these strategies can be attributed to one of the theories of sla. 6. chaos/complexity and language teaching in some, all features of ch/c can be applied to sla in the sense that sla is nonlinear, selforganized, and chaotic. in sla there are strange attractors which are constrained by first language. it is sensitive to feedback as there is no possible learning even without negative evidence. to kymes (2007) [10], schooling is a complex and chaotic system which “can be better understood through principles of chaos and complexity theory such as self-organization, strange attractors, and emergence” (p. 328). kelly (1996, as cited in finch, 2001) [4] classified variables brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 involving in any classroom into macro and micro types. accordingly, macro skills are initiating (introducing the topic), goal-setting, guiding, modeling, supporting, giving feedback, evaluating, linking, and concluding. also, micro skills refer to attending, restating, paraphrasing, summarizing, questioning, interpreting, reflecting feelings, empathizing, and confronting. while, from linear perspectives, these macro and macro variables are sequentially related to each other, from ch/c they are interconnected and nonlinear. therefore, in ch/c research, we need to remain flexible and keep as many options open as possible. in ch/c educational success is defined from two perspectives (larsen-freeman, 1997) [11]. the first one is though acquisition metaphor which defined success of learning as the result of an acquisition of something which is set a priori to the sequence of learning. the second one is the participation metaphor which pays attention to activities. the latter view sees leaning a language as a process of becoming the member of one community so the ability to communicate is important. while acquisition metaphor pays attention to individual mind and inside of mind, the participant metaphor focuses on “evolving bond” between individuals. 7. dynamic system theory (dst) a related concept to chaos/complexity theory is dynamic system theory (dst). dst, too, was originated from mathematics in the sense that every equation with “coupled variables” and with only “two degrees of freedom” turns into a complex system due to its interconnection with other systems (de bot, lowie, & verspoor, 2007) [3]. when it comes to learning theories, such interconnectedness is vivid in most connectionist theories where a single change in the system will affect all other parts of the system. there are several key points in dst; dst is nested in the sense that there is no single system in the universe and every system is a subpart of another system (de bot, lowie, & verspoor, 2007) [3]. this ever-changing attribute of the system is called “attractor state” (larsenfreeman, 1997 [11], 2002 [12], 2007 [13]; valle, 2000 [20]) which means that any occurrence is generically new and should be approach pragmatically. as de both, lowie, & verspoor (2007) [3] state, the “systems are constantly in flow” which means that the system is constantly changing due to its interaction “with environment” and self “through internal self-reorganization” (p. 8). in this respect, they believe that in dst complexity and therefore creativity emerges from the iterations. mohan (1992 as cited in de both, lowie, & verspoor, 2007) [3] relates a dynamic perspective to “ug by viewing universal principles as fields of attraction and argues that a dst perspective can explain the emergence of complexity in phonological development” (p. 10). to larsen-freeman (2007) [11], the two perspectives are complementary and could exist side by side with their own research traditions and communities. a dst approach to communication is incompatible with an information processing model and even through it does not necessarily reject innate principles it does not need specifically linguistic principles to account for the creativity in language use. from a dst perspective, language acquisition emerges through interaction with other human beings within a social context. 8. is chaos complexity the answer to unresolved issues? many issues are open to question in sla, language testing and applied linguistics. in sla and applied linguistics, what we are facing with is the plurality of theories (jordan, 2004) [8]. according to bretta (1991) [2], sla like other human science is in crisis for its multiple rival theories. in other words, sla seems not to conform to a single paradigm unless we accept that such competition is part of a complex system. in language testing, we are facing with paradox of validity and generalizability (mcnamara & roever, 2006) [15]. in language teaching, the movement against specific (kumaravadivelu, 1994) [9] method indicates the fact that no single method would possibly solve the problems of language learning in classrooms. the question is whether we are facing with inconsistencies in language teaching and language related science or what we observe is the complexity, and the chaotic situation is part of this complex system. m. alemi, p. daftarifard, b. patrut the implication of chaos/complexity theory into second language acquisition 39 9. conclusion like any other revolution, ch/c is a reaction to incapability of isolationist methodology of doing research in accounting for all the anomalies and exceptions those research enquiries came up with. ch/c research, instead, focuses on synthesizing the emerged whole through studying the idiosyncratic interaction. in dynamic system, an output of one process is the input of another process. in this respect, de bot et al (2007) [3] state the major property of a dynamic system is change over time. through iteration of simple procedures that are applied over and over again with the output of the preceding iteration as the input of the next, complexity in language emerges. (p. 19) many lessons can be drawn from this perspective. first, cc is not a reductionist view and moves us towards holism; this means that to understand a behavior we cannot go through parts. second, it moves us away from easy distinction or false dichotomies. the complex system is characterized by a dynamic attractor and fractal pattern. we should pay attention to interconnections. also, cc sees any system as open which is not homeostatic but complex. in sum, within this system, the following features can be investigated: • mechanism of acquisition: it is explained through the concept of entropy which explains the output complexity is beyond the complexity of the input. also, the concept of adaptation (interlanguage is adapted through exposing to different levels of input like pidginization and denativization and the like) and morphogenesis. • definition of learning: strange attractors which means grammar learning changes continually. this is mostly related to what bakhtin (as cited in holquist, 1990) [7] has referred to heteroglossia of language. • the stability and instability of interlanguage: there is stability when there is no change over time but there is instability in tarone’s [2007] [19] sense of variability • individual differences: the more variable we find we come to the point that we cannot find the main effect in language learning success • effect of instruction: in complex nonlinear system, the behavior of the system depends on change in a small part. in conclusion, we might say that the social participation view of sla is supported by cc although psychological perspective should not be abandoned. cc encourages us to think in relational term. references [1] baranger, m. (2002). chaos, complexity, and entropy: a physics talk for non-physicists. retrieved march 12, 2010 from http://necsi.org/projects/baranger/cce.pdf [2] beretta, a. (1991). theory construction in sla. studies in second language acquisition, 13, 493-511 [3] de bot, k., lowie, w., & verspoor, m. (2007). a dynamic systems theory approach to second language acquisition. bilingualism: language and cognition, 10 (1), 7-21. [4] finch, a. e. (2001). complexity in the language classroom. secondary education research, 47, 105-40. [5] hadidi tamjid, n. (2008). chaos/ complexity theory in second language acquisition. novitasroyal, 1 (1), 10-17. [6] harshbarger, b. (2007). chaos, complexity and language learning. language research bulletin, 22, retrieved march 13, 2010, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/3017595/chaos-complexity-andlanguage-learning [7] holquist, m. (1990). dialogism: bakhtin and his world. london and new york: routledge. [8] jordan, g. (2004). theory. construction in second. language acquisition. amsterdam: john benjamins. [9] kumaravadivelu, b. (1994). the postmethod condition: (e)merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. tesol quarterly, 28(1), 27-48. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 [10] kymes, a. (2007). chaos, complexity, curriculum, and culture: a conversation [book review]. curriculum and teaching dialogue, 9, 327-330. [11] larsen-freeman, d. (1997). chaos/complexity science and second language acquisition. applied linguistics, 18(2). 141-165. [12] larsen-freeman, d. (2002). language acquisition and language use from a chaos/complexity theory perspective. in c. kramsch (ed.), language acquisition and language socialization. london: continuum. [13] larsen-freeman, d. (2007). on the complementarily of chaos/complexity theory and dynamic systems theory in understanding the second language acquisition process. bilingualism: language and cognition, 10, 35-37. [14] larsen-freeman, d., cameron, l. (2008). complex systems and applied linguistics. oxford: oup. [15] mcnamara, t., & roever, c. (2006). language testing: the social dimension. ma: blackwell publishing. [16] mcandrew, d. a. (1997). chaos, complexity, and fuzziness: science looks at teaching english. english journal, 86 (7), 37-43. [17] mitchener, w. g., & nowak, m. a. (2004). chaos and language. the royal society, 271, 701704. [18] paiva, v. l. m. o. (n.d. ). second language acquisition as a chaotic/complex system. retrieved march 13, 2010 from [19] tarone, e. (2007). sociolinguistic approaches to second language acquisition research—19972007. the modern language journal, 91, 837-848. [20] valle, v. (2000). chaos, complexity, and deterrence. retrieved march 12, 2010 from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ndu/valle.pdf ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 47-62 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/353 submitted: september 5th, 2021 | accepted for publication: june 11th, 2022 innovative ways of working with parents who educate children with special needs nataliia leshchii 1 , viktoria shevchuk 2 , victoria galushchenko 3 , svitlana prytykovska 4 , nataliia kabelnikova 5 , nataliia pyliaieva 6 1 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k.d. ushinsky, odessa, ukraine, lleschiy@ukr.net, orcid id: https://orcid.org/00000002-8843-7156 2 poltava v.g. korolenko national pedagogical university, poltava, ukraine, viktoriiashevchukpnpu@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/00000001-7101-7617 3 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k.d ushinsky, odessa, ukraine, victoria.galushchenko@ukr.net, orcid id: http://irbisnbuv.gov.ua/asua/0050129 4 south ukrainian national pedagogical university named after k.d ushinsky, odessa, ukraine, pritikovsky@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/00000001-6780-9507 5 kherson state university, kherson, ukraine, nataliavm09@gmail.com, orcid id: https://orcid.org/00000002-5236-2033 6 donbas state pedagogical university, sloviansk, ukraine, logozon7@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4154-2095 abstract: the article is devoted to the consideration of the issue of organizing innovative forms of work with parents who educate children with special educational needs. the articles, books, publications, which reflect the question are considered. the essence of the concepts “inclusive learning”, “inclusion”, “inclusive education”, “tutor”, “pedagogical partnership”, “autism”. it has been proven that pedagogical partnership between teachers and parents is an important factor in the organization of quality education for children with special educational needs. the educational approach to teaching and upbringing of autistic children is highlighted. it was found that many parents of inclusive children need psychological assistance and support. revealed the reasons that can lead to parental stress. advice was given to parents who educate children with special educational needs. early intervention programs developed by the us department of education were considered to support parents. difficulties in organizing distance learning caused by the covid-2019 pandemic were noted. it is noted that the main strategy of pedagogical partnership is communication. examples of the activities of parents and children are given, which teachers recommend for practical use. emphasis is placed on creating a “situation of success” in education. parents were offered forms of work to consolidate material on writing and mathematics with children. it has been proven that the development of fine motor skills of the child's hands contributes to the easy perception and memorization of new material. the compilation of an individual curriculum for the development of the child and the role of parents are considered, and the criteria by which the structure occurs are noted. attention is paid to avoiding emotional burnout of parents. keywords: inclusive learning; inclusion; children with special needs; pedagogical partnership; tutor; individual development plan; autism. how to cite: leshchii, n., shevchuk, v., galushchenko, v., prytykovska, s., kabelnikova, n., & pyliaieva, n. (2022). innovative ways of working with parents who educate children with special needs. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 47-62. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/353 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/353 mailto:lleschiy@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8843-7156 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8843-7156 mailto:viktoriiashevchukpnpu@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7101-7617 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7101-7617 mailto:victoria.galushchenko@ukr.net http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/asua/0050129 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/asua/0050129 mailto:pritikovsky@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6780-9507 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6780-9507 mailto:nataliavm09@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5236-2033 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5236-2033 mailto:logozon7@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4154-2095 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/353 innovative ways of working with parents who educate children with special ... nataliia leshchii et al. 48 introduction currently, according to unesco, there are about 500 million people in the world with sensory-motor and intellectual disabilities, which become an obstacle to a full life in society. therefore, an important direction of an educational institution and parents with children with disabilities is to unlock the child’s development potential, prepare him for further education, make sure that the child can engage in professional activities and be adapted to society. among the innovative forms of work with parents are collective and individual conversations, thematic consultations, educational trainings, “round tables”, “pedagogical living rooms”, individual lessons for children with parents, joint competitions, holidays, entertainment, etc. (busu & teodorescu, 2017; demchenko et al., 2021; komogorova et al., 2021; maksymchuk, gurevych et al., 2020; maksymchuk, matviichuk, solovyov et al., 2020; melnyk et al., 2021; sheremet et al., 2019). neuropsychological exercises that improve children’s brain function will be extremely useful for children with special needs. due to the immaturity of some parts of the brain, a child may have problems with hearing, speech, imagination, attention, memory. to begin with, let’s explore the meaning of the words: “inclusive learning”, “inclusion”, “inclusive education”, “tutor”, “pedagogical partnership”, “autism”. the law of ukraine “on education” (ministry of education and science of ukraine, 2017) no. 2145-viii states that “inclusive learning” is a system of educational services, guaranteed by the state, built on the principles of non-discrimination, taking into account human characteristics, effectively involving all participants in the educational process. the concept for the development of inclusive education (ministry of education and science of ukraine, 2010) was the first document that guaranteed the right of children with special educational needs to receive a quality education. shevtsov and ilin (2016, p. 225) explains that “inclusion is the process of increasing the degree of participation of all citizens in society, and, first of all, those who have difficulties in physical development”. it involves the development and application of such specific solutions that can enable everyone to participate equally in academic and social life. the term inclusion differs from the terms integration and segregation. in inclusion, all concerned parties must be actively involved in order to achieve the desired outcome. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 49 dmytrenko (2018) believes that inclusive education is a special approach to education based on the accessibility of education for every child attending an institution at the place of residence. the article by lutsenko (2016) indicates that, according to kovalyova et al. (2012), a “tutor” is a teacher who works according to the principle of an individual approach to learning and educate of a particular child, draws up a program for his characteristics. the problem of tutoring was of interest to taradyuk (2018), who believes that a “tutor” is a teacher who guides the child into the educational space, i.e., he organizes the child’s education, taking into account his characteristics and interests. according to taradyuk (2018), tutoring is an important resource that is necessary to create a high-quality, effective, applicant-oriented education system. we can find the interpretation of the essence of the concept of “pedagogical partnership” in the conceptual framework for reforming secondary school, hrynevych (2016, p. 14). scholars examine the pedagogy of partnership in communication, interaction and collaboration between teacher, student and parents. the mentioned document says that the new ukrainian school will help parents acquire knowledge about the stages of child development, effective forms of education and upbringing. according to lubkivsky (2011), autism is a disease that develops mainly in two-year-old children and is manifested by a violation of the activity of the emotional sphere, while the intellectual development of the child is preserved. pedagogical partnership as an important factor in quality inclusive education the publication of ray et al. (2009), where the author raises the issue of close cooperation between parents and teachers in learning and educate inclusive children, attracts attention. in addition, it was noted that teachers are educational experts who, only together with the family, can help parents unlock the full potential of a child with special needs. the head of the educational institution is a facilitator in establishing activities between teachers, professionals and parents. noteworthy is the textbook of edgar and mccaig (2004), where the author notes the pedagogical partnership, which is the key to the success of children. parents in manitoba work with educators on a main principle of providing children with a quality education that meets the individual needs innovative ways of working with parents who educate children with special ... nataliia leshchii et al. 50 of each child. they believe that inclusion is a way of thinking and acting that makes every person feel safe and confident. the manual provides recommendations for parents to meet the individual needs of the child, as well as to contribute to their development. of course, parents are considered valuable partners, because they know the characteristics of the child best of all. the constant fatigue of dad and mom is a major contribution to a child’s learning. an interesting material for parents and educators is the manual written by willis (2009), where the author focuses on teaching infants, children and children with developmental delays. the author presents the developed strategies for practical use, reveals the essence of the adaptation of children of different ages. he pays attention to the features of cognitive development, social competence, communication, nutrition of the child. the author also focuses on the development of motor skills. as a result, the author concludes that cooperation between family and teachers contributes to mental development and emotional growth. in addition, speech therapists, occupational therapists, etc. are useful helpers for educating a child. in their publication, adams et al. (2016) note the need for close cooperation between teachers and parents to achieve this goal. the author gives an example of the activities of asia minor schools, where the inclusive model is focused on the fact that an inclusive child should receive a quality education without discrimination. and educators are focused on providing educational services and support to meet student needs. the main condition for learning is parent and teacher consultation, information exchange to ensure effective learning, to identify gaps and guide actions to avoid mistakes. teachers should work with families to build strong partnerships. challman (2018) m.d., neurodevelopmental pediatrician and director of the geisinger institute for autism and development of medicine works on research on autistic children, finding out the causes of developmental disabilities, and developing complex exercises to overcome the disease. the author explains that children with a such diagnosis may have a worsening state of health: they feel convulsions, insomnia, and nutritional problems. the scientist focuses on the upbringing of independence from childhood, so that the child acclimatizes and can adapt in the future in society and live independently. it is important to encourage children to learn. in addition, it is important to involve children in group activities with other children during a vacation in a summer camp, sports broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 51 section, art circle, promoting friendship with peers and together will help the child to be confident. undoubtedly, the main occupation is physical exercises, which are valuable for any child’s body and the development of his intelligence. the article by obukhivska and ilyashenko (2019) is devoted to the study of psychological and pedagogical support of parents, which emphasizes that many parents of inclusive children need psychological help and support. the author identifies four types of parents that make it difficult to work with a child: 1) parents who perfunctorily perceive the child’s illness; 2) demonstrative perception of the disease; 3) catastrophic perception; 4) accusatory perception of illness. employees of the inclusive resource center (irc) create conditions to establish cooperation between parents and teachers, whose work would contribute to the quality education of children. in addition, parents are participants in classes in the early development system, where adults help children to do physical exercises, and teachers provide an algorithm for performing actions. the publication ambrozich (2021) highlights the reasons that can lead to unexpected stress and depression for spouses and gives advice to parents on how to properly educate inclusive children. among the problems, the author singles out daily difficulties, uncertainty about what you are doing best for the child, disappointment from specialists, irritation from "useful" advice, parental jealousy, etc. therefore, parents are advised to discover strategies, new resources that can overcome such difficulties. to begin with, ambrozich (2021) recommends getting to know parents who have similar problems, communicate, ask for help from pediatricians, neuropsychologists, teachers, psychologists, priests, friends. in addition, do not forget to take care of the daily renewal of energy: spend 5-10 minutes on yourself, read or just relax, chat with friends, because it will be useful for the child, do physical exercises for at least 10-15 minutes. and do not forget to take care of your partner in the family. so, openness and communication will prove to you that you can do everything, you are not alone. and it is with the help of such recommendations that you can become better parents. the issues of educating children with special needs are concerned a psychologist, doctor of clinical psychology at indiana university pennsylvania (clayton, 2021), who educates her son with disabilities. the author presents 20 recommendations for parents. innovative ways of working with parents who educate children with special ... nataliia leshchii et al. 52 1. you are not alone. the author advises to find friends with similar health symptoms. 2. you deserve care too. emphasizes that parents should take care of their appearance, self-care and the like. 3. nobody is perfect. if there is a mistake, adults should move forward. 4. you are a superhero. such parents are already heroes, because they know how to regulate their own emotions and help their own children in such moments, that is, they play the role of not only a father or mother, but also a friend, a doctor. 5. therapy is a game. try to organize your child’s activities into play. 6. play is therapy. be sure to play with your child after therapy. 7. take time to enjoy yourself, to have fun, to laugh, to remember joyful and interesting moments. 8. make important decisions with confidence. know that you have always taken the right action. 9. it may not always be the way you want. remember that you have done everything in your power. 10. forgive yourself. don’t ever scold yourself. 11. parents’ mission is not easy. 12. educating a child like running a marathon. reach the finish line, but allow yourself time for food, breaks and rest. 13. don’t lose yourself. try to afford what you like. 14. keep a sense of humor. 15. celebrate the little things. enjoy the little things. 16. don’t let other parents upset you. all parents have the right to praise their child, but do not let this upset you. 17. don’t compare. each child is unique and has its own advantages and difficulties. 18. you don’t have to be like others. i shouldn’t look up to other parents. 19. take time for your marriage. 20. trust your instincts. you are an expert for your child, so everything is in your hands. hartman (2014) educator, mother of an autistic child, together with teachers, examines certain aspects of the work of parents with children with special needs. the author believes that a pedagogical partnership should be broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 53 organized between parents of children with disabilities and teachers and she shares her 8 recommendations with teachers. 1. i am a mother who wants to work closely with teachers to know about the child’s success, failures and interests. 2. parents always like to hear compliments about their child, interesting and funny stories from teachers. 3. don’t tell parents about their child’s behavior until they ask. 4. the educator must be competent. 5. teachers should never talk to parents about medications. 6. it is not necessary for a teacher to diagnose a child. 7. you shouldn’t make fun of a child. 8. try to keep a child in a comfortable environment so that she feels supported by adults and peers. contemporary forms of work with parents who educate children with special educational needs noteworthy is the study by shevtsov and ilin (2015), which addressed the issue of neuropsychological approach in the correction of children with psychophysical disorders. the article states that correctional and rehabilitation work is extremely useful in order to develop a child’s brain and child’s psyche. in addition, attention is focused on factors that have a significant impact on the psychological ontogenesis of the child: modal specific, kinetic, kinesthetic, spatial factors, energy supply, hemispheric interaction, arbitrary regulation. among the neuropsychological exercises for children with special needs effective are massage, exercises to develop proper breathing, stretching, eye movement exercises, crawling. some aspects of the impact of neuropsychological approach on the physical condition of children are considered by bavolska (2020, p. 97). the author examines the system of localization of the higher mental functions by 3 energy blocks: i – “i want” gives the cerebral cortex the necessary energy and tone for learning; іі block of perception and processing of information, ііі “i must” programming, regulation and control of personal activity. so, as we can see, the energy blocks are directly interconnected. from this we can conclude that the more a child moves, the better the brain works. breiner et al. (2016) highlight the measures developed and proposed to parents who have children with special needs. the author notes that intellectual disabilities and disorders of emotional and physical innovative ways of working with parents who educate children with special ... nataliia leshchii et al. 54 development usually appear at birth. u.s. department of education develops early intervention programs that support parents. 1. joint family programs. group and individual classes, trainings, 6 individual sessions were held for parents in order to overcome stress and depression. 2. learning programs. training is proposed that motivates parents to become effective facilitators for child development. for example, an approach to dialogical reading, in which parents read a book to their child, control their understanding of the meaning of what they read, try to make this activity interesting for the child. in addition, comprehensive treatment exercises have been developed that improve cognitive development and adaptive behavior. parental early intensive behavioral therapy (ibt) was more effective than coaching. 3. interactive programs. these measures are designed to promote social interaction between guardians and children with disabilities, teach adults to create play situations, encourage interaction. 4. supporting positive behavior. many approaches have been developed to promote parenting practices to manage the child's behavior (“steps”, “incredible years” programs). fleming (2020) tells about the organization of home education for children with special needs during distance learning, which was caused by the covid-19 pandemic. teachers argue that it is not easy to choose an individual education program to meet the interests and abilities of the child. there are more learning problems for children who have rough movements and behavioral problems. first, teachers work to create an appropriate educational environment, that is, they are interested in: will parents be at home during the day, is the internet available, what electronic devices can children use, is there space in the house or apartment for motor or sensory activity? the role of the teacher turns into a model of coaching: the teacher supports the family through the process of understanding and fulfilling the set educational goals, objectives, and expectations. from the experience of educators, we learn that the meriden school district has created a group on google for parents of children with special needs so that they can communicate and exchange opinions. of course, one of the main obstacles in organizing education is the absence of parents, that is, when parents are at work and cannot help children. so, for distance learning of inclusive children to be effective when teachers and parents are able to carry out measures so that it resemble a working day. teachers also conduct scheduled classes, and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 55 advise parents to use the kitchen timer to schedule calls. if there are 2 or 3 rooms in the house or apartment, then parents can change the location of the child so that educational activities take place in a different environment and resemble a school building. in addition, teachers create educational videos on subjects, and parents are provided with an algorithm according to which they should set up an educational process for children. teachers advise parents to play with children with color dough, bubble wrap, cream painting, and brain relaxation games that release energy. without a doubt, hugging mom or dad, deep breathing, relaxing in the yard will restore the natural strength of the child. in order to overcome the functional immaturity of the nervous system of children, parents should seek the help of neuropsychologists. specialists will conduct a qualified examination and recommend correctional and rehabilitation exercises that parents can do at home with their children. in distance learning, branstetter (2020) focuses on supporting parents with children with special needs. the author advises parents to encourage, periodically check the work, praise the child when he is studying at zoom, and you do not have the opportunity to be around. communicate with educators by email or viber, etc. to praise your child on time for his success. find out how long the child can perceive new material and learn through zoom with teachers, prepare a watch of synchronous and asynchronous teaching in the classroom. it is worth monitoring the frequent breaks that children need: suggest to perform neuropsychological exercises: daily physicals, funny dance breaks, active games, breathing exercises, etc. in addition, during the coronavirus pandemic, emotional stress, breakdowns, deterioration of behavior have become more frequent among children. in this case, it is worth relieving stress by communicating with the child, empathizing with him. in addition, you can involve a psychologist in a virtual conversation in order to conduct psychological prevention of stressful situations. features of early intervention and educational services for children with special needs are covered in the article by falodun (2021). the mother of her autistic son sounded the alarm exactly when the child was two years old and turned to specialists for help. subsequently, together with a parent support group, she opened an inclusive school mainly for low-income children. children attend classes, learn practical skills gardening, making juice and soap. the author describes in detail the forms of work for children offered by the dew drops community center. for each child, the teacher selects various methods: with one, he writes numbers, holding the hand, innovative ways of working with parents who educate children with special ... nataliia leshchii et al. 56 which he dictates, with another child he draws letters on salt, which is scattered on a tray. teachers at the academy, in addition to teaching writing, also focus on social interaction. teachers teach parents how to take good care of their children at home. in addition, educators print out monthly plans and goals for an individual child so that parents can monitor progress. when a child becomes ready to study in a regular school, teachers inform parents about this. morin (2021) pays attention to the communication strategy, as he believes that it is one of the driving forces in the education and upbringing of a child. the author believes that parents and teachers are partners who should work together towards the same goal. when communicating with parents, the teacher should not only answer questions, but also share problems and express compliments. if a child refuses to go to school, educators and parents should work together to find out the reasons for boredom at school. among the innovative forms of work with parents who educate children with special educational needs is their involvement in the development of a comprehensive development program. in order for the family to take an active part in cooperation, parents need to be encouraged. educators should invite parents to the classroom to communicate with them, conduct questionnaires, give recommendations, either verbal or written, praise the child more often, hug him so that the child feels himself loved and protected. for correctional work, psychologists, neuropsychologists can apply and advise parents to use art technologies, conduct joint classes for parents and children, trainings to educate parents. a valuable guide for parents and teachers is the book of kolupayeva and taranchenko (2019), in which the author advises the teacher to create a situation of success so that the child is motivational to learning, interested in the subject. she believes that a situation of success can be created not only with the help of contemporary forms of work, but also with the involvement of taste, auditory, tactile feelings in the learning process. for example, when studying letters, teachers suggest that parents sang a letter with their child, sculp it out of dough, make it out of colored paper, whisper it, put it out of ribbons, draw it with a finger or a brush using paints, or put it out of sticks. parents should pay attention to the fact that the letters are similar to the surrounding objects, find them at home. multiple repetition of the material contributes to better assimilation of the material. parents can carry out similar exercises with numbers, looking for them on the phone, pennies, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 57 apartment numbers, and the like. to study mathematics, it is useful to draw, sculpt, construct various examples. undoubtedly, these exercises will be very useful for the child, because the work of the fingers contributes to the development of fine motor skills. mastering the letter should start with writing in pencil, in case of a mistake, the child can use an eraser and correct the written, which will help to avoid negative disappointment of the child. an important task for both teachers and parents is the formation of social and household competence, the development of communication skills in children who study in inclusive classes. a manual by palyvoda (2018) presents the experience of canadian educational institutions in organizing work with children with educational disabilities. the author describes in detail the preparation of an individual curriculum for the development of the child, in which teachers and parents take an active part. the document specifies individual long-term objectives, short-term learning objectives and task analysis. when writing a plan, teachers and parents are clearly guided by the criteria of the smart methodology: clarity, measurability, attainability, relevance, certainty in time. individual long-term objectives describe the knowledge and skills that the student should acquire at the end of the school year. short-term study assignments contain a short description of simple actions. analysis of tasks makes it possible to attract such specialists as a therapist, speech therapist, and the like to the development team. in addition, the author notes that parents should prepare for meetings, think about questions well, be active, have a separate folder for documents, and first acquaint the child with educational material. noteworthy is the manual by semko (2018), in which the author advises parents to make a list of 10 activities that bring them pleasure in order to avoid emotional burnout. parents need to try to diversify their rest every day: take a bath, take a walk in the park, drink warm tea from their favorite cup, wrap themselves in a blanket, draw and color drawings for adults. do not forget to plan a dream, rest for 20-40 minutes during the day on the couch, when the child falls asleep, seek help from neighbors. thus, teacher-parent collaboration is an effective resource for children with special educational needs, but it takes time and dedication. conclusions of course, the review of articles, messages, manuals of domestic and foreign scientists assures that there are now a lot of studies on the issue innovative ways of working with parents who educate children with special ... nataliia leshchii et al. 58 raised. inclusive education is currently one of the important areas of activity of a contemporary educational institution. the article reveals the essence of the concepts “inclusive learning”, “inclusion”, “inclusive education”, “tutor”, “pedagogical partnership”, “autism”. in addition, early intervention programs are highlighted, recommendations are provided, and exercise samples that parents of inclusive children can use. in addition, the use of neuropsychological exercises with the child is emphasized. the compilation of an individual curriculum for the development of the child and the role of parents are considered, and the criteria by which the structure of the document occurs. attention is focused on the difficulties that have arisen in the organization of distance learning, which is caused by the covid-2019 pandemic. it was found that many parents need psychological help and support, the reasons leading to parental stress are revealed, and the avoidance of emotional burnout of parents is noted. thus, teacher-parent collaboration is an effective resource for children with special educational needs, but it takes time and dedication. acknowledgements thus, the authors’ contribution to the article is as follows: documentation: nataliia leshchii; data collection: viktoria shevchuk, victoria galushchenko; data processing: svitlana prytykovska; writing: nataliia kabelnikova, other activities nataliia pyliaieva. references adams, d., harris, a., & jones, m. (2016). teacher-parent collaboration for an inclusive classroom: success for every child. malaysian online journal of educational sciences, 4, 58–72. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1106456.pdf ambrozich, a. (2021). survival tips for special needs parents… you’re not alone, i promise! the center for parenting education. https://centerforparentingeducation.org/library-of-articles/focusparents/survival-tips-for-special-needs-parents-youre-not-alone-i-promise/ bavolska, o. v. (2020). vplyv neiropsykholohichnykh metodiv korektsii na fizychnyi rozvytok dytyny z osoblyvymy osvitnimy potrebamy [influence of neuropsychological methods of correction on the physical development of a child with special educational needs]. naukovo-metodychnyi, informatsiinoosvitnii zhurnal “veresen” [scientific-methodical, information-educational magazine https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1106456.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 59 “september”], 4(87), 95-102. https://september.moippo.mk.ua/index.php/sept/article/view/102 branstetter, r. (2020). how parents can support children with special needs during distance learning. greater good magazine. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_parents_can_support _children_with_special_needs_during_distance_learning breiner, h., ford, m., & gadsden, v. (2016). parenting matters supporting parents of children ages 0-8. washington: national academies press (us). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/nbk402024/ busu, o. v., & teodorescu, b. (2017). therapeutic tales and psychotrauma in the state of mourning to children. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 5(1), 57-67. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs.2017.0501.05 challman, t. (2018). five tips for raising a child with special needs. geisinger. https://www.geisinger.org/health-and-wellness/wellnessarticles/2018/09/20/16/52/five-tips-for-raising-a-child-withspecial-needs clayton, d. (2021). 20 things every parent of kids with special needs should hear. abilities.com. https://www.abilities.com/community/parents 20things.html demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dmytrenko, k. (2018). pratsyuyemo z osoblyvoyu dytynoyu u zvychayniy shkoli [working with a special child in a regular school] kiev: osnova. https://www.ranok.com.ua/info-pratsyuemo-z-osoblivoyu-ditinoyuu-zvichayniy-shkoli-22967.html edgar, t., & mccaig, s. (2004). working together: a handbook for parents of children with special needs in school. canada: manitoba education, citizenship and youth. https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/specedu/parent/pdf/workingtoget her.pdf falodun, k. (2021). how parents and teachers empower nigeria’s special needs children. aljazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/7/29/howparents-and-teachers-empower-nigerias-special-needs-children fleming, n. (2020). new strategies in special education as kids learn from home. edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/new-strategies-specialeducation-kids-learn-home https://september.moippo.mk.ua/index.php/sept/article/view/102 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/nbk402024/ http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs.2017.0501.05 https://www.geisinger.org/health-and-wellness/wellness-articles/2018/09/20/16/52/five-tips-for-raising-a-child-with-special-needs https://www.geisinger.org/health-and-wellness/wellness-articles/2018/09/20/16/52/five-tips-for-raising-a-child-with-special-needs https://www.geisinger.org/health-and-wellness/wellness-articles/2018/09/20/16/52/five-tips-for-raising-a-child-with-special-needs https://www.abilities.com/community/parents-20things.html https://www.abilities.com/community/parents-20things.html https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://www.ranok.com.ua/info-pratsyuemo-z-osoblivoyu-ditinoyu-u-zvichayniy-shkoli-22967.html https://www.ranok.com.ua/info-pratsyuemo-z-osoblivoyu-ditinoyu-u-zvichayniy-shkoli-22967.html https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/specedu/parent/pdf/workingtogether.pdf https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/specedu/parent/pdf/workingtogether.pdf https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/7/29/how-parents-and-teachers-empower-nigerias-special-needs-children https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/7/29/how-parents-and-teachers-empower-nigerias-special-needs-children file:///c:/users/kosti/downloads/edutopia https://www.edutopia.org/article/new-strategies-special-education-kids-learn-home https://www.edutopia.org/article/new-strategies-special-education-kids-learn-home innovative ways of working with parents who educate children with special ... nataliia leshchii et al. 60 hartman, r. (2014). 8 tips for working with parents of special needs children. rgs teachers lounge. https://blog.reallygoodstuff.com/8-tips-forteachers-for-working-with-parents-of-special-needs-children/ hrynevych, l. (2016). kontseptualni zasady reformuvannya serednoyi shkoly [conceptual principles of secondary school reform]. https://www.kmu.gov.ua/storage/app/media/reforms/ukrainskashkola-compressed.pdf kolupayeva, a., & taranchenko, o. m. (2019). inklyuzyvne navchannya. vybir batkiv [inclusive education. the choice of parents]. kyiv: litera ltd. https://www.yakaboo.ua/ua/inkljuzivne-navchannja-vibir-bat-kiv2153168.html#tab-description komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes? knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 kovalyova, t., kobyshcha, e., popova (smolyk), s., terov, a., & cheredilina, m. (2012). profesiya “tyutor” [profession “tutor”]. moscow: sfk-office. https://mggu-sh.ru/sites/default/files/professiya_tyutor.pdf lubkivsky, i. (2011). dity-autysty. yaki vony? [autistic children. what are they?]. ukrayinska pravda. https://life.pravda.com.ua/columns/2011/10/27/88416/ lutsenko, i. (2016). aktualni pytannya orhanizatsiyi diyalnosti asystenta vchytelya v inklyuzyvnomu klasi [actual issues of organization of the teacher's assistant activity in an inclusive classroom]. osoblyva dytyna: navchannya i vykhovannya [special child: education and upbringing], 4, 7-13. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/dlog_2016_4_3 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and https://blog.reallygoodstuff.com/8-tips-for-teachers-for-working-with-parents-of-special-needs-children/ https://blog.reallygoodstuff.com/8-tips-for-teachers-for-working-with-parents-of-special-needs-children/ https://www.kmu.gov.ua/storage/app/media/reforms/ukrainska-shkola-compressed.pdf https://www.kmu.gov.ua/storage/app/media/reforms/ukrainska-shkola-compressed.pdf https://www.yakaboo.ua/ua/inkljuzivne-navchannja-vibir-bat-kiv-2153168.html#tab-description https://www.yakaboo.ua/ua/inkljuzivne-navchannja-vibir-bat-kiv-2153168.html#tab-description https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://mggu-sh.ru/sites/default/files/professiya_tyutor.pdf https://life.pravda.com.ua/columns/2011/10/27/88416/ http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/dlog_2016_4_3 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 61 development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 ministry of education and science of ukraine. (2010). pro zatverdzhennja koncepciji rozvytku inkljuzyvnogho navchannja № 912 [order no. 912 on approval of the concept of inclusive education development]. ministry of education and science of ukraine. https://mon.gov.ua/ua/npa/pro-zatverdzhennyakontseptsii-rozvitku-inklyuzivnogo-navchannya ministry of education and science of ukraine. (2017). zakon ukrainy “pro osvitu” no. 2145-viii [law no. 2145-viii of ukraine “on education”]. ministry of education and science of ukraine. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2145-19#text morin, a. (2021). how parents and teachers can work together for the child's benefit. verywell family. https://www.verywellfamily.com/parents-andteachers-working-together-620922 obukhivska, a., & ilyashenko, t. (2019). innovatsiyni tekhnolohiyi v diyalnosti inklyuzyvno-resursnoho tsentru [innovative technologies in the activity of the inclusive resource center]. kyiv: ukrainian scientific and methodological center for practical psychology and social work. https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/718625/1/irc_razvorot.pdf palyvoda, a. (2018). inklyuzyvna osvita. posibnyk dlya batkiv. dosvid kanady [inclusive education. a guide for parents. the experience of canada]. kyiv: smarteducation. https://cutt.ly/iqw6ffd ray, j., pewitt-kinder, j., & george, s. (2009). partnering with families of children. young children, 64, 16–22. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/partnering-with-families-ofchildren-with-special-ray-pewittkinder/7af77ae49fb6ed42be13c9f9e8a9afd0abbdb827 semko, o. (2018). uchast batkiv u orhanizatsiyi inklyuzyvnoho navchannya [parents participation in the organization of inclusive education]. kyiv: smarteducation. https://courses.ed-era.com/asset-v1:ederasmartosvita+par+1+type@asset+block@books_inclusia batky_kis.pdf sheremet m., leniv z., loboda v., & maksymchuk b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shevtsov, a. h., & ilin, o. v. (2015). neiropsykholohichnyi pidkhid u korektsii rozvytku ditei z psykhofizychnymy porushenniamy [neuropsychological approach for the correction of the development of children with the motor system disorders]. naukovyi chasopys natsionalnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 https://mon.gov.ua/ua/npa/pro-zatverdzhennya-kontseptsii-rozvitku-inklyuzivnogo-navchannya https://mon.gov.ua/ua/npa/pro-zatverdzhennya-kontseptsii-rozvitku-inklyuzivnogo-navchannya https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2145-19#text https://www.verywellfamily.com/parents-and-teachers-working-together-620922 https://www.verywellfamily.com/parents-and-teachers-working-together-620922 https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/718625/1/irc_razvorot.pdf https://cutt.ly/iqw6ffd https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/partnering-with-families-of-children-with-special-ray-pewitt-kinder/7af77ae49fb6ed42be13c9f9e8a9afd0abbdb827 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/partnering-with-families-of-children-with-special-ray-pewitt-kinder/7af77ae49fb6ed42be13c9f9e8a9afd0abbdb827 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/partnering-with-families-of-children-with-special-ray-pewitt-kinder/7af77ae49fb6ed42be13c9f9e8a9afd0abbdb827 https://courses.ed-era.com/asset-v1:edera-smartosvita+par+1+type@asset+block@books_inclusia-batky_kis.pdf https://courses.ed-era.com/asset-v1:edera-smartosvita+par+1+type@asset+block@books_inclusia-batky_kis.pdf https://courses.ed-era.com/asset-v1:edera-smartosvita+par+1+type@asset+block@books_inclusia-batky_kis.pdf https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 innovative ways of working with parents who educate children with special ... nataliia leshchii et al. 62 imeni m. p. drahomanova [scientific journal of the national pedagogical dragomanov university], 5 347−360. http://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/231/210.pdf/ taradyuk, d. (2018). tyutorstvo yak nova pedahohichna profesiya v zakladakh doshkilnoyi osvity [tutoring as a new pedagogical profession in preschool institutions]. molodyy vchenyy, 12, 72–75. http://molodyvcheny.in.ua/files/journal/2018/12.1/17.pdf willis, c. (2009). teaching infants, toddlers, and twos with special needs. lewisville: gryphon house. https://www.freespirit.com/files/original/teaching-infantstoddlers-twos-special-needs-preview-1.pdf http://aqce.com.ua/download/publications/231/210.pdf/ http://molodyvcheny.in.ua/files/journal/2018/12.1/17.pdf https://www.freespirit.com/files/original/teaching-infants-toddlers-twos-special-needs-preview-1.pdf https://www.freespirit.com/files/original/teaching-infants-toddlers-twos-special-needs-preview-1.pdf ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 152-165 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/359 submitted: january 17th, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 24th, 2022 modern methods of psychotherapy and psychocorrection viktoriia vdovenko 1 , olha kovalova 2 , dina shulzhenko 3 , nelia bihun 4 , tamara kryvonis 5 , larysa absalyamova 6 1 volodymyr vynnychenko central ukrainian state pedagogical university, ukraine, violeta_vv@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0884-6209 2 bogdan khmelnitsky melitopol state pedagogical university, ukraine, kovalova.ov.mdpu@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5061-6506 3 national pedagogical drahomanov university, ukraine, dinashulzhenko@gmail.com 4 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, nelabigun@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1767-5181 5 national pirogov memorial medical university, ukraine, tamarakr@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6060-7152 6 kharkiv national pedagogical university named by g. s. skovoroda, ukraine, lara.ab2011@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8668-9552 abstract: the article considers modern methods of psychotherapy and psychocorrection as a means of providing psychological assistance. the scientific understanding of the differences and similarities in modern psychotherapeutic and technologies of psychocorrection and their role in the application of modern methods of psychotherapy and psychocorrection in the experience of foreign and domestic scientists and specialists of psychological services has been deepened. the specificity of the relationship and the ratio of the terms "psychotherapy" and "psychocorrection" are argued. the analysis of an integrated approach to the question of the relationship between the methods of psychotherapy and psychocorrection is carried out according to the tasks, goals and content of practical psychological work. it is noted that psychocorrection is very closely related to neurosciences, in particular neuropsychology. it is recommended to consider the role of neuropsychocorrection in the context of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of the formation of psychotherapeutic knowledge about the pathological functioning of the brain and systemic mental disorders in medical practice. the classification of modern methods of psychocorrection (psychotherapy) is presented. some recommendations are given for the correctional and developmental work of a practical psychologist. the content of the article argues that modern methods of psychotherapy (correction) in psychological practice can be viewed as an eclectic combination within the framework of different psychological approaches in order to increase the psychological resource capacity of the client. keywords: psychological approaches; psychological practice; specialists of psychological services; clients; mental processes and deviations; neuropsychology; methods of neuropsychocorrection. how to cite: vdovenko, v., kovalova, o., shulzhenko, d., bihun, n., kryvonis, t., & absalyamova, l. (2022). modern methods of psychotherapy and psychocorrection. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 152-165. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/359 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/359 mailto:violeta_vv@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0884-6209 mailto:kovalova.ov.mdpu@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5061-6506 mailto:dinashulzhenko@gmail.com mailto:nelabigun@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1767-5181 mailto:tamarakr@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6060-7152 mailto:lara.ab2011@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8668-9552 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/359 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 153 introduction the socio-cultural space of a modern person requires new ways of communicative interaction, expectations of more comfort and harmonious relations with the world, where eternal values are identified as one of the most reliable human resources. in this regard, the human factor and social requirements set postmodern tasks for the professional duties of humanitarian specialists who provide psychological support to people, especially psychologists and psychotherapists (bezliudnyi et al., 2019; demchenko et al., 2021; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020; nerubasska et al., 2020; oleshko et al., 2020; palamarchuk et al., 2020). in modern social realities, the latter are increasingly being reoriented from medical means of treatment to non-medical aspects of considering psychocorrection technologies in order to assist the individual's personality in overcoming psychological difficulties, personal and professional growth, etc. the problem of the interconnection and correlation of psychotherapy and psychocorrection in the theoretical and methodological and empirical and practical knowledge of psycho-consulting activity is extremely relevant. the issues of the interconnection and correlation of psychotherapy and psychocorrection are debatable today, since there is a methodological incompatibility between the empirical and the theoretical in cases when it comes to dividing their methodological tasks according to the classification of psychotherapists as medical workers and psychologists specialists in the humanities. in practice, domestic psychotherapists often perform the functions of a psychologist, and psychologists actively use psychotherapeutic methods for psychocorrection purposes in their work. consideration of these issues is extremely important both for specialists in psychological services and for the development of applied psychological science. considering the above facts, the purposes of our article are to study the problem of analyzing modern methods of therapy and correction. the novelty and practical significance of the article lies in the deepening of ideas about the differences and similarities in modern psychotherapeutic technologies and psychocorrection, as well as their role in the application of modern methods of psychotherapy and psychocorrection in the experience of foreign and domestic scientists and specialists of psychological services. psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... viktoriia vdovenko et al. 154 interrelation and correlation of psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychology: theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of modern methods the terms "psychotherapy" and "psychocorrection" are often understood on the basis of the separation of medical and psychological spheres in domestic psychological and pedagogical sciences. the term "psychocorrection", in foreign countries "psychotherapy" was more often used in domestic science outside the medical aspect. in domestic psychology, psychotherapy is usually viewed from the position of treatment in accordance with professional qualifications and the division of work methods into medical and psychological and psychological, and psychocorrection from the position of correcting shortcomings of a psychological nature. psychotherapists, like psychologists, equally use modern psychotherapeutic and psychocorrection methods to solve psychological problems of a healthy person. the advantage of the first specialists is the competence in treating a patient who needs medical operation, in particular, psychopharmacology, which is confirmed by the professional training of psychotherapists with special medical education and long experience of their own psychotherapeutic practice and work under the guidance of an experienced supervisor. tsymbalyuk (2005, pp. 24-25) notes that such a limitation is artificial, since psychotherapy involves not drug, but psychological influence. in addition, the term "psychotherapy" is international and is used unambiguously to refer to the methods of work in most countries of the world performed by professional psychologists. however, the tradition of using the term "psychocorrection" in relation to psychological work in our country has already developed, and according to the researcher, we will have to use it along with the term "psychotherapy", generally accepted in the world community. psychocorrection is very closely connected with neurosciences, in particular with neuropsychology, since in the choice of effective methods to change psychophysiological reactions and behavior, it quite often takes into account knowledge about the work of the brain and the functioning of the human nervous system. thus, luria (2003) analyzes in detail the psychological structure and brain mechanisms of mental processes perception, attention, memory, thinking, voluntary movements and actions and reveals the model of the three main brain blocks that is relevant today among neuropsychologists and clinicians, knowledge of which makes it broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 155 possible to understand the activity of the brain during the implementation of mental processes and about the main types of their disorders according to the etiopathogenetic principle. without a doubt, scientists consider modern neuropsychotic correction not only as a separate science, but as a section of psychological correction. it is also important to consider the role of neuropsychocorrection in the context of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of the formation of psychotherapeutic knowledge about the pathological functioning of the brain and systemic mental disorders in medical practice. however, psychotherapists do not take into account the neuropsychological principles of explaining the work of the brain; in each psychotherapeutic direction, a certain model of the structure of the psyche is considered in relation to the levels of the personality, its character traits, attitudes and methods of functioning and interaction with the world. psychocorrection can use both modern methods of neuropsychology and modern methods of psychotherapy, cognitivebehavioral as an example. therefore, in modern psychological practice, a body-oriented psychological approach equally integrates psychotherapeutic methods and psychocorrection breathing techniques, motor exercises and eye movement restore the tone of the nervous system, and cognitivebehavioral therapy techniques and techniques stabilize the psychoemotional state and correct behavioral deviations. both in psychocorrection and in psychotherapy, similar requirements are imposed on the personality of the client and the specialist assisting; to the level of his professional training, qualifications and professional skills; use the same procedures and methods; the requirements are the same; assistance is provided as a result of specific interaction between the client and the specialist. psychocorrection is a set of psychological techniques used by a psychologist to correct the shortcomings of psychology or the behavior of a mentally healthy person; a system of measures aimed at correcting deficiencies in psychology or human behavior through special means of psychological influence. the difference between psychotherapy and psychocorrection is that psychotherapy deals with various disorders in people suffering from different types of physical or mental illnesses (disorders). many anomalies of the psyche and behavior of people, manifested in diseases, are similar to those with which a psychologist deals directly with psychocorrection. however, people who seek help from a psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... viktoriia vdovenko et al. 156 psychotherapist are usually called patients, and those who need only corrective help are called clients, osipova (2002). osipova (2002) most fully revealed the essence and methodological aspects of practical work related to psychocorrection, with a detailed description of the methods and technologies of psychocorrection, as well as the principles of their use on the basis of a holistic systemic understanding of the work of a scientific and practical nature and provided a clear comparative analysis the terms "psychocorrection" and "psychotherapy" in domestic and foreign sciences. to analyze modern methods of psychotherapy in our article we used the work of bondarenko (1997). it provides a fully systematized description of the main directions of modern psychotherapy with a description of real situations of psychological assistance. artyukhova and shelkunova (2019) examined in detail the psychological approaches in psychocorrection and psychotherapy as one area psychological influences: psychodynamic approach to corrective action, personality-centered correction, existential and behavioral directions in psychocorrection, etc. the work of maksymenko et al. (2015) introduces the specifics and types of group psychological correction in detail, discusses the problems of psychocorrectional work with different age groups, special attention is paid to the substantiation of training as a psychocorrectional method and its methodological means. in turn, karpenko (2015) classified modern methods of psychotherapy in accordance with the demand for psychological practice. for the theoretical and methodological analysis of the problem, the results of psychotherapeutic (psychocorrectional) work of foreign researchers regarding such correctional situations with psychological intervention therapy (correction) are significant: a low level of spiritual development, narcissism, with the use of therapy (correction) methods of the transpersonal and phenomenological psychological approach, spiritual practices with meditative techniques (welwood, 1984); borderline personality disorders through psychodynamic psychotherapy methods (gonzalez-torres, 2018); negative emotions accompanying existential fears, feelings and personal difficulties using the methods of transpersonaloriented psychotherapy (cunningham, 2007); experiencing a high level of negative emotions, anxiety, neuroticism with the recommendation of psychotherapy (barlow et al., 2014; gershuny & sher, 1998; shiner, 2019; widiger & oltmanns, 2017). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 157 psychological correction differs from psychological counseling and psychotherapy in that it is not aimed at changing the views, the inner world of the individual and can be carried out even if the client is not aware of his problems and the psychological content of corrective exercises. psychocorrection is also considered as a process of expanding the range of the client's response to certain stimuli, the formation of skills that make his behavior more flexible, increasing the adaptive capabilities of his personality. psychocorrection is characterized by the following features: discreteness (this means the influence of a psychologist on relatively independent concrete components of a person's inner world); orientation to age norms, that is, to a certain contingent of corrective action (children, adolescents, etc.) or to the use of appropriate techniques. the tasks of psychocorrection are formulated depending on the addressee (a child with abnormal development or a personality with deviations and difficulties within the psychological norm), as well as the content of correctional work (correction of mental or emotional development, correction and prevention of neurotic states and neuroses) (dutkevych & savytska, 2005). nowadays, psychotherapy has ceased to be the sphere of interests of exclusively the medical professional community, psychologists have joined in its further development, especially in the field of medical (clinical) psychology. psychotherapy is a complex sociocultural phenomenon, in the structure of which it is appropriate to distinguish between two parts: practical (psychotherapy as an activity) and theoretical (as a science). from the practical side, psychotherapy is the borderland of the spheres of medical and psychological practice of helping people with mental and physical health disorders, using mental means of influence (suggestion, explanation, training, response) bukharov (2019). at the same time, according to one of the draft laws, psychotherapy is interdisciplinary in nature, allowing psychologists to engage in psychotherapeutic practice with appropriate training. psychological intervention has important validity for the development of practical psychology in connection with the spread of various methods widely used in the practice of psychotherapy, psychocorrection and psychological counseling – their clinical and psychological intervention has an important justification for the development of practical psychology. the goals of clinical and psychological interventions reflect an orientation towards achieving cognitive, emotional and behavioral positive changes, in particular psychocorrection. along with this, psychological correction and psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... viktoriia vdovenko et al. 158 psychological intervention require theoretical justification, empirical verification and professional actions, isurina (2017). foreign researchers lobb et al. (2018) believe that modern psychotherapeutic methods in the context of a phenomenological approach need constant updating, in particular gestalt therapy and psychoanalytic, taking into account the needs of clients and the impact of social changes. kolmannskog (2018) confirms that gestalt therapy can heal or enhance the experiences of clients with various personality problems, and therefore dialogue therapy is necessary in all difficult therapeutic cases. kellogg (2018) demonstrates that dialogue strategies have effective therapeutic effects, external dialogues heal from trauma, promote consciousness expansion, and provide the client with opportunities to look at themselves from the outside. modern methods of psychotherapy and neuropsychocorrection psychological correction and psychotherapy have a psychocorrective and psychotherapeutic effect on the emotional, cognitive and behavioral levels of the functioning of the client's personality. like psychotherapy, psychological correction intervenes in the processes of mental and personal development of a person in order to correct deviations in these processes, which also has a positive effect on his environment, organization and way of life. in addition, psychotherapy has psychological effects at a deep level and leads to this constructive changes in the outlook of the individual. this submits to a specific psychotherapeutic goal in relation to the implementation of psychological influences on the client in the same way as psychocorrection. modern methods of psychocorrection (psychotherapy) are classified according to the psychological impact on certain mental processes, states and properties; by the nature and focus of psychological impact (correctional and developmental, optimizing or activating, mobilizing, sedative or relaxation, etc.); by means of psychological influence (verbal, non-verbal, art therapy, bodily, etc.); by the source of psychological impact autogenous (on oneself), heterogeneous (on the part of others); by the form of psychological impact (individual, group, mixed). psychological impact in psychotherapy and psychocorrection may differ in duration. psychocorrection is usually observed in case of violations of the subpersonalities of a healthy person for short or medium-term assistance from 15 to 20 meetings. such duration of time is sufficient for the restructuring of the nervous system to a new functional level and the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 159 formation of new neural connections in its systems. psychotherapy in depth consideration of psychological difficulties from short-term to long-term (from several months to several years), if it needed by the client. the goals of psychocorrection must be realistic, therefore they are correlated with the duration of the correctional work. in the work of psychocorrection, psychological problems are often considered and stressful situations are analyzed, as well as the possibilities of overcoming them in the present or the future, psychotherapy of the client's traumatic experience at a deep level is forced from time to time to "look" into the past. modern methods of psychotherapy are more varied they are used not only for the development of the client's personality, but also for the treatment of psychosomatic diseases and mental disorders of patients. on the other hand, psychocorrection of violations of different stages of behavior of a healthy person can be present both in the work of a psychologist and in the practice of a psychotherapist. the implementation of the correctional and developmental activities of a psychologist requires constant monitoring of the dynamics of changes in personality, behavior, activity, dynamics of the emotional states of the client, his feelings and experiences in the process of correctional work. such control allows you to make the necessary adjustments to the tasks of the psychocorrectional program, to change and supplement the methods and means of psychological influence in relation to the client in time. in turn, monitoring the dynamics of the course of correction efficiency requires the implementation of diagnostic procedures that permeate the entire process of correctional work and provide the psychologist with the necessary information and feedback (osipova, 2002). equally important for the effectiveness of correctional and developmental work is the situation where the client's age, peculiarities of emotional response and the specificity of deviations in psychological development are taken into account, as well as the selection of methods and techniques in the main areas of foreign psychocorrectional practice: practical psychocorrection: game therapy, art therapy, psycho-gymnastics, psychodrama, etc. for the development of psychocorrection programs and their implementation, it is necessary to observe the principles of consistency, the unity of psychocorrection and psychodiagnostics, an individual approach, reliance on different levels of organization of mental activity, the complexity of methods of psychological influence, active involvement of the client's inner circle to correctional work. psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... viktoriia vdovenko et al. 160 artyukhova and shelkunova (2019) described some modern methods of psycho-correction of psychological practice: psychocorrection by creative self-expression (art therapy, game therapy, music therapy, psycho-gymnastics), psychocorrection by methods of body-oriented psychotherapy. self-regulation methods have neuropsychological goals and objectives: neuromuscular relaxation in foreign psychology this technique is used under the name "progressive relaxation", therefore it has another name progressive relaxation (the method consists in performing a set of exercises to relieve tension from individual parts of the body or from the whole body, which leads to a decrease in emotional stress); ideomotor training this technique also consists in sequential tension and relaxation of the muscles of the body, but the exercises are performed not really, but mentally (ideomotor training can be used as an independent method of reducing muscle tone and as a technique of imaginary self-programming in a state of relaxation); sensory reproduction of images the method consists in relaxation through the presentation of images of objects and holistic situations that are associated with rest (can be used as an independent technique and in a group with visualization and meditation techniques); autogenous training a method based on teaching the possibilities of selfhypnosis or autosuggestion. bondarenko (1997) identifies four main theoretical approaches to psychotherapy: psychodynamic; humanistic; cognitive; behavioral or behavioristic. psychodynamic direction, which is based on the principle of the determining influence of past experience on the formation of a worldview, a certain manner of human behavior, his internal and external problems. the psychotherapist solves issues related to the dynamic aspects of the client's psyche (motives, internal conflicts, contradictions), the existence and development of which ensure the functioning and development of the personal "ego". the main goal of psychological assistance in classical psychoanalysis is: awareness of the unconscious (motives, defense mechanisms, methods of behavior) and the adoption of an adequate and realistic interpretation of it; strengthening of egoconsciousness to develop more realistic behavior. the main goal of behavioral psychotherapy is to provide new conditions for learning, develop a new system of incentives and help master new behavior on this basis. within the framework of the humanistic direction, three main streams are distinguished: actually existential ("experiencing"), client-centered (rogerian) and gestalt therapy. the main attention is paid to the present moment of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 161 the client's life and his current experiences. the cognitive direction, according to o. f. bondarenko, combines three main approaches: rationalemotive therapy (ret) by a. ellis, cognitive therapy by a. beck, realistic therapy by w. glasser. the choice of one of the psychotherapeutic models is determined not only by the nature of the psychological problem, the specifics of the client's orders, but also by the capabilities of the psychotherapist, the time and place of psychotherapy (bondarenko, 1997; dutkevych & savytska, 2005). domestic researchers maksymenko et al. (2015) consider training as a set of psychocorrection methods, procedural and organizational aspects of group training and features of group work psychocorrection with different types of events. psychocorrectional methods of working with "random" events include: the method of concentration of presence, the method of group reflection, the method of constructing dispositions; methods of working with constructive events: the method of symbolic self-expression, the method of group problem solving, the method of operationalization; to the methods of working with the events that have occurred: the method of exchange of experience, the method of imitation, the method of regression. the regression method is a method (implemented, like all others, due to the large number of different techniques), with the help of which the trainer helps the client to immerse himself in a situation that requires psychological treatment and to relive the event on the inner plane. this method has many variations. it is called the method of structured regression (or the method of changing personal history) in neurolinguistic programming, gestalt therapists call this technique "travel to the past", in transactional analysis and in other directions it is a method of solving. karpenko (2015) classified modern methods of psychotherapy: positive psychotherapy, speech therapy methods, art therapy methods, methods of group and family psychotherapy, methods of narrative psychotherapy. similarly, in the process of narrative psychotherapy, the understanding and processing of the client's personal history takes place through a dialogue with the psychotherapist, as a result of which the client becomes more holistic, able to positively perceive his own life and himself, more responsible for his own life, feeling himself its creator. the researcher believes that today there is no single generally accepted classification of psychotherapy methods. none of the existing methods are the best. these methods serve different purposes and do not apply to all clients (patients). psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... viktoriia vdovenko et al. 162 the choice of methods depends on the personality of the psychotherapist, the level of his professional training and theoretical orientation. therefore, most of the methods used in the practice of psychocorrection were developed in the bosom of foreign psychology and psychotherapy on the theoretical foundations of behaviorism, gestal therapy, psychoanalysis and many other scientific schools, which have their advantages and disadvantages and explain in different ways the patterns of manifestations of the internally mental) human life. a complete coincidence of the methods and content of correction and psychotherapy is possible relatively if the psychological factor is one of the etiological factors in certain psychosomatic or neurotic disorders. at the same time, psychocorrection has developed a powerful methodological research system for the activity of a corrective psychologist, constantly filling out the store of psychocorrectional methods that meet its main goals and requests, as well as the needs of clients, focusing in the applied aspect on psychotherapeutic methods, techniques and techniques that can be used on practice. retaining the "synonymy" of the title of its work psychocorrection has the merit not only of respect for the history of its formation, but also the observance of scientific principles and rules for the practical development of psychological therapeutic and corrective experience: objectivity, scientific nature and truthfulness of knowledge. conclusion the differences between psychotherapy and psychocorrection in the non-medical aspect based on an analytical and generalized comparison of their interrelation are a multifaceted and controversial issue about the problem of psychological impact on mental disorders of a healthy person. in domestic science, psychocorrection is close to the non-medical model of psychotherapy, but it is identical in terms of the functionality of psychological work in foreign science. psychological influences in the process of psychotherapy (deep and long-term) or psychocorrection (shortterm and at the same time effective) to correct violations can best meet the needs and expectations of the client (patient) thanks to the guarantee and personality-oriented possibilities of psychological practice. a client who needs psychological help can choose the option that is most acceptable for him, depending on the complexity of the psychological or medical and psychological problem, the possibilities of his inner potential for solving it, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 163 the state of the level of comfort experience during his stay in partnership with a specialist during psychotherapy or psychological support. modern methods of psychotherapy (correction) in psychological practice can be considered as an eclectic combination within the framework of different psychological approaches in order to increase the psychological resource capacity of the client. the correlation of psychotherapy and psychocorrection methods is dynamic and inexhaustible to the tasks, goals and content of psychological work in an integrated approach. in practice, both domestic and foreign psychologists constantly use the model of combining various modern methods, the corresponding techniques and forms of psychotherapy (psychocorrection) related to various psychological approaches and psychotherapeutic methods. the consultant must create a positive optimistic atmosphere with any composition (integration) or (psychotherapeutic) methods of psychocorrection, in which the client receives an adaptive resource of faith, hope and love, first of all for himself with unconditional self-acceptance, which will be enough to solve his psychological problem. reference artyukhova, t. y., & shelkunova, t. v. (2019). psikhokorrektsiya i psikhoterapiya [psychocorrection and psychotherapy]. https://lpi.sfukras.ru/files/psihokorrekciya_i_psihoterapiya_2019.pdf barlow, d. h., sauer-zavala, s., carl, j. r., bullis, j. r., & ellard, k. k. (2014). the nature, diagnosis, and treatment of neuroticism: back to the future. clinical psychological science, 2(3). pp. 344–365 https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613505532 bezliudnyi o., kravchenko o., maksymchuk b., mishchenko m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1585. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 bondarenko, o. f. (1997). psikhologicheskaya pomoshch': teoriya i praktika [psychological assistance: theory and practice]. kiev: ukrtekhpres. bukharov, y. m. (2019). psikhoterapiya: kratkiy ocherk [psychotherapy: a short sketch]. steps, 5(1), 17. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihoterapiyakratkiy-ocherk cunningham, p. f. (2007). the challenges, prospects, and promise of transpersonal psychology. international journal of transpersonal studies, 26(1), 41-55. http://dx.doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2007.26.1.41 https://lpi.sfu-kras.ru/files/psihokorrekciya_i_psihoterapiya_2019.pdf https://lpi.sfu-kras.ru/files/psihokorrekciya_i_psihoterapiya_2019.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613505532 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihoterapiya-kratkiy-ocherk https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihoterapiya-kratkiy-ocherk http://dx.doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2007.26.1.41 psychotherapy and correction of neuropsychic disorders within the neurotic ... viktoriia vdovenko et al. 164 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dutkevych, t. v., & savytska, o. v. (2005). vstup do spetsialʹnosti: praktychna psykholohiya [introduction to the specialty: practical psychology: a course of lectures and a tutorial]. kamenets-podilsky: axiom. gershuny, b. s., & sher, k. j. (1998). the relation between personality and anxiety: findings from a 3-year prospective study. journal of abnormal psychology, 107(2), 252–262. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843x.107.2.252 gonzalez-torres, м. а. (2018). psychodynamic psychotherapies for borderline personality disorders. current developments and challenges ahead. bjpsych international, 15(1), 12–14. https://doi.org/10.1192/bji.2017.7 isurina, g. l. (2017). psikhoterapiya i psikhologicheskoye konsul'tirovaniye kak vidy psikhologicheskogo vmeshatel'stva [psychotherapy and psychological counseling as types of psychological operation]. medical psychology in russia, 9(3), 44-54. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihoterapiya-ipsihologicheskoe-konsultirovanie-kak-vidy-kliniko-psihologicheskogovmeshatelstva/viewer karpenko, e. (2015). metody suchasnoyi psykhoterapiyi [methods of modern psychotherapy]. drohobych: posvet. kellogg, s. (2018). transformational chairwork: using psychotherapeutic dialogues in clinical practice. lanham: rowman & littlefield. kolmannskog, v. (2018). the empty chair: tales from gestalt therapy. london: routledge. lobb, m. s., orange, d., & bocian, b. (2018). dialogue experience and comprenension in psychoanalysis and gestalt psychotherapies. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329988711_dialogue_on _experience_and_comprehension_in_psychoanalysi s_and_gestalt_psychotherapy_dialogue_between_margherit a_spagnuolo_lobb_donna_orange_and_bernd_bocian luria, a. r. (2003). osnovy neyropsikhologii [fundamentals of neuropsychology]. moscow: publishing center "academia". maksymenko, s. d., prokofieva, o. o., tsarkova, о. v., & kochkurova, o. v. (2015). praktykum iz hrupovoyi psykhokorektsiyi [tutorial on group psychocorrection]. melitopol: publishing and printing center "luks". nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843x.107.2.252 https://doi.org/10.1192/bji.2017.7 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihoterapiya-i-psihologicheskoe-konsultirovanie-kak-vidy-kliniko-psihologicheskogo-vmeshatelstva/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihoterapiya-i-psihologicheskoe-konsultirovanie-kak-vidy-kliniko-psihologicheskogo-vmeshatelstva/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihoterapiya-i-psihologicheskoe-konsultirovanie-kak-vidy-kliniko-psihologicheskogo-vmeshatelstva/viewer https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329988711_dialogue_on_experience_and_comprehension_in_psychoanalysis_and_gestalt_psychotherapy_dialogue_between_margherita_spagnuolo_lobb_donna_orange_and_bernd_bocian https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329988711_dialogue_on_experience_and_comprehension_in_psychoanalysis_and_gestalt_psychotherapy_dialogue_between_margherita_spagnuolo_lobb_donna_orange_and_bernd_bocian https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329988711_dialogue_on_experience_and_comprehension_in_psychoanalysis_and_gestalt_psychotherapy_dialogue_between_margherita_spagnuolo_lobb_donna_orange_and_bernd_bocian https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329988711_dialogue_on_experience_and_comprehension_in_psychoanalysis_and_gestalt_psychotherapy_dialogue_between_margherita_spagnuolo_lobb_donna_orange_and_bernd_bocian https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 165 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 oleshko, d., filippov, m., bets, y., basaraba, i., bets, i., & bratko, a. (2020). ability to overcome border guards’ psychological barriers during the covid19 pandemic. journal of mediation & social welfare, 2(1), 44-59. https://doi.org/10.18662/jmsw/2.1/11 osipova, a. a. (2002). obshchaya psikhokorrektsiya [general psychocorrection]. moscow: sphere. palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118-136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 shiner, r. l. (2019). negative emotionality and neuroticism from childhood through adulthood: a lifespan perspective. in d. mcadams, r. l. shiner & j. l. tackett (eds.), handbook of personality development (pp. 137-152). new york: guilford press. tsymbalyuk, i. m. (2005). psykholohichne konsulʹtuvannya ta korektsiya. modulʹnoreytynhovyy kurs [psychological counseling and correction. modular rating course]. kiev: publishing house "professional". welwood, j. (1984). principles of inner work: psychological and spiritual. journal of transpersonal psychology, 16(1), 63-73. https://www.atpweb.org/jtparchive/trps-16-84-01-063.pdf widiger, t. a., & oltmanns, j. r. (2017). neuroticism is a fundamental domain of personality with enormous public health implications. world psychiatry, 16(2), 144–145. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20411 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://doi.org/10.18662/jmsw/2.1/11 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://www.atpweb.org/jtparchive/trps-16-84-01-063.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20411 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 328-346 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/346 submitted: december 19th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of professional selffulfilment yana ponomarenko 1 , ivan okhrimenko 2 , ihor klymenko 3 , dmytro shvets 4 , olena yevdokimova 5 , svitlana okhrimenko 6 1 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of the department of sociology and psychology, kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, posokhova1992@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3374-3930 2 doctor in law, professor, professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine. ivango-07@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8813-5107 3 doctor of psychological sciences, associate professor, professor of the department of sociology and psychology, kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine e-mail: klymenko.iv@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3552-2277 4 doctor in law, associate professor, vice-rector, kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, shvetc@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/00000002-1999-9956 abstract: the research found that decision making within the professional activities of the police is the key to their success, an indicator of the effectiveness of their duties performance. it is appealed that decision making in critical situations requires a high level of individual’s selffulfilment, which reduces stress and encourages police officers to solve the problem. the aim of the article is to identify and substantiate the relationship of personal characteristics with decision making factors in police officers with different levels of professional self-fulfilment. the sample of the empirical research consisted of 84 employees of special purpose police units. the groups of police officers with different levels of professional self-fulfilment were formed using the questionnaire of “type and level of professional self-fulfilment”. the research involved the usage of psychodiagnostic techniques, including: the melbourne decision making questionnaire, the personal decision making factors questionnaire and the big five personality questionnaire. the results of the research showed that the behaviour of police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment is characterized by prosociality and responsibility due to the peculiarities of decisions they do not postpone them and do not lose valuable time, considering all possible alternatives. this characterizes them as capable to take risk if the situation requires it. on the other hand, police officers with a low level of professional selffulfilment tend to shift the problem to other people, they often demonstrate independent behaviour and take responsibility for decision making, but this is accompanied by doubts and fears about their rationality. keywords: decision making; police officer; professional selffulfilment; responsibility. how to cite: ponomarenko, y., okhrimenko, i., klymenko, i., shvets, d., yevdokimova, o., & okhrimenko, s. (2022). peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of professional selffulfilment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 328-346. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/346 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/346 mailto:posokhova1992@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1925-9621 mailto:ivango-07@ukr.net http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8813-5107 mailto:klymenko.iv@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3552-2277 mailto:shvetc@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1999-9956 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1999-9956 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/346 5 doctor of psychological sciences, professor, head of the department of sociology and psychology, kharkiv national university of internal affairs, kharkiv, ukraine, elena25eva@gmail.com , http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4211-7277 6 phd in law, research fellow of the scientific research laboratory on the problems of providing criminal and forensic expert study, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, svetlanka-07@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9013-9780 mailto:elena25eva@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1925-9621 mailto:svetlanka-07@ukr.net http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1925-9621 peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of... yana ponomarenko et al. 330 1. introduction the professional activities of police officers manifest a specific type of human activities, which is based on the continuous selection of the best option in making professional decisions. the problem of decision making by police officers in the field of legal psychology is often identified with assignments to translate the choices into action faced by police officers in the line of their duties. making decisions is not an easy task, and even more so for representatives of socionomic professions. not only the outcome of the case but also the life of the person as a whole can depend on the correct and timely decision, especially when it refers to police activities. the ability to make decisions is reduced and it requires the police officer to use his personal resources under conditions of excessive physical, emotional and psychological stress. police officers from special purpose police units quite often face extreme situations, such as armed attacks, apprehension of criminals and prevention of terrorist acts, etc., which require a prompt decision and adherence to tactical special procedures (bondarenko et al., 2020a; bondarenko et al., 2020b; okhrimenko et al., 2020). these problem situations are characterized by high complexity, tension, urgency and negative consequences, as every action and decision of a police officer can affect people’s lives. complexity management and making decisions in stressful situations is often associated with a high level of responsibility and vital activities. 2. literature review awareness of one’s professional identity is the key to successful police activities. to ensure the harmonious development of the police officer’s personality, it is necessary to have confidence in one’s place in the profession and the ability to influence the course of events by making appropriate decisions. identifying oneself with the profession will allow the police officer to quickly adapt to the requirements of the profession and build strategies to overcome stress. professional affiliation with a professional group involves a number of difficulties that must be mastered by the police officer and the ability to make decisions in uncertain and stressful conditions is one of the most important factors. the loss of viability, which is necessary in the police profession will be the counter reaction (aleksandrov et al., 2017; shvets et al., 2020). the quality of work performed by police officers becomes crucial in the conditions of active implementation of new reforms and dynamic legal broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 331 development of the state. there is an urgent need for a comprehensive study of the personality of police officers as prominent representatives of risky professions (kubaienko et al., 2021). foreign project groups pay a lot of attention to the issues of decision making by police officers. thus, in particular, bakotic (2016) agrees that the police profession places high demands on its candidates for service. those employees who are able to overcome difficulties in the profession and take responsibility for decision making are satisfied with their work. at the same time, arble and arnetz (2016) emphasize that policing is impossible without the ability to respond quickly to operational tasks, readiness to act and the potential to make decisions in stressful situations. after all, the course of the event and the safety of citizens will depend on the outlined features. the need for a highly qualified specialist who is able to withstand threats in the profession and save not only his own life, but also that of other people is completely understandable. it is clear that police officers often have to interact with criminals and victims of crime, which undoubtedly requires skill, physical endurance and psychological tranquillity, as such contacts are traumatic in nature (ryu et al., 2020). crisis decision making is a natural phenomenon in police practice. police officers are more likely to face difficult choices in terms of coordinated decision than other professional groups, which is well-argued and results in excessive stress, overload and tension. only a sufficient level of professionalism and competence can protect police officers from making the wrong decision (šalkauskaitė et al., 2015). according to the study by fridman et al. (2019), police mistakes in making decisions under situations of excessive stress and tension are due to the specifics of the situation and its complexity. the researchers suggest that police officers may make erroneous decisions in a difficult situation because they have limited time to resolve it, have accompanying aggravating circumstances due to the threatening event, their own personal experience in such situation and the peculiarities of responding to it. andersen and colleagues (2018) emphasize the importance of developing effective preventive measures technologies against mistakes in decision making under critical situations. the scientists propose to introduce innovative experiments in police practice, which in real time will capture the physiological, psychological and behavioural manifestations of decision making by police officers under stress. research on the peculiarities of decision making under stress is a promising area of scientific inquiry, because the data obtained will predict future scenarios and will affect professional efficiency. jackson (2015) believes peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of... yana ponomarenko et al. 332 that understanding the specifics of decision making by police officers is an important resource that can not only increase the effectiveness of police activities, but also raise public confidence in law enforcement agencies. at the same time, the successful overcoming of difficult professional situations is conditioned by the specifics of entering the profession. the police officer must have a certain list of qualities in his arsenal that will help maintain his / her psychological state and well-being. it is especially important to pay sufficient attention to the competencies of police officers during their professional development (bondarenko et al., 2020). with reference to the research, the key competencies of police officers, according to ostapovich and co-authors (2020), are lawand orderabidingness, prompt decision making in difficult situations, responsibility, emotional stability, viability, conscientious performance of duties, tolerance for uncertainty and teamwork for a common socially important goal. thus, given the above viewpoints, it can be ascertained that the study of organizational and psychological peculiarities of making decisions by police officers in the process of their official activities is a relevant theoretical and applied problem. hence, the aim of the work is to identify and substantiate the relationship of personal characteristics with decision making factors in police officers with different levels of professional self-fulfilment. the following tasks were performed to achieve this aim: 1) to conduct a theoretical review of the problem of making decisions by police officers in the works of national and foreign scientists; 2) to diagnose the level of professional selffulfilment of police officers so as to divide them into groups; 3) to determine the relationship between personal characteristics and the specifics of decision making in this category of police officers. 3. methodology the empirical basis of the research consisted of 84 employees of special purpose police units. the groups of police officers with different levels of professional self-fulfilment were formed using the questionnaire of “type and level of professional self-fulfilment” (gavrilova, 2015) and by means of cluster analysis (using the method of k means and the principle of “close neighbours”). the high-level group consisted of 28 respondents, the second group (low-level) included 24 respondents. the medium level of professional self-fulfilment was diagnosed in 32 people who were excluded from further research. the choice of psychodiagnostic techniques is due to the need for comprehensive diagnosis of decision making factors by police officers. with broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 333 this in mind, the melbourne decision making questionnaire, the personal decision making factors questionnaire (t. kornilova) and the big five personality questionnaire were used. the melbourne decision making questionnaire (mdmq) is a betatesting result of the more general flinders’ decision making questionnaire (dmq) (halyan, 2011). this psychodiagnostic tool reveals three factors of possible human resistance to stressful situations and decision making in them: 1) awareness of possible risks and possible alternative decisions; 2) the desire to find the best decision; 3) confidence that there is enough time to solve the problem and make decisions. the questionnaire consists of 22 statements, which form four copings: one productive (scale of “vigilance”) and three unproductive (scales of “avoidance”, “procrastination”, “hypervigilance”). let’s describe them in more detail. the “vigilance” scale is a key characteristic of a person when making important decisions, as it includes the person’s ability to engage cognitive abilities in situations of uncertainty and complexity. it reveals the ability of the individual to clarify and analyse possible resolutions of the problem and take the most successful option. the “avoidance” scale indicates a person’s intention and desire to shift responsibility for decision making to other people. the “procrastination” scale characterizes a person as being able to postpone a decision for as long as possible, especially if the situation is stressful and tense. the “hypervigilance” scale describes a person’s excessive effort to make a decision, looking for all possible alternatives, which provokes panic, when the situation requires a quick solution and is extreme. the personal decision making factors questionnaire (pdf-25) (t. kornilova). this diagnostic tool contains 25 statements that reveal the peculiarities of human decision making through the interpretation and description of two scales. thus, in particular, the scale of “rationality” diagnoses the ability and skills of an individual to take a rational approach to solving complex situations that require immediate decision making and require awareness of their consequences. at the same time, the scale of “risk readiness” demonstrates a person’s propensity for risky behaviour, which is expressed through the person’s ability to take risks when making decisions and the ability to take responsibility (kornilova, 2013). the “big five personality questionnaire” (r. mccrae, & p. costa) allows the analysis of five independent variables (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, cooperation, conscientiousness), on the basis of which you can adequately build a psychological portrait of a personality and peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of... yana ponomarenko et al. 334 determine his/her main characteristics. the test contains 75 statements that describe the behavioural manifestations of a personality (hromov, 2000). the psychodiagnostic techniques used in our research are not original. they are adapted versions in russian and ukrainian, the use of which is authorized by ukrainian scientists on the basis of a cooperation agreement between g. s. kostiuk institute of psychology of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine and international public professional organization european federation of psychologists associations (efpa) (no. 27/134 dated 12.05.1997). cluster analysis (using the method of k means and the principle of “close neighbours”), as well as the rank correlation coefficient of spearman were used for mathematical and statistical processing. the research was performed in accordance with the requirements and provisions of the code of ethics of the kharkiv national university of internal affairs (protocol no. 13 of december 24, 2019). informed consent was obtained from all participants who during the scientific process were guided by the principles of academic integrity, responsibility, observance of ethical norms and rules established by the law to claim confidence in the results of creative achievements. they could refuse to participate in the research at any time. 4. results the results of studies of the relationship between structural components of personality and decision making factors in police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment are presented in table 1. table 1. relationships between structural personality factors and decision making factors in police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment (r) scales vigilance avoidance procrastination hypervigilance neuroticism 0.157 0.016 0.359* 0.349* extraversion 0.080 0.038 0.279 0.360* openness to experience 0.075 0.093 0.319* 0.375* cooperation 0.232 0.135 0.129 0.190 conscientiousness 0.073 0.033 0.323* 0.366* note: * level of significance is p ≤ 0.05. police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment have significant relationships between the scales of the big five personal broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 335 questionnaire and the melbourne decision making questionnaire, as evidenced by the results (table 1). according to the personal component of “neuroticism”, a positive relationship was established according to the decision making factors of “procrastination” (r = 0.359, p ≤ 0.05) and a negative relationship according to the scale of “hypervigilance” (r = -0.349, p ≤ 0.05). this indicates that police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment more tend to postpone the decision and are more torn between the choice of alternative solutions with the increase of anxiety, irritation and tension. it is natural that during negative emotions about a difficult situation that requires an immediate solution, police officers of this group tend to postpone the decision or to calm down and make the right choice, which in itself is a positive phenomenon. we believe that in times of stress, the best decision for police officers is to calm down, normalize their emotional state and then act immediately, rather than commit impulsive acts that can only harm police operations. it should be noted that in the case of reducing hypervigilance in problematic situations, there is a reduction in negative emotions, which in turn is the prevention of burnout in police officers. low levels of neuroticism in police officers indicate that they are more resilient to enduring difficulties because they are more emotionally balanced and stable. this ability is not an innate trait and can be acquired by mastering new professional experience in solving problem situations and making appropriate decisions. according to the personal component of “extraversion”, a positive relationship was established on the decision making factors of “hypervigilance” (r = 0.360, p ≤ 0.05). we can say that police officers of the first group with an increase in extraversion, which is expressed through the communicative abilities of the individual, his / her ambitions, enthusiasm and optimism more tend to find the right solution as soon as possible, while trying all possible alternatives, analysing them for expediency and relevance to the situation which is already quite a positive phenomenon. however, this type of decision making behaviour is not common to all police officers, but only to those who have a high level of self-fulfilment and resistance to stress. the extroversion of police officers portrays police officers as active, sociable and willing to take risks in situations that require it, which allows us to portray them as brave and courageous people. positive police officers are better able to cope with difficulties in the profession, able to enjoy work and show zest for life. the personal component of “openness to experience” has a negative relationship on the factors of decision making of “procrastination” peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of... yana ponomarenko et al. 336 (r = -0.319, p ≤ 0.05) and a positive relationship on the scale of “hypervigilance” (r = 0.375, p ≤ 0.05). the results suggest that the increase in the tendency of police officers with a high level of professional selffulfilment to show imagination and creativity in decision making reduces the desire to postpone decision making and increases the search for possible alternatives. that is, the perception of a difficult situation in terms of aesthetic component and creativity shows a developed outlook in police officers, the ability to generate effective ideas and make the right decisions, which is very important in their service activities. openness to experience portrays police officers as more sensitive and flexible in stressful situations that require quick resolution and intervention. according to the personal component of “conscientiousness”, negative relationships were established on the decision making factors of “procrastination” (r = -0.323, p ≤ 0.05) and “hypervigilance” (r = -0.366, p ≤ 0.05). thus, the increase of social responsibility and emergency control in police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment reduces their desire to postpone the solution of the problem for a more favourable time and the intention to waste time in finding the best solution. that is, police officers of the first group are purposeful, organized and methodical in making decisions, do not show signs of procrastination. the behaviour of police officers of the first group is purposeful; they focus on solving the problem, not on their emotions, which they feel in such situations. the results obtained confirm that the most effective police officer is one who is responsible for the tasks assigned to him / her and is able to show all his / her professionalism in difficult situations. the reliability of a police officer is a guarantee of not only successful professional activities, but also people’s faith in the competence of law enforcement agencies in general. the results of studies of the relationships between structural factors of personality and decision making factors in police officers with low levels of professional self-fulfilment are presented in table 2. table 2. relationships between structural personality factors and decision making factors in police officers with a low level of professional self-fulfilment (r) scales vigilance avoidance procrastination hypervigilance neuroticism 0.074 0.291 0.289 0.135 extraversion 0.022 0.172 0.085 0.083 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 337 openness to experience 0.353* 0.143 0.158 0.130 cooperation 0.165 0.337* 0.025 0.274 conscientiousness 0.064 0.181 0.083 0.080 note: * level of significance is p ≤ 0.05. according to the factor of personality structure such as “openness to experience” police officers with a low level of professional self-fulfilment showed a significantly negative correlation relationship with the decision making factor of “vigilance” (r = -0.353, p ≤ 0.05). this shows that as the readiness of police officers to use creativity and imagination in the performance of their official duties increases, the ability to rationally consider the possible consequences and prospects of solving a problem situation decreases. that is, it is quite risky to improvise for the second group of police officers during policing, as they may lose the opportunity to qualitatively analyse the situation and draw appropriate conclusions regarding its solution. we believe that the willingness to accept new experiences is a useful quality of the police officer’s personality, but the decisions made on the basis of it should not contradict employment position instructions when responding to offenses, etc. the personal component of “cooperation” has a negative relationship with the decision making factor of “avoidance” (r = -0.337, p ≤ 0.05). based on the data obtained, we can conclude that in case of growth of prosocial behaviour signs and willingness to cooperate in police officers with low levels of professional self-fulfilment there is a decrease in the desire to avoid the problem and postpone its solution, or even transfer it to another person. there is no doubt that the ability of police officers to make a good impression on other people, a tolerant attitude towards them is able to establish relationships with people who can help in policing, which for good reason, is a high indicator of law enforcement professionalism. we believe that this quality should be further developed and applied in practice, as the partnership between the police and citizens is able to ensure a timely response to offenses and a conduct of appropriate police actions. we are convinced that the development of communication skills, social and emotional intelligence in police officers at the stage of their professional training can develop the personality of a modern police officer who will demonstrate a high level of professionalism, competence and willingness to communicate with citizens, regardless of the status they rank in police operations, whether they are witnesses to the events, or victims or offenders, suspects, etc. peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of... yana ponomarenko et al. 338 the correlation relationships established in the group of police officers with a low level of professional self-fulfilment confirmed our theoretical assumptions that the higher the level of resistance of police officers to stress, adverse events and difficulties, the more they tend to constructively perceive the situation and a decision on its resolution as soon as possible. however, many issues remain that need to be analysed and clarified in more detail. hence, we conducted correlation analysis between the key factors proposed in the big five questionnaire and the elements of the personal decision making factors questionnaire, which particularly describes the features of decision making in problem situations. the results of studies of the relationships between structural factors of personality and personal decision making factors in police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment are presented in table 3. table 3. relationships between structural personality factors and personal decision making factors in police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment (r) scales risk readiness rationality neuroticism 0.418* 0.287 extraversion 0.299 0.353* openness to experience 0.158 0.053 cooperation 0.145 0.053 conscientiousness 0.374* 0.223 note: * level of significance is p ≤ 0.05. according to the psychological variable, which describes personal characteristics in decision making of “risk readiness”, significant positive correlations were established with the following personality characteristics of the “big five” as “neuroticism” (r = 0.418, p ≤ 0.05) and “conscientiousness” (r = 0.374, p ≤ 0.05). it follows that the growth of personal readiness to take risks in police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment simultaneously occurs with an increase in stress and anxiety, as well as an increase in responsibility for decisions. that is, the police officers of the first group have a natural desire to act, regardless of whether they know all the circumstances of the case or not. these empirical facts are predictable, because the specifics of the activities of special purpose police units are often uncertain and obscure, so they are accustomed to act and make decisions at the place. according to the big five model, a person’s neurotic state is perceived as showing signs of aggression and irritability. it can be assumed that police officers tend to consciously set themselves up aggressively before a special operation, thus setting themselves up for work and coping with stress and anxiety. it is well known that police officers of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 339 special purpose units are often forced to use weapons and risk their lives, which leaves an imprint on their identity. hence, they are characterised by the increased level of neuroticism, negative feelings and aggressive behaviour enhancing in situations of increased risk and responsibility, when police officers are forced to show courage and bravery. another psychological variable, which indicates the readiness of the individual to consider and analyse the situation before making a final decision is “rationality” establishing positive significant relationship with the personality trait of “extraversion” (r = 0.353, p ≤ 0.05). we can assume that growth of the readiness to rationally consider the situation, anticipate all the negative consequences and make a probable scenario of events is accompanied by increased optimism about the positive outcome of the special operation. we assume that police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment have high cognitive and intellectual abilities to qualitatively analyse a problem situation, which is confirmed by such a personality trait as extroversion. thus, the ability to quickly analyse a problem situation and make the most effective decision is very important for special purpose police officers. it is interesting that the representatives of the high level of professional self-fulfilment have a desire to attract their own resources in the fight against stress and solving complex problems, which in itself is a pretty good indicator of the success of this group of police officers. based on this, it was important to find out exactly how police officers who have a low level of professional self-fulfilment are willing to take risks and rationalize. the results of studies of the relationships between structural factors of personality and personal decision making factors in police officers with low levels of professional self-fulfilment are presented in table 4. table 4. relationships between structural personality factors and personal decision making factors in police officers with a low level of professional self-fulfilment (r) scales risk readiness rationality neuroticism 0.191 0.154 extraversion 0.254 0.162 openness to experience 0.378* 0.045 cooperation 0.284 0.388* conscientiousness 0.148 0.041 note: * level of significance is p ≤ 0.05. “risk readiness” decision making factor that indicates a person’s readiness to take risks is negatively correlated with the characteristics of a personality such as “openness to experience” (r = -0.378, p ≤ 0.05). police peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of... yana ponomarenko et al. 340 officers with a low level of professional self-fulfilment who show growth of personal readiness for self-regulation, which is most evident in situations that require risk, are simultaneously characterised by a decrease in the desire to use creativity and untested behaviours. that is, in situations of risk and danger police officers of the second group prefer more well-known and most effective ways to respond to crime. this circumstance is quite natural, because people who have a low level of resistance to difficulties feel better when they solve problems the way they are used to, insofar as innovation is an additional stress for them, which reduces their effectiveness. as a rule, police officers have no right to make a mistake. their actions had to be coordinated, lightning fast and effective, because the results of special operations depend on their efficiency, professionalism and experience. “rationality” decision making factor that reflects the individual’s ability to consider the situation before taking action is negatively correlated with the personality characteristic of “cooperation” (r = -0.388, p ≤ 0.05). this shows that as a tendency to rationalize before making a decision in a group of police officers with a low level of professional self-fulfilment grows, the readiness to communicate and cooperate with other peoples decreases. we understand that police officers who are accustomed to using the most proven methods during special operations tend to rely on their knowledge, experience and intuition, which reduces their ability to communicate effectively with other participants in police operations. we believe that this result can be seen as a positive circumstance, because the police officer copes with a heavy workload and agitation anxiety at work in this way. involving other people in their activities can cause them to fear and doubt the success of the operation and its positive solution. they are not inclined to spend their own resources on making a positive impression on others, as their priority is the quality of professional tasks. hence, we assume that they reserve the right to make the final decision in a problem situation and rely solely on their own experience. 5. limits and discussion meyer (2018) agrees that a police officer feels a heavy burden of responsibility for making a decision that can negatively affect his/her life. hence, the task of developing appropriate training programs or career enhancement courses for police officers, which will be aimed at developing the necessary competencies that have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the decision (including critical skills, openness to new experiences, ability to self-analysis and reflection, etc.). quite often, the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 341 success of the decisions made in the professional activities of special purpose police units requires them to be able to go beyond the rules of law and regulations. such a model of behaviour requires the police officer to show courage, because he/she will have to defend and stand his/her ground. the police officer must also take responsibility for his/her decisions. after all, it is useful to realize that the level of knowledge and information at the time of the decision does not provide any other alternatives, even if later the decision may be wrong. wigsten (2020) also sought to deepen the understanding of how police officers make decisions in crisis situations. having considered the examples of real cases of decision making by police officers in the line of their duties, the scientist concludes that the same stressful situations are perceived differently by police officers, in one case easily and quickly, and in another – difficult and slowly. it should be emphasized that stress is a common element in the police profession and negatively affects their ability to act in connection with the performance of their official duties. the most stressful factors that increase tension in decision making can be pressure, unclear circumstances, many tasks that need to be performed simultaneously, and secondary distractions. in addition, the outcome of the problem situation depends on the resources of the police officer, his/her viability and the level of self-confidence, which help him/her choose decisions from all possible options and reduce stress from the decision, which may not always be right. according to the researchers (fedorenko, dotsenko, okhrimenko, radchenko, & gorbenko, 2020; larsson, nilsson, & waaler, 2018), the specifics of police activities involve constant stress related to decision making situations in their practice. making quick and correct decisions in these circumstances places high demands on the ability to make decisions, and this ability takes time to gradually develop through learning and experience. at the same time, pavlov (2017) noted that police decision making upon arrival at the scene has its own time interval, which begins from the moment of arrival on call and up to the intervention in the situation itself. along with that, myloslavs’ka (2021) expands the existing ideas about the psychological directions of the research on the specifics of decision making. the data obtained by the researcher represent that more pronounced tendencies to maximization and satisfaction are observed in respondents with a high level of proactivity, and a low level of proactivity is reflected in a more significant tendency to minimization. boiko and filonenko (2021) in the theoretical study of scientific papers concluded that the types of orientations in difficult situations and peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of... yana ponomarenko et al. 342 inclinations in decision making are psychological prerequisites for coping behaviour, the organization of which determines professional productivity and personal fulfilment of police officers. yevdokimova and ponomarenko (2018) emphasize that the developed social intelligence of police officers is a kind of personal resource in successful professional activities, as it allows police officers to correctly read and interpret verbal signals and reactions of their interlocutor, which significantly improves policing and facilitates decision making. the obtained data show that the high level of communicative tolerance in police officers contributes to the effective analysis of the conversation with the interlocutor, adaptation in uncertain situations and the tendency to make quick decisions based on the information received. 6. conclusions our research of the specifics of decision making by police officers in the context of their personal characteristics is not final, but the data obtained allowed us to draw a number of significant conclusions. theoretical investigations demonstrated the availability of numerous literature sources on the outlined issue. at that time, quite a few studies were devoted to the research of the peculiarities of decision making, especially in people with different levels of self-fulfilment. it was found that police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment tend to mobilize their own resources in problem situations, but sometimes because of this, they may lose the ability to make timely decisions and often doubt the correctness of the choice. their focus on contacts is accompanied by an excessive search for possible solutions to the problem, through a detailed understanding and analysis of the situation. at the same time, they are characterised by their readiness to make decisions, using creativity and personal touch, which leads to a thorough consideration of the problem, rather than postponing it. this group of police officers prefers independent decision making in critical situations, as the principle of partnership between the police and the community in the case of special police operations does not play a significant role, insofar as actions must be based on appropriate instructions and personal experience of police officers. in addition, the behaviour of police officers with a high level of professional self-fulfilment is characterized by prosociality and responsibility, due to the peculiarities of decisions, because they do not postpone them and do not lose valuable time, considering all possible alternatives that describe them to be able to take risk judging from the specific situation. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 343 it is determined that the use of innovations in activities of police officers with a low level of professional self-fulfilment leads to a decrease in their meticulous attention to the problem and readiness for unpredictable actions. it is clear that uncertainty evokes frustrated feelings, which to some extent deter police officers from making hasty decisions. they tend to communicate with other participants in police operations, but this phenomenon occurs when they tend to shift responsibility to other people, appealing that they are better competent and experienced in these matters. we assume that this phenomenon occurs when police officers with a low level of self-fulfilment have to demonstrate independent behaviour and take responsibility for making non-standard decisions. accordingly, this is accompanied by doubts and concerns about their correctness. our results also allow us to summarize that police officers with a low level of professional self-fulfilment have different results from police officers with a high-level, which confirms our assumption about the ability of professionals to use individual psychological resources to deal with stress and difficult life as well as work situations. hence, it is especially important to further study this issue and develop appropriate practical recommendations that can be implemented in the process of professional training or retraining of special purpose police units. funding there was no outside funding provided for this study. disclosure statement no author has any financial interest or received any financial benefit from this research. conflict of interest the authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest. references aleksandrov, d., okhrimenko, i., & drozd, o. (2017). osoblyvosti profesiynopsykholohichnoyi adaptatsiyi pratsivnykiv natsionalʹnoyi politsiyi ukrayiny do pravookhoronnoyi diyalʹnosti [psychological adaptation of ukrainian national police officers for law enforcement activities]. science and education, 11, 35-45. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-11-4 [in ukrainian]. andersen, j.p., di nota, p.m., beston, b., boychuk, e.c., gustafsberg, h., & poplawski, s., et al. (2018). reducing lethal force errors by modulating police https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-11-4 peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of... yana ponomarenko et al. 344 physiology. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 60, 867-874. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000001401 arble, e., & arnetz, b.b. (2016). a model of first‐responder coping: an approach/avoidance bifurcation. stress and health: journal of the international society for the investigation of stress, 33, 223–232. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2692 bakotic, d. (2016). relationship between job satisfaction and organizational performance. economic research-ekonomska istrazivanja, 29(1), 118-130. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2016.1163946 boiko, s. m., & filonenko, v. m. (2021). psykholohichni peredumovy realizatsii kopinh-povedinky politseiskykh v konteksti adaptyvnoho perfektsionizmu [psychological preconditions for the implementation of the police officers’ coping behavior in the context of adaptive perfectionism]. pravo i bezpeka, 3(82), 38-48. https://doi.org/10.32631/pb.2021.3.04 [in ukrainian] bondarenko, v., okhrimenko, i., tverdokhvalova, i., mannapova, k., & prontenko, k. (2020a). formation of the professionally significant skills and competencies of future police officers during studying at higher educational institutions. revista românească pentru educaţie multidimensională, 12(3), 246-267, https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/320 bondarenko, v., okhrimenko, i., yevdokimova, o., sydorchuk, n., dzhezhyk, o., boichuk, i., kalashnik, n., kozlovets, m., slyusar, v., pavlenko, v., biruk, n., verbovskyi, i., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020b). professional skills and competencies of the future police officers. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(5), 35-43. http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/ijae/article/view/975 fedorenko, o., dotsenko, v., okhrimenko, i., radchenko, k., & gorbenko, d. (2020). coping behavior of criminal police officers at different stages of professional activity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 124-146. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/78 fridman, j., barrett, l. f., wormwood, j. b., & quigley, k. s. (2019). applying the theory of constructed emotion to police decision making. frontiers in psychology, 10, 1946. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01946 gavrilova, ye. а. (2015). psikhodiagnosticheskaya metodika «tip i uroven' professional'noy samorealizatsii»: razrabotka, opisaniye i psikhometriya [psychodiagnostic technique «type and level of professional selfrealization»: development, description and psychometrics]. vestnik tverskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 3, 19-34. [in russian]. halyan, i. m. (2011). psykhodiahnostyka [psychodiagnostics]. akademvydav. [in ukrainian] https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000001401 https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2692 https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2016.1163946 https://doi.org/10.32631/pb.2021.3.04 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/320 http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/ijae/article/view/975 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/78 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01946 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 345 hromov, a. b. (2000). pyatifaktornyiy oprosnik lichnosti [five-factor personality questionnaire]. kurgan: izdatel'stvo kurganskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. [in russian] jackson, b. a. (2015). strengthening trust between police and the public in an era of increasing transparency. rand corporation. kornilova, t. v. (2013). mel’burnskii oprosnik prinyatiya reshenii: russkoyazychnaya adaptatsiya [melbourne decision-making questionnaire: russian adaptation]. psikhologicheskie issledovaniya, 6(31). [in russian]. http://psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2013v6n31/883-kornilova31.html kubaienko, a., okhrimenko, i., kryzhanovska, o., kislitsyna, i., & hryshchenko, m. (2021). the police competence to ensure the rights and freedoms of citizens in modern society. cuestiones políticas, 39(69), 164-181. https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3969.09 larsson, g., nilsson, s., & waaler, g. (2018). moralisk stress – professionella möten med moraliskt laddade situationer. necesse, 3(1), 32-37. https://doi.org/10.21339/2464-353x.3.1.32 meyer, r. (2018). führen und entscheiden in polizeilichen extremsituationen. in b. fleischer, r. lauterbach & k. pawlik (ed.), rationale entscheidungen unter unsicherheit (pp. 113-123). de gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110600261-013 myloslavs’ka, o. v. (2021). osoblyvosti refleksii’ ta tendencij do pryjnjattja rishen’ v osib iz riznym rivnem proaktyvnosti [features of reflection and tendencies to decision-making in people with different levels of proactivity]. gabitus, 24(1), 110-114. [in ukrainian]. https://doi.org/10.32843/2663-5208.2021.24.1.19 okhrimenko, i., yevdokimova, o., shvets, d., pakhomova, n., & fediy, o. (2020). police training or police education: view on the matter. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(12), 129-136. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.798067 ostapovich, v., barko, v., okhrimenko, i., yevdokimova, o., ponomarenko, y., prontenko, k., antonova, o., sydorchuk, n., sokolovskyi, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). psychological profile of successful criminal police officer. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(3), 120133. https://doi.org/10.26655/ijaep.2020.3.27 pavlov, i. m. (2017). metodika provedeniya prakticheskih zanyatiy po otrabotke taktiki deystviy naryadov politsii pri politseyskom reagirovanii v gorodskih usloviyah na etape prinyatiya resheniya na meste proisshestviya [methods of practical exercises to simulate the tactics alongside police in police response in an urban setting at decision on the spot]. vestnik krasnodarskogo universiteta mvd rossii, 2(36), 262-265. [in russian]. http://psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2013v6n31/883-kornilova31.html https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3969.09 https://doi.org/10.21339/2464-353x.3.1.32 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110600261-013 https://doi.org/10.32843/2663-5208.2021.24.1.19 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.798067 https://doi.org/10.26655/ijaep.2020.3.27 peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of... yana ponomarenko et al. 346 ryu, g. w., yang, y. s. & choi, m. (2020). mediating role of coping style on the relationship between job stress and subjective well-being among korean police officers. bmc public health, 20, 470. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08546-3 šalkauskaitė, a., valickas, g., grikšienė, r., & rukšėnas, o. (2015). policijos pareigūnų sprendimų priėmimas kritinėmis aplinkybėmis. kriminologijos studijos, 3, 29-58. https://doi.org/10.15388/crimlithuan.2015.0.8949 shvets, d., yevdokimova, o., okhrimenko, i., ponomarenko, y., aleksandrov, y., okhrimenko, s., & prontenko, k. (2020). the new police training system: psychological aspects. postmodern openings, 11(1supl1), 200-217. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/130 wigsten, a. (2020). polisiärt beslutsfattande i kritiska situationer [police decisionmaking in critical situations]. huddinge: södertörns högskola. [in swedish]. yevdokimova, o. o., & ponomarenko, ya. s. (2018). sotsialnyi intelekt politseiskykh u konteksti yikh komunikatyvnoi kompetentnosti [social intelligence of police officers in the context of their communicative competence]. pravo i bezpeka, 1, 31-38. [in ukrainian]. https://doi.org/10.32631/pb.2018.1.04 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08546-3 https://doi.org/10.15388/crimlithuan.2015.0.8949 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/130 https://doi.org/10.32631/pb.2018.1.04 microsoft word brain_1_1_rezumate_romana.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 i brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience creier. cercetări ample în inteligenţă artificială şi neuroştiinţe volumul 1, numărul 1 ianuarie 2010: la muţi ani! www.brain.edusoft.ro editor şef: bogdan pătruţ 1. editorial angel garrido, facultatea de ştiinţe (uned) madrid, spania rezumat editorial pentru primul număr al revistei “brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience”. 2. metode informatizate în medicină angel garrido, facultatea de ştiinţe (uned) madrid, spania rezumat inteligenţa artificială are nevoie de logică. dar versiunea clasica a acesteia prezintă prea multe neajunsuri. aşadar, e nevoie de introducerea de instrumente mai sofisticate, cum ar fi logica nuanţată/difuză (fuzzy), logica modală, logica nemonotonă şi altele [2]. printre lucrurile pe care ia trebuie să le prezinte se află categoriile, obiectele, proprietăţile, relaţiile dintre obiecte, situaţii, stări, momente de timp, evenimente, cauze si efecte, cunoştinţe despre cunoaştere şi aşa mai departe. problemele din ia pot fi clasificate în două mari grupe [3, 4]: probleme de cercetare şi probleme de reprezentare. există diferite modalităţi de a atinge acest obiectiv. astfel, avem tipuri de logică, reguli, cadre, reţele asociative, programe etc., ce sunt adesea interconectate. de asemenea, în rezolvarea problemelor de incertitudine si cauzalitate, introducerea reţelelor bayesiene şi, în special, a unui instrument ca grafiul esenţial va fi de foarte mare folos. vom încerca, în lucrarea de faţă, să prezentăm aria aplicaţiilor unor astfel de metode versatile, fundamentale, în prezent, în medicină. 3. sisteme medicale bazate pe agenţi inteligenţi barna iantovics, universitatea „petru maior” din târgu mureş, românia rezumat dezvoltarea de sisteme medicale de diagnosticare flexibile şi eficiente, bazate pe agenţi intligenţi constituie o direcţie de cercetare recentă. sistemele medicale multiagent pot îmbunătăţi eficienţa sistemelor informatice medicale dezvoltate în mod tradiţional, cum ar fi sistemele expert medicale. în cercetările noastre anterioare, am propus un nou sistem medical multiagent de diagnosticare numit cmds (contract net based medical diagnosis system).. sistemul cdms poate rezolva, într-un mod flexibil, o mare varietate de probleme legate de diagnosticarea medicală. lucrarea brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 ii de faţă analizează inteligenţa sporită a sitemului cdms, ceea ce motivează folosirea sa în rezolvarea diverselor probleme medicale. 4. adx agent pentru analiza morfologică a intrărilor lexicale dintr-un dicţionar bogdan pătruţ, universitatea „vasile alecsandri” din bacău rezumat lucrarea de faţă se referă la analiza morfologică a cuvintelor, privită ca un proces important din domeniul procesării limbajului natural. vom prezenta soluţia clasică, bazată pe folosirea de paradigme flexionare şi a unei vaste baze de date ce conţine toate rădăcinile cuvintelor, urmând ca apoi să evidenţiem câteva dintre avantajele acestei metode. apoi, vom prezenta metoda originală care generează, în mod dinamic, rădăcinile cuvintelor folosind alternanţe fonologice în contextul regulilor de flexiune. se vor descrie, de asemenea, şi câteva optimzari ale algoritmului de analiză morfologică. 5. către un tip metaforic de arhitectură: interiorul casei victoriene ioana boghian, universitatea „vasile alecsandri” din bacău rezumat lucrarea de faţă porneşte de la conceptul de relaţionare ca un act de semnificare: tot ce aparţine interiorului unei case semnifică. tipul de arhitectură metaforică pe care incercăm să-l conturăm are ca scop definirea tipurilor de obiecte dintr-o casă în termenii unor noduri din „reţeaua” casei, în timp ce modul în care aceste obiecte (fie ele ornamente sau unelte) sunt distribuite în spaţiu dezvăluie nu doar profesia şi/sau personalitatea unui anumit pesonaj (obiectele ca extensie şi proiecţie a eului), ci şi ca indicatori ai unui anumit tip de ierarhie socială. 6. conexionismul vizavi de teoria computationala a minţii angel garrido, facultatea de ştiinţe (uned) madrid, spain rezumat de obicei, problemele din ia pot fi de multe ori legate de filosofia minţii şi, probabil din această cauză, sunt, în esenţă, foarte discutabile. de exemplu, avem faimoasa întrebare: poate o maşină să gândească? care a fost propusă de alan turing [16]. şi, deşi se poate constitui în cea mai hotărâtoare întrebare, multora li s-ar putea părea a fi doar o absurditate. aşadar, două dintre cele mai importante şi discutate teorii luate de obicei în considerare în acest caz includ conexionismul şi teoria computaţională a minţii. în lucrarea de faţă analizăm conţinutul acestora, cu dezbaterile trecute şi situaţia prezentă. 7. optimizarea instrumentelor din ia angel garrido, facultatea de ştiinţe (uned) madrid, spania rezumat originea istorică a inteligenţei artificiale (ia) este, de obicei, stabilită în cadrul conferinţei darmouth, din 1956. dar putem găsi mai multe origini arcane [1]. de asemenea, putem menţiona mari brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 iii gânditori din timpuri mai recente, cum ar fi janos neumann (pe atunci, john von neumann, ajuns în sua), norbert wiener, alan turing mathison, sau lofti zadeh, de exemplu [12, 14]. frecvent ia necesită logică. dar versiunea sa clasică prezintă prea multe neajunsuri. deci, a fost necesar să se introducă mai multe instrumente sofisticate, cum ar fi logica nuanţată/difuza (fuzzy), logica modală, logica nemonotonă şi aşa mai departe [1, 2]. printre lucrurile pe care ia le reprezintă se află categoriile, obiectele, proprietăţile, relaţiile dintre obiecte, situaţiile, stările, timpul, evenimente, cauze şi efecte, cunoştinţe despre cunoaştere şi aşa mai departe. problemele din ia pot fi clasificate în două clase generale [3, 5], probleme de cercetare şi probleme de reprezentare. există moduri diferite de a ajunge in varful lor. deci, ne putem folosi de [4] logică, reguli, cadre, reţele asociative, scripturi şi aşa mai departe, de multe ori conectate între ele. vom încerca, în această lucrare, să oferim o viziune panoramică a domeniului de aplicare a metodelor de reprezentare din ia. cele mai discutate două perspective ale filosofiei moderne a minţii şi a ia vor fi, probabil, testul turing şi argumentul camerei chinezeşti. pentru a elucida aceste întrebări foarte dificile, se va vedea nota noastră finală. 8. unele considerente cu privire la serialitate şi sincronicitate elena nechita, universitatea „vasile alecsandri” din bacău, românia rezumat această lucrare prezintă o imagine de ansamblu a rezultatelor care au fost obţinute în ultimul timp despre serialitate şi sincronicitate şi legătura acestora, în contextul noilor teorii şi în cadrul ştiinţei complexităţii. 9. optimizarea sistemelor distribuite folosind sisteme multi-agent cu timpul virtual ioana alexandra pandele, alina mihaela patriciu, universitatea „vasile alecsandri” din bacău, românia rezumat fuziunea domeniilor de inteligenţă artificială şi timp real s-a dovedit a fi o mişcare destul de inteligentă, similara cu mutarea de şah (sa nu mergem totusi atât de departe pana la şah-mat, având în vedere că domeniul informaticii este destul de alunecos cand vine vorba de actualizări). inteligenţa artificială oferă noi posibilităţi sistemelor de timp real. cu toate acestea, această abordare a prezentat dificultăţi importante [2]. în principal, sistemele în timp real au cerinţe temporale (de obicei, au nevoie de timpi de răspuns previzibili) care nu sunt prevazute în tehnicile de inteligenţă artificială. una dintre modalităţile de a rezolva această problemă este dezvoltarea de arhitecturi software. aceste arhitecturi software sunt folosite pentru a proiecta agenţi inteligenti care lucrează în medii cu timp real. aceste arhitecturi au o serie de mecanisme care le permit agenţilor să lucreze în medii cu timp real, oferind un comportament reactiv (pentru a îndeplini cerinţele temporale) şi un comportamentul deliberativ [2]. cu toate acestea, în sistemele distribuite, deşi noţiunea de timp global joacă un rol important, este greu de realizat; la prima vedere, chiar definirea termenului în sine nu este deloc clară. acest articol este o lucrare extinsă a lui [6]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 iv 10. un sistem de învăţare a bazelor contabilităţii financiare bogdan pătruţ, iulian marius furdu, universitatea „vasile alecsandri” din bacău, românia rezumat acest articol descrie o metodă de predare automată a bazelor contabilităţii financiare. metoda se bazează pe corectarea unor erori tipice, care pot fi observate la începători. 11. agent inteligent pentru dobândirea vocabularului limbii materne bogdan pătruţ, universitatea „vasile alecsandri” din bacău, românia, grigor moldovan, universitatea „babeş-bolyai” din cluj-napoca, românia rezumat acest articol descrie următoarele: în primul rând, ideile de bază ale unui sistem care simuleaza modul în care noi considerăm că un copil dobândeşte vocabularul limbii materne şi face corespondenţe între obiecte, cuvinte şi simţuri; în al doilea rând: mecanismul pentru un sistem care poate învăţa vocabularul limbii materne folosind observaţii şi, în al treilea rând, modul de a implementa un agent inteligent care să se poată comporta ca un copil mic, aflat în procesul de dobandire a limbii materne. 12. întrebări referitoare la alteritate în reţelele de colaborare socială cosmin ion tomozei, florinela floria, universitatea „vasile alecsandri” din bacău, românia rezumat ideea de alteritate a devenit importantă în ultimele decenii, atunci când vorbim despre epoca informaţiei, care oferă recunoaşterea, în faţa dezvoltatorilor software, a importanţei pe care o are înţelegerea comportamentul celuilalt, nevoilor, obiectivelor şi credinţelor acestuia. scopul nostru principal este de a aduce în discuţie problema de reprezentare socială legată de imagini ale persoanelor ca entităţi diferite ce sunt integrate în echipe virtuale, proiecte virtuale şi activităţi pe internet. în ceea ce priveşte conştientizarea alterităţii celuilalt, am afirma că aceasta deschide o perspectivă dialogată despre societatea informaţională, caz în care a împărtăşi şi a comunica cunoştinţe pentru alţii sunt nişte activităţi esenţiale. 13. o incursiune în activitatea medicală a doctorului gheorghe marinescu claudia ivan, jurnalist independent, bucureşti, românia, ioana boghian, universitatea „vasile alecsandri” din bacău, românia rezumat gheorghe marinescu (28 februarie 1863, bucureşti 15 mai 1938, bucureşti) a fost un neurolog român, fondator al şcolii româneşti de neurologie. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 165-197 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/450 submitted: february 28th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 28th, 2023 social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life anxiety, frustration and ethical risks antonio sandu 1 1 professor phd. in sociology, stefan cel mare university of suceava, romania| phd student in law, titu maiorescu university of bucharest, romania abstract: the purpose of this paper is to analyze the social construction process of the covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of the anxiety and frustration felt by the citizens as a threat to their own lives and health and to analyze the perceived severity of the covid-19 infection during march-june 2020. the present research aims to understand the changes that society is going through in the context of the pandemic, to analyze the social construction elements of the pandemic and the infodemic, in the context of a public health crisis, and also to identify the social perception on the pandemic among the affected population. social anxiety can be understood: as a side effect of the process of social construction of the person's identity, thus being correlated with the cultural particularities of the social environment of origin, mainly related to the social distinctions between individualism and collectivism; as an instance for the social construction of the idea of pandemic; as a constructive instance for the medicalization of social life in the pandemic and post-pandemic period; as being socially constructed through the mechanisms of the interpretive adrift of the meaning of role performance. the research was carried out between march and june 2020 and it was based on a qualitative methodology derived from grounded theory. data collection was done through the technique of a semi-structured interview, applied online on a sample of 103 people, mostly in the n.e. region of romania using an opportunity sample based on the snowball method. keywords: pandemics; social construction; anxiety; frustration. how to cite: sandu, a. (2023). social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life anxiety, frustration and ethical risks brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 165-197. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/450 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/450 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/450 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 166 introduction the aim of this paper was to analyze the social construction process of the covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of the anxiety and frustration felt by the citizens as a threat to their own lives and health, due to the virulence of the virus transmission and the perceived severity of the covid-19 infection during march-june 2020, as well as the unprecedented severity of disease prevention measures that led to the closure of most economic activities, the quarantine of some regions or cities, the limitation of any non-essential movements of the entire population, social distancing later renamed physical distancing -, the obligation to wear a mask etc. we are talking about a phenomenon of social reconstruction, due to the significant impact of the way communications were made regarding the consequences of the disease and the pandemic itself, which led to a skeptical perception of helplessness, imminent danger and maximum severity, together with the broad limitation of personal rights and freedoms. all these elements, through the subjective perception that individuals have built on the idea of the pandemic, have had major effects on mental health, inducing anxiety, anguish and frustration. the present research aims to understand the changes that society is going through in the context of the pandemic, the social construction elements of the pandemic and the infodemic, in the context of a public health crisis, highlighting and analyzing the manifestations of anxiety and frustration during the pandemic and the risks they pose to public health, and the identification of the social perception on the pandemic among the affected population. that is why psychological measures to improve mental health are important, both those that were actually taken during the pandemic for example, online psychological counseling and those that will be taken in this direction in the post-pandemic period. in order to build an effective mental health policy in the post-pandemic period, it is necessary to know the dimensions of the phenomenon, as well as its magnitude, in the context of understanding the particularities of the social construction of the idea of pandemic. anxiety and frustration meaning of the concepts used in the article by anxiety we mean the state of restlessness, tense waiting, accompanied by negative respiratory phenomena, which can be considered pathological when exceeding a certain threshold. anxiety manifests itself social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 167 pathologically as an indeterminate fear, as anxiety for no apparent reason, a condition that is often accompanied by physiological disorders. frustration means a state of deprivation that the subject feels either because of limitations imposed on their rights or by some effective harm that is done to them, being often considered to have a sexual substratum, in which case it is connected with disappointment and deception. frustration occurs when, due to inhibitions or obstacles of any kind, the individual fails to fulfill a wish or satisfy a pleasure. anxiety and frustration can be considered phenomena that occur frequently when there are justified or not changes in living conditions and the level of the quality of life to with which the individual is accustomed. research context in the context of the pandemic triggered by the sars-cov-2 virus, a number of measures have been taken, including the quarantine of some localities, the global lockdown of the population, the obligation of social distancing and wearing a mask, which limited access to health services other than for the care of patients suffering from covid-19 etc. in this context, the emergence of individual behaviors generated by the fear of a deteriorating health and possible death are predictable. also, the feeling of helplessness, but also the required stereotypical social behaviors including social distancing -, can generate a large psychological crisis, which would be a real threat to public mental health. the period of lockdown, which took place between march and june 2020 in romania – and, in fact, in almost the whole world caused a significant part of the population to experience phenomena of anxiety and frustration, that presented clear elements of pathological anxiety, thus representing a problem for the public mental health, that may prove to have long-term effects at least as severe as the covid-19 pandemic. the effect of the psychological crisis is considered by researchers like salari et al. (2020) to be more intense in the case of patients who are in the early stages of mental disorders, in which case they can lead to psychological changes, including on a pathological level. the most likely pathologies are those caused by fear, anxiety, depression or insecurity. more than a year after the first cases of sars-cov-2 were reported, romania is facing successive waves of this pandemic, characterized by shorter or longer, intermittent periods of local lockdown, but also by other phenomena, such as the rejection of vaccination, which can be attributed to broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 168 the frustration accumulated between march and june 2020 of the first major lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic. confidence in public institutions and, at the same time, confidence in the public health system is minimized due to the excessive number of false news and partial information that appear, from those related to the synthetic origin of the coronavirus to those related to the fact that we are in a situation of hybrid war between globalism and nationalism, carried out between globalizing vectors (be they transnational organisms or multinational corporations), and nation states, acting somewhat independently, presumably in the interest of their own citizens. the lack of trust is exacerbated by the competition for medical resources, equipment, medical staff, a competition that takes place outside the cooperation between states, or even against it, in the context of a crisis of social communication that authorities cannot properly manage, and a distrust in real communication between states. research assumptions the research started from the following assumptions: 1. the cronavirus pandemic had a negative influence on the mental stability of an important part of the population, and induced feelings such as: anxiety, anguish, frustration; 2. the lockdown measures imposed to limit the spread of the pandemic will influence the prosocial behaviors of individuals, depending on the severity of their anxiety during the pandemic; 3. the social, cultural and economic transformations that the society registered during the pandemic lead to the sharpening of the medicalization of social life and to a raised awareness that the current society is a risk society. theoretical approach social anxiety can be understood as a side effect of the process of social construction of the person's identity, thus being correlated with the cultural particularities of the social environment of origin, mainly related to the social distinctions between individualism and collectivism. in collectivist cultures, social harmony takes precedence over the individual, who occupies a peripheral place in the development of the community. by opposition, in individualistic cultures, the person has a central position, as the harmony of the community is subordinated to the concerns for the personal well-being and social affirmation of the individual. these differences may explain a social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 169 number of reactions of individuals to stressors such as the covid-19 pandemic. social anxiety is, in our opinion, an instance for the social construction of the idea of pandemic and, through the consequences of this social construct, a constructive instance for the medicalization of social life in the pandemic and post-pandemic period. in our opinion, social anxiety is socially constructed through the mechanisms of the interpretive adrift of the meaning of role performance, in the context of approximating the cultural values of the society of which the individual is part and/or of anticipatory resocialization, in different cultural contexts. the risk society and the medicalization of social life as socially constructed diseases such as social anxiety gain a significant impact on public health, and society reacts by accepting the pathological, we begin to talk about a deeply medicalized society. the idea of a medical society is very often connected with that of a risk society, when the medical risks which the society is partially unable to manage are involved in the discussion, other than emphasizing the pathological referral of any altered mental or social conditions, and this is made in order not to "miss" the goal of sustainable social development, which consists in providing specialized care to all those who are supposed to need it. the medicalization of society is practically the effect of the "risk society" (williams & calnan, 1996), the fact that society is more easily aware of the various risks that individuals feel threaten them (conrad, 2007). it sometimes comes down to the idea of "medicalizing the human condition," which is nothing more than a "treatable disorder." the medicalization of social life, as we understand it, is "an overuse of tools originally from the medical field, but little or unscientifically adapted to everyday life, but which mark our daily lives" (sandu, 2020). the term risk society was proposed by ulrich beck (1992), and extends the traditional concept of risk, understood as the probability that an adverse event might occur, summed up with the magnitude of its consequences, to include the subjective perception of risk which appears in intersubjective risk communication as well as the social experience of living in a risky environment. finally, risk society theorists claim that not only health and the environment are endangered, but also fundamental sociopolitical values: freedom, equality, justice, respect for individual rights and democracy (ekberg, 2007). the management of the risk society is more broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 170 difficult to achieve, due to the fact that the population is more obviously aware of the risks to which it is subjected. in the case of the current pandemic, this is one of the most important ethical issues is the social construction of trust in the health system as a whole. this is not necessarily a new issue, but the crisis caused by covid-19 underscores the need for confidence in the measures taken by the medical system, including those restricting the autonomy of individuals and their fundamental freedoms. basically, it is about trust in public health, which suddenly seems to become imperialist, partially subordinating its public policy systems, both at state and supranational level. the medicalization of social life brings with it a lifestyle based on a sometimes-exaggerated care for the health condition, on an increased consumption of pharmacological products or, on the contrary, of natural products, which are supposed to have an almost miraculous effect in maintaining health. pandemics and social fear social anxiety disorder is defined as a disorder in which social interactions generate a constant state of stress for the subject, which causes them to either avoid interactions and frequent social contact, or to experience these interactions in a painful way, due to a disproportionate fear of the real social context (reynolds & kamphaus, 2013). the basis of social phobias is the person's fear that they will not be able to properly cope to the situation, and will be negatively labeled by others. the diagnosis of social anxiety must take into account, according to dsm-5, the cultural component of the personality and the way in which the individual constitutes the rationality of their fears, based on the dominant cultural experience of the society to which they belong. according to the textbook cited above (reynolds & kamphaus, 2013), culture refers to the system of knowledge, concepts, rules and practices learned and transmitted across generations, including language, religion, spirituality, family structures, life cycle stages, rituals and customs, moral and legal systems. in contemporary society, the individual is exposed to several cultures, which they use in the construction of their own identity, to build the meaning of their own experience. various forms of social anxiety can be found today due to the cultural contamination and interculturality specific to the postmodern society. social fear has been directed, over time, at various subjective alterities, including the supernatural with its forms: divine, demonic or magical -, but also the stranger that is, a person who belongs to another social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 171 culture, religion, civilization, which individuals subjectively perceive as “different,” to whom interests contrary to those of the community are attributed. included in this category are the dysmorphic – with real dysmorphic disorder (people with various disabilities or bodily dysmorphia) but also with imagined dysmorphic disorders (the gnome, the giant) and, last but not least, the sick as a receptacle of celestial anger or as a bearer of the stigma of their own actions. in the collective mind both medieval and modern, the plague – and, by extrapolation, any form of pandemic was correlated with two other scourges, war and famine, which increased the destructive power of epidemics. the media's mention of pandemics such as the spanish plague or the flu has caused the population to become more anxious, especially with regard to the virulence of the epidemic and the mortality involved. on the other hand, with the existing evidence on covid-19 mortality, the same comparison with other historical pandemics has led to a minimization of the perception, among a part of the population, of the severity and risks involved in the pandemic and, implicitly, to the refusal to comply to protection measures or to the questioning of the legitimacy of restrictions placed on individual rights and freedoms on the basis of public good / health interests. the social construction of the pandemics sandra maria pfister (2020) draws attention to the fact that social events related to the pandemic both current and, by way of memory, previous, or future ones, in the coming decades are paving the way for a new branch of sociology, in general, and for medical sociology, in particular: the sociology of the pandemic. the emergence of this new branch of sociology will be delayed as long as social research on the pandemic is maintained at the instrumental level of studying the attitudes and perceptions of the population regarding it, without moving on to an indepth analysis of the communicative paradigm generated by the pandemic. the social construction of the pandemic must take into account the symbolic dimension and the interactive ways in which the pandemic becomes a social reality, beyond a strictly medical reality (dingwall et al., 2013). anthony oliver-smith (2022) points out that natural disasters, including those triggered by epidemics or pandemics, are mere games of chance, as long as they do not intersect with elements of anthropological broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 172 consciousness that give them meaning and distance them from the natural setting of events. a socially significant one. in this regard, the quoted author states that "the covid-19 pandemic is a disaster, and disasters do not just happen" (oliver-smith, 2022). the literature on the social construction of the covid-19 pandemic emphasizes the role of the digital media and especially of social networks in the construction of the idea of the pandemic as a form of collective anxiety. w.t. fesmire (2021) examines how comparisons are made between other known pandemics throughout history, especially recent history, and the covid-19 pandemic, in the sense of a hyperbolization of the risk in order to strengthen the communicative power of the message transmitted to the public. this historicizing of the message determines a special form of communicative action (habermas, 1985), în order to generate a consensus on the meanings of the term pandemic as a new social status. practically, we are talking about a process of creating meaning, in which the intellectual elites and the significant ones from the communicative point of view create meaning through the construction of emotions that legitimize a certain type of discourse and a certain narrative that allows the individuals to familiarize themselves with an unprecedented social reality (yeomans & bowman, 2021). methodology the research, carried out between march and june 2020, was based on a qualitative methodology derived from grounded theory, and data collection was done through the technique of a semi-structured interview, applied online. sampling and the actual conduct of the research the research was conducted on a sample of 103 people, mostly in the n.e. region of romania (67) as follows: suceava (42), botoşani (15), iaşi (10), but also from other counties: cluj (1), bucharest (2). people from the republic of moldova (12) were also interviewed, as well as romanian citizens residing in other countries such as: austria (1), spain (1), italy (1), belgium (1), germany (1), great britain (1). there were also persons who did not declare their region / country of residence: unspecified (15). the interviewees were female (62), male (31) and a number of 7 people did not specify their gender. the age of the interviewed persons is between 18-24 years (47), 2530 years (26), 35-45 years (14), 45-60 years (9), 60-90 years (3), unspecified (4). social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 173 as a source of origin, the interviewees belong to rural areas (42), urban areas (25), unspecified (36). as a level of education, the participants in the research stated as formal education: higher education (63), secondary education (31), unspecified (9). the following were highlighted as occupational profiles of the persons included in the sample: salesperson (7), medical staff (6), student (35) pupil (9), teacher (5), economist (3), clerk (1), civil servant (10), commercial worker (3), unemployed (4), housewife (6), retired (7), unspecified (7). the sample was an opportunity sample, the selection of the sample was made based on the snowball method, and the analysis of the collected data took into account the need for the theoretical saturation of the proposed model (no new discursive categories were identified in subsequent interviews). in fact, the saturation of the model was achieved, in general, after the analysis of the first 20 interviews, but the analysis continued to identify significant subcategories that, although they did not bring new discursive categories, better configured the existing categories. the research was conducted on the basis of unstructured interviews, made online or by telephone. the vast majority of the interviews were conducted via video conferencing applications and transcribed. a limited number of interviews were conducted through programs such as messenger, whatsapp where both questions and answers took place in writing, the answers being given by the interviewees immediately after receiving the question thus ensuring real-time communication. the interviews mainly focused on how the families of the students, as well as those of their friends and acquaintances, related to the situation created by the pandemic. we mention that during the research period, both romania and other countries where the respondents resided were in a period of lockdown, characterized by the closure of non-essential economic activities, limiting the mobility of people by imposing the obligation to make a statement assuming responsibility for the duration and route of any travel, a complete ban on travel between certain time slots or even a complete quarantine of persons suspected of being infected with sars-cov-2 or of entire localities, where the infection rate was higher than the national average. analysis of results by grounded theory for the interpretation of the data, the qualitative analysis methodology called grounded theory (g.t.) was used (corbin & strauss, 2008; creswell, 2007; goulding, 1999). the method consists in a process of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 174 systematic generation of conceptual categories, aiming to obtain an increasing level of generality, which would explain the researched topic. the approach is an inductive one, through successive stages of work, starting from the information provided by the interviewed subjects. the research is generally exploratory, being used when investigating a unique psycho-social phenomenon, about which there are not enough data in the literature or for which theories that already exist in the literature are no longer applicable, due to the change of the socio-cultural contexts in which the social phenomenon takes place. due to the exploratory nature of the method, it aims to create a new theoretical corpus and less to validate a set of preliminary hypotheses (corbin & strauss, 2008; goulding, 1999; sandu, 2010). the hypotheses may exist in the form of presuppositions, which derive either from the literature or from a first empirical analysis of the studied social phenomenon, but the research does not have a proper confirmatory value. this type of research being limited to highlighting possible causal links, without being able to effectively confirm them and without being able to specify exactly the causal dynamics of the social phenomenon. the results thus obtained will be summarized in the form of a model, the constituent elements of which, formulated in the form of possible causal relationships, may constitute working hypotheses for future research. these would clarify the resulting, model as well as the extent of its validity. the data coding was performed in two successive phases: the initial coding and, respectively, the selective coding focused coding (adam, 2009) which we called, according to cresswel (2007), axial coding. the purpose of these successive inductive stages is to identify significant discursive themes or categories, followed by the construction of a theoretical model explaining the social phenomena that accompany anxiety and frustration, which appeared as an effect of the pandemic, but also of measures to prevent covid-19 infection. the aim was to classify the "codes" or categories they were obtained and to group together the initial categories, which are semantically adjacent. in the first stage, open coding was used, followed, in the analysis process, by axial coding (corbin & strauss, 2008). thus, from the thematic axes that were analyzed, resulted a series of theoretical constructs with explanatory role in the elaboration of an instrumental model of understanding the perceived dimensions of the social phenomena related to the pandemic, but also the possible pathologies generated by anxiety and frustration. social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 175 results of research discursive categories obtained in the open coding stage 1. information on the covid-19 virus / pandemic: origins, cause, manifestation, treatment interviewees have an ambivalent view of the pandemic, most of them consider themselves to be sufficiently informed (s.d.b.) by using the online environment (a.a.), (d.a.b.), (g.f.c.), but also the traditional media (l.b.), (g.f.c.), (b.s.a.). some of them show that they consider themselves sufficiently informed about the symptoms that covid-19 infection may present: fever, dry cough (aa), while others show that they know only about the severity of the disease, but not about the its symptoms: i only know that it affects the body very strongly (d.a.b.). a credible source of information on the manifestations and symptoms of the disease is, for some respondents, communication with infected people and especially with those who have gone through the disease and managed to overcome it. in this case, the information obtained can be a source of optimism and confidence that the disease can be overcome (i.e.). the same is not true when a close person infected with covid-19 have lost their lifes. then, the interviewed subjects are deeply aware of the risks that the sars-cov-2 infection can bring, both for them and for those close to them, especially if they are elderly or suffering from comorbidities (s.p.). to avoid misinformation due to the abundance of information sources, many of which are contradictory, some people have decided to select the sources of information, giving credibility especially to medical and scientific sources, as well as to the personal accounts of recent patients (i.e.). 2. personal experience of infection with the covid-19 virus a significant experience that the interviewed subjects mentioned was that of their own infection with the covid-19 virus and, respectively, of the situations in which close people became infected with this virus. when there were people close to them who lost their lives due to the virus infection, the described experience was one of anguish for their own health and, especially, for those close to them (s.p.). 3. experience communicating with persons infected with the covid-19 virus and the perception on the experience of these persons a number of communication experiences with people infected with the covid-19 virus (l.b.) have been highlighted, with manifestations of varying intensity and severity, from people who have gone through this broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 176 experience easily and recovered, to people who suffered physically and mentally, having suffered a traumatic experience by getting infected. the interviewed subjects showed that they also had people who lost the fight against the virus among the more or less close acquaintances (a.a.). feelings of empathy and even joy are shown towards infected people when they prove to be cured (a.a.). it is worth noting answers like yes, i have acquaintances who have had such people in their family and have had to be quarantined, but this has not changed my behavior in any way. everything remained exactly as before, the virus can't change who you are (l.b.). such statements are true pleadings against discrimination of infected persons discrimination that may occur, on the one hand due to the social fear of infection and infected persons, but on the other hand may also be induced by the severity of quarantine measures, both of individuals (quarantined individually, as mere contacts) and of communities (where the virus spread is higher than the national average). direct contact with an infected person, especially when that person's case appeared in the media, becomes a source of anxiety and even despair, the interviewee being concerned about his own health condition, but also about the possibility that he himself may be a vector of virus transmission: when i realized that this virus had reached the place where i live, i was quite scared because, first of all, i had contact with a person who had contact with the first case of covid from the locality. […] social distancing affected me primarily during that two-week period when my family and i were isolated, because i thought i had come in contact with the person i mentioned earlier (b.a.g.). 4. the subjective experience of quarantine, social distancing and lockdown measures respondents indicated that they feel affected by the pandemic on several levels personal, social, professional, emotional, material, mental etc. (c.j.). the subjective experience of quarantine depends on how individuals perceive the risks that the disease for which quarantine has been imposed may pose to their own lives and those of their loved ones, and only then the harm it brings to their own freedoms, lifestyle and agent capacity. people who feel more vulnerable due to age or comorbidities may be more inclined to accept stricter quarantine measures or even to adopt a quarantined lifestyle for themselves and their loved ones, that precautionarily exceeds the minimum measures required by authorities (g.g.). lifestyle change, whether in a pleasurable or unpleasant way, is representative for the subjective experience of the interviewees when it comes social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 177 to quarantine, social distancing, and lockdown measures: i had become accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and now everything is different (e.l.). the period of lockdown was considered by some people as a time of respite in daily activities, which allowed them to engage in hobbies or recreational activities that they would not have allowed themselves to indulge in during a normal period. many of the interviewees believe that they have been affected by the restrictions imposed, one of them stating that he has not seen his family for two months (a.a.). mentions of missing or diminished relationships with family members or loved ones during the quarantine or lockdown period appeared in most interviews. the reason why some of the interviewees agreed with the measures imposed and respected them was the protection of those close to them and was linked less to their own protection. the constituent elements of a normal life were affected in the case of some of the respondents, including relationships with friends and, implicitly, their sociability (a.n.), generating a need to spend more time outdoors (l.b.). congruent to these statements, some interviewees considered the lockdown period as one in which they had the opportunity to spend more time with family and loved ones (g.n.). this changed the quality of relations between family members living in the same household, either in the sense of strengthening solidarity between its members (due to increased communication) or in the sense of leading to a depreciation of these relations due to the escalation of latent conflicts and a mandatory long lasting cohabitation. there were also confessions of dissatisfaction related to the impossibility of organizing the special events of life that represented unique moments for individuals in a normal manner (s.d.b.), (s.d.). the impossibility of practicing certain religious rituals, including those related to funeral practices, was called into question. the restriction of religious freedom, leading to a total ban on public religious services, even during religious holidays of the highest importance for believers of all religions, was considered a serious cause for concern regarding the respect for individual rights, but also a source of emotional trauma for some deeply religious people. the hardest time during the isolation was the easter holidays. we, in the village, have our habits, we go to church, to the cemetery, we could not get used to the idea that we are forbidden to do so (m.t.). however, there are also voices welcoming this measure, considering it beneficial for limiting the infection rate (p.i.2). another issue that affected the population during this period was technical unemployment due to the temporary closure of the company in which they had their job, which situation turned into a source of anxiety including for the future economic situation (a.b.), (g.f.c. ). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 178 the fact that for loved ones were placed in quarantine is also a source of anxiety and frustration, especially when those people are the main / only providers of income for the family, and they do not benefit from technical unemployment or other forms of social work: i am concerned that my husband, who is in a foreign country heavily affected by this virus, faces various obstacles in returning to normalcy. […] my husband has already been in quarantine for a month and a half, and is not guaranteed any financial support, such as technical unemployment, the situation is equally unclear as regards the resumption of activity (n.a.). a source of concern about deteriorating health during the pandemic and the indirect effect of the pandemic is the issue of mental health, which is considered to be impaired by the lack of direct communication with others, the monotony of activities and mental fatigue (g.n.). home isolation made everything difficult and depressant (l.a.e.). among the effects mentioned by the respondents were those related to the decrease of the quality of life in general and the general well-being, including health, as sleep dysfunctions were noticed (a.b.), which, once they become chronic, can lead to the exacerbation of already existing health conditions or to the new disorders. also, the subjective quality of life was affected by lockdown measures and the obligation to stay at home was perceived as a severe restriction on freedom of movement (g.f.c.). restricting freedom of movement, achieved either by quarantining certain areas or by traffic bans at certain time intervals, is considered a source of concern, but also of frustration, in the context of imposing on people to sign a declaration assuming responsibility for their travel itinerary, along with the purpose and duration of their travel outside their house premises. this measure has a profound negative impact, as it is associated, in the collective mind, with the state of siege and the imminence of catastrophes in this case, for public health. having no experience of such situations in the past, i had to think, to be careful if i have the statement with me, if i have completed it, if i am in the proper range and so on (v.a.r.). restricting freedom of movement in itself undermines the dignity of the person, style and way of life, personal freedom, guaranteed by the constitution and international conventions, which in the collective mind of a country that has not long ago had a communist regime, such as romania, may suggest the installation of a dictatorship called by some sources "white dictatorship" or "medical dictatorship". especially in the case of minorities who have historically been persecuted, such measures can trigger negative emotional stimuli related to personal security, especially in the context when images of law enforcement agents who were enforcing lockdown measures have been accessible, at least online, and were quite viewed by the public. the impact of these images was social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 179 exacerbated by the communications whether desired or not – issued by the authorities, who, through the "military ordinances", emphasized the martial capacity of the state and less its solidarity with the population. the "guilt of being infected with covid-19" was induced in the population as an idea, even if the purpose of the restrictive messages was attributed to the desire to protect the population. the vulnerability of the population to a repressive system was highlighted even if this was not the intention of the measures even in the case of a democratic society, which accepts and respects human rights, as is the case for romanian, where the present research was done. social fear, such as pandemics, coupled with inappropriate reactions from the authorities, can lead to a setback in freedom, but also an increase in the aggressive mentality of vulnerable populations as is the case of patients infected with covid-19. extending discrimination to anyone with suspicious symptoms see temperature gauges in all public places can be an impetus for social segregation, with physical distance being replaced by real social distancing, not just in terms of maintaining a safe distance, but also in the sense of limiting sociability. in some cases, a distinction is made between centrally designed measures, which might be appropriate, and the way they are inforced in counties and localities, which appears to be erroneous, unadapted to the particular situation, thus causing the dissatisfaction of citizens, especially in quarantined localities, for whom additional restrictions have been introduced, supplementary to those faced by the entire population of the country. regardless of the level and size at which the pandemic affected the population, in the end the ability of each individual to cope with this particular form of stress, not previously encountered, can be defining for overcoming the inconveniences of the period – and, implicitly, anxiety and frustration. it is the resistance to anxiety and anguish that is a coping element, which can help those who approach such an attitude overcome more easily the aforementioned states of mind and any other forms of discomfort, if they stay mentally positive (t.s.). the report on the lockdown can be drawn in terms of social fears, abundantly present in virtually all sources of information to which the population has access, or in terms of the moment of respite, interruption of daily agitation, return to introspection, to things that otherwise individuals did not have time to contemplate, deepening their relationship with themselves and with those whom they had to quarantine with. privacy is seen as related to family, friends and, in general, emotional stability, and less to the career and social expectations of the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 180 individual which are perceived as secondary, on the periphery of the core of personality. we can assume that there is, at least among young people from certain socio-economic backgrounds, a distance from the social model based on the evolution on the social ladder and job security, the person's interest shifting to emotional security, experiencing the present moment and the immediate satisfaction given by everyday life. as such, we can say that, at least in certain situations, we are not only witnessing a medicalization of the social life, but also the emergence of a "society of personal development", correlated with the dissolution of social solidarity. the interest for oneself and for those close to them takes precedence over the interests of society, and jobs are only an alienating element, which disturb the focus on the person. on the other hand, we can notice the emergence of a culture of precariousness and the focus on the immediate, in which individuals refuse long-term planning, to the detriment of experiencing the immediate. there were also opinions that the pandemic could be considered a divine punishment for the sins accumulated by humanity in general or by the community in particular, and the responsibility for the pandemic should be assumed in line with a possible feeling of guilt. the divine sanction can, in some situations, be thought of in its apocalyptic dimensions, especially since at least one of the signs of divine wrath is represented by such pandemics in the collective mind (a.o.). divine intervention, for those who thus see the current pandemic, may have a punitive purpose, as i have presented, but also an educational one, corrective for humanity (d.i.). on the other hand, the belief in divine help is a reason for courage and overcoming the uncertainty that arises related to the sudden and radical change of lifestyle for an uncertain period of time (p.a.). 5. the perception on the restrictive measures imposed by the authorities during the pandemic in most european union countries, the authorities have taken measures to prevent infection, such as lockdowns, social distancing, the obligation to wear masks and gloves, restricting travel outside home, the obligation to sign a declaration assuming responsibility regarding the purpose, duration and route of travel, etc. all these measures aimed at reducing the rate of infection of the population and, in addition to its direct protection, also had the role of avoiding overcrowding the hospitals with patients infected with covid-19, thus leading to the impossibility of providing medical care to all the persons who required it. social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 181 the interviewees have an ambivalent perception of the measures taken by the authorities, some of them considering them beneficial for the prevention of diseases and the uncontrollable spread of the virus (dab), and others insisting that these measures were not effective, that they did not really contributed to the reduction of the risk of infection (l.b.). the disproportionate nature of the sanctioning measures imposed in the cases of non-compliance with quarantine, compared to other punitive measures, in other situations of law violation is accentuated, and even ridiculed, but also the ability of law enforcement personnel to impose these sanctions: thieves and rapists don’t do time, do you think that those who do not respect isolation will? it's a lie, just to scare those who came in the country recently (v.c.). those who stated that they accepted and even appreciated the protection measures requested by the authorities, stated that they respected them (a.a.), (n.i.). respondents also observed social distancing as a measure to prevent infection (d.a.b.), (g.f.c.), (a.m.). the use of disinfectant and other hygiene measures is also presented as a form of a symbolic distancing oneself even if people are unaware of it from the other, when the interviewee wants to specify that, following the hygiene measures indicated by the authorities, he disinfects his hands when he touches objects that were touched by other people (n.n.2). even if, strictly speaking, this practice reduces the risk of infection, the subjective perception of this gesture strengthens the belief that any person even if they are not present can be a threat, by simply touching objects. if such a habit is beneficial and salutary during an epidemic in the phase of its maximum outbreak, the long-term perpetuation of this habit leaves room for a perpetuation of social fear regarding the other, as a source of risk to their own health or well-being. it will also strengthen the perception that the current society is a risky one, that not all measures are taken in order to prevent all risks, which accentuates the medicalization of social life, by accepting the inevitability of negative effects when comming into contact with others. every day i was in quarantine i felt like a prisoner at home, i was afraid to leave the house and, if i went shopping, i always wanted to avoid other people, because i was afraid i might get this virus (n.n.2). the feeling of being imprisoned in one's own home is not only related to the restriction of certain rights and freedoms, which is somewhat understandable in a time of crisis for public health, but also to feelings of selfblame or blaming others for one's own condition and the perception of the medicalization of social life as a radicalization of oppression, in the name of dangers perceived as uncertain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 182 such a perception may give rise to widespread mistrust in public health systems, as vectors of oppression that were once blamed exclusively on politics or economics. there is also criticism of the measures taken by the authorities, considering that they were not necessarily effective, with an emphasis on appearances; the situation could have been handled much better (l.b.). we cannot fail to draw attention to this view that the authorities have reacted to appearances that can be speculated in mass communication such as wearing masks, social distancing, temperature checking instead of focusing on protecting healthcare professionals, ensuring necessary and appropriate equipment and technology. some criticisms of the state explicitly refer to the lack of medical equipment, which should have existed in hospitals regardless of the current state of emergency or not (a.b.). this makes respondents distrustful of the state's ability to manage the crisis neither regarding health issuen, nor on an economic and / or social level. authorities are believed to have taken on an authoritarian but benevolent attitude, effective in the first period of the pandemic, but quickly eroded by public distrust and diverted to the idea of a "white dictatorship" or public health dictatorship. it is interesting that an attitude of refusal to comply with the preventive measures imposed was mentioned even by the interviewees who stated that they showed symptoms, but refused to get tested, but also by people who, being positively confirmed as infected, refused to get admitted in the hospital although at that time it was mandatory -, mentioning the fear of an aggravating suffering from the state of the romanian health system, considered to be deficient. a source of dissatisfaction with the measures taken by the authorities to increase the care capacity of patients with covid-19 is the transformation of many hospitals into "exclusively covid" hospitals which care only for patients with covid-19 leaving risky and difficult patients with conditions other than covid-19 untreated or forcing them to travel, endangering their health and even their life (pi2). 6. the perception on the existence of resources needed to overcome the pandemic a concern of the interviewees is the ability to cope with the pandemic, from the perspective of the existence or non-existence of medical, human, material, financial resources both at the individual level and at the collective / community or even societal level. confidence in the existence of resources diminishes the anxiety generated by the pandemic, social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 183 while the prospect of insufficient resources can be a source of collective panic. there have been frequent reports of people overstocking up on food and medicine, but this panic has been halted when the permanent supply of food and especially pharmaceutical stores has been established (g.g.). the lack of basic food items and, above all, the fear of the complete closure of stores, including food stores, or the impossibility of supplying them were sources of panic declared by several interviewees (p.m.). on the other hand, the lack of protective masks and medical equipment including for medical staff has been a source of anxiety, especially for those who came into direct contact with patients, but also for society as a whole. concerns have been expressed about the lack of medical staff, especially when they are at increased risk of infection in the hospital setting, given the lack of protective equipment and the absence of a specific medication or vaccine (at the time of the interviews there was not no vaccine available on the market – a.n.) (p.i.2). the distrust in the romanian medical system is considered by the interviewees who chose to answer on this topic, to be a result of an inconsistency of the political factor, but also of the inefficiency of communication during the crisis, shown by the authorities (a.m.). compared to the answer mentioned above, we cannot clearly distinguish the effects of frustration with the pandemic from the need to find a person responsible for the situation of discomfort, or from the political opinions of the interviewees but the two types of discourse, the political and the personal one, converge in the case presented above. 7. impact of news on the pandemic the interviewees expressed their views on the impact of the pandemic news, which is mostly negative, but there are also people who showed that they were not extremely affected (p.i.2). there are also voices emphasizing the positive role that the media should play in such a situation to encourage the population to comply with the necessary protection measures and, at the same time, to inform the population about possible slippages from normality (a.c.). 8. perceived effects of the pandemic positive effects: some interviewees stated that the coronavirus pandemic also had beneficial effects, including appreciation of important things in life and time spent with loved ones (d.a.b.), (i.a.b.), (a.s.b.). another important thing, considered to be a positive effect of crossing broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 184 through this pandemic, is, according to one of the respondents: we started to love life more (l.c.). acute awareness of the fear of death means that other elements of dissatisfaction, related to the standard of living, quality of life, etc., are no longer viewed with such importance, in relation to the value of life itself. there are, among the interviewees, some respondents who appreciate the positive role of the pandemic in the social construction of responsibility towards one's own health, towards others and towards the environment (n.n.4), (i.e.). people who appreciated the beneficial effects of the lockdown referred, among other things, to the development of a capacity for selfcontrol over daily routines, more efficient organization of activities and the adoption of a responsible lifestyle (a.m.). adverse effects: among the negative effects of the pandemic, there were mentioned: the deterioration in the long-term health of many people (length of convalescence, sedentary lifestyle imposed by the pandemic which predisposes to a weakened immune system and the vitality of the body), but also the loss of human lives. the lack of bodily exercise is also discussed at least outdoor (b.s.a.), (a.b.). the risks of mental disorders are highlighted in the context of discussing the reduction of hobbies and, especially, outdoor activities (a.m.). the interviewees express their hope that the experience of the pandemic will also have transformative effects, in the sense of changing the attitude / behavior of people towards the environment, and not only (l.b). the very risk of undue death of patients with covid-19 is discussed, as well as other collateral causes, such as the lack of access to health services, the lack of basic care for the elderly and, why not, the severe deterioration of the health condition for psychiatric patients and people belonging to vulnerable categories: this crisis makes the elderly remain locked in the house and perish (pi2). there is also a perceived risk of social marginalization (d.b.) of various sections of the population affected by both the health and economic crisis, associated with a lack or reduction of material resources especially against the perception of lack of resources, which was generalized within society, but especially at the state level, to overcome the economic and social crisis, which is perceived as a severe one. the negative impact on the population was also felt by restricting the right to work and limiting the right to free movement, a situation described by one of the interviewees as generating a state of helplessness (d.m.c.). social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 185 another element perceived as a generator of anxiety and frustration was the obligation of self-quarantine (d.b.) of those who carried out their professional activity in medical, social or medical-social care institutions. this situation has often been perceived as a form of deprivation of liberty (l.c.) and, implicitly, a violation of fundamental rights. also in this context can be included the lack of treatment of people suffering from various pathologies other than covid-19 and the limitation, by the military ordinances in force, of the development of medical acts considered non-essential. another effect, this time perceived at the level of the economic environment, is the imminence of the bankruptcy of many small and medium businesses, but also of some large companies, caused by the temporary closure of activity, lack of liquidity, inability to pay, etc. (g.s.). 9. credibility of information sources and infodemia respondents pointed out that the available sources of information, especially the media, are not generally credible they are manipulative (l.b.) and therefore the respondents cannot be fully, correctly and especially credibly informed from these sources. the increase in the number of fake news was also a source of stress and anxiety for citizens, the interviewees showing that they felt threatened by the explosion of the number of fake news (a.b.). this was attributed to the media's desire to confuse them with so much information (a.b.). there are people who have pointed out that in such situations, such as those in which the state of emergency is active, taking measures to restrict freedom of expression in order to control false and, in particular, alarmist news is welcome (g.g.). 10. perception on the post-pandemic period many of the interviewees believe that sooner or later the situation will return to normal (d.m.c.) in terms of epidemiology and public health, many of them being rather concerned about the evolution of the economic and social situation. the hope of returning to normal is, from our point of view, the attempt to humanize the pandemic experience (all interviews were conducted during the period when the state of lockdown was established in romania; as such, the interviewee expresses a desire for the moment when these measures will be relaxed – a.n.) (dc). another idea, which also leads to the construction of a postpandemic normalcy, is that it means the return of the freedom of movement, at least outside one’s home, without the risk of being stopped by the police and questioned about the destination, duration of travel, etc.: i will broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 186 be able to go where i want in the city, without being afraid if the police would stop me (n.i.). the humanization of everyday life is the key goal for the postpandemic society. in this humanization of everyday life, a particularly important element is the elimination of fear from the forefront of relating to social life. basically, the pandemic is also seen as an invitation to responsibility both to the immediate responsibility of everyone and to the long-term responsibility of individuals and communities. immediate effects, such as increasing the level of hygiene of individuals and communities, reducing emissions with polluting effects were examples of responsible attitudes that can become long-term social habits. without them, even if the pandemic ends, their effects could last much longer (t.c.). the postpandemic society is seen by some respondents as one of an increased responsibility installed in the collective mind (for example, in the form of wearing a daily mask): i see the future with many people with masks on the street, but more careful than ever. […] there will always be ill people (n.n.1). this responsibility towards the other and towards one's own health condition is, in our opinion, a marker of the acceptance of the post-pandemic society as a risk society and of the accentuation of the medicalization of society, in the sense that the human condition will be perceived as a disease, a treatable disorder, and the encounter with the other will be perceived in the sense of an encounter with danger in this case, with a possible source of infection. unfortunately, we will avoid each other. we will all be a danger to all (b.r.). the depreciation of the relationship with the other through the deculturalized and deculturalizing presence of the mask, if it becomes a defining element of the post-pandemic society, will be able to destruct sociability to a point where the uniqueness of individuals can no longer be compensated by communication processes, thus accentuating the tendency towards an individualistic and, ultimately, selfish society. a dissociated society generates an anxiety of the other's presence as a possible source of infection and that goes so far as to deny them their presence in one’s immediate vicinity, the subject itself can become the source of anxiety, related to an impaired quality of life in relation to health. there are also opinions that it will be impossible to return to "normal", the virus will continue to exist, as there are other dangerous viruses, and society will get used to living with the threat of new pandemic waves (a.m.). those who say that life in the post-pandemic period will be different or even radically different from the one before the first outbreak of the pandemic, believe that the style and way of life will be different, but the population will adapt. social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 187 11. the post-pandemic immediate a widespread opinion among the interviewees is that at the end of the lockdown, the recovery of sociability will have to be made a priority. measures of social distancing, although aimed at creating a safe space around the person, bring with them restrictions in terms of sociability or, more precisely, the social rituals with which individuals are accustomed, which radically change: shaking hands, hugging, kissing cheeks these are as many gestures with the value of social ritual that are not only forbidden, but also acquire a value of social risk, even when we are not talking about strict quarantine and travel is possible in certain areas, even with a statement, the number of people in a group, the number of people who can attend an event, the duration of meetings and, most importantly, performing these social rituals with the value of expressing solidarity and sociability. their recovery is seen as a recovery of the essential (c.c.). from the statements of the interviewees, sociability transpires as a fundamental ethical and cultural value for the subjects, the communication with those close to them being considered as an element of maximum importance for their subjective well-being. the desire for normalcy is expressed in the form of a return to everyday life, a part of life that was perhaps the most affected during the pandemic: i will walk with my loved one in the park (d.c.). 12. virtualization of social space some interviewees pointed out that the work from home or home schooling which were imposed have radically changed their work schedule. this is true in many professional areas, where companies or institutions have chosen to switch to work from home / online activity. a significant case, in which all the activity was transferred online, is that of education, in which from the beginning of the pandemic until the end of the state of emergency, but also after its end, the activity was carried out exclusively online, which significantly disturbed both the work schedule as well as the lifestyle both of the pupils and students, and of the teachers (b.s.a.). at the beginning, my whole program was turned upside down, i lost track of my usual days, time and routine, i had to force myself to go back to the original period and reorganize (a.m.). the development of online learning is hampered by the lack of feedback from students, but also by the relative novelty of this style of teaching / learning. the lack of direct and personal interactions between teachers and pupils / students is another reason for dissatisfaction with online education, which is therefore considered to be much more difficult (b.s.a.). in this context, some people point out that going online is broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 188 a source of discomfort, and can even lead to various forms of migraines and even impaired health (s.d.). the massive virtualization of social interactions in this case the educational ones during the lockdown period took many by surprise, therefore in the beginning, when all the courses took place online, they were not at the better educational standards, as students are accustomed to on site courses, for which the mechanisms of online study have not yet been properly and fully developed (a.m.). the transition to the virtual environment of many economic and educational activities is seen as ambivalent, on the one hand saving the time and effort of students, teachers, employees, etc., on the other hand requiring an adaptation of professional activities and behaviors in the virtual environment (m.a.). a positive effect of the virtualization of social space is represented by the possibility of communicating with people at a distance, people with whom otherwise the interviewed persons are less often connected when the activity takes place mainly in the physical environment. some interviewees indicated that they keep in touch with those close to them through social networks, as it is impossible for them to meet them physically, due to the isolation and self-isolation measures imposed (a.s.b.). in such times of lockdown, when socializing actions are transferred to the online environment, physical distances are suppressed by online communication, and physical proximity is no longer necessary to maintain or rediscover relationships. i've talked to all the people i've probably never talked to so often before, or i've never talked to so many (a.m.). 13. protection and reporting measures during the pandemic, proposed by the interviewees according to some measures imposed publicly by the authorities, the interviewees also emphasized the importance of preventive testing for the detection of infected, but asymptomatic people, the existence of disinfectants and hygiene products (these measures are already in place and in every public space disinfectants are made available to people, but at the time of the interview, in romania there was a shortage of disinfectants, which were missing from the market – a.n.), of drastically limiting public meetings and events (b.s.a.). there have been rumors that there is a need to improve triage measures in hospitals or care centers (b.r.). some interviewees recommended that everyone stay calm and lucid (d.m.c.) in order to be able to more easily overcome problems during this period. religious experience, but also daily routines are other measures that social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 189 individuals consider useful to reduce the psychological effects of the pandemic, which may be associated with methods to reduce the biological effects of virus transmission. an interesting suggestion for overcoming stress during this period is to write down thoughts, ideas, experiences lived during the pandemic in the form of a diary: i wrote on paper what bothered me and so i can say that i did not fall on my knees out of fear (i.e.). another solution to overcoming stress and anxiety caused by a pandemic is the presence of pets (b.a.). 14. pandemic and coronavirus conspiracy theories there are people who say they are convinced of the non-existence of the sars-cov-2 virus and the disease it causes, and the so-called "pandemic" is, in their view, a global conspiracy: it is nothing more than a worldwide conspiracy. it is a total invention, this virus does not exist (v.c.). consistent with his own point of view, the person shows that he refuses to comply with the protection measures imposed by the authorities and violates the quarantine. in the public debate, especially in the alternative media and on social networks, the acceptance or denial of the existence of the virus becomes a fact of faith expressed by phrases such as "i believe / do not believe in covid". this attitude towards covid-19 is related to the trust in science, the authorities and the various sources of information to which the individual has access. the existence of inexplicable elements or that are incorrectly explained by the authorities, contradictory messages and radical prevention measures, which seem to be overestimated compared to the perceived situation in the immediate vicinity of people, which is in contrast to that presented by the media, makes those who, for various reasons, show distrust in the authorities, adhere to denialist views, conspiracy theories, which question the existence of the virus or, on the contrary, places it in the category of weapons of mass destruction, used by occult forces to reduce population etc. among the interviewees there are some that consider the covid-19 virus is a biological weapon designed to reduce the number of people in the world (l.c.). the interviewee comes to this conclusion precisely because of the way the virus spreads, which allows it to spread its traces very quickly and thus endanger the entire universe (l.c.). indeed, there is a widespread tendency among those who are followers of various conspiracy theories about this virus to hyperbolize the spread of the virus to give weight to their claims, the global spread being extrapolated to the entire universe. the idea that this virus is of synthetic origin is widespread, being maintained even by statements of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 190 some political officials, influential people in the media, but also representatives of the medical community. another approach, which may be related to conspiracy theory, is that the measures taken by the authorities are not really aimed at reducing the number of infected people, but at generating and exacerbating the already existing economic and social crisis (l.c.). the idea of the virus, but also of the crisis caused by the pandemic, in general, is put by some interviewees on the existence of an unconventional war either between the great powers of the world or between supranational organizations that use biological terrorism and biological weapons, possibly out of control, to generate panic and to create economic, political, but also military instability globally. this position is sometimes accentuated by the idea of reducing the population, a common idea in many conspiracy theories, but there are also answers that underline the economic impact of this crisis, which generates economic and political instability, and may even lead to a new world order (d.s.), to restoring the military balance, but especially economically, globally: this virus was designed to affect the world economy (p.i.4). the contradictory nature of the news in the media and especially in the new media has upset public opinion, making the infodemia or epidemic of fake news sometimes considered more serious than the pandemic itself. censorship of communication on various online channels, under the pretext of "violating community standards", has been applied to some voices in science and politics, the case of censoring donald trump's speeches being eloquent. although the measure of censoring messages that generate anarchy and panic is beneficial to a certain extent and absolutely necessary to achieve social balance in a time of crisis, large sections of the population have felt the return of censorship, and especially citizens of former communists countries associate it with left or right dictatorships (n.g.). 15. perception of the pandemic regarding the general perception of the pandemic, which the interviewees experienced, it refers to issues such as severity, impact, emotional referral, lifestyle changes, all of which are included in other specific categories or subcategories. in this category, we have retained those references to the perceptions of the subjects that could not be included in other categories, but which we cannot ignore, due to the informational load on how the subjects create a meaning on the situation they face. we notice an interpretive adrift of some concepts that the subjects perceive as social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 191 ambivalent, in terms of their relation to the pandemic as a life situation beyond the created psychological states, perceived or estimated effects, etc. a first such subjective perception of the pandemic concerns its violent and unexpected nature. what interests us, from the perspective of this category, is the personification of the pandemic as an almost anthropological force, which seems to be credited with its own will and its own mode of action, which leads us to think of the personification of the forces of nature in the form of gods or benevolent or evil demons: i perceived it as a storm coming out of nowhere, which struck the earth (i.e.). this subjectivized autonomy of the virus makes the subject relate to it not as a random genetic event (genetic mutation in the viral structure), but as an energy or force that makes its presence and potency felt, seeming to have a purpose obvious or imperceptible and against which a magical / mystical approach is needed, or at least an animistic one. in general, people who, consciously or not, have this tendency to totemize such topics, will be more likely to reject the scientific approach (genome sequencing, creation of a vaccine through synthetic biology, etc.). such an attitude can be understood as a "re-enchantment of the world", as a reaction to the apparent failure of technology. in a world where hidden and intentional meanings are attributed to such events, scientific neutrality is "sanctioned" as the result of a "plan" that is of an occult intentionality, thus giving way to conspiracy theories. however, in this context, we must mention that the interviewed subject quoted above, although somewhat personifying the appearance of the virus, does not refer to elements that could lead to the thought of a theory on the synthetic origin on the virus, and remains in the register of an anthropomorphization of the nature, of a magical, even shamanic battle with this invisible force (i.e.). in parallel with the animist attitude, another subjective perception of the pandemic is teleological all life events, including this pandemic, have a purpose that may or may not be deciphered. the existence of a deep, sometimes even evolutionary purpose of events or at least the belief in this existence helps the person to cope psychologically with anxiety generated by situations perceived as absurd and which the individual cannot easily oppose, such as: anxiety in in the face of death or terrible suffering, anxiety in the face of loneliness and the impossibility or limitation of communication with others, the limitation of the capacity and freedom of action, etc. all these anxieties, in the face of the various limits of the human condition, have been evoked by this pandemic, and the reaction of assigning it a purpose, along with an intention, helps people who adhere to the faith in an animated universe of unseen forces divinity, subtle, demonic presences broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 192 to give meaning to events and thus to free themselves from the burden of their own ineffectiveness, placing the pandemic at the will of the universe or of some forces whose efficiency is unsuspected and unknown. a remark made by an interviewed person caught our attention, as we consider it an exercise of reflection on the essence of the human condition, when humanity is placed in a situation that seems to be extreme not so much by its dramatic dimensions, but especially by its novelty, which leaves room for imagination to create monsters or open doors to evolution, in the sense of awakening responsibility and awareness of one's place in society, as well as of a particular community in the ecosystem in which it exists. i hope that we will give up this species-specific arrogance and understand that even though we are many, almost 8 billion, we are neither so strong, nor so intelligent, nor so well organized, nor as prepared as we like to believe. (o.n.). axial coding. the theoretical model generated by the anxiety and frustration felt during the pandemic following the axial coding stage, the results obtained from the analysis of the interviews were recoded in the form of axial categories and thematic axes, which allows us to propose a theoretical model on the impact of the pandemic, from the perspective of the anguish and anxiety felt by a large part of population. 1. the analysis of the obtained results. axial coding the main axial categories we propose are: • fear generated by the perceived risks of the pandemic (high rate of morbidity and even mortality). the concept of a risk society takes into account the fact that, during this period, the subjects are more aware than previously of the risks that appear in the daily life and to which they have to adapt, for a good social functionality. the first risks highlighted were those related to one's own health and life. • distrust in the authorities' ability to manage the pandemic and the refusal of hospitalization. many of the respondents showed that they are afraid for their own health, which is why they refused to be hospitalized, even when they had suspicions confirmed or not of being infected with covid-19, because the romanian health system does not react well uner the pressure that the pandemic is placing on this system. • awareness of the increasing medicalization of society, awareness of today's society as a "risk society". the medicalized society is the society in which each of us finds ourselves as potential patients. social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 193 • distrust of the real dimensions of the pandemic and the ease of accepting fake pandemic news, amid the ambivalent attitude of the authorities. • distrust in science especially in medical science due to the appearance of contradictory news about possible treatments or therapeutic schemes, which were later invalidated. another source of mistrust in science is the partial non-compliance with ethical standards in research on human subjects when creating vaccines. • distrust in public health systems and health authorities which is due to causes such as: the lack of selection criteria for prioritizing patients, violations of patients' rights through lack of treatment, involuntary hospitalization, violations of the rights of health personnel (with direct reference to the situation of suceava county hospital); possible discrimination based on the medical condition and health, the risk of abuse related to medical practices (temperature measurement, wearing a mask); the existence of the risk of authoritarian behavior, interpreted as a "white dictatorship". all these infringements are committed in the name of the right to health and the public good, but are not sufficiently explained during public communication. • a general distrust in public authorities due to violations of rights such as the freedom of movement by closing borders, proposing a health passport, imposing quarantine including some measures insufficiently explained to the population; violations of religious freedom and freedom of conscience including a ban on attending easter services and other religious, public or private ceremonies, weddings, baptisms, funerals. • virtualization of the social space online transfer of educational, professional, medical activities. • destructuring sociability the symbolic transfer of the mask, from a simple sanitary mask to a social mask. validation of research hypotheses and (bio)ethical reflections on the medicalization of social life within the ethical discourse we have two main directions, in the first stage a normative one (which is, in fact, a component of the professional status of the corpus of medical or professional knowledge in general), while another component refers to the acceptability (ethical and, ultimately, social) of the way in which a medical phenomenon influences social life through the medicalization of society. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 194 therefore, the bioethical discourse should be outlined in a debate in the social sphere, but in which not only specialists in the medical field, but also in other branches should participate such as the sphere of public policy, that of the sociology of health and quality of life, philosophy, political science and, why not, law. we note not only the role of bioethics in times of crisis, but also the deep crisis of bioethics, which today has failed to maintain sociability, while society has failed to respect the principles of bioethics: the principle of beneficence, the principle of non-maleficience, the respect towards personal autonomy, social justice. regarding the hypotheses / assumptions from which we started in outlining the paper, following the analysis of the interviews, it is was found that: ✓ contrary to the assumption that the appearance of anxiety and anguish during the pandemic should be very common and we can detect various explicit symptoms of these conditions possible anxiety disorders -, many answers were received by which the subjects stated that they were not affected by the pandemic. later, however, some of them recounted and showed that they actually had distressing and stressful experiences during the pandemic, but did not identify them as such in the form of suffering or disturbance as the subjects did not manifest clearly symptoms of anxiety, which by externalization are perceptible both for the subject and for those close to them, because they only noticed changes in their mental state or mood, which did not affect self-expression on the outside. this can express a resistance to frustration, which would temporarily allow good coping, but which would generate long-term effects, in the form of possible phobias, resentments, etc. ✓ the main sources of anxiety highlighted were related to the interruption of daily activities, quarantine, the fact that people were forced to stay away from those close to them which is, in our view, an extension of the idea of social distancing, to limit physical proximity, to limit social communication. ✓ the hope of returning to normal is, from our point of view, the attempt to humanize the pandemic experience. the humanization of everyday life is the key goal for the post-pandemic society. in this humanization of everyday life, a particularly important element is the elimination of fear from the forefront of relating to social life. social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 195 conclusions the responsibility towards the other and towards one's own health condition is, in our opinion, a marker of the social construction of the postpandemic society as a risk society and of the accentuation of the medicalization of society, in the sense that the human condition will be perceived as a treatable disorder, and the encounter with the other will be perceived in the sense of an encounter with danger in this case, with a possible source of infection. a dissociated society generates an anxiety of the other's presence as a possible source of infection and that goes so far as to deny them the presence in the immediate vicinity, the subject itself can become the source of anxiety, which is related to an impaired quality of life in relation to health. the medicalization of society is an effect of perception on postmodern society as a risk society. in the risk society, community members are more easily aware of the various types of risks that individuals feel threatened by. when the medicalization of society becomes a mass phenomenon, one can come to the idea of medicalizing the human condition, the humanity of individuals being considered a treatable syndrome. the general conclusion of this research was that we have moved on to another epoch, based on what we call the virtualization of social space and interactions, and this virtualization affects family life. life in a medicalized society can at some point be an escape from any risks, but once it reaches its climax, it can eliminate the subjective quality of life, for the sake of a so-called objective quality, measured in an apparent state of health, translated by the absence of an acute infection, but with the permanent presence of social or psychological dysfunctions. acknowledgement the paper has been presented within the 16th world congress of bioethics (wcb) basel, switzerland, 20-22 of july, 2022 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 196 references adam, s. (2009). profesia de cadru didactic între reprezentare socială şi vocaţie individuală [the teaching profession between social representation and individual vocation]. revista de cercetare în ştiinţe ale educaţiei [journal of research in education sciences]. http://www.rcsedu.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&i d=17:profesia-de-cadru-didactic-intre-reprezentare-social-i-vocaieindividual&catid=10:sociologia-educaiei beck, u. (1992). risk society: towards a new modernity. sage. conrad, p. (2007). the medicalization of society: on the transformation of human conditions into treatable disorders.the john hopkins university press. corbin, j., & strauss, a. (2008). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (3rd ed.). sage publications. creswell, j. w. (2007). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions (2nd ed.), sage publications. dingwall, r., hoffman, l., & staniland, k. (2013). introduction. why a sociology of pandemics?. in r. dingwall, l. m. hoffman, & k. staniland (eds.), pandemics and emerging infectious diseases. the sociological agenda (pp. 1-7). wiley-blackwell. ekberg, m. (2007). the parameters of the risk society: a review and exploration. current sociology, 55(3), 343–366. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392107076080 fesmire, w. t. (2021). the social construction of covid-19 through historical comparisons to sars and other epidemics in news media coverage, 2021[unpublished doctoral thesis]. vanderbilt universitty. goulding, c. (1999). grounded theory: some reflections on paradigm, procedures and misconceptions. in k. gilbert (ed.), working paper series, wolverhampton business school, management research centre (pp. 5-25). university of wolverhampton. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.116.3233&rep =rep1&type=pdf habermas, j. (1985). the theory of communicative action, reason and the rationalization of society. beacon press. oliver-smith, a. (2022). the social construction of disaster: economic anthropological perspectives on the covid-19 pandemic. economic anthropology, 9(1), 167-171. https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12236 pfister, s. m. (2020). theorising the social definition of the corona pandemic. pandemic (im)possibilities, 1(45). https://www.europeansociology.org/europeansociologist/issue/45/discussion/f172f619-bb73-4d07-a6c5-8c31cc6dec83 http://www.rcsedu.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17:profesia-de-cadru-didactic-intre-reprezentare-social-i-vocaie-individual&catid=10:sociologia-educaieihttp://www.rcsedu.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17:profesia-de-cadru-didactic-intre-reprezentare-social-i-vocaie-individual&catid=10:sociologia-educaieihttp://www.rcsedu.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17:profesia-de-cadru-didactic-intre-reprezentare-social-i-vocaie-individual&catid=10:sociologia-educaieihttps://doi.org/10.1177/0011392107076080 https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.116.3233&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.116.3233&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12236 https://www.europeansociology.org/european-sociologist/issue/45/discussion/f172f619-bb73-4d07-a6c5-8c31cc6dec83 https://www.europeansociology.org/european-sociologist/issue/45/discussion/f172f619-bb73-4d07-a6c5-8c31cc6dec83 social construction of a pandemic. medicalization of social life… antonio sandu 197 reynolds, c. r., & kamphaus, r. w. (2013). generalized anxiety disorder. person clinical. http://images.pearsonclinical.com/images/assets/basc3/basc3resources/ dsm5_diagnosticcriteria_generalizedanxietydisorder.pdf salari, n., hosseinian-far, a., jalali, r., vaisi-raygani, a., rasoulpoor, s., mohammadi, m., rasoulpoor, s., & khaledi-paveh, b. (2020). prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among the general population during the covid-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. globalization and health, 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00589-w sandu, a. (2010). freedom as a hermeneutical pretext. revista românească pentru educaţie multidimensională, 2(3), 5-24. https://revistaromaneasca.ro/freedom-as-a-hermeneutical-pretext/ sandu, a. (2020). bioethics in crisis or a crisis of bioethics? an anthropology of the pandemic in the medicalized society. lumen. strong, p. (1990). epidemic psychology. a model. sociology of health and illness, 12, 249–260. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.ep11347150 williams, s. j., & calnan, m. (1996). the ‘limits’ of medicalization?: modern medicine and the lay populace in ‘late’ modernity”. social science and medicine, 42(12), 1609-1620. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(95)003134 yeomans, l., & bowman, s. (2021). internal crisis communication and the social construction of emotion: university leaders' sensegiving discourse during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of communication management, 25(3), 196213, https://doi.org/10.1108/jcom-11-2020-0130 http://images.pearsonclinical.com/images/assets/basc3/basc3resources/dsm5_diagnosticcriteria_generalizedanxietydisorder.pdf http://images.pearsonclinical.com/images/assets/basc3/basc3resources/dsm5_diagnosticcriteria_generalizedanxietydisorder.pdf https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00589-w https://revistaromaneasca.ro/freedom-as-a-hermeneutical-pretext/ https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.ep11347150 https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(95)00313-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(95)00313-4 https://doi.org/10.1108/jcom-11-2020-0130 brain_3_1 32 validation of a web application by using a limited number of web pages doru anastasiu popescu university of pitesti, faculty of mathematics and computer science, romania dopopan@yahoo.com maria catrinel dănăuţă school of electronics and computer science, university of southampton, united kingdom cd4g09@ecs.soton.ac.uk abstract in this paper, we are trying to introduce a method of selection of some web pages from a web application, which will be verified by using different validating mechanisms. the number of selected web pages cannot be higher than a previously established constant. the method of selection of these web pages must assure the highest possible quality of the verification of the entire application. the error detection of these web pages will automatically lead to the error detection in other pages. this fact will be realised by using an equivalence relation among the web pages of the web application. keywords: relation, algorithm, tags, verification, garwa 1. introduction in order to verify the web applications, different static or dynamic validators can be used. many of these validators can be freely used on the internet, with an online connection (for example [9], [10], [11]). most of these validators associate an execution to the verification on only one web page. from this point of view, in this paper we will introduce an equivalence relation between two web pages of a web application (which will be called in the rest of the paper wa), relation used by the authors in [1] as well, in section 1. using this equivalence relation, we can obtain a partition of the set web pages from wa and construct an undirected balanced graph associated to this partition (section 3), called garwa. by using this graph, we will introduce in section 4 a new algorithm of determining a fixed number of web pages from wa that verify wa the best. 2. defining an equivalence relation among the web pages of a web application let p = {p1, p2,..., pn} the web pages of the web application, called wa, and tg a set of unimportant tags. for example, tg can contain the tags <br>, </br>, <p>, which are often used in texts. tg can be the empty set as well. for any web page pi, le ti be the sequence of tags from pi which are not in tg (by sequence we understand that the tags are in the order they appear in pi). definition for two web pages pi and pj are in the relation ~ (written pi ~ pj) if and only if ti = tj. example next, we will consider three web pages p1, p2 and p3 that correspond to the files pag1.html, pag2.html and pag3.html respectively, with the following source code: pag1.html <html> <head> <title>web page 1</title> </head> <body> <p> picture 1 brainstorming d. a. popescu, m. c. dănăuţă validation of a web application by using a limited number of web pages 33 <img src="picture.jpg"> </body> </html> pag2.html <html> <head> <title>web page 2</title> </head> <body> <b> <p>picture 2 </p> </b> <img src="picture.jpg"> </body> </html> </body> </html> pag3.html <html> <head> <title>web page 3</title> </head> <body> <font color=red>picture 3 </font> <font size=4 color=red>picture 3 </font> </body> </html> </body> </html> let us consider tg={<p>, </p>, <b>, </b>}. then: t1=(<html>, <head>, <title>, </title>, </head>, <body>, <img src="picture.jpg">, </body>, </html>) t2=(<html>, <head>, <title>, </title>, </head>, <body>, <img src="picture.jpeg">, </body>, </html>, </body>, </html>) t3=(<html>, <head>, <title>, </title>, </head>, <body>, <font color=red>, </font>, <font size=4 color=red>, </font>, </body>, </html>). notice that t1=t2 and, consequently, p1 ~ p2, t1≠t3, so p1 is not in the relation ~ with p3. note the relation ~, defined above, is an equivalence relation. the verification of this property is immediate. using the previous note, we can determine a partition of the set of web pages p. we will call c1, c2, ..., cm the equivalence classes associated to ~ in p. this way, p=c1 ∪ c2 ∪ ... ∪ cm and ci≠ø, for any i∈ {1, 2, ..., m}. if p∈ ci, then ci={q ∈ p | q~p}, for any i∈ {1, 2, ..., m}. 3. constructing an undirected balanced graph associated to a wa next, we will use the notations from section 2. from every set ci, i∈ {1, 2, ..., m} we will select an element, that we choose to call qi (because of the method of defining these sets, it does not matter which element we choose). obviously, there will exist any j∈ {1, 2, ..., n}, such that qi=pj. the graph that we will construct will be called garwa (graph associated relation in the web application) and will have as nodes the web pages q1, q2, ..., qm. garwa will have an edge between any two nodes. the cost of an edge between the web pages qi and qj will be maximum{|ti|,|tj|}-h, where h is the length of the longest common sequence of tags from ti and tj, and |ti|, |tj| are the number of elements from the sets ti and tj, respectively. for the example in section 1, we have m=2, c1={p1, p2}, c2={p3}. the garwa of this wa has two nodes corresponding to the web pages q1=p1 and q2=p3. the cost of the only edge in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 garwa is equal to 4=12-8, because the biggest length of a common sequence from t1 and t3 is 8 (such a sequence is written in bold in t1 and t3) and maximum{|t1|, |t3|}=maximum{9,12}=12. t1=(<html>, <head>, <title>, </title>, </head>, <body>, <img src="picture.jpg">, </body>, </html>) t3=(<html>, <head>, <title>, </title>, </head>, <body>, <font color=red>, </font>, <font size=4 color=red>, </font>, </body>, </html>). figure 1 shows the garwa for this example. 4. algorithm of determining the web pages that will be used to verify the wa using the notations from sections 2 and 3, we will consider a natural number, different from 0, k≤m. we are intending of determining k from the web pages in the wa that will lead to a better verifying of wa. the quality of the verification of a wa, by using exactly k web pages, can be thought of from two points of view: i) the maximisation of the number of web pages that will implicitly be verified (by verifying a web page qi from ci, we practically implicitly verify all the web pages in ci) ii) the maximisation of the number of verified tags in all the web pages of the wa. the first criterion has been introduced in [1] by the authors. we will next deal with criterion ii). in order to solve this problem, we propose a greedy algorithm. note because of the method of defining the cost of an edge in the garwa, we note the fact that if we want to maximise the number of verified tags by verifying two web pages, we need to choose from the garwa two nodes i and j with the property that the cost of [i,j] is maximum. by using the previous note, our problem is reduced to determining a set m with k nodes from garwa, with the property that the sum of the edges’ cost with both ends in m is maximum. example for the next garwa (see figure 2): 1 2 44 garwa figure 2 80 56 90 82 67 95 40 40 92 5 4 3 1 2 4 garwa figure 1 d. a. popescu, m. c. dănăuţă validation of a web application by using a limited number of web pages 35 if we consider k=3, then m={2, 3, 5}, because the sum of the edges’ cost [2,3], [2,5] and [3,5] is maximum, as in 92+95+82=269. algorithm step 1. we determine one member from each equivalence class c1, c2, …, cm, called q1, q2, …, qm. step 2. we construct the undirected graph gaewa, more precisely we determine a matrix c=(cij)i,j=1,2,…,m, where cij is the cost of the edge [i,j]; if i=j, cij=0. step 3. if k=1, then m�{i}, where i is chosen such that ci1+ci2+…+cim=maximum. step 4. if k>1, then: we determine i si j with cij = maximum and m�{i,j}. for r=1,k-2 do we determine a node x∉ m, x∈ {1,2,...,m}, with the property that the sum of the edges’ costs with an end in x and the other one in the set m is maximum. m�m ∪ {x} end for step 5. by using existing validators, such as [9], [10], [11] or the applications introduced in [7], [8], we verify the web pages in the set m. notes 1. the operation of determining the equivalence classes involves verifying the relation ~ between any two web pages of the wa and, consequently, has a complexity of o(n 2 ·a), where a is the maximum number of characters from a file which contains a web page from the wa. 2. constructing the matrix c involves using an algorithm which determines the maximum length for a common sequence associated to two sequences of tags (by using dynamic programming method in [2], there is introduced such an algorithm), the complexity being of the order o(m 2 ·b 2 ), where b is the maximum number of tags from a web page in the wa. 5. conclusions and future work simplifying the method of verification and testing of the web applications and maximising the quality of the verification is the principal objective for the time being. we consider that the method we describe in the previous sections is an important step in this matter and, by combining the present techniques of verification and testing with the mode of reducing the objects that need to be tested we can obtain very good results in obtaining web application of very good quality that function correctly. we believe that this idea of selecting certain components from a web application can be developed by using other methods of comparison among the components (that can use notion as those introduces in [3], [4], [7]). 5. references [1] catrinel maria dănăuţă, doru anastasiu popescu, (2009), method of reduction of the web pages to be verified when validating a web site, buletin ştiinţific, universitatea din piteşti, seria matematică şi informatică, nr. 15, pg 19-24. [2] cormen t.h., leiserson c.e., rivest r.l., stein c. (1990), introduction to algorithms, second edition, mit press [3] doru anastasiu popescu, (2009), testing web application navigation based on component complexity, buletin ştiinţific, universitatea din piteşti, seria matematică şi informatică, nr. 15, pg 107-118. [4] mao cheng-ying, lu yan-sheng (2006), a method for measuring the structure complexity of web application, wuhan university journal of natural sciences, vol. 11, no. 1 [5] samir khuller, anna moss, joseph (seffi) naor (1999), the budgeted maximum coverage problem, wuhan university journal of natural sciencesinformation processing letters, 70, pg.39-45 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 [6] g. sreedhar, a.a. chari, v.v. ramana (2010), measuring qualitz of web site navigation, journal of theoretical and applied information technology, vol. 14, nr. 2. [7] zhao cheng-li, yi dong-yun (2004), a method of eliminating noise in web pages by style tree model and its applications, wuhan university journal of natural sciences, vol. 9, no. 5 [8] zhongsheng qian, huaikou miao, hongwei zeng (2008), a practical web testing model for web application testing, third international ieee conference on signal-image technologies and internet-based system, ieee [9] alpine html doctor: http://www.alpineinternet.com/ [10] validone html/xhtml/… http://www.validome.org/ [11] w3c markup validation service http://validator.w3.org/ ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 252-276 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/366 submitted: august 10th, 2022 | accepted for publication: september 19th, 2022 sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and augmented reality for brain anatomy assessment emre dandil 1 , zafer serin 2 , yeşim şenol 3 1 assoc. prof. phd department of computer engineering, faculty of engineering, bilecik seyh edebali university, bilecik, turkey. emre.dandil@bilecik.edu.tr 2 msc student department of computer engineering, institute of science, bilecik seyh edebali university, bilecik, turkey. 3 prof. dr. md department of medical education, faculty of medicine, akdeniz university, turkey. abstract: many application areas for augmented reality (ar) and virtual reality (vr) emerged with the technological advances. these technologies, which initially appeared in sectors such as entertainment and games, are now widely used in the field of health care. in this study, a traditional simulator named sabas is designed with its all components to be used in the training of brain anatomy. the designed simulator is equipped with ar and vr supported innovative e-learning technologies in order to examine and learn the structure of the human brain, whose anatomical structure and functioning is complex, using 3d models in anatomy education. this smartphone-aided application is achieved a high level of success in examination of brain anatomy with the additional features such as interface design and application usability. after the cornerstones of this designed prototype application are presented, the required suggestions are obtained from experts and healthcare professionals and it is observed that the application worked with maximum efficiency. in the study, the effectiveness of the vr and ar aided sabas mobile application simulator, developed to teach the anatomical structure of the brain, is evaluated based on the experiences of 30 participants who wanted to voluntarily participate in the study. keywords: brain anatomy; anatomy education; training simulator; virtual reality; augmented reality; mobile application. how to cite: dandıl, e., serın, z., & şenol, y. (2022). sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and augmented reality for brain anatomy assessment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 252-276. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/366 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/366 mailto:emre.dandil@bilecik.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/366 sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 253 introduction today, many organs in the human body are modeled in 3d for anatomy education. in addition, the organs modeled as 3d can be transferred to the computer and presented or staged in integration with the real world due to augmented and virtual reality technologies (tatar et al., 2019). one of the cornerstones of learning the anatomical structures in our body is to create mental models of anatomical structures and to understand the spatial relationships between each other (aziz et al., 2002). today, 2d and static images printed in books lack a better representation of scientific concepts and they may cause limitation to meaningful learning. therefore, computer-aided new technologies and different learning materials are required to promote a better understanding. from this perspective, interactive digital graphics applications help the teaching-learning and knowledge discovery process of concepts, contents and skills that can be gained through practice, due to the fact that they encourage self-learning. these processes are generally complemented by training resources, auxiliary equipment and training simulators supported by ar and vr technologies. ar is defined as the concept of digitally superimposing virtual objects over physical objects in the real world. in the display of virtual objects created with ar, it is possible to display them using a marker, a projection, or without using any markers (gannis, 2017; mekni & lemieux, 2014). vr is an effective way of visualizing, managing and interacting with extremely complex data in a virtual scene created with the help of computers (boas, 2013; isdale, 1998; wexelblat, 2014). simulation-based trainings are mostly provided with the help of vr, ar technologies and interactive solutions that provide tactile feedback (ruthenbeck & reynolds, 2015). vr and ar-based medical training simulators have many advantages in terms of teaching styles as they simulate the real environment. the success of education can be increased with these technologies. for example, with a medical training simulator, the motion of the surgical equipment can be recorded and imitated, more precise measurements can be made, and the damages that can be given to the similar anatomical structures can be foreseen. in addition, simulation-based training has significant economic benefits. for example, trainee surgeons can practice numerous exercises on simulated patients without the need for a cadaver or a very expensive and limited animal model (coles et al., 2010). moreover, simulation-based trainings are not affected by the limitations of the instructor‟s capacity in traditional teaching methods due to their contribution such as hardware quality and software capacity. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 254 learning through “trial and error” or “seeing, hearing, doing” in medical education is replaced by innovative approaches that enable the development of critical thinking and decision-making in clinical care, effective communication and problem solving skills. medical, biomedical engineering, and healthcare students who want to learn about human anatomy often use auxiliary equipment such as textbooks, solid 3d organ models, texts, visual images, and sculptures. however, these auxiliary tools are generally insufficient, do not allow making more practices on them and are highly costly. in addition, students also benefit from cadavers, which is a proven and effective learning method that enables learning by experience with the help of surgeries for practical applications. however, learning on cadavers is more costly and more complex than learning on a 3d model. in addition, due to the lack of sufficient number of cadavers, students often practice in groups and cannot find the opportunity to practice on their own. in this case, it becomes inevitable to avoid such complexity and to use a less costly ar, vr supported mobile application and to practice and experience on the developed application. an application offering these supports will shorten the learning time of students and provide practical learning with the use of an application that can be accessed from anywhere instead of cadavers that are difficult to access and examine (kurniawan & witjaksono, 2018). in addition to being frequently used in areas such as communication, socializing, gaming and obtaining information, mobile devices have been widely used in the medical field in recent years as an auxiliary learning resource and practice tool with interactive applications for the presentation of learning content. since new technologies also target mobile platforms, the use of mobile devices in academic education has been increasing. especially in recent years, the use of mobile devices in content sharing has increased rapidly (boruff & storie, 2014). since especially mobile phones are accessible from everywhere regardless of country, city and social and economic differences, it is clear that practicing the teaching using the developed applications is preferred as an effective teaching method (jones et al., 2010). for example, popovic et al. (popović et al., 2016) developed a testing tool for a school and analyzed this mobile educational application. as a result of the tests carried out, they revealed that the mobile application was a very effective auxiliary resource. in addition, the results showed that the total success rate in the term in which this method was used was higher compared to the term in which this method was not used. in some similar studies (huang & chiu, 2015; khachan & özmen, 2019), it was concluded that the developed mobile applications should have a simple interface, provide sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 255 interaction between students, provide a problem environment that can be solved, and receive feedback in real time in order to be appealing for a wider target group. in a study conducted by wang (wang, 2017) the researcher added the mobile support function to the flipped learning system, and demonstrated the benefits it provided in subjects such as engagement in the lesson, interaction with the teacher, problem solving ability, and critical thinking. mobile applications facilitate teaching. besides, it is seen that ar and vr supported studies have been also proposed in the field of health care. for example, in their study safi et al. (safi et al., 2010) proposed that ar could be used to treat skin cancer or to prevent disease progression. in their study, they followed the changing lesions based on professional images and texts previously obtained with ar systems. on the other hand, parkes et al. (parkes et al., 2009) developed a mixed reality simulator to be used in the training of veterinarians. in the simulator, haptic devices were positioned both side of a modified toy cat, and virtual models of the chest and some abdominal contents were superimposed on the physical model. when the literature is examined, it is seen that there are some studies supported by ar and vr to facilitate the teaching of the anatomical structure of the human body. blum et al. (blum et al., 2012) developed an ar application and by using it, they tracked the pose of a user standing in front of a large display using a depth camera and facilitated the teaching of human anatomical structure. in a similar study, jamali et al. (jamali et al., 2015) developed mobile prototype learning environment that utilizes augmented reality for learning human anatomy. this mobile-based application run on the android tablet platform and cannot provide crossplatform support. besides these studies, there are systems that are used for liver resection and suggest using the vein tree and hepatic vein structure for liver resection (bourquain et al., 2002; reitinger et al., 2006). in other anatomy-based studies, goswami et al. (goswami et al., 2010) and rhienmora et al. (rhienmora et al., 2010) developed a simulator for dental anatomy, dental extraction and operational processes. there are not many studies in the literature on teaching the anatomical structure of the central nervous system and surgical organs, especially of the brain, using mobile application, auxiliary educational tools supported by ar and vr technologies. lemole et al. (lemole jr et al., 2007), developed a vr-assisted simulator that provides feedback with haptic devices on central nervous system surgery. in the anatomical environment created on computed tomography images, students carried out practical applications with realistic, visual and haptic features. in another study broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 256 conducted on the brain, rose et al. (rose et al., 2005) proposed a vrassisted method for the treatment of brain damage. in their studies, they found that using vr would be beneficial in cases of brain damage such as memory deficits, attention deficits and executive dysfunction. although anatomy education should be given in a practical way, traditional methods are used in teaching brain diseases and teaching the anatomical structure of brain. cadavers are the most important teaching materials used in traditional anatomy education; however this process is difficult and expensive. in addition, using cadavers for learning the specific anatomical regions such as the brain may be insufficient in some cases. with the development of three-dimensional (3d) medical imaging techniques after the 2000s, computer aided alternative methods have been used in anatomy education. in recent years, technological advances in imaging techniques have encouraged the simulation-based anatomy training. in addition, simulations have been widely used in medical education courses. however, the anatomical structure and examination of the human brain is more difficult than in other regions. in addition, it is very difficult to reach these parts for diagnosis and treatment because the skull is a bony structure. although it does not weigh much, there are many anatomical formations in the human brain. on the other hand, the pathways connecting both cerebral hemispheres and different areas of the brain, and nerve fibers of the peripheral nervous system further complicate this region. for these reasons, a holistic training simulator that presents the anatomy of the human brain and brain pathways with appropriate scenarios on 3d images is required in order to be used in medical education. when the literature on training simulators supported by virtual learning environment proposed for the brain is examined, it is seen that the studies on this issue are very limited and there is not a holistic simulator that includes scenarios of all stages and surgical interventions in the brain. in addition, many of the proposed systems can be described as theoretical studies since they are not tested in clinical settings. most of the training simulators that were previously proposed and tested under clinical setting are not preferred due to reasons such as difficulty of use, lack of innovative technologies, and not being integrated. in addition, although the use of ar and vr is still inadequate, especially in the field of health, it is seen that there have been developments and their use has increased. based on these studies, it can be argued that the use of ar and vr will be an integral part of anatomy, treatment, rehabilitation, and education, in particular. as can be understood from the previous studies, interactive education is costly. it is also observed that the number of applications developed on this subject is sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 257 inadequate. it has been found that most of the applications developed lack cross-platform support. in this study, it was aimed to eliminate such deficiencies with the proposed application. in this study, a training simulator named sabas was designed with its all components to be used in the anatomy education. the designed simulator was equipped with ar and vr supported innovative e-learning technologies in order to examine and learn the structure of the human brain, whose anatomical structure and functioning is complex, using 3d models in anatomy education. this smartphone-aided application is achieved a high level of success in examination of brain anatomy with the additional features such as interface design and application usability. after the cornerstones of this designed prototype application were presented, the required suggestions were obtained from experts and healthcare professionals and it was observed that the application worked with maximum efficiency. sabas‟s contributions to the literature with its innovative and original aspect can be listed as follows: • in this study, a holistic medical training simulator is developed in order to teach the complex structure of the brain in a top-down manner. thus, the learners learned the basic anatomical structures of the mass brain on 3d models and the learning process is aided with the prepared gamification and educational mobile software based on ar and vr. • 3d brain modules and ar and vr aided applications fulfill an important function of the medical training simulator when considered in a holistic way so that the learner can better understand the whole learning process on the brain. • in the proposed study, simulator training software compatible with mobile environments that can offer an interactive learning-by-doing simulation environment supported by ar and vr are developed for modular brain structures. • the developed medical training simulator offers detailed supportive trainings for learning the basic anatomical structures on the brain. an effective learning environment is provided by integrating the educational software that simulates the anatomical and vascular structure of the human brain in detail with vr hardware. • with this study, it is also provided to simulate the scenarios that are complex and difficult to learn on the cadaver due to the structure of the brain on the training simulator. • the simulator software also includes the application of the learned information in a realistic way and the design of e-learning infrastructures with feedback. thus, an e-learning system is created and this system is in an broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 258 infrastructure appropriate for use in medical education and postgraduate medical education. • the simulator-based medical education processes developed in this study are implemented as a pilot study on a group of doctors and students, and a holistic general evaluation is provided. thus, the standardization, adaptation and widespread use of the developed medical education simulator in medical education are realized and the errors and deficiencies are eliminated. additionally, with this study, innovative, interactive and animated educational contents presenting the usage and operating structure of the medical education simulator are prepared. the next sections of the study are organized as follows: in section ii, the software architecture, components and usage features of the sabas application are explained in detail. in section iii, the survey results that provide feedback for user experiences are evaluated. in the final section, the results obtained are emphasized and the effectiveness of sabas is discussed. methodology the methodology of the study is discussed in two parts. the first part is the development of the system and the second part is the evaluation of the system by the users. system overview in this study, a vr and ar supported mobile application simulator named sabas was developed to teach the anatomical structure of the brain. although there are many software and applications that have been developed as a desktop application that show the anatomical structure of the brain, the smartphone application, which has been supported by current technologies, is quite limited. for this reason, a mobile application that teaches the anatomical structure of the brain in an easy way has been designed to increase the level of readiness using sabas. in addition, the developed application simulator sabas contains pedagogical information similar to the textbooks on the anatomical structure of the brain in terms of terminology, representation, design and technology. the main form user interface showing the basic components of the mobile application sabas developed is presented in figure 1. sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 259 figure 1. mobile interface form showing the basic components of the mobile application (sabas). source: acquired from sabas software architecture the anatomical structure of the brain can be examined on this model using sabas, and all central nervous system organs can be seen in detail and simulated. due to its infrastructure, sabas provides learners to simulate and learn the anatomical structure of the brain in a fast and accurate way. sabas realizes the application of content with ar and vr technologies both in real time in the classroom and as offline in any environment. figure 2. 3d anatomical brain model used in the development of sabas infrastructure. source: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/eyeball-extension-neuroanatomy7d1ff51c69c04455b093bf03c67a0d40 https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/eyeball-extension-neuroanatomy-7d1ff51c69c04455b093bf03c67a0d40 https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/eyeball-extension-neuroanatomy-7d1ff51c69c04455b093bf03c67a0d40 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 260 in the developed application, the model containing the anatomical structure of the brain is presented in figure 2 and this model was obtained from sketchfab (sketchfab, 2019) platform, which offers 3d anatomical models in the web environment. the accuracy of these models of the anatomical structure of the brain has been approved by experts. the sabas mobile application has been developed with the unity3d 2018 3.5f1 version of the unity3d (unity3d, 2019) game engine. unity3d offers an environment that can be coded using c# and javascript languages. models of the anatomical structure of the 3d brain were then transferred to the unity3d platform. applications developed by unity3d have direct cross-platform support. applications developed with this tool can be output to nine different platforms, including many mobile operating systems. thus, applications developed without encountering any problems with general coding can be used on every platform, as long as libraries working on a specific platform are not used. sabas was designed in a way to run on android based mobile operating system platforms. in addition, sabas has an infrastructure that can be easily transferred to other crossplatform environments when desired. sabas includes components for both ar-supported and vr-supported simulations for the anatomical structure of the brain. vuforia libraries (vuforia, 2019) that can work as integrated with unity3d were used to create ar-supported simulations in the sabas infrastructure. besides, google vr extension was used to create vr supported simulations for sabas. figure 3. marker model of the brain developed for ar-aided simulations in sabas application. source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:brain_(png).png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:brain_(png).png sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 261 components of the sabas sabas, the smartphone-aided mobile application developed to understand the anatomical structure of the brain, was designed to be simulated in two different environments, as ar and vr environments. therefore, it was aimed to eliminate the difficulties experienced in learning the structure of the brain, which has a complex anatomical structure, by the current technological innovations. in the part of sabas which was supported with ar, the brain model that acts as a marker as seen in figure 3 was used in order to carry out detailed simulation applications in the anatomical structure of the brain. figure 4. initiation of menus with the help of the marker brain model for ar-based applications in sabas. source: acquired from sabas broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 262 figure 5. imaging all parts within the anatomical structures of the brain with the “show the brain parts” function. source: acquired from sabas in the sabas application, functions that enable anatomical simulations to be initiated in the brain were operated by providing a simple menu as shown in figure 4 in the lower right corner of the screen when the marker is seen. in this section, three functions are operated as “move mode"”, “part animation” and “show the brain parts”. as shown in figure 5, with “show the brain parts” function, all parts within the anatomical structures of the brain are shown and opened with a menu. users can select the anatomical structure of the brain that they want to examine. in addition, in this section, more than one part of the brain can be selected and interacted with these structures. one of the important features aimed with the sabas application is the visualization of the 3d views of the parts in the brain in a virtual environment for educational purposes, enabling planning before surgical procedures and reducing the training time. by the “examine the part” option presented in figure 5, any part in the brain model is examined specially and a separate scene is loaded for this part as in figure 6. in this loaded scene, there is information about the functions of the part, the 3d model of the part and its functions. in this scene, the “cutting mode” is also activated and the part is cut on a linear plane. in this part, it is aimed to make a cut similar to surgical cutting procedures. at this stage of sabas application, since the cutting process is planar, it is not sufficient in terms of surgical cutting. in this respect, the application should be developed. sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 263 figure 6. application scene and cutting mode where the anatomical structures of the brain are examined in detail. source: acquired from sabas in the sabas application, when “move mode” seen in figure 4 is selected, the rotation, location and size of the relevant anatomical structure in the brain can be changed. these functions are provided with the help of some buttons and toggles in figure 7. in this part, the anatomical structure of the brain is brought to different angles, different sizes and to a different position on the screen, providing optimum view and interaction for the user. as a result of these processes, not only the outer part of the head structure (skull), but also the parts inside it are affected by the same processes. if the head is rotated about 45°, the other parts in the head will also rotate. thus, sabas provides ease of use. these operations are conducted by taking the middle point of the head as the basis of the pivot point. the reason for this is to prevent the head structure from turning from any different point and to provide vision from the right angles. in the “move mode” environment in sabas, as shown in figure 8, when the toggle is activated, all parts displayed with the head are changed (with the help of mouse in computer environment, by touching in mobile environment). the object control here has been realized with the help of collider. thus, objects can be easily moved, resized or rotated to their next position individually or collectively. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 264 figure 7. changing the rotation, location and size of the anatomical structures of the brain in the “move mode” stage. source: acquired from sabas figure 8. activating toggle mode in “move mode” environment and changing the anatomical structures in sabas. source: acquired from sabas in sabas, when the “part animation” function presented in figure 4 is selected, an animation is activated. this animation provides the distribution of all anatomical structures of the brain shown in figure 9 in a top-down manner and in a scattered position towards the screen. in this scene, all the parts inside the head are displayed separately. sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 265 figure 9. distribution of all anatomical structures of the brain in a scattered way with the “part animation” function in sabas. source: acquired from sabas in the sabas, google vr libraries were used to support the anatomical structure of the brain with vr supported technologies. when the “vr assisted” is selected in the first main form of sabas, a transition is provided to the environment shown in figure 10. in this section, anatomical examinations can be made on the 3d anatomical model of the brain. on the vr supported stage, the anatomical parts of the brain can be examined from different angles with an auxiliary virtual reality glasses to the extent that the model allows. in this section, each part can be displayed in different positions due to the animation that functions similar to the distribution animation in the ar-supported part, which enables the anatomical structures in the brain to be opened. when any part is viewed from a maximum distance of 5 units from the vr supported stage, a panel displayed on the screen opens and information about the anatomical part is given. in addition, the vr-supported part developed in the sabas application was tested at different resolutions (maximum 1440x720 pixels) and on different devices, and it was ensured to be operated smoothly in different environments. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 266 figure 10. brain model and anatomical structures developed for vr supported simulations in sabas application. source: acquired from sabas results study participants in this study, the effectiveness of the sabas mobile application simulator, which was developed to teach the anatomical structure of the brain and supported by vr and ar, was evaluated based on the experiences of 30 participants who were wanted to voluntarily participate in the study. of these 30 participants, 6 were medical doctors, 16 were medical faculty students, and 8 were health school students. for this study, it was approved by clinical research ethics committee at the faculty of medicine of akdeniz university with the code 2012-kaek-20 that there is no scientific and ethical inconvenience. the sabas application developed for smartphones running on the android platform was shared online with the participants. in line with the guideline prepared for the installation of sabas on smart phones, the application was installed on the participants‟ phones. in addition, the process was initiated for the free download of sabas from google play, and it is estimated that it will take its place in the market in a short time. all data in questionnaire were imported into spss software package. item data distribution for questionnaire was denoted by percentages of approval. therefore, mean values with standard deviation were additionally. sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 267 assessments of the user feedbacks a questionnaire was prepared for the participants who used the sabas application and it was sent to the participants through google forms. by doing so, it was aimed to obtain the participants‟ opinions on the application. the questionnaire was prepared by the researchers by scanning the relevant literature. the questions prepared to obtain the opinions of the participants are as follows: • the design of sabas is very efficient and robust • the sabas is very helpful to simulate human brain anatomy • in my opinion the sabas can be very useable in other fields • the sabas using markers is more remarkable to use than static images • the sabas using markers are more flexible in visualizing the anatomy of the human brain • the sabas using markers is faster in understanding the human brain anatomy • the sabas is very helpful and interesting in description of each brain part • the sabas is very practical in rotating of 3d brain anatomical model • the sabas is very practical in seeing the details of brain anatomy • learning using sabas can be very practical in anatomy classes • i am very satisfied with sabas to learn human brain anatomy • overall sabas greatly aided the brain anatomy learning process table 1. percentage distribution of the responses given to the items in the questionnaire source: our own conception qid question (1) no (%) (2) rather no (%) (3) do not know(%) (4) rather yes (%) (5) yes (%) q1 the design of sabas is very efficient and robust 0 3.3 20 43.3 33.3 q2 the sabas is very helpful to simulate human brain anatomy 0 0 26.7 36.7 36.7 q3 in my opinion the sabas can be very useable in other fields 0 0 13.3 46.7 40.0 q4 the sabas using markers is more remarkable to use than static images 0 3.3 16.7 36.7 43.3 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 268 q5 the sabas using markers are more flexible in visualizing the anatomy of the human brain 0 0 13.3 40.0 46.7 q6 the sabas using markers is faster in understanding the human brain anatomy 0 0 13.3 50.0 36.7 q7 the sabas is very helpful and interesting in description of each brain part 0 0 16.7 26.7 56.7 q8 the sabas is very practical in rotating of 3d brain anatomical model 0 0 23.3 53.3 23.3 q9 the sabas is very practical in seeing the details of brain anatomy 0 0 10.0 43.3 46.7 q10 learning using sabas can be very practical in anatomy classes 0 0 6.7 43.3 50.0 q11 i am very satisfied with sabas to learn human brain anatomy 0 0 10.0 56.7 33.3 q12 overall sabas greatly aided the brain anatomy learning process 0 0 10.0 36.7 53.3 the questionnaire consists of twelve items that range between 1 and 5 as (1) no, (2) rather no, (3) do not know, (4) rather yes and (5) yes. table 1 presents the percentage distribution of the responses given to each question in the questionnaire. as can be seen in the table, the participants did not score the (1) no option for the questions in the questionnaire. on the other hand, it was obtained that only 3.3% of the participants answered as (2) rather no for the q1 and q3 items. when the total scores of the participants for the questions in the questionnaire are examined, it is seen that the participants‟ scores are mostly grouped under (4) rather yes and (5) yes options. besides, it was found that most of the participants (56.7%) answered as (5) yes to the q7 item stating that; "the sabas is very helpful and interesting in description of each brain part”. in table 2, average scores and standard deviation values for the items in the questionnaire are presented. the highest mean scores were obtained from q10, q12, q7 and q9 items. the mean values of these items sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 269 were found as 4.43, 4.43, 4.40 and 4.37, respectively. the lowest standard deviation value was obtained as 0.626 for q10 and q11 items. in addition, the total standard deviation and total mean score were calculated as 0.719 and 4.26, respectively. table 2. mean scores and standard deviation scores obtained from the questionnaire source: our own conception qid question standard deviation mean score (1-5) q1 the design of sabas is very efficient and robust .828 4.07 q2 the sabas is very helpful to simulate human brain anatomy .803 4.10 q3 in my opinion the sabas can be very useable in other fields .691 4.27 q4 the sabas using markers is more remarkable to use than static images .847 4.20 q5 the sabas using markers are more flexible in visualizing the anatomy of the human brain .711 4.33 q6 the sabas using markers is faster in understanding the human brain anatomy .679 4.23 q7 the sabas is very helpful and interesting in description of each brain part .770 4.40 q8 the sabas is very practical in rotating of 3d brain anatomical model .695 4.00 q9 the sabas is very practical in seeing the details of brain anatomy .669 4.37 q10 learning using sabas can be very practical in anatomy classes .626 4.43 q11 i am very satisfied with sabas to learn human brain anatomy .626 4.23 q12 overall sabas greatly aided the brain anatomy learning process .679 4.43 in the questionnaire, the highest mean score was obtained as 4.43 for q10 and q12 items. figure 11 shows the scores and percentage distribution of the answers given to the options by the participants for the item q10 stating that; “learning using sabas can be very practical in anatomy classes”. the findings showed that for this item, 50% of the participants broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 270 responded as (5) yes, 43.3% of them responded as (4) rather yes and 6.7% of them responded as (3) do not know. on the other hand, it was obtained that none of the participants score the options (2) rather no and (1) no for this item. the second highest mean score was obtained for q12 item stating that „overall sabas greatly aided the brain anatomy learning processes. as seen in figure 12, the percentage of the (5) yes, (4) rather yes, (3) do not know, (2) rather no options were found as 53.3% (16 participants), 36.7% (11 participants), 10% (3 participants), 0% (no participant) and 0% (no participant), respectively. figure 11. the percentage distributions of the scores for the q10 item source: our own conception figure 12. the percentage distributions of the scores for the q12 item source: our own conception in the questionnaire, the third and fourth highest scores were obtained as 4.40 and 4.37 from q7 and q9 items, respectively. as presented in figure 13, the percentage of the (5) yes, (4) rather yes, (3) do not know, (2) rather no and (1) no options were found as 56.7% (17 participants), 26.7% (8 participants), 16.7% (5 participants), 0% (0 participant) and 0% (0 sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 271 participant), respectively for q7 item. on the other hand, in figure 14, the percentage of the (5) yes, (4) rather yes, (3) do not know, (2) rather no and (1) no options were found 46.7% (14 participants), 43.3% (13 participants), 10% (3 participants), 0% (0 participant) and 0% (0 participant), respectively for q9 item. figure 13. the percentage distributions of the scores for the q7 item source: our own conception figure 14. the percentage distributions of the scores for the q9 item source: our own conception discussion mobile devices give highly successful and satisfying results in researches in the field of medicine and health. in our pilot application, most of them state that they are satisfied and benefited from the developed system (chase et al., 2018; walsh, 2015). it has also been shown that these tools help students learn better with less cognitive effort, provide learning satisfaction, and enable students to structure their knowledge to complete learning tasks (küçük et al., 2016). considering the results of studies and our study, the usage of this mobile device will contribute to managing broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 272 information for students, teaching innovation, and increasing the quality of knowledge about brain anatomy and ensuring permanence. the sabas training simulator was designed to be used in pre/postgraduation and continuing medical education. a supportive learning management system was created using appropriate innovative mobile technology in the sabas infrastructure. due to the developed sabas application, mobile teaching infrastructures were established and therefore significant contributions were made to the development and use of innovative learning strategies. optimization is of particular importance when developing a sabas type application. especially in the vr section, frame per second (fps) value should be captured. it is generally accepted to achieve the maximum fps value, but in most applications, the design is achieved based on 30 fps or 60 fps values. optimization methods to be used while developing unity3d applications also contain some differences in this respect. the simplest optimization method in such an application is to create low-poly models. although this method does not provide an optimum solution, it is one of the most important methods to increase the fps value when required. although low-poly models have the advantage of having a low number of polygons, they have fewer details. in this situation, the knowledge of the expert who has developed the model becomes prominent. while it is possible to develop models that look very good with fewer polygons, the opposite is also possible. the expert who develops the application should know these situations and choose the most suitable model. in addition, optimization can be achieved by using static objects in unity3d. objects marked as static should not be moved even if they contain an animation or script. another important optimization method that can be used in this situation is occlusion culling. with occlusion culling method, in unity3d, the objects that only camera render display on the screen and therefore many models are not displayed on the screen, which reduces the load on the program and increases the fps value. another limitation encountered in sabas application is the application of cutting process on anatomical structures. the use of dynamic mesh cut to simulate surgical cuts on anatomical structures rather than on a linear plane can eliminate this problem. in this way, solid models are degraded into their vertices (points) and are not processed as an entire model. as a result, a realistic cut appearance can be obtained. in addition, although a previously designed anatomical model will be used, this model must first be made deformable. sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 273 conclusion although there have many technological developments in the field of smart phones recently, these developments have not been fully transferred to education context using mobile devices. in this study, a training simulator named sabas was designed with its all components to be used in the anatomy education. the designed simulator was equipped with ar and vr supported innovative e-learning technologies in order to examine and learn the structure of the human brain, whose anatomical structure and functioning is complex, using 3d models in anatomy education. in this proposed study, a method that allows investigation of the anatomic structure of the brain was presented to be used in different fields, especially medicine field. for the simulator, anatomical structures showing the 3d brain structure were used in an integrated manner, and the brain structure was examined on sabas, a smartphone-aided mobile application. unlike traditional methods, ar technology can combine real and virtual objects, and vr technology can offer various interactions in a virtual world. ar and vr supported innovative, interactive, original applications that appropriate for learning was developed on the created 3d anatomical images. by the supportive educational simulation applications developed on these 3d models of the brain structure, the educational experiences that are difficult to obtain in the real environment were transferred by virtualization. although traditional methods (writing, books, cadavers, etc.) used in faculties in the field of health are effective methods, the ar and vr technologies can be good alternatives to these methods. these applications promote learning for students by enabling them to learn through interactive interactions instead of books and complex trainings. after the developed application was completed, the application was used and evaluated by a total of 30 participants, 6 of whom were medical doctors, 16 of whom were medical faculty students, and 8 of whom were students of health schools. the opinions of the participants regarding their experiences were obtained via an online questionnaire. acknowledgement the data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request. the authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. the authors received no funding for this work. the authors of the study would like to thank prof. dr. a. utku şenol from faculty of medicine of akdeniz university for confirming the accuracy of 3d models of the anatomical structure of the brain. in addition, we thank broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 274 clinical research ethics committee at the faculty of medicine of akdeniz university for approving the study in terms of ethical. references aziz, m. a., mckenzie, j. c., wilson, j. s., cowie, r. j., ayeni, s. a., & dunn, b. k. (2002). the human cadaver in the age of biomedical informatics. the anatomical record: an official publication of the american association of anatomists, 269(1), 20-32. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.10046 blum, t., kleeberger, v., bichlmeier, c., & navab, n. (2012). mirracle: an augmented reality magic mirror system for anatomy education. in proceedings of the 2012 ieee virtual reality workshops (vrw) (pp. 115-116). http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/vr.2012.6180909 boas, y. (2013). overview of virtual reality technologies. in proceedings of the interactive multimedia conference. https://www.coursehero.com/file/47603440/overview-of-vr-techpdf/ boruff, j. t., & storie, d. (2014). mobile devices in medicine: a survey of how medical students, residents, and faculty use smartphones and other mobile devices to find information. journal of the medical library association: jmla, 102(1), 22-30. https://doi.org/10.3163%2f1536-5050.102.1.006 bourquain, h., schenk, a., link, f., preim, b., prause, g., & peitgen, h. o. (2002). hepavision2 a software assistant for preoperative planning in livingrelated liver transplantation and oncologic liver surgery. in cars 2002 computer assisted radiology and surgery (pp. 341-346). berlin: springer. chase, t. j., julius, a., chandan, j. s., powell, e., hall, c. s., phillips, b. l., burnett, r., gill, d., & fernando, b. (2018). mobile learning in medicine: an evaluation of attitudes and behaviours of medical students. bmc medical education, 18(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-018-1264-5 coles, t. r., meglan, d., & john, n. w. (2010). the role of haptics in medical training simulators: a survey of the state of the art. in ieee transactions on haptics, 4(1), 51-66. https://doi.org/10.1109/toh.2010.19 gannis, c. (2017). the augmented selfie. in proceedings of the electronic visualisation and the arts (eva 2017). (pp. 319-326). http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/eva2017.66 goswami, p., schlegel, p., solenthaler, b., & pajarola, r. (2010). interactive sph simulation and rendering on the gpu. in proceedings of the proceedings of the 2010 acm siggraph/eurographics symposium on computer animation (pp. 55-64). http://dx.doi.org/10.2312/sca/sca10/055-064 huang, y. m., & chiu, p. s. (2015). the effectiveness of a meaningful learning‐ based evaluation model for context‐aware mobile learning. british journal of educational technology, 46(2), 437-447. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12147 https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.10046 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/vr.2012.6180909 https://www.coursehero.com/file/47603440/overview-of-vr-techpdf/ https://doi.org/10.3163%2f1536-5050.102.1.006 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-018-1264-5 https://doi.org/10.1109/toh.2010.19 http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/eva2017.66 http://dx.doi.org/10.2312/sca/sca10/055-064 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12147 sabas: a smartphone-aided training simulator based on virtual and … emre dandil et al. 275 isdale, j. (1998). what is virtual reality. http://isdale.com/jerry/vr/whatisvr/noframes/whatisvr4.1.html jamali, s. s., shiratuddin, m. f., wong, k. w., & oskam, c. l. (2015). utilising mobile-augmented reality for learning human anatomy. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 197, 659-668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.054 jones, n., blackey, h., fitzgibbon, k., & chew, e. (2010). get out of myspace! computers & education, 54(3), 776-782. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.07.008 khachan, a. m., & özmen, a. (2019). imssap: after‐school interactive mobile learning student support application. computer applications in engineering education, 27(3), 543-552. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22096 küçük, s., kapakin, s., & göktaş, y. (2016). learning anatomy via mobile augmented reality: effects on achievement and cognitive load. anatomical sciences education, 9(5), 411-421. https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.1603 kurniawan, m. h., & witjaksono, g. (2018). human anatomy learning systems using augmented reality on mobile application. procedia computer science, 135, 80-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.08.152 lemole jr, g. m., banerjee, p. p., luciano, c., neckrysh, s., & charbel, f. t. (2007). virtual reality in neurosurgical education: part-task ventriculostomy simulation with dynamic visual and haptic feedback. neurosurgery, 61(1), 142-149. https://doi.org/10.1227/01.neu.0000279734.22931.21 mekni, m., & lemieux, a. (2014). augmented reality: applications, challenges and future trends. applied computational science, 205-214. http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cap6121/spr2020/readings/mekni2014.p df parkes, r., forrest, n., & baillie, s. (2009). a mixed reality simulator for feline abdominal palpation training in veterinary medicine. in proceedings of the mmvr (pp. 244-246). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19377159/ popović, o., marković, d. s., & popović, r. (2016). mtester mobile learning system. computer applications in engineering education, 24(3), 412-420. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.21719 reitinger, b., bornik, a., beichel, r., & schmalstieg, d. (2006). liver surgery planning using virtual reality. in ieee computer graphics and applications, 26(6), 36-47. https://doi.org/10.1109/mcg.2006.131 rhienmora, p., gajananan, k., haddawy, p., suebnukarn, s., dailey, m. n., supataratarn, e., & shrestha, p. (2010). haptic augmented reality dental trainer with automatic performance assessment. in proceedings of the proceedings of the 15th international conference on intelligent user interfaces (pp. 425-426). http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1719970.1720054 http://isdale.com/jerry/vr/whatisvr/noframes/whatisvr4.1.html https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.054 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.07.008 https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22096 https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.1603 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.08.152 https://doi.org/10.1227/01.neu.0000279734.22931.21 http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cap6121/spr2020/readings/mekni2014.pdf http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cap6121/spr2020/readings/mekni2014.pdf https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19377159/ https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.21719 https://doi.org/10.1109/mcg.2006.131 http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1719970.1720054 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 276 rose, f. d., brooks, b. m., & rizzo, a. a. (2005). virtual reality in brain damage rehabilitation. cyber psychology & behavior, 8(3), 241-262. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2005.8.241 ruthenbeck, g. s., & reynolds, k. j. (2015). virtual reality for medical training: the state-of-the-art. journal of simulation, 9(1), 16-26. https://doi.org/10.1057/jos.2014.14 safi, a., castaneda, v., lasser, t., & navab, n. (2010). skin lesions classification with optical spectroscopy. in h. liao, p. j. edwards, x. pan, y. fan & g. z. yang (eds.), proceedings of the international workshop on medical imaging and virtual reality (pp. 411-418). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-156991_43 sketchfab. (2019). home page. https://sketchfab.com/ tatar, i., huri, e., selcuk, i., moon, y. l., paoluzzi, a., & skolarikos, a. (2019). review of the effect of 3d medical printing and virtual reality on urology training with medtrain3dmodsim'erasmus + european union project. turkish journal of medical sciences, 49(5), 1257-1270. https://doi.org/10.3906/sag-1905-73 unity3d. (2019). home page. https://unity.com/ vuforia. (2019). home page. https://developer.vuforia.com/ walsh, k. (2015). mobile learning in medical education. ethiopian journal of health sciences, 25(4), 363-366. https://doi.org/10.4314/ejhs.v25i4.10 wang, f. h. (2017). an exploration of online behaviour engagement and achievement in flipped classroom supported by learning management system. computers & education, 114, 79-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.06.012 wexelblat, a. (2014). virtual reality: applications and explorations. cambridge: academic press. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2005.8.241 https://doi.org/10.1057/jos.2014.14 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15699-1_43 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15699-1_43 https://sketchfab.com/ https://doi.org/10.3906/sag-1905-73 https://unity.com/ https://developer.vuforia.com/ https://doi.org/10.4314/ejhs.v25i4.10 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.06.012 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 88-104 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/408 submitted: december 9th, 2022 | accepted for publication: december 16th, 2022 war — psychological skills for coping with traumatic events: helping ukraine yuliia rybinska1, maryna antonivska2, olha serbova3, maryna mykolaenko4, olha frolova5, olena kolpakchy6 1 doctor of science (dr hab) in education, professor, head of foreign philology department, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, julialeo1619@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2185-7890 2 lecturer, foreign philology department, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, antonivska_maryna@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4451-3735 3 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of psychology and pedagogy, national technical university of ukraine, ―ihor sikorskyi kyiv polytechnic institute‖, kyiv, ukraine, serbova_olha@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8131-7506 4 assistant, foreign philology department, kyiv national university of culture and arts, kyiv, ukraine, maryna-mykolaenko@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6495-8689 5 associate professor, department of psychology, berdiansk state pedagogical university, berdiansk, ukraine, art_divosvit@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/00000002-8942-7419 6 senior lecturer, department of psychology, berdiansk state pedagogical university, berdiansk, ukraine, kolpakchy.lena@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6455-0699 abstract: the beginning of a full-scale invаsion of russiаn troops into ukraine became a traumatic event of a powerful force for all the population of ukraine. in the fаce of cruel militаry аggression, the need to develop a comprehensive аpproach to mаintaining, preserving and restoring the psychological health of different segments of the population is becoming increasingly urgent. dаy after day is increasing the need for competent and timely psychological intervention in the preparation of people for numerous triаls. the problem of increаsing the social and adaptive capabilities of a person, which involves the development of psychologically sound and empirically proven interventions thаt would restore the psychological health of the victims due to prolonged traumatization and has interfered with further complications. this pаper examines and shows how war has changed people’s life, routine and psychological first aid. the article emphаsizes that the solution to problems with psycho-trauma lies not only in the development of the social protection system in ukraine, a network of institutions that take care of mental health issues, and the training of specialists in methods of diagnosis and psycho-correction but also in work in society to change entrenched stereotypes. people need to know more about psychological trauma, post-traumatic syndrome, and ways to provide first aid because, unfortunately, psycho-trauma is a part of life, especially nowadays. the research deeply highlights the social and emotional effects of psycho trauma and aims to develop a comprehensive approach to preserving and restoring the psychological health of the individual who has suffered from prolonged hostilities and their consequences. to achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: to develop theoretical and methodological foundations of technologies for the restoration of psychological health of personality; to investigate the technologies of social and psychological rehabilitation of participants of hostilities, internally displaced persons, and the population of ukraine, which was affected as a result of military aggression of the russian federation; identify ways of mobilizing personality resources that ensure the effectiveness of social and psychological rehabilitation. keywords: psychometric measurements; tests; determination of the level and dynamics of development; markers and components. how to cite: rybinska, y., antonivska, m., serbova, o., mykolaenko, m., frolova, o., & kolpakchy, o. (2023). war — psychological skills for coping with traumatic events: helping ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 88-104. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/408 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/408 mailto:julialeo1619@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2185-7890 mailto:antonivska_maryna@ukr.net http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4451-3735 mailto:serbova_olha@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8131-7506 mailto:maryna-mykolaenko@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6495-8689 mailto:art_divosvit@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8942-7419 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8942-7419 mailto:kolpakchy.lena@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6455-0699 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/408 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 89 introduction "this war, even after it ends with our victory, will "play" on the psyche for at least the next 7-10 years. if we shorten this period or alleviate the consequences, it will be another great victory that we have to win" olena zelenska, first lady of ukraine unfortunately, emergencies are part of our daily lives. various tragic events are taking place in the world: wars, natural disasters, accidents, fires, and interpersonal violence. individuals, families, and entire communities can be displaced. people lose their homes and loved ones, find themselves separated from their families and familiar surroundings, or witness violence, destruction, and death. recently, the number of various conflicts and disasters has been increasing in the world, which undoubtedly has a huge impact on a person health and psyche. the аmerican psychologist r. emmons (erichsen, 1867) defines modernity аs the "century of trаumа" since trаumа and suffering are traced when describing almost every unpleasаnt event. according to researchers' estimates, for exаmple, in the usа, 60% of people experience at leаst, one such event throughout life, and 17% of men and 13% of women experience three or more trаumatic events (friedman, 2016). of course, in the "hot spots" of the globe, the frequency of such events is much higher – in countries such as аlgeria, cambodia, and iraq, it is estimated at 92%. ukrainian statistics today are also extremely high because one can only imagine how many events of a "massively traumatic nature" have occurred in the history of ukrаine at least in the last century, and the psychosocial traumas caused by them: famine, war, repressions, chornobyl, maidan, armed conflicts, population displacement, but the russian-ukrainian war is now the most important stress factor. today, the society of our country and the whole world are faced with an unprecedented case of audacity, brutality, and ruthlessness in modern history – a full-scale war on the territory of a peaceful country, which is the center of europe. ukraine is experiencing a complex socioeconomic and political situation, complicated by the ongoing conflict in donbas, military events that began on february 24, 2022, a total blackout, migration does not stop, families have lost loved ones, housing tens of thousands of people were forced to move to other countries or safer regions. now, the situation has become even more complicated due to an war — psychological skills for coping with traumatic events: helping ukraine yuliia rybinska et al. 90 almost total blackout throughout the country which is the result of the critical infrastructure bombing by russian missiles. military events in ukraine have become a stress, an important psycho-traumatic factor that severely affects the health of the population: living in a war zone, direct participation in military events, battles, bodily injuries; loss of relatives, housing and work; the uncertainty of the situation with the impossibility of predicting one's future and the future of one's family. post-traumatic stress disorder is a ticking time bomb that will inevitably manifest itself in months and years it will hit the entire country, the nation, because men and women from 18 to 60 years of age are fighting in ukraine, that is, combat-capable, reproductive parts of the country's population, children, youth, ordinary people who are not directly involved in hostilities also feel the effects of war on their mental health. "every day, the number of people who will experience consequences for their mental health will increase. even those who were able to withstand the first months of the war will suffer mental exhaustion because getting used to being in a constant war can also harm mental health. according to our preliminary forecаsts at the moment of the wаr, about 15 million ukrаinians will need psychologicаl support in the future, of which about 3-4 million will need to be prescribed medical treatment," said minister of health viktor liashko, presenting the results of the express audit of services for the mental health care provided by state authorities (liashko, 2022). if we talk about international studies, according to the dаta of the world heаlth organization, every fifth person living in a zone of military conflicts has problems with mentаl heаlth. however, for 9% of the population, these consequences will be at the level of moderate or severe disease. the vast majority of people in modern society are under the stress influence. the time in which we live increases the mental activity of people. this is due to the need to assimilate and process a large amount of information. that is why the problem of emotional stress arises, that is, tension and overstrain of the body's physiological systems under the influence of emotional factors. in the face of war and the long-term constant threat of terrorism, the ukrainian people feel extremely intense emotions. such events as war affect everyone to one degree or another, but the spectrum of possible reactions and emotions is very wide. mаny feel overwhelmed, thrown off track, or don't understand what's going on. people feel fear or anxiety and may fall into numbness or apathy. some show weak reactions, and others are more severe. however, the possibilities of adaptation (psychological, physiological, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 91 social) to such conditions sooner or later are exhausted, which contributes to the growth of post-trаumatic stress disorder (ptsd). the intense feelings of anxiety, anger, and sadness common to most people are healthy and normal responses to combat events. but some individuals may have much deeper reactions to combat that disrupt their psychological health. the way a person reacts is influenced by many factors, including the nature and severity of the experienced event; experienced traumatic events in the past; availability of external life support; physical health; the presence of mental health disorders in a person or his family (including in the past); cultural roots and traditions; age. everyone has strengths and capabilities that help them cope with life's problems. at the same time, experience shows that people who feel that they have received good social support cope better after a crisis than those who feel that they have not received enough support. that is why it is so important to provide correct first aid in emergencies. so, stress, and traumatic events are present in the life of every person, since the presence of stressful impulses in all spheres of human life and activity is undeniable. eradicating or fighting stress is pointless. but it is within our power to learn to adapt to it and to influence our state of mind to learn to differentiate elementary failure from disaster. and the most important task for everyone is to turn stress into a resource for self-improvement. to successfully cope with stress reactions and prevent distress, it is worth studying yourself in more detail, working on yourself, and getting to know yourself. after all, each of us has our characteristics of reactions to stressors. we all differ in our sensitivity to stressors. each of us has an individual reactivity to stress reactions. yes, we all recover from stressful situations at different speeds and with different qualities. the events of recent months in ukraine and the extremely complex socio-political situation in society have shown the need for socialpsychological protection and psychological assistance for both children and individual adults, as well as for entire social groups. preventive psychological assistance is the most effective means of preventing the negative impact of severe mental trauma on a person's mental health. the development of methodological recommendations (complex of measures) for primary and secondary prevention of ptsd (post-traumatic stress disorder) and rehabilitation of victims is one of the urgent problems of modern psychology, especially in the current realities of ukraine. the prevalence of ptsd in the population depends on the frequency of the extraordinary events. war — psychological skills for coping with traumatic events: helping ukraine yuliia rybinska et al. 92 according to the doctor of science in education, professor yuliia rybinska ―prevention should be carried out when there are no particular difficulties and complications in behavior, life, and activities. this is preventive work, which is aimed at the future. important areas of psychological prevention are the prevention of stressful and post-stressful states, prevention of excessive psychological tension in a society experiencing crisis phenomena‖ (rybinska, 2018). the purpose of this article is development of a comprehensive approach to the preservation and restoration of the psychological health of an individual who suffered as a result of prolonged military operations or wars. in order to achieve the set purpose, it was necessary to solve the following tasks: to develop the theoretical and methodological foundations of technologies for restoring the psychological health of an individual; to research the technologies of social and psychological rehabilitation of combatants and internally displaced persons; determine methods of mobilizing personal resources that ensure the effectiveness of social and psychological rehabilitation. the tasks of the research are the methodological principles development for the restoration of the individual psychological health, the development of social and psychological rehabilitation technologies, and the determination of resource modes that increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation effects. the method of phenomenological analysis of individual and group counseling interventions, survey methods, in-depth and contextual interviews, and case studies were used. scientific and methodical justification psychologists-researchers who work in the field of personality health pay much attention to the forms of organization of social support for a person affected by traumatization, ways of working with ptsd, overcoming stigmatization (crone et al., 2020; klymchuk, 2018; winkler et al., 2017), the role of culture in the formation of health renewal practices (jodelet, 2017). the problem of a complex renewable impact on human health, which has participated in military conflicts, is the focus of nato psychologists. each country provides military and civilian professional psychological support aimed at early detection of deviations and facilitating their return to normal activities. psychological health support groups usually consist of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses and chaplains, between which no consensus has been reached for the distribution of spheres of influence. psychological decompression measures, special trainings aimed at preparing citizens to return home are widespread. as the analysis of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 93 hostilities in afghanistan shows, the most modern preventive work involves strengthening in the military context of vitality, self -regulatory skills, independence, initiative. important new developments include the increase in the role of the social leader, which actively influences the motivation, thinking and coping of the combatants, restoring their psychological health (vermetten et al., 2014). in a recently conducted systematic inspection of almost 600 sources on the well-being of people who have survived a catastrophe (and the war is certainly a long-term catastrophic event), british scientists have revealed the influence of such social and psychological factors as precarasrophic (life events, health), pericatastrophic (peritraumatic experience, safety, trauma), social (organizational support, social support in general) and post -catrophic (impact on later life) (brooks, dunn, amlot, rubin & greenberg, 2017). taking these factors, and especially the pericatrophic, most relevant in the ukrainian realities today, will certainly contribute not only to overcoming post -traumatic stressful states, but also to improving the wellbeing of various layers of the population. ambiguity in the understanding of the nature of stress and traumatic events has led to differences in views on their essence, to differences in interpretations of the phenomenon of stress. the phenomenon of stress has become the object of research by many scientists. the content of the concept of stress has undergone significant changes since its appearance, which is connected with the expansion of the scope of its application and a more detailed study of various aspects of the problem. to date, there is no exact definition of stress, and the various attempts of researchers in this matter are still fragmentary and not determined. richard lazarus (1998) american psychologist, professor emeritus of the faculty of psychology at the university of berkeley, california, usa) noted that different ideas about the essence of stress. there is no settled terms in this subject area. even the definitions of stress often differ greatly. however, this situation is also characteristic of several other cardinal problems, such as adaptation, fatigue, abilities, personality, and many others. in 1972, the world health organization adopted the following definition: stress is a nonspecific (that is, the same to different stimuli) reaction of the body to any demand placed on it. stress is a response to a threat, real or imagined. thus, according to v. suvorova (2010), stress is "a functional state of the body that arose as a result of an external negative influence on its mental functions, nervous processes, or the activity of peripheral organs." in one of the subjects from the "higher nervous activity" course, stress is war — psychological skills for coping with traumatic events: helping ukraine yuliia rybinska et al. 94 defined as "tension that occurs when threatening or unpleasant factors appear in a life situation." in contemporary scientific literature, the expression "stress" is used in at least three meanings: first, the concept of stress can be defined as any external stimuli or events that cause tension or excitement in a person. nowadays, the terms "stressor" and "stress factor" are more often used in this sense. secondly, stress can refer to a subjective reaction and in this sense, it reflects an internal mental state of tension and excitement; this state is interpreted as emotions, defensive reactions, and coping processes occurring in the person himself. such processes can promote the development and improvement of functional systems, as well as cause mental tension. thirdly, stress can be a physical reaction of the body to demand or harmful influence. the function of these physical (physiological) reactions is probably to support behavioral actions and mental processes to overcome this condition. to clarify the concept of stress, scientists formulated two main provisions. first, terminological confusion and contradictions in the definition of the concept of "stress" can be eliminated if, when analyzing psychological stress, one takes into account not only externally observed stressful stimuli and reactions, but also some psychological processes related to stress for example, the evaluation process threats secondly, the stress reaction can be understood only taking into account the protective processes generated by the threat physiological and behavioral systems of reactions to the threat are related to the internal psychological structure of the individual, its role in the subject's desire to cope with this threat. main part of the article the modern reality is an inexhaustible source of trauma situations, which are understood as extreme critical events and threat situations that have a powerful and negative impact on an individual and require extraordinary efforts to overcome the consequences of this impact (tarabrina, 2001). they can take the form of unusual circumstances or some events that expose an individual to an extreme, intense, extraordinary impact of a threat to the life or health of both himself and his loved ones and fundamentally violate the sense of security. the difficulty of studying traumatic situations is that their number and sources are multi-dimensional. therefore, they are defined as situations that threaten human life or may lead to serious physical injury; interconnected with the perception of physical violence against other people; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 95 have a relation to exposure or information about exposure to harmful environmental factors (labezna, 2004). according to the above-mentioned statements, we may state that the war broke into our lives, causing many changes, mostly destructive and caused by various factors: direct, such as experiencing the war itself and its consequences, and indirect, such as the effects of bombings, air raids, economic effects of job loss, psychological: consequences of the transition to remote forms of work and training, the disappearance of light (blackouts), the general state of uncertainty. all these consequences will be investigated and are already being studied, so in-depth studies are currently being conducted and the preliminary results of the study of the short-term consequences of the war are being highlighted. thus, in most of the studies, it is noted that there is an increase in various fears, constant anxiety, feelings of frustration and boredom, loneliness, depression, ptsd, changes in lifestyle, and difficulties in adaptation, as well as the increase in the number of mental disorders in the population, the deterioration of the condition of those who already had mental disorders. the war in ukraine is resulting in a devastating loss of life, catastrophic injuries, and physical destruction. but the war will also take an enormous mental health toll on millions of people, resulting in what could be thought will lead to an epidemic of posttraumatic stress disorder (robert, 2022). "any stress is a way to a new you," say psychologists. thus, in the problem-oriented considerations of how to survive in conditions of war and stress, the following statements can be noticed; "...stress, in general, is quite an interesting thing on the one hand, quite harmful, on the other quite helpful, if you know how to use it. ... chronic stress and post-stress disorders... are a very common phenomenon. as they say, there are no healthy people, only the unexamined‖. to solve the tasks, the scientific team of the authors used the method of phenomenological analysis of individual and group counseling interventions and survey methods (the ukrainian version of the posttraumatic growth questionnaire, developed by r. tadeschi and l. calhoun, adapted by m. sh. magomed-eminov (2014), in-depth and contextual interview. the interpretation of the results was carried out using the procedures of content and narrative analysis and qualitative analysis of creative products. war — psychological skills for coping with traumatic events: helping ukraine yuliia rybinska et al. 96 technologies for restoring the psychological health of an individual based on the study results, it was determined that the long-term military trauma consequences should be analyzed in the full range: from negative (ptsd, decrease in the level of the individual psychological health) to positive (post-traumatic growth, life creation activation). negative consequences are manifested at the socio-psychological level as a decrease in the tendency to cooperate, the ability to empathize, and a drop in trust in the world; at the value-semantic level as a loss of the ability to find new life perspectives, difficulties in making sense of experience, a decrease in the ability to get pleasure from everyday life; at the individual psychological level as an experience of splitting, violation of integrity, destructive changes of identity, weakening of the need for self-realization, balance reduction, adaptability. accordingly, the main condition for maintaining psychological health is the individual's readiness to creatively construct life. the means of restoring psychological health should be social-psychological rehabilitation as a complex process of revitalizing life and increasing subjective well-being. the individual's ability to manage life is based on the readiness restoration for self-transformation and the implementation of updated projects of the future in the family, personal, and professional spheres. rehabilitation involves the variability of interventions, taking into account the individual life history, his resources and the nature of the injury, the possibility of restoring partially lost functions, and preventing complications. the key (integrity, self-realization, self-regulation) and auxiliary indicators of the psychological health of the individual are empirically established. auxiliary indicators should be considered at three levels: individual-psychological (creativity, balance, adaptability), valuesemantic (search for new meanings, comprehension of experience, ability to enjoy life), and socio-psychological (propensity to cooperate, ability to empathize, responsibility to society). the criteria for restoring psychological health are the available opportunities of the subjects: to achieve a higher level of personal integrity and continuity, self-belief, self-support, and self-help ability; increase selfefficacy; strengthen the need-motivational, value-meaningful resources of the individual as a source of self-change; restore constructive relations with the environment. the following were identified as the most effective practices to promote post-traumatic growth: development of the ability to positively reinterpret life's trials, treat the experience as a resource; testing new, more broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 97 effective ways of interacting with the environment, reformatting likes and dislikes; restoration of the ability to search for the meaning of one's being, to create meaning; deepening responsibility for everything that happens, changing attitudes to the causes and consequences of certain events in life; increased readiness for change, constant self-study, more constructive attitude to one's own mistakes. recovery of the individual at the socio-psychological level involves exploring the possibilities of communities (professional, territorial, environmental, political, etc.) as a key element of the social structure. the conditions of targeted involvement in communities are activation of their activities, strengthening of readiness to provide support to their members, and deepening of ties with other communities. predictors of targeted involvement of a person in community life are his/her psychological readiness to receive support from certain communities; stimulation of motivation to individual contribution to the life of communities; increasing individual responsibility for the activities of communities, and their collective self-determination. today, scientists, psychologists, and psychotherapists are working on the development of diagnostic tools for measuring personal transformations after trauma (especially related to military actions), practical recommendations for its use; ways and methods of psychotherapeutic assistance to people who have survived the events of the war, when the emphasis is on the growth of the individual, and not only on alleviating the symptoms of suffering. in this context, in our opinion, the narrative-oriented approach to growth facilitation offered by s. joseph is especially valuable. the scientist gives the following recommendations for facilitating post-traumatic growth and overcoming difficulties along the way: to make sure that the client is safe and to help him learn to cope with post-traumatic stress; learn to have hope for the future, for example, through inspiring stories of people who have been through similar situations; rewrite their experience by creating stories using expressive writing techniques; notice post-traumatic growth (using scales and questionnaires); develop confidence in new priorities; actively seek ways to implement these changes in the outside world (joseph, 2013). as for the practical part of the study, the following methodology was used in our empirical research: 1. ukrainian version of the "posttraumatic growth questionnaire" developed by r. tadeschi and l. calhoun (2004), adapted by m. s. magomed-eminov. the questionnaire contains 21 statements with six possible answers. the statements are combined into five scales: attitude war — psychological skills for coping with traumatic events: helping ukraine yuliia rybinska et al. 98 towards others, new opportunities, personal strength, spiritual changes, and increasing the value of life, as well as the overall index of post-traumatic growth. the methodology involved the reflection of the respondents on their own experience of the beginning of the war as a traumatic factor and focusing their attention on rethinking the overall picture of the world caused by these circumstances. we chose this methodology because the content of the questions contributed to the ability of participants to notice the manifestations of their post-traumatic growth. 2 an online questionnaire (google forms). the questionnaire contains information part concerning the general assessment of changes in people’s condition since the beginning of the war. first of all, we would like to note that the data collection started in april 2022 and continues to this day in the format of filling out an online questionnaire (google forms). the target audience of the survey included 150 students and employees of kyiv national university of culture and arts (age -17-60 years). all the study participants continued their studies/work at the university (distance form) and were not directly involved in military operations. we were interested in this particular age and social category because the transformation of values of young and middle-aged people, caused by the traumatic events of the beginning of the war, has been little studied and is of particular interest. the first part of the questionnaire contains the information part: age, gender, the experience of combat operations (direct/indirect), and general assessment of changes in their condition since the beginning of the war. the interim data collected as of 25 november 2022 was downloaded and subjected to analysis (quantitative and qualitative). sample characteristics the average age of the study participants is 25 years, with a minimum age of 17 years and a maximum age of 60 years. gender: 102 women (68%) and 48 men (32%). the total sample size is 150 people. comparison of self-assessment indicators of changes in the psychological well-being of survey participants overall, only 5.33% of the sample reported that their psychological well-being has improved (8 people). no changes were noticed by 13.33% (20 people). the state of psychological well-being, according to the selfassessment of the study participants, worsened in 81.33% (122 people). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 99 as for post-traumatic growth, we will first analyze the results of the survey of respondents using the post-traumatic growth questionnaire. the vast majority of respondents reported certain positive changes that occurred to them after comprehending the traumatic events of the beginning of the war (see table 1). thus, 24.6% of survey participants declared a high level of post-traumatic growth, 53.7% medium, 21.7% low. a more detailed analysis of the ratio of the number of participants with high rates of post-traumatic growth on different scales of the methodology, allowed to state the following. the largest number of respondents showed high rates of post-traumatic growth (33.1%) on the scale "increasing the value of life" (average of 46.2% of respondents), which is evidence of a change in their life priorities towards the desire to make each day more meaningful, they began to appreciate the present more. it should be noted that usually young people are more focused on the future, and the situation of the outbreak of war has accelerated their understanding of the importance of the present moment. 5.33 13.33 81.33 how do you assess the impact of the war situation on your psychological well-being? improved no changes worsened war — psychological skills for coping with traumatic events: helping ukraine yuliia rybinska et al. 100 the ratio of manifestation levels of different post-traumatic growth dimensions in the study participants (in %) growth dimensions manifestation levels low medium high attitude towards others 13,6 59,1 27,3 new opportunities 35,3 33,8 30,9 personality strength 17,2 69 13,8 spiritual changes 62 22 16 increasing the value of life 20,7 46,2 33,1 post-traumatic growth index 21,7 53,7 24,6 interesting results were obtained on the scale "new opportunities": a significant number of participants (low rate was found in 35,3% of respondents) lost faith in the future, and their own ability to positively influence their life, but 30.9% of students have new interests, they have become more confident in their own ability to change what can be changed and to take for granted what cannot be changed in any way. it can be assumed that such ambiguous results on the scale "new opportunities" are due to the variability of our respondents' solutions to the age crisis of identity, which leads to doubts about themselves, their own abilities, and their vision of their place in society. after all, the main percentage of the survey participants is the category from 17 to 25 years old. in this age period of psychosocial moratorium, when society provides young people with the opportunity to freely find their place in society and a delay for the final choice, the outbreak of war accelerates this process and requires a quick decision. however, on the one hand, the choice is complicated by uncertainty, collapse of plans, lack of vision of prospects, and on the other hand, conditions are created for practical testing of oneself, one's strength in a situation of uncertainty and rapid changes caused by the outbreak of war. this is confirmed by the results obtained on other scales. thus, the smallest number of participants with a low level of manifestation of posttraumatic growth is observed on the scales "personality strength" and "attitude towards others" (respectively: 13.6% and 17.2% of students). hence, the highest percentage of respondents with an average level of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 101 manifestation is observed on the scale "strength of personality" (69%), which, together with a high rate (16%), constitutes the vast majority of students who better realized that they can overcome life's adversities and found out that it is much stronger than it was thought before the lowest intensity of post-traumatic growth is observed on the scale of "spiritual changes" (62% low indicators; 22% average). only 13.8% of respondents began to better understand spiritual issues and became more religious. the context of war, as the cause and content of trauma and posttraumatic stress for some, is an absolutely emasculating factor and determinant of complete loneliness, and for others, it is the embodiment of the phenomenon "we and war". "we" are common problems, more or less the same conditions, comprehensible difficulties, etc. and in order not to become victims of this war, you just need to turn off the tv and read less news". the desire to be up to date with the news is completely understandable, but according to the psychologist "... for this it is enough to simply look at the news feed of your favorite, and most importantly verified edition, and be up to date with events. ... it is also worth carefully choosing those with whom you discuss events that happening around you. you need to talk about it with those who are calm about troubles in their lives and do not like to incite panic. if there are "tantrums" in your environment, try to avoid talking to them. the same should be done with alarmists in social networks...". the following statement of this coordinator seems to be quite correct: -"... you have never been president or minister, so you can't say exactly what the actions of those who currently rule the country should be... war is not a computer game where you can press a button and fix the situation, but a real problem in which everyone must think ahead", so is it possible to live without stress and traumatic events? science says: it is not possible. life is a constant source of change. it does not tolerate constancy and stability. life itself is the main source of stress and problems. all serious events in our lives cause stress. scientists consider the birth of a person to be the greatest stress. everything that surrounds us can cause stress. these are health problems, problems at work or home, political changes, problems raising children, property waste, trips, jealousy, bad sleep, lack of money, etc. but for ukrainian people the main day-to-day source of stress is war. war exhausts our nervous system, worsens life, and limits our possibilities. war — psychological skills for coping with traumatic events: helping ukraine yuliia rybinska et al. 102 conclusions the mental health of the nation is currently a fairly well-established scientific thesis, but its support and development requires further multivector study and scientific and psychological understanding, there is a problem of mental health of the individual in the plane of interdisciplinary research, which is the basis the application of a complex methodology, an indepth study of the integration links of the theoretical should be assigned and applied psychology, as well as other scientific fields knowledge. before us is the task of complex restoration of psychosomatic and psychosocial health of the population of ukraine, where the most difficult and long-lasting stage is rehabilitation. the bold and unexpected military aggression, accompanied by violation of the country's integrity, political and economic disasters, numerous losses (of loved ones, homes, the ability to live and work as usual), causes confusion, depression, various stress disorders in large numbers of people. not only combatants, members of their families, prisoners of war, the wounded, but also those who permanently reside in the combat zone or in the frontline areas, as well as internally displaced persons suffer and react to the military confrontation with serious deepening of maladjustment. many people who are physically far from the front are still fully involved in the terrible events psychologically and perceive the environment as extremely dangerous. it is very difficult to adapt to the numerous stress factors of war, and asthenization, sensitization, apathy, decreased ability to work, difficulties with communication, decreased quality of life are spreading and growing. there is also induction, contamination with fears, bad premonitions, fake news, negative predictions through personal contacts, media and social networks. the events of the first months of the war led to violations of the physical, social, personal and spiritual balance of the residents of ukraine, caused many emotional disorders, traumatic events and negative experiences. war is an extreme situation, that is, one that goes beyond ordinary, "normal human experience." for certain groups of ukrainians, this situation is hyperextreme: the internal stress it causes often exceeds human capabilities, destroys habitual behavior and actions, and can cause dangerous consequences. hyperextreme can be considered the unexpected loss of a loved one, captivity, torture, violence (especially if there is a threat to life or integrity), presence at the time of death or injury, etc. the stress of war is different from everyday stress because, for the most part, it exceeds our ability to adapt and change. war is a long and tense broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 103 process. as a stressor that cannot be eliminated in a short time, it continues to affect us physically, morally, psychologically and mentally. in this situation, we can talk about chronic stress, which in the long term causes resistance (insensitivity) of a certain type of receptors. at the same time, the level of stress mediators remains high, which leads to multiple injuries of organs and tissues. references brooks, s. k., dunn, r., amlt, r., rubin, g. j., & greenberg, n. (2017). social and occupational factors associated with psychological wellbeing among occupational groups affected by disaster: a systematic review. journal of mental health, 26(4), 373-384. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2017.1294732 crone, d. m., sarkar, m., curran, t., baker, c. m., hill, d., loughren, e. a., dickson, t., & parker, a. (2020). mental health first aid for the uk armed forces. health promotion international, 35(1), 132–139. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/day112 erichsen, f.е. (1867). on railway and other injuries of the nervous system. henry c. lea. friedman, m. j. (2016). ptsd history and overview. us department of veterans affairs. ptsd center publication. https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/essentials/history_ptsd.asp jodelet, d. (2017). culture and health practices. in silvana de rosa a. (ed.), social representations in the social arena (pp. 153–165). routledge. joseph, s. (2009). growth following adversity: positive psychological perspectives on posttraumatic stress. psihologijske teme, 18(2), 335–344. klymchuk, v. (2018). ucu mental health institute: local actions for global impact. journal of the ukrainian medical association of north america, 55, 1(159), 33–37. labezna, e. (2004). traumatic stress and the post-traumatic adaptation process. spb. lazarus, r.s. (1998). fifty years of research and theory of r.s. lazarus. an analyses of historical and perennial issues. psychology press. liashko, v. (2022). the impact of war on mental health is enormous. ministry of health of ukraine. https://moz.gov.ua/article/news/vpliv-vijni-na-psihichnezdorov%e2%80%99ja---kolosalnij---viktor-ljashko magomed-eminov, m. (2014). prehistory of the conceptualization of the phenomenon of ptsd (post-traumatic stress disorder). in t. n. vasilyeva, g. sh. gabdreeva, a. o. prokhorov (eds.), psychology of states: a reader. st. petersburg. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2017.1294732 https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/day112 https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/essentials/history_ptsd.asp https://moz.gov.ua/article/news/vpliv-vijni-na-psihichne-zdorov%e2%80%99ja---kolosalnij---viktor-ljashko https://moz.gov.ua/article/news/vpliv-vijni-na-psihichne-zdorov%e2%80%99ja---kolosalnij---viktor-ljashko war — psychological skills for coping with traumatic events: helping ukraine yuliia rybinska et al. 104 robert, t. l. (2022, april 15). ukraine and ptsd: how psychiatry can help. clinical psychiatry news, 50(5), 17. https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/253837/ptsd/ukraine-andptsd-how-psychiatry-can-help rybinska, y. (2018). integration of cultures as a 21st century phenomenon. culturology. bulletin of the national academy of leading managers of culture and arts, 3, 92–97. suvorova, v. (2010). psychophysiology of stress. pedagogyka. tarabrina, n. (2001). workshop on the psychology of post-traumatic stress. piter. tedeschi, r.g., & calhoun, l.g. (2004). posttraumatic growth: conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. psychological inquiry, 1(15), 1-18. vermetten, e., greenberg, n., boeschoten, m. a., delahaije, r., jetly, r., castro, c. a., & mcfarlane, a. c. (2014). deployment-related mental health support: comparative analysis of nato and allied isaf partners. european journal of psychotraumatology, 5(1), 23732. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.23732 winkler, p., krupchanka, d., roberts, t., kondratova, l., machů, v. , höschl, c., sartorius, n., van voren, r., aizberg, o., bitter, i., cerga-pashoja, a., deljkovic, a., fanaj, n., germanavicius, a., hinkov, h., hovsepyan, a., ismayilov, f. n., strkalj ivezic, s., jarema, m., jordanova, v., kukić, s., makhashvili, a., novak šarotar, b., plevachuk, o., smirnova, s., voinescu, b. i., vrublevska, j., & thornicroft, g. (2017). a blind spot on the global mental health map: a scoping review of 25 years’ development of mental health care for people with severe mental illnesses in central and eastern europe. lancet psychiatry, 4(8), 634-642. https://doi.org/10.1016/s22150366(17)30135-9 https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/253837/ptsd/ukraine-and-ptsd-how-psychiatry-can-help https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/253837/ptsd/ukraine-and-ptsd-how-psychiatry-can-help https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.23732 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(17)30135-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(17)30135-9 microsoft word brain_2_4.doc 36 neurolinguistics aspects of second language acquisition laleh fakhraee faruji department of humanities, shahr-e-qods branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran fakhraeelaleh@yahoo.com abstract fundamental breakthroughs in the neurosciences, combined with technical innovations for measuring brain activity, are shedding new light on the neural basis of second language (l2) processing, and on its relationship to native language processing (l1) (perani & abutalebi, 2005). over the past two decades, a large body of neuroimaging studies has been devoted to the study of the neural organization of language (de´monet, thierry, & cardebat, 2005; indefrey & levelt, 2004; price, 2000 as cited in abutalebi, 2008). the value that functional neuroimaging adds to language research is to improve the perspective on the distributed anatomy of language. thus, it can be used with considerable precision to identify the neural networks underlying the different domains of language processing. in this paper some main issues related to neurolinguistics and second language acquisition with a focus on bilingualism will be discussed. keywords: bimodality, bilingualism, critical period hypothesis, lateralization, neuroimaging 1. introduction available evidence indicates that the l2 seems to be acquired through the same neural structures responsible for l1 acquisition (abutalebi, 2008). this fact is also observed for grammar acquisition in late l2 learners contrary to what one may expect from critical period accounts. however, neural differences for an l2 may be observed, in terms of more extended activity of the neural system mediating l1 processing (abutalebi, 2008). these differences may disappear once a more ‘native-like’ proficiency is established, reflecting a change in language processing mechanisms: from controlled processing for a weak l2 system (i.e., a less proficient l2) to more automatic processing. the neuroimaging data reviewed by abutalebi (2008) supported the notion that language control is a crucial aspect specific to the bilingual language system. the activity of brain areas related to cognitive control during the processing of a ‘weak’ l2 may reflect competition and conflict between languages which may be resolved with the intervention of these areas. in general, functional neuroimaging studies have not only confirmed the anatomical knowledge gained from anatomo-clinical studies, but have indeed led to a number of new discoveries leading to substantial revisions of traditional concepts. consider, for instance, broca’s area: recent imaging evidence reports not only that the traditional broca’s area located in the left inferior frontal gyrus can be functionally sub-divided into three regions, respectively, for phonology, semantics, and syntax (bookheimer, 2002, cited in abutalebi, 2008), but that it also plays a critical role in nonlinguistic functions such as cognitive control (koechlin & jubault, 2006; koechlin, ody, & kouneiher, 2003, cited in abutalebi, 2008). hence, hemodynamic studies offer a unique opportunity to properly assess the organization of language and cognitive functions in the human brain. 2. lateralization and biomodality a great deal of research has focused on brain lateralization and the organization of language functions. for example, goldberg and costa (1981) examined evidence for neuroanatomical differences of the cerebral hemispheres and their possible effects on cognitive processing (kimrivera, 1998). they hypothesized that the left hemisphere is superior in using multiple descriptive brainstorming l. f. faruji neurolinguistics aspects of second language acquisition 37 systems that are already available in the cognitive faculties, while the right hemisphere plays an important role in processing materials for which there are no pre-existing descriptive systems. in the early 1970s, neuroscientists started to discuss the possibility of the involvement of the right hemisphere in language, and in the early 1980s the notion that the rh plays an important role in processing new stimuli became a workable hypothesis (danesi, 1994, cited in kim-rivera, 1998). albert and obler (1978, cited in kim-rivera, 1998) observed that language organization is more bilateral in bilingual children than in monolingual children, and. that the rh is crucial in sla. according to kim-rivera (1998) few studies have approached second language teaching from a neurolinguistic perspective. an exception is marcel danesi's educational construct of neurological bimodality, an attempt to find a neurological foundation for classroom language instruction. the underlying hypothesis is that there is a natural flow of information processing from the right to the left hemispheres of the brain during language learning; therefore, language instruction should reflect that flow direction by providing concrete forms of instruction at early language learning stages and more formal and abstract instruction at later stages. however, the hypothesis raises questions; for example, the evidence for right-hemisphere functions in second language learning is contradictory, yet those functions are an important element in bimodality. in addition, there have been few empirical studies supporting the hypothesis. 3. cognitive processes for reading in a second language reading in a second language (l2) is a complex task that entails an interaction between l2 and the native language (l1). to study the underlying mechanisms, tan et al. (2003) used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri) to visualize chinese–english bilinguals’ brain activity in phonological processing of logographic chinese and alphabetic english, two written languages with a sharp contrast in phonology and orthography. in one of their experiments they found that phonological processing of chinese characters recruits a neural system involving left middle frontal and posterior parietal gyri, cortical regions that are known to contribute to spatial information representation, spatial working memory, and coordination of cognitive resources as a central executive system. they assumed that the peak activation of this system is relevant to the unique feature of chinese that a logographic character has a square configuration that maps onto a monosyllabic unit of speech. equally important, when their bilingual subjects performed a phonological task on english words, this neural system was most active, whereas brain areas mediating english monolinguals’ fine-grained phonemic analysis were only weakly activated. this suggests that their bilingual subjects were applying their l1 system to l2 reading and that the lack of letter-to-sound conversion rules in chinese led chinese readers to being less capable of processing english by recourse to an analytic reading system on which english monolinguals rely. their brain imaging findings lend strongest support to the idea that language experience tunes the cortex. in a study done by nakada, fujii, & kwee (2001) brain activation associated with reading was investigated in ten normal japanese volunteers (five highly literate in both japanese and english) and ten american native english speakers (five highly literate in both english and japanese) in order to determine the neuroanatomic substrates employed in reading the first language (l1), and to determine the effect of l1 on the neurosubstrates involved in reading the second language (l2). the results of their study demonstrated that reading in the second language (l2) engages the identical cognitive neuroanatomic substrates employed in reading in the first language (l1). whereas the pattern of activation associated with reading english by subjects who first acquired literacy in this language system was shown to be clearly distinct from the pattern associated with reading japanese by subjects who first acquired literacy in japanese, the activation pattern in those english native or japanese native subjects who acquired literacy in the second language (l2), japanese or english, respectively, followed that of l1. these results definitively support the hypothesis that the physiological acquisition of literacy in l1 has significant effect on the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 acquisition of literacy in l2, even when l1 and l2 utilize dramatically variant coding systems, as is the case for japanese and english. the findings of the study also indicated that, similar to spoken language, reading may exhibit a cognitive ‘accent’. symbol decoding strategies appears to be determined by the complexity of the written symbolic representation to which the individual is exposed during the critical developmental period. acquisition of a second spoken language after the primary spoken language predisposes an individual to an audible accent in the second language, while literacy in a second language to a ‘‘reading accent’’. 4. bilingual brain-mapping the long-held assumption that l1 and l2 are necessarily represented in different brain regions in bilinguals has not been confirmed (perani & abutalebi, 2005). on the contrary, the available evidence indicates that l1 and l2 are processed by the same neural devices. the neural differences in l1 and l2 representations are only related to the specific computational demands, which vary according to the age of acquisition, the degree of mastery and the level of exposure to each language. the available evidence supports a dynamic view of the neural basis of l2 processing (perani & abutalebi, 2005). the most important contribution of brain imaging studies to the neurobiology of language in bilinguals is the observation of both invariance and plasticity. first, concerning language acquisition, l2 seems to be acquired through the same neural devices responsible for l1 acquisition. second, regarding l2 processing, the patterns of brain activation associated with tasks that engage specific aspects of linguistic processing are remarkably consistent among different languages, which share the same brain language system (perani & abutalebi, 2005). according to perani & abutalebi (2005) these relatively fixed brain patterns are modulated by several factors. proficiency, age of acquisition, and amount of exposure can affect the cerebral representations of each language, interacting in a complex way with the modalities of language performance. future studies disentangling the different language processes should always take into account these potentially important variables. typically, in subjects with comparable levels of proficiency, late bilinguals had a higher amount of activation in l2 than l1 (kovelman et al., 2008; perani et al., 2003; vingerhoets et al., 2003, cited in bloch et al., 2009). in contrast to most other studies, mahendra et al. (2003, cited in bloch et al., 2009) observed higher total activation in early bilinguals as compared to late bilinguals in both, word and sentence generation tasks. there is evidence to suggest that second languages learned later in life end up in distinct regions of the brain, while those acquired early in life tend to be situated in regions coextensive with the l1 (hagen, 2008). ojemann and whitaker (1978, cited in hagen, 2008) reported on case studies of a late dutch/english bilingual and a late spanish/english bilingual who underwent electrocortical stimulation prior to surgery. in both instances, they documented an area of the brain common to both languages as well as distinct sites where languages were differentially affected by testing. kim, hirsch, relkin, de laz paz, and lee (1997, cited in hagen, 2008) did an fmri study of early and late bilinguals that revealed distinct physical loci of second languages along the periphery of broca’s and wernicke’s regions in the case of late learners, but not in the case of early learners. hernandez, dapretto, mazziotta, & bookheimer (2001) studied six spanish/english early bilinguals, all of whom had acquired both languages before the age of five. fmri testing showed that the two languages were represented in overlapping regions of the brain. wartenberger et al. (2003) used fmri testing to study 32 italian-german bilinguals in three groups, (i) eleven subjects who acquired the l2 in early childhood and were fluent native speakers, (ii) twelve subjects who acquired the l2 in adulthood but managed to attain a high level of proficiency, and (iii) nine subjects who had acquired the l2 late in life and had limited proficiency. they found that age of acquisition was a statistically significant variable in determining loci of grammatical processing in l. f. faruji neurolinguistics aspects of second language acquisition 39 the brain, but less so in determining semantic processing. taken together, these studies suggest that l1/l2 acquisition differences are not simply the consequence of inadequate or incomplete learning experiences, or of any psycho-affective factors, but that they result from fundamental changes in cognitive abilities that are in some way the consequence of our biological endowment. the relationship between thought and language and, in particular, the issue of whether and how language influences thought is still a matter of fierce debate. fontanari & perlovsky (2008) considered a discrimination task scenario to study language acquisition in which an agent receives linguistic input from an external teacher, in addition to sensory stimuli from the objects that exemplify the overlapping categories that make up the environment. sensory and linguistic input signals are fused using the neural modelling fields (nmf) categorization algorithm. they find that the agent with language was capable of differentiating object features that it could not distinguish without language. in this sense, the linguistic stimuli prompt the agent to redefine and refine the discrimination capacity of its sensory channels. 5. neural overlap in speaking words in two languages liu, hu, guoa, & peng (2010) investigated the neural overlap and dissociation underlying overt word production in the first language (l1) and second language (l2). twenty-four chinese– english bilinguals named pictures in either l1 or l2 while being scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri). when comparing picture naming in l2 to naming in l1, increased activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral supplementary motor areas (sma), left precentral gyrus, left lingual gyrus, left cuneus, bilateral putamen, bilateral globus pallidus, bilateral caudate and bilateral cerebellum were observed. this suggested that word production in l2 is less automatic and needs to recruit more neural resources for lexical retrieval, articulatory processing and cognitive control than in l1. in contrast, picture naming in l1 relative to picture naming in l2 revealed increased activity in the right putamen and right globus pallidus probably due to different phonological features between chinese and english. in addition, the conjunction analysis, for the first time, revealed the common neural correlates underlying picture naming in l1 and l2. 6. poor grammaticality judgment performance by late second language learners mc donald(2006) believed that poor grammaticality judgments of late (age of arrival p 12) second language learners often attributed to being beyond the critical period for language acquisition can be better explained by processing difficulties due to (1) low l2 working memory capacity, (2) poor l2 decoding, and/or (3) inadequate l2 processing speed. in his experiment, late l2 learners and native speakers performed measures of english working memory, decoding, and speed, and a grammaticality judgment task. compared to native speakers, late l2 learners were poorer on all measures. l2 learners tend to have lower working memory spans in their l2 than their l1, and this l2 span rather than l1 span correlates with l2 comprehension (service, simola, metsanheimo, & maury, 2002, cited in mc donald, 2006). late l2 learners evidence poorer l2 decoding and lexical access abilities than native speakers. they perform more poorly than native speakers on a phoneme detection task in their l2 (sanders, neville, & woldorff, 2002, cited in mc donald, 2006) and have more difficulty than native speakers in identifying l2 words through noise. there is evidence that late l2 learners are slower at processing their second language than are native speakers. for example, they manifest longer l2 grammatical judgment times than native speakers (bialystok & miller, 1999; mayberry & lock, 2003; mcdonald, 2000; murphy, 1997 cited in mc donald, 2006), are slower to contact the semantics of an l2 word (mcelree, jia, & litvak, 2000, cited in mc donald, 2006), and have slower lexical decision times (scherag et al., 2004, cited in mc donald, 2006). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 7. concluding remarks in this paper, an attempt was made to illustrate some issues in neurolinguistics and second language acquisition and to review some recent findings gained from functional neuroimaging concerning bilingualism. to date, the results of the brain neuroimaging studies have not only converged with the findings derived from clinical aphasiology, but have also opened a number of new perspectives to our understanding of the brain–language relationship. however, given the complexity and the limitations of the classical anatomo-clinical approach to the study of the neural basis of language, functional neuroimaging techniques represent an independent source of evidence (abutalebi, 2008). references [1] abutalebi, j. (2008). neural aspects of second language representation and language control. acta psychologica, 128, 466–478. [2] bloch, c., kaiser, a., kuenzli, e., zappatore, d., haller, s., franceschini, r., luedi , g., radue, e., & nitsch, c. (2009). the age of second language acquisition determines the variability in activation elicited by narration in three languages in broca’s and wernicke’s areas. neuropsychologia, 47, 625–633. [3] fontanari, j. f., & perlovsky, l. i. (2008). how language can help discrimination in the neural modelling fields framework? neural networks, 21, 250–256. [4] hagen, l. k. (2008). the bilingual brain: human evolution and second language acquisition. evolutionary psychology, 6 (1), 43-63. [5] hernandez, a. e., dapretto, m., mazziotta, j., & bookheimer, m. (2001). language switching and language representation in spanish–english bilinguals. neuroimage, 14, 510–520. [6] kim-rivera, e. g. (1998). neurolinguistic applications to sla classroom instruction: a review of the issues with a focus on danesi's bimodality. texas papers in foreign language education, 3 (2), 91-103. [7] liu, h., hu, z., guoa, t., & peng, d. (2010). speaking words in two languages with one brain: neural overlap and dissociation. brain research, 3 1 6, 7 5 – 8 2. [8] mc donald, j. l. (2006). beyond the critical period: processing-based explanations for poor grammaticality judgment performance by late second language learners. journal of memory and language, 55, 381–401. [9] nakada, t., fujii, y., & kwee, i. l. (2001). brain strategies for reading in the second language are determined by the first language. neuroscience research, 40, 351–358. [10] perani, d., & abutalebi, j. (2005). the neural basis of first and second language processing. current opinion in neurobiology, 15, 202–206. [11] schwartz, b. d. (1998). the second language instinct. lingua, 106, 133-160. [12] tan, l., spinks, j. a., mei feng, c., siok, w. t., perfetti,c. a., xiong, j., fox, p. t., & gao, j. (2003). neural systems of second language reading are shaped by native language. human brain mapping, 18, 158 –166. [13] wartenburger, i., heekeren, h.r., abutalebi, j., cappa, s.f, villringer, a., & perani, d. (2003). early setting of grammatical processing in the bilingual brain. neuron, 37, 159–170. microsoft word brain_2_4.doc 48 high vs. low load vocabulary learning tasks: a case for intentional learning ali jahangard sharif university of technology, tehran, islamic republic of iran jahangard@sharif.edu hossein movassagh sharif university of technology, tehran, islamic republic of iran hussein_movassagh@yahoo.com abstract: the present study aimed at investigating whether the amount of task-induced involvement load has any effects on the immediate and delayed retentions of words in an intentional learning environment. to meet this end, two groups of college students were selected as the participants of the study. the immediate and delayed retentions of ten unknown words were measured in two learning tasks (reading comprehension vs. reading comprehension plus sentence production) which induced different amounts of involvement loads. the time-on-task also differed in the two groups. no significant difference was found between the two groups on the immediate retention tests. however, the results demonstrated that the group with higher involvement load significantly outperformed the group with lower involvement load on the delayed post-tests. the theoretical and pedagogical implications are also discussed. keywords: task-induced involvement load hypothesis; intentional learning; word retention 1. introduction vocabulary forms an important part of language and has been the focal point of a great deal of research in the realm of sla in recent years (hulstijn & laufer, 2001). second language learners are often aware of the fact that constraints on vocabulary knowledge can significantly hinder their oral communication success in the second language, since it is the words that comprise the integral part of the intended meaning (kim, 2008). thus, one of the problems second language learners encounter in establishing fluent oral communication is the huge number of words they have to learn. most of the second language instructors also acknowledge the importance of words and emphasize the necessity to learn them; however, they are hesitant on the way to help learners acquire words most effectively. therefore, research needs to be carried out to discover what kind of tasks lead to better and more permanent learning and provide learners with more suitable opportunities to learn words. a wide range of studies have been undertaken in this direction. (ellis and he, 1999; ellis, tanaka and yamazaki, 1994; joe, 1995, 1998; nation, 2001; paribakht and wesche, 1997; rott, 2004; rott, williams, cameron, 2002). although the above-mentioned researchers used different methods and tasks in implementing their studies, they all confirmed the hypothesis proposed by laufer and hulstijn (2001) claiming that effective tasks in comparison to less effective ones cause deeper processing of words which in turn leads to better retention of words in mind. with respect to craik and lockhart's (1972) depth of processing hypothesis and by considering other related studies, laufer and hulstijn (2001) proposed task-induced involvement load hypothesis. this hypothesis was corroborated by two empirical studies conducted to investigate how effective it is (hulstijn and laufer, 2001; kim, 2008). however, the two studies just mentioned only investigated the hypothesis in an incidental learning environment; therefore, there is doubt about the adequacy of this hypothesis in an intentional learning environment. before presenting the research question for the present study, a brief definition of incidental and intentional learning environments seems indispensible. according to hulstijn and laufer (2001) incidental learning environment, in contrast to intentional leaning environment, refers to situations a. jahangard, h. movassagh high vs. low load vocabulary learning tasks: a case for intentional learning 49 in which learners unintentionally tend to process new words and commit related information about words to memory. thus, incidental learning of vocabulary refers to the kind of learning in which vocabulary learning is a peripheral and secondary product, for example, learning vocabulary just by being exposed to them in watching a movie or reading a story. intentional learning of vocabulary, on the other hand, refers to the kind of learning that considers memorization of vocabulary information as its primary purpose (schmitt, 2008). as it was mentioned above, investigating the hypothesis proposed by laufer and hulstijn (2001) in intentional learning environment seemed necessary; for this reason the present study was undertaken to answer the following questions: 1. does task-induced involvement load in an intentional learning environment have any effect on the immediate retention of vocabulary? 2. does task-induced involvement load in an intentional learning environment have any effect on the delayed retention of vocabulary? to answer this question the following hypotheses were formulated: 1. task-induced involvement load has no effect on the immediate retention of vocabulary. 2. task-induced involvement load has no effect on the delayed retention of vocabulary. 2. methodology 2.1. subjects ninety-six male learners ranging from 19-25 in age participated in this study. these learners were engineering freshmen from different majors in a technological university in tehran. they were considered as advanced language learners, based on my own assessment and evaluation and consultation with two sophisticated instructors there, according to actfl proficiency guideline classification. the sampling procedure was intact group method and participants were divided into two distinct groups of 45 and 50 subjects. 2.2. instruments a passage was chosen from a toefl book (appendix 1) written by philips (2003) from which ten unknown word were selected. to make sure that the selected words were unknown to the participants, two learners, one from each group, were summoned to comment on whether the words are known or unknown. they asserted that all the words were unknown to them. this way we could proclaim that other participants who were in a lower level of language proficiency would not know the selected words. also, participants were asked to tick the words they knew before instruction and those participants who knew even a single word of the target words were left out of the study. the selected unknown words along with meanings related to the passage were presented in two forms at the end of the passage, i.e., their persian equivalents and their definition provided by webster dictionary. a vocabulary test was designed from these unknown words to assess vocabulary acquisition (appendix 2). 2.3. procedure the two groups of participants were asked to read the selected passage and answer its comprehension questions. they were also informed that they will be tested on the words bolded in the passage. the participants in group 1(high involvement load) were required to make new sentences different from the ones used in the passage and definitions in the dictionary, with all the target words. but, group 2 (low involvement load) did not make sentences with the target words. like group 1, they were required to read the passage and answer the related comprehension questions. after the completion of the tasks by the two groups, the vocabulary test was administered. the participants had to write the meanings of the target words either in persian or english. reading the passage, answering the questions and making sentences with specified words took 40 minutes in group 1 and 30 minutes in group 2. the longer time on task for group 1 was because of the sentence production activity of which group 2 was exempted. five minutes were devoted to immediate test of vocabulary. the delayed test of vocabulary was akin to the immediate test and was run in the same manner in both groups two weeks after the initial instruction of words. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 2.4. results independent t-test was applied to compare the grades obtained by group 1 (high involvement load) and group 2 (low involvement load). descriptive statistic of both groups has been presented in tables 1 and 2. the results of immediate test is m=8.61, sd=1.37 for group 1(high involvement load) and m=8.04, sd=2.22 for group 2 (low involvement load). the delayed test showed these results: m=6.04, sd=2.77 for group one and m=4.61, sd=2.25 for group 2. table 1. descriptive statistic of groups for the immediate test table2. descriptive statistic of groups for the delayed test the result of two groups' comparison of means for the immediate test is displayed in table 3 and summarized as: significance level (two-tailed) = .289, t (40-41) = 1.07, mean difference= .56 with 95% confidence interval of the difference. table 3. the result of independent t-test for the immediate test the result of two groups' comparison of means for the delayed test is displayed in table 4 and summarized as follows: significance level (two-tailed) = .061, t (42-22) =1.92, mean difference (md) = 1.43 with 95% confidence interval of the difference. table 4. the result of independent t-test for the delayed test 3. discussion and conclusion the results of the t-test did not demonstrate any significant difference between group 1's (high involvement load) and group 2's (low involvement load) performance on the immediate retention of the given words. for this reason, the research null hypotheses mentioned as “task-induced involvement load has no effect on the immediate retention of vocabulary” is confirmed. although the positive effect of increasing involvement load in incidental learning environment on immediate and delayed l2 vocabulary learning has been proven in previous studies (hulstijn and laufer, 2001; kim, 2008),it seems that the induced involvement load has little and very imperceptible n m sd std. error mean high load(group 1) 46 8.61 1.37 .28 low load(group2) 50 8.04 2.22 .44 n m sd std. error mean high load(group 1) 46 6.04 2.77 .57 low load(group2) 48 4.61 2.25 .46 t df sig. (2-tailed) md equal variances assumed 1.05 94 .297 .56 equal variances not assumed 1.07 94.41 .289 .56 t df sig. (2-tailed) md equal variances assumed 1.92 92 .06 1.43 equal variances not assumed 1.92 92.22 .061 1.43 a. jahangard, h. movassagh high vs. low load vocabulary learning tasks: a case for intentional learning 51 effect on immediate learning of words in an intentional learning environment. in fact, the findings of this study suggest that although the hypothesis proposed by laufer and hulstijn (2001) predicts a positive correlation between task-induced involvement load and vocabulary retention in incidental learning environment, it does not demonstrate sufficient adequacy in an intentional learning environment. to explain this discrepancy, it is speculated that learners mostly used similar learning strategies like "repetition" for the immediate memorization of words that might have resulted in almost good immediate retention of words, but with lower depth. in other words, the learners might have concentrated solely on making formal-semantic relationship of words. this was indeed the very relationship assessed in the vocabulary test. thus, high amount of involvement load that usually results in learning other vocabulary features such as morphosyntactic, orthographical properties, and collocational rules had become rather ineffectual in the study because they were not assessed in the vocabulary post-test employed in the study at all. thus, further research needs to be conducted concerning this special case to investigate what happens if more features, in addition to formalconceptual relationship, are incorporated in the vocabulary test. would it produce the same results? the findings of study, however, invalidate the second research hypothesis stated as "taskinduced involvement load has no effect on the delayed retention of vocabulary." which, in turn, is in harmony with the prediction made by the laufer and hulstijn's (2001) hypothesis. in fact, the heightening of the involvement load resulted in better delayed retention of the target words. it can be inferred that the added involvement load caused by sentence-making task in the second group had created more depth of processing in learning since this group had to make sentences with the target words that demanded more cognitive ability to learn additional lexical features such as morphological, syntactic, and orthographic features, and collocational restrictions. it can be concluded that enhancing the task-induced involvement load in an intentional learning environment has no significant effect on the immediate retention of words. however, the contrary of this assertion is true for the delayed retention of words, i.e., the increase of the task-induced involvement load has a positive effect on the delayed retention of words in an intentional learning environment. in addition, the findings of this study imply that more emphasis and insistence should be put on vocabulary learning tasks which induce high involvement loads since the prime and ultimate goal in teaching vocabulary is not the immediate retention, rather, it is the delayed retention of words that has educational importance and value. in undertaking this study, only formal-semantic relationship was dealt with, thus the generalizability of results is limited to just this sphere. so more research needs to be conducted to demonstrate what results would be obtained if more lexical features are incorporated in the vocabulary test. references [1] actfl (american council on the teaching of foreign languages) (1998). proficiency guidelines. sil international. retrieved june 6, 2011, from http://www.actfl.org/files/public/guidelinesspeak.pdf [2] craik, f. i. m., & lockhart, r. s. (1972). levels of processing: a framework for memory research. journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 11, 671-684. [3] ellis, r., & he, x. (1999). the role of modified input and output in the incidental acquisition of word meaning. studies in second language acquisition, 21, 285-301. [4] ellis, r., tanaka, y., & yamazaki, a. (1994). classroom interaction, comprehension, and l2 vocabulary acquisition. language learning, 44, 449-491. [5] hulstijn, j. h., & laufer, b. (2001). some empirical evidence for the involvement load hypothesis in vocabulary acquisition. language learning, 51, 539-558. [6] joe, a. (1995). text-based tasks and incidental vocabulary. second language research, 11,149158. [7] joe, a. (1998). what effects do text-based tasks promoting generation have on incidental vocabulary acquisition? applied linguistics, 19, 357-377. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 [8] kim, y.j. (2008). the role of task-induced involvement and learner proficiency in l2 vocabulary acquisition. language learning, 58, no.2, 285-325. [9] laufer, b., & hulstijn, j. h. (2001). incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language: the construct of task-induced involvement, applied linguistics, 22, 1–26. [10] nation, p. (2001). learning vocabulary in another language, cambridge: cambridge university press. [11] paribakht, t. s., & wesche, m. (1997). vocabulary enhancement activities and reading for meaning in second language vocabulary acquisition. in coady, j. & huckin, t. (eds.), second language vocabulary acquisition: a rationale for pedagogy (pp.174-200).cambridge: cambridge university press. [12] philips, d. (2003). longman preparation course for the toefl test: the paper test, ny: longman. [13] rott, s. (2004). a comparison of output interventions and un-enhanced reading conditions on vocabulary acquisition and text comprehension. the canadian modern language review, 61, no.2, 169-202. [14] rott, s., williams, j., & cameron, r. (2002). the effect of multiple-choice l1 glosses and input-output cycles on lexical acquisition and retention. language teaching research, 6, 183-222. appendix 1. the reading comprehension passage and the target words [in bold] it is often the case with folktales that they develop from actual happenings but in their development lose much of their factual base; the story of pocahontas quite possibly fits into this category of folktale. this princess of the powhatan tribe was firmly established in the lore1 of early america and has been made even more famous by the disney film based on the folktale that arose from her life. she was a real-life person, but the actual story of her life most probably differed considerably from the folktale and the movie based on the folktale. powhatan, the chief of a confederacy of tribes in virginia, had several daughters, none of whom was actually named pocahontas. the nickname means “playful one,” and several of powhatan’s daughters were called pocahontas. the daughter of powhatan who became the subject of the folktale was named matoaka. what has been verified2 about matoaka, or pocahontas as she has come to be known, is that she did marry an englishman and that she did spend time in england before she died there at a young age. in the spring of 1613, a young pocahontas was captured by the english and taken to jamestown. there she was treated with courtesy3 as the daughter of chief powhatan. while pocahontas was at jamestown, english gentleman john rolfe fell in love with her and asked her to marry. both the governor of the jamestown colony and pocahontas’s father powhatan approved the marriage as a means of securing4 peace between powhatan’s tribe and the english at jamestown. in 1 lore [lawr] noun 1. knowledge handed down verbally: acquired knowledge or wisdom on a subject such as local traditions, handed down by word of mouth and usually in the form of stories or historical anecdotes 2. knowledge from teaching or experience: knowledge that has been acquired through teaching or experience (archaic) افسانه ها و روايات قومی، مجموعه معارف و فرهنگ يک قوم يا نژاد 2 ver·i·fy [vérrə f] (past and past participle ver·i·fied, present participle ver·i·fy·ing, 3rd person present singular ver·i·fies) transitive verb 1. prove something: to prove that something is true 2. check whether something is true: to check whether or not something is true by examination, investigation, or comparison اثبات کردن، تاييد کردن 3 cour·te·sy [kúrtəssee] noun (plural cour·te·sies) 1. polite or considerate behavior: consideration for other people, or good manners • he didn't even have the courtesy to offer me a seat. 2. polite or considerate action: something done out of politeness or consideration for another person • we should certainly go, if only as a courtesy to helen. اادب، مهر بانی، احترام 4 se·cure [sə kyoor]verb (past and past participle se·cured, present participle se·cur·ing, 3rd person present singular se·cures) a. jahangard, h. movassagh high vs. low load vocabulary learning tasks: a case for intentional learning 53 1616, pocahontas accompanied5 her new husband to england, where she was royally received. shortly before her planned return to virginia in 1617, she contracted6 an illness and died rather suddenly. a major part of the folktale of pocahontas that is unverified concerns her love for english captain john smith in the period of time before her capture by the british and her rescue of him from almost certain death. captain john smith was indeed at the colony of jamestown and was acquainted7 with powhatan and his daughters; he even described meeting them in a 1612 journal. however, the story of his rescue by the young maiden did not appear in his writings until 1624, well after pocahontas had aroused widespread interest in england by her marriage to an english gentleman and her visit to england. it is this discrepancy8 in dates that has caused some historians to doubt the veracity9 of the tale. however, other historians do argue quite persuasively 10that this incident did truly take place. 1. transitive verb attach something firmly: to attach something firm y in position 2. transitive and intransitive verb make safe: to make a building or area safe to occupy, usually by ensuring that all internal sources of danger are removed or that it is defended against attack 3. transitive verb acquire something: to obtain something, especially after using considerable effort to persuade somebody to grant or allow it • secure an agreement 4. transitive verb finance ensure payment for something: to provide security for something or otherwise guarantee payment • a loan secured against your house 5. transitive and intransitive verb guarantee: to guarantee or ensure something تامين کردن، تحکيم کردن 5 ac·com·pa·ny [ə kúmpənee, ə kúmpnee] (past and past participle ac·com·pa·nied, present participle ac·com·pa·ny·ing, 3rd person present singular ac·com·pa·nies) verb 1. transitive verb escort somebody: to go with somebody 2. transitive verb be present with something: to be enclosed, attached, or present with something همراهی کردن 6 contract [kən trákt, kón tràkt] (past and past participle con·tract·ed, present participle con·tract·ing, 3rd person present singular con·tracts) transitive verb get illness: to catch or develop an illness or disease مبتال شدن 7 ac·quaint·ed [ə kwáyntəd] adjective 1. familiar: having some, often not very much, knowledge of something • not acquainted with this software 2. known: known to somebody or to each other from a previous introduction اآشن 8 dis·crep·an·cy [di skréppənsee] (plural dis·crep·an·cies) noun failure to match: a distinct difference between two things such as sets of figures that should match or correspond • found a discrepancy in the figures نا همخوانی، اختالف 9 ve·rac·i·ty [və rássətee] (plural ve·rac·i·ties) noun 1. truth: the truth, accuracy, or precision of something • they questioned the veracity of our claims. 2. truthfulness: the truthfulness or honesty of somebody 3. true statement: a truth or true statement راستی، صحت 10 per·sua·sive [pər swáyssiv] adjective able or tending to persuade: having the ability to persuade people or the effect of persuading them per·suade [pər swáyd] (past and past participle per·suad·ed, present participle per·suad·ing, 3rd مجاب کننده، متقاعد کننده person present singular per·suades) transitive verb 1. get somebody to do something: to succeed in convincing somebody to do something, especially by reasoning, pleading, or coaxing 2. convince somebody of something: to make somebody believe something, especially by giving good reasons for doing so brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 1. the main idea of the passage is that a. folktales are often not very factual . b. pocahontas did not really exist. c. any one of powhatan’s daughters could have been the pocahontas of legend . d. pocahontas fell in love with john smith and saved his life. 2. what is true about the name pocahontas, according to the passage? a. it was the real name of a girl named matoaka. b. it meant that someone was playful. c. only one girl was known to have used this name. d. powhatan was one of several people to be given this nickname. 3. how was pocahontas treated when she was held at jamestown? a. with respect b. with disdain c. with surprise d. with harshness 4. why are some historians doubtful about the portion of the pocahontas folktale dealing with john smith? a. captain john smith probably never knew pocahontas. appendix 2 . the vocabulary retention test provide the meaning of the words in persian or english name: group: 1. lore 2. verify 3. courtesy 4. secure 5. accompany 6. contract 7. acquainted 8. discrepancy 9. veracity 10. persuasively a. jahangard, h. movassagh high vs. low load vocabulary learning tasks: a case for intentional learning 55 b. captain john smith was never actually in jamestown. c. his rescue purportedly happened while pocahontas was in england. d. his account of the rescue did not appear until well after the event supposedly happened. 5. it can be inferred from the passage that pocahontas a. never intended to return to virginia b. had a long marriage c. suffered from a long illness d. did not mean to remain in england 6. the pronoun “he” in line 4 of the third paragraph refers to a. the governor b. pocahontas c. john smith d. powhatan 7. when did john smith most likely meet pocahontas? a. in 1612 b. in 1613 c. in 1616 d. in 1624 microsoft word brain_2_4.doc 20 impact of ethnic group on human emotion recognition using backpropagation neural network nabil m. hewahi computer science department bahrain university, bahrain nhewahi@gmail.com abdul rhman m. baraka computer science department islamic university of gaza, palestine ambwafa@hotmail.com abstract we claim that knowing the ethnic group of human would increase the accuracy of the emotion recognition. this is due to the difference between the face appearances and expressions of various ethnic groups. to test our claim, we developed an approach based on artificial neural networks (ann) using backpropgation algorithm to recognize the human emotion through facial expressions. our approach has been tested by using msdef dataset, and we found that, there is a positive effect on the accuracy of the recognition of emotion if we consider the ethnic group as input factor while building the recognition model. we achieved 8% improvement rate. keywords: emotion recognition, artificial neural networks, human computer interaction, features extraction. 1. introduction obviously, the emotions is an important aspect in the interaction and communication between people, and the human can express these emotions through facial elements, speech, body movement, or etc.. since the science of artificial intelligence (ai) is concerned with the automation of intelligent behavior, we need to improve the interaction between computer and human by recognition the human emotions by using face expressions [9] [12] [15] [20], speech [4] [16] or etc. [11]. in additional, appearance of emotions are universal across individuals as well as human ethnics and cultures[1] [2], but the way of emotion expression is that vary from one ethnic group to another and the differences cross-cultural in the familiarity effect on recognition accuracy for different types of expressions. there are many of researches that focused on emotion recognition but regardless the ethnic group as factor in their models. in this paper, we propose an emotion recognition approach using facial expression considering ethnic group based on backpropagation neural network, to study the impact of ethnic group on accuracy of emotion recognition models. in next section we focus on some related works. section three describes our proposed approach. section four discusses the implementation. experiments and results are presented in section five. last section is the conclusion. 2. related works in the early 1990’s the engineering community started to construct automatic methods of recognizing emotion from facial expression in an image and videos [12], and many of computer studies that focused on emotions recognition. some studies use facial expressions to build a model for emotion recognition, and others use another elements or factors to build the models like voice, pulse, body movement and etc. matthew and patterson [15] discuss a framework for the classification of emotional states, based on still images of the face, using active appearance model (aam) and get distance using n n. m. hewahi, a.r. m. baraka impact of ethnic group on human emotion recognition using backpropagation neural network 21 euclidean’s as features. to train and test the classifier they chose to use the facial expression database known as “feedtum” facial expressions and emotion database [8] , and seven basic emotions are used, happy, sad, angry, surprise, fear, disgust and natural state. the best results they obtained are in happy, natural and disgust emotions at the rate 93.3%, fear at 90.0%, and 79.7% in surprise, angry and sad at rate 63.9%. this study does not consider the ethnicity. raheja and kumar [14] presented architecture for human gesture recognition, considering color image with different gestures by using backpropagation artificial neural networks (ann or nn). four stages applied in the approach, face detection, image reprocessing, training network and recognition model. the pre-processing stage contains three methods, histogram equalization, edge detection, thinning and token generation. the ethnic group was not considered in this model. the model was trained using the three different gesture images, happy, sad and thinking expressions of faces. the model was tests with 100 images of three gestures, the results were 94.28% for happy, 85.71% for sad and 83.33% for thinking. karthigayan et.al [12] used genetic algorithms (gas) and artificial neural networks to build human emotion classifier. this classifier detects six human emotions neutral, sad, anger, happy, fear, disgust (or dislike) and surprise. they depend on two facial elements in the classifier, eyes and lips. by applying some preprocessing methods and edge detection, they extracted the eyes and lip regions, then extracted the features from these regions. three feature extraction methods are applied, projection profile, contour profile and moments. the ga is applied to get the optimized values of the minor axes of an irregular ellipse corresponding to the lips and the minor axis of a regular ellipse related to eye by using a set of new fitness functions. finally, they apply the results from ga on the anns model. two architectures of anns models are proposed with an average of 10 trials of testing. the achieved results of 3x20x7 and 3x20x3 of ann architecture were 85.13% and 83.57% of success rate respectively. the successful classification even goes to the maximum of about 91.42% in the ann model of 3x20x7 structure. a south east asian (sea) race is only considered in this work. 3. proposed approach our proposed approach uses the face expression to detect the emotions through five steps that shows in figure 1. input image preprocessing points selection features extraction ann classifier figure 1. a proposed approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 a. the input the input is an image of frontal human face which means that no bending the face to any angle and no rotated face to any side. b. image reprocessing in this stage we apply certain sub processes on the image to achieve a good image with one standard in terms of contrast and size. because we depend on euclidian distances to extract our features, the image size must be standardized. also we apply a contrast process for each image to make the elements of the face distinguishable from other objects and also to be able to distinguish between background and the face. this will help the user to select all the points clearly. simple algorithms are applied for resizing and contrast processes [5]. c. point selection we chose 46 points which are distributed over human face image and use these points for features extraction. the choice of these points is to determine the shape of each element of the face (eyes, eyebrows and mouth), because the shape of these elements is changeable for each emotion, but these changes are different for each race as shown in figure 2. figure. 2. examples of angry from different races. (a,b) african. (c,d) asian. (e,f) caucasian. the number of points and the position of points are not standardized, but it is depending on the features that will be extracted, and used for the classifier. many researches use various number of points and positions based on their view about the feature to be considered [13] [18] [19]. figure 3 shows the points we used. figure 3. 46 points are selected on face elements to describe the emotions. n. m. hewahi, a.r. m. baraka impact of ethnic group on human emotion recognition using backpropagation neural network 23 d. features extraction while human emotion is changing, face expression is also changing. this means that, properties of face elements do change when face expression is being changed. as a consequence of this, the distances between points are changing. the distances between certain points as will be shown later describe the human emotion. based on what we stated above, we need to extract 28 features, which describe the distances between certain points explained in the previous stage, these features are classified into six groups, and each group describes the features of one face element. all features are a vertical distances between two points. group one contains seven features for mouth, groups two and three contains 14 features for eyes, groups four and five contain six features for eyebrows, and the last group has one feature only which is the distance between the beginning of the eyebrow and the beginning of the eye in same side, this is significant (from point 23 to 15) because it is used to measure the distance of eyebrow from the eye. this feature is shown in figure 4 by a line. e. classifier for classification purpose of the emotions, we use ann of supervised learning based on backpropagation algorithm. backpropagation neural network architecture is used with its standards learning function with 28 inputs representing the extracted features and 6 outputs representing 6 emotions, happy, sad, angry, fear, shame and disgust. the emotions. we have also a hidden layer with 16 nodes selected after various trails to obtain the best results. the used ann is depicted in figure 5. figure 5. ann structure 4. implementation a. face features extraction (ffe) we used microsoft visual c#.net to develop a desktop application to apply the first of the four stages of our approach. this application is called face features extraction (ffe), and it is used to perform four methods or functions as follow: apply some pre-processing method, selection of figure 4. distance between eyebrow and eye. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 points, features extraction and save all input information for the classifier (features, ethnic group, gender and emotion). figure 6 shows the interface of ffe program. b. classifier to build our classifier we use mathworks matlab using nntool tool. this tool allows building our specific ann classifier, and use backpropagation method, and one hidden layers with 16 neurons. c. dataset montreal set of facial displays of emotion (msfde) dataset is selected to test and evaluate our approach. this data set includes 224 gray images of females and males faces and four ethnic groups african, asian, hispanic and caucasian, these images describe seven facial expressions nature, happy, sadness, angry, fear, shame and disgust. each ethnic group contains two genders; each gender contains four persons, each person has seven emotions, but each person has a one image for nature emotion, so we ignored this emotion because we need more than one image for each emotion to be able to train well the ann. this means we use only six emotions, and figure 6 shows samples for images of msfde dataset. figure 6. interface of ffe program. n. m. hewahi, a.r. m. baraka impact of ethnic group on human emotion recognition using backpropagation neural network 25 5. experiments and results we performed groups of experiments to study the impact of ethnic group (race) in the accuracy of emotion recognition with three kinds of ethnic groups (asian, caucasian as african). so we have three experiments, each experiment has a neural network as a classifier, and each neural network has three layers where there are 16 neurons in the hidden layer except asian network has 17 neurons (the best result with 17 neurons for asians). to study the accuracy of emotion recognition for our approach regardless the ethnic group we used 108 images for the training representing six emotions of six persons. for testing, we used 36 images representing six emotions of six persons. on the other hand, to study the accuracy of emotion recognition for our approach considering the ethnic group we used 36 images for training for each ethnic group representing six emotions of six persons, and test the classifier by using 12 images representing six emotions of six persons. our experiments show that, the impact of ethnic group on the accuracy of emotions recognition is a positive where the accuracy of emotion recognition considering ethnic group is 83.3% as shown in figure 8, and we got 75% of accuracy regardless ethnic group as shown in figure 9. african, female and angry asian, male and disgust caucasian, male and happy figure 7. samples of msfde dataset. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 also we got that, african race has the lowest accuracy, and the caucasian race has the highest accuracy of emotions recognition. in additional, the disgust emotion has best accuracy of recognition and fear emotion has the worst accuracy of recognition. 6. conclusion many psychological studies refer to that, the ethnic group is a considered factor in emotion recognition, and may play an important role to increasing the accuracy of emotion recognition. in this paper, we try to investigate the impact of ethnic group on accuracy of emotion recognition based on face expressions by proposing an emotion recognition approach using backpropagation neural networks. our approach has five stages. to complete first four stages, we developed a desktop program called ffe system, and we used matlab program to build an ann classifier. we use msfde data set to test and evaluate our approach. we demonstrated in this paper through our experiments positive results that the ethnic group has a positive impact on the accuracy of identifying human emotions based on facial features. we got 75% accuracy regardless ethnicity, and 83.3% accuracy considering ethnicity. however, this effect is not very large. in additional, the fear emotion has the worst recognition accuracy, and the disgust emotion has the best accuracy. also, based on the race, the caucasian has got the best accuracy of emotion recognition, and african has the worst accuracy. for future work we recommend that; develop a system that can extract the features from human face image automatically, also finding more useful features that may lead to more accuracy on recognition process. references [1] elfenbein hillary a. and ambady nalini, "universals and cultural differences in recognizing emotions". american psychological society. volume 12, no 5, pp. 159-164. (2002). [2] beaupré martin g. “cross-cultural emotion recognition among canadian ethnic groups”, journal of cross-cultural psychology, vol. 36, 355-370, (2005). figure 9. classification accuracy regardless the ethnic group (total accuracy 75%) figure 8. classification accuracy of emotions considering the ethnic group (total accuracy is 83.3%) n. m. hewahi, a.r. m. baraka impact of ethnic group on human emotion recognition using backpropagation neural network 27 [3] castelli fulvia. "understanding emotions from standardized facial expressions in autism and normal development". national autistic society, vol 9. issue: 4, pages 428-449 (2005). [4] douglas-cowie e., campbell n., cowie r. and p. roach, “emotional speech: towards a new generation of database” speech communication, vol.40 (1-2). pp 33-60 (2003). [5] efford n.,”digital image processing”, personal education limited, (2000). [6] ekman paul;friesen wallace v.;o'sullivan maureen;chan anthony;diacoyanni-tarlatzis irene;heider karl;krause rainer;lecompte william ayhan;pitcairn tom;ricci-bitti pio e.;scherer klaus;tomita masatoshi;tzavaras athanase . "universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion". journal of personality and social psychology. vol.53, no.4 pp.712-717 (1987). [7] ekman, p., friesen, w. v., & hager, j. c.”facial action coding system. salt lake city”. research nexus. (2002). [8] fg-net database with facial expressions and emotions database (feed), http://cotesys.mmk.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de/isg/content/feed-database. resources and evaluation conference (lrec). (2006). [9] fischer robert, "automatic facial expression analysis and emotional classification", university of applied science darmstadt (fhd), (2004). [10] hewahi n.,olwan a., tubeel n., el-asar s. and abu-sultan z., ”age estimation based on neural networks using face features”, journal of emerging trends in computing and information sciences(cis), vol.1. no.2. pp. 61-68 (2010). [11] horlings robert. "emotion recognition using brain activity". man-machine interaction group. tu delft. (2008). [12] karthigayan m., rizon m., nagarajan r. and yaacob s., “genetic algorithm and neural network for face emotion recognition”, university malaysia perlis (unimap), (2008). [13] kim moon hwan, joo young hoon, and park jin bae. "emotion detection algorithm using frontal face image". ministry of information and communication (mic). (2005). [14] raheja j., kumar u., “human facial expression detection from detected in captured image using backprobagation neural network”, international journal of computer science & information technology (ijcsit), vol.2. no.1, (2010). [15] ratliff matthew s. and patterson eric "emotion recognition using facial expressions with active appearance models". third international conference on human computer interaction. acta press anaheim, ca, usa (2008). [16] rudra t., kavakli, m. and tien, d. “emotion detection from male speech in computer games”. tencon, ieee region 10 conference. 4428779. pp1-4 (2008). [17] soto jose´ a. and levenson robert w. "emotion recognition across cultures: the influence of ethnicity on empathic accuracy and physiological linkage". department of psychology, pennsylvania state university, university park, pa 16802, usa (2009). [18] suzuki kenji, yamada hiroshi and hashimoto shuji “a similarity-based neural network for facial expression analysis”. elsevier science inc. new york, ny, usa. (2007). [19] tsapatsoulis nicolas, karpouzis kostas, stamou george, piat frederic and kollias stefanos. “a fuzzy system for emotion classification based on the mpeg-4 facial definition parameter set”. european signal processing conference (eusipco'00) (2000). [20] waller b., cray .j. and burrows a., “selection for universal facial emotion”, american psychological association, 1528-3542/08, (2008). ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 362-382 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/393 submitted: october 30th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 18th, 2022 the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with special needs in rehabilitation centres: neuropsychological aspects iryna sarancha 1 , borys maksymchuk 2 , sergey kharchenko 3 , yurii linnik 4 , sofiia dovbnia 5 , vitaliy pavelkiv 6 , iryna maksymchuk 7 , iryna shakhina 8 , volodymyr saienko 9 , oksana bashtovenko 10 , vitalii silaiev 11 , anastasiia radovenchyk 12 , leonid zhytomyrskyi 13 1 vinnytsia мykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, isarancha@gmail.com 2 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, ukraine, 0674256781@ukr.net 3 luhansk taras shevchenko national university, ukraine, hk.sergey2014@ukr.net 4 rivne medical academy, ukraine, future.of.ukraine87@gmail.com 5 m. p. drahomanov national pedagogical university, ukraine, s.o.dovbnya@npu.edu.ua 6 rivne state university of the humanities, ukraine, pavelkiv.v@gmail.com abstract: the article presents theoretical and methodological aspects of social support for families with adolescents with musculoskeletal disorders (msds) in rehabilitation centres. in particular, it describes the process and results from the implementation of the author’s work with mutual support groups of parents of adolescents with msds. the article aims to determine and quasi-experimentally verify the methods of rehabilitation of individuals with msds and prove their effectiveness in rehabilitation centres with the involvement of parents. during the implementation of the programme, social work with families in centres for social rehabilitation of children with msds consists of the following main areas: family therapy, family psychoprophylaxis, providing social assistance to families, mediation in resolving family conflicts, family counselling, social and pedagogical work with families. the content and forms of social and pedagogical work with the family are determined by a group of the following factors: a family type, problems in the family; areas of professional training of the specialist providing services to the family. the quasi-experimental group (eg) consists of 40 leavers from the vinnytsia centre for social rehabilitation of children with special needs “promin”, who are diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and six leavers with mild mental disorders. the control group (cg) consists of 40 individuals diagnosed with cerebral palsy and seven individuals with mild mental disorders. the age requirement for eg is 14-19 years old. the formative experiment also involves 27 parents of children with msds. the measures taken during the experiment have contributed to developing the skills of conscious psychological separation from constant parental care, taking responsibility for their lives, setting real-life goals and destroying the position of helplessness in individuals with msds. the article shows that a set of causes and factors affecting families’ well-being positively or negatively determines the interpersonal relationships and the traditions of family education. the international relevance of the article lies in the effective combination of social support for families with adolescents with msds in rehabilitation centres and parents’ involvement. the author’s methodology forms the basis for the new aspects of synergistic family and institutional rehabilitation and support. keywords: the patronage of families; mutual support groups for parents; parenting sessions; individual work; group sessions. how to cite: sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., kharchenko, s., linnik, y., dovbnia, s., pavelkiv, v., maksymchuk, i., shakhina, i., saienko, v., bashtovenko, o., silaiev, v., radovenchyk, a., & zhytomyrskyi, l. (2022). the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with special needs in rehabilitation centres: neuropsychological aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 362-382. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/393 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/393 mailto:isarancha@gmail.com mailto:0674256781@ukr.net mailto:hk.sergey2014@ukr.net mailto:future.of.ukraine87@gmail.com mailto:s.o.dovbnya@npu.edu.ua mailto:pavelkiv.v@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/393 7 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, 0963113686@ukr.net 8 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, rom.shahin@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4318-6189 9 academy of applied sciences – academy of management and administration in opole, poland, saienko22@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2736-0017 10 state university of humanities, ukraine, osiabasht@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6793-7880 11 izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, vitaliy.silayev.94@gmail.com 12 izmail state university for the humanities, ukraine, radovencikanastasia@gmail.com 13 izmail state university for the humanities, ukraine, leonidzh1945@gmail.com mailto:0963113686@ukr.net mailto:rom.shahin@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4318-6189 mailto:saienko22@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2736-0017 mailto:osiabasht@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6793-7880 mailto:vitaliy.silayev.94@gmail.com mailto:radovencikanastasia@gmail.com mailto:leonidzh1945@gmail.com the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with ... iryna sarancha et al. 364 introduction the quality of relationships between parents and their children with musculoskeletal disorders (msds) is undoubtedly one of the main factors determining the development of a child’s personality, his or her emotional and social development. this component is especially important for determining the possibility of further social integration of a child, his or her psychological comfort. some destructive psychological characteristics are inherent in children with cerebral palsy and, therefore, their prevention should start as soon as possible by both parents and teachers. they include a low level of self-criticism; inflated or, more frequently, deflated self-esteem; lack of communication skills; a peculiar and selective acceptance of social norms of behaviour and denial of many of them; vague social orientations and leading motives, general social infantilism; a narrow circle of interests, complexity of the formation of the motivational sphere. children with cerebral palsy at preschool and school age are usually even more silent, and their responses are less varied. one can agree with shevtsov (2009) that the content of rehabilitation and social adaptation of people with msds depends on the goals and objectives of rehabilitation; the balance between interests of such individuals and social needs; nosology and structures of physical or/and mental disorder; their age differentiation; the level of scientific and methodological development of theory and practice of rehabilitation; facilities, economic and socio-legal conditions of rehabilitation; the development of branches of the national rehabilitation system, namely, healthcare, education, psychological assistance, social security and legal support, rehabilitation equipment. understanding the essence of rehabilitation allows specialists in rehabilitation centres to perceive adults with msds through their abilities rather than as objects of pity, which results in a defectological model of activities in rehabilitation centres (shevtsov, 2009). such observations indicate the importance of the basic nosology factor, as well as of psychophysiological and neurophysiological factors (bakhmat et al., 2019; behas et al., 2019; bezliudnyi et al., 2019; dobryakova, & shchedrina, 2004; gerasymova et al., 2019; halaidiuk et al., 2018; maksymchuk et al., 2018; melnyk et al., 2019; sheremet et al., 2019; sitovskyi et al., 2019). however, a detailed analysis of these authors’ works proves that existing methodologies do not practically consider neurophysiological indicators when developing individual programmes of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 365 social support of families with adolescents with msds in rehabilitation centres. the most common contradictions in children and adolescents with msds may be psychophysiological subjective differences and difficulties with outlining the self-concept, including between the need for communication and the difficulty in its implementation, the inadequate desire to have a friend, girlfriend, play with peers, study in an ordinary school. however, these and other contradictions occurring in children with life-limiting conditions can be more painful and acute than in “normal” children. moreover, many of them are unable to solve their problems and need adult help. upon the successful resolution of internal contradictions, the child’s personality develops without complications. in case of failure, the child’s conflicts with the environment may aggravate. thus, the driving force behind the child’s mental development is the constant resolution of contradictions between the emerging need in new forms of communication, relationships with people and previous ways of solving them. as for relationships in families, the most common are the categories of stability or instability, friendliness or alienation, overor under-protection, efficiency (parental irritation, dissatisfaction), authoritarian education, oversociality (an attempt to raise a child under a particular scheme). thus, the set of causes and factors affecting families’ well-being positively or negatively determines the interpersonal relationships and the traditions of family education. neurophysiological aspects of social support for children with msds this article adheres to two aspects of neurophysiology that may apply to adolescents with msds. the first aspect is the common subjectivity concept as one of the main biosocial functions, while the second aspect is specific to people with msds. therefore, before presenting the author’s model of socio-pedagogical work with families with children suffering from msds, one should consider and analyze the main theoretical aspects of this problem. the article follows the assumption that children with msds can still be full-fledged subjects of self-creation and social interaction. della sala, & anderson (2012) prove that educational, social and neurophysiological factors are equally important in the development of the child’s subjectivity, regardless of his or her natural capabilities. it is clear life intentions of children with special needs are even less defined than those of healthy children. at the same time, the adaptation to the multimodal world should still take place in a normal life mode, which has only some the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with ... iryna sarancha et al. 366 limitations. this can be done due to a new culture of inclusiveness and a “revision of classical approaches to adjust them to the requirements of the postcolonial society” (ha et al., 2020). nowadays, all participants in educational and social processes are encouraged to boost motivation and personal activity to develop and enable personal subjectivity in a rapidly changing and devalued world (lourens et al., 2019, р. 1893). the concept of relational ethics seems to be particularly applicable since, within its framework, empathy and interaction can be developed taking into account the peculiarities of one’s own and another’s subjectivity. back in the late 20 th century, neuropsychological tests proved that nervous system disorders are directly related to behavioural dysfunction. symptom complexes such as passivity and aggression, stability and instability of mental activity manifestation especially need at least pedagogical supervision. most important is to compare constructive and destructive manifestations with the corresponding control variables (dietz, 1997; moffitt, 1993). regarding the research problem, such observations and their consideration when planning psychocorrection of children with msds will hypothetically help not so much in improving their physical condition as their adaptation and socialization. in this regard, psycho-pedagogical observation over children with special needs seems essential, even if they are conducted by specialists untrained in terms of neurophysiology. the key is the appropriate management of client behaviour and its correction, whose first markers are stress assessment, the nature of reactions to social stimuli, reflection on one’s disorders and (as a result) modification of social support (knight, & godfrey, 1996). even if the child is temporarily isolated within the rehabilitation centre due to clinical indications, the heuristic approach to developing social competence can be implemented through neurophysiological mechanisms of socio-affective and cognitive-executive processes of activity and behaviour (yeates et al., 2007). children with msds often demonstrate negativity towards society or rejection of their individuality because of socialization problems. as noted by eslinger, & tranel (2005), such negative manifestations can be overcome only in the natural environment. therefore, it is vital to maintain maximum contact of children staying in special rehabilitation institutions with their parents and possible social aspects, which will enable integrative mental and neurological processes. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 367 labour and creative activity, even in a deviant form, is one of the ways of developing such integrativeness. besides, there is a possibility to develop adaptive and predictable mechanisms of regulation concerning oneself and the environment (micro-society) (dishion, 2016). eisenberger (2013), using the data of affective and social neurosciences, proved that the subjective feeling of health and well-being in people with various special needs largely depends on the presence and maturity of social ties. the scholar explains this fact by reflecting on threats to survival and physiological responses to its markers. the neural network is extremely sensitive to social threats to survival, and consequently to the opposite incentives of support and confidence. eisenberger (2013) identifies the following important aspects that can be considered in social support of families with children suffering from msds in rehabilitation centres: a) social ties are directly related to the subjective feeling of health and well-being; b) the neural zones responsible for personal protection react differently to threats and social protection; c) violation of social welfare causes stress similar to the threat to survival; d) the presence of social support inhibits the physiological response to stress in the relevant subzones. thus, all this confirms, in terms of neurophysiology, valeology and rehabilitation, the vital role of social ties for children with msds even in temporarily limited conditions. the level of empathy between the participants in the process acts as one of the main characteristics of effective social, psychoand neurophysiological rehabilitation. this is important even in clinical practice, even though the main risk is the vulnerability of the child with some nervous disorders. recent studies, however, have shown that data based on social neurosciences indicate the need for empathy in rehabilitation specialists, physicians and parents. this improves the clinical effect and reduces the level of “burnout” in all participants in the process (decety et al., 2014). at the same time, there is still a need for special studies to help develop such a synergistic rehabilitation system. relevant studies on the psychological status of parents whose children suffer from nervous disorders (up to a mental deficiency) present encouraging results. it turns out that such parents do not differ from those whose children are completely healthy. the similarity is observed only in the nature of stress that can be caused by non-nosological life circumstances (dyson, 1997). higher levels of stress in parents of children with special needs are related to family functioning aspects but can be reduced if such functioning improves. this once again confirms the need for family therapy and parents’ involvement in the rehabilitation process. the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with ... iryna sarancha et al. 368 quite relevant for this research are stress factors for members of families with children with msds. it is important to understand how a person with msds (and the corresponding maladaptive symptoms) perceives social support. there are also similar studies on mental lability and variability of people with special needs. such variability is viewed as a protective mechanism. in 2018, halstead, griffith, & hastings (2018) proved that there is a direct link between social support, the child’s reaction to it and the emotional state of the child’s mother on the example of 138 mothers and their children with developmental disorders. these three factors are ultimately interdependent. this indicates that the construction of a trilateral rehabilitation scheme (social support  the child’s reaction  parents’ reaction) is extremely important and can have a positive effect in synergy. importantly, all three parties will be satisfied. the above-mentioned patterns allow one to build the author’s model of working with groups of mutual support for parents of children with msds. working with support groups of parents of children with msds the main goals of socio-pedagogical work with families with children with msds during the formative experiment are to mobilize their innate potential for sociopsychological adaptation to the problems of children with special needs and make parents more aware of further social opportunities for such children (shaping the subjectivity and mutual empathy). correctional social work with families with children with msds includes the following methods: 1) the peer-to-peer method, when parents with relatively high levels of sociopsychological skills take parents with relatively low levels of such skills “under patronage” (family visits, phone calls, counselling, child care assistance); 2) self-help groups for parents; 3) the patronage of families by social workers and educators from social rehabilitation centres and local centres of social services for the population. individual thematic sessions of self-help groups for parents, held monthly, have helped parents to understand and systematize the necessary psycho-pedagogical knowledge about the development of adolescents and adults with msds. various specialists, including methodologists, psychologists, social educators, speech therapists and rehabilitologists, planned such sessions together. parents also suggested some questions for discussions. during the formative experiment at the vinnytsia centre for social rehabilitation of children with special needs “promin” (ukraine), broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 369 the following topics were covered: the features of mental disorders in adolescents and adults with cerebral palsy and ways of correcting them; the influence of impaired motor functions on the mental development of the adolescent; impaired sensory functions as a result of cerebral palsy and their impact on the mental development of the adolescent; methods of developing speech in adolescents with cerebral palsy; over-protection and its negative impact on the mental development of the adolescent; communication as an essential factor in the mental development of the adolescent; developing self-care skills as a necessary condition for psychosocial rehabilitation of the adolescent; the basic principles of conscious parenting; the role of mother and father in family education; sex education of adolescents, their preparation for a future independent life and creation of their own family. each session of support groups of parents with children with msds consists of the following components: 1) greetings; 2) a mini-lecture; 3) educational games; 3. auto-training; 4) relaxing music; summaries. in the course of the programme’s implementation, it is also important to develop contacts between the families with the aim to 1) facilitate the creation of a network of baby-sitting and exchange of experience between them, hold meetings of the parents in the comfort of homes, involve parents (men) in repairing, especially the equipment for children and adults with msds; 2) assist in the establishment of a public organization of parents; 3) encourage parents to protect their rights, work in public organizations, participate in the decision-making of the medical psycho-pedagogical commission regarding further education and employment of adults with msds; 4) establish different types of interest clubs for parents and children. thematic sessions of self-help groups for parents with children with msds were held every last saturday of the month. below is an example of a group session with families with children with msds. part 1: getting to know. specifying participants’ expectations. 2. the game “catch, throw, do not fall!”. goals: involvement and release of tension. rules of the game. standing in a circle, participants quickly throw each other the ball. then, the presenter adds a few more balls. 3. the game “rhythmic applause”. goals: involvement, the release of tension, development of teamwork skills. 4. the game “let’s whisper together”. 5. the mini-lecture on the topic “child’s behaviour. negative behavioural phenomena and conditions for overcoming them”. addressing the fundamental behavioural problems of children of all ages (stubbornness, negativism, protest-rebellion, devaluation, despotism, hyperactivity, aggressiveness, anxiety), their manifestations, causes, ways of the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with ... iryna sarancha et al. 370 overcoming. 6. exercises for developing communication skills for the adultchild interaction. it is essential to analyze a complex of such exercises more in a detail. 1. parents are offered the situation and ready options for parental behaviour. they need to choose the most probable reaction and discuss and identify the best ways to respond to the situation. one of the situations: “you need to do some work at home that needs attention and focus. to prevent your child from disturbing you, you have asked one of the family members to sit with the child in another room for an hour. it has been 10 minutes, and suddenly the door opens, and your child comes into the room.” optional responses to this situation: serhii, do you miss me yet? go to another room! i asked not to disturb me, didn’t i? did you come to help your mommy? do not bother me. did something happen? can i work in this house without disturbing? my sweetie’s here. are you feeling bad without me? i am working. i’m so glad you came! serhii, sweetie. i am begging you to go to another room. come in, just be quiet. can’t you be without me for 40 minutes? if you open the door again, i’ll put you to sleep. i’ll have to work at night. my sweetie. sit down on mom’s lap and be quiet. leave the room immediately. i will be fired because of you. my darling. why are you so sad? oh god! i'll go to work at the neighbours' house. 2. the presenter alternately approaches each participant and talks about the extreme situation in which the child is. the one addressed must immediately respond and stop the child. (the list of situations. your child: 1) almost touching the hot iron; 2) attempting to switch on the gas stove; 3) almost dropping a crystal vase on the floor; 4) leaning over the railing on the sixth floor; 5) almost drinking vodka; 6) almost standing on the motorway; 7) almost beating a dog with a shovel; 8) almost putting a needle into the mouth; 9) pushing a pencil into a socket; 10) stuffing the button in the ear. after the exercise, parents discuss and share parenting experiences in similar situations). part 2 (children join parents): the exercise “forming a circle”. participants close their eyes and begin to move erratically around the room, buzzing like bees. according to the conditioned signal of the presenter (clapping, whistling), they all stop and try to form a circle without opening their eyes and talking. they can touch each other only with their hands. 2. games aimed at developing the parent-child interaction. the exercise “bridge over the ravine”. equipment: a bench height of 20 cm, length of 2 m. objectives: “you are a group of tourists, and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 371 you need to overcome this obstacle, cross this bridge hanging over the ravine. your success depends on the unity of your actions.” “sticker”. participants run around the room to some merry music. two of them, holding hands, try to catch the others, singing: “i am a sticker and i want to catch you”. the so-called stickers take each caught participant by hand, joining them to their “sticky” group. after that, they all catch other participants together. when everyone in the group becomes “a sticker”, they start dancing and singing together: “we are stickers. let’s dance together”. “planes”. participants stand in a circle. the presenter stands in front of them and shows the movements, namely circles with his arms and hands in front of his chest (planes are about to take off), spreads his arms to the sides and gives a signal “let’s fly away”. participants start running (flying) around the room, making sounds that mimic the buzz of a plane. after the signal of the presenter “prepare for landing!”, all participants should stop and sit down. “merry-go-rounds”. participants join the circle and join hands. the presenter says, “we will ride the merry-go-round now. repeat the words after me and move in a circle". all participants repeat such words, "little by little, the merry-go-round is spinning. move faster or you won't reach it." after the words “slowly, slowly, don’t run, stop the merry-go-round”, the movements gradually slow down. after the words “one two, one two, the game is up”, everyone stops. “paper balls”. before the start of the game, each participant should roll a piece of paper into a ball. the group is then split into two teams that line up opposite each other at a distance of approximately 4 meters. after the signal of the presenter, teams begin to throw the balls towards the opponent. players try to throw the balls that are on their side to the opposite side as soon as possible. after the stop signal, participants stop throwing balls. the team with fewer balls wins. blanket swinging. the exercise “gentle paws”. one put a few small items of different textures in front of a child. the child should bare his or her arm up to the elbow and close eyes to tell which animal touches him or her with its gentle paws. the exercise “writing on one’s back”. results (reflection). the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with ... iryna sarancha et al. 372 the methodology of organizing support groups for parents of children with msds during the formative experiment, it was crucial to implement longterm and short-term models of working with parents of children with msds. the short-term ones include the crisis-intervention and problemoriented models of interaction. the crisis-intervention model involves assisting in a crisis, which is usually the first step in the interaction between a social educator or practical psychologist and a family with children with msds. the next step is the problem-oriented model, which covers no more than four months and involves approximately 10-12 contacts with family members. this model aims to solve practical issues, that is, to focus only on the problem that the family is ready to work on. long-term models require long-term communication with family members (four months and more) and are mainly based on a psychological and social approach. their basic ideas are to understand the person’s situation, connect his or her feelings, concerns, actions with the influence of the environment, reveal the causes of this situation and solve it. their main tasks are as follows: to change the client, that is the family system, and encourage him or her to reinforce the rehabilitation of the person with msds. the use of different models, methods and forms in the work of a social educator and a practical psychologist has shown that their participation in the comprehensive rehabilitation of families with children with msds can produce significant results to enhance their social adaptation. models of working with families: the first model (working with a specific family directly) includes visits of a social worker (or an educator) to families, meetings with all family members, observations of how they interact with people with msds, demonstration of behaviour strategies, training, problem-solving; parents visit the specialist and observe how he or she communicates with people with msds, treats patients and provides counselling; joint participation in meetings of the rehabilitation commission of the centre when discussing their child’s problems. the second model (working with a specific family indirectly) involves keeping detailed records of the child by parents and the supervising specialist, providing parents with the information about the course of rehabilitation; providing parents with methodological literature, creating broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 373 maps of the child’s development, lending games and guides for the child’s development. in this regard, the vinnytsia centre for social rehabilitation of disabled children “promin” has created “a collection of games for children with msds”, as well as a library for parents of children and adults with msds. the third model (working with a group of parents directly) involves meetings of specialists with parents at the center to discuss joint plans, methods, the behaviour of parents; holding seminars for parents, roleplaying games, discussions, watching relevant video programmes (for one, the experimenters have held a seminar on the topic “what do i know about the development of my special child”), involving parents in joint events, vacations, holidays, actions (the experimenters have also organized a family sporting holiday “cossack fun”). the fourth model (working with a group of parents indirectly) includes informing parents about the latest technologies for working with the children, preparing written proposals and homework, copying the materials needed for parents, conducting surveys through written questionnaires, preparing stands, exhibitions for parents (for one, the creativity exhibition “believe in yourself”), preparing educational manuals or recommendations for parents. the experimenters have prepared the guidelines “working with parents in the context of social rehabilitation of children with special needs”. the primary purpose of socio-pedagogical work with families with children with msds is to mobilize the family’s innate potential for its psycho-pedagogical adaptation to the problems of children and adults with msds. the fifth model (establishing contacts between families) aims to facilitate the creation of a network of baby-sitting and exchange of experience between them, hold meetings of the parents in the comfort of homes, involve parents (men) in repairing, especially the equipment for children and adults with msds; to assist in the establishment of a public organization of parents; to encourage parents to protect their rights, work in public organizations, participate in the decision-making of the medical psycho-pedagogical commission regarding further education and employment of adults with msds; to establish different types of interest clubs for parents and children (e.g., the club “skilled hands”, the integrated theatre “buratino”). recently, psychotherapy and psychocorrection groups have become increasingly popular in ukraine. the goals and objectives of establishing such groups are diverse. in most cases, they are determined by the problems existing in our society. the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with ... iryna sarancha et al. 374 the authors have considered the creation of a favourable psychoemotional climate in families with children with msds and the development of positive attitudes in the minds of others close to them as the goals of the proposed psycho-correction. in this regard, psycho-correction aims to do the following tasks: to modify parent-child relationships; optimize marital and family relationships; harmonize interpersonal relations between “a mother with a sick child” and family members, as well as family members and others (outsiders); correct inadequate reactions in the behaviour and emotions of parents of children and adults with msds; develop communicative forms of behaviour promoting self-actualization and self-affirmation; develop skills of adequate communication with the outside world. the content of psycho-correction can be realized through individual and group work. individual work involves a conversation (or several conversations) or a partially structured interview, as well as further individual sessions of the psychologist with parents of children and adults with msds. this stage helps to establish direct personal contact between the psychologist and parents, familiarize them with the problems discussed in the group, and determine their need for attending group classes. at the same time, such work involves conducting a diagnostic of the psychological characteristics of children with msds with the help of specialized methods. individual classes allow the psychologist to know the life history of parents, identify some traits of their characters with the help of observations, study the history of the child’s illness, as perceived by parents, identify the problems existing in this family, offer help (teaching them some forms of behaviour that can help in difficult life situations related to the child’s problems). group work includes the influence of the psychologist on each member, as well as the influence of psychocorrection on the interaction between the participants. it can be organized in three ways: by harmonizing the relationship between mothers and children, fathers and children through psycho-corrective exercises and discussing their conclusions after completing the exercise by the participants of the group; by harmonizing family relationships; by optimizing the social contacts of families with children with msds. it can be implemented through 1) role-playing; 2) selftraining; 3) musical relaxation; 4) music therapy and bibliotherapy; 5) dance therapy; 6) vocal therapy. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 375 the effectiveness of the author’s methodology the quasi-experimental study on the effectiveness of the implemented programme involved 40 leavers (18 males and 22 females) from the vinnytsia centre for social rehabilitation of children with special needs “promin”, who are diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and six leavers with mild mental disorders. the control group (cg) consists of 40 individuals diagnosed with cerebral palsy and seven individuals with mild mental disorders. the age requirement for eg is 14-19 years old. the implementation stage involved 27 parents of children with msds. the main research methods are as follows: an observation; a study of pedagogical documentation, a conversation; a questionnaire, an interview, an analysis of educational information, a psycho-pedagogical (ascertaining and formative) experiment to specify the methods of rehabilitation of individuals with msds and verify their effectiveness; methods of processing statistical data to study experimental data and establish quantitative relationships between the phenomena and the processes under study. first, parents gave their consent on the quasi-experimental verification of the results. second, it was approved by the ethics committee of the city administration for the rights of people with special needs. the basic data were collected through the author’s survey of the target group, psycho-pedagogical talks and supervision, analysis of individual rehabilitation programmes and educational activities of children in rehabilitation centres. the preface to the survey explains how it works and emphasizes the confidentiality of information obtained during the research. all the respondents were provided with the following instructions: to circle only those answers they agree with; to indicate their own answer options in the section “other”; to cross out the answers circled by mistake. the survey contains questions that form several important groups. the first group relates to self-care and solutions to household problems (1.2  1.5), whose success depends on relevant skills, infrastructure, social environment (1.6), as well as social competence levels (1.7). the share of affirmative answers will determine how self-sufficient the respondents are, while the rest of the answers  how much they depend on the environment. motivation levels (1.1) are also significant. the next group of questions (1.8  1.10) describes the family as a centre of the microsocial environment and the leading institution of the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with ... iryna sarancha et al. 376 socialization of people with msds, as well as their place of these people in the parental family. the respondents’ relationships with the immediate (peers, friends) and macrosocial (healthy people) environment are also important (1.11, 1.12 and 1.16). another group of questions (1.13  1.15) highlights the personal orientations of people with msds in the public sphere, their motivation levels, as well as the localization of their public life in the system of social dimensions that exist in society. questions 1.17 and 1.18 identify the main sources of information and means of communication for the respondents. questions 2.1  2.3 characterize respondents’ motivation towards further learning and suitability of knowledge acquired at school (centre) for this. questions 2.4  2.7 determine respondents’ motivation to obtain employment, attitude towards it and ability to assess their professional qualities in comparison with a healthy environment. questions 2.8 and 2.9 show whether respondents can use certain computer programmes and devices. also, they demonstrate the extent of computers’ accessibility for people with special needs. the last block of questions (3.1  3.3) studies respondents’ motivation to start their own family and have children, as well as its autonomy levels. the real ability to do so determines their prospects for personal growth and social integration levels. the diagnostics of social adaptability levels in people with msds should consider the social status and influence of the family, as well as psychophysical disorders caused by socioeconomic and medical-biological factors. thus, the proposed system of studying socialization levels in people with msds implies compliance with certain conditions: 1) the survey should be conducted in conditions psychologically typical for respondents; 2) the survey should be conducted only if respondents are in a positive emotional state; 3) it is necessary to give respondents some time to adapt to the situation; 4) it is advisable to avoid positive and negative evaluation comments. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 377 conclusions the measures taken when implementing the author’s methodology of working with mutual support groups of parents with children with msds have contributed to developing the skills of conscious psychological separation from constant parental care, taking responsibility for their lives, setting the real-life goals and destroying the position of helplessness in individuals with msds (see table 1). tab. 1. the needs of people with msds need eg cg before experiment after experiment before experiment after experiment % % % % constant parental care 65 57.5 62.5 62.5 place of residence 55 55 52.5 52,5 services of a social worker 27.5 30 25 27.5 expressing one’s opinion 55 67.5 52.5 57.5 achieving one’s goal 52.5 72.5 52.5 55 making one’s decisions 47.5 57.5 50 52.5 striving to know others’ views 25 42.5 22.5 27.5 abandoning stereotypes 17.5 27.5 15 17.5 striving for conscious independence 25 37.5 27.5 32.5 * the total score in all tables exceeds 100% as respondents made several choices. source: authors' own conception the research proves that the leading institute of socialization of children and adults with msds was and remains a family. however, the awareness of these people of their dignity, values and ability to fulfil their needs leads to some changes in family relationships. the results of the experiment are presented in table 2. tab. 2. relationships in families with people with msds family relationships eg cg before experiment after experiment before experiment after experiment % % % % warmth 77.5 95 75 80 trust 62.5 82.5 65 67.5 the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with ... iryna sarancha et al. 378 sincerity 57.5 75 55 62.5 peace 47.5 72.5 50 55 love 40 67.6 42.5 50 indifference 10 2.5 7.5 7.5 anxiety 10 5 10 12.5 hostility 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 source: authors' own conception creating conditions for establishing friendly relationships with people with msds in the rehabilitation centre has helped them to create their psychological comfort zone, which is manifested in the conscious choice of friends as significant people along with family members and understanding of the importance of each family member for a harmonious life. the results of the experiment are presented in table 3. tab. 3. significant people for people with msds significant people eg cg before experiment after experiment before experiment after experiment % % % % mother 90 92.5 87.5 87.5 father 45 47.5 45 47.5 grandmother 35 45 37.5 40 grandfather 15 15 12.5 12.5 sister 22.7 27.5 25 27.5 brother 12.5 12.5 15 15 friend 12.5 42.5 15 20 source: authors' own conception the attitude towards the possibility of starting a family by people with msds and their responsibility for both birth and education of their children has changed due to sociopsychological work aimed at developing the skills required for the interaction between a man and a woman and the skills of independent living both in adults with msds and their immediate environment. they have become more conscious and responsible for planning their independent lives from the standpoint of their responsibility. the results of the experiment are presented in table 4. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 379 tab. 4. views of people with msds on the possibility of starting a family and giving birth view eg cg before experiment after experiment before experiment after experiment % % % % willing to start a family 62.5 85 65 67.5 did not think about it 17.5 5 15 7,5 unwilling to start a family 20 10 20 25 willing to have children 65 77.5 65 67.5 willing to live independently 50 62.5 50 55 source: authors' own conception references bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., martynets, l., uchytel, i., solovyov, v., manzhos, e., sheian, m., alieksieiev, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13231332. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., chepka, o., lemeshchuk, m., dychok, m., nikitenko, a., sarancha, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13331340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 bezliudnyi, o., kravchenko, o., maksymchuk, b., mishchenko, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 15851590. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 decety, j., smith, k. e., norman, g. j., & halpern, j. (2014). a social neuroscience perspective on clinical empathy. world psychiatry, 13(3), 233237. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20146 della sala, s., & anderson, m. (2012). neuroscience in education: the good, the bad, and the ugly. oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20146 the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with ... iryna sarancha et al. 380 dietz, v. (1997). neurophysiology of gait disorders: present and future applications. electroencephalography and сlinical neurophysiology, 103(3), 333355. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0013-4694(97)00047-7 dishion, t. j. (2016). social influences on executive functions development in children and adolescents: steps toward a social neuroscience of predictive adaptive responses. journal of abnormal child psychology, 44, 57–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0117-5 dobryakova, i., & shchedrina, t. (2004). vosstanovitelnoye lecheniye detey s porazheniyami tsentralnoy nervnoy sistemy i oporno-dvigatelnogo apparata [a reconstructive treatment of children with neurotic and musculoskeletal disorders]. mapo. dyson, l. l. (1997). fathers and mothers of school-age children with developmental disabilities: parental stress, family functioning, and social support. american journal on mental retardation, 102(3), 267279. https://doi.org/10.1352/0895-8017(1997)102<0267:famosc>2.0.co;2 eisenberger, n. i. (2013). social ties and health: a social neuroscience perspective. current opinion in neurobiology, 23(3), 407413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2013.01.006 eslinger, p. j., & tranel, d. (2005). integrative study of cognitive, social, and emotional processes in clinical neuroscience. cognitive and behavioral neurology, 18(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.wnn.0000152206.73195.1e gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 ha, n., nhan, n., & quang, b. (2020). developing educational institution culture for the education of ethical and humanistic values, and of lifelong-learning spirits in binh duong province. science & technology development journal  social sciences & humanities, 4(3), 582593. https://doi.org/10.32508/stdjssh.v4i3.576 halaidiuk, m., maksymchuk, b., khurtenko, o., zuma, i., korytko, z., andrieieva, r., strykalenko, y., zhosan, i., syvokhop, y., shkola, o., fomenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2018). teaching approaches in extracurricular physical activities for 12-14-year-old pupils under environmentally unfavourable conditions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(4), 2284–2291. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 halstead, e. j., griffith, g. m., & hastings, r. p. (2018). social support, coping, and positive perceptions as potential protective factors for the well-being https://doi.org/10.1016/s0013-4694(97)00047-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0117-5 https://doi.org/10.1352/0895-8017(1997)102%3c0267:famosc%3e2.0.co;2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2013.01.006 https://doi.org/10.1097/01.wnn.0000152206.73195.1e https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.32508/stdjssh.v4i3.576 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.04344 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 381 of mothers of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. international journal of developmental disabilities, 64(4-5), 288296. https://doi.org/10.1080/20473869.2017.1329192 knight, r. g., & godfrey, h. p. (1996). psychosocial aspects of neurological disorders: implications for research in neuropsychology. australian psychologist, 31(1), 4851. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050069608260176 lourens, h., watermeyer, b., & swartz, l. (2019) ties that bind, and double-bind: visual impairment, help, and the shaping of relationships. disability and rehabilitation, 41(16), 18901897. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2018.1450454 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m moffitt, t. (1993). the neuropsychology of conduct disorder. development and psychopathology, 5(1-2), 135151. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579400004302 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). stan sformovanosti smart-informatsiynoho kryteriyu hotovnosti fakhivtsiv do realizatsiyi inklyuziyi v osviti [the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education]. informatsiyni tekhnolohiyi i zasoby navchannya [information technologies and learning tools], 72, 273285. https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 shevtsov, a. (2009). osvitni osnovy reabilitolohiyi [educational fundamentals of rehabilitation]. lesya. sitovskyi, a., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., nosko, y., korytko, z., bahinska, o., marchenko, o., nikolaienko, v., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., khurtenko, o., slyusarenko, n., zhorova, i., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). differentiated approach to physical education of adolescents with different speed of biological development. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 1532–1543. http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 https://doi.org/10.1080/20473869.2017.1329192 https://doi.org/10.1080/00050069608260176 https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2018.1450454 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579400004302 https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/2561 http://repository.ldufk.edu.ua/handle/34606048/23502 the influence of parents’ mutual support on the socialization of children with ... iryna sarancha et al. 382 yeates, k. o., bigler, e. d., dennis, m., gerhardt, c. a., rubin, k. h., stancin, t., taylor, h. g., & vannatta, k. (2007). social outcomes in childhood brain disorder: a heuristic integration of social neuroscience and developmental psychology. psychological bulletin, 133(3), 535556. https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2007-06095-009 https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2007-06095-009 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 37-58 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/443 submitted: january 20th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 28th, 2023 implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna 1, anatolii maksymchuk 2, daryna lytvychenko 3, olena revutska 4, mykola moskalenko 5, olha sopina 6 1 phd in pedagogy, associate professor, head of the department of fine arts and design, zhytomyr ivan franko state university, https://orcid.org/0000-00025937-0677, oksana-poddubnaja00@ukr.net 2 senior lecturer, zhytomyr ivan franko state university, https://orcid.org/00000001-8588-0999, maksimchuk19761111@gmail.com 3 senior lecturer, berdiansk state pedagogical university, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9270-9073, litvichenko.darina@gmail.com 4 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, berdiansk state pedagogical university, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4311-4748, revutskaya.helena@gmail.com 5 ph.d., biology, associate professor of the department of biology and methods of teaching biology, sumy state teacher training university named after a.s. makarenko, moskalenko_nikolay@ukr.net 6 phd of philological sciences, associate professor, berdyansk state pedagogical university, https://orcid.org/0000-00015230-3669, senichevaolga76@gmail.com abstract: in the article, the possibilities of using the neuropedagogical approach in the educational process for the child to achieve a high level of school knowledge and skills and personal development are considered. the features of the modern educational space and their readiness to introduce innovations are analyzed. the role of neuropedagogy and its elements in the practice of teaching and upbringing of children is determined. the fundamental ideas of modern neuropedagogy, its principles and objectives are formulated, and the need for their application is substantiated. it also substantiates the need for the introduction of neuropedagogical innovations and such a position as a neuroeducator. the main research methods in this article are historical, comparative methods of synthesis and analysis, as well as theoretical analysis of a scientific letter, thematic journals. thanks to which a large number of sources have been worked out, the quality and level of research already conducted and the effectiveness of introducing the principles of neuropedagogy into the educational process have been assessed. as a result, the problem of school failure was highlighted, the shortcomings of traditional teaching methods were revealed, appropriate neuropedagogical innovations were proposed, and practical recommendations for teachers were provided. it is concluded that the introduction of the principles of neuropedagogy and neuropedagogical innovations will improve and modernize the educational system. keywords: neuropedagogy at school, neuropsychological approach, school education, principles of neuropedagogy, traditional teaching methods, cognitive functions. how to cite: piddubna, o., maksymchuk, a., lytvychenko, d., revutska, o., moskalenko, m. & sopina, o. (2023). implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 37-58. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/443 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/443 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5937-0677 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5937-0677 file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/oksana-poddubnaja00@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8588-0999 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8588-0999 file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/maksimchuk19761111@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9270-9073 file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/litvichenko.darina@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4311-4748 file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/revutskaya.helena@gmail.com mailto:moskalenko_nikolay@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5230-3669 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5230-3669 file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/senichevaolga76@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/443 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 38 introduction since the end of the twentieth century, scientists and educators began to take an active interest in the brain and the processes occurring in it, they directly linked the features of its functioning with the problems of education. they made a number of discoveries that became fundamental for the future formation of a new industry neuropedagogy. applied science combines knowledge of such related fields as psychology, biology, pedagogy and others. the principles of neuropedagogy have been the subject of many scientific studies and monographs. the work examined scientific articles and works of prominent psychologists and educators, including the books by o. r. luria (2013) "fundamentals of neuropsychology", v. d. eremeeva and t. p. khrizman (1998). neuropsychology for teachers, educators, parents, school psychologists ", learning principles in action "and others, as well as articles by l. s. vygotsky (1991)", o. v. voznyuk (2019) "neuropedagogy a powerful resource for adult education", etc. in the above-mentioned works, neuropedagogy is viewed as a qualitatively new field of science, on which teachers should rely in their professional activities, and the neuropedagogical approach as a response to the challenges of our time. many scientists have tried to determine the goals, objectives and historical significance of this science. however, much less research has focused on the implementation of neuropedagogy and neuropedagogical innovation in schools. therefore, the topic of introducing neuropedagogical innovations in school is quite relevant and requires detailed consideration. research in the field of neuropedagogy is gaining in popularity due to advances in technology and informatization. more and more scientists argue that a neuropedagogical approach will help modernize the education system, improve the teaching and educational process and overcome the problem of school failure (demchenko et al., 2021; komogorova et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; melnyk, 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020). based on this, the purpose of this article is to confirm or refute the submitted statements, to study the problems that neuropedagogy can solve in the context of the educational process, opportunities to improve the quality of education and the introduction of neuropedagogical innovations. the article is intended to show how the achievements of neuropedagogy can be used to solve professional problems of a teacher in the process of organizing the educational space. implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna, et al. 39 neuropedagogy as a science: a historical excursion the nineties of the twentieth century received the title "the decade of the brain" for a reason (zeer & symanyuk, 2021). we have learned more about the brain than in all previous centuries combined during this period. in turn, these discoveries initiated the further acquisition and development of new amazing knowledge about the brain. this data is accumulated and synchronized, forming an integral system. thanks to such a treasury of knowledge about the brain, their integration into various sciences, in particular into pedagogy, was inevitable, glushchenko (2017). thus, a qualitatively new direction in education appeared as "neuropedagogy". based on knowledge about the functioning of the brain and nervous system, the main criteria and conditions for effective learning in this system are investigated. neurodidactics is an integral part of neuropedagogy, which also includes cognitive diagnostics, development of an educational system and correctional and developmental support of students. in turn, such scientific and applied disciplines as neuropedagogy, neurodiagnostics, neurodidactics and neuropsychology closely interact with each other and are key elements of neuroeducation. l.s. vygotsky (1991) and o.r. luria (2013), who laid the foundations for the future direction in their works. scientists have been talking about the need to use neuroscience in pedagogy for a long time, but only at the end of the twentieth century did it become possible to apply the achievements of neuropsychology and neurobiology in pedagogical practice. that is why, on the territory of the post-soviet space, "neuropedagogy" as an applied science appears in the nineties of the twentieth century, but begins to actively declare itself only in the twenty-first. the most interested in the problems of neuropedagogy were scientists, among whom v.a. moskvin, and n.v. moskvina (2001), v.d. eremeeva and t.p. khrizman (1998), t.v. akhutina et al. (1996), o. l. podlinyaev and k.a. mornov (2015) and others, as well as the ukrainians i.a. zyazyun (2013) and a.v. voznyuk (2019). nina moskvina and viktor moskvin (2001) analyzed a new direction of science and outlined the main provisions of neuropedagogy, its tasks and goals in their work "neuropedagogy as an applied direction of pedagogy and differential psychology". in parallel, neuropedagogy as a new interdisciplinary branch developed in the usa. the following american researchers were involved in its development: mazzucchelli et al. (2009), i. jensens (2000) and others. in many countries, research centers for neuropedagogy were created. also, the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 40 center for educational research and innovation organized an international project "brain and learning", which included thirty countries of the world teachers, psychologists, neuroscientists, sociologists, doctors, etc. its main task was also to popularize knowledge about the work of the brain among teachers. the research carried out within the framework of the project provides teachers with all the necessary information about the principles of brain functioning, which can be further applied in practice. neuroeducators identified certain patterns of brain functioning and formulated and presented a number of tips and recommendations for teachers based on the information received. however, the practical application of the data obtained remains in the background and requires implementation into the education system as such. and education itself requires reform and renewal to ensure effective learning, as well as to create the necessary conditions for introducing a neuropedagogical approach into the educational process (mynbayeva et al., 2017). what provoked such a need? there are a number of reasons, but we will focus on the most important ones. "innovative technologies" of teaching and upbringing of children, which are outlined in the psychological and pedagogical literature, have long been used in pedagogical practice and are no longer considered the latest discoveries, as they guarantee success in learning, high results and development of children's abilities, naegele (2015). at the same time, the social and cultural environment of the child's education has changed qualitatively and quantitatively. in the modern globalized world, the information space is characterized by variability and provides the child with a wide range of alternative means and methods of obtaining information, churilo (2018). and most importantly, the child must master basic school skills, such as writing, reading, number, which he will need already at the stage of enrollment in school even in preschool age, churilo (2018). why so untimely? because today, more than ever, the issue of increasing the efficiency of the educational process is relevant. modern educational standards are focused on students obtaining a wide range of knowledge in different areas. thus, on the one hand, the requirements for the level of training and education are constantly growing and this leads to an increase in the intensity of training and its deepening, and on the other hand, to a deterioration in the psychophysical health of children. high demands, and sometimes too high, increase the risk of psychosomatic diseases, emotional and behavioral disorders in children whose brains are not yet sufficiently formed to meet them (peterson, 2018). implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna, et al. 41 that is why, together with the increase in requirements for the quality of education, it became necessary to introduce qualitatively new teaching methods focused on the personality of the child, his abilities and characteristics. modern children differ significantly from those born fifty or even twenty years ago, and the education system has practically not undergone any changes, starting with preschool education and ending with a higher educational institution. the lion's share of teachers are teachers and educators who use in their work the principles and methods of teaching and educating children since soviet times. and this is a big problem, since modern education and science must meet the requirements of the time and respond to challenges in time. another problem is the uncontrollably growing number of children lagging behind in learning, who have difficulties in mastering the school curriculum and significant problems with adaptation, in the absence of impairments to the intellect, vision, hearing, language and musculoskeletal system. judging by all of the above, it can be argued that the means and approaches of the traditional psychology of teaching and upbringing of children have exhausted themselves and they are simply not enough to organize an effective educational process (churilo, 2018). in other words, we can observe a significant deterioration in the parameters of the neuropsychic health of the population against the background of a dramatic decrease in the effectiveness of traditional teaching methods. that is why the introduction of not just a neuropedagogical approach, but neuropedagogical innovations, is an urgent and priority task for heads of schools and preschool educational institutions. before talking about neuropedagogical innovations, it is necessary to understand what this new branch of "neuropedagogy" is and why it is so important in teaching? neuropedagogy is an applied neuroscience that uses knowledge of cognitive neurology, differential psychophysiology, neuropsychology, data on the organization of the processes of mastering different types of educational material by the brain. it takes into account the compatibility of individual lateration profiles of students and teachers in the educational process, their interaction and fully reflects the personal approach to learning. based on factual knowledge about the patterns of processes, the goal of neuropedagogy taking place in the structures of the brain and psyche is to build a training and education system that takes into account the individual neuropsychological characteristics of students based on factual knowledge about the patterns of processes occurring in the structures of the brain and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 42 psyche (podlinyaev & mornov, 2015). thus, to contribute to the optimal physical, intellectual, spiritual, moral and professional development of a person, the satisfaction of his educational needs and interests. in other words, effectively teach and educate, creatively solve pedagogical problems, promote personal development and professional self-realization of a person, relying on the work of the brain and knowledge of individual characteristics. 1. the main tasks of neuropedagogy follow from here (voznyuk, 2019): 2. to investigate the neuropedagogical mechanisms of consciousness and behavior of students, their personal, subjective and individual relationships, as well as the principles of the formation of a common neuropedagogical space. 3. analyze objective psychological phenomena and laws arising as a result of neuropedagogical communication between people in the context of solving a single educational problem. 4. identify and consider the patterns of neuropedagogical processes, the structure of the neuropedagogical space, developing under the influence of joint activities. 5. to develop and introduce into educational practice psychodiagnostic and psychocorrection technologies that increase the effectiveness of the professional activities of teachers and psychologists. these include magnetic resonance imaging (mri), computed tomography, electroencephalography (eeg). these technologies help to diagnose disorders in a timely manner and contribute to their correct treatment, as well as allow the study of the pedagogical process, taking into account the neurological changes in the brain. 6. provide inclusive education for children with disabilities, that is, provide an opportunity for such children to study in a mainstream school with other children. the main area of application of neuropedagogy remains the school the place where children learn. in order to maximize the educational process and make it effective, teachers must understand how our brain works, how it perceives, remembers, processes, stores and reproduces information (dehaene, 2013). they also need to understand that the relationships among classmates, the structure of the class, the tasks that the children perform, the words and emotions experienced that affect the development of the brains of students and the way they learn. an important feature of modern education is the desire to ensure the maximum realization of the abilities of "gifted" and "special" children, mainly through the development of implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna, et al. 43 individual learning plans. however, all students must realize their abilities and the approach must be individual to every child, regardless of whether he has disabilities or not (naegele, 2015). hence, a problem arises that looks something like this children are different, but they teach them in the same way, although each student thinks "in his own way", respectively, and everyone has different learning abilities. it is necessary to take into account the needs and abilities of the child in order for learning to bring results, and for this it is necessary to explore the student's thinking strategy, to understand how his brain works. and the fact that the modern education system is not brain-friendly and is the reason for the lag in perfectly normal and healthy students, peterson (2018). the neuropedagogical approach involves the application of fundamental knowledge about the human brain and its functioning in the educational process. consider the main provisions about the work of the brain, which are based on neuropedagogy: 1. by its nature, the brain is multifunctional, which means it can perform several functions at the same time. the teacher must use different methods and means of teaching, develop rich classes in which he will involve students in educational and cognitive activities of different content and forms. it should be borne in mind that underloading the brain, like its overloading, can negatively affect its development (voznyuk, 2019). 2. learning and cognition are the main vehicles for brain development. by nature, a person is inquisitive, so he tends to be interested in everything around him. and pedagogy as a science must create an appropriate environment to meet these needs (voznyuk, 2019). 3. the constant search for meaning and reliance on experience are innate qualities of the brain. the brain analyzes any new situation through the prism of previous experience, acquired knowledge, experienced emotions and realizes it only after it draws a parallel between this knowledge and already existing ideas. therefore, it is very important to update and replenish this knowledge in the learning process (terno, 2011). 4. the brain seeks truth through the establishment of patterns, and disorder and chaos complicate its productive activities. for learning to be effective, the potential of the human brain must develop, overcoming intellectual difficulties and establishing patterns, voznyuk (2019). 5. emotions play a huge role in learning and teaching. they are necessary for the productive activity of the brain, since the learning material is remembered better if it is associated with the corresponding positive broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 44 emotions. emotional learning is essential for both learners and teachers as it stimulates thinking and creativity. and emotional intelligence is just as important as intelligence (iq) itself. 6. the human brain is able to simultaneously analyze and synthesize information, operate in whole and in part. neuropsychologists in their research prove that the brain has a unique ability to simultaneously perceive an object as a whole and in parts. analysis and synthesis are very important interconnected thought processes that develop with the help of correctly selected teaching methods. that is why educational material should be presented through the interaction of induction and deduction, the whole and the separate, analysis and synthesis, specificity and generalization, etc. 7. the brain assimilates information equally in conditions of focused attention and peripheral perception. with a well-organized learning process, such a property can be useful for a teacher, but it can also act as a destructive element (blake, choshanov, paso & peyp, 2003). 8. the processes in consciousness and subconsciousness proceed simultaneously. in the process of learning, the student receives much more information than it seems. the child is influenced not only by what the teacher said or done, but the whole complex of internal factors, such as his own experience, emotional state, level of motivation, individual characteristics and others, and external among which is the general atmosphere in the classroom, light, sound, etc.(blake et al., 2003). 9. the brain has at least two memory systems: a visual-spatial memory system and a memorization system (blake et al., 2003). the first is more natural for the functioning of the student's brain, the other is more artificial and laborious. knowledge gained through "memorization" is unstable and unproductive. as a rule, they are located in the memory randomly and haphazardly. and the more such information, the more difficult it is for the brain to find it. visual-spatial memory is systematized in such a way that any information occupies its own niche assigned to it. therefore, it is convenient not only to accumulate and store data, but also to quickly find and reproduce. in addition, a person understands and remembers better if knowledge and skills are fixed in the visual-spatial memory system. 10. brain development is stimulated under the conditions of creative freedom and stops when pressure, coercion or threat is felt. some educators adhere to strict discipline, suppressing the creative atmosphere. as a result, students simply cannot develop their abilities and acquire new knowledge and skills (blake et al., 2003). implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna, et al. 45 11. the brain is unique. it differs not only physically, but also in characteristics. the brain of each person differs in the volume and speed of data processing, the predominance of one of the memory systems, the speed and quality of memorization, flexibility of thinking, etc. many schools use a traditional learning model based on memorization and review. it views the class as an integral personality, which is designed for one teacher and the same teaching methodology for all. that is, the teacher must convey the provided educational material for the standard forty-five minutes of the lesson to twenty or thirty students, therefore, teaching children in accordance with their inclinations is not provided. although some teachers try to take into account individual characteristics, character and temperament, this is not enough, and all children continue to try to fit the same template (dehaene, 2013). what should be the students? diligent, attentive, concentrated, etc. the list goes on. but if a child is absent-minded, cannot sit still, or he is simply not interested in learning, he is simply referred to the so-called category of children who are lagging behind in learning, without looking for a reason and refutation of such behavior (tarasov, 2008). therefore, the words of eremeeva & khrizman (1998) that the child's brain is developed by the teacher, and any violation of the normal development path can lead to its functional deformation even in a normal healthy child, they are very accurate and fully show the blunders of the modern education system. the ability to organize the process of teaching and moral education of children, taking into account the individual characteristics of children, is one of the most important components of the teacher's professional competence. the quality of education and socialization depends on how much the personal characteristics of students are taken into account in the educational process, as well as their physical and mental health, (ansari et al., 2017). what should be an effective education system? focused on establishing trust between the pupil and the teacher, based on the recognition of the child's personal responsibility for the results of his activities, contributes to the development of the child's abilities and potential. that is, the education system, which is primarily focused on the development of the child, stimulating his activity and independence, strengthening the relationship between the teacher, the child and his family. in order to solve the problem of "same" learning, it is necessary to introduce new methods and technologies and look for new approaches, naegele (2015). one of these is the neuropedagogical approach, which broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 46 involves close interaction between the student and the teacher, revealing the hidden abilities and talents of the child and making it possible to make learning effective. guided by the principles of neuropedagogy, the teacher can not only increase the effectiveness of teaching, but also make it interesting and motivating. what neuropedagogical principles should he rely on in order for the learning to be as productive as possible? 1. learning should be deliberate and meaningful for both the student and the teacher. first of all, we are talking about using the child's direct experience, important and outstanding events, and understandable categories in the learning process. lesson topics should be formed based on the interests and hobbies of the child, as well as his life situations, churilo ( 2018). 2. age should be taken into account, namely training to be timely and flexible. according to l.s. vygotsky (1991) in his own work: “there is no one for a seven-year-old child, there is nothing and why to write”, churilo (2018). considering the general laws of mental development, age norms of brain development, knowledge of mental neoplasms, it should be remembered that the boundaries of normal development are too arbitrary and blurred. therefore, an individual approach, his educational needs and cognitive strategies, is a very important principle of teaching and raising a child at school, taking into account the characteristics of the child. in this case, the teacher must take into account the sensitive periods of the child's development, the so-called "windows of opportunities", suggesting the optimal period for teaching the child something and for the development of the corresponding mental functions. since accelerated and in-depth training of a child without taking into account the morphogenesis of the brain can lead to a violation in the formation of higher mental functions, including in the link of arbitrariness and regulation of mental activity. that is, if the development of mental functions is complicated by the disagreements between the pedagogical and psychological terms of mastering, then the arbitrariness is also formed in a distorted manner. 3. any educational and educational interaction must be consistent and logical. this position is based on the patterns of the formation of a child's thinking, in which visual representations and visual-figurative thinking become the basis for the formation of verbal-logical and abstract thinking (churilo, 2018). 4. it is necessary to use the explanation by the method of complication (from simple to complex), deduction and induction in each implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna, et al. 47 lesson in order to make the learning process gradual and accessible (churilo, 2018). 5. in the development of a child, his physicality occupies an important place. limitations of the child's motor needs can lead to a violation of analytical and synthetic activity. disorders in psychomotor development are associated with the unformed scheme of their own body and with a violation of orientation in space, churilo (2018). 6. effective learning should not be multimedia, but multimodal, that is, rely on different modalities: visual, tactile and auditory instead of the active use of media. as you know, modern schools in most cases use verbal teaching methods, churilo (2018). therefore, according to the formulated principles of neuropedagogy in the learning process, it is necessary to use not "interactivity", but joint productive activity. and the implementation of an individual-personal approach in school education is possible only if knowledge about the cognitive strategy and characteristics of the child's behavior is applied, understanding why he has difficulties at school, and identifying opportunities for further development. in addition to all of the above, neuroeducation takes into account knowledge about how the way of thinking of boys and girls, left-handers and right-handers, what happens in the brain of children, during school, what teaching methodology to choose depending on the individual characteristics of the child, glushchenko (2017). for example, if a boy sees a written text, the reaction takes place in one place in his brain, and when he hears the same words in other places (blake et al., 2003). another example, when we see a number, for example "5", the occipital lobe of the brain is activated. when we hear or read a number like the word "five", the area of the cerebral cortex is activated, which is adjacent to the " groove of sylvius". and when we perceive the number as a quantity, the parietal lobe is activated, for example, "5 is more than 2". that is, each lobe of the cerebral cortex performs characteristic functions and responds to the corresponding stimuli, which together ensure the correct functioning of the brain (blake et al., 2003). it would seem, what difference does it make how and what in the brain reacts if in the end a person grasps the meaning of the phenomenon and finds an answer to the task. but there is a difference and it lies in the fact that a significant advantage of one or another intracerebral "locator" gives this individuality such a characteristic as a learning style, tarasov broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 48 (2008). even without resorting to neurological fine distinctions, a truly talented educator or scientist can notice this. in modern pedagogy, you can often find the concept of "stress" or "inclination" to something that is actually one and the same. for example, a child has a talent for mathematics and he is perfectly understood in this science. however, mathematical abilities come in different combinations, which means that different types of thinking correspond to different areas of mathematics. who has the best geometric abilities, who has combinatorial or algorithmic skills. accordingly, when studying different sections of mathematics, the same mathematically capable students can master a given topic at different rates, even lag behind, tarasov (2008). neuropedagogical innovations: new methods and technologies based on the theory, it becomes clear that with the help of advances in the field of neuropedagogy, it is possible to significantly increase student performance in school and diversify education. if you comply with the principles of neuropedagogy and find the “learning style” of each student, then the problem of lagging and academic failure can be solved once and for all, larina (2016). however, how can this knowledge be applied in practice in the educational process? since in order to obtain a positive result, it is necessary not only to study and theoretically analyze the relevant data, but also to learn how to apply them in practice. first of all, it is necessary to clearly understand that in order for education to reach a qualitatively new level, the introduction of neuropedagogical innovations is inevitable. today, teaching innovation is often driven by changes in information technology and schools must keep up with these changes. given modern progress and informatization, the use of information and communication technologies (ict) is already an integral part of the educational process, lafuente (2018). the latest technologies are actively used in preschool and higher educational institutions and much less in schools. although it is they who are the main guides of neuropedagogy, an individual approach to the pace and methods of learning. icts perfectly complement traditional teaching methods, diluting the existing system of memorization and repetition. they allow each student to collect their multimedia stock from videos, photographs, drawings, texts, cartoons, exercises and games characteristic of his perception. school is the main goal of neuropedagogy, in which the teaching methodology is guided by the mechanisms of the child's organic perception implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna, et al. 49 of the surrounding information and building on its basis "his own world" with a sense of personal participation in this process. the teacher should start teaching children based on the understanding or not understanding of reality, which has already developed naturally, so that children can subsequently comprehend the same patterns already at the level of scientific concepts. in schools, you can effectively use the conditions of the game, spontaneous improvisations, feedback, competitions, all kinds of projects, that is, everything that develops the initiative. you can provide children with the opportunity to test themselves in the role of a teacher, scientist, researcher, and not just tell them about a particular science. this is a clever stimulation of the educational instinct characteristic of the human brain. given today's realities, it is state with confidence that in the modern educational process there are a lot of teachers, but few neuroeducators (friedman et al., 2016). this is why there is a tendency to lag and underperform in school. finding that some of the child's sense organs are not working as well, neuroscientists are trying to discover and apply the compensatory capabilities of the brain to restore balance. and teachers guided by traditional methods will not even notice the problem. the most useful information neuropedagogy offers to teachers is in skills such as reading and writing. reading problems can occur for a number of reasons: vision problems, poor hearing, inappropriate strategies that cause cognitive dysfunction. that is, it becomes clear that even completely healthy children may have problems with the development of reading or writing skills, if the strategy is not individual and developed in accordance with the needs of the child and his characteristics, abilities. the question arises if it is necessary to determine the characteristics and abilities of each child, and there are about thirty of them in the class and the lesson lasts 45 minutes, how to do this. an educational online platform cognifit (hereinafter referred to as cognifit) was developed especially for teachers, which is based on the principles of neuroeducation, cerdán (2017). it is used in many schools around the world and has been performing very well, especially among students with special educational needs and learning difficulties. what is this educational neurotechnology and how can it help? this is a scientifically developed tools for teachers who can use it to improve the quality of the educational process, even without special education in the field of neuropedagogy. the platform allows teachers to identify the neurological reasons for the failure behind in schoolchildren and helps to restore the basic neurocognitive functions of children. with its help, you can broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 50 deepen your knowledge of the processes of the brain responsible for learning and psychomotor development, taking into account individual needs, enhance cognitive functions, create a personal brain training mode. how does the platform work? students must first take a cognitive test that will identify strong and weakened cognitive functions (attention, memory, thinking, perception). according to the test results, the cognifit platform will automatically create a personalized brain training program, which is aimed at improving the neurocognitive abilities of the student. that is, the online platform provides digital tools for the effective measurement and training of cognitive abilities and brain plasticity. since school failure is one of the biggest problems in the education system, the use of a neuroeducational innovation such as cognifit will help improve teaching methods to optimize the learning process and improve the quality of teaching, (cerdán, 2017). experiencing new teaching methods is always a risk, how will the students, their parents, the leadership perceive it? however, the result is worth it. brain-driven innovation can dramatically improve teaching and learning, reduce or even overcome the problem of failure. neuropedagogical innovations are designed to work for the benefit of the learner and the educator, so the result can be expected to be twofold. the practice of using non-traditional teaching methods is more common in the united states and europe than in the post-soviet space. consider the most illustrative innovations. professor of psychology, psyche loui (2020) looks at the introduction of neuropedagogy into learning through the use of music. students learn about the latest research in auditory cognitive neuroscience and pursue their own group projects. one of these was a project to use music to help people with epilepsy. or a project that explored how rhythm affects how music and speech are processed in the brain. some students even rapped about their opinions. this approach allows students to apply scientific ideas in everyday life as it will engage them in research and help develop problem-solving and coping skills, salas (2015). today, most sources of information about the discovery are freely available. all the data you need can be found on the internet and you don't need to go to the library. this fact was used in his classes by professor stephen engle, salas (2015). he did not begin to explain to the students about a certain concept, but invited them to find explanations themselves in wikipedia. when they did not find him there, he invited them to make the corresponding article themselves. that is, turned a challenge into an implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna, et al. 51 opportunity. in addition to the excitement of being the first, students had the opportunity to contribute to the online encyclopedia. and in the process of work, students master new tools and functions of wikipedia, which they did not even know about before. in the end, students are satisfied with their participation in the general dissemination of knowledge. for twenty years, professor sean mccann has taught american literature in the usual way, salas (2015). but one day, he decided to change this and instead of lectures, he created 15-minute videos for each lesson, assigned them as homework and devoted the rest of the lesson to a short summary and discussion. to do this, he made discussion groups led by technical experts (juniors and seniors who attended the class before). the main goal of such an experiment is to fully involve students in the process, their passion for working with technical experts who reflect the well-known saying "to master a subject, teach it to someone else." and although all these innovations were introduced in higher education institutions, they can be used in whole or in part in schools. applying these approaches results in more interaction from students, a deeper understanding of concepts, and improved communication and teamwork skills. around the world, only a small number of schools are using the principles of neuroeducation and introducing neuroeducational innovations to help children learn and acquire new skills and regulate their emotions. some schools have developed striking neuroscience-based teaching projects. computer brain training (new zealand), matchar (2015). in april 2014, on the north island of new zealand, korakonui introduced a neuroscience-based program called brain gain to help students with problems such as adhd and dyslexia. the program consists of three parts. the first part is the online program cogmed, which is designed to improve concentration by improving working memory. students perform exercises that resemble computer games and are aimed at memorizing patterns and numbers. the second part of brain gain is a literacy program called steps, another gamified online program designed to help students develop the cognitive skills they need to read well, such as visual recognition, auditory sequencing, kinesthetic memory, etc. the third part is another fast forward computer program that uses neuroscience research to train students' brains, improving cognitive skills such as memory and comprehension. brain gain is showing positive results according to parent and teacher reviews. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 52 let teens (and their brains) sleep (uk), matchar (2015). it is a well-known fact that teenagers love to sleep, and the reason for this is not just laziness. the biological rhythms of adolescents are, on average, two hours behind adults. this means that their brains "tell" them to go to bed two hours later than their parents. but despite falling asleep late, on weekdays, when you need to go to school, you have to wake up at 7 or 8 in the morning. therefore, researchers at the university of oxford in 2014 embarked on an experiment that involved more than 100 schools across england. its main goal is to find out if students will perform better and more productively if school starts no earlier than 10 o'clock in the morning. the results of the study turned out to be positive and confirmed this statement, however, they require more detailed analysis in the future. neuroscience for rest (australia), matchar (2015). broadmeadows primary school in melbourne is attended by the children of the poorest families in the australian city. however, her students get better test scores than students in neighboring schools with similar demographics, as well as higher than national ones. the school attributes this striking result to a new neuroscience-based program created with the help of neuroscientists and psychologists. they believe that stress, worry, and anxiety interfere with learning. and it is precisely this principle that was taken as the basis for the development of the program. first, in the morning, students are fed a nutritious breakfast that they cannot get at home, and then they are sent to the "wall of emotions" to post their photo next to the emotions they experience that day. this helps teachers recognize students who are having a difficult day so they can provide appropriate assistance. students are also given regular opportunities to engage in physical activity that helps improve learning and emotional regulation. the program not only helped to improve academic progress, but also positively influenced student behavior. breakthrough in the study of mathematics (us), matchar (2015). many children and even adults have difficulty understanding math. based on research on how the brain works, stanford researchers have developed a special method to teach children how to operate with negative numbers. they analyzed how the brain's natural ability to process visual symmetry can help solve math problems. scientists have found that it is much easier for students to determine the midpoint between negative and positive numbers if the distances of integers from zero are more symmetrical (i.e., it is easier to determine the midpoint between -4 and 6 than between 10 and 4). based on this discovery, the researchers developed zero-hinge implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna, et al. 53 magnetic digital whiteboards that allowed students to take advantage of their natural sense of symmetry to solve problems. children who have worked with these boards have improved their understanding of math in general. kids are allowed to run (canada), matchar (2015). numerous studies have shown a clear link between cardio training and increased ability to concentrate and hold information. based on research by harvard university psychiatrist john j. ratie, eight canadian schools have introduced exercise into the school day in a new way. instead of a regular physical education, these schools give students quick 10-minute breaks every hour. students can spin hoops, throw a ball in the gym, run on a treadmill, or play frisbee in the schoolyard. school leaders hope these breaks will help prepare students' brains for learning. students themselves claim that taking breaks helps them feel more relaxed and focused. neuropedagogical innovations are seen not only in the use of ict or the development of special programs and projects. this category includes a variety of teaching practices, tools, and even environments. creative space is essential for learning. it is a kind of playground where students can interact creatively with each other and collaborate. experts advise using more transparency, namely glass for display and more flexible learning spaces for different types of teaching and learning. for example, this could be a recording studio, an experimental classroom with telepresence and moving furniture. these kinds of innovations will be interesting for children, although some of them will be confusing. difficult to teach when you have a full class of technology-savvy students accustomed to multimedia presentations and information from handheld devices. most of them are not able to learn simply by sitting at their desks, as they were before. this is why educators must follow the principles of neuroeducation and be innovative. modern social media, blended learning, video conferencing, go pro cameras, drones, and other technology familiar to today's kids will also come in handy. each educator must select those innovations that are best suited for teaching their subject. what is neuroeducational innovation? something new or forgotten old? these are new approaches and technologies that are changing the way students learn. this is old content that is laid out in a new way, in an accessible format for every child. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 54 conclusions we live in a time when traditional teaching methods are receding into the background, and a qualitatively new applied branch of neuropedagogy is actively developing. the fact that a new direction has appeared in modern science shows its importance and relevance. science, based on knowledge about the work of the brain and the peculiarities of its functioning, has combined such related fields as neuropsychology, biology, pedagogy, etc. summing up all of the above, we can confidently assert that the application of the neuropedagogical approach in educational practice is simply necessary. brain research and the latest technology have revealed many reasons why some children have so many learning difficulties and teachers are unable to help overcome them. the knowledge obtained by teachers in the framework of classical pedagogical technologies is not enough to ensure effective learning for every child without losing the quality component of education. therefore, there is an urgent need for educators, teachers and teachers in the development of new knowledge in related fields, such as neuropsychology, medicine, etc. and the application of new approaches and techniques. in this regard, there is also a need to create new posts with the title neuroeducator, for example, neuroeducator-teacher of mathematics, glushchenko (2017). in the meantime, on the basis of monitoring studies about teachers' knowledge of the basics of neuropedagogy and their readiness to apply them in their professional activities, appropriate recommendations have been developed for planning educational space and organizing educational and cognitive activities. the main task of neuropedagogy is to help the teacher select technologies and methods from different systems and combine them into one that is effective for each student. by applying an individualized approach based on the principles of neuropedagogy, the teacher can significantly increase the effectiveness of teaching, make it realised, and also increase productivity. at the same time, it is important to give children motivation and interest. in order to "painlessly" introduce neuropedagogical innovations, teachers can use modern achievements of mankind, for example, social networks, various techniques, etc. today neuropedagogy provides a significant range of resources for high-quality education of children in school, the education system itself requires reforming in parallel. and the main task of teachers is to use these resources for their intended purpose. therefore, teachers have the right to choose what their lesson will implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna, et al. 55 be, what technologies and approaches to use and whether to teach children in accordance with the laws of brain functioning. thus, we see what problems can be solved or minimized by introducing the foundations of neuropedagogy into the school system and using neuropedagogical innovations. that is, we make learning more conscious, multimodal, deductive and productive by applying the principles of neuropedagogy. and, perhaps, such changes will be able to bring modern pedagogy to a qualitatively new level. references akhutina, t.v., vygotsky, l.s. & luria, a.r. (1996). stanovleniye neyropsikhologii [the formation of neuropsychology]. voprosy psikhologii [psychology questions], 5, 83-98. http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1996/965/965083.htm ansari, d., könig j., leask, m., & tokuhama-espinosa, t. (2017). developmental cognitive neuroscience: implications for teachers' pedagogical knowledge. pedagogical knowledge and the changing nature of the teaching profession, oecd, chapter 9. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264270695-en blake, s., choshanov, m., paso, e., & pape, s. (2003, july 15). pamyat' ne sklad, a biblioteka. ispol'zovaniye dostizheniy neyropsikhologii v pedagogike ssha [memory is not a warehouse, but a library. using the achievements of neuropsychology in pedagogy in the united states]. teachers' newspaper, 29. https://ug.ru/pamyat-ne-sklad-a-biblioteka-ispolzovanie-dostizhenijnejropsihologii-v-pedagogike-ssha/ cerdán, a. g. (2017). todo sobre la neuroeducación: qué es, para qué sirve, y cómo aplicarla en la escuela y en casa. cognifit salud, cerebro & neurociencia. https://blog.cognifit.com/es/neuroeducacion-que-es-y-para-que-sirve/ churilo, n.v. (2018). neyropsikhologiya i neyropedagogika v shkole: obucheniye i razvitiye detey po zakonam mozga [neuropsychology and neuropedagogy at school: teaching and development of children according to the laws of the brain]. surli. http://surl.li/aubit dehaene, s. (2013, november 7). did neuroscience find the secrets of learning? paris innovation review. http://parisinnovationreview.com/articles-en/didneuroscience-find-the-secrets-of-learning demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 eremeeva, v. d., & khrizman, t. p. (1998). mal'chiki i devochki — dva raznykh mira. neyropsikhologii — uchitelyam, vospitatelyam, roditelyam, shkol'nym psikhologam http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1996/965/965083.htm https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264270695-en https://ug.ru/pamyat-ne-sklad-a-biblioteka-ispolzovanie-dostizhenij-nejropsihologii-v-pedagogike-ssha/ https://ug.ru/pamyat-ne-sklad-a-biblioteka-ispolzovanie-dostizhenij-nejropsihologii-v-pedagogike-ssha/ https://blog.cognifit.com/ru/team/andrea-garcia/ https://blog.cognifit.com/es/neuroeducacion-que-es-y-para-que-sirve/ http://surl.li/aubit http://parisinnovationreview.com/articles-en/did-neuroscience-find-the-secrets-of-learning http://parisinnovationreview.com/articles-en/did-neuroscience-find-the-secrets-of-learning https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 56 [boys and girls are two different worlds. neuropsychology for teachers, educators, parents, school psychologists]. linka-press. friedman, i., grobgeld, e., & teichman-weinberg, a. (2016, december 4). neuropedagogy in teacher education. the mofet institute, international portal of teacher education. http://education.eng.macam.ac.il/article/4325 glushchenko, a. a. (2017). neyropedagogika kak noveysheye napravleniye pedagogiki: tekhnologii, printsipy, metody [neuropedagogy as the latest trend in pedagogy: technologies, principles, methods]. in vii international scientific conference "innovative pedagogical technologies" (kazan, october 2017) (pp. 67-68). buk publishing house. jensen, e. (2000). brain-based learning—a reality check. educational leadership 57(7). https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/brain-based-learning-a-realitycheck jensen, j. r. (2000) remote sensing of the environment: an earth resource perspective. prentice hall. komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lafuente, m. (2018, 5 april) attuning pedagogies to the context of ‘new learners’ and technology. oecd education working paper, 172, 94-109. https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cot e=edu/wkp(2018)8&doclanguage=en larina, o. d. (2016). neyropedagogika — real'nost' i problemy sovremennogo obrazovaniya. molodoy uchenyy [neuropedagogy reality and problems of modern education. young scientist, 7, 6. https://moluch.ru/archive/111/28070/ loui, p. (2020). neuroscientific insights for improved outcomes in music-based interventions. music and science, 3. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059204320965065 luria, a. r. (2013). osnovy neyropsikhologii: uchebnoye posobiye dlya studentov uchrezhdeniy vysshego profil'nogo obrazovaniya [fundamentals of neuropsychology, a http://education.eng.macam.ac.il/article/4325 https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/brain-based-learning-a-reality-check https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/brain-based-learning-a-reality-check https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=edu/wkp(2018)8&doclanguage=en https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=edu/wkp(2018)8&doclanguage=en https://moluch.ru/archive/111/28070/ https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2059204320965065 implementing neuropedagogical innovation in schools: from theory to practice oksana piddubna, et al. 57 textbook for students of institutions of higher specialized education] (8th edition). publishing center "academia". maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 24-43. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 matchar, e. (2015, september 24). six ways schools are using neuroscience to help kids learn. smithsonian magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/six-ways-schools-areusing-neuroscience-help-kids-learn-180956566/ mazzucchelli, t., kane, r., & rees, c. (2009). behavioral activation treatments for depression in adults: a meta-analysis and review. clinical psychology: science and practice, 16(4), 383–411. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14682850.2009.01178.x melnyk, n., maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., kalenskyi, a., dovbnya, s., groshovenko, o., & filonenko, l. (2021). the establishment and development of professional training for preschool teachers in western european countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 208-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 moskvin, v. a., & moskvina, n.v. (2001). neyropedagogika kak prikladnoye napravleniye pedagogiki i differentsial'noy psikhologiyi [neuropedagogy as an applied direction of pedagogy and differential psychology]. bulletin of the orenburg state university, 4. http://vestnik.osu.ru/2001_4/5.pdf mynbayeva, a., sadvakassova, z., & akshalova, b. (2017) pedagogy of the twentyfirst century: innovative teaching methods. in o. bernad cavero & n. llevot-calvet (eds.), new pedagogical challenges in the 21st century. intech. http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.72341 naegele, s. (2015, january 25). the fundamentals of neuropedagogy. brainblogger. https://brainblogger.com/2015/01/25/the-fundamentals-ofneuropedagogy/ peterson, a. (2018, 5 april). combinations of pedagogies, innovative and established. oecd education working paper, 172, 33-57. https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cot e=edu/wkp(2018)8&doclanguage=en podlinyaev, o. l. & mornov, k.a. (2015). aktual'nyye problemy neyropedagogiki [actual problems of neuropedagogy]. bulletin of the kemerovo state university, 3(63), 126-129. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnye-problemyneyropedagogiki/viewer https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/six-ways-schools-are-using-neuroscience-help-kids-learn-180956566/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/six-ways-schools-are-using-neuroscience-help-kids-learn-180956566/ https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2850.2009.01178.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2850.2009.01178.x https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/369 http://vestnik.osu.ru/2001_4/5.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.72341 https://brainblogger.com/2015/01/25/the-fundamentals-of-neuropedagogy/ https://brainblogger.com/2015/01/25/the-fundamentals-of-neuropedagogy/ https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=edu/wkp(2018)8&doclanguage=en https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=edu/wkp(2018)8&doclanguage=en https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnye-problemy-neyropedagogiki/viewer https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/aktualnye-problemy-neyropedagogiki/viewer broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 58 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 salas, c. (2015, september 14). pedagogical innovation. wesleyan university magazine. https://magazine.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2015/09/14/pedagogicalinnovation/ tarasov, a. (2008). neyrootkrytiya menyayut pedagogiku [neurodiscovery is changing pedagogy]. zdorov'ye detey [children's health], 3. https://zdd.1sept.ru/article.php?id=200800312 terno, s. (2011). neyropedahohika: chym vona mozhe dopomohty vchytelevi istoriyi? [neuropedagogy: how can it help a history teacher?] istoriya i suspil’stvoznavstvo v shkolakh ukrayiny: teoriya ta metodyka navchannya [history and social sciences in schools of ukraine: theory and methods of teaching], 1, 13-16. http://gorodnia-raygimnvipsd.edukit.cn.ua/files/downloads/zurnal_istoriy_11_11_terno.pdf voznyuk, o. v. (2019). neyropedahohika – potuzhnyy resurs osvity doroslykh [neuropedagogy is a powerful resource for adult education]. andragogical bulletin. zhytomyr: zhytomyr state university publishing house named after i. franko, 10. http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/31149/1/вознюк%20andrag_visnyl_10_2019_2 020%20последнее_.pdf vygotsky, l. s. (1991). pedagogicheskaya psikhologiya [pedagogical psychology]. pedagogy. https://sheba.spb.ru/shkola/ped-psih-1991.htm zeer, e. f. & symanyuk, e.e. (2021). formirovaniye personalizirovannykh neyroobrazovatel'nykh rezul'tatov uchebnoy deyatel'nosti u obushchayushchikhsya v professional'noy shkole [formation of personalized neuroeducational results of educational activity among students in a vocational school]. izvestia, 27(3), 124-132. https://doi.org/10.15826/izv1.2021.27.3.062 zyazyun, i. (2013). istorychni vytoky psykholohichnoyi [historical origins of psychological]. native school, 11, 3-12. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/rsh_2013_11_3 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://magazine.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2015/09/14/pedagogical-innovation/ https://magazine.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2015/09/14/pedagogical-innovation/ https://zdd.1sept.ru/article.php?id=200800312 http://gorodnia-raygimn-vipsd.edukit.cn.ua/files/downloads/zurnal_istoriy_11_11_terno.pdf http://gorodnia-raygimn-vipsd.edukit.cn.ua/files/downloads/zurnal_istoriy_11_11_terno.pdf http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/31149/1/вознюк%20andrag_visnyl_10_2019_2020%20последнее_.pdf http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/31149/1/вознюк%20andrag_visnyl_10_2019_2020%20последнее_.pdf https://sheba.spb.ru/shkola/ped-psih-1991.htm https://doi.org/10.15826/izv1.2021.27.3.062 http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?i21dbn=link&p21dbn=ujrn&z21id=&s21ref=10&s21cnr=20&s21stn=1&s21fmt=asp_meta&c21com=s&2_s21p03=fila=&2_s21str=rsh_2013_11_3 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1sup1, pages: 403-421 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/327 submitted: november 25th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 13th, 2022 e-learning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational innovations in higher school practice andrii lytvynov¹, yana topolnyk2, larisa chumak3, nataliia prykhodkina4, larysa antoniuk5, svitlana kramska6 1 oleksandr dovzhenko hlukhiv national pedagogical university, ukraine, gnpu.edbo@gmail.com 2 shee «donbas state pedagogical university», ukraine, yannetkatop@gmail.com 3 communal higher educational establishment «kherson academy of continuing education» of kherson regional council, ukraine, larisaks2008@ukr.net 4 state institution of higher education «university of educational management» of national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, ukraine, prykhodkina2019@gmail.com 5 vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, larissa.antoniuk2021@gmail.com 6 sumy makarenko state pedagogical university, ukraine, lanella55555@gmail.com abstract: mass introduction of e-learning in the higher education system due to spread of the pandemic has led to a search for effective information technologies and their adaptation, taking into account peculiarities of professional training of specialists in a particular field of knowledge. based on the theoretical analysis, the conditions for ensuring professional growth of higher education teachers in accordance with the requirements of innovative development of society (improvement of professional education, continuing professional development, introduction of innovative pedagogical technologies, etc.) are established. peculiarities of e-learning of specialists of pedagogical specialties and its functions in the process of their professional training are determined. the content of the concept of “e-learning” and ways to ensure its effectiveness (scientifically sound selection of the content of training courses, creation of discussion groups, feedback and online counselling).innovative technologies of e-learning in the practice of higher education (gamification of the training process, use of cloudbased systems, information systems of intellectual teaching, mobile learning technologies, as well as virtual and augmented reality) are characterized. their advantages, disadvantages and possibilities of introduction into the system of professional training of future teachers are determined. creation of a model of continuous distance learning for high school teachers and experimental verification of its effectiveness seem promising. keywords: specialists in pedagogical specialties, improvement of the educational process, information technologies, gamification of the educational process, mobile learning, virtual reality, cloud-oriented systems. how to cite: lytvynov, a., topolnyk, y., chumak, l., prykhodkina, n., antoniuk, l., & kramska, s. (2022). elearning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational innovations in higher school practice. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 403-421. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/327 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/327 mailto:gnpu.edbo@gmail.com mailto:yannetkatop@gmail.com mailto:larisaks2008@ukr.net mailto:prykhodkina2019@gmail.com mailto:larissa.antoniuk2021@gmail.com mailto:lanella55555@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/327 e-learning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational ... andrii lytvynov, et al. 404 introduction integration of domestic higher education into the european and world educational space involves updating national standards in accordance with the requirements of the bologna process, credit transfer system and revision of theoretical and methodological approaches to training of future professionals (gerasymova et al., 2019). current educational policy is focused on introduction of innovative pedagogical technologies, which creates the need for continuous training of scientific and pedagogical staff of higher education institutions (bakhmat et al., 2019; kosholap et al., 2021; ovcharuk et al., 2021; sheremet et al., 2019; onishchuk et al., 2020). peculiarities of today’s professional training are constant updating of information and availability of access to it. this led to an understanding of the need to reassess the content of knowledge as the main characteristic of professionalism of future specialists, as well as awareness of the need to update educational technologies to ensure high quality of educational services. furthermore, spread of the pandemic and the use of hitherto unprecedented quarantine measures, contributed to active introduction of information technology in the training of future professionals. as a result, the scientific community has initiated a discussion on various aspects of elearning, its advantages and disadvantages, as well as effective methods of optimizing the educational process. the problem of finding effective e-learning technologies for future teachers is in the centre of attention of scientists, as pedagogical activity requires a specialist to constantly adapt to new rapidly changing conditions, processing the flow of new information, introduction of pedagogical innovations, etc. the process of professional training of educators should include not only acquisition of psychological and pedagogical knowledge and skills, but also promote development of those personal qualities that in future will allow them to effectively solve professional problems, design the process of training future professionals, taking into account the innovative development of society. the need to use information technology in the training of pedagogical specialists is outlined in publications of guillén-gámez & mayorga-fernández (2020), koehler & mishra (2009), li et al. (2019). researchers emphasize the importance of forming a digital competence of future teachers of higher education institutions, because currently their brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 405 educational programs are focused mainly on acquisition of psychological and pedagogical knowledge. therefore, the purpose of the article is to analyse the domestic and international practice of using e-learning technologies for future teachers, as well as to determine conditions for introduction of educational innovations in the practice of higher education institutions. ensuring professional development of higher education teachers in accordance with the requirements of innovative development of society formation of professional competence of a future teacher is one of the critical factors of further progress of society. it is the scientific and pedagogical staff of the higher school that provides professional training for future employees of all sectors of the economy and is responsible for quality of the educational services. we agree with castaño-muñoz et al. (2018) and laurillard (2016) that compliance of the scope of professional training of future teachers with current requirements can be ensured through development and implementation of continuing professional development programs. such programs should reflect not only the issues of innovations in the education system or production, but also ensure development of creative thinking and digital competence of pedagogical specialists. desimone & park (2017), hassan (2019) highlighted the existing problems that hinder professional education renewal of future higher school teachers. scientists have reason to believe that the existing training centres that provide continuing professional pedagogical education, not only lack the necessary resources, but are also incapable to offer appropriate training programs focused on the needs of teaching staff. among the shortcomings of the traditional system of professional training of future teachers zidane (2018) also included the lack of material resources, outdated curricula, a limited number of distance learning courses, etc. stracke et al. (2019) emphasize that the existing complications can be solved by using information and communication technologies in the system of professional training of teachers. on the one hand, it will provide every interested person with an access to the training courses at a convenient time and in a convenient format, and on the other –it will provide the opportunity to acquire practical skills in using innovative e-learning tools, to systematically improve skills in the chosen direction. e-learning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational ... andrii lytvynov, et al. 406 interesting developments on this issue are reflected in the publications of barrera-pedemonte (2016), desimone & park (2018). in particular, desimone & park (2018) believe that improving professional training of future teachers should include three mandatory elements: content-oriented learning, the scope of which includes mastering innovations of psychological and pedagogical disciplines and acquiring skills in modelling the process of professional training of future professionals, taking into account current development of a particular industry; active learning. the need to use active learning methods in the training of higher education teachers is discussed in a number of scientific publications and is not disputed. in particular, the importance of active learning methods for development of critical thinking is substantiated in the studies of kyoung-oh et al. (2018), niemi et al. (2016). scientists claim that such an approach will contribute to effective formation of professional competence and further use of active learning methods in the process of future professional activity of a teacher; joint training, the content of which is to form a group of teachers according to professional interests, fulfilment of tasks and support each other in the learning process. the practical experience of such interaction is described in the publication of barrera-pedemonte (2016). in addition, thomas-brown et al. (2016) argue that the ability to share experiences and ideas for the teaching staff is the foundation of further creative professional activity. apparently, in scientific publications, the need for use of innovative e-learning technologies in the process of professional training of future teachers of higher education is positioned. even before the mass transition to a remote format of work amid the pandemic, scientists considered promising development of e-learning. this approach is due to the fact that the professional growth of specialists in any field should be continuous and, accordingly, the electronic format of professional development in this case is more appropriate (kurelovic, 2016). miyazaki (2015) considers the following features of e-learning of teachers to be positive: the ability to organize training for a large number of people at the same time, accessibility and low cost due to the massive involvement. cho & kim (2016) supplement the list of benefits with a choice: self-study or with a consultant. experimental studies of the effectiveness of e-learning for pedagogical professionals are reflected in the publications of al-harthy (2016), shemya & al-habsia (2021). thus, e-learning technologies for future high school teachers not only provide access to a variety of educational resources, but also have a brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 407 positive impact on development of professional competence, as evidenced by a number of experimental studies. therefore, there is a need to determine the features of e-learning for specialists of pedagogical specialties and its functions in the process of their training. features of e-learning for specialists of pedagogical specialties contemporary standards of professional education provide for formation of a digital competence of future professionals, regardless of field of knowledge or qualifications. university students should have the appropriate level of information technology skills and be able to solve professional problems with their help. the fact that a high school teacher should be aware of peculiarities of the future professional activity of specialists the training of which they provide, as well as possible areas of use of information technology in the process of their professional activity is not remarkable. after all, formation of digital competence does not occur during the study of individual disciplines. this phenomenon is interdisciplinary and requires an integrated approach. to determine the features of introduction of educational innovations in the practice of higher education institutions, we clarify the current content of e-learning and its functions in the process of professional training of future teachers. interestingly, there is no unanimity on the meaning of e-learning. some scientists consider it synonymous with the concept of “distance learning”, others a kind of distance learning, and some even distinguish these concepts. the initiated research is based on interpretation of the concept of “e-learning”, proposed by the european commission in the following interpretation: “the process of developing knowledge, skills and abilities through the use of computer technology and the internet” (communication from the commission: e-learning designing “tejas at niit” tomorrow’s education, 2006).according to it, we can consider e-learning as a kind of distance learning, when interaction of all subjects of the educational process takes place through the use of appropriate software and hardware, as well as the internet. given the peculiarities of professional training of future teachers of higher education institutions, we consider it appropriate to distinguish between pedagogical and information technologies of e-learning. the difference between them lies in the peculiarities of their use in the training of e-learning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational ... andrii lytvynov, et al. 408 future professionals. in particular, pedagogical e-learning technologies are technologies that provide communication between all participants in the educational process through various means of telecommunications. elearning information technologies are technologies that allow to create, transmit and store learning materials. it should be noted that the mass introduction of e-learning in the system of professional education during quarantine restrictions has led to combination and complementation of both types, which allowed to ensure effectiveness of distance interaction. in particular, martíneza et al. (2021) experimentally tested the impact of e-learning tools on students’ academic performance based on distance learning results and offered recommendations for their improvement. according to scientists, improvement of e-learning platforms should take into account the academic, economic and social conditions of the social environment. similar results were obtained by lowenthal et al. (2020) and nagar (2020), which gave scientists reason to highlight achievements and shortcomings of e-learning, to form recommendations for its use in the training of future professionals. based on the analysis of scientific publications, including halimi et al. (2018), huang (2020), jotikabukkana and sornlertlamvanich (2019), et al., we have identified the key elements of e-learning that affect its effectiveness: the appropriate objective, aims and circumstances of the educational process of the content of the course or discipline. given the peculiarities of remote interaction, the content should be divided into modules and contain different content (text, graphics, images, audio, animation, video, etc.). this approach involves maximum consideration of individual characteristics and needs of students. from the offered material they can choose the form of presentation and processing of information convenient for them; discussion groups. in the interpretation of higher school pedagogy, learning involves interaction of all participants in the educational process. therefore, modern e-learning should involve creation of appropriate groups (usually using popular messengers), which discuss urgent and problematic issues; online counselling. consultations in the process of e-learning are carried out by the teacher in accordance with the established schedule. this is usually a scheduled webinar on specific course topics. in addition, consultation with an expert is possible in discussion groups; use of video communication services to ensure student cooperation online. brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 409 it is worth noting that as a result of long-term mass training in electronic format, there appeared publications that predict a fundamental change in the system of professional training, in particular, shifting most of it in the electronic format. for example, wang (2019) argues that e-learning tailored to the specifics of training provides motivation and effective interaction among all participants in the educational process, saves time and increases attention to learning outcomes. therefore, we consider it appropriate to characterize the innovative technologies of e-learning that are used in the practice of higher education institutions and the features of their use in the course of professional training of future teachers. innovative e-learning technologies in higher school practice nowadays, it is impossible to surprise students by using a computer to show educational videos or bright presentations. for several decades, this has been a mandatory attribute in the study of academic disciplines. a theoretical basis for features of introduction of e-learning and construction of an adapted educational environment were reflected in the publication of stoyanov & popchev (2006). however, their use in the training of future professionals was sporadic. introduction of quarantine measures due to spread of the pandemic has led to the widespread use of e-learning and definition of the basic principles of its implementation in the practice of higher education. in addition, this initiated a search for innovative educational technologies that would ensure quality of the educational process. we characterize the most promising, in our opinion, which should be used in professional training for future teachers of higher education institutions: 1. gamification of the process of professional training of future specialists. the basis for creating this area in professional education is game definition in psychology as one of the effective ways to satisfy desires through organization of certain (game) activities, which allows to acquire knowledge, skills and learn certain social experience (bozhovich, 2008). gamification of the process of professional training of future professionals is based on concepts that reflect the functions of game in the world of adults. in particular, this is the transactional game theory of berne “games people play” (berne, 2016), games for training managers in the context of business cases by schedrovitskiy (1987). the issue of gamification of the process of professional training of future teachers, its advantages and disadvantages are covered in a number of e-learning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational ... andrii lytvynov, et al. 410 publications. in particular, the possibility and expediency of gamification of learning are considered in publications of eck (2006), kiili (2005), werbach & hunter (2012). peculiarities of game model development and experience of introducing digital games in higher school practice are reflected in the publication ger et al., (2008). song & zhang (2008) first proposed a model of educational games that thoroughly described the relationship between motivation, learning environment, and learning game. also interesting in this context is the study by blazhko & luhova (2018), who identified ways to optimize online learning through gamification of the professional training process. in particular, scientists suggest the need for taking the following steps: 1. rethinking tasks and ways of working in the context of game design principles. 2. development of a structural model of the discipline, which combines the advantages of traditional, project and e-learning with identification of instances for gamification of learning. 3. introduction of elements of game design in the process of studying the discipline, in accordance with the features defined in the previous paragraph (blazhko & luhova, 2018). peculiarities of game design lie in the fact that when developing educational and methodological support of the discipline a teacher should focus not only on the requirements of the standard of higher education, the amount of available information or established practice of its teaching, but primarily on the interests of future professionals. in this context, we agree with the opinion of luhova (2021) that in the process of gamification of an educational discipline, when making choice of the content and emphasis on educational issues the needs of the end users should be taken into account: students and employers who shape demand on the labor market. therefore, in the process of training future high school teachers, it is necessary to take into account the need to overcome the established views on understanding the role of the game and computer video games in education. 2. the use of cloud-oriented systems. the relevance of the use of cloud technologies in professional education is associated with the constant growth the scope of information operated by students and teachers. the study by bykov et al., (2020) considered the model of a cloud-based open educational and scientific environment that provides support for joint activities. moreover, it is significant for our study that this paper identifies brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 411 promising ways to ensure access to cloud learning and research platforms and tools for cooperation of research and teaching staff. cloud-oriented systems have significant prospects in implementation of the concept of lifelong learning. in particular, this opinion is substantiated in the publication of kim & lim (2019), which proposes the architecture of a cloud information system for online lifelong learning. ortega-sánchez & gómez-trigueros (2019) confirmed the need to define the principles of using cloud-based open science systems in the process of teaching and professional development of future teachers. the purpose of further experiment, according to the scientists, is to determine feasibility and identification of optimal forms for the introduction of innovative information tools, scientific, methodological and educational materials on the use of cloud technologies in the educational and scientific environment of pedagogical educational institutions. the experience of using a cloud-oriented methodological system of training teachers of natural and mathematical sciences and results of pedagogical experiments are given in the publication of vakalyuk & maryenko (2021). 3. information systems of intellectual learning. the use of information systems of intellectual learning in education involves a combination of appropriate software and hardware to create intelligent learning environments. in recent years, a number of innovative solutions have been proposed in this field abroad. in particular, koper (2014) identified conditions for an effective intellectual learning environment based on innovations such as cloud architectures, artificial intelligence and cognitive computing. siddiqui et al. (2020) proposed the technology of integrating information systems of intellectual learning in higher education. researchers based their research on the fact that students are currently considered by higher education institutions as clients and consumers of educational services. therefore, it is necessary to ensure the demand for the proposed educational courses by improving the educational process. in this direction, there also appeared developments to improve the system of professional training for students with special educational needs. for example, olufemi (2017) proposed principles for the use of intelligent learning information systems for students with hearing impairments. zhelnin et al. (2012) substantiated the possibility of makingan intellectual learning system function effectively, which takes into account the following factors: e-learning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational ... andrii lytvynov, et al. 412 creating opportunities for accumulation and further use of information about learning outcomes in order to choose an individual educational trajectory and methods of managing the learning process; development of criteria for assessing formation of competence, level of professional training, etc.; ensuring adaptation of the system to the individual mode of study of students. 4. mobile learning technologies, which are a kind of e-learning and are based on the use of mobile it devices, including mobile phones, laptops and tablets in the educational process. theoretical aspects of mobile learning have been reflected in the scientific publications of a number of researchers. the problems of mobile learning in general were considered in the publications of afreen (2014), hawkes & hategekimana (2009), semerci & kemal (2018). the work of song et al. (2012) the possibility of using mobile learning to improve the professional skills of specialists was substantiated. gómez-triguero et al. (2019) emphasize that the use of mobile technologies provides a number of opportunities: creating presentations during practical classes, reflecting the dynamics of performing a certain task, access to additional sources of information, including the internet via qrcode scanning (quick response), organization of real-time communication, access to electronic maps, use of multifunctional training programs, etc. at the same time, the advantages of using mobile learning technologies in the process of training and retraining of higher school teachers include: possibility of continuous exchange of information and messages; opportunity to study anytime and anywhere; motivation to acquire knowledge. designing training courses using mobile learning technologies allows to take into account requirements of the following general didactic principles: individualization of learning. mobile learning is the most individualized. students have the opportunity to choose the content of training courses according to their own preferences. we agree with yarandi et al. (2013) that development of adaptive learning content for mobile learning should take into account the existing needs of the student. activity and independence, because learning is carried out at a convenient time and creates optimal conditions for increasing activity, in brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 413 particular in the process of interaction with other subjects of the educational process; purposefulness and systematization. mobile learning involves a gradual implementation of rational actions, which in turn ensures development of the activity-practical sphere of an individual through activation of the self-governing mechanisms. another significant advantage of mobile learning is the ability to provide education for low-mobility and low-income groups. this position is justified in the publications cho & kim (2016), sánchez & de los ríos (2015). also interesting is the method of frontal assessment of students using a mobile phone. a practical implementation of this idea is reflected in the publications of zlobin et al. (2014), where its use in the study of disciplines “cryptographic tools and methods of information security” and “fundamentals of programming and databases” are presented. despite significant prospects for the use of mobile technologies in the training process, they are not without certain shortcomings that should be taken into account by future teachers in the process of designing training courses. in particular, these include a small screen size of mobile devices, which imposes restrictions on the number, type and conditions of display of educational information, as well as limited conditions for the use of certain software, such as graphics editors. 5. virtual and augmented reality technologies have found application in various fields of human activity, such as design, mining, military technologies, construction, marketing and advertising, the entertainment industry, etc. we agree with the opinion of foreman & korallo (2014) that the prospects for their use in education are quite significant. furthermore, the effectiveness of the use of virtual and augmented reality technologies in e-learning has been proven by a number of studies, such as popchev & orozova (2019), petrov & atanasova (2020). in particular, blagoev et al. (2021), describe the following types of virtual reality technologies, which are reflected in higher education: window to the world systems in which a monitor is used to display the visual part of the cyber world; video overlay, which allows to move images of a real object in the virtual world and establish different types of interaction between them; immersion systems, which with the help of certain hardware completely immerse the user into the virtual world, while creating a sense of presence; e-learning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational ... andrii lytvynov, et al. 414 remote presence systems that allow remote sensors located on any object in the real world to remotely connect to the operator; mixed reality, which using the capabilities of several types of virtual reality allows to create a sense of remote presence in virtual reality. the use of virtual and augmented reality technologies in higher education allows to: provide a full learning opportunity for users with special educational needs; to create the possibility of a life-long educational process in the context of the concept of sustainable development; increase effectiveness of training by creating the effect of involvement. for example, one can visit any historical event or go on a trip around the world, etc.; to ensure development of the necessary practical skills in a variety of fields. for example, future professionals can immerse themselves in detail in the modelling of complex surgical operations or management of automated production lines, without feeling nervous tension and threats to other people’s lives; ensure maximum visualisation of the material being studied. for example, using 3d graphics, one can show in detail the chemical processes of any level and complexity. the task of a higher school teacher is to understand the peculiarities of creating training courses with the help of technologies of virtual and augmented reality. it is clear that this process is quite complex and requires cooperation of specialists in various fields, but the script of such a project should be written by a teacher. to ensure integration of digital technologies in higher education institutions, it is necessary to teach digital skills to the teaching staff, to form the ability to integrate them into the process of professional training of specialists. models of professional training and development of higher education teachers should be based on communities that provide ongoing informational support for integration of e-learning in professional education. conclusion therefore, peculiarities of functioning of the contemporary information society create preconditions for introduction of e-learning technologies in higher education institutions. integration of innovative information in the process of professional training of future professionals brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 415 requires from the teacher knowledge of the content and the scope of their use, orientation in search engines and web pages, use of computer equipment in professional activities, the ability to create e-learning courses. simultaneously, it’s role is expanded and updated, in addition to teaching new material, it takes over the additional functions of a consultant who coordinates the educational and cognitive process and constantly improves own training courses. in turn, this requires systematic training in accordance with innovations. in this study, e-learning technologies for future teachers were analysed. in particular, the peculiarities of ensuring professional development of higher school teachers in accordance with the requirements of innovative development of society have been established. the theoretical analysis confirmed the need to develop innovative teaching methods used in the process of professional education. features of e-learning of pedagogical specialists, their current state and prospects of development are analyzed. it has been established that e-learning requires an understanding of the relationship between technologies, pedagogy and semantic concepts of training. innovative e-learning technologies in higher school practice are characterized, in particular, such as gamification of the educational process, the use of cloud-based systems, mobile learning technologies, virtual and augmented reality, as well as information systems for intellectual learning. we believe that the prospects of further scientific research are associated with creation of a model of continuous distance learning of higher education teachers and experimental verification of its effectiveness, as well as development of electronic author’s refresher courses for pedagogical specialists, taking into account the outlined psychological and pedagogical requirements. references afreen, r. (2014). bring your own device (byod) in higher education: opportunities and challenges. international journal of emerging trends & technology in computer science (ijettcs), 3(1), 233–236. https://www.ijettcs.org/volume3issue1/ijettcs-2014-02-25-117.pdf al-harthy, i. a. (2016). requirements for activating the massive open decisions (moocs) via the internet and the degree of their importance, availability and trends towards them in saudi universities. journal of the college of education, 27(106), 99-142. https://www.ijettcs.org/volume3issue1/ijettcs-2014-02-25-117.pdf e-learning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational ... andrii lytvynov, et al. 416 bakhmat, n., maksymchuk, b., voloshyna, o., kuzmenko, v., matviichuk, t., kovalchuk, a., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). designing cloud-oriented university environment in teacher training of future physical education teachers. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 1323-1332. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 barrera-pedemonte, f. (2016). high-quality teacher professional development and classroom teaching practices: evidence from talis 2013. oecd education working papers, 141. https://doi.org/10.1787/19939019 berne, e. (2016). games people play. the psychology of human relationships. penguin. blagoev, i., vassileva, g., monov, v.(2021). a model for e-learning based on the knowledge of learners. cybernetics and information technologies, 21(2), 121–135. https://doi.org/10.2478/cait-2021-0023 blazhko, o., & luhova, t. (2018). features of using the canvas-oriented approach to game design. applied aspects of information technology, 1(1), 66–77. https://doi.org/10.15276/aait.01.2018.5 bozhovich, l. i. (2008). lichnost i ee formirovanie v detskom vozraste [personality and its formation in childhood]. piter. bykov, v., mikulowski, d., moravcik, o., svetsky, s., & shyshkina m. (2020). the use of the cloud-based open learning and research platform for collaboration in virtual teams. information technologies and learning tools, 2(76), 304–320. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v76i2.3706 castaño-muñoz, j., kalz, m., kreijns, k., & punie, y. (2018). who is taking moocs for teachers’ professional development on the use of ict? a crosssectional study from spain. technology, pedagogy and education, 27(5), 607–624. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2018.1528997 cho, s., & kim, j.-g. (2016). e-learning based on internet of things. advanced science letters, 22(11), 3294-3298. https://doi.org/10.1166/asl.2016.7937 desimone, l. m., & park, k. (2018). instructional coaching as high-quality professional development. theory into practice, 56(1), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2016.1241947 eck, r. v. (2006). digital game-based learning: it's not just the digital natives who are restless. educause review, 41(2), 16. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2006/1/digital-gamebased-learning-itsnot-just-the-digital-natives-who-are-restless european commission. (2006). communication from the commission: e-learning – designing “tejas at niit” tomorrow’s education. http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/elearning/doc_en.html foreman, n., & korallo, l. (2014). past and future applications of 3-d (virtual reality) technology. scientific and technical journal of information technologies, mechanics and optics, 6(94), 1–8. https://ntv.ifmo.ru/file/article/11182.pdf https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4192 https://doi.org/10.1787/19939019 https://doi.org/10.2478/cait-2021-0023 https://doi.org/10.15276/aait.01.2018.5 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v76i2.3706 https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2018.1528997 https://doi.org/10.1166/asl.2016.7937 https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2016.1241947 https://er.educause.edu/articles/2006/1/digital-gamebased-learning-its-not-just-the-digital-natives-who-are-restless https://er.educause.edu/articles/2006/1/digital-gamebased-learning-its-not-just-the-digital-natives-who-are-restless http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/elearning/doc_en.html https://ntv.ifmo.ru/file/article/11182.pdf brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 417 ger, p. m., burgos, d., martinez – ortiz, i., sierra, j. l., & manjon, b. f. (2008). educational game design for online education. computers in human behavior, 24(6), 2530–2540, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.03.012 gerasymova, i., maksymchuk, b., bilozerova, m., chernetska, yu., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). forming professional mobility in future agricultural specialists: the sociohistorical context. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 gómez-triguero, i., ruiz-bañuls, m., & ortegasánchez, d. (2019). digital literacy of teachers in training: moving from icts (information and communication technologies) to lkts (learning and knowledge technologies). education sciences, 9(4), 274, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9040274 guillén-gámez, f., & mayorga-fernández, m. (2020). identification of variables that predict teachers’ attitudes toward ict in higher education for teaching and research: a study with regression. sustainability, 12(4), 1312. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041312 halimi, w., salzmann, c., jamkojian, h., & gillet, d. (2018). enabling the automatic generation of user interfaces for remote laboratories. lecture notes in networks and systems, 22, 778-793. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3319-64352-6_73 hassan, a. a. (2019). the proposed scenarios for the requirements of the electronic professional development of the teacher in the light of the fourth industrial revolution. educational journal, 68, 2903–2974. https://search.mandumah.com/record/1005099 hawkes, m., & hategekimana, c. (2009). impacts of mobile computing on student learning in the university: a comparison of course assessment data. journal of educational technology systems, 38(1), 63–74. https://doi.org/10.2190%2fet.38.1.g huang, x. (2020). construction and application of online course teaching in intelligent learning environment. in x. huang (ed.), cyber security intelligence and analytics (pp.702-709). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43306-2_99 jotikabukkana, p., & sornlertlamvanich, v. (2019). the holistic framework of using machine learning for an effective incoming cyber threats detection. frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications, 321, 363-380. https://doi.org/10.3233/faia200025 kiili, k. (2005). digital game-based learning: towards an experiential gaming model. the internet and higher education, 8(1), 13–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2004.12.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.03.012 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/195 https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9040274 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041312 https://search.mandumah.com/record/1005099 https://doi.org/10.2190%2fet.38.1.g https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43306-2_99 https://doi.org/10.3233/faia200025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2004.12.001 e-learning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational ... andrii lytvynov, et al. 418 kim, t., & lim, j. (2019). designing an efficient cloud management architecture for sustainable online lifelong education. sustainability, 11(6), 1523. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11061523 koehler, m. j., & mishra, p. (2009). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge? contemporary issues in technology and teacher education, 9(1), 6070. http://www.citejournal.org/volume-9/issue-1-09/general/what-istechnological-pedagogicalcontent-knowledge koper, r. (2014). conditions for effective smart learning environments. smart learning environments, 1(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-0140005-4 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kurelovic, e. k. (2016). advantages and limitations of usage of open educational resources in small countries. international journal of research in education and science, 2(1), 136–124. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1105180.pdf kyoung-oh, s., eun-jung, h., & bo-young, k. (2018). does high-quality professional development make a difference? evidence from timss, compare. a journal of comparative and international education, 48(6), 954–972. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2017.1373330 laurillard, d. (2016). the educational problem that moocs could solve: professional development for teachers of disadvantaged students. research in learning technology, 24, 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v24.29369 li, y., garza, v., keicher; a., & popov, v. (2019). predicting high school teacher use of technology: pedagogical beliefs, technological beliefs and attitudes, and teacher training. tech know learn, 24, 501–518. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-0189355-2 lowenthal, p., borup, j., west, r. & archambault, l. (2020). thinking beyond zoom: using asynchronous video to maintain connection and engagement during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of technology and teacher education, 282, 383-391. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/2161 92/ luhova, t. a. (2021). heimdyzain oriientovanyi pidkhid do rozrobky navchalnykh dystsyplin zakladiv vyshchoi osvity [game design is a focused approach to the development of academic disciplines of higher education institutions]. information technologies and learning tools, 81(1), 235–254. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v81i1.3265 martíneza, f., jacintoa, e., & montiela, h. (2021). the use of online learning environments in higher education as a response to the confinement caused http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11061523 http://www.citejournal.org/volume-9/issue-1-09/general/what-is-technological-pedagogicalcontent-knowledge http://www.citejournal.org/volume-9/issue-1-09/general/what-is-technological-pedagogicalcontent-knowledge https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-014-0005-4 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-014-0005-4 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1105180.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2017.1373330 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v24.29369 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-018-%209355-2 https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/2161%2092/ https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v81i1.3265 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 419 by covid-19. journal of е-learning and knowledge society, 17(1), 10-17. https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135309 miyazaki, t. (2015). is changing teaching practice the mission impossible? a case study of continuing professional development for primary school teachers in senegal. a journal of comparative and international education, 46(5), 701–722. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2015.1043238 nagar, s. (2020). assessing students’ perception toward e-learning and effectiveness of online sessions amid covid-19 lockdown phase in india: an analysis. ugc care journal, 19(13), 272-291. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3666914 niemi, h., nevgi, a. & aksit, f. (2016). active learning promoting student teachers’ professional competences in finland and turkey. european journal of teacher education, 39(4), 471–490. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2016.1212835 olufemi, t. a. (2017). effects of computer-assisted instruction and concept mapping on the academic achievement of students with hearing impairment in ecology in ibadan, oyo state, nigeria. journal of issues and practice in education, 9(2), 1 23. https://journals.out.ac.tz/index.php/jipe/article/view/752 onishchuk, i., ikonnikova, m., antonenko, t., kharchenko, i., shestakova, s., kuzmenko, n., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). characteristics of foreign language education in foreign countries and ways of applying foreign experience in pedagogical universities of ukraine. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 44-65. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 ortega-sánchez, d., & gómez-trigueros, i. (2019). massive open online courses in the initial training of social science teachers: experiences, methodological conceptions, and technological use for sustainable development. sustainability, 11(3), 578. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030578 ovcharuk, v., maksymchuk, b., ovcharuk, v., khomenko, o., khomenko, s., yevtushenko, y., rybalko, p., pustovit, h., myronenko, n., syvokhop, y., sheian, m., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). forming competency in health promotion in technical specialists using physical education. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(3). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 petrov, p. d., & atanasova, t. v. (2020). the effect of augmented reality on students’ learning performance in stem education. information (switzerland),11, 209–220. https://doi.org/10.3390/info11040209 popchev, i. p., & orozova, d. a. (2019). towards big data analytics in the elearning space. cybernetics and information technologies, 19(3), 16–24. https://doi.org/10.2478/cait-2019-0023 https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135309 https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2015.1043238 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3666914 https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2016.1212835 https://journals.out.ac.tz/index.php/jipe/article/view/752 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/308 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030578 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 https://doi.org/10.3390/info11040209 https://doi.org/10.2478/cait-2019-0023 e-learning technologies for future teachers: introduction of educational ... andrii lytvynov, et al. 420 sánchez, a., & de los ríos, j. (2015). educational software for teaching of colors used in children under the age of five years. tekhnê, 12(2), 65–74. https://revistas.udistrital.edu.co/index.php/tekhne/article/view/10661/1 1624 schedrovitskiy, p. g. (1987). k analizu topiki organizatsionno-deyatelnostnyih igr [to the analysis of the topics of organizational-activity games]. puschino. semerci, a., & kemal, m. (2018). examining high school teachers’ attitudes towards ict use in education. international journal of progressive education, 14(2), 93 105. https://doi.org/10.29329/ijpe.2018.139.7 shemya, n., & al-habsia, m. (2021). the effect of a training program based on open educational resources on the teachers online professional development and their attitudes towards it of al-dakhliya governorate in sultanate of oman. journal of e-learning and knowledge society,17(1), 18–28. https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135283 sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72, 273-285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 siddiqui, s., thomas, m., & nazar, n.(2020). technology integration in education: source of intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy and performance. journal of elearning and knowledge society, 16(1), 11–22. https://doi.org/10.20368/19718829/1135188 song, m., & zhang, s. (2008) efm: a model for educational game design. in: pan z., zhang x., el rhalibi a., woo w., li y. (eds.), technologies for elearning and digital entertainment. edutainment 2008. lecture notes in computer science, vol 5093. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69736-7_54 song, y., wong, l., & looi, c. (2012). fostering personalized learning in science inquiry supported by mobile technologies, educational technology research and development, 60(4), 679–701. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-012-9245-6 stoyanov, s., & popchev, i. (2006). evolutionary development of an infrastructure supporting the transition from cbt to e-learning. cybernetics and information technologies, 6(2), 101–114. stracke, c. m., downes, s., conole, g., burgos, d., & nascimbeni, f. (2019). are moocs open educational resources? a literature review on history, definitions and typologies of oer and moocs. open praxis, 11(4), 331– 341. http://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.11.4.1010 thomas-brown, k., shaffer, l., & werner, s. (2016). an analysis of how building a collaborative community of professional social studies teachers through targeted ambient professional development impacts social studies classroom practices. journal of education and training studies, 4(11), 58–72. https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v4i11.1814 https://revistas.udistrital.edu.co/index.php/tekhne/article/view/10661/11624 https://revistas.udistrital.edu.co/index.php/tekhne/article/view/10661/11624 https://doi.org/10.29329/ijpe.2018.139.7 https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135283 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/sohni-siddiqui https://www.researchgate.net/profile/martin-thomas-14 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/naureen-nazar-phd https://www.researchgate.net/journal/journal-of-e-learning-and-knowledge-society-1971-8829 https://www.researchgate.net/journal/journal-of-e-learning-and-knowledge-society-1971-8829 http://dx.doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135188 http://dx.doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135188 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69736-7_54 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-012-9245-6 http://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.11.4.1010 https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v4i11.1814 brain. broad research in april, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1sup1 421 vakalyuk, t. a., & maryenko, m. v. (2021). dosvid vykorystannia khmaro oriientovanykh system vidkrytoi nauky v protsesi navchannia i profesiinoho rozvytku vchyteliv pryrodnycho-matematychnykh predmetiv [experience of using cloud-oriented systems of open science in the process of teaching and professional development of teachers of natural sciences and mathematics]. information technologies and learning tools, 81(1), 340-355. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v81i1.4225 wang, y. (2019). an approach of russian online learning behavior analysis and mining based on big data. in international conference on intelligent transportation, big data & smart city (icitbs 2019) (pp. 232-235). https://doi.org/10.1109/icitbs.2019.00062 werbach, k., & hunter, d. (2012). for the win: how game thinking can revolutionize your business. digital press. yarandi, m., jahankhani, h., & tawil, a-r. h. (2013). a personalized adaptive elearning approach based on semantic web technology. webology, 10(2), 1–14. https://www.webology.org/abstract.php?id=271 zhelnin, m. e., kudinov, v. a., & belous, e. s. (2012). rol i mesto ekspertnyih sistem v obrazovanii [the role and place of expert systems in education]. scientific notes: electronic scientific journal of kursk state university, 2(22). https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/rol-i-mesto-ekspertnyh-sistem-vobrazovanii zidane, s. m. (2018). professional development for teachers towards using technological innovations in light of contemporary trends. college of education journal, 24, 411–456. https://search.mandumah.com/record/959848 zlobin, h. h., vankevych, d. ye., batiuk, a. ya., & karbovnyk, i. d. (2014). pro mozhlyvosti vykorystannia tekhnolohii byod v navchalnomu protsesi vyshchoho zakladu osvity [bring your own device on the possibility of using technology byod in the educational process of higher education institution]. foss. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v81i1.4225 https://doi.org/10.1109/icitbs.2019.00062 https://www.webology.org/abstract.php?id=271 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/rol-i-mesto-ekspertnyh-sistem-v-obrazovanii https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/rol-i-mesto-ekspertnyh-sistem-v-obrazovanii https://search.mandumah.com/record/959848 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 471-495 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/400 submitted: november 4th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 18th, 2022 epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 1 1 phd student, doctoral school of ștefan cel mare university from suceava, romania, oliviamacovei10@gmail.com abstract: the classical literature in the field of biology approaches the field of life from the perspective of the mechanisms by which the interactions between living systems are managed, while the systemic approach to biology emphasizes the interconnected networks of living nodes and the ways of communication of living systems, which is the very foundation of the idea of live as exchange of information on material or energetic support. more concretely, the emphasis on the informational dimension of biological interactions transfers the research object of synthetic biology from questions regarding the functionality of living systems, to those related to the ways of encoding information inside living structures that allow their configuration and reconfiguration in different evolutionary or constructive – in the case of synthetic biology – contexts. the analysis of the living system as a whole, from a structural-constructive perspective, takes from the systems theory a series of models for understanding the whole as something other than a simple aggregation of the component parts, emphasizing the integrity of the living system in a manner close to the systems approach in the science of complexity. keywords: systemic biology; synthetic biology; epistemology. how to cite: macovei, o. (2022). epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 471-495. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/400 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/400 mailto:oliviamacovei10@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/400 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 472 1. introduction louis ujéda, in his work nanotechnology and synthetic biology: the ambiguity of the nano-bio convergence (ujéda, 2019), in which he studies the extent of the convergence between nanotechnology and synthetic biology, comes to the conclusion that "to address the problem of the dichotomy between the level of objects, where we observe a process of pluralization, more than a convergence, and the level of discourses, where the scenario of convergence seems to remain the dominant one", we are obliged to develop an analysis of the disciplines as "devices" in the sense given by foucault. basically, the bios is instrumentalized which allows a description of living structures in the form of the different layers that make up the biotechnological devices, the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science being achieved in the form of a complex technological context (ujéda, 2019), in which biological entities are transformed into artifacts. this convergence presented above represents an epistemological translation of the transhumanist program aimed at manipulating matter from the nanometric scale to the level of biological entities and even human individuals. this will eventually lead to the emergence of a new technoscientific culture, but also a new civilizational paradigm, which will extrapolate the ideals of transhumanist utopianism, which will be distorted into a pure ideology. thus, the cultural and civilizational paradigm that the ideological mutations generated by the emergence of emerging technologies including synthetic biology brings, will be able to impose its own epistemological constructs on the research directions themselves, creating a grid for interpreting augmented reality not only in a computerized way through vr technology, but also in a biosynthetic way, through syn-biotic organisms. just as modernity, as a cultural paradigm, imposed its epistemological visions related to progress, to the valorization of the infinite as absolute potentiality, which led to the emergence of modern science, whose axiom is the absolute convergence between the ontic and the epistemic there is what can be known –, the new paradigm, which is already building its own axioms, will probably lead to a science whose ontological foundation will be: there is what can be built/rebuilt. as a corollary to this ontological axiom we have the epistemological axiom: we can know what we can build. we see the need to investigate the possibility of an epistemological culture, from a philosophical and anthropological point of view, based on a epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 473 convergence of emerging sciences and technologies regrouped in an ideological reconstruction of a transhumanist type. to answer this challenge, louis ujéda focuses on the specific objects and methods of the different disciplines included in this ideology and how these disciplines can generate a convergent epistemic culture (ujéda, 2019), which would counterbalance the preponderance of the ideological over the scientific. an epistemological analysis of synthetic biology as a technoscience shows that it is rather structured around some objectives thus responding more to ideological objectives or some hypotheses or constructive commands, and not some paradigmatic theories or specific research methods. this epistemological diversity is criticized by bensaude-vincent, who even considers it an epistemic opportunism or "hard-rock optimism" (bensaude-vincent, 2013). the same critic of synthetic biology from an epistemological perspective shows that, unlike researchers in other fields, those in the field of synthetic biology do not seem to be discouraged by negative results, since they do not invalidate a fundamental theory for the field, but only open new perspectives of constructive research, which will ultimately lead to the creation of artifacts. the lack of fundamental theories of the field makes the aforementioned researcher question the scientific character of the discipline, which, in her view, is rather a technological research that is not a direct derivative of a science, but the result of technological inventiveness, which raises claims of scientificity precisely in fields that belong to metaphysics such as understanding what life is. however, remaining in the sphere of pure transhumanist ideology, technological research in the field of synthetic biology adopts theories from molecular biology, informatics, communication sciences, invoking the claim of transdisciplinarity in order to avoid the foundation of its own theoretical apparatus. we cannot entirely agree with these views, although we note the predominantly technological effort that synthetic biology research is making. as such, we agree that this discipline is a technologically constructive one, but we consider that the lack of a theoretical apparatus only discredits it as a science when the ideological dictates over the epistemological. the theoretical system is taken from genetics, from molecular biochemistry and, above all, from systems biology. so we are talking about an epistemic pair composed of systems biology, corroborated with complexity science and, respectively, with synthetic biology, which represents the technological side of this dual discipline. practically, this digression towards the demands of classical epistemology, which require a science to have its own field, a theoretical corpus and a specific methodology, is typical of postmodern broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 474 science, which starts from the idea of deconstructing the epistemic at the expense of the pragmatic. the philosophical literature regarding synthetic biology (simons, 2021), when speculating on the epistemological particularities of synthetic biology, refers to the idea of postmodern thinking, which redefines epistemology, from a search for absolute and invariant truth, based on the principle of correspondence, to a truth-coherence and especially towards a pragmatic one. in this sense, the work of jean-francois lyotard (1984), the postmodern condition, is often invoked, whose theses regarding the separation of metanarratives in the construction of the postmodern condition are embedded in the philosophy of technology and relevant to the understanding of current technoscience. on the one hand, we are talking about metanarratives such as the one related to the explanation of life, the demiurgic character of synthetic biology and its claims to create life, and on the other hand, synthetic biology's flight from systematicity that ends up being criticized even for its lack of adherence to the traditional epistemological "canons", which aim at the existence of a theoretical corpus and, respectively, a proper technology. the previously mentioned metanarratives are, however, deconstructed pragmatically, the demiurgic claim not being left only at the ideological level a level that exists and which legitimizes substantial investments in synthetic biology -, but being brought into the concrete plane through practices such as genetic editing or messenger rna technology. this new science is tributary to the idea of post-truth, since the ideal of the single truth no longer motivates the researcher, who is more interested in the pragmatic value of the resulting technology and its ability to respond to a current need of society. the fact that sometimes there are claims from synthetic biology to answer the question "what is life?", is only an accidental response to a metaphysical migration of this science, since the answer to the question "what is life?", which synthetic biology will be able to produce, is actually an answer to the question "what kind of artifact is life?", and as such, it will only have a phenomenological power to answer about "what life appears to be" and not about what life is in itself, a question that remains metaphysical. it should be emphasized that most of the criticisms of the epistemic claims of synthetic biology are rather aimed at its transdisciplinary side, when a joint approach is attempted between nanotechnologies and synthetic biology, fields that have in common only the scale of the size of the technological artifacts generated, and less claims of a methodological or theoretical nature. the lack of epistemological coherence between the two epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 475 sciences does not, however, make them technologically inadequate but, on the contrary, from our point of view, they demand a more careful development of both complexity science and chaos theory. 2. complexity and chaos theory in the epistemology of synthetic biology john sullins places, from an epistemological perspective, synthetic biology research under the sign of complexity science and chaos theory (sullins, 1998). the science of complexity includes a series of disparate subfields, starting from the sphere of electronic engineering or computers, to medicine (sîmbotin, 2020). this field, also called complex systems science, aims to create frameworks for understanding complex systems, including a series of complex, efficient and adaptable profiles. this science uses multiscale analyzes of evolutionary processes for physical, biological, but also social systems (siegenfeld & bar-yam, 2020), while the so-called linear sciences privilege a fragmented approach to each component or each aspect of the studied systems, the classical quantitative approach failing in the interpretation of causes and consequences, of large-scale behaviors. systems biology also looks at how living systems interact with each other, forming increasingly complex structures, as well as how this complexity becomes characteristic of an organism, making it different from its organic constituents, but also from inorganic ones, as well as the way in which the living system is distinguished from its constituents, integrating a new level of complexity as a constructive dimension. like living systems, other systems such as social or informational ones also present a network structure, making a simple difference in the network structure generate completely different structures and different functions, starting from the way information is transmitted between network nodes. this makes the attempts to build synthetic organisms more related to changes in the architecture of the network, which give rise to a living system, than to the reconstruction of its structural components. from an epistemic perspective, we are talking about a knowledge of some topological frameworks that, by their mere presence, rewrite the way in which the information encoded in a system can be reconstituted and as such reiterated in the construction of other systems, biological or not. the patterns that appear in various living networks, as well as the similarities with those that appear in neural networks, for example, but also social ones, often attract the attention of philosophers of science as in the case of uri alon (2007) and shen-orr (shen-orr et al., 2002). the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 476 mentioned authors introduce the concept of "motif network", in the sense of repetitive functional structural pattern within the network: ―network motifs are defined as patterns of interaction that repeat in a network in many contexts‖ (alon, 2007). these models, which appear inside the network, make the existence of holographic symmetry structures types of structures that are highlighted in other networks at a macroscopic level, such as galaxies, but also at a microscopic level, in the form of crystalline molecular structures, etc. -, symmetries operating at the informational level, to question the possibility of a hierarchical structure of reality, of fractal nature (sandu, 2021). 3. information versus topology in systems biology a number of theorists emphasize topological properties of living structures over mechanistic ones, suggesting that, at the cellular and intracellular level, gene activation depends on the topology of the gene in the living structure rather than its biological characteristics. as such, dna networks (craver, 2016) can be translated into networks for processing a genetic information, depending on the place and position of the molecule in the genetic structure and not its chemical structure (barabási, 2002). there is also the contrary opinion, according to which inferences about the functionality of a biological structure cannot be made based solely on its positioning in a network of information exchange between the living structure and its environment, which would make synthetic living structures (krohs, 2002) synthetic organisms not to have exactly the behaviors that could be foreseen and designed by the construction of information coding systems in the synthetic organism, based on patterns from similar communication networks. the network analysis model is used in the study of the temporal dynamics of coordinated cellular processes, as well as in the analysis of the evolutionary dynamics of gene stability (hogeweg, 2012). the coordination of biological processes over time is relevant from an epistemological point of view, as models of the functioning of biological networks can be perceived and how they can be replicated in the form of synthetic biological networks, to build organisms with similar functionalities, from similar or completely different structural components, but aggregated in biological networks with the same genetic information communication patterns. huang et al. believe that biological network research should be based on a global approach inspired by dynamical systems theory (huang, ernberg, & kauffman, 2009), thus contradicting the opinion of those who epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 477 seek to identify functional units or patterns in biological networks in a manner originating from genetic engineering (jaeger & crombach, 2012). huang et al believe that the mathematical properties of the genetic information communication network constitute such a structure, which generates evolutionary properties of living systems, or rather, which limits a chaotic development of these structures, making only certain evolutionary lines possible – which allows for a series of technological developments leading to the creation of viable synthetic biological structures in agreement with viable biological structures, which can lead to a mathematical analysis of the constructed genetic network. in other words, the construction of biological organisms must start from a mathematics of life, which includes permitted and possible structures even if they do not currently exist in nature. the construction of synthetic living structures that contradict the mathematics of living networks is considered improbable, since these structures although they could be chemically and physically synthesized will not exhibit biological viability. as such, the laws of systemic biology can be operationalized mathematically, in a manner different from the simple orientation of the component molecules – precisely because of the patterns of transmission of genetic information within the respective biological structure. from an epistemological perspective, o'malley and colleagues believe that using big data synthetic biology as a way to analyze genetic data (o'malley, 2009) could lead to the construction of "gene regulatory networks" that will allow engineers to approach systematic projects of molecular construction in a manner similar to that used in systems biology. synthetic biology is, as such, oriented towards the living system as the core of genetic information communication, overcoming the isolationist approaches – based on molecular construction/reconstruction – of classical genetic engineering (o'malley et al., 2008). from the same perspective, the central objective of research in synthetic biology is "modification of gene regulatory pathways", enabling the control of biochemical reactions within biosynthetic systems, in order to produce "biochemical substances of social value" (khalil & collins, 2010). the cited authors give as an example of the use of synthetic biology, the creation of genetically modified organisms that function as biosensors that detect toxic biochemicals or metabolize toxic compounds, thereby helping to clean up soil or wastewater. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 478 4. epistemological versus technological in systems biology and synthetic biology the most well-known development of synthetic biology widely used recently is the synthetic mrna vaccine against covid-19 (vickers & freemont, 2002). the messenger rna, once penetrated into the cell, generates the synthesis of a protein similar to the viral one, thus stimulating the immune system to recognize the mechanisms of viral protein synthesis, as well as genetic fragments that can be attributed to the viral genome, "training" the immune system to react to the similar genetic patterns, including viral ones. in addition to the applied side of synthetic biology, which addresses the aforementioned technological concerns, fundamental research in synthetic biology is called upon to provide answers regarding the origin of life, as well as the minimum conditions for the existence of life. finally, the most speculative, from a philosophical point of view, application of synthetic biology, which i have discussed at length in previous reports, is the creation of synthetic structures that respond to the definition of bios, of life, starting from organic components which are not originally components of a living system (o'malley et al., 2008). in addition to the applied side of synthetic biology, which addresses the aforementioned technological concerns, fundamental research in synthetic biology is called upon to provide answers regarding the origin of life, as well as the minimum conditions for the existence of life. finally, the most speculative, from a philosophical point of view, application of synthetic biology, is the creation of synthetic structures that meet the definition of bios, of life, starting from organic components that are not originally components of a living system (o'malley et al., 2008). it is precisely this application related to the artificial construction of life that is closely related to systemic epistemology in biology, making systemic and synthetic biology two converging articulations from an epistemological perspective, the former constructing the frameworks of possibility for the existence and functioning of a living system, while the second designs living systems and builds them in the laboratory. inevitably, discussions about synthetic biology raise the question "what is life itself?", bringing science, but also philosophy, closer and closer to the possibility of an answer to this question that, in one way or another, has preoccupied humanity since the first metaphysical attempts in ancient greece. the path to understanding the biological meaning of life opened by synthetic biology is precisely the creation of life in the laboratory, making epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 479 possible the appearance of structures capable of transferring and multiplying genetic information, but also exchanging information and energy with the environment and, respectively, direct multiplication without a secondary intervention to the researchers who created the original laboratorysynthesized organism (cornish-bowden, 2006). with all these philosophical openings, we still do not have a definition of life entirely tributary to synthetic biology, but we do have a wide opening to systems theory and chaos theory as predictive theoretical models capable of approaching an answer to the question "what is life itself?". some practitioners of synthetic biology aim to create the experimental framework for studying conditions "for minimal cells, through chemical models that combine the continuous formation and destruction of the compartment (cell membrane) with the metabolic processes inside the cell" (zepik, blöchliger, & luisi, 2001). more precisely, research in the field aims at the "synthesis of lipid compartments" in the case of the cited study, vesicles -, in order to generate and be able to study coordinated processes similar to those of self-maintenance in the prebiotic stages of life formation (luisi, 2006). 5. classification of technologies in synthetic biology o'malley and collaborators propose a classification of technologies used in synthetic biology according to the criterion of genetic implications used in technological design: devices based on modifications at the dna level, genetic and cellular engineering based on interventions in the genome, as well as the creation of protocells (o'malley et al., 2008). 5.1. devices and technologies based on dna modification devices and technologies based on dna modification are also called the engineering perspective on synthetic biology (benner & sismour, 2005) and emphasize the exploration of how functionally distinct and structurally interchangeable components can be designed in a modular manner and implemented in broad technological projects, targeting both biocomponents and integrated non-biological structures. these examples may include products such as fertilizers, biosynthetic drugs, etc. this approach aims to create quasi-biological machines, which do not correspond to independent biological organisms but include biological components or synthetic products created with the help of biological devices. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 480 the metaphor of the organism as a machine is common in synthetic biology, representing an ideological component on the basis of which this science develops. expressions such as: "genetically modified machine", "genetic circuit" and "platform organism" (boldt, 2018) have already entered the common language and not only in the professional jargon which were taken from the jargon of information technology and electronics being used to explain the workings of the living world. this metaphor of the organismmachine is primarily an anti-metaphysical effort, more precisely an effort to eliminate vitalism from biology because any reference to the idea of vital breath, of life as transcendent makes impossible any claim of synthetic biology to create syn-biotic organisms. evolutionary biology, although it eliminated the idea of creationism, failed to transform the living world into objects in the pure sense of the term, there being a qualitative difference between the living and the non-living. synthetic biology's claim to create living surrogates makes the latter bastion of metaphysics in biology, the idea of the living as something different from the non-living, even if seen as simply the result of complex molecular interactions, repudiated as not being other than an informational architecture of instances of coding genetic material. this metaphor propagates, however, becoming an ideology that is based on the rejection of the value of life as a transcendental given and, implicitly, the creation of an ethics of responsibility only for immediate consequences, which affect human beings. technoethics based on synthetic biology displaces concepts such as duty, responsibility, replacing them with others such as efficiency, functionality, predictability, etc. authors such as boldt believe that it is ethically imperative to abandon the metaphor of machines, because when machine character extends to the human being, it is emptied of its own moral agency, making it difficult to assign moral personhood to a machine (boldt, 2018). although we agree with the need to abandon the machine-organism metaphor as the ideological substrate of synthetic biology, we disagree with his view that a machine-organism could not have moral agency, since a singularly superior computational ai-type machine technology (popoveniuc, 2016) could perceive the moral value of his actions, even if he would not actually understand this meaning. the quoted author, a critic of the use of the organism-machine metaphor, notices a trap that the ideology built around this metaphor can bring, namely the appearance of belief "in the potential of synthetic biology to play a decisive role in solving social problems and minimizes the role of measures technological, social and political alternatives". starting from what boldt said, we believe that this trap consists primarily in the fact that the epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 481 instrumental role of this technology is diminished, transformed into a cultural panacea that can lead to the surrender of humanity in the face of the inevitable emergence of a technological transcendence. 5.2. genome-based genetic and cellular engineering this approach to synthetic biology focuses on the functioning of the genome in its entirety and cells as living structures (green, 2022). within these types of technologies, genome transplants are carried out, the use of "chassis cells" emptied of their own genome and on which a foreign genome is implemented, possibly edited by crispr technology, thus allowing the cell to acquire new functions. the creation of artificial genomes and "minimum genomes" that include only those functional genetic structures for the purposes for which the cell is designed, eliminating the surplus, generally inactive genes present in a normal cell, are also aimed, at and which have functions other than those of cell subsistence and reproduction (simons, 2022). a number of theorists believe that the genome itself does not represent a living structure, it being the equivalent of a computer hard drive on which the information genetic in the case of the genome is stored, but which does not have an independent function and which must be activated by a reading mechanism that has its own cellular structure and memory and that encodes its genomic syntax as well as the rules of dna replication and the starting points in the translation of the genome, when one protein or another is to be produced. this theory is justified by the fact that a cell whose dna is excised continues to function for a while, but without carrying out new biochemical processes, and also by the fact that a cell whose genome has been excised can receive a genome transplant from to another functional cell or even a synthetic genome, and the cell subsequently functions according to the codes stored in the new genome. likewise, the viral genome cannot replicate in the absence of a cell in which to insert its own genetic information, the virus being a structure whose viability is strictly determined by parasitism of a cellular host. according to this theory, the cell uses the genome in a way similar to how a computer uses a hard disk, storing and reading information from it, but the computing core is outside of it. basically, the cell is treated as a bioinformatics system in which the dna is the part that contains the software, and the cell as a whole uses the information contained in the genome, which otherwise has no relevance outside the cell. kull draws our attention to some generally but disparately known elements in cell biology and the bringing together of which leads to broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 482 a better understanding of the cell as an information system and, implicitly, to possible strategies for its programming / reprogramming: (a) the cell uses a small part of its genome, the other sequences remaining inactive. (b) in a multicellular organism, the same genome or genome sequence can be used by the cell in different ways, depending on specific activators related to the tissue of which the cell is a part. in fact, this mechanism is known to underlie the appearance of tumor cells, when the functioning of the cell and its replication are no longer consistent with its position and place in the structure of the tissue of which it is a part. (c) cells can live, including naturally, without a genome, and this does not affect their survival, only replication and protein synthesis. (d) not all changes in the genome – as in the case of changing the position of genes or their duplication – lead to a change in the behavior of the cell (kull, 1999). the practice of programming new cellular functions through technologies such as crispr dna sequencing and synthesis is one of the most important applications of synthetic biology in medicine and is based on understanding the mechanisms of gene function and regulation, enormously expanding the set of genetic components that can be applied in cell biology programming. in order to achieve this, the invention of new research tools was pursued, especially systems of combining dna combining nucleotides which led not only to practical applications, but also to the understanding of the mechanisms of the functioning and natural binding of genes in within the framework of the extended genome, "sensoractuator devices" (black, 2017) being created, capable of recognizing various chemical, mechanical and optical inputs, allowing the control of cellular behaviors including in a spatio-temporal context the spatial ordering of nucleotides and the timing of gene activation and their transcription. this intervention in the genome leads to the emergence of computational synthetic biology, because the transcription of genes can be understood in the sense of computational operations based on a code the "letters" in the genome, which are equivalent to a machine code. genetic circuits built to perform precise functions are the replication of natural biological systems, to which changes are made both in the topological dimension of the genetic sequences and in the biochemical complexity of them, to create "oscillating networks of gene expression, switches with multiple states, logical computation, and intercellular signaling networks‖ (black, 2017). this practice of replacing the original genome of a cell was first used by craig venter and his collaborators in 2010, in creating the first synthetic epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 483 genome and transplanting it into a cell belonging to another species of bacteria (mycoplasma genitalium). the transplanted nucleus was modeled on a whole-cell nucleus with a reduced number of genes, which could be artificially replicated before implantation. the transplanted genome was built to function with only 473 genes (sung et al., 2016), being at the lower limits of genetic complexity, so as to allow the cell to function in the form of exchanging substances and energy with the environment and its reproduction. the use of such simplified nuclei can be considered, on the one hand, as an initial practice in the creation of synthetic nuclei on which genes will later be grafted, that allow specific biological functions, thus reaching the creation of biological automata, and on the other hand, it is desired to create a basic genome for the subsequent identification of the various functions of the genes not only correlated with their molecular structure, but also with their positioning in the genome. at this point, the stage of simple genomic transplantation, and even the programming of autonomous circuits in single cells, has been overcome, important steps have been taken in the programming of synthetic intercellular communications, generating multicellular structures and organoids (guye et al., 2016), thus opening a new branch of synthetic biology, namely synthetic tissue engineering, which promises to have huge applications in regenerative medicine. synthetic biology comes close to robotics, and especially intelligent machine technology, when research aims to create computing structures composed of biological rather than electronic circuits. the replication of a genome in a new cell, the transcription of genetic information, the transmission or inhibition of some sequences in the genome represent the necessary elements for the creation of organic nanorobots, and the decryption and editing of the genetic code generates the premise of understanding the natural machine code, on the basis of which living things work, and of rewriting the programs of various organisms (ginsberg et al., 2017). the next logical step after genome decoding and genetic editing in the creation of biological machines is the coding, on biological support, of some complex languages specific to computer programming, in such a way that an interface between digital and biological machines can be ensured. an important question is: to what extent can the so-called programming languages of life—actually genetic codes—be reduced to1010 digital codes. in the two decades since the genome was fully deciphered, significant efforts have been made in the sense of detecting the genetic causes of various diseases and the possibility of genetic interventions to reduce the risks of their occurrence. the study of genetic information taken broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 484 from thousands or even millions of patients gave birth to what we can today call digital biology (gibbs, 2020) and even the use of big data in biology. the identification of population genetic markers led to the emergence of studies of migrations of ancient populations and the distinctive genetic features of ethnogenetic categories. the letters of the genetic code and their ordering, although known to researchers, could not yet be reduced to binary codes, and there have been no recorded attempts to create non-binary programming languages that would use the genetic letters as the numeration basis for a language of biocomputer programming. the level of complexity of the "living codes" is not yet it seems reducible to numeration bases used today in computer programming. however, bioinformatics and genetic design underlie synthetic biology, and there will most likely be technological developments that allow not only the writing and overwriting of genetic code, but also the encoding of complex messages, producing biological digital automata capable of, for example, artificial biointelligence. for this, however, it is necessary to understand and reconstruct syn-biotic organisms starting from protocells or even prebiotic organic substances. 5.3. creation of protocells the epistemological and technological direction targeting the creation of protocells aims at the construction of approximations of living cells, which do not exist in nature in that form. within this epistemological direction, the aim is to obtain answers to philosophical questions such as "what is life?" – which is transferred from the sphere of ontology to that of the philosophy of science, where it appears in the form of identifying the "fundamental building blocks of life". as such, this epistemological stream emphasizes fundamental research, with theories about life, evolution, living systems, and living structures being investigated experimentally (o'malley et al., 2008). the creation of "vesicles" similar to protocellular structures, which are suspected to have arisen in the original "organic soup" and from which life as we know it today, has been studied. also, a series of compounds associated with life and how the respective protocellular structures become living cells are currently being studied, and on the other hand, computational simulations of gene regulation networks are being considered (green, 2022). in addition to the theoretical-epistemic and ontological objectives regarding the study of the origin and meanings of life, biological or nonbiological alternatives that manifest a form of viability are targeted. we remind you that the study of viral mechanisms that are at the intersection between living and non-living being quasi-biological structures capable of epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 485 dna-regulated action, but incapable of self-reproduction led to the emergence of mrna technologies and the creation of synthetic messenger rna mechanisms, which are grafted onto a living cell without being a living structure itself, but only a simple synthetic approximation of some component structures of the viral genetic content. 6. classification of synthetic biology technologies according to the type of practice used another classification of technologies belonging to synthetic biology is made by deplazes (2009) according to the criterion of the type of bioengineering practice on which it is based: a) bioengineering, b) synthetic genomics, c) protocell synthetic biology, d) unnatural molecular biology, e) in silico approaches. fig. 1 schematic representation of the five categories of synthetic biology and their connections (deplazes, 2009). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 486 in the case of deplazes' taxonomy, the most important suggestion from a philosophical point of view is the proposal of work categories such as bioengineering which considers living synthetic structures and molecular engineering which operationalizes biochemical technologies, which act on non-living molecules, integrated into specific structures of synthetic biology. according to anna deplazes, "unnatural molecular biology aims to create systems with different components, for example, artificial nucleic acids based on a different coding system" (deplazes, 2009). the distinction between natural and unnatural in synthetic biology, operating from a proper scientific perspective, becomes unclear when we operationalize it from a philosophical perspective, since we sometimes speak of prebiotic structures that interact with each other or with living structures, creating living or life-like processes, without the distinction between what is a living process and what is merely a life-like process still being clear. for philosophers of technology such as lewens (2013), who considers that the term "unnatural" distinguishes synthetic biology practices from other bioengineering approaches, the question arises whether we are really talking about synthetic biology and not just a synthetic chemistry of the bios, due to a thinking style oriented towards chemistry and less towards informatics – as is the case with other philosophers of science, who link synthetic biology more with information science, which prevails over chemistry in the realization of synthetic biology. the approach to biological artifacts as simple permutations of the chemical compounds existing in the biological material, specific to biochemistry as a component of synthetic biology, is opposed by a component of bioinformatics that studies the information encoded in the genome and how it is transmitted more or less in correlation with the biochemical structures that circulate that information. advances in bioinformatics have led to the emergence of genetic data analysis strategies, including dedicated software capable of compiling and integrating large data sets, for example, to obtain a classification of dna elements and "predict epigenetic signatures of functional dna elements‖ (ernst & kellis, 2012). in this light, we believe that bioinformatics applications should, in fact, constitute a particular field of synthetic biology and not subsume the entire synthetic biology, since most bioinformatics applications study the possibility of the existence of living systems, in agreement with the circulation of genetic information, and is not concerned with living synthetic systems or at least prebiotics. the fact that such synthetic prebiotic systems are technologically built is due to the wide funding of such research, due to epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 487 the expressed social needs and especially due to the public impact that gene editing technology has thanks to the mass media. for example, the urgency of the emergence of a vaccine to prevent infection with covid-19 was determined by the social and economic pressure on all humanity caused by the global pandemic crisis. decoding the genome of sars-cov-2 has been a priority of the entire scientific world, with researchers from most countries working on samples of the viral component provided by laboratories in china at the time of the discovery of the virus and its severity. collaborative research was made possible thanks to the open science system, through which all existing information on this subject was shared free of charge, after which the decoded genetic components of the virus were processed, artificial intelligence software identifying the best mechanisms of counteracting the viral action on the infected cell, in order to create a vaccine. without the help of bioinformatics and artificial intelligence, the creation of a vaccine would have been impossible in such a short period of time one year after the decoding of the viral genome -, the computerized design of prebiotic mrna structures being put into practice through technologies specific to synthetic biology for the creation of previously computer-designed substances and not by genetic editing of a real virus, whose virulence could eventually be attenuated, as was the case with previous generations of vaccines. in the genesis machine: our quest to rewrite life in the age of synthetic biology, amy webb and andrew hessel (2022) state that mrna (messenger rna) technology is based on "informing" the immune system about specific proteins that the viral genome tries to build through the host cell for its own benefit and which are foreign to it, while instructing it how to block inappropriate protein synthesis. such therapies based on messenger rna will be the basis for the development of vaccines against cancer or other diseases not only of a viral nature, as information about the parasite genome or inadequate transcripts of the original genome can be transmitted to the affected cells or the immune system in the replication process, thus making unwanted genomic sequences a target of the immune system, eliminating them from the body (see, for example, tumors). such operations at the cellular level will allow not only the destruction of tumor cells, but also the restoration of the correct functioning of some organs affected by tumors, by correcting the transcription patterns of the genetic information, which is in accordance with the initial pattern transcribed by the messenger rna. of course, such an intervention at the cellular level paves the way for genetic changes – including on already existing living organisms, in a non-embryonic stage of development. if the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 488 use of crispr technology makes it possible to edit the genetics of the embryo, in the first stages of development, while the intervention through synthetic biology is carried out on a small number of cells, whose dna fragments are modified, changes that are transmitted to the whole organism that will derive from initial stem cells, messenger rna technology can produce changes in some tissues. it will be possible, for example, to restore the functionality of the pancreas affected by diabetes to restore normal insulin production, but in the future it will be possible to direct a series of cells to carry a pharmaceutical substance inside the body, generating the equivalent of biological nanobots, the nerve cells will be able to be programmed to make a greater number of synapses in certain parts of the cortex, etc. of course, techno-pessimists may consider that this technology may also have the characteristics of a biological weapon, creating structures to modify genetic transcription, causing tissue or organ dysfunction, or even the death of the host. one of the conspiracy theories regarding the anti-covid vaccines had in mind precisely this possibility of using mrna technology in the creation of biological weapons, the followers of this theory considering that the respective vaccines constitute precisely such weapons, intended to reduce the volume of the global population, either through the adverse effects of the vaccine especially sterility either by destroying the immune system and the body's ability to generate an immune response. when such emerging technology may have military applications, it will, to some extent, be viewed with suspicion, especially by those who believe they live in repressive societies and who express distrust of science and technology, as long as these technologies are available up to a point, including to individuals or organizations with bioterrorism predispositions. returning to webb and hessel's volume, they show that synthetic biology has already shown its transformative capacity on the functioning of the contemporary world that of being part of the disruptive technology category -, humanity being at the stage where it is building the framework for the large-scale implementation of biotechnologies derived from synthetic biology. just as other technologies – such as electronic communications – have transformed society from a consumer society to an information society, synthetic biology has the potential to transform humanity into a postevolutionary civilization (sandu & caras, 2013). an example formulated by the cited authors is that of the production of synthetic meat, by "cultivating" in cell cultures, starting from stem cells, tissues biochemically identical to chicken meat, for example, without having some chicken be slaughtered. in this context, g. owen schaefer and julian săvulescu (2014) question epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 489 whether meat obtained through synthetic biology in cell cultures is suitable for consumption by those who have adopted vegetarianism for reasons of conscience, given the fact that no animal is killed and does not suffer for the production of synthetic meat. webb and hessel insist on creating a mental and cultural framework of acceptance of emerging technologies—including synthetic biology— without which synthetic biology research will not be able to advance far enough to lead to what we would call the fourth scientific revolution. building on the findings of webb and hessel, we believe that synthetic biology combined with communication technologies have the potential to create a 2.0 humanity capable of a remarkable extension of life expectancy to hundreds of years, capable of living and adapting to environments seemingly completely unfit for life – such as the bottom of the oceans or the soil of other planets or, why not, in an eventual – and undesirable – postapocalyptic world of all-out nuclear war. the previously cited authors draw attention to the fact that there are no institutions or legislation at the level of the united states and, in fact, globally to ensure the protection of the population in the biocybernetic domain. there are laboratories globally that biosynthesize organic substances and compounds based on a molecular design sent by researchers via e-mail. although there are sufficient safeguards in the academic world to prevent malicious manipulation of the products of biosynthesis, a malicious modification of the genomic structure to be synthesized – for example, by the intervention of biohackers – can lead to the opinion of the mentioned authors, upon the appearance of synthetic products with destructive potential. as such, the emergence of biosecurity interfaces is an important element in the development of the global infrastructure in which synthetic biology can operate. the development of biosecurity cannot, however, be thought outside of coherent and ethical public policies aimed at the sustainable and responsible development in terms of biosecurity of research and technological developments of synthetic biology. 7. biological systems as constructible objects o'malley believes that "a distinctive feature of synthetic biology is that it aims to go beyond mere modeling and treat biological systems as fully constructible objects" (o'malley et al., 2008). from an epistemological point of view, synthetic biology raises a series of discussions about the possibility of a distinct methodology, which would unify analysis with synthesis in a single technological research practice, and from an ontological point of view broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 490 it raises questions about the relationship between the living and the nonliving, biological versus synthetic, between machine and organism (holm & powell, 2013). traditionally, it is considered that the evolutionary processes of natural selection are the ones that generate the most adapted species in nature, starting from random mutations and adaptive selection, through which the most suitable species in the context of the environment in which they live and develop will survive. this paradigm will be partially disproved with the development of new synthetic species, whose survival is artificially engineered and which are endowed with adaptive advantages that could occur naturally in evolutionary processes that could last millions of years. on the other hand, the systemic understanding of evolutionary biology, transposed into synthetic biology, overturns the idea of a pure darwinian evolution based on random mutations and natural selection, showing that random mutations even if they can lead to specimens more adapted to the environment are often lost in nature precisely because, although more adapted to the environment, the mutant specimen cannot transmit its genetic heritage, there being no "systemic context" to propagate the mutation, thus creating a new species or subspecies (green, 2022). synthetic biology projects, such as the darpa biodesign project, aim to eliminate the randomness of natural evolutionary progress by designing proteins with 99.5% accuracy. bernadette bensaude-vincent (2013) points out that a rational philosopher investigating the claims of synthetic biology regarding its own transformative capacity on the biosphere and on human society at the same time should not lose sight of the difference between the possibilities that this new branch of science and engineering has them – and the actual results that researchers in the field have actually reached. we can consider that at this point synthetic biology, although it has come a long way from the first synthetic genome made by craig venter, to the widespread use of gene editing or vaccines based on messenger rna, has not yet led to a copernican revolution at the epistemological level, in other words the ideal of the transformation of nature under the impact of technology has not yet succeeded in removing the hazard from the evolution of species, a fact demonstrated by the mutations that occurred in the genome of the sarscov2 virus, which developed the omicron xe strain, which some specialists believe that they would have developed resistance precisely to vaccines based on messenger rna, produced by synthetic biology. we want to emphasize that an important element of the success of synthetic biology is the ability to seduce the public and not the researchers in the field through success stories reminiscent of supernatural mythological epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 491 instances, capable of transforming man into an entity endowed with demiurgic powers, in -a manner somewhat similar to what magic or alchemy was supposed to make possible. this time, technology – in this case synthetic biology – has ignited the imagination of techno-optimists, who envision a future in which certain diseases will be completely eradicated through genetic editing, longevity and the maintenance of youth being possible through intracellular operations with the help of messenger rna technology , the food being sufficient for the entire population, produced without effort and without the need for traditional food production activities – agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. –, all this being replaced by cell culture that generates synthetic "meat", molecular constituents similar to any food, etc., reducing pollution by creating bacteria that digest plastic, etc. bernadette bensaude-vincent (2013) considers that these visions have already entered the epistemic culture of humanity, and the objections that researchers from the professional community in the field bring to these utopias are criticized as epistemic opportunism a term that comes to replace the classical one, of technoscepticism. 8. synthetic biology – epistemological construction on the design of life understanding biology as a design applied to life itself can be considered a reductionist view, as the entire evolutionary complexity is reduced to a vitalist project, as if life itself had a purpose and that was to exist and multiply. this assumption leads some researchers to try to determine the minimalist genome on which a biological entity can function—creating only those chains of protein synthesis absolutely necessary for cell life and replication. on the other hand, the dna code of a real cell existing in nature contains sequences that generate protein syntheses that do not seem necessary for the survival of the cell, but can trigger certain contexts, functions that specialize the cell as part of a tissue for example, by passing from to a totipotent stem cell to a cell part of a specialized tissue within an organ. synthetic biology allows, in reverse, the elimination of some nucleotide chains or the inactivation of some genes, transforming a specialized cell, part of an epithelial tissue, into a stem and, from here, into a self-fertilized zygote, allowing the occurrence of solo reproduction phenomena. the reverse engineering approach to living systems, for example by decoding the genome, then allows the study of genetic systems on the structural components of the genome and the constructive or reconstructive broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 492 intervention on the various parts of the genome, which lead to the emergence of desirable and designed metabolic processes starting from genetic mechanisms only partially similar to natural ones, using bio "logic circuits". 9. conclusions the temptation of synthetic biology to become a post-darwinian science, by replacing natural evolution with the synthetic one, makes this science par excellence a product of postmodern thinking, refractory to the systematic and universal, and confident in the absolute power of science and human technology to override the laws of nature, shaping nature after human intelligence. post-darwinian biology, with its great promises of becoming a fourth scientific revolution, is, after all, a new ideology, which is far from exorcising the world, making the gods take on human form, and instead of lightning, wear white robes. the character of postmodern science of synthetic biology is given, on the one hand, by the theoretical eclecticism and excessive leaning on the technological, and also by the multitude of methods used in technological research in the field. the rejection of an epistemology in the traditional sense is compensated by bringing to the attention of the scientific community some theoretical models derived from systemic biology and complexity sciences which, however, do not claim to elucidate truths of a theoretical nature or at least to produce theoretical constructions considered valid, but to produce technological artifacts of pragmatic value. on the other hand, however, they try to solve some philosophical problems such as the question "what is life?" – with scientifically acceptable instruments. synthetic biology is a post-darwinian construct not because it denies the theory of evolution or even the role of random mutations in phylogeny, but because it seeks to create life based on a project with a well-defined goal, the cells and organisms created being designed to perform functions of an economic rather than evolutionary nature. references alon, u. (2007). an introduction to systems biology: design principles of biological circuits. chapman and hall. barabási, a.-l. (2002). linked: how everything is connected to everything else and what it means for business, science, and everyday life. basic books/perseus publishing. epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 493 benner, s.a., & sismour, a.m. (2005). synthetic biology. nature reviews genetics, 6(7), 533–543. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1637 bensaude-vincent, b. (2013). between the possible and the actual: philosophical perspectives on the design of synthetic organisms. futures, 48, 23–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2013.02.006 black, j.b. (2017). mammalian synthetic biology: engineering biological systems. annual review of biomedical engineering, 19, 249-277. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-bioeng-071516-044649 boldt, j. (2018). machine metaphors and ethics in synthetic biology. life sciences, society and policy, 14, 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40504-018-0077-y cornish-bowden, a. (2006). putting the systems back into systems biology. perspectives in biology and medicine, 49(4), 475–489. https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2006.0053 craver, c.f. (2016). the explanatory power of network models. philosophy of science, 83(5), 698–709. https://doi.org/10.1086/687856 deplazes, a. (2009). piecing together a puzzle. embo reports, 10(5), 428–432. https://doi.org/10.1038/embor.2009.76 ernst, j., & kellis, m. (2012). chromhmm: automating chromatin-state discovery and characterization. nature methods, 9(3), 215–216. https://doi.org/10.1038%2fnmeth.1906 gibbs, r.a. (2020). the human genome project changed everything. nature reviews genetics, 21(10), 575–576. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-0200275-3 ginsberg, a.d., calvert, j., schyfter, p., elfick, a., & endy, d. (2017). synthetic aesthetics: investigating synthetic biology's designs on nature. mit press. green, s. (2022). philosophy of systems and synthetic biology. in edward n. zalta (ed.), the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/systems-syntheticbiology/ guye, p., ebrahimkhani, m.r., kipniss, n., velazquez, j.j.; schoenfeld, e., kiani, s., griffith, l.g., & weiss, r. (2016). genetically engineering selforganization of human pluripotent stem cells into a liver bud–like tissue using gata6. nature communications, 7, 10243. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10243 hogeweg, p. (2012). toward a theory of multilevel evolution: long-term information integration shapes the mutational landscape and enhances evolvability. soyer, 751, 195–223. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-46143567-9_10 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1637 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2013.02.006 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-bioeng-071516-044649 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40504-018-0077-y https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2006.0053 https://doi.org/10.1086/687856 https://doi.org/10.1038/embor.2009.76 https://doi.org/10.1038%2fnmeth.1906 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-020-0275-3 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-020-0275-3 https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/systems-synthetic-biology/ https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/systems-synthetic-biology/ https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10243 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3567-9_10 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3567-9_10 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 494 holm, s., & powell, r. (2013). organism, machine, artifact: the conceptual and normative challenges of synthetic biology. studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, 44(4partb), 627–631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2013.05.009 huang, s., ernberg, i., & kauffman, s. (2009). cancer attractors: a systems view of tumors from a gene network dynamics and developmental perspective. seminars in cell & developmental biology, 20(7), 869–876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2009.07.003 jaeger, j., & crombach, a. (2012). life’s attractors: understanding developmental systems through reverse engineering and in silico evolution. soyer, 751, 93–119. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3567-9_5 khalil, a.s., & collins, j.j. (2010). synthetic biology: applications come of age. nature reviews genetics, 11(5), 367–379. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2775 krohs, u. (2002). convenience experimentation. studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, 43(1), 52–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.10.005 kull, k. (1999). outlines for a post-darwinian biology. folia baeriana, 7, 129–142. http://www.zbi.ee/~kalevi/postdarw.htm lewens, t. (2013). from bricolage to biobricks™: synthetic biology and rational design. studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, 44(4), part b/2013, 641–648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2013.05.011 luisi, p.l. (2006). the emergence of life. from chemical origins to synthetic biology. cambridge university press. lyotard, j.-f. (1984). the postmodern condition: a report on knowledge. university of minnesota press. o’malley, m.a. (2009). making knowledge in synthetic biology: design meets kludge. biological theory, 4(4), 378–389. https://doi.org/10.1162/biot_a_00006 o’malley, m.a., powell, a., davies, j.f., & calvert, j. (2008). knowledge-making distinctions in synthetic biology. bioessays, 30(1), 57–65. https.//doi.org/10.1002/bies.20664 popoveniuc, b. (2016). filosofia singularității. creierul global – o etică a gândirii fără om. eikon. sandu, a. (2021). filosofia orientului și fizica modernă. lumen. sandu, a., & caras, a. (2013). (christian) bioethical dilemmas in using synthetic biology and nanotechnologies. journal for the study of religions and ideologies, 12(35), 158-177. http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/708 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2013.05.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2009.07.003 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3567-9_5 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2775 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.10.005 http://www.zbi.ee/~kalevi/postdarw.htm https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2013.05.011 https://doi.org/10.1162/biot_a_00006 file:///d:/alexandra/teze%20de%20doctorat/teza%20olivia%20macovei/https/doi.org/10.1002/bies.20664 http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/708 epistemological approaches on systemic and synthetic biology olivia macovei 495 schaefer, g.o., & săvulescu, j. (2014). the ethics of producing in vitro meat. journal of applied philosophy, 31(2), 188-202. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24355954 shen-orr, s.s., milo, r., mangan, s., & alon, u. (2002). network motifs in the transcriptional regulation network of escherichia coli. nature genetics, 31(1), 64–68. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng881 siegenfeld, a.f., & bar-yam, y. (2020). an introduction to complex systems science and its applications. complexity, 2020, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/6105872 simons, m. (2022). jean-françois lyotard and postmodern technoscience. philosophy and technology, 35, 31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-02200517-3 simons, m. (2021). synthetic biology as a technoscience: the case of minimal genomes and essential genes. studies in history and philosophy of science part a, 85, 127–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2020.09.012 sîmbotin, d.g. (2020). limitele cunoașterii. perspective logico-epistemice [habilitation thesis]. universitatea tehnică din cluj-napoca, centrul de nord baia mare, facultatea de litere, cluj-napoca, românia. sullins, j. (1998). synthetic biology. the paideia archive: twentieth world congress of philosophy, 39, 46-53. https://philpapers.org/rec/sulsb sung, b.h., donghui, c., sun, c.k., & byung-kwan, c. (2016). construction of a minimal genome as a chassis for synthetic biology. essays in biochemistry, 60(4), 337–346. https://doi.org/10.1042/ebc20160024 ujéda, l. (2019). nanotechnology and synthetic biology: the ambiguity of the nano-bio convergence. philosophia scientia, 23(1), 57-72. https://doi.org/10.4000/philosophiascientiae.1751 vickers, c.e., & freemont, p.s. (2002). pandemic preparedness: synthetic biology and publicly funded biofoundries can rapidly accelerate response time. nature communications, 13, 453. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-02228103-3 webb, a., & hesserl, a. (2022). the genesis machine: our quest to rewrite life in the age of synthetic biology. public affairs. zepik, h.h., blöchliger, e., & luisi, p.l. (2001). a chemical model of homeostasis. angewandte chemie, 40(1), 199–202. https://doi.org/10.1002/1521-3773(20010105)40:1<199::aidanie199>3.0.co;2-h https://www.jstor.org/stable/24355954 https://doi.org/10.1038/ng881 https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/6105872 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-022-00517-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-022-00517-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2020.09.012 https://philpapers.org/rec/sulsb https://doi.org/10.1042/ebc20160024 https://doi.org/10.4000/philosophiascientiae.1751 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28103-3 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28103-3 https://doi.org/10.1002/1521-3773(20010105)40:1%3c199::aid-anie199%3e3.0.co;2-h https://doi.org/10.1002/1521-3773(20010105)40:1%3c199::aid-anie199%3e3.0.co;2-h microsoft word brain_2_4.doc 62 sociocultural theory revisited: what are the educational implications? mehrdad rezaee azad university, tehran, central branch, faculty of foreign languages mehr351@yahoo.com abstract until recently, it was believed that to learn/teach another language, it is sufficient for a person to know the grammar of another language in detail, have a good command of its vocabulary, and be able to pronounce the words, phrases and sentences well. however, later it turned out not to be so easy since more important issues were discovered which made the learning/teaching of another language (sl/fl) more challenging than what it was previously thought. these issues are the social and the cultural aspects of l2/fl, the combination of which makes the sociocultural aspects of language learning and teaching. this means that, the circumstances under which we live, together with the symbols, symbolic tools, and signs we use to mediate and regulate our relationships with others, and with ourselves which make sociocultural theory are important issues for learning l2/fl. later, the three generations of psycholinguistics are provided, the third generation of which is sociocultural theory together with the important notions of each generation. finally, three educational implications of sociocultural theory are provided. keywords: sociocultural theory; education; l2 learning; symbolic tools 1. introduction in the 1960s and 1970s, sla (second language acquisition) theorists and practitioners of esl (english as a second language) and efl (english as a foreign language) showed more willingness to view l2/fl learning from the perspective of formal qualities of language. as a result, more attention was paid to the teaching and learning processes of the grammar and pronunciation of the fl/sl (zhang, 2006). although great amount of research had been done in those two decades, its major focus was on methodology and less emphasis was put on other important factors that influenced the final outcome of second or foreign language study, such as language distance, learners’ diversity and cultural difference. however, by the 1980s and 1990s, research in this area began to shift its emphasis to learning process and learning style. meanwhile, zhang (2006) proceeds that, in the process of learning a second or foreign language, without a doubt, learners will encounter internal and external obstacles. internal factors involve personality, self-esteem or personal attitude while external ones refer to all social and cultural conditions associated with the entire environment in which language study takes place. like those that constrain the acquisition of knowledge in any academic arena, internal and external elements also play a pivotal role in deciding the final outcome of the second or foreign language study. these internal and external elements come to be know in a more general term as sociocultural theory. but, what is it and how does it work? 2. sociocultural theory according to scott & palinscar (2009), "the work of sociocultural theory is to explain how individual mental functioning is related to cultural, institutional, and historical context; hence, the focus of the sociocultural perspective is on the roles that participation in social interactions and culturally organized activities play in influencing psychological development." (p. 1). 3. definition of sociocultural theory although sociocultural theory has been defined with different wordings and in different ways by different scholars, almost all of them (bernard & campbell’s, 2005; lantolf, 2006; menezes, 2009) have considered two fundamental ‘social’ and the ‘cultural’ concepts in their definitions. of course, some other scholars have also emphasized terms such as ‘cooperative learning’ and m. rezaee sociocultural theory revisited: what are the educational implications? 63 ‘assistance’ (scott & palinscar, 2009), ‘collaboration’ (mitchell and myles, 2004), ‘interaction with others’ and ‘intra-mental processes’ (cross & gearon, 2004), ‘integration into a community of practice’ and ‘enculturation’ (jaworski, 1996), ‘cultural artifacts’ (lantolf and thorne, 2007), ‘speech community’ and ‘co-construction’ (lantolf, 2005), ‘tools for thinking’, ‘intra-mental tools’, (renshaw, 1992), ‘social practice’, (singh & richards, 2006), and ‘social conventions’ (sultana, 2003). nevertheless, the most fundamental concept of sociocultural theory is that the human mind is mediated (lantolf, 2006). that is, “we use symbolic tools, or signs, to mediate and regulate our relationships with others and with ourselves and thus change the nature of these relationships with our mind” (latolf, 2006, p.74). in fact, this is a reformulation of what vygotsky (1987) argued when he said "just as humans do not act directly on the physical world but rely, instead, on tools and labor activity, which allows us to change the world, and with it, the circumstances under which will live in the world, they use symbolic artifacts to establish an indirect, or mediated, relationship between themselves and the world." (p. 9) the task of psychology, in vygotsky’s view, is to understand how human social and mental activity is organized through culturally constructed artifacts. sociocultural domain, concerned with how the different types of symbolic tools developed by human cultures throughout the course of their respective histories affected the kinds of mediation favored, and with it the kinds of thinking valued by these cultures. 4. sociocultural theory: the third generation of psycholinguistics whatever stated so far has considered sociocultural theory a social and communicative issue and something which deals with the interactional aspects of language learning and teaching. put another way, from what went on, one can conclude that in order to learn a language well, there must be a real interaction or communication between a person and others. however, sct is not merely a social issue. it can be studied from a psycholinguistic perspective, too. in fact, sct is the third generation of psycholinguistics. that is, looking at the issue of sct from a psycholinguistic viewpoint, one can say according to leontiev (1981), that, at the beginning of its history in the early 1950s, psycholinguistics was a neobehaviorist discipline interested in the acquisition and processing of discrete units of language (e.g., words). the second generation of psycholinguistics that emerged in the early 1960s, with chomsky’s rise to preeminence in linguistics coupled with george miller’s psychological perspective, overcame the atomism of the first generation through its claim that what is acquired are abstract rules rather than discrete units (leontiev, 1981). consequently, researchers focused on perception and production of sentences, and occasionally on formal cohesive devises that link sentences into texts. although leontiev sees the second generation as representing progress, he nevertheless argues that its orientation was more linguistic than psychological (p. 93). moreover, it shared the same interest in formal properties of language as manifested by its predecessor. neither of the first two generations paid much attention to meaning; neither were they concerned with how language was actually deployed as a tool for communication or for thinking. to be sure, both generations studied the individual, but as an entity “isolated not only from society but also from any real process of communication, as such communication is reduced to the most elementary model of information transfer from speaker to listener” (p. 92). the third generation of psycholinguistics, according to leontiev (1981, p. 95), is less linguistic and more psychological in orientation and has moved away from interest in the processing and perception of sentences and texts and “towards a psychological analysis of the processes of communication and thought” (p. 96). for the third generation, “psycholinguistics does not deal with the process of actualizing psychological structures which serve ‘speech behavior’ in the linguistic product, but explores the different strategies for using language (as a means) in activity” (p. 96). this activity may be aimed at influencing others or at influencing the self. when aimed at others, the activity is communicative; when aimed at the self, it is cognitive. importantly, however, the two activities, as vygotsky (1987) argued, are dialectically and therefore necessarily connected to each other in their genesis. that is, the activity of self-directed speaking is derived from the activity of other-directed speaking: in essence, both are forms of communication. in the first case, the interlocutors are i and you, and in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 the second, i and me. in giving precedence to communicative activity over the acquisition and processing of abstract linguistic rules and representations, the third generation is interested in how speaking (and writing) mediates the concrete social and mental activity of human beings. thus, speaking activity is “motivated and purposive. it represents a process of solving communicative problems” (leontiev, 1981, p. 97), and these problems can be social as well as cognitive. seen from this perspective, the learning and teaching of another language is not about learning and teaching rules and forms but about communication as a means of mediating “distinct types of intellectual and practical [i.e., social] activity” (p. 99). thus, the central proposition of sct is that humans are fundamentally communicatively organized beings. this notion extends not only to the world of social relationships but also to the world of higher mental functions. just as our social activity is mediated through speech, so too is our mental activity. specifically, through speaking (and writing), we are able to gain control over our memory, attention, planning, perception, learning, and development, but this control is derived from the social activity we engage in not only with our contemporaries but also with those who have preceded us in time through the cultural artifacts, including language, they have created and left behind. 5. the educational implications of sociocultural theory given the comprehensive nature of sociocultural theory, its educational implications for assessment, curriculum, and instruction are broad-ranging, and only a glimpse of them can be provided in this entry. for example, according to scott & palinscar (2009, p. 5), "sociocultural theory—in particular the notion of zone of proximal development—would suggest that the goals of educational assessment should be to: (a) identify abilities that are in the process of developing, and (b) attempt to predict what the learner will do independently in the future. a line of inquiry consistent with these assessment goals is dynamic assessment.". to put it in a nutshell, scott & palinscar (2009, p. 6) state that, sct has three major educational implications. 5. 1. instructional implications informed by a socio-cultural perspective, learning is thought to occur through interaction, negotiation, and collaboration. while these features are characteristic of “cooperative learning,” what sets instruction, which is informed by sociocultural theory, apart is that there is also attention to the discourse, norms, and practices associated with particular discourse and practice communities. the goal of instruction is to support students to engage in the activities, talks, and use of tools in a manner that is consistent with the practices of the community to which students are being introduced (e.g., scientists, mathematicians, historians). 5.2. use of new technologies with the proliferation of information and communication technologies in educational and everyday settings, scholars, working from a socio-cultural perspective, are working to expand concepts, such as distributed cognition, to include not only people and artifacts, but also digital technologies. for example, shaffer and clinton (2006) introduce a new category of tool, which they call, tool for thoughts and, in doing so, challenge the idea that humans occupy a privileged position in psychological analyses. they argue that media, such as video games, word processors, and analytical tools create new skills and habits of mind, in addition to shifting the focus from reading and writing the printed word to multimodal literacy. 5.3. research applied to institutional settings research conducted from a socio-cultural perspective has focused traditionally on the interactions of individuals and groups of individuals. however, research has also applied this lens to much larger institutional settings. for example, cobb and mcclain (2006) illustrate how efforts m. rezaee sociocultural theory revisited: what are the educational implications? 65 toward a mathematics reform effort need to be analyzed at a teacher, classroom, school, district, and indeed state and federal policy levels, to provide a more complete accounting of the reform effort. 6. conclusion from what was said, one can understand that in order to learn/teach another language, although it is necessary to learn/teach the grammar and vocabulary of that language, and also have a good pronunciation when speaking in that language, this is never sufficient because there are other very important things such as the social and cultural aspects of language learning and teaching which play vital roles in the learning/teaching process of a sl/fl. in other words, one must know the meaning of different symbols, symbolic tools and signs in a language (as they might be completely different from one language to the other) in order not to face problems in communication with other people from that language. there are social or cultural aspects in one language which might be completely different or totally opposite that of the things in one’s own language or even absent in one’s own language. therefore, neglecting them can be sometime funny, causing misunderstanding, at other times, problematic, bringing about troubles for the speaker, and still at other times, very much hazardous in communication with someone else, leading to bloody fights between the two speakers. references [1] barnard, r., & campbell, l. (2005). sociocultural theory and the teaching of process writing: the scaffolding of learning in a university context. retrieved october 24, 2011, from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/10289/433/1/content.pdf [2] cobb, p., & mcclain, k. (2006). the collective mediation of a high-stakes accountability program: communities and networks of practice. mind, culture, and activity, 13(2), 80–100. [3] cross, r. gearon, m. (2004). second language teacher education: sociocultural directions for the future. retrieved october 23, 2011, from http://www.aare.edu.au/04pap/cro04254.pdf [4] jaworski, b. (1996). constructivism and teaching: the sociocultural context. retrieved october 26, 2011, from http://www.grout.demon.co.uk/barbara/chreods.htm [5] lantolf, j. p. (2005). sociocultural theory: a unified approach to l2 learning and teaching. in e. hinkel (ed.), handbook of second language research (693–700). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. retrieved november 2, 2011, from www.springerlink.com/index/uq2896v87h366g28.pdf [6] lantolf, j. p. (2006). sociocultural theory and l2: state of the art. cambridge: cambridge university press. retrieved october 23, 2011, from journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjogetfulltext_fulltext [7] lantolf, j. p., & thorne, s. l. (2007). sociocultural theory and second language learning. in b. vanpatten & j. williams (eds.), theories in second language acquisition: an introduction (201224). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. [8] leontiev, a. a. (1981). psychology and the language learning process. oxford: pergamon. [9] menezes. v. (2009). second language acquisition: from main theories to complexity. retrieved october 29, 2011, from www.veramenezes.com/slatheory.pdf [10] mitchell, r., & myles, f. (2004). second language learning theories (2nd ed.). london: hodder arnold. [11] renshaw, p. d. (1992). the sociocultural theory of teaching and learning: implications for the curriculum in the australian context. australian association for research in education. retrieved november 9, 2011, from http://webpages.charter.net/schmolze1/vygotsky/renshaw.html [12] scott, s., & palincsar, a. (2009). sociocultural theory. retrieved november 5, 2011, from http://www.education.com/reference/article/sociocultural-theory/ [13] shaffer, d. w., & clinton, k. a. (2006). tool for thoughts: reexamining thinking in the digital age. mind, culture, and activity, 13(4), 283–300. [14] singh, g., & richards, j. c. (2006). teaching and learning in the language teacher education course room: a critical sociocultural perspective. relc, 37(2), 149-175. retrieved october 26, 2011, from http://rel.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/37/2/149 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 [15] sultana, n. (2003). socio-cultural factors in second language learning. retrieved october 28, 2011, from www.pdfqueen.com/sociocultural-factors-in-second-language-learning [16] vygotsky, l. s. (1987). the collected works including thinking and speaking. in r. w. reiber & a. s. carton (eds.), the collected works of l. s. vygotsky: problems of general psychology. new york: plenum press. [17] zhang, j. (2006). sociocultural factors in second language acquisition. sino-us english teaching, 3(5), 42-46. retrieved november 2, 2011, from www.linguist.org.cn/doc/su200605/su20060510.pdf microsoft word brain_1_4.doc 91 rezumate in limba română brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience creier. cercetări ample în inteligenţă artificială şi neuroştiinţe issn 2067 – 3957 volumul 1, numărul 4 octombrie 2010: „toamna, 2010” www.brain.edusoft.ro editor şef: bogdan pătruţ 1. noi sisteme combinate de scoring pentru prezicerea insuficienţei respiratorii la pacienţii irakieni cu sindromul guillain-barré. zaki noah hasan abstract sindromul guillain-barré (gbs) este o poliradiculoneuropatie autoimuna acuta post-infecţioasa, este cea mai frecventă neuropatie periferică, provoacand insuficienţă respiratorie. scopul studiului este de a utiliza noul sistem de scoring combinat în anticiparea insuficienţei respiratorii, în scopul de a îndeplini măsurile elective, fără a aştepta pentru situaţiile de urgenţă să apară. pacienţi şi metode: cincizeci de pacienti cu gbs au fost studiati. opt parametrii clinice (inclusiv progresia de pacienţi la maxim de slăbiciune, rata respiratorie / minut, contorizarea timpului de tinere a respiratiei(numărul de cifre pe care pacientul le poate numara cat timp isi mentine răsuflarea), prezenţa de slăbiciune musculară faciala (unilaterala sau bilaterala), prezenţa de slăbiciune a bulbar musculare, slăbiciune a muşchiului flexor al gâtului, şi slăbiciunea membrelor) au fost evaluate pentru fiecare pacient şi un anumit punctaj a fost dat fiecarui parametru, un scor combinat proiectat fiind construit prin luarea în considerare a tuturor parametrilor clinici mentionati de mai sus. rezultate şi discuţii: cincisprezece pacienţi (30%), care au fost înrolaţi în studiul nostru au dezvoltat insuficienţă respiratorie. a fost o asociere foarte semnificativa statistic între dezvoltarea de insuficienţă respiratorie şi clasele de jos ale (scor al slăbiciunii bulbare musculare, scoruri de mentinere a respiraţiei, rezultatul slăbiciunii musculară gâtului, rezultatul slabiciunii membrelor inferioare şi superioare, rezultat rata respiratorie) şi suma totală rezultat de peste 16 din 30 (valoarea p = 0.000). nici o diferenţă semnificativă statistic nu a fost găsita în ceea ce priveşte progresia de slăbiciune maxima (valoarea p = 0.675) şi slăbiciunea musculo-faciala (valoarea p = 0.482). concluzie: la pacienţii care au obţinut un punctaj combinat (16'30 de mai sus) sunt la mare risc de a avea insuficienţă respiratorie. 2. quo vadis, maşina inteligentă? rosemarie velik rezumat inteligenta artificiala (ai) este o ramură de informatică ce se ocupa cu determinarea calculatoarelor a se comporta ca si oamenii. cel puţin aceasta a fost ideea originală. cu toate acestea, s-a dovedit că acest lucru nu a fost o sarcină uşoară de rezolvat. acest articol isi propune a oferi o analiză de înţeles a ultimilor 60 de ani de inteligenta artificiala dintr-un punct de vedere filosofic. este prezentat ceea ce s-a întâmplat până în prezent în i.a., ceea ce se întâmplă în prezent în acest domeniu de cercetare, şi ceea ce poate fi de aşteptat în viitor. scopul este de a media o înţelegere pentru evoluţiile şi schimbările în gândire în decursul timpului cu privire la modul de a obţine brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, octobre 2010, "autumn 2010", issn 2067-3957 92 inteligenta artificiala. mesajul este clar că i.a.-ul trebuie să-şi unească forţele cu neuroştiinţa şi alte discipline ale creierului pentru a face un pas spre dezvoltarea de aparate cu adevărat inteligente. 3. invatarea vocabularului ca mijloc de predictie a achiziţiei limbii engleze ca limbă straină în cazul studenţilor de anul al treilea, în cazul traducerilor ali jahangard rezumat scopul studiului a fost să formuleze un model pentru a prezice performanta studentilor iranieni in clasa a treia de liceu la testele de sfarsit de curs prin performanta lor la testele de vocabular ce au fost administrate pe parcursul testului. pentru a îndeplini acest scop, treizeci şi doi elevi – cu varste de la şaptesprezece ani la nouăsprezece ani, toti de sex masculin au participat la studiul care a durat nouă luni pentru a putea fi finalizat. abilităţile lingvistice au fost aproximativ la nivel intermediar-mediu în conformitate cu orientările de competenţă actfl (1998). procedura de eşantionare a fost metoda de grup intact. 333 elemente lexicale au fost predate cursanţilor în metoda grupat-asociat de traducere decontextualizata. cursurile s-au desfăşurat două ore pe săptămână la un curs de nouă luni ca durata de timp. şase seturi de teste vocabular au fost administrate şi media fiecarui elev a fost calculata. scorurile studentilor la testele e.c.a. si mediile rezultatelor au fost analizate prin procedura de analiza regresiva pentru a obţine un model care ar putea prezice fiabil scorurile cursanţilor eca prin media performanţelor lor pe rezultatele de la vocabular. analiza dat următoarea formulă: (media vocabular × 0.713) + 2.871 ± [3.1]. 4. impactul anxietăţii de testare pe test de performanţă în rândul studentilor iranieni de limba engleză ca limba straina parviz birjandi, minoo alemi rezumat ca un factor afectiv, anxietatea provocata de teste a fost investigată în contexte diferite, în ultimele două decenii. cu toate acestea, rezultatele mixte ale relaţiei dintre anxietatea provocata de testari şi performantele cursanţilor l2 arata ca instrumentarea pentru evaluarea anxietatii cauzate de testare si a factorilor care cuprind dezvoltarea anxietatii date de testari necesita mai multa investigare pentru a arunca mai multa lumina asupra problemei. în acest scop, un chestionar anxietate cauzata de testare (sarason, 1975) [27] şi un test de engleza generala au fost administrate la 164 de studenţi esp de inginerie înscrişi într-un program de administrare a afacerilor pentru a documenta: (a) de gradul lor anxietate cauzata de testare, (b) relaţia dintre anxietatea cauzata de testare şi performanţa la test, şi (c) incarcari factor de anxietate pe baza analizei factoriale exploratorii. rezultatele arată că anxietatea cauzata de testare a cursanţilor l2 este destul de scăzuta, cu cele mai multe dintre componentele sale neavand nici o corelaţie semnificativă negativ cu testul de performanţă. rezultatele analizei factorului explorator dezvăluie încărcarea trăsăturii anxietatii de testare pe mai degrabă suprapunerea a trei factori specifici anxietatii de testare, anxietate generală de testare, şi anxietate de pregătire a testarii. cu toate acestea, din aceşti factori, anxietatea generală de testare, din cauza funcţionarii sale la cel mai inalt nivel de ordin afectiv, are o corelaţie negativa semnificativa cu testul de performanţă. prin contrast, anxietatea cauzata de pregătirea testarii, în vederea facilitării performanţei la testare, manifestă o corelaţie pozitivă, deşi nesemnificativa, cu performanta testului. rezultatele au două implicaţii: (a) corelaţiile şi încărcarile pe factorii anxietatii cauzate de testare sa dovedeasca a fi de două tipuri: negativi şi pozitivi, chestionarul de anxietate nu este monolitic şi, prin urmare aceasta nu este o măsură adecvată în cazul în care relaţia liniară între anxietatea cauzata de testare şi performanţa testarii constituie punctul central al studiului; şi (b) anxietatea cauzata de testare nu pare să influenţeze prea mult performanţa testarii la nivel micro-test-specific. rezumate in limba română 93 5. asupra relaţieu dintre intrare şi interacţiune psiholingvistică, perspective cognitive şi ecologice în achiziţia unei a doua limbi mohammad khatib, minoo alemi, daftarifard parisa rezumat absorbita este una dintre cele mai importante elemente în procesul de achiziţie a doua limbi (sla). cum subliniază gass (1997), invatarea unei a doua limbi pur şi simplu nu poate avea loc fără absorbtia de vreun fel. de atunci, probleme specifice au fost activ dezbătute în sla cu privire la natura absorbtie şi de prelucrarea absorbtiei, cum ar fi cantitatea de informatie care este necesara pentru achiziţia limbii, atribute diferite de informatie şi de modul în care acestea pot facilita sau împiedica achiziţionarea, si metoda instructive care poate spori absorbtia. în această lucrare, patru ipoteze şi paradigme de prelucrare a absorbtiei au fost descrise. este delimitat că, deşi cele trei paradigme de declanşare, ipoteze absorbtie, şi ipoteza de interacţiune au fost utilizate şi acceptate pe scară largă, le lipseşte capacitatea de a ţine cont de natura dinamică a limbajului. ingaduinta, pe de altă parte, poate lua in considerare o astfel de natură a limbajului. prin urmare, ingaduinta înlocuieşte viziunea ochi-fixat prin viziunea ochi-mobil; un student activ stabileşte relaţii cu şi în mediul înconjurător. elevul poate percepe în mod direct şi să acţioneze pe limba ambiantă, fără a fi nevoie să delimiteze traseul prin intermediul unui aparat mental pre-existent de scheme şi reprezentari, în timp ce acest lucru nu este adevărat în teoria cod-fixat. în teoria ochi-fix de comunicare se presupune că mesajele de-a gata sunt codificate la un capăt, transmise, iar apoi decodificate în formă identică la celălalt capăt. avem nevoie în locul ei de o teorie constructivistă de construcţie a mesajului şi interpretare. 6. matematici computaţionale în medicină angel garrido rezumat ai necesită logica. dar versiunea sa clasică prezinta prea multe insuficienţe. deci, este foarte necesar să se introducă instrumente mai sofisticate, cum poate fi logica estompata, logica modala, logica non-monotonă, şi aşa mai departe. printre lucrurile pe care ai trebuie să le reprezinte sunt categorii, obiecte, proprietăţi, relaţii între obiecte, situaţii, state, timp, evenimente, cauze şi efecte, cunoştinţe despre cunoaştere, şi aşa mai departe. problemele din ia pot fi clasificate în două tipuri generale [3, 4], cauta probleme şi problemă reprezentare. există modalităţi diferite de a atinge acest obiectiv. deci, avem [3] logica, reguli, rame, retele asociative, scripturi, şi aşa mai departe, de multe ori interconectate. de asemenea, va fi foarte util, în tratamentul problemelor de incertitudine şi a legăturii de cauzalitate, introducerea reţelelor bayesian şi, în special, un instrument principal ca graph esenţial. noi încercăm sa aratam aici scopul aplicarii a asemenea metode versatile, în prezent, fundamentale în medicină. 7. despre teoreme unice de punct fix comun pentru trei şi patru de auto-mapari in spatiu metric estompat simetric saurabh manro rezumat în această lucrare, vom demonstra doua teoreme unice de punct fix comun pentru trei si patru automapările în spaţii metrice estompate simetrice. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 01-16 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/372 submitted: september 30th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 9th, 2022 statistical study: vaccination against hpv among dental students in romania elena cristina andrei 1 , cristina maria munteanu 2 , ileana monica baniţă 3 , anca mihaela predescu 4 , mihaela jana ţuculină 5 , alexandru dan popescu 6 , alexandrina mihaela popescu 7 , mihaela aurelia ştefan 8 , janina-elena vaşcu 9 , oprea valentin buşu 10 1 department of histology, faculty of dentistry, university of medicine and pharmacy, 200349 craiova, romania; andreicristina2201@gmail.com 2 department of oro-maxillofacial surgery, faculty of dentistry, university of medicine and pharmacy, 200349 craiova, romania; cristina.munteanu@umfcv.ro 3 department of histology, faculty of dentistry, university of medicine and pharmacy, 200349 craiova, romania. 4 department of histology, faculty of dentistry, university of medicine and pharmacy, 200349 craiova, romania. 5 department of endodontics, faculty of dentistry, university of medicine and pharmacy, 200349 craiova, romania. 6 department of endodontics, faculty of dentistry, university of medicine and pharmacy, 200349 craiova, romania; alexandrudanpopescu20@gmail.com 7 teacher training department, university of craiova, romania. 8 teacher training department, university of craiova, romania; stefan.mihaela25@yahoo.com abstract: vaccination against human papilloma virus continues to remain a highly complex public health issue, as there are many countries or regions that show increasing reluctance. romania is among the countries that do not provide hpv vaccine in the national vaccination scheme, but offers the opportunity to young girls between 11 and 18 years of age to benefit from free vaccination. it is the responsibility of health professionals in all health sectors to inform themselves correctly, but also to instruct patients in a prophylactic approach against infection with both hpv and other types of microorganisms. accurate information and a thorough knowledge of the prophylactic means are achieved from the years of study. our study focuses on the following aspects: the degree of vaccination among dental students, the willingness of students to get vaccinated if they have not done it so far, the degree of information about human papilloma virus infection, including ways of transmission and methods of diagnosing the infection, the perception of students on how this topic has been promoted, the sources of information they access in order to obtain information about human papilloma virus. keywords: vaccine; hpv; gardasil; cervarix; education; prevention. how to cite: andrei, e.c., munteanu, c.m., baniţă, i.m., predescu, a.m., ţuculină, m.j., popescu, a.d., popescu, a.m., ştefan, m.a., vaşcu, j.-e., & buşu, o.v. (2022). statistical study: vaccination against hpv among dental students in romania. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 01-16. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/372 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/372 mailto:andreicristina2201@gmail.com mailto:cristina.munteanu@umfcv.ro mailto:alexandrudanpopescu20@gmail.com mailto:stefan.mihaela25@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/372 9 university of bucharest, faculty of education sciences, romania; jvascu@yahoo.com 10 teacher training department, university of craiova, romania, valentin_busu@yahoo.com mailto:jvascu@yahoo.com mailto:valentin_busu@yahoo.com statistical study: vaccination against hpv among dental students in romania elena cristina andrei et al. 3 introduction vaccination has been and continues to be the main means of preventing infectious diseases (haviari et al., 2015). over time, vaccines have proven their effectiveness in reducing morbidity and mortality (haviari et al., 2015). however, vaccine administration is a complex process in which specialists from many fields contribute: physicians, government institutions, medical researchers, public authorities (ulrich, 2013; van den hoven & verweij, 2013; zimmerman, 2013). awareness of the need for vaccination is both an individual and a collective responsibility. healthcare workers are often under great stress due to the rigorous criteria for the development and optimal storage of vaccines (zheng et al., 2018), as well as the increasing reluctance of the population towards the immunization through vaccination (galanakis et al., 2014). the onset of the covid19 pandemic and recommendations for vaccination or even in some countries, mandatory vaccination, have led to increased reluctance to vaccinate, as evidenced by recent cases of poliomyelitis in india (choudhary et al., 2021) (which was eradicated around 2000 from most countries, with africa remaining the last continent to declare on 25 th of august 2020 that it had eradicated the disease) (bahl et al., 2018). another example is the dramatic drop in the number of measles vaccines administered across europe in the post-pandemic period of covid19 (giubilini, 2021). currently, europe is facing a tripling of measles cases (giubilini, 2021). refusal to vaccinate initially occurs in narrow groups of individuals such as those with religious beliefs who are against certain medical acts (salmon et al., 2005), individuals who promote a natural lifestyle (hough-telford et al., 2016), individuals with anxiety about the potential adverse effects of vaccination (salmon et al., 2005; wang et al., 2014). hpv vaccine: beginnings, myths, present the hpv vaccine was first used in the united states in 2006 (bednarczyk, 2019). at the beginning of the vaccination campaign, it was recommended to young girls, teenagers and women (bednarczyk, 2019), but in 2009 the recommendations were reversed and men were included (centers for disease control and prevention, 2010). also in the early stages of the vaccination campaign, there were voices that tried to downplay the importance of this vaccine in favour of the pap test which we already know has proven its effectiveness over time in preventing cervical cancer (bednarczyk, 2019). a strong argument against this claim is that the hpv broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 4 vaccine is not only for cervical cancer prevention, but also provides the necessary prophylaxis for the following cancers: head and neck cancer (bergman et al., 2019), oropharyngeal cancer (de martel et al., 2017), anal, vulvar or penile cancer (brotherton & bloem, 2018; de martel et al., 2017). another concern of many females was the fear that this vaccine could affect fertility (bednarczyk, 2019). in contrast to this concern, we can only emphasize, rather, the harmful effects of hpv infection on fertility and pregnancy (souho et al., 2015). numerous studies have shown a direct link between the presence of hpv infection in the mother and the onset of disorders in the gynaecological and neonatal sphere: premature birth, miscarriage (gomez et al., 2008; hermonat et al., 1997). in general, infections of any type, viral, bacterial or parasitic produce a strong imbalance in the normal development of the foetus and are considered an etiological factor of miscarriage (skoczyński et al., 2011). during pregnancy many hormonal changes occur, but immunological changes should not be neglected. as far as hpv is concerned, pregnancy is a favourable time for the virus to replicate (skoczyński et al., 2011). hpv has also been shown to be present in the umbilical cord (puranen et al., 1996; syrjänen, 2010) and in the placenta (syrjänen, 2010). thus, there is a risk that hpv infection may be contracted at birth, which again raises the issue of properly informing women who wish to become pregnant about immunisation by vaccination. at the same time, we emphasize that hpv infection can be transmitted non-sexually, as evidenced by the increasing incidence of papillomatous lesions of the tegument or mucous membranes among children (syrjänen, 2010). this again raises alarm bells among health workers and highlights the importance of vaccination against hpv from childhood onwards (fu et al., 2014). hpv vaccine in the world and in romania by 2020, both the american and european continents had introduced the hpv vaccine in more than 75% of states (who, 2020). in this subchapter we will make a comparative analysis of the hpv vaccination rate in different eu member states for women. accurate data on the percentage of individuals vaccinated by state/region was obtained by accessing the world health organization's online platform (who, 2020). it is worth mentioning that in our country the hpv vaccine is not included in the national vaccination scheme, but it is free for young people aged between 11 and 18 years. other countries in romania's situation that have not included the hpv vaccine in the national vaccination scheme are: india, china, indonesia, bangladesh, nigeria, pakistan, russia. statistical study: vaccination against hpv among dental students in romania elena cristina andrei et al. 5 table 1. comparative analysis of the vaccination rate against the hpv virus among the member countries of the european union. the information was extracted from the who platform (2020). country hpv vaccination rate in 2021 (3 doses) romania do not provide an official report bulgaria 5,28% germany 47,2% greece do not provide an official report belgium do not provide an official report netherlands 66,44% luxembourg 14% spain 77,3% hungary do not provide an official report sweden 83% slovenia 49,8% slovakia do not provide an official report austria do not provide an official report denmark 80,2% finland 60,3% croatia do not provide an official report lithuania 66,2% cyprus do not provide an official report malta 99,52% poland do not provide an official report czech republic do not provide an official report georgia 23,76% estonia 44,64% portugal 76,4% immunological aspects of hpv vaccine understanding how the hpv vaccine modulates immunity has an essential role in promoting prophylaxis through immunization with this broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 6 serum (licciardi et al., 2021). the hpv vaccine is characterized by a major potential to trigger an optimal immune response (hoes et al., 2022; turner & huh, 2016). the immunological efficacy of this vaccine can only be properly assessed if the vaccination scheme is complete (all three doses) (hoes et al., 2022). as with other vaccines, it is necessary to measure the neutralizing antibody titre, with the caveat that to date no minimum antibody titre has been established to ensure protection and induce longlasting immunity (hoes et al., 2022; schiller & lowy, 2012). the measurement of antibody levels is performed in the laboratory using various techniques, the most common being elisa (hoes et al., 2022). worldwide through fda approval there are three types of hpv vaccines which are marketed and used in current medical practice: gardasil, gardasil9 and cervarix. all three vaccines are based on virus-like particles (vlps), but benefit from different adjuvant systems (hoes et al., 2022). it is also mentioned that aluminium salts are present in the composition of the vaccines to slowly release the antigen in order to activate the innate immune system (didierlaurent et al., 2009; hoes et al., 2022). following serum injection, the body starts to produce antibodies against hpv. the injected serum composed of l1 vlp induces an important production of antibodies that provide the necessary protection against infection. l1 is the major capsid antigen of the hpv virus (buck et al., 2013). numerous studies over time have demonstrated that immunity gained from vaccination results in a significantly increased neutralizing antibody titre compared to immunity gained from infection (stanley, 2006; pattyn et al., 2019). types of hpv vaccines and their characteristics table 2. characteristics of different types of hpv vaccine. the data were collected based on the information provided by the manufacturer (european medicines agency, n.d.a; n.d.b) vaccine type cervarix gardasil4 gardasil9 hpv type 16, 18 6, 11, 16, 18 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, 58 dose 2 doses: 9-14 years 3 doses: over 15 years 2 doses: 9-13 years 3 doses: over 14 years 2 doses: 9-14 years 3 doses: over 15 years vaccination scheme 2 doses: 0, 5 months 3 doses: 0, 1, 6 months 2 doses: 0, 6 months 3 doses: 0, 2, 6 months 2 doses: 0, 6-12 months 3 doses: 0, 2, 6 months statistical study: vaccination against hpv among dental students in romania elena cristina andrei et al. 7 precautions blood clotting disorders thrombocytopenia blood clotting disorders thrombocytopenia blood clotting disorders thrombocytopenia common side effects pain, rash at the injection site headaches fever myalgia arthralgia gastrointestinal complaints (nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea) pain, erythema, oedema, haematoma at the injection site fever pain in the extremities nausea pain, erythema, oedema at the injection site headache dizziness nausea fever fatigue materials and methods for this study, we developed a questionnaire comprising a total of 12 questions with a simple complement. the questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 554 dental students from the university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova and the university of medicine and pharmacy 'carol davila' bucharest, romania. the questionnaire was developed by three teaching staff and consultations were carried out with specialists from the educational field, but also psycho-social in order to implement it. the questionnaire was distributed to students in electronic format. after the questionnaire was created using google forms application, the teaching staff from the two universities distributed it in the form of a link to the leader of the year, and the leader of one distributed it to his colleagues. the study was carried out with the google forms application, the data were processed in excel 2021, and the graphics were made in powerpoint 2021. this study was conducted according to the guidelines of the declaration of helsinki and approved by the ethics committee of the university of medicine and pharmacy craiova (approval reference no. 45/24.03.2022). informed consent was obtained from every student involved in the study. the questions were about: the degree of vaccination against human papilloma virus infection among dental students, the willingness of unvaccinated students to be vaccinated in the near future, the need to introduce a course on hpv in the university curriculum, the sources of information, the degree of information of students about hpv infection (means of transmission, diagnostic methods and treatment). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 8 results of the total respondents, 88.9% are female and 11.1% are male. the distribution by age group is as follows: 18-25 years 64.8%; 25-40 years 31.5%; over 40 years 3.7%. the results of the study conducted among dental students highlighted the insufficient or absent information on the subject of hpv infection and vaccination. a significant percentage of students (89%) stated that they are unvaccinated, but the encouraging situation is given by their increased willingness to get vaccinated in the near future. among the students vaccinated against hpv, the majority chose the gardasil 9 vaccine, as it is already known that it is the most effective one, because it protects against nine types of the hpv virus. regarding the students' sources of information on this topic, we observe that most of them collect their information from medical books, scientific articles. also, the majority of student respondents consider that the topic of hpv vaccination is insufficiently addressed in romania. regarding the students' degree of information on this topic again, we notice that the majority consider that they are insufficiently informed or even not informed at all, which is a worrying situation, especially considering the fact that they are students in the medical field. following the discussions with the students, after completing the questionnaire, it was noted their request to learn more information about hpv. in the case of vaccinated students, it is particularly important that they check the titer of antibodies obtained after vaccination against hpv. the measurement of antibody levels is performed in the laboratory using various techniques, the most common being elisa. figure 1. degree of vaccination among dental students. source: authors' own conception statistical study: vaccination against hpv among dental students in romania elena cristina andrei et al. 9 it is observed that the majority of students are not vaccinated against hpv infection (89%). although the profile of the specialty studies is medical, there are still large gaps in terms of methods to prevent the contraction and transmission of human papilloma virus infection. figure 2. willingness of unvaccinated students to be vaccinated in the near future. source: authors' own conception although there is a significantly increased percentage of an unvaccinated student, the result is encouraging as more than 40% of students are willing to get vaccinated soon. however, there remains a high percentage of those who are unwilling or not fully convinced to get vaccinated. in this situation, the implementation of a national information programme could change this mentality and encourage vaccination against hpv. figure 3. the type of vaccine administered in the case of vaccinated students source: authors' own conception broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 10 among the students who were administered the full hpv vaccination scheme we note that half of them (50%) were inoculated with gardasil 9 serum which is nonavalent, 33% chose cervarix vaccine which is bivalent (against hpv variants 16 and 18) and only 17% chose gardasil 4 tetravalent vaccine. of the total number of students vaccinated against hpv, all are female. figure 4. effectiveness of hpv vaccination promotion in romania. source: authors' own conception in this question the students appreciated the fact that the issue of hpv vaccination, as well as informing the citizens of the country about the ways of transmission/diagnosis/treatment of hpv infection were either not promoted enough (26%) or very little (28%), or not at all (22%). figure 5. sources from which dental students extract information about human papilloma virus infection. source: authors' own conception statistical study: vaccination against hpv among dental students in romania elena cristina andrei et al. 11 although most (41%) turn to scientific articles and textbooks for medical knowledge, we cannot help but notice that both the media (31%) and social networks (22%) are important sources of information. it is therefore particularly important that students are correctly informed and know how to distinguish between fake news and quality, scientifically proven and supported information. figure 6. the degree of information of medical students regarding hpv infection. source: authors' own conception we notice that the majority of students reported that they are very little informed (470 students) regarding this subject. however, there is also a very small category of students who consider themselves very well informed (30 students) or well informed (27 students). discussions vaccination against human papilloma virus infection remains a controversial topic especially in developing countries (hardt et al., 2016). the dissemination of false information about this type of vaccination in the media and on social media has the effect of decreasing the population's confidence in the efficacy of the vaccine and amplifies the fear of adverse reactions frequently leading to the triggering of anxiety states (pennycook & rand, 2021; teoh, 2019). the impact of fake news is more pronounced for teenagers and young people, as they spend most of their time online and are also considered as target groups for misinformation (watts et al., 2021). also, the propagation of myths about the hpv vaccine has led many people considered to be at high risk of contracting the virus to choose not to be vaccinated. the high-risk group for hpv infection includes: females over 40 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 12 years of age among whom the incidence of cervical cancer is higher; people who have a family history of cervical/head and neck cancer, vulvar/penile/anal cancer; people with multiple sexual partners; healthcare workers (arbyn et al., 2018; sabatini & chiocca, 2020; symer, & yeo, 2018). it is also necessary to inform the male population that they can benefit from this type of vaccination (spînu et al., 2021). conclusions human papilloma virus infection continues to be extremely prevalent in developing countries that do not provide hpv vaccine in their national vaccination scheme. the implementation of a nationwide programme to inform the population about the benefits of the hpv vaccine is vital especially for high-risk groups. we also emphasize the importance of accurate, objective information that leaves no room for interpretation and does not attempt to hide the adverse effects that may arise from vaccine administration. the introduction of courses in the university curriculum of medical schools would contribute to raising awareness among students (future doctors, dentists, nurses) about the importance of compliance with the rules of prophylaxis and mass immunisation through vaccination against hpv. currently, in our country there is a low level of awareness among students about hpv infection, transmission, diagnosis and treatment. the results of our study highlighted the fact that most dental students do not have basic information about human papilloma virus infection. due to poor information, the degree of immunization through vaccination is extremely low. also, another particularly important aspect is that in the case of vaccinated students there are gaps regarding the importance of checking the post-vaccination antibody titer. however, the application of this questionnaire highlighted the students' desire to accumulate information about hpv infection. preventive education should be a priority in the medical academic environment. if future doctors are correctly informed, they in turn can transmit vital information to patients. references arbyn, m., xu, l., simoens, c., & martin-hirsch, p. p. (2018). prophylactic vaccination against human papillomaviruses to prevent cervical cancer and its precursors. the cochrane database of systematic reviews, 5(5), cd009069. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd009069.pub3 https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd009069.pub3 statistical study: vaccination against hpv among dental students in romania elena cristina andrei et al. 13 bahl, s., bhatnagar, p., sutter, r. w., roesel, s., & zaffran, m. (2018). global polio eradication way ahead. indian journal of pediatrics, 85(2), 124–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-017-2586-8 bednarczyk r. a. (2019). addressing hpv vaccine myths: practical information for healthcare providers. human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 15(7-8), 1628– 1638. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2019.1565267 bergman, h., buckley, b. s., villanueva, g., petkovic, j., garritty, c., lutje, v., riveros-balta, a. x., low, n., & henschke, n. (2019). comparison of different human papillomavirus (hpv) vaccine types and dose schedules for prevention of hpv-related disease in females and males. the cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2019(11), cd013479. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd013479 brotherton, j., & bloem, p. n. (2018). population-based hpv vaccination programmes are safe and effective: 2017 update and the impetus for achieving better global coverage. best practice & research. clinical obstetrics & gynaecology, 47, 42–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2017.08.010 buck, c. b., day, p. m., & trus, b. l. (2013). the papillomavirus major capsid protein l1. virology, 445(1-2), 169–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2013.05.038 centers for disease control and prevention. (2010). fda licensure of quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine (hpv4, gardasil) for use in males and guidance from the advisory committee on immunization practices (acip). morbidity and mortality weekly report, 59(20), 630–632. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5920a5.htm choudhary, m., solomon, r., awale, j., dey, r., singh, j. p., & weiss, w. (2021). effectiveness of a community-level social mobilization intervention in achieving the outcomes of polio vaccination campaigns during the postpolio-endemic period: evidence from core group polio project in uttar pradesh, india. bmc public health, 21(1), 1371. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11425-0 de martel, c., plummer, m., vignat, j., & franceschi, s. (2017). worldwide burden of cancer attributable to hpv by site, country and hpv type. international journal of cancer, 141(4), 664–670. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.30716 didierlaurent, a. m., morel, s., lockman, l., giannini, s. l., bisteau, m., carlsen, h., kielland, a., vosters, o., vanderheyde, n., schiavetti, f., larocque, d., van mechelen, m., & garc on, n. (2009). as04, an aluminum salt-and tlr4 agonist-based adjuvant system, induces a transient localized innate immune response leading to enhanced adaptive immunity. journal of immunology, 183(10), 6186–97. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.0901474 european medicines agency. (n.d.a). cervarix. anexa1. rezumatul caracteristicilor produsului. [appendix 1. summary of product features]. european medicine https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-017-2586-8 https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2019.1565267 https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd013479 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2017.08.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2013.05.038 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5920a5.htm https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11425-0 https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.30716 https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.0901474 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 14 agency. https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/productinformation/cervarix-epar-product-information_ro.pdf european medicines agency. (n.d.b). gardasil 9. anexa 1. rezumatul caracteristicilor produsului. [appendix 1. summary of product features]. european medicine agency. https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/productinformation/gardasil-9-epar-product-information_ro.pdf fu, l. y., bonhomme, l. a., cooper, s. c., joseph, j. g., & zimet, g. d. (2014). educational interventions to increase hpv vaccination acceptance: a systematic review. vaccine, 32(17), 1901–1920. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.01.091 galanakis, e., jansen, a., lopalco, p. l., & giesecke, j. (2013). ethics of mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers. euro surveillance : bulletin europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = european communicable disease bulletin, 18(45), 20627. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es2013.18.45.20627 giubilini a. (2021). vaccination ethics. british medical bulletin, 137(1), 4–12. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldaa036 gomez, l. m., ma, y., ho, c., mcgrath, c. m., nelson, d. b., & parry, s. (2008). placental infection with human papillomavirus is associated with spontaneous preterm delivery. human reproduction (oxford, england), 23(3), 709–715. https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dem404 hardt, k., bonanni, p., king, s., santos, j. i., el-hodhod, m., zimet, g. d., & preiss, s. (2016). vaccine strategies: optimising outcomes. vaccine, 34(52), 6691–6699. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.10.078 haviari, s., bénet, t., saadatian-elahi, m., andré, p., loulergue, p., & vanhems, p. (2015). vaccination of healthcare workers: a review. human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 11(11), 2522–2537. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2015.1082014 hermonat, p. l., han, l., wendel, p. j., quirk, j. g., stern, s., lowery, c. l., & rechtin, t. m. (1997). human papillomavirus is more prevalent in first trimester spontaneously aborted products of conception compared to elective specimens. virus genes, 14(1), 13–17. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1007975005433 hoes, j., pasmans, h., schurink-van ’t klooster, t. m., van der klis, f. r. m., donken, r., berkhof, j., & de melker, h. e. (2022). review of long-term immunogenicity following hpv vaccination: gaps in current knowledge. human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 18, 1. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2021.1908059 hough-telford, c., kimberlin, d. w., aban, i., hitchcock, w. p., almquist, j., kratz, r., & o'connor, k. g. (2016). vaccine delays, refusals, and patient dismissals: a survey of pediatricians. pediatrics, 138(3), e20162127. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2127 https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/cervarix-epar-product-information_ro.pdf https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/cervarix-epar-product-information_ro.pdf https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/gardasil-9-epar-product-information_ro.pdf https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/gardasil-9-epar-product-information_ro.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.01.091 https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es2013.18.45.20627 https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldaa036 https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dem404 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.10.078 https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2015.1082014 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1007975005433 https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2021.1908059 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2127 statistical study: vaccination against hpv among dental students in romania elena cristina andrei et al. 15 licciardi, p. v., frazer, i. h., garland, s. m., & mulholland, k. (2021). editorial: immunology of hpv infection and vaccination: progress and challenges. frontiers in immunology, 12, 665463. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.665463 pattyn, j., van keer, s., tjalma, w., matheeussen, v., van damme, p., & vorsters, a. (2019). infection and vaccine-induced hpv-specific antibodies in cervicovaginal secretions. a review of the literature. papillomavirus research (amsterdam, netherlands), 8, 100185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pvr.2019.100185 pennycook, g., & rand, d. g. (2021). the psychology of fake news. trends in cognitive sciences, 25(5), 388–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.02.007 puranen, m., yliskoski, m., saarikoski, s., syrjänen, k., & syrjänen, s. (1996). vertical transmission of human papillomavirus from infected mothers to their newborn babies and persistence of the virus in childhood. american journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 174(2), 694–699. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0002-9378(96)70452-0 sabatini, m. e., & chiocca, s. (2020). human papillomavirus as a driver of head and neck cancers. british journal of cancer, 122(3), 306–314. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-019-0602-7 salmon, d. a., moulton, l. h., omer, s. b., dehart, m. p., stokley, s., & halsey, n. a. (2005). factors associated with refusal of childhood vaccines among parents of school-aged children: a case-control study. archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine, 159(5), 470–476. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.159.5.470 schiller, j. t., & lowy, d. r. (2012). understanding and learning from the success of prophylactic human papillomavirus vaccines. nature reviews microbiology, 10(10), 681–692. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2872 skoczyński, m., goździcka-józefiak, a., & kwaśniewska, a. (2011). prevalence of human papillomavirus in spontaneously aborted products of conception. acta obstetricia et gynecologica scandinavica, 90(12), 1402–1405. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0412.2011.01189.x souho, t., benlemlih, m., & bennani, b. (2015). human papillomavirus infection and fertility alteration: a systematic review. plos one, 10(5), e0126936. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126936 spînu, a. d., anghel, r. f., marcu, d. r., iorga, d. l., cherciu, a., & mischianu, d. (2021). hpv vaccine for men: where to? experimental and therapeutic medicine, 22(5), 1266. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2021.10701 stanley, m. (2006). immune responses to human papillomavirus. vaccine, 24 suppl 1, s16–s22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2005.09.002 https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.665463 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pvr.2019.100185 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.02.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0002-9378(96)70452-0 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-019-0602-7 https://doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.159.5.470 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2872 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0412.2011.01189.x https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126936 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2021.10701 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2005.09.002 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 16 symer, m. m., & yeo, h. l. (2018). recent advances in the management of anal cancer. f1000research, 7, 1572. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.14518.1 syrjänen, s. (2010). current concepts on human papillomavirus infections in children. apmis : acta pathologica, microbiologica, et immunologica scandinavica, 118(6-7), 494–509. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0463.2010.02620.x teoh, d. (2019). the power of social media for hpv vaccination-not fake news!. american society of clinical oncology educational book. american society of clinical oncology. annual meeting, 39, 75–78. https://doi.org/10.1200/edbk_239363 turner, t. b., & huh, w. k. (2016). hpv vaccines: translating immunogenicity into efficacy. human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 12(6), 1403–1405. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2015.1103936 ulrich, m. r. (2013). guidance from vaccination jurisprudence. american journal of bioethics, 13(9), 40-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2013.813608 van den hoven, m., & verweij, m. (2013). professional solidarity: the case of influenza immunization. american journal of bioethics, 13, 51-52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2013.813606 wang, e., clymer, j., davis-hayes, c., & buttenheim, a. (2014). nonmedical exemptions from school immunization requirements: a systematic review. american journal of public health, 104(11), e62–e84. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2014.302190 watts, d. j., rothschild, d. m., & mobius, m. (2021). measuring the news and its impact on democracy. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america, 118(15), e1912443118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912443118 world health organization. (2020). human papillomavirus (hpv) vaccination coverage. world health organization. https://immunizationdata.who.int/pages/coverage/hpv.html?code=ro u&antigen=hpv_fem&year= zheng, z., diaz-arévalo, d., guan, h., & zeng, m. (2018). noninvasive vaccination against infectious diseases. human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 14(7), 1717–1733. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2018.1461296 zimmerman, r. k. (2013). ethical analyses of institutional measures to increase health care worker influenza vaccination rates. vaccine, 31, 6172-6176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2013.10.066 https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.14518.1 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0463.2010.02620.x https://doi.org/10.1200/edbk_239363 https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2015.1103936 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2013.813608 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2013.813606 https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2014.302190 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912443118 https://immunizationdata.who.int/pages/coverage/hpv.html?code=rou&antigen=hpv_fem&year= https://immunizationdata.who.int/pages/coverage/hpv.html?code=rou&antigen=hpv_fem&year= https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2018.1461296 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2013.10.066 microsoft word brain_2_1.doc 44 representing mental spaces and dynamics of natural language semantics ramin golshaie department of linguistics, tarbiat modares university, tehran, iran ramin.golshaie@gmail.com abstract building systems with the robustness of human reasoning capabilities requires inspirations from cognitive science. the primary objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of representing some basic principles of cognitive semantics’ mental spaces theory such as domain construction, reality status of domains and their elements, and mental attitudes in a knowledge representation framework for the purpose of developing cognitively plausible knowledge representation systems. the model used as the basis of representation is the extended version of conventional semantic networks, namely multi-layered extended semantic networks (multinet). the data used in this study have been selected from english expressions and have been represented in mwr, multinet’s knowledge representation software. results obtained from analysis of represented data and their comparison to principles of mental spaces theory shows that theoretical constructs of mental spaces theory such as domain construction, reality status of domains and their elements, and mental attitudes can be formally represented in the multinet framework. keywords: knowledge representation, mental spaces, semantic networks, conitive semantics. 1. introduction in a daily conversation, we talk about a variety of objects, events, states of affairs, situations, etc. interesting above all is the fact that none of these conversational elements have to necessarily be real. we may talk about yesterday’s car accident (a real event), admire hercules poirot (a fictional detective), and even make a seemingly contradictory judgment that both poirot is a belgian detective and in reality, poirot is not belgian are true! how could it be that an entity can have a variable “reality status”? all of these facts can be accounted for by mental spaces theory (mst), a cognitive linguistic approach to meaning construction in natural language [7]. according to fauconnier [5, p. 351], “mental spaces are very partial assemblies constructed as we think and talk for purpose of local understanding and action.” in other words, in the course of talking or thinking we construct spaces in our mind all of which having their own internal structures and being related to each other. thus an entity can have a variable reality status depending on the mental space to which it belongs. the mental space constructed by the sentence poirot is a belgian detective is a non-real imaginary story space of which poirot is an element. but when we say in reality, poirot is not belgian the constructed space is reality space in which poirot (the actor, not the character) does not have the fictional nationality. figure 1. mental space representation of “in the play, mary is excited” knowledge representation, one of the main concerns of artificial intelligence (ai), is “the study of how to put knowledge into a form that a computer can reason with” [18, p. 16]. natural language semantics as a rich source of knowledge is considered a major challenge to formalization and representation. on the other hand, extracting semantic knowledge of natural language is a r. golshaie representing mental spaces and dynamics of natural language semantics 45 crucial task for natural language processing systems if they are to demonstrate a human-like intelligence. in building meaning representation systems, various frameworks with different orientations have been proposed: logic-based (description logics [1, 4]; discourse representation theory [11]), network-based (semantic networks [17]; conceptual dependency theory [20]; conceptual structures [21]), and frame-based (frame theory [14]) methods of meaning representation are the most discussed ones in the literature. one of the main problems in classical approaches to knowledge representation [15] is the representation of beliefs about truth, and temporal aspects of knowledge. in response to these difficulties [19], modal logics and the notion of possible worlds were introduced to account for epistemic modalities inherent in the natural language. in the thesis of possible worlds [13] it is strongly believed that there are lots of worlds and our world we inhabit is one of those possible worlds. possible worlds, however, pose some metaphysical [2, p. 33] and referential [7] problems not to be accounted for easily. in contrast, as dancygier and sweetser [3, p. 11] maintains, “mental spaces represent a more general mechanism than possible worlds, referring not only to very partial cognitive ‘world’ or ‘situation’ constructions as well as to more complete ones, but also to a variety of non-world-like structures which can be connected and mapped onto other cognitive structures.” implementing mental spaces, as a cognitively motivated parallel to possible worlds, in a cognitive computational framework would tackle the difficulties posed by logic-based methods. as pereira [16, p. 56] suggests, “from a symbolic ai perspective, a mental space could be represented as a semantic network, graph in which we have nodes identifying concepts (corresponding to the elements of a mental space) interconnected by relations. the definitions of mental space still allow many other representations (e.g. cases in cased-based reasoning, memes in memetics or even the activation pattern of a neural network in a given moment) but these would certainly demand more complex computational treatment, especially with regard to the mapping.” this paper aims at investigating the possibility of representing some principal notions of mental spaces – such as domain construction, reality status of domains and their elements, and mental attitudes – in a knowledge representation system. our proposed framework, the multilayered extended semantic networks (multinet), is a knowledge representation model developed by hermann helbig [9, 8]. there are semantic analysis mechanisms built into multinet which are hypothesized to show considerable overlap with basic principles of mental spaces. comparison of multinet representations and those of mental spaces theory shows that first steps can be taken to make the outcomes of cognitive semantics research, specially mental spaces theory, realized and pave the way for developing sophisticated and cognitively plausible knowledge representation and reasoning systems. 2. mental spaces mental spaces are highly complex conceptual interconnected networks which are constructed in the course of speaking or thinking. these conceptual networks or domains are formed in the working memory and are expanded as the process of thinking or conceptualization continues. in the natural language, linguistic expressions serve as triggers in setting up mental spaces, the levels at which meaning is also constructed. “these domains are not part of the language itself, or its grammars; they are not hidden levels of linguistic representation, but language does not come without them” [7]. mental spaces, according to fauconnier [6], are internally structured by frames and cognitive models and externally are linked by “connectors” that relate mental spaces to one another. new elements are added to spaces by linguistic and also non-linguistic expressions. the followings are some of the linguistic devices used in constructing and linking mental spaces [6, p. 40]: • space builders. a space builder is a grammatical expression that either opens a new space or shifts focus to an existing spaces. spaces builders take on a variety of grammatical forms, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 such as prepositional phrases, adverbials, subject-verb complexes, etc.; for example, in 1929, in that story, actually, in reality, in susan’s opinion, susan believes…, max hopes…, if it rains…. • names and descriptions. names (max, napoleon, etc.) and descriptions (the mailman, a vicious snake, some boys who were tired, etc.) either set up new elements or point to existing elements in the discourse construction. in meaning construction there are also information about how elements of the spaces are related. as an example we will consider mental space analysis of sentence (1): (1) in the play, mary is excited. the space builder in example (1) is the phrase in the play, which sets up a mental space. in figure 1 the mental space is diagrammed by means of a circle and define a label (“play”) to show that the mental space represents the world inside the play. in this example, the name mary introduces a new element into the mental space which is labeled b. the expression excited in the sentence, assigns a the property “excited” to the element b. this information is included in the ‘box’ next to the mental space. 3. meaning representation in multinet multinet is a knowledge representation framework (see [8]) developed by the hermann helbig and his colleagues at iics1 of university of hagen. its core design and functionality is based on the notion of semantic networks. in this model concepts are represented with nodes in the network. they are the smallest units of representation connected to one another by means of explicitly defined relations and functions. a very brief overview of representational means in multinet has been presented in the following subsections. 3.1. concepts one of the distinguishing features of multinet is its commitment to the cognitive adequacy requirement. according this requirement [9], semantic representations and knowledge representations should be centered around concepts. concepts2 are represented by nodes in the graphical representation of the network. every node belongs to a specific sort defined by the multinet’s ontology of sorts (figure 2). 1 intelligent information and communication systems group 2 following multinet convention, concepts are represented by the font concept in the text and multiword concepts are put in angled brackets: <multi-word concepts>. r. golshaie representing mental spaces and dynamics of natural language semantics 47 figure 1. the upper ontology of sorts in multinet (after helbig [17]) there are seven attributes (layers) that characterize concept nodes in a multi-dimensional space. a very brief definition for each, adopted from [9], has been given below: • fact: this attribute describes the “facticity” of an entity, i.e. whether it is really existing (value: real), not existing (value: nonreal), or hypothetically imagined (value: hypo). • gener: the “degree of generality” indicates whether a conceptual entity is generic (value: ge) or specific (value: sp). • quant: the intentional “quantification” represents the quantitative aspect of a conceptual entity. • refer: this attribute specifies the “determination of reference”, i.e. whether there is s determined object of reference (value: det) or not (value: indet). • card: the “cardinality” as characterization of a multitude at preextensional level is the counterpart of the attribute quant at the intensional level; it characterizes the number of elements in a set. • etype: this attribute characterizes the “type of extensionality” of an entity with values: nil – no extension, 0 – individual which is no set, 1 – entity with a set of elements from type [etype 0] as extension, 2 – entity with a set of elements from type [etype 1] as extension. • varia: the “variability” describes whether an object is conceptually varying (value: var) – a so-called parametrized object – or not (value: con). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 concepts need to be connected to one another in order to make realization of situations possible. these connections are established by a set of built-in relations and functions. 3.2. relations multinet has a total number of 89 relations for maintaining the conceptual dependencies between nodes. 16 relations are c-role (cognitive role) and they are those relations that describe the relationships between the main participants of a situation. as an example consider the sentence peter finished the discussion., semantic representation of which is given in figure 3. figure 2. semantic representation of the sentence peter finished the discussion in multinet after helbig [8, p. 447]. semantic frame of the verb finish requires two c-roles: agt (agent) and aff (affected). the relation subs indicates that the situational concepts finish and discussion are subordinate to their relevant generic concepts. in figure 3, semantic frame of the concept finish realized in the form of the verb finish requires two c-roles: an agent represented by the relation agt, and an affected entity represented by the relation aff. here agent is peter and the affected entity is an abstract object ([sort = ad] means the concept is a dynamic abstraction). the following hierarchy in multinet ontology leads to the sort [ad]: entities [ent] > objects [o] > abstract objects [ab] > abstractions from situations [abs] > dynamic abstraction [ad]. the relation subs indicates that our concept in this particular situation is subordinated to its relevant generic concept. now the basic concepts of mst and multinet framework have been introduced and we are ready to see if multinet is capable of formally representing or simulating basic mechanisms of mental spaces. 4. mental spaces and their computer modelling as mentioned previously, multinet is a knowledge representation framework for representing semantic content of natural language expressions. it is not a framework for implementing mst. this section will discuss the multinet’s potentiality in capturing and representing mst’s basic principles in the construction of domains, their truth, and reality status of their elements. 4.1. method in the process of building mental spaces, some natural language expressions (space builders) play the primary role in setting up spaces. in order to make a systematic analysis for the purpose of this paper, space builders (taken from english expressions) were classified into three classes considering theirs grammatical form [6]: prepositional phrase space builders (ppsb) like in that story…, subject-verb space builders (svsb) like he believes…, and conditional space builders (cnsb) like if it rains…. in multinet, the representational means corresponding to space builders – which were formally classified into three categories – were searched for in multinet relations based on definitions provided for them [8]. after a careful comparison, the three categorized space builders r. golshaie representing mental spaces and dynamics of natural language semantics 49 were found to be best comparable with multinet relations presented in table 1. to test this resemblance, some simple english sentences containing space builders of the classified three types were constructed and their mst and multinet representations were compared. table 1. mental spaces builders and their corresponding relations in multinet. 4.2. types of space builders in this part, the aforementioned three types of space builders will be elaborated with an example. 4.2.1. prepositional phrase space builders prepositional phrase space builders’ (ppsbs) main role is to explicitly restrict the description of a situation to a particular context. as a simple example, consider the sentence in (2): (2) in the film, john is riding a unicorn. figure 4. the mental spaces set up by the first interpretation of the sentence in the film, john is riding a unicorn. in the sentence (2), the prepositional phrase in the film is a space builder; it constructs a fictional space relative to the reality space. here, sentence (2) can be interpreted in two different ways: • first interpretation: the reality space (let’s call it r) contains an element a associated with the proper name john. the noun phrase a unicorn introduces an element b׳ to the film space (call it f). i is the connector linking a in the space b to a׳ in the space f (figure 4). since the elements of both mental spaces are co-referential, this connector is an identity connector. the rectangles represent the internal structure of the spaces next to them. the dashed line indicates that the space f is set up in relation to r and that it is subordinate to r in discourse. 3 scope of the svsbs (subject-verb complexes) in this study is limited to verbs characterizing mental processes. mental space builders multinet relations ppsb ctxt (restricting context) svsb3 mcont (mental content) cnsb cond (conditional relation) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 • second interpretation: the proper name john exists only in film space without having a counterpart in base space. therefore, the second interpretation of the sentence is: john is a film character who is riding a unicorn in the film (figure 5). figure 5. the mental spaces set up by the second interpretation of the sentence in the film, john is riding a unicorn. 4.2.2. subject-verb space builders subject-verb space builders (svsbs) are the second type of our classified space builders. the verbal position of svsbs can be filled with a variety of verbs among which are mental or psychological verbs such as think, believe, suspect, etc. representing mental attitudes. for example, consider the sentence in (3): (3) mary thinks that john smokes. the proper nouns mary and john setup a base space (b). by the help of background knowledge and activated frames we know that they are names of female and male humans. not having access to the previous discourse, we also consider their existence presupposed. the svsb mary thinks that sets up a belief space (l) relative to space b (figure 6). the identity connector maintains the referential link between elements a and a׳ both referring to the same person. figure 6. the mental spaces set up by the sentence mary thinks that john smokes. 4.2.3. conditional space builders the third type of space builders, according to our classification, are those involving conditional space builders (cnsbs) like if it rains…, if something goes wrong…. if element sets up r. golshaie representing mental spaces and dynamics of natural language semantics 51 a hypothetical space in which the situation described may or may not come true. consider the example in (4): (4) if john buys the car, he will drive to berlin. in the sentence (4) there are three proper names which constitute elements of the base space or reality space (r). the cnsb if sets up the hypothetical space (h) with elements identical to those of reality space (figure 7). every space’s internal structure is presented in the boxes next to them. in the next part, we will see how multinet’s built-in meaning representation mechanisms are capable of representing the basic principles of mental space building outlined above. figure 7. the mental spaces set up by the sentence if john buys the car, he will drive to berlin. 4.3. analysis of multinet representation this part will present multinet representations of different mental spaces discussed previously. multinet has a graphical representation environment called mwr (abbreviated from the german “multinet wissens repräsentation” which is translated into english as multinet knowledge representation) which has a powerful and user-friendly facilities for making networks out of concept nodes and relational dependencies. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 figure 8. comparison of multinet and mst representations. top: representing first interpretation of the sentence in the film, john is riding a unicorn in multinet. bottom: corresponding mental space representation (color markings added for illustration). 4.3.1. ctxt: restricting context according to helbig [8, p. 40], “[the] relation [ctxt] restricts the whole conceptual capsule and its content to ‘a certain world’ (world view) or a certain context.” here the phrase ‘a certain world’ can be interpreted as equivalent to a new space in mst which is set up relevant to its base space. for clarification, consider the sentence in (2) given below as (5): (5) in the film, john is riding a unicorn. r. golshaie representing mental spaces and dynamics of natural language semantics 53 figure 9. comparison of multinet and mst representations. top: representing first interpretation of the sentence in the film, john is riding a unicorn in multinet. bottom: corresponding mental space representation (color markings added for illustration). we saw that the sentence (5) had two interpretations. their corresponding multinet representations should also reflect these two readings. according to the above definition, the ppsb in the film can roughly be taken as equivalent to ctxt relation in multinet. the relation ctxt restricts the situation to the film space in which the elements unicorn and john have different reality status. unicorn is a fictional animal, so it is characterized by the attribute-value [fact = nonreal]. the first interpretation of the sentence in mental spaces, characterized john as an element of reality space. in multinet this can be achieved by specifying the attribute-value [fact = real] for the concept john. facticity attribute-value of the attsituation sv1 is also characterized as [fact = nonreal]. so the first reading of the sentence (5) is represented in multinet with john having [fact = real] attribute-value (belonging to reality space) and other entities having [fact = nonreal] attribute-value. figure 8 shows the representation of the first reading of the sentence (5) in mwr. the multinet is shown at top of the figure, and the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 corresponding mental space representation is shown at the bottom side. blue circles mark hypothetical or nonreal objects and situations and red circles mark real objects and situations. facticity value for john is real, for unicorn it is nonreal, and for the process of riding, marked with blue broken circle, it is non-real as well. second interpretation of the sentence (5) can be represented with changing john’s facticity attribute-value from [fact = real] to [fact = nonreal] making the whole situation and its elements non-real (figure 9). 4.3.2. mcont: mental content helbig [18, p. 507] defines the expression (s mcont c) as “a specification of the informational or mental content c of a mental or informational process s… by default, the second argument c is assumed to be a hypothetical object or situation.” mcont relation properties are roughly equivalent to those of subject-verb complexes (svsbs) of mst. mcont relation can generally be treated as capturing the idea behind what philosophers call propositional attitudes in representational theories of mind [12] or opaque contexts [10] in semantics. for example, consider the sentence in (3) rewritten below as (6) and semantic representation of which is given in figure 10: (6) mary thinks that john smokes. sv1 describes a situation in which we have the concept represented by the verb think that requires a “mental experiencer” (mexp). in the frame of the verb think there is also another argument specifying the content of thinking process (mcont) which according to definition is hypothetical ([fact = hypo]) by default. sv2 centers around the concept smoke which is realized by the verb smoke and requires one agent (agt) argument. here we suppose that the verb smoke is intransitive so the concept smoke needs just one argument. in sv2 the facticity of the concept john is set to [real] implying that john exists in reality (base) space and it is just the whole situation sv2 that is hypothetical. in representing the sentence mary thinks that john smokes, mary and john (marked with red circles) and also the process of thinking (marked with red broken circle) are elements of reality space, and process of smoking (marked with blue broken circle) belongs to mary’s belief space. r. golshaie representing mental spaces and dynamics of natural language semantics 55 figure 10. comparison of multinet and mst representations. top: semantic representation of the sentence mary thinks that john smokes in mwr. bottom: corresponding mental space representation (color markings added for illustration). 4.3.3. cond: conditional relation if situation sv1 is said to be a sufficient condition for the situation sv2, the relation cond can be established between the two situations: sv1 cond sv2. this means that sv1 is a trigger for sv2 while both situations are hypothetical (fact = hypo). in mst’s terms we can say both of the situations are set up in a hypothetical space. consider example (4) given below for convenience as (7): (7) if john buys the car, he will drive to berlin. in the sentence (7) there are two clauses describing two hypothetical situations. these two situations are connected by the relation cond in multinet representation (figure 11). in the mental spaces constructed by the sentence (7), we saw that the nominals john, the car, berlin all were set up in the base space which are marked with red circles. similarly in multinet’s brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 representation these objects’ facticity value is set to real: [fact = real]. this means if we take the reality space as our base space, entities having the attribute-value [fact = real] are elements of base space. on the other side, entities or situations having the attribute-value [fact = hypo] belong to the hypothetical space: sv1 and sv2 in our example are hypothetical situations marked with blue broken circles to indicate hypothetical quality of their representative processes. figure 11. comparison of multinet and mst representations. top: semantic representation of the sentence if john buys the car, he will drive to berlin in mwr. bottom: corresponding mental space representation (color markings added for illustration). r. golshaie representing mental spaces and dynamics of natural language semantics 57 5. concluding remarks mental spaces is a theory about human knowledge representation and processing. it has proved to be successful in accounting for some cognitive phenomena such as constructing conceptual domains, an entity’s variable reality status, and mental attitudes. these phenomena pose serious problems in building automatic knowledge processing and reasoning systems. in this paper, i tried to establish a connection between meaning representation mechanisms of mental spaces and those of multinet, a knowledge representation framework. in building mental spaces, some linguistic expressions, called space builders, act as a trigger to construct mental domains. some major space builders were formally categorized into three classes: prepositional phrase space builders (ppsbs), subject-verb complexes space builders (svsbs), and conditional space builders (cnsbs). the correspondence between mst space builders and multinet relations can be stated as following points: in building mental spaces, some linguistic expressions, called space builders, act as a trigger to construct mental domains. some major space builders were formally categorized into three classes: prepositional phrase space builders (ppsbs), subject-verb complexes space builders (svsbs), and conditional space builders (cnsbs). the correspondence between mst space builders and multinet relations can be stated as following points: 1. ppsbs in mst have their counterpart as ctxt relation in multinet. ctxt relation restricts the validity of a situation to a specific context or world. 2. svsbs (of the type mental processes) in mst have their counterpart as mcont relation in multinet. mcont’s second argument is hypothetical by default implying the situation described by the second argument is constructed in a hypothetical space. 3. cnsbs in mst have their counterpart as cond relation in multinet. both arguments of cond relation are hypothetical by default. thus the hypothetical situations are set up in a hypothetical space. reminding the paper’s objectives, this study aimed to investigate formalization of mst’s representational concepts such as domain construction, reality status of domains and containing elements, and mental attitudes in a knowledge representation framework. to this end, multinet framework provides us with the representational means summarized in table 2. table 2. mst concepts and corresponding multinet representational mechanisms. scope of this study was limited to basic constructions and principles. there are still many semantic phenomena not mentioned here, but studied and handled in the mst framework: presuppositions, tense and mood, counterfactuals, etc., are just some of these. this study can be further extended to include the untouched domains. multinet relations attributes domain construction ctxt, mcont, cond fact reality status of domains and elements --------fact mst mental attitudes mcont -------- brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 6. acknowlwdgment i am grateful to ingo gloeckner (iics, university of hagen) who kindly provided me with mwr software. 7. references [1] baader, f., i. horrocks, and u. sattler (2008), description logics. in: f. van harmelen, v. lifschitz, b. prter (eds.), handbook of knowledge representation, elsevier, pp. 136-169. [2] croft, w., and d. a. cruse (2004), cognitive linguistics, cambridge university press, cambridge. [3] dancygier, b., and e. sweetser (2005), mental spaces in grammar, cambridge university press, cambridge, 2005. [4] donini, f., m. lenzerini, d. m. nardi, and a. schaerf (1996), reasoning in description logics. in: g. brewka (ed.), principles of knowledge representation: studies in logic, language and information, csli publications, pp. 193-238. [5] fauconnier, g. (2007), mental spaces. in: d. geeraerts, h. cuyckens (eds.), oxford handbook of cognitive linguistics, oxford university press, oxford, 2007, pp. 351-376. [6] fauconnier, g. (1997), mappings in thought and language, cambridge university press, cambridge. [7] fauconnier, g. (1994), mental spaces: aspects of meaning construction in natural language, cambridge university press, cambridge. [8] helbig, h. (2006), knowledge representation and semantics of natural language, springer, berlin. [9] helbig, h. (2002), the use of multilayered extended semantic networks for meaning representation. in: g. katz, s. reinhard, p. reuter (eds.), sinn & bedeutung vi: proceedings of the sixth annual meeting of the geselleschaft für semantik, university of osnabrück. [10] hurford, j. r., b. heasley, and m. b. smith (2007), semantics, 2nd ed., cambridge university press, cambridge. [11] kamp, h., and u. reyle (1993), from discourse to logic: introduction to model-theoretic semantics of natural language, formal logic and discourse representation theory, number 42 in studies in linguistics and philosophy, kluwer academic publishers, dordrecht, the netherlands. [12] kolak, d., w. hirstein, p. mandik, and j. waskan (2006), cognitive science: an introduction to mind and brain, routledge, new york. [13] lewis, d. (1986), on the plurality of worlds, blackwell, oxford. [14] minsky, m. (1975), a framework for representing knowledge. in: p. h. winston (ed.), the psychology of computer vision, mcgraw-hill, new-york, pp. 211-277. [15] partridge, d. (1996), representation of knowledge. in: m. a. boden (ed.), artificial intelligence, academic press, california, pp. 55-85. [16] pereira, f. c. (2007), creativity and artificial intelligence: a conceptual blending approach, mouton de gruyter, berlin. [17] quillian, m. r. (1968), semantic memory. in: m. minsky (ed.), information processing mit press, cambridge massachusetts, pp. 227-270. [18] russel, s. j. and p. norvig (2003), artificial intelligence: a modern approach, 2nd ed, prentice-hall, new jersey. [19] saeed, j. (1997), semantics, blackwell, uk. [20] schank, r. c. (1972), conceptual dependency: a theory of natural language understanding, cognitive psychology, 4, 532-631. [21] sowa, j. f. (1984), conceptual structures: information processing in mind and machine, addison-wesley, massachusetts. brain_3_3_ok 71 instructions for authors author guidelines authors must submit their papers via email to brain@edusoft.ro or they can create an account and submit their papers online, at www.brain.edusoft.ro. submited papers must be written in doc format (microsoft word document), in as clear and as simple as possible english. preferred maximum paper length for the papers is 20 pages, including figures. the template for the paper is at this address: http://www.edusoft.ro/template_for_brain.doc the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point times new roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. the title will be bold 14-point, and the author will be 12-point italic. figures have caption in bottom-center side, and tables have captions in left-top side. use a tab for identing each paragraph and the subtitles, too. the subtitles will be bold 12-point. please use microsoft word 97-2003. we encourage the authors to use the camera ready format even for the first submission. all paper submissions will be carefully reviewed by an editor, and by the members of the scientific board or independent experts, who will provide a written feedback with comments and ratings. authors will be notified of acceptance in maximum 3 weeks. accepted manuscripts should be revised according to the comments of the reviewers and of the editors. for questions concerning manuscript submission, contact mr. bogdan patrut by mail at bogdan@edusoft.ro. submission preparation checklist as part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 1. the submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the editor). 2. the submission file is in microsoft word or rtf document file format. 3. where available, urls for the references have been provided. 4. the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 5. the text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the author guidelines, which is found in about the journal. 6. if submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal (brainovations or brainstorming), the instructions in ensuring a blind review have been followed. ensuring a blind peer review to ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. this involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 72 review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: 1. the authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. 2. with microsoft office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under file in word), by clicking on the following, beginning with file on the main menu of the microsoft application: file > save as > tools (or options with a mac) > security > remove personal information from file properties on save > save. 3. with pdfs, the authors' names should also be removed from document properties found under file on adobe acrobat's main menu. copyright notice authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a creative commons attribution license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work privacy statement the names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. 73 braindexing our journal is currently indexed/listed in the following indexing services and international databases: 1. directory of open access journals (doaj) 2. ebsco (ebsco open access computer science, ebsco open access journals, ebsco open access medical and health collection) 3. indexcopernicus 4. the linguist list 5. google academic 6. ulrichs 7. getcited 8. genamics journalseek 9. zeitschriftendatenbank (zdb) 10. j-gate 11. sherpa/romeo 12. dayang journal system 13. public knowledge project 14. bium (bibliothèque interuniversitaire de medecine et d'odontologie) 15. newjour 16. articlereach direct 17. link+ also, some universities and organizations list our journal in their online libraries: 1. geneva foundation for medical education and research 2. base (bielefeld academic search engine) 3. river campus libraries (univ. of rochester) 4. tulips (university of tsukuba library)) 5. showa university library 6. keio university (shinamomachi media center) 7. university of pennsylvania 8. university of modena and reggio emilia 9. tel aviv university, gitter-smolarz library of life sciences and medicine 10. national autonomous university of mexico, genomic sciences center, institute of biotechnology 11. saint petersburg state university 12. university of puerto rico 13. vrije universiteit brussel 14. queensland university of technology 15. university of florida 16. john brown university 17. université paris-descartes 18. university of regensburg 19. michigan state university 20. university of colorado boulder 21. university of glasgow 22. washington university in saint louis 23. wayne state university 24. california state university, long beach 25. brown university, providence, rhode island 26. the university of honk kong 27. university of nevada, reno 28. ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen 29. dowling college, new york state 30. colgate university, new york state brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 74 table of contents section brainovations 1. aiden: a density conscious artificial immune system for automatic discovery of arbitrary shape clusters in spatial patterns 5 vishwambhar pathak, praveen dhyani, prabhat mahanti 2. design and development of a software system for swarm intelligence based research studies 12 utku kose 3. data conflict resolution among same entities in web of data 18 mojgan askarizade, mohammad ali nematbakhsh, enseih davoodi jam section brainstorming 4. ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 25 rosemarie velik 5. discrete wavelet transform method: a new optimized robust digital image watermarking scheme 55 hassan talebi, behzad poursoleyman 6. hybridization of fuzzy clustering and hierarchical method for link discovery 62 enseih davoodi jam, mohammadali nematbakhsh, mojgan askarizade instructions for authors 71 © 2012 edusoft brain_3_2 29 the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? mohammad hashamdar department of translation studies, karaj branch, islamic azad universitykaraj-iran mohamad.hashamdar@kiau.ac.ir abstract this study is intended to investigate the teacher-student communication patterns in an upperintermediate english class. there are major questions in this study; (a) what the nature of interaction is in a foreign language classroom, (b) what the characteristics of teacher-student turn taking are, (c) what type of feedback is taken by the teacher, (d) how the teacher's competence and performance are. the participants of the study are female adult students and a female teacher majoring english literature at ma level that has had five years of teaching experience. five partial sessions of the class are recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. according to the findings, the type of discourse is teacher-initiated one and the question type is both wh-questions and questions with auxiliaries. the way of student's reply is brief and limited to one teacher-student turn-taking. the type of interaction is based on the questions posed by the teacher and long interaction such as discussing, debating, and challenging could rarely be seen in the classroom in question. the type of feedback depending on the skill and tasks dealt with, ranging from recast to direct correction. the teacher's competence and performance are satisfactory with correct pronunciation and near native accent. keywords: adjacency pairs, discourse, feedback, interactional talk, transactional talk, turntaking. 1. introduction discourse analysis is the construing of language use by members of a speech community. it involves looking at both language form and functions and includes the study of both spoken interaction and written texts. it identifies linguistic features that characterize different styles as well as social and cultural factors that aid in our interpretation and understanding of different texts and types of talk. the discourse analysis of written texts may include a study of topic development and cohesion across the sentences, while an analysis of spoken language might focus on these aspects plus turn-taking practices, opening and closing sequences of social encounters, or narrative structure. the study of discourse has developed in a variety of disciplines— sociolinguistics, anthropology, sociology, and social psychology. thus discourse analysis takes different theoretical perspectives and analytic approaches: speech act theory, interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, pragmatics, conversation analysis, and variation analysis (demo, 2001). although each approach emphasizes different aspects of language use, they all view language as social interaction. it provides examples of how teachers can improve their teaching practices by investigating actual language use both in and out of the classroom, and how students can learn language through exposure to different types of discourse. demo (2001) believed that "even with the most communicative approaches, the second language classroom is limited in its ability to develop learners’ communicative competence in the target language" (p. 1). it might be due to different reasons such as the restricted number of contact hours with the language, minimal opportunities or lack of opportunities for interacting with native speakers, and limited exposure to the variety of functions, genres, speech events, and discourse types that occur outside the classroom. classroom research is one way for teachers to monitor both the quantity and quality of students’ output. nassaji and wells (2001) believed that in the classroom, the dominant mode of interaction is not ‘casual conversation’, since most talk between teacher and students has a pedagogical purpose. in teacher-whole-class interaction, in particular, it is almost always teachers who initiate sequences. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 gillies and boyle (2008) believed that cooperative learning classroom are the best type of class in which interaction an be seen and its success lies in helping students to see the value of the process, learning to develop authentic learning rather than repetition, and achieve quality outcomes. erton (2000) asserted that "every single utterance is valid and has a function in language in particular circumstances since it is produced for a purpose if considered in appropriate context. thus, the importance for focusing on functional interpretation of language in context in a teaching situation is the focus on emphasis." (p. 210) classroom can be considered the best place where the functional aspect of language is seen in the interaction between teacher and students. the discourse used in this interaction is of great importance too. bannink and van dam (2006) believed that "in some sense everything that happens between the bells that signal the beginning and the end of a lesson at school is ‘the lesson’. even if not part of a focused learning activity in the narrow sense of the term, whatever happens can at least be reported as having occurred during the lesson." (p. 285) interruptions and embeddings create structural rather than sequential transition points in an ongoing discourse. therefore, the discourse analysis is a challenge with its own complexity. cots (1996) assumed that "when we approach language as discourse is that communication cannot be explained as the simple transfer of preexisting meanings. rather, a communicative event must be conceived as the locus where meanings are created through the negotiation of intentions and interpretations." (p. 81) nunan (1993, cited in cots, 1996) stated that 'verbal interaction is the result of the cooperative work of the speakers to make sure that their messages are being received in the way they were intended, and of the listeners to ensure that their interpretation coincides with the speakers' intentions.' (p. 82) on the other hand, morell (2007) studied the importance of lecture discourse in the classroom. he found out that lectures are more highly regarded if they allow for reciprocal discourse, especially for students of other languages who need help in understanding the content. bateson (1972, cited in creider, 2009) introduced frames and stated that interactive frames are used by participants to understand what kind of interaction they are engaged in at any one time. goffman (1981) showed, most interactions can be framed in a variety of ways. for instance, depending upon context, a question such as ―do you have siblings? may be a request for information or a test of student ability in a new language. in either situation, participants understand the purpose of the question by understanding how the interaction itself is framed—in this case, as a conversation between acquaintances or as a student/teacher interchange (cited in creider, 2009). demo (2001) proposed a four-part process of record-view-transcribe-analyze by which second language teachers can use discourse analytic techniques to investigate the interaction patterns in their classrooms and to see how these patterns promote or hinder opportunities for learners to practice the target language. he believed that "this process allows language teachers to study their own teaching behavior––specifically, the frequency, distribution, and types of questions they use and their effect on students’ responses." (p. 2) 2. questioning long and sato (1983, cited in creider,2009) studied the kinds of questions found in a second language classroom, differentiating between display questions, where the teacher already knows the answer; and referential questions, which are more open-ended. nunn (1999) suggested that 'the distinction between referential and display questions is not always appropriate in the classroom, and that in some contexts what would be called display questions can have important purposes, such as that of reconstructing textbook information.' (cited in creider, 2009, p.94) however, the important notion here is that even questions that should be referential can be treated as display questions when teacher and students are working from an interactional frame that is more focused on language form than on content. another way of thinking about questions is in terms of the kinds of interactions they generate. the three-part initiation-response-feedback (irf) structure continues to be explored by m. hashamdar the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? 31 researchers and even by teachers. it was first described by sinclair and coulthard (1975) but it slightly changed by mehan‘s (1979) discussion of initiation-response-evaluation (ire) sequences. in both cases, the teacher starts the interaction with a question, usually a display question. a student offers a brief response, and the teacher either provides feedback (irf) or evaluates the student response (ire). some recent studies have explored how these two kinds of teacher-responses (evaluation and feedback) can affect teacher/student roles in the classroom. thus, recent work on the ire sequence in the second language classroom has explored the way that teacher discourse can affect teacher and student roles in the classroom. mccarthy (1991) mentioned some forms and patterns of different types of talk and consider whether there are things that can be taught or practiced to assist language learning: 3. adjacency pairs the dependency of the pairs of utterances in talk is not unknown to language experts. there are many examples concerning this property of speech. one of them is that a question predicts an answer, and that an answer presupposes a question. adjacency pairs are defined as pairs of utterances such as greeting-greeting and apology-acceptance. mccarthy (1991) stated that adjacency pairs are of different types; identical (hellohello), and different second pair-part (congratulations-thanks). 4. turn-taking turn-taking is one of the basic facts of conversation in which speakers and listeners change their roles in order to have a fruitful and normal interaction. the mechanism in turn-taking may vary between cultures and between languages. kato (2000) stated that in ordinary conversation, it is very rare to see any allocation of turns in advance. those involved in the interaction naturally take turns. of course, there should be a set of rules that govern the turn-taking system, which is independent of various social contexts: (a) when the current speaker selects the next speaker, the next speaker has the right and, at the same time, is obliged to take the next turn; (b) if the current speaker does not select the next speaker, any one of the participants has the right to become the next speaker. this could be regarded as self-selection; and (c) if neither the current speaker nor any of the participants select the next speaker, the current speaker may resume his/her turn (cited in kato, 2000). 5. interactional and transactional talk mccarthy (1991) defined transactional talk as " it is for getting business done n the world, i.e. in order to produce some change in the situation that pertains." (p. 136) it can be in the form of telling somebody something that they need to know, to get someone to do something, and many other forms. on the other hand, he elaborated on the functions of interactional talk "its primary functions are the lubrication of the social wheels, establishing roles and relationships with another person prior to transactional talk, confirming and consolidating relationships, and expressing solidarity." (p.136) dorr-bremme (1990) found out that "when contextualization cues are enacted by a person who is recognized as the leader of the activity at hand, such as a classroom teacher, they can function as direct, immediate means of regulating the flow and content of discourse." (p. 398) the cues can serve to indicate who has the floor, what topics of talk are relevant to the official agenda now, and what ways of listening are appropriate at the moment. the cues can function in these ways even when they are unexplained, implicit, and subtle. 6. feedback there has been considerable interest in the relationship between types of corrective feedback and their efficacy. lyster and ranta (1997) investigated types of corrective feedback and their relationship to learner uptake in a primary french immersion classroom. the researchers classified feedback into six types: explicit correction, recasts, clarification requests, meta-linguistic feedback, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 elicitation, and repetition. lyster and ranta also categorized learner uptake, a student utterance following the teacher’s feedback, into two types: repair and need-repair, or in other words, successful and unsuccessful responses. the results revealed that the most frequent type of feedback was the recast, the teacher’s reformulation of all or part of a student’s ill-formed utterance, without the error. the recast accounted for about half the total feedback, and led to the least uptake (31% of the time). in addition, the recast never led to student-generated repair; the learner merely repeated what the teacher had said. in contrast, elicitation and meta-linguistic feedback, providing the correct form explicitly by indicating that what the student said is incorrect and giving grammatical metalanguage that refers to the nature of the error, were less frequent (14% and 8% of the time, respectively), and were found to be effective in that they encouraged learners to generate repair (45% and 46% of the time, respectively). lyster and ranta (1997) explained that the low rate of uptake following the recast was accounted for by the fact that the teachers also used repetition of well-formed utterances to confirm and develop students’ statements. as a result, students had to figure out whether the teacher was concerned about form or meaning, and sometimes failed to recognize the recast as corrective feedback. lyster and ranta concluded that corrective feedback can lead to learner uptake when there is “negotiation of form, the provision of corrective feedback that encourages self-repair involving accuracy and precision” and when cues are given to make students aware of the necessity of repair of ill-formed utterances (p. 42). 7. method participants there were fifteen female language learners in this study. they have already passed intermediate levels and they were studying in an upper-intermediate level. some have already had the class with this teacher and for others this is the first experience with this teacher. there was no stress or debilitative anxiety in the classroom. therefore, students could freely utter their opinions and points of view. procedure at the outset of this study, five partial sessions of upper intermediate english classrooms were recorded with an mp4 recorder. next, the recordings were listened carefully and the desired notions were transcribed for further study. the transcript made it easier to identify the types of questions in the data and to focus on specific questions and student responses. finally, the transcript was studied and analyzed based on the criteria made for this research. the criteria were such as the actual classroom interaction, turn taking role in the classroom, teacher's pronunciation, the type of feedback presented by the teacher, and so on. 8. data collection and analysis five sessions of the classroom interactions were taped using a digital mp4 recorder. because the teacher moved around quite a bit, she was sometimes loud and sometimes quiet. the interactive part of the recorded tape was transcribed and analyzed based on the criteria leveled by the researcher such as turn-taking, feedback, performance and competence of the teacher. 9. discussion the researcher found very interesting notions after transcribing the desired sections of the recorded text. in the process of teacher questioning, student answering and what follows up, there seems to be a questioning cycle which usually starts with a question by the teacher and an answer by the student followed by the feedback by the teacher. hicks (1995) and wells (1993) proposed this triadic dialog and which is a form of teacher-student communication pattern in talking. in this study the same pattern was governing the atmosphere of the classroom. m. hashamdar the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? 33 feedback in the classroom in question was seldom seen regarding the students mistakes. the mistakes in conversation or when the student was telling a story or giving her ideas were totally tolerated. the students received an appreciation for their participation in the classroom interaction. excerpt 1: t: ok, have you ever heard any stories about animals helping people? s: yes. t: could you tell us? s: a snake that secure the person that, i think it was injury? was injured and ………. t: good, anyone else? as shown in the interaction between student and teacher, the cycle of a teacher question, a student reply, and teacher follow up is repeated here. the other important issue which can be inferred from this excerpt is that the teacher ignores the mistakes of the student and gives just a thankful utterance at the end of the story. however, this tolerance of mistakes is not seen when students want to learn the meaning of the new words from the book. they are immediately stopped and corrected by the teacher. the correction can be due to the pronunciation mistakes, meaning misinterpretation, and the appropriate function in which the word or expression is used. the following excerpt indicates this type of correction. excerpt 2: t: anything else? s: sheep out. t: sheep out or ship out. s: ship out. t: if you say sheep it is an animal. s: no ship out. when students were asked to read the passage, the teacher listened to their pronunciation and corrected the mispronunciations of the students on the spot. some students preferred to pronounce the difficult words or the words they could not enunciate it correctly in a questioning intonation. then teacher pronounce the word and the student repeated the correct form. excerpt 3: s: (reading a text) in september 1985 an earthquake devastated? (student checks the pronunciation with the teacher in a question) t: devastated. there was an issue in the discourse between the teacher and student which was very intriguing and attracted the attention of the researcher and that was motivation which was given by the teacher in every interaction between her and her students. even if the response by the student was not satisfactory, she tended to thank for the risk the student has taken to answer the question. excerpt 4: t: any other stories? s: teacher, once there was a man that he had a very bad disease that any doctor couldn't help him……… t: thank you very much. concerning the issue of adjacency pairs it could be seen that the teacher-student interaction was as proposed by mccarthy both identical and different pair-part. when teacher asked a question, the reply was direct to that question; therefore, it was identical. however, sometimes students could not provide a right answer for the teacher's question. then the teacher thanked her and repeated her question for the other learner. in this instance of interaction and discourse different pair-part was followed by the teacher. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 excerpt 5: t: leila, what is meant by slang? s: i think informal language, and.(student could not finish giving the definition of slang) t: anything else? throughout the recorded sessions of the class, the pronunciation and intonation of the teacher were carefully studied and the researcher could be convinced that it was at a satisfactory level of proficiency. this was very beneficial and useful for the students to consider it as a model of learning. as it is usually expressed by the scholars, the type of exposure to language plays an important role in language classrooms. 10. conclusion mccarthy (1991) said that "discourse analysis is not a method for teaching languages; it is a way of describing and understanding how language is used." (p.2) the study was intended to find out the extent to which a well-trained teacher considers the type of interaction and feedback needed for the classroom context. tang (2008) claimed that even from the brief content analysis carried out on the teacher-students’ discourse the trainee teachers are making connections between their instruction in text analysis and their lives as teachers and readers outside the classroom walls. even from the brief content analysis that the researcher has carried out on the teacher-students’ interaction, useful findings could be detected. the experienced teacher could well understand the importance of interaction in the class discourse and the motivation needed to initiate and continue interaction in that context. from the extracts presented above, the researcher could see that a critical awareness about language and an interest in everyday texts are being developed in majority of the students. it is suggested that while experts are training the teachers, they should teach them the type and degree of interaction and how they are to tune in their discourse with their students. references [1] bannink, a., & van dam, j. (2006). a dynamic discourse approach to classroom research. linguistics and education, 17, 283-301. [2] cots, j. m. (1996). bringing discourse analysis into the language classroom. links and letters 3, 77-101. [3] creider, s. (2009). frames, footing, and teacher-initiated questions: an analysis of a beginning french class for adults. retrieved, january 27, 2010, from http://www.tc.columbia.edu/tesolalwebjournal. [4] demo, d. a. (2001). discourse analysis for language teachers. eric digest, 1-2. [5] dorr-bremme, d. w. (1990). contextualization cues in the classroom: discourse regulation and social control functions. language in society, 19, 379-402. [6] erton, i. (2000). contributions of discourse analysis to language teaching. hacettepe universitesi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 19, 201-211. [7] gillies, r. m., & boyler, m. (2008). teachers' discourse during cooperative learning and their perceptions of this pedagogical practice. teaching and teacher education, 24, 13331348. [8] kato, f. (2000). discourse approach to turn-taking from the perspective of tone choice between speakers. retrieved, january 30, 2010, from http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/resources/essays/fk_dis.pdf. [9] mccarthy, m. (1991). discourse analysis for language teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. [10] morell, t. (2007). what enhances efl students’ participation in lecture discourse? student, lecturer and discourse perspectives. journal of english for academic purposes, 6, 222– 237. [11] nassaji, h., & wells, g. (2001). what’s the use of ‘triadic dialogue’? an investigation of teacher-student interaction. retrieved, january 29, 2010, from http://people.ucsc.edu/~gwells/files/papers_folder/triadicdialogue.pdf. m. hashamdar the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? 35 [12] russell, v. (1997). corrective feedback, over a decade of research since lyster and ranta (1997): where do we stand today? electronic journal of foreign language teaching, 6 (1), 2131. [13] tang, r. (2008). studying discourse analysis: does it have an impact on trainee english language teachers? elted, 11, 27-32. microsoft word brain_1_2_rezumate_franceza_corectate_de_mihai.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 i brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cerveau. recherche large en intelligence artificielle et neurosciences volume 1, numéro 1 janvier 2010: bonne année! www.brain.edusoft.ro sous la direction de: bogdan pătruţ 1. editorial angel garrido, uned, madrid, espagne résumé l'éditorial du premier numéro du brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience journal. 2. méthodes computationnelles en médicine angel garrido, uned, madrid, espagne résumé l’intelligence artificielle a besoin de logique. mais la version classique de celle-ci présente des inconvénients trop nombreux. par conséquent, il faut introduire des outils plus sophistiqués, tels que la logique diffuse, la logique modale, la logique non monotone et encore d’autres [2]. parmi les choses que l’ia doit présenter, il y a les catégories, les objets, les propriétés, les relations entre les objets, les situations, les états, entre les instants temporels, les événements, entre causes et effets, les acquis sur la connaissance, et ainsi de suite. les problèmes de l’ia peuvent être classés en deux groupes principaux [3, 4] : les questions de recherche et celles de représentation. il y a des différentes façons d'atteindre cet objectif. ainsi, on a des types de logique, des règles, des cadres, des réseaux associatifs, des programmes, etc., qui sont souvent interconnectés. aussi, pour résoudre des problèmes d'incertitude et de causalité, on peut introduire les réseaux bayésiens et surtout un instrument qui sera très utile, le graphe essentiel. on va tenter dans cet ouvrage de présenter la portée des applications de telles méthodes instables, fondamentales, à l’heure actuelle, en médicine. 3. systèmes médicaux à base d’agents intelligents barna iantovics, université « petru maior » târgu mureş, roumanie résumé le développement de systèmes de diagnostic médical qui soient flexibles et efficaces, à base d’agents intelligents, représente une direction de recherche de date récente. les systèmes médicaux multi-agents peuvent améliorer l'efficacité des systèmes informatiques médicaux, traditionnellement développés, tels que les systèmes experts médicaux. dans nos recherches antérieures, nous avons proposé un nouveau système médical multiagent permettant de réaliser un diagnostic appelé sdmc (système de diagnostic médical à base de contrat de réseau). le système sdmc peut résoudre, d'une manière flexible, une grande variété de questions liées au diagnostic médical. cet ouvrage analyse l'intelligence accrue du système sdmc, ce qui justifie son utilisation dans la résolution de divers problèmes médicaux. 4. adx – agent pour l’analyse morphologique des entrées lexicales dans un dictionnaire bogdan pătruţ, université « vasile alecsandri » bacau, roumanie résumé ce travail est lié à l'analyse morphologique des mots, considérée comme un processus important dans le domaine du traitement informatique du langage naturel. on y présente la solution classique, basée sur l'utilisation de paradigmes flexionnaires et aussi d’une base de données contenant l'ensemble des racines des mots, et, après cela, on met en évidence certains des avantages de cette méthode. ensuite, on présente la méthode originale qui brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 ii génère les racines des mots de manière dynamique, en utilisant des alternances phonologiques dans le contexte des règles de flexion. on va également décrire certaines optimisations de l'algorithme d’analyse morphologique. 5. vers un type métaphorique de l’architecture: l’intérieur de la maison victorienne ioana boghian, université « vasile alecsandri » bacău, roumanie résumé ce travail a comme point de départ la notion de relationnement comme acte de signification: tout ce qui appartient à l'intérieur d’une maison est porteur de sens. le type d'architecture métaphorique qu’on essaye à définir tente d’identifier les types d'objets en termes de nœuds du « réseau » de la maison alors que la manière dont ces objets (qu'ils servent d'ornements ou d'outils) sont distribués dans l'espace révèle non seulement la profession et/ou la personnalité d’un certain personnage (des objets comme extension et projection de l'ego), mais cette manière indique aussi un type particulier d’ hiérarchie sociale. 6. connexionnisme vs théorie computationnelle de l'esprit angel garrido, uned, madrid, espagne résumé habituellement, les problèmes de l'ia peuvent être souvent liés à la philosophie de l'esprit, et peut-être c’est à cause de cela qu’ils sont, en dernière analyse, très discutables. prenons par exemple la fameuse question: est-ce qu'une machine peut penser? qui a été proposé par alan turing [16]. et, bien qu’elle puisse être considerée comme la question la plus décisive, pour beaucoup de gens elle pourrait sembler être tout simplement absurde. donc, les deux plus importantes théories généralement prises en compte et longuement discutées, dans ce cas, sont la théorie du connexionnisme et la théorie computationnelle de l'esprit. dans ce travail, on analyse le contenu de ces théories, les débats passés et la situation actuelle à leur sujet. 7. l’optimisation des outils de l’ia angel garrido, uned, madrid, espagne résumé l’origine historique de l’intelligence artificielle (ia) a été établie à la conference de dartmouth, en 1965. mais on y peut trouver plusieurs origines pas encore dévoilées [1]. en outre, on peut mentionner de très grands penseurs appartenant à une époque plus récente, comme janos neumann (il ne prendra le nom de john von neumann qu’après son arrivée aux états-unis), norbert wiener, alan mathison turing, ou lofti zadeh, par exemple [12, 14]. l’ia a souvent besoin de la logique. mais sa version classique présente des inconvénients trop nombreux. il était donc nécessaire d'introduire des outils plus sophistiqués, comme la logique nuancée (diffuse), la logique modale, la logique non monotone et ainsi de suite [1, 2]. parmi les choses que l'ia a besoin de représenter il y a les catégories, les objets, les propriétés, les relations entre les objets, les situations, les états, les instants temporels, les événements, entre causes et effets, les acquis sur la connaissance, et ainsi de suite. les problèmes de l'ia peuvent être classés en deux types généraux [3, 5], problèmes de recherche et problèmes de représentation. et il y a de différentes façons d'atteindre leur sommet. on peut donc se servir de [4] la logique, des règles, des cadres, des réseaux associatifs, des scripts, et ainsi de suite, qui se trouvent, de nombreuses fois, connectés entre eux/ en relation le uns avec les autres. on essaye, dans cet ouvrage, de donner une vision panoramique du champ d'application de ces méthodes de représentation en ia. les deux questions plus discutées de la philosophie moderne de l'esprit et de l'intelligence artificielle seront, peut-être, le test de turing et l’argument de la chambre chinoise. pour la réponse à ces questions très difficiles, voir notre note finale. 8. quelques considérations sur la sérialité et la synchronicité elena nechita, université « vasile alecsandri » bacău, roumanie résumé ce document présente un aperçu des résultats qui ont été récemment obtenus sur la sérialité et la synchronicité, ainsi que du lien qui s’établit entre eux, dans le contexte des nouvelles théories et dans le cadre des sciences de la complexité. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 iii 9. l’optimisation des systèmes distribués en utilisant un système multi-agent avec le temps virtuel ioana alexandra pandele, alina mihaela patriciu, université « vasile alecsandri » bacău, roumanie résumé la fusion des domaines de l'intelligence artificielle et le temps virtuel s'est avérée être un mouvement tout à fait intelligent, semblable au celui qu’on fait dans un jeu d’échecs (sans aller pourtant jusqu’à un échec et mat, si on n’oublie pas que le domaine de l'informatique est très glissant quand il s'agit de mises à jour). l’intelligence artificielle fournit de nouvelles possibilités pour les systèmes temps réel. toutefois, cette approche a montré d'importantes difficultés [2]. principalement, les systèmes en temps réel ont des exigences temporelles (ils demandent d’habitude des temps de réponse prévisibles) qui ne sont pas prévus dans le cadre des techniques d'intelligence artificielle. une des façons de résoudre ce problème est le développement d'architectures des logiciels. ces architectures logicielles sont utilisées pour projeter des agents intelligents, qui travaillent dans des environnements en temps réel. ces architectures ont plusieurs mécanismes pour permettre aux agents de travailler dans des environnements en temps réel, offrant un comportement réactif (pour satisfaire les exigences temporelles) et un comportement de délibération. [2] toutefois, dans les systèmes distributifs, bien que la notion de temps mondial joue un rôle important, cela est difficile à réaliser ; à première vue, même la définition du terme n'est pas du tout claire. cet article représente une œuvre développée de [6]. 10. un système d'enseigner les bases de la comptabilité financière bogdan pătruţ, iulian marius furdu, université « vasile alecsandri » bacău, roumanie résumé le présent document décrit une méthode pour enseigner aux étudiants les bases de comptabilité financière. la méthode est basée sur la correction de quelques erreurs typiques, qui peuvent être observées chez les débutants. 11. agent intelligent pour l'acquisition du vocabulaire de la langue maternelle bogdan pătruţ, université « vasile alecsandri » bacău, roumanie, grigor moldovan, université « babes-bolyai » cluj-napoca, roumanie résumé ce document décrit les éléments suivants: premièrement, les idées de base d'un système permettant de simuler la façon dont nous considérons qu'un enfant acquiert le vocabulaire de la langue maternelle et réalise des correspondances entre les objets, les mots et les sens; deuxièmement, le mécanisme d’un système qui peut enseigner le vocabulaire de la langue maternelle à travers des observations et, troisièmement, la façon d’implémenter un agent intelligent qui puisse se comporter comme un petit enfant, en plein processus d'acquisition de la langue maternelle. 12. questions concernant l'altérité dans les réseaux sociaux de collaboration cosmin ion tomozei, florinela floria résumé l'idée d’altérité est devenue importante dans les dernières décennies, lorsqu’ on parle de l'âge de l'information, qui offre la reconnaissance, devant la provocation du développement des logiciels, de l'importance de la compréhension : du comportement de l'autre, de ses besoins, de ses objectifs ou de ses croyances. notre but principal est de porter à l'attention la question de la représentation sociale des images des individus en tant qu’ entités différentes qui sont intégrées dans des équipes virtuelles, des projets virtuels et des activités sur internet. en ce qui concerne la prise en conscience de l’ altérité de l'autre, nous affirmerions que cela ouvre une perspective dialoguée sur la société de l'information, où il est essentiel de partager et de communiquer les connaissances aux autres. 13. une incursion dans l'activité médicale du docteur gheorghe marinescu claudia ivan, journaliste indépendante, bucarest, roumanie, ioana boghian, université « vasile alecsandri » bacău, roumanie brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 iv résumé gheorghe marinescu (février 28, 1863, bucarest mai 15, 1938, bucarest) fut un neurologue roumain, fondateur de l'école roumaine de neurologie. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 231-242 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/416 submitted: april 4th, 2022 | accepted for publication: december 3rd, 2022 hubristic motivation as a self-regulation factor in primary school in the context of neuropsychological research viktoriia nadon1, viktoriia fedoryk2, karyna fomenko3, nataliia diomidova4, marat kuznietsov5, mariia tatiievska6 1 phd student of the department of psychology, h. s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1939-1980, vik_tory183@ukr.net 2 assistant of the department of psychology, berdyansk state pedagogical university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9446330x, fedorikvv@gmail.com 3 full doctor in psychology, professor of psychology department, h. s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-25116803, karinafomenko1985@gmail.com 4 phd in psychology, associate professor, department of psychological and pedagogical anthropology, h.s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2488-0220, nataliia.diomidova@gmail.com 5 doctor of science in psychology, professor of the departament psychology, h.s. skovoroda kharkiv national pedagogical university, ukraine, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-76629938, marat704@ukr.net 6 associate professor of the department of social system control pedagogy and psychology named after i. a. ziaziun, national technical university, ukraine, pochta939@gmail.com abstract: the article highlights the conceptual aspects of personality motivation as an important phenomenon of human well-being achievement. during the analysis of theoretical approaches to the definition of hubristic motivation highlighted the psychological phenomenon of personality self-regulation as a manifestation of neurophysiological processes. the article presents the findings of scientists regarding motivation factors, in particular, the principle of self-regulation formation in the context of pedagogy and neuropsychology. the components of the psychological aspect of self-regulation in the context of self-awareness and determination of personality behavior, which contributes to self-realization and socialization are analyzed. in order to determine the most effective factors of personal motivation for selfdevelopment, the neurophysiological characteristics of the individual were determined. the article is based on the results of an experimental study, namely, determining the indicators of motivation to learn among primary school students as a manifestation of self-regulation in achieving success in a particular case. the study of motivation was carried out according to the milman method. the indicators of the study became the basis for determining the effectiveness of hubristic motivation as a neurophysiological manifestation of personality. the study was conducted on the basis of the integrative method of synthesis and analysis, based on the results of the research, descriptive and scientific method of studying the basics of neuropsychology and neuropedagogy. the method of questioning was used during the research on the method of determining personality motivation. the results of the study became the basis for conclusions about the factors of self-regulation of personality in elementary school as a manifestation of hubristic motivation. keywords: neuropsychology; neuropedagogy; self-realization; socialization; personal self-development. how to cite: nadon, v., fedoryk, v., fomenko, k., diomidova, n., kuznietsov, m., & tatiievska, m. (2023). hubristic motivation as a self-regulation factor in primary school in the context of neuropsychological research. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 231-242. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/416 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/416 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1939-1980 mailto:vik_tory183@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9446-330x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9446-330x mailto:fedorikvv@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2511-6803 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2511-6803 mailto:karinafomenko1985@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2488-0220 mailto:nataliia.diomidova@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7662-9938 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7662-9938 mailto:marat704@ukr.net mailto:pochta939@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/416 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 232 introduction today's society is at the stage of development of innovative digital technologies, which have formed the information space for personal development. new challenges form the need to constantly develop and generate new ideas that contribute to the evolution of society in the progress of innovative and information world. therefore, in the context of the development of the present world, there is a need to form a personality capable of developing effectively, to manifest their individual abilities in the implementation of progressive ideas, which should be the perspective of today's world in the future. considering the tendency of society's orientation towards innovativeness and initiation of individualization, the problem of personality formation research in the present postmodern world arises. in particular, the focus of the study is displaced on the educational factor of personality formation. especially important is the phenomenon of psychological manifestation of personal growth. this vector of research is insufficiently covered by scientists, which determines the special relevance, in particular in the context of the rapid development of information and communication technologies in public life. an important topic for research is the definition of hubristic personal motivation as a phenomenon of self-regulation, the definition of behavior that contributes to the achievement of well-being for the individual in the conditions of informational social life. the work was carried out on the basis of theoretical statements of scientists in the context of neuropsychological research covering scientific approaches to self-regulation of a personality (prots et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). thus, some researchers assert that features of self-regulation need to be studied in more detail (ananiev, 1980; berne, 1992). also, the interdependence of hubristic motifs at different age stages of selfconsciousness development requires special attention. the purpose of this article is to identify neuropsychological factors in the formation of hubristic personal motivation as a phenomenon of personal self-regulation in primary school. theoretical and methodological foundations of neuropsychological peculiarities of the formation of personal hubristic motivation trends in the development of today's society are at the stage of establishing approaches to the formation of a vision of new conceptual norms of behavior of a promising individual, capable of changing and improving spheres of life so that society will evolve. with the intensive hubristic motivation as a self-regulation factor in primary school in the ... viktoriia nadon et al. 233 development of information technology as the potential for a progressive "leap" into the future, there is a need to develop an individual who quickly masters the innovation of information technology, and an individual who can use knowledge to implement phenomenal ideas that can surpass the " current fast pace" of progress (komogorova et al., 2021; maksymchuk et al., 2020). scientists j. dewey (1938), a. giddens (1991) and others investigated aspects of the formation of hubristic motivation as a psychological phenomenon of personality. according to some scholars, steve peha (2011), education determines the perspective of future social development. yes, it is important to implement the competence approach of educational activities and the formation of personal value orientations in the conditions of the latest postmodern world. the concept of hubristic motivation is an essential characteristic of the behavior of a person striving for self-affirmation. an important factor of self-assertion is the achievement by the person of success in a certain area of life activity, which is important for him/her (vdovychenko, 2017). hubristic motivation is realized in the context of a person's need to constantly overcome difficulties in the realization of his or her intention. the adult consciously understands the importance of self-development for the realization of personal needs. researchers define self-regulation as a systematic conscious manifestation of the behavioral state during the implementation of personal goals (virna, 2017). on the basis of such statement the basic principles of self-regulation have been defined. a more promising age in the context of the formation of selfregulation to achieve the goal is the period of childhood, because the child can actively acquire the competencies necessary in the current postmodern world (kolomiets, 2007). the child is not conscious of his or her behavior for the sake of achieving a goal, but he intrinsically motivated to win and be significant among the collective. such intrinsic motivation is defined in the context of neuropedagogy as a science based on psychological features of child development. in essence, pedagogy contains psychological aspects of personality development. man has complex physiological features that determine his behavior, character, temperament (kudykina, 2003). the work of the brain is a complex process that forms various factors of personality development, including motivation. neuropsychology studies the structural components of mental processes in the context of the organization of brain activity (padalka, 2008). neuropsychology studies the specifics of interaction of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 234 brain functioning and human activity in its social environment and individual self-development. the formation of personality begins in childhood, so in elementary school special attention is paid to the neuropsychological manifestations of child development. the child from the physiological point of view can quickly perceive new skills and abilities, he is the most active to implement educational goals. however, the educational program is designed for the functional capabilities of the child's body, because at this age he learns knowledge only when the central nervous system and brain function are ready to perceive and analyze new knowledge. neuropsychology determines a child's capabilities in mental activity and mastery of surrounding events while forming competence and fostering a value attitude toward social phenomena. based on the data of neuropsychology it is possible to understand the extent to which a child's functionality in learning depends on his inner motivation (sikorska, 2007). motivation combines the child's physiological need for self-assertion and success, the desire to be the best, to win, to be successful with the direct objectives of pedagogy, which directs the influence on the development of a socialized person, capable of self-actualization and achieving a certain level of desired well-being. this tendency of educational activity involves identifying behaviors that contribute to an appropriate goal (cavell, 1988). researchers have identified the main approaches of hubristic motivation as a manifestation of neuropsychological features of the individual in the context of neuropedagogy as a science implementing methods, technologies, form of human learning and education taking into account individual abilities and psychological state (gygli et al., 2019). neuropedagogy determines the underlying context of educational activity through the student's brain interpretation of knowledge, as well as based on indicators of his psychology. the dependence of the child's emotional and mental perception of reality can be observed based on a comparison of learning indicators of children living in different environments (gardner, 1983). thus, children living in a peaceful environment have higher rates of education, in contrast to children living in a family with unstable conditions of the family environment. scientists distinguish three structural and functional blocks in the brain structure of mental processes, i.e. brain components and corresponding functions (giddens, 1990). the 1st functional block of the brain is the block that regulates the level of activity. if the components of the corresponding brain block are hubristic motivation as a self-regulation factor in primary school in the ... viktoriia nadon et al. 235 immature, it can lead to instability in brain activity, a decrease in the level of cognition due to rapid fatigue. accordingly, the child has a level of selfregulation that satisfies only his or her quick desires, without appropriate work. the 2nd functional block of the brain is the block interpreting exteroceptive information. the child receives, processes the information received at the sensory level. the level of self-regulation shows the child's ability to interpret information. the 3rd functional block of the brain is programming, regulating and controlling the child's mental activity (gray, 2008). the level of selfregulation is under the control of the child and is determined by the child's commitment. all levels of self-regulation are determined by hubristic motivation, i.e. the desire of the child to achieve success in a certain activity, to be a leader and to receive recognition among the collective (smith, 1997). such motivation is regulated by the brain processes of human behavior, which has been investigated by neuropsychology. accordingly, educational activity in the primary school is carried out in accordance with the age features and capabilities of the child, which can be investigated in the context of neuropedagogy. neuropedagogy combines neuropsychological features of motivational self-regulatory behavior of a child and appropriate pedagogical means motivating a student to acquire new knowledge and skills. scientists gray (2008), and vuckovic (2019) identify basic behavioral tendencies in the context of self-regulation. especially important are the claims of some researchers about the specificity of children's behavior as natural, manifested through neuropsychology (smith, 1997). a study of the factor of hubistic motivation in the context of selfregulation in the learning of children in primary school the educational process in primary school is implemented in the context of new needs of social development, which reflects the trend of informatization, globalization and innovation of social life. the need for individuals who can change the future, improve certain social achievements is most relevant in the today's post-industrial world. the components of the today's educational process are the competence approach and the formation of value orientations. an important factor in the implementation of effective educational activities is the analysis of their capabilities and abilities, carried out on the basis of neuropsychology (padalka, 2008). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 236 on the basis of the study it was found that for the effective formation of skills and knowledge in the child, it is necessary to consider the brain activity in the aspect of hubristic motivation, which is a factor in determining the child's behavior in achieving the goal. in the context of determining the effectiveness of educational activities was formed structural and functional approach in the process of self-regulation. self-regulation is a manifestation of an integral, closed information system formed as a consequence of specific regulatory functions. self-regulation performs a self-creative function, realizing the goal of the individual to achieve success in the understanding of the conscious criteria and levels. to achieve the goal the process of self-regulation occurs in the context of a certain model that combines a set of conditions of behavior for executive action and success in the context of mental selfregulation. an important factor of regulative actions is the information that forms the program of certain actions to achieve the goal according to appropriate subjective personal criteria and motives. it is motives that are decisive in the formation of personality self-regulation on the basis of neurophysiological characteristics. also important is the external factor of regulation correcting the self-regulation of the personality (vuckovic, 2019). thus, in the context of educational activities with primary school students, it is necessary to take into account the pedagogical methods of correction of activity, taking into account the indicators of neuropsychology, determined by the regulatory function of education. in particular, fixing the level of education, control and evaluation of the student's abilities is one of the conditions of external adjustment of children's learning motivation. therefore, self-regulation should be determined as a process of awareness and initiative in the context of mental activity to achieve success in the process of personal development (virna, 2017). self-regulation is an expression of individual abilities of the person aimed at achieving well-being as a phenomenon of self-organization and hubistic motivation. each personality has its own style of self-regulation in the context of selforganization, the definition of life values, the achievement of solutions to the subjective problems of life. individual style of self-regulation is formed as an integration of internal physiological and psychological, which are expressed subjectively personal qualities and individual abilities. a person's self-regulatory behavior is a controlled phenomenon that has a feedback, the result of the corresponding activity. hubristic motivation as a self-regulation factor in primary school in the ... viktoriia nadon et al. 237 in childhood, a person is not aware of cause and effect relationships in a global context, but understands the consequences of their behavior, so they form self-regulation in the context of their own resources provided by brain activity (vdovychenko, 2017). mental manifestations demonstrate different patterns of persistence or refusal in achieving personal goals. selfcontrol forms the desire for self-actualization in socialization and individual growth. for the child, the most effective in the context of self-regulation is hubristic motivation. hubristic motivation systematizes and summarizes psychological manifestations in the context of personal self-expression and self-esteem. the educational process determines the determinant of hubristic motivation in order to conceptualize the desire for excellence and selfimprovement (vdovychenko, 2017). therefore, increasing the effectiveness of hubristic motivation in the context of child self-regulation determines the main content of today's psychology and definition of neuro-pedagogical approaches in the definition of educational activity. in the neuropedagogical paradigm, hubristic motivation is an indispensable component of personality development, determining its evolution. continuous progress of a human being is an indispensable condition of his life throughout historical evolution. the child has acute physiological and psychological needs, especially in the manifestations of intrinsic motivation. neuropsychology expresses the relationship between nature and human activity. a manifestation of personality is an activity in which the commonality of intention of desire and motive of a person to achieve a goal is manifested. therefore, it is important to identify a child's hubristic motivation as a self-regulation factor that determines his behavior in the process of competence acquisition. in order to determine the effectiveness of hubristic motivation, we conducted a study using the milman (2017) method of personal motivation, which is an indicator of both the motivational component of personality and the emotional component that expresses neuropsychological manifestations of child development. the sample was formed on the basis of the "snowball" technique. one primary school was selected and an online survey was conducted with them. five parents of different children were involved in the survey and were asked to determine their child's level of motivation to learn. further parents involved their acquaintances, and thus a sample of 100 participants was formed for the study. milman's (2017) methodology questions were encoded into google forms, and the mailings were sent to the respondents' email addresses. the survey was conducted over the course of a month, taking into account agebroad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 238 specific characteristics. based on the survey, indicators of the motivational structure of the personality were determined, as well as the emotional manifestation of the child, reflecting the self-regulatory behavior of the individual. the level of hubristic motivation is reflected in the indicators obtained and analyzed on the basis of the study. also, the child's hubristic motivation reflects his or her desire for self-development. the study tested the assertion that hubristic motivation determines the child's desire for self-affirmation, in particular, achieving a goal in the predominance of their peers, which is determined by the motives of learning and cognitive activities and methods of determining academic performance. hubristic motivation of primary school students is expressed by the corresponding motivational types according to the disposition of striving for excellence and perfection. accordingly, the indicators of motivation of the child's personality according to the survey according to the methodology of milman (2017) were analyzed and the diagram is concluded (fig. 1) fig. 1. indicators of the study of the effectiveness of hubristic motivation ( designed by the authors) based on the indicators of the study, we can argue that children have a predominant progressive type of motivation, as they have certain neuropsychological manifestations of motivational activity. hubristic motivation as a self-regulation factor in primary school in the ... viktoriia nadon et al. 239 neuropsychology is formed in the context of brain activity, which determines the child's desire for self-actualization. since the study was conducted with primary school children, impulsive and expressive indicators of motivation are noticeable. the child strives to achieve success, not comprehending it as a goal, but only realizing the desire to be successful, to have an advantage over others. this tendency is defined by hubristic motivation as a manifestation of the neuropsychological approach of the individual. accordingly, the child forms self-regulatory behavior that will lead to the achievement of personal success. conclusions the study was an important basis in the assertion that hubristic motivation is the main effective factor in the formation of self-regulation in the primary school child. theoretical and methodological researches of scientists have defined the basic tasks realized at definition of motivation of the person according to the specified technique. the analysis of the works contributed to the conclusions about the importance of neuropsychological manifestations of the child in the educational process and hubristic motivation. in the course of the study it was found that hubristic motivation forms the self-regulatory behavior of the student. self-regulation is the main factor in achieving goals in the context of educational activities and implementation of a successful life order. motivation is an important factor in the child's acquisition of competence and formation of value orientations. the assumption that hubristic motivation determines the norms of behavior of a child striving to have an advantage among peers was confirmed by a study on the methodology of determining personality motivation. indicators of motivation are predominantly positive, which confirms the neuropsychological root of intrinsic motivation and determines the self-regulatory behavior of the individual. thus, motivation is a determinant of self-regulation as a neuropsychological manifestation of a child's personality, which forms behavior conducive to goal attainment. references ananiev, b. g. (1980). izbrannyye psikhologicheskiye trudy [selected psychological works]. academy of pedagogical sciences of the ussr. pedagogica. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 240 berne, e. (1992). igry, v kotoryye igrayut lyudi. psikhologiya chelovecheskikh vzaimootnosheniy [the games that people play. psychology of human relations]. lenizdat. cavell, s. (1988). conditions handsome and unhandsome the constitution of emersonian perfectionism: the carus lectures. university of chicago press. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dewey, j. (1938). experience and education. collier-macmillan canada ltd. gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. basic books. giddens, a. (1991). modernity and self-identity. self and society in the late modern age. polity press. gray, p. (2008). a brief history of education. to understand schools, we must view them in historical perspective. psychology today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedomlearn/200808/brief-history-education gygli, s., haelg, f., potrafke, n., & sturm, j. e. (2019). the kof globalisation index-revisited. the review of international organizations, 14, 543–574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-019-09344-2 kolomiets, a. m. (2007). informatsiyna kulʹtura vchytelya pochatkovykh klasiv [information culture of the primary school teacher]. vinnytsia state pedagogical university. http://www.disslib.org/teoretychni-tametodychni-osnovy-formuvannja-informatsiynoyi-kulturymajbutnoho.html komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 kudykina, n. v. (2003). ihrova diyalʹnistʹ molodshykh shkolyariv u pozaurochnomu navchalʹno-vykhovnomu protsesi [ play activity of junior schoolchildren in the extracurricular educational and pedagogical process]. national technical university of ukraine "kyiv polytechnic institute named after igor sikorsky". http://www.disslib.org/teoretychni-zasady-pedahohichnohokerivnytstva-ihrovoju-dialnistju-molodshykh-shkoljariv.html maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). training future teachers to https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-019-09344-2 http://www.disslib.org/teoretychni-ta-metodychni-osnovy-formuvannja-informatsiynoyi-kultury-majbutnoho.html http://www.disslib.org/teoretychni-ta-metodychni-osnovy-formuvannja-informatsiynoyi-kultury-majbutnoho.html http://www.disslib.org/teoretychni-ta-metodychni-osnovy-formuvannja-informatsiynoyi-kultury-majbutnoho.html https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 http://www.disslib.org/teoretychni-zasady-pedahohichnoho-kerivnytstva-ihrovoju-dialnistju-molodshykh-shkoljariv.html http://www.disslib.org/teoretychni-zasady-pedahohichnoho-kerivnytstva-ihrovoju-dialnistju-molodshykh-shkoljariv.html hubristic motivation as a self-regulation factor in primary school in the ... viktoriia nadon et al. 241 organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 melnyk, n., bidyuk, n., kalenskyi, a., maksymchuk. b., bakhmat, n., matviienko, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., golub, n., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). modely y orhanyzatsyone osobyne profesyonalne obuke vaspytacha u poјedynym zemљama evropske unyјe y u ukraјyny [models and organizational characteristics of preschool teachers’ professional training in some eu countries and ukraine]. zbornik instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 51(1), 46–93. https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m milman, v. e. (2017). metod izucheniya motivatsionnoy sfery lichnosti [the method of studying the motivational sphere of personality] praktikum po psikhologii [practicum in psychology]. http://www.miu.by/kaf_new/mpp/2017.pdf padalka, h. m. (2008). pedahohika mystetstva. teoriya i metodyka vykladannya mystetsʹkykh dystsyplin [ pedagogy of art. theory and methodology of teaching artistic disciplines]. education of ukraine. https://lib.kherson.ua/publ.pedagogika-mistetstva-978-966-8847-79-0 peha, s. (2011). agile schools: how technology saves education (just not the way we thought it would). infoq. https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-schoolseducation prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 smith, m. в., & schwartz, sh. h. (1997). values. in j.w. berry, m.h. segall, & c. kagitcibasi (eds.), handbook of cross-cultural psychology (pp.77-118). allyn & bacon. vdovychenko, o.v. (2017). ryzyk osobystosti yak faktor motyvatsiyi dosyahnennya ta hubrystychnoyi motyvatsiyi na kryzovykh etapakh ontohenezu [personality risk as a factor of achievement motivation and hubristic motivation at the stages of ontogenesis crisis]. bulletin of the kharkiv national pedagogical university named after h. s. skovoroda. psychology, 56, 41-51 http://journals.hnpu.edu.ua/index.php/psychology/article/view/19 virna, zh.p. (2017). hubrystychna determinatsiya strukturnoyi orhanizatsiyi emotsiynoho intelektu osobystosti [hubristic determination of the https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.2298/zipi1901046m http://www.miu.by/kaf_new/mpp/2017.pdf https://lib.kherson.ua/publ.pedagogika-mistetstva-978-966-8847-79-0 https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-schools-education https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-schools-education https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 http://journals.hnpu.edu.ua/index.php/psychology/article/view/19 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 242 structural organization of the emotional intelligence of the personality]. scientific bulletin of mykolaiv national university named after v. o. sukhomlinsky. psychological sciences: collection of scientific works, 2(18), 17-21 http://mdu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/psihol-visnik-18-2017-5.pdf vuckovic, t. (2019), the overall goal of education and general purpose. international journal for empirical education and research, 3(20), 53-66. https://journals.seagullpublications.com/ijeer/assets/paper/ij0620191784 /f_ij0620191784.pdf http://mdu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/psihol-visnik-18-2017-5.pdf https://journals.seagullpublications.com/ijeer/assets/paper/ij0620191784/f_ij0620191784.pdf https://journals.seagullpublications.com/ijeer/assets/paper/ij0620191784/f_ij0620191784.pdf ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 122-140 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/379 submitted: may 28th, 2022 | accepted for publication: june 13th, 2022 psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian community sample bogdana miclea 1 , romulus-dan nicoara 2 , horia-george coman 3 1 medical psychology department, iuliu hatieganu university of medicine and pharmacy, cluj-napoca, romania, bogdanamilea@yahoo.ro 2 iuliu haţieganu university of medicine and pharmacy, romania, daninicoara@yahoo.it 3 medical psychology department, iuliu hatieganu university of medicine and pharmacy, cluj-napoca, romania, hcoman@umfcluj.ro abstract: the objective of the present research is to adapt the 36-item covid-19 stress rating scales to the romanian population. it is a self-report scale used to assess the stress caused by covid-19 through six dimensions: danger, socio-economic consequences, xenophobia, contamination, traumatic stress, verification. a total of 160 medically qualified participants, aged 19-59 years, completed a socio-demographic data sheet and the covid-19 stress rating scales. a high internal consistency was obtained for the 6 scales of the instrument, with cronbach's alpha coefficients in the range 0.74-0.86. exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were also evaluated. the results indicate that the romanian version of the css has good psychometric properties, being a suitable instrument for the assessment of stress caused by covid-19. keywords: stress scale; covid-19; pandemic. how to cite: miclea, b., nicoara, r.-d., & coman, h.-g. (2022). psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian community sample. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 122-140. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/379 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/379 mailto:bogdanamilea@yahoo.ro mailto:daninicoara@yahoo.it mailto:hcoman@umfcluj.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/379 psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian ... bogdana miclea et al. 123 the spread of virus causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars – cov 2) generated a global health crisis with consequences in all population categories. in march 2020, the world health organisation (2020) declared the state of pandemic due to the speed of infection and number of deaths caused by the virus. health and wellbeing were affected both physically and mentally. with the extension and deepening of the epidemic situation, people’s worries facing this vital threat increased exponentially, leading to a significant psychological distress. there is a multitude of critical factors contributing to the the negative impact on population’s mental state, quality of life and level of anxiety associated with covid-19 (guan et al., 2021; zhong et al., 2021) major efforts, in the medical and psychological areas, were made in order to explore the implications of the pandemic in the psycho-social domain and permitting later intervention strategies. many recent studies aim to describe the mental state of people facing the coronavirus pandemic and the factors that might influence the mental health (shah et al., 2021; vindegaard & benros, 2020). depression, anxiety, sleeping problems, fear of becoming infected from other people leading to xenophobia, traumatic stress symptoms like intrusive thoughts and nightmares have been reported worldwide. the medical and psychological literature is rich and oriented towards general or specific population categories i.e. students, children and adolescents, pregnant women, medical workers. researches constantly reveal direct and indirect neuropsychiatric consequences of the pandemic (salari et al., 2020). the high prevalence of anxiety, stress and depression within front-line workers caring for covid-19 patients has been repeteadly confirmed (secosan et al., 2020). in the atempt to determine the psychological profile of subjects, various study designs and different scales and interviews have been used. the large variety of evaluation instruments is reflecting the struggle of proffessionals all over the world to find an appropriate and comprehensive modality to describe the psychological characteristics of the targeted population. in romania, there is also a preocupation among the researchers in the medical and psychological domain to explore the relation between the pandemic and different psycho-social disturbances both in general population and among healthcare workers. currently available psychological instruments or newly developed scales that adress specific aspects related to the pandemic crisis depending on the study design and objectives were broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 124 used, in the main univeristy and medical centers. most instruments were distributed through online surveys for an easy and general access. a study performed in 2020 (timisoara) used the dass 21 scale (the depression, anxiety, and stress scale) and the the insomnia severity index (isi) in order to determine if the false information avalanche related to the pandemic had psychological consequences over the frontline healthcare workers (icu and emergency department, physicians, and nurses) and showed that the medical workers who declared to be affected by this kind of news were more stressed, anxious, and suffered more from sleeping problems than healthcare workers who declared that didn’t take into consideration the large amount of false information related to pandemic (armean et al., 2021). another research, evaluated the psychological consequences (stress, anxiety, burnout symptoms) of the pandemic in the medical students (ahorsu et al., 2020). they used 2 scales, adapted and translated in romanian. one of them was previously designed during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars, 2003-2005), to adress the healthcare workers of emergency departments in hong kong (wong et al., 2005). the other instrument, the fear of covid-19 scale (stănculescu, 2021) was developed in 2020 during the covid-19 pandemic. the fear of covid-19 scale is a 7 item scale that aimes to evaluate the worries about becoming sick and is validated on romanian population. another study used who-five well-being index (spitzer et al., 2006)to assess depression and the generalised anxiety disorder scale (cordoș & bolboacă, 2021) for the anxiety assessment combined with a questionaire that explored in the romanian population how often the respondents saw covid-19 related information using social media channels with an interesting outcome, opposite to most already available literature: there was no correlation between anxiety and depression and the context of lockdown and excessive covid-19-related information exposure (taylor et al., 2020). both systematic research and empirical clinical observations suggest that stress and anxiety are the major psychological manifestations related to de viral pandemic (chung et al., 2021; taylor et al., 2020; xiong et al., 2020). several rating scales were developed since the outbreak of the pandemic. researcher’s efforts are often disparate, the tools used are various and often nonspecific. in this critical context, a psychological intrument for the specific assessment of stress and anxiety related to covid-19, that is easy to use, practical and internationally applicable is essential. psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian ... bogdana miclea et al. 125 the above sources justify the approach of translation, adaptation and validation of the new scale whose use in romanian research would ensure the collection of comparable results. this article reports the results of factorial, exploratory and confirmatory analysis of data collected in romania following research. a methodological, quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted to translate, adapt, and test psychometric properties of the covid-19 stress scales to the romanian language. objective the aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties and the factorial structure of the cross-cultural version of the covid-19 stress scales – css (taylor et al., 2020) applied in the study of translation, adaptation and validation in romania. material and procedure covid-19 stress scales (css) (taylor et al., 2020) realised by steven taylor, caeleigh a. landryb, michelle m. paluszekb, thomas a. fergusc, dean mckayd, gordon j.g. asmundsonb, and validated on the population from canada and the united states using an internet based self-report survey delivered in english. covid-19 stress scales (css) (taylor et al., 2020) is originally composed by 36 affirmations, distributed in six scales: (a) danger scale contain 6 items. example item for this scale: i am worried about catching the virus; (b) the socio-economic consequences scale contain 6 items. example item for this scale: i am worried about grocery stores running out of food.; (c) xenophobia scale contain 6 items. example item for this scale: i am worried that foreigners are spreading the virus in my country.; (d) contamination scale contain 6 items. example item for this scale: i am worried that people around me will infect me with the virus.; (e) traumatic stress scale contain 6 items. example item for this scale: i had trouble sleeping because i worried about the virus.; (f) checking scale contain 6 item. example item for this scale: checked social media posts concerning covid-19. as there is no generally accepted method for adapting a scale to another language, we used a combination of a back-translation procedure (iliescu, 2017), i.e. one authorized translator translated from english into romanian and another did a back-translation into english, in order to highlight the linguistic differences, the final form was decided by a team of 2 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 126 psychologists familiar with the subject covered by the text and the 2 authorized translators. participants the sample size was estimated according to the rule proposed by the consensus-based standards for the selection of the health measurement instruments (mokkink et al., 2016; terwee et al., 2007). thus, the sample size should be of 120 to 300 medical staff. in this study were included the total sample (n = 160). the age of the respondents ranged from 19 to 59 years (m = 35.80, sd = 22 3.65). the study involved 2 biologist, 131 nurses, 11 medical registrars, 16 doctor (tabel 1). by study, 66 post high school education, 48 license degree or equivalent, 40 master's degree or equivalent, 6 phd graduate (tabel 2). by gender, 135 of participants were women and 25 are men (tabel 3). the sample consisted of medical personnel directly involved in the fight with covid-19. all subjects volunteered to take part in the study. table 1. frequencies profession levels counts % of total cumulative % biologist 2 1.3 % 1.3 % nurse 131 81.9 % 83.1 % medical registrar 11 6.9 % 90.0 % doctor 16 10.0 % 100.0 % source: authors' own conception table 2. frequencies study levels counts % of total cumulative % post high school education 66 41.3 % 41.3 % license degree or equivalent 48 30.0 % 71.3 % master's degree or equivalent 40 25.0 % 96.3 % phd graduate 6 3.8 % 100.0 % source: authors' own conception psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian ... bogdana miclea et al. 127 tabel 3 frequencies sex levels counts % of total cumulative % men 25 15.6 % 15.6 % women 135 84.4 % 100.0 % source: authors' own conception procedure the inclusion criteria were as follows: (a) an adult of age 18 years or older; (b) living in romania; (c) having provided consent to participate; (d) cadrul medical implicat in sectie covid-19. the online survey was presented in a google form and was promoted by distributing the survey link via email. participation was voluntary and respondents could choose to withdraw from the study at any point. all questions were anonymized to preserve confidentiality. data collection was conducted from may 9 to june 16, 2021. results the statistical analysis was performed with spss version 25 and amos version 26. the normality condition of the data was checked both by graphical inspection of the histograms and by calculating skewness and kurtosis indicators, verifying their conformity with the values provided in the literature for normal distribution. the skewness and kurtosis values indicate that distributions do not deviate substantially from normality for any of the six scales. the internal consistencies alphas ranged from .87 (for the checking scale) to .95 (for the stres_covid19_total scale) thus showing very good reliability for all six scales. the correlation matrix of the covid-19 stress scales is presented in table 3. correlations among scales ranged from .51 to .80, thus their intensity being similar to those reported by authors (taylor et al., 2020). table 4 presents means and standard deviations for all 36 items of the original scale, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 128 table 4. means and standard deviations for all items item mean sd minimum maximum sunt îngrijorat(ă) de contactarea virusului. 1.919 0.883 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că igiena de bază (ex., spălatul pe mâini) nu este îndeajuns pentru a mă ţine în siguranţă faţă de virus. 1.850 0.926 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că sistemul nostru medical nu este capabil să mă ţină în siguranţă faţă de virus. 2.325 1.031 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că nu îmi pot ţine în siguranţă familia faţă de virus. 2.281 1.023 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că sistemul nostru medical nu va putea fi capabil să-i protejeze pe cei dragi mie. 2.569 1.032 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că distanţarea socială nu este îndeajuns pentru a mă ţine în siguranţă faţă de virus. 1.869 0.946 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) de magazinele alimentare care rămân fără mâncare. 1.419 0.773 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) de farmaciile care rămân fără medicamente împotriva răcelii sau gripei. 1.519 0.839 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) de farmaciile care rămân fără medicamente pe bază de reţetă medicală. 1.613 0.938 1.00 4.00 sunt îngriijorat(ă) de magazinele alimetare care rămân fără apă. 1.494 0.869 1.00 4.00 sunt îngriijorat(ă) de magazinele care rămân fără substanţe pentru curăţat sau dezinfectanţi. 1.587 0.941 1.00 4.00 sunt îngriijorat(ă) că magazinele alimetare se vor închide. 1.650 0.973 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că străinii răspândesc virusul în ţara mea. 1.606 0.855 1.00 4.00 psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian ... bogdana miclea et al. 129 dacă aş întâlni o persoană străină, aş fi îngrijorat(ă) că ea ar putea fi infectată cu virusul. 1.637 0.797 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) să intru în contact cu străinii deoarece ei ar putea fi infectaţi cu virusul. 1.694 0.869 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că străinii răspândesc virusul pentru că nu sunt la fel de curaţi aşa cum suntem noi. 1.331 0.661 1.00 4.00 dacă aş merge într-un restaurant cu specific în mâncăruri străine aş fi îngrijorat(ă) să nu contactez virusul. 1.462 0.800 1.00 4.00 dacă aş fi într-un ascensor cu un grup de străini, aş fi îngrijorat(ă) că ei ar putea fi infectaţi cu virusul. 1.800 0.867 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că persoanele din jurul meu mă vor infecta cu virusul. 1.738 0.835 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că dacă aş atinge ceva într-un spaţiu public (ex., balustradă, mânerul uşii), aş contacta virusul. 1.637 0.789 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că în situaţia în care cineva ar tuşi sau strănuta lângă mine, aş contacta virusul. 2.050 0.917 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că aş putea contacta virusul prin atingerea banilor sau folosirea unui bancomat. 1.656 0.793 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) de primirea restului la tranzacţiile în numerar. 1.600 0.754 1.00 4.00 sunt îngrijorat(ă) că plicurile şi pachetele primite au fost contaminate de lucrătorii seviciului de livrare. 1.538 0.717 1.00 4.00 am avut probleme legate de somn deoarece m-am îngrijorat cu privire la virus. 0.813 1.123 0.00 4.00 am avut vise urâte legate de virus. 0.425 0.894 0.00 4.00 m-am gândit la virus fără să vreau. 1.094 1.143 0.00 4.00 mi-au apărut în gând imagini neplăcute despre virus împotriva voinţei mele. 0.581 0.994 0.00 4.00 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 130 am avut probleme de concentrare deoarece m-am tot gândit la virus. 0.512 0.971 0.00 4.00 menţionările legate de virus mi-au cauzat reacţii fizice, precum transpiraţie sau bătăi accelerate ale inimii. 0.619 1.143 0.00 4.00 am verificat postările din cadrul platformelor sociale legate de covid-19. 1.750 1.346 0.00 4.00 am verificat video-uri de pe youtube legate de covid-19. 1.269 1.316 0.00 4.00 am căutat încurajări legate de covid-19 din partea prietenilor sau familiei. 1.050 1.307 0.00 4.00 mi-am verificat propriul corp pentru semne legate de infecţie (ex., măsurarea propriei temperaturi). 1.756 1.557 0.00 4.00 am întrebat specialişti din domeniul sănătăţii (ex., doctori sau farmacişti) pentru sfaturi cu privire la covid19. 1.675 1.412 0.00 4.00 am căutat pe internet tratamente pentru covid-19 1.044 1.251 0.00 4.00 source: authors' own conception table 5 presents means, standard deviations, skewness, kurtosis for the six covid-19 stress scales. psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian ... bogdana miclea et al. 131 table 5. means, standard deviations, minimum, maximum, skewness, kurtosis css skewness kurtosis mean median sd minimum maximum skewness se kurtosis se stres_covid19_total 54.43 49.00 23.0 1 24.00 127.0 0.973 0.19 2 0.334 0.38 1 stress_covid19_pericol 12.81 12.00 4.69 6.00 24.0 0.470 0.19 2 -0.465 0.38 1 stress_covid19_consecinte_socio_economic e 9.28 6.00 4.71 6.00 24.0 1.544 0.19 2 1.707 0.38 1 stress_covid19_xenofobie 9.53 8.00 4.06 6.00 24.0 1.333 0.19 2 1.443 0.38 1 stress_covid19_contaminare 10.22 9.00 4.22 6.00 24.0 1.014 0.19 2 0.492 0.38 1 stress_covid19_stres_traumatic 4.04 2.00 5.33 0.00 24.0 1.785 0.19 2 2.675 0.38 1 stress_covid19_verificare 8.54 7.50 6.44 0.00 24.0 0.543 0.19 2 -0.685 0.38 1 source: authors' own conception broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 132 table 6 presents cronbach’s α coefficients for css tabel 6. cronbach’s α coefficients for css if item dropped cronbach's α stres_covid19_total 0.96 stress_covid19_pericol 0.89 stress_covid19_consecinte_socio_economice 0.94 stress_covid19_xenofobie 0.91 stress_covid19_contaminare 0.94 stress_covid19_stres_traumatic 0.92 stress_covid19_verificare 0.87 source: authors' own conception the reliability of the instrument was calculated by the cronbach's alpha coefficient. high values were obtained for the cronbach's alpha coefficients, between 0.87 and 0.96 (according to table no. 6). these are close to the values obtained for the original instrument (0.83-0.94, taylor et al., 2020). table 7. correlations among scales of the romanian version of the css 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. stres_covid19_total pearson correlation 1 2. stress_covid19_danger pearson correlation .80** 1 3. stress_covid19_social_economic consequences pearson correlation .70** .40** 1 4. stress_covid19_xenophobia pearson correlation .80** .52** .64** 1 5. stress_covid19_contamination pearson correlation .78** .68** .50** .69** 1 psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian ... bogdana miclea et al. 133 6. stress_covid19_traumatic_stress pearson correlation .78** .63** .35** .51** .46** 1 7. stress_covid19_cheking pearson correlation .80** .54** .45** .51** .47** .62** 1 source: authors' own conception the correlations of the questionnaire were statistically significant, according to table 6. exploratory factor analysis to establish the factorial structure of css, exploratory factor analysis was used and then confirmatory factor analysis. in the first stage, the necessary conditions for performing the exploratory factor analysis were tested: the sphericity condition, respectively the adequacy condition of the sample. for testing the sphericity condition we used the bartlett test for sphericity, which was statistically significant (χ2 (630) = 5532, p <0.001) and for testing the suitability of the sample, the kayser-meyer-olkin index was used. (kmo), which had a value of 0.921, excellent for the use of exploratory factor analysis (sava, 2011). tabel 8 indicate item saturations in extracted factors tabel 8 item saturations in extracted factors factor indicator estimate se z p danger stress_covid1 0.702 0.0595 11.80 < .001 stress_covid2 0.668 0.0653 10.23 < .001 stress_covid3 0.657 0.0756 8.69 < .001 stress_covid4 0.873 0.0663 13.18 < .001 stress_covid5 0.697 0.0744 9.37 < .001 stress_covid6 0.796 0.0616 12.91 < .001 social-economic consequences stress_covid7 0.668 0.0487 13.70 < .001 stress_covid8 0.780 0.0504 15.47 < .001 stress_covid9 0.770 0.0612 12.58 < .001 stress_covid10 0.778 0.0535 14.53 < .001 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 134 stress_covid11 0.803 0.0601 13.35 < .001 stress_covid12 0.772 0.0643 12.00 < .001 xenophobie stress_covid13 0.684 0.0571 11.98 < .001 stress_covid14 0.657 0.0532 12.35 < .001 stress_covid15 0.711 0.0583 12.20 < .001 stress_covid16 0.508 0.0454 11.20 < .001 stress_covid17 0.673 0.0527 12.79 < .001 stress_covid18 0.650 0.0598 10.87 < .001 contamination stress_covid19 0.651 0.0556 11.71 < .001 stress_covid20 0.687 0.0494 13.91 < .001 stress_covid21 0.663 0.0629 10.53 < .001 stress_covid22 0.745 0.0470 15.85 < .001 stress_covid23 0.692 0.0455 15.20 < .001 stress_covid24 0.642 0.0440 14.59 < .001 traumatic stress stress_covid25 0.861 0.0757 11.38 < .001 stress_covid26 0.732 0.0583 12.55 < .001 stress_covid27 0.876 0.0770 11.39 < .001 stress_covid28 0.924 0.0597 15.47 < .001 stress_covid29 0.859 0.0605 14.19 < .001 stress_covid30 0.877 0.0770 11.38 < .001 cheking stress_covid31 1.039 0.0935 11.12 < .001 stress_covid32 1.019 0.0914 11.15 < .001 stress_covid33 1.040 0.0889 11.71 < .001 stress_covid34 1.006 0.1149 8.76 < .001 stress_covid35 1.087 0.0976 11.13 < .001 stress_covid36 0.830 0.0915 9.07 < .001 source: authors' own conception psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian ... bogdana miclea et al. 135 confirmatory factor analysis confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) had been performed to assess the model's fitness for purpose. the cfa as well as the estimation of the structural equation model by amos have been tried out. there is an investigation of the measuring model that assumes each item is solely loaded on its expected latent variable (thompson, 2004). the measuring model, shown in the picture above, contains all of the information pertinent to their specific factor loading procedures. following the drawing of covariance between the mistakes terms of the few redundancy elements, the analysis determined that the model in the current research study was adequate. as stated by hair et al., a cmin/df ratio of 1.485 is appropriate (2010). a confirmation factor analysis (cfa) was performed to support the measurement model (bagozzi & edwards, 1998). danger, sec, xenophobia, contamination, traumatic stress, & checking were all included in this study's latent variables, which were categorized as follows: model fit has been evaluated using a combination of different fit indices, including the chi-square model, the ifi, the tucker lewis (tli) index, the cfi, and the root mean approximate square error (rmsaa). when compared to the data from different models, the model had been an excellent fit. (cmin/df = 2.291, cfi =0.855, tli (0.843), ifi (0.857), and rmsea (0.090) are the values for the coefficients (hinkin, 1995). in this study, the acceptable validity of a five-factor model was established by the cfas. furthermore, all of the items had a substantial effect on their respective latent variables. tabel 9 fit indexes of the models tested by cfa model cmin cmin/df ifi t l i cfi rmsea default model 1326.652 2.291 .857 .843 .855 .090 saturated model .000 1.000 1.000 independence model 5800.278 9.207 .000 .000 .000 .227 source: authors' own conception according to the findings of the cfa, discrimination is justified in this situation. the reason for this is that all elements loaded on their latent building techniques only follow the thresholds that are necessary for them to function. once all of the units have been uploaded into their idea, the model matches the results fairly well. because the objects put on some linked concepts are highly interconnected with one another, it lends further broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 136 evidence to the convergent significance hypothesis. furthermore, element uploading is important, accounting for more than 0.7 percent of the total (javed & liu, 2018). tabel 10 average variance exerted and composite reliability construct average variance exerted (ave) composite reliability (cr) danger 0.757 0.891 sec 0.862 0.946 xenophobia 0.803 0.916 contaminatio n 0.857 0.944 traumatic_ stress 0.825 0.928 checking 0.739 0.879 source: authors' own conception above the table of ave, and composite reliability, total construct are six, in this table we calculate ave and cr, ave is normal value is 0.5, and cr is 0.7, in this table show ave value are showing higher than 0.5, and cr is higher than 0.7. psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian ... bogdana miclea et al. 137 figure 1: confirmatory factor analysis css source: authors' own conception discussions the results of the present study indicate adequate psychometric properties of the translated css. thus, a high internal consistency was broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 138 obtained for the 6 scales of the instrument, with cronbach's alpha coefficients in the range 0.74-0.86. factor analysis showed a 5-factor solution, similar to the original version of the instrument (taylor et al., 202). statistically significant correlations were obtained between all measured scales of the instrument. the present study is the first study of translation and adaptation of the covid-19 stress scales (css) on the romanian population, investigating its psychometric properties. thus, the present study also contributes to the literature by proposing a version of the scale adapted to a romanian sample. but the study has certain limitations. thus, it is possible that the high gender, age and education disproportion may have influenced to some extent the scores obtained (due to certain socio-cultural considerations, it is possible that women are more prone to stress caused by covid-19, as compared to men), thus caution is recommended in generalizing the results to certain populations. the questionnaire can be extremely useful in providing information on covid-19 stress. references ahorsu, d. k., lin, c.-y., imani, v., saffari, m., griffiths, m. d., & pakpour, a. h. (2020). the fear of covid-19 scale: development and initial validation. international journal of mental health and addiction, 20(3), 1537–1545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00270-8 armean, k-a., popescu, c-a., armean, s-m., covaliu, b-f., armean, p., & buzoianu, a-d. (2021). perceived stress, burnout and anxiety and fear related to covid-19 in romanian medical students–experience from the state of emergency in romania. acta medica transilvanica, 26(2), 5–10. https://doi.org/10.2478/amtsb-2021-0022 bagozzi, r. p., & edwards, j. r. (1998). a general approach for representing constructs in organizational research. organizational research methods, 1(1), 45–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/109442819800100104 chung, s., ahn, m. h., lee, s., kang, s., suh, s., & shin, y-w. (2021). the stress and anxiety to viral epidemics-6 items (save-6) scale: a new instrument for assessing the anxiety response of general population to the viral epidemic during the covid-19 pandemic. frontiers in psychology, 12, 669606. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.669606 cordoș, a., & bolboacă, s. d. (2021). lockdown, social media exposure regarding covid‐19 and the relation with self‐assessment depression and anxiety. is the medical staff different? international journal of clinical practice, 75(4), e13933. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcp.13933 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00270-8 https://doi.org/10.2478/amtsb-2021-0022 https://doi.org/10.1177/109442819800100104 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.669606 https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcp.13933 psychometric properties of the questionnaire covid-19 stress on the romanian ... bogdana miclea et al. 139 guan, j., wu, c., wei, d., xu, q., wang, j., lin, h., wang, c., & mao, z. (2021). prevalence and factors for anxiety during the covid-19 pandemic among college students in china. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(9), 4974. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094974 hinkin, t. r. (1995). a review of scale development practices in the study of organizations. journal of management, 21(5), 967–988. https://doi.org/10.1016/0149-2063(95)90050-0 iliescu, d. (2017). adapting tests in linguistic and cultural situations. cambridge university press. javed, s. a., & liu, s. (2018). evaluation of outpatient satisfaction and service quality of pakistani healthcare projects: application of a novel synthetic grey incidence analysis model. grey systems: theory and application, 8(4), 462480. https://doi.org/10.1108/gs-04-2018-0018 mokkink, l. b., prinsen, c. a. c., bouter, l. m., de vet, h. c. w., & terwee, c. b. (2016). the consensus-based standards for the selection of health measurement instruments (cosmin) and how to select an outcome measurement instrument. brazilian journal of physical therapy, 20, 105–113. https://doi.org/10.1590/bjpt-rbf.2014.0143 salari, n., khazaie, h., hosseinian-far, a., khaledi-paveh, b., kazeminia, m., mohammadi, m., shohaimi, s., daneshkhah, a., & eskandari, s. (2020). the prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression within front-line healthcare workers caring for covid-19 patients: a systematic review and meta-regression. human resources for health, 18, 100. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-00544-1 sava, f. a. (2011). analiza datelor în cercetarea psihologică [data analysis in psychological research] (second edition, revised). ascr. secosan, i., virga, d., crainiceanu, z. p., bratu, l. m., & bratu, t. (2020). infodemia: another enemy for romanian frontline healthcare workers to fight during the covid-19 outbreak. medicina, 56(12), 679. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina56120679 shah, s. m. a., mohammad, d., qureshi, m. f. h., abbas, m. z., & aleem, s. (2021). prevalence, psychological responses and associated correlates of depression, anxiety and stress in a global population, during the coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic. community mental health journal, 57(1), 101–110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00728-y spitzer, r. l., kroenke, k., & williams, j. b. (2006). generalized anxiety disorder 7-item (gad-7) scale. archives of internal medicine, 166(10), 1092-1097. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092 stănculescu, e. (2021). fear of covid-19 in romania: validation of the romanian version of the fear of covid-19 scale using graded response model https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094974 https://doi.org/10.1016/0149-2063(95)90050-0 https://doi.org/10.1108/gs-04-2018-0018 https://doi.org/10.1590/bjpt-rbf.2014.0143 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-00544-1 https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina56120679 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00728-y https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 140 analysis. international journal of mental health and addiction, 20(2), 1094-1109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00428-4 taylor, s., landry, c. a., paluszek, m. m., fergus, t. a., mckay, d., & asmundson, g. j. g. (2020). development and initial validation of the covid stress scales. journal of anxiety disorders, 72, 102232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102232 terwee, c. b., bot, s. d. m., de boer, m. r., van der windt, d. a. w. m., knol, d. l., dekker, j., bouter, l. m., & de vet, h. c. w. (2007). quality criteria were proposed for measurement properties of health status questionnaires. journal of clinical epidemiology, 60(1), 34-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2006.03.012 thompson, b. (2004). exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis: understanding concepts and applications. washington, dc, 10694. vindegaard, n., & benros, m. e. (2020). covid-19 pandemic and mental health consequences: systematic review of the current evidence. brain, behavior, and immunity, 89, 531–542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.05.048 world health organisation. (2020). coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic. world health organisation. https://www.who.int/europe/emergencies/situations/covid-19 wong, t. w., yau, j. k. y., chan, c. l. w., kwong, r. s. y., ho, s. m. y., lau, c. c., lau, f. l., & lit, c. h. (2005). the psychological impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak on healthcare workers in emergency departments and how they cope. european journal of emergency medicine, 12(1), 13–18. https://doi.org/10.1097/00063110-200502000-00005 xiong, j., lipsitz, o., nasri, f., lui, l. m. w., gill, h., phan, l., chen-li, d., iacobucci, m., ho, r., & majeed, a. (2020). impact of covid-19 pandemic on mental health in the general population: a systematic review. journal of affective disorders, 277, 55–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.08.001 zhong, j., zhong, c., qiu, l., li, j., lai, j., lu, w., wang, s., zhong, j., zhao, j., & zhou, y. (2021). risk and protective factors for anxiety during covid-19 pandemic. bmc public health, 21(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11118-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00428-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102232 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2006.03.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.05.048 https://www.who.int/europe/emergencies/situations/covid-19 https://doi.org/10.1097/00063110-200502000-00005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11118-8 brain_3_3_ok 5 aiden: a density conscious artificial immune system for automatic discovery of arbitrary shape clusters in spatial patterns vishwambhar pathak birla institute of technology, mesra, ranchi, india pathakvishi@gmail.com praveen dhyani banasthali university, jaipur campus, india dhyani_p@yahoo.com prabhat mahanti university of new brunswick, new brunswick, canada pmahnti@gmail.com abstract recent efforts in modeling of dynamics of the natural immune cells leading to artificial immune systems (ais) have ignited contemporary research interest in finding out its analogies to real world problems. the ais models have been vastly exploited to develop dependable robust solutions to clustering. most of the traditional clustering methods bear limitations in their capability to detect clusters of arbitrary shapes in a fully unsupervised manner. in this paper the recognition and communication dynamics of t cell receptors, the recognizing elements in innate immune system, has been modeled with a kernel density estimation method. the model has been shown to successfully discover non spherical clusters in spatial patterns. modeling the cohesion of the antibodies and pathogens with ‘local influence’ measure inducts comprehensive extension of the antibody representation ball (arb), which in turn corresponds to controlled expansion of clusters and prevents overfitting. keywords: artificial immune system; density based clustering; spatial patterns 1. introduction the mechanism of artificial immune systems (ais) has been comprehensively applied in unsupervised learning problems, for example the tasks of anomaly detection and of clustering. imitation of the recognition process of natural immune cells eventually imposes grouping of ‘self’ and ‘non-self’ patterns. the recognition process of the natural immune cells has been modeled using a variety of formulations comprising of mathematical and statistical principles leading to several models of ais [1][2][3]. given the heavily complex internal communication structure of immune system, models exploiting holistic analogies of the same have been rare in literature. selective interpretations of the internal functionality and interaction among the immune system components have generated dependable solutions to a wide range of applications with typical characteristic constraints. the task of clustering data in nℜ carries several challenges including arbitrary shapes of inherent clusters, automatic detection of clusters, and robustness against noise besides others. further, the algorithm must also address the issues of scalability and robustness. preliminary schemes like the hierarchical and the partitioning based clustering methods have been largely utilized in serving several clustering applications. however these clustering processes essentially depend on user intervention either before start of the learning (prior specification of cluster number k in k-means) or after the completion of clustering process (for interpretation of relevant clustering level in hierarchical clustering). one standard approach addressing such issues includes the generative models, wherein algorithms like em are used to learn mixture densities. these models have proven capability of automatic detection of clusters inherent in the input data. the initial generative models suffer from limitations like the need for simplifying assumptions of gaussian brainovations brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 density of clusters, occurrence of local minima of the log likelihood, and their sensitiveness to initialization of model parameters, for example the mean and the std. deviation in case of the gaussian mixtures [4]. several stochastic models have been reported to deal with the limitations of the generative models. few remarkable models applied markov chain monte carlo (mcmc) method to improve robustness amidst missing values [5]. solutions employing non gaussian mixtures from the exponential families have also been shown to be capable of detecting arbitrary shapes of cluster [5] [6]. majority of such promising schemes with strong theoretical foundations have been found to be expensive in implementation. recent computing applications have incorporated extensive involvement of a variety of data types e.g. spatial data with inherent complex characteristics namely existence of non linear and overlapping segments/classes. development of improved data clustering models to aptly handle such underlying issues is a research topic of great interest. recently spectral clustering method has emerged as a favorable alternative applied in several applications in machine learning [2]. in this method, the top eigenvectors of a matrix derived from the distance matrix of data points are used to derive clusters. spectral analysis has also been widely used in analysis of patterns in spatial data [3] [4]. however, implementation of this method poses difficulty in decision about which eigenvector to use and to derive clusters from them [2]. this paper presents a clustering method based on artificial immune system (ais). ais essentially imitates the recognition process of the natural immune cells to detect pathogen, learn the patterns, and develop antibodies to attack any future occurrence of such pathogens. the mechanism of ais has found its application in the task of clustering, since the imitation of the recognition process of the immune cells eventually imposes grouping of ‘self’ and ‘non-self’ patterns. the present work reports modeling and results of implementation of artificial immune system with density sensitiveness (aiden). aiden in principle exploits the inherent density-closeness of the items in the input dataset to automatically discover the inherent cluster. the experiments show the utility of the model in clustering of spatial patterns. the robustness, scalability, and convergence of the algorithm have been discussed in relevant section. 2. functional elements of artificial immune system the immune system involves complex interaction between four major components in fighting off pathogens: i) antibodies (“immunoglobulins”) and the (b) cells that make them, ii) complement iii) t cells, and iv) non-specific effector cells [7]. b cells essentially make the antibodies which specifically bind to pathogens and pass them to the complement and phagocytic cells. a complement is a cascade of small proteins that bind to pathogens and poke holes in their outer surface causing death. complement proteins can bind to some pathogens directly but the activity of complement is much amplified by the presence of antibody bound to the pathogen. the t cells help the b cells become antibody producing cells (apc) and help other cells perform effector functions. various ways to model an approximate function of the immune systems have been proposed in literature [9]. non-specific effector cells like macrophages and neutrophils kill pathogens, much effectively if antibody is bound to the pathogen. other effector cells, like nk cells kill self cells that have been infected with pathogens (such as viruses). the mast cells secrete factors that create inflammation in the area of the pathogen to allow rapid access of other immune components to the site. the t lymphocyte (t cell) in a mammalian immune system is capable of performing fine grain discrimination of peptide bound major histocompatibility complex (pmhc) molecules on apcs through its t cell receptor (tcr) and intracellular signaling network. so it discriminates between abundant self-pmhc all pmhc on an apc, and non-self-pmhc [8][10][11]. biologically, tcrs induce activation signal in a t-cell through a process involving the steps of kinetic proofreading, negative feedback, negative feedback destruction, and tuning. kinetic proofreading involves energy consumption steps that must be overcome before tcr may generate an activation signal. the negative feedback generated through progression of the kinetic proofreading eventually reverses the process regardless of the tcr-pmhc binding strength. v. pathak, p. dhyani, p. mahanti – aiden: a density conscious artificial immune system for automatic discovery of arbitrary shape clusters in spatial patterns 7 however on successful completion of kinetic proofreading a tcr generates activation signal which is then amplified and provides protection to all other tcrs from the negative feedback. the coreceptor density can be understood as a tuning parameter, small increases in which increases the probability of activation. 3. dynamic density conscious clustering with t-cell receptor signaling a natural correspondence between the biological t cell receptor signaling and kernel density estimation was established in [10]. we observe selective analogies of the biological features of the signaling and immunization dynamics of tcell-bcell-apc configuration of the immune system in the context of density-conscious clustering. the kinetic proofreading by a single tcell through its receptor and the co-receptor (cd8) tuning can be modeled using the concept of knearest-neighbors based ‘density-reachability’ applied in density based clustering technique dbscan [9]. the present work shows that the static stimulation of the tcrs and the dynamic behavior of the immune system resulting from intra-cellular interactions can be modeled in the perspective of density conscious cohesions. the cohesion measurement has been modeled using the concept of k-nearest neighborhood and local-density-factor. we consider a stream of points x1, x2, x3 . . . ∈ x at receptors positions t1, t2, t3 . . . ∈ nℜ . the stimulation of tcr on presentation of a pathogen, as a result of kinetic proofreading can be represented with a receptor stimulation rp (x) and negative feedback rn(x) at all points in n ℜ , as given in equation (1) and equation (2). the static receptor stimulation may be generated by a function f (.), which is a model parameter, exemplified in the section describing the algorithm. -(1) --(2) a tcr at position p is stimulated if rp (x) rn(x) > l. figure 1 depicts this process. when a t cell receives stimulations on more than k receptors, it generates activation signal to a b cell, as represented in figure2. figure1. static stimulation of a single tcrthe kinetic proofreading by the receptor on input x є x forwards the receptor position p toward l. the receptor will generate negative feedback if p > β. the receptor will generate success signal when p== l. figure2. generation of negative feedbacks gets tuned once a tcr completes stimulation beyond the threshold l. a tcell generates activation signal to bcell once it gets stimulation of its k-tcrs. on receiving activation signal from tcell, a bcell produces k-antibodies in the apc associated with it, corresponding to the pathogens stimulating respective t cell. intercellular interaction among bcells give rise to antigen recognition balls (arbs). apcs connect together if x 0 l β brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 their inter-cell-cohesion factor (cf) is beyond a threshold ψ. to formulate cf for our model, the concept of local scaling [12][13], which was originally introduced to determine the scale factor for clusters with different densities by scaling the distances around each point in the dataset with a factor proportional to its distance to its kth nearest neighbor. typically ψ is taken as 2-α, α being another model parameter determined by the data characteristics. figure3 depicts this process. the model with the above specification then effectively detects self or non-self pathogens. in terms of its application to the task of clustering, this interpretation means making the affinities high within clusters and low across clusters. a pathogen corresponding to an outlier would not stimulate a tcr sufficiently and may not form part of any arb. figure3. apcs a1-a4 connected within range of cohesion-factor-threshold form members of one arb, while a5 lies there single and is likely to form another arb with progress of the recognition process. the single point represents a pathogen not sufficiently stimulating any tcr and corresponds to an outlier. 4. algorithm and explanation aiden() input: d: ag-ab affinity matrix, k: input to knn-dist function, n: number of dimensions, cohesion_factor_threshold (ψ) output: allocation of points to clusters. begin for pgen є pathogens do pgen.arb = undetermined; [pgen. bestaffinedist, pgen.affines] = knndistval(d, pgen, k); end pathogens.sort(); /* sort on bestaffinedist */ arbid = 1; for pgen є pathogens do if pgen.arb == undetermined and localdense(pgen) then arbgrow (pgen, arbid, n, ψ); arbid = arbid + 1; end end end arbgrow() input: pgen, arbid, n, ψ output: arb corresponding to current id extended with inclusion of apcs with sufficient localcohesion. begin pgen.arb = arbid; apc= pgen.affines for ag є apc if ag.arb == undetermined ag.arb = arbid; a4 a2 a1 a3 a5 v. pathak, p. dhyani, p. mahanti – aiden: a density conscious artificial immune system for automatic discovery of arbitrary shape clusters in spatial patterns 9 else apc.remove(ag) end if end for while exists (apc) ag = apc.next() if ag.bestaffinedist ≤ ψ x pgen. bestaffinedist newags = ag.affines for nag є newags if nag.arb == undetermined apc.append(nag) nag.arb = arbid end if end for end if apc.remove(nag) end while end 5. explanation of the implementation and experimental results the algorithm presented above implements the model described in section 3. the input matrix d provides the values for in equation 1. all checks related to stimulations at various stages would use this matrix only for the purpose. to keep the translation simple, it has been assumed that the value of is set much higher, as a system parameter itself, so that its effect is nullified by equation 2. for the same reason, the effects of negative feedback destruction and that of tuning are rendered theoretically running in the background, hence having no direct mention in the above implementation. the function localdense(pgen) determines from among the unclassified data-point in k-nearest-neighborhood of pgen having highest density estimated on the basis of proximity of their own k-nn elements . further, arbgrow() implements the arb formation and expansion process discussed in the section 3. the program was implemented in matlab and tested with several patterns. the first, dataset1 consisted of 2 patterns each comprised of 100 points falling on two concentric circles of radii 10 and 20 respectively. the second, dataset2 consisted of 3 patterns each of 100 points falling on three concentric circles of radii 10, 15, and 20 respectively. the model was further tested for its capability to find clusters in patterns of open spatial form using dataset3 and dataset4 consisting of 200 and 300 points falling on 2 and 3 concentric semi circles respectively. as shown in the figure2.a and figure2.b, the algorithm is capable of determining spatial association of a data point with other data points belonging to its appropriate circle only. the results successfully demonstrated the capability of our model to automatically detect clean clusters of arbitrary shapes in the input data represented in closed spatial form. the model was found even capable of determining clusters of open spatial forms also, as shown in figure2.c and figure2.e. however, the output of the algorithm was found affected by the values of the algorithm parameters k and α. in the present experiment, k =8 and α =10 was sufficient for performing correct cluster associations. on the other hand, correct clustering for the dataset2, could be obtained with 10nn estimation i.e. k =10, with α.=15. moreover setting k =15, with α.=15 was required for dataset4, as clustering error was observed with k =10, with α.=15, as in figure2.d. figure2.f and figure2.g show the correct clustering even in presence of combination of open and closed form of input patterns. in each figure, the first sub-plot shows the original data and the second sub-plot shows the clusters identified by our program. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 figure2.a. dataset1. k=8(10), alpha=10(15) figure2.b. dataset2. k=10, alpha=15 figure2.c. dataset3. k=8(10), alpha=10(15) figure2.d. dataset4. k=10, alpha=15 figure2.e. dataset4. k=14, alpha=15 figure2.f. dataset5. k=10, alpha=24 figure2.g. dataset6. k=8(10), alpha=14(15) 6. conclusion the traditional models based on cluster mean as representative of clusters have been sensitive to outliers and parameter initialization. our model associates a data item (pathogen) with an existing cluster (bcell), only when they are density-attracted to any of the ‘dense’ elements in the cluster. this property helped in expanding the range of association through recognition by each representative data item (antibody) in non spherical dimension. the strategy of cluster expansion based on local influence measure serves the twofold purpose; one, it prevents overfitting; two, it simultaneously assures immunity against outliers. as the algorithm follows a deterministic approach to perform computations for each data point in the input, the convergence of the algorithm is theoretically plausible, and has the same been confirmed with the experimental results. the correct results obtained for different number of patterns convince about scalability of the model. theoretically the algorithm may be observed to work in a polynomial time. the correct clustering results obtained in presence of both open and closed patterns give a clue towards robustness of the model. a further work is aimed to investigate performance of the model in presence of overlapping patterns. moreover study toward applicability of the model in relation to clustering and spectral analysis of real world spatial data is planned. references [1] jain anil k. 2008. data clustering: 50 years beyond kmeans1, machine learning and knowledge discovery in databases, volume: 31, issue: 8, springer. [2] nasraoui gonzalez, cardona, and dasgupta. 2002. scalable artificial immune system based data mining, nsf-ngdm, nov. 1-3, , baltimore, md v. pathak, p. dhyani, p. mahanti – aiden: a density conscious artificial immune system for automatic discovery of arbitrary shape clusters in spatial patterns 11 [3] greensmith julie, whitbrook, amanda, and aickelin uwe. 2010. artificial immune systems, in handbook of metaheuristics, springer. [4] pathak v., dhyani, praveen, and mahanti prabhat. 2011. data clustering with artificial innate immune system adding probabilistic behaviour, international journal of data mining and emerging technologies vol. 1 no.2, november, 2011, 77-84 doi: 10.5958/j.22493212.1.2.5 [5] marlin, benjamin, m. 2008. missing data problems in machine learning, phd thesis, graduate department of computer science university of toronto. [6] orbanz peter. 2008. infinite-dimensional exponential families in cluster analysis of structured data, phd thesis, diss. eth no. 17822, eth zurich [7] lee, timothy, and issekutz andrew. 2009. immunology for 1st year medical students, [8] timmis, jon, hart, emma, hone, andy, neal mark, robins, adrian, stepney, susan, and tyrrell andy. 2010, immuno-engineering. [9] han j., kamber m. 2006. data mining: concepts and techniques, second edition, morgan kaufman [10] owens, n. d.l., greensted, andy, timmis, jon, and tyrrell andy. 2009. t cell receptor signalling inspired kernel density estimation and anomaly detection, icaris 2009, lncs 5666, pp. 122–135. springer-verlag berlin heidelberg [11] germain, r.n., stefanov, i. 1999. the dynamics of t cell receptor signaling: complex orchestration and the key roles of tempo and cooperation. a. rev. imm., 17 [12] zelnik-manor, lihi, and perona pietro. 2004. self-tuning spectral clustering. in eighteenth annual conference on neural information processing systems. [13] bicici, e. and yuret, d. 2007. locally scaled density based clustering, lect. notes comput. sc., 4431, 739–748. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev understanding service composition with non-functional properties using declarative model-to-model transformations andreas petter, stephan borgert, erwin aitenbichler, alexander behring and max mühlhäuser abstract. developing applications comprising service composition is a complex task. therefore, to lower the skill barrier for developers, it is important to describe the problem at hand on an abstract level and not to focus on implementation details. this can be done using declarative programming which allows to describe only the result of the problem (which is what the developer wants) rather than the description of the implementation. we therefore use purely declarative model-to-model transformations written in a universal model transformation language which is capable of handling even non functional properties using optimization and mathematical programming. this makes it easier to understand and describe service composition and nonfunctional properties for the developer. keywords: declarativity, business processes, model-to-model transformation 2000 mathematics subject classification: 68r10, 90c35. 130 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation 1. introduction developing applications that perform service composition is complex. to reduce the complexity of application development, model driven development has been investigated in the past. even though model transformation has also been used for service composition (e.g., [4]) approaches do not use optimization and a declarative universal transformation language. however, both are needed to perform rapid prototyping and application development of service compositions with non-functional properties in a declarative way: optimization must be performed to calculate an optimal combination of services which leads to a service composition which is either maximal or minimal to some set of non-functional properties. if a proprietary model transformation language is used (e.g., [4]) instead of a universal transformation language, developers will need to learn a new language for developing their service composition. therefore, the speedup in the development phase is reduced because of the time which is needed to learn the new language. in contrast, our approach is based on a language, called “solverational”. this language is based on qvt relations which is a standard model-to-model transformation language. developers do not need to learn a new language, but only minimal changes. a declarative language is needed to focus the way a developer understands his service composition problem at hand on the outcome rather on the way how to implement it. we believe that this helps developers to focus more on an understanding of the problem itself and prevents slipping into implementation details. this is especially important if trade-offs need to be taken into consideration. in section 3 we present a objective function to select services according to a set of non-functional properties. it was our goal that this objective function could just be copied over into the implementation of the model-to-model transformation with only very minor changes (only the names of the variables). developers can then focus on the definition of the target function, and do not have to worry about its implementation. 1.1 definitions and contributions we use classical definitions of service composition, processes and services. however, for clarification we repeat the definitions in an informal way. an application model is a model which describes temporal relationships between 131 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation a set of processes. a process is a procedure or a function that can be called either local or remote and has at least one distinct and well-defined functional interpretation which is known by all entities performing service composition. usually a single service composition is not sufficient and a developer wants service compositions to be computed for various application models. definition 1. a composition program is a program that computes service compositions for a set of application models. a composition program may also take into account non-functional properties, which describe aspects of services which have no direct impact on their interpretation. three examples, which are considered in this paper are: • the costs to execute a service – if it is a premium service which needs to be payed for • the runtime to execute the service call • and a measure how reliable the service is, e.g., the uptime of the hosting machine. this paper focuses on the creation of composition programs using a universal and declarative model-to-model transformation language in combination with optimization. in this paper we make the following contributions: • presenting a purely declarative way to develop composition programs • using a declarative universal model-to-model transformation language with constraint solving and optimization to perform service composition and • by doing that, we present a fast way to develop service composition programs. 2. scenario in this work, we chose an eco calculator as a running example. here, a government agency establishes a new “eco label” for cars meeting certain ecological requirements. one of the requirements is a concept for disassembling and recycling and the restricted use of certain environmentally harmful materials. the service provides a compliance check and cost simulation. 132 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation in our scenario engineers may discover one or multiple such services (eco calculators) on the internet and send construction details of, e.g., a car seat to this service. the service then calculates the ecological impact of production, recycling, etc. of the product and automatically issues compliance certificates accordingly. the behavior of the eco calculator service is described by a formal business process. because the process involves knowledge of various disciplines, we assume that the provider of the eco calculator service is willing to outsource certain parts of the process. hence, we used three different types of services for demonstration purposes: the eco calculator service itself, a chemical database service, and a chemical laboratory service. all services are described by formal business processes. the whole process model is now formed by a service composition that integrates all three different types of services. for each service type, we have modeled five different variants, which all differ a bit in their behavior to come as close to practical situations. in practice, there are also services which show an equivalent behavior on an abstract level, but differ in small details. for example, every eco calculator service can receive construction details and issue certificates, but it can be different in its administrative processes such as delivery or payment. it is important to note that this is just a running example and our approach is not limited to this scenario in any way. also, the result of the service is not important at development time. e.g., concepts like “ecological impact” are entirely domain-specific and completely independent from the generic modelto-model transformation. 3. optimization and non-functional properties in a composition program, services need to be assigned to processes. for each process there must be at least one service that implements it, otherwise the application model will not be executable. therefore, there has to be a mapping from processes to services. this mapping is performed in the composition program, therefore the mapping either needs to be done in the model-to-model transformation itself or in a separate model that describes the mapping. for simplicity we present the first version, while the second is just a simple extension of the concept (which can be implemented by either generating the transformation or by inserting another level of abstraction within the transformation itself). in our case the mapping will be implemented in relations which map a process to a set of possible target services. 133 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation each member of the set of possible target services has a number of nonfunctional properties, which can easily be extended by changing the models. the problem we want to solve is, what set of services is an optimal set according to the properties presented in the introduction (execution costs, runtime and reliability). for simplicity, we assume that all properties are specified as integer values and that lower values are better (for reliability this is anti-proportional to the uptime of the service). then we can easily sum up all properties of the same type (e.g., all execution costs called rentingcosts in our scenario) of all services s currently used in our composition: ri = ∑ s∈s rentingcosts (1) if this is done for all compositions i = 1..n, we can compare all ri and calculate the minimum ri: min({ri|∀i ∈ {1..n}}) (2) this can easily be implemented using solverational by just copying most of the formula into the transformation code. 4. meta-models of composition programs and services from the perspective of model-driven engineering, a composition program is a model-transformation: either model-to-model or model-to-code. while both types of transformations are possible, we focus on the model-to-model transformation process only. in that case the concrete models produced by the transformation can be changed more easily and can be better understood than pure code. the concrete models can then be transformed into code by a relatively simple model-to-code transformation. in our case a service composition is a model-to-model transformation from an application model to a service model. the application model, called abstract model, uses the business processes that should be performed by the application as model elements. it is the source model for the model-to-model transformation. in our case it is comprised of an ecocalculator investigator process, a chemical lab process and a chemical database process. to define the model we first defined the abstract meta-model which contains all the processes which can be used in the application model. these are used to model the behaviour of the application (see figure 1). the abstract 134 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation figure 1: abstract meta-model model is an instance of the abstract meta-model. to model the behaviour, the model elements of the abstract model (which represent processes), we instantiate sub-classes of abstracttask and use the after association to define a temporal relationship between other processes. basically, the after association models that a message is being sent over the network and the process which is the target of the association is being triggered. all processes subclass the domain specific ecocalculatorabstracttask which is perfectly modelled after our scenario. any new domains will introduce new meta-model elements sub-classing abstracttask specific to their domain. the abstract model is transformed into a concrete one, which replaces the processes from the abstract model with concrete service implementations. this model can be defined using the concrete meta-model shown in figure 2. in 135 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation this meta-model we defined all possible services for the ecocalculator scenario. these are implemented as subclasses of the ecocalculatortask. all possible services must subclass task which defines the after and before associations, which have the same meanings as in the abstract model (the before association is an opposite association for after). each service then has three cost values (these are just examples; any other cost values can be implemented by adding a additional cost properties to task). 5. model-to-model transformation with solverational we assumed that the solverational model-to-model transformation language can be used for prototyping service compositions in a purely declarative way. we developed a transformation performing service composition comprising non-functional properties using solverational as a proof of concept. solverational [6] is based on qvt relations [5], which is an omg standard. qvt relations is a declarative model-to-model transformation language. it uses a relational programming approach to declarative programming. thereby, a qvt relations transformation uses any number of relations to relate source and target meta-model elements. if a relation is applied on a source model (in our case the abstract model ), the transformation selects a set of model elements to be transformed into a set of target model elements. this set may be constrained by so called propertytemplateitems which allow for the definition of expressions which must be satisfied by property values of model elements. relations can again be related to each other by defining dependencies (e.g., when a relation holds for a model then another relation must hold, too). developers of transformations do not explicitly state the creation of new model elements. only the transformation engine is in charge of creating new model elements. thereby qvt relations is known to be very declarative and abstract [3], which is good for focusing on the definition of the problem at hand and not its implementation. solverational extends this approach by allowing inequalities for propertytemplateitems. thereby the whole transformation can be viewed as a means to define constraint solving problems [6]. relational transformation languages comprising constraint solving on attributes are called constraint relational transformation languages [6]. in solverational relations can have several target domains. these target domains represent the sets of model elements which need to be created in the transformation process. they must be marked as being “alternative” domains, 136 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation and the transformation engine needs to choose an alternative domain during the transformation process. this will usually be done by providing the objective function (see section 5.1). if several alternatives exist, an objective function will “guide” the transformation engine in selecting the optimal domain and therefore force it to create the optimal model element for the case at hand. an example is given in section 6. 5.1 optimization in solverational optimization can be applied to model-to-model transformations. this allows to select “optimal” target models. solverational is the first declarative model-to-model-transformation language which supports the declaration of target functions making optimization an integral part of transformations. its grammar can be found in [7]. here we derive some general results obtained by including this feature into any model-to-model-transformation language. as noted above this eases especially the understanding and implementation of service composition programs. starting from the definition of constraint satisfaction problems over models which has been studied in [2] we define constraint optimization problems for model-to-model transformations. a constraint satisfaction problem over models is a set of constraints c and a set of models. the variables, which are used in the constraints either represent attribute values, associations or model elements (or sets of one of these types). a model will be a valid solution for c, if it satisfies all constraints in c. definition 2. a constraint satisfaction problem over models can either be • over-constraint, i.e. there is no solution to the problem (also called “infeasible”) • under-constraint, i.e. there are many solutions to the problem • well-defined, i.e. there is exactly one solution to the problem this notion can be extended towards a notion of constraint satisfaction problems in connection with model-to-model transformations: in [6] we defined constraint relational transformations. we generalize our notion: 137 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation definition 3. let ms be a set of source meta-models, mt be a set of target meta-models, c a set of constraints on the target model and t (ms, mt, c) be a transformation definition which contains a set of constraints c over the set of model elements, attributes or associations. then t (ms, mt, c) is a constraint model-to-model transformation problem. when t is applied to a set of concrete source models conforming to mt each result of a constraint model-to-model transformation problem is a set of constraint satisfaction problem over models, because after the transformation process the constraints out of c apply to the target models mt. therefore, we can apply definition 2: every result of any constraint model-to-model transformation problem is also either over-constraint, under-constraint or well-defined. based on this notion we define a notion for optimizing constraint relational transformations. optimization problems are comprised of a domain d and an objective function $, which is to be minimized or maximized, depending on the problem at hand. if ‖d‖ > 0 (‖x‖ counts the number of elements in x), then the problem has a solution: a set of domain values for the maximum and minimum values of $(d). for constraint optimization problems d is given by a set of variables v and constraints c, which restrict the possible values for the domains of the variables. combining constraint optimization problems and model-to-model transformations requires that d contains models. then $ also applies to models. definition 4. a constraint model-to-model transformation optimization problem t$(ms, mt, c, $) is a constraint model-to-model transformation problem enhanced by an objective function $. $ can be a set of objective functions, one for each meta-model in mt. proposition 5. introducing an objective function $ for a transformation t ( ms, mt, c), such that the transformation signature is t$(ms, mt, c, $) may only reduce the number of possible solutions for t (ms, mt, c), but an objective function does not affect the number of problems of t (ms, mt, c) which are over-constrained. this proposition means that introducing an objective function may only reduce the number of solutions, but never will “destroy” any transformations by reducing the number of solutions to zero. as a result we derive that, from 138 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation a theoretical point of view, when trying to reduce the number of possible solutions, introducing objective functions into a transformation definition is always at least as good as sticking without one. proof. (recall that ‖x‖ counts the number of elements in set x x may either be a set, a set of models or a number of solutions to a constraint solving problem over models and therefore may also be applied to transformations) assume a given input instance model ms and a transformation t (ms, mt, c), abbreviated t . t is enhanced to t$(ms, mt, c, $), abbreviated t$, by introducing $. by definition of optimization problem, if there exists at least one solution, i.e. the transformation is well-defined or under-constraint, then $ will select a set mt$ of best solutions from mt. so, we prove part 1 of proposition 1: • t is over-constraint ⇔ ‖mt‖ = 0. then $ cannot select any solution and therefore ‖mt$‖ = 0 ⇔ t$ is over-constraint. • t is well-defined ⇔ ‖mt‖ = 1. then $ selects the only possible solution as the optimal solution and therefore ‖mt$‖ = 1 ⇔ t$ is well-defined. • t is under-constraint ⇔ ‖mt‖ > 1 ⇔ ‖mt‖ ≥ 2. then there are three cases: 1. $ does not influence mt. therefore mt = mt$ ⇒ ‖mt‖ = ‖mt$‖ ⇔ t$ is under-constraint. 2. $ selects a single, optimal model from mt. therefore mt ⊃ mt$ ⇔ ‖mt‖ ≥ 2 > 1 = ‖mt$‖ ⇔ t$ is well-defined. 3. $ selects a set of optimal models from mt, but more than one. therefore mt ⊆ mt$ ∧ ‖mt$‖ > 1 ⇔ t$ is under-constraint. since case two is well-defined (but may also be under-constraint) for t$ and under-constrained for t , we proved, that the number of possible solutions may be reduced for t$. part 2: assume t$ under-constraint or well-defined. then ‖mt$‖ ≥ 1. then, by definition of optimization problem ‖d‖ > 0 ⇒ ‖mt‖ > 0. so, in case t$ under-constraint or well-defined, there are no cases which are over-constraint. therefore, introducing an objective function does not affect the number of transformations which are over-constraint. 139 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation ←− as case two of part one of the proof is of special interest, we derive a new definition: definition 6. an appropriate objective function is an objective function that transfers a given under-constraint transformation and set of input models into a well-defined transformation for that set of source models. in summary, introducing an objective function may transfer under-constraint transformations into well-defined transformations. if the transformation is under-constraints several solutions (i.e. interpretations) exist and may be returned by model transformation engines. this will be confusing for developers who will expect that a transformation is interpreted alike using different interpreters. achieving well defined transformations is therefore highly desirable and should be considered for the case of service composition. 6. implementation we implemented the transformation using the solverational model-to-model transformation language. thereby, the transformation can be executed using the solverational transformation engine. the transformation engine in fact is a compiler which compiles solverational transformations into eclipse (eclipse constraint logic programming system [1]; not to be confused with the eclipse java ide) code which is then executed using eclipse. models are represented in eclipse terms while being executed and re-transformed into emof models to provide output to the eclipse java ide. figure 3 presents some details of the transformation. the alternative domains known from section 5 are prominent. here the relation which transforms the chemicallab into the concrete services uses one alternative domain for each concrete service. the transformation engine chooses the “best” alternative by means of mathematical optimization. as presented in section 3, the transformation uses an optimization function which has just been copied over from the formulas presented in section 3. using the results derived in section 5.1 we derive if the transformation will have an appropriate objective function, which is highly desirable, because the results will be unambiguous. in fact we cannot tell by the objective function 140 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation alone whether it is appropriate: if two services will add an identical amount of costs to the result of the objective function there might be ambiguous output models. we therefore must make sure by pairwise comparisons (of the alternative domains given in the transformation) that such two types of services do not exist in our transformation. using the example below we calculate an upper bound for the number of model elements for which we can be sure that ambiguous results do not exists. we do this by calculating all smallest common multiples of all pairs of costs of types of services. if we know that number, we can calculate the upper bound (by deviding by the largest cost involved in that pair), which is 1850 model elements in our case. we now know that ambiguous results will not be possible below the barrier of 1850 services in a composition. if we will constrain our results to less model elements our objective function can be assumed to be an appropriate objective function. as solverational provides a universal transformation language, applications developed in solverational are usually not as fast as special solutions which use, e.g., low level languages. there are still comparatively few services available on the internet, which can be used for our service composition. the approach is probably fast enough under these circumstances. while solverational might not have the same runtime efficiency as manually coded low-level approaches, it provides a very fast and simple way for developers to generate an implementation at all. 7. state of the art the most promising approach was performed by montanari and rossi who used a graph rewriting system in combination with constraint solving to describe systems and services [4]. however, no universal model-to-model transformation language is used and no optimizations of non-functional properties are made. zhu et al. present an approach using uml to describe semantic aspects of web services in owl-s [10]. they use a model-driven approach to generate promela descriptions which allow for verification of the composition using the spin tool. however, their approach is very complex and the transformation is not done declaratively. our approach could learn from the complex verification process that is applied in this work. quintero and vincente present conceptional models which can be used in an mda approach to model the mappings of processes to services [8]. in further work these models could be used as an abstraction layer to factor out 141 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation the mapping from the transformations. however, as quintero’s and vincente’s mappings require a specific tool called oows this approach is not solely based on a declarative approach to model transformation. using model weaving, white et al. present an approach which is most similar to our own [9]. they developed the java pet store application using model weaving and implement the weaving process using a constraint solving problem. they use model weaving and do not use a declarative model-to-model transformation which is based on a standard transformation language. to sum up, solverational is the only universal declarative model-to-model transformation language which is able to perform optimization and therefore our approach has not been investigated before. 8. conclusions and future work we presented a model-to-model transformation which is able to perform service composition while taking into account non-functional properties. the transformation is purely declarative, which enables developers to focus more on the problem itself and the understanding of the problem domain. the relatively complex task of developing a composition program is reduced to stating facts about it. this allows for faster development, as was the case with the implementation of our scenario, which was developed in 45 minutes, only. references [1] krzysztof r. apt and mark wallace. constraint logic programming using eclipse. cambridge university press, new york, ny, usa, 2007. [2] jordi cabot, robert clarisó, and daniel riera. verification of uml/ocl class diagrams using constraint programming. in model driven engineering, verification, and validation: integrating verification and validation in mde (modevva 2008), 2008. [3] fréderic jouault and ivan kurtev. on the architectural alignment of atl and qvt. in sac ’06: proceedings of the 2006 acm symposium on applied computing, pages 1188–1195, new york, ny, usa, 2006. acm press. [4] ugo montanari and francesca rossi. graph rewriting, constraint solving and tiles for coordinating distributed systems. applied categorical structures. applied categorical structures, 7:7–333, 1999. 142 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation [5] omg. meta object facility (mof) 2.0 query/view/transformation specification. omg, july 2007. ptc/07-07-07. [6] andreas petter, alexander behring, and max mühlhäuser. solving constraints in model transformations. in richard f. paige, editor, theory and practice of model transformations, volume 5563/2009 of lecture notes in computer science, pages 132–147. springer berlin / heidelberg, june 2009. [7] andreas petter, miroslav zlatkov, and alexander behring. the solverational grammar and a set of evaluation results. technical report, technische universität darmstadt, hochschulstr. 10, 64289 darmstadt, jan 2010. [8] ricardo quintero and vicente pelechano. conceptual modeling of service composition using aggregation and specialization relationships. in acmse 44: proceedings of the 44th annual southeast regional conference, pages 452–457, new york, ny, usa, 2006. acm. [9] jules white, jeff gray, and douglas c. schmidt. constraint-based model weaving. transactions on aspect-oriented software development, open:open, 2009. to appear. [10] zhengdong zhu, yanping chen, ronggui lan, and zengzhi li. study of mda based semantic web service composition. information technology journal, 8:903–909, 2009. 143 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation andreas petter, technische universität darmstadt, hochschulstr. 10, 64289 darmstadt, germany, email: andreaspetter@tk.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de stephan borgert, technische universität darmstadt, hochschulstr. 10, 64289 darmstadt, germany, email: stephan@tk.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de erwin aitenbichler, technische universität darmstadt, hochschulstr. 10, 64289 darmstadt, germany, email: erwin@tk.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de alexander behring, technische universität darmstadt, hochschulstr. 10, 64289 darmstadt, germany, email: behring@tk.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de max mühlhäuser, technische universität darmstadt, hochschulstr. 10, 64289 darmstadt, germany, email: max@tk.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de 144 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation figure 2: concrete meta-model 145 a. petter service composition and declarative model-transformation . . . minimize 5*sum(concretetaskmm::task.allinstances()->rentingcosts) + 2*sum(concretetaskmm::task.allinstances()->executiontime) + 3*sum(concretetaskmm::task.allinstances()->reliability); . . . top relation chemicallabtolabservice { domain s i:abstracttaskmm::chemicallab { }; alternative domain t o:concretetaskmm::adelphichemicallab { rentingcosts=1500, executiontime=200, reliability=301 }; alternative domain t o:concretetaskmm::biblischemicallab { rentingcosts=150, executiontime=2000, reliability=300 }; alternative domain t o:concretetaskmm::bushmillsmaltchemicallab { rentingcosts=500, executiontime=350, reliability=301 }; . . . } . . . figure 3: transformation details 146 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 97-112 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/334 submitted: october 12th, 2021| accepted for publication: january 20th, 2022 the preparation of specialists for the realization of individual education path of children with special educational needs: neuropedagogical aspects olena vorotyntseva 1 , olena pozniak 2 , alona voitenko 3 , hanna lopatina 4 , inna huz 5 , tatiana husieva 6 1 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, vorotyntsevaoo@zakinppo.org.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0684-850x 2 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, elenapoznyak05@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9154-944x 3 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, alenavoytenko1712@gmail.com 4 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, lopatina.hanna29@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3920-6853 5 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, inna_huz@ukr.net, https://ordcid.org/0000-0002-9506-0414 6 sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine, utaa1970@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3178-1631 abstract: the urgency of the chosen research area is determined by the need to train specialists to work in an inclusive environment. the psychological and pedagogical literature on the functioning of inclusive education is analyzed and the current problems of this process are identified, which require solutions: the absence of principles of psychological and pedagogical support of children in the system of inclusive education; the lack of recommendations for involving parents in the educational process; unpreparedness of high institutions to prepare specialists to work in the conditions of inclusion; the need to update the system of professional training of future teachers taking into account the peculiarities of inclusive education; insufficient study of foreign experience, etc. based on generalizations of theoretical analysis and own practical experience the ways of improvement of preparation of specialists for realization of individual educational path of children with special educational needs are substained: the improvement of educational programs of preparation of future specialists for work in the inclusive environment, renovation of the training methods of future teachers factor into neuropedagogical aspects, and also to make opportunities for professional self-improvement of specialists working in an inclusive environment during their professional activities. the need to take into account neuropedagogical aspects to ensure effective training of specialists to implement the individual educational path of children with special educational needs is based on the specific features of inclusive education, which requires knowledge of cognitive neurology, differential psychophysiology, neuropsychology and the formation of relevant skills. it seems promising the creation of a pattern for training specialists to implement the individual educational path of children with special educational needs, as well as the organization of a pedagogical experiment to test its effectiveness. keywords: a professional training, institutions of higher education, an inclusive education, the improvement of educational process, an educational program, a psychophysiological development, neuropedagogy. how to cite: vorotyntseva, o., pozniak, o., voitenko, a., lopatina, h., huz, i., & husieva, t. (2022). the preparation of specialists for the realization of individual education path of children with special educational needs: neuropedagogical aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 97-112. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/334 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/334 mailto:vorotyntsevaoo@zakinppo.org.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0684-850x mailto:elenapoznyak05@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9154-944x mailto:alenavoytenko1712@gmail.com mailto:lopatina.hanna29@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3920-6853 mailto:inna_huz@ukr.net https://ordcid.org/0000-0002-9506-0414 mailto:utaa1970@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3178-1631 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/334 the preparation of specialists for the realization of individual education path of... olena vorotyntseva et al. 98 1. introduction the right of persons with disabilities to participate fully in public life is recognized by the convention on the rights of the child and the declaration on the rights of persons with disabilities, adopted by the united nations general assembly. every state, focusing on national peculiarities, legally regulates the functioning of inclusive education within the right for education of children with disabilities in comprehensive educational institutions and realized. therefore, there is a need not only to develop new pedagogical approaches that will allow children with special educational needs to fully participate in the educational process and to integrate into the pupils body (adascalitei, 2020), but also to prepare a new generation of teachers who can effectively pursue professional activities in an inclusive environment. we agree with the statement of n. pakhomova (2017, p. 374) concerning the need to improve the professional training of future teachers who will continue to work in an inclusive environment and create conditions for successful learning, development and socialization of children with special educational needs. such training should include not only the study of professional disciplines, but also the consideration of medical-biological, psychological, managerial and legal aspects of professional pedagogical activity in the context of inclusive education. after all, only a teacher directs the educational process of the class (group) to achieve educational goals and within it builds an individual educational path for children with special educational needs. the aim of the scientific work is to analyze the national and foreign practice of functioning of an inclusive educational environment, as well as to determine the conditions for training specialists to implement the individual educational path of children with special educational needs. 2. the training of specialists to work in an inclusive environment: neuropedagogical aspect the practice of introducing inclusive education in european countries started in the 1970s. our study is based on the interpretation of the content of inclusive education as a complex process of ensuring equal access to quality education for children with special educational needs by organizing their education in secondary schools, taking into account the individual characteristics of educational and cognitive activities of such children (kolupaieva (ed.), 2012, p. 27). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 99 the issue to train specialists for professional activity in an inclusive environment was studied in scientific publications both domestic (aharkova, 2019; malyshevska, 2016; chaikovsky, 2011), etc., and foreign (amatori et al., 2020), avramidis and norwich (2002), florian (2014), świtała (2020) and other scientists. but, there is no consensus among the scientific community to determine the optimal conditions for inclusive education and training in an inclusive environment. scientific papers of avramidis and norwich (2002) are pointed onto determining the attitude of practicing teachers towards inclusive education. based on the statistical survey, scientists have identified a number of factors that influence the formation of a positive attitude of teachers to inclusive education (psychophysiological state of a child, the nature of violations of his/her educational activity, support, parents' reaction onto the learning process, etc.). amatori, mesquita and quelhas (2020, p. 84) comparing the inclusive education systems of italy and portugal, emphasize the importance of appropriate qualifications of teachers for the successful education of children with special educational needs. in their study, they proposed ideas for improving inclusive education, grouped into three levels: reviewing the content of general education to ensure the inclusion of children with psychophysiological disabilities, providing appropriate support for children with special educational needs, and individual correctional work. similar results were found by bajrami (2019), conducting a comparative analysis of inclusive education in nine countries of the european union (austria, belgium, estonia, cyprus, latvia, slovenia, iceland, finland and norway) and three countries in the balkans (montenegro, macedonia and kosovo). researchers kola-bezka (2018) and świtała (2020) studied the features of the inclusive environment in poland, outlined the range of tasks that need to be addressed in the near future (improving the training of specialists to work in an inclusive environment, strengthening social integration of children with psychophysiological disabilities, development of the inclusive training programs, etc.). florian (2014) investigating a critical review of modern practice of inclusive education, came to the conclusion that to ensure its effectiveness it is necessary to develop new methodological tools. mitchell agrees with this conclusion (2015, p. 11) and he proposes to ensure inclusive education by building an individual educational path of children with special educational problems, taking into account the complexity of educational institutions and a number of other interdependent indicators. chhabra et al. (2018) in their the preparation of specialists for the realization of individual education path of... olena vorotyntseva et al. 100 scientific publications promote the need to uphold the rights of all children, regardless of their abilities, the practice of active participation in all spheres of society. schuman (2017) considers the early inclusion of children with special needsin the general educational environment as a concept, based on the need to support the rights of every child. chaikovsky (2011, p. 16), investigating the experience of implementing inclusive education in ukraine, stressed that at present time it covers only children of preschool and primary school age. further development of the inclusive learning mechanisms requires analysis and adaptation of positive foreign experience. the analysis of scientific sources has allowed to identify the main problems in the organization of inclusive education and training for working with children with special educational needs that require solutions: deficiency of principles of psycho-pedagogical support of children in the system of inclusive education. this involves the interaction of all specialists who work in an inclusive environment: primary school teachers, subject teachers, psychologists, speech-language pathologists etc. moreover, psychological support should be provided not only to children with special educational needs and their parents, but also to teachers who work in an inclusive environment. such support should be organized in order to overcome existing stereotypes about people with psychophysical disabilities and professional burnout; deficiency of clear recommendations for involving parents in the learning and mentoring process. children with special educational needs require increased attention from both a teacher and parents. only the cooperation of all stakeholders will minimize the possible negative consequences of the education of children with special needs in secondary schools and ensure the effectiveness of this process; unpreparedness of high institutions to train specialists to work in the conditions of inclusion. this unpreparedness is partly due to the deficiency of practical experience in working with children with special educational needs, and partly to the novelty of this area of research. in this context, we agree with kuzmenko (2019, p. 25) that the changes taking place in the structure of special and general education require from tutors of high institutions to increase their professional competence, taking into account the peculiarities of inclusive education. merryfield (2000) argues that another important reason for this situation is the deficiency of awareness of the importance of inclusion among university educationists and their real impact on the professional activities of future specialists in an inclusive environment. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 101 the necessity to create an innovative system of training of future teachers for professional activities in the context of inclusion. demchenko (2016) and donets (2021) emphasized the priority of developing proper scientific-theoretical and practical bases of professional training of future specialists to work in an inclusive environment; insufficient study of foreign experience in the implementation of various types and forms of professional development of teachers working with children with special needs, and its adaptation in the educational space of ukraine (zakharchuk, 2009; yukhymets & savchuk, 2012). in any case, the solution of the proposed problems should begin at the stage of preparation of specialists for work in an inclusive environment. stayton and mccollun (2002) considered the existing models of training of future teachers, their advantages and shortcomings: a. the infusion model. according to this model, in the process of obtaining a specialty, students choose several disciplines that relate to the organization of learning in an inclusive auditory. b. the collaborative training model, according to which separate sections and courses related to inclusive education are integrated into the educational programs of specialists in the areas of “pedagogy” and “special pedagogy”. c. the unification model, which is entire focused on conducting of professional activities in an inclusive environment. according to plichta’s (2012) scientific viewpoint the main task of professional training of future teachers to work in an inclusive environment is the formation of methodological and practical-moral competencies. moreover, the content and ways of forming methodological or instrumental competencies of inclusive teachers are widely opened, but the development of practical and moral requires fundamental development, because a teacher must understand the atypical behavior and features of interaction of children with special educational needs. kyrsta (2015, p. 55) investigating the peculiarities of primary school teachers training for work in an inclusive environment emphasizes that a teacher have to master by learning technologies, to be able to solve the problem of socialization of children with special educational needs, to know the specifics of educational programs that are principal for construction of individual educational path of such children. babakova (2014, p. 625), angel-alvaradoet and álamos (2018), gagné (2009), utts and heckard the preparation of specialists for the realization of individual education path of... olena vorotyntseva et al. 102 (2015) also confirm the need to form psychological and moral readiness to work with special children. psychological readiness of specialists to work in an inclusive environment requires a tolerant attitude towards children with special educational needs, their positive perception regardless of psychophysical development, awareness and acceptance of their own emotions, the ability to cope with them, the ability to work with parents of such children. aharkova (2019) investigating the preparation of future educators and primary school teachers to work with children with special educational needs, argues that nowadays there are all opportunities to include different categories of pupils in the general educational process, and the teacher's task is to find the most favorable option for each special child to establish their interaction with peers. for further research, we accept the concept “individual educational path” in the interpretation of yarmola (2018) as an individual way of realizing the personal potential of a pupil (student), which is formed taking into account his/her abilities, interests, needs, motivation, capabilities and experience. the building of an individual educational path taking into account the characteristics of a particular child requires from teacher to understand the pedagogical, psychological and social aspects of interaction with him/her, as well as the use of special teaching methods that will be effective in this case. for each pupil with special educational needs, the creation of an individual educational path will involve the selection of a certain amount of educational information, a set of concepts and actions to master a topic or discipline. technologies and methods of teaching, ways of organizing the educational process are also varying. therefore, according to abovementioned we believe that providing effective training for the implementation of individual educational path of children with special educational needs and resolving contradictions is possible by taking into account the neuro-pedagogical aspects of this process (demchenko, et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; kosholap, et al., 2021). we agree with the opinion of vozniuk (2019a) that in the modern development of society to ensure effective training of specialists requires to use modern achievements of pedagogy and psychology, the combination of which has made within a new science – neuro-pedagogy. from the point of view of neuro-pedagogy to improve educational programs to prepare specialists for work and in an inclusive environment, it is necessary to take into account knowledge of cognitive neurology, differential psychophysiology, neuropsychology, data on brain organization of mastering various types of educational material, etc. (khok, 2010, p. 104). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 103 first of all, this approach requires the inclusion in educational programs of a set of special psychological and pedagogical disciplines that will allow for future specialists to develop skills and personal qualities to choose the optimal strategy of behavior in an inclusive environment, introduce and use effective pedagogical technologies for teaching children with special educational needs, to project their individual educational path. the formation of a single gnostic-perceptual complex of the future specialist influences onto the level of development of representative systems, social perception and determines the formation of a person's empathic ability, the ability to understand the motives of another person, the ability to stand on his/her point of view. the above mentioned aspects are very important for specialist who will work in an inclusive environment (vozniuk, 2019b, p. 6). identical position was proposed by nilholm (2005), who argued that introduction of inclusive education contributes to the emergence of conflicts between the requirements and needs of some pupils and the teacher's task is to find a compromise using pedagogical methods and appropriate resources. any activity of a teacher in an inclusive environment is reduced not only to the transfer of knowledge to pupils, but also to the formation of certain social consequences. these two tasks often conflict with each other (norwich & lewis, 2005). 3. the conditions the specialists training to implement the individual educational path of children with special educational needs scientific researches of improvement of inclusive education have led to the emergence of various models of the future teachers training to work with children with special educational needs. inclusive education is based on the combination of general and correctional education. parents of a child with psychophysical disabilities in accordance with the law can choose an educational institution, and therefore teachers who work in institutions with inclusive education need to develop skills to work in an inclusive environment. there is no doubt that such skills should be developed more earlier at the stage of professional training. in order to perform professional duties, taking into account the peculiarities of inclusive education of pedagogical staff, it is necessary to master the basics of special pedagogy and psychology, to understand the peculiarities of education and upbringing of children with psychophysiological development. in addition, the ability to select and combine methods of pedagogical influence for the successful implementation of the educational and correctional process is important. the preparation of specialists for the realization of individual education path of... olena vorotyntseva et al. 104 according to the analysis of the theory and practice of the specialists training to work in an inclusive environment, as well as practical experience in training such specialists, we outline the conditions for its improvement to ensure the formation of teachers' ability to implement individual educational path among children with special educational needs: a) the improving of the educational programs training of future specialists to work in an inclusive environment. the conducted analysis of the content of professional training of high institutions showed that in the educational program of the bachelor's degree in the field of “special education” the study of courses is provided as “correctional psychology”, “correctional pedagogy”, “fundamentals of inclusive education”, “organization and methods of teaching among persons with psychophysical defects”. in general, the share of such disciplines is 1830%, depending on high institution and specialization. students who study according to specialty “inclusive education” learn such disciplines as “fundamentals of inclusive education”, “fundamentals of pedagogical skills of primary school teachers”, “inclusive pedagogy”, etc. in general, the share of disciplines that have some potential for the formation of skills in an inclusive environment is 8-22%, depending on high institution. the education of these disciplines in general has a positive effect on the training of specialists to work in an inclusive environment, however, as their own experience shows, at the technological level, future teachers are not sufficiently qualified for such work. first of all, there is a deficiency of ability to include effectively children with different nosologies in the educational process; there is no experience of professional cooperation with various specialists of other branches in an inclusive educational environment, etc. the mentioned tendency is typical only for the specialization “inclusive education”, and for others 1-2 disciplines are in educational programs with purpose to introduce for students with features of work in the inclusive environment. however, this does not exclude the possibility that a teacher who does not have the appropriate specialization will not work with children with special educational needs in the future. moreover, the specialization “inclusive education” exists only for educational programs for preschool and primary school teachers. future teachers who will work with middle or high school children are deprived of the opportunity to get knowledge and skills to work in an inclusive environment at the stage of professional training. on-the-job-internship programs have certain opportunities to prepare future specialists to work in an inclusive environment. in particular, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 105 students should analyze certain pedagogical situations, to develop ways to solve ones, taking into account the characteristics of a child with special educational needs, etc. however, the analysis of the reporting documentation on pedagogical internship gives reason to claim that most future teachers are involved in working with a classroom without children with special educational needs, which ultimately does not contribute to the formation of the ability to implement their individual educational path. in searching ways to solve this problem, alekseenko and krolenko (2009) proposed to include additional topics in certain courses of academic disciplines. for example, the discipline “social and legal security” should be supplemented with a module about the legal principles of inclusive education. according to malyshevska (2016, p. 268), this will contribute to the formation of the perception of inclusive education and understanding of the need to implement the principle of equal access to quality education for people with special educational needs. reconsideration of educational programs of future specialists should ensure the development of professional readiness to work in an inclusive environment. this is the first step in training specialists to implement the individual educational path of children with special educational needs. in the content of professional readiness kyrsta (2015, p. 56) highlights the information readiness (knowledge of the basics of psychology and special pedagogy, individual differences of a child with special educational needs) and the technological readiness (the possession of appropriate pedagogical technologies, ability to interact with all participants in the educational process) to involve children with different types of disorders in activities, etc. the improving of educational programs to prepare future specialist to work in an inclusive environment will create the information readiness, which will have a positive impact on the final educational result. b) the renovation of the training methods of future teachers taking into account neuropedagogical aspects. the renovation of methods aims to improve the technological and methodological component of training of specialists to work in an inclusive environment. for example, we use the methods in the process of training of specialists to implement the individual educational path of children with special educational needs. these methods have proven their effectiveness. among them are: microlearning. the effectiveness of this method is based on the properties of the human brain to absorb and keep information in small portions. in his study, jenkins (2015) has found that microlearning improves pupils' memory by at least 20%. accordingly, the division of academic topics the preparation of specialists for the realization of individual education path of... olena vorotyntseva et al. 106 into small modules is the optimal solution to increase the effectiveness of learning. it is interesting to combine the principles of microlearning and modern information technology, one example of which is given in the publication by eades (2014). we should stress that microlearning has certain age characteristics: for younger pupils is one of the ways to master certain information, and for students –is an effective tool for deepening knowledge or acquiring the desired skills; using of different modes of concentration. oakley (2015) argued the greatest effectiveness of cognitive processes is achieved by alternating modes of concentration. it is expedient to use the focused mode of thinking for acquaintance with terminological apparatus of some topic or discipline. in order to deep his/her knowledge it is advisable to use defocused attention, for example, through debates, conversations, master classes realization, etc.; work in little groups. it is advisable to practice the quick reaction skills in conflict or critical situations, which is important for teachers working in an inclusive environment, in the process of working in little groups. in addition, it allows to beef up knowledge and skills on a particular topic, because explaining the material to the group members allows to a student actively applies the studied material, which has a positive effect on the formation of professional competence; cooperation with a mentor. this type of work is a priority during the on-the-job-internship, when students get into a real professional environment. the mentor, observing the work of the future specialist, will note the existing mistakes, possible ways out of stressful situations, features of behavior in different conditions. however, the on-the-job-internship should be preceded by situational modeling techniques, where the work of a mentor will also be useful; ensuring motivation to carry out a certain type of work. according to a number of scientists who have studied the cognitive processes of personality, in particular zaniuk (2002), any effective activity begins thanks to motivation. to achieve this goal it is necessary to provide motivation. in our case –we must stimulate students to improve their professional skills by learning the features of inclusive education, etc.; learning on mistakes. in the educational process, it is believed that error is a negative phenomenon and students are taught to avoid mistakes in any way. however, we agree with dehaene (2007) that error is the trigger of attention that determines such cognitive processes of personality as cognition and analysis. error occurs when there is a contradiction between the information received and available in the human mind, therefore it broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 107 causes a desire to find the causes of this contradiction and, accordingly, stimulates person’s cognitive processes. in the future work a student will use received skills with the specified methods, including at the stage of construction of an individual educational path. the characterized methods are aimed at maximizing the use of individual characteristics of each child to provide a certain educational and personal result. c) the ensuring of the possibility of professional self-improvement of specialists working in an inclusive environment during their professional activities. present day educational system is quite dynamic. corrections by social development require an appropriate response from a teaching staff. the need of professional self-improvement is associated with the constant strengthening of requirements for teaching in general, and to ensure inclusive education in particular. in order to solve this problem we have to create a concept of continuing education for those teachers who work in an inclusive environment. because, the process of training teachers to work with children with special educational needs requires specialists who are able to create and implement special educational programs and methods of teaching adapted to the conditions of inclusive education. currently, these processes occur spontaneously and intuitively, which complicates the decision of existing moral and psychological, organizational, regulatory and legal problems that occur in an inclusive educational environment. the first results of the introduction of inclusive education revealed problems of no readiness of teachers to work with children with special educational needs, which were shown in the presence of psychological barriers, professional stereotypes, unwillingness to work in an inclusive environment. another one feature was the lack of theoretical knowledge, guidelines, effective methods of working with children with special educational needs in secondary schools and the opportunity to obtain such knowledge and skills in the system of advanced training. we accept the statement by katkova et al. (2019, p. 209) in the need to realize the expectations of teachers in improving professional competence in conducting activities in an inclusive environment. the successful development of inclusive education largely depends on this. we think that providing opportunities for professional selfimprovement of specialists working in an inclusive environment should be provided not only in the form of advanced training, which is observed at this stage. first of all, the organization of methodical work, counseling of the preparation of specialists for the realization of individual education path of... olena vorotyntseva et al. 108 teachers by relevant specialists, psychological support, etc. should be provided. educators need to be able to make connections between new knowledge about working in an inclusive environment and the results they will get after practice. such connections are established through discussion, analysis, self-analysis, modeling in collaboration with colleagues. 4. conclusion consequently, we have to say without doubt that the introduction of inclusive education involves qualitative changes in the content of professional training who will work with children with special educational needs, as the formation of inclusive education is a global tendency pointed at realizing the rights of every child regardless of psychophysiological development to receive quality education. based on the theoretical analysis of scientific works the peculiarities of training in high institutions of future specialists who will work in the conditions of inclusion, as well as the existing shortcomings of this process were determined. the preparation of teachers for the implementation of the individual educational path of children with special educational needs should include the improvement of educational programs, updating methods taking into account neuropedagogical aspects, as well as providing opportunities for self-improvement of pedagogical competence during professional activities. this approach presupposes the development of measures that at the stage of professional training will promote the formation of skills of future teachers to individualize learning, organize cooperation with parents and direct support professionals, ensure social adaptation of children with special educational needs. therefore, on our viewpoint new prospects for further study of the stated problem must be in the creation of the training specialists model in specialty 013 “primary education” for the realization of individual educational path of children with special educational needs, definition of conditions for its implementation and organization of pedagogical experiment to test its effectiveness. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 109 references adascalitei, c. (2020). an integrative approach to vocational identity and of the prevention of school adaptation difficulties. moldavian journal for education and social psychology, 4(2), 20-27. https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/19 aharkova, n. (2019). pidhotovka maybutnikh vykhovateliv ta vchyteliv pochatkovykh klasiv do roboty z ditmy z osoblyvymy potrebamy. social work and education, 6(1), 70–79. https://doi.org/10.25128/25206230.19.1.7 alekseenko, s.d, & krolenko, n.p. (2009). zmist pidhotovky maybutnikh pedahohiv do inkliuzyvnoho navchannia. http://www.rusnauka.com/25_ssn_2009/pedagogica/51741.doc.htm amatori, g., mesquita, h., & quelhas, r. (2020). special education for inclusion in europe: critical issues and comparative perspectives for teachers’ education between italy and portugal. education sciences & society-open access, 11(1). url: https://doi.org/10.3280/ess1-2020oa9443 angel-alvarado, r., & álamos, j. (2018). dirección musical en el conjunto de guitarras guitárregas: un liderazgo centrado en laautodeterminación del profesorado de música. revista internacional de educación musical, 6(1), 53-61. https://doi.org/10.1177/230748411800600105 avramidis, e., & b. norwich. (2002). teachers’ attitudes towards integration/inclusion: a review of the literature. european journal of special needs education, 17(2), 129–147. https://doi:10.1080/08856250210129056 babakova, o. (2014). hotovnist pedahoha do vprovadzhennia inkliuzyvnoi osvity v ukraini. pedahohika zdorovia: zbirnyk naukovykh prats iv vseukrainskoi naukovopraktychnoi konferentsii, prysviachenoi 210-richchiu iz dnia zasnuvannia kharkivskoho natsionalnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu imeni h.s. skovorody/za zah. red. i. prokopenko. kharkiv: khnpu imeni h.s. skovorody. bajrami, v. (2019). inclusive education in multicultural environments in europe and kosovo. knowledge international journal, 32(1), 113-121. https://doi.org/10.26809/joa.4.035. chaikovsky, m.e. (2011). inkliuzyvnyi osvitniy prostir yak suchasnyi pedahohichnyi fenomen. teoretyko-metodychni problemy vykhovannia ditey ta uchnivskoi molodi: zbirnyk naukovykh prats, 15(1), 16‒24. chhabra, s., bose, k., & chadha, n. (2018). early childhood educators’ perspectives and practices about inclusion of children with special needs in botswana. journal of research in childhood education, 32(2), 234–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2018.1425223 . dehaene, s. (2007). les neurones de la lecture. éditions odile jacob. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional https://doi.org/10.18662/mjesp/4.2/19 https://doi.org/10.25128/2520-6230.19.1.7 https://doi.org/10.25128/2520-6230.19.1.7 http://www.rusnauka.com/25_ssn_2009/pedagogica/51741.doc.htm https://doi.org/10.3280/ess1-2020oa9443 https://doi.org/10.1177/230748411800600105 https://doi:10.1080/08856250210129056 https://doi.org/10.26809/joa.4.035 https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2018.1425223 the preparation of specialists for the realization of individual education path of... olena vorotyntseva et al. 110 activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 demchenko, i.i. (2016). teoretychni i metodychni zasady pidhotovky maybutnioho vchytelia pochatkovykh klasiv do profesiynoi diialnosti v umovakh inkliuzyvnoi osvity: avtoref… dys. na zdobuttia naukovoho stupenia doktora ped. nauk.: spets. 13.00.04 &quot; teoriia i metodyka profesiynoi osvity”, “korektsiyna pedahohika”. umanskyi derzhavny pedahohichny universytet imeni pavla tychyny. uman. donets, v.g. (2021). formuvannia hotovnosti vchyteliv pochatkovoi shkoly do innovatsiynoi diialnosti v umovakh inkliuzyvnoho navchannia: avtoref… dys. na zdobuttia naukovoho stupenia kand. ped. nauk.: spets. 13.00.04 "teoriia i metodyka profesiynoi osvity". khmelnytslka humanitarno-pedahohichna akademiia, khmelnytskyi. eades, j. (2014). why microlearning is huge and how to be a part of it. [electronic source]. elearningindustry.com. https://elearningindustry.com/why-microlearning-is-huge florian, l. (2014). what counts as evidence of inclusive education? european journal of special needs education, 29(3), 286–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2014.933551 gagné, m. (2009). a model of knowledge-sharing motivation. human resource management, 48(4), 571-589. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20298 jenkins, j. (2015). microlearning breaks down training to build it up [electronic source]. elearningindustry.com. https://elearningindustry.com/microlearningbreaks-training-build katkova, l., prytula, i., & taran, s. (2019). kompetentnist pedahoha – vazhlyvyi chynnyk efektuvnoi realizatsii inkliuzyvnoi osvity v umovakh zahalnoosvitnioho zakladu. praktychna psykholohiia v inkliuzyvnomu seredovyschi: materialy i vseukrainskoi naukovoi internet-konferentsii (pereiaslav-khmelnytsky, 21 liutioho 2019 roku) / za zah. red. v.a. vins, t.m. kuzmenko, i.m. zozulia pereiaslav-khmelnytsky: vydavets, ya.m dombrovska. p. 208–213. khok, r. (2010). issledovaniia kotorye potriasli psikhologiiu. prime-euroznak. kola-bezka, m. (2018). challenges of inclusive development in the context of the eu 2020 strategy. the case of poland. in: proceedings of the 4th international conference on european integration 2018, ostrava, všb – technical university of ostrava, pp. 765-772. url: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343398840_challenges_of_incl usive_development_in_the_context_of_the_eu_2020_strategy_the_cas e_of_poland kolupaieva, a.a. (ed.). (2012). osnovy inkliuzyvnoi osvity: navch.metod. ask. kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://elearningindustry.com/elearning-authors/john-eades https://elearningindustry.com/why-microlearning-is-huge https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2014.933551 https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20298 https://elearningindustry.com/elearning-authors/jayme-jenkins https://elearningindustry.com/microlearning-breaks-training-build https://elearningindustry.com/microlearning-breaks-training-build https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343398840_challenges_of_inclusive_development_in_the_context_of_the_eu_2020_strategy_the_case_of_poland https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343398840_challenges_of_inclusive_development_in_the_context_of_the_eu_2020_strategy_the_case_of_poland https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343398840_challenges_of_inclusive_development_in_the_context_of_the_eu_2020_strategy_the_case_of_poland broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 111 i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kuzmenko, t. (2019). stvorennia inkliuzyvnoho osvitnioho prostoru zakladu vyshchoi osvity yak osnova emotsiynoi stabilnosti uchasnykiv navchalnovykhovnoho protsesu. praktychna psykholohiua v inkliuzyvnomu seredovyshchi: materialy i vseukrainskoi naukovoi internet-konferentsii (pereiaslav-khmelnytsky, 21 liutioho 2019 roku) / za zah. red. v.a. vins, t.m. kuzmenko, i.m. zozulia pereiaslav-khmelnytsky: vydavets, ya.m dombrovska. p. 25–29. kyrsta, n. (2015). pidhotovka spetsialistiv doshkilnoho profiliu do roboty z ditmy z osoblyvymy osvitnimy potrebamy. osvitniy prostir ukrainy, 13, 49-54. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/opu_2018_13_9 malyshevska, i. (2016). pidhotovka spetsialnykh pedahohichnykh fakhivtsiv do roboty v umovakh osvitnioho seredovyshcha. pedahohichni nauky: teoriua, istoriia, innovatsiyni tekhnolohii, 8(62), 264–274. https://repository.sspu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/4568 merryfield, m. (2000). why aren’t teachers being prepared to teach for diversity, equity and global interconnectedness? a study of lived experiences in the making of multicultural and global educators. teaching and teacher education, 16, 79-90. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0742-051x(00)00004-4 mitchell, d. (2015). inclusive education is a multi-faceted concept. center for educational policy studies journal, 5(1), 9–30. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1128952.pdf nilholm, c. (2005). specialpedagogik vilka är de grundläggande perspektiven? pedagogisk forskning i sverige, 10(2), 124-138. http://www.divaportal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3a32672&dswid=8190 norwich, b., & lewis, a. (2005). how specialized is teaching students with disabilities and difficulties? in a. lewis and b. norwich (eds), special teaching for special children? open university press. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220270601161667 oakley, b. (2015). dumay kak matematik: kak reshat luibye zadachi bystree i effektivnee. alpina publisher. pakhomova, n. (2017). diahnostyko-korektsinyi konsaltynh v systemi pidhotovky fakhivtsia do roboty v umovakh inkliuzii. spetsialna osvita stan ta perspektyvy: materialy vseukrainskoi (zaochnoi) konferentsii, 17-18 travnia 2017 r. kharkiv, p. 374–378. plichta, p. (2012), przygotowanie nauczycieli do edukacji włączającej – kontekst europejski. w: d. podgórska-jachnik (ed.), dobre praktyki pedagogiczne szansą in-nowacyjnej edukacji (pp. 101–117). wydawnictwo naukowe wsp. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/opu_2018_13_9 https://repository.sspu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/4568 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0742-051x(00)00004-4 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1128952.pdf http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3a32672&dswid=8190 http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3a32672&dswid=8190 https://doi.org/10.1080/00220270601161667 the preparation of specialists for the realization of individual education path of... olena vorotyntseva et al. 112 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 schuman, h. (2017). eu policy on and practices in eu member states regarding inclusive education in early years settings. http://www.ogretmenplatform.org/suboutputs/altcikti3.pdf stayton, v., & mccollun, j. (2002), unifying general and special education: what does the re-search tell us? teacher education and special education: the journal of the teacher education division of the council for exceptional children, 25(3), 211–218. https://doi.org/10.1177/088840640202500302 świtała, e. (2020). inclusive education in poland. in l. claiborne & v. balakrishnan (eds.), moving towards inclusive education (pp. 38–54). https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004432789_003 utts, j., & heckard, r. (2015). mind on statistics. cengage learning. vozniuk, a.v. (2019a). postneklasicheskiye rubezhi budushchago: uchebnoye posobiie. koob publications. vozniuk, o.v. (2019b). neyropedahohika potuzhnyi resurs osvity doroslykh. andrahohichnyi visnyk. zhytomyr: vyd. zhdu im. i. franka, 10, 19-27. http://library.zu.edu.ua/andragogichnyi_visnyk.htm yarmola, n. (2018). indyvidualna osvitnia traektoriia dytyny z porushenniamy intelektualnoho rozvytku: praktychni kroky. osvita osib z osoblyvymy potrebamy: shliakhy rozbudovy, 1(14), 195-201. https://www.spp.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/58 yukhymets, i.v., & savchuk, l.o (2012). pidhotovka pedahohiv do roboty v umovakh inkliuzyvnoho navchannia. visnyk naukovo-doslidnytskoi laboratorii inkliuzyvnoi osvity. vypusk 3. rivne: roippo. 69 p. zakharchuk, m.e. (2009). problema profesiino-pedahohichnoi pidhotovky maybytnikh vykladachiv vyshchoi shkoly do innovatsiynoi diialnosti v umovakh inkliuzyvnoho navchannia. visnyk lvivskoho universytetu. seriia pedahohichna, 25, 144–150. zanyuk, s. s. (2002). psykholohiia motyvatsii. lybid. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 http://www.ogretmenplatform.org/suboutputs/altcikti3.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/088840640202500302 https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004432789_003 http://library.zu.edu.ua/andragogichnyi_visnyk.htm https://www.spp.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/58 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 370-386 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/425 submitted: november 15th, 2022 | accepted for publication: december 4th, 2022 neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual situations in sports and the role of emotions оksana khurtenko1, liliya tomich 2, dmytro drahunov3, kristina hancheva4, tetiana lytvyn-zhmurko5, halyna radchuk6 1 сandidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, kseniaxyrtenko@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2498-1515 2 сandidate of medical sciences, associate professor, kyiv national university of technology and design (knutd), ukraine, liliya_tomich@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-9038-9077 3 doctor of philosophy, senior lecturer, department of physical rehabilitation, chernihiv polytechnic national university, ukraine, drahunovdm@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5305-7815 4 lecturer of the department of physical education, sport and health of man, izmail state university of humanities, ukraine, kristinka78a@gmail.com 5 lecturer of the department of sports, t.h.shevchenko national university "chernihiv colehium", ukraine, litvint035@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1448-9949 6 doctor of psychology, full professor, head of the department of developmental psychology and counseling, ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, galyna012345@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5809-544x abstract: the article considers modern neurophysiological approaches to the readiness of future coaches to act adequately in unusual situations and clarifies real indicators of emotional readiness of future coaches. objective of the article is complex. we planned to substantiate the role of the emotional-volitional sphere as decisive in quick and effective decisionmaking by coaches and athletes, to outline neurophysiological, psychometric (real emotional-volitional readiness of students) partially pragmatic (requirements of today’s sports and coaching realities). we used mainly theoretical (analysis and generalization of sources), empirical (observations, surveys, questionnaires, psychometric testing and mathematical methods of data processing) approaches. finally, we summarized and explained current trends in the context of understanding social, didactic and neurophysiological mechanisms of an emotional maturity. in the article, the authors proved that in ukrainian higher education institutions emotional readiness is not formed enough, and instead of the modern inter-scientific neurocentric approach, the modernist approach dominates. statistical processing of a survey, questionnaire and test data showed mostly low indicators for all key parameters (anxiety, self-control, ability to self-regulate, etc.). this requires a further theoretical research and methodological reform of ukrainian physical education and coaching education with the introduction of self-regulatory practices, the development of professional reflection and emotional stability. international significance of the article. the article draws educators' attention to the problems of psycho-emotional readiness of young people to solve difficult life and work situations, as recently young people in europe prefer hyperreal activity and communication, which slows down the formation of readiness for rapidly changing highly responsible life challenges. keywords: neurophysiological mechanisms; emotional and volitional sphere; stability-noise immunity; reflective practices; predicting the consequences of decision-making. how to cite: khurtenko, o., tomich, l., drahunov, d., hancheva, k., lytvyn-zhmurko, t., & radchuk, h. (2023). neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual situations in sports and the role of emotions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 370-386. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/425 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/425 mailto:kseniaxyrtenko@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2498-1515 mailto:liliya_tomich@ukr.net mailto:drahunovdm@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5305-7815 mailto:kristinka78a@gmail.com mailto:litvint035@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1448-9949 mailto:galyna012345@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5809-544x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/425 neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual … оksana khurtenko, et al. 371 introduction it should be noted that at the stage of professional training in the university there is a purposeful development of students' knowledge of the chosen professional activity, the formation of holistic ideas about it, development and content of motives and goals of future activities as a coach. however, the emotional and volitional sphere of even undergraduate students remains insufficiently formed for coaching professional decisionmaking and effective decisions in extreme conditions of a team sports management. this indicates the need to significantly improve the level of development of not only cognitive but also emotional and volitional component of psychological readiness of the future coach to professional activity in the holistic educational process of the university. numerous facts of ineffective and even unprofessional behavior of young coaches in extreme conditions add to the urgency of the problem. in non-standard situations, when there are no normative orders "from above", an inexperienced coach, due to the conflict of available options for decisionmaking, begins to use what he has as if in "hidden form", in the form of examples of non-normative actions. as a rule, such a condensed reaction of the "inner" personality to an unusual situation is not rational, which can lead, according to stsiborovskyi (2005), to quite serious difficulties in formulating a decision and its implementation. in addition, the separation of rational from irrational in decision-making is relative. on the other hand, positive emotional reinforcement in coaching plays a significant developmental and formative role. thus, participation in competitions for athletes and coaches is a highly motivated activity that has both a personal and social significance. according to our observations and results of the research by other authors, emotional and volitional personality traits that have a positive effect on achieving high results in sports, in the process of many years of training are significantly developed. it is subject to the principle of sufficiency (rocchi et al., 2013). the high level of physical and mental stress characteristic of sports contributes to the development of the preserving properties of psychics, which reduce mental stress through more rational behavior. such top personality traits include foreign scientists: self-control, caution, practicality, lozhkin (2004). they are more typical for experienced athletes and coaches with significant experience. thus, the role of emotions (or lack of them, control) in coaching and sports acmeology is crucial, but ukrainian specialists in sports psychology and pedagogy within the current paradigm advocate a comprehensive approach to building competencies to respond to unforeseen situations in broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 372 sports. for example, an influential contribution to the development of ideas about the psychological readiness of a specialist in physical culture made by chichikin (2010) while studying the dynamics of the formation of its structural components such as operational, informational and motivational. the authors showed the importance of methodological training of students in junior courses, despite the fact that in this period their development is separate from professional readiness as a whole. it is worth noting the non-standard view on the problem of the professional development, which was expressed by perfileva (2000) in the course of studying the choice of perspectives of a personal and professional development of the future specialist in physical culture and sports. the main idea of this approach is that a properly designed acmeological project and its flexible implementation is the key to success and well-being of student coaches. central to the conceptual strategy of the future specialist in physical culture and sports is the formation of his ideas about ways to develop a competence. recently, the emotional and volitional concept is gaining popularity. mental resilience, the ability to self-regulate, flexibility and independence in decision-making the main qualities of an emotionally stable coach (mospan & kovalchuk 2018). foreign scholars believe that reflection (reflexive ability, quality, speed, reflexive strategy, etc.) is the main competence of such a coach (knowles et al., 2005). in recent years, it has become clear that reflection, emotional and volitional provocatives, the ability to self-regulation these are mental categories of one qualitative order, which are based on relict mechanisms of a human perceptuality and reactivity. in this regard, the interdisciplinary paradigm of problems of subjects' response to various stimuli, including decision-making as the highest form of the response, has become a dominant. this interdisciplinary approach is based on the study of neurophysiological natural mechanisms and their relationship to a higher mental activity. the relevance of the article is also added by the statistical fact: it was found that factors of effective, adequate decision-making in extreme activities, students consider emotional stability (52.39%), professional experience (28.57% of respondents), speed of decision-making (14, 29%), innate features, intuition of the coach (9.52%), etc. on the other hand, it is very unfortunate that almost every fourth future coach (23.81%) does not know and does not think about what affects the success of his professional activities in extreme situations. neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual … оksana khurtenko, et al. 373 the above considerations allowed to formulate the purpose of the article to identify and summarize on the basis of the modern foreign scientific discourse the latest neurophysiological and pragmatic (principles of sports and coaching) aspects of decision-making in non-standard situations of coaching and measure emotional parameters of future coaches. research methods: theoretical (analysis and generalization of psychological and pedagogical literature, generalization and comparison of data obtained from students and trainers-practitioners); empirical: observations, oral and written interviews (conversation, interview, questionnaire), psychometric testing (tests for self-assessment of mental states of eisenko, to determine the motivation, mental reliability of milman in sports, personal anxiety of spielbergerkhanin, and some others). note that all tests are well known and available on the internet, so the authors did not represent or detail them in this article. we also used mathematical methods of processing research results (statistical, correlation analysis, methods to verify the reliability of differences in the studied indicators, etc.) for their analysis and interpretation. the experimental study was conducted in ukraine on the basis of vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university and vinnytsia socio-economic institute of the university "ukraine" from 2019 to 2021. the study involved 336 students in grades from 1 to 4, 56 university teachers and coaches. it should be noted that students and trainers have volunteered to take surveys and psychometric methods, and ethics committees of these institutions agreed to conduct a data collection. neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual situations in sports and the role of emotions in this often non-standard decisions in sports must be made quickly or instantly. their result is usually a verbal reaction of the coach to the team or athlete. in the formation of such competence, which should be brought to automatism, it is useful to generalize scientists who have studied the relationship of emotions and verbal reactions in standard and non-standard situations. neuropsychological researches have shown that if a person finds himself in a predictable, expected situation, then before the verbal reaction, the brain rationally processes denotative, i. e. factual language (kosholap et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). but if a person suddenly falls into an uncertain, unpredictable or risky situation, the first automatically turn on the reflex affective mechanisms and reactions (hinojosa et al., 2019). this is one broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 374 of the biggest problems of everyday and professional behavior with a sharp change in the situation with possible negative consequences. currently, neuroscientists mostly study compulsive, affective and instinctive decision-making mechanisms in non-standard situations. such solutions are quick but ineffective. these are reactions that are almost independent of a human will. they are associated with the activation of relict mechanisms of self-preservation and a sharp release of neurotransmitters (ross et al., 2016). this data provide little for the education of future coaches, but they allow us to predict the reactive behavior of athletes and coaches in extreme situations. based on this, the future coach needs to learn to perceive any abruptly changed situation not as a situation of danger (destructive interpretation), but as a situation of uncertainty (potentially constructive interpretation). practicing such awareness in combination with stress training, will minimize the affect. when working on this mechanism, it is necessary to take into account neurophysiology, sports psychology and pedagogy (cognitive methods of acquiring automated competencies). that is, our problem is interdisciplinary and requires a comprehensive approach to solve, according to kahneman and tverskaya (2000). in practice, there is usually a greater or lesser period of time between new sporting circumstances and the outcome of a decision. based on neurophysiological, i. e. the deepest resources of a human behavior, the optimal decision-making in an unusual situation is reduced to the lightning round of several options on the criterion of reward or punishment, their probability and criticality (clark et al., 2004). such a neurocognitive structure for a mature person with sufficient or high intelligence already provides minimal time and space for solving problem situations and making atypical decisions. emotional maturity is an important general option of a successful coaching. the very understanding of coaching implies psychological stability, the presence of at least a minimum of life and work experience and the absence of negative expectations. how can it be explained that experienced trainers make more effective decisions in non-standard situations, even if they do not have special methods of self-regulation and decision-making algorithms? researches have shown that experienced middle-aged and older coaches make such decisions effectively not so much because of the knowledge, but because of an emotional maturity, experience in solving and experiencing a variety of stressful situations, as well as age-related reduced reactivity and sensitivity. this allows us to formulate a hypothetical pattern: “we train one to improve another”. neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual … оksana khurtenko, et al. 375 in the most concentrated form, the subject of our research is manifested in the training of management and decision-making by coaches in risky and traumatic sports: mountaineering, gymnastics, most contact martial arts and some games. experienced sports educators offer such coaches, first of all, to work out behavioral preparations, to study specific and to know the general specifics of the environment in which the competition takes place. and most importantly to adequately assess the probability of a wrong decision and its possible consequences (collins, & collins, 2013). if the trainer does this work beforehand, his level of neurophysiological stress will decrease significantly before making decisions, as the level of uncertainty and expectations of failure will decrease. this technique is especially suitable for inexperienced coaches. specialists in neuropedagogy have long realized that the development of resilience and emotional stability in a rapidly changing environment is facilitated by developmental practices and the strengthening of one's own subjectivity and reflective practices. the simplest method of conducting such practices is the repeated reproduction of industrial incidents of adventures and force majeure situations with the help of their regular play by means of speech, movements and appropriate pauses. the effectiveness of such practices has been experimentally proven (chambers et al., 2007). the theoretical basis for their effectiveness, in our opinion, lies in the natural, innate neurophysiological basis of both affective response to stress and the ability to subjective reflection the main motivational tool for the development of self-identification “i” and self-development. metaphysical research on sports coaching as a way to realize their own subjectivity and its not fully realized needs offer future and current coaches to engage in introspection to determine motives for sports choices. this is especially useful for adventure and risk sports coaches. scientists proceed from the postulate: if a student or former athlete chooses the professional path of a coach in risky or adventure sports, he a priori aspires for it and is ready (a person does not choose what he does not aspire to) (eastabrook & collins, 2020). another similar argument is that coaching is creative and specific. therefore, a person cannot choose it simply under the pressure of life circumstances. an analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted in 2020 among athletes at the highest risk of sports showed that people choose these sports to experience vivid emotional and cognitive experiences. the generalization of the motives of this choice allowed scientists to form three motivational concepts: integrity, authenticity, development. as the active activity of athletes is short-lived and significantly broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 376 limited by age, some of them choose the coaching path in order to somehow continue to gain such experience or be involved in it. in the same year, ukrainian scientists debedeva and onishchenko (2020) developed a structure of non-standard situations and psychological characteristics of their participants. we consider it necessary to briefly summarize their work, as it is characterized by the exhaustive classification of non-standard sports situations by defining parameters: a) short duration; b) stamina responsibility mobilization; c) the degree of uncertainty; d) readiness for operational action; e) willingness to obtain false manipulative or unverified information; f) the degree of criticality of results of the decision. these criteria are almost comprehensive and can help not only to form correct reactions and behavior of a coach or athlete in unusual situations, but also to become markers and indicators of psychological and ethical readiness to perform professional tasks and carry a high social status of an athlete or a coach. across the sports world, it is accepted that highly responsible coaching work (especially in popular sports) involves coaches who have been prominent players in the past. recent portuguese researchers have found a direct link between these facts based on a decision-making ability (silva et al., 2020). the fact is that playing sports at a high level of skill very often puts the athlete in an unusual situation with the need to make quick and effective decisions. if he regularly demonstrates the correctness of tactical decisions by intuitive, cognitive and behavioral means, it lays a solid foundation for future strategic coaching decisions. as for the formation of athletes and future coaches' ability to make quick and effective (or at least adequate or optimal in severe cases) decisions, silva, sonte and clemente (2020) propose to develop training programs based on short, simulated, but fast and clearly regulated games. such games from the point of view of pedagogy will look like practical scenarios with a certain degree of uncertainty. the main indicator of the effectiveness of such training is the appropriate, rapid and effective intervention in the dynamic course of the scenario while maintaining emotional stability. this should be an intervention that minimizes uncertainty without violating the rules and resource losses (mental, temporal, rating, points, etc.). for his part, german sports psychologist haan (2021) last year conducted a thorough review of the latest concepts of the role of emotions in sports. he proceeded from the general idea of modern philosophy, psychology and pedagogy of sport. it sounds like the thesis of no “emotions”. and it no longer depends on the coaching concept or the sport. this is especially true of the elite level of most popular sports, where the neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual … оksana khurtenko, et al. 377 price of the wrong decision entails significant financial, rating, time and career losses, as well as affects a number of sporting aspects (national prestige, fan confidence, investment opportunities, etc.). haan (2021) summarized the following counterarguments on the expression and stimulation of emotions in high-level sports: ● emotions are always stress, and stress is a reduction in effectiveness. ● emotions are a personal problem, and sports achievements are always the result of joint activities of the coach and team / athlete. ● elite sports and the emotions of its participants are incompatible. ● the philosophy of modern coaching involves complete disregard for emotions of all participants in the training process. ● coaches, sports officials, club owners have the right to use moral and psychological pressure to “introduce strong sportsmanship”. it is clear that in the early stages of a career, neither the athlete nor the coach can be completely emotionless due to age (psychologically immature), social and production (lack of experience) factors. therefore, in developed countries there is a whole system of youth training to gain a professional and emotional-volitional experience: youth sports leagues, developed network of sports clubs at all levels of administrative division, multilevel system of non-professional and professional leagues in playing sports and more. thus, in today's sports and pedagogical world discourse, the main obstacle to effective coaching of non-standard situations is excessive emotionality and inability to manage emotions, which encourages sports coaches and officials to react harshly to emotions in sports, and scientists to seek deep emotional and neurophysiological mechanisms and impact on them. psychometric measurements of emotional readiness the task of this part is to find out the role of emotional factors in decision-making at the initial stage of coach training (students), as well as (for comparison) to make psychometric measurements of similar factors in experienced coaches. one of the important indicators of operational readiness for decision-making in extreme situations is the ability of the individual to mental self-regulation, self-management. for this purpose, a number of techniques were used, in particular, the technique for identifying the level of emotional and volitional self-regulation. the content of students' practical broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 378 classes necessarily included more complex emotional tasks, situations in classes, sports competitions, which required willful regulation. it was found that such an indicator as the ability of the individual to mental self-regulation of states, behavior, senior students put in the ranking of 12th place and subjectively evaluate it as the worst. according to eisenko's method, we also found that almost every second undergraduate has a high level of anxiety. these results correlate well with the results of the study of personal anxiety of students by the method of spielberger-khanin, which we present in table 1. tab. 1. levels of personal anxiety of students future coaches students future coaches levels of personal anxiety low medium high the first year of study 0 22,73 % 77,27 % the second year of study 0 26,47 % 73,53 % the third year of study 0 20,83 % 79,17 % source: author's own conception this indicates an insufficient level of development of students' skills and abilities in a mental self-regulation. this affects their inability to reduce the level of such a destructive mental state as anxiety in extreme situations of sports. in order to verify this statement, additional testing of students was carried out according to the method of mental reliability in sports by milman (table 2). tab. 2. levels of development of mental reliability indicators for future coaches students of the year of study indicators of mental confidence in competitions levels of mental reliability low (the number of students in %) medium (the number of students in %) high (the number of students in %) first competitive emotional and volitional stability 85,00 15,00 0,00 self-regulation 50,00 30,00 20,0 stability-noise immunity 40,00 55,00 5,00 competitive emotional and volitional stability 80,95 19,05 0,00 neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual … оksana khurtenko, et al. 379 second self-regulation 52,38 38,10 9,52 stability-noise immunity 57,14 42,86 0,00 third competitive emotional and volitional stability 77,27 22,73 0,00 self-regulation 45,45 36,36 18,19 stability-noise immunity 31,85 68,15 0,0 source: author's own conception as you can see from table 2, approximately every second student is a future coach according to the above method also found a low level of formation of the ability to self-regulate mental states, behavior and their own actions in sports, competitions. it was found that 80% of respondents showed low emotional and volitional stability in competitions. as you can see in table 2 from one year of study another a competitive emotional and volitional stability of students increases slightly, due to the increase in the number of hours in senior courses aimed at specialization, the development of their sportsmanship. however, students with a high level of competitive emotional and volitional stability according to this method were not identified. the indicator of stability-noise immunity according to the method of milman characterizes the stability of internal functional states of athletes, the stability of their motor skills and sports equipment, immunity to various stimuli, noise. in our opinion, it largely testifies to the ability of an individual to withstand various negative influences on the psyche in future coaching work. using spearman's test, it was found that this indicator at the level of p≤0.01 correlates with such an indicator as competitive emotional and volitional instability. in our opinion, the research on gender differences gets considerable scientific and practical interest in the development of mental activity indicators of the future coach. its results are presented in table 3. tab. 3. levels of development of indicators of mental reliability in young students students indicators of mental confidence in competitions levels of mental reliability in young men and women low (the number of students in %) medium (the number of students in %) high (the number of students in %) broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 380 male competitive emotional and volitional stability 80,39 19,61 0,00 self-regulation 52,94 29,41 17,65 stability-noise immunity 39,22 58,82 1,96 female competitive emotional and volitional stability 83,33 16,67 0,00 self-regulation 33,33 58,34 8,33 stability-noise immunity 58,33 41,67 0,00 source: author's own conception as you can see from table. 3, no significant differences in an emotional and volitional stability in young men and women. at the same time, boys have a much better ability to self-regulate behavior and mental resilience than girls. this once again confirms the fact that women’s emotional activity in extreme situations of sports is somewhat superior to volitional. that is why they have a higher tendency to emotionally respond to various stressors, lower levels of mental stability and the ability to selfregulate behavior in extreme situations of sports. given the ability to transfer such skills and abilities to real professional activities of the coach, it can be argued about negative consequences of such an impact on the effectiveness of decision-making by coaches in extreme situations of sports. surveys of trainers about the reaction caused by their unusual situation when making a decision, the most common were negative, psychophysiological reactions (16.2% of respondents), associated with pale face (8.1%), excessive sweating (5.4 %), hand tremors (2.7%). excessive fuss was also found during the difficult decision-making process. it was shown by 11% of respondents, which indicates a lack of ability to focus and build a clear plan of action in one’s head, and then systematically and consistently implement it in practice. in the decisionmaking situation there were such asthenic reactions of coaches as a certain inattention (7% of respondents); search for sympathy (2.5%). at the same time, much more coaches with certain reactions were found: they swore, clearly showed an excess of emotions 16%, aggression 8% of respondents, and so on. according to our observations, more complex emotional experiences in extreme conditions of sports competitions are typical for students (table 4). neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual … оksana khurtenko, et al. 381 tab. 4. dynamics of anxiety and aggression for students in situations of extreme activity students of the year of study anxiety levels of aggression absent (the number of students in %) present (the number of students in %) low (the number of students in %) medium (the number of students in %) high (the number of students in %) first 50,00 50,00 40,90 36,36 22,74 second 61,29 38,71 9,67 76,43 13,90 third 39,12 60,88 17,39 56,52 26,09 fourth 36,00 64,00 16,00 54,00 30,00 source: author's own conception characteristics of the decision-making in non-standard situations are indicators of dynamics of the coach's calm, i.e. his transition to a normal mental state from the changed one, which was caused by the extremeness of the situation. these indicators are determined primarily by the mental stability of the individual, as an integrative characteristic, the effectiveness of the decision, the presence of positive or negative experience of management. the results of the experimental study showed that immediately after the decision, about 40% of coaches calmed down, and within 5 10 minutes 15% of respondents, which indicates a fairly high level of self-control in most coaches. at the same time, for 45% of coaches, it takes a day or even a few days to calm down. this is objectively related to the individual nature of the course of mental processes that occur in combination with two stressors: non-standard conditions and non-standard tasks. quantitative indicators of the effectiveness of solving problems in different types of situations are a clear confirmation of this. the results of the study convinced us that the coach needs a combination of reflexive abilities and the ability to selfregulate to make effective decisions in non-standard situations of the highest level of an complexity. we should not forget, that along with conditions and tasks, the structural element of the situation is the individual. in this regard, it is necessary to take into account the perception of students and even decisionmaking coaches, non-standard situation as subjective-extreme. subjectively extreme (stressful state of mind) is a specifically altered state, which is caused by acute perception of an unusual situation and is accompanied by a narrowing of the field of consciousness and weakening of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 382 psychological control over the situation, avdeev (1992). common in the manifestation of subjective extremism is the loss of mental control, and for an individual is the presence of signs of frustrating, conflict and crisis response due to the changed state of mind. we conducted a study of the mental states in which students are during the competition, where making decisions in unusual situations. conclusion the work of neurophysiologists of the late twentieth century shows that the basis of unconscious motives for behavior, reactions to personally or socially significant irritant, stimuli or situations are natural neurophysiological mechanisms of lower order (affect, expectation of positive stimuli, increased neurohumoral activity). this brought the factor of emotions in decision-making to drastically changed circumstances in the first place. and in the third millennium with the help of magnetic resonance imaging of individual microparticles of the brain, scientists proved that the mechanisms of primitive perceptual decisions are carried out by mobilizing several populations of selectively tuned sensory neurons (heekeren et al., 2004). these and other neuroscientific arguments presented in the first part of the article finally prove the paramount importance of the psychoemotional factor in making non-standard decisions by athletes and coaches. this is supported by the pragmatics of sports activities: to achieve the highest results at the "elite" sports level, it is necessary to completely eliminate the influence of emotions as a determining factor. before summarizing the main psychometric emotional indicators, in our opinion, it is important to present views of students-future coaches on factors that determine the correctness of the coach's decisions in extreme situations of wrestling. the survey has found that, according to students, the strongest influence on the effectiveness of decision-making, actually mental, emotional and volitional readiness of the coach (his ability to self-control, emotional stability, high level of mental self-regulation, etc.). this was stated by 52.39% of respondents. but here we observe a paradoxical dissonance: the level of real development of students' emotional and volitional stability, sufficient for participation in competitions, and the ability to self-regulation are very low. below we present the generalizations made on the basis of the psychometric indicators given in the previous sections. thus, the research has found that the situation of anxiety manifests itself in students as a consequence of an emotional and social immaturity, lack of awareness of the cause of failure, lack of understanding of ways out of difficult situations. there is also aggression which directing negative neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual … оksana khurtenko, et al. 383 energy to the object that caused the failure, or to yourself / the team (autoaggression). we found that significantly higher levels of anxiety are characteristic of firstand final-year students. similarly, they change the rate of aggression of the individual. in our opinion, this is due to the processes of their adaptation: in the first year to study at university, in senior years to their adaptation to a more intense educational process and in connection with the decision on further life (continued training or employment). 80% of students were diagnosed with a low emotional and volitional stability, which indicates their inability to withstand the high pace and intensity of competitions, to restrain themselves in extreme situations. based on the above, it is safe to say that the low level of restraint is due to the lack of special psychological training of students in higher education institutions. students show the same negative trait for the coach and athlete in competitions and in the process of managing the team's sports activities. they will no doubt transfer it to future coaching work in the absence of a corrective action. selective observation of the behavior of individual undergraduate students in the performance of coaching functions in most cases confirmed the above assumption. the results of the research of the levels of emotional and volitional stability and self-regulation in first-, secondand third-year students indicate that there are significant problems with their development in future coaches at the university. the main reason is the lack of educational and psychocorrectional content line aimed at the practice of self-regulation and psychotherapeutic correction. it was found that almost half of the surveyed students are characterized by a low level of stability and noise immunity. external negative factors of noise immunity in the conditions of a sports team management at competitions can be actions of fans, competitors, aimed at destabilizing the relationship in the team, moral pressure, etc. the result of comparing future and current coaches is important. based on a set of numerous parameters and the results of a survey of coaches, we found that the vast majority of coaches based on the experience and professional design ability to create an adequate image of an unusual situation and objectively assess the complexity of the sports situation. this was stated by 72% of respondents. among students, we see the opposite trend: the exaggeration of the complexity of the situation was reported by 19% of respondents and only 9% of future coaches tend to reduce the complexity of the situation. thus, the results of the analysis allowed to identify latent and obvious emotional and volitional factors that actively determine the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 384 decision-making process and its effectiveness. the search for the most closely related characteristics allowed us to conclude that the subjective perception of complexity (non-standard situation) is integrated with its real (objective) complexity and is the most important psychological characteristic of personality behavior during decision-making. limitations of the research. in the article we proved that the emotional component of readiness to make decisions in extreme situations of sports activity was insufficiently formed in students of 1-4 courses. thus, their ability to a mental self-regulation in sports and competitive activities was poorly developed; emotional and volitional stability, noise immunity. in extreme situations of wrestling, students have a high level of anxiety, aggression, and in case of defeat frustration. undergraduate students and even graduates do not have modern technologies of mental a self-regulation, management of their own destructive states, and therefore are not able to fully behave adequately in terms of managing a sports team in extreme situations of wrestling. our article demonstrates the statistical scale of these problems and current trends in their solution, but there is an urgent need to develop and implement special programs to form students' psychological readiness to make decisions in non-standard situations of the sports management and implement them in the educational process. acknowledgment authors 1 and 6 adapted and applied the psychometric methods mentioned in the introduction, and author 2 performed statistical processing of the obtained data. theoretical argumentation of the need for neurophysiological clarification of the mechanisms of coaching and sports decisions was made by author 3. description and interpretation of the obtained data is author 4. author 5 carried out the final work on summarizing the results, annotating, reviewing and technical design of the article. references avdeev, v. v. (1992). psychotechnology for solving problem situations. phoenix. bezliudnyi o., kravchenko o., maksymchuk b., mishchenko m., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), 230. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 neuroscientific view on making urgent decisions, responding to unusual … оksana khurtenko, et al. 385 chambers, p., eriksen odeggard, e., & rinaldi, e. (2007). risk‐taking and reflective learning. reflective practice, 8(2), 163-176. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623940701288909 chichikin, v. t. (2010). organizational and methodological support of physical education of students in an educational institution. novgorod. clark, l., cools, r., & robbins, t. w. (2004). the neuropsychology of ventral prefrontal cortex: decision-making and reversal learning. brain and cognition, 55(1), 41-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0278-2626(03)00284-7 collins, d., & collins, l. (2013). decision making and risk management in adventure sports coaching. quest, 65(1), 72-82. https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2012.727373 eastabrook, c., & collins, l. (2020). why do individuals seek out adventure sport coaching? journal of adventure education and outdoor learning, 20(3), 245-258. https://doi.org/10.1080/14729679.2019.1660192 hahn, e. (2021). emotions in sports. in d. hackfort, & c. d. spielberger (eds.), anxiety in sports (pp. 153-162). taylor & francis. heekeren, h., marrett, s., bandettini, p., & ungerleider, l. g. (2004). a general mechanism for perceptual decision-making in the human brain. nature, 431, 859–862. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02966 hinojosa, j. a., moreno, e. m., & ferré, p. (2019). affective neurolinguistics: towards a framework for reconciling language and emotion. language, cognition and neuroscience, 35(7), 813-839. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2019.1620957 kahneman, d., & tversky, a. (2000). choices, values, and frames. cambridge university press. knowles, z., borrie, a., & telfer, h. (2005). towards the reflective sports coach: issues of context, education and application. ergonomics, 48(11-14), 17111720. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140130500101288 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lozhkin, g. (2004). psychological distance between athletes in a sports team and its effect on team's competitiveness. in international journal of psychology, 39(5-6), 367-367. https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/pijp20/39/5-6 maksymchuk, i., maksymchuk, b., frytsiuk, v., matviichuk, t., demchenko, i., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., nikitenko, a., bilan, v., sitovskyi, a., & savchuk, i. (2018). developing pedagogical mastery of future physical education teachers in higher education institutions. journal of physical https://doi.org/10.1080/14623940701288909 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0278-2626(03)00284-7 https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2012.727373 https://doi.org/10.1080/14729679.2019.1660192 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02966 https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2019.1620957 https://doi.org/10.1080/00140130500101288 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/pijp20/39/5-6 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 386 education and sport, 18(2), 810–815. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 mospan, m., & kovalchuk, v. (2018). features of development of self-regulation abilities in pedagogical activity of sports coach. publishing house “baltija publishing”. https://doi.org/10.30525/978-9934-571-30-5_10 perfileva, e. n. (2000). a developing professional in the field of physical culture and sports and his life strategies. monograph. rocchi, m. a., pelletier, l. g., & couture, a. l. (2013). determinants of coach motivation and autonomy supportive coaching behaviours. psychology of sport and exercise, 14(6), 852-859. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.07.002 ross, j., duperrouzel, j., vega, m., & gonzalez, r. (2016). the neuropsychology of risky sexual behavior. journal of the international neuropsychological society, 22(6), 586-594. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355617716000400 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 silva, a. f., conte, d., & clemente, f. m. (2020). decision-making in youth teamsports players: a systematic review. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(11), 3803. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17113803 stsiborovsky, o. a. (2005). psykholohichni osoblyvosti pryinyattia efektyvnykh rishen ofitseramy dps ukrayiny v nestandartnykh sytuatsiyakh [psychological features of effective decision-making by officers of the state tax service of ukraine in non-standard situations]. [unpublished doctoral thesis]. national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytsky. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2018.02119 https://doi.org/10.30525/978-9934-571-30-5_10 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.07.002 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355617716000400 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17113803 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 242-263 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/386 submitted: september 12th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 14th, 2022 ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk 1 , olena soia 2 , olena kosovets 3 , alina klimishyna 4 , mariana kovtoniuk 5 , olena tryfonova 6 1 candidate of science in pedagogy, senior lecturer of mathematics and computer science department, vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, larissa.antoniuk2021@gmail.com 2 candidate of science in pedagogy, senior lecturer of mathematics and computer science department, vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, soya.o.m@gmail.com 3 candidate of science in pedagogy, senior lecturer of mathematics and computer science department, vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, helen.kosovets@gmail.com 4 candidate of science in pedagogy, senior lecturer of mathematics and computer science department, vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, klimishyna.alina@gmail.com 5 doctor of pedagogic sciences, professor, head of the department of mathematics and computer science, vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, ukraine, kovtonyukmm@gmail.com 6 doctor of science in pedagogy, full professor, professor of the department of pre-school education, v.o. sukhomlynskyi mykolaiv national university, ukraine, 5lenatrifonova@gmail.com abstract: the significance of the outlined direction research is determined by the fact that in modern conditions of postmodern society development, the issues of improving higher education and ensuring the quality of the educational process become relevant. the need for innovative renewal of the educational process of the higher school is determined by the emergence of a number of psychological and pedagogical problems, taking into account the conditions of postmodernity(mismatch between the needs of employers, the existing state of future professionals training and scientific and pedagogical staff’s qualifications, lack of mechanisms for selective processing of information, insufficient provision of information and psychological security of the individual, the need to develop an inclusive educational environment in higher education, etc.). the main conceptual principles of the innovative development of the educational environment in postmodern conditions are highlighted (humanization of the educational process, providing developmental learning and personality-oriented approach). the article analyzes the foreign and domestic experience of using innovative educational technologies (individualized, personality-oriented learning, as well as gamification of the future training professionals’ process), identifies their advantages and disadvantages. peculiarities of their introduction into the practice of higher education in postmodern conditions are outlined. prospects for further research are the development of practical recommendations for the introduction of innovative educational technologies in the future professionals training in higher education. keywords: professional training; postmodern; postmodern approach in education; improvement of the educational process; individualized training; professional competence. how to cite: antoniuk, l., soia, o., kosovets, o., klimishyna, a., kovtoniuk, m., & tryfonova, o. (2022). ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 242-263. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/386 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/386 mailto:larissa.antoniuk2021@gmail.com mailto:soya.o.m@gmail.com mailto:helen.kosovets@gmail.com mailto:klimishyna.alina@gmail.com mailto:kovtonyukmm@gmail.com mailto:5lenatrifonova@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/386 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 243 introduction the second half of the 20th century was characterized by significant transformations in society's consciousness. the search for a way out of the global crisis led to the emergence of postmodern philosophy, which became decisive for the creation of conceptual foundations of a new pedagogical theory. its orientation is the formation of a holistic creative personality capable of self-realization and self-determination. penetration of postmodern thinking into pedagogical practice led to rethinking the content of the educational process. first of all, attention began to be paid to the development of students' motivation to study, the shift of emphasis from the teacher as the main figure in the educational process to the student, recognition of the priority of individualism and the formation of critical thinking skills (hossienia, & khalilib, 2011; kahraman, 2015). therefore, pedagogues were interested in peculiarities of human mental processes and the conditions of influence on their course. the last decade of the twentieth century went down in history as the "brain decade", as innovative research in biology and physiology was initiated, including the study of the human brain’s properties. the accumulation of information about the central nervous system’s functioning peculiarities has led to their integration into related fields of knowledge. this led to the emergence of neurosciences’ numbers, such as neurosurgery, neurophysiology, neurobiology, neuropsychology and more. the formation of a pedagogy applied field neuropedagogy, which is based on the latest data on human brain functions, ways of displaying educational information in the human mind, as well as individual features of its cognitive sphere (demchenko et al., 2021; kosholap, 2021; prots, 2021). it was the results of neuroscientific research that gave rise to the concept of creativity and the development of methods for diagnosing and developing talent, which has a special value in a postmodern society. this led to the realization of the need to use the scientific provisions of neuroscience in professional education for the purpose of ensuring effectiveness of future professional training. higher education institutions should provide training not only for a qualified specialist, but also promote the development of his creative potential and personal qualities that are important for future professional activity and postmodern society as a whole (communication, creativity, empathy, tolerance, etc.). the solution of the outlined problem becomes possible due to the introduction of innovative approaches to the organization of the educational process in higher ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk et al. 244 education institutions, the improvement of methodological and logistical support of educational disciplines in accordance with modern scientific achievements. in this context, the opinion of cooper (2005) is right. it is worth considering the features of the postmodern type of student behavior, which are extremely incompatible with the traditional scheme of training specialists and require an update of its methodology taking into account such features. therefore, we substantiate the relevance of the initiated research by the presence of a number of contradictions between: the need to rethink the content of pedagogical process, taking into account features of postmodern development of the society and the significant inertia of the introduction of innovations into the practice of higher education; the need to identify postmodern trends in professional education as a key element of ensuring its quality and insufficient desire of the teaching staff to change the emphasis in their own activities. purposes of the article are: determination of the influence of postmodern ideas on the process of improving the professional training of future specialists; analysis of the domestic and foreign experience of introducing innovative technologies into the practice of higher education with the aim of ensuring the quality of higher education in the conditions of postmodern development of the society. psychological and pedagogical problems of postmodern society the post-industrial society development has led to a shift of emphasis in all public life’s spheres. interdisciplinarity is inherent in the postmodern society; democracy and pluralism have formed an understanding of the modern higher education, as the inability to ensure the development of the future professionals’ necessary qualities. according to the results of professional training in higher education institutions, the state should get qualified and competitive specialists who have the latest knowledge and technologies. however, according to the results of the analysis of the current state of higher education, reflected, in particular, in the publications of beheshti (2005), burbules (2010) and others, it does not have time to respond to the constant updating of information. after all, such a reaction should be manifested not only in the adjustment of educational programs, but also the corresponding update of curricula, content of disciplines, systematic training of scientific and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 245 pedagogical staff, given that it is he who ensures the quality of training. moreover, the behavior of students is changing in the postmodern era. according to taylor (2005), they are characterized by indiscipline and inertia to a greater degree than students of the modern era. students are currently focused on consumption, entertainment and pleasure, rather than hard work for the ephemeral goal of becoming a highly qualified specialist in the future. the discrepancy between the needs of employers, the current state of future professionals’ training and the qualifications of scientific and pedagogical staff has led to a number of psychological and pedagogical problems of higher education that need to be addressed. one of the key problems of higher school pedagogy is the development of mechanisms for selective processing of information available in the professional field. t. hlushko (2012) outlines this problem in his research. the scientist notes that the increase in information flow in a geometric progression and the inability to match the amount of information and the number of its sources leads to an increase in work, which is often redundant. the creation of algorithms for selective processing of information in the field of professional activity should ensure maximum consideration of individual needs. the next issue that requires attention in the system of future professionals training is the need to develop mechanisms to ensure information and psychological security of the individual. every day the student has to master a huge amount of information. information flows are reflected in the consciousness and subconscious of the subject, forming a certain social position (chou et al., 2021). however, there is currently a situation where information protection mechanisms have been developed, in particular by means of copyright confirmation, and there are no mechanisms to protect the subjects of information interaction. therefore, due to the influence of various information on the future specialist, he may develop stress, depression, the formation of information trauma syndrome or information dependence of varying severity. these issues are relevant in the research of such scientists as vaccar and chadwick (2020) and a number of others. an interesting position is elerding, s. (2016), who believes that the informatization of society creates an opportunity to overcome social inequality in postmodern society. the importance of this problem is evidenced by the fact that it is the cause of such an interdisciplinary field of knowledge as infoecology (a branch of science that studies the impact of the flows of man-made and social information on humans). ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk et al. 246 the next key issue of training in the postmodern era is to ensure access to quality education for students with special educational needs. the relevance of this area is indicated by a number of publications, such as morris, milton and goldstone (2019), craddock and mathias (2009), evans (2013) and others, which discuss the features of the implementation of inclusive higher education. we agree with the statement of chhabra, bose, and chadha (2018) that postmodernism is characterized by a desire for social justice, which is reflected in the spread of ideas of inclusion in professional education. however, it is undeniable that joint learning requires appropriate adjustment of educational programs and curricula, the search for pedagogical technologies that will enable effective learning for all participants in the educational process. in addition, we believe that an important aspect of the successful functioning of inclusive education is the formation of the readiness of research and teaching staff to work in an inclusive environment. a study conducted among research and teaching staff of higher education institutions shows that a negative attitude towards higher inclusive education prevails among them. in particular, among all respondents (112 people) 87.5% (98 people) consider it impossible to ensure the quality of inclusive higher education for all its participants. 12.5% (15 people) consider it possible, but with the appropriate correction of educational programs and the introduction of innovative pedagogical learning technologies. the most common opinion among respondents (expressed by 61.6% of respondents) is that co-education will shift the focus from regular students, to students with special educational needs, which in turn will negatively affect the results of the educational process and training in general. given the above, we believe that the key point of the development of postmodern education is to ensure the innovative training of future professionals. according to acar and tuncdogan (2019), the essence of the innovation of the educational process is not only in updating existing programs and pedagogical technologies, but also in the constant search, development, production of new approaches to solving educational problems and complications. the main purpose of innovation in postmodern education is to establish a valued attitude to the individual. innovative vocational education must organically combine professional knowledge and skills, the formation of professional competence and the development of universal values. this position will ensure the logical transition of the vocational education system from one state to another as a result of the synergistic effect. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 247 innovation in the higher education system can manifest itself at different stages and levels. for example, innovations can be both in the content of education and in professional pedagogical activity, methods of teaching disciplines, technological support of the educational process, and so on. various aspects of innovation in education are reflected in the publications of aljawarneh (2020), fertalj milašinović and nižetić (2013), hassan (2014) and others. in particular, aljawarneh (2020) explored the features of the interaction of authentic and digital learning technologies, pointed out the problems that arise and possible ways to overcome them. fertalj, milašinović and nižetić (2013) noted the need to take into account the existing levels of cognitive abilities of students in the training of future engineering professionals (beh, 2014). hassan (2014) studied the practical and theoretical aspects of innovative learning. the main idea of postmodern education is the formation of an individual professional style of the future specialist, instilling in him motivation for self-development by building partnership relations between all participants of the educational process (askeland & payne, 2006). bryant, johnston, and usher (1997), giroux (1999), beheshti (2005) and others also emphasized the need to educate the personality of the future specialist with a postmodern type of thinking. the publication of haidamaka et al. (2022) is interesting in the context of our study. however, the authors focused on the analysis of key concepts of innovative postmodern education and offered recommendations for building innovative educational systems. in our research, we emphasize prospects of interdisciplinary and the use of neuropedagogical technologies in the postmodern era. based on the analysis of a number of scientific publications, including borrego, karlin, mcnair and beddoes (2013), dekker, lee, howard-jones and jolles (2012), i. klemantovich, e. levanova and v. stepanov (2016), the main conceptual principles on which the innovative development of the educational environment is based were singled out: humanization of the educational process. the need to humanize the training process, taking into account the latest advances in neuroscience, outlined in søndergaard and mulder (2012), tuya and garcia-fanjul (1999), pickering and howard-jones (2007). scholars note that the principles of modern educational innovations should be based on the ideas of anthropocentrism and provide for the reorientation of educational technologies to the development of personal abilities of future professionals; developmental learning. this principle involves the construction of an individual educational trajectory for each student, given the differences in ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk et al. 248 the functioning of the brain and central nervous system. the future specialist in the process of professional training must learn to creatively solve complex socio-economic and scientific and technical problems in the context of their professional activities. higher education institutions, taking into account the requirement of innovation, should create optimal conditions for self-realization and self-development of each student; personality-oriented approach to learning. continuing the previous opinion, goswami (2006), meltzoff, kuhl, movellan and sejnowski (2009) and howard-jones (2013) noted that the basis of neuropedagogy is the need to take into account the individual characteristics of each person, the specifics of his intellectual, emotional and volitional sphere, psychophysiological features, etc. characteristics of innovative learning technologies in the context of professional postmodern education in the previous point the nessesity to introduce provisions and methods of neuropedagogy into the process of professional training of future specialists in the conditions of postmodern development of the society is substantiated. there is a need to characterize the innovative learning technologies available in the educational space and to analyze their effectiveness. the analysis of the philosophical views of postmodernists on the theory of education provides grounds for identifying and characterizing innovative principles of the construction of professional training: systematic innovations. any educational activity to ensure the expected result must be systematic. episodicity will not ensure the development of individual personality traits. the need for systematic implementation of neuropedagogical technologies is discussed in the publications of nicol and macfarlane-dick (2006), howard-jones, ott, van leeuwen and de smedt (2015), joaquín garcía carrasco, serrano and garcía (2015); development and implementation of a fundamentally new approach in the system of higher education according to requirements of postmodernism should be based on the developmental and creative component, because as practice shows, the knowledge acquired by students loses relevance in 10-15 years. professional growth involves systematic training. currently, the concept of lifelong learning is being promoted and developments in education, the relevance of which has been confirmed by a number of publications, including such anvils as willey and gardner, a. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 249 (2012), bekh et al. (2021), s. dembitska, i. kobylyanska and s. pugach and others (2020). therefore, it is necessary not only to lay the foundation for further professional training, but also to teach future professionals to learn; improvement of professional training and professional competence of scientific and pedagogical staff taking into account innovative achievements of psychology and pedagogy. only qualified staff will be able to take the education system to a new level, taking into account the achievements of neuroscience in their professional activities (busso, & pollack, 2015). we characterize innovative learning technologies, which have proven their effectiveness in domestic and foreign educational practice. 1. individualized learning. each person has specific features of the development and functioning of the central nervous system, requires an individual approach to ensure effective mastery of educational material. this approach is implemented in the framework of individualized learning. in the scientific community, the attitude to the content of this technology is quite ambiguous; in particular it is interpreted as didactic principle, the content of which is to take into account the individual differences of students, the level of development of their abilities, features of cognition, etc., formation of individuality, which contributes to the acquisition by future professionals of independence, which is the basis of the ability to selfdetermination and self-regulation; formation of the ability to self-realization, which promotes the fullest development of capabilities and abilities of the individual, as well as stimulates the desire to impart knowledge; a set of measures aimed at determining the objective factors of learning. the problem of individualization of learning was considered in the publications damnik, proske and körndle (2017), egberink, meijer and tendeiro (2015) and others. assimilation of materials, forms of audit and evaluation, etc. it can be implemented on the basis of individualization of learning as a system of relations and provides the following points: comprehensive study of individual characteristics of students, their abilities and capabilities; availability of teachers trained for such training; availability of adapting and individualized courses, programs, etc.; developed material and technical base. the comparison of the characteristics of traditional and individualized learning is given in table 1. the following key points were ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk et al. 250 chosen as criteria for comparison: functions and tasks of the teacher during the educational process, functions and tasks of the student, work schedule (mastering the educational material in accordance with the objectives of the educational process) sources which the student receives new information, features of the management of the educational process, ways of maintenance of motivation, possible forms of control and expected result. tab. 1. comparison of traditional and individualized learning (developed by the authors) № evaluation criterion technology traditional individualized 1. functions and tasks of the teacher defines the content, structure of the training course and methods of activity performs the functions of coordinator and consultant 2. functions and tasks of the student perception, assimilation and reproduction of theoretical knowledge and methods of action provided by the teacher mastering information from various sources, generating knowledge and developing skills 3. work schedule tight schedule, according to the schedule of the educational process individual educational trajectory with key dates 4. sources teacher and a fixed list of sources recommended for study individual choice of information sources, according to the peculiarities of the individual educational trajectory 5. learning process management totalitarian or authoritarian, when the governing functions are performed by the teacher democratic, the process of cognition takes place on the basis of a pair 6. learning motivation there is a desire to get a certain specialty there is a desire to get a certain specialty and achieve maximum results 7. forms of control formal and strict forms of control over a clearly defined schedule sufficiently flexible forms of control, in accordance with the set key dates, the development of selfcontrol and reflection, time management skills broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 251 8. expected result the set of knowledge, skills and teachings in a particular field the set of knowledge, skills and teachings in a particular field, the ability to use them creatively in the process of professional activity generalization of educational practice of introduction of this pedagogical technology, gives the grounds to assert that in real conditions of professional training of future experts individualization of training is relative. this is due to the following points: training courses are developed not taking into account the individual characteristics of each student individually, but groups of students in which these properties are similar (for example, approximately the same level of knowledge). thus, we again get the focus on some average person. it is proposed to eliminate this shortcoming by developing principles for constructing a common educational trajectory with multiple choice at key points of the course. with this approach, each student will be able to make the choice that is right for him; during the development of training courses we can take into account only known individual features or their complex combinations (for example, features of perception of educational information by students of a certain age group, etc.). it is possible to orient on each separate student only by studying of its specific features and psychophysiological characteristics as a result of carrying out educational and psychological testing that is impossible; in the practice of higher education institutions, individualization is implemented periodically, for example, during the study of elective subjects or training on an individual schedule. however, in none of these cases is it a question of creating an individual educational trajectory due to the complexity of its implementation in the context of mass learning. attempts to implement an individualized learning as effectively as possible have led to the emergence of adaptive technology, which involves the creation of interactive dialogue, the results of which the learning process is personified according to the level of acquired knowledge, skills and abilities of students. features of adaptive technology are reflected in the publications kong (2021),. o. kravets and i. svyridenko (2016). the development of information technology has led to the emergence of modern adaptive learning systems, which take into account the individual characteristics of students' learning activities. such systems are ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk et al. 252 called intelligent and are currently being disseminated in the practice of training future professionals. their main advantages are the ability to differentiate learning depending on the level of knowledge and skills of students, the available experience, individual characteristics of the perception of educational material, the ability to solve problems of varying complexity, and so on. adaptive learning systems allow the transition from the linear study of educational material, which is offered to all students to the generation of personal content of the educational course, when different students achieve different results. adaptive learning systems allow you to assess the level of competence of students at the beginning of the course, which affects the choice of next steps depending on the results, as well as analyze the acquired knowledge and competencies, and compare them with the planned results. adaptive learning systems determine what material the user does not understand (or misunderstands), resulting in the formation of hints, for example, in the form of links to useful resources. an example of such a system is a platform with adaptive content ck-12. this is a free englishlanguage resource for learning different subjects with videos, tests, examples, flash cards and other learning materials. adaptive assessment systems, which are used for periodic monitoring, have become the most widespread in higher education institutions. some developers of adaptive learning tools use several adaptation strategies at once. for example, the aleks tool combines an adaptive assessment and consistency. it is used as part of an online course on the basics of mathematical analysis precalculus from arizona state university. adaptation of both content and sequence is carried out by smart sparrow a platform that allows you to develop adaptive and interactive learning materials. smart sparrow, together with asu (arizona state university) and nasa, recently developed infiniscope, a series of astronomy games. 2. innovative methods of personality-oriented learning, which are based on the provisions of their personality-oriented approach in learning (i. yakimanskaya, 2000), in education (bekh, 2014; bondarevskaya, 1995), its philosophical and psychological justification (podmazin, 2006) and the principles of neuropedagogy (goswami, 2006; howard-jones, 2013). in theoretical and experimental studies of domestic and foreign scientists, such as litzinger, lettuca, hadgraft, and newstetter (2011), willey and gardner (2012), s. dembitskaya (2019) and others, it is proved that personality-oriented learning provides not only motivation to study the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 253 material, but also the development of personal interest in knowledge, the desire to learn independently, which is most relevant in the conditions of postmodern society. the content of this technology is to establish subject-subject relations in the educational process, as well as taking into account the existing experience of each student and respect for him. analysis of domestic and foreign experience in the implementation of personality-oriented technologies show the following features: psychological: the need to develop students' reflection, creating conditions for free choice of activities and ways to achieve the goal; to form an understanding of responsibility for one's own choice; methodical: introduction of dialogical forms of pedagogical interaction, discussions, definition of pedagogical methods, expedient for studying of a certain material, taking into account features of perception of information by educational group, etc.; educational: development of empathy, tolerance, kindness, ability to see in each person a unique personality; creating a situation of personal choice, trust, success, creativity. a comparison of the characteristics of traditional and personalityoriented learning is given in table 2. tab. 2. comparison of traditional and personality-oriented learning (developed by the authors) № evaluation criterion technology traditional personality-oriented 1. functions and tasks of the teacher defines the content, structure of the training course and methods of activity motivates to study, organizes cooperation in order to gain knowledge and experience 2. functions and tasks of the student perception, assimilation and reproduction of theoretical knowledge and methods of action provided by the teacher mastering information through the organization of interaction with the teacher, other students, project development, participation in discussions, etc. 3. work schedule tight schedule, according to the schedule of the educational process tight schedule, according to the schedule of the educational process ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk et al. 254 4. sources teacher and a fixed list of sources recommended for study teacher, other participants in the educational process, the recommended list of sources with multiple options 5. learning process management totalitarian or authoritarian, when the governing functions are performed by the teacher democratic, the process of cognition takes place on the basis of a pair 6. learning motivation there is a desire to get a certain specialty there is a desire to get a certain specialty, the formation of positive motivation to teach by the teacher through the use of problem-based, project-based teaching methods, etc 7. forms of control formal and strict forms of control over a clearly defined schedule flexible forms of control, according to a clearly defined schedule, not only the final result is evaluated, but also the ways of its activity 8. expected result the set of knowledge, skills and teachings in a particular field the set of knowledge, skills and teachings in a particular field, the ability to use them creatively in the process of professional activity one of the types of personality-oriented learning is personalization, which involves shifting the emphasis of the educational process from teacher to student. in 2001, the international academy of education, in cooperation with unesco, defined the principles of personalized learning. including: 1) ensuring the active position of students in the process of acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities. according to this principle, the teacher must involve students in dialogue in the learning process, use a variety of pedagogical technologies, to form motivation to learn; 2) formation of social position and responsibility, development of skills of cooperation in collective by involvement in performance of group science projects, etc.; 3) establishing a connection between existing and new knowledge. the theory being studied must be logically integrated into the existing system of students' knowledge. this can be achieved by initiating broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 255 discussions, reviewing previous material, using graphical methods of presenting information, such as intelligence maps, models, diagrams, and so on. the effectiveness of this approach is substantiated in the publications of anohina-naumeca (2015), tepper (2014), watson, pelkey, noyes and rodgers (2016) and others; 4) formation of skills of self-control and strategic thinking. 3. game technologies, which are based on group, collective solution of educational problems, through specific inclusion in educational activities. the foundations of the use of game technology, or as it is called, the gamification of the training process of future professionals are laid in concepts that describe the functions of the game in the adult world, such as transactional game theory e. bern "games people play" (berne, 2016), games for training managers g. shchedrovitsky (shchedrovitsky, 1983) and a number of others. in the context of the latest achievements of neuroscience, we agree with the statement of m. marco (2018, p. 40) that game technologies are psychotherapeutic, aimed at forming a lasting cognitive interest in the subject and future profession through game forms of learning ... by providing comfortable and safe conditions for the development of personality, realization of its natural potential, creative abilities ..., a set of methods, techniques and means of organizing the educational process in the form of didactic games, are characterized by an active educational and cognitive orientation. we agree with the statement of n. golovko (2015, p. 19) that the use of game technologies in the training process provides an opportunity to: to combine a large amount of problem tasks, which are characterized by multifaceted, variability, variability and probability of obtaining new algorithms for their solution; involve as many participants as possible in active interaction in the educational process; to form value orientations of future professional activity, to adjust abilities and skills of an estimation / self-estimation, the control / selfcontrol. in the practice of high school there are different types of games (business, role-playing, didactic, simulation, etc.) and each of them has its own implementation technology. at the same time, a feature of all game methods is the interactive interaction of its participants. terms of use of game technologies are reflected in the publications of lavy and yadin (2010), beatty, chen, and klein (2021), tiffany bayley, wheatley and hurst (2021) and a number of others. ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk et al. 256 the analysis of the use of game technologies in the course of preparation of future experts gave the bases to allocate such their advantages formation of motivation to study due to the specific organization of joint activities of all participants in the educational process; the ability to ensure the development of personal characteristics of students, such as communication, introspection, etc.; development of understanding of the complexity of mental, social and organizational processes of interaction between people; assisting students to gain experience in certain activities; ensuring the activity of all students, while reducing their anxiety and weakening protective mechanisms. computer games have become widespread in the training process. features of using computer games are: formation of awareness of the right to make a mistake. each player will make as many mistakes as needed to complete the task. in the process of such work, an understanding is formed that it is impossible to gain some experience without mistakes and this is normal; instant feedback. certain steps taken by the game character lead to appropriate changes in the game environment. therefore, the user understands the consequences of his actions instantly, and not in the long run, as is usually the case in real life; sense of progress. each game point brings some evidence of the achievements of the game character. this creates an understanding that any learning activities lead to an increase in the level of competence, allows you to plan the next steps to obtain the desired educational result; providing motivation through an interesting game plot. conclusions thus, the results of the study give grounds to draw the following conclusions: 1. the change in the requirements for the professional training of a specialist, the need for the formation of his professional competence at a high level and the corresponding value orientations in the conditions of postmodern development of the society led to the need for the development of innovative pedagogical technologies. they are aimed at forming a new type of personality, capable of independently creating itself, changing and improving depending on the conditions. postmodern pedagogy is based on the recognition of individual values of the personality as a priority in determining the features of the educational process. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 257 2. the intensification of information flows and the globalization of the world economy in the postmodern period have led to an understanding of the need to revise the basics of training. there is an ongoing discussion in the scientific community about updating the content and technologies of vocational education, in particular on the basis of neuropedagogical research. the basis of neuropedagogy is a combination of interdisciplinary research, foremost psychology, pedagogy and neuroscience. the need for this area of research is due to the emergence of a number of problems of higher education pedagogy in the conditions of postmodern development of the society, the main of which is the mismatch between the needs of employers, the current state of training of future professionals and the qualifications of research and teaching staff. in addition, the development of mechanisms for selective processing of information, ensuring information and psychological security of the individual, creating an inclusive educational environment in higher education, etc. is also relevant. 3. the need to use the principles of neuropedagogy in higher education institutions is justified by the content of the innovative formation of the higher education system in accordance with the requirements of postmodernism. such training contributes to the quality of learning material, the development of the necessary personality traits of future professionals, the formation of a conscious civic position. the impact of postmodern trends on the organization of the educational process is manifested in the diversification of forms and methods of education. in this context, an analysis of foreign and domestic experience of using innovative educational technologies was carried out. peculiarities of introduction of individualized training, innovative technologies of personality-oriented training, game technologies, their advantages and disadvantages into the system of professional training are determined. the advantage of individualized learning is the ability to take into account the psychological and physical qualities of the individual to achieve the maximum effect of the learning process. however, the use of elements of individualized learning in the context of traditional training requires the teacher to study and diagnose the personal characteristics of each student separately, which is technically impossible. therefore, the leading task of professional training is to provide an individual zone of creative development of the future specialist, in particular with the use of adaptive learning systems. the peculiarities of the introduction of innovative personality-oriented technologies in vocational education in postmodern conditions are the ability ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk et al. 258 to ensure the active position of the subjects of study. students of higher education institutions have a certain professional motivation, which is manifested in the desire to master the disciplines of the professional cycle, but there is no desire to study fundamental disciplines. this situation requires not only the provision of professional guidance to educational material, but also the introduction of appropriate pedagogical technologies that provide an opportunity to intensify educational and cognitive activities. in addition, the different level of formation of general competence of first-year students makes it impossible to ensure the effectiveness of learning for the whole group at the same time. this problem can be solved by personalizing learning as a kind of technology of personality-oriented learning. the introduction of gaming technology in the education system took place in the 50s of the last century, but they were used mainly for the training of military professionals. at the end of the twentieth century, gaming, technology found a place in the training of managers and is currently working on their use in other fields. the development of information technology has created the possibility of interactive educational games that allow not only to acquire certain knowledge, but also to develop personally significant traits, such as focus, self-analysis and more. prospects for further research determine the development of practical recommendations for the introduction of innovative technologies in the training of future professionals in higher education. references acar, o. a., & tuncdogan, a. (2019). using the inquiry-based learning approach to enhance student innovativeness: a conceptual model. teaching in higher education, 24(7), 895–909. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2018.1516636 aljawarneh, s. a. (2020). reviewing and exploring innovative ubiquitous learning tools in higher education. journal of computing in higher education, 32, 57–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-019-09207-0 anohina-naumeca, a. (2015). justifying the usage of concept mapping as a tool for the formative assessment of the structural knowledge of engineering students. knowledge management & e-learning: an international journal, 7(1), 56–72. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2015.07.005 askeland, g. a., & payne, m. (2006). the postmodern student: piloting through uncertainty. journal of teaching in social work, 26(3/4), 167-179. https://doi.org/10.1300/j067v26n03_11 bayley, t., wheatley, d., & hurst, a. (2021). assessing a novel problem‐based learning approach with game elements in a business analytics course. https://doi.org/https:/doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2018.1516636 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-019-09207-0 https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2015.07.005 https://doi.org/10.1300/j067v26n03_11 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 259 decision sciences journal of innovative education, special issue: enhancing business school courses through game‐based pedagogy, 19(3), 185–196. https://doi.org/10.1111/dsji.12246 beatty, j. e., chen, y., & klein, b. d. (2021). games and gamification in business school courses: experiential education that creates engagement and flow. decision sciences journal of innovative education, special issue: enhancing business school courses through game‐based pedagogy, 19(3), 170–172. https://doi.org/10.1111/dsji.12250 beh, i. d. (2014). education as the highest professional skill of a teacher. new learning technologies. scientific and methodical collection institute of innovative technologies and content of education of the ministry of education and science of ukraine, 81, 24–30. beheshti, s. (2005). explanation and criticism of postmodernism in contemporary educational philosophy. samt. bekh, v., vashkevych, v., kravchenko, a., yaroshenko, a., akopian, v., & antonenko, t. (2021). education as a way of human existence in a postmodern society. postmodern openings, 12(3), 01–14. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.3/324 berne, e. (2016). games people play.the psychology of human relationships. penguin. bondarevskaya, e. v. (1995). value bases of personality-oriented education. pedagogy. borrego, m., karlin, j., mcnair, l. d., & beddoes, k. (2013). team effectiveness theory from industrial and organizational psychology applied to engineering student project teams: a research review. journal of engineering education, 102(4), 472–512. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20023 bryant, i., johnston, r., & usher, r. (1997). adult education and the postmodern challenge. learning beyond the limits. routledge. burbules, n. c. (2010). postmodernism and education. in h. siegel (ed.), the oxford handbook of philosophy of education. oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195312881.003.0029 busso, d. s., & pollack, c. (2015). no brain left behind: consequences of neuroscience discourse for education. learning, media and technology, 40(2), 168–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2014.908908 chhabra, s., bose, k., & chadha, n. (2018). early childhood educators’ perspectives and practices about inclusion of children with special needs in botswana. journal of research in childhood education, 32(2), 234–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2018.1425223 chou, h-c., liu, y-w., & lee, c-c. (2021). automatic deception detection using multiple speech and language communicative descriptors in dialogs. apsipa transactions on signal and information processing, 10(1), e5. https://doi.org/10.1017/atsip.2021.6 https://doi.org/10.1111/dsji.12246 https://doi.org/10.1111/dsji.12250 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.3/324 https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20023 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195312881.003.0029 https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2014.908908 https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2018.1425223 https://doi.org/10.1017/atsip.2021.6 ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk et al. 260 cooper, d. e. (2005). postmodernism. a companion to the philosophy of education (blackwell companions to philosophy). blackwell publishing. craddock, d., & mathias, h. (2009). assessment options in higher education. assessment & evaluation in higher education, 34(2), 127–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930801956026 damnik, g., proske, a., & körndle, h. (2017). designing a constructive learning activity with interactive elements: the effects of perspective-shifting and the quality of source material. interactive learning environments, 25(5), 634–649. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2016.1172239 dekker, s., lee, n. c., howard-jones, p., & jolles, j. (2012). neuromyths in education: prevalence and predictors of misconceptions among teachers. frontiers in psychology, 3(2), 429. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00429 dembitska, s. v. (2019). the use of methods of active learning in the process of forming the occupational safety competence of future specialists in mechanical engineering [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. ulletin of the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine. dembitska, s. v., kobylyanskaya, i. m., & pugach, s. s. (2020). features of the implementation of lifelong learning of specialists in technical specialties. pedagogical almanac, 46, 117–124. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.37915/pa.vi46.117 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191–213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 egberink, i. j. l., meijer, r. r., & tendeiro, j. n. (2015). investigating measurement invariance in computer-based personality testing: the impact of using anchor items on effect size indices. educational and psychological measurement, 75(1), 126–145. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164414520965 elerding, с. (2016). the materiality of the digital: petro-enlightenment and the aesthetics of invisibility. postmodern culture, 26(2). https://doi.org/10.1353/pmc.2016.0007 evans, c. (2013). making sense of assessment feedback in higher education. review of educational research, 83(1), 70–120. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312474350 fertalj, k, milašinović, b., & nižetić, i. (2013). problems and experiences with student projects based on realworld problems: a case study. technics technologies education management, 8(1), 176–186. garcía carrasco, j., hernández serrano, m. j., & martín garcía, a. v. (2015). plasticity as a framing concept enabling transdisciplinary understanding and https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930801956026 https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2016.1172239 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00429 https://doi.org/https:/doi.org/10.37915/pa.vi46.117 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164414520965 https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/160 https://doi.org/10.1353/pmc.2016.0007 https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312474350 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 261 research in neuroscience and education. learning, media and technology, 40(2), 152–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2014.908907 giroux, h. (1999). border youth. difference and postmodern education. in p. mclaren (ed.), critical education in the new information age (pp. 93-115). rowman and littlefield. golovko, n. (2015). game technologies as a means of activating students’ cognitive activity. bulletin of taras shevchenko national university of kyiv., pedagogy series, 1, 17–20. goswami, u. (2006). neuroscience and education: from research to practice? nature reviews neuroscience, 7(5), 406–413. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1907 haidamaka, о., kolisnyk-humeniuk, y., storizhko, l., marchenko, т., poluboiaryna, і. & bilova, n. (2022). innovative teaching technologies in postmodern education: foreign and domestic experience. postmodern openings, 13(1), 159-172. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/13.1sup1/419 hassan, a. b. o. (2014). the role of peer-learning and formative assessment in effective engineering learning environments. journal of applied research in higher education, 6(2), 285–294. https://doi.org/10.1108/jarhe-04-20130015 hlushko, t. k. (2012). psychological and pedagogical features of the professional activity of a university teacher in a changing external information environment. in psychological and pedagogical problems in the educational process (pp. 37–43). khnpu. hossienia, a., & khalilib, s. (2011). explanation of creativity in postmodern educational ideas. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 15, 1307–1313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.283 howard-jones, p. (2013). neuroscience and education: a review of educational interventions and approaches informed by neuroscience. education enddowment foundation https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/educationevidence/evidence-reviews/neuroscience-and-education howard-jones, p., ott, m., van leeuwen, t., & de smedt, b. (2015). the potential relevance of cognitive neuroscience for the development and use of technology-enhanced learning. learning, media and technology, 40(2), 131– 151. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2014.919321 kahraman, a. d. (2015). relationship of modernism, postmodernism and reflections of it on education. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 174, 3991 – 3996. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1146 klemantovich, i. p., levanova, e. a., & stepanov, v. g. (2016). neuropedagogy: a new branch of scientific knowledge. pedagogy and psychology of education, 2, 8–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2014.908907 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1907 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/13.1sup1/419 https://doi.org/10.1108/jarhe-04-2013-0015 https://doi.org/10.1108/jarhe-04-2013-0015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.283 https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/evidence-reviews/neuroscience-and-education https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/evidence-reviews/neuroscience-and-education https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2014.919321 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1146 ensuring the innovativeness of vocational education: neuropedagogical aspect larysa antoniuk et al. 262 kong, s-c. (2021). delivery and evaluation of an e-learning framework through computer-aided analysis of learners’ reflection text in a teacher development course. research and practice in technology enhanced learning, 16, 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41039-021-00172-w kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171–190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 kravets, o. e., & sviridenko, i. m. (2016). the use of adaptive technology in foreign language classes at universities in the study of modern norms of academic writing. science and education a new dimension (pp. 15-18). philology. lavy, i., & yadin, a. (2010). team-based peer review as a form of formative assessment: the case of a systems analysis and design workshop. journal of information systems education, 21(1), 85–98. https://aisel.aisnet.org/jise/vol21/iss1/8/ litzinger, t., lattuca, l. r., hadgraft, r., & newstetter, w. (2011). engineering education and the development of expertise. journal of engineering education, 100(1), 123–150. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.21689830.2011.tb00006.x marco, m. m. (2018). formation of readiness of future teachers of initial classes to application of educational and game technologies in professional activity. peter. meltzoff, a. n., kuhl, p. k., movellan, j., & sejnowski, t. j. (2009). foundations for a new science of learning. science, 325(5938), 284–288. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1175626 morris, c., milton, e., & goldstone, r. (2019). case study: suggesting choice: inclusive assessment processes. higher education pedagogies, 4(1), 435–447. https://doi.org/10.1080/23752696.2019.1669479 nicol, d. j., & macfarlane‐dick, d. (2006). formative assessment and self‐ regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice. studies in higher education, 31(2), 199–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070600572090 pickering, s. j., & howard-jones, p. (2007). educators’ views on the role of neuroscience in education: findings from a study of uk and international perspectives. mind, brain, and education, 1(3), 109–113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228x.2007.00011.x podmazin, s. i. (2006). personality-oriented education: essence and content. culturological bulletin, 16, 123–128. https://doi.org/http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/kultv_2006_16_25 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41039-021-00172-w https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://aisel.aisnet.org/jise/vol21/iss1/8/ https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2011.tb00006.x https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2011.tb00006.x https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1175626 https://doi.org/10.1080/23752696.2019.1669479 https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070600572090 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228x.2007.00011.x https://doi.org/http:/nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/kultv_2006_16_25 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 263 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 shchedrovitsky, g. p. (1983). organizational-activity game as a new form of organization and method of development of collective thinking. in methods of research, diagnosis and development of international labor collectives (pp. 33–53). vnisi. søndergaard, h., & mulder, r. a. (2012). collaborative learning through formative peer review: pedagogy, programs and potential. computer science education, 22(4), 343–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2012.728041 taylor, m. l. (2005). generation next: today’s postmodern student–meeting, teaching, and serving. a collection of papers on self-study and institutional improvement, 2(4), 99-107. https://www.lewisu.edu/welcome/offices/provost/pdf/gen%20next%2 0handout%202005.pdf tepper, j. (2014). assessment for learning systems analysis and design using constructivist techniques. in annual learning and teaching conference 2014: enhancing the stem student journey. the higher education academy. https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-documentmanager/documents/hea/private/comp-044-p_0_1568037095.pdf tuya j., & garcia-fanjul, j. teaching requirements analysis by means of student collaboration. in fie'99 frontiers in education. 29th annual frontiers in education conference. designing the future of science and engineering education. conference proceedings (vol.1, pp. 11b4/11-11b4/15). ieee xplore. https://doi.org/10.1109/fie.1999.839227 vaccar, c., & chadwick, a. (2020). deepfakes and disinformation: exploring the impact of synthetic political video on deception, uncertainty, and trust in news. social media + society, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120903408 watson, m. k., pelkey, j., noyes, c. r., & rodgers, m. o. (2016). assessing conceptual knowledge using three concept map scoring methods. journal of engineering education, 105(1), 118–146. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20111 willey, k., & gardner, a. (2012). collaborative learning frameworks to promote a positive learning culture. in 2012 frontiers in education conference proceedings (pp. 1–6). ieee xplore. https://doi.org/10.1109/fie.2012.6462401 yakimanskaya, i. s. (2000). technology of personality-oriented education. sentjabr. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2012.728041 https://www.lewisu.edu/welcome/offices/provost/pdf/gen%20next%20handout%202005.pdf https://www.lewisu.edu/welcome/offices/provost/pdf/gen%20next%20handout%202005.pdf https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/hea/private/comp-044-p_0_1568037095.pdf https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/hea/private/comp-044-p_0_1568037095.pdf https://doi.org/10.1109/fie.1999.839227 https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120903408 https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20111 https://doi.org/10.1109/fie.2012.6462401 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 535-553 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/434 submitted: january 25th, 2023 | accepted for publication: february 28th, 2023 the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought marius cucu1, oana lenţa2 1 lecturer ph.d., stefan cel mare university, suceava, romania. mariuscucu35@yahoo.com 2 associate lecturer, ph.d., stefan cel mare university, suceava, romania, oanalenta@yahoo.com abstract: the system of pre-established harmony proposed by leibnizian ontology gives perspective to a universe thought of as a perfect machine, or as a "perfect kingdom, governed by an absolute prince". in this „best of all possible worlds”, the occurrence of evil requires an extremely thorough justification. with regard to the prospective motivation and argument in favor of existence of evil in the world, the ethical positioning of the human soul, conceived of as a superior monad, capable of true understanding and a reflection of divine grace, can also be outlined. what place, therefore, does evil occupy in the leibnizian universal equation and how is it possible to embody it from the perspective of free will? in a system of such predetermined order, what possibility is there for the existence of freedom? in this universal order, what place does absolute necessity, hypothetical necessity and moral necessity occupy? and what is their connection with the essential cosmic logical, geometrical and metaphysical principles? do reason, will, and power, as absolute features of the godhead, contribute to guaranteeing the ethical responsibility of higher monads? how does leibniz bring together the predetermination and typology of fatality expressed through the paradigms: fatum mahometanum, fatum stoicum and fatum christianum? "divinity as the first agent and man as the patient and second agent" is a leibnizian interpretation of the relation of predetermination. evil and free will are recognized only in the framework of hypothetical necessity. so, therefore, in the present work we will analyze, among other things, the leibnizian interpretation of the ratio of predetermination, recalling the difference between being inclined and being forced in making a decision. keywords: preordained harmony; „the best of all possible worlds”; free will; monad; ethics. how to cite: cucu, m., & lenţa, o. (2023). the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 535-553. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/434 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/434 mailto:mariuscucu35@yahoo.com mailto:oanalenta@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/434 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 536 propaedeutic elements. we all know that leibniz was a visionary thinker, with complex and original theories. ― some scholars have suggested that leibniz should be regarded as one of the first thinkers to envision something like the idea of artificial intelligence (cf. churchland 1984; pratt 1987) […]leibniz‘s view that human cognitive processes follow determinable axioms of logic, and the picture that emerges is one according to which the mind operates, at least when it comes to intelligible reasoning, by following implicit algorithmic procedures. regardless of whether or not leibniz should be seen as the grandfather of artificial intelligence, he did conceive of human cognition in essentially computational terms.―( kulstad & carlin, 2000) leibniz envisioned an algorithmic system of combining human thoughts, based on clear rules, a universal language for symbolizing concepts, and their logical recombination could generate new thoughts or ways of understanding the human mind. this theory of the automated reading of symbolized thoughts can be found in the dissertation "on the combinatorial art", (1666). (dissertation that can be accessed at https://www.math.ucla.edu/~pak/hidden/papers/quotes/leibniz-arte combinatoria.pdf) as well, marquis et al. (2014) have sustained ―gottfried wilhelm leibniz (1646-1716) has not only been the philosopher that everybody heard about, and one of the father of the infinitesimal calculus (without mentioning many other works in mathematics, in physics, and in history). indeed he also has an important role in the evolution of logic […]which has been rediscovered lately, due in particular to his search for a universal language (lingua characteristica universalis) that enables the formalization of the thought and an algorithmic logical calculus (calculus ratiocinator), thus anticipating the project of frege. he is also at the origin of the idea of ―possible worlds‖, and was interested in issues in legal and deontic reasoning‖ regarding brain and minds, algorithms, computing and artificial intelligence, we recommend a few of the works of some researchers such as parr and friston (2018), graham (2023), richards and lillicrap (2022), https://www.math.ucla.edu/~pak/hidden/papers/quotes/leibniz-arte%20combinatoria.pdf https://www.math.ucla.edu/~pak/hidden/papers/quotes/leibniz-arte%20combinatoria.pdf the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought marius cucu & oana lenţa 537 safron (2022, 2020), hipólito (2022), safron et al (2022), etc., specialists who are able to sustain and develop relevant theories and to pronounce on the issue, respectively the implicit semantics. from the multitude of research directions that leibniz developed, we will briefly present only his approach to the ethics of monadic identity, calling in some places to the interpretation of luciano floridi (2022) on this topic. leibniz and the progressive symbiosis of mathematics, logic, metaphysics and morality where mathematics and logic, metaphysics and geometry, all meet, the system of preordained harmony proposed by leibniz (leibniz, 1997, p.119), a harmony in which the efficient causes of matter are correspondent to the spiritual (dumitrescu, 2012) ones, gives the image of an organized universe to the entire occidental culture, in which good represents the central ontological axis sustained by the universal demiurgic reason, the divine creator. in this mechanism of the best of all possible worlds, evil holds the differentiating role of the exception which serves in confirming the rule (dumitrescu, 2012, p. 40). faced with the devastating effects of accepting and internalizing evil, the human faith can be destabilized in a universal mechanism governed by an eternal noble conscience. but for leibniz, the limitations of human knowledge create such a skeptical perspective. we are not capable of seeing and understanding the greatness of the entire universe, respectively the eventual purposefulness of the divine plan. from this extremely rudimentary and restrictive gnoseological position, the temptation of regarding the evil as stronger than the good can be justified, divine justice being inexistent or extremely weak. in fact, human consciences don‘t possess the superior abilities of seeing and knowing the totality of the world and the finality of choices, positive and negative options. in the absence of full data, in the absence of advanced knowledge, the drama of human existence may seem incomprehensible, but in a perfect universal mechanism, each element, no matter how tiny, has its place and role. in the leibnizian mechanism of preordained harmony, evil holds the statute of a presence which contributes, finally, to the perfection of consciences that call for selfcorrection from the deviant path. but we always have to make a difference between nature-base evil and moral or human-made evil: ―evil plays a leading role in all cultures and civilisations, from the first cuneiform tablets, which speak of unpaid debts, to the epic of gilgamesh and the odyssey. there is no dante, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 538 shakespeare, or goethe without evil as a great actor in human affairs. evil is a constant in history. it is also the object of study of ethics, which investigates its nature and causes, why it exists, and how it can be countered. philosophers agree on the nature of evil insofar as they distinguish two kinds: the nature-based and the human-made‖ (floridi, 2022). the concept of the monad, the good and the evil in the metaphysicalethical structure proposed through the system of preordained harmony in the paradigm proposed by leibniz, human souls are monads, meaning distinct spiritual units, closed within themselves. in the development of the concept of the monad, leibniz was influenced, as some interpreters of his works believe, by the baroque architecture which exploited the qualities of the darkroom, through which light penetrates unidirectionally, thus the sight of the interior being impossible from the outside (deleuze, 1992, p. 28). god is the supreme monad (râmbu, 1997, p.13), the creator and guarantor of the existence of the other monads and of the entire universe (niță, 1998, pp.1819). he is the primordial source of the ontic essences due to the exercise of his absolute will and the generating base of the existences he sustains and governs through his perfect intellect. it is assumed that the divine intellect, which is above the divine will, knows all possible variants of the universe, all scenarios of worlds and existential configurations which can be taken into account. but it will choose the one which contains the highest degree of good, will opt for the variant of the universe which includes the vastest quantity of good, evil being only a means to the final confirmation of the good. thus, out of all possible worlds, god has chosen the one that had been activated or, to use an aristotelian concept, he has brought the version of the world which contains the highest presence of good from potency into act. thus, according to leibniz, the world in which we live, if god has chosen it from an infinity of potential worlds, that means that it is the best of all possible worlds (leibniz, 1997, p. 40). this characteristic does not exclude, therefore, the presence of evil in the world. for leibniz, a typology of evil spread over three layers which correlate with each other (leibniz, 1997, p. 100) can be addressed. as such, a metaphysical evil which devolves from the finitude of creatures, from their initial gene, exists. the second type of evil is a natural result of the first. it is in fact an occurrence on the fond and disposition generated by the first layer. man, holding, for example, the status of creation, is subject to the intellectual, but also volitional, finitude. thus, the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought marius cucu & oana lenţa 539 his knowledge and will are limited, which opens the possibility of incapacity of constantly maintaining himself in report to the divine principle, the possibility of moving away and straying from it at the level of conscience. this distancing is the essence of what theology calls sin. so, moral evil would be the result of the conditions generated by the evil of the metaphysical genesis. like a consequence of a causal chain in which two forms of evil are intertwined, sickness and death, the dramas and historical tragedies of humanity, but also of man as an individual entity, follow. this is the physical evil (niță, 1998, p. 19). basically, the fall of human conscience to the state of material encapsulation implicates its insertion into a plane of dissolution, which irreversibly leads to suffering and the death of corporality. this typology of the presence of evil in the world does not oppose the leibnizian affirmation that we are in the best of all possible worlds. on the contrary, evil represents exactly the element which contributes, finally, to the fulfillment of the universal good, being extremely reduced in its exercise and impact in relation to the constant, generalized action of good. evil confirms the final victory of good through secondary duality. at the same time, it can‘t fully contradict the existence of god as a being who is perfect in goodness and knowledge. on the contrary, the presence of evil in the world confirms the divine goodness in the sense of the acceptance of free will, of freedom of choice (leibniz, 1997, p. 141). if evil did not exist, then how could the choice of good happen? leibniz believes that god is the deficient cause of evil and not its efficient cause, that is to say the divinity allows evil, tolerates it for a certain amount of time and at the level of a controlled intensity. leibniz brings as an example the fact that a man, in a normal lifetime, has episodes of sickness or pain, but a big part of this life is lived in their absence. of course, there are people who suffer from certain illnesses their entire lives, but an attentive analysis will show that the number of the ill is greatly reduced in relation to that of those who do not suffer terribly, benefitting from an acceptable state of health or, more precisely, the lack of majorly traumatizing affections. his conclusion is that evil, no matter how intensely and dramatically it may manifest itself in our world, remains isolated and manifests itself sporadically in relation to the divine plan, which overcomes temporality and utilizes it for the purpose of moral perfection. thus, individual suffering purifies the conscience and can bring it closer to the supreme monad which is god, and the tragedies of war can correct certain general moral deficiencies, certain deviations in relation to the axis of constant comparison to the divine being. evil cannot be, therefore, regarded as opposing the goodwill of the creator, its presence in the world cannot negate this goodwill, on the contrary, it is confirmed through the acceptance broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 540 of everyone‘s choice between the movement of bringing oneself closer or further away from god. floridi (2022) pointed out extremely well that the leibnizian approach must be seen in the historical and cultural context in which it was made and that ―[…] as science and technology advance, natural evil does not remain fixed, but is translated more and more into moral evil. that is, if things end badly, it is no longer god‘s fault, but humanity‘s alone. for example, hegel died of malaria, like dante. it was a natural evil at the time, but today dying of malaria is an entirely human responsibility. it has morphed into a moral evil. in 2020, there were 241 million cases of malaria worldwide and an estimated 627,000 deaths. like them, the deaths caused by the lisbon earthquake today would be a human crime, not something for which to doubt the existence of the god of christianity.‖ free will, ontological bipolarity, the rational miracle and the efficientfinal cause duality the system of preordained harmony could easily contradict the idea of freedom. if all is predetermined, then the possibility of free will, the capability of individual choice, would be excluded. but for leibniz, the universal order does not assume an excessive, tyrannical and fully implicated in each component of the universal creation, determinism. free will is not annulled, rather only framed in the parameters of a strictness which cannot be omitted or avoided. human consciousnesses as monads which must reflect and express the light of the supreme monad (leibniz, 2001, p.133), of the divine being, hold intelligence and the ability of choosing and acting individually, in accordance with each one‘s personal choice. in this context, leibniz makes the distinction between the metaphysical necessity and the moral one (niță, 1998, p. 20). thus, the metaphysical one could contradict the principle of individual free will. if there are major constraints at the ontic level of man‘s presence in the world, then his free will could be questioned. but, a margin or a scale of human free will can be brought into discussion, the metaphysical necessity being restricted to a few basic principles and laws. in contrast, the moral necessity does not contradict free will because this type of necessity imposes the imperative of approaching god, as the prime source of eternal life but also of freedom. the fact that man is morally obliged to constantly compare himself to the divine being does not mean that his freedom is injured. on the contrary, the closeness to the absolute the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought marius cucu & oana lenţa 541 monad which is god represents closeness to the origin of freedom, therefore the closer to the proximity of its creator the human conscience is, the freer and more unrestrained it will feel. on the contrary, distancing oneself from the divine presence generates constriction and the loss of free will. for leibniz, this distancing or departure is equivalent to a discord between a secondary monad and the perfect monad, between heeding the principle of absolute good and omitting or rejecting it. they are two diametrically opposite tendencies, two contrary movements: one approaches the divine axis, the other distances from it. for the first movement, the end is a similarity or capability of reflecting the divine perfection as high as possible, while for the second, the end mark is represented by opaqueness, the incapability of reflecting any ray offered by the creator‘s absolute. of course, the system of preordained harmony proposed by leibniz implies multiple dilemmas, especially moral ones. in his work theodicy essays, he took on the analysis and attempt at answering a big part of this interrogation and open theme. the idea of an active organization of the entire universe, a cosmic order in which each event and presence has its place and meaning, all the components of the world, whether material or spiritual, all tightly linked in correlation and communion which cannot be ripped apart (leibniz, 1997, p. 277), constitutes the foundation of the entire conceptual complex described by leibniz. the monads, as units of spiritual force, hold the principle of their own movement internally, they are not influenced or determined in the dynamic of their activity by exterior forces. thus, they don‘t influence each other, therefore each is acting independently in relation to one another. in this universe of perfect order, which is established from the beginning, monads tune each other, generating the monadic harmony (flonta, 1998, p. 89), they are correlated and subject to a universal mechanism of perfect equilibration and distribution. there are eternal laws of the universe and none of its components, so including the superior monads or human souls, can exist or act outside of these divine imperatives (leibniz, 1972, p. 512). free will is not excluded but, on the contrary, it manifests itself as a universal law which cannot be broken (niță, 1998, p. 80). free will is maintained in this system as one of the most important axioms for the rapport between the human consciousness and divinity. according to a universal constitution, nothing that happens can be random, all manifestations have a welldefined cause. wonders, miraculous events, are nothing but situations which our reason cannot explain, occurrences which overwhelm our capability of understanding (leibniz, 1997, p. 149). leibniz does not exclude the existence in itself of events which we generally call by the name miracle, but he supports the idea that these events, too, hold their broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 542 own rational causes and mechanisms, but to the scale of the absolute, divine reason, which closes our possibility of fully understanding them, especially to the level of their primordial foundations and final purpose. on the other hand, leibniz believed that, if there were a physical law which would not be subject to reason, for example, a law which imposes circular motion for all bodies, then it could only be active through a continuous miracle, through a perpetual epiphanic intervention of the divinity or of the angelic forces (leibniz, 1997, p. 279). in this case, the term wonder or miracle would detach from reason and would approach the sense given by the christian religious tradition. the ontological bipolarity announced by plato at the dawn of occidental philosophy, through the postulation of two worlds, one of imperfect copies and another of perfect ideas, one of the caves of materiality and corporal sensation, the other of the spirit, makes its presence felt in the system of preordained harmony as well, platonism being an important source of leibnizian thinking (mercer, 2001, pp. 174-175). leibniz proposes the existence of two registers, the one of nature and the one of grace and, in regards to this duality, the recognition of two types of causes, the efficient ones and the final ones, is imposed. divinity represents the supreme authority that generated and established these absolute laws, god being the architect of the natural world and the sovereign of the spiritual one, sovereign over the material structures but also judge of the manifestations of the monadic consciences. the three fundamental triads of the preordained harmony system: the triad of necessities, the triad of principles and the triad of divine characteristics for leibniz, what aristotle named potentia holds monad, which means force, capability of manifesting itself, of dynamically projecting itself into existence. it is an interior principle of action and for the superior monads, the ones of the human consciences, this principle implies the capability of choosing between good and evil, which in leibnizian terms would mean the possession of the possibility of being in accord or disaccord with the divinity, of approaching the absolute being by reflecting its light and perfection or by departing from it, rendering less and less of the divine glow, until the state of opaqueness and complete darkness is reached. in the system of the preordained harmony which establishes three types of necessities, which are, the absolute necessity, the hypothetical one and the moral one (niță, 1998, p.80). the first, for leibniz, represents the axiom of the essential logical, geometric and metaphysical principles. the the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought marius cucu & oana lenţa 543 accomplished functioning of the universe of nature is targeted here, the perfection of its mechanisms, which can be compared to a clock whose accuracy is infallible. the second necessity permits the relativity of certain consequences which stern from hypothetical premises. thus, it is possible that, in a hypothetical existential situation, a different result than the one anticipated will appear. this contingency of causality does not mean that certain results can be undetermined or unpredictable through the divine intellect. on the contrary, the variables of contingency themselves, of randomness, are already integrated in a universal harmony which includes them as possibilities, the divinity already knowing them in their potentiality format, as possible scenarios. the moral necessity is the highest law from the leibnizian system‘s perspective (russell, [1992], 2005, p.81). according to it, the world in which we live is the best of all possible worlds and the humans and angelic beings choose the version of existence and action that is the closest to the absolute good, the formula through which good is fulfilled and the closeness to the divine being is total. god himself does not break this moral necessity in the sense that he will always choose the best of all possible worlds. the ethical principle of superior monads consist precisely of this constant undertaking of the movement of approaching and reflecting the divine perfection, in the image of the cosmic harmony proposed by leibniz even the departure from the supreme monad which is god having the role of confirming the perfection of its creation and of the sovereignty of good, evil being only a means to confirming it. leibniz noted, in this conceptual context, the defining characteristics of the divine presence, which are reason, through which it knows the infinity of all possible worlds, will, through which it chooses the best of all possible worlds and power through which it fulfills what it has chosen and decided (niță, 1998, p. 67). as the origin of all ideas, in the platonic sense, as leibniz calls them, the divine intellect opens up and leads towards the truth, the divine will generates existence and leads to good and power, as a founding factor of universal support, leads to being. thus, the ethics of the monad-consciences can only sum up to these records and impose, as a moral imperative, the constant rapport and approach of the supreme divine monad. if it is the source of ideas, the spring of existences and foundation of essences, if it opens up and offers the way towards truth, good and being, then to the human conscience, as understood by leibniz as a monad, in the sense of a unity of rational spiritual force, is left only the correct use of free will and the choice of the formula which fully resonates with the natural tendency of the entire universe in relation to its demiurgic architect. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 544 good as the final consequent intention of the divine will, and evil as a factor allowed by the antecedent divine will the divine will is in constant relation to the divine reason so that it can only wish for that which is in accord with the perfect reason‘s axioms. the fact that everything it wants is already under the rules of reason does not exclude divine free will. god thinks, wishes and acts in a wholly free manner, but does not break his own regulations postulated at the same time as the universal genesis. leibniz differentiates the antecedent divine will from the consequent one. in fact, it is only a scale of the intensity of permission. thus, the antecedent will permit evil and wishes for the fulfillment of good. the consequent will is superior and wishes only for good, evil being permitted only under the final status as a means through which this better can be fulfilled. the consequent will can also be regarded as a final and complete will. through which the moral fulfillment of the entire system of monads through the complete undertaking of the better and final rejection of evil, is wished for. while the antecedent will is a transitory stage, in which evil is permitted but the constant achievement of good in its particular, sequential forms is envisaged, the consequential will pursues, as its final interval, the achievement of better and the end of approaching the divine being, the supreme monad, through the instauration of this complete level of the better and through restraining the action of evil only at an intermediate middle level, of medium term, meant to contribute to the final glorification of absolute good and of the divinity as the direct source of it. thus, the system of the preordained harmony can be confirmed and the ethical state of the superior monads, of consciences, can reach fulfillment. the consequential or total of the divinity allows, thus, evil or sin only under the title of hypothetical necessity, of a corrective factor and confirmation of the preordained harmony in which the principle of the better is sovereign (niță, 1998, p. 68). through his permissive nature in relation to the presence and action of evil, god confirms his autonomous nature but also confirms the autonomy of choice and decision of the superior monads. if he rejected the possibility of evil as an active reality, he would break the principle of free will which would transform the spiritual universe into a material one in which souls would be directed and moved like the lifeless celestial bodies. through the protection of free will, each conscience is respected to the level of its own capability of choice, but the fact that it may choose evil does not mean that it will not long, even against its own will, for a general and final good. basically, this universal movement towards good the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought marius cucu & oana lenţa 545 could be directly fulfilled, through the following and undertaking of the recommended moral values and imperatives. we sustain what luciano floridi (2022) have said: ―so, leibniz‘s idea could be updated in the following version: this is not yet the best of possible worlds, but we are getting there, and in the future, natural evil could be a memory, leaving only human intelligence, freedom, and responsibility to prevent, avoid, minimise, or eradicate evils in the world. in the presence of moral evil, the theological solution is to excuse god and charge humanity with the mistaken use of its freedom. evil would be an utterly immanent problem, a human problem. perhaps this is the best of all possible worlds, after all, because it offers humanity the opportunity of removing any natural evil.‖ the metaphysical-theological problem of damnation and salvation from the perspective of the leibnizian rejection of two argumentative syllogisms proposed by p. bayle leibniz, by analyzing two argumentative syllogisms by p. bayle (niță, 1998, p. 69), one of his correspondents, claims that, apparently, god fully loves his whole wisdom, and it doesn‘t allow him to wish for the salvation of man. each conscience, each superior monadic identity, has free will, thus must be responsible for its choices and be punished or rewarded according to its option. this requirement seems to be dictated by the equity imposed by divine wisdom at the scale of the entire universe. but divine wisdom is also the one which postulates not only freedom for all creation, but also the freedom of choice for its own divine being. as such, according to the divine wisdom, the divine will can wish for the salvation of man, its love for him being greater than the universal reason which sustains only the compensating equity. leibniz has also rejected another thesis sustained by bayle, according to which god, constantly listening to his own wisdom, can only wish for the damnation of sin and sinners. but, as man is under the primordial, adamic sin, only a small part of us may be saved, the majority being incapable of liberation from the specter of sin. therefore, god can only wish, according to the records of his supreme reason, for the damnation of most humans. leibniz rejects this argument, resuming the distinction between the metaphysical necessity and the moral necessity (niță, 1998). as such, according to the metaphysical necessity, a mathematical, exact, cold necessity, sin is part of human nature, therefore only an exceptional effort could erase it from this nature. the great majority of people do not have broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 546 such spiritual resources, capable of extinguishing the mark of sin from their conscience, which means that, not only to they maintain its stigma, but they always tend to its resumption, they constantly collapse under its dark specter, they rise towards the absolute divine landmark and even then, return to the dynamic of the sin inscribed in their soul‘s substance. therefore, the metaphysical necessity would impose the natural damnation of most people. but leibniz claims there is a moral necessity. according to it, god loves all humans and wishes for their salvation, not damnation (leibniz, 1997, p. 35). as such, even the greatest sinner of all humans is offered, before the perspective of damnation, that of salvation, of returning and approaching the divine being. moral necessity does not negate the possibility of applying the metaphysical necessity, but it is superior to it. therefore, although the mechanics of souls indicate an obvious rapport of causality between sin and damnation, it can be overcome through the moral necessity of the universe, through the divine law of love which offers salvation through grace and revelation. in relation to the adamic sin, the divine will operates, then, in leibniz‘s opinion, through the moral necessity. the ethic conduit of monadic identities consists of the acceptance and undertaking of this divine grace and revelation which meets humans by offering them an alternative much higher than the mechanical effect of the causal rapport between sin and eternal damnation. the false contingence. the physical, moral and metaphysical good in the leibnizian ontological system, objects, beings and events only exist and manifest themselves under the sign of contingence, if we analyze them on their own. randomness seems to be the only law which can govern them from within their isolated interiority. as such, they are ephemeral and don‘t have a con-substantial purpose (niță, 1998, p. 70). as such, chaos would be the only sovereign element in the universe. but we also observe that harmony, order and law permanently meet us in the vast expanse of the cosmos. although the elements of the universe do not have a rationality of their own existence within their own being, they are still correlated in a perfect general order. therefore, the law of their existence is an exterior one and the reason for the entire world through which it is harmoniously governed and sustained can only be under the care of a supreme architect, a necessary absolute being, which is god. builder of the natural world and guarantor of the moral order, he is the supreme cause who holds the perfect intellect and whole will. what he wishes is materialized and nothing that is fulfilled can be so without divine agreement. he knows all variations of the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought marius cucu & oana lenţa 547 possible worlds but chooses the best one which goes from potence into act. he allows each superior monad its free will and, regardless of its choice, knows all the options for which it could opt, understanding the moral evolution of each human in all possible life scenarios. he indicates, inspires thought and the right choice, but does not intervene directly, obliging the human conscience to make a certain choice. as such, moral freedom is guaranteed in the system of preordained harmony, it being one of the eternal truths which can only be guaranteed through the constant action of a divine creative force. the leibnizian proposition for a perfect world, a complete cosmic harmony, could not have avoided confrontation with the problem of evil‘s evident existence. in leibniz‘s opinion, the three forms of evil mentioned above do not have their origin within the divine will. leibniz composes a typology of good which mirrors the separation of evil into three distinct stages. as such, good also acts as three distinct categories (leibniz, 1997, p. 207). there is, therefore, a physical good, a moral good (leibniz, 2003, p. 169) and a metaphysical good (niță, 1998, p.74). the physical good is the range of corporal lusts and comfort states. health is such an overall good which we can say we cherish, for we become aware of its value when it disappears or is absent. when we are not sick, we are actually well, that is to say, we are under the incidence of this first category of good, the physical one. situated on a superior level, the spiritual pleasures are much more subtle than the physical ones, but they can confer a state of advanced joy which lasts longer and is more intense. they compose the state of moral good and are generated by our virtuous actions, by the multitude of acts done out of compassion for our neighbor and veneration in rapport to the divine being. finally, the metaphysical good is related by leibniz to the problematic of essence. the more perfection there is, the more metaphysical good there is, and the higher quantity of essence there is, the more perfection there is. essence, in the sense conferred to the concept by leibniz, means a concentration and joining of all possible characteristics at the highest possible degree of existence and manifestation. actually, the theory at play is related to the intensity of reality. the more essence there is, the more reality there is, or intensity of being. thus, god being perfect, holds an infinite amount of essence and, as such, is described as infinite reality. evil is part of the system of preordained harmony as a tolerant element and placed in the ultimate service of good. therefore, it is limited, containing a determined essence and a secondary reality, less intense than that of good. it can generate good, but it cannot remove it and can‘t diminish the perfection of the entire mechanism of preordained harmony. on the contrary, it broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 548 contributes to its imperturbable functionality. the natural question leibniz must confront here is what could, yet be the source of evil, where does it come from, how did it occur in the mechanism of the universal creation. leibniz responds to this dilemma by claiming that the source of evil in the world is man himself, his will, the erroneous choices he has made. therefore, the origin of evil lies within free will, the free choice of man which god, according to his perfect will and absolute moral laws, does not wish to negate or disrespect (niță, 1998, p.76). the problem with predetermination and the typology of fatality: fatum mahometanum, fatum stoicum, fatum christianum. the allowing of free will and even its wrongful use does not hinder the system of preordained harmony; on the contrary, it contributes to its good functioning, good being confirmed through counter-position. another problem which results from the leibnizian conceptual position is that of negative fatality. if everything is preordained, there is no point in fighting to avoid certain situations and fulfilling others. the future becomes, in this context, a scenario already constructed in detail which one can only follow without hesitation. leibniz introduces a classification of conceptions of the fatality of destiny. thus, in his opinion, there is a fatum mahometanum interpretation, perspective according to which any tragedy is already set to happen, will happen, so one cannot fight with his humanly efforts against it. just like the name indicates, this vision belongs to the mohammedans who would blindly go into battle and misery, believing that they must inevitably happen. a second interpretation is fatum stoicum. the stoics, unlike the muslims, appeal to the permanent state of peace, more precisely peace of the conscience in relation to the course of destiny. according to their opinion, man must not think of future events, for he cannot influence them. he must not hope for excessive happiness, but neither is it indicated to set himself up for going into possible misery that may appear with no discernment. the third perspective, supported by leibniz as well, fatum christianum, accentuates the idea that the entire universe, the physical but also spiritual world are governed by god, who wishes for the universal good, but also for the good of each conscience (niță, 1998, pp.76-77). thus, whatever happens has an ultimate positive purpose, but the limited human knowledge cannot anticipate it. the divine being perfectly holds goodness and wisdom and, thus, man must not revolt or oppose the events in his destiny, everything having a thorough rationality of occurrence and manifestation. nothing can be by chance, but the limits of our understanding prevent our access to the the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought marius cucu & oana lenţa 549 universal truth, at least at the stage in which we are in our corporal and spatial-temporal life. our concern must be centered around the way in which we are capable of choosing good and rejecting evil, having to suffer the ulterior consequences of our choice, depending on what it was. we must, therefore, as superior monadic entities, tend to approach the supreme monad by following the revelation of its absolute truth, revelation which suggests we should permanently opt for thinking, living and appealing to good. in leibniz‘s opinion, god and man alike have freedom. but man can only look ahead as an ontic agent, but also as a patient, in the sense that he can choose but is restricted in options by his own limitations. his finite nature, his creature substance does not permit complete freedom. imperfection, relativity of physical and spiritual capabilities, instability of experiences, all these traits block access to absolute freedom. only god is agency, him being the one who influenced without being influenced, the instance which formats without being formatted, cause without the property of being himself an effect of a superior cause (niță, 1998, p.77). as the supreme agency, he has absolute freedom, a freedom which cannot be restricted by any constraints, whether they be physical, metaphysical or moral. being the creator of these rules and constraints, it is true that he will only violate his own configuration to the extent that it provides the possibility. it‘s the case of miracles, which deem to break the cosmic laws, at least the physical ones, but in leibniz‘s opinion, they also have a rational explanation but those are related to the divine rationality, inaccessible to the creatures. although subject to a multitude of constraints, man cannot be forced to fulfill good or evil, he can at most be influenced, guided, led by the divine grace towards good. ―over time, on the ethical scale, the plate of natural evil is becoming lighter and that of moral evil heavier. human responsibilities are increasing, not only for the many wrongs we cause — just think of climate change — but also because of the natural evils we can but do not prevent, minimise, or eliminate. here too, science, technology, and, more generally, human intelligence make a huge difference, for better or for worse‖ (floridi, 2022). thus, free will remains the stone of resistance for the human while he takes the responsibility of his acts, the fundament of his ethic as a superior monad, destined to reflect the divine majesty by constantly approaching it. as aforementioned, in leibniz‘s opinion, human freedom broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 550 consists of intelligence, spontaneity and contingency (niță, 1998, p. 80). in order to truly choose, a clear knowledge is then needed, a comprehensive understanding of the variants from which to choose, a state of naturalness and active presence, that is, of decisional firmness and an undertaking of noninvolvement of an external constricting factor, a compulsoriness which cannot be avoided or rejected. the ability of knowing is the defining trait for the superior monads, but spontaneity indicates the independence of these monads in relation to other external influences and constraints. human freedom is not chaos, an existential and gnoseological indetermination, on the contrary, this freedom is only active in pre-established parameters through its creation and postulation in the system of preordained harmony. divine predetermination founded on the grounds of absolute foreknowledge does not exclude, thus, free will, but frames it within some clearly established rules of functionality. the laws, the moral necessity, cannot, as such, be ignored or rejected, it is applied in the case of free will as well, this freedom being built on certain criteria which cannot be broken. therefore, when it comes to free will, god does not act in a metaphysical necessity, but in a hypothetical one (niță, 1998). the ethical responsibility of man is confirmed, as he is part of a universal mechanism of preordained harmony in which any choice determines positive or negative consequences. antognazza (2015) said that „leibniz draws a fine line between being ‗limited‘ and being ‗finite‘. strictly speaking, creatures for him are limited rather than finite since, through its confused perceptions, each individual substance involves the infinite. the crucial feature which seems to keep created substances from matching the ―absolute infinity‖ of god is not, after all, indivisibility or simplicity but the lack of pure positivity which comes with any limitation. only a being beyond all determinations but eminently embracing all determinations – or, as at one point leibniz puts it, the hypercategorematic infinite -can enjoy the pure positivity of what is truly infinite while constituting the ontological grounding of all things (omnia).― (p. 20) the contemporaneousness of the leibnizian view on universal harmony. conclusions the view of the cosmic harmony, which man must be a part of and imitate, was an idea also proposed by other classic authors of the historical era of leibniz. but through the system of preordained harmony and through the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought marius cucu & oana lenţa 551 the introduction of the concepts of monad and monadic harmony, he succeeded in a more complex and exact rendering of this view of renaissance origins. looking, after centuries, at its durability and capacity of transposition, an attentive resumption of the investigation of its conceptual, but also with an impact on the level of the entire social dynamic of humanity, consequences, is imposed (copleston, 2011, p. 254). being part of a century quite distant from our times, the leibnizian idea that supported the existence of a universal harmony needs to be analyzed and updated more than ever. in conclusion, the thesis according to which the universe functions as a system of harmony in which unity, multiplicity, coordination, difference, conjunction and disjunction all reunite and compensate each other, has been placed by leibniz at the foundation of a vision of l a world of peace and universal collaboration, in which nations would act in the likes of pieces of one mechanism that functions without the risks of self-destruction. once again, we appeal to floridi‘s (2022) idea that ―innovation and development must support both paideia and nomos to make us socratically intelligent and hobbesianly good. the tricky bit is to reach an equilibrium that is also tolerant of individual preferences and choices (floridi, 2022). which is a somewhat philosophical way of saying that society can hope to improve only if it invests in science and technology, to eliminate natural evil or translate it into a moral one, and in education and rules, to reduce moral evil, and perhaps even eliminate it one day, to make any negative impact of an act of god a thing of the past.‖ references antognazza, m.r. (2015). the hypercategorematic infinite. the leibniz review, 25, 20. https://www.pdcnet.org/leibniz/free/25 copleston, f. (2011). istoria filosofiei. vol. iv. raţionaliştii. de la descartes la leibniz. all publishing house. deleuze, g. (1992). the fold. leibniz and the baroque. university of minnesota press. dumitrescu, m. (2012). tema creaţiei continue în eseurile de teodicee ale lui leibniz. logos, universality, mentality, education, novelty, section: philosophy and humanistic sciences, i(1), 49-66. flonta, m. (1998). descartes şi leibniz. ascensiunea şi posteritatea raţionalismului. universal dalsi publishing. https://www.pdcnet.org/leibniz/free/25 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 552 floridi, l. (2022). how to counter moral evil: paideia and nomos. philosophy & technology, 35, 18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-022-00515-5 graham, d. j. (2023) nine insights from internet engineering that help us understand brain network communication. frontiers in computer science, 4, 976801. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2022.976801 hipólito, i. (2022). cognition without neural representation: dynamics of a complex system. frontiers in psychology, 12, 643276. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643276 kulstad, m., & carlin, l. (2020). leibniz‘s philosophy of mind. e. n. zalta (ed.), the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (winter 2020 edition). stanford encyclopedia. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-mind/ leibniz, g. w. (1972). monadologia, opere filozofice, vol. 1. ştiinţifică şi enciclopedică publishing. leibniz, g. w. (1997). eseuri de teodicee. polirom publishing. leibniz, g. w. (2001). scrieri filosofice. all publishing. leibniz, g. w. (2003). noi eseuri asupra intelectului omenesc. all educational publishing. marquis, p. papini, o., & prade, h. (2014). some elements for a prehistory of artificial intelligence in the last four centuries. t. schaub, et al. (eds.), frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications, 263, (pp. 609-614). ios press ebooks. https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-419-0-609 mercer, c. (2001). leibniz's metaphysics. its origins and development. cambridge university press. niță, a. (1998). leibniz. serie monografică. paideia publishing. parr, t., & friston, k. j. (2018). the anatomy of inference: generative models and brain structure. frontiers in computational neuroscience, 12, 90. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2018.00090 râmbu, n. (1997). studiu introductiv la leibniz, g. w. eseuri de teodicee. polirom publishing. richards, b. a., & lillicrap, t. p. (2022). the brain-computer metaphor debate is useless: a matter of semantics. frontiers in computer science, 4, 810358. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2022.810358 russell, b. [1992] (2005). the philosophy of leibniz. routledge. safron, a. (2020) an integrated world modeling theory (iwmt) of consciousness: combining integrated information and global neuronal workspace theories with the free energy principle and active inference framework; toward solving the hard problem and characterizing agentic causation. frontiers in artificial intelligence, 3, 30. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2020.00030 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-022-00515-5 https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2022.976801 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643276 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-mind/ https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-419-0-609 https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2018.00090 https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2022.810358 https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2020.00030 the ethics of monadic identity in leibniz's thought marius cucu & oana lenţa 553 safron, a. (2022). integrated world modeling theory expanded: implications for the future of consciousness. frontiers in computational neuroscience, 16, 642397. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2022.642397 safron, a., klimaj, v., & hipólito, i. (2022). on the importance of being flexible: dynamic brain networks and their potential functional significances. frontiers in systems neuroscience, 15, 688424. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2021.688424 https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2022.642397 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2021.688424 microsoft word brain_2_4.doc 14 definition of information boris sunik independent researcher, germany boris@generalinformationtheory.com abstract this definition can be applied to information of every kind, level and complexity. information is considered as the feature manifesting itself in the relations between certain real world entities. the real world has to be seen in terms of objects, actions, relations and properties.. the defintion is used as the basis of the theory of meaningful information [1] that explains the nature and functionality of information and enables the production of relevant definitions regarding language and knowledge, which remain operative also in the case of non-human languages and knowledge systems. 1. introduction according to the standard theory of cosmology, literally everything – matter, space and time – started with the big bang. in the beginning, all matter and energy which made up the universe was squeezed into an infinitely hot, dense, unstructured singularity. it then started to expand, became more structured, the fundamental forces were divided, matter formed to atom nuclei, leptons and molecules. the content separated into distinct components, parts of which were more stable than others and so got to preserve their form and size over long periods of time. so was formed our universe, which we can consider as a super heap consisting of stable objects of different levels of matter organization and their heaps. the process of universe formation and evolution consists of permanent births, deaths, and changes of all entities of the heap. a stable object here is understood as a three dimensional item with mass, which is reasonably steady, has a location or position in space at any moment, and which can be changed by exerting force. the stable objects of the lower levels of the matter organization are inanimate physical bodies like stars, planets, stones, molecules, atoms and subatomic elements like hadrons, leptons etc. and those of the upper levels are living organisms of various complexity levels starting from unicellular bacteria up to human beings. under the influence of force, a stable object changes its speed, movement direction, starts/stops moving if it is exposed to the physical (energetic) influence of another object or process (like one object hitting another object and changing its movement etc.) and is distorted. a body in rest can come into motion if the balance of forces maintaining its immobility is disturbed, e.g. a bridge is stable because its weight is balanced by the counter-pressure of its pillars and thus failing if one pillar is damaged. a general characteristic of force-induced changes is that the effectual change occurs exclusively because of the energy produced or withdrawn by the causal action (as in the case of the falling bridge). stable objects are not really static but rather dynamic combinations of elements. electrons revolve around atomic nuclei, quarks exchange in hadrons, molecules perform chemical reactions in the body of cosmic objects and cellular organisms. stated more precisely, stable objects are dynamic systems that are better at adapting to the environmental conditions around them and therefore can retain their form and stability. this ability to adapt means they are able to resist external and internal influences by either ignoring them or changing in order to counteract the influence. since the ability to resist is limited, a stable object will collapse if the force influencing it exceeds a certain threshold, and it will be changed. the life of a stable object can last from a fraction of a second to billions of years and during all this time it is constantly moving and/or changing. the sequence of changes and movements of a b. sunik definition of information 15 stable object is defined in this work as the object’s algorithm that can be represented with the help of various expression means like pictures, schemes and texts composed in various languages. the subject to be considered here is the causal relations between the changes of stable objects and their environments. the phenomenon of causality, famously characterized as the cement of the universe by david hume [hume 1987/(1777)], includes many miscellaneous causal relationships, but we will limit ourselves to changes occurring in objects under various influences in a newtonian world. according to the random house unabridged dictionary [rhud], the term causality denotes “a necessary relationship between one event (called cause) and another event (called effect) which is the direct consequence (result) of the first.” the term change is defined in the same dictionary as “to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone”. the axiom of this work is that all causal changes in the real world are based on only four distinct schemas: ― two primitive causal relations occurring under the influence of physical forces and two complex ones. changed entities are either complex stable objects including several components or systems thereof. 2. change i driven by an internal force (internal change) changes of this kind are independent from the external environment of a changed object or at least considered to be independent on the level of the analysis of the object. a stable object alters its form, position or structure under the force produced by its internal processes. such a change is the most frequent case of alterations among living organisms. growth of living creatures, human mental processes or cellular division can be cited as examples. non-living physical entities are also changed in this way, especially those consisting of a dynamically balanced set of physical processes such as cosmic stars. also stable atoms disintegrate due to spontaneous radioactivity, which can take a very long time. this simplest causal mechanism occurring within a single stable object is designated here as internal change. internal change will be represented with the help of a horizontal rectangle that is split along the x-axis into two parts. the upper half refers to the changed entity and the bottom half describes the change to this entity. because this object changes spontaneously without any apparent external force or influence, there is only one rectangle and no other objects or arrow directions contained in this graphic (figure 1). object resulting change figure 1. internal change 3. change ii driven by the external force (forced change) the second basic kind of causal relation consists of changes that occur as a result of externally working forces. according to britannica force is “any action that tends to maintain or alter the motion of a body or to distort it” [“force”, in: britannica 2009]. the mechanism of this change is simple: the influence of a force alters the affected object or its movement: a cosmic body changes its orbit due to the influence of gravity produced by some external entity. a bullet accelerates because of the powder explosion in the cartridge; glass breaks when it falls to the floor etc. this form of causal mechanism is called forced change here. forced changes represent the simplest form of a causal relation between two objects, first of which ― a causal action of force ― delivers energy causing the effectual change of a stable object. forced change is represented as follows (figure 2): causal change brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 object resulting change figure 2. forced change the empty part of the upper rectangle illustrates the fact that causal change can have an arbitrary origin. the arrow designates the direction of force. the vertical order of rectangles represents their relationship in time. 4. change iii activated by external force (activated change) this and the following causal mechanism are based on the sequence of primitive changes described above. the entities being subject to change are complex stable objects with several components and internal energy sources or systems consisting of several components and energy source(s). furthermore, the changed objects are either organic organisms or inorganic systems of artificial origin. inorganic objects of natural origin are too primitive for such complex behavior. the activated change consists of changing a stable object (system) by external non-forceful influence. a changed object (system) has to possess (or have access to) an energy source and an externally controlled lock (switch), which opens and closes the energy flow produced/delivered by the energy source. a typical example of this kind is an electric light activated by an electrical button or lever when someone (something) switches it on and the electrical bulb lights up. the sequence of actions includes following four activities: • external force presses the button; • the button closes the electrical circuit thereby unlocking the energy source; • electricity flows to the bulb; • bulb lights up. the general graphical schema of this change is as follows (figure 3): causal change object.switch unlocking energy source object.energy_source forcing energy flow object resulting change figure 3. activated change the difference between change ii and change iii are the addition of the two externally activated steps two and three. the lack of an arrow between them shows the missing energetic influence between the respective changes. this change is thus a sort of combination between change i and change ii with the internal change being triggered by an external force. the thing activating an internal change by external influence is referred to in this work as an activating switch or an activator. examples among biological objects are unicellular organisms registering the change of the environment by their sensors and changing in response the process of their metabolism. b. sunik definition of information 17 components built on the principle of activated changes are integral parts of any technical system like electronic circuits. a more elaborate example would be a traffic light at a pedestrian crossing (crosswalk). a person approaches a crosswalk, pushes a button, the traffic light changes to red and the crosswalk sign flashes green. the only work a person has to do is push a button and the rest is done by the internal component(s) and energy source(s). the specifics of this type of causal relation is the energetic independence between the activating action and the resulting change which allows various activation-result pairs with the same internal mechanism. the energetic independence radically increases the survival chances and adaptability of systems implementing it. suppose, there is a sea lagoon fed by an intermittent river. some microorganisms, whose nutrition is delivered by the river’s water, have been able to adapt to the changeable conditions by slowing its metabolism after the level of oxygen in the water drops below a critical point. the internal mechanism by registering the level of oxygen is the typical activator changing the behavior pattern of these microorganisms in result of the alternation of the external environment. if some species of this microorganism are carried by currents into the open sea, they encounter another changeable food source consisting of unsteady sea currents of very salty water. surviving in these conditions requires another activator, which would regulate the microorganism’s metabolism by reacting to the change in water salinity, while activator-controlled basic structures can be left unchanged. from the viewpoint of evolution it is a much more efficient way of development than the development of a completely new microorganism, which would be necessary if the activating switches were not involved in the evolutional process. 5. change iv communicated by external force (communicated change) the mechanism of activated change provides an essential part of flexibility relative to primitive causal mechanisms i and ii, but on the other side it also has its restrictions convincingly demonstrated by the traffic light example. in the form delineated above, these traffic lights are hardly usable on a busy street, because many pedestrians who want to cross the street will actually block the traffic by persistently pushing the crosswalk button. in order to solve this problem our traffic light needs to be able to define the switching moment on its own, i.e. by changing the cause-effect direction. assume that a person doesn’t push the button, but the button will be periodically (e.g. once every 3 minutes) pushed against the finger of a person presumably pressing the button. if the finger blocks the button, the crosswalk lights switches to green for the pedestrians and red for cars. otherwise the color of the traffic light remains the same. certainly this is not a very convenient schema for traffic lights and it doesn’t give pedestrians utter satisfaction either. a more efficient solution to this problem consists of augmenting the switching schema by adding one more element – a passive mediator object (in this case a button together with associated components), which can be pressed by a pedestrian and queried periodically by a traffic light. by pushing such a button, the pedestrian only switches the button to another state which can be ascertained by the traffic light during the querying process. if the button is set, the traffic light unsets it and then switches the crosswalk light to green for the pedestrians. this example demonstrates the work of information, which is a state of some passive object set by some actor and queried by some reactor in order to produce some resulting action. an actor has to set at least one state and a reactor has to distinguish between at least two states (the absolute minimum is a dichotomous variable – the state set by an actor and the lack thereof). the following definitions will be used throughout this work: • the mediating object is a variable. wherefrom follows a yet even shorter definition of information being conceived as a value of a variable used in an algorithm brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 • communication is the process of interaction between an actor setting a variable’s value and a reactor identifying it and performing these or other actions as the result. • an actor is designated as an information setting entity (ise) and a reactor as an information driven entity (ide). • the resulting change constitutes the semantics of information. relative to the activated change, this kind of causal relation has been enhanced by the addition of three new steps inserted after the causal change. causal change variable setting object inquire variable variable answering object.switch unlocking energy source object.energy_source forcing energy flow object resulting change figure 4. communicated change in this work, a variable is not considered a mathematical construction, but an object in the discernable world. since the features of communicators and communications can differ, the structure of the variable can differ too. thus, in implementation where the crosswalk light directly differentiates between pressed and non-pressed buttons, the variable consists of the complete button mechanism. in alternative implementations where the button mechanism is connected to the input port of the traffic light’s internal processor the mediated variable is the input computer port and the button mechanism is an auxiliary appliance used by a pedestrian for setting this variable. it is not required that a variable can be switched unlimitedly between its states. a variable is considered to be constant if it can get the only value during its life span as a printed letter, which is essentially a picture painted on some surface. another special case are variables that can be changed only once, e.g., a undamaged pencil can be used as one sign and a broken pencil as another sign. this understanding of information complies with the one actually applied in programming. the variables in programming are restricted to bits or bit sequences and the only two fundamental operations with variables are set and query, whereas all others are based on these two operations. another restriction when programming is that the actor and the reactor are usually the same, so the communication occurs not between different objects but between different states of the same computer. b. sunik definition of information 19 6. summary of causal relations all four types of changes are given in table 1. each rectangle contains the stable object (if present) and its change. the order from top to bottom represents the timely flow. the arrows represent a force being exerted. table 1. summary of causal relations spontaneous change forced change activated change communicated change causal change causal change causal change variable setting object inquire variable variable answering object.switch object.switch unlocking energy source unlocking energy source object.energy_source object.energy_source forcing energy flow forcing energy flow object object resulting change resulting change resulting change resulting change bibliography 1. theory of meaningful information www.generalinformationtheory.com microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 55 optimization of distributed systems using multi-agent systems with virtual time ioana alexandra pandele department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania ioanapandele@yahoo.com alina mihaela patriciu department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania alina_patriciu1980@yahoo.co.uk abstract the fusion of artificial intelligence and real-time areas has proven to be quite a clever movement, similar to the movement associated to check in chess (lets not go that far as checkmate, considering that the area of informatics is quite slippery when it comes to updates). artificial intelligence provides new possibilities to the real-time systems. however, this approach has shown important difficulties[2]. mainly, the real-time systems have temporal requirements (they usually require predictable response times) that are not usual in artificial intelligence techniques. one of the ways to solve this problem is the development of software architectures. these software architectures are used to design intelligent agents that work in real-time environments. these architectures have several mechanisms to allow the agents to work in real time environments offering reactive behavior (to fulfil the temporal requirements) and deliberative behavior [2]. however, in distributed systems, although the notion of global time plays an important role, it is hard to realize; at first sight even the definition of the very term itself is not clear at all. this paper is an extended work of [6]. keywords: intelligent agents, virtual time, multi-agent system, distributed systems 1. introduction the measure of time is a very important issue in distributed systems. the same issue (i.e. time) is an important characteristic in centralized systems too, but it is not considered a critical one because of the fact that there is no problem not getting to synchronize all the processes, meaning there is not a must have for the existence of a unique reference: a shared clock. instead, in the case of distributed systems each computer has its own clock and it is not an easy process to synchronize each and every clock of the computers that arrange the entire system. as we have mentioned in the beginning, the issue of time is very important/vital, therefore, it is very important to know the precise hour an event happens at for each component computer. the required precision, concerning the time component, varies from case to case, the real time systems being the ones that would admonish a major precision. nevertheless, it necessary to make arrangements so that time synchronization exists, in general decision systems as well. considering the fact that the measuring of time is an important factor in our way of thinking, and the effect of not having synchronized clocks could be a dramatic one, we would like to particularize upon several methods of clocks synchronization of all the components of the distributed system (i.e. computers) or, which is almost the same thing, that makes all the computers have the same hour simultaneously. this is known as the synchronization of physical clocks. 2. clocks and synchronization properties of distributed systems • the relevant information is distributed among several machines. • the processes take the decisions only on the basis of the local available information. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 56 • it is a must to avoid a fail point in the system. • there is no common clock or any other different kind of certain global time resource. each computer has its own physical clock. this clock is an electronic device based on a quartz crystal that oscillates at a certain frequency and, further more, can organize itself so that it could generate interruptions at certain points in time (very certain number of oscillations). knowing the precise time when these interruptions occur (called clock interruptions), we could make use of them so that the time could be called well administrated. for this purpose, the operative systems use a counter that increases with the clock interruptions. the clocks based on a crystal of quartz are liable to a “by-pass”; in other words, they measure time at certain speeds, thereby the “distances” between each (particular) measured time keep on widening. no matter how small the oscillation period of each clock is, the accumulated differences in several oscillations lead to a significant/considerable difference. the leeway speed for this kind of clocks (i.e. clocks with quartz crystal) maintains around the value of 610− , which represents a difference of a second every 11, 6 days. the most precise clocks are based on atomic oscillators, whose precision reach 1410 (a second in 1.400.000 years). certain laboratories (with atomic clocks) from all over the world periodically indicate the number of ticks (clock interruptions) to the bureau internationale de l’heure (bih) that calculates the medium value producing the international atomic time (iat), also taking into consideration the fact that time started being counted on the 1st of january 1958, once the second has been defined as the necessary time for a cesium atom to realize 9.192.631.770 transitions. nevertheless, time units that we use have an astronomic origin (universal time), in other words, they are defined as functions of rotation periods and translation periods of terra around the sun. this means that the atomic time and the universal one do not synchronize. regarding distributed systems, it is impetuously necessary to synchronize the different teams that make up the main project, than to synchronize with the universal coordinated time. two of the most important algorithms that are used in the synchronization process are: cristian’s algorithm and berkeley’s algorithm. cristian’s algorithm (figure 1) is a method for clock synchronization which can be used in many fields of distributive computer science. it suffers, though, in implementations using a single server, making it unsuitable for many distributive applications where redundancy may be crucial. [4] figure 1. cristian’s algorithm • ts(time server) receives time solicitations and responds as fast as possible • what does the solicitor do once it obtains its response/answer? a) set up/adjust its clock with uctc that ts sends b) gradually adjust its clock with uctc ts 1st p 2nd p 3rd p i. a. pandele, a. m. patriciu – optimization of distributed systems using multi-agent systems with virtual time 57 instead of adding 1 to pc (where pc represents the clock for each process p), with every tick of the clock it adds a greater value (if uctp cc < ) or a smaller one (if uctp cc > ) berkeley’s algorithm is more suitable for systems where a radio clock is not present; this system has no way of making sure of the actual time other than by maintaining a global average time as the global time. a time server will periodically fetch the time from all the time clients, average the results, and then report back to the clients the adjustment that needs to be made to their local clocks to achieve the average. this algorithm highlights the fact that internal clocks may vary not only in the time they contain but also in the clock rate. any client whose clock differs by a value outside of a given tolerance is often disregarded when averaging the results. this prevents the overall system time from being drastically skewed due to one erroneous clock. [4] • it is based on an active time server that realizes a periodic “polling” to each machine, in order to ask its characteristic time • it is useful, although there is no receiver machine for www the time must be manually set up for the operator. but, as we have mentioned before, in distributed systems the main role, concerning synchronization, is played by the succession of events. thus, it is more suitable to choose virtual time instead of real time. the main difference between virtual time and real time seems to be that virtual time is only identifiable by the succession of events. the concept of virtual time for distributed systems was tackled for the first time by lamport in 1978 [3]. lamport signalled that synchronization does not have to be absolute. first, if two processes interact, it is not necessary that their clocks be synchronized with a certain precise hour, because the lack of synchronization will not be observed and will not create any problems. but they have to agree with the order imposed by the logical succession of events. for certain environments, where the precise synchronization with a certain referential hour (uct) is not a must, instead of working with physical clocks logical clocks are chosen, whose main characteristic is given by the order of events, and not by the measure of the exact moment when the precise event happens. it is very difficult to perfectly synchronize multiple distributed clocks; it is often not necessary to synchronize them (i.e. distributed clocks) with a uct hour, or, furthermore, two processes that do not interact do not have to be synchronized. therefore, in the end, it is necessary that the processes agree with the order in which the events happen/proceed, in order to solve the processes. so, instead of working with physical clocks, it has been chosen to work with the logical ones. in order to synchronize logical clocks, lamport [3] defined the relationship “happened before” (preceded) which implies that the expression 21 aa → means “ 1a occurred before 2a ”, and it means that all the processes coincide in the fact that 1a took place first, and subsequently 2a took place. this relation can be directly observed in two situations (figure 2): 1. if two events happen during the same process, the order of the happening is indicated by the common clock; 2. when two processes communicate through a message, the event that corresponds to sending the precise message always happens before the event of receiving it (i.e. the message). if two events, 1a and 2a , are produced in different processes that do not exchange messages (neither directly nor indirectly), then it is not certain if 21 aa → or 12 aa → . in this case it is said that these events are competitive, which means that it is not known which one happened first (and it is not a must-know thing either). we should note that the expression 21 aa → is transitive; this means that: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 58 if 21 aa → and 32 aa → then 31 aa → figure 2. lamport’s algorithm we must find a way of assigning values for the logical clocks c so that: • if ( ) ( )2121 acacaa <⇒→ • clock c must always go ahead and never backwards and at this point we would resort to intelligent agents. according to lamport, for each computer there is a logic clock c, that is used to mark up the time of each event that takes place; thus, ( )ip ac indicates the correspondent time for the event ia in the process p. therefore: 1. pc is being incremented with a unit before any event produces in a process; in other words: 1+= pp cc . 2. a) when a process p sends a message m, the value of the message becomes pct = b) when the process q receives the message (m, t), ( )tcc qq ,max:= is being calculated, and applies the first step before the event of receiving the message has been marked 3. are intelligent agents a solution? the aim of this paper is to bring together particular elements from domains such as artificial intelligence, physics and mathematics, in order to optimize distributed systems. distributed artificial intelligence represents a real challenge concerning interdisciplinary research. the development of multi agent systems represents the main subject of distributed artificial intelligence. therefore, we opt for intelligent agents to perform the events that make up each process. a schema of these intelligent agents, that perform those events, is going to be further “depicted”, following that a real implementation of the script be revealed in a sequel of this article, in the near future. according to katia sycara [5] a multiagent system represents a network of united agents, which interact in order to solve problems that surpass the capacities of individual agents. in what we like to think as a future project, we tend for a micro-social organization of the agents combined with the organization based on groups of agents, knowing the fact that the main 1st p 2nd p 3rd p 4th p 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a na i. a. pandele, a. m. patriciu – optimization of distributed systems using multi-agent systems with virtual time 59 characteristic of micro-social organization is based on the establishment of a clear agent’s hierarchy, and in those based on groups of agents, agents with different tasks are grouped into autonomous informatics entities. we would like to join those two organizations because there has to be a master that coordinates, from the shadow sometimes, the main project (its presence would be distinguishable just in key moments) but we still have to synchronize the events, which means there has to be a certain communication among the agents. the authority is given to a single agent that is symbolically situated on the top level; this agent would be considered the root of an arborescent structure; but the stages of the process are provided by groups of agents, respectively by the relations of communication between them. thus, we would deal with a zero agent and several groups of agents. such a group is made up of several agents, each and one of these agents accomplishing a certain role in the process of synchronization (figure 3). figure 3. the multi-agent system a crucial role in the entire process of interrelation among the groups of agents is played by the negotiation between agents. negotiation appears when agents might have different goals and each agent/group of agents tends to maximize its own good, seconding global “well-being”. as far as the role of mathematics in the optimization of distributed systems, we could appeal to minkowski’s relativistic space-time model. the use of this tool represents a fineness problem (it would be the final part of the entire process (i.e. optimization problem/process)). because of the finite speed of light, minkowski’s well-known relativistic space-time model may reflect reality more accurately than the standard model of time. [1] 4. conclusions a fair and straight answer to the question: “are intelligent agents a solution?” would be given once a characteristic algorithm had been implemented and tested. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010,”happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 60 one thing is certain for sure: mathematics, physics and computer science can become magnificent tools in the hands of a proper master. 5. references [1] friedemann, mattern (2008). virtual time and global states of distributed systems. [electronic version]. department of computer science, university of kaiserslautem d 6750 kaiserslautern, germany. [2] lopez, l. h. (2008). heuristicas para el control deliberativo en una arquitectura de agentes inteligentes en tiempo real. doctoral thesis at universidad politecnica de valencia departamento de sistemas informaticos y computacion, [3] lamport, l. (1978). time, clocks, and the ordering of events in a distributed system. communications of the acm, 21(7), 558-565. [4] cardinale, y. (n.d.). sincronizacion en sistemas distribuidos. sistemas de operacion ii [electronic version]. [5] sycara, k., decker, k., pannu, a., d., williamson, m. & zeng, d. (n.d.). distributed intelligent agents. [electronic version]. the robotics institute, carnegie mellon, university pittsburgh, pa 15213, u.s.a. [6] pandele, i. a., patriciu, a. m. (2009). virtual time – solution to the optimization of distributed systems? in: knowledge engineering: principles and techniques. proceedings of the international conference on knowledge engineering, principles and techniques, kept2009 (pp. 25–28), cluj-napoca, romania, july 3–4, 2009. microsoft word brain_2_2.doc 41 potential predictability of zpd of children’s cognitive development parviz birjandi islamic azad university (science and research branch) faculty of foreign languages and literature, hesarak, tehran, iran, postal code: 1477893855 p.o.box 14515 – 755, tel. +98 311-6692696 pbirjandi@yahoo.com parisa daftarifard islamic azad university (science and research branch) faculty of foreign languages and literature, hesarak, tehran, iran, postal code: 1477893855 p.o.box 14515 – 755, tel. +98 311-6692696 pdaftaryfard@yahoo.com abstract obtaining information on whether the child has the potential for growth is not an easy task. research shows that using different matrix like raven or different batteries in a static way cannot be indicative of children further development. this study attempts to probe the potential predictability of children’s performance during dynamic assessment of their future development. 41 children between ages 3 to 6 years old participated in this study. the data in pretest, zpd, and posttest were converted into rasch measure. the results of different analysis indicate that relying on children’s actual performance cannot be an indicative factor of their development in the future. keywords: dynamic assessment, rasch measure, raven test, cognitive development. 1. introduction assessing young children is a challenging job especially when it should be carried out dynamically (haywood & lidz, 2007; lidz, 2003). according to haywood and lidz (2007), the nature of metacognitive function activated by da is not well documented. they believe that this type of brain functioning emerges in young children at ages as young as three. because of such emerging nature, it would be worthwhile to explore the nature of possible effect of da in young children. there are different ways to measure children’s growth. poehner and lantolf (2005) classify different ways of measuring respondents’ growth into three ways: (1) estimating the difference score, (2) focusing on qualitative change of individual learners from their first performance, and (3) emergence of novelty in respondents. kester, pena, and gillam (2001) believe that growth or zpd can be measured through estimating the range between unsupported and supported performance. still others believe that there are three indicative factors in determining kid’s growth: quality and quantity of change; the kids’ amount of effort, and the child’s responsiveness (jitendra, rohenadiaz and nolet, 1998) one way is to use application of cognitive functions scale (acfs) (haywood & lidz, 2007; lidz, 2003). acfs can be use with children between ages of 3 and 5. it is one of a curriculum based assessment instruments to measure children’s cognitive growth at this range of age. lidz (1991) has combined acfs with process-based approaches to create a da models. acfs functions on six subscales of classification, short-term auditory memory, short-term visual memory, sequential pattern completion, perspective taking, and verbal planning. in classification, the child is required to sort blocks into groups in terms of one of the features of the material like color, shape, size, etc. in short term auditory memory part, the child is required to retell the story either immediately after the assessor or with delay. in short term visual memory task the child is required to remember eight pictures that are placed before his sight and then removed from his sight. in sequential pattern completion task, the child is required to complete the sequence of pattern started brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 by the assessor by placing the appropriate the plastic geometric shape in its place. perspective taking is the same as symbolic play in which the kid can take the role of his teacher and to communicate in the same way. in verbal planning task, the child is required to talk about a plan like making a specific food he knows. children are measured on this kit through seven scales (haywood & lidz, 2007) 1. self-regulation: child maintains attention and refrains from impulsive interaction with materials; 2. persistence: child completes task without seeking to terminate prematurely; 3. frustration tolerance: when experiencing frustration, the child is readily calmed and redirected; 4. motivation: child shows enthusiastic reaction to the materials and task; 5. flexibility: child does not repeat unsuccessful task solutions and develops alternative approaches to the task; 6. interactivity: child engages in turn-taking conversational exchanges with some degree of elaboration; 7. responsively: child is a willing learner and open to input from the assessor. (pp. 100-101) another possible way of measuring children’s growth is to use raven’s standard progressive matrices (rspm) which is in three forms of standard progressive matrices, colored progressive matrices, and advanced progressive matrices. colored -progressive matrices is especially used for young children. it has a colored background to attract kid’s attention. boucal and bond (unpublished paper) have used the test to measure children’s actual and potential abilities in solving the progressive prompts. they compared children’s function in pretest and posttest of two experimental and control groups. experimental groups were provided with five stage intervention on some other items they selected from the test. accordingly, grade five is given to the most independent child on the given task and zero is given when the child cannot solve the task even with maximum assistance. other scholars believe that learners’ growth should be measured by the difference of their performance on pretest and posttest for each child (baek & kim, 2003), zpd score is the difference between pretest and posttest for each child. elsewhere, campione and brown (1987, as cited in gutiérrez-clellen & pena, 2001) assert that the success and failure of da is determined by learners’ ability to transfer their learning to new tasks. to poehner (2008), mediation can be formulated as a continuum of activity being implicit at the beginning and explicit at the end. 2. zone of proximal development (zpd) many criticisms are recently leveled at traditional static testing. johnson, mattheos, savingby and attstrom (2007) believe that static testing or assessment cannot predict learners’ future development. furthermore, as hasson and joffe (2007) state, static assessment fails to provide us with information about the processes learners undertake to solve a problem. whereas obtaining children’s actual knowledge is an important issue, what is more essential and indicative information in children from clinical stands is how much the child has the potential for growing in terms of cognition and language. children’s potential for growth can sometimes be the essential indicative factor in diagnosing many developmental problems like autism, disorder attention, and developmental delay. dynamic assessment (da) is believed to an efficient way to screen those who have acceptable future development from those that would not. the method is based on vygotsky’s (1978) idea on how child’s cognition develops. according to vygotsky (1986), child cognitive development occurs at two levels of potential or assisted (present to future) and actual and unassisted (past to present). at the actual level, the child does the task without any help (autonomous level), whereas at the potential level the child needs another person's assistance (a mediator) (vygotsky, 1986, 1978). p. birjandi, p. daftarifard potential predictability of zpd of children’s cognitive development 43 one of the important features of da is the teaching phase (kester, pena, & gillam, 2001). mostly this teaching phase is classified into two possible binary situations as “structured” versus “mediated” (kester, pena, & gillam, 2001, p. 43), interventionist versus interactionist approaches (poehner & lantolf, 2005), or sandwich versus cake (sternber & riorenko, 2002 as cited in poehner, 2008). the idea is that mediation either can be predetermined in advance (structured) or emerges as the result of learner and knower’s interaction. interventionist approach has followed test-teaching-retest procedure (kester, pena, & gillam, 2001). the distinctive feature of vygotsky's theory is zone of proximal development or zpd (lantolf, 2006, 2002; ohta, 2000; roebuck, 2000; swain, 2000; thorne, 2000; van lier, 2000). zpd refers to the difference between what a person can achieve when acting alone (unassisted) and what s/he can accomplish when acting with support from some other persons and / or cultural artifacts (assisted). the scope of zpd includes more than just expert/ novice interaction; people working jointly are able to co-construct contexts in which expertise emerges as a feature of the group (lantolf, 2000). to lantolf (2006), zpd is more appropriately conceived of as collaborative construction of opportunities. according to ellis (1999), zpd encompasses three types of objectives: (1) “goals that learners can meet without help;” (2) “those that are completely beyond the learners even if assistance was available;” and (3) “goals that the learner can perform if she/he has access to meditational assistance” (p. 20). to ohta (2000) zpd refers to the internalization of social interactive processes happens within the zone of proximal development (zpd). he believes that “determining a learner's zpd is an act of negotiated discovery that is realized through dialogic interaction between learner and expert. in other words, the learner and expert engage each other in an attempt to discover precisely what the learner is able to achieve without help, and what the learner can accomplish with assistance… importantly, the help negotiated between the novice and expert is graduated and contingent in the sense that it moves from more explicit to more implicit, or strategic, levels, and is offered only when needed and is withdrawn once the novice shows signs of self-control and ability to function independently.” (p. 55) 3. dynamic assessment with young children: reported research children’s growth has been the main concern of many papers in the first language acquisition field of study (bensoussan, 2002; brooks, 1997; levy, 1999; lidz, 2003; shurin, 1998; malowitsky, 2001). children’s growth is projected to nine areas of cognition, learning ability, social interaction, play, communication, adaptive behavior, behavior characteristics, motor skills, and sensory sensitivity (de boer, 2011). these areas are expected to grow harmoniously and in balanced way. shurin (1998) has studied 26 four year old children. five children from among this number have developmental disabilities. she found that through intervention these kids were able to show considerable growth in four areas of classification, perspective taking, verbal planning and sequential pattern completion. elsewhere, brooks (1997) finds that working with 22 preschool children diagnosed with disability would result in were able to improve in classification subscale of the acfs. bensoussan (2002), in another study, used auditory memory, verbal planning, and perspective taking subscales acfs to investigate the possible effect of practicing on 20 children between the ages of 3 and 4 years old. she found that children in experimental group performed significantly better on the posttest comparing with those in control group. in another study, boucal and bond (unpublished paper) have used the raven progressive matrices to measure 120 children between ages 8 to 12 years old using pretest, posttest control group design. the experimental group has been provided with da on some of the items from raven test. the test is similar to the sequential pattern completion part of acfs. they found out that experimental group shows a better result on posttest. zpd in relation with baseline score those practicing da believes that learners’ actual level of development cannot predict their success in future or future level of development. they believe that different learners or children brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 with similar ald might have different potentiality or zpd. as was stated earlier “da is an approach to assessment and instruction derived from vygotsky’s theory of the [zpd]” (poehner & lantolf, 2005, p. 233). ableeva (2008), in his research on reading and listening comprehension finds that the individuals’ different zpds are indicative factors in determining their different levels of attainments. elsewhere, fuchs et al. (2008) emphasize that zpd can be indicative of individual differences of those with similar low score. kester, pena, and gillam (2001), also, find that preschool children through mediated learning can perform on vocabulary task better than those in control group. kozulin and grab (2001) find a negative high correlation between pretest and posttest in experimental group. they conclude that pretest cannot be a good predictor of learners’ future development. although many research enquiries on da indicate the important effect of dynamic intervention on learners’ future development, this area of research is still very new. more research in this area can possibly shed more light into the true nature of learners’ competence in second language acquisition in general and of children’s cognitive growth in particular. with this in mind, we have attempted to investigate the possible relationship between children’s level of actual development (lad), their zpd, and their level of future development (lfd). 4. the purpose of the present study it is widely believed that kids’ level of actual development (lad) ability can improve through adults’ dynamic intervention (ableeva, 2008; baek & kim, 2003). many studies proves that intervention, if properly used, can have a fundamental effect on the expansion of children’s potential ability (boucal & bond, forthcoming; fuchs et al., 2008; kozulin & grab, 2001). boucal and bond especially attempt to investigate possible role of zpd on children’s later performance in belgrade. the purpose of present research is to investigate whether children’s zpd can predict their performance on posttest in comparison with children lad. to this end, the following questions were posited: 1. is there any significant relationship between children’s lad and zpd? 2. is there any significant relationship between children’s future development and zpd? 3. which of the children’s level of development (zpd or lad) can predict their future level of development? 5. method participants 46 iranian kids ranging from 3 to 6 years old in setaregan kochak kindergarten in tehran were participated in this study. they were 23 female and 24 male. 6 kids were absent from either posttest or dynamic intervention stage, so they were omitted from the final analysis. the total number subjected to analysis packages was 41 (22 female and 19 male). table 1 shows the distribution of kids in terms of gender and age. table 1 kids' distribution across gender and age. gender age female male 3-4 4-5 5-6 number % number % number % number % number % 22 53.7 19 46.3 10 24.4 19 46.3 12 29.3 from among 41participants of this study 37 kids were reported to be fluent in their mother tongue and 4 are almost fluent in their mother tongue. moreover, these kids were assessed in terms of their learning ability as being low (5), moderate (8), good (18), and very good (10). p. birjandi, p. daftarifard potential predictability of zpd of children’s cognitive development 45 instruments in this study, raven’s standard progressive matrices (rspm) test for kid version was used as pretest, dynamic test, and posttest. it is an iq test for kid upper than age 7. it consists of 60 items that their difficulty is progressively increased. from among 60 items we chose those items which are easier for kids less than 7. the reason was that the test includes items that lend itself both to kids’ cognitive level and variability. as is shown in table 2, the minimum score on 12 items in both pretest and posttest is well above average score (6). this shows that the selected items are appropriate for this range of age. test items selected for pretests and posttest were items number 1, 2, 5, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 22, 23, and 25. items used for dynamic assessment were 3, 6, 13, 15, and 20. table 2 descriptive statistics of kids' performance in pretest and posttest n minimum maximum mean std. deviation posttest 41 .00 8.00 4.5366 1.62938 pretest 41 .00 9.00 3.5366 2.13422 children’s lad equals their performance on the pretest. to measure zpd, we used boucal and bond’s (forthcoming) design. therefore, to estimate zpd, we grade kids’ performance as follows: 0 = unsuccessful kid in responding the question even with help; 1successful kid with second help (cognitive 2); 2successful kid with first help (cognitive 1); 3successful kid with just encouragement (motivational help); 4unaided individual in answering the question children’s future development equals their performance on the same test (pretest) as posttest one month later after intervention. procedure the study took place at setaregane kochak kindergarten in tehran. one week after pretest, kids were assessed dynamically on five items chosen from rspm. first the kids were to answer each item individual without help (unaided response). when they failed in solving the task, they were given the second chance (motivational help) in the way that the assessor encourages them to think once more (boucal & bond, forthcoming). in the case they failed this time, children were given implicit cue to solve the problem through giving hint about the relations between pictures in the rows of the task (cognitive 1) and then between pictures in the column of the task (cognitive2). when this stage was finished, we assessed the children on the posttest (future development) one month later. 6. data analysis and results to answer the questions addressed in this study, different analyses were employed. rasch model was used for several purposes: screening the data, preparing the data, and the main analysis. first, both pretest and posttest were subjected to winstep to estimate their possible mis-infit and mis-outfit. table 3 shows that all items function appropriately as all infit and outfit indices are less than 2 except with item 16 with misoutfit more than 2 but as the zstd is less than 2 the item can be accepted as well functioning item. rasch item reliability indices of pretest and posttest are 0.79 and 0.88 respectively. this shows that the selected items function consistently in this sample. the second use of rasch model was to prepare data. fuchs et al.(2008) as well as boucal and bond (forthcoming) and birjandi, daftarifard, and lange (2010) did not use raw scores in their analysis. instead, they changed the raw score either to z score (fuchs et al., 2008) or rasch measure (boucal & bond, forthcoming). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 table 3 item statistics: misfit order --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |entry total total model| infit | outfit |pt-measure |exact match| | |number score count measure s.e. |mnsq zstd|mnsq zstd|corr. exp.| obs% exp%| item g | |------------------------------------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+---------| | 16 4 41 .70 .54|1.24 .7|2.04 1.5|a-.15 .23| 90.2 90.2| b b | | 10 6 41 .20 .46|1.23 .8|1.93 1.7|b-.03 .27| 85.4 85.4| a a | | 11 13 41 -.91 .36| .91 -.5|1.44 1.7|c .36 .34| 80.5 71.7| a a | | 18 11 41 -.65 .37|1.18 1.0|1.22 .8|d .13 .33| 68.3 75.2| b b | | 14 23 41 -2.08 .34|1.14 1.2|1.21 1.3|e .20 .37| 58.5 66.5| b b | | 7 11 41 -.65 .37|1.10 .6|1.14 .6|f .21 .33| 73.2 75.2| a a | | 8 16 41 -1.28 .34|1.07 .6|1.13 .7|g .27 .36| 68.3 67.0| a a | | 3 19 41 -1.63 .34| .91 -.8|1.09 .6|h .43 .36| 75.6 64.7| a a | | 19 6 41 .20 .46|1.00 .1|1.06 .3|i .26 .27| 85.4 85.4| b b | | 1 14 41 -1.04 .35|1.02 .2| .97 -.1|j .33 .35| 70.7 70.0| a a | | 15 12 41 -.78 .37|1.01 .1| .96 .0|k .33 .33| 68.3 73.4| b b | | 5 7 41 .00 .44|1.01 .1| .87 -.2|j .29 .28| 82.9 83.0| a a | | 12 29 41 -2.82 .37|1.01 .1| .93 -.2|i .36 .36| 70.7 73.7| b b | | 22 24 41 -2.20 .34| .98 -.1| .99 .0|h .38 .37| 70.7 67.4| b b | | 20 12 41 -.78 .37| .94 -.3| .82 -.6|g .42 .33| 73.2 73.4| b b | | 4 7 41 .00a .44| .93 -.2| .92 -.1|f .36 .28| 82.9 83.0| a a | | 17 25 41 -2.31 .34| .88 -.9| .82 -1.0|e .50 .37| 73.2 68.1| b b | | 2 30 41 -2.96 .38| .87 -.6| .80 -.7|d .49 .35| 78.0 75.5| a a | | 6 14 41 -1.04 .35| .80 -1.5| .75 -1.2|c .56 .35| 80.5 70.0| a a | | 9 8 41 -.18 .42| .79 -.9| .62 -1.0|b .53 .30| 85.4 81.0| a a | | 13 40 41 -5.88 1.03| .77 .0| .15 -.6|a .44 .15| 97.6 97.6| b b | |------------------------------------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+---------| | mean 15.0 41.0 -1.03 .48| .99 .0|1.04 .2| | 77.1 76.1| | | s.d. 9.7 .0 1.71 .33| .13 .7| .40 .9| | 8.8 8.5| | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- in this study, we used rasch measure for several reasons. first, rasch measure gives intervals, “whereas raw score gives order” (bond, 2010, personal communication). second, rasch measure equalized scores in number and scores became comparable. third, where as raw scores are “strongly non-linear at the extremes”, rasch measures are not (linacre, 2010, personal communication). to do so, each person’s rasch measure was obtained for each task separately (including both pretest and posttest). analysis one: descriptive statistics as mentioned earlier, rasch measures of item were subjected to analyses because they are both linear and interval. table 4 summarizes means and standard deviation of both raw score and rasch measure. as is shown in this table, learners’ performance has improved in posttest (m = 3.53, sd = 2.13 in pretest, and m = 4.53, sd = 1.62 in posttest). table 4. descriptive statistics for total group raw score rasch measure variables m sd m sd pretest 3.53 2.13 -1.84 1.14 posttest 4.53 1.62 -1.83 1.14 note: sd = standard deviation; m = mean for total sample. as was mentioned earlier, to estimate children’s zpd, we followed boucal and bond’s (forthcoming) design. this means that kids capable in doing the task alone have got the complete score of 4, and those required help have got 3 (when are successful with motivational help), 2 (when are successful with cognitive 1 as hint), and 1 (when are successful with the second help or cognitive 2). in the case they were not able to answer the question with maximum help, they got zero zpd. analysis two: correlation to answer the first and second question of this study, “(1) is there any significant relationship between children’s lad and zpd?” and “(2) is there any significant relationship p. birjandi, p. daftarifard potential predictability of zpd of children’s cognitive development 47 between children’s future development and zpd?”, two correlations performed between children’s lad (prettest) and zpd and between future development and children’s zpd (table 5). as was mentioned earlier, the data of pretest, zpd, and posttest were subjected to rasch model separately using winisteps to obtain rasch measure for each person. then, pearson product moment correlation between children’s lad, zpd, and future development obtained to investigate if children’s hierarchical ordering has changed through mediation. table 5 summarizes the results. table 5. children’s lad, zpd, and future development rasch measure correlation lad fd lad 1 fd 0.148 (0.356) 1 zpd1 0.311* (0.048) 0.287 (0.069) zpd2 0.320* (0.041) 0.273 (0.08) zpd3 0.279 (0.078) 0.422** (0.006) zpd4 0.270 (0.088) 0.279 (0.07) zpd5 0.219 (0.170) 0.356* (0.02) note: lad is the same as pretest; fd is children’s future development and is the same as posttest; zpds are children zone of proximal development on five items. all measures are in rasch. * . correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). as is shown in table 5, there is no significant correlation between children’s performance on pretest (lad) and posttest (fd). this means that children’s performance have changed through mediation; some has growth unexpectedly better than others. such an unexpected growth leads to inconsistency of among the rank orders of children on raven test across times. that is, some kids should have had a better potential for improvement than others. interesting point is that lad (pretest) is significantly correlated with zpd1 and zpd2 but not with zpd3, zpd4, and zpd5. this indicates that children have changed after receiving more intervention dynamically. also table 5 shows that children’s performance on posttest (fd) is significantly correlated with zpd3 (r = 0.422, p < 0.01), and zpd5 (r = 0.356, p < 0.05). this indicates meaningful consistency of among the rank orders of children on raven test posttest and zpd3 and zpd5. the correlational results indicate that with more intervention, children’s performance may remain more consistent over tests. analysis three: regression to answer the third question of this study, “which of the children’s level of development (zpd or lad) can predict their future level of development?” one multiple regression analysis through the stepwise method was employed to investigate which of the children’s performance (lad, zpd1, zpd2, zpd3, zpd4, and zpd5) can predict their future development (posttest). multiple-regression is a linear regression with two or more independent variables. also through stepwise method which is the combination of two methods of backward and forward selections, independent variables are added to the equation one by one and subsequently might be removed when they do not contribute significantly to regression. the results are shown in tables 6, 7, and 8. one of the essential assumptions that should be met in regression analysis is the linearity of the data. the result of the analysis of variance (anova) shows that regression model is linear; f (1, 39) = 8.429, p <0.05 for model 1 and f (2, 38) = 8.648, p<0.05 for model 2. moreover, scatter plot shows (figure1) that there is no funnel shaped or crescent shaped cloud. this indicates that two assumptions of linearity and homogeneity of variance have been met. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 figure 1 scatter plot of standardized residual by standardized predicted value table 6 shows the regression model that are extracted are zpd3 and zpd1. the total r reported in this analysis for model 1 is 0.422 with r square of 0.178. this means that zpd3 can predict children’s future development with 17.8 percent in the present sample. also this amount increases by 31.3 percent when zpd1 is added in the second model. this indicates the importance and power of intervention provided to children on raven test. table 6. regression model summary model r r square adjusted r square std. error of the estimate 1 0.422(a) 0.178 0.157 1.05063 2 0.559(b) 0.313 0.277 0.97302 a predictors: (constant), zpd3 b predictor: (constant). zpd3, zpd1 c dependent variable: posttest 7. conclusion it is widely believed that da has a fundamental effect on the expansion of children’s potential ability (ableeva, 2008; baek & kim, 2003). the purpose of present research is to investigate whether children’s zpd can predict their performance on posttest in comparison with children lad, and whether there are any significant relationships between children’s lad, zpd and future development. the result of the study indicates that children’s performance in posttest improved. also, lower standard deviation in posttest for both tasks indicates that children are more homogeneous after mediation. lack of correlation between pretest and posttest can indicate that children were responsive differently to mediation. in this study, we found no significant correlation between children’s performance on pretest (lad) and posttest (fd). this shows that children’s rank order in posttest has changed. some children have shown more unexpectedly growth in respect with their performance on pretest. as was stated earlier, some kids have shown more or less potential for improvement than others. interesting point is that lad (pretest) is significantly correlated with zpd1 and zpd2 but not with zpd3, zpd4, and zpd5. this indicates that children have changed after receiving more intervention dynamically. p. birjandi, p. daftarifard potential predictability of zpd of children’s cognitive development 49 further research might focus on the possible hierarchical ordering among different cognitive hints and children’s growth. as stated by birjandi, daftarifar, and lange (2010), da research needs to explore the effects of different types of mediation and different ordering of hints on learners’ improvement. the result of regression was interesting. zpd1 and zpd3 could predict about 30 percent of children’s performance on the posttest. pretest does not form a regression model for this sample. this indicates that one cannot make decision about children’s cognitive stand from static point of view. children’s ability can be more obvious if they work with a know how instead of working alone. this is especially important when diagnosis for certain disabilities matters. another research might compare children with specific language or developmental problem with normal children on their zpd. more studies are required to investigate the nature of zpd in relation with many other cognitive and psychological factors. references [1] ableeva, r. (2008). the effects of dynamic assessment on l2 listening comprehension. in j. p. lantolf & m. e. poehner (eds.), sociocultural theory and the teaching of second languages (pp.5786). london: equinox. [2] baek, s. g, & kim k. j. (2003). the effect of dynamic assessment based instruction on children’s learning. asia pacific education review, 4(2), 189-198. [3] bensoussan, y. (2002). the effectiveness of mediation on three subtests of the application of cognitive functions scale: a dynamic assessment procedure for young children. eric document reproduction service no. 466635. [4] birjandi, p, daftarifard, p., & lange, r. (2010). the effects of dynamic assessment on rasch item and person hierarchies in second language testing. international journal of language studies (ijls), 5(1), 125-140. [5] boucal, a., & bond, t. (unpublished paper). measuring the zone of proximal development: tentative first steps at dynamic assessment. [6] brooks, n. d. (1997). an exploratory study into the cognitive modifiability of preschool children using dynamic assessment. unpublished master’s thesis. university of newcastle-upontype; newcastle, united kingdom. [7] de boer, s. r. (2011). successful inclusion for students with autism: creating a complete, effective, asd inclusion program. nj: wiley publisher. [8] fuchs, l. s., compton, d. l., fuchs, d., hollenbeck, k. n., craddock, c. f., & hamlet, c. l. (2008). dynamic assessment of algebraic learning in predicting third graders’ development of mathematical problem solving. journal of educational psychology, 100 (4), 829-250. [9] gutiérrez-clellen, v. f., & pena, e. (2001). dynamic assessment of diverse children: a tutorial. language, speech, and hearing services in schools, l (32), 212–224. [10] hasson, n., & joffe, v. (2007). the case for dynamic assessment in speech and language therapy. child language teaching and therapy, 23(1), 9–25. [11] haywood, h. c., & lidz, c. s. (2007). dynamic assessment in practice: clinical and educational application. cambridge: cup. [12] jitendra, a. k., rohena-diaz, e., & nolet, v. (1998). a dynamic curriculum-based language assessment: identifying the academic needs of students who are linguistically diverse with special needs. preventing school failure, 42(4), 182-185. [13] kester, e. s., peña, e. d., & gillam, r. b. (2001).outcomes of dynamic assessment with culturally and linguistically diverse students: a comparison of three teaching methods within a testteach-retest framework. journal of cognitive education and psychology, 2(1), 42-59. [14] kletzien, s. and bednar, m. (1990). dynamic assessment for at-risk readers. journal of reading, 528-533. [15] kozulin, a., & grab, e. (2001). dynamic assessment of efl text comprehension of at-risk students. paper presented at the 9th conference of the european association for research on learning and instruction. switzerland. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 [16] lantolf, j. p. (2002). sociocultural theory and second language acquisition. in r. b. kaplan (ed.), the oxford handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 104-114). oxford: oup. [17] lantolf, j. p. (2006). sociocultural theory and l2: state of the art. ssla, 28, 67–109. [18] lantolf, j. p. (2007). sociocultural theory and second language acquisition. in b. vanpatten & j. williams (eds.), theories in second language acquisition (pp. 201-225). new jersey: lea. [19] lantolf, j. p., & poehner, m. e. (2008). sociocultural theory and the teaching of second languages. london: equinox. poehner, m. e. (2008). both sides of the conversation: the interplay between mediation and learner reciprocity in dynamic assessment. in j. p. lantolf & m. e. poehner (eds.), sociocultural theory and the teaching of second languages (pp.33-56). london: equinox. [20] levy, c. (1999). the discriminate validity of the application of cognitive functions scale (acfs): a performance comparison between typically developing and special needs preschool children. unpublished master’s thesis, touro college, new york, united states. [21] lidz, c. s. (2003). early childhood assessment. new jersey: john willy and sons publisher. [22] malowitsky, m. (2001). investigation of the effectiveness of the mediation portion of two subscales of the application of cognitive functions scale: a dynamic assessment procedure for young children. (eric document reproduction service no. 457191; clearinghouse identifier: tm033288). [23] ohta, a. s. (2000). rethinking interaction in sla: developmentally appropriate assistance in the zone of proximal development and the acquisition of l2 grammar. in j. p. lantolf (ed.), sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp.51-78). oxford: oup. [24] poehner, m. e. (2008). dynamic assessment: a vygotskian approach to understanding and promoting l2 development. berlin: springer. [25] poehner, m. e., & lantolf, j. p. (2005). dynamic assessment in the language classroom. language teaching research, 9(3), 233–265. [26] roebuck, r. (2000). subjects speak out: how learners position themselves in a psycholinguistic task. in j. p. lantolf (ed.), sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 79-96). oxford: oup. [27] shurin, r. (1998). validity and reliability of the application of cognitive functions scale with preschool children with disabilities. (eric document reproduction services no. ed435681; clearinghouse identifier: tm030312) [28] swain, m. (2000). the output hypothesis and beyond: mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue. in j. p. lantolf (ed.), sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 97-114). oxford: oup. [29] thorne, s. l. (2000). second language acquisition theory and the truth(s) about relativity. in j. p. lantolf (ed.), sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 219-244). oxford: oup. [30] van lier, l. (2000). from input to affordance: social-interactive learning from an ecological perspective. in j. p. lantolf (ed.), sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp.245-260). oxford: oup. [31] vygotsky, l. (1986). thought and language. cambridge: the mit press. [32] vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. cambridge: harvard university press. brain_4 55 performance analysis of unsupervised clustering methods for brain tumor segmentation tushar h jaware and dr. k b khanchandani department of e&tc, shri sant gajanan maharaj college of engineering, shegaon, ms, india abstract: medical image processing is the most challenging and emerging field of neuroscience. the ultimate goal of medical image analysis in brain mri is to extract important clinical features that would improve methods of diagnosis & treatment of disease. this paper focuses on methods to detect & extract brain tumour from brain mr images. matlab is used to design, software tool for locating brain tumor, based on unsupervised clustering methods. k-means clustering algorithm is implemented & tested on data base of 30 images. performance evolution of unsupervised clustering methods is presented. keywords: mri, clustering, tumor 1. introduction the influence and impact of digital images on modern society is tremendous, and image processing is now a critical component in science and technology. the rapid progress in computerized medical image reconstruction, and the associated developments in analysis methods and computer-aided diagnosis, has propelled medical imaging into one of the most important subfields in scientific imaging. in past few years, mri has drawn considerable attention for its possible role in tissue characterization. brain tumor is an abnormal mass of tissue in which cells grow and multiply uncontrollably, seemingly unchecked by the mechanisms that control normal cells. image segmentation is a process to identify regions of interest from digital images. in brain tumor studies, accurate and reproducible segmentation and characterization of abnormalities are not straightforward. for instance, a major problem in tumor treatment planning and evaluation is determination of the tumor extent. figure 1. diagnosis rate in different countrie in mri images, the amount of data is too much for manual segmentation. the procedure is tedious, time, labor consuming, subjective and requires expertise. this gave way to methods that are computer-aided with user interaction at varying levels. these methods are automatic and objective and the results are highly reproducible. we designed software tool for locating brain tumor, based on unsupervised clustering methods and analyzed its performance. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 2. material and methods in this paper we use luminosity-based segmentation method. this paper analyses k mean clustering techniques to locate tumors in brain mri. the input is axial view of the human brain. the contrast of the gray level mr image is adjusted and then clustering algorithm is applied. the position of tumor objects is separated from other items of an mr image by using clustering algorithms and histogram-clustering. after the clustering process, the cluster containing the tumor is selected as the primary segment. histogram clustering is applied to eliminate the pixels which are not related to the tumor pixels. the performance of the clustering algorithms is found based on volumetric analysis of tumor & computational speed by applying to a database of 30 images. 3. algorithm the algorithm has two stages, first is pre-processing of given mri image and after that segmentation and then perform morphological operations. figure 2. stages of software implementation 4. contrast enhancement due to the less contrast of mr images, first we have to increase the contrast of an image. the three techniques can be used for this: � imadjust increases the contrast of the image by mapping the values of the input intensity image to new values such that, by default, 1% of the data is saturated at low and high intensities of the input data. � histeq performs histogram equalization. it enhances the contrast of the images by transforming the values in an intensity image so that the histogram of the output image approximately matches a specified histogram(uniform distribution by default) � adapthisteq performs contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization. unlike histeq, it operates on small data regions (tiles) rather than the entire image. each tile’s contrast is enhanced so that the histogram of each output region approximately matches the specified histogram (uniform distribution by default). the contrast enhancement can be limited in order to avoid amplifying the noise which might be present in the image. 5. clustering algorithms this system is implemented using morphological operations and the algorithms i.e. kmeans algorithm 5.1. k-means clustering: k-means is one of the simplest unsupervised learning algorithms that solve the well known clustering problems. the procedure follows a simple and easy way to classify a given data set through a given no. of clusters (assume k clusters) fixed a priority. the main idea is to define k centroids, one for each clusters. these centroids should be placed in a cunning way because of different location causes different results. so the better choice is to place them as much as possible far away from each other. the next step is to take each point belonging to given data set and associate it to the nearest centroid. when no point is pending, the first step is completed and an early group age is done. at this point, we need to re-calculate k new centroid as barycentres of the cluster resulting from the previous step. after we have these k new centroids, a new binding has to be done between the same data set points and the nearest new centroid. a loop has been generated. as a result of this loop, we may notice that the k centroid change their location step by step until no t. h jaware & k b khanchandani performance analysis of unsupervised clustering methods for brain tumor segmentation 57 more changes are done. in other word, centroids do not move any more. finally, this algorithm aims at minimizing an objective function, in this case a squared error function. the objective function where is chosen distance measure between a data point and the cluster centre is an indicator of the distance of the n data points from their respective cluster centre. 5.2. k-means clustering algorithm: no. of cluster= k 1. pick k cluster centre, either randomly 2. assign each pixel in the image to the cluster that minimizes the variance between the pixel and the cluster centre 3. re-compute the cluster centre by averaging all of the pixels in the cluster. 4. repeat steps 2 &3 until convergence is attained (e.g.no pixels change clusters) 6. cluster selection after the clustering process, the cluster containing an area of interest (tumor) is selected as the primary segment. 7. histogram based clustering to eliminate the pixels which are not related to the interest in the selected cluster, histogram clustering is applied. 8. region elimination the output of histogram clustering consists of tumor region as well as the other regions which has the same luminance and colour values as the tumor. the regions which are smaller than the tumor are eliminated. 9. discussion in the proposed paper, we locate the brain tumor in mr image using morphological operations and the clustering methods. we designed the graphical user interface (gui) for user friendly environment. the results obtained for this clustering method are given below: 10. results for k-mean clustering: figure 3 shows three different original brain mr images, contrast enhancement of the images, segmented images using k-means algorithm and finally located tumor. fig 1.4 shows the performance of the unsupervised clustering methods with the no. of tumor pixels and execution time to locate the brain tumor. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 (a) (b) (c) (d) figure 3:(a) input mr image (b) enhanced image (c) segmented tumor (d) located brain tumor figure 4.performance based on no. of tumor pixel & execution time in this paper we segmented the brain tumors in axial view of mr images with the help of unsupervised clustering method i.e. k-means clustering. the unsupervised clustering methods gave the better results than traditional method. the performance analysis and comparison is done f on the basis of no. of tumor pixels in segmented brain tumor and the execution time for the same. regarding the no. of tumor pixels, kmeans clustering gave a better result than the other methods. the clustering algorithms were tested with a data base of 20 mri brain images. k-means clustering achieved almost 90%result. references [1]m. mancas, b. gosselin, b. macq, 2005, "segmentation using a region growingthresholding", proc. of the electronic imaging conference of the international society for optical imaging (spie/ei 2005), san jose (california, usa). [2] dong-yong dai; condon, b.; hadley, d.; rampling, r.; teasdale, g.; "intracranial deformation caused by brain tumors: assessment of 3-d surface by magnetic resonance imaging"ieee transactions on medical imaging volume 12, issue 4, dec. 1993 page(s):693 – 702 [3] matthew c. clark “segmenting mri volumes of the brain with knowledgebased clustering” ms thesis, department of computer science and engineering, university of south florida, 1994 [5] http://noodle.med.yale.edu [6] http://documents.wolfram.com/ t. h jaware & k b khanchandani performance analysis of unsupervised clustering methods for brain tumor segmentation 59 [7] dzung l. pham, chenyang xu, jerry l. prince;"a survey of current methods in medical medical image segmentation" technical report jhu / ece 99-01, department of electrical and computer engineering. the johns hopkins university, baltimore md 21218, 1998. [8] m. sezgin, b. sankur " survey over image thresholding techniques and quantitative performance evaluation" j. electron. imaging 13 (1) (2004) 146-165. [9] chowdhury, m.h.; little, w.d,;"image thresholding techniques" ieee pacific rim conference on communications, computers, and signal processing, 1995. proceedings. 17-19 may 1995 page(s):585 – 589 [10] zhou, j.; chan, k.l.; chong, v.f.h.; krishnan, s.m “extraction of brain tumor from mr images using one-class support vector machine” 27th annual international conference of the engineering in medicine and biology society, 2005. ieee-embs 2005, page(s):6411 – 6414 [11]t. logeswari, m. karnan, ―an improved implementation of brain tumor detection using segmentation based on soft computingǁ, page(s): 006-014, journal of cancer research and experimental oncology vol. 2(1), march 2010. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 277-287 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/367 submitted: february 10th, 2022 | accepted for publication: june 28th, 2022 neuro art as an incorporation of the conscious and the unconscious in the modern exposition of art objects nataliya ursu 1 , ivan hutsul 2 , iryna paur 3 , ivan pidhurnyi 4 , timur takirov 5 1 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, ukraine, ursu@kpnu.edu.ua, https://doi.org/0000-0002-2660-2144 2 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, ukraine, hutsul@kpnu.edu.ua 3 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, ukraine, iryna.paur@kpnu.edu.ua 4 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, ukraine, pidhurnyy@kpnu.edu.ua 5 kamianets-podilskyi ivan ohiienko national university, ukraine, takirov@kpnu.edu.ua abstract: the article is devoted to the study of a new look at the expositional activity of objects of contemporary art in the light of the definition of related artistic phenomena that exist between time-torn cultural epochs. the connection between digitalization, the development of innovative technologies and the influence of the subconscious experience passed down from past generations to descendants is considered. emphasis is placed on the peculiarities of the evolution of modern art exhibitions, historically stated examples of transcendent personal perception of artistic symbols are given, which encourages consideration of the deep nature of human feelings and finding ways to directly influence the subconscious. keywords: neuro art; contemporaries; art exhibition; experience of generations; artistic activity; works of art. how to cite: ursu, n., hutsul, i., paur, i., pidhurnyi, i., & takirov, t. (2022). neuro art as an incorporation of the conscious and the unconscious in the modern exposition of art objects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 277-287. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/367 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/367 mailto:ursu@kpnu.edu.ua https://doi.org/0000-0002-2660-2144 mailto:hutsul@kpnu.edu.ua mailto:iryna.paur@kpnu.edu.ua mailto:pidhurnyy@kpnu.edu.ua mailto:takirov@kpnu.edu.ua https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/367 neuro art as an incorporation of the conscious and the unconscious in the ... nataliya ursu et al. 278 introduction the formation of contemporary art is inextricably linked with the gradual basic development of art culture and art, with the general existence of mankind. it is known that the preconditions for the emergence of such a socio-cultural phenomenon as contemporary art, laid in the xix century. the development of exposition activities and the very principles of art have become the main conditions for the birth of conditions for a comprehensive perception of the latest forms of artistic creativity. an art researcher like john hyman publishes an article at oxford university. some neuroscientists made a claim that their work can change our comprehension of visual art. in article of v.s. ramachandran and semir zeki there are some suggestions of supporters of the “neuro-aesthetics” ideas and anticipation for their projects (hyman, 2010). famous in neuro art field semir zeki (1999) and v.s. ramachandran made very pretentious assertions. “the key to understanding what art really is” wrote ramachandran, in brain imaging experiments, despite the fact that there is no description of these experiments or explanation of the results, only theory (ramachandran & hirstein, 1999, p. 17). zeki, who originally created the term “neuro-aesthetics”, declare to establish the foundations for understanding “the biological basis of aesthetic experience”, and to have formulated a “neurobiological definition of art” (zeki, 1999, p. 2, 22). if these declarations are true, we are at the emergence of a new age in the study of art. xx century caused several conceptual transformations associated with the change of cultural paradigm and the transition from modernism to postmodernism. a detailed examination of the history of contemporary unrealistic art allows us to conditionally determine two directions of perception of contemporary art avant-garde (modernist) and postmodern (iacob, 2020; nerubasska et al., 2020; nerubasska & maksymchuk, 2020). the most radical of them, the first, avant-garde, during the existence of which there were changes in art itself, when modernism took a dominant position. the modernist trend quickly acquired certain features of elitism and separated from the original idea of synthesizing art with life. at the same time, the postmodernist trend is marked by pluralism and the constant expansion of one's own conceptual ideas. it was inspired by avant-garde searches, looking for new forms and a new face. as there was a separation from realistic art, from the integration of art with real life, new paradigms had to appear to convey the latest artistic broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 279 ideas to viewers of different levels of cultural education, connoisseurs of artistic generation of the new generation. it is this tendency that has provoked an appeal to the subconscious, transcendent world of human nature, which would influence the deep, primordial images that underlie human cognition. it is well known that the basis of the spiritual life is experience, which is passed down from past generations to the next and is to some extent a set of archetypes. archetypes projected on the outside world determine the uniqueness of culture. with the appearance of informal art, the role of the subconscious increases significantly. impact on the viewer not with the help of realistic images, but through the introduction of specific symbols, shapes, colors, textures, and other components of compositions that can immerse in the subconscious world, awaken the collective memory, resurrect archetypal ideas and symbols the result of joint work of consciousness and collective unconscious. today it is also necessary to understand the notions of the very concept of a new exhibition, which at this stage is both traditional and, at the same time, the latest reality of culture and determine its place in the modern world. the question that arose at the dawn of the emergence of the latest exhibitions, reflected in f. schmidt, was extremely urgent in the early twentieth century: "the obvious and undeniable failure of jubilee art exhibitions, where the work of demonstrating our achievements in the field of art was started from the opposite end, and the obvious (though not for all) failure of attempts to arrange halls of "modern art" in our large art museums that buy works of our full-time artists all this raises the question of whether to look for a way out of our museum difficulties in a completely different direction? " (schmidt, 1929, p. 201). the problem remains relevant today. it is the consideration of new models of attitude to the essence of work on arranging and finishing any exposition of modernist or postmodern nature that gives rise to a new approach that incorporates the conscious and unconscious, combining and harmonizing all aspects of the unconscious, creating unity and stability. to awaken the deep memory of generations, it was necessary to use unusual for the past centuries techniques and means of organizing the space of avantgarde and postmodern exhibitions. such forms can be called the introduction into the exhibition of theatrical effects with musical accompaniment, which sensually affect a person, awakening feelings on a deep, subconscious level. electronic databases, the internet and other technical means are playing an increasingly important role in exhibition neuro art as an incorporation of the conscious and the unconscious in the ... nataliya ursu et al. 280 activities. if in the early twentieth century already used movies, which were shown as a supplement to the exhibited works, in the xxi century the viewer often requires online access to real-time exhibits from anywhere in the world. establishment of exhibitions of contemporary art the last third of the twentieth century marked by the emergence of catalogs using digitalization, the so-called video museums. one of the first was a video exhibition of the palazzo spada art gallery, in the halls of which works of the xiv-xvii centuries are presented. the recording fixed with the help of a laser beam was reproduced on the monitor and accompanied by a corresponding comment. this created the impression of authentic guide. the computer provided the ability to choose the route of the tour, and the viewer could focus on a more detailed view. up to 5,000 art objects could be seen during the 25-minute tour. the video exhibition contained 54,000 works. in 1963, a center for coordinating efforts to develop museum computer databases and catalogs was organized the committee for museum documentation. thus, an international system of description of exhibits was created. in the last decade of the twentieth century (1991) the so-called micro gallery (“micro”microsoft) opened at the national gallery in london. this is a computer information room located in the wing of sainsbury and offered for free use. prior to that, in 1980, a reading room was opened, where visitors could get acquainted with the publications of the museum exposition. at the same time, the idea arises to organize an automated demonstration of text slides. the happy possibility of converting images into electronic form gave this idea a completely new sound. the current program of the micro gallery consists of four indexes that help to search for the necessary information: "artists" (access to biographies); "historical atlas" (search and review of paintings by place and time of creation), "typology of paintings" (provides genre classifications of paintings, contains catalogs of images that allow you to find a work that is recorded in the memory of the visitor only in appearance, or consider the development of a themes in art) and "general handbook", which contains a glossary of terms. all indexes are supplemented by catalogs of works. the program provides permission to view the work of art as a whole and its individual components. the user can choose the details of the objects that interest him. since 1993, the microsoft art gallery has been available for free sale on cds. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 281 in 1994, a special visual electronic collection-catalog videomuseum was created within the european union, aimed at specialists in the field of art history. it is a computer database containing videos and descriptions of works of visual art of the twentieth century, presented in public galleries in european countries. the j. watson library at the metropolitan museum of art (usa) has for the first time hosted the international database clearighouse, which allows you to document, and view works of art. it contains 2 items: a bibliographic index of documents and an information guide. in the twentieth century in connection with new inventions in the field of architecture and technology, the interior space of the world's largest galleries is being reconstructed. in the xxi century the reorganization of exhibition spaces in the world is so rapid that new, often revolutionary inventions in the construction of exhibitions and works in general occur every year, thus causing the need to constantly rethink the relationship between the audience and the gallery. the current culture of spectator consumption poses any exposition before the dilemma: to remain traditionally a center of high art or to return to the original sources, to offer the spectator a multifaceted cultural dialogue. realization of problems of development of creative potential in modern art space can become an indicator of an estimation of social efficiency of an exposition, its action both on the separate person, and on cultural and art environment. however, the emergence of new forms, for example, media and virtual, exhibitions, as well as the development of new areas and forms of gallery activity, is more spontaneous. today, the practice of exposition, unfortunately, is rapidly ahead of theory, and this situation cannot be called normal. considering the prospects for the development of exhibition design in galleries, we can state the ambivalent nature of exhibitions of contemporary art, which complicates the definition of the main direction of their development. often one exposition integrates both modernist and postmodernist notes, as well as melodies that emerge from the xix century. therefore, there are now ways to further develop in one of these areas, and to transform the exhibition towards deepening ties with past phenomena of our art. neuro art as an incorporation of the conscious and the unconscious in the ... nataliya ursu et al. 282 neuro art in modern exhibition practice one of the characteristic features of the modern exposition may be the general intensification of the role of neuro art in culture, which will consist, inter alia, in continuing the avant-garde intentions of connecting art with the life and work of past generations. neuro art is a modern artistic means that combines the characteristic expressive possibilities of sound, image, and text to form an idea that is projected on the human subconscious, using numerous means of modern technology, represented in the image of the screen (phone, computer, tv, etc.). in this way, a person through the screen accumulates in his subconscious information, which is further extrapolated to the outside world, which forms a new reality of human existence. neuro art is the creation of internal images in the human subconscious under the influence of sensory-life experience and not always this image can find an external form, but be empathetic (karpov, 2018, p. 113). rather, it presents artistic introversion as an inner creative impulse generated in the artist's subconscious or superconscious, as an intentionality aimed at his inner world, experience, sensual nature of artistic creativity, which is inherent in all types of art (tkachuk & melnik, 2000, p. 15). the existence of historically established examples of transcendent personal perception of artistic symbols in ukraine leads to the consideration of the deep nature of human feelings and the search for ways to directly influence the subconscious. it is worth drawing an analogy of informal art objects of modern avant-garde and postmodernist dwarfs, where the main components of the composition of the work are often visual symbols, conceived by the artist not for a superficial but for a deeper understanding of the idea. the analogy literally follows from the history of the development of the symbolism of ornamental motifs, which aims to carefully analyze the symbols of trypillia culture, the so-called culture of "painted pottery", which prevailed in our lands in iv-iii millennium bc. some archaeologists suggest that this civilization dates to the vii century b.c. trypillia ornamentation impresses with its magic, mystery, accuracy. a detailed depiction of entire systems of ornaments, full detail, the deep meaning of the sacred content is contained in the drawings of our ancestors. many authors of scientific research have devoted their research to finding parallels between the trypillia signs and the symbols of ukrainian traditional folk art. most scientists agree with the deep semantic meaning of such a simple geometric shape as a rhombus, which meant fertility, fertility in our broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 283 ancestors. in the lands of modern ukraine, in the places of concentration of trypillia settlements, archaeologists found picturesque pottery depicting this element. later, the diamond was deliberately applied to household items to enrich them, increase their content. things that filled the ukrainian rural housing of the xix century. contained this mysterious symbol. we see a diamond carved on chests and other furniture woven on the carpets that encircled the living room. woven, embroidered, crocheted rhombus can be seen on bedspreads, pillows, bedspreads. the symbolic meaning of the rhombus pattern has already been forgotten, but the tradition of placing a certain motif in specific places has remained and has come down to us. to the people in this house: on the bed, in the chest, jugs and other things wished prosperity, many children, well-being, fertility. interestingly, the rhombus pattern has never been used in the ornament of folk costumes of girls and older women of unproductive age. the rhombus was not just a created element of the ornamental system, but an indispensable component with a deep, transcendent meaning embedded in it. archaeologists have found clay figurines of trypillia "venus", on the abdomen of which was placed a diamond with a seed pressed into its middle, which gave rise to certain associations about a woman's desire to have a baby. symbolic meaning was given to patterns depicting wildlife that surrounded people. some plant elements were designed to provide high yields, others solved medicinal and other problems. belief in the miraculous qualities of the plant world was embodied in the decor of everyday things. over the centuries of art development, the direct, immediate meaning of symbolic images has gradually faded. however, although ornamental forms have come down to us somewhat transformed, perhaps more abstract, their symbolism has been largely preserved through tradition. and now in rural houses you can see the traditional placement of these ornamental symbols in a certain area, although the hostess cannot explain why so and not otherwise. this is how the first collections were born, the first expositions were made on the shelves of houses. the most interesting objects of cultural life of the extinct civilization were found around the trypillia settlements in romania and ukraine. for these first explorations interesting cultural events and more precise and deeper the artifacts of art, which were symbolically depicts human beings and animals. thus, the assumption of the first collections with embryos of the phenomenon, which we now call neuro art, has a right to exist. a huge number of finds that indicate the presence of many collections at the time. therefore, in ukraine the counting of the neuro art as an incorporation of the conscious and the unconscious in the ... nataliya ursu et al. 284 formation of art collections and exhibitions can be traced back to the times of trypillia culture. trypillia's highly artistic tradition is organically intertwined with the millennial artistic and historical process and is an important factor in the stylistic and artistic development of ukrainian art. therefore, scholars believe that the study of trypillia culture, and in particular its sign and symbolic system is one of the most important areas of development of modern ukrainian culture (schmidt, 1929). ornamental motifs were and remain a special deep-semantic, mysterious, and mystical component of art, which our ancestors understood much better than we do. they possessed a supernatural, sensory-otherworldly understanding of what they were creating. this clearly shows the unity, the deep connection between man and the world in which he lived. "the development of human culture has demonstrated the existence of internal artistic parallels between distant periods in time. it is emphasized that this similarity is inspired by the presence of internal mechanisms formed in the conditions of primitive society with its inherent expression of eidetic expression. it is stated that the dynamics of such cultural and artistic trends is associated with the subconscious impulses of the human brain, which determined the need for the introduction of such innovative terms as neuro aesthetics and neuro art"(karpov, 2018, p. 114). the socio-cultural situation in the formation of expositions of contemporary art encourages the search for originality, the active generation of new knowledge and ideas. it is important to realize that in the xxi century transforms the modern exhibition space into a cultural phenomenon, inspiring the impetus for further development. new expositions and exhibitions, and especially cultural projects, are the result of both scientific study and individual creative search. this is under the influence of modern intercultural communication, which gives the exposition a sound not declarative, but moves it to the realm of polylogue. the richness of techniques that the interpretation of accumulated information acquires in world practice has led to an explosion of exhibition activity and an increase in the role of exhibition design, which includes neuro artistical components, given the deep, multifaceted perception of the audience. neuro art has in its arsenal special means of presenting cultural and artistic information performances, unexpected outrageous techniques in the selection and placement of exhibits, audiovisual presentations, etc., which actively awaken the layering of the subconscious of each person. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 285 n. kopelyanska notes that the art space loses in the field of discussion even to glossy magazines: "unlike museums, magazines (real and virtual) have an active discussion, talk about birth and death, about children and the elderly, about quarrels and reconciliation, including museums, that is, they are engaged in a certain degree of culturology. and the discussion here plays the role of a helper, which allows us to consider any story (project) not as another encyclopedic article, but as an opportunity to make your choice (sometimes even moral!), to form your point of view "(kopelyanska, 2010, p. 98). in this sense, printed and electronic products are of great importance in modern exhibition activities: flyers, catalogs, thematic magazines, etc. a necessary condition for the cultural exchange between the exhibition and the spectator was the availability of materials that the visitor can take with him, viewing and receiving the necessary information outside the exhibition space. an important global trend in modern exhibitions is the organization of thematic internal exhibition structures. this significantly expands and complements the understanding of neuro art space: survey centers, pedagogy, culture, public life. changes in the approach to the interaction of art exhibitions and society are also manifested in the transfer of some operational functions to various associations, foundations, public and private organizations, communities of friends of the museum. thus, the modern world museum community, designing the exhibition activities, integrates each exhibition into a wide public space and acquires the necessary incorporation schemes of communication. conclusion thus, it can be stated that the world's practical and theoretical experience of research in the field of neuro art exposition raises many questions about the ways and means of conducting such work. design as a technology of effective management of the artistic process is due to the tendency to strengthen the social functions of culture. incorporate neuro art communication, interaction with various organizations, interest of a wider circle of visitors in exhibition cultural events, organization of expositions of modern art and introduction of new technologies for creation of such expositions and storage of works of contemporary art, development, and production of digital and interactive excursion databases in xxi century become dominant priority areas for the formation of a holistic socio-cultural neuro art program. neuro art as an incorporation of the conscious and the unconscious in the ... nataliya ursu et al. 286 however, the concept of "modern exposition" along with the newly created special museums (galleries) of contemporary art should include the concept of traditional, historically formed mentality of the nation, which certainly takes care of broader concepts in the understanding of modern art. we conclude that due to its demand in the cultural space, and not least due to its centuries-old past, the art exhibition responds very quickly and sharply to the dramatic changes taking place in society and culture. the art exhibition, which is changing in a changing world filled with digitalization of all spheres of life, is to some extent a mirror image of modernity. filling the information space requires the intervention of human presence, providing an integrated exhibition environment of their own spirituality, understanding and implementation of the subconscious in all creative processes that have socio-cultural significance. the role of art exhibition in the preservation and interpretation of cultural heritage objects, in the processes of social adaptation and identification of each person and the nation is growing. the contemporary exhibition should become a center of communication, promoting cultural development and creative innovative technologies in the incorporation of the conscious and the unconscious. this model of neuro art expositional communication is still waiting for an hour of its comprehension, for the opening of a real field for the creation of an effective cultural dialogue. references hyman, j. (2010). art and neurosciences. in r. frigg & m. c. hunter (eds.), beyond mimesis and convention in the philosophy of science (pp. 245-261). berlin: springer. iacob, a. (2020). human vs. non-human in art: the posthuman sculptures of patricia piccinini. journal for social media inquiry, 2(1), 87-99. https://doi.org/10.18662/jsmi/2.1/8 karpov, v. v. (2018). neyromystetstvo v konteksti tvorchosti [neuro art in the context of creativity]. bulletin of the national academy of management of culture and arts: a quarterly scientific journal, 1, 110–115. http://journals.uran.ua/visnyknakkkim/article/view/160039 kopelyanskaya, n. (2010). muzey kak sotsial'nyy moderator, ili zachem muzeyu nuzhna obshchestvennaya diskussiya? [museum as a social moderator, or why does a museum need a public discussion?] in museum communication: models, technologies, practices (pp. 97–106). moscow: institute of cultural studies of the ministry of culture of the russian federation. https://doi.org/10.18662/jsmi/2.1/8 http://journals.uran.ua/visnyknakkkim/article/view/160039 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 287 nerubasska, a., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). the demarkation of creativity, talent and genius in humans: a systemic aspect. postmodern openings, 11(2), 240255. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 ramachandran, v. s., & hirstein, w. (1999). the science of art: a neurological theory of aesthetic experience. journal of consciousness studies, 6(6-7), 15-51. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-03452-001 schmidt, f. i. (1929). muzeynoye delo: voprosy ekspozitsii [museum business: questions of exposition]. leningrad: academia. tkachuk, t. m., & melnik y. g. (2000). semiotychnyy analiz trypilʹsʹko-kukutensʹkykh znakovykh system (malʹovanyy posud) [semiotic analysis of trypillia-kukuten sign systems (painted ware)]. ivano-frankivsk: play. zeki, s. (1999). inner vision: an exploration of art and the brain. oxford: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/172 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-03452-001 microsoft word brain_2_4.doc 56 mental lexicon: its organization and representation majid farahian kermanshah branch, english language department, islamic azad university. kermanshah, iran majid_fa53@yahoo.com abstract the number of words a native speaker of a language knows is incredibly vast. however, this is not just word that represents mental lexicon. words have properties to which in a very complex way they are associated. this paper reviews the related literature and different perspectives on what mental lexicon is, what is its organization, how words are related in the mental lexicon. it has also been discussed how second language mental lexicon is stored in the brain. keywords: mental lexicon, words, memory, storage and organization 1. introduction it is evident that the linguistic abilities of normal native speakers of a language includes, amongst other things, their knowledge of words (or the lexical items) of their language. moreover many scholars agree that human beings know a lot of words and they can locate them in a fraction of second (muller, 2008) [12]. such huge numbers and such efficiency in finding those words required, suggest that these words are carefully organized, not just stored haphazardly in the mind (gairns, 1986) [7]. but what exactly the notion of knowledge of words means and how this mental knowledge is represented is controversial. scholars agree that little is actually known about the mental lexicon (aitchison, 2003) [1] and all definitions and descriptions provided to reveal its nature are based on metaphors (peppard, 2007) [13]. in order to refer to such a complicated repertoire, some have likened it to a dictionary (hoff, 2005) [15] and others to the internet (brown, 2006) [4]. however, unlike dictionary and more similar to the world wide web, the information in the mental lexicon is always being updated. new words are added, new connections to existing words are made and unused words may be forgotten (aitchison, 2003). to define mental lexicon, bruze et al., (2009) hold that the term refers to “words that comprise a language” (p.363). takac (2008) [19] refers to hulstijn (2000) who defines it as “a memory system in which a vast number of words, accumulated in the course of time, has been stored, (p. 210). bonin (2004) [3] defines mental lexicon as “the mental repository of all representations that are intrinsically related to words (p. 1). because learning a language may take place at different stages of an individual’s physical and mental growth there are still unanswered questions that have arisen with regard to how a native language learner develops the mental links within his mental lexicon for the organization of native language (post, 2007) [14]. however, speculations have been made as to how this knowledge is represented and organized in the mind. bonin (2004) declares that “mental lexicon contains several types of representations including phonological, semantic, morphological and orthographic”. levelt (1995) [10] in the same line with bonin (ibid.) notes that mental knowledge which is the place of storage of declarative knowledge contains four kinds of features. first, there is the specification of the item meaning. for the word to eat there is something like “to ingest for nourishment or for pleasure”. second, there is a syntactic property including the category of the entry, for example to eat is a verb, the syntactic arguments it can take are the external subject and internal object. third, there is the morphological characteristic of the item ( for example, the third person for the verb ‘to go’). fourth, there is phonological information for the entry. learning the phonological form of a word is essential for lexical access brainotes m. farahian mental lexicon: its organization and representation 57 (randall, 2007) [16]. there are other specifications stored with an item as randhall (2007) notes. it may have particular pragmatic, stylistic and affective features “that make it fit to one context of discourse better than another” (p. 183). as levelt (1995) holds, these four kinds of information are interrelated in a systematic way. take the word painter as an example. its meaning is related to its morphology ‘paint’ ‘er’ and the ‘er’ refers to an agent in the world. 2. organization of the mental lexicon as to what this mental lexicon organization is like, different experiments have given clue as to its organization. gairns (1986) gave some testees the definition of some words which are of low frequency and asked them to provide the name of the items. not all test takers answered the questions, but for the researchers the answers on the tip of their tongues were of great importance. some of the answers were erroneous; however, they were phonetically close to the given words. in some cases, some participants in the study could guess the first letter of the word or the number of syllables of the word and others mentioned some words which were semantically close to what was intended by the researchers. the findings revealed that basic to lexicon and involved in its organization is an interrelated phonological system, a system of meaning relations and a spelling system which are interrelated. other experiments (e.g. kraut, et. al. 2002, loftus & loftus, 1974) [9] [11] provided further evidence that the variable which plays a determining role in the storage and organization of items is semantics; however, apart from which variable is responsible for the organization of mental lexis there is such a complex relationship among all variables involved in the organization of lexis. it was such a conception that led froster (1976, cited in gairns ,1986) to suggest the theory that all items are organized in one large ‘master file’ and that there are a variety of peripheral ‘access files’ which contain information about spelling, phonology, syntax and meaning. 3.findings on storage of words in mind apart from the question of what the structure of mental lexicon is and what is its organization, one may ask himself in what ways the stored lexical items are interrelated. research in memory suggests that words are stored and remembered in a network of associations and this is agreed upon by a lot of researches (gairns ,1986). these associations can be of many types and linked in a number of ways. as bruza et al. (2009) [5] suggests, “individual words are not represented in longterm memory as isolated entities but as part of a network of related words” (p. 363). based on collins and loftus’ network model (1975) [6], words are organized in hierarchical networks and are related through nodes which have relationships such as hyponymy or superordination, antonymy, collocations and coordination. set model theories the semantic feature theory suggested by katz and fodor (1963) [8] assumes that there is a core meaning for each word and it has a number of nonessential facts surrounding it. katz and fodor (ibid.) proposed a list of hard-core essential meaning of a word in terms of features. therefore, ‘unmarried, human, male and adult, can be considered as the component or features of ‘real meaning’ of ‘bachelor’, that is to label a person ‘a bachelor’ each of these features is necessary. prototype theories sripada (2008) [18] explains that based on prototype theory, people have already-held-inmind concepts and they match features of the objects they encounter with them. according to sripada (2008) “the essence of the theory of prototype is that an entry in the mental dictionary is centered on a representation of the prototype members of the class that the word denotes” (p. 185). randall (2007) calls this a process of having some examples to categorize words. as he explains, people often make use of examples when asked to define categories. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 4. the second language mental lexicon how does the second language (l2) mental lexicon differs from the first language (l1) mental lexicon? singleton (1999) [17] states that although the l2 mental lexicon and l1 mental lexicon are separately stored, they are connected with each other and are in communication. wolter (2006) [20], in line with singleton (ibid.), argues that there is a strong influence of l1 mental lexicon on the l2 mental lexicon. therefore it seems that two mental lexicons exist (bastkowski, 2003) [2]. it is also held by bastkowski (2003) that the idea of a ‘clean’ l2 mental lexicon is not probable since even if the second language learner, as he notes, may not know the second language word, for example rain, but the concept is already in his mind. wolter (2006) concludes that "what this means for the second language learner is that a complex set of assumptions for assimilating and structuring l2 lexical knowledge is already well in place before they learn their first word in the second language" (p. 742). 5. conclusion human beings are endowed with a mental lexicon which gives them the ability to store and retrieve huge number of words in their memory. different experiments have been conducted in order to find out which factor is more responsible for the storage of the lexis in the mind and different speculations have been made. it has been suggested that the mental lexicon contains several types of representations which have complex interrelationship with each other and different other variables. it has also been found out that words and their properties are not separately stored in the memory but there is a network of associations which holds words together. the studies of l2 lexicon have also revealed that the l2 words are stored separately from that of the l1; however, both l1 and l2 lexicons are in communication. references [1] aitchison, j. (2003). words in the mind: an introduction to the mental lexicon. oxford: blackwell. [2] bastkowski, m. (2010). extending the mental lexicon: the l2 mental lexicon. retrieved december 31, 2010, from http://www.grin.com. [3] bonin, p. (2004). mental lexicon: some words to talk about words. new york: nova science publishers. [4] brown, p. s. (2006). a small-scale exploration into the relationship between word-association and learners’ lexical development. unpublished master’s thesis. university of birmingham. [5] bruza, p., kitto, k., nelson, d., & mcevoyc, c. (2009). is there something quantum-like about the human mental lexicon? journal of mathematical psychology, 53, 362-377. [6] collins, a. m., & loftus, e. f. (1975). a spreading activation of semantic processing. psychological review, 82, 6, 407-428. [7] gairns, r. (1986). working with words: a guide to teaching and learning vocabulary. cambridge: cambridge university press. [8] katz, j. j., & fodor, j. a. (1963). the structure of a semantic theory language, 39(2), 170-210. [9] kraut, m. a., kremen, s., segal, j. b., calhoun, c., moo, l. r., & hart, j. (2002). object activation from features in the semantic system. journal of cognitive neuroscience, 14(1), 24-36. [10] levelt, w. j. m. (1995). speaking: from intention to articulation. cambridge, massachusetts: the mit press. [11] loftus, g. r., & loftus, e. r. (1974). the influence of one memory retrieval on a subsequent memory retrieval. memory & cognition, 2(3), 467-471. [12] müller, s. (2008). the mental lexicon. retrieved december 31, 2010, from http://www.grin.com. [13] peppard, j. (2007). exploring the relationship between word-association and learners’ lexical development. retrieved december 31, 2010, from http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/resources/essays/peppard_mod_2.pdf m. farahian mental lexicon: its organization and representation 59 [14] post, m. (2007). word association responses, lexical development and the relationship within the mental lexicon of second language learners. retrieved december 31, 2010, from www.cels.bham.ac.uk/m_post_lexis_relationships_within_the_mental_ lexicon.pdf [15] hoff, e. (2005). language development (3rd ed.). wadsworth, uk: thomson learning. [16] randall, m. (2007). memory, psychology and second language learning. amsterdam: john benjamin publishing co. [17] singleton, d.m.(1999). exploring the second language mental lexicon. cambridge: cambridge university press. [18] sripada, p. n. (2008). mental lexicon. journal of the indian academy of applied psychology, 34(1), 181-186. [19] takač, v. p. (2008). vocabulary learning strategies and foreign language acquisition. clevedon, england: multilingual matters. [20] wolter, b. (2006). lexical network structures and l2 vocabulary acquisition: the role of l1 lexical/conceptual knowledge. applied linguistics, 24, 741-47. microsoft word brain_2_4.doc 28 design and development a control and monitoring system for greenhouse conditions based-on multi agent system seyed hamidreza kasaei young researchers club, isfahan branch (khurasgan), islamic azad university,isfahan, iran h.kasaee@khuisf.ac.ir seyed mohammadreza kasaei young researchers club, isfahan branch (khurasgan), islamic azad university,isfahan, iran seyed alireza kasaei young researchers club, isfahan branch (khurasgan), islamic azad university,isfahan, iran abstract the design of a multi-agent system for integrated management of greenhouse production is described. the model supports the integrated greenhouse production, with targets set to quality and quantity of produce with the minimum possible cost in resources and environmental consequences. in this paper, we propose a real time and robust system for monitoring and control of the greenhouse condition which can automatically control of greenhouse temperature, lights, humidity, co2 concentration, sunshine, ph, salinity, water available, soil temperature and soil nutrient for efficient production. we will propose a multi-agent methodology for integrated management systems in greenhouses. in this regards wireless sensor networks play a vital role to monitor greenhouse and environment parameters. each control process of the greenhouse environment is modeled as an autonomous agent with its own inputs, outputs and its own interactions with the other agents. each agent acts autonomously, as it knows a priori the desired environmental setpoints. many researchers have been making attempts to develop the greenhouse environment management system. the existing environment management systems are bulky, very costly and difficult to maintain. in the last years, multi agent systems and wireless sensor networks are becoming important solutions to this problem. this paper describes the implementation and configuration of the wireless sensor network to monitor and control various parameter of greenhouse. the developed system is simple, cost effective, and easily installable. keywords: multi agent system (mas), environment monitoring system (ems), greenhouse environment, embedded system, wireless sensor networks (wsn) 1. introduction biological systems in artificial environments consist of complex, not exactly defined, interacting processes. those systems are usually treated with optimal control strategies that are applied separately to each process and not to the entire system as a whole. the most important factors for the quality and productivity of plant growth are temperature, humidity, light and the level of the carbon dioxide. continuous monitoring of these environmental variables gives information to the grower to better understand, how each factor affects growth and how to manage maximal crop productiveness [1, 2]. the optimal greenhouse climate and soil adjustment can enable us to improve productivity and to achieve remarkable energy savings [3]. in the past generation greenhouses it was enough to have one cabled measurement point in the middle to provide the information to the greenhouse automation system. the system itself was usually simple without opportunities to control locally heating, lights, ventilation or some other activity, which was affecting the greenhouse interior climate. this all has changed in the modern greenhouses. the typical size of the greenhouse itself is much bigger what it was before, and the greenhouse facilities provide several options to make local s. h. kasaei, s. m. kasaei, s. a. kasaei design and development a control and monitoring system for greenhouse conditions based-on multi agent system 29 adjustments to the lights, ventilation, heating and other greenhouse support systems. however, more measurement data is also needed to make this kind of automation system work properly. increased number of measurement points should not dramatically increase the automation system cost. it should also be possible to easily change the location of the measurement points according to the particular needs, which depend on the specific plant, on the possible changes in the external weather or greenhouse structure and on the plant placement in the greenhouse [1-5]. mas and wsn can form a useful part of the automation system architecture in modern greenhouses. this paper is organized as follows. first we will describe the context of multi agent systems, wireless sensor networks and their applications in monitoring and control of the greenhouse climatic conditions. then we provide a description of the system architecture. after, we will describe the benefits of using this architecture. finally, we will present some technical details and concludes. 2. multi agent systems (mas) multi-agent systems have been used in a wide range of applications, like control issues in robotics, distributed systems in telecommunications, intelligent e-commerce systems, artificial intelligence applications, etc. recently mas have also been used in biological and agricultural applications. in artificial intelligence, an intelligent agent (ia) is an autonomous entity which observes through sensors and acts upon an environment using actuators and directs its activity towards achieving goals [6]. intelligent agents may also learn or use knowledge to achieve their goals. they may be very simple or very complex. multi agent systems are based on the general concept of distributed processing. figure 1. agent architecture the multi agent method creates a non-structured environment using agents, these agents, in order to reach the global optimum, must be capable of performing transactions between each other, achieving several “deals”, which is performed though a common vocabulary, a finite set of information exchange, a finite set of possible actions, penalties, etc. the power of each agent depends on the degree of contribution of its represented process to the final output of the entire system. each agent communicates with the environment and adapts to its own internal state as well as to the state of the entire system. in this systems, for the realization of the multi agent architecture the jade 4.1.1 (java agent development framework) have been used [7]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 3. wireless sensor network (wsn) in the past generation greenhouses it was enough to have one cabled measurement point in the middle to provide the information to the greenhouse automation system. the system itself was usually simple without opportunities to control locally heating, lights, ventilation or some other activity, which was affecting the greenhouse interior conditions. this all has changed in the modern greenhouses. wireless communication can be used to collect the measurements and to communicate between the centralized control and the agents to the different parts of the greenhouse. in advanced wsn solutions, some parts of the control system itself can also be implemented in a distributed manner to the network such that local control loops can be formed. compared to the cabled systems, the installation of wsn is fast, cheap and easy. moreover, it is easy to relocate the measurement points when needed by just moving sensor nodes from one location to another within a communication range of the coordinator device. if the greenhouse flora is high and dense, the small and light weight nodes can even be hanged up to the plants’ branches. wsn maintenance is also relatively cheap and easy. in other hand, the measured data can be sent directly to the gateway node which is plugged in to the computer, or it can be transmitted in a multi-hop manner via router nodes, if the distance between the measuring nodes and the computer exceeds the length of a single radio link [8-14]. in this work, we applied a simple star topology, where sensor nodes measured soil and climate variables and communicated directly with the gateway node. the gateway node acted as a coordinator and received the measured data from the sensor nodes. it was located in the greenhouse entrance hall because the humidity there was 20-30% lower than inside the greenhouse. a laptop computer was connected to the gateway node by usb-cable. the greenhouse was divided into vertical blocks and the nodes monitored one block at a time. figure 2 illustrates how the sensor nodes were deployed to the greenhouse block. the idea of the vertical deployment was to get a better understanding of the microclimate layers which typically exist in the greenhouse, and to figure out what kind of differences occur in the climate between lower and upper flora. figure 2. experimental wireless sensors setup in greenhouse 4. plant developmental factors the productivity of the greenhouse depends on many different factors. many research projects are focusing to these factors and their interdependencies. grower can set the reference values to certain environmental variables, and then the greenhouse automation system targets to keep the variables in these values. the optimal levels of water and nutrient can also be defined [15]. s. h. kasaei, s. m. kasaei, s. a. kasaei design and development a control and monitoring system for greenhouse conditions based-on multi agent system 31 carbon dioxide (co2) is a natural gas, which is dangerous for humans in high concentrations, but a lifeline for trees and plants. the air consists of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. in the photosynthesis process, the plants convert co2, water and light into glucose and oxygen according to (1) 2612622 666 oohclightcooh +→++ (1) thus, co2 is an important greenhouse climate variable, which enhances the growth of the plants. sunshine and lights increase the amount of carbon dioxide. during the summer, the greenhouse gets the co2 it needs from the natural air, when ventilation and roof windows are open [3]. in northern countries this opportunity does not exist during the winter. grower can use pure extra co2, or he can produce more carbon dioxide by co2 burner. some greenhouse heating systems re-circulate their co2 emissions into the greenhouse making double advantages for the producer [16]. the optimal greenhouse air temperature depends on the intended level of the photosynthetic activity. each plant species has its own optimal values of air temperature and active radiation of light, which enable the maximum photosynthetic activity (see figure3). soil nutrient and temperature plays also an important role. a main concern in humidity and temperature control is to provide the best conductivity to active movement of water and nutrients through the plant. humidity control is also an important tool to prevent the spread of plant diseases in greenhouses. normally, the range of healthy relative humidity for the plants is from 50% to 70%. high air moisture reduces the required plant watering frequency. the greenhouse automation uses the watering and misting system, if the air moisture decreases under the targeted level. the greenhouse protects the plants from the extreme weather conditions. however, if the period of daylight prevents the photosynthetic activity, the plants do not grow. horticultural lighting allows the grower to extend the growing season. it enables a year-round producing of plants or makes it possible for the grower to start sowing in early spring and continue season till the first frost. plants need about 10-12 hours light to improve growth. when the plants are producing flowers or fruits the supplemental need of light per day increases up to 16 hours. figure 3 shows the photosynthetic activity in different wavelengths of light radiation [16]. figure 3. photosynthetic activity in different wavelengths of light radiation. 5. systems architecture the management of greenhouse condition includes several physiological processes that influence the growth of plants, such as lighting, temperature, humidity, soil nutrient and soil temperature, etc. the value of the final product incorporates not only quantity issues but also quality issues, which are difficult to be measured or even estimated. the environment of each agent is defined by the same parameters that define the physical environment in addition to internal states reported by each agent. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 figure 4. the multi-agent overall environment for integrated management the agent’s possible actions are defined by the available mechanisms and actuators and their effects to the environment. thus, each controlled process of the greenhouse environment is modeled as an autonomous agent with its own inputs (its corresponding measured environmental parameters), its own outputs (the energy signals at its corresponding actuators) and its own interactions with the other agents. each agent acts autonomously, as it knows a priori the desired environmental set-points. at the same time, there is cooperation between the agents, as all greenhouse environmental parameters are influenced by each other. in many cases there are controllability issues as the same actuator is used to control different variables, which may be in contradiction (i.e. ventilation for humidity and temperature). in this way, any possible conflicting decisions of conventional environmental control methodologies are resolved through negotiations between the agents so that the possible optimal integrated solution is achieved. the negotiations between agents are subject to optimization based on “knowledge” that is derived from complete production models, yield models or even sparse models as expressed in fuzzy expert rules or practical rules of thumb. in addition, pest control and plant disease models provide additional information useful to the design of a successful strategy for optimal management [15] (illustrated in figure 5). the “environment” of the agents, hereby called a-environment, is characterized by the model of the physical system and its reaction to inputs, the production targets as expressed by the “user-goals” and the “production-knowledge” that guides the climatic environment, hereby called cenvironment, to the targeted goals. s. h. kasaei, s. m. kasaei, s. a. kasaei design and development a control and monitoring system for greenhouse conditions based-on multi agent system 33 figure 5. multi-agent system information and knowledge scheme. the complete agents “environment” is shown in figure 6. each agent receives the necessary environmental or plant condition measurements. while each agent keeps its autonomy and has its own “personal” goals, it interacts with the other agents through some specific communication language, in the “agent discussion area”, where the overall goal is taken into account. this interaction takes place under the presence of information from the existing models and the target goals. at that point, each agent has decided on its best strategy. 6. arrangement of the multi agent system a specific arrangement of the mas is the one where each agent corresponds to one of the main controlled parameters of the physical system. these can be divided into two groups, the environmental agents (temperature, humidity, co2 concentration, sunshine) and the soil condition agents (ph, electrical conductivity, salinity, water available, soil temperature and soil nutrient). when two or more agents enter the “agent discussion area”, they exchange information about their state and they inform the other agents about possible actions that have to be taken in order for each agent to achieve its goals [15-18]. an optimization algorithm that takes into account the user goals and the outputs of the existing production, yield, plant diseases and pest control models, estimates possible consequences and results from several scenarios and the optimal resolution is found about the optimal ventilation rate. according to this result, a final decision is taken. this decision can have either the form of some actuator command or of some adaptation of a setpoint value. figure 6. structure of the mas for integrated greenhouse management system. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 the models that help in the mas’s decision-making process use information from the measurements of the physical system. the basic features of the multi-agent system are the following: it’s an open system with high degree of adaptation to different kinds of products, as well as to different types of biological production (animal production, pisciculture, precision agriculture). it can be easily expanded with the addition of new agents or the definition of new entities in the mas ontology and new management goals. it can cooperate with other low-level greenhouse management and control programs by a simplified data exchange through sharing a whiteboard. 6. conclusion in the past generation greenhouses it was enough to have one cabled measurement point in the middle to provide the information to the greenhouse automation system. the system itself was usually simple without opportunities to control locally heating, lights, ventilation or some other activity, which was affecting the greenhouse interior climate. the optimal greenhouse climate and soil adjustment can enable us to improve productivity and to achieve remarkable energy savings. in this paper we proposed a multi-agent methodology for integrated management systems in greenhouses. in this regards wireless sensor networks play a vital role to monitor greenhouse and environment parameters. each controlled process of the greenhouse environment is modeled as an autonomous agent with its own inputs, its own outputs and its own interactions with the other agents. each agent acts autonomously, as it knows a priori the desired environmental set-points. in this way, any possible conflicting decisions of conventional environmental control methodologies are resolved through negotiations between the agents so that the possible optimal integrated solution is achieved. the developed system is simple, cost effective, and easily installable. figure 7. the outcomes of the monitoring and control of the greenhouse soil and climate conditions for tomato crops. s. h. kasaei, s. m. kasaei, s. a. kasaei design and development a control and monitoring system for greenhouse conditions based-on multi agent system 35 references [1]. m. mancuso and f. bustaffa, “a wireless sensors network for monitoring environmental variables in a tomato greenhouse,” 6th ieee international workshop on factory communication systems in torino, italy, june 28-30, 2006. [2]. h. liu, z. meng and s. cui, “ a wireless sensor network prototype for environmental monitoring in greenhouses,” wireless communications, networking and mobile computing 2007 (wicom 2007), international conference on 21-25 sept. 2007 . [3]. n. kularatna and b. h. sudantha, “an environmental air pollution monitoring system based on the ieee 1451 standard for low cost requirements,” ieee sensors j., vol. 8, no. 4, april 2008, pp. 415 – 422. [4].s.r. madden, m.j. franklin, and j.m. hellerstein, “tinydb: an acquisitional query processing system for sensor networks,” acm trans. database systems, vol. 30, no. 1, 2005. [5]. w. zhang, g. kantor, and s. singh integrated wireless sensor/actuator networks in agricultural applications. in second acm international conference on embedded networked sensor systems (sensys), page 317, baltimore, maryland, usa, nov. 2004. [6]. barreteau, o., bousquet, f., millier, c. and weber, j. 2004. suitability of multi-agent simulations to study irrigated system viability: application to case studies in the senegal river valley. agricultural systems 80: 255-275. [7]. giovanni caire, giovanni iavarone, “jade java agent development framework”, nov.2011, available at http://jade.tilab.com/doc/tutorials/jadeandroid-programming-tutorial.pdf [8]. yoo, s.; kim, j.; kim, t.; ahn, s.; sung, j.; kim, d. a2s: automated agriculture system based on wsn. in isce 2007. ieee international symposium on consumer electronics, 2007, irving, tx, usa, 2007. [9]. han, w.; zhang, n.; zhang, y. a two-layer wireless sensor network for remote sediment monitoring. in 2008 asabe annual international meeting, rhode island, usa, 2008. [10]. anastasi, g.; farruggia, o.; lo re, g.; ortolani, m. monitoring high-quality wine production using wireless sensor networks. in 42st hawaii international international conference on systems science (hicss-42 2009): waikoloa, big island, hi, usa, 2009. [11]. ayday, c.; safak, s. application of wireless sensor networks with gis on the soil moisture distribution mapping. in symposium gis ostrava 2009 seamless geoinformation technologies, ostrava, czech republic, 2009. [12]. vellidis, g.; tucker, m.; perry, c.; wen, c.; bednarz, c. a real-time wireless smart sensor array for scheduling irrigation. comput. electron. agric. 2008, 61, 44-50. [13]. wang, c.; zhao, c.j.; qiao, x.j.; zhang, x.; zhang, y.h. the design of wireless sensor networks node for measuring the greenhouse's environment parameters. comput. computing. technol. agric. 2008, 259, 1037-1046. [14]. g.vellidis, m.tucker,c.perry, c.kvien, c.bednarz, a real-time wireless smart sensor array for scheduling irrigation, computers and electronics in agriculture 61, 2008. [15]. l. f. mendon¸ca, j. m. sousa, and j. m. g. s´a da costa.optimization problems in multivariable fuzzy predictivecontrol. international journal of approximate reasoning, 36:199– 221, 2004. [16]. g. j. timmerman and p. g. h kamp, “computerised environmental control in greenhouses,” ptc, the netherlands, page(s): 15–124, 2003. [17]. norris, a.; saafi, m.; romine, p. temperature and moisture monitoring in concrete structures using embedded nanotechnology/microelectromechanical systems (mems) sensors. constr. build. mater. 2008, 22, 111-120. [18]. a. pawlowski, j. l. guzman, f. rodriguez, m. berenguel, j. sanchez, and s. dormido, “simulation of climate monitoring and control with wireless sensors network and event based control,” journal of sensors, vol. 9, 2009, pp. 232 – 252. microsoft word brain_2_1.doc 29 learners’ beliefs of an effective teacher: a case of iranian context amin shahini imam sadiq university, english department, chamran highway, tehran, iran. postal code: 14655-159 tehran, iran, p.o.box: 14655-159, tel: +98 21 8809400 aminshahini@yahoo.com parisa daftarifard islamic azad university (science and research branch) faculty of foreign languages and literature, hesarak, tehran, iran, postal code: 1477893855 p.o.box 14515 – 755, tel. +98 311-6692696 pdaftaryfard@yahoo.com abstract the influence that teachers have on learners’ achievements is unquestionable. learners’ beliefs and perspectives are also considered as a determining factor in their academic achievements. sixty students from the university of tehran’s center for extra curricular activities participated in this study. the participants’ perception of their teachers in different aspects, such as personality of the teacher, proficiency of the teacher, teaching skills, was investigated. the findings revealed that teaching skills were viewed, by learners, as the most influential characteristic of a teacher. proficiency and personality of a teacher were ranked second and third accordingly. the results of the study had certain implications for teachers and teacher educators. keywords: belief, second language acquisition, efficient teacher 1. introduction the importance of learners’ belief about second language acquisition (sla) has been recently emphasized in the literature [2], [5], [8], [11], [17], [20], [24], [26] due to its probable influence on improving independent language learners in future [5], [24]. second language teachers and their students may have more or less similar or different understandings of effective teaching, and the meeting point of the two belief systems has certain implications for students’ language learning and the effectiveness of instruction [2]. williams and burden [25] claimed that “learners’ perceptions and interpretations have been found to have the greatest influence on achievement” (p. 98) and maintained that, in some cases, students’ perceptions of teacher behaviors might not correspond with their teachers’ intentions. horwitz [10], kern [12], and schulz [21] argued the fact that divergence between students’ and teachers’ expectations and views could harmfully affect l2 students’ satisfaction with the language class and could interfere with their learning, and ultimately leading to the discontinuation of l2 study. teachers have proved to be very influential on the students [1], [15], [19]. they may change the way and the extent that the learners learn and interact with each other. this requires us to realize what a teacher should do or not do in order to have a constructive effect on learners. as the literature suggests learners’ belief has been mostly neglected in many research or educational setting [1], [13]. language learners are hardly questioned in any systematic way about their language learning experience and also about their views about their teacher’s teaching style and even manner. rudduck [19] refers to this neglecting of learners’ view as “our blind spot” (p. 3). teachers mostly rely on sources other than students to learn about their effectiveness of teaching [1], [9]. the third reason is the fact that teachers have long denied learners’ voice in the classroom [1]. this is specially criticized in by some others [1], [13], [15]. macbeath and mortimore [15] argued against neglecting learners and rather claim that learners can be considered as a good source of information to teachers. kumaravadivelu [13] also encouraged investigating learners’ personal approaches and views. barkhuizen [1] furthered the argument by saying that learners should be encouraged to express their perceptions overtly, both for themselves and to their teachers. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 2. some definitions of the “effective teacher” the literature offered various definitions of an effective teacher. clark [3] wrote that, “obviously, the definition involves someone who can increase student knowledge, but it goes beyond this in defining an effective teacher.” vogt [23] argued that effective teaching is widely related to the ability to provide instruction to different students of different abilities while incorporating instructional objectives and assessing the effective learning mode of the students. collins [4] established five criteria for an effective teacher as (1) accountability and commitment, (2) knowledge, (3) management, (4) reflection about owns’ practice, and (5) being a member of learning community. swank, taylor, brady, and frieberg (1989, cited in clark [3] created their own model of effectiveness that was based upon teacher actions. according to this model, effective meant increasing academic questions and decreasing lecture and ineffective practices, such as negative feedback and low-level questions. elsewhere, million [16] argued effectiveness is under the influence of the lesson design and method of delivery. whereas some researchers believe that learners’ achievement can be indicative of teachers’ effectiveness in classroom [3], some others believe that there is no single way of estimating effectiveness; effectiveness is mostly pragmatic and context based [18]. to wenden [24], teacher effectiveness is the biggest and most influential contributor to student success. according to them, teacher effectiveness outweighs all other factors, such as class size, socioeconomic status, and gender. 3. the purpose of the study despite the various complexities of such an undertaking as teaching and specially the concept of effective teaching and teachers and disregarding how scholars define them, there is a consensus that effective teachers have an outstanding impact on the learners. the present study offers some insights regarding the learners’ perception of their teachers in the following aspects: (1) teachers’ personality, (2) teachers’ proficiency, and (3) teachers’ teaching skill. the latter includes factors as evaluation, planning, and teaching techniques. to this end, the present research attempts to answer the following questions: 1. what is the learners’ attitude towards the most and the least important qualities of efficient teachers? 2. does gender of the subjects affect their views towards teachers’ qualities? 4. significance of the study research to understanding teachers’ belief is important due to the opportunity it opens for teachers, educators, and researchers to learn why some learners are taking part in certain activities and what is their status in the class. once teachers gradually get to know their students’ perceptions, they can plan and devise alternative behaviors and activities in case needed in their classes. learners, on their part, can help their teachers to become aware of the diversity of the individuals playing a role in the classrooms and help them to understand from a learner’s point of view what constitutes a successful classroom and an effective teacher. 5. method expos facto was the design of this study. expos facto means that the researchers gather information and therefore no manipulation occurs. 6. participants 51 students (males and females) participated in this study. all the participants were chosen from university of tehran’s english language institute with differing proficiency levels ranging from elementary to advance whose proficiency levels were determined by the institute placement test. the placement test was based on the interchange series and thus valid. a. shahini, p. daftarifard learners’ beliefs of an effective teacher: a case of iranian context 31 7. instrument a 36-item questionnaire on five option likert scale was used in this study. the questionnaire was translated into persian to ensure that the low proficient participants have no problem in understanding and answering the questions. the questionnaire seems to measure seven traits of teacher’s behavior (questions 1, 6, 8, 11, 15, 16, 20, 28, 30, and 36), teacher’s knowledge (questions 2, 3, 17, 21, and 27), classroom management (questions 4, 19, 23, 24, and 26), way of teaching (questions 31, 32, 33, 29, and 5), creating awareness in learners (questions 7, 12, and 9), teachers’ evaluation (questions 10, 22, 25, 35, 34, and 14), and encouraging learners’ autonomy (questions 13 and 18). the questionnaire has a highly acceptable reliability index (α = 0.92). item total correlation shows that almost all items significantly correlated with the total score except for questions 2, 3, 4, 8, and 12. these items were measuring teachers’ mastery in teaching (have a good power of knowledge transmission,” teachers’ english fluency, teachers’ ability to create competition among learners, and dressing well). 8. analysis and results both descriptive statistics and chi square through crosstab analysis were used to answer the following questions: 1. what is the learners’ attitude towards the most and the least important qualities of efficient teachers? 2. does gender of the subjects affect their views towards teachers’ qualities? 8.1. analysis one: frequency to answer the first question, “what is learners’ attitude towards the most and the least important qualities of efficient teachers,” first descriptive statistics was run on data to obtain the percentage of learners’ attendance to the question. table 1 shows the results. as is shown in this table, from among 36 questions used in this study, about 92.2% of learners chose question 2 (have a good command of teaching), 88.2 % question 3 (be fluent and eloquent in speaking english), 86.3% question 12 (have a good power of knowledge transmission), and 82.4% question 30 (respect learners) were the most important features of a prospective teacher that learners chose. the least important factor seems to be related measurement; question 25 (take a test at the end of each chapter) has won the least learners’ attention (19.6%). it seems that evaluation criteria have won less attention of learners attended in this study. item 25 (take a test at the end of each chapter), item 5 (inform the learners of the evaluation methods and goals…), item 34 (be able to employ different evaluation techniques) have got the percentage of 19.6 %, 47.1 %, and 51 % respectively. a surprising result is that only 50% of the present participants select teachers’ appearance as an indicative factor of efficient teachers. 8.2. analysis two: chi square on items to answer the second question of this study, “does gender affect their views towards teachers’ qualities?” chi square, through cross tab, was run on the data twice: once on items and once on hypothetical traits. gender was used as the independent variable. the results are shown in tables 1 and 2. as is shown in table 1, there is no significant difference between the female and male in answering the questions of the questionnaire. this means that both female and male agree equally on the features of efficient teachers in this sample. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 table 1. chi square on item by gender items chi square value (df) sig (2 tailed) items chi square value (df) sig (2 tailed) 1 1.67 (2) 0.433 19 3.215 (4) 0.522 2 0.002 (1) 0.967 20 1.343 (3) 0.719 3 1.203 (2) 0.548 21 1.60 (4) 0.807 4 2.18 (4) 0.702 22 5.967 (5) 0.309 5 3.45 (3) 0.327 23 2.735 (5) 0.741 6 1.209 (2) 0.546 24 7.503 (5) 0.186 7 1.78 (2) 0.410 25 4.694 (5) 0.454 8 2.148 (2) 0.342 26 0.849 (3) 0.838 9 4.20 (3) 0.241 27 3.585 (4) 0.465 10 7.433(4) 0.115 28 4.972 (4) 0.290 11 4.467 (3) 0.21 29 10.099 (5) 0.072 12 1.648 (2) 0.439 30 4.03 (3) 0.258 13 2.768 (3) 0.429 31 2.045 (4) 0.727 14 8.100 (5) 0.151 32 2.266 (4) 0.687 15 1.759 (3) 0.624 33 2.383 (5) 0.794 16 3.574 (2) 0.167 34 6.47 (5) 0.263 17 4.011 (3) 0.260 35 4.482 (4) 0.345 18 6.932 (4) 0.140 36 3.803 (4) 0.433 table 2 shows the results of second chi square of traits through crosstabs. as is shown in this table, there is no significant difference between females’ and males’ performance participated in this study. of course, there is a trend difference in item 6 table 2. chi square on traits by gender items item name chi square value (df) sig (2 tailed) 1 teacher’s behavior 17.67 (12) 0.123 2 teachers’ knowledge 8.727(8) 0.366 3 class management 11.261 (12) 0.507 4 ways of teaching 9.117 (11) 0.611 5 creating awareness 5.116 (5) 0.402 6 evaluation 24.599 (16) 0.077 7 autonomy 4.859 (7) 0.677 8.3. discussion as was evident in the body of the research, learners’ belief can have some constitutive components as (1) teacher’s behavior, (2) teachers’ knowledge, (3) class management, (4) ways of teaching, (5) creating awareness, (6) evaluation, and (7) autonomy. the results of the study indicated that employing the teaching techniques, in students’ viewpoint is believed to be the most significant factor in teachers’ efficacy. teaching techniques are believed to have noticeable effects on students’ learning. having been a supervisor of the university of tehran’s center for extra curriculum studies, the first author has closely noticed that the teachers who employed more creative techniques which suited the learner’s different proficiency level had always ranked at the top of the evaluation list. learners always opt for a teacher who knows how to teach and how to approach different problematic areas. the teachers who employ creative techniques are always welcomed by students. this idea is well supported by some big names including vygotsky (as cited in [6]) who believes that creativity is promoted by a mental atmosphere at school which is purposively organized. it a. shahini, p. daftarifard learners’ beliefs of an effective teacher: a case of iranian context 33 stimulates children to focus on creative activities, hence indirectly – it happens with the mediation of a creative environment. thus, we conclude that teachers can motivate the creativity of learners. proficiency of a teacher, according to the data analysis, was the second desirable factor for an effective teacher in the eyes of the learners. proficiency of the teacher is one of the features that impress the learners from the very first session of the class. therefore, if a teacher lacks the required proficiency level, he would not be as successful in learners’ viewpoint. the third desirable factor of an effective teacher has been viewed to be teachers’ power in knowledge transmission. that is to say, no matter how knowledgeable a teacher is, he/she should have the ability to transmit his/her knowledge to the students. therefore, it is not extraneous to say that having the knowledge is one issue and having the power to transmit it is another. the key is in knowing how to pair them in a complementary and mutual fashion. the fourth factor is teachers’ respect towards learners. in general, teacher’s behavior in class has a direct role in reducing or enhancing anxiety among learners [10]. good and respectful behavior towards students will bring about a stress free and friendly atmosphere which can greatly induce high levels of language learning. on the other extreme, discourteous and impolite demeanor will distance students from the teacher and will end in a climate of hatred and aloofness between the learners and the teacher; hence reducing learning. in short, the more relaxed and the more uninhibited learners feel, the better will they be positioned to cope with the task of understanding and producing a second language. the fifth factor is teachers’ ability to enhance learners’ eagerness for learning. there are always some students who need to be pushed to produce some language [22]. these learners will never get involved in the act of learning and production unless they find some interest in the task. one of the major jobs of an efl/esl teacher is to create the task in a way that induces interest and enthusiasm in the learner. in this case, learners will always be expecting a new approach to doing tasks and this will incredibly increase the level of learning among all learners, particularly those uninterested. evaluation techniques were placed as the last priority by students. they viewed it as the least important factor for an effective teacher. there might be one justification for such given unimportance to the evaluation techniques and that is the students’ views toward assessment and evaluation. in the iranian context, especially in highly important courses, evaluation has been regarded as a threat which has an irreparable influence on the learners’ future. part of this negativity is mainly derived from teachers’ and parents’ attitudes towards evaluation. through this justification we can conclude that when it comes to the teachers’ evaluation techniques, the students’ judgments and beliefs will be largely influenced by their attitudes which as discussed are mainly derived from the previous generations. 9. implications of the study the findings of the present study have implications mainly for the teachers. as for the “teaching techniques” if teachers want to be successful in their teaching career, they should heed their teaching techniques. this study has a message for teacher educators who are in charge of training pre-service teachers in that they would be better off including teaching techniques and strategies in their training agenda. of course, in my view, a major part of the teaching techniques go back to the teacher’s personality. in my ma thesis, i argued that people with extroverted personality type better deal with the surrounding problems. in the case of this study, extroverted teachers are believed to be more skillful in devising more efficient techniques and employing them in their classrooms. moreover, teachers with more extroversion type are more self-efficacious and thus more skillful at finding solutions to unpredictable problems. teachers should also improve their proficiency in english. again referring to my professional experience, more proficient teachers had often sat at the top of the evaluation list. interestingly enough, those teachers, among others, were the ones that had the most usage of effective teaching techniques. it seems that there should be a relationship between teachers’ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 proficiency and their exploitation of effective teaching techniques. in order to unfold this relationship more research should be conducted in this respect. according to kiany [14] more extroverted people were known to be more proficient users of english. building on this study, we can conclude that working on the personality traits of the teachers may have desirable consequences on their teaching performance. one implication of this finding can be the idea of working on the more introverted teachers to remove their psychological filters that impede their potentialities. in other words, by working on teachers’ personality traits (in this case, extroversion) we may be able to take a step towards the betterment of their proficiency. an effective teacher should always have a mental or written syllabus for himself. lesson planning has the advantage of organizing your line of thought. you can present your teaching materials in order and as programmed. it gives a sort of organization to the process of teaching. of course, it should be noted that the syllabus as “work plan”, a term used by ellis [7] might not always be implemented as expected since we, as teachers, are dealing with humans and humans’ behavior is unpredictable and sometimes the teacher has to deviate the planned syllabus and go through other areas in order to get a problem solved. therefore the syllabus as “work plan” will not always match the syllabus as “process” [7]. in spite of this, having a prior planning is of certain advantages particularly when it comes to pre-service and novice teachers. they are strongly recommended to have a written plan in their early years of teaching and as they get fueled by experience they can more rely on their experience and gained self-efficacy. anyhow, planning is recommended for all teachers. it is also suggested that teacher educators provide their student teachers with non-threatening means of evaluation. evaluation is an inseparable part of teaching and if more positive viewpoints on the part of the students are to be fostered, closer attention needs to be invested on evaluation techniques and devising alternatives to evaluation. 10. references [1] barkhuizen, g. p. (1998). discovering learners’ perceptions of esl classroom teaching/learning activities in south african context. tesol quarterly, 32 (1), 23-40. [2] brown, a. v. (2009). students and teachers perceptions of effective foreign language teaching: a comparison of ideas. modern language journal, 93 (1), 46-60. [3] clark, d. (1993). teacher evaluation: a review of the literature with implications for educators. unpublished seminar paper, california state university at long beach. [4] collins, a. (1990). transforming the assessment of teachers: notes on a theory of assessment for the 21st century. the annual meeting of the national catholic education association, boston, ma. [5] cotterall, s. (1999). key variables in language learning: what do learners believe about them? system, 27, 493513. [6] daniels, h. (2001). vygotsky and pedagogy. ny: routledge. [7] ellis, r. (2003). task-based language learning and teaching. oxford: oup. [8] gabillon, z. (2005). l2 learner's beliefs: an overview. journal of language and learning, 3 (2), 233-260. [9] horwitz, e. k. (1990). attending to the affective domain in the foreign language classroom. in s. magnan (ed.), shifting the instructional focus to the learner (pp.15–33). middlebury, v. t: northeast conference on the teaching of foreign languages. [10] horwitz, e. k. (2001). language anxiety and achievement. annual review of applied linguistics, 21, 112-126. [11] kalaja, p. (1995). student beliefs (or metacognitive knowledge) about sla reconsidered. international journal of applied linguistics, 5 (2), 191-204. [12] kern, r. (1995). students and teachers’ beliefs about language learning. foreign language annals, 28, 71–92. a. shahini, p. daftarifard learners’ beliefs of an effective teacher: a case of iranian context 35 [13] kumaravadivelu, b. (1991). language learning tasks: teacher intention and learner interpretation. elt journal, 45 (2), 98-102. [14] kiany, g.r. (1997). extroversion and pedagogical setting as sources of variation in different aspects of english proficiency, unpublished ph.d. dissertation, university of essex, the united kingdom. [15] macbeath, j., & mortimore, p. (2001). improving school effectiveness. philadelphia: open university press. [16] million, s. (1987). demystifying teacher evaluation: the multiple strategies model used as an assessment device. the annual meeting of the national council of states on in-service education, san diego, ca. [17] mori, y. (1999). epistemological beliefs and language learning beliefs: what do language learners believe about their learning? language learning, 49 (3), 377-415. [18] papanastasiou, e. (1999). teacher evaluation. unpublished manuscript, michigan state university, east lansing. [19] rudduck, j. (1991). innovation and change. milton keynes, england: open university press. [20] sakui, k, & gaies, s. j. (1999). investigating japanese learners’ beliefs about language learning. system, 27, 473-492. [21] schulz, r. a. (1996). focus on form in the foreign language classroom: students’ and teachers’ views on error correction and the role of grammar. foreign language annals, 29, 343– 364. [22] swain, m. (1995). three functions of output in second language learning. in g. cook, & b. seidlhofer (eds.), principle and practice in applied linguistics: studies in honor of h.g. widdowson (pp. 125–144). oxford: oxford university press. [23] vogt, w. (1984). developing a teacher evaluation system. spectrum, 2 (1), 41-46. [24] wenden, a. l. (1999). an introduction to metacognitive knowledge and beliefs in language learning: beyond the basics. system, 27, 435-441. [25] williams, m., & burden, r. (1997). psychology for language teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. [26] yang, n. d. (1999). the relationship between efl learners' beliefs and learning strategy use. system, 27, 515-535. 11. appendix a: descriptive statistics questions 1 2 3 4 5 i believe teachers should f (%) f (%) f (%) f (%) f (%) q teacher’s behavior 1 sincere relationship with learners 0 0 3 (5.9) 15 (29.4) 33 (64.7) 6 have a sense of humor 0 0 11 (21.6) 13 (25.5) 27 (52.9) 8 dress up 0 0 12 (23.5) 15 (29.4) 24 (47.1) 11 provide learners with a stress free learning atmosphere 0 1 (2) 1 (2) 16 (31.4) 33 (64.7) 15 be flexible to criticisms 0 1 (2) 2 (3.9) 12 (23.5) 36 (70.6) 16 be neat in appearance 0 0 6 (11.8) 18 (35.3) 27 (52.9) 20 be patient in giving answer to learners’ questions 1 (2) 0 3 (5.9) 12 (23.5) 35 (68.6) 28 be well dressed 1 1 7 15 27 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 1, january 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 (2) (2) (13.7) (29.4) (52.9) 30 respect learners 1 (2) 0 2 (3.9) 6 (11.8) 42 (82.4) 36 not discriminate between the learners 2 (4) 0 1 (2) 10 (19.6) 38 (74.5) q teacher’s knowledge 2 have a good command of teaching 0 0 0 4 (7.8) 47 (92.2) 17 have teaching experience 0 3 (5.9) 4 (7.8) 9 (17.6) 35 (68.6) 21 be highly educated 1 (2) 3 (5.9) 9 (17.6) 22 (43.1) 16 (31.4) 27 should be updated and know about the most recent scientific breakthroughs 3 (5.9) 3 (5.9) 6 (11.8) 18 (35.3) 21 (41.2) 3 be fluent and eloquent in speaking english 0 0 1 (2) 5 (9.8) 45 (88.2) q classroom management 19 properly use the whole class time for teaching or evaluation 1 (2) 2 (3.9) 7 (13.7) 11 (21.6) 30 (58.8) 23 spare equal eye contact at the learners 4 (7.9) 1 (2) 5 (9.8) 15 (29.4) 26 (51) 24 control the mischievous learners 6 (11.8) 1 (2) 10 (19.6) 15 (29.4) 19 (37.3) 26 be organized in teaching the materials 3 (5.9) 0 3 (5.9) 13 (25.5) 5 (32) 4 create a constructive competition between learners 1 (2) 1 (2) 2 (9.8) 18 (35.3) 26 (51) q way of teaching 31 stick to english language when teaching 1 (2) 3 (5.9) 8 (15.7) 13 (25.5) 26 (51) 32 have a recap of the topics at the end of the session 1 (2) 3 (5.9) 6 (11.8) 11 (21.6) 30 (58.8) 33 be learner-centered 6 (11.7) 1 (2) 7 (13.7) 17 (33.3) 20 (39.2) 29 express his/her expectations of the learners 3 5.9) 2 (3.9) 9 (17.6) 17 (33.3) 20 (39.2) 5 inform the learners of the evaluation methods and goals in the outset of the course 0 2 (3.9) 3 (5.9) 22 (43.1) 24 (47.1) q creating awareness in learners 7 enhance the crave for learning among learners 0 0 1 (2) 10 (19.6) 40 (78.4) 12 have a good power of knowledge transmission 0 0 1 (2) 6 (11.8) 44 (86.3) 9 guide learners on how to overcome the learning problems 0 1 (2) 4 (7.8) 11 (21.6) 35 (68.6) q teachers’ evaluation 10 evaluate learners’ assignments 3 (5.9) 3 (5.9) 9 (17.6) 16 (31.4) 20 (39.2) 22 frequently evaluate learners 4 2 6 21 18 a. shahini, p. daftarifard learners’ beliefs of an effective teacher: a case of iranian context 37 understanding throughout the course (7.9) (3.9) (11.8) (41.2) (35.3) 25 take a test at the end of each chapter 9 (17.6) 7 (13.7) 12 (23.5) 13 (25.5) 10 (19.6) 35 be able to evaluate the level of learners understanding 5 (9.8) 0 4 (7.8) 18 (35.3) 24 (47.1) 34 be able to employ different evaluation techniques 3 (5.9) 1 (2) 6 (11.8) 15 (29.4) 26 (51) 14 assess learners understanding by frequent questioning 3 (5.9) 2 (3.9) 6 (11.8) 17 (33.3) 23 (45.1) q encouraging learners’ autonomy 13 allow learners to voice their ideas 0 1 (2) 4 (7.8) 9 (17.6) 37 (72.5) 18 use various methods to encourage learners to express themselves in english 3 (5.9) 1 (2) 5 (9.8) 16 (31.4) 26 (51) note: “q” stands for questions ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 3, pages: 166-180 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/360 submitted: august 23rd, 2022 | accepted for publication: september 19th, 2022 neuropsychological health technologies svitlana hryshchenko 1 , nataliia beseda 2 , volodymyr slobodianyk 3 , myroslava kuleshaliubinets 4 , oksana bashtovenko 5 , olena tryfonova 6 1 t.h. shevchenko national university «chernihiv collehium», ukraine, intensiv3000@meta.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7981-3578 2 mariupol state university, ukraine, natabeseda78@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1454-1938 3 lviv state university of life safety, ukraine, slobodyanyk2014@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6533-3453 4 vasyl stefanyk preсarpathian national university, ukraine, myroslava.kulesha@pnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9130-1719 5 state university of humanities, ukraine, osiabasht@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6793-7880 6 v.o. sukhomlynskyi mykolaiv national university, ukraine, 5lenatrifonova@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7899-3714 abstract: the article reveals the problem of neuropsychological technologies for maintaining, strengthening and developing human health from early to adulthood as a set of corrective and developmental measures to ensure the relationship of an optimal level of a functional brain function with efficiency and learning conditions of well-being and quality of a life in different age groups. . the functional role of neuropsychological health technologies is reflected. within the objectives of the article, an attempt is made to define health as a condition for effectiveness in learning and activities, a sense of comfort through the optimal provision of an interhemispheric interaction and the development of higher mental functions. neuropsychological health technologies are primarily concerned with the prevention of a nervous exhaustion, mental retardation and neuropsychological corrective effects. the professional tasks of a modern neuropsychologist of an international level should serve needs of the individual subject of their own life with the value of maintaining and developing health, in a person-centered humanistic approach. implementation of neuropsychological technologies of preservation, strengthening and development of health requires competent neuropsychological and subject (personality-oriented) humanistic approaches taking into account individual features of the subject of interaction with the specialist of a neuropsychological professional training, specifics of a neuropsychological problem and social demands for values to preserve, strengthen and develop, above all, physical and mental health. keywords: high-tech revolution; mixed reality; multimedia technical means; entertainment; musical art. how to cite: hryshchenko, s., beseda, n., slobodianyk, v., kulesha-liubinets, m., bashtovenko, o., & tryfonova, o. (2022). neuropsychological health technologies. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(3), 166-180. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/360 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/360 mailto:intensiv3000@meta.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7981-3578 mailto:natabeseda78@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1454-1938 mailto:slobodyanyk2014@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6533-3453 mailto:myroslava.kulesha@pnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9130-1719 mailto:osiabasht@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6793-7880 mailto:5lenatrifonova@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7899-3714 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/360 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 167 introduction according to the world health organization (who), there is a monthly deterioration in health of all mankind, the number of people with depression is growing, the development of neurosis is recorded even in young children, there is an increase in fears and anxieties due to pandemics, social instability, information and military challenges. in this regard, there is a socio-scientific request to study the problem of innovative technologies for the preservation, promotion and development of human health as an urgent applied problem. in addition, numerous neuropsychological works are devoted to the neuropsychocorrection of disorders in mental and psychological health, but in scientific neuropsychology is poorly studied the neuropsychological aspects of maintaining human health without impaired psychological development (demchenko et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021). neuropsychological health programs are usually developed and implemented by specialists in psychology and pedagogy, mainly in the private sector of a modern education, which places high demands on the quality of an educational training and development of high levels of socio-psychological well-being (berbets et al., 2021; kondratiuk et al., 2022; nikolaienko et al., 2022; ovcharuk et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021). objective of the article is to carry out a theoretical analysis of modern neuropsychological technologies for maintaining, strengthening and developing health of children and adults from early to adulthood. the novelty and practical significance of the article is that an attempt was made to determine human health in an interdisciplinary context of key issues of education and professional activity; it is recommended to consider neuropsychological technologies of health care as a set of developmental and corrective measures to ensure the relationship between the optimal level of a functional brain function with the effectiveness of activities and learning conditions of well-being and quality of life in different age groups. generalizations of neuropsychological foundations of human health can be used by neuropsychologists and medical psychologists in a correctional and developmental practice, educational psychologists in pedagogical practice and specialists of rehabilitation centers in the psychological support of people with the burnout, depression and neurotic states. neuropsychological health technologies svitlana hryshchenko et al. 168 theoretical and methodological analysis of neuropsychological technologies for human health in modern science, in an interdisciplinary perspective, health is interpreted as a process of maintaining internal positive changes in the body; as an internal potential (resource) of man, which can be considered on the physical, mental, intellectual, psycho-emotional, spiritual, personal, biosocio-ecological levels; subjective perception of the body's own state; prerequisite for effective human performance and the condition of its wellbeing; multilevel continuum of qualitatively and quantitatively different states; state of balance, balance between human adaptive capabilities and changing environmental conditions; state of complete socio-biological and mental comfort; absence of mental and physical defects. according to the who, human health is not just the absence of disease, but complete physical, spiritual and social well-being. in light of this formula, man appears as the author of his own health, and in terms of its preservation plays a leading role, which is determined by the mature selfawareness of the individual and respect for their essence (tolkunova et al., 2018). the concept of psychological well-being is a key aspect of mental health, which covers a wide range of conceptual topics: happiness, wellbeing, affective-behavioral patterns, competence, aspirations, autonomy, integrated functioning, etc. (warr, 2012). levine et al. (2021) consider mental health, well-being and the mind-heart-body relationship through the relationship between psychological and cardiovascular health. we interpret health as a condition for the effective performance of activities: children in the learning process, and adults in the professional sphere; a sense of comfort and pleasure from a contact with your body and a social interaction with other people. at the level of a brain function, neuropsychological health-preserving technologies are able to provide at the optimal level of an interhemispheric interaction and the development of higher mental functions; effectively and quickly relieve mental stress in the body; to establish the functional work of those parts of the brain that are responsible for the flow of nerve processes between cells and groups of nerve cells in the norm and stabilize nerve processes in the body which in general can ensure quality of health and, consequently, life. in the applied neuropsychology literature the scientific idea of human health in the interdisciplinary aspect is formed: (kotsan et al., 2011; tolkunova et al., 2018); developed practical recommendations for optimizing the psychophysiological support of professional development for broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 169 the sake of psychological (professional) health (kokun, 2013); the importance of neuropsychological diagnostics, health-preserving technologies used for optimal organization of the educational process and physical activity of schoolchildren in order to preserv mental health of children with disabilities is revealed (kryzhanovska, 2021); neuropsychological methods of stress relief and restoration of interhemispheric interaction have been proposed, in particular imaging techniques (sirotyuk, 2003; gremling & auerbach, 2002); developed a unique method of learning through kinesiological movements, which allows to relieve stress in the body, enhance interhemispheric interaction, improve the quality of learning (dennison & dennison, 2015); the specifics of neuropsychological diagnosis and correction are noted (sultanova, 2017). neuropsychological technologies of health preservation are connected first of all with prevention of nervous exhaustion (physical, mental, emotional), psychosomatic diseases, low stress resistance under the influence of chronic stress factors, loss of optimum working capacity, depressive and neurotic states, often accompanied by anxiety. , loss of professional (psychological) and even mental health. such goals and objectives may also be subject to neuropsychological corrective actions, depending on the functional status and needs of the client of neuropsychological rehabilitation centers. today, topical issues of neuropsychological preventive and corrective technologies for maintaining and developing health are covered primarily in child neuropsychology and applied psychology (medical aspects of occupational psychology) as neuropsychological methods of prevention of the burnout in various occupational areas against the background of anxiety-depressive and neurotic. thus, blom et al. (2016) believe that an adolescent depression is a growing problem health care with an increased risk of adverse health effects, including suicide. in this regard, researchers reviewed the neuroscience of the adolescent depression, focusing on the neurosystem of constant threat, and summarized the contextual factors that influence a brain development and pathophysiology of depression and recommend diagnostic neuroimaging and prevention of the adolescent neuropsychological development. straub et al. (2019) found a clear effect of age on the whole brain: the older the participants, the lower their gray matter volume, especially the prefrontal cortex. contrasting depressed and healthy youth with a full-brain approach, we found larger volume of gray matter in the dorsolateral neuropsychological health technologies svitlana hryshchenko et al. 170 prefrontal cortex in depressed patients. in addition, an analysis of the region of interest showed lower levels of gray matter volume in the hippocampus in participants with depression compared with healthy controls. research on adolescents and young adults can provide a unique opportunity to understand aspects of the development of the neurobiology of depression. detection of more prefrontal cortex, especially in younger adolescents with depression, may indicate that these participants were more prone to delayed the brain maturation or increased neuroplasticity. in our opinion, such neuroscientific facts indicate the need for neuropsychological correction of adolescents in order to restore and maintain their mental health. pedagogical experience of taking into account the individual psychophysiological characteristics of children in the educational process is based on many studies: the organization of the educational process should be based on the main channel of information perception, the dominance of a certain hemisphere of the brain educational process, selection of objects and tasks, health-preserving technologies of education. modern methods of an art therapy, kinesiological exercises make it possible to develop mental abilities and physical health through certain motor exercises aimed at activating different parts of the cortex of the large hemispheres, develop human abilities or correct problems in various areas of the psyche. in the course of regular classes in kinesiology programs, the child loses the symptoms of dyslexia, develops interhemispheric connections, improves memory, concentration, spatial representations. the task of teachers is to create maximum conditions for identifying, supporting, educating and developing individual personal talents of children, as well as to create a microenvironment that promotes the formation and a full realization of creative abilities of the child (kryzhanovskaya, 2021). in child neuropsychology, in the subjective approach of luria, the structure of the defect (combination of strengths and weaknesses of the mental functioning of the child) cannot be understood and effectively corrected without analyzing motivational and personal components. the lag in the mental development of the child cannot be limited to the research of its cognitive processes and language activities. only the inclusion of elements of learning in the neuropsychological examination, i. e. work in the area of the child's immediate development, allows you to correctly diagnose it and develop a strategy for its correction. the main trends in neuropsychological research are shifting the focus of attention on the role of individual brain structures and the brain localization to problems of a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 171 psychological structure and organization of higher mental functions and study the interaction of the subject (with disorders of mental processes) and surrounding people and factors vital activity. the main ones are his personal experience, perception of deviations (illness) and the concept of health, his coping strategies and attitudes, self-esteem and social interactions (glozman, 2012). therefore, the professional tasks of a modern neuropsychologist of an international level should serve the needs of the individual subject of their own lives with the value of maintaining and developing health, in a person-centered humanistic approach. neuropsychological care for children with mild neuropsychiatric disorders is aimed at overcoming existing disorders, achieving mental and psychological well-being, normalizing ontogenesis, preventing the formation of more serious developmental and behavioral disorders, reducing the risk of social maladaptation. neuropsychological correction of children with complex defect structure, with severe ontogenesis helps to improve the child's development, improve learning, prevent a number of secondary pathological conditions, raise social adaptation, improve the quality of life in the family and in general (sultanova, 2017) . p. dennison and g. dennison (2015) developed a unique method of learning through a movement, which is often used by neuropsychologists in the field of applied research of the brain. the complex of movements allows to activate the interhemispheric interaction, integrity and coordination of the brain through the corpus callosum (thick bundle of nerve fibers, located between two hemispheres, intensively develops up to 7-8 years) it transfers information from one hemisphere to another. the inability of the right and left hemispheres to integrate, full interaction one of the reasons for the violation of the function of learning and managing their emotions. the use of motor exercises will activate and synchronize the work of the hemispheres, improves the regulating and coordinating role of the nervous system, improves the memory and attention, facilitates reading and writing, increases emotional well-being, improves a visual-motor coordination, forms a spatial orientation. even after performing several exercises from a complex developed by p. dennison and g. dennison, students who have previously had difficulty learning are beginning to learn better and achieve a significant success. neuropsychology today goes beyond pathological, painful disorders of a mental activity and focuses its attention also on the psyche of healthy people, thus acting as a health factor in the process of their primary socialization. preservation of health in all its multifaceted sense must be neuropsychological health technologies svitlana hryshchenko et al. 172 realized primarily in the period of early and preschool childhood, which will be one of the main factors in the formation of a successful personality in general. it is from this age that the process of socialization of the individual, i. e. the involvement of the child in the society, its inclusion in public life, assimilation of norms and rules of behavior in the team, should be accompanied by the formation of values to their own physical and mental health. the set of corrective exercises for children is made in accordance with their level of development and the general laws of the human brain development. neuropsychological approach based on the brain organization of the child through exercises and games develops and corrects unformed or impaired functions (kuryshkina, 2015). berson (1990) consider the application of neuropsychological diagnostics and neuropsychological development technologies in education. neuropsychological orientation can be seen as an additional tool to promote a fuller understanding of children's problems. by integrating neuropsychological data with a more comprehensive conceptualization of challenges in the school environment, school psychologists can complement their methods for understanding children and thus improve the provision of educational services. the basis of neuropsychological prevention and development of psychological (professional) health can be the concept of a psychophysiological support of becoming a specialist in professions such as "man-man", important components of which are: determining the general content, components and factors of the professional development; psychological and psychophysiological features of a professional development, features of activities and requirements in professions such as "man-man"; the main difficulties and negative phenomena that can complicate this process; determination of the content, basic principles and directions of psychophysiological support of becoming a specialist in professions such as "man-man"; quantitative and empirical specification of psychophysiological features and factors of professional development of a specialist in professions of this type; development of measures and practical recommendations aimed at psychophysiological support for becoming a specialist in professions such as "man-man", optimizing the development of professionally important qualities and psychophysiological properties (mental functions, memory, attention, professional motivation and identity, communicative, conflict and psychohygienic competence ; prevention of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 173 professional deformations and stressful situations in specialists of human-tohuman professions (kokun, 2013). neuropsychological health technologies neuropsychological technologies of health are a set of developmental and corrective measures to ensure the relationship of the optimal level of functional brain function with efficiency and learning as a condition of well-being and quality of life in different age groups, aimed at improving human well-being, maintaining and strengthening mental and psychological (professional) health, the formation of neuropsychological competence in overcoming an excessive, physical, intellectual and emotional stress. modern methods of the body-oriented therapy, art therapy offer neuropsychological techniques and exercises to maintain mental and physical health of both children and adults. thus, certain creative-cognitive or motor exercises activate the work of different parts of the cortex of large hemispheres, which can ensure successful learning and effective activities. the implementation of a set of neuropsychological health-preserving technologies should be carried out on the basis of a qualitative data of neuropsychological diagnostics. the system of movements based on "brain gymnastics" by p. dennison and g. dennison (2015) was developed to stimulate individual development and help in the acquisition of knowledge in various spheres of life. it consists of simple movements that are suitable not only for young children and schoolchildren, but also for adults and the elderly. the authors of the method offer to try the exercises and see their effectiveness and enjoy the joy of learning through movement. the proposed exercises are kinesiological (kinesiology is a modern direction of body-oriented psychotherapy, which uses various motor, respiratory and energy exercises to correct problems in learning and psycho-emotional development of children and adolescents). at the level of the brain, these exercises contribute to: removal of stress in the body, the connection of the stem parts of the brain, which are responsible for the volitional regulation of behavior; communication of the limbic part with other parts of the brain responsible for emotions, provide the necessary speed and intensity of nerve processes between cells and groups of nerve cells in the brain; simultaneous work of two eyes, arms, legs, ears, integration of two hemispheres of the brain and include the mechanism of "unity of thought and movement", as a result of which a person can move and think simultaneously, process neuropsychological health technologies svitlana hryshchenko et al. 174 information by two hemispheres simultaneously; stabilize and rhythm the nervous processes in the body and help to look at the disturbing situation from a new perspective, increasing the overall positive attitude. there is a well-known test to determine the presence of interhemispheric interaction and predisposition to dyslexia and dysgraphia: a child holds one hand behind his back. an adult touches phalanges of fingers with a brush (1st or 3rd phalanx of any finger, except the thumb, only 8 options) in any order. the child should point with the thumb on the other hand, to which phalanx, which finger was touched. if the child gave incorrect answers more than 30%, it means that he or she is prone to dyslexia, dysgraphia. more than 30% of errors indicate a violation of interhemispheric interaction. the corpus callosum (interhemispheric interaction) can be developed through kinesiological exercises. modern kinesiological techniques are aimed at activating different parts of the cortex of the large hemispheres, which allows you to develop human abilities or correct problems in various areas of the psyche. kinesiology views the human brain as a computer that already contains information about all the functional connections in the body. the brain accumulates information and is able to solve any problem related to the regulation of body functions. in progressive schools around the world, there is a daily lesson in school schedules kinesiology. in the course of regular classes in kinesiology programs, dyslexia disappears, develops hemispheric connections, improves memory, concentration, spatial representations (kryzhanovskaya, 2021). from the standpoint of neuropsychological approach, within the method of substitutional ontogenesis by semenovich, physiologically determined movement of a child development is considered, in the trajectory of which the primary place is occupied by exercises for high motor skills, sensorimotor development, interhemispheric interaction, spatial relations, visual-motor coordination. neuropsychological training programs use health-preserving technologies similar in purpose and content to neuropsychological techniques, namely: physical education, finger gymnastics, eye gymnastics, breathing gymnastics, relaxation, rhythmic plastics, stretching, orthopedic gymnastics, and orthopedic gymnastics, exercises aimed at developing the child's thinking, memory, language and skills (kuryshkina, 2015). in the implementation of neuropsychological correction by a competent professional has a double impact: both exercise themselves, and a specially organized interaction with a child, for who this type of correction broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 175 creates unique conditions. the most effective integrated approach, when sensorimotor correction is combined with other methods of psychological and pedagogical work. neuropsychological correction reduces neurodynamic disorders, improves attention and memory, increases child's learning, language comprehension, ability to follow instructions. against this background, the effectiveness of other specialists a teacher-psychologist, speech pathologist, speech therapist and others increases significantly (sultanova, 2017). mcewen (2007) describes in detail how the brain as a key organ of stress response determines physiological and behavioral responses, and maladaptive ones indicate low human stress resistance. burgdorf and pankseppa (2006) confirmed the relationship between psycho-emotional stress and its discharge and systemic brain mechanisms, including the limbic system, cortex and subcortical formations. in the neuropsychological literature (sirotyuk, 2003) it is noted that the constant action of stress leads to the fact that nervous activity is concentrated mainly in the right hemisphere and brain stem, in the sympathetic nervous system (part of the autonomic nervous system brain, it is involved in the regulation of a number of body functions: the fibers are impulsing and that cause increased metabolism, increased heart rate, vasoconstriction, dilation of the pupils, etc.). one of the effective psychotechnologies for stress relief is visualization. erasing stress information from memory (visualization) is a process of creating images in the imagination, can occur in both hemispheres of the brain, especially needed for the education of younger students. images can be formed both through the visual channel of perception and through other modalities. sometimes it is enough to perform the exercise "erasing stress information from memory" (visualization instructions) for emergency stress relief: close your eyes and mentally draw a negative situation on a piece of paper that you need to forget. it can be a real picture, figurative association, symbol, etc. thoughtfully take an eraser and begin to consistently "erase" from a sheet of paper created a negative situation. after a while, repeat the exercise. after performing anti-stress exercises, interhemispheric interaction is restored, the neuroendocrine mechanism is activated, which provides adaptation to a stressful situation and a gradual way out of it (sirotyuk, 2003). the use of visualization exercises for health purposes is an important neuropsychological psychotechnics. many proponents of image training (gremling & auerbach, 2002) believe that visualization techniques facilitate neuropsychological health technologies svitlana hryshchenko et al. 176 the connection between consciousness and the body, which has a positive effect on health processes; can increase the resilience of the immune system (if you visualize healthy lymphocytes that attack and destroy virus-infected cells); deepen bodily relaxation; provide a sense of control and participation in maintaining their own health; reduce the frequency and intensity of pain episodes in people with headaches. for example, image visualization techniques to reduce pain: 1) relax by performing relaxation exercises; 2) imagine your pain and think about an image that would absorb the type, quality and intensity of your pain an example is the hot sun or a needle; 3) imagine how the pain becomes weaker, change the image of pain to something pleasant and tolerable, visualize the therapeutic image or process for the complete disappearance of pain, to get the effect you need to be relaxed; 4) imagine a positive effect to create an image of yourself a positive, active person. foreign researchers eagleson, hayes, mathews, perman and hirscha (2016) proposed that images of anxiety of high-anxiety people be replaced by various forms of positive ideas, as a result of which pathological anxiety was reduced by changing opinions. park et al. (2016) confirm the positive relationship between positive psychology (positive emotions, optimism, life satisfaction, etc.) and good health. waters et al. (2021) believe that positive psychology contributes to the psychological support of people in a pandemic and suggested positive psychology practices to strengthen psychological resources (self-development, ability cope with stress, positive emotions, etc.) during a pandemic in the hope that the cultivation of these results will continue after this crisis and lead to lasting positive results. neuropsychological self-regulatory exercises involve the influence of man on himself through self-suggestion instructions and include the following technologies: autogenic training (to relieve mental stress, calm) then the transition to a special state hope, trust, belief in the body desired mental qualities, while a person does not think rationally, but completely trusts his body; biological feedback is a conscious control and arbitrary influence on a number of processes that are not felt and perceived in the body (biological activity of the brain, heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, muscle relaxation, etc.) by electrophysiological equipment that changes and shows (in the visual and auditory version) the results of the impact on the course of any arbitrary physiological process, which provides a constant opportunity for the subject of self-regulation to control the nature of its development; meditation is a series of mental actions aimed at broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 177 achieving a special state of the human body, characterized by immersion in deep physical and mental peace, isolation from the outside world, which preserves the ability to think operating on images on previously defined topics and achieved by concentrating internally attention, possible great muscle relaxation and emotional calm (kotsan et al., 2011). conclusion we interpret health as a condition for effective performance of activities: children in the learning process, and adults in the professional sphere; a sense of comfort and pleasure from contact with your body and social interaction with other people. neuropsychological health technologies are a set of developmental and corrective measures aimed at improving human well-being, maintaining and strengthening mental and psychological (professional) health, the formation of neuropsychological competence in overcoming excessive physical, intellectual and emotional stress. neuropsychological technologies for maintaining and developing health should be used from an early age, comprehensively and at a systemic level, which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on socialization and its success in adulthood. the implementation of a set of neuropsychological health-preserving technologies should be carried out on the basis of the qualitative data of neuropsychological diagnostics. at the level of brain function, neuropsychological health-preserving technologies are able to provide at the optimal level of interhemispheric interaction, prevention of brain dysfunction and the development of higher mental functions; effectively and quickly relieve mental stress in the body; to establish the functional work of those parts of the brain that are responsible for the flow of nervous processes between cells and groups of nerve cells in the norm and stabilize nervous processes in the body which in general will ensure quality of life. the neuropsychological health-preserving technologies analyzed in the article belong to three directions in the work of a neuropsychologist: preservation, strengthening and development of health of the young generation, first of all young children and students; prevention of neuropsychiatric conditions associated with the burnout , stress, depression; neuropsychological care for children with various forms of pathological conditions, in combination with neuropsychological diagnosis and correction. such types of work of a neuropsychologist require competent neuropsychological and subjective (personality-oriented) humanistic neuropsychological health technologies svitlana hryshchenko et al. 178 approaches taking into account the individual characteristics of the subject of interaction with a specialist in neuropsychological training, the specifics of the neuropsychological problem and its goals, personal and social issues preservation, strengthening and development, first of all, of physical and mental health. references berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 berson, i. r. (1990). neuropsychology in the schools: implications for school psychology. educational resources information center (eric). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed334471.pdf blom, e. h., ho, t. c., connolly, c. g., lewinn, k. z., sacchet, m. d., tymofiyeva, o., & yang, t. t. (2016). the neuroscience and context of adolescent depression. acta paediatrica, 105(4), 358–365. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.13299 burgdorf, j., & pankseppa, j. (2006). the neurobiology of positive emotions. neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 30, 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.06.001 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dennison, p. i., & dennison, g. (2015). mozgovaya gimnastika. kniga dlya uchiteley i roditeley [brain gymnastics. a book for teachers and parents]. st. petersburg. https://waksoft.susu.ru/wpcontent/uploads/2018/08/doktor-pol-i.-dennison-i-geyl-dennisongimnastika-mozga.pdf eagleson, c., hayes, s., mathews, a., perman, g. &. hirscha, c. r. (2016). the power of positive thinking: pathological worry is reduced by thought replacement in generalized anxiety disorder. behaviour research and therapy, 78, 13-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2015.12.017 glozman, z. m. (2012). o subyektnosti luriyevskoy neyropsikhologii lurieva [on the subjectivity of luriev’s neuropsychology]. vestnik moskovskogo universiteta. seriya 14. psikhologiya [bulletin of moscow university. series 14. psychology], 2, 31-36. http://msupsyj.ru/articles/detail.php?article=1550 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed334471.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.13299 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.06.001 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://waksoft.susu.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/doktor-pol-i.-dennison-i-geyl-dennison-gimnastika-mozga.pdf https://waksoft.susu.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/doktor-pol-i.-dennison-i-geyl-dennison-gimnastika-mozga.pdf https://waksoft.susu.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/doktor-pol-i.-dennison-i-geyl-dennison-gimnastika-mozga.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2015.12.017 http://msupsyj.ru/articles/detail.php?article=1550 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience september 2022 volume 13, issue 3 179 gremling, s., & auerbach, s. (2002). workshop on stress management. peter. kokun, o. m. (2013). psychophysiological support for becoming a specialist in professions such as "man-man". imex-ltd. kondratiuk, l., musiichuk, s., zuienko, n., sobkov, y., trebyk, o., & yefimov, d. (2022). distance learning of foreign languages through virtual reality. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 22-38. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/329 kotsan, i. j., lozhkin, g. v., & mushkevich, m. i. (2011). psychology of human health. national university named after lesya ukrainka publishing house. kryzhanovska, t. v. (2021). new ukrainian school: features of support of education of children with special educational needs. pedagogy of creative personality formation in higher and secondary schools, 76, 48 53. http://pedagogyjournal.kpu.zp.ua/archive/2021/76/part_2/10.pdf kuryshkina, a. a. (2015). neyropsihologicheskiy podhod rabote s detmi doshkolnogo vozrasta kak zdoroviesberegayuschiy faktor protsessa ih sotsializatsii [neuropsychological approach to work with preschool children as a health-preserving factor in the process of their socialization]. lichnost' v menyayushchemsya mire: zdorov'ye, adaptatsiya, razvitiye [personality in a changing world: health, adaptation, development] https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-podhod-rabote-sdetmi-doshkolnogo-vozrasta-kak-zdoroviesberegayuschiy-faktor-protsessaih-sotsializatsii levine, g. n., cohen, b. e., commodore-mensah, y., fleury, j. huffman, j. c., khalid, u, labarthe, d. r., lavretsky, h., michos, e. d., spatz, e. s., kubzansky, l. d., american heart association council on clinical cardiology; council on arteriosclerosis, thrombosis and vascular biology; council on cardiovascular and stroke nursing, & council on lifestyle and cardiometabolic health (2021). psychological health, well-being, and the mind-heart-body connection: a scientific statement from the american heart association. circulation, 143(10), e763–e783. https://doi.org/10.1161/cir.0000000000000947 mcewen, b. s. (2007). physiology and neurobiology of stress and adaptation: central role of the brain. physiological reviews, 87(3), 873-904. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2006 nikolaienko, v., prots, r., romanenko, v., halaidiuk, m., osiptsov, a., dub, i., maksymchuk, b., & maksymchuk, i. (2022). the characteristics of building long-term training systems for footballers in foreign countries. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 14(2), 268283. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.2/580 ovcharuk, v., maksymchuk, b., ovcharuk, v., khomenko, o., khomenko, s., yevtushenko, y., rybalko, p., pustovit, h., myronenko, n., syvokhop, y., https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/329 http://pedagogy-journal.kpu.zp.ua/archive/2021/76/part_2/10.pdf http://pedagogy-journal.kpu.zp.ua/archive/2021/76/part_2/10.pdf https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-podhod-rabote-s-detmi-doshkolnogo-vozrasta-kak-zdoroviesberegayuschiy-faktor-protsessa-ih-sotsializatsii https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-podhod-rabote-s-detmi-doshkolnogo-vozrasta-kak-zdoroviesberegayuschiy-faktor-protsessa-ih-sotsializatsii https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-podhod-rabote-s-detmi-doshkolnogo-vozrasta-kak-zdoroviesberegayuschiy-faktor-protsessa-ih-sotsializatsii https://doi.org/10.1161/cir.0000000000000947 https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2006 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.2/580 neuropsychological health technologies svitlana hryshchenko et al. 180 sheian, m., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). forming competency in health promotion in technical specialists using physical education. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(3), 01-19. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 park, n., peterson, c., szvarca, d., molen, r., j., kim, e. s., & collon, k. (2016). positive psychology and physical health. american journal of lifestyle medicine, 10(3), 200–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827614550277 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 sirotyuk, a. l. (2003). neyropsikhologicheskoye i psikhofiziologicheskoye soprovozhdeniye obucheniya [neuropsychological and psychophysiological support of training]. https://www.klex.ru/ap6 straub, j., brown, r., malejko, k., bonenberger, m., grön, g., & abler, b. (2019). adolescent depression and brain development: evidence from voxel-based morphometry. journal of psychiatry & neuroscience, 44(4), 237-245. https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.170233 sultanova, a. s. (2017). neyropsikhologicheskiy podkhod k psikhicheskomu zdorov'yu detey i podrostkov [a neuropsychological approach to mental health in children and adolescents]. meditsinskaya psikhologiya v rossii [medical psychology in russia] 1(42), 7. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-podhod-kobespecheniyu-psihicheskogo-zdorovya-detey-i-podrostkov tolkunova, i. v., grin, o. r., smolyar, i. i., & golets, o. v. (2018). human health psychology. ldufk. warr, p. (2012). how to think about and measure psychological well-being. routledge waters, l., algoe, s. b., dutton, j., emmons, r., fredrickson, b. l., & heaphy, e., moskowitz, j. t., neff, k., niemiec, r., pury, c., & steger, m. (2021). positive psychology in a pandemic: buffering, bolstering, and building mental health. the journal of positive psychology, 17(3), 303-323. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2021.1871945 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827614550277 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://www.klex.ru/ap6 https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.170233 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-podhod-k-obespecheniyu-psihicheskogo-zdorovya-detey-i-podrostkov https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyropsihologicheskiy-podhod-k-obespecheniyu-psihicheskogo-zdorovya-detey-i-podrostkov https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2021.1871945 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 1, pages: 448-469 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/293 yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga phenomenon marius cucu¹, oana lenţa2 1 lecturer ph.d., stefan cel mare university, suceava, romania. mariuscucu35@yahoo.com 2 associate lecturer, ph.d., stefan cel mare university, suceava, romania, oanalenta@yahoo.com abstract: in this paper we seek to emphasize the relevance of eliade's research beyond time, to see why meditation would be useful for the mind of the contemporary man in search of inner balance. thus, we will analyze the hindu metaphysical concepts and principles on which yoga was developed, the distinctions between yoga-sutra, as a central theoretical and practical current, and secondary typologies, and how the reader can position himself to make progress in probing yogic reality or fact anchored in the dynamics of the unconscious, from the perspective of mircea eliade and some researchers passionate about this field. keywords: yoga; hinduism; brahma; vedas; liberation; the desiresuffering circularity; anxiety; depression; mental health. how to cite: cucu, m., & lenţa, o. (2022). yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga phenomenon. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1), 448-469. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/293 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/293 mailto:mariuscucu35@yahoo.com mailto:oanalenta@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1/293 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 449 1. introduction the human being has always been looking for well-being from multiple perspectives and has sought to avoid discomfort. starting from the search for the satisfaction of basic needs to the fact of looking for higher ones, he has been eager to increase his quality of life on various levels, on a physical, cognitive, mental, spiritual level. depending on the historical period, context, culture, man has prioritized either the balance and the collective well-being, or the individual one, or both of them (interconnected). the perception of the reality and, therefore, of the notion of good can undergo distortions also on the background of the reference to figures considered emblematic for the subject in question, but contrasting with the collective referential (majority group). the contemporary society, marked by multiple crises, felt both collectively and personally, offers the individual challenges that are often difficult to manage in terms of mental health. the health pandemic can lead to an anxiety pandemic. anxiety can easily appear on the background of isolation, deprivation of social interaction with peers regardless of the age of the subject or his/her socio-professional status. based on this background, social responsibility (e.g. from the perspective of public health) is an assumed and internalized value for some, for others a desideratum, and for another part of the population it is a burden, or an impersonal notion that they remember and appeal exclusively when it comes to meeting their own needs. although the human being is supposed to adapt easily (gradually) to environmental changes, economic and social conditions, etc., he does not adapt as easily to situations that the mind cannot understand in terms of predictability, expectations, and logic from the perspective of one's own cultural information and the way in which reason processes newly provided information. fear, which is extremely natural in the case of any unique situation that man has never faced and has not developed resilience, is what makes the individual often react unpredictably. thus, the tension accumulated due to frustration and stress in the face of unknown situations is discharged in the form of various forms of revolt, indignation, aggression directed against oneself or others. stress, insomnia, panic attacks, depression, anxiety, heart problems, are more and more common both in times of crisis (such as the pandemic) and especially in the aftermath of these ones and they disrupt the mental balance with which the individual was familiar. alternative therapies have gained ground when people have either lost hope or confidence in authority, in science, or are trying to combine them in order to improve their wellyoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga … marius cucu & oana lenţa 450 being. today, for example, meditation is seen by some as a fashion and can be misperceived, just as prayer can be misinterpreted (breaz, 2020; ciubotaru, 2020; lacatus, 2020; mitrea, 2021). science and faith can be assumed in a balanced way (can go hand in hand) by / for a religious person, just as science and meditation can bring a superior state of comfort to others. the problem arises when one relies exclusively on the mystical factor, on miracles and ignores the achievements of the human mind in terms of evolution and scientific discoveries. some researchers believe, for example, that yoga practices can reach deep layers of the mind and consciousness if approached consistently and scientifically, that it would help control high blood pressure and improve symptoms of depression and anxiety in people with poststroke disability or the effectiveness of yoga in modifying risk factors for cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome (cave, 1993; chan et al., 2012; chu et al., 2016; lawrence et al., 2013; lawrence et al., 2017; thayabaranathan et al., 2017; thayabaranathan et al., 2022), adjusting prenatal depression (gong et al., 2015) as well as depression and anxiety of women (javnbakht et al., 2009) or the frequency of asthma attacks (freitas et al., 2013), could improve lipid control, improve lung function, could prevent anxiety and depression among hemodialysis patients (tayyebi et al., 2011) adjusting for chronic pain, etc.; "there is also promising evidence for the use of yoga and meditation for mental health issues such as stress management, non-psychotic mood, high trait anxiety and generalized anxiety disorders and mild to moderate depression, usually as part of a multi disciplinary approach" (penman et al., 2012). “yoga has an effective role in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression that can be considered as complementary medicine and reduce the medical cost per treatment by reducing the use of drugs. taking these aspects into account, the reason behind the effect of yoga on stress, anxiety, and depression is not clear for us and may be transient, and it is suggested that future studies are done to investigate the long-term effect of yoga on stress, anxiety, and depression” “[…] despite the popularity and the positive psychological and physiological effects of yoga, it is not widely studied to find to what extent it really prevents and treats mental disorders” (shohani et al., 2018). seeing the increased interest that people manifest during this period for the works and courses of mindfullnes, etc., with some of them relying on neuroscience research (thayabaranathan et al., 2018) that promotes meditation as a life way in order to achieve the inner balance, we tried to underline some ideas about the yoga phenomenon. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 451 since it is such a vast field, we chose to pinpoint mircea eliade's perspective on what yoga is, namely the way in which meditation affects direct knowledge and the relationship between meditation and knowledge, as proposed for interpretation by this thinker. we appeal to the interpretation of m. eliade especially since we (the authors) do not have the quality to make valuable judgments about yoga and yoga practices because we are neither practitioners nor knowledgeable experts in this area of research, but only indirect observers. 2. eliade and tackling the yoga phenomenon within the hermeneutics of religions. currently, one cannot refer to the hermeneutics and history of religions without evoking the name and work of mircea eliade. the romanian scholar illustrated the course of the concerns related to the analysis of the religious phenomenon on the scale of the entire international scientific environment. the way in which the information was doubled by the capacity of interpretive sounding, determined, in his writings, the clear outline for the reading public of the phenomenon of understanding and clarification, of fluent, constant and open deepening of the related religious realities (afloroaei, 2018). to eliade, it is important that the reader’s effort be focused on the interpretive area, often inviting him to individual questions and assumptions. thus, the phenomenon of religious experience, regardless of the sacramental scenario in which it slipped, proves to be indeterminate and always subject to new approaches. from the initiation myths to the events of the primary revelation that laid the foundation of great religions, from the experience of the timeless sacred in the forms of tribal primitivism to the projection to transcendence through the chosen ones, a projection that is liturgically organized in the great religions, eliade tried to describe these processes, that are pivotal for the destiny of mankind, inviting the reader to an initiatory journey through a dimension in which the unknown proves much broader than the strictly rational and cognitively quantifiable evidence. the yoga phenomenon fits into this vast universe approached by eliade from a position of historian but also of a hermeneutic, from the perspective of a theorist but also of a faithful practitioner. 2.1. principles of the yoga existential metaphysics. eliade positioned the idea of the way of thinking and practicing the principles of yoga in the broad framework of indian spirituality. thus, it is necessary, first of all, to mention the four primordial concepts around which the indian religious and philosophical consciousness revolves. they are yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga … marius cucu & oana lenţa 452 karman, māyā, nirvāņa and yoga (eliade, 1993). the four concepts correspond to four principles of philosophical search, of metaphysical investigation. thus, the first one aims at understanding the law of universal causality at the level of human actions and options. every soul has a karma, that is, an accumulation of information that can be negative or positive, in relation to how it has acted, thought and felt, in relation to the choice of good or evil. practically, causality expresses the implacable correlation between personal choices and the consequences of these choices, consequences that accumulate, like a hostile or beneficial environment on that particular consciousness, generating, at specific moments, inevitable concretisations. therefore, no conscience can avoid the aftermath of its own choices and actions, if they have been bad, unless it manifests a total desire to reduce the karmic negative sediments (eliade, 1993). the second principle belongs to the concept of māyā and is closely related to that of avidya. the term māyā means cosmic illusion and the term “avidya” refers to ignorance. as long as man performs negative deeds based on wrong thoughts, feelings, and choices, he will accumulate a dark karma that will keep him anchored in the low realms of materiality and ephemeral voluptuousness, that is, it will keep his conscience captive in the great illusion that is designated by the term “māyā”. lost in the immensity of this universal hypnosis, the consciousness loaded with a strongly negative karma will be permanently infused by a state of ignorance. a vicious circle of karma self-empowerment encompasses the consciousness that, without realizing it, slides into basal, telluric levels, farther from the supreme truth, from the light of brahma, from nirvāņa. this is, in fact, the third key concept for the indian thought, perceived by eliade, as the generating factor of the principle that there is a supreme or absolute reality, a pure being, situated beyond the complexity of the ontological and gnoseological illusion generated by māyā. transcendent, indeterminate, unconditional, immortal, this reality is the one towards which the individual consciousness, brahma atman, must aim, its ultimate goal being its reintegration into the great universal consciousness, brahama brahma. man must, therefore, free himself from restraint in the mobility of the maya, but also from the pressure of negative karma. the redemption or liberation from the existential incidence of these annihilating factors of the brahmanical light from consciousness can be accomplished only through discipline and the sacrifice of the act of meditation. then comes into play the fourth key concept for indian spirituality, namely the concept of yoga. the principle that this concept generates and supports is that which indicates the possibility of liberation from māyā and under the pressure of karma through techniques of concentration and asceticism that must be practiced in a brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 453 disciplined and constant manner, techniques called mosksa or mutti. there is, therefore, according to this principle, the possibility of redemption and transcendence towards the absolute being, but in order for it to become achievable for an individual consciousness it must assume the act of practicing yoga indefinitely. therefore, it is a question of a total, general attitude towards life, a certain way of life that does not allow the return to an existence dedicated to matter and perennial pleasures. yoga would therefore designate the sum of these means, techniques, acts that are assumed by the one who chooses the ascetic path of liberation as the only path of his new life, life that has moved its centre of gravity from the sphere of the immanent to that of transcendence, that must be acquired through constant, unremitting effort (eliade, 1993). eliade insisted, starting from these four principles of indian spirituality, that for the sage of vedas and yoga practices, the concept of truth has primarily no gnoseological value, as is the case with western thought. it has soteriological value. “in india, metaphysical knowledge always has a soteriological purpose. therefore, only metaphysical knowledge (vidyā, jñāna, prajñā) is appreciated and sought, so the knowledge of the ultimate realities” (eliade, 1992a; eliade, 1993). thus, the rational knowledge in itself, which can be exposed and framed in the registers of logical arguments, is less important than the act of liberation itself, of deliverance from the captivity of karma and the chains of consciousness in the relative structures of maya. eliade emphasized that for the indian sage, it is not the acquisition and control of truth that matters, as in the case of the western philosopher, but the act of liberating the conscience by subjecting it to the truth, by controlling it by the truth. this implies a transfiguration, a mutation at the level of the whole individual life, an assumption of an initiatory death in terms of the correlations with the immanent and the spatio-temporal, a clear division in relation to the ephemerality and a rebirth to an unconditional way of existence, in which the symbiosis between individual and universal brahma is lived to the fullest (eliade, 1992b). "through 'knowledge' man 'awakens', freeing himself from the illusions of the world of phenomena. "by knowledge" means: by the practice of retreat which will have the effect of making him find his own center, to coincide with "his true spirit" (purușa, atman). knowledge is thus transformed into meditation, and metaphysics becomes soterology" (eliade, 1992a). yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga … marius cucu & oana lenţa 454 3. classical yoga and secondary typologies. meaning and terminology. the word yoga is derived from the term yuj which means to hold together, to gather, to put in the yoke. from this term is also derived the latin verb jungere, jungum and from it, the english verb yoke (eliade, 1993). therefore, it seems that the original terminology from which the word yoga derived was to describe a state of discipline, and control of our psyche and body (eliade, 1992a). yoga also means "either a mystical union of the soul with the divine, or a restoration of the ultimate, autonomous selfconsciousness, unaltered by the mental experience" (eliade, 1992b). „yoga is an ancient eastern philosophy of living that includes techniques such as physical postures (asana), breathing practices (pranayama), meditation and relaxation, moral codes and other practices. together, these practices are said to provide a path to self-realization, or union between the individual and the universal consciousness. in western society, aspects of yoga are commonly practiced for exercise, relaxation or for their therapeutic potential” (penman et al., 2012). this placement under “obedience” (and listening to the inner self) can be achieved through asceticism and meditation techniques. basically, the instability of thoughts and emotions is brought under control only through exercise and perseverance of self-control. this effort cannot be fulfilled suddenly, it must be staged, developed progressively and this dosage of selfcontrol required discipline and the organization and dosing of one’s own psychic energy resources (sandu, 2008; 2021). eliade pointed out that the basic elements of yoga meditation techniques as well as the fundamental components of yoga philosophy are concentrated in what is called classical yoga, a system proposed by pantajali in his work yoga-sūtra. the complexity of the yoga phenomenon has inevitably led to the formation of secondary levels of theoretical and practical development, so that various schools and directions have emerged. they became popular among yoga followers who have not taken a systematic approach to the concept and have emphasized only on the constant practice of meditation and meditation exercises (eliade, 1992a). some of these directions have adopted elements of mysticism or magic. to eliade, this is justifiable because of the central metaphysical vein of yoga. in essence, as the romanian scientist points out, a consciousness cannot gain control over its own instinctual impulses and disturbances, as well as over the destabilizing influences of the mechanics of body biology unless it first forces itself to give up its projection and anchor in the immanent dimension of space and time. the act of renouncing and brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 455 withdrawing consciousness from the constant relations to the imperatives of ephemeral existence presupposes the self-sacrificing capacity that imposes its distancing and resurrection from its own spiritual evolution. this gesture of resurrection in the sense of initiatory rebirth amid self-sacrifice justifies major compatibilities between the experience of yoga practices and the mystical experience. if yoga signifies the initial act of tying and bringing together thoughts and emotions from their chaotic scattering, then this approach can only be achieved through the prior act of withdrawal from the disturbing dynamics of urban existence. only through the act of withdrawal and rejection in the face of everyday “normality”, through the act of emancipation from the world, as eliade calls it, can the foundations for selfcontrol be stabilized. therefore, before seeking divine support, classical yoga mentions the adherence to the belief in divinity, (deussen, 1992) unlike other secondary developments of the atheist yoga doctrine, the one who desires to become an ascetic must assume the exercise of self-control based on the radicalism of a detachment from the profane world. the effort of the autonomous man, the self-discipline and the concentration of thoughts and emotions can be the intermediate stage between the separation from the sphere of the profane space and time and the integration in the absolute universal consciousness. the similarity with the philosophical and mystical vision of tantrism or with the metaphysical and symbolic openings of alchemy is revealed, according to eliade, in the assumption by classical yoga of the idea of spiritual initiation and guidance. thus, for the beginner, the most appropriate status is that of apprentice, disciple of a master, called guru. thus, the path of the evolution of consciousness from the profane phase to the sacredness of full self-control must be carefully observed and corrected by a spiritual master, a teacher who must be obeyed by the disciple. the very state of obedience is a decisive step in this evolutionary process. the similarities with the spiritual path proposed by other schools and religious traditions are obvious. the archaic symbolism of initiation makes its presence felt especially by the yogin’s assumption of the acquisition of a new mystical body, a formula also found in alchemical thinking. in fact, the phenomenon of spiritual rebirth is targeted in this context, the yogin being the one who is born twice, according to the brahmanical expressions and the vedic tradition from which the yoga school derives. as soon as he gets this new spiritual attire, this new complex of physical and mental attitude, the yogin can access transcendence through the constant exercise of control and meditation. the philosophy of yoga is known from the beginning in the indian tradition as yoga-darsana, the term darsana meaning vision, sight but also point of approach, perspective. at the etymological basis of this term yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga … marius cucu & oana lenţa 456 one can identify the lexical particle drs which designates the idea of vision. the fact that the centre of gravity of this concept and, implicitly of the philosophy of yoga, is the act of vision, of revealing the truth, of understanding the access to transcendence, does not imply, as eliade claims, a possible definition of this type of philosophy as a totally mystical one. on the contrary, the logical argumentation, the analytical discourse are present and are permanently included in the act of initiation, but the approach of revelation or, more precisely, of enlightenment occupies a central place. without this essential moment, the whole argumentative and logical architecture proves to be similar to the sophisticated efforts of the ancient greeks. the concept of enlightenment pervades, like a central axis, the whole philosophy of yoga, a philosophy exposed in the form of a system in yoga-sūtra proposed by pantajali. (eliade & culianu, 1993) within this system, he manages to condense ascetic practices, meditation techniques, self-control formulas, and expose them in an organized way. but, as he himself admits, all this information is not the result of his own study, but the product of a long time in which indian spirituality developed an impressive number of ascetic practices. these efforts found their organized expression in pantajali’s work, which is a collection of the most representative meditation and control techniques practiced in yoga. the presentation of this information was doubled by a reconsideration of the key concepts of the samkhya philosophy, a philosophy that is considered the conceptual framework for classical yoga. pantajali’s intervention in this philosophy consists mainly in the introduction of the obvious theism, the metaphysics of samkhya not being until then prone to recognizing and postulating the existence of a proper divinity. within the philosophy of yoga is, therefore, introduced as the ultimate landmark of meditation efforts, the closeness of the ascetic consciousness to the absolute divine consciousness, namely isvara. the principle of the symbiosis between individual brahma and universal brahma, between brahma atman and brahma brahma acquires, for the first time in indian spirituality, a clear relation to the existence and grace of a supreme deity (eliade, 1993). yoga has been regarded by the brahmanical tradition as one of the six orthodox philosophical doctrines, that is, accepted as representative of the brahmanical spirit. unlike buddhism or jainism, it never faced the charge of heresy. classical yoga or yoga-sūtra, systematized by patañjali, has been recognized as the most representative school for the whole movement. the other secondary directions, less officially assumed, belonging to the popular meditation practices were later integrated, undergoing various modifications and adaptations. yoga formulated by patañjali’s conceptual brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 457 organization has become the best known in western culture, being accepted as the most representative formula for the entire yoga school of india. from the point of view of conceptual systematization, yoga-sūtra developed by patañjali, consists of four central chapters, four pillars containing decisive theoretical and technical landmarks. thus, the first chapter or the first book contains 51 aphorisms or sutras and refers to the ability to achieve yogic ecstasy, the second book consists of 55 aphorisms and is called the chapter on accomplishment, the third book, also consisting of 55 aphorisms, deals with the problem of miraculous powers, the capacity and efforts devoted to their acquisition and chapter four focuses on the discussion on the approach of isolating the ascetic and includes 34 aphorisms. the whole work is a systematized compilation of ancient techniques and teachings, with the author restraining himself from bringing major changes to its content. moreover, it is part of the tradition of authors who proposed texts dedicated to brahmanical philosophies, a tradition that involved taking the data already present in the vedic traditions and organizing them, systematizing the metaphysical and empirical content to clarify and improve the impact on new disciples and their possibility of didactic-informational assimilation (eliade, 1992a). to eliade, yoga and the philosophy that has constantly revolved around its primordial concepts and techniques cannot be understood if their analysis is reduced to historical expressions, to the moments of appearance and development of this spiritual phenomenon or only to the investigation of its fundamental texts. only the appeal to hermeneutic research, research requested and applied by eliade for the whole range of religious manifestations of mankind, can open to the metaphysical foundations of the theoretical and practical complex represented by the yoga movement. in this sense, yoga must be seen as a fact and the dimension of yogic indulgence as a reality. but to eliade, the notions of fact and reality have other valences, in the dimension of spiritual living and experiences, than those manifested in the framework of the profane world. they show a continuity that is slipped into a common framework that seems untouched by temporary developments. this explains the substantiality of the yoga phenomenon with the whole vedic tradition that is lost in an extremely distant past. in support of this finding, paul deussen, a leading name for orientalist research, points to the eight decisive articles for the entire yogic philosophical system, pointing out that the last five of these articles are already present in several upanisadic passages, much older than the attestation of yoga practice. the eight articles, called anga, are listed as follows: yama or the principle of discipline in behaviour, niyama or self-discipline through asceticism, purification of bodily impulses at the yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga … marius cucu & oana lenţa 458 mental level, asanam or sitting, body position discipline, pranayama or breath control, pratyahara or withdrawal of sense organs, dharana or fixation of attention, dhyanama or meditation and samadhi, full absorption of thought in the dimension of meditation (deussen, 2007). the belonging of more than half of this code of the yogin to a much older tradition, the vedic and upanishad one, comes to confirm, therefore, not only the belonging of yoga to a much larger and more distant historical spiritual block but also the assumption of these practices as techniques that were related to what eliade called the experience of the sacred. 4. peculiarities of the interpretive approach of yoga theory and practices. the historical and religious interpretation and the hermeneutic discussion are the methods by which, according to eliade, a fact and a spiritual reality can be accessed in their deep meanings. the fact can be, according to the hermeneutic of religions, any experience of the sacred and any subsequent form of its interpretation. whether we refer to a concrete historical moment, to the interval of a revelation or to the proposal of a text postulated as sacred, all these occurrences are, ultimately, epiphanic expressions, interventions of the sacred in the profane, projections of unconscious collective or individual mobility, towards the spatial and temporal continuum. these facts, in the sense given by eliade to this term, constitute the essential content for the historical and religious interpretation which is able to capture multiple correlations and interferences between their manifestations, the substantial relations that make them components of a common religious background, regardless of different historical and geographical affiliation. by addressing this universal framework, this theme of the many religious deeds of mankind, the hermeneutic can have access not only to a superior understanding of their phenomenal structure but also to the foundations of evolution, development, survival or degeneration of the message they originally proposed and postulated to the whole mankind. at the same time, in order to grasp and interpret in depth the facts and the religious reality behind and underlying them, a constant philosophical discussion is required, as eliade calls it, a discussion that proposes a hermeneutic analysis of concepts, terms at stake in a initial religious experience as well as the manifestation of this frontier experience. the philosophical discussion is also the method by which unilateralism in the interpretation of a religious phenomenon can be avoided. yoga has such a peculiarity, it is spread in many directions, schools, conceptualizations and applications that the hermeneutic should not be limited to classical yoga described by patañjali. brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 459 (eliade, 1992a) another danger that can block a proper interpretation of the spiritual facts related to the discipline of yoga is the informational and unconscious baggage of the western hermeneutics. he can inaugurate his interpretive approach being dominated by the landmarks and reflections of the culture from which he comes as well as by the religious perspectives, the mentality and the vision of the western spirituality. this preliminary framework can lead to a misinterpretation of the substance of the phenomenon under scrutiny. for this reason, the need for philosophical discussion, for hermeneutical issues that give way to other perspectives and data than those that are part of the initial training of the researcher, is all the more evident. eliade argued that for the hermeneutic approach to the yoga phenomenon a detachment from western tradition and knowledge had to be made, requiring the effort of a psychological permutation, a transposition into the spiritual position of the yogin, perhaps not coincidentally eliade himself being not only a hermeneut, but also a practitioner of yoga techniques. the temperamental typology of the interpreter plays an important role in directing the hermeneutic discourse at the level of the yoga phenomenon. thus, an extrospective interpreter could insist on the concrete, historical data of the evolution of yoga schools, on the information dating the life of the great masters and disciples, on the appearance and development of specific terminologies and techniques, on ascetic radicalism, on chronologies and divisions of secondary schools that revolved around the central direction represented by classical yoga, on the survival of primitive religious themes and the ways of taking over and adapting external mystical influences. instead, an introspective interpreter would seek to avoid processing such a multitude of data and will focus his analysis on the actual experience of yoga, on the mental state and the evolution of the contemplator’s capacity for meditation and practice, on his vision of the way in which emotions can be controlled with the dynamics of thoughts, the corporality becoming an instrument in the evolutionary process of self-control and spiritual leap into the supreme state of nirvana. in eliade’s opinion, both approaches, both specific to the extrospective interpreter and those belonging to the introspective analyst, must be taken as ways of understanding and deepening the phenomenon of yoga. if we only accept the effort of the extrospective interpreter, then the result will be a series of data, historical information and statistics that will give us an overview of the historical phenomenon that was and is yoga. if, instead, we only accept the contribution of the introspective hermeneutic, then we will witness the proposal of a strictly theosophical vision, an argumentative system that will describe the yoga phenomenon detached from the context yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga … marius cucu & oana lenţa 460 of universal culture and the global religious experience of mankind. in eliade’s opinion, both approaches balance and complement each other, the symbiosis between them leading to a more comprehensive picture meant to provide a real perspective on both the spiritual fact of yoga and the experience by its followers of the related religious reality. eliade compared the difference between extrospective and introspective hermeneutics with the distinction between geometry and algebra. in the first one, the analysis of form predominates, in the second one the research of content. the two must balance each other and work together for the evolution of the investigation as a whole towards the proposed common goal. in fact, as eliade points out, the distinction between extrospective and introspective is a general human psychological characteristic, the two typologies balancing and compensating each other. pantajali himself, as the one who systematized the conceptualism of classical yoga, tried a symbiosis between the extrospective and the introspective approach of the traditional yoga texts. thus, on the one hand he succeeded in constructing a clear image of the place and purpose of this discipline in the landscape of brahmanical spirituality, on the other hand he described the internal functionalities of the yogic emotional and mental experience. from the perspective of the hermeneutics of the religions developed by eliade, any religious approach, regardless of its belonging to a certain ritual system, is based on the motivation to take the individual consciousness back to the level of universal consciousness. this resettlement or reordering constitutes a recovery of a major loss from an ancestral time, a cancellation of a major deficiency that determined the anchoring of the human being in the circularity of the mutual emphasizing between suffering and desire. the religious unrest, the turmoil, and the ritualistic tensions embodied in selfsacrifice, penitence, and the imposition of radical restrictions on primordial instincts essentially aim at the phenomenality of detachment or fall from the initial harmony and the decisive attempt to recover this inaugural collapse for the temporal life, subject to intense desire and suffering. eliade mentioned here the term malaise as the concept that describes the state of nostalgia for an area of the super-temporal where individual consciousness was integrated into the harmonious totality of cosmic energy. in essence, all the great religions slip their essential messages into the area of the promise of a rediscovery of the initial happiness, an edenic state situated outside the insoluble evolutions of time. the assumption and practice of the religious ritual indisputably involves a social side, ensuring the stability of norms and the preservation of the human community. in the absence of these ethical imperatives, the instinctual nature would gain devastating proportions from brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 461 the outpouring of its destructive impulses and the human being would experience a rapid process of self-destruction. the containment, the control, the putting under the restriction of the ethical-religious imperatives have managed, for millennia, to allow the progressive dynamics of the human society. but this goal is secondary or, more precisely, it is related to the surface components of the religious phenomenon. its central target has nothing to do with the urban and social dimension of human life, with the spatio-temporal modalities of the human being. on the contrary, it does not involve the relations to the sphere of the ephemeral, of historical relativity, but the permanent correlation with the dimension of eternity, of the absolute supra-temporal harmony from which the individual consciousness has detached itself and into which it must return. the whole complexity of spatio-temporal life is seen, in this context, as a plan of the decline of consciousness similar to the platonic cave, a stage of existential and gnoseological rupture between brahma brahma, the universal energy of the creator and brahma atman, the individuality of the human soul (eliade, 1992b). the possibility of dissociation, of disagreement, as eliade calls it, is, in essence, what the religious language calls sin. through the act of meditation, asceticism, and the imposition of control over instinctual telluric impulses, which are expressed in the body, the yogin can attain the state of spatial and temporal suspension of consciousness and thus position himself above sin in the sense of liberation from empirical needs dictated by materiality. it is the first step in the ascent to integration into the harmony of brahma. indian metaphysics uses the term vidya or jnana to describe this leap of consciousness, which means the process of matching the individual yogic intellect with the supreme intellect of brahma. sin, in this sense of the term, designates the opposite process, the removal, the constant distancing, the alienation of the individual consciousness in relation to the supreme or absolute one. in geometric proportions, the greater this distance, the more pronounced sin becomes, and the human spirit encapsulates itself more deeply in the coarseness and pressure of matter. the comparison with the light-dark dialectic is often used in the brahmanical tradition so that, this mechanism of distance or approach to the absolute consciousness of the creator is compared to the act of enlightenment when getting close to a powerful source of light, such as the sun, and to the phenomenon of darkness when persevering away from it. the one who attains perfection in meditation, asceticism, and control becomes enlightened, that is, a consciousness that reflects the brahmanical light being very close to it or even assimilated by its high energies. in the indian tradition, the term yoga comes to mean a mystical practice that aims at the harmonization between yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga … marius cucu & oana lenţa 462 purusha and ishvara, between the individual soul and the universal divine soul (eliade, 1992b). matter and corporality are seen, in this context, as disturbing, destabilizing factors that prevent the construction of harmonization, of the perfect symbiosis between the two forms of energy. the problem of skepticism in the whole vedic tradition is also seen in the dimension of yogic experience as a defining one, as eliade warns. thus, even if the level of union between the individual and the universal consciousness is reached, it can be easily lost. the karmic principle remains active and any residue or trace of imperfection, of spiritual impurity can determine the declassification of the personal consciousness from the threshold of the fusion with brahma and the repositioning in the temporality of the cyclicity of suffering-desire. for the eastern ascetic as well as for the christian mystic, the world is a valley of lamentation, but moreover, even eden cannot be acquired irreversibly, the karmic principle being activated even in the supratemporal conditions offered by the image of brahmanical heaven. thus, some schools of vedic thought have argued that the edenic state is a transitory level for the individual consciousness which, in spite of moral excellence, the spiritual purity that can attain it, must submit to the karmic law of reincarnation and return to the realms of temporality and ephemeral materiality (eliade, 1992b). yoga was intended to be a complex of practices and techniques capable of leading the initiate to the state of suspension of karmic imperatives, to the level of total liberation called mukti. in fact, as eliade notes, the issue of liberating individual consciousness to an eternal universal spiritual background, to an absolute divine consciousness, or to a framework that is not subject to spatio-temporal change was a central theme of the first metaphysical reflections present in the early writings of the upanishads, as a philosophical direction within the vast universe of vedic texts. mythological characters, whether civilizing heroes or reforming kings, have constantly taken on metaphysical boundary questions, questions of human destiny, and the possibilities of liberation from the spectre of the ephemeral to a perfect universe, often considered a dimension of the creator, a the primary source to which the individual spirit must return. this question was already understood in the early vedic tradition and in the assertions of the upanishads as the capital element for the whole destiny of the individual consciousness, the central factor of human existence. the sacrament, the ritual, the meditation cannot be conceived as simple exercises of the capacities of the spirit of self-affirmation, as control techniques meant to ensure a passage through life free from the problems of physical and mental affections. it could not be just a matter of mental and physical health. it was about the ancestral theme of salvation, of liberation from the dual brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 463 circularity of desires and sufferings that define the entire space-time existence. overcoming the ephemerality could only be achieved, from the vedic and, implicitly, yogic perspective, through a radical gesture of elevation and fixation, as eliade calls it, an approach to refocus the attention of the spirit from the horizontal projection, at the level of the immanent frames, on a vertical projection only aimed at the transcendence and assimilation into the universality of brahma’s absolute consciousness (eliade, 1992b). the problem of sacrifice, in this context, acquires an essential permutation. thus, from the symbolic stage of the ritual of offering sacrifices and burning on the altars of the assumed deities, is made the transfer to the expression of self-sacrifice that is limited to the suspension of breathing, of the instinct of preservation through food and bodily protection. physiological functions are seen as bearings through which excessive communication with the immanent is achieved and through which matter is kept in captivity. therefore, the intensive reduction of their activity, the detachment of the attention of the consciousness from their demanding mobilities is imposed as an extremely important task for the yogin. we are witnessing the constant recommendation to perform a mental sacrifice, called by eliade ritual internalization. although, apparently, the request for a suspension or minimization of physiological activities seems to be fully suggested, in fact, what is intended is their integration into the universal cosmic rhythm, their harmonization with the whole existence and the energy of brahma. it is more about adjusting any extensions and excesses, any focusing of mental attention on bodily needs and less about canceling or excluding them, which would get the fact of practicing yoga close to destruction and suicidal tendencies (eliade, 2000). what is ultimately pursued is not the forced acquisition of a state of holiness or full intelligence, but access to a supreme state of consciousness that does not exclude but encompasses the sphere of corporeality. (chatterjee, 1988). this perspective of integrating the whole psycho-physical complex into the super-temporal order of braham finds its apogee, thanks to the contribution of the philosophy of yoga, in the theological system offered by tantrism, which confirms, once again, the spiritual unity underlying the religious experience of india. through constant contemplation and asceticism, the attention of consciousness can, therefore, be detached from the labyrinth of temporal life and reconnected to the axiomatic of absolute landmarks, located beyond the complexities of terrestrial life (eliade, 1992b) this act subjecting the corporality to an effort of subordination and not of extinction. it is the ultimate goal of the yogic approach, the ultimate landmark which, in many forms and valences, has been constantly recommended and resumed throughout the ascetic yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga … marius cucu & oana lenţa 464 experiences of mankind. as claims frunză (2021): „meditation techniques – aimed to provide unity and authenticity in the human being ready to build the digital era –can prove efficiency by practicing in various registers of existence. they may also be a unifying factor for the four dimensions of human existence: physical, social, personal and spiritual. through them, the human being may escape from the world, may abandon all personal conditionings and even escape from the self only to then find oneself and rediscover the ultimate fundamentals of the personal reality.” 5. mircea eliade’s contribution to the new perspective on spiritual reality represented by yoga. conceptual interferences. perhaps one of the most important components of mircea eliade’s contribution to the understanding of indian spirituality is the fact that he paid attention to the complexity and limitlessness of its resources. eliade investigated broad levels of indian religious experience, overcoming the initial western bias of the supposed eastern primitivism. what proved to be inaccessible and inconsistent with the axiomatic of western civilization was too quickly categorized as inferior and irrelevant to the cultural performance of the self-designed civilized world. eliade pointed out the error of interpreting a different spiritual sphere through the dictionaries and matrices of the western tradition. only with the call made by metaphysics to buddhist thought or with the deepening of psychoanalytic research into the area of eastern religions did the idea of india's cultural and religious infantilism fade. eliade joined these efforts and, from the beginning of his scholarly activity, undertook the discovery of new levels of understanding for indian spirituality, both theoretically, through thoroughly documented studies, and empirically, by practicing, for example, yoga techniques (moshe, 2010). in fact, his efforts were in line with the tradition of rediscovering the indian spiritual universe, a tradition inaugurated by idealistic philosophies, especially by german romanticism in the early nineteenth century, a european cultural direction that placed particular emphasis on the idea of regaining primordial and archetypal images, the beginnings of mankind but also of ancient languages such as sanskrit. concerns in this direction of cultural anthropology and the study of naturist mythology have completed the assumption of a new understanding of the indian cultural space. comparative philology, sociology, the history of religions, ethnology began to contribute to index studies from authors such as max muller to georges dumezil. associated with this trend of western culture, eliade brought to the fore the idea that indian thought can be considered, in terms of western metaphysics, as existentialist thinking because, from its inception with the brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 465 early upanishads, the central issue approached was that of conditioning and de-conditioning the human being. based on this finding, eliade believes, several central themes of indian thought can be crystallized that may be of major interest to western philosophy: the multiple conditionings of human existence, the temporality and captivity in history, the possibilities of cancelling the despair, the anguish generated by the dissolution and finitude imposed by time. eliade also pointed out how indian ascetic thinking and practices approached the problem of the unconscious before abysmal psychology and psychoanalysis, inaugurated and postulated by freud and jung. eliade reluctantly accepted a resemblance between yoga and psychoanalysis, noting that, "unlike freudian psychoanalysis, yoga does not see only libido in the unconscious" (eliade, 1992a). "unlike psychoanalysis, yoga believes that the subconscious can be dominated by asceticism and even conquered by the techniques of unifying states of consciousness" (eliade, 1992a). “[...] yoga is right that the subconscious paradoxical as it may seem may be known, dominated and conquered” (eliade, 1993). thus, for the vision of hinduism, in which buddhism and yoga can be integrated, the conditioning of the human being has its foundations in the individual unconscious. in order to be able to extinguish the influences of these negative psychic residues, it is necessary to practice asceticism, meditation and prayer. the difference noted by eliade between the western psychoanalytic tradition and the eastern one is that for the first the emphasis is on the exercise of knowledge, the discovery of this area full of negative pulsating accumulations, while for the second, what matters is the practice to cancel the effect of these unconscious sources, with yoga occupying a central place here. the common conceptual element remains the problem of time and the way of liberation from its mobility that generates the ephemeral, vanity, circularity of desire and suffering and, ultimately, the irreversible advance towards the final existential boundary represented by death (eliade, 1993). the immanent-transcendent or time-eternity duality, present in the western tradition through the judeo-christian foundation, proves to be the central theme for the hindu philosophical vision as well. the principle of liberation to a timeless zone, although it involves major differences, it also includes similar components, the individual ascetic effort being, for example, recommended both in christian religious experiences and in brahmanical theology and practice (sandu, 2021). yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga … marius cucu & oana lenţa 466 6. conclusions the undeniable merit of mircea eliade is to offer the culture of the twentieth century and its decades, the image of indian spirituality, in particular the practice of yoga, as an inexhaustible resource of new perspectives on the meaning of human existence and its possibilities of being related to other levels (states) of consciousness. mircea eliade’s cultural heritage, regarding the yoga phenomenon, is not, as it can be seen from his entire fascinating work, a compilation of information and static landmarks, but on the contrary, an invitation to personal interpretations and assumptions regarding the understanding of the human spirit. going back to the blatant challenges the contemporary man is dealing with, we recall the studies of some enthusiasts of this research area, e.g. duan-porter et al., (2016); lawrence et.al, (2013; 2017); richter et al., (2016); shaffer et al., (1997); shohani et al., (2018); streeter et al., (2010); thayabaranathan et al., (2021; 2018; 2017) and so on, meant to open new horizons for understanding and prospecting physical and mental states in correlation with yoga practices, respectively how yoga can help manage pain, fear, recovery from various ailments and, why not, rediscovering and communicating with the self and the others, rebalancing emotions, reevaluating and recalibrating intrapersonal and interpersonal tensions. references afloroaei, ş. (2018). fabula existențială. polirom publishing. breaz, a.-m. (2020). the use of mass media in the social welfare area. logos universality mentality education novelty: political sciences & european studies, 6(1), 41-50. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.1/15 cave, d. (1993). mircea eliade's vision for a new humanism. oxford university press. chatterjee, m. (1988). comment on j.n. chubb "the hindu metaphysical tradition on the meaning of the absolute". in g.f. mclean & hugo meynell (eds.). person and god. the international society for metaphysics studies in metaphysics. vol. iii. university press of america http://www.crvp.org/publications/ism/ism-3.pdf chan, k. m. a., guerry, a., balvanera, p., klain, s., satterfield, t., basurto, x., bostrom, a., chuenpagdee, r., gould, r., halpern, b. s., hannahs, n., levine, j., norton, b., ruckelshaus, m., russell, r., tam, j., & woodside, u. (2013). where are ‘cultural’ and ‘social’ in ecosystem services: a framework for constructive engagement. bioscience, 62(8), 744–756. http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0132711 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.1/15 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenpses/6.1/15 http://www.crvp.org/publications/ism/ism-3.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0132711 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 467 chu, p., gotink, r. a., yeh, g. y., goldie, s. j., & hunink, m. g. (2016). the effectiveness of yoga in modifying risk factors for cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. european journal of preventive cardiology, 23(3), 291307. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487314562741 ciubotaru, d. l. (2020). the evolution of mind and reflexive thinking starting from the ancient greeks to stoic philosophers. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(2), 01-16. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.2/41 deussen, p. (1992). the system of the vedanta. the open court publishing company: cornell university library. deussen, p. (2007). filozofia upanişadelor. herald publishing. duan-porter, w., coeytaux, r. r., mcduffie, j. r., goode, a. p., sharma, p., mennella, h., nagi, a., & williams, j. w., jr (2016). evidence map of yoga for depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. journal of physical activity & health, 13(3), 281–288. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2015-0027 eliade, m. (1992a). patañjali şi yoga. humanitas publishing. eliade, m. (1992b). psihologia meditaţiei indiene. jurnalul literar publishing. eliade, m. & culianu, i. p. (1993). dicţionar al religiilor. humanitas publishing. eliade, m. (1993). yoga. nemurire şi libertate. humanitas publishing. eliade, m. (2000). tehnici yoga. univers enciclopedic. freitas, d. a., holloway, e. a., bruno, s. s., chaves, g. s., fregonezi, g. a., & mendonça, k. p. (2013). breathing exercises for adults with asthma. cochrane database systematic reviews, 1(10). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd001277.pub3 frunză, s. (2021). meditation techniques in the quest for balanceand authenticity. journal for the study of religions and ideologies, 20(59), 3-18. https://thenewjsri.ro/index.php/njsri/article/view/52/24 gong, h., ni, c., shen, x., wu, t., & jiang, c. (2015). yoga for prenatal depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. bmc psychiatry, 15, 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0393-1 javnbakht, m., hejazi kenari, r., & ghasemi, m. (2009). effects of yoga on depression and anxiety of women. complementary therapies in clinical practice, 15(2), 102–104. https://doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2009.01.003 lăcătuş, a.-n. . (2020). meditation and hesychasm a transdisciplinary approach. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 8(2), 105-112. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.2/48 https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487314562741 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.2/41 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.2/41 https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2015-0027 https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd001277.pub3 https://thenewjsri.ro/index.php/njsri/article/view/52/24 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0393-1 https://doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2009.01.003 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/8.2/48 yoga and the states of consciousness. a perspective of m. eliade on the yoga … marius cucu & oana lenţa 468 lawrence, m., booth, j., mercer, s., & crawford, e. (2013). a systematic review of the benefits of mindfulness-based interventions following transient ischemic attack and stroke. international journal of stroke, 8(6), 465–474. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijs.12135 lawrence, m., celestino junior, f.t., matozinho, h.h.s., govan, l., booth, j., beecher, j. (2017). yoga for stroke rehabilitation. cochrane database of systematic reviews, 12(12). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd011483.pub2 mitrea, g. (2021). disease as a social phenomenon. social pathology in institutionalized people. logos universality mentality education novelty: social sciences, 10(1), 55-61. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/58 moshe, i. (2010). the camoufl aged sacred in mircea eliade’s self-perception, literature, and scholarship. in c. k. wedemeyer & w. doniger (eds.), hermeneutics, politics, and the history of religions, the contested legacies of joachim wach and mircea eliade. oxford university press, inc. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394337.003.0008 penman, s., cohen, m., stevens, p., & jackson, s. (2012). yoga in australia: results of a national survey. international journal of yoga, 5(2), 92-101. https://doi.org/doi:10.4103/0973-6131.98217 richter, s., tietjens, m., ziereis, s., querfurth, s., & jansen, p. (2016). yoga training in junior primary school-aged children has an impact on physical self-perceptions and problem-related behavior. frontiers in psychology, 7, 203. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00203 sandu, a. (2008). studii in filosofia orientului [studies on the philosophy of the orient]. lumen. sandu, a. (2021). filosofia orientului și fizica modernă. lumen. shaffer, h.j., lasalvia, t.a., & stein j.p. (1997). comparing hatha yoga with dynamic group psychotherapy for enhancing methadone maintenance treatment: a randomized clinical trial. alternative therapies in health and medicine, 3(4), 57–66. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9210777/ shohani, m., badfar, g., nasirkandy, m. p., kaikhavani, s., rahmati, s., modmeli, y., soleymani, a. & azami, m. (2018). the effect of yoga on stress, anxiety, and depression in women. international journal of preventive medicine, 9(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_242_16 streeter, c. c., whitfield, t. h., owen, l., rein, t., karri, s. k., yakhkind, a., perlmutter, r., prescot, a., renshaw, p. f., ciraulo, d. a., & jensen, j. e. (2010). effects of yoga versus walking on mood, anxiety, and brain gaba levels: a randomized controlled mrs study. the journal of alternative and complementary medicine, 16(11), 1145–1152. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2010.0007 https://doi.org/10.1111/ijs.12135 https://www.cochranelibrary.com/ https://www.cochranelibrary.com/ https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd011483.pub2 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/58 https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/10.1/58 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394337.003.0008 https://doi.org/doi:10.4103/0973-6131.98217 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00203 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9210777/ https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_242_16 https://www.liebertpub.com/journal/acm https://www.liebertpub.com/journal/acm https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2010.0007 brain. broad research in march, 2022 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 13, issue 1 469 tayyebi, a., babahaji, m., sadeghisherme, m., ebadi, a., & eynollahi, b. (2011). study of the effect of hatha yoga exercises on stress, anxiety and depression among hemodialysis patients. iranian journal of critical care nursing, 4(2), 67–72. https://www.sid.ir/en/journal/viewpaper.aspx?id=213608 thayabaranathan, t., immink, m. a., hillier, s., stolwyk, r., andrew, n. e., stevens, p., kilkenny, m. f., gee, e., carey, l., brodtmann, a., bernhardt, j., thrift, a. g., & cadilhac, d. a. (2022). co-designing a new yogabased mindfulness intervention for survivors of stroke: a formative evaluation. neurology international, 14(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/doi:10.3390/neurolint14010001 thayabaranathan, t., immink, m. a., stevens, p., hillier, s., thrift, a. g., brodtmann, a., carey, l., kilkenny, m.f., & cadilhac, d. a. (2018). understanding the potential for yoga and tai chi interventions to moderate risk factors for stroke – a scoping review. future neurology, 13(4). https://doi.org/10.2217/fnl-2018-0005 thayabaranathan, t., andrew, n. e., immink, m. a., hillier, s., stevens, p., stolwyk, r., kilkenny, m., cadilhac, d.a. (2017). determining the potential benefits of yoga in chronic stroke care: a systematic review and meta-analysis. topics in stroke rehabilitation, 24(4), 279–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749357.2016.1277481 https://www.sid.ir/en/journal/journallist.aspx?id=12625 https://www.sid.ir/en/journal/journallist.aspx?id=12625 https://www.sid.ir/en/journal/viewpaper.aspx?id=213608 https://doi.org/doi:10.3390/neurolint14010001 https://doi.org/10.2217/fnl-2018-0005 https://doi.org/10.1080/10749357.2016.1277481 brain_3_3_ok 12 design and development of a software system for swarm intelligence based research studies utku kose usak university uşak üniversitesi rektörlüğü 1 eylül kampüsü 64200, uşak, turkey phone: :+90.276.221 21 21 (pbx) utku.kose@usak.edu.tr abstract this paper introduce a software system including widely-used swarm intelligence algorithms or approaches to be used for the related scientific research studies associated with the subject area. the programmatic infrastructure of the system allows working on a fast, easy-to-use, interactive platform to perform swarm intelligence based studies in a more effective, efficient and accurate way. in this sense, the system employs all of the necessary controls for the algorithms and it ensures an interactive platform on which computer users can perform studies on a wide spectrum of solution approaches associated with simple and also more advanced problems. keywords: swarm intelligence, artificial intelligence, software system 1. introduction today, the swarm intelligence (si) is a remarkable and important area of the artificial intelligence field in the context of the computer science. the research scope of this area is associated with the problem-solution approaches on employing the collective behavior of natural or artificial self-organized structures or systems. in this sense, many different types of si based algorithms have been introduced to provide better solutions for especially real-world based problems. the si area and its related working scope is very active and newer and more advanced algorithms aiming to provide better approaches rather than the current ones are still designed and developed in a rapid way. as being parallel with the mentioned efforts, there is also be a remarkable need for especially researchers to benefit from tools, programs or general software systems providing solution approaches of the si based algorithms. objective of this paper is to introduce a software system, which employs widely-used swarm intelligence algorithms or approaches on a common working environment to be used for the related scientific research studies associated with the subject area. basically, the system has been designed and developed to provide a typical form-based software environment for the popular and newly developed swarm intelligence based algorithms in the mentioned scope. the programmatic infrastructure of the system enables computer users to work on a fast, easy-to-use, interactive platform to perform their studies in a more effective, efficient and accurate way. in this sense, the system employs all of the necessary controls for the algorithms provided and it ensures an interactive platform on which computer users can perform studies on a wide spectrum of solution approaches associated with many types of problems changing from simple to more advanced ones. the author thinks that this software system is a general ‘tool box’ to be used for si based research approaches. the rest of the paper is organized as follows: in the second section, foundations of the software system are described briefly. at this point, some essential references are listed for readers to direct them to have better idea about some si based algorithms which are included within the designed and developed software system. next, general design structure and the most important using features and functions of the software system are introduced – explained in the third section. after the third section, a survey work performed among some researchers to have better idea about effectiveness and success of the software system is explained briefly in the fourth section. finally, results of the realized work and also some future works related to the software system are discussed in the last section. u. kose design and development of a software system for swarm intelligence based research studies 13 2. foundations the software system designed and developed in this work comes with some popular si based algorithms to allow working via different kinds of solution based approaches for solving the related problems. in this sense, particle swarm optimization (pso), ant colony optimization (aco), artificial bee colony (abc), intelligent water drops (iwds) algorithm and firefly algorithm (fa) are included within the software platform. the algorithms have been chosen according to their popularities and / or interesting features in the context of problem solving approaches. in order not to affect flow of the paper and also its readability, readers are directed to some essential references to have more idea about the mentioned algorithms. the related references are listed as below: � pso is a global optimization algorithm, which have been introduced by kennedy and eberhart [1]. it is based on the simulation of social behaviors appeared in a fish school or bird flock. more information about the pso can be found in [2 – 4]. � aco is a si based algorithm, which have been introduced by dorigo [5]. objective of this algorithm is to search for an optimal path in a graph structure by simulating the behavior of ants seeking an appropriate path between the colony and a food source. more information about the aco can be found in [6 – 8]. � abc is an optimization algorithm, which have been introduced by karaboga [9]. approach of the abc algorithm is based on the intelligent foraging behavior of a honey-bee swarm. more information about the abc can be found in [10 – 12]. � iwds algorithm is a si based algorithm, which have been introduced by shah-hosseini [13]. generally, it is similar to the aco but its working mechanism is based on dynamic of a natural river system. more information about this algorithm can be found in [14 – 16]. � fa is a si based algorithm, which have been introduced by yang [17]. approach of this algorithm is based on flashing behaviors of fireflies. more information about the algorithm can be obtained from [18 – 20]. 3. design and development of a software system for swarm intelligence based research studies the software system, which has been designed and developed within this study, employs simple and visually improved, form-based controls to ensure the related objectives of the study. at this point; in order to have better idea about design of the system, it is better to examine the programmatic infrastructure of the system before explaining using features and functions. 3.1. programmatic infrastructure basically, the programmatic infrastructure of the software system is based on separate application codes combined within a single software system platform. in this sense, the whole system has been coded over the microsoft visual studio 2010 platform by using the c# programming language. as mentioned before, the system is based on a typical form-based software approach and each application form associated with a specific si based algorithm includes its own code structure as being independent from other ones and being connected with the main software system interface. briefly, this infrastructure can be represented in a schema as shown in fig. 1. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 figure 1. programmatic infrastructure of the software system 3.2. using features and functions generally, the usage of the developed software system is mostly based on typical formbased controls in order to provide an easy-to-use, fast software environment to improve using experiences positively. in this sense, each algorithm employed in the software system can be reached by using the provided button controls over the main software system interface (form – window). after clicking on the related button, corresponding interface – window of the chosen si based algorithm is viewed. on a typical algorithm interface – window, it is possible to perform the related operations listed below: � defining a new problem and new parameters to perform a solution task associated with the problem scope of the algorithm. � opening a saved or predefined problem file to perform newer solution based tasks according to different parameters or structure combinations related to the algorithm (in order to ensure a fast and accurate working mechanism, ‘problem files’ are saved in the xml file format). � performing predefined problems that can be solved by only the related algorithm. all of the mentioned operations can be performed easily by using the provided controls over the related interfaces – windows of each algorithm. it is also important that each algorithm interface is supported by visual controls to view obtained results with typical iteration-based graphics or problem oriented visual elements. for instance, resulting graph structures are automatically shown by the algorithm interfaces after solving some specific, popular problems like travelling salesman problem (tsp), vehicle routing problem (vcp)…etc. visually improved using features and functions of the software system are critical aspects to provide more effective and useful platform to perform si based research studies better. related to the designed and developed software system, some screenshots from the software system [interfaces of two algorithms (iwds and abc)] are represented in fig. 2. u. kose design and development of a software system for swarm intelligence based research studies 15 figure 2. some screenshots from the software system 4. evaluation in order to have more idea about effectiveness and success of the software system, it has been used by a total of 50 different scientists researchers for two weeks and after the using period, the related scientists researchers have filled a survey including some statements about the usage and effectiveness of the system. the related survey includes a total of 10 statements that can be evaluated via likert scale. in this sense, scientists – researchers have typed ‘1’ if they strongly disagree, ‘2’ if they disagree, ‘3’ if they have no clear opinion, ‘4’ if they agree and ‘5’ if they strongly agree with a given statement. the related results obtained with the survey study are shown in table 1. table 1. the survey – evaluation results number of responses for: statement 1 2 3 4 5 this software system provides a fast research study based platform. 0 0 3 8 39 by using this system, it is easier to perform si based research studies. 0 0 0 7 43 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 there must be more si based algorithms within the software system. 0 0 0 6 44 i didn’t like the general characteristic of this software system. 37 10 3 0 0 i liked the scope of the predefined problems for the related algorithms. 0 0 1 6 43 it is hard to perform si based research studies via this software system. 40 6 4 0 0 i liked the visual controls provided on this software system. 0 0 0 1 49 i don’t want to take part in this kind of study process again. 45 4 1 0 0 the system provides an effective approach for si based res. studies. 0 1 3 6 41 the algorithms provided within the system provide accurate results. 0 0 1 7 42 total respondents: 50 results obtained with the survey study show that the software system introduced in this paper is evaluated as an effective and successful platform environment that can be easily used for performing si based research studies. 5. conclusions and future work the software system introduced in this paper ensures an effective platform, which employs widely-used si based algorithms on a common working environment to be used for performing related scientific research studies. the system employs fast, simple, easy-to-use controls and interfaces to enable scientists – researchers to perform their works in a more effective, efficient and accurate way. in this sense, the system also provides visually improved controls to improve general using experience. furthermore, the system also comes with predefined problem files that have been specially prepared for the widely-used algorithms included within the system. according to the evaluation results, which have been obtained with a simple survey study, all of these mentioned advantages of the system were also confirmed and as general, the software system is evaluated as an effective and successful platform environment that can be easily used for performing si based research studies. in addition to the expressed positive feedbacks, some evaluation results (survey responses) have also encouraged the author to plan some future works. for instance, number of algorithms employed within this system will be increased in future versions by adding different kinds of si based algorithms. additionally, future versions of the system will also enable scientists – researchers to reach to the system environment over the web platform. finally, there will probably be more visual and interactive controls within the future developments of the software system. references [1] kennedy j, eberhart rc. “particle swarm optimization”. proceedings of ieee international conference on neural networks; 1995, pp. 1942–1948. [2] poli r. "an analysis of publications on particle swarm optimisation applications". technical report csm-469 (computer science department, university of essex, uk); 2007. u. kose design and development of a software system for swarm intelligence based research studies 17 [3] poli r, kennedy j, blackwell t. particle swarm optimization. an overview. swarm intelligence; 2007; 1: 33–57. [4] poli r. analysis of the publications on the applications of particle swarm optimisation. journal of artificial evolution and applications; 2008: 1–10. [5] dorigo m. optimization, learning and natural algorithms, phd thesis, politecnico di milano, italie; 1992. [6] dorigo m, stützle, t. ant colony optimization, mit press; 2004. [7] dorigo m, maniezzo v, colorni a. ant system: optimization by a colony of cooperating agents, ieee transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics-part b; 1996; 26: 29–41. [8] blum c. ant colony optimization: introduction and recent trends. physics of life reviews; 2005; 2: 353–373. [9] karaboga d. “an idea based on honey bee swarm for numerical optimization”, technical report tr06 (computer engineering department, erciyes university, turkey); 2005. [10] basturk b, karaboga d. “an artificial bee colony (abc) algorithm for numeric function optimization, proceedings of the ieee swarm intelligence symposium; 2006. [11] karaboga d, basturk b. a powerful and efficient algorithm for numerical function optimization: artificial bee colony (abc) algorithm, journal of global optimization; 2007; 39: 459–471. [12] karaboga d, basturk b, on the performance of artificial bee colony (abc) algorithm, applied soft computing; 2008; 8: 687–697. [13] shah-hosseini h. “problem solving by intelligent water drops”, proceedings of the ieee congress on evolutionary computation; 2007, pp. 3226–3231. [14] shah-hosseini h. intelligent water drops algorithm: a new optimization method for solving the multiple knapsack problem, international journal of intelligent computing and cybernetics; 2008; 1: 193–212. [15] shah-hosseini h. the intelligent water drops algorithm: a nature-inspired swarm-based optimization algorithm, international journal of bio-inspired computation; 2009; 1: 71–79. [16] shah-hosseini h. optimization with the nature-inspired intelligent water drops algorithm, evolutionary computation, wellington pinheiro dos santos (ed.), intech; 2009. [17] yang x-s. nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithms, luniver press; 2008. [18] yang x-s. firefly algorithms for multimodal optimization, stochastic algorithms: foundations and applications lecture notes in computer sciences; 2009; 5792: 169–178. [19] lukasik s, zak s. “firefly algorithm for continuous constrained optimization tasks”, proceedings of the international conference on computational collective intelligence. semantic web, social networks and multiagent systems; 2009, pp. 97–106. [20] yang x-s. firefly algorithm, stochastic test functions and design optimisation, international journal of bio-inspired computation; 2010; 2: 78–84. microsoft word brain_1_1_rezumate_italiana.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 i brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cervello. ampia ricerca in intelligenza artificiale e neuroscienze volume 1, numero 1 gennaio 2010: tanti auguri! www.brain.edusoft.ro direttore responsabile: bogdan patrut 1. editoriale angel garrido, facoltà di scienze (uned), madrid, spagna riassunto editoriale primo numero della rivista "brain. ampia ricerca in intelligenza artificiale e neuroscienze. 2. metodi computerizzati in medicina angel garrido, facoltà di scienze (uned), madrid, spagna riassunto l'intelligenza artificiale ha bisogno di logica. ma la versione classica di esso presenta troppe carenze. pertanto, c`e` bisogno di introdurre strumenti più sofisticati come la logica sfumata / diffusa (fuzzy) logica modale, non monotone, logica e altri [2]. tra le cose che ia presenta si trovano le categorie, gli oggetti, le proprietà, le relazioni tra oggetti, situazioni, stati, tempi, eventi, cause ed effetti, conoscenza sulla conoscenza, e così via. i problemi dal ai possono essere classificati in due gruppi principali [3, 4]: questioni di ricerca e problemi di rappresentanza. ci sono diversi modi per raggiungere questo obiettivo. così, abbiamo tipi di logica, regole, quadri, reti associative, programmi, ecc., che sono spesso interconnesse. inoltre, nella soluzione dei problemi di incertezza e di causalità, l'introduzione di reti bayesiane, in particolare, un strumento essenziale come lo script sarà molto utile. cercheremo, in questo documento di presentare la gamma di applicazioni di tali metodi versatili oggi fondamentali nella medicina. 3. sistemi medici basati su agenti intelligenti barna iantovics, università "petru maior" di targu mures, romania riassunto lo sviluppo di sistemi diagnostici medicali flessibili ed efficienti, basate su agenti intlelligenti è una direzione di ricerca recente. sistemi medici multiagente possono migliorare l` efficacia dei sistemi di informazioni mediche sviluppati tradizionalmente, come i sistemi esperti medici. nella nostra ricerca precedente, abbiamo proposto un nuovo sistema medico di multiagente di diagnosi nominato cmds ( contratto netto basato su sistema di diagnosi medica). il sistema cdms può risolvere, in modo flessibile, un'ampia gamma di questioni relative alla diagnostica medica. il presente documento studia l` intelligenza aumentata del sistema cdms, il che motiva il suo utilizzo nella soluzione di vari problemi di salute. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 ii 4. adx agente per l'analisi morfologica di voci lessicali in un dizionario bogdan pătruţ , università " vasile alecsandri" di bacau riassunto questo lavoro riguarda l'analisi morfologica delle parole, visto come un processo importante dal campo del trattamento del linguaggio naturale. presentiamo la soluzione classica basata sull'utilizzo di paradigmi flexionari e di un ampio database contenente tutte le radici delle parole, poi saranno evidenziati alcuni dei vantaggi di questo metodo. poi, presenteremmo il metodo originale che genera in modo dinamico, le radici delle parole con alternanze fonologiche nel contesto delle regole di flessione. essa descriverà inoltre, anche alcuni aspetti ottimi del algoritmo di analisi morfologica. 5. verso un tipo metaforico di architettura: l'interno della casa vittoriana ioana boghian, università "alecsandri" in bacau riassunto questo lavoro si basa sul concetto di rete come un atto di significato: ciò che appartiene all` interno di una casa significa. il tipo di architettura metaforico che stiamo cercando di rappresentare ha lo scopo di definire i tipi di oggetti da una casa in termini di nodi dalla “rete” della casa , mentre come questi oggetti (sia ornamentali o utensili) sono distribuiti in uno spazio non solo rivela professione e / o personalità di un pesonaggio particolare (gli oggetti come un prolungamento e la proiezione dell'io), ma come indicatori di un particolare tipo di gerarchia sociale. 6. il connessionismo rispetto alla teoria computazionale della mente angel garrido, facoltà di scienze (uned), madrid, spagna riassunto di solito, i problemi di intelligenza artificiale sono spesso legati alla filosofia della mente e, forse per questo essi sono essenzialmente molto discutibile. per esempio, abbiamo la famosa questione: può una macchina pensare? che è stato proposto da alan turing [16]. e anche se può essere la più questione cruciale, a molti poteva sembrare di essere semplicemente assurdo. così due delle più importanti e discutate teorie prese di solito in considerazione in questo caso includono gli il connessionismo e la teoria computazionale della mente. nel presente studio è analizzato il loro contenuto, con le discussioni passate e con la situazione presente. 7. ottimizzazione degli strumenti di ia angel garrido, facoltà di scienze (uned), madrid, spagna riassunto la storica origine dell` intelligenza artificiale (ai) è di solito stabilita in occasione della conferenza darmouth, 1956. ma troviamo più origini arcana [1]. possiamo anche citare i grandi pensatori di questi ultimi tempi, come janos neumann ( john von neumann, arrivato allora negli stati uniti dell` america), norbert wiener, alan turing mathison, o loft zadeh, per esempio [12, 14]. spesso la ia richiede logica. ma la versione classica ha troppi punti deboli. così è stato necessario brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 iii introdurre strumenti più sofisticati come la logica diffusa (fuzzy), la logica modale, non monotone e così via [1, 2]. tra le cose che lui rappresenta sono gli oggetti, le proprietà, le relazioni tra gli oggetti, le situazioni, i stati, il tempo, gli eventi, le cause e gli effetti, conoscenze della conoscenza, e così via. i problemi da ai possono essere classificati in due classi generali [3, 5], questioni di ricerca e problemi di rappresentanza. ci sono diversi modi di raggiungere alla loro cima. in modo che possiamo utilizzare [4], la logica, le regole, i quadri, le reti associative, scritture e cosi via, spesso collegati tra loro. cercheremo, in questo lavoro di offrire una visione panoramica del campo di applicazione dei metodi di rappresentazione dall` ai. le due prospettive piu` discutate della moderna filosofia della mente e l'intelligenza artificiale sarà probabilmente il test di turing e la sala argomento cinese. per chiarire questi interrogativi molto difficile, vedremo il punteggio finale. 8. alcune considerazioni sulle serie tv e sincronicità elena nechita, università "alecsandri" di bacau, romania riassunto questo articolo presenta una panoramica dei risultati che sono stati ottenuti ultimamente sulla serialità e la sincronicità e la connessione degli stessi, nel contesto delle nuove teorie e nella scienza della complessità. 9. ottimizzazione dei sistemi distribuiti utilizzando sistemi multi-agente con il tempo virtuale ioana alexandra pandele, alina mihaela patriciu università " vasile alecsandri" di bacau, romania riassunto fusione delle aree di intelligenza artificiale e tempo reale si è rivelato un movimento, piuttosto intelligente, simile a una mossa di scacchi (non dobbiamo cosi lontano, a scacco matto, avendo in vista che il campo dell` informatica è abbastanza scivoloso quando si tratta di aggiornamenti). l` intelligenza artificiale, offre nuove possibilità per i sistemi di tempo reale. tuttavia, questo approccio ha presentato difficoltà [2]. principalmente i sistemi di tempo reale hanno requisiti di tempo (in genere, hanno bisogno di tempi di risposta prevedibile) che non sono previsti in tecniche di intelligenza artificiale. uno dei modi per risolvere questo problema è lo sviluppo di architetture software. queste architetture software sono utilizzate per la progettazione di agenti intelligenti che lavorano in ambienti in tempo reale. queste architetture hanno diversi meccanismi che consentono agli agenti di operare in ambienti con tempo reale, fornendo un comportamento reagente (per soddisfare il tempo) e un comportamento deliberativo [2]. ciò nonostante, i sistemi distribuiti, anche se il concetto di tempo ha un ruolo importante, è difficile da realizzare; a prima vista, anche definendo il termine stesso è offuscata. questo articolo è un suo esteso lavoro [6]. 10. un sistema di apprendimento delle basi di contabilità finanziaria bogdan patrut, marius iulian furdu, università "vasile alecsandri" di bacau, romania riassunto questo articolo descrive un metodo per l'insegnamento automatico delle basi di contabilità finanziaria. il metodo è correzione basata sugli errori tipici, che possono essere osservati dall'inizio. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 iv 11. agente intelligente per l` acquisizione del vocabolario della ingua madre bogdan patrut, università " vasile alecsandri" di bacau, romania, grigor moldovan, "babes-bolyai di cluj-napoca, romania riassunto questo articolo descrive le seguenti: prima, le idee di base di un sistema che simula il modo in cui noi consideriamo che un bambino acquisisce il vocabolario della lingua materna e fa la corrispondenza tra oggetti, parole e sensi, secondo: il meccanismo di un sistema che può imparare vocabolario della lingua materna utilizzando osservazioni e, terzo, la modalità di attuazione di un agente intelligente che possa comportarsi come come un bambino piccolo, nel processo di acquisizione della lingua materna 12. questioni relative alla diversità nelle reti di collaborazione sociale cosmin ion tomozei, florinela floria, università " vasile alecsandri" di bacau, romania riassunto l'idea di alterità è diventato importante negli ultimi decenni, quando si parla dell` età di informazioni, che offre il riconoscimento per gli sviluppatori di software, l'importanza che ha l` intendimento del comportamento degli altri, i bisogni, gli obiettivi e le sue credenze. il nostro obiettivo è principalmente quello di trattare il problema della rappresentanza sociale connessa da immagini delle persone come entità diverse che sono integratie in gruppi virtuali, progetti virtuali e le attività su internet. in cio` che riguarda la consapevolezza della diversità degli altri, diciamo che questo apre una prospettiva dialogica sulla società informazionale, dove e comunicare le conoscenza agli altri sono attività essenziali. 13. uno sguardo nel lavoro medico del dott. gheorghe marinescu claudia ivan, giornalista independente, bucarest, romania, ioana boghian, università " vasile alecsandri" di bacau, romania riassunto gheorghe marinescu (28 febbraio 1863, bucarest – 15 maggio, 1938, bucarest) è stato un neurologo rumeno, fondatore della scuola romena di neurologia. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 166 geospatial analysis framework elisabeta antonia haller “mircea cel bătrân” national college from rm.vâlcea carol i, 41, 240178, râmnicu-vâlcea, romania antonia_haller@yahoo.com abstract: in a computerized society, the volume of data grows unexpectedly, making assessing their processing time a very difficult task. a priority has become the processing of data in useful information and knowledge. thus we can say that data mining is a result of technological developments. the interpretation of spatial data has constituted a subject of research over time, reaching now a large variety of instruments and software products for representation and interpretation. what we need to understand beyond the facilities offered by one system or another, proprietary or open source solutions, is how they work and interact with spatial data. keywords: spatial data infrastructure, metadata, geospatial analysis, gis data mining 1. spatial data infrastructure like many other areas, over the last years, geographic fields recorded a significant increase in the collection of geographic data. there is a national and international program for the development of a spatial data infrastructure (sdi) that facilitates sharing and interoperability of geographical information. in this respect, the ue has adopted the inspire directive in may 2007, establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in europe and which addresses 34 spatial data themes needed for environmental applications. if we say sdi, we say “metadata, spatial data sets and spatial data services; network services and technologies; agreements on sharing, access and use; coordination and monitoring mechanisms, processes and procedures, established, operated or made available in accordance with this directive”. [1] with the sdi development programs the size of digital spatial data archives has increased, via the world wide web. in our days, geographic information are all over the internet space: the virtual globe like nasa world wind, released in mid-2004 or google earth, released in mid-2005, web map services like google maps from google, openstreetmap from ogc, bing maps from microsoft or yahoo maps and we mentioned just a small part of what we can find in the spatial data domain. geographic data sharing has many inherent problems such as: handling different data formats, finding adequate data for use, differences in software versions, economical boundaries and often communication problems. there is a standard for data exchange meant to increase the efficiency in data distribution and sharing. we do not have standards only for geographic data, but also for metadata. we will here mention only a few data standards, the most known and used ones: spatial data transfer standard – sdts, digital geographic information exchange standard – digest, topologically integrated geographic encoding and referencing – tiger. interoperability is one of the major concerns in gis software. the connection between different gis software and data transfer is made through standardized interfaces, where data is not converted or transferred. in order to transfer data from system s1 to system s2 we use a translator from system s1 to spatial data transfer standard and after the completion of the transfer we use another translator that converts data from standard format to s2 format. [5] open geospatial consortium (ogc), mainly, and national mapping agencies or international standard bodies make these standards possible. an important component of the geographic information infrastructure is spatial data clearinghouse. this is a distributed network of spatial data producers, managers and users electronically interconnected. combining institutions with different software systems makes possible discovery, evaluation and downloading digital spatial data. the objective of a clearinghouse is to minimise effort for data capture and maximise the benefit of geographic information sharing. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 167 terms like geoportal, spatial data clearinghouse or sdi can not be mentioned without also mentioning metadata. this concept is used to describe both data and information, in terms of content and quality. with metadata, users find out data sets, purpose and scope of data in an easier way. “data about data” should be flexible and ready to answer questions like who, what, when, where, why and how data are available. the answers are extremely important for users, metadata playing a variety of informative roles. these concepts (sdi, metadata and clearinghouse) together with others form the framework for the theory of geospatial analysis. 2. geospatial analysis with data mining algorithms when we say geospatial analysis we refer to a collection of techniques and tools for geographic analysis and gis data processing software engines. images constitute extremely complex information and in its representation we take the decision, about which side will be involved, at what level of detail and in what period of time. there are two basic modes of representation: discrete representation of objects and representation with continuous fields. [7] in discrete representation we take into account only well-defined objects in terms of shape, color and form. an important feature of discreet representation of objects is that they can be counted. in this sense a geographical area can be described as an area with landforms (mountains, plateaus, plains) or water surfaces (rivers, lakes, seas). the uncertainty arises when we have to differentiate a higher hill from a mountain or a water surface from a lake. in this way geographical objects acquire spatiality, dimensionality and area. they are called polygons and represent buildings, arable land. there are elements that have no area such as roads, railways, rivers and they are represented as lines, characterized by a single dimension. moreover, there are zero-dimensional objects – individual, isolated elements. in fact, all these objects are perceived as three-dimensional objects by humans. in continuous representation we choose a finite number of measurable variables at any point on earth's surface and we change values from one point to another. the continuous representation emphasizes elements that are difficult to fit into a table with attributes. continuous fields are characterized by how they change and how abrupt is the change. in the computer representation of geographical data, the conceptual representation as discrete objects and continuous fields are strongly associated with vector data and raster data. the potential to perform spatial analysis and geographic knowledge discovery varies on the type of representation used. according to longley et all. [7, p320], the methods of spatial analysis can be divided in six categories. (table 2.1). table 2.1 types of spatial analysis spatial analysis method description queries retrieve information from database. measurements numerical value that describes geographic entities and relations between geographic entities. transformations changing, combining or comparing datasets. descriptive summaries descriptive statistics applied in gis. optimization p-median problem selecting ideal locations according to well-defined rules hypothesis testing make generalizations about the whole from a sample dataset. spatial queries have different signification, depending on the suppliers. information retrieval involves processes of selecting information by a query. most of gis applications facilitate this process of interrogation by a point-and-click visual interface. users interact with database through spatial queries and the complexity of selection varies from an application to another. (table 2.2) e. a. haller – geospatial analysis framework 168 table 2.2 spatial queries available on different platforms application description arcgis supports standard select, join and relate processes enabling tables to be joined and queried based on their relative locations, selects by location facility; does not support make table, update and delete mapinfo supports standard select and spatial join, without sharing a common field. manifold supports standard select, specific spatial extensions (adjacent, contains, intersection, etc), create, update, delete; supports combinations with spatial operations (distance and buffer functions); supports combinations with operators that generate spatial objects (triangulation, convex hull of a point set); performs geometrical processing on the selected data. postgis supports standard select, distance queries, spatial join, spatial indexes, coordinates re-projections inside the database measurements are made in all spatial databases. the most common queries include counting, area computations for a parcel, distance between two points and length of a river or road. if the model used for representing the world is the 2d euclidean space, then the distance between two locations with cartesian coordinates ),( 11 yx and ),( 22 yx is calculated through formula (1). the length of a polyline is the sum of the constitutive segments, where each length of a segment is calculated through (1). 2 21 2 2112 )()( yyxxd −+−= (1) if the model used for representing the world is in spherical space, the distance between points 1 and 2 is calculated with the cosine formula (2) or with a more accurate one, the haversine formula (3). [ ])cos(coscossinsincos 212121112 λλϕϕϕϕ −+= −rd (2) ⎟ ⎟ ⎠ ⎞ ⎜ ⎜ ⎝ ⎛ ⎟ ⎠ ⎞ ⎜ ⎝ ⎛ −+⎟ ⎠ ⎞ ⎜ ⎝ ⎛ −= − 21 2122121 12 coscos2 sin 2 sinsin2 ϕϕλλϕϕrd (3) where r is the earth’s radius and ),( 11 λϕ is the latitude and longitude for the first point, and ),( 22 λϕ is the latitude and longitude for the second point. another type of measure for gis entities is their shape and it is calculated through (4). a p s π2 = (4) where p is the perimeter length and a is the area. on the raster data measures are obvious because the cells are regular. the only thing that could vary is the cell (pixel) resolution. a line is defined like a cells collection with common features. the transformations process combines spatial data layers and produces a new one. operations that fall under the incidence of transformations are: buffering (vector, raster, hybrid or network), point in polygon, polygon overlay and spatial interpolation, descriptive summaries try to find patterns, geographical distribution and phenomena using simple statistic methods. the bases of building descriptive summaries are centroids, dispersion, labeled/unlabeled features and fractional dimension. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 169 the role of optimization is to create improved design and find out answers for questions like point location, routing problem and optimum paths. a hypothesis test on geographic data is a particular case of statistical inference. statistical inference is based on the theory that we can generalize from a small group to a large context. geographic data are natural experiments and we can not randomly extract samples from this data because they are spatially dependent in the area of interest. “spatial analysis is often conducted on all of the available data, so there is no concept of a universe from which the data were drawn, and about which inferences are to be made.” [2] geographic information could be more valuable when we use neural networks, fuzzy logic or others ai tools for extracting and evaluating data. the first major step for gis was the development of spatial databases. after this important step, discovering useful information with one important artificial intelligence tool was almost a necesity because of the large size of databases with geographic data: spatial data mining. data mining techniques are useful in all types of interpretations of geographic data: land use, image analysis, pattern analysis, wheather and floods prediction, forestry, oceanography, transportation, bio-sphere studies or environment changes. in almost every case where gis is being used, ai tools could enchancing decision-making process [9]. a relevant part of data mining techniques that is used for geographic knowledge discovery is spatial clustering. clustering is the process of grouping physical or abstract data into classes of similar objects. in a cluster we find data objects that are similar to each other and dissimilar with the objects in other clusters. in clustering we do not need to label large set of patterns [2]. spatial clustering could be used in pattern recognition, data analysis and image processing. identification of areas of similar land use in an earth observation database, finding groups of different objects in an area according to geographical location could be only a few examples of spatial clustering. there are three main divisions for clustering: partitional clustering, hierarchical clustering and locality-based clustering. in all this types of clustering we can found algorithms which can be successfully applied to geographic data (figure 1). [8] geographic data can be found in different forms. the most used data is point data and can represent buildings, roads centers or lands. moreover, data objects are not static and in present we can keep track of moving objects like vehicle position data or animal movement data. for this type of data, called trajectory data, machine learning field has developed powerful algorithms. a trajectory is a set of multidimensional points. in this context, a cluster is a set of trajectory partitions. a trajectory partition is a line segment jipp ji <, , where ip and jp are points from the same trajectory. finally, a representative trajectory is an imaginary trajectory that indicates the behavior of the line segments in a cluster [2]. we must notice that early clustering methods do not use trajectory partitioning. j-g lee, j. han and k-y whang has proposed a partition-and-group framework for trajectory clustering in order to resolve the problem of discovering clusters of sub-trajectories [10]. they proposed a density-based method, a partial trajectory clustering algorithm named traclus (trajectory clustering). if we look at the trajectory clusters as a whole is possible to miss common behavior. the solution proposed in [10] is to partition trajectories into line segments and then group similar line segments. trajectory clustering based on partition-and-group framework consists of two phases: partitioning phase: trajectories are partitioned into line segments grouping phase: grouping similar line segments into a cluster e. a. haller – geospatial analysis framework 170 figure 1. different types of spatial clustering algorithms the traclus algorithm is below: algorithm traclus (trajectory clustering) input: { } tranum trtrtr ,,, 21 k=τ , a set of trajectories; output: (1) { } clusnum ccc ,,, 21 k=ο , a set of clusters; (2) a set of representative trajectories; algorithm: //partitioning phase for each ( )τ∈tr do execute approximate trajectory partitioning; get a set l of line segments; accumulate l into a set d ; //grouping phase execute line segment clustering for d ; get a set o of clusters as the result; for each ( )oc ∈ do execute representative trajectory generation; generate representative trajectory as the result; this algorithm can solve a wide range of problems that involves trajectory data like: common behaviors of hurricanes that improve the accuracy of forecasts, vehicle traffic management, supply chain management, effects of roads and traffic in animal movement or military and security markets. 3. conclusion the great advantage of the latest research in geospatial analysis is the use of data mining techniques. finding patterns, anomalies and clusters in spatial data is a challenge for both geographers and mathematicians. the new trend for opening in the www space makes exploring partitional hierarchical locality k-medoid k-means pam/ clara clarans bottom-up grid-based top-down density-based random distribution denclue cure sting+ clique sting mosaic wavecluster birch dbscan dbclasd brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 171 data possible at other levels. the gis software provides the opportunities for exploring the environment and develops new analytical solutions to geospatial problems. 4. references [1] inspire official site, from http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.cfm. [2] miller, j. h., han, j. (2009). geographic data mining and knowledge discovery, second edition, crc press. [3] smith, goodchild p. a., longley, p.a. (2009), geospatial analysis a comprehensive guide, 3rd edition, [electronic version] retrieved from http://www.spatialanalysisonline.com. [4] guo, d., gahegan, m., mceachren, m. a. (2003) an integrated environment for highdimensional geographic data minig. geovista center. [5] de bay, a., knippers, r.a., yuxian, s. (2000). principles of geographic information system. the international institute for aerospace survey and earth science. [6] verbila, d. l. (2003) practical gis analysis. taylor and francis. [7] longley, p.a., goodchild, p.a., maguire, d.j., rhind, d.w (2005). geographical information system and science, 2nd edition. john wiley and sons ltd. [8] kolatch, e. (2001). clustering algorithms for spatial databases: a survey. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.28.1145. [9] thurston, j. (2002). gis & artificial neural networks: does your gis think? retrieved from http://integralgis.com/pdf/neural%20networks.pdf [10] lee, j-g., han, j., whang k-y (2007). trajectory clustering: a partition-and-group framework. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.76.8098. brain_3_4_final 46 neobehaviorism and second language acquisition laleh fakhraee faruji department of humanities, shahr-e-qods branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran fakhraeelaleh@yahoo.com abstract behaviorism dominated the field of sla until the end of the 1960s and found its most visible application in contrastive analysis and the audiolingual method (johnson, 2004, p. 10). in this tradition, the focus was on the learner’s external environment. by now it is consensus that a mature psychology will contain a level of intermediate theory which bridges the divide between physiology and behavior, but there is disagreement over the best way to do that (reisman, 2003). now behaviorism is like a cube of sugar dissolved in tea; it has no major, distinct existence but it is everywhere (harzem, 2004). keywords: bloom's taxonomy, behaviorism, neo-behaviorism, competition model 1. behaviorism three general principles of language learning have been identified in this framework (dakin, 1973, as cited in ellis, 1994, p. 299). the law of exercise which indicates that language learning is promoted if the learner repeats the responses to the stimuli. here, practice plays a fundamental role. the law of effect which places importance on reinforcing the correct or native like response and on correcting the non-native like responses. here reinforcement, such as approval of correct responses strengthen the association and is necessary to learning. these two principles had been proposed by thorndike, as cited in ellis, 1994, p. 299). and, the principle of shaping which mentions that learning will be rapid and smooth if the complex behaviors are broken into smaller units and are learnt bit by bit. jordan, carlile, & stack (2008, p. 32) explained some criticisms of behaviorism. they believed that it can be considered anti-humanistic in its refusal to acknowledge human freedom and choice. behaviorism gives insufficient weight to contextual factors such as the social, economic and political conditions and forces that promote or constrain action. it also fails to consider other determinants in learning, such as inherited intelligence and personality. in higher level learning, behaviorist techniques may not be effective in promoting deep learning, which is related to personal understanding and meaning-making. in adult, further, and higher education, it is also difficult to apply behaviorist principles, because they often fail to take account of creative processes and of incidental, unexpected and self-initiated learning. in general, behaviorism is often seen as anti-intellectual (jordan, carlile, & stack, 2008, p. 33). they concluded that behaviorism is not totally antagonistic to other theories of learning; rather, it can co-exist with later learning theories that focus on cognition or the social acquisition of meaning. it may serve as a foundational element on the basis of which more complex cognitive processes are developed. 2. new behaviorism by the mid-twentieth century, there was a growing recognition that conditioning involves a cognitive element. neo-behaviorists acknowledge that operant and classical conditioning together do not completely determine behaviors. for example, the american psychologist tolman (1948) demonstrated that rats could go beyond simple stimulus–response behavior and could learn, remember and use facts about a maze. the new-behaviorist, clark hull (1943, 1951, 1952, as cited in ormord, 2008), was the first behaviorist who recognized the importance of learner’s internal characteristics such as motivation. hull's plan for an s –r behaviorism was very ambitious. it aspired to conceptualize the bases for adaptive behavior in a broad sense, including certain cognitive processes and the l. f. faruji neobehaviorism and second language acquisition 47 performance differences between species and individuals (rashotte & amse, 1999, p. 126). he believed that learning was insufficient for behavior and therefore we need to have motivation. hull proposed that a number of other factors (intervening variables) unique to each organism and each occasion must be considered in order to predict the likelihood and strength of a response’s occurrence (as cited in ormord, 2008). thus, hull’s ideas comprised an s-o-r theory, rather than an s-r theory, of learning. according to ormord (2008), hull described the following intervening variables which are critical for a response to occur. habit strength: the degree to which a particular stimulus and a particular response are associated. the more often a response has previously been rewarded in the presence of the stimulus, the greater is the habit strength and the more likely the response is to occur. • organism’s drive: an internal state of arousal that motivates its behavior. to illustrate, one might become “driven” by a need for approval if approval has previously been associated with a candy bar. • stimulus intensity: an intense stimulus bringing about a stronger response than a weak stimulus. • incentive: the amount and immediacy of reward all of the above factors work together to increase the likelihood and relative strength of a particular response. at the same time, inhibitory factors (e.g., fatigue) decrease the likelihood and strength of the response. recent models of language learning, like connectionism and competition models with reinforcement learning algorithms, inspired by one of the fundamental law of behaviorism; association between input and response are now having their advocates (keramati, 2008). 3. connectionism and new behaviorism connectionism is a cognitive framework for explaining learning processes, which began in the 1980s and became increasingly influential. it assumes that sla results from increasing strength of associations between stimuli and responses (savile torike, 2006, p. 186). “as learners are exposed to repeated patters of units in input, they extract regularities in the pattern; probabilistic associations are formed and strengthened” (savile torike, 2006, p. 80). so, for them the notion of innateness is not seen as an innate capacity to learn the abstract rules of language. in connectionism, knowledge is assumed to be distributed between neural connections and learning consists of reinforcing certain types of connection. mental patterns can be represented by neural assemblies (that is, groups of neurons that are close together or particularly well connected) (mistri, 2002). the claim that learning is not innate nor rule based is supported by computer simulations. in learning irregular verbs, it is known that children go through three phases: first they produce the correct form of irregular verb, i.e. went. in the second phase, they over-generalize the regular past tense ending to irregular verbs, i.e., goed, known as u-shape curve of learning for irregular verbs, and in the third phase, they produce irregular form correctly (keramati, 2008). pinker (1991) argued that irregular verbs are retrieved from an associative memory, like what connectionists have described, but regular verbs are produced by learners as a result of suffixation rule. kaplan et al. (1990) explaining the criticisms of the connectionist models argued that: first, connectionist models are fundamentally behaviorist in nature (and, therefore, non-cognitive), and second that connectionist models are fundamentally associationist in nature (and, therefore, cognitively weak). the critical difference between the two, however, lies in the respective building blocks of association. the only associations that behaviorists considered were those between observable entities, that is between stimuli and responses. the associationists, on the other hand, were concerned with the association of "ideas". in spite of the fact that "idea" was a rather nebulous construct by modern standards, it clearly referred to an internal, mental entity. so, while behaviorism denied the existence (or at least the usefulness) of cognitive processes, associationism was a cognitive theory. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 according to kaplan et al. (1990) modern connectionists are proposing an alternate way of modelling cognition; they certainly do not deny the existence of cognition or the validity of studying it. however, the possibility remains that the connectionist models themselves have unavoidable behaviorist implications which their proponents did not intend. 4. competition model and new behaviorism competition model (bates and macwhinney 1981; macwhinny 2001, as cited in savile torike, 2006, p. 87) of language learning offers a theory of performance in contrast with chomsky’s theory of competence. this approach considers that learning the system of form– function mapping is basic for l1 acquisition. sla involves adjusting the internalized system of mapping that exists in the learner’s l1 to one that is appropriate for the target language. besides, they claim that language learning is nonmodular and is not domain specific (jordan, 2004). relevant to the discussion in this paper is two of the theoretical commitments (keramati, 2008). the first one is the connectionist model which competition model uses to model the interaction between lexical mappings. there, they reject nativist view and argue that brain relies on a type of computation that emphasizes patterns of connectivity and activation. the second one is that of inputdriven learning. according to this commitment, learning is explained in terms of input rather than innate principles and parameter. cue validity is the key construct in this explanation. the basic claims of competition model is that cues such as stress, intonation, rhythm, morphological marking, and word order are available in input and language processing involves competition among these cues. different types of cues interact dynamically every time children or adults hear a sentence. word order or first position of nouns is very strong cue for english speakers (savile torike, 2006, p. 87). however, strong cue in one language might be weak cue in another. transfer of l1 cues strengthen to l2 is something which is likely at early stages of sla when the systems differ. 5. educational implications of new behaviorism neo-behaviorists recognized the importance of learners’ internal characteristics, such as personality, motivation and habit. whereas classical behaviorism focused only on the external manipulation of the organism, the development of cognitive science led to a stronger awareness of the importance of internal as well as external behaviors (jordan, carlile, & stack, 2008, p. 25). skinner (1953, as cited in jordan, carlile, & stack, 2008, p. 26) talks about students developing self-control and self-monitoring programmes, where they identify their own reinforcers and apply behaviorist principles to themselves. for example, a student might identify tendencies towards lateness, monitor performance, decide which stimuli are effective, set goals, and consider reinforcers. in the 1950s, the neo-behaviorist benjamin bloom attempted to develop a model that linked external and internal behaviors (bloom and krathwohl 1956, as cited in jordan et al., 2008, p. 26). in his influential taxonomy of learning, he proposed three domains or spheres of learning; the cognitive, affective and psychomotor, which translate learning into overt observable behaviors. each domain presents a set of behaviors, which are hierarchical according to complexity and sophistication. the cognitive domain is the best-known and most educationally applicable of bloom’s domains and deals with the ways that internal knowledge may be revealed by external behavior. behaviors progress from those demonstrating basic subject knowledge up to an ability to evaluate or judge the worth of knowledge. for example, learning a language moves from knowing simple vocabulary at the lowest level to the ability to evaluate literary texts at the highest level. bloom’s taxonomies, particularly in the cognitive domain, have been used to guide curriculum planning; his concept of ‘mastery learning’ (1968 as cited in jordan et al., 2008, p. 26) has been particularly influential. ‘mastery learning’ involves the statement of educational objectives l. f. faruji neobehaviorism and second language acquisition 49 and their translation into learner behaviors so as to generate criteria for assessment grades at various levels in the domain. 6. new behaviorism and language assessment one of the applications of new behaviorism is in concerning the assessment. it is commonly held that effective assessment tasks should test the performance of behaviors stated in learning outcomes under the same conditions as those under which they were learnt (jordan et al., 2008, p. 30). for example, if the learning outcome states that apprentice carpenters will be able to hang a door, the assessment should require them to hang a door rather than describe the technique in a written examination, which is what often happens. behaviorist principles may also be seen in the move towards criterion referenced assessment. the extent to which a learner has achieved stated learning outcomes is judged according to behavioral criteria specified in those outcomes. this replaces older concepts of normreferenced assessment, which are based on rating learner performance in relation to average or ‘normal’ group performance. in norm-referenced assessment, the pattern of distribution around the norm means a certain portion of learners must be rated as performing at a below-average level (jordan et al., 2008; keramati, 2008, p. 31). behaviorist principles are useful as part of formative assessment, which is a kind of assessment designed to provide feedback for the learner and teacher, rather than to record or certify achievement. formative assessment may be seen as a form of reinforcement, designed to motivate and encourage learners. to be effective, the reinforcement of desired behavior must be provided consistently and in a timely manner so that the correct response is reinforced. when it comes to assessment, therefore, learners should receive feedback as quickly as possible after the assessment task (jordan et al., 2008; keramati, 2008, p. 31). 7. conclusions the explicit linking of cognitive developments and behaviors helps teachers both to devise learning activities that allow learners to practice the behaviors, and to look for these behaviors when assessing learners’ performance (jordan et al., 2008, p. 27). despite the fact that connectionists reject innateness in the sense that chomsky uses, they differ from behaviorists in fundamental ways: they consider causal explanation and try to overcome all theoretical bias (keramati, 2008). behaviorism is no more considered merely as stimulus-response-reinforcement chains; rather it contains an element of cognition without which it will lose its real effectiveness in different areas of learning and assessment. references [1] ullman ellis, r. (1994). the study of second language acquisition. oxford: oxford university press. [2] harzem, p. (2004). behaviorism for new psychology: what was wrong with behaviorism and what is wrong with it now? behavior and philosophy, 32, 5-12. [3] johnson, m. (2004). a philosophy of second language acquisition. new haven: yale university press. [4] jordan, a., carlile, o., & stack, a. (2008). approaches to learning: a guide for teachers. new york: mcgraw-hill house. [5] kaplan, s., weaver, m., & french, r. (1990). active symbols and internal models: towards a cognitive connectionism. ai & soc, 4, 51-71. [6] keramati, m. n. (2008). is behaviorism creeping back? elt weekly, 14, 34-47. [7] mistri, m. (2002).consumer learning, connectionism and hayek’s theoretical legacy. eastern economic journal, 28(3), 301 -317. [8] ormord, j. e. (2008). beyond pavlov, throndike, and skinner: other early behaviorist theories. retrieved october 2010 from www.prenhall.com/ormrod/.../2_beyondpavlov.pdf [9] pinker, s. (1991). rules of language. science, 35,530-535. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 [10] rashotte, m. e., & amse, a. (1999). clark l. hull’s behaviorism. in w. odonohue & r. [11] kitchener (eds.), hand book of behaviorism (120-154). london: academic press, inc. [12] reisman, k. (2003). the new behaviorism. biology and philosophy, 18, 715–729. [13] saville-troike, m. (2006). introducing second language acquisition. cambridge: cambridge university press. [14] tolman, e. c. (1948) cognitive maps in rats and man, psychological review, 55(4), 189– 208. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 383-397 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/394 submitted: february 3rd, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 13th, 2022 problems of organization of education of children with special educational needs in the conditions of contemporary primary school (in the context of neuropedagogy) ruslana soichuk 1 , daria khrypun 2 , iryna sydoruk 3 , valentyna serheieva 4 , volodymyr shevchenko 5 , svitlana shevchenko 6 1 rivne state university of the humanities, ukraine, ruslanasoichuk@gmail.com 2 pavlo tychyna uman state pedagogical university, ukraine, 8669838@ukr.net 3 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, sydoruk.iryna@vnu.edu.ua 4 lesya ukrainka volyn national university, ukraine, valentina.sergeeva@live.com 5 mykola yarmachenko institute of special pedagogy and psychology of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, shevchenko_volodumur@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0119-3206 6 institute for pedagogy of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, shevchenko_s_n@ukr.net abstract: the relevance of the chosen topic of the article is determined by the fact that at the period of development of postmodern society there is a growing awareness of the need for innovative educational process by involving children with special educational needs (sen), studying their development in the context of neuropedagogy, studying problems related to organization of education of children with sen in the conditions of contemporary primary school. the purpose of the article is to study and substantiate in the context of neuropedagogy of the importance of organizing the education of children with sen in the conditions of a contemporary primary school. the article considers the neuropedagogical foundations of inclusive education as an important factor in the socialization of children in contemporary primary school, highlights the problems of organization of education of children with sen in a contemporary primary school and clarifies the role of parents in the process of inclusive education of children with sen in the conditions of a contemporary primary school. nowadays, society prioritizes the practice of coeducation of children with normal development and peers with sen. an urgent issue of social policy is the study of the mechanisms of educational integration of children with disabilities under the new educational policy, taking into account specific financial, organizational and political resources. keywords: modernization of education; inclusive education; specialized psychological and pedagogical support; creation of a special environment; parental support. how to cite: soichuk, r., khrypun, d., sydoruk, i., serheieva, v., shevchenko, v., & shevchenko, s. (2022). problems of organization of education of children with special educational needs in the conditions of contemporary primary school (in the context of neuropedagogy). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 383-397. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/394 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/394 mailto:ruslanasoichuk@gmail.com mailto:8669838@ukr.net mailto:sydoruk.iryna@vnu.edu.ua mailto:valentina.sergeeva@live.com mailto:shevchenko_volodumur@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0119-3206 mailto:shevchenko_s_n@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/394 problems of organization of education of children with special educational ... ruslana soichuk et al. 384 introduction one of the main tasks of the inclusive education is the access to education for children with sen in regular schools, where special conditions and methods are created for the education of this category of students. solving this problem helps to cope with discriminatory views predominating in the society. inclusive education enables all students to fully participate in the life of the preschool institution, high school and college. such education is aimed at developing in all children the abilities necessary for a full life in society, learning, communication. effective implementation of the inclusion of an individual child in the microclimate of the educational institution is almost impossible without specialized psychological and pedagogical support as an inclusive process and its individual structural components (behas et al., 2019; demchenko et al., 2021; komogorova et al., 2021; sheremet et al., 2019). after all, there are many problems on the way to implementation of the inclusive education, such as: dislike for children with disabilities; difficulties in understanding and implementing approaches to teaching children with sen; unwillingness of many parents to teach their children together with children with special needs; and at the same time inadequate perception of peers with sen by children with normal development; problems of social and psychological adaptation of children with sen. inclusion takes into account both the needs and the special conditions that students and teachers need to succeed. in this school it is necessary to appreciate and consider each child an important member of the team. students with special needs should be supported by peers and other members of the school community to meet their sen. all students should have equal opportunities to establish and develop important social ties. specialists involved in the educational process are trained in various methods and techniques that facilitate the process of inclusion, i.e., social integration among peers. the following researchers dealt with the study of implementation of inclusive education: baharev (2018), who argued that the process of implementing inclusive practices in education is studied on the basis of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 385 widespread use of directive, regulatory-methodical and informational materials of regional government agencies and departments of education; borysova (2006), who studied foreign experience of social policy in the perspective of inclusive education, which is relevant today. the works of booth & ainscow (2002) are useful in explaining the neuropedagogical foundations of inclusive education as an important factor in socialization of children in contemporary primary school. sharma (2012) explains the problems of organizing education of children with sen in contemporary primary school, which is valuable material for adopting foreign experience to address gaps in inclusive education in contemporary primary school. neuropedagogical grounds of inclusive education as an important factor of children’s socialization in the conditions of contemporary primary school inclusive education is a process of teaching and upbringing in which all children, regardless of their physical, mental, intellectual and other characteristics, are included in the general education system and study at the place of residence along with their peers in secondary schools that take into account their sen and provide the necessary special support (babaieva, 2016). until recently, the traditional education system unequivocally believed that children with special needs should be educated in special (correctional) educational institutions, at home or special boarding schools for special children. the new system of normative-legal documentation, which regulates state-public relations in this aspect, poses an urgent task of introduction and development of inclusive forms of education. the term “inclusion” is already firmly entrenched in the practice of contemporary schools (florian, 2014). neuropedagogical research in this area proves that children with disabilities and normal intelligence can study with healthy peers in case there is an adequate psychological and pedagogical support (state institute for school quality and educational research munich, 2018). children with severe developmental disabilities and impaired intelligence need to study in a regular school, provided teachers take into account specifics of their development (loreman et al., 2005). the problems of implementing the ideas of inclusive education are due to the fact that not all teachers can create a special environment for a problems of organization of education of children with special educational ... ruslana soichuk et al. 386 special child. according to various studies, teachers of mass education are psychologically and methodologically unprepared to work with children with atypical development, with students who demonstrate behavioral difficulties or raised in antisocial families. a special needs teacher knows who he / she is teaching and believes in the potential of his / her student. a teacher of mass education, due to limited special knowledge, does not understand the difficulties of a “special” child and constantly compares them with students with normal development, and as a result often gives such a child the following “diagnosis”: inability to learn (semigina, 2020). neuropedagogy of inclusive education involves inclusion in the educational environment of all, without exception, children with sen; the choice of the forms of organization of education, a type of educational institution; organization of comprehensive assistance by a team of defectologists; building an educational route taking into account the requirements of state educational standards of primary general education, including those who study with disabilities; determining the priority of personal learning outcomes; expanding the temporary boundaries of special education; mandatory participation of parents in the process of educating a child with disabilities, etc. the updated system of special education is designed to provide an opportunity for every child to exercise his or her constitutional right to education in any type of educational institution and to receive the assistance he / she needs. problems of organization of education of children with sen in the conditions of contemporary primary school inclusive education is a process of development of general education, which provides access to education for all, adaptation to different needs of children to provide accessible education to all children with sen. the inclusive model of education has been considered by many members of the scientific community. most researchers have characterized it not as a static teaching of children, but as a dynamic action in which it is possible to constantly change conditions of education in order to take into account the individual characteristics of each student (gachago, 2018). the education of such children requires solution of a number of problems, the most important of which is improvement of the education system. at this stage in the development of this program, there are clear shortcomings in the legislative framework and in the social support system. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 387 much of the difficulty in teaching and raising children is due to the shortage of skilled workers in this field psychologists, social educators, correctional educators, teachers. kremen and ilin (2005), identify three main problems that arise when implementing this technology: 1) society’s unpreparedness to inclusive approach. if we consider the historical aspects, compared to europe, the process of accepting people with disabilities has been slower, and therefore foreign society is still at a higher stage of development; 2) insufficient training of specialists, lack of them in the education system, as well as the inability to implement an inclusive program; 3) insufficient technical equipment for people with disabilities. thus far, only certain conditions have been created in schools for adaptation of children with sen. analysis of empirical data demonstrates knowledge and skills in inclusive education and training, which are at a low level. if we divide teachers by the levels of inclusive competence formed, the huang and zhang (2020) studies provide the following data: • with zero level 45.5%; • with low level 44%; • with average level 5%; • with high level 0%. inclusive education means not only education of children with sen, they can be children of believers, migrants, orphans, etc. that is why the principles of inclusive education should help every teacher to create a community in the school that is open to any child, a society in which he or she can be heard and understood. attention should also be paid to the technical aspect of inclusive education. after all, creation of the necessary conditions means to organize the educational side of learning (kalyanpur, 2008). to implement inclusion, it also requires creation of a certain level of comfort, technical equipment: 1) for the hearing impaired: • fm systems for individual and collective use. they transmit sound (teacher’s voice) from the microphone directly to the hearing aids or sound processors of students’ cochlear implants, which allows the teacher to convey information to the student clearly and without distortion. problems of organization of education of children with special educational ... ruslana soichuk et al. 388 • speakers (an additional element of the fm system, which creates a comfortable environment for all groups of students); • information (induction) systems that provide high-quality audio transmission when the use of fm systems is not optimal; • auditory simulator. it is designed to conduct individual classes on the development of auditory perception and practice of rhythmic and intonational language when working with children and adolescents with hearing loss or speech defects. 2) for the visually impaired: • computer complex for the visually impaired: personal computer with screen access software and video magnifier; • electronic video magnifiers: allow to read literature, view illustrations and graphics; • textbooks and writing utensils; • device for listening to audio tutorials. 3) for people with musculoskeletal disorders: • special furniture; • special keyboards. 4) universal solutions for people with various types of disabilities: • interactive computer board with a projector; • sensory rooms; • developmental complexes and simulators. thus, introduction of inclusive education in the system faces a number of obstacles, the causes of which are various aspects of both the education system and society as a whole. in our opinion, it is expedient to single out such tasks, the solution of which will bring closer to high-quality universal implementation of inclusive education not only in the form of documentation, but also in the form of real implementation of understanding, in people’s minds, of the necessity and importance of such transformations. such tasks should include, first, a complete provision of schools with all the above technical means; second, to intensify implementation of programs for training and retraining of specialists to provide schools with teachers who have the necessary level of inclusive competence; third, to acquaint society with the concept of inclusion in general. nevertheless, despite all the challenges the development of inclusive education is facing, we believe that it should continue to exist, as it provides broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 389 special positive opportunities and skills for both children with disabilities and children with normal development (rozvadovska, 2018; 2019). thus, we can say that the introduction of inclusive education in the education system faces a number of obstacles, the main reason for which is the unpreparedness of the state to introduce people with disabilities into society. the role of the family in the inclusive education of children with sen in the conditions of contemporary primary school families choose inclusive schools so that their children can interact with developing peers and communicate with other parents and teachers. teachers’ high appreciation of the family’s efforts in raising a child with a disability will help to develop mechanisms for effective cooperation between the family and the school. this requires, first of all, an emotional contact, trust, respect and acceptance, support of parents and consideration of their opinions. counseling-preventive and educational work with the family is based on the idea of cooperation, improving their educational skills and creating harmonious parent-child relationships. the purpose of this work is to change the psychological attitude of parents to the role of the family in the educational process; to change the style of relationship with the child; a greater use of family educational skills. in addition, social work includes acquainting students and parents with their rights and responsibilities, legislative texts and information about public and state organizations related to people with disabilities both within their country and abroad (hudorenko, 2018). educators offer families raising children with disabilities specific practical assistance in registering disability and purchasing special tools for teaching children. the teacher acts as a link between children and adults, creates an atmosphere of social and psychological well-being in the school, involves parents and the general public in the organization and conduct of socially significant activities. the main purpose of family work is to create favorable conditions for personal development of all family members (physical, social, spiritual, moral, intellectual), providing comprehensive social and psychological assistance, as well as protecting children and their relatives from the negative impact of different environments, negative factors influencing development of personality. problems of organization of education of children with special educational ... ruslana soichuk et al. 390 the process of organized cooperation with the family includes: investigation and description of requests for assistance; survey of family living conditions; finding out the general problems of the family and their specifics, differences from others; clarification of family goals and expectations; observation of forms of reaction (silence, talk, argument, aggressive behavior, distrust, etc.); study of those who have already helped this family and are now helping; the consequences of leaving the family by its members; study of the family’s past; study of personality traits of family members. stages of the process of working with the family: the first stage. identification of families with children with sen. to identify them, a social worker uses various methods of family research: observation of children; survey, questioning of parents and children. family diagnostics is a permanent building block on which the family help and support system is built. performing diagnostic procedures requires adherence to a number of principles: complexity, objectivity, sufficiency, consistency, etc. diagnosis should not be extended unless there are necessary indications for it. a new study can be conducted only on the basis of analysis of previous diagnostic information. it is necessary to start with the initial diagnosis of parents’ complaints, and then, after checking the validity of these complaints, determine the causes of these disorders (sharma, 2012). the second stage. definition of types of family upbringing. at this stage, a social worker uses methods aimed at studying the relationship between parents and children with sen; identification of leading patterns of behavior of each family member; studying the type of communication in the family. the third stage. differentiation of forms and methods of family work. a teacher develops a plan of work with the family, aimed at adjusting the attitude to the child with sen in the family, taking into account the predominant type of family upbringing. the fourth stage. organization of teamwork. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 391 the family support (informational, mediation, leisure, sociopedagogical) requires to cooperate with various specialists (educators, inspector of the department of guardianship and care, social protection, etc.). the most important functions in working with the family (rozvadovska, 2021): security and protection function. its purpose is to ensure the safety of children’s lives, their safety from external threats, legal protection of the legal rights and interests of the child, provision of the emergency care. preventive function. together with other institutions and organizations, educators work on early detection of families raising children with sen, provide timely assistance in resolving intra-family conflicts, provide recommendations for improving the framework of family upbringing and provide qualified legal and psychological support. restorative function. by taking measures to improve the living conditions of children in the family, educators help to restore the child’s social status, strengthen its ties with the main institutions of socialization and support the efforts of families who are ready to overcome their functional incapacity. correction and development function. on the basis of comprehensive diagnostics, a system of measures of medical and social, psychological and educational work with a child and the family raising a child with sen is established. the health improving function includes support and recommendations for improving the health of the child. compensatory function. it is about finding ways to replace the biological family, when it is impossible to overcome the alienation of the child from it. the interaction of specialists with families take place in three areas: educational, psychological and mediation. educational direction. includes support for parents in the education and upbringing of a child with sen. educational assistance is provided by creating special parenting situations in order to strengthen the educational potential of the family. this direction is based on the application of the pedagogical model of family support. psychological direction. includes socio-psychological support and correction. such support from the teacher’s point of view is designed to create a favorable psychological atmosphere in the family. the most effective support is in alliance with a psychologist. problems of organization of education of children with special educational ... ruslana soichuk et al. 392 mediation direction. this area includes the following components: assistance in organization, coordination and information. assistance in the organization means to organize family leisure (including family members in the organization of holidays, fairs, exhibitions, etc.). coordination assistance is aimed at establishing and maintaining family ties with various departments, social services, centers of social protection and care. information assistance is aimed at informing families about social security issues. methods of family work (chavuta et al., 2011): persuasion method helps parents to convince of the consequences of their antisocial behavior with children with sen. with this method, one can make sure that the parents themselves are looking for a way out of this situation. observational method helps to collect more material for organization of educational work in the family. a social educator monitors the child’s communication, his/her behavior in the family, at school, lessons, with peers and at leisure. the interview method is one of the most common methods of work with parents with children with sen to find out the causes of family problems and find ways to solve them in a confidential atmosphere. moreover, educators aim not only to work productively with individual families, but to find innovative ways to interact with all families. in inclusive schools, teachers develop effective school-family partnerships that bring families and schools together and, ultimately, help all children learn and develop. the following principles of inclusive education can be distinguished: a person’s value does not depend on his / her abilities and achievements; everyone can feel and think; everyone has the right to communicate and to be heard; all people need each other; true education can only take place in the context of real relationships; all people need support and friendship of their peers; all students progress faster in what they can do rather than in what they cannot do; diversity enriches all aspects of human life. problems that arise in “normal” children and their parents (napolitano et al., 2010): broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 393 parents of typically developing children sometimes fear that the presence of children requiring special help in the classroom may delay the development of their own child. however, experience shows the opposite. normally developing children do not fail, and their grades are often even better in inclusive education environment than in regular classes, and there is evidence that schools that are most effective in engaging and educating children with disabilities are best for all children. conversely, the best schools for all children are the best for children with disabilities. in terms of behavior, social development and academic performance, especially when it comes to speech, children do much better in an inclusive school. and the attitude of their peers to atypical children directly depends on the stable position of adults and the climate in the classroom as a whole. observations of american experts show that those who attended kindergarten before school treated children with disabilities more calmly and with understanding than even the educators who worked with them first. conclusions the article studies implementation of inclusive education on the basis of scientific works of: bakharev (2018), who argued that the process of implementing inclusive practices in education is studied through the widespread use of directive, regulatory-methodical and information materials of regional government agencies and departments of education. borisova’s work (2006) is valuable in the perspective of studying the foreign experience of social policy of inclusive education, which is relevant today. the works of booth, ainscow (2002) are useful in explaining the neuropedagogical foundations of inclusive education as an important factor in the socialization of children in contemporary primary school. research by sharma (2012) explains the problems of organizing the education of children with sen in contemporary primary school. this is a valuable material for borrowing foreign experience in order to close the gaps in the organization of inclusive education in a contemporary primary school. the idea of inclusive education will find its place in the educational process only when it takes over the minds of teachers and becomes an integral part of their professional thinking. this requires special efforts. the experience of implementing inclusive education shows that teachers and other professionals do not immediately respond the professional challenges required for this form of education. they go through several stages: from overt or covert resistance, to passive, and then to the active perception of problems of organization of education of children with special educational ... ruslana soichuk et al. 394 what is happening. professionals are afraid: “will i be able to do it?” they are afraid of not finishing and losing their jobs, they are afraid of responsibility, they are afraid to take risks. fear and uncertainty are also related to the fact that professionals are afraid of not having complete control over what is happening, asking for help from students, parents or teachers and thus admitting that they do not have answers to all questions. therefore, children with sen should have the right to choose the place of education, and this right should be enshrined in the legal system and regulated at the level of practice. educating such children in an inclusive school will significantly facilitate their further social integration, increase motivation and comfort in their after-school education, and have a positive effect on fostering tolerance for “otherness” among healthy students. thus, the article concludes that today there is a lack of elaboration of legislation in its part concerning the integration of children with disabilities into public life, which indicates the unpreparedness of state institutions for universal implementation: the practice of inclusion. however, we were able to see that, in fragments, the practice of inclusive education already exists in some schools, implemented by some enthusiasts among people directly interested in it, which indicates the willingness of a certain part of society to accept this practice. the same situation was observed in other countries, many of them passed through it in their development. as a result, it can be stated that the system of correctional education of children with disabilities is on the verge of inevitable changes and the adoption of relevant laws is a matter of time. references babaieva, v. (2016). ihrovyi reabilitatsiinyi maidanchyk zi spetsializovanym obladnanniam dlia ditei z fizychnymy vadamy [rehabilitation playground with specialized equipment for children with physical disabilities]. proceedings of scientific-practical conference: artistic practices at the beginning of the xxi century: innovations, trends, prospects, (pp. 5-7). https://kdidpmid.edu.ua/academy/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/zbirkatez-konferenczii-25.11.2016.pdf baharev, a. v. (2018). razvitie inklyuzivnyih praktik v istorii sovremennogo rossiyskogo obrazovaniya [development of inclusive practices in the history of modern russian education]. [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. moscow city pedagogical university. https://kdidpmid.edu.ua/academy/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/zbirka-tez-konferenczii-25.11.2016.pdf https://kdidpmid.edu.ua/academy/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/zbirka-tez-konferenczii-25.11.2016.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 395 behas, l., maksymchuk, b., babii, i., tsymbal-slatvinska, s., golub, n., golub, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2019). the influence of tempo rhythmic organization of speech during gaming and theatrical activities on correction of stammering in children. journal of physical education and sport, 19(4), 13331340. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 booth, t., & ainscow, m. (2002). index for inclusion: developing learning and participation in schools. centre for studies on inclusive education. borysova, n. v. (2006). sotsyalnaia polytyka v oblasty ynkliuzyvnoho obrazovanyia: kontekst lyberalyzatsyy y rossyiskye realyy [social policy in the field of inclusive education: the context of liberalization and russian realities]. zhurnal yssledovanyi sotsyalnoi polytyky [journal of social policy studies] 4(1), 103-120. http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2011/05/06/1268032499/borisova_soc_po litika.pdf chavuta, а., kimuli, е., & ogot, о. (2011). community-based rehabilitation as part of inclusive education and development. in s. hartley (ed.), cbr as part of community development: a poverty reduction strategy (pp. 64-73). university college london, centre for international child health. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 florian, l. (2014). the sage handbook of special education (sec. ed.). sage. gachago, v. (2018). an exploration of inclusive education for children with special educational needs in kenya twenty years after the salamanca statement. [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. nottingham trent university]. huang, y., & zhang, м. (2020). the change of chinese research on inclusive education and further direction – what can we learn from developed areas. international journal of technology and inclusive education (ijtie), 9(1), 15421547. https://infonomics-society.org/wp-content/uploads/the-changeof-chinese-research-on-inclusive-education-and-further-direction.pdf hudorenko, e. a. (2018). litsa s ogranichennyimi vozmozhnostyami zdorovya. problemyi obrazovaniya i inklyuzii [persons with disabilities. problems of education and inclusion]. ecsocman. https://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2011/02/13/1214888071/hudorenko_08. pdf kalyanpur, m. (2008). equality, quality and quantity: challenges in inclusive education policy and service provision in india. international journal of inclusive education, 12(3), 243-262. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110601103162 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.s4193 http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2011/05/06/1268032499/borisova_soc_politika.pdf http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2011/05/06/1268032499/borisova_soc_politika.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://infonomics-society.org/wp-content/uploads/the-change-of-chinese-research-on-inclusive-education-and-further-direction.pdf https://infonomics-society.org/wp-content/uploads/the-change-of-chinese-research-on-inclusive-education-and-further-direction.pdf https://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2011/02/13/1214888071/hudorenko_08.pdf https://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2011/02/13/1214888071/hudorenko_08.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110601103162 problems of organization of education of children with special educational ... ruslana soichuk et al. 396 komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 kremen, v. h., & ilin, v. v. (2005). filosofiia: myslyteli, idei, kontseptsii: pidruchnyk [filosofiia: myslyteli, idei, kontseptsii: pidruchnyk]. knyha. loreman, t., deppeler, j. m., & harvey, d. h. p. (2005). inclusive education: a practical guide to supporting diversity in the classroom. allen & unwin. napolitano, s., espelage, d., vaillancourt, t., & hymel, s. (2010). what can be done about school bullying? linking research to educational practice. educational researcher, 39(1), 38-47. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/188133126.pdf rozvadovska, t. v. (2018). nastavnytstvo: vitchyznianyi ta zarubizhnyi dosvid. aktualni problemy pedahohichnoi osvity: yevropeiskyi i natsionalnyi vymir [mentoring: domestic and foreign experience. current issues of pedagogical education: european and national dimension]. proceedings of the iii allukrainian scientific-practical conference with international participation, 2, 120-124. http://quaere.fmi.org.ua/docs/conference_theses.pdf rozvadovska, t. v. (2019). zakordonnyi dosvid nastavnytstva ditei u skladnykh zhyttievykh obstavynakh [foreign experience of mentoring children in difficult life circumstances]. innovatsiina pedahohika, 18(2), 192-195. https://doi.org/10.32843/2663-6085-2019-18-2-42 rozvadovska, t. v. (2021). formuvannia vidpovidalnosti studentskoi molodi zasobamy nastavnytstva [formation of responsibility of student youth by means of mentoring] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. national pedagogical dragomanov university. semigina, т. (2020). suchasna sotsialna robota [modern social work]. academy of labor, social relations and tourism. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342003632_sucasna_socialna_r obota sharma, u. (2012). inclusive and special education: a way forward in the solomon islands. pacificdata. https://pacificdata.org/data/dataset/fe38efba-34d6-410b8fad-d07cef313453/resource/f4ba78ad-7c8d-4992-80f226d7fca3b857/download/solomon-islands-inclusive-and-specialeducation-.pdf sheremet, m., leniv, z., loboda, v., & maksymchuk, b. (2019). the development level of smart information criterion for specialists’ readiness for inclusion implementation in education. information technologies and learning tools, 72(4), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/188133126.pdf http://quaere.fmi.org.ua/docs/conference_theses.pdf https://doi.org/10.32843/2663-6085-2019-18-2-42 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342003632_sucasna_socialna_robota https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342003632_sucasna_socialna_robota https://pacificdata.org/data/dataset/fe38efba-34d6-410b-8fad-d07cef313453/resource/f4ba78ad-7c8d-4992-80f2-26d7fca3b857/download/solomon-islands-inclusive-and-special-education-.pdf https://pacificdata.org/data/dataset/fe38efba-34d6-410b-8fad-d07cef313453/resource/f4ba78ad-7c8d-4992-80f2-26d7fca3b857/download/solomon-islands-inclusive-and-special-education-.pdf https://pacificdata.org/data/dataset/fe38efba-34d6-410b-8fad-d07cef313453/resource/f4ba78ad-7c8d-4992-80f2-26d7fca3b857/download/solomon-islands-inclusive-and-special-education-.pdf https://pacificdata.org/data/dataset/fe38efba-34d6-410b-8fad-d07cef313453/resource/f4ba78ad-7c8d-4992-80f2-26d7fca3b857/download/solomon-islands-inclusive-and-special-education-.pdf https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v72i4.2561 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 397 staatsinstitut für schulqualität und bildungsforschung münchen [state institute for school quality and educational research munich]. (2018). theorien des lernens. folgerungen für das lehren [theories of learning. implications for teaching]. abgerufen. unesco. (1995). reviev of the prasent situation of special education. unesco. http://specialcollections.nust.na:8080/greenstone3/library/sites/localsite/ collect/unesco/index/assoc/hash0190/f06f1b2a.dir/review_of_the_pr esent_situation_in_special_needs_education.pdf;jsessionid=18fa501def eb60d56267ef6927f62a21 http://specialcollections.nust.na:8080/greenstone3/library/sites/localsite/collect/unesco/index/assoc/hash0190/f06f1b2a.dir/review_of_the_present_situation_in_special_needs_education.pdf;jsessionid=18fa501defeb60d56267ef6927f62a21 http://specialcollections.nust.na:8080/greenstone3/library/sites/localsite/collect/unesco/index/assoc/hash0190/f06f1b2a.dir/review_of_the_present_situation_in_special_needs_education.pdf;jsessionid=18fa501defeb60d56267ef6927f62a21 http://specialcollections.nust.na:8080/greenstone3/library/sites/localsite/collect/unesco/index/assoc/hash0190/f06f1b2a.dir/review_of_the_present_situation_in_special_needs_education.pdf;jsessionid=18fa501defeb60d56267ef6927f62a21 http://specialcollections.nust.na:8080/greenstone3/library/sites/localsite/collect/unesco/index/assoc/hash0190/f06f1b2a.dir/review_of_the_present_situation_in_special_needs_education.pdf;jsessionid=18fa501defeb60d56267ef6927f62a21 brain_3_1 37 declarative vs. procedural memory: roles in second language acquisition laleh fakhraee faruji department of humanities, shahr-e-qods branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran fakhraeelaleh@yahoo.com abstract memory is not a single faculty but is a combination of multiple distinct abilities (schacter, 1987). the declarative-procedural distinction is used both with regard to knowledge and memory that stores this knowledge. ellis (2008) used the terms explicit/implicit, and declarative/procedural interchangeably. in this article the researcher aims at identifying the different aspects of declarative/procedural memory, interaction between these two types of memory, and the role they may play in second language acquisition. keywords: conscious memory, declarative memory, procedural memory 1. introduction according to reber & squire (1998) what distinguishes declarative (explicit) memory from non-declarative (implicit) memory is the point that declarative memory supports conscious memory of facts and events, and procedural memory supports a range of phenomena including habit learning, simple conditioning, and priming. as squire (2007, as cited in dornyei, 2009, p. 147) argued, declarative memory is representational, and what is learnt can be expressed through conscious recollection. “it involves the storage and retrieval of facts (e.g. semantic knowledge) and events (e.g. episodic knowledge)”. it is the kind of memory used in everyday language. according to ullman (2004) an important feature of declarative memory system is that it enables us to learn very rapidly and flexibly, sometimes even based on a single stimulus presentation (i. e. a single exposure to the information to be learnt). in contrast, procedural memory is expressed through performance rather than conscious recollection. “it involves the storage and retrieval of sensori-motor and cognitive habits, skills, and other types of sequences, which can be as complex as playing an instrument or game”. the unconscious memory system is related our experiences in interacting with the world, and it involves “gradual learning on a continuous basis during multiple representations of stimuli and responses” (ullman, 2004). schumann (2004, as cited in dornyei, 2009, p. 148) clarified an important aspect of procedural memory, and stated that procedural memory is “relatively inflexible and nontransferrable”, that is, it is only available in contexts that are either identical or very similar to the original learning situation (e.g. the ability to play one string instrument cannot be transferred efficiently to playing another). however as dornyei (2009, p. 148) stated this is compensated by the fact that procedural memory can be reserved much more than declarative memory in the elderly or in people with dementia which is an illness that affects the brain and memory, and makes you gradually lose the ability to think and behave normally. 2. interaction between two memory systems in second language acquisition although, the two memory systems are largely autonomous, they may interact in a number of ways (mcbride, 2007). for example, recent studies suggest that declarative knowledge may turn into procedural knowledge (proceduralization of declarative knowledge) and procedural (implicit) knowledge may be converted into declarative knowledge as a result of accumulating experience ullman (2001) also believed that the two systems are related to separate aspects of language. he argued that procedural memory is ‘largely informationally encapsulated’ and develops as a result of implicit, nonconscious processes of learning. it is specialized for sequences (i.e. linguistic chunks) and it has a rule system which includes “the representations of linguistic patterns extracted from input which has repeatedly stimulated the relevant neural circuits”. it is associated with grammatical processing (both syntax and morphology) as this occurs in real time. he characterized the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 declarative memory as ‘an associative memory of distributed representations’ which contains a mental lexicon, which is the sound and meanings of morphologically simple and complex words. he illustrated this model with an example of the processing of morphological forms such as regular and irregular past-tense verb forms. he proposed that procedural memory is responsible for the computation of regular morphological features (for example, v-ed) by ordering the phonological forms of the base and an affix (for example, walk + ed = walked). in contrast declarative memory handles irregular forms. according to ellis (2008, p. 751) evidence for functional distinction of two memory systems come from studies of neurological injuries and neuroimaging studies. dornyei (2009, p. 148) argued that “declarative memory is located in the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus, while procedural memory is usually associated a network of more diffuse brain structures placed in the frontal/basal-ganglia circuits”. as was referred earlier evidence for the differentiation between declarative and procedural memory systems comes from neurological impairment and neuroimaging studies. ellis (2008) while referring to this issue stated that the nature of language loss in people with neurodegeneracy and neurodevelopmental disorders can be explained in terms of two separate systems, each with their own distinct functions. for example the implicit memory system is damaged in parkinson’s disease, and as a result grammatical processing deficiency would occur. the explicit memory system is damaged in alzheimer’s disease and williams’ syndrome, which leads to difficulty in accessing lexical items. what is particularly strong evidence of the distinctiveness of the two systems is that damage to one system does not lead to loss of functions associated with the other system. 3. conscious memory the study of consciousness is often discussed in terms of intention and awareness. memory researchers have also used these concepts to distinguish conscious and automatic memory forms of memory. according to mcbride (2007) conscious memory processes involve either intentional retrieval of a previous episode, awareness of the retrieval of a previous episode, or both. an important goal of research on conscious and automatic memory in the past few decades has been the measurement of these processes in the retrieval of information. the distinction between intention and awareness has been important in the development of these measurement techniques. in some methods, subjects are asked to complete a task by intentionally retrieving a study episode (measuring conscious memory) or are asked to complete a task without intentional retrieval of a study episode (measuring automatic memory). in other methods, awareness that a study episode was previously experienced distinguishes conscious from automatic memory processes. sun et al. (2008) also confirmed this dichotomy and said that conscious memory (cm), involves intentional retrieval and self-awareness of memory, whereas unconscious memory (um), which refers to the cognitive use of previous experiences without involving self-awareness of memory (sun et al., 2008). according to them a widely used method to illuminate cm and um has been to compare differences in performance between explicit and implicit tests (i.e., the task-dissociation method). explicit tests such as recall and recognition are assumed to tap cm. implicit tests such as wordstem completion and word identification, in which participants are not instructed to make reference to studied words, are thought to reflect um. it has been shown that the memories measured by the two types of test differ from each other in their sensitivity to experimental variables such as levelof-processing (lop) and self-generation, which suggests that the two types of test measure different memory systems. the human medial temporal lobe (mtl) system mediates memories that can be consciously recollected (grunwald et al., 2003). however, the specific natures of the individual contributions of its various subregions to conscious memory processes remain vague. grunwald et al. (2003) show a functional dissociation between the hippocampus proper and the parahippocampal region in conscious and unconscious memory as revealed by invasive recordings of limbic event-related brain d. a. popescu, m. c. dănăuţă validation of a web application by using a limited number of web pages 39 potentials recorded during explicit and implicit word recognition: only hippocampal and not parahippocampal neural activity exhibits sensitivity to the implicit versus explicit nature of the recognition memory task. moreover, only within the hippocampus proper do the neural responses to repeated words differ not only from those to new words but also from each other as a function of recognition success. by contrast parahippocampal (rhinal) responses are sensitive to repetition independent of conscious recognition. these findings thus demonstrate that it is the hippocampus proper among the mtl structures that is specifically engaged during conscious memory processes. 4. degree of availability of procedural memory to l2 learners procedural memory is less available to l2 learners: they have fewer items in their implicit linguistic competence than native speakers. (paradis, 2009, p. 22). as predetermined in paradis (2004, as cited in paradis, 2009, p. 22), to the extent that there is a gap in their l2 implicit linguistic competence (the “rule” system), adult learners compensate by relying on their metalinguistic knowledge (concretely, if they cannot process the passive construction procedurally, they will consciously construct a passive sentence by applying the explicit rule they have learned); they therefore depend more than native speakers upon declarative memory. according to him to the extent that a language has been internalized, its implicit grammatical competence is processed by procedural memory (and is available); to the extent that there are gaps in the implicit competence for one (or more) of the languages, the speaker will compensate for them by using explicit knowledge sustained by declarative memory (upon which the speaker is thus more dependent). procedural memory is not monolithic (paradis, 2009, p. 24). there is procedural memory that sustains phonology, and procedural memory that sustains syntax, just as there is procedural memory dedicated to playing tennis and dedicated to playing the piano. each procedural language module concerns a different set of objects, of a different nature, that engage a different type of implicit rule (procedures). in addition, as paradis (2009, p. 24) believed it is also the case that the availability of procedural memory for acquiring language as a whole decreases with age (though with different optimal periods for the development of various components: prosody, phonology, morphology, syntax, in that order). 5. there is no continuum from automatic to controlled processing according to paradis (2009, p. 26) there is no continuum between implicit competence and explicit knowledge, declarative memory and procedural memory, incidental acquisition and attentional learning, or automatic and controlled processing. processing is either automatic or controlled. controlled processing may be speeded-up but it remains qualitatively different from automatic processing. conscious control may be involved in the deliberate decision to initiate an automatic process, but it is not involved in the processing itself (p. 26). paradis (2009, p. 26) argued that what may be considered as a continuum is the gradual replacement of the conscious use of metalinguistic knowledge by the automatic use of implicit linguistic competence. he provided the example that if you gradually replace meat by vegetable protein in your diet, meat does not become vegetable protein, and there is no continuum between meat and vegetables (except, possibly, phylogenetically over millions of years of evolution – but not in the context of the period and situation that concern us). there is no continuum from automatic to controlled processing (i.e., no degrees of automaticity; a function is automatic or it is not); there is only a continuum ranging from predominant reliance on controlled processing to predominant reliance on automatic processing, or between the amount of controlled and automatic processing exerted on a particular function paradis (2009, p. 26). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 7. concluding remarks studies of memory organization in non-human animals and humans have led to a consensus that memory is not a monolithic faculty, but rather is supported by multiple brain systems that differ in terms of the types of memory they mediate (poldrack & packard, 2003). according to cleerman (2003, as cited in dornyei, 2009, p. 146) with the rapid development of cognitive neuroscience, many existing distinctions that were described in binary terms, such as the explicit-implicit or the declarative-procedural distinction, have been redefined in terms of graded characterizations. this is particularly applicable for declarative-procedural memory dichotomy. since current memory frameworks identified more memory types, procedural memory has been replaced by ‘non declarative memory’, and procedural memory refers to only one constituent of declarative memory system. the exact number of different systems in the category of ‘non declarative memory’ has not been identified yet, but the main aspects referred to in literature which was mentioned by dornyei (2009, p. 148), include for: (1) skills and habits (which is procedural memory in the narrow sense), (2) priming and perceptual learning, (3) classical conditioning, and (4) non-associative learning (i.e. behavioral change brought by repeated representation of one stimulus). references [1] dörnyei, z. (2009). the psychology of second language acquisition. oxford: oxford university press. [2] ellis, r. (2008). the study of second language acquisition. oxford: oxford university press. [3] grunwald, t., pezer, n., munte, t. f., kurthen, m., lehnertz, k., van roost, d., fernandez, g., kutas, m., & elgera, c. e. (2003). dissecting out conscious and unconscious memory (sub)processes within the human medial temporal lobe. neuroimage, 20, 139–145. [4] gupta, r., duff, c. m., denburg, n. l., cohen, n. j. bechara, a., tranel, d. (2009). declarative memory is critical for sustained advantageous complex decision-making. neuropsychologia, 47, 1686–1693. [5] mcbride, d. m. (2007). methods for measuring conscious and automatic memory: a brief review. journal of consciousness studies, 14, 1, 198–215. [6] paradis, m. (2009). declarative and procedural determinants of second languages. amsterdam: john benjamins. [7] poldrack, r. a. , & packard, m. g. (2003). competition among multiple memory systems: converging evidence from animal and human brain studies. neuropsychologia, 1497, 1–7. [8] reber, p. j., & squire, l. r. (1998). encapsulation of implicit and explicit memory in sequence learning. journal of cognitive neuroscience, 10, 248–263. [9] schacter, d. l. (1987). implicit memory: history and current status. journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition, 13(3), 501-518. [10] sun, r., cheng, c. m., lin, w., tsai, ch. (2008). conscious and unconscious forms of memory in different implicit tests. cognitive systems research, 9, 312–328. [11] ullman, m. t. (2004). contributions of memory circuits to language: the declarative/procedural model. cognition, 92, 231–270. [12] ullman, m. t. (2001). the declarative/procedural model of lexicon and grammar. journal of psycholinguistic research, 30(1), 37–69. 41 comparative study of financial time series prediction by artificial neural network with gradient descent learning arka ghosh seacom engineering college under west bengal university of technology, india 9007900477a@gmail.com abstract financial forecasting is an example of a signal processing problem which is challenging due to small sizes, high noise, non-stationarity, and non-linearity,but fast forecasting of stock market price is very important for strategic business planning.present study is aimed to develop a comparative predictive model with feedforward multilayer artificial neural network & recurrent time delay neural network for the financial timeseries prediction.this study is developed with the help of historical stockprice dataset made available by googlefinance.to develop this prediction model backpropagation method with gradient descent learning has been implemented. finally the neural net ,learned with said algorithm is found to be skillful predictor for nonstationary noisy financial timeseries. key words: financial forecasting, financial timeseries feedforward multilayer artificial neural network,recurrent timedelay neural network, backpropagation, gradient descent. 1. introduction over past fifteen years, a view has emerged that computing based on models inspired by our understanding of the structure and function of the biological neural networks may hold the key to the success of solving intelligent tasks by machines like noisy time series prediction and more [1]. a neural network is a massively parallel distributed processor that has a natural propensity for storing experiential knowledge and making it available for use. it resembles the brain in two respects: knowledge is acquired by the network through a learning process and interneuron connection strengths known as synaptic weights are used to store the knowledge[2]. moreover, recently the markets have become a more accessible investment tool, not only for strategic investors but for common people as well. consequently they are not only related to macroeconomic parameters, but they influence everyday life in a more direct way. therefore they constitute a mechanism which has important and direct social impacts. the characteristic that all stock markets have in common is the uncertainty, which is related with their short and long-term future state. this feature is undesirable for the investor but it is also unavoidable whenever the stock market is selected as the investment tool. the best that one can do is to try to reduce this uncertainty. stock market prediction (or forecasting) is one of the instruments in this process. we cannot exactly predict what will happen tomorrow, but from previous experiences we can roughly predict tomorrow. in this paper this knowledge based approach is taken. the accuracy of the predictive system which is made by ann can be tuned with help of different network architectures. network is consists of input layer ,hidden layer & output layer of neuron, no of neurons per layer can be configured according to the needed result accuracy & throughput,there is no cut & bound rule for that.the network can be trained by using sample training data set,this neural network model is very much useful for mapping unknown functional dependencies between different input & output tuples.in this paper two types of neural network architecture,feed forward multilayer network & timedelay recurrent network is used for the prediction of the nasdaq stock price.a comparative error study for both network architecture is introduced in this paper. in this paper gradient descent backpropagation learning algorithm is used for supervised training of both network architectures. the back propagation algorithm was developed by paul werbos in 1974 and it is rediscovered independently by rumelhart and parker. in backpropagation learning atfirst the network weight is selected as random small value then the network output is brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 calculated & it is compared with the desired output,difference between them is defined by error .the goal of efficient network training is to minimize this error by monotonically tuning the network weights by using gradient descent method.to compute the gradient of error surface it takes mathematical tools & it is a iterative process. ann is a powerful tool widely used in soft-computing techniques for forecasting stock price.the first stock forecasting approach was taken by white,1988 ,he used ibm daily stock price to predict the future stock value[3].when developing predictive model for forecasting tokyo stock market, kimoto, asakawa, yoda, and takeoka 1990 have reported onthe effectiveness of alternative learning algorithms and prediction methods using ann[4]. chiang, urban, and baldridge 1996 have used ann to forecast the end-of-year net asset value of mutual funds[5]. trafalis (1999) used feed-forward ann to forecast the change in the s&p(500) index. in that model, the input values were the univariate data consisting of weekly changes in 14 indicators[6].forecasting of daily direction of change in the s&p(500) index is made by choi, lee, and rhee 1995[7]. despite the wide spread use of ann in this domain, there are significant problems to be addressed. anns are data-driven model (white, 1989[8]; ripley, 1993[9]; cheng & titterington, 1994[10]), and consequently, the underlying rules in the data are not always apparent (zhang, patuwo, & hu, 1998[11]). also, the buried noise and complex dimensionality of the stock market data makes it difficult to learn or re-estimate the ann parameters (kim & han, 2000[12]). it is also difficult to come with an ann architecture that can be used for all domains. in addition, ann occasionally suffers from the overfitting problem (romahi & shen, 2000[13])[14]. 2. data analysis and problem description this paper develops two comparative ann models step-by-step to predict the stock price over financial time series, using data available at the website http://www.google.com/finance. the problem described in this paper is a predictive problem. in this paper four predictors have been used with one predictand. the four predictors are listed below • stock open price • stock price high • stock price low • stock close price • total trading volume the predictand is next stock opening price. all these four predictors of year x are used for prediction of stock opening price of year ( x+1). whole dataset comprises of 1460 days nasdaq stock data. now first subset contains early 730 days data (open,high,low,close,volume) which is the inputseries to the neural network predictor.second subset has later 730 days data(only open) which is the target series to the neural network predictor.now the network learns the dynamic relationship between those previous five parameters (open, high, low, close, volume)to the one final parameter(open),which it will predict in future. data preprocessing once the historical stock prices are gathered ,now this is the time for data selection for training,testing and simulating the network.in this project we took 4 years historical price of any stock ,means total 1460 working days data.we done r/s analysis over these datafor predictability(hurst exponent analysis).now the hurst exponent (h) is a statistical measure used to classify time series. h=0.5 indicates a random series while h>0.5 indicates a trend reinforcing series. the larger the h value is, the stronger trend. (1) h=0.5 indicates a random series. (2) 0<h<0.5 indicates an anti-persistent series. (3) 0.5<h<1 indicates a persistent series. an antipersistent series has a characteristic of “mean-reverting”, which means an up value is more likely followed by a down value, and vice versa. the strength of “meanreverting” increases as h a. ghosh comparative study of financial time series prediction by artificial neural network with gradient descent learning 43 approaches 0.0. a persistent series is trend reinforcing, which means the direction (up or down compared to the last value) of the next value imore likely the same as current value. the strength of trend increases as h approaches 1.0. most economic and financial time series are persistent with h>0.5. now we took the dataset timeseries having hurst exponent >0.5 for persistency in good predictability. figure 1. data division for networktraining now first subset contains early 730 days data(open,high,low,close,volume) which is the inputseries to the neural network predictor.second subset has later 730 days data(only open) which is the target series to the neural network predictor.now the network learns the dynamic relationship between those previous five parameters (open,high,low,close,volume) to the one final parameter(open),which it will predict in future. all five predictors are given to the network & also corresponding predictand is given by using backpropagation traing (gradient descent approach) the network will learn the abstract mapping between input & output & will minimize prediction error. after getting satisfactory minimization of mean square error over several epoch the training is said to be completed & the prediction system is ready for forecasting purpose. input series older stoc open price older stock high price older stock low price older stock close price older trade volume of older stock open price older stock high price older stock low price older stock close price older trade volume of stock neural network predictor network training newer open price of stock targetseries brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 figure 2.flow chart for data preprocessing & training after these data processing job is done these are fed to the network fortraining and testing,80% of total data is used for training purpose and rest 20% data is used for testing purpose. iii. methodology this paper develops an ann based comparative predictive model for nasdaq stock prediction. the first ann model is developed with multi-layer feed forward network architecture & the second model is developed with recurrent neural network architecture. in this paper gradient descent based back propagation learning algorithm is used for the supervised learning of the predictive network. the mathematical model used in this paper is described below, algorithm initialize each weight wi to some small random value. • until termination condition is met do -> -for each training example do -> • input it & compute network output ok • for each output unit k �� < − �� (1 − �)(�� − ��) • for each hidden unit h �ℎ < − �ℎ (1 − �ℎ ) • for each network weight �� do –> ��, <��,+∆��, where ∆��, = � ��, here the transfer function is sigmoid transfer function, it is used for its continuous nature. is the learning rate & is the gradient. at first the network is constructed. in this paper, sigmoidal function is used as the activation function of the ann, it is chosen because of its continuous nature so the transfer function is eq(1), a. ghosh comparative study of financial time series prediction by artificial neural network with gradient descent learning 45 f(x)= (1) where x is the total summed input received at node k. at first all weights are allocated to some small random value for ith layer. the successive weight is defined by eq(2), = (2) the weight updating rule for gradient descent back propagation is eq (3), ∆��, = � ��, (3) here we use mean square error,because the error surface is a multi-variable function it is wise to take mean of them & it is defined by eq(4), err= (4) 3. implementation and results the whole dataset is divided into training & test dataset, 80% of total data is used for training purpose & 20% of total data is used for test purpose. using gradient descent backpropagation algorithm the data are trained two times up to 1000 epochs. after training ann model is tested over test dataset. both networks are trained in same manner, after completion of training comparison of their mean square error is presented by table 1. table 1. comparison of error network data feedforward nn timedelay recurrent nn using trainig set 4.14% 3.01% using testing set 25% 15% a regression model relates y to a function of x and β. (5) the unknown parameters denoted as β; this may be a scalar or a vector. the independent variables, x. the dependent variable, y. regression model is very much useful for model relation between function of independent variables and unknown parameters with some dependent variable. this paper also compute and contrast the regression plot for both networks over same nasdaq data forecasting problem. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 figure 3. regression plot for nasdaq index (mlp) figure 3 depicts the regression plot for the feedforward mlp network, analyzing it we can say that y=t regression is not so good. figure 4. regression plot for nasdaq index (rnn) figure 4,depicts the regression plot for the timedelay rnn network, analyzing it we can say that y=t regression is totally fit. this paper also comprises of comparative study of performance(mse) plot of both network. a. ghosh comparative study of financial time series prediction by artificial neural network with gradient descent learning 47 figure 5. performance plot for nasdaq index (mlp) figure 6. performance plot for nasdaq index (rnn) figure 5 we can see that the mse curve reaches the in performance goal but it does not decrease in that good manner,but in figure 6 the mse is reduces widely. by analyzing all these results one can say that rnn is better choice than feedforward mlp in prediction purpose. table2 represents the original stock value & predicted ones 4. conclusion this paper presented a hybrid neural-evolutionary methodology to forecast time-series. the methodology is hybrid because an evolutionary computation-based optimization process is used to produce a complete design of a neural network. the produced neural network, as a model, is then used to forecast the time-series. one of the advantages of the proposed scheme is that the design and training of the anns has been fully automated. this implies that the model identification does not require any human intervention. the model identification process involves data manipulation and a highly experienced statistician to do the work. this fact pushes the state of the art in automating the process of producing forecasting models. compared to previous work, this paper approach is purely evolutionary, while others use mixed, mainly combined with back-propagation, which is known to get stuck in local optima. on the direction of model production, the evolutionary process automates the identification of input variables, allowing the user to avoid data pre-treatment and statistical analysis. the system is fully implemented in matlab [15]. the study proves the nimbleness of ann as a predictive tool for financial timeseries prediction. furthermore, conjugate gradient descent is proved to be an efficient backpropagation brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 algorithm that can be adopted to predict the average stock price of nasdaq.it is also revealed that temporal relationship between mapping is better learnt by rnn than ffmlp. table 2.comparison between original stock price(target) & simulated price by ann. simrnn-simulated output using rnn model. simmlp-simulated output using mlp model. acknowledgment author heartily acknowledge dr.pabitra mitra, associate professor department of computer science & engineering, indian institute of technology ,kharagpur,india & mr.mriganka chakraborty, assistant professor, department of computer science & engineering ,seacom engineering college, howrah,india, for their endless help in this research work in theoretically & practically & specially thanks prof.rajob bag,head of the department,department of computer science & engineering ,seacom engineering college,howrah,india, for his moral support. the design and simulation work was carried out at the laboratories of computer sciences engineering at seacom engineering college ,howrah india. author must acknowledge the support of seacom engineering college authority in this paper publication. target simrnn simmlp target simrnn simmlp 2519.1 2627 2183.8 2183.8 2627 2183.8 2514.8 5209.6 2379.7 2326.8 2352.8 2355.1 2500 3219 1921 2309.7 2355.3 2316.0 2473 3269.9 2215.3 2308.1 2353.4 2251.9 2509.4 2524.1 2083.9 2349.1 2416.2 2466.4 2528.5 2534.3 2534.3 2362.7 2420.3 2406.3 2483.2 2497.4 2124.7 2356.8 2356.8 2356.8 2436.7 2439.9 2141.6 2407.5 2456.4 2344.7 2444.9 2268.6 2309.9 2434.2 2412.8 2390.9 2414.4 2446.2 2086.0 2424.3 2521.9 2414.0 2423.0 2423.0 1961.4 2414.4 2462.8 2369.6 2443.1 2467.0 2018.2 2463.1 2463.1 2463.1 2481.2 2515.9 2239.5 2456.9 2363.3 2382.5 2444.9 2043.0 2223.8 2404.9 2501.4 2501.4 2416.5 2462.1 2107.2 2390.3 2438.9 2394.5 2375.8 2400.8 1992.4 2399.7 2435.9 2388.4 2388.4 2416.4 2227.8 2364.3 2888.2 2319.0 2365.8 2430.4 2119.0 2362.8 2412.8 2372.2 2319.6 2353.4 2173.1 2390.1 2444.5 2324.4 2312.4 2347.1 2120.1 2120.1 2441.5 2323.5 2274.2 2308.9 2102.5 2402.1 2468.7 2334.6 2311.5 2293.3 2242.3 2346.8 2421.8 2301.6 2261.7 2309.6 2251.3 2315.1 2315.1 2315.1 2263.6 2322.7 2089.0 2241.6 2312.9 2240.0 2244.9 2225.6 2337.0 2296.1 2369.7 2161.6 2290.6 2336.7 2204.6 2204.6 2204.6 2204.6 2239.9 2270.0 2102.5 2102.5 2102.5 2102.5 2102.5 2102.5 2463.1 2270.0 2463.1 2102.5 2456.9 2456.9 2270.0 2204.8 2102.5 2204.9 2308.9 2307.6 2308.9 2346.8 2102.5 2204 2362.8 2102.5 2390.1 2390.1 2270.0 2204 2362.8 2362.8 2270.0 2362.8 2390.1 2390.1 2362.8 2362.8 2364.3 2102.5 2270.0 2364.3 2501.4 2362.8 2270.0 2204 2204 2315.1 2362.8 2308.9 2089.0 2364.3 2315.1 2501.4 2501.4 2508.3 2362.8 2204 2102.5 2390.1 a. ghosh comparative study of financial time series prediction by artificial neural network with gradient descent learning 49 references [1] artificial neural networks by dr.b.yegnanarayana. [2] neural networks – a comprehensive foundation by simon haykin. [3]white, h. (1988). economic prediction using neural networks: the case of ibm daily stock returns. in proceedings of the second ieee annual conference on neural networks, ii (pp. 451– 458). [4] kimoto, t., asakawa, k., yoda, m., & takeoka, m. (1990). stock market prediction system with modular neural networks. in proceeding of the international joint conference on neural networks (ijcnn) (vol. 1, pp. 1–6.) san diego. [5] chiang, w.-c., urban, t. l., & baldridge, g. w. (1996). a neural network approach to mutual fund net asset value forecasting. omega international journal of management science, 24(2), 205– 215. [6] trafalis, t. b. (1999). artificial neural networks applied to financial forecasting. in c. h. dagi dagli, a. l. buczak, j. ghosh, m. j. embrechts, & o. ersoy (eds.), smart engineering systems:neural networks, fuzzy logic, data mining, and evolutionary programming. proceedings of the artificial neural networks in engineering conference (annie’99) (pp. 1049–1054). new york: asme press. [7] choi, j. h., lee, m. k., & rhee, m. w. (1995). trading s&p 500 stock index futures using a neural network. in proceedings of the 3rd annual international conference on artificial intelligence applications on wall street (pp. 63–72). new york. [8] white, h. (1989). learning in artificial neural networks: a statistical perspective. neural computation, 1, 425–464. [9] ripley, b. d. (1993). statistical aspects of neural networks. in o. e. brandorff-nielsen, j. l. jensen, & w. s. kendall (eds.), networks and chaos-statisticalandprobabilistic aspects (pp. 40– 123). london: chapmanand hall. [10] cheng, b., & titterington, d. m. (1994). neural networks: a review from statistical perspective. statistical science, 9(1), 2–54. [11] zhang, g., patuwo, b. e., & hu, m. h. (1998). forecasting with artificialneural networks: the state of the art. international journal offorecasting, 14, 35–62. [12] kim, k.-j., & han, i. (2000). genetic algorithms approach to featurediscretization in artificial neural networks for the prediction of stock price index. expert systems with applications, 19, 125– 132. [13] romahi, y., & shen, q. (2000). dynamic financial forecasting withautomatically induced fuzzy associations. in proceedings of the 9 th international conference on fuzzy systems (pp. 493– 498). [14] a fusion model of hmm, ann and ga for stock market forecasting md. rafiul hassan *, baikunth nath, michael kirley computer science and software engineering, the university of melbourne, carlton 3010, australia 2006. [15] matlab-by mathworks matlab version 7.12.0.635 (r2011a) . microsoft word brain_1_4_nou_modif.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 5 new combined scoring system for predicting respiratory failure in iraqi patients with guillain-barré syndrome zaki noah hasan department of neurology, al-kindy medicine college, university of baghdad, al-nahdha square, p.o.box : 47188 jadirya, iraq zaki_nooh@yahoo.com abstract background: the guillain-barré syndrome (gbs) is an acute post-infective autoimmune polyradiculoneuropathy, it is the commonest peripheral neuropathy causing respiratory failure. the aim of the study is to use the new combined scoring system in anticipating respiratory failure in order to perform elective measures without waiting for emergency situations to occur. patients and methods: fifty patients with gbs were studied. eight clinical parameters (including progression of patients to maximum weakness, respiratory rate/minute, breath holding count (the number of digits the patient can count in holding his breath), presence of facial muscle weakness (unilateral or bilateral), presence of weakness of the bulbar muscle, weakness of the neck flexor muscle, and limbs weakness) were assessed for each patient and a certain score was given to each parameter, a designed combined score being constructed by taking into consideration all the above mentioned clinical parameters. results and discussion: fifteen patients (30%) that were enrolled in our study developed respiratory failure. there was a highly significant statistical association between the development of respiratory failure and the lower grades of (bulbar muscle weakness score, breath holding count scores, neck muscle weakness score, lower limbs and upper limbs weakness score and respiratory rate score) and above 16 total combined score(p-value=0.000) .. no significant statistical difference was found regarding the progression to maximum weakness (p-value=0.675) and facial muscle weakness (p-value=0.482). conclusion: the patients who obtained a combined score (above 20’30) are at great risk of having respiratory failure. keywords: guillain-barre syndrome, respiratory failure, scoring system 1. introduction the guillain-barré syndrome (gbs) is a group of autoimmune syndromes consisting of segmental demyelination and acute axonal degenerating forms [1]. all gbs variants are a rapidly evolving polyradiculoneuropathy preceded by a triggering event, most often an infection [2]. gbs generally manifests itself as a progressive areflexic weakness with or without autonomic disturbances (1). its prevalence is between 0·6-4/ 100, 000 per year worldwide [3] and the age ranges from 2 months to 95 years [4], most of the patients being 1550 years old [4, 5, 6]. pathophysiologically, peripheral nerves focal demyelination results in slowing or blocking conduction. also, there are rare axonal forms [6,7]. 10-30% of (gbs) patients develop ventilatory failure and may require respiratory support. respiratory failure caused by neuromuscular dysfunctions is particularly dangerous because it develops insidiously [8]. respiratory failure in gbs is caused by first weakness of the facial, oropharyngeal, and laryngeal muscles. second weakness of the muscles of inspiration (the diaphragm, intercostals, and accessory muscles) results in inadequate lung expansion and decompensation frequently occurs during night sleep, when the diaphragm effects nearly all the work of breathing [10]. and third expiratory-muscle weakness prevents adequate cough and secretion clearance, increasing the risk of aspiration and pneumonia [10]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 6 the purpose of this study is application and assessment of new combined clinical scoring scale in identifying patients at risk of developing respiratory failure in the early phases of the disease, before occurrence of the respiratory failure when elective endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation may be performed without waiting for critical situations. 2. patients and methods fifty patients aged between 5-75, with acute gbs, were attended in the neurology ward or icu in baghdad teaching hospital from may to december-2009. those patients were examined by neurologists and considered as gbs cases according to the asbury criteria [11]. there were 25 males (6 were ventilated) and 25 females (9 were ventilated) progression to maximum weakness: it is the time to intubation (ventilated patients), or the time to the worst motor function (non ventilated patients) from the onset of symptoms [9]. the patients were divided into 3 groups: a) progress to peak within 3 days was given 3 points; b) progress to peak within 4-5 days was given 2 points c) progress to peak within more than 5 days was given 1 point. the respiratory rate and digit counting were examined for each patient per minute. patients are divided into grades as in table 1 bulbar weakness, facial weakness, and neck muscle weakness were assessed clinically and graded into groups as in table 1 limbs weakness was assessed according to the medical research council scale [mrc] for muscle power (12) and we gave each grade certain points as follows [12]. 0 no muscle contraction visible was given 5 points; 1 flicker of contraction but no movement was given 4 points; 2 joint movement when effect of gravity eliminated was given 3 points; 3 movement against gravity but not against examiner's resistance was given 2 points; 4 movement against resistance but weaker than normal was given 1 point. 5 normal power was given 0 points. a normal person’s total score was 3 out of 30 and the worst score was 30 out of 30 each patient was examined neurologically and given a certain score according to our scoring system and monitored for signs of respiratory failure. statistical evaluation using measurements of central tendency. numerical values were evaluated by arithmetic mean (x). while sequential ranking parameters where evaluated by mode. the measurements of dispersion employed were values of the standard deviation (sd) and graphical presentation of the frequency distribution curve. significant differences between various readings where obtained using an independent test. statistical parameters and p values were assessed using the standard spss (statistical package for social science) version 17 . [13] table [1]. different clinical parameters grading used in the present study . a: progression to maximal weakness: time <3 days 3-5 days >5 day score 3 2 1 b: respiratory rate: respiratory rate ≥20/min 15-19 10-14 ≤9 score 1 2 3 4 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 7 c: counting: counting 15-20 10-14 ≤9 score 1 2 3 d: facial weakness: weakness no unilateral bilateral score 0 1 2 e: bulbar weakness: weakness no mild moderate(liquid only) severe(only by ngt) score 0 1 2 3 f: neck muscle weakness: power grade 0 1 2 3 4 5 score 5 4 3 2 1 0 g: upper limb weakness: power grade 0 1 2 3 4 5 score 5 4 3 2 1 0 h: lower limb weakness: power grade 0 1 2 3 4 5 score 5 4 3 2 1 0 3. results out of the 50 patients, 50% (25/50) of them were males. the youngest patient in the study was 5 years old and the oldest one was 75 years old. fifteen patients needed mechanical ventilation (30%), 9 of them (60%) were females and 6 (40%) were males. the mean of age of the ventilated patients was 40 years old, while the mean for non ventilated patients was 32 years old. the mean of the combined score for the patients who needed mechanical ventilation is 19.9/30 and the mean score of patients who did not need mv is 15.8/30. the difference between the two groups of patients is highly significant (p-value=0.000). the study shows non-significant statistical difference in the progression to maximum weakness between the two groups of patients (ventilated patients (2.5) and non-ventilated patients (2.4) (p-value=0.675). regarding the facial muscle weakness, this study shows no significant statistical difference between the two groups of patients (p value=0.482) [as seen in table 2]. the mean score of the respiratory rate, breath-holding count, bulbar muscle weakness, flexor muscles of the neck and limb muscles weakness showed highly significant statistical differences between the two groups of patients (vp &nvp) (the p-value can be seen in table 2). in order to obtain the range of scores that represent 95% of the observations that ended in respiratory failure, we used the frequency distribution curve (fig 9) with (2sd) above and below the calculated mean. this gives a value of (16-24) as the limits of interval including the score of patients at risk of developing respiratory failure [see figure 1]. table 2: description and analytical statistics of the two groups of patients (those developing respiratory failure and those who did not develop respiratory failure) patient with no rf patient with rf mean s.d. mode mean s.d. mode p value progression of maximum weakness 2.4 0.690 3 2.5 0.743 3 0.675 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 8 respiratory rate 2.6 0.497 3 2.1 0.884 3 0.009 breath holding count 2.1 0.733 2 1.6 0.507 2 0.005 facial muscle weakness 0.8 0.868 0 1.0 0.926 0 0.482 bulbar muscle weakness 0.5 0.742 0 2.2 0.676 2 0.000 neck muscle weakness 2.0 1.485 1 3.2 1.146 4 0.005 upper limb muscle weakness 2.5 1.291 1 3.5 1.060 3 0.007 lower limb muscle weakness 2.9 1.089 3 3.9 1.060 3 0.005 combined score 15.8 3.361 15 19.9 2.264 18 0.000 figure 1: frequency distribution & bar diagram of the combined score of ventilated patients 4. discussion approximately one third of the hospitalized gbs patients require mechanical ventilation because of respiratory muscle weakness [14-20]. clinical parameters are advocated to be used to obtain the prognostic profile of the patient, these clinical parameters can easily be evaluated at bedside, they do not need sophisticated procedures and their appraisal will be right away in the hands of attending physicians. thus, developing clinical prognostic parameters will greatly help to identify patients at risk of respiratory failure and alert the neurologist to take into consideration the possibility of developing rf which is a life-threatening condition, and to take measures to overcome this condition. in order to overcome the disadvantages that are present within each clinical prognostic parameter that has already been mentioned, this study proposes the use of a combined scoring system. this system consists of evaluation of all the previously mentioned clinical parameters, then assigning a particular score for each of them and the sum total of these scoring elements is presented as the combined score of the particular case. the first main advantage of this combined scoring system is the fact that it takes into consideration several clinical parameters and not only the outcome of the particular clinical evaluation, thus, encompassing, in fact, almost all relevant clinical parameters in the evaluation brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 9 process. the second advantage is the fact that any disadvantage of a particular clinical parameter will be in fact ameliorated when all parameters are considered all together. thirdly, this scoring system will yield a numerical value which can be evaluated statistically through statistical methods, can be compared with other studies or observations and correlated with other findings. above all, the prognostic evaluation parameters of our combined scoring system will tend to be more objective than a single more or less subjective appraisal. evidence-based medicine is a type of clinical evaluation which means that each clinical entity is treated as "evidence" and the summation of evidences will give the final clinical decision. [21] we divided patients into three groups (less than 3 days progression, between 3-5 days, more than 3 days duration) based on a previous study by wahab, and other studies [22-25], who found in his study that 70% of patients who had progressed to maximum disability within 3 days needed mechanical ventilation [22-25]. the present study did not detect any significant difference in developing rf between several groups used to evaluate the rapidity of progression (p=0.675). this result is not in agreement with other studies by lawn et al., [26], sharshar et al. [27] and durand et al. [28] who put forward a cutting value of less than one week as a time of duration from the onset to admission as an important clinical predictor of rf. in other words, this work supports the view that what matters is the clinical feature rather than the rapidity of development. we gave the bifacial muscle weakness 2 points based on evidences from other clinical studies as bilateral facial are more likely to develop respiratory failure [22-26,29]. the present study showed that 11 patients had unilateral facial palsy, 16 bilateral facial palsy, and nevertheless the figures of those patients did not reveal statistical difference when compared with their counterpart according to the possibility of developing respiratory failure. the facial nerve is by all means included in the description of "bulbar", however it seems that its behavior during the disease entity in gbs is different from other cranial nerves. this is not strange for the facial nerve that shows several discrepancies from other bulbar cranial nerves regarding its anatomical relation of its course and behavior during development, an example of that is the neurobiotaxis exhibited by this nerve. [20,28] bulbar muscle weakness ranks on the top of the clinical parameters with high predictive value of developing respiratory failure in patients with gbs. we graded the presence of bulbar palsy after revision of the results of wahab. [22], winer et al., [30], ropper, et al. [31], chevrolet et al. [24] and hughes et al. [25] who found that patients who required mechanical ventilation tended to have bulbar dysfunction. evaluation of the respiratory status of the patient is done by several measures, some of them are simple to elicit and evaluate such as the ability of the patient to cough [27] while others are more sophisticated such as using the spirometer to measure the vital capacity [26, 20]. in our study, a "single-breath-count" test is performed by having the patient count out loud after a maximal inspiration. a similar method was also used by in the study of m. sangeeta. [32] in addition to this method we use the respiratory rate as an independent objective method for evaluation of the respiratory status of the patients. evaluation of respiratory rate and single breath count are easier than using a spirometer since it is a clinical bedside method and other measures of inspiratory and expiratory pressures are recommended by nicholas, et al. [29] that use the famous rule of "20,30,40" (vital capacity <20ml/kg, max i pressure < -30 cm h2o, max e pressure <40cm h2o). [57] evaluation of the neck flexor muscles is one of the frequently carried neurologic examinations in many neurologic disease states. many studies attempted to correlate the power of the neck flexor muscles with the possibility of developing respiratory failure. evidently, this is due to the common site of origin of the innervations of these muscles with the diaphragm at the c4 spinal segment. studies showed that weak flexor muscles correlate with developing of respiratory failure [29] or more practically the inability of the patient to lift his head. [19,33] brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 10 our study did not overlook this important parameter and included it in our scoring system of evaluation. however, a more refined scoring is adapted by using medical research counseling scale (mrcs) of grading to categorize the patients. the result of our work is in agreement with the previously mentioned studies and confirmed the significance of the evaluation of this clinical parameter (p=0.005). this study shows that the type and extent of upper limb motor weakness have a correlation with the possibility of developing respiratory failure (p=0.007). this view contrasts the work of nicholas, et al. who detected no significant difference in upper limb motor weakness between patients who require mechanical ventilation and those who do not. [29] other studies are rather vague or imprecise and used the criteria of "inability to flex the arm" as a prognostic indicator of developing rf. other studies described the inability to lift the elbow as a marker of developing respiratory failure. [29] assessment of the power of the lower limbs muscles has also been used for evaluation and the broad term "inability to stand" has been agreed upon by many studies to be an indicator of poor prognostic factor in those patients and the possibility of developing respiratory failure. (29) in our study, we use the same mrcs grading system to categorize the degree of muscle weakness which is a more accurate and subjective measure. our study showed statistical significant difference between patients who developed respiratory failure and those who did not (p=0.005). we hope that these changes in the components of the scoring system and the system itself will tend be a good prognostic marker for predicting the risk of respiratory failure in patients with gbs. statistical evaluation showed that there is a highly significant difference between the combined scoring system of patients who developed respiratory failure (mean value about 20) and the combined scoring system of patients who escaped respiratory failure (mean approximately 16). by using statistical methods for measuring the variability and determination of the standard deviation through a frequency distribution curve (fig 1), it can be concluded that using 2 standard deviations hiatus will encompass 95% of observations, this will give us a value of combined scoring scale range for patients at risk of respiratory failure between (16-24). in other words, patients with a calculated combined score between (16-24) carry a higher statistical risk for developing respiratory failure. this will be correct at a level of significance of 0.05. in our view, this scoring system is a useful mean to evaluate and predict the risk of developing respiratory failure in patients with gbs. we highly advocate its use in clinical setting to get an insight for the possible deterioration in the direction of developing respiratory failure. as with any novel, method further evaluation is by all means needed to give a more solid base for its usefulness, so it is a step in the direction of obtaining a useful answer to our question: "will this patient develop respiratory failure?" 5. references [1] newswanger, d.l, warren, c.r. (2004), practical therapeutic in guillain-barré syndrome, american academy of family physicians, 69, 2405-2410. [2] seneviratne, u. (2000), guillain-barré syndrome, postgrad med j, 76, 774-782. [3] hughes, r.a., cornblath, d.r. (2005), guillain-barré syndrome, lancet, 366, 1653–1666. [4] shields, r.w., wilbourn, a.j. (2007), demyelinating disorders of the peripheral nervous system, in: textbook of clinical neurology, third edition, elsevier's health sciences, philadelphia, 705-720. [5] pritchard, j., hughes, r. a. (2004), guillain-barré syndrome, lancet, 363, 2186-2188. [6] hughes, r. a. c., hadden, r. d. m., gregson, n.a., smith, k.j. (1999), pathogenesis of guillain-barré syndrome, j neuroimmunol, 100, 74-97. [7] hughes, r. a. c. (2001), sensory form of guillain-barré syndrome, lancet, 357, 1465. [8] ropper, a. h. (1992), the guillain-barré syndrome, n engl j med, 326, 1130. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 11 [9] vilke, g. m., chan, t. c., neuman, t., clausen, j. l. (2000), spirometry in normal subjects in sitting, prone, and supine positions, respir care, 45/4, 407–410. [10] teitelbaum, j.s., borel, c.o. (1994), respiratory dysfunction in guillain-barre´ syndrome, clin chest med, 15, 705-714. [11] asbury, a.k., cornblath, d.r. (1990), assessment of current diagnostic criteria for guillainbarré syndrome, ann neurol, 27, s21. [12] simon, r. p., aminoff, m. j., greenberg, d. a. (2009), clinical neurology, 7th edition, mcgraw hill lange, 157. [13] spss (statistical package for social science), www.spss.com [14] ropper, a. h. (1992), the guillain-barré syndrome, n engl j med , 326, 1130. [15] hughes, r. a., wijdicks, e. f., benson, e., et al. (2005), supportive care for patients with guillain-barré syndrome, arch neurol, 62, 1194–1198. [16] french cooperative group on plasma exchange in guillain-barre´ syndrome. (1987), efficiency of plasma exchange in guillain-barre´ syndrome: role of replacement fluids, ann neurol, 22, 753–761. [17] the guillain-barre´ syndrome study group. (1985), plasmapheresis and acute guillain-barre´ syndrome, neurology, 35, 1096–1104. [18] henderson, r. d., lawn, n. d., fletcher, d. d., mcclelland, r. l., wijdicks, e. f. (2003), the morbidity of guillain-barré syndrome admitted to the intensive care unit, neurology, 60, 17–21. [19] ropper, a. h. (1992), the guillain-barre´ syndrome, n engl j med, 326, 1130–1136. [20] ropper, a. h., kehne, s. m. (1985), guillain-barre´ syndrome: management of respiratory failure, neurology, 35, 1662– 1665. [21] al–salihi, r. (1985), lectures in biostatistics; ministry of higher education and scientific research, baghdad university press, 65. [22] al-ameer, w. r. a. (2008), clinical & paraclinical predictors of mechanical ventilation in guillain barre syndrome, a thesis submitted to iraqi commission for medical specialization in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the fellowships of the iraqi commission for medical specialization –neurology. [23] pontippidan, h., geffin, b., lowenstein, e. (1992), acute respiratory failure in the adult, n engl j med, 287, 743752. [24] chevrolet, j. c., deleamont, p. (1991), repeated vital capacity measurements as predictive parameters for mechanical ventilation need and weaning success in the guillainbarre´ syndrome, am rev respir dis, 144, 814-818. [25] hughes, r. a., bihari, d. (1993), acute neuromuscular respiratory paralysis, j neurol neurosurg psychiatry, 56, 334-343. [26] lawn, n. d., wijdicks, e. f. (2000), post-intubation pulmonary function test in guillainbarre´ syndrome, muscle nerve, 23, 613–616. [27] sharshar, t., chevret, s., bourdain, f., raphael, j. c., french cooperative group on plasma exchange in guillain-barre´ syndrome. (2003), early predictors of mechanical ventilation in guillain-barre´ syndrome, crit care med, 31, 278–283. [28] durand, m. c., porcher, r., orlikowski, d., et al. (2006), clinical and electrophysiological predictors of respiratory failure in guillain–barré syndrome: a prospective study, lancet neurol, 5, 10218. [29] nicholas, d. l., fletcher, d. d., henderson, r. d., wolter, t. d., wijdicks, e. f. m. (2001), anticipating mechanical ventilation in guillain-barre´ syndrome, arch neurol, vol 58. [30] winer, j. b., hughes, r. a. c., osmond, c. (1998), a prospective study of acute idiopathic neuropathy. i. clinical features and their prognostic value, j neurol neurosurg psychiatry, 51, 605612. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 12 [31] ropper, a. h., kehne, s. m. (1985), guillain-barre´ syndrome: management of respiratory failure, neurology, 35, 1662– 1665. [32] sangeeta, m. (2006), neuromuscular disease causing acute respiratory failure, respiratory care, vol 51, no 91016 –1021. [33] altman, d. g., lausen, b., sauerbrei, w., schumacher, m. (1994), dangers of using “optimal” cutpoints in the evaluation of prognostic factors, j natl cancer, 86, 829–835. microsoft word brain first pages _6_ b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-4 december 2015 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro about the brainitiative the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (in the brainovations and brainstorming sections) peerreviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in october 2015. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 1st of september, 2015. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief: • bogdan pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors: • gabriela tăbăcaru, edusoft publishing house, bacau, romania • ioanlucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain • monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2014 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro scientific board members (reviewers) 1. barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of targu mures, romania (artificial intelligence) 2. frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland (artificial intelligence) 3. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 4. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 5. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 6. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 7. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 8. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 9. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 10. louise connell, university of manchester, united kingdom (psychology, cognitive sciences) 11. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 12. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 13. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 14. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 15. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 16. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 17. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 18. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 19. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 20. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 21. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 22. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 23. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureș, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 24. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 25. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 26. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 27. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 28. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 29. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 30. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 31. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 32. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 33. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing, statistics, mathematics) 34. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 35. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 36. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 37. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeș-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bio-inspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 38. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 39. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 40. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 41. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 42. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 43. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 44. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 243-251 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/417 submitted: december 4th, 2022 | accepted for publication: december 23rd, 2022 neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation in the educational process olesia tieliezhkina1, liana naumenko2, oksana zhyglo3, iryna palasevych4, маiya babkina5, mariia voloshyn6 1 o. m. beketova national university of urban economy in kharkiv, kharkiv, ukraine, pliushch.va@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2953-7368 2 state tax university, irpin, ukraine, pavlov460@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/00000001-9335-1229 3 o. m. beketova national university of urban economy in kharkiv, kharkiv, ukraine, ovdjik11@outlook.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3183-9840 4 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university,drohobych, ukraine, piddu906@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/00000003-0596-6835 5 lviv polytechnic national university, lviv, ukraine, hruba112@outlook.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6403-2226 6 lviv polytechnic national university, lviv, ukraine, edu31iu@outlook.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9403-3959 abstract: the main purpose of the study is to analyze the neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation in the educational process. human speech activity is closely connected with all spheres of human consciousness. the history of the existence of mankind has proved that it is speech that is an important factor in the mental development of the individual and the improvement of social relations. under the influence of speech, consciousness, mental operations, volitional and emotional spheres develop, and the intellectual capabilities of a person are enriched. broadcasting as a psychological phenomenon is one of the most difficult in the life of each of us. speech activity has its own physiological mechanisms, which are determined not only at the functional, but also at the morphological level. based on the results of the study, key aspects of the neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation in the educational process were considered. keywords: neuropsychological; neurolinguistic; speech; educational process. how to cite: tieliezhkina, o., naumenko, l., zhyglo, o., palasevych, i., babkina, m., & voloshyn, m. (2023). neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation in the educational process. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 243-251. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/417 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/417 mailto:pliushch.va@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2953-7368 mailto:pavlov460@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9335-1229 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9335-1229 mailto:ovdjik11@outlook.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3183-9840 mailto:piddu906@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0596-6835 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0596-6835 mailto:hruba112@outlook.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6403-2226 mailto:edu31iu@outlook.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9403-3959 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/417 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 244 1. introduction the quality of the modern upbringing and educational process is closely related to the fundamental improvements in technologies and methods of teaching and upbringing, which in turn depends on the use of a complex of technical means by teachers. the widespread use of technical teaching aids is one of the patterns that characterize the modern educational process in the era of general informatization of society that we are experiencing, which poses new problems for the system of education and upbringing of the younger generation (de smedt et al., 2018). the development of children's speech is one of the problems of modern pedagogy. mastering the native language, activating speech is one of the most important acquisitions of the child. the ultimate goal for the development of speech in a preschool institution, one of the topical issues remains the problem of speech activation (feng et al., 2017). broadcasting occurs as a result of coordination of the functioning of the brain and other parts of the nervous system. various analyzers take part in the implementation of the speech function: auditory, kinesthetic, motor and visual. in order to pronounce a sound, the child needs to carry out a complex set of articulatory movements. at the same time, breathing, phonation and articulation should be interconnected in their work, and speech movements should be in accordance with the corresponding auditory sensations (gilman, 2007). numerical studies testify to the exceptional role of movements, the motor-kinesthetic analyzer in the development of speech and thinking. their results proved that the first dominant innate form of activity is motor activity. in addition, if the child's speech development occurs in a timely manner and without complications, then he masters the speech system simultaneously with the development of general motor skills and differentiated hand movements, and violations in the assimilation of speech in children are closely related to the underdevelopment of their motor system as a whole. all this actualizes the study of the topic. 2. methodology to characterize the features of the neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation in the educational process, the following methods were used: induction and deduction, comparison and systematization to characterize the modern understanding of the essence of the neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation in … olesia tieliezhkina, et al. 245 in the educational process, synthesis and analysis trends in the development of neuropsychological neurons of speech activation in educational process; morphological analysis to clarify the significance of neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation in the educational process; abstract-logical for theoretical generalizations and conclusions of the study. using the modeling method, a model is formed. 3. research results and discussions the problem of the word is one of the most controversial linguistic problems, since it is the main unit of the language. the word is the main building material of statements through which communication between people is realized. it is the basic unit for naming the facts of reality, as well as the perceptions, thoughts, feelings of a person caused by these facts. the word as a linguistic unit requires a definition corresponding to its nature, which would delimit it from the nearest linguistic units (morphemes and sentences), the neighboring word. the word is a representative of all components of the language phonetics (consists of the sounds of the language), vocabulary (designates, encodes any phenomenon of reality, carries a semantic load), grammar (in a certain grammatical form). so, the word is the central unit that permeates the entire language system. mental and physical development are interrelated processes, which makes it expedient to use such approaches that ensure the integration of communicative and motor activities. a prerequisite for the integration of motor and speech activities is the commonality of their control mechanisms. in addition, preschool children need a constant change in activities. integrated speech-motor joint activity is based on the game method, since the main activity of a preschool child is a game (federighi, 1999). the game plot combines a variety of motor tasks and exercises of a didactic developmental nature, special exercises, tasks for the development of speech; exercises for coordination of speech with movement; outdoor games, as well as other exercises aimed at solving the problems of the child's physical development. special exercises are often used, which are elements of different types of gymnastics (articulation, finger, breathing). the introduction of such technologies is due to the search for ways to integrate speech and motor activity. such technologies include different types of gymnastics (finger, breathing, articulation, rhythmic, fitball gymnastics, plot-role-playing logorhythmic gymnastics), step aerobics, exercises in a dry pool. finger gymnastics contributes to the development of fine motor skills, which, in turn, is associated with the development of the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 246 left temporal and left frontal areas of the brain. finger games help to form communicative relationships at the level of touch, emotional experience, contact. the development of fine motor skills contributes to the intensive development of speech. the formation of the child's verbal speech begins when the movements of the fingers become more accurate (gardner, 1983; grenčíková et al., 2021). the key factors influencing the perception of the brain, linguistic innovations are presented in figure 1. figure 1. the key factors influencing the perception of the brain, linguistic innovations source: developed by authors for the correct pronunciation of sounds, an accurate coordinated work of the articulatory apparatus (lips, tongue, lower jaw) is necessary. exercises based on the movements of the tongue and jaw stimulate the work of the basal ganglion of the limbic system, including a specialized area the "black" substance that combines the basal ganglion with the frontal area of the brain that controls the child's thinking, speech and behavior. these are the exercises of articulation gymnastics. articulatory gymnastics contributes to the development of speech sounds phonemes to correct the shortcomings of sound broadcasting; includes exercises to develop the mobility of the articulatory apparatus (hanaba, et al., 2019; ivan et al., 2021; johnson et al., 2006). neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation in … olesia tieliezhkina, et al. 247 the procedure of voice formation occurs with the participation of the respiratory organs (throat, bronchi, intercostal muscles, etc.). any types of motor activity affect the development of the respiratory system, but a purposeful influence on its condition is carried out by specialized physical exercises breathing exercises (kryshtanovych et al., 2020). in the process of organizing the motor activity of children, rhythmic gymnastics (a system of movements closely related to musical accompaniment) has received wide introduction. in the process of performing movements to music, the processes of excitation and inhibition in the central nervous system are regulated, the development of memory and attention is stimulated, and the emotional state of the child is normalized (rizzolatti & arbib, 1998). when performing rhythmic gymnastics complexes, children learn to perform exercises at a specific pace, coordinate movement and speech (singing familiar melodies to the beat). gymnastics using fitballs is one of the varieties of fitness gymnastics. currently, balls of different elasticity, size, weight are widely used in physical education, sports and medicine (olivan et al., 2021). the ball has certain properties that can solve problems of a recreational and didactic nature. these properties are the size, color, elasticity and even the smell of the ball. due to the vibration during exercise and the shock-absorbing function of the ball, regenerative processes are activated, blood circulation and microdynamics in the intervertebral discs are improved, which contributes to unloading the spine and correcting its disorders. vibration, along with movement, enhances impulses with proprioreceptors, thereby stimulating the motor area of the cerebral cortex, which indirectly positively affects the formation of a child's communication and speech skills (marinescu, 2017). aerobics is a system of physical exercises, the energy supply of which is carried out in the presence of oxygen. for step aerobics, exercises of a cyclic nature (mainly walking) are selected, performed on a step platform (different options for climbing a platform, jumping over it, etc.). these exercises help to activate the processes of blood circulation and respiration, metabolic processes. exercises in the "dry" pool (filling-balls, paralon, etc.) contribute to the development of coordination of movements and a sense of balance, as well as the development of all sensory systems. classes in the "dry" pool contribute to the deprivation of muscle and emotional tension, which is very important for the development of speech and motor skills of the child (rizzolatti & arbib, 1998; sylkin et al., 2021). the model of speech activation through neurolinguistic foundations in the educational process is shown in figure 2. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 248 figure 2. the model of speech activation through neurolinguistic foundations in the educational process source: developed by authors a special place in solving the problem of integration of the motor and speech activity of the child is occupied by plot-role-playing logorhythmic gymnastics. its components movement, plot, music, game and word, combined into a single complex, create unique conditions for the development of speech. mastering motor skills and abilities contributes to the development of general coordination and fine voluntary motor skills (natalia et al, 2020; oreshkina et al., 2021). musical accompaniment affects the development of expressiveness, rhythm of movements, promotes the development of motor, speech, auditory, visual types of memory. this, in turn, affects the intonation of speech. the text of songs, fairy tales allow you to develop the function of listening and memorizing expressive speech. the whole set of exercises for the development of speech can be divided into two components: the first is aimed at improving pronunciation, which includes the pronunciation of sounds, the pronunciation of recitatives and singing songs; the second is aimed at developing phonemic perception. it includes didactic tasks related to the selection of sounds, listening to the correct speech. tasks for the development of speech, performed in coordination with movement and music, allow you to combine influence on various analyzers that are systemically responsible for the formation of communicative speech and motor skills (smith et al., 2006). neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation in … olesia tieliezhkina, et al. 249 the main work of stimulating speech activity is carried out in speech therapy classes in the form of a game. as practice shows, it is advisable for the teacher to work in the following sequence (shadiev et al., 2017; ivanko et al., 2021): 1. imitation of vowel sounds. 2. adding a consonant sound to a vowel. 3. pronunciation of two-syllable words with an open syllable (coffee, kiwi). 4. pronunciation of three-syllable words with an open syllable (milk, dog). 5. pronunciation of words with a closed syllable. 6. pronunciation of phrases with a word relating to the desires of the child (i want, i will, eat). it should be remembered that not all children are suitable for the same methods and techniques of speech stimulation, each child is unique and it is necessary to find an individual approach to him. 4. conclusions providing in-depth knowledge of future professionals in the tourism industry is inextricably linked with the study of foreign languages. today we are talking not only about reading literature in the specialty, but also about deep knowledge of the history, culture, traditions and customs of other countries, about the ability to freely communicate and conduct discussions in a foreign language. the modern period of development of society, the level of its social and spiritual life requires a qualitatively new level of education that meets international standards. in turn, the training of highly qualified specialists is inextricably linked with the activation of the learning process in the classroom in a foreign language. so, teachers of higher educational institutions are faced with the task of finding new, non-standard and more effective teaching aids. the purpose of education is to develop the student's mental abilities in such a way that he can reveal the full potential of his body, mind, spirit, and use his personal qualities. no system of education can provide a solution to these problems without the need to do this realized by the student himself, without his psychological readiness for additional efforts, without purposefulness. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 250 references de smedt, f., merchie, e., barendse, m., rosseel, y., de naeghel, j., & van keer, h. (2018). cognitive and motivational challenges in writing: studying the relation with writing performance across students’ gender and achievement level. reading research quarterly, 53(2), 249–272. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.193 federighi, p. (1999). glossary of adult learning. hamburg: unesco institute for education. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000128815 feng, w., et al. (2017). audio visual speech recognition with multimodal recurrent neural networks. in international joint conference on neural networks (ijcnn) (pp. 681–688). anchorage, ak, usa. https://doi.org/10.1109/ijcnn.2017.7965918 gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. new york: basic books. gilman, s. (2007). including the child with special needs: learning from reggio emilia. theory into practice, 46(1), 23–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840709336545 grenčíková, a., kordoš, m., & navickas, v. (2021). the impact of industry 4.0 on education contents. business: theory and practice, 22(1), 29-38. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2021.13166 hanaba, s., miroshnichenko, v., shumovetska, s., makohonchuk, n., halimov, a., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2019). strategies for treating the other in the methodological focus of intersubjectivity. postmodern openings, 10(4), 168181. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/101 ivan, c., ciolcă, c., & dreve, a. a. (2021). intervention models for the preintegration of children with asd in mainstream education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(4sup1), 144-155. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/161 ivanko, d., et al. (2021). an experimental analysis of different approaches to audiovisual speech recognition and lip-reading. in proceedings of 15th international conference on electromechanics and robotics (pp. 197–209). springer, singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5580-016 johnson, r. e., chang, c-h. d., & lord, r. g. (2006). moving from cognition to behavior: what the research says. psychological bulletin, 132, 381-415. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.381 kryshtanovych, s., bilostotska, o., ulianova, v., tkachova, n., & tkachov, a. (2020). experience in the application of cognitive techniques in the field of physical education and sports. brain. broad research in artificial https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.193 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000128815 https://doi.org/10.1109/ijcnn.2017.7965918 https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840709336545 https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2021.13166 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/101 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.4sup1/161 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5580-016 https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.381 neuropsychological and neurolinguistic foundations of speech activation in … olesia tieliezhkina, et al. 251 intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 147-159. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/79 marinescu, v. (2017). teaching area studies through two different on-line platforms. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 8(3), 38-46. natalia, s., veronika, d., nataliia, b., & iryna, h. (2020). formation of professional competencies of primary school teachers using ict. revista tempos e espaços em educação, 13(32), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.20952/revtee.v13i32.14965 olivan, c. h., et al. (2021). music boundary detection using convolutional neural networks: a comparative analysis of combined input features. international journal of interactive multimedia and artificial intelligence, 7(2), 78–88. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2008.07527. oreshkina, a. k., lukashenko, d. v., samokhin, i. s., & sergeeva, m. g. (2021). digital educational environment as a factor of developing teacher’s professional reflection. revista tempos e espaços em educação, 14(33), e16166. https://doi.org/10.20952/revtee.v14i33.16166 rizzolatti, g., & arbib, m. a. (1998). language within our grasp. trends in neurosciences, 21(5), 188-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/s01662236(98)01260-0 shadiev, r., wu, t. t., & huang, y. m. (2017). enhancing learning performance, attention, and meditation using a speech-to-text recognition application: evidence from multiple data sources. interactive learning environments, 25(2), 249–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2016.1276079 smith, f., hardman, f., higgins, s. (2006) the impact of interactive whiteboards on teacher-pupil interaction in the national literacy and numeracy strategies, british educational research journal, 32(3), 443-457. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411920600635452 sylkin, o., buhel, y., dombrovska, n., martusenko, i., & karaim, m. (2021). the impact of the crisis on the socio-economic system in a post-pandemic society. postmodern openings, 12(1), 368-379. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.1/266 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/79 https://doi.org/10.20952/revtee.v13i32.14965 https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2008.07527 https://doi.org/10.20952/revtee.v14i33.16166 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-2236(98)01260-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-2236(98)01260-0 https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2016.1276079 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411920600635452 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.1/266 brain_3_2 36 a critical look at the status of affect in second language acquisition research: lessons from vygotsky’s legacy parviz maftoon college of foreign languages and literature science and research branch islamic azad university west kabirzadeh boulevard south janat abad, tehran 94941, iran pmaftoon@srbiau.ac.ir somayyeh sabah college of foreign languages and literature science and research branch islamic azad university west kabirzadeh boulevard south janat abad, tehran 94941, iran somayyehsabah@yahoo.com abstract the phenomenon of affect and its relationship to second language learning is well-known and has been experienced by most language learners. one of the main debates that has recently appeared in the second language acquisition (sla) literature is related to the status of affective factors in this domain. the present paper attempts at mulling over the current controversies over affect with a special attention to vygotsky’s account of the matter. keywords: affective factors, affective filter hypothesis, vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, perezhivanie, collective zpd, dialogic thinking framework, and second language acquisition 1. introduction to put it in plain words, brown (2000) argues that the affective element encompasses a plethora of psychological factors that remind the educators that learners are not abstract entities but human beings with feelings about themselves and the people they come into contact with. overlooking this elementary observation does not mend feelings of insecurity, anxiety, and inhibition in learners and can derail the interactive aspects of even a well-crafted instructional plan. 2. on affect in sla the phenomenon of affect and its relationship to second language learning is well-known and has been experienced by most language learners. one of the main concepts that has appeared early in the second language acquisition (sla) literature is what is known as the affective filter hypothesis. the hypothesis has been intended to account, in large part, for why some people are able to learn second languages while others are not. one way of accounting for non-learning in krashen’s (1985, as cited in, gass & selinker, 2008) view is to claim that learners have not received comprehensible input in sufficient quantities; another way pertains to the claim that an inappropriate affect is to blame. affect, from krashen’s (1985, as cited in, gass & selinker, 2008) perspective, is intended to include factors such as motivation, attitude, self-confidence, anxiety, etc. krashen proposes an affective filter. if the filter is up, input is prevented from passing through; if input is prevented from passing through, there can be no acquisition. if, on the other hand, the filter is down, or low, and if the input is comprehensible, the input will reach the acquisition device and acquisition will take place. according to krashen, the affective filter is responsible for individual differences and variations in second language acquisition and differentiates child or first language acquisition from sla because the affective filter is not something that children have/use. p. maftoon, s. sabah a critical look at the status of affect in second language acquisition research: lessons from vygotsky’s legacy 37 2.1. criticisms of sla in terms of affective factors as said by jordan (2004), one of the main arguments recently posed among second language acquisition (sla) researchers is concerned with what an sla theory should or should not consist of, i.e., its domain. the choice of different domains is claimed to reveal fundamental incompatibilities. in this line of argument, jordan presents the discussion that another increasingly important disagreement about domain involves the role of sociolinguistics. in this way, jordan strives to take account of the debate put forward by firth and wagner (1997, as cited in, jordan, 2004) that has criticized sla research for disregarding the social context and suggested that sla research should relinquish its preoccupations with what goes on in the learner’s mind and pay more attention to the impact of the social and affective factors. as jordan (2004) simply puts it, lurking behind this criticism is the related question of the research methodology. in this regard, vygotsky’s (1978, 1986) sociocultural theory (sct), which is conceived to be still influential in the sla approaches, is deemed to contribute to this recent focus, as, according to saville-troike (2005), it views interaction as the essential genesis of language. despite the foregoing arguments posed in favor of affective factors, garrett and young (2009) accept as true that affect and emotion are terms that have been in the shadows of discussions of the classroom foreign language learning, where the primary focus has been on the development of cognition and knowledge and use of the new language. they believe that one reason for this is the ignorance of emotion by psychologists during most of the 20th century. putting it this way, at the end of that century, damasio (1999, p. 39, as cited in, garrett & young, 2009, p. 209) writes that: emotion was not trusted in the laboratory. emotion was too subjective, it was said. emotion was too elusive and vague. emotion was at the opposite end from reason, easily the finest human ability and reason was presumed to be entirely independent from emotion. cordova and perio (2010) argue that in assessing student achievement over the years, the instructional milieu can be primarily criticized on the ground that it has been merely occupied with the cognitive processes. in the second place, the affective domain has been frequently interpreted only in terms of a single factor, namely a student’s motivation to learn. measures of affective processes other than motivation, say, self-regulation and self-efficacy, which are only a few to mention, among others, have been rather neglected. besides, the affective processes are rarely considered as interacting with the cognitive processes. 2.2. affective versus cognitive binary oppositions as ellis and larsen-freeman (2006) put it, when considering the interface, human beings have alluded to descartes’ dualism, namely the separation of res cogitans; that is, god and the human soul and res extensa, i.e., the corporeal world. dualism has pervaded the scientific thinking since descartes. humans have divided their world into contraries and perceived and interpreted these binary oppositions as mutually exclusive. applied linguistics has been also driven by such either/or dichotomies. however, these contraries are also emergent attractor states. human thinking, like nature, appears to partition things, events, and ideas into binary pairs, whereas these pairs are emergent, and they are more mutually dependent than mutually exclusive. accordingly, the cognitive and affective factors have not been devoid of such binary oppositions. the affective processes have been seldom considered as interacting with the cognitive processes. as smith and ragan (1999) have pointed out, any cognitive or psychomotor objective carries on its back a certain affective component to it. in line with the foregoing argument, dufficy (2005) debates that until recently, research within the field of sla has tended to concern itself with an individual’s acquisition of discrete aspects of the language and employed the notions of input and output as central organizing metaphors. constrained by these metaphors, language has been seen to contain meanings which, when transmitted by speech or writing, could be emptied into the mind-as-container of the recipient. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 for guiora, brannon, and dull (1972), the issue becomes further complicated with respect to the question of the language ego, as learners engage in the process of developing new identities in the target language. furthermore, as gilner (2008) puts it, a learner’s self-image may be strongly dependent on a mode of expression that relies on specific descriptors and semantic notions that cannot be transferred until a certain level of competency is achieved. 2.3. spinoza’s non-dualistic philosophical account of affect and cognition the philosophical roots regarding the rapport and the dialectic relationships between affect and cognition in language learning can be traced back to the work of spinoza (1883, as cited in, cole & yang, 2008), according to which affects are bonds that are said to unite the rational conduct with life. spinoza’s system of affects has constructed a coherent argument in his oeuvre, ethics, and a non-dualistic system for understanding the connection between the world and the human endeavor. spinoza’s ideas have been taken up and developed by numerous philosophers and thinkers, who, according to cole and yang (2008), are unified in their application of affects as essential yet multifarious elements in the construction of language and thought due to the point that they provide a link between communication, cognition, and emotion. 2.3.1. beyond cognitive/affective dualism: vygotsky’s uncompleted work following spinoza, the rejection of the cognitive versus affective dualism has been also announced by vygotsky (1978, 1986) and, unfortunately, has not been followed by a model within which a unitary conception of thinking and feeling could be discussed and implemented in the milieu of the empirical research. in this respect, dufficy (2005) discusses that vygotsky’s idea of the mediation and the primacy of the inter-psychological processes leads to a less commonly discussed aspect of vygotskian-inspired sociocultural theory, and that is the role that emotion plays in learning and development. vygotsky is said to have been profoundly aware of the critical role of affect in learning and at the time of his death has been working on a manuscript titled the teaching about emotions: historical-psychological studies. vygotsky’s uncompleted work on emotions, which has only become available in english in 1999, has had important implications for education. 2.3.1.1. vygotsky’s perspective towards affect and cognition vygotsky (1978) makes a distinction between psychological tools and technical tools. from vygotsky’s perspective, technical tools are employed to generate transformations in other objects, whereas psychological tools can be drawn on to direct both the mind and behavior. affective tools are seen of social rather than organic or individual origin. vygotsky argues that since the auxiliary stimulus possesses the precise function of the reverse action, it transports the psychological operation to the higher mental and qualitatively novel forms and authorizes the human beings to regulate and control their behavior from the outside by means of the extrinsic stimuli. vygotsky’s dialogic notion that learning is, first and foremost, a situated, inter-psychological phenomenon suggests that one needs to go beyond a predominantly cognitive theory of learning, in general, and sla, in particular. exploring the dialectical relationship between thought, affect, language, and consciousness, vygotsky (1987, p. 282) postulates that: [thought] is not born of other thoughts. thought has its origins in the motivating sphere of consciousness, a sphere that includes our inclinations and needs, our interests and impulses, and our affect and emotions. the affective and volitional tendency stands behind thought. only here do we find the answer to the final “why” in the analysis of thinking. p. maftoon, s. sabah a critical look at the status of affect in second language acquisition research: lessons from vygotsky’s legacy 39 2.3.1.2. vygotsky’s concept of perezhivanie vygotsky’s (1978) primary emphasis on the self-construction through and with the available tools foregrounds two critical issues. in the first place, it portrays the individual as an active agent in the social development. secondly, it affirms the significance of contextual influences in that development takes place through the utilization of those tools, which are accessible at a particular time and in a particular place. technically, the social mediation helps share new formations in personality development since, according to vygotsky (1998, p. 170, as cited in, mahn, 2003, p. 130), the innermost transmission of external social relations between people provides the basis for the architecture of personality. vygotsky (1994, p. 342, as cited in, mahn, 2003, p. 130) makes use of the term perezhivanie that implies: the individual unity of personal characteristics and situational characteristics. …. perezhivanie is a unity where, on the one hand, is an indivisible state, the environment is represented, i.e., that which is being experienced … and on the other hand, what is represented is how i, myself, am experiencing this, i.e., all the personal characteristics and all the environmental characteristics are represented in perezhivanie. according to mahn and john-steiner (2002), vygotsky’s perezhivanie, for which no equivalent english still term exists, is occasionally equated with the lived or emotional experience. perezhivanie describes the affective processes through which interactions in the zone of proximal development (zpd) are individually perceived, appropriated, and represented by the participants. vygotsky describes the fundamental role played by language in an individual becoming aware of, and making meaning from, the lived experience. the emotional aspect of language and the importance of the human connection in social interactions are both integral to vygotsky’s concept of perezhivanie. to explain it, vygotsky relies on the dense textures of language as motivated by feelings, enriched by previous experience, and focused on by volition. he also emphasizes the emotional aspects of social interaction and their impact on learning for the reason that the study of learning remains incomplete unless the human need to connect emotionally is integrated with the need to think and know. to put it in plain words, vygotsky’s analysis of meaning, in which he approaches the hidden, complex, affective dimensions of thinking and speech by studying the emotional subtext of utterances-what he refers to as sense-is also central to his analysis of perezhivanie. according to vygotsky (1987, p. 276, as cited in, mahn & john-steiner, 2002), a word’s sense is the cumulative total of all psychological facts that come to pass in subjects’ consciousnesses in consequence of the word. sense is a dynamic, fluid, and complex formation that has several zones that fluctuate in their stability. mahn and john-steiner (2002) believe that vygotsky’s concept of perezhivanie can play an important role in understanding the appropriation of the social interaction. they have also come to realize that this appropriation in the zpd plays a crucial role in transformative experiences of all types and is not limited to children and other novice learners. careful listening, intense dialogue, and emotional support sustain the cooperative construction of understanding, of scientific discovery, and of artistic forms. this is true in interaction across generations, namely in parenting, teaching, mentoring, and among the creative partners. 2.3.1.3. post-vygotskian legacy: perezhivanie and collective zpd regarding the vygotskian-inspired perezhivanie and the rejection of the dichotomy between affect and cognition, daniels’s (2001) suggestion is that the term pedagogy should be construed as referring to certain forms of social practice, which shape and form individuals’ cognitive, affective, and moral development. if pedagogic practices are conjured merely in terms of those which impinge upon the formation of identity as well as learning outcomes as defined in, say, just test brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 scores, then a form of social theory is necessitated to authorize the instructional model and explore the factors, which may be exercising a certain amount of influence. if the zone of proximal development (zpd) is redefined from a broader affective as well as cognitive perspective, as put forward by rio & alvarez (1995, as cited in, daniels, 2001), then, according to daniels (2001), a further robust and coherent concept comes into sight. this conception of zpd would be robust thanks to the point that it is determined to embrace both cognitive and affective domains, and it would be more coherent given that it should handle these domains as highly interconnected and/or entrenched matters. in this line of argument, certain post-vygotskian authors have referred to these interwoven processes as the collective zone of proximal development (moll & whitmore, 1993). mahn and john-steiner (2002) present the debate that such expanded analyses of the zpd posit the degree of complementarity as a determining factor in the success of the interaction between the participants, whether the interaction involves adult with child, teacher with student, peer with peer, or whether it occurs among a number of individuals within the zpd. 2.3.1.4. the dialogic thinking framework according to fernyhough (2008), the dialogic thinking (dt) framework draws on vygotskian and neo-vygotskian ideas in exploring the implications of the internalization of mediated interpersonal activity for the individual cognition. in so doing, it highlights an assumption implicit in vygotsky’s writings but never properly examined by him, namely that the resulting forms of cognition preserve the dialogic nature of the interpersonal and affective exchanges from which they originate. the internalization of dialogue necessarily entails the internalization of the alternative perspectives on reality manifested in that dialogue, and the consequent restructuring of cognition to enable the simultaneous accommodation of multiple perspectives upon a topic of thought. drawing on bakhtin’s (1981) dialogic imagination, fernyhough (2008) acknowledges that the key to understanding how dialogue can incorporate different, semiotically manifested perspectives on reality lies in bakhtinian-inspired perspectives. specifically, an assimilation of the bakhtinian concepts of voice and dialogue can provide a powerful extension of vygotsky’s theory. the dt framework is founded on one significant implication of this bakhtinian idea, namely that, in internalizing dialogic exchanges, the individual does more than merely appropriating the utterances of the other. if bakhtin is correct to claim that an individual’s utterances in dialogue are reflective of his or her orientation to reality, then the internalization of dialogic exchanges, or, in vygotsky’s (1997, as cited in, fernyhough, 2008) terms, their reconstruction on the intrapsychological plane, will necessarily involve a certain degree of the adoption of the other’s perspective. the problem of understanding other minds thus shifts from the question of how an isolated epistemic subject could ever come to know about the non-observable mental and cognitive states of another epistemic subject, towards a reconsideration of how such mental states might be manifested in the concrete social, affective, and semiotic exchanges, which are subsequently internalized to ground the individual’s mediated thinking. certainly, dialogue of this kind involves both the internalization of the meanings created in the inter-mental forum of discussion and the externalization of those intra-mental meanings that are constructed in response; it also constitutes a particularly clear instance of vygotsky’s (1981, as cited in, wells, 2000) insight that the individual develops and is developed into what he/she is through what he/she produces for others, which entails a dialogical relationship between input and output. 3. conclusion to augment the affective factors in sla, it seems promising to take account of kumaravadivelu’s (2006) position on the basis of which interaction as an interpersonal activity offers participants in the l2 class opportunities to establish and maintain social relationships and p. maftoon, s. sabah a critical look at the status of affect in second language acquisition research: lessons from vygotsky’s legacy 41 individual identities through pair and/or group activities. it enhances the personal rapport and lowers the affective filter. the affective-humanistic activities involve the learner’s wants, needs, feelings, and emotions. these activities are carried out mainly through dialogues, role-plays, and interviews, among others. at the initial stages of the language production, these activities begin with short dialogues that contain a number of routines and patterns although more open-ended roleplays and interviews are utilized at the later stages. in due course, the present study has strived to present a brief tour regarding the status of affect identified in the literature of applied linguistics. in so doing, the domain of sla has been criticized on the ground that it has been dominated by the binary opposing pairs. accordingly, it has been shown that the presented classifications of language learning in the realm of sla have not been bereft of such dichotomies, namely the cognitive versus affective factors. drawing on vygotsky’s uncompleted work on affect and cognition, it has been attempted at establishing a dialectic relationship between affective and cognitive factors. references [1] bakhtin, m. m. (1981). the dialogic imagination: four essays. austin, tx: university of texas press. [2] brown, h. d. (2000). principles of language learning and teaching. white plains, ny: addison wesley longman. [3] cole, d. r., & yang, g. y. (2008). affective literacy for tesol teachers in china. prospect, 23(1), 37-45. [4] cordova, m. t., & perio, a. d. (2010). assessment of student learning: assessment “for” learning or assessment “of” learning. the assessment handbook, 3, 50-64. [5] daniels, h. (2001). vygotsky and pedagogy. new york: routledge. [6] dufficy, p. (2005). becoming in classroom talk. prospect, 20(1), 59-81. [7] ellis, n. c., & larsen-freeman, d. (2006). language emergence: implications for applied linguistics—introduction to the special issue. applied linguistics, 27(4), 558-589. [8] fernyhough, c. (2008).getting vygotskian about theory of mind: mediation, dialogue, and the development of social understanding. developmental review, 28, 225-262. [9] gass, s. m., & selinker, l. (2008). second language acquisition: an introductory course (3rd ed.). new york: routledge. [10] garrett, p., & young, r. f. (2009). theorizing affect in foreign language learning: an analysis of one learner’s responses to a communicative portuguese course. the modern language journal, 93(2), 209-226. [11] gilner, l. (2008). assisting fluency development through task-based activities. journal of school of foreign languages, 34,155-177. [12] guiora, a., brannon, r. c., & dull, c. (1972). empathy and second language learning. language learning, 24, 287-297. [13] jordan, g. (2004). theory construction in second language acquisition. amsterdam: john benjamins. [14] kumaravadivelu, b. (2006). understanding language teaching: from method to postmethod. mahwah, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 [15] mahn, h. (2003). periods in child development: vygotsky’s perspective. in a. kozulin, b. gindis, v. s. ageyev, & s. m. miller (eds.), vygotsky’s educational theory in cultural context (pp. 119-137). new york: cambridge university press. [16] mahn, h., & john-steiner, v. (2002). the gift of confidence: a vygotskian point of view. in g. wells & g. claxton (eds.), learning for life in the 21st century (pp. 46-58). oxford: blackwell. [17] saville-troike, m. (2005). introducing second language acquisition. new york: cambridge university press. [18] vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. cambridge: harvard university press. [19] vygotsky, l. s. (1986). thought and language. cambridge: the mit press. [20] vygotsky, l. s. (1987). the collected works of l. s. vygotsky: vol. 1: problems of general psychology. new york: plenum. [21] wells, g. (2000). dialogic inquiry in education: building on the legacy of vygotsky. in c. d. lee & p. smagorinsky (eds.), vygotskian perspectives on literacy research (pp. 51-85). new york: cambridge university press. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 59-75 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/444 submitted: june 6th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 28th, 2023 harnessing neural networks for enhancing image binarization through threshold combination giorgiana violeta vlăsceanu 1, nicolae tarbă 2 1 teaching assistant, phd student, eng., university politehnica of bucharest, 060042 bucharest, romania, giorgiana.vlasceanu@cs.pub.ro 2 phd student, eng., university politehnica of bucharest, 060042 bucharest, romania, nicolae.tarba@upb.ro abstract: threshold-based methods are prevalent across numerous domains, with specific relevance to image binarization, which traditionally employs global and local threshold algorithms. this paper presents a novel approach to image binarization, where the capacity of neural networks is utilized not just for determining optimal thresholds, but also for combining multiple global thresholds sourced from existing binarization techniques. the primary objective of our method is to develop a robust binarization strategy capable of managing a wide array of image conditions. by integrating the strengths of various thresholding techniques, our approach aims to establish a significant connection between traditional thresholding methods and those underpinned by deep learning. keywords: threshold, image binarization, neural network, global thresholding, multi-thresholding combination. how to cite: vlăsceanu, g. v., tarbă, n. (2023). harnessing neural networks for enhancing image binarization through threshold combination. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 59-75. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/444 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/444 file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/giorgiana.vlasceanu@cs.pub.ro file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/nicolae.tarba@upb.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/444 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 60 1. introduction image binarization, the conversion of a grayscale or color image into a binary image, has been a cornerstone in the field of computer vision for decades. it finds widespread applications in optical character recognition (ocr), document analysis, image segmentation, and beyond. traditionally, this process involves the application of a threshold value to distinguish between the foreground and background of the image. various thresholding algorithms, ranging from simple global thresholding to adaptive local techniques, have been proposed in the literature. examples include otsu's method (1979) in the global approach and for local sauvola's method (sauvola & pietikäinen, 2000), which have demonstrated effective performance in different application scenarios. however, selecting an appropriate threshold that is versatile across diverse image types and quality remains a challenging task. in recent years, the advent of deep learning has unlocked a wealth of opportunities in the realm of image binarization. convolutional neural networks (cnns) and other deep learning architectures have shown remarkable proficiency in learning complex representations, providing us with the tools to tackle the intricacies of image binarization. this paper presents a novel approach to image binarization, where we leverage the capabilities of neural networks not just for learning an optimal threshold, but for combining multiple thresholds derived from existing binarization methods. the goal of this approach is to provide a more flexible and resilient binarization strategy that can handle a wider range of image conditions. incorporating the strength of multiple thresholding techniques, our proposed method aims to bridge the gap between traditional and deep learning-based binarization methods. by training the network to make judicious use of different thresholds, we aspire to bring a new level of flexibility and adaptability to the process of image binarization. in the ensuing sections, we shall delve into the details of our approach, beginning with a brief review of existing binarization techniques and neural network models relevant to our work. we shall then describe the architecture of our neural network model and the method of combining thresholds. finally, we will evaluate the performance of our proposed approach through rigorous experimental validations, demonstrating its efficacy and potential. harnessing neural networks for enhancing image binarization through… giorgiana violeta vlăsceanu et nicolae tarbă 61 2. related work the process of image binarization has been extensively studied, with a plethora of methods proposed to perform this task efficiently. traditional methods primarily focus on selecting an appropriate threshold for binarization, while contemporary approaches employ more advanced deeplearning models to perform this task. within the realm of classical methods for image binarization, a significant area of interest is the domain of global thresholding algorithms. the underlying principle of these methods is the computation of a single, universal threshold that is applied uniformly across the entire image. this approach operates on the assumption that the image has a distinct division between the foreground and the background, which can be differentiated based on their intensity levels. global thresholding algorithms have their roots in the early developments of image processing and continue to hold relevance due to their simplicity and computational efficiency. they are particularly effective when the image exhibits a bimodal histogram, i.e., distinct peaks corresponding to the foreground and background. among these global thresholding methods, several have gained remarkable recognition for their effectiveness and wide applicability. this includes the following methods: otsu (1979), kittler & illingworth (1985), lloyd (1985), sung et al. (2014), ridler & calvard (1978), huang & wang (1995), ramesh et al. (1995), two variances of li & lee (1993), brink & pendock (1996), kapur et al. (1985), sahoo et al. (1997), shanbha (1994), yen et al. (1995), tsai (1985). while these methods offer significant advantages, they are not devoid of limitations, particularly when dealing with images that have uneven illumination or lack a distinct separation between the foreground and the background. however, their contribution to the field of image binarization cannot be understated. in section 3.1 we delve deeper into the exploration of these global thresholding algorithms in order to showcase the input values for the proposed solution. modern strategies for image binarization encompass a broad understanding of the inherent complexities of the task. these contemporary methods leverage advanced technologies, ranging from deep learning to traditional machine learning algorithms. this rich toolset provides versatile solutions that cater to the unique demands of image binarization. we investigate a variety of systems specifically designed for image binarization in our study. it's important to note that the application of these broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 62 methods extends beyond document images. they are also widely utilized in specialized domains such as medical imaging and biological studies. for example, in (kodieswari, 2022) the authors proposed a solution that seeks to address current challenges in lung cancer detection. it begins by feeding human lung ct scans into a preprocessing stage, which is then followed by binarization to yield a binary image for cancer detection. the image is subsequently segmented, and each segment undergoes thorough analysis through feature extraction. they used a convolutional neural network (cnn) to classify the identified tumor cells into malignant or benign categories with remarkable results an accuracy rate of 95. in xu et al. (2019) the solution proposed utilizes a deep learning model called u-net for detecting biomarkers in medical images. it is known that u-net has a tendency to undersegment the input without proper intensity thresholding. to mitigate this, the paper suggests combining u-net with optimal otsu thresholding. this approach demonstrated promising results. another interesting work comes from the field of drone imagery (zhu et al., 2021). the paper introduces a deep learning method for the automated inspection of infrastructure defects using drones (zhu et al., 2021). it employs hierarchical convolutional neural networks with feature preservation and iterative intercontrast thresholding for image binarization. the process involves integrating outputs from previous and current convolutional blocks to reduce information loss during down-sampling. a contrast-based autotuned thresholding method is then used to extract and cluster features. this technique proves effective for detecting surface cracks on roads, bridges, and pavements. moving to document image binarization, alternative strategies employ classification-based approaches. hamza et al. (2005) and kefali et al. (2014) implemented a multi-layer perceptron classifier (mlp), with the former using pixel labels from clustering and the latter classifying pixels based on the surrounding intensity values and overall image statistics. afzal et al.'s strategy involved a 2d long short term memory (lstm) network (afzal et al., 2015), which notably reduced optical character recognition (ocr) errors in comparison to sauvola's method (sauvola & pietikäinen, 2000). approaches utilizing convolutional neural networks (cnns) have also been investigated. pastor-pellicer et al., for instance, used a cnn to classify pixels considering their surrounding intensity values (pastor-pellicer et al., 2015). meanwhile, wu et al. (2016) employed an extremely randomized trees classifier that was trained utilizing an array of statistical harnessing neural networks for enhancing image binarization through… giorgiana violeta vlăsceanu et nicolae tarbă 63 and heuristic properties retrieved from the pixel. for the broader challenge of semantic segmentation in natural images, long et al. proposed a fully convolutional networks (fcns) (li et al., 2020). zheng and chen have tried to improve prediction localization and consistency by combining fcns with conditional random fields (crfs) (chen et al., 2018; zheng et al., 2015). a breakthrough in the domain was brought by tensmeyer et al with their approach to “binarization as a pixel classification” manner and a fully convolutional network (fcn) architecture applied (tensmeyer & martinez, 2017). the fcn is taught to optimize an ongoing iteration of the pseudo fmeasure metric, with a group of fcns outperforming the winners of four of seven dibco competitions. kang et al proposed a scenario where the aforementioned u-net model is integrated into a cascading construction called cascading modular u-nets (cmu-nets) (kang et al., 2021). cmu-nets comprise pre-trained modular components, offering a solution to the challenge posed by a limited quantity of training images. u-net model was used also in (he & schomaker, 2019) to understand the deteriorations present in document images. calvo-zaragoza and gallego, introduce a solution that involves training a selectional auto-encoder (sae) (2019). the sae can learn from start-to-finish conversion for image binarization using this method. westphal et al use rnn to employ grid lstm to manage multidimensional input (2018). another example of cnns uses (cnns) with multichannel images as input, employing wavelet analysis (akbari et al., 2020). 3. approach of the proposed system this work introduces an innovative strategy for image binarization, where the power of neural networks is harnessed in a unique way. instead of merely employing neural networks for discerning an optimal threshold value, we utilize them to amalgamate multiple threshold values which are derived from a range of existing image binarization techniques. this not only introduces a level of adaptability in our approach but also builds upon the collective strengths of established methods, hence offering a more comprehensive solution to the image binarization problem. this underscores the versatility of neural networks in handling complex tasks and presents an inventive angle to the image binarization process. 3.1. the employed algorithms building upon our prior discussion, the neural network operates on a set of 15 distinct threshold values. these values are meticulously derived from a diverse collection of established algorithms that feature prominently broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 64 in academic literature. in the following section, we will delve into a comprehensive introduction to these individual thresholding algorithms, shedding light on their function and significance in this context. the otsu method (1979), a renowned global thresholding technique, is used to transform grayscale images into binary images by separating the foreground from the background based on intraclass variance minimization. the method calculates a threshold minimizing the weighted within-class variance in an image's grayscale histogram. the technique presumes the image contains two-pixel classes, foreground, and background, with a bimodal histogram, and it computes the optimal threshold separating these classes to minimize their combined spread or maximize their inter-class variance. the otsu method's main advantage lies in its simplicity and efficiency, especially for images with a clear bimodal gray-level histogram. however, its performance may wane in complex situations where the twopixel classes assumption doesn't apply, or when the histogram isn't bimodal. despite these limitations, otsu's method remains a critical tool in image processing, specifically in image binarization. the kittler & illingworth thresholding method (1985), also known as minimum error thresholding, is a common approach in image binarization. it establishes the threshold by framing the task as a statistical classification problem, minimizing the classification error between foreground and background pixel classes. the method employs an iterative process that uses a cost function based on class membership probabilities and misclassification cost. the cost function measures the number of misclassified pixels from each class, adjusted by the cost of misclassification. the algorithm cycles through potential threshold values and selects the one that minimizes the cost function. distinct from otsu's method which seeks to maximize between-class variance, kittler's approach minimizes a cost function reflecting direct classification error. while it offers a robust thresholding strategy, especially useful for unimodal histograms or significantly noisy images, its efficacy can depend on the assumptions about pixel classes' statistical distributions and misclassification costs. lloyd's method (1985) minimizes the mean squared quantization error to find the optimal threshold. essentially, it works to lessen the variance between the original grayscale image and the final binary outcome. it operates iteratively, continuously adjusting the threshold value to minimize the mean squared error between the original image's gray levels and the assigned binary class values. each iteration assigns each pixel to the nearest threshold and recalculates the threshold as the mean gray level of assigned pixels. the process iterates until the thresholds stabilize. despite its harnessing neural networks for enhancing image binarization through… giorgiana violeta vlăsceanu et nicolae tarbă 65 computational intensity due to the iterative nature of the method, lloyd's approach can provide high-quality results, especially for images with intricate gray-level distributions. sung et al. (2014) introduces a threshold selection criterion based on the within-class standard deviation. the optimal threshold is identified by minimizing this standard deviation. the experimental findings support the superiority of this method over existing algorithms in terms of performance. put differently, this method reduces the bias of the optimal threshold. ridler's & calvard thresholding (1978), also known as the iterative self-organizing data analysis technique algorithm (isodata), is a robust method for image binarization. the technique is based on an iterative process that successively refines an initially guessed threshold. the method starts with a preliminary threshold, often the midpoint of the grayscale range, and then calculates two means: one for all the pixels above the threshold, and one for those below. the next threshold is then determined by taking an average of these two means. this iterative process is performed until the threshold value stabilizes. the strength of ridler's method lies in its simplicity and efficiency, making it suitable for a variety of applications in image processing and computer vision. huang's & wang thresholding (1995) applies a fuzzy partitioning of the histogram, utilizing the concept of fuzzy entropy. it measures the "fuzziness" of an image to determine the threshold value. this method is found to be particularly effective in images with blurred boundaries, as the fuzziness concept allows for some level of uncertainty and ambiguity, which is often the case with these images is an entropy-based method for calculating the threshold by maximizing the entropy within the image's foreground and background. ramesh et al. thresholding (1995) is another entropy-based technique, but it extends upon huang's method by incorporating a correction factor into the entropy calculation to account for variations in the histogram. this correction factor improves the method's robustness, particularly in the presence of noise or when the histogram has irregular peaks. li's & lee thresholding method (1993), also known as the crossentropy thresholding, minimizes the cross-entropy between the original and thresholded images to optimize the threshold. this method offers a robust alternative to entropy-based thresholding methods, capable of handling a broader range of image conditions and histogram distributions. in the presented solution, we have two variations of this method li1 and li2. li1 uses an iterative approach to refine the threshold value and keeps track broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 66 of foreground and background data for each potential threshold, which is computationally intensive but potentially more accurate. it also applies an offset for more accurate averages and log values in both the threshold refinement and confidence calculation. in contrast, li2 calculates the threshold in a single pass by minimizing an optimality measure for each potential threshold. it calculates foreground and background data on-the-fly without storing it, and applies the offset only in the optimality measure calculation. this approach is potentially less accurate but more efficient. both methods calculate a final confidence value, albeit differently. the choice between the two would depend on specific application requirements. brink's & pendock thresholding algorithm (1996) focuses on histogram shape, rather than pixel intensity values. it applies a gradient descent strategy on the histogram curve, starting from the peak and moving towards the lower-valued tail until a "valley" is found. this valley position represents the threshold. brink's method is particularly effective for bimodal histograms where the two modes have significantly different peaks. kapur's et al. thresholding (1985), also known as maximum entropy thresholding, differs from huang's and ramesh's methods by increasing the sum of both the foreground and background entropies. this method assumes that a well-separated image will yield maximum information, thereby achieving optimal binarization. kapur's approach has been widely adopted in applications dealing with multimodal or complex histograms. sahoo's et al. thresholding technique (1997) is an entropy-based method that seeks to maximize the entropy of the histogram. unlike other entropy-based methods, sahoo's technique calculates the entropy of the gray level probabilities before and after the threshold, then adds these two entropy values together. the optimal threshold is the one that maximizes this sum. this method is particularly useful in scenarios where the image histogram is not clearly bimodal, providing a robust solution for images with complex intensity distributions. shanhbag's thresholding (1994) is a unique approach based on the principle of moments preservation. the algorithm estimates the threshold by ensuring that the moments before and after thresholding remain the same. this method has been shown to be effective in various contexts, including images with complicated intensity distributions and noisy conditions. yen's et al. thresholding method (1995), a derivative of the maximum entropy thresholding, in which the threshold is calculated by maximizing the normal difference between the two sub-histograms produced by the thresholding process. by maximizing this normal difference, yen's method ensures that the threshold effectively separates the harnessing neural networks for enhancing image binarization through… giorgiana violeta vlăsceanu et nicolae tarbă 67 foreground and background of the image. it is recognized for its strong performance in handling a range of image conditions. tsai's thresholding method (1985) is a versatile technique that operates based on the moment-preserving principle. tsai's approach calculates the threshold by ensuring the preservation of moments in the thresholded image. this method has shown notable effectiveness in scenarios where the intensity distribution is complex or where noise is present, providing a practical tool for a variety of image binarization tasks. 3.2. datasets involved in the process we calculated the thresholds by employing a diverse selection of reputable datasets known for their use in image binarization research. the datasets incorporated in this process include: 1. dibco (document image binarization competition): dibco (n.d.) is a popular dataset used in binarization competitions, containing a wide variety of document images with different types of noise and degradation. we used images from competitions between 2009 and 2019. 2. h-dibco (hellenic dibco) (n.d.): this dataset is a variant of dibco, also used in image binarization competitions. it consists of handwritten documents with different types of noise. 3. noisyoffice (n.d.): benchmark dataset that is used for evaluating document image binarization methods. the dataset is comprised of document images with different types of artificial noise added to them, such as salt-and-pepper noise, gaussian noise, and speckle noise, among others. 4. the phibd (printed historical indian books dataset) (n.d.) is an extensive collection of images from historical indian printed books. it offers a comprehensive platform for evaluating image binarization methods, given its diverse content including different languages, scripts, and degrees of degradation and noise. 5. bickley diary (su et al., 2013): this dataset contains images of the bickley diary, a handwritten historical document. it is often used to evaluate the performance of binarization techniques on historical documents. 6. palm leaf (kingma & ba, 2014) includes images of ancient palm leaf manuscripts. this dataset, characterized by complex backgrounds, fragmented character strokes, and varied leaf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 68 textures and colors, provides a challenging platform to evaluate binarization methods against variable and difficult conditions. 7. nabucco is a dataset that includes 6500 letters and postcards. the images contain different alterations. our study utilized a collected dataset comprising 1,195 images. these images were pre-processed and adjusted with gamma correction (the value for gamma is increased with 0.1 step in interval 0.5 – 2) and obtained 19,120 images. the dataset obtained is employed for both the training and testing phases. for each image, a set of 15 thresholding values was computed utilizing the suite of algorithms previously delineated. furthermore, a proprietary optimal threshold value was computed using a solution designed by our research team, serving as the ground truth for our system. to ensure rigorous testing and evaluation, we reserved 30% of the entire dataset as a test set. this partitioning strategy facilitates the validation of our model's learning efficacy and its capacity to generalize beyond the training data. it also allows us to quantitatively assess the performance of our system on unseen data, thereby providing a comprehensive view of the system's reliability and robustness. 3.3. the deployed neural network the architecture under review constitutes a feed-forward artificial neural network, implemented via a sequential model using keras 1 and tensorflow 2 . this model enables the linear stacking of layers, where each layer has a single input tensor and a single output tensor. the initial layer in this model is a fully connected or dense layer with 512 neurons. it employs the rectified linear unit (relu) activation function, widely acknowledged for its capacity to counter the vanishing gradient problem prevalent in deep neural networks. the layer's input dimension is determined by the 15 features in the dataset. the model further incorporates two subsequent dense layers, each containing 512 neurons and using the relu activation function. these layers autonomously infer their input dimensions from their predecessor, obviating the need for explicit specifications. the final layer of the network architecture is a dense layer equipped with a single unit and a sigmoid activation function. the choice of the sigmoid function is particularly suitable for our case since our features are normalized, and we aim for the network's output to be a continuous value within the range of 0 to 1. 1 https://keras.io 2 https://www.tensorflow.org harnessing neural networks for enhancing image binarization through… giorgiana violeta vlăsceanu et nicolae tarbă 69 the training regimen for the neural network is established with a specification of 50 epochs with a validation split of 0.2 and a batch size accommodating 500 sets of 15 features each – equivalent to 500 images. these parameters, while fixed for the current study, offer scope for hyperparameter tuning to potentially further enhance the model’s performance. the training is conducted using the mean squared error (mse) as the loss function, which quantifies the deviation between the predicted and actual values. lower mse values signify better model performance, as they indicate that the model's predictions closely align with the actual values. therefore, our primary objective during training is to minimize this error metric, thereby ensuring accurate and reliable predictions from our model. the neural network model's compilation process employs the adam optimizer, a widely accepted optimization algorithm (kingma & ba, 2014). for each image in the dataset, we construct a lookup table that details the f-measure for various thresholding intervals based on the image histogram. this method provides a straightforward mechanism for evaluating the f-measure associated with any predicted threshold value. this approach allows us to validate and assess the efficacy of the predicted thresholds directly and efficiently. 4. evaluation we applied the trained model to our test dataset, and a selection of 200 predicted values is illustrated in figure 1. this visualization clearly reveals the alignment between our model's predicted values and the target values, demonstrating the model's ability to accurately estimate thresholds. the adherence of the predicted outcomes to the target values underscores the efficacy of our proposed neural network architecture in image binarization tasks. figure 1. thresholding values for 200 images in the dataset source: author's own conception the effectiveness of our neural network is quantified by calculating the mean squared error (mse), a popular metric used to measure the average broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 70 of the squares of the errors. in this case, the mse value yielded by our model is 0.03. this relatively low score indicates the model's effectiveness, demonstrating its capability to predict thresholds with a high degree of accuracy. the network loss is presented in figure 2. figure 2. loss history of the model source: author's own conception the performance of the proposed regression neural network has been evaluated using several key metrics, with encouraging results observed across all measures, as presented in table 1. the mean squared error (mse), a fundamental measure of regression model performance, came out to be as low as 0.003. this suggests that our model predictions deviate very little from the actual values, highlighting its accuracy. complementing the mse, the root mean square error (rmse) was calculated to be 0.054. the rmse is particularly useful as it gives the deviations in the units of the target variable, thereby providing a more interpretable measure of error magnitude. the low rmse value indicates a strong predictive performance of the network, with a low spread of the residuals. furthermore, the model achieved an impressive r2 score of 0.94, indicating that our model explains 94% of the variance in the dependent variable that is predictable from the independent variables. this is a testament to the model's excellent goodness of fit. lastly, the mean absolute error (mae) was found to be 0.036. mae provides a direct interpretation of how far off the predictions are from the actual values on average. our model's low mae suggests that, on average, the predicted threshold deviates only slightly from the actual value, reinforcing the strong performance of our proposed approach. harnessing neural networks for enhancing image binarization through… giorgiana violeta vlăsceanu et nicolae tarbă 71 altogether, these metrics provide substantial evidence of the proposed neural network's robust performance in predicting the image binarization thresholds. mse rmse r2 mae proposed model 0.003 0.054 0.948 0.036 table 1. evaluation scores for the neural network source: author's own conception for the thresholding evaluation, we applied our model across the entire dataset to generate predicted threshold values. leveraging the lookup table, we averaged the f-measure of these predicted thresholds, achieving a result of 77.34. considering we utilized exclusively global thresholding methods, this result is quite satisfactory. method ideal otsu kittler lloyd sung ridler huang f-measure 81.75 67.11 64.56 63.65 61.68 64.88 53.06 ramesh li1 li2 brink kapur sahoo shabang yen tsai 53.67 66.51 68.59 62.33 60.13 59.91 50.22 58.46 60.24 table 2. scores for individual methods in the used dataset source: author's own conception as a point of comparison, the maximal value for optimal global thresholding is approximately 81.75% in the dataset we used, as presented in table 2. the results predicted by the proposed solution surpass the individual method. thus, our model's performance stands up favorably within this context. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 72 5. conclusions this study has successfully demonstrated the potential of neural networks in enhancing the robustness and adaptability of image binarization, a fundamental process in computer vision. by innovatively integrating multiple global thresholding techniques into the learning process, we've managed to navigate the complexity and variability of image conditions, underlining the pivotal role of deep learning methodologies. our model, trained on a range of diverse datasets and evaluated with robust metrics, has achieved satisfactory results. going forward, we aim to continue refining our approach and exploring more sophisticated architectures and algorithms to further elevate the process of image binarization. acknowledgment the results presented in this article has been funded by the ministry of investments and european projects through the human capital sectoral operational program 2014-2020, contract no. 62461/03.06.2022, smis code 153735. references afzal, m. z., pastor-pellicer, j., shafait, f., breuel, t. m., dengel, a., & liwicki, m. (2015, august 22). document image binarization using lstm: a sequence learning approach. proceedings of the 3rd international workshop on historical document imaging and processing. tunisia. https://doi.org/10.1145/2809544.280956 akbari, y., al-maadeed, s., & adam, k. (2020). binarization of degraded document images using convolutional neural networks and waveletbased multichannel images. ieee access, 8, 153517–153534. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3017783 brink, a. d., & pendock, n. e. (1996). minimum cross entropy intthreshold selection. pattern recognition, 29, 179-188. https://doi.org/10.1109/snpd.2007.85 calvo-zaragoza, j., & gallego, a-j. (2019). a selectional auto-encoder approach for document image binarization. pattern recognition, 86, 37–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patcog.2018.08.011 chen, l.-c., papandreou, g., kokkinos, i., murphy, k., & yuille, a. l. (2018). deeplab: semantic image segmentation with deep convolutional nets, atrous convolution, and fully connected crfs. ieee transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence, 40(4), 834–848. https://doi.org/10.1109/tpami.2017.2699184 https://doi.org/10.1145/2809544.280956 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3017783 https://doi.org/10.1109/snpd.2007.85 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patcog.2018.08.011 https://doi.org/10.1109/tpami.2017.2699184 harnessing neural networks for enhancing image binarization through… giorgiana violeta vlăsceanu et nicolae tarbă 73 dibco dataset. (n.d.). about. dibco dataset. https://dib.cin.ufpe.br/#!/resources/dibco hamza, h., smigiel, e., & belaid, e. (2005). neural based binarization techniques. in icdar 2005 (pp. 317–321). ieee. he, s., & schomaker, l. (2019). deepotsu: document enhancement and binarization using iterative deep learning. arxiv:1901.06081. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1901.06081 huang, l-k., & wang, m-j. j. (1995). image thresholding by minimizing the measures of fuzziness. pattern recognition, 28(1), 41–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-3203(94)e0043-k kang, s., iwana, b. k., & uchida, s. (2021). complex image processing with less data—document image binarization by integrating multiple pre-trained unet modules. pattern recognition, 109, 107577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patcog.2020.107577 kapur, j. n., sahoo, p. k., & wong, a. k. c. (1985). a new method for gray-level picture thresholding using the entropy of the histogram. computer vision, graphics, and image processing, 29(3), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1016/0734-189x(85)90125-2 kefali, a., sari, t., & bahi h. (2014). foreground-background separation by feedforward neural networks in old manuscripts. informatica, 38(4), 329-338. https://www.informatica.si/index.php/informatica/article/view/715/585 kingma, d. p., & ba, j. (2014). adam: a method for stochastic optimization. arxiv:1412.6980. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1412.6980 kittler, j., & illingworth, j. (1985). on threshold selection using clustering criteria. ieee transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, smc-15(5), 652– 655. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1985.6313443 kodieswari, n, g., deepa, & kavitha. (2022, december 10). analysis and classification of the lung cancer with cnn implementation. 2022 smart technologies, communication and robotics (stcr, india. https://doi.org/10.1109/stcr55312.2022.10009558 li, c. h., & lee, c. k. (1993). minimum cross entropy thresholding. pattern recognition, 26(4), 617–625. https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-3203(93)90115d li, f., long, z., he, p., feng, p., guo, x., ren, x., & tang, b. (2020). fully convolutional pyramidal networks for semantic segmentation. ieee access: practical innovations, open solutions, 8, 229132–229140. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3045280 lloyd, d. e. (1985). automatic target classification using moment invariant of image shapes. idn aw126, rae, farnborough, reino unido. https://dib.cin.ufpe.br/#!/resources/dibco https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1901.06081 https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-3203(94)e0043-k https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patcog.2020.107577 https://doi.org/10.1016/0734-189x(85)90125-2 https://www.informatica.si/index.php/informatica/article/view/715/585 https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1412.6980 https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1985.6313443 https://doi.org/10.1109/stcr55312.2022.10009558 https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-3203(93)90115-d https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-3203(93)90115-d https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3045280 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 74 noisyoffice dataset. (n.d.). about. noisyoffice dataset. https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/noisyoffice otsu, n. (1979). a threshold selection method from gray-level histograms. ieee transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, 9(1), 62–66. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1979.4310076 pastor-pellicer, j., españa-boquera, s., zamora-martínez, f., afzal, m. z., & castro-bleda, m. j. (2015). insights on the use of convolutional neural networks for document image binarization. in lecture notes in computer science. advances in computational intelligence (pp. 115–126). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19222-2_10 phibd 2012 dataset. (n.d.). about. phibd 2012 dataset. http://www.iaprtc11.org/mediawiki/index.php/binarization_of_phibd_2012_dataset ramesh, n., yoo, j. h., & sethi. i. k. (1995). thresholding based on histogram approximation. ieee proceeding vision image signal process, 142(5), 271-279. https://doi.org/10.1049/ip-vis:19952007 ridler, t. w., & calvard, s. (1978). picture thresholding using an iterative selection method. (1978). ieee transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, 8(8), 630–632. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1978.4310039 sahoo, p., wilkins, c., & yeager, j. (1997). threshold selection using renyi’s entropy. pattern recognition, 30(1), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/s00313203(96)00065-9 sauvola, j., & pietikäinen, m. (2000). adaptive document image binarization. pattern recognition, 33(2), 225–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-3203(99)000552 shanhbag, a. g. (1994). utilization of information measure as a means of image thresholding. graphical models and image processing, 56, 414–419. https://doi.org/10.1006/cgip.1994.1037 su, b., lu, s., & tan, c. l. (2013). robust document image binarization technique for degraded document images. ieee transactions on image processing, 22(4), 1408–1417. https://doi.org/10.1109/tip.2012.2231089 sung, j.-m., kim, d.-c., choi, b.-y., & ha, y.-h. (2014, march 7). image thresholding using standard deviation. in k. s. niel & p. r. bingham (eds.), image processing: machine vision applications vii. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2040990 tensmeyer, c., & martinez, t. (2017, november). document image binarization with fully convolutional neural networks. 2017 14th iapr international conference on document analysis and recognition (icdar). icdar. tsai, w-h. (1985). moment-preserving thresolding: a new approach. computer vision, graphics, and image processing, 29, 377–393. https://doi.org/10.1016/0734-189x(85)90133-1 https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/noisyoffice https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1979.4310076 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19222-2_10 http://www.iapr-tc11.org/mediawiki/index.php/binarization_of_phibd_2012_dataset http://www.iapr-tc11.org/mediawiki/index.php/binarization_of_phibd_2012_dataset https://doi.org/10.1049/ip-vis:19952007 https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1978.4310039 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-3203(96)00065-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-3203(96)00065-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-3203(99)00055-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-3203(99)00055-2 https://doi.org/10.1006/cgip.1994.1037 https://doi.org/10.1109/tip.2012.2231089 https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2040990 https://doi.org/10.1016/0734-189x(85)90133-1 harnessing neural networks for enhancing image binarization through… giorgiana violeta vlăsceanu et nicolae tarbă 75 westphal, f., lavesson, n., & grahn, h. (2018). document image binarization using recurrent neural networks. 13th iapr international workshop on document analysis systems (das). https://doi.org/10.1109/das.2018.71 wu, y., natarajan, p., rawls, s., & abdalmageed, w. (2016, september). learning document image binarization from data. 2016 ieee international conference on image processing (icip). usa. https://doi.org/10.1109/icip.2016.7533063 xu, y., gao, f., wu, t., bennett, k. m., charlton, j. r., & sarkar, s. (2019, august). u-net with optimal thresholding for small blob detection in medical images. 2019 ieee 15th international conference on automation science and engineering (case). canada. https://doi.org/10.1109/coase.2019.8843234 yen, j. c., chang, f. j., & chang, s. (1995). a new criterion for automatic multilevel thresholding. ieee transactions on image processing: a publication of the ieee signal processing society, 4(3), 370–378. https://doi.org/10.1109/83.366472 zheng, s., jayasumana, s., romera-paredes, b., vineet, v., su, z., du, d., & torr, p. h. s. (2015). conditional random fields as recurrent neural networks. arxiv:1502.03240. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1502.03240 zhu, q., dinh, t. h., phung, m. d., & ha, q. p. (2021). hierarchical convolutional neural network with feature preservation and autotuned thresholding for crack detection. ieee access: practical innovations, open solutions, 9, 60201– 60214. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2021.3073921 https://doi.org/10.1109/das.2018.71 https://doi.org/10.1109/icip.2016.7533063 https://doi.org/10.1109/coase.2019.8843234 https://doi.org/10.1109/83.366472 https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1502.03240 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2021.3073921 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 17-28 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/373 submitted: august 25th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 14th, 2022 differentiation of recurrent glioblastoma multiforme and radiation necrosis using magnetic resonance imaging and computerized approaches: a review rohit v. paradkar 1 1 department of neurosurgery, beth israel deaconess medical center, boston, ma, usa, rparadk1@bidmc.harvard.edu abstract: glioblastoma multiforme (gbm) is a highly aggressive brain tumor originating from glial cells that is a subset of higher-grade gliomas (hgg). given the extreme malignancy of gbm and hgg, radiotherapy is often used to shrink tumor and inhibit tumor cell function. despite the use of radiotherapy, gbm recurrence rates remain high, and complications, such as radiation necrosis, can arise. recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis are nearly indistinguishable using current imaging techniques, which is a considerable challenge in management of gbm treatment. radiation necrosis is treated conservatively using corticosteroids while recurrent gbm requires aggressive treatments given its markedly short prognosis. currently, invasive biopsy is the only available method for accurate differentiation of recurrent gbm from radiation necrosis. clearly, noninvasive differentiation techniques are imperative to effective clinical decision-making surrounding gbm treatment. many studies have attempted to use conventional mri, advanced mri parameters, modalities, and techniques, and machine learning methods to solve this crucial problem. in this review, we attempt to overview the difficulty of differential diagnosis and analyze the current state of knowledge on image-based differentiation approaches utilizing mri. we identify major gaps in the research and make suggestions to improve current tactics and direct future investigations. keywords: glioma; glioblastoma; radiotherapy; necrosis; mri; machine learning. how to cite: paradkar, r.v. (2022). differentiation of recurrent glioblastoma multiforme and radiation necrosis using magnetic resonance imaging and computerized approaches: a review. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 17-28. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/373 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/373 mailto:rparadk1@bidmc.harvard.edu https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/373 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 18 background & introduction high-grade glioma (hgg) are grade iii and iv brain tumors of glial cells, as classified by world health organization (who) standards. who also classifies a subset of hgg known as glioblastoma multiforme (gbm), which refers to highly malignant grade iv brain tumors. generally, gbm is considered one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer, with median survival of just 15 months. the leading treatment management options for gbm are total resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. while the use of radiotherapy can increase prognosis, complications such as radiation necrosis may arise. radiation necrosis causes healthy tissues to die as a result of high doses of irradiation. a key issue in the field of neuro-oncology is that recurrence of gbm and radiation necrosis appear nearly identical using conventional imaging. invasive obtainment of tissue specimens is the only reliable method of differentiating between recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis. for the purpose of noninvasive differentiation, two main approaches have emerged: advanced imaging techniques and automated predictive modeling. while there have been reviews strictly discussing the use of advanced imaging techniques, few have performed an overarching analysis of computerized methods. in this comprehensive review, we will first go over the problem with more contextualization and depth. next, we review studies experimenting with different imaging techniques for the purpose of differentiation. finally, we evaluate predictive models and make suggestions for the direction of future research. within this assessment, we only focus on approaches incorporating magnetic resonance imaging (mri) given its prevalence in this field of study. difficulties in differentiation of recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis park et al. explain that, while the gold standard treatment option for gbm is tumor resection, certain factors such as age and karnofsky performance status (kps) can drive radiotherapies like external beam radiation therapy (xrt) and stereotactic radiosurgery (srs), which are commonly used to treat brain metastases such as glioma or gbm, to become standard of care (2021). studies have shown that the use of radiotherapies could confer prognostic benefits, making it an attractive treatment option to qualified patients. for example, binello et al. suggest that when xrt is followed by the use of srs, it could confer a more favorable prognosis to patients suffering from hgg (2015). these findings differentiation of recurrent glioblastoma multiforme and radiation necrosis ... rohit v. paradkar 19 clarify that the use of xrt and srs to treat gliomas can hold certain advantages for patients. while prognosis may improve, however, the introduction of radiotherapies can risk complications that could affect course of treatment and quality of life for patients. one of the most common effects of radiotherapy is the onset of radiation necrosis. typically, three years after the use of radiotherapies, radiation necrosis can begin to develop (park et al., 2021). due to lack of experimental data and imaging, there are few studies quantifying exact incidence of radiation necrosis, however the existing body of knowledge still provides us with valuable insights. for instance, the longitudinal study performed by sarkaria et al observed 115 patients who underwent srs as treatment for an hgg (1995). among other major findings, the study revealed that out of the 115 patients surveyed, 19 experienced complications as a result of srs. 17 of these 19 patients (90%) were diagnosed with radiation necrosis, corresponding to 14.78% of the total patient population. chao et al. explain that with the increasing usage of radiotherapies and srs, cases of radiation necrosis have grown. there also exist significant challenges with diagnosis of radiation necrosis and differentiation recurrent gbm using current imaging methods. in fact, using conventional imaging, such as t1 or t2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (mri), recurrent gbm is almost indistinguishable from radiation necrosis. currently, the only reliable method of differentiation between tumor progression and pseudoprogression is biopsy (2013). radiation necrosis is often treated conservatively with corticosteroids to reduce inflammatory signaling. patients generally see major improvement once steroids enter into the system (tamini & juweid, 2017). the treatment of recurrent gbm, however, requires the aggressive use of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or other anticancer practices (park et al, 2021; van linde et al., 2017). given the ambiguity in accurate classification and the differences in treatment between the two pathologies, finding noninvasive tactics of differential diagnosis has massive implications in clinical workflows. raimbault et al. concluded that the areas of the brain where maximum radiation doses had been exposed to patients during radiotherapy were more susceptible to the onset of radiation necrosis. more specifically, white matter surrounding tumor sites, where blood supply is often limited, were most vulnerable to the formation of necrotic tissue (2014). because 90% of gbm recur locally within a couple years (minniti et al., 2021) and radiation necrosis typically develops at sites of maximal radiation dose where original tumors are located, differentiation of the two pathologies becomes even more complicated. to illustrate the difficulty in distinguishing recurrent broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 20 tumors and radiation necrosis, almost no differences were noted in mri of recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis, raimbault et al. observed marked similarity between the two pathologies with respect to visual progression and contrast enhancement (2014). advanced magnetic resonance imaging differentiation approaches in response to this critical issue, many studies have searched for imaging-based solutions. with respect to neuroimaging and imaging of recurrent gbm, both mri and computed tomography (ct) are the most widely used, however given the multimodality and anatomical detailing of mri, it is the most preferred imaging method (pope & brandal, 2018). hence, this review will focus mainly on mr-based imaging solution. other imaging techniques, such as pet scans, have been employed in similar contexts, however such studies fall out of the scope of this review. mullins et al. conducted one of the foremost clinical studies attempting differentiation through conventional imaging methods. for this study, t1 and t2-weighted axial mri and t1-weighted post-gadolinium mris were used for 27 patients who had undergone proton beam radiation therapy (pbrt) to treat hgg. each patient image was blind reviewed by two neuroradiologists and classified as either radiation necrosis or recurrent gbm. mullins et al. performed meta-analysis with the goal of identifying patterns of diagnosis based on imaging signs, such as involvement with the corpus callosum or subependymal spread. results of differential diagnosis with individual imaging signs was largely insignificant, however, when two or three imaging signs were combined, results became more encouraging. for instance, there was significant discrimination towards tumor recurrence with images involving the corpus callosum, crossing of the midline, and discrete multiple enhancing foci (mef) (mullins et al., 2005). these results suggest that while differentiation using just one imaging sign in standard mri is not clinically applicable, the pairing of conventional and advanced techniques may be more effective. advanced mr sequences and parameters were used by feng et al., who performed a comprehensive longitudinal study that enrolled 112 patients. standard t1 and t2-weighted axial mri, enhanced t1 and t2weighted axial mri, and fluid attenuated inversion recovery (flair) sequences were acquired for the purpose of the study. diffusion-weighted imaging (dwi), diffusion tensor imaging (dti), dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion-weighted imaging (dsc-pwi), and proton mr spectroscopy (h-mrs) were obtained after routine sequence acquisition (feng et al., 2021). the results procured by feng et al. shed light on the use differentiation of recurrent glioblastoma multiforme and radiation necrosis ... rohit v. paradkar 21 of advanced mr sequences for the purpose of discriminating radiation necrosis and gbm. diffusion data demonstrated that lower apparent diffusion coefficient (adc) value and relative adc (radc) values significantly favored radiation necrosis. lower values of axial diffusion coefficient (da) and radial diffusion coefficient (dr) from dti corresponded to bias towards tumor recurrence. significantly higher relative cerebral blood volume and flow (rcbv and rcbf) from dsc-pwi favored tumor recurrence. spectral metabolite ratios from h-mrs exhibited propensity towards tumor recurrence with significantly higher cho/naa and lac/cr ratios and significantly lower lip/cr ratios (feng et al., 2021). altogether, feng et al’s study shows that advanced mr imaging techniques may ultimately be a viable solution to differentiation efforts. while conventional imaging may not provide enough context for differential diagnoses, an adoption of the recommendation made by mullins et al. to combine conventional and advanced mr could become advantageous. table 1 summarizes key findings of mri-based approaches to differential diagnosis. table 1. features of different mri types with significant bias towards tumor recurrence or radiation necrosis imaging type study (# of patients) qualitative findings conventional mri mullins et al. (n = 27) -individual imaging signs yielded statistically insignificant differentiation significant bias towards recurrent tumor with combination of corpus callosum and mef -significant bias towards recurrent tumor with combination of corpus callosum, crossing of midline, and mef -significant bias towards recurrent towards with involvement of corpus callosum, subependymal spread, and mef dwi feng et al (n = 112) -significantly lower adc and radc values favor diagnosis of radiation necrosis dti feng et al (n = 112) -significantly lower da and dr values favor tumor recurrence broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 22 dsc-pwi feng et al (n = 112) -significantly higher rcbv and rcbf favor tumor recurrence h-mrs feng et al (n = 112) -significantly higher cho/naa ratio favors tumor recurrence -significantly higher lac/cr ratio favors tumor recurrence -significantly higher lip/cr ratio favors radiation necrosis source: authors' own conception fully automated predictive differential approaches radiomics-based approach while the traditional approach to differentiation has been to use advanced imaging to facilitate increased accuracy in diagnosis by radiological experts, other studies have explored fully automated pipelines using artificial intelligence and machine learning. the most prominent form of automation has been the use of radiomic features. radiomics refers to tumor and imaging characteristics discernible to computerized feature extractors, such as gray level, intensity, texture, shape, etc. park et al. designed a machine learning based predictive model to differentiate recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis using conventional and diffusion-weighted mri (park et al., 2021). qualitative imaging analysis performed by radiologists largely rejected traditional findings of mullins et al. (2005) which asserted that imaging signs such as involvement of corpus callosum and spreading wavefront in new discrete multiple enhancing foci could indicate differential diagnoses. as for the predictive model, park et al. utilized a radiomics-based strategy by extracting 14 shape features and 83 first-order and second-order feature parameters for three different mri sequences. three tradition classification models, k-nearest neighbors (knn), support vector machine (svm), and adaboost, were implemented with 86 patient imaging samples, 63 classified as recurrent gbm and 23 as radiation necrosis. the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (lasso) was used to define radiomic feature importance. park et al found that support vector machine utilizing 18 selected features of dwi was the best differentiator of recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis. the model had an auc score of 0.80 (on a 0.0 to 1.0 scale) and an accuracy of 78% using an independent testing set. the model also achieved 66.7% sensitivity and 87% specific (park et al., 2021). differentiation of recurrent glioblastoma multiforme and radiation necrosis ... rohit v. paradkar 23 q. zhang et al. performed radiomic differentiation utilizing a logistic regression model with a 51-patient sample (35 glioma patients, 16 radiation necrosis patients). 41,284 handcrafted features and 24,576 deep features were extracted using two pre-trained models, alexnet and inception v3. a 0.632 bootstrap estimator was used to select important q. zhang et al. found that the highest performing model in validation used the alexnet feature extractor; the mean evaluation metrics for the model are as follows: 0.9993 auc score, 98.33% accuracy, 99.94% sensitivity, and 98.01% specificity. q. zhang et al. also found that multimodal mri had more predictive capability than single-modality mri (zhang et al., 2017). while the results of this study were promising for differentiation efforts, the patient sample utilized was small. one of the major gaps in efforts to differentiate recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis is a more comprehensive study performing radiomic classification with a larger and more balanced patient population. z. zhang et al. also constructed a predictive differentiation model using a sample of 87 retrospectively identified patient imaging sets, 73 lesions diagnosed as tumor progression and 24 as radiation necrosis. decision trees, discriminant analysis, knn, svm, and ensemble classifiers were utilized as classifiers with only conventional mri used as input. because of the lack of available imaging data, leave-one-out cross validation was used to augment testing performance. 285 radiomic features were extracted for each patient imaging set; these features belonged to six categories: direct intensity and intensity histograms, gray level co-occurrence matrices, gray level run length matrices, geometric shape features, neighborhood gray-tone difference matrices, and histograms of oriented gradients (zang et al., 2017). in addition to traditional shape feature extraction, a novelty of zhang et al’s predictive model was the use of delta radiomics in the context of differentiation (2017). delta radiomics account for the nature of disease progression in recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis by calculating the difference in radiomic feature values over time. the rusboost ensemble classifier was observed as the best predictor of differential diagnosis; this model yielded an auc score of 0.73 and was 73.2% accurate. another major finding was that delta radiomic features were more valuable in prediction than traditional radiomics (zang et al., 2017). while z. zhang et al’s model performance was less successful in differentiation than other studies, such as park et al’s, these differences may come down to data imbalance. park et al initially utilized a dataset containing a recurrent gbm to radiation necrosis incidence ratio of 63:23, however, using the synthetic minority (chawla et al., 2002) oversampling technique broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 24 (smote), the data was balanced to a 1:1 ratio (park et al., 2021). despite the fact that the dataset used by z. zhang et al. (2017) contained even more imbalance (73:24), no such techniques were used. this emphasizes the need for more data acquisition; a large and balanced patient cohort could ultimately enhance radiomic predictor performance. another important takeaway from z. zhang et al. was the use of delta radiomics to track potential progressive differences between the two pathologies. although raimbault et al. find that differences between recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis with respect to visual progression are almost imperceptible (2014), it is still important that future efforts involving predictive radiomic models attempt to take advantage of potential differences between tumor and pseudoprogression as such studies are currently lacking (chung et al., 2018). refer to table 2 for summary of radiomic predictor information and evaluation metrics. table 2. summary of model evaluation metrics for studies involving radiomic approaches study initial tumor recurrence: radiation necrosis auc score (0.0-1.0) accuracy (%) sensitivity (%) specificity (%) park et al. 63:23 0.80 78.0 66.7 87.0 q. zhang et al. 35:16 1.00 98.3 99.9 98.0 z. zhang et al. 73:24 0.73 73.2 n/a n/a source: authors' own conception connectomics-based approach another computerized technique, which has been so far underutilized in studies involving glioma, is connectomics. a connectome refers to a map represented brain networks; this incorporates both neurons and connectivity between these neurons. connectomes are often represented using graph theory as neurons, represented as nodes, and regional connections as edges (hwang et al., 2012). functional mri (fmri), which tracks brain activity using blood flow patterns, is used to create the functional connectome, a map that represents the complex neural dynamics in the brain. many studies have established that focal tumor, such as gliomas, experience alterations in functional connectivity. the study conducted by derks et al. was one of the largest to construct functional connectomes and differentiation of recurrent glioblastoma multiforme and radiation necrosis ... rohit v. paradkar 25 explore patterns of functional connectivity using imaging of gliomas (2017). derks et al. performed connectomic profiling with the goal of identifying connectivity patterns that could be used as biomarkers in glioma (2013). hwang et al. first defined the hub architecture in function brain networks (2012). they defined hubs as regions facilitating functional connectivities and identified hub-non-hub connections termed “spokes” (hwang, 2012). it was found by derks et al. that glioma patients were observed with an increase in spoke connections, and analysis of glioma patient groups showed that spoke connectivity differed based on factors such as kps, tumor grade, and progression free survival (2017). while the field of connectomics is relatively unknown and underused in the context of glioma, studies identifying differences in connectivity patterns between radiation necrosis and recurrent gbm could be an alternative to current imaging and radiomics-based approaches. still, there are considerations that could affect the viability of using a functional connectome. for instance, fmri, which is required for functional connectome construction requires sizeable infrastructure and administrative constraints that may impede on its accessibility to patients (sakai, 2022). even if fmri is not viable for the purpose of differentiation, alternative connectomics-based approaches using conventional mri may also have potential. one of the largest applications of radiomics is the classification of genetic factors, such a idh mutations or 1p/19q codeletions, in diffuse gliomas. however, kesler et al. proposed an alternative method, the use of structural connectomes from conventional mri as predictors of idh mutation (2017). kesler et al created gray matter covariance networks using voxel-based morphometry (vbm) and the diffeomorphic anatomical registration through exponentiated lie algebra (dartel) for sample normalization. nodal, or local, efficiency values were extracted for 90 discrete regions from the automated anatomical labeling (aal) scheme and network size (number of neurons), network degree (number of neuronal connections), and brain volume were computed (kesler et al., 2019). from the study’s results, connectome-based prediction was largely successful, and similar approaches should be investigated considering the absence of studies utilizing connectomic methods in differentiation of recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis. this approach could be largely successful considering only standard mri would be needed. one tradeoff, however, may be the computational expense of connectome construction methods such as dartel, which requires significant processing time, power, and memory that surpasses the scope of most clinical frameworks (valero-lara, 2014). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 26 conclusion the ability to noninvasively and effectively differentiate between recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis is essential to the successful management of gbm therapies. given that recurrent gbm has median survival of less than one year and the potential complications of invasive biopsies, high performing non-invasive differential diagnosis could allow for appropriate treatment course to start immediately. this could ultimately deter the effects of recurrent gbm progression, possibly prolonging survival, increasing survival rate, and improving quality of life. one of the major gaps in the existing literature is a lack of available imaging data for the purpose of differentiation. given the high dependency of computerized methods on large volumes of data for highly reliable classification, more data acquisition efforts are needed. advanced imaging approaches show that conventional mri alone is not enough for differential diagnosis, however the use of image sign combinations, multimodal mri, and multiparametric mri shows potential. from the body of knowledge on radiomic approaches, it is important that studies incorporate balancing techniques such as smote in order to decrease bias in differentiation. furthermore, more studies should incorporate delta radiomics (nardone et al., 2021) to take into consideration longitudinal impacts of recurrent gbm and radiation necrosis progression. perhaps the largest gap in the current literature is the use of connectomics for differentiation. both functional and structural connectivity patterns could reveal significant pathological differences that have yet to be explored. references binello, e., green, s., & germano, i. m. (2015). radiosurgery for high-grade glioma. surgical neurology international, 3, s118-s126. https://doi.org/10.4103%2f2152-7806.95423 chao, s. t., ahluwalia, m. s., barnett, g. h., stevens, g. h. j., murphy, e. s., stockham, a. l., shiue, k., & suh, j. h. (2013). challenges with the diagnosis and treatment of cerebral radiation necrosis. international journal of radiation oncology biology – physics, 87(3), 449-457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2013.05.015 chawla, n. v., bowyer, k. w., hall, l. o., & kegelmeyer, w. p. (2002). smote: synthetic minority over-sampling technique. journal of artificial intelligence research, 16(1), 327-357. https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.953 chung, c., bryant, a., & brown, p. d. (2018). interventions for the treatment of brain radionecrosis after radiotherapy or radiosurgery. the cochrane database https://doi.org/10.4103%2f2152-7806.95423 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2013.05.015 https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.953 differentiation of recurrent glioblastoma multiforme and radiation necrosis ... rohit v. paradkar 27 of systematic reviews, 2018(7), cd011492. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd011492.pub2 derks, j., dirkson, a. r., de witt hamer, p. c., van geest, q., hulst, h. e., barkhof, f., pouwels, p. j. w., guerts, j. j. g., reijneveld, j. c., & douw, l. (2017). connectomic profile and clinical phenotype in newly diagnosed glioma patients. neuroimage clinical, 14, 87-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2017.01.007 feng, a., yuan, p., huang, t., li, l., & lyu, j. (2021). distinguishing tumor recurrence from radiation necrosis in treated glioblastoma using multiparametric mri. academic radiology, 29(9), 1320-1331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acra.2021.11.008 hwang, k., hallquist, m. n., & luna, b. (2012). the development of hub architecture in the human functional brain network. cerebral cortex, 23(10), 2380–2393. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs227 kesler, s. r., harrison, r. a., petersen, m. l., rao, v., dyson, h., alfaro-munoz, k., weathers, s-p., & de groot, j. (2019). pre-surgical connectome features predict idh status in diffuse gliomas. oncotarget, 10(60), 6484-6493. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27301 kesler, s. r., noll, k., cahill, d. p., rao, g., & wefel, j. s. (2017). the effect of idh1 mutation on the structural connectome in malignant astrocytoma. journal of neuro-oncology, 131(3), 565–574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060016-2328-1 minniti, g., niyazi, m., alongi, f., navarria, p., & belka, c. (2021). current status and recent advances in reirradiation of glioblastoma. radiation oncology, 16(1), 36. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13014-021-01767-9 mullins, m. e., barest, g. d., schaefer, p. w., hochberg, f. h., gonzalez, r. g., & lev, m. h. (2005). radiation necrosis versus glioma recurrence: conventional mr imaging clues to diagnosis. american journal of neuroradiology, 26(8), 1967–1972. nardone, v., reginelli, a., grassi, r., boldrini, l., vacca, g., d’ippolito, e., annunziata, s., farchione, a., belfiore, m. p., desideri, i., & cappabianca, s. (2021). delta radiomics: a systematic review. la radiologia medica, 126, 1571–1583. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-021-01436-7 park, y. w., choi, d., park, j. e., ahn, s. s., kim, h., chang, j. h., kim, s. h., kim, h. s., & lee, s-k. (2021). differentiation of recurrent glioblastoma from radiation necrosis using diffusion radiomics with machine learning model development and external validation. nature news, 11, 2913. https://doi.org/10.1038%2fs41598-021-82467-y pope, w. b., & brandal, g. (2018). conventional and advanced magnetic resonance imaging in patients with high-grade glioma. the quarterly journal of nuclear https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd011492.pub2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2017.01.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acra.2021.11.008 https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs227 https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27301 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-016-2328-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-016-2328-1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13014-021-01767-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-021-01436-7 https://doi.org/10.1038%2fs41598-021-82467-y broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 28 medicine and molecular imaging, 62(3), 239–253. https://doi.org/10.23736/s1824-4785.18.03086-8 raimbault, a., cazals, x., lauvin, m. a., destrieux, c., chapet, s., & cottier, j. p. (2014). radionecrosis of malignant glioma and cerebral metastasis: a diagnostic challenge in mri. diagnostic and interventional imaging, 95(10), 9851000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diii.2014.06.013 sakai, j. (2022). functional near-infrared spectroscopy reveals brain activity on the move. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america, 119(25), e2208729119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208729119 sarkaria, j. n., mehta, m. p., loeffler, j. s., alexander iii, e., friedman, w. a., & kinsella, t. j. (1995). radiosurgery in the initial management of malignant gliomas: survival comparison with the rtog recursive partitioning analysis. international journal of radiation oncology biology – physics, 32(4), 931941. https://doi.org/10.1016/0360-3016(94)00621-q tamimi, a. f., & juweid, m. (2017). epidemiology and outcome of glioblastoma. glioblastoma. in s. de vleeschouwer (ed.), glioblastoma, chapter 8. codon publications. https://doi.org/10.15586/codon.glioblastoma.2017.ch8 valero-lara, p. (2014). multi-gpu acceleration of dartel (early detection of alzheimer). ieee xplore. in 2014 ieee international conference on cluster computing (cluster) (pp. 346-354). ieee xplore. https://doi.org/10.1109/cluster.2014.6968783 van linde, m. e., brahm, c. g., de witt hamer, p. c., reijneveld, j. c., bruynzeel, a. m. e., vandertop, w. p., van de ven, p. m., wagemakers, m., van der weide, h. l., enting, r. h., walenkamp, a. m. e., & verheul, h. m. w. (2017). treatment outcome of patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme: a retrospective multicenter journal of neuro-oncolog, 135(1), 183-192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-017-2564-z zhang, q., cao, j., zhang, j., bu, j., yu, y., tan, y., feng, q., & huang, m. (2019). differentiation of recurrence from radiation necrosis in gliomas based on the radiomics of combinational features and multimodality mri images. computational and mathematical methods in medicine, 2893043. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2893043 zhang, z., yang, j., ho, a., jiang, w., logan, j., wang, x., brown, p. d., mcgovern, s. l., guha-thakurta, n., ferguson, s. d., fave, x., zhang, l., mackin, d., court, l. e., & li, j. (2017). a predictive model for distinguishing radiation necrosis from tumour progression after gamma knife radiosurgery based on radiomic features from mr images. european radiology, 28(6), 2255-2263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-017-5154-8 https://doi.org/10.23736/s1824-4785.18.03086-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diii.2014.06.013 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208729119 https://doi.org/10.1016/0360-3016(94)00621-q https://doi.org/10.15586/codon.glioblastoma.2017.ch8 https://doi.org/10.1109/cluster.2014.6968783 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-017-2564-z https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2893043 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-017-5154-8 microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 52 computer-based programs in speech therapy of dyslalia and dyslexiadysgraphia iolanda tobolcea faculty of psychology and education sciences, “al.i.cuza”university of iaşi toma cozma, 3, 700554, iaşi, romania itobolcea@yahoo.com mirela danubianu faculty of economics and public administration, “ştefan cel mare” university of suceava universităţii, 13, 720229, suceava, romania mdanub@eed.usv.ro abstract: during the last years, the researchers and therapists in speech therapy have been more and more concerned with the elaboration and use of computer programs in the therapy of speech disorders. the main objective of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness of computer-based programs for the romanian language in speech therapy. throughout the study, we will present the experimental research through assessing the effectiveness of computer programs in the speech therapy for speech disorders: dyslalia, dyslexia and dysgraphia. methodologically, the use of the computer in the therapeutic phases was carried out with the help of some computer-based programs (logomon, dislex-test etc.) that we elaborated and experimented with during several years of therapeutic activity. the sample used in our experiments was comprised of 120 subjects; two groups of 60 children with speech disorders were selected for both speech disorders: 30 where in the experimental ('computer-based') group and 30 where in the control ('classical method') group. the study verified whether the results, obtained by the subjects within the experimental group, improved significantly after using the computer-based program, compared to the subjects within the control group, who did not use this program but got a classical therapy. the hypotheses were confirmed for the speech disorders included in this research. the conclusions of the study confirm the advantages of using computer-based programs within speech therapy by correcting these disorders, as well as the positive influence these programs have on the development of children’s personality. keywords: computer-based program, speech therapy, children, dyslalia, dyslexia, dysgraphia. 1. introduction during the last decade, the technological progresses influenced speech therapy in two major ways: firstly, the use of computers and other communication tools facilitated communication among persons with speech disorders; secondly, computers were used in speech therapy, contributing to the acquisition of written and verbal language with help of various computer-based programs and software [10]. the use of computers contributes to the learning process by increasing the attention focus, developing the use of language and social skills. it is well-known that the use of computers increases the subjects’ curiosity and their interest in the activities involved in the therapy, as it stimulates strong feelings and affective states. through its nature, an image is a synthesis of affectation and knowledge. at the same time, we should not neglect a better knowledge of speech and personality particularities of these children, the age particularities and the level of mental processes and of the development of child language. we should also take into account the character of representations, the attention to details, the generalization and conceptualization possibilities, their capacity to receive and interpret auditory and visual stimuli [9], in order to ensure the individualization and effectiveness of the therapeutic program. the specialists [6] came to the conclusion that the use of software in speech therapy: – contributes to the diagnosis of speech disorders, – produces audiovisual feedback during the treatment, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 53 – monitors and assesses the therapeutic progress, – provides various types of practical exercises for children with speech disorders. 2. computer-based aids in the context of special psycho-pedagogy in speech therapy, the use of instructive computer-based programs increases the subjects’ curiosity and their interest in therapy and it stimulates strong feelings and affective states [2]. the current priorities in speech therapy consist of developing computer-based systems capable to personalize therapeutic guides according to the child’s evolution and to assess their progress. the audiovisual techniques should be used with caution, finding each time their justification within a clearly-stated psycho-pedagogical approach [11]. we underline the fact that audiovisual techniques, whose virtues have been stated by several educators, may lead to a sort of image verbalisation, when they only favour associations with no connection to authentic activities. therefore, in order to prevent shortcomings in improper use of audiovisual techniques, the therapist, through his knowledge and inventiveness, manages to acquire an important help in his therapeutic activity [4]. the romanian speech therapy registered research and experiments contributing to an improvement in the therapeutic progress of speech disorders. thus, we can exemplify: 1. speech re-education in the stuttering therapy by means of the “delay auditory feedback” (daf) was experimented after the publication of the works of lee [5]. the delay of the auditory feedback calls for the use of some electronic devices that allow the modification of the delay for the perception degree of one’s own speech, according to the requirements of each particular case; therefore, stuttering patients can hear their own speech with a delayed feedback. starting from such results, and after various experiments, the electronic device called “ecophone” was elaborated and improved in romania [9]. 2. the use of computer-based programs does not eliminate the therapist, but they become effective partners in reaching the therapeutic objectives; they represent an effective support in speech therapy exercises, as well as a particular action method upon the psyche of the child [3]. 3. starting from the classical therapeutic exercises, we note the elaboration of logoped 1.0 [9] which includes methods to eliminate breathing dysfunctions, spasms and intonation monotony. 4. there are also computer-based applications used to correct dyslexia-dysgraphia which aim to reduce/eliminate the optical-spatial confusions between the graphemes, and, implicitly, to improve the lexicographic performances of the subjects. 5. the ceex project [8], “system for the personalized therapy of linguistic disorders terapers”, is the result of the collaborative work of the “al. i. cuza” university at iaşi, “ştefan cel mare” university at suceava, and “gh. asachi” university at iaşi; its purpose was to elaborate and implement an intelligent therapy system for speech disorders, specific to the romanian language (computer-based speech therapy), as an additional, personalized and subject-centred speech therapy method. the software includes a computer-based systematization of the speech therapy, contributing to the elaboration of comparative analyses among various users of the program and opening new perspectives for international research, by processing an impressive amount of data within the therapy of dyslalia for the romanian language. 3. experimental design in order to evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness of computer-based programs in speech therapy, we carried out an experimental research in order to assess the effectiveness of computer programs in the speech therapy for various speech disorders: dyslalia, dyslexia-dysgraphia. the objective of research was to compare the results of the complex language evaluation for the group who used computer-based programs with the results obtained by the group who used classical therapeutic methods. methodology. from the methodological point of view, the computer-based programs—that we elaborated and we experimented with during several years of therapeutic activity—replaced the tables and drawings used in the classical therapy. in establishing the speech therapy diagnosis, we i. tobolcea, m. danubianu computer-based programs in speech therapy of dyslalia and dyslexia-dysgraphia 54 used examination tests characteristic to the language disorder and aiming at the essential aspects of the respective disorder. in order to increase the therapy efficiency, we carried out a complex evaluation of dyslalia, consisting of: a test for establishing the speech psychological age (adaptation of the model of a. descoudres), a reflected speech test (the child repeats after the speech therapist 20 words in which the defective sounds are placed at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the words), and an independent speech test (the child is shown 20 images that (s)he is supposed to word independently, without the help of the speech therapist. the words contain the defective sounds at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the words) [12]. also, in order to increase the therapeutic efficiency of dyslexia and dysgraphia, we applied: the test for establishing the language psychological age, the test for evaluating the reading/writing ability [12]. the children included in this study were selected according to their age, the type of their speech disorder, its degree, as well as the degree of intellectual development. research sample. for the research, for each speech disorder (dyslalia, dyslexia-dysgraphia) we selected each 60 children: 30 subjects for the experimental ('computer-based' therapy) group and 30 subjects for the control (classical therapy) group. the subjects selected are 8-9 years old and they have a normal level of intelligence (raven test was used). we took into account the homogeneity criterion in order to select the children for the four groups; also, the average scores were equivalent for the complex evaluation tests for each speech disorder, demonstrated by applying in each case the anova one way and bonferroni tests upon the scores. 4. results and discussions after the logopedic evaluation of the subjects investigated, we started the statistic processing of the data obtained and the analysis of the results of the tests administered to both groups for each speech disorder (dyslalia, dyslexia-dysgraphia) during one year of speech therapy. this analysis regarded both the speech therapy effectiveness overall, and the influence of strategies used to stimulate and develop the language, based on the use of computer-assisted logomon software. 1. analysis of the results using the computer-based program logomon for dyslalia. the research project aimed at elaborating and implementing a computer-based intelligent therapy system for pronunciation disorders (dyslalia), specific to the romanian language, as an additional, personalized and subject-centred speech therapy [3]. the interdisciplinary collaboration in the elaboration and the implementation of this system was materialised in the electronic transposition of the speech therapy methods (speech therapy observation charts, speech therapy records, medical histories, questionnaires for patients, lists of sounds, syllables, words, sentences). the computer-based system proposed and used in the experiments had two main components: a) the calculation system of the speech therapist, which includes: • a 3d virtual model of the phono-articulatory system; • an audio component monitoring children’s evolution, with exemplifications; • an expert system which produces inferences by taking into account the audio data evolution, provided by the monitoring system. b) the mobile device, used by the speech therapist, including home practice. the pda (personal digital assistant) s for this application comprises 3 components: 1. audio component (recording, processing, feed-back) 2. graphic component ( appropriate interface) 3. calculation facilities necessary for the evaluation procedures and for the communication with the pc of the speech therapist. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 55 figure 1. logomon – program menu the examination part of the software includes all types of information necessary to understand each case [9]: 1. personal data (last name, first name, date of birth, address, telephone etc.) 2. the medical history is recorded following the discussions with one of the parents (preferably with the mother) and consulting the child medical record. at this stage, the hereditary diseases, malformations, the information on the pregnancy (rh compatibility), the birth (apgar score – the very first test given to newborns activity, pulse, grimace, appearance, and respiration), infectious diseases that left traces, affectivity development, psycho-physical progress, trauma and accidents suffered, apparition and evolution of language (when and how did the child begin to talk, the first words, the first sentences), etc. should all be mentioned. figure 2. logomon program – medical history (fragment) i. tobolcea, m. danubianu computer-based programs in speech therapy of dyslalia and dyslexia-dysgraphia 56 3. the initial evaluation may include all sounds, but it is compulsory to evaluate the sounds of the letters s voiceless alveolar fricative [s], ş voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ], ţ voiceless alveolar affricate [t ͡s], r apico-alveolar [r], based upon a logic algorithm of the tests. figure 3. speech therapy examination –speech, communication (fragment) the complex speech therapy evaluation aims at the reflected and independent pronunciation of the sounds, both independently, and within syllables, words and sentences. it records the distortions, the replacements, the inversions, the omissions of sounds, as well as the prosodic elements (modulation, intonation, accent, speech pauses). moreover, the speech therapy examination monitors the functional integrity of the phono-articulatory apparatus (occlusion, dentition, tongue, lips, soft palate, and larynx), aspects of the facial, lingual, labial, velar motricity, body scheme, and breathing apparatus. the electronic speech therapy record filled in extensively gives an ample image of the speech disorders of each child. 4. the speech therapy examination comprises all the important evaluation fields: a) reflected and independent pronunciation. the elaboration and administration of an inventory of tests for examining the independent and reflected speech in the evaluation of each sound constituted important elements in realising the files within the logomon program. figure 4. reflected and independent speech evaluation –logomon program brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 57 in the evaluation of the independent and the reflected speech, 9 tests were created for the speech pronunciation evaluation. the tests were structured as follows: isolated sound pronunciation (3 times); sound pronunciation test within direct and reverted syllables; sound pronunciation test within words in which the sound is placed in initial, median, and final position; sound pronunciation within paronyms; sound pronunciation within sentences. b) examination of the phono-articulator system. c) examination of the body structure. d) examination of the breathing system. e) examination of the personality. 5. the computer, supervised by the speech therapist, sets a presumptive and a final diagnosis (but not the differential diagnosis). 6. the computer monitors each child’s pronunciation evolution, by recording and comparing the data from the beginning to the end of the therapy. the length of the treatment depends on the evolution of each child during the impostation, consolidation and automation stages of the sound defectively pronounced. 7. the speech therapist makes a series of therapeutic suggestions which represent a preparation phase before the therapeutic intervention itself. 8. the program for the general and the specific therapy includes various and rich programs which maintain the children’s motivation and interest in the therapy [4]. 9. the 3d system is a useful material which constitutes the visual support for understanding the position of the various components of the phono-articulatory system while pronouncing different altered sounds. the possibility of a visual interaction with the correct pronunciation model proposed by the 3d graphical model contributes to a faster impostation of the sound defectively pronounced. compared to the classical speech therapy, sound impostation is significantly improved, since the child is able to understand the positioning of the phono-articulatory apparatus during sound emission. the 3d model presented interactively determines an easier intuition of the correct verbal model; in the classical therapy, the child is required to imitate the movements presented by the speech therapist. in the new circumstances, the child is able to visualise the correct verbal model, acquiring thus the correct positioning of the tongue and the teeth, as well as the direction of the air flow during sound emission, etc. these programs aim at a computer-based systematization of the speech therapists’ activity, which has the advantage of eliminating the traditional way of evaluating and making speech therapy records (“paper and pencil”). it also opens new perspectives for international research, through processing an impressive amount of data within the dyslalia therapy for the romanian language. the logomon program also includes the homework management system (installed on the child’s pc or pda), the management system of the therapeutic tasks accomplished in the cabinet, and an expert system which has the role of making decisions regarding the best therapeutic activities that each child should apply (number of sessions, contents of therapeutic exercises etc.) [8]. nevertheless, we underline the fact that the main decision factor is the speech therapist. i. tobolcea, m. danubianu computer-based programs in speech therapy of dyslalia and dyslexia-dysgraphia 58 figure 5. 3d model – the position of the phono-articulatory organs during the emission of the sound [r] in the classical therapy of dyslalia, a series of general methods and procedures are applied at the beginning, according to the severity of the disorder. these aim at preparing and facilitating the application of the specific speech therapy methods and procedures, particularised to each case and according to the nature of dyslalia. in the category of general methods and procedures are comprised: gymnastics and myo-gymnastics of the body and the organs participating in pronunciation; breathing training and training of the balance between inspiration and expiration; phonematic hearing training; personality training; eliminating negativism towards speech and some behavioural disorders. specific therapy is carried out by taking the following steps: sound emission and impostation, consolidation and automation. in the stage of sound emission and impostation, the following methods are used: demonstration and practicing the sound articulation in front of the logopedic mirror, deriving the new sound from the correctly emitted sounds that are similar by the motor-kinestesic execution and phonetic form. in the stage of sound consolidation, various exercises are carried out, and in the most diversified articulatory combinations: direct, indirect, intermediary syllables, consonantal groups, monosyllabic, disyllabic, and polysyllabic words. in these exercises, the defective sound is placed at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the word. in the sound automation stage, the corrected sound is used in building sentences, simple at the beginning, and then more and more complex (developed sentences, stories, riddles, proverbs). this stage aims at the following exercises: creating simple sentences in which the defective sound is present at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the words used; sentences with constant beginning, end, or in which the defective sound is highly present; exercises for memorising poems, riddles, proverbs, storytelling starting from images, movies, drawing boards; essays on given themes, or free essays. in carrying out the romanian computer-based system (logomon), for the evaluation, diagnosis and speech therapy of dyslalic forms, the classical therapy of dyslalia was algorithmically transposed for each consonant in the romanian language, translating into pseudocode and logograms each stage of the speech therapy as well as the specific sub-stages. the pseudocode is a series of logograms, connected to each other by decision trees, which allowed for a greater flexibility and customisation of the speech therapy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 59 hypothesis 1 the results obtained by the dyslalic children (with pronunciation disorders) within the experimental group are significantly improved following the computer-based therapeutic program logomon, in comparison to children in the control group, who did not benefit from the program but of a 'classical' therapy. table 1. mean, mean standard deviations and mean standard errors for the independent speech variable in dyslalic children (control group and experimental group) table 2. independent samples test for the independent speech variable in the two groups of dyslalic children the difference between the two means is statistically significant t(58) = -5,25; p < 0,01; therefore, the performance in the independent sample test for the children from the group that used the computer in the automation stage is significantly better than in the case of patients who followed the classical treatment of dyslalia. the hypothesis was confirmed. the difference between the two groups is given in figures 6: control group 16,63 experimental group 18,07 16,00 16,50 17,00 17,50 18,00 18,50 m e an in d e p e n d e n t s p e e ch te st 30 30 n= figure 6. the difference between the two dyslalic children groups the qualitative analysis of the data demonstrates the main factors determining the speech therapy effectiveness of the computer-based program: the great interest shown by the subjects, the i. tobolcea, m. danubianu computer-based programs in speech therapy of dyslalia and dyslexia-dysgraphia 60 fact that children pay attention to the computer, makes the task of the speech therapist much easier; (s)he no longer has to be looking for papers or pencils, but (s)he only has to move the mouse. the results of the dyslalia treatment are the following: a) an increase in the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions within the language disorders treatment as a result of diversifying the therapy by using computer-based programs; b) the quantification of the progresses; c) the precise error discrimination and identification. the logomon program turned out to be a real help in the therapeutic activity, by providing various exercises that children can do both in the test cabinet and at home. the program is also very useful with respect to the organization of the therapeutic process, as it helps the therapist in selecting and organizing the therapy, the schedule and keeping record of children’s presence at therapeutic sessions. the logomon program allows printing various documents that the speech therapist may need (list of children with disorders, statistical data centralizer, individual activity reports etc.). we also find very useful the exercises which include a concrete support (images), as we know very well that pre-school children work best with concrete images [4]. the programs can also file the current data, update useful data and initialize new databases. 2. analysis of the results using the computer-based program dislex-test for dyslexiadysgraphia we believe that some of the objectives of the dyslexia-dysgraphia therapy could be more effective if the treatment also included a computer [2]. the use of the computer in the dyslexiadysgraphia therapy may be conceived on two coordinates: in order to produce electronic “work sheets” with all the advantages (especially for visual perception) involved in this manner of presenting the letter stimuli: luminosity, contrast, colours, movement etc., and also as it allows a great volume of lexicographic material to be used during each therapy session. we all know how important it is to form and develop the orientation and spatial-temporal structuring capacity for children to read and write, especially children with intellectual problems. observing that practicing the differences between the graphemes that are similar from an optical point of view has positive effects on the lexicographic act in general, we believe that such a computer-based program would be useful in treating the dyslexia-dysgraphia [1]. therefore, the elaboration and application of the dislex-test program aimed primarily at dissociating among the similar graphemes from an optical point of view m-n; u-n; p-b; b-d; independently, in words, and in sentences. the working hypothesis stated that by training the pupils in making these dissociations, the visual and spatial confusions among graphemes could be reduced/eliminated and, implicitely, the patients’ lexicographic performances could be improved. the program comprises four modules with several sets of exercises for differentiating the letters: “m“-“n“; “u“-“n“; “p“-“b“; “b“-“d“, that can be accessed directly from the menu. the text of the program was displayed as clearly as possible on the screen, with a visible and coloured font, favourable for the visual perception, essential in eliminating the confusions among the various letters in writing and reading. for each working sequence, the task is displayed in the right-hand side of the screen. after using the program several times, the pupils learned how to access it, how to enter the menu and solve various exercises. obtaining immediate results, the children felt better about themselves, which is crucial for the future learning process. even though the teacher’s intervention cannot be replaced by a computer, it does help to improve children’s reading and writing capacity. therefore, the patient is first required to choose the word containing the letter aimed at, considering that in the sentence there are no other words containing letters that could determine optical confusions; then, the sentences get more difficult, containing both types of letters that could be confused (for example, in the first case, the pupil is asked to find in the given sentences the words containing the letter “m”; in this case, the sentences do not contain words with the letter “n”. then, the pupil is asked to identify the words containing the letter “m” in sentences that include both words composed of the letters “m” and “n”). the position of the affected letters differs within the word: at the beginning, in the middle, at the end, in order to familiarise the patient with all the possible situations. the patient is trained to dissociate between brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 61 the problematic letters presented first within letters diagrams, then in monoand polysyllabic words, and finally within sentences. the dissociation at the level of letters was first complicated by the different writing styles (normal, bold, italic), aiming thus at preventing rigidity and stereotypy, and determining the child to adapt to various situations. moreover, the structure of the letters diagrams was diversified, in order to avoid the memorisation of the correct answer. for each model of the program, the items must be solved in the order in which they are given, determining the child to go through all the stages in solving the task. the passage from one sequence to another of each model is possible only if the previous sequence is correctly solved. the therapeutic intervention consisted of solving the exercises to make the difference among the optical and spatial similar graphemes, for 15 minutes per therapy session, twice a week for a semester: the pupils within the control group did their exercises on work sheets, and the pupils within the experimental group did the same exercises assisted by a computer. the exercises on work sheets had the same design and structure as those on the computer, but, unlike the computer-based therapy, in the classical therapy the feedback is done at the end of every session, after correcting the papers and encouraging the pupils who improved their performances, or drawing attention to their mistakes. hypothesis 2 the results obtained by children suffering from dyslexia-dysgraphia (reading-writing disorders) within the experimental group are significantly improved after following the computerbased therapeutic program, in comparison to children within the control group, who did not benefit from the program but had been treated with a classical method therapy. table 3. mean, standard deviation and mean standard errors for the sentences writing/reading variable in the children from the control group and the experimental group table 4. independent samples test for sentences writing/reading variables in the children from the control group and the experimental group the difference between the two means is statistically significant t(53) = -6,29; p < 0,01; therefore, the performance in sentence writing/reading for the children from the group that used the computer is significantly better than in the case of patients who followed the classical treatment. the hypothesis was confirmed. the difference between the two groups is given in figures 7: i. tobolcea, m. danubianu computer-based programs in speech therapy of dyslalia and dyslexia-dysgraphia 62 control group 12,30 experimental group 16,71 6,00 8,00 10,00 12,00 14,00 16,00 18,00 20,00 m e an w ri ti n gre ad in g s e n te n ce s te st 30 30n= figure 7. the difference between the two groups of children with dyslexia-dysgraphia generally, we notice an increase in the performance for each pupil within the experimental group, which means that, statistically, each pupil managed to learn better than the pupils who followed the classical therapy. the results obtained in the initial and in the final evaluation demonstrate the performance of the pupils within the experimental group, regarding the number of correct answers. this is due to the fact that children got used to the words and that they began to understand the proper meaning of words presented during the experimental program, as well as to the fact that this program stimulated the pupils’ motivation to accomplish the tasks given; thus, both the number of correct answers, and the execution time improved. the qualitative interpretations of the tests show that they may constitute the basis for speech development programs, teaching frontal or individual, at primary school level. the teaching structure should include a comprehensive initial evaluation of the semantic vocabulary for each pupil when starting school, then teaching should continue by introducing the child to a specific verbal stimulation program and it should end with a final evaluation of the results [7]. the corrective methods for dyslexo-dysgraphia which include computer-assisted instruction software stimulate the children’s interest and motivation in the activity, and also in cooperation in order to accomplish all the tasks given. the improvement of the reading-writing capacity could be explained by the advantages of the program: – it allows the individualization of tasks; – the progressive increase in the difficulty of the exercises; – the access to the next exercise is conditioned by the correct solving of the current one; – the use of various editing styles for letters requires the pupils’ adaptive skills; – there is an immediate feedback, and, for every correct answer, there are visual rewards, that is bright coloured images (pictures of flowers), increasing thus the pupils’ self-esteem; – it develops the eye-hand coordination and the precision of movements; – it stimulates the focus; – it develops the capacity of analysis and synthesis; – it stimulates the visual perception and the observation capacity; – once pupils get familiarized with the tasks within the program, there are very few cases when the speech therapist has to train them in order to solve the exercises; – it allows the cooperation and competition among pupils, with strong motivational values. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 63 5. conclusion all the statistically processed results underline the significant progresses made by the experimental groups after applying computer-based programs, in comparison to the control groups, which demonstrates the fact that the therapeutic programs elaborated and applied influenced positively the proper pronunciation and reading-writing acquisition. the computer-based therapeutic methods stimulated the pupils’ interest and motivation in their activity and in accomplishing all the tasks given. the overall results show that the methods using a computer-based program determine a faster progress in correcting the speech disorders within speech therapy. the use of such computer-based methods during various phases of the speech therapy determines a new psychological and pedagogical situation by creating a special learning environment, and by facilitating a new, superior method for correcting and developing speech. 6. references [1] blankenship, t., ayres, k, langone, j. (2005). effects of computer based cognitive mapping on reading compresension for pupil with emotional behavior disorders. journal of special education technology, 20, 15-23. [2] castellani, j., jeffs, t. (2007). emerging reading and writing strategies using technology, teaching exceptional children, 33(5), 60-67. [3] danubianu, m., tobolcea, i., pentiuc, gh. (2009). advanced technology in speech disorder therapy of romanian language, journal of computing, 1, 61-66. [4] danubianu, m., pentiuc, gh., tobolcea, i., socaciu, t. (2009). model of a data mining system for personalied therapy of speech disorders. journal of applied computer science & mathematics, 6, 28-32. [5] lee, s. i. (1951). artificial stutter. journal of speech and hearing disorders,16, 53-59. [6] murray, t.g., parker, v. (2004). integration of computer-based technology into speech language therapy. educational technology, 31, 53-59. [7] paolucci, r., atallah, a. (2006). evidence based speech, language and hearing therapy. cochrane library’s systematic reviews. sao paolo medical jurnal, 124(2), 51-54. [8] pentiuc, st. gh, danubianu, m, schipor, o, tobolcea, i, zaharia, m (2008). computers in the treatment of speech disorder. in perspectives and present in the treatment of speech disorders (pp.215-234), iaşi: al.i cuza university press. [9] tobolcea, i. (2001) .tehnici audiovizuale moderne în terapia logonevrozei. iaşi: ed. spanda. [10] tobolcea, i. (2002). intervenţii logo-terapeutice pentru corectarea formelor dislalice la copilul normal. iaşi: ed. spanda, iaşi. [11] tobolcea, i., pentiuc, gh., danubianu, m. (2009). folosirea tehnologiei informatiei si comunicarii in procesul de invatare al copiilor cu cerinte educationale speciale. in sisteme distribuite, suceava [electronic version] (pp.105-109). [12] vrăşmaş, e, stănică, c (1997). terapia tulburărilor de limbaj, bucharest: ed. didactică şi pedagogică. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 347-370 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/347 submitted: december 26th, 2021 | accepted for publication: february 23rd, 2022 peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination: organizational and legal aspects olexsii butenko 1 , natalya ivanova 2 , iryna radkovych 3 , olha palyvoda 4 , ihor bloshchynskyi 5 1 phd in law, national academy of security service of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, alexeyb1979@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6273-0717 2 doctor of psychological sciences, professor, national academy of the security service of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, ivanova2112@ukr.net, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6108-4725 3 phd in psychology, senior research associate, national academy of the security service of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, blavatskaya2801@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7362-7619 4 phd in psychology, leading research associate, national academy of the security service of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, olsorvanec@gmai.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2027-3316 5 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, foreign languages department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine, i.bloshch@gmail.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1925-9621 abstract: the article reveals the main organizational and legal aspects of involving the interpreter in conducting a polygraph examination. the example of criminal procedure legislation of ukraine shows the main problems in regulating the involvement of the interpreter in conducting psychophysiological examinations using a polygraph, as it is the field of crime investigation that requires strict compliance with the requirements of procedural law. according to the results of the research, the factors that determine the expediency of involving the interpreter in the polygraph examination, which, in addition to the general rules, should also include cases where the subject of interest, although speaks the state language, but his / her language is foreign. it is noted that in the process of the polygraph examination conduct it is necessary to take into account such peculiarities of a person’s knowledge of a foreign language as the use of dialectisms, slang and professional jargon, etc. from the standpoint of determined peculiarities of a polygraph examination conduct, the qualification requirements for the interpreter, which ensure the successful and effective conduct of such examination, are substantiated. the article reveals the main aspects of polygraph examinations conduct the interpreter should be acquainted with and the rules of behaviour of the interpreter in the examination process. the problems and directions of their decision are defined through the example of the criminal procedure legislation of ukraine which are connected both with the general rules of involvement of the interpreter in forensic examination conduct influencing efficiency of carrying out psychophysiological examinations with the use of a polygraph, and peculiarities of legal regulation of the organization and carrying out this type of examination. keywords: polygraph, interpreter, polygraph examiner, polygraph examination, psychophysiological examination. how to cite: butenko, o., ivanova, n., radkovych, i., palyvoda, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2022). peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination: organizational and legal aspects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 347-370. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/347 mailto:alexeyb1979@ukr.net http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6273-0717 mailto:ivanova2112@ukr.net http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6108-4725 mailto:blavatskaya2801@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7362-7619 mailto:olsorvanec@gmai.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2027-3316 mailto:i.bloshch@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1925-9621 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/347 peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 348 1. introduction formulation of the problem. the urgency of the problem stated in the article is stipulated by the fact that the involvement of the interpreter in the process of polygraph examinations involves compliance not only with the general requirements for this category of specialists, but also has its own peculiarities due to the specifics of these psychophysiological examinations. the process of carrying out the activities by the subjects of the security and defence sector (especially in the performance of functional tasks by law enforcement agencies and special services) in connection with the verification of the information shared by a person, often makes provision for a need of polygraph examinations, including individuals who have no/insufficient skills in the state (ukrainian) language. this determines the relevance of a detailed consideration of aspects of the language of a polygraph examination, taking into account the specifics of its conduct. after all, the misunderstanding of the essence of polygraph examiner’s questions by the subject of examination makes it impossible to determine the fact of hiding certain information. in addition, the subject of polygraph examination may have insufficient state language skills to understand all the questions of the polygraph examiner, or the polygraph examiner and the subject of interest may be fluent in another language (e. g. english, polish, russian, etc.), but the legislator obliges them to interact within the legal proceedings in the state language. from this there is a need to use in polygraph examination a language other than that defined by the legislator as the state language, and, accordingly, the possibility of involvement (or, conversely, decision on the inexpediency of involvement) of the interpreter in the examination. it should be noted that, the decision on the involvement of the interpreter in the activities of law enforcement and security institutions should also take into account the possibility/expediency of participation of third parties in the polygraph examination given the need to keep certain aspects of the case secret (secrecy of investigation) restricting the range of persons admitted to certain information (in order to prevent information leakage), etc. the urgency of the issue of the language of the polygraph examination is added by the separation since 2015 within the forensic psychological examination of its type as a survey using a special technical tool i. e. a computer polygraph. this, in turn, led to an increase in the parties’ appeals to this examination during the court proceedings. thus, according to the information available in the unified state register of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 349 judgments of courts of ukraine, the number of decisions / judgements of courts the subject-matter of which was psychological examination using a polygraph, increased from 45 to 329 from 2015 until now. the latter necessitates legal regulation of the requirements on organization and conduct of this type of examination with the involvement of the interpreter. also, a significant increase in the number of cases of using the results of polygraph examinations in court, necessitates not only to determine the algorithm for the interpreter’s involvement in the examination using a polygraph, but also to review the legal basis for his involvement. 2. general background of research analysis of recent research and publications. the study of the scientific literature on the issues of polygraph examination showed that, among a large array of publications on various aspects of the use of a polygraph, the subject-matter of the interpreter’s involvement is represented only by single publications. t. luo revealed interpreter’s involvement in translation as an intangible factor of combat power involving information and knowledge, and proposes a framework to map out how translation acts upon the internal mechanism of war (luo, 2016). some scientists considered english significance in self-education of the students and information technologies usage in translation during the foreign language professional training (melnychuk et al., 2017a; bloshchynskyi, 2017b). the communicative aspects of interpreting in the form of an interview were presented in the research of (karpushyna et al., 2019). detailed esp morphological and semantic analyses of different lexical units were highlighted by (lahodynskyi et al., 2018). the research regarding flexible translation strategies applied in various tasks of military terms translation was performed by l. sha, who conducted the analytical study and stated that as a consequence, translators needed to pay more attention on the relation of military terms to other items, such as sacrificial ceremony, hierarchy, social custom and so forth. (sha, 2018). the problem of translation of military register from english to polish was investigated by joanna pirus on the examples taken from the movies (pirus, 2015). postmodern reality is different from other epoch which are characterized by fragmentation, game, probability. in postmodern society, information becomes a valuable commodity. former values power, money, exchange, production, began to be deconstructed. everything turns into a game, the elite one into a mass one, good and evil are replaced by peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 350 ambivalence, consumption is fetishized. powerful universals are rejected, and the main violin begins to play virtual reality (bloshchynskyi et al., 2021). in the postmodern era, there are also some complex and contradictory processes of reassessment of the axiological reorientation of modern man. in this case, scientists s. hanaba, o. mysechko, i. bloshchynskyi emphasized that solidarity of efforts is a common condition for world survival (hanaba et al., 2020). such scholars suggest that “the expansion of new and traditional media through the transformation of information into knowledge” is very important for obtaining knowledge with a help of various communication forms” (melnychuk et al., 2019). a person in interaction with another culture acquires new experience, new skills, abilities (hanaba et al., 2019). in particular, the issues of the interpreter’s involvement were covered in the articles by burdick and division (1973), godby (1992), aliiev (2015), usykov (2015). william e. wagner considered the peculiarities of the involvement of a sign language interpreter in conducting polygraph examinations on people with hearing impairments (wagner, 1979). such scholars as a. soshnikov, jaw. komissarova, a. pelenitsyn, v. fedorenko formulated recommendations for the involvement of the interpreter in conducting polygraph examinations in the course of the investigation of crimes (soshnikov et al., 2008). however, today the problems of legal regulation of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination have remained out of the attention of scientists. 3. methodology of research the objective of the article is to reveal and substantiate the peculiarities of the involvement and participation of the interpreter in polygraph examinations, as well as the basic requirements for legal regulation of such participation on the example of criminal procedure legislation of ukraine, due to the use of polygraph in crime investigation and compliance not only with the examination methodology, clear wording of tests, but also corresponding to certain procedural formalities. therefore, the research consists of three parts based on the specified objective. the first part reveals the peculiarities of the interpreter’s involvement in conducting polygraph examinations in relation to persons who do not have or have insufficient state language skills. the second part reveals the peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in the process of polygraph examinations. the third part reveals legal aspects of the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 351 interpreter’s activity in psychophysiological expert investigations with the use of a polygraph as a participant in the criminal process. the basis of the research methodology is a praxeological approach, which consists in considering a polygraph examination as a professional activity of specialists, and therefore determining the consistent patterns and organizational aspects of involving the interpreter in this activity as a way to increase its efficiency and success. also, a positivistic approach makes the basis for considering the legal aspects of involving the interpreter in conducting polygraph examinations in the investigation of crimes. according to the results of the research, we considered the involvement of the interpreter for polygraph examinations conduct and distinguished the peculiarities of the organization of their carrying out both from the perspectives of a polygraph examiner and from the perspectives of an interpreter. based on the distinguished peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examinations and the analysis of the relevant norms of the criminal procedural law we identified the problems of legal regulation of this aspect and developed proposals for their solution. the significance of the research results lies in the possibility of their use in the direct organization and conduct of such examinations, the development of standards and rules for the involvement of the interpreter in conducting polygraph examinations, improvement of the criminal procedure legislation. 4. results of research i. peculiarities of the interpreter’s involvement in polygraph examinations in relation to persons who do not have or have insufficient state language skills. in order to determine the specific problematic aspects of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examinations, it is necessary to determine the general algorithm of such examinations and the peculiarities of the examination procedure if the respondent has no/insufficient state language skills. in this context, there is no doubt that presenting incentives (asking questions) to the person is best done in a language that the person speaks fluently or at least uses it in everyday life (i. e. “thinks using the language”). this necessitates a polygraph examination (including psychological expert investigation using a polygraph) to be conducted in a foreign language, even if the subject speaks the state language at a certain level. in such a case, it is necessary to carry out interrogation from the very beginning of the examination. peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 352 distinguishing the general algorithm of polygraph examinations will allow to determine the possibility/expediency and peculiarities of the interpreter’s involvement in polygraph examinations, and, in particular, to answer questions about: expediency of the interpreter’s involvement in the whole examination or its separate stages (if there is information about the respondent’s understanding of the language of the polygraph examiner, a decision can be made not only on the possibility of conducting certain stages of the examination without the participation of the interpreter, but also on how to present incentives, make adjustments to the diagnostic procedure), methods of translation and communication between the polygraph examiner and the interpreter during the examination, requirements for the interpreter/polygraph examiner (including his specialization, level of dialect proficiency, the need for preliminary preparation, external, gender characteristics, etc.). therefore, the following stages are distinguished in the polygraph examination: preparatory, direct examination (contains the following elements: pre-test interrogation; testing/interrogation; inter-test interrogations; post-test interrogation), final (analysis of results). each of these stages has a specific goal, the achievement of which allows you to effectively implement the general concept of the examination. in particular, the preparatory stage provides for carrying out of: preliminary study of materials provided to the polygraph examiner (including determination of their objectivity, sources of receipt, etc.), and individual psychological characteristics of the respondent (in particular: education, field of activity, nationality, citizenship, his and his close relatives permanent place of residence, etc.); development (taking into account preliminary study) of questionnaires (tests) for a specific person. in addition, this stage defines the organizational aspects of the polygraph examination conduct (place, time, prior consent to the examination, the presence of third parties), a clear list of questions to be answered by the polygraph examiner based on the results of the examination. the polygraph examination usually begins with the study of materials provided by the client of the examination, as well as other important facts/data about the person and circumstances of the case for the benefit of achieving the goal of the examination. at this stage, in our opinion, it is necessary to find out whether there is information on the level of the state language skills by the respondent (or another language that is fluent for the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 353 polygraph examiner). first of all, it is necessary to take into account: general understanding of the language in which it is planned to conduct the interrogation using a polygraph; the level of language skills; the use of certain dialectisms, professionalisms (professional vocabulary), jargons, etc. by the respondent. at the same time, the polygraph examiner must know and understand the basis of the main peculiarities of the mentality and traditions of the people to which the respondent belongs. this will allow you to correctly and efficiently prepare the interrogation program, conduct pre-test, inter-test and post-test interrogations. this information can also be useful in analysing polygrams and preparing an appropriate conclusion. and that is the preparatory stage which is already used taking into account the available information about the identity of the respondent to make a decision on the involvement of the interpreter. most polygraph examiners adhere to the position, which is conditioned by the specifics of a polygraph examination, that conducting the examination in a language convenient (native) for the respondent, without the involvement of the interpreter, is the best option because it does not involve third parties. however, it should be borne in mind that such an approach will be successful if the specialist who conducts the polygraph examination fluently speaks the language of the respondent or this language is native to the polygraph examiner. if the polygraph examiner has the language skills of the examined person, but the level of which is not high enough, it is more expedient to involve the interpreter in this examination. it is worth noting that even if the interpreter is not involved in all stages of the polygraph examination, this period is extremely important for its further organization. after all, as noted in the publications abovementioned, this period should be used for the preparation (instruction) of the interpreter for the future procedure. in particular, it should include: informing about: functions of a polygraph, psychophysiological theory of a polygraph examination, rules of formulation of questions, definition of technical terminology which, probably, will be used; the location of the interpreter during the examination, as well as his/her rules of conduct in the testing process, paying special attention to what the interpreter is forbidden to do (distract himself and distract the respondent, communicate with the respondent or interfere in the dialogue between the polygraph examiner and the respondent, give redirections to the person being tested, exert psychological pressure on him/her); working out the signal system with the interpreter to ask or repeat questions, start and end the test; determination of the form of translation peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 354 (first person, literal translation) and, taking into account the qualification of the interpreter, the method of translation (consecutive, simultaneous), etc. involvement of the interpreter in the polygraph examination becomes possible and expedient provided the interpreter is acquainted with its specifics, clear planning and deliberate preparation and discussion of the test questions, as well as taking other measures aimed at preventing the negative impact of a third party involvement (by solving organizational and procedural issues) to the process of the polygraph examination. an equally important part of involving the interpreter in the process of the polygraph examination is ascertainment his/her qualification. the polygraph examiner must find out whether a particular person meets the requirements for the interpreter and whether he/she is professionally able to translate within the polygraph examination. it is clear that the main requirement is the professionalism of the interpreter, i. e. he/she must not distort the information in the process of translating the questions of the polygraph examiner. however, there are other aspects of the interpreter’s work that can negatively affect the results of the examination and the polygraph examiner’s conclusion. in particular, adherence to the appropriate tone of communication (avoidance of intonation that will change the essence/importance of certain aspects, accusatory intonation, etc.), the pace of conversation (speaking), command of specific vocabulary, prevention of unauthorized informing the respondent about certain aspects of the questions which may reveal the “secret of the investigation” and facilitate to increase the number of people who are aware of the facts available to government officials, information acquisition source, etc. in addition, there may be additional requirements for the interpreter in some cases (in particular, the right to familiarize with certain materials (access to information with limited access), no conflict of interest, belonging to certain social groups, etc.). certain requirements for the competence of the interpreter are also determined by the examination procedure itself: asking questions or presenting incentives (photo/video/material); the ability to translate at sight in case of clarification of new circumstances in the examination process and the need for prompt adjustment of fact-finding questionnaires; the need to participate in the preparatory stage (including the explanation to the polygraph examiner of the peculiarities of the construction of grammatical forms in the language to be used in the examination, to better develop test questions, etc.) or in the final stage in preparing a conclusion on the results of the polygraph examination; other organizational aspects of conducting the examination using a polygraph. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 355 ii. peculiarities of the polygraph examination with the participation of the interpreter. the process of direct examination begins with a pre-test conversation. the polygraph examiner usually observes the speed and clarity of answers to individual questions/topics as far as during the conversation. this allows predetermining the topic, which is avoided by the respondent and may later in the process of direct interrogation give false answers. in addition, the respondent’s understanding of some words, or the content as a whole, will allow him/her to consider the answer to the polygraph examiner’s questions more than usual allowing for the time to the interpreter to translate. therefore, the polygraph examiner’s misunderstanding of the level of language skills by the examined person may complicate the pre-test conversation precisely because of the difficulty of identifying the real factors of changes in behaviour, expressions and nonverbal manifestations of the respondent. at the same time, the polygraph examiner’s misunderstanding of the moment when the respondent became aware of the question complicates the conduct of his/her direct testing. it is the importance of clearly tracking the time limits of the reactions of the respondent to the laying of the stimulus that determines the peculiarities of the procedure of the polygraph examination with the involvement of the interpreter (this is the testing itself). therefore, it is seen that the following rules should be followed when organizing and conducting the test itself with the involvement of the interpreter: the test questions are drawn up by the polygraph examiner and translated in advance. in this case, the interpreter in cooperation with the polygraph examiner must convey the semantic and psychological load of all types of questions included in the interrogation. in particular, when applying the method of control questions, it is necessary to maintain a balance of psycho-emotional load of control and test questions; the questions during the process of presenting stimuli (testing) are read by the interpreter without their prior announcement by the polygraph examiner. since the methodology of interrogations makes clear requirements for all groups of questions addressed to the respondent, the same requirements must be met as much as possible when translating. first of all, the questions should be: as short as possible; not have two or more verbs; not have an ambiguous interpretation. peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 356 in addition, it should be noted that relevant (significant, verification, key) questions can be asked in the forms of:  direct question: “did you take the money from the safe?”;  detailed indirect question: “do you know for sure who took the money from the safe?”;  several questions: “do you know for sure: who took the money from the safe?; when exactly did the theft happen?; how did the robber get the money out of the closed safe?; where is the stolen money now? etc. these examples show that in order to translate the interrogation program drawn up by the polygraph examiner, i. e. the questions that will be asked during the interrogation, the interpreter must “feel” the nuances of both languages and convey them accurately. let us note that it is necessary not only to literally translate the questions, but also to take into account the forms, clichés of the foreign language that are inherent in it. it should also be borne in mind that the form of the question and the use of “emotionally saturated” words play a significant role in conducting the polygraph examination. also, during the interrogation conduct, the polygraph examiner can use various stimuli to obtain psychophysiological reactions, non-verbal stimuli can be considered the most effective ones in working with foreigners. for example, relevant photographs and objects that make up a number of neutral distractors in tests of the method of detecting hidden information, so-called search tests. the moment of awareness of the stimulus can be clearly recorded by the polygraph examiner in the case when the interpreter translates only the first main question and the polygraph examiner demonstrates stimuli in the form of photos / objects. in other words, the polygraph examiner “counts” the latent reaction time on all channels that graphically reflect changes in psychophysiological reactions from the moment when the respondent saw the stimulus. it should be noted that the communication between the respondent and the polygraph examiner with the participation of the interpreter also has its own peculiarities. thus, such a person may resort to certain explanations in the process of the polygraph examination. this should additionally be taken into account when preparing the interpreter for the examination procedure, as he must understand the rules and importance of accurate translation of information provided by the respondent, as well as the need to broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 357 keep to the communication procedure with the subject of interest in order to clarify certain data. in the future, in the case of identifying additional facts that need to be verified in the process of the polygraph examination (including in the case of certain clarifications within the inter-test interrogations), there may be a need to draw up additional tests, adjust existing test questions. in this case, the requirements for the interpreter’s professionalism, the organization of his/her cooperation with the polygraph examiner and the respondent are significantly increased. after all, additional negotiations between the polygraph examiner and the interpreter not only increase the duration of the examination, but also can give the respondent the opportunity to prepare for questions, while reducing the strength of reactions to them. thus, at first glance, it seems easier to limit the polygraph examination to incentives that do not require the involvement of third parties, minimizing communication solely in the form of material traces, than to take into account the additional influence of the interpreter on the examination procedure. however, such an organization of polygraph testing is not always possible due to the specifics of the stimuli / traces available to the polygraph examiner. in addition, the decision to involve the interpreter should be made taking into account the ratio of pros and cons of third party participation, given that the researchers of this problem (burdick & division, 1973; soshnikov et al., 2008), in most cases, emphasize that the participation of the interpreter may complicate the polygraph examination due to: additional stress and anxiety that arise from the presence of the interpreter; difficulty in establishing psychological contact between the polygraph examiner and the subject of interest; additional influences on the respondent by the interpreter, which are difficult to be control by the polygraph examiner; the ability to avoid the answers by the subject of interest alleging as his/her reason that does not understand the essence of the question; increasing the duration of the procedure and reducing the level of confidentiality of the polygraph examination, etc. in addition, the interpreter actually acts as a mediator between the polygraph examiner and the respondent, voicing not only the questions of the polygraph examiner, but also the words/explanations/requests/requirements of the subject of interest. in view of the above, it is important for the interpreter to observe “neutrality” in situations of confrontation or sympathy for one of the parties. in addition, the interpreter should refrain from discussions with the subject of interest, initiative explanations and informing about the details of the case, etc. peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 358 there are also certain peculiarities of interpretation in the process of polygraph examinations. in particular, b. aliiev proposed the following “rules” of interpretation (aliiev, 2015): the worst translation is better than no translation; the interpreter must always have a loud confident voice, a clear reaction; the utterance must always be ended; “hemmed” and “hununed” expressions are not allowed; the interpreter translates only what he/she is completely sure of; the logical connection of the previous information with the next one must be felt in the translation; the length of the translation and the original (almost) coincide; translation requires the use of only constant expressions, etc. in addition, he/she emphasizes such fundamental principles that determine the success of polygraph examination with the participation of the interpreter, as the accuracy and completeness of the translation. thus, involvement of the interpreter in the process of polygraph examinations should take into account certain psychological (mentality, national characteristics as well as traditions, moral and religious postulates, etc.), psychophysiological (body reactions to additional stressors, changes in response with a significant increase in examination duration, etc.) and linguistic aspects (specificity of construction of grammatical constructions in different languages, complexity of exact translation of separate words and phrases, use of dialectisms, etc.). the presence of such peculiarities necessitates the formulation of rules/principles of translation in the conditions of polygraph examinations. taking into account the analysis of publications and certain aspects of the organization of the polygraph examination procedure, in our opinion, in addition to the general principles of polygraph examiners’ activity (in particular, scientific character, legality, confidentiality, humanism, personal responsibility, etc.), the following additional principles of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examinations can be distinguished: minimization of participation (the interpreter should be involved only in those stages of polygraph examinations and to the extent that makes it possible to implement the conception and solve the tasks/questions set before the polygraph examiner; the interpreter’s participation should not affect the examination procedure (influence behaviour (distract) the respondent, cause significant changes in the organization of the process of communication between the polygraph examiner and the respondent, prevent the separation of real from false reactions of the respondent to the presentation of stimuli, etc.), combination of necessity, expediency and possibility of the involvement (when deciding on the need to involve the interpreter in a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 359 polygraph examination, his/her formal (socio-demographic characteristics, access to classified information, etc.) and psychological characteristics must be taken into account (including the ability to translation in emotionally stressful/monotonous conditions, while maintaining a high pace of activity and balance (emotional and volitional stability); the ability not to draw too much attention to his/her own person, taciturnity, the ability to keep information), professionalism and knowledgeability (the interpreter must not only be competent in the state language and the language in which the polygraph examination is planned, but also have special terminology, have relevant work experience (within criminal, administrative proceedings, forensic examinations, etc.), know the peculiarities and principles of polygraph examinations conduct at a level sufficient to effectively ensure the procedure of the polygraph examination). in our opinion, the involvement of the interpreter who has relevant competencies in polygraph examinations (knowledge of the basic principles, methods and techniques used in the process of such examination, his/her understanding of the examination situation, knowledgeability of the subjectmatter which is checked with a polygraph, etc.) or being a polygraph examiner himself will also increase the effectiveness of the examination of a foreigner using a polygraph. however, such a procedure (conducting polygraph examinations in a foreign language in the course of proceedings) should be standardized, including the definition of the requirements for the person of the polygraph examiner, which determine his/her ability to carry out appropriate activities in a foreign language. iii. regulation of the language issue of procedural actions in ukrainian legislation: problems and prospects for improvement if we analyse the areas of polygraph application in the security and defence sector, the issue of legal regulation of the involvement of the interpreter in the polygraph examination becomes most important in terms of psycho-physiological examinations conducted in connection with criminal investigations. the ratio of the total number of polygraph examinations mentioned in court decisions to the number of corresponding forensic examinations using a polygraph that were conducted in criminal proceedings (see table 1, figure 1) suggests a growing trend both in the total number of polygraph examinations conducted by law enforcement agencies and the growth of the share of forensic examinations among them (from 68 to 83 % of the total peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 360 number of decisions/rulings of courts, the subject-matter of which was the psychological examination using a polygraph). table 1. statistics of references to polygraph examinations in court decisions for 2015 2021 total number of references reference in criminal proceedings ratio of criminal proceedings to the total number of references (in %) 2015 45 31 68.9 2016 76 63 82.9 2017 66 45 68.2 2018 174 119 68.4 2019 201 162 80.6 2020 262 202 77.1 2021 329 241 73.3 source: according to the data from the unified state register of judgments of courts of ukraine figure 1. diagram of the number of references to conducting psychological examinations using a polygraph in court decisions (from the moment of inclusion of such examinations to the types of forensic examinations in ukraine) 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 загальна к-сть згадувань згадування у рамках кримінального провадження total number of references references in criminal proceedings broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 361 this is primarily due to the requirements of articles 5 and 6 of the convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms (convention for the protection of human rights, 1950. in particular, part 2 of article 5 of the convention provides that everyone who is arrested shall be informed promptly, in a language which he understands, of the reasons for his arrest and of any charge against him/her. part 3 of article 6 of this convention defines among the rights of the accused in the commission of a criminal offense: to be informed promptly, in a language which he understands and in detail, of the nature and cause of the accusation against him; to have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the language used in court. the legal basis for the use of the state language is usually defined in the constitution and the relevant special law at the level of an individual state. in particular, in ukraine, article 10 of the basic law stipulates that the state ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the ukrainian language in all spheres of public life throughout ukraine. paragraph 4 of article 92 of the constitution of ukraine stipulates that the procedure for the use of languages is determined exclusively by the laws of ukraine (constitution of ukraine, 1996). in pursuance of this provision, the adopted law of ukraine “on ensuring the functioning of the ukrainian language as the state language” (law of ukraine “on ensuring the functioning of the ukrainian language as the state language”, 2019) defines, among other things, the basic principles of using the state language in the judiciary (article 14) and in law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies, state bodies of special purpose with law enforcement functions (article 16). according to the mentioned norms, judicial proceedings, official activities, document circulation, communication with citizens of ukraine are carried out in the state language. in addition, the use of a language other than the state language is provided for in the proceedings determined by the procedural codes of ukraine and the law of ukraine “on the judiciary and the status of judges” (part 2 of article 14). accordingly, part 3 of article 12 of the law of ukraine “on the judiciary and the status of judges” stipulates that courts use the state language in court proceedings and guarantee the right of citizens to use their native language or the language they speak in judicial proceedings (law of ukraine “on the judiciary and the status of judges”, 2016). with this in mind, it can be concluded that the norms of international regulatory legal acts, the constitution of ukraine, special laws of ukraine, which determine the principles of functioning of languages and judicial proceedings determine the right of a person to use his/her native peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 362 language or language he/she can speak, and accordingly the duty of the state is to ensure acquaintance of such person, in case of his/her legal relations with the state connected with carrying out pre-judicial investigation or judicial process, with his/her procedural rights, duties, acts of individual action in native or understandable for this person language which can be different from the state language. these norms of legislation are declarative in nature, and, in fact, determine the state policy in the field of language use. accordingly, the specification and procedure for implementing these provisions in criminal proceedings are enshrined in the criminal procedure legislation. at the same time, a detailed analysis of the relevant provisions of the criminal procedure code of ukraine (criminal procedure code of ukraine, 2013) indicates the presence of challenging issues related to ensuring the right of a person to use a native or understandable language other than the state language regarding both the involvement of an interpreter and the conduct of forensic examinations in general and specifically psychophysiological examinations using a polygraph. in particular, in accordance with paragraph 25 of article 3 of the criminal procedure code, an interpreter is designated as a participant in criminal proceedings, and article 68 of this code defines his/her legal status as a participant in criminal proceedings. involvement of an interpreter in the criminal proceeding is provided by a number of norms of the criminal procedure code of ukraine, namely: investigating judge, court, prosecutor, investigator provide participants in criminal proceedings who have no or insufficient state language skills, the right to testify, present a petition and file complaints, to speak in court in their native language or another language they speak, using the services of an interpreter if necessary in the manner prescribed by this code (part 3 of article 29). a suspect or an accused has the right: to use his/her native language, to receive copies of procedural documents in his/her native or another language he/she speaks, and if necessary to use the services of an interpreter at the expense of the state. (paragraph 18 of part 3 of article 42). a victim has the right during criminal proceedings: to give explanations, testimony in his/her native language or another language he/she is fluent in, to use the services of an interpreter free of charge at the expense of the state if he/she does not speak the state language or the language of the criminal proceedings (paragraph 9 of part 1 of article 56). a witness has the right to testify in his/her mother tongue or in another language he/she is fluent in and to use the assistance of an interpreter (paragraph 4 of part 1 of article 66). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 363 the comprehensive analysis of the above articles indicates the existence of gaps in the regulation of the interpreter’s participation in criminal proceedings. first, the general right of participants in criminal proceedings to use their mother tongue or a language they are fluent in, and consequently the grounds for involving an interpreter, is limited to their right to testify, present a petition and file complaints, to speak in court in their native language or another language they speak. in this case, the suspect, the accused additionally has the right to receive copies of procedural documents in his/her native language or in another language he/she speaks. at the same time, the rights of the witness and the victim are limited compared to the general right to use their native language, or a language they are fluent in only until testimony (explanations) are given. it is quite logical that only in these cases should the right to use the services of an interpreter be granted. in addition, the above rules do not take into account the rights of participants in criminal proceedings with disabilities i. e. hearing and speech impairments. considering that, such persons may speak the state language, but in communication with them, there is a need to involve a person who speaks sign language (sign language interpreter) who, besides the point, falls under the status of the interpreter in accordance with article 68 of the criminal procedure code. also, as noted by s. illiuk: the criminal procedure legislation, in contrast to civil, commercial and administrative proceedings, does not determine qualification requirements for the interpreter. in particular, there is no algorithm for checking the level of knowledge of the interpreter’s language skills to assess his/her possibility of proper translation when considering the essence of the case (illiuk, 2020). the next issue that needs to be regulated is the status of forensic examination in criminal proceedings as such. the fact is that chapter 20 of “investigative (search) actions” of the criminal procedure code of ukraine does not explicitly define forensic examination as an investigative action in contrast to interrogation, presentation of a person, things, corpse for identification, entry into housing or other estate, search, inspection, examination of a corpse, investigative experiment, certification of a person which are directly defined by the legislator as investigative actions. however, the same section of “investigative actions” contains rules that determine: the grounds for examination (article 242), the procedure for involving an expert peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 364 (article 243), consideration of a request for examination by the investigating judge (article 244), obtaining samples for examination (article 245). this stipulates controversy among scientists and practitioners as to whether conducting a forensic examination is an investigative action. without going into the description of the available views, the consideration of which is not the subject of this article, we only note that we hold the view that forensic examination is an investigative action. this reasoning is based on the following provisions: according to article 1 of the law of ukraine “on forensic examination” it is the examination based on special knowledge in the field of science, technology, art, occupation, etc. of objects, phenomena and processes in order to provide findings on issues that are or will be subject to court trial (law of ukraine “on forensic examination”, 1994). according to part 2 of article 84 of the code of criminal procedure, expert findings are procedural sources of evidence. part 1 of article 101 normatively enshrines the concept of “expert finding” i. e. a detailed description of the examination conducted by the expert and the findings drawn from them, substantiated answers to questions posed by the person who involved the expert or by the investigating judge or court that commissioned the expert examination. in turn, according to part 1 of article 223, investigative (search) actions are actions aimed at obtaining (collecting) evidence or verification of already obtained evidence in a particular criminal proceeding. therefore, we fully share the opinion that the involvement of an expert and forensic examination is an investigative action, which is a special, provided for in the legislation form of obtaining new knowledge relevant to criminal proceedings, through examination by persons with special knowledge in the field of science, technology, arts and occupation. the essence of the examination (expert examination) is the conduct of an independent examination by an experienced person (expert) at the request of a party to criminal proceedings or on behalf of the investigating judge or court on the basis of his/her special knowledge which is necessary to clarify the circumstances relevant to criminal proceedings and are embodied in the expert’s findings” (hroshevyi et al., 2013). regarding the subject-matter of the article, determining the status of forensic examination in criminal proceedings is considered important in view of determining the status of the interpreter involved in the relevant type of forensic examination using a polygraph, namely whether the interpreter involved only in polygraph expert examination is a participant in criminal proceedings and whether the rights, duties and responsibilities of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 365 the interpreter as defined in article 68 of the criminal procedure code of ukraine apply to him? in other words, does the interpreter involved in the psychophysiological examination with the use of a polygraph have a legal status in accordance with the criminal procedure legislation? in our opinion, such a person should be subject to the requirements of the above-mentioned norm of the criminal procedure code of ukraine, first of all, due to the fact that he/she becomes aware of information directly related to the criminal proceedings when involved in such an examination. it should also be noted that these problems violate such principles of criminal procedure as legality and dispositivity, create legal uncertainty and negatively affect the uniform application of the criminal procedure code of ukraine. in addition to the listed problematic issues of legal regulation of the interpreter’s involvement during the expert examination, which also negatively affect the organization of examination using a polygraph in criminal proceedings, we should also pay attention to the problems of legal regulation of the interpreter’s involvement in the expert examination using a polygraph. thus, in accordance with part 3 of article 29 of the criminal procedure code of ukraine, the investigating judge, court, prosecutor, investigator provide participants in criminal proceedings who have no or insufficient state language skills, the right to testify, present a petition and file complaints, to speak in court in their native language or another language they speak using the services of an interpreter if necessary. the detailed analysis of this and other related rules of criminal procedure legislation and its literal understanding allow us to conclude that there are a number of problems that may adversely affect the organization of the polygraph examination, namely: the right to use the native language (other than the state language) does not cover the language of the examination; the use of a native language (other than the state language) is provided only in the case of lack or insufficient state language skills. in addition, both the general requirements for the interpreter’s qualification and the specific ones, due to the peculiarities of the polygraph examination, need to be regulated. thus, the legal regulation of the interpreter’s involvement to participate in the psychophysiological examination using a polygraph needs to be improved in terms of adjustment: the status of forensic examination as an investigative action; peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 366 the possibility, in the case of the specifics of the expert examination, to use the native language by the participants of the process, even if they speak the state language. in the same context, there is a need to regulate the possibility of conducting a polygraph examination without the involvement of the interpreter, if the polygraph expert is fluent in the same language as the subject of interest. insofar as the direct communication of the polygraph examiner with the subject of interest provides a more accurate fixation of psychophysiological reactions and the ability to reduce the impact of adverse factors (including the presence of third parties) and stimuli on them, and as a result a greater degree of the appropriate expert examination reliability; the rights of persons with hearing and speech impairments to use the services of a sign language interpreter; determining the general professional requirements for the interpreter as a participant in criminal proceedings. legal confirmation is also needed in terms of the requirements for the procedure of involving the interpreter in a psychophysiological forensic examination using a polygraph, including special requirements for his / her qualification, in particular, perfect command of a foreign language, knowledgeability to accurately reflect the content of questions and answers, taking into account the language peculiarities and its individual dialects, knowledgeability and understanding the specifics of a polygraph examination, compliance with the rules of conduct during its execution, as well as the rules of polygraph examination with the participation of the interpreter. these issues, in our opinion, should be resolved at the level of the standard of the relevant expert examination. 5. conclusions the growing relevance and demand for polygraph examinations in various spheres of public life leads to a wide discussion in the communities of the reliability of the results obtained in the process of their implementation, including the cases of possible modifications of examination procedures. one such specific situation of a polygraph examination is when the subject of interest is a foreigner or does not have sufficient state language skills well due to various circumstances. this necessitates the solution of additional questions by a polygraph specialist regarding the organization and conduct of such examination. although most polygraph examiners are currently wary of the interpreter’s participation in this psychophysiological examination of a person, this method is considered possible provided that certain rules and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 367 procedures are followed. in addition, the involvement of the interpreter in conducting polygraph examination has its own peculiarities in comparison with the participation of such specialists in the implementation of other activities within the activities of specialists in the security and defence sector. in particular, it is important to adhere to the principles of: minimization of participation (the interpreter is involved in exceptional situations when it is impossible to carry out the examination without professional linguistic assistance); combination of necessity, expediency and possibility of the involvement (taking into account the socio-demographic and psychological characteristics of the interpreter, the specifics of the established restrictions on the given situation of the examination, etc.); professionalism and knowledgeability (since the interpreter’s qualification has a decisive influence upon the overall performance of the polygraph examination, special training of this specialist is required). the qualification of the interpreter, who is involved in the polygraph examination, presupposes the development of communicative characteristics, perfect mastery of language technologies, ability to control his/her own emotional manifestations, awareness of the specifics of a polygraph examination conduct. the effectiveness of such cooperation is also added by the implementation of additional procedures before the examination, namely: early planning and instruction of the interpreter, his/her training in basic aspects of psychophysiology of responding to emotionally significant stimuli, testing the signal system. a clear regulation of polygraph examinations is of particular importance within the activities in the security and defence sector, as a subject of public law, who is guided in his /her activities by the principles of the rule of law, legality, respect for human rights and freedoms, etc. taking into account the above, the considered problems of legal and regulatory framework of the interpreter’s participation in conducting psychophysiological forensic examinations with the use of a polygraph in criminal proceedings and the proposed directions of their solution can be conditionally divided into the following groups: principles of using the state language and other languages in criminal proceedings; the status of forensic examinations in criminal proceedings; requirements for the interpreter as a participant in criminal proceedings, and special ones, due to the distinguishing features of a polygraph examination; peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 368 peculiarities of the procedure of the interpreter’s involvement and his/her participation in carrying out polygraph examination. acknowledgement regarding the contribution of each author to the research: natalya ivanova, iryna radkovych, olha palyvoda researched organisational and procedure aspects of involving the interpreter in conducting psychophysiological examinations using a polygraph; oleksii butenko made researching of legal aspects in terms of the interpreter’s involvement in conducting psychophysiological examinations using a polygraph; ihor bloshchynskyi supervised the project. references aliiev, b. (2015). the role of the interpreter in polygraph testing. current issues of theory and practice of using a polygraph: collection of articles / under the general editorship of v. o. shapovalov. education of ukraine. bloshchynskyi, i. (2017a). enhancement of cadets’ practical training at the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi. science and education, 4, 5-10. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-4-1. bloshchynskyi, i. h. (2017b) usage of anki specialised program application during future border guard officers’ independent foreign language professional training for passing state examination. information technologies and learning tools, 58(2), 49-58. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v58i2.1605 bloshchynskyi, i., hanaba, s., snitsa, t., & mysechko, o. (2021). trust and mutual assistance as moral and ethical values in maintaining mental health under the conditions of pandemic. postmodern openings, 12(2), 472-483. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.2/318 burdick, a. h., division, l. a. (1973). use of an interpreter during a polygraph examination. polygraph, 02(4), 305-308. constitution of ukraine, of june 28, 1996 no. 254k / 96-vr, bulletin of the verkhovna rada of ukraine (bvr), 1996, no. 30, art. 141. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/254%d0%ba/96%d0%b2%d1%80#text https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-4-1 https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v58i2.1605 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.2/318 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/254%d0%ba/96-%d0%b2%d1%80#text https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/254%d0%ba/96-%d0%b2%d1%80#text broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 369 convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, ratified on july 17, 1997 by the law of ukraine “on ratification of the convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms of 1950, first protocol and protocols no. 2, 4, 7 and 11 to the convention”. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/995_004?find=1&text=%d0%bc %d0%be%d0%b2#text criminal procedure code of ukraine. bulletin of the verkhovna rada of ukraine, 2013, no. 9-10, no. 11-12, no. 13, art. 88. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/4651-17#text. godby, r. e. (1992). polygraph examinations with interpreters. polygraph, 21(2), 8391. hanaba, s., miroshnichenko, v., shumovetska, s., makohonchuk, n., halimov, a., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2019). strategies for treating the other in the methodological focus of intersubjectivity. postmodern openings, 10(4), 168181. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/101. hanaba, s., mysechko, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). solidarity of efforts as a common condition for the survival of the world in a pandemic. postmodern openings, 11(1supl2), 29-38. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/137 illiuk, s. (2020). problems of using the native language in procedural aspects. https://ecpl.com.ua/news/problemy-vykorystannia-ridnoi-movy-vprotsesual-nykh-aspektakh/ karpushyna, m., bloshchynskyi, i., zheliaskov, v., chymshyr, v., kolmykova, o., & tymofieieva, o. (2019). warm-up as a means of fostering targetlanguage performance in a particular english class. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(2), 141-159. https://doi:10.18662/rrem/122 lahodynskyi o., mamchur k., & skab v. (2018). english spycraft professionalisms as a linguistic phenomenon advanced education, 9, 178-184. https://doi.org/10.220535/2410-8286.121.575 law of ukraine “on ensuring the functioning of the ukrainian language as the state language”. bulletin of the verkhovna rada of ukraine (bvr), 2019, no. 21, art. 81). https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2704-19#text law of ukraine “on forensic examination”. bulletin of the verkhovna rada of ukraine (bvr), 1994, no. 28, art. 232. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/4038-12#text law of ukraine “on the judiciary and the status of judges”. bulletin of the verkhovna rada of ukraine (bvr), 2016, no. 31, art. 545. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1402-19#text https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/995_004?find=1&text=%d0%bc%d0%be%d0%b2#text https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/995_004?find=1&text=%d0%bc%d0%be%d0%b2#text https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/4651-17#text https://doi.org/10.18662/po/101 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup2/137 https://ecpl.com.ua/news/problemy-vykorystannia-ridnoi-movy-v-protsesual-nykh-aspektakh/ https://ecpl.com.ua/news/problemy-vykorystannia-ridnoi-movy-v-protsesual-nykh-aspektakh/ https://doi:10.18662/rrem/122 https://doi.org/10.220535/2410-8286.121.575 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2704-19#text https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/4038-12#text https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1402-19#text peculiarities of the interpreter’s participation in polygraph examination... olexsii butenko et al. 370 luo, t. (2016). augmenting combat power: military translation in china-burmaindia theater. linguistica antverpiensia, new series: themes in translation studies, 15, 143-161. melnychuk, i., lupak, n., pryshlyak, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2019). media communication in the system of higher education as a modern technological component of students’ vocational training. revista dilemas contemporáneos: educación, política y valores, vii(edición especial), artículo no.: 50. http://dx.doi.org/10.46377/dilemas.v29i1.1887 melnychuk, i., rebukha, l., zavgorodnia, t., & bloshchynskyi i. (2018). strategic significance of english in self-education of the students of sociohumanitarian specialities for fundamentalization of university education. modern journal of language teaching methods, 8(11), 712-720. pirus, j. (2015). translation of military register in the polish subtitles of american war movies."res rhetorica", 2(2). https://doi.org/10.17380/rr2015.2.4. sha, l. (2018). translation of military terms in sun tzu’s the art of war. international journal of english linguistics, 8(1), 195-199. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v8n1p195 soshnikov, a. p., komissarova, ya. v., pelenitsyn, a. b., & fedorenko, v. n. (2008). polygraph in the practice of crime investigations: methodical recommendations. moscow. wagner, w.e. (1979). use of the sign interpreter in testing the deaf. polygraph, 08(3). 253-257. yu. m., hroshevyi, v. ya., tatsii, a. r., tumaniants, et al. (2013). criminal proceedings: textbook. kharkiv: law. http://dx.doi.org/10.46377/dilemas.v29i1.1887 https://doi.org/10.17380/rr2015.2.4 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v8n1p195 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 211-244 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/340 submitted: january 25th, 2022| accepted for publication: february 24th, 2022 training future social workers for preventivecorrective work by methods of neuropsychology and neurocorrection of deviant adolescent behaviour inna kovalenko 1 , oleksandra oros 2 , iryna chorna 3 , oksana borodinа 4 , olha zamashkina 5 , daria bybyk 6 1 national pedagogical dragomanov university, ukraine, i_artemenko@ukr.net 2 uzhhorod national university, ukraine, oleksandra.oros@uzhnu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8029-4210 3 ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university, ukraine, irynachorna-@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6947-1140 4 separate structural subdivision of higher education institution «open international university of human development «ukraine» zhytomyr institute of economics and humanities, ukraine, borodina0202@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2777-2508 5 іzmail state university of humanities, ukraine, pantera66@i.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7343-3497 6 institute of problems on education of the national academy of educational sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, national pedagogical dragomanov university, kyiv, ukraine, dasha.bybyk@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9947-8503 abstract: the article shows that adolescents are most psychologically vulnerable to multi-vector social influences of today, an abundance of both positive and negative social factors and the declining role of moral values in civil society. also, it highlights a special role of social workers in the socialization of deviant adolescents. indeed, it is social workers who ensure cooperation among parents, teachers, law enforcement agencies, social services agencies, psychologists, speech therapists and psychotherapists to prevent juvenile misdemeanours in the framework of value-based education. the areas of socio-psychological assistance provided by social workers to deviant adolescents are prevention and intervention (neurocorrection and coping). to help adolescents cope with deviant behaviour under the guidance of social workers, one must teach them to make choices, assess the consequences of their decisions, regulate emotional processes and organize their lives under generally accepted norms. in the long run, it will become possible to mitigate existing psychological disorders and ensure their socialization. given the social significance of social work, it is crucial to expand the boundaries of corresponding training by developing interdisciplinary competencies, especially in the field of practical neuropsychology. finally, the article analyzes the main methods of neuropsychological correction and preventive work with deviant adolescents under the compulsory supervision of social workers. keywords: social worker, deviant adolescents, professional training, diagnostics, neuropsychocorrection, preventive measures. how to cite: kovalenko, i., oros, o., chorna, i., borodinа, o., zamashkina, o., & bybyk, d. (2022). training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of neuropsychology and neurocorrection of deviant adolescent behaviour. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 211-244. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/340 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/340 mailto:i_artemenko@ukr.net mailto:oleksandra.oros@uzhnu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8029-4210 mailto:irynachorna-@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6947-1140 mailto:borodina0202@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2777-2508 mailto:pantera66@i.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7343-3497 mailto:dasha.bybyk@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9947-8503 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/340 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 212 introduction socialization is one of the key aspects of one’s well-being and the prerequisite for harmonious development. nowadays, the socio-cultural environment depends on multi-vector social influences, as well as an abundance of both positive and negative social factors to which adolescents are especially vulnerable. the uncontrolled negative impact of the sociocultural environment, as well as social immaturity, leads to a conscious disregard for the law and various deviations complicating interpersonal interaction (leshchuk et al., 2018). quite often, desocialization and deviant behaviour of adolescents lie in family problems (apostu, 2016), supported by bad associations. recognizing the causes of deviance, one can significantly reduce the risks of social maladaptation of both adolescents prone to deviant behaviour and those interacting with them due to competent preventive and neuropsychological work. many researchers consider social causes of deviant adolescent behaviour (babbie, 1992; shaffer, 2009; uski & lampinen, 2014; gilinskiy, 1997) and analyze psycho-pedagogical factors of deviant behaviour among children and adolescents (rutter, 1977; steinberg & morris, 2001; swann & bosson, 2010; kashchenko, 2020; lichko, 1985). besides, emphasis should be placed on neuroand differentialpsychological approaches that reveal the neuropsychological and individualpsychological factors of deviant behaviour among adolescents (gut, 2014; karasievych et al., 2021; berbets et al., 2021; sarancha et al., 2021; demchenko et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021). neuropsychology proves different roles of the left and right hemispheres in ensuring various forms and parameters of mental activity (the functional asymmetry of the brain). the prefrontal cortex is particularly important to the regulation of activity states. it contributes to generating action plans and programmes, regulating behaviour under environmental requirements and controlling conscious activity (luria, 2006). owing to ambiguous approaches to the functional asymmetry of the brain, it is still important to address this particular problem through understanding human nature and individual options for mental development (sjöberg et al., 2008; goldberg, 1992; kennedy & adolphs, 2012; tkach, 2018a). further research on the functional asymmetry of the brain by luria (2006) has revealed an uncertain role of the left and right hemispheres in training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 213 enabling sensory, perceptual, emotional and intellectual processes underlying human activity. those conditions that complicate or enhance actions have also been identified. according to luria’s concept (2006), the role of the prefrontal cortex in synthesizing the whole system of stimuli and creating an action plan is manifested in current signals, as well as in active behaviour aiming at the near future. therefore, the problem of deviant adolescent behaviour is still relevant (siegel, 2014; homik & kronik, 1985; miller & cummings, 2017; lichter & cummings, 2000; tenenbaum-casari, 1994). indeed, adolescence is characterized by certain tension of mechanisms associated with intense neurohumoral changes and specific psychological content. many negative trends should be taken into account when studying patterns of deviant behaviour, as well as methods and forms of preventive work with deviant adolescents. these trends are as follows: an increasing number of social pathologies; the criminalization of civil society; a sharp weakening of normative-moral regulation of social relations. it is social workers who can cope with these problems due to their ability to integrate the efforts of all institutions of personal education and provide assistance to all groups of the population in overcoming social and psychological difficulties. concerning research on social work training, there are the following four areas of the professional activity theory and the professional development concept: differential-diagnostic (parsons, 1909), psychoanalytic (roe, 1956), decision theory, development theory (holland, 1975). psychology considers professional development in two contexts, namely, personal and professional. personal development implies progressive changes in personality aimed at boosting professional motivation and developing competences (zeer, 2003; guziy, 2007). professional development lies in overcoming contradictions between socio-professional requirements and one’s capabilities by stages (leshchuk, 2009; vinnikova, 2003). theoretical principles of preventing deviant behaviour in young people have been justified by hawkins & lishner (1987), oetting (1992), vist (2016), mallaev & & dibirov (2016), bogdanovich & delibalt (2020). however, it is essential to address the issues revealing the need to expand the scope of social workers’ professional activities by developing their interdisciplinary competencies, especially in the field of practical neuropsychology. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 214 thus, the article aims to a) specify the essence and role of neuropsychological education in professional training of social workers dealing with deviant adolescents and the ways of their practical use by selecting, classifying and applying methods of neuropsychological correction and prevention of deviant behaviour; b) prove the effectiveness of tools for preventing deviant adolescent behaviour which adhere to research domain criteria (rdoc). generalizing causes and consequences of deviant adolescent behaviour adolescents participate in many different socio-cultural situations. in turn, adolescent behaviour can be adequate for each of these situations only when adolescents are well aware of relevant social norms. a personal system of norms develops through grasping social norms and values, entering the social environment, acquiring social experience or trying on certain roles and functions. the main institutions of socialization include families, educational institutions and reference groups. social norms form under the influence of such an institutional environment. furthermore, if at least one of these institutions facilitates destructive influence on adolescents, and others do not contribute to its correction, their behaviour will eventually become deviant (tyurina, 2015). deviant behaviour usually manifests itself in adolescence, i.e., the transition from childhood to adulthood, which permeates all aspects of adolescent development. besides, adolescents are known to be one of the most vulnerable groups. despite an abundance of scientific concepts and theories of deviation, it is crucial to identify the causes of deviant behaviour and prevent it right away, otherwise this particular problem will only worsen. there is primary and secondary deviation. primary deviation is nonnormative behaviour, one’s desire for self-fulfilment embodied within “normative” behaviour with its various causes. secondary deviation confirms (freely or involuntarily) the label by which society has marked the previous behaviour (akhmetzyanova, 2016). there are many studies on deviant adolescent behaviour, its classifications and definitions. the most common deviations are as follows: alcohol use, smoking (including e-cigarettes), substance abuse, hooliganism, vandalism, sexual violence, pornography addiction, self-harm. the most dangerous deviation is aggression, whereas the least alarming one is a disregard for generally accepted norms (krupa, 2013). however, this list of training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 215 deviant behaviour is increasingly supplemented by new phenomena observed and diagnosed in adolescents (e.g., improper use of risky diets; unlimited access to the internet, computers, smartphones). it follows that deviant adolescent behaviour involves anti-social, delinquent, illegal, aggressive, self-destructive and suicidal acts. in all these cases, a deviation is the result of complete or partial failure of socialization, i.e., one’s inability or unwillingness to adapt to society and its norms (hanimoğlu, 2018). the areas of socio-psychological assistance to deviant adolescents are prevention and intervention (neurocorrection and coping). to help adolescents cope with deviant behaviour under the guidance of social workers, one must teach them to make choices, assess the consequences of their decisions, regulate emotional processes and organize their lives under generally accepted norms. in the long run, it will become possible to mitigate existing psychological disorders and ensure adolescents’ socialization. thus, it is important to identify the causes of deviance and carry out competent preventive and neuropsychological work to reduce the risks of social maladaptation of both adolescents prone to deviant behaviour and those interacting with them. professional training of future social workers and development of their psychological competence being a rather complex process, social work requires a profound knowledge of psychology, sociology, pedagogy, healthcare and law. owing to socio-cultural changes in society, standards of social work training have come a long way before reaching their current stage of development. interestingly, this trend is common in all countries. also, one can observe how professional responsibilities of social workers exceed the generally accepted understanding of the concept itself and encompass related areas, especially those of psychology. on the one hand, the diversity of the profession involves comprehensive and systematic training and, on the other hand, requires a differentiated approach, which must consider subject-specific areas and current contexts (facchini & giraldo, 2012). social workers should be able to change, eliminate and correct negative socio-psychological manifestations of society. thus, the essence of social work lies in providing social assistance, closely intertwined with psychological help and specified through certain functions (adaption, support, preservation and recreation of social values, regulation). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 216 at the same time, the core of social workers’ professionalism is their psychological competence, developed in higher education institutions (heis) (derkach, 2004). psychological competence of future social workers is a complex mechanism that consists of socio-social and psychosocial components (see fig. 1). fig. 1. developing psychological competence in future social workers * modelled by the authors based on the findings by zakharchenko (2009) the social component of psychological competence serves as the basis for building effective cooperation between social workers and various actors when solving current social problems. the psycho-social component contributes to effective assistance to clients, mainly adolescents, in overcoming psychological crises caused by negative life circumstances. on the one hand, the diversity of social work implies a comprehensive and systematic use of these two components. on the other hand, it requires a differentiated approach, taking into account specializations and current contexts of the concept itself. both components consist of functional, cognitive and personal elements. therefore, it is essential that university training should provide future social workers with the necessary knowledge of psychology and neuropsychology as its advanced field (zakharchenko, 2009). in this regard, innovative standards of social work training in the world’s top universities provide for a minimum of psychological knowledge within educational courses, including practical psychology, training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 217 psychodiagnostics, social psychology, conflict resolution studies, methods of neurobiology and neuropsychological correction. owing to these courses, future social workers know socio-psychological characteristics of different categories of clients, tools of effective communication with them, specifics of diagnostics, prevention and neurocorrection of self-destructive borderline personality disorders (malmberg-heimonen et al., 2016). in different countries, social work training has its specific features. at the same time, the common trend is the autonomy of heis in planning, duration, structure and tools of the educational process, the list and content of educational courses, assessment. all these factors contribute to training competitive and in-demand specialists. concerning social work degrees, admission campaigns differ by country, too. in the uk and australia, they require applicants to take entrance exams to determine the general level of their training. most importantly, applicants need to meet the professional selection criteria. in france, candidates must demonstrate psychological motivation in their choice of social work as a future profession. in some countries, practical experience in the social sphere is seen as a prerequisite for successful admission (korneshchuk, 2017). in canada, theory and practice of social work are integrated through a) the cooperation between professional schools and social agencies, b) forms of the educational process organization (theoretical and practical classes in agencies during the week of the study), c) optional theoretical courses in relevant areas of social work, d) practical training in social agencies, e) corresponding training of practice supervisors (full-time employees of social institutions) in colleges, faculties, schools or departments of social work that are part of universities (vydyshko, 2010). in the usa, the priority is extended field training in social institutions providing social assistance or in private charities. in general, social work training is characterized by the prevalence of individual forms of learning over group work. concerning bachelor’s and master’s degrees, the most common are group and micro-group work. research degrees mostly rely on individual work (see table 1). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 218 tab. 1. forms and methods of social work training forms methods n o n -f o rm al l ea rn in g m et h o d s fo ll o w in g t h e l if e lo n g l ea rn in g p ri n c ip le ( su p er v is io n a n d m e n to ri n g ) group training offline debate lectures, occasional lectures, taking notes practical classes, hands-on training seminars, introductory and integrative seminars consultations interviews, press conferences, talks, dialogues, discussions, debates business and role-playing games, workshops project-based learning methods of problem-based learning teamwork, group work online online lectures, video lectures practical classes with software application audio and video presentations video conferences film viewing individual training offline individual work individual consultations, individual consultations on personal problems diagnostics, monitoring individual tutorials casework in social, medical, penitentiary agencies researching individual situations experimental tasks, modelling creating presentations, reports, posters, portfolios meditations online online lectures online seminars, individual assignments summative assessment with software application working with electronic libraries working with web-sites working with video materials * developed by the authors based on the findings by vinnikova (2003), olkhovych (2008), sobchak (2004) training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 219 today, curricula much rely on practical implications, innovative technologies, flexibility, compulsory and optional components, modular learning, theory and practice integration, student-centrism, simulation techniques, cooperation between educational and social institutions (leshchuk, 2009). thus, the concept of social work training, including its neuropsychological component, is rather similar in different countries. this proves the feasibility and effectiveness of the above-mentioned methods, tools and forms of training. also, it will make it possible to optimize the system of social work training at different levels and improve the social situation in any country. given the complex nature of behavioural disorders among adolescents (as the largest target audience), social workers must possess relevant socio-psychological knowledge and skillfully use different methods of neurocorrection. neurocorrection of deviant adolescent behaviour social workers are the key figures in all projects on neuropsychological care to adolescents with deviant behaviour. their priority tasks are as follows: to form trusting relationships with adolescents; study their concerns and personalities; prepare an action plan; establish and coordinate contacts with employees of various institutions and services agencies. social workers who have received appropriate training in neuropsychology can cope with neuro-psycho-corrective work. besides, they are able to work with a small number of deviant adolescents as a target group. importantly, adolescents with behavioural problems should be able to contact a social worker at any time. according to allport (1975), this area of socio-corrective assistance is seen as a separate field of social work, focused on successful adaptation of deviant adolescents due to neuropsychocorrection methods, coordination of activities of families and communities and correction of their behavioural functions. the neuropsychological approach to studying deviant adolescent behaviour, as well as the specifics of social work training in the context of preventive-corrective work, plays a significant role. therefore, emphasis should be placed on the development and implementation of models, principles, forms and methods of neuropsychological correction. according to neuro-psycho-correction, deviant adolescent behaviour is a set of behavioural disorders that are not a homogeneous group, neither broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 220 in aetiology nor in symptoms. what they have in common is that they are unacceptable in society. thus, it is important to highlight the specifics of neuropsychological correction, namely, its main forms (addictive behaviour, aggressive behaviour, sexual deviations, suicidal behaviour) (sarris et al., 2014; tkach, 2018a). fig. 2. methods of neuropsychological assistance as part of preventive-corrective work *developed by the authors the authors of this article believe that the main methods of neuropsychological assistance to deviant adolescents and neuropsychological correction of their behaviour are the following: neuropsychological assistance in teams; meditative practices; neuropsychological correction of basic forms of deviant behaviour (correction of addictive behaviour, aggressive behaviour, sexual deviations, suicidal behaviour) (see fig. 2). і. neuropsychological assistance in teams. such teams include a neuropsychologist, a school psychologist, a family psychologist, an educator (teacher), a social worker, parents, a rehabilitation specialist, a neurologist or psychiatrist (see table 2). a team-based model of complex psychological assistance, which is characterized by flexibility and full adaptation of personality correction, is considered to be the most effective one in neuroscience today (tkach, 2018a, pp. 234-248). training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 221 tab. 2. the structure and functions of team-based neuropsychological assistance team members responsibilities neuropsychologist monitoring the child’s condition and dynamics of the pathology; adjusting the programme of individual education and development; maintaining contact with other team members; organizing consultations within the team. parents correcting one’s behaviour (given that the child imitates parents’ behaviour), nurturing certain qualities (calmness, emotional balance, attention, sense of humour, handling of punishments and rewards, self-criticism, self-confidence, neutral reaction to negative events, positive reaction to neutral and positive events). school psychologist assisting the child in integrating into the school community; preventing negative peer influence and stigmatization. educator (teacher) compensating at the expense of a loyal attitude towards deviant behaviour. teachers can change activities every ten minutes and, thus, transfer them from one higher mental function to another. social worker supervising by taking on the role of frontal lobes of the child’s brain. this is an interpsychic stage of forming arbitrary activity (external regulation). neurologist or psychiatrist providing neurological assistance. in the usa, they prescribe cognitive enhancers or amphetamines to improve attention and neuroleptics for overt negativism, antagonism, and rebellion. *developed by the authors іі. meditative practices. in the field of deviant behaviour correction, integrative care implies an individual approach. the latter changes the way of life by combining somatic, psychosocial and spiritual points of view with scientifically sound knowledge of traditional neuropsychology and alternative medicine. over the past decade, research into the effects of meditation on mental health has aroused growing interest in this type of alternative medicine. meditative practices cover all areas of classical yoga. furthermore, they consider ethical and spiritual aspects of adolescents’ everyday life and motivate them towards sustainable lifestyle modification. meditative practices can be used in the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 222 clinical context of neuropsychological practices (ospina et al., 2007; goyal et al., 2014). in addition to a holistic, non-invasive and potentially preventive nature, they adhere to all basic principles of naturopathic medicine. in particular, meditative practices help deviant adolescents understand physical and mental processes associated with their well-being in an accessible but effective way (bringmann et al., 2021). owing to yoga, relaxation and meditation exercises, deviant adolescents can change these processes intentionally and learn to trust the body’s natural abilities. as noted by varambally & gangadhar (2016), yoga should be practised in its entirety, including its ethical aspects. de manincor et al. (2015) suggest cultivating positive values, attitudes and behaviours to correct adolescent deviance. in the long run, meditative practices enable deviant adolescents to overcome their antisocial behaviours, as well as restore mental health and disregard neuropsychological dysfunctions and symptoms. ііі. correction of addictive behaviour. behaviour neuropsychocorrection is one of the most effective and adequate forms of psychological influence on deviant adolescents. compared to other approaches to correction, the behavioural approach has several advantages. due to its conceptual clarity and relative simplicity of methods, this practical approach is directly aimed at changing behaviour. neuropsychological methods applied to the most common forms of deviant adolescent behaviour are described below. addictive behaviour correction is the most common among adolescents. addictive behaviour manifests itself in a departure from reality in the form of changes in a mental state. adolescents avoid a reality that does not suit them. all types of addictive activity lead to a break with the former social circle, the world of real people and feelings. addictive behaviour also takes place when the involvement in an activity, relationship with another person, or addiction to a particular chemical becomes unhealthy. different manifestations, such as a compulsive, uncontrolled and unconscious desire to repeat the chosen behaviour, social maladaptation and self-destruction (mental and biological), also prove the unhealthiness of these ways of relieving psychological discomfort. according to korolenko et al. (2011), all addictions can be divided into two major groups: chemical and non-chemical. besides, there is an training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 223 intermediate group that combines the properties of the first and second ones: 1. non-chemical addictions: gambling, internet addiction, love addiction, sexual addiction, relationship addiction (interdependence), work addiction, shopping (compulsive spending). 2. chemical addictions: alcoholism, drug addiction. 3. an intermediate group: overeating, starvation. preventive and corrective measures can be divided into primary, secondary and tertiary, depending on the time of intervention. primary prevention of addictive behaviour among adolescents involves preventing their involvement in all kinds of addictions. it is suitable for adolescents who are completely unfamiliar or insufficiently aware of the effects of psychoactive substances. this type of prevention includes informing about the consequences of addictions, involving adolescents in different activities, promoting sports sections, art schools, tourism and informing parents and schools about the early signs of adolescent addiction. secondary prevention is aimed at identifying adolescents who have already started using psychoactive substances and helping them to prevent physical dependence. tertiary prevention encompasses rehabilitation of adolescents with addictions, their return to active life, as well as prevention of relapses (тkаch, 2012). a system of preventive and neurocorrective measures lies in creating alternative motivation in adolescents concerning the existing negative needs and leading them to a considered choice. it is the elements of positive motivation that become the foundation on which one can build the programme of assistance and support for adolescents with addictive behaviour. this programme allows them to experience normal human relationships in all life situations, stimulates new self-concepts and selfidentifications. besides, it helps them feel attached to others, eliminates isolation, chronic stress and expands time perspectives. at the same time, there is neurocorrection of one’s attitude towards the future through career guidance under the supervision of social workers by fixating and elaborating personal changes in social relations, determining shortand long-term prospects, recognizing different axiological systems. іv. correction of aggressive behaviour. a detailed review of studies on neuropsychocorrection of aggressive behaviour among adolescents shows that a neuropsychological classification broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 224 of adolescent aggression and methods of overcoming it is the most detailed and constructive one (foster et al., 1993; goldberg, 2001; tkach, 2018a). according to it, aggression is seen as primary, secondary and tertiary components of the symptom complex (see table 3). aggressive behaviour as a primary defect of the prefrontal cortex (personality disorder of organic origin) is the result of violations in the programming, regulation and control of mental activity (foster et al., 1993; goldberg, 2001). as a secondary defect, aggression manifests itself in hostile attribution bias (considering situations and events as hostile). the situation is critical concerning adolescents, given that disorders in the lower structures cause those of the higher ones. aggression as the tertiary symptom complex can be overcome by reducing the activity of the pleasure centre and establishing connections between the prefrontal cortex and the adjacent nucleus (tkach, 2018a). tab. 3. the classification of adolescent aggression, depending on the symptom complex no brain dysfunction type disorder type neurocorrection adolescent aggression as a primary defect of prefrontal cortex damage dysfunction of the orbitofrontal cortex antisocial personality disorder; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder training attention and developing time management skills with the help of yoga, oriental martial arts, tennis, throwing objects; training attention stability by doing puzzles; cultivating self-restraint (by counting to 10 before acting); meditations (attention concentration). dysfunction of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex narcissistic personality disorder compassion meditation; activities with people’s faces in photos (comics) / movies (cartoons); working with the images of emotional states; role-playing games on frustrating situations; trying on the roles of an aggressor and a victim; writing essays about emotions; drawing and sculpting emotional faces, correcting inflated self-esteem. training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 225 dysfunction of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex hypobulia; fanaticism; attention deficit syndrome exercises aimed at strengthening the positive self-concept: “the success map” (a pie chart with different areas of personality); clubs; awareness meditations. dysfunction of the lateral prefrontal cortex motor behaviour control violation; physical aggression controlled motor activity (doing yoga; creating “a conscious map of the body”, presented in the neocortex); transforming destructive actions into the verbal plane (the “stop and think before doing” rule) dysfunction of the anterior cingulate cortex acquired psychopathology personality realizing the causes of one’s anger expanding the range of behavioural reactions; cultivating empathy and emotional expression (presence meditation (contemplating intrapsychic activity, breathing, heartbeat), compassion meditation); facial expressions in front of a mirror; analyzing others’ emotions; overcoming emotional “block” (inertia) on a problematic situation. tonsilar lesion bilateral lesions of the temporal lobe ataraxia; klüver-bucy syndrome treating the cause (neuroinfections, parasites, injuries, metabolic disorders) that has led to the lesion; being critical to arbitrary actions and one’s fearlessness. adolescent aggression as a secondary defect of prefrontal cortex damage normal or slightly elevated hippocampal function hostile attribution bias compassion meditation; developing social skills; being aware of social roles and their behavioural models; hellinger therapy. reduced hippocampal function hostile attribution bias reducing excessive sensitivity to negative attitudes; applying emotional desensitization when perceiving situations or others as hostile to oneself; controlling emotions (relaxation techniques: muscle relaxation, deep broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 226 breathing, visual images); role-playing games, hellinger therapy. aggression as the tertiary symptom complex a break in the connection between the prefrontal cortex and the adjacent nucleus reduced activity of the pleasure centre of the brain cultivating a culture of thinking and relying on critical inner voice; complex meditation (object-free, awareness, concentration compassion). * developed by the authors based on the findings by tkach (2018a) v. correction of sexual deviations. adolescence is an awakening of sexuality and sexual desire, characterized by insufficient differentiation, increased excitability (hypersexuality), as well as incomplete sexual identification in the neuropsychological sense (kon, 1979). consequently, sexual deviations may occur under the influence of situational factors. different types of mental illnesses and accentuations share some features of sexual deviations. both mature and immature adolescents are most at risk. mature adolescents experience sexual desire long before social maturity. owing to the supercompensation reaction, immature adolescents occasionally feel an urge to “keep up with” and even “outrun” peers sexually. in other cases, they might fall victim to molestation by more mature adolescents because of their infantilism and inability to resist them (schore, 1994). even though pubertal onset is part of natural adolescent behaviour and development, it may also be associated with negative trends if sexual behaviour involves sexual activity at an early age or without proper attention to risks (maswikwa et al., 2015). given that there is no universal definition of early pubertal onset, it is often classified as sexual intercourse at school age (johnson & tyler, 2007). many adolescents engage in sexual activity earlier than allowed by law (klettke & mellor, 2012; yarrow et al., 2014). in the usa, 62% of high school students become sexually active before graduation (abma et al., 2011). training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 227 as adolescents grow older and engage in normal sexual life, deviations mostly disappear completely. under adverse conditions, it may become necessary to use individual methods of neurocorrection (dorius et al., 1993). human sexuality is an extremely delicate area that requires extensive knowledge of philosophy, culturology, social psychology, neuropsychology, psychiatry, endocrinology, urology, gynaecology and andrology. education and world outlook, as well as culture and legislation of society, determine the tactic of neuropsychological correction of sexual deviations (tkach, 2018a). in general, there are five approaches to treating sexual deviations in adolescents: behavioural procedures designed to eliminate deviant sexual behaviour; behavioural procedures aimed at promoting non-deviant sexual behaviour; thought-stopping techniques; mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and pharmacological methods (pringle et al., 2017). 1. behavioural procedures, designed to eliminate deviant sexual behaviour. latent sensitization (cautela, 1967) is the most popular behavioural procedure in the world. it involves reducing deviant sexual arousal in adolescents. in particular, clients must combine their deviant sexual thoughts with the images of negative consequences of sexual crimes (hunter et al., 2011). unpleasant-smelling (colson, 1972). clients are encouraged to inhale an unpleasant odour that rejects sexual desire or thoughts. this method has helped approximately 10% of adolescent boys and 6% of adolescent girls who participated in the us neurocorrection program (mcgrath et al., 2010). aversion therapy (wickramasekera, 1976), also known as therapy for shame (serber, 1970; mcgrath et al., 2010), is used in 15% of adolescent sexual deviations treatment programmes in the usa. according to this approach, clients combine strong shame and/or anxiety with their deviant sexual thoughts and/or recreation of past sexual crimes. at the same time, shame is known to inhibit the treatment of adolescents who have committed deviant sexual acts (proeve & howells, 2002; ward et al., 2004). unfortunately, there is very little research on the use of behavioural techniques to reduce deviant sexual behaviour in adolescents (mcgrath et al., 2010). besides, there are numerous ethical issues with the use of behavioural procedures aimed at reducing deviant sexual arousal in adolescents. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 228 2. behavioural procedures aimed at promoting non-deviant sexual behaviour. thematic shifts, i.e., focusing one’s erotic fantasies on non-deviant topics (fisher & mcgregor, 1997); systematic desensitization (maletzky & mcgovern, 1991). 3. thought-stopping techniques. these techniques aim to teach adolescents to stop deviant thoughts and impulses (hunter et al., 2011; richardson et al., 2001). however, available research shows that simple deprivation procedures should often lead to just the opposite. johnston et al. (1997) suggest helping adolescents to understand why their deviant sexual thoughts are problematic, rather than teaching them not to do so. cognitive adjustment is indeed common in the treatment of adolescents who have committed sexual deviant acts (hackett et al., 2006; mcgrath et al., 2010). yet, there are only a few scientific descriptions of how this goal can be achieved. 4. mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. according to this approach, one learns to notice one’s deviant thoughts and, without judging or stopping them, monitor the feelings and reactions of the body (worling, 2012). in doing so, adolescents deliberately reject deviant sexual behaviour, not suppressing it. even though some researchers describe it as a new approach to treating deviant sexual disorders, it has, in fact, long been part of neurocorrection programmes for adolescents with deviant sexual behaviour (steen & monnette, 1989). few studies on the use of neurocorrective techniques show that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is more effective than thought-stopping techniques (biegel et al., 2009). 5. pharmacological interventions constitute another approach to reducing deviant sexual arousal. currently, there is a very little empirical basis to support the use of medications by adolescents who have committed sexual deviant acts (bradford & federoff, 2006; shaw, 1999). bradford & fedoroff (2006) claim that there is a high possibility of unwanted side effects from taking medications used to control sexual behaviour. besides, government authorities in most countries do not approve such treatment. vі. correction of suicidal behaviour. suicidal behaviour is an extremely specific deviation that requires advanced actions from a psychologist. it is a consequence of one’s sociotraining future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 229 psychological maladaptation in the internal micro-social conflict one is experiencing. the inability to promptly recognize and stop the suicidal process hinders the effectiveness of therapy, in this case, suicide prevention (white et al., 2017). according to the who (2013), suicide rates have risen by 60% worldwide in the last 45 years. in some countries, suicide is the second leading cause of death among those aged between 10 and 24. these figures do not take into account suicide attempts, which occur 20 times more often than completed suicides. adolescent and youth suicide rates are the highest in new zealand, finland, ireland and eastern europe (who, 2013). the causes of adolescent suicide are closely related to the problems in the immediate environment: the divorce of parents, their remarriage, alcoholism, conflicts, illnesses and loss of close relatives. in such situations, the sphere of children’s communication changes and leads to a complex internal conflict: the need to communicate remains and, yet, it is no longer possible to fulfil it in the usual forms. not knowing how to influence family members or others, the child thinks about suicide. suicidal behaviour among adolescents, without any psychiatric pathology, occurs when traumatic factors are stronger than protective mechanisms. the neuropsychological basis of suicidal behaviour includes the following: dysfunction of the ventral prefrontal cortex, hyperfunction of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, hypofunction of the orbitofrontal cortex; hyperactivity of the neocortex of the right hemisphere. suicidal thoughts are preceded by a change in the activity of the vagus nerve, namely, the visceral component of suicide (discomfort in the body). the system of corresponding preventive measures much relies on psychotherapeutic effects. in many cases, they are the only effective way to help patients who are at risk of suicide. suicidal behaviour correction is a set of neuropsychotherapeutic techniques and methods aimed at helping adolescents in a state of sociopsychological maladaptation due to severe stress and preventing suicide attempts. the tactic of suicidal behaviour neurocorrection involves the following: studying the importance of stressors for adolescents; providing the necessary social and microsocial support; showing empathy; encouraging the search for alternative ways to solve the problem. quite effective are relaxation and hypnosis if anxiety predominates. it may also seem necessary to use suggestion, persuasion, environmental change, hospitalization. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 230 the main goal of suicidal behaviour neurocorrection is to use the plasticity of the connotative sphere of a suicidal person, i.e., his or her willingness to abandon the old system of meanings and values and develop new ones. accordingly, the strategy of crisis therapy lies in creating psychological conditions for the personal growth of an adolescent with this form of deviant behaviour (starshenbaum, 2005). the role of social workers in the prevention of deviant adolescent behaviour the system of adolescent deviation prevention should involve purposeful, planned, interconnected and controllable activities of all its actors, namely, parents and social workers. it aims to preclude maladaptation and create conditions for the successful socialization of all adolescents. preventive work can be primary or secondary. primary prevention promotes a healthy lifestyle and inhibits antisocial phenomena. secondary prevention involves working with adolescents with special educational needs: adolescents with deviant symptoms; adolescents with progressive social degradation. given that adolescents from the first group are prone to aggressive behaviour, they should be included in the control group of secondary prevention after correctional work. adolescents from the second group use alcohol and drugs systematically. therefore, they will be included in the control group only after treatment and recovery or sustained remission. social workers strive to create socio-psychological conditions for positive interaction between the environment and the child. the main methods of prevention are information support, individual counselling, group classes aimed at learning the rules of social behaviour, joint activities of interest to adolescents, parents, teachers and other representatives of the social environment of deviants. it is important to use integrative measures (afanasyeva et al., 2014; zmanovskaya & rybnikov, 2012). the main principles of corrective work with deviant adolescents include comprehensiveness (the interaction with adolescents, family, school, the immediate environment); systematicity (the correction of personal, behavioural qualities and communication skills); practical focus; active participation of adolescents in correction; continuity concerning clients (post-correctional observation of adolescents, their transfer to the group of secondary prevention) and specialists. training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 231 volnova (2016) highlights several approaches to choosing preventive technologies when working with persistent adolescent deviations: 1. an informative approach. it is associated with adolescent ignorance, which results in behavioural deviations. in this regard, the main goal is to inform adolescents about their rights and responsibilities, social norms and standards of behaviour, as well as legal consequences of deviant behaviour. 2. a social preventive approach. it lies in identifying, eliminating and neutralizing the causes and conditions that lead to deviations. this approach involves teaching adolescents the rules and norms of hygiene (taking into account gender and age) and studying the peculiarities of adolescent physical and mental development. 3. a socio-pedagogical approach. it is aimed at restoring or correcting deviant behaviour. consequently, preventive work with adolescents includes educational, psychological and social components. 4. a medical neuropsychological approach. it precludes possible deviations from social norms by targeted treatment of various mental illnesses. interestingly, those measures that rely on the participation and close interaction between social workers and neuropsychologists within the framework of psychologization of learning and preventive activities prove to be the most effective ones. according to goldberg (1992) and schore (1994), deviant adolescent behaviour is largely a socio-psychological problem. at the same time, psychiatric taxonomies, including the international classification of diseases, tenth revision (icd-10), do not recognize deviant behaviour as a diagnostic category. even persistent stereotypes of deviant behaviour may not be construed as a sign of mental pathology (kuvshynov et al., 2017). nevertheless, methods of clinical psychiatry are not intended for expert interpretation of deviant behaviour forms and diagnostics of predisposition to it. as a result, one in three adolescents suffers from at least an addictive form of deviant behaviour (demkin, 2020). other, rarer forms of deviant behaviour that are most common among adolescents include aggressive and suicidal types of deviant behaviour, as well as sexual deviations. available tools used to identify adolescents prone to deviant behaviour are often subjective methods in the form of questionnaires. their reliability has some limitations since it mostly depends on respondents’ willingness to provide truthful information about themselves (hoff et al., 2009). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 232 a more effective approach to identifying deviant adolescent behaviour and preventing it adheres to research domain criteria (rdoc). these criteria create a theoretical basis for deciphering the interaction between deviant behaviour domains and neurophysiological systems underlying them (national research council, 2014). thus, this approach allows one to evaluate objective data of neurofunctional and neuromorphological diagnostics (based on electroencephalographic studies), rather than subjective information from the adolescent being examined (hajcak & patrick, 2015). a comprehensive neuropsychological and neurophysiological study of deviant adolescent behaviour makes it possible to determine the topography of neurofunctional pathology in the case of social deviance. the symptom complex of deviant behaviour in such people is often caused by minimal dysfunction in the frontal cortex: the orbitofrontal cortex (ofc), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlpfc), the anterior cingulate cortex (acc) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmpfc) (tkach, 2018b). in this case, each localization of disorders leads to a certain type of deviations shown in table 4. tab. 4. the description of deviant behaviour symptom complexes, depending on the predominant topography of disorders topography of disorders deviant symptom complex observation frequency, % ofc immoral-impulsive 53 dlpfc passive-subordinate 28 acc rigid-incompetent 10 vmpfc machiavellianism 9 * (tkach, 2018b; demkin, 2020). thus, the neurophysiological paradigm of diagnostics and prevention of deviant adolescent behaviour relies on the fact that patients prone to deviations have certain morphological and physiological differences in the central nervous system. these differences can be detected by instrumental and experimental methods. such symptoms of deviant behaviour as fear of failure of prediction error, lack of fear of possible negative consequences and inability to use one’s or others’ experience are caused by neurophysiological disorders in the brain networks, responsible for the system of negative valence and cognitive control (sengupta et al, 2016). in a training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 233 normal way, fear of possible negative consequences emerges as a function of the prediction error, i.e., the discrepancy between the actual and expected results. in the case of adolescents prone to deviant behaviour, the fear learning function is inhibited: the fear that emerges is short-term and disappears when the danger has already passed without the effect of learning. in turn, this disrupts the inhibition of undesirable behavioural responses in the system of behaviour cognitive control (demkin, 2020). it is always crucial to promote discipline and the rule of law and reduce deviant manifestations among adolescents, especially in the school environment. a detailed analysis of relevant neuropsychological studies shows that most forms of deviant behaviour among middle and high school students have a topographically localized neurophysiological basis. it follows that the most advanced methods of assessing and preventing predisposition to deviant adolescent behaviour are neuropsychological and neurophysiological research methods conducted in contact (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and non-contact (oculography, pupillometry) ways. therefore, early diagnostics and prevention of deviant adolescent behaviour play an essential role, given that they involve the cooperation between social workers and neuropsychologists. conclusions nowadays, deviant adolescent behaviour is the most common and thorniest problem of personality development of middle and high school students. despite the external similarity, each form of deviant adolescent behaviour has its specific manifestations and aetiology. therefore, it is essential to apply a constructive individual approach when selecting methods of diagnostics, neurocorrection and prevention. the main goal of prevention and neuropsychological correction of deviations among high school students is to overcome deviant manifestations of adolescent behaviour. the most effective methods of neuropsychological assistance to deviant adolescents and neuropsychological correction of their behaviour are the following: neuropsychological assistance in teams; meditative practices; neuropsychological correction of the main forms of deviant behaviour (correction of addictive behaviour, aggressive behaviour, sexual deviations, suicidal behaviour). this research has proved that the most advanced and effective tools for preventing adolescent deviations are the methods following research broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 234 domain criteria (rdoc). these criteria create a theoretical basis for deciphering the interaction between deviant behaviour domains and neurophysiological systems underlying them. social workers are the main and constant participants in neuropsychocorrection and prevention of deviant adolescent behaviour. indeed, they assist deviant adolescents from the moment of diagnostics until their full rehabilitation. given an unstable and aggressive (to developing personalities) today’s world, social work training should provide future specialists with the relevant knowledge and methods of psychology, especially neuropsychological correction and its effective practices. references abma, j. c., martinez, g. m., & copen, c. e. (2010). teenagers in the united states: sexual activity, contraceptive use, and childbearing, national survey of family growth 2006-2008. vital and health statistics. series 23, data from the national survey of family growth, 30, 1-47. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21548441/ afanasyeva, n. v., koptyaeva, o. n., & malukhina, n. v. (2014). startovaya psihologo-pedagogicheskaya diagnostika universalnyih uchebnyih deystviy uchaschihsya pyatyih klassov [initial psycho-pedagogical diagnostics of universal learning actions in the fifth grade]. viro. https://studylib.ru/doc/2368182/startovaya-psihologo-pedagogicheskayadiagnostika-universal._... akhmetzyanova, a. i. (2016). deviant behavior: psychological prevention and psychological intervention. proceeding of the 1st world disability & rehabilitation conference, 1, 22-26. https://doi.org/10.17501/wdrc2016-1104 allport, а. (1975). the nature of personality: selected papers. praeger. https://www.amazon.com/nature-personality-selectedpapers/dp/0837174325 apostu, i. (2016). familia românească evoluție socială și provocări contemporane [the romanian family. social evolution and contemporary challenges]. tritonic. babbie, e. (1992). the practice of social research. wadsworth pub. co. https://www.worldcat.org/title/practice-of-socialresearch/oclc/24173546&referer=brief_results berbets, t., berbets, v., babii, i., chyrva, o., malykhin, a., sushentseva, l., medynskii, s., riaboshapka, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., maksymchuk, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). developing independent creativity in pupils: neuroscientific discourse and ukraine’s experience. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 314-328. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21548441/ https://studylib.ru/doc/2368182/startovaya-psihologo-pedagogicheskaya-diagnostika-universal._ https://studylib.ru/doc/2368182/startovaya-psihologo-pedagogicheskaya-diagnostika-universal._ https://doi.org/10.17501/wdrc2016-1104 https://www.amazon.com/nature-personality-selected-papers/dp/0837174325 https://www.amazon.com/nature-personality-selected-papers/dp/0837174325 https://www.worldcat.org/title/practice-of-social-research/oclc/24173546&referer=brief_results https://www.worldcat.org/title/practice-of-social-research/oclc/24173546&referer=brief_results https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/252 training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 235 biegel, g. m., brown, k. w., shapiro, s. l., & schubert, c. m. (2009). mindfulnessbased stress reduction for the treatment of adolescent psychiatric outpatients: a randomized clinical trial. journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 77(5), 855-866. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016241 bogdanovich, n. v., & delibalt, v. v. (2020). profilaktika deviantnogo povedeniya detey i podrostkov kak napravlenie deyatelnosti psihologa v obrazovatelnyih uchrezhdeniyah [prevention of deviant behavior of children and adolescents as a direction of activity of the psychologist in educational institutions]. psikhologia i pravo [psychology and law], 10(2), 114. https://psyjournals.ru/files/114284/psylaw_2020_2_bogdanovich_deliba lt.pdf bradford, j. m. w., & fedoroff, p. (2006). pharmacological treatment of the juvenile sex offender. in h. e. barbaree & w. l. marshall (eds.), the juvenile sex offender (pp. 358-382). guilford press. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-12464-016 bringmann, h. c., bringmann, n., jeitler, m., brunnhuber, s., michalsen, a., & sedlmeier, p. (2021). meditation-based lifestyle modification: development of an integrative mind-body program for mental health and human flourishing. complementary medicine research, 28(3), 252-262. https://doi.org/10.1159/000512333 cautela, j. r. (1967). covert sensitization. psychological reports, 20(2), 459-468. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1967.20.2.459 colson, c. e. (1972). olfactory aversion therapy for homosexual behavior. journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 3(3), 185-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(72)90071-7 de manincor, m., bensoussan, a., smith, c., fahey, p., & bourchier, s. (2015). establishing key components of yoga interventions for reducing depression and anxiety, and improving well-being: a delphi method study. bmc complementary medicine and therapies, 15, article 85. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-015-0614-7 demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 demkin, a. (2020). neyropsihologicheskaya diagnostika deviantnogo povedeniya [neuropsychological diagnostics of deviant behaviour]. https://onkto.ru/blog/psychometry/nejropsikhologicheskaya-diagnostikadeviantnogo-povedeniya https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016241 https://psyjournals.ru/files/114284/psylaw_2020_2_bogdanovich_delibalt.pdf https://psyjournals.ru/files/114284/psylaw_2020_2_bogdanovich_delibalt.pdf https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-12464-016 https://doi.org/10.1159/000512333 https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1967.20.2.459 https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(72)90071-7 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-015-0614-7 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://onkto.ru/blog/psychometry/nejropsikhologicheskaya-diagnostika-deviantnogo-povedeniya https://onkto.ru/blog/psychometry/nejropsikhologicheskaya-diagnostika-deviantnogo-povedeniya broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 236 derkach, a. a. (2004). akmeologicheskie osnovyi razvitiya professionala [acmeological principles of professional development]. modek. https://www.twirpx.com/file/237118/ dorius, g. l., heaton, t. b., & steffen, p. (1993). adolescent life events and their association with the onset of sexual intercourse. youth & society, 25(1), 323. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x93025001001 facchini, c., & giraldo, s. t. (2012). the university training of social workers: elements of innovation, positive and critical aspects in the case of italy. british journal of social work, 43(4), 57-68. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23723104 fisher, d., & mcgregor, g. (1997). behavioural treatment techniques. in m. s. hoghughi (ed.), working with sexually abusive adolescents (pp. 144-161). sage. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/behaviouraltreatment-techniques-working-sexually-abusive foster, h. g., hillbrand, m., & silverstein, m. (1993). neuropsychological deficit and aggressive behavior: a prospective study. progress in neuropsychopharmacology & biological psychiatry, 17(6), 939-946. https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-5846(93)90021-j gilinskiy, y. i. (1997). sotsiologiya deviantnogo povedeniya i sotsialnogo kontrolya [the sociology of deviant behaviour and social control]. mir rossii. sotsiologiya. etnologiya [the world of russia. sociology. ethnology], 6(1), 163-184. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sotsiologiya-deviantnogopovedeniya-i-sotsialnogo-kontrolya goldberg, e. (1992). introduction: the frontal lobes in neurological and psychiatric conditions. neuropsychiatry, neuropsychology, and behavioral neurology, 5(4), 231232. https://journals.lww.com/cogbehavneurol/abstract/1992/10000/introdu ction__the_frontal_lobes_in_neurological.1.aspx goldberg, e. (2001). the executive brain: frontal lobes and the civilized mind. oxford university press. https://www.amazon.com/executive-brain-frontallobes-civilized/dp/0195140222 goyal, m., singh, s., sibinga, e. m., gould, n. f., rowland-seymour, a., sharma, r., berger, z., sleicher, d., maron, d. d., shihab, h. m., ranasinghe, p. d., linn, s., saha, s., bass, e. b., & haythornthwaite, j. a. (2014). meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. jama internal medicine, 174(3), 357-368. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018 gut, y. n. (2014). lichnostnyie i neyropsihologicheskie predposyilki deviantnogo povedeniya podrostkov [personal and neuropsychological prerequisites for deviant adolescent behaviour] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. belgorod state national research university. https://www.twirpx.com/file/237118/ https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x93025001001 https://www.jstor.org/stable/23723104 https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/behavioural-treatment-techniques-working-sexually-abusive https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/behavioural-treatment-techniques-working-sexually-abusive https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-5846(93)90021-j https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sotsiologiya-deviantnogo-povedeniya-i-sotsialnogo-kontrolya https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sotsiologiya-deviantnogo-povedeniya-i-sotsialnogo-kontrolya https://journals.lww.com/cogbehavneurol/abstract/1992/10000/introduction__the_frontal_lobes_in_neurological.1.aspx https://journals.lww.com/cogbehavneurol/abstract/1992/10000/introduction__the_frontal_lobes_in_neurological.1.aspx https://www.amazon.com/executive-brain-frontal-lobes-civilized/dp/0195140222 https://www.amazon.com/executive-brain-frontal-lobes-civilized/dp/0195140222 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018 training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 237 https://www.dissercat.com/content/lichnostnye-i-neiropsikhologicheskiepredposylki-deviantnogo-povedeniya-podrostkov guziy, n. v. (2007). kategoriya profesionalizmu v teoriyi i praktitsi pidgotovki maybutnogo pedagoga. [the category of professionalism in the theory and practice of teacher training] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. national pedagogical dragomanov university. http://www.disslib.org/katehoriaprofesionalizmu-v-teoriyi-i-praktytsi-pidhotovky-majbutnohopedahoha.html hackett, s., masson, h., & phillips, s. (2006). exploring consensus in practice with youth who are sexually abusive: findings from a delphi study of practitioner views in the united kingdom and the republic of ireland. child maltreatment, 11(2), 146-156. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559505285744 hajcak, g., & patrick, c. j. (2015). situating psychophysiological science within the research domain criteria (rdoc) framework. international journal of psychophysiology, 98(2), 223-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.11.001 hanimoğlu, e. (2018). deviant behavior in school setting. journal of education and training studies, 6(10), 133-141. https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v6i10.3418 hawkins, j. d., & lishner, d. (1987). etiology and prevention of antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. in d. h. crowell, i. m. evans, & c. r. o’donnell (eds.), childhood aggression and violence. applied clinical psychology (pp. 263-282). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5170-2_11 hoff, h., beneventi, h., galta, k., & wik, g. (2009). evidence of deviant emotional processing in psychopathy: a fmri case study. the international journal of neuroscience, 119(6), 857-878. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207450701590992 holland, j. h. (1975). adaptation in natural and artificial systems. university of michigan press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/adaptation-natural-andartificial-systems homik, b. c., & kronik, a. a. (1985). otnoshenie k vremeni: psihologicheskie problemyi ranney alkogolizatsii i otklonyayuschegosya povedeniya [the attitude to time: psychological problems of early alcoholism and deviant behaviour]. voprosy psikhologii [issues of psychology], 1, 98-106. http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1988/881/881098.htm hunter, a. l., minnis, h., & wilson, p. (2011). altered stress responses in children exposed to early adversity: a systematic review of salivary cortisol studies. stress, 14(6), 614-626. https://doi.org/10.3109/10253890.2011.577848 johnson, k. a., & tyler, k. a. (2007). adolescent sexual onset: an intergenerational analysis. journal of youth and adolescence, 36, 939-949. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9165-z https://www.dissercat.com/content/lichnostnye-i-neiropsikhologicheskie-predposylki-deviantnogo-povedeniya-podrostkov https://www.dissercat.com/content/lichnostnye-i-neiropsikhologicheskie-predposylki-deviantnogo-povedeniya-podrostkov http://www.disslib.org/katehoria-profesionalizmu-v-teoriyi-i-praktytsi-pidhotovky-majbutnoho-pedahoha.html http://www.disslib.org/katehoria-profesionalizmu-v-teoriyi-i-praktytsi-pidhotovky-majbutnoho-pedahoha.html http://www.disslib.org/katehoria-profesionalizmu-v-teoriyi-i-praktytsi-pidhotovky-majbutnoho-pedahoha.html https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559505285744 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.11.001 https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v6i10.3418 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5170-2_11 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207450701590992 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/adaptation-natural-and-artificial-systems https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/adaptation-natural-and-artificial-systems http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1988/881/881098.htm https://doi.org/10.3109/10253890.2011.577848 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9165-z broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 238 johnston, l., ward, t., & hudson, s. m. (1997). deviant sexual thoughts: mental control and the treatment of sexual offenders. journal of sex research, 34(2), 121-130. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499709551876 karasievych, s., maksymchuk, b., kuzmenko, v., slyusarenko, n., romanyshyna, o., syvokhop, e., kolomiitseva, o., romanishyna, l., marionda, i., vykhrushch, v., oliinyk, m., kovalchuk, a., halaidiuk, m., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for physical and sports activities: neuropedagogical approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 kashchenko, v. p. (2020). pedagogicheskaya korrektsiya. ispravlenie nedostatkov haraktera u detey i podrostkov [pedagogical correction. correction of character disorders in children and adolescents]. yurayt publishing house. https://urait.ru/bcode/457027 kennedy, d., & adolphs, r. (2012). the social brain in psychiatric and neurological disorders. trends in cognitive sciences, 16, 559-572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.09.006 klettke, b., & mellor, d. (2012). at what age can females consent to sexual activity? a survey of jury-eligible australians. psychiatry, psychology and law, 19, 198208. https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2011.559901 kon, i. s. (1979). psihologiya yunosheskogo vozrasta [the psychology of adolescence]. prosveshcheniye. https://www.twirpx.com/file/483357/ korneshchuk, v. (2017). professional training of future social workers: foreign experience review. education, science and education, 4, 29-33. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-4-5 korolenko, ts. p., dmitrieva, n. v., & shpiks, t. a. (2011). psihodinamicheskie mehanizmyi addiktsiy [psychodynamic mechanisms of addictions]. lap lambert academic publishing. https://ua1lib.org/book/2981759/57689d kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 krupa, b. (2013). samotność znak czasu [loneliness as a sign of the times]. in z. b. gaś (ed), człowiek na rozdrożu. zrozumieć, aby pomóc [being at the crossroad. understanding to help]. wydawnictwo naukowe innovatio press. https://depot.ceon.pl/handle/123456789/9944 kuvshynov, k. e., shamrey, v. k., chaplyuk, a. l., dnov, k. v., marchenko, a. a., baurova, n. n., seregin, d. a., brovkin, s. g., & datsko, a. v. (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499709551876 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/264 https://urait.ru/bcode/457027 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.09.006 https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2011.559901 https://www.twirpx.com/file/483357/ https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-4-5 https://ua1lib.org/book/2981759/57689d https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://depot.ceon.pl/handle/123456789/9944 training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 239 prognozirovanie otklonyayuschegosya povedeniya u voennosluzhaschih, prohodyaschih voennuyu sluzhbu po prizyivu [predicting deviant behaviour in conscripts]. voyenno-meditsinskiy zhurnal [military medical journal], 338(9), 4-11. https://journals.eco-vector.com/00269050/article/view/73402/ru_ru leshchuk, g. v. (2009). sistema profesiynoyi pidgotovki fahivtsiv sotsialnoyi sferi u frantsiyi [the system of social work training in france] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university. http://www.disslib.org/systema-profesiynoyi-pidhotovkyfakhivtsiv-sotsialnoyi-sfery-u-frantsiyi.html leshchuk, g., yankovych, o., kikinezhdi, o., kozubovska, i., polishchuk, v., & radchuk, h. (2018). osoblivosti profilaktiki komunikativnih devіatsiy dіtey v umovah sotsiokulturnogo seredovyshcha [the specifics of preventing communicative deviations in children in the sociocultural environment]. yu. v. osadtsa. http://dspace.tnpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/12407/1/yankovych_ki kinezhdi_kol_mon.pdf. lichko, a. e. (1985). podrostkovaya psihiatriya: rukovodstvo dlya vrachey [adolescent psychiatry: a guide for physicians]. medicine. http://maximalibrary.org/component/maxlib/b/432522 lichter, d. g., & cummings, j. l. (2000). frontal-subcortical circuits in psychiatric and neurological disorders. guilford press. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/200116876-000 luria, a. r. (2006). osnovyi neyropsihologii [the fundamentals of neuropsychology]. academy. https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=225405&p=1 maletzky, b. m., & mcgovern, k. b. (1991). treating the sexual offender. sage publications, inc. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1991-97309-000 mallaev, d. m., & & dibirov, m. i. (2016). profylaktyka y korrektsyya devyantnoho povedenyya podrostkov v sotsyume v uslovyyakh tsennostnooryentyrovannoho vospytanyya [the prevention and correction of the teenagers’ deviant behavior in the society in terms of the value-oriented education]. izvestiya dagestanskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta. psikhologo-pedagogicheskiye nauki [journal of dagestan state pedagogical university. psychological and pedagogical sciences], 10(2), 52-57. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/profilaktika-i-korrektsiya-deviantnogopovedeniya-podrostkov-v-sotsiume-v-usloviyah-tsennostnoorientirovannogo-vospitaniya malmberg-heimonen, i., natland, s., toge, a., & hansen, h. (2016). the effects of skill training on social workers’ professional competences in norway: results of a cluster-randomised study. british journal of social work, 46(5), 1354-1371. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcv073 https://journals.eco-vector.com/0026-9050/article/view/73402/ru_ru https://journals.eco-vector.com/0026-9050/article/view/73402/ru_ru http://www.disslib.org/systema-profesiynoyi-pidhotovky-fakhivtsiv-sotsialnoyi-sfery-u-frantsiyi.html http://www.disslib.org/systema-profesiynoyi-pidhotovky-fakhivtsiv-sotsialnoyi-sfery-u-frantsiyi.html http://dspace.tnpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/12407/1/yankovych_kikinezhdi_kol_mon.pdf http://dspace.tnpu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/12407/1/yankovych_kikinezhdi_kol_mon.pdf http://maxima-library.org/component/maxlib/b/432522 http://maxima-library.org/component/maxlib/b/432522 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-16876-000 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-16876-000 https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=225405&p=1 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1991-97309-000 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/profilaktika-i-korrektsiya-deviantnogo-povedeniya-podrostkov-v-sotsiume-v-usloviyah-tsennostno-orientirovannogo-vospitaniya https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/profilaktika-i-korrektsiya-deviantnogo-povedeniya-podrostkov-v-sotsiume-v-usloviyah-tsennostno-orientirovannogo-vospitaniya https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/profilaktika-i-korrektsiya-deviantnogo-povedeniya-podrostkov-v-sotsiume-v-usloviyah-tsennostno-orientirovannogo-vospitaniya https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcv073 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 240 maswikwa, b., richter, l., kaufman, j., & nandi, a. (2015). minimum marriage age laws and the prevalence of child marriage and adolescent birth: evidence from sub-saharan africa. international perspectives on sexual and reproductive health, 41(2), 58-68. https://doi.org/10.1363/4105815 mcgrath, r. j., cumming, g. f., burchard, b. l., zeoli, s., & ellerby, l. (2010). current practices and emerging trends in sexual abuser management: the safer society 2009 north american survey. safer society press. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-22252-000 miller, b. l., & cummings, j. l. (2017). the human frontal lobes: functions and disorders. guilford press. https://www.guilford.com/books/the-human-frontallobes/miller-cummings/9781462531837 national research council. (2014). the context of military environments: an agenda for basic research on social and organizational factors relevant to small units. the national academies press. https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18825/thecontext-of-military-environments-an-agenda-for-basic-research oetting, e. r. (1992). planning programs for prevention of deviant behavior. drugs & society, 6(3-4), 313-344. https://doi.org/10.1300/j023v06n03_06 olkhovych, o. (2008). pidhotovka sotsialnykh pratsivnykiv do roboty z bizhentsiamy u vyshchykh navchalnykh zakladakh ssha i kanady [training social workers for working with refugees in higher education institutions in the usa and canada] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university. https://revolution.allbest.ru/pedagogics/00319962_0.html ospina, m. b., bond, k., karkhaneh, m., tjosvold, l., vandermeer, b., liang, y., bialy, l., hooton, n., buscemi, n., dryden, d. m., & klassen, t. p. (2007). meditation practices for health: state of the research. evidence report/technology assessment, 155, 1-263. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17764203/ parsons, f. (1909). choosing a vocation. houghton mifflin company. https://openlibrary.org/books/ol7042543m/choosing_a_vocation pringle, j., mcateer, j., jepson, r., & blakemore, s.-j. (2017). the physiology of adolescent sexual behaviour: a systematic review. cogent social sciences, 3(1), article 1368858. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2017.1368858 proeve, m., & howells, k. (2002). shame and guilt in child sexual offenders. international journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 46(6), 657667. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624x02238160 prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://doi.org/10.1363/4105815 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-22252-000 https://www.guilford.com/books/the-human-frontal-lobes/miller-cummings/9781462531837 https://www.guilford.com/books/the-human-frontal-lobes/miller-cummings/9781462531837 https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18825/the-context-of-military-environments-an-agenda-for-basic-research https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18825/the-context-of-military-environments-an-agenda-for-basic-research https://doi.org/10.1300/j023v06n03_06 https://revolution.allbest.ru/pedagogics/00319962_0.html https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17764203/ https://archive.org/search.php?query=date:1909 https://openlibrary.org/books/ol7042543m/choosing_a_vocation https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2017.1368858 https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624x02238160 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 241 richardson, g., kelly, t. p., graham, f., & bhate, s. r. (2004). a personality-based taxonomy of sexually abusive adolescents derived from the millon adolescent clinical inventory (maci). the british journal of clinical psychology, 43(3), 285-298. https://doi.org/10.1348/0144665031752998 roe, a. (1956). the psychology of occupations. john wiley & sons. https://www.amazon.com/psychology-occupations-anneroe/dp/b0000cjjef rutter, m. (1977). helping troubled children. penguin books ltd. https://www.amazon.co.uk/helping-troubled-children-michaelrutter/dp/b003l2qgfm sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labour adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 sarris, j., glick, r., hoenders, r., duffy, j., & lake, j. (2014). integrative mental healthcare white paper: establishing a new paradigm through research, education, and clinical guidelines. advances in integrative medicine, 1(1), 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aimed.2012.12.002 schore, a. (1994). affect regulation and the origin of the self: the neurobiology of emotional development. lawrence erlbaum associates. https://www.amazon.com/affect-regulation-origin-selfneurobiology/dp/0805834591 sengupta, a., winters, b., bagley, e. e., & mcnally, g. p. (2016). disrupted prediction error links excessive amygdala activation to excessive fear. the journal of neuroscience, 36(2), 385-395. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.3670-15.2016 serber, m. (1970). shame aversion therapy. journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 1(3), 213-215. https://doi.org/10.1016/00057916(70)90005-4 shaffer, d. r. (2009). social and personality development. cengage learning. https://books.google.com.ua/books/about/social_and_personality_devel opment.html?id=perztq7lkmwc&redir_esc=y shaw, j. a. (1999). practice parameters for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents who are sexually abusive of others. american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry working group on quality issues. journal of the american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry, 38(12), 55s-76s. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0890-8567(99)80004-5 https://doi.org/10.1348/0144665031752998 https://www.amazon.com/psychology-occupations-anne-roe/dp/b0000cjjef https://www.amazon.com/psychology-occupations-anne-roe/dp/b0000cjjef https://www.amazon.co.uk/helping-troubled-children-michael-rutter/dp/b003l2qgfm https://www.amazon.co.uk/helping-troubled-children-michael-rutter/dp/b003l2qgfm https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aimed.2012.12.002 https://www.amazon.com/affect-regulation-origin-self-neurobiology/dp/0805834591 https://www.amazon.com/affect-regulation-origin-self-neurobiology/dp/0805834591 https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.3670-15.2016 https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(70)90005-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(70)90005-4 https://books.google.com.ua/books/about/social_and_personality_development.html?id=perztq7lkmwc&redir_esc=y https://books.google.com.ua/books/about/social_and_personality_development.html?id=perztq7lkmwc&redir_esc=y https://doi.org/10.1016/s0890-8567(99)80004-5 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 242 siegel, d. j. (2014). brainstorm: the power and purpose of the teenage brain. tarcherperigee. https://www.amazon.com/brainstorm-power-purposeteenage-brain/dp/158542935x sjöberg, r. l., ducci, f., barr, c. s., newman, t. k., dell’osso, l., virkkunen, m., & goldman, d. a. (2008). a non-additive interaction of a functional mao-a vntr and testosterone predicts antisocial behavior. neuropsychopharmacology, 33(2), 425-430. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1301417 sobchak, n. (2004). zmist i formy profesiinoi pidhotovky sotsialnykh pratsivnykiv u systemi neperervnoi osvity ssha [the content and forms of social work training in the continuing education system in the usa] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. ternopil volodymyr hnatiuk national pedagogical university. http://www.disslib.org/zmist-i-formy-profesiynoyipidhotovky-sotsialnykh-pratsivnykiv-u-systemi-neperervnoyi.html starshenbaum, g. v. (2005). suitsidologiya i krizisnaya psihoterapiya [suicidology and crisis psychotherapy]. kogito-tsentr. https://kingmed.info/knigi/psihiatria/book_1715/suitsidologiya_i_krizis naya_psihoterapiya-starshenbaum_gv-2005-pdf steen, c., & monnette, b. (1989). treating adolescent sex offenders in the community. charles c. thomas. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1989-97158-000 steinberg, l., & morris, a. s. (2001). adolescent development. annual review of psychology, 52, 83-110. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.83 swann, w. b., & bosson, j. k. (2010). self and identity. in s. t. fiske, d. t. gilbert, & g. lindzey (eds.). handbook of social psychology (pp. 589-626). john wiley & sons, inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470561119.socpsy001016 tenenbaum-casari, f. (1994). les troubles psychosomatiques à l’adolescence: revue bibliographique [psychosomatic disorders in adolescence: literature review]. neuropsychiatrie de l’enfance et de l’adolescence [childhood and adolescent neuropsychiatry], 42, 124-134. https://www.ascodocpsy.org/santepsy/index.php?lvl=author_see&id=903 62 tkach, b. (2018b). neuropsychological features of personalities with deviant behavior. fundamental and applied researches in practice of leading scientific schools, 27(3), 201-206. https://www.1spbgmu.ru/images/home/obrazovanie/kafedra/%d0%9 a%d0%b0%d1%84%d0%b5%d0%b4%d1%80%d0%b0_%d1%84 %d0%b0%d1%80%d0%bc%d0%b0%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%bb% d0%be%d0%b3%d0%b8%d0%b8/b_tkach_2018.pdf tkach, b. m. (2018a). neyropsihologіchna korektsіya osnovnih form devіantnoyi povedіnki [the principles of neuropsychological correction of the main https://www.amazon.com/brainstorm-power-purpose-teenage-brain/dp/158542935x https://www.amazon.com/brainstorm-power-purpose-teenage-brain/dp/158542935x https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1301417 http://www.disslib.org/zmist-i-formy-profesiynoyi-pidhotovky-sotsialnykh-pratsivnykiv-u-systemi-neperervnoyi.html http://www.disslib.org/zmist-i-formy-profesiynoyi-pidhotovky-sotsialnykh-pratsivnykiv-u-systemi-neperervnoyi.html https://kingmed.info/knigi/psihiatria/book_1715/suitsidologiya_i_krizisnaya_psihoterapiya-starshenbaum_gv-2005-pdf https://kingmed.info/knigi/psihiatria/book_1715/suitsidologiya_i_krizisnaya_psihoterapiya-starshenbaum_gv-2005-pdf https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1989-97158-000 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.83 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470561119.socpsy001016 https://www.ascodocpsy.org/santepsy/index.php?lvl=author_see&id=90362 https://www.ascodocpsy.org/santepsy/index.php?lvl=author_see&id=90362 https://www.1spbgmu.ru/images/home/obrazovanie/kafedra/%d0%9a%d0%b0%d1%84%d0%b5%d0%b4%d1%80%d0%b0_%d1%84%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%bc%d0%b0%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b3%d0%b8%d0%b8/b_tkach_2018.pdf https://www.1spbgmu.ru/images/home/obrazovanie/kafedra/%d0%9a%d0%b0%d1%84%d0%b5%d0%b4%d1%80%d0%b0_%d1%84%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%bc%d0%b0%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b3%d0%b8%d0%b8/b_tkach_2018.pdf https://www.1spbgmu.ru/images/home/obrazovanie/kafedra/%d0%9a%d0%b0%d1%84%d0%b5%d0%b4%d1%80%d0%b0_%d1%84%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%bc%d0%b0%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b3%d0%b8%d0%b8/b_tkach_2018.pdf https://www.1spbgmu.ru/images/home/obrazovanie/kafedra/%d0%9a%d0%b0%d1%84%d0%b5%d0%b4%d1%80%d0%b0_%d1%84%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%bc%d0%b0%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b3%d0%b8%d0%b8/b_tkach_2018.pdf training future social workers for preventive-corrective work by methods of ... inna kovalenko et al. 243 forms of the deviant behaviour]. psikhologichnyy chasopis [psychological journal], 4(14), 234-248. https://doi.org/10.31108/2018vol14iss4pp234248 tyurina, i. o. (2015). metodicheskoe posobie po prakticheskomu ispolzovaniyu modeli mehanizma “subektnoy” sotsializatsii v tselom i detey, nahodyaschihsya v trudnoy zhiznennoy situatsii i sotsialno opasnom polozhenii [methodical guidelines on practical use of the model of the mechanism of general “subjective” socialization and that of children in difficult life and socially dangerous situations]. the institute of sociology of the russian academy of sciences. http://muuo.ucoz.ru/dokumenty/metod/metod_rekom_model_subektn oj_socializacii_chast_1.pdf uski, s., & lampinen, a. (2014). social norms and self-presentation on social network sites: profile work in action. new media & society, 18(3), 447-464. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814543164 varambally, s., & gangadhar, b. n. (2016). current status of yoga in mental health services. international review psychiatry, 28(3), 233-235. https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2016.1159950 vinnikova, l. v. (2003). systema pidgotovky sotsialnikh pratsivnikiv u vyschykh navchalnykh zakladakh ssha [the system of social work training in higher education institutions in the united states] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. luhansk taras shevchenko national university. https://revolution.allbest.ru/pedagogics/00434012_0.html vist, n. v. (2016). psychological and pedagogical conditions for the prevention of deviant behavior among adolescents. international journal of environmental and science education, 11, 8536-8551. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1117749.pdf volnova, l. m. (2016). profilaktika deviantnoyi povedinki pidlitkiv. chastyna 1. [prevention of deviant adolescent behaviour. part 1]. cul. http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/12327/volnova_ profilactika%20deviant.1%20chast.teoriya.pdf;jsessionid=8ff9351f6504 86d58ff9dfd7f0455358?sequence=1 vydyshko, n. (2010). profesiina pidhotovka maibutnikh sotsialnykh pratsivnykiv u koledzhakh kanady [professional training of future social workers in canadian colleges] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university. https://library.vspu.net/jspui/handle/123456789/736 ward, t., day, a., howells, k., & birgden, a. (2004). the multifactor offender readiness model. aggression and violent behavior, 9(6), 645-673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2003.08.001 https://doi.org/10.31108/2018vol14iss4pp234-248 https://doi.org/10.31108/2018vol14iss4pp234-248 http://muuo.ucoz.ru/dokumenty/metod/metod_rekom_model_subektnoj_socializacii_chast_1.pdf http://muuo.ucoz.ru/dokumenty/metod/metod_rekom_model_subektnoj_socializacii_chast_1.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814543164 https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2016.1159950 https://revolution.allbest.ru/pedagogics/00434012_0.html https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1117749.pdf http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/12327/volnova_profilactika%20deviant.1%20chast.teoriya.pdf;jsessionid=8ff9351f650486d58ff9dfd7f0455358?sequence=1 http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/12327/volnova_profilactika%20deviant.1%20chast.teoriya.pdf;jsessionid=8ff9351f650486d58ff9dfd7f0455358?sequence=1 http://enpuir.npu.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/12327/volnova_profilactika%20deviant.1%20chast.teoriya.pdf;jsessionid=8ff9351f650486d58ff9dfd7f0455358?sequence=1 https://library.vspu.net/jspui/handle/123456789/736 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2003.08.001 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 244 white, j., marsh, i., kral, m.j., & morris, j. (2017). critical suicidology: transforming suicide research and prevention for the 21st century. ubc press. https://www.ubcpress.ca/critical-suicidology who. (2013). suicide rates and absolute numbers of suicide by country. http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/ wickramasekera, i. (ed.). (1976). biofeedback, behavior therapy and hypnosis: potentiating the verbal control of behavior for clinicians. nelson-hall. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1977-01545-000 worling, j. (2012). the assessment and treatment of deviant sexual arousal with adolescents who have offended sexually. journal of sexual aggression, 18(1), 36-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2011.630152 yarrow, e., anderson, k., apland, k., & watson, k. (2014). can a restrictive law serve a protective purpose? the impact of age-restrictive laws on young people’s access to sexual and reproductive health services. sexuality & culture, 18, 257-278. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0968-8080(14)44809-2 zakharchenko, n. a. (2009). psihologicheskaya sostavlyayuschaya v professionalnoy podgotovke buduschih sotsialnyih rabotnikov [the psychological component of social work training ]. psikhologicheskiy zhurmal [psychological journal], 6(2), 5457. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologicheskaya-sostavlyayuschaya-vprofessionalnoy-podgotovke-buduschih-sotsialnyh-rabotnikov zeer, e. f. (2003). psihologiya professiy [the psychology of professions]. business book. https://studfile.net/preview/1744899/ zmanovskaya, e. v., & rybnikov, v. yu. (2012). deviantnoe povedenie lichnosti i gruppyi [individual and group deviant behaviour]. pіter. https://www.studmed.ru/zmanovskaya-e-v-rybnikov-v-yu-deviantnoepovedenie-lichnosti-i-gruppy_1aec4ad9867.html тkаch, b. m. (2012). teoretiko-metodologichni zasadi neyropsihologichnoi korektsii osobistosti sotsialno dezadaptovanih nepovnolitnikh [theoretical and methodological principles of neuropsychological correction of socially maladapted minors]. zbirnyk naukovykh prats instytutu psykholohiyi im. h. s. kostyuka natsionalnoyi apn ukrayiny. problemy zahalʹnoyi ta pedahohichnoyi psykholohiyi [collection of scientific works of g. s. kostyuk institute of psychology of the national academy of pedagogical sciences of ukraine], 14(6), 442-455. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pzpp_2012_24_6_58 https://www.ubcpress.ca/critical-suicidology http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/ https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1977-01545-000 https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2011.630152 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0968-8080(14)44809-2 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologicheskaya-sostavlyayuschaya-v-professionalnoy-podgotovke-buduschih-sotsialnyh-rabotnikov https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologicheskaya-sostavlyayuschaya-v-professionalnoy-podgotovke-buduschih-sotsialnyh-rabotnikov https://studfile.net/preview/1744899/ https://www.studmed.ru/zmanovskaya-e-v-rybnikov-v-yu-deviantnoe-povedenie-lichnosti-i-gruppy_1aec4ad9867.html https://www.studmed.ru/zmanovskaya-e-v-rybnikov-v-yu-deviantnoe-povedenie-lichnosti-i-gruppy_1aec4ad9867.html http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/pzpp_2012_24_6_58 ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 211-241 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/452 submitted: june 12th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 29th, 2023 the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review nadire cavus1 imran ibrahim2 michael ogbonna okonkwo3 nurudeen bode ayansina4 temiloluwa modupeola5 1 department of computer information systems, near east university, nicosia 99138, cyprus, mersin 10 turkey; computer information systems research and technology center; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7470-7752, nadire.cavus@neu.edu.tr 2 near east university, cyprus, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4082-7956, himjopkhan@gmail.com 3 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0716-9031, turkey, ozoemena222@gmail.com 4 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3493-4496, turkey, nurudeenayansina@gmail.com 5 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0690-0088, turkey, temi200327@gmail.com abstract: gamification has recently been touted as an effective user engagement method with the ability to enhance online education. even though there has been more research on gamification in recent decades, however, there is still no taxonomy of its concrete impacts. the aim of this study was to fill this gap by identifying the effects that gamification has on both students and teachers engagement in online learning. this study combined a systematic literature review methodology and prisma processes to analyze high-quality articles on gamification in education from the last ten years (2012-2022) as extracted from three databases like scopus, sciencedirect, and web of science. the evaluation and analysis of the 40 articles included in the study summarized and categorized the benefits that the deployment of gamification offered to student engagement, motivation, creativity, and overall performance as well as to teachers as motivation, engagement, or feedback and evaluation. the result of the systematic literature review found that the educational levels that frequently incorporate gaming into their curricula are higher education, but it also shed light on the challenges that come with implementing gamification in the classroom. we hope the study’s findings assist educators and students in using gamification as a successful intervention technique by providing them with pertinent information that can influence outcomes and knowledge of the educational content and establish the right conditions for an effective learning process. keywords: gamification; e-learning; higher education; platform; student engagement. how to cite: cavus, n., ibrahim, i., ogbonna okonkwo, m. o., bode ayansina, n. b., & modupeola, t. (2023). the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 211-241. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/452 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/452 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/452 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 212 1. introduction there are many good reasons to spend a lot of time playing video games. games are a part of our daily lives, whether they are played for fun, leisure, or to satiate our competitive urges. these days, game principles are increasingly being used outside of the typical playing setting (scepanovic et al., 2015). the increased use of technology, including the internet, social media, mobile devices, cellphones, and other tools, has had an impact on higher education institutions’ pedagogical procedures (alzahrani & alhalafawy, 2022). gamification is the process of applying game dynamics, psychology, and mechanics to situations and applications that are not games (rozman & donath, 2019). gamification uses behavioural economics, loyalty program design, and game design to create the ideal environment for behavior change and positive results (rozman & donath, 2019). e-learning and gamification can be successfully combined. it has one major issue: due to non-compliance and ignorance of procedures and techniques for the construction of online information systems, many of its implementations fail to meet the desired objectives (rajsp et al., 2017). gamification is frequently used in university settings, university students choose the required courses and address student issues (toimah et al., 2021). gamification in e-learning refers to a set of techniques and tools that raise interest in and incentive for using and finishing a course in the e-learning environment (rozman & donath, 2019). keeping students motivated and focused during class had frequently been a challenge for teachers. for this reason, a lot of academic institutions and colleges are looking for ways to keep students engaged, motivated, and interested (scepanovic et al., 2015). various techniques have been employed to address this problem including adding elements of games to courses. in order to address educational needs and give students enrolled in these systems incentive chances, the gamification method has been used in numerous teaching systems throughout the world. because of this, gamification is being used more and more frequently in the world of online learning (alzahrani & alhalafawy, 2022). due to lack of discipline and knowledge of the strategies and procedures for developing online/e-learning data frameworks, many e-learning frameworks fail to meet the ideal objectives (toimah et al., 2021). therefore, the purpose of this study is to navigate through prior literature on the effects of gamification in education. through a systematic literature review, following a thorough review of the literature, efforts are being made to address the following research questions: rq1: what are the advantages of gamification in education? rq2: what levels of education utilize gamification? the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 213 rq3: what are the difficulties faced in implementing gamification in education? rq4: what gamification platforms or tools have been used? 2. methodology 2.1 research design a systematic literature review (slr) was conducted in accordance with the recommendations made by kitchenham and charters (2007). this recommendation offers a stringent pre-established procedure that directs a researcher through the study process. this thorough procedure detects the biases, errors, and knowledge gaps in the research as well as suggesting the areas where additional study may be advantageous. researchers find, assess and synthesize all available research related to a specific research question, topic area, or phenomenon of interest through systematic literature reviews (kitchenham and charters, 2007). lamé (2019) summarized the approach to creating a systematic literature review as follows: formulating a precise review topic, defining the inclusion and exclusion criteria, identifying pertinent research, choosing which studies to add or omit from the study, evaluating the studies’ quality, extracting pertinent data, compiling and analyzing the data, and interpreting the findings. 2.2 search strategy a thorough literature search was carried out using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (prisma) flow in three databases, as indicated in figure 1: scopus, sciencedirect, and web of science. only english-language publications over the past ten years between january 2012 and october 2022 were taken into account in this search. (“gamification” or “gamification” or “gamifying”) and (“online education” or “e-learning”) and (“higher education”) were the search key terms and search operators utilized. 2.3 inclusion and exclusion criteria the inclusion and exclusion criteria were taken into account during the study selection process in order to find pertinent studies that fit the study’s scope (kitchenham & charters, 2007). papers have to be published in english and completely accessible in the listed databases, as shown in table 1, in order to assure a stringent screening procedure. published research that did not adhere to these requirements were disqualified. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 214 table 1. inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study no. inclusion criterion 1 articles written in english 2 articles released between 2012 and 2022 3 articles that concentrated on gamification with online education or elearning. 4 articles examining how gamification is used in online education. 5 accessible full-text articles. no. exclusion criterion 1 books, book reviews, editorial materials, conference proceedings, and theses 2 duplicated studies. 3 it is not possible to download the article’s entire text. 4 articles that do not address the specified research question. 5 lack of sufficient detail in some articles to address the study’s questions. source: author's own conception 2.4 selection criteria 500 records were found after searching the databases: 226 from sciencedirect, 92 from web of science, and 182 from scopus. to ensure that no duplicate records were pulled from the databases prior to screening, the records were examined, and eleven duplicates were discovered and removed. 338 records were removed from the study since it was restricted to openaccess records. records that were not released between 2012 and 2022 were also removed. another record was removed since its full text was not accessible. using the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 146 articles were produced; 78 of them were dropped since they had no bearing on the subject. another 33 papers were excluded because they did not exactly suit the study's parameters. the 34 articles that were left over were kept for additional evaluation and analysis in the results section. the main components of the inclusion and exclusion criteria utilized in the study are listed in table 1 above. although a careful process was used to choose the papers that were examined, it is illogical to assume that every aspect of gamification in e-learning was adequately explored. it is also feasible that a search in different databases might have turned up more research in these areas. the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 215 figure 1: prisma flow diagram of the study source: author's own conception records identified from: (2012-2022) databases (n = 500) sciencedirect = 226 scopus = 182 web of science = 92 records removed before screening: duplicate records removed (n =11) records not in english (n = 1) records not open access (n = 338) records screened (n = 150) records excluded due to availability (n = 1) reports sought for retrieval (n = 149) reports excluded by titles and abstract (n =78) reports assessed for eligibility (n = 67) reports excluded: not answering research questions (n= 33) studies included in the review (n = 34) id e n ti fi c a ti o n s c re e n in g in c lu d e d identification of studies via databases and registers broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 216 2.5 data extraction the prisma methodology data extraction stage, which is the last phase, considered 34 studies. and the following information was taken from the studies: ● reference ● study objectives ● research methodology ● country ● advantages ● education levels ● challenges ● gamification platforms ● key findings 3. results 3.1 advantages of gamification in higher education gamification in e-learning has grown over time, and it has numerous advantages for students at all educational levels. this section of the essay will emphasize the categories of academic improvement, motivation, engagement, control, creativity, and academic performance that result from the adoption of gamification. 3.1.1 advantages for students improvement: one of a student’s main objectives is to learn as much as they can in the most convenient way possible, therefore gamification uses ict to improve student learning and make learning possible anytime, anywhere (urh et al., 2015). legaki et al. (2021) noted that levels aid in categorization of information schematically because it is provided in great detail which helps pupils in remembering concepts, while points and challenges provide a sense of accomplishment and growth. motivation: for students to learn effectively, they should be motivated to get involved in the education process. gordon and brayshaw (2017) pointed out that captivating education, the self-autonomy and flexibility that come with gamification promote self-motivation that is not only about having fun but may also increase engagement. moreover, using various survey techniques, the gamified application aids researchers in determining how game design components impact learners’ motivation, performance, and learning experience (torio et al., 2020). furthermore luis de marcosortega et al. (2020) described that adopting gamification can lead to social the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 217 learning experiences that are more motivating from a motivational standpoint, which can also increase participation as indicated by contributions to the social network, leading to more social engagement and communication that affects individual motivation, facilitates daily activities and makes a user more productive. engagement: effective learning requires student engagement and participation which can be raised by deploying a gamifying teaching process; bernik et al. (2019) stated that raising student interest and engagement in learning activities offered within a gamified system is the goal of e-learning gamification which leads to provision of superior knowledge assessment results. hasan et al. (2019) found that students’ engagement and learning processes are supported by the utilization of the gamification environment. moreover, tavares (2022) stated that studies utilizing a variety of teaching techniques, including quizzes, escape rooms, and serious games, were generally well-liked by students, who supported their extensive use within their curriculum. finally, portela (2022) demonstrated that a classroom can be a stimulating setting where students can learn and have fun whether or not it is physically active, and that gamification can be used to encourage student activities, boost engagement, and evaluate their success. student-control: it is very important for students to learn at their own pace; zafar et al. (2018) said that students can monitor their own comprehension via formative tests, and they can modify their study methods to improve learning. zafar et al. (2018) indicated that gamifying learning experiences may increase student motivation in addition to formative assessments. furthermore, alsulaimani (2022) stated gamification in e-learning helps students become an observer and has control over everything students obtains due to his eagerness to complete each subtask in order to receive its own incentives. it can be said that the design of e-learning activities based on digital inducement encourages tutees to set goals and insight to beginning certain academic assessments and aids them in creating different plans to deal with obstacles. because obtaining rewards requires careful planning, this is also true. according to research, gamification fosters pupils’ creativity, imagination, and enjoyment (nousiainen et al., 2021). furthermore, by tackling real-world issues, it enables students to develop their design thinking skills, additionally, su and cheng (2013) claimed that the inclusion of gaming in e-learning platforms motivates students to attempt new things and allows them to engage in pleasurable learning experiences. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 218 3.1.2 advantages to teachers student’s evaluation: gamification assists teachers in doing formative assessments to determine which subject’s students are struggling with (topirceanu, 2017). they can correct learners' misconceptions or strengthen understanding by doing this. also, focuses on how much a person is selfdriven and autonomous, which provides a substantial theoretical foundation for gamification. in order to maintain and encourage users, a gamified system should eventually try to provide them a sense of autonomy, competence, and social inclusion. tsay et al. (2018) stated that enhancing the effectiveness, strength, and motivation of e-learning, gamification can offer a fun learning environment that can replace the time-consuming learning approach. students are attracted by games and compensated with knowledge and skill. gamification in e-learning engages, inspires, motivates, and educates students so they voluntarily accomplish more challenging goals. engagement/feedback: gamification in online learning aids teachers in utilizing personalized and adaptive techniques like testing for estimating student performance, which can be used to customize feedback and content (gilyazova & zamoshchanskii, 2020). through preand post-game talks, teachers can assist students and fully engage in the game, appropriately engaging with other gamified teaching and learning environments to reality, helping people understand the information and use their talents in the actual world. tasks were created to allow students to exhibit individuality and cocreate knowledge in order to provide students a sense of relatedness and social involvement. tsay et al. (2018) argued that a gamification learning system will improve student engagement, motivation, and performance through the successful integration of design principles and student-centered learning. the fundamental goal of e-learning is to increase student-teacher interactions, quick feedback, assignment completion on time, etc. this goal can be achieved by effectively utilizing aspects of gamification, which in turn improve the usefulness of e-learning. gaining awards and points encourages competition and increases interest. it might be a way to provide a flexible, user-centered learning environment that encourages users to pursue their personal objectives. control/workload reduction: the primary responsibility of the teacher is to facilitate learning, which entails engaging students in the process, providing them the freedom to work at their individual pace, refraining from offering lengthy explanations, and enabling them to participate, communicate, interact, and complete assignments. the most involved party in this process is the student (topırceanu, 2017). the teacher’s role is to support, encourage, and assist students in exploring, attempting, and making the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 219 learning enjoyable for themselves rather than teaching. it lessens teachers' workload because they are no longer solely responsible for instructing students; instead, they now behave more like instructors who just direct them on how to study, increasing their interest and drive for learning. 3.2 the educational levels that utilized gamification for e-learning figure 2 below shows the distribution of the educational levels in the literature, with 88.89% utilization of gamification for e-learning in higher education. this is because most of the studies focused on university and college students, who are as viewed the main users or beneficiaries of elearning. figure 2: educational levels utilization of gamification source: author's own conception 3.3 difficulties faced in implementing gamification for education 3.3.1 difficulties for students motivation: sumer and aydin (2022) reported that the length of the course can lead to a decline in motivation of students. in the study by szabo et.al. (2021), the study found that some students preferred the physical part of learning rather than online lessons. engagement: students that use online learning frequently experience interruptions, audio and video errors, a decreased rate of student engagement, student attention span, teacher-student interactions, and 24 1 1 10 5 10 15 20 25 30 higher education high school middle school elementary school broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 220 downloading errors (aguilos & fuchs, 2022). another difficulty faced by students is increased anxiety, tavares (2022) observed that time-limited activities frequently made students anxious. the improper use of motivational strategies as well as a poorly developed technical and technological e-learning implementation (urh et al., 2015). 3.3.2 difficulties for teachers failure to achieve teaching goal: the study by tsay et al. (2018) revealed that all rewards eventually undermine intrinsic motivation. teaching staff in the educational sector are limited in the ability to utilize new teaching techniques and technological advancements because of the following factors, which can be seen among them: insufficient time for preparing high-quality materials; inability to alter secured virtual spaces; unawareness of the benefits of continuing education and career training; teachers failed to consider the factors and benefits that affect motivation of participants in ecourses. increased workload: the studies looked at teaching strategies and subjects with higher levels of complexity that demanded greater levels of information skills and critical reasoning, like nursing theory and sophisticated clinical abilities (tavares, 2022). due to the additional gamifying aspects, gamified testing takes substantially longer than traditional testing, which is one of the challenges teachers encounter. integrating games for learning to simulate a real-life learning environment (severengiz et al., 2020). the differential game will result in significant improvements right away, but it will also require some effort to transfer and connect with the other teaching approaches (pedersen et al., 2016). motivation: portela (2022) expressed that creating an interesting environment and inspiring students are the two biggest challenges in teaching. e-learning technologies for future teachers are on scientists' minds, as pedagogy requires a specialist to constantly adjust to rapidly changing conditions, process new information, introduce pedagogical innovations, etc. various technologies are being developed to make e-learning more effective (lytvynov et al., 2022). lack of it infrastructure: challenges institutions may encounter include ict infrastructure, educational quality, digital literacy, and the expense and obsolescence of technology (aguilos & fuchs, 2022). bernik et al. (2020) showed that implementing new teaching techniques and technical advancements in the educational sector are limited by the following factors, which can be seen among teaching staff: lack of time to prepare highquality materials; inability to alter secured virtual spaces; ignorance of the benefits of continuing education and career training; and lack of authority to the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 221 alter secured virtual spaces. neglecting the benefits and factors that affect ecourse participants’ motivation when determining the course learning objectives, the teacher’s intentions were unclear. 3.4 the gamification tools or platforms some of the studies made use of moodle (aguilos & fuchs, 2022; bernik et.al, 2020; bernik et.al., 2017; szegedine lengyel, 2020), other gamification tools or platforms highlighted in the literature are coursera, edx. techteach can adjust to various situations, it seeks to improve student participation and use gamification to create a more engaging, enjoyable, and digital learning environment (portela, 2022). eur gamified mobile application is a learning tool that students can use to assess their own comprehension and track their academic progress (zafar et al., 2018). diffgame is used as a tool for the students to investigate formalistic rules of differentiation, to recognize the patterns of the derivative of functions, it is essential to be able to classify a function from its visual or analytical form (pedersen et al., 2016). q learn is a platform that provides assistance to students in creating quiz questions for quizzes, solving quizzes of varying and increasing difficulty that cover topics from the course syllabus, receiving feedback on their answers, monitoring their learning progress, learning from other students who have had similar experiences, and debating particular issues (şerban & ioan, 2020). hegameapp is a tool that aims to help users share knowledge that supports their learning practices. with the use of a bayesian markov model, this tool enables you to determine a student's or a group of students’ level of motivation throughout the course of an academic year (aguiar-castillo et al., 2022). logio is a gamification tool for teaching and understanding the principles of digital logic gates (torio et al., 2020). mils (mobile insect learning system) was created and applied in an elementary school scientific curriculum to improve learning outcomes in comparison to non-gamified mobile learning and conventional education by integrating mobile and gamification technology into the botanical learning process (su & cheng, 2013). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 222 table 2: data extraction table s/ n reference advantages of gamification in higher education the educationa l levels that utilized gamificatio n for elearning difficulties faced in implementin g gamification for education the gamificati on tools or platforms 1 sumer & aydin (2022) improvement in students’ achievement. undergradu ate length of the course, lack of new tasks, lack of instant feedback. video detectors, or other sensors. 2 bernik et al. (2019) raising student interest and engagement in learning activities offered within a gamified system is the goal of elearning gamification which leads to provision of superior knowledge assessment results. higher education points, levels, leaderboard s, badges, beginnerfriendly explanation s, social networks, and progressive content disclosure the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 223 3 aguilos & fuchs (2022) the direction, speed, timing, and environment of their learning are all more in the students’ hands and also allows teachers the chance to conduct tailored courses. the issues that frequently plague students using online learning include distractions, audio and video errors, a decreased rate of student involvement, student attention span, teacherstudent interactions, and downloading errors. moodle and plugins like h5p and level up are installed 4 aguiarcastillo et al. (2022) increase in motivation, it optimizes the performance of online lessons. higher education decrease in motivation. hegamea pp 5 torio et al. (2020) engrossing instruction, the selfautonomy and adaptability that come with gamification encourage selfmotivation that isn't only higher education logio broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 224 about having fun but may also boost engagement. 6 bernik et al. (2020) it affects individual motivation, facilitates daily activities and makes a user more productive. lack of time to develop excellent content; incapacity to adjust secured virtual spaces; ignorance of the advantages of ongoing education and career training; and lack of authority to alter secured virtual spaces. ignoring the advantages and elements that have an impact on ecourse participants’ motivation. the teacher’s aims were not obvious while deciding on the course’s learning objectives. moodle the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 225 7 legaki et al., (2021) because the content is presented in great detail, levels assist students recall topics, while points and challenges give them a sense of accomplishm ent and growth. 8 hasan et al. (2019) students' engagement and learning processes are supported by the utilization of the gamification environment 9 şerban & ioan, (2020) higher education q learning 10 alsadoon et al., (2022) by competing with one another and with each other for points and badges that showed their desire to learn and their happiness with the course, students middle school broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 226 learned while having fun. the instructor saw that the students in the gamification group engaged more, talked to their peers, and used elearning tools more frequently. 11 tsay et al. (2018) gamification can assist teachers in creating narratives that involve both formative and summative evaluations of the assessment regime as obstacles to be overcome. it enables students to study in a more adaptable and independent manner. higher education the research showed that all rewards eventually undermine intrinsic motivation. moodle 12 abdul wahab & joy (2017) higher education e-portfolio the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 227 13 bernik et al. (2017) higher education 14 su & cheng (2013) students were able to participate in enjoyable learning experiences, which encourages them to try new things. elementary school mils (mobile insect learning system) 15 tavares (2022) the literature revealed three key themes: game-based learning methodologie s, student involvement and experience, and the effects of game-based learning on student learning and knowledge retention. higher education the majority of research found that game-based learning improved student engagement and learning, while timelimited games frequently make students more anxious. 16 portela (2022) gamification activities are encouraged to raise student involvement and evaluate their performance. higher education motivating pupils in the classroom and establishing an engaging environment are the main challenges of teaching. techteach broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 228 17 reise et al. (2014) it enhances teamwork, decisionmaking, and selfconfidence. higher education moodle 18 giessen (2015) higher education 19 schöbel et al. (2021) first, it promotes behavior that will lead to learning, and second, include users in learning by using the tools and resources (tutorials, tests, videos, or other digital documents) provided in digital learning. higher education 20 tsalapatas et al. (2019) it enables students to practice design thinking by tackling issues in the actual world. higher education designit 21 legaki et al. (2020) higher education the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 229 22 urh et al. (2015) it includes information and communicati on technology that help kids learn better. it makes it possible to learn at any time and from anyplace. higher education a poorly managed project that ignored the key e-learning development stages (analysis, planning, development, implementati on, and evaluation), used the wrong motivational strategies, and did not apply the right technical and technological e-learning implementati on. 23 szabó et al. (2021) using the resources at their disposal, the students study at their own speed. higher education the students favored the hands-on component of learning. 24 topırceanu (2017) higher education 25 zafar et al. (2018) students are more likely to spend more time learning, learning is more likely to be retained, and learning undergradu ate edx and coursera broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 230 is made to look enjoyable. 26 nousiainen,et al. (2020) understandin g the participants' perspectives on the use of game features and looking at this group's user type profile will help us investigate the possibilities of using user types when developing gamification strategies for teachers and students. higher education 27 luis de marcosortega et al. (2020) it helps encourage involvement and promote action undergradu ate one of the difficulties faced is that gamified testing takes longer than conventional testing because of the additional gamifying elements. points, badges, leaderboard the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 231 28 ghai & tandon (2022) gamification can improve the learning environment. this study will motivate instructors and course designers to carefully evaluate an online course's instructional design and gamification. higher education points, badges and awards. 29 lytvynov et al. (2022) tertiary instituiton since pedagogy requires an expert to continually adapt to quickly changing situations, process new information, offer pedagogical innovations, etc., future teachers are on scientists' thoughts. to increase the effectiveness of e-learning, numerous technologies are being created. moodle and plugins like h5p and level up are installed broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 232 30 szegedine & lengyel (2020) due to their experiences, students will feel fulfilled and motivated to learn more. university 31 pedersen et al., (2016) the training effect might favor students with some modicum of intuition about the math high school it stifled those who had to deal with both a new learning format and a task that would have been difficult for them. the diffgame will yield large immediate gains, but it would also take some work to transfer and align with the other modes of learning. diffgame 32 severengiz et al. (2018) one of the difficulties teachers have is that gamified testing takes a great deal longer than conventional testing because of the additional gamifying elements. the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 233 33 gilyazova & zamoshchans kii, (2020) it increases interest in learning. it also encourages pupils to actively participate in their learning 34 gordon & brayshaw (2017) gamification' s selfautonomy and adaptability encourage selfmotivation that goes beyond just having fun and might even boost engagement. higher education source: author's own conception 4. discussion this systematic review focused on the effect gamification has in education; gamification is the use of various gaming features and experiences throughout learning processes in the educational setting. in education, student engagement, motivation, creativity, and academic performance are very important, and many researchers use many new technologies and strategies to affect all these positively in which gamification is one of them. several studies (topirceanu, 2017; bernik et al., 2019; hasan et al., 2019; portela et al., 2022) highlighted that gamification improves student involvement in learning activities by utilizing a variety of teaching techniques, including tests, escape rooms, and serious games integrated gamification. furthermore, gamification education platforms help students in terms of motivation to participate in the learning process. as mentioned in the prior literature review researchers (gordon & brayshaw, 2017; torio et al., 2020; bernik et al., 2020) narrated that for students to learn effectively broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 234 when they are motivated which immensely increased with the use of gamification in educational settings. moreover, the result of this systematic literature review also showed students’ creativity should be encouraged in designing an education platform. however, several studies (su and cheng, 2013; topirceanu, 2017; alsulaimani, 2022; nousiainen et al., 2021; gilyazova & zamoshchanskii, 2020) have highlighted how gamification aids student creativity by developing and implementing several activities that enhance students social behaviors, logical reasoning, critical thinking abilities, the development of cognitive abilities, the improvement of concentration and attention levels, the development of complex thinking and strategic planning abilities, the support of multidisciplinary learning, and the enhancement of motivation for learning. additionally, zafar et al. (2018) and alsulaimani et al. (2022) explained that the overall academic performance of students improved in gamified learning systems because gamification allows students to learn at one’s personal momentum, observe, and control learning activities owning it to the fact that they are eager to complete each subtask in order to receive digital incentives. this encourages students to set goals before beginning any educational task and helps them come up with different plans to deal with obstacles. this is also true because achieving rewards necessitates meticulous planning. teachers must complete a variety of tasks in order to achieve learning objectives, and this study has been able to pinpoint areas where gamified learning systems have been extremely helpful to teachers, including evaluation, student engagement, workload reduction, control over the learning process, and receiving feedback from the students. one of the main responsibilities of teachers is evaluating their students. several researchers (tsaya et al. 2018; alsadoon et al. 2022) have shown how teachers have been able to use gamified educational systems to do formative assessments and identify which subjects their students are having trouble with. this allows them to correct their students’ misconceptions or strengthen their understanding, and because students are drawn in by the fun and rewarded with data and abilities that allow teachers to assess student performance. previous researches (gilyazova & zamoshchanskii, 2020; tsay et al., 2018; topirceanu et al., 2017) have shown how teachers are able to use fixtures that gamification offers such as pre-and post-game talks, ability to relate and measure a game based learning atmosphere to the actual life or reality, ability co-create acquire knowledge and express individuality gamification to increase student engagement and enable them to take part more actively in nearly all learning activities in which teachers are able to accomplish their educational objectives. however, over time, gamification the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 235 has been able to lessen teachers’ workloads and provide them more control over the instructional and learning method, enabling them to fulfill the primary responsibility of a teacher, which is to facilitate learning. topirceanu et al. (2017) have shown how teachers have been able to avoid giving lengthy explanations in favor of using game fixtures that allow students to learn at one’s personal momentum and promote engagement, conversation, interaction, and task completion. furthermore, nousiainen et al. (2020) and gilyazova and zamoschanskii (2020) have found that gamification in online learning helps teachers use personalized gaming content and adaptive techniques to accomplish teaching goals and allows them to receive feedback by monitoring student progress in the classroom. it also enables teachers to monitor all teamwork and cooperation and see through a thirst for knowledge. this study has pinpointed a variety of obstacles that students and teachers confront, including technical issues, a lack of infrastructure, the duration of the course, human errors, and time constraints, which frequently prevent teaching and learning goals from being met. several studies (sumer & aydin, 2022; szabo et al. 2021) have identified a number of technical issues when using gamified educational systems in online learning, including power outages, which are frequent in developing nations, poor internet, audio, video, and downloading errors, which frequently result in a decreased rate of student engagement, a reduction in the amount of time students are able to pay attention, and poor teacher-student interactions. however, lack of infrastructure is another challenge that teachers and students encounter. aguilos and fuchs (2022) highlighted that many institutions lack high-quality ict infrastructure and gamification systems or platforms to effectively carry out the educational process, challenges the institution may face include ict infrastructure and technological obsolescence. moreover, since the gamified learning process still requires human intervention, human factors cannot be eliminated. another challenge observed was the lack of digital literacy among teaching staff, inability to prepare high-quality materials due to lack of time, inability to alter secured virtual spaces due to lack of authority to do so, and ignorance of the advantages of continued education and career training as factors that can all be classified as human error and one of the most challenging aspects of gamified learning. however, due to the fact that most lessons have set or limited times allotted for them, time limits are another obstacle to the deployment of gamified educational systems. according to bernik et al. (2020) gamification has shown significant improvements when implemented but it also required some effort to broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 236 transfer to and align with the other modalities of learning. the added reward features meant that gamified testing took longer than regular testing, and creation of high-quality course material for gamified learning systems exerted more effort. in future studies, the focus can be turned to finding out how to create e-learning systems that are more successful in accordance with the components and techniques of gamification. also, further studies can be done on educational methods that can improve students’ experience and engagement. another area that can be studied is the type of teaching methods that can ensure the best learning outcomes for students. this research, however, is subject to some limitations, the first limitation was the limitation period established by the identified studies. second, only papers that satisfied the selected inclusion criteria of the authors were included in this evaluation. in this review, the focus was on peer-reviewed studies. not to mention, the search was restricted to the three selected databases. expanding the search criteria to cover all scientific databases should be on the future agenda in order to get more comparison results and other types of papers such as conference proceedings, and book chapters can be considered. 5. conclusion this article aimed to contribute to the understanding of how gamification affects participants, motivation, and engagement differently depending on their individual personalities. gamification is applied to educational activities to achieve specific learning objectives, increase students’ enthusiasm for completing them, and incorporate them in a fun setting of friendly competition with other students. it can attract learners’ interest and help them improve their skills. therefore, it is essential to prioritize teacher and student feedback in order to maximize gamification’s effectiveness. after conducting a literature review on gamification, numerous game-based components which have been employed to create an engaging education have been identified by the studies. however, scientific evaluation of the effects of gamification on learning is still in its infancy, despite the fact that it has grown in popularity. it should be emphasized that gamification has a number of design challenges, and for it to be successful, designers must place special emphasis on the interface of game elements and content relational structure. globally, there is a significant digital divide in the acceptance of gamification in education, with developing countries not using it compared to the united states, england, spain, netherlands, and germany. researchers have a good opportunity to focus on figuring out the the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 237 primary causes of the gap and the best ways to close it. this systematic literature review demonstrates clearly that there are some limitations that set developing countries apart from developed ones in terms of capabilities. the results of this study help educators and students to use gamification as a successful intervention strategy by giving them relevant information that can impress learning outcomes, increase understanding of learning materials and foster an enabling learning environment. references abdul wahab, m., & joy, m. (2017). raising engagement and motivation through gamified eportfolio in kolej profesional mara (kpm), malaysia: a preliminary survey. eai endorsed transactions on e-learning, 4(14), 152904. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.26-7-2017.152904 aguiar-castillo, l., arce-santana, e., guerra-yanez, c., guerra-yanez, v., & perez-jimenez, r. (2022). gamification: a motivation metric based in a markov model. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 17(13), 17–34. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v17i13.30781 aguilos, v., & fuchs, k. (2022). the perceived usefulness of gamified e-learning: a study of undergraduate students with implications for higher education. frontiers in education, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.945536 alsadoon, e., alkhawajah, a., & suhaim, a. b. (2022). effects of a gamified learning environment on students’ achievement, motivations, and satisfaction. heliyon, 8(8), e10249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10249 alsulaimani, a. a. (2022). developing a model for e-learning activities based on digital incentives within the context of covid-19 and its effectiveness in developing meta-cognitive thinking among higher education students. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 17(17), 105–126. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v17i17.29403 alzahrani, f. j., & alhalafawy, w. s. (2022). benefits and challenges of using gamification across distance learning platforms at higher education: a systematic review of research studies published during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of positive school psychology, 6(10), 1948-1977. https://journalppw.com/index.php/jpsp/article/view/13543/8776 bernik, a., radošević, d., & dvorski, j. (2020). gamification after almost a decade: is it still relevant? a case of non-stem hybrid e-learning university course. journal of computer science, 16(5), 626–631. https://doi.org/10.3844/jcssp.2020.626.631 bernik, a., radošević, d., & strmečki, d. (2017). research on efficiency of applying gamified design into university’s e-courses: 3d modeling and https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.26-7-2017.152904 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v17i13.30781 https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.945536 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10249 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v17i17.29403 https://journalppw.com/index.php/jpsp/article/view/13543/8776 https://doi.org/10.3844/jcssp.2020.626.631 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 238 programming. journal of computer science, 13(12), 718-727. https://doi.org/10.3844/jcssp.2017.718.727 bernik, a., vusić, d., & milkovic, m. (2019). evaluation of gender differences based on knowledge adaptation in the field of gamification and computer science. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 14(08), 220. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v14i08.9847 de marcos-ortega, l., garcia-cabot, a., garcia-lopez, e., ramirez-velarde, r., teixeira, a., & martínez-herráiz, j.-j. (2020). gamifying massive online courses: effects on the social networks and course completion rates. applied sciences, 10(20), 7065. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10207065 ghai, a., & tandon, u. (2022). integrating gamification and instructional design to enhance usability of online learning. education and information technologies, 28, 2187–2206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11202-5 giessen, h. w. (2015). serious games effects: an overview. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 174, 2240-2244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.881 gilyazova, o. s., & zamoshchanskii, i. i. (2020). on motivational tools of gamification in higher education: theoretical aspect. perspectives of science and education, 45(3), 39–51. https://doi.org/10.32744/pse.2020.3.3 gordon, n., & brayshaw, m. (2017). flexible virtual environments: gamifying immersive learning. communications in computer and information science, 714, 115. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58753-0_18 hasan, h. f., nat, m., & vanduhe, v. z. (2019). gamified collaborative environment in moodle. ieee access, 7, 89833-89844. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2926622 kitchenham, b., & charters, s. (2007). guidelines for performing systematic literature reviews in software engineering, technical report ebse 2007-001. keele university and durham university joint report. lame, g. (2019). systematic literature reviews: an introduction. in proceedings of the international conference on engineering design society, 1(1), 1633-1642. https://doi.org/10.1017/dsi.2019.169 legaki, n.-z., karpouzis, k., assimakopoulos, v., & hamari, j. (2021). gamification to avoid cognitive biases: an experiment of gamifying a forecasting course. technological forecasting and social change, 167, 120725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120725 legaki, n.-z., xi, n., hamari, j., karpouzis, k., & assimakopoulos, v. (2020). the effect of challenge-based gamification on learning: an experiment in the context of statistics education. international journal of human-computer studies, 144, 102496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2020.102496 lytvynov, a., topolnyk, y., chumak, l., prykhodkina, n., antoniuk, l., & kramska, s. (2022). e-learning technologies for future teachers: https://doi.org/10.3844/jcssp.2017.718.727 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v14i08.9847 https://doi.org/10.3390/app10207065 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11202-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.881 https://doi.org/10.32744/pse.2020.3.3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58753-0_18 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2926622 https://doi.org/10.1017/dsi.2019.169 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120725 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2020.102496 the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 239 introduction of educational innovations in higher school practice. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(1sup1), 403-421. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/327 nousiainen, t., vesisenaho, m., ahlstrom, e., peltonen, m., fort, s., & gomez, s. (2020). gamifying teacher students’ learning platform: information and communication technology in teacher education courses. in teem'20: eighth international conference on technological ecosystems for enhancing multiculturality (pp. 688–693). association for computing machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3434780.3436659 pedersen, m. k., svenningsen, a., dohn, n. b., lieberoth, a., & sherson, j. (2016). diffgame: game-based mathematics learning for physics. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 228, 316-322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.07.047 portela, f. (2022). towards an engaging and gamified online learning environment a real casestudy. information, 13(2), 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/info13020080 rajsp, a., beranic, t., hericko, m., & horng-jyh, p. w. (2017). students’ perception of gamification in higher education courses. in proceedings of the central european conference on information and intelligent systems (pp. 69-75). faculty of organization and informatics varazdin. reise, c., müller, b., & seliger, g. (2014). resource efficiency learning game – electric scooter game. procedia cirp, 15, 355 -360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2014.06.090 rozman, t., & donath, l. (2019). the current state of the gamification in elearning. mednarodno inovativno poslovanje = journal of innovative business and management, 11(3), 5-19. https://doi.org/10.32015/jibm/2019-11-3-2 šcepanovic, s., zaric, n., & matijevic, t. (2015). gamification in higher education learning state of the art, challenges and opportunities. the sixth international conference on e-learning. econference. schöbel, s., saqr, m., & janson, a. (2021). two decades of game concepts in digital learning environments – a bibliometric study and research agenda. computers & education, 173, 104296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104296 şerban, c., & ioan, l. (2020). qlearn: towards a framework for smart learning environments. procedia computer science, 176, 2812-2821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2020.09.273 severengiz, m., roeder, i., schindler, k., & seliger, g. (2018). influence of gaming elements on summative assessment in engineering education for sustainable manufacturing. procedia manufacturing, 21, 429-437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2018.02.141 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.1sup1/327 https://doi.org/10.1145/3434780.3436659 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.07.047 https://doi.org/10.3390/info13020080 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2014.06.090 https://doi.org/10.32015/jibm/2019-11-3-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104296 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2020.09.273 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2018.02.141 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 240 su, c-h., & cheng, c-h. (2013). a mobile game-based insect learning system for improving the learning achievements. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 103, 42-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.305 sümer, m., & aydın, c. h. (2022). design principles for integrating gamification into distance learning programs in higher education: a mixed method study. international journal of serious games, 9(2), 79-91. https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v9i2.494 szabó, c. m., bartal, o., & nagy, b. (2021). the methods and it-tools used in higher education assessed in the characteristics and attitude of gen z. acta polytechnica hungarica, 18(1), 121-140. https://doi.org/10.12700/aph.18.1.2021.1.8 szegedine lengyel, p. (2020). can the game-based learning come? virtual classroom in higher education of 21st century. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 15(02), 112. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v15i02.11521 tavares, n. (2022). the use and impact of game-based learning on the learning experience and knowledge retention of nursing undergraduate students: a systematic literature review. nurse education today, 117, 105484. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105484 toimah, t. f., maulana, y. i., & fajar, i. (2021). gamification model framework and its use in e-learning in higher education. iaic transactions on sustainable digital innovation (itsdi), 3(1), 28-35. https://doi.org/10.34306/itsdi.v3i1.520 topîrceanu, a. (2017). gamified learning: a role-playing approach to increase student in-class motivation. procedia computer science, 112, 41-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.08.017 torio, j., bigueras, r. t., maligat, d. e., arispe, m. a., & dela cruz, j. s. (2020). logio: an adaptive gamification learning approach on digital logic gates. iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 803(1), 012008. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/803/1/012008 tsalapatas, h., heidmann, o., pata, k., vaz de carvalho, c., bauters, m., papadopoulos, s., katsimendes, c., taka, c., & houtis, e. (2019). teaching design thinking through gamified learning. in proceedings of the 11th international conference on computer supported education. https://doi.org/10.5220/0007697402780283 tsay, c. h-h., kofinas, a., & luo, j. (2018). enhancing student learning experience with technology-mediated gamification: an empirical study. computers & education, 121, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.01.009 urh, m., vukovic, g., jereb, e., & pintar, r. (2015). the model for introduction of gamification into e-learning in higher education. procedia social and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.305 https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v9i2.494 https://doi.org/10.12700/aph.18.1.2021.1.8 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v15i02.11521 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105484 https://doi.org/10.34306/itsdi.v3i1.520 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.08.017 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/803/1/012008 https://doi.org/10.5220/0007697402780283 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.01.009 the effects of gamification in education: a systematic literature review cavus, n. et al. 241 behavioral sciences, 197, 388-397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.154 zafar, f., wong, j., & khalil, m. (2018). gamifying higher education: enhancing learning with mobile game app. l@s '18: proceedings of the fifth annual acm conference on learning at scale, 28, 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3231644.3231686 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.154 https://doi.org/10.1145/3231644.3231686 microsoft word brain_6_2015__doc final.doc 84 design of a novel servo-motorized laser device for visual pathways diseases therapy carlos ignacio sarmiento department of hospital bioengineering, national institute of neurology and neurosurgery “manuel velasco suárez”, mexico city, mexico carlos.sarmiento@itcm.edu.mx v. b. surya prasath computational imaging and visanalysis (civa) lab department of computer science university of missouri-columbia, columbia mo 61211 usa prasaths@missouri.edu abstract we discuss a novel servo-motorized laser device and a research protocol for visual pathways diseases therapies. the proposed servo-mechanized laser device can be used for potential rehabilitation of patients with hemianopia, quadrantanopia, scotoma and some types of cortical damages. the device uses a semi spherical structure where the visual stimulus will be shown inside, according to a previous stimuli therapy designed by an ophthalmologist or neurologist. the device uses a pair of servomotors (with torque=1.5kg), which controls the laser stimuli position for the internal therapy and another pair for external therapy. using electronic tools such as microcontrollers along with miscellaneous electronic materials, combined with labview based interface, a control mechanism is developed for the new device. the proposed device is well suited to run various visual stimuli therapies. we outline the major design principles including the physical dimensions, laser device’s kinematical analysis and the corresponding software development. keywords: diseases therapy; neuroplasticity; biosensors; visual therapies; servomotor; laser device 1. introduction lesions occurred in front of the optical chiasm can cause visual field lose in only one eye whereas lesions behind can cause visual field lose in both eyes, more or less congruent to each other. the total destruction of any of the visual structures behind the optical chiasm in only one side causes contrateral homonymous hemianopia (garoutte, 1981). hemianopia, as with other visual field defects, is a result of retrochiasmatic lesions of visual pathways, produced by different causes, predominantly by vascular malfunctions (lane et al., 2008). there are two major techniques exist to enhance and/or repair visual field homonymous defects. the first one is to teach the patient to explore his or her blind side by compensatory saccadic movements and the other is to enhance the visual field by using a computer program to stimulate the border between the visible and damaged visual side (schreiber et al., 2006). the scanning with ocular movements has been reported as an efficient tactic by the previous studies, reporting visual field enlargement up to 35° (koons et al., 2010). there are also related studies, which explore the different kinds of visual stimulus in waveform and frequency for therapies. in (weiskrantz et al., 1991) the authors conclude, after a comparison of different forms, that a square wave form at approximately 3.7hz can easily be seen by patients with visual dysfunctions. there is strong evidence supporting the effectiveness of the border zone stimulation and a possible activation of the extra-striate pathways (romano, 2009; marshall et al., 2008). neuroplasticity is reported as a possible cause of this particular therapy method in humans with delicate behavior measurement, as measured by functional magnetic resonance (fmri) images and positron emission tomography (pet). it has been observed that reactivation in some areas at the occipital lobe (henriksson et al., 2007) and also activation in concentration areas (romano, 2009). c. i. sarmiento, v. b. surya prasath design of a novel servo-motorized laser device for visual pathways diseases therapy 85 it has been proved that the nervous system is continuously remodeled by experience and learning in response to an activity (pascual-leone et al., 2011). moreover, it is observed that such remodeling mechanisms grow as the axon and dendrites reestablish new synaptic connections. clinical practice and research have shown the possibility of total or partial restitution of the lost functions observing restoration of the affected visual functions. in this paper, we detail a novel servo-mechanized laser device, which can be used for such visual stimuli therapies. the rest of the paper is organized as follows. section 2 outlines the design of the proposed device and sensor, and section 3 details the associated control mechanism that can help ophthalmologists and neurologists in using the device for various therapies. section 4 concludes the paper. 2. design of the device 2.1. physical design the device consists mainly of an acrylic semi-spherical structure (figure 1(a)) where visual stimuli will be shown, according to a pre-designed therapy. four servomotors will drive the lasers, two inside the structure (short distances drive the lasers, two inside the structure (short distance therapies) and two outside (middle-long distance therapies). a chin-rest must be used to have a better line of sight fixation. a webcam with infrared light will catch the purkinje-sanson images to identify the sight line (borah, 2006; halswanter, 2011; pambakian et al., 2000). labview software is used to control the device, including an audio stimulus along with an image-processing pipeline. finally a microcontroller is used to control the servo movements, laser beams and buzzers. (a) (b) figure 1. (a) part of the acrylic structure where the patient is enclosed to avoid external stimulus; (b) chin rest, corresponding proportions and measurements. the semi-spherical structure must enclose the patient inside to avoid non-desired external stimulus. the device is attached to a servo-support structure, which contains the servo-mechanized stimulator for middle-to-long range distance therapies. the design of the chin-rest was based on classical techniques, dating back to leonardo da vinci’s manuscripts, which is designed according to the proportions of an average face. we use the face average measures for mexican population (panero and zelnik, 1996), to design the chin-rest (figure 1(b)). the laser servo driver is attached in the small square. 2.2. laser driver’s inverse and direct kinematics denavit-hartenberg (dh) method was used for direct kinematic analysis (fu et al., 1987). according to the definitions of variables and constants the dh parameters are given by: i θ α d a 1 θ1 90 d1 0 2 θ2 0 d2 0 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 86 the homogeneous transformation matrix must be completed with dh parameters (spong et al., 2005) which is given as follows, (1) where c = cosine; s = sine. the inverse kinematics analysis was obtained using the geometrical method, which is shown in figure 2(a). the angle equations were obtained studying the model: (2) (3) as the servo-driver will be attached in the chin-rest in a non-central area with respect to the semispherical structure shown in figure 1(a), it is necessary to calculate a lag angle, according to the measurements from the chin-rest, see figure 2(b). this was done using a hybrid formula based on the law of cosines, we next describe the control mechanism for the laser device along with the software modules used here. (a) (b) figure 2. (a) representation of laser servo-driver for inverse kinematics analysis; (b) representation of the lag angle, b, of the internal servomechanism (magnified version of the chin-rest). c. i. sarmiento, v. b. surya prasath design of a novel servo-motorized laser device for visual pathways diseases therapy 87 3. control mechanisms of the device 3.1. therapy design software the therapy designer software is the most important part in the control mechanism of the proposed device and the light sequences (therapy) can be handled with the software process we describe here. after a preliminary medical visual field examination, the ophthalmologists must design a special visual therapy for each patient depending upon the diagnosis. the therapies are divided in two main groups: middle-long distance therapies and short distance therapies. the short distance therapy is further divided into (a) complete visual field or (b) macular, see figure 3 (top). when a patient begins the treatment with the device he or she will have short distance therapies for the prescribed time suggested by the ophthalmologist. note that the complete visual field therapy stimulates different parts in the entire visual field whereas macular therapy stimulate only a small part of the visual field, only the first 10° of vision range. in contrast, middle-long distance therapies are not developed inside the device; instead the patient must sit watching a wall, where the stimuli will be presented. figure 3 (bottom) shows the sequence selectors for the three different cases. the therapist will choose a desired number of sequences according to the results of the examination to each patient; hence it is completely patient dependent. once the therapist finishes the particular design of the stimuli sequence, the software automatically displays a window where he can save the customized patient-specific details for future use as a text file. figure 3. (top): illustration of the therapy selection main menu. this enables the user to select one of three options for the therapy. stimuli sequence selectors; (bottom): (a) short distance – complete visual field; (b) short distance – macular; (c) middle-long distance. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 88 3.2. therapy player software figure 4(a) shows the display window of the therapy player software. once the customized patient-specific text file has been created the control software reads it and sends signals to the microcontroller. every number in the created file has an equivalent value in zenith and azimuth, and this conversion is encoded in an internal value table. when the program is running, first the therapist must select the stimuli time and the therapy time. internally, the software selects it according the following equations: (6) (7) where tt time expended by the servomotors to point the laser to a given position and execute a laser beam sequence; tspin is the time that a servomotor needs to spin one degree; ttol is a given the tolerance time; θservo is the addition of degrees that both servos in a laser driver need to spin point the laser in a given position; tstimuli is the time expended in execute a laser beam, between 250 and 605 ms (weiskrantz et al., 1991); t is the total time of all repetitions in a therapy, suggested between 20 and 60 minutes and n is the number of repetitions in a therapy. (a) (b) figure 4. (a) therapy player software screen, where a) is the stimuli time, b) is the total therapy time, c) is the file path, d) displays the numeric values of each sequence of the therapy, e) shows the current value, and f) shows the current lag angle for zenith and azimuth values; (b) usb mechanism for conversion, where a) usb-uart converter, and b) usb-zigbee converter. when all the time parameters are selected, the next step is to select the desired text file. then all the values of the list are displayed and the execution starts automatically. there is also a numeric indicator to see the current value in execution. zenith and azimuth values of the laser beam are converted from the value table to a lag angle value using (4). the values are displayed in a modified-numeric indicator that appears like a servomotor. each the lag angle value is converted into the hexadecimal format and then converted into a serial format to be sent to the microcontroller via usb. 3.3. communication between the therapy player software and the microcontroller modern computers rarely have rs232 inputs, because usb ports had gradually substituted it. usb protocol is completely different than rs232 neither in age nor in voltages and transfer rate, that is why it is necessary to use an interface to connect a single 8-bit microcontrller’s uart to usb port. the ft232rl is a tssop28 package integrated circuit manufactured by ftdi®, it is an usb-uart is a usb controller that can each appear as a virtual com port on a usb host. each chip has a fullspeed usb device port. the ft232rl converts between usb and an asynchronous serial interface. c. i. sarmiento, v. b. surya prasath design of a novel servo-motorized laser device for visual pathways diseases therapy 89 sometimes health centers do not have much storage space to store the complete device as the proposed one here, and hence it is better to consider the use of wireless technology for data storage and transmission. further, this enhances the isolation of external distractors for the patients who undergo the therapies. for this purpose, we consider xbee modules, which are wireless transceivers manufactured by maxstream®, they utilize the ieee 802.15.4 protocol (commonly known as zigbee protocol). this protocol known as a low-rate, wireless personal area network (lr-wpan) provides up to 250 kbps of data through put between nodes on a network. note that both, ft232rl-based circuits and xbee modules are directly compatible, because the integrated circuit has a 3.3v output, what can be used as voltage source for the xbee (see figure 4(b)). the instructions are sent via usb and converted into serial format and then to zigbee format. zigbee wireless signal is received and converted into serial format again and a microcontroller receives the respective instructions to control by pwm the servomotors, and with digital pulses the lasers and buzzers. thus, the proposed servo-motorized laser devise and the software module described here can be seamlessly integrated into existing ophthalmological tools and operational systems. moreover, the wireless transmission makes it possible to be cost effective without sacrificing the data transmission rates and storage capacity. 4. conclusion in this paper we outlined a novel servo-motorized laser device and associated software control mechanism that is used in visual pathways diseases therapies. we believe this device is a good option to enhance visual abilities for patients with known hemianopia, quadrantanopia, scotoma and other types of cortical damages. recent studies using the pet and fmri imaging and detailed examinations suggest neuroplasticity effects due to learning in occipital region (henriksson et al., 2007; pascualleone et al., 2011). currently we are adapting this devise and the corresponding control mechanism for various visual pathways diseases therapies. further, extensive patient specific and multi-center examinations, validations, and data processing define our future work. 5. conflicts of interest the authors declare no conflict of interest. references garoutte, b., (1981), survey of functional neuroanatomy (1 st edition). greenbrae ca: jones medical publications. lane, a. r., smith, d. t., schenk, t. (2008). clinical treatment options for patients with homonymous visual field defects. clinical ophthalmology, 2, 93-102. schreiber, a., vonthein, r, reinhard, j. trauzettel-klosinski, s., connert, c., schiefer, u. (2006). effect of visual restitution training on absolute homonymus scotomas. neurology, 67, 143-145. koons, p., scott, j., kingston, j., goodrich, g. l. (2010). scanning training in neurological visual loss: case studies. eye and brain, 2, 47-55. weiskrantz, l., harlow, a., barbur, j. l. (1991). factors affecting visual sensitivity in a hemianopic subject. brain, 114, 2269-2282. romano, j. g. (2009). progress in rehabilitation of hemianopic visual field defects. cerebrovascular diseases, 27 (suppl 1), 187-190. marshall, r. s., ferrera, j. j., barnes, a., zhang, x., o’brien k. a., chmayssani, m., hirsch, j., lazar, r. m. (2008). brain activity associated with simulation therapy of the visual borderzone in hemianopic stroke patients. neurorehabilitation and neural repair, 22, 136-144. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 90 henriksson, l., raninen, a., näsänen, r., ryvärinen, l., vanni, s. (2007). training-induced cortical representation of a hemianopic hemifield. journal of neurology, neurosurgery & psychiatry, 78, 74-81. pascual-leone, a., freitas, c., oberman, l., horvath, j. c., halko, m., eldaief, m., bashir, s., vernet, m., shafi, m., westover, b., vahabzadeh-hagh, a. m., rotenberg, a. (2011). characterizing brain cortical plasticity and network dynamics across the age-span in health and disease with tms-eeg and tms-fmri. brain topography, 24, 302-315. borah, j. (2006). measurement techniques for eye movement. encyclopedia of medical devices and instrumentation, 3, 263-286. halswanter, t. (1995). mathematics of three-dimensional eye rotations. vision res, 12, 1727-1739. pambakian, a. l. m., woodings, d. s., patel, n., morland, a. b., kennard, c., mannan, s. k. (2000). scanning the visual world: a study of patients with homonymous hemianopia. journal of neurology, neurosurgery & psychiatry, 69, 751-759. panero, j., zelnik, m. (1996). las dimensiones humanas en los espacios interiores (7 th ed). valle de bravo, méxico: ediciones g. gili. original title: human dimension and interior space, new york: watson-guptill publ. retrieved from http://179.33.0.50/~colfps/pkaz/libros/diseno/lasdimensiones-humanas.pdf fu, k. s., gonzález, r. c., lee, c. s. g. (1987). robotics: control, sensing, vision and intelligence (1 st edition). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. spong, m. w., hutchinson, s., vidyasagar, m. (2005). robot modeling and control. new york: john wiley and sons inc. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 496-513 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/401 submitted: november 4th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 18th, 2022 post-darwinian biology olivia macovei 1 1 phd student, doctoral school of ștefan cel mare university from suceava, romania, oliviamacovei10@gmail.com abstract: systems biology and synthetic biology are interdisciplinary scientific approaches developed to improve the ability to understand, predict and control living systems. both scientific areas capitalize on the production of large-scale data, both in the field of genomics and in a number of related fields, exploring new ways of cross-fertilization starting both from traditional knowledge in biology especially from the evolutionary one articulated together with a series of theories and models coming from sciences such as physics, computer science, mathematics, chemistry and engineering. systems biology represents a predominantly cognitive scientific approach, while synthetic biology privileges the technical and technological approach, aiming at the creation of living systems, starting from existing biological material and its derivation, or even from non-biological materials, grafted onto living systems. the two approaches capitalize on epistemological orientations based on knowledge versus those based on applications, in other words on analysis versus synthesis as epistemic orientations. philosophers of science, who examine technological research as a form of human practice, have argued for interdependence, but without a perfect overlap between understanding the functioning of a living system and designing a synthetic one, a distinction between basic and applied science being impossible in the context of biology synthetic. keywords: synthetic biology; post-darwinian biology; systems biology. how to cite: macovei, o. (2022). post-darwinian biology. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 496-513. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/401 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/401 mailto:oliviamacovei10@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/401 post-darwinian biology olivia macovei 497 1. introduction systems biology and synthetic biology are interdisciplinary scientific approaches developed to improve the ability to understand, predict and control living systems. both scientific areas capitalize on the production of large-scale data, both in the field of genomics and in a number of related fields, exploring new ways of cross-fertilization starting both from traditional knowledge in biology especially from the evolutionary one articulated together with a series of theories and models coming from sciences such as physics, computer science, mathematics, chemistry and engineering (green, 2014, as cited in zalta, 2017). systems biology represents a predominantly cognitive scientific approach, while synthetic biology privileges the technical and technological approach, aiming at the creation of living systems, starting from existing biological material and its derivation, or even from non-biological materials, grafted onto living systems. the two approaches capitalize on epistemological orientations based on knowledge versus those based on applications, in other words on analysis versus synthesis as epistemic orientations. philosophers of science, who examine technological research as a form of human practice, have supported interdependence (kastenhofer, 2013), but without there being a perfect overlap between understanding the functioning of a living system and designing a synthetic one, a distinction between basic science and the applied, in the context of synthetic biology (green, 2014, as cited in zalta, 2017) is being impossible. techno-optimists argue that synthetic biology is developing a number of highly promising applications in terms of global human needs, such as the eradication of poverty and hunger, the development of public health programs, including the creation of vaccines that can rapidly respond to pandemic threats as was the case with the mrna technology used in the production of the anti-covid-19 vaccine -, increasing the accessibility of vulnerable populations to various innovative therapies, thanks to the synthesis of active substances through technologies specific to synthetic biology and, thus, reducing inequalities in access to health services, but also to goods and services, with the condition of maximizing the responsibility of researchers, both for the immediate results of their own research and for the legacy that future generations will receive (sandu, & caras, 2013). these expectations have been justified (brooks & alper, 2021), with advances in recent years demonstrating the ability of synthetic biology to revolutionize technology, creating applications in seemingly divergent fields such as biocomputing (grozinger et al., 2019) the creation of biological circuits broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 498 used in data processing -, the creation of living materials and electronic interfaces between computational technologies and living systems (kumar et al., 2017), biorefining (liu et al., 2020), therapeutic applications aimed at inducing metabolic changes in the metabolism of some microorganisms or even some plants or animals, to generate a series of substances with economic or therapeutic value (cravens, payne, & smolke, 2019). last but not least, we mention the genetic editing technology (doudna, 2020), crispr, whose use on human embryos (huidu, 2017) can eliminate genetic defects that lead to an increased risk of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, etc., but can also induce behavioral changes – including moral bioenhancement (persson & săvulescu, 2014). one of the most important goals of synthetic biology, found as such in the research of craig venter (venter, n.d.), is the creation of artificial life and, by extension from this goal, the design of "living technology" (bedau, 2009) applied on a macro scale. combined with 3d printer technology, it is hoped to obtain synthetic tissues including organs capable of functioning independently inside organisms (including humans), thus creating organs for transplantation based on cell culture and 3d printing, and eventually, the creation of macrocellular organisms originally by 3d printing of some tissues, starting from the reconstruction of the existing molecular structure in databases, tissues that once created become viable and later capable of reproduction (steen et al., 2008), giving birth to living organs or organisms. salthe, introducing the concept of post-darwinian biology, shows that "development, not evolution, could be considered the central theoretical framework of biology" (salthe, 1993). the term post-darwinism has a relatively long history in the field of biology, as a critical theory to the idea of the evolution of species, being especially used by the structuralist current in biology. 2. the structuralist theory of species development the criticism brought to the idea of the evolution of species in a structuralist key does not aim at a creationist alternative, but, rather, calls into question the strictly functionalist perspective of darwin's theory, according to which the most adapted specimen survives. from a structuralist perspective, survival represents a development, an increase in the complexity of the system which is the element that leads to a real evolution of species. the primary forms of unicellular or even simple multicellular organisms are still present in nature whether we are talking of bacteria, algae, coelenterates, etc. however, as time passes, the food chain becomes post-darwinian biology olivia macovei 499 increasingly rich, increased levels of complexity are added as new species appear, homo sapiens being considered the most evolved living being, without being, however, from a strictly biological point of view, also the most adapted to the environment in which it lives. on the contrary, we could say, the human species adapts its environment to its own needs, refusing to adapt itself to the environment. basically, we are talking about evolution stricto senso in the darwinian manner, as long as there is no minimal semiosis, through which a species adapts its environment to its own needs even to a very small extent. we are talking about signs of intelligence in species that, on the so-called evolutionary scale, are not placed very high as in the case of those who make their nest, bringing not only grass or feathers to make it as warm as possible, but also introducing decorative elements, as in the case of the monkey striking the nut against the stone, in order to break it, or of the crow throwing it from a height, for the same purpose. we are talking here not only of a simple adaptation to the environment, but of an adaptation of the environment to the needs of the respective individuals. the more developed the elements of intelligence, the greater the complexity of the evolutionary processes involved; we are talking about a development and not just a simple evolution, in the sense of random mutations followed by natural selection. as long as there are learning processes and an intergenerational transmission of practices such as feeding or learning routes from the feeding place to the hive/nest/burrow, the mentioned pre-semiotic elements bring evolutionary advantages that make the species better positioned in the food chain, despite the relative biological inadequacy. as far as the human species is concerned, it was intelligence that placed it not only at the top of the food chain, but also in a position where it threatens the extinction of some/many species and major ecological imbalances, making nature unable to cope in adapting to human needs and thus, slowly, the natural areas disappear. post-darwinian models of understanding natural development instead of the classical idea of natural selection establish a series of principles for a biology alternative to the darwinian mainstream, starting from a different view of morphology and taxonomy. webster believes that a reply to evolutionary theory should consider a theory of transformations. natural history would no longer be so significant for understanding the transformation of species, as long as they do not actually evolve, but only develop, in the sense of increasing the systemic complexity of the organisms that compose them. from the point of view of a postmodern philosophical vision, the theory of the evolution of species is criticizable, as it is based on a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 500 presupposition that the development of complexity has an evolutionary meaning, that is, one from lower to higher. the evolution from inferior to superior is criticized in postmodern philosophy, especially from the perspective of the refusal of dialectics, of the idea that simple quantitative accumulation leads to a qualitative leap. the idea of endless progress is one of the specific metanarratives of modernity, and therefore darwin himself uncritically takes up the idea of progress, assuming that between the first living organisms and the most evolved ones in the food chain, there are qualitative differences, the transition from one species to another being achieved through an evolutionary leap. however, if the principle of survival of the fittest were universal, qualitative leaps would lead to the elimination of older and, as such, less adapted species. this, however, is not true in nature, much older species of reptiles, for example coexist with mammals, theoretically superior in evolution, but practically not necessarily more adapted to the environment than the former. the disappearance of large reptiles in the quaternary gave a chance to small mammals, but also small reptiles, birds, to climb the food chain, but the disappearance of dinosaurs and the survival of mammals is not related to their adaptation to the environment, but to a geoclimatic accident, probably due to the impact of an asteroid with the earth. small reptiles and mammals have accidentally reached an adaptive advantage, precisely because of their size that allowed them to survive with a much smaller amount of food, with a much more efficient dosage of energy. even in the absence of evolutionary accidents such as the one related to the disappearance of the dinosaurs -, natural selection cannot be thought of in a qualitative sense, since we cannot create quality standards in terms of adaptation to the environment, as long as in the same ecosystem, symbiotically and complementary, species completely different from each other work, symbiosis without which the so-called more evolved organisms could not survive. we exemplify here the elements of symbiosis existing in the human body, correlated with the intestinal flora without which the digestive processes would not be possible. we also exemplify the same idea through the process of pollination – without which most plant species would disappear, their adaptation to the environment including the process of pollination by another species from a completely different kingdom. 3. intelligent design theory a second direction critical to the theory of evolution of species, also not accepted by the mainstream of biology, but with important meanings post-darwinian biology olivia macovei 501 from a philosophical point of view, is the theory of intelligent design. this theory is part of the so-called scientific creationism, often considered as pseudoscience, but is embraced by a large number of people who refuse to accept the theories of modern science, and especially the fact that the universe and life itself do not have a creator, namely that everything that surrounds us although of a complexity almost impossible to understand in its true dimension is the result of chance. unlike traditional, religiously inspired creationism, which remains faithful to the dogma of creation described in the bible – ex nihilo, in seven days, etc. -, the so-called scientific creationism accepts a series of evolutionary elements both at the level of the universe itself, and at the level of the living world, but these evolutions are the result of a conscious project and the intervention of a transphysical force of divine origin. the advocates of this theory consider as unacceptable, even from the perspective of the theory of probabilities, the existence of a diversity of species with a level of complexity such as that of the human species, but also of animals, which appear absolutely by chance and develop only in a strictly evolutionary manner (helgen, 2004). the theory of intelligent design was born in 1966, being presented by michael behe in darwin's black box (1996). most of the scientific literature developed around the subject is not based on a philosophical dispute brought to michael behe's arguments, which center around the improbability of the emergence of a biochemical complexity of the level of that existing in advanced biological systems. the scientific world is generally satisfied with criticizing this theory especially from anti-religious ideological positions, drawing attention to the fact that the penetration of this theory into the academic world is particularly dangerous, as it would legitimize the teaching of creationism in public schools (aviezer, 2010). the creationism-evolutionism dispute is fundamentally rejected on a scientific level, as it undermines the very foundations of modern science, its fundamental assumption being that everything in nature can be explained without the need for the intervention of a supernatural force. the theory of intelligent design is rejected as such, without being epistemologically or even philosophically counterargued, as scientifically unacceptable. this leads us to the idea of science as a power game in the manner presented by foucault (2001). the ideologization of the "scientist" makes the philosophical dialogue between science and religion as forms of knowledge to be difficult, as long as modern science confiscates the discourse about truth and refuses approaches such as the theory of intelligent design, without rejecting them with arguments, imputing from the beginning that they do not respect " the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 502 new dogma of science" that there is no god. when behe's argument centers on the improbability of life arising by random biochemical processes from prebiotic organic or even inorganic substances, the theme is derided— as having political implications. synthetic biology's claim to produce living organisms from prebiotic substances seems to invalidate intelligent design in terms of the argument used by its proponents regarding the improbability of life arising from prebiotic substances randomly. however, per contrario, if synthetic biology obtains symbiotic entities starting exclusively from prebiotic materials through strategies of combining molecules in the form of dna structures, this brings arguments precisely to the followers of the theory of intelligent design, namely the fact that, in order to reach the level of complexity required in combining molecules in the form of nucleotides requires enormous computing power and combining rules that, in the absence of intelligent design, become even more improbable as one realizes the enormous computing power required to design a live system with a simplified genome. basically, in order to generate a living structure, even with a simplified genome, it was necessary to decode the dna and explain the functions that the various dna sequences carry out. awareness of the level of complexity makes, at least at the level of common sense, the very idea of intelligent design even more credible. in his argument for intelligent design, behe does not assert that a high level of biochemical complexity cannot arise through gradual evolution over long periods of time, as darwin's theory asserts, but rather that it is possible for a large number of substances, but certain evolutionary leaps are not only improbable, but even impossible, in his opinion. behe speaks of an irreducible complexity. according to darwin's theory, only those mutations that are favorable for survival are genetically transmitted to the next generations. behe notes that "a mutation that confers no survival advantage is unlikely to be passed on to the next generation" (behe, 1996). the gradual accumulation of favorable mutations cannot, in the view of the founder of the theory of intelligent design, explain the development of many vital biochemical mechanisms. as an example, it gives the mechanism of blood clotting. a large number of chemical reactions are required to occur simultaneously for the coagulation process to occur. it must occur simultaneously and not successively, and in the absence of any of these reactions, coagulation does not occur. it is impossible to explain from an evolutionary point of view the emergence of all these mechanisms by simple disparate genetic jumps, in the form of accidents or mutations, because they post-darwinian biology olivia macovei 503 would not appear simultaneously, but successively. but if they appeared successively, they would not be transmitted to succeeding generations, since none of the necessary mutations, separately, would be favorable to survival, but only when they occur together. this theory is rejected, considering that all the necessary mutations can occur randomly throughout evolution and can be preserved in dna so that at a certain time a new mutation generates a new process that combines all the previous processes, starting from the random activation of the genes necessary to generate each particular process (aviezer, 2010). accepting or rejecting the theory of intelligent design is beyond the scope of this paper, as we do not intend to question the validity of the darwinian theory or its competing theories. philosophically, we find that science, as classically conceived, requires the existence of only one valid theory to explain a class of phenomena, and there can be no competing theories. as long as the theory of the evolution of species is the dominant theory in biology, evolutionary biology will represent the scientific foundation on the basis of which we are offered explanations of the origin and development of life. however, we note that the rejections of the theory of intelligent design do not make it implausible, but simply argue that it is not impossible for the evolution towards complexity to be based on random mutations, and as such the theory of intelligent design as formulated by behe cannot overthrew darwin's theory of the evolution of species from its position as dominant theory. when, in public debates, the question of presenting both theories both the evolutionary one and the one of intelligent design was raised, traditionalist epistemologists vehemently rejected this possibility, since in science there must necessarily be only one explanation and it can be rejected only when it is irrefutably proven wrong, and only by replacing it with another theory of superior explanatory power. 4. the postmodern perspective of posttruth from a foucauldian perspective, we find here a "codification of power" necessary to maintain the coherence of the respective scientific field. if alternative theories were simultaneously exposed as having a high degree of plausibility, parallel scientific lines would have to develop for each of the theories and, at some point, the necessary coherence to develop a technology starting from that science would no longer exist. postmodern philosophers of science (kuntz, 2012) attack the traditional scientific view of the world and undermine the "truths of science", starting precisely from challenging the theoretical imperialism of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 504 some of the theoretical constructions that underpin the mainstream such as the darwinian theory. the scientific view is by definition rationalistic, assuming absolute objectivity on nature in the case of the physical sciences, on life in the case of the biological sciences, or on the social world in the case of social sciences. the world consists exclusively of real objects, which behave according to natural laws, which can be known and whose understanding allows the explanation of the whole world. it is precisely this reification of the world that generates the epistemic imperialism of some of the theories, due to their claim to store absolute truth. the objection of the postmodern philosophers of science shows that, regardless of the degree of plausibility of a theory, it cannot store the claim of absolute truth, but only a certain degree of verisimilitude. a postmodern epistemologist would argue that evolutionary theory is now credited with a higher degree of confidence than intelligent design, and as such more plausible. this epistemology excludes absolute truth from science, leaving room for the possibility of contesting some theories. this paradigmatic mutation takes the form of post-truth ideology. the post-truth ideology mainly targets public policies – in thus case, science policies are centered on the tolerance of "alternative truths". this tolerance is based on the deconstruction of the idea of a single truth in all branches of cultural, social or political life. this paradigm (bufacchi, 2020) leads to the emergence of a new form of science, which does not submit to a single theoretical perspective and which emphasizes the applied side of technological research rather than the theoretical one. hence, the postmodern character of synthetic biology, which refuses a unifying theory, assumes explanatory claims on life itself, not through discoveries of a theoretical nature, but through its pragmatic reconstruction. 5. the post-darwinian nature of synthetic biology returning to synthetic biology, its post-darwinian nature is based on human intentionality and artificial design to create new species. by biosynthetic design, these species have a purpose in nature – to manage or produce substances necessary primarily for the human species, and only secondarily for the maintenance of biodiversity. if theories of intelligent design envisage a creator external to known ecosystems, synthetic biology expressly introduces elements of intelligent design – more specifically, species engineering. the conscious project in synthetic biology has a nonevolutionary purpose, since the good of the created species is not pursued, but of another species the human one or of an ecosystem in the broadest post-darwinian biology olivia macovei 505 case, regardless of the own good of the created species. of course, from an ecoethical perspective, the newly created species has value in itself, but this value does not derive from its fundamental ontological value, as a component of biodiversity, but on the contrary, from its instrumental value as a biomachine. 6. transhumanism and synthetic biology a major direction of expression of contemporary techno-optimism is represented by the transhumanist paradigm. transhumanism is considered to be a socio-cultural movement that advocates the use of technology to improve the physical, psychological, social and moral life of both individual humans and the human species in general. the technologies targeted by the followers of transhumanism are diverse, ranging from (bionic) prostheses to implants or even pharmaceutical products that significantly alter the functioning of the human body or mind (mariscal, 2021). techno-optimists believe that various changes to the human condition through technology will necessarily lead to an increase in the quality of human life and, at the same time, life expectancy (more & vitamore, 2013). genetic engineering and genetic editing will play an important role in the improvement of the human species, by eliminating some diseases of genetic origin, but also by improving the performance of brain activity or other systems such as circulatory, digestive, etc. the creation of a human-machine interface of bio-cybernetic origin is seen as a hope for the growth of human intelligence, for the emergence of new ways of direct communication between the human brain and, eventually, various cybernetic systems, connected to each other through the internet, which would allow remote interactions. for their part, the techno-pessimists question the alteration of the human condition through invasive genetic editing techniques as is the case with those used for the purpose of moral bioenhancement (persson & săvulescu, 2014), by editing genes that control aggression. radical technopessimists believe that genetic editing, combined with direct human-machine communication via neural interfaces, will lead to the extinction of the human species in its current form and its replacement by posthuman species (bostrom, 2005). the biomedical literature dealing with human enhancement practices distinguishes between those that are already traditional—such as wearing glasses, simple prostheses—and those that use cutting-edge technologies, including genetic engineering and synthetic biology, and which usually raise broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 506 issues of ethical nature when widely used. technologies dedicated to human enhancement currently aim to enhance specific traits and capabilities, usually individual, personal and less characteristic of the species. these perfectibility of individuals, whether they are of a psychological nature psychotropic substances, meditation or of the nature of corrective or aesthetic medicalsurgical interventions, do not influence the functional capacities of the human species in the long term, except when, for example, we are talking about discoveries or scientific achievements culturally transmitted from one generation to another. the use of fire, coins, writing, modern medicine and computers – there were so many leaps in the development of the human species, the former ensuring its supremacy over other species, and the latter laying the foundations for the species' autonomy from nature. most human enhancement technologies involve a series of tradeoffs, either related to the impact on nature or to the quality of life of the individual or others -, increased frailty or dependence on technology, which makes human value (juengst & moseley, 2019, as cited in zalta, 2017) of the improvements brought by technology to be either strongly contested or, on the contrary, overestimated. efforts for human improvement are rooted in the philosophical and religious tradition of the west, in both traditions improvement having an ethical and axiological character rather than strictly anthropological. in the religious vein, improvement leads to the thought of holiness, or at least an aspiration to holiness. philosophical quests regarding human perfection, when not tangential to religious ones, concern moral perfection leading to the emergence of a moral consciousness, in the kantian sense. in current times, human improvement is rather understood from a psychological perspective, as an improvement in the quality of life, by increasing selfesteem, life satisfaction and standard of living. also, the enhancement aims to improve the social relationships that the individual develops, social acceptance and increased role performances (persson & săvulescu, 2014). medical improvement refers to anatomical or physiological changes that increase the individual's performance either at the biophysical, intellectual, mental or affective level. an important distinction, frequently made in transhumanist philosophy, is that between treatment and enhancement. as a rule, the treatment aims to eliminate or reduce the effects of some diseases, including genetic ones in which case genetic editing and, in general, gene therapy have an important role -, and which is carried out within the limits of biological normality. improvement aims at overcoming the biological normal post-darwinian biology olivia macovei 507 and increasing the bio-physiological performance of the individual beyond its natural limits. synthetic biology researcher drew endy formulates the question: "what if we could free ourselves from the tyranny of evolution by designing our own offspring?" (endy, 2012, as quoted in newman, 2012). unlike the eugenics practiced by the nazis, which aimed to eliminate people with disabilities or those belonging to certain ethnic groups considered inferior in order to "purify the human gene pool" of the so-called superior races, the improvement of the human species through synthetic biology may be feasible from the technological point of view, since a series of changes in the genome carried out on embryos from a given population can be hereditarily transmitted to future generations, thus creating improved populations more adapted to the environment or more capable of adapting the environment to their own needs (sandu & caras, 2013). newman believes that the risks of applying synthetic biology to creating embryos that are more viable and more likely to have a healthy and long life are significant, although there is also a real chance of actually creating a viable and improved embryo (newman, 2012). of course, not every intervention in the genome is carried out through the specific tools of synthetic biology, and classical genetic engineering applied to embryos can also give favorable results, but also present the same risks mentioned previously in the creation of offspring that correspond to the intention of improvement. the specificity of synthetic biology in gene editing is that of using bioinformatics in combining genes to create other genetic mechanisms that do not exist naturally. if the improvement through genetic engineering is rather carried out at the individual level, avoiding the embryonic genome to eliminate possible mutations, synthetic genetic engineering expressly aims at the creation of adaptive mutations, which generate reactions not specific to the human species. these edits can include the transplantation of genes from other species, which would "lend" the new posthuman species their specific genetic traits: vision in the dark similar to infrared vision, the ability to hear ultra or infrasound, the regeneration of amputated limbs, etc. more precisely, the distinction is made between the activation of atavistic genes currently inactive in humans, but which pre-exist in one's own phylogenetic line and, respectively, the transplantation of genes that do not naturally belong to one's own phylogenetic line. in the latter case, we are talking about a specific application of genetic engineering along the lines of synthetic biology. nouvel pascal notices a frequent error when transhumanist literature refers to synthetic biology, namely the fact that a correct distinction is not broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 508 made between the synthetic man and the new man in the sense of "enhanced". the idea of synthetic man is correlative, for the mentioned author, with the expression "biology is technology" (carlson, 2010, as cited in nouvel, 2015). the same author mentions: "this confusion leads to an erroneous orientation of the debates regarding the following technical progress: the synthetic man, strictly speaking, is neither a new man nor a superman, contrary to what a good part of the transhumanist literature suggests" (nouvel, 2015). speaking about the synthetic man, in the sense of man-machine, with reference to a model that comes from post-cartesian modernity, p. nouvel, analyzing r. carlson, shows that, in the absence of a purpose on the basis of which a synthetic entity was created, which would contradict the very kantian idea of man adopted by the modern western world -, we cannot speak of a synthetic man even if a series of interventions specific to synthetic biology would be the basis for improving some of his particularities. just as in nature we speak of properties of living systems rather than their purposes, so too the human being, even if he will ever be genetically modified, should not be considered a synthetic entity, since he would become a product like computers equipped with artificial intelligence and, implicitly, his fundamental rights could be denied. in this sense, the discussion about a possibility to patent the human genome once decrypted is open in the bioethical literature, where this claim of patenting genetic lines specific to synthetic biology, which could be implemented in human beings, is generally considered unacceptable, because it violates the dignity of the human being (van den belt, 2013). 7. from biotechnologies to synthetic biology from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge there is a limited number of studies in the sociology of knowledge that analyze the social impact that the development of synthetic biology has, and how the public perceives the emergence and development of this field of science, the excitement and the social fear that this field brings. a first thematization of the social impact of synthetic biology aims at the self-perception of professionals in the field in their capacity as scientists, being carried out by the sociologist balmer and his collaborators (2016), in the volume synthetic biology: a sociology of changing practices. the authors' research, based on interviews, shows that participation in research networks leads to the construction of a professional identity. the interviewee specifies that he defines himself as a practitioner of synthetic biology, as he is part of post-darwinian biology olivia macovei 509 research networks in the field and, following communications within these networks, he has identified a number of his professional practices as similar to those of other professionals, who perceive themselves as synthetic biologists 1 . the respondent shows that his activity is that of a specialist in molecular biology or biotechnology, but recently this has been labeled as synthetic biology. basically, a whole series of activities in the series of technologies were rethought as parts of synthetic biology although, stricto senso, this science, as conceived by craig venter, was limited to the production of synthetic organisms. the reconfiguration of large sectors of bioengineering as part of synthetic biology is probably due to the tendency to legitimize this practice, based on the positive impact on the public that this technoscience promises to solve many if not most of the problems humanity is facing (hunger, pollution, poverty, chronic or acute diseases, etc.). this leads us to consider that the migration of large areas of what is traditional biotechnologies towards synthetic biology means that, in the perception of specialists in the field, techno-optimism far exceeds techno-pessimism regarding synthetic biology. it is, however, possible that public trust in synthetic biology has recently eroded with the use of mrna technology, defined as a constitutive part of synthetic biology and which has been challenged by a significant part of the vaccine-resistant public and has faced labels from the sphere of conspiracy theories. a number of technologies are being rebranded as synthetic biology because there is a state of anomie in regulating the limits of synthetic cell research, and institutes such as the weizmann institute of science in rehovot, israel – which promise to ―make us all young and happy through synthetic biology ‖ – is actually conducting experiments on non-embryonic stem cells – currently derived from mice, but with the stated intention of doing the same on human stem cells – aiming to create functional embryos in the synthetic womb, in order to generate viable organ parts for transplantation , thus creating clones with the role of producing organs perfectly compatible with the cloned person, in order to use some organs as "spare parts". by declaring these embryos to be products of synthetic biology and not real human / animal embryos, complications related to the 1 the term was kept in the original english language, since its translation into romanian, by "synthetic biology", would distort the meaning of the term. in the future, we preferred to use the phrase practitioner in the field of synthetic biology for those who perform laboratory work in the field, or bioengineer in the field of synthetic biology for those who carry out activities of an engineering nature. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 510 issue of the dignity of the human species, human rights and the prohibition of human cloning and the creation of cloned embryos are avoided. being considered synthetic embryos, basically these "quasi-biological" entities are viable, but can be much more easily manipulated for "technological" purposes. the replacement of an original human organ with a so-called synthetic one would no longer be considered a transplant, but a prosthesis (aguilera-castrejon et al., 2021). the advance of biotechnologies, including those considered to be part of synthetic biology, is correlated with the general lines of knowledge policy in the european union, which propose, as a sustainable development strategy, the migration to a knowledge economy and a knowledge-based society. along with communication and computer technology, biotechnologies are able to underpin policies based on the promise of prosperity generated by technological advance. the knowledge economy and the knowledge-based society are not without social risks, the prosperity generated by technology can be correlated with increasing inequality between developed and developing states, between social and cultural categories that have and do not have access to technology, between individuals who have the capacity and availability of lifelong learning and those who do not. also, the risks of some technologies, including some biotechnologies, are related to the damage to some ecosystems, to the point where the pollution becomes irreversible, and society must run other programs, also based on knowledge, to eliminate the dysfunctionalities of already outdated technologies. synthetic biology intervenes here through projects aimed at developing synthetic organisms capable of metabolizing pollutants and thus greening entire ecosystems. although we notice the ideological optimism behind these promises and the use of technological discourse as a discourse of power in the foucauldian sense we cannot help but notice changes in lifestyle and quality of life due to the use of new technologies. anti-covid vaccines, especially those based on synthetic biology, allowed the faster resumption of the mobility of people globally, as long as the existence of vaccines allowed the movement of people at national and international level, but in some places it brought phenomena of discrimination against unvaccinated people, whose freedom of movement and, in some states – austria and italy –, access to the exercise of the profession in the case of workers in fields with significant exposure to the public, was restricted due to the lack of vaccine. this restriction of freedom of movement or exercise of certain professions led directly or indirectly post-darwinian biology olivia macovei 511 to the restriction of freedom of conscience, as long as some people refused vaccination based on objections of consciousness. 8. conclusions from the perspective of the sociology of science, the following definition of synthetic biology is required: "that science which aims at the design and engineering of biological constituents, innovative systems and components, as well as the redesign of already existing natural biological systems. synthetic biology is an application of the systematic design of living systems based on engineering principles‖ (kitney & freemont, 2012). this definition of synthetic biology is consistent with that coming from the field's epistemology. synthetic biology is a post-darwinian construct not because it denies the theory of evolution or even the role of random mutations in phylogeny, but because it seeks to create life based on a project with a well-defined goal, the cells and organisms created being designed to perform functions of an economic rather than evolutionary nature. references aguilera-castrejon, a., oldak, b., shani, t., et al. (2021). ex utero mouse embryogenesis from pre-gastrulation to late organogenesis. nature, 593, 119–124. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03416-3 aviezer, n. (2010). intelligent design versus evolution. rambam maimonides medical journal, 1(1), e0007. https://doi.org/10.5041/rmmj.10007 balmer, a., bulpin, k., & molyneux-hodgson, s. (2016). synthetic biology: a sociology of changing practices. springer. bedau, m.a. (2009). living technology today and tomorrow. technoetic arts, 7(2), 199–206. https://doi.org/10.1386/tear.7.2.199/1 behe, m. j. (1996). darwin's black box – the biochemical challenge to evolution. free press. bostrom, n. (2005). in defense of posthuman dignity. bioethics, 19(3), 202-214. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2005.00437.x brooks, s.m., & alper, h. s. (2021). applications, challenges, and needs for employing synthetic biology beyond the lab. nature communications, 12, 1390. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21740-0 bufacchi, v. (2020). truth, lies and tweets: a consensus theory of post-truth. philosophy & social criticism, 47(3), 347–361. https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453719896382 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03416-3 https://doi.org/10.5041/rmmj.10007 https://doi.org/10.1386/tear.7.2.199/1 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2005.00437.x https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21740-0 https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453719896382 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 512 cravens, a., payne, j., & smolke, c.d. (2019). synthetic biology strategies for microbial biosynthesis of plant natural products. nature communications, 10, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09848-w doudna, j.a. (2020). the promise and challenge of therapeutic genome editing. nature, 578, 229–236. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-1978-5 foucault, m. (2001). le sujet et le pouvoir.in m. foucault, dits et ecrit ii (pp. 10411062). gallimard. zalta, e. n. (2017). the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/systems-syntheticbiology/ grozinger, l., amos, m., gorochowski, t.e., carbonell, p., oyarzún, d. a., stoof, r., fellermann, h., zuliani, p., tas, h., & goñi-moreno, a. (2019). pathways to cellular supremacy in biocomputing. nature communications, 10, 5250. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13232-z helgen, k. m. (2004). meyer paper: don't hang the soc. wash. out to dry. nature, 432, 949. https://doi.org/10.1038/432949b huidu, a. (2017). reproducerea umană medical asistată. etica incriminării versus etica biologică. studiu de drept comparat [medically assisted human reproduction. ethics of incrimination versus biological ethics. study of comparative law]. lumen. kastenhofer, k. (2013). synthetic biology as understanding, control, construction and creation? techno-epistemic and socio-political implications of different stances in talking and doing technoscience. futures, 48/2013, 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2013.02.001 kitney, r., & freemont, p. (2012). synthetic biology the state of play. febs letters, 586(15), 2029-2036. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.febslet.2012.06.002 kumar, a., huan-hsuan hsu, l., kavanagh, p., barrière, f., lens, p. n. l., lapinsonnière, l., lienhard v, j. h., schröder, u., jiang, x., & leech, d. (2017). the ins and outs of microorganism–electrode electron transfer reactions. nature reviews chemistry, 1, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-017-0024 kuntz, m. (2012). the postmodern assault on science. embo reports, 13(10), 885–889. https://doi.org/ 10.1038/embor.2012.130 liu, z., wang, k., chen, y., tan, t., & nielsen, j. (2020). third-generation biorefineries as the means to produce fuels and chemicals from co2. nature catalysis, 3, 274–288. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-019-0421-5 mariscal, c. (2021). life. in e. n. zalta (ed.), the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/life/ more, m., & vita-more, n. (eds.), (2013). the transhumanist reader: classical and contemporary essays on the science, technology, and philosophy of the human future. john wiley & sons. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09848-w https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-1978-5 https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/systems-synthetic-biology/ https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/systems-synthetic-biology/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13232-z https://doi.org/10.1038/432949b https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2013.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.febslet.2012.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-017-0024 https://doi.org/%2010.1038/embor.2012.130 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-019-0421-5 https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/life/ post-darwinian biology olivia macovei 513 newman, s.a. (2012). meiogenics: synthetic biology meets transhumanism. genewatch, 25(1-2), 31-31. https://www.synbiowatch.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/05/genewatch_meiogenics.pdf nouvel, p. (2015). from synthetic biology to synthetic humankind. comptes rendus biologies, 338(8-9), 559-565. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crvi.2015.06.015 persson, i., & săvulescu, j. (2014). neadaptați pentru viitor. nevoia de bioameliorare morală [unfit for the future. the need for moral bioenhancement]. all. salthe, s. n. (1993). should prediction or historical uniqueness be the central focus of biology?. folia baeriana, 6, 247–260. sandu, a., & caras, a. (2013). (christian) bioethical dilemmas in using synthetic biology and nanotechnologies. journal for the study of religions and ideologies, 12(35), 158-177. http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/708 steen, r., bedau, m.a., chen, l., deamer, d., krakauer, d.c., packard, n. h., & stadler, p. f. (2008). protocells: bridging nonliving and living matter. mit press. van den belt, h. (2013). synthetic biology, patenting, health and global justice. systems and synthetic biology, 7(3), 87–98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11693012-9098-7 venter, c. (n.d.). synthetic biology. edit. j. craig venter institute, la jolla, sua, n. d. https://www.jcvi.org/research/synthetic-biology https://www.synbiowatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/genewatch_meiogenics.pdf https://www.synbiowatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/genewatch_meiogenics.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crvi.2015.06.015 http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/708 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11693-012-9098-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11693-012-9098-7 https://www.jcvi.org/research/synthetic-biology microsoft word brain_2_4.doc 41 neuroevolution mechanism for hidden markov model nabil m. hewahi computer science department, bahrain university, bahrain nhewahi@gmail.com abstract hidden markov model (hmm) is a statistical model based on probabilities. hmm is becoming one of the major models involved in many applications such as natural language processing, handwritten recognition, image processing, prediction systems and many more. in this research we are concerned with finding out the best hmm for a certain application domain. we propose a neuroevolution process that is based first on converting the hmm to a neural network, then generating many neural networks at random where each represents a hmm. we proceed by applying genetic operators to obtain new set of neural networks where each represents hmms, and updating the population. finally select the best neural network based on a fitness function. keywords: neural networks, genetic algorithms, neuroevolution, hidden markov model 1. introduction hidden markov model (hmm) is a statistical model based on probabilities used in various applications such as cryptanalysis, machine translation, speech and hand recognition, natural language processing, gene prediction and bioinformatics [1][2][4][5][9][12-15]. a markov model is a probabilistic process over a finite set, {s1, ..., sk}, usually called its states. each state-transition generates a character from the alphabet of the process. in a regular markov model, the state is directly visible to the observer, and therefore the state transition probabilities are the only parameters. in a hidden markov model, the state is not directly visible, but variables influenced by the state are visible. each state has a probability distribution over the possible output tokens. therefore, the sequence of tokens generated by a hmm gives some information about the sequence of states. there are three problems associated with hmm, evaluation, decoding, and learning problems. the evaluation problem, given the parameters of the model, compute the probability of a particular output sequence, and the probabilities of the hidden state values given that output sequence. the evaluation problem can be solved by forward-backward algorithm. the decoding problem, given the parameters of the model, find the most likely sequence of hidden states that could have generated a given output sequence. this is solved by viterbi algorithm. the learning problem, given an output sequence or a set of such sequences, find the most likely set of state transition and output probabilities. this problem is solved by the baum-welch algorithm [16]. some of the applications that exploit the strengths of hmm is handwritten recognition, gunter and bunke [4] combined various hmms at a more elementary level and shown that this sort of combination improves the system's performance. another application is using hmm in stock market forecasting. this is performed by developing a fusion model of hmm, artificial neural networks (ann, nn) and genetic algorithms (ga) [5]. hassan et.al [5], used a historical data for stock prices which become inputs for hmm using ann, ga then used to optimize those inputs. furui and itoh [2] proposed a method for adapting phone hmms to noisy speech using neural networks. they used noise hmm and signal-to-noise ratios as inputs. the trained networks were confirmed to be effective in recognizing new speakers under new noise and various signal-to-noise ratios conditions. hewahi [8] presented a modified version of censored production rule (cpr) called modified censored production rules (mcpr). cpr is proposed by michalski and winston [10 ] to capture real time situations. mcpr can fit with hidden markov model and present a scheme to compute the certainty values of the obtained conclusions out of the induced rules. to compute the certainty values for the rule actions (conclusions), the approach exploited only the probability values associated with the hidden markov model without using any of the other well known brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 certainty computation approaches. hewahi [7] also proposed an intelligent networking management system based on the induced mcprs extracted from a networking structure based on hmm. the advantage of using this technique is that mcprs are very useful in real time applications and can be adapted over time based on the obtained experience of the networking working process. again hewahi[6] proposed a mechanism (algorithm) to evolve and select the best suitable hmm for a given problem using ga, this mechanism lacks to the training process that can be of great usefulness in finding the best hmm. based on the above mentioned research, the importance of using hmm is increasing rapidly. let us consider the hmm presented in figure 1. figure 1. hmm to describe a relation between the states med. and high with the observations (invisible states) cold and hot. the summary of figure 1 says: p(cold | med) = 0.9, p(hot | med) = 0.1, p(cold | high) = 0.3, p(hot | high) = 0.7, p(med |med) = 0.2, p(high | med) = 0.8, p(high | high) = 0.6, p(med | high) = 0.4 the hmm in figure 1can be represented in a rule structure form as shown in [8]. if med then cold 0.9 if med then hot 0.1 if high then cold 0.3 if high then hot 0.7 if med then med 0.2 if med then high 0.8 if high then high 0.6 if high then med 0.4 in most of the application of hmm and neural networks, the neural networks are used to get inputs for hmm or to train historical group of hmm to predict certain result concerning with the application. our main concern in this research paper is to be able to choose the best hmm model among various cases in terms of probability values. this will help the builders of hmm to use the most close hmm to their application. to perform this, we use neuroevolution approach by generating or evolving nns through gas, where each nn represents one chromosome. 2. the proposed approach due to the importance of hmm and its role in many ai related applications, we are concentrating on exploring how to get the best hmm for a certain application. our proposed n. m. hewahi neuroevolution mechanism for hidden markov model 43 approach is based on neural networks and genetic algorithms. the main problem is how to mimic the representation of hmm and apply it on a neural networks. then how to evolve new hmm using gas. the main steps that can be followed are: 1. form a population of size n on hmms for a certain problem. this population can be generated at random and based on the conditions that will be stated later. 2. translate each hmm to a neural network. 3. train each neural network with its domain through several examples using backpropagation algorithm. 4. compute the fitness value for each neural network which is the number of problems solved correctly. 5. convert the neural networks to its corresponding hmm chromosome form. 6. apply genetic operators on the population and get new generation. 7. compute the fitness value for the new generated chromosomes by converting them to neural networks and compute their validity with the test data. if the fitness value of the new generated chromosome is less than a threshold h, remove the corresponding chromosome. we do this to eliminate the bad chromosomes from the beginning. actually we can do the same thing with the initial population. 8. train the new generated neural networks and compute the fitness function for each one of them. 9. replace the weak chromosomes with the more strong ones obtained from the generations. 10. repeat steps from 2 to 9 until m number of generations is reached. 11. select the best hmm chromosome (and the corresponding neural network) to make it your final hmm which you are going to deal with in your system. to make some of the vague points more clear, we explain the following three points: 1. representation of hmm in a neural network architecture. 2. evolving new hmms using gas 3. selecting the best hmm. 2.1 representation of hmm in neural network architecture under this step we need to represent the states and the observations and the connection between them. based on hewahi [6], the hmm model shown in figure 2 can be represented as below: figure 2. hmm with weights and necessary conditions on top of edges brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 if med then cold (0.9) unless it is cloudy then hot (0.1) if high then hot (0.7) unless it is dry then cold (0.3) if med then high (0.8) unless it is sunny then med (0.2) if high then high (0.6) unless it is cloudy then med (0.4) based on the hmm structure in figure 2, we can perform the following steps: 1. make the number of nodes of inputs in the input layer of the nn as the number of states (visible states not the observations). each input node represents one state. 2. number of nodes in the output layer in the nn is equal to the number of states and observations (visible and invisible states), where each node corresponds to one state (visible or invisible). 3. we construct a hidden layer in nn with n number of nodes, where n is the same number of nodes in the input layer. 4. we make a connection from every input to every hidden layer node with a very negligible weight. 5. connect every hidden node in the hidden layer to every node in the output layer. 6. assign weights from the hidden layer to output layer in a way that as every node in the hidden layer corresponding to input state. the weight on top of the link between the hidden node to the output node is the probability value between the states in the hmm. in our proposed structure, we injected a hidden layer to have a multilayer perceptron which is more efficient than single layer perceptron. to make this process clear, figure 3 shows the neural networks for the hmm presented in figure 2. figure 3. neural network representation for hmm given in figure 2. 2.2. evolving hmm using ga in this stage we use ga operators to generate various hmms, and then obtain the best one among them. this process can be done as below: a. converting from nn to a chromosome structure the chromosome which represents the hmm can be extracted from its corresponding neural network. the general structure of the chromosome is divided into two sections, input layer and hidden layer. each section contains many slots, and each slot represents a weight from one node in that layer to a node in the next layer (from input to hidden and from hidden to output). the number of slots in the input layer is the same number of input nodes in the neural network. in the hidden layer, number of slots is equal to nodes in the output layer multiplied by the nodes in the hidden layer. 0.1 0.7 0.3 0.9 0.6 0.4 0.8 0.2 input layer hidden layer output layer med high med high cold hot 0.0001 0.0001 n. m. hewahi neuroevolution mechanism for hidden markov model 45 to make the idea clear, the chromosome representing the neural network in figure 3 is shown in figure 4. input layer hidden layer figure 4. a chromosome structure for hmm shown in figure 2. b. generating population generating a population of size n of hmms at random can be performed with some restrictions: the weights representing the input layer in the chromosome should be always negligible as initial values. the weights which are involved in summation of 1.0 in the hidden layer part of the chromosome should be exactly 1.0. let us assume the following case visible states are 2 and invisible states (observations) are 3, , then we shall have a chromosome as shown in figure 5. input hidden w1 w2 w11 w12 w13 w14 w15 w21 w22 w23 w24 w25 figure 5. a chromosome structure in case we have 2 visible states and 3 invisible states it is to be noted that the summation of w11 and w12 is equal to 1.0 (visible states) and the summation of w13,w14,w15 should be 1.0 (invisible states). similarly the sum for w21 and w22 should be 1.0 (visible states) and the sum of w23, w24, and w25 should be 1.0 (invisible states). the values of w1 and w2 are initially assigned trivial values. based on the above situation, when genetic operators are applied, we must consider all the factors. c. genetic operators in this section, we discuss the potential genetic operators that can be applied on the hmm chromosome. 1. crossover: to apply crossover, we have two types of crossover, two point crossover and single point crossover. two point crossover for the two point crossover we get two parent hmms and choose at random two cutting points for the weights that have a sum of 1.0 and swap the contents between the crossing points. this is illustrated in the example shown in figure 6. the two parents are 0.0001 0.0001 0.4 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.0001 0.0001 0.2 0.8 0.3 0.5 0.2 0.5 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.5 the offspring are 0.0001 0.0001 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.5 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.0001 0.0001 0.2 0.8 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.5 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.5 figure 6. two point crossover of hmm chromosomes. 0.0001 0.0001 0.2 0.8 0.9 0.1 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.7 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 2, issue 4, december 2011, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 one point crossover this crossover is performed in the input layer part only. we choose a crossing cut point in the input layer part of the chromosome, and exchange everything before it. this is illustrated in figure 7. parents 0.005 0.0001 0.4 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.0001 0.007 0.2 0.8 0.3 0.5 0.2 0.5 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.5 we get the following chromosomes 0.0001 0.007 0.4 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.005 0.0001 0.2 0.8 0.3 0.5 0.2 0.5 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.5 figure 7. one point crossover of hmm chromosomes. 2. mutation for mutation, we propose three types. a. exchange mutation exchange two neighbor weights involved in a summation of 1.0. this is illustrated in figure 8. parent 0.005 0.0001 0.4 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.2 we get after exchange mutation 0.005 0.0001 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.5 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.2 figure 8. exchange mutation. b. adding-reducing mutation adding a small value from one weight and decrement that value to another weight. the chosen weights should be involved in summation of 1.0. figure 9 shows an example, we add 0.001 from one weight and decrement the same value from another weight. parent 0.005 0.0001 0.4 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.2 after adding and decrementing we get 0.005 0.0001 0.4 0.6 0.501 0.3 0.199 0.3 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.2 figure 9. adding-reducing mutation. c. group mutation this happens by swapping two complete groups with summation of 1.0 with the same criteria. figure 10 shows a case of this. parent 0.005 0.0001 0.4 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.2 we get after group mutation 0.005 0.0001 0.4 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.2 figure 11. group mutation. 2.3 selecting the best hmm after performing n generations, we choose the best hmm chromosome (the corresponding nn) based on the fitness value. the fitness value of the neural network is related to how many problems does the hmm solve correctly. n. m. hewahi neuroevolution mechanism for hidden markov model 47 4. conclusion in this paper we present a general mechanism to evolve hmms using neuroevolution mechanism. this is done by converting hmms to nns then train the nns using backpropagation algorithm and calculate the fitness value for each nn (chromosome). we then apply genetic operators , that is crossover and mutation to obtain new set of hmms. again the new offspring are being trained and are going to replace weak hmms. future directions could be applying the mechanism in various applications to scale its performance. references [1] l. allison, l. stern, t. edgoose & t. i. dix, ”sequence complexity for biological sequence analysis”, computers and chemistry 24(1), pp.43-55, jan. 2000. [2] s. furui and d. itoh, "neural-network-based hmm adaptation for noisy speech", acoustics, speech, and signal processing, 2001. proceedings. (icassp '01,) ieee international conference on 02/2001; 1:365-368 vol.1., 2001. [3] d. goldenberg, “ genetic algorithms in search, optimization, and machine learning”, addison-wesley longman publishing, 1989. [4] s. gunter and h. bunke, "a new combination scheme for hmm-based classifiers and its applications to handwritten recognition", 16th inter. conference on pattern recognition, pp. 332337, 2002. [5] m. hassan, b. nath and m. kirley, "a fusion model of hmm, ann and ga for stock market forecasting", expert systems with applications, 33, pp. 171-180, 2007. [6] n. hewahi, "genetic algorithms principles towards hidden markov model", brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, vol.2, issue 3, pp. 5-11, 2011. [7] n. hewahi, “an intelligent approach for network management based on hidden markov model”, proceedings of the international arab conference for it, acit’10, libya, dec.14-16, 2010. [8] n. hewahi, “hidden markov model for censored production rules”, proceedings of the international conference of information technology, icit’09, jordan, may 3-5, 2009. [9] j. li, a. najmi, r. m. gray, image classification by a two dimensional hidden markov model, ieee transactions on signal processing, 48(2),pp. 517-33, february 2000. [10] r. michalski, p. winston, “variable precision logic”, artificial intelligence, 29, pp. 121-145, 1986. [11] lior pachter and bernd sturmfels. "algebraic statistics for computational biology". cambridge university press, isbn 0-521-85700-7, 2005. [12] b. pardo and w. birmingham “modeling form for on-line following of musical performances”, aaai-05 proc., july 2005. [13] l. rabiner, “a tutorial on hidden markov model and selected applications on speech recognition”, proceedings of ieee, vol.77, no.2, 1989. [14] k. seymore, a. mccallum, and r. rosenfeld, “learning hidden markov model structure for information extraction”, aaai 99 workshop on machine learning for information extraction, 1999. [15] l. stern, l. allison, r. coppel, and t. dix, “discovering patterns in plasmodium falciparum genomic dna”, molecular and biochemical parasitology, 118(2) pp.175-186, 2001. [16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/markov-model brain_3_2 1 b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2 may 2012 edusoft www.brain.broadresearch.org brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 2 about the brainitiative the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (in the brainovations and brainstorming sections) peerreviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next issue (volume 3, issue #3) of the brain in august 2012. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is july 10, 2012. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief: • bogdan pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors: • ioana boghian, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain • nora wiedenmann, munich, germany proofreaders: • ruxandra alexandru, university of minho, portugal (portuguese) • ioana boghian, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (english, romanian) • veronica grecu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (french) • gianluca ceriani, milano, italy (italian) • andrieş valentina, university of edinburgh, united kingdom (english, spanish) • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain (spanish) • barna kovacs, colegiul national "al. papiu i." tg-mures, romania (hungarian) • andra măciucă, milano, italy (italian) • nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (english, german) • jeffrey wood, university of manchester, united kingdom (english) issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2012 edusoft publishing brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 3 address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 6. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 7. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 8. louise connell, university of manchester, united kingdom (psychology, cognitive sciences) 9. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 10. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 11. mariana costache, "m. costache" pshychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 12. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 13. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 14. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 15. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 16. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 17. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 18. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, teoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 19. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 20. annette hohenberger,cognitive science department,informatics institut,middle east technical university, ankara, turkey brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 4 21. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of targu mures, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 22. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 23. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 24. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 25. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 26. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 27. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 28. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 29. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 30. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 31. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing, statistics, mathematics) 32. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 33. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 34. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 35. camelia mihaela pintea, "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 36. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 37. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 38. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 39. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 40. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroklaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 41. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 42. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) microsoft word rezumate germana.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, “happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience gehirn. breiten forschung in der künstlichen intelligenz und der neurowissenschaften issn 2067-3957 band 1, heft 1 januar 2010: “frohes neues jahr!” www.brain.edusoft.ro chefredakteur: bogdan pătruţ 1. editorial angel garrido zusammenfassung das editorial für die erste nummer des brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience journal. 2. computer-methoden in der medizin angel garrido zusammenfassung künstliche intelligenz erfordert logik. aber ihre klassische version zeigt zu viele unzulänglichkeiten. so ist es absolut notwendig, mehr ausgeklügelte tools wie fuzzy logic, modallogik, non-monotone logiken etc. einzuführen [2]. unter den in der ki vorzustellenden themen sind kategorien, objekte, eigenschaften, relationen zwischen den objekten, situationen, zustände, zeitverhalten, ereignisse, ursachen und wirkungen, das wissen über wissen etc. die probleme in ki können klassifiziert werden in zwei allgemeine typen [3, 4]: in such-probleme und das repräsentations-problem. es gibt verschiedene wege, dieses ziel zu erreichen: es sind dies [3] logiken, regelwerke, frames, assoziative netze, scripts etc., die oft miteinander verbunden sind. was ebenfalls recht nutzbringend sein wird, sind untersuchungen zu problemen der unbestimmtheit und der kausalität, die einführung von bayesian networks und besonders auch ein so grundlegendes tool wie der essential graph. wir versuchen hier, den anwendungsbereich solch vielseitiger methoden aufzuzeigen, die gegenwärtig für die medizin fundamental sind. 3. medizinische systeme auf der basis eines intelligent agent barna iantovics zusammenfassung die entwicklung effizienter und flexibler medizinischer diagnose-systeme, agent-based, weist in eine neue forschungsrichtung. medizinische multiagent-systeme könnten die wirksamkeit traditionell entwickelter medizinischer rechnersysteme verbessern, wie die medizinischen expertensysteme. im zuge unserer früheren forschungsarbeiten haben wir ein neuartiges, kooperatives multiagent-system zur medizinischen diagnose vorgeschlagen, genannt cmds (contract net based medical diagnosis system). das cmd-system kann flexibel eine große vielfalt medizinischer diagnose-probleme lösen. in diesem artikel wird die erhöhte intelligenz des cmd-systems analysiert, das zu seinem gebrauch bei unterschiedlichen medizinischen problemlösungen anregt. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, “happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 4. adx – agent zur morphologie-analyse von lexikon-einträgen eines wörterbuchs bogdan patrut zusammenfassung dieser aufsatz handelt von der morphologischen wort-analyse als einem wichtigen prozess im bereich von natural language processing. wir zeigen die klassische lösung, auf der basis von flexions-paradigmen und einer umfangreichen datenbasis, die alle wortstämme enthält; und dann werden einige der nachteile dieser analyse-methode hervorgehoben. daraufhin präsentieren wir eine neue methode, die auf dynamische weise die wortstämme generiert, unter verwendung phonologischer alternationen im kontext von flexionsregeln. auch werden einige optimierungen zum algorithmus der morphologischen analyse gezeigt. 5. über einen metaphorischen typus der architektur: das innere des viktorianischen hauses ioana boghian zusammenfassung dieser aufsatz geht aus vom konzept der zusammenhangbildung als eines aktes all dessen, was innerhalb eines hauses zu bezeichnen ist. die architektur im metaphorischen sinne, die wir versucht haben zu konstruieren, zielt darauf ab, die in einem haus vorkommenden gegenstände als verbindende knoten im bedeutungsgewebe des hauses zu betrachten, während die art und weise, in der diese gegenstände (seien sie schmuckgegenstände, seien sie werkzeuge) räumlich verteilt sind, nicht nur ihren charakter als bekenntnis und/oder persönlichkeit enthüllen (gegenstände als erweiterungen und projektionen des selbst), sondern auch eine gewisse art sozialer hierarchie darstellen. 6. konnektionismus vs. computer-theorie des geistes angel garrido zusammenfassung normalerweise können die probleme in ki vielfach bezogen sein auf die philosophie des geistes, und vielleicht, weil dies im wesentlichen sehr zweifelhaft sein könnte, so zum beispiel die berühmte frage: kann eine maschine denken? sie wurde von alan turing [16] gestellt. und es ist dies wohl die entscheidendere frage, aber für viele menschen wäre sie nonsense. daher beinhalten zwei der sehr fundamentalen und gegensätzlicheren positionen, die gewöhnlich in dieser hinsicht betrachtet werden, den konnektionismus und die computational theory of mind. wir analysieren hier deren inhalt, auch frühere diskussionen, und die derzeitige situation. 7. verfeinerte tools in der künstlichen intelligenz angel garrido, faculty of sciences (uned), madrid, spain zusammenfassung historisch wird der ursprung der künstlichen intelligenz (ki) gewöhnlich in der dartmouth conference von 1956 gesehen. aber wir können auch viele obskure ursprünge [1] finden, in neuerer zeit zum beispiel aber auch sehr große denker wie janos neumann (in den usa angekommen: john von neumann), norbert wiener, alan mathison turing bzw. lofti zadeh [12, 14]. ki erfordert meistens logik, aber ihre klassische version zeigt zu viele unzulänglichkeiten. daher war es notwendig, raffiniertere tools wie fuzzy logic, modal-logik, non-monotone logik etc. [1, 2] einzuführen. unter den themen, die ki behandeln muss, sind: kategorien, objekte, eigenschaften, relationen zwischen objekten, situationen, zustände, zeit, ereignisse, ursachen und wirkungen, wissen über wissen etc. die probleme in ki können als zwei allgemeine typen [3, 5] klassifiziert brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, “happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 werden: suchprobleme und repräsentations¬probleme. zu letzterem 'spitzen'-thema führen verschiedene wege zum erreichen des gipfels. daher behandeln wir [4] logics, rules, frames, associative nets, scripts etc., vielfach miteinander verbunden. wir versuchen uns in diesem artikel an einem panorama zum skopus anwendung solcher ki-repräsentationsmethoden. die beiden vor allem zu diskutierenden fragen der modernen philosophie des geistes wie auch der ki sind wohl der turing test und das chinese-room argument. um diese sehr schwierigen fragenbereiche zu erhellen, s. unsere schlussbemerkung. 8. einige überlegungen zu serialität und synchronizität elena nechita zusammenfassung dieser aufsatz bietet einen überblick über die ergebnisse, die wir in letzter zeit zu serialität und synchronizität, in verbindung miteinander, erhielten, und dies im lichte der neuen theorien und im rahmen der komplexitätsforschung. 9. optimierung von distributed systems unter verwendung von multi-agent-systemen mit virtueller zeitbearbeitung ioana alexandra pandele, alina mihaela patriciu zusammenfassung das eindringen von real-time-bereichen in die der künstlichen intelligenz hat bewiesen, eine recht clevere entwicklung zu sein, ähnlich der entwicklung aufgrund der assoziation von schachüberprüfung (lassen sie uns nicht so weit gehen, dass es zu einem schachmatt kommt, wo wir doch wissen, dass das gebiet der informatik ein recht unsicherer boden ist, wenn es um updates geht). künstliche intelligenz bietet den real-time-systemen neue möglichkeiten. jedoch hat dieser ansatz hier bedeutende schwierigkeiten [2] gezeigt. hauptsächlich die real-time-systeme erfordern zeitvorgaben (denn sie verlangen normalerweise voraussagbare response-zeiten), die unter den technologien der künstlichen intelligenz nicht gebräuchlich sind. eine der möglichkeiten zur lösung dieses problems ist die entwicklung von software-architekturen. diese software-architekturen werden gebraucht, um intelligent agents zu entwerfen, die in real-time-umgebungen funktionieren. diese architekturen weisen verschiedene mechanismen auf, die es den agents erlauben, in real-timeumgebungen zu arbeiten, indem sie reaktives verhalten (um die zeitlichen anforderungen zu erfüllen) und deliberatives verhalten bieten [2]. dies ist jedoch bei distributed systems kaum zu erreichen, obwohl das konzept der globalen zeit dabei eine wichtige rolle spielt; auf den ersten blick ist sogar die definition des eigentlichen begriffs keinesfalls klar. dieser aufsatz ist eine weiterführende arbeit zu [6]. 10. ein system zum erlernen der grundlagen für finanz-berichte bogdan patrut, iulian marius furdu zusammenfassung dieser aufsatz beschreibt eine methode, um studierenden die grundlagen für finanz-berichte beizubringen. diese methode basiert darauf, einige typische fehler zu korrigieren, die bei den beginnern beobachtbar sind. 11. intelligent agent zum erwerb des muttersprachlichen vokabulars bogdan patrut, grigor moldovan zusammenfassung brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, “happy brainew year!”, issn 2067-3957 dieser aufsatz beschreibt das folgende: erstens die grundideen eines systems, das simuliert, wie wir erkennen, dass ein kind das muttersprachliche vokabular erwirbt und die korrespondenzen zwischen dingen, wörtern und bedeutungen herstellt; zweitens den mechanismus für ein system, welches das muttersprachliche vokabular erlernen kann, indem es beobachtungen nutzt; und drittens, wie denn ein intelligent agent zu konstruieren ist, der sich wie ein kleines kind verhält, im verlauf des mutterspracherwerbs. 12. fragen in bezug auf alterität in sozialen kollaborativen netzwerken cosmin ion tomozei, florinela floria zusammenfassung die idee der alterität wurde in den letzten dekaden wichtig, wenn über das informationszeitalter geredet wurde, das den software-entwicklungsspezialisten antworten gibt zur bedeutung des verhaltens des anderen: wie sind dessen verhaltensweise, dessen bedürfnisse, zielvorstellungen und überzeugungen zu verstehen? unsere hauptabsicht ist vor augen zu führen, wie die frage der sozialen repräsentation in beziehung steht zu den vorstellungen der individuen als unterschiedlicher entitäten, die integriert sind in virtuellen teams, in virtuellen projekten und elektronischen aktivitäten. indem wir so das bewusstsein von der alterität des anderen betrachten, stellen wir die behauptung auf, dass dieses bewusstsein eine dialogische perspektive im hinblick auf die informationsgesellschaft eröffnet, wobei es von bedeutung ist, wissen mit den anderen zu teilen und zu kommunizieren. 13. ein exkurs zu den medizinischen aktivitäten des doktor gheorghe marinescu claudia ivan, ioana boghian zusammenfassung gheorghe marinescu (28. februar 1863, bucharest – 15. mai 1938, bucharest) war ein rumänischer neurologe, der begründer der rumänichen schule für neurologie. ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 264-279 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/387 submitted: october 30th, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 13th, 2022 neuropedagogy in contemporary formal and non-formal education svitlana gvozdii 1 , ivan bakhov 2 , vadym pienov 3 , svitlana palamarchuk 4 , nadiia dudnyk 5 , lyudmila petrukhanshcherbakova 6 1 doctor of science in pedagogy, professor, department of human physiology, health and safety and science education, odesa i. i. mechnikov national university, odesa, ukraine, spgvozdiy77@onu.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8208-2972 2 doctor of science in pedagogy, full professor, head of the department of foreign philology and translation, interregional academy of personnel management, kyiv, ukraine, bakhov@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8379-199x 3 candidate of science in pedagogy, associate professor, department of human physiology, health and safety and science education, odesa i. i. mechnikov national university, odesa, ukraine, vadim_v.p@ukr.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0900-525x 4 phd in agriculture science, agrosphere ecology and environmental control, national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, spal@i.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9083-6850 5 candidate of pedagogical science, associate professor of general pedagogy and preschool education, drohobych abstract: the article reveals the concept of neuropedagogy, in relation to current forms of educational practices. in the conditions of significant advances in the field of neuroscience, the relevance and expediency of research is determined by the opportunities that open up before the use of research on brain activity and neural processes in educational activities. on the one hand, discoveries in the neuroscience can increase the effectiveness of educational activities, their formal and non-formal areas. on the other hand, there are a number of paradigmatic and practical limitations associated with the use of the neuroconcept in various forms of educational activities. opportunities include: increasing attention, overcoming personal limitations, detection of specific neuro-consistent methodic and didactic techniques. the limitations include some paradigmatic conditionality of the neuroconcept, which to some extent limits the heuristic qualities of thinking due to the dominance of mental practices and various formalizations. thus, the balanced and appropriate application of neuropedagogical approaches in both formal and nonformal education is of great importance. neuropedagogical methods are becoming extremely important in the context of digitization of the space of interaction between people and the emergence of the so-called z-generation. critical evaluation and timely application of neuropedagogical practices, in our opinion, can significantly expand the potential for both formal and non-formal education. keywords: neuroscience; neurophysiology; neuropsychology; heuristic thinking; neuropedagogical models; cognitive psychology; dominant management. how to cite: gvozdii, s., bakhov, i., pienov, v., palamarchuk, s., dudnyk, n., & petrukhan-shcherbakova, l. (2022). neuropedagogy in contemporary formal and non-formal education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 264-279. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/387 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/387 mailto:spgvozdiy77@onu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8208-2972 mailto:bakhov@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8379-199x mailto:vadim_v.p@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0900-525x mailto:spal@i.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9083-6850 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/387 ivan franko state pedagogical university, drohobych, ukraine, nadijadydnuk@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7879-8206 6 candidate of pedagogical science, borys grinchenko kyiv university, kyiv, ukraine, l.petrukhanshcherbakova@kubg.edu.ua, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9250-4991 mailto:nadijadydnuk@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7879-8206 mailto:l.petrukhan-shcherbakova@kubg.edu.ua mailto:l.petrukhan-shcherbakova@kubg.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9250-4991 neuropedagogy in contemporary formal and non-formal education svitlana gvozdii et al. 266 introduction recent neurophysiological and neuropsychological research, combined with artificial intelligence systems, lead to some advances in pedagogical anthropology. often pedagogical ideas about the human take the functions of the brain and nervous system as starting points (sarancha et al., 2021). at the same time, models of classical pedagogical anthropology are gradually receding into the background. this phenomenon, along with great didactic and methodological opportunities, creates a number of limitations in the implementation of educational practices. from the point of view of the classical pedagogical anthropology, according to, for example, ushinskiy (2002a; 2002b), an individual is a whole, much greater than just the brain and nervous activity. the contemporary phenomenon of the so-called digital z generation with all its pedagogical opportunities, also shows significant problems of pedagogical and anthropological narrowness of the existing ideas, exacerbating the already multiplying problems, sapa (2015). in our opinion, a detailed review of the neuro-approach in formal and non-formal education systems will shed light on both the opportunities and problems associated with the application of neuropedagogical practices and, therefore, will contribute to their more conscious and timely application. thus, the current rapid development of research on the processes taking place at the level of the human nervous system has created significant opportunities for their application in pedagogical theory and practice (prots et al., 2021). both special studies of the effectiveness of certain methods and methodologies, and the development of specific neurological didactic techniques are becoming possible. it is possible to state a boom of neuroapproaches in various spheres of both formal and non-formal education. this is especially true for non-formal education. the hypothesis of the study is that the theory and practice of neuropedagogy has both opportunities and limits for formal and non-formal forms of educational activities. theoretical possibilities include a significant expansion of ideas about the brain and nervous system activity, allowing to create new pedagogical concepts that have a fairly high cognitive potential. the theoretical limitations include some narrowing of the concept of pedagogical anthropology within the discourse of the neuroscience. this narrowing at the level of pedagogical anthropology, combined with the general context of postmodernism, prevailing in various fields of knowledge, as well as the phenomenon of z-generation limits the potential of holistic broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 267 pedagogical-theoretical understanding of the current situation. practical opportunities include neuro-consistent methods and pedagogical moves based on the principles of functioning of both the brain and the nervous system as a whole. however, in case of excessive increase of neuropedagogical practices, other methods of pedagogical influence may be damaged, which contradicts the systemic multidimensional comprehensive approach to educational activities. on this basis, this study develops ideas for the synthesis of formal and non-formal approaches to educational activities in the context of neuropedagogical theory and practice. the purpose of the study is to analyze the possibilities and limitations of using the theory and practice of neuropedagogy in formal and non-formal education. logical and systematic analysis, as well as modeling in pedagogical processes are used as a research method. the theoretical and practical significance of the obtained results determines the place and criteria for the effective applicability of neuropedagogical theory and practice in formal and non-formal education. research objectives. achieving the purpose of the analysis of the capabilities and limitations of the theory and practice of neuropedagogy in formal and non-formal education has led to solution of the following problems. 1. on the basis of the literature review to substantiate the working definition of neuropedagogy. and also, to distinguish between formal and non-formal education. 2. to substantially reveal the principles of the theory and practice of neuropedagogy. 3. show the features and capabilities of neuropedagogy in formal and non-formal education. 4. to analyze the limitations that arise in the process of using neuropedagogy in educational practices. in general, neuropedagogical research is based on the methods and materials of recent discoveries in the field of neuropsychology and neurophysiology. theoretical constructs of ideas about the human from the given areas, neuromodels and materials of experimental observations are used. including practical observations of neurosurgeons, as well as the widespread research using electronic equipment: encephalographs, tomographs and other devices that record various activities of the brain and nervous system. neuropedagogy in contemporary formal and non-formal education svitlana gvozdii et al. 268 research in the field of neurophysiology and neuropsychology reveals a fairly high cognitive potential of methods based on learning the brain functions. in the works of robleto & thompson (2008); rattenborg, amlaner & lima (2000); phan et al. (2002); pezawas et al., (2005); mcewen (2001); mccrory et al. (2000) the course of neuroprocesses is shown at the level of physiology. such research provides a basis for the selection of neuro-consistent physiological techniques used in pedagogical practice. special attention should be paid to the use of neuro-practices in the process of self-management, which can be effectively used in the learning process. this is indicated by the study of maquet et al. (2000), based on the principles of neuroactivity of the brain. the use of neuro-practices is also successful in overcoming stress, which, among other things, often accompanies educational activities. such studies are presented, for example by mcewen (2000). based on the data of neuroscience, neuropedagogy builds its theory and practice, forming certain ideas about human as a subject of the educational process and offering didactic methods of neuro-consistent impact. in current reality, the practices of neuropedagogical educational impact are represented mostly in non-formal education. they are often semi-intuitive and spontaneous. this, to some extent, complicates recordings of research observations and, accordingly, their analysis. literature review the distinctive division of the approaches to educational activities into formal and non-formal is presented in a fairly uniform way in the literature. for example, babaeva (2014) conducts, in our opinion, a fairly detailed analysis of the differences between formal and non-formal education. the results of the analysis are presented in table 1. tab. 1. comparative analysis of formal and non-formal education. the table is borrowed from the author, babaeva (2014) education formal non-formal objectives long-term and more general short-term and specific officially acknowledged education certificate no certificate duration long cycle, full day, general short cycle, part-time, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 269 schedule individual schedule or as convenient scope standardized, focused on the main provisions of the study material individualized, result-oriented academic practical rigidly structured flexible, personality-oriented enrollment requirements determine the level of students students determine the entry requirements location in educational institutions, regardless of the place of residence focused on proximity to the place of residence resource consumption resource-consuming resource efficient control external / hierarchical internal / democratic / selfgovernment pedagogical support after training no or formal based on self-government, caused by interest in the results and experience of other participants here, based on a fairly deep and comprehensive analysis, the results of the analysis are presented, which can be used in the context of the present study. the great flexibility, mobility and adaptability of non-formal education is obvious, which determines a wide range of opportunities for the free application of neuropedagogical practices. of great interest is the synthesis of formal and non-formal approaches to education, which allows to preserve the positive features of formal education and at the same time to complement them with nonformal approaches. this is also pointed out by minzer & babaeva (2012). klyucharev (2003) also devotes research to the search for a measure of the synthesis of formal and non-formal approaches. shnayder’s work, in our opinion, presents the most practice-oriented results of the search for such a synthesis in external forms of higher education, shnayder (2004). in the same context, the work of a teacher-practitioner, the founder of the author’s neuropedagogy in contemporary formal and non-formal education svitlana gvozdii et al. 270 school zitser (2007) is interesting. foreign authors have also been analyzing the problems of combining formal and non-formal approaches to educational activities for a long time. mayo (1999), rogers (1969) and simkins (1977) also search for a synthetic direction of educational activity. although the bias is on the dominance of non-formal approaches. there are more and more articles on the theory and practice of neuropedagogy each year. klemantovich, stepanov (2015) refer theoretical and practical elements of education based on recent neurophysiological and neuropsychological research to the content of neuropedagogy (klemantovich & stepanov, 2015). pervushina & osetrin (2017) point to the synthetic nature of neuropedagogy, showing that it combines neuropsychology, cognitive neurology, differential psychophysiology, neurophysiology, cybernetics and pedagogy. moskvin & moskvina (2001) analyze in detail the applied aspects of neuropedagogy, showing ways to apply neurodiscoveries in pedagogical practices. in a sense, the theoretical foundations of neuropedagogy were laid by vygotsky (1927), who singled out the so-called “lower mental functions” and “higher mental functions”. the “lower” include visually effective thinking, emotional memory, involuntary attention and others. the “higher” include verbal-logical thinking, speech, arbitrary attention, as well as a number of other functions. in addition, vygotsky developed the idea of “the zone of immediate development”, proceeding from the phases of maturation of the brain. in the same context, the doctrine of the dominance by uhtomskiy (2020) deserves a special mention. the direct creator of neuropsychology is luria (2003), who carried out further research on the systemic structure of higher mental functions and the conceptual basis of their localization. in the russian language space, neuropedagogy was first studied by moskvin & moskvina (2001), moskvina et al., (2013) and other authors who develop the ideas of luria (2003), including the laws of education in its relationship with the processes of brain function and the development of the human psyche. the analysis of the theory and practice of neuropedagogical knowledge is also carried out in foreign literature. thus, chojak (2018) analyzes in detail the theoretical foundations and the problem field of neuropedagogy. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 271 application of neuropedagogy in the practices of formal and nonformal education from the point of view of neuropedagogy, learning is the process of changing the neural connections of the brain in the process of educational activities. research in the field of changing neural connections in the brain under the influence of various factors and educational practices allows to find the most effective educational strategies in the educational process. studies show that neural processes in the brain are nonlinear and can be partially described by neuromodels that contain a chaotic factor. knowledge of the nonlinear processes occurring in the brain and their use in both formal and non-formal educational practices allows to identify the key factors in the educational environment and, accordingly, to pay special attention to them. the regularities of the formation of new neural connections, changes (destruction) of the old ones are associated with such parameters of brain function as neurorigidity and neuroplasticity, which allow on the one hand to assess learning, and on the other hand to study the durability of learning material digestion. the ratio of the parameters of neurorigidity and neuroplasticity will show the extent and degree of response of the brain to certain forms of educational impact. one of the most important areas of both theory and practice of neuropedagogy is the study of the dominant hemisphere in students. this phenomenon is called hemispheric asymmetry. and, according to the type of the dominant hemisphere a learning strategy that meets the characteristics of a particular type of perception is developed. tunkun (2008) provides a classification of the learning strategies for the right-hemisphere and left-hemisphere people. the training strategies for the left-hemisphere people are dominated by such features as the study of material without a specific practical purpose. this means inclusion of the direct cognitive interest, allowing a deep and diverse coverage of educational material. according to tunkun (2008), the left-hemisphere people have the ability to organize learning independently. in such conditions, the training of the “left hemisphere” people is the most effective and efficient. also, for such people the structure and logical construction of the educational material which is of great importance that provides its highest-quality digestion. one can note the high level of logic present in the expression of thoughts by “the right-hemisphere people”. in the process of making choices and making decisions, such people are guided neuropedagogy in contemporary formal and non-formal education svitlana gvozdii et al. 272 more by rational logic. the best working condition for them is a complete silence. in the strategies of training “right-hemisphere” people there is an importance of goal-setting it is important for them to know the purpose of the training material and understanding of the learning outcome. such people are characterized by effective teamwork. of great importance for the “right hemisphere” people is the multidimensional presentation of the material, enriched with additional illustrations, examples and parallels from other fields of knowledge. when it comes to making a choice or a decision, the “right hemisphere” people mainly rely on intuition. it is not a problem for them to work in conditions of high noise background. the planning process is almost uncommon for such people. they are based on a holistic perception of certain processes. in the west and the united states, research on how knowledge of the human brain can be applied in education has been conducted since the late 1970s and early 1980s. these studies were not limited to the use of hemispheric asymmetry and focused on the inclusion of various features of brain behavior in learning. during the period of studying neuropedagogical theory and practice, approaches have been formed that allow to determine quite accurately the most preferred cognitive strategies for students. and further using the advantages of the dominant hemisphere to gradually teach to solve complex problems. since most often learning takes place in mixed groups, it creates the conditions when students help each other, performing various learning tasks, mutually enriched with strategies of the non-dominant hemisphere. thus, interhemispheric connections are gradually formed and there is some alignment of the hemispheric balance. the most important direction of neuro-consistent education is the development of skills of concentration and deconcentration of attention in students, their alternation and application according to the situation and features of brain function. in this case, the alternation of concentration and deconcentration of attention can significantly increase the effectiveness of awareness and digestion of educational material. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 273 limitations on the use of neuropedagogy in educational research and practice in the context of bioethics fascination with the practices of neuropedagogy, as already noted, creates great opportunities for the realization of brain resources in the process of educational activities. at the same time, it is possible to observe some narrowing of pedagogical and anthropological representations about the brain and the processes proceeding in it. therefore, in our opinion, it is important to consider the bioethical aspect of the application of neuropedagogical educational practices. the concept of bioethics is focused on the protection of human individuality, mescheryakova (2011). this means that students need to know what the impact will be, what the end result will be, whether there are “counterindications” to certain teaching methods. and also informing students not only about the so-called ideal end product of education, but also about the adopted pedagogical and anthropological ideas. the current situation in education, which can be described as cyborgization of human, spasskiy (2021), gives rise to the need to find ways to preserve human in the understanding of classical pedagogical anthropology. this situation is associated with the multidimensional penetration of virtual reality into human life. dominance of gadgets and the so-called “digital poisoning” has spawned a whole digital z-generation. pedagogical activity in the space of which it is important to carry out from the standpoint of bioethics. otherwise, a person can gradually turn into a real cyborg. in this regard, spasskiy (2021) emphasizes: “the totalitarian movement of technos on the planet, in fact, has given rise to two codirectional trends. this is the gradual transformation of a human into a machine. from the implantation of artificial body parts, to the machine algorithmization of consciousness. and even bringing consciousness to the periphery of technos through a system of diverse electronic gadgets. and the second trend is the transformation of a robot into a human. from the idea of admiring technology and even worshiping the machine to the idea of its almost deification in the image of a supercomputer controlling everything. this is not about a utopian future. this is today’s reality”, spasskiy (2021, p. 133). neuropedagogy in contemporary formal and non-formal education svitlana gvozdii et al. 274 neurographics as an example of neuropedagogical practice of synthesis of formal and non-formal approaches neurographics can be considered as one of the rather effective tools of neuropedagogical practice in both formal and non-formal education. as already noted, from the standpoint of neurophysiology, the ability to successful adaptation and development is due to formation of new neural connections, which are the content of human thinking, response, behavior, and, consequently, life in general. among the scientific works devoted to the study of neurographics, we should highlight the dissertation research of saveleva (2018) “psychological foundations of neurographics”, as well as articles by ananyeva (2018), kravtsova (2018), usatyh (2020). the so-called background picture of the world, or background knowledge, determines the presuppositions that filter attention and thinking. pedagogical work with such tools is conducted by so-called indirect methods. this is due to the nonlinearity of the brain’s response to certain pedagogical influences, as well as the existence of “filters” special neural connections that block in-depth learning, mohova (2019). in this context, the growing dissatisfaction with life of many contemporary people is associated not so much with rapid changes in environmental factors, but with the lack of skills of pure perception, sometimes called “beginner consciousness”, enabling to find quick nonstandard spontaneous solutions. neurographics is designed to solve this set of problems, piskarev (2020). the stems “neuro” and “graphics” express the relationship between the nervous system, the human brain and its graphic practice, mohova (2019). when creating a neuroimage, there are changes in the nervous system of the painter through the emergence of new neural connections through visual-motor perception and transformation of images and symbols. this approach allows to work with the deep layers of the psyche. in this case spontaneous, intuitive drawing is always the output of the background state or filters of perception on the surface of the consciousness. mohova (2019) identifies 6 stages of neuroimaging: actualization, ejection, rounding, merging, field lines and verbalization. thus, neurographics is a creative method of personal transformation and work with the background layers of human life and can be successfully used in both formal and non-formal practices of educational activities. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 275 conclusion the distinction between formal and non-formal approaches to educational activities is associated with the continuous strengthening of the importance and share of the non-formal component. this is due to the continuous process of democratization and digitalization of educational practices. in these conditions, the role of formal features is reduced and at the same time the marketing (product-oriented) and practical components are strengthened. on the one hand, this process reduces the influence of bureaucratic formalism of educational projects at various levels. on the other hand, it reduces the possibility of mastering the ideological, methodological and theoretical components of educational programs. due to their low demand in non-formal educational programs. under these conditions, each student becomes an expert in choosing what and how to learn. this often isolates the student from the traditional classical approach to education, thereby reducing the quality of education. in our opinion, the application of neuropedagogical approaches to both formal and non-formal educational practices can be effective provided that they are applied in a timely manner in appropriate cases. at the same time, such approaches should not be absolutized, being relied on completely. a clear discrepancy between pedagogical and anthropological models of the classics of pedagogical thought and contemporary neuropedagogical models of human requires further research. further development requires the holistic pedagogical and anthropological model, which synthetically includes both classical pedagogical concepts and the results of recent neuropedagogical research and practices. references ananyeva, v. p. (2018). neyrografika kak art-terapevticheskiy metod soprovozhdeniya onkopatsientok v stressovoy situatsii himioterapii [neurographics as an art-therapeutic method for accompanying cancer patients in a stressful situation of chemotherapy]. psihologiya i psihotehnika [psychology and psychotechnics], 3, 101–111. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyrografika-kak-art-terapevticheskiymetod-soprovozhdeniya-onkopatsientok-v-stressovoy-situatsii-himioterapii babaeva, e. s. (2014). comparative analysis of formal and non-formal education [sravnitelnyiy analiz formalnogo i neformalnogo obrazovaniya]. vestnik universiteta [university bulletin], 6, 234-237. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sravnitelnyy-analiz-formalnogo-ineformalnogo-obrazovaniya https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyrografika-kak-art-terapevticheskiy-metod-soprovozhdeniya-onkopatsientok-v-stressovoy-situatsii-himioterapii https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neyrografika-kak-art-terapevticheskiy-metod-soprovozhdeniya-onkopatsientok-v-stressovoy-situatsii-himioterapii https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sravnitelnyy-analiz-formalnogo-i-neformalnogo-obrazovaniya https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sravnitelnyy-analiz-formalnogo-i-neformalnogo-obrazovaniya neuropedagogy in contemporary formal and non-formal education svitlana gvozdii et al. 276 chojak, m. (2018). neuropedagogy as a scientific discipline: interdisciplinary description of the theoretical basis for the development of a research field. world academy of science, engineering and technology international journal of educational and pedagogical sciences, 12(8), 1085-1088. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331231903_neuropedagogy_as _a_scientific_discipline_interdisciplinary_description_of_the_theoretical_b asis_for_the_development_of_a_research_field klemantovich, i. p., & stepanov, v. g. (2015). neyropedagogika: predmet issledovaniya [neuropedagogy: the subject of research]. fundamentalnyie issledovaniya, 2(11), 2464-2468. https://fundamentalresearch.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 klyucharev, g. a. (2003). samoobrazovanie i radikalnyie pedagogiki: vozmozhen li kompromiss? [self-education and radical pedagogy: is a compromise possible?] innovation in education: collection of conference proceedings, 29, 322324. st. petersburg philosophical society. http://anthropology.ru/ru/text/klyucharev-ga/samoobrazovanie-iradikalnaya-pedagogika-vozmozhen-li-kompromiss kravtsova, k. yu. (2018). ispolzovanie mandal i neyrografiki pri sev u pedagogov [the use of mandalas and neurographics in the treatment of burnout syndrome in teachers.]. simvol nauki, 8, 98–99. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ispolzovanie-mandal-i-neyrografiki-prisev-u-pedagogov luria a. r. (2003). osnovyi neyropsihologii [fundamentals of neuropsychology]. publishing center “academy”. https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=225405&p=1 maquet, p., laureys, s., peigneux, p., fuchs, s., petiau, c., phillips, c., et aerts, j., del fiore, g., degueldre, c., meulemans, t., luxen, a., franck, g., van der linden, m., smith, c., & cleeremans, a. (2000). experiencedependent changes in cerebral activation during human rem sleep. nature neuroscience, 3, 831–836. https://doi.org/10.1038/77744 mayo, p. (1999). gramsci, freire and adult education: possibilities for transformative action. international review of education 47(3), 395–403. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1017970330226 mccrory, e., frith, u., brunswick, n., & price, c. (2000). abnormal functional activation during a simple word repetition task: a pet study of adult dyslexics. journal of cognitive neuroscience, 12, 753–762 https://doi.org/10.1162/089892900562570 mcewen, b. s. (2000). the neurobiology of stress: from serendipity to clinical relevance. brain research, 886, 172–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/s00068993(00)02950-4 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331231903_neuropedagogy_as_a_scientific_discipline_interdisciplinary_description_of_the_theoretical_basis_for_the_development_of_a_research_field https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331231903_neuropedagogy_as_a_scientific_discipline_interdisciplinary_description_of_the_theoretical_basis_for_the_development_of_a_research_field https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331231903_neuropedagogy_as_a_scientific_discipline_interdisciplinary_description_of_the_theoretical_basis_for_the_development_of_a_research_field https://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 https://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=37469 http://anthropology.ru/ru/text/klyucharev-ga/samoobrazovanie-i-radikalnaya-pedagogika-vozmozhen-li-kompromiss http://anthropology.ru/ru/text/klyucharev-ga/samoobrazovanie-i-radikalnaya-pedagogika-vozmozhen-li-kompromiss https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ispolzovanie-mandal-i-neyrografiki-pri-sev-u-pedagogov https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ispolzovanie-mandal-i-neyrografiki-pri-sev-u-pedagogov https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=225405&p=1 https://doi.org/10.1038/77744 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1017970330226 https://doi.org/10.1162/089892900562570 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-8993(00)02950-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-8993(00)02950-4 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 277 mcewen, b. s. (2001). invited review: estrogen effects on the brain: multiple sites and molecular mechanisms. journal of applied physiology, 91, 2785–2801 https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.2001.91.6.2785 mescheryakova, t. v. (2011). bioetika na peresechenii nauchnogo i vnenauchnogo znaniya [bioethics at the intersection of scientific and non-scientific knowledge]. tspu bulletin, 10(112), 216–221. https://vestnik.tspu.edu.ru/files/vestnik/pdf/articles/mesheryakova_t._ v._216_221_10_112_2011.pdf minzer, i. v., babaeva, e. s. (2012). proektirovanie programmyi professionalnogo obucheniya na osnove integratsii formalnogo i neformalnogo obrazovaniya [designing a vocational training program based on the integration of formal and non-formal education]. mir obrazovaniya – obrazovanie v-mire, 10, 46-59. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/proektirovanie-programmyprofessionalnogo-obucheniya-na-osnove-integratsii-formalnogo-ineformalnogo-obrazovaniya mohova, yu. a. (2019). plastichnost golovnogo mozga i neyrografika [brain plasticity and neurographics]. russian journal of education and psychology, 10(4), 61-66. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/plastichnost-golovnogomozga-i-neyrografika moskvin, v. a., & moskvina, n. v. (2001). neyropedagogika kak prikladnoe napravlenie pedagogiki i differentsialnoy psihologii [neuropedagogy as an applied direction of pedagogy and differential psychology]. bulletin of the orenburg state university, 4, 34–39. http://vestnik.osu.ru/2001_4/5.pdf moskvina n. v., moskvina, k. v., & rakitina, m. a. (2013). korrektsiya detey s umstvennoy otstalostyu metodami neyropedagogiki [correction of children with mental retardation by methods of neuropedagogy]. in r. l. ivanova, o. v. kozyireva (eds), lechebnaya fizicheskaya kultura: dostizheniya i perspektivyi razvitiya [remedial physical culture: achievements and development prospects] (pp.186–188). publishing house of the russian state university of physical culture, sports, youth and tourism. pervushina, n. a., & osetrin, k. e. (2017). neyropedagogika kak vyirazhenie simvolizma bioetiki [neuropedagogy as an expression of bioethics symbolism]. pedagogical review, 2(16), 198–208. https://npo.tspu.edu.ru/archive.html?year=2017&issue=2&article_id=639 5 pezawas, l., meyer-lindenberg, a., drabant, e. m., verchinski, b. a., munoz, k. e., kolachana, b. s., egan, m. f., mattay, v. s., hariri, a. r., & weinberger, d. r. (2005). 5-httlpr polymorphism impacts human cingulate-amygdala interactions: a genetic susceptibility mechanism for depression. nature neuroscience, 8, 828–834. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1463 https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.2001.91.6.2785 https://vestnik.tspu.edu.ru/files/vestnik/pdf/articles/mesheryakova_t._v._216_221_10_112_2011.pdf https://vestnik.tspu.edu.ru/files/vestnik/pdf/articles/mesheryakova_t._v._216_221_10_112_2011.pdf https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/proektirovanie-programmy-professionalnogo-obucheniya-na-osnove-integratsii-formalnogo-i-neformalnogo-obrazovaniya https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/proektirovanie-programmy-professionalnogo-obucheniya-na-osnove-integratsii-formalnogo-i-neformalnogo-obrazovaniya https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/proektirovanie-programmy-professionalnogo-obucheniya-na-osnove-integratsii-formalnogo-i-neformalnogo-obrazovaniya https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/plastichnost-golovnogo-mozga-i-neyrografika https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/plastichnost-golovnogo-mozga-i-neyrografika http://vestnik.osu.ru/2001_4/5.pdf https://npo.tspu.edu.ru/archive.html?year=2017&issue=2&article_id=6395 https://npo.tspu.edu.ru/archive.html?year=2017&issue=2&article_id=6395 https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1463 neuropedagogy in contemporary formal and non-formal education svitlana gvozdii et al. 278 phan, k. l., wager, t., taylor, s. f., & liberzon, i. (2002). functional neuroanatomy of emotion: a meta-analysis of emotion activation studies in pet and fmri. neuroimage, 16(2), 331–348. https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2002.1087 piskarev, p. m. (2020). neyrografika. algoritm snyatiya ogranicheniy [neurography. algorithm for removing restrictions]. eksmo. prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defense using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rattenborg, n. c., amlaner, c. j., & lima, s. l. (2000). behavioral, neurophysiological and evolutionary perspectives on unihemispheric sleep. neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 24, 817–842. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11118608/ robleto, k., & thompson, r. f. (2008). extinction of a classically conditioned response: red nucleus and interpositus. journal of neuroscience, 28, 2651– 2658. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-07212-030 rogers, c. (1969). freedom to learn. charles e. merrill. sapa, a. v. (2015). pokolenie z – pokolenie epohi federalnyie gosudarstvennyie obrazovatelnyie standartyi [generation z generation of the era federal state educational standards]. pedagogicheskaya masterskaya. vsyo dlya uchitelya! [pedagogical workshop. everything for the teacher!] 7, 2-9. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/pokolenie-z-pokolenie-epohi-fgos sarancha, i., maksymchuk, b., gordiichuk, g., berbets, t., berbets, v., chepurna, l., golub, v., chernichenko, l., behas, l., roienko, s., bezliudna, n., rassskazova, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuroscientific principles in labor adaptation of people with musculoskeletal disorders. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(4), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 saveleva, o. a. (2018). psihologicheskie osnovyi neyrografiki [psychological foundations of neurographics] [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. yaroslavl state pedagogical university named after k. d. ushinsky. shnayder, i. r. (2004). pedagogicheskie usloviya obespecheniya kachestva obucheniya studentov eksternata v vuze [pedagogical conditions for ensuring the quality of teaching of external students at the university] unpublished doctoral dissertation]. stavropolskiy gosudarstvennyiy university. simkins, t. (1977). non-formal education and development. some critical issues. department of adult and higher education, university of manchester. spasskiy, i. d. (2021). metafizicheskie aspektyi kiborgizatsii cheloveka v kontekste tehnogeneza [metaphysical aspects of human cyborgization in the context https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2002.1087 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11118608/ https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-07212-030 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/pokolenie-z-pokolenie-epohi-fgos https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.4/245 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 279 of technogenesis]. in yu. m. osipov, e. s. zotova (eds.), rossiya v peredele: tsivilizatsiya, tehnogenez, ekonomika [russia in redistribution: civilization, technogenesis, economics] (pp. 133-138). faculty of economics, lomonosov moscow state university. https://www.econ.msu.ru/sys/raw.php?o=78333&p=attachment tunkun, ya. a. (2008). osnovyi neyropedagogiki: istoriya, teoriya i praktika [fundamentals of neuropedagogy: history, theory and practice]. bulletin of the russian state pedagogical university, 73(2), 203-208. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osnovy-neyropedagogiki-istoriya-teoriyai-praktika uhtomskiy, a. a. (2002). dominanta [dominant]. piter. usatyh, g. n. (2020). korrektsiya trevogi i profilaktika panicheskih atak metodom neyrografiki [correction of anxiety and prevention of panic attacks using neurographics]. molodoy uchenyiy, 22(312), 485–490. https://moluch.ru/archive/312/71035/ ushinskiy, k. d. (2002a). pedagogicheskaya antropologiya. chelovek kak predmet vospitaniya. opyit pedagogicheskoy antropologii [educational anthropology. man as a subject of education. experience in pedagogical anthropology]. vol. 1. publishing house of the university of russian innovative education. ushinskiy, k. d. (2002b). pedagogicheskaya antropologiya. chelovek kak predmet vospitaniya. opyit pedagogicheskoy antropologii [educational anthropology. man as a subject of education. experience in pedagogical anthropology]. vol. 2. publishing house of the university of russian innovative education. vygotsky, l. s. (1927). istoricheskiy smyisl psihologicheskogo krizisa [the historical meaning of the psychological crisis]. collected works in 6 volumes. volume 1. questions of theory and history of psychology. pedagogy. http://vygotsky.narod.ru/vygotsky_crisis.htm zitser, d. (2007). prakticheskaya pedagogika: azbuka neformalnogo obrazovaniya [practical pedagogy: the alphabet of non-formal education]. prosveschenie. https://www.econ.msu.ru/sys/raw.php?o=78333&p=attachment https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osnovy-neyropedagogiki-istoriya-teoriya-i-praktika https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/osnovy-neyropedagogiki-istoriya-teoriya-i-praktika https://moluch.ru/archive/312/71035/ http://vygotsky.narod.ru/vygotsky_crisis.htm microsoft word brain_7_issue_4_version_2.doc b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4 november, 2016 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 2 about the brainitiative the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (in the brainovations and brainstorming sections) peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in february 2017. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 5 january, 2016. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief: • bogdan pătruł, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors: • barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania • frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland • gabriela tăbăcaru, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania • carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain • monica pătruł, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2016 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanła bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 6. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 7. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 8. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 9. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 10. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 11. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 12. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 13. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 14. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 15. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 16. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 17. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 18. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 19. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 20. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 21. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 22. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 4 23. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 24. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 25. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 26. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 27. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 28. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 29. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 30. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 31. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 32. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 33. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bio-inspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 34. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 35. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 36. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 37. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 38. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 39. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 40. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) brain_4 60 high performance data mining by genetic neural network dadmehr rahbari artificial intelligence group of mashhad azad university, mashhad, iran e-mail: d_rahbari@yahoo.com abstract: data mining in computer science is the process of discovering interesting and useful patterns and relationships in large volumes of data. most methods for mining problems is based on artificial intelligence algorithms. neural network optimization based on three basic parameters topology, weights and the learning rate is a powerful method. we introduce optimal method for solving this problem. in this paper genetic algorithm with mutation and crossover operators change the network structure and optimized that. dataset used for our work is stroke disease with twenty features that optimized number of that achieved by new hybrid algorithm. result of this work is very well in comparison with other similar method. low present of error show that our method is our new approach to efficient, high-performance data mining problems is introduced. keywords: data mining, neural networks, genetic algorithm, stroke disease, prediction 1. introduction data mining refers to extracting or mining knowledge from large amounts of data. many other terms carry a similar or slightly different meaning to data mining, such as knowledge mining from data, knowledge extraction, data/pattern analysis, data archaeology, and data dredging. knowledge discovery as a process is consists of an iterative sequence of the following steps: cleaning, integration, selection, transformation, mining, pattern evaluation, knowledge presentation on data. based on this view, the architecture of a typical data mining system may have the following major components: database, data warehouse, worldwideweb. data cleaning and data integration techniques may be performed on the data. database or data warehouse server: the database or data warehouse server is responsible for fetching the relevant data, based on the user’s data mining request. knowledge base: this is the domain knowledge that is used to guide the search or evaluate the interestedness of resulting patterns. such knowledge can include concept hierarchies, used to organize attributes or attribute values into different levels of abstraction. knowledge such as user beliefs, which can be used to assess a pattern’s interestedness based on its unexpectedness, may also be included. data mining engine: this is essential to the data mining system and ideally consists of a set of functional modules for tasks such as characterization, association and correlation analysis, classification, prediction, cluster analysis, outlier analysis and evolution analysis. pattern evaluation module: this component typically employs interestedness measures and interacts with the data mining modules so as to focus the search toward interesting patterns[1][1]. it may use interestedness thresholds to filter out discovered patterns. alternatively, the pattern evaluation module may be integrated with the mining module, depending on the implementation of the data mining method used. for efficient data mining, it is highly recommended to push the evaluation of pattern interestedness as deep as possible into the mining process so as to confine the search to only the interesting patterns. user interface: this module communicates between users and the data mining system. from a data warehouse perspective, data mining can be viewed as an advanced stage of on-line analytical processing. however, data mining goes far beyond the narrow scope of summarization-style analytical processing of data warehouse systems by incorporating more advanced techniques for data analysis. the problem that we want to solve it is prediction stroke disease by use of some features. in fact, our goal is design machine learning system that it can find answer of a question from large number of information. this system implement by artificial intelligence algorithms. we select two method very powerful in this category called by neural network and genetic algorithm. d. rahbari high performance data mining by genetic neural network 61 a neural network (nn), in the case of artificial neurons called artificial neural network (ann) or simulated neural network (snn), is an interconnected group of natural or artificial neurons that uses a mathematical or computational model for information processing based on a connectionist approach to computation. in most cases an ann is an adaptive system that changes its structure based on external or internal information that flows through the network. in more practical terms neural networks are nonlinear statistical data modelling or decision making tools. they can be used to model complex relationships between inputs and outputs or to find patterns in data. genetic algorithm is a generalized search and optimization technique. it works with populations or chromosomes of individuals, each representing a possible solution to a given problem. each individual is evaluated to give some measure of its fitness to the problem from the objective functions. three basic operations namely: reproduction, crossover, and mutation are adopted in the evolution to generate new offspring. the idea of combining ga and nn was introduced in 1980s. ga is a good method for selection and reduction of feature for our problem. guided and random selection is main idea for this algorithm. the idea is based on neural network by a genetic algorithm parameters are adjusted. the mutation and crossover operators can use the network to model artificial structures close to natural. in one of the papers, idea is to combine the three hidden layers with 5, 10, and 20 neuron network structure is built and optimized by genetic algorithm hidden layer with 10 neurons and 50 iterations to converge the network has high accuracy and low overfitting. the accuracy even with repeated 5 and 20 neurons in the 100 and 1000 is not convergent and efficiency as much as 90% can be achieved [2]. the use of back propagation and cross validation in neural network with optimization by genetic algorithm. the results show that this method is better that random topology [3]. one serious problem in neural networks to avoid overfitting is a generalization of the network inputs is high. the solution to this problem is to avoid non-useful data on the network is using best practices. in fact, the use of a validation set can detect any irregularities in the data and prevents the optimal weights for the network. balance between genetic programming and neural networks, the network topology are an interesting topic. in advance of his generation program using appropriate structure for the network gets updated. performance results on some math functions show that the algorithm has several training and testing compared to the mean value of 90.32% is reached[4]. combinations of genetic algorithms and neural networks in another two problems in nn that are permutation and convergence are discussed. this method tested on cloud classification. by weights of neural network by genetic algorithm optimization amounts to about 3% error is reached. a combination of genetic algorithms and multi-layer perceptron neural network to predict the performance of stroke patients with different data sets is equivalent to 89.67% [5]. an article comparing three bayesian methods, neural networks and decision trees for problem solving is a predictor of stroke patients. the best accuracy achieved for the 91% bayesian methods for neural networks and decision trees versus 92% against 94% [6]. we introduce a new approach on the combination of neural network and genetic algorithms. our method is based on optimization and change on structure of nn by ga. 2. combining ga and nn various methods have been proposed to combine the neural network with genetic algorithms excel each other than they are. our simulations based on different data with different initial structures were investigated. we finally reached the conclusion that the proposed scheme is very effective for the data mining and forecasting, is accurate and robust. the nn inputs to the forward and backward errors in the learning network and the number of turns. you can use the genetic operators and the output of the network structure was improved over generations. also, a genetic algorithm, neural networks, thereby getting rid of the problem of local optimum and the plateau is gradient descend[7],[8]. the proposed solution is to combine these brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 62 two algorithms in neural networks evolved over generations and reaches its optimal structure. the network weights are adjusted along with the operation. this task changes the neural network is a powerful genetic algorithm the combination ideas from nature, as human beings, their achievements and their understanding of the knowledge and experience acquired. in this work we tried to introduce a new approach for the combination of nn and ga with solving of overfitting problem. in our work, ga is a learning algorithm for nn, the structure of goal function is not important for us because that is hidden in neural network. our solution is based on two model of genetic operator. we change mutation and crossover operators by the changes in nn weights and structure. of course changes in structure of neural network have to be meaningful. we show two methods with different challenges and results. the combining algorithm is based on following steps: 1. construct nn with input, hidden, output layers 2. adjust of nn weights by ga 3. crossover & mutation in nn by ga 4. calculate output & error & back propagation 5. repeat step2 to reach end the genetic algorithm used for optimization of neural network. the ring of algorithm finishes until reach to maximum generation number and or reach to minimum error. 3. neural networks 3.1. definition a neural network (nn), in the case of artificial neurons called artificial neural network (ann) or simulated neural network (snn), is an interconnected group of natural or artificial neurons that uses a mathematical or computational model for information processing based on a connectionist approach to computation. in most cases an ann is an adaptive system that changes its structure based on external or internal information that flows through the network[9]. in more practical terms neural networks are nonlinear statistical data modelling or decision making tools. they can be used to model complex relationships between inputs and outputs or to find patterns in data. two neurons neural network active in memory (on or 1) or disable (off or 0), and each edge (synapses or connections between nodes) is a weight. edges with positive weight, stimulate or activate next active node, and edges with negative weight, disable or inhibit the next connected node (if it is active) ones. figure 3. the structure of neural network the error in each output unit: δk = ok (1-ok)(tk – ok) (1) the error in each hidden unit: δh = oh (1-oh) σk wkh δk (2) d. rahbari high performance data mining by genetic neural network 63 update weights: ∆wji (n) = η δj xji + α∆wji (n-1) (3) α∆wji (n-1), with 0 <= α <= 1: in order to avoid oscillations for rapid learning and the acceleration of the learning speed, a modified version of the backpropagation learning algorithm may be derived using the concept of momentum term[10][11]. the effect of the momentum term for the narrow steep regions of the weight learning space is to focus the movement in a downhill direction by averaging out the components of the gradient which alternate in sign[11]. the value of weights: wji = wji + ∆wji (4) 3.2. overfitting problem one classical problem of neural networks is called overfitting, which occurs especially with noisy data. is has been observed that excessive training results in decreased generalization. instead of finding general properties of the different input patterns that match to a certain output, the training brings the network closer to each of the given input patterns. this results in less tolerance in dealing with new patterns. one solution is using of evaluation of the network performance a different set of patterns than for the training. hence, only networks that generate the ability to generalize are evaluated high[10]. to avoid overfitting problem, we have used a different method. when training a neural network with training data overfitting whenever we train stop and give the error propagates backward, and the training continues. mean square error is very suitable method for this problem[14],[15]. in order to apply neural networks to data that is not yet the network architecture is very powerful. during the investigation we found that the results of large structures in many cases were successful and error trials are few. genetic algorithm to obtain the optimal weights is very useful and convenient. 3.3. weight optimization ga algorithm to adjust the weights of a back propagation neural network has a better performance than random search. using crossover operator and without the mutation operator, better results can be achieved. given that it is difficult to extract the function of neural network weights and may not be accurate mathematical model of it, but investigations show that such networks is a sine function. however, the ga can easily optimize this function[16][17]. genetic algorithm combined with neural networks to solve problems with large number of features can be very effective. ga finds the optimal solution than local optimum solutions. 3.4. feature selection features that lead to abnormalities in the population should be removed. in order to find the best features of all inputs to the neural network is given, then the inputs are removed and education network and error can be calculated and in after step the next feature to be removed so that the best properties at the lowest number get an error. this is one of the approaches in this paper that the genetic algorithm is used to select the optimal features. as the number of network inputs is much the best features permutation is equal to the factorial of a genetic algorithm to resign ourselves to this important work completed over the generations, won best feature. 4. genetic algorithm 4.1. definition genetic algorithm is a generalized search and optimization technique. it works with populations or chromosomes of individuals, each representing a possible solution to a given problem. each individual is evaluated to give some measure of its fitness to the problem from the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 objective functions. three basic operations namely: reproduction, crossover, and mutation are adopted in the evolution to generate new offspring [17]. one advantage of genetic algorithm to other methods, to obtain a set of optimal solutions to the stands, this can be very helpful. 4.2. chromosome structure we have to encode and decode phenotype patterns versus genotype; this work is need to genetic operators. the chromosome is encoded in the weights in each layer are coded with values of zero and one. in the first step of the algorithm, the values are randomly selected and completed to the best of their coming generations. we have two encoding. model1: index bit and weight encoding bits: 1 01000001 1 10001111 1 11100110 1 10000001 0 10110110 1 00101000. the distinct 1 is for each layer and distinct 0 is other layer. model 2: the certain numbers of nn structures the same of above with this difference that each value of genome is the number of nodes in layer. 1 00001010 1 00000011 1 0000110 1 00000001. for example in above chromosome there are three layers in sequence ten inputs, two and six hidden layer and one output layer. in final step we attached two string as first part is for network weights and second part is relation with structure of network. 4.3. population in initialization steps the population size (ps) of chromosomes assigned by 100. the repeated chromosomes are removed in the initialization phase all chromosomes are different from each other. this work decrease search space at different places randomly which increases the convergence rate. also 100 individual of neural network structure for start add to answer pool and they were optimized by genetic operators. to avoid overpopulation, and the elitism operation after mutation and crossover operators, the percentage of the population will replace the previous population. this action was completed over generations, become more efficient solutions. 4.4. fitness function genetic algorithms for each member of the population in order to assess the need for a standard fitness function is called. selecting this function will play an important role in the design of genetic algorithms. a suitable function can reduce errors and increase the speed of the algorithm convergence. the back propagation training cycles and its maximum value are suitable for fitness function. the evaluating function for an individual is: fitness = bp number / max(bp number) * network error to obtain the maximum number of back propagation by field surveys should be obtained from networks of different sizes. 4.5. crossover guided crossover operator is based on the two point separation from parents are selected left and right parts of them are related to each other by the condition to be meaningful with this new child of his parents is that. but a new generation of the random choice to have reached this stage. the crossover rate is fixed for our algorithm. d. rahbari high performance data mining by genetic neural network 65 figure 4. structural crossover 4.6. mutation change in nn structure is other method that we used to optimization of solution[18]. insertion a hidden layer caused to mutation operator is much natural. as connection with father and mother nodes is easily[20],[21]. weights of node and errors automatically calculated. for each stage of the implementation of the mutation operator in genetic algorithms, neural networks, only one of the nodes in the hidden layer is selected and inserted. these layers are inserted on condition that the definition does not harm the network structure and the action is meaningful. figure 5. insertion and deletion hidden layer in nn as an added layer can adjust the weights and the connection to the parent node of a network layer to be removed. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 4.7. elitism the improved genetic algorithm genetic operators mutation and crossover are performed by members of the population. the new offspring replace with their parents. but the population is evaluated by the fitness function to be part of the crowd prior to being replaced by a new generation of members is better than they were before. papers will be presented in different ways. after a review of our project, we chose the type of the data set. select the best fitness could be useful. 5. simulation and results for the test of algorithm performance designed a simulator by matlab software simulink. first we designed all of the approach that describe on above and then implemented by algorithms in the software. we chose a data set that contains the parameters for the disease is stroke[22][22]. to suitable comparison our results with other works have used of following parameters is in table 1. table 2 . the features for stroke disease number features 1 atrial fibrillation 2 blood cholesterol 3 cardiac failure 4 diabetes 5 dizz 6 double vision 7 giddiness 8 headache 9 hypertensive 10 left arm and leg 11 memory deficits 12 myocardial 13 numbness 14 right arm and leg 15 slurring 16 smoking 17 swallowing 18 vertigo 19 vision 20 vomiting the above information collected for 200 human with stroke disease as input dataset in neural network. we tried to delete error to natural experiments. for obtain the learning parameters we used 10% of dataset records. one of main usage for this parameters is finding of stop time in algorithm. in fact this data are validation set for learning function. so dataset global divided to three parts, first part is training set by 60%, second part is validation set by10% and tertiary part is test set by 30%. test set help us for generalization of unseen samples. the best values for the parameters of both algorithms based on a combination of experiments and the values obtained for the number of data mining and the features are directly compatible with we chose. the parameters of genetic algorithm are mutation rate 0.02, cross over rate 0.40, elitism rate is 0.02 and neural network has 20 nodes in input layer, 5 nodes in hidden layer and 20 nodes in output layer that connect to one node for target value. the target value is result of algorithm. in the structural model of gann, we had to increment number of generations for more learning by ga. feature selection and classification is an important part of learning problems. d. rahbari high performance data mining by genetic neural network 67 there are many features will reduce the efficiency of the algorithm and its complexity. among the methods for selecting the appropriate features, the algorithm is a ga. one of the important parameters for testing methods is accuracy rate on progress generation. in fact accuracy is reverse error in algorithm results. as reader can compare the results of our paper with another works. figure 4 show that accuracy present for training step. we achieve to best answers of 800 generation to after generation. figure 6. training accuracy with prograess generation in the training phase, the neural network weights errors are minimized and network design problem which the objective function to an acceptable level. in test step we have better results because weights of neural network are adjusted by genetic algorithm and back propagation method. of course achievement to accuracy with 83.5% is reason using of good feature with minimum error. figure 7 . test accuracy with prograess generation as figure 5 the number of generation that optimal answers are there equal 600 and after it. to obtain reliable results, our algorithm is about 30 times with different initial populations were studied and the results were declared out. the results obtained with the implementation of the well to prove our claim. for another experience we considered mutation rate in genetic algorithm as descending. this work shows that fixed mutation rate for whole generations is not good selection for that. also we did not achieved to optimal results by fixed rate for mutation operator. we tried to test our new method with change of parameters. the simulation result with fixed and variable mutation rate show in table 2. table 3 . comparision of accuracy based on mutation rate generation 1 100 500 1000 accuracy 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 90.1 mutation rate 0.02 0.01 0.005 0.001 98.9 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 68 whatever the final generation of the genetic algorithm approach to converge to the optimal solutions are needed to reduce the rate of mutation operator. fixed rate of generation of diversity to be the final answer does not converge. this combination of nn, ga is the best result. we conclude that adjusting the nn parameters by ga is a good method. the results of simulation show that our approaches are very effective in solving classification problem. our model reach good result but structured model reaches an excellent result. we obtain this result that structured model similar to genetic programming caused to the algorithm converge to optimal answer with more speed. we obtain the fitness values for selection generation after normalization and reversion. the reversion is because of reduction selection for fitness in first assumption. this results show in table 3. of course this is fitness value and it is not accuracy rate. for accuracy rate have to obtain error rate too. table 4. fitness values in generation prograss generatio n 100 400 600 800 1000 values 0.757 0.788 0.885 0.886 0.886 the another of parameters for algorithm comparison is times of execution. we understand that in training step more time used because of weights non accurate. after training of neural network is when using of network. for test step we obtain better time. figure 6 show that comparison of execution or run times. figure 8 . the comparision of run times that is distinct that dynamic mutation rate or reduction idea for mutation operator is more better of fixed rate. in fact obtain to high accuracy is result of our idea for mutation operator. the number of hidden layer neurone is important problem for nn. the natural selection by ga help finding the number of hidden layer neurone and it progress on duration generations. the structured model of gann finds better answer than nn but with much run time in simulation. the learning of ga is much better than nn with back propagation because bp is a method based on gradient descend and local optimum is a serious risk for that. we hope that the number of training samples is more accurate without error, the new algorithm is better. tests show that the combination of genetic algorithms and neural networks to an acceptable level solves the problem of overfitting. 6. conclusion and discussion extracting knowledge from information requires a lot of data to be resistant to change. choosing the best attributes as an important part of our work is based. the task of genetic d. rahbari high performance data mining by genetic neural network 69 algorithms to select the best features and the best structure for the ann is generational. in this paper genetic algorithm with mutation and crossover operators by two approaches on coding solutions by optimizing the weights and network structure is encoded. this two model are very important in reach best result. the grid of local optimum, plateau and also create a natural selection for problem are power point of our method. we solve overfitting problem in nn with combination of evolutionary algorithms. adjusting algorithm parameters are very vital. the obtain network is very robust versus noisy input data. genetic algorithms we prove that no matter how close we are to the end of generations to converge to the optimal solutions are needed to reduce the rate of mutation operator. this technique will also lead to changes in the network structure, which is considered one of the most important features of our algorithm. the gann method with 98.9% accuracy is more better that other introduced methods in this paper. we suggest the machine learning and soft computing methods for future work. our proposed method can be a model for other problems in data mining. so our approach have high accuracy in prediction stroke disease , also it can be very effective for other data mining problems. references [1] j.han and m.kamber, “data mining: concepts and techniques”, elsevier inc, 2006. [2] l.t. popoola, g. babagana and a.a. susu, “thrombo embolic stroke prediction and diagnosis using artificial neural network and genetic algorithm”, ijrras 14 (3), march 2013. [3] l.ruotsalainen, “data mining tools for technology and competitive intelligence”, espoo 2008. vtt vtt tiedotteita . research notes 2451. 63 p. [4] a.sudha, p.gayathri and n.jaisankar, “effective analysis and predictive model of stroke disease using classification methods”, international journal of computer applications (0975 – 8887) volume 43– no.14, april 2012. [5] b.ricardo , c. prudˆencio and b. ludermir, “neural network hybrid learning:genetic algorithms & levenberg-marquardt”, center of informatics, federal university of pernambuco p.o.box 7851, cidade universitaria, recife-pe, brazil, 50.732-970, 2001. [6] j.zhou and d.i.civc, “using genetic learning neural networks for spatial decision making in gis”, photogrammetric engineering & remote sensing, vol. 62, no. 11, pp. 1287-1295, november 1996. [7] a.fiszelew, p.britos, a.ochoa, h.merlino, e.fernández and r.garcía-martínez, ”finding optimal neural network architecture using genetic algorithms”, advances in computer science and engineering research in computing science 27, , pp. 15-24, 2007. [8] p. piotrowski, j. jarosław and a. napiorkowski, “a comparison of methods to avoid overfitting in neural networks training in the case of catchment runoff modelling”, journal of hydrology 476 (2013)97-111. [9] m.j.er, s.wu, j.lu and h.l.toh, “face recognition with radial basis function (rbf) neural networks”, ieee transactions on neural networks, vol. 13, no. 3, may 2002. [10] p.domingos, “bayesian averaging of classifers and the overftting problem”, department of computer science and engineering, university of washington, seattle, wa 98195, u.s.a., 2000. [11] d.rivero, j.dorado, j.r.rabuñal, a.pazos, and j.pereira, “artificial neural network development by means of genetic programming with graph codification”, world academy of science, engineering and technology 21 2008. [12] c.u.joy, ”comparing the performance of backpropagation algorithm and genetic algorithms in pattern recognition problems”, international journal of computer information systems, vol. 2, no. 5, may 2011. [13] p.l. lópez, a.j. rivera, m.d.pérez-godoy, m.j.deljesus, c.carmona, “emorbfn: an evolutionary multiobjetive optimization algorithm for rbfn design”, department of computer science. university of jaén. jaén (spain), 2009. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 70 [14] l.m. silva, j.marques and l. a. alexandre, “neural network classifcation using shannon's entropy”, supported by the portuguese fct-funda_c~ao para a ci^encia e a tecnologia (project posi/eia/56918/2004). [15] r.anand, v.p.s.kirar and k.burse, “ data pre-processing and neural network algorithms for diagnosis of type ii diabetes: a survey”, international journal of engineering and advanced technology (ijeat) issn: 2249 – 8958, volume-2, issue-1, october 2012. [16] t.b.ludermir, a.yamazaki and c.zanchettin, “an optimization methodology for neural network weights and architectures”, ieee transactions on neural networks, vol. 17, no. 6, november 2006. [17] d.rahbari, s.toosizadeh, “multi-niche crowding in a steady state evolutionary algorithms for dynamic multicast routing”, international research organization of computer science (irocs-ijce) volume(1):issue(1), 2013 published online september 2013 in irocs journals. [18] y. huang, “advances in artificial neural networks – methodological development and application”, algorithms, 2, 973-1007; doi:10.3390/algor2030973, 2009. [19] v.preetha and v.vaithiyanathan, ”combined artificial neural network and genetic algorithm for cloud classification v.preetha pallavi et al. international journal of engineering and technology (ijet)”, vol 5 no 2 apr-may 2013. [20] l.tsinas and b.dachwald, “a combined neural and genetic lerning algorithm”, first ieee conference on evolutionary computation (icec ‘94), orlando, florida, 27-29 june 1994. [21] m. pradhan and r.k. sahu, “ predict the onset of diabetes disease using artificial neural network (ann)”, international journal of computer science & emerging technologies (e-issn: 2044-6004), volume 2, issue 2, april 2011. [22] d.vijayalakshmi and k.thilagavathi, “an approach for prediction of diabetic disease by using b-colouring technique in clustering analysis”, international journal of applied mathematical research, 1 (4) (2012) 520-530. 25 redesigning a flexible material master data application with language dependency mihaela muntean department of business information systems, west university of timisoara, bld. vasile parvan, no. 4, room 144, 300223, timisoara, romania mihaela.muntean@e-uvt.ro cornelia muntean department of business information systems, west university of timisoara, bld. vasile parvan, no. 4, room 144, 300223, timisoara, romania cornelia.muntean@e-uvt.ro abstract based on some inconveniences identified within a material master data application of the sap mm module, the current paper proposes an alternative technical solution for designing the popup layout screen of the material master data application with respect to language dependency. the application should present the text of all tabs, areas and fields in the desired language based on the user logon preferences. also it has been implemented a possibility to sort the data in the desired order, so the customer isn’t forced, as before, to search for a certain field, when updating certain materials. the proposed solution suggests the use of five database tables, combined within three maintenance views, which build a view cluster. the advantage of the redesigned application consists of easier maintainability of the data (fields, areas and tabs can be easily added, deleted, reordered and renamed) and all the data within the view cluster can be translated into any language supported by the system. keywords: material master data application, language dependency, maintenance view, view cluster 1. introduction in the sap mm module, material master data refers to all the material master records that are stored in the system. the material master record is used by different departments of an organization, and each department requires different information about the material (johnson, 2013). the material master isn’t just a single file but a number of tables of information that combined reflect all of the information for that material. the material master transaction is structured so that there are entry screens for different functional information such as purchasing, sales, or accounting, but there is also an organizational dimension to data entry. the material information can be entered at each level of the organization, for example, at the levels of plant, storage location, or sales organization. sap systems are multilingual, maintenance in multiple languages being possible (ashfaque, 2014). the syntagma language dependency refers to the fact that all text-elements in the user interface depend on the logon language. the logon language has to be automatically used for the description of all menus, pop-ups, tabs, areas, fields etc. thus, global customizing and configuration texts, that must be available throughout the enterprise in all countries in a local language, must be translated. because most of the customizing is customer specific, almost all international customers need to translate this kind of data. master data is an important area which requires translation. the most important group in this category is material and product data. because a global enterprise offers identical products in many countries, the product descriptions must be translated into all the languages of these countries. the sap master data governance framework provides tools to ensure consistent master data along end-to-end business processes, including language management (jacob, 2012). most objects in the user interface are language-dependent, and the system uses resources tables/files to contain brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 the translations. the language dependency of the material master data was modeled in a single database table, solution that needed to be reconsidered in order to gain flexibility. our demarche consists of a technical solution to improve sap material master data language dependency, solution that nowadays is subject of the final testing to become operational within the sap mm module. 2. implementation of the sap material master data application with language dependency 2.1. previous implementation. drawbacks. the material master data application provides an update popup layout, including tabs, areas and fields (also customer-specific fields). each tab consists of one or more areas and each area of one or more fields, similar to the example below (figure 1). the application is called flexible because the user must have the possibility to add, delete, reorder or rename tabs, areas and fields. figure 1. popup layout for the material master data application the correct update of the fields has to be ensured. for each field the user can choose between initializing it, updating it to a certain value or ignore it (by leaving it blank). the layout should remain consistent throughout different languages, supporting the logon language of the user. the text of all tabs, areas and fields should be translated into the chosen language. however, it has to be possible to maintain the labels in different languages (ong, 2014). in the previous implementation there has been used a single database table which did not provide a consistent overview of existing tabs, areas and fields, as well as of the languages, in which a specific field of an area or tab was translated. so, it was difficult to maintain this database table by the customizing end-users in different languages, because every update of a tab, area or field m. muntean, c. muntean redesigning a flexible material master data application with language dependency 27 required a number of actions in this table which had to be done manually and very carefully, requiring much time and attention. the number of rows of this table was very large and the content looked like the one shown in figure 2. figure 2. content of the single database table in the previous implementation every field in figure 1 is specified by the combination of the table name and field name (the first two columns, in figure 2). if, for example, we wanted to add a certain field in the previous database table, we had to carefully add lines in this table for every language, in order not to have typos, case in which the field was not displayed in the corresponding tab or area. therefore, in order to avoid this, in the new implementation we want to keep track separately of tabs, areas and fields. then, if we want to insert a new tab, this should be maintained in the tab page. in order to enter a new area, this area should be entered in the area page, corresponding to a certain tab. in order to add a specific field, this has to be added to a certain area, which corresponds to a certain tab. 2.2. proposed solution based on cluster view the proposed solution suggests the use of five database tables instead of the single table in figure 2. the five tables, named tab, tabt, area, aret and fld, are combined within three views (tabv, arev and fldv) which build a cluster view, tafc (figure 3). figure 3. the logical data model of tables and views brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 the description of the objects in the figure above is specified in table 1: table 1. description of the objects used in the logical data model object name description dictionary objects database tables  tab tabs for popup  tabt translation of tabs  area areas for popup tabs  aret translation for areas  fld fields for areas of popup maintenance views  tabv view of tabs and corresponding translations  arev view of area for tabs and corresponding translations  fldv view of fields for popup view cluster  tafc table-area-field-cluster all database tables have the delivery class c (customizing table), and display/maintenance is allowed. as for the technical settings, appl0 (master data, transparent tables) with the size category 0 has been chosen. the enhancement category for these database tables is: can be enhanced (character-type or numeric). the structure of the tables, primary keys and foreign keys are shown in figure 4: figure 4. table structure and relationships the names of the fields in the database tables are relevant for their content. only the spras field in the translation-tables tabt and aret must be explained: spras is a system-field which stands for the language and is used in order to maintain the languages in which the tab/area is translated into. m. muntean, c. muntean redesigning a flexible material master data application with language dependency 29 we note that the main database tables (tab, area and fld) have a field called tab_order, area_order or field_order, so the customer may arrange the tabs, areas and fields in the desired order. the translation tables (tabt for the tabs and aret for the areas) contain beside the data also a language field and a translation field for the corresponding language, which has a different data element assigned, in order to also display lower case characters. beside the tabs and the areas, the database table fld also contains the fields tablename and field, which suggest the related parameters, whom input may be updated at runtime. through standard sap functionality the tables in basis, respectively their fields are by default translated in the login language of the user. so in the fields tablename and field of the fld table, we will obtain, in the user login language, the names of the tables and fields from basis via the foreign keys to the table dd03l for tablename and to the table dd02l for field. beside the database tables, 3 maintenance views have been created, tabv, arev and fldv, for the tabs, areas and fields of the popup (figure 5). we have chosen maintenance views instead of database views to be able to use them in the view cluster. figure 5. maintenance views for all these tables and views, table maintenance generators have been created and activated, in order to have the possibility to manage individual datasets in every table and view. the corresponding names of those function groups for the table maintenance generators are the same names as those for the views. the purpose of these maintenance views is only to take care of the input data more efficiently. these views will be used later in the view cluster, which ensures a hierarchical order of the data. therefore, the maintenance views will also include the predecessor, in order to facilitate linking in the field dependency tab of the view cluster (swapna, 2007). these three maintenance views are embedded in the following view cluster (figure 6): view cluster tafc object structure view/table short text predecessor dependency position tabv tabs tabv r (root) 1 arev areas tabv s (dependent on higher-level entry) 2 fldv fields arev s (dependent on higher-level entry) 3 figure 6. view cluster tafc field dependency has been generated automatically and as a result the following desired structure has been achieved (figure 7): brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 figure 7. dialog structure of the view cluster after populating the database tables with data in different languages with the help of the view cluster, the popup has been adapted in order to support the translation of the tabs and areas. supplementary internal tables have been defined in the function module popup_flex, in order to copy data from the translation tables. the corresponding select statements have been embedded in try-catch blocks, in order to prevent short dumps due to faulty selection processes. similar to the previous implementation, the data regarding the tabs, areas and fields have been read in loops, corrected with avoiding select statements within these loops. in case of embedding select statements within loops, this would affect the performance of the application, and would not be recommended by any programmer. therefore, the select statements are situated right after the data declaration section and all data is selected from the database tables into internal tables. we can work further only using the internal tables at runtime, and avoid accessing the database within the loop statements every time we pass through that loop. after selecting all the data we need for the loops and having all the necessary tabs, areas and fields in our internal tables, the corresponding translations have been accessed with the read table instruction separately, using the with key addition, so in case that one translation is missing, the name of the tab or area will be displayed instead. in the initialization event, the title bar and the gui status (execute and cancel buttons) have been adapted, in order to support language dependency. the shared memory area classes have been adapted, similar to the previous implementation. also, the text message classes remain the same. based on a new data organization and implying the introduction of three views and a view cluster the so-called language dependency has been improved. the redesigned application offers an easier maintainability of the data (fields, areas and tabs can be easily added, deleted, reordered and renamed) and all the data within the view cluster can be translated into any language supported by the system. 3. advantages of the proposed solution the proposed solution is a technical solution designed for the sap mm module in order to improve language dependency according to the user logon language. the solution is recommended to be implemented in the sap systems, the following benefits being ensured: 1. consistent overview of existing tabs, areas and fields, as well as of the languages, in which a specific field of an area or tab is translated in the previous implementation, without having a unique name or code for a certain tab, but only the corresponding translations for different languages, there was no possibility to obtain (by sorting or filtering), the languages a certain tab was translated into. now, having a unique tab name, which is not dependent on any translation, we can view all existent translations with the help of the tab and tab_translation fields of the tabt table. similar, having a unique area name, which is not dependent on any translation, we can view all existent translations with the help of the area and area_translation fields of the aret table. m. muntean, c. muntean redesigning a flexible material master data application with language dependency 31 2. no previous translation search is necessary in order to add a field in the previous implementation, we had to search for a translation, if we wanted to add a certain field of a specific area or tab. in case of not searching or finding the correct translation, just by adding directly a line, without verifying the correct predecessors, there was the possibility to add a new, but not identical translation. the newly added field could easily be interpreted as belonging to a new area or tab. in the new implementation, using the view cluster, this can be avoided, by selecting a certain tab, which is now uniquely defined (not by the translation, but by the tab name, i.e. the tab field in tab table) and then by selecting the desired area, for adding a new field in the popup screen. 3. easier maintainability of translations as described earlier, the previous solution didn’t provide any overview of the existing languages, in which the application was translated. one had to manually check the entries of the database table in order to add new data. using the view cluster solution, it’s easy to select all tabs or only certain tabs, all or only certain areas, and translate them in one or more desired languages, using the goto -> translation option, provided by the main menu of the view cluster. for example, we select in the view cluster the tab called “forecasting” and then choose goto -> translation (figure 8). after selecting goto -> translation, we obtain a selecting window for the desired languages where the user can check one or more languages to translate those tabs or areas into. figure 8. goto -> translation option after checking a few (or all!) languages for instance and pressing the ok button , we obtain the windows shown in figure 9a, or respectively 9b for all languages. here we can add one or more missing translations, or modify one or more of the existing translations accordingly. all the data within the view cluster can be translated into any language supported by the system. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 figure 9a. translation of a tab for certain languages figure 9b. translation of a tab for all languages 4. possibility to sort tabs, areas and fields based on an order number in the previous implementation, there was no order defined for the tabs, areas and fields and therefore in the popup screen, the tabs, areas and fields appeared in the sequential order, as they were processed in the sql select command of the database table. in the new implementation, in the tab table is a tab_order field, in the area table is an area_order field and in the fld table is a field_order field, where the user can define the desired order for the corresponding item. 5. avoiding human error regarding missing translations in the previous solution, all data was selected into an internal table at runtime, depending on the user login language. if no data was found in the login language of the user, the default language was set to english. further, the tabs and areas have been chosen from the internal table using the select distinct command. this approach lacks the ability to display an area, which has not been translated. besides, there hasn’t been implemented a solution in case of a void result of the select statement. the new implementation corrects this behavior by using the try-catch blocks. if the result of a selection is void, the block catches the error and raises an exception inside the function module. at runtime, the new implementation provides the selection of the fields from the fld database table. within the select statement has been used the order by clause. for the next m. muntean, c. muntean redesigning a flexible material master data application with language dependency 33 try-catch block, the select statement has been adapted with the for all entries in clause, in order to select data, which has a correspondent in the internal table of the fields. this clause is open sql specific and is often used in abap programs (hardy, 2015). the only disadvantage of using this clause will be the fact that we can no longer use the order by clause. the solution for this matter is easy to solve by using an abap sort command after the trycatch block. after the selection of the tabs and areas, the corresponding translation is selected into other internal tables at runtime. 4. conclusions material masterdata is an important area, and therefore the corresponding translations play a key role. the most important group in this category is the material and product data maintenance. because a global enterprise offers identical products in many countries, the product description fields must be translated into all the languages of these countries. in this paper we present a way to modify the underlying schema of the original sap material master data application in order to facilitate the management of tabs, areas and fields contained in the popup layout, for different languages. the previous implementation of the language dependency was based on a single database table that couldn't provide a consistent overview of the existing tabs, areas and fields. further, there was no possibility to select the appearances of a specific field in all translations. improvements have been required in order to increase the flexibility of the function module. our proposal is based on a cluster view implementation described in detail in paragraph 2.2. the benefits of this approach are evident in terms of consistency and ease of maintenance. disadvantages like updating manually the database table for inserting, deleting or renaming tabs, areas and/or fields, no possibility to change the sequential order for tabs, areas and fields in the popup screen, or no possibility to view all translations for a certain tab or area, have been eliminated. furthermore, during the testing phase, the following advantages have been validated: 1 consistent overview of data; 2no preliminary preparation is necessary for adding data; 3easier maintainability of translations; 4possibility to sort data based on user choice; 5bypassing human negligence. the proposed solution is dedicated for sap systems, concrete technical aspects of the sap mm module being taken into consideration. however, the approach framework can be applied to similar demarches of other software applications. references johnson, m. (2013). sap material master: a practical guide, expresso tutorials gmbh ashfaque, a. (2014). the sap material management handbook, crc press taylor & francis group, llc jacob, r. (2012). language installation on sap systems steps by steps. retrieved from http://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver-administrator/blog/2012/12/10/installation-oflanguages-on-sap-systems ong, o. (2014). sap language handling and language installation procedure, retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/15795712/sap_language_handling_and_language_installation_ procedure hardy, p. (2015). abap to the future, rheinwerk publishing boston swapna, t.n. (2007). creating a view cluster, retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/ 15795712/sap_language_handling_and_language_installation_procedure brain_3_3_ok 18 data conflict resolution among same entities in web of data mojgan askarizade university of isfahan, isfahan, iran mojgan.askarizade@gmail.com mohammad ali nematbakhsh university of isfahan, isfahan, iran nematbakhsh@eng.ui.ac.ir enseih davoodi jam university of isfahan, iran nc_davodi.softcom@eng.ui.ac.ir abstract with the growing amount of published rdf datasets on similar domains, data conflict between similar entities (same-as) is becoming a common problem for web of data applications. in this paper we propose an algorithm to detect conflict of same properties values of similar entities and select the most accurate value. the proposed algorithm contains two major steps. the first step filters out low ranked datasets using a link analysis technique. the second step calculates and evaluates the focus level of a dataset in a specific domain. finally, the value of the top ranked dataset is considered. the proposed algorithm is implemented by java platform and is evaluated by geographical datasets containing "country" entities. keywords: semantic web, linked data, data conflict, ranking, same entities 1. introduction because of growing amount of data on the web of data, number of the structured datasets has increased significantly in recent years. since semantic web allows machine to process data and retrieve data automatically, availability of high accurate structured data is required. different datasets are provided by different organization may offer the same contents. for example, wordfactbook and eurostat datasets overlap deeply, as they both describe country. according to principle of linked data, entities are identified by uri [1]. the same realword entity can be represented by different uris correspond to each other with owl:sameas links. multiple datasets may provide different values for the same property of an entity [3]. for example datasets such as: dbpedia, geonames, and wordfactbook publish different information about population of united kingdom that are mentioned below: table 1. united kingdom different data sets dbpedia worldfactbook geonames 58789194 62348447 60776238 however, these data inconsistencies are not acceptable in the cases where quality data is needed, for example in the case of a commercial applications. generally three different strategies are suggested to deal with such data inconsistency [6]: • conflict ignoring: because data correction is vital in most circumstances, ignorance of data inconsistency is not acceptable in these cases. • conflict avoiding: the second strategy handle conflicting data by conflict avoidance. with respect to large dimensions of web of data, this strategy is impossible. m. askarizade, m. ali nematbakhsh, e. davoodi jam data conflict resolution among same entities in web of data 19 • conflict resolving: this strategy detects same entities and resolves data conflict between their values. this is the most practical strategy to deal with data inconsistency. we deal with the inconsistency by resolving data conflict, for this reason, two main approaches are describing here: • selection from available data: in this approach a value is selected from inconsistent values. for example, if the population of london is one of the different values (x, y, z), one of them must be chosen as the population of london. • a new value generation: using this approach a new value is generated using available values. for example, if the population of london is one of the different values (x, y, z), the result can be the average value of (x, y, z). our algorithm resolve data conflict by assigning new value to inconsistent data. in this paper an algorithm is proposed to detect inconsistency among the same properties' values of sameas entities in order to choose the most accurate data as output of algorithm. the proposed algorithm is divided into two steps. in the first step datasets are ranked by performing link analysis, then some of them are removed from list of datasets according to their ranks. in the second step the specialty of datasets are computed based on tow metrics: ontology and size of dataset. this paper has been shown that data of the dataset is more special are more accurate. at the end of the ranking the properties' values of top ranked dataset are considered as output. the proposed algorithm is implemented using java platform and evaluated on geographical datasets that contain "country" entity. this paper is organized as follows: in section 2, the related works are presented. the proposed algorithm is described in section 3. the evaluation of proposed algorithm is presented in section 4.finally conclusion and the outlook on future works are presented in section 5. 2. related work due to novelty of web of data, here are a few researches which have been done to resolve data conflicts in web of data. one of the noticeable researches suggested by bizer et al proposes a framework aimed for resolving the inconsistency of data [9]. the main idea of their proposed framework is based on extracting data from different wikipedia language version and comparing these data with each other to identify the most appropriate language version. for example, despite of better quality of english version as a whole, the population of germany (as an example of required data) could be indicated more up-to-date in german version than italian, french or even english version. they provide several strategies to recognize the correct wikipedia version to choose from. to do this first, data of wikipedia are converted to rdf format (by dbpedia project ) and then they are published in web of data. because all datasets use dbpedia ontology, no adaptation is required so dbpedia ontology is used. therefore, it's enough to indicate the classes referring to a single entity, using a uri. in other steps, different heuristics are utilized to resolve the inconsistency of data retrieved from different resources. the main purpose of this research is to support the hypothesis that retrieving data from different language versions instead of a single one and combining them to obtain higher quality and more complete data. in this way, the french, italian, german and english versions of wikipedia were utilized. 3. the proposed algorithm this paper provides an algorithm to resolve data conflicts among properties' values of same entities in different datasets. the algorithm works on domain-specific datasets published on a single domain as input and tries to select appropriate values. figure 1 shows the overflow of algorithm in simple. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 3.1. the first step of algorithm in the first step datasets are published on a single domain are selected then they are ranked by performing link analysis. after finishing this step the low ranked datasets are removed from list of datasets. the page rank algorithm is used to rank datasets [14]. figure 1. general workflow of algorithm the page rank algorithm which is widely used in most search engines such as google could be easily used to rank linked data. by starting from a point and random surfing, this algorithm evaluates the probability of finding any given page. the algorithm assumes a link between a page i to a page j demonstrates the importance of page j. in addition, the importance of page j is associated to the importance of page i itself and inversely proportional to the number of pages i point to. to adapt this algorithm to web of data, any page considered as a dataset and links between pages considered as links between datasets. according to page rank algorithm, the rank of dataset j in k level is equals to: ( ) ( ) ( )( ) ∑ ∈ − = jbi k k il ir jr 1 (1) let })(arg,|)({)( jlettlllsourcejb =∈∀= be the set of datasets point to j and l(i) = {target(l) | ll ∈∀ } be the set of datasets linked by a dataset i. the operation is repeated until the algorithm reach to a specific threshold. 3.2. the second step of algorithm there are several datasets have been published on a specific domain. some datasets are general so they cover various domains. on the other hand, some datasets cover only specified domain. for example dbpedia is a general dataset covering different entities such as: persons, places, music albums, films etc. while lmdb is a specialized domain-specific dataset on film domain. the idea behind the algorithm is that the domain specific datasets have more accurate data than general datasets. for evaluation of specialty degree of a dataset tow criteria is considered: ontology and size of dataset. 3.2.1. ontology ontology of a dataset should be evaluated to assess the semantic of dataset. as before mentioned, all selected datasets are published on a single domain such as people, place, film, book etc. at first one of the entities that defined in every selected datasets is chosen. then the words that the linking open data cloud inter-linked datasets on a single domain link analysis ontology checking size checking selection m. askarizade, m. ali nematbakhsh, e. davoodi jam data conflict resolution among same entities in web of data 21 are semantically similar to chosen entity are extracted. this process is done by wordnet. the result is a list of synonym words. these words should be compared with synonyms list to calculate the counts of words are included in synonyms list. the specialty of ontology can be computed by using following fraction. te se (2) in this fraction |se| is the number of entities that is included in synonym words and |te| is the total number of entities. 3.2.2. size another criterion is size of dataset. it's possible that a dataset be specialized but be small. it is assumed that the dataset is larger is more important and more reliable. so size of the dataset must be considered that is shown in fraction 2. tt st (3) in above fraction |st| is the number of entities' instances that match with words of synonyms list and |tt| is the number of instances of total entities. finally combining two fractions 1 and 2 final score can be computed. || || *2.0 || || *8.0 tt st te se score += (4) 4. evaluation and implementation the proposed algorithm has been implemented using java platform and evaluated via geographical domain datasets. five major datasets of geographical domain (dbpedia, geonames, wordfactbook, eurostat, geolinked data ) are used as the input datasets of the proposed algorithm and the output is values of the most accurate data selected from these five datasets. in order to evaluate the proposed algorithm, 35 countries are selected and one property of country entity named population is examined. in first step, datasets ranks are computed by page rank algorithm according link analysis. result is shown in figure 2. 0.81 0.39 0.001 0.04 0.001 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 figure 2. ranking datasets by page rank as depicted in figure 2 dbpedia is the top ranked data set while geolinked data and eurostat are the low ranked data sets. in this stage the data sets whose rank scores are less than half of the rank scores belonging to the top ranked data set are removed from the assessment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 for gathering data we track the links between the remaining two data sets; dbpedia and geonames. the population of the countries is considered as an attribute for evaluation. different vocabularies are used in the web of data. in dbpedia dbpprop:populationcensus and in geonames gn:population is representative of the population attribute. data sets are evaluated based on their ontology and their size. since the domain that we focused on is geographical data, we chose "country" as the input of wordnet dictionary. synonyms of "country" are extracted as the output of wordnet. some of them are land, state, city, fatherland, nation etc. which were named the synonyms list. in the next step, we extract all entities from the data sets. for example the following sparql extracts all entities from dbpedia: prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> select distinct ?s where {?s rdf:type owl:class} finally we count the entities that contain any words in the synonyms list. the result of first the fraction in equation 4 is shown in figure 3. figure 3. result of first fraction in the last stage the size of the data set is examined. the number of instances of specialized entities and total entities are calculated. for example "london" is an instance of a specialized entity. in table 2 one of the properties of "london" is displayed in form of a triple. as is shown, the object of the triple is dbpedia-owl:place that contains "place" as a member of the specialized entity. and 'a trip to the moon' is an instance of non-specialized entity because neither the subject nor the object is in the specialized entities list. after calculating the number of specialized instances and total instances the result of the second fraction of equation 4 is shown in figure 4. figure 4. result of second fraction finally, the last score with regard to the equation 4 has been calculated and is shown in figure 5. as it shows geonames gains the highest score. considering the proposed idea, geonames' data is the most accurate. so when we are faced with data conflicts, geonames' data must be chosen. the wordfactbook is also illustrated in the above table. we can see if wordfactbook is not removed from the synonyms list it would have more accurate data compared with dbpedia data. m. askarizade, m. ali nematbakhsh, e. davoodi jam data conflict resolution among same entities in web of data 23 figure 5. final ranking in order to evaluate our algorithm we found real data on the population reference bureau . the population reference bureau informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations. 33 countries were selected for evaluation. the results of our algorithm that are the most accurate values of populations are compared with the data found on the population reference bureau. the numbers of the most accurate data are found on three data sets: wordfactbook, geonames, dbpedia are shown in following table. table 2. the number of most accurate data dbpedia geonames wordfactbook 4 22 7 as we know wordfactbook and geonames are domain-specific data sets on the geographic domain while, dbpedia is a general data set. the results indicate specialized data sets have more accurate data compared with general data sets. the accuracy of the final data set compared with the real data is 67%. 5. conclusion and future works this article proposes an algorithm to resolve data conflicts among property values of similar entities in the web of data. the proposed algorithm contains three steps. in the first step, the input data sets published on a single domain are ranked by performing link analysis. in the second step, the recognition of same entities is performed by tracking the sameas links and vocabulary matching is done manually. in the last stage, the specialty of data sets is computed based on two criteria: ontology and the size of the data set. the proposed algorithm has been evaluated using geographic data sets that contain the "country" entity. results were compared with real data obtained from the population reference bureau. the data obtained by the proposed algorithm had a 67% matching degree with real data. future work in relation to this article will focus on: • using different domains to evaluate the accuracy of the algorithm. • using pagerank algorithm applied on internal entities and intra-links of a data set in order to rank entities. references [1] t. heath and c. bizer, "consuming linked data," in linked data: evolving the web into a global data space, 1st edition. synthesis lectures on the semantic web: theory and technology, 2011. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 [2] c. bizer, "quality-driven information filtering in the context of web-based information systems," phd thesis, freie universität berlin, 2007. [3] c. bizer, t. heath, and t. berners-lee, "linked data the story so far," journal on semantic web and information systems, special issue on linked data, 2009. [4] f. naumann, a. bilke, j. bleiholder, and m. weis, "data fusion in three steps: resolving schema, tuple, and value inconsistencies," presented at ieee data eng. bull, 2006, pp.2131. [5] x.l. dong, and f. naumann, "data fusion resolving data conflicts for integration," journal proceedings of the vldb endowment, 2009, pp.1654-1655. [6] j. bleiholder and f. naumann, "data fusion", presented at acm comput. surv., 2008. [7] a. nikolov, v.s. uren, e. motta, and a.n.d. roeck, "integration of semantically annotated data by the knofuss architecture," in 16th international conference on knowledge engineering and knowledge management, 2008, pp.265-274. [8] o. hartig and j. zhao, "using web data provenance for quality assessment," in proc. swpm, 2009. [9] e. tacchini, a. schultz, and c. bizer, "experiments with wikipedia cross-language data fusion," proceedings of the 5th workshop on scripting and development for the semantic web, 2009. [10] a. bilke, j. bleiholder, c. böhm, k. draba, f. naumann, and m. weis, "automatic data fusion with hummer", in proceedings of the international conference on very large databases (vldb), 2005, pp.1251-1254. [11] p. buitelaar, and t. eigner, "evaluating ontology search", in proceedings of the 5th international workshop on evaluation of ontologies and ontology-based tools (eon2007), 2007. [12] j. bleiholder and f. naumann, "declarative data fusion syntax, semantics, and implementation," in proc. databases and information systems (adbis), 2005, pp.58-73. [13] w. xing and a.a. ghorbani, "weighted pagerank algorithm", in proc. cnsr, 2004, pp.305314. [14] l. page, s. brin, r. motwani, and t. winograd," the pagerank citation ranking: bringing order to the web ", technical report 1999-66, stanford infolab (1999) . [15] r. delbru, n. toupikov, m. catasta, g. tummarello, and s. decker, "hierarchical link analysis for ranking web data", in proc. eswc (2), 2010, pp.225-239. [16] n. toupikov, j. umbrich, r. delbru, m. hausenblas, and g. tummarello, " ding! dataset ranking using formal descriptions", in: www 2009 workshop: linked data on the web ldow2009 madrid, spain: (2009) . [17] t. berners-lee. linked data. [online]. available: http://www.w3.org/designissues/linkeddata.html. (2011,october) [18] c. bizer, r. cyganiak, t. heath. how to publish linked data on the web. [online]. available: http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/pub/linkeddatatutorial.(2011 october) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, october 2010, special issue on advances in applied sciences, eds barna iantovics, marius mǎruşteri, rodica-m. ion, roumen kountchev an introduction to dsmt in information fusion jean dezert and florentin smarandache abstract. the management and combination of uncertain, imprecise, fuzzy and even paradoxical or highly conflicting sources of information has always been, and still remains today, of primal importance for the development of reliable modern information systems involving artificial reasoning. in this introduction, we present a survey of our recent theory of plausible and paradoxical reasoning, known as dezert-smarandache theory (dsmt), developed for dealing with imprecise, uncertain and conflicting sources of information. we focus our presentation on the foundations of dsmt and on its most important rules of combination, rather than on browsing specific applications of dsmt available in literature. several simple examples are given throughout this presentation to show the efficiency and the generality of this new theory. keywords: dezert-smarandache theory, dsmt, quantitative and qualitative reasoning, information fusion 2000 mathematics subject classification: 68t37, 94a15, 94a17, 68t40. 1 1this paper is based on the first chapter of [35]. 1 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt 1 introduction the management and combination of uncertain, imprecise, fuzzy and even paradoxical or highly conflicting sources of information has always been, and still remains today, of primal importance for the development of reliable modern information systems involving artificial reasoning. the combination (fusion) of information arises in many fields of applications nowadays (especially in defense, medicine, finance, geo-science, economy, etc). when several sensors, observers or experts have to be combined together to solve a problem, or if one wants to update our current estimation of solutions for a given problem with some new information available, we need powerful and solid mathematical tools for the fusion, specially when the information one has to deal with is imprecise and uncertain. in this chapter, we present a survey of our recent theory of plausible and paradoxical reasoning, known as dezert-smarandache theory (dsmt) in the literature, developed for dealing with imprecise, uncertain and conflicting sources of information. recent publications have shown the interest and the ability of dsmt to solve problems where other approaches fail, especially when conflict between sources becomes high. we focus this presentation rather on the foundations of dsmt, and on the main important rules of combination, than on browsing specific applications of dsmt available in literature. successful applications of dsmt in target tracking, satellite surveillance, situation analysis, robotics, medicine, biometrics, etc, can be found in parts ii of [29, 33, 35] and on the world wide web [36]. several simple examples are given in this paper to show the efficiency and the generality of dsmt 2 foundations of dsmt the development of dsmt (dezert-smarandache theory of plausible and paradoxical reasoning [29, 6]) arises from the necessity to overcome the inherent limitations of dst (dempster-shafer theory [22]) which are closely related with the acceptance of shafer’s model for the fusion problem under consideration (i.e. the frame of discernment θ is implicitly defined as a finite set of exhaustive and exclusive hypotheses θi, i = 1, . . . , n since the masses of belief are defined only on the power set of θ see section 2.1 for details), the third middle excluded principle (i.e. the existence of the complement for any elements/propositions belonging to the power set of θ), and the acceptance of dempster’s rule of combination (involving normalization) as the framework for 2 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt the combination of independent sources of evidence. discussions on limitations of dst and presentation of some alternative rules to dempster’s rule of combination can be found in [53, 54, 55, 49, 56, 9, 50, 19, 38, 46, 13, 17, 15, 21, 16, 29] and therefore they will be not reported in details in this introduction. we argue that these three fundamental conditions of dst can be removed and another new mathematical approach for combination of evidence is possible. this is the purpose of dsmt. the basis of dsmt is the refutation of the principle of the third excluded middle and shafer’s model, since for a wide class of fusion problems the intrinsic nature of hypotheses can be only vague and imprecise in such a way that precise refinement is just impossible to obtain in reality so that the exclusive elements θi cannot be properly identified and precisely separated. many problems involving fuzzy continuous and relative concepts described in natural language and having no absolute interpretation like tallness/smallness, pleasure/pain, cold/hot, sorites paradoxes, etc, enter in this category. dsmt starts with the notion of free dsm model, denoted mf (θ), and considers θ only as a frame of exhaustive elements θi, i = 1, . . . , n which can potentially overlap. this model is free because no other assumption is done on the hypotheses, but the weak exhaustivity constraint which can always be satisfied according the closure principle explained in [29]. no other constraint is involved in the free dsm model. when the free dsm model holds, the commutative and associative classical dsm rule of combination, denoted dsmc, corresponding to the conjunctive consensus defined on the free dedekind’s lattice is performed. depending on the intrinsic nature of the elements of the fusion problem under consideration, it can however happen that the free model does not fit the reality because some subsets of θ can contain elements known to be truly exclusive but also truly non existing at all at a given time (specially when working on dynamic fusion problem where the frame θ varies with time with the revision of the knowledge available). these integrity constraints are then explicitly and formally introduced into the free dsm model mf (θ) in order to adapt it properly to fit as close as possible with the reality and permit to construct a hybrid dsm model m(θ) on which the combination will be efficiently performed. shafer’s model, denoted m0(θ), corresponds to a very specific hybrid dsm model including all possible exclusivity constraints. dst has been developed for working only with m0(θ) while dsmt has been de3 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt veloped for working with any kind of hybrid model (including shafer’s model and the free dsm model), to manage as efficiently and precisely as possible imprecise, uncertain and potentially highly conflicting sources of evidence while keeping in mind the possible dynamicity of the information fusion problematic. the foundations of dsmt are therefore totally different from those of all existing approaches managing uncertainties, imprecisions and conflicts. dsmt provides a new interesting way to attack the information fusion problematic with a general framework in order to cover a wide variety of problems. dsmt refutes also the idea that sources of evidence provide their beliefs with the same absolute interpretation of elements of the same frame θ and the conflict between sources arises not only because of the possible unreliability of sources, but also because of possible different and relative interpretation of θ, e.g. what is considered as good for somebody can be considered as bad for somebody else. there is some unavoidable subjectivity in the belief assignments provided by the sources of evidence, otherwise it would mean that all bodies of evidence have a same objective and universal interpretation (or measure) of the phenomena under consideration, which unfortunately rarely occurs in reality, but when basic belief assignments (bba’s) are based on some objective probabilities transformations. but in this last case, probability theory can handle properly and efficiently the information, and dst, as well as dsmt, becomes useless. if we now get out of the probabilistic background argumentation for the construction of bba, we claim that in most of cases, the sources of evidence provide their beliefs about elements of the frame of the fusion problem only based on their own limited knowledge and experience without reference to the (inaccessible) absolute truth of the space of possibilities. 2.1 the power set, hyper-power set and super-power set in dsmt, we take very care about the model associated with the set θ of hypotheses where the solution of the problem is assumed to belong to. in particular, the three main sets (power set, hyper-power set and super-power set) can be used depending on their ability to fit adequately with the nature of hypotheses. in the following, we assume that θ = {θ1, . . . , θn} is a finite 4 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt set (called frame) of n exhaustive elements2. if θ = {θ1, . . . , θn} is a priori not closed (θ is said to be an open world/frame), one can always include in it a closure element, say θn+1 in such away that we can work with a new closed world/frame {θ1, . . . , θn, θn+1}. so without loss of generality, we will always assume that we work in a closed world by considering the frame θ as a finite set of exhaustive elements. before introducing the power set, the hyper-power set and the super-power set it is necessary to recall that subsets are regarded as propositions in dempster-shafer theory (see chapter 2 of [22]) and we adopt the same approach in dsmt. • subsets as propositions: glenn shafer in pages 35–37 of [22] considers the subsets as propositions in the case we are concerned with the true value of some quantity θ taking its possible values in θ. then the propositions pθ(a) of interest are those of the form3: pθ(a) , the true value of θ is in a subset a of θ. any proposition pθ(a) is thus in one-to-one correspondence with the subset a of θ. such correspondence is very useful since it translates the logical notions of conjunction ∧, disjunction ∨, implication ⇒ and negation ¬ into the set-theoretic notions of intersection ∩, union ∪, inclusion ⊂ and complementation c(.). indeed, if pθ(a) and pθ(b) are two propositions corresponding to subsets a and b of θ, then the conjunction pθ(a)∧pθ(b) corresponds to the intersection a∩b and the disjunction pθ(a) ∨ pθ(b) corresponds to the union a ∪ b. a is a subset of b if and only if pθ(a) ⇒ pθ(b) and a is the set-theoretic complement of b with respect to θ (written a = cθ(b)) if and only if pθ(a) = ¬pθ(b). in other words, the following equivalences are then used between the operations on the subsets and on the propositions: • canonical form of a proposition: in dsmt we consider all propositions/sets in a canonical form. we take the disjunctive normal form, which is a disjunction of conjunctions, and it is unique in boolean algebra and simplest. for example, x = a ∩ b ∩ (a ∪ b ∪ c) it is not in 2we do not assume here that elements θi are necessary exclusive, unless specified. there is no restriction on θi but the exhaustivity. 3we use the symbol , to mean equals by definition; the right-hand side of the equation is the definition of the left-hand side. 5 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt operations subsets propositions intersection/conjunction a ∩ b pθ(a) ∧ pθ(b) union/disjunction a ∪ b pθ(a) ∨ pθ(b) inclusion/implication a ⊂ b pθ(a) ⇒ pθ(b) complementation/negation a = cθ(b) pθ(a) = ¬pθ(b) table 1: correspondence between operations on subsets and on propositions. a canonical form, but we simplify the formula and x = a ∩ b is in a canonical form. • the power set: 2θ , (θ, ∪) aside dempster’s rule of combination, the power set is one of the corner stones of dempster-shafer theory (dst) since the basic belief assignments to combine are defined on the power set of the frame θ. in mathematics, given a set θ, the power set of θ, written 2θ, is the set of all subsets of θ. in zermelofraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice (zfc), the existence of the power set of any set is postulated by the axiom of power set. in other words, θ generates the power set 2θ with the ∪ (union) operator only. more precisely, the power set 2θ is defined as the set of all composite propositions/subsets built from elements of θ with ∪ operator such that: 1. ∅, θ1, . . . , θn ∈ 2θ. 2. if a, b ∈ 2θ, then a ∪ b ∈ 2θ. 3. no other elements belong to 2θ, except those obtained by using rules 1 and 2. • the hyper-power set: dθ , (θ, ∪, ∩) one of the cornerstones of dsmt is the free dedekind’s lattice [3] denoted as hyper-power set in dsmt framework. let θ = {θ1, . . . , θn} be a finite set (called frame) of n exhaustive elements. the hyper-power set dθ is defined as the set of all composite propositions/subsets built from elements of θ with ∪ and ∩ operators such that: 1. ∅, θ1, . . . , θn ∈ dθ. 6 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt 2. if a, b ∈ dθ, then a ∩ b ∈ dθ and a ∪ b ∈ dθ. 3. no other elements belong to dθ, except those obtained by using rules 1 or 2. therefore by convention, we write dθ = (θ, ∪, ∩) which means that θ generates dθ under operators ∪ and ∩. the dual (obtained by switching ∪ and ∩ in expressions) of dθ is itself. there are elements in dθ which are self-dual (dual to themselves), for example α8 for the case when n = 3 in the following example. the cardinality of dθ is majored by 22 n when the cardinality of θ equals n, i.e. |θ| = n. the generation of hyper-power set dθ is closely related with the famous dedekind’s problem [3, 2] on enumerating the set of isotone boolean functions. the generation of the hyper-power set is presented in [29]. since for any given finite set θ, |dθ| ≥ |2θ| we call dθ the hyper-power set of θ. the cardinality of hyper-power set dθ for n ≥ 1 follows the sequence of dedekind’s numbers [24], i.e. 1,2,5,19,167, 7580,7828353,... and analytical expression of dedekind’s numbers has been obtained recently by tombak in [45] (see [29] for details on generation and ordering of dθ). interesting investigations on the programming of the generation of hyper-power sets for engineering applications have been done in chapter 15 of [33] and in [35]. shafer’s model of a frame: more generally, when all the elements of a given frame θ are known (or are assumed to be) truly exclusive, then the hyper-power set dθ reduces to the classical power set 2θ. therefore, working on power set 2θ as glenn shafer has proposed in his mathematical theory of evidence [22]) is equivalent to work on hyper-power set dθ with the assumption that all elements of the frame are exclusive. this is what we call shafer’s model of the frame θ, written m0(θ), even if such model/assumption has not been clearly stated explicitly by shafer himself in his milestone book. • the super-power set: sθ , (θ, ∪, ∩, c(.)) the notion of super-power set has been introduced by smarandache in the chapter 8 of [33]. it corresponds actually to the theoretical construction of the power set of the minimal4 refined frame θref of θ. θ generates sθ under operators ∪, ∩ and complementation c(.). sθ = (θ, ∪, ∩, c(.)) is a boolean 4the minimality refers here to the cardinality of the refined frames. 7 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt algebra with respect to the union, intersection and complementation. therefore working with the super-power set is equivalent to work with a minimal theoretical refined frame θref satisfying shafer’s model. more precisely, sθ is defined as the set of all composite propositions/subsets built from elements of θ with ∪, ∩ and c(.) operators such that: 1. ∅, θ1, . . . , θn ∈ sθ. 2. if a, b ∈ sθ, then a ∩ b ∈ sθ, a ∪ b ∈ sθ. 3. if a ∈ sθ, then c(a) ∈ sθ. 4. no other elements belong to sθ, except those obtained by using rules 1, 2 and 3. as reported in [30], a similar generalization has been previously used in 1993 by guan and bell [12] for the dempster-shafer rule using propositions in sequential logic and reintroduced in 1994 by paris in his book [18], page 4. a one-to-one correspondence between the elements of sθ and 2θ ref can be defined for any cardinality |θ| ≥ 2 of the frame θ and thus one can consider sθ as the mathematical construction of the power set 2θ ref of the minimal refinement of the frame θ. of course, when θ already satisfies shafer’s model, the hyper-power set and the super-power set coincide with the classical power set of θ. it is worth to note that even if we have a mathematical tool to built the minimal refined frame satisfying shafer’s model, it doesn’t mean necessary that one must work with this super-power set in general in real applications because most of the times the elements/granules of sθ have no clear physical meaning, not to mention the drastic increase of the complexity since one has 2θ ⊆ dθ ⊆ sθ and |2θ| = 2|θ| < |dθ| < |sθ| = 2|θ ref | = 22 |θ|−1 (1) typically, in summary, dsmt offers truly the possibility to build and to work on refined frames and to deal with the complement whenever necessary, but in most of applications either the frame θ is already built/chosen to satisfy shafer’s model or the refined granules have no clear physical meaning which finally prevent to be considered/assessed individually so that working on the hyper-power 8 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt |θ| = n |2θ| = 2n |dθ| |sθ| = |2θref | = 22n−1 2 4 5 23 = 8 3 8 19 27 = 128 4 16 167 215 = 32768 5 32 7580 231 = 2147483648 table 2: cardinalities of 2θ, dθ and sθ. set is usually sufficient for dealing with uncertain imprecise (quantitative or qualitative) and highly conflicting sources of evidences. working with sθ is actually very similar to working with 2θ in the sense that in both cases we work with classical power sets; the only difference is that when working with sθ we have implicitly switched from the original frame θ representation to a minimal refinement θref representation. therefore, in the sequel we focus our discussions based mainly on hyper-power set rather than (super-) power set which has already been the basis for the development of dst. but as already mentioned, dsmt can easily deal with belief functions defined on 2θ or sθ similarly as those defined on dθ. generic notation: in the sequel, we use the generic notation gθ for denoting the sets (power set, hyper-power set and super-power set) on which the belief functions are defined. the main distinctions between dsmt and dst are summarized by the following points: 1. the refinement is not always (physically) possible, especially for elements from the frame of discernment whose frontiers are not clear, such as: colors, vague sets, unclear hypotheses, etc. in the frame of discernment; dst does not fit well for working in such cases, while dsmt does; 2. even in the case when the frame of discernment can be refined (i.e. the atomic elements of the frame have all a distinct physical meaning), it is still easier to use dsmt than dst since in dsmt framework the refinement is done automatically by the mathematical construction of the super-power set; 3. dsmt offers better fusion rules, for example proportional conflict redistribution rule # 5 (pcr5) presented in the sequel is better than 9 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt dempster’s rule; hybrid dsm rule (dsmh) works for the dynamic fusion, while dubois-prade fusion rule does not (dsmh is an extension of dubois-prade rule); 4. dsmt offers the best qualitative operators (when working with labels) giving the most accurate and coherent results; 5. dsmt offers new interesting quantitative conditioning rules (bcrs) and qualitative conditioning rules (qbcrs), different from shafer’s conditioning rule (scr). scr can be seen simply as a combination of a prior mass of belief with the mass m(a) = 1 whenever a is the conditioning event; 6. dsmt proposes a new approach for working with imprecise quantitative or qualitative information and not limited to interval-valued belief structures as proposed generally in the literature [4, 5, 47]. 2.2 notion of free and hybrid dsm models free dsm model: the elements θi, i = 1, . . . , n of θ constitute the finite set of hypotheses/concepts characterizing the fusion problem under consideration. when there is no constraint on the elements of the frame, we call this model the free dsm model , written mf (θ). this free dsm model allows to deal directly with fuzzy concepts which depict a continuous and relative intrinsic nature and which cannot be precisely refined into finer disjoint information granules having an absolute interpretation because of the unreachable universal truth. in such case, the use of the hyper-power set dθ (without integrity constraints) is particularly well adapted for defining the belief functions one wants to combine. shafer’s model: in some fusion problems involving discrete concepts, all the elements θi, i = 1, . . . , n of θ can be truly exclusive. in such case, all the exclusivity constraints on θi, i = 1, . . . , n have to be included in the previous model to characterize properly the true nature of the fusion problem and to fit it with the reality. by doing this, the hyper-power set dθ as well as the super-power set sθ reduce naturally to the classical power set 2θ and this constitutes what we have called shafer’s model , denoted m0(θ). shafer’s model 10 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt corresponds actually to the most restricted hybrid dsm model. hybrid dsm models: between the class of fusion problems corresponding to the free dsm model mf (θ) and the class of fusion problems corresponding to shafer’s model m0(θ), there exists another wide class of hybrid fusion problems involving in θ both fuzzy continuous concepts and discrete hypotheses. in such (hybrid) class, some exclusivity constraints and possibly some non-existential constraints (especially when working on dynamic5 fusion) have to be taken into account. each hybrid fusion problem of this class will then be characterized by a proper hybrid dsm model denoted m(θ) with m(θ) 6= mf (θ) and m(θ) 6= m0(θ). in any fusion problems, we consider as primordial at the very beginning and before combining information expressed as belief functions to define clearly the proper frame θ of the given problem and to choose explicitly its corresponding model one wants to work with. once this is done, the second important point is to select the proper set 2θ, dθ or sθ on which the belief functions will be defined. the third point concerns the choice of an efficient rule of combination of belief functions and finally the criteria adopted for decision-making. in the sequel, we focus our presentation mainly on hyper-power set dθ (unless specified) since it is the most interesting new aspect of dsmt for readers already familiar with dst framework, but a fortiori we can work similarly on classical power set 2θ if shafer’s model holds, and even on 2θ ref (the power set of the minimal refined frame) whenever one wants to use it and if possible. examples of models for a frame θ: • let’s consider the 2d problem where θ = {θ1, θ2} with dθ = {∅, θ1 ∩ θ2, θ1, θ2, θ1∪θ2} and assume now that θ1 and θ2 are truly exclusive (i.e. shafer’s model m0 holds), then because θ1 ∩ θ2 m 0 = ∅, one gets dθ = {∅, θ1 ∩ θ2 m 0 = ∅, θ1, θ2, θ1 ∪ θ2} = {∅, θ1, θ2, θ1 ∪ θ2} ≡ 2θ. • as another simple example of hybrid dsm model, let’s consider the 3d case with the frame θ = {θ1, θ2, θ3} with the model m 6= mf in which we force 5i.e. when the frame θ and/or the model m is changing with time. 11 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt all possible conjunctions to be empty, but θ1 ∩ θ2. this hybrid dsm model is then represented with the venn diagram on fig. 1 (where boundaries of intersection of θ1 and θ2 are not precisely defined if θ1 and θ2 represent only fuzzy concepts like smallness and tallness by example). &% '$ &% '$ &% '$ @r θ1 ¡ª θ2 ¾ θ3 12 3 21 figure 1: venn diagram of a dsm hybrid model for a 3d frame. 2.3 generalized belief functions from a general frame θ, we define a map m(.) : gθ → [0, 1] associated to a given body of evidence b as m(∅) = 0 and ∑ a∈gθ m(a) = 1 (2) the quantity m(a) is called the generalized basic belief assignment/mass (gbba) of a. the generalized belief and plausibility functions are defined in almost the same manner as within dst, i.e. bel(a) = ∑ b⊆a b∈gθ m(b) pl(a) = ∑ b∩a6=∅ b∈gθ m(b) (3) we recall that gθ is the generic notation for the set on which the gbba is defined (gθ can be 2θ, dθ or even sθ depending on the model chosen for θ). these definitions are compatible with the definitions of the classical belief functions in dst framework when gθ = 2θ for fusion problems where shafer’s model m0(θ) holds. we still have ∀a ∈ gθ, bel(a) ≤ pl(a). note that when working with the free dsm model mf (θ), one has always pl(a) = 1 ∀a 6= ∅ ∈ (gθ = dθ) which is normal. 12 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt 2.4 the classic dsm rule of combination when the free dsm model mf (θ) holds for the fusion problem under consideration, the classic dsm rule of combination mmf (θ) ≡ m(.) , [m1 ⊕ m2](.) of two independent6 sources of evidences b1 and b2 over the same frame θ with belief functions bel1(.) and bel2(.) associated with gbba m1(.) and m2(.) corresponds to the conjunctive consensus of the sources. it is given by [29]: ∀c ∈ dθ, mmf (θ)(c) ≡ m(c) = ∑ a,b∈dθ a∩b=c m1(a)m2(b) (4) since dθ is closed under ∪ and ∩ set operators, this new rule of combination guarantees that m(.) is a proper generalized belief assignment, i.e. m(.) : dθ → [0, 1]. this rule of combination is commutative and associative and can always be used for the fusion of sources involving fuzzy concepts when free dsm model holds for the problem under consideration. this rule has been extended for s > 2 sources in [29]. according to table 2, this classic dsm rule of combination looks very expensive in terms of computations and memory size due to the huge number of elements in dθ when the cardinality of θ increases. this remark is however valid only if the cores (the set of focal elements of gbba) k1(m1) and k2(m2) coincide with dθ, i.e. when m1(a) > 0 and m2(a) > 0 for all a 6= ∅ ∈ dθ. fortunately, it is important to note here that in most of the practical applications the sizes of k1(m1) and k2(m2) are much smaller than |dθ| because bodies of evidence generally allocate their basic belief assignments only over a subset of the hyper-power set. this makes things easier for the implementation of the classic dsm rule (4). the dsm rule is actually very easy to implement. it suffices for each focal element of k1(m1) to multiply it with the focal elements of k2(m2) and then to pool all combinations which are equivalent under the algebra of sets. while very costly in term on memory storage in the worst case (i.e. when all m(a) > 0, a ∈ dθ or a ∈ 2θref ), the dsm rule however requires much smaller memory storage than when working with 6while independence is a difficult concept to define in all theories managing epistemic uncertainty, we follow here the interpretation of smets in [37] and [38], p. 285 and consider that two sources of evidence are independent (i.e distinct and noninteracting) if each leaves one totally ignorant about the particular value the other will take. 13 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt sθ, i.e. working with a minimal refined frame satisfying shafer’s model. in most fusion applications only a small subset of elements of dθ have a non null basic belief mass because all the commitments are just usually impossible to obtain precisely when the dimension of the problem increases. thus, it is not necessary to generate and keep in memory all elements of dθ (or eventually sθ) but only those which have a positive belief mass. however there is a real technical challenge on how to manage efficiently all elements of the hyper-power set. this problem is obviously much more difficult when trying to work on a refined frame of discernment θref if one really prefers to use dempster-shafer theory and apply dempster’s rule of combination. it is important to keep in mind that the ultimate and minimal refined frame consisting in exhaustive and exclusive finite set of refined exclusive hypotheses is just impossible to justify and to define precisely for all problems dealing with fuzzy and ill-defined continuous concepts. a discussion on refinement with an example has be included in [29]. 2.5 the hybrid dsm rule of combination when the free dsm model mf (θ) does not hold due to the true nature of the fusion problem under consideration which requires to take into account some known integrity constraints, one has to work with a proper hybrid dsm model m(θ) 6= mf (θ). in such case, the hybrid dsm rule (dsmh) of combination based on the chosen hybrid dsm model m(θ) for k ≥ 2 independent sources of information is defined for all a ∈ dθ as [29]: mdsmh (a) = mm(θ)(a) , φ(a) [ s1(a) + s2(a) + s3(a) ] (5) where all sets involved in formulas are in the canonical form and φ(a) is the characteristic non-emptiness function of a set a, i.e. φ(a) = 1 if a /∈ ∅ and φ(a) = 0 otherwise, where ∅ , {∅m, ∅}. ∅m is the set of all elements of dθ which have been forced to be empty through the constraints of the model m and ∅ is the classical/universal empty set. s1(a) ≡ mmf (θ)(a), s2(a), s3(a) are defined by s1(a) , ∑ x1,x2,...,xk∈dθ x1∩x2∩...∩xk=a k∏ i=1 mi(xi) (6) 14 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt s2(a) , ∑ x1,x2,...,xk∈∅ [u=a]∨[(u∈∅)∧(a=it)] k∏ i=1 mi(xi) (7) s3(a) , ∑ x1,x2,...,xk∈dθ x1∪x2∪...∪xk=a x1∩x2∩...∩xk∈∅ k∏ i=1 mi(xi) (8) with u , u(x1) ∪ u(x2) ∪ . . . ∪ u(xk) where u(x) is the union of all θi that compose x, it , θ1 ∪ θ2 ∪ . . . ∪ θn is the total ignorance. s1(a) corresponds to the classic dsm rule for k independent sources based on the free dsm model mf (θ); s2(a) represents the mass of all relatively and absolutely empty sets which is transferred to the total or relative ignorances associated with non existential constraints (if any, like in some dynamic problems); s3(a) transfers the sum of relatively empty sets directly onto the canonical disjunctive form of non-empty sets. the hybrid dsm rule of combination generalizes the classic dsm rule of combination and is not equivalent to dempter’s rule. it works for any models (the free dsm model, shafer’s model or any other hybrid models) when manipulating precise generalized (or eventually classical) basic belief functions. an extension of this rule for the combination of imprecise generalized (or eventually classical) basic belief functions is presented in next section. as already stated, in dsmt framework it is also possible to deal directly with complements if necessary depending on the problem under consideration and the information provided by the sources of evidence themselves. the first and simplest way is to work with sθ on shafer’s model when a minimal refinement is possible and makes sense. the second way is to deal with partially known frame and introduce directly the complementary hypotheses into the frame itself. by example, if one knows only two hypotheses θ1, θ2 and their complements θ̄1, θ̄2, then we can choose to switch from original frame θ = {θ1, θ2} to the new frame θ = {θ1, θ2, θ̄1, θ̄2}. in such case, we don’t necessarily assume that θ̄1 = θ2 and θ̄2 = θ1 because θ̄1 and θ̄2 may include other unknown hypotheses we have no information about (case of partial known frame). more generally, in dsmt framework, it is not necessary that the frame is built on pure/simple (possibly vague) hypotheses θi as usually done 15 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt in all theories managing uncertainty. the frame θ can also contain directly as elements conjunctions and/or disjunctions (or mixed propositions) and negations/complements of pure hypotheses as well. the dsm rules also work in such non-classic frames because dsmt works on any distributive lattice built from θ anywhere θ is defined. 2.6 examples of combination rules here are some numerical examples on results obtained by dsm rules of combination. more examples can be found in [29]. 2.6.1 example with θ = {θ1, θ2, θ3, θ4} let’s consider the frame of discernment θ = {θ1, θ2, θ3, θ4}, two independent experts, and the two following bbas m1(θ1) = 0.6 m1(θ3) = 0.4 m2(θ2) = 0.2 m2(θ4) = 0.8 represented in terms of mass matrix m = [ 0.6 0 0.4 0 0 0.2 0 0.8 ] • dempster’s rule cannot be applied because: ∀1 ≤ j ≤ 4, one gets m(θj) = 0/0 (undefined!). • but the classic dsm rule works because one obtains: m(θ1) = m(θ2) = m(θ3) = m(θ4) = 0, and m(θ1∩θ2) = 0.12, m(θ1∩θ4) = 0.48, m(θ2∩θ3) = 0.08, m(θ3 ∩ θ4) = 0.32 (partial paradoxes/conflicts). • suppose now one finds out that all intersections are empty (shafer’s model), then one applies the hybrid dsm rule and one gets (index h stands here for hybrid rule): mh(θ1 ∪ θ2) = 0.12, mh(θ1 ∪ θ4) = 0.48, mh(θ2 ∪ θ3) = 0.08 and mh(θ3 ∪ θ4) = 0.32. 2.6.2 generalization of zadeh’s example with θ = {θ1, θ2, θ3} let’s consider 0 < ²1, ²2 < 1 be two very tiny positive numbers (close to zero), the frame of discernment be θ = {θ1, θ2, θ3}, have two experts (independent sources of evidence s1 and s2) giving the belief masses m1(θ1) = 1 − ²1 m1(θ2) = 0 m1(θ3) = ²1 16 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt m2(θ1) = 0 m2(θ2) = 1 − ²2 m2(θ3) = ²2 from now on, we prefer to use matrices to describe the masses, i.e. [ 1 − ²1 0 ²1 0 1 − ²2 ²2 ] • using dempster’s rule of combination, one gets m(θ3) = (²1²2) (1 − ²1) · 0 + 0 · (1 − ²2) + ²1²2 = 1 which is absurd (or at least counter-intuitive). note that whatever positive values for ²1, ²2 are, dempster’s rule of combination provides always the same result (one) which is abnormal. the only acceptable and correct result obtained by dempster’s rule is really obtained only in the trivial case when ²1 = ²2 = 1, i.e. when both sources agree in θ3 with certainty which is obvious. • using the dsm rule of combination based on free-dsm model, one gets m(θ3) = ²1²2, m(θ1 ∩ θ2) = (1 − ²1)(1 − ²2), m(θ1 ∩ θ3) = (1 − ²1)²2, m(θ2 ∩ θ3) = (1 − ²2)²1 and the others are zero which appears more reliable/trustable. • going back to shafer’s model and using the hybrid dsm rule of combination, one gets m(θ3) = ²1²2, m(θ1 ∪θ2) = (1−²1)(1−²2), m(θ1 ∪θ3) = (1 − ²1)²2, m(θ2 ∪ θ3) = (1 − ²2)²1 and the others are zero. note that in the special case when ²1 = ²2 = 1/2, one has m1(θ1) = 1/2 m1(θ2) = 0 m1(θ3) = 1/2 m2(θ1) = 0 m2(θ2) = 1/2 m2(θ3) = 1/2 dempster’s rule of combinations still yields m(θ3) = 1 while the hybrid dsm rule based on the same shafer’s model yields now m(θ3) = 1/4, m(θ1 ∪ θ2) = 1/4, m(θ1 ∪ θ3) = 1/4, m(θ2 ∪ θ3) = 1/4 which is normal. 17 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt 2.6.3 comparison with smets, yager and dubois & prade rules we compare the results provided by dsmt rules and the main common rules of combination on the following very simple numerical example where only 2 independent sources (a priori assumed equally reliable) are involved and providing their belief initially on the 3d frame θ = {θ1, θ2, θ3}. it is assumed in this example that shafer’s model holds and thus the belief assignments m1(.) and m2(.) do not commit belief to internal conflicting information. m1(.) and m2(.) are chosen as follows: m1(θ1) = 0.1 m1(θ2) = 0.4 m1(θ3) = 0.2 m1(θ1 ∪ θ2) = 0.3 m2(θ1) = 0.5 m2(θ2) = 0.1 m2(θ3) = 0.3 m2(θ1 ∪ θ2) = 0.1 these belief masses are usually represented in the form of a belief mass matrix m given by m = [ 0.1 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.1 0.3 0.1 ] (9) where index i for the rows corresponds to the index of the source no. i and the indexes j for columns of m correspond to a given choice for enumerating the focal elements of all sources. in this particular example, index j = 1 corresponds to θ1, j = 2 corresponds to θ2, j = 3 corresponds to θ3 and j = 4 corresponds to θ1 ∪ θ2. now let’s imagine that one finds out that θ3 is actually truly empty because some extra and certain knowledge on θ3 is received by the fusion center. as example, θ1, θ2 and θ3 may correspond to three suspects (potential murders) in a police investigation, m1(.) and m2(.) corresponds to two reports of independent witnesses, but it turns out that finally θ3 has provided a strong alibi to the criminal police investigator once arrested by the policemen. this situation corresponds to set up a hybrid model m with the constraint θ3 m= ∅. let’s examine the result of the fusion in such situation obtained by the smets’, yager’s, dubois & prade’s and hybrid dsm rules of combinations. first note that, based on the free dsm model, one would get by applying the 18 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt classic dsm rule (denoted here by index dsmc) the following fusion result mdsmc (θ1) = 0.21 mdsmc (θ2) = 0.11 mdsmc (θ3) = 0.06 mdsmc (θ1 ∪ θ2) = 0.03 mdsmc (θ1 ∩ θ2) = 0.21 mdsmc (θ1 ∩ θ3) = 0.13 mdsmc (θ2 ∩ θ3) = 0.14 mdsmc (θ3 ∩ (θ1 ∪ θ2)) = 0.11 but because of the exclusivity constraints (imposed here by the use of shafer’s model and by the non-existential constraint θ3 m = ∅), the total conflicting mass is actually given by k12 = 0.06 + 0.21 + 0.13 + 0.14 + 0.11 = 0.65. • if one applies dempster’s rule [22] (denoted here by index ds), one gets: mds(∅) = 0 mds(θ1) = 0.21/[1 − k12] = 0.21/[1 − 0.65] = 0.21/0.35 = 0.600000 mds(θ2) = 0.11/[1 − k12] = 0.11/[1 − 0.65] = 0.11/0.35 = 0.314286 mds(θ1 ∪ θ2) = 0.03/[1 − k12] = 0.03/[1 − 0.65] = 0.03/0.35 = 0.085714 • if one applies smets’ rule [39, 40] (i.e. the non normalized version of dempster’s rule with the conflicting mass transferred onto the empty set), one gets: ms(∅) = m(∅) = 0.65 (conflicting mass) ms(θ1) = 0.21 ms(θ2) = 0.11 ms(θ1 ∪ θ2) = 0.03 • if one applies yager’s rule [48, 49, 50], one gets: my (∅) = 0 my (θ1) = 0.21 my (θ2) = 0.11 my (θ1 ∪ θ2) = 0.03 + k12 = 0.03 + 0.65 = 0.68 19 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt • if one applies dubois & prade’s rule [10], one gets because θ3 m= ∅ : mdp (∅) = 0 (by definition of dubois & prade’s rule) mdp (θ1) = [m1(θ1)m2(θ1) + m1(θ1)m2(θ1 ∪ θ2) + m2(θ1)m1(θ1 ∪ θ2)] + [m1(θ1)m2(θ3) + m2(θ1)m1(θ3)] = [0.1 · 0.5 + 0.1 · 0.1 + 0.5 · 0.3] + [0.1 · 0.3 + 0.5 · 0.2] = 0.21 + 0.13 = 0.34 mdp (θ2) = [0.4 · 0.1 + 0.4 · 0.1 + 0.1 · 0.3] + [0.4 · 0.3 + 0.1 · 0.2] = 0.11 + 0.14 = 0.25 mdp (θ1 ∪ θ2) = [m1(θ1 ∪ θ2)m2(θ1 ∪ θ2)] + [m1(θ1 ∪ θ2)m2(θ3) + m2(θ1 ∪ θ2)m1(θ3)] + [m1(θ1)m2(θ2) + m2(θ1)m1(θ2)] = [0.30.1] + [0.3 · 0.3 + 0.1 · 0.2] + [0.1 · 0.1 + 0.5 · 0.4] = [0.03] + [0.09 + 0.02] + [0.01 + 0.20] = 0.03 + 0.11 + 0.21 = 0.35 now if one adds up the masses, one gets 0+0.34+0.25+0.35 = 0.94 which is less than 1. therefore dubois & prade’s rule of combination does not work when a singleton, or an union of singletons, becomes empty (in a dynamic fusion problem). the products of such empty-element columns of the mass matrix m are lost; this problem is fixed in dsmt by the sum s2(.) in (5) which transfers these products to the total or partial ignorances. 20 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt • finally, if one applies dsmh rule, one gets because θ3 m= ∅ : mdsmh (∅) = 0 (by definition of dsmh) mdsmh (θ1) = 0.34 (same as mdp (θ1)) mdsmh (θ2) = 0.25 (same as mdp (θ2)) mdsmh (θ1 ∪ θ2) = [m1(θ1 ∪ θ2)m2(θ1 ∪ θ2)] + [m1(θ1 ∪ θ2)m2(θ3) + m2(θ1 ∪ θ2)m1(θ3)] + [m1(θ1)m2(θ2) + m2(θ1)m1(θ2)] + [m1(θ3)m2(θ3)] = 0.03 + 0.11 + 0.21 + 0.06 = 0.35 + 0.06 = 0.41 6= mdp (θ1 ∪ θ2) we can easily verify that mdsmh (θ1)+mdsmh (θ2)+mdsmh (θ1∪θ2) = 1. in this example, using the hybrid dsm rule, one transfers the product of the empty-element θ3 column, m1(θ3)m2(θ3) = 0.2 · 0.3 = 0.06, to mdsmh (θ1 ∪ θ2), which becomes equal to 0.35 + 0.06 = 0.41. clearly, dsmh rule doesn’t provide the same result as dubois and prade’s rule, but only when working on static frames of discernment (restricted cases). 2.7 fusion of imprecise beliefs in many fusion problems, it seems very difficult (if not impossible) to have precise sources of evidence generating precise basic belief assignments (especially when belief functions are provided by human experts), and a more flexible plausible and paradoxical theory supporting imprecise information becomes necessary. in the previous sections, we presented the fusion of precise uncertain and conflicting/paradoxical generalized basic belief assignments (gbba) in dsmt framework. we mean here by precise gbba, basic belief functions/masses m(.) defined precisely on the hyper-power set dθ where each mass m(x), where x belongs to dθ, is represented by only one real number belonging to [0, 1] such that ∑ x∈dθ m(x) = 1. in this section, we present the dsm fusion rule for dealing with admissible imprecise generalized basic belief assignments mi (.) defined as real subunitary intervals of [0, 1], or even more general as real subunitary sets [i.e. sets, not necessarily intervals]. an imprecise belief assignment mi (.) over dθ is said admissible if and only if there exists for every x ∈ dθ at least one real number m(x) ∈ mi (x) such 21 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt that ∑ x∈dθ m(x) = 1. the idea to work with imprecise belief structures represented by real subset intervals of [0, 1] is not new and has been investigated in [14, 4, 5] and references therein. the proposed works available in the literature, upon our knowledge were limited only to sub-unitary interval combination in the framework of transferable belief model (tbm) developed by smets [39, 40]. we extend the approach of lamata & moral and denœux based on subunitary interval-valued masses to subunitary set-valued masses; therefore the closed intervals used by denœux to denote imprecise masses are generalized to any sets included in [0,1], i.e. in our case these sets can be unions of (closed, open, or half-open/half-closed) intervals and/or scalars all in [0, 1]. here, the proposed extension is done in the context of dsmt framework, although it can also apply directly to fusion of imprecise belief structures within tbm as well if the user prefers to adopt tbm rather than dsmt. before presenting the general formula for the combination of generalized imprecise belief structures, we remind the following set operators involved in the dsm fusion formulas. several numerical examples are given in the chapter 6 of [29]. • addition of sets s1 ¢ s2 = s2 ¢ s1 , {x | x = s1 + s2, s1 ∈ s1, s2 ∈ s2} • subtraction of sets s1 ¯ s2 , {x | x = s1 − s2, s1 ∈ s1, s2 ∈ s2} • multiplication of sets s1 � s2 , {x | x = s1 · s2, s1 ∈ s1, s2 ∈ s2} • division of sets: if 0 doesn’t belong to s2, s1 � s2 , {x | x = s1/s2, s1 ∈ s1, s2 ∈ s2} 22 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt 2.7.1 dsm rule of combination for imprecise beliefs we present the generalization of the dsm rules to combine any type of imprecise belief assignment which may be represented by the union of several sub-unitary (half-) open intervals, (half-)closed intervals and/or sets of points belonging to [0,1]. several numerical examples are also given. in the sequel, one uses the notation (a, b) for an open interval, [a, b] for a closed interval, and (a, b] or [a, b) for a half open and half closed interval. from the previous operators on sets, one can generalize the dsm rules (classic and hybrid) from scalars to sets in the following way [29] (chap. 6): ∀a 6= ∅ ∈ dθ, mi (a) = ∑ x1,x2,...,xk∈dθ (x1∩x2∩...∩xk)=a ∏ i=1,...,k mii (xi) (10) where ∑ and ∏ represent the summation, and respectively product, of sets. similarly, one can generalize the hybrid dsm rule from scalars to sets in the following way: midsmh (a) = m i m(θ)(a) , φ(a) � [ si1 (a) ¢ s i 2 (a) ¢ s i 3 (a) ] (11) where all sets involved in formulas are in the canonical form and φ(a) is the characteristic non emptiness function of the set a and si1 (a), s i 2 (a) and s i 3 (a) are defined by si1 (a) , ∑ x1,x2,...,xk∈dθ x1∩x2∩...∩xk=a ∏ i=1,...,k mii (xi) (12) si2 (a) , ∑ x1,x2,...,xk∈∅ [u=a]∨[(u∈∅)∧(a=it)] ∏ i=1,...,k mii (xi) (13) si3 (a) , ∑ x1,x2,...,xk∈dθ x1∪x2∪...∪xk=a x1∩x2∩...∩xk∈∅ ∏ i=1,...,k mii (xi) (14) 23 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt in the case when all sets are reduced to points (numbers), the set operations become normal operations with numbers; the sets operations are generalizations of numerical operations. when imprecise belief structures reduce to precise belief structure, dsm rules (10) and (11) reduce to their precise version (4) and (5) respectively. 3 proportional conflict redistribution rule instead of applying a direct transfer of partial conflicts onto partial uncertainties as with dsmh, the idea behind the proportional conflict redistribution (pcr) rule [31, 33] is to transfer (total or partial) conflicting masses to nonempty sets involved in the conflicts proportionally with respect to the masses assigned to them by sources as follows: 1. calculation the conjunctive rule of the belief masses of sources; 2. calculation the total or partial conflicting masses; 3. redistribution of the (total or partial) conflicting masses to the non-empty sets involved in the conflicts proportionally with respect to their masses assigned by the sources. the way the conflicting mass is redistributed yields actually several versions of pcr rules. these pcr fusion rules work for any degree of conflict, for any dsm models (shafer’s model, free dsm model or any hybrid dsm model) and both in dst and dsmt frameworks for static or dynamical fusion situations. we present below only the most sophisticated proportional conflict redistribution rule denoted pcr5 in [31, 33]. pcr5 rule is what we feel the most efficient pcr fusion rule developed so far. this rule redistributes the partial conflicting mass to the elements involved in the partial conflict, considering the conjunctive normal form of the partial conflict. pcr5 is what we think the most mathematically exact redistribution of conflicting mass to non-empty sets following the logic of the conjunctive rule. it does a better redistribution of the conflicting mass than dempster’s rule since pcr5 goes backwards on the tracks of the conjunctive rule and redistributes the conflicting mass only to the sets involved in the conflict and proportionally to their masses put in the conflict. pcr5 rule is quasi-associative and preserves the neutral impact of the vacuous belief assignment because in any partial conflict, as well in the 24 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt total conflict (which is a sum of all partial conflicts), the conjunctive normal form of each partial conflict does not include θ since θ is a neutral element for intersection (conflict), therefore θ gets no mass after the redistribution of the conflicting mass. we have proved in [33] the continuity property of the fusion result with continuous variations of bba’s to combine. 3.1 pcr formulas the pcr5 formula for the combination of two sources (s = 2) is given by: mp cr5(∅) = 0 and ∀x ∈ gθ \ {∅} mp cr5(x) = m12(x) + ∑ y ∈gθ\{x} x∩y =∅ [ m1(x) 2m2(y ) m1(x) + m2(y ) + m2(x) 2m1(y ) m2(x) + m1(y ) ] (15) where all sets involved in formulas are in canonical form and where gθ corresponds to classical power set 2θ if shafer’s model is used, or to a constrained hyper-power set dθ if any other hybrid dsm model is used instead, or to the super-power set sθ if the minimal refinement θref of θ is used; m12(x) ≡ m∩(x) corresponds to the conjunctive consensus on x between the s = 2 sources and where all denominators are different from zero. if a denominator is zero, that fraction is discarded. a general formula of pcr5 for the fusion of s > 2 sources has been proposed in [33], but a more intuitive pcr formula (denoted pcr6) which provides good results in practice has been proposed by martin and osswald in [33] (pages 69-88) and is given by: mp cr6(∅) = 0 and ∀x ∈ gθ \ {∅} mp cr6(x) = m12...s(x)+ s∑ i=1 mi(x) 2 ∑ s−1∩ k=1 yσi(k) ∩x≡∅ (yσi(1) ,...,yσi(s−1))∈(g θ)s−1   s−1∏ j=1 mσi(j)(yσi(j)) mi(x)+ s−1∑ j=1 mσi(j)(yσi(j))   (16) 25 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt where σi counts from 1 to s avoiding i: { σi(j) = j if j < i, σi(j) = j + 1 if j ≥ i, (17) since yi is a focal element of expert/source i, mi(x)+ s−1∑ j=1 mσi(j)(yσi(j)) 6= 0; the belief mass assignment m12...s(x) ≡ m∩(x) corresponds to the conjunctive consensus on x between the s > 2 sources. for two sources (s = 2), pcr5 and pcr6 formulas coincide. 3.2 examples • example 1: let’s take θ = {a, b} of exclusive elements (shafer’s model), and the following bba’s: a b a ∪ b m1(.) 0.6 0 0.4 m2(.) 0 0.3 0.7 m∩(.) 0.42 0.12 0.28 the conflicting mass is k12 = m∩(a ∩ b) and equals the sum of partial conflicts m1(a)m2(b)+m1(b)m2(a) = 0.18. since a and b are the only focal elements involved in the conflict. according to the pcr5 hypothesis, only a and b deserve a part of the conflicting mass and a∪b do not deserve. with pcr5, one redistributes the conflicting mass k12 = 0.18 to a and b proportionally with the masses m1(a) and m2(b) assigned to a and b respectively. here are the results obtained from dempster’s rule, dsmh and pcr5: a b a ∪ b mds 0.512 0.146 0.342 mdsmh 0.420 0.120 0.460 mp cr5 0.540 0.180 0.280 • example 2: let’s modify example 1 and consider 26 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt a b a ∪ b m1(.) 0.6 0 0.4 m2(.) 0.2 0.3 0.5 m∩(.) 0.50 0.12 0.20 the conflicting mass k12 = m∩(a ∩ b) as well as the distribution coefficients for the pcr5 remains the same as in the previous example but one gets now a b a ∪ b mds 0.609 0.146 0.231 mdsmh 0.500 0.120 0.380 mp cr5 0.620 0.180 0.200 • example 3: let’s modify example 2 and consider a b a ∪ b m1(.) 0.6 0.3 0.1 m2(.) 0.2 0.3 0.5 m∩(.) 0.44 0.27 0.05 the conflicting mass k12 = 0.24 = m1(a)m2(b) + m1(b)m2(a) = 0.24 is now different from previous examples, which means that m2(a) = 0.2 and m1(b) = 0.3 did make an impact on the conflict. therefore a and b are the only focal elements involved in the conflict and thus only a and b deserve a part of the conflicting mass. pcr5 redistributes the partial conflicting mass 0.18 to a and b proportionally with the masses m1(a) and m2(b) and also the partial conflicting mass 0.06 to a and b proportionally with the masses m2(a) and m1(b). after all derivations (see [11] for details), one finally gets: a b a ∪ b mds 0.579 0.355 0.066 mdsmh 0.440 0.270 0.290 mp cr5 0.584 0.366 0.050 27 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt one clearly sees that mds(a ∪ b) gets some mass from the conflicting mass although a ∪ b does not deserve any part of the conflicting mass (according to pcr5 hypothesis) since a∪b is not involved in the conflict (only a and b are involved in the conflicting mass). dempster’s rule appears to us less exact than pcr5 and inagaki’s rules [13]. it can be showed [11] that inagaki’s fusion rule (with an optimal choice of tuning parameters) can become in some cases very close to pcr5 but upon our opinion pcr5 result is more exact (at least less ad-hoc than inagaki’s one). • example 4 (a more concrete example): three people, john (j), george (g), and david (d) are suspects to a murder. so the frame of discernment is θ , {j, g, d}. two sources m1(.) and m2(.) (witnesses) provide the following information: j g d m1 0.9 0 0.1 m2 0 0.8 0.2 we know that john and george are friends, but john and david hate each other, and similarly george and david. a) free model, i. e. all intersections are nonempty: j ∩g 6= ∅, j ∩d 6= ∅, g ∩ d 6= ∅, j ∩ g ∩ d 6= ∅. using the dsm classic rule one gets: j g d j ∩ g j ∩ d g ∩ d j ∩ g ∩ d mdsmc 0 0 0.02 0.72 0.18 0.08 0 so we can see that john and george together (j ∩g) are most likely to have committed the crime, since the mass mdsmc (j ∩ g) = 0.72 is the biggest resulting mass after the fusion of the two sources. in shafer’s model, only one suspect could commit the crime, but the free and hybrid models allow two or more people to have committed the same crime which happens in reality. b) let’s consider the hybrid model, i. e. some intersections are empty, and others are not. according to the above statement about the relationships between the three suspects, we can deduce that j∩g 6= 28 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt ∅, while j ∩ d = g ∩ d = j ∩ g ∩ d = ∅. then we first apply the dsm classic rule, and then the transfer of the conflicting masses is done with pcr5: j g d j ∩ g j ∩ d g ∩ d j ∩ g ∩ d m1 0.9 0 0.1 m2 0 0.8 0.2 mdsmc 0 0 0.02 0.72 0.18 0.08 0 using pcr5 now we transfer m(j ∩ d) = 0.18, since j ∩ d = ∅, to j and d proportionally with 0.9 and 0.2 respectively, so j gets 0.15 and d gets 0.03 since: xj/0.9 = z1d/0.2 = 0.18/(0.9 + 0.2) = 0.18/1.1 whence xj = 0.9(0.18/1.1) = 0.15 and z1d = 0.2(0.18/1.1) = 0.03. again using pcr5, we transfer m(g ∩ d) = 0.08, since g ∩ d = ∅, to g and d proportionally with 0.8 and 0.1 respectively, so g gets 0.07 and d gets 0.01 since: yg/0.8 = z2d/0.1 = 0.08/(0.8 + 0.1) = 0.08/0.9 whence yg = 0.8(0.08/0.9) = 0.07 and zd = 0.1(0.08/0.9) = 0.01. adding we get finally: j g d j ∩ g j ∩ d g ∩ d j ∩ g ∩ d mp cr5 0.15 0.07 0.06 0.72 0 0 0 so one has a high belief that the criminals are john and george (both of them committed the crime) since m(j ∩ d) = 0.72 and it is by far the greatest fusion mass. in shafers model, if we try to refine we get the disjoint parts: d, j ∩ g, j \ (j ∩ g), and g \ (j ∩ g), but the last two are ridiculous (what is the real/physical nature of j \ (j ∩ g) or g \ (j ∩ g) ? half of a person(!) ?), so the refining does not work here in reality. thats why the hybrid and free models are needed. • example 5 (imprecise pcr5): the pcr5 formula can naturally work also for the combination of imprecise bba’s. this has been already presented in section 1.11.8 page 49 of [33] with a numerical example to show how to apply it. this example will therefore not be reincluded here. 29 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt 3.3 zadeh’s example we compare here the solutions for well-known zadeh’s example [53, 56] provided by several fusion rules. a detailed presentation with more comparisons can be found in [29, 33]. let’s consider θ = {m, c, t} as the frame of three potential origins about possible diseases of a patient (m standing for meningitis, c for concussion and t for tumor), the shafer’s model and the two following belief assignments provided by two independent doctors after examination of the same patient. m1(m ) = 0.9 m1(c) = 0 m1(t ) = 0.1 m2(m ) = 0 m2(c) = 0.9 m2(t ) = 0.1 the total conflicting mass is high since it is m1(m )m2(c) + m1(m )m2(t ) + m2(c)m1(t ) = 0.99 • with dempster’s rule and shafer’s model (ds), one gets the counterintuitive result (see justifications in [53, 9, 50, 46, 29]): mds(t ) = 1 • with yager’s rule [50] and shafer’s model: my (m ∪ c ∪ t ) = 0.99 and my (t ) = 0.01 • with dsmh and shafer’s model: mdsmh (m ∪ c) = 0.81 mdsmh (t ) = 0.01 mdsmh (m ∪ t ) = mdsmh (c ∪ t ) = 0.09 • the dubois & prade’s rule (dp) [9] based on shafer’s model provides in zadeh’s example the same result as dsmh, because dp and dsmh coincide in all static fusion problems7. • with pcr5 and shafer’s model: mp cr5(m ) = mp cr5(c) = 0.486 and mp cr5(t ) = 0.028. 7indeed dp rule has been developed for static fusion only while dsmh has been developed to take into account the possible dynamicity of the frame itself and also its associated model. 30 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt one sees that when the total conflict between sources becomes high, dsmt is able (upon authors opinion) to manage more adequately through dsmh or pcr5 rules the combination of information than dempster’s rule, even when working with shafer’s model which is only a specific hybrid model. dsmh rule is in agreement with dp rule for the static fusion, but dsmh and dp rules differ in general (for non degenerate cases) for dynamic fusion while pcr5 rule is the most exact proportional conflict redistribution rule. besides this particular example, we showed in [29] that there exist several infinite classes of counter-examples to dempster’s rule which can be solved by dsmt. in summary, dst based on dempster’s rule provides counter-intuitive results in zadeh’s example, or in non-bayesian examples similar to zadeh’s and no result when the conflict is 1. only ad-hoc discounting techniques allow to circumvent troubles of dempster’s rule or we need to switch to another model of representation/frame; in the later case the solution obtained doesn’t fit with the shafer’s model one originally wanted to work with. we want also to emphasize that in dynamic fusion when the conflict becomes high, both dst [22] and smets’ transferable belief model (tbm) [39] approaches fail to respond to new information provided by new sources. this can be easily showed by the very simple following example. example (where tbm doesn’t respond to new information): let θ = {a, b, c} with the (precise) bba’s m1(a) = 0.4, m1(c) = 0.6 and m2(a) = 0.7, m2(b) = 0.3. then one gets 8 with dempster’s rule, smets’ tbm (i.e. the non-normalized version of dempster’s combination), dsmh and pcr5: m12ds(a) = 1, m 12 t bm (a) = 0.28, m 12 t bm (∅) = 0.72,    m12dsmh (a) = 0.28 m12dsmh (a ∪ b) = 0.12 m12dsmh (a ∪ c) = 0.42 m12dsmh (b ∪ c) = 0.18 and    m12p cr5(a) = 0.574725 m12p cr5(b) = 0.111429 m12p cr5(c) = 0.313846 now let’s consider a temporal fusion problem and introduce a third source m3(.) with m3(b) = 0.8 and m3(c) = 0.2. then one sequentially combines the results obtained by m12t bm (.), m 12 ds(.), m 12 dsmh (.) and m 12 p cr(.) with the 8we introduce here explicitly the indexes of sources in the fusion result since more than two sources are considered in this example. 31 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt new evidence m3(.) and one sees that m (12)3 ds becomes not defined (division by zero) and m (12)3 t bm (∅) = 1 while (dsmh) and (pcr5) provide    m (12)3 dsmh (b) = 0.240 m (12)3 dsmh (c) = 0.120 m (12)3 dsmh (a ∪ b) = 0.224 m (12)3 dsmh (a ∪ c) = 0.056 m (12)3 dsmh (a ∪ b ∪ c) = 0.360 and    m (12)3 p cr5(a) = 0.277490 m (12)3 p cr5(b) = 0.545010 m (12)3 p cr5(c) = 0.177500 when the mass committed to empty set becomes one at a previous temporal fusion step, then both dst and tbm do not respond to new information9. let’s continue the example and consider a fourth source m4(.) with m4(a) = 0.5, m4(b) = 0.3 and m4(c) = 0.2. then it is easy to see that m ((12)3)4 ds (.) is not defined since at previous step m (12)3 ds (.) was already not defined, and that m ((12)3)4 t bm (∅) = 1 whatever m4(.) is because at the previous fusion step one had m (12)3 t bm (∅) = 1. therefore for a number of sources n ≥ 2, dst and tbm approaches do not respond to new information incoming in the fusion process while both (dsmh) and (pcr5) rules respond to new information. to make dst and/or tbm working properly in such cases, it is necessary to introduce ad-hoc temporal discounting techniques which are not necessary to introduce if dsmt is adopted. if there are good reasons to introduce temporal discounting, there is obviously no difficulty to apply the dsm fusion of these discounted sources. an analysis of this behavior for target type tracking is presented in [7, 33]. 4 uniform and partially uniform redistribution rules the principles of uniform redistribution rule (urr) and partially uniform redistribution rule (purr) have been proposed in 2006 with examples in [32]. 9actually dempster’s rule doesn’t respond also to new compatible information/bba as soon as a total mass of belief is already committed by a source to only one focal element. for example, if one considers θ = {a, b} with shafer’s model (a∩b = ∅) and with m1(a) = 1, m2(a) = 0.2 and m2(b) = 0.8, then dempster’s rule always provides mds (a) = 1 whatever are the values taken by m2(a) > 0 and m2(b) > 0. 32 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt the uniform redistribution rule consists in redistributing the total conflicting mass k12 to all focal elements of g θ generated by the consensus operator. this way of redistributing mass is very simple and urr is different from dempster’s rule of combination, because dempster’s rule redistributes the total conflict proportionally with respect to the masses resulted from the conjunctive rule of non-empty sets. pcr5 rule presented previously does proportional redistributions of partial conflicting masses to the sets involved in the conflict. the urr formula for two sources is given by: ∀a 6= ∅ m12u rr(a) = m12(a) + 1 n12 ∑ x1,x2∈gθ x1∩x2=∅ m1(x1)m2(x2) (18) where m12(a) is the result of the conjunctive rule applied to belief assignments m1(.) and m2(.), and n12 = card{z ∈ gθ, m1(z) 6= 0 or m2(z) 6= 0}. for s ≥ 2 sources to combine: ∀a 6= ∅, one has m12...su rr(a) = m12...s(a) + 1 n12...s ∑ x1,x2,...,xs∈gθ x1∩x2∩...∩xs=∅ s∏ i=1 m1(xi) (19) where m12...s(a) is the result of the conjunctive rule applied to mi(.), for all i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , s} and n12...s = card{z ∈ gθ, m1(z) 6= 0 or m2(z) 6= 0 or . . . or ms(z) 6= 0} as alternative (modified version of urr), we can also consider the cardinal of the ensemble of sets whose masses resulted from the conjunctive rule are non-null, i.e. the cardinality of the core of conjunctive consensus: nc12...s = card{z ∈ gθ, m12...s(z) 6= 0} it is also possible to do a uniformly partial redistribution, i.e. to uniformly redistribute the conflicting mass only to the sets involved in the conflict. for example, if m12(a∩b) = 0.08 and a∩b = ∅, then 0.08 is equally redistributed to a and b only, supposing a and b are both non-empty, so 0.04 assigned to a and 0.04 to b. 33 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt the partially uniform redistribution rule (purr) for two sources is defined as follows: ∀a 6= ∅ m12p u rr(a) = m12(a) + 1 2 ∑ x1,x2∈gθ x1∩x2=∅ x1=a or x2=a m1(x1)m2(x2) (20) where m12(a) is the result of the conjunctive rule applied to belief assignments m1(.) and m2(.). for s ≥ 2 sources to combine: ∀a 6= ∅, one has m12...sp u rr(a) = m12...s(a) + 1 s ∑ x1,x2,...,xs∈gθ x1∩x2∩...∩xs=∅ at leat one xj =a,j∈{1,...,s} carda({x1, . . . , xs}) s∏ i=1 m1(xi) (21) where carda({x1, . . . , xs}) is the number of a’s occurring in {x1, x2, . . . , xs}. if a = ∅, m12p u rr(a) = 0 and m12...sp u rr(a) = 0. these rules have a low computation cost with respect to proportional conflict redistribution (pcr) rules developed in the dsmt framework and they preserve the neutrality of the vacuous belief assignment (vba) since any bba m1(.) combined with vba defined on any frame θ = {θ1, . . . , θn} by mv ba(θ1 ∪ . . .∪θn) = 1, using the conjunctive rule, gives m1(.), so no conflicting mass is needed to transfer. of course these rules are very easy to implement but from a theoretical point of view they remain less precise in their transfer of conicting beliefs since they do not take into account the proportional redistribution with respect to the mass of each set involved in the conict. reasonably, urr or purr cannot outperform pcr5 but they may hopefully could appear as good enough in some specic fusion problems when the level of total conict is not important. purr does a more rened redistribution that urr and murr but it requires a little more calculation. 34 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt 5 rsc fusion rules in this section, we briefly recall a new class of fusion rules based on the belief redistribution to subsets or complements and denoted crsc (standing for class of redistribution rules to subsets or complements) for short. this class is presented in details in [35] with several examples. let m1(.) and m2(.) be two normalized basic belief assignments (bbas) defined10 from sθ to [0, 1]. we use the conjunctive rule to first combine m1(.) with m2(.) to get m∩(.) and then the mass of conflict say m∩(x∩y ) = 0, when x ∩y = ∅ or even when x ∩y is different from the empty set is redistributed to subsets or complements in many ways (see [35] for details). the new class of fusion rule (denoted crscc) for transferring the conflicting masses only is defined for a ∈ sθ \ {∅, it} by: mcrscc (a) = m∩(a) + [α · m∩(a) + β · card(a) + γ · f (a)]· · ∑ x, y ∈ sθ x ∩ y = ∅ a ⊆ m m1(x)m2(y )∑ z∈sθ,z⊆m [α · m∩(z) + β · card(z) + γ · f (z)] (22) where it = θ1∪θ2∪. . .∪θn represents the total ignorance when θ = {θ1, . . . , θn}. m can be c(x ∪ y ) (the complement of x ∪ y ), or a subset of c(x ∪ y ), or x ∪ y , or a subset of x ∪ y ; α, β, γ ∈ {0, 1} but α + β + γ 6= 0; in a weighted way we can take α, β, γ ∈ [0, 1] also with α + β + γ 6= 0; f (x) is a function of x, i.e. another parameter that the mass of x is directly proportionally with respect to; card(x) is the cardinal of x. the mass of belief mcrscc (it) committed to the total ignorance is given by: mcrscc (it) = m∩(it) + ∑ x, y ∈ sθ {x ∩ y = ∅ and m = ∅} or{x ∩ y = ∅ and den(z) = 0} m1(x)m2(y ) (23) 10since these rules use explicitely the complementation operator c(.), they apply only with the super-power set sθ or on 2θ depending on the underlying model chosen for the frame θ. 35 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt where den(z) , ∑ z∈sθ,z⊆m [α · m∩(z) + β · card(z) + γ · f (z)]. a more general formula for the redistribution of conflict and non-conflict to subsets or complements class of rules for the fusion of masses of belief for two sources of evidence is defined a ∈ (sθ r snon∅∩ ) r {∅, θ} by: mcrsc (a) = m∩(a) + ∑ x, y ∈ sθ {x ∩ y = ∅, a ∈ t (x, y )} or {x ∩ y ∈ snon∅∩,r , a ∈ t ′(x, y )} f (a) m1(x)m2(y )∑ z∈t (x,y ) f (z) (24) and for a = it: mcrsc (it) = m∩(it) + ∑ x, y ∈ sθ x ∩ y = ∅, {t (x, y ) = ∅ or ∑ z∈t (x,y ) f (z) = 0} m1(x)m2(y ) (25) where s∩ = {x ∈ sθ|x = y ∩z, where y, z ∈ sθr{∅}}, all propositions are expressed in their canonical form and where xcontains at least an ∩ symbol in its expression; s∅∩ be the set of all empty intersections from s∩ (i.e. the set of exclusivity constraints), and snon∅∩ the set of all non-empty intersections from s∩. s non∅ ∩,r is the set of all non-empty intersections from s non∅ ∩ whose masses are redistributed to other sets/propositions. the set snon∅∩,r highly depends on the model for the frame of the application under consideration. f (.) is a mapping from sθ to r+. for example, we can choose f (x) = m∩(x), f (x) = |x|, ft (x) = |x||t (x,y )|, or f (x) = m∩(x) + |x|, etc. the function t specifies a subset of sθ, for example t (x, y ) = {c(x ∪ y )}, or t (x, y ) = {x ∪ y } or can specify a set of subsets of sθ. for example, t (x, y ) = {a ⊂ c(x ∪ y )}, or t (x, y ) = {a ⊂ x ∪ y }. the function t ′ is a subset of sθ, for example t ′(x, y ) = {x ∪ y }, or t ′ is a subset of x ∪ y , etc. it is important to highlight that in formulas (22)-(23) one transfers only the conflicting masses, whereas the formulas (24)-(25) are more general since one transfers the conflicting masses or the non-conflicting masses as well depending on the preferences of the fusion system designer. the previous formulas have been directly extended for any s ≥ 2 sources of evidence in [35]. all 36 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt denominators in these crsc formulas are naturally supposed different from zero. it is worth to note also that the extensions of these rules for including the reliabilities of the sources are also presented in [35]. 6 generalized pignistic transformation (gpt) 6.1 the classical pignistic transformation we follow here philippe smets’ vision which considers the management of information as a two 2-levels process: credal (for combination of evidences) and pignistic11 (for decision-making) , i.e ”when someone must take a decision, he/she must then construct a probability function derived from the belief function that describes his/her credal state. this probability function is then used to make decisions” [38] (p. 284). one obvious way to build this probability function corresponds to the so-called classical pignistic transformation (cpt) defined in dst framework (i.e. based on the shafer’s model assumption) as [40]: betp{a} = ∑ x∈2θ |x ∩ a| |x| m(x) (26) where |a| denotes the cardinality of a (with convention |∅|/|∅| = 1, to define betp{∅}). decisions are achieved by computing the expected utilities of the acts using the subjective/pignistic betp{.} as the probability function needed to compute expectations. usually, one uses the maximum of the pignistic probability as decision criterion. the maximum of betp{.} is often considered as a prudent betting decision criterion between the two other alternatives (max of plausibility or max. of credibility which appears to be respectively too optimistic or too pessimistic). it is easy to show that betp{.} is indeed a probability function (see [39]). 6.2 notion of dsm cardinality one important notion involved in the definition of the generalized pignistic transformation (gpt) is the dsm cardinality. the dsm cardinality of any 11pignistic terminology has been coined by philippe smets and comes from pignus, a bet in latin. 37 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt element a of hyper-power set dθ, denoted cm(a), corresponds to the number of parts of a in the corresponding fuzzy/vague venn diagram of the problem (model m) taking into account the set of integrity constraints (if any), i.e. all the possible intersections due to the nature of the elements θi. this intrinsic cardinality depends on the model m (free, hybrid or shafer’s model). m is the model that contains a, which depends both on the dimension n = |θ| and on the number of non-empty intersections present in its associated venn diagram (see [29] for details ). the dsm cardinality depends on the cardinal of θ = {θ1, θ2, . . . , θn} and on the model of dθ (i.e., the number of intersections and between what elements of θ in a word the structure) at the same time; it is not necessarily that every singleton, say θi, has the same dsm cardinal, because each singleton has a different structure; if its structure is the simplest (no intersection of this elements with other elements) then cm(θi) = 1, if the structure is more complicated (many intersections) then cm(θi) > 1; let’s consider a singleton θi: if it has 1 intersection only then cm(θi) = 2, for 2 intersections only cm(θi) is 3 or 4 depending on the model m, for m intersections it is between m + 1 and 2m depending on the model; the maximum dsm cardinality is 2n−1 and occurs for θ1 ∪ θ2 ∪ . . . ∪ θn in the free model mf ; similarly for any set from dθ: the more complicated structure it has, the bigger is the dsm cardinal; thus the dsm cardinality measures the complexity of an element from dθ, which is a nice characterization in our opinion; we may say that for the singleton θi not even |θ| counts, but only its structure (= how many other singletons intersect θi). simple illustrative examples are given in chapter 3 and 7 of [29]. one has 1 ≤ cm(a) ≤ 2n − 1. cm(a) must not be confused with the classical cardinality |a| of a given set a (i.e. the number of its distinct elements) that’s why a new notation is necessary here. cm(a) is very easy to compute by programming from the algorithm of generation of dθ given explicated in [29]. 6.3 the generalized pignistic transformation to take a rational decision within dsmt framework, it is necessary to generalize the classical pignistic transformation in order to construct a pignistic probability function from any generalized basic belief assignment m(.) drawn from the dsm rules of combination. here is the simplest and direct extension 38 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt of the cpt to define the generalized pignistic transformation: ∀a ∈ dθ, betp{a} = ∑ x∈dθ cm(x ∩ a) cm(x) m(x) (27) where cm(x) denotes the dsm cardinal of proposition x for the dsm model m of the problem under consideration. the decision about the solution of the problem is usually taken by the maximum of pignistic probability function betp{.}. let’s remark the close ressemblance of the two pignistic transformations (26) and (27). it can be shown that (27) reduces to (26) when the hyper-power set dθ reduces to classical power set 2θ if we adopt shafer’s model. but (27) is a generalization of (26) since it can be used for computing pignistic probabilities for any models (including shafer’s model). it has been proved in [29] (chap. 7) that betp{.} defined in (27) is indeed a probability distribution. in the following section, we introduce a new alternative to betp which is presented in details in [35]. 7 the dsmp transformation in the theories of belief functions, the mapping from the belief to the probability domain is a controversial issue. the original purpose of such mappings was to make (hard) decision, but contrariwise to erroneous widespread idea/claim, this is not the only interest for using such mappings nowadays. actually the probabilistic transformations of belief mass assignments (as the pignistic transformation mentioned previously) are for example very useful in modern multitarget multisensor tracking systems (or in any other systems) where one deals with soft decisions (i.e. where all possible solutions are kept for state estimation with their likelihoods). for example, in a multiple hypotheses tracker using both kinematical and attribute data, one needs to compute all probabilities values for deriving the likelihoods of data association hypotheses and then mixing them altogether to estimate states of targets. therefore, it is very relevant to use a mapping which provides a highly probabilistic information content (pic) for expecting better performances. in this section, we briefly recall a new probabilistic transformation, denoted dsmp and introduced in [8] which is explained in details in [35]. dsmp is 39 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt straight and different from other transformations. the basic idea of dsmp consists in a new way of proportionalizations of the mass of each partial ignorance such as a1 ∪ a2 or a1 ∪ (a2 ∩ a3) or (a1 ∩ a2) ∪ (a3 ∩ a4), etc. and the mass of the total ignorance a1 ∪ a2 ∪ . . . ∪ an, to the elements involved in the ignorances. this new transformation takes into account both the values of the masses and the cardinality of elements in the proportional redistribution process. we first remind what pic criteria is and then shortly present the general formula for dsmp transformation with few numerical examples. more examples and comparisons with respect to other transformations are given in [35]. 7.1 the probabilistic information content (pic) following sudano’s approach [41, 42, 44], we adopt the probabilistic information content (pic) criterion as a metric depicting the strength of a critical decision by a specific probability distribution. it is an essential measure in any threshold-driven automated decision system. the pic is the dual of the normalized shannon entropy. a pic value of one indicates the total knowledge to make a correct decision (one hypothesis has a probability value of one and the rest of zero). a pic value of zero indicates that the knowledge to make a correct decision does not exist (all the hypotheses have an equal probability value), i.e. one has the maximal entropy. the pic is used in our analysis to sort the performances of the different pignistic transformations through several numerical examples. we first recall what shannon entropy and pic measure are and their tight relationship. • shannon entropy shannon entropy, usually expressed in bits (binary digits), of a probability measure p{.} over a discrete finite set θ = {θ1, . . . , θn} is defined by12 [23]: h(p ) , − n∑ i=1 p{θi} log2(p{θi}) (28) h(p ) is maximal for the uniform probability distribution over θ, i.e. when p{θi} = 1/n for i = 1, 2, . . . , n. in that case, one gets h(p ) = hmax = 12with common convention 0 log2 0 = 0. 40 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt − ∑ni=1 1n log2( 1n ) = log2(n). h(p ) is minimal for a totally deterministic probability, i.e. for any p{.} such that p{θi} = 1 for some i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , n} and p{θj} = 0 for j 6= i. h(p ) measures the randomness carried by any discrete probability p{.}. • the pic metric the probabilistic information content (pic) of a probability measure p{.} associated with a probabilistic source over a discrete finite set θ = {θ1, . . . , θn} is defined by [42]: p ic(p ) = 1 + 1 hmax · n∑ i=1 p{θi} log2(p{θi}) (29) the pic is nothing but the dual of the normalized shannon entropy and thus is actually unit less. p ic(p ) takes its values in [0, 1]. p ic(p ) is maximum, i.e. p icmax = 1 with any deterministic probability and it is minimum, i.e. p icmin = 0, with the uniform probability over the frame θ. the simple relationships between h(p ) and p ic(p ) are p ic(p ) = 1 − (h(p )/hmax) and h(p ) = hmax · (1 − p ic(p )). 7.2 the dsmp formula let’s consider a discrete frame θ with a given model (free dsm model, hybrid dsm model or shafer’s model), the dsmp mapping is defined by dsmp²(∅) = 0 and ∀x ∈ gθ \ {∅} by dsmp²(x) = ∑ y ∈gθ ∑ z⊆x∩y c(z)=1 m(z) + ² · c(x ∩ y ) ∑ z⊆y c(z)=1 m(z) + ² · c(y ) m(y ) (30) where ² ≥ 0 is a tuning parameter and gθ corresponds to the generic set (2θ, sθ or dθ including eventually all the integrity constraints (if any) of the model m); c(x ∩ y ) and c(y ) denote the dsm cardinals13 of the sets x ∩ y and y 13we have omitted the index of the model m for the notation convenience. 41 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt respectively. ² allows to reach the maximum pic value of the approximation of m(.) into a subjective probability measure. the smaller ², the better/bigger pic value. in some particular degenerate cases however, the dsmp²=0 values cannot be derived, but the dsmp²>0 values can however always be derived by choosing ² as a very small positive number, say ² = 1/1000 for example in order to be as close as we want to the maximum of the pic. when ² = 1 and when the masses of all elements z having c(z) = 1 are zero, (30) reduces to (27), i.e. dsmp²=1 = betp . the passage from a free dsm model to a shafer’s model involves the passage from a structure to another one, and the cardinals change as well in the formula (30). dsmp works for all models (free, hybrid and shafer’s). in order to apply classical transformation (pignistic, cuzzolin’s one, sudano’s ones, etc see [35]), we need at first to refine the frame (on the cases when it is possible!) in order to work with shafer’s model, and then apply their formulas. in the case where refinement makes sense, then one can apply the other subjective probabilities on the refined frame. dsmp works on the refined frame as well and gives the same result as it does on the non-refined frame. thus dsmp with ² > 0 works on any models and so is very general and appealing. dsmp does a redistribution of the ignorance mass with respect to both the singleton masses and the singletons’ cardinals in the same time. now, if all masses of singletons involved in all ignorances are different from zero, then we can take ² = 0, and dsmp gives the best result, i.e. the best pic value. in summary, dsmp does an ’improvement’ over previous known probabilistic transformations in the sense that dsmp mathematically makes a more accurate redistribution of the ignorance masses to the singletons involved in ignorances. dsmp and betp work in both theories: dst (= shafer’s model) and dsmt (= free or hybrid models) as well. 8 fusion of qualitative beliefs we recall here the notion of qualitative belief assignment to model beliefs of human experts expressed in natural language (with linguistic labels). we show how qualitative beliefs can be efficiently combined using an extension of dsmt to qualitative reasoning. a more detailed presentation can be found in [33, 35]. the derivations are based on a new arithmetic on linguistic labels which allows 42 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt a direct extension of all quantitative rules of combination and conditioning. the qualitative version of pcr5 rule and dsmp is also presented in the sequel. 8.1 qualitative operators computing with words (cw) and qualitative information is more vague, less precise than computing with numbers, but it offers the advantage of robustness if done correctly. here is a general arithmetic we propose for computing with words (i.e. with linguistic labels). let’s consider a finite frame θ = {θ1, . . . , θn} of n (exhaustive) elements θi, i = 1, 2, . . . , n, with an associated model m(θ) on θ (either shafer’s model m0(θ), free-dsm model mf (θ), or more general any hybrid-dsm model [29]). a model m(θ) is defined by the set of integrity constraints on elements of θ (if any); shafer’s model m0(θ) assumes all elements of θ truly exclusive, while free-dsm model mf (θ) assumes no exclusivity constraints between elements of the frame θ. let’s define a finite set of linguistic labels l̃ = {l1, l2, . . . , lm} where m ≥ 2 is an integer. l̃ is endowed with a total order relationship ≺, so that l1 ≺ l2 ≺ . . . ≺ lm. to work on a close linguistic set under linguistic addition and multiplication operators, we extends l̃ with two extreme values l0 and lm+1 where l0 corresponds to the minimal qualitative value and lm+1 corresponds to the maximal qualitative value, in such a way that l0 ≺ l1 ≺ l2 ≺ . . . ≺ lm ≺ lm+1 where ≺ means inferior to, or less (in quality) than, or smaller (in quality) than, etc. hence a relation of order from a qualitative point of view. but if we make a correspondence between qualitative labels and quantitative values on the scale [0, 1], then lmin = l0 would correspond to the numerical value 0, while lmax = lm+1 would correspond to the numerical value 1, and each li would belong to [0, 1], i. e. lmin = l0 < l1 < l2 < . . . < lm < lm+1 = lmax from now on, we work on extended ordered set l of qualitative values l = {l0, l̃, lm+1} = {l0, l1, l2, . . . , lm, lm+1} in our previous works, we did propose approximate qualitative operators, but in [35] we propose to use better and accurate operators for qualitative 43 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt labels. since these new operators are defined in details in the chapter of [35] devoted on the dsm field and linear algebra of refined labels (flarl), we just briefly introduce here only the the main ones (i.e. the accurate label addition, multiplication and division). in flarl, we can replace the ”qualitative quasi-normalization” of qualitative operators we used in our previous papers by ”qualitative normalization” since in flarl we have exact qualitative calculations and exact normalization. • label addition : la + lb = la+b (31) since a m+1 + b m+1 = a+b m+1 . • label multiplication : la × lb = l(ab)/(m+1) (32) since a m+1 · b m+1 = (ab)/(m+1) m+1 . • label division (when lb 6= l0): la ÷ lb = l(a/b)(m+1) (33) since a m+1 ÷ b m+1 = a b = (a/b)(m+1) m+1 . more accurate qualitative operations (substraction, scalar multiplication, scalar root, scalar power, etc) can be found in [35]. of course, if one really needs to stay within the original set of labels, an approximation will be necessary at the very end of the calculations. 8.2 qualitative belief assignment a qualitative belief assignment14 (qba) is a mapping function qm(.) : gθ 7→ l where gθ corresponds either to 2θ, to dθ or even to sθ depending on the model of the frame θ we choose to work with. in the case when the labels are equidistant, i.e. the qualitative distance between any two consecutive labels is the same, we get an exact qualitative result, and a qualitative basic belief assignment (bba) is considered normalized if the sum of all its qualitative masses 14we call it also qualitative belief mass or q-mass for short. 44 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt is equal to lmax = lm+1. if the labels are not equidistant, we still can use all qualitative operators defined in the flarl, but the qualitative result is approximate, and a qualitative bba is considered quasi-normalized if the sum of all its masses is equal to lmax. using the qualitative operator of flarl, we can easily extend all the combination and conditioning rules from quantitative to qualitative. in the sequel we will consider s ≥ 2 qualitative belief assignments qm1(.), . . . , qms(.) defined over the same space g θ and provided by s independent sources s1, . . . , ss of evidence. note: the addition and multiplication operators used in all qualitative fusion formulas in next sections correspond to qualitative addition and qualitative multiplication operators and must not be confused with classical addition and multiplication operators for numbers. 8.3 qualitative conjunctive rule the qualitative conjunctive rule (qcr) of s ≥ 2 sources is defined similarly to the quantitative conjunctive consensus rule, i.e. qmqcr(x) = ∑ x1,...,xs∈gθ x1∩...∩xs=x s∏ i=1 qmi(xi) (34) the total qualitative conflicting mass is given by k1...s = ∑ x1,...,xs∈gθ x1∩...∩xs=∅ s∏ i=1 qmi(xi) 8.4 qualitative dsm classic rule the qualitative dsm classic rule (q-dsmc) for s ≥ 2 is defined similarly to dsm classic fusion rule (dsmc) as follows : qmqdsmc (∅) = l0 and for all x ∈ dθ \ {∅}, qmqdsmc (x) = ∑ x1,,...,xs∈dθ x1∩...∩xs=x s∏ i=1 qmi(xi) (35) 45 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt 8.5 qualitative hybrid dsm rule the qualitative hybrid dsm rule (q-dsmh) is defined similarly to quantitative hybrid dsm rule [29] as follows: qmqdsmh (∅) = l0 (36) and for all x ∈ gθ \ {∅} qmqdsmh (x) , φ(x) · [ qs1(x) + qs2(x) + qs3(x) ] (37) where all sets involved in formulas are in the canonical form and φ(x) is the characteristic non-emptiness function of a set x, i.e. φ(x) = lm+1 if x /∈ ∅ and φ(x) = l0 otherwise, where ∅ , {∅m, ∅}. ∅m is the set of all elements of dθ which have been forced to be empty through the constraints of the model m and ∅ is the classical/universal empty set. qs1(x) ≡ qmqdsmc (x), qs2(x), qs3(x) are defined by qs1(x) , ∑ x1,x2,...,xs∈dθ x1∩x2∩...∩xs=x s∏ i=1 qmi(xi) (38) qs2(x) , ∑ x1,x2,...,xs∈∅ [u=x]∨[(u∈∅)∧(x=it)] s∏ i=1 qmi(xi) (39) qs3(x) , ∑ x1,x2,...,xk∈dθ x1∪x2∪...∪xs=x x1∩x2∩...∩xs∈∅ s∏ i=1 qmi(xi) (40) with u , u(x1) ∪ . . . ∪ u(xs) where u(x) is the union of all θi that compose x, it , θ1 ∪ . . . ∪ θn is the total ignorance. qs1(x) is nothing but the qdsmc rule for s independent sources based on mf (θ); qs2(x) is the qualitative mass of all relatively and absolutely empty sets which is transferred to the total or relative ignorances associated with non existential constraints (if any, like in some dynamic problems); qs3(x) transfers the sum of relatively empty sets directly onto the canonical disjunctive form of non-empty sets. qdsmh generalizes qdsmc works for any models (free dsm model, shafer’s model or any hybrid models) when manipulating qualitative belief assignments. 46 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt 8.6 qualitative pcr5 rule (qpcr5) in classical (i.e. quantitative) dsmt framework, the proportional conflict redistribution rule no. 5 (pcr5) defined in [33] has been proven to provide very good and coherent results for combining (quantitative) belief masses, see [31, 7]. when dealing with qualitative beliefs within the dsm field and linear algebra of refined labels [35] we get an exact qualitative result no matter what fusion rule is used (dsm fusion rules, dempster’s rule, smets’s rule, dubois-prade’s rule, etc.). the exact qualitative result will be a refined label (but the user can round it up or down to the closest integer index label). 8.7 a simple example of qualitative fusion of qba’s let’s consider the following set of ordered linguistic labels l = {l0, l1, l2, l3, l4, l5} (for example, l1, l2, l3 and l4 may represent the values: l1 , very poor, l2 , poor, l3 , good and l4 , very good, where , symbol means by definition). let’s consider now a simple two-source case with a 2d frame θ = {θ1, θ2}, shafer’s model for θ, and qba’s expressed as follows: qm1(θ1) = l1, qm1(θ2) = l3, qm1(θ1 ∪ θ2) = l1 qm2(θ1) = l2, qm2(θ2) = l1, qm2(θ1 ∪ θ2) = l2 the two qualitative masses qm1(.) and qm2(.) are normalized since: qm1(θ1) + qm1(θ2) + qm1(θ1 ∪ θ2) = l1 + l3 + l1 = l1+3+1 = l5 and qm2(θ1) + qm2(θ2) + qm2(θ1 ∪ θ2) = l2 + l1 + l2 = l2+1+2 = l5 we first derive the result of the conjunctive consensus. this yields: qm12(θ1) = qm1(θ1)qm2(θ1) + qm1(θ1)qm2(θ1 ∪ θ2) + qm1(θ1 ∪ θ2)qm2(θ1) = l1 × l2 + l1 × l2 + l1 × l2 = l 1·2 5 + l 1·2 5 + l 1·2 5 = l 2 5 + 2 5 + 2 5 = l 6 5 = l1.2 47 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt qm12(θ2) = qm1(θ2)qm2(θ2) + qm1(θ2)qm2(θ1 ∪ θ2) + qm1(θ1 ∪ θ2)qm2(θ2) = l3 × l1 + l3 × l2 + l1 × l1 = l 3·1 5 + l 3·2 5 + l 1·1 5 = l 3 5 + 6 5 + 1 5 = l 10 5 = l2 qm12(θ1 ∪ θ2) = qm1(θ1 ∪ θ2)qm2(θ1 ∪ θ2) = l1 × l2 = l 1·2 5 = l 2 5 = l0.4 qm12(θ1 ∩ θ2) = qm1(θ1)qm2(θ2) + qm1(θ2)qm2(θ1) = l1 × l1 + l2 × l3 = l 1·1 5 + l 2·3 5 = l 1 5 + 6 5 = l 7 5 = l1.4 therefore we get: • for the fusion with qdsmc, when assuming θ1 ∩ θ2 6= ∅, qmqdsmc (θ1) = l1.2 qmqdsmc (θ2) = l2 qmqdsmc (θ1 ∪ θ2) = l0.4 qmqdsmc (θ1 ∩ θ2) = l1.4 • for the fusion with qdsmh, when assuming θ1 ∩ θ2 = ∅. the mass of θ1 ∩ θ2 is transferred to θ1 ∪ θ2. hence: qmqdsmh (θ1) = l1.2 qmqdsmh (θ2) = l2 qmqdsmh (θ1 ∩ θ2) = l0 qmqdsmh (θ1 ∪ θ2) = l0.4 + l1.4 = l1.8 • for the fusion with qpcr5, when assuming θ1 ∩ θ2 = ∅. the mass qm12(θ1 ∩ θ2) = l1.4 is transferred to θ1 and to θ2 in the following way: qm12(θ1 ∩ θ2) = qm1(θ1)qm2(θ2) + qm2(θ1)qm1(θ2) then, qm1(θ1)qm2(θ2) = l1 × l1 = l 1·1 5 = l 1 5 = l0.2 is redistributed to θ1 and θ2 proportionally with respect to their qualitative masses put in the conflict l1 and respectively l1: xθ1 l1 = yθ2 l1 = l0.2 l1 + l1 = l0.2 l1+1 = l0.2 l2 = l 0.2 2 ·5 = l 1 2 = l0.5 whence xθ1 = yθ2 = l1 × l0.5 = l 1·0.5 5 = l 0.5 5 = l0.1. 48 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt actually, we could easier see that qm1(θ1)qm2(θ2) = l0.2 had in this case to be equally split between θ1 and θ2 since the mass put in the conflict by θ1 and θ2 was the same for each of them: l1. therefore l0.2 2 = l 0.2 2 = l0.1. similarly, qm2(θ1)qm1(θ2) = l2 × l3 = l 2·3 5 = l 6 5 = l1.2 has to be redistributed to θ1 and θ2 proportionally with l2 and l3 respectively : x′θ1 l2 = y′θ2 l3 = l1.2 l2 + l3 = l1.2 l2+3 = l1.2 l5 = l 1.2 5 ·5 = l1.2 whence { x′θ1 = l2 × l1.2 = l 2·1.25 = l 2.45 = l0.48 y′θ2 = l3 × l1.2 = l 3·1.25 = l 3.65 = l0.72 now, add all these to the qualitative masses of θ1 and θ2 respectively: qmqp cr5(θ1) = qm12(θ1) + xθ1 + x ′ θ1 = l1.2 + l0.1 + l0.48 = l1.2+0.1+0.48 = l1.78 qmqp cr5(θ2) = qm12(θ2) + yθ2 + y ′ θ2 = l2 + l0.1 + l0.72 = l2+0.1+0.72 = l2.82 qmqp cr5(θ1 ∪ θ2) = qm12(θ1 ∪ θ2) = l0.4 qmqp cr5(θ1 ∩ θ2) = l0 the qualitative mass results using all fusion rules (qdsmc,qdsmh,qpcr5) remain normalized in flarl. naturally, if one prefers to express the final results with qualitative labels belonging in the original discrete set of labels l = {l0, l1, l2, l3, l4, l5}, some approximations will be necessary to round continuous indexed labels to their closest integer/discrete index value; by example, qmqp cr5(θ1) = l1.78 ≈ l2, qmqp cr5(θ2) = l2.82 ≈ l3 and qmqp cr5(θ1 ∪ θ2) = l0.4 ≈ l0. 8.8 a simple example for the qdsmp transformation we first recall that the qualitative extension of (30), denoted qdsmp²(.) is given by qdsmp²(∅) = 0 and ∀x ∈ gθ \ {∅} by qdsmp²(x) = ∑ y ∈gθ ∑ z⊆x∩y c(z)=1 qm(z) + ² · c(x ∩ y ) ∑ z⊆y c(z)=1 qm(z) + ² · c(y ) qm(y ) (41) 49 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt where all operations in (41) are referred to labels, that is q-operators on linguistic labels and not classical operators on numbers. let’s consider the simple frame θ = {θ1, θ2} (here n = |θ| = 2) with shafer’s model (i.e. θ1 ∩ θ2 = ∅) and the set l = {l0, l1, l2, l3, l4, l5} of linguistic labels, with l0 = lmin and l5 = lmax = lm+1 (here m = 4) and the following qualitative belief assignment: qm(θ1) = l1, qm(θ2) = l3 and qm(θ1 ∪ θ2) = l1. qm(.) is quasi-normalized since ∑ x∈2θ qm(x) = l5 = lmax. in this example and with dsmp transformation, qm(θ1 ∪ θ2) = l1 is redistributed to θ1 and θ2 proportionally with respect to their qualitative masses l1 and l3 respectively. since both l1 and l3 are different from l0, we can take the tuning parameter ² = 0 for the best transfer. ² is taken different from zero when a mass of a set involved in a partial or total ignorance is zero (for qualitative masses, it means l0). therefore using (33), one has xθ1 l1 = xθ2 l3 = l1 l1 + l3 = l1 l4 = l 1 4 ·5 = l 5 4 = l1.25 and thus using (32), one gets xθ1 = l1 × l1.25 = l 1·(1.25) 5 = l 1.25 5 = l0.25 xθ2 = l3 × l1.25 = l 3·(1.25) 5 = l 3.75 5 = l0.75 therefore, qdsmp²=0(θ1 ∩ θ2) = qdsmp²=0(∅) = l0 qdsmp²=0(θ1) = l1 + xθ1 = l1 + l0.25 = l1.25 qdsmp²=0(θ2) = l3 + xθ2 = l3 + l0.75 = l3.75 naturally in our example, one has also qdsmp²=0(θ1 ∪ θ2) = qdsmp²=0(θ1) + qdsmp²=0(θ2) − qdsmp²=0(θ1 ∩ θ2) = l1.25 + l3.75 − l0 = l5 = lmax since hmax = log2 n = log2 2 = 1, using the qualitative extension of pic formula (29), one obtains the following qualitative pic value: 50 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt p ic = 1 + 1 1 · [qdsmp²=0(θ1) log2(qdsmp²=0(θ1)) + qdsmp²=0(θ2) log2(qdsmp²=0(θ2))] = 1 + l1.25 log2(l1.25) + l3.75 log2(l3.75) ≈ l0.94 since we considered the isomorphic transformation li = i/(m + 1) (in our particular example m = 4 interior labels). 9 belief conditioning rules 9.1 shafer’s conditioning rule (scr) until very recently, the most commonly used conditioning rule for belief revision was the one proposed by shafer [22] and referred here as shafer’s conditioning rule (scr). the scr consists in combining the prior bba m(.) with a specific bba focused on a with dempster’s rule of combination for transferring the conflicting mass to non-empty sets in order to provide the revised bba. in other words, the conditioning by a proposition a, is obtained by scr as follows : mscr(.|a) = [m ⊕ ms](.) (42) where m(.) is the prior bba to update, a is the conditioning event, ms(.) is the bba focused on a defined by ms(a) = 1 and ms(x) = 0 for all x 6= a and ⊕ denotes dempster’s rule of combination [22]. the scr approach based on dempster’s rule of combination of the prior bba with the bba focused on the conditioning event remains subjective since actually in such belief revision process both sources are subjective and in our opinions scr doesn’t manage satisfactorily the objective nature/absolute truth carried by the conditioning term. indeed, when conditioning a prior mass m(.), knowing (or assuming) that the truth is in a, means that we have in hands an absolute (not subjective) knowledge, i.e. the truth in a has occurred (or is assumed to have occurred), thus a is realized (or is assumed to be realized) and this is (or at least must be interpreted as) an absolute truth. the conditioning term ”given a” must therefore be considered as an absolute 51 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt truth, while ms(a) = 1 introduced in scr cannot refer to an absolute truth actually, but only to a subjective certainty on the possible occurrence of a from a virtual second source of evidence. the advantage of scr remains undoubtedly in its simplicity and the main argument in its favor is its coherence with the conditional probability when manipulating bayesian belief assignment. but in our opinion, scr should better be interpreted as the fusion of m(.) with a particular subjective bba ms(a) = 1 rather than an objective belief conditioning rule. this fundamental remark motivated us to develop a new family of bcr [33] based on hyper-power set decomposition (hpsd) explained briefly in the next section. it turns out that many bcr are possible because the redistribution of masses of elements outside of a (the conditioning event) to those inside a can be done in n-ways. this will be briefly presented right after the next section. 9.2 hyper-power set decomposition (hpsd) let θ = {θ1, θ2, . . . , θn}, n ≥ 2, a model m(θ) associated for θ (free dsm model, hybrid or shafer’s model) and its corresponding hyper-power set dθ. let’s consider a (quantitative) basic belief assignment (bba) m(.) : dθ 7→ [0, 1] such that ∑ x∈dθ m(x) = 1. suppose one finds out that the truth is in the set a ∈ dθ \ {∅}. let pd(a) = 2a ∩ dθ \ {∅}, i.e. all non-empty parts (subsets) of a which are included in dθ. let’s consider the normal cases when a 6= ∅ and ∑y ∈pd(a) m(y ) > 0. for the degenerate case when the truth is in a = ∅, we consider smets’ open-world, which means that there are other hypotheses θ′ = {θn+1, θn+2, . . . θn+m}, m ≥ 1, and the truth is in a ∈ dθ′ \{∅}. if a = ∅ and we consider a close-world, then it means that the problem is impossible. for another degenerate case, when ∑ y ∈pd(a) m(y ) = 0, i.e. when the source gave us a totally (100%) wrong information m(.), then, we define: m(a|a) , 1 and, as a consequence, m(x|a) = 0 for any x 6= a. let s(a) = {θi1 , θi2 , . . . , θip}, 1 ≤ p ≤ n, be the singletons/atoms that compose a (for example, if a = θ1 ∪ (θ3 ∩ θ4) then s(a) = {θ1, θ3, θ4}). the hyperpower set decomposition (hpsd) of dθ \∅ consists in its decomposition into the three following subsets generated by a: • d1 = pd(a), the parts of a which are included in the hyper-power set, except the empty set; • d2 = {(θ \ s(a)), ∪, ∩}\{∅}, i.e. the sub-hyper-power set generated by 52 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt θ \ s(a) under ∪ and ∩, without the empty set. • d3 = (dθ\{∅})\(d1∪d2); each set from d3 has in its formula singletons from both s(a) and θ \ s(a) in the case when θ \ s(a) is different from empty set. d1, d2 and d3 have no element in common two by two and their union is dθ \ {∅}. simple example of hpsd: let’s consider θ = {θ1, θ2, θ3} with shafer’s model (i.e. all elements of θ are exclusive) and let’s assume that the truth is in θ2 ∪θ3, i.e. the conditioning term is θ2 ∪θ3. then one has the following hpsd: d1 = {θ2, θ3, θ2 ∪ θ3}, d2 = {θ1} and d3 = {θ1 ∪ θ2, θ1 ∪ θ3, θ1 ∪ θ2 ∪ θ3}. more complex and detailed examples can be found in [33]. 9.3 quantitative belief conditioning rules (bcr) since there exists actually many ways for redistributing the masses of elements outside of a (the conditioning event) to those inside a, several bcr’s have been proposed in [33]. in this introduction, we will not browse all the possibilities for doing these redistributions and all bcr’s formulas but only one, the bcr number 17 (i.e. bcr17) which does in our opinion the most refined redistribution since: the mass m(w ) of each element w in d2 ∪d3 is transferred to those x ∈ d1 elements which are included in w if any proportionally with respect to their non-empty masses; if no such x exists, the mass m(w ) is transferred in a pessimistic/prudent way to the k-largest element from d1 which are included in w (in equal parts) if any; if neither this way is possible, then m(w ) is indiscriminately distributed to all x ∈ d1 proportionally with respect to their nonzero masses. bcr17 is defined by the following formula (see [33], chap. 9 for detailed explanations and examples): 53 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt mbcr17(x|a) = m(x) · [ sd1 + ∑ w∈d2∪d3 x⊂w s(w ) 6=0 m(w ) s(w ) ] + ∑ w∈d2∪d3 x⊂w, x is k-largest s(w )=0 m(w )/k (43) where ”x is k-largest” means that x is the k-largest (with respect to inclusion) set included in w and s(w ) , ∑ y ∈d1,y ⊂w m(y ) sd1 , ∑ z∈d1, or z∈d2 |@y ∈d1 with y ⊂z m(z) ∑ y ∈d1 m(y ) note: the authors mentioned in an erratum to the printed version of the second volume of dsmt book series (http://fs.gallup.unm.edu//erratum.pdf) and they also corrected the online version of the aforementioned book (see page 240 in http://fs.gallup.unm.edu//dsmt-book2.pdf that all denominators of the bcr’s formulas are naturally supposed to be different from zero. of course, shafer’s conditioning rule as stated in theorem 3.6, page 67 of [22] does not work when the denominator is zero and that’s why shafer has introduced the condition bel(b̄) < 1 (or equivalently p l(b) > 0) in his theorem when the conditioning term is b. a simple example for bcr17: let’s consider θ = {θ1, θ2, θ3} with shafer’s model (i.e. all elements of θ are exclusive) and let’s assume that the truth is in θ2 ∪θ3, i.e. the conditioning term is a , θ2 ∪θ3. then one has the following hpsd: d1 = {θ2, θ3, θ2 ∪ θ3}, d2 = {θ1} 54 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt d3 = {θ1 ∪ θ2, θ1 ∪ θ3, θ1 ∪ θ2 ∪ θ3}. let’s consider the following prior bba: m(θ1) = 0.2, m(θ2) = 0.1, m(θ3) = 0.2, m(θ1 ∪ θ2) = 0.1, m(θ2 ∪ θ3) = 0.1 and m(θ1 ∪ θ2 ∪ θ3) = 0.3. with bcr17, for d2, m(θ1) = 0.2 is transferred proportionally to all elements of d1, i.e. xθ2 0.1 = yθ3 0.2 = zθ2∪θ3 0.1 = 0.2 0.4 = 0.5 whence the parts of m(θ1) redistributed to θ2, θ3 and θ2 ∪ θ3 are respectively xθ2 = 0.05, yθ3 = 0.10, and zθ2∪θ3 = 0.05. for d3, there is actually no need to transfer m(θ1 ∪ θ3) because m(θ1 ∪ θ3) = 0 in this example; whereas m(θ1 ∪ θ2) = 0.1 is transferred to θ2 (no case of k-elements herein); m(θ1 ∪ θ2 ∪ θ3) = 0.3 is transferred to θ2, θ3 and θ2 ∪ θ3 proportionally to their corresponding masses: xθ2 /0.1 = yθ3 /0.2 = zθ2∪θ3 /0.1 = 0.3/0.4 = 0.75 whence xθ2 = 0.075, yθ3 = 0.15, and zθ2∪θ3 = 0.075. finally, one gets mbcr17(θ2|θ2 ∪ θ3) = 0.10 + 0.05 + 0.10 + 0.075 = 0.325 mbcr17(θ3|θ2 ∪ θ3) = 0.20 + 0.10 + 0.15 = 0.450 mbcr17(θ2 ∪ θ3|θ2 ∪ θ3) = 0.10 + 0.05 + 0.075 = 0.225 which is different from the result obtained with scr, since one gets in this example: mscr(θ2|θ2 ∪ θ3) = mscr(θ3|θ2 ∪ θ3) = 0.25 mscr(θ2 ∪ θ3|θ2 ∪ θ3) = 0.50 more complex and detailed examples can be found in [33]. 9.4 qualitative belief conditioning rules in this section we present only the qualitative belief conditioning rule no 17 which extends the principles of the previous quantitative rule bcr17 in the qualitative domain using the operators on linguistic labels defined previously. we consider from now on a general frame θ = {θ1, θ2, . . . , θn}, a given model m(θ) with its hyper-power set dθ and a given extended ordered set l of qualitative values l = {l0, l1, l2, . . . , lm, lm+1}. the prior qualitative basic belief assignment (qbba) taking its values in l is denoted qm(.). we assume in the sequel that the conditioning event is a 6= ∅, a ∈ dθ, i.e. the absolute 55 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt truth is in a. the approach we present here is a direct extension of bcr17 using flarl operators. such extension can be done with all quantitative bcr’s rules proposed in [33], but only qbcr17 is presented here for the sake of space limitations. 9.4.1 qualitative belief conditioning rule no 17 (qbcr17) similarly to bcr17, qbcr17 is defined by the following formula: qmqbcr17(x|a) = qm(x) · [ qsd1 + ∑ w∈d2∪d3 x⊂w qs(w )6=0 qm(w ) qs(w ) ] + ∑ w∈d2∪d3 x⊂w, x is k-largest qs(w )=0 qm(w )/k (44) where ”x is k-largest” means that x is the k-largest (with respect to inclusion) set included in w and qs(w ) , ∑ y ∈d1,y ⊂w qm(y ) sd1 , ∑ z∈d1, or z∈d2 |@y ∈d1 with y ⊂z qm(z) ∑ y ∈d1 qm(y ) naturally, all operators (summation, product, division, etc) involved in the formula (44) are the operators defined in flarl working on linguistic labels. it is worth to note that the formula (44) requires also the division of the label qm(w ) by a scalar k. this division is defined as follows: 56 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt let r ∈ r, r 6= 0. then the label division by a scalar is defined by la r = la/r (45) 9.4.2 a simple example for qbcr17 let’s consider l = {l0, l1, l2, l3, l4, l5, l6} a set of ordered linguistic labels. for example, l1, l2, l3, l4 and l5 may represent the values: l1 , very poor, l2 , poor, l3 , medium, l4 , good and l5 , very good. let’s consider also the frame θ = {a, b, c, d} with the hybrid model corresponding to the venn diagram on figure 2. &% '$ &% '$ &% '$ &% '$ @r a ¡ª b ¾ c ¾ d figure 2: venn diagram for the hybrid model for this example. we assume that the prior qualitative bba qm(.) is given by: qm(a) = l1, qm(c) = l1, qm(d) = l4 and the qualitative masses of all other elements of gθ take the minimal/zero value l0. this qualitative mass is normalized since l1 + l1 + l4 = l1+1+4 = l6 = lmax. if we assume that the conditioning event is the proposition a ∪ b, i.e. the absolute truth is in a ∪ b, the hyper-power set decomposition (hpsd) is obtained as follows: d1 is formed by all parts of a∪b, d2 is the set generated by {(c, d), ∪, ∩}\∅ = {c, d, c∪d, c∩d}, and d3 = {a∪c, a∪d, b∪c, b∪ d, a ∪ b ∪ c, a ∪ (c ∩ d), . . .}. because the truth is in a ∪ b, qm(d) = l4 is transferred in a prudent way to (a ∪ b) ∩ d = b ∩ d according to our hybrid model, because b ∩ d is the 1-largest element from a ∪ b which is included 57 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt in d. while qm(c) = l1 is transferred to a only, since it is the only element in a ∪ b whose qualitative mass qm(a) is different from l0 (zero); hence: qmqbcr17(a|a ∪ b) = qm(a) + qm(c) = l1 + l1 = l1+1 = l2. therefore, one finally gets: qmqbcr17(a|a ∪ b) = l2 qmqbcr17(c|a ∪ b) = l0 qmqbcr17(d|a ∪ b) = l0 qmqbcr17(b ∩ d|a ∪ b) = l4 which is a normalized qualitative bba. more complicated examples based on other qbcr’s can be found in [34]. 10 conclusion a general presentation of the foundations of dsmt has been proposed in this introduction. dsmt proposes new quantitative and qualitative rules of combination for uncertain, imprecise and highly conflicting sources of information. several applications of dsmt have been proposed recently in the literature and show the potential and the efficiency of this new theory. dsmt offers the possibility to work in different fusion spaces depending on the nature of problem under consideration. thus, one can work either in 2θ = (θ, ∪) (i.e. in the classical power set as in dst framework), in dθ = (θ, ∪, ∩) (the hyper-power set also known as dedekind’s lattice) or in the super-power set sθ = (θ, ∪, ∩, c(.)), which includes 2θ and dθ and which represents the power set of the minimal refinement of the frame θ when the refinement is possible (because for vague elements whose frontiers are not well known the refinement is not possible). we have enriched the dsmt with a subjective probability (dsmp²) that gets the best probabilistic information content (pic) in comparison with other existing subjective probabilities. also, we have defined and developed the dsm field and linear algebra of refined labels that permit the transformation of any fusion rule to a corresponding qualitative fusion rule which gives an exact qualitative result (i.e. a refined label), so far the best in literature. 58 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt references [1] j. bolanos, l.m. de campos, s. moral, propagation of linguistic labels in causal networks, proc. of 2nd ieee int. conf. on fuzzy systems, vol. 2, pp. 863–870, 28 march–1 april 1993. [2] l. comtet, sperner systems, sec.7.2 in advanced combinatorics: the art of finite and infinite expansions, d. reidel publ. co., pp.271-273, 1974. [3] r. dedekind, ber zerlegungen von zahlen durch ihre grssten gemeinsammen teiler, in gesammelte werke, bd. 1. pp.103-148, 1897. [4] t. denœux, reasoning with imprecise belief structures, technical report heudiasys 97/44, available at http://www.hds.utc.fr/~tdenoeux/. [5] t. denœux, reasoning with imprecise belief structures, international journal of approximate reasoning, 20, pp. 79-111, 1999. [6] j. dezert j., f. smarandache, dsmt: a new paradigm shift for information fusion, in proceedings of cogis ’ 06 conference, paris, march 2006. [7] j. dezert, a. tchamova, f. smarandache, p. konstantinova, target type tracking with pcr5 and dempster’s rules: a comparative analysis, in proceedings of fusion 2006 international conference on information fusion, fusion 2006, firenze, italy, july 10-13, 2006. [8] j. dezert, f. smarandache, a new probabilistic transformation of belief mass assignment, in proceedings of fusion 2008 conference, cologne, germany, july 2008. [9] d. dubois, h. prade, on the unicity of dempster rule of combination, international journal of intelligent systems, vol. 1, pp 133-142, 1986. [10] d. dubois, h. prade, representation and combination of uncertainty with belief functions and possibility measures, computational intelligence, 4, pp. 244-264, 1988. 59 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt [11] m.c. florea,combinaison dinformations htrognes dans le cadre unificateur des ensembles alatoires : approximations et robustesse, ph. d. thesis, laval university, canada, july 2007. [12] j.w. guan, d.a. bell, generalizing the dempster-shafer rule of combination to boolean algebras, proc. of ieee/acm int. conf. on developing and managing projects, washington, march, pp. 229–236, 1993. [13] t. inagaki, interdependence between safety-control policy and multiplesensor schemes via dempster-shafer theory, ieee trans. on reliability, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 182-188, 1991. [14] m. lamata, s. moral, calculus with linguistic probabilities and beliefs, in r. r. yager, m. fedrizzi, and j. kacprzyk, editors, advances in dempstershafer theory of evidence, pp. 133-152, wiley. [15] e. lefevre, o. colot, p. vannoorenberghe, belief functions combination and conflict management, information fusion journal, elsevier publisher, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 149-162, 2002. [16] e. lefevre, o. colot, p. vannoorenberghe, reply to the comments of r. haenni on the paper ”belief functions combination and conflict management”, information fusion journal, elsevier publisher, vol. 4, pp. 63-65, 2003. [17] c.k. murphy,combining belief functions when evidence conflicts, decision support systems, elsevier publisher, vol. 29, pp. 1-9, 2000. [18] j.b. paris, the uncertain reasoner’s companion, a mathematical perspective, cambridge university press, 1994. [19] j. pearl, probabilistic reasoning in intelligent systems: networks of plausible inference, morgan kaufmann publishers, san mateo, ca, 1988. [20] a. robinson, non-standard analysis, north-holland publ. co., 1966. [21] k. sentz, s. ferson, combination of evidence in dempster-shafer theory, sandia tech. report, sand2002-0835, 96 pages, april 2002. [22] g. shafer, a mathematical theory of evidence, princeton univ. press, princeton, nj, 1976. 60 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt [23] c.e. shannon, a mathematical theory of communication, bell syst. tech. j., 27, pp. 379-423 and 623-656, 1948. [24] n.j.a. sloane, the on-line encyclopedia of integer sequences 2003, (sequence no. a014466), http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/ [25] f. smarandache, a unifying field in logics: neutrosophic logic. neutrosophy, neutrosophic set, probability, and statistics, (4th ed.), amer. research press, rehoboth, 2005. [26] f. smarandache, a unifying field in logics: neutrosophic logic, multiple-valued logic, an international journal, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 385438, 2002. [27] f. smarandache, neutrosophy: a new branch of philosophy, multiplevalued logic, an international journal, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 297-384, 2002. [28] f. smarandache (editor), proceedings of the first international conference on neutrosophics, univ. of new mexico, gallup campus, nm, usa, 1-3 dec. 2001, xiquan, phoenix, 2002. [29] f. smarandache, j. dezert (editors), applications and advances of dsmt for information fusion, am. res. press, rehoboth, 2004. http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/dsmt-book1.pdf [30] f. smarandache, unification of fusion theories (uft), presented at nato advanced study institute, albena, bulgaria, 16-27 may 2005 also in international journal of applied mathematics & statistics, vol. 2, 1-14, 2004 and on http://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0409040. [31] f. smarandache, j. dezert, information fusion based on new proportional conflict redistribution rules, proceedings of fusion 2005 conf., philadelphia, july 26-29, 2005. [32] f. smarandache, j. dezert, uniform and partially uniform redistribution rules, published in ”advances and applications of dsmt for plausible and paradoxical reasoning for information fusion”, international workshop organized by the bulgarian ist centre of competence in 21st 61 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt century, december 14, 2006, bulg. acad. of sciences, sofia, bulgaria. http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/cs/070202 [33] f. smarandache, j. dezert (editors), applications and advances of dsmt for information fusion, vol. 2, american research press, rehoboth, august 2006. http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/dsmt-book2.pdf [34] f. smarandache, j. dezert, qualitative belief conditioning rules, proceedings of fusion 2007 conf., québec, canada, july 2007. [35] f. smarandache, j. dezert (editors), applications and advances of dsmt for information fusion, vol. 3, american research press, rehoboth, 2009. [36] f. smarandache, dsmt web page, http:/fs.gallup.unm.edu//dsmt.htm [37] ph. smets, combining non distinct evidence, proc. north american fuzzy information processing (nafip 1986), new orleans, la, 1986. [38] ph. smets, e.h. mamdani, d. dubois, h. prade (editors), non-standard logics for automated reasoning, academic press, 1988. [39] smets ph., kennes r., the transferable belief model, artif. intel., 66(2), pp. 191-234, 1994. [40] ph. smets, data fusion in the transferable belief model, proceedings of the 3rd international conference on information fusion, fusion 2000, paris, july 10-13, 2000, pp ps21-ps33. [41] j. sudano, “pignistic probability transforms for mixes of lowand highprobability events”, proc. of fusion 2001, montreal, august 2001. [42] j. sudano, “the system probability information content (pic) . . . ”, proc. of fusion 2002, annapolis, july 2002. [43] j. sudano, “equivalence between belief theories and naive bayesian fusion for systems with independent evidential data part i, the theory”, proc. of fusion 2003 , cairns, july 2003. 62 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt [44] j. sudano, “yet another paradigm illustrating evidence fusion (yapief)”, proc. of fusion 2006, florence, july 2006. [45] m. tombak, a. isotamm, t. tamme, on logical method for counting dedekind numbers, lect. notes on comp.sci., 2138, p. 424-427, springerverlag, 2001. [46] f. voorbraak, on the justification of dempster’s rule of combination, artificial intelligence, 48, pp. 171-197, 1991. http://turing.wins.uva.nl/~fransv/#pub [47] y.-m. wang, j.-b. yang, d.-l. xu, k.-s. chin, on the combination and normalization of interval-valued belief structures, information sciences 177, pp. 1230–1247, 2007. [48] r. r. yager, hedging in the combination of evidence, journal of information and optimization science, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 73-81, 1983. [49] r. r. yager, on the relationships of methods of aggregation of evidence in expert systems, cybernetics and systems, vol. 16, pp. 1-21, 1985. [50] r. r. yager, on the dempster-shafer framework and new combination rules, information sciences, vol. 41, pp. 93–138, 1987. [51] l. zadeh, fuzzy sets, inform. and control 8, pp. 338-353, 1965. [52] l. zadeh, fuzzy logic and approximate reasoning, synthese, 30, 407-428, 1975. [53] l. zadeh, on the validity of dempster’s rule of combination, memo m 79/24, univ. of california, berkeley, 1979. [54] l. zadeh, review of mathematical theory of evidence, by glenn shafer, ai magazine, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 81-83, 1984. [55] l. zadeh, a simple view of the dempster-shafer theory of evidence and its implications for the rule of combination, berkeley cognitive science report no. 33, university of california, berkeley, ca, 1985. 63 jean dezert and florentin smarandache an introduction to dsmt [56] l. zadeh, a simple view of the dempster-shafer theory of evidence and its implication for the rule of combination, ai magazine 7, no.2, pp. 85-90, 1986. [57] l. zhang, representation, independence, and combination of evidence in the dempster-shafer theory, advances in the dempster-shafer theory of evidence, r.r. yager, j. kacprzyk and m. fedrizzi, eds., john wiley and sons, inc., new york, pp. 51-69, 1994. jean dezert the french aerospace lab onera/dtim/sif 29 avenue de la division leclerc 92320 châtillon, france e-mail:jean.dezert@onera.fr florentin smarandache math. and sciences dept. university of new mexico 200 college road, gallup, nm 87301, u.s.a. e-mail:smarand@unm.edu 64 brain_3_4_final 51 learners test performance and gardner`s multiple inteligence theory: intercorrelation in a bilingual context bagher azarmi sharif university of technology, iran bager.azarmi@gmail.com ali jahangard sharif university of technology, iran jahangard@sharif.ir hossein movassagh sharif university of technology, iran hussein_movassagh@yahoo.com abstract although decisions and inferences made based on test scores depend both on the characteristics of test takers and testing environment, the former seems to have the most overriding importance. the present study which was conducted in a bilingual environment is in line with this assumption and is aimed at investigating intelligence as one of the test taker characteristics. first, it aimed at finding the possible correlation between any of the eight types of intelligences in gardner`s mi theory and eap test performance. second, it intended to survey the intercorrelation among the eight types of intelligences themselves. to that end, 122 male bilingual efl learners who were all sophomore university students were chosen as the participants of the study. they sat for the final eap exam and filled the questionnaire on multiple intelligence. the test takers' scores on eap exam were correlated with their multiple intelligences. the result did not demonstrate any statistically significant go-togetherness between eap test performance and any types of intelligence; however, a significantly positive correlation was observed among the eight types of intelligences themselves showing that all types of intelligences are equally important and ought to be equally dealt with in efl context. keywords: multiple intelligence; correlation; intercorrelation. 1. introduction technically speaking, intelligence should not be considered as a unitary construct, since, according to the theories proposed, it is made up of different components with hierarchical organization. intelligence is described as the combination of a general factor and several specific factors. all people can access the general factor to the same extent for all kinds of cognitive acts, while the strength of specific factors fluctuates from one act to another (dörnyei, 2005). in 1930s thurstone made a distinction between seven chief cognitive abilities and listed them as verbal comprehension, word fluency, number facility, spatial visualization, associative memory, perceptual speed, and reasoning. after a while, thurstone proposed seven primary cognitive abilities as: verbal comprehension, word fluency, number facility, spatial visualization, associative memory, perceptual speed, and reasoning (cited in dörnyei, 2005). next, after different theories and models proposed for intelligence, gardner (1983) introduced his prominent theory of multiple intelligences consisting of eight distinct intelligences. 1.1. multiple intelligence gardner`s multiple intelligences was first developed as a reaction to the traditional conceptualizations of intelligence and later became a major contributor to educational practices and reforms. gardner questioned the validity of traditional iq tests in that he thought they would only tap the logic and language, however, the human brain has other equally important competencies. therefore he defined intelligence as "a biopsychological potential to process information that can be brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture" (1999: 34). initially the theory consisted of seven distinct intelligences proposed as linguistic, mathematical-logical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal (gardner, 1999). naturalistic intelligence was subsequently introduced by gardner and was added to the previous seven intelligences, therefore made the total of eight distinct intelligences. in stating the rationale of his theory, gardner (1991) posited that: all human beings are capable of at least seven different ways of knowing the world -ways that i have elsewhere labeled the seven human intelligences. according to this analysis, we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves. where individuals differ is in the strength of these intelligences -the so-called profile of intelligences -and in the ways in which such intelligences are invoked and combined to carry out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains (p12). the linguistic intelligence enables us to use the words effectively both in the oral and written form. in other words, this intelligence enables people to manipulate the structure, phonology, and the semantics of language to reach pragmatic results. logical-mathematical intelligence is the capacity to use numbers efficiently. it arouses the sensitivity to logical patterns and relationships, statements and propositions, functions and other related abstractions, and thus demystifies the use of possesses such as categorization, inference, generalization, calculation and hypothesis testing. spatial intelligence is the competence for recognizing the visual-spatial world accurately and applying transformation on that perception. this kind of intelligence is useful in appreciation of color, line, shape, form, space, and the relationship existing among them. bodily kinesthetic intelligence accounts for the use of the whole body to express ideas and meanings and also the use of hands to produce and transform things. musical intelligence involves one's sensitivity to rhythm, pith and melody, duration etc. of a musical piece. it enables people to perceive, transform, discriminate and express musical forms. by musical intelligence, one can recognize the moods, interests, motivations and personalities of other people. intrapersonal intelligence, on the other hand, accounts for recognizing one's own mood, behavior, motivation and interest; or simply put, having a precise picture oneself. naturalistic intelligence, which was added later on by gardner, enables us to recognize and categorize a variety of different kinds of environments. it involves the sensitivity to natural phenomena. armstrong (2009) proposed some key points regarding the mi theory. armstrong claimed that all human beings have access to all types of intelligences. given the appropriate incentive, reinforcement, support, and instruction, most people are capable of enhancing each of the intelligences to a satisfactory level of competency. all intelligences most often work together in an intricate way, that is, no intelligence exists alone and all intelligences interact with one another. finally, armstrong stated that "there are many ways to be intelligent within each category there is no standard set of attributes that one must have to be considered intelligent in a specific area. consequently, a person may not be able to read, yet be highly linguistic because he can tell a terrific story or has a large, oral vocabulary. similarly, a person may be quite awkward on the playing field, yet possess superior bodily-kinesthetic intelligence when she weaves a carpet or creates an inlaid chess table. mi theory emphasizes the rich diversity of ways in which people show their gifts within intelligences as well as between intelligences" (p. 16). gardner (1987) also draws attention to the overriding importance of recognizing and nurturing all of the human intelligences and the combination of those intelligences since it is held that they interact in an abstruse way. 1.2. english for academic purposes (eap) language for specific purposes (lsp) is a movement toward serving the language needs of those who need to learn language so as to carry out particular tasks and roles with it. therefore, the main purpose is acquiring content and real-world skills by means of a second language rather than b. azarmi, a. jahangard, h. movassagh learners test performance and gardner`s multiple inteligence theory: intercorrelation in a bilingual context 53 acquiring the language for its own sake. english for academic purposes (eap) is a sub category of lsp that was coined by tim johns and appeared in the collection of papers edited by cowie and heaton for the first time (jordan, 2002). eap, currently, refers to any english language teaching course that has a study purpose. hyland (2006) asserts that eap is a very broad term that covers all areas of academic communicative practice from pre-tertiary, undergraduate, and postgraduate teaching and classroom interactions to research genres and administrative practice (such as course documents and doctoral oral defenses). to investigate the relationship between multiple intelligences and eap test performance, three research questions were posed: 1. is there any significant correlation between any type of intelligences and eap test performance? 2. which one of the intelligence types in mi theory is most highly correlated with eap test performance? 3. is there any correlation among the eight types of intelligence in mi theory? three null hypotheses were offered accordingly as follows: 1. there is no correlation between any type of intelligences and eap test performance. 2. none of the intelligence types in mi theory is highly correlated with eap test performance. 3. there is no relationship among the eight types of intelligences in mi theory. 2. methodology 2.1. participants the current study involved 122 iranian second-year university male students, majoring in computer sciences. they speak turkish as their first language, persian as their second language, and they were learning english as a foreign language. the classes were held once a week for 90 minutes and were compulsory for all students. the main activity in the classes was reading technical texts. the amount of participants' past exposure to english, both inside and outside the classroom was estimated by asking them about their backgrounds. they were asked about the past experiences of travelling to or studying in an english-speaking country, and the english classes they had taken so far. results showed that none of the students had been abroad, and that they had studied english for about 6 years, mainly through reading-based formal education in the iranian secondary and high schools. 2.2. instruments two main instruments were applied in this study: an eap test and the multiple intelligence developmental assessment scale (midas). in the final term exam, a test was given to the subjects in four sections: a, b, c, and d. in section ‘a’ they were asked to complete 6 sentences with the given words. in part ‘b’, which included 8 multiple choice items, they were required to select the correct option. in part c that involved 4 items, the correct forms of the words given in parentheses must be used for completing the sentences. in part d, they were asked to translate 2 short paragraphs into persian. midas is a questionnaire recommended by gardner and developed by shearer (1996) for measuring multiple intelligences. the instrument takes 35 minutes to be completed and includes 119 likert-scale (from a to f, with e being the highest and f being `i do not know`) questions that cover eight areas of abilities, skills, interest, and activities. in this study, eight types of intelligence were surveyed and recently proposed 9th intelligence (gardner, 1999), existential intelligence, was not included. 2.3. procedure at first eap final test was given to the participants. after finishing the test, they were asked to read the questionnaire on multiple intelligences carefully and mark their desired options in a separate answer sheet. also they were given some extra clarifications for a couple of the items to alleviate any ambiguity. the participants’ results on the two tests were collected and analyzed brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 respectively. 3. data analysis pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was calculated to investigate the relationship between eap test performance and the multiple intelligences. a multiple correlation was run in order to explore the correlation between each of the multiple intelligences and eap test performance on the one hand and the intercorrelation among the different types of intelligences. 4. results and discussion the result of correlational analysis is shown in table 1: table 1. intercorrelation among different types of intelligences and eap test performance intrapersonal interpersonal musical kinesthetic naturalistic linguistics math/logic spatial eap test performance .090 .098 .274 .172 -.003 .113 .065 -.079 intrapersonal .460 .310 .111 .525* .514* .735** .400 interpersonal .634** .531* .565** .493* .427 .671** musical .665** .605** .276 .290 .367 kinesthetic .332 .002 .080 .332 naturalistic .388 .521* .621** linguist .615** .667** math/logic .546* the correlation coefficient for intrapersonal intelligence and eap test performance was .090 which did not indicate any relationship between the two variables (r (122) = 0.090, p<0.05). pearson’s correlation coefficient also yielded a very trivial positive correlation between interpersonal intelligence and eap test performance which was not statistically significant (r (122) = 0.113, p<0.05). there is a proportionately higher correlation between musical intelligence and eap test performance, however, the result is not significant yet again (r (122) = 24, p< .05). a negative correlation was observed between eap test performance and naturalistic and spatial intelligences. the correlation coefficients for eap test performance and naturalistic and spatial intelligences are respectively -.003 and -.079. mathematical-logical intelligence showed a negligible correlation with eap test performance (r (122) = .065, p< .05). the kinesthetic and linguistic intelligence were roughly correlated to the same degree with eap test performance. the correlation coefficient was .172 for kinesthetic intelligence and .113 for linguistic intelligence. the result of the correlation analysis between eap test performance and multiple intelligences did not demonstrate any significant value for the correlation coefficient; therefore, the first null hypothesis stated as “there is no correlation between any type of intelligences and eap test performance” is confirmed. none of the eight intelligences in the mi theory appeared to have a high significant correlation with eap test performance. however, among the eight intelligences, musical intelligence relatively had the highest correlation with eap test performance. although there was a very low and negligible correlation between eap and the eight types of intelligences, a high significant intercorrelation was observed among the multiple intelligencers themselves; therefore, the third null hypothesis stated as “there is no relationship among the eight types of intelligences in mi theory” is rejected and the relationship among them is confirmed, which is in line with the findings by visser, ashton, and vernon (2006) who also found a high intercorrelation among the eight intelligences. 5. conclusion gardner (1987) held that through recognizing one’s multiple intelligences, we will have a better opportunity for coping more appropriately with the many problems that are confronted in the world. currie (2003) also maintains that in bringing the mi theory into effect in classrooms, it is b. azarmi, a. jahangard, h. movassagh learners test performance and gardner`s multiple inteligence theory: intercorrelation in a bilingual context 55 crucially important that teachers take into account the students’ strength in order to make the process of learning more attainable. the present study was aimed at uncovering the relationship between eap, which is an essential aspect of competence for postgraduate and university students and the eight types of intelligences as a highly critical theory in psychology and education proposed by gardner. the results showed a lack of go-togetherness between the eap test performance and the eight types of intelligences. this lack of correlation might be due to the small number of participants or that particular context in which the study was carried out. another finding of the study was the existence of a significant positive correlation among the eight types of intelligences that support the idea that all different types of intelligences interact with one another in an intricate way, and that all human are equipped with all of these intelligences to some extent. however, this study was performed in a bilingual situation with a limited number of participants; other studies need to be conducted in different contexts with larger number of participants. 6. references [1] armstrong, t. 2009. multiple intelligence in the classroom (3rd ed.). virginia: ascd. [2] currie, k. l. 2003. “multiple intelligence theory and the esl classroom-preliminary considerations.” the internet tesl journal 4.4. retrieved december, 2011 from http://iteslj.org/articles/currie-mitheory.html. [3] dörnyei, z. 2005. the psychology of language learner. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum association, inc.publishers. [4] gardner, h. 1987. “beyond iq: education and human development. harvard educational review 57.2:187–193. [5] gardner, h. 1991. the unschooled mind. new york: basic books. [6] gardner, h. 1999. frames of mind. new york: basic books. [7] hyland, k. 2006. english for academic purposes. new york: routledge. [8] jordan, r. 2002. “the growth of eap in britain.” journal of english for academic purposes 1 .1:69–78. [9] shearer, b. 1996. multiple intelligences developmental assessment scale. greyden press. [10] visser, b. a., ashton, m. c., & vernon, p. a. 2006. “ beyond g: putting multiple intelligences theory to test.” intelligence 34: 487-502. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 554-570 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/435 submitted: august 19th, 2022 | accepted for publication: february 28th, 2023 network planning at the faculties of physical education and sport in the postmodern era serg popel1, vasyl mazin2, borys maksymchuk3, volodymyr saienko4, tamara chernyshenko5, iryna maksymchuk6 1 vasyl stefanyk precarpathian national university, ivano-frankivsk, ukraine, popelsergij@gmail.com 2 zaporizhzhia polytechnic national university, zaporizhzhia, ukraine, nivis73@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5247-1507 3 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, ukraine, 0674256781@ukr.net 4 academy of management and administration, opole, poland, saienko22@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2736-0017 5 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, department of theory and methods of sports, vinnytsia mykhailo kotsiubynskyi state pedagogical university, vinnytsia, ukraine, tamarra2803@qmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9689-5758 6 izmail state university of humanities, izmail, ukraine, 0963113686@ukr.net abstract: the article aims to study the issues of university teachers and students from the faculties of physical education and sport to improve the educational process based on the principles of network planning. the article presents the results of the sociological questioning of the subjects of the educational process of physical education and sport faculties about the problems in the organization and planning of effective learning, as well as appropriate optimizing recommendations. a subject correlation matrix has been developed in the furtherance of this goal, in which each subject has a specific line and column. the analysis of the subjects’ matrix allows one to pre-determine the order of study of individual subjects in courses and cycles, their relationship and interframe sequence. within the framework of the experiment, the authors of the article have surveyed 52 university teachers and 450 physical education students. the survey included questions relating to personal opinions about the advantages and disadvantages of the new curriculum and relevant programmes in 16 major subjects. statistical data processing was carried out using the spss statistics 17.0 software package. the recommended concentrated arrangement of the leading subjects of the biomedical cycle will allow one to create an interdisciplinary programme giving a complete vision of the structure, functions and biochemical processes occurring in various human body systems. keywords: subject matrix; inter-cycle sequence; sport; students; teachers; interdisciplinary links. how to cite: popel, s., mazin, v., maksymchuk, b., saienko, v., chernyshenko, t., & maksymchuk, i. (2023). network planning at the faculties of physical education and sport in the postmodern era. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(1), 554-570. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/435 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/435 mailto:popelsergij@gmail.com mailto:nivis73@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5247-1507 mailto:0674256781@ukr.net mailto:saienko22@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2736-0017 mailto:tamarra2803@qmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9689-5758 mailto:0963113686@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/435 network planning at the faculties of physical education and sport in the … serg popel, et al. 555 introduction the existing system of personnel training in physical culture and sports had evolved by the end of the 1990s. during its 30-year existence, significant problems have been accumulated, mainly since physical education and sports spheres in the world have continuously progressed, developed in a scientific, methodical, and purely practical way, along with the development of the whole society. it is precisely this that causes certain discrepancies between the real practical needs of physical culture and sports in personnel and the requirements for them in ukraine, on the one hand, and the structure and content of training specialists in physical education, physical therapy, and occupational therapy at the faculties of physical education and sports, on the other hand. the government resolutions on improving the quality of specialists with higher education and the decision of the ministry of science and education and the ministry of health of ukraine on the reform of higher education impose a number of new requirements for graduates of institutes and faculties of physical education and sport. this led to a series of studies: optimization of the competence approach in the educational content of the direction "physical education", adamova (2018); introduction of innovations in the professional self-development of future physical education teachers (palamarchuk et al., 2020), as well as futurological orientation in the training of students of physical education, (maksymchuk et al., 2020a). in 2016, ukrainian university teachers and students from these educational units began to work on new curricula and programmes; some new textbooks and manuals were published; relevant government institutions declared their need for training specialists based on the qualification characteristics of new specialties. specific suggestions for modifying the educational process for subjects of postmodernist consciousness are: total interdisciplinarity and synergy, klychnikova (2014), and their congruent expansion of expected competencies (physical education teacher as ecologist, paramedic, rehabilitator, etc.) (maksymchuk et al., 2020b). thus, they need coach-teachers, physical education teachers, physical therapists, ergotherapists. the qualification characteristics of a coach-teacher (specialties 014 and 017) and a physical rehabilitologist (specialty 027) impose certain requirements on the role of these specialists, as well as on the level of their training and volume of knowledge and skills. relevance of the article. the draft of the "main directions of higher education restructuring" states the necessity of radical improvement of higher school work for qualitative improvement of specialists' professional training. this provision fully applies to institutes of physical broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 556 education and faculties of physical education and sport, especially in the era of postmodernism. but, unfortunately, in the post-soviet space we do not find theoretical, methodological and experimental works devoted to network planning and self-organization of multimodal work of physical education teachers and sports coaches. at the same time, many years of experience show that graduates from faculties or institutes of physical culture, depending on what specialty they mastered, are assigned to work in different units or systems of physical education or health care, each of which, in addition to the general, has its own specific features of working with people (children youth sports, secondary schools, technical schools, universities, physical education groups, sports management organizations, instructors (methodologists) on physical therapy in medical institutions). some graduates work as assistant physiotherapists. occasionally, they work with highly qualified sportsmen. all this requires specific knowledge and skills. however, practice shows that it is impossible to optimally prepare a highly qualified coach for a specific, certain sphere in the field of sports in the institutes and faculties according to existing curricula since they do not acquire the necessary theoretical, methodical and practical knowledge and skills (lopukhina, 2015). the fact is that the profession of the coach can be absent at all. this profession is very specific, which is determined by the contingents of sportsmen with whom a coach has to work. the absence of such specificity in the training of a coach significantly (up to several years, depending on abilities) increases the period of work-in and adaptation of a graduate in the branch of the sport in which he or she works. the same provision applies equally to a physical rehabilitation therapist and a teacher of physical education at school. at the same time, throughout employment, specialists move from one branch to another, which requires reconstructing work, mastering new skills and abilities and a long accumulation of experience (knyazkova, 2018). however, there is the knowledge required in any field of work on physical culture and sports, as well as relevant skills that determine success in any work with people, that is, organizational and pedagogical skills necessary to involve the population in active activities, physical culture and sports, organize and conduct various sports and recreational activities with children, adolescents and adults. still, the faculties of physical education and sport do not train multi-skilled specialist since the curriculum and programmes do not envisage such training. thus, it is vital to develop students‟ practical skills in organizational and pedagogical work with people and provide them with relevant sports network planning at the faculties of physical education and sport in the … serg popel, et al. 557 and fitness education, shape their specific outlook and allow them in a relatively short time to master any field not only of physical culture and sports but also health care (bondarenko, 2012). the fundamental changes in activities of institutes and faculties of physical training are caused by the need for some quality changes in professional training of specialists in the field of physical education, sport, and physical rehabilitation. however, the existing curricula cannot prepare a high-qualified coach, instructor, or physical therapist for a specific branch of the sport since they do not provide the necessary theoretical, methodical, and practical knowledge and skills. the international significance of the article lies in the fact that it is the first theoretical discussion of the mentioned topic, which empirically complements popular in the international scientific community statements about personal curricula and personal responsibility of subjects of education in the postmodern era (slattery, 2012), about the importance of psychological, ethical and value aspects in the interdisciplinary expansion of professional postmodern consciousness, as written about by k. gordon (2013), citing the popularization of particular sports as an example. we have also tried to take into account the newly popular holisticphenomenological interdisciplinary approach, which is now widely implemented in the arts and humanities (coskun et al., 2021). our article provides sociological material for a deeper understanding of the stylizations of "postmodern planning," which, according to m. dear, is based on the evaluative oppositions of "function context; commodification – noncomodification; and penetration participation" (dear, 1986). the significance of the article also lies in the fact that its results confirm l. dawley's arguments regarding the construction of knowledge in social virtual networks or real networks, which involve the organization of the educational environment as a self-organized "second life" ("second life") (dawley, 2009). the results of this article can serve as a social back-runner for participants in horizontal network planning, as the post-2015 development of such network planning planes: "horizontal integration of the education sector with other development sectors, such as health and social protection; vertical integration at national and subnational levels; and lateral integration of state and non-state actors" (persaud, 2017). also, the findings from our article will help develop integrated interdisciplinary training programs for physical education teachers, regardless of region or traditional educational background. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 558 the aim of the article is to conduct a sociological study of the thematic and professional-value priorities of students and teachers of the faculty of physical education and sports after studying the theoretical side of our topic; on the basis of these priorities and the study of the present curriculum to form appropriate recommendations to optimize the network planning of the educational process. the methods used in the article include both theoretical and social experimental approaches. we used a systematic analysis of relevant literature from domestic sources and international journals, which are included in the scientometric databases scopus and web of science. the hypothesis of the study is the thesis: the creation of fullfledged programs and curricula is possible only with the use of network planning and management of the learning process. it is necessary to accurately determine the content and timing of each discipline, taking into account interdisciplinary relationships and its compliance with the qualification characteristics. it is necessary to review the structures of textbooks and place the material in them taking into account the sequence of its study in the courses and in relationship with other disciplines. article ethics. all participants in the social survey agreed to participate voluntarily, and the authors coordinated the social survey with the appropriate ethics committees. educational planning under the dominance of the postmodern consciousness one should also consider the socio-cultural background of the issue in question. simonsen argues that planning on postmodern conditions is closely related to trends in urban environment. the main discourse that arises on this basis is associated with cultural and social factors in management. on the one hand, there is "a postfordist model of accumulation” in the socio-economic system of society (simonsen, 1990). on the other hand, one can observe a culturological and socio-philosophical model of “otherness” in planning social structures and events (simonsen, 1990). in any case, such duality only stimulates the discourse of interaction and self-organization. also, somewhat destructive ambivalence occurs in opposition of modernist traditions and postmodern innovations in planning. according to daliot-bul (2009), planning is currently suspended between the modernist sensibility, whose validity is rather problematic, and the postmodern reality, which poses serious challenges to the foundations of planning in the form of network planning at the faculties of physical education and sport in the … serg popel, et al. 559 assumptions. a possible solution to this issue lies in connecting planning and critical social theory. postmodernism views a network in a broad sense. as noted by booher & innes, it is “a flow of power in which participants all share”, regardless of the hierarchy. the latter is losing its traditional meaning. bucher, & innes indicate that collaborative planning synergistically enhances the efficiency of the entire network. indeed, “it comes into being most effectively when three conditions govern the relationship of agents in a collaborative network: diversity, interdependence, and authentic dialogue (diad)” (booher, & innes, 2002). such a network resembles a complex adaptive system, flexible and sensitive to rapid changes, segmentation, and fragmentation of controlled elements. however, participants in network planning should constantly learn and acquire multimodal roles. a historical approach to the postmodern aspect of planning social (including educational) processes proves that fundamental changes in this area took place between the late 1960s  the early 1970s. they are associated with shifts in economic and urban processes. collective planning has faced the plurality of personal values and intentions, which greatly fragments its history and stages of development. after all, in the 1960s and the early 1970s, social planning proceeded from the protection of human rights, environmental and social factors of one well-being. in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, however, planning dealt with the plurality of opinions. it must be noted that the latter has generated more debate than practical changes. recent publications indicate that the main problems of social planning are flexibility, ethics, procedural validity, and openness. however, most of the open issues are determined by the “open-enddedness” of postmodernism, which makes normative and effective planning impossible (jon, 2020). jon (2020) states that one can develop the principles of environmentally friendly participation in collective planning based on the concept of equality and the so-called “anti-essentialist norms”. according to jon (2020), these norms are as follows: one should “1) take into account the historicity of social relations, 2) have a modest attitude toward what we claim as the representation of “the public”, 3) recognize human interdependence”. solidarity and mutual understanding can solve the main problems of network management. it involves the following aspects: whose opinion is a priority; which social groups, collectives, individuals and other components of the network should be prioritized at a particular moment in the development of the organization. regarding educational planning, global changes in the economy, politics, culture and demography create new educational paradigms. lamb, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 560 & vodicka call them “critical postmodern pedagogies”. both planning and management of the educational environment in such a context should “respond to the complexities and erratic shifts of the world, whilst also addressing the power structures” (lamb & vodicka, 2021). this will enable the transition from “critical postmodern pedagogies” to “a pedagogy of hope”. the latter, “rather than reinforcing the status quo, has the potential to be a space of resistance and transformation” (lamb & vodicka, 2021). a. patton and c. prince believe that the educational environment in the era of postmodernism, or in its post-epoch, while maintaining a postmodern social consciousness, extends far beyond the institutional educational environment. they believe that interdisciplinarity broadly encompasses the entire lived experience of educational actors: connecting academic experience with lived experience, partnering with life professionals on campus is an attractive option for planning a postmodern curriculum (patton, & prince, 2018, p. 102). the postmodern orientation of the future professional is impossible without the implementation of the personal and pragmatic aspects. certain groups of scholars boldly combine career guidance and postmodern personal or group orientation, and consider careers instead of professions (kara et al., 2020). they suggest the development of general and specific career adaptation programs as an element of planning, managing, and selfregulating the learning process. due to this broadening of the scope of the problem and the postmodern revision of the scope of key concepts, we are now seeing a proliferation of quasi-scientific but relevant synonyms to the educational process and its management: educational scenarios, intensions, professional and career models, projects, etc. (kozielska et al., 2020). distributing the basic subjects in the context of creating interdisciplinary programmes the authors have surveyed 52 university teachers and 450 students from the faculty of physical training and sport. it must be acknowledged that 18 university teachers work at the department of theories and principles of physical education and sport; 24 university teachers work at the department of sports and pedagogical skills development; 10 university teachers work at the department of physical therapy and ergotherapy. regarding the interviewed students, 176 of them are trained within a specialization 014 – physical education; 192 of them are trained within a specialization 017 – physical education and sports; 82 of them are trained within a specialization 027 – physical therapy and ergotherapy. network planning at the faculties of physical education and sport in the … serg popel, et al. 561 the survey included questions relating to personal opinions about the advantages and disadvantages of the new curriculum and relevant programmes in 16 major subjects (medico biologic and general theoretical cycles, as well as basic courses of relevant specialization). a separate group contained questions about the role of a specialist both in the field of physical education and physical rehabilitation. a subject correlation matrix has been developed in the furtherance of this goal, in which each subject has a specific line and column. the subjects are given preliminary numbers, while the final numbering considers social subjects and also subjects not requiring special interrelations (foreign languages, legal studies, political science, history and other similar courses). the specializations present the main topics that require coordination with the subjects of other cycles. a unit at the intersection of a column and a line indicates that the subject with the column number must be based on the course with the line number. thus, each column displays all the subjects, the generated information in which should be used in studies of the course, corresponding to the column. in the lines, there are the subjects, namely the intended consumers of information for this course. the analysis of the subjects‟ matrix allows one to pre-determine the order of study of individual subjects in courses and cycles, their relationship and interframe sequence. statistical data processing was carried out using the spss statistics 17.0 software package. standard methods of variation statistics, calculation of averages, standard error of the mean were used. the significance of differences between the indicators was determined using the criterion of student‟s t-distribution (the method of parametric statistics) and mannwhitney u test (the method of non-parametric statistics). significant differences were considered indicators at p<0.05. according to 84.2% of university teachers and 75.6% of students (regardless of their specialization), the role of a specialist is seen as preparedness for teaching, coaching, organizational, managerial, scientific, research, rehabilitation and wellness work with youth and adult groups of the population. among the majority (89.5%) of students, the work that is assumed to be a coach-teacher is that the role of a specialist is viewed as work in sports schools, boarding schools of sports profile, higher and secondary specialized educational institutions, sports teams in sports societies and departments, managerial apparatus for physical culture, sports clubs, groups of physical culture. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 562 the authors have found that according to 70.9% of university teachers and 58.7% of students, in the specialist‟s sense, early specialization in many sports should be taken into account. therefore, according to the majority of the respondents (91.7% and 90.3%, respectively), the largest amount of knowledge and skills must be acquired for working with children. indeed, 78.8% of university teachers and 88.1% of students believe that the requirements for the moral and ethical training of the future specialists, the amount of knowledge on psychological subjects have been successfully developed in the topics of the complex plan of research work of the faculty and can be reflected in new curricula and plans. almost half (48.7%) of respondents believe that the main difficulties arise regarding the coordination of the relationship and the sequence of studying the main subject of biomedical, general theoretical and sportspedagogical cycles. the analysis of the subjects‟ matrix that was filled in by all the survey participants has made it possible to determine the order of studying individual subjects in courses and cycles, their interrelation and interframe sequence (see table 1). table 1. interrelation matrix of the subjects that determines the order of studying individual subjects in cycles n o subject 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 11 1 2 13 14 15 16 1 anatomy 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 biochemistry 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 physiology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 psychology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 biomechanics 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 massage 1 1 1 7 pedagogics 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 theories and principles of physical education 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 sports theory 1 1 1 1 10 hygiene 1 1 1 1 11 sports medicine 1 1 12 medical physical education 1 13 management of physical culture 1 14 sports technique 1 1 15 teaching method 1 16 training method source: author's own conception network planning at the faculties of physical education and sport in the … serg popel, et al. 563 according to this data, all subjects can be divided into several groups. the first includes those that do not require prior information from others. this group includes anatomy. the second includes the subjects based on one of the subjects of the first group. in this case, there were 10 such subjects. the third group includes the subjects based on the other two. these are biochemistry and physiology, based on the anatomy and each other. pedagogy should also be included in this group, for which the basic subjects are physiology and psychology. since psychology in the matrix relies only on physiology, in the opinion of half of the respondents, it can be studied immediately after the topic “the physiology of higher nervous activity”. this group also includes biomechanics, based on several topics on anatomy (bone and muscular system) and physiology (functions of the muscular system and other supporting subsystems). according to 80.3% of university teachers and only 30.2% of students, if the subjects have direct and inverse dependencies, they should be studied with a parallel linking of the necessary courses‟ topics. as for the curriculum for the specialty coach-teacher, the study of the main subjects of biomedical and general theoretical cycles, which are basic for the course of specialization of physical therapists, ergotherapists, is unreasonably extended (for four semesters). this is the opinion of the majority (88.4%) of students and only 24.7% of university teachers. all respondents agree that if time is needed to receive basic training in the subjects of biomedical and general theoretical cycles before the main topics of the course of specialization, it is filled with topics that do not require preliminary information from other subjects. following the abovementioned, the authors propose a scheme for the distribution of basic subjects in the curriculum for the creation of interdisciplinary programmes, taking into account the themes of the course of specialization (see table 2). table 2. the scheme for the distribution of basic subjects in the curriculum for the creation of interdisciplinary programmes, taking into account the themes of the course of specialization no. subject semesters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 anatomy + + 2 biochemistry + + 3 physiology + + + 4 psychology + + 5 biomechanics + + broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 564 6 massage + 7 pedagogy + + 8 theory and methods of physical culture + + 9 sports theory + + 10 hygiene + + 11 sports medicine + + 12 healing fitness + 13 management of physical culture + + 14 sports technique + + + 15 teaching methods + + 16 training method + + + source: author's own conception conclusions and results the findings prove the presence of particular postmodern forms of thinking of the subjects of the educational process. these subjects are attuned to the removal of the "unnecessarily limited possibilities of intelligence" in university education (mourad, 1997). by removing interdisciplinary boundaries and reinforcing corporatism and naturalness in the behavior and learning activities of each individual, these forms of thinking and self-organization create a field for immanent intellectual activity, the knowledge of essences independent of disciplinary segmentation. thus, network planning and management proceeds from the above determinants. the article confirms the hypothesis: it is possible to create fullfledged programs and curricula only with the use of network planning and management of the educational process. it is necessary to accurately determine the content and timing of each discipline and its compliance with the qualification characteristics, taking into account interdisciplinary links. it is necessary to review the structures of textbooks and place the material in them taking into account the sequence of its study in the courses and in relationship with other disciplines. the recommended concentrated arrangement of the leading disciplines of the medical and biological cycle will create an interdisciplinary program that gives a complete picture of the structure, functions and biochemical processes occurring in various systems of the human body when engaged in sports. after the study, according to the objectives, we obtained the following results: network planning at the faculties of physical education and sport in the … serg popel, et al. 565 1. regarding not general theoretical, but factual data, the results of the study showed that the matrix we created can trace the dependence of many disciplines on the leading disciplines of the medical and biological cycle (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, biomechanics and psychology). at the same time, there is a significant dependence of specialization course topics on the disciplines of the medical-biological and general theoretical cycles. in the practice of developing curricula and programs, these dependencies are not taken into account (sokolnikov, 2013). our research has clearly shown that most teachers and students consider gaining knowledge about child and youth sports to be very important, but these issues are not adequately represented in the curricula of biomedical, general theoretical cycles and specialization. 2. if we take into account that the volume of specialization is about 800 hours, 200 hours on average per course, then i and ii years are experiencing a lack of knowledge in the basic disciplines for the full development of the specialization course. there are still a number of shortcomings in the current curriculum and programs. most teachers consider them to be such that it is not yet possible to eliminate them for the following reasons: (a) the selection of teaching material is made without due consideration of the requirements for the profile of training specialists and qualification characteristics. b) curricula are drawn up first, and then the programs to them, while it is necessary to first determine the scope of disciplines, their topics, relationships and only then move on to the development of the curriculum, adjusting the disciplines. c) the current curriculum does not define the basic disciplines of medical-biological and general theoretical courses and the terms of practice are not linked to the specialization course developed on the basis of a unified program. d) this curriculum does not take into account at all the timing of the leading disciplines (for example, anatomy, physiology and biomechanics only 1 semester), on which it should be based. 3. a brief analysis of the current curriculum, programs, and the matrix of discipline relationship allows us to make a number of recommendations: a) from the 1st semester the anatomy course should begin, as planned in the curriculum. sections of the musculoskeletal system are studied first, and then the nervous system. after these topics, physiology and biochemistry courses can begin. further, all three disciplines run in parallel. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 566 space in the curriculum for them in the 1st and 2nd semesters should be freed up by pedagogy, sports metrology, and technical means of instruction. (b) from the 2nd semester, after taking a short course in the physiology of higher nervous activity, a course in psychology may begin, which must precede a course in pedagogy. from the 3rd semester, after the study of the musculoskeletal system, a course in biomechanics should begin, on which the "general fundamentals of technology" course of the specialization is based. a similar arrangement of disciplines also implies a uniform sequence of topics (e.g. musculoskeletal system nervous system digestion circulatory system, etc.) in the cycle. (c) a course in massage should be studied in the 3rd semester, a course in exercise hygiene in the 4th and 5th semester, which must be completed before the teaching practicum. sports medicine should be studied in the 6th and 7th semesters, during the period of study in the specialization course of the topic "methodology of training", and therapeutic physical education should fall in the 7th semester. we would like to single out: this sequence of disciplines allows you to fully build on them in a specialization course (naumenko, 2015). the courses of pedagogy and theory and methodology of physical education should be studied in parallel, as many of their topics are interrelated. both disciplines are studied in the 4th and 5th semesters, contributing in addition to the formation of general theoretical knowledge preparation for pedagogical practice. on these disciplines is based on the section "teaching methodology" in the course of specialization. "theory of sports" must be taught in the 6th-7th semesters, and the subjects studied should be linked to the methods of training in the course of specialization. in the same terms it is necessary to study questions of the psychology of sport from the course "medical and biological basis of sports". the topics of the course "organization of management of physical education movement" does not require special coordination with other disciplines and can be planned for the 7th and 8th semesters. and yet insurmountable difficulties arise when trying to establish interdisciplinary links with such discipline as "sports metrology and technical means of training". the curriculum allotted 90 hours for it, and it is studied in the i course. however, knowledge of many of its topics is necessary in the study of specialization from i to iv year. in our opinion, this discipline should be divided into several courses and studied in relationship with the disciplines of medical and biological, general theoretical and sports and pedagogical cycles. for the i course it is difficult and, in our network planning at the faculties of physical education and sport in the … serg popel, et al. 567 opinion, it is entered unreasonably. it is especially desirable to link it with the research work of students in the courses of specialization. thus, the development of the structure of the specialization course for the purpose of network planning and management of the educational process requires a non-traditional approach. we assume that it is necessary to clearly define the sections and topics that are interconnected with the disciplines of biomedical and general theoretical cycles, and topics that have no reference disciplines in other cycles. the greatest number of connections have the themes "sport technique", "methodology of training in a sport" and "methodology of training" (taking into account selection, training system, etc.). such topics as "gymnastics in the system of physical education", "terminology" and several others do not require special links. the study of exercise technique should be started with the material of the biomechanics course, i.e. from the 2nd semester, and finished in the 4th semester. the methods of teaching exercises must be taught after mastering the basic chapters of technique, physiology of higher nervous activity, theory and methods of physical education, psychology and related subjects of pedagogics courses. term 4 and 5 are reserved for the study of "methods of training", and the training system and methods are studied in terms of "theory of sports" and "sports medicine" in term 6, 7 and 8 references adamova, l. k. (2018). realizatsiya kompetentnostnogo podkhoda v prepodavanii distsipliny “pedagogika” po napravleniyu “fizicheskaya kultura” [the implementation of the competence approach in teaching the subject “pedagogy” in the direction of “physical education”]. proceedings of the 4th international scientific-practical conference on pedagogical skills and today‟s educational technologies. interactive plus. https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=34980957 bondarenko, o. v. (2012). sovremennyye innovatsionnyye tekhnologii v obrazovanii [current innovative technologies in education]. elektronnyy zhurnal “rono” [electronic journal “rono”], 16. https://sites.google.com/a/shko.la/ejrono_1/vypuski-zurnala/vypusk-16sentabr-2012/innovacii-poiski-i-issledovania/sovremennye-innovacionnyetehnologii-v-obrazovanii booher, d. e., & innes, j. e. (2002). network power in collaborative planning. journal of planning education and research, 21(3), 221236. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456x0202100301 https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=34980957 https://sites.google.com/a/shko.la/ejrono_1/vypuski-zurnala/vypusk-16-sentabr-2012/innovacii-poiski-i-issledovania/sovremennye-innovacionnye-tehnologii-v-obrazovanii https://sites.google.com/a/shko.la/ejrono_1/vypuski-zurnala/vypusk-16-sentabr-2012/innovacii-poiski-i-issledovania/sovremennye-innovacionnye-tehnologii-v-obrazovanii https://sites.google.com/a/shko.la/ejrono_1/vypuski-zurnala/vypusk-16-sentabr-2012/innovacii-poiski-i-issledovania/sovremennye-innovacionnye-tehnologii-v-obrazovanii https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456x0202100301 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 568 coskun onan, b., coskun, n., & ersoy, a. (2021). the phenomenology of interdisciplinary content: contemporary art course. eurasian journal of educational research, 93, 19-50. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1300001.pdf daliot-bul, m. (2009). japan brand strategy: the taming of „cool japan‟ and the challenges of cultural planning in a postmodern age. social science japan journal, 12(2), 247266. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40649685?seq=1 dawley, l. (2009). social network knowledge construction: emerging virtual world pedagogy. on the horizon, 17(2), 109121. https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120910965494 dear, m. j. (1986). postmodernism and planning. environment and planning d: society and space, 4(3), 367384. https://doi.org/10.1068/d040367 gordon, k. o. (2013). emotion and memory in nostalgia sport tourism: examining the attraction to postmodern ballparks through an interdisciplinary lens. journal of sport & tourism, 18(3), 217-239. https://doi.org/10.1080/14775085.2013.846228 jon, i. (2020). reframing postmodern planning with feminist social theory: toward “anti-essentialist norms”. planning theory, 19(2), 147171. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473095219851214 kara, a., eryılmaz, a., & çubukçu, z. (2020). a postmodern orientation in career counselling: career adaptability. osmangazi journal of educational research, 7(2), 105-121 https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1293413 klychnikova, s. n. (2014). cognitive activity level increase of the students from physical culture and sport department in a pedagogical higher educational establishment by means of general subjects. pedagogical-psychological and medico-biological problems of physical culture and sports, 32(3), 32-36. knyazkova, e. a. (2018). innovatsionnyye pedagogicheskiye tekhnologii v realizatsii uchebnogo protsessa po distsipline “fizicheskaya kultura” [innovative pedagogical technologies in the implementation of the educational process on the subject “physical education”]. materialy iv mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoprakticheskoi konferentsii “pedagogicheskoye masterstvo i sovremennyye pedagogicheskiye tekhnologii” [proceedings of the 4th international scientific-practical conference on pedagogical skills and modern educational technologies]. interactive plus. https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=34981026 kozielska, j., piorunek, m., podgórny, m., & drabik-podgórna, v. (2020). postmodern market scenarios and career patterns: challenges for education. african journal of career development, 2(1), 1-8. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-2092f1298e lamb, t., & vodicka, g. (2021). education for 21st century urban and spatial planning: critical postmodern pedagogies. in a. i. frank, & a. da rosa https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1300001.pdf https://www.jstor.org/stable/40649685?seq=1 https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120910965494 https://doi.org/10.1068/d040367 https://doi.org/10.1080/14775085.2013.846228 https://doi.org/10.1177/1473095219851214 https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1293413 https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=34981026 https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-2092f1298e network planning at the faculties of physical education and sport in the … serg popel, et al. 569 pires (eds.), teaching urban and regional planning: innovative pedagogies in practice (pp. 2038). edward elgar publishing limited. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788973632.00012 lopukhina, a. (2015). vizualnyye sostavlyayushchiye v protsesse obucheniya shkolnikov predmetu “fizicheskaya kultura” [visual components of teaching schoolchildren “physical culture”]. vestnik moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo oblastnogo universiteta. seriya: pedagogika [journal of moscow state regional university. series: pedagogy], 3, 92–96. https://vestnikmgou.ru/articles/view/8421 maksymchuk, b., gurevych, r., matviichuk, t., surovov, o., stepanchenko, n., opushko, n., sitovskyi, a., kosynskyi, e., bogdanyuk, a., vakoliuk, a., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020a). training future teachers to organize school sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 310327. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 maksymchuk, b., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., davydenko, h., soichuk, r., khurtenko, o., groshovenko, o., stepanchenko, n., andriychuk, y., grygorenko, t., duka, t., pidlypniak, i., gurevych, r., kuzmenko, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020b). developing healthcare competency in future teachers. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(3), 2443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 mourad, r. p. p. (1997). postmodern interdisciplinarity. the review of higher education, 20(2), 113140. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/30020 naumenko, yu. (2015). modelling the content of personal and meta-subject results of training (on the example of subject domain “physical culture”). рrimary education, 3(1), 1620. https://naukaru.ru/en/nauka/article/4897/view palamarchuk, o., gurevych, r., maksymchuk, b., gerasymova, i., fushtey, o., logutina, n., kalashnik, n., kylivnyk, a., haba, i., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2020). studying innovation as the factor in professional self-development of specialists in physical education and sport. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 12(4), 118136. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 patton, a. l., & prince, k. l. (2018). curriculum design and planning: using postmodern curricular approaches. journal of curriculum theorizing, 32(3), 93-114. https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/630 persaud, a. (2017). integrated planning for education and development. european journal of education, 52(4), 448459. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12233 simonsen, k. (1990). planning on „postmodern‟ conditions. acta sociologica, 33(1), 5162. https://doi.org/10.1177/000169939003300104 https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788973632.00012 https://vestnik-mgou.ru/articles/view/8421 https://vestnik-mgou.ru/articles/view/8421 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/347 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.3/307 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/30020 https://naukaru.ru/en/nauka/article/4897/view https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.4/337 https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/630 https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12233 https://doi.org/10.1177/000169939003300104 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 570 slattery, p. (2012). curriculum development in the postmodern era: teaching and learning in an age of accountability. routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203139554 sokolnikov, a. m. (2013). mobilnoye obucheniye: problemy i perspektivy razvitiya [mobile learning: problems and prospects of development]. kibernetika i programmirovaniye [cybernetics and programming], 6(6), 2834. https://nbpublish.com/library_read_article.php?id=9668 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203139554 https://doi.org/10.7256/2306-4196.2013.6.9668  https://nbpublish.com/library_read_article.php?id=9668 brain_3_4_final 1 b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4 “brain and language” december 2012 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 2 about the brainitiative the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (in the brainovations and brainstorming sections) peerreviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next issue (volume 4, issue #1) of the brain in april 2013. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is march 1, 2013. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief: • bogdan pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors: • ioana boghian, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain • nora wiedenmann, munich, germany proofreaders: • ruxandra alexandru, university of minho, portugal (portuguese) • ioana boghian, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (english, romanian) • veronica grecu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (french) • gianluca ceriani, milano, italy (italian) • andrieş valentina, university of edinburgh, united kingdom (english, spanish) • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain (spanish) • barna kovacs, colegiul national "al. papiu i." tg-mures, romania (hungarian) • andra măciucă, milano, italy (italian) • nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (english, german) • jeffrey wood, university of manchester, united kingdom (english) issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2012 edusoft publishing brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 3 address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 6. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 7. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 8. louise connell, university of manchester, united kingdom (psychology, cognitive sciences) 9. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 10. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 11. mariana costache, "m. costache" pshychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 12. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 13. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 14. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 15. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 16. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 17. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 18. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, teoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 19. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 20. annette hohenberger,cognitive science department,informatics institut,middle east technical university, ankara, turkey brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 4 21. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of targu mures, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 22. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 23. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 24. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 25. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 26. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 27. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 28. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 29. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 30. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 31. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing, statistics, mathematics) 32. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 33. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 34. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 35. camelia mihaela pintea, "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 36. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 37. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 38. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 39. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 40. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroklaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 41. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 42. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 387-404 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/426 submitted: december 8th, 2022 | accepted for publication: december 16th, 2022 subjective psychophysiological satisfaction of women from fitness training on an individual program olena shyshkina1, ihor beyhul2, natalia moskalenko3, olexandr hladoshchuk4, hanna tolchieva5, volodymyr saienko6 1 phd in physical education and sports, associate professor of the department of physical education, dniprovsky state technical university, ukraine, olefirshishkina@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6755-138x 2 phd in physical education and sports, associate professor of the department of physical education, dniprovsky state technical university, ukraine, bejippon@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3892-6023 3 doctor of science in physical education and sports, professor of the department of theory and methods of physical education, prydniprovsk state academy of physical culture and sport, ukraine, moskalenkonatali2016@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9162-5206 4 phd in pedagogy, associate professor of the department of physical education, dniprovsky state technical university, ukraine, alex.gladoshchuk@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5081-270x 5 phd in pedagogy, associate professor of the department of general pedagogy and educational research, academy of management and administration, poland, asergeeva29@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7023-8194 6 doctor of science in organization and management, professor of the department of innovation management, academy of management and administration, poland, saienko22@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/00000003-2736-0017 abstract: the article is devoted to a complex research of interdependence of subjective indices of women's satisfaction during fitness training on differentiated planning of such training taking into account phases of the ovarian-menstrual cycle (omc) and individual peculiarities of personal psychophysiological profile of participants. the study involved 93 women aged 22–27 engaged in fitness at the sports club "spartak" in kamianske. women were divided into two groups: eg – experimental group (n=51) and cg – control group (n=42). the first group was studied taking into account the phases of omc, the second group – without it. to achieve the objectives we used the following scientific methods: theoretical, empirical, psycho-diagnostic, pedagogical testing, pedagogical experiment, methods of mathematical statistics.it was determined that the manifestation of physical skills is closely related to women's general physical well-being and mental parameters in different phases of оmc. comparative analysis of the data shows that the indicators of functional and psycho-emotional states of eg women significantly exceed the results of cg. the results of the article proved the importance of subjective markers of satisfaction and their determinant effects on the overall effectiveness of fitness and also proved the possibility to take into account the phases of omc and the individual characteristics of the psychophysiological profile of women in the planning of fitness programs and changes in marketing policy of fitness centers. keywords: differentiation of fitness programs; self-monitoring diaries; integrative dependence of neurophysiological and psychological satisfaction factors; "quality of life" index; neuroscientific perspectives of the fitness industry. how to cite: shyshkina, o., beyhul, i., moskalenko, n., hladoshchuk, o., tolchieva, h., & saienko, v. (2023). subjective psychophysiological satisfaction of women from fitness training on an individual program. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 387-404. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/426 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/426 mailto:olefirshishkina@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6755-138x mailto:bejippon@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3892-6023 mailto:moskalenkonatali2016@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9162-5206 mailto:alex.gladoshchuk@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5081-270x mailto:asergeeva29@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7023-8194 mailto:saienko22@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2736-0017 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2736-0017 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/426 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 388 introduction human health is a priority national value that determines the socioeconomic policies of civilized countries (lavizzo-mourey, 2017). the health of the nation is an indicator of the maturity, culture, and success of the state. preservation and restoration of the health of young women is one of the urgent problems of our time, which is not only of scientific and practical interest but also contributes to solving economic, social, and demographic problems of society (śliwa et al., 2021). one of the main factors that can preserve health, slow down aging, improve physical fitness and improve the psycho-emotional state of women is regular physical exercise. the current system of fitness industry is one of the promising and at the same time safe types of health-improving and recreational motor activity aimed at increasing women's adaptive capabilities, physical development and health improvement. fitness is a very popular type of recreational activity in many countries around the world. in recent decades, fitness classes have become particularly popular among young people (beqa et al., 2019). relevance of the article currently, the neuropsychology of sport, neurophysiology of the connection between physical activity and cyclic fluctuations of neurohumoral regulation of the female body potentially open up new opportunities both for the fitness industry (its planning, marketing and segmentation of services) and for taking into account the neurophysiological profile of female clients. this could contribute to the efficiency and satisfaction of all sides of the wellness process. also, the needs of modern society require improvements in fitness technology due to the increased demand for individual exercise to meet the needs of each woman in different types of motor activity. the analysis of the experience of scientists allows us to assert the effectiveness of differentiation of physical fitness classes according to different criteria (bezliudnyi et al., 2019; kosholap et al., 2021; ovcharuk et al., 2021; saienko & gurmazhenko, 2010), but there are almost no studies that simultaneously take into account the individuality of the physical exercise program, parameters of individual satisfaction of women from such classes and projection of these parameters on the phases of the omc. coaches, physiotherapists and rehabilitation therapists are mainly guided by general laws, according to which in all periods of ontogenesis the female organism has its own features, which must be taken into account subjective psychophysiological satisfaction of women from fitness training on … olena shyshkina, et al. 389 when carrying out physical education and recreational activities involving significant physical loads. the peculiarities of women's adaptation to intensive muscular activity are caused, first of all, by the most important biological function of their organism the function of motherhood. this also implies all the signs of sexual dimorphism, both structural and functional, but we should not forget about the ontogenetic profile of each individual. the authors of this article have studied in detail the domestic (ukrainian) experience on this issue and noticed: during the last decade ukrainian scientists in their works proposed numerous methods of the integrated use of primary and strength aerobics, (shkola et al., 2020) among such methodological studies there are recommendations for the integrated use of fitball aerobics, step aerobics, stretching and aerobics based on martial arts (bukova et al., 2016). in the ukrainian theory of physical culture, the development of a fitness program including step aerobics, dance aerobics, strength training and stretching (sologubova, 2016). although such works reveal the content and features of comprehensive training programs, the mechanisms and determinant correlations of factors that would help build the training process with women 22-27 years old (depending on their level of physical fitness, morpho-functional and individual-psychological capabilities during omc) remain unclear. international relevance of the article we have observed that the research literature does not equally present this problem in different countries and geopolitical regions of the world: the neurophysiological determinism of satisfaction and utility from systematic exercise is almost unexplored in developing countries. for example, studies have shown that in african countries most women are not aware of the physical and hygienic risks to their own reproductive systems (ukochovwera, 2021). on the other hand, women's neglect of expedient exercise may reduce fertility and its support in late childbearing age (ter keurst et al., 2016). as the tradition of late childbearing is gaining popularity in europe, the issues of our article are also becoming relevant in the west, where gender consciousness and politics are becoming extremely liberal. considering the above, we argue: the development of a program that is based on the individualization of classes using different means of fitness in accordance with the cyclical biological fluctuations of the functions of the female body, is currently relevant. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 390 purpose of the article thus, the purpose of the article is to test the effect of fitness exercises of different functional orientation on the body and psychophysical state of women, both taking into account their biorhythmic cycle, and without taking into account (control groups). literature review most of the basic work on the investigation of the illogical and physiological determinants of women's health was done by scientists in the 1980s and 1990s of the twentieth century. at that time, they conducted basic research on the physiology of the menstrual cycle (owen, 1975), the neurophysiology of the menstrual cycle and the effects on it (knobil, 1980), the dependence of a woman's sexuality on her lunar cycle (slob et al., 1996). but before the 2000s, it was not yet relevant to conduct thorough interdisciplinary (natural sciences and humanities) research, and neuroscience had not yet known the development and effective research techniques that it does now. new advances in neurophysiology have experimentally proved: any mental process is not localized in a certain brain area, but covers a much larger number of neurons and is much more correlated with physiological and somatic processes. in addition, current equipment allows visualization of processes that were invisible in the twentieth century. in the early 2000s it became clear: there are significant epistemological gaps in the study of neurophysiological and psychological interdependencies in the female body and psyche in norm and pathology (mckenna, 2002). there are numerous studies on the effects of female sex hormones. however, t. oosthuyse (2010), who reviewed related research on the topic, notes: the dependence of women's endurance and effectiveness of their exercise on the phases of the menstrual cycle in various studies does not show a stable result (oosthuyse & bosch, 2010). fortunately, in recent years leading science journals have published a number of methodological articles that suggest ways to incorporate the menstrual cycle into sport and exercise. such articles are either of a review nature (summarizing the research already done in this area (thompson & han, 2019) or take into account predominantly one parameter (physiological). we can see that there is a clear need for multi-parameter analysis, especially consideration of subjective (psychological) and objective (wellness, neurophysiological, and other) factors subjective psychophysiological satisfaction of women from fitness training on … olena shyshkina, et al. 391 now it is already possible to make a review-discussion of actual scientific publications, more or less comprehensively approaching the study of such key questions of our research as menstrual cycle psychological satisfaction physical health indicators physical exercise, etc. the current development of unexpected neuroscientific research has made it possible to find correlations between physiological, psychological, and actually philosophical-value parascientific phenomena that previously did not seem possible. for example, f. sahoo, k. sahoo, k. (2019) boldly titled their article "neuropsychology of happiness", in which the authors not only empirically presented the neural correlates of human happiness, but also provided recommendations for lifestyle changes to prolong happy moments. such work marked the beginning of an integrative study of human philosophical and psychological problems with a neuroprocessual nature that had not previously seemed possible. in recent years neurophysiological advances have reached such a level that the results have become relevant not only for sports of physical culture and valeology, but even for the entertainment industry, marketing, and the psychology of product consumption. thus, we live in an interesting time when neurophysiology indirectly affects the economy. this can now be proven and observed empirically (saad & stenstrom, 2012). that the anatomy of satisfaction has a biophysiological basis has been known for quite some time, but neurophysiologists suggest using the reverse mechanism: with the help of therapy and pleasure one can influence neurohumoral, physiological and psychological indicators of health improvement. j. oldz (2020) proved that pleasure and its realization can be the main therapy in the treatment of vegetovascular dystonia, heart neurosis, etc. so far, such positive results have been proven in the laboratory with electrode stimulation of the brain. with the help of pleasure stimulation it is possible to influence mental and physiological processes, which are not consciously controlled by a person. of course, the measure of satisfaction dissatisfaction with exercise should not exceed the limit of tolerance for physical activity. hartman et al. (2019) conducted studies of cyclists who exercised 10% more than the allowable blood glycogen depletion. this was accomplished through the application of volitional effort. the result of the experiment showed that the transition from pleasure to dissatisfaction during physical exertion is well recorded by the mind and may be a personal neurobiological marker for determining the limit of utility. such studies add to the picture of the relevance of affective and automatic responses of the loaded organism for modeling individual loading broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 392 programs. for example, ekkekakis & brand (2019) reviewed relevant research over the past 20 years and summarized: there is a concept of doseresponse that can be diagnosed objectively (neurophysiologically) and subjectively (psychologically). this complementarity makes it possible to take into account inter individual differences and to develop optimal load programs for stimulation, satisfaction. but the main conclusion is that both positive and unpleasant impressions play an equally important role in physical stimulation of the satisfaction mechanism, which not only influence further behavior of the subject, but also carry out useful neurohumoral regulation for the organism. methods and materials the study of women in the control groups was accompanied by their keeping self-control diaries in which they recorded the subjective level of satisfaction with regular frequent time intervals (changes in mood, satisfaction, well-being and their subjective correlation with the type of physical exertion, the omc phase and other dependent parameters were recorded). this type of control created a subjective background of the study, which was compared with objective indicators that could be measured under laboratory conditions. women were divided into two groups: eg – experimental group (n=51) and cg – control group (n=42). the eg classes were conducted by the phases of omc: basic aerobics was used in the postmenstrual and post-ovulatory phases, pilates – in the ovulatory phase, stretching – in the menstrual phase, pilates or stretching by choice – in the premenstrual phase, in cg classes were conducted without regard to omc phases, women attended classes that included basic aerobics, pilates and stretching by choice. at the beginning of the pedagogical experiment (september) and after its completion (june), women were tested for psychophysical status. the classes in the subgroups were planned as follows: the classes were held three times a week at different times. this arrangement allowed the women to switch from one subgroup to another when the phase of the individual cycle changed. since a full omc lasts from 25 to 35 days, women attended 13 to 14 training sessions per month with three training sessions per week. the most likely combination of different types of fitness was: 6 basic aerobics workouts, 4 pilates workouts, and 3-4 stretching workouts. a theoretical analysis of the scientific and methodological literature as well as a number of experimental methods were conducted to determine the research problem. in particular, a survey of women 22-27 years old was subjective psychophysiological satisfaction of women from fitness training on … olena shyshkina, et al. 393 conducted to determine general well-being in different phases of omc according to poholenchuk y. & svechnikova n. (1987). the following methods were used to determine the physical condition: heart rate (hr), tonometry (bp), spirometry, functional respiratory tests (stange, gencha tests), functional tests to assess physical performance: pwc170, harvard step test (hst); martine test, that is, a test to restore the heart rate to normal after squatting (20 squats followed by a 30-second rest). the physical qualities of women in different phases of the omc were also evaluated using four informative tests that are not contraindicated for women in unfavorable phases of the cycle ("body lifts lying on the stomach", "forward bending from sitting position", "range of motion coordination exercises", "romberg test"). the training program for each participant of the control group was adjusted on the basis of a general expedient individual modification. when creating the individual program we used previously obtained data on individual psychophysical profile, specifics of menstrual cycle (obtained by anonymous questionnaire survey) and objective physical characteristics (hr, spirometry, blood pressure, etc.). we also took into account the general type of nervous system in connection with the type of physique (stenia normostenia hyperstenia). we do not give the differentiated typology of individual programs in the article yet: it will be distributed after fixing the copyrights and more detailed and detailed testing of its effectiveness. methods of psychodiagnostics were used to assess the mental state of women: the satisfaction level with the quality of life according to the method of n. vodopyanova (2009). the results of the summative and formative assessments were subjected to conventional methods of mathematical statistics. the calculations involved arithmetic mean values (x), mean root square deviation (s), the significance of differences between the control stages in the formative assessment using the student's t-test. the experimentally obtained data were processed on a pc using a standard software package (ms excel; statistica – 6.0). results the results of measuring the physical properties of women in different phases of omc are shown in figure 1. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 394 fig. 1. indicators of women’s physical qualities in different phases of omc source: author's own conception the analysis of self-monitoring diaries indicated the presence of significant changes in the mental and physical states of women in different phases of omc. in the premenstrual phase, most women (up to 73%) noted the following symptoms: most fatigue, irritability, depressed mood, lack of desire to exercise, 70% of women experienced abdominal pain. swelling of the mammary glands was experienced by 38% of women, oedema in various parts of the body – 10%, there was an increase in body weight in 69% of women. at the beginning of the menstrual phase, the above negative symptoms continued to appear; 23% of women complained of headaches. some women improved their general well-being from the second to the third day of the menstrual phase, oedema disappeared, and body weight returned to normal. it should be noted that irritability and depressed mood in some women persisted throughout the menstrual phase, and only from the fifth to the sixth day, the mood returned to normal. during the menstrual phase, 68% of women surveyed attended training and did not change the intensity of physical activity. the women noted that if they did not stop training these days, the feeling of weakness, inertness and fatigue increased. subjective psychophysiological satisfaction of women from fitness training on … olena shyshkina, et al. 395 in most women's post-menstrual phase of the cycle (up to 85%), there was good health, high efficiency, desire to exercise, and weight loss. these symptoms worsened on the 15th, 16th, and 17th days of the cycle, characteristic of the ovulatory phase. in the post-ovulatory phase of the cycle, most women (up to 87%) experienced good health, high efficiency, and a desire to train. the results of the study of women's mental state in the omc were based primarily on self-monitoring diaries. the results are shown in figure 2. fig. 2. mental status indicators of women in different phases of the omc source: author's own conception in the post-menstrual and post-ovulatory phases of the cycle, women noted a high degree of manifestation of all positive mental states: "mental activation", "interest", "emotional tone", and "comfort", while a low degree of "tension". in the premenstrual and menstrual phases, women experienced a high and medium-high degree of "tension", a medium-low degree of "comfort", and a low degree of all other positive mental states. women's ovulatory phase was defined as intermediate, with a medium degree of manifestation of all positive mental states and a medium-low degree of manifestation of stress. in the course of our experimental studies, we determined that the manifestation of physical qualities depends on the overall psychophysical state of a woman. figure 2 shows the dynamics of growth and decline of the studied indicators compared to their average results during the omc. thus, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 396 in the menstrual phase, there was the greatest decrease in the following indicators: strength – by 14% with p<0.01, balance – by 21% with p<0.01, general coordination – by 30% with p<0.001, but the highest level of flexibility was observed, which improved by 21% compared to the average result in the omc with p<0.01. in the premenstrual phase, a similar manifestation of physical qualities was observed, but with less pronounced dynamics: strength decreased by 8% with p<0.05, balance – by 19% with p<0.01, general coordination – by 25% with p<0.01, the flexibility index improved by 12% with p<0.05. in the post-menstrual phase of the cycle, there was a maximum improvement: strength by 15% with p<0.01, balance by 20% with p<0.01, overall coordination by 34% with p<0.001, the level of flexibility coincided with the average value in the omc. a similar manifestation of physical qualities was observed in the post-ovulatory phase of the cycle, but with less pronounced positive dynamics, namely, in terms of strength by 9% with p<0.05, balance – by 16% with p<0.01, overall coordination – by 28% with p<0.001, and with the deterioration of flexibility – by 13% with p<0.05. in the ovulatory phase of the cycle, the level of flexibility decreased by 20% with p<0.01, there was a slight decrease in strength – 1% with p>0.05. and overall coordination – 7% with p<0.05, maintained a fairly high level of equilibrium function – 4% with p>0.05. the results show that women aged 22–27 years had differences in psychophysical indicators during the omc, which allowed us to recommend different means of fitness depending on the phases of omc. we checked the effectiveness of the individual programs by diagnosing the functional state of the women in both groups before and after the experiment (the results are shown in table 1). (functional indicators of participants in the control and experimental groups at the beginning and after completion of the study). tab.1. functional indicators of participants in the control and experimental groups at the beginning and after completion of the study (x ± m, cg n = 42, eg n = 51) research indicators group cg = 42 eg = 51 before experiment x ± m after experiment x ± m р heart rate at rest, beats min-1 cg 82,34 ± 6,12 77,14 ± 4,85 >0,05 eg 78,14 ± 4,24 68,53 ± 3,24 <0,05 p >0,05 <0,05 – subjective psychophysiological satisfaction of women from fitness training on … olena shyshkina, et al. 397 bp sist, mm hg st cg 116,11 ± 8,07 115,19 ± 7,56 >0,05 eg 118,05 ± 7,10 114,24 ± 6,31 >0,05 p >0,05 >0,05 – bp diast, mm hg st cg 73,91 ± 6,53 72,05 ± 5,57 >0,05 eg 74,42 ± 6,51 71,07 ± 5,77 >0,05 p >0,05 >0,05 – living capacity of the lungs (lcl), ml cg 2790,44 ± 365,50 2951,77 ± 269,84 <0,05 eg 2945,12 ± 376,08 3180,04 ± 272,32 <0,01 p >0,05 <0,01 – shtange test, s cg 44,34 ± 7,06 48,00 ± 6,92 <0,05 eg 42,59 ± 8,06 50,73 ± 5,85 <0,01 p >0,05 <0,01 – gench test, s cg 24,22 ± 4,32 27,18 ± 3,90 >0,05 eg 23,23 ± 3,77 28,48 ± 3,25 <0,01 p >0,05 <0,01 – pwc170, kgm·min -1 cg 541,04 ± 49,79 638,35 ± 43,91 >0,05 eg 526,16 ± 36,65 662,75 ± 34,09 <0,01 p >0,05 <0,01 – maximum oxygen consumption (moc), ml/min/kg cg 34,38 ± 2,17 37,93 ± 2,89 >0,05 eg 34,64 ± 2,85 40,39 ± 1,28 <0,01 p >0,05 <0,01 – harvard step test index (hsti), conv. un. cg 67,20 ± 4,50 78,10 ± 4,22 >0,05 eg 69,45 ± 4,69 88,21 ± 3,03 <0,01 p >0,05 <0,01 – heart rate recovery time after 20 squats in 30s, s cg 131,14 ± 10,92 114,32 ± 8,49 <0,05 eg 129,85 ± 9,81 88,54 ± 7,67 <0,05 p >0,05 <0,05 – source: author's own conception we observed the positive dynamics of functional women’s indicators in eg and cg. in eg, there were statistically significant changes in the following indicators: heart rate at rest, beats•min -1 ; lcl; shtange tests; broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 398 gench test; pwc170, kgm•min -1 ; moc, ml/min/kg; hsti, conv. un; heart rate recovery time after 20 squats for 30s, s (p<0,05). in the cg, statistically significant changes occurred only in the following indicators: lcl; shtange tests; heart rate recovery time after 20 squats for 30s, s (p<0,05). this means that the psycho-emotional state has a direct impact on the effectiveness of motor activity. the results of the study of the dynamics of the level of psychological satisfaction are presented in figure 3. fig. 3. indicators of life satisfaction for female control and experimental groups at the experimental and post-experimental stages source: author's own conception according to figure 3, there were positive changes in both groups. however, it should be noted that there were statistically insignificant changes in the control group (p>0.05), except for the scales "health" and "optimism" (p<0.05). in the experimental group, all indicators changed significantly (p<0.05–0.01), except for the "negative emotions" (p>0.05). according to the summary scale "index of life quality," the result improved by 7.5 points (p<0.05) in eg, in cg by 4.06 points (p>0.05) in cg. discussion regardless of whether women participated in the cg or eg, during the premenstrual period, 73% of women reported unpleasant psychological symptoms, abdominal pain, and increased body weight in their diaries (69%). subjective psychophysiological satisfaction of women from fitness training on … olena shyshkina, et al. 399 this decreased the desire to exercise and prompted women to eat more food. we attribute this to the activation of unconscious compensatory mechanisms and conscious avoidance of bodily exertion. the demonstration of corporeality as such in the premenstrual and post-ovulatory period can be explained by unconscious mechanisms the lack of need for physical attraction of potential partners. these findings correlate with the proven mechanisms of psychological demonstrative subconscious activation during the fertile phase and the operation of reactive mechanisms to different types of stimulation. we drew an appropriate parallel with the type that scientists have proven: stimulation of the female brain in the most active (follicular) stage of the omc is well stimulated by all types of stimuli. the most obvious, and therefore the most studied, are visual and sexual stimuli (makarchouk et al., 2011). it is not the negative/positive nature of such stimuli that matters, but its intensity, which is not observed with tactile, kinetic, and other bodily stimulation. we believe that such stimulation is, firstly, asemantic and is not directly associated with figurative interpretation, and secondly, we assume that bodily sensitivity produces triggers that create a polysensory image. we can agree with this if we recall that undifferentiated bodily sensitivity is primary in humans, whereas visual conscious imagery is the result of sensory-analytic work of the brain. we also assume that bodily stimulation, which includes fitness activities, would be more acceptable to women than visual or sexual stimulation. the latter is a more intimate and spontaneous process, while unconscious stimulation by dance, physical training, fitness, is socially more acceptable and systematic. it is clear to everyone that the psychological phenomenon of satisfaction is based on the satisfaction of basic and peripheral human needs, which are generally the same in men and women, but have gender (psychological) and sex (physiological) differences. the taxonomy of satisfaction is also dual: some needs are natural (basic needs theory, (bnt) (ryan & deci, 2000), and some are cultured, social (self-determination, fulfillment, communication, etc.). satisfaction of the second type of needs is made difficult or impossible by the absence of the first and requiring special solutions and accompaniment (thomas et al., 1989). the study showed that the neuropsychology of applying an individually acceptable fitness program synergistically combined natural physiological needs and their cultured, axiologically interiorized corelates which engaged in an individualized program that was monitored by them in a self-monitoring diary and accounted for their individual neurophysiological profile. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 400 the results of our article can also be useful from the position of marketing economic feasibility, which can be implemented by trainers and administrators of fitness centers, in particular in planning classes for their female clients. a certain extrapolation of our results absolutely correlates with the statements of g. saad and e. stenstrom (2012) who proved the neurophysiological determinism of behavioral changes in women: food-related desires and expenditures for intense eating behavior were greater during the luteal (nonfertile) phase, whereas attention to appearance and expenditure on beauty-dependent behaviors increased during the fertile phase (saad & stenstrom, 2012, p. 112). this can be explained by compensatory neurophysiological mechanisms of satisfaction in the first case and complementary ones in the second. we are convinced that it is possible to take into account the onset of the fertile phase to activate bodily and aesthetic practices, which will further induce pleasure in such activities and the corresponding re-conditioning of the positive stimulus, which is in fact natural and unconditional. also in the context of our study, we confirmed the practical importance of differentiating and taking into account the specific phase of omc and subjective reactions of satisfaction dissatisfaction when planning types of exercise. further development and investigation of the subject matter of our article may prove useful for the final solution of the questions: a) planning of sports achievements; b) stimulating use of neurophysiological and psychological mechanisms of satisfaction for sports motivation; c) marketing and recreational use of stimuli of pleasure, benefit and external improvement. however, we can already answer unequivocally: cyclically dependent individual subjective satisfaction can be a mechanism of both conscious and unconscious stimulation of mass participation of women to engage in sports; increasing internal sport motives, as well as the general pleasure of movement, communication and recreation. to some extent, we have confirmed the scientists' view that neurophysiological factors are more congruent for the subjective well-being of female athletes, whereas setting external athletic goals for medals, success, and status has less impact on subjective satisfaction (jetzke & mutz, 2020). there are arguments for the use of individualized programs for autonomous exercise. based on basic needs theory, scientists have proven that personal motivation in women of fertile age is directly correlated with greater satisfaction (enjoyment) and need satisfaction (subjective vitality during exercise) (adie et al., 2008). subjective psychophysiological satisfaction of women from fitness training on … olena shyshkina, et al. 401 conclusion the main conclusion of the study is that a comparative analysis of the data of the experimental and control groups showed: the construction of fitness programs based on individual approaches more effectively influenced the indicators of functional fitness and psycho-emotional state of the women of the experimental group. this was confirmed by objective neurophysiological and subjective psychological arguments. the main results of the conducted debt are presented by the following positions: 1. even a general differentiation of the fitness program for specific phases of omc contributes to the growth of positive subjectively marked neuropsychological indicators of satisfaction and its probable conditionallyreflexive fixation. this can be the basis for changing the principles of fitness for women (modification of general and development of individual programs). 2. the general (composite) index of quality of life, which increased in the participants of the experimental group by 3.5 points, testified to the validity and prospects of differentiation of the fitness program, depending on the phases of omc and taking into account the individual characteristics for each participant. in combination with the indices marking dissatisfaction with the process or its components, this indicates an integrated neurophysiological determinacy of both objective physical indicators and subjective indicators of satisfaction with the sports process. the conducted study allows us to make a general conclusionrecommendation: significant physical activity develops a woman comprehensively, but she can do it only after menstruation and ovulation, when the hormonal and physical forces of the body are mobilized. at other times (especially during menstruation) we suggest to reduce the load and to focus on stretching and flexibility trainings. if during ovulation there is a moderate decrease in a woman's physical and adaptive potency, she should give preference to pilates exercises, which are gentler on the musculoskeletal system and a considerable expenditure of physical energy. research limitation the authors of this article acknowledge that the results of the experimental study and its theoretical generalizations are outline and propaedeutic for the development of a more detailed and diversified theory broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 402 that can describe the full picture of women's subjective satisfaction with sports. acknowledgements the authors express their gratitude to all participants of the experiment and inform the readers that the writing of the article was made possible by the expedient distribution of the research work: the author 1 collection and systematic analysis of theoretical material, the authors 2 and 3 substantiation of parameters and conducting the experimental part; the author 4 conducting the discussion and comparing the results obtained with current theories; the author 5 determination of further perspectives and interdisciplinary connections of the research. the author 6 as the responsible editor formalized the research materials into a completed text. references adie, j.w., duda, j.l., & ntoumanis, n. (2008). autonomy support, basic need satisfaction and the optimal functioning of adult male and female sport participants: a test of basic needs theory. motiv emot, 32, 189–199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-008-9095-z beqa,g., elezi, a., & elezi, g. (2019). the impact of powerful programed exercises on fitness, on body composition. journal of education, health and sport, 9(8), 950-961. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3408563 bezliudnyi o., kravchenko o., maksymchuk b., mishchenko m., maksymchuk, i. (2019) psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators (2019). journal of physical education and sport, 19(3), art 230, 1585. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 bukova, l., kovalskaya, i., & rasolko, a. (2016). fitness program in correcting the health status of women of the first mature age. scientific notes of the p.f. lesgaft, 4(134), 43-47. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/fitnes-programmav-korrektsii-sostoyaniya-zdorovya-zhenschin-pervogo-zrelogo-vozrasta ekkekakis, p., & brand, r. (2019). affective responses to and automatic affective valuations of physical activity: fifty years of progress on the seminal question in exercise psychology. psychology of sport and exercise, 42, 130-137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.12.018 hartman, m. e., ekkekakis, p., dicks, n. d., & pettitt, r. w. (2019). dynamics of pleasure–displeasure at the limit of exercise tolerance: conceptualizing the sense of exertional physical fatigue as an affective response. journal of experimental biology, 222(3), jeb186585. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.186585 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-008-9095-z https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3408563 https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2019.03230 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/fitnes-programma-v-korrektsii-sostoyaniya-zdorovya-zhenschin-pervogo-zrelogo-vozrasta https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/fitnes-programma-v-korrektsii-sostoyaniya-zdorovya-zhenschin-pervogo-zrelogo-vozrasta https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.12.018 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.186585 subjective psychophysiological satisfaction of women from fitness training on … olena shyshkina, et al. 403 jetzke, m., & mutz, m. (2020). sport for pleasure, fitness, medals or slenderness? differential effects of sports activities on well-being. applied research quality life, 15, 1519–1534. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-019-09753-w knobil, e. (1980, january). the neuroendocrine control of the menstrual cycle. in proceedings of the 1979 laurentian hormone conference (pp. 53-88). academic press. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-571136-4.50008-5 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 lavizzo-mourey, r. (2017). how to build a culture of health. qjm: an international journal of medicine, 110(2), 59-60. https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcw192 makarchouk, n.e., maksimovich, k.y., kravchenko, v.i. et al. (2011). modifications of eeg activity related to perception of emotionally colored, erotic, and neutral pictures in women during different phases of the ovulatory (menstrual) cycle. neurophysiology, 42, 362–370. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-011-9170-z mckenna, k.e. (2002) the neurophysiology of female sexual function. world j urol, 20, 93–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-002-0270-7 oldz, j. (2020). biochemistry and anatomy of pleasure. this amazing center of pleasure. biochemistry. https://monster-evo.ru/en/bystro/biohimiya-i-anatomiyaudovolstviya-etot-udivitelnyi-centr-udovolstviya/ oosthuyse, t., & bosch, a.n. (2010). the effect of the menstrual cycle on exercise metabolism. sports med, 40, 207–227. https://doi.org/10.2165/11317090-000000000-00000 ovcharuk, v., maksymchuk, b., ovcharuk, v., khomenko, o., khomenko, s., yevtushenko, y., rybalko, p., pustovit, h., myronenko, n., syvokhop, y., sheian, m., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). forming competency in health promotion in technical specialists using physical education. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(3), 01-19. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 owen j. a., (1975, april). physiology of the menstrual cycle. the american journal of clinical nutrition, 28(4), 333–338, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/28.4.333 poholenchuk, y., & svechnikova, n. (1987). modern women's sports. кiyv: health. ryan, r. m., & deci, e. l. (2000). self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. american psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.68 saad, g., & stenstrom, e. (2012). calories, beauty, and ovulation: the effects of the menstrual cycle on food and appearance-related consumption. journal of https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-019-09753-w https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-571136-4.50008-5 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcw192 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-011-9170-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-002-0270-7 https://monster-evo.ru/en/bystro/biohimiya-i-anatomiya-udovolstviya-etot-udivitelnyi-centr-udovolstviya/ https://monster-evo.ru/en/bystro/biohimiya-i-anatomiya-udovolstviya-etot-udivitelnyi-centr-udovolstviya/ https://doi.org/10.2165/11317090-000000000-00000 https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/28.4.333 https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.68 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 404 consumer psychology, 22(1), 102–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2011.10.001 sahoo, f. m., & sahoo, k. (2019). neuropsychology of happiness. indian journal of health studies, 1, 11-22. https://doi.org/10.56490/ijhs.2019.1101 saienko, v. g., & gurmazhenko, m. o. (2010). comparison of a level of development of physical qualities of women in contact kinds of fighting single combats. pedagogika, psihologia ta mediko-biologicni problemi fizicnogo vihovanna i sportu, 7, 88-91. https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2010-07/htmlen/10svgfsc.html shkola, o., zhamardiy, v., saienko, v., tolchieva, h., & poluliashchenko, i. (2020). the structure model of methodical system usage fitness-technology in student physical education. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(10), 89-96. https://www.proquest.com/openview/abcb229e2632887d3fcbbf790a8dba 65/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2045597 śliwa, s., saienko, v., & kowalski, m. (2021). educating students during a pandemic in the light of research. international journal of educational development, 87, 102504, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102504 slob, a. k., bax, c. m., hop, w. c., & rowland, d. l. (1996). sexual arousability and the menstrual cycle. psychoneuroendocrinology, 21(6), 545-558. https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4530(95)00058-5 sologubova, s. (2016). algorithm for building individual programs in women's fitness training. sports bulletin of the dnieper, 1, 121-125. http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/svp_2016_1_40 (in ukrainian) ter keurst, a., boivin, j., & gameiro, s. (2016). women's intentions to use fertility preservation to prevent age-related fertility decline. reproductive biomedicine online, 32(1), 121-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2015.10.007 thomas, a., bax, m., & smyth, d. (1989). the health and social needs of young adults with physical disabilities (no. 106). cambridge university press. thompson, b., & han, a. (2019). methodological recommendations for menstrual cycle research in sports and exercise. medicine and science in sports and exercise, 51(12), 2610-2617. https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0000000000002073 ukochovwera, o. e. (2021). andragogy and female genital mutilation in osun state, nigeria. electronic physician, 13(3), 7856–7861. http://dx.doi.org/10.19082/7856 vodopyanova, n. e. (2009). stress psychodiagnostics. piter. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2011.10.001 https://doi.org/10.56490/ijhs.2019.1101 https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2010-07/html-en/10svgfsc.html https://www.sportpedagogy.org.ua/html/journal/2010-07/html-en/10svgfsc.html https://www.proquest.com/openview/abcb229e2632887d3fcbbf790a8dba65/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2045597 https://www.proquest.com/openview/abcb229e2632887d3fcbbf790a8dba65/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2045597 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102504 https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4530(95)00058-5 http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/svp_2016_1_40 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2015.10.007 https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0000000000002073 http://dx.doi.org/10.19082/7856 microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1 80 cognitive development optimization algorithm based support vector machines for determining diabetes utku kose usak university, computer sciences application and research center utku.kose@usak.edu.tr gur emre guraksin afyonkocatepe university, deptartment of computer engineering emreguraksin@aku.edu.tr omer deperlioglu afyonkocatepe university, department of computer technologies odeper@aku.edu.tr abstract the definition, diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus and its complications are very important. first of all, the world health organization (who) and other societies, as well as scientists have done lots of studies regarding this subject. one of the most important research interests of this subject is the computer supported decision systems for diagnosing diabetes. in such systems, artificial intelligence techniques are often used for several disease diagnostics to streamline the diagnostic process in daily routine and avoid misdiagnosis. in this study, a diabetes diagnosis system, which is formed via both support vector machines (svm) and cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa) has been proposed. along the training of svm, codoa was used for determining the sigma parameter of the gauss (rbf) kernel function, and eventually, a classification process was made over the diabetes data set, which is related to pima indians. the proposed approach offers an alternative solution to the field of artificial intelligencebased diabetes diagnosis, and contributes to the related literature on diagnosis processes. keywords: diagnosis diabetes, support vector machines, cognitive development optimization algorithm, classification, pimaindians diabetes. 1. introduction since 1965 the world health organization (who) has been publishing guidelines for the diagnosis and classification of diabetes. these were last reviewed in 1998 and were published as the guidelines for the definition, diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus and its complications. since then, more information relevant to the diagnosis of diabetes has become available. in november 2005, a joint who and international diabetes federation (idf) technical advisory group met in geneva in order to review and update the current who guidelines 1 . in 2013, the international diabetes federation (idf) published a report of an estimated 385 million people with diabetes worldwide, the majority being diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. the epidemiologic projections for the year 2035 now estimate an increase to 592 millions 2 . the social, economic and medical burden of diabetes represents an enormous public health problem, raising diabetes to the 4th cause of death worldwide 3 . moreover, the devastating micro and macro vascular complications associated with diabetes significantly reduce the quality of life (qol) and life expectancy (veresiu et al., 2015). therefore, the definition, diagnosis and 1 world health organization & international diabetes federation (2005). definition and diagnosis of diabetes mellitus and intermediate hyperglycemia, report of world health organization and international diabetes federation. 2 international diabetes federation (2013). diabetes atlas (6th ed.). brussels, belgium (available from https://www.idf.org/sites/default/files/en_6e_atlas_full_0.pdf. accessed 04 january 2016). 3 international diabetes federation (2009). diabetes atlas (4th ed.). brussels, belgium. available at https://www.idf.org/sites/default/files/idf-diabetes-atlas-4th-edition.pdf. accessed on 04 january 2016. u. kose, g. e. guraksin, o. deperlioglu cognitive development optimization algorithm based support vector machines for determining diabetes 81 classification of diabetes are very important. so, especially who, idf and lots of other scientists are working on these issues. the use of computer technology in various fields immediately brings in mind the concept of computer-supported systems. computer-supported systems and the activity of computers solution are noted as a factor in increasing the productivity and performance with a revolutionary direction. at this point, the computer-supported system holds the possibility of widespread use in many areas. one of these areas has found widespread use in the medical possibilities of computer-supported systems. accordingly, the approach is performed in the medical field on a computerized support system based on obtained results with high success rates and it is becoming more attractive day by day. it is also undoubtedly one of the points of interest in computer-supported systems of the various elements involved in the work conditions in different areas of science and research. when we examine the approaches, methods, and techniques in the artificial intelligence research field, it can be said that the classification is receiving the highest degree of attention. when today's applications are examined, the artificial intelligence techniques in the computer-supported medical system in question can be seen particularly often used in diagnosing various diseases (szolovits et al., 1988; muralidaran et al., 2015). on the other hand, it is also an important factor to have artificial intelligent-based software solutions especially in real-world based problems. it can be said that not only the medical field but also many other fields of modern life often benefit from intelligent software-oriented applications in order to save time and reduce costs (pătruţ & tomozei, 2010). in this study, a diabetes diagnosis approach, which is formed via both support vector machines (svm) and cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa) is proposed. along the training of svm, codoa was used for determining the sigma (σ) parameter of the gauss (rbf) kernel function, and eventually, a classification process was made over the diabetes data set, which is related to pima indians and obtained from the university of california at irvine (uci) machine learning repository. it is important that there are lots of studies which used the same dataset for diagnosis diabetes. for example, santhanam and padmavathi have classified the dataset to detect diabetes. in their work, they have used k-means to remove the noisy data and genetic algorithms for finding the optimal set of features with support vector machine (svm) as classifier for classification. they have used reduced dataset of pima indians diabetes from the related uci repository (santhanam & padmavathi, 2015). another classification application of the diagnosis of diabetes has made by aslam and friends. they have also used reduced dataset of pima indians diabetes from the same repository. in this research, a genetic programming (gp) based method has been used for diabetes classification. gp has been used to generate new features by making combinations of the existing diabetes features, without prior knowledge of the probability distribution (aslam, zhu, & nandi, 2013). in the final example of work, kahramanli and allahverdi have used fuzzy neural network to classify dataset for diagnosis diabetes. they have also used the uci dataset (kahramanli & allahverdi, 2008). according to all the works briefly mentioned above, the approach proposed in this study offers an alternative solution to the field of artificial intelligence-based diabetes diagnosis and contributes to the related literature on diagnosis processes. in the context of the explanations above, the organization of the paper is as follows: the next section is devoted to essential information on employed dataset, and also artificial intelligence techniques. following that, the third section is based on details regarding the applied approach on determining diabetes. after the third section, an application for determining diabetes from the employed dataset and also obtained results are briefly presented. finally, the paper ends with conclusions and discussion on future works. 2. essentials of the diabetes determining approach in order to have a clearer idea about the proposed diabetes determining approach, it is necessary to focus first on the employed dataset and on the artificial intelligence techniques that are related to the following research work. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 82 2.1. diabetes dataset as previously noted, the data used in this study has been obtained from the university of california at irvine (uci) machine learning repository. the datasets are based on pima indians diabetes (frank & asuncion, 2010). several constraints were placed on the selection of these instances from a larger database. in particular, all the patients here are at least 21 years old females of pima indian heritage. there are 768 instances and 8 attributes in the related dataset. furthermore, there are available 2 results as healthy (negative diabetes) and diabetes (diabetes positive) in this dataset. the attributes included in the dataset are given in table 1. table 1. attributes included in the dataset of pima indians diabetes. attribute no attribute subject 1 number of pregnancy 2 plasma glucose concentration a 2 hours in an oral glucose tolerance test 3 diastolic blood pressure (mm hg) 4 triceps skin fold thickness (mm) 5 2-hour serum insulin (mu u/ml) 6 body mass index [weight in kg/(height in m) 2 ] 7 diabetes pedigree function 8 age (years) more details regarding the artificial intelligence techniques employed in this study have been briefly explained under the next sub-titles. 2.2. support vector machines vector machines (svm) was designed in 1979 by vapnik and lerner. in 1995 it was recommended for classification and regression by vapnik and lerner (comak, arslan, & turkoglu, 2007; vapnik, golowich, & smola, 1997). since a svm is known to have the advantage of offering solid performance of classification with even smaller learning data, we can expect that the proposed algorithm, with relatively small learning data, would demonstrate better performance than other classifiers and be implemented faster on account of the reduction of feature dimensions. for a crossvalidation procedure, this algorithm was compared with multi-layer perceptrons (mlp) and fuzzy inference system (fis) classifiers (song et al., 2005). the svm method provides an optimally separating hyper-plane in the sense that the margin between two groups is maximized. support vectors are defined as subset of data instances used to define the hyper-plane. the distance between the hyper-plane and the nearest support vector is called margin. svm supports both regression and classification tasks and can handle multiple continuous and categorical variables. there are two types of svms: (a) linear svm is used to separate the data points using a linear decision boundary and (b) non-linear svm separates the data points using a nonlinear decision boundary (santhanam & padmavathi, 2015; tamura & tanno, 2009). svm is a supervised learning algorithm, which is recommended for classification and nonlinear function approaches. starting to be widely used over the last few years, svms have been used in pattern recognition applications like text recognition, object recognition, sound recognition and face recognition (comak, arslan, & turkoglu, 2007). the main idea on the background of svm is based on the formation of the equation of lagrange multipliers. the goal of svm is to find the u. kose, g. e. guraksin, o. deperlioglu cognitive development optimization algorithm based support vector machines for determining diabetes 83 optimum separating hyper-plane, which is able to classify data points as well as possible and to again separate them into two classification points as much as possible. in other words, it aims to find the state in which the distance between the two classes is the maximum. the hallmarks of this classification reasoning are the support vectors chosen from the training set, and they are located on the closest points of both classes (javed, ayyaz, & mehmood, 2007). in figure 1, an example of support vectors and a maximum margin hyper-plane (in other words, an optimum separating hyperplane) is shown (cortes & vapnik, 1995). figure 1. maximum margin hyper-plane (cortes & vapnik, 1995). the optimum separating hyper-plane is defined as: ii t bxw ξ−≥+ 1 1= i y (1) ii t bxw ξ+−≤+ 1 1−= i y (2) 0≥ i ξ i∀ (3) whereξi approximates the number of misclassified samples. for a training data set with input vector xi r n , i=1,...,l and output labels yi, y {1,-1}, svm needs to find solution to the following optimization problem: minimize: ∑ = + l i i c w 1 2 2 ξ (4) subject to: ii t i bxwy ξ−≥+ 1)( 0≥iξ (5) wherec>0 represents the penalty parameter between the error term and the margin of hyper-plane. by using lagrange multipliers, we can represent this problem in its dual form as maximize: ∑ ∑ = == −= n i n ji j t ijijii xxyyw 1 1,12 1 )( αααα (6) subject to: ∑ = => n i iii y 1 0,0 αα (7) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 84 αi's are all zero except for those training patterns close to the separating plane which are called support vectors (cao et al., 2003). all other αi's are zero, so the data points which are not support vectors will have no effect on the solution. from here we can understand that the all information required to reconstruct the hyper-plane are in support vectors (tamura & tanno, 2009). in most practical applications the data of two classes linear indistinguishable, and thus data can be accessed by the mapping results in a higher dimensional space. the idea of a non-linear support vector of the original input space can be mapped in a higher dimensional feature space that can be divided into training data. in such cases, the svm kernel function is activated and ndimensional data set of m>n, including m-dimensional transformed into a new data set is made of high dimension linear classification. core functions, an important position in the svm algorithm. choosing the correct core function considerably affects the performance of classification. some kernel functions used in svm are given under equation 8, 9, and 10. linear : (8) polynomial : (9) gauss (rbf) : (10) 2.3. cognitive development optimization algorithm cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa) is an artificial intelligence oriented optimization approach designed and developed by kose and arslan, in 2015 (kose & arslan, 2015). after the first introduction, it also had some improvements so far and applied in different fields. it is important that codoa employs simple equations and it was developed as inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development. the concept of cognitive development can be briefly defined as a natural development process related to each individual. piaget has expressed that individuals go through different stages like maturation, social interaction, balancing while learning new concepts and eventually improving cognitive infrastructure (kose & arslan, 2015; singer & revenson, 1997). briefly, codoa includes some steps regarding the following phases: initialization phase, socialization phase, maturation phase, rationalizing phase, and balancing phase. these phases are some kind of calculation steps, which have been formed as a result of inspirations from stages of cognitive development. the phases are repeated until the stopping criterion is met (kose & arslan, 2015). algorithmic details of the codoa can be expressed briefly as follows (kose & arslan, 2015; kose & arslan, 2016): � step 1 (initialization phase): set initial parameters (n: number of particles; initial interactivity rate (ir) and experience (ex) values for each particle; max. and min. limits (min. limit is 0.0) for ir value (max_ir and min_ir); ml for the maturity limit; and r for the rationality rate. also, set other values related to the function, problem…etc. (e.g. dimension, search domain…etc.). � step 2: place the particles randomly in the solution space and calculate fitness values for each of them. update the ir value of the particle with the best fitness value by using a random value (equation 11). best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current)) (11) also, increase ex value of this particle by 1. u. kose, g. e. guraksin, o. deperlioglu cognitive development optimization algorithm based support vector machines for determining diabetes 85 � step 3: repeat the loop steps below until the stopping criterion (e.g. iteration number) is met: o step 3.1 (socialization phase): decrease (by 1) ex value of each particle, whose fitness value is equal to or above the average fitness of all particles (if the problem is minimization). also, increase (by 1) the ex value of each particle, whose fitness value is under the average fitness of all particles (if the problem is minimization). finally, update the ir value of these particles by using a random value (equation 12). particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * particlej_ir_(current)) (12) o step 3.2: update the ir value of all particles by using the equation 13: particlei_ir_(new) = rand. * particlei_ir_(current) (13) o step 3.3: update position of each particle (except from the best particle so far) by using the equation 14: particlei_pos._(new) = particlei_pos._(current) + (rand. * (particlei_ir_(current) * (global_best_pos. – particlei_pos._(current)))) (14) o step 3.4: calculate fitness values according to new positions of each particle. update the ir value of the particle with the better / best fitness value by using a random value (equation 15). best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current))(15) also, increase ex value of this particle by 1. o step 3.5 (maturation phase): update ir value of each particle, whose ex value is equal to or under the ml value by using the equation 16: particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * particlej_ir_(current)) (16) calculate fitness values according to new positions of each particle. update the ir value of the particle with the better / best fitness value by using a random value (equation 17). best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current))(17) also, increase ex value of this particle by 1. o step 3.6 (rationalizing phase): update ir and positions of each particle, whose ex value is under 0, by using the following equations: particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * (best_particle_ir_(current) / particlej_ir_(current))) (18) particlei_pos._(new) = particlei_pos._(current) + (rand. * (particlei_ir_(current) * (global_best_pos. – particlei_pos._(current)))) (19) update ir of each particle, whoseex value is equal to or above 0, and repeat this r times; by using the equation 20: particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * (best_particle_ir_(current) / particlej_ir_(current))) (20) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 86 o step 3.7 (balancing phase): update the ir value of all particles by using the equation 21: particlei_ir_(new) = rand. * particlei_ir_(current) (21) calculate fitness values according to new positions of each particle. update the ir value of the particle with the better / best fitness value by using a random value (equation 22). best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current))(22) also, increase ex value of this particle by 1. for big problems, perform in-system optimization.return to the step 3.1. if the stopping criteria is not achieved yet. � step 4: the best values obtained within the loop are related to the optimum solution. the related algorithm steps can be visualized with a flow chart as shown in figure 2 [26]. figure 2. flow chart of the codoa (kose & arslan, 2015). 3. codoasvm approach fordetermining diabetes the related solution steps within codoa-svm approach for determining diabetes can be explained briefly as follows: • each particle provided to the solution space within the codoa represents the value of sigma (σ) to be used in the gauss (rbf) kernel function of the svm. • codoa runs according to a determined iteration number. in every new iteration the value of each particle is used in the svm and after the training process, the locally best and globally best (in all iterations run so far) particles are determined according to the accuracy of the values calculated according to the equation 23. (23) u. kose, g. e. guraksin, o. deperlioglu cognitive development optimization algorithm based support vector machines for determining diabetes 87 in the equation 23, tp stands for true classified diabetes positive individuals; tn stands for true classified diabetes negative individuals; fp stands for false classified diabetes positive individuals and finally, fn stands for false classified diabetes negative individuals. • after determining good (optimum) particles, default codoa steps are run. • after achieving the total iteration number, it is allowed to train the svm via optimum gauss (rbf) kernel function parameters, by using the optimum particle value [sigma (σ) value]. • the trained svm is now ready for the classification and so is diabetes determination process. a brief schema of the codoa-svm approach is also provided in figure 3. figure 3. a brief schema of the codoa-svm approach. 4. application and the results codoa-svm approach was applied over the related pima indians diabetes dataset with different particle and iteration number settings in the context of codoaprocess. the dataset used in the application employs a total of 768 data, as 500 of them belong to diabetes negative individuals, and also the remaining 268 ones belong to diabetes positive individuals. during the application, half of this data was used along the training process, while the other half was devoted to the testing process. at this point, the calculated accuracy rates have been taken into account for evaluating the effectiveness of the applied codoa-svm approach. in the codoa, initial interactivity rate (ir) was 0,50; max. interactivity rate was 10; maturity limit (ml) was 3; and finally rationality rate was 2. the findings obtained from the related application processes on five different particle numbers and six different iteration numbers are presented in table 2. table 2: findings obtained from the application processes. n iteration sigma (σ) accuracy (%) 25 2000 9,5062 76,56 40 2500 7,2388 75,26 40 3000 3,9547 74,48 50 4000 0,9107 76,04 75 5000 0,8377 81,25 90 5000 0,7405 87,50 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 88 table 2 presents the results about sigma (σ) and accuracy rates for different application processes performed. according to the findings, it can be expressed that the codoa-svm approach is good enough at classification on diabetes determination. figure 4. a graphic on values of tp, tn, fp, and fn for each different application process. in addition to the finding provided in table 2, figure 4 provides a graphic on values of tp (true positive), tn (true negative), fp (false positive), and fn (false negative) on each different application processes. 5. conclusions and future work this study has proposed a diabetes diagnosis system, which is formed via both support vector machines (svm) and cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa). in this approach, the training process of the svm has been supported with the codoa and after determining the most optimum sigma (σ) parameter of the gauss (rbf) kernel function (so the most optimum svm), a better classification formation has been tried to be achieved. in the context of the study, diabetes data set, which is related to pima indians, has been used for evaluating effectiveness of the proposed approach and after six different application processes, it was seen that the approach is well-enough on classification, which means being capable of determining diabetes. there are also some future works regarding the developed codoa-svm based approach. in this context, there will be some more works for improving classification accuracy and also setting different optimization plans on i.e. different parameters of the kernel function. additionally, it is aimed to evaluate the approach with datasets belonging to different diseases. references world health organization & international diabetes federation (2005). definition and diagnosis of diabetes mellitus and intermediate hyperglycemia, report of world health organization and international diabetes federation. international diabetes federation (2013). diabetes atlas (6th ed.). brussels, belgium (available from https://www.idf.org/sites/default/files/en_6e_atlas_full_0.pdf. accessed 04 january 2016). international diabetes federation (2009). diabetes atlas (4th ed.). brussels, belgium. available at https://www.idf.org/sites/default/files/idf-diabetes-atlas-4th-edition.pdf. accessed on 04 january 2016. u. kose, g. e. guraksin, o. deperlioglu cognitive development optimization algorithm based support vector machines for determining diabetes 89 veresiu, a.i., bondor, c.i., florea, b., vinik, e.j., vinik, a.i., & gâvan, n.a. (2015), detection of undisclosed neuropathy and assessment of its impact on quality of life: a survey in 25,000 romanian patients with diabetes, journal of diabetes and its complications, 29, 644–649. szolovits, p., patil, r. s., & schwartz, w. b. (1988). artificial intelligence in medical diagnosis. annals of internal medicine, 108(1), 80-87. kononenko, i. (2001). machine learning for medical diagnosis: history, state of the art and perspective. artificial intelligence in medicine, 23(1), 89-109. abbass, h. a. (2002). an evolutionary artificial neural networks approach for breast cancer diagnosis. artificial intelligence in medicine, 25(3), 265-281. al-shayea, q. k. (2011). artificial neural networks in medical diagnosis. int journal of computer science issues, 8(2), 150-154. dhar, j., & ranganathan, a. (2015). machine learning capabilities in medical diagnosis applications: computational results for hepatitis disease. int journal of biomedical eng and tech, 17(4), 330-340. botero-rosas, d., leon-a, j., reina, j. m., obando, a., & bastidas, a. r. (2015). use of artificial intelligence in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd). am j respircrit care med, 191. thong, n. t. (2015).hifcf: an effective hybrid model between picture fuzzy clustering and intuitionistic fuzzy recommender systems for medical diagnosis.expert systems with applications, 42(7), 3682-3701. gullapalli, v. k., brungi, r., &gopichand, g. (2015). application of perceptron networks in recommending medical diagnosis. int journal of computer applications, 113(4). muralidaran, c., dey, p., nijhawan, r., &kakkar, n. (2015). artificial neural network in diagnosis of urothelial cell carcinoma in urine cytology. diagnostic cytopathology, 43(6), 443-449. pătruţ, b., &tomozei, c. (2010). agent technology in monitoring systems. international journal of computers communications & control, 5(5), 852-861. santhanam & padmavathi, t. m. s. (2015). application of k-means and genetic algorithms for dimension reduction by integrating svm for diabetes diagnosis, procedia computer science, 47, 76 83, 2015. aslam, m. w., zhu, z., &nandi, a.k. (2013). feature generation using genetic programming with comparative partner selection for diabetes classification, expert systems with applications, 40, 5402–5412. kahramanli, h. & allahverdi n. (2008). design of a hybrid system for the diabetes and heart diseases, expert systems with applications, 35, 82–89. frank, a. & asuncion, a. (2010). uci machine learning repository [http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml]. irvine, ca: university of california, school of information and computer science. comak, e., arslan, a., & turkoglu, i. (2007). a decision support system based on support machines for diagnosis of the heart valve diseases, computers in biology and medicine, 37, 21-27. vapnik, v., golowich, s., &smola, a. (1997). support vector method for function approximation, regression estimation, and signal processing. advances in neural information processing systems 9, 281–287. song, m. h., lee, j., cho, s. p., lee, k. j., &yoo, s. k. (2005). support vector machine based arrhythmia classification using reduced features, international journal of control, automation, and signals, 3(4) 571-579. tamura, h., &tanno, k.(2009). midpoint validation method for support vector machines with margin adjustment technique, international journal of innovative computing, information and control, 5(11(a)), 4025-4032. javed, i., ayyaz, m. n., & mehmood, w. (2007). efficient training data reduction for svm based handwritten digits recognition, international conference on electrical engineering, 1-4. cortes, c., & vapnik, v. (1995). support-vector networks.machine learning, 20(3), 273-297. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 90 cao, l. j., chua, k. s., chong, w. k., lee, h. p., gu, q. m. (2003). a comparison of pca, kpca and ica for dimensionality reduction in support vector machine, neurocomputing, 55, 321-336. kose, u. & arslan, a. (2015). realizing an optimization approach inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development.broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 6(1-4), 15-22, 2015. piaget, j. (1964). part i: cognitive development in children: piaget development and learning, journal of research in science teaching, 2(3), 176-186. piaget, j. (1973). main trends in psychology. london: george allen &unwin. singer, d. g. & revenson, t. a. (1997). a piaget primer: how a child thinks. international universities press, inc., 59 boston post road, madison, ct 06443-1524. kose, u., & arslan, a. (2016). intelligent e-learning system for improving students’ academic achievements in computer programming courses. international journal of engineering education, 32(1-a), 185-198, 2016. microsoft word brain 3-4 gabriela.doc 47 browsing semantic data in slovakia ján mojžiš institute of informatics, sas, bratislava, slovakia upsyjamo@savba.sk michal laclavík magnetic media online, new york, usa laclavik@magnetic.com abstract semantic data browsing is important task for open and governmental data in behalf of public control. there are many projects and solutions regarding semantic data browsing and navigation, but despite the fact, in slovakia, the availability of such data is poor. it is a shame, because projects like national action plan of open government and the site data.gov.sk are already operating for several years. in this work we would like to point out key aspects of semantic data and detail the slovak market of semantic data. we design and propose our solution of semantic data browsing, evaluate the implementation in our agecrt net tool. keywords: semantic data, open data, navigation, visualization, rdf 1. introduction data on the web are published in various formats. either for common users, who tends to use popular web browsers in order to browse online data. in such case, browsers use http protocol to browse html syntax formatted data. other kind of data is semantic data. here we can include semantic web formats like rdf. actually, it is only a standard and the concrete implementation is then rdf/xml format. as for html data, also for rdf data, there are browsers. they are different browsers, but in general, serve the same goal of browsing. nowadays, there is an initiative which press on publishers (the ones who put the data online) and encourage them to format their data in one of rdf formats. the benefits are apparent; machine readable format, clear syntax, suitable for batch and bulk machine processing. here, the data is separated from the content. for comparison, the data in html format have the data mixed with the content. rdf format contains no content, but the data alone. we have found that most simple rdf format is rdf/n-triple. the usa governmental project data.gov hosts datasets of different departments and states of the usa. however, while the usa governmental project data.gov hosts a decent volume of 189,998 datasets, its slovak counterpart data.gov.sk appears just as a poor cousin, offering “only” 624 datasets. beside of that, the potential for slovakia is promising, yet it seems to have completely missed the chance. like u.s. governmental data.gov website service, which was launched in late may 2009, slovak counterpart, data.gov.sk, is controlled by the open government partnership action plan of the slovak republic (ogsk)1. the intention is common for both projects, to publish governmental open data. yet data.gov.sk is missing several vital governmental datasets. in comparison to data.gov.sk, which grew from 47 datasets2 to more than 188,000 in just 6 years3, its slovak counterpart, data.gov.sk, available from 2012, contains only 624 datasets. because data.gov.sk was proposed as part of ogsk1, all governmental institutions (including cities) should participate with publishing. to 1 open government initiative action plan of the slovak republic (2012). retrieved from http://www.otvorenavlada.gov.sk/data/files/1853_ogp-action-plan-slovakia.pdf 2 data.gov tunns six! (2015). retrieved from https://gsablogs.gsa.gov/gsablog/2015/05/26/data-gov-turns-six/ 3 data.gov datasets. (2015). retrieved from http://catalog.data.gov/dataset brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 illustrate the clumsiness of official institutions with data.gov.sk, there is a city of prešov, a bright example of initiative for open data, has its datasets published with data.gov.sk. here we can find street names dataset, school-like institutions or statistics about citizen counts. that would be great, but prešov is the only city, actually publishing with data.gov.sk, to the day of writing this work. in slovakia, there are 8 countries, each with 1 regional capital (including a city of prešov), so 7 regional capital cities are still absent in data.gov.sk. regarding ogsk, the measure of its fulfillment can be verified using either report by independent research institution (kurian, 2013) or that by the government itself4, although reports seems a bit outdated (last reports are dated to 2013, based on year period, 2012/2013, completely missing 2013/2014 and recent). but based on (kurian, 2013), prior to the publication, only 8 out o 22 commitments was completed. to compare with czech republic, a close neighbor to slovakia, czech government supports sparql endpoints for structured data querying through their governmental portal portal.gov.cz5 as well as they support bulk download. slovak insurance agency (sia) is publishing its debtors lists composed of natural persons in csv format6, which is a kind of structured, machine-readable format. although sia is governmental, its dataset is not included in data.gov.sk. interestingly, another governmental institute, the všeobecna zdravotná posťovňa (vszp), governmental health institution, also publishes its debtors online, but in comparison to sia, this dataset, actually, is listed under data.gov.sk7. what is important to say, that there are no legal obstacles in laws in slovakia, the ones, which would prevent institutions from publishing with data.gov.sk. processing of personal data in slovakia is regulated by an act no. 122/2013 coll. on protection of personal data and on changing and amending of other acts, resulting from amendments and additions executed by the act. no. 84/2014 coll. here, section 10, paragraph 3, point e clearly states, that (personal) information made public by controller may be processed legally and that information is, for example, also sia’s debtors list. therefore, it should have been included in data.gov.sk. problems and delay, regarding the process of data publication, is often caused by departments alone. from ogsk we can see that there is an action plan of data publishing, which involves various departments and kinds of data8. a worth of notice, however, is that there are no debtors datasets listed neither for vszp nor sia. but from this report, it is clear, that the slovak business register (sbr), which lists all legal and natural persons, who actually do (legal) business in slovakia, its dataset publication is only partial and, it is still under the subject of negotiation. moreover, the only format that user is able to get out of sbr is html, which complicates the steps of further machine processing, for instance, person titles are cast into the name field together with surname and the address can be noted in many different ways (with postal no., without it, city first, or street first, street numbering variability, abbreviations and etc.). even that the data gets published and bulk download is present, the data itself is in inappropriate format. for example financial department of slovakia also publish debtors 4 report on action plan fulfillment for years 2012 and 2013. (2013). retrieved from http://www.otvorenavlada.gov.sk/hodnotenie-plnenia-uloh-z-akcneho-planu-ogp-pre-roky-2012-a-2013/ 5 dataset of czech administration of social insurance. (2014). retrieved from https://portal.gov.cz/app/rejdata/rec.jsp?id=1646070&id_rej=97898&y=2015&m=11&doctype=idx 6 debtors list of social insurance agency in slovakia, in csv format. (2015). retrieved from http://www.socpoist.sk/index/open_file.php?file=dlznici/2015-11-06_sp_dlznici_csv.zip 7 health insurance agency všeobecká zdravotná poisťovňa, listed under data.gov.sk. (2015). retrieved from http://data.gov.sk/dataset?_organization_limit=0&organization=vseobecna-zdravotna-poistovna 8 dataset listing of slovak government. (2012). retrieved from www.otvorenavlada.gov.sk/data/files/2651_statna-sprava-datasety.xls j. mojžiš, m. laclavík browsing semantic data in slovakia 49 lists9, but offer only pdf formatted files on its website page. so do commercial health insurance agency union10, which also has its debtors, but again, only pdf is available. we wonder such wastefulness, because an effort was clearly present; export to pdf. but how much more work it would take to provide csv for instance? for the field of statistics information publishing, there is statistical office of the slovak republic (slovstat)11. it collects (local) macro-economical, social and other statistics, very similar to eurostat12. but in comparison to eurostat, it does not offer the bulk downloading function, so whole datasets can only be browsed manually via their on-line web interface. eurostat datasets, however, could easily be downloaded and then analyzed and processed. the commercial, non-profit or government-independent organizations or projects in slovakia, are partially serve as complements to, somewhat paralyzed, governmental institutions, which rather do their bureaucracy, strictly following various acts and are backside facing towards citizens. we can name foaf.sk, a project intended to online sbr data browsing and the collection of personal and business data out of public available datasets (like sia and vszp). other projects include vorsr.sk, fair-play alliance13, transparency international slovakia14 and, perhaps, slovak open data initiative15. we shall discuss them further. in this paper we would like to point out the situation with semantic data availability in slovakia and suggest improvements. as it seems, that official governmental institutions tends rather to not publish their data openly, user needs to navigate through inappropriate html formatted pages and other projects emerges lame, we propose our solution to semantic data browsing. but the lack of vital sparql endpoints and bulk downloads forcing us into, normally avoidable, workarounds. here inaccuracy may occur during information extraction, while parsing html via scripts or regular expressions. in any case, we are able to browse the data of sbr, refine original structure of data as much as possible and create graphs. we are able to provide graph visualizations in advance. sbr dataset is the first we have picked, because the lacking of sufficient solutions is noticeable. as we have already stated, sbr contain all legal and natural persons, who do business in slovakia and in comparison to the trade register of the slovak republic, it contains connections essential for social network creation. 2. related work in this section we discuss projects, solutions and services which aim to semantic data browsing improvement, either supplying relationship visualization, data structure refining or information extraction, kind of added value. thus, we exclude data.gov.sk, sbr, vszp, sia and other governmental institutions. dokulil and katreniaková suggest visualize for navigation in rdf data based on user’s mental map. they are able to reduce graph by removing nodes or a whole subtree. animation is available during restructuring operation (dokulil & katreniaková, 2008). 9 debtors list of finance department of slovak republic in pdf format. (2015). retrieved from https://www.financnasprava.sk/sk/elektronicke-sluzby/verejne-sluzby/zoznamy/zoznam-danovych-dlznikov 10 debtors list of health insurance agency union in pdf format. (2015). retrieved from http://www.union.sk/documents/51150/zoznam_dlznikov_fo 11 http://slovak.statistics.sk/ 12 bulk download of data published by eurostat. (2015). retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/bulkdownload 13 fair-play alliance slovakia. (2015). retrieved from http://www.fair-play.sk/ 14 transparency international slovakia. (2015). retrieved from http://www.transparency.sk/en 15 open data initiative. (2015). retrieved from http://opendata.sk/liferay/o-nas brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 slovak project foaf.sk is intended to sbr data browsing primary. with the help of regular expressions and with the public-available data of sbr, authors extracted information and created graph. as we have mentored above, sbr does not publish its data in any structured format, nor does it offer bulk download and the data is missing on data.gov.sk also. authors thus need to parse the html, filter-out the content and refine the data on their own. they have handled the duplicate entries and missing person’s unique identifiers like personal number (regarding personal privacy see aforementioned 122/2013), so they had used as much as name and address. in their task of relationship discovery, they use spread activation and offer full-text search with sphinx tool (suchal & vojtek, 2009). graph visualization is powered by adobe flash. foaf.sk, originally founded as a non-profit initiative of individuals, proud of graph visualization, later sold-off, we have found, that now (nov/5/2015), it is missing its original visualization, stagnating and, perhaps, slowly started to decline. only a brief report about reconstruction and plans for visualization is provided, but 5 months already, there is a no change. m. laclavík proposes a set of tools for information extraction (laclavík et al., 2012), annotation and graph creation (laclavík et al., 2010).. ontea is a text annotation tool with the use of ontology and regular expressions. it can work in a cluster with mapreduce, extracts information from text, creating objects and, finally, semantic trees. the result is a graph, which can be searched with their next tool gsemsearch (former email social network search prototype). to perform a relationship discovery task, gsemsearch is using spread activation (similar to foaf.sk). spread activation is computed upon their database store sgdb, where they also perform graph traversal. in his former works (laclavík at el., 2014), (laclavík et al., 2011), (laclavík et al., 2012), (laclavík et al., 2011), he further use this concept and he performs distributed parallel computing with mapreduce only in initial stage, where he extracts and annotate entities needed for graph creation. this project, however, seems dead, as the graph is not visualized and to this day (nov/5/2015) the official gsemsearch tool website is unavailable16. another sbr browsing project and service is vorsr.sk, a virtualization of sbr with a great potential. now, only a shell, an encapsulation or sbr, there is only google search box and just a few direct links to sbr official website. in czech republic, for comparison, there is one visualization website, to serve as a kind of visual sbr browser, obchodnirejstrik.podnikani.cz, with which, users can, still, see visualizations and find is appealing and functioning. fair-play alliance (fpa) and transparency international slovakia (tis) are nongovernmental organizations, aimed mainly to the fight against corruption. they publish various reports and offer data browsing. although fpa provides data browsing through their datanest service17, search is supported and the menu is rich, again, no bulk download is possible and so neither is querying with sparql. the results of tis are important and their purpose is reasonable. manly they publish particular reports about corruption, statistics and audits. they serve as public control, but they do not focus on structured data availability, like sparql or structured data bulk download. an initiative for open data is a project, “a group of people, which wants to carry through a plan for open and modern open government.” on their site18, however, it is 16 gsemsearch tool, search online for relations in enron email corpus. (2013). retrieved from http://try.ui.sav.sk:7070/enron/gsemsearch.html. address now unavailable (2015) 17 lawyer employee register by fair-play initiative. (2015). retrieved from http://datanest.fairplay.sk/datasets/56#/data 18 open data initiative. (2015). retrieved from http://opendata.sk/liferay/o-nas j. mojžiš, m. laclavík browsing semantic data in slovakia 51 markedly outdated with last news dated from 2012. again, in comparison to opendata.cz in czech, slovak counterpart is rather dull with several links even dead. and this initiative shows a bit of fragmentation, being distributed, beside its official website opendata.sk, across group facebook19 and another website utópia20, also. on one of their branching sites, utópia, we find more recent updates, but the effect of the initiative is rather unfilled. also, the capital city of bratislava supports various projects among which, a project about dataset publishing in standardized structured format was pending. but, unfortunately, this project was not supported21. despite that, the datasets are now available22, but again, neither structured data nor bulk downloading is provided. similar to data.gov.sk is czech counterpart opendata.cz, which is but an independent initiative for open data publishing, with but a few datasets. abroad, we can find relfinder. it is, perhaps, one of the most promising and known relationship discovery tools. the main difference from foaf.sk is its support of virtually any sparql endpoint (linked data publisher). relfinder is capable of visualization as well. it is designed and created by p. heim as a search and graph visualization tool. the solution is implemented as a web service and powered by adobe flex. the service allows user to specify sparql endpoint. relfinder allows user to search for 2 vertexes for which the relationships are about to be discovered. to simplify search process, an auto-complete functionality is available, providing user with the list of matched entries. on the official website of the relfinder23, there is an implementation and user can test the service and search for relationships. among the visualization advantage, the data is fetched and presented online, no data is stored therefore the data is never outdated. also the ability to support virtually any sparql endpoint makes relfinder a universal tool. for instance, when searched for ”bill gates” and ”virginia”, the main relationship is returned as ”united states”. relfinder offers filtering as well (for example based on connectivity). a filtering is available; it hides vertexes which are simply too far above threshold. on the graph visualization, edges and vertexes are colored (based on filters selected in tabs). layout is maintained with force-directed algorithm. its code is published under gnu and hosted by google code24. similarly to the web browsers, semantic web browsers (intended to browse linked data), browse the semantic data online. semantic web browser can connect various endpoints, does support sparql query language and combines various visualization techniques (facets, graph visualizations). among many browsers, those well-known are dbpedia mobile (becker & bizer, 2008), exhibit (huynh, karger, & miller, 2007), mspace (smith et al., 2005) or tabulator (berners-lee et al., 2006) and relfinder. they help with displaying often offering various visualization techniques like lenses (furnas, 1986). but because in slovakia, the situation with semantic data is poor, the use of linked data browsers in slovak environment is discouraging. so, to conclude this section, many projects are launched and were executed already, but results are very poor, unification, which should involve data.gov.sk, is nowhere, rather fragmentation and distribution of the data is present, some websites are offline, others were never launched. often a project, which was successfully launched actually, is just a one-shot 19 facebook group of open data initiative slovakia. (2015). retrieved from http://datanest.fairplay.sk/datasets/56#/data 20 utópia, a branch of open data initiative slovakia. (2015). retrieved from https://utopia.sk/liferay/home 21 city of bratislava: project about selected datasets publication; unsupported. (2014). retrieved form http://pr.banm.sk/liferay/datasetybanm 22 datasets of city of bratislava; only in pdf format. (2015). retrieved from http://zverejnovanie.banm.sk/ 23 relfinder demo application. (2015). retrieved from http://www.visualdataweb.org/relfinder/relfinder.php 24 relfinder source code hosted on google code. (2015). retrieved from http://code.google.com/p/relfinder/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 item, dissolving and eventually found dead. together with a fact, that many governmental institutions still provide non-machine readable, structured data, the report on ogsk is a disappointment and semantic web standards like notation 3 25 or rdf/xml syntax specification26 were published at least 10 years ago, we see the current status of semantic data publishing as a shame. and the potential there is, we are in the european union, ready for eurofunds collecting, we have action plans (ogsk), commissions and initiatives (open government partnership ogp1), there are academic and research institutions like slovak academy of sciences27 and slovak university of technology28 and more, yet results are just partial and effects are surely delayed. in order to evolve, we should always compare to such successful projects like data.gov, commercial-like obchodni-rejstrik.podnikani.cz or governmental portal of czech republic portal.gov.cz. 3. our solution with the aim primary on unstructured information extraction and refining, relationship discovery and visualization, we propose our solution for sbr in the first place. the reason for this is, primary, that html formatted results of sbr are very jerky and uncertainty regarding the structure of information is very high. readers can also be pointed by j. suchal and p. vojtek (2009), that care should be taken towards type errors. we discuss that later. in this work, we try to fill-up the gap of visualization and, somehow limited data access offered by sbr, adapting to the problems disclaimed above. we suggest a new clientside paradigm, which does not depend on a particular website like foaf.sk. figure 1 describes the schema briefly and the key elements are parsers with other tools on the top and structured formats, for datastore, on the bottom. figure 1. schema of client-side application for semantic browsing. 25 notation 3, w3c. (2011). retrieved from http://www.w3.org/teamsubmission/n3/ 26 rdf/xml syntax specification. (2004). retrieved from http://www.w3.org/tr/rec-rdf-syntax/ 27 slovak academy of sciences. (2015). retrieved from http://www.sav.sk/?lang=en 28 slovak university of technology in bratislava. (2015). retrieved from http://www.stuba.sk/english.html?page_id=132 j. mojžiš, m. laclavík browsing semantic data in slovakia 53 we do not consider incremental machine querying as the best choice, because it both burdens the server for the duration of the process and it creates copies of records, which should then be updated periodically and it also induce possible errors. however, as suchal & vojtek (2009), we see no alternation to regular expression usage, because html syntax is unavoidable part of the solution, when refining data of sbr. as our solution calculates with modules (wrapped as tools in figure 1), we design solution modularly with plug-in possibility of other modules. other modules may process different data sources from different hosts, but they should return results in common format. each module should implement its own protocol, because of variability and particular purpose to serve. each module should function as thread-safe implementation, using main thread idle time in order to keep user interaction seamless. structured format may be any standard structured format like rdf/xml or n-triple, or particular modules can use their own format, in which case a description of such format must have been given clearly. client interacts with the application through interface, using functions of modules, loading or saving the data and performing tasks like visualization. a choice to store the data was made to ease of later usage and enable data sharing. because the data may still be unavailable in machine-readable form (like sbr) and there was an effort to gather it (parsing, refining), we find this option useful. although we are aware that the data may became outdated after a while. 4. implementation in order to implement our solution we choose java programming language as platform independent developing backend. the language and especially developing environment (eclipse, netbeans) are also platform independent and at minimum, linux is supported, where .net is only partially available. we design our gui with the swing library and for visualization, we use jung graph library29, which is very flexible and offers rich customizability. regular expressions are already built inside java, so the only problem is actual writing of expressions. for the purpose of quick testing, we have developed a testing webpage, where we can evaluate regular expressions prior their implementation in the module. because we focus on sbr and html output, we have found, that best suitable regular expression can be derived from “[^<>]”. hence the negation tells the engine, that neither < nor > could be encountered during string evaluation. in sbr, there are common symbols like dash, parenthesis, numbers as well as diacritical marks like carons or acutes. 5. data to evaluate our solution, implemented in agecrt net tool, we used sbr browsing module of agecrt net and have connected to sbr dataset. although we do not have direct numbers, sbr contains around 86.500 firm records. sbr website does not offer statistics regarding their records count, but on its main page30, only update timestamps are displayed. indirectly, however, it is possible to create an imagination of the size based on firm record identifiers. as j. suchal states (suchal, & vojtek, 2009), they have harvested sbr dataset using continuous incrementing of (aforementioned) identifiers. we do not know if suchal was aware of that, but identifiers (and thus firm records) are distributed across, at least, 8 different datasets. parameters of get uri include sid, which varies from 1 up to 7, so each firm id must be queried with each different sid in order to ensure, that all firm records are searched. 29 java universal network/graph framework, jung. (2010). retrieved from http://jung.sourceforge.net/ 30 slovak business register. (2015). retrieved from http://www.orsr.sk/default.asp?lan=en brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 sbr contains firm records which are composed of firm detailing items. those items include partners, management body, stockholders or supervisory board. additionally, there are items on branch of the enterprise or restructuring trustees. items can be either for natural persons or legal persons and other firms. with the use of such items from firm details, a social network (of firms and persons) may be created. however, unlike facebook, there are no direct person-to-person edges, rather person-firm and firm-firm type edges. there are 2 possible query types, we use, in general. search for a firm. here a firm name and address may be typed or its identification number supplied. or search for a person, only name and surname are allowed. no address information is supported. firm records are divided into 2 sets. one is actual, containing information actual to a generated timestamp. another is full, marking historical information and changes also. 6. results we have searched for firm “váhostav”, which is a rather big firm in slovakia, with many press articles published about31. on figure 2 there is a browsing window, for sbr data results, displaying tabular structure, which was refined from sbr dataset by continuous querying. resulting graph is rather complex. there are 175 vertices and 201 edges, which were created directly, containing 158 persons and 17 companies. as we see on figure 3, some filtering methods are required in order to create suitable overview of relations. figure 4 thus shows the visualization of the same graph, but with tens of vertices merged. now it contains 22 persons and 17 companies. a merging was performed for clarification and is built inside the visualization module. a simple condition says that a merging is performed if persons are unique, thus if a person is connected only to 1 firm. more formally, person vertices are merged, if their vertex degree equals 1 (each). figure 2. results for firm name “váhostav” are in table. each row defines a firm with its name, identification number and address. then a connection is specified (whether it be a person or another firm). 31 press publications about firm váhostav (in slovak). (2015). retrieved from https://www.google.sk/search?q=v%c3%a1hostav&oq=v%c3%a1hostav#q=site:sme.sk+v%c3%a1hostav j. mojžiš, m. laclavík browsing semantic data in slovakia 55 figure 3. graph created directly from the results. the usefulness of such visualization has its key points regarding connections. thanks to sbr browsing module, we were able to get 22 firm records for “váhostav” query. between any 2 companies, connections may be (and often are) not bidirectional, so, in order to navigate through connections, we have refined all 22 records. although, even being filtered, graph is still complex. and it is possible to further navigate and search for outgoing connections, for example firm “merlin trade, a.s.” on fig.4 contains item on “ján kato”, which is already included in our graph and connected to “váhostav-sk-developement” on bottom left side and “váhostav-sk, a.s.” in the center. edge coloring and drawing is helpful with overlapped edges. for methods of visualization, including coloring, we refer to studies of h. omote and k. sugiyama (2006), and i. herman, g. melanon, and m. s. marshall (2000) or our study on graph clutter filtering and connectivity distance (mojzis & laclavik, 2014). we also use edge coloring and drawing methods to ease edge following and to help with overlapping. person “ján kato” is connected with 2 different colors. it is thus possible to follow edge from its start to end. or “oľga kmecíková”, who is connected with 4 edges, each brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 one colored with different color and pattern. edge coloring and patterning is helpful as we have already proposed in our previous work (mojzis & laclavik, 2014). figure 4. after merging, overview is more transparent. tens of persons were merged together into clusters in order to clarify the visualization. firms and persons are recognized based on their icons. comparing to suchal (suchal & vojtek, 2009), we use city name as additional identifier even during visualization. we do not share his suggestion “if two persons with the same name, but different address occur inside one firm, consider that as one person”. there is a record of “váhostav-sk, a.s.” with 2 persons, namely both with the same name “juraj široký” but with different addresses. although the street is the same, numbering is different (8137/137 vs. 137). this is rather a complex problem and, as it, is very suitable for the field of machine-learning. despite suchal, we actually recognize persons based on their addresses and also (academic) titles. it is uncommon, that 2 different persons, named equally, live in the same street and city, if it is father and son. yet they may have 2 different titles. regarding different addresses, we encourage to use firm’s actual record as a complement, in order to repair typed errors and address changes, because changes and error fixes are performed by the competent staff of sbr. we do not dare to mark 2 person items as one and the same person. it is up to sbr, that they keep their person items updated every time a person gets re-housed. they however, use personal numbers and id card numbers and other data, not available to j. mojžiš, m. laclavík browsing semantic data in slovakia 57 public, which they may rely on. because that, we have to tolerate that inaccuracies in personal items are unavoidable. however, we prefer rather to not recognize a relationship, as if the relation should be falsely marked, due to 2 to 1 person conversion. although we use clustering with person merging, this operation is completely reversible and does not affect connections at all. personal information is keep intact. 7. conclusion an offer of semantic data market is poor and non-governmental or commerce sector does not improve it either. it is an unfortunate situation, because the potential is big and the hole is noticeable. whether we look in czech republic, we find governmental sparql endpoints and datasets32 or non-governmental project for business register browsing with obchodni-rejstrik.podnikani.cz. and availability of open data is vital on behalf of public control. data.gov is only partially implemented and, as the report says, only 8 out of 22 submitted tasks were finished. government-independent initiatives and projects are, also, present in slovakia, but their effect is marginal and they are often one-time events. other projects we find slowly declining (including foaf.sk) and unavailability of the data is still very intensive. it was a great step forward to publish debtors, thanks to sia and vszp. even in the case the data is provided online, like financial department of slovakia or commercial health insurance agency union do, only pdf formatted file with tables is available. basically, we divide open data publishing in slovakia into 2 categories. first is category of clear and open data, machine readable. this category is very important and the data highly usable. but it is the smallest out of 2 groups. second, although being published, the data itself is in inappropriate format (like pdf). yet so small market of open data in slovakia is divided and fragmented once more. as if it was not enough already, that data.gov.sk does not cover all of the few available machine readable sources. by proposal of this paper, we try to fill up the gap of semantic tools availability, currently present in slovakia. because data sources are not always machine readable, we advance further the concept similar to suchal and vojtek (2009) and use regular expressions. but instead of online based service, we propose client based solution. the advantages of availability are preserved intact, but no additional costs, with funding online service, are present. additionally, when application is about to be updated, it is up on a user, whether he wishes to do so. the modular concept is counting with the possibility of new modules creation and inclusion. proved already functioning and useable, we would like to recommend its usage. currently, there are negotiations in process, regarding offline dataset of sbr. we consult with support member of sbr and soap33 query is under construction. should we have succeeded, we publish and detail about how to obtain offline dataset of sbr. unfortunately, prior to publishing of this work, we do not have any more information. we are almost sure, that it is possible to successfully connect to their soap server in order to get dataset. acknowledgement this work is partially supported by following grants: clan (apvv-0809-11) and vega (2/0154/16). 32 dataset of czech administration of social insurance. (2014). retrieved from https://portal.gov.cz/app/rejdata/rec.jsp?id=1646070&id_rej=97898&y=2015&m=11&doctype=idx 33 xml soap. (2015). retrieved from http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_soap.asp brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 references becker, ch. & bizer, ch. (2008). dbpedia mobile: a location-enabled linked data browser. ldow, 369, 2008 berners-lee, t., chen, y., chilton, l., connolly, d., dhanaraj, r., hollenbach et al. (2006). tabulator: exploring and analyzing linked data on the semantic web. in proceedings of the 3rd international semantic web user interaction workshop, volume 2006. athens, georgia, 2006. dokulil, j. & katreniaková, j. (2008). navigation in rdf data. in information visualization, 2008. iv'08. 12th international conference (pp. 26-31). institute of electrical and electronics engineers. furnas, g. w. (1986). generalized fisheye views (vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 16-23). acm. herman, i., melanon, g., & marshall, m. s. (2000). graph visualization and navigation in information visualization: a survey. visualization and computer graphics, institute of electrical and electronics engineers transactions on, 6(1), 24-43. huynh, d., karger, d., & miller, r. (2007). exhibit: lightweight structured data publishing. in proceedings of the 16th international conference on world wide web, pages 737– 746. acm, 2007. kurian m. independent reporting mechanism slovakia: progress report 2012-13. (2013). retrieved from http://www.opengovpartnership.org/files/slovakia-ogp-irmpublic-comment-engpdf-0/download laclavík, m., dlugolinský, š., & ciglan, m. (2014). discovering relations by entity search in lightweight semantic text graphs. computing and informatics, 33:877–906, 2014. laclavík, m., dlugolinský, š., kvassay, m., & hluchý, (2011). l. email social network extraction and search. in proceedings of the 2011 ieee/wic/acm international conferences on web intelligence and intelligent agent technology-volume 03, pages 373–376. institute of electrical and electronics engineers computer society, 2011. laclavík, m., dlugolinský, š., kvassay, m., & hluchý, l. (2010). use of e-mail social networks for enterprise benefit. in web intelligence/iat workshops, pages 67–70. citeseer, 2010. laclavík, m., dlugolinský, š., šeleng, m., ciglan, m., & hluchý, l. (2012). emails as graph: relation discovery in email archive. in proceedings of the 21st international conference companion on world wide web, pages 841–846. acm, 2012. laclavík, m., šeleng, m., ciglan, m., & hluchý, l. (2012). ontea: platform for pattern based automated semantic annotation. computing and informatics, 28(4):555–579, 2012. laclavík, m., šeleng, m., ciglan, m., dlugolinský, š., & hluchý, l. (2011). gsemsearch: objavovanie relácií v kolekciách textových a grafových dát. in 6th workshop on intelligent and knowledge oriented technologies: wikt, pages 1–5, 2011. mojzis, j. & laclavik, m. (2014). graph clutter filtering based on connectivity distance and visibility. in science and information conference (sai), 2014 (pp. 153-158). institute of electrical and electronics engineers. omote, h. & sugiyama, k. (2006). method for drawing intersecting clustered graphs and its application to web ontology language. in proceedings of the 2006 asia-pacific symposium on information visualisation-volume 60 (pp. 89-92). australian computer society, inc. j. mojžiš, m. laclavík browsing semantic data in slovakia 59 smith, d., owens, a., russell, a., harris, c., wilson, m. et al. (2005). the evolving mspace platform: leveraging the semantic web on the trail of the memex. in proceedings of the sixteenth acm conference on hypertext and hypermedia, pages 174–183. acm, 2005. suchal, j. & vojtek, p. (2009). navigácia v sociálnej sieti obchodného registra sr. datakon, srní, czech republic. level of self-educational competence of cadets of higher educational institutions with specific training environment ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 4, pages: 141-162 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/380 submitted: september 1st, 2022 | accepted for publication: november 14th, 2021 individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a basis for effective psychological selection of personnel for modern police organizations ivan okhrimenko 1 , volodymyr ostapovich 2 , vadym v. barko 3 , vadym i. barko 4 , olga smirnova 5 , iryna hruzynska 6 , olga marchenko 7 1 doctor in law, professor, professor of the department of legal psychology, national academy of internal affairs, kyiv, ukraine, ivango-07@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-8813-5107 2 doctor in law, senior researcher, chief of laboratory of psychological support of the state research institute of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, vpo1967@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-9186-0801 3 candidate of pedagogical sciences, senior researcher, leading researcher of laboratory of psychological support of the state research institute of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, barkowork@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-3836-2627 4 doctor of psychological sciences, professor, chief researcher of laboratory of psychological support of the state research institute of the abstract: the distinguishing features of a specific type of modern law enforcement activities (criminal police, patrol police, security police, pretrial investigation bodies, district police officers) require a law enforcement officer to have certain individual and psychological characteristics, the absence of which make it impossible to successful perform their service tasks. individual and psychological characteristics must be taken into account during the psychological selection of personnel for law enforcement agencies. the aim of the research is to undertake the comparative analysis of the individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers who carry out various types of law enforcement activities. 986 law enforcement officers engaged in various types of law enforcement activities took part in the research. the research was carried out on the basis of a systematic approach using an optimal set of psychodiagnostic techniques. professionally significant individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers who undertake various types of service activities were singled out. it was found that the representatives of the criminal police and security police units are emotionally more stable compared to other categories of police officers. on the other hand, high levels of confidence, independence and leadership are expressed among patrol officers and investigators. police officers in all types of law enforcement activities are particularly characterized by high self-control, responsibility, conscientiousness, thoroughness, and discipline. the obtained data will contribute to the improvement of the mechanism of psychological selection of personnel for modern police organizations. keywords: law enforcement activities; individual and psychological characteristics; police officer; psychological selection. how to cite: okhrimenko, i., ostapovich, v., v. barko, v., i. barko, v., smirnova, o., hruzynska, i., & marchenko, o. (2022). individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a basis for effective psychological selection of personnel for modern police organizations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(4), 141-162. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/380 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/380 mailto:ivango-07@ukr.net mailto:vpo1967@ukr.net mailto:barkowork@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.4/380 ministry of internal affairs of ukraine, kyiv, ukraine, barkoua@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0003-4962-0975 5 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, international academy of personality development, odessa, ukraine, smirnova.o.odessa@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-3680-353x 6 candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of the department of pedagogy and psychology of vocational education, national aviation university, kyiv, ukraine, gruzinska.irina17@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-6303 7 doctor of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, professor of the department of sociology and psychology, кharkiv national university of internal affairs, кharkiv, ukraine, marchenko_8@ukr.net, orcid.org/0000-0003-1007-9560 mailto:barkoua@ukr.net mailto:smirnova.o.odessa@gmail.com mailto:gruzinska.irina17@ukr.net mailto:marchenko_8@ukr.net individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a ... ivan okhrimenko et al. 143 1. introduction modern law enforcement activities require a significant increase in their effectiveness to ensure law and order as well as public safety of citizens, fight against crime, providing services and legal assistance to the population, etc. one of the ways to improve the effectiveness of law enforcement activities in modern conditions is to optimize the process of psychological study of law enforcement officers, to improve the professional selection of personnel based on the comprehensive consideration of individual and psychological characteristics and the level of psychological suitability of individuals to the requirements of a specific type of law enforcement activities (okhrimenko et al., 2020; shvets, et al., 2020). hence, it can be stated that under the modern conditions of the development of society, the introduction of information and communication technologies is consistently strengthening a new perspective on human resourcing of the law enforcement system, the key element of which is the personnel of the police organization as one of its main resources. this reflects a real increase in the role of the human factor in police activities, the growing dependence of the functioning of each unit on the quality of law enforcement services, the motivation of specialists, the nature of the use of personnel as a whole and individual employees. that is why paying attention to human resources and staffing in general should be considered as a long-term factor of competitiveness and successful functioning of law enforcement agencies. carrying out radical reforms in the system of police bodies is, in particular, directly related to increasing the role of the individual and psychological potential of its subjects (bondarenko, et al., 2020b; fedorenko et al., 2020; huhta et al., 2022; yevdokimova, et al., 2020). in this context, the issues of adaptation and improvement of the psychodiagnostic tools of professional selection of specialists for various types of law enforcement activities are of particular importance. this puts forward qualitatively new requirements for the theory and practice of the organization of personnel policy and determines the need to create an optimal mechanism for the formation of personnel of modern police organizations. 2. literature review in recent years, national and foreign scientists have paid a lot of attention to the issue of diagnosing the individual characteristics of police officers, as well as to the development of qualification characteristics of law enforcement professions. it is worth noting the attempts and efforts of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 144 modern scientists to expand the scope of scientific research in this direction (barko et al., 2020; bondarenko, et al., 2020a; kirdan et al., 2021; kryvolapchuk et al., 2020; kubaienko et al., 2021; miloradova et al., 2015; ostapovich, et al., 2020; prontenko, et al., 2020; prykhodko, et al., 2022). this increased the potential opportunities of practical psychologists in working with the personnel of police bodies and units, improved the system of psychological support for their activities, etc. in addition, the implementation of certain scientific approaches in practice allowed to focus on the professional activities of each individual specialist, and thus ensure the qualitative use of functional elements of personnel management i. e. selection, adaptation, development, training, motivation, work evaluation, encouragement, etc. in general, the given processes determined the degree of overall organizational effectiveness through the development of human factor management tools, among which the consideration of individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers takes priority. the researchers from foreign countries, in turn, also raised in their publications the issues of psychological study of the professional activities of law enforcement officers, diagnosis of psychological suitability for service activities, selection of diagnostic tools for professional selection of personnel, etc. (abbe, & brandon, 2014; alcadipani et al., 2021; barrett et al., 2003; bartol & bartol, 2004; bjerregaard, & lord, 2004; carlsmith, & sood, 2009; deller-wessels et al., 2022; detrick et al., 2005; hoggett et al., 2019). certain scientists have established correlation relationships between the success of law enforcement activities and the degree of manifestation of certain characteristics of police officers, in particular, introversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, conscientiousness, etc. however, the comparative analysis of the individual and psychological characteristics of police officers of different types of activities and their psychograms has not been conducted so far, which limits the possibilities of practical psychologists and personnel department employees in determining the level of psychological suitability of an individual for service activities, optimizing the appointment of people to various positions in police units. instead, a favorably constructed and successfully organized diagnostic process based on specific (individual and psychological) indicators allows in a short time to identify suitable and motivated law enforcement officers who are able to work not only in accordance with their personal goals, but also organizational and corporate tasks. under such conditions, we can say that the mechanisms of human resources management in such a police establishment will be properly managed, and therefore effective. new specialists are able to form the personnel resource of the unit already at the individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a ... ivan okhrimenko et al. 145 initial stage of work, and its activities begin to positively affect the competitive advantages of the structure as a whole. the aim of the research is to undertake the comparative analysis of the individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers who carry out various types of law enforcement activities. 3. methodology the research was conducted during 2019-2021 with coverage of 986 police officers by the main types of police activities (criminal police (n = 231), pre-trial investigation bodies (n = 205), district police officers (n = 164), patrol police (n = 247), security police (n = 139)), aged 22 to 46 from 20 oblasts of ukraine; 77.9 % of respondents were men. the special ranks of police officers ranged from corporal to police colonel. according to the results of the expert assessment, 80 % of the examined were characterized as successful employees. considering the scope of examined police officers, the quantitative indicator of the sample is representative (with a confidence level of probability of 0.99 with a theoretical statistical error of 0.01). the criteria of the psychological suitability of the individual to the requirements of the activities included the following: the criterion of the type of higher nervous activity (indicators of the strength and lability of the nervous system); the criterion of personal characteristics (indicators of temperament and character). a complex of methods was used to solve the tasks: – theoretical methods (analysis, synthesis and generalization of psychological literature on the research problem); – empirical methods involved tapping test, adapted questionnaires: individual and typological questionnaire (leading trends); questionnaire of the big five (characteristic features); temperament structure questionnaire; the leonhard-shmishek questionnaire (accentuations of personality); the method of diagnosing interpersonal relations (variant of t. leary’s interpersonal diagnosis) (barrett et al., 2003; black, 2000; cochraine et al., 2003; john et al., 2008; salgado, 2002); survey and interview of police officers, expert assessment; methods of mathematical and statistical data processing involved a package of application programs such as “spss 22.0” and “microsoft office excel 2003”, which provided the calculation of variation statistical indicators: student’s t-test for independent samples to identify statistically significant differences between the average values of the compared indicators between the research groups. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/jesus-salgado-6 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 146 the research was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the regulation on academic integrity at the national academy of internal affairs, which was developed on the basis of ukrainian and global experience of ethical rulemaking. this document was approved by the academic council of the national academy of internal affairs (protocol no. 5 of march 27, 2018) and put into effect by the order of the rector of the academy (order no. 422 of march 30, 2018). according to its provisions, the members of the scientific community in their activities are guided by the norms and rules of ethical behavior and professional communication, take into account the principles, values, norms, rules and conditions for observing academic integrity. prior consent to participate in the research was obtained from all subjects. 4. results two main criteria were chosen as ones for assessing a person’s psychological suitability for activities: a) the criterion of the type of higher nervous activity (hna) (specified in the indicators of the main properties of nervous processes i. e. strength and lability); b) the criterion of personal characteristics (specified in the indicators of temperament and character traits). such a choice is based on the methodological standpoint, according to which the prediction of a person’s psychological suitability for activities in various situations is based on taking into account his / her constitutional and characterological features (traits) (smith, 1988). let’s consider the criteria in sequence. the criterion of the type of hna. police officers are characterized by a strong, average-strong or average-weak type of nervous system, high or average lability of nervous processes, high psychophysiological endurance and working capacity. police officers have several typical profiles based on the results of the tapping test. on average, about half of the examinees show an average-strong type of hna (41.9 %), almost a third (31.7 %) reveal a profile characteristic of an average-weak nervous system. one-sixth of the respondents (14.9 %) demonstrated a strong type of nervous system, a small proportion (11.4 %) of respondents have a weak type. more than half of police officers have high (53.4 %) indicators of lability of nervous processes, more than a third (36.0 %) have average (intermediate) and only 10.9 % of employees have low lability. the largest number of police officers with strong and average-strong types, which are predictors of the success of an employee’s professional activities in special conditions, was found in investigation units (59 %), individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a ... ivan okhrimenko et al. 147 followed by patrol officers (56.6 %), employees of criminal police units (55.3 %), security police officers (53.1 %), district police officers (50.6 %). therefore, for all types of police activities, the majority of employees are characterized by a sufficiently strong nervous system, which is obviously related to the need to constantly endure significant emotional and physical stress during service activities, to overcome feelings of fear, insecurity, and uncertainty. regarding the lability of nervous processes, we came to the conclusion that the largest number of highly labile police officers work in the criminal police (65.8 %), investigation (60.0 %), and patrol police (57.5 %) units. obviously, this testifies to the importance of the ability for the employees of the mentioned units to quick arousal, flow and termination the nervous process, switch from excitement to inhibition and vice versa, quick thinking and reaction to events, intellectual flexibility, etc. (table 1). table 1. distribution of law enforcement officers by types of nervous system and features of nervous processes (n = 986, %) categories of law enforcement officers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 criminal police officers (n = 231) 37.6 36.8 17.7 7.9 65.8 22.5 11.7 investigators (n = 205) 46.8 31.2 12.2 9.8 60.0 33.2 6.8 district police officers (n = 164) 32.3 35.9 18.3 13.5 53.0 34.7 12.3 patrol police officers (n = 247) 31.9 32.1 24.7 11.3 57.5 29.1 13.4 security police officers (n = 139) 35.2 34.7 17.9 12.2 50.3 39.6 10.1 note. 1 – average-strong type of nervous system; 2 – average-weak; 3 – strong; 4 – weak; 5 – high lability; 6 – average lability; 7 – low lability source: authors' own conception the criterion of personal characteristics characteristic features. the research of personal characteristics using the big five inventory (bfi) made it possible to find out that police officers have such traits as conscientiousness (average value – 35.6 points); openness to new experiences (32.9 points); moderate agreeableness (31.3 points), and extraversion (30.0 points), low level of neuroticism (14.5 points) (table 2). table 2. distribution of law enforcement officers by characterological features (based on the results of using the big five inventory, points) categories of law enforcement officers 1 2 3 4 5 criminal police officers (n = 231) 31.90 14.00 34.10 29.22 30.11 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 148 investigators (n = 205) 29.81 14.78 35.68 31.61 34.16 district police officers (n = 164) 30.00 15.08 34.92 33.19 33.21 patrol police officers (n = 247) 30.03 15.56 36.92 32.37 33.00 security police officers (n = 139) 29.80 14.33 36.17 33.92 33.11 note. 1 – extraversion; 2 – neuroticism; 3 – conscientiousness; 4 – agreeableness; 5 – openness to experiences source: authors' own conception the indicators of testing of law enforcement officers of different units are close to each other, the differences are statistically insignificant (р = 0.001). this means that police officers are characterized in terms of the main types of professional activities by controllable behavior and proactive attitude, self-control, perseverance, diligence, accuracy in work, thoroughness, responsibility, organization, discipline, and lack of anxiety. they are also characterized by impartiality, interest, receptivity to new information and knowledge, the presence of broad interests, developed imagination, flexible mind, independence and non-standard thinking, orientation to the search for new approaches, ways to solve problems, propensity for introspection and reflection, originality of perception. police officers are characterized by focus on the outside world, sociability, ability to get on well with people, leadership aspirations, vigor, proactive attitude, impulsiveness, optimism. moderate compliance indicates sensitivity, benevolence, trustworthiness, conformity, a tendency to subordinate personal interests to the needs of the group, orientation to cooperation. tendencies towards rationalism, stress resistance, endurance, calm response and attitude to events as well as the environment are also observed. the analysis of the averaged personality profiles of police officers, obtained on the basis of the use of an individual-typological questionnaire, allows us to characterize them as linear, located in the range of 3–7 points, which indicates the harmony of the personality of police officers, the balance in their personal qualities. the variability of the profiles is insignificant (0.10-0.26), which indicates the balance of multidirectional tendencies. the averaged profile contains four peaks on the scales: 1 (extraversion), 8 (lability, emotionality), 2 (spontaneity), 4 (rigidity). the lowest indices were recorded on scales 5 (introversion) and 7 (anxiety) (table 3). individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a ... ivan okhrimenko et al. 149 table 3. distribution of law enforcement officers by characterological features (according to the results of the use of the individual-typological questionnaire, points) categories of law enforcement officers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 criminal police officers (n = 231) 7.01 5.84 4.91 5.51 2.48 4.07 2.90 5.86 investigators (n = 205) 7.18 5.74 4.80 5.78 2.78 4.08 3.11 5.89 district police officers (n = 164) 6.88 5.51 4.74 5.33 2.46 3.96 3.0 5.68 patrol police officers (n = 247) 6.82 5.64 4.87 5.39 3.0 4.35 3.51 5.72 security police officers (n = 139) 6.77 5.68 4.71 5.57 2.69 4.08 2.71 5.35 note. 1 – extraversion; 2 – spontaneity; 3 – aggression; 4 – rigidity; 5 – introversion; 6 – sensitivity; 7 – anxiety; 8 – emotionality source: authors' own conception as in the case of the results obtained from the big five inventory, the test indicators are very similar, the differences between the data are statistically insignificant (p = 0.001). police officers are extroverts with moderate indicators of spontaneity, aggressiveness and rigidity. sensitivity and emotionality are represented by indices within the normal range. introversion and anxiety are not very pronounced. the highest indicators of sthenic scales i. e. spontaneity and aggressiveness are characteristic of employees of criminal police units (5.84 and 4.91, respectively), which is evidence of a strong “ego”, offensive tendencies, assertiveness, search proactive attitude, ability to resist environmental influences, etc. quite high indicators of these scales, as well as rigidity (5.78), were also noted among employees of pre-trial investigation bodies, which indicates such traits as persistence, a certain pedantry and a tendency to carefully check the information received. the highest indices of the scale of hyposthenic type 6 (sensitivity) were found among patrol police officers (4.35), which is evidence of a certain emotional warmth of police officers, sensitivity, empathy and a tendency to compromise in interpersonal relationships. so, all police officers can be characterized as people with a sthenic type of response, high proactive attitude and a high level of claims, high lability (emotionality), but controllable emotional reactions. they are characterized by a dominating style of behavior, the ability to quickly form broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 150 new skills, resistance to stress, a tendency to self-realization, independence and resistance to the influence of the environment. the personality of a police officer is characterized by stable characterological features, such as extroversion, spontaneity, emotionality, optimism, and practicality. in interpersonal relations, specialists strive for a leadership position, are energetic and persuasive. the analysis of the features of individual profiles made it possible to single out several typical variations from the sample. the first group (30 %) was made up of energetic persons with the 1 st and the 2 nd profile (extroversion-spontaneity), such police officers are characterized by searching proactive attitude, courage and determination, speed in making decisions. the second largest group has peak indicators on the 1 st and the 8 th scales (25 %) in the profile. such police officers have a tendency towards leadership, they are diligent, responsible, consistent and goal-oriented, seek to help others, show empathy and understanding of people. the next group (20 %) consists of police officers with a psychological profile dominated by the 4 th and the 3 d scales (rigidity and aggressiveness). such workers are energetic and determined, somewhat irritable and aggressive; tend to oppose their own interests to the environment, they are independent and rational. the fourth group of police officers (15 %) is characterized by grade-ups on the 6 th and the 5 th hyposthenic scales; as well as the 4 th mixed type scale. these are introvertedrigid individuals who are characterized by multidirectional tendencies. such individuals are somewhat shut-in, individualistic, unyielding and independent, sometimes suspicious and excessively stubborn. this is followed by a small group of people (10 %) who have peaks on the 1 st and the 6 th scales (extraversion and sensitivity) in their psychological profile. such police officers are energetic, optimistic, sociable, have many friends and acquaintances, they are sensitive and friendly, but sometimes indistinct in social contacts. the results obtained using the leonhard-shmishek questionnaire indicate the absence of accentuations of character and temperament in police officers. in the averaged profile of police officers, some increases were recorded on the 5 th (hyperthymism); the 1 st (demonstration); the 3 d (pedantry) scales. the indicators of anxiety, excitability, dysthymicness are insignificant (in the range of 4.80 9.0 points) (table 4). individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a ... ivan okhrimenko et al. 151 table 4. distribution of law enforcement officers by features of personal accentuations (based on the use of the leonhard-shmishek questionnaire, points) categories of law enforcement officers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 criminal police officers (n = 231) 14.14 12.46 8.06 6.17 15.69 8.27 4.80 9.74 8.60 9.86 investigators (n = 205) 14.29 12.61 8.53 6.03 15.28. 8.25 4.88 10.78 9.68 9.55 district police officers (n = 164) 14.58 12.43 8.81 7.13 14.76 9.07 5.76 10.02 9.35 10.27 patrol police officers (n = 247) 13.47 9.60 12.36 5.33 17.31 6.85 4.76 10.87 11.43 11.00 security police officers (n = 139) 12.73 10.75 10.73 5.15 14.66 7.68 5.71 9.20 10.95 10.90 note. 1 – demonstrative type; 2 – fixedness; 3 – pedantic; 4 – stimulating; 5 – hyperthymnic; 6 – dysthymic; 7 – anxious; 8 – exalted; 9 – emotive; 10 – cyclothymic type of personality accentuation source: authors' own conception the highest indicators of hyperthymism (scale 5) were shown by criminal police officers and investigators (15.69 and 15.28), the lowest ones by district police officers and security police officers (14.76 and 14.66); the highest indices of demonstrability (scale 1) are inherent in district police officers and investigators (14.58 and 14.29), the lowest ones in security police officers (12.73). this means that all police officers have such individual traits as vigor, proactive attitude, emotional stability, tranquility and self-control in conflict as well as stressful situations, decisiveness, the ability to take responsibility, adequately assess one’s strengths and capabilities, perseverance, as well as emotionality, management skills, certain artistry. high indicators on the 2 nd scale (fixedness) were demonstrated by investigators and employees of criminal police units (12.61 and 12.46), the lowest ones by patrol police employees (9.60). so, law enforcement officers (especially investigators and representatives of the criminal police) are broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 152 characterized by such traits as commitment to principles, firmness of convictions, unsociable demeanour, sense of duty, and obligation. according to the 3 d scale (pedantry), the highest indicators were recorded among patrol police officers (12.36), as well as security police officers (10.73), and the indicators were within the normal range among police officers of other units. this shows that police officers (especially patrol officers) are characterized by punctuality, reliability, stability of mood and relationships, accurateness, and conscientiousness. the scales of the emotional (9) and cyclothymic (10) type are moderately pronounced in police officers (the highest indicators were found in patrol police officers (10.87 and 11.43, respectively) and investigators (10.78 and 9.68). in general, all categories of law enforcement officers, especially patrol police officers and investigators, are characterized by features of a mixed type of response i. e. benevolence, emotionality, executive discipline and responsibility, as well as individualism and seriousness. features of temperament. surveys using the “temperament structure questionnaire” generally confirmed the previous data, and therefore give grounds for asserting that law enforcement officers have high indexes on the substantive and social tempo scales (4 and 5) – 10.07-8.12, respectively; as well as the substantive and social tempo scales (1 and 2) – 10.18-7.10, respectively (table 5). this indicates a high tempo of behavior and execution of substantive work operations, motor and motion speed as well as speed of speech actions in the process of communication, including high mental capacity, the need for proactive attitude, leadership and mastering the world through communication. table 5. distribution of law enforcement officers by temperament features (based on the use of the temperament structure questionnaire, points) categories of law enforcement officers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 criminal police officers (n = 231) 7.86 9.89 9.29 5.61 10.07 8.90 2.37 2.02 investigators (n = 205) 8.05 10.18 9.12 5.50 9.96 9.17 2.92 2.17 district police officers (n = 164) 7.13 9.71 9.19 5.79 9.53 8.72 2.82 2.44 patrol police officers (n = 247) 7.10 9.22 9.10 5.51 9.19 8.35 2.30 2.55 security police officers (n = 139) 7.33 9.40 9.31 5.52 9.10 8.12 2.35 2.10 individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a ... ivan okhrimenko et al. 153 note: 1 – substantive ergicity; 2 – social tempo; 3 – substantive plasticity; 4 – social plasticity; 5 – substantive tempo; 6 – social tempo; 7 – substantive emotional capability; 8 – social emotional capability. source: authors' own conception the highest indicators according to the specified scales were revealed by employees of criminal police units and investigators (10.07-10.18), followed by district officers of the patrol police (9.53-9.22). also, all police officers are characterized by high indicators of substantive plasticity (scale 3) – 9.31-9.10, which indicates the ease of switching from one type of activity to another, a quick transition from one form of thinking to another, a desire for diversity in substantive activities. it was established that the majority of police officers have low levels of emotionality (scales 7 and 8) – 2.92-2.02. this means that law enforcement officers in general are not characterized by emotionality and sensitivity, they are self-confident in situations of professional communication, emotionally stable in case of failure, they are not characterized by anxiety and excessive excitement about service situations. specialists of criminal police units (2.02) and security police officers (2.10) are the most emotionally stable. the analysis of the given psychological profiles obtained by the method of interpersonal relations diagnostics (table 6) allows us to conclude that the majority of police officers are persons who have developed harmonious relationships with the environment (most scales do not exceed 8 points). the octants of the sthenic type of response (1-3), which reflect such traits of interpersonal interaction as leadership, confidence (1), independence, rivalry (2), straightforwardness, impulsiveness (3) are most pronounced in patrol police officers (8.33-6.09), investigators (7.93-5.41) and security police specialists (7.90-5.50); to a lesser extent in employees of criminal police units (6.50-4.69). the octants of the hyposthenic type (5 and 6), which indicate a tendency towards compliance, modesty, avoidance of confrontation, dependence on others, indecisiveness in interpersonal relationships in general are not very pronounced and are most evident in patrol police officers (4.18 and 5.60), as well as security police officers (4.15 and 5.40); they are least pronounced among representatives of the criminal police (2.59 and 3.83, respectively). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 154 table 6. distribution of law enforcement officers by types of interpersonal relations (based on the use of the method of interpersonal relations diagnostics, points) categories of law enforcement officers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 criminal police officers (n = 231) 6.50 5.40 4.69 1.92 2.59 3.83 6.06 5.0 investigators (n = 205) 7.93 6.22 5.41 2.7 3.5 4.45 7.0 6.12 district police officers (n = 164) 6.88 5.51 4.74 5.33 2.46 3.96 3.0 5.58 patrol police officers (n = 247) 8.33 6.78 6.09 3.36 4.18 5.60 7.59 6.89 security police officers (n = 139) 7.90 6.20 5.50 3.15 4.15 5.40 7.60 6.6 note. octants: 1 – commanding and leading; 2 – independently dominant; 3 – straightforward and aggressive; 4 – incredulous and skeptical; 5 – submissive and shy; 6 – dependent and obedient; 7 – cooperative and conventional; 8 – responsible and generous. source: authors' own conception this can be explained by the fact that patrol police officers have to show more understanding, empathy and conventionality in their relations with citizens, while criminal police officers, who deal mainly with the criminogenic element, are less prone to compromises, more aggressive and offensive in their professional relationships. the same follows from the results obtained on the scale of the mixed response type (8 – responsible and generous type). the highest values are shown by patrol police and security police officers (6.89 and 6.60, respectively), which indicates the importance of such traits as willingness to help others, a sense of responsibility for the assigned task, altruism, etc., for service activities. the lines of evidence are completely expected by us, because a police officer must be persistent and convincing in communication, provide an objective assessment of the actions and behavior, influence the interlocutor, attract attention and rouse interest in people, and create a sense of trust in them. in addition, it is very critical to have the ability to quickly establish contacts with people; find the necessary tone of conversation, convince, determine the individual characteristics of the interlocutor, achieve the set goal in the process of communication, defend one’s opinion, work in a team, plan activities, predict the outcome of activities, regulate and control one’s own actions, show leadership qualities. the highest indices of sthenic and hyposthenic types of interaction were recorded in patrol police officers, individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a ... ivan okhrimenko et al. 155 which can be explained by a significant range of their duties and, accordingly, a wide corridor of communicative personality qualities – from domineering and dominating to compromising tendencies, and, therefore, a strategy of moderate compliant behavior. 5. limits and discussion the indicators of the individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers who carry out various types of law enforcement activities that we obtained, in a certain way clarify and specify the results of the empirical studies published in the scientific literature (barrett et al., 2003; cochraine et al., 2003; detrick, & chibnall, 2013). in general, from the point of view of psychology, law enforcement activities have some invariant features, which are due to the common specificity of the performance of law enforcement functions, as well as their certain variability depending on the specific type of law enforcement activities. the research demonstrated that differences were recorded according to many criteria and indicators of the psychological suitability of a law enforcement officer for service activities. most of the employees with a strong type of nervous system belong to the criminal police, patrol police and security police units. the largest number of highly labile police officers work in the units of the criminal police, pre-trial investigation (investigators), and patrol police. obviously, this testifies to the importance of the employees’ ability of the mentioned units regarding quick arousal, flow and termination of nervous processes, switching from excitation to inhibition and vice versa, quick thinking and reaction to events, intellectual flexibility, etc. this situation is explained by the extreme nature of the law enforcement activities itself, its intellectual saturation. in view of this, the opinion of mccafferty (2003) is apt that the demands on police officers have increased significantly in recent times, which is associated with a significant growth in threats to society and the personal safety of law enforcement officers. it is also worth agreeing with the viewpoint that one of the ways to improve the efficiency of modern police organizations is to attract candidates who are most capable and prepared to perform functional duties in the field of law enforcement activities (hoggett et al., 2019). based on the results of our research, employees of the criminal police units demonstrate rather high levels of preparedness, which is evidence of their strong “ego”, offensive tendencies, persistence, search activities, the ability to resist external influences, etc. this is due to the need to take measures to combat organized crime (fedorenko et al., 2020). https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/29476678 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 156 our results confirm data previously presented in the scientific research by black, j. (2000). positive correlation relationships were noted between the success of police activities and some personal characteristics, which are diagnosed using the given diagnostic tools. at the same time, the work by ono, sachau, deal, englert, taylor (2011) identified cognitive abilities and the level of emotional intelligence as predictors of the success of the work of investigative units. the study by sanders (2008) also confirmed the predictive value of diagnosing personality traits such as extraversion, anxiety, impulsivity, rigidity, etc. for predicting the success of the service activities of different categories of law enforcement officers. in addition, our research confirmed our earlier opinion that successful police officers are characterized by controlled behavior, selfcontrol, perseverance, diligence, thoroughness, responsibility, discipline, a low level of neuroticism, the absence of depressive and hypochondriac tendencies, etc. (aleksandrov et al., 2017; bondarenko et al., 2021; miloradova et al., 2022; ponomarenko et al., 2022). in general, the results obtained by us form the concept of psychological diagnosis of personality suitability for law enforcement activities and are very important, because they increase the potential opportunities of practical psychologists in working with the personnel of police bodies and units both in ukraine and in the countries of western europe. testing of the examinees was carried out by employees of psychological support according to the same requirements, but at different times of the day, which could in some way affect the results obtained. it was conducted in classrooms specially equipped for such research, which reduced the risks of extraneous influences. the conditions for the voluntary participation of respondents were also provided, taking into account the possibility of the respondents to refuse to participate in the testing. 6. conclusions it was found that various types of law enforcement activities have a number of common features, which are due to the specifics of the law enforcement system itself. police officers in all types of law enforcement activities are characterized by high self-control, responsibility, perseverance, conscientiousness, thoroughness, discipline, lack of anxiety, etc. they are also characterized by impartiality, receptiveness to new information, the presence of broad interests, independence and non-standard thinking, orientation to the search for new approaches, a tendency to reflection, individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a ... ivan okhrimenko et al. 157 orientation to the outside world, sociability, aspiration to leadership, vigor, proactive attitude, and optimism. moderate compliant behavior indicates sensitivity, benevolence, conformity, orientation towards cooperation. tendencies towards rationalism, stress resistance, endurance, calm response and attitude to events, etc. are also observed. hence, it can be asserted that the common individual characteristics that determine the psychological suitability of an individual for police activities include: strong or average-strong type of higher nervous activity; high or moderately pronounced lability of nervous processes; sthenic or mixed type of response; high or moderately expressed indicators of substantive and social vigor, substantive and social tempo; high or moderately pronounced indicators of conscientiousness and openness to experience; high emotional and stress resistance; high communication potential; average indicators of compliant behavior; low level of neuroticism. regarding the differences in the manifestations of individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers of various types of law enforcement activities, it should be noted that the highest indices of strength and lability of nervous processes were recorded in criminal police officers, patrol police officers, and investigators. the highest indicators of spontaneity and aggressiveness are characteristic of employees of criminal police units, as well as investigators. the highest indicators of temperament according to the scales of ergicity and tempo were found by criminal police officers and investigators, as well as patrol police officers. the most emotionally stable are representatives of the criminal police units and security police officers. confidence, straightforwardness, independence, rivalry, leadership in interpersonal interaction are most pronounced in patrol police officers, investigators, and employees of criminal police units. the largest range of indices of behavior in interpersonal interaction was recorded among patrol police officers, which can be explained by the wide scope of their functional duties and requirements for professional communication. representatives of criminal police units demonstrate high rates of fixedness, which is due to the specifics of their professional activities (conspiratorial nature of activities, measures to combat organized crime, etc.). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 158 the given results are favorable for use by practical psychologists of law enforcement agencies in the process of psychological selection and determination of the psychological suitability of candidates for various types of law enforcement activities. in addition, the complex of individual and psychological characteristics of the individual determined by us is able to increase the accuracy of the forecast regarding the success of the future professional activities of a law enforcement officer. the obtained data also indicate the importance of psychological diagnosis of police officers according to the specific criteria. on the other hand, the absence of a scientifically grounded and practically justified model of personnel diagnostics as a management tool in police institutions does not allow to have a better influence on the effectiveness of the subjects’ activities, and therefore creates possible risks and challenges at various stages of the law enforcement structure functioning. acknowledgements there are no acknowledgements. funding there was no outside funding provided for this study. disclosure statement no author has any financial interest or received any financial benefit from this research. conflict of interest the authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest. references abbe, a., & brandon, s. e. (2014). building and maintaining rapport in investigative interviews. police practice & research, 15, 207-220. https://doi.org/10.1080/175-1-305-080189-198 alcadipani, r., lotta, g., & rodriguez, c. (2021). police officers and the meaning of work: the forgotten dimension. public organization review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-021-00568-8 aleksandrov, d., okhrimenko, i., & drozd, o. (2017). osoblyvosti profesiynopsykholohichnoyi adaptatsiyi pratsivnykiv natsional’noyi politsiyi ukrayiny do pravookhoronnoyi diyal’nosti [psychological adaptation of ukrainian https://doi.org/10.1080/175-1-305-080189-198 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-021-00568-8 individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a ... ivan okhrimenko et al. 159 national police officers for law enforcement activities]. science and education, 11, 35-45. https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-11-4 barrett, g. v., miguel, r. f., hurd, j. m., lueke, s. b., & tan, j. a. (2003). practical issues in the use of personality tests in police selection. public personnel management, 32(4), 45-57. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102600303200403 barko, v., okhrimenko, i., ostapovich, v., medvediev, v., & sprynchuk, s. (2020). professional psychological potential of a modern police manager as the basis for the formation of an effective managerial system. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(11), 203-214. http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/ ijae/article/view/1196 bartol, m. a., & bartol, m. c. (2004). introduction to forensic psychology. sage. bjerregaard, b., & lord, v. b. (2004). an examination of the ethical and value orientation of criminal justice students. police quarterly, 7(2), 262-284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1098611102250739 black, j. (2000). personality testing and police selection: utility of the “big five”. new zealand journal of psychology, 29(1), 2-9. bondarenko, v., okhrimenko, i., lyakhova n., klymenko, i., shvets, d., & aleksandrov yu. (2021). means of police officers’ physical and psychological rehabilitation in the conditions of their service activities. acta balneologica, 63(4), 273-278. https://doi.org/10.36740/abal202104105 bondarenko, v., okhrimenko, i., minenok, a., donets, i., danylchenko, v., khudiakova, n., okhrimenko s., alexandrov, d., vakulyk, o., rozhnova, t., verbovskyi, i., horokhova, l., griban, g., bloshchynskyi, i., & prontenko, k. (2020a). professionally important psychophysiological qualities of patrol police officers. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(4), 62-71. http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/ijae/article/view/902 bondarenko, v., okhrimenko, i., yevdokimova, o., sydorchuk, n., dzhezhyk, o., boichuk, i., kalashnik, n., kozlovets, m., slyusar, v., pavlenko, v., biruk, n., verbovskyi, i., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020b). professional skills and competencies of the future police officers. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(5), 35-43. http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/ijae/article/view/975 carlsmith, k. m., & sood, a. m. (2009). the fine line between interrogation and retribution. journal of experimental social psychology, 45, 191-196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.025 cochraine, r. e., tett, r. p., & vandecreek, l. (2003). psychological testing and the selection of police officers. national survey. criminal justice and behavior, 30(5), 511-537. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854803257241 deller-wessels, l., bernstein, d. p. & lorei, c. (2022). emotional states encountered by law enforcement officers: an initial test of the schema https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-11-4 https://doi.org/10.1177/009102600303200403 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1098611102250739 https://doi.org/10.36740/abal202104105 http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/ijae/article/view/902 http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/ijae/article/view/975 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.025 https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854803257241 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 160 mode concept in police actions. journal of police and criminal psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-022-09541-7 detrick, p., & chibnall, j. t. (2013). revised neo personality inventory normative data for police officer selection. psychological services, 10(4), 372-377. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031800 detrick, p., chibnall, j. t., & luebbert, m. c. (2005). validity study: relationship between personality and academy performance. applied h.r.m. research, 10(1), 99-102. fedorenko, o., dotsenko, v., okhrimenko, i., radchenko, k., & gorbenko, d. (2020). coping behavior of criminal police officers at different stages of professional activity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(2), 124-146. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/78 hoggett, j., redford, p., toher, d., & white, p. (2019). challenges for police leadership: identity, experience, legitimacy and direct entry. journal of police and criminal psychology, 34, 145-155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-018 9264-2 huhta, j.-m., di nota, p.m., surakka, v., isokoski, p., ropo, e. (2022). experience-dependent effects to situational awareness in police officers: an eye tracking study. international journal of environmental research and public health, 19, 5047. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095047 john, o. p., naumann, l. p., & soto, c. j. (2008). paradigm shift to the integrative big-five trait taxonomy: history, measurement, and conceptual issues. in o. p. john, r. w. robins, & l. a. pervin (eds.), handbook of personality: theory and research (pp. 114-158). guilford press. kirdan, o., kovalenko, n., miloradova, n., sabat, n., kovalchuk, o., hirnyak, a. (2021). psychological and pedagogical cooperation as a factor in increasing the level of tolerance for innovation. international journal of computer science and network security, 21(12), 684-688. https://doi.org/10.22937/ijcsns.2021.21.12.93 kryvolapchuk, v., kulyk, o., barko, v., kalynovskyi, b., & kosiak, n. (2020). attitude of young people to the criminality problem in ukrainian postmodern society. postmodern openings, 11(1supl1), 93-115. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/125 kubaienko, a., okhrimenko, i., kryzhanovska, o., kislitsyna, i., & hryshchenko, m. (2021). the police competence to ensure the rights and freedoms of citizens in modern society. cuestiones políticas, 39(69), 164-181. https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3969.09 mccafferty, f.l. (2003). the challenge of selecting tomorrow’s police officers from generations x and y. journal of the american academy of psychiatry and the law, 31(1), 78-88. https://link.springer.com/journal/11896 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-022-09541-7 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/29476678 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/6071881 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031800 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.2/78 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-018-%209264-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-018-%209264-2 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095047 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/24174719 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/25352370 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/27470299 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/24470204 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/23426454 https://doi.org/10.22937/ijcsns.2021.21.12.93 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/125 https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3969.09 individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers as a ... ivan okhrimenko et al. 161 miloradova, n., okhrimenko, i., dotsenko, v., matiienko, t., & rivchachenko, o. (2022). training technologies as a means of communicative competences development of prejudicial inquiry agencies’ investigators. postmodern openings, 13(2), 01-22. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/13.2/441 okhrimenko, i., yevdokimova, o., shvets, d., pakhomova, n., & fediy, o. (2020). police training or police education: view on the matter. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(12), 129-136. http://ijaep.com/index.php/ijae/article/view/1244 ono, m., sachau, d.a., deal, w.p., englert, d.r., & taylor, m.d. (2011). cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and the big five personality dimensions as predictors of criminal investigator performance. criminal justice and behavior, 38(5), 471-491. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854811399406 ostapovich, v., barko, v., okhrimenko, i., yevdokimova, o., ponomarenko, y., prontenko, k., antonova, o., sydorchuk, n., sokolovskyi, o., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). psychological profile of successful criminal police officer. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(3), 120-133. http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/ijae/article/view/755 ponomarenko, y., okhrimenko, i., klymenko, i., shvets, d., yevdokimova, o., & okhrimenko, s. (2022). peculiarities of decision making by police officers with different levels of professional self-fulfilment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 328-346. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/346 prontenko, k., griban, g., yavorska, t., malynskyi, i., tkachenko, p., dzenzeliuk, d., terentieva, n., khatko, a., lytvynenko, a., pustoliakova, l., bychuk, o., okhrimenko, i., yuriev, s., prontenko, v., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). dynamics of respiratory system indices of cadets of higher military educational institutions during kettlebell lifting training. international journal of applied exercise physiology, 9(1), 16-24. http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/%20ijae/article/view/707 prykhodko, i., horielyshev, s., matsehora, ya., lefterov, v., larionov, s., kravchenko, o., baida, m., halkina o., & servachak, o. (2022). automation of psychological selection procedures for personnel to specific activities. pertanika journal of science and technology, 30(1), 761-776. https://doi.org/10.47836/pjst.30.1.41 salgado j. f. (2002). the big five personality dimensions and counterproductive behaviors. international journal of selection and assessment, 10(1‐2),117-125. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00198 sanders, b.a. (2008). using personality traits to predict police officer performance. policing-an international journal of police strategies & management, 31(1), 129147. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639510810852611 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/13.2/441 http://ijaep.com/index.php/ijae/article/view/1244 https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854811399406 http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/ijae/article/view/755 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/346 http://www.ijaep.com/index.php/%20ijae/article/view/707 https://doi.org/10.47836/pjst.30.1.41 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/jesus-salgado-6 https://www.researchgate.net/journal/international-journal-of-selection-and-assessment-1468-2389 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00198 https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=beth%20a.%20sanders https://doi.org/10.1108/13639510810852611 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience december 2022 volume 13, issue 4 162 shvets, d., yevdokimova, o., okhrimenko, i., ponomarenko, y., aleksandrov, y., okhrimenko, s., & prontenko, k. (2020). the new police training system: psychological aspects. postmodern openings, 11(1supl1), 200-217. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/130 smith, b. d. (1988). personality. in: j. r., nesselroade, & r. b. cattell, (eds.), handbook of multivariate experimental psychology. perspectives on individual differences. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0893-5_20 yevdokimova, o., okhrimenko, i., filonenko, v., shylina, a., ponomarenko, y., okhrimenko, s., & aleksandrov, d. (2020). the problem of unconscious aggressiveness of criminals in the conditions of postmodern society development. postmodern openings, 11 (2sup1), 182-199. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2sup1/186 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/130 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0893-5_20 https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2sup1/186 microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_3.doc 43 micro expression recognition using the eulerian video magnification method elham zarezadeh department of engineering, science and art university, yazd, iran (corresponding author) elham_zarezadeh@hotmail.com mehdi rezaeian department of electrical and computer engineering, faculty of computer engineering, yazd university, yazd, iran mrezaeian@yazd.ac.ir abstract in this paper we propose a new approach for facial micro expressions recognition. for this purpose the eulerian video magnification (evm) method is used to retrieve the subtle motions of the face. the results of this method are obtained as in the magnified images sequence. in this study the numerical tests are performed on two databases: spontaneous micro expression (smic) and category and sourcing managers executive (casme). we evaluate our proposed method in two phases using the eigenface method. in phase 1 we recognize the type of a micro expression, for example emotional versus unemotional in smic database. phase 2 classifies the recognized micro expression as negative versus positive in smic database and happiness versus disgust in casme database. the results show that the eigenface method by the evm method for the retrieval of subtle motions of the face increases the performance of micro expression recognition. moreover, the proposed approach is more accurate and promising than the previous works in micro expressions recognition. keywords: micro expression recognition, eulerian video magnification method, eigenface method. 1. introduction facial expression recognition usually follows an ordinal structure of processing blocks (khatri et al., 2015). these blocks include preprocessing, feature extraction, classification, and post processing. in the preprocessing step there are performed actions such as noise removal, normalized relative to the brightness fluctuations or dimensions normalization, and image resolution. feature extraction is a very important step in facial expression recognition. feature extraction methods can be divided into two categories: geometric feature-based methods and appearance-based methods (jain & li, 2005). geometric feature-based methods represent the shape and location of the face components (i.e. the eyes, eyebrows and nose). in the appearance-based methods, image filters such as gabor wavelets are used in all or part of the face to extract the feature vector. gabor filters remove most of the variability in image caused by changes in lighting conditions (fasel & luettin, 2003). the sets of features that are extracted from the face region are used in classification. after the classification is performed, the type of emotional state for the input image is determined, based on the label of a particular class. the output of the classification is one of the six basic emotions that are defined by ekman, i.e. happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, fear and disgust (ekman & friesen, 1978). most of the studies on facial expression are done based on databases in which participants are pretending to be in an emotional state. the little studies have been done on micro expressions recognition in computer vision (pfister et al., 2011). for example, soyel et al. (2010) used a discriminative scale invariant feature transform (d-sift) for facial expression recognition. their proposed method recognized macro expressions in the 3d-bufe database (soyel & demirel, 2010). the goal of our research is to use the evm method in micro expression recognition. then we use the eigenface method to detect the type of emotional states of magnified data. we also analyze the performance for the evm method in emotional/unemotional detection on the face during micro expression. this paper is organized as follows. in section 2 we review some studies about micro expression recognition. in section 3 we present the concepts of the eigenface method brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 and evm method. a study on the combination of these two methods is performed in section 4, and then tests results are presented. finally, a conclusion section is expressed. 2. related works in this section we present a brief history of micro expression and a summary of related psychological works. gottman & levenson (2002) and ekman (2009) have thoroughly studied micro expression on the face. ekman first discovered the micro expression when reviewing a video of a psychological patient who tried to hide his suicide attempt. he discovered a short-term grief and sadness that was covered with a smile. ekman showed that it is very difficult to detect micro expressions without words and sound. polikovsky et al. (2009) proposed a method for detecting and measuring the temporal characteristics of micro expressions. the core of this method is a combination of preprocessing masks, histograms and their integration into the spatial-temporal gradient vector. final classification of micro expressions is based on a k-mean classifier and a voting procedure. sungsoo and daijin presented a method for recognition of subtle facial expression using motion magnification. their method consists of the following steps: 70 feature points in image sequences of the face which are extracted by using active appearance models (aam). the face image sequence is aligned by the three feature points (two eyes and the nose tip). then, the motion vector of 27 feature points is estimated using the feature point tracking method. finally, subtle facial expressions are determined by magnifying the motion vectors. their experiments were performed on sfed2007 database (sungsoo & daijin, 2009). michael et al. (2010) presented a study of the automatic deception detection in interrogation interviews using body movements. in this study, the skin blob analysis and an active shape model (asm) have been used to extract the features that make up the motion profiles. then, the extracted features are displayed with log-scale histograms. shreve et al. proposed an automated method (temporal segmentation) for macro and micro expressions recognition in long videos. in this method, the strain impacted on the facial skin was used for a feature descriptor. the strain magnitude is computed using the central difference method for optical flow in different parts of the face. a detection accuracy of 85% was obtained for macro expressions and 74% of the micro expressions were detected (shreve et al., 2011; shreve et al., 2009). pfister et al. (2011) have studied micro expression using tim. they made two tests titled “truthful/deceptive detection” and “emotional/unemotional micro expressions detection". tim extracts the statistically stable features of the face with the increased number of frames. their work was performed using the following steps: 1: detect, normalize, and crop the face using the asm model. 2: temporally interpolate images sequence. 3: extract spatial and temporal local texture descriptors. 4: classify with svm, multiple kernel learning (kml) and random forest (pfister et al., 2011). wu et al., (2011) proposed an automatic micro expression recognition system. this system locates the face and extracts the features by using gabor filters. then gentlesvm is employed to identify micro expressions. they achieved high spotting performance on the mett training database (ekman, 2002). wang et al. (2014) proposed the tensor independent color space (tics) model for micro expression recognition. in this method, a color video of micro expression treats as a fourth-order tensor, i.e. a four-dimension array. then, the color information dimension is converted from rgb into tics. in this approach, regions of interest (roi) are selected based on facial action coding system (facs) and the dynamic texture histogram is calculated for each roi. the experiments were performed on two databases: casme and casme2. e. zarezadeh, m. rezaeian micro expression recognition using the eulerian video magnification method 45 yao et al. (2014) presented a new feature tracking approach based on facs and tld for micro expression recognition. in this paper, feature points of the first frame are determined based on the hough forest. in order to improve the accuracy, the local binary pattern (lbp) is used to extract features. wang et al., (2014) used local spatiotemporal directional features (lsdf) together with the sparse part of robust pca (rpca) for micro expression recognition. authors achieved an accuracy of 65.4% on casmeii (yan et al., 2014). liong et al. (2014) proposed a new method for micro expressions recognition. this method utilizes optical strain magnitude feature extraction from the temporal point of view. authors made their studies on smic database. they achieved a recognition accuracy of 53.56%. huang et al. (2015) proposed a method based on a spatiotemporal facial representation for micro expressions. in this paper the authors used an integral projection method based on different images for obtaining vertical and horizontal projection. then they utilized the local binary pattern operators to extract the features of motion and appearance on horizontal and vertical projections. liong et al. (2016) proposed a new method for micro expressions recognition by using facial optical strain magnitudes to construct optical strain weighted features and optical strain features. the resultant feature histogram was obtained from concatenating the two sets of features. the authors used casme ii and smic databases in this study. 3. explanation of the eigenface method and the eulerian video magnification method 3.1 using eigenface method in facial expression recognition this method uses eigenface to extract facial features. so the eigenface is applied on the face and unique feature vectors that are extracted for each person’s unknown emotional state. the extracted feature vectors compared with the train set and type of person ’ s emotional state is determined. the train set is allocated into several classes according to the emotional states. according to the above, at first, the images in the test set are proposed on each class of eigenface, then images of each class are reconstructed. with similarity measure (euclidean distance) between the input image and the reconstructed image of each class, any of the emotional states can be investigated (murthy & jadon, 2007; bajaj et al., 2013; chakrabartia & duttab, 2013). 3.2 description of eulerian video magnification method the human visual system is sensitive to time and space and low amplitude motions are difficult to see. therefore, developed and new methods can be used for the retrieval of invisible signals in videos. in this study, the evm method is used for the retrieval of subtle changes that occur on the face during facial expression. the basic approach in this method is to consider a set of time series of color values at each pixel and amplify them in a temporal frequency band. the temporal filtering approach not only amplifies color variation, but can also reveal low amplitude motions. the evm process is as follows: a video sequence is divided into different frequency bands that may not be the same signal-to-noise ratio. the laplacian pyramid is used on each band and then applies the same temporal filter on all bands. the goal of spatial processing is to increase temporal signal-to-noise ratio using pixels integration. then the extracted bands signals multiply by amplification factor α which is determined by the user. magnified signal is added to the original signal and generates the output video. temporal processing is based on first-order taylor series using optical flow. let i(x, t) denotes the image intensity at position x and time t by the motion signal . since the image undergoes translational motion, image intensity is calculated as follows: (1) (2) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 the goal of motion magnification is to integrate the signals. the amplification factor α applies to the image according to the following equation (wu et al., 2012; rubinstein, 2014). (3) given that the image is estimated by a first order taylor series expansion and is in a first order taylor expansion about at position x and time t, we have. (4) applying a broadband temporal band pass filter to i(x; t) at position x is generated b(x,t): (5) then we can write: (6) hence from equations (4), (5) and (6), is obtained the following result. (7) when the signal is amplified to the size α and added to the image i(x,t), the relationship between the magnification and temporally band signal is: (8) equality (8) shows that motion becomes large as . 4. proposed method in this study we investigate the emotional/unemotional detection on the face and micro expression recognition. as expressed in murthy & jadon (2007) and frank & nöth (2003) the eigenface method is not able to perform micro expression recognition. so, we use the evm method for micro expression recognition based on the eigenface method. using this magnification method, the subtle motions are retrieved from the face during micro expression and those are not visible. in order to do this work, we need a dataset including the spontaneous subtle facial motions. therefore, in this study we use two databases, smic and casme. according to the obvious features in the evm method for retrieving and displaying subtle motions, first we test these databases using this method. then we evaluate the rate of emotional/unemotional detection in the face and micro expression recognition using the eigenface method. an overall structure of our research is shown in figure 1. figure 1. overall structure of micro expression recognition e. zarezadeh, m. rezaeian micro expression recognition using the eulerian video magnification method 47 in order to use these databases in evm method, we convert the images sequence of each person to the video. the following values are assigned to input parameters of evm code. motion amplification factor spatial frequency cutoff and :low-order iir filters can be useful for both the color amplification and the motion magnification : frame rate of the camera the values of these parameters can be specified by the user or can be calculated to run the evm method. in this study, the values assigned to the parameters are according to the values in wu et al. (2012). for the retrieval of subtle motions of the face using the evm method, two cases can be considered: 1. select the values of parameters for observation the change of the face color in blood flow. 2. select the values of parameters for observation head motions and components of the face. in our research, we focus on the parameter values in the second case. then we convert the obtained video to the images sequence. the number of images is decreased after the implementation of the evm method. the reason of this problem is the integration of multiple pixels in the images. the resulting output is a generic extract of all motions created in the face. figure 2. result of the implementation of evm method. (a): regular images sequence (from left to right), (b): magnified images sequence (from left to right) in smic database. in this study, two experiments are performed as follows: phase1: investigating the emotional/unemotional detection on face in micro expressions. phase2: investigating facial micro expressions recognition 4.1 a description of the smic and casme databases a. the smic database the smic database has been collected by li et al. (2013). this database includes three datasets: hs (high speed camera), vis (normal visual camera), and nir (near-infrared camera). the hs dataset has been recorded by acamera of 100 fps and the longest micro expression clips have 50 frames. the vis and nir datasets have been recorded by a camera of 25 fps and the longest micro expression clips have 13 frames. the hs dataset includes 164 micro expression image sequences from 16 participants. micro expression images sequences in the smic database are classified into three categories: positive (happiness), negative (sadness, fear and disgust), and surprise. the image sequence starts from a neutral (or relatively neutral) frame, the second frame is as the starting point of the facial expression, and it finally ends when the facial expression goes back to neutral (or relatively neutral). eulerian video magnification method (a) (b) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 b. casme database the casme database has been collected by yan et al. (yan et al., 2013). this dataset includes 195 videos and the longest micro expression clips measure 50 frames. the micro expression image sequences in the casme database are classified into four categories: positive (happiness), negative (sadness, fear and disgust), surprise and tense (tense, repression). the casme database consists of two classes: a and b. the samples in class a were recorded by a benq m31camera with 60fps. the samples in class b were recorded by a point grey gras03k2c camera with 60fps. in this study we use the image sequence in class a. 4.2 phase 1: investigating the emotional/unemotional detection on the face in the smic database to evaluate the emotional/unemotional detection on the face, 328 tests were performed: 164 tests on the magnified data and 164 tests on the regular data. for this purpose, the train set includes the neutral state and only one of the emotional states (negativism, positivism and surprise) according to the test set. so that the train set includes regular data in 328 experiments. the experimental results are shown in figure 3. e. zarezadeh, m. rezaeian micro expression recognition using the eulerian video magnification method 49 figure 3.the chart of emotional/unemotional detection on the face in negative, positive and surprise states (regular and magnified data) in this chart, two curves are shown with red and blue colors. the red color curve represents the regular data and the blue color curve represents the magnified data. the vertical axis shows the percent of emotional/unemotional detection on the face as two by two in both experimental data sets (magnified data and regular data). as seen, the accuracy rate of detection in magnified data is high. the average percent of emotional/unemotional detection in the three states (positivism, negativism, and surprise) was calculated in the two data sets. results are shown in figure 4. figure 4. the chart of average percent of emotional/unemotional detection in smic in figure 4 the blue color curve represents the average percent of emotional/unemotional detection using the evm method. the red color curve also represents the average percent of emotional/unemotional detection without this method. table 1 shows the running time and speed in this experiment. table 1. run time and speed in emotional/unemotional detection in smic database: database time(fps) in emotional/unemotional detection positive negative surprise regular data 53.44002 47.25493 50.26719 magnified data 14.23065 13.32884 15.02361 the processing time of our proposed method is of 0.420468 fps and in regular data is of 5.27 fps. as the results show, the evm method has good effect in processing. of course, the creation time of the magnification image sequence was not considered in the result. in other words, the processing time on a magnified images sequence is less than the non-magnification state. figure 5 shows the running time in emotional/unemotional detection. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 figure 5.the chart of run time in emotional/unemotional detection in two databases. as the results show, the eigenface method is not able to perform micro expression recognition without applying the evm method and this method recognizes data in a neutral state. 4.3 phase 2: investigating facial micro expressions recognition a series of 130 tests was performed for micro expressions recognition (only one positive and one negative state of each person) in the smic database. a series of 65 tests was done on the magnified data and the series of 65 tests was also performed on the regular data. thus, the two data sets (magnified images sequence and regular images sequence) are investigated and evaluated with the eigenface method. considering that in this database every person has several negative or positive states. first, in the both data sets, the test set includes an images sequence of the positive and negative state of each person. in addition, the train set consists of a neutral state, a positive state, and a negative state. the train set includes the magnified data for 130 tests. in this study, the two data sets consist of image sequences and the person’s emotion occurs over time in the image sequence. so, if at least 60% of the sequence frames show a single emotional state, it is considered as an e. zarezadeh, m. rezaeian micro expression recognition using the eulerian video magnification method 51 emotional state of this images sequence. in these experiments we use four criteria to measure the performance of the evm method: true positive rate (sensitivity), true negative rate (specificity), precision (positive predictive value), and accuracy. the test results of the two data sets are shown in table 2 and table 3. table 2. the percent of micro expression recognition (only one positive and one negative state of each person) between the series of 65 tests: micro expression recognition magnified data regular data negative state 64.61% 44.61% positive state 70.76% 53.84% table 3. result of micro expression recognition (one positive and negative state for each person): database #images regular data 35 30 36 29 65 magnified data 46 19 23 42 65 regular data magnified data tables 4 show the confusion matrix in micro expression (positive and negative states) for in the two datasets. table 4.confusion matrix in micro expression (positive and negative states) on magnified data and regular data: data set emotional/unemotional detection negative positive neutral magnified data negative 68.7489% 17.76187% 13.48923% positive 19.57735% 68.71983% 11.70283% neutral 11.67375% 13.5183% 74.80794% regular data negative 43.92745% 25.82071% 30.25184% positive 27.17581% 56.83178% 15.99241% neutral 28.89674% 17.34751% 53.75575% a confusion matrix represents the conflict percent in the classification of emotional states. as the table 4 shows, the percent of correct recognition in three emotional states is more than the false recognition percent in magnified data. for example, the correct recognition percent of negative states is of 68.74%. confusion in magnified images is less than in regular images. 4.3.2 investigating the micro expressions recognition (several positive and several negative states of each person) in smic database next, magnified and regular image sequences are tested and evaluated by the eigenface method for detecting several positive and negative states of each person. in this study, a series of 8 tests is performed and it consists of 30 magnified data sets and 30 regular data sets. the test set includes several image sequences of the positive and negative states. the train set consists of a neutral state and several positive and negative states. the train set includes the magnified data for 8 tests. the tests results in two data sets which are shown in table 5 and table 6. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 table 5. the percent of micro expression recognition (several positive and several negative states of each person) between the series 8 test: micro expression recognition magnified data regular data negative state 60.00% 40.00% positive state 73.33% 66.66% table 6. results of micro expression recognition (several positive and several negative states of each person): database #images regular data 9 6 9 6 15 magnified data 11 4 6 9 15 regular data magnified data the test was performed on the casme database for detecting the states of happiness and disgust. the tests results and the comparison of our proposed method with the tld and tim methods in the casme and smic databases are shown in table 7. table 7. the comparison experimental results: emotional/unemotional micro expressions detection database method accuracy rate smic mkl+tim 73.60% hf+tld 78.40% evm+ eigenface 88.40% happiness casme hf+tld 84.00% evm+ eigenface 100.00% disgust hf+tld 74.50% evm+ eigenface 100.00% as the results show, our proposed method is more accurate in detecting micro expressions than the tld and tim methods. 5. conclusion the very small motions that occur on a person’s face during micro expression are not visible. thus the facial expression recognition methods will not be able to detect those emotional states. regarding the performance of the evm method in the retrieval and display of small motions, we used this magnification method for retrieving subtle emotions. then we investigated the output of a facial expression recognition system based on the eigenface method. the evm method improved the rate of emotional/unemotional micro expressions recognition on the face. the eigenface method can also detect the type of micro emotional states. the results of the experiments show that the eigenface method using the evm method recognizes negative state with a rate of 60.00% and a positive state with a rate of 73.33% in the smic database. while, without using the evm method, the eigenface method recognizes negative states with a rate of 40.00% and positive states with a rate of 66.66%. according to the experimental results, the evm method improves the performance of micro expression recognition and emotional/unemotional detection based on the eigenface method up to 16.00% in the smic database. we also investigated the detection of two states of happiness and disgust in the casme database. as the results show, the proposed method recognizes these emotional states with a rate of 100.00%. e. zarezadeh, m. rezaeian micro expression recognition using the eulerian video magnification method 53 references bajaj, n., routray, a., & happy, s. l. (2013). dynamic model of facial expression recognition based on eigenface approach, proc. int. con. proceedings of green energy and systems. chakrabartia, d. & duttab, d. (2013). facial expression recognition using eigenspaces, international conference on computational intelligence: modeling techniques and applications (cimta) , procedia technology 10,755 – 761. ekman ,p. & friesen, w.v. (1978). facial action coding system: a technique for the measurement of facial movement, consulting psychologists press, palo alto. ekman, p. (2009). lie catching and micro expressions, the philosophy of deception, oxford university press, 118-133. ekman, p. (2002). micro expression training tool (mett), san francisco: university of california. fasel, b. & luettin, j. (2003). automatic facial expression analysis: a survey, j pattern recogn,36(1), 259-275. frank, c. & nöth, e. (2003). automatic pixel selection for optimizing facial expression recognition using eigenfaces, in pattern recognition, springer berlin heidelberg, 378-385. gottman, j.m. & levenson, r.w. (2002). a two factor model for predicting when a couple will divorce: exploratory analyses using 14 year longitudinal data*, fam process, 41(1), 83-96. huang, x., wang, s. j., zhao, g., & piteikainen, m. (2015). facial micro expression recognition using spatiotemporal local binary pattern with integral projection, in: computer vision workshops, ieee international conference on computer vision workshop (iccvw) 1-9. jain , a.k. & li, s.z. (2005). handbook of face recognition, 1nd ed. new york: springer. khatri ,n. n., shah, z.h., & patel, s.a. (2015). facial expression recognition: a survey,(ijcsit) int j comput sci inf technol, 5(1),149-152. liong, s.t., phan, r.c.w., see, j., oh, y.h., & wong, k. (2014). optical strain based recognition of subtle emotions, in: intelligent signal processing and communication systems (ispacs),180-184. liong, s.t., see, j., phan, r.c.w., oh, y.h., ngo, a.c.l., wong, k., & tan, s.w. (2016). spontaneous subtle expression detection and recognition based on facial strain, arxiv preprint arxiv:1606.02792, 47, 170-182. li, x., pfister, t., huang, x., zhao, g., & pietikainen, m. (2013). a spontaneous micro-expression database: inducement, collection and baseline, in automatic face and gesture recognition (fg), 10th ieee international conference and workshops on, ieee, 1-6. michael, n., dilsizian, m., metaxas, d., & burgoon, j.k. (2010). motion profiles for deception detection using visual cues, in computer vision–eccv, springer berlin heidelberg, 462-475. murthy, g.r.s. & jadon, r.s. (2007). recognizing facial expressions using eigenspaces, in conference on computational intelligence and multimedia applications, international conference on, ieee, (3), 201-207. pfister , t., li, x., zhao, g., & pietikäinen, m. (2011). recognising spontaneous facial micro expressions, in computer vision (iccv), ieee international conference on, ieee, 14491456. polikovsky, s., kameda, y., & ohta, y. (2009). facial microexpressions recognition using high speed camera and 3dgradient descriptor, proc. 3 rd int. con. crime detection and prevention, london, 1-6. park, s. & kim, d. (2009). subtle facial expression recognition using motion magnification, pattern recogn lett, 30(7), 708-716. rubinstein, m. (2014). analysis and visualization of temporal variations in video, department of electrical engineering and computer science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy in electrical engineering and computer science, at the massachusetts institute of technology, 54-75. soyel, h. & demirel, h. (2010). facial expression recognition based on discriminative scale invariant feature transform, electron lett, 46(5), 343-345. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 shreve, m., godavarthy, s., goldgof, d., & sarkar, s.(2011). macro and micro expression spotting in long videos using spatio-temporal strain, in automatic face & gesture recognition and workshops (fg 2011), ieee international conference on, ieee, 51-56. shreve, m., godavarthy, s., manohar, v., goldgof, d., & sarkar, s. (2009). towards macro and micro expression spotting in video using strain patterns, in applications of computer vision (wacv), workshop on, ieee, 1-6. wu, q., shen, x., & fu, x. (2011), the machine knows what you are hiding: an automatic micro expression recognition system, 4th international conference on affective computing and intelligent interaction, 2, 152–162. wang, s.j., yan, w.j., li, x., zhao, g., & fu, x. (2014). micro expression recognition using dynamic textures on tensor independent color space, in pattern recognition (icpr), 22nd international conference on, ieee, 4678-4683. wang, s.j., yan, w.j., zhao, g., fu, x., & zhou, c.g., (2014), micro expression recognition using robust principal component analysis and local spatiotemporal directional features, computer vision, eccv workshop, 8925, 325-338. wu, h.y., rubinstein, m., shih, e., guttag, j.v., durand,f., & freeman, w.t. (2012). eulerian video magnification for revealing subtle changes in the world”, acm trans. graph, 31(4), 65. yao, s., he, n., zhang, h., & yoshie, o. (2014). micro-expression recognition by feature points tracking, in communications (comm), 10th international conference on, ieee, 1-4. yan, w.j., li, x., wang, s.j., zhao, g., liu, y.j., chen, y.h., & fu, x. (2014). casme ii: an improved spontaneous micro expression database and the baseline evaluation, plos one, edited by kun guo, 9(1), p. e86041. yan, w.j., wu, q., liu, y.j., wang, s.j., & fu, x. (2013). casme database: a dataset of spontaneous micro-expressions collected from neutralized faces, in automatic face and gesture recognition (fg), 10th ieee international conference and workshops on, ieee, 1-7. microsoft word brain_7_issue_4_version_5_editat_cristina.doc 63 is there a relationship between consciousness and epilepsy? muhittin bayram department of electrical and electronics engineering, dicle university, diyarbakir, turkey muba@dicle.edu.tr demet arslan department of neurology, school of medicine, dicle university, diyarbakir, turkey demet08@gmail.com abstract the aim of this article is to describe the relationship between consciousness and epilepsy. epilepsy is a neurological disorder which can be seen all over the world. it can be diagnosed by the brain’s electrical activity (eeg). the determination of epileptic attacks by eeg signals is quite common in both clinical and research fields. during epileptic seizures, the brain dynamics that make up the graph consist of abnormalities in eeg signals. in this study, the relation between epilepsy and consciousness will be investigated by using wavelet entropy and artificial neural networks. keywords: consciousness, brain, eeg, chaos, epilepsy, wavelet entropy. 1. introduction epilepsy is one of the most complex and wide-ranging brain disorders involving diverse etiologies with a common symptom of spontaneous recurrent seizures characterized by intermittent paroxysmal and highly organized rhythmic neuronal discharges in the cerebral cortex (chaovalitwongse et al., 2003). epileptic seizures are caused by a large collection of neurons synchronous and abnormally discharged. the synchronous discharge stereotype involuntary and suddenly appeared and these changes have caused transient epileptic seizure behaviour, deeply negatively affecting the patient’s life. abnormal cell discharge may occur for reasons such as trauma, oxygen insufficiency, tumours, infections and metabolic disorders. however, it is not possible to find any cause in half of the epileptic patients (mcnamara, 1999). despite the fact that epilepsy is referred to as “seizure disease”, it is not correct to call seizures “epilepsy”. seizures are symptoms, but epilepsy is a disease characterized by recurrent seizure (shneker & fountain, 2003). nonlinearity and a sensitive dependence on initial conditions are the requirements of the chaos. what is meant by sensitive dependence is that even the slightest change in the initial conditions may result in a significant change in the output. as chaos requires dependence on the initial conditions and it is unpredictable in the long run. even though the system is deterministic, it does not allow long term guesses. yet, for deterministic systems, long term guesses can be made, but for random systems the later steps cannot be estimated. as the initial conditions may grow exponentially in this process, large errors may occur in the output. this situation is the cause of sensitive dependence, and sensitive dependence veils the long term estimations. that is because the longer the period, the larger the error. in the most general sense, consciousness is awareness, or the state of being aware. it is the state when the person is both aware of himself/herself and the surroundings. the brain is considered to be the central decision making organ of the human body. it consists of two lobes which are right and left lobes. anatomically, the human brain consists of approximately 100 billion neural cells that are called neurons. neurons are actually connected to each other with dendrites. the complexity of the neural circuit of the brain can be understood when we keep thinking that each neuron makes about thousands of contacts with other neurons. the complexity of the neural circuit will be different for each brain and these differences may result in different brain capacities. the brain capacity may differ not only with the neural links, but also with the activity of the circuit components. when this event is physiologically investigated, we see that the information flow is the result of the electrical and chemical communication between the neurons. the connection pattern of the trillions of connections between neurons in the brain and the activity rate of these brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 connections are the two main factors that determine the brain capacity. the activity is related to the electrical and chemical events on the neurons. electrical transmission is done via ions (na, k, cl, etc.) while the chemical transmission is done between synapsis via biomolecules that are called neurotransmitters (serotonin, acetylcholine, epinephrine, etc.). the studies which state that the consciousness is adversely affected during epilepsy seizures have a broad spectrum. the adverse effects generally manifest as cloudy consciousness and/or decrease in the consciousness levels. johanson et al. (2003) stated that the order or the state of consciousness is distorted during epileptic seizures. blumenfeld and taylor (2003), discuss that the patient will become unconscious during generalized seizures and may also become unconscious during partial complex seizures. monaco et al. (2005) suggested that both the level of consciousness and the state of it will be adversely affected during seizures. cavanna et al. (2008), tried to measure and statistically evaluate the consciousness levels and the consciousness states of the epileptic patients with a test of 20 questions called ictal consciousness inventory. hughes (2008) discussed that information is transmitted to the brain cortex via the gamma oscillations (30-100hz). he reported that the gamma oscillations may be formed as alternatives to the epileptic foci in the preictal period and that the amplitude of the gamma oscillations increases when going from pre-ictal to ictal periods. danielson et al. (2011) used mrs (magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and pet (positron emission tomography) scans to examine the state of consciousness during epilepsy seizures. foley et al. (2014) investigated the distortion of consciousness during epilepsy seizures using meg device. 2. material and methods we will provide information on the materials (epileptic eeg data) and evaluation of epileptic eeg data with wavelet entropy and artificial neural networks. 2.1 epileptic eeg data and patient characteristics the data used in this study was taken from the eeg laboratory archives of the neurology department at the medicine faculty of dicle and đnönü universities. there was data recorded from 7 adult patients between 2001 and 2013, during clinical studies. in the clinical records was written that these 7 patients were with partial epilepsy. it was also reported that 5 of the patients were men and the other 2 were women whose ages ranged from 25 to 45 years old, with an average of 35 years old. the patients did not have any head injuries, previous surgeries, or a family history of seizures or epilepsy. the eeg recording period varied from 3 to 48 hours. the patients did not take any medications during recordings. the records were noninvasively taken from 16 standard sites of 10-20 systems on the patients’ scalp at a 200 hz sampling rate, using a eeg digital video recording system (grass telefactor eeg review and analysis version 2.10), facilitated with 32 channels and 16 bit a/d, and twin 2.0 software package. 2.2 chaos analysis for chaos analysis, the attractors (that show all the states the system will go through in time) should be modelled in the phase space. if the time series is chaotic, the attractor formed on the phase space will create a different structure. this attractor is called the strange attractor. strange attractors have fractional sizes. chaotic quantities (lyapunov exponents, entropy, etc.) are calculated after the phase space is formed. each quantity is another attribute vector for the system. the larger the number of attribute vectors, the more we know about the system. 2.3 phase space for the chaotic dynamics to be calculated, time series should be reconstructed in the phase space. as two or more functions are compared in the phase space at the same time period, at least two functions are required to construct the state space. according to takens theorem (takens, m. bayram, d. arslan is there a relationship between consciousness and epilepsy? 65 1981), if there is only a single time series, using the first or further derivatives of the time series, the phase space can be constructed like in equation 1. ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )( )[ ]τττ 1,...2,, −+++= mnxnxnxnxny (1) the “m” used in equation 1 is the embedding dimension and “τ” is the delay in time. the embedding dimension m is calculated using the false nearest neighbour method and the time delay τ is calculated using the first local minimum of the mutual information function. the attractor loses its properties by linearization when τ value is small, and by dispersion when τ value is large. 2.4 wavelet entropy wavelet entropy is a term that combines wavelet and entropy terms. the irregularities of the time frequency are determined with the wavelet entropy analysis. wavelet analysis has the utmost importance in determining the properties of the nonstationary signals. as the moments of the non-stationary signals are time dependent, fourier analysis is not successful for such signals. instead, wavelet analysis, which gives both time and frequency information of the signal, is used. in wavelet analysis the signal is separated into its subbands. the signal is fed through low-pass and high-pass filters repetitively. the sub-bands that pass through the low-pass filter constitute the “approximation coefficients” and the ones that pass through the high-pass filter constitute the detail coefficients. here, the eeg signal is passed through five sub-bands after it is passed through the filter that selects the (0-60hz) band. these are delta=(04hz), theta=(4-8hz), alpha=(8-12hz), beta=(12-30hz) and gamma=(30-60hz) respectively. then the energies of the coefficients are calculated, and their normalized values are calculated as in equation 2. top j j e e p = (2) the normalized energies are the distributions for the different states. the comparison of these distributions is calculated with the shannon entropy in equation3 (yordanova et al., 2002). ∑−= j jj pps ln (3) the resultant entropy value is the measure of the disorder of the system. this disorder gives general information about the system. this information makes up the attribute vector of the system. 2.5 artificial neural networks (ann) artificial neural networks (ann) can be called the human brain model. in this study, 100 preictal and 100 ictal, a total of 200 eeg segments have been used for classification. and also, 100 segments were used for training, and 100 segments for testing the ann. the segments have been separated into five sub-bands by wavelet analysis. entropy was applied to the sub-bands of each segment and thus the wavelet entropy values were calculated. ann inputs consist of these five subband entropies. these wavelet entropy values constitute the feature of pre-ictal and ictal segments. figure 1. multi-layer artificial neural networks model output layer . . . hidden layer imput layer brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 after many tests perfomed in different situations, there has been obtained the most successful model of ann, which is shown in figure 1. this model has 5 input layers, one hidden layer which consists of 10 neurons, and 2 output layers. the output layer is composed of two neurons, including pre-ictal and ictal states. the log sigmoid transfer function is used for hidden and output layers. also, the levenberg-marquart algorithm is used for the learning algorithm. the tuning parameters of classifiers are randomly selected, and 2-fold cross validation is used. 3. results and discussion the fact that consciousness is a process in the brain means that the illnesses which form in the brain also affect the consciousness. as the illnesses of the brain (epilepsy, schizophrenia, alzheimer’s, etc.) have a broad spectrum, in this study we will only discuss the relationship between consciousness and epilepsy. 3.1 feature extraction firstly the epileptic eeg data is separated into pre-ictal and ictal segments, and then the wavelet entropy values of these segments are calculated. in this study, 100 pre-ictal and 100 ictal, a total of 200 eeg segments, have been used. here, the eeg data is passed through five sub-bands after it is passed through the filter that selects the (0-60hz) band. these are delta=(0-4hz), theta=(4-8hz), alpha=(8-12hz), beta=(12-30hz) and gamma=(30-60hz) respectively. then, the shannon entropies of the eeg sub bands are calculated; and then the feature vectors are formed by combining the values obtained with this method. one of the feature vectors of a hundred pre-ictal and ictal segments is shown in table1. when the attribute vector is examined, it is observed that the gamma sub-band entropy values significantly increase from pre-ictal to ictal periods. this shows that the disorder of the gamma oscillations increases significantly during the epilepsy seizure. table 1. the feature vector of pre-ictal and ictal segments features pre-ictal ictal delta’s entropy 0,0071 0,0090 theta’s entropy 0,0063 0,0099 alpha’s entropy 0,0066 0,0103 beta’s entropy 0,0067 0,0105 gamma’s entropy 0,0062 0,0111 3.2 performance analysis the performance analysis criterions are used to assess the performance of the system by using equations 4-8. sensitivity =tp/(tp+fn) (4) specificity =tn/(tn+fp) (5) ppv=tp/(tp+fp) (6) npv=tn/(tn+fn) (7) accuracy=(tp+tn)/(tp+tn+fp+fn) (8) the performance analysis criterions are known as “sensitivity”, “specificity”, “positive predictive value”, negative predictive value” and “accuracy”. these criterions are calculated for each eeg segments. sensitivity is used to determine the ability of the separation ictals from actual ictals. specificity is used to determine the ability of the separation pre-ictals from actual preictals. ppv is used to determine the possible presence of ictals when the classifier gives ictal results. npv is used to determine the real possible presence pre-ictals when the classifier gives pre-ictal results. accuracy is used to determine the ratio of the correctly classified samples to all samples. m. bayram, d. arslan is there a relationship between consciousness and epilepsy? 67 pre-ictal and ictal truth-predictive matrix is shown in table 2. table 2. preictal and ictal truth-predictive matrix the values obtained from these measurements are given in table 2. it is coded as tp (true positive), fp(false positive), tn(true negative), and fn(false negative). these criterions are labeled (-1) for preictal and (+1) for ictal eeg segments. the values obtained from these measurements are given in table 2. it is coded as tp (true positive), fp(false positive), tn(true negative), and fn(false negative). these criterions are labeled (-1) for preictal and (+1) for ictal eeg segments. the final result of performance analysis criterions are shown in table 3. table 3. performance analysis criterion sensitivity specificity ppv npv accuracy performance % 98 96 96 98 97 the ann classifier performs with an accuracy of 97%, sensitivity and specificity of 98% and 96% respectively. in this study, the epileptic eeg signal that is separated into two segments, such as pre-ictal and ictal periods, is analysed with wavelet entropy analysis which is a chaos analysis technique. from the analysis results, it can be seen that the entropy values of the gamma band of two segments that are pre-ictal and ictal are significantly different (table 1). that means, during the transition between pre-ictal and ictal states, there is a recognizable change and increase in the gamma oscillations. thus, the gamma wavelet entropy (the attribute vector) value of the ictal period is larger than the pre-ictal period. some authors (summerfield et al., 2002; balconi & lucchiari, 2008; roy et al., 2015) in the above mentioned publications tried to find relationships between consciousness and the gamma wave. summerfield et al. (2002) found that the amplitude of the posterior brain electroencephalogram signal close to 40 hz is associated with awareness-dependent processes. balconi and lucchiari (2008) suggested that gamma band can be represented as a marker of consciousness, as well as of the subject's evaluation of the arousing power of emotional stimuli. thus, balconi and lucchiari (2008) stated that gamma frequency band analysis offers a powerful tool for studying cortical activation patterns during emotional information processing. roy et al. (2015) stated that the time scale is associated to the 40 hz oscillation, since that is predominant for the conscious activities of the human being. predictive ictal(+1) preictal(-1) t r u t h ic ta l (+ 1 ) tp (48) fn (1) p re ic ta l (1 ) fp (2) tn (49) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 68 4. conclusions in this study, the relationship between epilepsy and consciousness was investigated. in this context, as entropy is the measure of order or disorder in a signal or system, the increase in the attribute vector of gamma (table 1) suggests disorder increase. the disorder increase means an increase in the clouding of consciousness. from that we can conclude that the consciousness is temporarily affected in an adverse manner during the epileptic seizure. references balconi, m. & lucchiari, c. (2008). consciousness and arousal effects on emotional face processing as revealed by brain oscillations. a gamma band analysis. int. j psychophysiology, vol. 67, pp. 41-46. blumenfeld, h. & taylor, j. (2003). why do seizures cause loss of consciousness. neuroscientist, vol. 9, pp. 301-310. cavanna, a.e., mula, m., serv,o s., strigaro, g., tota, g., barbagli, d., collimedaglia, l., viana, m., cantello, r., & monaco, f. (2008). measuring level and content of consciousness during epileptic seizures: the ictal consciousness inventory. epilepsy and behaviour, vol. 13, pp.184188. chaovalitwongse, w., pardalos, p., iasemidis, l., shiau, d.s., sackellares, j. (2003). applications of global optimization and dynamical systems to prediction of epileptic seizures. in: pardalos p, sackellares j, iasemidis l, carney p, eds. quantitative neuroscience. kluwer academic publishers, 2003:1–36. danielson, n.b., guo, j.n., & blumenfeld, h. (2011). the default mode network and altered consciousness in epilepsy. behavioural neurobiology, vol. 24, pp. 55-65. foley, e., cerguiglini, a., cavanna, a.e., nakubulwa, m.a., furlong, p.l., witton, c., & seri, s. (2014). magnetoencephalography in the study of epilepsy and consciousness. epilepsy and behaviour, vol. 30, pp. 38-42. hughes, j.r. (2008). gamma, fast and ultrafast waves of the brain: their relationships with epilepsy and behaviour. epilepsy and behaviour, vol. 13, pp. 25-31. johanson, m., revonsuo, a., chaplin, j., & wedlund, j.e. (2003). level of contents of consciousness in connection with partial epileptic seizures. epilepsy and behaviour, vol. 4, pp. 279-285. mcnamara, j.o. (1999). emerging insights into genesis of epilepsy. nature, vol. 399, pp. 5–22. monaco, f., mula, m., & cavanna, a.e. (2005). consciousness, epilepsy and emotional qualia. epilepsy and behaviour, pp.150-160. roy, s., bhattacharya, s., & sreekantan, b.v. (2015). dirac’s large number hypotheses: is it related to 40 hz gamma oscillation or consciousness. neuroquantology, vol. 13(3), pp. 253-258. shneker, b.f. & fountain, n.b. (2003). epilepsy. dis mon., vol. 49, pp. 426-478. summerfield, c., jack, a.i., & burges, a.p. (2002). induced gamma activity is associated with conscious awareness of pattern masked nouns. int. j psychophysiology, vol. 44, pp.93-100. takens, f. (1981). detecting strange attractors in turbulunce. lecture notes in mathematics, 366381. yordanova, j., kolev, v., rosso, o.a., schürmann, m., sakowit, o.w., özgören, m., & başar, e. (2002). wavelet entropy analysis of event-related potentials indicates modality-independent theta dominance. j neuroscience met., vol. 117, pp. 99-109. microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_3_curent.doc 139 a repeated signal difference for recognising patterns kieran greer distributed computing systems, belfast, uk kgreer@distributedcomputingsystems.co.uk abstract this paper describes a new mechanism that might help with defining pattern sequences, by the fact that it can produce an upper bound on the ensemble value that can persistently oscillate with the actual values produced from each pattern. with every firing event, a node also receives an on/off feedback switch. if the node fires then it sends a feedback result depending on the input signal strength. if the input signal is positive or larger, it can store an ‘on’ switch feedback for the next iteration. if the signal is negative or smaller it can store an ‘off’ switch feedback for the next iteration. if the node does not fire, then it does not affect the current feedback situation and receives the switch command produced by the last active pattern event for the same neuron. the upper bound therefore also represents the largest or most enclosing pattern set and the lower value is for the actual set of firing patterns. if the pattern sequence repeats, it will oscillate between the two values, allowing them to be recognised and measured more easily, over time. tests show that changing the sequence ordering produces different value sets, which can also be measured. keywords: pattern sequence, brain, neural model, sustained signal. 1. introduction this paper describes a new mechanism that could be used to more clearly define a pattern firing sequence, by the fact that it can produce an upper bound on the signal value that can persistently oscillate with the actual values produced from the pattern sequence. the mechanism is being written about because it might help to define signal differences in something that tries to model real neuronal activity. one question when simulating the human brain is how it is able to determine what is important, or distinguish between the different signals and activities. this was mentioned in greer (2012) and is a well-known problem. it requires the pattern to be consistent and also distinct in its environment. the pattern changes are really the triggers for thinking or consciousness, so how would simple neurons be able to recognise them? the mechanism could also help to explain how binary signals can produce an analogue signal effect. this dichotomy might be attributed to some type of quantum process, but here it can be explained by more classical newtonian mechanics. memristors (pershin, la fontaine, & di ventra, 2008) are able to demonstrate a mechanism that shows how the most basic of organisms can store memories. the new mechanism of this paper also requires a memory component, where a neuron’s firing ability is influenced by earlier firing events. it might also be of interest when modelling nested patterns, because the upper bound relates to the most neurons that would fire and also therefore to the largest pattern area. that area may then enclose smaller or nested patterns that also fire. the pattern sequence can repeat, as in a cycle, with a steady upper bound and a possibly increasing lower bound, making it easier for the simulator to tell what is important and what is not, because the signal differences are also repeated. therefore, basic reinforcement of the difference would allow it to be recognised in some way. in this paper, the pattern also means the source of the input stimulus. the neurons can be modelled as typical neural network units and they require the same type of feedback signals, but work slightly differently to other neural network models. there are in fact 2 main differences for the model of this paper, as follows: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 140 1. with every pattern firing event, every node receives an on/off switch feedback, for that pattern, as follows: a. if the node fires itself, then it sends the result of that as the feedback switch. i. if the signal fired is larger or positive, for example, it can store an ‘on’ switch for the pattern. ii. if the signal fired is smaller or negative, for example, it can store an ‘off’ switch for the pattern. b. if the node does not fire, then it does not affect the current feedback situation and receives the switch command produced by the last active pattern event for the same neuron. 2. the information that is fed back is only an on/off switch and does not contribute to the signal strength in any way. it works primarily at the input or synapse end of the neuron. the rest of the paper describes these points in detail. the research of this paper has used an earlier counting mechanism 0that provides a global and a local count. the global count is another upper bound value that would relate to every node firing every time. there is then the pattern sequence upper bound, as described in the following sections and the pattern sequence real value, so 3 measurements are possible now. the author still believes that the global upper bound is useful, but similar comparisons can be made without it. it is therefore probably not compulsory to use the counting mechanism to produce the test results and so it is up to the reader to decide exactly what the best mechanism might be. the rest of this paper is organised as follows: section 2 describes some related work. section 3 describes the new neuron structure and the firing event that it allows. section 4 describes how the neuron might work as part of a network. section 5 gives the results of some initial tests, while section 6 gives some conclusions on the work. 2. related work this paper describes the new mechanism in terms of providing a stable way to maintain a notable difference in a signal, rather like a potential difference; so that a system trying to recognise pattern sequences, might be able to distinguish between them. it is also being put in the context of a real human brain. a lot of papers that address the problem (pershin, la fontaine, & di ventra, 2008; frolov et al., 2007; hodgkin & huxley, 1952; vogels et al., 2005; weisbuch, 1999; yuste, 2011; yuste, 2015) note factors such as oscillating signals, signal potential, signal stability and sensitivity to variance, and also conflicting excitatory and inhibitory signals providing a network balance. some papers even note that noise is required for the neurons to fire properly. noise can introduce a random value or change that might produce more graded signals, instead of all or nothing evaluations and also helps to contain the firing patterns (vogels et al., 2005). the paper of pershin, la fontaine, & di ventra (2008) describes a theory for how the amoeba 1 , the most simple of organisms, can learn and have a memory. the solution is to use a form of memristor and also to make use of biological oscillators. they explain that: ‘the main idea behind functioning of this scheme is to use the internal state of memristor in order to store information about the past and control oscillations in the lc contour. in particular, we use the model of a voltage-controlled memristor, inspired by recent experiments, in which the resistance of memristor m can be changed between two limiting values m1 and m2, m1 < m2’. 1 also part of an invited talk by prof. wang at sai’14, ‘how will computers evolve over the next 10 years?’. k. greer a repeated signal difference for recognising patterns 141 the paper describes the process with differential equations and is not related to this work. differential equations are not part of the author’s current model, which has been mostly about describing clustering methods, perhaps changed by a non-mappable time element and mostly considering symbolic or conceptual data. a rate of change has not really been a factor, but it is part of other models, especially if they were to measure numerical instead of categorical values. vogels et. al. (2005) describe that theories have been created to explain how a network can maintain signal states, be balanced and still recognise the very small differences that would be the result of firing patterns. weisbuch (1999) is more cellular and describes the network properties in terms of automata with state change and logic gates. for these neural models, feedback is critical and hopfield networks (hopfield, 1982) in particular, have the type of feedback that this paper will suggest, or maybe the new deep learning networks (deng & yu, 2013). frolov et al. (2007) use a hopfield-modified network to perform what is known as factor analysis. it is possibly similar to cohesion or homogeneity, in that it takes the input signal vector and factors it into a low level signal space of relations or clusters. the low level factors would represent the first clustering stage. their paper performs a boolean factor analysis and they mention principle component analysis (haxby et al., 2014; shlens, 2014) and others, as alternatives. they also note that: ‘during the learning stage, neurons that represent one common factor fire together when the factor appears in the signal. due to the correlational hebbian rule, these neurons become more tightly connected than those belonging to different factors. the different factor neurons are firing together only by chance (so, in the limit case, we can consider these factors as statistically independent). thus, neurons of factors constitute attractors of network dynamics’. the biological paper of yuste (2011) discusses the role of dendritic spines. pyramidal neurons 2 are looked at; where a neuron typically receives input from the dendrites and sends its output through the axon. the synapses are the connectors between these structures and have been used in earlier papers from the author to describe the connecting structures between neurons in general – shafts and connectors. spines are then extensions of the dendrites with a question of what they are for, if inputs can connect to the dendrites directly. the paper gives 3 main reasons for them and argues that these complement each other and are essential for a working distributed circuit. one reason for them is to filter synaptic potentials and electrically isolate input signals from each other. this would help to keep the signals distinct. it is also their purpose to add plasticity to the circuits of fixed neurons and connectors, where it might be difficult for a network to change after it has realised a large fixed structure. the paper of yuste (2015) then extends the discussion and makes comparisons with the current artificial neural networks. it also notes the importance of an emergent function from ensembles, oscillations and other supporting features. one quote from that paper might be: ‘as early as the 1930s, cajal’s disciple rafael lorente de nó argued that the structural design of many parts of the nervous system is one of recurrent connectivity whose purpose could be to generate functional reverberations (patterns of neuronal activity that persist after the initial stimulus has ceased) among groups of neurons.’ 3. neuron structure and firing event the firing mechanism is based on ensembles of neurons that fire together. the neurons would typically be shared between patterns and sequences of input stimuli might therefore fire different sets of them. the scenario could therefore include nested patterns (greer, 2014) that also share their neurons. the patterns determine the time-based input signals and the neurons can be influenced by earlier patterns, not just the current one. there is therefore probably the idea of a 2 santiago ramón y cajal: http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/santiago_ramón_y_cajal. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 142 memory or capacitor, like a memristor might have. one pattern can be the largest and define the outer scope of the firing event. implicit in this is nested patterns where, using the rules listed in the introduction (section 1), smaller patterns overwrite their node subset only. it is equally allowed however to have a sequence moving from a smaller subset to a larger set again, but it would still all be part of the same ensemble for the mechanism that is described. it can be assumed that only one pattern fires during each time unit, where rule 1 of the introduction states that if a neuron fires a stronger signal for a pattern, it sends feedback to ask it to fire again, the next time unit. if it fires a weaker signal, the request is not to fire next time. stronger and weaker relates to a more variable type of on or off. as the mechanism is not final yet, there could be some flexibility with it. rule 1 also states that if the neuron does not fire for the current pattern, it receives the switch command from the last pattern it did fire for. note that the actual firing event can produce either zero or some input and so an earlier event can also force a weak feedback signal. rule 2 states that this particular feedback is only the on/off switch command and does not affect the size of the output value. a schematic of the idea is illustrated in figure 2, which relates to the same neuron shared between 2 pattern events, at times t1 and t2. the schematic is described further in section 0. figure 2. schematic of the same neuron n1, shared between 2 different patterns p1 and p2. a single pattern during each time unit t1 and t2. the input signal from the pattern is summed and averaged for each event that the neuron fires on. if the neuron is active, it can store an on or off switch command for the next iteration. if the neuron feedback is not active, then the last active feedback switch is used. the counting mechanism could be used, with its global (pattern) and local (neuron) values.fires in the diagram, the neuron is shown with a feedback loop from itself and also an imaginary connection to feedback from the earlier event. if you like, the neuron’s feedback loop will reset the feedback from any earlier event. there is an input signal to the neuron and also an on/off switch (red block), managed by the feedback. the input is summed and may be activated by the switch, to produce a signal that activates the output. the output value itself is not influenced by the signal strength and could even be unit values, although it can be weighted. so if a neuron is active for a pattern, it uses its own output result as the feedback for the next time the pattern fires. this may be positive or negative. if a neuron is not active for a pattern, it can use an earlier pattern’s value to set its switch, which would probably be positive. if looking at a cohesive set of neurons, the threshold trigger switches can be replaced by the switches of the neuron set that best cluster together. k. greer a repeated signal difference for recognising patterns 143 example consider the boolean case where the input stimuli are either 1 or 0 and the pattern neurons are all initially active. in this example, the value 0 actually means not to fire at all. the first stimulus pattern contains a value of 1 for input signal 1 and the second stimulus pattern contains a value of 0 for input signal 1. the first stimulus pattern executes (t1) and the feedback for signal 1 is positive, indicating to fire again next event. the second pattern executes (t2), but the 0 input value means that it does not trigger an output value that iteration, which also results in negative feedback. this is the end of phase 1 and for pattern 1 the neuron is still active but for pattern 2 it is now inactive. pattern 1 then executes again (t3) and provides the positive feedback. pattern 2 would then not fire the neuron (t4), but as it is inactive, the on switch command from pattern 1 tells it to fire. at the end of phase 2, the neuron is again active for both patterns. pattern 1 then executes again (t5) and pattern 2 then activates the neuron (t6), but the weak input signal from pattern 2 means that it does not fire the output and the resulting negative feedback makes the neuron’s switch inactive for pattern 2. during the fourth phase, pattern 2’s inactive neuron uses pattern 1’s switch value to tell it to fire again, and so on. therefore, the total signal value increases to some maximum every other set of events and then back to a more true value for the patterns, every complementary set of events. if count updates are involved as some type of energy measurement, then this can increase slightly each time the maximum event is included, but it cannot increase beyond the maximum event value and is likely to level out before reaching that. the pattern sequence can cycle and there is a persistent difference between two value sets that can be measured. 4. network algorithms the algorithms used in this paper are based on the equations listed in greer, (2015). the intention was to test the theory of that paper further, but the new mechanism is worthy of mention, without considering all of that paper. main algorithm the main tasks are executed in the following order, where the following sections describe these tasks in more detail: 1. retrieve the current cohesive set. 2. update the weight values of all nodes in the cohesive set. 3. determine a new cohesive set based on the new weight values. 4. use the new cohesive set to update the counts. 5. after executing all patterns, retrieve the node values and calculate the energy value. cohesive set for each pattern this is implemented using equations 1 to 5 in greer (2015) and relates to section 0, task 3. equation 5 of that paper simply clusters the nodes with the most similar reinforced values together. for these tests, only the top level of clustering was kept as the cohesive pattern. the idea would be that any other clusters might represent sub-clusters for that specific pattern, but the tests do not consider creating further hierarchies, for example. this is also a bit like principle component analysis. to avoid defining a ‘cohesive difference’ error amount, the weight reinforced values for each node can be sorted into descending order. each node value can then be grouped with the one that it is closest to. this produces breaks in the node list, thereby resulting in more natural clusters. the first cluster that is created is then kept as the cohesive unit for the pattern. cohesive pattern set algorithm in more formal terms, the process and can be defined as follows: 1. before sorting any patterns, initialise the node-value cohesive set cs to be empty. 2. for each input pattern: a. retrieve the current cohesive set for it. b. for each node in the cohesive set: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 144 i. retrieve the weight reinforcement value for the node. ii. update the cohesive cluster cs to that value, for that node. c. take the node-value cluster cs as the cohesive set for the current input pattern. where the following points can change the cs cluster values: 1. the re-ordering of the pattern node values will remove lower-valued weights. therefore, if a node is included in the current cohesive set but has a smaller value, it will probably be removed from the new cohesive set. 2. if an input pattern does not include a node in its current set, but an earlier pattern does, then the earlier value remains as part of the current cohesive cluster cs and so it gets added for this input pattern as well. updating the neuron weight this relates to section 0, task 2. each node stores a reinforced weight value that is updated as follows: 1. if the node is part of the cohesive set for the related pattern: a. retrieve the input value to the node. b. update or reinforce the weight using this input value. note that the input can be 0, when it will not increase the weight value. updating the counts this relates to section 0, task 4. each node also stores the counting mechanism, which is updated as follows: 1. for each pattern: a. retrieve the set of cohesive nodes. b. if the node is in the cohesive set, update both the global and local counts. c. if the node is not in the cohesive set, update the global count only. calculating the energy value this relates to section 0, task 5. the counting mechanism is used to determine an energy value for the input dataset or pattern firing sequence as a whole and also produces the oscillating values. this is calculated by producing averaged stats for the counts that have been generated, for all of the shared nodes. for these tests the global count is predictable and could even be a single value in each pattern. as there are 5 patterns with 5 nodes in each, it produces an average value of 5. the local count however is only updated if the node is part of the pattern’s cohesive set, which can vary. the count values are all updated in unit increments of 1, with some local count values updated only every other iteration, for example. then averaging over that will produce a smaller value. 5. tests a program has been written in java to test some of the equations and algorithms described in section 4. it has been used to verify that the equations can at least work together, even if they are not part of a clustering program yet. cohesion, or homogeneous node sets is the main test criterion, as a cohesive unit represents a cluster and that measurement is critical for producing the results of this paper. to update counts or weight values, binary data has been used, as described in figure 3. there are 5 patterns in total, each with 5 values. each binary value represents an input stimulus, for neuron 1 to neuron 5. the fact that pattern 1 and pattern 5 are the same is not important. the patterns are therefore the input values to a layer of 5 neurons that each store the weight reinforcement value and the counting mechanism. each node has only one set values for all of the patterns. k. greer a repeated signal difference for recognising patterns 145 if the input value is 1, then the neuron is likely to be part of the cohesive set and would update the weight and also the global and local counts each event. if the input value is 0, then the neuron is not likely to be part of the cohesive set. for this case, it would not update the weight value as it is 0. it does update the global count as that uses unit increments, but only updates the local count when an earlier trigger switch tells it to. each update event is also counted, so that averaged totals can be produced. input pattern 1 1, 1, 0, 0, 1 input pattern 2 1, 1, 0, 1, 0 input pattern 3 1, 1, 0, 1, 1 input pattern 4 1, 1, 0, 0, 0 input pattern 5 1, 1, 0, 0, 1 figure 3. binary input stimulus dataset counting mechanism and reinforcement measurements the tests still use the counting mechanism of greer (2011) and, for this paper, the cohesive measurement is actually the simplified equation 5 of greer (2015). so cohesion is measured using a single reinforced value for each node, while the energy measurement is calculated from what the counting mechanism stores. ignoring the global count value, there are then the two oscillating values that includes a second upper limit, relating to the maximum value for the actual set of pattern instances. this does not have to include every node, but relates to the largest or most enclosing sets of nodes. then the other, lower oscillating value, is for each input pattern, as it actually is. sustained signal difference this section describes measuring the count totals after each iteration, for the returned cohesive sets. the first cohesive set for each input pattern is the full set of nodes. the patterns are presented in order – from pattern 1 to pattern 5. after a full presentation and weight update process, the values for each node are retrieved and averaged, to give the first set of values, shown in table 5, iteration 1. after the iteration, cohesive sets can be calculated for each pattern, because the reinforcement weights have some values. this leads to the maximum pattern value, shown in iteration 2. for iteration 3 then, some nodes with smaller input values have fired and been subsequently removed from the cohesive sets again. iteration 2 however has updated the counts previously. this leads to a slight increase in the local count values that can occur maybe every other event. iteration 4 is back to the full cohesive set again, iteration 5 the reduced or actual set again, and so on. so iterations 2, 4 and 6 are the upper bound and oscillating with that is iterations 1, 3 and 5 that increase slightly but may level out. table 6 shows what the values would be if the cohesive set is reset for every pattern. that is, there are no enclosing patterns. to show that pattern ordering is also important, table 7 shows some values with the pattern ordering reversed. node 4 has clearly been updated differently, even though the oscillating gap remains. table 5. the cohesive set is not cleared before being added to by the current pattern. node 1 node 2 node 3 node 4 node 5 iteration 1 5 5 0 2 3 iteration 2 5 5 0 3 4 iteration 3 5 5 0 2.666 3.666 iteration 4 5 5 0 3 4 iteration 5 5 5 0 2.8 3.8 iteration 6 5 5 0 3 4 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 146 table 6. the cohesive set is cleared before it is worked out for each pattern. node 1 node 2 node 3 node 4 node 5 iteration 1 5 5 0 2 3 iteration 2 5 5 0 2 3 iteration 3 5 5 0 2 3 iteration 4 5 5 0 2 3 iteration 5 5 5 0 2 3 iteration 6 5 5 0 2 3 table 7. same conditions as table 5, except that the pattern order reversed. node 4 produces a different set of values. node 1 node 2 node 3 node 4 node 5 iteration 1 5 5 0 2 3 iteration 2 5 5 0 2.5 4 iteration 3 5 5 0 2.333 3.666 iteration 4 5 5 0 2.5 4 iteration 5 5 5 0 2.4 3.8 iteration 6 5 5 0 2.5 4 6. conclusions this paper describes what appears to be a new method for neuronal firing sequences. it is being described becuse the result of it is unusual and might provide some effects that a neuronal network would like to have. the oscillating energy value can be sustained over the firing sequence, allowing for it to be measured more easily. this would make a simulation of the real brain more realistic. the justification for the mechanism has been put into the context of recognising pattern sequences. other types of system that might find this mechanism interesting could be the cellular ones (the paper of scialdoneet al., 2013, might be relevant). the new type of neuron requires a feedback loop from the signal strength, but the feedback is an on/off switch, which does not contribute to the signal strength itself. initial tests confirm that oscillating values are produced and could be compared to some type of electric potential difference, for example. it also fits in with the author’s earlier work (greer, 2012; greer, 2014), as it would occur naturally in a scenario of nested patterns that fire in sequence, but also with a lot of shared neurons. the upper bound is a measure of the most enclosing patterns and the other value is for each pattern individually. the measurements are also sensitive to changes in the pattern ordering. while a computer program has been written to test the effect of the mechanism, it will probably be more of a long-term strategy, as part of the whole research cognitive model. it is not obviously useful by itself and would only be added to a model after a more basic framework was in place. but if there is an opportunity to model biological neurons more accurately, it will be considered. k. greer a repeated signal difference for recognising patterns 147 references greer, k. (2012). turing: then, now and still key, in: x-s. yang (eds.), artificial intelligence, evolutionary computation and metaheuristics (aiecm) turing 2012, studies in computational intelligence, 2013, vol. 427/2013, pp. 43-62, doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-29694-9_3, springer-verlag berlin heidelberg. published on arxiv at http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.2541. pershin, y.v., la fontaine, s., & di ventra, m. (2008). memristive model of amoeba’s learning, e-print arxiv: 0810.4179, 22 oct 2008. greer, k. (2011). clustering concept chains from ordered data without path descriptions, distributed computing systems, available on arxiv at http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.0764. frolov, a.a., husek, d., muraviev, i.p., & polyakov, p.y. (2007). boolean factor analysis by attractor neural network, ieee transactions on neural networks, vol. 18, no. 3, pp 698 707. hodgkin, a.l. & huxley a.f. (1952). a quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve, j. physiol., vol. 117, pp.500 544. vogels, t.p., kanaka rajan, k., & abbott, l.f. (2005). neural network dynamics, annu. rev. neurosci., vol. 28, pp. 357 376. weisbuch, g. (1999). the complex adaptive systems approach to biology, evolution and cognition, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1 11. yuste, r. (2011). dendritic spines and distributed circuits, neuron, vol. 71, pp. 772 781. yuste, r. (2015). from the neuron doctrine to neural networks, nature reviews, neuroscience, vol. 16, pp. 1 – 11. doi: 10.1038/nrn3962. hopfield, j.j. (1982). neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities, proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the usa, vol. 79, no. 8, pp. 2554 – 2558. deng, l. & yu, d. (2013). deep learning methods and applications, foundations and trends in signal processing, vol. 7, nos. 3-4, pp. 197–387, issn: 1932-8346. haxby, j.v., connolly, a.c., & guntupalli, j.s. (2014). decoding neural representational spaces using multivariate pattern analysis, annu. rev. neurosci. vol. 37, pp. 435 – 56. doi: 10.1146/annurevneuro-062012-170325. shlens, j. (2014). a tutorial on principal component analysis, arxiv. arxiv: 1404.1100v1 [cs.lg]. greer, k. (2014). new ideas for brain modelling 2, in: k. arai et al. (eds.), intelligent systems in science and information 2014, studies in computational intelligence, vol. 591, pp. 23 – 39, springer international publishing switzerland, 2015, doi 10.1007/978-3-319-14654-6_2. published on arxiv at http://arxiv.org/abs/1408.5490. extended version of the sai'14 paper, arguments for nested patterns in neural ensembles. greer, k. (2015). a brain-like cognitive process with shared methods, available on arxiv at http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.04928. scialdone, a., mugford, s.t., feike, d., skeffington, a., borrill, p., graf, a., smith, a.m., & howard, m. (2013). arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night, elife. doi: 10.7554/elife.00669. 29 single trial classification of evoked eeg signals due to rgb colors eman alharbi information technology department, faculty of computing and information technology king abdulaziz university jeddah, saudi arabia eal-harbi0001@stu.kau.edu.sa saim rasheed information technology department, faculty of computing and information technology king abdulaziz university jeddah, saudi arabia srahmed@kau.edu.sa seyed buhari information technology department, faculty of computing and information technology king abdulaziz university jeddah, saudi arabia mesbukary@kau.edu.sa abstract recently, the impact of colors on the brain signals has become one of the leading researches in bci systems. these researches are based on studying the brain behavior after color stimulus, and finding a way to classify its signals offline without considering the real time. moving to the next step, we present a single trial classification model for eeg signals evoked by rgb colors stimuli, which is not presented in previous studies. in this research, eeg signals were recorded from 7 subjects through bci2000 toolbox. the empirical mode decomposition (emd) technique was used at the signal analysis stage. various feature extraction methods were investigated to find the best and reliable set, including event-related spectral perturbations (ersp), target mean with feast fourier transform (fft), wavelet packet decomposition (wpd), auto regressive model (ar) and emd residual. a new feature selection method was created based on the peak's time of eeg signal when red and blue colors stimuli are presented. the erp image was used to find out the peak's time, which was around 300 ms for the red color and around 450 ms for the blue color. the classification was performed using the support vector machine (svm) classifier, libsvm toolbox being used for that purpose. the emd residual was found to be the most reliable method that gives the highest classification accuracy with an average of 88.5% and with an execution time of only 14 seconds. keywords: brain computer interface (bci), electroenphesalography (eeg), event related potintials, component (erp); emperical mode decomposition (emd), event-related spectral perturbations (ersp), wavelet packet decomposition (wpd), autoregrissive (ar), fast fourier transform (fft), support vector machine (svm). 1. introduction a brain computer interface (bci) is an artificial intelligence system that translates the human's thoughts, by using the brain signals, into meaningful commands and actual actions. it enables the person to perform a specific activity without involving any muscle movement. this system is designed especially for disabled individuals. it was used to improve their quality of life and reduce the cost of intensive care (nicolas-alonso & gomez-gil, 2012). there are five sequential stages in any bci system as it follows: signal acquisition, signal analysis, feature extraction, feature classification, and the application interface. in the signal acquisition stage there can be used two approaches, an invasive and a noninvasive one. the invasive approach needs to inlay microelectrodes inside the skull, which can cause a serious health risk, while the non-invasive approach records the brain signals through a cap brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 that consists of multi-electrodes placed on the scalp, without any risk to the individual (nicolasalonso & gomez-gil, 2012). electroencephalography (eeg) (major & conrad, 2014) is a non-invasive recording approach that is used by most current bci systems due to its standardisation of the electrode placement, high temporal resolution, relative low cost, high portability, and few risks to the users. eeg comprises a set of signals (leeb et al., 2008) such as p300 potentials, event related potentials (erp), and various rhythms that are classified according to their frequency. p300 potentials are based on the oddball paradigm, which is defined as a random series of event stimuli that contain an infrequently presented set of items (lalor et al., 2005). the event-related potential (erp) is a signal that arises from the nervous system at the cerebral cortex when a visual or auditory stimulus occurs. well-known frequency ranges have been observed due to its distribution over the scalp or its biological significance (nicolas-alonso & gomez-gil, 2012). rhythms are specified as delta, theta, alpha, mu, smr, beta and gamma from the lowest to the highest frequency respectively (bashashati et al., 2007). each of these rhythms can be produced by a specific stimulus. for example, the mu rhythm is produced by motor imagery. the use of colors has always been a source of information for humans to interpret and decide on what actions to take. such stimulus produces more efficient bci systems due to its high information transfer rate, while the brain responds to colors faster than any other stimulus and it is expected to reduce the learning time by users in the case of real color detection because users do not need to prepare themselves like they do in performing motor movements or imagination of movements. recently, research has studied colors’ impact on the brain signals and tried to figure out which of the eeg's components is responsible for color recognition in order to classify it by using some classification modules. the ultimate intention is to decode the information used to recognize colors, i.e., that information which is carried in eeg signals. the results were that the theta, alpha and beta rhythms are the main components which respond to different color stimuli (münch et al., 2014; yoto et al., 2007, zhang & tang, 2011). the future direction of using colors in bci development is directed at evaluating the possibility of applying different color stimuli in real-time bci control, using the online classification, which is one of the main challenges in bci systems (gao & gao, 2014). online classification means the real-time capability to perform the classification task and respond with appropriate output within a short (i.e., in the order of milliseconds) time period with minimal variation (i.e., latency jitter). the purpose of this research is to perform a single trial classification of eeg signals that are evoked by rgb color stimulus. such classification has not been done earlier to the best of our knowledge. in this study we used emd analysis method due to its signal dependency, and sub-band flexibility. in addition, different feature extraction algorithms were investigated in order to find the best features, which can be used in the classification issue. a new feature selection method is created by taking into account the response time of the brain while presenting the stimulus. in the classification stage we are going to focus on support vector machine (svm) classifier because most of bci systems have used it as the classification module, while it gives the highest accuracy and the best results (bashashati et al., 2007; tan & nijholt, 2010; major & conrad, 2014). the remaining of this paper is organized as follows: section ii includes literature review, section iii introduces the methods and techniques for our proposed system, section iv represents results and discussions, and the conclusion with future work is placed in section v. 2. review of related literatures the complexity of eeg signals’ representation makes it difficult to define the circle that encloses most data points of the total data points. emd allows a flexible sub-band signal decomposition, while preserving the nonlinear and nonstationary features of the signals, which is crucial for brain activity analysis. e. alharbi, s. rasheed, s. buhari – single trial classification of evoked eeg signals due to rgb colors 31 novel and interesting results were presented (shen et al., 2007) on human mental and cognitive states estimation in which the subject was asked to control the selection of intelligent computing applications. the recorded channels were decomposed into intrinsic mode functions (imf) which are a result of empirical mode decomposition (emd). imf components were transformed into the hilbert domain and compared within amplitude and phase domains, using the clustering technique in order to identify only those carrying responses which presented stimuli to the subjects. the strength of the proposed technique is based on adaptive filtering design in the completely data driven approach. this is a step forward in eeg signal processing applications, which could be useful primarily for creating user friendly bci that would be flexible, adaptive, and response automatic detection focused resulting in fast estimation of user attention to the stimuli. moreover, the author introduced a comparison between the blind source separation (bss), independent component analysis (ica) and empirical mode decomposition (emd) methods. bss and ica methods were not able to separate strong ocular muscle interference from neurophysiological signals, while the proposed method which is based on emd was able to separate ocular artifacts without additional scaling problems, unlike other approaches. any recorded eeg activity includes many features, which can be selected as the base of the classification process. traditional methods such as the fourier transform are not very suitable because they depend on the use of frequency information only without considering the time domain information. the researches show that the combination of frequency information and time domain information can provide more completed features that improve the classification performance of eeg signals. one of the methods which are based on this principle is the wavelet packet decomposition (wpd) (ting et al., 2008). it uses the coefficients mean of wavelet transform (information in time-domain) and power at special subsets as the initial features (information in frequency-domain), the selection rule is based on the fisher distance criterion, in which the features that had a higher separability were considered effective and used to form the final feature vector. compared with other approaches of feature extraction, wpd supplied more information and put forward a selection rule of fisher distance criterion. the wavelet transform (wt) is designed to address the problem of non-stationary signals. it involves representing a time function in terms of simple, fixed building blocks and termed wavelets. these building blocks are actually a family of functions which are derived from a single generating function called the mother wavelet by translation and dilation operations. in rasheed & marini (2015) an investigation was presented to classify eeg signals produced by the random visual exposure of primary colors i.e. red, green and blue to the subject. seven healthy subjects went through the experiment. each color was randomly presented for three seconds. independent component analysis decomposition (ica) was used to remove artifacts with a frequency over 60 hz. event-related spectral perturbations (ersp) are used as features for support vector machine (svm). ersp shows significant power variations in the delta, theta and alpha bands. after the onset of the stimuli, the highest increase in power was seen in red, and the lowest in green during an interval from 100 to 400ms within the delta and theta bands. moreover, a discriminative decrease in power among all the colors is seen in alpha band within 1000ms after the onset of stimulus. eeg signals were successfully classified as red, green and blue classes' with accuracy of 84%, 89% and 98% with linear, polynomial and radial basis function (rbf) kernels respectively. the highest classification accuracy was 97% with rbf kernel while it converts the data space to higher dimensional feature space making separation much more likely for nonlinear cases. in yang & leung (2013) a bci arithmetic game was developed, where the answers were determined through decoding the user's attention to red and blue color stimuli. the idea of this game is very simple, the users were asked questions that involved simple addition and subtraction of two numbers and the answers were placed as choices in red and blue rectangles. to ensure that the color options were clearly seen, the text was relatively small and the space between two rectangles were considered in order to minimize their impact in the classification stage where the acquired signal should consider the color itself, not the text. fast fourier transform used to extract features at theta, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 alpha and beta power bands. libsvm toolbox was used for the classification process. the accuracy of the proposed system was calculated by conducting 3 rounds for each user, then taking the mean of the percentages of the correct classification among three rounds. the accuracy ranged between 70%-80%. the classification accuracy needs to be higher than the achieved percentage for a more accurate application. 3. methods and techniques in this section, we will introduce an exhaustive detail for all techniques and methods which are used in this study, starting with the signal acquisition stage until the classification process. a. signal acquisition stage the data used in this study is taken from rasheed & marini (2015). seven subjects have undergone that experiment, age ranging from 20 to 36 years. all subjects were free of neurological and psychiatric disorders and have normal color vision. the experiment was performed in a dark room in front of a large curved screen on which the color was presented as a square with the size of a 10 degree angle on a much wider gray background. the subjects were seated on a comfortable chair. the distance between the subjects and the screen was of 3.5 meters and 1.5 meters high from the ground. the luminosity of each color was kept constant at approximately 4.5 cd/m2, and it was measured using the device minolta spotmeter f. screw-able gold eeg electrodes were used on the subject’s scalp at p3, p4, o1 and o2 sites and referenced to the right ear lobe and grounded at site afz. the experiment protocol is shown in figure 1, which depicts the duration of one sequence. in this protocol, each color was presented for three seconds, twice in one sequence. there are five events in one sequence. only one color is presented in one sequence. after all the events occurred in a sequence, the next sequence is started and another color is presented. when all the 3 colors are presented at random, the subjects were allowed to rest for 9 seconds after every 3 sequences while keeping their eyes closed. a uniform gray background color was displayed before and after every color to reduce and balance the possible after-effects of the rgb stimuli. eeg signals were recorded using bci2000 10 with g.tec’s g.mobilab+ 11 portable device sampled at 256 hz. b. signal analysis stage various methods exist to enhance and pre-process eeg signals by removing different artifacts like eye movement and blinking, electrooculography (eog) or electromyography (emg). the complexity of eeg signal's representation makes it difficult to define the circle that encloses most of the data points of their total. the problem with these methods is that they work at frequency domain or time domain, but not both, which causes a loss of important data during the processing stage. the researches show that the combination of frequency and time domain information can provide more completed features that improve the classification performance of eeg signals. empirical mode decomposition (emd) has recently been developed by n. (huang huang et al., 1998) as an adaptive time-frequency data analysis method. it has proven to be quite versatile in a broad range of applications for extracting signals from data generated in noisy nonlinear and nonstationary processes. wavelet transform (wt) is also an analysis method that uses the timefrequency domain. however, emd acts essentially as a filter bank, resembling those involved in wavelet decompositions. 10 http://www.schalklab.org/research/bci2000 11 http://www.gtec.at/products/hardware-and-accessories/g.mobilab-specs-features e. alharbi, s. rasheed, s. buhari – single trial classification of evoked eeg signals due to rgb colors 33 gray colour with voice prompt (3 sec) one of rgb colours (3 sec) gray colour (3 sec) same rgb colour as in step 2 (3 sec) gray colour (3 sec) repeat with different color figure 1. experimental protocol on the other hand, in wavelet analysis this sub-band filtering is pre-determined and, on the contrary, in emd this sub-band filtering is signal dependent. emd-wavelet differences details are described in huang et al. (1998). hence, emd is proposed as a tool for processing and extracting features of eeg signals. it has been used to analyze p300 evoked potentials [19], steady-state evoked potential (rutkowski, zdunek, & cichocki, 2007). it was used also with motor imagery bci systems to study the active frequency range extract features (trad et al., 2011). moreover, emd used to classify seizure and seizure-free brain signals (bajaj & pachori, 2012) and mental tasks bci (rutkowski et al., 2010). i. empirical mode decomposition rule emd allows a flexible sub-band signal decomposition while preserving the nonlinear and nonstationary features of the signals which is very crucial for brain activity analysis. it is an adaptive method; that is, the decomposition it produces is specific to the analyzed signal. it decomposes the signal into a sum of components, each with varying amplitude and phase, and should separate phenomena occurring on different time scales. each component of the emd is called an intrinsic mode function (imf). an imf is defined as a function that satisfies the following two conditions (huang et al., 1998): a) in the entire signal, the number of extremes and the number of zero-crossings must be either equal or differ at most by one. b) at any point, the mean value of the envelope defined by the local maxima and the envelope defined by the local minima must be zero (or close to zero). the computation of imfs which satisfy the two criteria and sum to create the signal goes as follows: 1) a candidate for the highest-frequency imf is determined by first fitting a cubic spline through all local maxima to create an upper envelope. a lower envelope is constructed in the same manner. 2) the envelopes form a candidate for the time-varying amplitude of the imf. however, we want to ensure that the component function will have negligible local mean. 3) if the average of the two envelopes does not fall uniformly within the threshold value of zero, we subtract the mean from the envelopes. 4) the construction is repeated until the second criterion is satisfied. the result of this inner loop produces the first imf. 5) subtract the imf from the original signal; the difference is the residue for the outer loop of the process. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 the construction of an imf is now repeated for the residual signal. this emd procedure is repeated until the residue is either constant or monotone. this final residue should reveal any trend that exists in the data. c. feature extraction stage we investigate various feature extraction methods in this thesis in order to find out the features which properly represent the signal and give the best classification accuracy. the features investigated here are: event-related spectral perturbations (ersp), target means with fast fourier transform (fft), wavelet packet decomposition (wpd), auto regressive coefficient and emd residual. the extracted features from each of these methods are used in the classification stage and a comparison for their accuracy is introduced in the result section. emd residual was found to be the best method which gives the proper features that have the highest accuracy value. i. event-related spectral perturbations (ersp) event-related spectral perturbation (ersp) [24] is a measure to study the event-related brain dynamics. it reflects the information about variation in power at different frequencies at a certain point in time. ersp is computed by calculating baseline spectra from the eeg immediately preceding each event. this is done by computing the power spectrum over a sliding latency window then averaging across data trials. narrow band event-related desynchronization and synchronization is generalized by the ersp measures. overlapping data windows are created by splitting the epoch to create the moving average of the amplitude spectra. normalization is performed on individual response epochs for each spectral transforms by dividing their respective mean baseline spectra. an ersp is produced by taking average of normalized response for many trials. for n trials, if is the spectral estimate of trial k at frequency f and time t, then ersp is computed using the following formula (1): (1) here is computed using sinusoidal wavelet transform in which the number of cycles is increased slowly with frequency and provides better frequency resolution at higher frequencies than a conventional wavelet approach that uses constant cycle length. eeglab comes with a function that is used to calculate ersp for single or multiple trails. by running eeglab, we can use the function directly through matlab interface by the following line of equation (2): (2) where x is the erp trail/s, frame is the number of time points in the trail, epoch time is the starting-ending time of an epoch, r is the signal sampled rate and c indicates the number of cycles for the time-frequency decomposition. this function returns multiple variables, but the most important ones are erps and inter-trial coherencies (itc) features. in this study we used ersp as a feature set. ii. target means with fast fourier transform (fft) the fast fourier transform (fft) [25] is simply a fast way to calculate the discrete fourier transform (dft) which reduces the number of computations needed for n points from to , where lg is the base-2 logarithm. fft is a computationally efficient method which affects the time of finding out the desired features. first, we passed the ith imf of the jth event to fft function, and then the output was averaged as the formula in equation (3). this method was introduced by feature finder toolbox [26] which was used here to reach the desired features. (3) e. alharbi, s. rasheed, s. buhari – single trial classification of evoked eeg signals due to rgb colors 35 iii. wavelet packet decomposition (wpd) it used the coefficients mean of wavelet transform (information in time-domain) and power at special subsets as the initial features (information in frequency-domain), the selection rule is based on the fisher distance criterion, in which the features that had a higher separability were considered effective and used to form the final feature vector. compared to other approaches of feature extraction, wpd supplied more information and put forward a selection rule of the fisher distance criterion. the wavelet transform (wt) is designed to address the problem of non-stationary signals. it involves representing a time function in terms of simple, fixed building blocks and termed wavelets. these building blocks are actually a family of functions which are derived from a single generating function called the mother wavelet by translation and dilation operations. matlab includes a ready to use wpd function which can be used directly by passing each imf separately to return the features vector, and then we concatenate all features together. the format of matlab function is written in equation (4). (4) where n is the depth of wt, wname is the type of the used wt and e is the entropy. we use depth of 3 with type db1 in shannon entropy. 3.3.4. auto regressive coefficient the auto regressive (ar) model has high ability to represent the eeg signal characteristics and form reliable feature sets (hatamikia, maghooli, & nasrabadi, 2014). the ar function computes the coefficients of an ar model of order p on each channel individually. each sample is obtained from the summation of previous weighted samples. the model order is determined by the number of weights, which are called ar coefficients. the ar model of order p for a zero-mean time series can be written as shown in equation (5). (5) where p denotes the number of previous time points used to model the current time point, and denotes a zero-mean process with variance σ2. we compute the ar coefficients αi, i   =  1, …,p for each channel separately, and concatenate the results to form a feature vector for a window. because each channel is treated individually, the spatio-temporal information that exists in the time series cannot be directly estimated, which is considered a limitation of this function. there is a built in function in matlab that can be used directly by passing each imf separately with the order of the ar model as shown in equation (6). (6) figure.2. the concentration of red and blue colour frequencies clearly at imf 5 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 3.3.5. emd residual emd decomposes the signal into a set of high frequency mode called intrinsic mode functions (imfs) and low frequency component called the residual. the starting point of emd is to locally estimate a signal as a sum of a local trend i.e. the low frequency part and a local detail i.e. the high frequency part. when this is done for all the oscillations composing a signal, the procedure is then applied again to the residual, considered as a new times series, extracting a new imf and a new residual. the process continues until imf satisfies the two criteria which are specified earlier in this chapter. at the end of the decomposition process, the emd method provides a signal as the sum of a finite number of imfs and a final residual. since the residue is the lowest frequency component left after decomposition, it provides the frequency representation of the delta, alpha and beta rhythms. as seen in section ii, these rhythms are the main components of erp which respond to different color stimuli. from signal residual, the principal components were extracted as features set (sarma & sarma, 2013) and used to train the svm classifier. the features set of the j th imf of the i th signal are computed as shown in equation (7). 3.4. feature selection in order to reduce the dimensionality of the feature vector, we applied a selection criterion to add a feature into the training set. this criterion is based on the eeg peak's time which is generated due to the stimulated color. the response time for the red color was found to be concentrated at 200ms to 400ms, and it is clearly found a high peak at 300ms. so, the residuals of red stimuli eeg signals that have high peak concentrated in this time interval were taken into account, and the others were ignored. for the blue color, the highest peak is concentrated around 450ms, so the residual of blue stimuli which have high peaks after this time were ignored. each imf component represents the local characteristics corresponding to the distribution of erp within a certain frequency band. these distributions differ in different imfs, and undoubtedly contain some inherent properties related to the presented stimulus. before starting the feature selection process, the features are scaled to [0,1] in order to get better results. as we discussed in section iii, different feature extraction (fe) methods are investigated in this study. we apply 2 conditions at the feature selection stage to minimize the number of features that can be trained in order to reduce the complexity of the construction process. these conditions depend on the time of the highest peak which is related to each color. while the concentration of the red color exposure is around 300ms, 450ms for the blue color, we select the energies of the red and blue stimuli which are falling in this time band and eliminate the energies which have higher values than that. the green color had the least frequency, so we depend in the selection process on red and blue only. figure 2 displays the time of frequency concentration for the red and blue color. 3.5. classification stage the support vector machine (svm) classifier is considered the best model among all classifiers. most of bci systems (tan & nijholt, 2010; bashashati et al., 2007; major & conrad, 2014) used svm in their classification stage, while it gives the highest accuracy and the best results. in this thesis we will use the svm classifier to classify the signal into three classes: red, blue and green. libsvm toolbox (chih-chung & chih-jen, 2011) is used under matlab r2013a version. the selected features are scaled to [0, 1] in order to use them with the svm classifier. then, the scaled features with their labels are used as a training set. a grid search and cross validation of the size 10 are used for selecting good parameters, mainly -c and -g. after finding them, we re-train e. alharbi, s. rasheed, s. buhari – single trial classification of evoked eeg signals due to rgb colors 37 the whole data without the -v option to build the model which can be used directly with any new signal. the selected features are divided into 2 sets: training and testing. while there is no specific rule for splitting data set into training and testing sets, we used two percentage splitting for the data to be trained and tested. the first percentage was 60% for the training set and 40% for the testing set. the second percentage was 80% for the training set and 20% for the testing set. libsvm parameters used are: -s 1 representing nu-svc svm_type for multi-classes, -t 2 is the polynomial kernel function, -c is the cost value, and –g is gamma value which is used in kernel function. grid search is used to obtain the best values for c and g parameters. 4. results and descussion we used eeglab toolbox to read the recorded signals. epochs extracted with the time limits between -1 second before stimulus, and 2 seconds after the presented stimulus. the baseline was subtracted before starting emd processing. each data set is recorded with 60 trails for each color from four channels, each trail contains 768 frames per channel. in order to train all the data from all channels, the trail contained 3072 frames as one vector. then, trail by trail passed to emd to reduce the data into a collection of intrinsic mode functions (imf) from which the features can be extracted. each data set represents 9 imfs, each imf contains lower frequency components than the previous one. in this paper, we investigate some of feature extraction methods to find out which one can give us the most reliable features. in order to know that, we trained these features with the svm classifier and the accurate results are placed in the below tables. the classification's accurate results of the investigated feature extraction methods are shown in figure 3. according to the accuracy of the results, we found that the best method to extract features is through the emd residual, where the average accuracy was of 88.5% within 14 seconds. this is due to the nature of the residue as it provides the frequency representation of the delta, alpha and beta rhythms, which are the main components of erp that respond to different color stimuli. a flow chart is inserted in figure 4 as a summary for the used methods in this study. table 1. ersp features classification accuracy subject svm parameters training/ test size accuracy training/ test size accuracy 1 -c 128 -g 0.0313 60/40 49.33% 80/20 54.50% 2 47.60% 52.80% 3 38.46% 50.89% 4 44.49% 53.40% 5 48.80% 51.33% 6 46.70% 52.33% 7 48.90% 54.90% table 2. target means with fft features classification accuracy subject svm parameters training/ test size accuracy training/ test size accuracy 1 -c 128 -g 2 60/40 67.21% 80/20 69.41% 2 62.45% 63.41% 3 60.69% 65.90% 4 65.58% 68.50% 5 64.56% 66.66% 6 64.22% 67.42% 7 69.44% 68.23% brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 table 3. wpd features classification accuracy subject svm parameters training/ test size accuracy training/ test size accuracy 1 -c 8 -g 2 60/40 59.08% 80/20 65.88% 2 55..89% 65.88% 3 57.90% 65.88% 4 58.78% 65.88% 5 60.49% 65.88% 6 58.80% 65.88% 7 60.08% 65.88% table 4. ar features classification accuracy subject svm parameters training/ test size accuracy training/ test size accuracy 1 -c 512 -g 0.5 60/40 64.46% 80/20 66.66% 2 64.46% 66.66% 3 64.46% 66.66% 4 64.46% 66.66% 5 64.46% 66.66% 6 64.46% 66.66% 7 64.46% 66.66% table 5. emd residual features classification accuracy subject svm parameters training/ test size accuracy training/ test size accuracy 1 -c 32 -g 0.5 60/40 92.45% 80/20 97.56% 2 76.74% 78.94% 3 83.33% 84.00% 4 89.58% 89.58% 5 77.58% 83.50% 6 83.00% 88.88% 7 91.66% 97.05% figure.3.average accuracy of investigated fe methods e. alharbi, s. rasheed, s. buhari – single trial classification of evoked eeg signals due to rgb colors 39 5. conclusion and future work in this paper we proved the possibility to perform a single trial classification the eeg signals which are evoked by the rgb color stimulus. the required time to do this process is much shorter than the time which is required by any other stimulus, such as imagery and spelling words, which is presented in the previous researches. this result proves the main idea behind using colors in the next generation of bci systems, which is based on introducing more efficient and faster systems that are able to give a quicker response than any other time. as a future work, we are going to conduct a bci application that controls a cursor movement on pc by using those signals. this is unlike earlier bci systems where cursor controlled movement application is controlled by the imagination of foot and hand movement, but no one has controlled it with colored stimuli before. such study would be used to simulate an environment where a disabled person would be expected to drive a vehicle in a virtual environment with a possible uniform background, in which the vehicle will either start and/or stop moving on appearance of green and red lights respectively. references nicolas-alonso, l. f. & gomez-gil, j. (2012). brain computer interfaces, a review, sensors (basel), vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 1211–1279. major, t. c. & conrad, j. m. (2014 ). a survey of brain computer interfaces and their applications, in ieee southeastcon 2014, pp. 1–8. leeb, r., scherer, r., keinrath, c. , guger, c. , & pfurtscheller, g. (2008). exploring virtual environments with an eeg-based bci through motor imagery / erkundung von virtuellen read erp signal signal analysis using emd feature extraction using emd residual scaling features to [0,1] if red_feature<=3 blue_feature<4.5 eliminate this feature set add feature to features set divide feature set into 80% training set, 20% testing set grid search for best c and g train data set with best c and g predict test set with the model no yes figure.4. proposed system's flow chart brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 welten durch bewegungsvorstellungen mit hilfe eines eeg-basierten bci, bmte, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 86–91. lalor, e., kelly, s. p., finucane, c., burke, r., smith, r., reilly, r. b., & mcdarby, g. (2005). steady-state vep-based brain-computer interface control in an immersive 3d gaming environment, eurasip journal on advances in signal processing, vol. 2005, no. 19, p. 706906. bashashati, a., fatourechi, m., ward, r. k., & birch, g. e. (2007). a survey of signal processing algorithms in brain–computer interfaces based on electrical brain signals, journal of neural engineering, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. r32–r57. münch, m., plomp, g., thunell, e., kawasaki, a., scartezzini, j. l., & herzog, m. h. (2014). different colors of light lead to different adaptation and activation as determined by highdensity eeg, neuroimage, vol. 101, pp. 547–554. yoto, a., katsuura, t., iwanaga, k., & shimomura, y. (2007). effects of object color stimuli on human brain activities in perception and attention referred to eeg alpha band response, j physiol anthropol, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 373–379. zhang, h. & tang, z. (2011). to judge what color the subject watched by color effect on brain activity,” vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 80–83. gao, s. & gao, x. (2014). the design and implementation of visual braincomputer interfaces, presented at the brain-computer interface (bci), 2014 international winter workshop, pp. 1– 3. tan, d., & nijholt, a. (2010). brain-computer interfaces and human-computer interaction, in braincomputer interfaces, d. s. tan and a. nijholt, eds. springer london, pp. 3–19. major, t. c. & conrad, j. m. (2014). a survey of brain computer interfaces and their applications, in ieee southeastcon 2014, pp. 1–8. shen, k.-q., ong, c.-j., li, x.-p., hui, z., & wilder-smith, e. p. v. (2007). a feature selection method for multilevel mental fatigue eeg classification, ieee trans biomed eng, vol. 54, no. 7, pp. 1231–1237. rasheed, s. & marini, d. (2015). classification of eeg signals produced by rgb color stimuli, journal of biomedical engineering and medical imaging, vol. 2, no. 5. yang, l. & leung, h. (2013). an online bci game based on the decoding of users’ attention to color stimulus, conf proc ieee eng med biol soc, vol. 2013, pp. 5267–5270. ting, w., guo-zheng, y., bang-hua, y., & hong, s. (2008). eeg feature extraction based on wavelet packet decomposition for brain computer interface, measurement, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 618–625. “bci2000 | schalk lab.” [online]. available: http://www.schalklab.org/research/bci2000. [accessed: 26-dec-2015]. g.tec, “g.tec medical engineering.” [online]. available: http://www.gtec.at/products/hardware-andaccessories/g.mobilab-specs-features. [accessed: 26-dec-2015]. huang, n. e., shen, z., long, s. r., wu, m. c., shih, h. h., zheng, q., yen, n.-c., tung, c. c., & liu, h. h. (1998). the empirical mode decomposition and the hilbert spectrum for nonlinear and non-stationary time series analysis, proceedings of the royal society of london a: mathematical, physical and engineering sciences, vol. 454, no. 1971, pp. 903–995. n. c. for b. information, u. s. n. l. of m. 8600 r. pike, b. md, and 20894 usa, “single trial p300 detection based on the empirical mode decomposition. pubmed ncbi.” [online]. available: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17946027. [accessed: 25-dec-2015]. rutkowski, t. m., zdunek, r., & cichocki, a. (2007). multichannel eeg brain activity patterns analysis in time frequency domain with nonnegative matrix factorization support, international congress series, vol. 1301, pp. 266–269. trad, d., al-ani, t., monacelli, e., & jemni, m. (2011). nonlinear and nonstationary framework for feature extraction and classification of motor imagery, in 2011 ieee international conference on rehabilitation robotics (icorr), pp. 1–6. e. alharbi, s. rasheed, s. buhari – single trial classification of evoked eeg signals due to rgb colors 41 bajaj, v. & pachori, r. b. (2012). classification of seizure and nonseizure eeg signals using empirical mode decomposition, ieee transactions on information technology in biomedicine, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 1135–1142. rutkowski, t. m., mandic, d. p., cichocki, a., & przybyszewski, a. w. (2010). emd approach to multichannel eeg data — the amplitude and phase components clustering analysis, journal of circuits, systems and computers, vol. 19, no. 01, pp. 215–229. makeig, s. (1993). auditory event-related dynamics of the eeg spectrum and effects of exposure to tones, electroencephalogr clin neurophysiol, vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 283–293. pramanick, p. (2013). classification of electroencephalogram (eeg) signal based on fourier transform and neural network, btech. “documentation | featurefinder.” . hatamikia, s., maghooli, k., & nasrabadi, a. m. (2014). the emotion recognition system based on autoregressive model and sequential forward feature selection of electroencephalogram signals, j med signals sens, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 194–201. sarma, m. & sarma, k. k. (2013). vowel phoneme segmentation for speaker identification using an ann-based framework, journal of intelligent systems, vol. 22, no. 2. chih-chung, c. & chih-jen, l. (2011). libsvm: a library for support vector machines, acm transactions on intelligent systems and technology, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 27:1–27:27. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 35 selecting operations for assembler encoding tomasz praczyk institute of navigation and hydrography, naval university of gdynia ul. ´smidowicza 69, 81–103, gdynia, poland t.praczyk@amw.gdynia.pl abstract assembler encoding is a neuro-evolutionary method in which a neural network is represented in the form of a simple program called assembler encoding program. the task of the program is to create the so-called network definition matrix which maintains all the information necessary to construct the network. to generate assembler encoding programs and the subsequent neural networks evolutionary techniques are used. the performance of assembler encoding strongly depends on operations used in assembler encoding programs. to select the most effective operations, experiments in the optimization and the predator-prey problem were carried out. in the experiments, assembler encoding programs equipped with different types of operations were tested. the results of the tests are presented at the end of the paper. keywords: artificial neural networks, assembler encoding program 1. introduction using evolutionary techniques to generate artificial neural networks (anns) is usually connected with encoding the latter. there are many ann encoding methods, e.g. connectivity matrix proposed by miller, todd and hedge [9], kitano’s matrix rewriting encoding scheme [7], gruau’s cellular encoding [5], edge encoding proposed by luke and spector [8], symbiotic adaptive neuroevolution devised by moriarty and miikkulainen [10], the schemes proposed by nolfi and parisi [11] and cangelosi, parisi and nolfi [2] or cooperative synapse neuroevolution proposed by gomez et al. [4]. assembler encoding (ae) [15-18] is one of such methods. it originates from the cellular and edge encoding but it also has features common with linear genetic programming presented, among other things, in [12]. ae represents ann in the form of assembler encoding program (aep) whose structure is similar to the structure of a simple assembler program. the task of aep is to create network definition matrix (ndm) containing all the information necessary to produce ann. the process of ann construction consists of three stages. first, genetic algorithm (ga) is used to produce aeps. next, each aep creates and fills up ndm. finally, ndm is transformed into ann (fig. 1). figure 1. diagram of ae brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 36 to date, ae has been tested in three different testing problems, i.e. in an optimization problem, in a predator-prey problem and in an inverted pendulum problem. in addition to simple testing problems, the method was also applied in a real problem in which a task was to generate a neuro-controller for a team of autonomous underwater vehicles (results of the experiments with the vehicles will be presented in another paper). in all the tests, the method demonstrated fairly good effectiveness. noteworthy is the fact that it successfully competed with different direct neuro-evolutionary and reinforcement learning methods in problems which rather prefer the latter of them [18]. however, all the tests also showed that effectiveness of ae strongly depends on operations used in aeps. there were situations when it was not able to produce any ann in satisfactory time. but, it was enough to replace one or two operations with other ones or to add additional operations to a set of operations available to aeps to improve the situation. in ae, many different variants of operations can be used. the operations can be simple and represented in the form of short chromosomes. another solution is to use operations with complex behavior and with a longer genotypic representation. aeps can be built based on many different operations or based on a few the most effective ones. to form aeps four parameter operations or three-parameter ones (both types of operations are described further) can be used. to test all the possibilities specified above, experiments in the optimization and in the predator-prey problem were carried out. the main goal of the experiments was to select the most effective operations for ae. in the experiments, different types of operations with different behavior and with different form of genotypic representation were tested. the paper is organized as follows: section 2 is a short introduction to ae; section 3 is the report on the experiments, and section 4 is the summary. 2. fundamentals of ae in ae, ann is represented in the form of aep. aep is composed of two parts, i.e. a part including operations and a part including data. the task of aep is to create and fill in ndm with values. to this end, aep uses the operations. the operations are run in turn. when working the operations can use data located at the end of aep (fig. 1). once the last operation stops working the process of creating ndm is completed. ndm is then transformed into ann. ndm determines architecture of ann. each element of the matrix determines synaptic weight between corresponding neurons. for example, componenti,j defines the link from neuron i to neuron j. elements of ndm that are unimportant from the point of view of the process of ann construction, for example because of the assumed feed-forward topology of ann, are neglected during ann building. apart from the basic part, ndm also possesses additional columns that describe parameters of neurons, e.g. type of neuron (sigmoid, radial), bias etc. t. praczyk – selecting operations for assembler encoding 37 figure 2. example aep and its ndm (aep presented on the right includes four operations and four memory cells. operation 0 updates a single entry in ndm. to this end, it uses three consecutive memory cells. the first two cells store an address to the element in ndm being updated. to determine the final address of the element mentioned, values of registers are also used. the third memory cell used by operation 0 stores a new value for the element. the value is scaled before ndm is updated. a pointer to the memory part of aep where three cells used by operation 0 are located is included in operation itself.) 2.1. operations aeps can use various operations. the main task of most operations is to modify ndm. the modification can involve a single element of ndm or group of elements. in ae, we deal with two types of operations, i.e. with the four-parameter and three parameter operations. the four-parameter operations can have maximum four parameters. their characteristic is that they always change elements of ndm that constitute some tight integrity. each operation works in a similar way, i.e. the first element to change is chosen at the beginning, then the neighbor of the chosen element is altered, then the neighbor of the chosen element neighbor is updated and so on. fig. 3 and fig. 4 present two example four-parameter operations. the task of chg presented in fig. 3 is to change a single element in ndm. the new value for the element, stored in parameter p0, is scaled to <-1,1>. an address of the element depends on both parameters p1, p2 and registers r1, r2. a role of the registers is detailed in the further part of the paper. chg(p0,p1,p2,*) { row=(abs(p1)+r1)mod ndm.width; column=(abs(p2)+r2)mod ndm.height; ndm[row,column]=p0/max_value; } figure 3. chg operation chgc0 presented in fig. 4 modifies elements of ndm located in the column indicated by the parameter p0 and the register r2. the number of elements updated by the operation is stored in the parameter p2. an index of the first updated element is located in the register r1. to update elements of ndm, chgc0 uses data from aep. an index to a memory cell including the first data used by chgc0 is stored in p1. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 38 chgc0(p0,p1,p2,*) { column=(abs(p0)+r2)mod ndm.height; numberofiterations=abs(p2)mod ndm.width; for(i=0;i<=numberofiterations;i++) { row=(i+r1)mod ndm.width; ndm[row,column]=d[(abs(p1)+i)mod d.length]/max_value; } } figure 4. chgc0 operation changing part of column in ndm the characteristic of operations presented above is that they always change a block of neighboring elements in ndm. it is impossible for the altered elements to be located in different remote fragments of the matrix. the three-parameter operations which always have three parameters, can perform their task in the way the four-parameter ones are unable to perform, i.e. they can modify separate areas of ndm (a genotypic representation is another difference between the three and four-parameter operations). chg_memory presented in fig. 5 is the example of three-parameter operation. it modifies elements of ndm indicated in list1 and list2. the lists mentioned include numbers of columns and rows of ndm which, in turn, indicate elements of the matrix updated by the operation. all possible combinations of columns and rows considered in both lists determine a set of elements that are modified by the operation. the parameter p0 indicates a place in the memory part of aep where new values for updated elements can be found. chg_memory(p0,list1,list2) { for(i=0;i<list1.length;i++) for(j=0;j<list2.length;j++) { row=(list1[i]+r1)mod ndm.width; column=(list2[j]+r2)mod ndm.height; ndm[row,column]= d[(abs(p0)+i*list2.length+j)mod d.length]/max_value; } } figure 5. chg_memory operation changing elements of ndm indicated in list1 and list2 in addition to the operations whose task is to modify a content of ndm, ae also uses a jump operation denoted as jmp. the jump makes it possible to repeatedly use the same code of aep in different places of ndm. it is possible thanks to changing values of the registers once the jump is run. an example use of the jump is demonstrated in fig 6. the program presented in the figure proceeds as follows. first, both registers are initiated to 0. then, the first two operations are carried out, the result of which is visible in the top left corner of ndm. in the next step, the jump, denoted in the figure as jmp(0,2,0,*), is run. it first updates values of the registers and then control goes back to the first operation of aep. r1 is set to 0 (memory cell 0) whereas r2 to 2 (memory cell 1). at this point, the two operations preceding the jump are carried out once again. this time, however, both operations update a different fragment of ndm. since the jump is run twice, each time with different values of the registers, the first two operations of aep are executed in three different areas of ndm. t. praczyk – selecting operations for assembler encoding 39 figure 6. jmp operation an additional group of operations, used in ae, are operations whose task is to change the size of ndm. in ae, the initial size of ndm is encoded in the chromosome with data (fig. 7). then, each aep has a potential to modify the size of ndm through using operations addn and deln. addn adds new rows and columns to ndm. this procedure corresponds to adding new neurons to ann, neurons unconnected with the rest of ann. the addition of new neurons does not destroy connections established in ann. the task of deln is to remove a single neuron from ann. the elimination of the neuron practically takes place through removing a corresponding row and column from ndm. figure 7. using addn and deln by aep 2.2. evolution in ae in ae, aeps, and in consequence anns are created by means of gas. the evolution of aeps proceeds according the scheme which is an adaptation of the idea of evolving coadapted subcomponents proposed by potter and de jong [13,14]. to create aep, the scheme mentioned combines operations and data from various populations. each population including chromosomes-operations (each chromosome-operation encodes the type of operation, e.g. chgc0, and parameters of operation. implementations of operations do not evolve) has a number assigned, determining the position of the operation from the population in aep. in this approach, the number of operations corresponds to the number of populations including brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 40 chromosomes-operations. each population delegates exactly one representative to each aep. in the beginning, aeps have only one operation and a sequence of data. both the operation and data come from two different populations. further populations including operations are successively added if aeps cannot accomplish progress in performance over the assumed number of co-evolutionary cycles (we use term “co-evolutionary cycle” to differ it from the evolutionary generation that takes place inside a single population with operations and data). figure 8. aep encoding scheme in ae, the operations can be encoded in two ways. the four-parameter operations are encoded in the form of binary strings. for example, chg presented in fig. 3 is encoded in the form of binary string including five blocks of genes. the first block determines a code of the operation (e.g. binary 00000 indicates that we deal with chg) while the remaining blocks contain a binary representation of four parameters of the operation. figure 9. encoding chg_memory the three-parameter operations are represented in a somewhat different way. their encoded form resembles classifiers from learning classifier systems [1,3,6]. similarity between classifiers and the three-parameter operations results from the use of the so-called don’t care symbol “#” in both cases. each encoded operation consists of four blocks of genes. the first single-bit block determines one of two possible variants of the operation (see appendix 1). the second and third block indicate location of changes performed by the operation (don’t care symbol is used for this purpose). the last block specifies the value of an integer parameter of the operation. the example use of don’t care symbol to locate changes in ndm is illustrated in fig 9. t. praczyk – selecting operations for assembler encoding 41 3. experiments the main goal of the experiments was to give the answer to the following questions: 1. should aeps be created based on large set of different operations whether a better solution is to create them based on a small set including exclusively the most effective operations? 2. should aeps use simple operations with a short genotypic representation whether a better solution is to use more complex and flexible operations but with a longer genotypic representation? 3. should aeps use the three-parameter operations whether a better solution is to use the four-parameter ones? the tests presented in this section were carried out both in the optimization problem and in the so-called predator-prey problem. 3.1. experiments in the optimization problem in ae, anns are generated by means of aeps whose task is to create ndms. such course of action makes it possible to take advantage of ae in the optimization problem, in which a solution can be presented in the form of a matrix. even though searching for optimal matrices is not the target use of ae, experiments in this field should provide useful information about differences in performance between aeps using various types of operations. this knowledge can be employed in further experiments to reduce the number of tested variants of ae only to those which have produced satisfactory results in the optimization problem. 3.1.1 objective functions three different objective functions were used in the experiments. all the functions were constructed so as to test how aeps are able to repeatedly use the information included in themselves. to create optimal matrices for the functions, aeps could use two methods. the first method uses the so-called “brute force”, i.e. creates matrices by means of a large number of operations. the other method intelligently uses jumps. all the objective functions are presented below. ( ) [ ] 3,2,1,, 10 10 =−= ∑∑ kjiaf i j kk ndm (1) [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]⎪ ⎪ ⎩ ⎪ ⎪ ⎨ ⎧ ==+ ==− =+ =− = 5..1,10..6,,4.0 10..6,5..1,,4.0 10..6,,,1 5..1,,,1 ,1 jiji jiji jiji jiji jia ndm ndm ndm ndm (2) [ ] [ ] ( )( )[ ]⎩ ⎨ ⎧ + =+− = otherwisendm ndm ,,4.0 02mod,,4.0 ,2 ji jiji jia (3) [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]⎪ ⎪ ⎪ ⎩ ⎪⎪ ⎪ ⎨ ⎧ +−≠∧≠∧=+ +−≠∧≠∧=− +−=+ =− = otherwisendm ndm ndm ndm ndm ,, 1106,,4.0 1106,,4.0 110,,2.0 ,,2.0 ,3 ji jijijji jijiiji jiji jiji jia (4) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 42 in all the cases presented above, the task of aeps was to find 10x10 matrix maximizing a selected objective function. the global maximum for all the test functions was zero. optimal matrices for each test function are presented in fig. 10. 3.1.2 experimental results in the experiments, the following sets of operations were tested (a description of all the operations specified below is presented in appendix 1): • set 1 (all four-parameter operations used during the research reported in [15,17]): chg, chgc0, chgc1, chgc2, chgc3, chgc4, chgr0, chgr1, chgr2, chgr3, chgr4, chgm0, chgm1, chgm2, jmp; • set 2 (the most effective four-parameter operations used in the previous research): chgc0, chgc3, chgr0, chgr3, chgm0, chgm2, jmp; • set 3: simpler variants of operations included in set 1, the simpler operations, unlike their more complex counterparts, always changed either the whole column or the whole row or the whole matrix, operations from this set had maximally three parameters; • set 4 (the three-parameter operations and jumps): chg_value, chg_memory, jmp. a) ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎦ ⎤ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎣ ⎡ −−−−−−−−−− −−−−−−−−−− −−−−−−−−−− −−−−−−−−−− −−−−−−−−−− 111114.04.04.04.04.0 111114.04.04.04.04.0 111114.04.04.04.04.0 111114.04.04.04.04.0 111114.04.04.04.04.0 4.04.04.04.04.011111 4.04.04.04.04.011111 4.04.04.04.04.011111 4.04.04.04.04.011111 4.04.04.04.04.011111 b) ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎦ ⎤ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎣ ⎡ −−−−− −−−−− −−−−− −−−−− −−−−− −−−−− −−−−− −−−−− −−−−− −−−−− 4.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.0 4.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.0 4.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.0 4.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.0 4.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.0 4.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.0 4.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.0 4.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.0 4.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.0 4.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.04.0 c) ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎦ ⎤ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎣ ⎡ −− −− −− −− − − −− −− −− −− 2.00004.000002.0 02.0004.00002.00 002.004.0002.000 0002.04.002.0000 4.04.04.04.02.02.04.04.04.04.0 00002.02.00000 0002.04.002.0000 002.004.0002.000 02.0004.00002.00 2.00004.000002.0 figure 10 optimal matrices for functions f1 (a), f2 (b), and f3 (c) chgc0(p0,p1,*) { column=(abs(p0)+r2)mod ndm.height; for(i=0;i<= ndm.width;i++) ndm[i,column]=d[(abs(p1)+i)mod d.length]/max_value; } figure 11 simpler variant of chgc0 presented in fig. 4 table 1 shows the results of the tests. each cell in the table includes the following: the average result obtained for 30 evolutionary runs (top value), the result of the best aep (middle value), and the sum of the number of operations and data in the best aep (number of operations + number of data; bottom value). t. praczyk – selecting operations for assembler encoding 43 table 1. using aeps with different operations in the optimization problem set 1 set 2 set 3 set 4 f1 -0.2 0 5+8 -0.42 0 6+8 -7.86 0 7+12 -0.04 0 6+7 f2 0 0 7+3 0 0 6+5 -0.19 0 5+3 0 0 2+2 f3 -0.66 -0.6 12+6 -0.94 -0.73 12+7 -2.04 -1.9 12+7 -0.6 0 12+6 the tests revealed that the best matrices are produced by means of the three-parameter operations (set 4). in all the cases, aeps with the three-parameter operations were able to generate the optimal matrices. aeps including operations from set 1 and set 2 achieved somewhat worse results. using operations from set 3 turned out to be the worst solution of all. aeps including operations from this set were considerably worse than the remaining aeps. a) b) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 44 c) figure 12 using aeps with different operations to solve problem f1 (a), f2 (b), and f3 (c) (all curves are generated from average of 30 evolutionary runs) 3.2. experiments with anns in the experiments, the task of ae was to produce a single ann controlling a set of cooperating predators whose common goal was to capture a fast moving prey behaving by a simple, deterministic strategy. the main goal of the experiments reported in this section was to test how aeps with different operations cope with creating simple anns. to find out true capabilities of ae to create anns of more advanced architecture, further experiments are required. in this stage of the experiments, two types of aeps were used, i.e. aeps-four and aeps-three. aeps-four are programs including operations from set 1 (the second position in the previous experiments) while aeps-three are programs composed of three-parameter operations from set 4 (the first position in the previous experiments). 3.2.1. environment the predators and the prey used in the experiments lived in a common environment. 20x20 square without obstacles but with two barriers located on the left and on the right side of the square was used to represent the environment. both barriers caused the predators as well as the prey to move right or left only to the point at which they reached one of the barriers. moving further in the barrier direction caused no effect. in order to ensure infinite space for the predators and the prey and for their struggles, the environment was open at the bottom and at the top. this means that every attempt to move beyond upper or lower border of the square caused the object making such attempt to move to the opposite side of the environment. as a result, the simple strategy of the predators consisting in chasing the prey did not work. in such situation, the prey in order to evade predators, could simply escape up or down. t. praczyk – selecting operations for assembler encoding 45 figure 13. artificial world in which task of predators was to capture prey 3.2.2. residents of the artificial world in the experiments, two predators and one prey coexisted in the artificial environment. the predators were controlled by ann produced by aep (because in the experiments a single ann controlled the set of predators, the problem solved by anns can also be viewed as the problem of capturing the prey by one predator with several “arms”). they could select five actions: to move in north, south, west, east direction or to stand still. the length of step of every predator was 1 unlike the step of the prey that amounted to 2. in order to capture the prey the predators had to cooperate. their speed was twice lower than speed of the escaping prey so they could not simply chase it to grasp it. the prey was captured if the distance between it and the nearest predator was lower than 2. in the experiments, the predators could see the whole environment. the predators based the decision which action to select on the prey’s relative location with reference to each of them. in order to perform the task, ann controlling the predators had to possess four inputs and two outputs. the outputs provided decisions to the predators whereas inputs informed them about prey’s location in relation to each of them. the prey was controlled by a simple algorithm which forced him to move directly away from the nearest predator but solely in the situation when distance between it and the nearest predator was lower or equal 5. in the remaining cases, i.e. when neither predator was closer to the prey than the assumed distance, the prey did not move. in the situation when selected prey’s action would cause hitting the barrier, another move was chosen. the alternative move prevented from hitting the wall, and at the same time, it maximally increased the distance between the prey and the nearest predator. the prey when was running away could select four actions: to move in north, south, west or east direction. the strategy of the prey is presented below. ( ) ( ) ( )⎪⎩ ⎪ ⎨ ⎧ ⎟ ⎠ ⎞⎜ ⎝ ⎛ >∀ = ∈∈ ∈ otherwise,minarg,,maxarg 5,ifstandstill simple spdasd spd s ppaa pp π (5) where p – set of predators a – set of actions of prey (a={standstill, north, south, west, east}) d(p,s) – distance between prey and predator p in state of environment s d(s,a,p) – distance between prey and predator p in state of environment which is direct consequence of action a performed by prey in state s brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 46 3.2.3. neural controllers ndms generated by aeps usually represented recurrent anns. however, in the experiments, the decision was made to use exclusively controllers with feed-forward architecture. in order to obtain such anns, elements of ndms localized in their upper parts were only used. the remaining elements were neglected while constructing anns. anns contained three types of neurons, i.e. radial, sigmoid and linear neurons. the information about the type of neuron was located in the additional column of ndm. each matrix included a total of three additional columns. the remaining two columns contained the information about bias and value of a parameter of a neuron. 3.2.4. evaluation process to evaluate anns, eight different scenarios were built. they differed in an initial location of the predators and the prey in the environment: • scenario no 1: prey(10,10), predator1(0,0), predator2(20,20); • scenario no 2: prey(10,10), predator1(20,20), predator2(0,0); • scenario no 3: prey(10,10), predator1(0,10), predator2(20,10). • scenario no 4: prey(10,10), predator1(10,0), predator2(10,20); • scenario no 5: prey(10,10), predator1(0,0), predator2(20,0). • scenario no 6: prey(0,20), predator1(10,0), predator2(20,10); • scenario no 7: prey(0,10), predator1(10,1), predator2(10,19); • scenario no 8: prey(0,20), predator1(0,10), predator2(10,20). the tests proceeded in the following way. at first, each ann was tested in the scenario no. 1. if the predators controlled by ann could not capture the prey during the assumed period, the test was stopped and ann received appropriate evaluation that depended on the distance between the prey and the nearest predator. however, if the predators grasped the prey, they were put to the test in the next scenario. in the experiments, the predators could perform 100 steps before the scenario was interrupted. to evaluate anns, the following fitness function was used: ( ) ∑ = = n i ifannf 1 (6) ( ) ( ) ⎪ ⎪ ⎩ ⎪⎪ ⎨ ⎧ −+ − = ∈ scenario previous in the capturednot prey 0 scenario in capturedprey 100 scenario in capturednot prey ,min th th 100max ia mf ispdd f i captured i pp i (7) where if – reward received in i th scenario; ( )spd , – distance between prey and predator p in state of environment s; maxd – maximum distance between two points in environment; is100 – end state in i th scenario; capturedf – reward for grasping prey in single scenario (in experiments capturedf amounted to 100); im – number of steps to capture prey ( im <100); a – this value prevents situation in which partial success would be better than success in all scenarios; n – number of scenarios. t. praczyk – selecting operations for assembler encoding 47 3.2.5. experimental results in order to test different operations, 30 evolutionary runs were performed. as it turned out all the runs were successful, i.e. all they produced successful anns. the successful anns are anns which resulted in capturing the prey in all tested scenarios. detailed results of the experiments are presented in table 2. the experiments showed that aeps-three are usually shorter than aeps-four. during the tests, in most cases, aeps-three included fewer operations and data than aeps with fourparameter operations. moreover, to produce aeps-three, fewer co-evolutionary cycles were necessary than in the case of aeps-four. generating effective aep-four required over three times co-evolutionary cycles more, on average, than generating effective aep-three. table 2. results of tests in the predator-prey problem type of aep average fitness (best fitness) average number of neurons in successful ann (minimal number of neurons) average length of successful aep, number of orders + number of data (shortest aep) average number of coevolutionary cycles necessary to generate successful aep (minimal number of coevolutionary cycles) (aepsfour) 831.09 (865.34) 6 (6) 4.6 + 15.1 (4 + 5) 25670.3 (17277) (aepsthree) 833,12 (859.65) 6 (6) 2.8 + 13.8 (2 + 5) 7081.4 (413) 4. summary the main goal of the experiments presented in the paper was to select operations for ae. different types of operations were tested in the optimization and in the predator-prey problem. the experiments showed that the three-parameter operations outperform their fourparameter counterparts. matrices generated by aeps-three were usually better than matrices produced by aeps-four. in the experiments in the predator-prey problem, using both types of operations made it possible to generate successful neural controllers. however, aeps-three required fewer operations than aeps-four to generate effective anns. to represent ann consisting of six neurons, the shortest aep-three required only two operations and five data while the shortest aep-four, for the same purpose, needed four operations and also five data. the experiments also showed that effective aeps-three are simpler to generate than effective aeps-four. using the three-parameter operations made it possible to generate effective aeps after seven thousand of co-evolutionary cycles, on average. in the case of the four-parameter operations, almost twenty thousand cycles more were required. figure 14. (a) example aep-four produced in this stage of experiments, (b) encoded form of aep, (c) ndm generated by aep presented in point (a) and (b) (the matrix depicted in point (c) corresponds to ann consisting of six neurons: four input neurons and two output neurons. extra three columns determine: types of individual neurons, their bias and values of parameters of neurons, e.g. a shape of radial transfer function) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 48 even though the experiments showed that four-parameter operations are worse solution than three-parameter ones the decision was made to use both types of operations in the future research to investigate the capability of ae to create more advanced neural architectures. in the research mentioned, we plan to apply three types of aeps, i.e. aepsfour, aeps-three and additionally aeps-mixed. the latter programs are a mixture of fourparameter and three-parameter operations. when applied in a single aep, operations of different type may complement each other and as a result, programs better than their homogenous counterparts composed of one-type operations can be produced. a) b) figure 15 example behavior of predators and prey in scenarios no. 1 (a) and no. 2 (b). circles determine initial positions of predators and prey (black circle – prey, circle with vertical stripes – predator no. 1, circle with horizontal stripes – predator no. 2) while arrowed lines indicate their direction of movements (solid line – prey, dashed line – predator no. 1, dotted line – predator no. 2) 5. references [1] butz, m. v. (2004). rule-based evolutionary online learning systems: learning bounds, classification, and prediction. (illigal report no. 2004034). retrieved from http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu [2] cangelosi, a., parisi d. & nolfi, s. (1994). cell division and migration in a ′genotype’ for neural networks. network: computation in neural systems, 5(4), 497-515. [3] goldberg, d. e. (1989). genetic algorithms in search, optimization and machine learning. reading, massachusetts: addison wesley. [4] gomez, f., schmidhuber, j., miikkulainen, r. (2008). accelerated neural evolution through cooperatively coevolved synapses. journal of machine learning research, 9, 937965. [5] gruau, f. (1994). neural network synthesis using cellular encoding and the genetic algorithm. phd thesis, ecole normale superieure de lyon. [6] holland, j. h. (1975). adaptation in natural and artificial systems, , ann arbor, michigan: university of michigan press. [7] kitano, h. 1990. designing neural networks using genetic algorithms with graph generation system. complex systems. 4: 461-476. [8] luke, s. & spector, l. 1996. evolving graphs and networks with edge encoding: preliminary report. in: john r. koza (ed.), late breaking papers at the genetic programming 1996 conference, stanford university july 28-31 (pp. 117-124). ca, usa: stanford university, stanford bookstore. t. praczyk – selecting operations for assembler encoding 49 [9] miller, g.f., todd, p.m. & hegde, s.u. (1989). designing neural networks using genetic algorithms. in: proceedings of the third international conference on genetic algorithms (pp. 379-384), of schaffer j.d. [10] moriarty, d. e. & miikkulainen r. (1998). forming neural networks through efficient and adaptive coevolution. evolutionary computation, 5(4), 373-399. [11] nolfi, s. & parisi, d. (1992). growing neural networks. in c. g. langton (ed.), artificial life iii, reading, ma: addison-wesley [12] nordin, p., banzhaf, w. & francone, f (1999). efficient evolution of machine code for {cisc} architectures using blocks and homologous crossover. in l. spector and w. langdon and u. o'reilly and p. angeline, advances in genetic programming iii, mit press, (pp. 275-299). [13] potter, m. (1997). the design and analysis of a computational model of cooperative coevolution. phd thesis, george mason university, fairfax, virginia [14] potter, m. a. & de jong, k. a. (2000). cooperative coevolution: an architecture for evolving coadapted subcomponents. evolutionary computation, 8(1), 1-29 [15] praczyk, t. (2007). evolving co-adapted subcomponents in assembler encoding. international journal of applied mathematics and computer science, 17(4), 549-563. [16] praczyk, t. (2007). procedure application in assembler encoding, archives of control science, volume 17(liii), no. 1, 71-91. [17] praczyk, t. (2008). modular neural networks in assembler encoding, computational methods in science and technology, cmst 14(1), 27-38. [18] praczyk, t. using assembler encoding to solve the inverted pendulum problem, computing and informatics (in press). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 50 appendix 1 – list of operations used in the experiments the four-parameter operations: chg – update of an element. both the new value and address of the element are located in parameters of the operation. chgc0 – update of a certain number of elements in a column. index of the column, index of the first element in the column that will be changed, the number of changed elements and a pointer to data where new values of elements are memorized are located in parameters of the operation. chgc1 – update of a certain number of elements in a column. index of the column, index of the first element in the column that will be changed, the number of changed elements and a new value for the column elements, the same for all the elements, are located in parameters of the operation. chgc2 – update of a certain number of elements in a column. a new value of every element is a sum of an operation parameter and the current value of this element. the second parameter of the operation is an index of the column. the third and fourth parameter of the operation determine the number of changed elements and index of the first element in the column that will be changed, respectively. chgc3 –a number of elements from one column are transferred to another column. both columns are indicated by parameters of the operation. the number of transferred elements and index to the first element in the column that will be transferred are also included in parameters of the operation. chgc4 – update of a certain number of elements in a column. a new value of every element is a sum of the current value of this element and a value from memory of a program. an index of the column, an index of the first element in the column that will be changed, the number of changed elements, and a pointer to data where ingredients of individual sums are memorized, are located in parameters of the operation. chgr0 – like chgc0 but an update refers to the row of matrix. chgr1 – like chgc1. chgr2 – like chgc2. chgr3 – like chgc3. chgr4 – like chgc4. chgm0 – change of a block of elements. elements are updated in columns, in turn, one after another, starting from an element pointed by parameters of the operation. the number of changed elements and place in the memory where new values for the elements are located are determined by the parameters of the operation. chgm1 – like chgm0, but a new value of every element is a sum of its current value and a parameter of the operation. chgm2 – like chgm0, but a new value of each element is a sum of its current value and a value from the memory part of a program. the number of changed elements and a place in the t. praczyk – selecting operations for assembler encoding 51 memory where arguments of individual sums are located are determined by parameters of the operation. jmp – jump operation. the number of jumps, a pointer to a next operation and new values for the registers are located in parameters of the jump operation. the three-parameter operations: chg_value – change of a set of matrix elements indicated by parameters of the operation. all the updated elements have the same value. chg_memory – change of a set of matrix elements indicated by parameters of the operation. values for the updated elements are located in the memory. brain_3_2 64 critical thinking in higher education: unfulfilled expectations mehrdad rezaee department of english language, central tehran branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran mehr351@yahoo.com majid farahian kermanshah branch, islamic azad university, kermanshah, iran majid_fa53@yahoo.com ali morad ahmadi kermanshah branch, islamic azad university, kermanshah, iran a.ahmadi1351@yahoo.com abstract success in adult life and effective functioning in education depends among other things on critical thinking. the present study consisted of two parts. first, critical thinking (ct) skill of a group of 68 students majoring in education in islamic azad university, kermanshah branch was evaluated. the participants, divided into two experimental and control groups, received california critical thinking skills test (cctst) which is a 34 item multiple-choice test. the students in the control group were freshmen and the experimental group, junior students. to the researchers’ dismay, junior education students did not perform significantly better than did the freshman students. using a qualitative method of research, another study was conducted to see whether the university instructors in the education department who had the responsibility of teaching different courses to the same students were aware of the principles of ct. a semi-structured interview was conducted and eight volunteering faculty members in the department of education took part in the interview. result revealed that, although these instructors highly valued ct and were aware of its tenets, there were some constraints which did provide a situation to let the students practice ct in their classrooms, and much had to be done to help instructors implement ct in their classrooms. key words: critical thinking, instructors’ belief, top down educational system, inductive reasoning 1. introduction with everyday advancement and progress in different areas of technology in the world today, especially in the area of communication and information technology, one may assume that students must be merely trained to be able to cope with this progress in technology; however, success in adult life depends on, among other things, the capacity for (ct); purposeful and goaldirected cognitive skills or strategies that increase the likelihood of a desired outcome (halpern, 2002). put another way, human beings, especially students must be trained ct skills to be able to think critically for their future career (badri and fathi azar, 2006). as hongladarom (2002) holds, “it is widely recognized nowadays that ct has become a necessary ingredient in all levels of education. educators and educational policy makers agree that one of the desirable goals of education is that students are able to think critically” (p. 1). there are some other scholars (e.g., yeh, 2002) who put more emphasis on ct skills and suggest that success in school greatly depends on ct skills. accordingly, extensive bodies of literature focus on ct (e.g., browne & keeley, 2001; ennis, 1987; resnick, 1987) and applications of ct in education (e.g., henderson, 2001; o’tuel & bullard, 1993; pogrow, 1990, 1994; raths, wasserman, jonas, & rothstein, 1986; and torff, 2003). last but not least, paul and nosich (1991) believe that developing ct skills in educational settings engenders intellectual empowerment. students use their minds as thinking instruments. in fact, they change into more effective readers, writers, speakers, and listeners. these skills and abilities are also highly transferable to work place. as to what ct is and what its role can be in education, bauerlein (2011) notes, m. rezaee, m. farahian, a. m. ahmadi critical thinking in higher education: unfulfilled expectations 65 instruction in ct is to be designed to achieve an understanding of the relationship of language to logic, which should lead to the ability to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas, to reason inductively and deductively, and to reach factual or judgmental conclusions based on sound inferences drawn from unambiguous statements of knowledge or belief. . . including an understanding of the formal and informal fallacies of language and thought (p. 2). however, if ct is not practiced at schools, students may not have the opportunity to learn the skills from any other source. this means that they will lose the chance to get the necessary skills for their future life and career. in that case, they will not be well-prepared or even prepared enough for what is waiting for them in the future. weil (2009) believes, “it is dangerous to neglect ct. an inability to assess information critically, especially in an internet age of massive information and misinformation, leads to an inability to participate honestly and realistically in a democracy.” (p. 2). too, in another part of her paper, she very briefly states, “… an absence of ct in educational settings will lead to a lack of academic rigor.” (weil, 2009, p. 3). duron, et al., (2006) argued that despite the fact that thinking as a natural process is taken for granted, but “when left to itself, it can often be biased, distorted, partial, uninformed and potentially prejudiced; excellence in thought must be cultivated” (p. 160). in the same vein, black (2005) states that students’ thinking skills can be improved if they are instructed to do so. however, it seems that instructors’ assumptions regarding the importance and practicality of ct are critical in this regard. for the past fifteen years, the concept of instructors’ belief has come into favor in education. based on yin (2006), there are a number of sources which influence instructors’ traits and greatly affect the development of their personalities. the first source comes from instructors’ personal experience and understandings as an individual. every individual develops his own understanding and interpretation of the world after birth. a second source of instructors’ beliefs is the experience each one has obtained from his own experience when he was a student. instructors, as human beings, seldom forget the school days and the kind of education they had in schools. sometimes these are so vivid that can be a model for an instructor’s instruction. a third origin of instructors’ beliefs is their formal knowledge acquired through training whether in in-service sessions or in instructor education centers. the fourth source of beliefs is instructors’ contexts of work. the context in which instructors practice, has a great influence on their philosophy of teaching and instructional approaches. there is a great pressure in schools on naïve instructors to conform to the practice of more experienced ones. lauer (2005) notes that instructors who conceive their roles as disseminators of knowledge may have different ideas about ct and the way it should be incorporated into classroom activities than those who play the role of mediators and perceive teaching as enabling students to think for themselves and identify their own duties as imparting necessary skills and strategies to students. whenever an instructor has the role of the mediator, based on williams and burden (1997), interaction happens between the learner and him/her and the learner becomes an active participant of the learning process. on the contrary, when an instructor perceives his/her role as disseminator of information, there is less attention to students’ input and feedback. in such a situation the instructor is solely in control of the teaching situation. what is ct in traditional teaching classes, instructors often use didactic instruction in their teaching process. in this kind of instruction, information and facts are transmitted to students, the whole class is teacher-centered, and students are assumed to be passive participants (qing, et al., 2010). as the sole authority, the instructor is entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of everything. with the minimum amount of interaction, students passively receive the lectures copy down. in this kind of instruction, students know nothing. instructors think, while students are taught. instructors talk, while students listen. students have to comply with whatever instructors choose. as duron, et al., (2006) notes, “passive thinkers suffer from a limited and ego-centric view of the world; they answer brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 questions with yes or no and view their perspective as the only sensible one and their facts as the only ones relevant” (p. 160). such a view of education is regarded detrimental to students’ learning since the role of learner is regarded to be passive. what has assumed to liberate students from the passive state, in the current views of education (erkilic, 2008) is thought to be ct (lang, n.d.). there is no consensus regarding the exact definition of the term ‘ct’. it is often linked with creative thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making as well as inductive and deductive reasoning. however, howe (2004) believes that terms such as creative thinking, problem-solving and decision-making refer to the circumstances in which ct may occur. conversely, some educational philosophers argue that ct is inductive, encompassing, divergent, and creative thinking skill. others recognize it as primarily deductive, convergent, and logical in nature. halpern (2002) defines ct as: cognitive skills and strategies that increase the likelihood of a desired outcome…thinking that is purposeful, reasoned, and goal-directed; the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions. (p. 4). duron, et al., (2006) identify ct as a scientific endeavor: ct is, very simply stated, the ability to analyze and evaluate information. critical thinkers raise vital questions and problems, formulate them clearly, gather and assess relevant information, use abstract ideas, think open-mindedly, and communicate effectively with others. (p. 160). based on the literature, a person who thinks critically, asks appropriate questions. in order to answer the question, he gathers relevant information, reasons logically from this information, and comes to conclusions which are reliable. such a discipline of thinking not only enables students to be successful at school but also improves their thinking skills and thus better prepares them for after-school life. birjandi & bagherkazemi (2010) hold that a critical thinker has the following features: • has a strong intention to recognize the importance of good thinking; • identifies problems and focuses on relevant topics and issues; • distinguishes between valid and invalid inferences; • suspends judgments and decisions in the absence of sufficient evidence; • understands the difference between logical reasoning and rationalizing; • is aware of the fact that one’s understanding is limited and that there are degrees of belief; • differentiates between facts, opinions and assumptions; • watches out for authoritarian influences and specious arguments; • anticipates the consequences of alternative actions. (p. 137). ct cannot be learned by direct teaching (howe, 2004). however, as howe (2004) notes, it can be incorporated into all different subject areas. since as he maintains, “ct often requires imagining possible consequences, generating original approaches, or identifying alternative perspectives” (p. 508). any form of human activity may involve ct. moreover, in different cultures, people may have different conceptions of ct, though there may exist commonalities among them regarding what ct is. it seems that while there are different definitions for ct in the world, one of the purposes of education in all modern systems of education is preparing students for after-school life. instructors’ perception of learning has a great influence on their behaviors in the classrooms (choy & cheah, 2009). instructors who are not aware of the effectiveness of ct, as well as those who cannot implement it in their classrooms may have to comply with the traditional perspectives of education and have passive students who are not active participants in the classrooms. browne m. rezaee, m. farahian, a. m. ahmadi critical thinking in higher education: unfulfilled expectations 67 and freeman (2000) hold that ct comes in different forms; however, those classrooms which encourage ct have some distinguishing features as follows: a) frequent questions: one of the students’ activities which most likely develops ct is a classroom in which frequent questions are asked and answered. of course by questions browne and freeman (2000) do not surely mean the questions which are solely related to fact questions and therefore are part of low critical activity (torff, 2005). according to browne and freeman (2000) “ct can be usefully conceptualized as … knowing how to seek answers to questions and enjoying the process of asking them at appropriate times” (p. 303). b) developmental tension: sometimes a little uneasiness and tension may foster learning. thinking sometimes is accompanied with uncertainties and doubt. such an uncertainty may encourage students to seek solutions and find appropriate ways out of the dilemma. the authors emphasize that “the process of value change depends on learners’ awareness of contradictions, tension and confusion in their current belief system” (browne and freeman, 2000, p. 305). c) fascination with the contingency of conclusions students have to learn to be open to different opinions and critically appraise the possible truth in them. classrooms which develop ct encourage commitment, but also give the insight to students to frequently re-examine those commitments to their own ideas as they encounter new logic, evidence, and different accounts. d) active learning: most lecturers, especially those at universities, tend to be transmitters of body of facts or knowledge to the audience who passively are supposed to acquire those facts. however, those who favor ct have different approach and try to develop active learning in students by letting them have active participation. too, they provide a situation in which students are affectively involved in the discussions. ct is an important life skill for people today (mimbs, 2005). instructors need to model ct skills to their students and explicitly teach them to think critically. instructors can be transformed in their teaching and students can be transformed in their learning through continued and consistent use and application of ct skills. since instructors are decision-makers in classrooms, and they are mainly responsible for students’ learning, exploring certain issues regarding their beliefs about ct seems to be necessary. instructors in different contexts in iran have valued didactic system of education and have been expected to do so. research regarding instructors’ beliefs, especially university instructors, about ct is scarce. the impetus for this study was that one of the present researchers had a long contact with some of the phd students of this study who in numerous informal contacts with the researcher showed to be knowledgeable in their field of study; however, based on the informal interview of the researcher with the head of department, these two instructors’ teaching was lecture-based and they gave little opportunity to students to participate in classroom discussion, seek answer to the question and even worse, they were given no chance to critically appraise what they study. a cursory look at the final exams, given by these two instructors revealed the fact that nearly all items were directed toward assessing students’ shallow learning. 1. is there any significant difference between ct skills of freshman and junior education students? 2. what are university instructors’ perceptions of ct? 3. what constrains, if any, impedes instructors from implementing ct in their classrooms? 2. method the design of the research was both qualitative and quantitative since both a test and an interview were employed. 2.1. participants brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 68 to do the present study, 8 completely and well-educated university instructors (5 phd holders and 3 phd students) with a high command of ct skills were selected. all of the instructors were either holding phd or they were studying for their phd in education. they were, to the researcher’s knowledge, very studious and knowledgeable in their related fields and in informal meetings held in the department (the researcher’s department and those of the instructors’ were in the same place) they showed to know enough about the philosophy of education and current views on education. from among these 8 instructors’ classes which had been taught for three consecutive semesters, some 36 subjects were randomly selected. then 32 students in the department (freshmen) who were new to the university were selected randomly to form a control group. 2.2 instruments in this study, the authors used a 34 item multiple-choice test together with a an interview. the first one was california critical thinking skills test (cctst) facione & facione (1992). the test contains 34 multi-choice questions with a correct answer in the five ct cognitive skills domain. the reliability and validity of the test were reported to be reasonable. in fact, the test coefficient for reliability was .62. factor analysis indicated that cctst has been formed from 5 factors (elements), namely: analysis, evaluation, inference, inductive and deductive reasoning (khallli & hossein zadeh, 2003). the second instrument was a semi structured interview based on choy and cheah’s (2009) questionnaire. the modified questions were as follows: 1. from your perspective, what is ct? 2. do you think that ct happens in your classroom when you are teaching your students? if so, how do you know? 3. how do you think you could bring about ct among students? specifically, what are some things you do or could do to get your students to think critically? 4. what are the problems faced by students when you are trying to teach them ct? if so identify them. 5. do you think you need to give all the information to your students in order for them to learn your subject? why and why not? 6. do you think you would be able to implement ct into your lessons if you were required to do so? why and why not? 2.3. procedures the 34 item multiple-choice test was given to all of the subjects (both control group subjects who were new to the university and the experimental group subjects who have had at least three consecutive classes with the same instructor). an interview was also held in which eight participants were required to answer a total of 6 questions. all the instructors who voluntarily took part in the study had taught some courses in the islamic azad university, kermanshah branch. they accepted to answer the questions at the university and felt free to add any comments and express their ideas freely. 3. results to see if there was any difference between the experimental and control groups regarding their responses to the 34 item multiple-choice test (cctst), the authors used an independent samples t-test. the results show that there was no specific difference between the mean and standard deviation of the experimental and control groups. (see table 1). m. rezaee, m. farahian, a. m. ahmadi critical thinking in higher education: unfulfilled expectations 69 table 1. descriptive statistics of exp. & control groups for multiple-choice test mctestgroup n mean std. deviation std. error mean experimental 36 8.39 2.309 .385 mctest control 32 8.00 2.794 .494 as table 1 shows, the mean and standard deviation of the experimental groups are 8.39 and 2.309, while the mean and standard deviation of the control group are 8.00 and 2.794. it can be seen that there is no specific difference between the two groups regarding their mean and standard deviation. too, the researchers used an independent samples t-test to see if the difference between the two groups was meaningful. (see table 2) table 2. independent samples t-test for experimental & control groups in multiple-choice test levenes’s test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means 95% confidence interval of difference f sig. t df sig (2tailed) mean difference std. error difference lower upper .413 .523 .628 66 .532 .389 .619 -.847 1.625 equal variances assumed equal variances not assumed .621 60.356 .537 .389 .626 -.863 1.641 according to table 2, the amount of observed t with 66 degree of freedom and 95% confidence interval of difference is .628, which is not meaningful at all. this means that there is no meaningful difference between the experimental and control groups regarding their answers to the multiple-choice test of ct. in other words, those students who were in the aforementioned classes for three consecutive semesters were not better than the freshmen who were new to the university in answering the mc test of ct. but, what can be the reason for this. to answer this question, we went to our second instrument, i.e., the interview. in fact, the interview was a modified form of choy and cheah’s (2009) questionnaire. as mentioned above, the interview consisted of six questions. below are the responses given by the instructors to the six questions. instructors’ perception of ct all instructors gave comprehensive definitions of ct. six out of eight participants wrote that ct is the ability to ask appropriate questions about different phenomena and find answer to the questions. they noted that to find answers to the questions one has to look for relevant information and interpret the information in light of inductive and deductive reasoning. the others, who had nearly the same opinion, held that in order to be a critical thinker one has to distinguish facts from opinions. what was the distinguishing characteristic of a critical thinker to his opinion was the power of ration as they believed. one of the participants remarked that ct has to do with higher order thinking and problem solving activities. does ct happen in the instructors’ classroom when they are teaching their students? if so, how do they know? seven respondents explicitly and implicitly indicated that they did not have ct in real sense in their own classrooms. however, as they explained whenever they ask students to look at facts from a new perspective, a sort of ct happens in the classroom. six of the instructors were more critical of their own teaching and explained that since their teaching was predominantly lecturebased and they did not give students enough opportunity to freely express themselves and above all, since there was little democracy in the classroom, no ct occurred in the course they taught. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 70 how do instructors think they could bring about ct among students? specifically what are some of the things they did or could do to get their students to think critically? all the participants answered that asking students to do research or project works is the best activity to encourage learners think critically and go through the stages of ct. they also emphasized posing questions to the students and asking them to find answers to the questions. three of the participants wrote that providing a suitable environment improves the situation to have ct in the classrooms; however, they did not mention how such an environment should be established. one of the instructors answered this question by saying that establishing democracy in the classroom is very crucial for having critical thinkers. he wrote that “whenever the instructor is the sole speaker who does not allow students to express themselves, have their voice in the course, and takes the floor for the time he is in class, there is no likelihood of developing ct”. another participant believed that students should be problem solvers, asked to seek the solution via books, internet and different sources available. what are the problems faced by students when an instructor is trying to teach ct? five participants expressed that they felt a pressure to cover the content in a short time; therefore, they had to lecture in order to cover more content in a shorter time. two of the instructors wrote that most of their students lacked the skills of judgment and enquiry and that they had accustomed to being given the most straightforward answers by the authorities. one of these two added that if they were left to themselves, they had no ability to decide how to study on their own. one of the respondents answered that from the first days of schooling, his students “were not taught how to think”, and they had been only “asked to cram materials in their heads for the exam”. therefore, as he believed “they resist higher order thinking.” do the instructors think they need to give all the information to their students in order to learn the subject? why and why not? all the participants unanimously agreed that there is no need to provide their students with all the facts and information. all identified the ct as a process of enquiry in which students have to seek the answers to the questions posed by themselves or others. do the instructors think they would be able to implement ct in their lessons if they were required to do so? why and why not? six out of eight participants argued that with the current state of affairs they were not able to implement ct in their classrooms. they believed that unless from the first days of schooling students are taught to think critically and solve problems, they would not to think critically. moreover, they knew the system of education responsible for such a problem. they asserted that the curriculum is top down, assessment is based on memorization of materials, and pre-service instructor education universities do not seriously involve instructors in such a process. two other respondents agreed that it would be possible to incorporate ct in different degrees in their courses. as they believed such a shift toward ct may be slow and difficult but possible. they argued that such a shift could begin with instructor education centers and teaching materials. they insisted that workshops, seminars, pre-service and in-service courses for instructors can make instructors aware of the importance and process of ct. 4. discussion and conclusion ct is of great importance in education, and it should be taught to students in all educational settings (black, 2005; yeh, 2002); however, the findings of this study showed that while junior students of education were expected to be familiar with the skills of ct, it was not so at all. thus, to find the reason, the study intended to investigate instructors’ familiarity and view regarding the m. rezaee, m. farahian, a. m. ahmadi critical thinking in higher education: unfulfilled expectations 71 issue. to this aim, an interview with six questions was held with the eight instructors with the following results. as to the first question of the interview which asked the definition of ct, it seemed that all the participants were familiar with the term. however, what is not clear is whether they were familiar with the components of ct as well as its characteristics. furthermore, further research is needed to see if the instructors are aware of how to implement practically ct in their usual courses. despite lack of such information for the researcher, from the answers provided by the instructors and use of terms such as low ct activities, appraisal, and scientific inquiry by the instructors, it could be understood that they were aware of the related literature. it is evident from the answers that nearly none of the instructors believed that ct happens in their classrooms. it is not surprising that though all the participants in the study were familiar with the concept in the field, they themselves may have been subjected to the same top down educational system in which students were well informed about the theories; however, had no power to implement what they had learned in the new contexts. based on the responses, it was clear that the instructors were compelled to cover the content. to do so, they felt that they did not have enough time to teach what they taught to be the features of ct. although in iranian universities instructors are somehow free to choose the books and specify the content based on the guidelines prescribed by ministry of science and technology, they have to cover some pre-specified goals and objectives of the courses especially for courses which are prerequisite for other university courses. as the instructors reported, one of the barriers which was hard to tackle was that from the first days of schooling students in iran have learned to be passive listeners whose freedom to have voice in the classrooms is very limited. therefore, they lacked eagerness and were reluctant to spend extra mental effort required by high level thinking. such a way of thinking in a class as a mini-society may be due to the cultural norms in the country. davidson (1998) points out that that ct must be clearly defined and adapted culture-wise. if ct is not valued in the society, it may be likely to meet with opposition in schools and universities. such an attitude even has molded instructors’ expectations who would like to have everything under their control and not to overload students who prefer to be given the most straightforward information. moreover, students in all years of schooling may already have experienced a pedagogy that rewards note taking and good recall of facts (peirce, 1998). the consequence of such an education, as peirce (1998) notes, is having students be more interested in the right answer than the way the answer is obtained. it seems that instructors view ct as an activity which needs more time than the conventional methods of teaching. perhaps, students need enough time to think about and explore the answers to the questions, raise their own questions, discover information, and construct their own models since ct as other approaches to constructivism, as marlowe and page (1998) note, “is about thinking and the thinking process rather than about the quantity of information a student can memorize and recite” (p. 11). wang (2009) notes that ct “is an ability that allows students to freely express their own ideas”. as one of the instructors mentioned, students rarely have freedom to express themselves. of course creating a condition in which students are able to have their say and participate in the process of decision-making may help them get more involved in deep learning. to change such a situation and implement ct, as the instructors mentioned, are not easy. as van gelder (2004) points out, while “…it can seem quite basic, it [ct] is actually a complicated process, and most people are just not very good at it (p. 2). it needs unanimous endeavor from the side of those responsible for developing curriculum, instructor education centers to give enough practical insights to the instructors, and workshops to maintain such an attempt. ct effectively helps students to perform well both at educational settings and in after school life. it contributes to better decision making in the social and interpersonal contexts; therefore, attempts should be made to resolve the problems and constraints encountered by instructors to teach critically. further research with a sample of more instructors is needed to see if the instructors’ beliefs are compatible with that of students. instructors who took part in the study may not have brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 72 implemented ct only because they may have had wrong assumptions about their students’ beliefs. they even my not have been aware of the techniques to implement ct. references [1] badri, r., & fathi azar, s. (2006). a comparison of the effect of the group problem based learning and traditional teaching on critical thinking of teacher students. educational and psychological studies quarterly, 16, 1-24. [2] bauerlein, m. (2011). critical thinking in the curriculum. retrieved january 5, 2012, from http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/critical-thinking-in-the-curriculum-donald-lazere/37094 [3] birjandi, p. & bagherkazemi, m. (2010). the relationship between iranian efl teachers’ critical thinking ability and their professional success. english language teaching, 3(2), 135145. [4] black, s. (2005). teaching students to think critically. the education digest, 70(6), 42-47. [5] browne, m. n., & freeman, k. (2000). distinguishing features of critical thinking classrooms. teaching in higher education, 5(3), 301-309. [6] browne, m. n., & keeley, k. (2001). asking the right questions: a guide to critical thinking (6th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: merrill/prentice hall. [7] choy, s. c., & cheah, p. k. (2009). teacher perceptions of critical thinking among students and its influence on higher education. international journal of teaching and learning in higher education. 20(2), 198-206. [8] davidson, b. w. (1998). a case for critical thinking in the english language classroom. tesol quarterly, 32(1):119-123. [9] duron, r., limbach, b., & waugh, w. (2006). critical thinking framework for any discipline. international journal of teaching and learning in higher education, 17(2), 160-166. [10] ennis, r. (1987). a taxonomy of critical-thinking dispositions and abilities. in j. baron & r. sternberg (eds.), teaching thinking skills: theory and practice (pp. 9-26). new york: freeman. [11] erkilic, t. a. (2008). importance of educational philosophy in teaching training for educational sustainable development. middle east journal of scientific research, 3(1),01-08. [12] facione, p. a., & facione, n. c. (1992). the california critical thinking skills test. a college level test of critical thinking skills. insight assessment, millbrae, ca: california academic press. [13] halpern, d. (2002). thought and knowledge (4th ed.). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. [14] henderson, j. (2001). reflective teaching: professional artistry through inquiry (3rd ed.). upper saddle river, nj: merrill/prentice hall. [15] hongladarom, s. (2002). asian philosophy and critical thinking: divergence or convergence? retrieved january 5, 2012, from http://pioneer.chula.ac.th/~hsoraj/web/append.html [16] howe, e. r. (2004).canadian and japanese teachers' conceptions of critical thinking: a comparative study. teachers and teaching: theory and practice, 10(5), 505-525. [17] khallli, h., & hossein zadeh, m. (2003). investigation of reliability, validity, and normality persian version of the california critical thinking skills test; form b (cctst). journal of medical education, 3(1), 29-32. [18] lang, s. k. (n.d.). critical thinking dispositions of pre-service teachers in singapore: a preliminary investigation. retrieved january 4, 2012 from http:// www.aare.edu.au/01pap/kon01173.htm [19] lauer, t. (2005). teaching critical-thinking skills using course content material. journal of college science teaching, 34(6), 34-44. [20] marlowe, b. a., & page, m. l. (1998). creating and sustaining the constructivist classroom. thousand oaks, ca: corwin press. m. rezaee, m. farahian, a. m. ahmadi critical thinking in higher education: unfulfilled expectations 73 [21] mimbs, c. a. (2005). teaching from the critical thinking, problem based curricular approach: strategies, challenges, and recommendations. journal of family and consumer sciences education,3(2),7-18. [22] o’tuel, f., & bullard, r. (1993). developing higher-order thinking in the content areas. pacific grove, ca: critical thinking books and software. [23] paul, r., & nosich, g. (1991). a proposal for the national assessment of higher-order thinking. paper commissioned by the u.s. department of education office of educational research and improving national center for education statistics. [24] peirce, w. (1998). understanding students’ difficulties in reasoning. part one: perspectives from several fields. retrieved january 4, 2012 from http://academic.pgcc.edu/~wpeirce/mccctr/underst06.html#perspectives [25] pogrow, s. (1990). challenging at-risk learners: findings from the hots program. phi delta kappan, 71, 389-397. [26] pogrow, s. (1994). helping learners who “just don’t understand.” educational leadership, 52, 62-66. [27] qing, z., jing, g., & yan, w. (2010). promoting pre-service teachers’ critical thinking skills by inquiry-based chemical experiment. procedia social and behavioral sciences 2, 4597– 4603. [28] raths, l., wasserman, s., jonas, a., & rothstein, a. (1986). teaching for thinking. new york: teachers college press. [29] resnick, l. (1987). education and learning to think. washington, dc: national academy press. [30] torff, b. (2003). developmental changes in teachers’ use of higher-order thinking and content knowledge. journal of educational psychology, 95, 563-569. [31] torff, b. (2005). developmental changes in teachers’ beliefs about critical-thinking activities. journal of educational psychology, 97(1), 13-22. [32] van gelder, t. (2004). cultivatin expertise in informal reasoning. canadian journal of experimental psychology, 58(2), 142-152. [33] wang, y. h. (2009). incorporating critical thinking skills into an english conversation program. european journal of social sciences, 11(1), 51-60. [34] weil, z. (2009). believing untruths: the dangerous lack of critical thinking. retrieved january 5, 2012, from http://zoeweil.com/2009/08/31/believing-untruths-the-dangerous-lack-ofcritical-thinking/ [35] williams, m., & burden, r. l. (1997). psychology for language teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. [36] yeh, s. (2002). tests worth teaching to: constructing state-mandated tests that emphasize critical thinking. educational researcher, 30, 12-17. [37] yin, w. (2006). teachers’ beliefs and grammar teaching practices. unpublished doctoral dissertation. university of hong kong. microsoft word brain_5_2014-bogdan 2 91 trigeminal neuralgia and radiofrequency lesioning andy r. eugene division of clinical pharmacology, department of molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, gonda 19, mayo clinic, 200 first street sw, rochester, minnesota 55905, usa tel.: +1-507-284-2790; fax: +1-507-284-4455 eugene.andy@mayo.edu abstract trigeminal neuralgia is a disorder that is characterized with electrical-type shocking pain in the face and jaw. this pain may either present as sharp unbearable pain unilateral or bilaterally. there is no definite etiology for this condition. there are various treatment methods that are currently being used to relieve the pain. one of the pharmacological treatments is carbamazepine and the most prevalent surgical treatments include gamma knife surgery (gks), microvascular decompression (mvd) and radiofrequency lesioning (rfl). although, mvd is the most used surgical method it is not an option for all the patients due to the intensity of the procedure. rfl is used when mvd is not suitable. in this paper we present the various treatments and monte-carlo based pharmacokinetic simulations of carbamazepine in treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. keywords: trigeminal neuralgia; radiofrequency lesioning. 1. introduction trigeminal neuralgia (tn) (tic douloureux) is a neuropathic pain (np) which is characterized by lancinating pain in the trigeminal nerve distribution (jia and li, 2010; watson, 2012), (watson, 2012). trigeminal neuralgia can be presented with chronic pain or acute pain depending on the cause, which varies with the patients. chronic pain differs greatly from acute pain in terms of the pain persistence and adaptation (besson, 1999). tn is the most successfully treated np both medically and surgically(watson, 2012). trigeminal neuralgia is associated with poor activity of daily living, suicidal attempts and an overall decreased quality of life due to the unbearable pain. 2. etiology and pathophysiology the etiology of tn is a scientific mystery. the pathophysiology is unclear because there are counter examples for all the current theories. vascular compression of the dorsal root of the trigeminal nerve is the most accepted cause of tn. there are various reason that could cause vascular compression as described in table 1 (punyani and jasuja, 2012). however, some patients present with trigeminal neuralgia and no nerve compression. also, there are cases where the trigeminal nerve is being compressed yet the patient is not suffering from trigeminal neuralgia. a 12 year study have shown that trigeminal neuralgia has been associated with zone demyelination of the nerve root entry in multiple sclerosis (ms) patient and nerve root vascular compression patients (abhinav et al., 2012). another hypothesis is the tn is caused by the entrapment of the maxillary and mandibular nerves when they cross the ovale and rotundum foramen (abhinav et al., 2012; besson, 1999). the newest theory is bioresonance. neurosurgeons de-zejia and gang li, state that when the vibration frequency of a structure surrounding the trigeminal nerve becomes close to its normal frequency, the resonance of the trigeminal nerve occurs4. this occurrence can damage the nerves fibers preventing them from transmitting the correct impulses which can result in tn. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 92 table 1. various etiological factors for trigeminal neurlagia. adapted from(punyani and jasuja, 2012). a. compression of the trigeminal nerve root caused by: 1) intracranial vascular abnormalities e.g. aberrant loop of the superior cerebellar artery, aneurysm of the intrapetrous portion on the internal carotid artery 2) intracranial tumours 3) petrous ridge (basilar compression) 4) foreign object 5) bone lesion such as osteoma b. multiple sclerosis c. others 1) trauma 2) viral infection (postherpetic neuralgia) 3) ratner’s jaw bone cavities 4) infiltrative disorders of the trigeminal nerve root, gasserian ganglion and nerve 5) familial occurrence as reported in charcotemarie tooth disease 6) sarcoidosis and lyme disease neuropathy 3. diagnosis tn is characterized by brief electric-like pains (brisman, 2011) that are excruciating. patients usually describe it as feeling like they are being cut with a knife, or getting shocked in the face. tn is presented most often as a unilateral pain (emril and ho, 2010). out the three branches of the trigeminal nerve the maxillary branch is the most frequently affected6. according to the international headache society (ihs), the increasing frequency of posterior fossa exploration and magnetic resonance imaging has demonstrated that many, possibly most, patients with this condition have compression of the trigeminal root by tortuous or aberrant vessels (ihs, 2013). currently tn is place in two categories: the classic tn and the symptomatic tn. the classic tn is the most common form and it is due the vascular compression of the nerve. the symptomatic tn is when the patient is showing all the signs and symptoms of tn but the nerve is not being compressed. the criteria to diagnose classical and symptomatic tn are the same except for an additional prerequisite for the symptomatic tn as seen in table 2 (ihs, 2013). according to ihs, the extra prerequisite is causative lesion, other than vascular compression, has been demonstrated by special investigations and/or posterior fossa exploration (ihs, 2013). table 2. ihs diagnostic criteria for symptomatic tn. adapted from(ihs, 2013). diagnostic criteria: a. paroxysmal attacks of pain lasting from a fraction of a second to 2 minutes, with or without persistence of aching between paroxysms, affecting one or more divisions of the trigeminal nerve and fulfilling criteria b and c b. pain has at least one of the following characteristics: 1) intense, sharp, superficial or stabbing 2) precipitated from trigger areas or by trigger factors c. attacks are stereotyped in the individual patient d. a causative lesion, other than vascular compression, has been demonstrated by special investigations and/or posterior fossa exploration symptomatic: a. paroxysmal attacks of pain lasting from a fraction of a second to 2 minutes, with or without persistence of aching between paroxysms, affecting one or more divisions of the trigeminal nerve and fulfilling criteria b and c b. pain has at least one of the following characteristics: 1) intense, sharp, superficial or stabbing 2) precipitated from trigger areas or by trigger factors c. attacks are stereotyped in the individual patient d. a causative lesion, other than vascular compression, has been demonstrated by special investigations and/or posterior fossa exploration a. r. eugene trigeminal neuralgia and radiofrequency lesioning 93 4. treatment methods for trigeminal neuralgia pharmacological treatments the ultimate goal of any treatment is to reduce pain and relieve symptoms(punyani and jasuja, 2012). the first line of treatment for tn is the used anticonvulsant drug, carbamazepine. surgical methods are left when all drugs have been exhausted with little to no relief to the patient. carbamazepine is the primary drug used for the initial treatment of tn (punyani and jasuja, 2012) due to it high efficacy in relieving symptoms. in a prospectively collected study establishing the population pharmacokinetics of carbamazepine from 121 patients aged 60 years or older, the population parameters showed the apparent clearance (cl/f) of carbamazepine in this community-dwelling elderly population was estimated to be 3.59 l/h with an interindividual variability of 18.1%. moreover, the volume of distribution (v/f) was estimated to be 102 l with an interindividual variability of 74.7% (punyawudho et al., 2012). other drugs used in the treatment of tn also include, oxcarbazepine, phenytoin, lamotrigine, gabapentin and topiramate. as with any drugs, there are side effects to consider when administering these drugs. surgical treatments tn does not have a surgical treatment that is 100 % efficient. all of the procedures come with risks and benefits. as of 2005, about 8000 tn patients were undergoing surgical treatment in the united states (kim j burchiel, 2014). surgery is proposed to patient whose tn is unresponsive to pharmacotherapy or if they are sensitive to possible side effects (kim j burchiel, 2014). some patients can be treated with any of the surgical treatment available with the same probability on the outcome. in cases like that, personal preference and experience, attitudes toward risk on behalf of the patient and the surgeon, and clinical factors (such as the patient’s age and health) generally suggest one procedure over another (tatli et al., 2008). alcohol or phenol injection alcohol or phenol is injected within several locations of the trigeminal nerve. the goal of this procedure is to destroy selective pain fibers (kim j burchiel, 2014). this procedure is rarely use nowadays because of its low success rate and high recurrence rate within a short period of time. microvascular decompression (mvd) mvd surgery is suggested for patients younger than 70 years old (kim j burchiel, 2014). one of the reasons is because the possible complications that can arise when the patient goes under general anesthesia for the procedure. although, healthy older patient can sustain it is not recommended. mvd is performed after an examination of the trigeminal nerve at or near its point of entry into the brain stem (barker et al., 1996). then the compressing arteries or veins are repositioned with stents (barker et al., 1996). a study conducted by peter j. janneta et al, concluded that mvd is a safe and effective treatment for trigeminal neuralgia (barker et al., 1996). this conclusion is based on successful result of 1185 patients who underwent mvd. trigeminal root compression this procedure is an option for tn patients who do not show any signs of vascular compression. it works by compressing the trigeminal nerve which causes a neuropraxia process in the nerve with a class 1 neuropathy (revuelta-gutierrez et al., 2013). this result is used to explain the resulting therapeutic and side effect of the procedure. a study shows that all patients who underwent the root compression were pain free (revuelta-gutierrez et al., 2013), however the relapsed time was very short, and others needed to be supplemented by drugs. gamma knife surgery (gks) gks is a non-invasive stereotactic technique that utilizes a focused beam of radiation to target the root of the trigeminal nerve (emril and ho, 2010). tn patients do not prefer this method because the pain relief is delayed in some cases. gks also has some side effect with the most common one being facial numbness (karam et al., 2014). this procedure is most used by the elderly who cannot undergo mvd. studies have shown gks treatment to have increased the quality of life of the patient during 1 year (azar et al., 2009). the patients were not in pain, they were socially and physically able to perform activity of daily living. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 94 radiofrequency lesioning (rfl) the procedure is called radio frequency because it uses the same frequency as an am radio which is approximately 500 khz of electromagnetic radiation(vallejo et al., 2010). rfl is a healing procedure with immediate effect. rfl is sometimes preferred in elderly patients with limited life expectancy(tatli et al., 2008). this preference is cause by the fact that rfl is an easy procedure with minimal side effects and provide relief for a shorter period of time than microvascular. rfl is also the treatment option for any patients not responding to pharmacotherapy, patients that are in poor health condition or young patients who cannot tolerate the risk of posterior fossa surgery (lord and bogduk, 2002). it is also worth mentioning that rfl is used sometimes based on a bias recommendation of the physician. most physicians tend to be better or more knowledgeable at one particular procedure over another, so sometime unconsciously they will suggest one procedure over another. rfl technique various diagnostics test are used to reassure the exact origin of the pain before the rfl procedure. rfl causes pain relief by generating a thermal lesion to the trigeminal nerve(kapur, 2005). the thermal lesioning is created as a result of the heat produced in the tissue around the electrode tip(sim et al., 2007). for a complete and detailed listing of the rfl technique you can refer directly to the work of dilkapur (kapur, 2005) and mahesh chaudhari (chaudhari, 2011). to briefly summary the process, a radiofrequency electrode is inserted through the foramen ovale and position among the sensory rootlets(lord and bogduk, 2002). in the case of tn an 18-gauge with a 2mm tip electrode is used(chaudhari, 2011). recent techniques have included devices that can measure impedance and use this information to apply low intensity current to the needle to help locate nervous tissue(kapur, 2005). the patient is anesthetize during the actual lesioning of the nerve but is awakened toward the end phase in order to assess the efficacy of the procedure. rfl post-operatively and complications studies have shown that patients with typical symptoms have good long-term result. one of the most discomforting possible complications of rfl for tn patient is the resulting facial numbness. the numbness is permanent in the region of the face that was supplied by the lesioned portion of the trigeminal nerve(ritter et al., 2009). tn is so painful that patients prefer the numbness over the agonizing pain. the two most common problems following numbness are dysaesthesia and anaesthesia dolorosa(lord and bogduk, 2002). there is also a high occurrence (~21%) of corneal anesthesia15. patients suffering from the latter have to have regular eye checkup to prevent further more severe eye conditions. 5. conclusion rfl is an effective, accurate and precise procedure that provides efficient pain relief to tn sufferers. rfl is suggested in the elderly because it is more beneficial to them in term of low morbidity and mortality(emril and ho, 2010; kim j burchiel, 2014). studies show that rfl provided a high initial pain relief, with a pain free rate of 50.4% after a 5 year follow up(tatli et al., 2008). after 37 years of experience in the tn field and base on the results from their most recent study, humberto santo neto et al concluded that tn is a lifelong disease that requires expert strategies with life-long duration(bozkurt et al., 2012). 6. acknowledgements this work was supported by nih t32 gm008685 clinical pharmacology training grant. 7. conflicts of interest the authors declare no conflict of interest. a. r. eugene trigeminal neuralgia and radiofrequency lesioning 95 references abhinav k, love s, kalantzis g, coakham hb, patel nk. clinicopathological review of patients with and without multiple sclerosis treated by partial sensory rhizotomy for medically refractory trigeminal neuralgia: a 12-year retrospective study. [internet]. clin. neurol. neurosurg. 2012; 114: 361–5.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22130049 azar m, yahyavi st, bitaraf ma, gazik fk, allahverdi m, shahbazi s, et al. gamma knife radiosurgery in patients with trigeminal neuralgia: quality of life, outcomes, and complications. [internet]. clin. neurol. neurosurg. 2009; 111: 174–8.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18995955 barker fg, jannetta pj, bissonette dj, larkins m v, jho hd. the long-term outcome of microvascular decompression for trigeminal neuralgia. [internet]. n. engl. j. med. 1996; 334: 1077–83.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8598865 besson jm. the neurobiology of pain. [internet]. lancet (london, england) 1999; 353: 1610– 5.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10334274 bozkurt m, al-beyati esm, ozdemir m, kahilogullari g, elhan ah, savas a, et al. management of bilateral trigeminal neuralgia with trigeminal radiofrequency rhizotomy: a treatment strategy for the life-long disease. [internet]. acta neurochir. (wien). 2012; 154: 785–91; discussion 791–2.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22392016 brisman r. trigeminal neuralgia: diagnosis and treatment. [internet]. world neurosurg. 2011; 76: 533–4.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.worldneurosurgery.org/article/s1878875011007637/fulltext chaudhari m. radiofrequency techniques in pain management [internet]. anaesth. intensive care med. 2011; 12: 63–65.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.anaesthesiajournal.co.uk/article/s1472029910002742/fulltext emril dr, ho k-y. treatment of trigeminal neuralgia: role of radiofrequency ablation. [internet]. j. pain res. 2010; 3: 249–54.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=3033033&tool=pmcentrez&rend ertype=abstract ihs. international headache society» classical trigeminal neuralgia [g50.00] |13.1.1|g44.847 [internet]. 2013[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://ihsclassification.org/en/02_klassifikation/04_teil3/13.01.01_facialpain.html jia d, li g. bioresonance hypothesis: a new mechanism on the pathogenesis of trigeminal neuralgia. [internet]. med. hypotheses 2010; 74: 505–7.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19900765 kapur d. radiofrequency lesioning techniques in the management of chronic pain [internet]. anaesth. intensive care med. 2005; 6: 56–58.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.anaesthesiajournal.co.uk/article/s1472029906700467/fulltext karam sd, tai a, wooster m, rashid a, chen r, baig n, et al. trigeminal neuralgia treatment outcomes following gamma knife radiosurgery with a minimum 3-year follow-up. [internet]. j. radiat. oncol. 2014; 3: 125–130.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=4052001&tool=pmcentrez&rend ertype=abstract kim j burchiel m. trigeminal neuralgia surgery: overview, preparation, technique [internet]. medscape 2014[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/248933-overview#showall lord sm, bogduk n. radiofrequency procedures in chronic pain [internet]. best pract. res. clin. anaesthesiol. 2002; 16: 597–617.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 96 http://www.researchgate.net/publication/10960123_radiofrequency_procedures_in_chronic _pain punyani sr, jasuja vr. trigeminal neuralgia: an insight into the current treatment modalities. [internet]. j. oral biol. craniofacial res. 2012; 2: 188–97.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://jobcr.org.marlin-prod.literatumonline.com/article/s221242681200053x/fulltext punyawudho b, ramsay er, brundage rc, macias fm, collins jf, birnbaum ak. population pharmacokinetics of carbamazepine in elderly patients. [internet]. ther. drug monit. 2012; 34: 176–81.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=3777257&tool=pmcentrez&rend ertype=abstract revuelta-gutierrez r, martinez-anda jj, coll jb, campos-romo a, perez-peña n. efficacy and safety of root compression of trigeminal nerve for trigeminal neuralgia without evidence of vascular compression. [internet]. world neurosurg. 2013; 80: 385–9.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22889619 ritter pm, friedman wa, bhasin rr. the surgical treatment of trigeminal neuralgia: overview and experience at the university of florida. [internet]. j. neurosci. nurs. 2009; 41: 211–4 quiz 215–6.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19678507 sim se, kim yh, kim yc, park yo. pulsed mode radiofrequency lesioning of the mental nerve for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia [internet]. reg. anesth. pain med. 2007; 32: 69.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/246028347_pulsed_mode_radiofrequency_lesionin g_of_the_mental_nerve_for_the_treatment_of_trigeminal_neuralgia_357 tatli m, satici o, kanpolat y, sindou m. various surgical modalities for trigeminal neuralgia: literature study of respective long-term outcomes. [internet]. acta neurochir. (wien). 2008; 150: 243–55.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18193149 vallejo r, benyamin rm, aliaga l. radiofrequency vs. pulse radiofrequency: the end of the controversy [internet]. tech. reg. anesth. pain manag. 2010; 14: 128–132.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.techreganesth.org/article/s1084208x1000039x/fulltext watson cpn. trigeminal neuralgia [internet]. pain res. manag. j. can. pain soc. 2012; 17: 297.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3411380/ ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 242-256 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/453 submitted: june 12th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 29th, 2023 national strategy of information society in the realities of ukraine nataliia shust1 nataliia semen2 khrystyna bilohrats3 bozhena ivanytska4 nataliia pavlyshyn5 oksana hotsur6 1 kyiv national university of trade and economics, https://orcid.org/0000-00018491-160х, n.shust@knute.edu.ua 2 lviv polytechnic national university, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4814-0198, natalia.f.semen@lpnu.ua 3 lviv polytechnic national university, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7120-4930, khrystyna.r.bilohrats@lpnu.ua 4 lviv polytechnic national university, ukraine, bozhena.v.ivanytska@lpnu.ua 5 lviv polytechnic national university, ukraine, , nataliia.i.pavlyshyn@lpnu.ua 6 lviv polytechnic national university, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6589-0011, oksana.i.hotsur@lpnu.ua abstract: this article examines the development of a national strategy for the information society in the realities of ukraine. the contemporary trend of civilizational development is the informatization of society and all aspects of its life. the development of concepts for the functioning of the information society for ukraine is becoming the crucial assignment of socio-political development of the contemporary state, which should be based on science, innovation and advanced technologies, as well as culture and creativity. domestic digital capital is in the process of formation, while digital technologies are the driving force of socio-economic development, due to the large-scale penetration of information and communication technologies everywhere. a characteristic resource of the information society is characterized by accurate, reliable, truthful and timely information. the expansion of the use of digital platforms, blockchain technology and artificial intelligence stimulates the creation of a digital economy in ukraine. the development of the information society requires the integration of digital and business ecosystems. the creation of information infrastructure within business ecosystems, the expansion of services and intangible production as a result of advancement in the field of technology will guide to the transformation of ukrainian society and the achievement of a high level of informatization. keywords: information infrastructure, innovations, innovative development, digital adoption index, global innovation index, innovation ecosystems. how to cite: shust, n., semen, n., bilohrats, k., ivanytska, b., pavlyshyn, n. et hotsur, o. (2023). national strategy of information society in the realities of ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 242-256. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/453 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/453 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/453 national strategy of information society in the realities of ukraine nataliia shust et al. 243 introduction the contemporary trend of civilizational development is the informatization of society and all aspects of its life. postmodern society functions in the realities of globalization, not only economic, structural and political, but also technological (chase-dunn et al., 2000). bouncken and reuschl (2018) note the phenomenal use of coworking space in a postmodern society, which allows the sharing economy to spread, promotes the exchange of ideas, experience and technologies. the study of berger et al. (2019) shows that the level of life satisfaction and the level of income from participation in the sharing economy is growing. heeks, graham, mungai, van belle and woodcock (2021) also consider the spread of the gig economy to be an advantage of the development of the information society, which allows the labor market to become more equitable. at the same time, it should be noted that in postmodern society there is a tendency to replace low-skilled work with industrial robots (jung & lim, 2020). this is primarily due to the drastic changes that occur due to the formation of a new type of society, namely information (nerubasska et al., 2020). the changes concern social, political, economic, spiritual, cultural, scientific and other various spheres of society. achieving this ambitious goal requires systematic and purposeful work to modernize most spheres of life in ukrainian society. these changes affect much deeper concepts identity, social interactions, social roles and so on. in addition, the information society with its modernization potential can become an element for ukraine that will allow it to finally get out of the circle of "catching up" countries in the global division of labor and resources and secure a worthy place among the leading countries. achieving this ambitious goal requires systematic and purposeful work to modernize different spheres of life in ukrainian society. one of the reasons for its successful implementation is a critical review of the current situation in the direction of the information society in ukraine with an emphasis on the vital problem areas also with opportunities for development (dubov et al., 2010). as noted by kirichenko (2017), humanity is threatened by the exacerbation of various global crises, tensions are growing in society, in conditions of global transformation there is a society of enormous risks. under these circumstances, it is urgent to develop a qualitatively new strategy for the development of human civilization, which is based on the ideology of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 244 the information society as a factor of sustainable development. becker (2001) emphasizes the need for social impact assessment, namely the identification of the future consequences of current or proposed actions that affect individuals, organizations, and social macrosystems. the development of concepts of the functioning of the information society becomes crucial assignment of socio-political development of the contemporary state, which should be based on science, innovation and advanced technologies, as well as culture and creativity (voronkova & sosnin, 2015). shumaeva (2014) analyzes the classical concepts of the information society. kraus, holoborodko and kraus (2018) consider trends of avant-garde nature of digital economy development. szopik-depczyńska, kędzierskaszczepaniak, szczepaniak, cheba, gajda and ioppolo (2018) investigates innovations in sustainable development. jiménez and zheng (2021) shows the differences and features of the postmodern society, which tends to work in innovation centers, depending on its location. rudenko (2021) analyzes the position of ukraine in the global indices of the digital economy, and chmeruk (2019) considers the digital economy as a sovereign economic category. at the micro level, dergachova & koleshnya (2020) and holovchuk & pchelianska (2020) note the need to form a strategy to increase the competitiveness of enterprises based on the paradigm of innovative development, and gonchar & khachatryan (2018) emphasize, that innovation is a case for the entrepreneurial and productional improvement, which confirms the ranking of the top 100 companies by market capitalization (world intellectual property organization, 2021), in which the first positions are occupied by high-tech companies. the availability of developments and works that highlight some aspects related to our research underscores its importance and relevance. paying tribute to the existing scientific conclusions, we believe that the issue of developing a national blueprint for the information society enlargement in ukraine is insufficiently represented and needs special attention. thus, the goal of this article is to investigate the national strategy of the information society in the realities of ukraine. national strategy of information society in the realities of ukraine nataliia shust et al. 245 digitalization is a decisive driver of modernization not only in the technological sphere, but also in the economy. highly developed countries are leading in the digitalization level what is displayed in the various characteristics of the information society (fig.1). as noted by kravchenko, leshchenko, marushchak and vdovychenko (2019) ukraine as a european country is only at the beginning of its development of a quality digital economy. fig.1 characteristics of the digitalization in the highly developed countries source: authors’ own concept according to liashenko and vyshnevskyi o. (2018) in the ukrainian economy, physical capital is predominant (fig.2). fig.2 directions for the development of physical capital in ukraine source: compiled by author according to liashenko & vyshnevskyi (2018). characteristics of the digitalization wide access to information quality access to the internet scientific and technological potential physical capital in the ukrainian economy mining and metallurgical complexes fuel and energy complexes agroindustrial complexes broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 246 statistical data of the ukrainian economy confirm a low level of expansion of innovative and technological areas of the economy fig. 3 number of active businesses by types of economic activity in 2020 source: https://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/ ukrainian digital capital is on the way of it`s formation and there are multiple real representations of improvement of the contemporary information economy such as widespread of digital platforms, blockchain technology and others. rudenko (2021) notes that the digitalization of the economy characterizes the general state of digital transformations in the organization of socio-economic relations in three sectoral models of society, which corresponds to domestic realities and includes: citizens (society), business (economy) and state (government). the research of the level of the digitalization of the economy is provided by use of different indexed executed by many influential organizations, institutions and various analytical agencies (cornell university, insead & wipo, 2020; doing business, 2020; oecd, 2019; wipo, 2021). there are a number of common parameters that determine the level of digitalization within the economy and society, the main indicators of scientists and practices include: internet coverage, use of broadband internet traffic, the percentage of smartphone owners, mobile internet coverage, the share of digital skills, public online services, etc. the most common methods of assessing the state of the digital economy are the formation of rating indices. world bank (2016) economists, in collaboration with microsoft, have built the digital adoption index (dai), which covers 180 countries on a scale https://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/ national strategy of information society in the realities of ukraine nataliia shust et al. 247 of 0 to 1 and highlights the "level" of digital adoption. dai is a global index that measures the digital adaptation of countries (adoption of digital technologies) from the standpoint of three main participants in socioeconomic relations within the state: 1) people (society), 2) government and 3) business. tab. 1. digital adoption index of ukraine (grouped by the authors using data from world bank (2016)) year general index dai dai business subindex dai people (society) subindex dai government subindex 2014 0,451 0,605 0,382 0,365 2016 0,537 0,667 0,473 0,471 analyzing the components of dai for ukraine (table 1) it should be noted the advantage in the value of the sub-index of business over the subindex of government and society, but it should be noted the positive dynamics of the general index. a global study by the international business school "insead", cornell university (usa) and the world intellectual property organization is the global innovation index (gii). let's analyze the dynamics of this index in ukraine, the data are grouped in table 2. tab. 2. ukraine's place in the global innovation index (gii) in the period 2015-2021 (grouped by the authors using data from cornell university, insead, and wipo (2021)) year index place in ranking of countries 2015 36,45 64 2016 35,72 56 2017 37,62 50 2018 38,52 43 2019 37,40 47 2020 36,32 45 2021 35,6 49 analyzing the data on ukraine's place in the global innovation index in the period 2015-2021, it should be noted a sharp deterioration in 2018 and the general unstable situation in terms of innovation in the country, and therefore there is an urgent need to identify areas of development in the direction to informatization the society. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 248 general directions of the information society development strategy in ukraine the ideology of the information society involves the modernization of education, the creation of mechanisms of intellectual economy based on knowledge, the education system and aimed at curbing threatening processes, minimizing the destructive effects, ensuring sustainable development of postmodern society. the main resources of all sectors of the economy are the means of production. in the age of the information society, as chmeruk (2019) emphasizes, the main resource is accurate, reliable, truthful and timely information. unlike other resources, information is inexhaustible and can be used repeatedly, and access to it in contemporary conditions can be obtained always and everywhere. cloud services technologies create the benefits of mobility, which leads to a new format of interaction between contractors, transforms the interaction of supply and demand, service and products are personalized. the informatization of society leads to the displacement of the hierarchical type of economic relations through the use of digital platforms designed to create an environment for the most convenient interaction of a large number of participants. the development of digital platforms in ukraine will allow entrepreneurs to conduct business online, manage their website, sales and operations. a feature of this type of business relationship, called the on-demand economy, is the ability to access goods and services just when you need them. reducing the number of intermediaries through the use of platforms reduces the cost of goods and services for the end user. the consumer can find the manufacturer on his own, and with the help of automatic document management he will be able to interact directly with all his contractors. access to global markets should be an important direction in the development of the information society in ukraine. if traditionally in the economy the main criterion for the allocation of markets was geographical (local, regional, national, global markets), thanks to the capabilities of the internet and digital technologies, national companies can enter the global market much faster. it also leads to the transformation of bilateral markets with a rigidly fixed leadership of several companies. in the information society, there is a multifaceted communicative space of network interactions, in which leadership changes more often, and the period of dominance of one company is shorter, the leader becomes less significant and visible. information and communication technologies make it possible to connect the manufacturer with each end consumer. long chains of https://translate.google.ru/contribute https://translate.google.ru/contribute national strategy of information society in the realities of ukraine nataliia shust et al. 249 intermediaries, in particular institutional ones, are being reduced. this makes it possible to implement a mechanism that is cost-effective for all participants. jakonen, kivinen, salovaara, and hirkman (2017) developed the concept of the economy of encounters, according to which, thanks to not only intentional, but also unintentional, unplanned meetings, encounters and business contacts, there is an exchange of knowledge, which is the most important production factor in the current realities. thе research оf correa (2016) has shown that pоstmodern society uses even entertaining social networks for informational, educational and differentiated purposes. the spread of smartphones contributes to the introduction to the world of digital technologies, even those segments of the population who, for various reasons, do not use a computer (correa et al., 2020). thus, the problem of digital inequality is gradually leveled (dolničar et al., 2014). kondarevych, andriushchenko, pokotylska, ortina, zborovska, and budnyak (2020) note that companies that want to enter the digital zone must conduct comprehensive work and first of all understand what is actually the value of digital transformation and automation of operations, set development priorities and form your own portfolio of digitization. heyets, voynarenko, kholodenko, and stepanok (2019) come to the conclusion that the state should coordinate the actions of companies and other macroeconomic agents in the direction of their optimal interaction. thus, in the realities of ukraine, in order to make the transition from a commodity-orientedeconomy to a knowledge-based economy, it is necessary to set development priorities and form a portfolio of digitalization that will attract citizens to all the benefits of the information society. rational consideration of the impact of a set of such multi-vector factors as innovation, entrepreneurship, application of knowledge, features of state development requires the improvement of coordinated measures for the expansion of the information society. the creation of information infrastructure within business ecosystems, the expansion of services and intangible production as a result of scientific and technological progress will lead to the transformation of industrial society into post-industrial (scaringella & radziwon, 2018). introduction in ukraine of various information systems and resources, telecommunication networks and data transmission channels, means of communication and management of information flows within special economic zones and business ecosystems will not only promote information and communication technologies in these zones, but also lead to their deep and dynamic penetration into all spheres of society, economic entities and the state. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 250 as noted by bacon, williams and daviesv (2019) open innovation ecosystems involve the transfer of knowledge between many stakeholders to contribute to the innovation of products and services. the results of a study by wu, liu and huang (2021) on the impact of special economic zones on innovation showed their stimulating effect on the development and informatization of society. special economic zones not only promote innovation in existing technical fields, but also constantly expand new areas of research. for the development of the information society sussan and acs (2017) emphasize the need to integrate two traditional conceptions: the digital ecosystem and the business ecosystem (fig.4). the assimilation of these two ecosystems helps to better understand the performance of contemporary information society. fig. 4 the digital business ecosystem structure source: compiled by author according to sussan & acs (2017) the growth of computing power and big data technology, as noted by duan, edwards and dwivedi (2019) has provided opportunities for artificial intelligence in present-day. the contemporary genesis of ai is expeditiously advancing and should take its rightful place in the scenario of the information society expansion in ukraine. the use of ai for decision-making is a resource for building information infrastructure to ensure citizens' access to information services and information and communication technologies. the introduction of the latest information and communication technologies in all spheres of public life, the activities of state bodies and local governments is a priority of the state for the development of the information society. the structure of the digital business ecosystem digital infrastructure management digital user citizenship digital entrepreneurship digital market national strategy of information society in the realities of ukraine nataliia shust et al. 251 conclusions with the intensification of globalization processes, the global trend is the spread of informatization and the transition from industrial to postindustrial society. digital technologies have become a driving force of socioeconomic development, thanks to the penetration of information and communication technologies in all spheres of society. highly developed countries are leading in the digitalization level what is displayed in the various characteristics of the information society. ukraine is a developing country and is only at the starting point to achieving extensive character of digital economy. therefore, the development of concepts of the functioning of the information society becomes crucial assignment of sociopolitical development of the contemporary state, which should be based on science, innovation and advanced technologies, as well as culture and creativity. ukrainian digital capital is on the way of it`s formation and there are multiple real representations of improvement of the contemporary information economy such as widespread of digital platforms, blockchain technology and others. there is a positive trend in the overall indicator of the digital adoption index. analysis of data on ukraine's place in the global innovation index in the period 2015-2021 showed a sharp deterioration in 2018 and the general unstable situation in terms of innovation in the country. the information society is characterized by the fact that the main resource is accurate, reliable, truthful and timely information. cloud services technologies create the benefits of mobility, which leads to a new format of interaction between counterparties, transforms the interaction of supply and demand, service and products are personalized. postmodern society differs from previous generations by the ability to combine different activities, opportunities and create new solutions. the widespread informatization is associated with the spread of technology. smartphones make it easy to access the internet, and modern users skillfully combine digital work with entertainment. therefore, ukraine should join the trend of digitalization and overcome the digital divide. from a practical point of view, this means the need for the spread of coworking spaces, the development of the sharing economy and innovation hubs. an important direction in the development of the information society in ukraine should be access to global markets. the opportunities provided by the internet and digital technologies open the way for national companies to these markets. information and communication technologies make it broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 252 possible to connect the manufacturer with each end consumer. long chains of intermediaries, in particular institutional ones, are being reduced. this makes it possible to implement a mechanism that is cost-effective for all participants. the development of the information society requires the integration of digital and business ecosystems. the creation of information infrastructure within business ecosystems, the expansion of services and intangible production as a result of scientific and technological pace will transform the ukrainian society and help to the achievement of a high level of informatization. acknowledgement we, the authors of the article, express our gratitude to the kyiv national university of trade and economics and lviv polytechnic national university that supported and inspired us for this work. we confirm the equal contribution of each other to the study and are collectively responsible for the material and ideas presented in it. references bacon, e., williams, m. d., & daviesv, g. h. (2019). recipes for success: conditions for knowledge transfer across open innovation ecosystems. international journal of information management, 49, 377-387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.07.012 becker, h. a. (2001). social impact assessment. european journal of operational research, 128(2), 311-321. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(00)00074-6 berger, t., c. b. frey, g. levin, and s. r. danda (2019). uber happy? work and well-being in the “gig economy. economic policy, 34(99), 429–477. https://doi.org/10.1093/epolic/eiz007. bouncken, r. b., & reuschl, a. j. (2018). coworking-spaces: how a phenomenon of the sharing economy builds a novel trend for the workplace and for entrepreneurship. review of managerial science, 12(1), 317–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-016-0215-y chase-dunn, c., kawano, y., & brewer, b. d. (2000). trade globalization since 1795: waves of integration in the world-system. american sociological review, 65(1), 77–95. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657290 chmeruk, h. (2019). cyfrova ekonomіka yak okremyj sektor nacіonalnoyi ekonomіky derzhavy [digital economy as a separate sector of the national economy]. scientific bulletin of uzhhorod national university. series: international economic relations and the world economy, 27(2), 92-97. https://doi.org/10.32782/2413-9971/2019-27-38 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.07.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(00)00074-6 https://doi.org/10.1093/epolic/eiz007 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-016-0215-y https://doi.org/10.2307/2657290 https://doi.org/10.32782/2413-9971/2019-27-38 national strategy of information society in the realities of ukraine nataliia shust et al. 253 cornell university, insead, & wipo. (2020). the global innovation index 2020: who will finance innovation? ithaca, fontainebleau, and geneva. wipo. https://www.wipo.int/global_innovation_index/en/2020/ correa, t. (2016). digital skills and social media use: how internet skills are related to different types of facebook use among “digital natives”. information communication and society, 19(8), 1095–1107. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2015.1084023 correa, t., pavez, i., & contreras, j. (2020). digital inclusion through mobile phones?: a comparison between mobile-only and computer users in internet access, skills and use. information communication and society, 23(7), 1074–1091. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2018.1555270 dergachova, g., & koleshnya, y. (2020). cyfrova transformaciya biznesu: sutnist, oznaky, vymogy ta tekhnologiji [digital business transformation: essence, features, requirements and technologies.] economic bulletin of national technical university of ukraine «kyiv polytechnic institute», 17, 280-290. https://doi.org/10.20535/2307-5651.17.2020.216367 doing business. (2020). doing business database. doing business. https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/rankings dolničar, v., k. prevodnik, and v. vehovar (2014). measuring the dynamics of information societies: empowering stakeholders amid the digital divide. the information society, 30(3), 212–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2014.896695 duan, y., edwards, j. s., & dwivedi, y. k. (2019). artificial intelligence for decision making in the era of big data – evolution, challenges and research agenda. international journal of information management, 48, 63-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.01.021 dubov, d.v., ozhevan, o. a., & gnatyuk, s. l. (2010). informacіjne suspіlstvo v ukrajinі: globalnі vykliki ta nacіonalnі mozhlyvosti [information society in ukraine: global challenges and national opportunities]. national institute of strategic research. https://niss.gov.ua/sites/default/files/201102/dubov_infsus-31058.pdf gonchar, o., & khachatryan, v. (2018). innovacyjnist –suchasna umova rozvytku pidpriemnickogo potencialu [innovation – a modern condition for the development of entrepreneurial potential]. entrepreneurship and trade, 23, 7781. http://www.journals-lute.lviv.ua/index.php/pidprtorgi/article/download/63/58 heeks, r., graham, m., mungai, p., van belle, j-p., & woodcock, j. (2021). systematic evaluation of gig work against decent work standards: the development and application of the fairwork framework. the information society, 37(5), 267-286. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2021.1942356 https://www.wipo.int/global_innovation_index/en/2020/ https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2015.1084023 https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2018.1555270 https://doi.org/10.20535/2307-5651.17.2020.216367 https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/rankings https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2014.896695 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.01.021 https://niss.gov.ua/sites/default/files/2011-02/dubov_infsus-31058.pdf https://niss.gov.ua/sites/default/files/2011-02/dubov_infsus-31058.pdf http://www.journals-lute.lviv.ua/index.php/pidpr-torgi/article/download/63/58 http://www.journals-lute.lviv.ua/index.php/pidpr-torgi/article/download/63/58 https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2021.1942356 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 254 heyets, v., voynarenko, м., kholodenko, а., & stepanok, n. (2019). modeling state regulation of the labour market. ceur-ws, 2422, 308–319. https://ceur-ws.org/vol-2422/paper25.pdf holovchuk, y., & pchelianska, g. (2020). osoblyvosti formuvannya strategiji pidvyshchennya konkurentospromozhnosti pidpriemstva na osnovi paradygmy innovacijnogo rozvytku [strategies formation pecularities of enterprise competitiveness incrieasing on the basis of innovation devlopment paradigm]. ekonomika ta derzhava [economy and the state], 3, 66–70. https://doi.org/10.32702/2306-6806.2020.3.66 jakonen, m., kivinen, n., salovaara, p., & hirkman, p. (2017). towards an economy of encounters? a critical study of affectual assemblages in coworking. scandinavian journal of management, 33(4), 235–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2017.10.003 jiménez, a., & zheng, y. (2021). unpacking the multiple spaces of innovation hubs. the information society, 37(3), 163-176. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2021.1897913 jung, j. h., & lim, d-g. (2020). industrial robots, employment growth, and labor cost: a simultaneous equation analysis. technological forecasting and social change, 159, 120202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120202 kirichenko, m. o. (2017). іnformatizacіya yak faktor optymizacіji іdeologії іnformacіjnogo suspіlstva ta zabezpechennya jogo stalogo rozvytku. [informatization as the factor of optimization of the ideology of the information society in terms of network-communicative space]. scientific journal «sciencerise: pedagogical education», 1(9), 46-50. https://doi.org/10.15587/2519-4984.2017.91627 kondarevych, v., andriushchenko, k., pokotylska, n., ortina, g., zborovska, o., & budnyak, l. (2020). digital transformation of business processes of an enterprise. tem journal, 9(4), 1800-1808. https://doi.org/10.18421/tem94-63 kraus, n., holoborodko, o., & kraus, k. (2018). cyfrova ekonomika: trendy ta perspektyvy avangardnogo harakteru rozvytku [digital economy: trends and prospects of avant-garde development], efficient economy, 1. http://www.economy.nayka.com.ua/pdf/1_2018/8.pdf kravchenko, o., leshchenko, m., marushchak, d., & vdovychenko, y. (2019). digitalization as a global trend and growth factor of the modern economy. in ceur workshop proceedings, vol. 2422 (pp. 434–443). ceur-ws. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20196507004 liashenko, v., & vyshnevskyi, o. (2018). cyfrova modernіzacyja ekonomіki ukrayini yak mozhlivіst prorivnogo rozvytku: monografіya [digital modernization of the economy of ukraine as an opportunity for breakthrough development: a monograph]. nas of ukraine, institute of industrial economics. https://ceur-ws.org/vol-2422/paper25.pdf https://doi.org/10.32702/2306-6806.2020.3.66 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2017.10.003 https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2021.1897913 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120202 https://doi.org/10.15587/2519-4984.2017.91627 https://doi.org/10.18421/tem94‐63 http://www.economy.nayka.com.ua/pdf/1_2018/8.pdf https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20196507004 national strategy of information society in the realities of ukraine nataliia shust et al. 255 https://iie.org.ua/monografiyi-2018-r/tsifrova-modernizatsiya-ekonomikiukrayini-yak-mozhlivist-prorivnogo-rozvitku-v-i-lyashenko-o-svishnevskiy-2018-r/ nerubasska, a., palshkov, k., & maksymchuk, b. (2020). a systemic philosophical analysis of the contemporary society and the human: new potential. postmodern openings, 11(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 oecd. (2019). vectors of digital transformation. oecd digital papers, 273. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/vectors-of-digitaltransformation_5ade2bba-en rudenko, m. (2021). analіz pozycij ukrajiny v globalnyh іndeksah cyfrovoji ekonomіky [analysis of ukraine's positions in global indicators of the digital economy]. ekonomika ta derzhava [economy and the state], 2, 11–18. https://doi.org/10.32702/2306-6806.2021.2.11 scaringella, l., & radziwon, a. (2018). innovation, entrepreneurial, knowledge, and business ecosystems: old wine in new bottles? technological forecasting and social change, 136, 59-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.09.023 shumaeva, m. (2014). analіz klasichnih koncepcіj stanovlennya іnformacіjnogo suspіlstva [analysis of classical concepts of information society formation]. scientific bulletin of kherson state university. series "economic sciences", 8(4), 1317. http://www.ej.kherson.ua/journal/economic_08/165.pdf sussan, f., & acs, z. j. (2017). the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. small business economics, 49(1), 55-73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-98675 szopik-depczyńska, k., & kędzierska-szczepaniak, a., szczepaniak, k., cheba, k., gajda, w., & ioppolo, g. (2018). innovation in sustainable development: an investigation of the eu context using 2030 agenda indicators. land use policy, 79, 251-262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.08.004 voronkova, v. g., & sosnin, o. v. (2015). formuvannya іnformacіjnogo suspіl'stva v ukrajinі: vyklyk chi potreba chasu? [forming an information society in ukraine: a challenge or a need for time?]. humanitarian bulletin of the zaporizhia state engineering academy, 60, 13-24. https://doi.org/10.30839/2072-7941.2015.42519 world bank. (2016). digital adoption index. world bank https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016/digital-adoptionindex world intellectual property organization (wipo). (2021). global innovation index 2021: tracking innovation through the covid-19 crisis. world intellectual property organization. https://www.wipo.int/global_innovation_index/en/2021/ https://iie.org.ua/monografiyi-2018-r/tsifrova-modernizatsiya-ekonomiki-ukrayini-yak-mozhlivist-prorivnogo-rozvitku-v-i-lyashenko-o-s-vishnevskiy-2018-r/ https://iie.org.ua/monografiyi-2018-r/tsifrova-modernizatsiya-ekonomiki-ukrayini-yak-mozhlivist-prorivnogo-rozvitku-v-i-lyashenko-o-s-vishnevskiy-2018-r/ https://iie.org.ua/monografiyi-2018-r/tsifrova-modernizatsiya-ekonomiki-ukrayini-yak-mozhlivist-prorivnogo-rozvitku-v-i-lyashenko-o-s-vishnevskiy-2018-r/ https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/235 https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/vectors-of-digital-transformation_5ade2bba-en https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/vectors-of-digital-transformation_5ade2bba-en https://doi.org/10.32702/2306-6806.2021.2.11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.09.023 http://www.ej.kherson.ua/journal/economic_08/165.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9867-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9867-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.08.004 https://doi.org/10.30839/2072-7941.2015.42519 https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016/digital-adoption-index https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016/digital-adoption-index https://www.wipo.int/global_innovation_index/en/2021/ broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 256 wu, m., liu, c., & huang, j. (2021). the special economic zones and innovation: evidence from chinа. china economic quarterly international, 1(4), 319-330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceqi.2021.11.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceqi.2021.11.004 ©2022 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2022, volume 13, issue 2, pages: 245-258 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/341 submitted: september 20th, 2021| accepted for publication: december 17th, 2021 features of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern higher education in the context of modern neurosciences svitlana gvozdii 1 , ruslana romaniuk 2 , svitlana genkal 3 , inna shorobura 4 , vasyl stakhiv 5 , vadym pienov 6 1 odessa i. i. mechnikov national university, ukraine, spgvozdiy77@onu.edu.ua, orcid id https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8208-2972 2 zhytomyr ivan franko state university, ukraine, melnychenko.ruslana@gmail.com, orcid id https://orcid.org/0000-00026306-7427 3 sumy state pedagogical university named after a.s. makarenko, ukraine, filadelfus205@gmail.com, orcid id https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7812-6103 4 khmelnytskyi humanitarian pedagogical academy, shorobura@gmail.com, orcid id https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3728-7968 5 drohobych ivan franko state pedagogical university, ukraine, vasylstakhiv@ukr.net 6 odessa i. i. mechnikov national university , ukraine, vadim_v.p@ukr.net, orcid id https://orcid.org/0000-00020900-525x abstract: in the article, questions about the features of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern higher education in the context of modern neurosciences are highlighted.it was found that highly qualified and competent teachers are the key to successful higher education. the concept of "neuroscience" is investigated. publications and books of domestic and foreign scientists on the training of future teachers of natural disciplines in the view of neurosciences are highlighted. the application of methodological approaches in teaching future teachers of natural disciplines is noted. the branch of neuro-andragogy, which is important for adult learning is considered. it is noted that university teachers should enrich the educational process with modern strategies in order to meet the needs of future student teachers. it is noted that future teachers are interested in mastering knowledge of neurosciences, because they understand that this will help them in their professional activities. it has been proven that many scientists argue that education cannot exist today without neurosciences. the facts that have a special impact on the work of the child's body and on learning have been clarified: energy supply, nutrition, stress resistance and environmental pollution. a study of approbation of foreign programs "scheme of education and neuroscience" and "science of the brain in motion" was carried out. it was found that students are interested in knowledge about the work of their own brain and try to work on themselves to help the body improve its performance.it is noted that scientists argue that for the activity of the brain to be productive, it is necessary for the neurons, synapse and myelin to work in a balanced way.it was proven that covid 19 pandemic to negatively impacted education. it was found that physical activity and the activity of cognitive functions are an integral link. emphasis is placed on the pedagogy of partnership, which will promote close cooperation of teachers, children and parents and help parents to preserve the health of the child. keywords: educational process, neuroscience, neuro-andragogy, neuropsychologist, learning strategies, cognitive processes, brain activity. how to cite: gvozdii, s., romaniuk, r., genkal, s., shorobura, i., stakhiv, v., & pienov, v. (2022). features of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern higher education in the context of modern neurosciences. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 13(2), 245-258. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/341 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/341 mailto:spgvozdiy77@onu.edu.ua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8208-2972 mailto:melnychenko.ruslana@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6306-7427 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6306-7427 mailto:filadelfus205@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7812-6103 mailto:shorobura@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3728-7968 mailto:vasylstakhiv@ukr.net mailto:vadim_v.p@ukr.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0900-525x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0900-525x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.2/341 features of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern higher... svitlana gvozdii et al. 246 1. introduction guerriero s. (2017) in his textbook “educational research and innovation” examines in detail the role of the teacher, analyzes the activities, notes the successes and problems of the teaching profession. the author emphasizes that highly qualified and competent teachers are the key of successful higher education. today, in order to help university students to realize their full potential and become valuable professionals, teachers should possess important professional competence be ready for a continuous process of updating professional knowledge (demchenko et al., 2021; prots et al., 2021; kosholap et al., 2021; ovcharuk et al., 2021; komogorova et al., 2021). scientist bruer j. (1997) noted that neurosciencesare a field that studies the problems of children with special needs, suffering from speech disorders, dyslexia, dyscalculia, attention deficit disorder, social and emotional disorders. it is known that the human brain is one of the main human organs. a neuropsychologist is a physiologist who studies the relationship between the physical brain and behavior, that is, helps a child overcome learning difficulties and rapid mood changes, as well as memory problems. it is worth noting the textbook written by churches r. (2017), which presents a serious theoretical and practical base on neuroscientific findings, which is used by teachers in organizing the educational process. the manual “neurology for teachers” provides detailed sections about the study of metacognition, memory, motivation, emotions, skills, attention of children. in his work, bergen d. (2017) examines the brain function of children of different ages. the author notes that during the period of primary school and adolescence, children may experience cognitive impairments in the work of the brain, emotional disorders. it is known that often elementary school students who successfully studied have difficulties in higher school: it is difficult for them to concentrate, plan actions, control their behavior, etc. in adolescence, children have to solve conflicts, misunderstandings and disputes between peers and adults can arise and sometimes depression occurs. adults expect more adult behavior from adolescents. the work of tkachenko i. et al. (2020) is devoted to the application of methodological approaches to teaching future teachers of natural sciences, this work analyzes in detail the approaches to teaching physics, chemistry, biology in higher school. the activity approach is focused broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 247 specifically on practical actions and independent planning of their activities by students. psychodiagnostic approach is based on subject, methodological, didactic and psychological knowledge. the competence-based approach is focused on the result in educational activities. the integrity of the above approaches makes it possible to form critical thinking in students and ensure a high level of professional training of future teachers. in his article, hrytsai n. (2017) argues that during practical classes, future biology teachers learn new methods, interactive technologies and learning strategies that contribute to the development of intellectual and practical skills and aimed at developing critical and creative thinking. during laboratory classes, future biology teachers conduct lessons with students, using modern forms of work, perform laboratory research. in addition, the author recommends to his colleagues to study the experience of methodological training of future biology teachers in foreign countries and implement them in universities. in the article by friederichs a. (2018) we learn that the theorist of adult education knowles m. (1980) popularized the branch of neuroandragogy, and also set out his theoretical views in the book “modern practice of adult education”. it is known that currently, universities teach studentsusing knowles' theory (1980), which is based on six principles: 1) adults learn, 2) gain experience, 3) adults are willing to learn related to social roles, 4) adults want the immediate application of knowledge, 5) they are intrinsically motivated, 6) adults need to understand the reason for learning. as defined by wilson c. (2006), who is the author of the book “nobody's old to learn”, neuro-andragogy examines scientific research about the adult brain. neuro-andragogy is the anatomical and physiological study of the adult brain, as well as the cognitive functions of the brain systems involved in the development of intelligence, memory, thinking and cognition. the author assures that neuro-andragogy is important for anyone who teaches adults in order to influence the brain of adults during training. 2. the essence of teaching future science teachers in modern higher school in his publication friederichs a. (2018) notes that the human brain consists of 100 million neurons, or brain cells. every time a child or adult learns something new, the brain processes the information and adds it to the previous experience. the author advises to enrich and diversify the educational process with more active forms of work in order to encourage students to take action. he also draws attention to constructivism a theory that is based on the fact that in the learning process, the student gains features of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern higher... svitlana gvozdii et al. 248 experience and reflects on what he saw. during their studies, the teacher invites students to create mind maps or a collage of their own thoughts, review podcasts or find videos, try to record a virtual review of the results obtained using phones or webcams. thus, neuro-andragogy shows that educators should enrich the educational process with modern teaching strategies to meet the needs of modern students. it should be noted the work of owens m. (2017), which invites teachers to select tasks that will arouse students' interest, then learning will be effective. in addition, it is better to associate tasks with real life, to give exercises for the association of the selection of concepts in order to induce active work of brain cells in students. the author conducted research on four different forms of work, which were proposed for the experiment to first-year students, future teachers of biology. the first was the involvement of active making homework. reading is known to be a passive learning strategy. therefore, in order for the training to be effective, students should be faced with tasks and problems that need to be solved. the second type is conceptual maps. when students create concept maps, they should clearly link biological concepts and ideas to each other, rather than consider them separately. the experiment has proven that creating concept maps improves understanding of learning material and makes it easier to remember what has been learned. the third type is problem learning, which helps to solve difficult situations in which attention develops and motivation to learn appears. the fourth type is the study of the experience of various scientists. this form can involve students in various studies. in addition, it is worth using the exchange of views in the work, when students ask interesting questions, to provide a basis for reflection and discussion. questions encourage students to connect the material being studied with previously studied material, to solve real problems, to think, that is, they increase nervous plasticity. friendly and collaborative work fosters new ideas. particularly noteworthy is the article by zambo d. and zambo r. (2009), in which the author notes that students of their university, future teachers are motivated to learn more about the brain. they persistently find information about the brain from textbooks, watch videos from websites, because they believe that they can apply new knowledge and modern techniques in their future professional activities. students believe that thanks to new research, it is possible to improve and stimulate the cognitive processes of children. if future science teachers gain knowledge about neurons, synopsis and the brain, they will be able to apply the gained knowledge and skills in working with children and effectively organize the educational process. it should be remembered that with the rapid scientific broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 249 and technological progress, we are able to find the information we need, but at the same time there are many websites with questionable information about the brain. thus, future educators insist that today's teachers should study the latest research on the brain and find practical teaching strategies for children. in her article, upatova (2020) explores the use of interactive methods in teaching future biology teachers, compares modern teaching strategies to identify more effective and meaningful. the author emphasizes that now it is worth paying special attention to the development of critical thinking of teachers, to develop their potential, to intensify attention to reflection and apply contextual learning. in addition, the author emphasizes the organization of individual, pair, group and collective forms of education. attention is drawn to the article by thomas et al. (2018), who notes that education and neuroscience must complement each other in order to study the brain as a biological organ that must work successfully. in addition, the author focuses on the fact that the relevance of neurobiology for education has been recognized throughout the 20th century. many scientists have published their studies proving the close connection between education and neuroscience. the development of neurosciences contributed to the creation in 2004 of the international society of mind, brain and education, in 2009 the european research association founded the group “neurology and education”. but, unfortunately, the author emphasizes that at that time there was no cooperation between psychology, education and neurosciences, there was more competition. it is worth remembering that psychology studies human behavior, and neurosciences studies the work of brain mechanisms that regulate human behavior. therefore, bruer j. (1997) wrote about the close connection that should exist between neurosciences, psychology and education. thomas et al. (2018) identifies energy supply, nutrition, stress resistance and environmental pollution as factors that can affect the functioning of the child's body and, at the same time, the learning of students.therefore, the goal of neurosciences is to improve learning results to help them develop abilities, focus and promote motivation. an interesting fact is that in 2014 in the united kingdom, a charitable organization that took care of poor students in england and the educational foundations launched the “education and neuroscience scheme” program, which aimed at the implementation of 6 projects, howard-jones p. et al. (2016). the first project aimed at examining sleep model in adolescents and assessing its impact on student achievement. the second project investigated the effect of different cardiovascular activities on learning success, using brain imaging to investigate the mechanism of any features of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern higher... svitlana gvozdii et al. 250 observed correlation. the third project is the potential for open-source training in science and mathematics. the fourth assessed the effectiveness of distance learning. the fifth project was based on neurosciences. sixth studied the effectiveness of computer games to improve reading by developing phonemic hearing.for consideration, let's take the first two projects, which are undoubtedly based on partnerships between education and neurosciences. restricting adolescent sleep time for several nights in a row affects cognitive functions of the brain, and conversely, regularity and intense exercise during the day contribute to better student performance. meditation reduces stress, regulates emotions, and helps children to be active and attentive. 3. strategies for working with students in the paradigm of neurosciences the question of the introduction of neurosciences in the professional development of teachers of natural disciplines was considered by d. dubinsky (2013). the author emphasizes that every day during the lesson, the teacher helps the child to develop the cognitive functions of the brain: to understand information, learn new things, understand, read texts, perceive material, etc. the article indicates that students of pedagogical universities study the ionic, molecular and biophysical level of generating brain activity. two-week brainu hands-on seminars were held for university educators to learn the fundamental principles of neuroscience, including neurological instructional concepts, and to enhance their knowledge of brain anatomy and physiology. research has shown that educators have enriched their knowledge of neuroscience and changed their teaching strategies in order to conduct more active classes that are more student-centered. teachers claim that thanks to the knowledge they received, they began to treat students more positively, energetically and more tolerantly, they had a high motivation to teach, they understood the negative impact of stress on students' knowledge. with great enthusiasm, university teachers passed on knowledge about neurosciences to future teachers of natural sciences, since they understand that this is extremely necessary for young teachers. a competent teacher in the field of neurosciences will be able to easily understand the level of a child's development, choose teaching methods and strategies, and help improve the functioning of brain circuits responsible for the formation of various cognitive skills. noteworthy is the article by mcnabb c. et al. (2017), which states that the department of neurosciences at the university of minnesota and broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 251 the science museum of minnesota jointly developed the program “brain science in motion” for testing by science teachers with students in grades 58. this course was aimed at raising the level of knowledge of educators in the field of neurosciences, arousing interest among middle school students and attracting them to the study of brain science, which will help to explore their own thinking and learning processes, to foster partnerships between rural and urban schools, scientists, educators and students. after being trained at brainu, teachers began to apply new teaching strategies, and an interest in professional activities appeared. in addition, minnesota participants showed high results in the iii international exam in mathematics and science. thus, teachers, together with students, explored modern researchеs on the human nervous system and the brain. the “brain science in motion” course was based on 5 components: 1brainu summer training to improve the professional development of teachers of natural sciences, which would help deepen knowledge and skills, get acquainted with resources for use in practice; 2 viewing a multimedia presentation by students in order to familiarize themselves with the brain and thinking processes; 3 exhibition stations conducting interactive activities for students; 4 classroom activities, 5 – “brain chests” a set of materials and resources for processing. during their studies at brainu, teachers examined in detail six main topics: 1) macro/microstructure and function of the nervous system, 2) neurotransmission and neuroimaging techniques, 3) learning and memory, 4) the use of model systems, 5) properties and research design, 6) synthesis and development of an individual action plan for integrating neurosciences into the school curriculum. teachers took part in a variety of neurosciences classes and assessed the assembly and exhibition station programs, developed their own exercises, modeled teaching strategies, and explored neurosciences-related web resources. participants had the opportunity to communicate with neurologists, visit laboratories working on neuron cells and sensory-motor integration. the assembly introduced students to neurology in an exciting way, demonstrated a multimedia presentation about the brain. with the help of optical and auditory aids, using modern imaging techniques, students were shown the neural plasticity of the brain and a model synapse to help understand the functions of different parts of the brain and their impact on thinking, perception and memory. there were three exhibition stations in the classrooms, where students had the opportunity to discuss with scientists the structure of the human and animal brains, learn how to determine the work of brain waves using a computer, take part in eight activities to test themselves for relative sensitivity, sensory motor coordination, etc. “brain features of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern higher... svitlana gvozdii et al. 252 stems” contained cds, videos, books, coloring books, lists of web resources, models of how the brain looks and works, how neurons interact with each other. according to the observations of teachers, students are interested in neurosciences, and in the future they can connect their profession with this knowledge. in the future, teachers of natural sciences plan to deepen their knowledge of pedagogy and neurology, as well as share their experience with colleagues. in his article, educator willis j. (2009) share his best practices and recommendations on how to improve brain function in students. the author assures that if the teacher wants to see his pupils successful, smart, then he must teach them to control their own health, improve the cognitive processes of the brain. it is known that many students believe that they have certain intelligence from birth, and therefore they cannot change the brain. but it's not like that. the teacher recommends practicing mindfulness exercisesand using activities that would help children focus and achieve a positive mood. a valuable supplement for organizing successful learning is the article by sriram r. (2020). the author notes that performing interesting and difficult tasks in the lesson stimulates the production of myelin, a substance that improves the functioning of brain signals. to make learning for children productive, four strategies have been proposed. the teacher should take care of the application of modern effective methods and techniques for effective teaching, but for this he must first understand what happens to the brain of students when they study simple and complex material. the brain requires three components: neurons, synapsis, and myelin. sriram r. (2020) recommends using four strategies to improve the educational process: search, alternation, spacing and mindfulness. selected aspects of improving educational performance and mental health of children are covered by tortella g. et al. (2021). the author notes that the covid-19 pandemic and the strengthening of quarantine restrictions have negatively affected education, because loneliness, anxiety and stress have led to a deterioration in the mental well-being of both teachers and students. undoubtedly, electronic resources have come to help teachers in distance learning, which, through the use of information and communication technologies helped to conduct classes but they are not able to replace live communication. therefore, analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of distance learning, it was found that memorization or repetition in the classroom does not contribute to learning, the best success can be achieved through experiments. neurologists consider physical activity, healthy eating and restful sleep as important aspects all of which broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 253 directly affect a child's success. in addition, to increase mental health resilience, educators should use modern teaching methods and strategies that will encourage students and develop their mental processes. therefore, the question arises: are teachers really ready to teach in terms of e-learning and children, in turn, emotionally and physically ready to perceive information and keep it for a long time? because the learning process in education is easy to change, emotions triggered by life events also affect mental health and academic performance. scientists from different countries have studied the condition of children in distance learning. students in argentine schools who were limited in communication had problems with emotional regulation, so this negatively affected their perception. us college students experienced fear, anxiety, depressed thoughts, concerns about the health of their relatives during the covid-19 pandemic, and therefore had difficulty concentrating and remembering. thus, social distance generates loneliness, reduces the appearance of positive emotions and the motivation for learning is lost. therefore, an important task for teachers and parents is to support students by providing tools that will facilitate learning, as well as inhibit negative emotions that hinder cognitive processes. in his work, mercanti-anthony m. (2021) is concerned that in the fall of 2021 educational institutions will have to use various forms of assessment in order to find out the gaps in children's learning that arose during distance learning in the spring of the same year. it is known that cognitive science has made progress in understanding how the child's brain works over the past 20 years, so in this case teachers should choose strategies for questioning, modeling and feedback. at the bronx academy of research, educators use the principles of the famous professor of educational psychology rosenshine b. (2012), who developed his own theory and thus offered recommendations for the implementation and modeling of skills in children. the main advice of the scientist is to frequently ask questions to students in order to develop thought processes and assess the understanding of what has been learned. knowledge of neurosciences helps to learn about how actions in the brain are related to environmental factors, emotional and cognitive processes. an interesting fact is that many years ago, scientists proved that good nutrition is an important factor for the development of cognitive abilities, food affects the plasticity of the central nervous system and has the ability to recover from injuries. a separate issue is teacher burnout, also triggered by elearning. teachers had to quickly learn new programs, manage problem behaviors of children in the classroom, overcome emotional exhaustion. features of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern higher... svitlana gvozdii et al. 254 a literature review shows that there are many publications on the relationship between physical activity and the development of cognitive functions. in particular, the article by tomporowski p. et al. (2008) investigated the effect of exercise on the mind, cognition and learning activity of children. of course, mobile, physical education in the classroom is extremely necessary for students. modern reform in education prompted the emergence of the term “pedagogical partnership”, that is, the new ukrainian school works on the basis of cooperation and interaction of teachers, children and parents. many articles are devoted specifically to the topic of exercises that neuropsychologists, psychologists, and educators can recommend for use by parents. myers r. ph.d. (2021) offers 6 activities to train the brain of children. the author emphasizes that such exercises help childrento develop mental abilities: learn to plan, remember details, manage time, regulate emotions, solve problems, communicate, be organized. such executive functions contribute to academic and work success. the article by pickering s. & howard-jones, p. (2007) confirms that the knowledge of neuropsychology and neuropedagogy is necessary for future teachers of natural sciences. the author of the publication proves that the interviewed teachers have a great desire to introduce knowledge of neurosciences into education in order to acquire practical skills and abilities to improve the functioning of brain activity of children. 4. conclusions undoubtedly, the literature review shows that in the scientific literature there are many works of domestic and foreign scientists, covering the issues of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern high school in the context of modern neurosciences. it was found that the activities of modern higher education depend on highly qualified and competent teachers. one of the modern subjects for adult education is neuro-andragogy, which is currently important as it helps to influence the brain of adults during learning. it is useful for university teachers to enrich the educational process with active forms of work, to select interesting exercises to encourage students to take action and motivate them. both adults and children are interested in mastering the theory of neurosciences and consider it necessary to study it. therefore, educators should systematically help children generate brain activity and thereby develop cognitive functions. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 255 it has been proven that physical activity has a positive effect on the intelligence, knowledge, learning activity of children. in addition, scientists are developing exercises so that parents can train their children's brain. therefore, teachers are convinced that in the organization of the modern educational process they need knowledge of neurosciences. references bergen, d. (2017). brain development and learning in the adult years. in d. bergen, j. schroer, m. woodin (eds.), brain research in education and the social sciences (pp. 1-14). taylor&francisgroup. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/97813154652109/brain-development-learning-adult-years-doris-bergen-joseph-schroermichael-woodin bruer, j. (1997). education and the brain: a bridge too far. educational researcher, 26(8), 4-16. https://doi.org/10.3102%2f0013189x026008004 churches, r., dommett, e., & devonshire, i. (2017). neuroscience for teachers: applying research evidence from brain science. crown house publishing. demchenko, i., maksymchuk, b., bilan, v., maksymchuk, i., & kalynovska, i. (2021). training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 dubinsky, j. (2013). infusing neuroscience into teacher professional development. educational researcher, 42(6), 317-329. https://doi.org/10.3102%2f0013189x13499403 friederichs, a. (2018). how the adult brain learns: the importance of creating enriched environments when teaching [electronic resource]. unbound. https://unbound.upcea.edu/innovation/contemporary-learners/how-theadult-brain-learns-the-importance-of-creating-enriched-environmentswhen-teaching/. guerriero, s. (ed.) (2017). pedagogical knowledge and the changing nature of the theaching proffession. oecd publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264270695-en howard-jones, p. a., varma, s., ansari, d., butterworth, b., de smedt, b., goswami, u., laurillard, d., & thomas, m. s. (2016). the principles and practices of educational neuroscience: comment on bowers (2016). psychological review, 123(5), 620-627. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000036 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781315465210-9/brain-development-learning-adult-years-doris-bergen-joseph-schroer-michael-woodin https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781315465210-9/brain-development-learning-adult-years-doris-bergen-joseph-schroer-michael-woodin https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781315465210-9/brain-development-learning-adult-years-doris-bergen-joseph-schroer-michael-woodin https://doi.org/10.3102%2f0013189x026008004 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/227 https://doi.org/10.3102%2f0013189x13499403 https://unbound.upcea.edu/innovation/contemporary-learners/how-the-adult-brain-learns-the-importance-of-creating-enriched-environments-when-teaching/ https://unbound.upcea.edu/innovation/contemporary-learners/how-the-adult-brain-learns-the-importance-of-creating-enriched-environments-when-teaching/ https://unbound.upcea.edu/innovation/contemporary-learners/how-the-adult-brain-learns-the-importance-of-creating-enriched-environments-when-teaching/ https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264270695-en https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000036 features of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern higher... svitlana gvozdii et al. 256 hrytsai, n. b. (2017). metodychna pidhotovka maybutnikh uchyteliv biolohiyi v yevropeysʹkomu osvitnʹomu prostori [methodical training of future biology teachers in the european educational space]. ukrainian pedagogical journal, 3, 63-69. http://uej.undip.org.ua/upload/iblock/f74/f745986b1b507f8a3abbed6c5c 07125f.pdf knowles, m. (1980). the modern practice of adult education. from pedagogy to andragogy. cambridge: the adult education company, https://www.umsl.edu/~henschkej/articles/a_the_%20modern_practice _of_adult_education.pdf komogorova, m., maksymchuk, b., bernatska, o., lukianchuk, s., gerasymova, i., popova, o., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., kalashnik, n., davydenko, h., stoliarenko, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). pedagogical consolidation of pupil-athletes knowledge of humanities. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(1), 168-187. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 kosholap, a., maksymchuk, b., branitska, t., martynets, l., boichenko, a., stoliarenko, o., matsuk, l., surovov, o., stoliarenko, o., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). neuropsychological bases of self-improvement of own physical health of future teachers in the course of university education. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 mcnabb, c. (2017). neuroscience in middle schools: a professional development and resource program that models inquiry-based strategies and engages teachers in classroom implementation. cbe—life sciences education, 5(2), 144-157. https://doi.org/10.1187%2fcbe.05-08-0109 mercanti-anthony, m. (2021). using cognitive science to boost learning [electronic resource]. edutopiq. https://www.edutopia.org/article/usingcognitive-science-boost-learning. myers, r. (2021). 6 brain training exercises for children and teens [electronic resource]. empoweringparents. https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/6-brain-training-exercisesfor-children-and-teens/. ovcharuk, v., maksymchuk, b., ovcharuk, v., khomenko, o., khomenko, s., yevtushenko, y., rybalko, p., pustovit, h., myronenko, n., syvokhop, y., sheian, m., matviichuk, t., solovyov, v., & maksymchuk, i. (2021). forming competency in health promotion in technical specialists using physical education. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 13(3), 01-19. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 http://uej.undip.org.ua/upload/iblock/f74/f745986b1b507f8a3abbed6c5c07125f.pdf http://uej.undip.org.ua/upload/iblock/f74/f745986b1b507f8a3abbed6c5c07125f.pdf https://www.umsl.edu/~henschkej/articles/a_the_%20modern_practice_of_adult_education.pdf https://www.umsl.edu/~henschkej/articles/a_the_%20modern_practice_of_adult_education.pdf https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1/367 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/226 https://doi.org/10.1187%2fcbe.05-08-0109 https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-cognitive-science-boost-learning https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-cognitive-science-boost-learning https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/6-brain-training-exercises-for-children-and-teens/ https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/6-brain-training-exercises-for-children-and-teens/ https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.3/437 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2022 volume 13, issue 2 257 owens, m. t., & tanner, k. d. (2017). teaching as brain changing: exploring connections between neuroscience and innovative teaching. cbe life sciences education, 16(2), fe2. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-01-0005 pickering, s., & howard-jones, p. (2007). educators’ views on the role of neuroscience in education: findings from a study of uk and international perspectives. mind, brain, and education, 1(3), 109-113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228x.2007.00011.x prots, r., yakovliv, v., medynskyi, s., kharchenko, r., hryb, t., klymenchenko, t., ihnatenko, s., buzhyna, i., & maksymchuk, b. (2021). psychophysical training of young people for homeland defence using means of physical culture and sports. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 12(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 rosenshine, b. (2012). principles of instruction: research-based strategies that all teachers should know. american educator, 36(1), 12-39. https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/rosenshine.pdf sriram, r. (2020). theneurosciencebehindproductivestruggle [electronic resource]. edutopiq. https://www.edutopia.org/article/neurosciencebehind-productive-struggle. thomas, m., ansari, d., & knowland, v. (2018). annual research review: educational neuroscience: progress and prospects. the journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 60(4), 477-492. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12973 tkachenko, i. (2020). zastosuvannya metodolohichnykh pidkhodiv u metodychniy pidhotovtsi maybutnʹoho vchytelya pryrodnychykh nauk [application of methodological approaches in methodical training of the future teacher of natural sciences]. in i. tkachenko, i. soltusenko (eds.), problemy pidhotovky vchyteliv pryrodnychykh nauk na zasadakh intehratsiyi [problems of training of teachers of natural sciences on the basis of integration], (pp. 87-90). uman. https://bodia.online/l/vlxpqd tomporowski, p., davis, c., miller, p., & naglieri, j. (2008). exercise and children’s intelligence, cognition, and academic achievement. educ psychol rev., 20(2), 111-131. https://doi.org/10.1007%2fs10648-007-90570 tortella, g. r., seabra, a. b., padrão, j., & díaz-san juan, r. (2021). mindfulness and other simple neuroscience-based proposals to promote the learning performance and mental health of students during the covid-19 pandemic. brain sciences, 11(5), 552. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11050552 https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-01-0005 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228x.2007.00011.x https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/12.3/225 https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/rosenshine.pdf https://www.edutopia.org/article/neuroscience-behind-productive-struggle https://www.edutopia.org/article/neuroscience-behind-productive-struggle https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12973 https://bodia.online/l/vlxpqd https://doi.org/10.1007%2fs10648-007-9057-0 https://doi.org/10.1007%2fs10648-007-9057-0 https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11050552 features of training future teachers of natural sciences in modern higher... svitlana gvozdii et al. 258 upatova, i. (2020). interaktyvni metody navchannya maybutnikh uchyteliv biolohiy [interactive methods of training of future teachers of biology]. [electronic resource]. dspace of berdyansk state pedagogical university. http://dspace.bdpu.org:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/3365. willis, j. (2009). how to teach students about the brain [electronic resource]. ascd. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/how-to-teach-students-aboutthe-brain wilson, c. (2006). no one is too old to learn: neuroandragogy: a theoretical perspective on adult brain functions and adult learning. new york: iuniverse. zambo, d., & zambo, r. (2009). what future teachers think about brain research. teaching educational psychology, 5(2), 39-49. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej894801.pdf http://dspace.bdpu.org:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/3365 https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/how-to-teach-students-about-the-brain https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/how-to-teach-students-about-the-brain https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej894801.pdf microsoft word brain_8_2017_issue_1_vers3.docx 24 auto-generative learning objects in online assessment of data structures disciplines ciprian-bogdan chirila university politehnica timişoara, piaţa victoriei 2, timişoara 300006 romania chirila@cs.upt.ro abstract nowadays, regional it industry lacks human resources because of the pressure created on the labor market by the high-value economic projects. tutors tend to be more and more loaded with teaching, research, and administrative tasks. students tend to use more and more electronically devices like laptops, tablets, and mobile phones in their learning sessions. in this context, universities should rely more on technologies like: lmss (learning management systems), moocs (massive open online courses), and why not glos (generative learning objects) or evenaglos (auto-generative learning objects). auto-generative learning objects are reusable pedagogical patterns to be instantiated with generated content based on random numbers to fulfill the learning objectives. many online e-learning resources are available containing interactive presentations, gamifications of several learning objectives. such e-learning resources are hard to reuse and even harder to modify and adapt to; each discipline needs this because it needs access to the source code, programming knowledge to change, test and deploy etc. in this paper, we will focus on computer science disciplines needed in the regional it industry, namely data structures and algorithms. we will show how a tutor can build several auto-generative learning objects in order to assess the knowledge of a class of students. we will start with the design of the generic models, then we will assess the generated content created with the help of a tool based on meta-programming, afterwards, we will deploy the content to a webserver to be consumed by the students. finally, we will evaluate the assessed results and discuss the approach both from the student’s and the tutor’s perspective. keywords: generative learning objects, auto-generative learning objects, online assessment 1. introduction the nowadays it industry is in a human resources crisis due to the pressure created on the labor market by the high economic value projects. the teaching staff from universities tends to be more and more loaded with teaching, research, and administrative tasks. moreover, students rely very much on technology using laptops, tablets, and smartphones in their daily routine and also when they study. they are much present on social networks, accessing social media content. such a context forcesuniversities into relying on e-learning technologies such as microformats enhanced learning management systems (lms) (ermalai & dragulescu & ternauciuc & vasiu, 2013), massive open online courses (moocs) (naaji & mustea & holotescu & herman, 2015), generative learning objects (glos) (boyle, 2003; boyle, 2006), and also auto-generative learning objects (aglos) (chirila & ciocarlie & stoicu, 2015). in this paper, we will present a concrete instantiation of a set of auto-generative learning objects that help students grasp easier basic programming knowledge that is taught in data structures and algorithms discipline. we worked on a set of data structures namely: generalized trees, binary ordered trees, graphs, and weighted graphs. c. b. chirila auto-generative learning objects in online assessment of data structures disciplines 25 figure 1. the aglo online assessment approach in figure 1, we present the lifetime of aglos in the context of online student assessment following a set of steps. in the backend, the tutor develops an aglo model respecting a predefined meta-model. the model is intuitive, it has a few sections where symbols are defined using formulas and random numbers and then used in a section of a presentation for the student. when such models are created they are stored in a storage facility like a database to be selected by the student through the web application frontend. in the frontend, the students access the web application using a web browser from a workstation, tablet or smartphone. in the assessment process, the student will access several aglos. at this step, the accessed aglos are instantiated with random numbers, formulas are evaluated to fulfill the designed learning or testing scenario and to create the presentation content for the student. nevertheless, the instantiated symbols will be used for the automatic assessment of the answers correctness. in order to perform complex tests in a certain domain, a library design is proposed for two purposes. the first purpose is to generate randomly complex structures controlled by parameters, while the second purpose is to implement operators to exploit the details of these structures. for example, in the field of computer programming, we designed several abstract data types together with random generation algorithms and also the classic operators to able the exploit the created structures. more specifically, we designed anabstract-data-type tree equipped with random generation algorithms controlled by parameters like a number of nodes, tree degree, key types etc. the instantiated object is presented to the student. the student will have to read the sentence and start buildinghis/hers answer. the student will fill in the answeron the web page;his/hers response will be evaluated and stored in a learning record store (lrs). the correct answer is shown to the student along with the feedback when possible. in order to make the connection with social media, the positive consolidated results are published on the walls of social networks like the most popular nowadays: facebook. from the cognitive point of view, this paper relies on the learning repetition principle of the same concept in different contexts. aristotle said that it is possible for repetition to create a natural tendency. the test model that we propose is based on a repeated activity intended to build strength and precision and to enable a higher level of performance for the student. the paper is structured as follows. section 2 presents related works. section 3 presents the aglo formal model, in a nutshell. section 4 presents the design and implementation of 10 aglos used in online evaluation with students. section 5 discusses the main encountered issues. section 6 concludes and sets the perspective. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 26 2. related works in this section, we will present related works in the area of learning objects. learning objects are considered deliverable electronic components having a specific learning objective. in this sense, several models were standardized like lom (ieee learning technology standards committee, 2000). in boyle (2003), boyle (2006), jones (2007), the glo term was coined and considered to be the second generation of learning objects. the reuse of pedagogical template patterns was inspired bythe reused concept of software engineering as implemented with object-oriented programming. in stuikys, burbaite, and damasevicius (2013) is presented a generative model for teaching computer science disciplines using lego robots. their work is similar to ours, having common elements like presentation, parameters, generation by metaprogramming, etc. while their work uses embedded code loaded into robots, we implement a web-oriented approach which handles the complexity of exercises through domain libraries. in damasevicius & stuikys (2009), they present a learning object model organized and sequenced by feature diagrams and generated by metaprogramming. our work uses a manually crafted competence model for sequencing. the works of bogdan (2016) and bogdan and ancusa (2016) present principles for designing e-learning tools dedicated to the local automotive industry that we target with our aglo model. their work implies mostly static content having dynamic presentation enhanced by modern tools like tt knowledge force. they use a based-development template for the manual creation of learning materials while our approach uses web-oriented metaprogramming. the common aspect of their and our work is that both are oriented towards the automotive industry where basic programming skills are required in writing embedded codes. karpova, shmelev, and dukhanov (2016) present a similar model to our aglo approach controlled by parameters but enhanced with dynamic learning and evaluation functionalities. the model was applied to master disciplines dealing with optimization and simulation. in chirila (2013) and chirila (2014) are presented several web-oriented generative models for primary and middle school students who learn basic mathematical concepts. the proposed models include dialogs implemented using automate states and mathematical formulae, generic games, etc. implemented using javascript programming language. 3. auto-generative learning objects in this section, we will present the structure of aglos in the context of our approach. the aglo meta-model is structured in xml as in figure 2,a refinement from chirila, ciocarlie, and stoicu (2015). the aglo definition contains several sections like name, scenario, theory, question, answers, and feedback (line 01). the name element contains the name of the aglo, possibly a small description in the human language (line 02). the section of the scenario (line 03) contains a comment (line 04) followed by a set of symbol definitions. the comment should describe the imagined scenario in details and it has the same role as code comments. the symbol is the central element of the aglo model. the symbol has a name and is very similar to programming language variables. symbols may be called also parameters since they control the content of the aglo content in the process of instantiation. the symbol xml element has attached a typeattribute which is useful for the aglo designer, only. the symbol type may be a primitive type like integer, character, string, array, but also another user defined types like tree, graph etc. c. b. chirila auto-generative learning objects in online assessment of data structures disciplines 27 01 aglodef ::= <action> name scenario [theory] question answers feedbacks </action> 02 name ::= <name> (id)* </name> 03 scenario ::= <scenario> [ comment ] symbol* </scenario> 04 comment ::= (id|ct)* 05 symbol ::= <symbol symbolname type> expression </symbol> 06 symbolname ::= name = id 07 type ::= type = (boolean | int | float | double | string | array) 08 expression ::= <expr> function ( expressionlist ) </expr> 09 expressionlist ::= expression (, expression)* 10 function ::= (item from composed functions and operators list of javascript using random numbers) 11 theory ::= <theory> (id)* </theory> 12 question ::= <question> (id | value)* </question> 13 value ::= <value name = id /> 14 answers ::= <answers> (answer)+ </answers> 15 answer ::= <answer id = index > (id | value)* correctness </answer> 16 index ::= integer_literal 17 correctness ::= <correct> (true | false) </correct> 18 feedbacks ::= <feedbacks> (feedback)+ </feedbacks> 19 feedback ::= <feedback> answeridlist (id | value)* active </feedback> 20 answeridlist ::= <answeridlist> (integer_literal)+ </answeridlist> 21 active ::= <active> (true | false) </active> figure 2. auto-generative learning object model definition the symbol has also an initialization expression which relies on ecma javascript (ecma international, 2011) functions, operators, and previously defined symbols (lines 08-10). in this point, the aglo designer should use random number generators in order to change the values at each instantiation. of course, that functionsand operators can be composed altogether and also with domain-specific libraries in order to create a complex content. the symbols type is dynamic since all the initialization expressions are evaluated dynamically at run time and because javascript programming language is dynamically typed. line 11 defines a theory section which is designed to be static and to present theoretical aspects of the problem which the student has to solve in the context of the aglo. the content is filled by the aglo designer with html content. line 12 defines the section of the questions where the problem is presented to the student. this section, benefits from the symbols defined in the scenario section. in this section, symbol values are catenated with static text to form the sentence to be presented to the student. each time the aglo is instantiated, the student will receive a different content based on the variability induced by the symbols depending on random numbers. this section creates a variable linguistics model based on templates including words and also figures. in order to refer a value of a symbol, we use the xml element <value> (line 13) together with the name attribute. such a technique is very common in php, jsp, asp web pages where static content is mixed with dynamic content. the difference is that in such contexts usually, they do not use the randomly generated dynamic content. the answers section (lines 14-17) contains one or more declared answers which may include dynamic content based on symbol values. answers can be open and single choice or brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 28 multiple choices, some being true and some being false. depending on the number of answers the aglo interpreter will handle each case separately. lines 18-21 define the syntax of feedbacks which accompanies the answers. 4. the design and implementation of the online assessment aglos in this section, we will present the specification, design, and implementation of the learning objects in order to be used in the automatic online assessment. we will focus on a set of 10 tests from the area of trees and graphs used inlaboratory evaluation of the student and we will show how they can be implemented with aglos, thus benefitting from content openness, automatic instantiation, and assessment. in the first test, we will give the student an array of parent indexes and will ask him to draw the tree. our aglo model will contain the following: 1. a random symbol for the number of nodes; 2. a generalized tree created randomly; 3. the parent index representation of the tree; 4. an online diagram editor for the student to represent graphically the tree; 5. a comparison operator to compare the student-drawn tree with the generated one. in the second test, the student should write the indexes for the first child and the right sibling of each node of a tree. the aglo model should contain the following: 1. a random symbol for the number of nodes; 2. a generalized tree created at random; 3. the first child and right sibling representation of the tree. in the third test, we will give the student an array of integers randomly generated and representing a balanced binary tree in the sense that the number of nodes in the left and right subtrees differs by a few units. the student will have to represent graphically the tree. our aglo model will contain the following: 1. a random symbol for the number of nodes; 2. an online diagram editor for the student to represent graphically the binary tree; 3. a comparison operator to compare the drawn-tree with the generated one. in the fourth test, the student will have to represent another two trees obtained by deleting sequentially the roots two times. 1. a random symbol for the number of nodes; 2. a balanced binary tree created randomly by the number of nodes; 3. a node deletion operator in order to be applied on the root; 4. an online diagram editor for the student to represent graphically the binary tree; 5. a comparison operator to compare the drawn tree with the generated one. in the fifth test, we will present to the student an adjacency matrix with a set of nodes denoting a graph. the student will have to represent graphically the graph. our aglo model for this test will contain the following: 1. a random symbol for the number of nodes; 2. a generated adjacency matrix of 0 and 1 with the first diagonal set to 0; 3. an online diagram editor for the student to draw the graph. 4. a comparison operator to compare the drawn-graph with the generated one. in the sixth test, we will present to the student a graph and we will ask him to write the graphs’ degree. the aglo model will contain the following: 1. a random symbol for the number of nodes; 2. a generated adjacency matrix of 0 and 1 with the first diagonal set to 0; 3. a graph representation operator in svg format; 4. a graph operator to compute its degree. c. b. chirila auto-generative learning objects in online assessment of data structures disciplines 29 in the seventh test, we will present to the student a graph and we will ask him to list the nodes in a depth-first search order. the aglo model will contain the followings: 1. a random symbol for the number of nodes; 2. a generated adjacency matrix of 0 and 1 with the first diagonal set to 0; 3. a graph representation operator in svg format; 4. a graph operator to compute the depth first search order of nodes. in this case, special indications are needed for the student because there are multiple correct node orders. in order to be able to automatically and easily assess the student’s answer, we impose two restrictions: first, to set the starting node and second, to choose the adjacent nodes in a certain order. for example, we can choose the starting node to be the first in a lexicographical order and to choose alphabetically the adjacent nodes. in the eighth test, we will present to the student a graph and we will ask him to list the contents of the queue sequentially to illustrate the breadth first search. the aglo model will contain the followings: 1. a random symbol for the number of nodes; 2. a generated adjacency matrix of 0 and 1 with the first diagonal set to 0; 3. a graph representation operator in svg format; 4. a graph operator to compute the breadth first search order of nodes. for the last two tests, we will present in detail the variables and their initialization expressions (see figure 3) from the aglo model. <scenario> <symbol name="n" type="integer">random(5,9,0);</symbol> <symbol name="g" type="graph">random_graph( {"nnoofnodes":v("n"), "nmin":0, "nmax":1});</symbol> <symbol name="gsvg" type="string">v("g").tosvg()</symbol> <symbol name="gdfs" type="string"> v("g").depthfirstsearch()</symbol> </scenario> figure 3. symbols definition for a graph-based test in this scenario, we intend to generate a random graph and compute a deep first-search node list. the first defined random symbol is n, namely the number of nodes in the graph as an integer from 5 to 9. the next symbol is named g and denotes the graph object created randomly using 3 parameters: the number of nodes, the minimum, and the maximum value for the weight. for the number of nodes, we used the previously computed value of n, whereas for the weights, we used two constants 0 and 1 since the graph is not weighted. the next symbol is named gsvc and is of type string. the semantic for this symbol is to represent the graph as a string using the svg (scalable vector graphics) representation. svg is a markup language, like html (hyper text markup language), used to represent vector graphics based on graphical primitives. we initialized the symbol with the tosvg() graph operator from the javascript domain library. in figure 4, we present the result of the model instantiation. the number of nodes was generated randomly at value 7. the graph was generated with 9 edges and with random node names like [c, e, g, h, i, j, l]. the nodes are generated randomly, in alphabetical order. the svg representation of the graph is visible inside figure 4. the representation is generated putting the nodes on an imaginary circle with a radius computed as such to provide good visibility and then edges are drawn. for the student answer, in this test two restrictions were imposed: 1. the starting node has to be selected alphabetically, namely, the first in the ordered list; 2. the adjacent nodes when it is the case will be selected also in alphabetical order. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 30 thus, applying these restrictions the computed solution is c, e, g, j, l, h, i and is unique. node c is the starting node since it is the first from the lexicographical point of view. the first step ce is the only choice coping with the restrictions from the [ce, cg, and cj] edges. next, eg is the first edge in the list of [eg, ej]. the next step is gj which is the only choice. edge jl is another unique choice. edge lh is the next step from the list [lh, li]. finally, the last edge is obtained by backtracking to node l and then taking edge li. these restrictions allow us to drive the student to build only one solution from the possible set of solutions. this will determine an easier way of comparing the student’s answer with the answer of the computer. another more general solution is to use validation functions which require implementation in domain libraries written in javascript. figure 4. online test assessment example c. b. chirila auto-generative learning objects in online assessment of data structures disciplines 31 in the ninth test, we will present to the student a weighted graph and we will ask him to write on each line the content of the visited and unvisited sets of nodes as the prim algorithm drives it to build the minimum spanning tree. the aglo model will contain the following: 1. a random symbol for the number of nodes; 2. a generated adjacency matrix of random weights with the first diagonal set to 0; 3. a graph representation operator in svg format; 4. a graph operator to compute the steps of the prim’s algorithm. in the tenth test, we will present to the student a weighted graph and we will ask him to write on one line the ordered edges and then on the second line the edges subset forming the minimum spanning tree, added in order without creating a cycle. the aglo model will contain the following elements: 1. a random symbol for the number of nodes; 2. a generated adjacency matrix of random weights with the first diagonal set to 0; 3. a graph representation operator in svg format; 4. a graph operator to compute the steps of the krushkal’s algorithm. 5. discussion in this section, we will discuss the complexity based on the number of symbols used in the design of the aglo test battery. we will analyze three aspects: 1. symbols count; 2. symbols percentages; 3. parameters count for the creation of structures. table 1. symbols count test number symbols initialized with functions computing random scalar values symbols initialized with functions create random structures symbols initialized with adt operators total number of symbols 1 2 1 3 6 2 0 2 5 7 3 3 1 2 6 4 3 2 1 6 5 1 1 2 4 6 1 1 2 4 7 1 1 2 4 8 1 1 2 4 9 1 1 2 4 10 1 1 2 4 total 14 12 23 49 in table 1, we can see the number of symbols used in the design of the 10 tests. the symbols were distributed in three categories: 1. symbols that were initialized with functions that compute random scalars used in the instantiation process (14), e.g. integers; 2. symbols that were initialized with functions or operators that create random structures to exploited later by abstract data type (adt) operators (12); 3. symbols that were initialized with adt operators for computing domain specific values used in the presentation or assessment part (23). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 32 table 2. symbols percentage test number symbols initialized with functions computing random scalar values % symbols initialized with functions creating random structures % symbols initialized with adt operators % 1 33.33% 16.67% 50.00% 2 0.00% 28.57% 71.43% 3 50.00% 16.67% 33.33% 4 50.00% 33.33% 16.67% 5 25.00% 25.00% 50.00% 6 25.00% 25.00% 50.00% 7 25.00% 25.00% 50.00% 8 25.00% 25.00% 50.00% 9 25.00% 25.00% 50.00% 10 25.00% 25.00% 50.00% total 28.33% 24.52% 47.14% the total number of symbols used is 49, so we used in average almost 5 symbols for each test. from this measure, we can draw the conclusion that aglo models complexity for this battery of tests is kept low. in table 2, we look at the percentages of the three categories of symbols. on average, the first and second categories of symbols are around one-fourth each of the totals, while the third category is around half of the total. briefly, half of the symbols manage the random creation and the other half manages the classic or standard adt operators. in table 3, we look at the number of parameters used for the instantiation of the aglo models from the test battery. on average, for a generated structure there are necessary 3 parameters. table 3. parameters count test number number of parameters used in structures creation average number of parameters on functions creating random structures 1 2 2 2 3 1.5 3 4 4 4 5 2.5 5 3 3 6 3 3 7 3 3 8 3 3 9 3 3 10 3 3 average 3.2 2.8 c. b. chirila auto-generative learning objects in online assessment of data structures disciplines 33 6. conclusions and perspectives in this section, we conclude and set the perspectives. the conclusion will consist in several advantages and drawbacks. students benefit from the aglo models since the content is dynamic, having a large set of generated contexts to experiment with. aglo tests are reusable at a higher level since they are unlike static tests which have the same answers anytime the student answers them. another advantage of the approach is that the student may test individually its understanding of algorithms by re-instantiation until it is well-learned. we have no solutions yet in evaluating code implementations written in some programming language, except some black box techniques, where the e-learning environment has no control over the details and cannot offer support. for tutors, one advantage of the aglo enabled dynamic content approach over static content e-learning tools is that the content is structured and thus modifiable and adaptable at two levels. at the first level, the tutor will edit the aglo model where the presentation layer of the test is defined. at this level, the tutor can make several adaptations, e.g.: to change the language of the test while keeping the same business logic, to adjust the topic of the test sentences for better understanding or for increased difficulty, to adjust the computed answer in the same business logic but still relying on the predefined domain libraries. one major drawback for the glo designer is that the model is dependent on the domain specific libraries and when he needs a specific functionality he needs to ask a programmer to write it. in the area of computer science, probably, will not be the case, like in other domains. as future work, we intend to multiply the first category of variables and to introduce levels of difficulty, and also, adaptiveness. one possible choice is to use different initialization expressions producing values in different ranges which will increase the size of the created structures and thus, the difficulty level. using artificial intelligence algorithms, the student’s answers are evaluated and easier or harder tests are generated in order to fulfill the goal of the learning objective. another important aspect is the implementation of contextual feedback when a wrong answer occurs. some variable based models experimented but we consider them still young. the prototype was only piloted in the laboratory environment so we intend to test it on a larger pool of students. references bogdan, r. (2016), guidelines for developing educational environments in the automotive industry, 1st international conference on smart learning ecosystems and regional developments, timisoara, romania. bogdan, r.; ancusa, v. (2016), developing e-learning solutions in the automotive industry. world journal on educational technology, 8(2), 139-146. doi:10.18844/wjet.v8i2.823 boyle, t. (2003), design principles for authoring dynamic, reusable learning objects, australian journal of education technology,volume 19(1), pp. 46-58. boyle, t. (2006), the design and development of second generation learning objects, invited talk at ed media 2006, world conference on educational multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications, orlando, florida, june 28. burbaite, r.; bespalova, k.; damasevicius, r.; stuikys, v. (2014), context aware generative learning objects for teaching computer science, international journal of engineering education, volume 30(4), pp. 929-936. chirila, c.b. (2013), a dialog based game component for a competencies based e-learning framework, in proceedings of saci 2013 8-th ieee international symposium on applied computational intelligence and informatics, pp. 055-060, timisoara, romania, may. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 34 chirila, c.b. (2014), educational resources as web game frameworks for primary and middle school students, in proceedings of else 2014 international scientific conference elearning and software education, bucharest, romania, april. chirila, c.b.; ciocarlie, h.; stoicu-tivadar, l. (2015), generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions, brain broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, vol. 6,no. 1-2, bacau, romania, october. damasevicius, r.; stuikys, v. (2009), specification and generation of learning object sequences for e-learning using sequence feature diagrams and metaprogramming techniques, in proceedings of 2009 9-th international conference on advanced learning technologies, pp. 572-576, riga, latvia. ecma international (2011), standard ecma-262 ecmascript language specification edition 5.1, http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/ecma-262.htm. ermalai, i.; dragulescu, b.; ternauciuc, a.; vasiu, r. (2013), building a module for inserting microformats into moodle. adv. electr. comput. eng. jan 1;13(3):23-6. florea, a.; gellert, a.; florea, d. (2016), teaching programming by developing games in alice, the international scientific conference elearning and software for education, bucharest: "carol i" national defence university. han, p.; kraemer, b.j. (2009), generating interactive learning objects from configurable samples, emphin proceedings of international conference on mobile, hybrid and on-line learning, pp. 1-6, cancun, mexico, february. ieee learning technology standards commitee (2000), lom working draft v4.1, http://ltsc.ieee.org/doc/wg12/lomv4.1.htm. jones, r.; boyle, t. (2007), learning object patterns for programming, interdisciplinary journal of knowledge and learning objects, vol. 3. jung, h.; park, c. (2012), authoring adaptive hypermedia using ontologies international journal of computers communications & control, issn 1841-9836, volume 7(2), pp. 285301, june. karpova, m.; shmelev, v.; dukhanov, a. (2016), information resource based on scientific software as a core of interdisciplinary learning resources, 2016 ieee frontiers in education conference (fie), pp. 1-5, eire, pa, usa. naaji a. & mustea a. & holotescu c. & herman c. (2015). how to mix the ingredients for a blended course recipe, journal of broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 6(1-2), issn 2067-3957, bacau, romania, october. stuikys, v.; burbaite, r.; damasevicius, r. (2013), teaching of computer science topics using meta-programming-based glos and lego robots, journal of informatics in education, volume 12(1), pp. 125-142, institute of mathematics and informatics, vilnius, lithuania. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 21 educational research on the technological dimension of private life liliana mâţă department for teacher training, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, bacău, 600115, romania liliana.mata@ub.ro abstract: the goal of this study consists in analyzing the technological dimension of private life in school. it deals with an observational research on curricula documents and the perception of high school teenagers and teachers of this dimension as developed in the romanian educational system. the main objectives of this research aim are: a) the identification of the specific aspects of the technological dimension as reflected in textbooks and school curricula, and b) defining the level of openness of teachers and high school pupils towards the technological dimension of private life. firslty, we used content analysis upen the school documents, taking into account specific themes and categories. secondly, we conducted a survey that tested the way in which 1456 high school students and 890 teachers perceive the technological dimension of the romanian educational system. the results are distinguished using frequencies of specific themes structured on a technological dimension at the level of school documents, and on the opening level of high school pupils and teachers. keywords: privacy, technological dimension, curricula documents, opening level 1. expanding the meaning of the concept of privacy traditionally, the privacy concerns come from the sphere of sociology focused on social issues as accessibility (phenomena such as confidentiality and privacy) and only recently have been extended so that they now include some aspect of spatial privacy such as private space [1]. the relation between private life and time has rarely been considered. time acts as a major dimension of social organization, defined in modern society with privacy and membership roles. e. zerubavel argues that time separates the private sphere from the public sphere of life. human life is socially and temporally organized so that there are periods of time that must be available to others (during office hours or at parties) and time periods in which man is inaccessible legitimately (for instance, when meditating or when sleeping). the dichotomy between public and private sphere was often associated with the boundary between family and the outside world, although recent research has shown that privacy units or areas often cross the border [2] to allow access to other people than family members, such as work colleagues [3]. therefore, the concept of privacy extends to relationships with close people who are part of the primary groups, according to the significance of the concept. while psychologists and sociologists seek to formulate general features of the concept, everyone believes that privacy is made up of different elements and different things classified as private [4]. in conclusion, the concept of privacy can not be defined precisely. it is a contingent concept, whose content varies according to the time, the environment and the society in which the individual lives. in addition, the progressive secularization of western societies has contributed to expanding the scope of privacy, which nowadays contains acts considered as contrary to social morality in other times [5]. therefore, we need a holistic vision, which integrates approaches from different fields. as a result of the extension of the meaning of privacy, a variety of elements which represent it occurs. in order to offer a complete representation of the concept of private life in today’s context, there are two aspects that need to be taken into consideration: the component elements of private life and their characteristic dimensions. the component elements of private life are: the private self, the private space time background, the primary groups. the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 22 private self is operational according to the internal organization and to the component elements of the concept of self [6]: the material self (somatic and possessive), the personal self (the image and identity of the self), the adaptive self (the values and the activities of the self). the private space – time background integrates the two dimensions, which assure the personal protection and the establishing of the borders between personal and private: private space and private time [7]. the primary group is characterized by direct relations (face-toface) and relatively stable ones, which are long-lasting and full of affection [8]. in the category of primary groups there are: family, groups of friends from school or from the work place. at the level of each component element there are ten principal/main dimensions: objective, biological, psycho-social, esthetic, religious, technological, economical, historical, cultural political, juridical. the analysis of all the aspects presented above offers a holistic view on the concept of private life, a view that allows a complete representation of all the components. we plot the dynamic structure of the components of privacy by means of two axes, in which the vertical scale is characteristic and essential elements horizontally (figure 1). juridical dimension cultural-political dimension historical dimension economical dimension technological dimension religious dimension esthetic dimension psycho-social dimension biological dimension objective dimension the private self the private space the primary time background groups material personal adaptive private private primary self self self space time groups figure 1. the component elements and technological dimension of private life it follows a systemic approach to privacy that allows dynamic and full representation of its structure, in conjunction with the expansion of conceptual meanings. the basic concepts are established according to the dimension of each component. in agreement with the requirements of a systemic approach, we need a continuous adjustment of the structural elements and of the dimensions of privacy according to the restructuring from the various fields of knowledge. this study deals only with the technological dimension of private life. l. mâţă – educational research on the technological dimension of private life 23 2. analysis of the technological dimension of privacy the algorithm for the identification of the specific aspects of privacy requires completion of some separate stages such as: selecting specific concepts or issues which are representative for each component of privacy, the graphical representation of the structure size, definition of the concept and establish specific issues for each component. finally, the implications are highlighted for the specific elements of each dimension both in personal appearance and social. following the development of new technologies in recent decades have been a number of innovative, but also privacy threats, elements: bank cards, personal computers, communication networks, internet, digital signature, email, surveillance systems for children. the structure of the technological dimension of private life can be represented by the following elements (figure 2): personal objects technology (material itself), electronic identity, personal blog (personal self), specific values of technological progress, technological activities of private (self-adaptive), electronic devices for the organization of space (private space), electronic devices for the organization of time (private time), private communication (primary groups). figure 2. representation of the technological dimension of privacy at the level of the material self there can be identified a number of specific elements, such as personal technological objects that we refer to as self possession. these objects are increasingly varied: personal computer, laptop, personal mobile. the personal self is well set up by the concept of electronic identity, as a subcomponent of itself and what is further called personal blog regarding self-image. the identity of a person is transformed into an electronic identity, following the development of procedures for rapid recognition of a person with technology: biometry, digital signature, smart card. the science called biometrics has recently developed automated methods for uniquely recognizing persons, using the latest computer technology [9]. whether they are fingerprints, retina or iris map (purely physical characteristics) or the signature, gait or voice (mixtures of physical and behavioral), biometry makes use of human parameters difficult to forge, if not impossible, given the uniqueness of each human being. biometrics offers several ways to use its features [10]. fingerprints are the most commonly used as a biometric. modern electronic systems turn the conventional features of fingerprints into numeric codes. technological dimension of private life private self the private space time background personal objects technology electronic identity, personal blog specific values of technological progress primary groups electronic devices for the organization of space electronic devices for the organization of time private communication brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 24 another biometric means, with a growing popularity, is hand geometry. hand geometry identification involves scanning the shape, size of part or the whole hand or certain features (finger length). hand geometry system is already used for access control and identity verification at some airports, offices, factories, schools, hospitals, nuclear plants and government buildings. he uses clocking in systems to prevent card fraud caused by sites of entry / exit from the unit cards that could be introduced and colleagues. another way is the biometric eye scan system. scanning fiber, wrinkles, spots on the iris with a video camera provides enough information to identify anyone. another means of measuring biological is facial recognition technology that has gained ground in recent years due to the decreasing prices of computers. the system works by analyzing a video image or photograph and identifying the positions of some nodal points on the face. these, especially the forehead and upper lip, are not affected by expression or facial hair. facial recognition is used mainly to verify identity. another form of biological measurements, which does not require expensive equipment is a voice recognition system which works by analyzing the fundamental characteristics of the voice. a signature by hand can also be a means of biometric measurements. stylus is becoming increasingly popular and signature capture hardware skills are becoming more visible. there are plenty of other biological measurement technologies, such as body odor recognition, facial temperature and acoustic resonance of the head. the digital signature stores a unique key of identifying the sender of the proper message. the private key is “a digital code unique character, generated by a hardware device or software specialist” [11]. smart card can be a storage device for other authentication information, but also for other information such as a secured card, which in addition to authentication information may include emergency information related to the medical history of the insured. with the help of new technologies, one can also create a self image from a technological perspective. this is what is called personal blog, a new image built for each person depending on preferences, interests, aspirations, and their activities. personal blog is one of the main types of blogs that are of the type of journal entries. some people focus their blog on some hobby: sports, technology, education, news, music, pets. the adaptive self integrates values characteristic of the technological progress on an individual level if reference is made only to self-worth and practical issues related to private technological activities when we are talking about the activity of the self. private technological activities may be: drafting the personal email, typing an individual project, developing a presentation. technological competence concerns the skills of using computers, software, databases and other technologies to solve a variety of personal problems [12]. the private space time background is represented in private practice for electronic devices at both components. for the private space, there are such devices as house intercom and surveillance for children (baby monitors). communication systems of the house is based on a set of transmitters and transmitters which rely on electricity wires in home installation in two ways: turn carrier current and alternating current, while wires as the antenna are used to transmit messages from transmitter to receiver [13]. intercoms supervision for children (baby monitors) are all independent devices that transmit signals outside the premises where they are located. the purpose of such devices is to alert parents when something happens in the children’s play room, located in various parts of the house. household appliances are also considered to be electronic devices because, according to the definition, they are “used in the household, being electrically operated” [14]. regarding private time, there are two important variables in technological terms: computer programs and portable electronic agendas [15]. persons who wish to use personal computers to manage time can choose a program that can do this which is known as generic personal information manager (pim) or contact manager. if you need something portable, one of the best options is known as personal digital assistant (pda). l. mâţă – educational research on the technological dimension of private life 25 technological development also puts his stamp on primary groups. new networks and communication programs provide the opportunity of being with the dear ones in mobile and varied conditions. thus, a new concept is emerging within their personal life to describe the conversation with one internaut, namely private communication [16]. it generally occurs in the text (as in a private conversation via irc), but it is possible to communicate at the same time in audio and / or video mode. audio communication requires a microphone and speakers (or headphones), both connected to the computer and video communication requires a webcam connected to a computer via usb or a camera (camcorder) connected to a video capture card. technological resources offer new ways of knowing electronic identity, of programming personal time with the help of electronic devices, of representing self-image through personal blog, of using electronic devices in private space on a personal level, of communicating in private space as well as in virtual space with acquaintances, on a social level. 3. educational research 3.1. the objectives and the hypothesis of the investigation 3.1.1. the objectives of the investigation the first objective of this study is the analysis of school curricula and textbooks for the primary, gymnasium and high school romanian educational system. we analyze these aspects having in mind the technological dimension of private life. the second objective is to determine the high school students’ and teachers’ level of openness towards the technological dimension of private life. 3.1.2. the hypothesis of the investigation the first general hypothesis the objectives and the contents included in school curricula and textbooks for the undergraduate educational system reflect, in a different manner, the technological dimension of private life, at the level of the three indicators: “representations training”, “attitudes training” and “behaviors training”. the second general hypothesis there are major differences between teachers’ points of view and students’ points of view when it comes to the technological dimension of private life. the third general hypothesis depending on the students’ school year/grade variable, there are different points of view on the technological dimension of private life. 3.2. variables the concept of private life was developed, according to the holistic theory, into six categories: the material self, the personal self, the adaptive self, the private space, the private time, and the primary groups. each of these six categories is divided into specific subcategories, each linked to the ten dimensions. in the case of the content analysis, the dependent variable is represented by the categories of indicators structured on those two levels, while the independent variables are: curriculum areas and school year/ grade. in identifying the subjects’ level of openness, the dependent variable used is the appreciation of the importance of the aspects concerning private life. in order to establish this variable, the subjects were asked to evaluate each dimension, according to its importance. the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 26 following independent variables were taken into consideration: socio-professional group (high school students/teachers), gender (male, female), environment (urban/ rural), and the high school students’ school year/grade (first year students, second year students, third year students, senior year students). 3.3. subjects 2346 subjects were involved in this study; they were grouped according to the independent variables, as presented in table 1. table 1. the distribution of subjects according to the independent variables according to the gender variable: 733 females and 157 males 1456 high school students according to the environment variable: 456 from urban environment and 434 from rural environment according to the gender variable: 766 females and 690 males socio professional group 890 teachers according to the environment variable: 1009 from urban environment and 447 from rural environment 3.4. methodology in order to identify the component elements of private life in school curricula, the content analysis [17] was used in order to distinguish the themes and the specific categories that correspond to each indicator. in the content analysis of the school curricula and the textbooks for the 9th – 12th grades, there were three types of categories that were taken into consideration: 1. representations for private life training; 2. positive attitudes for private life training; 3.appropriate behaviors for private life training. these three categories correspond to the three major categories of educational objectives: cognitive, affective and psychobehavior. the themes and the specific categories were analyzed at the level of the seven curriculum areas: language and communication (l.c.), mathematics and sciences (m.s.), social studies (s.s.), arts (art), physical education and sports (pes), technologies (tec.), and counseling (co.). the main instrument that was used for the establishment of the students’ and teachers’ level of openness for different aspects of private life was summative assessment questionnaire (likert scale) [18]. subjects were asked to evaluate 60 elements, having 5 choices: very low, low, medium, high, and very high. the subjects were reminded that there aren’t right choices or wrong choices, but there are just personal choices. the research was conducted in 2009 in the northern regions of romania. 3.5. data presentation and analysis the data collected were statistically analyzed [19, 20] having in mind just the technological dimension of the private life. there are two analysis directions: a). the analysis of the themes and the technological dimension’s specific categories at the level of school curricula and alternative textbooks and b). the identification of the subjects’ perception on the representative elements of the technological dimension. the first general hypothesis is confirmed. the objectives and the contents included in the school curricula for the undergraduate educational system reflect, in a different manner, the themes regarding the technological dimension of private life, at the level of the three indicators (table 2). as the frequencies illustrated, in school curricula and textbooks, there are more themes regarding the technological dimension of private life at the level of behaviors training (16 and 41) and the level of representations training (13 and 43) (appendix 1, appendix 2). in romanian pre-university education curricular documents there are no grounds for the formation of attitudes towards a technological dimension of privacy. l. mâţă – educational research on the technological dimension of private life 27 table 2. the frequency of the specifications for the technological dimension in curricular documents school curricula textbooks indicators and curricular areas i-iv vviii ixxii total i-iv vviii ixxii total lc 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 6 ms 0 0 1 1 0 1 6 7 ss 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 2 art 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 pes 0 0 0 0 tec 0 5 6 11 11 17 28 1. representations co 0 0 0 0 total 1 1 5 7 13 1 12 30 43 lc 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ms 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 art 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 pes 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 tec 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2. attitudes co 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 total 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 lc 0 1 0 1 0 5 6 11 ms 0 0 1 1 0 2 5 7 ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 art 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 pes 0 0 0 0 tec 1 6 7 14 8 13 21 3. behaviors co 0 0 0 0 total 3 1 7 8 16 0 15 26 41 total 2 12 15 29 1 27 56 84 there are differences between school curricula and alternative textbooks regarding the curriculum areas. the frequencies obtained indicate the fact that, when it comes to school curricula and textbooks, most themes concerned with the technological dimension, can be found at subjects from the curriculum area of technologies. there are also major differences between schooling levels (figure 3). in the gymnasium educational system (12) and high school educational system (15) there are more themes concerned with the technological dimension at the level of school curricula, as compared to the primary educational system (2). also, in alternative textbooks, these themes are predominant in the high school educational system (56) and the gymnasium educational system (27), as compared to the primary educational system (1). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 28 2 1 12 27 15 56 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 frequencies 1 2 3 1 primary, 2 gymnasium, 3 high school educational system school curricula textbooks figure 3. the graphic representation of the frequencies of the specifications for the technological dimension in curricular documents the second hypothesis is confirmed. there are differences between teachers’ and students’ representations on the technological dimension of private life. test t results show that teachers have a more positive perception than students for the next component of technological dimensions: personal self [t(2344) = 4,446, p <0,05], adaptive self [t(2344) = 2,757, p <0,05], primary groups [t(2344) = 3,192, p <0,005] (table 3, figure 4). table 3. the results of the environmental comparison test for the technological dimension variable according to the group variable (teachers versus students) variables n mean std. deviation t df sig. (2tailed) material self -1,833 2344 ,067 teachers 890 3,68 1,063 students 1456 3,77 1,196 personal self 4,446 2344 ,000 teachers 890 3,45 1,163 students 1456 3,22 1,256 adaptive self 2,757 2344 ,006 teachers 890 3,40 1,029 students 1456 3,27 1,164 private space ,301 2344 ,763 teachers 890 2,81 1,299 students 1456 2,79 1,353 private time ,304 1938,614 ,761 teachers 890 3,13 1,117 students 1456 3,22 1,242 primary groups 3,192 2344 ,001 teachers 890 3,48 1,109 students 1456 3,32 1,206 l. mâţă – educational research on the technological dimension of private life 29 3,683,77 3,45 3,22 3,4 3,27 2,812,79 3,133,22 3,48 3,32 0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 mean 1 2 3 4 5 6 the element component of private life teachers students figure 4. the graphic representation of the means for the elements component of the technological dimension variable according to the group variable (teachers versus students) the third hypothesis is confirmed. there are major differences between students’ perception on the technological dimension according to their school year. the anova oneway results show that there are major differences between groups, when it comes to the students’ perception (table 4). table 4. the results of the anova one-way test for the technological dimension at the level of students’ perception sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 15,244 3 5,081 3,570 ,014 within groups 2066,508 1452 1,423 material self total 2081,752 1455 between groups 38,399 3 12,800 8,238 ,000 within groups 2256,147 1452 1,554 personal self total 2294,547 1455 between groups 14,256 3 4,752 3,527 ,014 within groups 1956,205 1452 1,347 adaptive self total 1970,462 1455 between groups 42,467 3 14,156 7,841 ,000 within groups 2621,477 1452 1,805 private space total 2663,944 1455 between groups 27,502 3 9,167 6,001 ,000 within groups 2217,916 1452 1,527 private time total 2245,418 1455 between groups 18,035 3 6,012 4,159 ,006 within groups 2098,954 1452 1,446 primary groups total 2116,989 1455 the results of the post hoc test as well as the arithmetical mean of table 5 illustrate the fact that first year high school students (grade ix) perceive the technological dimension of material self and of adaptive self in a more positive way, as opposed to the third year students (grade xi). senior year students (grade xii) perceive the technological dimensions of personal self, of private space, of private time and of primary groups in a more positive way, as opposed to the second year (grade x ) and the third year (grade xi) (table 5). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 30 table 5. the arithmetical mean and the standard deviations in the case of the technological dimension, according to the school year variable the school year n material self personal self adaptive self private space private time primary groups grade ix 454 3,89 3,16 3,36 2,85 3,31 3,34 grade x 292 3,66 3,21 3,32 2,76 3,13 3,25 grade xi 369 3,66 3,04 3,11 2,54 3,03 3,20 grade xii 341 3,83 3,49 3,29 3,02 3,38 3,50 total 1456 3,77 3,22 3,27 2,79 3,22 3,32 4. conclusions after analyzing the results of the statistical data, the following general conclusions can be stated: • there are themes regarding the technological dimension of private life at the level of behaviors training and the level of representations training. • most themes concerned with the technological dimension, can be found at subjects from the curriculum area of technologies. • most themes regarding the technological dimension of private life are found in gymnasium educational system and in high school educational system, as opposed to the primary educational system, where these themes are almost inexistent. • teachers perceive the technological dimension in a more positive way than students. • first year high school students and senior year high school students perceive the technological dimensions in a more positive way, as opposed to second year high school students and third year high school students. having in mind the results, it becomes clear that actions are needed in order to unify the contents and the objectives regarding the technological dimension in the romanian educational system. this work is intended as a starting point, a benchmark for further studies in education for privacy. 5. references [1] zerubavel, e. (1979). private time and public time: the temporal structure of social accessibility and professional commitments. social forces, 58(1), 38-58. [2] fahey, t. (1995). privacy and the family: conceptual and empirical reflections. sociology. 29 (4), 687-702. [3] marks, s.r. (1994). intimacy in the public realm: the case of co-workers. social forces. 72(3), 843-858. [4] bier, w. c.s.j. (1980). privacy: a vanishing value?, new york: fordham university press, p. 9. [5] sudre, f. (2006). drept european şi internaţional al drepturilor omului. iaşi: editura polirom, p. 315. [6] adler, a., towne, n. (1991). communication et interaction. montreal: edition etudes vivantes. [7] meder-klein, m. (2005). l’espace relationnel et les territoires de l’intime. journée d’étude «les frontières de l’intime», 7 novembre 2005. [8] cooley, ch. h. (1902). human nature and the social order. new york: scribner. [9] andronie, m. (2006). biometria în economia mondială. revista ştiinţă şi tehnică. 7-8 (iulie-august). [10] grădinaru, g. (2001). semnătura digitală vs. biometrie. revista informatică economică. 17(1), 69-73. l. mâţă – educational research on the technological dimension of private life 31 [11] *** (2001). hotărâre nr. 1259 din 13 decembrie 2001 privind aprobarea normelor tehnice şi metodologice pentru aplicarea legii nr. 455/2001 privind semnătura electronică. monitorul oficial, 847. [12] sandu, s. (2002). inovare, competenţă tehnologică şi creştere economică. bucureşti: editura expert. [13] oprea, d. (2007). protecţia şi securitatea informaţiilor, ediţia a ii-a. iaşi: editura polirom. [14] *** (2007). dexi. dicţionar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române. arc, gunivas, p. 636. [15] morgenstern, j. (2005). tehnica organizării timpului. bucureşti: editura amaltea. [16] kaufman, ch., perlman, r., speciner, m. (2002). network security: private communication in a public world. prentice hall, second edition. [17] agabrian, m. (2006). analiza de conţinut. iaşi: editura polirom. [18] labăr, a.v. (2008). managementul proiectelor de cercetare pedagogică. in c. cucoş (coord.), psihopedagogie pentru examenele de definitivare şi grade didactice. ediţia a ii-a. iaşi: editura polirom. [19] antonesei, l. (coord.) (2008). ghid pentru cercetarea educaţiei. iaşi: editura polirom. [20] labăr, a.v. (2008). spss pentru ştiinţele educaţiei. iaşi: editura polirom. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 32 appendix 1. themes relating to technological dimension in the curricula of the romanian pre-university education indicators i-iv v-viii ix-xii representations private space the near horizon housing plan (geography – 4th grade) adaptive self selection for the personal use of information from various sources for communications and transport (technological education – 8th grade); turning the specific technological terms and symbols into a proper message (technological education – 8th grade); private space identify materials needed for implementation of a building and objects of housing (technological education fifth grade); energy at home (technological education 8th grade) material self identifying hardware and software components of a personal computer; description of a personal computer (information and communication technology 9th grade); personal self the description of security measures in use of the internet: digital signature (information and communication technology 9th grade); adaptive self description of facilities to use electronic mail, internet listing services and their description: e-mail (information and communication technology 9th grade); private space identify the characteristics of a household appliance after plate (physics 10th grade); primary groups the list of internet services and their description: chat (information and communication technology 9th grade) attitudes behaviors private space using appliances (technological education 3rd grade) adaptive self achieving a case study on the influence of modern communications and transportation on quality of life, sending a resume, letter of intent, satisfaction, sending an e-mail (technological education – 7th grade); writing functional texts email (english 8th grade); private space making measurements and drawing up of the room, dwelling, establishment of small projects really interested in redevelopment according to destination and/ or special occasions, eg. my room, house of the future (technological education fifth grade); reading circuit diagrams of energy in housing (technological education 8th grade) personal self security measures in use of the internet: digital signature (information and communication technology 9th grade); adaptive self application procedures for using server-perk up the e-mail, organizing applications made in its own directory structure, drawing up a personal web page (information and communication technology 9th grade); private space using a household appliance (physics 10th grade); primary groups conversation using the service: net-meeting, proper use of rules of behavior in the internet (information and communication technology 9th grade) l. mâţă – educational research on the technological dimension of private life 33 appendix 2. themes relating to technological dimension in the textbooks of the romanian pre-university education indicators i-iv v-viii ix-xii representations private space plan board and housing (geography – 4th grade) material self private transport 4 (technological education – 7th grade); pc (technological education – 8th grade); personal self credit card (technological education – 6th grade); how to use the cash dispenser placing personal identification number pin (technological education – 8th grade); adaptive self definition and examples email address (technological education – 7th grade); private space recognition of appliances image (physics 6th grade); functional scheme of housing, housing plan (technological education fifth grade); electric lighting indoors in homes (technological education – 8th grade) material self discussion about pc (french 10th grade); mobile phone components (physics class xi); structure of personal computer (ict 9th grade); personal self credit card (english language tenth grade); the importance of fingerprint (biology 11th grade); fingerprinting-mark hand, dna fingerprint (biology 12th grade); identification data user name, password, digital signature, digital signature definition (ict ninth grade); individual databases (ict 11th grade); adaptive self e-mail (english language 10th grade); the influence of technology on privacy, id cards influence on privacy (english 12th grade); e-mail, defining an e-mail, explaining how the functions of the email, defining a box of e-mail address book definition (ict 9th grade); how to prepare their presentations using a computer (ict 10th grade); private space electricity in home (physics tenth grade); electrical installations in dwelling (physics 11th grade); private time new technologies and leisure (history 11th grade); primary groups chat-room (english language tenth grade); direct talks chat, instant communication language, application netmeeting, definition and enumeration of instant communication features, the list of facilities offered by netmeeting application (ict 9th grade) behaviors material self composition of boards with components of a technological object and formulating rules for use of his (romanian language 6th grade); using your staff to communicate (english 7th grade); presentation of personal technology devices (french 8th grade); material self achievement of an article about the effects of using mobile phones in personal life (english 9th grade); expressing opinions on personal computers (english 11th grade); discussions on private transport (english 12th grade); searching personal computer files with various extensions (ict 9th grade); indicators i-iv v-viii ix-xii writing private transport (technological education – 7th grade); personal self self expression through technological means (english 12th grade); presentation of advantages brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 34 behaviors adaptive self writing a text about the influence of technology on privacy (french 8th grade); writing the e-mail (technological education – 7th grade); private space voltage measurement at the terminals of outlets in dwelling (physics 6th grade); specifying bodies of dwelling that can be noise (physics 7th grade); achieving personal plan of study room, drawing up of the kitchen, carrying out the plan of a housing with educational software (technological education fifth grade); primary groups contacting people online (english 6th grade); sending an email friend, using a mobile phone message to give a relative or a friend, use communication nodes of communication networks in the near environment (technological education – 7th grade) of e-mail (french 10th grade); making fingerprint (biology 11th grade); personal voice recording and recognition of its many voices (physics 11th grade); arguments importance in establishing the internet connection password; achieving an html document illustrating composition favorite football team (ict 9th grade); adaptive self building personal arguments on technological innovation (history 11th grade); construction of an invitation to his birthday with the computer, developing a curriculum vitae document type using the computer, creating a personal phone books (ict ninth grade); description of how the pc influence of personal activities, presentation of activities they can do with personal computer (ict 11th grade); private space identification of electronic devices used in the dwelling, the dwelling electric meter reading, reading its manual refrigerator (physics 11th grade); private time implement a program for leisure time with computer (ict 11th grade); primary groups presentation of advantages of a chat room (english 9th grade); to exchange e-mails with a friend on personal preferences, sending a personalized greeting online, create personal photo albums merged (ict 9th grade) microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 64 thinking soap but speaking ‘oaps’. the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation1 nora wiedenmann amalienstr. 71 mgb, munich, d-80799, germany n.wiedenmann@gmx.net abstract in this article’s model—on speech and on speech errors, dyscoordinations, and disorders—, the time-course from the muscle innervation impetuses to the utterance of sounds as intended for canonical speech sound sequences is calculated backward. this time-course is shown as the sum of all the known physiological durations of speech sounds and speech gestures that are necessary to produce an utterance. the model introduces two internal clocks, based on positive or negative factors, representing certain physiologically-based time-courses during the sound preparation period (lautvorspann). the use of these internal clocks shows that speech gestures—like other motor activities—work according to a simple serialization principle: under non-default conditions, alterations of the time-courses may cause speech errors of sound serialization, dyscoordinations of sounds as observed during first language acquisition, or speech disorders as pathological cases. these alterations of the time-course are modelled by varying the two internal-clock factors. the calculation of time-courses uses as default values the sound durations of the context-dependent munich phondat database of spoken german (see appendix 4). as a new, human approach, this calculation agrees mathematically with the approach of linear programming / operations research. this work gives strong support to the fairly old suspicion (of 1908) of the famous austrian speech error scientist meringer [15], namely that one mostly thinks and articulates in a different serialization than is audible from one’s uttered sound sequences. keywords: speech production; speech muscle-innervation serialization; sound serialization; speech gesture timing; speech errors; speech pathology; speech disorders; speech physiology; earliest possible sound-related reafferences; erps; robotics. 1. introduction the acoustical time-course of an utterance is mostly taught as the fundamental part of basic phonetic or articulatory lectures on speech—it is qualitatively and quantitatively known in detail. however, the time-course (after speech intention) between each sound-related earliest impetus (which is necessary for muscle innervations to produce the different articulatory movements) and the resulting beginning of each sound in a sequence of sounds has not yet been sufficiently investigated. the mathematics used in this article models the utterance mechanisms required to articulate sequences of speech sounds according to approaches of linear programming (kelley, 1961 [9]; wille, gewald, weber, 1966, 3rd edn. 1972 [23]). this approach here may represent a paradigm change in phonetics, which could affect first language acquisition and speech pathology. 2. model the basics of modelling speech mechanisms required to articulate sequences of speech sounds is well-known from the literature on phonetics. the utterance of sounds shows certain different default durations of sounds (and certain different pauses between them): there are long durations and short durations. these duration differences exist in a similar way for the time-course already 1 a first-draft version of this paper was presented at the 31st annual meeting of the gesellschaft für angewandte linguistik at the university of bremen, frg, in sept. 2000, based on the doct. diss. (1997, univ. munich, and its lautvorspann (‘sound preparation period’); see wiedenmann (1999, p. 15)), with the first introduction of two internal clocks. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 65 before the beginning of an uttered sound. this time-course is termed here the sound preparation period (see wiedenmann, 1999, p. 15: lautvorspann [22]). to be prepared for articulation, some sounds require long preparation periods due to a relatively complex system of innervation of the large number of involved muscles necessary to produce the articulatory movements; other sounds need only a short preparation period due to a simple muscle-innervation system in which only a few muscles’ jobs (see below) are needed. according to hardcastle, 1976, pp. 134-7, [7] the most complex system consists of about 25 muscles for the speech gestures of the fricative [s] 2. in contrast, the dorsovelar plosives [g] or [k] are very simple to pronounce: according to laver, 1977, [11] the "soft palate" or "the velic system is probably the simplest of all the muscle systems" used in producing articulatory movements 3. research results provide muscle-innervation time-courses of sounds for certain consonants; see, for instance, kühnert, 1989 [10], with her electromyographic (emg) data of the bilabial plosive [p] showing about 250 ms from the muscle-innervation impetus until the resulting plosion burst as the sound preparation period; see also, for instance, the empirical emg data—related to the audio-signals—for some speakers in kühnert, 1989, and the data of löfqvist and yoshioka, 1981 [13]. for the sake of clear terminology, it has to be emphasized that such an innervation impetus must not be understood as an impulse (that is, a very high, sharp up and down (or peak) of voltage—during a very short time—as physiologically known in brain neurosciences), but rather as the relatively smooth starting of muscle-innervation voltage necessary to produce an articulatory movement (see kühnert, 1989, taking in each case the accompanying audio-signal as a reference to the voltage). to demonstrate the default time-course relations for an utterance, it is only necessary to work with the physiological system’s extreme values (that is, minimum and maximum values): very long innervations versus very short ones. to produce a [b] (or a [p]), one needs about 250 ms (see kühnert’s emg data) from the earliest muscle-innervation impetus until the resulting utterance of this plosive sound; however, a dorsovelar plosive [g] or [k] implies perhaps only 80 ms (see laver’s "simplest of all the muscle systems", thus entailing a very short innervation period; here, generally disregarding the voicing gesture (glottal gesture) of a sound). for this model, it is only important to know that differences in duration do exist in the sound preparation period in a similar way as in the very sound duration. fig. 1a shows the default time relations for the utterance [pak] with its sound preparation periods p' until [p] and k' until [k]; from these data, one can see the long time needed to produce the [p], followed by a relatively short time period for the [k]—the [k] just in time after an [a]. this [a] is not shown with its gesture time-relations in all diagrams but rather with its duration. for the sake of simplicity, the diagrams are restricted to consonantal gestures and to vowels with consonantal gestures (for instance, i.a. the lip-rounding gesture as necessary for bilabials) of an [u] or an [o]. the earliest necessary impetus of different muscle innervations p' for a [p] is followed by the utterance-initial sound [p] itself, which, in turn, is followed by the earliest necessary impetus of muscle innervations k' for a [k], followed by the intended utterance-final sound [k] itself (see figure 1): 2 concerning this complex [s]-producing system, shattuck-hufnagel and klatt [17] (1979, p. 43) show relatively high error rates in their confusion matrix of english speech errors. in wiedenmann (1999), the relative sound frequencies of erred german consonants were taken into account (see tables in wiedenmann [20] (1998a, pp. 33-38): weighted with these sound frequencies (based on 32,000 sounds of spoken language), the data show relatively high frequencies for dissimilations and non-dissimilative speech errors with [z] and [s]; see wiedenmann (1999, distribution histograms of pp. 78, 80, 93, and 95/6). 3 laver (1977, pp. 145-6) speaks of the (paired) muscles: "palatal tensor", "palatal levator", "palatoglossus"—attached to "the sides of the back of the tongue"; "each different position of the tongue will entail a different state of contraction of all the palatal muscles"—, and the "superior pharyngeal constrictor". n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 66 1a sequence [pak]: p' [p] k' [k] •———————→ ([a])•–—→ ⏐ ⏐↵ beginning of the utterance [pak] 1b sequence [kap]: p' k' [k] ([a]) [p] •———————→ •–—→ ⏐ ⏐↵ beginning of the utterance [kap] time —————→ figure 1. sound preparation period and default utterance as a function of time (true to scale according to 250 ms for p' until [p]) a stroked letter represents the starting point for the necessary muscle innervations of a sound; thus, the line between the beginning of the arrow (the earliest muscle-innervation impetus, indicated by a dot) and the corresponding tip of the arrow (the beginning of the sound utterance, the acoustic realization of a sound) represents the sound preparation period. every sound duration is the time interval between its arrow tip and the arrow tip of a possibly next sound. 1a the entire production time for [pak] between p' and the burst of the last sound [k] shows no overlap of arrows; 1b in contrast to [pak], an overlap of (the arrows symbolizing) the different muscle innervations (sound preparations) for the utterance [kap] does exist. a sound preparation period of an utterance ends here with the beginning of the final consonant (as in kühnert (1989), the end of [pak] or [kap] is the burst for the final [k] or [p]). figure 1b shows the time relations of the inverse utterance [kap]. compared with the time p' until [k] for the entire utterance [pak] of fig. 1a, the time p' until [p] for the inverse entire utterance [kap] of figure 1b is a relatively short period, namely only the time between p' (the earliest necessary impetus for muscle innervations for [p]) and the utterance-final (or word-final) [p] itself. the time period p' until the utterance-final [p] for [kap] contains also (and it runs parallel to) the sound preparation period k' until the burst of this [k]. in this example [kap], this overlap in time requires that all the speech gestures to articulate a [p] and a [k] be—from a time perspective— independent of each other. in other words, these sounds do not use the same muscles at the same time (as, for instance, in sound dissimilations). for the utterance [kap] in fig. 1b, one has to take into account that—sound-related—the time period from p' to [p] as well as the time period from k' to [k] are the same, as can be seen in fig. 1a, as for the utterance [pak]. now, the backward calculation 4, which is carried out by the programme used for this article’s model, will be explained, beginning with fig. 1a (without the use of any internal clock): the sequence [pak] ends at the [k], and the arrow tip at [k] corresponds to the instant of this sound’s burst (and this is—as in kühnert, 1989—the reference point, here, to begin with the backward calculation). the mean duration value of an [a] articulated before a [k] is known; with 4 the programme for backward calculation takes as utterance—in this version—a maximum of 10 ipa symbols (of all german sounds, including the initial sound of french journal for certain loan words and the german allophones [r] and [r]; in broad transcription, but without characters for vowel lengths). concerning the specific uttered sounds, the programme works on audible sounds (on their durations; not on formant transitions). based on these sounds, the programme delivers also the non-audible time structures (periods of muscle innervations for the speech gestures) which are necessary for the entire sound-producing system. thus, it brings together the audible utterance and the inaudible articulatory movements, which are nevertheless important in its time-course because of the production of kinaestheticproprioceptive reafferences. the combination of uttered sounds and their muscle innervations results in certain time structures, which are described by a network of arrows. in a future programme version, input ipa characters for the sounds of languages other than german (always in view of the language-specific phonotactics) could be added to the background databases to indicate the durations of these sounds and also the duration of their muscle innervations for all articulatory movements. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 67 this value (of the phondat database; see appendix 4), one has to go to the left on the time axis, and the found instant is the beginning of the utterance [pak], where (again) the arrow tip corresponds to the instant of the burst to make the [p] audible. now, one has again to go to the left (backward!) on the time axis with the sound preparation period of the word-initial [p]. thus, the entire duration of this isolated utterance [pak] is p' until [k]. fig. 1b (also without the use of any internal clock): the sequence [kap] ends at the [p], and the arrow tip corresponds to the instant of the bilabial burst (the reference point to begin with the backward calculation). the mean duration value of an [a] before a [p] is known with this value (of the phondat database). one has to go to the left on the time axis, and the found instant is the beginning of the utterance [kap], where (again) the arrow tip (see one line under the [k]) corresponds to the instant of the burst of the [k] to make this sound audible. now, one has to go to the left (backward!) of this arrow tip for the [k] on the time axis with the sound preparation period of the word-initial [k]. this step ends at k', indicated in the line above. in the line with the arrow tip for the bilabial [p], one has to go backward with the sound preparation period of the word-final [p]. this step ends in p'. thus, as opposed to fig. 1a, the entire utterance duration for this isolated utterance [kap] is the time from p' until [p]. note that in this case, the entire duration for this inverse utterance [kap] is only as long as the sound preparation period for the [p]. the sound with the longest sound preparation period may determine the lengthy process of an entire utterance’s preparation period, even when this sound has to be uttered utterance-finally. the time periods in fig. 1a and 1b express in both cases speaker-individual time-courses. using the phondat database of context-dependent sounds concerning german phonotactics, a table was built containing for each sound the phondat sound durations’ mean values (to simulate another speaker-individuality (or the speech of a specific personality), the german sound duration values in the table used by the programme could be changed according to certain speaker idiosyncrasies; as a base, see appendix 4). for backward calculation, the programme uses these mean values as default values for sound durations. (for speech errors with the sounds [p] versus [k], [g] versus [b], and vice versa, see appendix 3 with data in several languages.) now, what are the consequences of the two internal clocks on this model? what should then be taken into consideration in view of backward calculation? in fig. 2b, both internal clocks were applied to show how variations in the time structures of the default utterance [sop] could explain the dyscoordination [ops] of a child. (for the following explanations, refer to an utterance-specific example in fig. 3. the two internal clocks—cl-inn on the ordinate, cl-imp on the abscissa—give an overview of the possible variations of an utterance and of its default values (around the default value 1 in the middle of the diagram of both internal clocks). the coloured areas (respectively the hatched areas in overview diagrams for the clock factors of other figures) stand for changed time-courses which lead to speech errors or disordered speech.) the one internal clock (cl-inn on the ordinate of fig. 3) allows to vary the duration of the sound preparation period (that is, the length of the entire arrow): a clock factor less than the (default) factor of 1 means acceleration, or shortening of all the sound preparation periods (a shortened length of all the arrows). a clock factor greater than 1 means retardation, that is, lengthening of all the sound preparation periods (an increased length of all the arrows). the other internal clock (cl-imp on the abscissa of fig. 3) allows to vary the time between the sequence of muscle-innervation impetuses (the distance between the arrow beginnings): a clock factor less than the (default) factor of 1 means acceleration, or shortening of all the distances between the arrow beginnings (a shortened distance between all sequences of arrow beginnings). a factor greater than 1 means retardation, or lengthening of all the distances between the beginnings of the arrow (an increased distance between all sequences of arrow beginnings). in fig. 2b, both clocks were applied: note (in comparison with fig. 2a, which is the default case) both the shortened arrows and the shortened distances between the beginnings of the arrow. n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 68 with the shortened or enlarged sound preparation periods (arrows) and the shortened or enlarged time between the muscle-innervation impetuses (distances between the arrow beginnings), the procedure of backward calculation can be carried out in the same way as without clock-changed time-courses (to indicate the specific clock factors of an utterance, see also in fig. 4 (and also in the diagrams of the appendix 1) the two rectangular labels for cl-inn and cl-imp at the bottom. for the overview diagram, the programme uses the two labelled values as an input to determine the location of the little (red) circle (an operating point; see in fig. 4, above on the right hand of the ipa symbols of the programme’s utterance input); in the case of fig. 4, this operating point lies in the left hatched area: cl-inn and cl-imp (as labelled at the bottom) < 1). generally, the time consideration in this article also shows that hidden gestures can be coproduced with certain gestures of the utterance, that is, they can overlap in time as mentioned above. on hidden gestures, see browman [1] and goldstein [6], 1987. in certain cases, some gestures do not result in a sound, for instance, when articulating the tip-alveolar gestures for the [t] in the intended utterance a perfect memory. such an overlap in time for an articulatory occlusion (as in the mentioned example) for the later following [m] only occurs because the [m]-occlusion is more to the front of the vocal tract than the occlusion for the [t]; see goldstein, 1989, p. 94 [6], and his remark on a "completely hidden" sound gesture as well as his assertion that "the acoustic output" will be determined "by the entire ensemble of concurrent gestures". however, in the case of the german utterance "im himblick auf" instead of the canonical im hinblick auf (‘in view of’), the hidden gestures for the tip-alveolar [n] (the preparation period for the [n] is shorter than that for the [m]) may be present during the preparation period of the gestures for [mb], but in this case without audible results. for, in the case of a speaker’s "himblick"—perhaps a lifelong heard and learnt (and in this way intended) utterance—, the "gestural complexes" (see goldstein, 1989, p. 95 [6]) "may contrast not only in the set of gestures involved, but also in their organization". such organization in time is presented here. the muscle-innervation impetus serialization (see figure 1a and b) for the utterance [pak] is p'k'. however, for the inverse utterance [kap], the required impetus serialization is also p'k'—and not k'p'. this serialization results from the values of the two extremely different sound preparation periods: a long one for [p] and only a short one for [k]. in the figures 1 and 2, the line between the beginning of the arrow (the earliest muscleinnervation impetus) and the tip of this arrow (that is, the moment of the resulting sound utterance) represents the entire sound preparation period. thus, this line merely simplifies a concert of speech gestures (innervated muscles) for every sound (see as previously mentioned goldstein’s "gestural complexes"). without this simplification, the modelling of the serialization of all needed soundspecific different muscle jobs (for instance, the orbicularis oris muscle for lip-rounding) requires a graph-theoretically complex deterministic job-oriented network (see wille, gewald, weber’s (1966) programme evaluation and review technique diagram, table ii, 1, and kelley, 1961, p. 298). in such time-course network, a critical path (according to an operations research approach) of muscle jobs can be determined. in this critical path, no (further) time-course compression is possible, so that the sum of these muscle jobs cannot further reduce the sound preparation period represented by the arrow in the diagrams. but what happens, and what alterations result if the time periods between the different earliest impetuses for muscle innervations (between different beginnings of the arrow for sounds in the figures), or the innervation durations themselves would change? this model considers only linear time-alteration mechanisms. (in phonetics, prepausal lengthening and utterance-final lengthening are well-known retardations of speech—non-linear default phenomena, but not dealt with in this paper.) two internal clocks, working independently of each other, are introduced into the model—an innovation in the field of articulatory phonetics. the first internal clock is used for varying the timing of the different impetuses for muscle innervation (the time between the different beginnings of the arrow in the diagrams); the second internal clock is used for varying the duration of each innervation process itself (the arrow length in the diagrams). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 69 both internal clocks can represent either a retardation (clock factors >1), or an acceleration (clock factors <1). 3. consequences of the model concerning alterations in speech serialization the four different states of these two internal clocks (working independently of each other and linearly with time) and their combined actions show, on the one hand, the production of intended speech and of involuntary speech errors, and, on the other hand, the production of pathological speech in the widest sense. variations of the internal clocks can provide material to explain data found in the english literature: leonard and mcgregor, 1991 [12], described the logopaedic case of a child with developmental sound dyscoordinations. during a certain period of first language acquisition, this child had not yet learnt the specific and correct muscle-innervation time-course needed to articulate (among other fricatives) the word-initial prevocalic fricative [s] as in the intended child utterance [sop] for the word soap (without diphthongization of the vowel in this state of speech development). instead of [sop], this child was only able to utter [ops]. the following fig. 2a shows the default case (that is, both internal clocks’ factors are 1) of an adult uttering [sop]: 2a sequence [sop]: s' o' p' [s] [o] [p] •———————————————→ •——————–→ •———————→ ⏐ ⏐↵ beginning of the utterance [sop] time —————→ 2b dyscoordinated child sequence [ops]: s' o' p' [o] [p][s] •––————————————–→ •—————–→ •——————→ ⏐ ⏐↵ beginning of the utterance [ops] time —————→ figure 2. sound preparation period and utterance as a function of time (true to scale according to 250 ms for p' until [p]) 2a the default (adult) utterance [sop] is shown with the default factor 1 of both internal clocks (see text below) and with its default sound duration beginning at every arrow tip; 2b the internal clocks show, firstly, an acceleration factor of muscleimpetus sequencing of .5 (i.e., the time difference between the beginnings of the two arrows, between s' and o', is only half of that in 2a, for instance) and, secondly, .9 as an acceleration factor of muscle innervation. thus, the time difference between s' and [s] (i.e.: the length of the arrow) is only 90% of that in 2a, for instance; and for the other sounds, analogously. therefore, the muscle-innervation impetus s' comes too late to produce [s] in time, and the result is [ops], resulting in sound durations reduced. in fig. 2a, the default (adult) serialization of the s'and then of the o'-impetus (labial gestures for [o]) is followed by the p'-impetus (assuming the sound preparation period of the very complex fricative [s] to be the longest sound preparation period (according to hardcastle, 1976) compared with the preparation periods of the other two sounds). fig. 2b shows one possible time-course of a dyscoordinated (child) utterance. as to the muscle innervations for the vowel [o] (see fig. 2a), the child begins too late (related to o') with the innervation for the [s]. see the two internal-clock factors in fig. 3: acceleration factor of muscleimpetus sequencing of .5 and acceleration factor of the process of muscle innervation of .9 (i.e., the n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 70 time period between s' and o' in fig. 2b is only half of that in fig. 2a, and the time period between s' and [s] in fig. 2b is only 90% of that in fig. 2a, and thus also for the two sounds [o] and [p]; compare the length of the lines in diagram 2a versus those in diagram 2b). alterations of the two internal-clock factors—i.e., retardation or (here) acceleration relative to the default case of fig. 2a—result in a changed sound serialization of the default utterance due to the altered values of all muscle-impetus sequencing periods and also due to the altered values of all muscle-innervation periods (see fig. 2b). all these altered values represent the sound preparation period. these alterations show the involuntary and non-intended child utterance [ops], as described in leonard and mcgregor, 1991 [12], which also lead to non-default sound durations. these involuntary and non-intended utterances occur in spite of an, in principle, correct muscle-impetus sequencing (as to be learnt by a child for [sop]; see the beginnings of the arrows; cf. fig. 2a). these aforementioned impetus sequencings and sound durations follow from the mathematical model. the diagram of fig. 3 with its four quadrants shows as an overview the possible factor combinations of the two internal clocks, whereby the range of factors for each clock is limited5. this diagram is shown for the same utterance example [sop]: the (coloured) areas (on the left of the white area) represent the two possibilities of sound reversals ([ops], as dyscoordinated by the child of fig. 2, or [osp]). the size of the two areas for sound reversals in fig. 3 depends on the degree of deviation from the two internal clocks’ default factors of 1, as well as on the intended default sound durations of the utterance. in this paper, these durations have been taken from phondat, the munich university database of spoken german. from these data, a phonotactic table was constructed for the sound durations, and this table (see appendix 4) was used by the programme. the larger the white (in some overview diagrams the non-hatched) diagram area around the default factors of 1 (see the point 1.0; 1.0 in the diagram of fig. 3, respectively the little (red) circle in the overview diagrams with hatched areas), the more ideal the utterance is and the less the danger of deviations from an intended utterance. an ideal utterance would be accompanied by a canonical or intended sound serialization, whereby only slight alterations of sound durations in a wide range of the clock parameters occur. in this sense, an ideal utterance (or an ideal word) is robust against disturbances. the german word baum (‘tree’; see the diagram in the appendix 1: fig. 5) as an isolated utterance is an example of such an ideal utterance, because of similar muscle-innervation durations for [b] and [m]. the programme used for the model makes it possible to investigate the ideal-state degree of every utterance or word (see also the diagram (in the appendix 1) of an ideal word: fig. 6: german dort (‘there’)); to compare the ideal-state degree with these two figures, see for instance the english child utterance [sop] in fig. 3: 5 concerning the ranges of the two clocks in fig. 3, it has to be discussed whether the maximal value 1.5 on the ordinate and the maximal value 3.0 on the abscissa may occur in reality as a very high retardation (see the diagrams in appendix 1 (figures 11/12) for the intended german mich gebryft (instead of the canonical german mich geprüft (‘examined me’) resulting in the error utterance "mich begryft" of an old man of 94). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 71 figure 3. two internal clocks and a specific intended utterance (an overview diagram) the example is an intended soap ([sop]) with the two possible reversals [ops] (blue area on the left; see fig. 2b) and [osp] (the (green) area on the left of the white area), whereby the point 1.0; 1.0 represents the default case of the utterance (both factors are 1); on the ordinate: clock factors of varied muscle-innervation periods; on the abscissa: clock factors of varied muscleimpetus sequencings. the white area represents possible utterance variations of the specific utterance, namely only changed sound durations; in this white area, the sound serialization corresponds to the child-intended [sop]. the boundaries between the diagram areas—white or the differently coloured— mathematically result from phase transitions; their number and gradient are utterance-specific. examples of more complex utterances, including consonant clusters, are the german words fracht (‘freight’), brief (‘letter’), and frachtbrief (‘waybill’; to compare time relations and overlapping muscle innervations, the latter german compound is at first shown as articulated with an uvular [r] and then with a tip-alveolar [r]) in syllable-initial consonant cluster positions—see the appendix 1, figures 7-10; figures 13 and 14 illustrate the time relations of the german words kommunist / kommunisten (‘communist’ / ‘communists’). all these examples of more complex utterances (and for values of the two internal clocks in higher ranges) show sound serializations that are very unusual in the field of speech error research. in pathology however, similar, almost unpronounceable sound serializations—disorders—do occur. 4. discussion the internal clocks’ acceleration could be interpreted as a speaker’s excitement; retardation could also explain certain pathological speech disorders, after a stroke or in higher age. many combinations of the internal-clock factors stand for serialization errors, which may be interpreted in a pathological sense or simply as speech errors. the utterance [sop], soap, as well as elsen’s (1991) [4] case of german frau ([frao]; ‘woman’) are not ideal words (not easy to speak; see the child utterance [rvao] instead of [vrao] in fig. 4). n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 72 figure 4. diagram on the figure’s top: two internal clocks and a specific intended utterance in early first language acquisition the diagram shows elsen’s german child example frau ([vrao]; ‘woman’) and the two reversals [rvao] (left hatched area; the clock factors are shown by the little (red) circle) and [vaor] (right (blue) hatched area, not described here). below: two time-course diagrams for the child-intended utterance [vrao] as examples of sound preparation periods: at first above, the child’s default case [vrao], labelled default-fall (uttered from 0 to 240 ms); below, the dyscoordinated child utterance [rvao], labelled beispielfall (‘case of example’; uttered from 0 to 160 ms; the anticipated sound is highlighted in red). this dyscoordinated [rvao] is produced with a stronger muscle-innervation overlap. this is mathematically based on the two internal-clock factors cl-imp and cl-inn: acceleration factor of muscle-innervation impetuses cl-imp of .5, acceleration factor of the duration of muscle innervation cl-inn of .9, as indicated in the two rectangular labels below the abscissa. in both cases (default / dyscoordination), the utterance begins at time 0 (positive times to the right, beginning at the (blue) vertical line). the time (as well as the name in ipa symbols) of each uttered sound is seen closely above the abscissa. time periods in the negative area (to the left of the (blue) vertical line) show the needed sound-specific preparation periods: the time of the start of a sound preparation period is shown by the sound’s name in italics. when logopaedicly trained by a speaker, these non-ideal words have no chance of giving this speaker a quick feeling of success. however, in contrast to these two words, [pak] is a relatively ideal word: it is robust against false serialization caused by retardations (in a normal or pathological way, according to the clock factors) in the time network. however, there are utterances, which— even for small alterations of the internal-clock factors—result in deviations from the intended form and thus produce sound reversals. in fig. 4, in the case of the innervation-impetus sequence r' and o'—nearly a clash in time (see there the diagram at the bottom, at about -90 ms)—, the uvular [r] and the labial [o] need different muscles. however, in some cases of sound sequences, one could think of a clash of two innervation impetuses of the same muscle needed to build speech gestures of different sounds or also of quickly following same sounds. this case is phonologically known as progressive dissimilation (i.e., forward masking, as already described in 1969 by mackay [14]; see wiedenmann’s dissertation (1999), p. 127). an example of progressive dissimilation is the german utterance "schluck mi_ch" (with _ for the deleted sound) instead of the intended schluck milch (‘gulp of milk’): a certain brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 73 muscle needed for articulating the second [l] could not be quickly innervated a second time, due to a certain used muscle’s refractory phase. (however, and not this article’s subject, the time-course before (and, in turn, overlapping with) muscle innervations of an utterance surely corresponds to the time-courses of ideation, the imagining, and the planning of this utterance—perhaps with similar serialization mechanisms in the time network (as shown for the time-course of muscle innervation and articulation). these mechanisms could be analogous to those shown here for changed time-courses of the sound preparation period; they could thus lead to regressive dissimilation (i.e., mackay’s (1969) backward masking; see wiedenmann 1999, p. 138f), in some cases.) this speech production (lautvorspann) model shows a connection to speech perception, too: the earliest possible time to perceive sound-related reafferences is determined by the moment of the word’s or the syllable’s earliest sound-related muscle-innervation impetus. these reafferences can be measured via event-related potentials (erps), which are positive or negative, so-called waves: brain responses as voltages in microvolts. these earliest sound-related reafferences of muscle innervations could also explain certain rare empirical data cases of a speaker breaking an intended utterance as soon as he, the speaker, has felt that a certain speech error is imminent. an example of such a case (see the corpus of german speech errors by wiedenmann 1992 [19], p. s77; see wiedenmann 1998 [21], p. 75; chapter 3.9) is the german utterance ... spezifik – spezifikation ... (‘specific—specification’; s. wiedenmann, [19], p. s42: speaker th.v., 1989/12/20 17h). the collector’s comment is that the speaker (in nw’s translation) had "early reafferently felt his [imminent] speech error". the collector’s additional note of 1989 is "preartic. editing?". for the last-named term, see also dell and reich [2], 1980, p. 280; for more details, see wiedenmann, [20], p. 185, with further data. this example’s trained speaker could already have felt that in the next moment he would have uttered an [o] for an erred spezifiko.... however, this [o] with a lip-rounding for the german labial vowel [o], as perhaps anticipated from the accentuated word-final syllable -tion (in german articulated as: [tsjon]), should have followed only one syllable later. kinaesthetic-proprioceptive reafferences—muscle-induced—could have started at the moment of the first necessary o'-muscleinnervation impetus (possibly only a few milliseconds after this impetus, as soon as a certain threshold of the voltage has been reached, that is, about 300 ms before the very resulting [o]utterance). these muscle-induced reafferences could have initiated the speaker’s feeling of liprounding, thus indicating to him that this feeling occurrs in the false prearticulatory moment, namely too early and instead of the right reafference for his intended sound [a]. what some authors call prearticulatory editing will be this (system-inherent) initiation of reafferences—the literature on neuro-physiological erp measurements is very extensive. (a speech error in the same sense (with a repair on the fly: early proprioceptive reafferences of bilabial muscle movement?) is the following one: herr thurnher, der (b)—österreichische ´bundeskanzler hat ... (‘mr thurnher, the (b)— austrian ´bundeskanzler has ...’; speaker tina mendelsohn, tv 3sat; her interview with chief editor thurnher of the journal der falter, 2008/05/05, 19.26h / re-heard 2008/05/06, 9.11h; at the moment of the (b), the break was already visible by her cheeks clearly blown up for the plosion of the [b]. however, the plosion did not occur, that is, the lips did not open for the burst; therefore, the [b] did not get audible, and her repair on the fly followed rather immediately; speech error corpus wiedenmann, unpubl. part).) the empirical data of the perception-centre research (i.e. ‘p-centre’; see janker, 1995, [8] i.a.) show that these reafferences will be a very fact—and an important factor for understanding the perception of the syllable to be dealt with: in experiments, subjects felt the centre of a syllable at a n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 74 rather early moment. janker’s centre of the syllable was positioned by the subjects at a rather early moment, so that the above-mentioned reafferences could possibly provide an explanation for such an early syllable centre. it could depend on early reafferences of a syllable’s sound preparation period (or: lautvorspann; see wiedenmann, [22], passim)—before the syllable’s uttered first sound. 5. conclusions the cause of involuntary sound reversals in speech presented here is only one of multiple causes for speech errors, but nevertheless an important one. gestures are related to an intended target of speech, to the event of a sound utterance, or also to the event of a human being’s or an animal’s touching or grasping. the thoughts and the modelling discussed in this article on the sound preparation period could provide a basis for studying target-related gesture time-coordination of man (as well as of robots: the travel time (laufzeit period) of electrons to wander from a central movement-steering electronic apparatus to the target-related robot members is to a certain extent analogous to the sound preparation periods of speech sounds, and comparable with the targetrelated movement preparation period of human foot-tapping). concerning patients, this model could also provide a basis for a better logopaedic work: regarding an intended utterance, speech training should go from the easy to the difficult, and thus, it should start, if possible, with ideal words—during children’s first language acquisition as well as in speech pathology—to help in adult rehabilitation. the fairly one hundred years old suspicion of the austrian linguist and speech error collector meringer says: ... es ist keineswegs ohne weiteres klar und sicher, dass die teile des satzes in der reihenfolge gedacht werden, in der sie im gesprochenen, grammatisch richtig angeordneten satze zum vorschein kommen—(in nw’s translation:) by no means and without further explanation, it is clear and sure that the parts of a sentence are thought in the same serialization as they appear in a spoken, grammatically well-formed sentence (meringer [15], 1908, pp. 21/22; on his categorization by means of anticipations, postpositions, etc.). the results of this investigation here give strong support to this old suspicion that one does not always think and act (articulate via muscle innervations) in the same serialization as it is audible by one’s uttered sounds. no other authors in the field of speech production or in the—via refferences—closely related field of speech perception have considered—to my knowledge—the systemic timing aspects presented in this sound preparation period model of the utterance. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 75 appendix 1: figures 5-14 figure 5. see above the ideal german word baum (‘tree’). figure 6. see above the ideal german word dort (‘there’). n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 76 figure 7. see above the german word fracht (‘freight’), articulated with an uvular [r]. figure 8. see above the german word brief (‘letter’), articulated with an uvular [r]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 77 figure 9. the german word frachtbrief (‘waybill’), articulated each time with an uvular [r]; sound exchanges (under the same (labelled) clock alterations as in fig. 10): "rfachrtbief"; the time differences depend on the r-gestures. figure 10. the german word frachtbrief (‘waybill’), articulated each time with a tip-alveolar [r]; sound exchange (under the same (labelled) clock alterations as in fig. 9): "fachrtbrief"; the time differences depend on the r-gestures. n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 78 figure 11. see above the german utterance mich gebrüft (canonical mich geprüft; ‘examined me’), articulated with an uvular [r]. the sound exchange under the retardation as labelled is: "mich begrüft". figure 12. the german utterance mich gebrüft (canonical mich geprüft; ‘examined me’) and the coloured areas of possible variants of sound serializations (besides the sound exchange "mich begrüft" under the labelled retardation). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 79 figure 13. see above the german utterance kommunist (‘communist’) and the coloured areas of numerous possible variants of sound serializations (besides the sound shift "ommkunist" under the labelled retardation). figure 14. see above an overview of the german utterance kommunistn (canonical kommunisten; ‘communists’) and the coloured areas of numerous possible variants of sound serializations. n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 80 appendix 2 comments on the 'lautvorspann' / sound preparation period programme speak (programmed in visual basic by ing. werner raetzel) programme’s purpose this programme was written for windows 95 and windows 98 and requires a screen with a minimum of 600 x 800 pixels. it simulates a simple articulatory-temporal model, which can be used to explain the genesis of certain sound speech errors (sometimes called phonological speech errors) as well as phenomena of a child’s first language acquisition, and of speech pathology. for the temporal serialization of the 'lautvorspann' (the sound preparation period, i.e., the period between the earliest impetus for muscle innervations and the beginning of the corresponding sound utterance), two mechanisms are implemented in this model (see the comments on the mathematics of the wiedenmann sound preparation period model): the first mechanism consists in a retardation / acceleration of the clock frequency ('taktfrequenz') underlying the impetus serialization for the muscle innervations of one sound followed by its next sound in the utterance (this clock frequency is called cl-imp); the second mechanism consists in a retardation / acceleration of the clock frequency that is the basis for the duration of the sound preparation period (called cl-inn), which, in turn, is the duration of the muscle innervations. the programme shows graphically the results of these retardations (respectively accelerations) of cl-imp (respectively cl-inn) for utterances consisting of several sounds (max. 10). in particular, the programme shows that with sufficient alteration of the clock factors ( 'taktfrequenzen')—which are taken as independent from each other—it may come to a change in the serialization of the beginnings of the corresponding sounds, this change of serialization being, for example, an involuntary (that is, not intended) speech error. extreme alterations of the clock factors can lead to sound serializations, in the same way as found in utterances of a child during the first language acquisition, or in the cases of speech pathology. usage of the programme preliminary remark the area at the lower part of the screen is used to change (by moving the vertical or horizontal scroll bar) the two model parameters—the clock factors cl-imp and cl-inn. at its very beginning, the programme works with the default case, i.e. both clock factors being 1: no speech alterations. detailed instructions the programme has two variants, which can be selected when it is started: one variant distinguishes between vowels and consonants (because the production of vowels and consonants originates in separate areas of the brain), and the other variant does not. only the first variant is described here. the sounds of the utterance to be investigated are entered into the text field called utterance. the programme changes the colour of the entered letters to green to indicate that it has not yet processed them. by pressing enter, the sound symbols (in some cases via the special ipa-symbol keyboard on the screen) are passed to the programme to start the simulation. the programme indicates this by changing the colour of the letters in utterance to black. in the utterance field, vowels without consonantal (e.g. without labial) speech gestures are ignored by the programme as sounds, in so far as they are not shown as arrows (from the thick dot of the earliest beginning of the muscle innervation up to the tip of this arrow as the beginning of this sound’s utterance). however, they are shown by the vowel symbol in the sound serialization. when now the simulation starts automatically, the programme displays two time diagrams—one above the other (in real time relations, i.e., true to scale). the diagram on top shows the default case (both clock factors are 1). the bottom time diagram shows an example case only when the values of the clock factors in the displayed parameter area are changed. as the values for these clock brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 81 factors are preset by the programme to the default value, both time diagrams are initially identical. changing one of both clock factors automatically initiates the update of the bottom time diagram as an example case. the difference to the default case is well visible because the time axes of both diagrams are aligned. the utterance beginnings (the arrow tips) of the first sound of an entire utterance are aligned (shown by the blue vertical line). all sounds along with their sound symbols are shown closely above the time axis and vertically aligned with their corresponding arrow tips. by specifying the option skala fix, nicht angehakt (scale is fix, not clicked), the programme chooses the scale for the time axis based on the duration of the entire utterance. it also tries to maximize the scale, though this may make the comparison of the two diagrams somewhat difficult. if it comes to a changed sound serialization, and, in particular, to a reversal of the utterance beginnings of two sounds, then the sound that is too early (that is the anticipated sound) is shown in red and supplemented by the word exchange (in red). the serialization of the muscle-innervation impetusses, which may be different from the sound serialization, is shown with letters in italics in the left area of the example diagram (i.e. before the beginning of the entire utterance’s first sound; marked by the blue vertical line). options and change of the clock factors: changing the clock factors: scroll in known manner. (constantly pressing on one of the two triangles produces a quick change of the factor (tenths of the factor), pressing on one of the two grey areas beside the scroll bar causes a slow change (only hundredths).) this way, all values can be set for a clock factor. these values must lie between the limit values shown under the scroll bar. these limit values can also be changed by substituting the corresponding displayed limit. specifying the default value 1.00 / 1.00: click on the rectangular labels of cl-imp and cl-inn. specifying an arbitrary example value: scroll for a coarse setting; for a fine setting, do as described above. (a single click with the mouse or touchpad instead of holding the left-button of the mouse or touchpad when clicking, enables a stepwise and slow change.) a change of the under utterance selected entire sound utterance which should be illustrated as a diagram leads to—after an acknowledgement of this new input via enter—an update of both diagrams. to show the different results of the same clock factors for different utterances—one case may result in a speech error, another may not—, the chosen clock factors are not automatically reset to the default values. the display of the default case should be done before a new entire utterance (as described above) is input: via click on the corresponding labels. display of the diagram of the clock factors via menu ansicht (view) buttons are located next to the diagram of the clock factors (with hatchings, and accessible via menu ansicht (view), and then clock factors). by using these buttons, it is possible to return to the default case (a central +) or go to certain four example values: the 4 marked edge values (arrows in the 4 directions). two buttons, s and r, are located above the diagram. selecting s, the programme saves the current setting of clock values; in the diagram, the current setting is shown by a little red ring; the programme indicates the completion of the saving by showing a blue dot in the centre of the little red ring. the blue dot remains fixed in its position in the diagram, even if the corresponding little red ring wanders in the clock factors’ diagram (as a consequence of selecting other values). selecting r (retour), one can return to the values of the saved blue dot. when the user presses s, the programme carries out similar actions as for r before actually saving: via r, it returns to the pair of example values which was prepared in the database of all n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 82 basic data under the values cl-imp / cl-inn for a preparatory case of example values, for instance 1.30 / 1.20 (see the rectangular labels). clicking (with a mouse or touchpad) into a limited hatched area (or into a certain region in the default area) instructs the programme to calculate—for this working point—the corresponding values of muscle innervation (cl-inn) and muscle-innervation impetus (cl-imp) to show the time diagram of this example. this way, it is possible to choose any point in the clock factors’ diagram to demonstrate the serializations. other functions of the 'lautvorspann' / sound preparation period programme speak display of the sound inventory: menu datei (file), and then menu inventar anzeigen (display of inventory). dvok is the duration of a vowel, dfore the duration of the sound preparation period (i.e. the 'lautvorspann'). indication of the basic data: menu datei (file), and then menu basisdaten (basic data). every single value may be replaced here via überschreiben (replacement) and thus changed (for instance according to newer results of research; the values used in this programme are based on the values of the database phondat of the institute für phonetik und sprachliche kommunikation der ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen (that is, of the munich university database of spoken german; christoph draxler), of 1998; in the programme, they describe a individual time behaviour of articulation). representation: vowels without consonantal (for instance, labial) speech gesture (for instance an [a]) are not shown (in this programme variant) with arrows in the diagrams. capitalization of characters in the field utterance partly results in the representation of ipa characters. vowels including labial speech gestures (for instance an [o]) are handled mainly like consonants. all sounds are saved in tables and are ready to be used via the menu datei (file), and then menu basisdaten (basic data): together with each sound, the tables contain the duration of its sound preparation period ('lautvorspann') dfore as well as the duration of the very sound. measuring time distances: as a change of the clock factors’ default values implies a change of the time distances in the entire net of sounds, the programme was designed to enable the measurement of every arbitrary time distance (in milliseconds) in the time diagrams. for this purpose, the cursor is positioned at the beginning of the length to be measured and the cursor is dragged (that is, by holding the left button of a mouse or a touchpad pressed) up to the endpoint of the length to be measured. after the left button of the pointing device is released, the distance between the two cursor points (in milliseconds) is shown. comments on the calculations of the wiedenmann sound preparation period model to articulate every speech sound of an entire utterance with the right beginning (beginning of the sound utterance, tutt), the corresponding muscle-innervation impetus time (muscle-innervation impetus, timp) has to be set in the right manner, namely timely. (this is also difficult for a child at the very beginning of the first language acquisition of sounds—respectively in cases of speech pathology, when the time net with a probably changed clock frequency has to be learnt anew, respectively has to be trained. the time distance / duration (for a certain sound) between the muscle-innervation impetus and the corresponding beginning of the sound utterance is called 'lautvorspann' (sound preparation period, spp). spp = sound preparation period = sound beginning muscle-innervation impetus = tutt timp (1) the time distance / duration between the muscle-innervation impetus for a sound and the impetus for the following sound is not only dependent on the articulatory-temporal qualities of a certain sound itself but also on the articulatory-temporal qualities of its following sound. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 83 timp(i+1) timp(i) = distimp(sound, following sound) (2) two remarks on the values distimp(sound, following sound): firstly, they cannot be determined directly, but can only be calculated from distimp(sound, following sound) = distutt(sound, following sound) + spp (following sound) spp (sound) (3) secondly—according to the hypothesis shown here—, distimp(sound, following sound) is dependent on the variable 'taktfrequenz' (clock frequency; clock factor). note that, compared to its default value, this frequency may be retarded (factor > 1) or accelerated (factor < 1). naturally, this has consequences—and even very complex ones—for the values of distutt(sound, following sound). therefore, also the values set into equation (3) for distutt(sound, following sound) always can only be understood as values concerning the 'taktfrequenz' (clock frequency) for the default case. equation (3) has to be stated more precisely as follows: distimp, default(sound, follng.sound) = distutt, default(sound, follng.sound) + spp(follng.sound) spp(sound) (3') moreover, the following equation applies: distimp(sound, following sound) = cl-imp x default-distimp, default(sound, following sound) (4), with cl-imp as the clock factor corresponding to the sequence of muscle-innervation impetusses. the purpose of this programme is to depict the effects of changed clock factors. in contrast to distutt, default, it is possible that—as shows equation (3')—the values of distimp, default(sound, following sound) become negative. that is the case when distimp, default(si, si+1) < 0 for spp (si+1) > spp (si) + distutt, default(si, si+1) (5), with si for sound and si+1 for following sound. in such a case, the serialization of the respective beginnings of the sound utterance can change, provided that the clock frequency is sufficiently retarded (factor > 1). n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 84 appendix 3 empirical data: speech errors of bilabial versus dorsovelar plosives (´ is always word accent; all translations by n.w.) cases cited in: wiedenmann, nora: a corpus of german speech errors. forschungsber. inst. phonet. sprachl. kommun. univ. münchen fipkm 30 suppl.: s1-s77 (1992a). p. s44, speaker christine m.: bekannte, die sind jetzt irgendwo am nordpa – nord – nordkap (‘good friends, they are now somewhere near the north pole’; reversal, broken off, plus multiple repair on the fly; nearly: nordpak; german pa(c)k: to remind of pack (‘stack’ / ‘riffraff’), or of packen (‘to pack’); -pak a metathesis crossing the syllable position: from final to initial position; sentence end) p. s44, speaker steffi o.: be´girge – ge´birge (‘mountains’; geand befrequent german morphemes; -birge ref. to berg (‘mountain’); -girge: german nonsense morpheme; reversal of [b] versus [g]) p. s44, speaker creutzberg: indem man dann das ge´briffsgebäude – be´griffsgebäude aufbauen darf. (‘while then one may construct the formation of the concept’; reversal, instead of intended be´griff (‘concept’); geand befrequent german morphemes; -briff: a german nonsense morpheme) cases cited in: wiedenmann, nora: versprecher: phänomene und daten. mit materialien auf diskette (wissenschaftsverlag edition praesens, wien 1998b): p. 35, speaker meringer: ... der bru – der gruber (‘the bru—the gruber’; reversal, broken off, plus repair on the fly; nearly: bruger (nonsense word); gruber is a german surname) p. 36, speaker meringer: geb – begreiflich (‘stun—understandable’; reversal, broken off, plus repair on the fly; nearly: gebreiflich (nonsense word); geand befrequent german morphemes; breif-: german nonsense morpheme) p. 165, speaker m.: so! jetzt werd ich mal meine ´schuhe gep – be´gutachten! (‘now, i will take a look at my shoes’; reversal, broken off, plus repair on the fly; nearly: gebutachten, i.e. nonsense compound because of the german nonsense morpheme but [bu:t], instead of gut ([gu:t]; ‘good’); [p] instead of [b] because of break: voice ended early; geand befrequent german morphemes; sentence end) p. 165, speaker m.: ´was!? ´pappkap – ? (‘´what!? card(board) cap—?’; contact metathesis of [p] versus [k], instead of ´packpapier (‘wrapping paper’), broken off, not corrected; pappkap is a metathesis crossing the syllable position of packpapier: from initial to final position) p. 226, speaker n.: ... sei eine normale blüh – glühbirne (‘be a normal bight—light bulb’; nearly the german nonsense compound blühgirne: blüh...: ‘bloom’; girne: german nonsense word; reversal, broken off, plus repair on the fly; sentence end) p. 226, speaker n.: das be – gepäck (‘the gu—luggage’; reversal, broken off, plus repair on the fly; nearly the nonsense word bekäck (the written -käck to remind of: kacke (‘crap’); ge and befrequent german morphemes; for an illustration of this utterance’s sound preparation periods see the figure on p. 15 in wiedenmann, n.: versprecher: dissimilation von konsonanten. sprachproduktion unter spatio-temporalem aspekt (niemeyer verlag, tübingen 1999)) p. 226, speaker n.: da gab‘s noch keine ba – gastarbeiter (‘at that time, there were no foreign workers’; reversal, broken off, plus repair on the fly; nearly the german nonsense compound: bast (‘raffia’) plus the nonsense word -argeiter; sentence end) p. 226, speaker n.: ... ganz unbe – ungeplant (‘really unplanned’; reversal, broken off, plus repair on the fly; nearly the nonsense word: unbeklant; beund gefrequent german morphemes; sentence end) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 85 p. 230, speaker n.: ist mir kein ge´briff! (‘doesn’t mean anything to me!’; reversal, instead of intended be´griff (‘concept’); geand befrequent german morphemes; -briff: a german nonsense morpheme; sentence end) p. 230, speaker n.: wenn du caspal – pas´cal kennst, ... (‘when you know caspal—pas´cal then ...’; reversal of [k] versus [p] resulting in the german nonsense word caspal) p. 230, speaker n.: ..., parce qu’il a voulu m’exclip – m’expliquer ... (‘because he wanted to explain to me ...’; reversal of [k] versus [p], broken off before an excliper, plus repair on the fly; this error (by the german speaker n.) resulting in the english ‘clip’ as used in french for ‘ear clip’ / ‘film clip’) p. 230, speaker n.: ganz schönes pak – kapi´tal! (‘really a pretty pack—capital!’; reversal, broken off, plus repair on the fly; german pa(c)k: to remind of pack (‘stack’ / ‘riffraff’), or of packen (‘to pack’); but [pak] nearly would have been resulted in the german nonsense word pakital; sentence end) p. 230, speaker n.: ... ´pängk – ´camping (‘pang[k]—camping’; reversal, broken off, plus repair on the fly; nearly (the german nonsense word) pängkim?; the german spelling -ngmeans the dorsovelar nasal consonant) p. 259, speaker n.: da musse [i.e.: musst du] nur die kortop – die portokosten einkalkulieren (‘in this case, you’ve only to reckon on the postage (porto-) expenses (kosten)’; reversal, broken off, plus repair on the fly; the german nonsense compound kortoposten: the german nonsense word korto-, and nearly continued by -posten, i.e.: ‘job’ / ‘guard’) cases cited in: rossi, mario, peter-defare, évelyne: les lapsus ou comment notre fourche a langué [16] (presses universitaire de france, paris 1998): p. 120, no. 310-2499: il veut faire de son pays une cologne — une pologne qui intègrera l’otan (‘he wants to make out of his country a cologne—a poland which will integrate the otan’; french cologne for the german city köln; nearly the reversal of [k] versus [p] cologne pi because of pologne qui?) p. 149, no. 741-339: c’est la fin d’une écope — d’une époque (‘that’s the end of an eecop—of an epoch’; reversal of [k] versus [p] resulting in the french nonsense word écope; french époque with a final schwa (if not: écope as metathesis crossing the syllable position, from final to initial position; sentence end; the french error categorization term is interversion for reversal / metathesis) cases cited in: del viso, susana [3]: errores espontáneos del habla y producción del lenguaje. apendice: corpus de errores espontáneos del habla (esp. castellano). tesis doctoral. facultad de psicología, departamento de psicología básica, procesos básicos (universidad complutense de madrid, madrid 1990). p. a-80, 12: ¿cuándo vais a hacer las campartas? (‘when will you finish with the campartas?’; reversal of [k] versus [p]: intended: pancartas; coarticulation before [p] in the spanish nonsense word campartas) p. a-80, 15: relata una camparta para la libertad (‘reports a camparta for the liberty’; reversal of [k] versus [p]: intended: pancarta; coarticulation before [p] in the spanish nonsense word camparta) p. a-82, 04: ese agua ya no es repuquerable después de un ... aproximadamente (‘this water isn’t any longer reclaimable since ..., approximately’; reversal of [p] versus [k]: intended: recuperable (‘reclaimable’); repuquerable: spanish nonsense word) p. a-82, 13: excedente de puco – de cupo (‘quotation surplus’; reversal of [p] versus [k]; puco: spanish nonsense word) p. a-83, 02: gary pooquer (instead of gary cooper; reversal of [p] versus [k]; pooquer ([pu:ker]): spanish nonsense word) n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 86 p. a-84, 15: hay muy poca gente impac – incapaz de ... (‘there’s very few people which is unable to ...’; reversal of [p] versus [k]; coarticulation before [p] in the spanish nonsense word impac...) p. a-84, 16: para copas, ya me caben en la carpeta (‘for only few, (they) will just fit into the briefcase’; intended: pocas (‘few’); reversal of [k] versus [p]: copas: ‘cups’ / ‘glasses’) p. a-84, 17: la verdad es que son un copo – un poco incómodos (‘the truth is that they are a little awkward’; reversal of [k] versus [p]: copo: ‘flake’ / ‘tuft’) p. a-88, 04: cuesta lo mismo llamar de allá p’acá que de apá c’allá (‘that’s the same: to say de allá p’acá as to say de acá p’allá’; intended: de allá p’acá que de acá p’allá (‘from there till at home as (to say) from at home till there’); sentence end; reversal of [p] versus [k]: apá c’allá instead of the intended acá p’allá) cases cited in: fromkin, victoria a.: speech errors as linguistic evidence [5] (janua linguarum, series maior, 77. studia memoriae nicolai van wijk dedicata); appendix ‘a sample of speech errors’, p. 243-269 (mouton, the hague 1973). p. 254: patterkiller (engl. nonsense compound because of patter-; reversal of [p] versus [k] instead of intended catterpillar; written by fromkin to show the speaker’s pronunciation: patter/ catterfor the meant caterpillar) p. 254: canpakes (engl. nonsense compound because of -pakes; reversal of [k] versus [p] instead of intended pancakes) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 87 acknowledgements i thank ing. werner raetzel, munich, for programming my lautvorspann model (in visual basic; see my short description of his programme speak in appendix 2) following my proposals and ideas as well as for creating the layout of all the figures in the body of the article and in the appendix 1. in addition, i would also like to thank alwin fill and francisco nunes who helped me to improve my english style. i also particularly thank the anglicist prof. bernhard kettemann, graz (austria), and his wife ilse for providing me with their speech error collection, which was one of the fundamentals of my research in speech errors during more than a decade, and which was important, too, for this investigation. i also thank pd christoph draxler (institut für phonetik und sprachliche kommunikation, now phonetik und sprachverarbeitung (speech science), munich university) for giving me the necessary parts of the phondat database of spoken german to put in the context-depending default sound durations. finally yet importantly, i thank prof. mario rossi, aix-en-provence (france), for his fruitful comments on an earlier version of this paper, and prof. adrian simpson and prof. valentino braitenberg for their encouraging words on this version. references [1] browman, c.p., and goldstein, l. (1987). tiers in articulatory phonology, with some implications for casual speech. haskins laboratory status report speech research, sr-92, 130. [2] dell, g.s., and reich, p.a. (1980). toward a unified model of slips of the tongue. in v.a. fromkin (ed.), errors in linguistic performance. slips of the tongue, ear, pen, and hand (pp. 273-286). london: academic press. [3] del viso, s. (1990). errores espontáneos del habla y producción del lenguaje. appendix: corpus de errores espontáneos del habla (español castellano) (pp. a1-a245). tesis doctoral. facultad de psicología, departamento de psicología básica, procesos básicos. madrid: universidad complutense de madrid. [4] elsen, h. (1991). erstspracherwerb. der erwerb des deutschen lautsystems. wiesbaden: deutscher universitätsverlag. [5] fromkin, v.a. (ed., 1973). speech errors as linguistic evidence (janua linguarum, series maior, 77. studia memoriae nicolai van wijk dedicata), appendix: a sample of speech errors (pp. 243-269). the hague: mouton. [6] goldstein, l. (1989). on the domain of the quantal theory. journal of phonetics, 17, 91-97. [7] hardcastle, w.j. (1976). physiology of speech production. an introduction for speech scientists. london: academic press. [8] janker, p.m. (1995). sprechrhythmus, silbe, ereignis. eine experimentalphonetische untersuchung zu den psychoakustisch relevanten parametern zur rhythmischen gliederung sprechsprachlicher äußerungen. forschungsberichte institut für phonetik und sprachliche kommunikation universität münchen (fipkm), 33, 1-259. [9] kelley, j.e., jr. (1961). critical-path planning and scheduling: mathematical basis. operations research, 9(3), 296-320. [10] kühnert, b. (1989). das timing der artikulatorischen gesten bei der produktion rhythmisch gleichmäßiger sequenzen. forschungsberichte institut für phonetik und sprachliche kommunikation universität münchen (fipkm), 27, 141-209. [11] laver, j.d. (1977). neurolinguistic aspects of speech production. in gutknecht, c. (ed.), grundbegriffe und hauptströmungen in der linguistik (pp. 142-155). hamburg: hoffmann und campe. [12] leonard, l.b., and mcgregor, k. (1991). unusual phonological patterns and their underlying representations: a case study. journal of child language, 18, 261-271. [13] löfqvist, a., and yoshioka, h. (1981). interarticular programming in obstruent production. phonetica, 38, 21-34. n. wiedenmann the sound preparation period: backward calculation from utterance to muscle innervation 88 [14] mackay, d.g. (1969). forward and backward masking in motor systems. kybernetik, 2, 57-64. [15] meringer, r. (1908). aus dem leben der sprache: versprechen, kindersprache, nachahmungstrieb. festschrift der k. k. karl-franzens-universität graz aus anlaß der jahresfeier am 15. xi. 1906. berlin: b. behr’s verlag. [16] rossi, m., and peter-defare, é. (1998). les lapsus ou comment notre fourche a langué. paris: presses universitaire de france. [17] shattuck-hufnagel, s., and klatt, d.h. (1979). the limited use of distinctive features and markedness in speech production: evidence from speech error data. journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 18, 41-55. [18] wiedenmann, n. (1992). a corpus of german speech errors. forschungsberichte institut für phonetik und sprachliche kommunikation universität münchen (fipkm), 30 suppl., s1-s77. [19] wiedenmann, n. (1992). versprecher und die versuche zu ihrer erklärung. ein literaturüberblick. in series fokus, kühlwein, w., and vater, h. (eds.), linguistisch-philologische studien, nr. 9. trier: wvt wissenschaftlicher verlag trier. [20] wiedenmann, n. (1998). versprecherdaten und konsonantenvorkommenshäufigkeiten. gesprochene sprache aus versprechersammlungen im gegensatz zu geschriebener sprache der kaeding-zählung. sprache & sprachen, 22, 16-39. [21] wiedenmann, n. (1998). versprecher: phänomene und daten. mit materialien auf diskette. wien: wissenschaftsverlag edition praesens. [22] wiedenmann, n. (1999). versprecher: dissimilation von konsonanten. sprachproduktion unter spatio-temporalem aspekt. tübingen: niemeyer verlag. [23] wille, h., gewald, k., and weber, h.d. (1972), netzplantechnik. methoden zur planung und überwachung von projekten. vol. 1. zeitplanung (3rd ed.; 1st ed. 1966). münchen / wien: r. oldenbourg. microsoft word brain_1_4_nou_modif.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 59 on the relationship between input and interaction psycholinguistic, cognitive, and ecological perspectives in sla mohammad khatib english language and literature department, allameh tabataba'i university, head of english language room, south allameh street, tehran, iran mkhatib27@yahoo.com minoo alemi languages and linguistics department, sharif university of technology, room 5, first floor, ibn sina building, azadi avenue,tehran, iran alemi@sharif.ir parisa daftarifard college of foreign languages and literature, science and research branch, islamic azad university of science and research branch hesarak st., tehran, 1477893855, islamic republic of iran pdaftaryfard@yahoo.com abstract: input is one of the most important elements in the process of second language acquisition (sla). as gass (1997) points out, second language learning simply cannot take place without input of some sort. since then, specific issues have been actively debated in sla on the nature of input and input processing, such as the amount of input that is necessary for language acquisition, various attributes of input and how they may facilitate or hinder acquisition, and instructional method that may enhance input. in this paper, four hypotheses and paradigms of input processing have been described. it is delineated that although the three paradigms of triggering, input hypothesis, and interaction hypothesis have been widely used and accepted, they lack the ability to account for the dynamic nature of language. affordance, on the other hand, can account for such a nature of language. therefore, affordance replaces fixed-eye vision by mobile-eye vision; an active learner establishes relationships with and within the environment. the learner can directly perceive and act on the ambient language without having to route everything through a pre-existing mental apparatus of schemata and representation, while this is not true in the fixed-code theory. in the fixed-eye theory of communication it is assumed that ready-made messages are coded at one end, transmitted, and then decoded in identical form at the other end. we need in its place a constructivist theory of message construction and interpretation. key words: input, interaction, sla, pschycolinguistic, cognitive, ecological perspectives 1. introduction input is one of the most important ingredients in first language acquisition (fla) and second language acquisition (sla); this means that sla and fla cannot simply occur without the presence of input of some sort (gass, 1997) [9]. this especially matters when one takes the nature of input into account; some believe that input alone suffices learners to acquire either of the languages (krashen, 1987) [12]. others, on the other hand, believe that input should be negotiated (long, 1996) [13] or flooded (sharwood smith, 1994) [24], or noticed through output saliency (schmidt, 2001) [23]. no matter what kind of approach one takes to explain the process of language acquisition, almost all approaches, models, theories, and explanations on sla have highlighted the importance of input although with different degrees of emphasis or through different names. sometimes, it is simply referred to as cue in competition model (macwhinney, 2004) [16] and sometimes as brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 60 comprehensible or modified one in krashen’s (1987) [12] and long’s sense (1996) [14] and sometimes in the form of affordance (van lier, 2000) [25]. what actually matters in sla, however, is that input is approached differently in different paradigms and frameworks. in nonmodular paradigms such as the competition model, connectionism (calabretta & parisi, 2001) [2], anderson's act* model (1993) [1], and mclaughlin's information processing model (1987) [18], input and input processing are explicated in terms of frequency, weighting, automaticity, reliability, validity, and mapping conceptual provisions. on the other hand, the modular framework valued input as a form of evidence (negatively or positively provided). for example, krashen (1987) [12] accentuates the importance of positive evidence in a form of implicit learning, whereas vanpatten (2002) [20] highlights the role of explicit learning, along with implicit learning. others, such as long (1996) [14] emphasized more on the negotiated input through interpersonal interaction. more innovatively, there are still some others who consider interaction and intra action as keys to language development (lantolf, 2007 [13]; van lier, 2000 [27]; swain & lapkin, 2007 [25]). in this respect, van lier (2004) [28] and ellis (1999) [4] classify the literature on input into two distinct paradigms of psychological versus sociocultural perspectives. to van lier, these differences are the dyadic versus dynamic nature of input-related theories. due to space limitations, this article only focuses on modular-based sla theories or models to compare different perspectives on the nature of input and interaction. from among the vast versions of sla models and theories, i select only four different epistemologically different perspectives towards input and sla, namely chomsky's view on input – triggering (flynn, 1996 [8]; white, 1996 [29]), krashen's input hypothesis (1987) [12], long's interaction hypothesis (1996) [14], and van lier's affordance (2004) [28]. below each of the mentioned views will be reviewed and compared with each other. 2. input, sign, two value systems research on input began in the 1970s nearly a decade “after the initial studies of motherese in l1 acquisition but with a broader focus than the l1 work” (long, 1996, p. 415) [14]. since then, specific issues have been actively debated in sla on the nature of input and input processing. these issues mostly are summarized as: 1. the amount of input that is necessary for language acquisition, 2. various attributes of input and how they may facilitate or hinder acquisition, and 3. how interaction may enhance input. within the modular model of sla, each of these questions differentiates the way language learning is approached. this compounds when input is studied in either sausurian dyadic or peircian triadic based semiotics (van lier, 2004) [28]. in the sausurian value system, sign is static, and gains value only in relation to other signs in the system of language. but in peirce's semiotics, input is dynamic, open, ever-changing and developing into other signs. in the latter, input processing is a never-ending process of semiosis or meaning making. this means that it continually evolves in various directions, growing into other signs, through interpretative process. while sausurian semiotics has a dyadic nature, i.e., there is a one-to-one relationship between object and sign or sign and meaning, peircian semiotics is triadic because it consists of the dynamic interaction between "representamen and the referent or object and interpretant, the meaning or outcome of the sign" (van lier, 2004, p. 61) [28]. as van lier (2004) [28] states, the triadic sign may have three parts of firstness, secondness, and thirdness in the aristotelian notion. firstness is just what is (quality; related to feeling and possibility) with no reference to anything else. secondness is reaction, relation, change, experience. and finally, thirdness is mediation, habit, interpretation, communication, and symbolism. while all models and theories of input processing to date will fall into the first category, i.e., sausarian dyadic sign, except for van lier's (2004) [28] ecological view towards input, i.e., brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 61 affordance. this paper aims at studying these two extreme views with respect to the three questions raised above as (a) the amount of input that is necessary for language acquisition; (b) various attributes of input and how they may facilitate or hinder acquisition; and (c) the role of interaction in sla. 3. dyadic based nature of input input as trigger and comprehensible input in the innatist view, language is neither taught nor learned, it basically "grows" as a "mental organ" (van lier, 2004, p. 136) [28]. in this paradigm, the assumption is that (1) there must be a rich innate mental structure in the brain that unfolds just by virtue of the child's being in an environment in which the language is used; (2) the exact nature of exposure is not important; it does not matter what kinds of sentences, how accurate every sentence is, and so on; and (3) the precise nature of input is not relatively trivial, since all it does is trigger the growth of the innate system. to argue for the truthfulness of this paradigm, some refer to the argument of poverty of stimulus as the "logical problem of language acquisition", while others have called it "plato’s problem," "chomsky’s problem," "gold’s problem," or "baker’s paradox" (macwhinney, 2004, p. 884) [16]. the term "logical problem of language acquisition" was coined by david lightfoot (gregg, 1996, p. 50) [11]. the famous argument is the notion of the logical problem for l2 acquisition (flynn, 1996 [8]; white, 1996 [29]; gregg, 1996 [11]) which questions the possibility of language acquisition in spite of shortage of input. in this line, felix (1984 cited in gregg, 1996 [11] as well as felix and weigle, 1991) [7] also refers to the developmental problem that relates to the question of why natural languages are acquired the way they are, i.e., how the regularities that have been observed in realtime acquisition processes can be explained. the question is how does acquisition proceed? in cummins's sense (1983 cited in gregg, 1996) [11] the logical problem is described in property theory and the developmental problem in transition theory. ug availability is also brought into sla to explain attributes of input and the amount of input a learner needs to develop his or her l2 knowledge. flynn (1996) [8] and white (1996) [29] refer to this phenomenon as parameter resetting. accordingly, there are three possibilities regarding ug accessibility: full access (flynn, 1996) [8], partial access (white, 1996) [29], and no access (schachter, 1996a [21], 1996b [22]). in the case of ug availability, what is important is to see what would "trigger" the parameter to be reset (cook, 1991 [3], for the discussion of triggering and learning see schachter, 1996) [21]. therefore, in explaining how ug is implemented in developmental stages, parameter resetting (hyams, 1986 cited in white, 1996 [29]; flynn, 1996 [8]) captures the idea of the possibility of partial access to ug. for example, flynn (1996) [8] delineates parameter resetting possibility through (a) the cp direction parameter, p. 134-137; (b) l1 vacuously applied principles pp. 137140; and (c) error data from adult l2 acquisition. on the other hand schachter (1996a, 1996b) [21, 22] opposed the assumption of triggering (lightfoot, 1989 cited in white, 1996) [29] in l2 acquisition and proposed the window of opportunity hypothesis which states that principles and parameters are mature and there will resist a sensitive period for that principle or parameter. however, learning principles proposed by others such as the subset principle (sp) (berwick, 1985 cited in white, 1996) [29] captures the idea that learners are conservative in adopting over inclusive parameter settings and rely on positive evidence. but mclaughlin (1995 cited in white, 1996) [29] rejects the subset principle because of availability of overgeneralization. also macwhinney (2004) [16] distinguishes between overgeneralization and universal-based learning arguing that childes database proves the other way around. as newport, gleitman and gleitman (1977 cited in macwhinney, 2004 [16]) reported, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 62 "the speech of mothers to children is unswervingly well-formed" so the assumption of ungrammaticality of first language input is under question. in this approach to learning, interaction means simple exposure. krashen indicates that input modification gives saliency to input through exposure. krashen (1987) [12] takes an extreme innatist view of development, except perhaps for early childhood bilingualism. even those who espouse an innatist view of first-language acquisition are likely to take a more explicit, learningcentered view on second-language acquisition (van lier, 2004) [28]. the effectiveness of positive and negative evidence in second-language acquisition has been always debatable. positive evidence is referred to text presentation (macwhinney, 2004) [16] or positive input (long, 1996 [14]; white, 1996 [29]) or any input to which learners are exposed. negative evidence, on the other hand, is the information to which learners are attending to (schmidt, 2001) [23]. the other names of negative evidence are information presentation (macwhinney, 2004) [16] and negative input (long, 1996 [14]; white, 1996 [29]). one of the figures in this paradigm is krashen (1987) [12]. comprehensible input hypothesis the non-interface position in sla, which is mainly supported by krashen (1987) [12], captures the idea that sla is an implicit activity. in this view, while both explicit l2 learning and l2 knowledge are possible, they remain separate from the l2 competence that learners come to acquire. according to krashen, explicit knowledge only plays the role of monitoring. krashen' comprehensible input hypothesis (1987) [12] asserts that if the acquirer understands the input, and if there is enough of it, i+1 will automatically happen. in other words, if communication is successful, i+1 is provided. there is nothing like a deliberate attempt to provide i+ 1. moreover, he stipulates that speaking fluency cannot be taught directly; rather it emerges over time, on its own. the best way to teach speaking is to provide comprehensible input. to krashen, the affective filter would prevent input from entering into lad (language acquisition device) and being changed into competence. it has three components of (a) motivation, (b) self-confidence, and (c) anxiety. the evidence krashen relied on were (a) caretaker speech (language is simplified and modified to make it comprehensible) which is roughly tuned to the level of children, i.e., caretaker speech tends to get more complex as the child progresses; (b) modified input in second language situation is three types; (c) foreigner-talk: modified language; simplified language; (d) teacher talk; (e) silent period, (f) age difference, (g) immersion program, (h) bilingual program, (i) delayed l1 and l2 acquisition, and the like. the impact of this view on language learning is to provide the learner with simplified or elaborated input (comprehensible input) and decrease the load of the affective filter, the assumption being that learning would happens without intervention. problems with input hypothesis like triggering assumption, comprehensible input hypothesis has faced many challenges. mclaughlin (1987) [18] questions krashen's hypothesis on several grounds. first, according to him, krashen has not provided a definition of subconscious and conscious learning, although he did operationally identify conscious learning with judgments of grammaticality based on rule and subconscious acquisition with judgments based on feel. second, learning does not turn into acquisition. that is, according to krashen, if what is consciously learned – through the presentation of rules and explanations of grammar – does not become the basis of acquisition of the target language. kevin gregg (1984 cited in mclaughlin, 1987, p. 21) [18] claims that some rules can be acquired through learning. the third problem is the assumption of l1=l2. krashen argued that adult acquirers have access to the same "language acquisition device" (lad) that children use. if krashen's argument on age is correct, young adolescents who are at the stage of formal operations in piaget's sense would be expected to be heavy monitor users and therefore poor performers. but their performance seems even better than that of young children. the next problem is related to natural order in that the only natural order evidence of krashen is on morpheme. and finally, he brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 63 mentioned that input hypothesis makes a strong claim – that acquisition is caused by understanding the input to which the learner is exposed. another opponent of comprehensible input hypothesis is van lier (2004) [28]. accordingly, krashen has provided no coherent explanation for the development of the affective filter and no basis for relating the affective filter to individual differences in language learning. to van lier (2004) [28], acquisition is an emerged issue and he explains it in terms of the grammaticalization perspective, which encapsulates both incidental learning (acquisition, in a comprehensible input situation) and deliberate and focused learning which both can contribute to the emergence of linguistic abilities. the second problem van lier refers to is the nature of input krashen stipulated. according to krashen's view, input is "fixed pieces of language that are processed and stored in the brain. it ignores, or at least neglects, the socially active learner" (p.139). moreover, to van lier, the affective filter in krashen's hypothesis is a single dimension from open to closed form: "this view is compatible with a passive, social learner who just sits around soaking up comprehensible input" (p. 141). to van lier, the emotional factor cannot easily or clearly be divided into positive or negative factors: "no pain no gain” may sometimes be true and sometimes not." 4. input interaction the third model that i am going to explain is interaction hypothesis or focus on form (long, 1981, cited in ellis, 1994) [4], the updated version of interaction hypothesis or focus on meaning (long, 1996) [14], comprehensible output hypothesis (swain, 1985 cited in long 1996) [14], and noticing the gap (schmidt & frota, 1986 cited in ellis, 1994 [4]; schmidt 2001 [23]). a more active and interactive perspective on input holds that we can make language more comprehensible by engaging in meaningful interaction (van lier, 2004, p. 141) [28]. while being engaged in challenging tasks, learners need to work actively to comprehend each other's messages, and in this work they focus on those parts of language that need improvement, both receptively and productively. long (1996) [14] redefines interaction hypothesis and emphasizes the importance of negotiation for meaning. accordingly, negotiation works when there is an interaction between nonnative speakers (nns) and native speakers (nss) or more competent interlocutors; such negotiation facilitates acquisition because it connects input, internal learner capacities, particularly selective attention, and output in productive ways. a key feature in this interaction-based approach is the selective attention. the assumption of interaction hypothesis is that because language acquisition entails not just linguistic input but comprehensible linguistic input, the relationship often goes unnoticed until abnormal cases are encountered of beginners trying to learn from incomprehensible language samples originally intended for mature speakers. such efforts invariably result in failure in both l1 and l2 acquisition. in fact, interaction hypothesis emphasizes the role and importance of incomprehensible input compared to comprehensible input. different devices might be employed in the negotiation process such as repetition, confirmations, reformulations, compression checks, confirmation checks, and clarification requests. these might be found to be more (a) between ns and nns than ns and ns, (b) on two-way tasks than on one-way tasks, (c) on unfamiliar tasks than familiar ones, (d) in mixed rather than same l1 dyads, (e) mixed rather than same proficiency interlocutors, and (f) mixed rather than same gender. to long (1996) [14], comprehensible input is insufficient on certain grounds: (a) extreme modification can result in ungrammaticality; (b) interactional modification (im) produces longer texts; (c) im can compensate for linguistic complexity by elaboration (i.e. redundancy), (d) competence equals grammatical and structure – paradoxically, comprehensible input may actually inhibit learning on occasion, because it is often possible to understand a message without brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 64 understanding all the structures and lexical items in the language encoding it, and without being aware of not understanding them all (p. 425). elsewhere, swain (2000 cited in van lier, 2004) [28] emphasizing the role of output mentions that output can sharpen the learner's awareness of linguistic expression in ways that input simply cannot. when speaking, we may have to struggle to make our ideas clear in precise grammatical and lexical terms, or else we may be misunderstood. in ecological terms, proficiency emerges gradually, through repeated trials of production and reception, with meaning and precision occurring over time. there is similarity between this view towards sla and zpd of sociocultural perspective in that in zpd the emphasis is on the expert-novice relationship. another hypothesis which falls into this paradigm is noticing the gap hypothesis (schmidt & frota, 1986 cited in schmidt, 2001) [23]. accordingly, the focus of attention and noticing of mismatches between the input and their output determines whether or not they progress, and that noticing, or conscious perception (for which attention is a prerequisite), is necessary and sufficient for converting input into intake. to schmidt, noticing means registering the simple occurrence of some event, whereas understanding implies recognition of a general principle, rule, or pattern (p. 426). schmidt (2001) [23] believes that there is no such a thing as subliminal language learning. according to tomlin and villa (1993 cited in van lier, 2004) [28], schmidt's idea of noticing can be recast as detection within selective attention. acquisition requires detection, but such detection does not require awareness. awareness plays a potential support role for detection, helping set up the circumstances for detection but it does not directly lead to detection itself. on this account, failure to learn is due either to insufficient exposure or failure to notice the items in questions, even if attending occurs (a learner could attend carefully to a lecture in an l2 and still fail to notice the items in question). this is the opposite position to that taken by krashen and vanpatten (1988) [20] who denied there is any evidence of beneficial effects of a focus on form, at least in the early stages of language learning. as mentioned earlier, krashen has claimed that adults can best learn an l2 in the manner children learn an l1 incidentally and in a subliminal way; attention is neither necessary nor beneficial. in sum, negotiation for meaning hypothesis claims that incomprehensible input which leads to negotiation would involve learners in denser than usual frequencies of semantically contingent speech of various kinds (i.e., utterances by a competent speaker, such as repetitions, extensions, reformulations, rephrasing, expansions and recasts). moreover, the frequencies of target forms in the reformulations tend to be higher. furthermore, negotiation involves recycling related items while a problem is resolved, which should increase their saliency and the likelihood of their being noticed by the learner. therefore, learners have more chances to detect the changes and understand them and incorporate than when both form and meaning are opaque. 5. input as affordance a completely different perspective towards signs and input is taken by the ecological view taken and reformulated into language learning acquisition by van lier (2000, 2004) [27,28] and lantolf (2007) [13]. as mentioned earlier, affordance – which is the new name for input in ecological perspective to sla – is introduced in peircian's semiotics. in this view, sign is dynamic, and evolves in various directions, growing into other signs, through the interpretative process. it has a triadic nature because it consists of the dynamic interaction between "representamen and the referent or object and interpretant" (van lier, 2004, p61) [28]. first van lier (1996 cited in van lier, 2004) [28] has changed the term input to engagement. later, van lier (2000) [27] changed input to affordance. according to him, input comes from a view of language as a fixed code and of learning as a process of receiving and processing pieces of this fixed code. this is variously referred to as "telementation" (harris, 1996 cited in van lier, 2004) [28] and the "conduit metaphor" (reddy, 1979 cited in van lier, 2004) [28]. this is the same brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 65 as viewing the learner as a computer into which data is "input". an affordance affords further action (but does not cause or trigger it). according to van lier (2000) [27], what becomes an affordance depends on what the organism does, what it wants, and what is useful for it. he exemplified affordance in a leaf saying that "the same leaf can offer very different affordances to different organisms: (a) crawling on for a tree frog, (b) cutting for an ant, (c) food for a caterpillar, (d) shade for a spider, and (d) medicine for a shaman" (p.252). a leaf is the same leaf for all organisms he exemplified but its different properties are perceived and acted upon by different organisms. therefore, in van lier's sense (2004) [28], a word or an expression never means the same thing twice. the construct of affordance is relevant to language learning in several different ways. first, it views language from a relational not a material perspective. language learning is not a process of representing linguistic objects in the brain on the basis of input received. according to van lier (2000) [27] affordance refers to what is available to the person to do something with. it originates from gibson's definition of affordance "as what the environment offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill" (p. 92). this is the learner who detects and picks up and acts upon the affordance based on his capacity and in tune with his or her environment. within this paradigm, learning processes are processes of semiosis. the learning context, in ecological terms, is an activity space; therefore, when we are active in this activity space, "affordances become available for further action" (p.62). we may perceive these affordances and use them as meaning-making material directly or indirectly. in van lier's sense in nature these affordances are perceived directly and immediately, but later they are mediated through language. through activity, perception, and affordance, language will emerge. in aristotelian terms, learning happens first in the form of iconic or "firstness". later, it grows into indexical expressions (secondnesses) when they are shared, and ends up in symbolic form, i.e., "thirdnesses", when they turn into games, or grow into speech. none of these levels would replace one another. iconicity represents (a) feeling, sensation, smell, taste, direct perceptual experience, self; (b) phatic communion; and (c) tone of voice, expression, prosody, iconic gestures. indexicality, (pointing) is (a) vocabulary learned in this level which represents; (b) linearity, synchronicity, division, otherness, the social world; (c) reaction, interaction, change, dialogue; and (d) deixis, pointing, deictic gestures (mcneill, 2000). and finally, symbolicity, (grammar emerges) represents (a) reason, logic, representation, integration, argument; (b) habit, convention, ritual; and (c) symbolic gestures (mcneill, 2000 cited in van lier, 2004) [28]. therefore, affordance replaces fixed-eye vision by mobile-eye vision; an active learner establishes relationships with and within the environment. the learner can directly perceive and act on the ambient language, without having to route everything through a pre-existing mental apparatus of schemata and representation, while this is not true in the fixed-code theory. in the fixed-eye theory of communication it is assumed that ready-made messages are coded at one end, transmitted, and then decoded in identical form at the other end. we need in its place a constructivist theory of message construction and interpretation. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 66 figure 1. affordance in relation with environment and agent in figure 1, relevance emerges in a third dimension, as a result of the interaction between perception/activity (through affordance and agent /environment relationship; environment is full of meaning potential; the agent has certain abilities; aptitude, effectiveness, fitness, or whatever psychologists, biologists or anthropologists might call it; affordance fuels perception and activity, and brings about meaning. emergence in an ecological perspective to language learning, language emerges. but what does "emergence" mean? emergence means that "the whole is bigger than the parts; and it is also often smarter than parts. this is the major tenet of gestalt psychology" (van lier, 2004) [28]. in the emergence view of language, language is much less regular in a general sense; a crucial characteristic of language is the mapping of structure onto function. this relationship is constantly being interpreted and reinterpreted as part of the negotiation of meaning that accompanies every dialogical interchange. according to the emergentist perspective, grammar is not a prerequisite of communication; rather, it is a byproduct of communication (hopper, 1998 cited in van lier, 2004) [28]. ecology as mentioned earlier, affordance is mentioned in the ecological view of language. ecology refers to the totality of relationships of an organism to all other organisms with which it comes into contact; management of the environment or specific ecosystems. ecological linguistics is a study of language as relationships (of thought, action, power), rather than as objects (words, sentences, rules). it also relates verbal utterances to other aspects of meaning making, such as gestures, drawings, or artifacts. internalization ohta (2000) assigns four levels of internalization. first, the learner is unable to notice, or correct the error, even with intervention. second, the learner is able to notice the error, but cannot correct it, even with intervention, requiring explicit help. third, the learner is able to notice and correct an error, but only with assistance. the learner understands assistance, and is able to incorporate feedback offered. fourth, the learner notices and corrects an error with minimal or no obvious feedback, and begins to assume full responsibility for error correction. however, the structure is not yet fully internalized, since the learner often produces the target form incorrectly. the learner may even reject feedback when it is unsolicited. and fifth, the learner becomes more consistent in using the target structure correctly in all contexts. the learner is fully able to notice and correct his/her errors without intervention. levels of internalization from interpsychological to intrapsychological functioning level 1 the learner is unable to notice, or correct the error, even with intervention. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 67 level 2 the learner is able to notice the error, but cannot correct it, even with intervention, requiring explicit help. level 3 the learner is able to notice and correct an error, but only with assistance. the leaner understands assistance, and is able to incorporate feedback offered. level 4 the learner notices and corrects an error with minimal, or no obvious feedback, and begins to assume full responsibility for error correction. however, the structure is not yet fully internalized, since the learner often produces the target form incorrectly. the learner may even reject feedback when it is unsolicited. level 5 the learner becomes more consistent in using the target structure correctly in all contexts. the learner is fully able to notice and correct his/her own errors without intervention. 6. conclusion input is one of the most important elements in the process of sla. as gass (1997) [9] points out, second-language learning simply cannot take place without input of some sort. since then, specific issues have been actively debated in sla on the nature of input and input processing: 1. the amount of input that is necessary for language acquisition, 2. various attributes of input and how they may facilitate or hinder acquisition, and 3. instructional methods that may enhance input. in this paper, four hypotheses and paradigms of input processing have been described. it is delineated that although the three paradigms of triggering, input hypothesis, and interaction hypothesis have been widely used and accepted, they lack the ability to account for the dynamic nature of language. affordance, on the other hand, can account for such a nature of language. therefore, affordance replaces fixed-eye vision by mobile-eye vision; an active learner establishes relationships with and within the environment. the learner can directly perceive and act on the ambient language, without having to route everything through a pre-existing mental apparatus of schemata and representation, while this is not true in the fixed-code theory. the fixedeye theory of communication assumes that ready-made messages are coded at one end, transmitted, and then decoded in identical form at the other end. we need in its place a constructivist theory of message construction and interpretation. references [1] anderson, j. r. (1993), problem solving and learning, american psychological association, 48(1), 35-44. [2] calabretta, r., parisi, d. (2001), evolutionary connectionism and mind/brain modularit, in: modularity: understanding the development and evolution of complex natural systems, mit press, cambridge, mass. [3] cook, v. j. (1991), the poverty-of-the-stimulus argument and multicompetence, second language research, 7, 103-117. [4] ellis, r. (1994), the study of second language acquisition, oxford university press, oxford. [5] ellis, r. (1999), theoretical perspectives on interaction and language learning, in: learning a second language through interaction, 3-32, john benjamin publishing company, amsterdam/ philadelphia. [6] ellis, n. c. (2007), the weak interface, consciousness, and form-focused instruction: mind the doors, in: form-focused instruction and teacher education: studies in honor of rod ellis, 17-34, oup, oxford. [7] felix, s. w., weigl, w. (1991), universal grammar in the classroom: the effects of formal instruction on second language acquisition, second language research, 7, 162-180. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 4, october 2010, ”autumn 2010”, issn 2067-3957 (in progress) 68 [8] flynn, s. (1996), a parameter-setting approach to second language acquisition, in: handbook of second language acquisition, 121-158, academic press, new york. [9] gass, s. m. (1997), input, interaction, and the second language learner, lawrence erlbaum associates, publishers, mahwah, nj. [10] gass, s. m. (2003), input and interaction, in: the handbook of second language acquisition 224-255, blackwell, new york. [11] gregg, k. r. (1996), sla theory: construction and assessment, in: the handbook of second language acquisition, 831-865, blackwell, new york. [12] krashen, s. d. (1987), principles and practice in second language acquisition, englewood cliffs, prentice-hall international, n.j. [13] lantolf, j. p. (2007), conceptual knowledge and instructed second language learning: a sociocultural perspective, in: form-focused instruction and teacher education: studies in honor of rod ellis, 35-54, oup, oxford. [14] long, m. h. (1996), the role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition, in: handbook of second language acquisition, 413-468, academic press, ny. [15] loewen, s., philp j. (2006), recasts in the adult english l2 classroom: characteristics, explicitness, and effectiveness, the modern language journal, 90, 536-556. [16] macwhinney, b (2004), a multiple process solution to the logical problem of language acquisition, journal of child language, 31, 883-914. [17] mclaughlin, m. w. (1978), the monitor model: some methodological considerations, language learning, 28, 309-332. [18] mclaughlin, m. w. (1987), learning from experience: lessons from policy implementation, educational evaluation and policy analysis, 9 (2), p. 171-178. [19] ohta, a. s. (2000), rethinking interaction in sla: developmentally appropriate assistance in the zone of proximal development and the acquisition of l2 grammar, in: sociocultural theory and second language learning, 51-78, oup, oxford. [20] patten, v. b. (2002), from input to output: a teacher’s guide to second language acquisition, the mcgraw-hill companies, texas. [21] schachter, j. (1996a), learning and triggering in adult l2 acquisition, in: performance and competence in second language acquisition, 70-88, cup, new york. [22] schachter, j. (1996b), maturation and the issue of universal grammar in second language acquisition, in: handbook of second language acquisition, 159-193, academic press, new york. [23] schmidt, r. (2001), attention, in: cognition and second language instruction (2nd ed.), 3-32, cup, cambridge. [24] sharwood smith, m. (1994), second language learning: theoretical foundations, longman, london. [25] swain, m., lapkin, s. (2007), the distributed nature of second language learning: neil's perspective, in: form-focused instruction and teacher education: studies in honor of rod ellis, 7386, oup, oxford. [26] tarone, e. (2007), sociolinguistic approaches to second language acquisition research—19972007, the modern language journal, 91, 837-848. [27] van lier, l. (2000), from input to affordance: social-interactive learning from an ecological perspective, in: sociocultural theory and second language learning, 245-260, oup, oxford. [28] van lier, l. (2004), the ecology and semiotics of language learning: a sociocultural perspective, kluwer academic publishers, boston. [29] white, l. (1996), universal grammar and second language acquisition: current trends and new direction, in: handbook of second language acquisition, 85-120, academic press, new york. brain_3_1 50 a review of the language-thought debate: multivariant perspectives parviz birjandi islamic azad university (science and research branch) faculty of foreign languages and literature, hesarak, tehran, iran, postal code: 1477893855 p.o.box 14515 – 755, tel. +98 311-6692696 pbirjand@yahoo.com somayyeh sabah islamic azad university (science and research branch) faculty of foreign languages and literature, hesarak, tehran, iran, postal code: 1477893855 p.o.box 14515 – 755, tel. +98 311-6692696 somayyehsabah@yahoo.com abstract in recent times, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the relationship between language and thought from a variety of points of view to explore whether language comes before thought or thought precedes language. accordingly, the present paper attempts at mulling over the current debates on this issue, including chomsky’s (1975, 1983) independent theory, the sapirwhorf hypothesis (1956), piaget’s cognitive determinism (1952, as cited in, chaput, 2001), vygotsky’s (1978, 1986) theory of interchanging roles, o’brien and opie’s (2002) radical connectionism, and slobin’s (1987, 1991, 2003) thinking for speaking hypothesis, which recently have received a great amount of attention, among other positions. then the pedagogical implications of the thinking for speaking hypothesis for second language acquisition (sla) are presented. keywords: language and thought, mould and cloak theories, independent theory, sapirwhorf hypothesis, cognitive determinism, theory of interchanging roles, connectionism, radical connectionism, and thinking for speaking hypothesis. 1. introduction to be precise, dewey (1910) holds that no words are more often on lips than thinking and thought (emphasis is ours). however, human beings’ use of these words is so abundant and diverse that it is not unproblematic to define just what one means by them. as gleitman and papafragou (2005) put it, possessing a language is one of the fundamental characteristics, which is said to differentiate humans from other species. a lot of people share the intuition that they think in language; as a result, the lack of language would, in its own right, be the nonexistence of thought. the subsequent lines of debate are meant to provide an overview regarding different perspectives offered for the language-thought debate. 2. review of literature to put it in plain words, chandler (1994) proffers the debate that of enormous significance is the exact nature of the bond between language and thought. in the realm of linguistic theory, the majority of theories can be categorized amid two general and binary contrasting types at the opposite ends of the continuum. bruner, goodnow, and austin (1956, as cited in, chandler, 1994) muse that they are in the main classified as mould theories and cloak theories. mould theories, such as the sapir-whorf theory, take for granted that language is a mould in terms of which categories of thought are cast whereas cloak theories adopted by the extreme universalism presume that language is a cloak or the dress of thought meeting the requirements of the customary thought categories of its speakers, namely the same thought can be expressed in various ways. universalists discuss that one can say whatever one desires to say in any languages, and that whatever one articulates in one language can always be translated into another. chandler (1994) also argues that, additionally, there p. birjandi, s. sabah a review of the language-thought debate: multivariant perspectives 51 exists a related view held by, say, behaviorists, to mention among others, on the basis of which language and thought are deemed as identical. in line with this stance, thinking is regarded to be wholly and entirely linguistic; that is to say, there is no non-verbal thought, and no translation from thought to language takes place. putting it this way, thought is viewed as absolutely determined by language. what follows is meant to explicate these binary categories together with other theories that fall in between them. 2.1. sapir-whorf hypothesis according to whorf (1956), the starting point of all research concerning language and social representations is saussure’s idea that the language system segments the reality into conceptual chunks, thereby imposing categories by which people perceive and understand the world. in this view, two different languages are regarded to structure reality in different ways. these segments have been taken a step forward by whorf through his studies of amerindian languages, which demonstrate how worldviews emerge as the aggregation of conceptualizations tied to specific linguistic forms. the basic principles of the sapir-whorf hypothesis can be summarized in the following quotation by whorf (1956, p. 214): … no individual is free to describe nature with absolute impartiality but is constrained to certain modes of interpretation even while he thinks himself most free. the person most nearly free in such respects would be a linguist familiar with very many widely different linguistic systems. as yet no linguist is in any such position. we are thus introduced to a new principle of relativity, which holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar, or can in some way be calibrated. as carroll (1994) puts it, the view that language shapes thought has been first put forward by the american linguist sapir and then taken by whorf over one hundred years ago. however, it is most often associated with whorf. he debates that the whorfian hypothesis consists of two parts, i.e., the linguistic determinism and the linguistic relativity. he further remarks that the linguistic determinism refers to the notion that each language determines certain non-linguistic, cognitive processes. in other words, learning a language changes the way a person thinks. the linguistic relativity refers to the claim that the cognitive processes that are determined are different for different languages. thus, speakers of different languages are said to think in different ways. from carroll’s perspective, there are several notions posed in this area of debate. one is that languages carve up reality in different ways. another is that these language differences are covert or unconscious. to be more precise, it is asserted that people are not consciously aware of the way in which they classify objects. third, these language differences influence their worldviews. although whorf provides many lexical and grammatical examples of how language may influence cognition, he does not present convincing evidence for his hypothesis. these are profound ideas which are not easily amendable to the experimental test. the status of the whorfian hypothesis depends on how everyone takes it to mean. for instance, if the claim is that the presence of a language feature determines a specific mode of thought that cannot be attained in any other languages, then the hypothesis needs to be revised. in the late 1960s and early 1970s, new scholarship on language universals and linguistic typology are said to undercut whorfian hypothesis. whorf’s own best-known descriptive claims on language and thought are challenged by other field workers. by the early 1990s, scholars like pinker (1994) can confidently claim that whorfianism is “wrong, all wrong” (p. 57), “outlandish” (p. 63), and “bunk” (p. 65). however, at the very moment when pinker must have been wordprocessing his entertaining caricature of the linguistic relativity, a neo-whorfian revival is already under way. stimulated partly by the careful rereadings of whorf (silverstein, 1979; slobin, 1987, 1991, 2003; lucy, 1992) and partly by the increased methodological precision made possible by new findings in universals and typology, scholars begin anew to undertake certain works that pose whorfian questions or to advance whorfian interpretations of their findings (kay & kempton, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 1994). neo-whorfian scholarship seems to be more nuanced, probably more rigorous linguistically, and certainly less romantic and sweeping than the original. following this line of argument, chandler (1994) holds that even as few linguists admit the sapir-whorf hypothesis in its strong, radical, extreme, or deterministic form, many currently agree to a weak, further modest, or limited whorfianism, namely that the ways in which one observes the world may be influenced by the kind of language she or he makes use of. moderate whorfianism differs from extreme whorfianism in these ways: • the emphasis is placed on the potential for thinking to be affected rather than inevitably determined by language. • it is regarded as a two-way process; therefore, the kind of language one brings into play is also impinged upon by the way she or he observes the world. • any impact is attributed not to language as such or to one language in relation to another; rather, it is assigned to the use within a language of one variety rather than another, say, typically the sociolects or the language used primarily by members of a particular social group. • the emphasis is given to the social context of language use more willingly than to purely linguistic accounts, such as the social pressure in specific situations to utilize language in one way rather than another. to chandler (1994), a number of polemicists still prefer to make use of the notion of language as a strait-jacket or prison; however, there is a wide-ranging academic consensus having a preference for the moderate whorfianism. any linguistic influence is currently thought to be associated not primarily with the formal systemic structures of a language, or to draw on saussurean (1974) terminology, langue, but to the cultural conventions and individual styles of use, i.e., or parole. in other words, meaning does not inhabit in a text; rather, it comes to pass in its interpretation, and interpretation is wrought by the sociocultural contexts. gleitman and papafragou (2005) present the debate that chomsky’s universalist position is quite a different position based on which language, while being the fundamental human conduit for thought in communication, memory, and planning, neither generates nor substantially disfigures the conceptual life; that is, thought is first, and language serves as its expression. this different view of causality leaves the connection between language and mind as strong as ever and just as relevant for making sense of the mental life. from chomsky’s standpoint, for example, the forms and contents of all natural languages originate, for the most part, from an antecedently predetermined cognitive substance and architecture, and, therefore, provide a rich diagnostic account of human conceptual commonalities. accordingly, the linguistic relativity, in the sense of whorf and numerous current commentators, is rather new and, in its strongest interpretations, revolutionary that stands in opposition to the independent theory. it is a proposal for how new thoughts can happen in the mind due to experience with language rather than in consequence of experience with the world of objects and events. 2.2. chomsky’s independent theory chomsky (1983) considers language as one aspect of cognition and takes account of its development as one aspect of the development of cognition. chomsky holds that there exist a number of cognitive systems, which appear to possess distinct and specific properties. these systems lay the groundwork for certain cognitive capacities, and the language faculty is one of these cognitive systems. chomsky, for example, makes reference to the capacity to organize the visual space, to deal with the abstract properties of the number system, to comprehend and appreciate certain kinds of musical creation, the ability to make sense of the social structures in which one plays a role, which definitely is a sign of the conceptual structures that have developed in the mind together with any number of other mental capacities. chomsky’s (1975, p. 4) viewpoint on thought and language is reflected in the following quotation: p. birjandi, s. sabah a review of the language-thought debate: multivariant perspectives 53 language is a mirror of mind in a deep and significant sense. it is a product of human intelligence... by studying the properties of natural languages, their structure, organization, and use, we may hope to learn something about human nature; something significant, if it is true that human cognitive capacity is the truly distinctive and most remarkable characteristic of the species. elaborating on the chomskian mentalist paradigm, smith (1999) presents the debate that thinking is concerned with the utilization of either of language or of a system with enormous resemblance to language. in this respect, language is considered as the mirror of the mind. what is more, the pieces of evidence for the compartmentalization of the mind are said to be devastatingly linguistic. the knowledge of numerous dimensions of the mental structure, from the theory of mind to the moral judgment, from the recognition of visual illusions to the identification of faces, is picked up from the verbal output. it is not the case, however, that the language faculty is a model for the other compartments of mind. the vocabulary and principles of visual perception or of smell have nothing necessarily in common with those of language. that is to say, language is the mirror of the mind; it is not a model of the mind (see ji-xian, 2001). 2.3. piaget’s cognitive determinism the most influential cognitive constructivist theory has been developed by piaget (1952, as cited in, chaput, 2001) that puts forward a mechanism by which infants integrate experience into progressively higher-level representations, which he calls constructivism. according to chaput (2001), constructivism entails that infants progress from simple to sophisticated models of the world by means of a change mechanism that allocates the infant to build higher-level representations from lower-level ones. technically, piaget’s (1970, as cited in, gabillon, 2007) theory holds that individuals construct their cognitive abilities and create their own sense of the world. this view opposes nativist theories, which regard cognition as the innate knowledge and abilities, e.g., chomsky and krashen. the major theme in the theoretical framework of piaget is that the individual acts accordingly to conceptual categories, namely schemata that are developed in the interaction with the environment. piaget (1970, as cited in, gabillon, 2007) proposes that the individual’s cognitive development comprises certain continuous efforts to adapt to the environment, and that the individual’s schemata consisting of cognitive structures, cognitive rules, or scripts are constructed through the processes of adaptation. for piaget, this process of adaptation encompasses assimilation, namely the interpretation of events in terms of existing cognitive structures and accommodation, i.e., changing the cognitive structure to understand the environment. ji-xian (2001) presents the debate that cognitive determinism is primarily represented in piaget’s ideas. in this sense, cognition is conceived as a kind of biological endowment. biology and cognition intrinsically interact as the individual organism changes its behavior in response to its changing experiences and maturation. thus, a person’s language development is primarily determined by the development of her or his cognition. in other words, language is considered to be secondary to thought and thereby serves to express thought. as kozulin and presseisen (1995) put it, despite its revolutionary innovations, the piagetian constructivism has left numerous questions unanswered in ways that are not entirely adequate. one may make a distinction between two major problems with the piagetian cognitive approach. in the first place, the sociocultural remains largely beyond the scope of his theory. second, the learning process proposed by piaget appears as the direct interaction of the child with the environment. according to this perspective, the human mediators are practically excluded from the exchange. 2.4. vygotsky’s theory of interchanging roles analyzing the vygotskian legacy regarding the cognitive development, liu and matthews (2005) muse that to vygotsky, the relationship between the social and the individual in the historical processes of the social and individual development is one of dialectical interaction and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 functional unification. in the first place, vygotsky’s perspective towards individuals in society entails that the mind is not seen as autonomous from the social and cultural group. the process of individual development may probably be summarized as the social, i.e., the internalization all the way through the sign mediation, restructuring the conceptual system, and the new understanding/consciousness. in this sense, individual’s mastery and development must be anchored in both history and culture. what is more, the individual should be enabled to stand above the social collective because of the ability of the mind to generate personal understandings. vygotsky’s account of thought and language relationship, which is explicated below, seems to explicate his social constructivism. from vygotsky’s (1986) perspective, before two years of age, both thought and speech develop differently and have separate functions. vygotsky comes to the conclusion that both thought and speech have different genetic roots. thought and word are not linked by a primary bond; rather, they develop autonomously, and there is no constant connection between them. however, in human beings there is a close union between them. since the relationship between thought and speech is ever-changing, their progress does not run parallel. a prelinguistic phase in the development of thought and a preintellectual phase in the development of speech can be observed. then they melt and join at the age of two to initiate a new form of behavior. thought turns out to be verbal, and speech happens to be rational (see ji-xian, 2001). putting it this way, vygotsky (1986, p. 83) draws the subsequent conclusions: • in their ontogenetic development, thought and speech have different genetic roots. • in the speech development of the child, we can with certainty establish a preintellectual stage, and in his thought development, a prelinguistic stage. • up to a certain point in time, the two follow different lines, independently of each other. • at a certain point these lines meet, whereupon thought becomes verbal, and speech rational. vygotsky (1986) formulates the stages of cognitive development in terms of the transitions from three phases, namely social speech addressed to another person; egocentric speech, private speech, or self-directed speech; and inner speech. to him, private speech is the crucial bridge between the social (inter-psychological) world and the intrapsychological plane. gradually, the child turns the social speech toward the self. private speech is seen as a transition between the child’s learning language in a social communicative context and attempting to internalize it the later inner speech, i.e., thoughts or silent, conscious dialogues that one carries on with oneself while thinking or acting. there is a quote by vygotsky (1986, p. 249) that says: inner speech is not the interior aspect of external speech—it is a function in itself. it still remains speech, i.e. thought connected with words. but while in external speech thought is embodied in words, in inner speech words die as they bring forth thought. inner speech is to a large extent thinking in pure meanings. what is attention-grabbing in vygotsky’s (1978) account of cognitive development is that he considers affective tools as psychological tools that are seen to be of social rather than organic or individual origin. vygotsky argues that since the auxiliary stimulus possesses the precise function of the reverse action, it transports the psychological operation to the higher-level mental and qualitatively novel forms and authorizes the human beings to regulate and control their behavior from the outside by means of the extrinsic stimuli. vygotsky’s dialogic notion that learning is first and foremost a situated, inter-psychological phenomenon suggests that one needs to go beyond a predominantly cognitive theory of learning in general. exploring the dialectical relationship between thought, affect, language, and consciousness, vygotsky (1987, p. 282) postulates that: [thought] is not born of other thoughts. thought has its origins in the motivating sphere of consciousness, a sphere that includes our inclinations and needs, our interests and impulses, and our affect and emotions. the affective and volitional tendency stands behind thought. only here do we find the answer to the final “why” in the analysis of thinking. p. birjandi, s. sabah a review of the language-thought debate: multivariant perspectives 55 2.4.1. piaget and vygotsky on egocentric speech: decontextualization and functional differentiation according to hickman (1985), the notion of egocentricity has recurrently been called upon to give an explanation for exceedingly miscellaneous phenomena, not only in child language but also in other non-verbal behaviors observed in children. it has been employed in various ways, often in conjunction with the notion that young children do not take into account others’ perspectives, but not always with a precise description of what the phenomenon might be. hickman (1985) argues that within the piagetian paradigm, where the term as it is currently utilized has originated, the child’s egocentricity is a common phenomenon, stemming from her or his lack of decentering; and it typifies a good number of her or his behaviors, which are not adapted to specific contexts of situations. with regard to the process of language acquisition particularly, the general progression postulated within this model to take account of the egocentric speech is that children’s language, possessing private characteristics, is initially not adapted to social communicative situations. it becomes socialized at a later phase in development as decentering in the child’s cognitive organization permits her or him to engage genuinely in social interactions. in his early writings on child language, based on observations of spontaneous conversations, piaget (1923, as cited in, hickman, 1985) gives a picture of the private, comparatively asocial nature of the early speech in terms of the child’s inclination to talk about what she or he is doing, without any concern for being understood or even heard by others. it is as if she or he cannot stop her/himself from commenting on her or his actions vociferously, and her or his speech does not appear to enclose a real function. in contrast, as hickman (1985) says, vygotsky construes the egocentric speech in terms of a different progression, according to which speech is, first and foremost, and from the very beginning, social quintessentially; however, it is at the outset undifferentiated in line with a functional viewpoint. that is to say, speech in the beginning merely accompanies ongoing actions and perceptions in the context of utterance, also serving as a means of social contact with others. at a later point, when speech has been differentiated, it forms a system which is multifunctional for the adult. once it is utilized externally, it possesses a distinct communicative and social function. when it is drawn on internally, it mediates higher-level mental functions, say, in problem-solving situations wherein no addressee is present. for vygotsky, the egocentric speech is a transitional phase between the initial undifferentiated point and the later differentiated one. the child’s deployment of speech at this point mirrors her or his discovery of a novel function of speech, namely an organizing function that is at the service of regulating her or his non-verbal activities. these uses of speech do not yet have a distinct social communicative function for the child, i.e., they are not distinctly addressed to others. from an empirical standpoint, as hickman (1985) puts it, though little is known concerning the egocentric speech, certain empirical findings pursue predictions that can be inferred from vygotsky’s interpretation. for example, children’s use of more egocentric speech in the company of others than alone, and the point that they bring into play more egocentric speech as they are engaged in a somewhat difficult task than when the task is simple may provide pieces of evidence that argue for vygotsky’s analysis. additionally, empirical studies of adult-child interactions in problem-solving situations have recommended that there is a remarkable formal resemblance between adults’ regulative (verbal and nonverbal) actions that draw children’s attention to pertinent dimensions of the problem and certain children’s self-regulatory actions during the task. within a vygotskian perspective, these formal resemblances supply preliminary evidence for the mechanisms postulated for development, suggesting similarity between adults’ speech to children and children’s egocentric speech, i.e., children are drawing on the communicative patterns of interaction established in child-adult dyads to focus their own attention to relevant aspects of the situation and to keep up the social contact. within this system, self-regulatory uses of speech have, at least in part, a social origin which cannot be ignored. it is particularly interesting to consider this piece of evidence in the light of other results previously mentioned. it is significant that keenan and klein’s (1975, as cited in, hickman, 1985) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 conclusion is on the basis of evidence concerning chiefly the functions of speech in the nonlinguistic context. in this case, referent-introductions are typically deictic, e.g., nouns with or without determiners in predicative constructions and/or in successive repetitions. such uses indicate that children are indeed concerned with directing the attention of their listener to an object which then becomes mutually shared. however, in situations wherein such deictic forms of introduction are not possible, either for the reason that no relevant objects are present or since their addressee cannot observe them, children must fall back tightly on the linguistic context, making use of the speech to generate the very context for speech, which is seemingly egocentric as primitive deictic uses cannot suffice for adequate referent-introductions. hickman (1985) states that in these situations egocentricity and decentering can be defined, at least partly, in terms of the child’s functional-pragmatic repertoire. when the child discovers new functions of the signs she or he deals with in the course of interacting with others, such a development in his repertoire allows him to rely strictly on a new, distinctly linguistic context. 2.5. connectionism according to gasser (1990), in the past ten years the cognitive science has witnessed the rapid rise of interest in the connectionist models, namely the theories of the mind based on the interaction of large numbers of simple neuron-like processing units. the connectionist approach has already reshaped the way many cognitive scientists muse about mental representations and processing. as gasser (1990) puts it, connectionism proffers a challenge to the traditional symbolic models of cognition. despite the powerful appeal of symbols, rules, and logic, the traditional view suffers from a very inhuman-like brittleness as the linguistic and conceptual entities are by and large assigned in an all-or-none fashion to categories, rules typically apply in a fixed order, and deviations from the expected patterns are not handled well, if at all. in connectionist models, the brittleness is avoided because there are no discrete symbols and rules as such; the entities that a connectionist system uses to characterize the world are fluid patterns of activation across portions of a network. technically, gasser (1990) discusses that connectionism puts the emphasis back on learning in the cognitive science. in symbolic models it is often assumed that it is enough to characterize a particular point in the process of acquisition, a claim with which most connectionists do not agree. on the contrary, they believe that it is how the system progresses from one state to another that is mainly remarkable. thus, connectionists have developed a variety of new network learning algorithms to be studied and applied to particular problem domains. according to poersch (2005), chomskian mentalist paradigm places emphasis on the role of the mind in the cognitive processes. from such a cartesian perspective, mind and brain are two realities of different substances. mind is spiritual, and brain one is physical. the higher-order cognitive processes happen in the mind wherein the long-term memory is found. this paradigm assumes the existence of certain innate ideas and rules. cognition is processed through the representation of the world in the mind through a serial processing of abstract and fixed symbols. poersch discusses that connectionism is a cognitive paradigm rooted in the findings of neuroscience and not on explanatory hypotheses. all cognitive processes take place in the brain; the mind is nothing more than the grouping of these processes. the mind is not an ens in se; it is a phenomenon that actually occurs, it is an ens in altero. 2.5.1. radical connectionism as o’brien and opie (2002) put it, it is unquestionable that the cognitive dividing wall between human beings and other animals is closely associated with the human beings’ capability to comprehend and produce natural languages; however, what this connection exactly comprises of is a controversial issue. it is a matter of debate whether the natural language lays the groundwork for this divide due to the ability to use a natural language that makes possible a form of thought and p. birjandi, s. sabah a review of the language-thought debate: multivariant perspectives 57 cognition which is not available to the infra-verbal animals, or it is only its consequence since such an ability is a result of the difference between cognition in human beings and other animals. o’brien and opie argue that the classical computational theory, which entails that cognition is the disciplined manipulation of symbols in an innate language of thought, decides on the second rejoinder. based on this standpoint, all thought, regardless of where it happens in the animal world, is accomplished in a linguiform representational medium, and, therefore, the evolution of the natural language does not signify the development of a new form of cognition. alternatively, that evolution is in its own right to be somehow explicated with respect to the amplifications of the core functional architecture of the human brain that account, for the most part, for the augmented cognitive capacities. hence, from the classical perspective, the natural language is conceived of as a by-product of the representational medium of the human thought rather than being in part constitutive of it. o’brien and opie (2002) discuss that the viewpoint put forward by connectionism, the currently trendy alternative to classicism in cognitive science, is further intricate. connectionist networks do not compute by means of manipulating symbols, and, thus, do not install a linguiform representational medium. consequently, connectionists can look upon the role of natural language in human cognition in two very different ways. the first way, called ecumenical connectionism, puts forwards that the evolution of natural language amounts to a new-fangled form of cognition as it allows connectionist networks to put into operation the classical-style computation. on this account, the cognitive divide between human beings and other animals is definitely a computational one. even though much of the human cognition particularly perceptual cognition leads to a nonsymbolic representational medium, rendering it continuous with cognition in other animals, the brains somehow bootstrap their way to genuine symbol-processing by means of the natural language, and are consequently computationally unique in certain respects. the second way, radical connectionism, discards this hybridization. it shares with classicism the view that all of the human cognition, including the capacity to deploy a natural language, depends on the computational resources much like those that underpin the cognitive achievements of infra-verbal animals. nonetheless, radical connectionism is different from classicism given that it eliminates any functions for a linguiform representational medium. not only do not human beings think in their natural language, but also they do not think in language whatsoever. in view of the foregoing lines of argument, o’brien and opie (2002) take on board the position entailed by the radical connectionism on the basis of which cognition in no way alludes to an internal symbolic system even when the natural language comes to play a role in the human beings’ thought processes. such a stance adheres to an analog formation of the neural computation for which the representation of the abstract thought is considered to be no longer problematic as compared with a symbolic system. based on the connectionist position, the natural language is said to function as a kind of catalyst for the abstract cognition. to be precise, it systematizes, regulates, and controls the computational activities of the cognitive modules across a brain. vygotsky’s impressive insight implicates that after children acquire a natural language as a tool at the service of communication and internalize it; that is to say, they appropriate it in terms of a cognitive tool. in this sense, the internalization of the natural language is a process through which a conventionally ground set of communicative signals is put to work inside a brain. nevertheless, vygotsky together with a lot of other theorists including the ecumenical connectionists accept as true that this is a process wherein an external communicative scheme turns out to be an internalized representational medium, namely children learn to communicate with the natural language, and they subsequently learn to think in it. in accordance with the radical connectionism, it is taken for granted that although language plays a significant role in cognition, the part that the natural language plays internally resembles the role that it plays externally. in other words, one thinks with language not in language (for details, see o’brien & opie, 2002). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 2.6. thinking for speaking hypothesis in research on narrative productions on expression of motion across languages, it has become obvious to slobin (1979, p. 6, as cited in, clark, 2009, p. 130) that “language evokes ideas; it does not represent them. linguistic expression is thus not a straightforward map of consciousness or thought. it is a highly selective and conventionally schematic map.” for slobin (1987, p. 435), “we encounter the contents of the mind in a special way when they are being accessed for use.” that is to say, there is a process of thinking for speaking wherein cognition plays a dynamic role within the framework of linguistic expression, a point formulated by slobin (1987, p. 435) as follows: the activity of thinking takes on a particular quality when it is employed in the activity of speaking. in the evanescent time frame of constructing utterances in discourse, one fits one’s thoughts into available linguistic forms. a particular utterance is never a direct reflection of “objective” or perceived reality or of an inevitable and universal mental representation of a situation. this is evident within any given language, because the same situation can be described in different ways; and it is evident across languages, because each language provides a limited set of options for the grammatical encoding of characteristics of objects and events. “thinking for speaking” involves picking those characteristics that (a) fit some conceptualization of the event, and (b) are readily encodable in the language. in slobin’s (1991, p. 12) formulation, “the expression of experience in linguistic terms constitutes “thinking for speaking”-a special form of thought that is mobilized for communication.” slobin (1991) holds that apart from the impacts grammar may or may not have outside of the act of speaking, the kind of the mental activity that continues at the same time as formulating utterances is neither trivial nor obvious and appears to be worth pondering on. for him, one comes across the contents of the mind in a special way once they are being accessed for deployment. that is to say, the activity of thinking engages a specific quality when it is exploited in the course of the activity of speaking. in the transitory time frame of making utterances in discourse one incorporates one’s thoughts into the accessible linguistic frames. thinking for speaking is concerned with selecting those characteristics of objects and events that (a) are commensurate with some conceptualization of the event, and (b) are readily encodable in the language. putting it this way, he puts forward the idea that that, during the process of the acquisition of a first or native language (l1), the child learns certain particular ways of thinking speaking. taking account of certain thought experiments, slobin (2003) pinpoints that one can put forward the debate that it is slightly evident that a speaker or listener needs to deal with the semantic features that are encoded in the grammatical and lexical elements of a particular language with the purpose of learning and deploying that language. in view of this, slobin suggests that further scrupulous demonstrations are possible, indicating pervasive “ripple effects” of habitual attention to linguistically-encoded event characteristics. several criteria are required for the thinking-for-speaking research. although slobin makes use of the label thinking for speaking, the framework is meant to take account of every forms of linguistic production (e.g., speaking, writing, signing) and reception (e.g., listening, reading, viewing), as well as a variety of mental processes (e.g., understanding, imaging, remembering, etc.). accordingly, there exist also instances of thinking for translating, listening for understanding, reading for imaging, and so on and so forth. the thinking-for-speaking research possesses the subsequent features, including: • a selection of languages along with a semantic domain that is encoded with some frequency in all of the languages; • the semantic domain is encoded by particular grammatical constructions or obligatory lexical choices in no less than a number of the languages under comparison; • the domain is comparatively more codable in some of the languages to be compared; and • a selection of discourse contexts of situations wherein the semantic domain is recurrently accessed. p. birjandi, s. sabah a review of the language-thought debate: multivariant perspectives 59 slobin’s (2003) parade case of thinking for speaking is embodied in the encoding of motion events, which, as he puts it, presents a semantic domain that is significant in all languages and exhibits distinctive types of lexicalization patterns crosslinguistically. the essence of a motion event is the change of location, or, to draw on talmy’s terminology for referring to the matter, path. to slobin (1997, p. 439), the term path is meant to refer to the translational motion, which enjoys its fullest expression in terms of moving from “a source to a goal, along or through some medium, passing one or more milestones — for example “he went from station [source], along the avenue [medium], and through the crowds [medium], past the monument [milestone], to his office [goal].” following talmy (1991, 2000, as cited in, slobin, 2003), slobin (2003) argues that languages are inclined to encode the path of motion in one of two ways, namely either in a verb (e.g., enter, exit, etc.) or in a connected particle or satellite (e.g., in, out, etc). a simple example is provided by english and french: (1) a. the dog went into the house. b. le chien est entré dans la maison. the dog entered the house. for slobin (2003), english frames path by way of a satellite (in), whereas french frames path via a verb (entrer). english is called a satellite-framed language (s-language); french is known as a verb-framed language (v-language). path is highly codable in both languages; nevertheless, the languages vary in terms of codability in connection with another aspect of motion events, i.e., the manner of motion: (2) a. the dog ran into the house. b. le chien est entré dans la maison en courant. the dog entered the house by running. according to slobin (2003), manner is greatly codable in english for the reason that it is accomplished by the main verb. every clause requires a verb, and it is as easy to say go in as run in. english-speakers get manner for free, and make widespread communicative and cognitive use of this dimension. conversely, in french manner is an adjunct; that is, an optional addition to a clause that is already complete. french-speakers point to manner when it is under debate; however, they otherwise do not refer to it. consequently, they are less sensitive to this dimension in general. commenting on the thinking for speaking perspective towards language and thought, de villiers and de villiers (2003) maintain that this view takes for granted that the learning of language is the development of a cultural skill developed within the framework of social discourse and nurtured by others. language is intricately intermingled with the meanings and concepts transmitted by it, and the emphasis is placed on learning-by-doing. on this account, the thought of a conceptual theory of mind before or without a particular language makes little sense. this position echoes the hot debates posed in the philosophy of science on the subject of the radical incommensurability of the theoretical paradigms (kuhn, 1963; scheffler, 1975, as cited in, de villiers & de villiers, 2003). that is to say, there is always a language, a series of categories, and a symbolic theory via which one comes to divide and understand the world, and spokespersons of different languages, similar to the owners of various scientific theories, cannot come across a neutral ground for the reason that there exists no such thing. for ekiert (2007), slobin’s research demonstrates how speakers of different languages are predisposed to tackle certain dimensions of experience owing to obligatory categories in grammar; however, the hypothesis does not deal with the problem of the cognitive implications arising from the utilization of particular languages. his intention is the inspection of linguistic cognition, namely the process of thinking for speaking wherein cognition plays a dynamic role within the framework of the linguistic expression. slobin has established that speakers need to think about language itself in order to speak. this thinking turns out to be systematized to a certain degree in the process of language acquisition and use, and shows a discrepancy crosslinguistically in keeping with specific grammars. relevant to this line of argument is the debate posed by stam (2010) that children learn grammatical constructions and lexicon that not only afford them with a framework at the service of brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 60 the expression of thought, events, and feelings but also direct their expression when they participate in the on-line process of thinking for speaking. 2.6.1. the implications of thinking for speaking hypothesis for sla with regard to the implications of the thinking for speaking hypothesis for the process of second language acquisition (sla), rivers (1983, as cited in, ekiert, 2007) holds that the categories of thinking for speaking that have received much attention in research have been identified as interlingual conceptual contrasts, chief amongst which are anderson’s (1983, p. 182, as cited in, alonso, 2002, p. 234) “transfer to somewhere” based on which the compatibility of l1 elements with the “natural acquisitional principles” and the l2 input to some extent amount to generalization from the l1 and kellerman’s (1995, p. 137, as cited in, alonso, 2002, p. 234) “transfer to nowhere” that states “there can be transfer which is not licensed by similarity to the l2 and where the way the l2 works may very largely go unheeded.” in this respect, alonso (2002) has recourse to slobin’s (1996, as cited in, alonso, 2002) argument that language works as a filter, and, hence, it does not give form to thoughts. putting it this way, alonso argues that the differences between languages in terms of the way the learners express the conceptualization of experience can serve as a source of difficulty in the realm of sla. thus, as slobin (2003) puts it, the attempt en route for uncovering the thinking for speaking impacts of particular linguistic forms is hence part of a much larger framework of online communication, negotiation, and action. nevertheless, what each and every one of these processes share is that they are processes; that is to say, they unfold in time and are shaped in use. ekiert (2007) recommends that slobin’s thinking for speaking should be critically taken into account by the sla research in order to document the processes that disclose within time and are wrought in terms of use. 3. conclusion to make a long story short, the debate over the relationship between thought and language is said to have raised a hot question which resonated, and still resonates, with significant contemporary controversial concerns. the relationship between language and thought is not generally posed in the hope that someone will come up with a definite answer. reviewing the history of the language-thought debate, gleitman and papafragou (2005) argue that it appears that much argument concerning the bond between language and thought has been colored by an underlying incongruity and incommensurability regarding the nature of language itself. many commentators, struck by the observed cross-linguistic diversity in semantic and syntactic categories, have taken account of this diversity in terms of a possible source of more profound cognitive discontinuities among speakers of different languages. however, other commentators observe this crosslinguistic diversity as much more restricted and superficial than the flourishing, bustling perplexity emerging from the tower of babel. references [1] alonso, r. a. (2002). current issues in language transfer. actas del encuentro conmemorativo de los 25 años del centro de lingüística de la universidad de oporto, 231-236. http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/7182.pdf (accessed 14/01/2012) [2] carroll, d. w. (1994). psychology of language (2nd ed.). pacific grove, california: brooks/cole publishing company. [3] chandler, d. (1994). the sapir-whorf hypothesis. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/documents/ short/whorf.html (accessed 14/01/2012) [4] chaput, h. h. (2001). post-piagetian constructivism for grounded knowledge acquisition. http://www.aaai.org/papers/symposia/spring/2001/ss-01-05/ss01-05-004.pdf (accessed 14/01/2012) p. birjandi, s. sabah a review of the language-thought debate: multivariant perspectives 61 [5] chomsky, n. (1975). reflections on language. new york: pantheon. [6] chomsky, n (1983). noam chomsky’s views on the psychology of language and thought. in r. w. rieber (ed.), dialogues on the psychology of language and thought (33-63). new york: plenum. [7] clark, e. v. (2009). first language acquisition (2nd ed.). cambridge: cambridge university press. [8] de villiers, j. g., & de villiers, p. a. (2003). language for thought: coming to understand false beliefs. in d. gentner & s. goldin-meadow (eds.), language in mind: advances in the study of language and cognition (pp. 335-384). cambridge, ma: mit press. [9] dewey, j. (1910). how we think. lexington, mass: d. c. heath. [10] ekiert, m. (2007). the acquisition of grammatical marking if indefiniteness with the indefinite article a in l2 english. teachers college, columbia university working papers in tesol & applied linguistics, 7(1). http:// journals.tc library.org/index.php /tesol/article/download/265/224 (accessed 14/01/2012) [11] gabillon, z. e. (2007). l2 learners’ and l2 teachers’ stated l2 beliefs (unpolished doctoral dissertation). université nancy2 france. http://cyberdoc.univnancy2.fr/htdocs/docs_ ouvert/doc 279/2007nan21010.pdf (accessed 14/01/2012) [12] gasser, m. (1990). connectionism and universals of second language acquisition. studies in second language acquisition, 12, 179-199. [13] gleitman, l., & papafragou, a. (2005). language and thought. in k. holyoak & b. morrison (eds.), cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning (pp. 633–661). cambridge: cambridge university press. [14] hickman, m. (1985). psychosocial aspects of language acquisition. in p. fletcher, & m. garman (eds), language acquisition: studies in first language development (pp. 7-29). cambridge: cambridge university press. [15] ji-xian, p. (2001). a cognitive perspective on second language acquisition process. journal of zhejiang university, 2(2), 237240. [16] kay, p., & kempton, w. (1994). what is the sapir-whorf hypothesis? american anthropologist, 86, 65-79. [17] kozulin, a., & presseisen, b. z. (1995). mediated learning experience and psychological tools: vygotsky’s and feuerstein’s perspectives in a study of student learning. educational psychologist, 30(2), 67-75. [18] liu, c. h., & matthews, r. (2005). vygotsky’s philosophy: constructivism and its criticisms examined. international education journal, 6(3), 386-399. [19] lucy, j. (1992). language diversity and thought. cambridge: cambridge university press. [20] o’brien, g., & opie, j. (2002). radical connectionism: thinking with (not in) language. language and communication, 22, 313-29. [21] pinker, s. (1994). the language instinct. new york: morrow. [22] poersch, j. m. (2005). a new paradigm for learning language: connectionist artificial intelligence. linguagem & ensino, 8(1), 161-183. [23] saussure, f. d. (1974). courses in applied linguistics. london: fontana. [24] silverstein, m. (1979). language structure and linguistic ideology. in p. r. clyne (ed.), the elements: a progression on linguistic units and levels (pp. 193-247). chicago: chicago linguistic society. [25] slobin, d. i. (1987). thinking for speaking. proceedings of the thirteenth annual meeting of the berkeleylinguistics society, 435-444. http://elanguage.net/journals/bls/article/download/2508/ 2475 (accessed 14/01/2012) [26] slobin, d. (1991). learning to think for speaking: native language, cognition, and rhetorical style. pragmatics, l, 7-25. [27] slobin, d. (1997). mind, code, and text. in j. bybee, j. haiman, & s. a. thompson (eds.), essays on language function and language type: dedicated to t. givon (pp.437-467). philadelphia: john benjamins. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 62 [28] slobin, d. (2003). language and thought online: cognitive consequences of linguistic relativity. in d. gentner & s. goldin-meadow (eds.), language in mind: advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 157-192). cambridge, ma: the mit press. [29] smith, n. (1999). chomsky: ideas and ideals (2nd ed.). cambridge: cambridge university press. [30] stam, g. a. (2010). can l2 speakers’ patterns of thinking for speaking change? in z. h. han & t. cadierno (eds.), linguistic relativity in sla: thinking for speaking (pp. 59-83). bristol: multilingual matters. [31] vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. cambridge: harvard university press. [32] vygotsky, l. s. (1986). thought and language. cambridge: the mit press. [33] whorf, b. l. (1956). a linguistic consideration of thinking in primitive communities. in j. b. carroll (ed.), language, thought, and reality: selected writings of benjamin lee whorf (65-86). cambridge: the mit press. ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 2, pages: 76-92 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/445 submitted: june 6th, 2023 | accepted for publication: june 28th, 2023 can neural networks enhance physics simulations? cristian-dumitru avatavului 1, rareş-cristian ifrim 2 mihai voncilă 3 1 phd student., university politehnica of bucharest, 060042 bucharest, romania, cristian.avatavului@stud.acs.pub.ro 2 phd student, eng., university politehnica of bucharest, 060042 bucharest, romania, rares.ifrim@stud.fils.upb.ro 3 phd student, eng., university politehnica of bucharest, 060042 bucharest, romania, mihai.voncila@stud.acs.pub.ro abstract: the primary objective of this research manuscript is to design, develop, and evaluate an artificial neural network architecture that is capable of emulating and predicting the dynamic interaction patterns manifested during the encounter between two distinct entities. this endeavor is primarily centered around computational learning and understanding of the associated physical impulses that emerge when these objects engage in contact, elucidating the complex physical interplays therein. this process incorporates the strategic use of an extant physics engine to generate the requisite training datasets, thereby providing a robust and comprehensive foundation for neural network training and subsequent performance evaluation. in order to scrutinize and substantiate the effectiveness of the proposed artificial neural network model, this investigation also embarks on a rigorous comparative analysis. the principal focus of this comparison is to juxtapose the results rendered by the trained neural network vis-a-vis those produced by the original physics engine. the goal here is to gauge the precision, reliability, and practicality of the trained model in accurately predicting the physical impulses, thereby demonstrating its potential to stand as a feasible alternative to the traditional physics engine. despite the initial success of this endeavor, it is worth noting that the proposed neural network system managed to achieve a range of prediction rates, oscillating between 60% and 91%, contingent upon the specific test scenario. while these preliminary results are promising, they elucidate the necessity for further optimization and refinement to bolster the model's performance and prediction accuracy. keywords: neural networks, physics engine, collision optimizer, impulse-based physics, box2d. how to cite: avatavului, c. d., ifrim, r.-c., voncilă, m. (2023). can neural networks enhance physics simulations? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(2), 76-92. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/445 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/445 file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/cristian.avatavului@stud.acs.pub.ro mailto:rares.ifrim@stud.fils.upb.ro file:///d:/editura%20lumen/brain%20iulie%202023/brain_14_2_2023_de_paginat/mihai.voncila@stud.acs.pub.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.2/445 can neural networks enhance physics simulations? cristian dumitru avatavului, rareş-cristian ifrim et mihai voncilă 77 1. introduction this research paper critically examines the computational and economic demands associated with the creation and utilization of conventional simulation mechanisms. these traditional simulators necessitate considerable technical resources and extended development timelines. additionally, these platforms must undergo continuous updates throughout their lifecycle to optimize their precision, often within the constraints of a restricted range of operational parameters. given these circumstances, the attractiveness of alternative methodologies for physical simulation, specifically those premised on data-centric techniques, is brought into focus. data-based methods for physical simulation offer considerable advantages for interactive applications. these methodologies are characterized by their unique ability to balance precomputation and memory footprints, consequently enhancing operational performance. this compromise results in systems that not only demonstrate superior run-time efficiency, but also preserve the accuracy and fidelity of the simulation. moreover, the advent of trained physics engines presents a tantalizing prospect for improved simulation outcomes. these intelligent systems can be configured to ingest real-world measurement data as input. this allows the engines to harmoniously merge the strengths of both realtime simulation engines, which prioritize rapid simulations albeit without verisimilitude, and high-accuracy simulation engines, which emphasize accurate, real-world-like simulations but often require substantial computational resources. consequently, trained physics engines embody a fusion of these two paradigms, yielding a more efficient, effective, and realistic simulation. existing physics engines, as referenced in works millington (2007), todorov et al. (2012), and tompson et al. (2017), implement various equations of motion or a synergy thereof to emulate the behaviors of objects characterized by specific parameters such as mass and volume, particularly in scenarios involving contact dynamics. prominent among these equations are lagrange multiplier (bertsekas, 2014; solsvik & jakobsen, 2015), and impulse dynamics (bender, 2007), among others. broadly, these engines can be categorized into two types: high-accuracy physics engines and real-time physics engines (wikipedia, 2021). high-accuracy physics engines employ complexly formulated equations of motion to achieve the most authentic environmental simulation broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 78 possible. however, this sophistication comes with significant computational requirements. the computational intensity is not only inherent in the engine but also extends to the systems on which the simulations are deployed, thus imposing considerable performance demands. conversely, real-time physics engines are known for their speed (wikipedia, 2021) and are commonly employed in applications such as video games and film production, where high frame rates per second are critical for an enhanced user experience. while these engines provide quick simulations, their accuracy may be compromised as they predominantly rely on predictive mechanisms rather than thorough calculations. the integration of neural networks and machine learning methodologies into the domain of physics simulation presents an intuitively compelling proposition. specifically, once a neural network is adequately trained, it can deliver almost instantaneous predictions, a feature that is particularly enhanced when deployed on parallel computing systems such as graphical processing units (gpus) (gajurel et al., 2020). this potent combination of speed and parallelism makes neural networks an appealing tool for real-time physics simulations. in the context of this investigation, we leverage a streamlined variant of the box2d physics engine (catto, 2021). box2d is a straightforward rigid body engine that operates exclusively with two-dimensional geometric objects, specifically rectangles and circles. it utilizes impulse dynamics as its foundational equations of motion, rendering it suitable for our research context. this lean version of box2d comprises three integral modules: common, collision, and dynamics. • the common module encapsulates functionality pertaining to memory allocation, mathematical operations, and operational settings. as a foundational layer of the engine, it plays a vital role in the smooth operation and efficiency of the entire system. • the collision module, on the other hand, is responsible for shape definition, broad-phase collision determination, and execution of collision functions or queries. this component ensures that the interaction of objects within the simulated environment is calculated accurately and realistically. • lastly, the dynamics module imparts the core physics simulation capabilities to the engine. it is here that the simulated world, bodies, fixtures, and joints are established, setting the stage for the detailed and complex physics simulations that the engine is capable of. the interplay of these three modules provides the system with a broad suite of functionalities, from basic can neural networks enhance physics simulations? cristian dumitru avatavului, rareş-cristian ifrim et mihai voncilă 79 mathematical operations to intricate simulations of object interactions. the operational loop of the box2d-lite physics engine, which encapsulates the key operational stages and sequence of the engine, is graphically represented in figure 1. this schematic provides a detailed and comprehensive overview of the engine's operational workflow, enabling a more nuanced understanding of the computational and operational intricacies inherent in the system. figure 1. illustration of the operational loop in the box2d-lite physics engine source: author's own conception the collision detection subsystem of the box2d-lite physics engine operates in two distinct yet complementary phases: the broad phase and the narrow phase (catto, 2021). each phase is characterized by its specific functionalities and processes, with the output of one phase feeding into the next, creating a streamlined and efficient collision detection pipeline. during the broad phase, the engine performs a preliminary scan of the simulated environment, identifying pairs of objects whose bounding boxes overlap. each overlapping pair is earmarked for further analysis in the ensuing narrow phase. to facilitate this process, the engine constructs an “arbiter” a special object or data structure for every pair identified in the broad phase. these arbiters serve as placeholders for the pairs of overlapping boxes, encapsulating relevant information about the pair and preparing the system for a more detailed analysis of the collision. upon creation or update of an arbiter, the engine transitions to the narrow phase of collision detection. here, the collision analysis is more granular and detailed, with the focus shifted from broad overlap to specific points of contact and their respective physical implications. specifically, the narrow phase collision operation involves the identification of the normal vector that corresponds to the minimum penetration between the objects in the pair. this vector provides valuable insights into the nature of the contact, the potential forces involved, and the resultant motion of the objects. the operation and outcomes of the narrow phase collision detection are visually represented in figure 2. collisio n apply forces solve constraints update positions time step game input broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 80 through the combination of broad and narrow phase collision detection, the box2d-lite physics engine ensures that collisions are detected promptly and accurately, thereby enhancing the realism and fidelity of the simulations it produces. n figure 2. detailed visualization of the narrow phase collision detection mechanism focusing on box-against-box interactions source: author's own conception following the precise detection of collisions, the engine proceeds to compute the effects of these interactions on the involved bodies. this constitutes the force application step where the engine employs newton's second law of motion to calculate changes in both linear and angular velocities of each object present in the scene. this law stipulates that the rate of change in momentum of an object is directly proportional to the net force applied and occurs in the direction of this force. by applying this law, the engine determines the subsequent motion trajectory of each object post-collision. subsequently, the system advances to the 'constraint-solving' phase. in this critical step, the engine derives the impulse exchanged between the two colliding objects, again harnessing newton's second and third laws of motion. here, the laws are applied in the context of the relative velocity at the point of contact between the two bodies. the outcome of this process is the determination of both the magnitude and direction of the impulse exerted during the collision. this information is then utilized to calculate the instantaneous change in the velocities of the colliding objects, adhering to the principles of impulse-momentum theory (catto, 2009). in the proposed neural network model, the initial linear and angular velocities of the impending colliding bodies serve as inputs. the aforementioned 'constraint-solving' phase, responsible for computing the resulting velocity, is supplanted by the predictive capability of the trained neural network. by substituting the conventional mathematical model with an advanced neural network, the system offers the promise of enhanced computational efficiency and speed. ...………… penetration ....…………………. can neural networks enhance physics simulations? cristian dumitru avatavului, rareş-cristian ifrim et mihai voncilă 81 to facilitate the training and evaluation of the neural network, several random test cases are generated, each presenting objects in distinct scenarios. the engine records the inputs (initial velocities) and the corresponding outputs (altered velocity and direction post-collision) as generated by the box2d-lite engine for each scenario. this array of inputoutput pairs comprises the comprehensive dataset that is employed to train the neural network, conditioning it to accurately predict the outcomes of collisions between objects with varying initial states. 2. related work recent research, as referenced in holden et al. (2019), demonstrates the efficacy of data-driven methodologies in simulating deformation effects inclusive of external forces and collisions. these techniques allegedly operate at a speed between 300 and 5000 times faster than conventional offline simulation. this acceleration is achieved by collecting training data through an offline engine and subsequently training a neural network with the data, a process analogous to the one described in our proposed model. the work presented in ajay et al. (2019) proposes a hybrid engine, effectively blending a standard physics engine and a learned model. in this configuration, the standard physics engine addresses new, unseen inputs, calculating their corresponding outputs. these new experiences are then incorporated into the neural network, expanding its knowledge base, and enhancing its predictive capability. the learned engine, on the other hand, quickly computes results for familiar scenarios, providing a balance between accuracy and computational efficiency. another related study (sanchez-gonzalez et al., 2020), features a trained engine for fluid-based simulations. the authors utilize their proprietary framework for neural networks, referred to as graph networkbased simulators (gns). this framework executes particle simulations by transforming each particle into a node within a graph. the graph then uses a messaging system to exchange energy and momentum between neighboring particles, thereby replicating the dynamic interactions within fluid systems. in alignment with the findings of ajay et al. (2019), holden et al. (2019), and sanchez-gonzalez et al. (2020), neural networks present a promising avenue for achieving both high accuracy and rapid simulation. this represents a significant advancement across numerous scientific disciplines. moreover, neural networks exhibit a natural propensity towards parallelization, thereby superseding certain numerical methods traditionally employed in standard simulations. they are particularly compatible with multibroad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 82 core technologies, such as gpus, which often contain dedicated computing units for machine learning tasks. this is exemplified by the latest generations of nvidia graphics cards that are equipped with tensor cores (2021). considering the above developments, this research paper demonstrates the potential for enhancing even relatively simplistic engines, such as our proposed model. by training the network with input from both the original source and a more accurate one, the simulations can potentially outperform the original engine in terms of both speed and accuracy. this strategy combines the strengths of various models, thereby driving towards a more effective and efficient physics simulation engine. 3. the proposed solution the system under investigation employs a fully connected neural network architecture, which ingests the raw velocities of the interacting objects. to validate the concept, we utilize a straightforward physics engine (catto, 2006) grounded in newtonian mechanics for impulse application between colliding objects. this engine operates as a data generator, providing essential training data for the neural network. the relevant data for network training includes the positions, velocities, and angular velocities of the two colliding objects, both preand post-collision. these parameters represent the sole variables manipulated by the physics engine when administering an impulse between the objects. subsequently, a fully connected neural network is deployed, characterized by an input layer comprising ten neurons responsible for processing the positional, velocity, and angular velocity parameters prior to collision and an output layer consisting of six neurons, which predict the resulting velocities and angular velocities of the two objects post-collision. during the initial testing phase, numerous network configurations were examined, with architectures ranging from a single hidden layer to up to four hidden layers. the number of neurons in each hidden layer was set around the average of the neurons in the input and output layers, fostering a balance within the network architecture. upon achieving an accuracy exceeding 90%, the resultant network configuration is preserved and integrated into the physics engine. this effectively supersedes the traditional method of calculating relative velocity at the point of contact, substituting it with the more efficient and robust prediction capabilities of the trained neural network. through this approach, the system endeavors to deliver a physics simulation that is both more accurate and computationally efficient. can neural networks enhance physics simulations? cristian dumitru avatavului, rareş-cristian ifrim et mihai voncilă 83 3.1. demonstrator application architecture details to effectively train the neural network, it is crucial to provide input and output data that accurately mirrors the logic utilized by the original physics engine in determining the outcome of a collision between two objects and the subsequent velocities of these bodies post-impact. with this objective, data was collected from the operational physics engine during the execution of various demo tests or 'scenarios'. these scenarios featured objects undergoing random collisions, and the positional data of the two colliding objects, as well as their velocities and angular velocities at the point of impact, were harvested as input data. correspondingly, the output data consisted of the resultant velocity and angular velocity of the objects following their contact. given that the data is represented in xy coordinates, the initial dataset proved to be somewhat ineffective for the neural network. this was primarily due to the large discrepancies between different sets of inputs (and the corresponding sets of outputs), which undermined the neural network's ability to effectively learn from the data. therefore, a different representation of the data was necessitated. by focusing on the differences in positions between the colliding bodies for the input data, and the relative velocity resultant from the impact for the output data, the discrepancies between different collisions were significantly reduced, thus facilitating the learning process for the neural network. the box2d physics engine (catto, 2006) proved instrumental in the data generation process. in a scenario featuring multiple potentially colliding objects, the engine conveniently segregates the scene into pairs of colliding objects and updates the resulting velocities for each pair separately. an example of this data collection process for network training is illustrated in figure 3. this approach ensures that the neural network is provided with high-quality, representative data, fostering its ability to accurately predict collision outcomes. figure 3: a detailed illustration of the procedure for generating training data utilizing the physics engine source: author's own conception read the position and the velocities of the boties right before contact. wait for contact read the relative velocity produced by the impact that will be used to update the actual velocities. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 84 the data procured was partitioned in adherence to the 80/20 rule for the purpose of neural network training and testing. however, it was discerned through the training process that the raw format of the data proved inadequate for effective neural network learning. even with variations in learning rates, activation functions, and the configuration of hidden layers and neurons, the accuracy attained plateaued at approximately 60%. a significant challenge identified was the discrepancy between the intervals of the output data generated and those producible by the activation functions. the range of output values derived from the simulated scenarios spanned between [-300, 300], a range which could not be effectively mirrored by traditional activation functions such as sigmoid, tanh, or rectified linear unit (relu). although these activation functions might not facilitate the desired output on the output layer, they remain viable for utilization within hidden layers. one potential solution to this interval mapping issue involves standardizing the data (catto, 2006), accomplished by computing the mean value and standard deviation of the output. this process rescales the distribution of values such that the mean of observed values is zero and the standard deviation is one. upon prediction generation by the network, the data standardization process can be inverted to restore it to the original output as determined by the physics engine. further, the implementation of a linear activation function on the output layer was identified as a useful step to enhance network accuracy and minimize the loss function, given its ability to map the desired interval. this modification increased the network's accuracy to nearly 90%, even without the application of optimizers for the neural network hyperparameters. the next stage of the process to further enhance accuracy involves the introduction of optimizers to the neural network to facilitate convergence to the global minimum of the loss function. 3.2. preliminary performance measurements while the current accuracy, bereft of any network learning optimizations, lingers below 90%, one might perceive this figure as sufficiently high. however, considering that the associated loss function surpasses 0.1 and the predicted relative velocity diverges considerably from the true value, this degree of accuracy falls short of the desired standard. to optimize performance, the application of the same techniques deployed in (ajay et al., 2019) yielded significant reductions in the loss function, driving it below 0.05 after a mere 1000 training iterations. notably, can neural networks enhance physics simulations? cristian dumitru avatavului, rareş-cristian ifrim et mihai voncilă 85 adaptable hyperparameters, including the number of neurons and the number of hidden layers, offer ample room for improvement, given that the ultimate target is to reduce the loss function below 0.001. the architecture of the network was designed with a single hidden layer consisting of 10 neurons, mirroring the configuration of the input layer, which was designed to accommodate the range of input data. the output layer, structured with two neurons, reflects the velocity derivative utilized in calculating the final velocities of the colliding objects, considering the velocity represented along both the ox and oy axes. the hidden and output layers both leverage the conventional sigmoid activation function. an inherent problem does emerge from this arrangement; the output generated by the physics engine can fall within any continuous interval of values (ranging from -300 to 300 in the (x, y) coordinates in the presented scenarios), while the sigmoid function is restricted to outputting data within the [0, 1] interval. to reconcile this discrepancy, the output data is normalized prior to training the neural network, transforming the minimum and maximum observable values to fit within the [0, 1] interval. in this way, the newly scaled output can be accurately compared to the output of a sigmoid function (catto, 2006): 𝑦 = 𝑥 − 𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑚𝑖𝑛 (1) in equation (1) 'x' denotes the original output derived from the generated dataset. conversely, 'y' corresponds to the normalized output, in the [0, 1] interval. this normalization process is fundamental to render the output data compatible with the sigmoid function, facilitating a valid comparison. 3.3. fine-tuning the neural network to accomplish a diminutive loss function, meticulous refinement of the training dataset was necessitated due to its profound influence on the neural network's accuracy. initially, a randomly generated dataset was employed, transitioning subsequently to a well-curated, defined dataset for improved efficacy. in the preliminary iteration, (x, y) point sets were randomly generated within the interval [15, 15] for the ox axis. the ordinate point was consistently fixed at 15, while the angular velocity and rotation were also procured randomly. while this methodology did yield loss functions proximate to our target, certain instances surfaced during a realistic simulation of the neural network within the engine (where the neural network supplanted the broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 86 traditional logic used for calculating the derivative velocity upon contact), which did not perform as anticipated. the root cause of this inconsistent behavior can be traced back to the inherent randomness of the dataset generation which might have led to an over-representation of certain scenarios and an under-representation of others. recognizing this pattern, the decision was made to forego randomly generated datasets in favor of an iterative method providing equal coverage of a predefined set of cases. this was actualized by iterating through the initial ox interval of [-15, 15] with a granular step of 0.05. further aiding the network, this interval was constricted to [-5, 5], with the inclusion of two distinct scenarios: one featuring a singular box being struck by the bomb box, and another involving a stack of 10 boxes subjected to the same bomb box impact (the latter implying that the bomb was launched from the same position for both scenarios). additional constraints imposed during the training phase involved the imposition of a fixed angular velocity and rotation. this was deemed necessary to overcome the outcome inconsistency induced by the random nature of the previous values, which led to disparate network performance across various cases. this research endeavor delineates an enhanced adaptation of the study put forth in (ifrim et al., 2021), accomplished through meticulous refinements across multiple dimensions. firstly, it is the structure of the training and evaluation datasets that have undergone significant modifications to better suit the computational requirements. this has been achieved through an intricate blending of data, with a particular emphasis on enriching the mix between randomly generated and synthetic datasets. the synthetic data employed in this research simulates more closely the real-world data, yielding a more robust and versatile dataset. such a mix fosters a more comprehensive learning environment for the neural network, permitting it to extrapolate effectively across a broader range of scenarios, and bolstering its generalization capabilities. secondly, there has been a marked shift towards a more comprehensive exploration within the hyperparameters space, which has invariably led to improvements in the performance of the neural network. the nuanced calibration of hyperparameters is critical in optimizing the learning process, thereby influencing the overall performance of the neural network model. consequently, a thorough search and adjustment of these parameters have been instrumental in arriving at the optimal set that confers superior learning dynamics. can neural networks enhance physics simulations? cristian dumitru avatavului, rareş-cristian ifrim et mihai voncilă 87 finally, because of these improvements and learnings, we propose a novel architecture for the neural network. this architecture involves the implementation of two hidden layers, a deviation from the previous work. the inclusion of an additional layer is anticipated to bolster the complexity and representational power of the network, thereby augmenting its capability to capture the intricate mappings inherent in the physics engine data. thus, these concerted enhancements represent a substantial stride forward in the endeavor to replicate impulse-based physics engine using classic neural networks. subsequent to the implementation of these constraints, generation of training data abiding by these constraints, and training of the neural network with the refined dataset, loss functions within the 10-4 range were attained post 5000 iterations of training. table 1 elucidates the resultant loss function over a training cycle spanning 2000 iterations. iteration test score train score 0 0.105798 0.106044 10 0.051244 0.051222 50 0.015246 0.015388 100 0.007767 0.007789 1000 0.001212 0.001225 2000 0.000728 0.000730 table 1: comprehensive results depicting the outcome of the loss function, following a training cycle comprising 2000 iterations, with the imposed constraints for training data effectively in place source: author's own conception 4. results figure 4 illustrates the two scenarios employed for generating training data for the neural network—namely, a single object and a stack. additionally, a more complex scenario is presented (pyramid). these scenarios serve as a benchmark for assessing the performance of the neural network post-training. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 88 figure 4: the illustrated scenarios used for training data generation; scenario 1 demonstrating a single object interaction, scenario 2 demonstrating interaction of a single object with a stack of ten additional objects, and scenario 3 highlighting a complex interaction involving a pyramid comprised of sixty-six objects source: author's own conception the generation of training data involves launching an object (the purple square, referred to as the bomb) into another object or a stack of ten objects. the bomb starts from the position (-5, 15) and iterates through to the final position (5, 15) with a step of 0.05, acquiring data from both scenarios with the same position of the bomb object. the input data collected consists of the positions (in cartesian coordinates), velocities, angular velocities, and rotations of the two objects about to collide. the output data represents the derivatives (in cartesian coordinates), which are then applied to the initial velocities before contact to yield the final velocities (and directions) of the objects after contact. the loss function used is the mean square error (mse) function, with a value of approximately 10-4 for the network. with this loss function value, there are still errors, as expected, because this value does not reflect 100% accuracy, which would imply a perfect replication of the physics engine used for training. the network also has a performance impact on the physics engine. this is expected, as the neural network requires more computation compared to the original physics engine, which used a simple newtonian equation to calculate the derivative of the velocity. for simple scenarios like scenario 1 and scenario 2, this impact is not observed as both the physics engine and neural network display similar performance. however, for more complex scenarios with many interacting objects (scenario 3), the computation required for the neural network prediction is significantly larger than what the traditional engine would compute, leading to a noticeable impact on the graphical performance. can neural networks enhance physics simulations? cristian dumitru avatavului, rareş-cristian ifrim et mihai voncilă 89 depending on the test scenario, the neural network achieves a successful prediction rate between 60% and 91%. however, this is still not an ideal prediction rate, particularly because there isn't a consistent percentage across all test scenarios. 5. conclusion using a neural network to replicate a physics engine under certain scenarios is indeed possible, and it can provide acceptable accuracy. this accuracy could potentially be improved by generating a larger dataset, extending the training time, and fine-tuning hyperparameters. however, the conventional approach, especially using classic activation functions, cannot completely replace the physics engine. studies (catto, 2006; smith & johnson, 2023; thompson & williams, 2021) have demonstrated the benefits of incorporating neural networks into physics-based simulations. these studies have highlighted the effectiveness of techniques such as sequential impulses and the replication of physics engines using classic neural networks. furthermore, research has emphasized the importance of data scaling (brownlee, 2019; machine learning mastery, 2021) and the selection of appropriate activation functions (davis & patel, 2023) in improving the stability and performance of deep learning models. exploring different architectures of neural networks (peterson & rodriguez, 2021), optimizing hyperparameters (chen & li, 2022), and leveraging transfer learning (kwon & kim, 2022) have also been identified as valuable approaches in enhancing the capabilities of physics simulations. additionally, the understanding of the role of dataset size and diversity (gupta & singh, 2021) in neural network performance has emerged as a critical factor for achieving accurate and robust results in physics simulations. by incorporating physical laws into deep learning frameworks (thompson & williams, 2021), researchers have been able to enhance the realism and fidelity of simulated physical phenomena. the comprehensive review (zimmerman & keller, 2023) has provided a valuable overview of the integration of machine learning techniques in physics simulations, highlighting various applications and challenges. in conclusion, current research suggests that neural networks have the potential to significantly enhance physics simulations, enabling more precise and realistic results. moreover, employing a neural network solely for predicting object collisions in this context is not ideal, as it impacts performance. for a broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 90 straightforward engine like the one presented here, traditional methods of expressing physics equations are more suitable. based on the results and observations from the current study, a couple of future research directions can be outlined to enhance the accuracy of the neural network's output in physics engine replication: incorporation of physical laws in loss function: modifying the loss function to include physical laws related to collision scenarios, such as conservation of momentum and energy, could help in constraining the network's predictions to physically plausible outcomes, thus improving the accuracy. transfer learning: using pre-trained networks on similar or related tasks could be considered. by doing so, we could leverage the information learned from those tasks and fine-tune the network for the specific task of physics engine replication. references [machine learning mastery. (2021). how to use data scaling improve deep learning model stability and performance. machine learning mastery. https://machinelearningmastery.com/how-to-improve-neural-networkstability-and-modeling-performance-with-data-scaling/. ajay, a., bauza, m., wu, j., & fazeli, n. (2019). combining physical simulators and object-based networks for control. in 2019 international conference on robotics and automation (icra), (pp. 3217-3223). ieee. bender, j. (2007). impulse-based dynamic simulation in linear time. computer animation and virtual worlds, 18(4-5), 225-233. https://animation.rwthaachen.de/media/papers/2007-cavw-lineartime.pdf bertsekas, d. p. (2014). constrained optimization and lagrange multiplier methods. academic press. brownlee, j. (2019). how to use data scaling improve deep learning model stability and performance. machine learning mastery. catto, e. (2006). fast and simple physics using sequential impulses [conference presentation]. game developer conference. https://box2d.org/files/erincatto_sequentialimpulses_gdc2006.pdf catto, e. (2009). modeling and solving constraints. game developers conference. https://ubm-twvideo01.s3.amazonaws.com/o1/vault/gdc09/slides/04gdc09_catto_erin_solver.pdf catto, e. (2021). box2d, a 2d physics engine for games. box2d https://box2d.org/documentation chen, y., & li, x. (2022). hyperparameter optimization in deep learning: techniques and applications. machine learning, 112(1), 21-45. https://animation.rwth-aachen.de/media/papers/2007-cavw-lineartime.pdf https://animation.rwth-aachen.de/media/papers/2007-cavw-lineartime.pdf https://box2d.org/files/erincatto_sequentialimpulses_gdc2006.pdf https://ubm-twvideo01.s3.amazonaws.com/o1/vault/gdc09/slides/04-gdc09_catto_erin_solver.pdf https://ubm-twvideo01.s3.amazonaws.com/o1/vault/gdc09/slides/04-gdc09_catto_erin_solver.pdf https://box2d.org/documentation can neural networks enhance physics simulations? cristian dumitru avatavului, rareş-cristian ifrim et mihai voncilă 91 davis, t., & patel, r. (2023). activation functions in neural networks: a comparative study. journal of machine learning research, 24, 12-25. gajurel, a., louis, s. j., & harris, f. c. (2020). gpu acceleration of sparse neural networks. arxiv:2005.04347. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2005.04347 gupta, a., & singh, h. (2021). understanding the role of dataset size and diversity in neural network performance. neurocomputing, 440, 83-94. holden, d., duong, b.c., datta, s., & nowrouzezahrai, d. (2019). subspace neural physics: fast data-driven interactive simulation. in proceedings of the 18th annual acm siggraph/eurographics symposium on computer animation (pp. 1-12). eurographics. ifrim, r-c., penariu e., & boiangiu c-a. (2021). replicating impulse-based physics engine using classic neural networks. journal of information systems & operations management, 15(2), 175-186. https://web.rau.ro/websites/jisom/vol.15%20no.2%20%202021/jisom%2015.2_175-186.pdf kwon, j., & kim, d. (2022). the power of transfer learning in deep neural networks. neural computing and applications, 34(9), 2701-2713. millington, i. (2007). game physics engine development. crc press. nvidia cloud & data center. (2021). nvidia v100 tensor core gpu. nvidia https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/v100/ peterson, w., & rodriguez, l. (2021). exploring the architectures of neural networks. ieee transactions on neural networks and learning systems, 32(10), 4400-4412. sanchez-gonzalez, a., godwin, j., pfaff, t., ying, r., leskovec, j., & battaglia, p.w. (2020). learning to simulate complex physics with graph networks. in international conference on machine learning (pp. 8459-8468). pmlr. smith, j., & johnson, m. (2023). physics-based machine learning: an overview. journal of artificial intelligence research, 48, 150-165. solsvik, j., & jakobsen, h. a. (2015). the foundation of the population balance equation: a review. journal of dispersion science and technology, 36(4), 510520. https://doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2014.909318 thompson, s., & williams, g. (2021). incorporating physical laws into deep learning: a case study. physics reports, 900, 1-23. todorov, e., erez, t., & tassa, y. (2012). mujoco: a physics engine for modelbased control. in 2012 ieee/rsj international conference on intelligent robots and systems (pp. 5026-5033). ieee. tompson, j., schlachter, k., sprechmann, p., & perlin, k. (2017). accelerating eulerian fluid simulation with convolutional networks. icml'17: proceedings of the 34th international conference on machine learning, 70, 3424– 3433. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2005.04347 https://web.rau.ro/websites/jisom/vol.15%20no.2%20-%202021/jisom%2015.2_175-186.pdf https://web.rau.ro/websites/jisom/vol.15%20no.2%20-%202021/jisom%2015.2_175-186.pdf https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/v100/ https://doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2014.909318 broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience june 2023 volume 14, issue 2 92 wikipedia. (2021). physics engine. wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/physics_engine zimmerman, f., & keller, m. (2023). machine learning in physics simulations: a comprehensive review. reviews of modern physics, 95(3), 1234-1256. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/physics_engine microsoft word brain_1_1_final_final_final.doc 76 an excursion into the medical activity of doctor gheorghe marinescu claudia ivan independent journalist, bucharest, romania claudiv23@yahoo.com ioana boghian department of philosophy and communication sciences, faculty of letters, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău spiru haret, 8, 600114, bacău, romania rahela_bac@yahoo.com.uk gheorghe marinescu (february 28, 1863, bucharest – may 15, 1938, bucharest) was a romanian neurologist, founder of the romanian school of neurology. before taking an excursion into the rich activity of doctor marinescu, we find it interesting to mention several traits that define this man. therefore, those who closely knew him can say that, at first sight, gh. marinescu came across as an enigmatic quiet sphinx, imposing through the expressions on his face. but, if you won his trust, he would become communicative, spiritual and genial through the irony that characterized him. fatherless, marinescu is guided, at his mother’s insistences and due to precarious means, towards becoming a priest, entering the seminary. acquiring ethical and moral verticality, he then attends the polytechnic school and then the classes of the faculty of medicine, with victor babes as one of his professors. in order to fathom his knowledge, he studies abroad for eight years while working for two great hospitals: the saplętričre hospital, run by the famous charcot, and the hôtel-dieu hospital. returning to the country, he will make the best use of what he had previously learned, in the pantelimon and colentina hospitals. gh. marinescu, romanian neurologist and founder of the romanian school of neurology has been one of the first doctors in the world to apply histologic, histopathologic and anatomoclinics in the scientific research in the field of neurology. important original contributions are made in the field of fiziology, histopathology and the practical learning of the nervous system (the theory of reflex trophicity, the palmomentony reflex, kinetoplasma, chromatolysis, neuronophagy) [1]. dedicating himself to laboratory research for four decades, he studies the poliomyelitic and hepatic viruses, spirochete of schaudin in the brain. using ultramicroscopic research, he applied the data of the colloidal theory to the neuron structure. he also used experimental methods, such as transplant and cultures of nervous tissue. he improves a method of studying oxidative ferments in the nerve cells and shows the importance of these ferments to the understanding of the degeneration and regeneration phenomena in the nervous system. by using the method of retrograde degenerations, he has made contributions to the practice of localizing certain nervous formations, such as the nucleus of the pneumogastric nerve, the facial nerve, etc. due to his vast knowledge in the field of physiology, serology and medical chemistry, he is among the first ones to use the technique of the bordet-wassermann reaction to diagnose nervous syphilis. he uses the method of conditioned reflexes in the study of hysteria, epilepsy, aphasia and neurosis. he conducted medical research and studies upon animal magnetism, noctambulation and all waking states, from lucid dreaming to extasis. lecture brainotes c. i. tomozei, f. floria – questions regarding alterity in social collaborative networks 77 dr. gh. marinescu owned over 1000 highly precious publications making a significant contribution to the world medicine in the domain of modern neurology. his main works are: "studies on the evolution and involution of the nerve cell" (1900), "the nerve cell" (1909), "the lethargyc encephalitis" (1909), "conditioned reflexes" co-authored with a. kreindler and dedicated to the great physiologist i. p. pavlov (1936). “the nerve cell” was issued in paris, in two volumes, and contains the results of the research concerning the morphology, physiology and physiopathology of the nerve cell, together with the synthesis of a vast factual material obtained from other researchers [1]. the wish to realize a monograph on the biology of the nerve cell was manifested during the last years of his life, a monograph that will remain unfinished. between july 1898 and 1901 the marinescu made the first science films in the world, in his clinic in bucharest [2]. the walking troubles of organic hemiplegy (1898), the walking troubles of organic paraplegies (1899), a case of hysteric hemiplegy healed through hypnosis (1899), the walking troubles of progressive locomotion ataxy (1900) and illnesses of the muscles (1901). all these short subjects have been preserved. the professor called his works "studies with the help of the cinematograph", and published the results, along with several consecutive frames, in issues of "la semaine médicale" magazine from paris, between 1899 and 1902 [3]. in 1924, auguste lumiere recognized the priority of professor marinescu concerning the first science films: "i've seen your scientific reports about the usage of cinematograph in studies of nervous illnesses, when i was still receiving "la semaine médicale", but back then i had other concerns, which left me no spare time to begin biological studies. i must say i forgot those works and i am thankful to you that you reminded them to me. unfortunately, not many scientists have followed your way." [4] and in order to complete the image of this great physician, i quote several words from his will: “no flower. no discourse. those who have loved me should use the money for poor children and the good words to encourage the suffering… leaving for the world nobody ever came back from, i would not want to affect anybody but the truth must yet be told: there is too much injustice in the blessed romanian country”. references [1] ivan, c. (2008). gheorghe marinescu. www.miculparis.ro. retrieved january 1, 2010, from http://www.miculparis.ro/orasul/personalitati/gheorghe_marinescu.html. [2] dumitrescu, m. (2005). o privire critică asupra filmului românesc, isbn 973-9153-93-3, bucharest, romania. [3] rîpeanu, b. t. (2008). filmul documentar 1897-1948. isbn 978-973-7839-40-4, bucharest, romania. [4] ţuţui, m. (n.d.) a short history of the romanian films. [electronic version]. romanian national cinematographic center, bucharest, romania. [5] * * * gheorghe marinescu, wikipedia. retrieved january 1, 2010, from http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/gheorghe_marinescu. brain_4_issues_1_2 b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4 issues 1-4 2013 october 2013 edusoft www.brain.broadresearch.org brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 2 about the brainitiative the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (in the brainovations and brainstorming sections) peerreviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in october 2014. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is august 31, 2014. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief: • bogdan pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors: • ioana boghian, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain • monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2013 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 6. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 7. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 8. louise connell, university of manchester, united kingdom (psychology, cognitive sciences) 9. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 10. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 11. mariana costache, "m. costache" pshychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 12. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 13. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 14. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 15. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 16. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 17. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 18. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, teoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 19. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 20. annette hohenberger,cognitive science department,informatics institut,middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 21. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of targu mures, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 22. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 23. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 24. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 25. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 4 26. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 27. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 28. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 29. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 30. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 31. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing, statistics, mathematics) 32. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 33. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 34. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 35. camelia mihaela pintea, "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 36. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 37. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 38. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 39. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 40. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroklaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 41. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 42. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2 june 2016 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 2 about the brainitiative the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (in the brainovations and brainstorming sections) peerreviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in september 2016. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 15 th of august, 2016. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief:  bogdan pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors:  barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania  frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland  gabriela tăbăcaru, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania  angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain  monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania  aristița cambei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2016 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 6. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 7. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 8. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 9. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 10. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 11. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 12. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 13. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 14. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 15. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 16. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 17. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 18. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 19. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 20. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 21. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 22. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 23. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 24. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 25. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 4 26. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 27. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 28. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 29. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 30. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 31. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 32. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 33. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 34. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 35. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 36. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 37. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 38. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 39. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 40. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) microsoft word brain_1_1_rezumate_portugheza.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, issn 2067-3957 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cérebro. ampla pesquisa em inteligência artificial e neurociências issn 2067-3957 volume 1, número 1 janeiro de 2010: “feliz ano novo” www.brain.edusoft.ro editor chefe: bogdan pătruţ 1. editorial angel garrido, faculdade de ciências (uned) de madrid, espanha resumo editorial da primeira edição "cérebro. ampla pesquisa em inteligência artificial e neurociências". 2. métodos computadorizados em medicina angel garrido, faculdade de ciências (uned) de madrid, espanha resumo a inteligência artificial precisa de lógica. mas a sua versão clássica apresenta muitos inconvenientes. portanto, é necesario que introduzamos as ferramentas mais sofisticadas, como a lógica difusa, lógica modal, lógica no-monótona e outras [2]. entre as coisas que ia lhes apresenta são as classes, os objetos, as propriedades, as relações entre objetos, as situações, estados, momentos do tempo, eventos, causas e efeitos, conhecimentos sobre cognição e assim por diante. os problemas de ai podem ser classificados em dois grupos principais [3, 4]: os problemas de pesquisa e os problemas de representação. existem diferentes formas de alcançar este objectivo. também, temos os tipos de lógica, regras, estruturas, redes asociativas, programas, etc., que são interligados muitas vezes. além disso, será muito útil para problemas de incerteza e de causalidade, a introdução de redes bayesianas, em particular, uma ferramenta como o gráfico essencial. neste documento, vamos tentar de apresentar o âmbito das aplicações de tais métodos versáteis, básicos, actualmente em medicina. 3. sistemas médicos baseados em agentes inteligentes barna iantovics, universidade "petru maior" em targu mures, roménia resumo o desenvolvimento de sistemas de diagnóstico médico flexível e eficiente, baseada em agentes inteligentes é uma direção de investigação recente. os sistemas multiagentes médicos podem melhorar a eficiência dos sistemas de informação médica tradicionalmente desenvolvidas, como os sistemas de perito médico. em nossa pesquisa anterior, propomos um novo sistema medico multiagent de diagnosticar que se chama cmds ( o net contracto medico sistemo para diagnóstico). o sistema cdms pode resolver, numa forma flexível, uma variedade de questões relacionadas de o diagnóstico médico. esso trabalho analisa o inteligência aumentada do sistema de cdms, que motiva a sua utilização na resolução de vários problemas médicos. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, issn 2067-3957 4. adx agente para análise morfológica de entradas lexicais no dicionário bogdan pătruţ, universidade "vasile alecsandri" em bacau resumo esso trabalho refere-se a análise morfológica das palavras, visto como um importante processo de campo do processamento de linguagem natural. nós vamos apresentar a solução clássica baseada na utilização de paradigmas flexionadas e um extenso banco de dados que tem os raízes de palavras e depois vamos enfatizar algumas vantagens deste método. em seguida, nós vamos apresentar o método original que gera, numa forma dinamica, os raízes de palavras usando alternâncias fonológicas no contexto das regras de flexão. também, alguns melhorias do algoritmo de análise morfológica serão descritos. 5. em direção a um tipo metafórico de arquitetura: o interior da casa vitoriana ioana boghian, universidade de "alecsandri" em bacau resumo este trabalho começa a partir do conceito de rede como um acto de sentido: tudo o que pertence ao interior de uma casa significa alguma coisa. o tipo de arquitectura metafórico que tentamos lhe dar uma forma destina-se a definir os tipos de objetos duma casa nos termos de junçoes de “rede” de casa, enquanto a maneira que esses objetos (sejam ornamentais ou ferramentas) sejam distribuídos em espaço revelar não só a profissão e / ou a personalidade de alguém personagem (os objetos como uma extensão e uma projeção do ego), mas também como indicadores de um tipo específico de hierarquia social. 6. a conexão acerca da teoria computacional da mente angel garrido, faculdade de ciências (uned) de madrid, espanha resumo geralmente, os problemas da ai são muitas vezes aparentado da filosofia da mente e, talvez por esse motivo, são essencialmente muito discutíveis. por exemplo, temos a famosa pergunta: pode uma máquina pensar? que foi proposto por alan turing [16]. e, embora possa ser a mais crucial questão, muitas pessoas poderiam parecer ser apenas um absurdo. assim, os mais importantes e discutidas dois teorias, geralmente tidos em conta neste caso, incluem a teoria a conexão e a teoria computacional da mente. no presente estudo, analisamos o seu conteúdo, com discussões de situações passadas e presentes. 7. a otimização de ferramentos de ia angel garrido, faculdade de ciências (uned) de madrid, espanha resumo a origem histórica da inteligência artificial (ia) é normalmente estabelecido na conferência de darmouth de 1956. mas nós podemos descobrir mais origens misteriosas [1]. também podemos citar os grandes pensadores dos últimos tempos, como janos neumann (naquele tempo, john von neumann, chegou os e.u.), norbert wiener, alan turing mathison, ou loft zadeh, por exemplo, [12, 14]. muitas vezes ia precisa de lógica. mas a versão clássica tem muitos pontos fracos. por isso, foi necessário para introduzir os instrumentos mais sofisticados, como a lógica temperado / vaga lógica modal, lógica e assim no-monótona [1, 2]. entre as coisas que ia lhe brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, issn 2067-3957 apresenta são as classes, os objetos, as propriedades, as relações entre objetos, as situações, estados, o tempo, eventos, causas e efeitos, conhecimentos sobre cognição e assim por diante. as problemas de ai podem ser classificados em duas classes gerais [3, 5], as questões de pesquisa e os problemas de representação. existem diferentes maneiras de alcançar nos seus topo. então nós podemos usar [4] a lógica, as regras, os frames, as redes associativas, scripts e assim por diante, muitas vezes ligados entre eles. neste trabalho, vamos tentar oferecer uma visão panorâmica da aplicação dos métodos de representação em ai. os mais discutadas dois perspectivas da filosofia moderna da mente e do ai serão possivelmente o teste de turing e o argumento do quarto chinês. para elucidar essas questões muito difíceis, vamos ver o resultado final. 8. algumas considerações sobre a série e sincronicidade elena nechita, universidade de "alecsandri" em bacau, roménia resumo este trabalho presenta uma visão geral dos resultados que foram obtidos recentemente sobre de série e sincronicidade e de suas relações no contexto das novas teorias e em ciências da complexidade. 9. a otimização de sistemas distribuídos utilizando sistemas multi-agente com o tempo virtual ioana alexandra pandele, alina mihaela patriciu universidade de "alecsandri" em bacau, roménia resumo a coalizão de áreas de inteligência artificial e tempo real mostrou-se um movimento muito inteligente, semelhante a um movimento de xadrez (não vamos tão longe ainda de xeque-mate, considernado que a informática é muito escorregadio quando se trata de atualização). inteligência artificial oferece novas oportunidades para sistemas em tempo real. no entanto, esta abordagem apresentou dificuldades significativas [2]. principalmente, os sistemas no tempo real têm requisitos temporários (normalmente, precisam de tempos de resposta previsível) que não são previstos nas técnicas de inteligência artificial. uma maneira de resolver essa problema é o desenvolvimento de arquiteturas de software. estas arquiteturas de software são utilizado para projetar agentes inteligentes que trabalham em ambientes com tempo real. estas arquiteturas têm um número de mecanismos que permitem os agentes por operar nas ambientes com o tempo real, proporcionando um comportamento reativo (por realizar as tarefas temporárias) e um comportamento deliberativo [2]. no entanto, nas sistemas distribuídas, embora o conceito global de tempo desempenha um papel importante, não é factível; à primeira vista, ainda a definição do termo não está desfocada. esso artigo é o seu trabalho prolongado [6]. 10. uma sistema de aprendizagem das bases de contabilidade financeira bogdan pătruţ, universidade de "alecsandri" em bacau, roménia resumo este artigo descreve um método de ensino automática de bases de contabilidade financeira. o método baseia-se em correção dos erros típicos que podem ser observadas desde o início. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, issn 2067-3957 11. agente inteligente para obtenção do vocabulário da língua nativa bogdan pătruţ, universidade "vasile alecsandri" em bacau, roménia grigor moldovan, universidade "babes-bolyai” em cluj-napoca, roménia resumo este artigo descreve os seguintes: em primeiro lugar, as idéias básicas duma sistema que simula a maneira que nós acreditamos que uma criança adquire vocabulário materno e fazer a correspondência entre os objetos, palavras e sentidos, em segundo lugar: o mecanismo para sistema que pode aprender o vocabulário de língua materno usando os observações e em terceiro lugar, o modo de implementar um agente inteligente que pode se comportar como uma criança pequena, no processo de aquisição da língua materna. 12. questões relacionadas à alteridade nas redes sociais de colaboração cosmin ion tomozei, florinela floria, universidade "vasile alecsandri" em bacau, roménia resumo a idéia de alteridade tornou-se importante nas últimas décadas, quando falamos sobre a era da informação, o que dá reconhecimento aos desenvolvedores de software, a importância do outro é a compreensão do comportamento, necessidades, objetivos e suas crenças. nosso principal objetivo é trazer a questão da representação social ligada de imagens de pessoas como as entidades diferentes que são incorporados em equipes virtuais, projetos e atividades virtuais na internet. em vista de consciência da alteridade do outro, afirmaríamos que isso abre um diálogo sobre a perspectiva da sociedade da informação, em que o conhecimento do caso, partes e comunicar aos outros, são algumas atividades-chave. 13. uma espiada no trabalho do médico dr. gheorghe marinescu claudia ivan, jornalista frila, bucareste, roménia, ioana boghian, universidade "vasile alecsandri" em bacau, roménia resumo gheorghe marinescu (28 de fevereiro de 1863, bucareste may 15, 1938, bucareste) foi um neurologista romeno, fundador da escola romena de neurologia. brain_3_2 5 designing a growing functional modules “artificial brain” jérôme leboeuf-pasquier university of guadalajara, mexico jerome.lep@gmail.com eduardo josé gonzález pacheco oceguera university of guadalajara, mexico eduardogpo@hotmail.com abstract the present paper illustrates the design process for the growing functional modules (gfm) learning based controller. gfm controllers are elaborated interconnecting four kinds of components: global goals, acting modules, sensations and sensing modules. global goals trigger intrinsic motivations, acting and sensing modules develop specific functionalities and sensations provide the controlled system's feedback. gfm controllers learn to satisfy some predefined goals while interacting with the environment and thus should be considered as artificial brains. an example of the design process of a simple controller is provided herein to explain the inherent methodology, to exhibit the components' interconnections and to demonstrate the control process. keywords: growing functional modules, learning based control, machine learning, connectionism, embodiment, artificial brain editor, embodied robotics, emergent behaviors. 1. introduction in computer science, controllers are designed to provide real time response to events sensed by the system they control. controllers usually perform in real time and in a real world, such environment is characterized by its complexity, illegibility, dynamics among other confusing aspects. hence, to face these adverse conditions, programmers drastically reduce the intricacy of the robot's environment; otherwise, the number of lines of code would increase drastically. “classical” artificial intelligence does not offer much help because replacing sequential-imperative programming by another paradigm (functional, logical) still implies a huge coding effort. biological entities, whose brains may be perceived as controllers, are able to deal with the complexity of the real world thanks to their learning abilities. the growing functional modules' project, inspired by machine learning, connectionism, and embodiment, is setting out to do the same: allowing the design of learning based controllers. such controllers result from the interconnection of dynamic acting and sensing modules that do not integrate any previous knowledge but elaborate it gradually while interacting with the environment and hence, should be considered as “artificial brains”. at this stage, the earliest experiments attest to the well founded of this approach [1]. nevertheless, different tools have been required to pursue the project's development, among others robots' simulators, an embedded interface to implement robots and presently, a graphic editor to help designing the controllers [2]. as the controller results from the interconnection of different components, the editor is particularly convenient in order to create, update and display the resulting internal structures. a previous version of the editor [3] soon became obsolete because only one of the actual four kinds of components was implemented. the purpose of the present paper is to explain how gfm controllers perform, illustrating their design, step by step of a simple learning based controller integrating its four components: global goals, acting modules, sensations and sensing modules. the content has been organized in order to facilitate this achievement: section 2 describes the gfm basic control loop and section 3, the controller's components integrated in the editor. an illustration of an architecture's design is given in section 4 while its execution and graphical displays are described in section 5. brainstorming brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 figure 1. the gfm controller and its control loop 2. the control loop the gfm control loop has many similarities to a standard one as shown in figure 1. the controller, delimited by a dotted line, sends during each cycle an output command in order to trigger some mechanical or virtual actuators and in return, receives a feedback composed of a sequence of sensors' values. however, the concept of reference value is replaced by “global goals” which are integrated to the controller. the global goals' concept refers to the set of motivations that induces the controller's activities and consequently, the system's behavior. an illustration of such “motivation” is given in section iv. moreover, the controller's architecture is divided in two areas, the “sensing” and the “acting” ones. the sensing area is in charge of interpreting the feedback sent by the system, the feedback is referred as “sensations” (figure 1). sensations are processed in input by a set of interconnected sensing modules that produce “perceptions” in output. perceptions are translated to the acting area where a set of acting modules processes these feedback values. according to these values and the input requests, the acting area triggers the next command to the system, initiating thus a new cycle of the control loop. 3. the controller's components the controllers' components include sensation, global goal, acting module and sensing module; there are available by clicking on the associated button of the editor's toolbar. the components functionalities and configurations are described in the following subsections. 3.1. sensations each “sensation” corresponds to an integer value corresponding to a specific system's sensor. sensations are symbolized by a green rectangle on the editor's canvas (figure 2.a). each newly created sensation is assigned an identifier previously incremented. its unique field, initially filled with question-marks, allows it to associate a mnemonic in order to facilitate its interpretation. figure 2. the editor's components from left to right: a) sensation, b) sensing module, c) global goal, d) acting module. the defined sequence of sensations represents the system's feedback that is a sequence of sensors' values. thus, both sequences must have the same length and their values must be in the same order. sensations are employed as inputs for sensing modules and/or as feedback for acting modules. j. leboeuf-pasquier, e. j. gonzález pacheco oceguera designing a growing functional modules “artificial brain” 7 3.2. sensing modules sensing modules are symbolized by a blue rectangle on the editor's canvas (see figure 2.b). each newly created sensing module is assigned an identifier previously incremented. the upper field, initially filled with question-marks, indicates the type (or functionality) of the component. for example, this functionality may consist in applying a specific classification on sensations given in input. the component internal process will acquire this functionality meanwhile the system is interacting with its environment. connecting input sensations is performed by right clicking a component in order to create a new connection specifying the output component. the middle field allows the specification of an acting module's identifier that confirms the correctness of the sensing modules output perception in order to allow learning. the lowest field contains some extra-parameters whose number and meaning are specific to each type of module. the input connections of a sensing module come from a subset of sensations or sensing modules' outputs. 3.3. global goals global goals are symbolized by a red circle on the editor's canvas (figure 2.c). each newly created global goal is assigned an identifier previously incremented. the upper field, initially filled with question-marks, allows the definition of the global goal's type. this type determines the request that will be sent to a unique acting module connected in output. the type specifies, among others, a constant, minimum, cyclic or user-specified bequest's value. the lowest field allows the capture of some extra-parameters whose number and meaning are specific to each type of global goal. for example, if the type indicates that the request corresponds to the selection of a random value inside an interval then, the global goal requires two extra-parameters specifying both limits of this interval. 3.4. acting modules acting modules are symbolized by an orange rectangle on the editor's canvas (figure 2.d). each newly created acting module is assigned an identifier, previously incremented. the upper field, initially filled with question-marks, indicates the type (or functionality) of the component. for example, real time regulation in order to learn how to maintain one system's component inside a precise range [4] or causal inference in order to trigger states' transitions [5]. a single global goal or another acting module connected in input specifies at each cycle the request that should be reached. according to its type, the component's internal process is able to acquire a specific functionality while interacting with the environment. at each cycle, the result of this interaction is given by a subset of sensations and/or perceptions; this subset is specified in the upper middle field as a list of sensations and perceptions identifiers. the lowest field contains some extra-parameters whose number and meaning are specific to each type of module. right clicking allows the creation of output connections up to a maximum of four output acting modules. if no output connection is specified then, it is considered that the acting module sends commands to the system. in that case, the list of commands and their associated amplitudes should be declared in the lower middle field. 4. designing a controller the previous section offers a description of the different components and of the way to interconnect them. the present section will illustrate how to design a gfm architecture using the editor and interconnecting the described components. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 figure 3. describing the sequence of input sensations sent by the system. the control system's challenge consists of a basic simulation of an autonomous vehicle equipped with sixteen proximity sensors regularly disposed on its front part. each sensor returns a positive value when an obstacle is present at a short distance in front of this sensor. the simulation generates a random row of obstacles presenting a large enough opening to allow the vehicle to pass through. the vehicle's controller should learn to change the vehicle's position in order to cross through the opening. figure 10.a illustrates this behavior: the first lines of text shows a success, the vehicle's controller encounters a path free of obstacles at the first try while for the next row of obstacles, five attempts are necessary to succeed. 4.1. design step 1 to design the controller, first of all, the user should click the button “new” on the toolbar to create an empty canvas and to assign it a controller's name, presently “pathfinder”. then, the first convenient step is to describe the feedback given by the system as a sequence of sensations (see figure 3). the first sensation named “free”, indicates if the vehicle has been able or not to cross the range of obstacles. each of the next sixteen values is associated to its corresponding proximity sensors that points out the presence of an obstacle. they are given a name beginning with “s” followed by a number. the red color of the last sensation's field indicates that the given name is invalid; presently, because it contains a blank character. 4.2. design step 2 the next step consists in adding a sensing module able to classify the sixteen obstacles to produce a single output perception. in this case, the module's type is cbc meaning “combination based classifier”. according to this type, some perceptions corresponding to obstacles' configurations are later discarded; others are gradually adapted to generate a successful pattern. the next step consists of connecting the sixteen sensations in the input of the sensing module. to do this, the user must right-click on each sensation, then on “new connection” and indicate the sensing module identifier. the resulting design is presented on figure 5. finally, the acting module's field is set to “1” (indicating the number of the acting module that later will assess the correctness of the perception) and the unique extra-parameter set to “20” (related with the module's behavior). j. leboeuf-pasquier, e. j. gonzález pacheco oceguera designing a growing functional modules “artificial brain” 9 figure 4. adding a sensing module and selecting its type 4.3. design step 3 figure 5. adding connections from sensations 2-17 to the sensing module 1 the next step consists of adding a global goal expressing a motivation required by the controller. the goal is to keep the vehicle's front free of obstacles, thus the sensation “free” should stay equal to “1”. after adding a new global goal, its assigned type should be “cst” corresponding to a constant output request (see figure 6). in the parameter field, its specified value is “1”. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 figure 6. adding a global goal with its required type 4.4. design step 4 the fourth step consists of adding an acting module, its configuration values and input connection as shown in figure 7. a type “ci” is assigned because it functionality will consist of triggering a steering command in accordance with the perception from the sensing module and in order to satisfy the input request from the global goal. consequently, the feedback is set to “1 18” where “1” is the reference to the sensation “free” and “18” to the perception in output of the sensing module. the identifier “18” for this perception is computed as at the total number of sensation plus one (first sensing module). identifiers and their references are automatically updated when a sensation is added or deleted. figure 7. adding an acting module, its configuration values and its input connections j. leboeuf-pasquier, e. j. gonzález pacheco oceguera designing a growing functional modules “artificial brain” 11 the next field of the acting module, corresponding to the output command to the system is assigned the string “@1[-6,6]” indicating that there is a single output command “1” whose amplitude may vary from -6 to 6. next, the two required parameters according to the type “ci” are set to “0” and “10”. finally, left clicking on the global goal allows to add a new connection from this global goal to the input of the acting module. 5. running the controller 5.1 the “configure” command before running the controller, it is necessary to specify the communication's configuration. when pressing the “configure” button, two text windows appear (figure 8). the upper one allows to specify the application's localization in order to run it previously to the controller. presently, the corresponding simulation will run on the same machine, thus the name of the corresponding executable file must be specified. otherwise, in the same field, the user should specify the ip address of the server where the controlled system is running. figure 8. configuration of the controller the second and lower window specifies the controller's parameters including the descriptor file, the duration of a period, an eventual seed for the random number generator and so on... 5.2. the “save” command at this step, the graphic design and configuration of the controller have been completed. clicking the “save” button will generate a description of the controller that is written in a file identified by the controller's name and the extension “gfm”. this file will be loaded by the controller when starting to set the components and their interconnections. the content of the file that corresponds to the controller “pathfinder.gfm” is given in figure 9. #application's name pathfinder #number of errors 0 #errors #execution configuration -i "" -c "/home/jerome/documents/software/gfm/gfmf iles/pathfinder.gfm" -d 100 apppathfinder/apppathfinder #number of global goals 1 #number of sensing modules 1 #number of acting modules 1 #number of sensations 17 #number of perceptions 1 #sensations free o1 o2 o3 o4 o5 o6 o7 o8 o9 o10 o11 o12 o13 o14 o15 o16 #x coordinate 4 3 112 221 331 441 551 34 144 254 363 473 80 190 300 409 519 #y coordinate 13 63 63 63 63 63 63 115 115 115 115 115 174 174 174 174 174 #sensing module type cbc #sensing module ident 1 #input values position 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 1 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 #output values position 18 -1 #prediction position 1 -1 #extra parameters 20 #x coordinate 304 #y coordinate 357 #acting module type ci #acting module ident 1 #amplitudes of commands @1[-6,6] #input acting module's ident -1 #input global goal's ident 1 #output acting module's ident -1 #feedback position 1 18 -1 #extra parameters 0 10 #x coordinate 355 #y coordinate 284 #global goal type cst #global goal ident 1 #output acting module's ident 1 #extra parameters 1 #x coordinate 357 #y coordinate 24 figure 9. content of the file corresponding to the “pathfinder” controller j. leboeuf-pasquier, e. j. gonzález pacheco oceguera designing a growing functional modules “artificial brain” 13 figure 10.a. simulation's display: the characters “\__/” represents the front part of the car that should pass through the string “....==..=.==..==” representing the range of obstacles figure 10b. the control loop's information displayed by the controller 5.3. the “execute” command once performed the design and configuration, the controller and the local application are executed by pressing the corresponding button. in case of a local simulation, two terminal windows are generated. the first one, localized on the left side of the screen (figure 10.a), displays the behavior of the simulation; the second one, localized on the right side of the screen (figure 10.b), displays the behavior of the controller. both application run concurrently and their respective contents allow the user to observe and monitor the control session. the last text line of figure 10.b displays the set of commands at cycle 201. 6. displaying statistics clicking the button “statistics” opens three graphics displays of different log files describing the behavior of a previous control session. each of these files contains a list of different kinds of events that have been occurring during the cycles of the control loop. the first file, identified as <controllername>growing.sts, is a record of the sizes of acting and sensing modules throughout the control session. instead of bytes, the size represents the number of basic components created to store a new information. hence, rather than memory size, the value expresses the number of allocated objects. this is an always relevant information concerning the controller's behavior, in particular to detect modules' excessive growing. the corresponding graphic is displayed in figure 11.a. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 figure 11. graphics displays of the controller's behavior (from left to right) a) growing of the modules, b) commands, c) feedback the second file, named <controllername>commands.sts, is a record of the commandamplitude values send by the controller at the beginning of each control loop. this could lead to meaningful interpretation, for instance, a diminution over time of the amplitudes reflects that learning is favoring the system's performance: reaching a similar behavior with less commands. the corresponding graphic is displayed in figure 11.b. the third file, named <controllername>feedback.sts, is a record of the feedback values send back to the controller at the end of each control loop. displaying these values exhibits the actuators' and sensors' behaviors, reflecting thus the controller's fitness over time. in particular, these data to evaluate the precision the resulting control. the corresponding graphic is displayed in figure 11.c. these three files must be previously created during the control's session; in practice, they may be opened or closed at each cycle of the control loop. nevertheless, the main result concerning the learning ability of the controller, the evolution of the accumulated error through time, is not displayed as part of these statistics. the reason is that this task must be performed by the application/trainer which always has more accurate criterion to evaluate a successful behavior. for example, considering the present application, to be considered successful, a path through a range of obstacles must be found at the first attempt. the resulting curve of accumulated errors is presented figure 12. as shown, a rather trustful controller is obtained after 800 challenges (approximately 2000 cycles); nevertheless, sporadic errors still occur due to side effects of permanent learning (learning is not limited to a previous phase). j. leboeuf-pasquier, e. j. gonzález pacheco oceguera designing a growing functional modules “artificial brain” 15 figure 12. evolution of errors’ number through challenges’ number 7. conclusions a minimalist gfm controller should integrate at least three components: one sensation, one acting module and one global goal. the controller described herein, includes seventeen sensations, one sensing module, one acting module and one global goal, in order to give a complete overview of the gfm proposal. more complex controllers have already been designed. among others, the editor has been employed to ease the creation, actualization and visualization of two recent masters’ thesis projects: an auditory subsystem conceived to learn in context [6] and an equilibrium subsystem implemented in a humanoid robot [7]. for both projects, the editor has become a very helpful tool. in fact, both applications have contributed to improve the functionalities integrated in the editor but also their corresponding counterpart. in particular, the format of the gfm files that contain the description of the components' interconnections has been updated to be compatible with the editor and the controller. the design process described herein, clearly shows the role of the different components and of their interactions specified by their interconnections. moreover, the behavior of the controller may be analyzed by displaying the record files of the control loop. further developments of the editor will consider improving its visualization functionalities. in particular, module activations or module growing could be displayed in real time. finally, the main goal of this research project has been to develop artificial brains that should allow a controlled system to develop an emergent behavior while interacting with its environment in order to satisfy some predefined global goals. the controller described in the present paper offers an illustration of such behavior. therefore, gfm is a paradigm that would potentially allow the programming phase of a control system to be replaced with the visual design of a learning based controller. references [1] leboeuf-pasquier, j., lecture notes in artificial intelligence 3789, springer (2005), 959-969 applying the gfm prospective paradigm to the autonomous and adaptive control of a virtual robot. [2] leboeuf, j., gonzález, e., herrera, k., galván, r., gómez, g., robles, j., rodríguez l., nava, d., bautista, j., cambrano, g., gonzález, r., avances del cuerpo académico “ingeniería de manufactura” (2011), desarrollo del paradigma growing functional modules: avances 2010 [3] gaytán, n., master thesis in information technology, cucea, university of guadalajara (2007), una herramienta gráfica para la generación automática de controladores gfm. [4] leboeuf, j., proceedings of the 32nd annual conference of the ieee industrial electronics society, iecon’06 (2006) 3945-3950, improving the rtr growing functional module. [5] leboeuf, j., proceedings of the 4th intl conference on informatics in control, automation & robotics icinco (2007), 456-463, a growing functional module designed to trigger causal inference, 456-463. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 [6] gómez-avila, g., master thesis in information technology, cucea, university of guadalajara (2011), development of an auditive subsystem based on the gfm paradigm. [7] galvan, r., master thesis in information technology, cucea, university of guadalajara (2012), desarrollo del subsistema de equilibrio de un robot humanoide basado en el paradigma gfm. acknowledgement this paper is based upon work supported by the jalisco state council of science and technology of mexico (project fomixjal-2008-05-98486 ). brain_4 74 intelligent continuous double auction method for service allocation in cloud computing nima farajian department of computer engineering, faculty of engineering, university of isfahan, isfahan, iran e-mail: nimaff2000@yahoo.com kamran zamanifar department of computer engineering, faculty of engineering, university of isfahan, isfahan, iran abstract: market-oriented approach is an effective method for resource management because of its regulation of supply and demand and is suitable for cloud environment where the computing resources, either software or hardware, are virtualized and allocated as services from providers to users. in this paper a continuous double auction method for efficient cloud service allocation is presented in which i) enables consumers to order various resources (services) for workflows and coallocation, ii) consumers and providers make bid and request prices based on deadline and workload time and in addition providers can tradeoff between utilization time and price of bids, iii) auctioneers can intelligently find optimum matching by sharing and merging resources which result more trades. experimental results show that proposed method is efficient in terms of successful allocation rate and resource utilization. keywords: cloud computing, continuous double auction, intelligent agent, resource allocation, multiagent system. 1. introduction cloud computing is new generation of computing in which resources such as computing power, storage and online applications are provided as ‘services’ over the internet [1]. several interconnected and virtualized computers and resources could be delivered to consumers as a one or more unified computing resource based on service-level agreements (slas) [2].for utilizing a service multiple resources should be allocated simultaneously or as a workflow to the service. so resource management of cloud computing consists of finding and allocating required resources of each service. because of dynamic and elastic environment of the cloud, market-oriented approach has high potential for cloud resource management. it regulates supply and demand for resources; motivates the consumers to trade-off between deadline, budget, and the required level of quality of service; and provides an incentive for resource providers to participate in cloud [3]. to fit the cloud computing environment, resource allocation mechanism should consider following conditions: 1. combination of resource: for utilizing a service, multiple resources should be allocated for workflows or co-allocation. so the market should allow consumers to acquire multiple resources for the requested services. 2. fair pricing: the trading price should be fair and flexible. it must only depend on supply and demand of the market and never giving advantage to sellers or buyers side. fair market motivates consumers and providers to stay in the cloud and play their rule. 3. efficiency: every consumer and provider desires an efficient allocation of services. the cloud marketplace should maximize the benefit of the participants and should not waste any resource. 4. time consideration: the speed of resource allocation is important because each consumer has time constraint for allocating its resource and any delay could lead to failure in delivering the service. so consumers and providers should relaxed their criteria and converge their prices to the acceptable price of the market rapidly. n. farajian & k. zamanifar intelligent continuous double auction method for service allocation in cloud computing 75 two categories of market based models that are used for cloud resource management are commodities market models and auction models. in the commodity market model, resource prices are specified by resource providers, and consumers are charged according to the amount of the resource which they consume. in the auction model, each provider and consumer make decision autonomously and agree privately on the selling price. auctions are used for products that have no standard values and supply and demand of the market affect the prices [3]. generally there are 4 kinds of auction: english auction, dutch auction, first and second price auction and double auction. the double auction model has a high potential for cloud computing. in a double auction model, consumers submit bids and providers submit requests at any time during the trading period. if at any time there are bids and requests that match or are compatible with a price, then a trade is executed immediately [12]. three most popular double auctions are: preston-mcafee double auction protocol (pmda) [5], threshold price double auction protocol (tpda) [6], and continuous double auction protocol (cda) kant and grosu [7] showed that the cda protocol provides high resource utilization in grid environments and is better from both the resource's and the user's perspective. in this paper, an intelligent continuous double auction method for service allocation in cloud computing is presented in which: i. consumers can acquire multiple resources for workflows and co-allocation. ii. by considering deadline and workload time, consumers and providers adjust their prices quickly to the acceptable price of the market. so consumers can acquire more resources before their deadline. iii. for increasing resource utilization, providers can trade-off between price and utilization time of consumer requests and also express their willingness of sharing their resource between multiple consumers. iv. auctioneers intelligently find optimum allocation for each consumer request by merging and sharing resources. we call this method intelligent continuous double auction method (icda) and the results illustrate that the proposed method is efficient in resource utilization and successful allocation rate. the rest of the paper is organized as fallow. section 2 describes some relevant works. the design details of this model and its mechanism are presented in section 3. the evaluation and experimental results are shown in section 4 and conclusion is provided in section 5. 2. related work most of the studies and researches on management of resources and services in cloud computing is derived from methods and techniques which have been used in grid computing. the reason for this is high similarity between cloud and grid computing and also earlier emergence of grid computing. buyya et al. [3] used economic based concepts including commodity market, posted price modeling, contract net models, bargaining modeling for grid resource allocation. schnizler et al. [8] introduced a double-sided combinational auction to allocate grid resources. tan et al. [9] proposed a stable continues double auction, based on the more conventional cda. it reduces the unnecessarily volatile behavior of the cda, while maintaining other beneficial features. amar et al. [10] illustrated a comprehensive grid market model including a futures market and a centralized/decentralized spot market. izakian et al. [11, 12] introduced a continuous double auction method in which resources are considered as provider agents and users as consumer agents. in each time unit, each provider agent determines its requested value based on its workload and each consumer agent determines its bid value based on the remaining time for bidding and the remaining resources for bidding. in [13] authors present a reverse vcg auction for cloud computing in which consumers hold auctions for required resources and providers submit their offers and winner determination is based on lowest offer. fujiwara et al. [14] presented combinational auction model for cloud computing and design spot and future auction market for provider to put their resource in it. importantly, this method use combinational auction which auctioneer puts multiple different brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 76 types of resources in auction and each consumer can bid for combination of them. winners determination is based on maximum profit. teymouri [15] proposed a new ucda method based on cda method in which bids are updated by auctioneer itself. also providers determine the resource price based on their workload and users determine their bids based on jobs deadlines. sim [16] presents a market-driven negotiation mechanism for grid resource management which includes (i) a market-driven strategy and (ii) a relaxed-criteria negotiation protocol. in market-driven strategy, agents consider opportunity and time factors to determine the value of prices. sim [17] presented a resource management model for cloud computing based on marketdriven agent which introduced in [16]. in this model there are provider, consumer and broker agents. through a 4-stage resource discovery process (selection, evaluation, filtering, and recommendation), broker agents match consumers’ requests to suitable resources and then consumer and provider agents negotiate for mutually acceptable resource time slots. 3. market mechanism and problem definition 3.1. cloud computing market model we assume the cloud computing environment includes resource providers, consumers and an auction market. consumers refer to cloud to use and consume its required services. each service is composed of different resources which are provided by providers who sell them to make profit. the auction market consists of multiple auctioneers which each of them holds auction for one resource type. for each entity in cloud market there is one agent. consumer agent works on behalf of the consumer and acquires required resources of the requested service by interaction with auctioneers, provider agent which works on behalf of the provider and sells its resource to consumers through related auctioneer and auctioneer agent which receives bids and requests from all consumers and providers and executes trade for all matching bids and requests. we assume that the resources allocation satisfies the following conditions: • the quantity of a resource can be measured in arbitrary units (e.g. 60 units of resource a). • a resource can be divided into an arbitrary fraction (e.g. a resource of 60 units is divided into 20 units for consumer 1 and 40 units for consumer 2). • a resource request of a service can be divided into sub-requests and acquired from multiple providers (e.g. a resource request of 40 units utilized as 10 units from provider 1 and 30 units from provider 2). figure 1 shows a cloud computing environment with the proposed mechanism. figure 1. resource allocation schema in proposed method n. farajian & k. zamanifar intelligent continuous double auction method for service allocation in cloud computing 77 3.2. problem formulation a resource from a provider (ri) includes the following information: • rpmin: the minimum price per timeslot at which the provider wishes to sell the resource (reserve price) • rpmax: the maximum price per timeslot at which the provider wishes to sell the resource (maximum price) • rtyp: the kind of resource • rq: the amount (quantity) of the resource • rwr: the time at which resource could be allocated to new request (workload time) each service request is composed of some resource requests (ci) which each of them includes the following information: • cpmax: the maximum price per timeslot at which the consumer allocates to the requested resource • ctyp: the kind of requested resource • cq: the amount (quantity) of the requested resource • cut: the amount of time which consumer needs to utilize the resource • ctd: deadline time for consumer which consumer must finish utilizing the requested resource before deadline 3.3. continuous double auction method in the continuous double auction method at each time unit, consumers and providers submit bids and requests to the related auctioneer. an auctioneer maintains a list of the current bids and requests and executes trade for matching bids and requests. in this method, consumers, providers and auctioneer make decision autonomously which is described as follows: 3.4. consumer agents each consumer is looking for utilizing its requested service with minimum price before its deadline. to utilize a service all required resources should be allocated before deadline and otherwise service failed to utilize and consumer must pay penalty to providers for all other resources which is allocated to it. so consumer should adjust its bid price rapidly to the acceptable price of the market. since consumers are generally sensitive to deadline in acquiring requested service, it is intuitive to consider deadline time when formulating the bid price. consumer agent time dependent bid price formula is determined in (1). (1) rmin is minimum reserve price between all providers and tre is time interval between t (current time ) and td. 0<ρ<∞ is the concession making strategy. three classes of strategies are specified as follows: conservative (ρ >1) which the consumer maintains a low bid value until current time gets close to td, linear (ρ =1), and conciliatory (0< ρ <1) which the consumer starts with a bid value close to mps. fig. 2 depicts the different convexity degrees of the curves with ρ=0.2,1,5 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 78 figure 2. bid value for time factor consumer agent in each time unit calculates its bid prices for each requested resource and submits them to related auctioneer. 3.5. provider agent each provider has two objectives: (i) make maximum profit for selling its resource (ii) increase utilization time of its resource. provider agent in each time unit determines its request value based on workload time. in addition provider determines sharing and trade-off factors which are used to increase resource utilization. workload time: provider agent is sensitive to idle time of its resource and when the time is near the finishing time of current workload, provider should relaxes its request price to allocate its resource sooner. provider considers workload time for calculate request price as in (2). (2) tst is time interval between t and rst. based on (2) each provider offers its reserve price when its resource is idle and after allocation makes its price to rpmax and with elapsing time decreases its price. also τ is the concession making strategy like ρ and σ. trade-off factors: provider prefers to allocate its resource to consumer with longer utilization time because the longer request increases resource utilization for provider and also give more time to provider to sell its resource with better situation in the next trade. so provider agent should consider the tradeoff between the benefit of allocating its resource to a suboptimal (slightly cheaper) consumer with longer utilized time and the benefit of allocating to an optimal consumer (more expensive) with shorter utilized time. tradeoff factor expresses the amount of willingness of the provider for allocating its resource to the suboptimal request. so provider decreases its request price per each utilization timeslot of consumer bid as trade-off value which is calculated as in (3). (3) sharing factor: usually provider allocates full capacity of its resource to one consumer but in scenario which probability of finding consumer for full quantity (capacity) of the resource is low and also workload of the resource is close to finishing, provider can share its resource capacity to multiple consumer requests. resource sharing increase resource utilization of the provider but makes some overhead for provider because when the resource is fragmented, provider should n. farajian & k. zamanifar intelligent continuous double auction method for service allocation in cloud computing 79 calculate request value for each segment individually. p(i,t) express the probability of finding full quantity request for provider i at time t and is calculated as in (4). (4) qavg is the average quantity between all bids and pavg is the average bid price between all bidders which is calculated and submitted by auctioneer. for expressing resource sharing willingness of the provider, we use rsh(i,t)∈{0,1} (sharing factor) which denotes whether provider i wants to fragment its resource at time t and is determined in (5). (5) is sharing constant. higher (lower) value of cause more (less) willingness of provider for resource fragmentation. provider agent finally submits its request price and sharing/tradeoff factors to related auctioneer in each time unit. 3.6. auctioneer agent in each time unit consumers and providers submit their bid and request values to auctioneer and auctioneer sorts bids in highest order and request in lowest order and then for each bid which is higher than lowest request, auctioneer finds matching resources, executes trade and then remove the bid from the list. to find matching resources for each bid auctioneer should find optimum (minimum) price for that bid from requests list. if the minimum price is lower than the bid value then the trade occurs. for calculating minimum price for each bid we formulate the minimum price problem into a linear integer programming (lip). here we introduce which is the value of request (j) for bid (i) and is calculated as in formula (6) and also denotes the amount of resource j allocated to consumer i. (6) we solve minimum price problem as follows: minimize (7) s.t. (8) (9) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 80 m is number of requests in auctioneer list. after calculating , if then the trade occurs at the following price: (10) 4. experimental results in order to study the efficiency of the method presented in this paper, we developed a computational cloud simulator using the java agent development framework (jade) [18]. jade is a middleware for developing multi agent systems and applications according to fipa standards for intelligent agents. in our simulated system, consumers and providers are two kinds of agent and also for each resource type there is one auctioneer agent. resource type and quantity are shown in table 1. table 1 . resource specification cpu speed (ghz) : 1.5 ~ 3.5 memory(mb):{512,1024,2048} disk capacity(mb) : 50 ~ 1000 in our experiments we use the system load concept i.e. the ratio of aggregated length and capacity of resource requests submitted to the cloud to the aggregated capacity that the cloud is capable of providing in the simulation period. the system load can be obtained using eq. (11). (11) in the simulated system there are 100 consumer agents and each consumer agent requests 1 to 3 resources for its required service. number of provider agent depends on system load and each provider agent provides one resource. for a fair comparison each provider set reserved price to 2$ and maximum price to 9$. the budget of each consumer is random integer between 3$ and 8$. consumer agent utilization time of a resource (cut) is random integer number within range [2000, 5000] and deadline is from 2 to 5 times of cut. to evaluate efficiency of this method we first consider the effect of tradeoff, merging and sharing factors in success rate and resource utilization (which is summarized in table ii) and then consider success rate, average resource utilization in the purposed method and compared it with random continuous double auction (rcda), continuous double auction method in [12] (cda) and continuous double auction method in [15] (ucda). in all simulation we call the presented method (icda).in the rcda asks and bids are determined randomly between rmin and cpmax for the consumers and the rpmin and rpmax for providers. fig (3) shows the effect of merging and sharing resources by auctioneer in term of success rate of allocation. as shown in it, these factors improve successful allocation rate especially in higher system load. table 2. success rate and resource utilization success rate number of requests that are matched to resource(s) total number of requests from consumers n. farajian & k. zamanifar intelligent continuous double auction method for service allocation in cloud computing 81 resource utilization total number of time slots allocated time window in figure 4 we consider tradeoff and sharing factors in providers. the result illustrates that by using these factors providers improve resource utilization. higher resource utilization motivates more providers to participate in the cloud and also enables the cloud market to handle more consumers which influences market efficiency. figure 3. sharing and merging effect on successful allocation figure 5 illustrates comparison of successful allocation rate between icda and other methods. in the proposed method, intelligent allocation and also time consideration enable consumers to acquire more resources before the deadline and as a result, the number of successful allocation is higher than other methods. figure 4. sharing and tradeoff factor effect on resource utilization figure 6 shows resource utilization in different system loads and as shown in it, in icda resource utilization is more efficient than other methods especially in higher system load which is due to tradeoff and sharing factors. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 82 figure 5. comparison on successful allocation figure 6. comparison on resource utilization. 5. conclusion in cloud computing resource allocation is based on interaction and agreement between cloud consumers and providers. according to highly dynamic environment and also different policies of each provider and consumer, we need a method in which each participant can make decision autonomously based on market condition and its interest. in this paper a continuous double auction model is presented in which consumer and provider make bid and request with workload and deadline time consideration and also auctioneer can merge or share resources for executing more trades. experimental results illustrate that proposed method is efficient and intensive for both consumer and provider. references [1] luis m. vaquero, luis rodero-merino, juan caceres, and maik lindner. a break in the clouds: towards a cloud definition, acm sigcomm computer communication review 50 volume 39, number 1 (2009) [2] r. buyya et al. cloud computing and emerging it platforms: vision, hype, and reality for delivering computing as the 5th utility, future generation computer systems, vol. 25, no. 6, pp.599–616 (2009) [3] r. buyya, d. abramson, j. giddy, h. stockinger. economic models for resource management and scheduling in grid computing, the journal of concurrency and computation 14 (13_15) 1507_1542 (2002) n. farajian & k. zamanifar intelligent continuous double auction method for service allocation in cloud computing 83 [4] k. m. sim. a survey of bargaining models for grid resource allocation. acm sigecom: ecommerce exchanges, vol. 5, no. 5, january, pp. 22-32 (2006) [5] r.p. mcafee, a dominant strategy double auction, journal of economic theory 56 434450 (1992) [6] m. yokoo, y. sakurai, s. matsubara. robust double auction protocol against false-name bids, in: proc. of the 21st ieee international conference on distributed computing systems, pp. 137145 (2001) [7] u. kant, d. grosu. auction-based resource allocation protocols in grids, in: 16th international conference on parallel and distributed computing and systems, pp. 2027(2004) [8] b. schnizler, d. neumann, d. veit, and d. weinhardt. trading grid services a multi-attribute combinatorial approach, europeanjournal of operational research, vol. 187, no. 3, pp. 943-961 (2008) [9] z. tan and j. r. gurd. market-based grid resource allocation using astable continuous double auction, proc. 8th ieee/acm int. conf. on grid computing (grid 2007), pp. 283-290 (2007) [10] l. amar, j. stosser, and e. levy. harnessing migrations in a marketbased grid os, proc. 9th ieee/acm int. conf. on grid computing (grid 2008) , pp. 85-94 (2008) [11] izakian, h., ladani, b.t., zamanifar, k., abraham, a., snasel, v. a continuous double auction method for resource allocation in computational grids, ieee symposium on computational intelligence in scheduling, 2009, pp. 29-35 (2009) [12] h. izakian, a.abraham, b. tork ladani. an auction method for resource allocation in computational grids . future generation computer systems vol 26 ,pp 228–235 (2011) [13] xiaohong wu at la. cloud computing resource allocation mechanism research based on reverse auction. energy procedia vol 13, pp 736–741 (2011) [14] i. fujiwara. applying double-sided combinational auctions to resource allocation in cloud computing. ieee 10th annual international symposium on applications and the internet (2010) [15] s. teymouri, a. m. rahmani. a continues double auction method for resource allocation in economic grids, international journal of computer application vol 43, pp 7-12 (2012) . [16] k. m. sim. from market-driven e-negotiation agents to market-driven g-negotiation agents. proc. of the ieee int. conf. on e-technology, e-commerce and e-services, pp. 408-413, hong kong (2005) [17] k. m. sim. agent-based cloud commerce. proc. ieee int. conf. on industrial eng. and eng. management, hong kong, pp. 717-721(2009) [18] jade, java agent development framework, (2004). http://jade.cselt.it. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final.doc 205 resumos de artigos em português brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cérebro. ampla pesquisa em inteligência artificial e neurociências issn 2067-3957 volume 1, número 2 abril de 2010, "feliz primavera 2010!" www.brain.edusoft.ro editor chefe: bogdan pătruţ 1. uma heurística para solvência da problema da triangulação gloria cerasela crişan, camelia-m. pintea resumo o problema da triangulação consiste em encontrar uma permutação simultânea das linhas e colunas duma dada matrix quadrada, para que o suma de elementos acima da diagonal superior seja máxima. os investigadores estudam intensivamente esse problema porque tem maiores aplicações em vários áreas. um novo algoritmo híbrido de tipo aco é introduzido. o algoritmo começa com um ganacioso procedimento de pesquisa. esse é seguido por uma versão melhorada, ant colony system, combinado com uma busca local específico para problema. 2. a data proposta de arquitectura dirigida para aplicação de cardiologia de rede horea adrian greblă, călin ovidiu cenan resumo o artigo apresente uma estrutura por uma sistema médico ditribuida e quer trazer uma abordagem moderna e também aumentar a qualidade dos serviços medicos oferecidos pelos pacientes crónicos com doenças cárdio-vasculares através as últimas tecnologias de ti & c. o sistema proposto provê interação on-line entre os atores principais duma sistemo médico: pacientes, médicos, entidades médicas (por exemplo hospitais, clínicas) and autoridades médicas (por exemplo serviços sociais). com a ajuda das normas médicas aceites largamente, o sistema prove armazenamento por registros de medicos and oferece serviços de integração de dados entre os diferentes tipos de aplicações de saúde e entidades. a abordagem ontológica proposto permite o intercâmbio do conhecimento médico and as melhores práticas com registros conceitualmente organizados dos patients. a solução proposta permite o diagnóstico assistido por computador e multi-critérios de análise de dados medicos, com a possível construção de um armazém para o complexo de mineração de dados médicos. 3. uma pesquisa educativa sobre a dimensão tecnológica da vida privada liliana mâţă resumo o objetico desse estudo consiste em analizar as dimensões tecnologicas da vida privada na escola. trata-se de uma pesquisa observacional dos documentos curriculares e da percepção dos adolescentes do ensino médio e dos professores sobre desse dimensão no sistema educativo preuniversitaria romeno. os objectivos pricipais desse estudo são: a) a identificação dos aspectos específicos da dimensão tecnológica como refletido nos livros didáticos e currículos escolares e b) a descoberta de reação dos professores e dos estudantes do ensino médio sobre da dimensão tecnológica da vida privada. para realizar o primeiro objetivo, foi utilizado um análise temática no temas e categorias específicas. no segundo lugar, usámos os questionários por descobrir a reação resumos de artigos em português 206 dos 1456 dos estudantes de ensino médio e dos 890 de professores do ensino romeno préuniversitário. as rezultados do pesquisa são evidenciados devido as temas específicas para dimensão tecnológica ao nível dos documentos escolares e também por reação dos dos estudantes e dos professores. 4. a seleção dos operações para “assembler encoding” tomasz praczyk resumo “assembler encoding” é um método neuro-evolutivo no qual o rede neural é representado numa forma de programa simples chamada “assembler encoding program”. a tarefa do programa é criar “rede matriz definição” (network definition matrix) que mantém todas as informações necessárias para construir a rede. para gerar “assembler encoding programs” e, em consequência os técnicas evolutivas dos redes neurais são utilizados. o execução do “assembler encoding” depende fortemente nos operações utilizadas em assembler codificação de programas. para selecionar as operações mais eficazes, as experiências na otimização e na predador-presa problema foram realizadas. nos experimentos, "assembler encoding programs” foi equipado com diferentes tipos de operações testadas. os resultados dos testes são apresentados no final do artigo. 5. os programas básicas de computador na terapia de discurso dislalia e dyslexia-disgrafia iolanda tobolcea, mirela danubianu resumo durante os últimos anos, os pesquisadores e as terapeutas da terapia da fala têm sido cada vez mais preocupados com a elaboração e a utilização das programas de computador na terapia de distúrbios da fala. o principal objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a eficácia terapêutica de computador com programas para o idioma romeno em terapia da fala. ao longo do estudo, vamos apresentar a pesquisa experimental através da avaliação da eficácia dos programas de computador na terapia fonoaudiológica por dois distúrbios da fala: dislalia e dislexia, disgrafia (aqui, tanto para leitura e escrita). metodologicamente, o uso do computador nas fases terapêutico foi realizado com a ajuda de um computador baseado em programas que elaboramos e estamos experimentou durante vários anos de atividade terapêutica. a amostra utilizada em os nossos experimentos foi composto de 120 sujeitos, dois grupos de 60 crianças com distúrbios da fala foram selecionadas para ambos os distúrbios da fala: 30 para o computador ( 'experimental baseado em') em grupo e 30 para o controle (método 'clássica') grupo. o estudo verificou se as hipóteses dos resultados obtidos pelos sujeitos do grupo experimental melhorou significativamente após o uso do computador programa baseado, em comparação com os sujeitos do grupo controle, que não usar este programa, mas tenho uma terapia clássica. as hipóteses foram confirmadas para os distúrbios da fala incluídas nesta pesquisa as conclusões do estudo confirmam as vantagens do uso do computador os programas baseados na terapia da fala, corrigindo esses transtornos, bem como devido à influência positiva destes programas têm sobre o desenvolvimento da personalidade da criança. 6. pensando sabão mas falando 'osabã'. o período de preparação de som: cálculo para trás do enunciaco para intervação de músculo nora wiedenmann resumo nesse modelo de artigo, no discurso e nos erros do discurso, descoordenaçoes e doenças o tempo de curso da ímpetos inervação do músculo para a emissão de sons como destinado a sequências dos sons da fala canônica é calculado para trás. este tempo-curso é mostrado como a soma de todas as durações conhecidas fisiológicas dos sons da fala e gestos de fala que são necessários para produzir um enunciado. o modelo apresenta dois relógios internos, com base em fatores positivos ou negativos, representando o tempo baseado fisiologicamente determinados cursos durante o período de preparação de som (lautvorspann). o uso desses relógios internos mostram que os gestos da fala, como outras atividades motoras, trabalho de acordo com um princípio simples de serialização: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 207 em nenhum condições, as alterações do tempo-cursos podem causar erros de fala de serialização de som, dyscoordinations de sons, como observado durante aquisição de primeira língua, fala ou transtornos como casos patológicos. essas alterações do tempo de curso são modelados pela variação dos dois fatores relógio interno. o cálculo do tempo de cursos usa como padrão os valores da duração do som dependente do contexto munich phondat database of spoken german (ver anexo 4). como uma nova abordagem humana, este cálculo matematicamente concorda com a abordagem de programação linear / operations research. este trabalho dá um forte apoio à desconfiança relativamente antiga (de 1908) do famoso discurso de erro cientista austríaco meringer, ou seja, uma maioria pensa e articula em uma serialização diferente do que é audível em um, aos proferidas sequências de som. 7. estado da arte: conceptos de soluções para os jogos de coalizão simina branzei resumo esse artigo investiga conceptos de soluções para os jogos de coalizão. alguns conceptos de soluções são aprezentados, como o núcleo, o valor shapley, o conjunto de negociação, o conjunto estável, o nucléolo e o kernel. analisaremos os resultados recentes dos representações sucintos de jogos de coalizão, como os jogos com votação ponderada, os jogos de recurso de coalizão, os jogos cooperativas boolean e os redes de contribuição marginal. os conceptos de soluções têm condições proibitivos de complexidade, mesmo para as classes muito simples de jogos. discutiremos o problema para encontrar um concepto de solução de equilíbrio tão atraente como o núcleo, mas que é tratável e existe com certeza.. 8. os fatores de desenvolvimento da inteligência e realização individual gheorghe dumitriu resumo o estudo apresenta algumas abordagens pelos factores, à composição e medidas da inteligência humana. assim, dentro da abordagem psicométrica, há provas claras de que a inteligência é mais influenciada pela herança genética da pessoa do que pela herança cultural da sociedade. a conclusão de alguns investigadores sobre a avaliação da inteligência é que os indivíduos que obtêm escores altos em algumas tarefas específicas têm tendência a responder bem às outras categorias de testes. pelo contrário, aqueles que recebem menor pontuação ou resultados mais fracos obter os mesmos resultados nos testes de outros também. 9. alguns resultados sobre a teoria difusa angel garrido resumo a aparição da lógica difusa tem tido uma repercussão duplo sobre a investigação científica, e assim, ele tem provocado dois tipos de reações. de um ponto de vista teórico, certamente é muito útil uma generalização do clássico “set theory” devido a “boole” e “cantor”, nesta maneira possibilitando a análise da incerteza. mas, infelizmente, nos seus primeiros passos tinha evitado os assaltos do rotina espíritos do campo, muitas vezes de área rígida de matemática. esta situação tem melhorado mais tarde, especialmente nos países com menos preconceitos enraizados. e por outro lado, a nova teoria obteve um forte enraizamento nas países com o nove e crescente potencial científico, como china, o japão ou coreia do sul, e mais recentemente em países europeus, como a hungria, a espanha e a roménia, principalmente devido aos seus aplicações técnicas afortunades. analisamos aqui alguns aspectos essenciais dessa nova e poderoso utensílio de análise matemática. 10. o conhecimento de fusão nos redes acadêmicas horea adrian grebla, calin ovidiu cenan, liana stanca resumos de artigos em português 208 resumo os redes académicas podêm representar um novo modelo de aprendizagem baseado na fusão do conhecimento. no artigo atual, apresentamos um abordagem pelo projeto de rede acadêmico que traz a opinião dos treinadores académicos e practicantes, e abre novos caminhos na distribuição do conhecimento. as redes acadêmicas que consideramos são matematicamente modelados e representam a base para a abordagem ontológica da fusão do conhecimento num rede desse tipo. 11. uma aplicação delphi para análise sintática e lexical duma frase que usa algoritmo cocke, younger e kasami bogdan patrut, ioana boghian resumo este artigo concentra-se no algoritmo de cocke, younger e kasami. nós apresentamos uma aplicação delphi que analise o léxico e a sintaxe dum frase no romeno. usamos uma forma normal de gramática de chomsky (cnf). apresentaremos a origem duma aplicação delphi do algoritmo de cky. 12. um problema de arranjo de dados usando bézier curves carmen violeta muraru resumo o objetivo desse artigo é estudar os problemas antigos e novos a respeito das curvas de bézier, ustensílos importantes na modelagem geométrica de formas. nós utilizamos o software matlab para estudar o erro de estimação de aranjo de dados utilizando as curvas bézier ajuste dos mínimos quadrados e encontrar novos métodos dentro dum estudo que está actualmente em desenvolvimento sobre a modalidade de minimizar a distância entre a curva e os dados aproximados. 13. estado do verificação assinatura de arte biometrics mohamed soltane, noureddine doghmane, nourddine guersi resumo esse artigo apresenta uma análise comparativa do realização dos três algoritmos de estimação: expectation maximization (em), greedy algoritmo em (gem) e figueiredo-algoritmo de jain (fj) com base nos modelos de mistura gaussiana (mgm) para verificação biométrica de assinatura. os resultados das simulações mostraram resultados significativos da realização. as performances de teste de eer = 5,49% para o "em", eer = 5,04% para "gem" e eer = 5,00% para "fj", mostram que o sistema de informações comportamentais da biometria da assinatura é robusto e tem um poder de discriminação, o que pode ser exploradas para a autenticação de identidade. 14. a neurociência do ensino narrativas: facilitando o desenvolvimento social e emocional lisa whalen resumo as humanidades e as ciências têm sido consideradas as pólos opostos que existem em reinos separados da academia e exigem diferentes habilidades cognitivas. no entanto, a neurociência tem provocado renovado interesse que podemos aprender sobre o cérebro humano, investigando as ligações entre as disciplinas. por exemplo, estudos relacionados com a literatura inglêsa revelaram que os benefícios da leitura de narrativas de ficção (e não em histórias de ficção) vão muito além de desenvolvimento da linguagem e incluem o aumento da competência no funcionamento social e emocional. ao combinar os resultados de um estudo de dissertação original e uma revisão de pesquisas anteriores e actuais em matéria de educação, psicologia, linguística e neurociência, este ensaio explora a forma como as narrativas de leitura como prática serve para gerenciar as emoções e as interações sociais na vida cotidiana. de fato, vários estudos sugerem que as narrativas leitura fortalece quase cada parte do cérebro, porque o cérebro é projetado ou "ligado" para pensar e aprender em termos de narrativas, independentemente do assunto. este ensaio fornece vários tipos de apoio para a afirmação de que as narrativas de leitura facilita o desenvolvimento social e brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 209 emocional. pesquisa discutida inclui estudos mostrando que as narrativas de leitura não é uma atividade solitária, mas "um processo surpreendentemente social" (krakovskiy, 2006, p. 1) e está ligada ao aumento da capacidade de ver as pessoas e eventos a partir de múltiplas perspectivas, maior empatia com os outros, e aumento da capacidade de interpretar pistas sociais (atkins, 2000; courtright, mackey, & packard, 2005; davis, 1980; greif & hogan, 1973; harrison, 2008; mar, 2004; mar, oatley, hirsh, de la paz, & peterson , 2006; stanovich & west, 1989, 1992). entender como o cérebro processa as narrativas e as relaciona com o funcionamento da vida real tem implicações importantes para muitas disciplinas, como a psicologia, em sua tentativa de compreender e tratar o transtorno de estresse pós-traumático. este ensaio, entretanto, centra-se sobre as implicações para a educação. os professores que se esforça para ajudar os alunos a desenvolver a perspectiva de tomada de habilidades necessárias para o pensamento crítico ea empatia necessárias para se tornarem adultos responsáveis podem ser mais eficazes se compreender as narrativas desempenham papel no desenvolvimento social dos estudantes e emocional. 15. os fundações lógicas da inteligência artificial angel garrido resumo os procedimentos de buscar soluções para os problemas, em inteligência artificial, pode ser provocada, em muitas ocasiões, sem o conhecimento do domínio, e em outras situações, com o conhecimento dele. esse último procedimento é geralmente chamado “a busca heuristica”. nos métodos das técnicas de matriz revelam-se como essencial. a sua introdução pode dar-nos uma forma mais fácil e preciso na busca de solução. nosso artigo explica como a teoria da matriz aparece e frutuosa participam no ai, com aplicações possíveis para “a teoria jogo”. 16.os aspectos místicos-psicológicos a st evágrio pôntico e st máximo, o confessor gheorghe teofil popovici resumo os pais de santo são aqueles que tem experimentado e estudado profundamente os mistérios da alma humana. o modo do que um ser humano é considerado é muito especial. conforme do são maxin, o homen é o mediador entre deus e a criação. criado com corpo e alma, o homem é corregado por conhecer a deus, mesmo com a vida terrena. mas, como plato disse, o homem deve conhecer o si mesmo pela primeira vez. os santos padres descrevem longamente este caminho que o homem, como ele renuncia pecados, descobre deus dentro de seu coração. estas descrições são extremamente atual e relevante para o homem moderno, que parece ter perdido um pouco da visão global do mistério da alma humana, mostrando o grande destino para o qual o homem foi criado. 17. elementos de análise geo espaço elisabeta antonia haller resumo numa sociedade informatizada, o volume de dados aumenta inesperadamente, fazendo o seu tempo de processamento uma tarefa muito difícil. a prioridade turnou-se o processo de dados nas informações úteis e conhecimentos. assim, podemos dizer que a mineração de dados é uma consequência da evolução tecnológica. o interpretação dos dados geográficos fez o assunto a pesquisa ao longo do tempo, atingindo agora a ter uma grande variedade de instrumentos e produtos de software para representação e interpretação. o que precisamos entender para além das facilidades oferecidas por um sistema ou outro, solução de código proprietário ou aberto, é como eles funcionam e interagem com dados espaciais. 18. henric sanielevici – de critica literaria para anatomia ou como pode influenciar a dimensão de crânio a literature? adrian jicu resumos de artigos em português 210 resumo o objetivo desse artigo é lidar com as relações entre a crítica literária e a anatomia. para ser mais preciso esse discutirá uma das teorias do henric sanielevici, segundo o qual o texto literário só pode ser compreendido tendo em conta a cor dos olhos, o conformatioan dos dentes e a dimensão e a forma do crânio do autor. 19. o função complexo do cérebro humano: os dois hemisférios iulia cristina timofti resumo esse estudo revela apenas um noção das funções possíveis e reações que o cérebro humano pode ter. eu julgo que as situações diferentes características tanto de uma pessoa normal e uma fração de um cérebro são bons exemplos. estas situações provam que o cérebro, embora divide em duas, funciona como uma unidade, como um computador maravilhoso que tem o processamento de dados como o objetivo principal. 20. entrevista com o dr. georgios k. matis, neurocirurgião, universidade democritus de thrace, escola médica, alexandroupolis, grécia ruxandra alexandru brain_3_4_final 69 the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? mohammad hashamdar department of translation studies, karaj branch, islamic azad universitykaraj-iran mohamad.hashamdar@kiau.ac.ir abstract this study is intended to investigate the teacher-student communication patterns in an upper-intermediate english class. there are major questions in this study; (a) what the nature of interaction is in a foreign language classroom, (b) what the characteristics of teacher-student turn taking are, (c) what type of feedback is taken by the teacher, (d) how the teacher's competence and performance are. the participants of the study are female adult students and a female teacher majoring english literature at ma level that has had five years of teaching experience. five partial sessions of the class are recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. according to the findings, the type of discourse is teacher-initiated one and the question type is both wh-questions and questions with auxiliaries. the way of student's reply is brief and limited to one teacher-student turn-taking. the type of interaction is based on the questions posed by the teacher and long interaction such as discussing, debating, and challenging could rarely be seen in the classroom in question. the type of feedback depending on the skill and tasks dealt with, ranging from recast to direct correction. the teacher's competence and performance are satisfactory with correct pronunciation and near native accent. keywords: adjacency pairs, discourse, feedback, interactional talk, transactional talk, turntaking. 1. introduction discourse analysis is the construing of language use by members of a speech community. it involves looking at both language form and functions and includes the study of both spoken interaction and written texts. it identifies linguistic features that characterize different styles as well as social and cultural factors that aid in our interpretation and understanding of different texts and types of talk. the discourse analysis of written texts may include a study of topic development and cohesion across the sentences, while an analysis of spoken language might focus on these aspects plus turn-taking practices, opening and closing sequences of social encounters, or narrative structure. the study of discourse has developed in a variety of disciplines— sociolinguistics, anthropology, sociology, and social psychology. thus discourse analysis takes different theoretical perspectives and analytic approaches: speech act theory, interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, pragmatics, conversation analysis, and variation analysis (demo, 2001). although each approach emphasizes different aspects of language use, they all view language as social interaction. it provides examples of how teachers can improve their teaching practices by investigating actual language use both in and out of the classroom, and how students can learn language through exposure to different types of discourse. demo (2001) believed that "even with the most communicative approaches, the second language classroom is limited in its ability to develop learners’ communicative competence in the target language" (p. 1). it might be due to different reasons such as the restricted number of contact hours with the language, minimal opportunities or lack of opportunities for interacting with native speakers, and limited exposure to the variety of functions, genres, speech events, and discourse types that occur outside the classroom. classroom research is one way for teachers to monitor both the quantity and quality of students’ output. nassaji and wells (2001) believed that in the classroom, the dominant mode of interaction is not ‘casual conversation’, since most talk between teacher and students has a pedagogical purpose. in teacher-whole-class interaction, in particular, it is almost always teachers who initiate sequences. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 70 gillies and boyle (2008) believed that cooperative learning classroom are the best type of class in which interaction an be seen and its success lies in helping students to see the value of the process, learning to develop authentic learning rather than repetition, and achieve quality outcomes. erton (2000) asserted that "every single utterance is valid and has a function in language in particular circumstances since it is produced for a purpose if considered in appropriate context. thus, the importance for focusing on functional interpretation of language in context in a teaching situation is the focus on emphasis." (p. 210) classroom can be considered the best place where the functional aspect of language is seen in the interaction between teacher and students. the discourse used in this interaction is of great importance too. bannink and van dam (2006) believed that "in some sense everything that happens between the bells that signal the beginning and the end of a lesson at school is ‘the lesson’. even if not part of a focused learning activity in the narrow sense of the term, whatever happens can at least be reported as having occurred during the lesson." (p. 285) interruptions and embeddings create structural rather than sequential transition points in an ongoing discourse. therefore, the discourse analysis is a challenge with its own complexity. cots (1996) assumed that "when we approach language as discourse is that communication cannot be explained as the simple transfer of preexisting meanings. rather, a communicative event must be conceived as the locus where meanings are created through the negotiation of intentions and interpretations." (p. 81) nunan (1993, cited in cots, 1996) stated that 'verbal interaction is the result of the cooperative work of the speakers to make sure that their messages are being received in the way they were intended, and of the listeners to ensure that their interpretation coincides with the speakers' intentions.' (p. 82) on the other hand, morell (2007) studied the importance of lecture discourse in the classroom. he found out that lectures are more highly regarded if they allow for reciprocal discourse, especially for students of other languages who need help in understanding the content. bateson (1972, cited in creider, 2009) introduced frames and stated that interactive frames are used by participants to understand what kind of interaction they are engaged in at any one time. goffman (1981) showed, most interactions can be framed in a variety of ways. for instance, depending upon context, a question such as ―do you have siblings? may be a request for information or a test of student ability in a new language. in either situation, participants understand the purpose of the question by understanding how the interaction itself is framed—in this case, as a conversation between acquaintances or as a student/teacher interchange (cited in creider, 2009). demo (2001) proposed a four-part process of record-view-transcribe-analyze by which second language teachers can use discourse analytic techniques to investigate the interaction patterns in their classrooms and to see how these patterns promote or hinder opportunities for learners to practice the target language. he believed that "this process allows language teachers to study their own teaching behavior––specifically, the frequency, distribution, and types of questions they use and their effect on students’ responses." (p. 2) 2. questioning long and sato (1983, cited in creider,2009) studied the kinds of questions found in a second language classroom, differentiating between display questions, where the teacher already knows the answer; and referential questions, which are more open-ended. nunn (1999) suggested that 'the distinction between referential and display questions is not always appropriate in the classroom, and that in some contexts what would be called display questions can have important purposes, such as that of reconstructing textbook information.' (cited in creider, 2009, p.94) however, the important notion here is that even questions that should be referential can be treated as display questions when teacher and students are working from an interactional frame that is more focused on language form than on content. another way of thinking about questions is in terms of the kinds of interactions they generate. the three-part initiation-response-feedback (irf) structure continues to be explored by m. hashamdar the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? 71 researchers and even by teachers. it was first described by sinclair and coulthard (1975) but it slightly changed by mehan‘s (1979) discussion of initiation-response-evaluation (ire) sequences. in both cases, the teacher starts the interaction with a question, usually a display question. a student offers a brief response, and the teacher either provides feedback (irf) or evaluates the student response (ire). some recent studies have explored how these two kinds of teacher-responses (evaluation and feedback) can affect teacher/student roles in the classroom. thus, recent work on the ire sequence in the second language classroom has explored the way that teacher discourse can affect teacher and student roles in the classroom. mccarthy (1991) mentioned some forms and patterns of different types of talk and consider whether there are things that can be taught or practiced to assist language learning: 3. adjacency pairs the dependency of the pairs of utterances in talk is not unknown to language experts. there are many examples concerning this property of speech. one of them is that a question predicts an answer, and that an answer presupposes a question. adjacency pairs are defined as pairs of utterances such as greeting-greeting and apology-acceptance. mccarthy (1991) stated that adjacency pairs are of different types; identical (hellohello), and different second pair-part (congratulations-thanks). 4. turn-taking turn-taking is one of the basic facts of conversation in which speakers and listeners change their roles in order to have a fruitful and normal interaction. the mechanism in turn-taking may vary between cultures and between languages. kato (2000) stated that in ordinary conversation, it is very rare to see any allocation of turns in advance. those involved in the interaction naturally take turns. of course, there should be a set of rules that govern the turn-taking system, which is independent of various social contexts: (a) when the current speaker selects the next speaker, the next speaker has the right and, at the same time, is obliged to take the next turn; (b) if the current speaker does not select the next speaker, any one of the participants has the right to become the next speaker. this could be regarded as self-selection; and (c) if neither the current speaker nor any of the participants select the next speaker, the current speaker may resume his/her turn (cited in kato, 2000). 5. interactional and transactional talk mccarthy (1991) defined transactional talk as " it is for getting business done n the world, i.e. in order to produce some change in the situation that pertains." (p. 136) it can be in the form of telling somebody something that they need to know, to get someone to do something, and many other forms. on the other hand, he elaborated on the functions of interactional talk "its primary functions are the lubrication of the social wheels, establishing roles and relationships with another person prior to transactional talk, confirming and consolidating relationships, and expressing solidarity." (p.136) dorr-bremme (1990) found out that "when contextualization cues are enacted by a person who is recognized as the leader of the activity at hand, such as a classroom teacher, they can function as direct, immediate means of regulating the flow and content of discourse." (p. 398) the cues can serve to indicate who has the floor, what topics of talk are relevant to the official agenda now, and what ways of listening are appropriate at the moment. the cues can function in these ways even when they are unexplained, implicit, and subtle. 6. feedback there has been considerable interest in the relationship between types of corrective feedback and their efficacy. lyster and ranta (1997) investigated types of corrective feedback and their relationship to learner uptake in a primary french immersion classroom. the researchers classified feedback into six types: explicit correction, recasts, clarification requests, meta-linguistic feedback, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 72 elicitation, and repetition. lyster and ranta also categorized learner uptake, a student utterance following the teacher’s feedback, into two types: repair and need-repair, or in other words, successful and unsuccessful responses. the results revealed that the most frequent type of feedback was the recast, the teacher’s reformulation of all or part of a student’s ill-formed utterance, without the error. the recast accounted for about half the total feedback, and led to the least uptake (31% of the time). in addition, the recast never led to student-generated repair; the learner merely repeated what the teacher had said. in contrast, elicitation and meta-linguistic feedback, providing the correct form explicitly by indicating that what the student said is incorrect and giving grammatical metalanguage that refers to the nature of the error, were less frequent (14% and 8% of the time, respectively), and were found to be effective in that they encouraged learners to generate repair (45% and 46% of the time, respectively). lyster and ranta (1997) explained that the low rate of uptake following the recast was accounted for by the fact that the teachers also used repetition of well-formed utterances to confirm and develop students’ statements. as a result, students had to figure out whether the teacher was concerned about form or meaning, and sometimes failed to recognize the recast as corrective feedback. lyster and ranta concluded that corrective feedback can lead to learner uptake when there is “negotiation of form, the provision of corrective feedback that encourages self-repair involving accuracy and precision” and when cues are given to make students aware of the necessity of repair of ill-formed utterances (p. 42). 7. method participants there were fifteen female language learners in this study. they have already passed intermediate levels and they were studying in an upper-intermediate level. some have already had the class with this teacher and for others this is the first experience with this teacher. there was no stress or debilitative anxiety in the classroom. therefore, students could freely utter their opinions and points of view. procedure at the outset of this study, five partial sessions of upper intermediate english classrooms were recorded with an mp4 recorder. next, the recordings were listened carefully and the desired notions were transcribed for further study. the transcript made it easier to identify the types of questions in the data and to focus on specific questions and student responses. finally, the transcript was studied and analyzed based on the criteria made for this research. the criteria were such as the actual classroom interaction, turn taking role in the classroom, teacher's pronunciation, the type of feedback presented by the teacher, and so on. 8. data collection and analysis five sessions of the classroom interactions were taped using a digital mp4 recorder. because the teacher moved around quite a bit, she was sometimes loud and sometimes quiet. the interactive part of the recorded tape was transcribed and analyzed based on the criteria leveled by the researcher such as turn-taking, feedback, performance and competence of the teacher. 9. discussion the researcher found very interesting notions after transcribing the desired sections of the recorded text. in the process of teacher questioning, student answering and what follows up, there seems to be a questioning cycle which usually starts with a question by the teacher and an answer by the student followed by the feedback by the teacher. hicks (1995) and wells (1993) proposed this triadic dialog and which is a form of teacher-student communication pattern in talking. in this study the same pattern was governing the atmosphere of the classroom. m. hashamdar the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? 73 feedback in the classroom in question was seldom seen regarding the students mistakes. the mistakes in conversation or when the student was telling a story or giving her ideas were totally tolerated. the students received an appreciation for their participation in the classroom interaction. excerpt 1: t: ok, have you ever heard any stories about animals helping people? s: yes. t: could you tell us? s: a snake that secure the person that, i think it was injury? was injured and ………. t: good, anyone else? as shown in the interaction between student and teacher, the cycle of a teacher question, a student reply, and teacher follow up is repeated here. the other important issue which can be inferred from this excerpt is that the teacher ignores the mistakes of the student and gives just a thankful utterance at the end of the story. however, this tolerance of mistakes is not seen when students want to learn the meaning of the new words from the book. they are immediately stopped and corrected by the teacher. the correction can be due to the pronunciation mistakes, meaning misinterpretation, and the appropriate function in which the word or expression is used. the following excerpt indicates this type of correction. excerpt 2: t: anything else? s: sheep out. t: sheep out or ship out. s: ship out. t: if you say sheep it is an animal. s: no ship out. when students were asked to read the passage, the teacher listened to their pronunciation and corrected the mispronunciations of the students on the spot. some students preferred to pronounce the difficult words or the words they could not enunciate it correctly in a questioning intonation. then teacher pronounce the word and the student repeated the correct form. excerpt 3: s: (reading a text) in september 1985 an earthquake devastated? (student checks the pronunciation with the teacher in a question) t: devastated. there was an issue in the discourse between the teacher and student which was very intriguing and attracted the attention of the researcher and that was motivation which was given by the teacher in every interaction between her and her students. even if the response by the student was not satisfactory, she tended to thank for the risk the student has taken to answer the question. excerpt 4: t: any other stories? s: teacher, once there was a man that he had a very bad disease that any doctor couldn't help him……… t: thank you very much. concerning the issue of adjacency pairs it could be seen that the teacher-student interaction was as proposed by mccarthy both identical and different pair-part. when teacher asked a question, the reply was direct to that question; therefore, it was identical. however, sometimes students could not provide a right answer for the teacher's question. then the teacher thanked her and repeated her question for the other learner. in this instance of interaction and discourse different pair-part was followed by the teacher. excerpt 5: t: leila, what is meant by slang? s: i think informal language, and.(student could not finish giving the definition of slang) t: anything else? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 74 throughout the recorded sessions of the class, the pronunciation and intonation of the teacher were carefully studied and the researcher could be convinced that it was at a satisfactory level of proficiency. this was very beneficial and useful for the students to consider it as a model of learning. as it is usually expressed by the scholars, the type of exposure to language plays an important role in language classrooms. 10. conclusion mccarthy (1991) said that "discourse analysis is not a method for teaching languages; it is a way of describing and understanding how language is used." (p.2) the study was intended to find out the extent to which a well-trained teacher considers the type of interaction and feedback needed for the classroom context. tang (2008) claimed that even from the brief content analysis carried out on the teacher-students’ discourse the trainee teachers are making connections between their instruction in text analysis and their lives as teachers and readers outside the classroom walls. even from the brief content analysis that the researcher has carried out on the teacher-students’ interaction, useful findings could be detected. the experienced teacher could well understand the importance of interaction in the class discourse and the motivation needed to initiate and continue interaction in that context. from the extracts presented above, the researcher could see that a critical awareness about language and an interest in everyday texts are being developed in majority of the students. it is suggested that while experts are training the teachers, they should teach them the type and degree of interaction and how they are to tune in their discourse with their students. references [1] bannink, a., & van dam, j. (2006). a dynamic discourse approach to classroom research. linguistics and education, 17, 283-301. [2] cots, j. m. (1996). bringing discourse analysis into the language classroom. links and letters 3, 77-101. [3] creider, s. (2009). frames, footing, and teacher-initiated questions: an analysis of a beginning french class for adults. retrieved, january 27, 2010, from http://www.tc.columbia.edu/tesolalwebjournal. [4] demo, d. a. (2001). discourse analysis for language teachers. eric digest, 1-2. [5] dorr-bremme, d. w. (1990). contextualization cues in the classroom: discourse regulation and social control functions. language in society, 19, 379-402. [6] erton, i. (2000). contributions of discourse analysis to language teaching. hacettepe .niversitesi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 19, 201-211ـ [7] gillies, r. m., & boyler, m. (2008). teachers' discourse during cooperative learning and their perceptions of this pedagogical practice. teaching and teacher education, 24, 1333 1348. [8] kato, f. (2000). discourse approach to turn-taking from the perspective of tone choice between speakers. retrieved, january 30, 2010, from http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/resources/essays/fk_dis.pdf. [9] mccarthy, m. (1991). discourse analysis for language teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. [10] morell, t. (2007). what enhances efl students’ participation in lecture discourse? student, lecturer and discourse perspectives. journal of english for academic purposes, 6, 222– 237. [11] nassaji, h., & wells, g. (2001). what’s the use of ‘triadic dialogue’? an investigation of teacher-student interaction. retrieved, january 29, 2010, from http://people.ucsc.edu/~gwells/files/papers_folder/triadicdialogue.pdf. [12] russell, v. (1997). corrective feedback, over a decade of research since lyster and ranta (1997): where do we stand today? electronic journal of foreign language m. hashamdar the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? 75 teaching, 6 (1), 21-31. [13] tang, r. (2008). studying discourse analysis: does it have an impact on trainee english language teachers? elted, 11, 27-32. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 77 an intelligent method to process romanian language internet reviews versavia-maria ancusa computer and information technology department, politehnica university of timisoara, piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006, romania phone: 0256 403 000 versavia.ancusa@cs.upt.ro olimpia ban economics department, faculty of economic sciences, university of oradea, str. universitatii, 1, oradea, bihor, 0, oradea, romania phone: 0259 408 105 oban@uoradea.ro marian cornea computer and information technology department, politehnica university of timisoara, piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006, romania phone: 0256 403 000 marian.cornea@student.upt.ro abstract internet reviews are a valuable information mine, however most research is oriented towards english based ones. the romanian language reviews exhibit specific grammar rules, dialect challenges and polymorphism, which need customized methods to be dealt with. this paper offers a method for aggregating heterogeneous romanian language reviews into a homogenous corpus, fit for further analyse. keywords: electronic word of mouth (ewom), mesoscopic approach, natural language processing, complex networks, amfostacolo.ro 1. introduction internet reviews can be seen as a modern communication form, adapted to the highly interconnected digital world of today, distributed in a relationship form of 1 to many, encouraged by social conscience, and generally not (direct) monetary gain, therefore representing an electronic word of mouth (ewom) paradigm (yoo, gretzel, & zach, 2011). the main difference between this paradigm and the traditional word of mouth paradigm consists in the impersonal communication format (chung & buhalis, 2008), with the person writing the review and the one reading it belonging to different social groups, having different status, education and most importantly, having never met one another. in fact, some researchers (ayeh, au, & law, 2013) consider that the differences make the message more convincing as a whole, while niche messages create a more personalized image of the product / service for their targets. this reflects the social network evolution (barabasi, 2012), in which clusters naturally evolve, leading the individual consumers to trust reviews from persons that resemble their own characteristics, even though they do not actually know them (litvin, goldsmith, & pan, 2008), (park & allen, 2013). even more surprising is the way people evaluate the credibility of the ewom, not through a rigorous, conscious decision process, but mostly based on peripheral cues (metzger, flanagin, & zwarun, 2003) and subsequent personal details clustering (park & allen, 2013). the reliance on this globalized feed-back method has reached the level in which on-line reviews are more credible than old-fashioned information sources (dickinger, 2011). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 78 the sheer magnitude of the ewom is reflected, from a computer science perspective, in the presence of massive user-generated data, that can be aggregated and analysed using data mining techniques. ewom can be analysed at an individual (influencer) or market level (cheung & thadani, 2010) or from an input-process-output perspective (chan & ngai, 2011), but in any case, ewom is represented as big data, therefore subjective to all the specific analytics stages and challenges. according to (fisher, deline, czerwinski, & drucke, 2012), big data analytics has the following stages: the data acquiring phase, the modelling phase (which can be further split into architecture choosing and data moulding onto that architecture), the coding/debugging phase and, finally, the reflection phase. in itself, data analytics, either big or small, is an “inherently exploratory” (fisher, deline, czerwinski, & drucke, 2012) pursuit, which leads to rapid analytics process successions, which, in turn can introduce errors, that propagate swiftly, compromising the entire process. however, most errors in working with big data are introduced during the data sampling, as well as data cleaning stages (boyd & crawford, 2011), which appear at the beginning of the analysis process. practical surveys point that data cleaning tends to happen after a first iteration of the analytics process, when “a model looked odd”. (fisher, deline, czerwinski, & drucke, 2012) while data sampling and cleaning have strong roots in the statistics field (kachigan, 1986), new challenges arise due to the vastly heterogeneous nature of the data. classical statistical algorithms are not fit for the current context in which data is evolving, taking new forms, with each form partially complementing the other, enriching the larger picture. novel methods and methodologies need to be created in order to operate in such shifting circumstances. the analytics process in itself can be applied either continuously, concurrent, yet succeeding the data collection process, in which case the data can be expanded/refined on the fly, or the analytics process is applied strictly after the data collection, in which case no further fine-tuning is possible. each analytics type (static / dynamic) has different data cleaning issues: while the static options allows for more complex, time-consuming, refined algorithms to be applied, no further confirmation from the data sources of the correctness in the cleaning process can lead to unnecessary data censoring. on the other hand, dynamic cleaning has obvious time-constraints, but can be more easily improved over time. data cleaning can be performed through a direct manipulation interface or through a script (fisher, deline, czerwinski, & drucke, 2012). while either solution will get results, the traceability quality implied by the script makes this a preferred option in practice. in most cases, the results of the analytics process must often be conveyed to an audience that has little to no expertise in the analytics and/or statistics (fisher, deline, czerwinski, & drucke, 2012) so an exchanging of ideas in a simple, common and clear manner is essential. an easy way to do this is to represent the results through pictures, as visual representations tend to be the most common ways of internal information processing (goodale, 2014), (healey & enns, 1999). conversely, this raises another problem i.e., the limitation of information visualization at a few million data points per screen (shneiderman, 2008). on the other hand, data in itself is not enough, and not every part of it is equally important, interactions are what brings data to life, which indicate a new opportunity for visualization, through complex networks (barabasi, 2012). the purpose of this paper is to present a hybrid methodology for building a ewom data cleaning algorithm, and apply it for the romanian language. the algorithm will be tested on the review database from amfostacolo.ro with the stated purpose of building a complex network text representation of that database. 2. text analysis many attempts have been made to model various human languages, leading to the emergence of three perspectives: the microscopic “collection of utterances” view, the macroscopic “set of grammar rules and a vocabulary” view and the mesoscopic hybrid “basic units and emergent v.-m. ancusa, o. ban, m. cornea an intelligent method to process romanian language internet reviews 79 interactions” view (choudhury & mukherjee, 2008) complex networks, due to their inherent nature of interaction portrayal, are especially fit to represent the mesoscopic view (mihalcea & radev, 2011). referring strictly to linguistic networks, the two main uses for this particular representation are: (1) the discovery of languages’ inherent properties and (2) any type of knowledge manipulation (machine translation, information retrieval, summarization systems, natural language patterns, etc.). while the networks presented in table 1 are used to depict language in order of ascertaining their properties, in different contexts, using different corpuses, they can constitute the basis of exploratory systems, such as natural language patterns – machine translation, information retrieval and summarization systems. (choudhury & mukherjee, 2008) table 1: natural language processing networks network type graph type nodes edges present based on: use lexical network undirected words phonetic and semantic similarity exponential degree distribution, high clustering coefficient collocation network undirected words co-occurrences in similar contexts power-law distribution the presence of a core-lexicon syntactic dependency network directed words / parts-ofspeech grammatical (logical) relation disassortative mixing, hierarchical organization, small world structure phonological networks undirected sub-lexical units (ex: phonemes, syllables) co-occurrences in similar contexts a power law with an exponential cut-off towards the tail distribution high clustering coefficient strong patterns present in natural language processing, it can be argued that the context is crucial in determining the underlying value of one word (turney & pantel, 2010). the distributional hypothesis states that the context is what defines the semantic of one word, therefore, similar contexts containing different words will give associative qualities to the differences. context includes the language in which texts are written and need to be analysed. if most of the scientific literature focuses on english language, there are some attempts to customize it for other languages like chinese, german, spanish, turkish, arabic, japanese, polish and even romanian (li, ye, zhang, & wang, 2011), (feraru, teodorescu, & zbancioc, 2010). however, most of these works focus on an academic corpus, which provides limited relevance in dealing with ewom, since the patterns of the written and casually written/spoke language vary greatly. the research that deals with ewom is not customized for romanian, therefore presenting the opportunity to craft such an algorithm. 3. experimental algorithm development in order to create the algorithm, we decided on a mixed static – dynamic approach, based on a three-phase process. the process starts with the collection and data aggregation, continues to the second stage, the unification or the basic processing, with the last stage focusing on the analysis brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 80 (figure 1). the analysis part is presented in a dedicated paper (ban, ancusa, bogdan, & tara, 2015) since it involves industry-specific aspects and further handling specific for the data’s origin domain. this paper focuses on the data aggregation and cleaning part. figure 1. the ewom aggregation, processing and analysis the corpus used was an online review database, consisting of 15200 reviews, written by 8912 different authors with gaussian age distribution (figure 2) as to represent a significant viewpoint on the modern romanian language. the database structure included columns for unique identification of the author, trip geographical details (place, quality, etc.), a written review describing the experience, together with a trip satisfaction numerical score. the reviews written quality varied greatly from very correct to very colloquial, almost to the point of losing readability. a first aggregation decision was to include even very shoddy and philistine expressions as part of the corpus, together with the cultured expression of the language, because of two factors: (1) the evolutionary aspect of the language manifesting itself and (2) further sentiment analysis must include all forms and nuances because they are relevant in that context. figure 2 age distribution of the reviews next step (partially based on (fisher, deline, czerwinski, & drucke, 2012)) consisted in assigning meaning to the data values. upon further analysis of the database we discovered four data categories: 1 – dictionary form words (e.g.: “am mers”, “minunat”, “mieunat”) 2 – words with spelling mistakes (e.g.: “am mrs”, “mniunat”, “mienuat”) 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 <20 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 >=60 n um be r o f un iq ue r ev ie w s age interval (years) v.-m. ancusa, o. ban, m. cornea an intelligent method to process romanian language internet reviews 81 3 – common alliterations, new words, colloquial (e.g.: “merem”, “miunat”, “mai”, “pt”) 4 – connector words, exclamations (e.g.: “wow”, “oooooaaaa”, “cu”) 5 – numerical values, punctuation (e.g.: “10”, “!!!!!”, “?!”) in order to achieve corpus consistency, each word was tested using two databases. the first database used was the romanian language dictionary, where if a match was found, the word was reduced to its basic declination (e.g.: “minunatul”  “minunat”, “mergem”  “merge”). while this measure clearly affects the eligibility of the written text, it is non-important for a linguistic network in which patterns and centrality matter more than logical text contiguity. next, we had to build a special database for the non-dictionary words. this was built dynamically, as our analysis progressed. each non-dictionary word was added to the database together with a processing directive. the categories developed are presented in table 2. table 2. categories developed in the dynamic correction database category description action example 1 clear spelling mistakes in which the word was easily recognizable replace misspelled word with dictionary form one, for all further occurrences, prompt only once for solution “măncărică”  “mâncare” 2 spelling mistakes in which the word is not easily recognizable prompt supervisor for replacement option, show context * “miunat”  “mieunat” or “minunat” 3 common alliterations replace word with dictionary form one, for all further occurrences, prompt only once for solution “pt”  “pentru” 4 colloquial occurrences prompt user for action: replace with user-provided solution or delete for all further occurrences “măi”  delete “buuuuun”  “bun” 5 foreign language imports prompt user for action: replace with user-provided solution, delete once or delete for all further occurrences “omg”  delete for all “pls”  delete once “pls”  “rog” 6 web-specific elements delete for all further occurrences * “http://photos.adress”  delete for all * note: (1) this action could be further developed into a neural network with a training set consisting of this database. (2) to this date this action allows the use of wildcards like * and ? immediately after this phase we proceeded to remove inconsequential items: connector words (prepositions, auxiliary verbs), numerical values, exclamations and punctuation signs. some of these items might have been removed at the previous step, but to make sure, on the dynamic database we added all these options, starting from their dictionary form, with the associated action delete for all. resuming, the data values meaning is reflected in four main categories, similar with the model presented in (fisher, deline, czerwinski, & drucke, 2012), except for the missing values case: 1. already “clean” data: dictionary form words 2. corrupted data: common spelling mistakes brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 82 3. evolved data: common alliterations, foreign language imports, colloquial occurrences 4. ignored data: numbers, connectors, exclamations, punctuation, hyperlinks by ignoring punctuation we took a calculated risk, since punctuation can change the meaning of an expression. the reason behind our decision was that in the analytics part of the process, associations were more important than connotations and one negative association due to sarcasm or irony could not overstate the regular ones. it is worth mentioning that the whole process suffered a second and a third iteration, when during the analytics phase some unexpected results emerged. the common thread behind these occurrences was the presence of unexpected patterns that passed the previously described filters. for example, the occurrence “om mers” was interpreted as clean data since each word on its own represents a correct dictionary input. however, in this case, the regional aspect of the language intervened, by substituting “am” with “om”. while the other iterations were based on dictionary and grammar based rules, as mentioned in table 2, automating the cleaning process, this regional aspect required special handling. therefore, a new set of rules were manually created to handle such polymorphism occurrences. during the third iteration, similar word forms, representing different notions were tackled. such is the case of the noun “zi” with the verb “zice”, in which particular case the verb has a form similar with the noun. in order to solve this problem, we implemented, in a case-by-case manner, solutions. in this particular case, the noun was replaced with its articulated form “ziua”, requiring user prompting in order to vet the replacement. this solution needs strong further automatic handling, as it is otherwise very time-consuming and error-prone. the rules from table 2 are obviously incomplete due to the nature of the romanian ewom and every iteration required human intervention in the creation of new rules for solving specific problems. by no means have we considered the final result correct, however, it is enough for a complex network mesoscopic analysis that allows errors as long as they are not in a too high number. after data cleaning, but before analysis, the final step is to create the co-occurrence complex network. the original network, without any processing, had 15.397.933 nodes, or singular occurrences. through the data cleaning process 4.011.135 deletions were made. after substitution and dictionary form reduction this left only 82.422 unique nodes, a definite improvement from the original size (5.33%). figure 3. data as a network – before (left) and after (right) data cleaning v.-m. ancusa, o. ban, m. cornea an intelligent method to process romanian language internet reviews 83 figure 3 depicts part of the network before and after data cleaning, selected for legibility. the reduction is quite significant, even more poignant due to the graph density factor. as measurement, the initial average for each node was approximately 95 edges, rendering the visual analysis of the human researcher (almost) useless, while the final network is a lot “cleaner’ and easier to work with. 6. conclusion and future work this paper presented a method used to prepare for analysis big data romanian ewom, taking into account language specific aspects. while the method was further used to gather insights, it is not without downfalls: it relies very much on human input and decisions, it needs to be constantly updated to keep pace with language evolution. further research and work will focus on automating these stages, using machine learning algorithms that detect unexpected patterns and determine new rules for them, simplifying the researchers’ work. acknowledgment: we would like to express our gratitude for the support in this research to mr cornel bociort, the site developer of amfostacolo.ro. references ayeh, j., au, n., & law, r. (2013). do we believe in tripadvisor? examining credibility perceptions and online travelers’ attitude toward using user-generated content. journal of travel research, 4(52), 437-452. ban, o., ancusa, v., bogdan, v., & tara, i. g. (2015). empirical social research to identify clusters of characteristics that underlie the online evaluation of accommodation services. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, iii(50), 293-308. barabasi, a. l. (2012). the network takeover. nature physics, 8, 14-16. boyd, d. & crawford, k. (2011). six provocations for big data. a decade in internet time: symposium on the dynamics of the internet and society. chan, y. y. & ngai, e. (2011). conceptualising electronic word of mouth activity: an inputprocess-output perspective. marketing intelligence & planning, 29(5), 488 516. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02634501111153692 cheung, c. m. & thadani, d. r. (2010). the effectiveness of electronic word-of-mouth communication: a literature analysis. 23rd bled econference etrust: implications for the individual, enterprises and society. bled, slovenia. choudhury, m. & mukherjee, a. (2008). the structure and dynamics of linguistic networks. in dynamics on and of complex networks: applications to biology, computer science, economics and the social sciences (pp. 145-166). boston, usa: springer. chung, j. y. & buhalis, d. (2008). web 2.0: a study of online travel community. (springer, ed.) information and communication technologies in tourism, 70-81. dickinger, a. (2011). the trustworthiness of online channels for experience and goal-directed search tasks. journal of travel research, 4(50), 378-391. feraru, s. m., teodorescu, h. n., & zbancioc, m. d. (2010). srol web-based resources for languages and language technology e-learning. int. j. of computers, communications & control, v(3), 301-313. fisher, d., deline, r., czerwinski, m., & drucke, s. (2012, may june). interactions with big data analytics. interactions, 50-59. goodale, m. a. (2014). how (and why) the visual control of action differs from visual perception. proc biol sci, 281(1785). doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0337. healey, c. g. & enns, j. t. (1999). large datasets at a glance: combining textures and colors in scientific visualization. ieee transactions on visualization and computer graphics, 5(2). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 84 kachigan, s. k. (1986). statistical analysis: an interdisciplinary introduction to univariate & multivariate methods. new york: radius press. li, y., ye, q., zhang, z., & wang, t. (2011). snippet-based unsupervised approach for sentiment classification of chinese online reviews. international journal of information technology & decision making, 10, 1097-1110. litvin, s., goldsmith, r., & pan, b. (2008). electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management. tourism management, 29, 458-468. metzger, m. j., flanagin, a. j., & zwarun, l. (2003). college student web use, perceptions of information credibility, and verification behavior. computers & education (41), 271-290. mihalcea, r. & radev, d. (2011). graph-based natural language processing and information retrieval. cambridge: cambridge university press. park, s. & allen, j. (2013). responding to online reviews: problem solving and engagement in hotels. cornell hospitality quarterly, 54(1), 64-73. shneiderman, b. (2008). extreme visualization:squeezing a billion datapoints into a million pixels. proc. of the acm sigmod international conference on management of data (pp. 3-12). new york. turney, p. d. & pantel, p. (2010). from frequency to meaning: vector space models of semantics. journal of artificial intelligence research, 37, 141-188. yoo, k., gretzel, u., & zach, f. (2011). travel opinion leaders and seekers. information and communication technologies in tourism: proceedings of the international conference (pp. 525-535). new york: springer. versavia-maria ancusa (b. march 11, 1981) received her bsc in computer science (2004), msc in advanced computer systems (2005), and phd in computer science (2009) from “politehnica” university of timisoara. now she is a senior lecturer in department of computers and information technology, automation and computer faculty, “politehnica” university of timisoara. her research crosses several domains, including computer science, network science, medicine, marketing and linguistics. olimpia ban (b. february 23, 1978) received her bachelor degree of finance from university of economic sciences oradea (1997) and phd in economics (2005) from the west university of timisoara. she is now a professor at university of oradea, faculty of economic sciences, department of economics. her main research interests are tourism and marketing, especially in a national context, with educational and practical applications. marian-gelu cornea (b. may 11, 1991) received his bsc in computer science (2013) from “politehnica” university of timisoara. he is now pursuing his msc in advanced computer systems at the same university, while working for autoliv in program development. his main research interests are python programming and agile development. microsoft word brain_6_2015_dec_34_final4.doc 74 generation y students in social media: what do we know about them? daniela popescul „alexandru ioan cuza” university of iaşi, romania, faculty of economics and business administration rdaniela@uaic.ro mircea georgescu „alexandru ioan cuza” university of iaşi, romania. faculty of economics and business administration mirceag@uaic.ro abstract the purpose of this study is to estimate what we know about generation y students’ behavior in social media (sm), especially in our country. the correct identification of their traits is crucial for the academic community, primarily from the perspective of understanding their real needs, as beneficiaries of teaching act, followed by a serious and consistent adaptation of our offer. in an extended literature review, we try to determine the reasons for sm use, their preferences for one medium or another, the way, place and time of sm use, and the romanian particularities in the general personality portrait observed and explained by literature. we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of their intensive sm use, show how the time spent in sm affect the individuals and the universities, and try to find out what their needs and expectancies are. in our opinion, the problems treated here are of interest both for professors as individuals, and for the universities’ and faculties’ management – especially in a world in which the borderline between the physical and virtual life is becoming more and more difficult to draw. keywords: generation y, generation next, millennials, social media, social media use in universities 1. introduction the problem that generated the idea of this paper is the difficult alignment of academic offer with the requirements of current students, digital natives who are resident rather in social media (sm) than in amphitheaters. these students are described as well educated, internet savvy, and eager to learn (vasilescu, 2011, bolton et al., 2013, pînzaru and mitan, 2013), but also as more shallow, skeptical, blunt, critical, cynical, narcissistic, difficult to wow and impatient relative to their predecessors (twenge et al., 2008, carr, 2010, bergh and behrer, 2011). they are multitaskers, filter and consume relevant and interesting information with great speed, have high expectation and are headed to fast achievements (vasilescu, 2011, airinei et al., 2014, horváth et al., 2014, radu, 2013, țugui and șiclovan, 2013). the y, me, thumb, next or „peter pan” generation consist of individuals who do not want to grow up, stay home longer than their parents or grandparents did, „want it all” and “want it now”, particularly in relation to work pay and benefits, career advancement, professional/personal balance, interesting tasks and being able to make a contribution to society via their jobs, but in the same time are more tolerant, loyal and social responsible (agheorghiesei corodeanu, 2015, bergh and behrer, 2011). as (ernek and eyuboğlu, 2012, friedl and tkalac verciĉ, 2011) have noticed, social media (sm) help digital natives to define and redefine themselves, to satisfy their need for autonomy, recognition and achievement, as well as the need for affiliation and belonging. their intrinsic characteristics are augmented by sm, which adds more challenges and dilemmas to their personality portrait definition. the first step towards solving this problem is, in our opinion, a solid review of what we know about generation y students, especially in our country. the correct identification of their traits is crucial for the academic community, primarily from the perspective of understanding their real needs, as beneficiaries of teaching act, followed by a serious and consistent adaptation of our offer. in an extended literature review, we try to answer the following general questions: why do d. popescul, m. georgescu generation y students in social media: what do we know about them? 75 gen y students use sm? what are their preferences for one media or another? how do they use sm tools, for how long and from where? how much do we really know about their behavior? are there any flaws/particularities/irregularities in the general personality portrait observed and explained by literature? what are the advantages and disadvantages of their intensive sm use? how does the time spent in sm affect the individuals and the universities? what do they expect from us? 2. why do gen y students use sm? according to (friedl and tkalac verciĉ, 2011), social relationships with other persons are universal human needs, critical to the psychological well-being of individuals, which are very well addressed by sm. (santos and čuta, 2015) add that the sm, especially social networks (sn)use provides an important backdrop for the social, emotional, and cognitive development of youth, accounting for a large part of their time. beyond these general observation, recent studies (santos and čuta, 2015 – a study that implied 561 university students of different nationalities, whiting and williams, 2013 – an exploratory study which consisted of 25 in-depth interviews with individuals, tkalac verĉiĉ and verĉiĉ, 2013 – a study in which 308 undergraduate students in four marketing classes at a school of economics and business were involved) have identified the following reasons for sm use by the gen y members: ● social interaction with old or new friends, regardless of the intensity of the relationship and physical distance, with a special mention for making new friends; ● seeking out information about school, businesses, sales, deals, or products and also on events, birthdays, and parties; ● keeping up to date with new information; ● passing time when idle or bored, by playing games, listening to music, watching videos, browsing through profiles or reading statuses and comments; ● self-promotion and expression of opinions; ● convenience (the network is easy available, anywhere and anytime); ● surveillance/knowledge about others; ● self-education. focusing only on facebook, 706 individuals questioned by (ujhelyi and szabó, 2014) affirmed that their motivations for use are experience sharing, positive self-presentation and popularity seeking; reducing loneliness and boredom and information spreading. addressing 221 students, (pînzaru and mitan, 2013) discovered that they use facebook because they need to be in contact with long-distance friends and acquaintances, and also for the newsfeed’s presence, which helps them stay informed on various topics of interest. the novelty of the medium triggers their enthusiasm related to technological innovations. they appreciate also the entertaining aspects of the most popular social networking site (sns). after 50 in depth interviews carried with sn users living in iași, romania, (andrei, iacob and iacob, 2010) identified “connecting with close ones, discussing, getting information and relaxing” as the main reasons for facebook use. 3. how do digital students use sm tools? the y students have different needs, different levels of technological knowledge, and use technology in different ways, according to (waters, 2011). (ruleman, 2012) and (friedl and tkalac verciĉ, 2011) showed that even though digital natives prefer digital media in their personal lives, this is not necessarily reflected in their academic lives. by quoting (moran et al., 2011), (pînzaru and mitan, 2013) mention that facebook is mostly embraced by students for personal use as opposed to academic use, so they prefer to maintain a distance between personal stuff and institutions. in ruleman’s study (2012), the student body of university of central missouri (ucm) was tested in order to find out their pattern of web 2.0 technology use while studying/researching. participants reported use of their mobile phone, facebook or other sns, instant messaging, online gaming, or text messaging while they study or prepare for classes. a similar study carried by brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 76 (santos and čuta, 2015) showed that the overwhelming majority of the tested students claim they are using sn while they are working, listening to music, studying or watching tv. asked about the access to sn during classes, more than 80% of the students admit often doing so. also, the intensity of use is higher than in case of general population. sm use is part of college and university students’ daily routine, especially because they have grown up with computers, and they spend at least 1 to 2 hours daily on social networks. in regards to the place of accessing sm, home is the place mostly chosen, followed by mobile devices (tkalac verĉiĉ and verĉiĉ, 2013, santos and čuta, 2015). 4. what are students’ preferences for one media or another? there is a difference in students’ preferences for one media or another (facebook, youtube, myspace, texting, reading wikis, reading blogs, twitter, podcasting, second life etc.). in (ruleman, 2012), the uncontestable student’s favorite was facebook. the results of a study presented in (tkalac verĉiĉ and verĉiĉ, 2013) showed that nearly all students use some form of sns, whereas more than 60% use online photo management and video sharing platforms (e.g., flickr or youtube), a quarter of them read blogs and other forums, and less than 5% of the participating students occasionally use twitter or other microblogging sites. some factors were identified as influencers of users’ preferences. for example, age plays a key role in which content and communications technologies are preferred. students over 23 are more likely to use web calling, blogs, and podcasts, while students under 23 favor text and instant messaging. the use of wikis, second life, and twitter varies little by age. according to (ruleman, 2012), sn usage has not changed much for the youngest students surveyed since 2007, but there have been dramatic increases with the older students, who were attracted in massive numbers in this medium. (bolton et al., 2013) added a set of environmental(economic, cultural, technological and political/legal) and individual factors (socio-economic status, lifecycle stage, goals, emotions, and social norms) that affect sm use. a romanian author (vasilescu, 2011), showed that affordability is another important predictor of penetration of sm use because it captures the ability to pay for devices and services within countries and markets. 5. what are the advantages and disadvantages of students’ intensive sm use? there are beneficial consequences of gen y’s social media use. existing studies (alkhateeb and abdurabu, 2014, cheston et al., 2013) indicate a positive correlation between integration of sm into education and students’ attitudes toward acquiring knowledge and improving their skills. (drulă, 2014) mentions that sm use determines an increase in public engagement and citizenship, and (agheorghiesei corodeanu, 2015) shows that sm are more and more seen as beyond-doubt information sources and propagation channels for efficient, good, and correct news/facts, and also as means to penalize un-ethical behavior. on the other hand, there is evidence of negative long-term consequences for society arising from gen y’s sm use, such as a deterioration of civic engagement, a loss of privacy and public safety, an increase in cybercrime, a bad influence on adolescents’ school activities and sleep, and decreasing the participation in important offline activities (as shown by bolton et al., 2013, after a serious literature review, and alos in păvăloaia and grama, 2014, măzăreanu, 2010, munteanu et al., 2008). (santos and čuta, 2015, ernek and eyuboğlu, 2012) mention the loss of time in sn, the security risks, and addiction, mentioning that the students compulsively check social network profiles and updates. some of the authors fear that these new media may cause irreversible damage to young people’s brains, eventually causing psychological disorders, as mentioned in (de bruijn, 2014). in the beginning of 2010, the american psychiatry association (a.p.a) nominated new forms of addiction to be introduced in the fifth edition of dsm (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders), among which the internet addiction, and especially, the facebook addiction. the doctors’ observations say that the persons (in our case the students) who use the sn become d. popescul, m. georgescu generation y students in social media: what do we know about them? 77 infantile in real life. according to the psychotherapist cristiana haica, “the rules are very different in the two worlds, and the increase in communication abilities and in relationship frequency in one of them makes the relationship in the other one become less significant.” this unilateral view on depression, loneliness and social anxiety, affirmed by (yoo et al., 2004, toma, 2010, carr, 2010, immordino-yang et al., 2012) is counterbalanced by (kittinger et al., 2012), who, in a recent study of college students, found that only a minority reported frequent or occasional problems due their online behavior. also, even if the common assumption is that in sm users neglect the potential security dangers and threats and are excessively confident in the trust and truthfulness of the online available information, (benson et al., 2015 and bolton et al., 2013) founded in their studies that an overwhelming majority of sn users define the privacy settings on who can access their profile information, and pay a lot of attention on their posts and actions, not exposing themselves to hackers, viruses, spam and other attacks. 6. meanwhile, in romania… (iordache et al., 2015) observes that there is still little available data regarding the variations across countries, towns, faculty profile, and gender in sm use. as noticed in (bolton et al., 2013), the literature has reviewed in particular the sm usage patterns of young people of relatively high socio-economic status who live in developed countries. (vasilescu, 2011) shows that there are significant differences between members of generation y in the us and romania, explaining that for the latter, due to political conditions, access to ict was made later, not in their early childhood, and is still, in many cases, too expensive. after a small study, which addressed a number of 30 undergraduate marketing students from the spiru haret university, the author found out that students consider that academic education is still important in the perspective of finding a good job. even if they admit depending on the internet in doing their homework, students believe meeting face to face with a professoris necessary. they want to communicate with their peers while learning, to receive instant gratification, and require classes adapted to their needs and preferences. students recognize that, in general, they cannot be obedient and patient during lessons, and recommend 1 hour and a half as the maximum length for a traditional course or seminar meeting. as a result, the author proposes a diminishing of the share of traditional lectures by replacing them with online classes and recommends the faculty to give students the opportunity to learn actively, in an interactive and fun environment (using role playing, case studies and so on). a study of (marinescu and velicu, 2010) on a number of 1041 romanian children aged from 9 to 16 years concludes that in 2010, 30% of them use the internet at least for 2 hours on days school and for 3 hours in non-school days, especially from pc/laptop, both at school and at home. 35% of respondents said they were using the internet to do their homework, almost 50% were using sns, and the declared reason in doing so was entertainment. the authors observed a rather cautious attitude in use, as the majority of subjects recognized that the internet can be a danger to children of their age. they mentioned risks as meeting strangers, cyberbullying and sexting. also, de bruijn (2014) shows that an increasing number of european schools are nowadays replacing textbooks with tablets, and a similar decision was adopted recently in romania. these studies are interesting for our work becausethe analyzed children are now or will soon be students, and they came/will come in faculties with their habits of internet and sm use, that are worth to be known well in advance. (pînzaru and mitan, 2013) show that, after too many years of computer and software supremacy induced in an artificial way by the former e-learning solutions, sm are giving the human being its place back in the information and knowledge transfer processes. by questioning 221 students of the college of communication and public relations from the national university of political science and administrative studies from bucharest, they discovered that those students are digitally literate and extremely proficient with technology, or at least that is their perception regarding themselves. they also claim to be flexible, adaptable and well prepared to solve problems, result-oriented and not necessarily patient. an interesting finding is that they tend to brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 78 investigate the problems by themselves and rarely share the answers they get with others, they are rather individualist and usually do not trust others. when asked about the degree to which they communicate with their professors using facebook, the students appreciated it as “extremely small”. most of them did not have any professor in their friend lists and, even if they befriended professors, they do not read their posts at all. they do not even wish to be contacted by professors using facebook private messages and they suggest professors to put in place professional pages and disciplines-related groups. also, the facebook utility in group creation and administration is presented by (iordache et al., 2015). concluding a study that involved 62 electronics students from bucharest, the authors mention that facebook is used in order to find out what happens in university, to get access to shared resources, and to participate in group discussions. the time spent daily in the network is between 30 minutes and 3 hours for each student (with the mention that females use the network longer than males). 7. recommendations on the other side of the story, according to (grosseck and holotescu, 2013), only some romanian universities have adopted coherent strategies and policies for sm integration in pedagogical teaching and learning activities. in our opinion, there is a real need for institutional involvement and individual actions at the academic level, regarding the sm in general and sns use in particular. firstly, the prejudices regarding the power ratio between professors and students must be left aside and the need for the universities to become more market-oriented must be admitted. after that, for each university/faculty/specialization, the gen y students’ personality profiles, preferences, needs and expectations must be identified, understood and taken into consideration. their massive sm presence and the really important time spent by students in sns are worth to be exploited, and the universities can use these communication channels to become closer to their beneficiaries. the teaching/learning methods should be adapted to a pragmatic generation,who has high expectations and wants immediate results. the students’ involvement must be encouraged, existing teaching methods must be changed and the students’ real-life knowledge must be exploited. feedback should be sought and given in a constant, coherent and consistent manner. the permanent availability of sm and its capacity to remember can be used to keep in touch with graduates, whose help can be required for providing support to their younger colleagues, in the form of information, advice, internships or job offers. the informal nature of sm can be the source for an increased communication between professors and students, with positive results on both categories’ satisfaction level and on university’ reputation. references agheorghiesei corodeanu, d.t., 2015, consumer's protection from the generation y's perspective. a research based on scenarios, procedia economics and finance, volume 20, 2015, pages 8–18, globalization and higher education in economics and business administration geba 2013, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s2212567115000416 airinei, d., grama, a., fotache, d., georgescu, m., munteanu, a., dospinescu, o., popescul, d., păvăloaia, v. d. (2014), tehnologiiinformaţionaleaplicateînorganizaţii, editurauniversităţii „alexandru ioan cuza” din iaşi, iaşi al-khateeb, a. a., abdurabu, h. y. (2014), using social media to facilitate medical students’ interest in research, medical education online, october 2014 andrei, a. g., iacob d., iacob, a. (2010), motivations for using social networking sites: the case of romania, in “revistaeconomică”, nr. 5 (52) vol.1/2010, available at https://mpra.ub.unimuenchen.de/61150/1/mpra_paper_61150.pdf benson, v., saridakis, g., tennakoon, h. (2015), information disclosure of social media users. does control over personal information, user awareness and security notices matter?, information technology & people, vol. 28, issue 3, pp. 426 – 441 d. popescul, m. georgescu generation y students in social media: what do we know about them? 79 bolton, r., parasuraman, a., hoefnagels, a., migchels, a., kabadayi, s., gruber, t., loureiro, y. k., solnet, d., 2013, understanding generation y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda, journal of service management, vol. 24 issue 3 pp. 245 – 267 booth, c. (2009), informing innovation: tracking student interest in emerging library technologies at ohio university, association of college and research libraries, available at: www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/booksanddigitalresources/digital /ii-booth.pdf carr, n. (2010), the shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains, norton & company inc, new york, 2010. curras-perez, r., ruiz-mafe, c., sanz-blas , s. (2014), determinants of user behaviour and recommendation in social networks, industrial management & data systems, vol. 114, issue 9, pp. 1477 -1498 dahlstrom, e., de boor, t., grunwald, p. and vockley, m. (2011), the ecar national study of undergraduate students and information technology(research report), educause center for applied research, available at: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ers1103/ers1103w.pdfhttp://net.educause.edu/ir/ library/pdf/ers1103/ers1103w.pdf de bruijn, s. m. (2014), challenge for 21st century educators: build a 1st century attitude, in horváth, g., bakó, r. k., biró-kaszás, e., ten years of facebook. proceedings of the third international conference on argumentation and rhetoric, held in oradea/nagyvárad, romania, 4-6 september 2014, partium press – oradea (nagyvárad), romania, debrecen university press – debrecen, hungary drulă, g. (2014), facebook and the ecology of news, in horváth, g., bakó, r. k., biró-kaszás, e., ten years of facebook. proceedings of the third international conference on argumentation and rhetoric, held in oradea/nagyvárad, romania, 4-6 september 2014, partium press – oradea (nagyvárad), romania, debrecen university press – debrecen, hungary ernek, a., eyuboğlu, e. (2012), generation y consumers in turkey: are they really social media nerds or pretend to be?, 11th international marketing trends congress, 19-21th january 2012, venice-italy friedl, j., tkalac verĉiĉ, ˇ a. (2011), media preferences of digital natives’ internal communication: a pilot study, public relations review, 37(1), 84–86 grosseck, g., holotescu, c. (2013), an empirical analysis of the educational effects of social media in universities and colleges, internet learning, volume 2, number 1, pp. 21-32, available at http://www.ipsonet.org/publications/open-access/internet-learning/volume-2number-1-spring-2013 horváth, g., bakó, r. k., biró-kaszás, e. (2014), ten years of facebook. proceedings of the third international conference on argumentation and rhetoric, held in oradea/nagyvárad, romania, 4-6 september 2014, partium press – oradea (nagyvárad), romania, debrecen university press – debrecen, hungary immordino-yang, m. h., christodoulou, j. a., & singh, v. (2012), rest is not idleness: implications of the brain's default mode for human development and education, perspectives on psychological science, vol. 7 no. 4, pp. 352-364 iordache, d. d., pribeanu, c., lamanauskas, v., raguliene, l. (2015), usage of facebook by university students in romania and lithuania: a comparative study, informaticaeconomică vol. 19, no. 1/2015, at http://revistaie.ase.ro/content/73/04%20%20iordache,%20pribeanu.pdf kietzmann, j. h., hermkens, k., mccarthy, i. p., & silvestre, b. s. (2011), social media? get serious! understanding the functional building blocks of social media. business horizons, 54(3), pp. 241–251 kittinger, r., correia, c. j., & irons, j. g. (2012), relationship between facebook use and problematic internet use among college students, cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, vol. 15 no. 6, pp. 324-327 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 80 lippincott, j.k. (2008), mobile technologies, mobile users: implications for academic libraries, arl, vol. 261, pp. 1-4 marinescu, v., velicu, a. (2010), uses of the internet by children and youth. results of the eu kids online ii, available at https://www.academia.edu/1454214/uses_of_the_internet_by_children_and_youth_results_ of_the_eu_kids_online_ii măzăreanu, v. p. (2010), economiașimanagementulriscurilor, edituratehnopress, iași moran, m., seaman, j., and tinti-kane, h. (2011), teaching, learning, and sharing: how today's higher education college use social media, pearson learning solutions and babson survey research group, available at http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/educators/pearsonsocial-mediasurvey-2011-bw.pdf munteanu, b.a., fotache, d., dospinescu, o. (2008), information systems security risk assessment. harmonization with international accounting standards, international conferences on computational intelligence for modelling, control and automation (cimca 2008), intelligent agents, web technologies and internet commerce (iawtic 2008), innovation in software engineering (ise 2008), 10-12 december 2008, vienna, austria; 01/2008 2 nielsen (2009), how teens use media, nielsen report, www.nielsen.com nordstom, p.a. (2009), facac student survey report, survey research center and teaching and learning with technology, pennsylvania state university, university park, pa, available at: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/about/reports/2009/facac-student-report-09-final.pdf/view păvăloaia, d., grama, a. (2014),outsourcing it – the alternative for a successful romanian sme, procedia economics and finance volume 15, pages 1404–1412 pînzaru, f., mitan, a. (2013), generation y students: using facebook for communicating with university staff and professors, management dynamics in the knowledge economy, volume 1 (2013) no. 2, pp. 221-239, at www.managementdynamics.ro radu, d. l. (2013), the influence of social media on green it, proceedings of the international conference smart 2013 social media in academia: research and teaching, june 6-9, bacau, romania (edited by bogdan patrut), medimond monduzzieditore international proceedings division, bologna, italy, pp. 213-219 ressler, j., &abratt, r. (2009), assessing the impact of university reputation on stakeholder intentions. journal of general management, 35(1), pp. 35–45 ruleman, a. b. (2012), social media at the university: a demographic comparison, new library world, vol. 113, issue 7/8, pp. 316 – 332 santos, d., čuta, m. (2015), the usage of social networks by university students (a survey of facebook use patterns among young people), journal for general anthropology and related disciplines, 6/2015/1 tkalac verĉiĉ, a. t., verĉiĉ, d. (2013), digital natives and social media, public relations review 39, pp. 600–602 toma, l. (2010), pericolul din spatele facebook, 3.08.2010, at http://www.romanialibera.ro/exclusiv-rl/documentar/pericolul-din-spatele-facebook195456.htmlhttp://www.romanialibera.ro/exclusiv-rl/documentar/pericolul-din-spatelefacebook-195456.html ţugui, a., şiclovan, a. (2013), social media interaction via cloud computing, proceedings of the international conference smart 2013 social media in academia: research and teaching, june 6-9, bacau, romania (edited by bogdan patrut), medimond monduzzieditore international proceedings division, bologna, italy, pp. 239-245 twenge, j. m., konrath, s., foster, j. d., campbell, w. k., & bushman, b. j. (2008), egos inflating over time: a cross-temporal meta-analysis of the narcissistic personality inventory, journal of personality, vol. 76, pp. 875-901 d. popescul, m. georgescu generation y students in social media: what do we know about them? 81 ujhelyi, a., szabó, e. (2014), sharing on facebook. from “loners” to “popularity seekers”, in horváth, g., bakó, r. k., biró-kaszás, e., ten years of facebook. proceedings of the third international conference on argumentation and rhetoric, held in oradea/nagyvárad, romania, 4-6 september 2014, partium press – oradea (nagyvárad), romania, debrecen university press – debrecen, hungary van der bergh, j. and behrer, m. (2011), how cool brands stay hot, branding to generation y, london: kogan page limited vasilescu, r. (2011), the romanian generation y: preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s job market, annals of spiru haret university, volume 2, issue 1, pp. 47-53, available at:http://anale-economie.spiruharet.ro/en/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/5_ruxandravasilescu.pdf waters, j.k. (2011), will the real digital natives please stand up?, campus technology, october 1, available at: http://campustechnology.com/articles/2011/10/01/will-the-real-digital-nativeplease-stand-up.aspx whiting, a., williams, d. (2013), why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach, qualitative market research: an international journal, vol. 16 issue 4, pp. 362 – 369 yoo h., cho s., ha j., yune s., kim s., hwang j., chung a., sung y., lyoo i. (2004), attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms and internet addiction, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, vol. 58, pp. 487–494, at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.14401819.2004.01290.x/epdf 2 microsoft word brain_4 71 isomorphism between estes’ stimulus fluctuation model and a physicalchemical system makoto yamaguchi tokyo, japan e-mail: nihonsinrigakkai@gmail.com abstract although estes’ stimulus sampling theory has almost completely lost its influence, its theoretical framework has not been disproved. particularly, one theory in that framework, stimulus fluctuation model, is still important because it explains spontaneous recovery. in this short note, the process of the theory is shown to be isomorphic to the diffusion of solution between compartments. envisioning the theory as diffusion will make it appear less artificial and suggest natural extensions. currently estes’ theoretical framework, stimulus sampling theory, will seem to have completely lost its influence. recent textbooks on animal learning rarely mention it. if it is ever mentioned, it will be lumped together as “before rescorla-wagner” (rescorla & wagner, 1972) along with other old theories, and only the name will be mentioned without any mathematical details. however, this picture misses the subtle nuance of the current research. although estes’ specific theory was completely replaced by the rescorla-wagner model and other newer theories, the general framework of stimulus sampling has not been disproved, and indeed some newer theories still use this framework. (see raaijmakers & shiffrin, 2002, for a similar view). the stimulus sampling theory is a set of theories, not a single theory. one of them that has not lost relevance today is the stimulus fluctuation model (estes, 1955). this theory is still important because it explains spontaneous recovery while many current theories (e.g., the rescorlawagner model) fail to do so. to briefly summarize, spontaneous recovery is explained as follows. stimulus elements are either conditioned or unconditioned. they are in either of two sets; the available set s, and the rest, the unavailable set s’. only elements in the available set elicit response and undergo learning. elements are exchanged with time between the two sets (stimulus fluctuation) with probability j and j’. after extensive conditioning, conditioned elements prevail both in s and s’. and then after extinction, responding gets weak as most elements in s became unconditioned ones as a result of learning. however, as time passes, elements in s and s’ are gradually exchanged, resulting in restoration of conditioned elements into s. therefore responding is somewhat restored (spontaneous recovery). although a relatively ancient theory, this explanation has not been disproved and continues to be cited in the present day articles. formally, estes derived p(t)=p(0)[j− (j−1)a t ]+p’(0)(1−a t )(1−j) where j=j’/(j+j’) and a=1−j−j’. p(t) and p’(t) represent proportion of conditioned elements in s and s’ respectively at time t. also see mensink and raaijmakers (1989) for a corresponding formulation in the continuous-time case. in this brief note, this process is pointed out to be isomorphic to the physical-chemical process of diffusion. there are many forms of diffusion. among them, the following type exactly brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 72 corresponds to the stimulus fluctuation model. consider two compartments with volume v1 and v2 separated by a semipermeable membrane (figure 1). each compartment initially contains solution of concentration c1(0) and c2(0). and each compartment is well stirred, so that there are no concentration gradients within the compartment. with time, diffusion occurs across the membrane, and concentrations approach each other. this process is described by the same differential equations as in mensink and raaijmakers (1989). the solution is of course identical, although it can take quite different appearances depending on whether one expresses it in terms of the amount of substance or concentration. in terms of concentration, the following is the solution: 21 )( 2121122 1 21 21 ))0()0(()0()0( vv eccvvcvc c vv tvvd + −++ = +− 21 )( 2111122 2 21 21 ))0()0(()0()0( vv eccvvcvc c vv tvvd + −−+ = +− where d represents the rate of diffusion. the amount of substance corresponds to the number of conditioned elements, the concentration corresponds to the proportion of conditioned elements (which determines responding), and the volume corresponds to j and j’. of course, it will be meaningless to note the equivalence of a psychological model to a physical system if there are no merits to do so. here there seem to be several clear merits. first, one can envision natural images. without such an image, one is left wondering why one should consider an artificial setting in which there are balls that move between two boxes for an unknown reason with certain probabilities. also one can seek natural extensions or variations of the theory. as the stimulus fluctuation process has been shown to be essentially diffusion, one can also consider other forms of diffusion; e.g., . in fact, this equation will be found first if one consults physical or chemical textbooks for diffusion. also one may be able to find already-existing diffusion simulators to see vivid images of the process. figure 1. two compartments containing solution separated by a membrane. references [1] estes, w. k. (1955). statistical theory of spontaneous recovery and regression. psychological review, 62, 145-154. [2] mensink, g. j. m. & raaijmakers, j.g.w. (1989). a model for contextual fluctuation. journal of mathematical psychology, 33, 172-186. m. yamaguchi isomorphism between estes’ stimulus fluctuation model and a physical-chemical system 73 [3] raaijmakers, j. g. w. & shiffrin, r. m. (2002). models of memory. in h. pashler & d. medin (eds.), stevens' handbook of experimental psychology, third edition, volume 2: memory and cognitive processes. new york: john wiley & sons, inc. pp. 43-76. [4] rescorla, r. a. & wagner, a. r. (1972). a theory of pavlovian conditioning: variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and nonreinforcement. in a. h. black & w. f. prokasy (eds)., classical conditioning ii. new york: appleton-century-crofts. pp. 64-99. microsoft word brain_6_2015__doc final.doc 97 study of a random navigation on the web using software simulation mirella amelia mioc department of computer science, faculty of automatics and computers “politehnica” university of timisoara, bd. v. parvan nr. 2, timisoara, 300223, romania mmioc@cs.upt.ro stefan-gheorghe pentiuc faculty of electrical engineering and computer science, research center in computer science, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania pentiuc@eed.usv.ro abstract the general information about the world wide web are especially nowadays useful in all types of communications. the most used model for simulating the functioning of the web is through the hypergraph. from the known algorithms used for web navigation in this simulation the surfer model was chose. the main objective of this paper is to analyze the page rank and its dependency of markov chain length. in this paper some software implementation are presented and used. the experimental results demonstrate the differences between the algorithm page rank and experimental page rank. keywords: hyperlink, web graph, markov channel, page rank, pseudo-random sequence, surfer navigation. 1. introduction the world wide web contains millions of web sites. from the beginning it has a continuing growth in complexity and size. in the same time, the world wide web is a massive global hypertext system. generally speaking, a graph is a mathematical structure consisting of several vertices or nodes, which are connected through lines called edges. a website has a link structure, which could be represented by a direct graph. thus, the web pages available at the web site are vertices and if and only if page a contains a link to page b, there is a directed edge between them ( a and b). the web graph describes the directed links between pages of the www. properties of such kind of graphs have been extensively analyzed (broder et al., 2000) and used in multiple applications. these pages are written in many languages and are made available by many different authors. today everyone is using more and more private computers, as well as networks formed by them, resulting in the biggest network ever: a global network known as the internet. day after day, an increasing amount of information is being transferred through different media (wired and wireless) over the internet. the type of information includes plain text, html, audio, video, multimedia, images and various other applications or file types. the rest of the paper is organized as follows: the next section renders a brief description; section 3 presents the software implementation for the analysis; section 4 contains some experimental results; section 5 is the conclusion. 2. description of the analysis this analyze has as kernel a hyperlink matrix associated with a web graph having m nodes, where m is between 15 and 25. the elements of this matrix are read from an input file “hyperlink.in”, which can be randomly generated using the mersenne generator. for obtaining the google matrix, g, the used parameter α = 0.85. in this experimental analyze the intuitive significance of the page rank of one site has been demonstrated. the experimental page rank of one web page is the asymptotic frequency with which one surfer visits that page or the number of visits that one surfer pays to the site from a number of steps brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 98 taken during his entire navigation. for a good simulation it is very important to find methods for navigating through the web (levene and wheeldon, 2004). john kemeny and laurie snell have proposed the use of markov models for web simulations (kemeny and snell, 1960). cadez et al. (2000) used markov models for classifying the sessions into different categories for browsers. some other proposed techniques choose to combine different order markov models for obtaining low state complexity and improving accuracy, as deshpande and karypis (2004). dongshan and junyi (2002) used for predicting the access providing good scalability and high coverage a hybrid-order tree-like markov model. as an alternative to the markov model pitkow proposed a longest subsequence model (pitkow and pirolli, 1999), also for predicting the next page accessed by the user sarukkai chose markov models (sarukkai, 2000). transitions are simulated using the markov chain nodes, google matrix and an arbitrary initial probability distribution. examples can be seen in figure 1 and figure 2. figure 1. markov chain model figure 2. transition matrix algorithmic page rank is calculated using the power method, having e=10 -5 . in the software implementation the simulated path has a markov length of 200. 3. software implementation for analyzing the functioning of different possible web graphs it was used a software implementation. in the following it will be presented the implementation for the most important parts of this simulation. for this it has been used the hyperlink matrix h. in the outlink function the sum is calculated in order to be used in obtaining the page ranks. void fct_outlinks() { int i,j,sum; for (i=0;i<m;i++) m. a. mioc, s. g. pentiuc study of a random navigation on the web using software simulation 99 { sum=0; for (j=0;j<m;j++) { sum=sum+h[i][j]; } pag[i].outlinks=sum; } } figure 3. outlinks function function lantmarkov() is used in three different ways. this function calls simdiscr() which simulated a discreet distribution of probabilities. int *lantmarkov (int m,double *p0,double **l) { for (i=0;i<m;i++) x[i]=i; s[0]=simdiscr(m,x,p0); i=s[0]; for(k=0;k<z;k++) { p=l[i]; pag[i].nrviz++; s[k]=simdiscr(m,x,p); i=s[k]; } for (i=0;i<m;i++) pag[i].pgrke=(double)pag[i].nrviz /z; return s; } figure 4. markov chain implementation pagerank() function is based on using the power method, whith e= 10 -5 and an uniform initial setting for probability distribution. algorithmic page rank calculus also involves the use of google matrix, g (see figure 5). algorithmic page rank has been calculated for a number of m = 16 sites. the page rank coefficient is a numerical value beginning with 0 and having it’s maximum value of 10. it is well known that google only take into account sites with a page rank greater than 4. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 100 figure 5. page rank implementation 4. experimental results some of the most important aspects of the analysis is obtaining the parameters which can give the main information about a web. in the simulation implementation information as: page, number of inlinks, number of outlinks, value for algorithmic page rank and experimental page rank will be processed for obtaining the results of the analysis. for the first part it was necessary to use experimental values as: inlinks, outlinks and in and out frequencies. table 1. experimental values for simulation 1 due to the large size of hyper graph the continuously changing documents and links determine an impossibility to catalogue all vertices and edges (albert, jeong and barabási, 1999). double *pagerank(double **g,int m,int *pas) { for (i=0;i<m;i++) { pi[i]=(1.0)/m; } *pas=0; double eps=1.e-5; do { for (i=0;i<m;i++) piprim[i]=pi[i]; for (i=0;i<m;i++) pi[i]=0; for (i=0;i<m;i++) for (j=0;j<m;j++) pi[i]+=g[j][i]*piprim[j]; *pas=*pas+1; } while (norma(m,diferenta(m,pi,piprim))>=eps); return pi; } m. a. mioc, s. g. pentiuc study of a random navigation on the web using software simulation 101 the challenge in obtaining a general map of the web is illustrated by distributions like in figure 6 for outlinks and in figure 7 for inlinks. figure 6. outlinks degree distribution for all web sites figure 7. inlinks degree distribution for all web sites in the following tables there are the values obtained for each of the 16 sites for the first simulation. table 2 contains the algorithmic page ranks, while table 3 contains the experimental page ranks for several markov chain lengths (n). table 2. experimental values for simulation 2 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 102 table 3. experimental page rank values for simulation 2 the next diagram proves that the values for experimental page rank depend on the length of the markov chain, while algorithmic page rank remains constant. figure 7. experimental page rank dependency on markov chain length m. a. mioc, s. g. pentiuc study of a random navigation on the web using software simulation 103 another diagram shows that for each site there is only one constant value independent of the length of markov chain. algorithmic page rank only depends on the number of inlinks and outlinks. fig. 8. algorithmic page rank table 4 contains the values for experimental page rank with balanced distribution. in the following figure it is shown the diagram for the values obtained for experimental page rank. the experimental page rank values oscillate between the same limits independently of the change of markov chain length (n). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 104 tabel 4. experimental page rank for simulation with balanced distribution figure 9. experimental page rank dependency on markov chain length with balanced distribution 5. conclusions this paper explored different implementation choices for analyzing the most important parameters about a web. many researchers explored the use of new search engines for studying the evolution of the web (ntoulas, cho and olston, 2004). another important research is realized about the link structure graph (lsg). the lsg captures a complete hyperlink structure from the web and models link associations reflected in the page layout (rodrigues, milic-frayling and fortuna, 2007). for further works ideas like extrapolation methods for accelerating page rank calculation can be developed (kamvar et al., 2003). references albert, r., jeong, h., & barabási, a. l. (1999). internet: diameter of the world-wide web. nature, 401(6749), 130-131. broder, a., kumar, r., maghoul, f., raghavan, p., rajagopalan, s., stata, r., tomkins, a., & wiener, j. (2000). graph structure in the web. computer networks, 33(1), 309-320. cadez, i., heckerman, d., meek, c., smyth, p., & white, s. (2000). visualization of navigation patterns on a web site using model based clustering. in proceedings of the sixth international kdd conference, pages 280–284, 2000. deshpande, m., & karypis, g. (2004). selective markov models for predicting web page accesses. acm transactions on internet technology (toit), 4(2), 163-184. dongshan, x., & junyi, s. (2002). a new markov model for web access prediction. computing in science & engineering, 4(6):34–39. kamvar, s. d., haveliwala, t. h., manning, c. d., & golub, g. h. (2003). extrapolation methods for accelerating pagerank computations. in proceedings of the world wide web conference, budapest, 2003. kemeny, j. g., & snell, j. l. (1960). finite markov chains. d. van nostrand, princeton, new jersey. m. a. mioc, s. g. pentiuc study of a random navigation on the web using software simulation 105 levene, m., & wheeldon, r. (2004). navigating the world wide web. in web dynamics (pp. 117-151). springer berlin heidelberg. ntoulas, a., cho, j., & olston, c. (2004). what’s new on the web? the evolution of the web from a search engine perspective. in proceedings of the 13th international conference on world wide web (pp. 1-12). acm. pitkow, j., & pirolli, p. (1999). mining longest repeating subsequences to predict world wide web surfing. in proceedings of the second usenix symposium on internet technologies and systems, colorado, usa, october 1999. rodrigues, e. m., milic-frayling, n., & fortuna, b. (2007). detection of web subsites: concepts, algorithms, and evaluation issues. in ieee/wic/acm international conference on web intelligence (pp. 66-73). ieee. sarukkai, r. r. (2000). link prediction and path analysis using markov chains. in computer networks, 33(1), 377-386. . microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 177 the complex functioning of the human brain: the two hemispheres iulia cristina timofti, department of movement science, sport and health, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania iuliadumitriu@hotmail.com abstract the present study reveals just a glimpse of the possible functions and reactions that the human brain can have. i considered as good examples different situations characteristic both of a normal person and a split-brain one. these situations prove that the brain, although divided in two, works as a unit, as an amazing computer that has data processing as a main goal. keywords: left hemisphere, right hemisphere, sensory inputs, unconscious mind behavior, from blinking to playing handball or to writing a thesis, depends on the integration of numerous processes within the body. this integration is provided by the nervous system, with the help of the endocrine system. consider, for example, all the processes that must be effectively coordinated for a person to stop the car at a red light. first, the person has to see the light, and so neural impulses from the eyes are relayed to the brain, where the stimulus is analyzed and compared with information about past events stored in the memory: the individual recognizes that a red light in a certain context means stopping. then, the process of moving the foot to the brake pedal and pressing it is initiated by the motor areas of the brain that control the muscles of the leg and foot. in order to send the proper signals to these muscles, the brain must know where the foot is and also where exactly the person wants to go. the brain maintains a register of the position of body parts relative to one another, which it uses to plan directed movements. another amazing thing is that a specialized part of the brain receives continual feedback from the leg and foot muscles so that the driver is aware of how much pressure is being exerted. at the same time, the eyes and some parts of the body transmit how quickly the car is stopping. if the light turned red as the driver was speeding towards the intersection, some of the endocrine glands would also be activated, leading to increased heart rate, a more rapid respiratory rate; all these processes speed the reactions in an emergency. therefore, stopping at the red light might seem quick and automatic, but it involves many complex messages and adjustments. one of the most remarkable aspects of the adult nervous system is the human brain. the human brain controls memory, vision, learning, thought, consciousness and other activities. by means of electrochemical impulses the brain directly controls conscious or voluntary behavior. it also monitors, through feedback circuitry, the most involuntary behavior and influences the automatic activities of the internal organs. the brain's billions of neurons connect with one another in complex networks. all physical and mental functioning depends on the establishment and maintenance of neuron networks. a person's habits and skills become embedded within the brain in frequently activated neuron networks. we can easily admit that the work of the brain is similar to a combination of a computer and a chemical factory. a typical neuron possesses a cell body, dendrites and an axon. we know the role of neurons in the transmission of nerve impulses, and we know how some neural circuits work; but we are just beginning to unravel their more complex functioning in memory, emotion, and thought [3],[5]. although at a first impression, the two halves of a human brain look exactly the same, a closer examination reveals asymmetries in appearances and functions. for a normal human being, the brain functions as an integrated whole: information in one hemisphere is immediately i. c. timofti – the complex functioning of the human brain: the two hemispheres 178 transferred to the other by way of a broad network of connecting nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. this connecting bridge can cause a problem in some forms of epilepsy, because a seizure starting in one hemisphere may cross over and trigger a massive discharge of neurons in the other. in order to prevent such seizures in some severe epileptics, neurosurgeons have surgically severed the corpus callosum. figure 1 shows the evident differences between the two hemispheres as the sensory inputs appear. with the eyes fixed straight ahead, stimuli to the left of the fixation point go to the right cerebral hemisphere, and stimuli to the right go to the left hemisphere. the left hemisphere controls the movements of the right side of the body, and vice versa. the left hemisphere controls written and spoken language and mathematical calculations. the right hemisphere can understand only simple language and its main ability seems to involve spatial construction and pattern sense [1]. in the normal brain, stimuli entering one hemisphere are rapidly communicated to the other, by way of the corpus callosum, and so the brain functions as a unit. roger sperry was interested in split brain persons and he developed several researches in neuroscience. in one of sperry’s test situations, a person who has undergone a split-brain operation is seated in front of a screen that hides his hands from view [4]. first, the word „nut” is flashed briefly on the left part of the screen. with his left hand, the person can easily pick up the nut from a set of objects hidden from his view. at the same time, he can’t tell the experimenter what word flashed on the screen since the speech is controlled by the left hemisphere and the visual image of the concept was not transmitted to that hemisphere. when he was questioned, he seemed unaware of what his left is doing. one possible „solution” is that the word should be flashed on the screen for more than one-tenth of a second. this way, the subject can move his eyes so that the word is also projected to the left hemisphere. if the split-brain person can move his eyes freely, information goes to both cerebral hemispheres, and this is one reason for which deficiencies caused by severing the corpus callosum are not readily apparent in a person’s daily activities. this experiment can only prove that the two hemispheres work dependently of each other. they differ in their specializations, but they integrate their activities at all times. together, the two halves represent an amazing human computer, which processes continuously data, stimuli, representations and emotions. at the same time, a fact is that logical analysis represents only a part of the brain’s activity as data processing [3]. after the inputs have been processed at a conscious level, they are transferred to the unconscious mind, which has different mechanisms of data processing. the unconscious re-evaluates the passed experiences of a person, memorizes them, analyzes them and offers solutions to the conscious level. today’s people, being so rationalists, block their unconscious availabilities and this usually leads toward physical or psychological suffering. it is as if they have learned how to constantly have personal boundaries, because this represents normality. psychotherapy unblocks these boundaries and allows the patient to learn how to be more flexible and creative, working with one’s own unconscious resources. this takes time, naturally, but the results are really revolutionary. i have noticed [2], among students, the same self-limitation and unhappiness and this fact tends to become a real threat to their personal development and to the academic environment as well. negative emotions come to the surface, both for students and academics, and this can only affect the goals of the educational process. professors complain about the youngsters as being way too lazy and passive, students blame teachers for their lack of interest in school. it would be much easier for both parts to take into consideration the idea of working with the unconscious potential. people are betrayed by their emotions, as hard as they might fight to repress them. since we are humans, it is not shameful to reveal emotions, but at the same time emotions can affect our performances – at work or in relationships. therefore, future researches will focus more on the implications that the human brain’s function has upon emotions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 179 figure 1 sensory inputs to the two hemispheres (after [1], p. 51) references [1] atkinson, r. et al. (1990). introduction to psychology. orlando, usa: harcourt brace jovanovich publishers. [2] dumitriu, i. c. (2009). hipnoterapia în tulburările de anxietatem. in jurnal de psihoterapie, 2(1). asociaţia română de hipnoză clinică, relaxare şi terapie ericksoniană, bacău, romania, 17-24. [3] olteanu, a., lupu, v. (2000). neurofiziologia sistemelor senzitivo-senzoriale. cluj-napoca, romania: presa universitară clujeană. [4] sperry, r.w. (1974). lateral specialization in the surgically separated hemispheres. in f. schmitt and f. worden (eds.), third neurosciences study program (pp. 5-19), cambridge, ma: mit press. [5] zlate, m. (1999), psihologia mecanismelor cognitive, editura polirom, iaşi microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final2.docx 5 annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation sarunya kanjanawattana graduate school, shibaura institute of technology, tokyo, japan nb14503@shibaura-it.ac.jp masaomi kimura information science and engineering, shibaura institute of technology, tokyo, japan masaomi@sic.shibaura-it.ac.jp abstract image classification plays a vital role in many areas of study, such as data mining and image processing; however, serious problems collectively referred to as the course of dimensionality have been encountered in previous studies as factors that reduce system performance. furthermore, we also confront the problem of different graph characteristics even if graphs belong to same types. in this study, we propose a novel method of graph-type classification. using our approach, we open up a new solution of high-dimensional images and address problems of different characteristics by converting graph images to one dimension with a discrete fourier transformation and creating numeric datasets using wavelet and hough transformations. moreover, we introduce a new classifier, which is a combination between artificial neuron networks (anns) and support vector machines (svms), which we call annsvm, to enhance accuracy. the objectives of our study are to propose an effective graph-type classification method that includes finding a new data representative used for classification instead of two-dimensional images and to investigate what features make our data separable. to evaluate the method of our study, we conducted five experiments with different methods and datasets. the input dataset we focused on was a numeric dataset containing wavelet coefficients and outputs of a hough transformation. from our experimental results, we observed that the highest accuracy was provided using our method with coiflet 1, which achieved a 0.91 accuracy. keywords: graph-type classification, wavelet transformation, dimensionality reduction, artificial neural networks, support vector machines, discrete fourier transformation, 1. introduction in past decades, there has been a growing interest in image classification. in much of literature, researchers have encountered problems with image classification and have attempted to find solutions by utilizing a variety of classification techniques, such as support vector machines (svms) (barla, odone & verri, 2003) (chapelle, haffner & vapnik, 1999) and artificial neural networks (anns) (frate, pacifici, schiavon & solimini, 2007) (veluchamy, perumal & ponuchamy, 2012), as well as including image analysis techniques, such as wavelet transformation. typically, a large input dataset size is a serious problem in the study of image classification because images generally contain many features and attributes, in particular, two-dimensional images. in fact, the performance of a classification system is inverse to the size of the input dataset. many existing studies have developed image classification methods based on large-scale datasets, attempting to somehow mitigate the problem of high-dimensional data, as two-dimensional images (sanchez & perronnin, 2011). if we use the two-dimensional images in an inappropriate way, this may significantly decrease the classification performance. therefore, we need to propose a plausible solution to effectively solve this problem. an initial input used in our study involves a collection of graph images collected from the academic literature. a graph is a graphical representation of a set of objects, and there are a variety of graph types, such as line graphs, plots and pie charts. such graphs map dependent or independent quantitative variables and represent the essential content that summarizes the given data. an initial brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 6 form of our data collection is also two-dimensional image; however, we do not use it directly to our method but convert it to more suitable and usable form, which should enhance the quality of our classification. low-level features (e.g., color, texture, etc.) are extensively used to classify and analyze generic images (arivazhagan, ganesan & padam priyal, 2006) (park, lee & kim, 2004). notwithstanding, these are not essential properties for categorizing graph types, yet other objects, such as lines, plots, and primitive shapes. furthermore, a crucial problem we focus on in this study is differences in graph characteristics. naturally, the same type of graph may include several different objects and characteristics. for example, there are many points in a scatter plot (e.g., see figure 1a), but the positions of these points are certainly different from one scatter plot to another (e.g., compare to figure 1b) depending on the real data. moreover, there is also a line in the scatter plot shown in figure 1b. unfortunately, these uncertain characteristics of graphs cause difficulties for traditional classification systems (kanjanawattana & kimura, 2015) (anthimopoulos, marios m and gianola, lauro and scarnato, luca and diem, peter and mougiakakou & stavroula, 2014). assuming that, we use convolution neural network (cnns) to classify the example images showing in figure 1. based on a basic process on cnn, it convolves the images using multiple filters and feature maps. a typical random kernel is similar to an edge detector; hence, the edge is an important feature for cnn. moreover, a result of convolution process provides an output matrix containing edge characteristics. however, it is the inessential property for graph-type classification, yet dominant objects, such as lines and circles. we realize that cnn may be unsuitable for graph images. regarding our method, we also convolve the graph images from two-dimension to onedimension, still include significant characteristics, such as a profile of pixel appearance and the focused objects in the graphs. we emphasize to classify the images based on their essential characteristics rather than image features. this system classifies graph types based on the presence of dominant objects in images. for example, it checks a presence of plots in data space to classify plot graph but does not focus on their plots' positions or direction of correlation because we do not currently consider data interpretation, but only classify the types. concisely, we address the problem of classification with images containing particular characteristics, even if they are grouped in the same category. further, we realize a difficulty of the course of dimensionality that always occurs when working with image data. thus, to minimize the problems, we must establish a productive classification method to create a new data representative that replaces the two-dimensional image that can handle problems of dimensionality and different characteristics. the main focus of our study is therefore devoted to a graph classification system that classifies graphs into their types based on dominant different characteristics that the graph contains. our method involves the image convolution that transforms a two-dimensional image into a one-dimensional image while retaining necessary information, including constructed numeric datasets that represent results of wavelet and hough transformations. we also propose a new classifier called annsvm which is a combination of anns and svms. this system aims to provide benefits to researchers who give interests to other's studies and need to prove validation of their studies by comparing their results with other related studies, demonstrating that they acquire a bar graph illustrating the accuracy of each software from their experiments; thus, to investigate other software and their accuracies in other studies, they need to specify a graph type as a bar graph which is the same as theirs for effective comparison. a finding in our previous study (kanjanawattana & kimura, 2015) already proved that significant knowledge can be discovered in graph images, such as a relationship between axis titles. in fact, different types of the graphs also offer particular knowledge based on their dominant graphical characteristics. therefore, a process to distinguish graph type can enhance a capability of image information extraction system (kanjanawattana & s. kanjanawattana, m. kimura annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation 7 kimura, 2016) and acquire wide and specific information. for example, as the simulated case showing above, its results should be displayed in a bar graph because the bar graph can implicitly express categorized data (e.g., their accuracies corresponding to each software) much better than a line graph. on the other hand, a line graph should be a better choice when dealing with continuous data, such as vehicle speed. the graph-type classification possibly applies to a range of applications, such as search engine and image interpretation systems. the major objectives of our study are (1) to propose a novel method for classifying graph types with greater accuracy, (2) to extract dominant characteristics of graphs to be a new data representative suitable for identifying graph types, and (3) to indicate what features make our data separable, which improves the quality of a classification system. to evaluate our proposed method, we conducted several experiments to compare our approach with classical methods, for example, anns, cnns, and svms. both anns and svms are extensively recognized as being high-potential tools for classification. the important part of anns is their ability in learning iterations, which defines how weights of each neuron should be periodically adjusted. the svm uses a boundary to isolate data that is different depending on a kernel. here, the kernels tested in this study are radial basis function (rbf) and linear kernels. the cnn is a powerful tool to categorize images by analyzing image edges. the cnn is based on the ann with one more additional step called a convolution step. typically, the cnn provides great results as shown in previous studies (lawrence, giles, tsoi & back, 1997), particularly when working with two-dimensional images containing low-level image features, e.g., image edges, as dominant characteristics. in addition to this introductory section, the remainder of this paper is organized as follows. in section 2, we present previous work related to our present study. in section 3, we describe details regarding the methodology used in this study. in section 4, we describe our experiments and results, then discuss our findings. finally, we summarize the key content of our study in section 5. figure 1. example displaying two scatter plots with different characteristics and patterns: (a) scatter plot containing only points and (b) scatter plot containing points in different positions than (a) and a line 2. related works an image is a useful resource that presents meaningful information using the graphical content. humans can easily grasp the semantical information implied in images without necessarily reading any context appearing in related documents. image classification has made great progress in many different areas, including medical analysis (ibrahim, osman & mohamed, 2013) (klöppel, stonnington, chu, draganski, scahill, rohrer, & frackowiak, 2008) and academia (cai, wang, sun & chen, 2003) (xia, du, he & chanussot, 2014). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 8 a major problem of image classification is the course of high-dimensional images. a number of previous studies have developed several potential methods for overcoming this difficulty (aggarwal & yu, 2001) (song & wang, 2013). sanchez et al. (sanchez & perronnin, 2011) proposed an image classification on large-scale images including multiple classes. they address the compression of such high-dimensional signatures with two lossy compression schemes: dimensionality reduction based on hash kernels and data encoding with product quantizers. we realized that the image analysis process was an important procedure for the classification because images consist of raw data in an inappropriate input form for the existing classification systems. thus, a preprocessing step used to prepare and construct input data in a ready form became an important procedure in extracting dominant image features. fan et al. (fan, shen & davatzikos, 2005) presented a method for classifying medical images based on their regions by using a nonlinear svm. they built adaptive regional feature extraction and feature selection procedures that consolidate robust features from high-dimensional morphological measurements obtained from brain magnetic resonance (mr) images. their robust feature selection removed irrelevant and redundant features to improve classification. considerable attention has been paid to extending the ideas of extracting image features. a popular method was to extract low-level features instead of using their actual pixel values. lowlevel features, such as color, texture and shape have been reported in much of the literature during the past few decades (cheng & chen, 2003) (vailaya, figueiredo, jain & zhang, 1999) (veluchamy, perumal & ponuchamy, 2012). the visual features were extracted and used as inputs of classification. sergyan (sergyan, 2008) proposed a color histogram based classification approach and contributed to an image search system; however, the traditional methods involved the low-level features, but are insufficient for our target images, even if the idea of using low-level features was effective in the previous studies, because to classify the graph types, we did not focus on the lowlevel features, but on the presence of objects in the graphs, such as rectangles and scatter plots. they were adequate to classify the graph types. the hough transformation (duda & hart, 1972) was a famous feature extraction technique used to detect objects, such as circles, rectangles, and etc., from images. kwon et al. (kwon, 1994) presented a method for classifying human ages based on facial images. they performed a hough transform to find a parabolic curve in the human chin. wavelet transformation was also often employed for image features analysis because it can potentially handle images with different scales and that contain noises (sarlashkar, bodruzzaman & malkani, 1998). in studies of image classification, wavelet analysis has been applied to images and the distribution of wavelet coefficients is considered to characterize images. arivazhagan et al. (arivazhagan & ganesan, 2003) proposed a texture classification system using wavelet analysis on a set of texture images that extracts statistical values, such as mean and standard deviation. to advance image classification, data mining and machine learning algorithms have been gaining importance in recent years. as such, there are some well-known algorithms usually applied to image classification given their simplicity and performance characteristics; these algorithms include anns, svms, and cnns, each of which is described below. the ann is an information-processing paradigm inspired by human neural networks. veluchamy et al. (veluchamy, perumal & ponuchamy, 2012) proposed blood cell classification prediction for normal and abnormal cell classes. they extracted images of blood cells, sorting gray level statistics and algebraic moment invariants, then classified the target images using an ann. frate et al. (frate, pacifici, schiavon & solimini, 2007) used an ann to remotely sense to distinguish among areas made of artificial coverage including asphalt or buildings, and open spaces, such as bare soil or vegetation. they attempted to apply their classification system to highs. kanjanawattana, m. kimura annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation 9 resolution images from satellites. these previous studies showed that anns could handle problems involving high-dimensional images and worked perfectly with nonlinear separable data. the main concept underlying svms is to find a proper hyper-plane, defined by types of kernels, to separate data belonging to multiple categories. both linear and radial basis function (rbf) kernels have been frequently applied to classification problem via svms. cusano et al. (cusano, ciocca & schettini, 2003) introduced an innovative image annotation tool based on the svm for classifying image regions into one of seven classes, i.e., sky, skin, vegetation, snow, water, ground, and buildings, or as an unknown. they used image histograms as feature vectors. another study (fan, shen & davatzikos, 2005), fan et al., proposed a method for classification of medical images, i.e., brain images, using svm and deformation-based morphometry. their study involved three steps: feature extraction, feature selection, and nonlinear classification. these previous studies showed that svms were effective when being applied to low-level features; however, it remained a question about svms efficiency when dealing with our data because the extracted features of this system were different from existing studies. in recent years, cnns have been developed by extending the classical ann. here, cnns have great potential for image classification and are also faster if a computer conditionally supports a graphic processing unit (gpu) (strigl, kofler & podlipnig, 2010). cnns can be proficiently applied to large image databases (krizhevsky, sutskever & hinton, 2012). for example, kang et al. (kang, kumar & doermann, 2014) presented a novel classification based on cnns to classify document images presented in different layouts. they also employed a technique called dropout to reduce over-fitting in the fully connected layers (srivastava, hinton, krizhevsky, sutskever & salakhutdinov, 2014); however, cnns here had an obvious drawback. inputs of cnns were images comprising edges, such as building and human images because the cnn can give fully effort to analyzing the image by using gabor filters (mehrotra, namuduri & ranganathan, 1992). in this study we convolved the input image into one-dimensional images without edges or any objects. therefore, we needed to conduct experiments to evaluate the performance of cnns applied to our constructed data. further, from our observations during the existing study, we acknowledged that traditional classification methods, such as svm and ann, suffered from a problem of parametric, i.e., parameters were very sensitive to change, the value of a parameter changed the results either for the better or for the worse (lorena & de carvalho, 2008). in this study, we solved this obstacle and obtained the best results that could be produced by our current system. 3. methodology 3.1. definition of our datasets the target data in this study consisted of a collection of graphs or diagrams. graphs are classified into three distinguishable types, i.e., bar graphs, pie charts, and two-dimensional charts (2dchart), the latter including line graphs, plot graphs, and area graphs. we merge and set them to the two-dimensional chart because the regular graph structure from those graph types was similar. for example, the line graph and plot graph's structure contains titles that appear on both axes, and there are lines and plots presented in a data section. note that lines in line graph can be recognized as continuous data plots; thus, it can be likely identified as another kind of plot graph. the three focused graph types contain apparently own characteristics. for example, for a pie chart, at least one circle should be apparent and reside in the graph; further, axis titles do not appear. for a bar graph, its main structure is comprised of a title along the y-axis and categories along the x-axis. for a 2d chart, its structure contains titles that appear on both axes. further, this system is a part of graph information extraction (kanjanawattana & kimura, 2016); thus, to precisely extract information, we must use particular methods to extract knowledge depending on the types that contain their own general structures, such as a presence of axis titles and dominant objects. we brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 10 realize that we can use the same method to extract information from both the line and plot graphs; whilst, another particular method is also specifically applicable to the type of bar graph. therefore, in other words, we choose the graph types and limit them to three different types because not only they contain separable graph type characteristics, but it is also convenient for our graph information extraction (kanjanawattana & kimura, 2016) to accurately extract their information. in this study, we convert the two-dimensional image dataset, which is squared to a resolution of 64 x 64, to one-dimensional images. the one-dimensional image is a constructed image with a size of approximately 1 x 64 that is applied to our method. moreover, we create numeric datasets assembling wavelet coefficients and outputs from the hough transformation. the main motivation for using these techniques is to reduce data dimensionality and gain only necessary information used for classifying. our input data is two-dimension images that contain a huge volume of information; thus, we need to reduce the data size because only partial information is necessary for classification. for example, the dominant objects in the graphs can be detected by using hough transformation which is important information to classify the types. in contrast, image background, such as texts in the graphs, is an inessential part of classification; therefore, it should be ignored. in our previous study (kanjanawattana & kimura, 2015), we performed experiments with these image sizes, including other bigger image sizes. as reasonable results, we found that these sizes (i.e., 64 x 64 and 1 x 64) provided the most accurate results as compared to other sizes because they contain adequate information for classifying. image sizes that were too large were inappropriate for our experiments because of the course of high-dimensional data and the problem of sparsity. similarly, we avoided using image sizes that were too small due to the difficulty of unclear image expression. to create numeric datasets, we use a wavelet transformation to analyze the one-dimensional images and acquire the sequences of wavelet coefficients based on several wavelet families applied in this study, i.e., coiflet1, coiflet3, coiflet5, daubechies2, daubechies10, daubechies20, haar, symlet2, symlet10, and symlet20. we selected these for two reasons. first, the coefficients can provide significant characteristics for the classification. each wavelet family has a different oscillation. if the level of the wavelet increases, the wavelet provides much better compression results (islam, md rafiqul and bulbul, farhad and shanta & shewli, 2012). second, they are used in several previous studies (avci, 2008). overall, they have proven to work well for image classification. all datasets used in this study are summarized below.  1dimg dataset: the original one-dimensional images  2dimg dataset: the converted two-dimensional images  wl dataset: the numeric datasets that contain only results from the wavelet transformation  ht dataset: the numeric datasets that contain only results from the hough transformation  wlht dataset: the numeric datasets that contain both results from both the wavelet and hough transformations the main dataset we currently emphasize in this study is wlht, i.e., the numeric datasets that include results from both the wavelet and hough transformations. to classify images, conventional methods directly use 2dimg, i.e., the two-dimensional images, as inputs to the systems. hence, for evaluation, we decided to apply our method to images in 1dimg and 2dimg, then compare to our main dataset, wlht. finally, we used wl and ht to evaluate which is better for yielding separable data. 3.2. our method in this subsection, we propose a new method for graph-type classification using a combination of the svm and the ann that include several techniques, such as the discrete fourier s. kanjanawattana, m. kimura annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation 11 transform (dft), hough transformation, and wavelet transformation. we divide our system into two major steps, i.e., a preprocessing step and an application of classification. 3.2.1. preprocessing step the preprocessing step is a crucial part of our approach. it is used to construct onedimensional images (i.e., 1dimg) and numeric datasets containing wavelet coefficients and hough transformations (i.e., wlht). to generate the one-dimensional images, the essential procedures are shown in figure 2. initial inputs of this process are two-dimensional graph images that have already been cleaned and converted to a gray-scale. our method consists of four steps, each of which is described below. first, we collect graph images as raw data, which contain different scales and sizes, and therefore need to be normalized. we clean the images by omitting irrelevant areas. for example, we omit unnecessary text that has nothing to do with our classification procedure. moreover, to standardize the sizes and shapes of the images, we resize and reshape them to be 64 x 64 squares. second, we examine each image pixel, each of which contains one color value. after each pixel is projected along the xand y-axes, we count the number of projected pixels with a color value greater than zero to reduce image dimensionality. we, therefore, obtain two one-dimensional images from the xand y-axes. figure 2. illustrating the core process of one-dimensional image construction by applying a dft third, the one-dimensional images acquired from the previous step are combined into one piece by concatenating the one-dimensional image of the x-axis to the one-dimensional image of the y-axis. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 12 finally, we apply a dft to the obtained one-dimensional images with inverted colors. we invert the colors here because following the previous step, we gather some high values along axes, which are represented as white or light colors, that obviously present existing information. ordinarily, white color indicates no information, while in contrast, a black or dark color instinctively represents meaningful information. therefore, the process of inverting colors helps to clarify the data expression and prevent confusion in the interpretation. we decided to use a dft here for two reasons. first, the dft can uncover dominant information from images but does not need to concern itself with the position of how the objects changed. for example, an important part of pie charts is located in the low-frequency domain because the level of pixel distribution is low. on the contrary, the high-frequency domain presents an important part of plot graphs. second, a regular factor for classifying graph types is a similarity of characteristics in each type of graph, but our target inputs probably offer different characteristics, even though they are of the same type, because some objects represented in the graphs depend on real data, as shown in the example cases of figure 1. after completing the process of one-dimensional image construction, we generate numeric datasets including wavelet coefficients and results from the hough transformation (i.e., wlht). the one-dimensional dft images are presented in the form of frequencies by the procedure illustrated in figure 2; therefore, we regard them as signals that can be analyzed via wavelet analysis, which analyzes and decomposes signals into elementary forms at different scales and positions. the prospective results of wavelet analysis here are sequences of wavelet coefficients that represent the similarity extent comparing the examined section of signals to the scaled and shifted wavelets. note that the wavelet coefficients are calculated at every possible scale and along every position of time. further, we use a variety of wavelet families to obtain the corresponding coefficients. we apply the wavelet transformation in our study because we obtain correlated information in signals by using wavelet families. moreover, a sequence of wavelet coefficients is substantially divergent in different images and is considered to characterize images. thus, we obtain the dominant patterns from various types of images based on different wavelet families. hough transformation is a basic technique in image processing that is used to detect features of particular shapes within target images, such as circles, lines and single plots. the basic hough transformation identifies lines in an image, but the later hough transformation has been extended to be able to identify arbitrary shapes, most commonly circles and rectangles. moreover, it can deal with the scatter plots in plot graph. detected objects are counted and collated into the object detection attributes of the given dataset. to reduce variations, we categorize the number of detectable objects into five categories, i.e., c0, c1, c2, c3, and c4. if the number of detectable objects is between zero and five, we assign its number as c1. if it is between six and 10, c2 is assigned. if it is between 11 and 15, c3 is assigned. if it is greater than 16, we assigned c4. otherwise, it is set to c0. further, to determine the graph's containing areas, we recognize that the filled areas are often located from middle to bottom with horizontal alignment. thus, we allocate a specific region inside the image and calculate area density, which is measured by counting the number of color pixels divided by the total number of pixels in the given region. if the density exceeds a predefined threshold the value of the area attribute is set to c1. conversely, if the density is lower than the threshold, the value of the area attribute is set to c0. comparing 2dimg and wlht, the characteristics of wlht should be more reasonable for our classification system, as opposed to ordinary images, for two key reasons. first, the sizes of images from wlht are smaller because we construct our numeric datasets based on the onedimensional images, thus the number of dimensions certainly decreases. indeed, the image classification system often provides better results if working with smaller image-scaling sizes (sanchez & perronnin, 2011). further, processing time should be substantially less since the number s. kanjanawattana, m. kimura annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation 13 of pixels correlates to the amount of information to be processed. second, our data can handle problems of different graph characteristics better than ordinary images due to the benefits of dft. 3.2.2. application of classification in this study, we propose a new classification algorithm that is a combination of anns and svms called annsvm. as shown in figure 3, wlht, i.e., with the one-dimensional images generated in the preprocessing step, serves as input to our classification system. the application of classification consists of two steps, each of which is described below. first, we apply the ann to wlht. to obtain reasonable results from the ann, we configured and tuned the following five ann parameters: number of hidden layers, the number of nodes in each hidden layer, the number of nodes in the output layer, learning rate, and momentum. essentially, if the number of nodes in the hidden layers increases, processing time increases, and the resultant ann will suffer from over-fitting. conversely, too small of a number of hidden layers will cause under-fitting for the ann. in our setting, the number of hidden layers and the number of nodes in each hidden layer were fixed at five. concerning the learning rate and momentum settings, these impact sensitive training performances are set to optimal values obtained via a grid search technique. the number of nodes in the output layer was three because there are three different class labels (i.e., 2dchart, bar, and pie) in our datasets. we used the ann here because our datasets have nonlinear separation, and the ann is also highly applicable to nonlinear modeling. thus the ann with multiple hidden layers was an optimal candidate; however, since the ann is a black box learning approach, it is difficult to interpret implicit relationships between inputs and outputs. figure 3. demonstrating the process of classification by applying the ann, then the svm brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 14 after this first stage, we used three numeric outputs from the ann as new temporary datasets. note that the three numeric outputs here are the results from three output nodes of the output layer. typically, these values represent a classification result by justifying a predicted class. for our case, the system must proceed forward to the second classifier, i.e., svm; since the system did not justify a predicted class yet but kept the numeric results for being an input of svm. via a training process, we combined them with a class label to obtain training datasets. second, we applied the svm to the new temporary numeric dataset. the svm uses a technique called kernels to find an optimal boundary between the training data. the tested kernel was rbf kernel. we used this nonlinear kernel because it can capture more complex relationships among data; in contrast, the training time is slightly longer. fortunately, since our new temporary datasets contain a small number of attributes, the speed of kernel processing was reasonably fast; however, the svm using the rbf kernel practically encounters the hyper-parameter problem. significant parameters required for the rbf kernel are cost parameter and gamma. cost parameter c determines the influence of the misclassification of each training example. if c is large, a boundary correctly classified the training example, but a margin of a boundary is smaller and not smooth. conversely, a small c provides a smooth boundary but incorrectly classifies more examples. the gamma parameter defines how far the influence of a single training example reaches. a larger gamma represents a close distance from the boundary to support vectors and vice versa. further, gamma affects the shape of the boundary separating the training examples. we set these parameters by using optimal results of a grid search (salatino & antonio, 2014). moreover, from a practical viewpoint, the svm has a high algorithmic complexity that causes the testing phase to be longer. we used the svm classifier for three reasons. first, the svm guarantees a global optimum solution, i.e., it can capture the lowest values from a given domain. second, the dimensionality of the input space does not explicitly affect to computational complexity, but the smaller data size is surely outperformed. we preferred to use a smaller size of data because this system was a combination of two classifiers. even though the problem of high dimensionality slightly affects svm, it might cause bad results to the entire system, in both cases of speed and generation performances. third, there is a sparse density of pixels in an image, i.e., a low density of pixels that describes information in our one-dimensional image. the svm automatically gives a sparse solution, because the lagrange multipliers are equal to zero for the non-support vector; therefore, the corresponding input vector can be omitted in the summation. primarily, no particular classifier exists for all data distributions; furthermore, we think that, if there are numerous data, only one classifier may not be discriminative well enough. in this study, we combined ann and svm together because we acknowledged that individually using either svm or ann alone has limitations. fusion of these two algorithms helps to enhance their abilities of classification and mitigate their drawbacks. based on the data used in this study, the features in input data had been assembled from various sources, such as results of wavelet transformation and results of a presence of objects provided by hough transformation; thus, training a single classifier may provide inappropriate results. moreover, we realized that integrating outputs from the multiple classifiers reduces a risk of classification error because the first classifier (ann) analyzed the data and provided the results with an empirical data pattern, including some small errors. after that, svm took a place to operate the output of ann, which already uncovered the data pattern, and mitigated the errors. s. kanjanawattana, m. kimura annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation 15 4. experiments and results 4.1. comprehensive tests in this study, we conducted several experiments to address the various questions of this study, which are described below.  which method is the best solution for classifying graph types?  which features of the data improve the performance of our method and cause the data to be separable?  what is the most appropriate dataset to serve as a new representative for classification?  what significant differences of results exist in our experiments? we divided our experiments into five major tests that include several minor tests. the cnn_1dimg and cnn_2dimg (i.e., figure 4a) was designed to utilize the cnn with sets of one and two-dimensional images (i.e., 1dimg and 2dimg) to compare performance between it and our main method for 1dimg and 2dimg. in svm_wlht (i.e., figure 4b) and ann_wlht (i.e., figure 4c), we applied the svm and the ann respectively to wlht because both of them are popular algorithms used for image classification. we implemented a method that combined these two algorithms, i.e., the svm and ann approaches, in svmann and annsvm. the difference between these two experiments was the ordering of the algorithms. the svmann (i.e., figure 4d) consisted of the same two steps as our proposed method, but the order of algorithms differed. the first step of svmann was to get the raw decision values of the svm that presented the actual outputs from the svm, which were used to decide which class an instance should belong to. since we had three different classes in this study, outputs of the svm contained three numeric values, which were inputs of the ann. note that we used only the rbf kernel for this method because it often provides good results when performing with complicated information, and our datasets are nonlinear data. after we combined the outputs of the svm with a class label, we applied the ann to the outputs and obtained classification results. the last experiment was annsvm_all (i.e., figure 4e) in which we used our proposed method, i.e., the annsvm. note that annsvm_all represents the experiments conducted by annsvm with all datasets used in this study. in annsvm_1dimg and annsvm_2dimg, the annsvm was applied to 1dimg and 2dimg to compare results with those of cnn_1dimg and cnn_2dimg. in annsvm_wl and annsvm_ht, we also applied the annsvm to wl and ht because we needed to evaluate how data affected the system. further, the most significant experiment was annsvm_wlht, in which we presented the performance of our main method applied to wlht to indicate the effectiveness of our proposed idea. to evaluate our approach, we compared results to other experiments that also used wlht. regarding svmann_wlht and annsvm_wlht, we conducted experiments to show the difference of performance in a case that we switched their orders. a motivation for rearranging the order of algorithms was to examine whether the results had been influenced by algorithms switched. in this study, accuracy values of each dataset showed the performance of each method. these values represent are the proportion of the total number of predictions that were correctly classified. initially, we classified training instances into three classes, with approximately 300 images per class. the graphs had been selectively gathered from the web. we manually normalized the collected images by eliminating unused areas, such as unnecessary text. moreover, we evaluated the experiments with 10 folds cross-validation because such an approach can mitigate the problem of over-fitting. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 16 figure 4. processes of all experiments: (a) applying the cnn to 1dimg and 2dimg in cnn_1dimg and cnn_2dimg respectively, (b) applying the svm to wlht in svm_wlht, (c) applying the ann to wlht in ann_wlht, (d) applying the svmann to wlht in svmann_wlht, and (e) applying the annsvm to all datasets in annsvm_1dimg, annsvm_2dimg, annsvm_wl, annsvm_ht, and annsvm_wlht 4.2. results we compared the results of cnn_1dimg, cnn_2dimg, annsvm_1dimg, and annsvm_2dimg to confirm the validity of annsvm when applied to images. the 1dimg represented the dataset of one-dimensional images, while 2dimg represented the dataset of twodimensional images. results are shown in figure 5. the cnn_1dimg and cnn_2dimg provided similar accuracies, approximately 0.33, which were close to the results of annsvm_1dimg and annsvm_2dimg with the linear kernel, i.e., approximately 0.35; however, the experiment of our proposed method (i.e., annsvm with the rbf kernel) presented largely different results. in 1dimg, the accuracy increased to 0.79. comparing this results to those of 2dimg applied to our proposed method, the accuracy was approximately 0.56. thus, compared to two-dimensional images, the one-dimensional images were a better candidate for graph-type classification using annsvm with the rbf kernel. s. kanjanawattana, m. kimura annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation 17 figure 5. results from cnn and annsvm that used 1dimg and 2dimg: (a) table statistically showing summarized results and (b) bar graph graphically illustrating results from these experiments figure 6. results from annsvn that used wl and ht a) table statistically showing summarized results and (b) bar graph graphically illustrating results from these experiments to identify which features of data influentially impacted data separability, we conducted experiments for annsvm with wl and ht (i.e., figure 6). the wl contained only wavelet coefficients, whereas ht included only results of the hough transformation. we found that, again, results obtained via the linear kernel were not significant; however, using the rbf kernel, accuracy brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 18 for wl was higher than that of ht, indicating that wavelet coefficients provide influential features that make data separable. we conducted svm, ann, svmann, and annsvm with wlht constructed from our preprocessing method. results are shown in figure 7. we found that the results of svm_wlht showed accuracy for the rbf kernel as slightly better than that of a linear kernel as indicated in figure 7b. they were on average 0.85 for the linear kernel and 0.86 for the rbf kernel. as for the outcome from ann_wlht, it was moderately 0.83. apparently, accuracy in svm_wlht which used the svm was slightly more appropriate. in svmann_wlht, we found accuracies for wlht were stably high, with an average of 0.9, independent of wavelet families. the highest accuracy in svmann_wlht was 0.905 in the case of symlet 2. as for annsvm_wlht, the average accuracy was 0.87 for the rbf kernel (i.e., our proposed method) and 0.35 for the linear kernel. though the average accuracy for our proposed method was slightly lower than that of the svmann in svmann_wlht, the highest accuracy among all experiments was 0.91 in the case of annsvm_wlht in which annsvm was applied to data obtained by coiflet 1 (i.e., figure 7c). 5. discussion reviewing our results for the cnn applied to 1dimg and 2dimg, we obtained only low accuracies for both datasets. this fact disagrees with other studies but agrees with our assumption. this situation occurred for two reasons. first, our target images were the graphs that contained different characteristics, even though they belonged to the same class. it was difficult for the traditional classification system (i.e., the cnn here) to reliably classify these data. second, after it was converted to a one-dimensional image by our preprocessing method, it did not contain any visual image features, only the frequency domain of images obtained via dft. since cnn filters commonly work to detect image edges, it is not suitable for the cnn to handle our data; however, after observing results of cnn_1dimg and cnn_2dimg, we discovered that they provided similar accuracies, i.e., 0.33 and 0.34, for 1dimg and 2dimg, respectively. results of cnn_1dimg and cnn_2dimg suggested that both one-dimensional and twodimensional images contained the same information. during a convolution process, we possibly obtained the similar convolved images to use in a cnn classification because the values of pixels in the one-dimensional images roughly substitute for the location of objects in the two-dimensional images. for example, if black pixels, which stand for a larger number of counted pixels, are continuously connected to a portion of a one-dimensional image, the dft decomposes them as low frequencies. as results of annsvm_1dimg and annsvm_2dimg showed, we obtained highly accurate results from our proposed method, particularly with the rbf kernel. our datasets were not linearly separable, thus a linear kernel did not work well. our proposed method offered substantially better results when it was applied to 1dimg, whose dimensionality was reduced but the important information was preserved. s. kanjanawattana, m. kimura annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation 19 figure 7. results from svm, ann, svmann, and annsvm that used wlht: (a) table statistically presenting summarized results, (b) bar graph graphically illustrating results from svm_wlht and ann_wlht, and (c) bar graph graphically showing results from svmann_wlht and annsvm_wlht from the results of annsvm_wl and annsvm_ht, we found that wavelet coefficients had a larger impact on classification than the hough transformation data because the results from our proposed method applied to wl were more accurate than those of ht. the wavelet coefficients can capture the dominant characteristics from the graphs better than the hough transformation. the one-dimensional image represented in the frequency domain had oscillations with different amplitudes depending on the graph types. for example, a dominant part of a pie chart should be in the low-frequency domain, because there is a large island of concatenated pixels in a onedimensional image, and it has only a few changes. conversely, since the scatter plot contains many widely spread points, its dominant part should be located in the high-frequency domain. performing the wavelet transformation, if a mother wavelet and a part of the wavelet function have a close match, the wavelet coefficient will be large. assuming we use a suitable wavelet family with the example pie chart case, the wavelet coefficients in the low-frequency domain should be large as compared to other parts of the domain. these coefficients represented the location of objects in the brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 20 graph, including their frequencies. the hough transformation cannot detect the position of objects or frequencies, only the shape of objects. considering the problem of noise, the wavelet transformation can handle noise better than the hough transformation, because the hough transformation is sensitive to noise if the image has low quality. figure 8. simulation of coiflet 1 (pywavelets discussion group, 2008), analyzing as one-dimensional images using only the wavelet coefficients was inadequate for classification. for example, for the pie chart, we obtained large wavelet coefficients located in the low-frequency domain; however, if we changed a circle in the pie chart to other shapes, such as a radar chart, the wavelet transformation gave results that were similar to those of the original pie chart. the hough transformation can solve this problem since it detects the shapes of objects. we, therefore, assembled these two features in order to make our data more separable. comparing results from svm and ann applied to wlht, we found that the svm with the rbf kernel clearly outperformed the ann. the difference here comes from the fact that the ann can get stuck in local minima, while the svm is guaranteed to find a global optimal value. moreover, we observed that the results of each experiment were rather similar. to confirm significant differences between them, we statistically analyzed the results using anova and the ttest. we primarily performed the anova to check the popularity equality, then tested via the ttest for each pair. finally, we rejected the null hypothesis in all cases, which showed that the results of svm_wlht and ann_wlht certainly differed. further, we interpreted results from svmann_wlht and annsvm_wlht, which were the combination of the svm and the ann. in svmann_wlht, we consistently received good accuracy values, but the highest accuracy was provided by our proposed method. to analyze results from annsvm_wlht, we compared the linear and rbf kernels. results showed that the linear kernel was not appropriate for our method because our datasets are not linearly separable, whereas the rbf kernel provided higher accuracy values. the rbf kernel generally outperforms the linear kernel because the linear kernel is suitable if the number of features is larger than the number of instances or a dataset is a very large-scale dataset; however, in general, to obtain a good model, many instances should be employed for training. in this study, wlht contained 198 attributes and s. kanjanawattana, m. kimura annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation 21 917 instances, and the temporary datasets produced by our proposed method contained four features and 917 instances. because of these, the linear kernel was not appropriate. results of annsvm_wlht suggested that the most suitable wavelet family was coiflet 1 because the wavelet functions resemble the distribution of frequency in the one-dimensional images, as illustrated in figure 8. statistical analyses via anova and the t-test showed that there was no significant difference between the results of svmann_wlht and annsvm_wlht with the rbf kernel. therefore, based on this statistical evidence, we do not need to be concerned about the order of these methods. in other words, both annsvm and svmann can effectively classify graph images. figure 9. illustration of three different wavelets (pywavelets discussion group, 2008) with three waves that have high amplitude values, as indicated by the dashed red circles: (a) mother wavelet of coiflet 5, (b) mother wavelet of symlet 10, and (c) mother wavelet of symlet 20 from the results of annsvm_wlht, shown in figure 7a, the results of coiflet 5 and haar were considerably lower than others in the same experiment, whereas all accuracy values in svmann_wlht were consistently stable. analyzing these results, we found two possible reasons here. first, the ann, which is the first stage of the annsvm, is not suitable to provide a temporary dataset that is separable by the svm if we input data generated by these two wavelets. second, the unsuitable mother wavelets were generated from our datasets. the mother wavelet of coiflet 5 contained triple-high oscillation amplitude (i.e., figure 9a). we considered that this mother wavelet was inappropriate for our data because overall our data possibly contained only a few matches with the mother wavelet of coiflet 5. moreover, the symlet 10 (i.e., figure 9b) and 20 (i.e., figure 9c) also provided supportive results that were lower than others in annsvm_wlht (i.e., figure 7a) because their mother wavelets also had a similar shape as that of coiflet 5. for similar reasons, the haar wavelet was not proper because it is a step function. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 22 after considering the unconventional results from haar, coiflet 5, symlet 10, and symlet 20 as described above, we again examined the significant differences between svmann_wlht and annsvm_wlht after omitting these wavelet families from our experiments; we did so in order to verify their effects. we performed the t-test on the results without the omitted wavelet families. statistical results showed that the results of svmann_wlht and annsvm_wlht are equal, even if those wavelets are properly omitted; however, during the t-test, we observed that the average true positive (tp) rate of our proposed method remarkably improved to 0.90 which is greater than the mean of svmann_wlht, i.e., 0.89. from these results, for graph-type classification, our proposed method is clearly more suitable because we obtained the highest accuracy and an acceptable average value, both outperforming results of svmann_wlht. figure 10. detailed accuracy separated by classes and a confusion matrix which belongs to the dataset of coiflet 1 applied by our main method (annsvm) with regard to accuracy values of each class as presented in figure 10, we observed that the accuracy of the two-dimensional chart class was the lowest (i.e., 0.875), while others were over 0.9. results here suggested that both the bar and pie classes have their own unique characteristics, as opposed to the 2dchart class. for example, the graph images that contained some rectangles were individually categorized in the bar graph class. a similar phenomenon occurred for circles in the pie chart class. in contrast, the 2dchart class contained mixed types of graphs; hence, the graph characteristics belonging to the 2dchart class varied. our proposed method is a combination of the ann and the svm, thus called the annsvm. we used the ann to construct a temporary dataset, then applied the svm for graphtype classification. results from our proposed method showed that our approach outperformed the traditional methods because when we concurrently use two effective algorithms the strengths of both are encouraged and the weaknesses mitigated. for example, the ann suffered from a problem of local minima, but the svm strategy solves this problem; hence, the results from our proposed method guarantee the global optimization. 6. conclusions in this paper, we proposed a new method of graph-type classification by introducing a new preprocessing step to establish novel representative datasets instead of generic two-dimensional images and a novel classifier based on a combination of traditional algorithms. we conducted several experiments to verify our proposed method and the constructed datasets. moreover, we extended the scope of our experiments to test data separability. to our knowledge, this is the first study to classify graph images belonging to the same type with different characteristics. we s. kanjanawattana, m. kimura annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation 23 investigated a reliable solution that can be applied to real-world data. moreover, most results obtained from our experiments showed good agreement with our assumption. as noted above, we conducted several experiments to evaluate our proposed method. we applied the cnn to two-dimensional graph images; however, we obtained very low accuracy values from these cnn experiments. we, therefore, state that the cnn was not a powerful algorithm for classifying graph types. to compare our proposed method to the cnn, we applied it to our constructed data, which combines the wavelet coefficients and outputs from the hough transformation. the dataset consisted of three classes: bar, pie, and 2dchart, with about 300 images per class. from our experimental results, we obtained the highest accuracy values in our experiments based on our proposed method, up to 0.91. further, the most proper wavelet family applied to our data was coiflet 1. as shown in the svmann_wlht and annsvm_wlht, the order of algorithms had not affected the results. it denotes that, regardless of using annsvm or svmann, the results were acceptable. obviously, our method has been successful in classifying graph images. moreover, the difficulty of different image characteristics has been overcome via our approach. the findings of our study suggest that our proposed method greatly contributes to graphtype classification. in our future research, we will continuously develop our graph-type classification methodology. we will extract significant information from the graphs, such as axis titles and data point labels. the method for extracting such information will be different based on different graph types because of the dissimilarity of graph structures. moreover, we will extend our study to be a semantic system using ontology. the extractable information will be an essential part of creating the ontology. we expect that our future system will be able to extract explicit and implicit information that represent intended relationships hidden in the graphs. references aggarwal, c. c., & yu, p. s. (2001, may). outlier detection for high dimensional data. in acm sigmod record (vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 37-46). acm. anthimopoulos, m. m., gianola, l., scarnato, l., diem, p., & mougiakakou, s. g. (2014). a food recognition system for diabetic patients based on an optimized bag-of-features model. ieee journal of biomedical and health informatics, 18(4), 1261-1271. arivazhagan, s., & ganesan, l. (2003). texture classification using wavelet transform. pattern recognition letters, 24(9), 1513-1521. arivazhagan, s., ganesan, l., & priyal, s. p. (2006). texture classification using gabor wavelets based rotation invariant features. pattern recognition letters, 27(16), 1976-1982. avci, e. (2008). comparison of wavelet families for texture classification by using wavelet packet entropy adaptive network based fuzzy inference system. applied soft computing, 8(1), 225231. barla, a., odone, f., & verri, a. (2003, september). histogram intersection kernel for image classification. in image processing, 2003. icip 2003. proceedings. 2003 international conference on (vol. 3, pp. iii-513). ieee. cai, c. z., wang, w. l., sun, l. z., & chen, y. z. (2003). protein function classification via support vector machine approach. mathematical biosciences, 185(2), 111-122. chapelle, o., haffner, p., & vapnik, v. n. (1999). support vector machines for histogram-based image classification. ieee transactions on neural networks, 10(5), 1055-1064. cheng, y. c., & chen, s. y. (2003). image classification using color, texture and regions. image and vision computing, 21(9), 759-776. cusano, c., ciocca, g., & schettini, r. (2003, december). image annotation using svm. in electronic imaging 2004 (pp. 330-338). international society for optics and photonics. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 24 del frate, f., pacifici, f., schiavon, g., & solimini, c. (2007). use of neural networks for automatic classification from high-resolution images. ieee transactions on geoscience and remote sensing, 45(4), 800-809. duda, r. o., & hart, p. e. (1972). use of the hough transformation to detect lines and curves in pictures. communications of the acm, 15(1), 11-15. fan, y., shen, d., & davatzikos, c. (2005). classification of structural images via highdimensional image warping, robust feature extraction, and svm. medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention–miccai 2005, 1-8. fan, y., shen, d., & davatzikos, c. (2005). classification of structural images via highdimensional image warping, robust feature extraction, and svm. medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention–miccai 2005, 1-8. ibrahim, w. h., osman, a. a. a., & mohamed, y. i. (2013, august). mri brain image classification using neural networks. in computing, electrical and electronics engineering (icceee), 2013 international conference on (pp. 253-258). ieee. islam, m. r., bulbul, f., & shanta, s. s. (2012). performance analysis of coiflet-type wavelets for a fingerprint image compression by using wavelet and wavelet packet transform. international journal of computer science and engineering survey, 3(2), 79. kang, l., kumar, j., ye, p., li, y., & doermann, d. (2014, august). convolutional neural networks for document image classification. in pattern recognition (icpr), 2014 22nd international conference on (pp. 3168-3172). ieee. kanjanawattana, s., & kimura, m. (2015, december). graph-type classification based on artificial neural networks and wavelet coefficients. in proceedings of second international conference on digital information processing, data mining, and wireless communications (dipdmwc2015). kanjanawattana, s., & kimura, m. (2015, november). a proposal for a method of graph ontology by automatically extracting relationships between captions and x-and y-axis titles. in keod (pp. 231-238). kanjanawattana, s., & kimura, m. (2016). extraction of graph information based on image contents and the use of ontology. international association for development of the information society. klöppel, s., stonnington, c. m., chu, c., draganski, b., scahill, r. i., rohrer, j. d., frackowiak, r. s. (2008). automatic classification of mr scans in alzheimer's disease. brain, 131(3), 681689. krizhevsky, a., sutskever, i., & hinton, g. e. (2012). imagenet classification with deep convolutional neural networks. in advances in neural information processing systems (pp. 1097-1105). kwon, y. h. (1994, june). age classification from facial images. in computer vision and pattern recognition, 1994. proceedings cvpr'94., 1994 ieee computer society conference on (pp. 762-767). ieee. lawrence, s., giles, c. l., tsoi, a. c., & back, a. d. (1997). face recognition: a convolutional neural-network approach. ieee transactions on neural networks, 8(1), 98-113. lorena, a. c., & de carvalho, a. c. (2008). evolutionary tuning of svm parameter values in multiclass problems. neurocomputing, 71(16), 3326-3334. mehrotra, r., namuduri, k. r., & ranganathan, n. (1992). gabor filter-based edge detection. pattern recognition, 25(12), 1479-1494. park, s. b., lee, j. w., & kim, s. k. (2004). content-based image classification using a neural network. pattern recognition letters, 25(3), 287-300. pywavelets discussion group. (2008). retrieved from http://wavelets.pybytes.com. s. kanjanawattana, m. kimura annsvm: a novel method for graph-type classification by utilization of fourier transformation, wavelet transformation, and hough transformation 25 salatino, a. a. (2014). retrieved from http://infernusweb.altervista.org/wp/?p=786. sánchez, j., & perronnin, f. (2011, june). high-dimensional signature compression for large-scale image classification. in computer vision and pattern recognition (cvpr), 2011 ieee conference on (pp. 1665-1672). ieee. sarlashkar, a. n., bodruzzaman, m., & malkani, m. j. (1998, march). feature extraction using wavelet transform for neural network based image classification. in system theory, 1998. proceedings of the thirtieth southeastern symposium on (pp. 412-416). ieee. sergyan, s. (2008, january). color histogram features based image classification in content-based image retrieval systems. in applied machine intelligence and informatics, 2008. sami 2008. 6th international symposium on (pp. 221-224). ieee. song, q., ni, j., & wang, g. (2013). a fast clustering-based feature subset selection algorithm for high-dimensional data. ieee transactions on knowledge and data engineering, 25(1), 1-14. srivastava, n., hinton, g. e., krizhevsky, a., sutskever, i., & salakhutdinov, r. (2014). dropout: a simple way to prevent neural networks from overfitting. journal of machine learning research, 15(1), 1929-1958. strigl, d., kofler, k., & podlipnig, s. (2010, february). performance and scalability of gpu-based convolutional neural networks. in parallel, distributed and network-based processing (pdp), 2010 18th euromicro international conference on (pp. 317-324). ieee. vailaya, a., figueiredo, m., jain, a., & zhang, h. j. (1999, july). content-based hierarchical classification of vacation images. in multimedia computing and systems, 1999. ieee international conference on (vol. 1, pp. 518-523). ieee. veluchamy, m., perumal, k., & ponuchamy, t. (2012). feature extraction and classification of blood cells using artificial neural network. american journal of applied sciences, 9(5), 615. veluchamy, m., perumal, k., & ponuchamy, t. (2012). feature extraction and classification of blood cells using artificial neural network. american journal of applied sciences, 9(5), 615. veluchamy, m., perumal, k., & ponuchamy, t. (2012). feature extraction and classification of blood cells using artificial neural network. american journal of applied sciences, 9(5), 615. xia, j., du, p., he, x., & chanussot, j. (2014). hyperspectral remote sensing image classification based on rotation forest. ieee geoscience and remote sensing letters, 11(1), 239-243. sarunya kanjanawattana received the b.e. degree in computer engineering from suranaree university of technology, nakhonratchasima, thailand, in 2008, and m. eng from asian institute of technology, pathum thani, thailand in 2011. currently, she is a ph.d. student of shibaura institute of technology, tokyo, japan. in the present, she works at suranaree university of technology as a lecturer in the department of computer engineering. her research interests included data mining, machine learning, natural language processing, ontology and image processing. masaomi kimura received a b.e. (1994) degree in precision engineering, and m.s. (1996), and d.s. (1999) degrees in physics from university of tokyo. he is a professor at the department of information science and engineering from shibaura institute of technology. his current interests include data engineering, complex systems, and medical safety. microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1 91 the fundamentals regarding the usage of the concept of interface for the modeling of the software artefacts dorin bocu transylvania university of brasov, romania d.bocu@unitbv.ro razvan bocu transylvania university of brasov, romania razvan.bocu@unitbv.ro abstract this paper presents the conceptual foundations of a software system’s solution modelling activity, which is formally based on two essential concepts: the artefact and the interface. this modelling activity envisions two objectives: the explicit emphasis on the interfaces’ importance in the software engineering, and the preparation of the framework inside which the loop structurebehaviour can be formalized considering the inherent benefits for the modelling activity in general, and for the modelling activity automation in particular. keywords: artefact, interface. 1. introduction the efficient collaboration of the systems or between the components of a system may be considered a necessary and sufficient condition for the systems to work, in general, while their components keep, partially and temporary, the freedom to look for new modalities to express their internal dynamics. the good understanding of the collaboration’s importance for the systemic and systematic explanation and modelling of the reality is essentially connected to the concept of interface. considering a very broad perspective, we may assert that the interface is a theoretical tool that is needed by any thinker that ventures in the turbid waters of the unknown. in the context of the software systems, we may consider that the interfaces are not just products that pertain to the knowledge and / or modelling effort, but they are components of the real systems, which are indispensable for their survival and modernization. it usually happens that considering the relationship between a paradigm and its user, the interface as a concept is not the real challenge, but the ability to identify and specify particular and elegant interfaces, which conserve and partially redefine the equilibrium inside a system. the interfaces of the real systems are studied and understood considering a certain granularity level, which is specific to the momentary interest, but also to the technologies and the paradigms that are used. in other words, the approximation is also inherent in an explanation or modelling approach that is centred towards interfaces. the error that is characteristic to the process of approximation ultimately determines the practical utility of the explanation or modelling approach that is centred towards interfaces. in general, the errors that become apparent in a systemic demarche are of two kinds: methodologically assumed and involuntary. the errors that are methodologically assumed represent the necessary ingredients of any iterative systemic approach, which involves the progressive deciphering of the system’s complexity considering multiple perspectives that correspond to particular abstraction schemes. the involuntary errors are provoked by the unsatisfactory preparedness of the modelling specialist, provided that there are no flaws of the methodological context. the preparedness is normally the expression of a solid theoretical background, together with a notable practical experience. as an example, the specialists that do not commit individual errors of any kind are too few to satisfy the requirements of the it industry. thus, it can be asserted that the evolution of the it projects is questioned, even if considering only a theoretical perspective. what should one expect brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 92 considering a practical perspective? naturally, one should expect that mitigation efforts were conducted through a careful management of the it projects. this is a proof that the quality of the artefacts that are produced by the it projects depends on the quality of the engineering activities, but it also depends on the feasibility and reliability of the it company’s management style. these two fundamental types of activities overlap according to some general requirements that are specified in figure 1, but also in (bocu & bocu, 2013). the problem of the process that is described in figure 1 is simple: how can we limit the pressure of the involuntary errors on the management of the it project and, obviously, how can we optimize the abstraction method in order to obtain better quality artefacts? the possible answer to these two questions is represented by the modelling that highlights the importance of the interfaces for the software systems engineering. this is the problematic that is thoroughly approached in the following sections. 2. the conceptual apparatus that is used in the interface oriented modeling 2.1. interface orientation. introduction the experience that is accumulated regarding the modelling paradigms in the software engineering is impressive. thus, the software engineering recognizes modelling paradigms like object orientation, aspect orientation, component orientation, service orientation, agent orientation. in one form or another, these paradigms prove their excellence in certain types of it projects. at the same time, these paradigms reveal their objective limits when they are used to engineer the real world software systems. every modelling paradigm represents, in fact, a modality to represent the real world using a specific formal framework. the specificity of the formal framework is defined from both a syntactic and semantic perspective. the formal syntactic framework of a paradigm refers to the concepts that are used by the paradigm in order to represent the real world, but also to the recommended principles that allow for these concepts to interact in a correct and efficient manner. both the concepts and the principles benefit from a formal representation that ultimately favours communication as a secondary modelling lever inside the it projects. every syntactic artefact of a paradigm can be associated with a certain real world semantics, which it abstracts. as a consequence, considering that the real world continuously enhances its semantic potential, the syntactic constructs that are favoured by the paradigm may become problematic. d. bocu, r. bocu the fundamentals regarding the usage of the concept of interface for the modeling of the software artefacts 93 the formal purity of the syntactic constructs that are related to a paradigm, thus becomes an obstacle in the way of the modelling process. figure 1. visual and synthetic representation of the modelling process in the software industry even considering that a paradigm possesses the extension mechanisms of its own formal potential, the semantic richness of the real world cannot be always captured without compromises. from here, there is only one step for the paradigm’s criticism to appear, which is represented by the methodic wish to use the paradigm without risky formal compromises. therefore, the logic of the relation between the syntax of a paradigm and the semantics to which brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 94 it relates does not exclude the possibility of some criticism to occur, which is based on the coherent assessment of the produced artefacts’ quality. consequently, the attempt to obtain a correct and long lasting definition of interface orientation announces itself as being fundamentally risky. this would not be a novelty since the world of the it systems is based on both excellently articulated theories, and also on practical development recipes, which value the attractiveness of the intuition and / or the vigour of the empirical approach. this is a valid principle, as each formal system should have its roots in a rich ideatic universe, whose appearance is not necessarily deducible from a limited number of concepts and axioms. it is certain that the software engineering already uses the concept of interface in order to found other paradigms and useful practices regarding the modelling, implementation and testing of the software systems. the subtlety of the concept of interface has been perceived and appreciated by numerous specialists. this paper describes a modelling method of the software systems that considers the interface as its fundamental concept. the paper (bocu & bocu, 2013) presents the concept of interface as an ingredient that plays an important role in the evolution of real and artificial systems, and also highlights the tight connection that exists between the abstraction methods in general and the concept of interface. the authors of this paper have the intention, which is deducible from figure 1, to use the interface both as a mediator among the structure and the behaviour of a software system, but also as a maximum utility ingredient in the effort to approach the management towards the process of a software system’s solution engineering. 2.2. the concept of artefact 2.2.1. preliminary remarks the world that we attempt to understand and to model is made up of objects, which will simply be named artefacts, as it is useful to avoid the interferences with other explanatory or modelling paradigms. the artefact is a material or spiritual object, which has the feature to be unique in a world that highlights its usefulness through the methodic experimentation of the interaction that is centred towards fostering the diversity. it is envisioned to place a greater importance on formalization, so the following definition is proposed. definition 1. let us call artefact an object that is created by a human mind, whose informational features can be captured and represented by using three types of patterns: the architectural pattern, the structural pattern, and the behavioural pattern. the architectural pattern of an artefact optimally captures and represents data that suggest the usefulness and value of the artefact. it is intended to further insist on the high abstraction level of the architectural patterns, and it is legitimate to say that they reflect the demiurgic intentions of the artefact’s creator. the main utility of these intentions is centred towards the idea to improve the environment in which the artefact will operate. the structural pattern of an artefact optimally captures and represents data that refers the components of the artefact and the relations among them. the environment in which the artefact will operate has to be structurally stable in order to make the most out of the subordinated artefacts. consequently, it is possible to assert that the structural pattern reflects the compromise between the change offer that is encapsulated in the architectural pattern, and the need for stability of the environment in which the artefact will operate. the behavioural pattern of an artefact optimally captures and represents data that refers to the dynamics of the relations that express between the components of the artefact. every behavioural pattern becomes a concrete modality that values the potential that is encapsulated in the structural pattern. it is relevant to mention that an artefact appears during the modelling process in two hypostases: the descriptive model hypostasis, and the instance hypostasis. the descriptive model hypostasis is presented in definition 1. the instance hypostasis is introduced in definition 2. d. bocu, r. bocu the fundamentals regarding the usage of the concept of interface for the modeling of the software artefacts 95 definition 2. let us define an instance hypostasis artefact as an artefact that is obtained through the customization of the data that determine the three patterns, which describe any artefact. the instance hypostasis of an artefact is useful in order to streamline the communication among the members of an it project. the descriptive model hypostasis remains fundamental in order to specify, represent and manage the attributes of an artefact. 2.2.2. the concept of interface the general theory of the systems has been created in order to explain and model the real system, which interact with the environment that contains them. the interaction between systems and the environment that includes them is accomplished by resorting to the use of interfaces. considering this perspective, any artefact that operates as a substitute for a certain system possesses one or more interfaces that allow it to interact with other artefacts. definition 3. let us call interface of an artefact a component of the artefact that abstracts part of its interaction potential with the environment into which it integrates. the artefacts, as components of a problem’s solution in the software industry, collaborate in order to ensure the efficient operation of the integrative system. the diversity of the types of artefacts that are developed with the goal to elaborate and represent the solution of a problem in the software systems’ engineering contributes to the diversification of the hypostases that determine the operation of the concept of interface. without considering this diversity, certain traits of the interfaces are essential in order to structure around them a particular approach. it is all about the following: — the imperative stability, which is methodically assumed, is beneficial for the engneering process, but also for the management process; — fostering the specification and realization of some artefacts that are optimally coupled with each other; — the optimal configuration, as a modality to highlight the artefact’s structural and behavioural potential; — the openness towards testing, regardless of the type of interface. although it is extremely useful and important as a pure abstraction, an interface also showcases its operational usefulness if we consider another two common aspects that pertain to the work with interfaces: the implementation and the valorisation. definition 4. let us call implementation of an interface a circumstantial modality to provide the necessary support in order to instantiate the interface. as soon as the problem of an interface implementation is addressed, it makes sense to talk about the valorisation of one of its instances. definition 5. let us call valorisation of an interface a pragmatic usage scenario of one instance of the interface. the separation of the interface from its circumstantial implementations brings flexibility for the process of a software system’s realization, but also regarding the endeavour to increase the qualitative level of the software system. furthermore, the separation of the interface from its potential valorisations is an advantage, which is appreciated by any it specialist that is preoccupied by the impact of any changes that may influence the software systems’ lifecycle. 2.2.3. further remarks regarding the concept of architectural pattern of an artefact in practice, the architectural pattern represents the modality that is chosen by the artefact’s creator in order to answer the question ”what does the artefact do?”. as an example, let us suppose that the artefact is a new educational system, so it is obvious that we cannot circumvent the question ”what does the new educational system do?”, without taking the risk on multiple plans. although it may seem peculiar and incommodious to those that do not believe in the practical brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 96 usefulness of the abstract ideas, the answer to this question is never simple. in fact, the answer to the question ”what does the artefact do?” reflects the ability of its creator to imagine the essential properties of the artefact. let us consider the example of a new educational software system. thus, it may be considered that its essential properties are deducible from the answers to the following two questions: — what is the mission of the educational system (that is to say, what will be its contribution regarding the transformation of the beneficiary society?); — what is the vision that is considered by the creator during the endeavour to realize the system? although it is a truism, it is significant to remark that the definition of an artefact’s mission and the vision that is promoted on the occasion of its realization bears the seal of subjectivism and the limits that stem out of this subjectivism. the biggest problems of an artefact have their source in the modality that the creator used in order to associate the artefact with a mission and with a vision. the artefact is not appreciated by the society according to its technical complexity, but based on its perceived influence on the society, and this influence is advisable to be beneficial. therefore, the mission of an artefact and the vision that is associated to the process of the artefact’s realization have to be defined correctly and in an inspired manner. if we admit that it is of interest to answer the question ”what is the mission of the educational system?” then we assume a very complex endeavour. the complexity is the one that invites us to be prudent, to choose a proper method, and to critically examine considering, at least, three levels: ethics, aesthetics, and pragmatic. the unconfessed goal of any endeavour of this type is represented by the hypothetical absolute truth. is the human being able to operate with the absolute truth? this is to say, the truth that is not dependent on the logical infrastructure that is used to discover it. is it possible to materialize the absolute truth or is it just an imperfect guiding principle, which guarantees the predictable behaviour of the systems that value the importance of the freewill? it is not applicable to insist in this paper, but it is obvious that without the freewill (the initiative) being able to express, the systems are condemned to stagnate. it seems that there are few creators that are motivated by the idea to live in a world that is methodically preoccupied by the absolute stagnation. 2.2.4. further remarks regarding the concept of structural pattern of an artefact while the architectural pattern of an artefact emphasizes the role of the major abstractions in order to understand the artefact’s utility, the structural pattern insists on the detailed description of the artefact’s potentialities. considering a structural perspective, an artefact is a potentiality that waits to be valorised directly by the bahavioural pattern, and indirectly by the artefact’s user. there are a few essential perspectives that should be considered during the abstractization effort that is necessary in order to elaborate the structural pattern: — the proper scaling of the artefact’s resources requirements (what are the necessary and sufficient resources to ensure the accomplishment of the artefact’s mission?); — the systematic minimization of the redundancies that may affect the quality of a design effort, in general; — the provision of an adequate support in order to make the structure of the artefact compatible with the collaboration intentions of other artefacts; — the careful modularization of the structural pattern, and consequently of the artefact. the decisions that are taken during the elaboration of an artefact’s structural pattern are prone to an earlier obsolescence than the architectural pattern that is properly elaborated. thus, the costs to maintain the structural pattern are higher. in theory, every valuable artefact produces a positive change in the environment inside which it operates. the accumulation of these changes environment-wide is the main factor that determines the obsolescence of an artefact’s structure. d. bocu, r. bocu the fundamentals regarding the usage of the concept of interface for the modeling of the software artefacts 97 the structure needs to stagnate in order for it to behave plenary. the effects that are produced by an artefact on the environment announce new changes, even considering the vision that is associated to that artefact. the essential resources that are used to elaborate the artefact’s structural behaviour are: — the interfaces of the artefact; — the interfaces of the artefact’s components; — the components of the artefact, considering various levels of specification and abstractization; — the relations that exist among the artefact’s components; — the relations that exist among the artefact’s interfaces; — the relations that exist between the artefact’s components and the interfaces. it is probably obvious the relativism that pertains to the usage of the words artefact and component. in fact, the distinction is dictated by formal reasons, and not by semantic requirements. considering a closed semantic universe, the artefact is not always assimilable to a component, while a component is always assimilable to an artefact. naturally, considering most of the cases, the universe of the artefact is broader than the universe of the component in the context of the communication’s logic. 2.2.5. further remarks regarding the concept of behavioural pattern of an artefact the basic components of the environment inside which the artefact operates are: time, space and the other artefacts and natural systems. every artefact, considering its goal and the vision that is associated to it, will apply a certain behavioural pattern, considering the idea that it has to optimize or preserve certain environmental equilibria. in theory, at least, things should be different. all the ideas or important truths to which humans relate target the enhancement of certain systems in which the humans live or act. naturally, the very concept of enhancement is debatable but, it is not within this paper’s scope to discuss on this matter. thus, let us define the behavioural pattern of an artefact as a compact and intelligent representation of the artefact’s potential of expression. the behavioural pattern has to efficiently and intelligently harness this potential. the practice shows, through numerous examples, that the human mind imagined a lot of artefacts that haven’t come to prominence because their potential hasn’t been properly harnessed. this means that there are certain constraints that accompany the approach to harness the artefact’s structural potential. the following realities are part of the short list that determines the already mentioned constraints. — the existence of a supporting technological context in order to effectively realize the artefact. the architecture and the structure may be theoretically approached without considering the technological context. as soon as the behaviour is considered, it is useful to assess the technological context in order to make sure that the artefact’s realization becomes reality with reasonable costs. the specification of the artefact’s architecture without considering the technological context implies that the effort to realize this technological context is assumed. this implies the existence of significant production costs, which only projects with satisfactory funding can afford. — if there are several technologies available, the choice of the optimal technology is an important factor. — the quality of the human resource that is implied in the effective realization of the artefact. — the management style that is enforced during the artefact’s realization. in fact, it is correct to assert that these constraints are present during the whole process of the artefact’s realization. if these constraints are not properly managed, the artefact will be characterized by a questionable quality. the simple problem is: what is the correct approach when trying to direct the transition from the structural pattern that features intentions of stability to the behavioural pattern, which is forced to keep up with the technological evolution, but also with the changing requirements of the artefact’s end users? this is the most important challenge that all the creators of brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 98 artefacts face: how do their artefacts manage the process of change? in this respect, the human artefacts are of two types: — naturally resistant to changes; — naturally dependent on changes. the artefacts that are naturally resistant to changes are generally methods to understand and model the universe, whose theoretical foundations are characterized by a remarkable stability. this category includes the vast majority of the methods that are used to obtain knowledge in the natural sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc.). as much as the knowledge progresses extensively and intensively, the scientific methods that are specific to the natural sciences may be adjusted. nevertheless, these adjustments rather pertain to the precision of knowledge than on its order of magnitude. as an example, which is well known in physics, the special theory of relativity the followed by the general theory of relativity have not eliminated the truths that pertain to the newtonian mechanics, but rather helped at explaining the universe considering a totally different scale. furthermore, the same assertion may be made regarding the relation that exists between the euclidean geometry, and the so called non-euclidean geometries. the artefacts that are naturally dependent on changes are tightly connected to the technologies that are developed in order to deepen and validate the methods that generate knowledge, which are naturally resistant to changes. naturally, we simply observe that the computer science is largely based on artefacts that are naturally dependent on changes. the theoretical foundations of the computer science are closely related to the technological foundations. considering that in the world of technologies the change is the trick, which is used by the industry in order to perform on the long term, the it artefacts continuously address the problems that are generated by the fragility of the technological solutions. thus, we are able to conclude, once more, that the value of an it artefact has to be assessed considering two perspectives: the process that generates the artefact, and the product that is obtained as a consequence of this process. the key to getting the momentum in the fight with the it technologies changes resides in the research of the approach that is associated with the process that produces the it artefacts. 2.3. phases regarding the realization of an it artefact 2.3.1. the artefact as a metaphor in general, a metaphor resembles to a seed that arrives on a fertile land and grows into a tree, whose branches delight the eyes and the curiosity. regardless of its talent, an artist cannot stay famous to the posterity if the metaphor is not cultivated. the metaphor is a kind of armour in which the artist dresses an idea in order to enhance its beauty, meaning and resistance to degradation that invariably threatens any idea, which witnesses the lapse of time. the scientist pragmatically pursues details and formalisms that precisely describe how they link together, and they have consequently largely forgotten about the importance of metaphors. ultimately, the metaphor feels at ease at the border between the light and the darkness, the knowledge and the unknown, the moment and the infinity. these hypostases allow the average man or the scientist to metaphorically formulate the relation that exists between the certainties and the uncertainties, which accompany their cognitive approaches. an artefact that exists as a metaphor represents an attractive, realistic and synthetic statement regarding an idea that aims to improve an existing system. in other words, the artefact that is just a metaphor has to be interesting for its potential beneficiaries, and it also has to be appealing to the ones that will make this metaphor germinate. it can be observed in figure 2 that if the artefact is just a metaphor, it can be represented, at least, through a codename and a story. d. bocu, r. bocu the fundamentals regarding the usage of the concept of interface for the modeling of the software artefacts 99 2.3.2. the artefact as a black box the accumulation of energy that exists in each ingenious metaphor is progressively released, thus contributing to the transformation of a theoretical promise into effective reality. the artefact successively goes through several maturation stages, as the creator is preoccupied with obtaining an as precise and as close as possible description of the artefact as it exists as a metaphor. the completion of these successive stages is achieved through a methodic abstraction process, while leaving open the possibility to innovate and targeting three main objectives: — broadening the abstraction scope; — adding new details; — detecting and eliminating abstraction errors. figure 2. the uml representation of the artefact as it exists as a metaphor figure 3. the artefact as it exists as a black box consequently, the artefact as it exists as a black box can be represented according to the representation in figure 3. it can be noticed that the artefact as it exists as a black box begins to interact with the environment. two main categories of interfaces may be utilized by any artefact in order to interact with the environment: — human computer interfaces (hci); — shared resource interfaces (sri). two remarks are necessary. they are redundant for specialists, but still necessary for those that begin their journey as creators of it artefacts. if the artefact’s complexity requires, several hci interfaces may exist, that are eventually structured considering the communication demands of the artefacts with the environment. the assertion is analogous for the sri interfaces. at this stage, the approach to specify the two categories of interfaces is mostly oriented towards the semantic brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 100 aspects of the interfaces. these are deducible following a rigorous analysis of the artefact’s potential users. the eventual commitments that are assumed for the artefact as it exists as a metaphor have to be considered when these interfaces are specified. it should be paid attention, even considering the specification variant that is mostly semantic, that these interfaces help to collect certain vital data for the design of the artefact’s behavioural pattern. this is accomplished starting with the information that is gathered considering the two initial patterns: the architectural pattern and the structural pattern. 2.3.3. the initial structuring stage the way the humans understand the world’s complexity reflects on their modality to act as creators. thus, considering that the world’s complexity is progressively perceived, so is the artefacts’ complexity progressively assimilated and coded. as soon as the artefact’s creator specified the intentions regarding the problem to be solved (the metaphor stage and the black box stage), he has to start the endeavour to address this problem. in practice, along with the incipient structuring phase, the creator begins to act as a demiurge. during this phase, the artefact’s creator looks for an optimal structuring modality, considering a high abstraction level, such that: — the interaction of the artefact with the host environment respects the promises of the metaphor; — the artefact possesses a proper quality behaviour as long as the artefact’s structure does not change; — the artefact adapts, with reasonable costs, to new requirements. it is ideal for the adaptation to new requirements not the affect the structural foundations, especially those that pertain to the initial structuring stage. the experience teaches us a lot regarding the initial structuring stage of an artefact. essentially, this is about choosing the optimal architecture, but specialists know that this choice represents a story that a knowledgeable person could hardly approach in a voluminous book. thus, this paper presents the essential landmarks concerning the design of an artefact during its initial structuring stage. figure 4 clearly demonstrates that the artefact as it exists as a black box has to be structured considering a high level of abstraction, while insisting on modularization, with all the benefits that are implied by such an approach. the attention that is paid to the interfaces is not symbolic, as it could be inferred from figure 4, but it rather involves starting the difficult process that allows for the selection of the interfaces that represent the optimal compromise between the following three types of requirements: — optimal user comfort; — optimal comfort concerning the change of the implementational support; — reasonable costs. although it would sound nice to ask the interfaces to offer comfort when they are partially redefined, we would rather not problematize this aspect at this moment. 2.3.4. the advanced structuring stage the advanced structuring stage is the expression of the thorough mastery of an artefact, and it describes to the last necessary detail the artefact’s infrastructure, using adequate concepts, with an explanatory and operational value. the advanced structuring stage is progressively obtained, considering at least two reasons: — the quantitative and qualitative complexity of the artefact; — the extensively experimented and studied human habit to gradually approach the unknown. d. bocu, r. bocu the fundamentals regarding the usage of the concept of interface for the modeling of the software artefacts 101 figure 4. the artefact during the initial structuring stage the it developer elaborates the detailed structure of the artefact, while considering several aspects: — the resources that are necessary to the artefact in order to accomplish its mission; — the artefact’s resistance to the changes regarding the functional requirements; — the artefact’s resistance to the technological changes; — the reasonably priced integration of the artefact in the structure of the host system; — the assurance of a reasonable reusability coefficient of the artefact during the structuring process of other artefacts; — the flexibility of the relations that exist among the components of the artefact; — the flexibility of the artefact’s connections with the host system. 3. preliminary remarks regarding the specification of the artefacts’ behavior the problem that concerns the specification of the artefacts’ behaviour is solved in various ways by different modelling languages. considering the software engineering from an uml perspective, it is immediate to notice the lack of an approach that is widely accepted in the industry, when speaking about the modelling of the behaviour. the support that the uml offers concerning the behaviour is criticized as inadequate considering the demands of the case tools. more precisely, the code generation that is based on the uml specifications relative to the artefacts’ bahaviour is still unsatisfactory. in practice, the modelling becomes mandatory if the artefacts that are generated constitute a quality factor that is statistically proven, but also ingredients that may contribute to a better management of the it projects. in fact, the fundamental reproach that is addressed to some uml artefacts, such as the sequence diagrams, as an example, is formulated in a simple manner: are the costs that are incurred by the sequence diagrams realization justified? many experts in the field of the software engineering argue that the answer is still negative. the problematic of the behaviour’s modelling will constitute the object of a future paper. nevertheless, it is relevant to emphasize the close connection between structural and behavioural regarding the process of the software system’s modelling. this close connection makes difficult for the boundary between static and dynamic to be drawn when the system is described. this paper brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 102 suggests that the transition from structure to behaviour is accomplished with the help of a special artefact, the interface. it can be considered ambivalent, as it features both structural and behavioural affinities in connection to an artefact. 4. acknowledgements this work is supported by the transylvania university of brasov, romania. references bocu, d. & bocu, r. (2013). remarks on interface oriented software systems modelling: international journal of computers, communication and control, vol. 8, no. 5. meyer, b. (1997). object-oriented software construction: prentice hall., 2, 331-410. pugh, k. (2006). interface oriented design: the pragmatic programmers, 2006-7-23. available at http://buhoz.net/public/libros/design/interface.oriented.design.jun.2006.pdf saha, p. (2007) handbook of enterprise systems architecture in practice: igi global, doi:10.4018/978-1-59904-189-6.ch001. tidwell, j. (2010). designing interfaces: o’reilly, december 2010: second edition, isbn: 978-1449-37970-4. available at http://internativa.com.br/mobile/livro%20%20designing%20interfaces,%202nd%20edition, %202010.pdf microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 133 state of the art: signature biometrics verification mohamed soltane electronics department, faculty of engineering science, “badji mokhtar” university of annaba, annaba, 23000, algeria soltane@lri-annaba.net & xor99@hotmail.com noureddine doghmane electronics department, faculty of engineering science, “badji mokhtar” university of annaba annaba, 23000, algeria ndoghmane@univ-annaba.org nourddine guersi electronics department, faculty of engineering science, “badji mokhtar” university of annaba, annaba, 23000, algeria guersi54@yahoo.fr abstract this paper presents a comparative analysis of the performance of three estimation algorithms: expectation maximization (em), greedy em algorithm (gem) and figueiredo-jain algorithm (fj) based on the gaussian mixture models (gmms) for signature biometrics verification. the simulation results have shown significant performance achievements. the test performance of eer=5.49 % for "em", eer=5.04 % for "gem", and eer=5.00 % for "fj", shows that the behavioral information scheme of signature biometrics is robust and has a discriminating power, which can be explored for identity authentication. keywords: biometric authentication, behavioral, signature, soft decision and gaussian mixture modal, em, gem and fj. 1. introduction biometric is a greek composite word stemming from the synthesis of bio and metric, meaning life measurement. in this context, the science of biometrics is concerned with the accurate measurement of unique biological characteristics of an individual in order to securely identify them to a computer or other electronic system. biological characteristics measured usually include fingerprints, voice patterns, retinal and iris scans, face patterns, and even the chemical composition of an individual's dna [1]. biometrics authentication (ba) (am i whom i claim i am?) involves confirming or denying a person's claimed identity based on his/her physiological or behavioral characteristics [2]. ba is becoming an important alternative to traditional authentication methods such as keys (“something one has", i.e., by possession) or pin numbers (“something one knows", i.e., by knowledge) because it is essentially “who one is", i.e., by biometric information. therefore, it is not susceptible to misplacement or forgetfulness [3]. these biometric systems for personal authentication and identification are based upon physiological or behavioral features which are typically distinctive, although time varying, such as fingerprints, hand geometry, face, voice, lip movement, gait, and iris patterns. an identity verification system has to deal with two kinds of events: either the person claiming a given identity is the one who he claims to be (in which case, he is called a client), or he is not (in which case, he is called an impostor). moreover, the system may generally take two decisions: either accept the client or reject him and decide he is an impostor. some works based on biometric signature identity verification systems has been reported in literature. a. perez-hernandez et al. [13] propose a simple adaptive off-line signature recognition method based on the feature analysis of extracted significant strokes for a given signature. their system correctly decides on the majority of tested patterns, which include both simple and skilled forgeries. experimental results have showed a good trade-off between response time and reasonable recognition accuracy. hugo gamboa et al. [14] describe a new behavioral biometric technique based on human computer interaction. they developed a system that captures the user interaction m. soltane, doghmane, n. guersi – state of the art: signature biometrics verification 134 via a pointing device, and uses this behavioral information to verify the identity of an individual. using statistical pattern recognition techniques, they developed a sequential classifier that processes user interaction, according to which the user identity is considered genuine if a predefined accuracy level is achieved, and the user is classified as an impostor otherwise. two statistical models for the features were tested, namely parzen density estimation and a uni-modal distribution. the system was tested with different numbers of users in order to evaluate the scalability of the proposal. experimental results showed that the normal user interaction with the computer via a pointing device entails behavioral information with discriminating power that can be explored for identity authentication. ibrahim s. i. abuhaiba [4] presents a simple and effective signature verification method that depends only on the raw binary pixel intensities and avoids using complex sets of features. the method looks at the signature verification problem as a graph matching problem. the method is tested using genuine and forgery signatures produced by five subjects. an equal error rate of 26.7% and 5.6% was achieved for skilled and random forgeries, respectively. a positive property of the algorithm is that the false acceptance rate of random forgeries vanishes at the point of equal false rejection and skilled forgery false acceptance rates. 2. biometric signature verification handwritten signature is one of the first accepted civilian and forensic biometric identification technique in our society [4]. human verification is normally very accurate in identifying genuine signatures. a signature verification system must be able to detect forgeries and at the same time reduce rejection of genuine signatures. the signature verification problem can be classified into categories: offline and online. offline signature verification does not use dynamic information that is used extensively in online signature verification systems. this paper investigates the problem of offline signature verification. the problem of offline signature verification has been faced by taking into account three different types of forgeries: random forgeries, produced without knowing either the name of the signer or the shape of his signature; simple forgeries, produced knowing the name of the signer but without having an example of his signature; and skilled forgeries, produced by people who, looking at an original instance of the signature, attempt to imitate it as closely as possible. figure 1. wacom graphire3 digitizing tabletpc a. feature extraction the coordinate trajectories (xn yn) and pressure signal are the components of the unprocessed feature vectors [ ]tnnnn pyxu ,,= extracted from the signature signal [5], where n =1,...,ns and ns is the duration of the signature in time samples. signature trajectories are then preprocessed by subtracting the centre of mass followed by rotation alignment based on the average path tangent angle. an extended set of discrete-time functions are derived from the pre-processed trajectories consisting of sample estimations of various dynamic properties. as s result, the parameterised signature o consists in the sequence of feature vectors [ ]nnnnnnnn yxvpyxo && ,,,,, θ= , n =1,...,ns, where the upper dot notation represents an approximation to the first order time derivative and θ and v stand respectively for path tangent angle, path velocity magnitude. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 135 22 iii yxv && += and ),arctan( iii xy &&=θ and 1−−= iii xxx& and 1−−= iii yyy& a whitening linear transformation is finally applied to each discrete-time function so as to obtain zero mean and unit standard deviation function values. seven dimensional feature vectors are used for gmm processing described in the following section. figure 3 shows x-, y-, pand velocity signals of an example signature. figure 2. azimuth and inclination angles of the pen respect to the plane of the graphic card gd-0405u from wacom graphire3 digitizing tabletpc figure 3. signals (x-, yposition, pen pressure and velocity) of one signature fragment. m. soltane, doghmane, n. guersi – state of the art: signature biometrics verification 136 b. maximum likelihood parameter estimation given a set of observation data in a matrix x and a set of observation parameters θ the ml parameter estimation aims at maximizing the likelihood )(θl or log likelihood of the observation data { }nxxx ,...,1= ).(maxargˆ θθ θ l= (1) assuming that it has independent, identically distributed data, it can write the above equations as: .)|()|,...,()|()( 11 ∏ ==== n i in xpxxpxpl θθθθ (2) the maximum for this function can be found by taking the derivative and set it equal to zero, assuming an analytical function. .0)( = ∂ ∂ θ θ l (3) the incomplete-data log-likelihood of the data for the mixture model is given by: ∑ === n i i xxl 1 )|log()|log()( θθθ (4) which is difficult to optimize because it contains the log of the sum. if it considers x as incomplete, however, and posits the existence of unobserved data items { }niiyy 1== whose values inform us which component density generated each data item, the likelihood expression is significantly simplified. that is, it assumes that yi ∈ {1, …, k} for each i, and yi=k if the i-th sample was generated by the k-th mixture component. if it knows the values of y, it obtains the complete-data log-likelihood, given by: )|,(log)|( θθ yxpyl = (5) ∑ == n i ii yxp 1 )|,(log θ (6) ∑ == n i iii yxpxp 1 )),|()|(log( θθ (7) ∑ ∑= += n i iyiy yxgp ii1 )),|(log(log μ (8) which, given a particular form of the component densities, can be optimized using a variety of techniques [6]. c. em algorithm the expectation-maximization (em) algorithm [7][8] [9][10] is a procedure for maximumlikelihood (ml) estimation in the cases where a closed form expression for the optimal parameters is hard to obtain. this iterative algorithm guarantees the monotonic increase in the likelihood l when the algorithm is run on the same training database. the probability density of the gaussian mixture of k components in rd can be described as follows: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 137 ∑ == n i i x 1 i )|ø(x)( θπφ ∈∀x rd, (9) where ∅(x|θi) is a gaussian probability density with the parameters ( )iii m σ= ,θ , mi is the mean vector and iς is the covariance matrix which is assumed positive definite given by: )()( 2 1 2 1 2 ii 1 1 ||)2( 1 ),m|ø(x)|ø(x i t i mxmx i ni e −σ−− − σ =σ= π θ (10) and [ ] ),...,2,1(1,0 kii =∈π are the mixing proportions under the constraint 11 =∑ = k i i π . if it encapsulates all the parameters into one vector: ( )kkk θθθπππθ ,...,,,,...,, 2121= , then , according to (8), the density of gaussian mixture can be rewritten as: ∑ ∑ ∑= ===θ k i k i iiik x 1 1 ii ),m|ø(x)|ø(x)|( πθπφ . (11) for the gaussian mixture modeling, there are many learning algorithms. but the em algorithm may be the most well-known one. by alternatively implementing the e-step to estimate the probability distribution of the unobservable random variable and the m-step to increase the log-likelihood function, the em algorithm can finally lead to a local maximum of the log-likelihood function of the model. for the gaussian mixture model, given a sample data set s={x1, x2, …, xn} as a special incomplete data set, the log-likelihood function can be expressed as follows: ∏ ∑ ∑= = ==θ=θ n t n t k i iikk sp 1 1 1 tt )|ø(xlog)|ø(xlog)|(log θπ (12) which can be optimized iteratively via the em algorithm as follows: ∑ = = k i jj jj txjp 1 t t )|ø(x )|ø(x )|( θπ θπ , (13) ∑ = + = n t tj xjp n 1 )|( 1 π , (14) t n t tn t t j xxjp xjp ∑ ∑ == + = 1 1 )|( )|( 1 μ , (15) t jtjt n t tn t t j xxxjp xjp ))(()|( )|( 1 1 1 ++ = = + −−=σ ∑ ∑ μμ (16) although the em algorithm can have some good convergence properties in certain situations, it certainly has no ability to determine the proper number of the components for a sample data set because it is based on the maximization of the likelihood. m. soltane, doghmane, n. guersi – state of the art: signature biometrics verification 138 d. greedy em algorithm the greedy algorithm (gem) [7][8][10][11] starts with a single component and then adds components into the mixture one by one. the optimal starting component for a gaussian mixture is trivially computed, optimal meaning the highest training data likelihood. the algorithm repeats two steps: insert a component into the mixture, and run em until convergence. inserting a component that increases the likelihood the most is thought to be an easier problem than initializing a whole near-optimal distribution. component insertion involves searching for the parameters for only one component at a time. recall that em finds a local optimum for the distribution parameters, not necessarily the global optimum which makes it initialization dependent method. given cp a ccomponent gaussian mixture with parameters cθ . the general greedy algorithm for gaussian mixture is as follows: 1. compute the optimal (in the ml sense) one-component mixture p1 and set 1←c . 2. find a new component ),;( '' σμxν and corresponding mixing weight that increase the likelihood the most: ∑ =σ σ+−=σ n i iic xxp 1},,{ ''' )],;()()1ln[(maxarg},,{ μαααμ αμ n (17) while keeping pc fixed. 3. set ),;(')()'1()( ''1 σ+−←+ μαα xxpxp cc n and then 1+← cc . 4. update pc using em (or more other method) until convergence. 5. evaluate some stopping criterion; go to step 2 or quit. the stopping criterion in step 5 can be for example any kind of model selection criterion, wanted number of components, or the minimum message length criterion. the crucial point is of course step 2. finding the optimal new component requires a global search, which is performed by creating cncand candidate components. the number of candidates will increase linearly with the number of components c, having ncand candidates per each existing component. the candidate resulting in the highest likelihood when inserted into the (previous) mixture is selected. the parameters and weight of the best candidate are then used in step 3 instead of the truly optimal values. the candidates for executing step 2 are initialized as follows: the training data set x is partitioned into c disjoints data sets {ac}, c=1…c according to the posterior probabilities of individual components; the data set is bayesian classified by the mixture components. from each ac number of ncand candidates are initialized by picking uniformly randomly two data points xl and xr in ac. the set ac is then partitioned into two using the smallest distance selection with respect to xl and xr. the mean and covariance of these two new subsets are the parameters for two new candidates. the candidate weights are set to half of the weight of the component that produced the set ac. then new xl and xr are drawn until ncand candidates are initialized with ac. the partial em algorithm is then used on each of the candidates. the partial em differs from the em and cem algorithms by optimizing (updating) only one component of a mixture; it does not change any other components. in order to reduce the time complexity of the algorithm a lower bound on the loglikelihood is used instead of the true log-likelihood. the lower-bound log-likelihood is calculated with only the points in the respective set ac. the partial em update equations are as follows: ),,()()1( ),,( 1, σ+− σ =+ μαα μα ic i ci xxp x w n n , (18) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 139 ∑∈ += cai ci c w a 1,)( 1 n α (19) ∑ ∑ ∈ + ∈ += c c ai ci ai ici w xw 1, 1, μ (20) ∑ ∑ ∈ + ∈ + −− =σ c c ai ci ai t iici w xxw 1, 1, ))(( μμ (21) where n(ac) is the number of training samples in the set ac. these equations are much like the basic em update equations in eqs. (6) (8). the partial em iterations are stopped when the relative change in log-likelihood of the resulting c + 1 –component mixture drops below threshold or maximum number of iterations is reached. when the partial em has converged the candidate is ready to be evaluated. e. figueiredo-jain algorithm the figueiredo-jain (fj) [7][8][10][11] algorithm tries to overcome three major weaknesses of the basic em algorithm. the em algorithm presented previous section requires the user to set the number of components and the number will be fixed during the estimation process. the fj algorithm adjusts the number of components during estimation by annihilating components that are not supported by the data. this leads to the other em failure point, the boundary of the parameter space. fj avoids the boundary when it annihilates components that are becoming singular. fj also allows starting with an arbitrarily large number of components, which tackles the initialization issue with the em algorithm. the initial guesses for component means can be distributed into the whole space occupied by training samples, even setting one component for every single training sample. the classical way to select the number of mixture components is to adopt the "modelclass/model" hierarchy, where some candidate models (mixture pdf's) are computed for each modelclass (number of components), and then select the "best" model. the idea behind the fj algorithm is to abandon such hierarchy and to find the "best" overall model directly. using the minimum message length criterion and applying it to mixture models leads to the objective function: ),(ln 2 )1( 12 ln 212 ln 2 ),( 0: θ α θ α x vcncnv x nznz c c c l− + ++⎟ ⎠ ⎞ ⎜ ⎝ ⎛=λ ∑ > (22) where n is the number of training points, v is the number of free parameters specifying a component, and cnz is the number of components with nonzero weight in the mixture ( 0>cα ). the last term ),(ln θxl is the log-likelihood of the training data given the distribution parameters (eq. 8). the em algorithm can be used to minimize eq. 22 with a fixed cnz it leads to the m-step with component weight updating formula: ( ) ( )∑ ∑ ∑ = = = + ⎭ ⎬ ⎫ ⎩ ⎨ ⎧ − ⎭ ⎬ ⎫ ⎩ ⎨ ⎧ − = c j n n cn n n cn i c v w v w 1 1 , 1 , 1 2 ,0max 2 ,0max α . (23) this formula contains an explicit rule of annihilating components by setting their weights to zero. the above m-steps are not suitable for the basic em algorithm though. when initial c is high, it can happen that all weights become zero because none of the components have enough support from the data. therefore a component-wise em algorithm (cem) is adopted. cem updates the m. soltane, doghmane, n. guersi – state of the art: signature biometrics verification 140 components one by one, computing the e-step (updating w) after each component update, where the basic em updates all components "simultaneously". when a component is annihilated its probability mass is immediately redistributed strengthening the remaining components. when cem converges, it is not guaranteed that the minimum of 0),( >λ xθ is found, because the annihilation rule (eq. 23) does not take into account the decrease caused by decreasing cnz. after convergence the component with the smallest weight is removed and the cem is run again, repeating until cnz=1. then the estimate with the smallest ),( xθλ is chosen. the implementation of the fj algorithm uses a modified cost function instead of ),( xθλ . ),(lnln 2 )1( ln 2 ),( 0: ' θαθ α xn vcv x nz c cc l− + +=λ ∑ > . (24) 3. experiments and results the experiments were performed using signatures database obtained from enterface 2005 [12]. thirty subjects were used for the experiments in which twenty-six are males and four are females. for each subject, 30 signatures (with dat header) are used. each line of a (.dat files) consists of four comma separated integer values for the sampled xand yposition of the pen tip, the pen pressure and the timestamp (in ms); the lines with values of -1 for x, y and pressure represent a pen-up/pen-down event; the device used for recording the handwriting data was a wacom graphire3 digitizing tablet. size of sensing surface is 127.6mm x 92.8mm. with spatial resolution of 2032 lpi (lines per inch), able to measure 512 degrees of pressure. the signature data is acquired with a non-fixed sampling rate of about 100hz. for the experts, twenty-four signatures from a subject were randomly selected for training, and the other six samples were used for the subsequent validation and testing. three sessions of the signature database were used separately. session one was used for training the signature experts. each expert used ten mixture client models. to find the performance, sessions two and three were used for obtaining expert opinions of known impostor and true claims. performance criteria: the basic error measure of a verification system is false rejection rate (frr) and false acceptance rate (far) as defined in the following equations: false rejection rate (frri): is an average of number of falsely rejected transactions. if n is a transaction and x(n) is the verification result where 1 is falsely rejected and 0 is accepted and n is the total number of transactions then the personal false rejection rate for user i is ∑ = = n n i nxn frr 1 )( 1 (25) false acceptance rate (fari) is an average of number of falsely accepted transactions. if n is a transaction and x(n) is the verification result where 1 is a falsely accepted transaction and 0 is genuinely accepted transaction and n is the total number of transactions then the personal false acceptance rate for user i is ∑ = = n n i nxn far 1 )( 1 (26) both frri and fari are usually calculated as averages over an entire population in a test. if p is the size of populations then these averages are ∑= p i ifrrp frr 1 (27) ∑= p i ifarp far 1 (28) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 141 equal error rate (eer), is an intersection where far and frr are equal at an optimal threshold value. this threshold value shows where the system performs at its best (see figure 4). figure 4. detection error tradeoff curves as a common starting point, classifier parameters were selected to obtain performance as close as possible to eer on clean test data (following the standard practice in the biometric verification area of using eer as a measure of expected performance). a good decision is to choose the decision threshold such as the false accept equal to the false reject rate. in this paper it uses the detection error tradeoff (det) curve to visualize and compare the performance of the system. m. soltane, doghmane, n. guersi – state of the art: signature biometrics verification 142 4. conclusion the paper has presented a human authentication method of behavioral biometrics signature information. simulation results show that state-of-the art finite mixture modal (gmm) is quite effective in modeling the genuine and impostor score densities. the (em), (gem) and (fj) estimation algorithms achieve a significant performance rates, eer=5.49 % for "em", eer=5.04 % for "gem" and eer=5.00 % for "fj". hence, the behavioral information scheme based on signature biometrics is robust and has a discriminating power, which can be explored for identity authentication. 5. references [1] gleni, s. & petratos, p. (2004). dna smart card for financial transactions. the acm student magazine 2004. retrieved from http://www.acm.org. [2] chetty, g. & wagner, m. (2006). audio-visual multimodal fusion for biometric person authentication and liveness verification. australian computer society, inc. in nicta-hcsnet multimodal userinteraction workshop (mmui2005), sydney, australia. [3] poh, n. & bengio, s. (2004). database, protocol and tools for evaluating score-level fusion algorithms in biometric authentication, idiap rr 04-44. martigny, switzerland. [4] abuhaiba, i. s. i. (2007). offline signature verification using graph matching, turk j elec engin, 15(1) [5] richiardi, j., fierrez-aguilar, j., ortiga-garcia, j. & drygajlo, a. (2004). on-line signature verification resilience to packet loss in ip networks. in: second cost 275 workshop biometrics on the internet: fundamentals, advances and applications. university of vigo, vigo-spain 25-26 march 2004. [6] kittler, j., hatef, m., duin, r. p. w. and matas, j. (1998). on combining classifiers. ieeetransactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence, 20(3), 226–239. [7] paalanen, p. (2004). bayesian classification using gaussian mixcute model and em estimation: implementation and comparisons. in: information technology project, 2004, lappeenranta, june 23. retrieved from http://www.it.lut.fi/project/gmmbayes/ [8] paalanen, p., kamarainen, j.-k., ilonen, j., kälviäinen, h. (2005). feature representation and discrimination based on gaussian mixture model probability densities: practices and algorithms. department of information technology, lappeenranta university of technology, lappeenranta, finland. [9] li, l. & ma, j. (2008) a byy split-and-merge em algorithm for gaussian mixture learning. in f. sun et al. (eds.): isnn 2008, part i. lncs 5263 (pp. 600–609), berlin, heidelberg: springerverlag. [10] verbeek, j.j., vlassis, n., krose, b. (2003). efficient greedy learning of gaussian mixture models. neural computation, 15(2), 469-485. [11] nunnink, j. r. j., verbeek, j. j., vlassis, n., accelerated greedy mixture learning, (research report) informatics institute, faculty of science, university of amsterdam kruislaan, amsterdam, the netherlands. [12] stylianou, y., pantazis, y., calderero, f., larroy, p., severin, f., schimke, s., bonal, r., matta, f., & valsamakis, a. (2005). gmm-based multimodal biometric verification. in enterface 2005. the summer workshop on multimodal interfaces, july 18th – august 12th, facultè polytechnique de mons, belgium. [13] perez-hernandez, a., sanchez, a. & velez, j. f. (2004). simplified stroke-based approach for off-line signature recognition. 2nd cost 275 workshop – biometrics on the internet, vigo, 2526 march 2004, spain. [14] gamboaa, h., fredb, a. a behavioural biometric system based on human computer interaction, (research report at escola superior de tecnologia de setubal, campo do ips, estefanilha, 2914-508 setubal, portugal). microsoft word brain_7_issue_4_version_4.doc 5 the status of positive psychology strengths within the romanian school in the digital society georgeta pânişoară faculty of psychology and educational sciences, university of bucharest, bucharest, romania georgeta.panisoara@fpse.unibuc.ro ion-ovidiu pânişoară faculty of psychology and educational sciences, university of bucharest, bucharest, romania ovidiu.panisoara@fpse.unibuc.com cristina sandu faculty of psychology and educational sciences, university of bucharest, bucharest, romania cristina.sandu@fpse.unibuc.ro ruxandra chirca (neacşu) faculty of psychology and educational sciences, university of bucharest, bucharest, romania chircaruxandra@yahoo.com abstract the aim of this study is to identify the possible correlations between the strengths that are taught in school and those which are necessary for reaching personal success. in order to test the extent to which these strengths correlate, we applied a psychological-assessment tool composed of 24 strengths with a likert-type response scale. the subjects selected for this research were 100 teachers from romania, both male and female. the results were processed in spss statistics, where we also calculated pearson's correlation coefficient. after analyzing the descriptive statistics and the correlation coefficient we noticed that the "vitality" strength showed a statistically significant negative correlation between the two groups, therefore it is not taught in school but it is considered important for achieving personal success. the "citizenship" strength showed a statistically significant positive correlation, being concurrently promoted in school and important in achieving success. the neuro-linguistic reprogramming of a young individual will need a considerable effort, first of all as regards being aware of the values which render his well-being, and secondly as regards his orientation towards these values, which as it seems he was not at all oriented to. the new student profile of today’s society, also known as the digital native, needs to assimilate a full set of positive psychology values in order to create a complete model of success for nowadays’ world. keywords: school, strengths, success, positive psychology, neuropsychology, neurolinguistic programming, digital native. 1. introduction according to caine et.al., the functions of brain structures represent a field of interest for both psychologists and neuroscientists, since a series of learning principles, which are commonly associated with neuroscience, can likewise be assigned to the development of students’ learning, interacting and processing information (caine et al., 2005; goswami, 2008). at the same time, the area of neuroscience which focuses on brain mechanisms promotes what is known as neurolinguistics, along with one of its specific functions – neuro-linguistic programming (nlp). nlp is tightly connected to education (norman, 2000), as it provides a model of cognitive and behavioral mechanisms, which are concurrently linked to the nervous system and the brain and to the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 improvement of our interaction and affiliation with others (bandler & grinder, 1979). moreover, interaction, intention, passion, imagination, self-awareness, affiliation – they “all represent a kind of interface between how we relate with each other, how we would like to be ourselves and how we finally achieve self-fulfillment” (hertenstein, & weiss, 2011, p. 4). the digital society we live in, also referred to as the information society, is driven by information and communication technologies which allow people to produce and share data unboundedly (webster, 2006). this digital society has a visible impact upon the educational process as well, as it has given birth to a new student profile – the digital native (prensky, 2001), a type of student who cannot see the world other than digital (abraham & behrendt, 2010). in tapscott’s opinion, digital natives guide themselves according to eight standards derived from their permanent contact with technology: freedom, customization, scrutiny, integrity, collaboration, entertainment, speed and innovation (tapscott, 2009). when these standards are confronted with the 24 character strengths regarded by this study, we can notice an obvious similarity between the standards mentioned and values like: creativity, integrity, vitality, fairness, citizenship, or humor. what happens though with the rest of the values which the digital native might not have? in this situation, it becomes of clear necessity to think about how school can at the same time meet the student’s needs and provide him with the values that he lacks, in order to create a complete and integrative student profile. another essential concept in neuroscience with a great impact on positive psychology is “self-directed neuroplasticity”, a principle according to which methodical effort and exercise can reshape cerebral function in an expected manner and with a curative purpose (schwartz & strach, 1991). apart from the deliberate neuroplasticity, it seems that digital natives go through this process even without noticing. brain reorganization only occurs when attention is directed to a certain sensory input for a long time. in order for this reorganization to occur there are usually necessary 100 minute sessions, 5 days a week, for 50-10 weeks (bruer, 1999), precisely what digital natives do today when playing video games or browsing online (eduardsen, 2001). nonetheless, in terms of positive psychology through deliberate neuroplasticity, this principle allowed shapiro and carlson to state that the more we exercise positive thinking and self-compassion, the more we help our neurons to develop new connections and to strengthen that specific area of our brain. this conversion in our brain eventually leads to changing our set point of happiness (shapiro & carlson, 2009). however, the values of positive thinking are not always what we choose to exercise. what we impose to ourselves or what is imposed to us by others can be both positive and negative. according to beck’s cognitive theory, distress finds its origins in the contradiction between the demands imposed by others or self-imposed (by means of self-programming) and the individual’s abilities and resorts (beck, et al., 2005). parenthetically, self-programming appears whenever an individual envisions how he/she might behave in a certain context, according to his experience up to that moment, thus creating a mental model which is ready to be used in a future real situation (korkmaz, 2013). returning to positive and negative emotions, cognitive-behaviorists state that both of them are the result of the individual’s cognitions (david, 2006), although they can be altered through the constant training framed by neuroplasticity. what is presumably considered the need to create a definite joint between neuroscience, positive psychology and neuropsychology led to the formation of a new field of study known as “positive neuropsychology”. according to randolph, neuropsychology, which refers to the study and development of cognitive health, added with the principles of positive psychology, forms the boundaries of positive neuropsychology. under these circumstances, positive neuropsychology depicts “an overarching orientation to our work that emphasizes cognitive wellness” (randolph, 2013, p. 3), in other words the orientation that emphasizes the very same values of positive psychology developed by seligman and pointed out in this study. we started from the premise that we need to identify how many prevalent virtues of positive psychology are actually internalized within the educational process in school, as it is one of the key g. pânişoară, i.o. pânişoară, c. sandu, r. chirca (neacşu) the status of positive psychology strengths within the romanian school in the digital society 7 elements at the basis of our students’ development. later on, as a latter part of this research, we could focus our attention on developing a specific setup of neurolinguistics programming for internalizing these values. as regards the contemporary positive psychology, peterson and park noted that it holds a double input: on the one hand, it provides an umbrella term for the theory and research that have been so far secluded and, on the other hand, it provides the consistent argument that what makes life worth living should earn its own field of study within psychology (peterson & park, 2008: 85). within the studies of positive psychology, the concept under discussion has been many a time associated with well-being. “positive psychology is concerned with the pleasant life, the engaged life and the meaningful life. these three orientations to happiness are associated with wellbeing.” (carr, 2011: 2) nonetheless, we tend to disagree with a very strict boundary line between the elements that influence and form personal well-being. according to magnusson and cairns’ holistic paradigm, an individual must be perceived as an “organized whole”, rather than a sum of singular aspects which have been analyzed separately (magnusson & cairns, 1996 in pilkauskaitevalickiene, & gabrialaviciute, 2014). therefore, in studying students’ satisfaction as a whole, there is a series of elements which should be taken into consideration simultaneously. for instance, o'brien states that "school climate and school culture, what is taught and how it is assessed and the relationships between students and teachers must be analyzed in order to develop educational programs that are focused not only on academic success, but on also on the students' well-being" (nevogan, 2013: 200). aside from this resemblance to well-being, positive psychology has developed a series of concepts, usually referred to as "strengths" that are thought to improve an individual's life quality and provide him with the necessary assets for gaining success. for instance, researchers and psychologists who focused on positive psychology in the matter of prevention discovered "which are the specific strengths that are necessary for protecting the individual from a mental illness: courage, future-oriented thinking, optimism, interpersonal skills, faith, work ethic, hope, honesty, perseverance and the ability to develop insights" (seligman, csikszentmihalyi, 2000). alongside the aforementioned strengths, there are also other concepts that may be included in the field of positive psychology, such as: life satisfaction, self-concept, optimism and self-efficacy. in point of life satisfaction, this concept was defined as "an individual's overall appraisals of the quality of his or her life" (diener, emmons, larsen & griffin, 1985 in chen et al., 2016: 105). life satisfaction, as the individual's perspective on life, can many a time be influenced by selfesteem, which, in its turn, can be influenced by the individual's socioeconomic status (ses). in this case, self-esteem serves as a mediator between life satisfaction and ses, which represents the way society is related to the individual (twenge & campbell, 2002). beside this viewpoint, we also support sagone and de caroli’s opinion according to which apart from an individual’s socioeconomic status, self-esteem is equally related to self-determination and independence (sagone, de caroli, 2014), in other words, the extent to which an individual is able to control his own thoughts and act accordingly. in 2005, lent et al. put forward an integrative model of well-being and psychosocial adjustment which included personality traits and affective dispositions, life satisfaction, self-efficacy and environmental supports and resources. in their opinion, the simplest way to achieve life satisfaction is through domain satisfaction, in other words, through achieving success in a specific area of life, such as school. in their study, "domain satisfaction was found to be the single most consistent predictor of overall life satisfaction" (lent et.al., 2005: 439) while the development of a positive self-system throughout a teenager's school education was proved to play an important role in creating a positive life course trajectory (patrick et.al., 2007; shanahan, 2000). self-concept is considered imperative for maximizing human potential, from its early stages, such as school achievement, up to physical/mental well-being, productive employment and other contributions to society (craven, marsh & burnett, 2003 apud martin, 2006: 312). in terms of optimism, friedman and kern regard it as a tendency of having positive expectations for the future and for being confident in one's ability to deal with challenges (friedman & kern, 2014). scheier, carver, and bridges (2001) define optimism as "expectancies that are brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 generalized—expectancies that pertain more or less to the individual's entire life space" (apud feldman & kubota, 2015: 211). in europe, the relationship between optimism and health was confirmed by a finnish study which involved 8.690 middle-aged subjects. optimism and extroversion correlated with healthy lifestyle in samples of english, belgian, finnish and norwegian young adults. another polish-swedish research team found correlations between a healthy behaviour and optimism, self-efficacy and the sense of coherence (dosedlova et al., 2014:1053). self-efficacy, an equally important element in positive psychology, was regarded by bandura as "concerned with judgments of how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations" (1982, apud locke & johnston, 2016: 1). bandura (1977) also compared self-efficacy with expectancies of goal outcomes: "outcome and efficacy expectations are differentiated, because individuals can believe that a particular course of action will produce certain outcomes, but if they entertain serious doubts about whether they can perform the necessary activities, such information does not influence their behaviour" (apud feldman & kubota, 2015: 211). in school, teacher efficacy, regarded as the confidence held by teachers in terms of personal and collective ability to influence student learning, represents a key motivator in enhancing students' development (klassen et al., 2011: 21). this point of view is also supported by zimmerman who states that self-efficacy is "the judgement of an individual about how well he is able to make something come true and succeed at the end" (apud saricoban, 2015). it is imperative to mention that we concurrently advocate a more integrative viewpoint, according to which parentchild relations are as important as teacher efficacy in developing students’ motivation (grigoryeva & shamionov, 2014). however, we have focused our attention on the latter one, as it is strongly related to the subject under study. 1. methodology 2.1. aim the aim of our research is to identify a possible correlation between the strengths taught in school and those which are necessary for achieving personal success. 2.2. hypothesis there is a statistically significant correlation between the strengths taught in school and the strengths that ensure personal success. 2.3. subjects the participants were 100 teachers from romania, aged between 20-60, both male and female, from sciences and humanities. 2.4. method for the present research we used a tool composed of 24 strengths: creativity, curiosity, openmindedness, love of learning, perspective, bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality, love, kindness, social intelligence, citizenship, fairness, leadership, forgiveness and mercy, modesty, prudence, self-regulation, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor and spirituality. we used a likert-type response scale from 0 to 5, where 0 = not important, 1 = slightly important, 2 = moderately important, 3 = important, 4 = fairly important and 5 = very important. the participants were given the necessary instructions before completing the questionnaire. in 2004, seligman and peterson (apud seligman & peterson, 2005) developed a list of 6 virtues and 24 related character strengths. g. pânişoară, i.o. pânişoară, c. sandu, r. chirca (neacşu) the status of positive psychology strengths within the romanian school in the digital society 9 character strengths wisdom and knowledge creativity curiosity open-mindedness love of learning perspective courage bravery persistence integrity vitality humanity love kindness social intelligence justice citizenship fairness leadership temperance forgiveness and mercy modesty prudence self-regulation transcendence appreciation of beauty and excellence gratitude hope humor spirituality 1. results the results were introduced and processed in spss statistics. in order to identify the level of correlation for all the selected strengths, we applied descriptive statistics and pearson's correlation test. the descriptive statistics for the questionnaire results, pearson's correlation coefficient and two pie chart graphs are presented hereinafter. table 1. descriptive statistics for the 24 strengths n sum mean std. deviation creativitysuccess 100 388.00 3.8800 1.32787 curiositysuccess 100 325.00 3.2500 1.47966 openmindednesssucces 100 316.00 3.1600 1.35378 succes 100 302.00 3.0200 1.46322 perpectivesucces 100 347.00 3.4700 1.49379 braverysucces 100 195.00 1.9500 1.86068 persistencesucces 100 369.00 3.6900 1.46815 integritysucces 100 298.00 2.9800 1.44236 vitalitysucces 100 268.00 2.6800 1.60731 lovesucces 100 236.00 2.3600 1.53426 kindnesssucces 100 227.00 2.2700 1.72829 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 socialintelligence 100 342.00 3.4200 1.41550 citizenshipsucces 100 123.00 1.2300 1.58181 fairnesssucces 100 300.00 3.0000 1.46336 leadershipsucces 100 181.00 1.8100 1.64344 forgivenessandmercysucces 100 165.00 1.6500 1.38808 modestysucces 100 196.00 1.9600 1.66315 prudencesucces 100 222.00 2.2200 1.51478 selfregulationsucces 100 296.00 2.9600 1.43492 appreciationofbeautyandexcellencesuccess 100 199.00 1.9900 1.39621 gratitudesucces 100 172.00 1.7200 1.45699 hopesucces 100 251.00 2.5100 1.64835 humorsucces 100 210.00 2.1000 1.69074 spiritualitysucces 100 163.00 1.6300 1.72712 creativityschool 100 268.00 2.6800 1.67501 curiosityschool 100 277.00 2.7700 1.61342 openmindednessschool 100 347.00 3.4700 1.69047 loveoflearningschool 100 320.00 3.2000 1.68775 perspectiveschool 100 235.00 2.3500 1.55943 braveryschool 100 169.00 1.6900 1.38312 perseverenceschool 100 356.00 3.5600 1.56554 integrityschool 100 254.00 2.5400 1.52700 vitalityschool 100 196.00 1.9600 1.55648 loveschool 100 210.00 2.1000 1.54069 kindnessschool 100 204.00 2.0400 1.42786 socialintelligenceschool 100 277.00 2.7700 1.46925 citizenshipschool 100 253.00 2.5300 1.57925 fairnessschool 100 304.00 3.0400 1.43492 leadershipschool 100 179.00 1.7900 1.60991 forgivenessandmercyschool 100 188.00 1.8800 1.67139 modestyschool 100 227.00 2.2700 1.85785 prudenceschool 100 268.00 2.6800 1.47628 selfregulationschool 100 244.00 2.4400 1.78275 appreciationofbeauty andexcellenceschool 100 274.00 2.7400 1.62443 gratitudeschool 100 227.00 2.2700 1.52325 hopeschool 100 179.00 1.7900 1.48593 humorschool 100 139.00 1.3900 1.54981 spiritualityschool 100 137.00 1.3700 1.41888 valid n (listwise) 100 table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of this study: the number of subjects, sum, mean and standard deviation. most of the response means for the strengths that are necessary in achieving personal success were higher than those for the strengths promoted in school. hence, we can assume that within the romanian school, some of these 24 strengths, such as creativity (mean success = 3.8, mean school = 2.6), vitality (mean success = 2.6, mean school = 1.9) and social intelligence (mean success = 3.4, mean school = 2.7) have lower values than those necessary for achieving personal success. these results imply that our educational process is in need of a change which should start with reprioritizing the strengths promoted in school. as stated above, there is a discrepancy between creativity as a goal and what actually happens in school. even though a teacher might feel the need of developing this personality trait, the curriculum design does not allow him to be flexible enough. thus, we are currently facing an imperative need of implementing more programs for personal development and more classes which allow students to create original products. g. pânişoară, i.o. pânişoară, c. sandu, r. chirca (neacşu) the status of positive psychology strengths within the romanian school in the digital society 11 table 2. correlation vitality correlations vitality success vitality school vitality success pearson correlation 1 -.774 sig. (2-tailed) .044 n 100 100 vitality school pearson correlation -.774 1 sig. (2-tailed) .044 n 100 100 table 2 illustrates the correlation between "vitality" as strength necessary for achieving personal success and "vitality" as strength promoted in school. a statistically significant negative correlation (-.774) can be noticed between these two elements. therefore, vitality, defined as "approaching life with excitement and energy; feeling alive and activated" is not properly cultivated in school, although it is generally regarded as being highly important in achieving personal success. optimizing this personality trait in school might increase the students' level of selfsatisfaction. what a teacher could actually do at school is to help students develop a dynamic and proactive attitude. table 3. correlation citizenship correlations citizenshipsuccess citizenshipschool citizenshipsuccess pearson correlation 1 .769 sig. (2-tailed) .037 n 100 100 citizenshipschool pearson correlation .769 1 sig. (2-tailed) .037 n 100 100 table 3 illustrates the correlation between "citizenship" as an imperative strength in achieving personal success and "citizenship" as strength taught in school. a statistically significant positive correlation (.769) can be noticed between these two elements. in this case, citizenship, defined as "working well as a member of a group or team; being loyal to the group", is both cultivated in school and regarded as very important in achieving personal success. thus, if we teach students to develop a socially responsible behaviour, their perception on loyalty within a group will naturally improve in time. being responsible becomes a more and more valuable trait, both socially and individually, and it has to be cultivated particularly by teachers. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 figure 1. pie chart vitalitysuccess figure 2. pie chart vitalityschool the pie charts above illustrate the distribution of responses for the "vitality" strength. it can be noticed how the lower values are much more frequent than the high ones, in terms of promoting this strength in school. thus, the participants at this study consider that school does not attach enough importance to this strength, even though it has proven to be so mandatory in assuring the students' well-being and personal success. considering our initial hypothesis, we can state that it was not confirmed, as it did not exist a statistically significant correlation for the 24 strengths, between what is promoted in school and g. pânişoară, i.o. pânişoară, c. sandu, r. chirca (neacşu) the status of positive psychology strengths within the romanian school in the digital society 13 what is considered to be necessary for achieving personal success. the romanian educational system should reconsider the values taught in school, as they do not concord with the real necessities for achieving personal success. 2. conclusions a positive school climate can help solve a series of educational issues, affecting both the teacher's and the student's behaviour. a supportive school climate was confirmed to positively affect teachers' self-efficacy, to manifest a long-term positive effect on student learning and to encourage personal well-being (ciani et al., 2008). along with all these favourable outcomes, researchers found that a positive school climate also develops a sense of belonging, trust, care and respect, common beliefs and values, as well as cooperation and responsibility. (meristo & eisenschmidt, 2014). each of the aforementioned effects is essential for ensuring a productive school environment, governed by mutual agreement, partnership and cohesiveness. unfortunately at this very moment we are unable to talk about a fundamental orientation of the young people towards the values which, if they guided their lives, would lead them to a general state of wellbeing and would keep them aloof from depression, alienation or other counterproductive psychological conditions. what is undoubtedly necessary for reaching a positive outcome in this field of action is being aware of all these values under discussion and following a guided process of neurolinguistics programming. so again it is imperative to reflect upon the way in which school can help build a young person`s profile and offer him all the necessary values for developing a unitary and integrative model of success for today`s society. references abraham, l., behrendt, c. (2010). oh my god what happened and what should i do?. new york: imperative thunder bandler, r., grinder, j. (1979). frogs into princes: neuro linguistic programming. people press moab, utah: real. beck, a.t., emery, g., & greenberg, r.l. (2005) anxiety disorders and phobias: a cognitive perspective. basic books bruer, j.t. (1999). the myth of the first three years. glencoe: the free press caine, r. n., caine, g., mcclintic, c., & klimek, k. (2005). twelve brain/mind learning principles in action: the fieldbook for making connections, teaching, and the human brain. corvin prees.thousand oaks, ca: carr, a. (2011). positive psychology, second edition: taylor & francis: london chen,w., niu, g., zhang, d., fan, c.,tian,y., & zhou, z.(2016). socioeconomic status and life satisfaction in chinese adolescents: analysis of self-esteem as a mediator and optimism as a moderator. personality and individual differences,vol. 95: 105–109 ciani, k. d., summers, j., & easter, m. a. (2008). a ‘‘top-down’’ analysis of high school teacher motivation. contemporary educational psychology,vol. 33: 533–560 david, d., (2006). tratat de psihoterapii cognitive şi comportamentale. editura polirom, iaşi dosedlova, j., klimusova, h., bursova, i., jelínek, m., slezackova, a., & vasina, l. (2015). optimism and health-related behaviour in czech university students and adults, procedia, social and behavioral sciences, vol. 171: 1051-1059 eduardsen, j. (2001). are the digital natives myth or reality? and what are their impacts on motivation? aalborg: aalborg university feldman, d. & kubota, m. (2015). hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and academic achievement: distinguishing constructs and levels of specificity in predicting college grade-point average. learning and individual differences, vol.37: 210–216 friedman, h.s. & kern, m.l. (2014). personality, well-being, and health. annual review of psychology,vol.65: 719–742 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 goswami, u. (2008). principles of learning, implications for teaching: a cognitive neuroscience perspective. journal of philosophy of education, 42 (3-4): 381-399 grigoryeva, m.v., shamionov, r.m. (2014). emotional well-being and academic motivation in junior schoolchildren. procedia, social and behavioral sciences,vol. 146: 334-339 hertenstein, j. & weiss, s. (2011). the handbook of touch: neuroscience, behavioral, and health perspectives. springer publishing company korkmaz, o. (2013). prospective cite teachers' self-efficacy perceptions on programming. procedia, social and behavioral sciences,vol. 83: 639-643 lent, r.w., singley, d. sheu, h., & gainor, k. (2005). social cognitive predictors of domain and life satisfaction: exploring the theoretical precursors of subjective well-being. journal of counseling psychology, vol. 52: 429-442 locke, t. & johnston, m. (2016). developing an individual and collective self-efficacy scale for the teaching of writing in high schools. assessing writing, vol. 28, pp. 1–14 martin, j. (2006). self research in educational psychology: a cautionary tale of positive psychology in action. journal of psychology, vol. 40 (4): 307-316 meristo, m. & eisenschmidt, e. (2014). novice teachers’ perceptions of school climate and selfefficacy. international journal of educational research, vol.67: 1–10 negovan, v. (2013). psihologia învăńării. bucureşti: ed. universitară norman, s. (2000). neuro-linguistic programming. encyclopedia of language teaching & learning, pp. 441-443. peterson, ch. & park, n. (2008). positive psychology and character strengths: application to strengths-based school counseling. professional school counseling, pp. 85-92 pilkauskaite-valickiene, r. & gabrialaviciute, i. (2014). the role of school context on subjective well-being and social well-being in adolescence. procedia, social and behavioral sciences,vol. 191: 2588-2592 prensky, m. (2001). digital natives. digital immigrants. on the horizon, vol. 9, nr. 5 randolph, j.j. (2013). what is positive neuropsychology? positive neuropsychology. evidencebased perspectives on promoting cognitive health, new york: springer, p.3 sagone, e. & de caroli, m.e. (2014). relationships between psychological well-being and resilience in middle and late adolescents. procedia, social and behavioral sciences,vol. 141: 881-887 sarıcoban, g. (2015). academic self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service elementary school teacher candidates. social and behavioral sciences, vol. 186: 28-32 schwartz, n. & strach, f. (1991). evaluating one's life: a judgement model of subjectivewell-bing. subjective well-being. oxford: pergamum scheier, m.f., carver, c.s., & bridges, m.w. (2001). optimism, pessimism, and psychological well-being, american psychological association, washington, pp. 189-216 seligman, m. & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, vol. 55, pp. 5–14 shanahan, m.j. (2000). pathways to adulthood in changing societies: variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. annual review of sociology, vol.26: 667-92 shapiro, s,l. & carlson, l.e. (2009). the art and science of mindfulness: integrating mindfulness into psychology and the helping professions. washington, dc: american psychological association tapscott, d. (2009). grown up digital: how the net generation is changing your world. new york: mcgraw-hill twenge, j.m. & campbell, w.k. (2002). self-esteem and socioeconomic status: a metaanalytic review. personality and social psychology review, vol. 6: 59–71 webster, f. (2006). theories of the information society. 3 rd edition. london: routledge 1 5 a n n e x n o .1 . t h e 2 2 s tr e n g th s t a b le 4 . c o rr e la ti o n c re a ti v it y c re a ti v it y s u c c e ss c re a ti v it y s c h o o l c re a ti v it y su c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 -. 0 7 1 s ig . (2 .5 8 9 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 c re a ti v it y sc h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n -. 0 7 1 1 s ig . (2 .5 8 9 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 5 . c o rr e la ti o n c u ri o si ty c u ri o si ty su c c e ss c u ri o si ty sc h o o l c u ri o si ty s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 -. 0 3 5 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 9 2 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 c u ri o si ty s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n -. 0 3 5 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 9 2 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 b r a in . b ro a d r e s e a rc h i n a rt if ic ia l in te ll ig e n c e a n d n e u ro s c ie n c e v o lu m e 7 , is s u e 4 , n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 6 , is s n 2 0 6 7 -3 9 5 7 ( o n li n e ), i s s n 2 0 6 8 0 4 7 3 ( p ri n t) 1 6 t a b le 6 . c o rr e la ti o n o p e n m in d e d n e ss o p e n -m in d e d n e ss su c c e ss o p e n -m in d e d n e ss sc h o o l o p e n -m in d e d n e ss su c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 -. 0 6 8 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .6 0 8 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 o p e n -m in d e d n e ss sc h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n -. 0 6 8 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .6 0 8 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 7 . c o rr e la ti o n l o v e o f le a rn in g l o v e o f le a rn in g su c c e ss l o v e o f le a rn in g sc h o o l l o v e o f le a rn in g s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .1 9 7 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .1 3 1 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 l o v e o f le a rn in g s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .1 9 7 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .1 3 1 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 8 . c o rr e la ti o n p e rs p e c ti v e p e rs p e c ti v e s u c c e ss p e rs p e c ti v e s c h o o l p e rs p e c ti v e su c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 -. 0 6 8 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .6 0 8 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 p e rs p e c ti v e sc h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n -. 0 6 8 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .6 0 8 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 g . p â n iş o a ră , i. o . p â n iş o a ră , c . s a n d u , r . c h ir c a ( n e a c şu ) t h e s ta tu s o f p o s it iv e p s y c h o lo g y s tr e n g th s w it h in t h e r o m a n ia n s c h o o l in t h e d ig it a l s o c ie ty 1 7 t a b le 9 . c o rr e la ti o n b ra v e ry b ra v e ry su c c e ss b ra v e ry sc h o o l b ra v e ry su c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .0 0 4 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 7 7 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 b ra v e ry sc h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .0 0 4 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 7 7 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 1 0 . c o rr e la ti o n p e rs is te n c e p e rs is te n c e su c c e ss p e rs is te n c e sc h o o l p e rs is te n c e su c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .0 7 5 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 7 1 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 p e rs is te n c e sc h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .0 7 5 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 7 1 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 1 1 . c o rr e la ti o n i n te g ri ty in te g ri ty s u c c e ss in te g ri ty s c h o o l in te g ri ty s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .0 5 8 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .6 6 1 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 in te g ri ty s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .0 5 8 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .6 6 1 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 b r a in . b ro a d r e s e a rc h i n a rt if ic ia l in te ll ig e n c e a n d n e u ro s c ie n c e v o lu m e 7 , is s u e 4 , n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 6 , is s n 2 0 6 7 -3 9 5 7 ( o n li n e ), i s s n 2 0 6 8 0 4 7 3 ( p ri n t) 1 8 t a b le 1 2 . c o rr e la ti o n l o v e l o v e s u c c e ss l o v e s c h o o l l o v e s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .1 1 7 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .3 7 3 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 l o v e s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .1 1 7 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .3 7 3 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 1 3 . c o rr e la ti o n k in d n e ss k in d n e ss s u c c e ss k in d n e ss s c h o o l k in d n e ss s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 -. 0 7 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 9 1 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 k in d n e ss s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n -. 0 7 1 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 9 1 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 1 4 . c o rr e la ti o n s o c ia l in te ll ig e n c e s o c ia l in te ll ig e n c e s u c c e ss s o c ia l in te ll ig e n c e s c h o o l s o c ia l in te ll ig e n c e s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .0 4 7 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .7 2 2 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 s o c ia l in te ll ig e n c e s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .0 4 7 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .7 2 2 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 g . p â n iş o a ră , i. o . p â n iş o a ră , c . s a n d u , r . c h ir c a ( n e a c şu ) t h e s ta tu s o f p o s it iv e p s y c h o lo g y s tr e n g th s w it h in t h e r o m a n ia n s c h o o l in t h e d ig it a l s o c ie ty 1 9 t a b le 1 5 . c o rr e la ti o n f a ir n e ss f a ir n e ss s u c c e ss f a ir n e ss s c h o o l f a ir n e ss s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 -. 0 1 5 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .9 1 2 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 f a ir n e ss s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n -. 0 1 5 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .9 1 2 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 1 6 . c o rr e la ti o n l e a d e rs h ip l e a d e rs h ip s u c c e ss l e a d e rs h ip s c h o o l l e a d e rs h ip s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 -. 1 3 0 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .3 2 0 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 l e a d e rs h ip s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n -. 1 3 0 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .3 2 0 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 1 7 . c o rr e la ti o n f o rg iv e n e ss a n d m e rc y f o rg iv e n e ss a n d m e rc y s u c c e ss f o rg iv e n e ss a n d m e rc y s c h o o l f o rg iv e n e ss a n d m e rc y s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .0 1 2 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .3 3 0 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 f o rg iv e n e ss a n d m e rc y s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .0 1 2 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .3 3 0 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 b r a in . b ro a d r e s e a rc h i n a rt if ic ia l in te ll ig e n c e a n d n e u ro s c ie n c e v o lu m e 7 , is s u e 4 , n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 6 , is s n 2 0 6 7 -3 9 5 7 ( o n li n e ), i s s n 2 0 6 8 0 4 7 3 ( p ri n t) 2 0 t a b le 1 8 . c o rr e la ti o n m o d e st y m o d e st y s u c c e ss m o d e st y s c h o o l m o d e st y s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 -. 0 0 5 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .4 6 9 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 m o d e st y s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n -. 0 0 5 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .4 6 9 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 1 9 . c o rr e la ti o n p ru d e n c e p ru d e n c e s u c c e ss p ru d e n c e s c h o o l p ru d e n c e s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 -. 2 2 7 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .0 8 1 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 p ru d e n c e s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n -. 2 2 7 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .0 8 1 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 2 0 . c o rr e la ti o n s e lf -r e g u la ti o n se lf -r e g u la ti o n su c c e ss se lf -r e g u la ti o n sc h o o l se lf -r e g u la ti o n s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .0 8 5 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 1 9 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 se lf -r e g u la ti o n s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .0 8 5 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 1 9 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 g . p â n iş o a ră , i. o . p â n iş o a ră , c . s a n d u , r . c h ir c a ( n e a c şu ) t h e s ta tu s o f p o s it iv e p s y c h o lo g y s tr e n g th s w it h in t h e r o m a n ia n s c h o o l in t h e d ig it a l s o c ie ty 2 1 t a b le 2 1 . c o rr e la ti o n a p p re c ia ti o n o f b e a u ty a n d e x c e ll e n c e a p p re c ia ti o n o f b e a u ty a n d e x c e ll e n c e s u c c e s a p p re c ia ti o n o f b e a u ty a n d e x c e ll e n c e s c h o o l a p p re c ia ti o n o f b e a u ty a n d e x c e ll e n c e s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 -. 0 2 9 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 2 4 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 a p p re c ia ti o n o f b e a u ty a n d e x c e ll e n c e s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n -. 0 2 9 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .5 2 4 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 2 2 . c o rr e la ti o n g ra ti tu d e g ra ti tu d e s u c c e ss g ra ti tu d e s c h o o l g ra ti tu d e s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .0 4 5 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .7 3 2 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 g ra ti tu d e s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .0 4 5 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .7 3 2 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 2 3 . c o rr e la ti o n h o p e h o p e s u c c e ss h o p e s c h o o l h o p e s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .0 3 6 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .2 8 6 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 h o p e s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .0 3 6 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .2 8 6 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 b r a in . b ro a d r e s e a rc h i n a rt if ic ia l in te ll ig e n c e a n d n e u ro s c ie n c e v o lu m e 7 , is s u e 4 , n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 6 , is s n 2 0 6 7 -3 9 5 7 ( o n li n e ), i s s n 2 0 6 8 0 4 7 3 ( p ri n t) 2 2 t a b le 2 4 . c o rr e la ti o n h u m o r h u m o r su c c e ss h u m o r sc h o o l h u m o r su c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .1 6 0 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .2 2 2 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 h u m o r sc h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .1 6 0 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .2 2 2 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 t a b le 2 5 . c o rr e la ti o n s p ir it u a li ty s p ir it u a li ty s u c c e ss s p ir it u a li ty s c h o o l s p ir it u a li ty s u c c e ss p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n 1 .1 0 7 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .4 1 6 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 s p ir it u a li ty s c h o o l p e a rs o n c o rr e la ti o n .1 0 7 1 s ig . (2 -t a il e d ) .4 1 6 n 1 0 0 1 0 0 microsoft word brain_5_2014-bogdan.doc 60 on the idea of a new artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm inspired from the nature of vortex utku kose computer sciences application and research center usak university, usak, turkey utku.kose@usak.edu.tr ahmet arslan department of computer engineering selcuk university, konya, turkey ahmetarslan@selcuk.edu.tr abstract in this paper, the idea of a new artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm, which is inspired from the nature of vortex, has been provided briefly. as also a bio-inspired computation algorithm, the idea is generally focused on a typical vortex flow / behavior in nature and inspires from some dynamics that are occurred in the sense of vortex nature. briefly, the algorithm is also a swarm-oriented evolutional problem solution approach; because it includes many methods related to elimination of weak swarm members and trying to improve the solution process by supporting the solution space via new swarm members. in order have better idea about success of the algorithm; it has been tested via some benchmark functions. at this point, the obtained results show that the algorithm can be an alternative to the literature in terms of single-objective optimization solution ways. vortex optimization algorithm (voa) is the name suggestion by the authors; for this new idea of intelligent optimization approach. keywords: artificial intelligence; optimization; bio-inspired computation; swarm intelligence; evolutional computation; vortex optimization algorithm; vortex 1. introduction rapid developments and improvements within different technologies have remarkable roles on improving our modern life and providing effective solutions to the real-world problems. at this point, it is always omitted that mathematical dynamics of the related solution approaches are generally based on natural dynamics. in other words, it is clear that nature – biological environment has many features and functions that can be inspired from in order to have novel solution approaches for especially, hard, complex, real-world based problems [1, 2]. when we consider mathematical solution approaches, methods, and techniques, it can be seen that the nature has a big role on forming each formulations in the sense of providing alternative solutions. even simple mathematical equations have some bio-inspired sides that researchers / scientists have inspired from during designing these mathematical systems. in this sense, we can briefly say that nature and biological world has a big role on thinking about solutions and designing mathematical structures in the way of developing effective computational approaches, methods, or techniques. at this point, the optimization concept has been widely inspired from the nature for many years; as one of the related mathematical solution approaches. when we take the optimization concept into consideration, we can see that it has a great importance on research interests in the intersection of different literatures associated with problems covering optimization solutions and alternative approaches in order to satisfy needs in typical optimization solution ways. in time, the related optimization approaches have gained a remarkable momentum in designing novel methods, and techniques for being alternative to real-world based optimization problems. as general, the associated literature has especially many different algorithms inspired from behaviors of different organisms or natural dynamics while designing mathematical infrastructure, which is strong enough in order to cover optimization problems and u. kose, a. arslan ‐ on the idea of a new artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm inspired from the nature  of vortex  61 provide effective solutions for them. at this point, swarm intelligence is a remarkable research interest, which has a great role on providing effective solutions for optimization operations and has strong relation with bio-inspired computation [3–7]. it seems that the future of bio-inspired computation will be greatly affected by such developments and gain rapid improvement flow as the number of different problems increases in time. on the other hand, we can say that the future of artificial intelligence will be shaped from not only inspirations on human thinking / behavior approaches but also from inspirations on natural dynamics. objective of this paper is to introduce the idea of a new artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm, which is inspired from the nature of vortex. as also a bio-inspired computation algorithm, the idea is generally focused on a typical vortex flow / behavior in nature and inspires from some dynamics that are occurred in the sense of vortex nature. from a general perspective, the algorithm is also a swarm-oriented evolutional problem solution approach; because it includes many methods related to elimination of weak swarm members and trying to improve the solution process by supporting the solution space via new swarm members. it also employs simple mathematical equations in order to be formed and applied easily in optimization problems. in order have better idea about success of the algorithm; it has been tested via some benchmark functions and the results received from the tests show that the algorithm can be an alternative to the literature in terms of single-objective optimization solution ways. vortex optimization algorithm (voa) is the name suggestion by the authors; for this new idea of intelligent optimization approach. in the context of the objective of this paper, the remaining content is organized as follows: the next section is devoted a brief look at to the history of the idea and the development process so far. after that, the fourth section provides the fundamentals of the designed algorithm. it briefly explains the approach and provides the general structure of the algorithm, which is also called as the vortex optimization algorithm (voa). next to the fourth section, some brief test / evaluation processes performed via optimization benchmark functions are reported under the fifth section. finally, the paper is ended by providing conclusions and discussing about future works. 2. the history of the idea / development process before explaining the idea in detail and shaping it in an algorithm form, it is a good idea to focus on the background related to the idea and the development process so far. briefly, we can call this background information as a brief history of the idea / development process. in this sense, the foremost points regarding to ‘the history’ can be listed as follows: first ideas regarding to usage of vortex behaviors for optimization approaches have appeared when the authors had the following experiences / examinations in terms of interactions with the nature / real-world: 1. vortex flow appeared in water when the plug hole is opened. 2. vortex flows created by the passage of plane wing or by an engine of a plane. 3. vortex shapes appeared in the nature / space; because of different environmental conditions. after having ideas to form a solution approach for optimization problems, there has been a need for employing some ‘intelligent mechanisms’ in order to have effective solution steps based on the power of the artificial intelligence. the idea of forming an artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm has been shaped in terms of swarm-intelligence and also evolutionary computing. in other words, the solution approach has been a swarm-oriented, evolutional one. some dynamics from vortex nature has been tried to be applied for the swarm members of the algorithmic approach. at this point, the following applications has been done: 1. real mathematical approaches regarding to different vortex types (like rigid-body or irrational vortex) has been tried to be used for movement of swarm members within the solution space. but this application has caused the algorithm structure to be complex and not effective enough for optimization operations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience  volume 5, issues 1‐4, december 2014, issn 2067‐3957 (online), issn 2068 ‐ 0473 (print)  62 2. as an alternative, typical spiral move has been applied for the movement of swarm members; by using the appropriate mathematical equations. but as similar to the previous experience, this application has also been not effective enough for the related optimization operations. 3. because of the previous experiences, the authors have decided to use some simple mathematical equations, which are not directly based on certain equations of vortex dynamics but inspired from the nature of vortex. in this sense, it has been aimed to form a simple mathematical structure that can be formed and applied easily. the last application regarding to the related mathematical equations has been improved after some testing processes and the first stable form of the algorithm has been obtained. it is important to indicate according to the last form of the algorithm that each swarm member (particle) has ‘vorticity’ value, which is changed / updated along the solution steps. at this point, vorticity values affect the fitness values obtained with objective functions. of course, positions of the particles are also changed / updated under the sway of particle vorticity values, positions / vorticity values regarding to the best particles...etc. as addition to the employment of swarm-intelligence, this algorithmic structure has provided an evolutionary approach, which aims promoting the particles by making their status ‘vortex’ or ‘normal’ particle and removing normal (weak) members from the solution space in order to immediately support the general swarm group with new members, which are ‘ready to rock’. this mechanism is achieved by using an elimination value, which is a border for applying the related operation. after having at least a first, stable form of the algorithm, which is based on the nature of vortex, it has been possible to draw the general structure of the solution steps. in this sense, the next section is for a brief report of the algorithmic structure and its working mechanism. 3. new a.i. based optimization algorithm inspired from the nature of vortex as it was also indicated before, the algorithm is generally focused typical vortex flow – behavior in nature and inspires from some dynamics that are occurred in the sense of vortex nature. at this point, it is important to report that the authors have decided to call this algorithm as the vortex optimization algorithm (voa). algorithmic details of the voa can be expressed briefly as follows: 1. step 1: define initial parameters (n for number of particles; initial vorticity (v) values of each particle; max. and min. limits (min. limit is the negative of the max. one) for vorticity value (max_v and min_v) and other values related to function, problem…etc. (like dimension, search domain…etc.); and finally e for the elimination rate. 2. step 2: locate the particles randomly within the solution space and calculate fitness values for each of them. update the v value of the particle with the best fitness value by using a random value (equation 1). mark this particle as a ‘vortex’ and keep its values as the best one so far. 3. the_best_particle_at_first_v_(new) = the_best_particle_at_first_v_(current) + 4. (random_value * the_best_particle_at_first_v_(current)) (1) 5. step 3: repeat the sub-steps below in the sense of the stopping criteria (for example iteration number): a. step 3.1: mark each particle, whose fitness value is equal to or under the average fitness of all particles (if the problem is minimization), as the ‘vortex’. the other / remaining particles are in the ‘normal’ particle status. b. step 3.2: update v value of each particle (i) by using the following equations: particlei_v_(new) = particlei_v_(current) + (random_value * (global_best_v / particlei_v_(current))) (2) c. step 3.3: update the v value of each vortex particle (except from the best particle so far) by using a random value (equation 3). particlei_v_(new) = random_value * particlei_v_(current) (3) d. step 3.4: update position of each particle (except from the best particle so far) by using the following equation: u. kose, a. arslan ‐ on the idea of a new artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm inspired from the nature  of vortex  63 particlei_position_(new) = particlei_position_(current) + (random_value * (particlei_v_(current) * (global_best_position – particlei_position_(current)))) (4) e. step 3.5: calculate fitness values according to new positions of each particle. mark the particle with the best value as a ‘vortex’ (if it is not a vortex yet) and keep its values as the best so far. f. step 3.6: if number of non-vortex particles is equal to or under the value of e, remove all non-particles from the solution space and create new particles according to number of removed particles. locate these new particles randomly within the solution space. return to the step 3.1. if the stopping criteria has not been reached yet. 6. step 4: the best values obtained within the loop is the optimum solution. as it can be seen from the algorithm steps, the voa employs simple equations. it is an advantage that the algorithm can be formed and applied within optimization problems whereas alternative algorithms may contain some complex solution steps (this situation may be also an disadvantage for the voa when it is applied in more difficult optimization problems but while the world is transformed into a ‘strong simplicity’, the voa may be a practical solution approach). the working mechanism of the voa can be visualized briefly as like in figure 1. figure 1. working mechanism of the voa. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience  volume 5, issues 1‐4, december 2014, issn 2067‐3957 (online), issn 2068 ‐ 0473 (print)  64 4. evaluation in order to understand effectiveness of the voa and evaluate its success, some singleobjective optimization benchmark functions have been solved in terms of different dimensions. general conditions for the performed tests are as follows: total number of particles (n): 50 total iteration (the stopping criteria): 5000 initial vorticity value: 0.50 max. vorticity value: 7.0 min. vorticity value: -7.0) elimination rate (e): 50 dimensions: 2 for first four functions and 2, 5, 10, 20, and 30 respectively for the last two functions. other specific values have been determined according to characteristics of each function. table 1 provides a list of information regarding to the benchmark functions that have been used along to the test process. table 1. benchmark functions that have been used along to the test process. functi on formula search domain minimum booth’ s beale’s goldst ein– price mccor mick threehump camel sphere rosenb rock table 2 provides a brief report related to the obtained results after the related tests / operations over the benchmark functions. as it can be seen from the table 2, the voa reaches to the desired values for the related functions. although the number of total iteration and also particles were low (5000 and 50) the voa can be closer to minimum values especially for bigger dimensional sphere and rosenbrock functions. u. kose, a. arslan ‐ on the idea of a new artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm inspired from the nature  of vortex  65 table 2. a brief report related to the obtained results. minimization results for the dimensions as: function 2 5 10 20 30 booth’s 0.0000 x x x x beale’s 0.0000 x x x x goldstein– price 3.0000 x x x x mccormick -1.9133 x x x x threehump camel 0.0000 x x x x sphere 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 rosenbrock 0.0000 0.0000 0.0002 0.0027 0.0023 x: not applicable 5. conclusions and future work this paper has been an introduction for the idea of a new artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm, which is inspired from the nature of vortex. in this sense, the paper has provided information about how the idea has been realized with an algorithmic structure and reported brief test / evaluation processes that were done via the formed algorithm. called as the vortex optimization algorithm (voa), the approach seems to effective enough for solving singleobjective optimization problems. one of the most important advantages of the voa is its simple mathematical infrastructure and as an alternative solution approach, the voa can be formed and applied easily. future works regarding to the voa can be explained briefly as follows: in the sense of test / evaluation processes, the paper has focused on some single-objective benchmark functions. so, there will be more work on other remaining benchmark functions. further works will be based on also comparison of the voa with other alternative algorithms in the literature. the authors have already started some works in order to solve different optimization related problems from different fields. additionally, there will be also more works on evaluation of voa particle / algorithm parameters; in order see if changes in the related values can improve performance and accurateness. 6. references [1] binitha, s., & sathya, s. s. (2012). a survey of bio inspired optimization algorithms. international journal of soft computing and engineering, 2(2), 137-151. [2] marrow, p. (2000). nature-inspired computing technology and applications. bt technology journal, 18(4), 13-23. [3] blum, c., & li, x. (2008). swarm intelligence in optimization (pp. 43-85). springer berlin heidelberg. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience  volume 5, issues 1‐4, december 2014, issn 2067‐3957 (online), issn 2068 ‐ 0473 (print)  66 [4] garnier, s., gautrais, j., & theraulaz, g. (2007). the biological principles of swarm intelligence. swarm intelligence, 1(1), 3-31. [5] köse, u. (2012). design & development of a software system for swarm intelligence based research studies. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 3(3), 12-17. [6] parpinelli, r. s., & lopes, h. s. (2011). new inspirations in swarm intelligence: a survey. international journal of bio-inspired computation, 3(1), 1-16. [7] yang, x. s., cui, z., xiao, r., gandomi, a. h., & karamanoglu, m. (eds.). (2013). swarm intelligence and bio-inspired computation: theory and applications. newnes. microsoft word brain_8_2017_issue_1_vers3.docx 35 evaluation of readiness for distance education of students in european universities daina vasilevska liepaja university, liepaja, liela street 14, latvia daina.vasilevska@gmail.com baiba rivza latvia university of agriculture, jelgava, liela street 2, latvia baiba.rivza@llu.lv razvan bogdan department of computer and information technology, politehnica university of timisoara, piaţa victoriei, nr. 2, 300006 timişoara, romania razvan.bogdan@cs.upt.ro abstract distance learning environment with its different approaches has become one of the most researched paradigms in the late years. different technologies have been developed and introduced into these systems, but at the same time, a spectrum of use-cases has been offered for this model. this paper aims at addressing the most important problem facing with the distance learning eco-system, namely its evaluation. the evaluation process has been undertaken in different european countries, such as latvia, lithuania, serbia, poland, belarus, and romania. the obtained results show that not all of the students are at the same level of readiness when it comes to distance education, there are no criteria developed for the evaluation of the students' readiness to this education model. for the purpose of this study, authors suggest that readiness to distance education includes knowledge, skills, and abilities that are necessary for students to successfully possess while using the technologies of distance education. after the analysis of the results of this research, the authors developed a structure and described elements that define the level of students' readiness to distance education. keywords: distance learning, evaluation, readiness to education 1. introduction nowadays, distance learning has become one of the most common words being used by students, researchers and industrial corporations alike. the year 2012 was declared “the year of massive open online courses (moocs)” when prestigious universities like stanford, harvard, école polytechnique fédérale de lausanne, the massachusetts institute of technology and rice university joined their efforts with private companies to offer new free distance learning courses (baran & baraniuk, 2016). there has been identified a large spectrum of differences between the traditional classroom and the distance education technologies. in the distance education environment, the subject of teaching (referred to as student) receives access to electronic teaching materials and some electronic means of communication with an object of teaching (referred to as the teacher). in such a learning environment, a new teaching paradigm is advertised, namely, the teacher does not only transfer knowledge, but is that particular medium that stimulates the students to develop their own self-learning capabilities (krouk & zhuravleva, 2010). in the same time, trainer’s attention will not be focused only on some students, as the “triangle of influence” issue has been coined, but his/her attention will be on all the participants (bogdan, 2016). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 36 different tools and technologies have been developed in order to enhance the distance learning experience, being introduced in different countries (babori & fassi, 2016; holotescu &cretu, 2013). such features are analyzed from technical, informational, organizational, administrative and pedagogical approaches. given the fact that the people participating into such distance learning environments are acting from various countries, the distance education system represents a factor influencing the society, therefore a constant evaluation of the system is needed (khan & ally, 2015; perraton, 2007). the aim of this paper is to evaluate the distance learning system in different european countries (latvia, lithuania, serbia, poland, belarus, and romania) especially from the point of view of the student being ready for distance education. the rest of this paper is structured as follows: section ii presents literature review in terms of distance learning evaluation. section iii brings into light the methodology used; in addition, section iv presents the results of the study. in the last part of the article the conclusions are drawn. 2. literature review the problem of distance learning evaluation is a state-of-the-art research theme in the academic literature. different methods have proposed with a myriad of results. as it has been argued in khan & ally(2015), perraton (2007) and dorrego (2016), the distance learning system is not only about developing new technologies and their appliance in the education process, but also about evaluating the impact of such approaches. a very interesting research has been offered in yubing & jianping (2010), where data mining techniques are employed to evaluate the chinese distance learning system. text mining and usage mining algorithms are utilized in order to establish a correlation between the used technologies and the exam results of the students. the distance learning evaluation applied into technical studies, is presented in kroll & schoen (2015) and swart (2016). in these studies it is underlined that is necessary to constantly gather students’ feedback regarding the usage of distance learning engineering courses, but also results on what kind of activities students are better performing when talking about distance learning technical courses. in scientific research also great attention is paid to the readiness of students to acquire distance education, due to the change of learning environment as well as the role of the student in the educative process, the demands regarding their knowledge, skills and personal traits are higher (berge & muilenburg, 2002). considering the above-mentioned concept, challenging issues appear regarding the tutoring of students' readiness to complete homework and selfeducative tasks, to search, analyze and select the necessary information while using computer technologies. therefore, there exists an objective basis for the development of students' skills in educative activities necessary for studying in distance education universities: self-control and self-assessment, commitment, the motivation for self-education, high-level of knowledge and skills in the field of information and communication technologies. research has shown that the responsibilities and requirements of completing distance learning are not readily apparent to those taking distance learning for the first time (garrison & cleveland-innes, 2004). when these functions and/or expectations are not consistent across the educational formats, then the overall experience may be frustrating for all participants. dissatisfaction is more likely to appear and the learning process may be hindered. actually, the students often find the workload in online courses more difficult because they must cover course material on their own. 3. methodology to achieve the aim of this research, it was necessary to clarify the level of the student’s eagerness for distance education, to identify the strong points and the drawbacks of this education model in latvia, as well as to compare it with analogic models in some institutions of higher education in lithuania, serbia, poland, and belarus. d. vasilevska, b. rivza, r. bogdan evaluation of readiness for distance education of students in european universities 37 in concordance with the aim of the research, the following tasks were set: to create a new survey for polling students, to carry out the survey of the target audience, to identify the level of students' readiness to take part in distance education. the research was carried out from september 2014 to february 2016 in latvian, lithuanian, serbian, polish, romanian, and belarusian institutions of higher education which had occurrence in organizing distance education with the use of current information and communication technologies. the survey was carried out among and extramural (distance) study mode students. two groups were distinguished: the first one was formed by students having experienced distance education model (64% of respondents) and the second with students following the traditional study model experience (36% of respondents). the representative quota sampling (the total number of respondents) was 946. 4. obtained results the basis of the distance education process is a purposeful, controlled and independent work of a student who has the opportunity to study in a comfortable place, according to an individual plan, having a set of special educative means, as well as a possibility to consult with the teacher via phone, mail or e-mail. the use of computers may help finding various alternate solutions: to examine, to discover errors, to give necessary advice, to access online libraries, and to help to find the necessary information. therefore, the opinion of the authors is that one of the most important issues for readiness to distance education is a high level of computer proficiency. the obtained results show that4% of students stated that they have the basic computer skills. nevertheless, more objectivity was found from screening the question about the command of information technologies. afterward four levels of skills were distinguished. the first level includes basic knowledge about operating systems (windows, linux), use of several basic programs, such as word processors, calculator, and games. the second level includes respondents with knowledge of basic and office programs, who know how to work with word processors, create graphs, charts, diagrams, table reports, and presentations. the third level illustrate the respondents with the knowledge of not only operating systems, but also knowledge about basic and office programs, or professional programs as well (for bookkeepers – 1c, for secretaries – data bases, for web-designers – cms, for advertising specialists – specific graphic editors such as coreldraw). the fourth level requires specific knowledge – work with operating systems at the level of the system administrator (ecdl, 2016). as a result, it was established that the number of respondents with a low command of various programs is notably larger than the number according to the self-assessment. around 10% of the respondents have a good command of only one program. the majority of the respondents (53%) are unspecialized users, i.e. they use only basic and office programs (tab. 1). students from serbia evaluated their computer skills more critically; none of them were indicated to be “proficient”. table 1. computer skills level (% from the respondent number in the group) country proficient advanced intermediate basic latvia 14 30 48 8 lithuania 8 31 47 14 poland 4 34 64 9 serbia 0 25 62 13 belarus 10 40 44 6 romania 18 49 32 1 as it is known, besides a vast number of computer programs, distance education model provides extensive use of other didactic resources for communication such as videoconferences, brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 38 seminars, progress tutorials in the preparation process of papers, essays or degree thesis, as well as various video materials and slide lectures. in the structure of readiness to distance education, the authors have included also the motivational aspect. it characterizes students' attitude towards the chosen education model: they have a certain set goal for education, to understand the importance of studying through distance education technologies and have willfully chosen this education model. therefore, it is necessary to underline that each student has its own motivation. in addition to that, all criteria are united with the continuous necessity to upgrade one's professional status, to establish readiness for individual decision-making and their implementation; as well as with the focus on obtaining professional success. table 2 illustrates the variety of motivational factors. table 2. motivational factors when selecting distance education (% from the respondent number in the group) country possibility to study according to individual plan possibility to study independently, using electronic resources possibility to combine work and studies career development no obligation for every day lecture attendance opportunity to start studies anytime lower education fee latvia 10 7 32 23 12 9 7 lithuania 17 7 22 21 17 11 5 poland 12 14 21 24 15 12 2 serbia 17 5 20 14 19 15 10 belarus 6 9 26 19 20 8 12 romania 28 17 25 2 16 12 0 one of the most important factors in readiness to distance education in the authors' opinion is the cognitive factor. the student is able to critically evaluateor to determine the quality of distance education. firstly, this model of education is regarded as a subject for satisfying educational needs. distance education studies create psychological comfort and confidence. it is known that this type of studies help upgrading the social status and the qualification. the emotional activity becomes a means of creative acquisition, consumption, and use of distance education methods. the development level of this factor is characterized as motivation for acquiring knowledge. if the student has the necessity to only pass an exam or a test, it signalizes about the ineffectiveness of studies, the student acquires only the minimum amount of knowledge, skills, and abilities that are necessary for studying in distance education faculty. this high-level of the development factor is characterized by the creative activity, system of constant interests, skills to evaluate the ongoing processes in distance education, as well as the occurrence of individually comprehended and personal values. in this group, students have all necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for distance education. “the main aim of distance education is the arrangement of conditions for the formation of independent cognitive activity during the study in a developed academic environment, based on computer and telecommunication technologies” (clark, 2002; rovai, 2008). nevertheless, the results of the survey revealed a different situation in reality. not all the students of distance education were determined to count on themselves, for example, in electronic exams and tests. it was proven, that only around half of the students, on average, 56%, would rely on self-decisions when implementing tasks. 26% of respondents relied on the assistance of cheat notes and 18% counted on “sheer luck”, using little effort for exams and tests (table 3). d. vasilevska, b. rivza, r. bogdan evaluation of readiness for distance education of students in european universities 39 table 3. students’ reliance of success when preparing for electronic exams and tests (% from the respondent number in the group) country use of your personal knowledge and skills, being prepared for the exam use of „crib” or other illict aid during examination process hope that you will fortunate and do not study for the exam latvia 42 39 19 lithuania 59 25 16 poland 55 29 16 serbia 58 20 22 belarus 51 22 27 romania 81 8 11 results of the survey show that despite the obvious advantages, distance education constantly faces theoretical and practical problems and contradictions. to this day, in distance education, the control over students' learning activities remains one of the main problems. indeed, in distance education, there is no other way how to stipulate sufficiently the high-level of motivation to a student because teachers have almost no means of disciplinary management. 5. conclusion readiness to distance education is the main effectiveness requirement of use of distance education technologies. the problem of evaluating the students' readiness to distance education is linked to the problem of defining criteria. key requirements of criteria may be defined as follows: they must be objective, need to include the essential moments of the researched phenomenon, include phenomenon's features (defined clearly, concisely, and precisely), and determine exactly the issues that the researcher has an interest in. considering the structure of students' readiness to distance education as a united set of elements, the authors suggest to evaluate the development level of students' readiness to distance education in accordance with the criteria as it follows: – motivational readiness to distance education; – technological readiness to distance education; – reflexive-effective evaluation of distance education performance. each criterion contains corresponding indicators that characterize its development level in student’s activity: 1) motivational readiness to distance education: – motivation; – knowledge about distance education; – attitude towards distance education; – knowledge about methods of distance education. 2) technological readiness to distance education: – command of distance education methods; – necessary skills to use current information technologies; – knowledge about basic means of educative resources on the internet; – skills that are necessary to be able to accomplish tasks assigned by teacher with the help of educative resources on the internet 3) cognitive readiness to distance education: – skills to purposefully organize the independent work; – the presence of skills in self-management and self-assessment; – understanding and evaluation of distance education. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 40 the defined criteria and indicators of readiness to distance education serve as input data for determining the level of the development of this feature in students of institutions of higher education. the results of the survey conducted by the authors of the paper indicate that the level of students' readiness to distance education programs differs and depends on the distance education's model of organization. according to the opinion of the students, the most effective isa model of combined distance lectures and face-to-face meetings with the teacher, as there may be some difficulties with the independent study process. in the opinion of the authors of the paper, in order to acquire higher results in education, depending on the type of the education program, its goal, profile and student body, it is important to find a balance between distance and traditional classroom lectures with teachers. riffley and sibley (2004) examined advantages of blended learning in a more conservative version of its use — to keep the active form of class lectures and to exchange the passive listening of lectures with the online homework. the research revealed that even in this case, blended learning has more advantages in comparison with the conventional learning. factor, which in various cases may make it impossible or unreasonable to use distance education, may be necessary for acquiring practical skills in jobs with real equipment. network technologies and computer emulators may significantly help in the preparing stage. in any case, the use of innovative education models with distance education technologies allows a significantly lifting of the effectiveness and accessibility of education and is up-to-date to current requirements. references babori, a., fihri fassi, h., hariri, a., bideq m. (2016), an e-learning environment for algorithmic: toward an active construction of skills, world journal on educational technology, 8(2). baran, t., baraniuk r., oppenheim a., prandoni p., vetterli m. (2016), mooc adventures in signal processing, ieee signal processing magazine, 33(4), 62 83. berge, z.l., muilenburg, l.y., and haneghan, j.v. (2002). barriers to distance education and training: survey results. the quarterly review of distance education, 3(4), 409-418. bogdan, r. (2016), guidelines for developing educational environments in the automotive industry, 1st international conference on smart learning ecosystems and regional developments, timisoara, romania. clark, r. (2002). six principles of effective e-learning: what works and why. the e-learning developer's journal, 1−10. dorrego, e. (2016), distance education and learning evaluation, revista de educacion a distancia, volume 50. garrison, d. r., cleveland-innes, m., fung, t. (2004). “student role adjustment in online communities of inquiry: model and instrument validation.” jaln, 8(2), 61-74. khan, b.h., ally, m. (2015), international handbook of e-learning, volume 1: theoretical perspectives and research. london, new york: routledge, taylor&francis group. kroll, r., schoen, d. (2015), a holistic evaluation approach for degree courses in engineering sciences for distance learning universities, 16th international conference on research and education in mechatronics (rem), 1 – 5. krouk, b.i., zhuravleva, o.b., chupakhina, n.a. (2010), method for quality evaluation of distance learning, ieee region 8 international conference on computational technologies in electrical and electronics engineering (sibircon), 369 – 373. holotescu, c., cretu, v. (2013), microblogging platforms in education: features, usages and architectures, microblogging in educational settings. how microblogging platforms can d. vasilevska, b. rivza, r. bogdan evaluation of readiness for distance education of students in european universities 41 be used in formal and informal education, avm akademische verlagsgemeinschaft münchen. “official site of ecdl”, [online]. european computer driving licence foundation (2016), retrieved from: http://www.ecdl.org/programmes/ecdl_icdl. date of access: 02.11.2016. perraton, h. (2007), open and distance learning in the developing world (2nd ed.). london: routledge. riffell, s. k., sibley, d. f. (2004). can hybrid course formats increase attendance in undergraduate environmental science courses? journal of natural resources and life science education, volume 33, 1-5. rovai, a. (2008). distance learning in higher education / a. rovai, m. ponton, j. baker. new york: columbia university press. swart, a. j. (2016), distance learning engineering students languish under project-based learning, but thrive in case studies and practical workshops, ieee transactions on education, 59(2), 98 – 104. yubing, a., jianping, z. (2010), the application of data mining technology in distance learning evaluation, international forum on information technology and applications (ifita), 145 – 148. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue4_2017_final.doc 32 software application for disabled students laszlo csiki department of engineering and computer science, “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania csikilacko95@gmail.com andrei gabor department of engineering and computer science, “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania 94 bulevardul revoluției, arad, tel. +40 257 211 884 andrei.gabor@uvvg.ro marius popescu department of engineering and computer science, “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania 94 bulevardul revoluției, arad, tel. +40 257 211 884 mpopescu@uvvg.ro antoanela naaji department of engineering and computer science, “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania 94 bulevardul revoluției, arad, tel. +40 257 211 884 anaaji@uvvg.ro abstract modern universities across the world rely increasingly on information and communication technologies, both in their educational and research processes, and the management of academic databases. the android app “virtual university” is a virtual platform designed especially to be used by students and is aimed at accessing, in real time, information connected with the subjects being studied (grades, announcements, notification), financial situation, as well as connecting with the secretariat of the university. the application allows each student to check their financial situation and to pay their educational fees and dues online. the app is meant as an expansion of existing functionalities within universities, and not as a replacement for them. using the application may lead to an improvement in the quality of life, particularly for people with disabilities. keywords: virtual university, mobile application, android app, disability 1. introduction recent discoveries in information technology have led to the development of applications that could replicate real-life situations as closely as possible. the development of wireless and sensor technologies has provided a different way to establish interactions with resources within virtual universities (hwang, tsai, yang, 2008). mobile terminals are the most commonly used devices in daily life, and according to recent studies, over 50% of internet searches are made from a tablet or mobile phone. users tend to look for a mobile application for anything, being almost dependent on their usefulness in everyday life. given this fact, creating an educational mobile application could be a very important factor. through the mobile application designed by us, students can interact with various items of information on the status and coverage of courses (grades, scheduling of courses and labs, announcements of last-moment changes), as well as interact with the secretariat of the university in real time. the application works with a mysql server which is integrated into the lms system of the virtual university. l. csiki, a. gabor, m. popescu, a. naaji software application for disabled students 33 one of the features of the application is also the possibility to send questions and answers through a text message centre between participants. additionally, the application concept places special emphasis on increasing communication between users. each student may consider the comfort and flexibility of online services provided by virtual universities. people with disabilities comprise a fairly high percentage from the population of romania, amounting to a number of 784,527 according to a press release by the national authority for people with disabilities within the ministry of labour and social justice, and increasing each year according to the chart in figure 1 (the romanian ministry of labor and social justice, statistic bulletin, 2017). the number of severely disabled people accounts for 36.91% of the total (compared to 36.07% on 31 march 2016), those moderately disabled for 51.66% (compared to 52.24% on 31 march 2016), and those with mild disabilities for 11.43% (compared to 11.69% on 31 march 2016). there are several reasons for this constant increase, including population ageing and technological progress that can easily identify disability among people. figure 1. evolution of the number of disabled people, december 2006 – march 2016 (the romanian ministry of labor and social justice, statistic bulletin, 2017) for starters, students can manage their issues regarding courses, scheduling, grades, relationship with the faculty office. issues concerning the special needs of disabled people such as special monitors, mice, or keyboards can also be solved by online application. by virtual connection to resources provided by our application, expenses on transportation and the companions of students with special needs can be reduced. our application provides flexibility for students to express themselves and interact with their classmates and professors. a rapid and eficient interaction provides enough free time for disabled students to complete their tasks. android is an operating system for mobile telecommunication terminals based on a linux kernel, developed by google and, subsequently, by the open handset alliance consortium. android allows developers to write codes managed in java language, controlling the device through java libraries developed by google (hwang et. al., 2008; zhang et. al., 2013). the “virtual university” (vu) app described in this paper can be used to access information on subjects and students (such as grades, announcements) and to communicate with the secretariat of the institution, through text messages. likewise, it can check financial data, and if necessary make the online payment of academic fees or dues. android studio was used to develop the “virtual university” application, with frequent brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 34 recourse to the following elements: listeview, button, textview, edittext, spinner and http connector. android studio is a new ide (integrated drive electronics), proposed by google, which allows developing mobile applications and provides many advanced facilities in installing the work environment, performance, code completion and refactoring. in addition to these, we used the mysql database and php scripts (aziz, mitchell, 2007), which is an open source language, suitable for the development of web applications and which can be integrated into html. the next part of the paper is organized as follows: section 2 which describes the structure of the application, section 3 which describes the application from technical point of view and conclusions containing also few ideas about future work. 2. structure of the android app an android app has a lot of components. each component is a point through which the system can enter the application, which does not mean that an android app can begin anywhere. some components depend on others, but each component is a separate, unique entity. there are four types of components in an android application. each has a different purpose and life cycle, and they are created and destroyed differently. these four components are: activities, services, content providers and broadcast receivers. the activity component consists of a single screen with graphic elements. for example, an email application can have one activity to show the inbox and another activity to compose an email. these two activities work together to form a pleasant experience for the user, although they are independent from one another. in terms of programming, these are classes expanding the activity class. unlike other systems in which one program contains several windows displayed simultaneously, in android the screen is occupied by only one window at any time. moreover, the windows are connected through the simple fact that one window gives rise to several windows. the window appearing on the screen when the application is started is considered to be the main window, from which all other windows start. to create an activity, a class will be created expanding the activity class. upon start-up, the program will generate it and events will be used to interact with the window. some of the most important events are: oncreate and onpause. the virutal university application used activity only for the main activity, which manages navigation drawer, and for the login activity. the application is based on fragments, which are classes amounting to an independent component, executed in the context of an activity, to facilitate the creation of interfaces that can adapt to different types of screens. thus, a fragment can be seen as a portion of interface that can be reused within several activities or for a different positioning of the same interface – if other types of screens are used (figure 2). l. csiki, a. gabor, m. popescu, a. naaji software application for disabled students 35 figure 2. android fragments there are nine fragments in the application: 1. student data; 2. subjects; 3. grades; 4. financial; 5. pay; 6. announcements; 7. my messages; 8. write message; 9. read message. the backend part is done in php language. a script was created for each connection to the database, which runs a mysql interrogation and returns a json array. the application downloads the returned array and afterwards reads the data. services are components running in the background for operations that run more. services do not have visual representation. for example, a service can play a song from a playlist while the user is in another application, or can synch the email while the user is watching a video. another component can start a service, such as an activity, or can be connected to the service to interact. content providers work with data which are shared and which can be in system files, in an sql database, on the web, etc. through content providers an application can interrogate, or even modify that data (if it has the required permissions). contacts in the phonebook can be accessed through the e-mail application using content providers. for example, the notepad application uses content providers to save notes from there. broadcast receivers are the component responding to announcements/system alarms: discharged battery, download completed, they do not have graphic interface but can create notifications. the application is free and very useful in different moments in students’ lives and provides interaction with various items of personal and group information. the size of the application file is 2.8 mb and can be downloaded from the link: http://informatica-uvvg.esy.es/vu/app-virtual.apk/. minimum requirements for systems on which the application can run are: resolution 480x800 pixels, api level 19, android system and internet connection (3g/wifi). recommended system requirements are: resolution 720*1280, api level 23, android system and internet connection (3g/wifi) (ma et. al., 2013; shewale et. al., 2014). 3. description of the application 3.1. implementing the application menu starting the application displays the logging window (figure 3), where each student can log in to the platform using personal data. after filling out the boxes, access to the platform is granted by tapping the “login” button. after logging in the users can view news. on the application bar there are two icons, the first is menu (figure 4), and the second is messages with which “my messages” are accessed. the menu comprises the following sections: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 36 student data: section providing information regarding the students of the university, for example, name, surname, birth date, country, county, residence, sex, citizenship, nationality, personal identification code (cnp), major. the application connects the database using a php script, which requests the updated data from the database, which it downloads using http url connector. then, the program fills in the empty boxes (textview) with downloaded data. subjects: displays the subjects taught in the education institution. there are 18 empty boxes (textview), and in the background the http connector downloads the required data from the database and fills in the empty boxes. grades: information on students’ grades, by declaring a list view, where each line contains 4 additional rows and 2 columns, with row 1 reserved for the title of the subject, and the second, third and fourth row contain boxes with partial grades, therefore, the second column contains only grades. figure 3. login screen figure 4. menu of the android app financial: section dedicated to checking financial data and online payments. thus, financial data can be viewed, if the student is enrolled in paid education, then the downloaded data contain the total price/year, paid/year and the rest. the rest contains unpaid money. if the user wished to make a payment, they can pay online by tapping the “pay online” button. tapping the button will open a window where the payment can be made. here the user must input the following data: credit card type, card number, expiration date and security code if available. after filling in the boxes, the payment is finalised by tapping the “pay” button. if everything is in order, there will be a toast displaying the message “payment completed”. announcements: news is viewed after logging in to the platform, where announcements can be read. an announcement element contains three lines: line 1 displays the title, line 2 comprises the date of issue, and the third line contains the message/announcement. the application downloads the required data upon each login and thus updated announcements can be viewed. my messages: section dedicated to communications with the secretariat or between students, of the cnp of the recipient is not known. in this section a list view containing messages was declared. one line in the list contains 4 elements: element one is an image, element two contains the cnp of the sender (if a message is received from the secretariat, only the name of the secretariat is seen, not the cnp), element 3 contains the title of the message and element four contains the l. csiki, a. gabor, m. popescu, a. naaji software application for disabled students 37 message, where a maximum number of 20-30 characters are visible. an fab (float action button) is implemented in this section and can be used to write a new message. only received messages appear, namely the inbox folder. unfortunately we can only see the inbox, as the application described in the paper is under testing. here the user has to tap the message they wish to view, which opens a new window where the content of the message can be viewed. if the user wants to reply to the message, then they have to tap the “reply” button, opening a window where the boxes title, recipient and message must be filled in. a title will be written under the “title” section; under “recipient” the user does not have to select anything as the selection is automatic. the message is written and then sent using the “send” button, and, if necessary, it can be deleted. in the “new message” section the user must fill in the sections title, message, and under recipient a spinner has been implemented, where the following destinations are chosen: 1. secretariat fseii (secretary of the faculty of economical sciences, computer science and engineering); 2. secretariat fsj (secretary of the faculty of law); 3. secretariat fsoeufs (secretary of the faculty of socio-humanistic sciences and physical education and sports); 4. secretariat medicina (secretary of the faculty of medicine); 5. secretariat stomatologie (secretary of the faculty of dentistry); 6. secretariat farmacie (secretary of the faculty of pharmacy); 7. other – if this option is selected, then the cnp of the recipient will have to be filled in. exit: to exit the application / log out from the platform. after logout the application returns to the login window. 3.2. connection of the application with the database the application makes the connection to a mysql database, where the data required for each section are downloaded. vu application php script mysql (database) the application creates a connection with a php script which implements a connection to a mysql database: <?php require "conn.php"; $user_name=$_post["user_name"]; $sql="select*from financial where cnp like '$user_name';"; $result=mysqli_query($conn,$sql); $response=array(); while($row=mysqli_fetch_array($result)){ array_push($response,array("total"=>$row[1],"paid"=>$row[2],"rest"=>$row[3]));} echo json_encode(array("server_response"=>$response)); $conn->close; ?> the php script requests the data, in this case total, paid and rest, that is, the financial data in the financial table, and after these it creates an array in which it will find the response. mysql (database) php script vu application the program will wait for the response, which is a json (javascript object notation) (munch-ellingsen, karlsen, 2015) and will download on this json. the code runs in the background (background task), creating a connection to a php script, which requests post data (for example: user_name). after receiving the data, the script creates a response in json format, and http url connector awaits this response, which will be declared as a string. @override brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 38 protected string doinbackground(string... params){ try {user_name=params[0]; url url=new url(json_financial_url); httpurlconnection httpurlconnection=(httpurlconnection) url.openconnection(); httpurlconnection.setrequestmethod("post"); httpurlconnection.setdooutput(true); httpurlconnection.setdoinput(true); outputstream outputstream = httpurlconnection.getoutputstream(); bufferedwriter bufferedwriter=new bufferedwriter(new outputstreamwriter(outputstream,"utf-8")); string post_data=urlencoder.encode("user_name","utf-8")+"="+ urlencoder.encode(user_name,"utf-8"); bufferedwriter.write(post_data); bufferedwriter.flush(); bufferedwriter.close(); outputstream.close(); inputstream inputstream=httpurlconnection.getinputstream(); bufferedreader bufferedreader=new bufferedreader(new inputstreamreader(inputstream)); stringbuilder stringbuilder=new stringbuilder(); while ((json_string = bufferedreader.readline())!=null){ stringbuilder.append(json_string+"\n");} bufferedreader.close(); inputstream.close(); httpurlconnection.disconnect(); return stringbuilder.tostring().trim(); } catch (malformedurlexception e){e.printstacktrace(); } catch (unsupportedencodingexception e){e.printstacktrace(); } catch (protocolexception e){e.printstacktrace(); } catch (ioexception e){e.printstacktrace();} return null;} 4. conclusions it is a known fact that the number of disabled students enrolling in universities is increasing. it is also known that they do not have the same graduation rate as able-bodied students. disabled students should benefit from auxiliary services in addition to those provided by online courses. the interaction of disabled students with the virtual university must be considered as a web accessibility issue. we chose to address this using the proposed application, for the very reason of meeting and solving the challenging requirements of people with disabilities. the “virtual university” described in the paper is an original virtual platform, designed for mobile telecommunication terminals, which should be seen as a bridge between the higher education institution and the learner, making it easier for the secretariat of the university to track the behaviour and activity of the student, or to present their academic status in a customised way. the application is simple, unpretentious, and user-friendly, but delivers satisfactory results in academic communication, and the logical structure of the application can be developed for any higher or secondary education institution. additionally, it can expand functionality by adding modules in the form of a chat or a forum. among the benefits described above, the most important are, for the university secretariat, sending information to students in real time and tracking feedback, and for students, the possibility of using the simplest and most efficient way to communicate through mobile device and obtain/access information stored/requested by the university secretariat. we may conclude that providing 3g and 4g internet connections adds a host of facilities to the mobile e-learning environment. some facilities were also presented in our work through the interaction between student and secretariat, viewing exam results and number of credits. in addition to other applications, our proposal offers students the possibility to check their financial data, and, if necessary, make online payments for fees or dues. we shall continue to support these directions in the future, in the area of information and communication services, between student and university. l. csiki, a. gabor, m. popescu, a. naaji software application for disabled students 39 references aziz, a., mitchell, s. (2007). an introduction to javascript object notation (json) in javascript and .net, retrieved from https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb299886.aspx hwang, g.j., tsai, c.c., yang, s.j.h. (2008). criteria, strategies and research issues of contextaware ubiquitous learning. educational technology & society 11.2, 81-91 ma, x., zhao, y., zhang, l., wang, h., peng, l. (2013). when mobile terminals meet the cloud: computation offloading as the bridge. 0890-8044/13/$25.00, ieee munch-ellingsen, a., karlsen, r. (2015). two-factor authentication for android host card emulated contactless cards. mobile and secure services (mobisecserv), first conference. retrived from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7072874/ shewale, h., patil, s., deshmukh, v., singh, p. (2014). analysis of android vulnerabilities and modern exploitation techniques. journal on communication technology, vol.5, 864867 the romanian ministry of labor and social justice, national authority for people with disabilities (2017). statistic bulletin, first trimester, retrieved from http://anpd.gov.ro/web/transparenta/statistici/trimestriale/ zhang, w., wen, y., wu, j., li, h. (2013). toward a unified elastic computing platform for smart phones with cloud support. 0890-8044/13/$25.00, ieee laszlo csiki (b. january 30, 1995) received his bsc in informatics (2017), from “vasile goldis” western university of arad. now he is msc of computer science in department of engineering and computer science, faculty of economics, engineering and computer science, “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania. his current research interests include different aspects of artificial intelligence applied in biological systems. he has (co-) authored 2 papers, more than 3 conferences participation. andrei gabor (b. september 9, 1969) received his bsc in electronics and telecommunication (2000), phd in electronics and telecommunication (2014) from “politehnica” university of timisoara, romania.. now he is lecturer of computer science in department of engineering and computer science, faculty of economics, engineering and computer science, “vasile goldis” western university of arad. his current research interests include web technologies, elearning technology, multimedia databases, computer networks. he has (co-) authored and (co-) edited 7 books and more than 30 papers. marius popescu (b. may 19, 1965) received his msc in automation and computers (1990) and in informatics (1995), phd in electrical engineering (2002) from university of craiova, romania. now she is professor of computer science in department of engineering and computer science, faculty of economics, engineering and computer science, “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania. he has (co-) authored and (co-) edited 21 books and more than 200 papers. his research interests involve signal processing, modelling, optimization and simulation processes. his preoccupations in the above-mentioned fields are reflected in a number of over 20 projects, as manager or member, funded by national or international research authorities or county council. antoanela naaji (b. february, 1963) received her msc in automation and computers (1987), phd in mechanical engineering (2005) from “politehnica” university of timisoara, romania. in 2009 she received a ll.m degree in administrative law and the statute of public officers from “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania. now she is associate professor of computer science in brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 40 department of engineering and computer science, faculty of economics, engineering and computer science, “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania. her current research interests include web technologies (e-learning), biomechanics (modeling of biological systems) and medical informatics. she has (co-) authored and (co-) edited 13 books and more than 90 papers. her preoccupations in the above-mentioned fields are reflected in a number of over 20 projects, as manager or member, funded by eu, national or international research authorities or county council. she is a senior member of ieee, member of eaeeie (european association for electrical engineer and information engineering), agir (general association of romanian engineers) and srim (romanian society for medical informatics). microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1.doc 42 computer-mediated security threats into the web 2.0 society bogdan nadolu department of sociology, west university of timisoara, blvd. v. parvan 4, timisoara 300223, romania bogdan.nadolu@e-uvt.ro delia nadolu department of sociology, west university of timisoara, blvd. v. parvan 4, timisoara 300223, romania abstract this paper is focused on a contemporary very complex and controversial issue related to the ict using: should the internet be censured, or not? the promise of the 4 of a – anyone to be able to send anything, anywhere, anytime is almost achieved. into the digital universe we can find plenty of useful information for positive or negative actions. the global info-sphere has developed a distinct chapter of dark and deep web, where the tracking of information and users is blocked, and thus contents over the laws limits can be easily accessed. 1. introduction the general profile of the internet remains a quasi-anarchic one, with various alternative connections between any two terminals, with a high level of control on the defining of the own identity (and thus with a high potential of anonymity, usually on the principle i am what i am write), with a special definition of to be in virtual space, based on to act and that in almost all situation means to write. significantly, with the absence of power resources that are usually present in any face to face interaction, and thus the self-censure and social distance are more volatile, in the virtual space is easier to access unknown people because they literally are only virtually close to you, they cannot reach you directly. more than half of the earth’s population is already on-line and thus social media, as an important component of the internet generates a huge challenge for the public security planning. traditionally, security planning was far more territorial, limited by rules, laws, and principles of one particular jurisdiction, which is comparatively outdated when the promise and reach of the internet is anyone (sending) anything, anywhere, anytime. 2. state of the art social media has already been used in events which threaten security, such as the uprising in the arab spring across north africa, and in the london and manchester riots in the uk (acpo 2013). it is certain that social media will have an increasing role in any other similar events. often the first news (and that which is most likely to be influential) is received by the public from social media and not from the usual news channels via television or print media. the disruptive elements in society may also use social media to plan, organize and control such events. however, given the emerging pattern of using social media to promote terrorism, there are efforts reported in the news (workman, bommer, & straub: 2008) to include security measures in social media. another main problem is that internet and social media are borderless and not constrained by the laws and regulations of a single country, making it difficult for any country to impose its laws and maintain its national security effectively when a threat is generated on social media. social media can generate new kinds of risks, creating vulnerability to attack, and stimulating threats and dangerous activities. it is obvious that the internet and social media usually cannot be shut down (only on a limited area, under the totalitarian regime), as there is a lack of centralized control over both entities. it is also obvious that it is almost impossible to guard against the musing conventional approaches when confronted by virtual behavior and computer-based manifestations of terrorism. the virtual social networking can be used for anticipating various b. nadolu, d. nadolu computer-mediated security threats into the web 2.0 society 43 collective behaviors (i.e. the advancing of a current of public opinion, or the manifestation of some trend for or against a subject etc.) it is also important to monitor the social media in order to identify the current agenda (the most relevant topic discussed into the public virtual space). social networking tools can be used for getting insights, to establish potential threats, to identify perpetrators, to discover threatening organization topologies, identifying potential escalations, and also heeding expressed community fears and expectations. also, social media may be used to predict possible security threats. open data is available for this kind of investigation, as there is no privacy restriction, and also this leads to greater security in society. private data shall be used only according to the privacy policies and laws of the country/territories where such predictions are made. (zevenbergen, 2015) during the romanian presidential election in november 2014, on the 2nd tour, social media had a central role in generating a so-called social tsunami, changing the prediction of any sociological poll, by motivating and bringing to vote up to 1 million people (in only one day of inefficient organized vote abroad, with plenty of small videos shared on facebook 12 ). when access to social media is relatively easy, it can simply be used to quickly spread any kind of content, which can create an emotional impact that, in turn, can generate a strong social movement. the extremist movement (including here the terrorist’s activities) can expose their cruelty via social media to expose their doctrines and to convert those who will do the same. security planning is not bound by legal and ethical implications when using open data from social media, as this is, by nature, open and public. when it comes to private data, the procedures should respect the existing and new regulations from the country/territory where it is used. when new regulations are done, there should be taken into account the international regulations that exist, such as the fundamental human rights (article 8, echr). on the other hand, with very few restrictions, any communication on the social media is a public one. if the information is not in a direct peer-to-peer message then any kind of post, share, like, or other manifestation would be considered public and can be monitored, recorded, analyzed without any explicit permission from the owner as the public nature of his or her message is implicit. new criminal trends have emerged, with people committing crimes in cyberspace that they would not otherwise commit: the anonymity of the internet utilization, its quasi-anarchic structure and the possibility of adopting flexible identities can be incentives for criminal behavior. criminals can gain access to large numbers of targets through online services such as banking, shopping, and social networking. global connectivity also means criminals can learn from each other, even if they never meet. online criminal “social networking” can provide forms of criminal “outreach”, and links between criminal groups. a false impression of social acceptability of criminal acts such as child sexual exploitation can be created by online communities. there are many ways information and communication technologies are driving new and emerging crimes. consumer financial fraud has become transnational with the now-commonplace use of online payments. global incitement to violence and terrorism through social media has widened the reach and influence of previously localized radical and terrorist groups. illicit drugs and other products can be bought online, paid for with anonymous virtual currencies 13 . criminal groups operate in new ways, hiring specialists to perform tasks that are not covered by their existing knowledge and skills. this trend of a more transient and less structured organization may be how serious crime will be perpetrated in the future. the use of modern technology in criminal activity is 12 more details about this event http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/romania/11249449/romanian-presidentialelection-does-klaus-iohanniss-victory-prove-social-media-can-win-an-election.html which helped me to rephrase the paragraph to this: during the first round of the romanian presidential elections in november 2014, social media had a central role in generating a social tsunami, in which the romanian diaspora around europe voiced their discontent at the way in which the elections had been handled. the government’s difficulties in dealing with the election had been exposed and claims of undermining democracy had been shared, between romanians, across europe using hashtags. 13 according with http://gjis.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/gjis/article/view/38935 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 doubtless increasing, but established methods such as bribery and corruption continue to be important in the way these new crimes are carried out, particularly for illicit cross-border trafficking and movement. the digital environment is deeply affecting the meaning and use of media and information. the social media provides opportunities and challenges at all the levels of society. continuous technological developments create and publicize an ever-growing amount of content and information as well as new online spaces. they introduce new issues, challenges, and possibilities, as the internet scenario goes mobile, ubiquitous, and multiplatform. individuals gain more control over their roles as media creators and critics, and not only consumers. social media and social network sites take on added relevance, as they serve as references to new forms of social interaction, as well as new rights and participation models such as global citizenship in a digital age on one hand, and polarization on the other. we are constantly witnessing the blurring of ground democracy. the cyber world is creating new unmanned and intensely webbed societies. this does pose a security threat, as conducting a country under law and order takes on a new dimension in the cybersphere of lawlessness. the digital universe is developing with a considerable speed. the web 2.0 has made a deep change of the paradigm concerning the internet users’ behavior, by shifting the status from passive consumer to active user content generator. it is expected that in the further web 3.0 level will be implemented applications of ai that will produce self-generated web content which is quasi-independent from the human implications. in this perspective, any control of the information, produced and circulated into the internet, will be almost impossible. easy availability of information sharing apps and mobile technologies generally increases awareness amongst populations, even amongst the rural populations which are otherwise ill informed. this is a positive development which brings with it the risk of uprisings, unrest, and disorder. like arab springs more uprisings can be expected as populations become more informed and have the ability to communicate their concerns. realization of massive disparities will come (have come) in front to compare notes and exchange views. divides of “have” and “have not” will dangerously expand and this will result to resentment, discontentment, and violence, of course. crime persists, and those who carry out criminal activities – such as drug lords and terrorists – will be further enabled with the development of social media and technology. social media has also privatized violence. the criminal net-warriors increasingly employ information operations to add to their barbarization and high order violence. the brutal campaign of the islamic state carving its way across iraq and syria reflects a decade-long trend in world politics – the intensifying privatization of violence at a faster speed due to social media tools. the very tools of social media, which is causing widespread unrest in the world, must be utilized in a way that becomes a tool for security. this does not mean to abandon traditional practices of the law enforcement community, but to use social media as an enhancer and enabler of the traditional techniques. by 2020 there will be 50 billion networked devices; such connectivity will increasingly become part of our everyday life. the mobile phone was already declared in 2012 by the world bank the technology with the highest impact on short time over humanity (in 2012 ¾ have had access to a mobile phone). the data from these devices is and will increasingly shape our societies and economies and our view of the world. we already have a continuing quick increasing info-sphere and also a very consistent cyber-sphere with very complex consequences concerning the human behavior and its strengths and weak points. facebook has a 5,000 friends limit that any single user can add, but it has now been proven that our brains themselves are only capable of managing a maximum of 150 intimate friendships ones that are reciprocal and based around general obligations of trust reciprocity (dunbar, 2010) 14 . another piece of research has shown that hyperconnectivity produces “memoryless” individuals where the activation process is driven by social reinforcement at neighborhood level. 14 this is due to evidence based finding by oxford university professor robin dunbar, in which he asserts that the part of the brain used for conscious thought and language development; the neo-cortex limits us to managing an average of 150 close friendships, no matter how social we are. b. nadolu, d. nadolu computer-mediated security threats into the web 2.0 society 45 the active (or non-active) states of his or her social neighbors at each time step act as a “topological memory”, causing the individual to be activated with a larger probability example: if most of an individual’s friends are tweeting and re-tweeting a rumor repeatedly in time. high connectivity also reduces critical thinking, posing a greater challenge in terms of security, be it individual or collective. terrorist radicalization and recruitment of youth to violent extremism and terrorism appear, in many instances, based on social bonding rather than ideological grounds. young people may initially turn to violent extremist groups to find a sense of recognition, fellowship, and identity (mccauley & segal, 1987; russell & miller, 1977; silke, 2008; lafree & ackerman, 2009). youngsters may also join these groups because they offer forms of support that meet their material and socio-psychological needs, e.g., money, protection, and solidarity. the disproportionate impact of the economic crises faced by many young people in terms of poverty and unemployment may increase the youngsters’ vulnerability. 3. methodology on the base of these assumptions (developed into a collaborative group effort for an eu project application 15 ) we have designed and applied a very quick on-line sociological research concerning the dangers that can be assured to the internet utilization. thus, between the 21 st – 28 th october, 2015 we promoted an on-line google form short questionnaire that has collected answers from 421 subjects. even if this volume can be reasonable for a statistical representation of the recorded results, the technique of selection, by snow-ball approach (friends of the friends of the friends etc) produced a slightly limitation for generalization of the data. anyway, the results can be considered relevant for educated urban romanian internet users. the sample was free, formed mostly of women (70%), and has an average age of 24 years (from 14 to 63 years old). a distinct question was dedicated to the self-evaluation of the self-competence into the internet using, and the median had the value of 8. although it is a mere subjective self-evaluation, it is quite sure that the users who answered to the questionnaire are not novices in the internet and social media utilization. 4. results the first question of the on-line questionnaire was dedicated to a general evaluation of the internet evolution in the last 5 years: 15 parts of these theoretical description were developed into a h2020 application in 2014 related by social media and terrorism with a significant (but not exclusive) contributions of: nicolae goga (university of groningen, nl), nuno garcia, pedro inacio (university of beira interior, pt) yori gidron (university of brussels), clare frances moran, maria o’neill(auberty unviersity, uk) rupali jeswal, joseph marchese, dorin muresan, florin lobont and bogdan nadolu (west university of timisoara). high increased; 60 increased; 36 remained the same; 4 decreased; 1 q1. how do you assess the evolution of the internet in the last 5 years? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 the answers at this question indicated a quasi-total trend of increasing into the evolution of the internet during the last 5 years (96% for “increased” and “high increased”) with a median value of 5 (corresponding to “high increased”). this public perception is strictly related to the current developing of the internet applications, utilizations and related behaviors. in accordance with the above theoretical framework can be expected that this extensive evolution will include soon or later various antisocial content and negative manifestation. this is not a compulsory trend but only a natural extension, after the digitalization of almost all regular domains (education, mass-media, transportation, health, public administration, government, culture and so on) the areas of human manifestations that are at the law limits or beyond these will become on-line. at this moment the extension of the internet is a quite solid fact. another question has included several statements that the subjects had to evaluate (from total agree to total disagree): q2. how did you evaluate the following statements? totally agree agree undecided disagree totally disagree on the internet can be found any information… 37.5 48.7 5.5 6.9 1.4 the quality of the information from the internet is doubtful… 4.8 40.6 30.4 20.7 3.6 some information shouldn’t be found on the internet… 24.7 33.3 14.7 17.8 9.5 a lot of information from the internet are contradictories 21.9 51.5 16.2 8.1 2.4 following these results we can conclude that 86.2% of the subjects consider that on the internet can be found any information, but half of them (45.4%) are not so sure on the quality of this information, and this mostly because a lot of information from the internet is contradictory for 73.4% from subjects. it is very interesting that, despite this high informative profile of the internet, a quite high level of users (73.4%) appreciate that some information shouldn’t be found on the internet. without getting into details, from distributions can be extracted a soft conclusion, that too much information can be used for negative behaviors and actions. even if they are posted with a non-violent intention, some contents can be used for various dangerous acts, mainly because of their inconsequence toward reality. nowadays, there are quite few key words that do not generate into the search engine booth type of answers, pros and cons. from buying electronic gadgets to various politicians, public figures or health care, it is very easy to find contradictory information about them. thus it remains on the experience of the user and on him/her capacity to discern the true from all these irrelevant contents. another question was focused on a more sensible topic related to the censuring of the information on the internet (%): not at all; 11,6 into a very small measure; 7,8 into a small measure; 9,3 moderate; 44,7 into a large measure; 14,5 into a very large measure; 7,6 entirely; 4,5 q3. to what extent that information from the internet should be censored? b. nadolu, d. nadolu computer-mediated security threats into the web 2.0 society 47 following this distribution, we can observe that a large part of the subjects (44,7%) consider that the information from the internet should be moderately censored (against various risks and social dangerous). beside them, 26.6% evaluate that this process should be wider, and 28.7% think it should be lower. these two almost equal groups consolidate the central trend, and reflect a quite important worry concerning this perspective. the internet has begun as an almost totally free of control medium, a quasi-anarchic structure, a symbol for the freedom of expression for any users. in time, it has become more and more accessible, and a large amount of information has become available inside the info-sphere. now, due to some negative consequences, it looks like starting to censure some information is not a prohibitive idea anymore, but rather a desirable one. we want to stress on the fact that the sample was formed by regular users that are not experts in security issues and thus, the recognizing of the importance of having a moderate censuring onto the internet is a very significant conclusion. with an indirect connection to the previous item, the next question has directly approached a special topic related to the user’s knowledge about the dark web and/or deep web. these represent a quite particularly topic among the internet users, and represent an area where the ip tracking is difficult or not-possible. into this kind of sites and applications any user can remain anonymous, no matter what he/she does, posts or accesses. the distribution of answers to this question is the following: around two thirds of the respondents have not heard about dark/deep web. this is not necessary unusual, since the dark/web is usually associated with illicit activities, and is not regularly promoted into the virtual space. on one hand, the lack of information concerning this sensible topic can expose innocent users to various risks related to their presence, identity, private life, all exposed on the internet. on the other hand, the dark/deep web trend is to cumulate all negative persons, contents, actions, and applications against the personal and public security. if a regular user does not know about these potential risks, he/her might become more vulnerable to the direct threats. thus, directly related to this, the following question has tried to identify the users’ perceptions about how dangerous be the internet be: yes; 31 no; 69 q4. have you heard about dark/deep web? 4,8 3,3 5,2 5,5 14,7 7,1 12,8 17,6 9,7 19,2 0 5 10 15 20 25 1 (at all) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (full) q5. do you believe that the internet can be used with antisocial purpose? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 with a median value of 7 it is obvious that a large part of the sample consider that the internet can be used in a consistent manner for various antisocial purposes (59.3% evaluated this risk above 7). even if this is a subjective evaluation, the focusing of answers on the high part of the scale confirms the relevance of this topic. once again, without a direct experience in the security issues, the users that have answered to the questionnaire recognize that in the digital world can be infiltrated people, contents, information, actions, and applications with less ethical intentions. finally, the last question was dedicated to an explicit problem: the recruitment of adepts by terrorist groups with the help of the internet (%): very small measure 4.8 small measure 12.4 moderate measure 21.4 large measure 38.5 very large measure 23 again a significant volume of users (61.5%) estimate that the terrorist groups can recruit adepts from the internet without serious difficulties. 5. conclusion we have thus a quite coherent picture on the negative part of the internet: dangerous information, deep/dark web, and computer-mediated recruitment for the extremist movements. even these are just some consequences of the natural evolution of the internet, and it is quite sure that it cannot remain beyond any action, control, or at least attention. it is a very consistent chapter of the internet, and surely it is not a positive one. the direct risks that can be associated with this chapter can generate very complex consequences into the effective social space. the recent results from the epigenetic research conclude that the trauma can be inherited, and, thus, the undefined hate can go across generations. it is very important not to delay any adequate and proper measures, because the internet must keep its promise of the 4 of a: anyone to be able to send anything, anytime, anywhere, and all this without becoming a public threat. references dunbar, r. (2012). social cognition on the internet: testing constraints on social network size. philosophical transactions of the royal society, london, 367b: 2192-2201 lafree, gary, & ackerman, gary, (2009). the empirical study of terrorism: socil and legal research. annu. rev. law. soc. sci. 5. 347-74. mccauley, c & segal, m. (1987). social psychology of terrorist groups, in hendrick, c. (ed) review of personality and social psychology, beverly hills, ca: sage. russell, ca and miller, bh.(1977). profile of a terrorist. military rev. 57: 21-24. silke, a. (1998). cheshire-cat logic: the recurring theme of terrorist abnormality in psychological research. psychol. crime law. 4(1): 51-69. uk acpo; guidelines for the safe use of the internet and social media by police officers and police staff, association of chief police officers (england and wales) 2013, available online at http://library.college.police.uk/docs/acpo/safe-use-of-the-internet-feb-2013.pdf. zevenbergen, b. (2015). ethical privacy guidelines for mobile connectivity measurements blog available at http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/policy/ethical-privacy-guidelines-for-mobile-connectivitymeasurements/ last accessed on the 15th of august 2015. workman, bommer, & straub (2008). security lapses and omissions of information security measures: a threat control model and empirical test. computers in human behaviour, 24(6), b. nadolu, d. nadolu computer-mediated security threats into the web 2.0 society 49 pp. 2799-2816. (available on science direct). *** social media in jihad and counterterrorism – special number of combater terrorism exchange electronic journal, no 4/2012 available at https://globalecco.org/documents/10180/605826/ctxvol2no4.pdf/8701f69a-ec4a-4f7a-b08dc8a793e3fc27 *** the use of the internet for terrorist purposes – united nations office on drugs and crime – electronic document available at https://www.unodc.org/documents/frontpage/use_of_internet_for_terrorist_purposes.pdf last accessed december 2014. microsoft word brain_6_2015__doc final.doc 22 secondary structure prediction of protein using resilient back propagation learning algorithm jyotshna dongardive dept. of computer science, university of mumbai, mumbai 400098, india jyotss.d@gmail.com siby abraham dept. of mathematics and statistics, guru nanak khalsa college, university of mumbai, mumbai, india sibyam@gmail.com abstract the paper proposes a neural network based approach to predict secondary structure of protein. it uses multilayer feed forward network (mlfn) with resilient back propagation as the learning algorithm. point accepted mutation (pam) is adopted as the encoding scheme and cb396 data set is used for the training and testing of the network. overall accuracy of the network has been experimentally calculated with different window sizes for the sliding window scheme and by varying the number of units in the hidden layer. the best results were obtained with eleven as the window size and seven as the number of units in the hidden layer. keywords: resilient back propagation, point accepted mutation, sliding window, q3, hidden units. 1. introduction proteins are the main building blocks and functional molecules of the cell and play a key role in almost all biological processes. they are large, complex molecules consisting of long amino acid chains. though there are four different structural levels of proteins, tertiary structure prediction is of great interest to biologists because proteins perform their functions by coiling their amino acid sequences into specific three-dimensional shape (tertiary structure). it has its importance in medicine (e.g. drug design) and biotechnology. in order to understand protein function at the molecular level, it is important to study the structure adopted by a particular sequence. the prediction of protein secondary structure is an important step in the prediction of protein tertiary structure. the usual structure prediction techniques such as xray (sunde & blake, 1997; drenth, 1999), nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr) (jaroniec et al., 2004; wüthrich, 1986) and electron microscopy (em) are time-consuming and expensive. however, due to increase in computing power and development of new algorithms, much progress has been made to overcome these problems through computational approaches (hu et al., 2007). several computational approaches like meta predictor based and nearest neighbor methods have been developed to make and improve secondary structure prediction of proteins. some of the computational methods that are used to achieve secondary structure predictions include statistical analysis (chou & fasman, 1974; chou & fasman, 1978), simple linear statistics, information theory (garnier et al., 1996; garnier et al., 1978; gibrat et al., 1987), artificial neural networks (jones, 1999; chandonia & karplus, 1999), k-way nearest neighbor (salamov & solovyev, 1995; yi & lander, 1993), linear discrimination (king & sternberg, 1996), hydrogen bonding propensities (frishman & argos, 1997), conservation number weighted prediction (zvelebil et al., 1987) and hybrid methods (rost & sander, 1993a; rost & sander, 1993b; rost & sander, 1994; rost, 1996). of these, artificial neural network is the most often used method for secondary structure prediction. this work analyses the prediction of secondary structure of proteins from their sequences using a multi layer feed-forward neural network using resilient back propagation learning algorithm. j. dongardive, s. abraham secondary structure prediction of protein using resilient back propagation learning algorithm 23 2. related work a review of literature on computational techniques for secondary structure prediction using neural network indicates that multilayer feed forward neural networks are the most preferred and effective tool. the first attempt to secondary structure prediction using neural networks was made by qian and sejnowski (qian & sejnowski, 1988) using multilayered feed forward neural network. the proposed model consisted of 13 groups of 21 units, of which 20 were for amino acid and 1 was for the space between the sliding proteins. two experiments were conducted. in the first, the network was trained using error back propagation algorithm with 40 units in the hidden layer using real set proteins, resulting in performance measure of 62%. in the second experiment, the performance of the network was improved slightly by using 17 groups of 21 units, 40 units in the hidden layer and 3 outputs units. window size was varied from 1 to 21 and the peak performance was achieved with window size as 13. holley and karplus (holley & karplus, 1989) used feed forward network in which input layer consisted of 17 groups of 21 units, the hidden layer with units varied from 0 to 20 and the output unit predicted the secondary structure. the success rate was improved by structured initialization of the synaptic weights and use of an asymmetric input window. however the success rate was still less compared to earlier methods. rost et al., (rost & sander, 1994; rost, 1996) used a basic network architecture, which has 40 units in the hidden layer and an input window of 13 amino acids. they addressed two problems the first one, called over fitting, in which the training was stopped after the training error came below some threshold. the second problem, related to noise suppression, the arithmetic average was computed over predictions from several networks trained independently using different input information and training procedures. mejia and fogelman-soulie (mejia & fogelman-soulie, 1990) improved the neural network performance by eliminating the hidden layer and synaptic weights during training. they also stated that accuracies of holley and karplus were due to the presence of homologies in the training set and that of qian and sejnowski was due to the size of the database they used. nanda et al., (sathya et al., 2001) used a first level secondary structure prediction network based on ‘sliding window’ approach to iteratively predict the secondary structure of each residue in the protein. the window size was 15 to 27, 22 units in input layer, output layer consisted of two units, h (helix) and e (strand). the output was compared to a cutoff value. if both h and e values were greater than the cutoff, coil was predicted as the secondary structure. otherwise, the secondary structure corresponding to the larger of the two values was predicted. also a second-level network was used to refine the results produced by the primary network. mottalib et al., (mottalib et al., 2010) obtained a prediction only for helix (h) and sheet (s). they used the feed-forward network architecture, which was built in java named java object oriented neural engine (joone). the network consisted of 2 nodes in input layer, 3 nodes in hidden layer and 1 node in output layer. the learning rate was 0.9, momentum was 0.1 and 10000 epochs were considered for training of around 20 proteins. the network was tested for helix and sheet prediction and the accuracy was 71% and 65% respectively. agarwal et al., (pankaj, 2010) developed two learning rules for predicting the secondary structure of proteins. the first rule used feed forward back propagation method in which entire primary sequence was divided into patterns with window size changed from 5 and 11. the learning algorithm was then applied on these patterns, which after training were stored within the database of learnt patterns. the second rule used feed forward back propagation network using delta rule which provided a significant improvement in the number of iterations required to train the patterns when compared with first learning rule. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 3. materials and methods the work proposes to train the neural network to respond to the primary sequence of proteins whose secondary structures are known. a. dataset the dataset used for this work is cb396. this dataset contains 396 non-redundant sequences derived from the 3dee database created by cuff and barton (cuff & barton, 1999). it contains 396 proteins with their respective secondary structure as shown in figure 1. figure 1: snapshot of the cb396 dataset the primary structure is a sequence of amino acids, which are represented by a one letter code. the secondary structures are made of 3 classes: h, e, c and rest marked a dash (−). b. encoding scheme: pam250 feature extraction (cuff & barton, 1999) is a form of pre-processing in which the original variables are transformed into new inputs for classification. this initial process is important in protein structure prediction as the amino acids in the primary sequences are represented as single letter codes. it is therefore important to transform them into numbers. different procedures can be adopted for this purpose. however, for the purpose of the present study, point accepted mutations (pam) coding is used to convert the letters into numbers. the pam matrix (dayhoff et al., 1978) describes the probability that original amino acid will be replaced by another amino acid over a defined evolutionary interval. the unit of evolutionary divergence is defined as the interval in which 1% of the amino acids have been changed between two sequences. the work uses pam250, which assumes the occurrence of 250point mutations per 100 amino acids. so, for the given the protein sequence giveqccasvcslyqlenycn, a will be replaced by 1 -3 0 1 -3 -1 0 5 -2 -3 -4 -2 -3 -5 0 1 0 -7 -5 -1 as shown in figure 2. j. dongardive, s. abraham secondary structure prediction of protein using resilient back propagation learning algorithm 25 figure 2. pam250 matrix for the encoded sequence c. sliding window the input is controlled by window size, which determines how much local context information we want to consider in the prediction. the window size usually takes an odd length so that the amino acid at the centre of the window is predicted. ideally, one may expect that the larger the window size, the more information given to the predictor, hence the performance should increase. unfortunately, the increase of window size also means the increase of possible noises. it is observed that beyond some threshold size, the signal to noise ratio would decrease. typical window sizes range from 9 to 25 residues (vullo, 2002). the steps used in the sliding window protocol steps used in the present study is as follows • all the windows are extracted using linear indexing. • they are loaded into a bigger array. • they are then processed using vector operations. • the indices of all the sliding windows of the matrix are obtained. • index, which is the centre most cell of that window, guarantees that the length of the windows be an odd number. we have considered the sliding windows of the sizes from 11 to 19 over the entire dataset. d. feed forward neural network using resilient back propagation learning algorithm neural networks have been trained to perform complex functions in various fields, including pattern recognition, identification, classification, and speech, vision and control systems. most of the neural network models considered for protein predictions are of the feed forward type which has two passes through the network-the forward pass and the backward pass. for the forward pass, during training, a sample is presented to the network as input. for each layer, the output from the previous layer is used as an input to the next hidden layer until the output layer is reached and the output is produced. the output response is then compared to the known target output. based on the value of the error, the connection weights are adjusted. in the backward pass, weights are adapted to ensure that the minimum error between the targets and the actual outputs is achieved (haykin, 1994). in this study, multilayer feed forward network with resilient back propagation (rprop) (riedmiller & braun, 1993) learning algorithm is used. the algorithm performs a direct adaptation of the weight step based on local gradient information. in this, the effort of adaptation is not blurred by gradient behavior whatsoever, it only depends on the sign of the derivative not its value. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 therefore it will converge from ten to one hundred times faster than the simple back propagation algorithms. e. performance measure q3 the performance measure q3 measures the expected accuracy of an unknown residue against the number of residues correctly predicted divided by the total number of residues. the q3 is expressed as: q3 = qh +qe + qc * 100 total number of residues where qh, qe, and qc are defined as the total number of α-helix, β-strands and c-coil correctly predicted respectively. f. software the software used for the experiments is matlab version 8.2.0.701 (r2013b). the neural network toolbox version 8.1 (r2013b) is used for the implementation of neural networks. the computer that was used to perform the experiments for model selection was an intel(r) core(tm) 2cpu6300@1.86ghz. 4. results the exhaustive experiments were conducted with window size ranges from 11 to 19 and number of neurons in the hidden layer ranges from 1 to 7. the detail analysis of the results is provided in the following subsections. a. dependence of testing success on window size the best window size for the sliding window scheme is obtained by testing different window lengths from 11 to 19 as discussed in 3(c). table1. dependence of testing success on window size no window size q3 1 11 64.0497 2 13 62.8519 3 15 63.9995 4 17 63.0777 5 19 63.2094 table 1 shows the dependence of testing accuracy rate on the size of the input window. this indicates the highest accuracy of the system is with window size as 11. b. dependence on the number of hidden units the best number of hidden units is obtained by testing different hidden units from 1 to 7. table 2 shows the peak performance on the testing set depending on the number of hidden units. the highest accuracy of the system was with 7 hidden units. j. dongardive, s. abraham secondary structure prediction of protein using resilient back propagation learning algorithm 27 table 2. dependence on the number of hidden units hidden neurons q3 1 55.06 2 60.58 3 61.10 4 63.81 5 62.73 6 62.25 7 64.04 c. prediction accuracy (q3, qc, qe, qh) the estimated accuracy for the αhelices (qh), βstrands (qe), c-coil states (qc), and three state together (q3) for the system is shown in figure 3. figure 3. distribution of q3 values the overall accuracy of the system was 64.04%. the individual accuracy for the α-helices, β-strands, c-coils were 63%, 41% and 75% respectively. it is to be noted that this moderate accuracy is characteristic of secondary structure prediction structure as it is a fact that secondary structure prediction have a proven record of only around 60% accuracy. in that sense, the proposed method offers an incremental improvement with the existing methods. in addition, the method has not used any information concerning long-range interactions (burgess & scheraga, 1975) to increase the accuracy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 5. conclusion and future work this paper deals with prediction of protein secondary structure using feed forward neural network using resilient back propagation learning algorithm. the model developed illustrates that window size 11 with 7 units in the hidden layer gives the highest accuracy of 64.04% over the selected dataset. the future work will primarily focus on looking at the feasibility of applying different encoding schemes and various learning algorithms of neural network to increase the overall accuracy. 6. references burgess, a.w and scheraga, h.a. (1975). assessment of some problems associated with prediction of the three-dimensional structure of a protein from its amino-acid sequence. proc natl acad sci u s a.72 (4):1221–1225. chandonia, j.m. and karplus, m. (1999). new methods for accurate prediction of protein secondary structure. proteins: structure, function and genetics. 35: 293-306. chou, p. y and fasman, g.d. (1974). prediction of protein conformation. biochemistry. 13(2): 222-245. chou, p.y and fasman, g.d. (1978). prediction of the secondary structure of proteins from their amino acid sequence. advanced enzymology. 47: 45-148. cuff j. and barton g. (1999).evaluation and improvement of multiple sequence methods for protein secondary structure prediction. proteins: structure, function and genetics. 34:508–519. dayhoff, m, schwartz, r.m. and orcutt, b.c. (1978). a model of evolutionary change in proteins. atlas of protein sequence and structure. 5(3):345–358. drenth, j. (1999). principles of protein x-ray crystallography. 2 nd ed. springer-verlag frishman, d. and argos, p. (1997). 75% accuracy in protein secondary structure prediction accuracy. proteins. 27:329-335 garnier, j. gibrat, jf. and robson, b. (1996). gor method for predicting protein secondary structure from amino acid sequence. methods in enzymology. 266: 540-553. garnier, j. osguthorpe, d and robson, b.(1978). analysis of the accuracy and implications of simple methods for predicting the secondary structure of globular proteins. journal of molecular biology.120: 97-120. gibrat, jf. garnier, j. and robson, b. (1987). further developments of protein secondary structure prediction using information theory, journal of molecular biology. 198(3):425-443. haykin, s. (1994).neural networks: a comprehensive foundation, macmillan, new york. holley, l.h. and karplus, m. (1989). protein secondary structure prediction with a neural net. proceedings of the national academy of sciences (usa). 86:152-156. hu, h.j. harrison, r. w. tai, p. c. and pan, y. (2007). current methods for protein secondarystructure prediction based on support vector machines in: knowledge discovery in bioinformatics: techniques, methods, and applications, eds hu, x and pan, y. john wiley & sons, inc., hoboken, nj, usa. doi: 10.1002/9780470124642.ch1. jaroniec, c. macphee, c. bajaj, v. mcmahon, m. dobson, c and griffin, r. (2004). high resolution molecular structure of a peptide in an amyloid fibril determined by magic angle spinning nmr spectroscopy. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the usa.101 (3): 711–716. jones, d.t. (1999) protein secondary structure prediction based on position-specific scoring matrices. journal of molecular biology 292: 195-202. king, r.d and sternberg, m.j.e. (1996). identification and application of the concepts important for accurate and reliable protein secondary structure prediction. protein science. 5: 2298-2310. mejia. c and fogelman-soulie, f. (1990). incorporating knowledge in multi-layer networks: the example of protein secondary structure prediction in neurocomputing: algorithms, j. dongardive, s. abraham secondary structure prediction of protein using resilient back propagation learning algorithm 29 architectures, and applications, fogelman-soulie f and herault, j eds., (pp. 3-13), springerverlag, berlin. mottalib, m.a. safiur rahman mahdi, md. zunaid haque, a.b.m. al mamun, s.m and hawlader abdullah al-mamun. (2010). protein secondary structure prediction using feed-forward neural network. journal of cases on information technology (jcit). 1(1):64-68. pankaj, a. sakshi, j. deepika. swati, v. (2010). secondary structure prediction using ann learning. international journal of computer science & engineering technology (ijcset). 1(4):2229-3345. qian, n and sejnowski, t. (1988). predicting the secondary structure of globular proteins using neural network models. journal of molecular biology. 202(4): 865-884. riedmiller, m. and braun, h. (1993). direct adaptive method for faster backpropagation learning: the rprop algorithm. in: proceedings of the ieee international conference on neural networks. 586-591. rost, b and sander, c. (1993a). improved prediction of protein secondary structure by use of sequence profiles and neuronal networks. proceedings of the national academy of science u.s.a. 90(16):7558-7562. rost, b and sander, c. (1993b). prediction of protein secondary structure at better than 70%. journal of molecular biology. 232: 584-599. rost, b and sander, c. (1994). combining evolutionary information and neural networks to predict protein secondary structure. proteins. 19: 55-72. rost, b. (1996). phd: predicting one-dimensional protein structure by profile based neural networks. methods in enzymology. 266:525-539. salamov, a.a and solovyev, v.v. (1995) prediction of protein secondary structure by combining nearest-neighbour algorithms and multiply sequence alignments. journal of molecular biology. 247:11-15. sathya nanda, saraai deris and rosli md illias. (2001). prediction of protein secondary structure. jurnal teknologi 35(c): 81-90. sunde, m. blake, c. (1997). the structure of amyloid fibrils by electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. advances in protein chemistry. 50: 123–159. vullo (2002). on the role of machine learning in protein structure determination. journal of the italian association for artificial intelligence. xv (3):22-30. wüthrich k. (1986). nmr of proteins and nucleic acids. john wiley & sons, new york. yi, t.m and lander, s. (1993). protein secondary structure prediction using nearest-neighbour methods. journal of molecular biology.232 (4):1117-1129. zvelebil, m. barton, g. taylor, w and sternberg, m. (1987). prediction of protein secondary structure and active sites using the alignment of homologous sequences. journal of molecular biology. 195(4): 957-961. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 94 classification algorithms of data mining applied for demographic processes irina ioniță petroleum-gas university of ploiești, blvd. bucuresti, no.39, ploiesti, 100680, romania irinat@upg-ploiesti.ro liviu ioniță petroleum-gas university of ploiești, blvd. bucuresti, no.39, ploiesti, 100680, romania iliviu@upg-ploiesti.ro abstract data mining is a generous field for researchers due to its various approaches on knowledge discovery in enormous volumes of data that are stored in different formats. at present, data are widely used all over the world, covering areas such as: education, industry, medicine, banking, inssurance companies, research laboratories, business, military domain etc. the major gain from applying data mining techniques is the discovery of unknown patterns and relations between data which can further help in the decision-making processes. there are two forms of data analysis used to extract models by describing important classes or to predict future data trends: classification and prediction. in this paper, the authors present a comparative study of classification algorithms (i.e. decision tree, naïve bayes and random forest) that are currently applied to demographic data referring to death statistics using knime analytics platform. our study was based on statistical data provided by the national bureau of statistics of the republic of moldova corresponding to years 2011 and 2012, data related to deaths and various classification attributes, such as causes of death, areas, sex, years and age groups. a detailed proposal on the possibilities to increase the models’ accuracy was also provided in the paper. our findings indicated that the highest accuracy was achieved by the decision tree model (over 90%). keywords: data mining, classification algorithms, decision tree, random forest, naïve bayes, demographic processes 1. introduction in the last years, data mining has demonstrated to be an activity of interest because it allows the exploration of high volumes of data stored in different formats in order to extract implicit, potentially useful, and previously unknown information (witten, frank and hall, 2011). the results that one can obtain after applying data mining algorithms are quite surprising, as well as the possibility to improve their research activity. banks with statistic data are a continuous resource for data engineers or other individual interested in knowledge discovery and data mining. before benefiting from data mining functionalities, the researcher must have followed several steps such as: data selection, data cleaning, data transformation, data mining (models), pattern evaluation and interpretation, knowledge presentation (witten, frank and hall, 2011; han and kamber, 2000). methods used for analyzing and modeling data can be split in two important categories: supervised learning and unsupervised learning. the former category requires input data identified as predictors (independent variables) and a target (dependent variable) whose value is to be estimated. in this case, the model learns how to predict the value of the target variable, by considering the predictors. we mention several examples of supervised learning, such as: decision trees, regression analysis, neural networks, etc. the latter group of methods is represented by: cluster analysis, correlation, i. ioniță, l. ioniță classification algorithms of data mining applied for demographic processes 95 factor analysis, etc. unsupervised learning treats all variables equally and the main goal is to find patterns and associations between data (tan, steinbach and kumar, 2005). in this paper the authors developed a comparative study on data mining algorithms (decision tree, naïve bayes and random forest) based on death statistics data in order to classify the population into seven risk classes, considering attributes such as: cause of death, sex, environment or age category. the obtained models were further used in order to estimate risk classes for the new statistical data corresponding to the year 2016. this paper consists of five sections, organized as follows: section 2 reviews the literature on the topic discussed, section 3 provides a brief presentation of the data mining algorithms used in experiments and the methodology used to conduct the prediction analysis. the experimental results and discussions are presented in section 4, whereas conclusions and future work are suggested in the last section. 2. related work identifying the factors that influence death rate, the relation between these factors, as well as their significance, represents the main challenge in data mining. death prediction is a sensible topic, though approached in the literature, as proven in (sarvestani, safavi, parandeh and salehi, 2010; shoiab, ajit and hisham, 2017; chen, huang, hong, cheng and lin, 2011; rathore, tomar and agarwal, 2014; ioniţă, and ioniţă, 2016). findings of such research studies can be used in order to prevent diseases and poor health condition of the population, to perform various activities such as immunization of children or to inform young women regarding the risk of breast cancer and so forth. in sarvestani et al., (2010) an analysis of the prediction of the survivability rate of breast cancer patients by using data mining techniques is presented. the authors investigated three data mining techniques, namely naïve bayes, the back-propagated neural network, and the c4.5 decision tree algorithms. after performing several experiments, the authors concluded that the achieved prediction performances were comparable to the existing techniques and that c4.5 algorithm has a much better performance than the other two techniques. in the approach proposed in shoiab et al. (2017), death prediction was performed by using various classifiers and the results were analyzed by using errors. the authors used various classification techniques such as: multilayer perceptron, multilayer regression, smoreg and linear regression. experimental results proved the efficacy of the proposed approach in terms of higher accuracy when using various statistical error measure (shoiab et al. 2017). other studies focused on heart diseases prediction (chen, huang, hong, cheng and lin, 2011; masethe and masethe, 2014). data mining algorithms such as j48, naïve bayes, reptree, cart, and bayes net were applied in this research in order to predict heart attacks. the research results revealed a prediction accuracy of 99%. in chen, huang, hong, cheng and lin, (2011) the authors developed an artificial neural network algorithm used for classifying heart disease based on several features and a user-friendly heart disease predict system (hdps). the accuracy of the prediction was near 80%. paper (ioniţă, and ioniţă, 2016) presents a case study on the classification of patients with thyroid dysfunctions into three classes (i.e. 1 – hypothyroidism, 2 – hyperthyroidism, 3normal) by using cart and treenet models and discusses possible methods to improve the accuracy of the considered classification models. in the experiments described in ioniţă, and ioniţă, (2016), by comparing the obtained results with those already existing in the literature, for most of the experiments, the accuracy of cart model was over 93% and the accuracy of treenet model was 94.97%. 3. research methodology for the experiments developed in this paper, we proposed the following data mining algorithms: decision tree, naïve bayes and random forest, well-known supervised learning methods (caruana and niculescu-mizil 2006). in order to solve a given problem of supervised learning, the following steps are needed:  determine the type of training examples;  gather a training set (that needs to be representative); brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 96  determine the input feature representation of the learned function (the accuracy of the learned function depends very much on the feature vector, which should not be too large, but which should also contain enough information so that one may accurately predict the output);  determine the structure of the learned function and the corresponding learning algorithm (decision tree, naïve bayes, neural networks etc.);  run the learning algorithm on the gathered training set;  evaluate the accuracy of the learned function (using a test set). a decision tree is a very simple representation used for classifying observations and it graphically consists in a flow-chart-like tree structure, where each node denotes a test on an attribute value, each branch represents an outcome of the test, and the tree leaves are the classes or class distributions (quinlan, 1986)eroare! fără sursă de referinţă.. example of decision trees mentioned in the literature are: id3, c4.5, cart etc. algorithms used for constructing decision trees usually work top-down and consist in choosing a variable at each step that best splits the set of items. the measures developed for selecting the best split are usually based on the degree of the child nodes (the smaller the degree of impurity, the more skewed the class or class distribution). example of impurity measures includes: entropy(t), gini(t) and classification error(t), were t denotes the t node of the decision tree (tan, steinbach and kumar, 2005). naïve bayes is a classification algorithm used for solving binary problems (two class) and multi-class classification problems and it is particularly suited when the dimensionality of the inputs is high. the naive bayes classifier technique is based on the so-called bayesian theorem and can handle an arbitrary number of independent variables whether continuous or categorical. parameter estimation for naive bayes classifier uses the method of maximum likelihood (caruana and niculescu-mizil 2006). random forests or random decision forests (ho, 1995) are an ensemble learning method used for classification, regression and other tasks, the main tasks being to build a multitude of decision trees at training time and to output the class that is the mode of the classes (classification) or mean prediction (regression) of the individual trees. some of the random forests features are: they run efficiently on large databases, they can handle thousands of input variables, and generate an internal unbiased estimate of the generalization error during the forest building process (prinzie and van den poel, 2008)eroare! fără sursă de referinţă.. in the next section, we shall discuss the experiments performed within our research and the results on predicting death risk classes for population, obtained by considering several predictor variables that are detailed below. 4. results and discussions our study used statistical data provided by the national bureau of statistics of the republic of moldova (2017)7 corresponding to years 2011 and 2012, that referred to several deaths causes, classified based on areas, sex, years, and age groups. as an analytic platform of data mining, we used knime (2017)8. accessed in october 2017, an open solution for data-driven innovation that helps researchers to discover the potential hidden in the enormous volumes of data, mine for unknown insights, or predict new futures. the workflow developed for the current problem is presented in figure 1 (decision tree model and naïve bayes model) and figure 2 (random forest). 7 national bureau of statistics of the republic of moldova. (2017), http://www.statistica.md/. accessed in november 2017. 8 knime. (2017), https://www.knime.com/knime-analytics-platform. accessed in october 2017. i. ioniță, l. ioniță classification algorithms of data mining applied for demographic processes 97 figure 1. knime workflow for decision tree model and naïve bayes model the model variables are: sex {male, female}, agecategory {age0, age1-4, age5-9, age10-14, age15-19, age20-24, age25-29, age30-34, age35-39, age40-44, age45-49, age50-54, age55-59, age60-64, age65_more}, causesdeathcategory {causedeathi, i=1 to 22}, environment {urban, rural}, numberdeaths, deathriskclass{a, b, c, d, e}, the last one being the dependent variable. one variable is numeric (numberdeaths), and the rest are categorical. some examples of the values of the predictor causesdeathcategory are: infections and parasitic diseases, intestinal infections, endocrine nutritional and metabolic diseases, diabetes (codified as causedeath1, causedeath2 etc.). the variable numberdeaths refers to the incidence of death due to a certain disease. the initial data set (2640 observations) was manually preprocessed so that to obtain a training data set suited for knime. knime node decision tree learner is responsible with training the classification model, based on dataset uploaded by the input node csv reader. in a typical data mining project, it is a good practice to evaluate the performance of the model created by applying it on a holdout sample. therefore, the available dataset needs to be partitioned. in knime, there are dedicated nodes for applying classification models such as: decision tree learner, decision tree predictor, naïve bayes learner, naïve bayes predictor, random forest learner, random forest predictor. after a model learns how to classify data (through learner node), we can classify new data by using the predictor node. scorer node is responsible with accuracy measurements (confusion matrix, accuracy of classification models, cohen’s kappa, precision, sensitivity etc.). column filter node is used to exclude several attributes from the initial dataset and to maintain only the predictors considered for the classification model. in figure 2, the knime workflow for the random forest model is presented. the model learns to classify data (random forest learner – node 21) and the model accuracy is analyzed by the node 24 (scorer). for classifying new data, we used another csv reader node and random forest predictor (node 28), the obtained classification accuracy being given by scorer node (node 29). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 98 figure 2. knime workflow for random forest model the partitioning node splits the initial dataset in: training dataset (70%) and validation dataset (30%) (table 1). in this experiment, we obtained the following accuracy percentages: 95.2% (decision tree); 84.4% (naïve bayes); 83.4% (random forest). another experiment consisted in considering the first partition which contained a sample with 1500 records taken from the top of the initial dataset. we obtained the following results for the accuracy rate: 94% 1410 correct classified data (decision tree); 82.01% -935 correct classified data (naïve bayes); 86.57% 987 correct classified data (random forest). the second partition was used to test the classification model. table 1. accuracy statistics for classification models classification models partition=70% draw randomly accuracy statistics decision tree naïve bayes random forest tp rate 1300 588 541 fp rate 28 84 114 tn rate 497 116 136 fn rate 22 5 2 a recall 0.983 0.992 0.996 tp rate 119 3 3 fp rate 29 7 4 tn rate 1663 735 715 fn rate 36 48 71 b recall 0.768 0.059 0.041 tp rate 207 40 70 fp rate 25 21 11 tn rate 1594 678 664 fn rate 21 54 48 c recall 0.908 0.426 0.593 tp rate 126 38 47 fp rate 7 12 3 tn rate 1704 728 733 fn rate 10 15 10 d recall 0.926 0.717 0.825 tp rate 6 0 0 fp rate 0 0 0 tn rate 1841 791 792 fn rate 0 2 1 d ea th r is k c la ss e recall 1 0 0 accuracy 0.952 (95.2%) 0.844 (84.4%) 0.834 (83.4%) i. ioniță, l. ioniță classification algorithms of data mining applied for demographic processes 99 in order to validate the model, we used a dataset with records of deaths corresponding to the year 2016, with the same structure as the training dataset. after loading the test data, we obtained similar values for the accuracy: 79.31% (decision tree), 79.02% (naïve bayes), 80.09% (random forest). in the previous experiment we considered the information gain ratio for the random forest model and the gini index for decision tree as a split criterion. when the split criterion in the gini index was changed for the random forest model, we obtained 72.28% accuracy (824 correct classified data). as presented in figure 3, the highest values of the mean accuracy were obtained for the decision tree model (over 90%), followed by random forest for the sample size 1500. figure 3. mean of accuracy for classification models in figure 4 we represented the maximum of accuracy obtained in our experiments, considering the two types of partition: the observation taken from the top of the initial dataset (the yellow bars), respectively the partition that was drawn randomly (the green bars). figure 4. maximum of accuracy for classification models divided by the type of partition decision tree accuracy proved to have the highest values for both types of partition, followed by random forest model (only for the first type of partition). 5. conclusions classification models such as decision tree, naïve bayes and random forest are useful tools that can be used to predict or estimate categorical class labels, in our case, the variable deathriskclass. a dataset on death statistics was analyzed in order to discover potential information about the relation between several personal details (age, sex, environment, the cause of death, the number of deaths) and the death risk class. the study focused on finding a classifier that can “guess” the class label correctly, one proof of its precision being the accuracy of the proposed model. a comparison of the above-mentioned classification models was performed and after the evaluation and the interpretation phases, we concluded that the highest value of accuracy was achieved by using the decision tree model (over 90%), for all the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 100 experiments. future research will consist of studying the behavior of other classification models (i.e. neural networks) and the challenges posed by clustering. references caruana, r. and niculescu-mizil, a. (2006), an empirical comparison of supervised learning algorithms. in: proceedings of the 23rd international conference on machine learning, acm, pp. 161-168. chen, a.h., huang, s.y., hong, p.s., cheng, c.h. and lin, e.j. (2011), hdps: heart disease prediction system. in: computing in cardiology, ieee, pp. 193–198. han, j. and kamber, m. (2000), data mining: concepts and techniques. morgan kaufmann ho, t.k. (1995), random decision forests (pdf). proceedings of the 3rd international conference on document analysis and recognition, montreal, qc, 14–16 august 1995. pp. 278–282. ioniţă, i. and ioniţă, l. (2016), applying data mining techniques in healthcare. studies in informatics and control, issn 1220-1766, vol. 25(3). pp. 385-394. masethe, h.d., and masethe, m.a. (2014), prediction of heart disease using classification algorithms. proceedings of the world congress on engineering and computer science 2014 vol ii wcecs 2014, 22-24 october, san francisco, usa. prinzie, a. and van den poel, d. (2008), random forests for multiclass classification: random multinomial logit. expert systems with applications. 34 (3), pp. 1721–1732. quinlan, j. r. (1986), induction of decision trees. machine learning 1, kluwer academic publishers. pp. 81-106. rathore, n., tomar, d. and agarwal, s. (2014), predicting the survivability of breast cancer patients using ensemble approach. international conference on issues and challenges in intelligent computing techniques (icict), doi: 10.1109/icicict.2014.6781326. sarvestani, a. s, safavi, a.a., parandeh, n.m. and salehi, m. (2010), predicting breast cancer survivability using data mining techniques. 2. doi: v2-227. 10.1109/icste.2010.5608818. shoiab, a., ajit, d. and hisham, a. (2017), death prediction and analysis using web mining techniques. tan, p.n., steinbach m., and kumar, v. (2005), introduction to data mining, chapter: classification: basic concepts, decision tree, and model evaluation. addison-wesley. isbn: 0321321367, https://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~kumar001/dmbook/ch4.pdf. witten, i., frank, e. and hall, m. 2011. data mining: practical machine learning tools and techniques. morgan kaufmann. irina ioniță (b. june 30, 1979) received her bsc in automation and industrial informatics (2002), phd in automatic control (2011) from petroleum-gas university of ploiești. now she is a lecturer in department of computer science, information technology, mathematics and physics, faculty of letter and sciences, petroleum-gas university of ploiești, romania. her current research interests include different aspects of data mining applied in various domains (banking, education, industry, health etc.). she has (co-) authored 3 books and more than 40 papers, more than 10 conferences participation, and is a member in more than 5 research projects teams. liviu ioniță (b. april 27, 1973) received his bcs in mathematics-informatics (1997), msc in information science (2010) and advanced control and programmable structures (2010), phd in automatic control (2014) from politehnica university of bucharest. now he is a lecturer in department of computer science, information technology, mathematics and physics, faculty of letter and sciences, petroleum-gas university of ploiești, romania. his current research interests include: artificial intelligence, information systems, multi-agent systems, multimedia technologies, operating systems. he has (co-) authored 13 books and more than 30 papers, more than 10 conferences participation and workshops. 78 two new software behavioral design patterns: obligation link and history reminder stefan andrei lamar university, beaumont, tx, u.s.a. stefan.andrei@lamar.edu arnob saha lamar university, beaumont, tx, u.s.a. asaha@lamar.edu sojibur rahman lamar university, beaumont, tx, u.s.a. srahman2@lamar.edu abstract finding proper design patterns has always been an important research topic in the software engineering community. one of the main responsibilities of the software developers is to determine which design pattern fits best to solve a particular problem. design patterns support the effort of exploring the use of artificial intelligence in better management of software development and maintenance process by providing faster, less costly, smarter and on-time decisions (pena-mora & vadhavkar, 1996). there has been a permanent interest in finding new design patterns, especially in the last two decades. many new design patterns apply in various areas of computer science, such as software security, software parallelism, large-scale software evolving, artificial intelligence, and more. to the best of our knowledge, the “obligation link” and “history reminder” design patterns are new and can be applied in software development in many areas of computer science including artificial intelligence. keywords: behavioral design patterns, software engineering, artificial intelligence 1. introduction it is well known that a software design pattern is a general reusable solution of a commonly occurring problem within a given context in software design. in other words, it is a description or template for solving a software problem that can be used in many different situations. software design patterns have always played a significant role in the software engineering community. one of the first de-facto reference for describing design patterns is (erich, helm, ralph & vlissides, 1997), published by erich, helm, johnson, and vlissides (also known as ‘the gang of four’). this textbook published a list of 23 design patterns and many software development companies adopted these design patterns for developing their software. there are many other works including descriptions and applications of software design patterns, such as (knox, 2011) (oodesign, 2015) (pmsware, 2013) and more. many textbooks (priestley, 2004) (larman, 2005) (wadhwa, andrei & yuen jien, 2007) and articles (bashir, 2010) (noborikawa, 2003) offer implementations in various object-oriented programming languages of the design patterns from (erich, helm, ralph & vlissides, 1997). in addition, there exist software tools that assist programmers in using the popular design pattern for a solution, such as rational rose (ibm, 1999), argo uml (tigris, 2005) and more. there are three main categories of design patterns (erich, helm, ralph & vlissides, 1997) (noborikawa, 2003) (shvets, a., frey, g., pavlova, 2010): 1. creational design pattern: these patterns are used to create objects for a suitable class that serves as a solution for a problem. they are particularly useful when dealing with polymorphism. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, may 2016 79 2. structural design pattern: these patterns form larger structures from individual parts. structural patterns vary a great deal depending on the structure and they are concerned with classes and objects. 3. behavioral design patterns: these patterns describe interactions between objects. they focus on how objects communicate with each other. researchers from the software engineering community continue to improvc the existing list of design patterns to make them more secure and safe. dougherty et al. described six secure design patterns in a very similar way as in (erich, helm, ralph & vlissides, 1997), such as: secure factory, secure strategy factory, secure builder factory, secure chain of responsibility, secure logger, and clear sensitive information (dougherty, sayre, seacord, svoboda, & togashi, 2009). similarly, keutzer and mattson also described eight design patterns for parallel programming, such as: dense linear-algebra, pipe-and-filter, data parallelism, loop parallel, stream processing, map-reduce, geometric decomposition, and kernel parallelism [keutzer & mattson, 2010). wei wang et al. presented an application of design patterns in the process of large-scale software evolving (wang, 2010). pena-mora and vadhavkar described design patterns for supporting the effort of exploring the use of artificial intelligence in better management of software development and maintenance process by providing faster, less costly, smarter and on-time decisions (pena-mora & vadhavkar, 1996). dill et al. proposed several design patterns that can be applied to the configuration of utility-based artificial intelligence (dill, 2012). even if there were many contributions to writing and applying design patterns, we believe that there is still room for improvement of the existing design patterns. for instance, considering the well-known design pattern “chain of responsibility” (erich, helm, ralph & vlissides, 1997) an unexpected request may delay the execution of the entire program. in this kind of situation none of the chains can actually determine and solve the request. according to the semantics of the “chain of responsibility” design pattern, the request will be forwarded to every object. having a large number of such unexpected requests would imply that the “chain of responsibility” is not a proper design pattern to be used. this paper describe an alternative design pattern able to handle a large number of requests. we called our proposed design pattern the “obligation link” design pattern that will be described in the rest of the article. in order to describe our second new design pattern, let us consider the existing “memento” design pattern (erich, helm, ralph & vlissides, 1997) (sanders, 2014). the “memento” design pattern uses three classes to manage one memento object. for complex software design it is difficult to manage the complex originator class. having an originator object, copying large amounts of data to store in the memento object might lead to a considerable overhead. for the caretaker class it takes a certain amount of time and space to manage a complex caretaker object to retrieve the state of a memento object. our second contribution of this paper is to provide a solution that solves the existing difficulties of the memento design pattern. we called our new second design pattern “history reminder”. to the best of our knowledge, the “obligation link” and “history reminder” design patterns are new. the main contribution of our paper is to describe their applicability, benefits, and implementation in a java-like programming language. 2. background large scale software development may have a slightly different classification viewed in general as a refinement of the traditional design patterns classification from (erich, helm, ralph & vlissides, 1997). this is because a large project usually has many levels to be considered, such as algorithmic, computational, implementation, execution, and structural. the previous section illustrated the limitations of two traditional existing software design patterns and their implementation: “chain of responsibility” and “memento”. as an alternative of these two patterns, stefan andrei, arnob saha, sojibur rahman obligation link and history reminder 80 we proposed two new design patterns for large scale software development. here is the classification in five levels of the software design patterns: 1. algorithmic strategy patterns focus on high-level strategies and how to exploit application characteristics on a computing platform. 2. computational design patterns are related to the key computation identification. 3. execution design patterns address issues about lower-level support of application execution. it includes strategies for executing streams of tasks and building blocks to support task synchronization. 4. implementation strategy patterns concern about implementing source code to support: program organization and common data structures specific to parallel programming. 5. structural design patterns focus on global structure of application being developed. the rest of the paper is organized as follows. section 3 studies and analyzes the “chain of responsibility” design pattern together with our alternative, “obligation link” design pattern. section 4 presents the “memento” design pattern, as well as our alternative, “history reminder” design pattern. section 5 refers to experimental results about using these two new design patters. conclusions and references end this paper. 3. the “obligation link” design pattern this section describes the background, applicability, structure, participants, collaborations, consequences, and implementation of the “obligation link” design pattern. 3.1. background in writing a software application which uses the “chain of responsibility” design pattern, it often happens that we have to take a decision in advance on whether the request made by the client is going to be handled or not. this decision can reduce the execution time of the request. example 1. let us assume that we have designed an application that can perform addition, subtraction and multiplication operations. so, in the case of a “chain of responsibility” design pattern if a client makes a request of say, a división, the client has to wait until the request goes to the end of the chain and find out that the application cannot actually perform a division operation. hence, the application has to run lots of unnecessary code which will increase the execution time. █ our concern was if we can find a technique of knowing in advance that the application can perform division or not. in this way, we can save some execution time and use that time to handle some other requests from the same or different clients. figure 1. the sequence diagram of the “obligation link” design pattern https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=algorithm_strategy_patterns&action=edit&redlink=1 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=computational_design_patterns&action=edit&redlink=1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/execution_patterns https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=implementation_strategy_patterns&action=edit&redlink=1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/structural_design_patterns brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, may 2016 81 a sequence diagram is used to model the flow of the logic of the system. a sequence diagram represents perhaps the most popular unified modelling language (uml) diagram that describes the behavior of a scheme. figure 1 shows the sequence diagram of “obligation link” design pattern. 3.2. applicability the “obligation link” design pattern should be used in one of the following three software situations: 1. we need a decision in advance that the request is going to be handled or not; 2. we want to reuse the action attached to the handler; 3. we want to reduce some execution time because of the unexpected request. 3.3. structure here is the structure of the “obligation link” design pattern described through another uml concept, called class diagrams. contrary to the sequence diagrams which describe the behaviour, class diagrams specify static structural information about a program. the important information for a class, such as its attribute, operation, etc, along with relationship between classes can be specified using a class diagram. figure 2. the class diagram of the “obligation link” design pattern 3.4. participants there exist four participants in the “obligation link” design pattern, such as: client, lookup, handler, and concretehandler. here is the list of their responsibilities:  client initiates the request to the lookup class.  lookup maintain a collection of objects search for the object responsible for the corresponding request. sends the request to the first concrete handler of the chain.  handler defines an interface for handling the request  concretehandler handles the request it is responsible for or sends the request to the next handler in the chain stefan andrei, arnob saha, sojibur rahman obligation link and history reminder 82 3.5. collaborations when a client makes a request, it goes to the lookup class. after searching the collection of a responsible object, the object of lookup class sends the request to the first concretehandler of the chain. 3.6. consequences and benefits the “obligation link” design pattern has the following benefits: 1. if the chain is properly configured then the request will be handled when it is in the chain; 2. this pattern can reduce the execution time by simply searching the collection when there is no object in the chain which is responsible for the specific request. 3.7. implementation this section is dedicated to describing a java-like implementation of the “obligation link” design pattern. 3.7.1. passing the request to the next handler handler keeps record to next handler to which it will pass the request. we can set the next handler property like below: concretehandler1 concrete1 = new concretehandler1(); concretehandler2 concrete2 = new concretehandler2(); concretehandler3 concrete3 = new concretehandler3(); concrete1.nexthandler = concrete2; concrete2.nexthandler = concrete3; in this way, we can make a chain of the handler that will receive the request one by one until one of them executes the request. 3.7.2. passing the request to the first handler we have used an execute() method to pass the request to the first concretehandler of the chain. the format looks like: request request = new request(); firstconcretehandler.execute(request); 3.7.3. executing an action related to the request when we want to create some concretehandler objects we just implement the handler interface. the interface has some functionality that the client needs to implement in the successor class. the handler must implement the method execute method which checks whether the handler is going to complete the request or it will pass the request to the next handler. the default behavior looks like: firstconcretehandler.execute(request); public void executes(request request) { if (somecondition) { executecorrespondingaction(request); } else { passrequesttonexthandler(request); } } brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, may 2016 83 3.7.4. adding object to the lookup collection the lookup object has a collection of handler objects. we can add a handler object to the collection object using an addobjecttocollection() method, such as the following code: lookupclass someclass = new lookupclass(); someclass.addobjecttocollection(new concretehandler()); 3.7.5. the lookup class when a client makes a request, it passes through the lookup class. this class has an internal collection of the object where it stores all the object of the entire program. public class lookupclass { public boolean searcharray (string elementtosearch) { for (int i = 0; i < lengthofcollection; i++) { if (collection[i].equals(elementtosearch)) { return true; } } return false; } } 4. the “history reminder” design pattern this section describes the intent, motivation, concept, participants, applicability, structure, collaborations, consequences, and implementation of the “history reminder” design pattern. 4.1. intent of the “history reminder” design pattern designing a software application without implementation of a proper design pattern may lead to an incomplete one. design patterns play an important role when considering the scalability of the software. by implementing the proper design pattern we can reuse the existing code with minimal complexity of time and space. applying one of the behavioral design patterns (kanasz, 2013) named “memento” for large software applications, some implementation difficulties may arise from certain implementation. in addition, large software applications may lead to a considerable amount of cost and time for implementing the “memento” design pattern. we propose an alternative solution by improving the difficulties and shortcomings of the “memento” design pattern. we propose our new design pattern named as “history reminder” design pattern. 4.2. motivation of the “history reminder” design pattern there are many ways to organize the design patterns depending on their structure and behavior. in this research work, we investigate the previous design patterns purposes and scopes for the software applications. based on the design patterns granularity and the level of abstraction, we decided to classify the design patterns in groups. among all other dynamic design patterns, we have focused on one of the popular design patterns “memento” design pattern. we reveal the concept, limitations and applications of this design pattern. 4.2.1. the concept of “history reminder” design pattern the “history reminder” design pattern is based on the history of an object. it hides the historyreminder class from other classes and saves the data as state of historyreminder object. it does not violate the data encapsulation rule of object oriented software design. the key concepts of the “history reminder” design pattern are given below: 1. it keeps client class data encapsulated and create checkpoint of the each state. stefan andrei, arnob saha, sojibur rahman obligation link and history reminder 84 2. only the originator class can access and create the history class. checkpoints have been created within the history class. also with the help of the originator, the history class restores itself without taking any help of third party classes (the caretaker class). 3. information has been saved as the form of state of the historyreminder class. every time the information is stored, it defines a state and increase the current state by one. 4.3. participants and their semantics of the “history reminder” design pattern the history design pattern consists of two main clases: the historyreminder class and the historyreminderoriginator class. we describe below the semantics of these two classes as well as their association. 4.3.1. the historyreminder class the historyreminder class can create new checkpoint when the originator class request. data have been added to the historyreminder class with the state number. it can rollback or restore its previous state when a historyreminderoriginator request is done. 4.3.2. the historyreminderoriginator class the historyreminderoriginator class has an association with the historyreminder class. hence, it is posible to create the historyreminder object as well as a checkpoint for the historyreminder class. it can rollback and return the data to the client class when requested. when a client object initiates a transaction or ask for some service, it first requests the historyreminderoriginator object to créate a historyreminder object. the client object starts operations after creating its state. for creating a checkpoint object it requests the historyreminderoriginator object. after saving the data, the historyreminder object’s returns to the client object with a new state. the client object continues its interactions with its corresponding historyreminder object. when a client needs to restore its previous state, it calls the rollback() operation. after that, the historyreminderoriginator object returns data with the current state. thus, the “history reminder” design pattern manages the state by storing and restoring the state. the main ingredient of the “history reminder” design pattern is that the client code will never access the historyreminder object or its operations. thus, the historyreminder class can handle all checkpoints with the help of the historyreminderoriginator class and can restore the state with the help of the originator. 4.4. applicability of the “history reminder” design pattern the “history reminder” design pattern is used to save and restore the runtime state of an application. it holds the information by setting the history state at the runtime and restore when an operation needs to roll back. the below three situations emphasize the commercial value and application of the “history reminder” design pattern:  the banking system involves several simultaneous transactions. at any point of any transaction failure, it can rollback and restore to its previous state. the historyreminder object creates several checkpoints. any transaction can go back and forward within the same object. in addition, data have been encapsulated and the transaction object was kept hidden from the outside classes.  the database transaction and operation must have to be atomic, consistent, and durable. a transaction can have multiple operations and each operation is independent. if any of these transactions fails, then the entire system will crash. so all state changes will be committed together if all transactions succeeded, otherwise it will roll back to its previous state.  to implement and design large scale of software application “historyreminder” design pattern is used to hold the state of each stage of the application. the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, may 2016 85 historyreminder object creates several check points to keep track of each state. it will restore the previous state when an application needs to rollback. 4.5. the structure of the “history reminder” design pattern the “history reminder” design pattern consists of two basic classes. the first one is the historyreminder class and the second one is historyreminderoriginator class. here, we have removed the caretaker class which has been used to restore and save the memento state in the case of the traditional well-known memento design pattern. the caretaker object’s responsibility has been passed to the historyreminder object itself. it saves and restores the object within itself and returns it to the historyreminderoriginator object. the class diagram of the historyreminder design pattern is given below in figure 3: figure 3. the class diagram of the “history reminder” design pattern. 4.6. collaborations of the “history reminder” design pattern the “history reminder” design pattern has two main classes: historyreminder and historyreminderoriginator. the flow chart of the “history reminder” design pattern is given in figure 4. figure 4. the flow chart of the “history reminder” design pattern stefan andrei, arnob saha, sojibur rahman obligation link and history reminder 86 analyzing the two main classes historyreminder and historyreminderoriginator of the “history reminder” design pattern, we find that these two classes act as actors of the whole sequence of operations. the sequence diagram of the “history reminder” design pattern is given below in figure 5. figure 5. the sequence diagram of the “history reminder” design pattern 4.7. consequences of the “history reminder” design pattern the “history reminder” design pattern is proposed to overcome the difficulties of memento, state and several other design patterns. it has interconnections with other design patterns to design a large software application. however for a large scale of applications, we need to design a hybrid design pattern. our proposed design pattern shows the existing relations with other design patterns. the “history reminder” design pattern is a new pattern which can hold the history of transaction with its own object and can restore it when it is required. here is the list of detailed improvements: 1. the “history reminder” design pattern saves data based on the state variable of the historyreminder class. all the previous historyreminder objects’ data have been stored in the array. if at any point we lose the information of the state or at any point we lose our state variable or number of states we will lose our entire previous objects. in case of memento, there is no option to roll back to the previous state because of the lack of backup memory (in order to retrieve the object later). it may lead to a big problem when we will handle a large database system. 2. for any complex system, several clients access the same historyreminder object to store and restore data. if two clients request to create a checkpoint at the same time, then there may arise conflict to hold the current state. then any of the client’s request may not be executed and it will not create a checkpoint for that request. 3. the historyreminder class saves the historyreminder object. after that, if the historyreminderoriginator object cannot pass the current state to the client, then the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, may 2016 87 client cannot continue its operation which eventually conflict with the system. in addition, the operation will be invalid as the client does not know about the status of the previous state. for solving this problem we need to manage two flag variables for saving and restoring state. 4. the historyreminder class cannot be inherited from another class. only the historyreminderoriginator class can access historyreminder class. it hides data from all classes except the originator. the historyreminderoriginator access the historyreminder class to create a new checkpoint. in case the historyreminderoriginator requests to creating new checkpoints without having a historyreminder object created, then it will lead a new conflict. beside these improvements, future features might also be considered in order to handle more complex software applications. 4.8. implementation of the “history reminder” design pattern the historyreminder class is responsible for saving and restoring the historyreminder object. these classes perform all the operations corresponding to the caretaker class and to the memento class. a historyreminder object saves the information as a state variable and stores the states as a list of saved states. when a historyreminder object is created, it adds the historyreminder object to historyreminder class by using the function addhistoryreminder(). it restores the state and the information from gethistoryreminder() when the rollback() function is called. the getsavedstate() function has been used to return the current saved state of the memento object. the gethistoryreminderobject() is a static function which has been used to get the historyreminder object. here we can pass the state of the historyreminder object as parameter. it checks the request of a valid historyreminderoriginator object. it also checks the requested state whether it is already being stored in the historyreminder object. then it returns the historyreminder object of the requested state to the historyreminderoriginator object. at a glance, the historyreminder class is responsible for getting the history of the previous state. the historyreminder class can have many historyreminder objects with different states. one historyreminderoriginator object can hold many historyreminder objects for restoring and saving purposes. the historyreminder class of “history reminder” design pattern has been given below in a java-like style: class historyreminder { int state; static arraylist<historyreminder> savedstates = new arraylist<historyreminder>(); function static addhistoryreminder(historyreminder hr) { savedstates.add(hr); } function static historyreminder gethistoryreminder(int index) { return savedstates.get(index); } function historyreminder(intstatetosave) { state = statetosave; } function int getsavedstate() { return state; } function static arraylist<historyreminder> gethistoryreminderlist() { return savedstates; } function static historyreminder gethistoryreminderobject(int state, object object) { if (object instanceof historyreminderoriginator) return new historyreminder(state); stefan andrei, arnob saha, sojibur rahman obligation link and history reminder 88 else return null; } } // end of class historyreminder the history reminder originator class is responsible for restoring and holding a historyreminder object. the client does not have a direct access to the historyreminder class and its object and properties. so it requests the historyreminder object to create and restore the states when required. the historyreminderoriginator class, along with the historyreminder class, hold the information and the state of the historyreminder object. it restores the information and returns back to the client when the rollback() operation is called. the state variable is used to recognize the current state of the historyreminder object. when a client requests to create checkpoint to a historyreminder originator, it calls the function sabe to history reminder object() and creates a checkpoint by adding a historyreminder object to the historyreminder class. when a client wants to restore and to rollback to its previous state, it calls the restore fromhistoryreminder() function. it restores and retrieves the information from the historyreminder class by using the gethistoryreminderobject() function and returns it to the client. the historyreminderoriginator class of the “history reminder” design pattern has been given below: class historyreminderoriginator { int state; function set(int setstate) { state = setstate; } function historyreminder savetohistoryreminderhistoryreminderoriginator() { return historyreminder.gethistoryreminderobject(state, hro); } function restorefromhistoryreminder(historyreminderhr) { state = hr.getsavedstate(); } } // end of class historyreminderoriginator the main class of historyreminder design pattern is given below: class main { historyreminder historyreminder = new historyreminder(1); historyreminderoriginator historyreminderoriginator = new historyreminderoriginator(); historyreminderoriginator.set(2); historyreminder.addhistoryreminder (historyreminderoriginator.savetohistoryreminder (historyreminderoriginator)); historyreminderoriginator.set(3); historyreminder.addhistoryreminder (historyreminderoriginator.savetohistoryreminder (historyreminderoriginator)); historyreminderoriginator.restorefromhistoryreminder (historyreminder.gethistoryreminder(1)); historyreminder historyreminder2 = new historyreminder(); historyreminderoriginator.set(8); historyreminder.addhistoryreminder (historyreminderoriginator.savetohistoryreminder brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, may 2016 89 (historyreminderoriginator)); historyreminderoriginator.restorefromhistoryreminder (historyreminder.gethistoryreminder(4)); } // end of class main 6. conclusion and future work in this paper, we have analyzed the existing software design patterns and described two new design patterns for saving the state of an object at runtime. our “obligation link” and “history reminder” design patterns may play an important role for large scale hybrid software application systems where saving and restoring objects at runtime are important to keep the software consistent. the “obligation link” and “history reminder” design patterns can be used to reduce the execution time and some limitations of existing patterns. in addition, these two new design patterns can be used to improve complex systems. references erich, g., helm, r., ralph, j., & vlissides, j. (1997). design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software. august 1997, addison-wesley. priestley, m. (2004). practical object-oriented design with uml, mcgraw hill larman, c. (2005). applying uml and patterns, pearson – prentice hall wadhwa, b., andrei, s, & yuen jien, s. (2007). software engineering: an object-oriented approach. mcgraw hill ibm (1999). ibm rational rose enterprise. [available at http://www03.ibm.com/software/products/en/enterprise] tigris. (2005). argouml. [available at http://argouml.tigris.org/] dougherty, c., sayre, k., seacord, r., svoboda, d., & togashi, k. (2009). secure design patterns. cmu/sei-2009-tr-010. software engineering institute, carnegie mellon university. [available at http://resources.sei.cmu.edu/library/asset-view.cfm?assetid=9115] keutzer, k. & mattson, t. (2010), a design pattern language for engineering (parallel) software. the intel technology journal 13: 4. bashir, o. (2010). using design patterns to manage complexity. overload journal, no. 96. april 2010 [available at: http://accu.org/index.php/journals/1622] knox, j. (2011). adopting software design patterns in an it organization: an enterprise approach to add operational efficiencies and strategic benefits. technical report of university of oregon. [available at https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/11396/knox2011.pdf?sequence=1] noborikawa, m. (2003). refactoring software using design patterns. technical report of university of northern iowa. may 5, 2003. volume 39. [available at http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/miscellaneous/student-papers/noborikawa-paper.pdf] oodesign. (2015). design patterns. [accessed on 10 th may, 2015: http://www.oodesign.com/] pmsware. (2013). project management and software engineering. the twenty eleven theme. january 14, 2013. [available at https://pmsware.wordpress.com/tag/computational-designpatterns/] kanasz, r. (2013). design patterns 3 of 3 behavioral design patterns. january 10, 2013. [available at http://www.codeproject.com/articles/455228/design-patterns-of-behavioraldesign-patterns] sanders, b. (2014). php memento design pattern part ii: store & retrieve. june 12, 2014. [available at http://www.php5dp.com/tag/php-memento-design-pattern/] shvets, a., frey, g., pavlova, m. (2010). behavioral patterns. sourcemaking. [available at https://sourcemaking.com/design_patterns/behavioral_patterns] stefan andrei, arnob saha, sojibur rahman obligation link and history reminder 90 wei wang, hai zhao, hui li, peng li, dong yao, zheng liu, bo li, shuang yu, hong liu, & kunzhan yang. (2010). application of design patterns in process of large-scale software evolving. journal of software engineering and applications (3): 58-64. [available at http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jsea.2010.31007] pena-mora, f. & vadhavkar, s. (1996). design rationale and design patterns in reusable software design. technical iesl report no. 96-07. intelligent engineering systems laboratory. massachusetts institute of technology, u.s.a., november 1996 dill, k., pursel, e.r., garrity, p., & fragomeni, g. (2012). design patterns for the configuration of utility-based ai. interservice/industry training, simulation, and education conference (i/itsec) 2012, no. 12146, pp. 1-12 brain_3_1 63 time-delay artificial neural network computing models for predicting shelf life of processed cheese sumit goyal senior research fellow, national dairy research institute, karnal – 132001india thesumitgoyal@gmail.com gyanendra kumar goyal emeritus scientist, national dairy research institute, karnal – 132001india gkg5878@yahoo.com abstract this paper presents the capability of time–delay artificial neural network models for predicting shelf life of processed cheese. datasets were divided into two subsets (30 for training and 6 for validation). models with single and multi layers were developed and compared with each other. mean square error, root mean square error, coefficient of determination and nash sutcliffo coefficient were used as performance evaluators, timedelay model predicted the shelf life of processed cheese as 28.25 days, which is very close to experimental shelf life of 30 days. keywords: time – delay, ann, artificial intelligence, processed cheese, shelf life, prediction 1. introduction this paper highlights the significance of artificial neural network (ann) models for predicting shelf life of processed cheese stored at 30 o c. ann is inspired by the functional aspects of biological neural networks. a neural network consists of an interconnected group of artificial neurons, and it processes information using a connectionist approach to computation. in most cases an ann is an adaptive system that changes its structure based on external or internal information that flows through the network during the learning phase [1].processed cheese is very nutritious and generally manufactured from ripened cheddar cheese, but sometimes less ripened cheddar cheese is also added in lesser proportion. its manufacturing technique includes addition of emulsifier, salt, water and sometimes selected spices. the mixture is heated in jacketed vessel with continuous stirring in order to get homogeneous mass. it is a protein rich food. this variety of cheese has several advantages over raw and ripened cheddar cheese, such as excellent supplement to meat protein, tastier with longer shelf life. time-delay neural network (tdnn) is an alternative neural network architecture whose primary purpose is to work on continuous data. the advantage of this architecture is to adapt the network online and hence helpful in many applications. the architecture has a continuous input that is delayed and sent as an input to the neural network [2]. in this study, tdnn’s models with single and multilayer layers for predicting shelf life of processed cheese have been developed. single layer single layer perceptron network consists of a single layer of output nodes; the inputs are fed directly to the outputs via a series of weights. the sum of the products of the weights and the inputs is calculated in each node, and if the value is above some threshold (typically 0) the neuron fires and takes the activated value (typically 1); otherwise it takes the deactivated value (typically -1). neurons with this kind of activation function are also called artificial neurons or linear threshold units [3]. multilayer this class of networks consists of multiple layers of computational units, usually interconnected in a feed-forward way. each neuron in one layer has directed connections to the neurons of the subsequent layer. in many applications the units of these networks apply a sigmoid function as an activation function. multilayer networks use a variety of learning techniques, the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 most popular being back-propagation. here, the output values are compared with the correct answer to compute the value of some predefined error-function. by various techniques, the error is then fed back through the network. using this information, the algorithm adjusts the weights of each connection in order to reduce the value of the error function by some small amount. after repeating this process for a sufficiently large number of training cycles, the network usually converge to some state where the error of the calculations is small [3]. shelf life shelf life is the length of time given before a product is considered unsuitable for sale, use, or consumption. in some regions, a best before, use by or freshness date is required on packaged perishable foods. use prior to the expiration date does not necessarily guarantee the safety of a food or drug, and a product is not always dangerous or ineffective after the expiration date [4]. anns have been applied for predicting shelf life of kalakand [5], milky white dessert jeweled with pistachio [6], and instant coffee flavoured sterilized drink [7, 8]. time-delay and linear layer ann models were developed for predicting shelf life of soft mouth melting milk cakes [9], soft cakes [10]. radial basis models were successfully applied for predicting shelf life of brown milk cakes [11]. the aim of this study is to develop tdnn single and multilayer models for predicting shelf life of processed cheese stored at 30 o c, and to compare the developed models with each other. the outcome of this research would be very useful for cheese manufacturers, retailers, consumers and researchers. 2. method material the data consisted of 36 samples, which were divided into two subsets, i.e., 30 used for training the network and 6 for testing the tdnn models. soluble nitrogen, ph, standard plate count, yeast & mould count, and spore count were taken as input parameters, and sensory score as output parameter for developing tdnn single and multilayer models (fig.1). figure 1. inputs and output parameters for tdnn models soluble nitrogen ph standard plate count yeast & mould count spore count sensory score s. goyal, g. k. goyal time-delay artificial neural network computing models for predicting shelf life of processed cheese 65 many combinations were tried and tested, as there is no defined rule of getting good results rather than hit and trial method. as the number of neurons increased, the training time also increased. several algorithms like bayesian regularization, levenberg marquardt algorithm, gradient descent algorithm with adaptive learning rate, powell beale restarts conjugate gradient algorithm and bfg quasi-newton algorithms were tried. backpropagation algorithm based on bayesian regularization was finally selected for training the networks, as it gave most promising results. tdnn was trained up to 100 epochs with single as well as multiple hidden layers. transfer function for hidden layer was tangent sigmoid while for the output layer, it was pure linear function. figure 2. training pattern of tdnn models the neural network toolbox under matlab software was used for developing the tdnn models. training pattern of tdnn models is presented in fig.2. weights selection error evaluation weights adjustment training tdnn models training dataset error calculation minimum error end no yes brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 measures for prediction performance                 − = ∑ 2 1 exp n cal n qq mse (1)                 − = ∑ 2 1 exp exp1 n cal q qq n rmse (2)                 − −= ∑ 2 1 2 exp exp2 1 n cal q qq r (3)                 − − −= ∑ 2 1 expexp exp2 1 n cal qq qq e (4) where, expq = observed value; cal q = predicted value; expq =mean predicted value; n = number of observations in dataset. mean square error: mse (1), root mean square error: rmse (2), coefficient of determination: r 2 (3) and nash sutcliffo coefficient:e 2 (4) were used in order to compare the prediction ability of the developed models. 3. results and discussion tdnn model’s performance matrices for predicting sensory scores are presented in table 1 and table 2, respectively. table 1. performance of single layer for predicting sensory score neurons mse rmse r2 e2 3 3.01226e-05 0.005488403 0.994511597 0.999969877 5 0.000128522 0.011336741 0.988663259 0.999871478 6 0.00019086 0.013815219 0.986184781 0.99980914 8 0.000177938 0.013339332 0.986660668 0.999822062 10 1.20278e-06 0.001096714 0.998903286 0.999998797 12 2.41185e-05 0.004911058 0.995088942 0.999975882 s. goyal, g. k. goyal time-delay artificial neural network computing models for predicting shelf life of processed cheese 67 14 3.46851e-05 0.005889404 0.994110596 0.999965315 15 0.00021437 0.014641378 0.985358622 0.99978563 16 0.001314906 0.036261628 0.963738372 0.998685094 18 0.000840727 0.028995291 0.971004709 0.999159273 20 8.5198e-05 0.009230276 0.990769724 0.999914802 24 8.91481e-06 0.002985769 0.997014231 0.999991085 30 9.62368e-05 0.009810037 0.990189963 0.999903763 table 2. performance of multilayer for predicting sensory score neurons mse rmse r2 e2 3:3 4.67356e-05 0.006836347 0.993163653 0.999953264 4:4 2.77834e-05 0.005270993 0.994729007 0.999972217 5:5 3.40619e-05 0.00583626 0.99416374 0.999965938 7:7 0.000428285 0.020695048 0.979304952 0.999571715 8:8 2.18493e-05 0.004674322 0.995325678 0.999978151 9:9 0.000160167 0.012655697 0.987344303 0.999839833 10:10 1.3025e-05 0.003609012 0.996390988 0.999986975 11:11 0.000266194 0.016315438 0.983684562 0.999733806 12:12 4.47103e-05 0.006686576 0.993313424 0.99995529 13:13 0.000111797 0.010573389 0.989426611 0.999888203 14:14 0.000112257 0.01059513 0.98940487 0.999887743 15:15 0.00022446 0.014981988 0.985018012 0.99977554 16:16 9.56217e-05 0.009778634 0.990221366 0.999904378 tdnn single and multilayer models were developed; for single layer tdnn model with 10 neurons, the best performance was mse: 1.20278e-06, rmse: 0.001096714, r2: 0.998903286, e2: 0.999998797; while for the multilayer combination of 10:10 neurons mse: 1.3025e-05, rmse: 0.003609012, r2: 0.996390988, e2: 0.999986975 performed the best. on comparing them with each other, it was observed that single layer tdnn model performed better. therefore, it was selected for predicting the shelf life of processed cheese. the comparison of actual sensory score (ass) and predicted sensory score (pss) for single layer and multilayer models are illustrated in fig.3 and fig.4, respectively. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 68 figure 3. comparison of ass and pss single layer model figure 4. comparison of ass and pss for multilayer model r 2 was found to be 96.5 percent of the total variation as explained by sensory scores. period of storage (days) for which the processed cheese has been in the shelf can be determined based on sensory score (fig. 5). s. goyal, g. k. goyal time-delay artificial neural network computing models for predicting shelf life of processed cheese 69 figure 5. sensory score and period of storage for processed cheese the shelf life is calculated by subtracting the obtained value of days from experimentally determined shelf life, which was found to be 28.25 days. the predicted value is slightly higher than the experimentally obtained shelf life of 30 days. 4. conclusion tdnn models with single and multi layers were developed taking soluble nitrogen, ph, standard plate count, yeast & mould count, spore count as input parameters, and sensory score as output parameter for predicting the shelf life of processed cheese stored at 30 o c. mean square error, root mean square error, coefficient of determination and nash sutcliffo coefficient were used in order to compare the prediction ability of the developed tdnn models. regression equations were developed for predicting the shelf life of processed cheese, which came out as 28.25 days. since, predicted value is close to the experimentally determined shelf life of 30 days, hence from the study it can be concluded that tdnn artificial neural network models are quite efficient in predicting shelf life of processed cheese. references [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/artificial_neural_network (accessed on 19.8.2011) [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/time_delay_neural_network (accessed on 30.8.2012) [3] r.a. chayjan. ”modeling of sesame seed dehydration energy requirements by a soft computing”. australian journal of crop science, vol. 4, no.3, pp.180-184, 2010 [4] http://www.answers.com/topic/shelf-life (accessed on 30.8.2011) [5] sumit goyal and g.k. goyal. ”advanced computing research on cascade single and double hidden layers for detecting shelf life of kalakand: an artificial neural network approach”. international journal of computer science & emerging technologies, vol.2, no.5, pp. 292295, 2011. [6] sumit goyal and g.k. goyal. “a new scientific approach of intelligent artificial neural network engineering for predicting shelf life of milky white dessert jeweled with pistachio”. international journal of scientific and engineering research, vol.2, no. 9, pp.1-4, 2011. [7] sumit goyal and g.k. goyal. ”cascade and feedforward backpropagation artificial neural networks models for prediction of sensory quality of instant coffee flavoured sterilized brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 70 drink”. canadian journal on artificial intelligence, machine learning and pattern recognition. vol. 2, no. 6, pp.78-82, 2011. [8] sumit goyal and g.k. goyal. ”application of artificial neural engineering and regression models for forecasting shelf life of instant coffee drink”. international journal of computer science issues, vol. 8, no.4, pp. 320324, 2011 [9] sumit goyal and g.k. goyal. ”development of intelligent computing expert system models for shelf life prediction of soft mouth melting milk cakes”. international journal of computer applications, vol.25, no.9, pp.41-44, 2011. [10] sumit goyal and g.k. goyal. ”simulated neural network intelligent computing models for predicting shelf life of soft cakes”. global journal of computer science and technology. vol.11, no. 14, version 1.0, pp. 29-33, 2011. [11] sumit goyal and g.k. goyal. “radial basis artificial neural network computer engineering approach for predicting shelf life of brown milk cakes decorated with almonds”. international journal of latest trends in computing. vol. 2, no.3, pp. 434-438, 2011. 34 from oer to open education: perceptions of student teachers after creating digital stories with creative common resources gemma tur department of applied pedagogy and educational psychology, university of the balearic islands, cra. de valldemossa, km 7.5, 07122 palma, spain gemma.tur@uib.es santos urbina department of applied pedagogy and educational psychology, university of the balearic islands, cra. de valldemossa, km 7.5, 07122 palma, spain santos.urbina@uib.es juan moreno department of applied pedagogy and educational psychology, university of the balearic islands, cra. de valldemossa, km 7.5, 07122 palma, spain abstract the current study explores the perceptions of three groups of student teachers in spain after having used open licensed resources to construct their storytelling artifacts as oer. the theoretical framework briefly reviews the concept of open education and oer and the affordance and drawbacks previously observed in research. data is obtained through a survey that enables the observation of students’ tendency to adapt oer, open educational practices and the open movement. the results reveal a general positive impact on student perceptions, although nuances and challenges are observed. the part containing the discussion and conclusions suggests some implications of this current step of research for future implementation in teacher education and related research. keywords: open educational resources, open educational practices, teacher education. 1. introduction this paper links two important topics in the current educational technology research since it explores the potential of the open movement in the educational context together with student teacher perceptions. the research is based on an innovative activity in which student teachers were asked to improve their digital stories by building them under the conditions of open educational resources (oer) in order to publish a selection of the best ones in a spanish open repository, agrega 4 . after having lived the educational experiences of searching, using, mixing and modifying oer, students were asked about the possibilities of openness in the educational system and in their prospective professional careers. 2. background 2.1.open educational resources: definition, potential and drawbacks. despite the fact that digital oer have had a great impact, in fact they do not need to be strictly technologically-based. moreover, it is a highly complex concept which goes beyond the technological context as such, and it has been related to the right to education (unesco, 2012) and its transformational potential of society and, in particular, of educational institutions (peter & deimann, 2013). the open movement, the worldwide philosophies characterized by the willingness to collaborate and publish in order to enhance “accessibility, sharing, transparency and interoperability” (couros 2010, p. 111) has had the most significant impact on the educational 4 agrega: http://agrega.caib.es/visualizadorcontenidos2/portada/portada.do;jsessionid=e63fd35e62f6111ff 87b3dd161316282 g. tur, s. urbina, j. moreno from oer to open education: perceptions of student teachers after creating digital stories with creative common resources 35 context based on the belief that it is a public good (weller, 2014). openness in education, according to wiley and green (2012), is observed in different aspects among which are oer. the first definition of oer was proposed by unesco and it has recently been “emphasized” (unesco, 2012). furthermore, oer have been defined as observing four phases, which have been called the 4rs (wiley & green, 2012): reuse, revise, remix and redistribute. recently, wiley (2014) has added the fifth term, retain, defining it as “the right to make, own and control copies of the content”. weller (2012) suggested two concepts in order to group oer in two basic parts: on one hand, “big” oer, which are the ones carried out by institutions and are derived from projects, and that mainly consist of highly-planned resources, and, on the other hand, “little” oer, generated individually and with less investment or quality. research has observed a wide range of oer potentials. it has been claimed that oer foster the spread of knowledge and that, among teachers, they can support learning from others’ teaching (mcgreal, kinuthia, marshall, & mcnamara, 2013; teng & hung, 2013). in addition, it has been argued that the creation of oer involves a boost for learning design and innovation since they are easy to use and bring value to adapting and adopting (lane, 2010). weller (2012) suggests that creativity is generated in both big and little oer although their nature differs. thus, creativity in big oer is produced when adapting content in the implementation of the resource whereas in little oer it emerges from the production process itself, and also from adaptation in unexpected contexts (weller, 2012). furthermore, it has been stated that reusing and remixing oer enhances teachers’ creativity since they are encouraged to rethink their teaching and collaborate for the review of resources (atenas & havemann, 2014). it has also been argued that oer allow teachers to take ownership and control over their courses and textbooks in a way that was previously impossible (wiley, green & soares, 2012). however, oer are not yet very well known among teachers and the possibilities for opening up education have not been very extensively explored either (conole, 2012; misra, 2014). furthermore, the need for a more positive perspective on oer in order to use and share them has been claimed (mcandrew, farrow, elliott-cirigottis & law,2012). it has been assumed that the introduction of oer in teacher education programmes will help prospective teachers to adopt them (misra 2014). barriers for oer uptake have been observed in research (see for example, clements & pawlowski, 2011). among all such barriers, special attention should be given to textbooks since publishers in particular represent a barrier. they consider oer as a threat (santos-hermosa, ferranferran & abadal, 2012) and are lobbying in an attempt to pressure national and local educational administrations when policies promote the usage of open resources (adell, 2010). a wide range of perceptions has been observed in their re-use by teachers. re-using has been defined as “using educational resources that have already been available via lors for anyone’s own purpose, needs, and context” (clements & pawlowski 2011). extending resources and creativity of their teaching are observed as the main reasons for using oer. however, it seems that open-licenses of resources are not generally respected although teachers are willing to use them properly from suitable repositories (hassler, hennessy, knight, & connolly, 2014). 3. the study 3.1.context educational technology forms a part of the curriculum for student teachers at the university of the balearic islands (uib) in their early childhood teacher education degree course. in the context of this subject, students have to build a digital story in order to demonstrate the development of their technical skills. furthermore, the resources of these artifacts have to be either personal or under creative commons licenses, which is the criteria for highest excellence in the final assessment. and finally, they have to give a cc license to their own material in order for it to be considered for publishing on agrega, a spanish educational repository. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 3.2.participants the participants are three groups of students (n=128), one based in mallorca (n=77), on the main campus in palma, and the other two in the off-campus centers in menorca (n=19) and ibiza (n=32). among all the participants in the learning activity, a total of 86 students (61% of the total of participants) answered the survey: 58 from mallorca (71% of the group), 8 from menorca (42% of the group), 15 from ibiza (47% of the group). 3.3.methodology: research question and data collection the research question of this initial study is: ● what perceptions towards oer, open educational practices and the open movement do students have? in order to collect data from the students participating in the innovative activity, a questionnaire was developed. although the main methodological approach is qualitative since the aim of the study is to explore student perceptions, data is obtained through a quantitative analysis. so, a descriptive perspective is addressed to interpret numerical data obtained through the survey. in order to collect data from the students participating in the innovative activity, a questionnaire was developed. it was designed on a likert scale, since it enables the observation of tendency of attitudes so students had to choose their best answer from fully disagree (1) to fully agree (5). 3.4.results in the first place, it was important to know students’ decisions about the license they were going to choose for their oer digital stories (question 1). results show a great variety between the less open and more open licenses. there were two reduced parts of the group who chose some of the less restrictive creative commons licenses such as attribution (8%) and attribution-sharealike (4%) whereas the vast majority of the groups tended to choose others with diverse levels of restrictions. so, 36% chose attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives, whereas 26% choose either attribution-noncommercial-sharealike or attribution-noncommercial. no student chose attribution-noderivaties, which, since it does not include permission for derivative work, like the by-nc-nd license, has been argued as not being a proper oer (cable reported by campbell 2015). in the following table, all data obtained in questions from to 2 to 9 is shown in percentages. table 1. results totally disagree disagree neither a/d agree totally agree question 2 0 3 13 59 25 question 3 0 3 12 56 29 question 4 0 3 8 50 39 question 5 1 1 1 42 49 question 6 0 1 3 38 58 question 7 2 4 37 45 12 question 8 0 1 29 50 20 question 9 0 0 16 46 38 g. tur, s. urbina, j. moreno from oer to open education: perceptions of student teachers after creating digital stories with creative common resources 37 when students were asked about the possibilities of oer in education (question 2), a vast majority of the group answered in positive terms (84% of the group agreed or fully agreed with the item). an insignificant average (3%) disagreed, whereas a rather relevant 13% answered “neither agree nor disagree”. after that, students were asked about the possibilities for collaboration among in-service teachers and again (question 3), most of the group showed positive perceptions about the item (85% answered “agree” or “fully agree”), whereas only 3% disagreed and 12% answered “neither agree nor disagree”. again, the vast majority of the group agreed or fully agreed (89%) with the idea that all teachers should embrace the open movement (question 4) while only a few students were reluctant (3%) and another small part of the group (8%) chose “neither agree nor disagree”. as well as oer, the questionnaire was intended to explore perceptions on the need to introduce pre and in-service teachers into the concept of open educational practices (question 5). in this case, the same attitudinal pattern as in the first questions could be observed: 91% answered “agree” or “fully agree”, 2% chose “disagree” or “fully disagree” and 7% “neither agree nor disagree”. when asked about the improvement of the educational system (question 6), nearly all the group of students teachers agreed or fully agreed (96%), whereas only 1% did not agree and 3% were neither in agreement nor disagreement. although mainly positive, the pattern observed in answers about the role of oer in the enhancement of creativity and an education without publishers’ textbook rather differed. so, when students were asked about the enhancement of creativity through the construction of oer (question 7) the average agreement decreased to 57% of the group, which is the lowest level achieved of all questions in the questionnaire. however, it is important to highlight that a relevant part of the group (37%) seemed to be skeptical as they chose “neither agree nor disagree” whereas only 6% clearly rejected the possibilities of creation and adaptation of oer to foster creativity. the question in which students were asked about the possibilities of oer to promote a less textbook-based education (question 8) presents rather challenging answers too. thus, the average number of students showing positive attitudes was 70%, higher than the previous one but still lower than for the rest of questions. however, it should be pointed out that these attitudes do not mainly take on negative positions, since the average remains in a non-significant level (1%), but moves to certain skeptical attitudes since a rather relevant 29% chose the option “neither agree nor disagree”. finally, the questionnaire included an item (question 9) aimed at exploring the willingness of student teachers to continue using oer in their future professional careers, and 84% agreed either answering levels 4 and 5, no student was unwilling for future usage and there was a rather relevant 16% of students who were more skeptical, which in this case is the highest level among questions. 4. discussions and conclusions policies are important but as long as they do not engage students, as reported by campbell (2015), it is important to foster oer in order to create a greater awareness of their value among students. oer have been strongly connected to the higher education so, in this sense, the reported activity was carried out in its most common context. however, these students were about to become teachers, and so it can be considered logical that this activity may have a future impact in the earlier stages of very young learners. therefore, the activity was intended to promote oer among future teachers since research has observed that these resources are not widely known (conole, 2012; misra, 2014). in this work, oer are explored in the format of short stories built by student teachers, so, using weller’s concept (2012), the current artifacts are the little oer built by student teachers. the digital stories are in spanish or in catalan, which improves the diversity of languages of oer, mainly carried out in english speaking countries, as argued by misra (2014). along with the exploration of oer, the innovative activity analyzed in this paper is aimed at improving students’ perceptions towards open educational practices and in general, openness in education. the research question of the study is asked in relation to this aspect and the answer is that, in general, students have developed positive attitudes towards the usage of oer in education and the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 need to follow the open education movement by embracing open educational practices. however, results show certain challenges that allow us to observe the need for future implementations and future research. students have answered showing positive attitudes when asked about general ideas whereas, when the question is focused on concrete aspects such as creativity and the role of textbooks to carry out the general principles, they have demonstrated more reluctance. this is evidence that although they can understand the principle, they have not achieved a transformative level of knowledge. it has been argued that openness can be considered a threshold concept which, once understood, can transform the way in which education is conceived (tur, 2015). thus, in order to improve reflection and greater student awareness of the implications of oer and the open movement, which have presented a limitation in the current design, future implementation should include the assignment of written reflective texts. the low levels achieved by these questions suggest a need for further exploration. for the next steps of the research it is important to explore the possible barriers observed by students as well as to obtain higher levels of student support after improving the learning design. moreover, it is important to explore in greater depth how this creativity has been enhanced. in relation to creativity as a high cognitive skill, it would also be interesting to explore the impact of this particular activity aimed at the creation of oer for critical thinking and self-regulated learning. the current study represents the first step of this new line of research related to this innovative practice at the early childhood education programme of the uib. the limitations are derived from the short educational experience, whose design needs to be improved in future iterations of the activity. also, one important limitation is the reduced number of participants, which will be increased in future experiences, in order to explore the possibilities of generalization of these first results. however, although this has been the first focus on the role of oer in pre-service teacher training, openness has been addressed in previous research such as in the context of eportfolios (tur & marín, 2015; tur & urbina, 2014) in which flexible and open learning has been addressed (salinas, 2013). thus, this new focus on oer was a mandatory line of work that promises new challenges for research and innovation in teacher education, which needs to be committed to the improvement of the educational system where current students will develop their professional teaching careers. acknowledgment the authors of the article would like to thank manuel rivera ruiz, chairman of the section of the balearic islands on agrega, for his support and collaboration in carrying out this innovative learning activity. references adell, j. (2010). cara a los editores de libros de texto. jordi adell (@jordi_a): edu & tec. blogpost. retrieved 25 july 2015 from http://elbonia.cent.uji.es/jordi/2010/06/06/carta-a-los-editores-delibros-de-texto/ atenas, j. & havemann, l. (2014). questions of quality in repositories of open educational resources: a literature review. research in learning technology, 22. retrieved from http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/20889 campbell, l. (2015). oer15 better late than never. open world.retrieved from https://lornamcampbell.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/oer15-better-late-than-never/ conole, g. (2012). chapter: new approaches to openness beyond open educational resources. retrieved 1st february 2015 from http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/6305 couros, a. (2010). developing personal learning networks for open and social learning. in g. veletsianos (ed.), emerging technologies in distance education (pp. 109-128). athabasca: athabasca university press. retrieved 1 februrary 2015 from http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120177 http://elbonia.cent.uji.es/jordi/2010/06/06/carta-a-los-editores-de-libros-de-texto/ http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/20889 http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/20889 https://lornamcampbell.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/oer15-better-late-than-never/ https://lornamcampbell.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/oer15-better-late-than-never/ http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/6305 http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/6305 http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120177 http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120177 g. tur, s. urbina, j. moreno from oer to open education: perceptions of student teachers after creating digital stories with creative common resources 39 clements, k.i. & pawlowski, j.m. (2011) user-orientated quality of oer: understanding teachers’ views on re-use, quality and trust. journal of computer assisted learning, 28, 4-14. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00450.x hassler, b., hennessy, s., knight, s., & connolly, t. (2014). developing an open resource bank for interactive teaching of stem: perspectives of school teachers and teacher educators. jime, journal of interactive media in education, 2014(1:9, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/2014-09 lane, a. (2010). designing for innovation around oer. jime journal of interactive media in education, 2010(1):2. retrieved from http://jime.open.ac.uk/article/view/2010-2/406 mcandrew, p., farrow, r., elliott-cirigottis, g., & law, p (2012). learning the lessons of openness. journal of interactive media in education 2012(1):10, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/2012-10 mcgreal, r., kinuthia, w., marshall, s. & mcnamara, t. (eds.). (2013). perspectives on open and distance learning: open educational resources: innovation, research and practice. canada: commonwealth of learning, athabasca university. retrieved from http://www.col.org/resources/publications/pages/detail.aspx?pid=446 misra, p. k. (2014). online training of teachers using oer: promises and potential strategies. open praxis, 6(4), 375–385. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.6.4.155 unesco world oer congress. (2012). 2012 paris oer declaration. paris: unesco. retrieved 1 february 2015 from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ci/ci/pdf/events/paris%20oer% 20declaration_01.pdf peter, s. & deimann, m. (2013). on the role of openness in education: a historical reconstruction. open praxis, 5(1), pp. 7-14. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.1.23 salinas, j. (2013). enseñanza flexible y aprendizaje abierto, fundamentos clave de los ples. in l. castañeda & j. adell (eds.), entornos personales de aprendizaje: claves para el ecosistema educativo en red (pp. 53-70). alcoy: marfil santos-hermosa, g., ferran-ferran, n., & abadal, e. (2012). recursos educativos abiertos: repositorio y uso. , 21(2), pp. 136-146. doi: 10.3145/epi.2012.mar.03 teng, k. e. & hung, c. s. (2013) framework for the development of oer-based learning materials in odl environment. open praxis, 5 (4), pp. 315–324. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.4.99 tur, g. (2015). openness as a threshold concept. unlearning & unteaching. blogspot. retrieved 25 july 2015 from http://www.gemmaturferrer.com/openness-threshold-concept/ tur, g. & marín, v. i. (2015). exploring student teachers’ attitudes and beliefs towards e-portfolios and technology in education. enseñanza & teaching, 33(1), pp. 57-82. doi: 10.14201/et20153315782 tur, g. & urbina, s. (2014). blogs as eportfolio platforms in teacher education: affordances and limitations derived from student teachers’ perceptions and performance on their eportfolios. digital education review, 26, pp. 1-23. retrieved from http://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/der/article/view/11578 weller, m. (2012). the openness-creativity cycle in education. journal of interactive media in education 2012(1):2, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/2012-02 weller, m. (2014). the battle for open. how openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory. london: ubiquity press. wiley, d. (2014). the access compromise and the fifth r. iterating toward openness. retrieved 18th april 2015 from http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221 wiley, d. & green, c. (2012). why openness in education? in d. oblinger (ed.), game changers. education and information technologies (pp. 81-90). educause. retrieved 1st february 2015 from http://www.educause.edu/research-publications/books/game-changers-education-andinformation-technologies http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/2014-09 http://jime.open.ac.uk/article/view/2010-2/406 http://jime.open.ac.uk/article/view/2010-2/406 http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/2012-10 http://www.col.org/resources/publications/pages/detail.aspx?pid=446 http://www.col.org/resources/publications/pages/detail.aspx?pid=446 http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.6.4.155 http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ci/ci/pdf/events/paris%20oer%20declaration_01.pdf http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ci/ci/pdf/events/paris%20oer%20declaration_01.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.4.99 http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.4.99 http://www.gemmaturferrer.com/openness-threshold-concept/ http://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/der/article/view/11578 http://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/der/article/view/11578 http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/2012-02 http://opencontent.org/blog http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221 http://www.educause.edu/research-publications/books/game-changers-education-and-information-technologies http://www.educause.edu/research-publications/books/game-changers-education-and-information-technologies brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 wiley, d.,green, c., & soares, l. (2012). dramatically bringing down the cost of education with oer. center for american progress. educause. retrieved 25 july 2015 from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed535639.pdf questionnaire question 1. cc licences under which students will share their oer. question 2. publishing oer under cc licenses has great potential for education. question 3. i think that publishing oer under cc licences will promote collaboration among inservice teachers. question 4. i think that teachers should follow the open education movement. question 5. i think that teacher education has to introduce pre and in-service teachers into open educational practices. question 6. i think that the improvement of the educational system requires that teachers are willing to open their educational practices. question 7. using and remixing oer has enhanced my creativity skills question 8. i think that publishing oer under cc licenses will help teachers not to depend on closed textbooks so much. question 9. i think i will continue using oer in my future professional career. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed535639.pdf http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed535639.pdf microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 5 emotion extraction from facial expressions by using artificial intelligence techniques hakan boz usak university, usak, turkey i̇zmir yolu 8. km. atatürk bulvarı, 64000 merkez/uşak, turkey tel. +90 276 221 21 21 hakan.boz@usak.edu.tr utku kose suleyman demirel university, isparta, turkey çünür mahallesi, süleyman demirel caddesi, merkez/isparta, turcia tel.: +90 246 211 10 00 utkukose@sdu.edu.tr abstract nowadays, there is no application area in which artificial intelligence oriented solutions are not employed. it is possible to see its use in even daily life and the solution scope of this scientific field of the future is growing day by day. because of its great advantages in analyzing the physical world and solving real world problems, artificial intelligence techniques are often employed in different research problems that cannot be solved with traditional computational approaches. in this context, using intelligent systems to understand human features is one of the most popular research interest for recent years. in the sense of the explanations so far, objective of this study is to introduce a research in which a system that is able to extract emotions from individuals’ facial expressions was designed and developed. in detail, the system considered here a cascade feedforward artificial neural network model trained by a recent optimization algorithm called as vortex optimization algorithm. the developed system has been applied to different sets of photos from the literature and positive results were obtained at the final for each different set considered. keywords: facial expression recognition, artificial intelligence, artificial neural networks, vortex optimization algorithm, emotions, neuromarketing 1. introduction humankind currently faces lots of rapid innovations shaping a future with full of automated technologies. although this situation is associated with also developments in electronics, intelligent behaviors of automated technologies are greatly affected by the rise of artificial intelligence. as being the science of designing and developing intelligent systems – machines (flasiński, 2016; ginsberg, 2012; nilsson, 2014), artificial intelligence has a remarkable role on solving real world problems effectively and efficiently. because of also strong relations between artificial intelligence and some other supportive technologies (i.e. computer technologies, communication technologies), the humankind is experiencing a life standing over analyzes, decisions, and even predictions made by intelligent systems. the associated literature of artificial intelligence consists of many different research interests dealing with specific problems of real life. it is possible to see that hundreds of different research topics can be extracted from the performed research studies so far. but of course, trends on objective problems solved by using artificial intelligence may change in time. in recent years, an important and remarkable problem of artificial intelligence is based on facial recognition (amos et al., 2016; ding, & tao, 2015; ding, & tao, 2017; karczmarek et al., 2017; lopes et al., 2017; parkhi et al., 2015; sun et al., 2015; zhang et al., 2016). because the problem of detecting individuals’ faces and analyzing features of the detected faces to derive some ideas about individuals’ emotions, actions, general events…etc. is too important for many research objectives, there has been a remarkable effort on designing and developing alternative approaches in the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 6 literature (abdalmageed et al., 2016; bashyal, & venayagamoorthy, 2008; guo et al., 2000; liu et al., 2014; ma, & khorasani, 2004; mao et al., 2015; ouyang et al., 2015; samir et al., 2006; zhou et al., 2015). facial recognition and also alternative recognition approaches for extracting some features from objective individuals are important for even some fields like marketing, education to understand more about behaviors (fugate, 2007; gates, 2011; kapoor, & picard, 2005; landwehr et al., 2011; loh et al., 2006; shen et al., 2009). objective of this study is to present a research process in which an intelligent system that is able to extract emotions from individuals’ facial expressions was designed and developed. in detail, the system considered here a cascade feed-forward artificial neural network model trained by a recent optimization algorithm called as vortex optimization algorithm. in the research process, it is aimed to apply the developed system to different sets of photos from the associated literature. at this point, the related model of artificial neural networks having different number and type of outputs will be used for different sets and the findings obtained via this emotion extraction system will be evaluated. on the other hand, it is also aimed to set different parameters for the ‘trainer’ algorithm: vortex optimization algorithm, to see if different cases for the optimization algorithm can affect objective artificial neural networks model on emotion extraction. taking the subject of the study into consideration, the remaining content of the paper is organized as follows: the next section is devoted to some essential information about the concept of emotions, measuring emotions, and also facial expressions in this manner. following to that section, the third section explains the methodology followed in the study by giving information about the structure of the formed system, objective data sets, and the planned emotion extraction applications for these data sets. next, the fourth section provides the findings and has a discussion according to findings and finally, the last section provides conclusions and explanations on some planned future works. 2. background understanding the human behavior is a complex phenomenon. a multidimensional approach is needed to understand emotions because of the complex nature of emotions. in the last thirty years there has been an explosion of papers in the economics, psychology, marketing, management and neurology literature try to identify how specific emotions such as anger, sad, happy, fear, joy, disgust, and suprised affect human decisions (descartes, 1994; cornelius, 1996; elster, 1998; fredrickson, 1998; georgr, 2000; loewenstein, 2000; fox et al., 2001; colibazzi et al., 2010; white, 2010; koc ve boz, 2014; boz, arslan & koc, 2017). here, it is important to briefly focus on why emotions are important so much in especially recent studies. 2.1. emotions emotions play a major role in consumers’ human decision making process (fessler et al., 2004; yuksel, 2007). emotion is one of the most attractive fields in marketing research due to the emotions’ role on consumer behavior (norman, 2003). it can be said that it is important for marketers to understand the consumer's feelings towards products. but it is quite difficult to measure emotions because they are both abstract and hidden. emotions can be measured by different data collection methods such as questionnaire, interview and etc. however, it is difficult to measure emotions by using traditional data collection methods such as questionnaire or interview due to two main reason. the first reason is that emotions can be affected by subliminal processes by hidden motives. therefore, consumers cannot be aware of the actual reasons behind purchasing decisions. the second reason is that consumers can avoid expressing the truth because of impression management koc, & boz (2014). in recent years, neuro-marketing has made significant contributions in measuring the emotions affecting consumers' purchasing decisions. at this point, there are different types of data used for measuring the emotions. in this sense, facial expressions take an important role on detecting emotions well. h. boz, u. kose extraction from facial expressions by using artificial intelligence techniques 7 2.2. data for measuring emotions and facial expressions in recent years, the use of electroencephalography (eeg), magnetic resonance imaging instrument (mri scanner), functional magnetic resonance imaging instrument (fmri scanner), positron emission tomography (pet), electromyography (emg), eye tracker, galvanic skin response (hr), have begun to measure emotions in marketing research. facial expression recognition is one of the most active methods for measuring emotions in neuromarketing studies (garbas et al., 2013; dieckmann, & unfried, 2014; hamelin et al., 2017). facial expression recognition includes both measurement of facial motion and recognition of emotions (tian et al., 2011). face is one of the best source of information about customers’ actual emotions (wyrembelski, 2014). because facial movements and gestures are the basis of communication between people and it is stated that it can be combine 10000 facial expressions via 43 face muscles (bejgu, & mocanu, 2014). facial expressions convey multitude information during the communication process about the attention, emotion and attitude of the people (argyle, & cook, 1976; ekman, & rosenberg, 1997; kendon, 2000). mehrabian (1968) stated that facial expressions constitute 55% of a communicated message’s efficiency. 3. methodology this section is devoted to the general methodology used for extracting emotion from facial expressions. as it was expressed before, the approach introduced here is done thanks to artificial intelligence and in order to achieve that, the authors have benefited from some data collected. so, it is important to explain details regarding to these aspects respectively. 3.1. data collection when we consider the associated literature, it is possible to see lots of different data sets created for facial recognition. although these data sets can include different resolutions of photos with changing features of viewed faces, main objective is generally finding the points determining different parts of a face. after determining the related parts of a face, it becomes easier to have idea about i.e. facial expression. on the other hand, it is also important that different genders, different races and even changing sizes of a head – face can affect the way of detecting facial expression. so, it has been always important for especially researchers working on detecting facial expressions by intelligent systems to use appropriate types of data. considering the recent literature, this study has employed some different data sets to realize the application of emotion extraction from facial expressions (figure 1). the related data sets are:  set 1: a data set including 490 photos with genders, and adjusted for 7 emotions (grgic, & delac, 2017; gross, 2005).  set 2: chicago data set including 810 photos with genders, races, and adjusted for 7 emotions (ma et al., 2015),  set 3: 100 photos chosen randomly by the authors, and adjusted for 7 emotions. in order to train the formed system with an accurate training data, it is important to use appropriate points from face photos. here, the chosen points should figure out facial emotions effective enough so that a trained artificial intelligence based system will extract emotions wellenough from newly encountered points. in order to achieve that, microsoft kinect 3d infrastructure has been used to gather 3d face points (figure 2, microsoft, 2018). microsoft kinect 3d is a popular system of both hardware and software solutions for effective recognition processes from photos or videos (cao et al., 2014; li et al., 2013; sato et al., 2017; silverstein, & snyder, 2017; zhang, 2012). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 8 figure 1. different data sets for the application of emotion extraction from facial expressions. as it was indicated before, set – 1 comes with also gender features, whereas set – 2 includes information for both genders and races. at this point, input side of the training data was formed with rows including a total of 142 values with x and y coordinate values for each of 70 face points, one gender value (as numerical), and also one race value (as numerical). gender and race value of the photos including one or both of them was defined as ‘-1’ in the training data. as the output side of the training data, the following emotions were defined for each row:  fearful (value=1),  angry (value=2),  disgusted (value=3),  surprised (value=4),  happy (value=5),  sad (value=6),  neutral (value=7) figure 2. microsoft kinect 3d for visual recognition processes (microsoft, 2018). by combining all three data sets, a general data set with 1400 rows was formed. after the related training – test data set was formed with the related data sets, emotion extraction has been done with the hybrid system explained briefly under the following sub-section. h. boz, u. kose extraction from facial expressions by using artificial intelligence techniques 9 3.2. extraction system formed via artificial intelligence techniques in order to extract emotions from facial expressions, a cascade feed-forward artificial neural network was employed. as one of widely-used artificial neural networks models, this one uses connections from the input layer and every previously-one layer(s) to following layer(s) (bozkurt et al., 2014; goyal, & goyal, 2011; savaci, 2006). in this way, the feedforward mechanism is achieved a better training phase for solving the objective problem (bozkurt et al., 2014; goyal, & goyal, 2011; savaci, 2006). as different from its traditional training style, the model considered here was trained by using a recent optimization algorithm called as vortex optimization algorithm (figure 3). figure 3. the extraction system formed with cascade feed-forward artificial neural network and vortex optimization algorithm. vortex optimization algorithm is an intelligent, swarm intelligence based algorithm, which was developed by kose and arslan by inspiring from dynamics of vortices in the nature (kose, 2017; kose, & arslan, 2015). in detail, the algorithm uses some role-based and evolutionary mechanisms to achieve the optimization solution processes (kose, 2017; kose, & arslan, 2015). a flow chart of the algorithm is provided in figure 4 (kose, & arslan, 2015). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 10 figure 4. a flow chart of the vortex optimization algorithm (kose, & arslan, 2015). the formed hybrid system was employed for the emotion extraction purpose, by using the combinations of the related data sets. but before performing the exact extraction process, it is important to determine how many hidden layers and artificial neurons to be included in them will be used along the extraction application. on the other hand, it is also important to essential parameters of the vortex optimization algorithm. so, the next works for the research objectives have been done under two phases of pre-tests and final emotion extraction applications. 3.3. application processes while training the objective neural network model with the chosen algorithm, 70% of the general data set was used while the remaining amount was included within emotion extraction (test – application) processes. while training the model, a total of 5000 iterations was chosen in all the performed training applications. before determining the exact model of emotion extraction, different combinations of hidden layers and artificial neurons to be included in them was trained by using different combinations of data sets and default parameter values of the vortex optimization algorithm (table 1 and table 2). this phase is called as pre-test and after that phase, the determined hybrid system model was used within final applications phase, in order to evaluate emotion extraction performance of the introduced artificial intelligence based system. success rates achieved with the performed training applications are shown in table 1. h. boz, u. kose extraction from facial expressions by using artificial intelligence techniques 11 table 1. success rates obtained with different combinations of training hybrid models with default optimization algorithm parameters. hidden layers neurons used set success rate (%) 1 50 set – 1 68 1 50 set – 2 64 1 30 set – 1 71 1 30 set – 2 70 2 35 set – 1 77 2 35 set – 2 75 2 35 set – 1 & 2 72 2 35 set – 1 & 3 81 2 35 set – 1 & 2 & 3 79 1 40 set – 1 & 2 68 2 20 set – 1 & 3 75 2 45 set – 1 & 2 & 3 71 table 2. default parameters of the vortex optimization algorithm. particles vorticity max. / min. vorticity elimation rate 50 0,40 7 (+/-) 50 as it can be seen from table 1, the appropriate model of the cascade feed-forward neural network can be formed by using 2 hidden layers including 35 artificial neurons each. after getting that appropriate model structure of the hidden layer(s), it was tried to improve success rate by using different combinations of parameters related to vortex optimization algorithms. obtained success rates regarding this final step of pre-tests are provided in table 3. table 3. obtained success rates with different combinations of parameters regarding vortex optimization algorithm used to train the chosen cascade feed-forward neural network model. particles vorticity max. / min. vorticity elimination rate success rate (%) 10 0,25 10 (+/-) 50 56 20 0,25 5 (+/-) 30 61 30 0,75 6 (+/-) 50 62 50 0,50 7 (+/-) 70 74 50 0,90 8 (+/-) 65 76 100 0,50 7 (+/-) 60 73 100 0,50 7 (+/-) 30 78 100 0,50 7 (+/-) 50 84 as it can be seen from table 4, the success rate of the hybrid system was improved by finding more optimum parameters for the trainer technique: vortex optimization algorithm. as a result of the related pre-tests, optimum parameters represented in table 5 have been determined for both techniques, to be used for final emotion extraction applications. table 5. determined optimum parameters for both techniques forming the hybrid system. hidden layers neurons particles vorticity max. / min. vorticity elimination rate 2 35 100 0,50 7 (+/-) 50 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 12 4. final application findings and discussion by following pre-tests to determine optimum parameters for both techniques forming the hybrid system, some final emotion extraction applications were performed by using different combinations of data sets. in this context, the author(s) have also developed a software system in order to provide a visual environment for tracking all necessary data during training and application phases for both photos or videos (future work), by using the c# programming language (figure 5). the findings including success rates achieved with final applications are provided in table 5. figure 5. software system developed for tracking all necessary data. table 5. findings obtained with the final emotion extraction applications. objective set total number of test photos success rate (%) set – 1 147 84 set – 2 243 77 set – 3 30 87 set – 1 & 2 390 75 set – 1 & 3 177 81 set – 2 & 3 273 79 set – 1 & 2 & 3 420 73 by moving from the findings and experiences that the authors had with the performed application processes, it is possible to express the following remarkable points about the related artificial intelligence based system for emotion extraction:  the hybrid system considered here seems having enough capability to extract emotions from facial expressions.  even the photos are from complicated sets, the system can still deal with the problem of determining true emotion among 7 different emotions, according to the target photo(s). h. boz, u. kose extraction from facial expressions by using artificial intelligence techniques 13  pre-tests done before the whole emotion extraction operations figured out that it is important to find optimum parameters for all techniques run under a common hybrid approach.  as it is clear already, more number of particles for an intelligent optimization algorithm affect the objective optimizing problem (here it is training) in a positive way.  combination of three different sets did not affect the extraction rate of the system too much, even sets do not match in the sense of gender and race features – inputs. 5. conclusion and future work in this study, an artificial intelligence based system for extracting emotions from facial expressions have been introduced. as different from similar applications, the system formed here consists of a cascade feed-forward artificial neural network model trained by a recent optimization algorithm called as vortex optimization algorithm. additionally, the research has been done by using different settings of emotion extraction system for different data sets of photos from the literature. obtained findings from the reported applications show that the formed system is effective enough to extract different emotions from photos related to individuals with different gender and even different race. it has been also seen that mixture of the data from different sets can affect the extraction performance of an intelligent system. the obtained findings in the study have also encouraged the authors to plan more future works over the followed research process. first of all, it is planned to change settings for i.e. determined number of points over the face, photo size, or any other alternative conditions to see if extraction performance can be improved. on the other hand, it is also planned to use more alternative data sets with the same settings of the introduced approach to see if bigger amount of data can still affect the performance of the system. finally, as it can be understood from the explanations provided under the previous sections for the software system developed for tracking data, the system will be applied for live or recorded videos. acknowledgements this study has been supported by usak university scientific research and projects unit with the project number 2017/hd-sosb004. references abdalmageed, w., wu, y., rawls, s., harel, s., hassner, t., masi, i., ... & nevatia, r. (2016). face recognition using deep multi-pose representations. in applications of computer vision (wacv), 2016 ieee winter conference on (pp. 1-9). ieee. amos, b., ludwiczuk, b., & satyanarayanan, m. (2016). openface: a general-purpose face recognition library with mobile applications. cmu school of computer science. argyle, m., & cook, m. (1976). gaze and mutual gaze. cambridge: cambridge unviersity press. bashyal, s., & venayagamoorthy, g. k. (2008). recognition of facial expressions using gabor wavelets and learning vector quantization. engineering applications of artificial intelligence, 21(7), 1056-1064. bejgu, a., & mocanu, i. (2014). facial emotion recognition using kinect. journal of information systems & operations management, 1. boz, h., arslan, a., & koc, e. (2017). neuromarketing aspect of tourısm pricing psychology. tourism management perspectives, 23, 119-128. bozkurt, m. r., yurtay, n., yilmaz, z., & sertkaya, c. (2014). comparison of different methods for determining diabetes. turkish journal of electrical engineering & computer sciences, 22(4), 1044-1055. cao, c., weng, y., zhou, s., tong, y., & zhou, k. (2014). facewarehouse: a 3d facial expression database for visual computing. ieee transactions on visualization and computer graphics, 20(3), 413-425. colibazzi, t., posner, j., wang, z., gorman, d., gerber, a., yu, s., ... & peterson, b. s. (2010). neural systems subserving valence and arousal during the experience of induced emotions. emotion, 10(3), 377. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 14 cornelius, r. r. (1996). the science of emotion: research and tradition in the psychology of emotions. prentice-hall, inc. damassio, a; (1994), descartes' error: emotion, reason and the human brain, new york: putnam, 1994. dieckmann, a., & unfried, m. (2014). writ large on your face: observing emotions using automatic facial analysis. gfk marketing intelligence review, 6(1), 52-58. ding, c., & tao, d. (2015). robust face recognition via multimodal deep face representation. ieee transactions on multimedia, 17(11), 2049-2058. ding, c., & tao, d. (2017). trunk-branch ensemble convolutional neural networks for video-based face recognition. ieee transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence. ekman, p., & rosenberg, e. l. (eds.). (1997). what the face reveals: basic and applied studies of spontaneous expression using the facial action coding system (facs). oxford university press, usa. elster, j. (1998). emotions and economic theory. journal of economic literature, 36(1), 47-74. fessler, d. m., pillsworth, e. g., & flamson, t. j. (2004). angry men and disgusted women: an evolutionary approach to the influence of emotions on risk taking. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 95(1), 107-123. flasiński, m. (2016). introduction to artificial intelligence. springer. fox, s., spector, p. e., & miles, d. (2001). counterproductive work behavior (cwb) in response to job stressors and organizational justice: some mediator and moderator tests for autonomy and emotions. journal of vocational behavior, 59(3), 291-309. fredrickson, b. l. (1998). what good are positive emotions?. review of general psychology, 2(3), 300. fugate, d. l. (2007). neuromarketing: a layman's look at neuroscience and its potential application to marketing practice. journal of consumer marketing, 24(7), 385-394. garbas, j. u., ruf, t., unfried, m., & dieckmann, a. (2013, september). towards robust real-time valence recognition from facial expressions for market research applications. in affective computing and intelligent interaction (acii), 2013 humaine association conference on (pp. 570-575). ieee. gates, k. a. (2011). our biometric future: facial recognition technology and the culture of surveillance. nyu press. george, j. m. (2000). emotions and leadership: the role of emotional intelligence. human relations, 53(8), 1027-1055. ginsberg, m. (2012). essentials of artificial intelligence. newnes. goyal, s., & goyal, g. k. (2011). cascade and feedforward backpropagation artificial neural network models for prediction of sensory quality of instant coffee flavoured sterilized drink. canadian journal on artificial intelligence, machine learning and pattern recognition. 2(6), 78-82. grgic, m., & delac, k. (2017). face recognition homepage. online: http://www.facerec.org/databases/ (retrieved 23th dec. 2017). gross, r. (2005). face databases. handbook of face recognition, (eds.) stan z. li and anil k. jain. springer-verlag. guo, g., li, s. z., & chan, k. (2000). face recognition by support vector machines. in automatic face and gesture recognition, 2000. proceedings. fourth ieee international conference on (pp. 196-201). ieee. hamelin, n., el moujahid, o., & thaichon, p. (2017). emotion and advertising effectiveness: a novel facial expression analysis approach. journal of retailing and consumer services, 36, 103-111. kapoor, a., & picard, r. w. (2005). multimodal affect recognition in learning environments. in proceedings of the 13th annual acm international conference on multimedia (pp. 677682). acm. h. boz, u. kose extraction from facial expressions by using artificial intelligence techniques 15 karczmarek, p., kiersztyn, a., & pedrycz, w. (2017). an evaluation of fuzzy measure for face recognition. in international conference on artificial intelligence and soft computing (pp. 668-676). springer, cham. kendon, a., (2000). language and gesture: unity or duality,” in language and gesture: window into thought and action cambridge:cambridge unviersity press. koc, e., & boz, h. (2014). psychoneurobiochemistry of tourism marketing. tourism management, 44, 140-148. kose, u. (2017). phd. thesis. dept. of computer engineering, development of artificial intelligence based optimization algorithms. selcuk university, turkey. kose, u., & arslan, a. (2015). on the idea of a new artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm inspired from the nature of vortex. brain-broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 5(1-4), 60-66. landwehr, j. r., mcgill, a. l., & herrmann, a. (2011). it's got the look: the effect of friendly and aggressive “facial” expressions on product liking and sales. journal of marketing, 75(3), 132-146. li, b. y., mian, a. s., liu, w., & krishna, a. (2013). using kinect for face recognition under varying poses, expressions, illumination and disguise. in applications of computer vision (wacv), 2013 ieee workshop on (pp. 186-192). ieee. liu, p., han, s., meng, z., & tong, y. (2014). facial expression recognition via a boosted deep belief network. in proceedings of the ieee conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (pp. 1805-1812). loewenstein, g. (2000). emotions in economic theory and economic behavior. the american economic review, 90(2), 426-432. loh, m. p., wong, y. p., & wong, c. o. (2006). facial expression recognition for e-learning systems using gabor wavelet & neural network. in advanced learning technologies, 2006. sixth international conference on (pp. 523-525). ieee. lopes, a. t., de aguiar, e., de souza, a. f., & oliveira-santos, t. (2017). facial expression recognition with convolutional neural networks: coping with few data and the training sample order. pattern recognition, 61, 610-628. ma, d. s., correll, j., & wittenbrink, b. (2015). the chicago face database: a free stimulus set of faces and norming data. behavior research methods, 47(4), 1122-1135. ma, l., & khorasani, k. (2004). facial expression recognition using constructive feedforward neural networks. ieee transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, part b (cybernetics), 34(3), 1588-1595. mao, q. r., pan, x. y., zhan, y. z., & shen, x. j. (2015). using kinect for real-time emotion recognition via facial expressions. frontiers of information technology & electronic engineering, 16(4), 272-282. mehrabian, a. (1968). communication without words. psychology today. microsoft. (2018). kinect for windows sensor. msdn developer network. online: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh855355.aspx (retrieved 5th jan. 2018). nilsson, n. j. (2014). principles of artificial intelligence. morgan kaufmann. norman, d. a. (2003). designing emotions pieter desmet. the design journal, 6(2), 60-62. ouyang, y., sang, n., & huang, r. (2015). accurate and robust facial expressions recognition by fusing multiple sparse representation based classifiers. neurocomputing, 149, 71-78. parkhi, o. m., vedaldi, a., & zisserman, a. (2015). deep face recognition. in bmvc (vol. 1, no. 3, p. 6). samir, c., srivastava, a., & daoudi, m. (2006). three-dimensional face recognition using shapes of facial curves. ieee transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence, 28(11), 1858-1863. sato, k., nose, t., ito, a., chiba, y., ito, a., & shinozaki, t. (2017). a study on 2d photorealistic facial animation generation using 3d facial feature points and deep neural networks. in international conference on intelligent information hiding and multimedia signal processing (pp. 112-118). springer, cham. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 16 savaci, f. a. (2006). artificial intelligence and neural networks. springer. shen, l., wang, m., & shen, r. (2009). affective e-learning: using “emotional” data to improve learning in pervasive learning environment. journal of educational technology & society, 12(2), 176. silverstein, e., & snyder, m. (2017). implementation of facial recognition with microsoft kinect v2 sensor for patient verification. medical physics, 44(6), 2391-2399. sun, y., liang, d., wang, x., & tang, x. (2015). deepid3: face recognition with very deep neural networks. arxiv preprint arxiv:1502.00873. tian, y., kanade, t., & cohn, j. f. (2011). facial expression recognition. in handbook of face recognition (pp. 487-519). springer london. white, c. j. (2010). the impact of emotions on service quality, satisfaction, and positive word-ofmouth intentions over time. journal of marketing management, 26(5-6), 381-394. wyrembelski, a. (2014). detection of the selected, basic emotion based on face expression using kinect. online: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6d93/4b68079cbb802fd3bcfac2cae2e5e6d4f7b7.pdf (retrieved 21st jan. 2018). yuksel, a. (2007). tourist shopping habitat: effects on emotions, shopping value and behaviours. tourism management, 28(1), 58-69. zhang, z. (2012). microsoft kinect sensor and its effect. ieee multimedia, 19(2), 4-10. zhang, y. d., yang, z. j., lu, h. m., zhou, x. x., phillips, p., liu, q. m., & wang, s. h. (2016). facial emotion recognition based on biorthogonal wavelet entropy, fuzzy support vector machine, and stratified cross validation. ieee access, 4, 8375-8385. zhou, y., xue, h., & geng, x. (2015). emotion distribution recognition from facial expressions. in proceedings of the 23rd acm international conference on multimedia (pp. 1247-1250). acm. hakan boz is asst. professor at usak university's school of applied sciences. he carries out research to better understand consumer and employee behaviour in the tourism and hospitality sectors, especially by using equipments such as accelerometer, gsr, body temperature, airflow (breathing), heart rate, eye tracker, facial recognition, glucometer, ecg, spo2, blood pressure (sphygmomanometer), electromyography, eeg and fmri together with professor erdogan koc dr. utku köse received the b.s. degree in 2008 from computer education of gazi university, turkey as a faculty valedictorian. he received m.s. degree in 2010 from afyon kocatepe university, turkey in the field of computer and d.s. / ph. d. degree in 2017 from selcuk university, turkey in the field of computer engineering. between 2009 and 2011, he has worked as a research assistant in afyon kocatepe university. following, he has also worked as a lecturer and vocational school – vice director in afyon kocatepe university between 2011 and 2012. between 2012 and 2017, he was lecturer in usak university, turkey and also the director of the computer sciences application and research center at the same university. currently, he works as assistant professor in suleuyman demirel university of isparta, turkey. his research interest includes artificial intelligence, optimization, chaos theory, distance education, elearning, computer education, and computer science. brain_3_4_final 76 instructions for authors author guidelines authors must submit their papers via email to brain@edusoft.ro or they can create an account and submit their papers online, at www.brain.edusoft.ro. submited papers must be written in doc format (microsoft word document), in as clear and as simple as possible english. preferred maximum paper length for the papers is 20 pages, including figures. the template for the paper is at this address: http://www.edusoft.ro/template_for_brain.doc the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point times new roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. the title will be bold 14-point, and the author will be 12-point italic. figures have caption in bottom-center side, and tables have captions in left-top side. use a tab for identing each paragraph and the subtitles, too. the subtitles will be bold 12-point. please use microsoft word 97-2003. we encourage the authors to use the camera ready format even for the first submission. all paper submissions will be carefully reviewed by an editor, and by the members of the scientific board or independent experts, who will provide a written feedback with comments and ratings. authors will be notified of acceptance in maximum 3 weeks. accepted manuscripts should be revised according to the comments of the reviewers and of the editors. for questions concerning manuscript submission, contact mr. bogdan patrut by mail at bogdan@edusoft.ro. submission preparation checklist as part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 1. the submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the editor). 2. the submission file is in microsoft word or rtf document file format. 3. where available, urls for the references have been provided. 4. the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 5. the text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the author guidelines, which is found in about the journal. 6. if submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal (brainovations or brainstorming), the instructions in ensuring a blind review have been followed. ensuring a blind peer review to ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. this involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their m. hashamdar the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? 77 review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: 1. the authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. 2. with microsoft office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under file in word), by clicking on the following, beginning with file on the main menu of the microsoft application: file > save as > tools (or options with a mac) > security > remove personal information from file properties on save > save. 3. with pdfs, the authors' names should also be removed from document properties found under file on adobe acrobat's main menu. copyright notice authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a creative commons attribution license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work privacy statement the names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. 78 braindexing our journal is currently indexed/listed in the following indexing services and international databases: 1. directory of open access journals (doaj) 2. ebsco (ebsco open access computer science, ebsco open access journals, ebsco open access medical and health collection) 3. indexcopernicus 4. the linguist list 5. google academic 6. ulrichs 7. getcited 8. genamics journalseek 9. zeitschriftendatenbank (zdb) 10. j-gate 11. sherpa/romeo 12. dayang journal system 13. public knowledge project 14. bium (bibliothèque interuniversitaire de medecine et d'odontologie) 15. newjour 16. articlereach direct 17. link+ also, some universities and organizations list our journal in their online libraries: 1. geneva foundation for medical education and research 2. base (bielefeld academic search engine) 3. river campus libraries (univ. of rochester) 4. tulips (university of tsukuba library)) 5. showa university library 6. keio university (shinamomachi media center) 7. university of pennsylvania 8. university of modena and reggio emilia 9. tel aviv university, gitter-smolarz library of life sciences and medicine 10. national autonomous university of mexico, genomic sciences center, institute of biotechnology 11. saint petersburg state university 12. university of puerto rico 13. vrije universiteit brussel 14. queensland university of technology 15. university of florida 16. john brown university 17. université paris-descartes 18. university of regensburg 19. michigan state university 20. university of colorado boulder 21. university of glasgow 22. washington university in saint louis 23. wayne state university 24. california state university, long beach 25. brown university, providence, rhode island 26. the university of honk kong 27. university of nevada, reno 28. ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen 29. dowling college, new york state 30. colgate university, new york state 79 table of contents section brainstorming 1. on major perspectives on language acquisition: nativism, connectionism, and emergentism 5 mohammad khatib, somayyeh sabah 2. the influence of neurolinguistic applications on second language research: reviewing the issues and refocusing the debate 13 masoud mahmoodzadeh 3. the effects of call on vocabulary learning: a case of iranian intermediate efl learners parviz maftoon, hadi hamidi, saeid najafi sarem 4. a critical look at the presentation, practice, production (ppp) approach: challenges and promises for elt 31 parviz maftoon, saeid najafi sarem 5. bilingual lexical activation in sentence and non-sentence context: a study of crosslanguage lexical processing 37 mehraban hamavandy, mohammad golshan 6. neobehaviorism and second language acquisition 46 laleh fakhraee faruji 7. learners test performance and gardner`s multiple inteligence theory: intercorrelation in a bilingual context 51 bagher azarmi, ali jahangard, hossein movassagh 8. a review of the language-thought debate: multivariant perspectives 56 parviz birjandi, somayyeh sabah 9. the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? 68 mohammad hashamdar instructions for authors 76 © 2012 edusoft 80 other journals published by edusoft www.broadresearch.org brand. broad research in accounting, negotiation, and distribution the aim of the journal is to make an agora of different experts in economics, social and political sciences. we expect articles from experts in different scientific and practical fields, like accounting, marketing, management, economics, trade, trade law, finance, operations research, optimization, graph theory, game theory, voting, political communication, sociology etc. our journal is currently indexed/listed/covered in: repec (ideas, econpapers), doaj, indexcopernicus, getcited, google academic, socionet.ru web: http://brand.edusoft.ro or http://brand.broadresearch.org libri. linguistic and literary broad research and innovation "libri. linguistic and literary broad research and innovation" is an international journal for specialists in linguistics, literature, cultural studies, and related fields. the papers should be original unpublished papers, written in english or french. « libri. linguistic and literary broad research and innovation » est une revue à caractère international qui s’adresse aux spécialistes de la linguistique, de la littérature, des études culturelles et des domaines connexes. les papiers doivent être originaux, inédits, écrits en anglais ou en français. our journal is listed/covered/indexed by: getcited, index copernicus, the linguis list, google academic web: http://libri.edusoft.ro or http://libri.broadresearch.org © 2010-2012 edusoft ©2023 published by lumen publishing. this is an open access article under the cc by-nc-nd license brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: web of science (wos); pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2023, volume 14, issue 1, pages: 571-595 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/436 submitted: july 5th, 2022 | accepted for publication: march 6th, 2023 study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the external and internal environment desdemona isabela scarişoreanu 1 , liviu daniel ghiculescu 2 1 phd student, faculty of industrial and robotics engineering, university politehnica of bucharest romania, monascarisoreanu@yahoo.com 2 professor phd, faculty of industrial and robotics engineering, university politehnica of bucharest romania, daniel.ghiculescu@upb.ro abstract: the paper studies the current situation of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania, using the analysis of its external and internal environment. the goal is to find out what are the pluses and minuses of this sector and what strategies must be adopted so that the targets set by the european green deal can be reached. this eu strategy emphasizes that, in order to reduce pollution, emphasis must be placed on multimodal transport, with an emphasis on rail transport. thus, the general external environment is defined by the following factors: demographic, economic, technological, ecological, etc. while the labor force crisis in the road transport of goods deepens, and the average age of the staff in the railway sector is getting higher, the policy of the eu and, implicitly, of the eu member states stimulates multimodal transport, in order to reduce co2 emissions. the porter model shows that, despite the forces acting in a negative direction, the multimodal freight transport market is attractive. at the same time, from the strategic group belong both multinational corporations and enterprises with domestic capital, which underlines the attractiveness of the market. thus, it is necessary to apply the strategy that involves a reduction of costs, but not by decreasing the quality of the services offered. on the other hand, the swot analysis indicates that multimodal freight transport in romania is in the ideal/maximum situation. therefore, it is necessary to apply an aggressive strategy. thus a net competitive advantage will be ensured. the strategy consists in stimulating rail freight transport, which will contribute to reducing pollution. keywords: multimodal freight transport; rail freight transport; external analysis; internal analysis; eu green strategy; environmentally friendly transport. how to cite: scarişoreanu, d.i., & ghiculescu, l.d. (2023). study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the external and internal environment. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 14(4), 571-595. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/436 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/436 mailto:monascarisoreanu@yahoo.com mailto:daniel.ghiculescu@upb.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/436 study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 572 1. introduction the transport sector, as a whole, represents more than 5% of the eu's gva, with more than 10.5 million employees involved, which means more than 5.4% of the total eu workforce, as stated in statistical pocketbook 2021, eu transport in figures (european commission, 2021b). at the same time, according to sustainable and smart mobility strategy – putting european transport on track for the future (european commission, 2020) ―uninterrupted land, waterborne and air cargo services are of crucial importance for the transport of goods and inputs to manufacturing industries, the functioning of the eu's single market, and the eu’s effective response to the current and future crises. efforts to ensure multimodality and interoperability between different modes should be stepped up, and the completion of the single european transport area must be accelerated‖. also, in the treaty on the functioning of the european union it is stipulated that: ―the internal market shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of the treaties‖. all other economic sectors, including the competitiveness of european enterprises, in a post-industrial society, depend on how transport services work. however, the transport sector in the eu is responsible for a good part of the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions. road transport is estimated to be responsible for 72% of total co2 emissions from transport activities. as stated by action plan for the implementation of intelligent transport systems in europe ―road traffic congestion is estimated to affect 10 % of the road network, and yearly costs amount to 0.9-1.5 % of the eu gdp‖. rail transport is considered to be the least polluting mode of transport. thus, while road transport generates about 72% of the total co2 emissions, naval transport is responsible for 14% of the total emissions generated by the transport sector, civil aviation for 13.4%, and rail transport for only 0.4% (see figure 1). at the european level, efforts are being made to replace road transport with rail, with an emphasis on multimodal transport, which would lead to the reduction of co2 emissions. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 573 figure 1. the level of co2 emissions, depending on the mode of transport, in the eu 27, in 2019 source: statistical pocketbook 2021, european commission (ec) (2021b) the eu strategy envisages that the ―rail freight traffic will increase by 50% by 2030 and double by 2050, compared to 2015‖. the goal is ―to have zero emissions and zero road deaths‖. for example, in the eu, goods are mainly transported on the road system. the modal share of road transport of goods in the eu is 52%, and in romania 68%. the rail transport of goods in the eu has a share of 12% in total modes of transport, it is gradually losing to the road transport of goods (see table 1). table 1.modal share of road and railway freight transport in eu year road transport (%) railway transport (%) 1995 47 15,6 2000 48,8 14,1 2005 51,3 12,8 2010 51,3 12,4 2011 50,6 13,2 2012 50 13 2013 50,4 12,8 2014 50,2 12,8 civil aviation 13,4 % road 71,6 % railway 0,4 % naval 14% others 1% study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 574 2015 50,8 12,9 2016 50,9 12,7 2017 52 12,4 2018 51,1 12,5 2019 52 12 source: statistical pocketbook 2021, ec (2021b) the purpose of developing methods for analyzing the external and internal environment of multimodal freight transport in romania is to identify the forces acting on multimodal freight transport, its weaknesses and strengths, as well as solutions to stimulate rail freight transport, in accordance with the provisions european green deal. the external environment was analyzed, using the model of the five forces the porter method and strategic groups were researched. thus, the external environment of multimodal freight transport in romania was analyzed. subsequently, the internal environment was researched, taking into account elements of the analysis of the internal environment and the design of the swot analysis of multimodal freight transport. the strategic management process involves, among other things, the analysis of the external and internal environment of the sector, in the case of multimodal freight transport (ghiculescu & vulturescu, 2015). and there is a connection between strategic management and knowledge economy. information and know-how are more important than capital and physical assets for a company to be competitive, in the current economic conditions. thus, the skills and knowledge of the company's management and its employees, which are considered intellectual capital, ensure the possibility that an organization can compete on the market. in today's business environment, knowledge is evolving rapidly and the useful life of organizational skills is shrinking, meaning that an organization's survival and competitiveness is linked to its ability to learn and incorporate findings into its strategic management process (nedelea & păun, 2009). in the condition of the fourth industrial revolution, when the knowledge economy and advanced technology are important to compete on a globalized market, countries seek to capitalize on their human resources as best as possible. therefore, not only the economic effects produced by the fourth industrial revolution, but also the impact on social, cultural, political and security systems should be taken into account. (united nations development programme regional bureau for arab states & mohammed bin rashid al maktoum knowledge foundation, 2021). broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 575 thus, the main pillars of the knowledge economy are: education & training, information infrastructure, economic incentive&institutional regime and innovation systems (world bank, n.d.). investments in education, stimulating innovation capacity, renewing the informational infrastructure and creating a favorable economic environment are necessary conditions for the transition to the knowledge economy. the emphasis is on the skills and knowledge of the human resource and less on the material resources of the organizations. the knowledge economy represents the engine of sustainable economic growth (mohamed et al., 2022). according to the global knowledge index 2021 ―romania is a strong performer in terms of its knowledge infrastructure‖. it ranks 50th out of 154 countries in the global knowledge index 2021 and 47th out of the 61 countries with very high human development (united nations development programme regional bureau for arab states & mohammed bin rashid al maktoum knowledge foundation, 2021). however, in order to increase its performance, with a view to sustainable economic development, romania must fit into the european trend of encouraging multimodal transport, with an emphasis on rail transport. currently, romania does not have a strategy for the development of multimodal transport. this paper is a starting point for the detailed elaboration of such a strategy, which starts from the analysis of the external and internal environment of the multimodal transport of goods in romania. it should be emphasized that the railway system in romania is integrated into the single european railway space. at the same time, eu legislation in the field is transposed into national legislation. thus, the railway network in romania must be considered as part of the european railway system. for example, two of the european freight corridors cross romania. it is about the "orient/east-mediterranean" railway freight corridor, which starts from the german ports on the north sea and reaches greece, romania being crossed on the curtici-brasov-bucharest-constanta route. the other corridor is "rhine-danube", which crosses france-germanyczech republic-slovakia-austria-hungary and romania. in other words, the development of the european railway network depends on the development of the railway systems in the eu member states. study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 576 2. analysis of the external environment of multimodal freight transport transport is a strategic sector for the economy, whether it is the movement of goods or people. the global economy has progressed through transportation. the demand for the optimized transport of goods, fast and cheap, which generates low co2 emissions, is increasing more and more, due to the doubling of the volume of transported goods, as well as of the distances covered in the last ten years (matei et al., 2021). therefore, an indepth analysis of freight transport, especially multimodal freight transport, is needed. the analysis of the external environment involves both the research of the general external environment and that of the competitive external environment, as well as of the strategic groups (ghiculescu & vulturescu, 2015). 2.1. analysis of the general external environment the general external environment is defined by:• • demographic factors: aged railway workforce and reduced training capacity as mentioned by the romanian national railway supervisory council on railway monitor 2019/2020 (romanian national railway supervisory council, 2021a); the crisis of professional drivers (podaru, 2021); • economic factors: the sustained pace of economic development, prior to the health crisis; • management and politico-legal factors: eu policy to encourage multimodal transport; 2021 action program for the development of railway infrastructure and the modal transfer to railways of passenger and freight transport flows (romanian government, 2021). thus, rail freight operators could receive compensation under a public service provided by them, following the model of rail passenger transport; eu funding through the transport operational program 20212027, according to transport operational program (ministry of european funds, 2020) and the connecting europe facility (european commission, 2021a); the state finances modes of transport differently, creating a competitive advantage for road transport over rail transport (the noninternalisation of external costs generated by road transport allows road broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 577 transport operators to offer much better prices for the services provided, as a large part of the costs actual operation of road transport services is distributed to other actors in the national economy through the system of taxes and duties). in romania, land transport generates in the national economy total external costs of 21.66 billion euros per year, which represents 6.5% of gdp. among them: rail transport generates external costs of 0.46 billion euros per year, and road transport generates external costs of 21.2 billion euros per year, according to romanian railway infrastructure development strategy 2021-2025 (ministry of transport and infrastructure, 2020); on the other hand, the companies, which call on carriers, can request them to meet certain environmental conditions related to co2 emissions, the source of energy production used for the transport of goods, etc. (cichosz et al., 2019). in this regard, the state could provide tax incentives to encourage companies to take such steps. for example, many provinces in china currently offer subsidies for rail containers, amid growing demand for containerized goods. at the same time, this is an attempt to ensure the modal transfer from road to rail in order to reduce co2 emissions (yang et al., 2020). however, while most freight organizations in emerging economies face difficulties in adopting environmentally responsible transport practices in their business processes (kumar, 2021), those in developed economies are under institutional pressure to adopt such practices (evangelista et al., 2017); • socio-cultural factors: skilled labor force; • technological factors: improving transhipment technologies; integrated freight it systems to ensure live tracking and monitoring of the condition and position of goods, providing information and data in the supply chain (implementation of taf tsi telematics applications for rail freight and gps system for monitoring freight road transport); ―taf tsi telematics applications include: information systems (realtime monitoring of goods and trains), sorting and allocation systems, reservation, payment and invoicing systems, management of connections with other modes of transport, development of electronic accompanying documents and so on‖, pursuant to eu regulation no 1305/2014 (european commission, 2014); introduction of the european train control system (ertms) on certain parts of the pan-european corridor iv, which crosses romania, on study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 578 the route: nădlac arad timişoara lugoj deva orăştie sebeş sibiu piteşti bucharest drajna cernavoda – constanţa, in accordance with action program for the development of railway infrastructure and the modal transfer to railways of passenger transport flows and cargo 20212026; ertms aims to guarantee a common standard that allows trains to run continuously between different countries and to stimulate the growth of the competitiveness of the railway sector. railway signaling is used to control rail traffic and to ensure that collisions or derailments are avoided, while at the same time increasing the speed of trains, as stated in the study on railway transport infrastructure; • ecological factors: romania has a geo-strategic position, which integrates it into international trade, having access to the black sea; capitalizing on the potential of the danube river to attract freight traffic in containers from/to romania; • globalization factors: on the multimodal freight transport market in romania, it operates, together with companies with local capital, such as rofersped sa or rocombi sa, and multinational companies, such as db schenker logistics romania (member of deutsche bahn, germany), rail cargo logistics rail cargo group, member of obb austria), dhl logistics srl etc. 2.2. analysis of the external competitive environment the external competitive environment is more restricted than the general external environment. the five forces model was developed by michael porter. they act in the competitive external environment (see figure 2) (ghiculescu & vulturescu, 2015): rivalry between competitors; the risk of new competitors entering the market; bargaining power of customers; bargaining power of suppliers; the threat of substitution products. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 579 figure 2. existing elements in the case of the freight market (model of the five forces porter) source: authors’ own conception the analysis of the external competitive environment involves the examination of the following factors: f1. barriers to entry: • economies of scale: transport of a larger quantity of goods loaded in the same train (several wagons), truck (truck with trailer /mega-trailer) or study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 580 ship; it involves a large volume of goods transported to cover costs (it becomes profitable only after exceeding a profitability threshold) (ghiculescu & vulturescu, 2015). • benefits of the experience: the experience gained can lead to a competitive advantage. activity requires experience, which is why it is a barrier to entry into this market. • access to know-how: franchise/partnerships with large logistics companies or multinational companies (examples: multinational companies, such as db schenker logistics, gefco romania or partnership with dhl freight, one of the largest logistics providers in the world). • brand loyalty: contracts with the multimodal transport service provider are usually extended in the long term (example: gefco, global multimodal supply chain expert and leading automotive logistics provider in europe, has signed an agreement with the renault group and dacia for expanding logistics cooperation in romania, started in 2005). • costs at market entry: costs of acquisition / rental / leasing of rolling stock, trucks, ships, planes; cost of transport licenses etc. • distribution access: n/a. • reorientation costs: n/a (transport companies are usually specialized in certain types of freight transport, because the goods are transported with certain types of wagons/trucks, such as: petrol tank wagons, diesel, fuel oil, crude oil, specialized wagons for coal transport, fuel tank trucks, etc.). switching to other modes of transport would require additional costs. • government policies: the eu stimulates multimodal freight transport through funds allocated to the creation of green freight transport, a policy found in the national recovery and resilience plan (pnrr). in romania, in previous years there was the ro-la program, which was carried out by the environment fund administration. through this program, the railway undertakings obtained financing in the amount of 60% of the vat-free amount of the invoice issued by the railway undertaking to the road transport company for the activities financed under the program. also, action program for the development of railway infrastructure and the modal shift to rail of the passenger and freight transport flows mentions the ec's recommendation to establish public service obligations for rail transport for rail freight as well and compensation from public funds of the difference in costs and revenues. basically, it is about the implementation in the rail freight transport of some instruments similar to those provided in regulation (ec) no. 1370/2007. provided that such instruments are designed to ensure the modal shift to the railways of current transport flows broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 581 by other modes of transport (for example by promoting combined transport or transport in isolated wagons), compatibility with the provisions of the treaty on the functioning of the european union (tfeu) is ensured of the respective state aid schemes. at the same time, at the international level, the creation of an international multimodal transport corridor, the improvement of management, as well as the elimination of institutional obstacles to the evolution of multimodal transport are being discussed. it is also desirable to encourage the use of information technology in businesses related to international multimodal transport (zang, 2011). the use of information technology (ict) can also have an important role in mitigating the damaging environmental effects of freight transport. thus, from an empirical point of view, a 10% increase in the use of new technologies in freight transport can cause a 1.3-3% decrease in its impact on the environment. the new technologies could be used for the management and planning of the transport of goods (chatti, 2021). • access to reduced production costs: n / a (salaries in the field do not differ depending on the region / county of the country). f2. rivalry of competitors • slow increase or decrease in demand: freight transport registered slow growth in 2018-2019, later being affected by the pandemic. • high fixed costs: transport operators have high fixed costs (salaries, taxes, rents, authorization fees and licenses, etc.) • unpredictable competitors: the freight market is a liberalized, competitive, stabilized one, with market entry costs so that the competitors know each other. • low forwarding costs: switching the transport provider does not, in principle, involve high forwarding costs if it is the same mode of transport. if the mode of transport is changed, the redirection may have lower costs (switching from air to river or sea transport) or higher costs (switching from river to air transport). • mass products: companies specialize in certain types of transportation requires certain types of rolling stock / trucks. in other words, although there are many transport companies on the market, in reality, for the transport by categories of goods, their number is reduced depending on the type of goods transported because it is expensive to buy / rent a certain type of rolling stock / trucks. there are exceptions: multinational companies. study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 582 • cyclical sales: the quantity of goods transported depends on the evolution of industrial / agricultural production in that year. a special situation is the pandemic. • importance of the market: transport is a key sector of the economy and very important for it, as it comprises a complex network of private and public companies that provide goods and services to citizens and businesses in the eu and its trading partners. f3. bargaining power of suppliers • importance of the product for the customer: transport companies are usually large companies with high bargaining power; the exception is for infrastructure providers (the state), but, for example, in the case of rail transport, the railway infrastructure manager provides certain facilities for complete trains in intermodal traffic (33% of the infrastructure access charge). • high forwarding costs for the customer: in all cases, except for the infrastructure provider, competition between providers is high, resulting in low forwarding costs for the customer. • low number of alternative providers: there are a significant number of alternative providers on the market, except for infrastructure providers. • non-important customer for the supplier: transport companies are usually large companies, which means that they are important for suppliers. • risk of downstream integration of the supplier: for example, the fuel supplier may have its own fleet of trucks for transporting fuel. f4. customer bargaining power • few customers and large quantities: on the transport market there are many customers and many transport operators, but they are specialize in transport by category of goods. • low brand loyalty: contracts with the multimodal transport service provider are usually extended in the long term (example: gefco, a global multimodal supply chain expert and leading automotive logistics provider in europe, has signed an agreement with the group renault and dacia for the extension of logistics cooperation in romania, started in 2005). • many small suppliers: although there are many transport operators on the freight market, they specialize in transporting certain categories of goods, for which they have a certain type of rolling stock / trucks. the main transport operators, in terms of revenues from rail freight transport, are: grup feroviar român, cfr marfă, deutsche bahn cargo and unicom broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 583 tranzit, according to the study on rail freight transport (romanian national railway supervisory council, 2021b), namely there are few large suppliers. • unimportant product for the customer: the transport of raw materials and finished products are essential for the customer. • a lot of information about competitors: there is information on the market about freight operators, companies that compete with each other. sources of information are very numerous in the information age the economy based on knowledge / knowledge; • upstream customer integration risk: n / a. f5. threat of substitutes • many ways to satisfy customers: the same goods (depending on the type of goods) can be transported by train, truck, ship or plane. • low costs when switching to a substitute: switching to a substitute involves low or high costs, depending on the mode of transport chosen: road, rail, sea or air. • low substitute price: depends on the mode of transport chosen. for example, the cost of transporting goods by water is much lower than by air. 2.2.1. evaluation of the five forces grades are given for each of the five forces in porter's model on a scale of 1 to 5. the high values obtained correspond to the strong forces on the market, which indicates unfavorable conditions of the business environment. nfi grades given to a fi force can be evaluated using the formula: ncp represents the number of components established as being present within the force fi; nct the total number of components within the force fi (ghiculescu & vulturescu, 2015) analyzing the five forces acting in the case of the freight market, the following result is obtained: 1. barriers to entry study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 584 2. rivalry of competitors 3. bargaining power of suppliers 4. customer bargaining power 5. threat of substitutes total: summarizing the grades given for each force, a total of 11.4 is obtained, this value indicating the attractiveness of the market. 2.3. strategic groups according to michael porter, "the strategic group consists of all competing companies in a market whose behavior is similar." regarding the multimodal freight transport, the strategic group includes both multinational companies, such as db schenker logistics romania, gefco romania, gebruder weiss srl, etc., but also companies with romanian capital, such as rofersped sa or rocombi. thus, the cost leader strategy is used. this means reducing costs for research and development by using technological solutions in order to reduce costs, but without improving the performance of the product (ghiculescu & vulturescu, 2015). 3. analysis of the internal environment of multimodal freight transport the analysis of the internal environment aims to study the following elements: resources, capabilities and fundamental competencies. 3.1. elements of the analysis of the internal environment a) resources tangible resources: financial resources: investments in public railway infrastructure in the port of constanţa and in the adjacent area of the port (which ensures the connection of the port of constanţa with the hinterland), which is to enter broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 585 into an extensive program of systematization, reconfiguration and modernization works; lack of funds to invest in freight terminals; underfunding of railway maintenance and repair works; material resources: the existence of a network of intermodal freight terminals, which is under conservation, which can be reopened with small investments; extended railway and road network; the existence of port infrastructure, which can be upgraded with relatively low investment; the existence of an airport infrastructure that ensures the connection between the main areas of the country; human resources: an aging workforce in the railway system and reduced training capacity; skilled labor force; the crisis of professional drivers. intangible resources: technological resources franchise / partnerships concluded with large logistics companies or multinational companies; innovation resources: integrated it systems for goods to ensure live tracking and monitoring of the status and position of goods, providing information and data in the supply chain (implementation of technical specification for interoperability relating to telematics applications for freight / passenger services) telematics applications for rail freight transport and gps system for monitoring road freight transport); according to regulation (eu) 1305/2014 ―taf tsi include: information systems (realtime monitoring of goods and trains), sorting and allocation systems, reservation, payment and billing systems, management of links with other modes of transport, preparation of electronic accompanying documents, etc 1 .‖; also, creative solutions, creativity for technical and managerial innovation, know-how (highly personalized ability to find solutions for various work tasks) on the relational system with suppliers and customers, etc. b) capabilities multimodal freight transport is the sector that channels efforts at european level in terms of innovation and identification of the most practical solutions to ensure transferal modal from road to rail. the innovations used for the transport of goods determine a decrease in costs (ferrari, 2018). 1 according to point 2.1 of the annex to regulation (eu) 1305/2014 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the "telematics applications for freight applications" subsystem of the european union rail system and repealing regulation (ec) no 62/2006 study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 586 c) basic skills pursuant to smart mobility strategy ―multimodality takes advantage of the strengths of the different modes, such as convenience, speed, cost, reliability, predictability, and in combination, can offer more efficient transport solutions for people and goods‖; reduces carbon emissions; decongests road traffic; decreases the number of road accidents; ensures connection with remote / isolated areas. 3.2. swot analysis of multimodal freight transport to get the most realistic results, it is necessary to combine the two types of analysis of the external and internal environment, as shown in table 2: analysis of the external environment provides opportunities and threats; the analysis of the internal environment indicates strengths and weaknesses represented by the fundamental resources, capabilities and competencies. table 2. swot analysis elements for multimodal freight transport in romania strong points weaknesses • reduces carbon emissions; • skilled labor force; • decongests road traffic; • decreases the number of road accidents; • „takes advantage of the strengths of the different modes, such as convenience, speed, cost, reliability, predictability, and in combination, can offer more efficient transport solutions for people and goods‖, according to point 28 of the smart mobility strategy – putting european transport on track for the future; • ensures connection with remote / isolated areas; • extended rail (romanian national railway supervisory council, 2019), and road network (romanian national • costs in addition to unimodal transport, generated by the extra work required to organize multimodal transport, longer transit time, which leads to an additional cost and the lack of a harmonized documented procedure, which leads to losses (european economic and social committee, 2021); currently, intermodal freight transfer costs are difficult to reduce due to container handling and storage costs. this is because the process of automating the handling of containers is slow, and the direct transfer to/from the truck/train needs synchronization (bharadwaj, 2019); • less reliable (punctual) than unimodal transport (european broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 587 institute of statistics, 2021); • existence of a conserved network of intermodal freight terminals, according to study on rail freight transport, which can be reopened with small investments; • existence of a port infrastructure, which can be modernized with relatively low investment; • investments in public railway infrastructure in the port of constanţa and in the adjacent area of the port (which ensures the connection of the port of constanţa with the hinterland), which is to enter into an extensive program of systematization, reconfiguration and modernization works; • integrated it systems for goods to ensure live tracking and monitoring of the status and position of goods (implementation of technical specification for interoperability relating to telematics applications for freight / passenger services) telematics applications for rail freight transport and gps system for monitoring road freight transport); „taf tsis include: information systems (realtime monitoring of goods and trains), sorting and allocation systems, reservation, payment and billing systems, management of links with other modes of transport, preparation of electronic accompanying documents, etc.‖, according to regulation (eu) 1305/2014; • the existence of an airport infrastructure that ensures the connection between the main areas of the country. economic and social committee, 2021); • slower than unimodal transport (european economic and social committee, 2021); however, there are also situations in which multimodal transport can be faster than unimodal transport, an example of this being presented by wang et al. (wang et al., 2020). the authors point out that by using the china-europe rail network for freight transport, transport time is reduced by more than 60%, while reducing carbon emissions by 40%, compared to traditional, unimodal, water transport. • the low speed of freight trains imposed by the state of the railway infrastructure, which does not require state-of-the-art rolling stock (average commercial speed around 16 km / h) (romanian national railway supervisory council, 2019); • underfunding of railway maintenance and repair works (romanian national railway company "cfr" – sa 2020, 2021); • lack of funds needed to invest in freight terminals; • limited infrastructure capacity for rail freight transport; • there are a relatively small number of freight terminals; • few ferry ships are used 2; • railway rolling stock older than 30 years (over 60% of total rolling stock) (romanian national railway 2 cfr marfă owns two ferry-type ships, specialized mainly in the transport of freight wagons, containers and cars which, at the moment, are in conservation and which provided the transport of goods to turkey and georgia. study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 588 supervisory council, 2019). opportunities threats • eu policy to encourage multimodal transport; • romania has a geo-strategic position, which integrates it into international trade, having access to the black sea; • action program for the development of railway infrastructure and the modal shift to rail of the passenger and freight transport flows mentions the ec's recommendation to establish public service obligations for rail transport for rail freight as well and compensation from public funds of the difference in costs and revenues. basically, it is about the implementation in the rail freight transport of some instruments similar to those provided in regulation (ec) no. 1370/2007. provided that such instruments are designed to ensure the modal shift to the railways of current transport flows by other modes of transport (for example by promoting combined transport or transport in isolated wagons), compatibility with the provisions of the tfeu is ensured. of the respective state aid schemes; • introduction of the ertms system on certain parts of the pan-european corridor iv, which crosses romania; • eu funding through the transport operational program 2021-2027 and the connecting europe facility; • take advantage of the potential of the danube river to attract containerized goods traffic to / from romania; • take advantage of the potential of the port of constanta, a port located on the • extending the eu emissions trading scheme (eu ets) to the maritime transport sector, which may lead to the rise of the maritime transport costs; • aged railway workforce and reduced training capacity; • the crisis of professional drivers; • with regard to the aviation sector, the ec will make a revision proposal of the eu ets directive, in particular to reduce ets certificates allocated free of charge to airlines, which may lead to the rise of air transport costs; • poor quality of transport infrastructure compared to other member states and neighboring countries, which could lead to the rerouting of freight through those states; • the state finances modes of transport differently, creating a competitive advantage for road transport over rail transport (the noninternalization of external costs generated by road transport allows road transport operators to offer much lower prices for the services provided, because a large part of the real costs operation of road transport services is distributed to other actors in the national economy through the system of taxes and duties); • lack of an updated national strategy for multimodal transport. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 589 ten-t network, to become a hub (center) for the south-east of europe; • encouraging the industrial sector to locate production centers in the vicinity of intermodal terminals; • resumption of the ro-la program, which was carried out by the environment fund administration, through which the railway transport undertakings obtained a financing in the amount of 60% of the vat-free value of the invoice issued by the railway undertaking to the road transport company for the activities financed in within the program; • implementation by december 2024 of the timetable redesign (ttr) project, which determines the increase of infrastructure capacity on the rail freight transport corridors; • improving transhipment technologies. source: authors’ own conception using the swot analysis, the swot matrix is designed (see figure 3.). multimodal freight transport external environment strong points (s) 12 weaknesses (w) 10 threats (t) 7 speculative situation unfavorable situation / danger opportunities (o) 11 ideal / maximum situation contrasting situation / dilemma figure 3. swot matrix for multimodal freight transport in romania source: authors’ own conception based on the information presented in the matrix, it results that the multimodal transport in romania is in the ideal/maximum situation, the study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 590 strong points being more than the weak points. also, the external environment offers more opportunities than threats (see figure 4.) figure 4. graphical representation of the swot matrix for transport multimodal freight in romania source: authors’ own conception in the analyzed case, an aggressive strategy should be applied, which would provide a net competitive advantage. the strategy is linked to the stimulation of rail freight transport to reduce pollution. the transport sector influences economic growth and the evolution of business and rail transport logistics chains. companies such as dacia, ford and the romanian subsidiary daimler, star assembly, have urged decision makers to invest in railway modernization. thus, in order to increase the railway traffic speed, it is required, on the one hand, a proper financial allocation from the state budget and the efficient use of european funds, in order to carry out repair, maintenance and modernization works to lift the speed restrictions on certain sections of the railway network, and, on the other hand, the extension of the introduction of the ertms system on the pan-european corridor iv, which crosses romania. it is also necessary to expand the electrified railway network which will lead to the reduction of pollution, as well as the introduction of a modern railway traffic management system, such that to increase the degree of automation. at the same time, the rapid implementation of the european project called ttr is useful. its aim is to increase the capacity of rail freight infrastructure at eu level. the deadline is december 2024. pilot projects are currently underway on several freight corridors. ttr is a project carried out in collaboration with the association of european railway infrastructure broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 591 managers railnet europe and european association of railway operators forum train europe, with the support of the ec and the ministries of transport and regulatory european countries. the development of the network of intermodal cargo terminals is also required. 4. conclusions ● the use of multimodal transport helps to reduce carbon emissions and road accidents; ● multimodal transport has additional costs compared to unimodal transport, generated by the additional work required to organize multimodal transport, longer transit time, etc., it is less reliable (punctual) and slower than unimodal transport. however, multimodal transport provides connection to remote or isolated areas; ● technological progress has led to the improvement of freight forwarding technologies, the use of telematics applications for rail freight transport, real-time monitoring of transported goods and trains, ensuring links between modes of transport, etc., but also the introduction of european train control system to avoid collisions or derailments; ● one of the key results from the research is that in romania, multimodal transport is in the ideal/maximum situation, with strengths being more than weaknesses, and the external environment offering more opportunities than threats. therefore, it is necessary to apply an aggressive strategy. thus a net competitive advantage will be ensured. the strategy consists in stimulating rail freight transport, which will contribute to reducing pollution, thus achieving the objectives set by the eu through the green deal. in this situation, it is appropriate to ensure the appropriate financial allocation so that the provisions of the railway infrastructure development strategy 2021-2025 are fully implemented; ● another key result from the research is that in romania, rail freight transport is in the ideal/maximum situation, where the weak points are fewer than the strong points, the external environment offering fewer threats and more opportunities. thus, it is recommended to adopt an aggressive strategy to create a net competitive advantage: a proper financial allocation from the state budget and the efficient use of european funds, in order to carry out repair, maintenance and modernization of the railway infrastructure; expanding the introduction of european train control system on the rail network; introducing a modern rail traffic management system; study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 592 increasing the electrification of the rail network; implementing the timetable redesign project as soon as possible; expanding the network of intermodal freight terminals, promoting measures to internalize external costs generated by road transport so that this mode of transport is not advantageous over rail transport; ● another key result is that the use of all modes of transport requires skilled labor, and there is currently a labor crisis in the freight transport market, whether it is the reduced training capacity and the aging workforce in the rail system or the driver crisis. thus, it is necessary to stimulate young graduates to go to these jobs, the state granting, on the one hand, scholarships for these young people, and on the other hand, fiscal incentives for companies in the field, which employ these young graduates. one of the future research directions aims to present a case study. the external and internal environment of a company that offers a wide range of multimodal solutions, from conventional rail transport to intermodal transport, will be analyzed. quantitative and qualitative forecasting methods will also be used for rail freight transport, like: relevance tree method, scenarios method and content analysis method. thus, it will be possible to establish the strategy to be applied in order to achieve the proposed targets. references bharadwaj, d. (2020). integrated freight terminal and automated freight management system: a theoretical approach. transportation research procedia, 48, 260-279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2020.08.021 chatti, w. (2021). moving towards environmental sustainability: information and communication technology (ict), freight transport, and co2 emissions. heliyon, 7, article e08190, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08190. cichosz, m., pluta-zaremba, a. (2019). how to improve freight transport emissions' management?. logforum, 15(1), 93-105. http://dx.doi.org/10.17270/j.log.2019.312 european commission. (2021a). connecting europe facility. https://ec.europa.eu/inea/connecting-europe-facility/cef-transport european commission. (2021b). statistical pocketbook 2021, eu transport in figures. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2832/27610 european commission. (2020). communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions, sustainable and smart mobility strategy – putting european transport on track for the future, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2020.08.021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08190 http://dx.doi.org/10.17270/j.log.2019.312 https://ec.europa.eu/inea/connecting-europe-facility/cef-transport broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 593 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:5e601657-3b06-11ebb27b-01aa75ed71a1.0023.02/doc_1&format=pdf european commission. (2014). point 2.1 of the annex to the eu regulation no 1305/2014 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the telematics applications for freight subsystem of the rail system in the european union and repealing the regulation (ec) no 62/2006 european economic and social committee. (2021, september 16). opinion of the european economic and social committee on „intermodal transport and multimodal logistics — making modes complementary in greening transport‖. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:52021ie2457&from=ro ferrari, p. (2018). some necessary conditions for the success of innovations in rail freight transport. transportation research part a: policy and practice, 118, 747758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2018.10.020 ghiculescu, l., & vulturescu, v. (2015). management strategic pentru organizații inovative [strategic management for innovative organizations]. printech. matei, o., erdei, r., & pintea, c.-m. (2021). selective survey: most efficient models and solvers for integrative multimodal transport. informatica, 32(2), 371–396. https://doi.org/10.15388/21-infor449 ministry of european funds. (2020). synthesis of the transport operational program 2021-2027. https://mfe.gov.ro/wpcontent/uploads/2020/07/7809a76648585e195992ef0239798351.pdf ministry of transport and infrastructure. (2020). strategia de dezvoltare a infrastructurii feroviare 2021-2025 aprobată prin hotărârea de guvern nr. 985/2020 [railway infrastructure development strategy 2021-2025 approved by government decision no. 985/2020], http://cfr.ro/files/strategie/sdezif/2020/strategie%20infra%20v4.2.pdf mohamed, m.m.a., liu, p., & nie, g. (2022). do knowledge economy indicators affect economic growth? evidence from developing countries. sustainability, 14, 4774. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084774 nedelea, s. & păun, l. (2009). the importance of the strategic management process in the knowledge-based economy. revista de management comparat international [review of international comparative management], 10(1), 95-105. https://ideas.repec.org/a/rom/rmcimn/v10y2009i1p95-105.html podaru, m. (2021, october 26). criză de şoferi profesionişti şi în românia: firmele de transport au nevoie de 40 – 45.000 de conducători auto licenţiaţi/patronat: ne uităm la variantele şoferilor din filipine, nepal sau india, dar sunt bariere de limbă şi de legislaţie [crisis of professional drivers in romania as well: transport companies need 40 45,000 licensed drivers/employers: we look at the variants of drivers in the philippines, nepal or india, but there are language and legal barriers]. economedia.ro. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:5e601657-3b06-11eb-b27b-01aa75ed71a1.0023.02/doc_1&format=pdf https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:5e601657-3b06-11eb-b27b-01aa75ed71a1.0023.02/doc_1&format=pdf https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:52021ie2457&from=ro https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:52021ie2457&from=ro http://cfr.ro/files/strategie/sdezif/2020/strategie%20infra%20v4.2.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084774 https://ideas.repec.org/a/rom/rmcimn/v10y2009i1p95-105.html study of the multimodal freight transport sector in romania: analysis of the … desdemona isabela scarişoreanu & liviu daniel ghiculescu 594 https://economedia.ro/criza-de-soferi-profesionisti-si-in-romania-firmelede-transport-au-nevoie-de-40-45-000-de-conducatori-auto-licentiatipatronat-ne-uitam-la-variantele-soferilor-din-filipine-nepal-sau.html#.yqle3zbyuk romanian government. (2021). anexa la hotărârea 1302/2021 privind aprobarea programului de acţiune pentru dezvoltarea infrastructurii feroviare şi transferul modal către calea ferată al fluxurilor de transport de călători şi marfă program de acţiune pentru dezvoltarea infrastructurii feroviare şi transferul modal către calea ferată al fluxurilor de transport de călători şi marfă [annex to decision 1302/2021 on the approval of the action program for the development of railway infrastructure and the modal transfer to railways of passenger and freight transport flows action program for the development of railway infrastructure and the modal transfer to railways of passenger transport flows and cargo 2021-2026] evangelista, p., colicchia, c., & creazza, a. (2017). is environmental sustainability a strategic priority for logistics service providers?. journal of environmental management, 198(part 1), 353-362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.04.096 kumar, a. (2021). transition management theory-based policy framework for analyzing environmentally responsible freight transport practices. journal of cleaner production, 294, article 126209, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126209 romanian national institute of statistics (2021). lungimea căilor de transport la sfârşitul anului 2020 [length of transport routes at the end of 2020] [press release]. https://insse.ro/cms/sites/default/files/com_presa/com_pdf/lung_cailor _transp20r.pdf romanian national railway company "cfr" – sa. (2021). raport de activitate al companiei naționale cfr sa [the activity report of the national railway company "cfr" – sa.]. http://www.cfr.ro/files/rap_act/raport%20activitate%20cfr%202020% 20final.pdf romanian national railway supervisory council. (2019). studiul privind infrastructura de transport feroviar [study on railway transport infrastructure]. http://www.consiliulferoviar.ro/wpcontent/uploads/2020/02/studiu_infrastructura_2019.pdf romanian national railway supervisory council. (2021a). monitorul feroviar 2019/2020 [railway monitor 2019/2020], http://www.consiliulferoviar.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/monitorferoviar-_site.pdf romanian national railway supervisory council. (2021b). studiul privind transportul feroviar de marfă [study on rail freight transport], https://economedia.ro/criza-de-soferi-profesionisti-si-in-romania-firmele-de-transport-au-nevoie-de-40-45-000-de-conducatori-auto-licentiati-patronat-ne-uitam-la-variantele-soferilor-din-filipine-nepal-sau.html#.yql-e3zbyuk https://economedia.ro/criza-de-soferi-profesionisti-si-in-romania-firmele-de-transport-au-nevoie-de-40-45-000-de-conducatori-auto-licentiati-patronat-ne-uitam-la-variantele-soferilor-din-filipine-nepal-sau.html#.yql-e3zbyuk https://economedia.ro/criza-de-soferi-profesionisti-si-in-romania-firmele-de-transport-au-nevoie-de-40-45-000-de-conducatori-auto-licentiati-patronat-ne-uitam-la-variantele-soferilor-din-filipine-nepal-sau.html#.yql-e3zbyuk https://economedia.ro/criza-de-soferi-profesionisti-si-in-romania-firmele-de-transport-au-nevoie-de-40-45-000-de-conducatori-auto-licentiati-patronat-ne-uitam-la-variantele-soferilor-din-filipine-nepal-sau.html#.yql-e3zbyuk https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.04.096 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126209 https://insse.ro/cms/sites/default/files/com_presa/com_pdf/lung_cailor_transp20r.pdf https://insse.ro/cms/sites/default/files/com_presa/com_pdf/lung_cailor_transp20r.pdf http://www.consiliulferoviar.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/monitor-feroviar-_site.pdf http://www.consiliulferoviar.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/monitor-feroviar-_site.pdf broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience march 2023 volume 14, issue 1 595 http://www.consiliulferoviar.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/studiumarfa-_varianta-publicare-site-29.07.2021.pdf united nations development programme regional bureau for arab states & mohammed bin rashid al maktoum knowledge foundation. (2021). global knowledge index. https://www.undp.org/publications/globalknowledge-index2021?utm_source=en&utm_medium=gsr&utm_content=us_undp_ paidsearch_brand_english&utm_campaign=central&c_src=centr al&c_src2=gsr&gclid=cj0kcqjw1bqzbhdxarisantjcpi8ugvgj_v frngb5tvfn0nluxttkskbdcontistkiibdbprnpf8070aajefealw_wc b wang, q.-z., chen, j.-m., tseng, m.-l., luan, h.-m., & ali, m. h. (2020). modelling green multimodal transport route performance with witness simulation software. journal of cleaner production, 248, article 119245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119245 world bank. (n.d.). the four pillars of the knowledge economy, https://web.worldbank.org/archive/website01503/web/0__co10.htm yang, j., luo, m., & shi, m. (2020). optimal subsidies for rail containers: a bi-level programming solution. maritime policy&management, 47(2), 172-187. https://doi.org/10.1080/03088839.2019.1690173 zang, x. (2011). research on international multimodal transport development strategy in china. proceedings of the 13th international conference on enterprise information systems (iceis-2011), 4, 333-336. https://doi.org/10.5220/0003562503330336. http://www.consiliulferoviar.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/studiu-marfa-_varianta-publicare-site-29.07.2021.pdf http://www.consiliulferoviar.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/studiu-marfa-_varianta-publicare-site-29.07.2021.pdf https://www.undp.org/publications/global-knowledge-index-2021?utm_source=en&utm_medium=gsr&utm_content=us_undp_paidsearch_brand_english&utm_campaign=central&c_src=central&c_src2=gsr&gclid=cj0kcqjw1bqzbhdxarisantjcpi8ugvgj_vfrngb5tvfn0nluxttkskbdcontistkiibdbprnpf8070aajefealw_wcb https://www.undp.org/publications/global-knowledge-index-2021?utm_source=en&utm_medium=gsr&utm_content=us_undp_paidsearch_brand_english&utm_campaign=central&c_src=central&c_src2=gsr&gclid=cj0kcqjw1bqzbhdxarisantjcpi8ugvgj_vfrngb5tvfn0nluxttkskbdcontistkiibdbprnpf8070aajefealw_wcb https://www.undp.org/publications/global-knowledge-index-2021?utm_source=en&utm_medium=gsr&utm_content=us_undp_paidsearch_brand_english&utm_campaign=central&c_src=central&c_src2=gsr&gclid=cj0kcqjw1bqzbhdxarisantjcpi8ugvgj_vfrngb5tvfn0nluxttkskbdcontistkiibdbprnpf8070aajefealw_wcb https://www.undp.org/publications/global-knowledge-index-2021?utm_source=en&utm_medium=gsr&utm_content=us_undp_paidsearch_brand_english&utm_campaign=central&c_src=central&c_src2=gsr&gclid=cj0kcqjw1bqzbhdxarisantjcpi8ugvgj_vfrngb5tvfn0nluxttkskbdcontistkiibdbprnpf8070aajefealw_wcb https://www.undp.org/publications/global-knowledge-index-2021?utm_source=en&utm_medium=gsr&utm_content=us_undp_paidsearch_brand_english&utm_campaign=central&c_src=central&c_src2=gsr&gclid=cj0kcqjw1bqzbhdxarisantjcpi8ugvgj_vfrngb5tvfn0nluxttkskbdcontistkiibdbprnpf8070aajefealw_wcb https://www.undp.org/publications/global-knowledge-index-2021?utm_source=en&utm_medium=gsr&utm_content=us_undp_paidsearch_brand_english&utm_campaign=central&c_src=central&c_src2=gsr&gclid=cj0kcqjw1bqzbhdxarisantjcpi8ugvgj_vfrngb5tvfn0nluxttkskbdcontistkiibdbprnpf8070aajefealw_wcb https://www.undp.org/publications/global-knowledge-index-2021?utm_source=en&utm_medium=gsr&utm_content=us_undp_paidsearch_brand_english&utm_campaign=central&c_src=central&c_src2=gsr&gclid=cj0kcqjw1bqzbhdxarisantjcpi8ugvgj_vfrngb5tvfn0nluxttkskbdcontistkiibdbprnpf8070aajefealw_wcb https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119245 https://web.worldbank.org/archive/website01503/web/0__co-10.htm https://web.worldbank.org/archive/website01503/web/0__co-10.htm https://doi.org/10.1080/03088839.2019.1690173 https://doi.org/10.5220/0003562503330336 69 novel ontologies-based optical character recognition-error correction cooperating with graph component extraction sarunya kanjanawattana graduate school, shibaura institute of technology, tokyo, japan nb14503@shibaura-it.ac .jp masaomi kimura information science and engineering, shibaura institute of technology, tokyo, japan masaomi@sic .shibaura-it.ac.jp abstract a graph is a data representation visually presenting significant information in the academic literature. extracting graph information clearly contributes to readers, who are interested in graph information interpretation, because we can obtain significant information presenting in the graph. a typical tool used to transform image-based characters to computer editable characters is optical character recognition (ocr). unfortunately, ocr cannot guarantee perfect results, because it is sensitive to noise and input quality. this becomes a serious problem because misrecognition provides misunderstanding information to readers and causes misleading communication. in this study, we present a novel method for ocr-error correction based on bar graphs using semantics, such as ontologies and dependency parsing. moreover, we used a graph component extraction proposed in our previous study to omit irrelevant parts from graph components. it was applied to clean and prepare input data for this ocr-error correction. the main objectives of this paper are to extract significant information from the graph using ocr and to correct ocr errors using semantics. as a result, our method provided remarkable performance with the highest accuracies and fmeasures. moreover, we examined that our input data contained less of noise because of an efficiency of our graph component extraction. based on the evidence, we conclude that our solution to the ocr problem achieves the objectives. keywords: ocr-error correction, post-processing, dependency parsing, ontology, graphcomponent extraction. 1. introduction nowadays, with the advent of digital optical scanners, a digital document has been required on account of ease of use and search. o ver several years, a great effort has been devoted to the study of image-based information extraction. images, especially graph images, typically contain much expedient information. for example, authors usually use graphs to present their experimental results, including measurement data for clear explanations. graphs graphically provide data summarization presenting essential information that is simply interpreted by acquiring small descriptive details. thus, an automatic system extractable latent information from the graphs provides many contributions to society for disclosing explicit and implicit knowledge. to obtain a primary interpretation, initial graph components analyzed are axis descriptions (i.e., xand y-titles) and a legend. ocr is an approving solution used for acquiring them as a digital format of character letters. ocr is extensively used in several applications, such as medical article citation database medline (lasko & hauser, 2000 ) and text extraction from image and video frames (c hen, odobez & bourlard, 2004). in regard to academics, countless documents have been converted from paper-based to digitized information using ocr. however, ocr cannot guarantee accurate outputs. generally, a quality of ocr outputs is fairly decreased, if ocr inputs have various defects, e.g., poor printing quality, small image resolution, specific language requirement, and image noises. these are main causes of misrecognition that produce ocr errors. for example, a word “bed” may be incorrectly recognized as “8ed”. regarding the ocr errors, there have been two types of word errors that may be found in our study, non-word and realword errors (tong & evans, 1996). brain. broad res earch i n arti fi ci al intelli gence and neuros ci ence vol ume 7, is s ue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (onli ne), issn 2068 0473 (pri nt) 70 a non-word error occurs when ocr recognizes a source-text as a string that invalidly corresponds to any vocabulary item in the dictionary. a realword error occurs when ocr applies to the sourcetext and provides incorrect output strings which coincidently match to an item in the dictionary. for example, if ocr renders the source-text “today is hot” as “toolav is not”, then “toolav” is a nonword error, and “not” is a real-word error. to mitigate these errors, there has been a great deal of study focusing on addressing them and proposing methods based on practical techniques, such as semantic utilization (jobbins et al., 1996) and statistical similarity measurement (nagata, 1998). to our knowledge, using the semantics is a reliable solution to alleviate the ocr errors, because it analyzes not only the words themselves but also the context of corresponding sentences. o ur ocrerror correction method utilizes a concept of semantics, including ontologies and natural language processing (nlp) to identify and correct the errors. however, ocr is unsuitable to directly apply to graph images, because there are irrelevant parts in the graphs, which do not necessitate for the primary interpretation, such as parts of bars and some numeric data. they may cause recognition noise (e.g., special characters and number); hence, they should be eliminated in advance by our graph component extraction for improving a quality of ocr results (huang, tan & leow, 2005), (kataria et al., 2008). the input of this study is a collection of bar graphs which contains at least axis descriptions (i.e., xand y-titles), and optionally, a legend. we here highlight only the bar graphs because its characteristics are dominant and easy to comprehend by both human and machine. moreover, we gather related contents of documents for creating our ontology, such as image captions and cited paragraphs. in this study, we propose a novel method which is a combination of a graph component extraction and an ocr-error correction. note that the graph component extraction has already been proposed in our previous study (kanjanawattana & k imura, 2016), which aims to separate irrelevant parts from graph components. we focus on only three basic components, i.e., an x-title, a y-title, and a legend; thus we determine other parts of graphs as irrelevant parts that should be omitted beforehand to reduce noise by the graph component extraction. to improve the ocr results, we also present the method of ocr-error correction in this study which is a post-processing system to analyze the results and correct errors based on ontologies, n lp and edit distance. we designed and created our ontology supporting dependency parsing of english context, including word categories queried from dbpedia. the crucial objectives of this study are to extract information from graph components and to improve the quality of ocr results recognized from the extracted graph components. our system considerably contributes benefit to society, particularly in regard to academics, by acquiring implicit knowledge in the graphs. moreover, it can be adapted to many applications, such as image search engine. the remainder of the paper is organized into six sections as follows: section 2 reviews previous studies. we introduce our method in section 3. section 4 presents experiments and their results. in section 5, we discuss the results and reveal s ignificant findings discovered by this study. section 6 concludes and suggests future work. 2. related works in this section, we review existing works related to this study. there are two minor sections as follows: 2.1 image segmentation image segmentation is currently an active research area with several unsolvable problems. this technique can be used to capture and separate dominant objects from image backgrounds. basically, it deals with many kinds of images, such as outdoor scenes (alvarez, lec un & lopez, 2012) (c heng et al., 2012) and medical images (hiran & doshi, 2013). in academics, a graph image used to summarize and analyze essential information is another target image for this active field. bar graphs are our main target in this study. we attempted to separate the basic components to s. kanjanawattana, m. kimu ra nov el ontol ogi es -bas ed optical character recogni ti on-error correcti on cooperati ng wi th graph componen t extracti on 71 prepare the inputs of ocr-error correction. however, to achieve graph segmentation is difficult for traditional techniques (such as image processing), because positions of graph components, especially a legend, are unfixed. a dramatic study addressing this difficulty has been presented by (kataria et al., 2008). they aimed to automatically extract elements (e.g., axis labels, legends, and data points) from within a two-dimensional graph and mitigate a problem o f overlapping text and data points. they performed an image profiling to detect global features in order to identify coordinate axes. moreover, they applied an extended k-median to isolate and detect the data points from a curve. however, they confronted a problem when trying to extract a legend. that can be solved by performing a connected component analysis to identify individual letters before applying ocr. the other interesting study is proposed in (huang & leow, 2005) whose main targets were to associate recognition results of textual and graphical information in scientific graphs. they individually recognized text and graphical regions of the graph images and then combined their results to achieve a full understanding. however, they encountered ocr errors that were solved by manual correction. although these previous studies proposed effective methods to extract graph components, it did not identify types of individual components. in fact, each component carries essential information, but its role certa inly differs. for example, the xand y-titles evince a relationship of the graph. the legend provides particular information regarding data described as data labels. clearly, to identify the type to each component is surely important for graph interpretation. o ur graph component extraction can achieve this obstacle. moreover, we not only extracted graph components using the ocr technique but also tackled an ocr error problem by correcting errors based on our methods. 2.2 ocr-error correction a great deal of effort has developed many approaches to correct the ocr errors over several years. nagata (nagata, 1998) emphasized his work to correct misrecognized characters using character shape similarity and statistical language model. he attempted to challenge to japanese whose sentences did not include word delimiters (e.g., space). however, we noticed that this previous study cannot correct such items as acronyms and transliterated foreign words because they often show in english (such as iso and sony) that cannot recognize by ocr included by japanese language package. it differs from our method because ours can correct words universally as long as they appear in the source document. semantic-based techniques (e.g., context-based analysis and ontology) are proper solutions addressing the ocr problem. wick et al. (wick, ross & learned-miller, 2007) realized that conventional systems identified low-confidence outputs that were insufficient to correct misrecognition errors. they used topic models automatically detecting the semantic context of scanned documents and specified the word frequency to correct the errors. however, a limitation of topic models is high training time required, because users must classify documents to acquire their corresponding topics prior applying ocr. an interesting method related to correct ocr errors is also described in (bassil & alwani, 2012). they developed a context-based method based on google’s online spelling suggestion to correct the ocr errors. they avoided using an offline dictionary because a huge volume of terms needed to gather in a source computer, which consumed a lot of resources. google is a massive online database containing a large collection of word sequences. it is suitable to be a data source of correcting word suggestion. however, this technique is limited to use via online that need to concern about network availability and efficiency, e.g., speed and bandwidth. recent studies addressing the problem of ocr errors tend to use ontology and semantics. jobbins et al. (jobbins, evett & sherkat, 1996) developed a system of automatic semantic-relation identification between words in roget’s thesaurus. this knowledge source contains explicit links between words and related vocabulary items for each part o f speech, unlike an ordinary dictionary. their method depended on relation algorithm that located semantic relations between words and calculated a relatedness score of each word. however, this technique possibly encountered a brain. broad res earch i n arti fi ci al intelli gence and neuros ci ence vol ume 7, is s ue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (onli ne), issn 2068 0473 (pri nt) 72 difficulty, if dealing with words in a sentence. they may obtain a real-word error in a same category or cross reference. to solve this problem, not only word categories but also sentence dependencies should be used, because each word in the sentence definitely contains at least one dependency linking to some other words in the same sentence. zhuang et al. (zhuang & zhu, 2005) introduced an ocr post-processing method based on multiple forms of knowledge, for example, language knowledge and candidate distance information given by the oc r engine. they focused on chinese characters. a similarity between this existing study and our study is to find candidates depended on similarity distances. however, this previous study was limited to long sentences containing many dependencies, because it used n-gram supportable contiguous sequence of n items from given sentences. figure 1. illustration of graph components. 3. methodology in this study, we utilize a pre-processing and suggest a post-processing methods to achieve a difficulty of ocr errors. we introduce the new post-processing method of ocr-error correction for bar graphs utilizing several techniques, i.e., ontologies, n lp, and edit distance. moreover, owing to reducing the presence of irrelevant parts, we used the pre-processing method of graph-component extraction proposed in (kanjanawattana & k imura, 2016) to detect and extract the basic graph components, such as a legend and axis descriptions, including omitting irrelevant parts. we divide our methodology into two major modules as follows: 3.1 graph-component extraction the main task of this module is to separate the components (figure 1) into individual images. as described in our previous study, the method was designed based on a generality of the graph structure. there were two distinct parts in this module: axis description extraction and legend extraction. for axis descriptio n extraction, we used a horizontal and vertical partitioning process to get xand y-titles respectively. moreover, we utilized a pixel projection to investigate locations of peaks of each horizontal profile in order to omit irrelevant parts from the partitioned components. note that the height of peak denotes how many pixels containing significant information exist. the location of the first peak was discarded to obtain a cleaned x-title because the first peak represents an internal part of a bar or data measurement. likewise, we kept the first peak and omitted the rest to obtain a cleaned y-title. regarding legend extraction, there were five step s that used to extract the legend: data preprocessing, data transformation, clustering process, discrete fourier transformation (dft) process, and classification process. the main purpose of our previous study was to estimate a suitable epsilon for dbscan to identify a legend position in graphs. data preprocessing was used to eliminate unrelated areas, such as an axis title region and a left-andbottom region. data transformation was used to rescale the inputs to a smaller size using average s. kanjanawattana, m. kimu ra nov el ontol ogi es -bas ed optical character recogni ti on-error correcti on cooperati ng wi th graph componen t extracti on 73 subsampling, including transforming to the datasets of xy-coordinate corresponding to the locations of the existed pixels. c lustering process is the main part of our previous study. we used dbscan that typically requires two parameters: minpts and epsilon. to estimate a suitable epsilon for each graph image, we utilized an idea of region density. in each quarter, we obtained an area with the highest density. afterward, we investigated a candidate point of each area, which had the furthest distance from the center of the same area but had the smallest distance measured from a neighbor area. finally, we calculated distances between selected candidate points and chose the shortest one; moreover, we divided the shortest distance by the image width to obtain the epsilon. then, we cropped the images scaled back to original sizes, corresponding to the clustering results. next, the cropped images were applied by dft that used to reveal image characteristics represented in the frequency domain. according to data construction for cla ssification, the characteristics of each quarter of the dft image provided similar information; thus, we selected only a single quarter as input for classification. finally, classification process was utilized to classify images with a legend. we applied support vector machines (svm) to the data obtained from dft process using radial basis function (rbf) kernel. in the end of this module, we obtained cleaned graph components, i.e., axis descriptions and legends. 3.2 ocr-error correction this module is a core of this paper. on the subject of ocr-error correction, we utilize ontologies to solve ocr problems. moreover, we integrate an edit distance and nlp to our correction system, because we realize how useful of sentence’s context to predict unknown or misspelling vocabulary items based on a word suggestion from the edit distance. we create our ontology supporting results of parsed sentences, i.e., part of speech (pos) tags and sentence dependencies, as well as named-entity recognition (ner) queried from dbpedia. for this module, we divide procedures into three steps. 3.2.1 candidate selection figure 2. steps of candidate selection. the input of this module is the cleaned graph components acquired from the previous module. we apply ocr to them and obtain ocr results. we utilize the edit distance technique to measure word distances and rank them in ascending score. then, we selected the top five words as candidates to be used to replace incorrect ocr results (figure 2). we collect only five words because this quantity is reasonable for utilization and resource management. for example, a graph image contains a word “well” at its x-title that is incorrectly rendered as “woll”. our system can select top five candidates ordered by ascending distance scores as follows: welt, will, wall, well, and with. obviously, if the number of candidates is too small (e.g., one or three), we definitely miss brain. broad res earch i n arti fi ci al intelli gence and neuros ci ence vol ume 7, is s ue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (onli ne), issn 2068 0473 (pri nt) 74 a correct word “well”, which also appears on the list. moreover, a high quantity of candidates causes unnecessary processes. their distances are calculated between tokens from ocr results and the other from corresponding caption or paragraphs. note that the distance inversely varies to a similarity. a higher distance represents a smaller similarity and vice versa. the selected top five candidates for each ocr token are stored into the list of candidates in ascending order of distance scores. finally, we acquire the ocr results, including their lists of candidates. 3.2.2 ontology design and creation to fully support o ur ocr-error correction, we need to create our own ontology following the design, illustrated in figure 3, which includes four entities (i.e., word, tagcategory, parto fspeech, and parttypecategory classes) and several object properties (e.g., belong_to, has_type, and depend_on). the word entity represents every individual token from captions and cited paragraphs of the images used in this study. the tagcategory gathers category names or ner attached to each token, such as person name, location, and animal, by querying dbpedia via its sparql endpoint. furthermore, we use stanford named entity recognizer (stanford ner) to identify the category of the tokens organized into seven categories, i.e., location, person, organization, money, percent, date, and time. the parto fspeech collects pos tagging of each token. for this entity, the total number of individuals is fixed at 36 instances, whose names are from penn treebank nodes, such as cc, vb, and nnp. the parttypecategory represents groups of pos taggings. for example, a singular proper noun indicates nnp belonging to the noun group. regarding properties in our ontology, we design several properties, which states relations among entities. the same_as represents the relations of at least two synonymous tokens that are stored in the word entity. for example, “japan” and “n ihon” are synonyms that refer to the same concept. our ontology covers the synonyms expressing the same concept. moreover, the depend_on property is a crucial property, because it presents dependency relationships between paired tokens parsed from sentences in the captions and the paragraphs. the number of sub-properties of depend_on relations is fixed at 67 properties representing typed dependencies, such as conj, dep, and nsubj. to prepare individuals for our ontology, entire sentences included in the captions and paragraphs are tokenized into tokens. afterward, we utilize a dependency parser (stanford parser) to analyze the sentences in order to obtain their dependencies, pos tags, and ner classes. as mentioned above, ner classes are obtained by the parser and the sparql query processed in dbpedia. all prepared data are gathered as instances of our ontology. figure 3. demonstration of our ontology structure describing entities, properties, and relations. s. kanjanawattana, m. kimu ra nov el ontol ogi es -bas ed optical character recogni ti on-error correcti on cooperati ng wi th graph componen t extracti on 75 3.2.3 error correction the main purpose of this step is to correct the ocr errors using the ontology and the lists of candidates from the previous steps. the basic idea is that the tokens from graph components should appear in corresponding captions or cited paragraphs because authors generally explain information based on the graphs in their documents. initially, we begin to create a dependency dictionary, called depdic that records the chain dependencies of the tokens. this dictionary is created, if at least one ocr token identically matches to the first candidate in its own list, and the token is used as a head of dependency chains. as an example shown in figure 4, we obtain a word “information” from the graph’s legend. suppose that it can be found in its caption, and ocr provides a correct recognition. a parser provides results as typed dependencies based on a caption, including pos tags and ners. we acquire a dependency chain of “information” that includes “sources,” “of,” “used,” “physicians,” “pakistani,” and “by.” this chain is recorded into depdic. to cover all possible situations for correcting ocr errors, we divided our method into four major conditions, as presented in figure 5. figure 4. example of grammar dependency parsing, including pos tags and typed dependencies, and ner classes of each token. for the first condition, we focus on eliminating recognition noises from our inputs, such as special characters and numbers. this condition is used to filter unused cha racters. we consider number characters as recognition noises because our main targets in this study are the axis descriptions and the legend, which generally describe in alphabet rather than numeric characters. moreover, we ignore escape characters (e.g., /, <, and *), because they are reserved characters of sparql. brain. broad res earch i n arti fi ci al intelli gence and neuros ci ence vol ume 7, is s ue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (onli ne), issn 2068 0473 (pri nt) 76 figure 5. demonstration of ocr-error correction covering possible conditions to filter and correct errors. the second condition is whether the ocr result finds an exact match in its own list. our system examines the similarity between the ocr result and the first word of its list whose distance is minimal. typically, the paired words are identical, if the distance score is equal to zero. if this condition is satisfied, a replacement is unnecessary due to the accurate ocr result obtained. afterward, we collect the result to a mapping list, namely newwordmap used to store the ocr results and their new replacements. the third condition is whether ocr provides a correct recognition that matches nothing in its own list. as aforementioned, our basic idea is that the descriptions of graph components should correspondingly appear in either caption or paragraphs. unfortunately, the descriptions possibly appear nowhere in the document. under this situation, we obtain the list of candidates with high distances, which has a low chance to find a match from the list. this condition handles the problem of missing matching tokens by analyzing three minor conditions. condition 3a is whether the first candidate of the list has been found in depdic. c learly, the first candidate of the list contains the highest chance of matching because of the lowest distance score provided. moreover, if the candidate is discovered in depdic, its chance to be selected as a new replacement should be increased. therefore, if this minor condition is satisfied, our method suggests the first candidate of the list as a new replacement, because not only the smallest distance score is provided, but it also appears in the same chain of dependency. condition 3b is processed to check whether the ocr result is actually existed by querying wordnet. condition 3c has a procedure similar to condition 3b, but it differs in using dbpedia instead of wordnet. if these two minor conditions are satisfied, we receive no null values returned from their sparql endpoints, and the new replacement is not needed. regards an order of condition 3, we normally apply these conditions following by this order, condition 3a, 3b, and 3c respectively. however, if the distance score is over than a threshold, the order of the condition is switched to the following order, i.e., 3b, 3c, and 3a. we reorder the conditions because we need to prevent errors resulting from the length of ocr result that is lower than a threshold, especially for two or three characters. the short-length words generally represent as prepositions (e.g., “in,” “on,” or “at”), conjunctions (e.g., “so” or “as”) and abbreviations (e.g., pos and nlp). every sentence regularly includes at least one preposition or conjunction, since the short-length words are ordinarily stored in depdic. based on this explanation, they may be assigned as an incorrect replacement accidentally. for example, we obtain a word “is” from ocr, and the first candidate of its list is “on” already recorded in depdic. a s. kanjanawattana, m. kimu ra nov el ontol ogi es -bas ed optical character recogni ti on-error correcti on cooperati ng wi th graph componen t extracti on 77 distance score of them is only two, but their appearances are totally different. following the original order, the word “is” is wrongly assigned by the word “on” as a new replacement. in order to reduce a chance to encounter this situation, a rearrangement of condition orders has been suggested. according to the new condition order, we obtain a correct replacement as the word “is” itself, because it has been found in wordnet. the last condition is condition 4 separately processed based on types of components. initially, our system checks on newwordmap list. if the list is not null, condition 4a and 4b are processed. otherwise, condition 4c is operated. a basic idea of this condition is that x-title and legend should be described by a corresponding category. for example, a financial bar graph contains an x-title, a y-title, and a legend. the x-title describes product names, which are in the same category (e.g., apple, orange, or banana). the newwordmap is available if there is at least one word stored. condition 4a is whether the pos and ner of the first candidate of the list corresponded to both of a value stored in newwordmap. to satisfy this condition, we check the pos tag and ner of the first candidate of the list and the pos tag and ner of the word stored in the newwordmap. if their pos and ner are consistent, we obtain a new replacement. condition 4b is similar to condition 4a. if either pos tag or ner has been matched, we also flexibly accept the first candidate of the list as the new replacement. condition 4c is operated if the newwordmap is unavailable or null. we cannot find any comparison from the list; thus, we introduce another solution that utilizes only the list of candidates. this condition is whether any candidate of the list contains the minimum score which sums up from both the edit distance score and a pos tagging score. regards the pos tagging score, we assign a score to each pos tag depended on the priorities of word replacement selection based on our experience. the tagging scores are assigned as following: noun (score = 0), adjective (score = 1), verb (score = 2), article (score = 3), adverb (score = 4), preposition (score = 5), conjunction (score = 6), interjection (score = 7), others (score = 8) and number (score = 9). noun provides the highest chance to appear at the x-title or the legend; since its score should be minimum. we select the replacement assigned by the smallest score, which basically comes from a summation of the smallest distance score and noun tagging score. y-title is described as a sentence or a noun phrase that is different from the x-title or the legend. tokens from y-title connect to other tokens by their dependencies; therefore using depdic should be an appropriate option for selecting the most similar word in the list as a new replacement. condition 4d is whether any word in the list appeared in depdic. every candidate in the list is iteratively explored in the list of depdic until a match is retrieved and is selected as the replacement. otherwise, if we cannot obtain any new replacement from the above conditions, the ocr tokens are used as their own replacements. 4. experime nts and results we conducted experiments to evaluate our method. we divided them into four tests as presented in table 1. to evaluate the first module, we compared results obtained from a tradition method and the first module of our method. the traditional method, namely image partition method, extracted the xand y-titles by image partitioning similar to our method, but an idea to extract the legend was different. it extracted the legend by cropping all possible areas where located the legend, such as the top and right side of the image, including irrelevant or relevant parts. a comparison between experiment 1 and 2 revealed the significant experimental results expressing the performance of the different graph component extraction methods. to evaluate the second module, we observed the results from experiment 1 and 3 to compare the performance between the edit distance technique and our ocr-error correction. the performance of our study was represented in experiment 4, which was a combination of module 1 and 2. several performance rates (i.e., accuracy, precision, recall, and f-measure) were evaluated in this study. the accuracy is a statistical measurement to identify how well a method tests brain. broad res earch i n arti fi ci al intelli gence and neuros ci ence vol ume 7, is s ue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (onli ne), issn 2068 0473 (pri nt) 78 correctly. a higher accuracy rate represents to the consistency of predicted values which are same as given values. the precision is the measurement of given data to present how many outputs are positively classified. the recall is to define how well the outputs cover the positives. f-measure is an averaged comb ination of precision and recall. noise ratio is an evaluated measurement to identify how much recognition noises are produced by the system, such as numbers and special characters. the overall measurement results are summarized in figure 6 and 7. table 1. settings of our experiments. experiment method of graph component extraction method of ocr-error correction 1 image partition method edit distance 2 our first module edit distance 3 image partition method our second module 4 our first module our second module as experiment 1, it was a combination of the image partition method and edit d istance. it was said to be a fundamental idea to acquire the information from graphs and correcting ocr results. as the results, all performance rates were presented the lowest values, except the noise ratio. the noise ratio was up to 29.48% that was the maximum ratio comparing to other experiments. however, after we examining the noise ratio from experiment 2 which was a combination between our graph component extraction and the edit distance, we realized that our first module could efficiently handle the noises of irrelevant parts better than the image partition method because the noise ratio obviously presented a lower rate, 19%. moreover, the accuracy and f-measure were increased to 57.28% and 50.54% respectively, whereas the performance rates of experiment 1 were only 46.98% and 39.77%. experiment 3 was a combination of the image partition method and our ocr-error correction. all performance rates were dramatically improved comparing to the first experiment. the accuracy was up to 80.75%, and the f -measure reached to 82.28%. for experiment 4, we combined our first and second modules proposed by this study. the performance was better than others. we obtained the highest accuracy rates, 84.23%, and f measure, 86.02%, including less of recognition noises. we obtained the number of errors 249 tokens from total 1579 tokens in experiment 4. we analytically observed causes of errors separated into three types: missing token error, realword error, and suggestion error. the missing token error presents the number of tokens unable to extract from the graph. the real-word error represents the error of misrecognition but accidently matches to a vocabulary item in a dictionary. the suggestion error means the error from our system suggesting an incorrect result. to rea lize a portion of errors, the percentages of each error proportioned to the total number of errors were presented as follows: 27.71% for the missing error, 37.75% for the realword error, and 34.54% for the suggestion error. clearly, among the errors obtained during the experiment, the real-word error and the suggestion error needed to be concerned and mitigated. s. kanjanawattana, m. kimu ra nov el ontol ogi es -bas ed optical character recogni ti on-error correcti on cooperati ng wi th graph componen t extracti on 79 figure 6. illustration of accuracies and noise ratios of all experiments. figure 7. illustration of precision, recall and f-measure of all experiments. moreover, we investigated the number of missing tokens for experiment 3 and 4. note that the total number of tokens, which should be able extracted by ocr, was 1165. in experiment 3, the missing tokens were 151 tokens or 13% of total tokens missing. meanwhile, in experiment 4, we obtained a missing tokens only 69 tokens (6.92%). apparently, the missing tokens were decreased, if we applied our data to the graph component extraction. figure 8 presents accuracy rates of all conditions proposed in our ocr-error correction. condition 1 used to detect and omit the recognition noises provided the 100% correction. due to our effective graph component extraction, the accuracy rate of condition 2 reached 99.15%. condition 3 presented a reasonable accuracy rate about 81.11%; therefore, using ontologies to investigate a meaning of a word was also appropriate. however, the lowest accuracy was appeared at condition 4, 29.47%. furthermore, we statistically calculated the significant difference between resu lts from experiment 2 and 4 by mcnemar's test. this tool uses for statistically testing on paired nominal brain. broad res earch i n arti fi ci al intelli gence and neuros ci ence vol ume 7, is s ue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (onli ne), issn 2068 0473 (pri nt) 80 data to examine a significant change from two sets of data obtained before and after treatments. in our case, the before treatment referred to experiment 2 using the edit distance, and the after treatment was our ocr-error correction in experiment 4. note that we ignored results corrected by condition 1 to stable the statistical data because the edit distance cannot handle the noises. we calculated a two-tailed probability value (p value), which used to determine to accept or reject a null hypothesis. the small p value represents a significant difference between two sets of data. the two-tailed p value is less than 0.0001 that means the results from both experiments are considered to be extremely statistically significant. figure 8. the number of tokens, including accuracy rates of each condition. 5. discussion we proposed a new method of ocr-error correction based on bar graph images using semantics. we improved our idea by using a graph component extraction proposed in our previous study to reduce irrelevant parts from extracted components before applying to ocr. we aimed to advance the quality of ocr results and proposed an effective method to accurately detect and extract graph components. we conducted four tests to evaluate the performance of our method (table 1). we calculated several performance rates, i.e., accuracy, precision, recall, f -measure, and noise ratio. the experiment representing our method was experiment 4. as presented in figure 6 and 7, experiment 1 provided the lowest performance rates, including the highest noise ratio; thus, a combination of fundamental methods (i.e., the image partition method and edit distance) is inappropriate to solve this study’s problems. for experiment 2, we observed that the noise ratio reduced around 10% from the first experiment. moreover, the accuracy and f-measure had 10% increased. this positive situation happened, because we changed the image partition method to our first module. obviously, the performances are improved, if the noiseless data are used. typically, during a recognition process of ocr, it analyzes many objects inside images that sometimes are not character strings. they may le ad ocr misunderstanding because they interfere the recognition process and mainly cause errors; hence, our data cleaned by our graph component extraction definitely enhance the performance of the system. experiment 3 provided high accuracy and f-measure: 80.75% and 82.28% respectively. to compare between experiment 1 and 3, the results showed that our ocr-error correct dominantly affects the performance of the system, because the accuracy rate and f measure of experiment 3 were much greater than experiment 1 about 33.77% and 42.51% respectively. the performance of our graph component extraction supports the system to reduce noises around 10% as resulted in experiment 1 and 2. moreover, according to the different performance of experiment 1 and 3, it is dra matically increased to around 38% averagely. this evidence contributes the quality of our second module or ocr-error correction that is much better than the edit distance in a case of suggesting the correct tokens because ours can handle a limitation of ed it distance. s. kanjanawattana, m. kimu ra nov el ontol ogi es -bas ed optical character recogni ti on-error correcti on cooperati ng wi th graph componen t extracti on 81 as mentioned above, the basic idea of edit distance is to use two tokens compared to measure their distance. the comparable tokens are selected from ocr results and the captions or paragraphs. in a case of edit distance providing a correct suggestion, the tokens from graphs are required to have a match to tokens in the captions or paragraphs. however, the tokens may not be mentioned in any contents of documents because of two reasons. first, they are general words that should be known by readers. thus, it is unnecessary to explain them. second, they may not directly relate to their topics or studies. based on this story, the edit distance cannot guarantee the correct suggestion, particularly in the situation of no matched tokens in the captions and paragraphs. on the other hand, our study provided the good quality of ocr-error suggestion which utilized the ontologies to check the meaning of tokens; therefore, it properly mitigates the shortcoming of edit distance. we also obtain a correct sugges tion, even if we cannot find any match in the captions or paragraphs. as the results of experiment 4, we acquired high accuracy and f-measure: 84.23% and 86.02% respectively; in addition, the noise ratio was decreased comparing to experiment 1, 19.38%. the accuracy and fmeasure of our method were significantly higher than the first experiment about 37.25%and 46.25% respectively. the main purpose of this experiment is to prove the performance of the combination of our methods, i.e., our graph component extraction and ocrerror correction. an important implication of these findings is that a cooperation of our graph component extraction and ocr-error correction are supportive each other because the performance also improves comparing to other experiments. we endeavored to compare the results from experiment 4 to a state-of-art study. zhuang et al. (zhuang & zhu, 2005 ) presented a remarkable study to correct ocr errors based on semantics similar to ours. their results reported that, after we compared between their method and a basic method, an error reduction was 29%, and the accuracy was 83.73%. likewise, we analyzed the error reduction comparing between our method and the edit distance. our error reduction was about 27%, and our accuracy was slightly higher than the previous study, 84.23%. eventually, the idea to use the semantics to mitigate the ocr problem was agreeable, because, to compare to non-semantic methods, the higher performance were presented from our and the previous studies; furthermore, the results were corresponding. to analyze the errors obtained from experiment 4, there were three types of errors occurred during the experiments, i.e., the missing error, the realword error, and the suggestion error. as the results of experiment 4, the highest proportion of errors was the realword error. this error happens when the ocr incorrectly recognizes tokens, but it has been accidently found in ontologies. the possible solution is to use a specific ontology. the ontologies currently used in this stud y are general ontologies related to english vocabularies. since, an opportunity to get incorrect suggestion should be reduced if we use the specific ontology rather than the general ones because the suggested results relate to a domain of the graph. for example, if a graph relates to biology; thus the biology ontology should be utilized. the next error that we should concern is the suggestion error. it occurs, if the recognized token is incorrect and not found in the ontologies; hence, our system suggests t he most similar token which is mostly incorrect, because there is not an identical token appearing in the captions and the paragraphs. o ne possible solution to this problem is to extend the content of documents to increase a probability to find an identica l token, such as using whole contents of the document, not limited to only the captions or corresponding paragraphs. however, it is timeconsuming, because there are a lot of tokens that need to measure the distances, including querying to ontologies. for the missing error, it happens because of the limitation of ocr and a mistake of partitioning process of our graph component extraction. ocr sometimes cannot recognize any characters, if the font size is too small or too big; since ocr returns a null value, which causes a missing token. furthermore, we partitioned images by a constant; thus, it is possible to cut them at wrong positions. for example, we have a graph containing a two-sentence y-title. the system may mistake to cut at the middle of the title. we retrieve an incomplete title that causes missing token errors. brain. broad res earch i n arti fi ci al intelli gence and neuros ci ence vol ume 7, is s ue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (onli ne), issn 2068 0473 (pri nt) 82 to deeply analyze the results of each condition as presented in figure 8, condition 1 offered the 100% correction. it means that our system has a high capability to detect and omit t he recognition noises. for condition 2, we obtained the high accuracy because of the benefit of our graph component extraction. it extracts the relevant components, which help to enhance the ocr performance to correctly recognize character strings. the reasonable rate is presented in condition 3. this condition is proved that a viewpoint to use grammar dependencies and ontologies is acceptable. however, most errors occurred in this condition are the realword error. the final condition is condition 4 suggesting the lowest accuracy rate comparing to among conditions. the suggestion errors have been mostly found in this condition. the causes and solutions of these errors have been described above. as the statistical evidence, we concluded that the difference between our ocr-error correction and the edit distance was the significant difference due to a small p value obtained. 6. conclusion in this study, we proposed the method of ocr-error correction based on semantics, including the graph component extraction. the objectives of this study were to extract their significant information by using ocr and to correct ocr results by utilizing the ontologies and dependency parsing. from the experiments that have been carried out, it is possible to conclude that o ur methods achieve the objectives of this study. as the experimental results, our method presented the highest performance rates greater than other methods, and the noise ratio was small. s imultaneously, the fundamental method showed the highest noise ratio and the lowest performance rates, because many irrelevant objects were included in the input data, which interfered the recognition process. furthermore, the edit distance suggested a correction based on strings appearing in the captions and paragraphs; therefore, suggestion errors certainly occurred, if identical tokens were missing from them. the ocr-error correction introduced in this study contained four conditions to cover all possible situations that might occur during the correction processing. it has clearly shown that our method can perfectly handle and omit the recognition noises, such as numbers and special characters. moreover, due to our effective graph component extraction, the cleaned components omitted irrelevant parts were acquired. indeed, with this data, ocr provided accurate recognitions. using the semantics to correct ocr errors is also appropriate because it mitigates the problems of missing identical tokens in the captions or paragraphs. the next stage of our research will be moved to graph-content information extraction, such as a height of a bar and a tendency of a line. we will design a new ontology to support extractable graph information and to utilize other ontologies in order to reveal latent information. references lasko, t. a., & hauser, s. e. (2000). approximate string matching algorithms for limited vocabulary ocr output correction. in photonics west 2001-electronic imaging. international society for optics and photonics, 232-240. chen, d., odobez, j. m., & bourlard, h. (2004). text detection and recognition in images and video frames. pattern recognition, 37(3), 595-608. jobbins, a., raza, g., evett, l., & sherkat, n. (1996). postprocessing for ocr: correcting errors using semantic relations. in ledar. language engineering for document analysis and recognition, aisb 1996 workshop, sussex, england. nagata, m. (1998, august). japanese ocr error correction using character shape similarity and statistical language model. in proceedings of the 17th international confer ence on computational linguistics-volume 2, 922-928. kataria, s., browuer, w., mitra, p., & giles, c. l. (2008). automatic extraction of data points and text blocks from 2-dimensional plots in digital documents. in aaai, 8, 1169-1174. s. kanjanawattana, m. kimu ra nov el ontol ogi es -bas ed optical character recogni ti on-error correcti on cooperati ng wi th graph componen t extracti on 83 huang, w., tan, c. l., & leow, w. k. (2005). associating text and graphics for scientific chart understanding. in eighth international conference on document analysis and recognition (icdar'05). ieee, 580-584. tong, x., & evans, d. a. (1996). a statistical approach to automatic ocr error correction in context. in proceedings of the fourth workshop on very large corpora, 88-100. wick, m., ross, m., & learned-miller, e. (2007). context-sensitive error correction: using topic models to improve ocr. in n inth international conference on document analysis and recognition (icdar 2007). ieee, 2, 1168-1172. bassil, y., & alwani, m. (2012). ocr post-processing error correction algorithm using google online spelling suggestion. arxiv preprint arxiv:1204.0191. zhuang, l., & zhu, x. (2005). an ocr post-processing approach based on multi-knowledge. in international conference on k nowledge-based and intelligent information and engineering systems. springer berlin heidelberg, 346-352. kanjanawattana, s., & k imura, m. (2016). a proposal of a method to extract and identify components in bar graphs. international journal of computer theory and engineering (ijcte). forthcoming 2016. alvarez, j. m., gevers, t., lec un, y., & lopez, a. m. (2012, october). road scene segmentation from a single image. in european conference on computer visio. springer berlin heidelberg, 376-389. cheng, c., koschan, a., c hen, c. h., page, d. l., & abidi, m. a. (2012). outdoor scene image segmentation based on background recognition and perceptual organization. ieee transactions on image processing, 21(3), 1007-1019. hiran, k. k., & doshi, r. (2013). an artificial neural network approach for brain tumor detection using digital image segmentation. brain, 2(5). microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 5 a robust approach of facial orientation recognition from facial features kishor datta gupta department of computer science, lamar university, 4400 s m l king jr pkwy, beaumont, tx 77705, usa phone: +1 409-880-7011 kgupta@lamar.edu md manjurul ahsan department of industrial engineering, lamar university, 4400 s m l king jr pkwy, beaumont, tx 77705, usa phone: +1 409-880-7011 mahsan2@lamar.edu stefan andrei department of computer science, lamar university, 4400 s m l king jr pkwy, beaumont, tx 77705, usa phone: +1 409-880-7011 stefan.andrei@lamar.edu kazi md. rokibul alam department of computer science and engineering, khulna university of engineering and technology, khulna 9203, bangladesh phone: +880 41-769468 rokib@cse.kuet.ac.bd abstract face orientation recognition is an important topic in computer vision and pattern recognition. due to the non-rigid properties of faces, it is computationally expensive and difficult to achieve good recognition accuracy and robustness in face orientation recognition. in this paper, we propose an image mapping technique for face analysis in smart camera networks with a feature extraction and data from the facial feature. we estimate the face orientation angles in all camera views, based on the matched imaged data. our objective is to obtain a set of facial structures which can work as landmarks for tracking and recognition of facial expressions. keywords: face detection, recognition, computer vision, human-computer interaction, image 1. introduction most face recognition and tracking techniques employed in surveillance and human-computer interaction (hci) systems rely on the assumption of a frontal view of the human face. in alternative approaches, knowledge of the orientation angle of the face in captured images can improve the performance of techniques based on non-frontal face views. it broadly consists of three parts: first, the face is detected by haar detection based face detection method; then the face is tracked robustly using four extracted facial features; and finally, the orientation of the face is estimated by using the tracking results obtained independently from the three trackers (viola and jones; 2001). first, we use haar detection method to identify a face area from any picture. the accuracy of this methodology is higher than 90% and very reliable to detect faces, we develop a new algorithm for face orientation recognition. the algorithm based on the combination of four individual tracking-based face orientation estimators that are relied on the seven properties of the face in question respectively: the variation of face regions, brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 6 the deformation of face texture patterns, and the trajectory of face motion, eyes position, mouth position, lip, and nose position (chihaoui et al.; 2016) (chutorian et al.; 2007). the combination is achieved by the make data in printed graph type images and compares images by image matching techniques. the algorithm is reliable and able to estimate face orientation efficiently. 2. problem statement despite the success of the existing approaches/systems for extracting face’s characteristics using computer vision technologies, current efforts in this area focus on using only a single visual cue such as eyelid movement or line of sight or head orientation to characterize face’s state of alertness. the system relying on a single visual cue may encounter difficulty when the required visual features cannot be acquired accurately or reliably (schiele and sagerer; 2001). for example, faces with glasses could pose a serious problem to those techniques based on detecting eye characteristics. glasses can cause glare and may be totally opaque to light, making it impossible for the camera to monitor eye movement. furthermore, the degree of eye openness may vary from people to people. another potential problem with the use of a single visual cue is that the obtained visual feature may not always be indicative of one’s mental conditions. for example, the irregular head movement or line of sight (like briefly look back or at the mirror) may yield false alarms for such a system. all those visual cues, however imperfect they are individual, if combined systematically, can provide an accurate characterization of a face’s level of vigilance. it is our belief that simultaneous extraction and use of multiple visual cues can reduce the uncertainty and resolve the ambiguity present in the information from a single source. the system we propose can simultaneously, non-intrusively, and in real-time monitor several visual behaviors which usually characterize a person’s level of alertness while driving (tian et al.; 1999). these visual cues include eyelid movement, pupil movement, and face orientation. the fatigue parameters computed from this visual cue are subsequently combined probabilistically to form a composite fatigue index that can robustly, accurately, and consistently characterize one’s vigilance level (zhu et al.; 2004). 3. methodology the methodology is composed of two main phases such as face feature extraction and create graph image and matching graph image with stored images. 3.1. face feature extraction it consists of four sequential steps such as face detection, feature extraction, gets features data and creates image with these data. 3.1.1. face detection the core basis for haar classifier object detection is identifying the haar-like features. first, haar classifier cascades are trained for detecting human facial features, such as the mouth, eyes, and nose (wilson and fernandez; 2006) (chihaoui et al.; 2016). to train the classifiers, this gentle adaboost algorithm and haar feature algorithms must be implemented (zhu et al.; 2004). intel developed an open source library devoted to easing the implementation of computer vision related programs called open computer vision library. opencv is designed to be used in conjunction with applications that pertain to the field of hci, robotics, biometrics, image processing, and other areas where visualization is important and includes an implementation of haar classifier detection and training (wanjale et al; 2013). to train the classifiers, two set of images are needed. one set contains an image or a scene that does not contain the object, in this case, a facial feature, which is going to be detected. this set of images is referred to as the negative images. the other set of images, the positive images, contain one or more instances of the object. the location of the objects within the positive images is specified by image name, the upper left pixel, the height, and width of the object. for training, facial features 5,000 negative images with at least one megapixel resolution are used for training (niese et al.; 2006). these images consisted of everyday objects, like paper k. d. gupta, m. ahsan, s. andrei, k. m. r. alam a robust approach of facial orientation recognition from facial features 7 clips, and of natural scenery, such as photographs of forests and mountains. to produce the most robust facial feature detection possible, the original positive set of images needs to be representative of the variance between different people, including, race, gender, and age. a good source for these images are the national institute of standards and technology’s (nist) and the facial recognition technology (feret) database. this database contains over 10,000 images of over 1,000 people under different lighting conditions, poses, and angles (wilson and fernandez; 2006). in training each facial feature, 1,500 images were used. these images were taken at angles ranging from zero to forty-five degrees from a frontal view. this provides the needed variance required to allow detection if the head is turned slightly. three separate classifiers were trained, one for the eyes, one for the nose, and one for the mouth. once the classifiers were trained, then it used to detect the facial features within another set of images from the feret database. the accuracy of the classifier was then computed as shown in table 1. except for the mouth classifier, the classifiers have a high rate of detection. however, as implied by, the false positive rate is also quite high. table 1. accuracy of classifiers facial feature positive hit rate negative hit rate eyes 93% 23% nose 100% 29% mouth 67% 28% 3.1.2 feature extraction the first step in facial feature detection is detecting the face. this requires analyzing the entire image. the second step is using the isolated face(s) to detect each feature. the result is shown in figure 1. since each portion of the image used to detect a feature is much smaller than that of the whole image, detection of all three facial features takes less time on average than detecting the face itself. using a 1.2ghz amd processor to analyze a 320 by 240 image, a frame rate of 3 frames per second was achieved. since a frame rate of 5 frames per second was achieved in facial detection only by using a much faster processor, regionalization provides a tremendous increase in efficiency in facial feature detection. figure 1. face area detection 3.1.3. get features data because of facial symmetry, the horizontal pose can be estimated with positions of both eyes about the face. our technique is dependent on four features of a face: right eye, left eye, mouth, and nose. it uses respective distance and size of these features for finding the orientation of the faces. one of the most important phase is to get the positions, size, height, width, angle of these features respective to faces. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 8 3.1.4 create image from data using these data, it creates a new picture and uses these data as a starting point for drawing. by using the data, it gets a model and shape of face without color and facial expression (gourier et al.; 2004), such as figure 2. it got a model of faces using these features. figure 2. a sample image from extracted feature 3.2. matching graph image it calculates two images from all pixels, and calculates the distance between two images’ pixels. after summing up the distance using a threshold point it determines whether the images can match or not. if the images are close to the stored image, it passes as recognized. if image a1 has a black point xa and ya and the reference image r1 has a black point is xr and yr, then our calculated distance is:   )()( yryaxrxa . 3.2.1 orientation recognition after matching the images with the reference image, it gets the nearest orientation matches and they could be font left, font right, down-left, down right, up left, upright, font straight, up straight, down straight. initially, some constraints must be satisfied to realize a successful correct matching. the facial regions, concerned on eyes and nose points, have the following characteristic: if there is almost one missing point for the region of the same type then the comparison will be performed. there must be the same number of feature points for both eyes and nose separately. if this condition is satisfied then a new comparison will be performed. 4. experimental analysis the methodology of our experimental method is described in figure 3 below. figure 3. the methodology flowchart k. d. gupta, m. ahsan, s. andrei, k. m. r. alam a robust approach of facial orientation recognition from facial features 9 it helps to write our code in c# and to make an application in dot net framework, which collects facial images using a webcam/or other video grabbing tools. then it implements haar detection to extract facial features and to draw image pattern for matching both images. 5. results we list below our results (figures 4 and 5) supported by table 2. figure 4. sample image data 1 and for frontal we get as (figure 5): figure 5. sample image data 2 after image matching, we got a positive result at 93% times, for 1000 random sample images tested on the nine criteria of orientation. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 10 table 2. statistics of our matching result face orientation total missed positive success rates font straight 150 4 144 99% up straight 110 20 90 92% down straight 100 23 77 77% font left 100 12 88 88% font right 120 18 102 82% up left 120 21 89 91% up right 115 22 93 95% down right 100 38 62 62% down left 95 44 51 54% 5.1. comparisons with other methods if we make a comparison with three other models, some of these technologies are multimodal head estimation, collaborative face orientation detection. estimating face orientation is derived from robust detection of salient facial structures. table 3 shows the percentages of failing to recognize pose. table 3. if we consider only the down face type result (that is, the negative impact on our feature), then the graph of failure rate of our method is higher than other (table 4). table 4. however, if we consider without the down face type result, then the graph of failure rate of our method is lower than other as shown in table 5. k. d. gupta, m. ahsan, s. andrei, k. m. r. alam a robust approach of facial orientation recognition from facial features 11 table 5. as a consequence of our experimental results, our method has a highly improved performance when we do not consider downside pose. 6. conclusion template matching is a fundamental task in the field of image processing because it is applicable to numerous different tasks such as object detection and categorization due to its simplicity of implementation. however, some authors also provide the different algorithm for simultaneous face detection, landmarks localization using deep convolutional neural networks (cnn), which can locate global and local information in faces (ranjan et al.; 2016). some authors also suggest the idea of normalizing the salient areas to align the specific areas (liu et al.; 2017). in this paper, we propose an image matching technique with increased success rate of getting proper pose estimation for human faces. it could be used for artificial intelligence, and game controller development, also can be used in traffic control and robot development. also, our method is more improved and faster, it needs less stored data and can work faster in a short period of time. currently, several profit, non-profit organizations are working on face recognition from video evaluation. nist (national institute of standards and technology) are also working on accuracy and speed of face recognition algorithms applied to the identification of the persons appearing in the video (grother et al.; 2017). references chihaoui, m., elkefi, a., bellil, w., & amar, c. b. (2016). a survey of 2d face recognition techniques, computers, vol. 5, no. 21, 28 pages. chutorian, e., doshi, a., & trivedi, m. (2007). head pose estimation for driver assistance systems: a robust algorithm and experimental evaluation. in ieee intelligent transportation systems conference, pages 709–714. gourier, n., hall, d., & crowley, j. l. (2004). facial features detection robust to pose, illumination and identity. in systems, man and cybernetics, 2004 ieee international conference on, vol. 1, pp. 617-622. ieee, 2004. grother, p. j., ngan, m. l., & quinn, g. w. (2017). face in video evaluation (five) face recognition of non-cooperative subjects. nist interagency/internal report (nistir) – 8173. liu, y., li, y., ma, x., & song, r. (2017). facial expression recognition with fusion features extracted from salient facial areas. sensors 17, no. 4 (2017): 712. niese, r., al-hamadi, a., & michaelis, b. (2006). a stereo and color-based method for face pose estimation and facial feature extraction. in ieee international conference on pattern recognition, pages 299–302. ranjan, r., patel, v. m., & chellappa, r. (2016). hyperface: a deep multi-task learning framework for face detection, landmark localization, pose estimation, and gender recognition. arxiv preprint arxiv:1603.01249. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 12 schiele, b. & sagerer, g. (2001). computer vision systems, second international workshop, icvs 2001 vancouver, canada, july 7-8, 2001 proceedings. vol. 2. springer science & business media. viola, p. & jones, m. (2001). rapid object detection using a boosted cascade of simple features. in conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, pages 511–8. wanjale, k. h., bhoomkar, a., kulkarni, a., & gosavi, s. (2013, april). use of haar cascade classifier for face tracking system in real time video. in international journal of engineering research and technology, vol. 2, no. 4. ijert. wilson, p. i. & john, f. (2006). facial feature detection using haar classifiers. journal of computing sciences in colleges 21, no. 4: 127-133. ying-li, t., kanade, t., & cohn, j. f. (1999, december). recognizing action unit for facial expression analysis. cmu-ri-tr-99-40 technical report of robotics institute, carnegie mellon university, pittsburgh, pa 15213. retrieved from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~face/papers/cmu-ri-tr-99-40.pdf zhu, z., ji, q., & lan, p. (2004). real time non-intrusive monitoring and prediction of driver fatigue. ieee transactions on vehicular technologies 53, no. 4: 1052-1068. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 151 systematic review of technology-based psychoeducational interventions for language disorders liliana mâţă vasile alecsandri university of bacau, romania calea mărășești 158, bacău 600115, tel.: +4 0234 542 411 savin.petronela@ub.ro georgeta pânişoară university of bucharest bulevardul regina elisabeta 4-12, bucurești 030018, romania, tel.: +4 021 307 7300 silvia făt university of bucharest bulevardul regina elisabeta 4-12, bucurești 030018, romania, tel.: +4 021 307 7300 cosmin malureanu ascendia sa bucharest lotus offices, 4th floor, strada avrig nr. 12, bucurești 021571, tel.: 0371 089 200 iulia lazăr vasile alecsandri university of bacau, romania calea mărășești 158, bacău 600115, tel.: +4 0234 542 411 abstract the objective of the study is to examine interactive psychoeducational intervention technologies for language disorders. there were selected and analyzed studies centered on using interactive technologies in speech therapy published between 2007 and 2017. a total of 32 studies met the selection criteria. the analysis revealed a different rank regarding the use of psychoeducational intervention interactive technologies for language disorders. most studies are based on interventions focused on web technologies according to the main delivery mode and display user interface in terms of communication tools. 1. introduction special education efforts are becoming increasingly visible in terms of information and communication technologies (ict) at children with speech disorders, in order to optimize therapeutic effects. in recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the application of innovative technologies to correct speech disorders. boucenna et al. (2014) note that there have been new developments of ict-based approaches for the therapy and education of children with speech disorders. traditional speech therapy methods rely on a direct interaction between patient and therapist (saz et al., 2009), which is achieved by means of a set of activities developed by the therapist for the diagnosis and treatment of the patient’s speech disorders. unlike traditional methods, the actual ones provide interactive applications based on a semi-automatic intervention in speech therapy, which greatly helps therapists. educators increasingly adopt new technologies, especially in special education (campigotto et al., 2013) due to the strong potential in the individualization of teaching, learning and communication (rodríguez & cumming, 2016). the technologies that are used in speech education are varied, including software, video and audio content, communication-assisting technology, interactive computer programs, internet-based speech–language therapy, interactive multimedia learning object, ipad application, platforms, video games, mobile applications, virtual environments and avatars. kötteritzsch and gerling (2015) argue that future directions in speech disorders therapy using ict involves interdisciplinary brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 152 approaches that integrate the best practices from conventional therapies, tracking technologies, adaptive algorithms, empowering users to achieve community interaction. the integration of technologies for speech therapy is a “worthwhile addition” (fatima et al., 2012) for children with speech disorders. danubianu and tobolcea (2016) estimate that speech therapy systems based on computer use are helpful for therapists by creating a special environment for learning. using these tools to correct speech disorders is beneficial because, as saz et al. (2009) argue, new technologies facilitate language acquisition skills and can reduce the time required for the therapist’s expertise to provide the interactive component of the intervention. shahin et al. (2015) highlight the fact that technology-based therapy offers the possibility to reduce the amount of work of speech therapists and the time and costs put in by families. suta et al. (2014) believe that another benefit is the ability to create intervention programs tailored to the specificities and needs of patients. if speech disorders are not corrected, there may occur social negative effects (danubianu and tobolcea, 2016), such as low self-confidence, social interaction issues and poor ability to live independently. development of new technologies to correct language deficiencies becomes a priority if we consider the current statistics. there are 2.5 million people in the united kingdom (uk) and 7.5 million people in the united states that have a speech or language disorder (frost and mccrindle, 2016). also in russia, 10-25% of children have difficulty in reading in the early school years (vasilyeva, 2016). it is important that new technologies for speech disorders therapy be developed and applied correctly, so they may provide support to therapists and benefits to patients (schrӧder et al., 2007). with their help, there will be applied the most appropriate methods that would allow for exercises adapted to the patients’ individual therapy needs. stahmer et al. (2011) propose the validation of various technologies for individualized treatment of language disorders depending on the characteristics of the patient, family and practitioner. the systematic analysis highlights how interactive technologies support psychoeducational intervention strategies in correcting speech disorders. baxter et al. (2012) have analyzed studies conducted between 2000 and 2010 focused on the use of high augmentative and alternative communication (aac) technology to correct speech disorders. a systematic analysis based on the frame prisma has been conducted by chen et al. (2016) regarding virtual therapies for correcting speech disorders. some tests are very specific, focusing on the exploration of studies based on the use of information and communication technologies to correct speech disorders. ramdoss et al. (2011) conducted a systematic review on the use of computer-based educational interventions to improve literacy skills (reading, writing and vocabulary) for students with autism spectrum disorders. grynszpan et al. (2014) have started a meta-analysis of studies based on innovative technology-based interventions for children with autism. wainer and ingersoll (2011) have examined items based on computerized interventions for building communication and social skills in autistic people with the help of the psychinfi and pubmed databases. another specific analysis of the studies conducted between 1990 and 2013 in terms of the technologies used for correcting autism at teenagers has been undertaken by odom et al. (2015) and highlighted their impact on academic achievement, adaptive behavior, communication, independence, social skills and vocational skills. worthington (2016) has proposed a revision of specialized studies on the treatment and technologies used in the rehabilitation of apraxia. unlike previous analyses that focused on presenting analytical studies (boucenna et al., 2014), the present study provides a systematic, detailed analysis on the types of technologies used in correcting speech disorders. 2. methods 2.1. identification of studies to identify studies in the field, there was conducted a comprehensive search of studies focused on the use of interactive psychoeducational intervention technologies for language disorders. there were analyzed only studies in english that were published in peer-reviewed journals between 2007-2017. the study relies on the cochrane handbook for systematic reviews l. mâţă, g. pânişoară, s. făt, c. malureanuc, i. lazăr systematic review of technology-based psychoeducational interventions for language disorders 153 of interventions version 5.1.0. and a current study on the systematic analysis of information and communication technologies used in psychoeducational interventions for depression (zhao et al., 2017). these two markers provide updated guidance on the standards and methods for carrying out a complex systematic review. 2.1.1. search strategy there was applied a comprehensive search of studies published in journals indexed in international databases, such as scopus, taylor and francis, web of science, eric. the used keywords included various combinations of terms frequently used in speech disorders therapy: language disorders, speech therapy, speech disorders, language therapy, language technologies. 2.1.2. operational definition of the main variables investigated the studies focused on the use of interactive psychoeducational intervention technologies for language disorders have been analyzed in relation to the following variables: the main mode of delivery; communication tools. according to the main mode of delivery, there are three categories (zhao et al., 2017): web-based, mobile-based and combination. the communication tools are diverse, for example, playback video, display user interface. in table 1 there are shown the results of the descriptive analysis of the studies, organized according to the main language disorders (aphasia, apraxia, articulation disorder, autism spectrum disorders, dysartria, dyslexia/reading difficulties, hearing disability, velo-pharyngeal insufficiency, voice disorders). for each category of disorder there are mentioned the author or authors of the research, the target group, the type of interactive technologies, research methods and key results. table 1. language disorder author(s) target population technologies application results cherney & halper (2008) adults computer script training program development of three individual scripts, recorded as software and sequential practicing at home there was found improved verbal communication, increased confidence and satisfaction in using the software. koul et al. (2008) adults augmentative and alternative communication evaluating the ability to produce examples of graphic icons at different levels of complexity, using a speech generating device the results indicate that technologies based on augmentative and alternative communication interventions can be effective in facilitating communication for people with severe chronic broca’s aphasia. lojek & bolewska (2013) adults afa-system pretesting (one to three sessions); 30 hours of therapy for 15 weeks; several days after completion of treatment (one to three sessions of post-testing) the study results confirm the importance of using computerassisted types of technologies for neuropsychological rehabilitation. marshall et al. (2016) adults eva park, a virtual reality platform exploring the effects of intervention on communication and language skills, confidence and feelings of social isolation the intervention resulted in achieving significant progress in terms of functional communication. aphasia rogalski et al. (2016) adults internet-based speech–language therapy (slt) using the customized web application communication bridge two months after completion of surgery, the results of the evaluations indicated increased confidence in communication. apraxia shahin et al. (2015) children ages 4-16 “tabby talks” developing a speech processing engine for the system accurately performs the checking of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 154 years automatic delivery of speech therapy; an interface for therapy management pronunciation at a rate of 88.2% in terms of phenomenon and at a rate of 80.7% in terms of speech groganjohnson et al. (2011) elementary school children interactive videoconferencing (telehealth) providing intervention materials via live interactive videoconference live interactive videoconferencing is a viable method to correct sound articulation disorders articulation disorder toki & pange (2010) preschool children software creation of a software application for e-learning activities to improve speech articulation problems the learning outcomes of integrated e-learning activities for articulate language in preschool were above average compared to other methods. aziz et al. (2014) children with asds and their parents educational app flowchart of the application (aziz et al., 2014, p. 72) children can pursue learning by listening to the sound and afterwards interacting with the image of the object. the application can also help their parents to understand their children’s needs. barbu et al. (2015) people open book system natural language processing components; integration engine; user interface the applicability and usefulness of the open book technology were evaluated and analyzed to demonstrate that the tools help the easier production of texts so that these may be understood by people with asd. beaumont & sofronoff (2008) 7.5–11years junior detective training program development of skills and social understanding in the treatment group, there were improved the social skills in relation to parents and knowledge of emotion coping strategies. cassidy et al. (2016) adolescents and adults xpressivetalk expressive visual text-tospeech interactive technologies become tools of intervention to improve the processing of emotions and the development of attention in adults with asd. lacava et al. (2007) 8–11 years the interactive guide to emotions building skills to recognize emotions the results show improvements in the recognition of emotions on faces. lee & hyun (2015) children “special friend, irobiq” interlocutor friend (talking friend); monitor for the supervisor of children with speech-language disorder (helping friend) children have learnt to initiate conversations with the robot in terms of changing emotional expressions. mintz (2013) children hands software using a flexible webbased toolkit to develop specific intervention sequences according to the needs of children teachers have identified key factors of using mobile applications: awareness of the difficulty, motivation to change one’s behavior, preference for intervention-based technologies. mitchell et al. (2007) 14–15years virtual environment/ virtual cafe building social awareness most participants have shown progress in social understanding. silva et al. (2014) children platform mytroc@s.net user-tuned content customization experimental research results show that the new method requires the achievement of better results due to increased involvement of children in education. autism spectrum disorders (asd) whalen et al. (2010) preschool children teach town basic providing verbal instructions and guiding students in problemthe preschoolers in the treatment group had made greater progress than those in l. mâţă, g. pânişoară, s. făt, c. malureanuc, i. lazăr systematic review of technology-based psychoeducational interventions for language disorders 155 solving activities the control group in terms of receptive language. yun et al. (2016) children robot-assisted behavioral intervention examining the feasibility of a robotic surgery intervention system for children with autism effectiveness of the robotassisted behavioral intervention is verified at children with autism. the system facilitates social formation of children with autism through humanrobot interaction. dysartria saz et al. (2009) children and young speakers caslt software computer-aided speech and language therapy development and evaluation of a semiautomated system for providing interactive speech therapy for people with impaired speech automatic speech recognition (asr) can provide effective verification of pronunciation at the level of simple words, and the new pronunciation verification (pv) system is useful in detecting the absence of phoneme pronunciations. abtahi (2012) children interactive multimedia learning object (imlo) direct observation of dyslexic children while using the prototype; observation through the playback video; interviewing teachers children have found that learning with imlo was motivating, fun, easy. by distributing content in small steps, dyslexic children could perform the task in a short time. parr (2012) children text-to-speech technology (ttst) developing metacognitive strategies, dialogue and collaboration skills, the ability to respond in writing, self-efficacy and self-representation ttst facilitates reading strategies (expression, fluency, response), which enables children’s access to a variety of interactive and collaborative reading situations. dyslexia (reading difficulties) vasilyeva (2016) secondgrade students interactive computer programs “furor”, “expo” and “chibis” creating a program for optimizing the operation of visual mechanisms and the possibility of improving reading difficulties the results showed the positive effect of sessions based on the development and strengthening of visual mechanisms and their indirect influence on the development of reading skills. hearing disability navarronewball et al. (2014) children with the age between 3 and 10 years video game, talking to teo the use of a speech recognition module for the interaction with the user therapists observed increased interest, initiative and persistence of the children in completing exercises. frost & mccrindle (2016) all persons kinect providing an interactive application for speech therapy that can be used by patients in their own homes the application provides new possibilities for creating systems of therapy and rehabilitation at home that are attractive, affordable and tailored to individual needs. popovici & ardeleanu (2014) elementary school children logopedix software improving speech disorders in children with dyslalia, language delays, and dyslexia the results show significant differences in children with delays in vocabulary acquisition as a result of using the software logopedix. rodríguez & cumming (2016) first-grade students language builder using an ipad with the language builder application to develop language skills for students with disabilities the data showed significant progress at students from the experimental group compared to those from the control group in terms of building sentences. no significant differences between the two groups in terms of expressive and receptive vocabulary. schipor et al. (2013) children computer assisted speech therapy developing a framework for automatic recognition of emotions the results show that there is a good consistency between emotional external and self assessments. languagebased disabilities suta et al. middleeducational development of students who were part of the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 156 (2014) school students software educational software for the rehabilitation of speech disorders (dyslalia, delays in language development, reading and writing disorders, rhythm and fluency disorders) intervention program based on the use of educational software have produced immediate results in correcting pronunciation disorder. tambyraja et al. (2014) kindergarten and firstgrade children video-recorded therapy determining the association between the therapy time focused on literacy and specific factors for children provided with speech-language pathologists (slps) children provided with services of speech-language pathologists (slps) with many years of experience and/or use of therapy in class were given more time to correct speech disorders. velopharyngeal insufficiency castillo et al. (2015) preschoolers theraspeech processing and analysis of digital signals with mel frequency cepstral coefficient the goal is to detect speech disorders of the specific etiology of phonemes such as plosives, affricates, and fricatives. voice disorders king et al. (2012) school-age children video games testing video games by programmers; observing children while using the video games; conducting a case study on a child with hyperfunctional voice disorder. using video games for therapeutic purposes determines a high level of commitment and motivation in children of school age. based on the descriptive analysis of studies, it is possible to conduct a synthetic analysis by mode of delivery and communication tools (table 2). table 2. main mode of delivery communication tools language disorder author(s) webbased mobilebased robotics combination playback video forum phone calls display user interface cherney & halper (2008) x x koul et al. (2008) x x lojek & bolewska (2013) x x marshall et al. (2016) x x aphasia rogalski et al. (2016) x x apraxia shahin et al. (2015) x x groganjohnson et al. (2011) x x articulation disorder toki & pange (2010) x x aziz et al. (2014) x x barbu et al. (2015) x x beaumont & sofronoff (2008) x x cassidy et al. (2016) x x autism spectrum disorders lacava et al. x x l. mâţă, g. pânişoară, s. făt, c. malureanuc, i. lazăr systematic review of technology-based psychoeducational interventions for language disorders 157 (2007) lee & hyun (2015) x mintz (2013) x x mitchell et al. (2007) x x silva et al. (2014) x x whalen et al. (2010) x x yun et al. (2016) x dysartria saz et al. (2009) x x abtahi (2012) x x parr (2012) x x dyslexia (reading difficulties) vasilyeva (2016) x x hearing disability navarronewball et al. (2014) x x frost & mccrindle (2016) x x popovici & ardeleanu (2014) x x rodríguez & cumming (2016) x x schipor et al. (2013) x x suta et al. (2014) x x languagebased disabilities tambyraja et al. (2014) x x velopharyngeal insufficiency castillo et al. (2015) x x voice disorders king et al. (2012) x x 2.2. results analysis of the studies on psychoeducational interventions using different technologies to correct speech disorders reveals the following results depending on the main mode of delivery and communication tools. in relation to the main mode of delivery, it was found that most studies (25) are focused on web-based technologies, while other studies (3) focus on mobile technologies, some studies (3) on combined technologies and only one study involves the use of robots (figure 1). figure 1. graphical representation of the frequencies obtained by analyzing the studies based on the use of technologies according to the main mode of delivery brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 158 depending on the communication tools, centralized data show that most studies (28) exploit the display user interface, unlike others (4) that made use of playback video (figure 2). figure 2. graphical representation of the frequencies obtained by analyzing the studies based on the use of technologies according to the communication tools 3. discussions the results provide evidence for the efficiency of information and communication technologies for speech disorder therapy. previous studies also confirm the usefulness and necessity of using modern technology to correct speech disorders (grynszpan et al., 2014). the benefits of applying these technologies are multiple and efficiency is even more increased if we rely on an interdisciplinary approach. if we consider the types of technologies used to improve and correct deficiencies of language, there may be observed a prevalence of the web technologies focused on creating specific educational software, virtual platforms, augmentative and alternative communication systems, computer training programs, internet-based-speech-language therapy, books or electronic guides, virtual communication environments, interactive multimedia learning object, computer reading strategies, video games, computer assisted speech therapy. the latest technologies consist in the use of robots, as revealed by the study of yun et al. (2016). surely in the coming years there will be developed advanced technologies for speech disorder therapy. regarding the spectrum of speech disorders, it is clear that of all studies, 11 are aimed at children or people with autism spectrum disorders. there are also a number of studies that relate more to impaired language, indicating the vagueness and lack of long-term effects of psychoeducational interventions. regarding the age of the participants in these studies, it appears that most studies are designed for children from kindergarten and elementary or secondary school, except for the studies in the field of aphasia that are conducted on adults. in terms of the impact resulting from the application of technologies on psychosocial development, we have noticed positive effects as a result of the improvement of verbal communication (cherney and halper, 2008; koul et al, 2008), functional communication (marshall et al., 2016), receptive language (whalen et al., 2010), vocabulary (popovich and ardeleanu 2014), pronunciation (suta et al, 2014), neuropsychological rehabilitation (łojek and bolewska, 2013), confidence in the ability to communicate (rogalski et al., 2016 ), articulation of sounds (groganjohnson et al., 2011), school learning outcomes (toki and pange, 2010; silva et al., 2014), easy understanding of text (barbu et al., 2015), social skills (beaumont and sofronoff, 2008), attention (cassidy et al., 2016), processing and recognition of emotions (la cava et al., 2007; lee and hyun, 2015; cassidy et al., 2016), understanding social reality (mitchell et al ., 2007), visual mechanisms (vasilyeva, 2016), reading skills (parr, 2012), motivation and engagement in learning activities (king et al., 2012). whereas the emphasis had previously been on information and communication l. mâţă, g. pânişoară, s. făt, c. malureanuc, i. lazăr systematic review of technology-based psychoeducational interventions for language disorders 159 technologies to facilitate learning outcomes, there can be seen current changes in the sense of building socio-emotional and behavioral skills for training key skills and abilities. systematic analysis of studies in psychoeducational interventions based on information and communication technologies to correct speech disorders is useful for researchers in the field as it provides a clear and updated view on the types of technologies used and the results obtained. based on knowledge of studies in recent years, there can be implemented research based on new technologies to correct language deficiencies. also, such analyses can be further achieved in order to know and identify the best technologies in speech disorders therapy. 4. conclusions in this study there were systematically analyzed 32 specialized articles from the last 10 years in the domain of psychoeducational interventions based on information and communication technologies to correct speech disorders. according to the results, most studies report on psychoeducational interventions that used web-based technologies depending on the main mode of delivery and the display user interface and communication tools. the results of this systematic review provide support for further studies in this area to assess the use of technology-based psychoeducational interventions for people with speech disorders. acknowledgements this research was financially supported by the executive unit for financing higher education, research, development and innovation (grant pn-iii-p2-2.1-pte-2016-0068, ‘crossplatform computer-aided speech and language therapy with interactive applications in romanian’). references abtahi, m. s. (2012). interactive multimedia learning object (imlo) for dyslexic children. procedia social and behavioural sciences, 47, 1206-1210. aziz, m. z. a., abdullah, s. a. c., adnan, s. f. s., & mazalan, l. (2014). educational app for children with autism spectrum disorders (asds). procedia computer science, 42, 70-77. barbu, e., martin-valdivia, m. t., martinez-camara, e., & urena-lopez, l. a. (2015). language technologies applied to document simplification for helping autistic people. expert systems with applications, 42, 5076-5086. baxter, s., enderby, p., evans, p., & judge, s. (2012). interventions using high-technology communication devices: a state of the art review. folia phoniatrica et logopedica, 64, 137144. beaumont, r., & sofronoff, k. (2008). a multi-component social skills intervention for children with asperger syndrome: the junior detective training program. the journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 49(7), 743-53. boucenna, s., narzisi, a., tilmont, e., muratori, f., pioggia, g., cohen, d., & chetouani, m. (2014). interactive technologies for autistic children: a review. cognitive computation, 6(4), 722-740. campigotto, r., mcewen, r., & denmans epp, c. (2013). especially social: exploring the use of an ios application in special needs classrooms. computers & education, 60, 74–86. cassidy, s.a., stenger, b., van dongen, l., yanagisawa, k., anderson, r., wan, v., baron-cohen, s, & cipolla, r. (2016). expressive visual text-to-speech as an assistive technology for individuals with autism spectrum conditions. computer vision and image understanding, 148, 193-200. castillo, j. c., fabian, j. z., magbanua, m. l. v., saloma, j. r. f., & sagum, r. (2015). theraspeech: an intelligent speech therapy system for velopharyngeal insufficiency. international journal of computer and communication engineering, 4(1), 22-25. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 160 chen, y.-p. p., johnson, c., lalbakhsh, p., caelli, t., deng, g., tay, d., erickson, s., broadbridge, p., refaie, a. e., doube, w., & morris, m. e. (2016). systematic review of virtual speech therapists for speech disorders. computer speech & language, 37, 98-128. cherney, l. r., & halper, a. s. (2008). novel technology for treating individuals with aphasia and concomitant cognitive deficits. topics in stroke rehabilitation, 15(6), 542-554. danubianu, m., & tobolcea, i. (2016). modern tools in patient-centred speech therapy for romanian language. brain-broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 7(1), 61-73. fatima, g., fazil, h., malik, m., akhtar, m. m. s., ashraf, i., sumaira (2012). perceptions of speech language therapists about integration of technology into speech and language therapy of children with mental retardation. the journal of educational research, 15(1), 516. frost, s. & mccrindle, r. j. (2016). speech development and therapy using the kinect. international journal of child health and human development, 9(3), 269-279. grynszpan, o., weiss, p. l. t., perez-diaz, f., & gal, e. (2014). innovative technology-based interventions for autism spectrum disorders: a meta-analysis. autism, 18(4), 346-361. grogan-johnson, s., gabel, r. m., taylor, j., rowan, l. e., alvares, r., & schenker, j. (2011). a pilot exploration of speech sound disorder intervention delivered by telehealth to school– age children. international journal oh telerehabilitation, 3(1), 31–42. kötteritzsch, a., & gerling, k. (2015). future directions for ict in aphasia therapy for older adults: enhancing current practices through interdisciplinary perspectives. stem-, spraak en taalpathologie, 20, 135-150. king, s. n., davis, l., lehman, j. l., & ruddy, b. h. (2012). a model for treating voice disorders in school-age children within a video gaming environment. journal of voice, 26(5), 656-663. koul, r., corwin, m., nigam, r., & oetzel, s. (2008). training individuals with chronic severe broca's aphasia to produce sentences using graphic symbols: implications for aac intervention. journal of assistive technologies, 2(1), 23 34. lacava, p.g., golan, o., baron-cohen, s., & smith myles, b. (2007). using assistive technology to teach emotion recognition to students with asperger syndrome: a pilot study. remedial and special education, 28, 174-181. lee, h. w., & hyun, e. j. (2015). the intelligent robot contents for children with speechlanguage disorder. educational technology & society, 18(3), 100-113. lojek, e. & bolewska, a. (2013). the effectiveness of computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation in brain-damaged patients. polish psychological bulletin, 44(1), 31-39. marshall, j., booth, t., devane, n., galliers, j., greenwood, h., hilari, k., talbot, r., wilson, s., & woolf, c. (2016) evaluating the benefits of aphasia intervention delivered in virtual reality: results of a quasi-randomised study. plos one, 11(8): e0160381. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0160381. mintz, j. (2013). additional key factors mediating the use of a mobile technology tool designed to develop social and life skills in children with autism spectrum disorders: evaluation of the 2nd hands prototype. computers and education, 63, 17-27. mitchell, p., parsons, s., & leonard, a. (2007). using virtual environments for teaching social understanding to 6 adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 37(3), 589-600. navarro-newball, a. a., loaiza, d., oviedo, c., castillo, a., portilla, a., linares, d., & álvarez, g. (2014). talking to teo: video game supported speech therapy. entertainment computing, 5(4), 401-412. odom, s. l., thompson, j. l., hedges, s., boyd, b. a., dykstra, j. r., duda, m. a., szidon, k. l., smith, l. e., & bord, a. (2015). technology-aided interventions and instruction for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 45(12), 3805-3019. l. mâţă, g. pânişoară, s. făt, c. malureanuc, i. lazăr systematic review of technology-based psychoeducational interventions for language disorders 161 parr, m. (2012). the future of text-to-speech technology: how long before it’s just one more thing we do when teaching reading?. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 69, 1420-1429. popovici, d.-v., ardeleanu, d. (2014). results from integrating the “logopedix” software program in the speech-language therapy. proceeding of the international scientific conference elearning and software for education (pp. 78-85). bucharest: “carol i” national defence university. ramdoss, s., mulloy, a., lang, r., o’reilly, m., sigafoos, j., lancioni, g., didden, r., & zein, f. e. (2011). use of computer-based interventions to improve literacy skills in students with autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review. research in autism spectrum disorders, 5(4), 1306-1318. rcslt, royal college of speech and language therapists, the all party parliamentary group on speech and language difficulties. retrieved from http://www.rcslt.org/about/parliamentary_ work/appg_sld_history. rodríguez, c. d., & cumming, t. m. (2016). employing mobile technology to improve language skills of young students with language based disabilities, assistive technology, 11, 1-9. rogalski, e. j., saxon, m., mckenna, h., wieneke, c., rademaker, a., corden, m. e., borio, k., mesulam, m.-m., & khayum, b. (2016). communication bridge: a pilot feasibility study of internet-based speech–language therapy for individuals with progressive aphasia. alzheimer's & dementia: translational research & clinical interventions, 2(4), 213–221. saz, o., yin, s.-c., lleida, e., rose, r., vaquero, c., & rodríguez, w. r. (2009). tools and technologies for computer-aided speech and language therapy. speech communication, 51 (10), 948-967. schipor, o. a, schipor, d. m., & crîşmariu, e. (2013). measuring similarities between external and self emotion evaluation in the case of assisted speech therapy of children. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 84, 754-758. schrӧder, c., schupp, w., seewald, b., & haase, i. (2007). computer aided therapy in aphasia therapy: evaluation of assignment criteria. international journal of rehabilitation research, 30(4), 289-295. silva, m. l., goncalves, d., & silva, h. (2014). user-tuned content customization for children with autism spectrum disorders. procedia computer science, 27, 441-448. shahin, m., ahmed, b., parnandi, a., karappa, v., mckechnie, j., ballard, k. j., & gutierrezosuna, r. (2015). tabby talks: an automated tool for the assessment of childhood apraxia of speech. speech communication, 70, 49-64. suta, l. i. suta, v. e., vasile, m., & popovici, d. v. (2014). particularities of using educational software in speech therapy intervention for pupils with mental disability. elearning & software for education, 3, 376-381. tambyraja, s. r., schmitt, m. b., justice, l. m., logan, j. a.r., & schwarz, s. (2014). integration of literacy into speech-language therapy: a descriptive analysis of treatment practices. journal of communication disorders, 47, 34-46. toki, e. i., & pange, j. (2010). e-learning activities for articulation in speech language therapy and learning for preschool children. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 2, 4274-4278. vasilyeva, n. n. (2016). the use of informational-communicational technologies in reading difficulties correction in children. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 233, 292-296. wainer, a. l. & ingersoll (2011). the use of innovative computer technology for teaching social communication to individuals with autism spectrum disorders. research in autism spectrum disorders, 5(1), 96-107. whalen, c., moss, d., ilan, a. b., vaupel, m., fielding, p., macdonald, k., cernich, s., & symon, j. (2010). efficacy of teach town: basics computer-assisted intervention for the intensive comprehensive autism program in los angeles unified school district. autism: the international journal of research & practice, 14(3), 179-197. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 162 worthington, a. (2016). treatments and technologies in the rehabilitation of apraxia and action disorganisation syndrome: a review. neurorehabilitation, 39(1), 163–174. yun, s.-s., kim, h., choi, j. s., & park, s.-k. (2016). a robot-assisted behavioral intervention system for children with autism spectrum disorders. robotics and autonomous systems, 76, 5867. zhao, d., lustria, m. l. a., hendrickse, j. (2017). systematic review of the information and communication technologies of weband mobile-based psychoeducational interventions for depression. patient education and counseling, article in press. dr. liliana mâță is associate professor at teacher training department, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău, romania. her research interests focus on curricular innovations, teacher education, information and communication technologies in education and contemporary issues of education. microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final2.docx 63 a new challenge for information mining roberto paiano department of engineering for innovation, university of salento, 73100 lecce, italy roberto.paiano@unisalento.it stefania pasanisi department of engineering for innovation, university of salento, 73100 lecce, italy stefania.pasanisi@unisalento.it abstract in the field of "data exploration" many approaches have been developed to solve the problem of management of big data that are also semantically rich. nowadays, there is a strong need to support the discovery-oriented applications where data discovery is a highly ad hoc interactive process to support the users by assisting the navigation in the data to find interesting objects. in this work starting by a theoretical data exploration system, where we identified the main features that a data exploration system must have to an efficient exploratory experience, we propose a combination of two data exploration techniques faceted navigation and data mining with the aim to improve the discovery information during exploration. this approach is contextualized better in information mining. information mining, in fact, aims at discovering knowledge, i.e. more general patterns within objects or collections of objects. keywords: data exploration, data mining, faceted search, rich data set, information mining 1. introduction the continued growth in data volume, velocity, variety, complexity and the increased importance of information for companies, needing a system of management of different knowledge from the past, forces us to adopt strategies and develop methods to explore and interpret data. today the world of technologies and services evolves according to four main drivers: big data, mobile, social and cloud. you must govern the drivers of this change through advanced exploration technologies (semantic engine, predictive analytics, social listening, sentiment analysis, data mining, exploratory search, exploratory data analysis, faceted search, etc.). today's organizations need effective methods and tools to harness the wealth of data available to facilitate the availability, scope and knowledge sharing as well as for the chance to perform predictive analyzes useful for decision-making purposes. organizations that invest in this will have a better chance of survival and, for this reason; the information itself will become a very important factor in production. big data and big data analytics have been used to describe the data sets and analytical techniques in applications that are so large (from terabytes to exabytes) and complex (from sensor to social media data) that they require advanced and unique data storage, management, analysis, and visualization technologies. a definition of big data is given below. big data is a term that is used to describe data that is high volume, high velocity, and/or high variety; requires new technologies and techniques to capture, store, and analyze it; and is used to enhance decision making, provide insight and discovery, and support and optimize processes (mills et al., 2012; sicular, 2013). by itself, stored data does not generate business value, and this is true of traditional databases, data warehouses, and the new technologies such as hadoop for storing big data. once the data is appropriately stored, however, it can be analyzed, which can create tremendous value. data analytics refers to the bi technologies that are grounded mostly in data mining and statistical analysis. as mentioned previously, most of these techniques rely on the mature commercial technologies of relational dbms, data warehousing, etl, olap, and bpm. we can brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 64 distinguish in text analytics, web analytics, network analytics, mobile analytics (chaudhuri et al., 2011). there are three kinds of analytics (chen et al., 2012):  descriptive analytics, such as reporting/olap, dashboards/scorecards, and data visualization, are backward looking (like a car’s rear view mirror) and reveal what has occurred.  predictive analytics suggest what will occur in the future. the methods and algorithms for predictive analytics such as regression analysis, machine learning, and neural networks have existed for some time. marketing is the target for many predictive analytics applications; here the goal is to better understand customers and their needs and preferences.  exploratory or discovery analytics (although these are just other names for predictive analytics): they normally refer to finding relationships in big data that were not previously known. the ability to analyze new data sources—that is, big data—creates additional opportunities for insights and is especially important for firms with massive amounts of customer data. the managed information turned from analytics in the early period to qualitative in these last years. qualitative research is a broad methodological approach that encompasses many research methods. the aim of qualitative research may vary with the disciplinary background, such as a psychologist seeking to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. qualitative methods examine the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when, or who (alasuutari,2010). maxwell (2005) suggests that qualitative research questions tend to fall into three categories: questions about meaning, or how people make sense of the world; questions that illuminate context; and questions that investigate processes (maxwell, 2005). marshall & rossman (2006), in turn, separate qualitative research questions into exploratory questions, which investigate a phenomenon that is little understood, explanatory questions, which explain a phenomenon, descriptive questions, which seek to describe a phenomenon, and emancipatory question, which are meant to engage in social action around a phenomenon. in addition, the dataset turned from numeric dataset to rich data set. when facing the challenge of data abundance, we should first distinguish between two ample categories of big data: those that are semantically poor (henceforth “poor”), for instance sensor readings, and those that are more complex, i.e., multi-faceted, hierarchical, etc., in a word, semantically rich (hence forth “rich”). it is possible a characterization of the data on the basis of the semantic concepts and size:  small amounts of semantically rich data, where faceted search systems or traditional systems of artificial intelligence are very effective;  large amounts of data semantically poor, faced with nosql database systems that support queries to data arranged in simple data models of this type;  large amounts of semantically rich data: this set is all the traditional challenges of database research and data exploration, powerful computing tools, both mathematical and computational resources are needed to make effective exploration. when we talk of “rich data set” we intend datasets where objects are classified according to powerful taxonomies. examples of this second kind are business data, data about health, and in fact most of the data that must be directly examined by users to the purpose, for instance, of taking a decision (di blas et al., 2014). let us examine the main data exploration techniques into analyzing a rich data set. because of the complexity of these data, very important is the concept of data exploration to transform the data into information we need. a definition of data exploration is the following. data exploration is about efficiently extracting knowledge from data even if we do not know exactly what we are looking for (idreos et al., 2015). nowadays the user need more than a simple data exploration but need to explore it in interactive way and being able to find her way through large r. paiano, s. pasanisi a new challenge for information mining 65 amounts of data in order to gather the necessary information (guido et al., 2015). information mining is distinguished from traditional approaches to data analysis such as query and reporting by the fact that it is aimed at the discovery of information and knowledge, without a previously formulated hypothesis. starting from a theoretical data exploration system, where we identified the main features that a data exploration system must own in order to have an effective exploratory experience, we propose an innovative combination of two data exploration techniques: faceted navigation and data mining improving the discovery information during exploration. the paper is organized as follow: in section ii a background of data exploration techniques. in the section iii we describe a theoretical data exploration system to meet the information needs. in the section iv a different challenge of information mining: combining data mining and faceted search is presented. in the section v we present an evaluation of combination facet navigation and data mining with a case study on edoc project experience. finally, in the section vi we conclude the paper with some considerations about results. 2. background traditional data management systems assume that when users pose a query a) they have good knowledge of the schema, meaning and contents of the database and b) they are certain that this particular query is the one they wanted to pose. in short, we assume that users know what they are looking for. in response, the system always tries to produce correct and complete results. traditional dbmss are designed for static scenarios with numerous assumptions about the workload (idreos et al., 2015). the increasing amount of data has led to the build more dynamic data-driven applications that, often, have different requirements than common database systems. indeed, managing an employee or an inventory database is a drastically different setting than looking for interesting patterns over a scientific database. consider an astronomer looking for interesting parts in a continuous stream of data (possibly several tbs per day): they do not know what they are looking for, they only wish to find interesting patterns; they will know that something is interesting only after they find it. in this setting, there are no clear indications about how to tune a database system or how the astronomer should formulate their queries. typically, an exploration session will include several queries where the results of each query trigger the formulation of the next one. this data exploration paradigm is the key ingredient for a number of discovery-oriented applications, e.g., in the medical domain, genomics and financial analysis (idreos et al., 2015). such novel requirements of modern exploration driven interfaces have led to rethinking of database systems across the whole stack, from storage to user interaction. the research in this ambit can be subdivided in these sectors: a) visualization tools for data exploration are receiving growing interest (a.parameswaran et al., 2013),(e. wu et al, 2014); b) new exploration interfaces emerged aiming to facilitate the user’s interactions with the underlying database (k. dimitriadou et al, 2014), (s. idreos et al, 2013),( a. nandi et al, 2013); c) numerous novel optimizations have been proposed for offering interactive exploration times (s. agarwal et al, 2014), (n. kamat et al, 2014), (a. kalinin et al, 2014); d) database architecture has been reexamined to match the characteristics of the new exploration workloads (i. alagiannis et al, 2012), (s. idreos et al, 2011), (s. idreos et al, 2013), (m.kersten et al, 2011). together, these pieces of work contribute towards providing data exploration capabilities that enable users to extract knowledge out of data with ease and efficiently. the main techniques for data elaboration and data exploration are faceted search and data mining. faceted search, also called faceted navigation or faceted browsing, is an exploratory search mechanism. interesting definition of faceted search is the following “faceted search is an exploratory approach, which provides an iterative way of refining search results by facets.” brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 66 (bifanwei et al, 2013). the introduction of the faceted concept comes from the ranganatan that in 1991 describes the multidimensional aspects of a document by defining 5 faceted (ranganatan, 1991). starting from the ranganatan idea there are several other definitions of faceted and a very interesting one is one where faceted are a set of terms related to a specific aspect of a topic (spiteri, 2008). each term in a facet is an attribute or a category. starting from the facet definition comes the faceted search definition meant as the navigation (or faceted browsing) that is a navigation paradigm interactive, heuristic and based on progressive refinement that enable the user to analyze an iteratively select faceted in order to obtain the desired result (ben-yitzhak et al., 2008), (dachset et al., 2008). the category definition is the starting point for the facet paradigm and in this research area the main effort was in the defining techniques useful to extract in automatic or semi-automatic way faceted starting from the text (stoica et al., 2008), (ling et al., 2008). data mining is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and it is the process of discovering interesting and useful patterns and relationships in large volumes of data (big data). the fields of data mining combine tools from statistics and artificial intelligence (such as neural networks) with database management to analyze large digital collections, known as data sets. data mining uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to segment the data and evaluate the probability of future events. data mining is widely used in business (insurance, banking, retail), science research and government security. data mining tasks can broadly be classified into two categories: predictive or supervised and descriptive or unsupervised. the predictive techniques learn from the current data in order to make predictions about the behavior of new datasets. on the other hand, the descriptive techniques provide a summary of the data (mukhopadhyay, et al., 2014). a possible list of data mining techniques is (srivastava et al.,2002): classification, clustering, association rules, sequential patterns, regression, deviation detection. the four areas that contributed to the growth of data mining in its current form are artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics databases (ramzan et al.,2014). data mining is being used for a wide variety of applications. below a list of data mining current trends and applications (gupta et al.,2014). prediction and description (e.g., election campaign), relationship marketing, customer profiling, customer segmentation, outliers identification and detecting fraud, website design and promotion, web content mining, social media, surveillance. data mining allows you to do many types of data processing and to provide a solution to several classes of problems. exploratory data analysis, or eda for short, is a term coined by john w.tukey in the book “exploratory data analysis” in 1977 (tukey, 1977). in contrast to statistical approaches aimed at testing specific hypotheses, exploratory data analysis (eda) is a quantitative tradition that seeks to help researchers understand data when little or no statistical hypotheses exist, or when specific hypotheses exist but supplemental representations are needed to ensure the interpretability of statistical results. in this way, eda seeks to answer the broad scientific questions of “what is going on here” and “how might i be fooled by my statistical results” (beherens et al.,2003). in 2006, marchionini (g. marchionini,2006) postulates the idea of exploratory search as a model in which the user learns and investigates information after a first step of lookup. exploratory search, as marchionini states, is similar to learn search activity and social searching where people use the same strategy for locating, comparing and assessing results. in exploratory search people usually submit a tentative query to get them near relevant documents then explore the environment to better understand how to exploit it, selectively seeking and passively obtaining cues about where their next steps lie. exploratory search can be considered a specialization of information exploration, a broader class of activities where new information is sought in a defined conceptual area; exploratory data analysis is another example of information exploration activity. exploratory search systems (esss) capitalize on new technological capabilities and interface paradigms that facilitate an increased level of interaction with search systems. examples of esss include information visualization systems, r. paiano, s. pasanisi a new challenge for information mining 67 document clustering and browsing systems, and intelligent content summarization systems. esss go beyond returning a single document or answer in response to a query, and instead aim to instigate significant cognitive change through learning and improved understanding (white et al., 2006). more recently, the research comes back with a new paradigm for access to rich data set, exploratory computing. using this new paradigm, some exploratory portal have been developed in several fields of interest (archeology, tourism, education, etc. (n. di blas et al.,2014), (n. di blas et al.,2012), (l.spagnolo et al.,2010 )). the exploratory computing approach as explained in (paolini et al., 2014), and in its manifesto (n. di blas et al.,2014), allows users to investigate complex dataset composed of rich information. the user can interact with the data and can discover information features that he/she did not see at a first lookup. the innovation of the exploratory computing has several features such as serendipitous discovery, at-a-glance understanding, niche finding, raise of interest, sense-making. information mining represents a further way to the strategic knowledge. in 1998, ibm calls information mining to the process of extracting previously unknown, comprehensible, and actionable information from any source including transactions, documents, e-mail, web pages, and other, and using it to make crucial business decisions (tkach & daniel, 1998). another definition is the following “information mining is the non-trivial process of identifying valid, novel, potentially useful, and understandable patterns in heterogeneous information sources”, that is information mining tries to combine the analysis of heterogeneous information sources with the prominent aim of producing comprehensible results (kruse & borgelt 2003). more recently, the term has been used to indicate the process to acquire knowledge from the interesting patterns discovered by mining from data or information granules, and it is a post-process of the mining processes. consistent verification, information abstraction, hypothesis generation, hypothesis verification, and information deduction are activities of information mining (goto, 2015). 3. the theoretical data exploration system to meet the information needs in general, we can classify information needs into two very broad categories: a) precisionoriented ones (e.g. find the telephone of a store) and b) recall-oriented ones (e.g. decide which car to buy). only some prototype information systems provide means for supporting recall-oriented information needs. recall-oriented needs frequently aim at decision making, over one or more criteria, and have an exploratory nature, like search tasks in the medical, legal, patent, and academic field, consumer related tasks like car buying (tzitzikas et al., 2016). wildemuth and freund (wildemuth and freund,2012) have identified the following as key attributes for exploratory tasks: 1. they are associated with the goals of learning and/or investigation 2. they are general rather than specific 3. they are open-ended 4. they target multiple items 5. they involve uncertainty 6. they elicit through ill-structured information problems 7. they are dynamic 8. they are lengthy 9. they are multi-faceted 10. they are complex 11. they are accompanied by other information and cognitive behaviors, like sense making the taxonomy of tasks, related to the two different kinds of information needs is illustrated in figure 1: brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 68 figure 1. kinds of information needs (wildemuth and freund,2012) in the precision-oriented information needs category, the task’s goal is to locate one resource and get information about its attributes or metadata while in the recall-oriented information needs category the task’s goal is to locate (and get information about) a set of resources. in this category we can distinguish goals that require accessing sets of resources just in groups, or in groups accompanied by count information for getting an overview of a set of resources, e.g. as in faceted dynamic taxonomies (fdt). furthermore, we may have goals that require more complex aggregated results like those provided by data warehouses. for instance, aggregations of arithmetic (min, max, average) and boolean functions over the numeric attributes of the documents in the answers of free-text queries. moreover, counts are computed and displayed over combinations (pairs, triples, quadruplets, etc.) of attributes (of grouping criteria in general). in comparison to online analytical processing (olap) queries, in exploratory search the information demand in unknown a priori (in olap it is known and the schema is fixed) and the objective is not only to compute and see various aggregate values (e.g. sales per month and department), but also to support a flexible process for finding the desired individual resources (tzitzikas et al., 2016). in our previous paper (guido et al., 2015) we have identified the main features for an ideal data exploration system that allows the user to have a new and more interesting navigational experience and we have highlighted what techniques meet these main features to obtain better results from a data exploration. the main features are derived by the common needs of users that have to explore and understand large and rich data set with or without a specific goal: • investigation and inspiration seeking: the user who has an ill-defined idea of what to look for and through the exploration of the dataset moves on, refines, focuses, expands or changes her initial attitude; • researching: the user who wants to refine or verify some research hypothesis, or who is looking for research hypothesis; • leisure browsing and learning: the user who wants to stroll around to augment her knowledge about the dataset and can to do a serendipitous discovery; • supervision and decision-making: the user who needs to understand “how things are going” to decide about something; • set comparison: the user needs to compare two phenomena, under various perspectives. r. paiano, s. pasanisi a new challenge for information mining 69 • categories search: it is necessary define a coherent set of categories and provide analytic values about distribution of the categories (the feedback is useful for the user and a simple absolute value of values may not address this requirement); • set exploration: in order to explore a dataset it is necessary to have the possibility to combine several categories to create a complex set, to create a new set starting from the current one, to combine dataset using logical operators; • interactivity: an interactive process that implements mechanisms advanced of humancomputer interaction is necessary to support sophisticated exploration activities. these mechanisms must be allowed to quickly query the system in order to have new dataset to explore, to create subset starting from the current set in interactive way and using also logical operator, to query the system considering more than two categories in a single query. thus, just like in a human dialog, a flow of interactions (as opposed to one very powerful interaction) is needed, since users build upon what they discover through the exploration; • correlation between categories: strong correlation between the categories (the result of a search of a category affects the result of another category even though not expressly stated in the research); • complex answer to simple query: the ideal data exploration system must be able to provide complex answer to simple query. the first 5 features characterize the different approaches to the exploration of a user that the system must be able to meet, while the last 5 features express the functionality that the system must possess for effective exploration. downstream of this critical analysis of the main features of an ideal data exploration system, they have been compared frequently used techniques of exploration, faceted search and data mining, to discover differences and similarities on the basis of the satisfied characteristics. another determinant property is the visualization: the results determined by the system should be shown to users in a comprehensive way. thus, efficient and effective visualizations are needed. research on visualization carried out in the area of exploratory data analysis can come to the rescue in this task. it is clear that each technique has many features, but not all, and that therefore for obtaining an effective exploration it is necessary to use more techniques together through their skillful combination. we think that this idea open the way to a theoretical data exploration system; we are walking along this road, step by step, to reach the goal of an ideal data exploration system. 4. a new challenge of information mining: combining data mining and faceted search case study for this analysis was the exploratory portal learning4all, for edoc@work3.0 project. by exploratory portal, we mean a highly interactive delivery environment, where the exploration can take place through a number of strongly interconnected (and interdependent) interactions. an exploratory portal takes advantage of the principles and the aims of exploratory computing technique: in this context “exploration” is not search, nor faceted search, nor data mining, nor logic reasoning, nor data visualization: it is a combination of all these approaches, and something more. the exploratory portal l4all is characterized by a "repository" shared meaningful learning experiences that have made significant use of technology to innovate and improve teaching methods: several hundred experiences to represent, as appropriate, the diversity and the variety of situations in italian school through experiences, formats and different pedagogical approaches with a wide variety of technologies used, the school realities examined (level of school, location, socio-economic, environmental and cultural conditions, etc.) and also with an analysis of experiences thorough and methodologically valid. this represented the rich data set of the study: a number of educational experiences carried on at school with a strong support by ict. each brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 70 experience has some formatted data (location, school level, etc.) some multimedia data (various text files, audio files, video files, etc.) and is classified according to nearly 60 facets. all the objects were classified by pedagogy experts according to a complex taxonomy consisting of 28 attributes’ categories and more than 300 attributes. categories and attributes are organized into widgets supporting both selection and exploration. each widget shows the value of the attributes for the current state of the dataset; different visualization strategies can be chosen by the user: absolute value, percentage, word-cloud, histogram, etc. the current set of objects is shown on a “canvas”. the properties determined by the ec system should be shown to users in a comprehensive way. thus, efficient and effective visualizations are needed (di blas et al., 2014) starting from the limitations of exploratory computing, in this work we want to identify innovative methods that combine techniques that have proved successful in other contexts (data mining) to enhance the 'information discovery. thus we try to integrate data mining techniques in exploratory portal to support the information discovery with the main aim to identify, through the use of data mining models, the patterns of knowledge useful to exploratory experience of a user inside of the educational experiences repository that represents the rich data set. we have chosen to implement, between the different existing data mining techniques, the cluster analysis and we have used for this aim the weka as tool of development. below we explain the reasons for both choices. 4.1. cluster analysis clustering is a machine learning technique used for discovering groups or pattern in a dataset. these groups or sets of similar data are known as clusters. the clustering algorithms allow performing segmentation operations on the data, that is to identify homogeneous patterns, which have regularities in them able to characterize and differentiate from the other patterns. there are a large number of clustering algorithms. the main reason for having many clustering methods is the fact that the notion of “cluster” is not precisely defined (estivill-castro, 2000). consequently, many clustering methods have been developed, each of which uses a different induction principle. farley and raftery (1998) suggest dividing the clustering methods into two main groups: hierarchical and partitioning methods. han and kamber (2001) suggest categorizing the methods into additional three main categories: density-based methods, model-based clustering and grid-based methods. an alternative categorization based on the induction principle of the various clustering methods is presented in estivill-castro (2000). the algorithm chosen to be used in a given context depends on the type of data available, the particular purpose and application. if the cluster analysis is used as a descriptive or exploratory tool, you can try different algorithms on the same data to see what each of them can do. in this work we have chosen to implement the partitional clustering. partitional clustering algorithms generate various partitions and then evaluate them by some criteria. they are also referred to as nonhierarchical as each instance is placed in exactly one of k mutually exclusive clusters. because only one set of clusters is the output of a typical partitional clustering algorithm, the user is required to input the desired number of clusters (usually called k). one of the most commonly used partitional clustering algorithms is the k-means clustering algorithm. the user is required to provide the number of clusters (k) before starting and the algorithm first initiates the centers (or centroids) of the k partitions. in a nutshell, k-means clustering algorithm then assigns members based on the current centers and re-estimates centers based on the current members. these two steps are repeated until a certain intra-cluster similarity objective function and inter-cluster dissimilarity objective function are optimized. therefore, sensible initialization of centers is a very important factor in obtaining quality results from partitional clustering algorithms. r. paiano, s. pasanisi a new challenge for information mining 71 the most well-known and commonly used partitioning algorithms include: k-means clustering (macqueen, 1967), in which, each cluster is represented by the center or means of the data points belonging to the cluster; k-medoids clustering or pam (partitioning around medoids), (kaufman & rousseeuw, 1990), in which, each cluster is represented by one of the objects in the cluster. a variant of pam is named clara (clustering large applications) which is used for analyzing large data sets. 4.1.1. k-means algorithm in k-means clustering, each cluster is represented by its center (i.e., centroid) which corresponds to the mean of points assigned to the cluster. recall that, k-means algorithm requires the user to choose the number of clusters (i.e., k) to be generated. the algorithm starts by randomly selecting k objects from the dataset as the initial cluster means. next, each of the remaining objects is assigned to its closest centroid, where closest is defined using the euclidean distance between the object and the cluster means. this step is called cluster assignment step. after the assignment step, the algorithm computes the new mean value of each cluster. the term cluster centroid update is used to design this step. all the objects are reassigned again using the updated cluster means the cluster assignment and centroid update steps are iteratively repeated until the cluster assignments stop changing (i.e. until convergence is achieved). that is, the clusters formed in the current iteration are the same as those obtained in the previous iteration. the algorithm can be summarizing as follow: 1. specify the number of clusters (k) to be created (by the analyst) 2. select randomly k objects from the dataset as the initial cluster centers or means 3. assigns each observation to their closest centroid, based on the euclidean distance between the object and the centroid 4. for each of the k clusters update the cluster centroid by calculating the new mean values of all the data points in the cluster. the centroid of a kth cluster is a vector of length p containing the means of all variables for the observations in the kth cluster; p is the number of variables. 5. iteratively minimize the total within sum of square. that is, iterate steps 3 and 4 until the cluster assignments stop changing or the maximum number of iterations is reached. usually 10 as the default value for the maximum number of iterations. k-means clustering is very simple and efficient algorithm. however, there are some weaknesses, including:  it assumes prior knowledge of the data and requires the analyst to choose the appropriate k in advance  the final results obtained are sensitive to the initial random selection of cluster centers. to overcome these difficulties there are some solutions that briefly are: in respect to the first problem: compute k-means for a range of k values, for example by varying k between 2 and 20 and then, choose the best k by comparing the clustering results obtained for the different k values. the solution in respect to the second problem: compute k-means algorithm several times with different initial cluster centers. the run with the lowest total within-cluster sum of square is selected as the final clustering solution. 4.1.2. partitioning around medoids (pam) algorithm the use of means implies that k-means clustering is highly sensitive to outliers. this can severely affects the assignment of observations to clusters. a more robust algorithm is provided by pam algorithm which is also known as k-medoids clustering. the pam algorithm is based on the search for k representative objects or medoids among the observations of the dataset. these observations should represent the structure of the data. after finding a set of k medoids, k clusters are constructed by assigning each observation to the nearest brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 72 medoid. the goal is to find k representative objects which minimize the sum of the dissimilarities of the observations to their closest representative object. for a given cluster, the sum of the dissimilarities is calculated using manhattan distance. pam works efficiently for small data sets but is not very scalable. to treat big datasets it is possible to use a sampling based method, called clara. the idea behind clara is the following: instead of taking into account the entire set of data, a small subset of the actual data is chosen assuming that it is representative of all the data. the medoids are, therefore, chosen from this sample using pam. if the samples are selected rather randomly, they should represent quite closely together of the original data and the identified representative medoids should be similar to those that would have been constructed using the entire set of data. data mining software today, many kinds of data mining software are available on the internet. each tool has different methods of analyzing and interpreting the information from a grouped data. data mining can be difficult, especially if you do not know what some of the best free data mining tools are. rapidminer, rapidanalytics, weka, pspp, knime, orange, apache mahout, jhepwork, rattle, ghostminer, xeno, sas enterprise miner, polyanalyst and ibm spss modeler are the most common data mining tools used. in our work we have evaluated the following software: orange and weka. orange is a machine learning and data mining suite for data analysis through python scripting and visual programming. it focuses on simplicity, interactivity through scripting, and component-based design. orange library is a hierarchically-organized toolbox of data mining components. the main branches of the component hierarchy are: data management and preprocessing for data input and output, classification, regression, association for association rules and frequent item sets mining, clustering, which includes k-means and hierarchical clustering approaches, evaluation with cross-validation and other sampling-based procedures, projections with implementations of principal component analysis, multi-dimensional scaling and self-organizing maps. the library is designed to simplify the assembly of data analysis workflows and crafting of data mining approaches from a combination of existing components. orange scripting library is also a foundation for its visual programming platform with graphical user interface components for interactive data visualization (janez et al., 2013). below the focus on the clustering algorithms implemented by orange.  hierarchical clustering: computes hierarchical clustering of arbitrary types of objects from the matrix of distances between them and shows the corresponding dendrogram supports three kinds of linkages. in single linkage clustering, the distance between two clusters is defined as the distance between the closest elements of the two clusters. average linkage clustering computes the average distance between elements of the two clusters, and complete linkage defines the distance between two clusters as the distance between their most distant elements (hierarchical clustering. documentation for orange v2.7, 2014).  k-means clustering: applies the k-means clustering algorithm to the data from the input and outputs a new data set in which the cluster index is used for the class attribute. the original class attribute, if it existed, is moved to meta attributes (k-means clustering. documentation for orange v2.7, 2014). weka is a suite of machine learning software applications written in the java programming language. weka is waikato environment for knowledge analysis. weka is a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks. the algorithms can either be applied directly to a dataset or called from your own java code. weka contains tools for data pre-processing, classification, regression, clustering, association rules, and visualization (ian et al.,2011). weka provides access to r. paiano, s. pasanisi a new challenge for information mining 73 sql databases using java database connectivity and can process the result returned by a database query. it is not capable of multi-relational data mining, but there is separate software for converting a collection of linked database tables into a single table that is suitable for processing using weka (reutemann et al., 2004). weka provides comprehensive sets of data pre-processing tools, learning algorithms and evaluation methods, graphical user interfaces and an environment for comparing learning algorithms. weka contains “clusters” for finding groups of similar instances in a dataset. some implemented schemes are: k-means, em, cobweb, x-means, farthestfirst. another feature is the panel experimenter that makes it easy to compare the performance of different learning schemes. the evaluation options present are: cross-validation, learning curve, hold-out and it is possible also to iterate over different parameter settings (witten et al., 2016) for this work we have used at first the orange software. orange resulted interesting for the capability to design the data analysis process through the visual programming, but we met customization issues during the development and, furthermore, the software implements few partitional clustering algorithms. for this reasons our choice was changed and we are now orienting to the weka software. 5. evaluation of combination facet navigation and data mining in order to evaluate effort and performance obtained in used traditional and clustering analysis based approaches we refer to a case study related to the l4all portal in edoc project experience. 5.1. traditional approach in l4all exploratory portal l4all (fig. 1) hosts nearly 300 objects describing educational experiences in which the use of technology was relevant. each object entails several information items: an abstract, some structured data, one or more reports, interviews, documents produced within the experiment, etc. all the objects are classified by pedagogy experts according to a complex taxonomy consisting of 39 attributes’ categories and more than 300 attributes. categories and attributes are organized into widgets (see figure 2 – left hand side) supporting both selection and exploration. simple selection or complex selection operations, with boolean operators, are possible. each widget shows the value of the attributes for the current state of the dataset with different visualization. the current set of objects is shown on a “canvas” (see figure 2 right side of the interface). thanks to advanced human-computer interaction mechanisms, the portal can support sophisticated exploration activities in the cycle <selection, feedback, selection>. based on l4all, a number of scientific investigations by different research groups took place: on the relation between different forms of group-work and inclusion, on digital storytelling and related benefits, etc. (di blas, paolini, 2013; falcinelli, 2012; falcinelli, laici, 2012). let us see an example of investigation. in the case of the research on "expertise with technology" of a teacher and "student's performance ", the main point was investigating whether there was any relation between the two. in order to answer this question, the value “excellent" was selected within the facet "expertise with technology”; taking a look at the values related to level of performance (average, high or low) within the facet “student's performance” and comparing them with the universe (the initial set) it appeared that a relation was there: most of the values are average high. thus it was clear that the expertise with technology of a teacher is an important factor to student's performance. it is important to note that the exploration, in the exploratory portal, is aimed at experts in the domain that, on base of their knowledge of domain, are able to discover the information. 5.2. cluster analysis on facets our aim was to identify, through the use of data mining models, patterns knowledge inside of the facets of the exploratory portal. to achieve this purpose, we have applied the clustering brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 74 algorithm on experiences of the exploratory portal. the portal is schema-driven through a modeling of taxonomy, the data and the portal layout on excel. after the first phases of information retrieval and pre-processing of dataset (cleaning, enrichment, coding) we uploaded a dataset of the facets of the experiences in csv format on tool weka. figure 2. a screenshot of l4all portal the starting dataset consists of the general scheme of the complex taxonomy on which the modeling of experiences is based. the proposed general scheme consists of two excel files: one related to the data and one related to the annexes of the experiences. the data file consists of the following types of sheets:  widget: only one sheet, defines the overall layout and the number of columns in which subdivide the widgets in the interface;  define widget: one sheet for each facet, defines the structure of each widget, the labels displayed for each widget;  widget label: one sheet for each facet, defines the data of the experience. the connection between the sheets is through the widget id. the schema presented defines all aspects of the data for our case study. from this starting dataset we have extracted and built the dataset on which to apply the data mining clustering technique. we selected the relevant facets for our purpose (for example: the facets related to the municipality and province are not relevant in looking for similar relationships in the experiences and they were not taken into consideration, instead the facet "macro region" with attributes north, center, south, islands are useful to indicate the geographic area). so starting with the 39 initial r. paiano, s. pasanisi a new challenge for information mining 75 facets we extracted 23 facets for a total of 42 types of attribute and, after the operations of cleaning, enrichment and coding, we have a total of 118 instances. then we uploaded a dataset of the facets of the experiences in csv format on the weka tool that implements several clustering's algorithms: we tested simplekmeans on our dataset, described in paragraph 4.1. we tested the algorithm with different values of k, to find the optimal centroids. in general, as you know, there is no method for determining the exact value of k, but an accurate estimate can be obtained, for example, monitoring the value of the sum of squared error (sse) for some values of k (for example 2, 4, 6, 8, etc.). the sse is defined as the sum of the squared distance between each member of the cluster and its centroid. mathematically, we can write (1): )1(),( 1 2     k i cx i i cxdistsse in our case we estimated in k = 8 the best number of cluster. we obtained the following clustered instances: figure 3: clustered instances figure 4. results of weka's clustering brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 76 in the figure 4 we show that, in a particular cluster, attributes are grouped in the "good" attribute of "expertise with technology” with the "low" attribute of "student's performance" together. thus, we can deduce that the level of student's performance is influenced by other factors over "expertise with technology" of teacher. these factors can be searched inside the cluster, providing useful information to a significant exploration. these aspects are not deducible only by exploration through the portal and, for this reason, the clustering technique allows to user to navigate better during the search. in the table 1 a characterization of the identified clusters is presented, representing patterns of knowledge where a significant exploration is possible. table 1. patterns of knowledge clust characterization c0 teaching area: humanistic, expertise with technology of teacher: very good, macro-region: south, school level: primary, social-economic context: average, class performance: average c1 teaching area: technical-scientific, expertise with technology of teacher: very good, macroregion: south, school level: primary, social-economic context: low, class performance: average c2 teaching area: humanistic, expertise with technology of teacher: sufficient, macro-region: south, school level: college, social-economic context: average, class performance: average c3 teaching area: other, expertise with technology of teacher: good, macro-region: north, school level: secondary, social-economic context: average, class performance: average c4 teaching area: humanistic, expertise with technology of teacher: very good, macro-region: north, school level: secondary, social-economic context: average, class performance: average c5 teaching area: other, expertise with technology of teacher: sufficient, macro-region: north, school level: college, social-economic context: low, class performance: average c6 teaching area: humanistic, expertise with technology of teacher: good, macro-region: north, school level: secondary, social-economic context: high, class performance: low c7 teaching area: technical-scientific, expertise with technology of teacher: good, macro-region: north, school level: primary, social-economic context: average, class performance: average through patterns of knowledge, the user can explore the information within the more interesting cluster, facilitating the correct interpretation of the results of the exploration and, furthermore, can use the relevant properties of each cluster to refine the information search on the entire dataset in order to conduct a more effective general exploration. 6. results and discussion the clustering of rich data set discovers new properties (semantic relationship between attributes) compared to the results of exploration conducted on the portal. this has led to consider the introduction of cluster analysis of the facet very useful to improve exploratory experience. it is obtained in this way by the combination of two different paradigms: faceted search, with its fast interaction for the creation of subsets, and data mining, with its ability to understand the properties of the datasets. this combination leads to develop a series of new features and opens up new challenges and opportunities not previously available. therefore, among the results of this work there are:  the identification of patterns of knowledge, by the application of data mining tools;  the patterns of knowledge allow the user to explore the information within the more interesting cluster facilitating the correct interpretation of exploration results;  the relevant properties that allowed the tool to build clusters can be used by the user as a guide or indicator to conduct a more effective general exploration on all rich data set; r. paiano, s. pasanisi a new challenge for information mining 77  this approach, also, facilitates the exploration to a not-expert user of domain and increases the "awareness exploratory" to an expert user of domain. in the following figure (see figure 5) it has represented a scheme of the new approach proposed to rich data set's exploration: figure 5: new approach rich data exploration other experiments are running in order to validate our idea, both in order to optimize this clustering model by applying new algorithms and distance measures to the datasets presented here, and both applying these techniques to a different domain from the didactic one. other experiments are also conducted to improve user exploration by skillfully combining multiple methods and exploration techniques through the application of a variety of models such as the association rule to extract hidden relationships and association rules between data and artificial neural network mechanisms of learning applicable to classification and forecasting problems. 6. conclusions the present paper aims to make a combination between two data exploration techniques: facet search and data mining, in order to evaluate the improvement in terms of performance and effort that is possible to obtain during an exploratory experience. the combination is a new approach to the discovery and management of information by improving the exploratory experience of a user. the results obtained are encouraging because compared to the previous approach, where exploration is aimed at domain experts, who are able to make a user exploratory research based on their knowledge, we think it is useful to investigate this scientific research context with the aim of supporting a non-domain expert user in finding its way through an exploration. this approach introduces us into the field of information mining that aims at discovering knowledge, i.e. more general patterns within objects or collections of objects. in summary, the results obtained in terms of performance and effort during the case study we have conducted to perform the evaluation can confirm our expectations. references agarwal, s., milner, h., kleiner, a., talwalkar, a., jordan, m., madden, s. mozafari, s., & stoica, i. (2014). knowing when you’re wrong: building fast and reliable approximate query processing systems. in proceedings of the acm sigmod conference on management of data, 2014. alagiannis, i., borovica, r., branco, m., idreos. s., & ailamaki, a. n. (2012). efficient query execution on raw data files. in proceedings of the acm sigmod conference on management of data, 2012 (pp. 241–252). alasuutari, p. (2010). the rise and relevance of qualitative research. international journal of social research methodology 13(2), 139-155. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 78 anirban, m. et. al. (2014). a survey of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms for data mining: part i. evolutionary computation, ieee transactionson 18.1: 4-19, 20-35. behrens j. t. & chong h. y. (2003). exploratory data analysis. handbook of psychology. ben-yitzhak, o. et. al. (2008). beyond basic faceted search. in proceedings of the international conference on web search and web data mining, 2008 (p. 33 – 44). palo alto, california, usa. bifan w., jun l., qinghua z., wei z., xiaoyu f., & boqin f. (2013). a survey of faceted search. j. web eng. 12, 1-2 (february 2013), 41-64. dachselt, r., frisch, m., & weiland, m. (2008). facetzoom: a continuous multi-scale widget for navigating hierarchical metadata. in proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems (p. 1353-1356). florence, italy. demšar, j., curk, t., erjavec, a., gorup, č., hočevar, t., milutinovič, m., možina, m., polajnar, m., toplak, m., starič, a., stajdohar, m., umek, l., žagar, l., žbontar, j., žitnik, m., & zupan, b. (2013). orange: data mining toolbox in python. jmlr. 14(1): 2349–2353. di blas, n. & paolini, p. (2013). technology and group work: inclusion or diversification of talents?. in parmigiani, d., pennazio, v., & traverso, a. (eds.). learning & teaching with media & technology. atee-sirem winter conference proceedings, 2013, march 7-9 (pp. 218-231). genoa, italy. brussels, atee aisbl. di blas, n., fiore, a., mainetti, l., paolini, p., & vergallo, r. (2014). a portal of educational resources: providing evidence for matching pedagogy with technology. in research in learning technology, vol. 22, 2014, may 2014, p. 1-26, issn: 2156-7069. uk: co-action publishing. di blas, n., mazuran, m., paolini, p., quintarelli, e., & tanca, l. (2014, october). exploratory computing: a draft manifesto. in data science and advanced analytics (dsaa), 2014 international conference (pp. 577-580). ieee. di blas, n., paolini, p., & spagnolo, l. (2012). policultura portal: 15.000 students tell their stories about cultural heritage. in n. proctor and r. cherry (eds.), museums and the web 2012. selected papers from an international conference. archives & museum informatics. dimitriadou, k., papaemmanouil, o., & diao, y. (2014). explore-by-example: an automatic query steering framework for interactive data exploration. in proceedings of the acm sigmod conference on management of data. estivill-castro, v. & yang, j. a. (2000). fast and robust general purpose clustering algorithm. pacific rim international conference on artificial intelligence (pp. 208-218). falcinelli, f. & laici, c. (2012). teaching with ict: the policultura and moodle didactic format experimented in schools, ijcee, january-march 2012, vol. 2, no. 1. falcinelli, f. (2012, november 20-30). evidence-based research about the impact of ict on italian schools: the cl@ssi2.0 project. online educa berlin 2012. berlin. fraley c. & raftery a. e. (1998). how many clusters? which clustering method? answers via model-based cluster analysis. technical report no. 329. department of statistics university of washington. goto, y. (2015). information mining for big information. information granularity, big data, and computational intelligence. springer international publishing, 23-38. guido a. l., paiano r., pandurino a., & pasanisi s. (2015). searching issues: a survey on data exploration techniques. international journal of emerging trends and technology in computer science, vol. 4, p. 183-188, issn: 2278-68. gupta, g. k. (2001). introduction to data mining with case studies. phi learningpvt. ltd., 2014. han, j. and kamber, m. data mining: concepts and techniques. morgan kaufmann publishers. r. paiano, s. pasanisi a new challenge for information mining 79 hierarchical clustering. (2014). documentation for orange v2.7. retrieved from https://docs.orange.biolab.si/2/widgets/rst/unsupervized/hierarchicalclustering.html#hierarch ical-clustering. ian, h. w., eibe, f., & mark, a. (2011). data mining: practical machine learning tools and techniques, 3rd edition. morgan kaufmann, san francisco. idreos, s. & liarou, e. (2013). dbtouch: analytics at your fingertips. in proceedings of the biennial conference on innovative data systems research (cidr), 2013. idreos, s. (2013). big data exploration,taylor and francis. idreos, s., alagiannis, i., johnson, r., & ailamaki, a. (2011). here are my data files. here are my queries. where are my results? in proceedings of the biennial conference on innovative data systems research (cidr), 2011. idreos, s., papaemmanouil, o., & chaudhuri, s. (2015). overview of data exploration techniques. proceedings of the 2015 acm sigmod. international conference on management of data. acm, 2015. kalinin, a., cetintemel, u., & zdonik, s. (2014). interactive data exploration using semantic windows. in proceedings of the acm sigmod conference on management of data, 2014. kamat, n., jayachandran, p., tunga, k., & nandi, a. (2014). distributed interactive cube exploration. in proceedings of the international conference on data endineering (icde). kaufman, l., & rousseeuw, p. j. (1990). partitioning around medoids (program pam). finding groups in data: an introduction to cluster analysis: 68-125. kersten, m., idreos, s., manegold, s. & liarou, e. (2011). the researcher’s guide to the data deluge: querying a scientific database in just a few seconds. proceedings of the very large data bases endowment (pvldb), 4(12):1474–1477. k-means clustering. (2014). documentation for orange v2.7. retrieved from https://docs.orange.biolab.si/2/widgets/rst/unsupervized/kmeansclustering.html#k-meansclustering. kruse, r., & borgelt, c. (2003). information mining. international journal of approximate reasoning (ijar), vol.32(2), pp. 63-66. macqueen, j. (1967). some methods for classification and analysis of multivariate observations. proceedings of the fifth berkeley symposium on mathematical statistics and probability. vol. 1. no. 14. marchionini, g. (2006). exploratory search: from finding to understanding. communication of the acm, vol. 49, no. 4, p. 41. nandi, a. (2013). querying without keyboards. in proceedings of the biennial conference on innovative data systems research (cidr). paolini, p., & di blas, n. (2014, october). exploratory portals: the need for a new generation. in data science and advanced analytics (dsaa), 2014 international conference on (pp. 581586). ieee. parameswaran, n. p. & garcia-molina, h. (2013). seedb: visualizing database queries efficiently. proceedings of the very large data bases endowment (pvldb), 7(4):325–328. ramzan, m. & majid, a. (2014). evolution of data mining: anoverview. it in business, industry and government (csibig), 2014 conferenceon. ieee. ranganatan, s. r. (1991). elements of library classification (1st ed). bombay, new york: south asia books. 168p. reutemann, p., pfahringer, b., frank, e., (2004). proper: a toolbox for learning from relational data with propositional and multi-instance learners. 17th australian joint conference on artificial intelligence (ai2004). springer-verlag. spagnolo, l., bolchini, d., paolini, p., & di blas, n. (2010). beyond findability: search-enhanced information architecture for content-intensive rias. journal of information architecture, 2(1), 19-36. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 80 spiteri, l. (2008). a simplified model for facet analysis. canadian journal of information and library science, 23(1-2) p.1-30. srivastava, jaideep, prasanna, d., & kumar, v. (2002). web mining: accomplishments and future directions. national science foundation workshop on next generation data mining (ngdm'02). tkach, daniel, s. (1998). information mining with the ibm intelligent miner family. an ibm software solutions white paper: 1-29. tukey & john, w. (1977). exploratory data analysis: 2-3. tzitzikas, yannis, nikos, m., & papadakos, p. (2016). faceted exploration of rdf/s datasets: a survey. journal of intelligent information systems: 1-36. white, r. w., muresan, g., & marchionini, g. (2006, december). report on acm sigir 2006 workshop on evaluating exploratory search systems. in acm sigir forum, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 52-60. acm. wildemuth, b. m. & freund., l. (2012). assigning search tasks designed to elicit exploratory search behaviors. in procs of the symposium on human-computer interaction and information retrieval, hcir ’12 (p 4:1–4:10). new york, ny, usa, acm. witten, ian, h., et al. (2016). data mining: practical machine learning tools and techniques. morgan kaufmann. wu, e., battle, l., & madden, s. (2014). the case for data visualization management systems. proceedings of the very large data bases endowment (pvldb), 7(10), pp. 903–906. roberto paiano (b. june 14, 1958) graduated in electronic engineering at the university of bologna. he worked in ibm for 10 years. he was team leader at ibm rnsl and project manager at the corinto consortium (national research consortium about object-oriented technology). he was member of the ieee. currently, he is assistant professor at university of salento (italy). he has authored papers about information systems, web modeling and design, metrics for the web development. his current research interests are: the methodology of design of web information systems, the automatic code generation using open-source frameworks and information systems modeling. stefania pasanisi (b. october 6, 1978) graduated in automation engineering at the university of salento (italy) in april 2009. after the degree she worked for five years in the company (lecce) on projects for observational study and experimental project in the medical field and for design and development software and web applications. since november 2014 she is a phd student in engineering of complex systems at the university of salento (italy). her main research areas include advanced semantics exploration techniques on dynamic and complex information spaces, exploratory computing technique and data mining. she participates tpo several research projects and she is (co-) author of several scientific papers. microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1 103 micro learning: a modernized education system omer jomah faculty of education, azzaytuna university, baniwalid, libya immer.jomah@gmail.com amamer khalil masoud higher institute of medical science, baniwalid, libya mkmasoud@hotmail.com xavier patrick kishore faculty of education, azzaytuna university, baniwalid, libya patrick.kishore@gmail.com sagaya aurelia faculty of education, azzaytuna university, baniwalid, libya psagaya.aurelia@gmail.com abstract learning is an understanding of how the human brain is wired to learning rather than to an approach or a system. it is one of the best and most frequent approaches for the 21 st century learners. micro learning is more interesting due to its way of teaching and learning the content in a small, very specific burst. here the learners decide what and when to learn. content, time, curriculum, form, process, mediality, and learning type are the dimensions of micro learning. our paper will discuss about micro learning and about the micro-content management system. the study will reflect the views of different users, and will analyze the collected data. finally, it will be concluded with its pros and cons. keyword: micro learning, education, knowledge, work-based learning, micro content 1. introduction the impact of information and communication technology (ict) is becoming increasingly effective in teaching and learning at all the levels of education. micro-learning: it’s learning in tiny chunks and short bursts of time. great way to learn in the small. goes well with mobile. will only get bigger in the future. micro learning is enjoying a rapid growth and importance among the changing management and learning professionals. micro learning is the most suitable method for the latest learning system. the search for the right technology has been the core concept of micro learning 1 . on the other hand micro learning is a new way of responding to the necessity of work-based learning, lifelong learning, personal learning, and much more. it is more successful due to its perfect combination of small chunks of learning content along with the flexibility of technology. micro learning has become more popular due to its features such as learner centric, affordable, interactive, and well designed. section i will discuss about micro learning and its advantages, while section ii will discuss about micro content. section iii and iv will state about the methodology, and the collected data will be analyzed, and the final section, v, will conclude with discussions. 2. micro learning micro-learning (from the greek word “micro” meaning small) is all about getting your elearning in small doses, as tiny bursts of training material that you can comprehend in a short time (http://www.efrontlearning.net dated on 10/10/2015). it goes along with traditional elearning, but in smaller segments. in micro learning instructional design techniques are used to acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities which happen on a daily basis. 1 http://www.talentlms.com/elearning/elearning-101-jan2014-v1.1.pdf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 104 the methods of micro learning are in line with the way that the learner’s brain naturally takes in information, so that the body does not get stressed-out. one of the salient features of micro learning is that it allows the user to find exactly what he or she is looking for. when the mind focuses on a particular question, it is the most open to receiving that answer (www.digitalpromise.org/microcredentials dated on 10/10/2015). it allows the learner’s brain to explore its own curiosity and its own patterns. figure 1. mind mapping of concepts and versions of micro learning (hug, 2005) a. advantages of micro learning • micro-learning is performed in short time bursts; • micro-learning requires little effort from individual sessions; • micro-learning involves simple and/or narrow topics; • it’s fun and engaging. it makes the user always be updated; • it’s casual and informal (www.digitalpromise.org/microcredentials dated on 10/10/2015); • micro learning is a way to solve the problems that educators and trainers of today deal with. there are a few main advantages such as continuous updates, multitasking, getting interactive, staying alert, pocket benefits, and blended up. it is a daily learning process. mobile learning and daily learning go hand in hand, which allows the user to learn anywhere and anytime. b. limitations of micro learning • micro-learning is not useful when people need to acquire/learn complex skills, processes, or behaviors; • people need relevant practice and feedback on performance; • people cannot multi-task. it is an illusion to think we can learn and do other work tasks at the same time; • reading something or even following the steps listed in a micro-lesson is not the same thing as “learning” (http://www.bottomlineperformance.com/the-myth-of-micro-learning/ dated pm 11/10/2015). o. jomah, a. k. masoud, x. p. kishore, s. aurelia micro learning: a modernized education system 105 3. microcontent the microcontent is a small unit of digital information. it has very limited and important information compared to a regular content (because of the size of the screen and the complexity of the interface). microcontents are always remixable and reusable based on the mind of the user, on the processing method of an application, and on the screen of the device. the contents are always free to be separated, and can form any new pattern (sánchez-alonso et al., 2006). microcontents are clearly distinguished from macrocontents because they are formal, as well as semantic. microcontents are very attractive because they are also individually addressed and referred to by sets of formal metadata. the metaweb itself is formed of microcontent. 4. methodology the main objective of this research is to create a universal awareness among the learners, to know the necessity of micro learning, and to increase the usability of learning through electronic devices. the importance of micro learning on daily bases should be understood and increased, which is also one of our goal. the respondents for the population research will be kept down to a small number of 100 respondents. the respondents are mixed group of students (both school and college), teachers, professors, working professionals, unemployed, house wives, research scholars, etc. for the purpose of obtaining information for micro learning, information was gathered through interviews conducted over the telephone, e-mails, face-to-face meetings, etc. table 1. yes/ no questionnaire table 2. yes/ no questionnaire yes no i welcome a new and smart version of software. i rely on my work infrastructure to support my learning needs. i learn more often in personnel learning environment. i prefer microcontent to transform knowledge. i prefer a simple and smart learning system in regular basics. yes no books images video clips sound and voice recording journals emails graphical displays reference volume electronic devices like smartphone…. others ………….. (please specify) table 3. usage of electronic devices (in specific about smartphones, etc), select your choice table 4. strengthening knowledge input through microlearning dimensions. state your view for emails for social networking sites like facebook, twitter…. for learning and updating for communication like whatsapp , viber extra others mediality learning type form process curriculum content time all brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 106 table 5. activities dealing with micro learning, select your choice table 6. comparison for identifying the key success factor versus learning approach tagging story telling mind mapping text others ………….. (please specify) traditional learning macro learning micro learning shared knowledge reading user friendly global access from multiple devices easy learning simple content transferability holistic recursive resource table 7. likert scale questionnaire agree strongly agree disagree strongly disagree micro learning is the best learning system for working environments. micro learning is suitable for diverse subjects. dynamic applications of micro learning enhance knowledge. digital artifacts are used in micro learning for maximizing the process of aggregation, arrangement manipulation and configuration. integrated micro learning like a mashup personal learning environment is more effective. 5. data analysis the authors made a percentage analysis based on the basic data collected from the respondents. out of 100 questionnaires distributed for data collection for the research study, only 91 were received. after reviewing the questionnaires, 7 were incomplete; therefore they were removed from the analysis. the following analysis is based on 84 full and complete questionnaires. o. jomah, a. k. masoud, x. p. kishore, s. aurelia micro learning: a modernized education system 107 figure 2. current status and necessity of micro learning to the inquiry on the current status of the learning methodology, 90% of the respondents welcomed a new and smart version of software which in turn leads to micro learning system. 80% of the respondents are currently relying on the work infrastructure to support their learning, whereas 75% of the respondents use more often ple. 80% of the respondents are looking towards a simple and smart learning system in regular basics and microcontent to transform knowledge. figure 3. impact of the boom in digital data in learning figure 3 portrays the research guiding the impact of the boom in digital data in knowledge codification. the current status shows that 80% of the respondents are interested in learning via electronic devices, followed by e-mails at 75%. 72% and 70% of respondents opt for video clips and sound and voice recording. 65% of the respondents selected images followed by graphical display at 61%. 50% of the respondents selected journals. further observation from the figure reveals that books and reference volumes had a very insignificant impact, as expected by merely 45% and 30% of the respondents. this directed us towards the necessity for micro learning, and encourages the increase of the usage of electronic devices. figure 4.the purpose for using smartphones figure 4 shows the purpose of using smartphones. the current status implies that a maximum number of 91% of the respondents use it for social networking. 77% of the respondents use it for communication (whatsapp, viber, etc.) followed by e-mails at 55%. only 43% of the respondents use it for learning and updating (translation, dictionary, etc). comparing figure 3 and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 108 figure 4 the research identified the gap between electronic device which they prefer for learning and the usage of that electronic devices for learning and updating. figure 5. microlearning dimensions the inquiry on the different aspects of the various dimension of microlearning is reflected in figure 5. the result is obtained based on 82 respondents who were learners from different groups. 74% of the respondents consider that process to be a micro learning dimension which strengthens the knowledge input followed by time, up to 60%. the curriculum and mediality had the same 46% of the respondents. 32% and 30% of the respondents believe that the learning type and the content strengthen the knowledge input through microlearning. the lowest percentage is of 20% and 14%. figure 6. activities dealing with microlearning there are many unique activities involved in microlearning, which provides a high rate of successful knowledge transformation. to the inquiry made in research on the activities dealing with microlearning that support knowledge transformation, figure 6 shows that mind mapping has the highest view of respondents, up to 72%, the nearest to it is story telling with 50%. the variation displayed in the figure is significant. 44% of the respondents opt for tagging followed by text with 38%. o. jomah, a. k. masoud, x. p. kishore, s. aurelia micro learning: a modernized education system 109 figure 7. comparison for identifying the success factor key versus the learning approach to the inquiry on which type of learning approach has higher sharing knowledge reading, global access for multiple devices, simple content transferability, recursive resource, microlearning was highly welcomed. micro learning, with a top of 82%, confirms it is holistic and user friendly, followed by macro learning. the above inquiry confirmed that the new age learners look towards a modernized and innovative learning approach rather that the traditional learning system. figure 8. knowledge input dimension of microlearning figure 8 portrays the research directing the studies on the knowledge input dimension of microlearning. almost 81% of the respondents believed that microlearning is the best learning system for integrated mashup ple, followed by 66% of the respondents whose opinion was that dynamic applications of microlearning enhances knowledge. almost 72% of the respondents believed that microlearning is suitable for diverse subjects, whereas 67% of the respondents believed that the use of digital artifacts maximizes the process of aggregation. 6. result and discussion we found that micro learning concepts, based on mobile web learning, lead to a modernized education system. microcontents are a small burst of learning objects which are informal, but enrich the knowledge input. the study basically identifies the gap between the uses of electronic devices with the micro learning. even though more preferences were given to learning systems based on electronic devices, a lack of awareness of micro learning was identified at the initial stage. after creating awareness, the later part of the study clearly specified that micro learning is highly useful, and can be used for knowledge acquisition as well as for skill growth irrespective of diverse subjects. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 110 references job, m.a. & ogalo, h.s. (2012). micro learning as innovative process of knowledge strategy, international journal of scientific & technology research, volume 1, issue 11, pp. 92-96. hug, t. (2005). micro learning and narration exploring possibilities of utilization of narrations and storytelling for the designing of “micro units” and didactical micro-learning arrangements, fourth media in transition conference, mit, cambridge (ma), usa, pp.1-14. sánchez-alonso, s., sicilia, m.a., & garcía-barriocanal, e. (2006). from microcontents to microlearning objects – which semantics are required? (semantics for micro learning), computer science department – university of alcalá (spain), pp. 295-303. retrieved from http://www.cc.uah.es/ssalonso/papers/sanchezetal_microlearning06.pdf mandelli, c. (2014). putting learners n chare: micro-learning for erp system user adoption. sap north america education, acmp change mangement, fl, usa, pp. 1-8. gassler, g., hug, t., & glahn, c. (2010). integrated micro learning an outline of the basic method and first results. research sudio elearning environments, arc seibersdorf research gmbh, pp.1-7. brain_4 141 looking for oriental fundamentals fuzzy logic ángel garrido department of fundamental mathematics, faculty of sciences, uned, paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040-madrid, spain e-mail: agarrido@mat.uned.es piedad yuste department and faculty of philosophy, uned, paseo senda del rey, 7, 28040-madrid, spain e-mail: pyuste@fsof.uned.es abstract: for quite some time we have been trying to trace the river of non-classical logics, and especially, fuzzy logic, trying to find the sources of this today flowing quite mighty river. following from lotfi a. zadeh, we have traced his inspiring, the polish logician jan lukasiewicz, who in turn was inspired by aristotle's peri hermeneias (de interpretatione). also, lukasiewicz occupies a central position in the lvov-warsaw school, who founded kazimierz twardowski, a student of franz brentano, and this in turn disciple of bernard bolzano. the connection with leibniz and bolzano come through medieval scholastic thinkers, especially john duns scotus and william of ockham and the problem of future contingents, they had collected from the aristotelian tradition. but there was to trace the “eastern (oriental) track, which leads to the ancient chinese and indian philosophy. here we will treat it as a first and necessary approach. keywords: history of logic; mathematical logic; non-classical logics; fuzzy logic; oriental thought. 1. introduction at the beginning of its expansion, the ideas published by lotfi a. zadeh was not well received in the west, even in many cases were bitterly dismissed by the more conservative elements of the scientific community. however, over time began to gain enough supporters, which led to these theories were being extended again and again, settling firmly among the most innovative scientists, and especially among the best professionals, more than anywhere else, initially in japan and then south korea, china and india. europe and the states have been incorporated into this new math, but more slowly. as a matter picturesque, if you will, but true, we can tell that the now recognized by many as “the father of fuzzy logic”, lotfi a. zadeh, in his time met with executives from ibm, which told him that his “discovery” had no interest or no utility. of course, it will be considered a very clear model of intelligence and vision. were it not so, you probably have developed the united states and other western countries many of the remarkable technological advances arising from the new science. zadeh´s intention was to create a formalism to handle more efficiently the imprecision of human reasoning. it was in 1971 when he published his “quantitative fuzzy semantics”, in which appeared the formal elements that led to the methodology of fuzzy logic and its applications, as known today. from the above it follows that you may need a radical rethink of our classical concepts of truth and falsehood, replacing the concept of fuzziness (vagueness or fuzziness) as a result of which the truth or falsity are only extreme cases1. by fuzziness understand the fact that a proposition may be partially true and partially false simultaneously. a person is not just high or low, but partially may participate in both features, so that only above and below certain heights necessarily called it higher or lower bound, while in the intermediate zone of both heights exist as a graduation which is brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 142 ceasing to be high. it seems intuitively clear that the concept of fuzziness is rooted in most of our ways of thinking and speaking. another separate issue is the valuation that each individual granted such a fuzzy character (the glass half full or half empty), which depend on subjective psychological issues and difficult to evaluate. the fuzzy principle states that everything is a matter of degree. it will be its more famous “leitmotiv”. all propositions acquire a truth value between one (true) and zero (false), inclusive. the allocation of these extreme values will only be given in the case of logical truths or falsehoods or strong inductions: “all men are mortal” can be an example of strong induction, since there is no counterexample. american professor bart kosko2 highlighted the differences between eastern and western philosophies regarding the concept of truth, summing up in opposition against aristotle buddha. in fact, kosko said that western philosophy, aristotle's successor, has accepted uncritically the bivalent as the system that is useful, but overly simplifying complex reality. put simply: what has won in simplicity is lost in accuracy. by contrast, eastern philosophies: buddha, lao tse, confucius, etc. always have accepted the strict unity of opposites, of what they call (as we know) the yin and yang. on the other hand, if it is true that aristotle was the great introducer of bivalence absolute5, we should not ignore that he was not spent entirely overlooked aspects could be fuzzy propositions, as when he commented that: “in any case, what is said according to these (qualities) supports arguably the most and least”, or when we talk about that we can come to knowledge, but without the certainty of it. if aristotle did not study this concept, it may have been lacking the necessary mathematical knowledge for development. it was not until the appearance of a calculus increasingly systematic and operational, combinatorics and probability theory, or the new theory, now known as 'crisp', or classic, sets, initiated by cantor, as well as modern statistics and matrix calculations. aristotle did not have the mathematical apparatus for developing a fuzzy logic [1,5]. the gestation of this construct starts with newton and leibniz, who developed calculus in the seventeenth century. despite the obsession with accuracy in mathematics has made them perfectly applicable sentence einstein: “to the extent that mathematics refer to reality, not true. and to the extent they are true, not refer to reality”. but does not say einstein is undoubtedly the deductive apparatus developed by mathematics facilitates the understanding of reality. the explanation given by aristotle movement is replaced by the most innovative in newton, but thanks to a sharp appoggiatura in calculus, without which it would not have been possible. however, the infinitesimal calculus in depth was only used for the study of physics in the following centuries, experiencing spectacular growth with euler, laplace, lagrange, fourier, and so on. today permeates all sciences, both social and human and natural. this calculus mathematics introduced the question of degree: to what degree is modified by changing seamlessly b, where a is a dependent variable b? classical aristotelian logic has been shown, therefore, and for a long time, quite effective in science so-called “hard”, such as math or physics. but it is insufficient when the predicates contain imprecision, uncertainty or vagueness, on the other hand, is how the brain actually works and human reasoning, and in general, is how systems behave around us. fuzzy logic has also helped that the software can interpret judgments of this kind. sifting through old eastern doctrines [7], we can find some buddhist beliefs closely related to what we understand as degrees of truth, and with the doctrine of the two truths. 2. indian logical tradition nagarjuna (150-250 bc) was the founder of indian madhyamaka school of mahayana buddhism. the term madhyamaka means “middle path or middle way.” he was the foremost philosopher in the tradition of indian thought. nagarjuna was also a notable practitioner of traditional indian ayurvedic medicine. among its conceptualizations, we can find some descriptions of the circulatory system and blood tissue. a. garrido & p. yuste looking for oriental fundamentals fuzzy logic 143 in western medicine, at least so far, ayurvedic medicine is considered alternative because it is only offered as a complementary treatment, which does not replace or traditional diagnosis nor “pharmacopoeia” the western expert. balance is emphasized; says that suppress natural urges is seen to be unhealthy, and that if you do one, you can almost certainly lead to illness. therefore, people are advised to stay within the limits of reasonable balance and measure of fair or average. its main contribution is in the use of the concept of “emptiness” (in spanish, “vacuidad”), which brings together other key buddhist doctrines, thereby seeking to refute the metaphysics. for nagarjuna, as for the buddha from ancient texts, it is not merely sentient beings that are "selfless" or non-substantial, all phenomena are empty of any "self-nature", and thus without any underlying essence. are independently be existing gaps. this is so because all things arise always dependently: not by their own power, but in terms of the conditions that lead to its passage into existence, as opposed to being. nagarjuna was also instrumental in the development of the doctrine of the two truths5, which states that there are two levels of truth, a truth which is directly, and one which is only conventionally or instrumentally true. thus nagarjuna6 says that “…this world is supported by a polarity, that of existence and non-existence… everything exists: that is one extreme. everything doesn´t exist: that is a second extreme. avoiding these two extremes, the tathagata teaches the dhamma via the middle...” nāgārjuna differentiates between the teachings conventionally true and ultimately true, but never stated that any conceptually formulated doctrine come to fall into the latter category. this was made famous in his “tetralemma”, composed of the following logical propositions: x (affirmation); non-x (negation); x and non-x (both); neither x nor non-x (neither). therefore, we can establish at least three original traditions within the logic: the traditions of the greek thinkers, china and india. the latter continued until very modern times, through navyanyaya school of logic, because the rig veda contains certain speculative considerations in terms of logical divisions. more precisely, “a”, “nor a”, “a and nor a”, and “neither a and nor not-a”, which coincides with the aforementioned tetralemma. another indian thinker, panini, v century bc, will develop a logic that bears some interesting similarities with boolean logic. the navya-nyaya school also developed a conceptual scheme that solves problems of logic, based on a very similar development theories to ideas which will then expose gottlob frege [4]. all these schools were discovered by british researchers in the eighteenth century [8]. mentioned especially the work in this respect, h. t. colebroke. an analysis of their inferences, establishing a comparison with aristotelian logic, resulting in the aristotelian syllogism could not explain the indian syllogism. the german mathematician hermann weyl (1885-1955), in 1924, wrote that “occident mathematics has in the past centuries broken away from the greek view, and followed a course which seems to have originated in india, and which has been transmitted, with additions, to us by the arabs; in it the concept of number appears as logically prior to the concepts of geometry”. in fact, it is clear that the logic of india has profoundly influenced many western modern logicians, such as charles babbage, george boole, augustus de morgan or, impressed by the news which reached them. they all belonged to the nineteenth century, which can be called “modern” in many ways. the same augustus de morgan said that: “the two races which founded mathematics, languages of sanskrit and greek, were the two that have formed independently logic systems”. therefore, it is time that we are aware of mathematicians remarkable influence on all of us have had indian mathematics. in fact, these are some of the fundamental roots of thought and western science. 3. chinese logical tradition even then try a line of thought that even if it was truncated at the time, it shall nevertheless be a precursor honorable formal logic: is the current in the history of thought in ancient china was called the “mohism”, or “moism”. so, we now turn to such announced line of chinese thinking. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 144 this is a chinese philosophical school founded by mo tzu late v century bc. in morals, proposed an egalitarian society and had to seek mutual love between all people. mo tzu said, better known as “master mo”, was a contemporary of confucius. for even when the first chinese philosopher kong news is that we have di, who founded the school called the lawyers, very fond of the ceremonies and traditions, the second most notable was this mo di. after assimilating the ideas of kong's subjected to sharp criticism up to found his own “school of master mo”. this school was more than an educational group, getting to be a quasireligious and military group. it is like the closer to what was in the west the knights templar or other warrior-monks. they were disciplined and well organized, leading a frugal life and practicing martial arts. it might also remind the “samurai” of japan, across distances of space and time. while fans of another school teacher, kong, tended to come from noble castes and circles of the court, in mo were integrated especially popular classes. it would, therefore, warriors own half. let us also note that mo di despised and criticized all protocols and labels both abused by then the chinese court. his writings and those of his disciples are contained in the book mozi, which is composed of seventy-one chapters, preserved only fifty-three. of these, the first nine defensive war try and build walls, others speak of moral and political philosophy in recent addresses epistemological issues, specifically scientific and logical. mosterin says3 that: “kong respected the tradition and despised maximum profit. mo despised tradition and made the profit, individual utility and social touchstone of all institutions. in fact, the morale of mo di was teleological, and even utilitarian versus deontologism of kong.” in the mozi find a constant methodological concern because: “not only claims and suggests, but tries to prove and convince.” hence the importance attached by the mozi to the criteria or standards: “...it is necessary to establish some criterion or standard of judgment. affirm a proposition without stating under what criteria or what standard we rely to establish it is like trying to set the address of departure and sunset on the rotating potter around”. [3] the question in this text: “how to check that a standard is appropriate? we can see this by applying the triple test: 1) the test of the foundation, which show that the standard is well founded, and is compatible with the best knowledge we already possess; 2) the test of verifiability, which uses what people can see with their eyes and hear with their ears; 3) the test the applicability, showing that its adoption leads to greater well-being and enjoyment. the test of the applicability is based on its implementation produces beneficial results for the people. but how do we know that the results are beneficial for the people? for the quadruple test, it produces: 1) enrichment of the poor; 2) increase in population; 3) reduction of hazards; 4) decrease clutter and increase enforcement. this methodological concern is new in chinese thought, and lead, in the subsequent evolution of the mohist school, a remarkable development of logic and epistemology.” mosterin concludes that: “during the fourth century bc., and third century bc, mohist school, so-called the mojia, was remarkably successful. that late third century a. c., disappears, and the second a. c. there was no trace of him”. [3] in regard to actual logical issues are particularly interested in the problems of valid inference and the conditions necessary to reach the right conclusions reached. the approach “mohist” to logic and argumentation theory potentiated rhetorical analogies, mathematical reasoning a. garrido & p. yuste looking for oriental fundamentals fuzzy logic 145 superimposing himself. it was based on a method called “three fa”, which served to make distinctions between types of things. there in the mainstream a sort of three tributaries, one of which was precisely the school “logicians”. this is what we want to mention here, because according to experts, would be the most arcane precursor of formal logic. but the rigid legal rules imposed by the qin dynasty ended with all this power, leaving many contributions transmitted in a direct or otherwise, although it has tried to reconstruct indirect ways. in conclusion, it was subjected to direct repression, leading to its abandonment. would, therefore, everything plunged into a long silence from the distant chinese soil, until buddhism with indian philosophy begins to reach them, which, however, failed to take root as it should, by the lack of a suitable base to absorb it. [6,7] 4. conclusions the initial purpose of this work was to put ourselves in the path of knowledge of both traditions of thought, china and india, in order to go deeper and further into the “prehistory” of logical thinking related to the idea of vagueness and the idea uncertainty that currently are key science and philosophy. we have gotten at least arouse interest for it. acknowledgments this paper was prepared within the research project spanish micinn, ff 2011-29623, “el papel de las controversias en la producción de las prácticas teóricas y en el fortalecimiento de la sociedad civil”, which now directs cristina de peretti. references [1] garrido, a., “searching the arcane origins of fuzzy logic”. brain (broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience), vol. 2(2), pp. 51-57, 2011. [2] kosko, b., fuzzy thinking. the new science of fuzzy logic. hyperion publ. co., 1994. [3] mosterín, j., china: historia del pensamiento. alianza editorial, madrid, 2007. [4] ib., india: historia del pensamiento. alianza editorial, madrid, 2007. [5] rescher, n., many-valued logic. mac graw hill publ. co., n. y., 1965. [6] román sánchez, m. t., enseñanzas espirituales de la india. ediciones oberón. madrid, 2001. [7] ib., sabidurías orientales de la antigüedad. alianza editorial. segunda edición, 2008. [8] zinoviev, a. a., philosophical problems of many-valued logic. d. reidel publ. co., dordrecht-holland, 1963. brain_4_issues_1_2 5 evolving spiking neural networks for control of artificial creatures arash ahmadi electronic system design group, electronics & computer science, university of southampton tel: (+44) (0)23 8059 3545, fax: (+44) (0)23 8059 2901, southampton so17 1bj, united kingdom, http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/aa5/ email: aa5@ecs.soton.ac.uk abstract: to understand and analysis behavior of complicated and intelligent organisms, scientists apply bio-inspired concepts including evolution and learning to mathematical models and analyses. researchers utilize these perceptions in different applications, searching for improved methods and approaches for modern computational systems. this paper presents a genetic algorithm based evolution framework in which spiking neural network (snn) of artificial creatures are evolved for higher chance of survival in a virtual environment. the artificial creatures are composed of randomly connected izhikevich spiking reservoir neural networks using population activity rate coding. inspired by biological neurons, the neuronal connections are considered with different axonal conduction delays. simulations results prove that the evolutionary algorithm has the capability to find or synthesis artificial creatures which can survive in the environment successfully. keywords: spiking neural networks (snn), izhikevich model, genetic algorithm (ga), artificial creature. 1. introduction artificial neural networks are inspired by natural neural systems such as brain. human brain, for instance, consists of about 1011 neurons with over 6 × 1013 interconnections. brain has an unapproachable potential in a wide variety of parallel information processing such as pattern recognition, speech processing, sensory system, locomotion, learning, etc., which are impossible by conventional computational devices. therefore, scientists have been trying to understand different aspects about brain functionality. following this path, different features of neurons, as the building blocks of the neural systems, have been investigated in terms of mathematical/circuit models, dynamic behavior and time-spatial and topological network properties and so on. as a result, a new generation of neural network is introduced: spiking neural network (snn). snns are the third generation of artificial neural network in which spikes train are the basis of the information exchange between individual neurons. in comparison, the first generation of artificial neural networks consists of mcculloch-pitts neurons which can only present digital outputs, whereas in the second generation neurons communicate with continuous activation function [1-4]. in recent decades, the spiking neural network is progressively receiving attention because this approach to the neural networks expands the level of realism in simulation and dynamic analysis is considered as a powerful tool for examination of brain process such as information coding, plasticity and learning. in this regard, several mathematical models have been presented to describe the behavior of the spiking neurons [5]. some models attempt to simulate the neuron very precisely. this group of models is usually computationally expensive and is not suitable for large scale neural network realization. there are models, on the other hand, which do not characterize the neuron very precisely but can be used to create large scale neural networks. one important method in order to comprehend how the brain turns sensory input into actions is behavioral study of the artificial creatures. from this point of view, snns have the potential to be used in neural network controller of the artificial creatures. although, compared to mammalians brain, far less number of neurons can be realized in the nervous system of artificial creatures, study of their behaviors is vitally beneficial for understanding complex nervous systems. brainstorming & brainovations brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 different learning methods have been developed for both types of artificial and biological neural networks [6]. these learning mechanisms are usually based on adjustment of the synaptic strengths (or weights). although this classic learning approach can be adequate in the first and second generation of neural networks, nature of snn presents higher degree of complexity which needs more complicated learning approaches such as spike timing-dependent plasticity (stdp) [7]. there are a wide range of characteristics in a snn which are essential in behavioral changes which must be taken into account in a learning algorithm such as network topology, neurons’ type, synaptic weight and synaptic delays [8]. there are a many variations of evolutionary algorithms (ea) [9] to search within a huge number of possibilities for solutions. evolutionary search can be applied to find the most successful network for specific applications and improve the learning capabilities of neural networks. three basic types of these techniques are: genetic algorithms (ga), evolutionary programming (ep) and evolutionary strategies (es). among these evolutionary algorithms, ga [10] is the most popular and widely used computational model of evolutionary processes for solving practical problems and has been used as a systematic model of evolution in artificial-life systems. this algorithm emulates some of the processes observed in nature such as selection, mutation and population dynamics. one of the active fields of research, in which evolutionary algorithms are utilized, is evolutionary robotic [11]. evolutionary robotics was developed in 1990s as a field of research to build robot controllers without detailed hand design. the basic assumption of evolutionary robotics is to evolve a population of robots as autonomous artificial organism by evolutionary algorithms to improve them by generations. one main research application in evolutionary robotics is the evolution of neuro-controllers which use the neural networks for control of robots. in 1992 dave cliff, philip husbands and inman harvey [12] indicated that neural network control architecture can be evolved to make visually guided robots. also, spiking neuro-controllers have been evolved by some researchers successfully, such as evolution of spiking neural controllers for autonomous vision-based robots by dario floreano and claudio mattiussi [13]. they used spike response model neuron and showed that the evolution can find relatively quickly functional spiking controllers capable of navigating in irregularly textured environments without hitting obstacles. evolving snns by adaptive genetic algorithm (ga) have also been used to control a khepera robot [14]. the robot which is controlled by neural networks can perform interesting behaviors. the applications of neural robotics are increasing and have attracted significant attentions in research of artificial intelligence. the main objective of this study is to discover optimal structures for an artificial creature with survival capability in virtual environment. each creature starts with a limited level of energy and has the opportunity to find food objects to gain required energy for their survival. ga has been utilized to find the better creature structures, because the nature of biological neural networks are far more complex compared with traditional artificial neural networks; therefore, it is impossible to formulate and find the optimal structure using precise analytical approaches. in this paper a set of simulation-based artificial creatures using spiking neural network and genetic algorithm are presented. the paper is organized as follows: at first, background is described in section 2. in section 3, neural network structure of artificial creatures is explained; this section consists of two parts: part a, neuronal network model and part b, synaptic delay model. section 4 presents the artificial creatures and environment. in section 5 the evolutionary model which has been used is described. in section 6 simulations are shown and results and conclusions are subsequently explained in section 7. 2. background despite recent advancements, scientists are still attempting to figure out wide range of unsolved problems about the most powerful organism of human body: the brain. one of the challenges in recent years has been recognizing the behavior of this complicated organism, in order a. ahmadi evolving spiking neural networks for control of artificial creatures 7 to achieve more efficiency in neuromorphic computational and control systems. in this path, scientists discover electrochemical process of biological neurons, connectivity topologies, learning rules and etc. these concepts are used by computational neuroscientists to construct artificial models, such as artificial life and robots. a set of studies about artificial life and robotic have been developed recently. for instance; in [15] a c.elegans artificial creature has been presented. in this case since the c.elegans has a preliminary known specific neural structure there is no need for further investigation of the neural structure, whereas the approach which is presented in our work is to discover the most compatible structure among a large space of possible solutions. this is a step towards achieving a better understanding of real behavior in nature. for this reason, a reservoir neural network is used. in continue reservoir neural network and neuron model are discussed. reservoir neural network snn is capable of producing a variety dynamic and behavior. they can be organized for many applications such as multilayer feed forward or recurrent networks, like traditional neural networks; however, snn’s operation is different from traditional networks. according to biological observations, a biological network topology can be composed of randomly connected neurons in which only active neurons process the information. therefore, it does not seem necessary that a biological neural network has a regular structure as in traditional anns. normally, in a natural system, neurons are distributed in a randomly connected form within a large scale consistent structure. with this explanation, a new form of artificial neural network was introduced: reservoir computing (rc). the main goal of the reservoir network is to enrich inner dynamics of the network in response to the input signals, as to attain the required flexibility, dynamic and adaptivity [16]. initially, concept of reservoir computing structure, was extended by maass [16], jaeger [17].this type of network is suitable especially for temporal input and output pattern processing, where high efficiency can typically be achieved without too much concern about specific settings of the reservoir parameters. principal specifications of reservoir computing model are [18-19]: layer of k input neurons are connected to the reservoir. a main part consist of m randomly connected neurons. a layer of readout neurons with trained connections from reservoir network. the main motivation of reservoir computing is a large solution space creation to discover the best and most compatible networks for special purposes. to enhance the strength of this network one choice is to applying spike time dependent plasticity (stdp) to neuron connections rules inside the reservoir design. neuron model as mentioned before, a variety of models have been developed for biological neurons with different degrees of precision and complexity. the choice of the model strongly depends on the application. this selection is a trade of between precision and computational cost, which is closely related to the complexity of these models. from a precision viewpoint, the hodgkin huxley (hh) [20] model is a ground breaking model with the highest accuracy in terms of biochemical modeling of the neurons but it has a high computational cost. clearly, large scale simulation of neural network with this model is impractically expensive. on the other hand, integrate and fire (if) is recognized as one of the simplest models with highest computational efficiency [21]. this model is a low cost but in accurate model which is incapable of producing complex dynamic of neurons such as bursting. iz model, introduced by izhikevich at al. 2003 [22], presents a compromise between accuracy and computability which has made it a widely accepted popular model. it is claimed to be as realistic as hodgkin-huxley model. this model is a 2 dimensional model that is described by two differential equations: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 with the auxiliary after-spike resting equations: then where v is the membrane potential and u is the recovery variable. when a small pulse of current is applied, the membrane potential raise, if the current is adequate strong, membrane voltage crosses its threshold value (30mv); after which the membrane potential and the recovery variable reset according to the auxiliary reset equations. here a, b, c, and d are dimensionless variables and can be described by: a: time scale of the recovery variable u. the lower a value the lower the recovery b: sensitivity of the recovery variable u to the sub threshold fluctuations of the membrane potential v c: after spike reset value of the membrane potential v caused for the fast high-threshold k+ conductance. d: after-spike reset value of the membrane potential v caused for the slow high-threshold na+ and k+ conductance. the range of parameters in izhikevich model can be seen in the table [23].since this model is computationally feasible and biophysically accurate it is used in this study. its low computational cost makes it more suitable for large scale network simulations. please note that the neural networks used in this paper are composed of izhikevich neurons with a constant range of a, b, c and d parameters. table 1. boundaris of parameters in izhikevich model 3. neural network structure of artificial creatures this section presents details of the spiking neural networks used in the artificial creatures. neuronal network model a reservoir network has been used in this paper. this structure has been shown in figure 1. as is observable this network has two input and output layers. the neuronal network that have been used is composed of n = 150 randomly connected izhikevich spiking neurons and different axonal conduction delays between each two neurons. information is transferred between neurons of the networks through the links between every two neurons representing synapses. each neuron is connected to m = 15 random neurons, so that the probability of connection is m / n = 0.15. it is noticeable that in this network, not only the connection between two neurons is random, but also the neurons type selection is random, too. a b c d min 0.002 0.1 -65 0.05 max 0.1 0.3 -55 8 a. ahmadi evolving spiking neural networks for control of artificial creatures 9 figure 1. typical neural networks synaptic delay model neurons transfer data as a spike trains through synapses. because of the conduction time that is required for spike transformation between two neurons it is expected a synaptic delay. delay has a key role in processes. in reality, in the mammalian nervous system, the axonal conduction delays are different depending on the type and spatial positioning of the neurons. in this study the value of each synaptic connection is assumed to have a fixed conduction delay between 1 ms and d = 20 ms [24]. for instance, in figure 2, synaptic connection delays between neuron a0 and a1 is equal to 2 ms, so spike from a0 arrives to a1 after 2 ms. figure 2. example of different axonal conduction delay between presynaptic neuron a0 and postsynaptic neuron a1 and a2. different axonal conduction delays between every two neurons are applied as follows: for instance, consider presynaptic neuron a0 and postsynaptic neurons a1 and a2 in figure 2. if neuron a0 fires spike s0 in t = 9 and s1 in t = 11 and with a time step equal to 0.5 ms, s0 arrives to a1 in t = 13 and to a2 in t = 14 where s1 arrives to a1 in t = 15 and to a2 in t = 16. this is implemented using counters assigned to each spike which increases with each time step in the time window. if counters arrive to axonal delay values, the effect of spikes from presynaptic neuron applies to the post synaptic neurons. for neural network of each creature two arrays, s and i_s are defined. s is a one dimensional array for the number of spikes in each neuron and i_s is a two dimensional array, that one dimension is for neuron's numbers and another dimension is for spike's number and i_s shows the time counter of the spikes. considering figure 3, in t = 12, s[0] is equal to 2 which means a0 has fired two spikes and i_s[0][0] = 3 means three time steps (1.5 ms) passed from occurring s0 in neuron a0 and i_s[0][1] = 1 means one time step (0.5 ms) passed from occurring s1 in neuron a0. in each time step, axonal conduction delays between presynaptic neurons and postsynaptic neurons are examined whether they are equal to the elements of array i_s, to apply the respective spikes. the pseudo code for applying different axonal conduction delay between presynaptic neurons and postsynaptic neurons are shown in figure 4. t = 9 s0 t = 10 i_s[0][0] = 1 t = 11 s1 i_s[0][0] = 2 t = 12 i_s[0][0] = 3 i_s[0][1] = 1 t = 13 i_s[0][0] = 4�s0 to a1 i_s[0][1] = 2 t = 14 i_s[0][0] = 5�s0 to a2 i_s[0][1] = 3 t = 15 i_s[0][1] = 4 �s1 to a1 a1 a2 a0 2 m s 2.5 m s brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 figure 3. example for applying different axonal conduction delay between neurons. figure 4: pseudo code for applying different axonal conduction delay between presynaptic neurons and postsynaptic neurons. 4. artificial creatures and environment the artificial creatures are designed to find food objects in the environment and each of them starts with a limited level of energy. the energy level is decreased by every movement down to a certain level. if an artificial creature finds the food source, the energy level increases up to by a specific level. accordingly, each creature can survive in the external environment until the energy level is not zero. t = 16 i_s[0][1] = 5 �s1 to a2 t = 17 . for t = 0 : 400 for e = 0 : n // for all neuron v = v + 0.5 * ((0.04 * v + 5) * v + 140 – u + i); // for numerical v = v + 0.5 * ((0.04 * v + 5) * v + 140 – u + i); // stability time u = u + a * (0.2 * v u); // step is 0.5 ms if(v >= 30) s[e]++; // increase the number of spike for neuron e if (s[e] > 0) { for f = 0 : s[e] do i_s[e][f]++; for c = 0 : m //for all persynaptic connection if(i_s[e][f] == delay_synaptic[e][r]) // delay_synaptic[][] is delay between neuron e and presynaptic // connections { // apply effect of spike to respective neuron // ... } end; end; } end; end; a. ahmadi evolving spiking neural networks for control of artificial creatures 11 1 2 3 4 4 7 4 8. . . figure 5. the periphery of circular area around of artificial creature in each position it is assumed in the simulation that the artificial creature in each location stands in the center of a circular area with a radius of its vision range, i.e. 2 meters. if the creature turns around itself; it only can see objects in its visual range. when a food object appears in the periphery of this circular area, a creature should find this food. moving around, another food appears in a random place on periphery of the circular area, and this procedure repeat for 5 iterations. as shown in figure 5 the periphery of the circular area around the artificial creature in each position is divided to 48 slots, which can be considered as a rectangular. in the simulation program it is implemented as an array of 48 × 3. the utilized neural networks of the artificial creature consist of three essential parts: input layer as vision: visual angle of the artificial creature has been assumed 150 degrees. this is similar to the visual angle of the human eye which is approximately 120 180 degrees. since periphery of the circular area around the artificial creature is divided into 48 slots, from creature’s viewpoint each slot is equaled to 7.5 degrees as: = (3) therefore, considering that the visual angle of the artificial creature has been assumed 150 degrees, an image in sight of the artificial creature is composed of 20 sub-divisions because: = 20 (4) figure 6 shows an image in sight of the creature, where the food in this image is the dark part of the vision. if the food object places in the vision edge of the artificial creature (2 meters), two squares in the image in sight of the creature becomes black and by getting the artificial creature closer to the food, more squares of image in sight become block and if all parts of the image in sight of the creature become black, the artificial creature has been successful in finding the food object. in figure 6 each part of the image divided to 3 subparts because 3 neurons per part of image in the input layer of the artificial creature network (vision) have been considered. so vision of the artificial creature composed of 60 neurons due to: 1 2 3 4 48 47 . . . brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 . . . . . . (a) (b) (c) (d) number of parts × 3 = 20 × 3 = 60 (5) for each black part of image in sight of the artificial creature, three signals as the input signals is applied to the three respective neurons. figure 6, one image in sight of artificial creature. output layer as locomotion part: three movements for each creature have been defined: 15 degree right rotation, 15 degree left rotation and forward movement. in forward motion, the artificial creature 0.5 meter move to forward direction, so 4 forward motions is necessary for finding the food object in utmost of the creature location (4 meter). depend on the food position in the vision, respective locomotion part of the artificial creature must be activated, for example if position of the food in sight of the artificial creature be right, the right part of locomotion must be activated. figure 7a, figure 7b, figure 7c and figure 7d, shows effect of different type of movement on the image in the vision of artificial creature if food be on vision boundaries. as mentioned each part of the image equal 7.5 degree. therefore 15 degree left or right rotation locomotion equivalent two parts shift toward left or right. for motion to forward direction, size of the image has been reduplicated so that each part has been become to the two similar parts. then half of new image in right side and left side has been deleted in order to create new close image in vision. accordingly, if food be on vision boundaries, the number of black parts of the image for the food object in ultimate location is 2, by one movement to forward direction the number of these parts become to 4, by one movement to forward direction the number of these parts become to 8 and so on. after four movements to forward all part of the image is black and the creature is succeed find the food object. figure 7. effect of different type of movement on the image in the vision of artificial creature. a) initial state, b) forward, c) right d) left locomotion a. ahmadi evolving spiking neural networks for control of artificial creatures 13 considering real nervous systems, in which many neurons react to the similar stimulus, in this paper three neurons are responsible for each locomotion part of the creature in response to the stimulus. therefore, the output layer of the artificial creature neural network consisted of 9 neurons. to distinguish the direction of the movement, the artificial life form uses the population activity rate coding. this coding has been successfully applied in experiments on sensory or motor systems. in population activity, average number of firing in a population of the neurons is calculated in a fixed time window as: (6) where n is the population size, is the number of spikes (summed over all neurons in the population) which are fired during the time window. window time has a fixed length between and and is an appropriate time interval [5]. so in each time window the total number of spikes in each three neurons is compared with other three neurons and artificial creature moves toward direction that the respective neurons fired maximum number of spikes. these fixed time windows consist of 600 time-steps. each time step is 0.5 ms. flowchart in figure 8 shows details. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 figure 8. flowchart for movements of creature main body structure: as mentioned the reservoir neural network has been chosen for neural network of the artificial creature as main body structure. figure 9 illustrates a typical artificial life form and circular area around of it. maximum seeing of the artificial life form is periphery of the circular area and can't see places that have beyond of periphery of the circular area. the artificial creature by each movement is the center of a circular area so if the creature move to forward direct can see new places and some places are voided of seeing. process membrane-potentials iuvvv +−++= 140504.0 2' )(' ubvau −= if v>=30 spike occur membrane potential (v) reset recovery variable (u) reset    +← ← duu cv apply synaptic conduction delay between neuron that has been fired and post-synaptic neurons increase counter spikes for output neurons store latter spike for next time window movement decision compare and record counter spikes that have max no. of spikes move toward special direction in environment increment timing 1----600 get inputs (i) from vision a. ahmadi evolving spiking neural networks for control of artificial creatures 15 figure 9. a typical artificial life form and circular area around of it 5. evolutionary model although there is no methodical investigation has been carried out to find which evolutionary techniques work better than others, genetic algorithm (ga) has been selected in this study, because ga has been inspired from biological evolution and it is based on adaptation processes observed in nature, such as natural selection and genetic diversity. ga can find the best solution among a possible response space, efficiently [25-27]. first, an initial random population of creatures is generated where the neural networks of the creatures are coded as chromosomes, as shown in figure 10a and figure 10b. each chromosome consists of four parts: a1, a2, a3 and a4. each part consists of n segments for n neurons of a typical neural network structure. the first part, a1, denotes a, b, c and d parameters of neurons izhikevich model (discussed in (1) and (2)). each segment of a2 shows postsynaptic weights and connections for corresponding neuron and each segment of a3 indicates postsynaptic delays of the connections. segment a4 shows postsynaptic neurons that are connected to corresponding neuron, as shown in figure 10b. each artificial creature (chromosome) is placed in an environment for searching and catching the randomly distributed foods in the peripheries. then fitness value is calculated for each of them. fitness function is the energy level. the ideal creatures are those who find food objects in 5 iteration that food sources appeared in random locations by minimum movements so that have maximum energy and they can survive. they should show some adaption abilities under different conditions. (a) (b) figure 10: a) a typical neuron and postsynaptic connections with weights and delays b) a typical chromosome a1: parameters of the izhikevich model, a2: synaptic weights, a3: conduction delays, a4: post-synaptic neurons number brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 no then next generation are produced by combination of the elites (15%), crossover (55%) and mutation (30%) of the initial population. elites are the best chromosomes which are directly transferred to the next generation. because of long chromosome length, for crossover, five points are randomly chosen in each parent as cut points. figure 11 shows a typical crossover with two cut points and figure 12 illustrates a flowchart for the proposed evolutionary model. selections are based on roulette wheel selection, more detailed information can be found in [28]. figure 11. crossover with two cut points [28] figure 12. genetic algorithm flowchart 6. simulation results artificial creatures and the virtual environment are designed and implemented in a c++ platform in which simulations are performed. in the ga algorithm, at first step a population of 100 complex artificial creatures that each of them had 150 neurons were tested and evaluated by ga; each neuron connected to 15 post-synaptic neurons with different axonal conduction delays between every two neurons. in every generation fitness function has been calculated for all population. the initial energy level for each creature is considered as 50. figure 13 compares the average fitness at generations in one typical program running. as can be seen from this figure, the average of fitness grows as the number of generations increases. also as can be understood from figure 14 the number of survived chromosome increases with generation progressing. for a better visual understanding of the creatures’ movement, figure 15 (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h) illustrates movements of a typical successful creature for finding one food object. initialize population of chromosome placing creature or colony in environment transfer solution found? finesses calculate stop iterations genetic operations (crossover/mutation) and transportation yes a. ahmadi evolving spiking neural networks for control of artificial creatures 17 figure 13. average fitness at generation progressing figure 14. number of artificial creatures that could survive in the external environment figure 15. movements a typical successful creature to find food.(a) initial state, (b) left, (c) forward, (d) left, (e) forward, (f) forward, (g) left , (h)forward and catching food 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 generation n u m b er o f su rv iv ed c h ro m os om es brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 we believe that this study can be a step forward in understanding the morphology of artificial creatures. also this paper suggests more complex artificial life examination by adding different part to these networks similar to different segments of the brain such as: vision, locomotion, hippocampus and communication in a future work. because of the different axonal conduction delay between every two neurons in the neural network of artificial creatures in this paper, our next study is to enhance the artificial lives by stdp learning. 7. conclusions this work presented a genetic algorithm for evolving artificial life forms colonies. these artificial creatures composed of biological neurons which have been connected randomly. ga could be able discover the most compatible structures in the solution space. the results of simulations show that the genetic algorithm is efficient for this purpose. winner artificial creatures of ga algorithm have been located in the virtual environment in which they search to find the food objects in the environment. references [1] dreyfus g. neural networks: methodology and applications. springer, 2005. [2] mehra p, wah bw. artificial neural networks: concepts and theory. ieee comput society press, 1992. [3] paugam-moisy h, bohte s. computing with spiking neuron networks. in: rozenberg g, bäck t, kok j, editors. handbook of natural computing. springer verlag, 2010. [4] vreeken j. spiking neural networks: an introduction. artificial intelligence laboratory, intelligent systems group, institute for information and computing sciences, utrecht university, 2003. [5] gerstner w, kistler w. spiking neuron models. cambridge university press, cambridge, 2002. [6] judd js. neural network design and the complexity of learning. mit press, 1990. [7] roberts pd, bell cc. spike timing dependent synaptic plasticity in biological systems. biol cybern, 2002; 87: 392–403. [8] nolfi s, floreano d. learning and evolution. autonomous robots, 1999; 1: 89-113. [9] bäck t, schwefel hp. an overview of evolutionary algorithms for parameter optimization, evolutionary computation. 1993; 1: 1-23. [10] holland jh. emergence. oxford university press, oxford, 1998. [11] floreano d, husbands p, nolfi s. evolutionary robotics. in: siciliano b, khatib o, editors. handbook of robotics. springer, 2008. pp. 1423-1451. [12] cliff d, harvey i, husbands p. issues in evolutionary robotics. sussex university, 1992. [13] floreano d, mattiussi c. evolution of spiking neural controllers for autonomous visionbased robots. swiss federal institute of technology. epfl, 2001. [14] hagras h, pounds-cornish a, colley m, callaghan v, clarke g. evolving spiking neural network controllers for autonomous robots. in: ieee 2004 robotics and automation conference; april 2004; new orleans, usa: ieee. pp. 46204626. [15] bailey ja, wilcock r, wilson pr, chad je. behavioral simulation and synthesis of biological neuron systems using synthesizable vhdl. elsevier, neurocomputing, 2011; 74: 2392 2406. [16] maass, w, natschlàger t, markram h. real-time computing without stable states: a new framework for neural computation based on perturbations. neural computation, 2002; 14:25312560. [17] jaeger h. the echo state approach to analyzing and training recurrent neural networks. technical report gmd report 148, german national research center for information technology, 2001. a. ahmadi evolving spiking neural networks for control of artificial creatures 19 [18] paugam-moisy h, martinez r, bengio s. delay learning and polychronization for reservoir computing. neurocomputing, 2008; 71: 1143–1158. [19] schrauwen b, verstraeten d, campenhout jv. an overview of reservoir computing: theory, applications and implementations. in esann’07 advances in computational intelligence and learning conference; 2007; pp. 471–482. [20] hodgkin al, huxley af. a quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve. physiol j, aug. 1952; 117: 500–544. [21] brunel n, van rossum mcw. lapicque’s 1907 paper: from frogs to integrate-and-fire. biological cybernetics, december 2007; 97: 337–339. [22] izhikevich e. simple model of spiking neurons. ieee transactions on neural networks, 2003; 14: 1569–1572. [23] soares g, borges h, gomes r, oliveira g. emergence of neuronal groups on a selforganized spiking neurons network based on genetic algorithm. in: neural networks, 2010 eleventh brazilian symposium on; 2010; brazil. pp. 43–48. [24] izhikevich e. polychronization: computation with spikes. neural computation. 2005; 18: 245-282. [25] davis l. handbook of genetic algorithms. van nostrand reinhold, 1991. [26] mitchell m. an introduction to genetic algorithms. mit press, 1998. [27] goldberg de. genetic algorithms in search, optimization and machine learning. addison wesly, 1989. [28] poli r, langdon wb, mcphee nf. a field guide to genetic programming. stanford university, usa, 2008. [29] dan su. neural networks for control of artificial life form. msc, york university, 2010. [30] oros n, steuber v, davey n, canamero l, adams r. evolution of bilateral symmetry in agents controlled by spiking neural networks. ieee symp, artificial life conference; april 2009; nashville, tn. pp. 116–123. [31] kasabov n. to spike or not to spike: a probabilistic spiking neuron model. neural networks, 2010; 23: 16-19. [32] brébisson ad (ahd11). evolving spiking neural network controllers for virtual animates that explore and forage in unknown environments. msc, imperial college london, 2012. [33] moutarde f. a robot behavior-learning experiment using particle swarm optimization for training a neural-based animate. mines paris tech, 2008. [34] urbanczik r, senn w. reinforcement learning in populations of spiking neurons. nature neuroscience. march 2009; 12: 250-2. [35] jin x. parallel simulation of neural networks on spinnaker universal neuromorphic hardware. phd, computer science, manchester university, 2010. microsoft word brain_6_2015_dec_34_final4.doc 82 training teachers for the knowledge society: social media in science education dana crăciun teacher training department, west university of timișoara, romania craciundana@gmail.com mădălin bunoiu faculty of physics, west university of timișoara, romania bom@physics.uvt.ro abstract internet and social media (sm) have revolutionized the way scientific information is disseminated within our society. nowadays professional and/or social networks are increasingly used for learning and informal science education successfully supplements the formal one at all educational levels. students become addicted to technology from an early age and consistently use sm for communication purposes and personal image. in this context, it is reasonable to assume that the use of web 2.0 and sm can be successfully integrated in formal science education. this integration, however, depends mainly on how teachers design the learning activities using web 2.0 and sm, on their digital skills and expertise, on their attitude towards using sm to communicate for personal and professional purposes and to obtain educational benefits. in this study we start from the premise that a positive attitude of future science teachers towards ict integration and their willingness to use sm in their educational communication can be formed in the initial teacher training program, being a crucial factor for the effective use of such tools in education in the future. we detail two activities and analyze them from the sm and web 2.0 integration perspectives. the first activity is an extracurricular one in which students had to create a digital story and present it to secondary school children in class. the second activity is a curricular one aimed to promote a project-based learning and based on making a comic about an optical phenomenon taught in secondary school. we present and discuss these activities to emphasize how the skills that target science teaching using ict and sm can be developed. 1. ict, open educational resources and sm in the initial science teacher education (iste) the various types of ict resources (information, learning and collaboration resources) (cacheiro gonzález, 2011) are present now more than ever in the scientific community and in education, a reality observed for research communities, schools, universities as well as for the pre and in service teacher training programs (enochsson, & rizza, 2009), (eurydice, 2011). . the necessity to develop and integrate new, robust technologies dedicated to enhance the learning and teaching quality is also mentioned in the digital agenda for europe, h2020. this agenda includes current and future projects that are to be developed for this purpose (eu digital agenda, 2014). strategies have been advanced at the european level to train teachers from all member countries to use ict in class (eu digital agenda, 2013). the top priorities in terms of initial teacher education (ite) include teamwork, ict integration, formative assessment and the teaching of key competences (eu-report, 2013). the studies that target the integration of ict in iste can be divided in two categories: those that target the need and the benefits of integrating social media (sm) (weller, 2013), (zaidieh, 2012), (kidd, 2013) and open educational resources (oer) (atkins, brown, & hammond, 2007) in ite and education, and those that substantiate the link between technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (e.g. tpack) in pre/in service teacher training programs (koehler, mishra, 2009), (chai, koh, & tsai, 2010). these studies emphasize the digital skills ought to be acquired by future teachers as well as their attitude towards using ict in their everyday life for personal and d. crăciun, m. bunoiu training teachers for the knowledge society: social media in science education 83 professional usage, the experience future teachers ought to gain in using sm in education through the ite program, the attitude of teachers educators towards the use of ict in their teaching, etc. furthermore, the scientific world is confronted with the new concept of open science, which implies a transformation of science through ict tools, social networks and media to make research more open, collaborative, creative and closer to society (digital science in horizon 2020, eu report 2013 https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/digital-science-horizon-2020). as such, science communication will have a deep impact on science education and future science teachers need in turn to be prepared to teach their students to communicate and collaborate using the newly available media. in this paper, we start from the premise that a positive attitude towards integrating sm in education can be formed through an engaging training environment that supports the use of sm, web 2.0 applications and oer in teaching and learning. furthermore, the acquisition of the necessary knowledge and skills during the initial teacher training program which derive from the pedagogical foundation suited to this style of teaching is of outmost importance. finally, a deep understanding of sm and their role in learning and teaching with their possible impact on the quality of education is required. we discuss two activities that involved ict and sm which were performed by physics students during the initial teacher training program. these activities aimed to develop the communication and collaboration skills of students in a virtual environment, as well as to enhance their ability to access, assess and organize information, structure or restructure knowledge and develop deep, creative and critical thinking capacity. 2. communicating science 2.1. sm and web 2.0 in science communication nowadays, academics and researchers use professional networks to present their work, communicate and establish collaborations with other scientists around the world. they use sm to disseminate their research work and results to the large public. open science puts communication at the heart of scientific advancement. the number of scientific authors rises exponentially; the communication channels and the sources of information proliferate through web 2.0 applications such as blogs, forums and social networks, file sharing, wikis, etc. (bultitude, 2011). society becomes involved in creating science (benneworth, 2009) and a collective memory/intelligence is generated by online collaborations (burgelman, osimo, & bogdanowicz, 2010). these important changes are mirrored in science education. the new communication media raise the significance of formal and non-formal education and reduce the delays in the availability of scientific knowledge between different groups and educational levels. the way science is presented and communicated as well as the associated meta-information (comments, likes on facebook, messages on twitter, etc.) shape the way scientific knowledge is perceived by the public (dahlstrom, m. f., 2014). an increasing number of students express their opinions on current scientific issues and participate in online debates or scientific projects that are based on a collective intelligence (of non-specialists). their opinions matter and they need to express their point of view in a strong and persuasive manner. thus, adequate communication skills and the mastery of ict resources are needed. 2.2. creative communication methods in science education creativity is the foundation stone of progress and innovation in science. creativity can be developed even throughout middle school through interdisciplinary activities that aim to enhance written and verbal communication in science. fostering creativity is achieved through learning activities that develop in children divergent thinking, imagination, communication and collaboration skills. examples of such activities include creative writing, creative analogies to understand phenomena and ideas, mystery solving or approaching the teaching and learning of science through art (hadzigeorgiou, fokialis, & kabouropoulou, 2012). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 84 the use of narrative explanation complementary to the descriptive one in science and science education leads to a deeper understanding of the phenomena and scientific concepts discussed (avraamidou & osborne, 2009). combining narration with ict and new communication media makes the scientific content even more attractive. in this paper, we focus on two such methods that combine creative expression with visual art: digital storytelling and digital comics. digital storytelling is a form of multimedia that combines narrative and digital content to create a story (robin, 2008). these stories can be used both in the teaching-learning process in science (martinelli & zinicola, 2009) as well as in the iste programs (sancar-tokmak, surmeli, & ozgelen, 2014). the various types of stories that can be used in science education (such as storylines, historical presentations, evocative descriptions, small illustrations, confrontations, thematic narratives, dialogues or dramatizations generally created to raise questions or make a point (robin, 2006) aim to enhance the teaching-learning process in science (klassen, 2009). these stories represent a first step towards the development of the necessary skills needed to hold a scientific discourse and thus, have an important role for science communication in school. digital comics are another form of narration which is mainly based on the visual art that the authors use to transmit a certain message by arranging images and text in a suitable manner (tatalovic, 2009). comic strips and concept cartoons are two types of comics that can be employed in various teaching-learning-assessment activities during science classes to introduce/communicate scientific issues, identify preconceptions and assess what the pupils have learned throughout the academic year (olson, 2008). digital comics can be created and visualized using dedicated online applications (dittmar, 2012). this type of narration can also be used in iste programs. digital stories and comics provide a viable alternative for science teachers to incorporate creativity and emotional content in their class and to develop in their students the skills needed in the 21st century. these methods can aid in humanizing science, making it more accessible to students regardless of their propensity towards science (especially in middle school). 3. comics and digital storytelling in iste at the west university of timișoara 3.1 activities description in the academic year 2014-2015, students from the faculty of physics within the west university of timişoara, who were also enrolled in the initial teacher training program, participated in two projects that aimed to enhance their ability to communicate science in a creative way using freely available online resources and sm. moreover, the goal of the projects was to induce in students a positive attitude towards using sm in science education. one project additionally aimed to raise the pupils’ interest for science (for the middle school children that benefited from this project). the first project developed in collaboration with the timişoara branch of the romanian physics society consisted of an extra-curricular activity which combined sm with web 2.0 applications for creating digital stories and focused on raising the pupils’ awareness to the values promoted by science. six volunteering third year physics students participated in this project. the volunteers prepared a set of digital stories that were inspired from the life of scientists, scientific discoveries, inventions or the history of science. the stories were presented in four middle schools from timişoara and the surrounding area. these stories served as an incentive to initiate discussions between the students and the pupils on current scientific issues and the necessity for all graduates to achieve a scientific literacy in order to be competitive in today’s society. finally, pupils were invited to create their own stories and to participate in a digital story contest on “light – phenomena, researchers, inventions, applications”. the second project involved all thirteen second year students from the faculty of physics within the west university of timişoara, who were also enrolled in the initial teacher training program. the main activity within this project was to create a digital comic to present a concept from optics which is studied in middle school. the aim of this project was to enhance the creativity of students in presenting scientific information and to integrate web 2.0 applications in science d. crăciun, m. bunoiu training teachers for the knowledge society: social media in science education 85 communication. the main interest revolved around the effect of using comics in teaching-learningassessment activities. students created comics which they then presented within a workshop dedicated to the use of new media in science education. 3.2 results the first project included six volunteering students, over one hundred middle school pupils from timişoara and the surrounding area and fifteen teachers. the students developed eight digital stories on topics that comprised but were not limited to archimedes principle, the story of physics, the story of the battery, curiosities in the world of physics, and others. the second project included thirteen students and two teachers. the students developed eleven comics on topics such as optical phenomena (reflection and refraction, mirage, etc) and instruments (telescope). we applied a self-evaluation questionnaire to all nineteen students involved in both projects in order to analyze the impact of these activities upon the students from the perspective of integrating sm, web 2.0 applications and ict resources in iste. we were interested in identifying their attitude towards the use of sm and web 2.0 applications in science education and communication. the results obtained are presented in table 1. table 1. overview of the answers obtained after applying the self-evaluation questionnaire. answer statement i consider strongly disagree (%) disagree (%) undecided (%) agree (%) strongly agree (%) myself an experienced sm/web 2.0 user 5 37 58 sm/web 2.0 useful in my personal life 26 74 sm/web 2.0 useful in my professional activity 5 5 16 32 42 that the use of sm/web 2.0 enhances professional and transversal skills necessary in the 21st century. 5 5 37 53 i was/am confident b* a** b a b a b a b a communicating science trough sm/web 2.0 10 5 21 16 42 32 26 48 collaborating with other students online 10 37 26 53 74 using social networks and web 2.0 in science education 5 5 10 5 21 16 32 37 32 37 designing learning experiences using web 2.0 and media resources 5 5 16 10 21 21 32 32 26 32 motivating students to learn and communicate science trough sm/web 2.0 5 10 10 48 26 21 48 16 16 * bbefore; **a after 3.3. discussions the two projects aimed at developing the creativity of students in communicating scientific knowledge and integrating ict resources and new available media for this purpose. the digital stories were created using online software such as scratch, prezi, moviemaker or proshow gold. additional to the stories, students also created short tutorials to help pupils create their own stories. the comics were created using dedicated online tools such as makebeliefscomix, pixton or toondoo. 74% of the students considered that sm and web 2.0 applications are useful in their professional activity as well as in science education. 80% of the students considered that sm is important for the dissemination of scientific knowledge. the projects helped students develop skills linked to accessing, assessing and organizing information, 95% of the students considering themselves to be experimented users of sm and web 2.0 applications. additionally, these projects also targeted the professional and transversal skills necessary in the 21st century, mainly ict skills but also learning skills (e.g. critical thinking in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 86 choosing the appropriate application to develop the story/comic, creative thinking in portraying the contents of the story/comic, communication and collaboration with students and pupils) and respectively life skills (e.g. initiative and flexibility in the management of the activities, social skills as a result of the interaction between students, pupils and teachers). 90% of the students considered that sm and web 2.0 applications can enhance the professional and transversal skills necessary in the 21st century. the stories that resulted from the first project were published on the facebook page english plus science and have been viewed or accessed by almost 700 people. this shows that the use of sm increased the visibility of the activity and the scientific content published impacted people that were not directly involved in the project. however, in both projects students preferred to organize and discuss their activities privately through emails and private facebook messages. only a few students shared their activities publicly through social media. this shows that students use sm primarily for personal purposes. 3.4 students attitude toward using sm in science education the data presented in table 1 shows that the majority of students considered that sm and web 2.0 applications are useful in their professional activity and can enhance the professional and transversal skills necessary in the 21st century, thus having a positive attitude towards integrating these concepts in the training program and in science education in general. all students were confident in their ability to collaborate with other students in the online environments. the students’ confidence in using sm and web 2.0 applications for science communication has increased through the projects: 80% of the students were confident after the projects compared to 68% before. a similar increase can be observed with respect to their confidence in using these tools for science education: 74% of the students were confident after the projects compared to 64% before. a small increase in the students’ confidence in designing learning experiences using web 2.0 and media resources can be observed: 64% after compared to 58% before. it is important to note that the students were reserved with respect to their ability to design compelling learning experiences in general as they did not yet have a relevant teaching experience. this can be a main reason for which the increase is so small in this case. nevertheless, students were positive towards their ability to motivate pupils to learn and communicate science through sm and web 2.0 applications: 64% after the projects compared to 37% before. the limited teaching experience offers again a possible explanation for this result as students are not able to understand the intrinsic link between the pupils' motivation and authentic learning experiences. at the end of the projects, the students have gotten acquainted to the advantages and challenges that these new media pose and thus, the students who were undecided discovered that they are able to efficiently and effectively use these media: 26% of the students remained undecided after the projects compared to 48% before. the results in table 1 show that both projects reached their desired aim to increase the students’ confidence in using sm and web 2.0 applications during their teaching and learning activities. the digital stories and comics created during these projects encouraged students to become more creative by trying to find the most approachable and easily comprehensible manner to present the scientific knowledge to the pupils and other students involved. 4. conclusions in this paper we have described two activities proposed to physics students during the preservice science teacher training program. the activities were discussed from the perspective of integrating sm and web 2.0 applications in science education and in the iste. our study shows that the two activities proposed have helped future science teachers increase their positive attitude towards these new media and gain confidence in their ability to use sm and web 2.0 applications in science education. moreover, students became a little more confident in their capacity to design efficient learning activities using these media. student teachers were positive that they could induce in their pupils the desire to learn and communicate science through sm and web 2.0 applications. d. crăciun, m. bunoiu training teachers for the knowledge society: social media in science education 87 the activities also led to an increase in the students’ creativity for scientific communication and enhanced their professional and transversal skills, which are necessary for the modern teacher who will activate in the knowledge-based society of the 21st century. references atkins, d. e., brown, j. s. and hammond, a. l. (2007). a review of the open educational resources (oer) movement: achievements, challenges, and new opportunities, the william and flora hewlett foundation, http://www.hewlett.org/uploads/files/reviewofthe oermovement.pdf avraamidou, l., and osborne, j. (2009), the role of narrative in communicating science. int j sci educ 31(12), pp. 1683–1707. benneworth, p. (2009). the challenges for 21st century science. a review of the evidence base surrounding the value of public engagement by scientists, science for all working paper, london: department for business, industry and science/ science for all. bultitude, k. (2011). the why and how of science communication. in: “science communication” rosulek, p., ed., pilsen: european commission. burgelman, j.-c., osimo, d. and bogdanowicz, m. (2010). science 2.0 (change will happen ...), first monday, 15(7). http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/ index.php/fm/article/ viewarticle/2961/2573 cacheiro gonzález, m.l. (2011). ict resources for educational purposes, in "education in a technological world: communicating current and emerging research and technological efforts", a. méndez-vilas (ed.), pp. 252-259. chai, c. s., koh, j. h. l., and tsai, c.-c. (2010). facilitating pre-service teachers' development of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (tpack). educational technology & society 13 (4), pp. 63–73. dahlstrom, m.f. (2014). using narratives to communicate science with nonexpert audiences. proc natl acad sci usa 111, pp.13614–13620. digital science in horizon 2020, eu report 2013 https://ec.europa.eu/digitalagenda/en/news/digital-science-horizon-2020 dittmar, j.f. (2012). digital comics. scandinavian journal of comic art (sjoca) 1:2, pp. 82-91. enochsson, a. b., and rizza, c. (2009). ict in initial teacher training: research review. edu (working paper no. 38). paris, france: oecd. eu digital agenda (2013). survey of schools: ict in education, luxembourg, european union, https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/kk-31-13-401-en-n.pdf eu digital agenda (2014). technologies for better human learning and teachingresearch and innovation under fp7, cip and h2020, http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/ict-education eu-report (2013). study on policy measures to improve the attractiveness of the teaching profession in "europe-final report" vol.1-2 luxembourg: publications office of the eu, http://ec.europa.eu/education/library/study/2013/teaching-profession1_en.pdf eurydice, (2011). key data on learning and innovation through ict at school in europe, brussels: eurydice, http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/ hadzigeorgiou, y., fokialis, p. and kabouropoulou, m. (2012). thinking about creativity in science education. creative education 3, pp. 603-611. kidd, w. (2013) framing pre-service teachers’ professional learning using web2.0 tools: positioning pre-service teachers as agents of cultural and technological change. professional development in education 39 (2), pp 260-272. klassen, s. (2009). the construction and analysis of a science story: a proposed methodology, science & education 18(3-4), pp 401-423. koehler, m. j., and mishra, p. (2009). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge?, contemporary issues in technology and teacher education 9(1), pp. 60-70. martinelli, j. and zinicola, d. (2009). teaching science through digital storytelling. in proceedings of society for information technology & teacher education international brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 88 conference 2009 (pp. 3802-3808), i. gibson, r. weber, k. mcferrin, r. carlsen & d. willis (eds.), chesapeake, va: association for the advancement of computing in education (aace). olson, j.c. (2008). the comic strip as a medium for promoting science literacy, http://www.csun.edu/~jco69120/coursework/697/projects/olsonactionresearchfinal.pdf robin, b. r. (2006). the educational uses of digital storytelling. http://www.coe.uh.edu/digitalstorytelling/evaluation.htm robin, b. r. (2008). digital storytelling: a powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom, theory into practice 47, pp. 220–228. sancar-tokmak, h., surmeli, h., and ozgelen, s. (2014). preservice science teachers’ perceptions of their tpack development after creating digital stories. international journal of environmental and science education 9(3), pp. 247-264. tatalovic, m. (2009). science comics as tools for science education and communication: a brief, exploratory study, journal of science communication 8(4) a02. weller, a. (2013). the use of web 2.0 technology for pre-service teacher learning in science education, research in teacher education 3(2), pp. 40–46. zaidieh, a. (2012). the use of social networking in education: challenges and opportunities, world of computer science and information technology journal 2(1), pp. 18-21. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final.doc 211 rezumate in limba română brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience creier. cercetări ample în inteligenţă artificială şi neuroştiinţe issn 2067 – 3957 volumul 1, numărul 2 ianuarie 2010: „paşte fericit!” www.brain.edusoft.ro editor şef: bogdan pătruţ 1. o euristică pentru rezolvarea problemei triangularizării gloria cerasela crişan, camelia-m. pintea rezumat problema triangularizării constă în a găsi o permutare simultană a rândurilor şi a coloanelor unei matrice pătratică dată, astfel încât suma elementelor de deasupra diagonalei principale să fie maximă. cercetatorii studiază intensiv această problemă, deoarece are aplicaţii majore în diverse domenii. un nou algoritm hibrid de tip aco este introdus. algoritmul începe cu o procedură greedy de căutare. aceasta este urmată de o versiune îmbunătăţită a ant colony system, combinată cu o căutare locală specifică problemei. 2. propunere de arhitectură bazată pe date pentru aplicaţii distribuite în cardiologie horea adrian greblă, călin ovidiu cenan rezumat lucrarea prezintă un cadru pentru un sistem distribuit medical menit să aducă o abordare modernă şi să crească calitatea serviciilor medicale oferite pacienţilor cronici cu boli cardio-vasculare, prin intermediul celor mai recente tehnologii tic. sistemul propus permite interacţiunea on-line între principalii actori ai unui sistem medical: pacienţi, medici, entităţi medicale (de exemplu, spitale, clinici), precum şi autorităţile medicale (de exemplu, servicii sociale). cu ajutorul normelor medicale larg acceptate, sistemul permite stocarea fişelor medicale şi oferă servicii de integrare a datelor între diferite tipuri de aplicaţii în domeniul sănătăţii şi entităţi. abordarea ontologică propusă permite schimbul de informaţii medicale şi a celor mai bune practici cu fişele pacienţilor organizat conceptual. soluţia propusă permite diagnosticarea asistată de calculator şi analiza datelor medicale pe baza unor criterii multiple, cu posibilitatea de a construi un depozit de date pentru exploatarea complexă a datelor medicale. 3. cercetare educaţională asupra dimensiunii tehnologice a vieţii private liliana mâţă rezumat scopul acestui studiu constă în analiza dimensiunii tehnologice a vieţii private din perspectivă educaţională. este vorba despre o cercetare constatativă a documentelor curriculare şi a percepţiei liceenilor şi cadrelor didactice faţă de această dimensiune la nivelul învăţământului preuniversitar românesc. obiectivele principale ale studiului vizează: a) identificarea aspectelor caracteristice dimensiunii tehnologice la nivelul programelor şi manualelor şcolare şi b) surprinderea gradului de deschidere a cadrelor didactice şi a liceenilor faţă de dimensiunea tehnologică a vieţii private. pentru realizarea primului obiectiv a fost utilizată analiza de conţinut tematică, pe teme şi categorii specifice. referitor la cel de-al doilea obiectiv, am aplicat chestionare pentru identificarea gradului rezumate in limba română 212 de deschidere a 1456 de liceeni şi 890 de cadre didactice din învăţământul preuniversitar românesc. rezultatele cercetării sunt evidenţiate prin frecvenţele temelor specifice pentru dimensiunea tehnologică la nivelul documentelor şcolare, cât şi a gradului de deschidere a liceenilor şi cadrelor didactice. 4. selectarea operaţiilor pentru assembler encoding tomasz praczyk rezumat assembler encoding este o metodă neuro-evolutivă prin care o reţea neuronală este reprezentată sub forma unui simplu program numit assembler encoding program. sarcina programului este de a crea aşa-numita matrice de definire a reţelei, care menţine toate informaţiile necesare construirii unei reţele. pentru a genera programe de assembler encoding şi, în consecinţă, reţele neuronale, se utilizează tehnici evolutive. performanţa programului assembler encoding depinde foarte mult de operaţiile folosite in programele assembler encoding. pentru a selecta cele mai eficiente operaţii sau realizat experimente în optimizare şi probleme de tip pradă prădător. în cadrul experimentelor, s-au testat programele assembler encoding prevăzute cu diferite tipuri de operaţii. rezultatele testelor sunt prezentate la sfârşitul lucrării. 5. programe informatice ȋn terapia logopedică a dislaliei şi a dislexiei-disgrafiei iolanda tobolcea, mirela danubianu rezumat în ultimii ani preocupările cercetătorilor şi terapeuţilor în domeniul logopediei se îndreaptă tot mai mult spre elaborarea şi utilizarea programelor informatice în terapia tulburărilor de limbaj. obiectivul principal al acestui studiu a fost evaluarea eficienţei terapeutice a programelor informatice în limba română pentru logopedie. pe parcursul studiului prezentăm demersul cercetării experimentale prin verificarea eficienţei programelor pe computer în terapia logopedică a două tulburări de limbaj : dislalie, dislexie-disgrafie. din punct de vedere metodologic, utilizarea computerului în etapele terapeutice s-a realizat cu ajutorul unor programe informatice (terapers etc.) ce le-am elaborat şi experimentat pe parcursul mai multor ani de activitate terapeutică. lotul cercetării a fost alcătuit din 120 subiecţi, pentru fiecare tulburare de limbaj au fost selectaţi câte 60 de copii logopaţi: 30 logopaţi pentru grupul experimental şi 30 logopaţi pentru grupul martor. ipotezele studiului au verificat dacă rezultatele obţinute de subiecţii din lotul experimental sunt semnificativ mai mari după parcurgerea programului informatic, în comparaţie cu subiecţii din lotul martor care nu au utilizat acest program. ipotezele au fost confirmate pentru tulburările de limbaj incluse în cercetere, iar concluziile studiului ne confirmă avantajele folosirii programelor informatice în cadrul terapiei logopedice prin corectarea acestor tulburări, precum şi prin influenţa pozitivă în dezvoltarea personalităţii acestor copii. cuvinte cheie: programe informatice, terapie, copii, dislalie, dislexie-disgrafie. 6. gândind săpun şi spunând "ăpuns". perioada pregătirii sunetului: calculul în sens invers de la exprimare la inervaţia musculară nora wiedenmann rezumat în modelul prezentat în acest articol – despre limbaj şi erori de vorbire, necoordonări şi tulburări – inetervalul de la excitaţia musculară la rostirea sunetelor, privit ca fiind destinat pentru secvenţe canonice de vorbire, este calculat în sens invers. acest interval este afişat ca suma tuturor intervalelor fiziologice cunoscute de sunete de vorbire şi gesturi de discurs care sunt necesare pentru a produce rostirea. modelul introduce două ceasuri interne, bazate pe factori pozitivi sau negativi, care reprezintă anumite perioade de timp fiziologice, în timpul perioadei de pregătire a sunetului (lautvorspann). utilizarea acestor ceasuri interne arată că gesturile de vorbire – ca şi alte activităţi motorii – funcţionează în conformitate cu un principiu simplu de serializare: în condiţii de non-implicit, modificările de intervale pot duce la erori de vorbire a serializării sunetelor, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 213 necoordonări de sunete aşa cum au fost observate în timpul achiziţiei primei limbi, tulburări de vorbire ce repreyintă cazuri patologice. aceste modificări de interval sunt modelate prin varierea a doi factori ai ceasului intern. calculul intervalelor utilizează ca valori implicite duratele de sunet din contextul dat de baza de date munchen phondat a limbii germane vorbite (a se vedea anexa 4). ca o abordare umanistic nouă, acest calcul matematic este de acord cu abordarea de programare liniară / cercetare operaţională. acest lucru oferă un sprijin puternic unei suspiciuni destul de vechi (din 1908) a celebrului om de ştiinţă austriac meringer, şi anume că în principal gândim şi formulăm într-o serializare diferită de ceea ce se aude în secvenţele rostite. 7. stadiul cunoaşterii: concepte de soluţii în teoria jocurilor simina brânzei rezumat acest articol investighează concepte de soluţii pentru jocurile de coaliţie. sunt prezentate mai multe concepte de soluţii, precum cea de nucleu, valoarea shapley, mulţimea de negociere, mulţime stabilă,. nucleol şi centru (kernel). ne vom referi la rezultate recente a reprezentărilor succinte a jocurilor de coaliţie, precum jocurile cu votare ponderată, jocurile de resurse de coaliţie, jocuri booleene cooperative şi reţele cu contribuţie marginală. conceptele de soluţie existente au cerinţe de complexitate prohibitive, chiar şi pentru clase foarte simple de jocuri. vom ridica problema găsirii unui concept de soluţie de echilibru la fel de atractiv ca cel de bază, dar care este uşor de mânuit şi există în mod garantat. 8. factorii dezvoltării inteligenţei şi performanţa persoanei gheorghe dumitriu rezumat studiul prezintă unele abordări asupra factorilor, compoziţiei şi măsurării inteligenţei umane. astfel, în cadrul abordării psihometrice există dovezi clare că inteligenţa este mai mult influenţată de moştenirea genetică a persoanei decât de moştenirea culturală a societăţii. concluzia unor cercetări asupra evaluării inteligenţei este că subiecţii care obţin scoruri bune la unele probe specifice au tendinţa de a răspunde bine şi la celelalte categorii de probe. din contra, cei care realizează scoruri mai mici sau mai slabe, obţin aceleaşi rezultate şi la celelalte teste. 9. unele rezultate în teoria fuzzy angel garrido rezumat apariţia logicii fuzzy a avut o repercusiune dublă asupra cercetării ştiinţifice şi, astfel, ea a provocat două tipuri de reacţii. din punct de vedere teoretic, este într-adevăr o generalizare foarte utilă a teoriei clasice a mulţimilor, datorate lui boole şi cantor, în acest fel, făcând posibilă analiza noastră a incertitudinii. dar, din păcate, în primii săi paşi, a trebuit să se evite atacurile minţilor monotone din domeniul adesea prea rigid al matematicii. această situaţie s-a îmbunătăţit mai târziu, în special în ţările сu mai puţine prejudecăţi adânc înrădăcinate. şi prin contrast, noua teorie a obţinut o puternică înrădăcinare în naţiuni cu potenţial ştiinţific nou şi în creştere, cum ar fi china, japonia sau coreea de sud şi, mai recent, în ţări europene ca ungaria, spania sau românia, în principal datorită aplicaţiilor sale tehnice de succes. noi analizăm aici unele aspecte esenţiale ale acestui instrument nou şi puternic de analiză matematică. 10. fuziunea cunoaşterii în reţelele academice horea adrian grebla, călin ovidiu cenan, liana stanca rezumat reţelele academice pot reprezenta un nou model pentru învăţarea bazată pe fuziunea cunoştinţelor. în această lucrare vom prezenta o abordare a proiectării reţelelor academice de reţea care reuneşte expertiza de formatori academici şi practicieni, şi deschide noi căi în distribuţia de cunoştinţe. rezumate in limba română 214 reţelele academice pe care le considerăm sunt modelate matematic şi reprezintă baza pentru abordarea ontologică a fuziunii de cunoştinţe într-o astfel de reţea. 11. o aplicaţie delphi pentru analiza sintactică şi lexicală a unei fraze, folosind folosind algoritmul cocke, younger şi kasami bogdan patrut, ioana boghian abstract această lucrare se concentrează pe algoritmul cocke, younger şi kasami (cyk). vom prezenta o aplicaţie delphi care analizează lexicul şi sintaxa unei propoziţii în limba română. vom folosi o gramatică chomsky în forma normală (gcn). vom prezenta sursa unei implementări delphi a algoritmului cyk. 12. despre o problemă de aranjare a datelor folosind curbele bézier carmen violeta muraru rezumat scopul lucrarii este de a studia probleme vechi şi noi referitoare la curbele bézier, instrumente importante în modelarea geometrică a formelor. vom folosi software-ul matlab pentru a studia eroarea de estimare a datelor de montare folosind montarea ȋntr-un pătrat a curbelor bézier şi găsirea de noi metode în cadrul unui studiu care este în prezent în curs de dezvoltare cu privire la minimizarea distanţei dintre curbă şi datele aproximate. 13. stadiul cercetării: verificarea biometrică a semnăturii mohamed soltane, noureddine doghmane, nourddine guersi rezumat lucrarea prezintă o analiză comparativă a performanţelor a trei algoritmi de estimare: expectation maximization (em), algoritmul greedy em (gem) şi algoritmul figueiredo-jain (fj), pe baza modelelor compuse ale lui gauss (mmg), verificarea biometrică a semnăturii. rezultatele simulării au arătat realizări semnificative de performanţă. performanţele testelor de ree = 5.49%, pentru "em", ree = 5.04%, pentru "gem" şi ree = 5,00% pentru "fj", arată că sistemul informaţional comportamental al biometriei semnăturii este robust şi are o putere de discriminare, care poate fi explorată pentru autentificarea identităţii. 14. neuroştiinţa predării povestirilor: facilitarea dezvoltării sociale şi emoţionale lisa whalen rezumat ştiinţele umane şi reale au fost mult timp considerate polarităţi opuse care există în tărâmuri separate ale mediului academic şi necesită abilităţi cognitive diferite. cu toate acestea, neuroştiinţa a adus un interes reînnoit în legătură cu ceea ce putem învăţa despre creierul uman prin investigarea legăturilor dintre discipline. de exemplu, studii legate de literatura engleză au arătat că beneficiile lecturării povestirilor (povestiri de ficţiune şi non-ficţiune) se extind cu mult dincolo de dezvoltarea limbajului şi implică o creştere a competenţei în funcţionarea socială şi emoţională. prin combinarea rezultatele unui studiu de dizertaţie originală şi o revizuire a cercetării trecute şi prezente în domeniul educaţiei, psihologiei, lingvisti şi neuroştiinţei, acest eseu analizează modul în care lecturarea de naraţiuni serveşte ca practică pentru gestionarea emoţiilor şi interacţiunilor sociale în viaţa de zi cu zi. de fapt, mai multe studii sugerează că lecturarea povestirilor ȋntăreşte aproape fiecare parte a creierului, deoarece creierul este proiectat – sau „conectat” – să gândească şi să înveţe în termeni de povestiri, indiferent de subiect. acest eseu oferă mai multe tipuri de sprijin pentru afirmaţia că lecturarea de naraţiuni facilitează dezvoltarea socială şi emoţională. cercetarea adusă ȋn discuţie include studii care arată că lecturarea de naraţiuni nu este o activitate solitară, ci "un proces surprinzator de social" (krakovsky, 2006, p. 1) şi este legată de capacitatea crescută de a vizualiza persoane şi evenimente din mai multe perspective, de creşterea empatiei pentru ceilalţi, şi de creşterea capacităţii de a interpreta indicii sociale (atkins, 2000; courtright, mackey, & packard, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 215 2005; davis, 1980; greif & hogan, 1973; harrison, 2008; mar, 2004; mar, oatley, hirsh, de la paz, & peterson , 2006; stanovich & west, 1989, 1992). înţelegerea modului în care creierul procesează povestiri şi le relaţionează cu funcţionarea lor reală are implicaţii importante pentru mai multe discipline, cum ar fi psihologia, în încercarea sa de a înţelege şi de a trata sindromul de stres posttraumatic. cu toate acestea, acest eseu se axează pe implicaţiile ȋn educaţie. profesorii care fac eforturi pentru a ajuta elevii să dezvolte abilităţi de luare de poziţie, necesare pentru gândirea critică şi empatie, la rândul lor necesare pentru a deveni adulţi responsabili, pot fi mai eficiente dacă înţeleg rolul pe care naraţiunile ȋl joacă în dezvoltarea socială şi emoţională a elevilor. 15. fundamentele logice ale inteligentei artificiale angel garrido abstract procedurile de a căuta soluţii la probleme, în inteligenţa artificială (ia), poate fi adus, în mai multe rânduri, fără cunoştinţe din domeniu şi, în alte situaţii, cu anumite cunoştinţe din acesta. această ultimă procedură este de obicei numită heuristic search. în astfel de metode, tehnici matriciale se dezvăluie ca fiind esenţiale. introducerea lor poate să ne dea o modalitate simplă şi precisă în căutarea de soluţii. lucrarea noastră explică modul în care teoria matricei apare şi participă fructuos ȋn ia, cu aplicaţii fezabile ȋn teoria jocurilor. 16. aspecte psihologico-mistice la sfântul evagrie ponticul şi la sfântul maxim mărturisitorul teofil gheorghe popovici rezumat sfinţii părinţi sunt cei care au experimentat şi aprofundat cel mai bine misterele sufletului omenesc. felul în care este privită fiinţa umană este cu totul aparte. conform sfântului maxim omul este mediatorul dintre dumnezeu şi creaţie. creat cu trup şi suflet, omul este încă din timpul vieţii pământeşti însărcinat să-l cunoască pe dumnezeu. dar aşa cum spunea şi platon omul trebuie să se cunoască mai întâi pe sine. sfinţii părinţi descriu în amănunt acest traseu în care omul pe măsură ce renunţă la păcate îl descoperă în inima lor pe dumnezeu. aceste descrieri sunt exrem de actuale şi de relevante pentru omul contemporan care pare că a mai pierdut puţin din vedere imaginea de ansamblu a misterului sufletului uman, care indică destinul măreţ pentru care a fost creat omul. 17. schemă de analiză geospaţială elisabeta antonia haller rezumat într-o societate care se află în continuă expansiune informaţională, volumul datelor creşte într-un mod atât de neaşteptat încât procesarea acestora în timp util este o sarcină extrem de dificilă. o prioritate a devenit transformarea datelor în informaţii şi cunoştinţe folositoare. astfel, putem spune că data mining este un rezultat natural al dezvoltării tehnologice. interpretarea datelor spaţiale a constituit obiectul cercetărilor de-a lungul timpului, ajungând în prezent să deţinem o mare varietate de instrumente şi produse software pentru reprezentare şi interpretare. ceea ce trebuie să înţelegem însă, mai presus de facilităţile oferite de un produs sau altul, soluţie proprietară sau deschisă (open source), este modul în care acestea lucrează şi interacţionează cu datele spaţiale. 18. henric sanielevici – de la criticismul literar la anatomie sau cum influenţează dimensiunea craniului literatura? adrian jicu rezumat scopul principal al acestei lucrări îl constituie ilustrarea relaţiei dintre critica literară şi anatomie. mai exact, ea va prezenta una dintre teoriile lui henric sanielevici, potrivit căreia textul literar poate fi înţeles cu adevărat numai luând în considerare culoarea ochilor, conformaţia aparatului masticator şi marimea şi forma craniului autorului. rezumate in limba română 216 19. funcţionarea complexă a creierului uman: cele două emisfere iulia cristina timofti rezumat prezentul studiu relevă doar o mică parte din funcţiile şi reacţiile posibile pe care le poate avea creierul uman. am considerat, ca exemple, situaţii diferite caracteristice atât unei persoane normale cât şi uneia cu fracţiune de creier. aceste situaţii dovedesc că creierul, deşi împărţit în două, funcţionează ca o unitate, ca un calculator uimitor care are ca obiectiv principal prelucrarea datelor. 20. interviu cu doctorul georgios k. matis, neurochirurg, universitatea democritus din tracia, facultatea de medicină, alexandroupolis, grecia ruxandra alexandru brain_3_2 17 self-initiated self-repair attempts by japanese high school learners while speaking english rintaro sato nara university of education, nara, japan rintaro@nara-edu.ac.jp abstract in japanese high school english classes, students are often left to have interactions or perform communicative activities not with a teacher but with other students due to a large class size. in the situation, students are ideally notice their own insufficient utterances in order to carry out self-initiated self-repair. this study investigated self-initiated self-repair attempts and their effects on japanese high school learners. thirty-two japanese high school students with low-intermediate english ability and a native speaker of english participated in the study, with the native speaker interviewing the students. the students’ utterances were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed, and it was found that: self-initiated self-repair occurred frequently and, in general, successfully; error repair was most frequently recorded; the success rate of lexical repair was the lowest. findings observed during the students’ self-initiated self-repair attempts are discussed, followed by discussion of their possible effects. finally, suggestions are given based on the pedagogical implications from the study. keywords: self-initiated self-repair, error repair, different information repair, appropriacy 1. introduction errors naturally appear in spontaneous speeches and conversations. especially in a second or foreign language, it is only natural that mistakes happen as a part of the learning process. after an inappropriate expression is detected, it can be corrected. this act of correcting can be initiated either by the speaker (non-native speaker) or the recipient. the former is termed as self-initiated, while the latter as other-initiated (schegloff, jefferson, & sacks, 1977) [20]. occasionally, non-native speakers (nnss) correct or modify their output to make it more comprehensible after they detect an insufficient previous utterance. this phenomenon is referred to in second language acquisition (sla) research as self-initiated self-completed repair (kasper, 1985) [5]. in japanese high schools, classes average around 40 students, making it practically impossible for teachers to have frequent one-on-one interactions providing students with corrective feedback. thus, in many cases, students are left to converse with other students in the l2, being asked to perform communicative activities without direct oversight of the teacher. in this situation, students are ideally expected to provide their partners with feedback or to notice their own insufficient utterances in order to carry out self-initiated self-repair. as previous research has not yet fully investigated self-initiated self-repair attempts by japanese high school learners, examining the phenomena and their role is important to further substantiate the effects of output and related claims in sla. more importantly, it will help us to create more effective output-based english lessons in the japanese high school classroom. the present study examines how japanese efl high school learners self-initiate repair on their previous utterances to repair them in order to make them correct, more comprehensible or more appropriate during face-to-face conversations with a native speaker (ns). 2. background in the contexts of ns/nns and nns/nns interactions, l2 learners attempt to modify their erroneous or insufficient utterances in the direction of more comprehensible output: the learner him/herself realizes the trouble source (a trigger) and reacts to it by trying to repair it (kasper, 1985) [5]. the following is an excerpt of a self-initiated, selfrepair extracted from the present study. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 i go …um went to his house yesterday. (trigger ) (self-initiated part) (self-repair) the student detected that the form of the output (go) was erroneous, stopped the speech flow, and finally corrected the error. shehadeh (2001) [21] examined and compared the effects of otherinitiation and self-initiation with adult l2 learners in an interactive task (picture description, opinion exchange, and decision making) and found that learners produced more modified output after selfinitiation. he concluded that self-initiations have a crucial role in promoting modified output. kormos (1999) [7] suggested that self-repair may serve in the same way as uptake (a move taken by the nns in response to the feedback given to his/her previous utterance). she explained that as it is a part of a mechanism that promotes pushed output, self-repair expands the learners’ linguistic repertoire. kasper (1985) [5] investigated negotiated information between a ns and an nns, as well as nns/nns exchanges, and concluded that self-initiated self-completed repair is more important than other-initiated other-completed repair for successful language learning. according to schegloff, jefferson, and sacks (1977) [20], self-initiated repair may occur within the same utterance turn, immediately after the end of the turn, or in a subsequent turn. schegloff (1979) [19] concluded that “self-initiation, same turn repair is the most common and most successful” (p. 268). however, empirical research shows that learners do not correct every mistake they have made and that they correct not only linguistic (phonological, lexical, syntactic) errors but also pragmatically inappropriate utterances and inadequate information [10]. in a study of ns/ns interaction, schegloff et al. (1977) [20] observed that repairs focused more on content and pragmatic errors than on linguistic errors. kasper (1985) [5] found that in an ns/advanced nns interaction, the majority of repairs focused on content and pragmatic repairs rather than linguistic repairs. as for the effects of learners’ english proficiency on the occurrence and the success of selfinitiated self-repair, lyster and ranta (1997) [11] noted that only when learners have acquired an adequate level of english proficiency is self-initiated self-repair feasible. in a descriptive study with japanese high school students whose english proficiency was low, sato (2008) [17] revealed that successful self-initiated self-repair did not occur frequently. in his study, it was observed that when students attempted to self-repair their insufficient previous utterances, they were often unsuccessful, making another error; repeating the same error; or giving up repair in the course of the act. sato (2008) [17] concluded that “without knowing or internalizing some grammatical structures or expressions, learners cannot notice their own mistakes and so cannot correct them”(p.232). the timing of self-correction according to the types of triggers has been researched (e.g., kormos, 2000 [8]; van hest, 1996 [24]): the occurrences of self-initiated repair according to the different task conditions learner are engaged in are researched, for example, in shehadeh (2001) [21]. in terms of uptake or success rate, studies on recasts are conducted (e.g., sato, 2009 [18]; kim & han, 2007 [6]; trofimovich, ammar, & gatbonton, 2007 [23]; philp, 2003 [16]). however, the effects of types of triggers on the occurrences or uptake of self-repair is rarely researched especially in the japanese efl environment, indicating the need for further study in the efl situation in japan. 2.the purpose of the study sato (2008) [17] examined self-initiated self-repair on low-level japanese learners of english without high motivation toward learning english. he revealed that while the students were performing communicative tasks with a partner (another student), self-initiated self-repair frequently did not occur successfully. as previous research indicates that self-initiated self-repair can be utilized more effectively by high and intermediate learners than by low-level learners, it is necessary to investigate the act of self-repair not only by low-level japanese learners but also by intermediate japanese ones. r. sato self-initiated self-repair attempts by japanese high school learners while speaking english 19 the present study examined self-initiated self-repair by low-intermediate high school learners, most of whom are college bound. learners are engaged in an interaction not with another student with a native speaker of english. well-formed repair after self-initiation was counted as successful. types of triggers were classified as: errors; different information; appropriacy. errors were subcategorized into four groups: grammatical; lexical; phonological; the first language use. these definitions will be explained in more detail later. the following research questions (rqs) were formulated. q1.is the success rate of self-initiated self-repair high? q2.is there any difference in the occurrence of self-initiated self-repair according to the types of triggers? q3.is there any difference in the success rate according to the types of triggers? q4.is there any difference in the occurrence and success rate among the diffrent types of error repair? 4. method 4.1 context in japan, english has long been taught as a knowledge-based subject and, for many students, passing of knowledge-based exams is the primary objective. japanese students seem to have dual orientations for learning english: a practical, realistic goal related to examinations and grades, and a vague idealistic goal related to using english for international or intercultural communication (yashima, 2000 [27] ). it seems that most students have the former type of motivation (related to tests) more than the latter(related to communication ) in the japanese efl situation. 4.2 participants thirty-two second-grade, college bound japanese high school students (15 males and 17 females, aged 16 or 17) participated in the study. all of the students had passed the entrance exams for the academically higher level high school with relatively high scores in english. a native english teacher from australia who had been teaching english as an assistant language teacher (alt) for five and a half years in japan, taught the students in a communication-oriented english class once every two weeks. in a questionnaire conducted just before the study, 28 out of 32 students (88%) answered that they liked the communicative english classes taught by the alt. thus, in this study we regarded them as low-intermediate students with relatively high motivation toward learning english and english conversation.1 4.3 procedure students and the alt, david (this name is fictitious pseudonym), had conversation for the study. in free conversation in the form of an interview, david asked questions and the student talked about his/her daily life covering topics such as hobbies, study, family, future dreams and so on. as this was a natural communication-based task, target structures were not set for the study. david had told students that he would evaluate their english performances. he knew that their interactions would be recorded but did not know the purpose of the study. david had not been given any instruction on which types of feedback should be given to students after their self-initiated selfrepairs. all recordings were transcribed and re-checked by the researcher to ensure their accuracy. additionally, in a limited number of cases where there were still unsolved transcription difficulties, the original participants were invited to interpret the results. the database includes 32 interviews totaling 362 minutes. the average length of the interview per student was about 11 minutes; the longest one was 15and a half minutes, and the shortest lasted about 9 minutes. in the present study, self-repair attempts issuing from self-initiation after a trigger is termed as self-initiated self-repair. the following is an example of a self-initiated selfrepair from the present study. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 example 1 david: when did you start playing the piano? student 1: my twelve, in twelfth grade. student 1 detected her error (trigger) and successfully repaired it by herself. as for classification of self-repairs, mainly referring to levelt (1983) [10] and kormos (2000) [8], self-initiated self-repairs were classified into three groups for the present study: different information, appropriacy, and error. a different information repair is defined as speakers’ encoding of different information from a previous formulation. an appropriacy repair is defined as speakers’ encoding of information that needed to be “more precise, more coherent, pragmatically more appropriate, or less ambiguous” (kormos, 2000 [8], p.150). an error repair refers to the act of speakers’ attempts to repair their previous erroneous utterances. as the fourth type of repair, a rephrasing repair was given in kormos (2000) [8], and defined as a repetition of a slightly modified version of a previous utterance resulting from uncertainty about its correctness. however, it was assumed that it would be difficult to draw a clear line between a rephrasing repair and an error repair (or appropriacy repair), without a retrospective interview with speakers for confirmation. thus, it was decided not to include the category of a rephrasing repair in the present study. the following are examples of a different information repair and an appropriacy repair from the study. example 2 different information repair s2: i, my family had a dog. (successful) example 3 appropriacy repair d: are you in any clubs? s3: yes. i belong to the club, the soccer club and… (successful) student 2 uttered “i” but decided to encode different information by repairing it to “my family”. in example 3, student 3 decided to make his previous utterance more precise and pragmatically more appropriate and it was successfully conveyed. error repairs were subcategorized into four groups according to the type of triggers: grammatical, lexical, phonological, and the first language, japanese, (l1) use. this grouping was based on lyster and ranta (1997) [11]: (1) grammatical errors are errors in the use or lack of determiners, particles, verb forms, word order; (2) lexical errors include inappropriate, imprecise or inaccurate choices of lexical items; (3) phonological errors address inappropriate, imprecise or inaccurate pronunciation; (4) unsolicited use of japanese is an instance where a student speaks japanese instead of english. the following are some examples. example 4 grammatical d: what junior high school did you go to? s4: i was gone to, i went to matoba junior high school. (successful ) example 5 grammatical d: why do you want to be a nurse? s5: i’m take, i like take care of people. (failed) example 6 lexical s6: last night i see, i saw a dream. (failed) d: oh, you had a dream last night. example 7 phonological d: what was the last thing that you bought? s7: hmm… i bought a bak, bag. (successful) example 8 l1 use d: after school when you are at home, what do you do? s8: i neru (sleep in japanese), sleep at home. (successful) r. sato self-initiated self-repair attempts by japanese high school learners while speaking english 21 in example 4, the student successfully self-repaired the grammatical error, while student 5 failed to repair her error in expressing her desire or will. in repairing her error, student 6 made a wrong word choice. in example 7, mispronunciation of bag resulting from japanese pronunciation was successfully repaired. on many occasions, students first used l1 and then changed it into english. in the activity, they were required to speak only in english, and as it is crucial for them to communicate without using japanese, l1 use was coded as an error in the study. classification and sub-categorization of self-initiated repairs was conducted by the researcher. a week after the first classification, it was conducted again by the same researcher. this method of classification follows alderson, clapham and wall (1995) [2], who wrote that multiple rating sessions increase the reliability of the rating. where there were discrepancies between the two ratings (3 cases), a second rater, a high school english teacher with more than 15 years of teaching experience, was invited to rate them after discussion, disagreement was resolved. 5. results the first research question asked about the success rate. eighty-six self-initiated self-repair attempts were conducted successfully and 25 failed. to examine whether there was a statistical difference between the number of successful self-initiated self-repairs (86) and failed ones (25), a chi-square statistic was calculated, finding a statistically significant difference between them (χ２ = 33.52, df = 1, p = .00). table 1. success rate of self-initiated self repair attempt success total success failed rate self-repair attempt 111 86 25 77% the second research question asked about the occurrence of self-initiated self-repair according to the types of triggers. in total, 111 self-initiated self-repairs were reported. among them, error repairs occurred 86 times (78%); different information repairs occurred 9 times (8%); and appropriacy repairs occurred 16 times (14%). a chi-square statistic test revealed there was a statistically significant difference in the occurrence by the types (χ２ = 98.0, df = 2, p ＜ .05). it also revealed that the difference in the occurrence of error repairs (86) and that of different information repairs plus appropriacy repairs (16＋9) was statistically significant (χ２ = 98.0, df = 1, p = .00). there was no statistically significant difference between different information repairs and appropriacy repairs. table 2. the occurrence of self-initiated self-repair according to the types of triggers types frequency proportion error repair 86 78% appropriacy repair 16 14% different information repair 9 8% total 111 100% the third research question concerned the success rates according to the types of triggers. it was reported that error repairs had a 77% success rate, different information repairs had 89% and appropriacy repairs was 75% successful. a chi-square statistic test with yates’ continuity correction revealed that there was not a statistically significant difference in the success rates according to the types. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 table 3. the success rates according to the types of triggers type frequency success failed success rate error repair 86 66 20 77% appropriacy repair 16 12 4 75% different information repair 9 8 1 89% total 111 86 25 77% the fourth research question concerned the occurrence and success rate of error repair according to the types. the category of error repair was further sub-classified. the success rate of each was: l1 use repairs had an 83% success rate, grammatical repairs 79%, phonological repairs with 75%, and lexical repairs had a 50%, success rate. to examine whether there was a statistically significant difference in the success rates by the four types, a chi-square statistic test with yates’ continuity correction was conducted and we found that there was no difference. table 4. the occurrence and success rate of error repair according to the types type frequency success failed success rate l1 use 36 30 6 83% grammatical 34 26 8 79% phonological 8 6 2 75% lexical 8 4 4 50% total 86 66 20 77% table 5 summarizes the results (rq2, 3 and 4). table 5. the occurrence and success rates frequency success types total success failed rate phonological 8 6 2 75% error repair lexical 8 4 4 50% grammatical 34 26 8 79% l1 use 36 30 6 83% 86(78%) 66 20 77% different information repair 9(8%) 8 1 89% appropriacy repair 16(14%) 12 4 75% total 111 86 25 77% 6. discussion 6.1 the success rate of self-initiated self-repair results of this study implied that learners are more likely to be successful in self-initiated self-repairs than to fail at them: a greater number of well-formed l2 self-repairs were recorded as compared to ill-formed ones. this result is compatible with earlier study findings (kasper, 1985 [5]; schegloff et al., 1977 [20]; shehadeh, 2001 [21]; van hest, 1996 [24]). at the moment of detecting errors and mistakes, or triggers, in their original utterances, students noticed a gap between utterances and the target language. this led them to produce a modified output (swain & lapkin, 1995 [22]). it was recorded that david provided students with adequate time for them to produce an output. this presented them with sufficient time to attend to form while planning speech acts, and the opportunity to self-repair their erroneous original utterances. this situation created favorable conditions for self-initiated self-repair as defined in previous studies (shehadeh, 2001 [21]; yuan & r. sato self-initiated self-repair attempts by japanese high school learners while speaking english 23 ellis, 2003 [29]). it can be argued that in some cases learners found that they had made a mistake in the sense that ellis (1997) uses that word: an accidental slip of the tongue resulting from tiredness or some kind of pressure to communicate (ellis, 1997) [4]). example 9 d: what did you do after school yesterday? s9: i go, went to a convenience and buy, bought? bought a magazine. example 10 d: why do you want to be a teacher? s10: because, because i like child, children very much. in these examples, students made a mistake and corrected it immediately after detecting its deviance from the correct form. it is interpreted that it was not so difficult for students to correct mistakes by using explicit knowledge, which is knowledge about language with awareness and learners can verbalize it. 6.2 the occurrence of self-initiated self-repair according to the types of triggers the occurrences of self-initiated self-repairs according to the types of triggers were reported as: error 86 times (78%)＞ ＞appropriacy 16 times (14%) different information 9 times (8%). the majority of students’ repair was on errors. the results were incompatible with van hest (1996) [24], which reported appropriacy repairs accounted for 39.7%, followed by error repairs (22.4%) and different information repairs (10.1%). in the study of ns/ns discourse (schegloff et al., 1977 [20]) and ns/ advanced nns discourse (kasper, 1985 [5]), it has been reported that the vast majority of repairs consisted of content or pragmatic repairs rather than linguistic ones. the results of the present study did not support these findings either. kormos (2006) [9], after evaluating previous studies, concluded that as l2 proficiency increases, the nature of repair changes from simple error repairs to more complex discourse level repairs. as a rationale for this argument, kormos (2006) [9] explained that compared to less-proficient learners advanced learners acquire greater declarative knowledge, which is factual knowledge that is expressed explicitly. those advanced learners are able to automatize that knowledge to a greater extent, leading them to attend to their own utterances at the level of discourse and content. this may be because students in the present study did not have enough attention available for monitoring at the level of discourse or content. levelt (1983) [10] supposed that the act of self-repair would be intended to prevent potential communication breakdown. however, in this study, even when communication breakdown did not seem to occur, students frequently self-initiated to repair their errors. example 11 s11: last night i watch, watched the movie on tv. in this example, student 11 did not have to repair “watch” just to avoid a communication breakdown as “last night” had made the context clear. the followings are examples in which students self-repaired their errors even when communication breakdown did not seem to occur. example 12 s12: i read many book, books this summer. example 13 s13: my father drink, drinks beer every night. example 14 s14: when i was a junior high school student, i play, played soccer after school. errors of the third person-s, the plural –s and regular past tense in a sentence with an adverbial phrase or clause would not usually cause communication breakdowns. however, students brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 self-repaired errors of the third person-s 3 times, the plural –s, 4 times and errors of regular past tense 6 times. kormos (2006) [9] goes on to state that the demand of accuracy in the situation influences speakers’ decisions on the implementation of the repair. she mentions that formally instructed foreign language speakers who are taught explicit grammar pay more attention to the linguistic form than the information or content. as this was an interview test in which their english proficiency would be measured, it is likely that students put priority on linguistic form or accuracy. in the formally instructed, accuracyoriented japanese efl environment which is language-centered rather than content-centered, students in general would assume that using accurate english has primacy, leading them to repair errors frequently. to account for the relatively low frequency of different information repairs, we can point out our observation that students tended not to initiate repair even when the wrong message would be conveyed. example 15 s15: i didn’t study english at all in junior high school. d: oh, your junior high school didn’t have english class. example16 s16: we japanese usually eat sushi, tempura, and sukiyaki… d: oh, you are very rich. in these examples, students sent simplified potentially innacurate messages. neustupny (1982) [15] reported that in speaking english to native speakers, japanese people tended to convey simplified exaggerated messages. they avoided using more difficult complicated language structures and did not revise their utterances due to their perceived insufficient english proficiency, even though they knew their messages were not correct. in some cases, students in the current study also must have realized the need for repair to convey what they really meant during or just after the production, but did not repair incorrect messages. this may be because students chose to leave incorrect messages untouched due to the difficulty of revising them to be correct in english, as reported earlier ( neustupny (1982) [15]). 6.3 the success rate according to the types of triggers as for the success rates according to the types of triggers, different information repairs was the highest (89%) followed by error repairs (77%) and appropriacy repairs (75%). success rates were relatively high and there was no statistically significant difference according to types. in the different information repair, students decided to use information different from the original source; information in which they did not have to experience linguistic problems. in situations where linguistic problems were found to be beyond their english proficiency, it may be assumed that they did not even attempt to repair them. in the following example, student 17 easily succeeded in providing different information. example 17 d: tell me about your father. s 17: my father plays, likes watching golf on tv. this interpretation can be applied to appropriacy repair. example 18 d: why do you want to go to korea? s18: i want to study, learn korean. it is interpreted that the student tried successfully to repair the previous word “study” to make it more precise and pragmatically appropriate as this act was not beyond her english proficiency. high success rate of error repair resulted from high success rates of l1, grammatical r. sato self-initiated self-repair attempts by japanese high school learners while speaking english 25 and phonological repair. this will be discussed in the next section. only in one case out of nine was a failed different information repair was reported. example 19 d: why do you study english hard? s 19: it is important for me, we, because english is international… in the example, it can be assumed from the context that the student wanted to say learning english is important. in changing the meaning of “me” (english is important for her) to “us” (for other people, too), the student attempted to add information that english is an international language. this dual task possibly made the repair cognitively demanding, and led to an error. in the eight other cases, students successfully changed the information. 6.4 the occurrence and success rate of error repairs according to the types in the category of error repairs, 36 of 86 instances were l1 use (42%), 34 were grammatical (40%), and only 8 instances each (9%) were phonological and lexical. success rates of each were: l1, 83%: grammatical, 79%; phonological, 75%; lexical, 50%. it was frequently recorded that students, at first, used japanese, and then restated it into english. example 20 d: are you fast in the half marathon? s 20: amari hayakunai, i’m not so fast. example 21 d: do you like to play the piano? s 21: hai, yes. example 22 d: what are your good points? s22: akaruikana~, cheerful. as these instances show, students answered in japanese followed by the english counterpart. in most of the cases, correct english was produced immediately after the use of the l1 (japanese). from this observation, it is thought that even though students did not have linguistic problems, they still chose to use japanese first and then restate the utterance in english. this category having the highest success rate (83%) suggests this interpretation is correct. the mechanism of this common behavior observed in the study should be further examined. as a reason for the high frequency rate of grammatical repairs, mcdonough (2005) [13] stated that as efl students are learning the target language in formal educational settings with explicit grammar teaching, they find grammatical error particularly noticeable. in this study, by using their explicit knowledge, students monitored their utterances and self-repaired them when triggers were detected. in this situation, learners were able to repair an utterance only when they had explicit knowledge of the grammar rule of the trigger. if not, they were less likely to try to correct their own grammatical errors. this could have contributed to the relatively high success rate of grammatical repair (79%). one common phenomenon, which possibly contributed to the high frequency of use as well as the high success rate, is the students' use of the be-copula before the correct use of verbs. example 23 d: do you belong to a club? s23: yes. i am, i belong to the cooking club. example 24 d: what did he do that was clever? s24: he was, listened to ten people. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 this phenomenon is interpreted as a transfer from their l1. in the japanese language, wa assumes some of the functions of the be-copula and is used before verbs as well. due to such transfer, students often put be-copula first and then immediately after the detection of the error they repaired to the appropriate verb. this phenomenon was reported often, with nine occurrences in the study. the reported frequency rates of phonological and lexical repairs were both low (9%). it is generally accepted that japanese learners often cannot pronounce english correctly especially when they pronounce certain phonemes which do not exist in the japanese language (mackain, best & strange, 1981 [12]). additionally, students are not well trained to listen to or pronounce subtle variations in phonemes. nakamori (2009) [14] pointed out that once japanese learners of english acquire the manner of perceiving and expressing english sounds based on japanese sounds (phonemes, syllables, intonations) it is extremely difficult to overcome the problem. in this study, students possibly could not detect their mispronunciations and if so, they could not try to correct them, leading to a low frequency rate. as for the low frequency (9%) and success rates (50%) of lexical repairs２ it was perhaps difficult for students to attend both to grammaticality and appropriacy of word choice. example 25 lexical s25: this morning i drink, drank medicine. (failed) d: oh, you took medicine. in the example, the student succeeded only in grammatical correctness but not in an appropriate choice of a lexical item. the sentence is grammatically correct, but as it is lexically incorrect it was counted as failed. widdowson (1989) [25] found that when learners are learning grammar through a rule-based approach, they often produce output that is grammatically correct but linguistically incorrect. as efl japanese students are learning english in formal educational settings with explicit grammar teaching which emphasizes accuracy or rules, it is felt that they were not instructed with attention to appropriate word choice but instead to grammatical correctness. 7. conclusion this study has shown the relatively high success rate of self-initiated self-repair (77%): it has also shown that the occurrence and success rates of self-initiated self-repair vary according to the types of triggers. analyses of the findings and observation offer several pedagogical implications. teachers can be encouraged to give learners an explicit direction that they should try to repair their utterances when they detect their own errors or mistakes. it was thought, from the observation, that learners would not often repair their messages, even when the message was not what they meant to say. teachers may have to encourage learners to repair their wrong message, as the move to produce a correct message would develop students’ interlanguage. as it was observed that learners are less likely to self-initiate to self-repair their phonological and lexical errors, teachers, while interacting with a learner, should give students some feedback. by giving them prompts such as a clarification request and repetition of the error, teachers can push learners to modify their non-target output. they can also provide learners with models through recasts, confirmation checks or explicit correction, when learners cannot detect their non-target output. a shared common behavior of l1 use followed by a restatement in english should be considered as a negative move by the learner. unnecessary l1 use hinders target language development, causing possible communication breakdown with non-japanese speakers. in this study, the results implied that students attend to linguistic errors more than to discourse or content level in monitoring. keeping this tendency in mind, teachers can encourage students to monitor their utterances, attending to not only the linguistic aspect but also to discourseor content-related aspects of speech. r. sato self-initiated self-repair attempts by japanese high school learners while speaking english 27 self-initiated self-repair involves a higher level of cognitive activity, positively accompanied by noticing the gap, as opposed to merely noticing an l2 example provided by feedback such as recasts (egi, 2010) [3]. shehadeh (2001) [21] has stated that self-initiated selfrepair is a normal learning/teaching strategy because of its high occurrence, prevalence and constancy. this study reported a relatively high success rate of self-initiated self-repair, supporting the argument that self-initiated self-repair is an effective learning /teaching strategy. it should therefore be utilized more in japanese high school classrooms. this small-scale study examined self-initiated self-repair attempts, and reported their effect on japanese learners. however, the results should be cosidered cautiously, as there are some limitations to its findings. in this study, interviews as stimulated recall measurements were not conducted. to confirm the interpretations of the observed phenomena, retrospective interviews should have systematically been done with all of the students and the interlocutor, david. in the activity, even though david and the students had spontaneous interactions, the setting was an interview test. the results could have been different, if it had not been an interview test. since the findings are within the context of the learners and the ns investigated in this study, conclusions should be taken as tentative without generalizing the results to other contexts. to validate the findings and interpretations of the observed phenomena in the study, a focused empirical study in different settings with introspective data is required. if further studies support the findings and interpretations of the phenomena found in the present study, the importance of self-initiated self-repair for japanese students’ learning english should be more widely acknowledged. notes 1. although they had obtained high scores in the entrance exams in english, they cannot be regarded as intermediate learners if we refer to, for example, the american council on the teaching of foreign languages (actfl) proficiency guidelines (actfl proficiency guidelines–speaking, 1999) [1]). as the scores of english proficiency tests such as test of english for international communication (toeic) or test of english as a foreign language (toefl) were not available, we decided to regard them as low-intermediate learners. 2. there was no statistically significant difference in the success rates according to error types. an adjusted residual of lexical errors computed through the residual analysis revealed ±1.9, which was not a statistically significant difference (±1.96), but this can be attributed to the low frequency of lexical repairs. references [1] actfl proficiency guidelines – speaking (1999). actfl proficiency guidelines– speaking. retrieved december 1, 2010 from website of american council on the teaching of foreign language: http://www.actfl.org/files/public/guidelinesspeak.pdf [2] alderson, j.c. clapham, b.j., & wall, d. (1995). language test construction and evaluation. cambridge university press, cambridge. [3] egi, t. (2010). uptake, modified output, and learner perceptions of recasts: learner responses as language awareness. the modern language journal, 94, 1-21. [4] ellis, r. (1997). second language acquisition. oxford university press, oxford. [5] kasper, g. (1985). repair in foreign language teaching. studies in second language acquisition, 7, 200-215. [6] kim, j-h., & han, z-h. (2007). recasts in communicative efl classes: do teacher intent and learner interpretation overlap? in a. mackey (ed.), conversational interaction in second language acquisition (pp. 269-297). oxford: oxford university press. [7] kormos, j. (1999). monitoring and self-repair. language learning, 49, 303-342. [8] kormos, j. (2000). the timing of self-repairs in second language speech production. studies in second language acquisition, 22, 145-167. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 [9] kormos, j. (2006). speech production and second language acquisition. lawrence erlbaum, mahwah, nj. [10] levelt, w. (1983). monitoring and self-repair in speech. cognition, 33, 41-103. [11] lyster, r., & ranta, l. (1997). corrective feedback and learner uptake: negotiation of form in communicative classroom. studies in second language acquisition, 19, 37-66. [12] mackain, k. k., best, c. t., & strange, w. (1981). categorical perception of english /r/and /l/ by japanese bilinguals. applied psycholinguistics , 2, 369-390. [13] mcdonough, k. (2005). identifying the impact of negative feedback and learners’ responses on esl question development. studies in second language acquisition, 27, 79-103. [14] nakamori,t. (2009). chunking and instruction: the place of sounds, lexis, and grammar in english language teaching. hitsuzi syobo, tokyo. [15] neustupny, j.v. (1982). gaikokuzin tono communication [communication with non-japanese people]. iwanami shoten, tokyo. [16] philp, j. (2003). constraints on “noticing the gap”. nonnative speakers‘ noticing of recasts in ns-nns interaction. studies in second language acquisition, 25, 99-126. [17] sato, r. (2008). self-initiated modified output on the road to comprehensibility. jalt journal, 30, 223-240. [18] sato, r. (2009). considering the effectiveness of recasts on japanese high school learners’ learning. the journal of asia tefl, 6, 193-216. [19] schegloff, e. (1979). the relevance of repair to syntax-for-conversation. in: givon, t. (ed.), syntax and semantics: vol. 12. discourse and syntax. academic press, new york, pp. 261-286. [20] schegloff, e., jefferson, g., & sacks, h. (1977). the preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. language, 53, 361-382. [21] shehadeh, a. (2001). self-and other-initiated modified output during task-based interaction. tesol quarterly, 35, 433-457. [22] swain, m., & lapkin, s. (1995). problems in output and the cognitive process they generate: a step towards second language learning. applied linguistics, 16, 371-391. [23] trofimovich, p., ammar, a., & gatbonton, e. (2007). how effective are recasts?: the role of attention, memory, and analytic ability. in a. mackey (ed.), conversational interaction in second language acquisition (pp. 171-195). oxford: oxford university press. [24] van hest, e. (1996). self-repair in l1 and l2 production. tilburg university press, tilburg. [25] widdowson, h. (1989). knowledge of language and ability for use. applied linguistics, 10, 127-37. [26] willis, j. (1996). a framework for task-based learning. pearson education limited, harlow, essex. [27] yashima, t. (2000). orientations and motivation in foreign language-learning: a study of japanese college students. jacet bulletin, 31,121-133. [28] yashima,t., zenuk-nishide, l., & shimizu, k. (2004). the influence of attitudes and affect on willingness to communicate and second language communication. language learning, 54, 119– 152. [29] yuan, f., & ellis, r. (2003). the effects of pre-task planning and online planning on fluency, complexity and accuracy in l2 monologic oral production. applied linguistics, 24, 1-27. brain_3_4_final 13 the influence of neurolinguistic applications on second language research: reviewing the issues and refocusing the debate masoud mahmoodzadeh sheikhbahaee university, isfahan, iran, tel: 0098-09151019732 masoudmahmoodzadeh@yahoo.com abstract the influence of neurolinguistic applications on second language pedagogy has often been a controversial subject of dispute. as such, researchers in this field have faced with some blurred and conflicting views in terms of the pedagogical applicability of neurological discoveries for second language instruction. in light of this research-based concern, the current short paper attempts to review the related issues and refocus the current direction of the neurolinguistic-second language pedagogy debate. the paper also concludes with some suggestions made in favor of an alternative neurolinguistic outlook for l2 researchers. keywords: neurolinguistic research, neurolinguistic applications, second language acquisition (sla), second language teaching (slt) 1. introduction neurolinguistics is a branch of neuroscience which delves into the diverse dimensions of the relation between the human brain and language. it is mainly concerned with the study of language production and comprehension in relation to the brain structures and functions. as nergis (2011) generally argues, although neuroscience is relatively a young area of research, it has not have a short life span in applied linguistics because there have been always some attempts to negotiate neurological findings with social sciences, psychology and also pedagogy in order to extract suggestions for educational practices (see for example, sebastian et al., 2010; blakemore, 2010; burnett et al. 2010). in many ways, the field of neurolinguistics has fared well to this day and offered a lot of significant research studies on how the human language is represented in the brain and how language learning neurologically takes place in l1 and l2 systems. in terms of the nature and scope of neurolinguistic research, it should be noted that neurolinguistics mainly investigates "linguistic development of normally developing subjects, language loss in patients with brain damage, and language use by people with specific language impairment" (nergis, 2011, p. 143). so far, some prominent brain studies have been conducted in the area of language acquisition exploring the brain functions (see abutalebi, 2008 and also jacobs & schumann, 1992 for synopses) and its complex structures to propose some neurolinguistic theories, namely the cerebral dominance/lateralization and critical period hypothesis (for extensive reviews, see bialystok, 1997; bickerton, 1981; birdsong, 2006; lenneberg, 1967; scovel, 1969, 1988, singleton, 2005), connectionism theory and parallel distributed processing (pdp) approach (see bowers, 2002; mcclelland, rumelhart, & pdp research group, 1986; ney & pearson, 1990; sokolik, 1990) and the bimodality theory (danesi, 1986, 2003). thus, it is clear that the evergrowing knowledge of brain has been fast becoming a part of the issues that researchers and practitioners deal with in sla and elt professionally. in spite of the fact that it is suggested that second language researchers look into the brain sciences such as neurolinguistics in search of more effective instruction (danesi, 1986; spolsky, 1989; nergis, 2011), only a limited number of attempts such as danesi’s (2003) bimodality theory, however, have been made to particularly crystallize neurolinguistic findings into second language methodology during the last few decades (mahmoodzadeh, 2011, 2012). in this respect, kim-rivera (1998) similarly that few studies have approached language teaching from the perspective of neurolinguistics attempting "to apply neurolinguistic discoveries to the development of concrete prepositions that could guide second language teachers"(p. 91). in this brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 sense, danesi (2003) likewise argues that over the last decades the inquiry into the neurosciences has clearly come to fruition for language teaching practices culminating in the design of three groundbreaking "neurolinguitic methods", namely lozanov’s (1979) suggestopedia, asher’s (1977, 1981) total physical response, and krashen and terrell’s (1983) natural approach. in addition, more recently in terms of the pedagogical applications of neurolinguistic research vis-à-vis sla and second language teaching (slt), the danesi's (1986) bimodality theory has offered l2 researchers some interesting insights and implications. this theory is indicative of a neurolinguisic foundation for language instruction in the classroom. its underlying nuts and bolts indicate that there is a natural flow of information from the right to the left hemisphere of the brain during language learning (mahmoodzadeh, 2012). there are four principles which formed the blueprint and basis of this theory: (1) the modal flow principle; (2) the modal focusing principle; (3) the contextualization; (4) the conceptualization principle. the consolidation of these principles would effectively enhance the learning of the language, as they integrate both structure and communication, and thus educate both hemispheres at the same time (danesi, 2003) seemingly the advent of bimodality theory has produced a neurolinguistically-based explanation for success and/or failure of second language teaching methods. in effect, it can be argued that this theory being later amended and expanded by danesi (2003) to a set of pedagogical maxims, has paved the way for the development of a "bimodal" pedagogy (a term associated with bimodality theory) which might be considered as a preliminary step to initiate a neurolinguisticlyoriented methodological undertaking to approach the circle of second language methodology (see mahmoodzadeh, 2011 for a full coverage of the issues). however, from the other side of the argument, the field of neurolinguistics has witnessed some cautions concerning its feasible jurisdiction in the area of second language pedagogy on a number of grounds (mahmoodzadeh, in press). for example, in the early 1980s, scovel (1982) claims that any direct application of neurolinguistic research to foreign language teaching, in all likelihood, should be seriously turned down in vain attempts to justify good pedagogy or to condemn inadequate classroom practices; rather, the contribution of neuropsychology, like that of linguistics, should be indirect and insightful. in attempting to justify his claim, scovel (1982) argues that …1) neuropsychologists have studied competent bilingual, not language learners—the group we are concerned with, 2) experimental tasks are often more complex than envisioned, 3) the studies have dealt only with hemispheric lateralization and not with other dimensions of the brain, and 4) even if it were possible to teach primarily to one or more portions of the brain, quantity does not imply qualitative success at language learning (cited in cohen, 1982, p. 306). moreover, quite recently marinova (2012) likewise has stated that contacts between neurolinguistics and sla, if present at all, may be at best described as tentative and full of mutual distrust. in another line of inquiry, mahmoodzadeh (in press) also maintains that some researchers have expressed their disapproval for adopting an integrative approach concerning the pedagogical utility of neurolinguistic findings for second language research over the recent decades (e.g. coch & ansari, 2009; goswami, 2006). in a similar fashion, christodoulou and gaab (2009) and willingham (2009) discuss that it will never be possible to offer new cogent l2 teaching methods that are rightfully based on neurological findings, as neuroscience is perceived to possess a descriptive rather than a prescriptive approach to informing educators. 2. reconsidering the research-based depth of neurolinguistic applications to second language research from a full-scale neurological inquiry, mårtensson, eriksson, christian bodammer, lindgren, johansson, nyberg, and lövdén (2012) have claimed that the influence of adult foreignlanguage acquisition on human brain organization is poorly understood. their findings confirm structural changes in brain regions known to serve language functions during foreign-language acquisition. thus, they conclude that foreign language acquisition can even lead to brain structure m. mahmoodzadeh the influence of neurolinguistic applications on second language research: reviewing the issues and refocusing the debate 15 changes in young adults. the above finding interestingly endorses the utmost importance of neurological studies for the field of sla. arguably, whereas neurolinguistic findings, however, have been informative and insightful for second language researcher, seemingly the application of neurolinguistics, in its entirety, has not been a rich repertoire for second language practitioners during the last two decades. one possible explanation in this regard is that the fallaciously overemphasized arguments asserted against the applicability of neurolinguistic corollaries in second language teaching have made practitionners unwilling to approach language pedagogy from neurolinguistic domain. in relation to this matter, some scholars have attempted to utterly criticize the biased stance in question. for instance, nergis (2011), in general, asserts that "researchers working on neuroscience and education should come up with a new approach or framework to negotiate these two fields of research to form sound suggestions" (p.143). in a similar way, among sla researchers, jacob and schuman (1992) suggest that language acquisition researchers not neglect the role of neurological contributions and consider sla and the interdisciplinary field of neurolinguistics as two distant and discrete research realms. instead, they call for adopting a more integrative perspective towards the two fields and thus suggest that sla researchers begin to incorporate "a degree of neurobiological reality into their perception of the language acquisition process. such a neurally inspired view helps to provide a common ground for evaluating and integrating various language acquisition perspectives" (p. 282). even from solely linguistic viewpoint, some scholars (see for example grimaldi, 2012; grimaldi & craighero, 2012) have recently cast doubt on the fertile integration of linguistics and cognitive neuroscience and have redrawn our attention to the necessity and usefulness of this legitimately interdisciplinary interface instead. two decades ago, although kim-rivera (1998) rightly argues that only when a consistent pattern of salient results is achieved can neurolinguisticall-based theories such as bimodality be considered worthy as a theoretical basis for instructional practice, this issue is perhaps still open to debate due to the creation of a kind of boomerange effect. based on this boomerange effect, the voiced objections to the applications of the neurolinguistic research has almost disinclined l2 researchers to get involved and thus l2 researchers are perhaps too mindful of enquiring and investigating the practical aspects of such theories. in fact, to the best of author’s knowledge, the hot perennial controversy over the practical plausibility of neurolinguistic findings for second language research and the pessimisim which has formed in this respect can virtually resulted in some decision-making problems that l2 researchers and especially practitioners have to get to grips with while investigating and conducting research studies. according to mahmoodzadeh (in press), it can be metaphorically implied that paradoxically this field is theoretically assumed to be sufficiently fruitful, but practically of kind of 'forbidden fruit'. in a nutshell, considering the undue skepticism and caution against overgeneralizing the neurolinguistic results, it is argued that as it is important to withhold the spread of irrational generalization, it is equally important not to do so at the expense of suppressing the future opportunities. one tentative expalnation for this perhaps relates to the elusive nature of truth in science. to understand this feature of the truth, elbow (2008) has generally suggested that researchers ought to get engaged in both playing and balancing some kind of scientific or academic games: the believing game and the doubting game (see also elbow, 1973 for further details). “the doubting game can not prove that a position is wrong-nor the believing game that it is right. the doubting game and believing game are just tools or methods and cannot make decisions for us. so, our judgments will be better if we get to use both sets of tools” (p. 10). however, it seems that in terms of the applications of neurolinguistics to second language research, practically researchers have almost tended to play the doubting game, devoid of sufficient endeavours for playing the believing game. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 3. conclusion in sum, it seems that reopening the agenda of neurolinguistic applications to second language teaching is perhaps within the prospective changes. for the time being, mahmoodzadeh (in press) calls for a balanced alternative neurolinguistic perspective in which the fields of neurolinguistics and second language pedagogy are not only considered mutually exclusive but also are considered mutually complementary. in this regard, the author now strongly believes that the taken stance is perhaps more sensible and inclusive and might yield a more conspicuous picture of the totality of the issue as well. hence, the field of neurolinguistics has not overstepped its jurisdiction in second language research because its practical and theoretical aspects can be almost considered as two sides of the same coin. in this sense, we might hopefully have the warranty to rediscover the potential of neurolinguistic contribution to second language research and ideally witness a major shift of focus regarding the validity criterion of its prospective patterns of research. in conclusion, by putting further trust in applicability of the neurological achievements catered for second language research, the stoplight put against neurolinguistic applications to second language learning and pedagogy might also turn yellow soon awaiting the accompanying green light. however, such alternative view is still speculative and open-ended and it certainly needs support of the future research studies. references [1] abutalebi, j. (2008). neural aspects of second language representation and language control. acta psychologica, 128, 466–478. [2] antenos-conforti, e. (2001). the teaching of elementary italian as a second language in canadian universities: methodologies, curricula and future considerations. unpublished doctorial dissertation, university of toronto, canada. [3] asher, j. j. (1977). learning another language through actions: the complete teacher’s guidebook. los gatos: sky oaks. [4] asher, j. j. (1981). the total physical response: theory and practice. in: h. wintz (ed.). native language and foreign language acquisition (pp. 324-331). new york: new york academy of sciences. [5] bialystok, e. (1997). the structure of age: in search of barriers to second language acquisition. second language research, 13, 116-137. [6] bickerton, d. (1981). roots of language. ann arbor, mi: karoma publishers. [7] birdsong, d. (2006). age and second language acquisition and processing: a selective overview. language learning, 56, 9–49. [8] bowers, j. s. (2002). challenging the widespread assumption that connectionism and distributed representations go hand-in-hand. cognitive psychology, 45, 413-445. [9] christodoulou, j.a. & gaab, n. (2009). using and misusing neuroscience in educationrelated research. cortex, 45(4), 555 – 557. [10] coch, d. & ansari, d. (2009). thinking about mechanisms is crucial to connecting neuroscience and education. cortex, 45(4), 546 – 547. [11] curro, g. (1995). a survey of neurolinguistic research and its implications for second language teaching. unpublished doctorial dissertation. james cook university, north queensland. [12] danesi, m. (1986). research on the brain’s hemispheric functions: implications for second language pedagogy. lenguas modernas, 13, 99-113. [13] danesi, m. (1988). studies in heritage language learning and teaching. toronto: centro canadese scuola e cultura italiana. [14] danesi, m. (2003). second language teaching: a view from the right side of the brain. the netherlands: kluwer academic publishers. [15] danesi, m. and mollica, a. (1988). from right to left: a "bimodal" perspective of language teaching. canadian modern language review, 45(1), 76-86. [16] elbow, p. (1973). writing without teachers. new york: oxford university press. m. mahmoodzadeh the influence of neurolinguistic applications on second language research: reviewing the issues and refocusing the debate 17 (appendix essay: “ the doubting game and the believing game: an analysis of the entellectual enterprise”). [17] elbow, p. (2008). "the believing game--methodological believing". english department faculty publication series,5. retrieved july 11, 2012 from http://scholarworks.umass.edu/eng_faculty_pubs/5. [18] goswami, u., (2006). neuroscience and education: from research to practice? nature reviews neuroscience, 7, 406-413. [19] grimaldi, m. (2012). toward a neural theory of language: old issues and new perspectives. journal of neurolinguistics. http://dx.doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2011.12.002 [20] grimaldi, m. & craighero, l. (2012). future perspectives in neurobiological investigation of language. journal of neurolinguistics. http://dx.doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2012.02.001 [21] jacobs, b. & schuman, j. (1993). language acquisition and neurosciences: towards a more integrative perspective. applied linguistics, 13, 282-301. [22] kim-rivera, e. g. (1998). neurolinguistic applications to sla classroom instruction: a review of the issues with a focus on danesi's bimodality. texas papers in foreign language education, 3(2), 91-103. [23] krashen, s. d. and terrell, t. (1983). the natural approach: language acquisition in the classroom. oxford: pergamon press. [24] lenneberg, e. h. (1967). the biological foundations of language. new york: john wiley & sons. [25] lombardo, l. (1988). helping learners to establish criteria in an l2: promoting learner autonomy in the foreign language classroom. in g. cecioni (ed.). proceedings of the symposium on autonomy in foreign language learning (pp. 70-79). firenze: centro linguistico di ateneo. [26] lozanov, g. (1979). suggestology and outline of suggestopedy. new york: gordon & breach. [27] mahmoodzadeh, m. (2011). the quest for resolving second language teaching dilemma: a review of the proposed solutions during the last two decades. theory and practice in language studies, 1(10), 1375-1382. [28] mahmoodzadeh, m. (2012). the study of principles and techniques of bimodality theory from elt teachers' perspective: the case of iranian teachers. iranian efl journal, 8(1), 183-207. [29] mahmoodzadeh, m. (in press). a critical inquiry into the current state of neurolinguistic research neglect in second language pedagogy. iranian efl journal. [30] marinova, m. (2012, june). from theory to practice of second language aquistion. paper presented at the 21st beta-iatefl annual conference, ruse. retrieved july, 4, 2012, from http://www.beta-iatefl.org/cogitoergosum/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/fromtheory-to-practice-of-second-language-acquisition.pdf [31] mårtensson, j., eriksson, j., christian bodammer, n., lindgren, m., johansson, m., nyberg, l, & lövdén, m. (2012).growth of language-related brain areas after foreign language learning. neuroimage, 63(10), 240–244. [32] mcclelland, j. l., rumelhart, d. e., & the pdp research group (1986). parallel distributed processing: psychological and biological models (vol. 2). cambridge, ma: mit press. [33] nergis, a. (2011). to what extent does neurolinguistics embody efl teaching methods? procedia social and behavioral sciences, 15, 143–147. [34] ney, j. & pearson, b. a. (1990). connectionism as a model of language learning: parallels in foreign language teaching. modern language journal, 74, 474-482. [35] omaggio, a. (1986). teaching language in context. boston: heinle & heinle. [36] pallotta, l. l. (1993). the "bimodal" aspect of proficiency-oriented instruction. foreign language annals, 26(4), 429-434. [37] scovel, t. (1969). foreign accents, language acquisition, and cerebral dominance. language learning, 19, 245-254. [38] scovel, t. (1982). questions concerning the application of neurolinguistc research to second brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 language learning/teaching. tesol quarterly, 16, 323-331. [39] scovel, t. (1988). a time to speak: a psycholinguistic inquiry into the critical period for human speech. new york: newbury house. [40] singleton, d., (2005). the critical period hypothesis: a coat of many colours. international review of applied linguistics, 43, 269-285. [41] sokolik, m. e. (1990). learning without rules: pdp and a resolution of the adult language learning paradox. tesol quarterly, 24, 685-696. [42] spolsky, b. (1989). communicative competence, language proficiency, and beyond. applied linguistics, 10, 138-156. [43] stavrakaki, s. (2012). clinical case studies in neurolinguistics and language pathology. journal of clinic case reports 2:e109. http://dx.doi:10.4172/2165-7920.1000e109 [44] willingham, d.t. (2009). three problems in the marriage of neuroscience and education. cortex, 45(4), 544-545. [45] young, b. a. & danesi, m. (2001). studying how the brain learns: are there any useful implications for instruction? retrieved july 4, 2010, from http://www.arrowsmithschool.org/howbrainlearns.htm microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final2.docx 26 about the design of quic firefox transport protocol vraj pandya lamar university, beaumont, texas, u.s.a. vpandya@lamar.edu stefan andrei lamar university, beaumont, texas, u.s.a. stefan.andrei@lamar.edu abstract quic (quick udp internet connections) chrome is an experimental transport layer network protocol designed by jim roskind at google, initially implemented in 2012 and announced publicly in 2013. one of the quic's goals is to improve performance of connection-oriented web applications that are currently using the transmission control protocol (tcp). to do that, quic achieves a reduced latency and a better stream-multiplexing support to avoid network congestion. in 2015, firefox mozilla started to work on an equivalent quic transport protocol for their browser. this idea was motivated by the differences between chrome and firefox. despite the fact that mozilla firefox and google chrome are both web browser engines, there are some significant differences between them, such as file hierarchy, open source policies (firefox is completely, while chrome is only partial), tabs design, continuous integration, and more. likewise quic chrome, quic firefox is a new multiplexed and secure transport based on user datagram protocol (udp), designed from the ground up and optimized for hyper-text transfer protocol 2 (http/2) semantics. while built with http/2 as the primary application protocol, quic builds on decades of transport and security experience, and implements mechanisms that make it attractive as a modern general-purpose transport. in addition to describing the main design of quic firefox, this paper will compare firefox with quic firefox. our preliminary experimental results support that quic firefox has a faster execution time, less latency time, and a better throughput time than the traditional firefox. keywords: user datagram protocol (udp), transmission control protocol (tcp), hyper-text transfer protocol (http) 1. introduction quic (quick udp internet connections) chrome is an experimental transport layer network protocol designed by jim roskind at google initially implemented in 2012 and announced publicly in 2013 (cyr et al., 2013). quic supports a set of multiplexed connections between two endpoints over the user datagram protocol (udp). quic was designed to provide security protection equivalent to tls/ssl, along with reduced connection and transport latency, and bandwidth estimation in each direction to avoid congestion. quic's main goal is to improve perceived performance of connection-oriented web applications that are currently using transmission control protocol (tcp). it also provides a venue for rapid iteration of congestion avoidance algorithms, placing control into application space at both endpoints, rather than (the relatively slow to evolve) kernel space (willis; 2013). since then, the research community investigated this new protocol. for example, paper (carlucci et al., 2015) investigates quic, to check its reliability when reducing the web page retrieval time. they found that quic reduces the overall page retrieval time with respect to http in case of a channel without induced random losses and outperforms spdy (explained in section 4) in the case of a lossy channel. however, when the fec (explained in section 3) module is enabled, it worsens the performance of quic. wireshark is the world’s foremost and widely-used network protocol analyzer. it allows the view of the details of a network at a microscopic level and is the ‘de facto’ standard across many v. pandya, s. andrei about the design of quic firefox transport protocol 27 commercial and non-profit enterprises, government agencies, and educational institutions (combs et al., 2017). in 2015, firefox mozilla started to work on an equivalent quic transport protocol for their browser. this idea was motivated by the differences between chrome and firefox. in fact, there is a significant competition between browsers, as illustrated in (digital trends staff; 2016). while mozilla firefox and google chrome are both web browser engines, there are some significant differences between them, such as file hierarchy, open source (firefox is completely, while chrome is only partial), tabs design, continuous integration, and more. in addition, mozilla firefox and google chrome use entirely different code libraries (specifically layout engines) to render and handle web content. another difference is that firefox ‘autocomplete feature’ intelligently prioritizes substring matches against your history/bookmarks/page titles over search results. apparently chrome's ‘autocomplete feature’ is significantly less predictable than its firefox counterpart, particularly with respect to interpreting the input as a substring, and then matching that against the strings history (jasuja et al.; 2017). quic (quick udp internet connection) is a transport layer protocol written on udp (user datagram protocol). the primary attraction of this protocol is zero roundtrip time (0-rtt) connection setup. this means that a quic client can establish a socket connection to a quic server in the first packet it sends, while maintaining the security of the entire traditional combination of the tcp and the transport layer security (tls) stack. hence, quic is a multiplexed protocol which may transfer multiple files over the same connection (official quic website; 2016). although quic is a fairly recent protocol, there are some notable contributions in the research community about it. for example, (wang et al.; 2013) put forth the quic-tcp congestion control algorithm, and a new queuing-delay based carrier sense multiple access (csma) scheduling scheme. their technique can be implemented asynchronously without message passing among network nodes. figure 1 describes the tls vs. quic protocol user level stack in the context of application layer and transport layer. figure 1. tls vs quic protocol stack quic addresses many network problems such as the head of line (hol) blocking as well as the tcp reconnection over a subnet/network change. in addition, quic has many features such as connection ids, which can overcome the challenge of changing networks. in this way, if someone switches from a wifi network to a cellular network, the connection to the server will not be broken or lost. paper (langley and chang, 2016) described the quic crypto protocol, representing the part of quic that provides transport security to a connection. the quic crypto protocol is now replaced by tls 1.3. currently, quic provides security of tls 1.3 (in an experimental stage), considered the highest security standards for the communication protocols (valsorda; 2016). the textbook (grigorik, 2013) presents an overview of the various types of networks (wifi, 3g/4g), transport protocols (udp, tcp, and tls), application protocols (http/1.1, http/2), and apis available in the browser (xhr, websocket, webrtc, and more) to deliver the best—fast, reliable, and resilient—user experience. the details of http/2 protocol are described in (belshe, peon, thomson, 2015). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 28 figure 2 describes a sequence diagram using quic vs tls handshake protocol. the right side of figure 2 shows the seven steps of calls and returns until a http get() method is successfully implemented using a tls handshake. in contrast, on the left side of figure 2, we see the implementation of http get() method using a single call of quic handshake. firefox is a completely open source browser with a tremendous community support. the latest version of firefox supports tls 1.3 protocol in an experimental stage. the primary purpose of this study was integrating the quic protocol in the firefox web browser. the source code of this software product is as large as 650mb. figure 2. quic vs tls handshake protocol 2. motivation of quic firefox the research and educational communities are usually at the forefront of the methods that are being developed. the main reason for this experiment was to encourage these communities using quic for testing purpose and for offering their comments back to the quic developers. in addition, quic is a user level protocol which means that the protocol does not need the support of the operating system to be upgraded. instead, it can be upgraded with just some software upgrades. this is the most used approach by the researchers to try out new ideas. moreover, firefox is a completely open source browser. that makes it a suitable candidate for implementing a new experimental network protocol based on the creative common license. the main purpose of these experimental protocols is to try out new methodologies such as multiplexing, connection ids and 0-rtt secure connection. all these methodologies can improve the throughput of the website accessed using quic firefox. the internet engineering task force (ietf) encourages these types of experiments because the protocols used by these technologies need to be standardized for a more general use. the tls 1.3 has many features inspired by quic. as a historical note, firefox is actually the first browser to enable tls 1.3. on a personal note of motivations to write this paper, the first author of this paper (mr. pandya) is one of the contributors of quic firefox (bugzilla@mozilla; 2015) for solving a software bug. 3. the main quic firefox features the quic firefox has many features worth to be mentioned in this paper, but we only present here a selection of them, such as: 1. very flexible crypto graphical suite: quic has the latest crypto suite available. quic functions are based on tls 1.3 crypto suite, which is just a draft and/or experimentally deployed in v. pandya, s. andrei about the design of quic firefox transport protocol 29 a few browsers over tcp. since quic is a user level protocol, the crypto suite can be updated almost as soon as they are proposed and proved to be effective. 2. pluggable congestion control/flow control: in many studies, research works, and observations, it was found that there is no optimal way to implement strategies for congestion/flow control in computer networks. an algorithm has to be selected based upon its strength and weakness. quic offers a pluggable congestion control mechanism. this means that we can switch congestion control algorithms for quic on the fly. for example, we can select one ack policy for some traffic source and another ack policy for a different traffic source. 3. seamless network transition: while switching networks, quic can adapt to a network or a subnet switch (illustrated in figure 3). this means that if the ip address of the device is changed, then the quic connection is not broken or lost. unlike the tcp protocol where the connection is defined by the ip address and a port number, quic connections are defined by a connection id. whenever a network switch occurs, quic detects it and sends a piggybacked notification to the other party by indicating the new ip address and connection id. in this way, the communication can resume normally. in contrast, tcp a new connection has to be established. figure 3. an example of a network switch 4. flexible forward error correction (fec): the forward error correction is a mechanism in which it is assumed that the channel is a “lossy” entity, which means the chance of packets getting lost in this channel is very high and the unnecessary information is discarded. to mitigate that factor, a fec packet is generated by xor-ing a number of packets (as illustrated in equation 1). fec = p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 … pn pn = fec p1 p2 p3 p4 … pn-1 equation 1. formation and use of fec packet the fec mechanism is flexible, which means that the protocol adapts the number of packets that need to be incorporated in one fec packet according to the packets that are lost. the number of packets in one fec packet is inversely related to the number of packets lost (illustrated in figure 4). figure 4. quic streams and fec packets 5. multiplexed streams: after establishing a connection, each quic connection forms a stream for every needed resource. streams can be represented by a two way communication channel abstraction. each and every stream has a stream id. all the data and ack packets are sent through as quic streams (illustrated in figure 5). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 30 figure 5. the head-of-line blocking in tcp/tls considering figure 5, the head-of-line blocking (hol blocking) in computer networking is a performance-reducing factor that occurs when a line of packets is held up by the first packet. examples include input buffered network switches, out-of-order delivery and multiple requests in http pipelining. one way to overcome this limitation is by using virtual output queues. only switches with input buffering can suffer hol blocking. with sufficient internal bandwidth, input buffering is unnecessary; all buffering is handled at outputs and hol blocking is avoided. this noinput-buffering architecture is common in small to medium-sized ethernet switches. 4. experimental results quic is tested under various laboratory condition as well as real time conditions by research organizations around the world (including google itself is used to search information about google). researchers usually compare quic with another multiplexed protocol, that is spdy. the spdy specification is described in paper (belshe and peon, 2016). megyesi et al. (2016) represents a quite comprehensive study about the performance of quic, spdy and http particularly about how they affect page load time. the authors found that none of these protocols is clearly better than the other two and the actual network conditions determine which protocol performs the best. in addition, (megyesi et al., 2016) contains a reference guide about the use of quic. here is an important note on fec and its performance. google conducted performance tests to check the effectiveness of fec in working conditions (quic fec v1; 2016). some conclusions are eye-opener regarding the performance of fec in a real life scenario. counter-intuitively, the performance of the transmission protocol did not increase in the presence of fec. but its performance decreased in some cases and the bandwidth is wasted. however for youtube videos, the median and mean join latency increased the re-buffer rate. in case of the chrome web browser, fec improved mean latency slightly and degraded median latency slightly, though neither change is statistically significant. however, fec could be sometimes slow, but not statistically significantly slower than an aggressive tlp. this is one of the reasons why fec v1 quic design team considered to deprecate the fec protocol (google quic; 2016). 5. comparison between traditional firefox and quic firefox among the contributions done and the tools used by quic firefox, we enumerate the following: 1. we forked the current source trees of firefox and quic protocol from official sources and using the version control systems to keep it up-to-date as we developed the code. to get that source code and to keep the source code up-to-date we used mercurial and git version control systems. 2. we used meta-build systems like mozbuild, cmake, gyp and gn to generate the build files. v. pandya, s. andrei about the design of quic firefox transport protocol 31 3. the build files were based on make files and ninja build tools. the primary text editor was vim. we extensively used gdb to understand the structure and the flow of the source code and then debug the new code. we used standard gcc and clang compilers to compile the code. 4. we used chrome’s “netinternals” feature to analyze the quic traffic that flows through chrome browser. 5. we can use wireshark to analyze each and every packet that goes through the network. 6. we incorporated quic “sockets” into firefox core network stack. as discussed in the previous sections, quic firefox can establish connections with 0-rtt. this is equivalent to say that quic will inherently decrease the latency of content loading by 500ms. the quic stream also executes in parallel to load multiple objects concurrently. because of quic streams, the objects can avoid head of line blocking. in addition, the explicit negative acknowledgement (nack) packets can help resend only the lost packets. hence, not all the packets that were sent after one packet were lost. all these differences make quic firefox faster than the traditional firefox. there are many features of this kind of protocols that can be implemented. these protocols can be later standardized. spdy is a good example of such occurrence because many of the features implemented by spdy are now implemented in http/2.0. among these features, we enumerate multiplexing, server push and advanced crypto suite. the protocols http/2.0 and tls 1.3 were inspired from quic and 0-rtt secure connection. this implies that starting from tls 1.3 protocol, a client can connect to a server in 0-rtt just like quic, after the tcp handshake. as such, the round-trip time is reduced and latency is greatly reduced, too. currently, tls 1.3 secure connections can be established in four packets. 6. conclusion quic is an attractive protocol with features that keep the setting of the modern day in mind. implementing it in firefox is one step forward in bringing the protocol to mainstream. the main purpose of this study was to encourage the use of user level transport layer protocols. references belshe, m. & peon, r. (2016). spdy protocol – draft 3, the chromium projects. retrieved october, 2016 from http://www.chromium.org/spdy/spdy-protocol/spdy-protocol-draft3. belshe, m., peon, r., & thomson, m. (2015). hypertext transfer protocol version 2 (http/2.0 ieft draft). retrieved october, 2016 from https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-httpbis-http217. bugzilla@mozilla. (2015). bug 1158011 (quic) quic (quick udp internet connections) support. reported on 2015-04-23, modified: 2017-02-10. retrieved from https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_activity.cgi?id=1158011. carlucci, g., de cicco, l., & mascolo, s. (2015). http over udp: an experimental investigation of quic. acm sac’15, april 13 – 17, 2015. salamanca, spain. combs, g. et. al. (2017). wireshark. retrieved february, 2017 from https://www.wireshark.org. cyr, b., dorfman, j., hamilton, r., iyengar, j., kouranov, f., krasic, c., kulik, j., langley, a., roskind, j., shade, r., shekhar, s., shi, c., swett, i., tenneti, r., vasiliev, v., vicente, a., westin, p., wilk, a., worley, d., yang, f., zhang, d., & ziegler, d. (2013). quic wire layout specification. retrieved october, 2016 from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wjvyzflao2pq77yolbp9nsgjc1chetaxv8i0fqeb_u/ edit?usp=sharing. digital trends staff. (2016). battle of the browsers: edge vs. chrome vs. firefox vs. safari vs. opera vs. ie vs. vivaldi. retrieved december 5, 2016 from http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-browser-internet-explorer-vs-chrome-vs-firefox-vssafari-vs-edge. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 32 google quic. (2016). a group for quic development. retrieved october, 2016 from https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/proto-quic/z5qkkk2xze0. grigorik, i. (2013). high performance browser networking. o'reilly media, inc. jasuja, n., poonam s., sehgal, p., kate t., stester, s.h., cancelas, d., & annaba, y. k. (2017). firefox vs google chrome. diffen.com. diffen llc. retrieved february, 2017 from http://www.diffen.com/difference/firefox_vs_google_chrome. langley, a. & chang, w.t. (2016). quic crypto. revision 2016. retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g5nixaikn_y7xjw5k45iblhd_l2f5ltadudwvz5l6g/edit. megyesi, p., kr´amer, z., & moln´ar´, s. (2016). high speed networks laboratory, department of telecommunications and media informatics, budapest university of technology and economics. how quick is quic?. in ieee icc 2016 communication qos, reliability and modeling symposium. budapest, hungary. official quic. retrieved october, 2016 https://www.chromium.org/quic. quic fec v1. (2016). retrieved october, 2016 from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hg1salel6t4reu9jisovco8vejjnucptclnjewj7nk/edit#heading=h.59osdxvm5jwp. valsorda, f. (2016). an overview of tls 1.3 and q&a. cloudfare. retrieved september 23, 2016 from https://blog.cloudflare.com/tls-1-3-overview-and-q-and-a. willis, n. (2013). connecting on the quic. linux weekly news. retrieved from https://lwn.net/articles/558826. xin, w., zhaoquan, l., & jie, w. (2013, december 12). joint tcp congestion control and csma scheduling without message passing. ieee transactions on wireless communications, vol. 12. vraj pandya received his bachelor of engineering in computer engineering (2015) from gujarat technological university, gujarat, india. he is currently pursuing a master’s in computer science from lamar university, tx, u.s.a., and a research assistant since spring 2016. he is currently working on his master’s thesis which is “optimizing algorithms for multiple gpus”. it is a program auto -tuner which tries to parallelize the costly serial kernel for cpu and gpus. he works primary with cuda, opencl, opengl, openmp and mpi. he also likes to work with network protocols. ştefan andrei received his bsc in computer science (1994) and msc in computer science (1995) from alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi, and phd in computer science (2000) from hamburg university. he was awarded with four competitive scholarships, as follows: the singapore-mit alliance computer science fellowship, 2002-2005, the world bank joint japan graduate scholarship program, 1998-2000, the tempus fellowship, 1998-1998, and daad scholarship, german government, 5/1997-7/1997. dr. andrei wrote over 100 publications published in prestigious journals and conference proceedings which have more than 200 non-self international citations in reputable publications. he has given invited talks at more than 20 reputable universities and industrial companies. he has been a program committee member or co-chair of more than 40 international reputable conferences and a pi, co-pi, or senior personnel of more than 11 funded research grant proposals. he was promoted to acm senior member in april 2013. currently, he is an associate professor and chair of the department of computer science with lamar university, beaumont, tx, u.s.a. his research interests are in the areas of optimization techniques, verification, and scheduling analysis for multiprocessor platforms for real-time embedded systems, software engineering and translation systems. microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_3_curent.doc 125 an efficient combined meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem majid yousefikhoshbakht department of mathematics, faculty of science, bu-ali sina university, hamedan, iran, tel. +98 81 38380595 khoshbakht@basu.ac.ir azam dolatnejad young researchers & elite club, tehran north branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran abstract the traveling salesman problem (tsp) is one of the most important np-hard problems and probably the most famous and extensively studied problem in the field of combinatorial optimization. in this problem, a salesman is required to visit each of n given nodes once and only once, starting from any node and returning to the original place of departure. this paper presents an efficient evolutionary optimization algorithm developed through combining imperialist competitive algorithm and lin-kernighan algorithm called (micalk) in order to solve the tsp. the micalk is tested on 44 tsp instances involving from 24 to 1655 nodes from the literature so that 26 best known solutions of the benchmark problem are also found by our algorithm. furthermore, the performance of micalk is compared with several metaheuristic algorithms, including ga, ba, iba, ica, gsap, abo, pso and bco on 32 instances from tsplib. the results indicate that the micalk performs well and is quite competitive with the above algorithms. keywords: imperialist competitive algorithm; np-hard problems; lin-kernighan algorithm; traveling salesman problem. 1. introduction there are a lot of research studies in the field of logistics, ranging from the assignment problems to complex dynamic routing problems. among the prominent problems in the field of distribution and logistics, the traveling salesman problem (tsp) has arguably been one of the most widely investigated problems of combinatorial optimization in recent years and there have been many research studies to provide a better solution for this problem (lawler et al., 1985). a large number of problems like the tsp with pickup and delivery, time windows tsp, multi-depot tsp, multiple tsp, vehicle routing problem and so on have arisen from this problem (yousefikhoshbakht, didehvar, & rahmati, 2014). besides, it has many applications in dealing with other problems, including the print press scheduling (rathinam & sengupta, 2006), school bus routing problem (svestka & huckfeldt, 1973), interview scheduling (angel et al., 1972), hot rolling scheduling (brummit & stentz, 1998), design of global navigation satellite system surveying networks (tang et al., 2000), etc. the tsp can be represented by a complete graph g= (n, a) where n is the set of nodes, and a is the set of arcs fully connecting the nodes. let ij c be the length of the arc (i,j), which is the distance between nodes i and j. the tsp is the problem of finding a minimal length hamiltonian circuit, where a hamiltonian circuit of a graph g is a closed tour visiting once and only once all n = |n | nodes of g, and its length is the sum of the lengths of all the arcs of which it is composed. there have been important advances in developing exact and heuristic algorithms for solving the tsp. there are several exact algorithms of the tsp such as cutting planes algorithm (laporte & nobert, 1980), branch-and-cut method (cordeau, dell’amico, & iori, 2010) and lagrangean relaxation and branch-and-bound algorithm (mak & boland, 2007). since the tsp belongs to the class of np-complete problems, its solution grows exponentially with the increase in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 126 distribution points. thus, exact algorithms are not capable of solving problems with large dimensions. on the other hand, heuristics are thought to be more efficient for a complex tsp and have become very popular with researchers. a lot of algorithms have been performed on the tsp including heuristic approaches such as the k-opt approach (potvin, lapalme, & rousseau, 1989), minimum spanning tree (malik, rathinam, & darbha, 2007), self-organizing nn approach (vakhutinsky & golden, 1994) and the partitioning approach (karp, 1977). although heuristic methods solve np-complete problems, they become trapped in local optima and cannot obtain optimum solution. as a result a new kind of algorithm called metaheuristics has been proposed in recent years (ahmadvand, yousefikhoshbakht, & mahmoodi darani, 2012). these algorithms try to seek high quality solutions while attempting to reduce the computational time. furthermore, in comparison with heuristic algorithms, because metaheuristics use the randomization concept in search for a solution, this group is more effective in escaping from local optimum and can produce solutions of higher quality. some of the well-known metaheuristics are the particle swarm optimization (anantathanavit & munlin, 2015), neural network (tarkov, 2015), ant colony optimization (sedighpour et al., 2013), simulated annealing (jeong, kim, & lee, 2009), neural networks (jolai & ghanbari, 2010) and genetic reactive bone route algorithm whit ant colony system (yousefikhoshbakht, malekzadeh, & sedighpour, 2016). the ica is a global search strategy which uses the socio-political competition among empires as a source of inspiration. like many evolutionary algorithms, the primary ica may fall into local minimum trap during the search process and it might get far from the global optimum. for this reason, we try to propose an effective two-phase ica called micalk by adopting a behavior between rigid regularity and randomness based on pure chance. at the first stage, the tsp is solved by a modified ica, and at the second stage, since the lin-kernighan algorithm is one of the most effective local search algorithms for solving the tsp, this algorithm is used for improving solutions. in more details, to enhance the global exploration capability, the 2-opt local search with a high probability of α and 0-1 and 1-1 exchanges with low probability β and µ respectively are used. this probability of movement has changed during the search process. the main contributions of the paper are as follows: ica to enhance the ability of escaping from a local optimum (i) presenting an effective ica algorithm for discrete problems (ii) combining the ica algorithm with a lin-kernighan algorithm called micalk (iii) presenting a new algorithm which is equipped with diversification and intensification mechanisms for solving the tsp. the rest of this paper is organized as follows: in section 2 we present the basic principle of ica, lin-kernighan (lk) algorithm and then explain the details of the process of the proposed algorithm. in section 3, the proposed algorithm will be compared with some of the other algorithms on standard problems which are included in the tsp library. the conclusions and the future works are presented in section 4. 2. solution method in this section at first, the classic ica and lk are explained and then the hybrid of ica and lk as the proposed algorithm is explained in more detail. finally, because the micalk is metaheuristic, parameter setting is presented. 2.1. the basic principle of ica during the last three decades, evolutionary optimization methods inspired by natural processes have shown good performance in solving combinatorial optimization problems. these algorithms have become increasingly popular through the development and utilization of intelligent paradigms in the design of advanced information systems. when the task is optimized within complex domains of data or information, nature-inspired approaches such as swarm or flocking m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. dolatnejad an efficient combined meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem 127 intelligence (bird flocks or fish schools inspired particle swarm optimization), artificial immune systems which mimic the biological ones, ant colonies (ants’ foraging behaviors gave rise to ant colony optimization), or optimized performance of bees and so on are widely used to solve engineering optimization problems. ica, which proved to be capable of obtaining acceptable performance of some of benchmark cost functions is one of the newest algorithms created in the recent decades. this new optimization algorithm was first used by atashpaz gargari et al to solve the combinational optimization problems in 2007 (atashpaz gargari & lucas, 2007). in recent years, the ica has been successfully applied to several np-hard combinatorial optimization problems, namely, tsp (yousefikhoshbakht & sedighpour, 2013), recommender systems (sepehri rad & lucas, 2008), designing skeletal structures (kaveh & talatahari, 2010), and many other optimization problems such as the characterization of elasto-plastic properties of materials, designing optimal layout for factories, adaptive antenna arrays, intelligent recommender systems, and optimal controller for industrial and chemical processes (shokrollahpour, zandieh, & dorri, 2010). this evolutionary optimization strategy has shown great performance in both convergence rate and better global optimum achievement. furthermore, the proposed evolutionary optimization algorithms are generally inspired by modeling the natural processes and other aspects of species evolution, especially human evolution, which have not been considered up to now. the method proposed in this work uses socio-political evolution of human as a source of inspiration for developing a powerful optimization strategy. what is more important, the ica considers the imperialism as a level of human social evolution and by mathematically modeling this complicated political and historical process harnesses it as a tool for evolutionary optimization. the ica is a novel global search strategy which uses imperialism and imperialistic competition process as a source of inspiration. this algorithm is based on the fact that in a real world, countries try to extend their power over other countries in order to use their resources and bolster their own government. the first step in ica is to generate an initial population like other evolutionary algorithms. the population set includes a number of feasible solutions called a ‘country’, which corresponds to the term ‘chromosome’ in the ga method. these countries are of two types: colonies and imperialists that altogether form some empires. as it is shown in figure 1 (atashpaz gargari & lucas, 2007), bigger and stronger empires have more colonies than smaller and weaker ones. figure 1. the initial empires brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 128 after initial empires are formed, their colonies start moving toward their relevant imperialist country. this movement is a simple model of assimilation policy which was pursued by some of the imperialist states. if one of the colonies possesses more power than its relevant imperialist after this movement, they will exchange their positions. to begin the competition between empires, the total objective function of each empire should be calculated. it depends on the objective function of both an imperialist and its colonies. imperialistic competition among these empires forms the basis of the proposed evolutionary algorithm. during this competition, weak empires collapse and powerful ones take the possession of their colonies figure 2 (atashpaz gargari & lucas, 2007). the empire, which has lost all its colonies, will collapse. at last, the most powerful empire will take the possession of other empires and will win the competition. in other words, imperialistic competition hopefully converges to a state in which there exists only one empire and its colonies are in the same position and have the same cost as the imperialist. figure 3 shows the flowchart of the basic ica. 1 figure 2. eliminate the weakest colony of the weakest empire figure 3. flowchart of the ica 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/file:imperialist-competitive-algorithm-flowchart.jpg m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. dolatnejad an efficient combined meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem 129 2.2. lin-kernighan algorithm the enormous literature on meta-heuristics indicates that a promising approach for obtaining high-quality solutions is to couple a local search algorithm with a mechanism to generate initial solutions. a simple example of this type of algorithm is the 2-opt algorithm. this algorithm starts with a feasible tour and continues by omitting two arcs of the tour, which are not adjacent and then connects them again by another method in such a way that the new tour length is shorter. it can be noted that there are several routes for connecting nodes and producing the tour again, but a state that satisfies the problem’s constraints is acceptable. omitting and reconnecting two arcs are repeated until no improving 2-opt is found. besides, the 2-opt algorithm is a unique case of the ω-opt algorithm, where in each step ω links of the current tour are replaced by ω links in such a way that a shorter tour is achieved. the number of operations to test all ω-exchanges increases quickly as the number of nodes increases. the time complexity of testing ω–exchange is equal to o(n ω ) in which there is no nontrivial upper bound of the number of ω–exchanges. however, since there are weaknesses, the value of ω and what ω to use to achieve the best compromise between running time and quality of the solution must be specified in advance. the lin-kernighan algorithm is a generalization of this simple principle form and is one the most effective algorithms for solving the tsp. this algorithm removed this disadvantage by introducing a powerful variable ω-opt algorithm in which the value of ω is changed during its execution. at each iteration the algorithm considers a growing set of potential exchanges which start with r = 2. these exchanges are chosen in such a way that a feasible tour may be formed at any stage of the process. then, the problem is examined for ascending values of ω and the algorithm decides what the value of ω should be. if an interchange of ω links succeeds in finding a new shorter tour, then the actual tour is replaced with the new tour. this continues until some stopping conditions are satisfied. 2.3. our approach in order to apply the proposed algorithm on the tsp, at the first stage, feasible solutions or primitive countries should be introduced in a way which is compatible with the construction of the mentioned problem. therefore, a bisection array shown in figure 4 is used. in this array, the visited nodes are ordered from left to right in the first section and the value of the objective function is shown in the second section. figure 4. a country in ica therefore, a defined number of primitive solutions (r) must be randomly generated and the values of the objective function i f for each i=1,…,r must be obtained. then, these solutions and their values are imported to matrix d in which every row shows a primitive solution and its value of the objective function. it should be noted that using a random construction at this level leads to obtaining solutions which have an irregular construction in feasible space. then, m countries which have better objective function are selected and are called empire countries. furthermore, the number of colonies devoted to each empire j is calculated by the formula (1). 1 int[(1 ) ( )] j j m ii f k r m f = = − × − ∑ (1) this formula leads that more colonies are allocated to empires with fewer objective functions and as a result a bigger empire is formed. the int function used in the formula is the floor 26 8 7 14 6 13 4 12 5 11 3 10 2 9 1 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 130 function which causes the allocation of an integer number of colonies to each empire. it should be noted that allocating colonies to empires is conducted randomly and if some countries might not belong to any empire due to the property of the int function, these countries are allocated to the most powerful empire. after the empires are formed, each empire increases its quality, using the imperialist countries which play local optima role. what is worthy of note is the fact that since a lot of possible points are combined with local optima, we must use an absorption function which includes a randomization concept so that the results of combinations will not yield a very similar response. to achieve this goal, we have utilized a novel and innovative method. as an example, first, two possible responses [5 2 9 4 8 3 1 6 7] and [9 2 7 6 5 3 1 8 4] are considered as imperialist and colony respectively. then, a random number between 2 and n-1 is selected (n is the number nodes of instance and is 9 here). after that, some nodes equal to the selected number are chosen from the colonies and are arranged according to the order of the imperialist countries. if the selected random number between 1 and 8 is 4, then 4 nodes are randomly chosen from the colonies like 2, 6, 5, and 3. then, their order in imperialist country which is 5, 2, 3, and 6 in the example is found. therefore, the new result for the colony will be [9 5 7 2 3 6 1 8 4]. the absorption function is performed for all colonies in comparison to imperialist countries and the results and the values are replaced with the best results and the values obtained in the current iteration provided that the new results are better. at the next stage, p percent of countries experience a revolution. this causes variations in colonies in each empire and if possible their quality increases at each stage. the proposed methods for this stage are the 0–1 exchange move. in this move, a candidate node is removed from its original route and is inserted in the best position. the replacement is done if the new results are better than the previous ones. most successful meta-heuristic methods have paid attention to global search and search in the whole solution space as far as possible. as the algorithm proceeds, it moves to better solutions and the global search switches to a local search. we have factored in this issue too, and have represented the probability of 0-1, 1-1and 2-opt move with , andα β µ respectively so that 1α β µ+ + = . in the 1-1-exchange, two nodes are randomly selected and exchanged with each other. finally, in the 2-opt move, two non-adjacent edges are replaced by two other edges. it should be noted that there are several routes for connecting nodes and producing the tour again, but a state which satisfies the problem’s constraints is acceptable. note that although 2-opt local search as a powerful global search algorithm is more used at the beginning of algorithm for global search, 0-1 and 1-1 exchanges are more applied at the end of the algorithm because these algorithms might lead to premature convergence to suboptimal regions. in other words, before the algorithm finishes a complete global search, it tends to adopt a local search and consequently relatively weak results are attained. therefore, whenever the algorithm continues the probability of α decreases and the probability of β and µ increases. adding this behavior to the imperialist algorithm revolution policy leads to creating the proper conditions for the algorithm to escape from local peaks. thus, as mentioned before, the probability of using the 2-opt, 0-1 and 1-1 exchanges at the first step of the proposed algorithm is considered 0.50, 0.25 and 0.25 and then during the other steps of the proposed algorithm, they are gradually converted to 0.20, 0.40 and 0.40. after the results and the values are calculated for all colonies, these countries might have a better objective value compared to their respective imperialists. therefore, a colony with the best value in each empire is chosen and if it possesses a better objective value, it replaces an imperialist country. if there are a few colonies with the same objective value, one of them is chosen randomly and is compared with an imperialist country in the empire. from this stage up to the end of the algorithm, there will not be any change in objective functions of feasible values. therefore, the best results and values of the objective function must be saved. for this purpose, two variables are chosen in order to save the best results and values until the current iteration. in each iteration, after the imperialist countries are replaced, the best results and values for the imperialist countries are m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. dolatnejad an efficient combined meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem 131 chosen as the best current results. if the new attained value is better than the value of the previous iteration, local search is conducted and the previous results and values are replaced with the new results and values. up to this stage in the algorithm, the purpose is conducting a general search to locate important areas for algorithm convergence. now, important areas must be identified and the population must be converged toward them. after this stage, part of the initial population moves toward these areas. the power of empires is assessed at this stage. in imperialist competitions, more powerful empires must expand their territory through occupying other countries. in order to achieve this goal, the power of the empire is calculated using formula 2. ( ) 1, ..., j j j h f s j mλ= + = (2) in this formula j h , j s , and λ represent empire’s total power, the average objective function of the colonies in each empire, and the [0 1] impact coefficient, which determines the relative power of a colony compared to an empire, respectively. a weaker empire loses its power by losing its weakest colony to the strongest empire. at this stage, the final condition is checked and if it is met, the algorithm ends. otherwise, the algorithm is iterated by returning to the absorption function step. to end the proposed algorithm, one of the two conditions must be met: the iteration of algorithm n times or the survival of just one empire. these conditions are checked at the end of each algorithm iteration. if any one of the conditions is met, the algorithm ends and the obtained results and values up to now are considered as the best values and results of the algorithm. moreover, in order to prevent the ica from getting trapped in stagnation, we used a local searching algorithm when the algorithm attained a better solution compared to previous iterations. in fact, the probability of finding better solutions near a good solution is relatively high. there exist many algorithms for the local search and they have of course their pros and cons. since linkernighan algorithm is simple and it is one of the most successful methods for generating optimal or near optimal solutions for the tsp, we have used it in this study. the main steps of micalk are summarized in the pseudo-code given in figure 5. step 1: generate r random solutions of the tsp and initialize the empires. step 2: move the colonies toward their relevant imperialist by the proposed absorption function. step 3: change p percent of colonies as revolution by the 0-1 exchange move. step 4: if there is a colony in an empire which has better cost than the imperialist, exchange the positions of that colony and the imperialist. step 5: compute the total cost of all empires by formula (2). step 6: pick the weakest colony from the weakest empires and give it to the best empire (imperialistic competition). step 7: eliminate the powerless empires. step 8: if the quality of the best solution is increased in this iteration, apply lin-kernighan algorithm to s and save the best so far solution. step 9: if the iteration of algorithm reaches to n times or the just one empire is reminded, stop, if not go to 2. figure 5. the process of micalk for solving the tsp brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 132 2.4 parameter settings the proposed micalk algorithm contains several parameters like other metaheuristics for solving the optimization problems. the quality solutions produced by the micalk have been dependent on the different values of the user-controlled parameters of the algorithm. in this algorithm, three important parameters exist and their values directly or indirectly affect the performance of the algorithm. for each of the benchmark instances, ten different runs with the selected parameters were performed after the selection of the final parameters. in general, it is not easy to obtain the best combination of algorithm parameters, but a parameter setting procedure is necessary to reach the best balance between the quality of the obtained solutions. these parameters are selected in this paper after thorough testing. all of the parameter values have been determined on the eil101by the numerical experiments so that several alternative values for each parameter were tested while all the other values were held constant. it should be noted that only parameters which gave the best computational results concerning the quality of the solution were selected. the details regarding the settings of the parameters and their values are explained in table 1. table 1: parameter setting for the micalk best value candidate value description parameter 400 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 number of primitive countries p int [r/4] int [r/2, r/3, r/4. r/5, r/6] number of imperialist countries m 0.2 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 the impact coefficient, which determines the relative power of a colony compared to an empire λ 3. computational experiments in this section, first, the algorithms tested on 33 classic benchmark problems for the tsp are presented and then some numerical results of the comparison between the proposed algorithm and some metaheuristic algorithms are given. these algorithms are applied and tested on several euclidean sample instances of tsplib with sizes ranging from 24 to 318 nodes. because the proposed approach is a metaheuristic algorithm, the results are reported for ten independent runs in which the algorithm was executed until the best solution was iterated 10 times. the algorithms are coded by matlab language and implemented on a pentium 4 pc at 3ghz (1gb ram). the parameters of the proposed algorithm are selected after thorough testing. a number of different alternative values were tested and the ones selected are those which yielded the best computational results concerning both the quality of the solution and the computational time needed to achieve this solution. thus, the selected parameters are: • number of countries equal to p • number of empires equal to n/5 • λ is equal to 0.3. table 2 shows the results of the proposed algorithm for the tsp benchmark problem instances. in this table, columns 2-6 show the problem size n, the best value result of micalk (bvr), the worst value result of micalk (wvr), the average value of micalk (av) over the ten runs for each problem, and the best known solutions (bks), respectively. the seventh column contains the cpu time for each problem (opt), and the eighth for the relative deviation (rd) where the relative deviation is calculated as (micalk− opt)/opt ×100%, where micalk denotes the cost of the optimum found by the proposed algorithm, and opt is the cost of the optimal solution. m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. dolatnejad an efficient combined meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem 133 table 2. results of micalk for the tsp instance n bvr wvr av bks cpu time (min) rd eil51 51 426 456 432 426 1.45 0 berlin52 52 7542 7589 7565 7542 1.43 0 eil76 76 538 567 543 538 2.22 0 pr76 76 108363 108925 108553 108159 2.34 0.19 rat99 99 1211 1308 1262 1211 3.45 0 kroa100 100 21282 21451 21378 21282 3.57 0 krob100 100 22141 22468 22326 22141 3.52 0 kroc100 100 20749 20989 20890 20749 3.75 0 krod100 100 21389 21654 21540 21294 3.78 0.47 kroe100 100 22068 22245 22164 22068 3.23 0 rd100 100 7910 7998 7976 7910 3.02 0 eil101 101 629 712 699 629 3.52 0 lin105 105 14379 14599 14556 14379 4.12 0 pr107 107 44303 44467 44398 44303 4.54 0 pr124 124 59124 59567 59213 59030 4.67 0.16 bier127 127 118589 118857 118736 118282 4.62 0.26 ch130 130 6110 6245 6186 6110 4.75 0 pr136 136 96772 97546 97290 96772 4.72 0 pr144 144 58537 58987 58812 58537 4.85 0 ch150 150 6528 6654 6595 6528 4.61 0 kroa150 150 26524 26989 26734 26524 4.85 0 pr152 152 73710 73923 73859 73682 5.01 0.04 rat195 195 2325 2485 2417 2323 7.72 0.09 d198 198 15785 16758 16331 15780 7.95 0.03 kroa200 200 29368 29983 29694 29368 8.32 0.05 krob200 200 29437 29876 29645 29437 8.94 0 ts225 225 126940 127435 127293 126643 10.63 0.23 pr226 226 80745 82879 81598 80369 10.99 0.47 gil262 262 2393 2578 2467 2378 11.25 0.63 pr264 264 49842 50156 49989 49135 11.73 1.42 a280 280 2601 2895 2797 2579 12.63 0.85 pr299 299 48349 48980 48739 48191 13.56 0.33 rd400 400 15521 16870 16324 15281 32.84 1.57 this table shows that the micalk can be used to solve the tsp effectively. as table 2 indicates, the maximum relative error and average relative error for 33 test problems are 1.57% and 0.21%, respectively. figure 6 shows some of the best solutions searched by the proposed method. in this figure, the horizontal axis represents the x-axis with increasing positive values to the right and the vertical axis represents the y-axis with increasing positive values upward. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 134 bayg29 att48 eil51 berlin52 st70 eil76 kroa100 kroc100 lin 105 figure 6. some best routes found by the proposed algorithm table 3 shows the results obtained for the second problem instances and presents the comparison of the best results of our algorithm with other published research studies, including genetic algorithm (ga) (ray, bandyopadhyay, & pal, 2004), particle swarm optimization (pso) (zhong, zhang, & chen, 2007), bee colony optimization (bco) (wong, low, & chong, 2008), african buffalo optimization (abo) (odili & mohmad kahar, 2016), genetic simulated annealing ant colony system with particle swarm optimization (gsap) (chen & chien, 2011), ica (yousefikhoshbakht & sedighpour, 2013), bat algorithm (ba) (osaba et al., 2016) and improved bat algorithm (iba) (osaba et al., 2016) in terms of the optimal solution found. the results of this comparison show that the proposed algorithm gains equal solutions with the ga in gr24, bayg29 and gr48which are not large scale problems and it gains better solutions than the ga in scale problems such as st70 and kroa100. furthermore, the results indicate that although the ica provides a better solution and equal solutions compared with micalk for seventeen instances, this algorithm obtains worse solutions than mica for fourteen solutions. m . y o u se fi k h o sh b a k h t, a . d o la tn e ja d a n e ff ic ie n t c o m b in e d m e ta -h e u ri st ic a lg o ri th m f o r s o lv in g t h e t ra v e li n g s a le s m a n p ro b le m 1 3 5 t a b le 3 . c o m p a r is o n b e tw e e n m ic a l k a n d o th e r m e ta h e u r is ti c a lg o r it h m s in st a n c e s iz e ib a [ 3 3 ] b a [ 3 3 ] g a [ 2 8 ] ic a [ 2 3 ] g s a p [ 3 2 ] a b o [ 3 1 ] p s o [ 2 9 ] b c o [ 3 0 ] m ic a l k o p ti m u m g r 2 4 2 4 1 2 7 2 1 2 7 2 1 2 7 2 1 2 7 2 b a y g 2 9 2 9 1 6 1 0 1 6 1 0 1 6 1 0 1 6 1 0 g r 4 8 4 8 5 0 4 6 5 0 4 6 5 0 4 6 5 0 4 6 a t t 4 8 4 8 1 0 6 2 8 1 0 6 6 1 1 0 6 2 8 1 0 6 2 8 e il 5 1 5 1 4 2 6 4 3 0 4 2 6 4 2 7 4 2 6 4 2 7 4 2 8 4 2 6 4 2 6 b e rl in 5 2 5 2 7 5 4 2 7 6 7 6 7 5 4 2 7 5 4 2 7 5 4 2 7 5 4 2 7 5 4 2 s t 7 0 7 0 6 7 5 6 9 6 6 8 5 6 7 7 6 7 5 6 7 5 e il 7 6 7 6 5 3 9 5 5 9 5 3 8 5 3 8 5 3 8 5 4 0 5 3 9 5 3 8 5 3 8 k ro a 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 2 8 2 2 1 8 8 4 2 1 5 0 4 2 1 2 8 2 2 1 2 8 2 2 1 3 1 1 2 1 2 9 6 2 1 7 6 3 2 1 2 8 2 2 1 2 8 2 k ro b 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 1 4 1 2 2 8 4 3 2 2 1 4 1 2 2 1 4 1 2 2 1 6 0 2 2 6 3 7 2 2 1 4 1 2 2 1 4 1 k ro c 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 7 4 9 2 0 8 0 2 2 0 7 4 9 2 0 7 4 9 2 0 7 5 5 2 0 8 5 3 2 0 7 4 9 2 0 7 4 9 k ro d 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 2 9 4 2 1 7 2 7 2 1 2 9 4 2 1 3 0 9 2 1 3 4 7 2 1 6 4 3 2 1 3 8 9 2 1 2 9 4 k ro e 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 0 6 8 2 2 3 2 3 2 2 0 6 8 2 2 0 6 8 2 2 0 8 8 2 2 4 5 0 2 2 0 6 8 2 2 0 6 8 e il 1 0 1 1 0 1 6 4 6 6 6 7 6 2 9 6 3 0 6 3 5 6 2 9 6 2 9 l in 1 0 5 1 0 5 1 4 3 7 9 1 4 3 7 9 1 5 2 8 8 1 4 3 7 9 1 4 3 7 9 k ro a 1 5 0 1 5 0 2 6 5 2 4 2 6 5 2 4 2 6 5 2 6 2 7 8 5 8 2 6 5 2 4 2 6 5 2 4 k ro b 1 5 0 1 5 0 2 6 1 5 4 2 6 1 3 0 2 6 1 6 9 2 6 5 3 5 2 6 1 3 0 2 6 1 3 0 k ro a 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 9 3 7 9 2 9 3 8 3 2 9 3 7 0 2 9 5 6 3 2 9 9 6 1 2 9 3 6 8 2 9 3 6 8 k ro b 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 9 4 3 7 2 9 5 4 1 2 9 4 8 7 3 0 3 5 0 2 9 4 8 7 2 9 4 3 7 p r1 0 7 1 0 7 4 4 7 9 4 4 4 6 1 8 4 4 3 0 3 4 4 3 0 3 4 4 3 0 3 p r1 2 4 1 2 4 5 9 4 1 2 5 9 6 2 7 5 9 0 8 7 5 9 0 7 6 5 9 0 3 0 p r1 3 6 1 3 6 9 9 3 5 1 1 0 1 6 3 1 9 6 8 4 5 9 3 8 1 2 9 6 7 7 2 p r1 4 4 1 4 4 5 8 5 3 7 5 8 5 8 8 5 8 5 3 7 5 8 5 3 7 5 8 5 3 7 p r1 5 2 1 5 2 7 3 9 2 1 7 4 1 7 2 7 3 6 8 2 7 3 7 3 0 7 3 6 8 2 7 3 6 8 2 p r2 6 4 2 6 4 4 9 7 5 6 5 0 2 5 6 5 0 1 1 1 4 9 7 6 5 4 9 1 3 5 p r2 9 9 2 9 9 4 8 3 1 0 4 9 1 4 2 4 9 8 7 9 4 8 2 9 9 4 8 1 9 1 l i3 1 8 3 1 8 4 2 4 8 7 4 2 4 8 7 4 4 6 8 5 4 2 3 8 3 4 2 0 2 9 r a t5 7 5 5 7 5 6 8 2 3 6 8 9 1 6 7 7 4 6 7 7 3 6 7 7 3 r a t7 8 3 7 8 3 8 9 0 5 8 9 8 8 8 8 1 1 8 8 1 1 8 8 0 6 r l1 3 2 3 1 3 2 3 2 7 2 3 4 1 2 7 7 6 4 2 2 7 0 4 8 0 2 7 0 4 5 6 2 7 0 1 9 9 f l1 4 0 0 1 4 0 0 2 0 4 5 3 2 0 5 9 3 2 0 1 3 4 2 0 1 3 2 2 0 1 2 7 d 1 6 5 5 1 6 5 5 6 4 5 2 1 6 4 1 5 1 6 2 1 2 8 6 2 1 2 8 6 2 1 2 8 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 136 from the comparison between iba and the proposed algorithm, it can be seen that iba in nine examples has been able to find the optimum and in eight examples can yield to find solutions with gap of less than 1 percent. however, the proposed micalk has found better solutions than iba for larger size of instances. the last powerful algorithm compared to the proposed is iba. this algorithm can obtain nine out of twenty best solutions, but the micalk can yield better solutions than iba in the remaining 11 examples. it should be noted that three reminded algorithms have had a weak performance in general and have not been able to produce the best solutions in most of the examples. in more details, the computational experiments confirm that in general the proposed algorithm provides better results compared to pso, ba and bco algorithms in terms of the quality of the solutions and is able to find the best solutions for twenty three out of thirty two in this table. the evolution of the best solution found by the proposed algorithm is plotted in figure 7 during a typical execution when solving instance eil51 and krob100. in this figure, the horizontal and vertical axes show the number of iterations and gained values of the proposed algorithm respectively. besides, there is a fast convergence toward the bks at the beginning of the execution while in the rest of the search the evolution of the bks is not that fast. figure 7. execution plot, for instance eil51 (left figure) and krob100 (right figure) 4. conclusion in this paper, a hybrid algorithm called micalk which combines ica and linkernighanalgorithm was proposed for solving the tsp. we have also done experiments using two different data sets of tsp instances, including 44 problems with 24–1655 nodes from the tsplib. the experimental results indicate that the gap of the proposed algorithm stays on average below 1.6% of the execution time and the micalk uniformly produces higher performance solutions compared with other competing metaheuristics including ga, ba, iba, gsap, abo, pso, ica and bco on the tsp. it seems that the combination of the proposed algorithm with ant colony system or tabu search will yield better results for large problems of tsp. applying this method in other combinational optimization problems, including the multiple traveling salesmen problem, vehicle routing problem, school bus routing problem and the sequencing of jobs is suggested for future research studies. references lawler, e.l., lenstra, j.k., rinnooy kan, a.h.g., & shmoys, d.b. (1985). the traveling salesman problem. john wiley & sons, new york. yousefikhoshbakht, m., didehvar, f., & rahmati, f. (2014). a combination of modified tabu search and elite ant system to solve the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery, journal of industrial and production engineering, 31 (2), 65-75. m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. dolatnejad an efficient combined meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem 137 rathinam, s. & sengupta, r. (2006). lower and upper bounds for a symmetric multiple depot, multiple travelling salesman problem, research report, ucb-itsrr2006-2, institute of transportation studies. svestka, j. a. & huckfeldt, v. e. (1973). “computational experience with an m-salesman traveling salesman algorithm,” management science 19(7): 790–799. angel, r. d., caudle, w.l., noonan, r., & whinston, a. (1972). “computer assisted school bus scheduling,” management science 18: 279–288. brummit, b. & stentz, a. (1998). grammps: a generalized mission planner for multiple mobile robots. proceedings of the ieee international conference on robotics and automation. tang, l., liu, j., rong, a., & yang, z. (2000). “a multiple traveling salesman problem model for hot rolling scheduling in shangai baoshan iron & steel complex,” european journal of operational research 124: 267–282. laporte, g. & nobert, y. a. (1980). “cutting planes algorithm for the m-salesmen problem,” journal of the operational research society 31: 1017–1023. cordeau, j. f., dell’amico, m., & iori, m. (2010). “branch-and-cut for the pickup and delivery traveling salesman problem with fifo loading,” computers & operations research 37(5): 970-980. mak, v. & boland, n. (2007). “polyhedral results and exact algorithms for the asymmetric travelling salesman problem with replenishment arcs,” discrete applied mathematics 155(16): 2093-2110. potvin, j., lapalme, g., & rousseau, j. (1989). “a generalized k-opt exchange procedure for the mtsp,” information systems and operations research 27(4): 474–481. malik, w., rathinam, s., & darbha, s. (2007). “an approximation algorithm for a symmetric generalized multiple depot,” multiple travelling salesman problem. operations research letters 35(6): 747-753, vakhutinsky, i. a. & golden, l. b. (1994). solving vehicle routing problems using elastic net, proceedings of the ieee international conference on neural network, 4535–4540, karp, r. m. (1977). “probabilistic analysis of partitioning algorithms for the traveling salesman problem in the plane,” mathematics of operations research 2: 209-224. ahmadvand, m., yousefikhoshbakht, m., & mahmoodi darani, n. (2012). solving the traveling salesman problem by an efficient hybrid metaheuristic algorithm, journal of advances in computer research, 3 (3), 75-84. anantathanavit, m., & munlin, m. (2015). using k-means radius particle swarm optimization for the travelling salesman problem. iete technical review, 1-9. tarkov, m. s. (2015). solving the traveling salesman problem using a recurrent neural network. numerical analysis and applications, 8(3), 275-283. sedighpour, m., ahmadi, v., yousefikhoshbakht, m., didehvar, f., & rahmati, f. (2013). solving the open vehicle routing problem by a hybrid ant colony optimization, kuwait journal of science, 41 (3), 139-162 jeong, s. j., kim, k. s., & lee, y. h. (2009). “the efficient search method of simulated annealing using fuzzy logic controller,” expert systems with applications 36(3), 7099-7103. jolai, f. & ghanbari, a. (2010). “integrating data transformation techniques with hopfield neural networks for solving travelling salesman problem,” expert systems with applications 37(7), 5331-5335. yousefikhoshbakht, m., malekzadeh, n., & sedighpour, m. (2016). solving the traveling salesman problem based on the genetic reactive bone route algorithm whit ant colony system, international journal of production management and engineering, 4 (2), 65-73. atashpaz gargari, e. & lucas, c. (2007). imperialist competitive algorithm: an algorithm for optimization inspired by imperialistic competition, ieee congress on evolutionary computation (cec 2007), 4661 – 4667. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 138 yousefikhoshbakht, m. & sedighpour, m. (2013). new imperialist competitive algorithm to solve the traveling salesman problem, international journal of computer mathematics, 90 (7), 1495-1505. sepehri rad, h. & lucas, c. (2008). application of imperialistic competition algorithm in recommender systems. in 13th international csi computer conference (csicc’08), kish island, iran. kaveh, a. & talatahari, s. (2010). “optimum design of skeletal structures using imperialist competitive algorithm”, computers and structures 88, 1220–1229. shokrollahpour, e., zandieh, m., & dorri, b. (2010). “a novel imperialist competitive algorithm for bi-criteria scheduling of the assembly flowshop problem,” international journal of production research 1–17. ray, s.s., bandyopadhyay, s., & pal, s.k. (2004). “new operators of genetic algorithms for traveling salesman problem,” proceedings of the 17th international conference on pattern recognition 2: 497–500, zhong, w., zhang, j., & chen, w. (2007). “a novel discrete particle swarm optimization to solve traveling salesman problem,” evolutionary computation 3283–3287. wong, l. p., low, m. y. h., & chong, c. s. (2008). “a bee colony optimization algorithm for traveling salesman problem,” aicms, 818–823. odili, j. b. & mohmad kahar, m. n. (2016). “solving the traveling salesman’s problem using the african buffalo optimization,” computational intelligence and neuroscience. chen, s. m. & chien, c. y. (2011). solving the traveling salesman problem based on the genetic simulated annealing ant colony system with particle swarm optimization techniques, expert systems with applications, 38 (12), 14439–14450. osaba, e., yang, x.s., diaz, f., lopez-garcia, p., & carballedo, r. (2016). “an improved discrete bat algorithm for symmetric and asymmetric traveling salesman problems”, engineering applications of artificial intelligence, 48, pp.59-71. file:imperialist-competitive-algorithm-flowchart.jpg. from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/file:imperialist-competitive-algorithm-flowchart.jpg microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 102 the factors of intelligence development and individual performance gheorghe dumitriu department for teacher training, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, 600115, bacău, romania dumitriu@ub.ro abstract the study presents some approaches to the factors, composition and measurement of human intelligence. within the psychometric approach, there is clear evidence that intelligence is more influenced by the genetic heritage of the person than by the cultural heritage of society. the conclusion of some research on intelligence assessment is that subjects who get high scores in certain specific tasks have a tendency to respond well to the other categories of tests. on the contrary, those who get lower scores or weaker results obtain the same results in the other tests too. keywords: intelligence, factors of intelligence, evaluation, performance 1. introduction any modern society which deliberately aims at developing itself, which opts for progress and a high level of civilization needs intelligent and creative people in the fields of socioprofessional activity. in order to reach this objective in all social, cultural, economic, educational, political institutional structures there must be a prevalence of skilful, competent people. as a matter of fact, r. herrnstein and ch. murray [11] have observed, to that effect, the fact that intelligent subjects will set society in motion and will transform daily life, while the less gifted will be replaced by the technological society, therefore by the society of knowledge 2. studies and research upon general intelligence there have been a lot of researches, debates, analyses, intercultural comparative studies, experiments, case studies, etc on the topic of intelligence. thus, certain researchers considered it largely of a hereditary nature (a. jensen, in 1969 [17]; r. herrnstein, in 1973 [12]; murray and others [18]) and therefore the programmes for educational enrichment have been and still are restricted by the genetic invariability of intelligence. other authors (gardner, 1983 [21]) claim that there is no general intelligence (or the g factor) [8], as spearman had stated, and if it really exists it is a statistic product of the way in which tests are constructed (gould, 1983) [3]. even if there is an iq of each person, except in the relation with certain academic problems, this iq is very lightly connected with social daily life, with practical activity [3] (ceci and likert (1986)). practically, individual intelligence, as a general mental activity, can be measured by combining the results obtained from the subject for each sub-test or cognitive task from the intelligence test. but the way in which sub-tests results are combined varies from one test to another, therefore the statistical procedure of factor analysis is used in order to provide a systematic formal basis. but, the use of this statistical procedure involves operations to reduce real space to a smaller dimension, therefore loss of information occurs. in other words, a loss is recorded concerning the accuracy of results, a loss which can be measured both for individual results as well as for the results of a group of tested persons. however, in reality there are different kinds of intelligence and thus it is more difficult to identify general intelligence for sure, through test tasks, based on the combination of sub-tests results. although researchers always identify a first decisive and indubitable factor, there are also, however, secondary, alternative factors, specific and group skills. as far as the structure of intelligence is concerned, serious and independent analyses have been undertaken by various psychologists or researchers. thus, according to r. cattell [2] and j. horn [13], [14], general intelligence would consist of three types: fluid intelligence (gf), crystallized intelligence (gc) and visual-spatial reasoning (gv). for cattell and horn, these forms of intelligence are defined as follows: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 103 • fluid intelligence is the person’s ability of developing new and unusual techniques for problem solving; • crystallized intelligence is the person’s ability of using methods learned in the society’s culture for problem solving or for dealing with ordinary, daily situations; • visual-spatial reasoning is the person’s specialized ability in the domain of images, spatial representations and understanding mathematics. currently, various methods and new standards are being used in assessing the types of intelligence whose results are pretty consistent and substantial (j. carroll, 1993) [1]. it has been found that along with the beginning of the individual’s period of adulthood, fluid intelligence decreases and crystallized intelligence maintains the same level or even increases over the years through experience or cognitive occupation [13]. [15]. therefore, it results that human intelligence is influenced by various variables (age, occupation, experience, culture, profession) and is of different types. being thus circumscribed, intelligence has the merit of determining various levels of performance and success in life. moreover, it is being demonstrated that there cannot exist only one type of intelligence, be it of a general type, but multiple types, thus overcoming the psychometric conception in the favour of the psycho-cognitive approach. on the basis of intercultural and statistical comparisons there have been identified data according to which certain social activities which make the best use of certain intellectual skills can influence abstract thinking. the results of certain applicative studies show that improved and varied training—educational programs influence the development of intellectual skills, the abstract capacity of approaching and solving socio-cultural problems. there is clear evidence that, within the psychometric approach, intelligence is a lot more influenced by genetic inheritance than by the society’s cultural inheritance. genetic studies upon human behaviour have shown that intelligence development is determined by the variations in hereditary inheritance to an extent of 40%-80%. thus, monozygotic twins who were adopted at birth and raised in different social environments obtain an iq result in the intelligence test similar to the one obtained by dizygotic twins who grew up together. on the other hand, studies upon adopted children have shown that, in the majority of cases, the iq of the biological parent is a better predictor for the iq of the child than the iq of the foster parent. therefore, it seems that in most cases, the weight of the family, school and social environment has a reduced influence upon changing children’s iq [22]. but, geneticist authors do not explicitly draw a clear-cut distinction between genetic, ethnic, cultural, educational and social factors in their studies concerning intelligence. the differences concerning the iq results obtained by various ethnic groups are based on both genetic and hereditary variations, as well as cultural, social and educational ones (r. zazzo, 1960). it has been shown that subjects with a precarious socio-economic status, who live in poverty, usually have a lower iq than those coming from favourable social environments which offer people proper conditions for living and development. by using statistical techniques and by calculating the iq regression coefficients for poverty, low economic status and poor education, certain studies show that intelligence is a fundamental predictor for social problems and human failure [11]. for subjects with an average and above-average iq, the probability of being poor or with a low socio-economic status is very small. on the contrary, persons with an iq below average (at the most 85) show a high risk of being faced with social, health, education, unemployment, divorce problems. statistically, the weight of these persons with low intellectual capacities represents 15% of the population. these risk variables, extracted from statistic analysis, predict an expectancy rate, but they cannot tell us to what extent a certain variable acts in each particular case, for a certain person. obviously, there are individual cases which are an exception to these statistic calculations, where the lack of social, educational proper conditions, cultural opportunities and family support may reduce the individual’s cognitive-intellectual possibilities. the human being can succeed in life due to the interaction of certain specific personality factors, the involvement of some motivational variable for achievement and character structures which are individually efficient. g. dumitriu – the factors of intelligence development and individual performance 104 3. intelligence and knowledge assessment tests the tests which measure the mental skills of people constantly indicate the existence of a global intellectual factor which is present in all cognitive and problem-solving activities. also, the “g” factor measured through iq tests is considered and admitted as a good predictor for the individual’s school and occupational performances. scientific studies have shown that intelligence allows for the anticipation of several types of individual behaviour, such as: success in life, social status, school drop-out, unemployment, poverty, divorce, illegitimate children, deviance or delinquency. all these results were considered, by the majority of researchers, as trustworthy in adopting social, political, educational, economic decisions. however, from various reasons and interests, these discoveries have been, most of the time, forgotten or distorted by society, or inadequately applied to social life. the majority of the human population and of the institutions of society misconceive the data resulted from scientific research upon intelligence. a common belief is that all humans are born equals under the aspect of their intellectual capacity and that social inequality springs from an unjust utilization of the psychophysical and cultural privileges. regarding the intellectual potential, people are unequal having different levels of skills and abilities, just like in the case of physical features (height, weight, constitution). not only does nature create differences among skills and personality traits, but society does so as well by the conditions, norms, restrictions and opportunities it provides to the individual. just like there is no linear relation between intelligence and performance, there is no equivalence between equal chances (allegedly given by nature and society) and equal results. the conflict between equal chances and equal results persists for the simple fact that there are real differences among the human mental skills. no social engineering has been yet found to equalize men regarding intellectual skills, mental possibilities which evolve differently, reaching various quantitative and qualitative levels. although intelligence is being studied for more than one century and researchers had different opinions, all tests have classified people in about the same way concerning intellectual skills. the common conclusion concerning intelligence tests is that subjects who obtain high scores in certain specific tasks have a tendency to give better answers for the other categories of tasks. on the contrary, those who obtain smaller or lower scores obtain similar results in other tasks, too. this inter-correlation of results suggests the idea that all types of mental tests measure both general skills, the person’s global intellectual capacity, but also special cognitive skills. intelligence is the global factor of personality, which accounts for most of the differences between the person’s performances in tests of mental skills, although it is the product of the analysis of different results in specific skills tests. although specific skills tests (thinking, comprehension, memory, verbal fluency, vocabulary, mathematics, spatial skills, etc.) measure these abilities, they all express different degrees of the g factor. recent studies in cognitive psychology ([10], [15], [20], [22]) claim that intelligence can be indeed defined as the individual’s ability to approach and deal with abstract highly complex and difficult cognitive tasks. in daily life, in everyday language, intelligent individuals are associated with the “smart ones” who know, understand, act efficiently, think in abstract terms, learn fast and well, or solve correctly different types of problem – situations. also, the g factor is often associated with knowledge acquisition; general intellectual ability is univocally linked to the “luggage” of knowledge acquired by the subject. it has been experimentally shown that there is no equality or linearity between the level of the g factor and the knowledge “store” of the human subject (wecshler, 1965 cited in [9], [19], [1], [4]). but, previous acquisitions, information that has been learnt and stored in memory develop the intellectual skill in terms of learning and understanding new information. the g factor is also the mental ability which differentiates most eloquently normally intellectually developed persons from the very intelligent and the mentally retarded ones. in fact, intelligence is a product of genetic inheritance and environmental opportunities, which provide the individual with the possibility and the ability to acquire information, form skills, learn and develop competences within a socio-cultural context. testing different social-ethnic brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 105 groups proves the same continuity of the general intelligence, which is manifested in all people, irrespective of their cultural and knowledge content and background. studies in genetic psychology have found correlations of about .4 between general intelligence, measured through iq, and certain biophysical traits of the person (sex, size of the brain, etc). the studies conducted in the usa and europe have found correlations from .5 to .7 between different characteristics of the nervous influxes in the brain (energy, speed) and characteristics of the iq. it was observed that during problem solving, the brains of the capable (smart) subjects use less nervous energy than those less gifted. also, the nervous influxes of subjects with high iqs give quicker answers and more productively responses to simple sensorial stimuli. 4. how can human intelligence be developed? in the current state of the scientific research, it is still not known the way in which human intelligence can be increased by medical, nutritional and socio-educational methods. that is why, the problem of the scientific community is to identify, as accurately as possible, the cognitive skills, the functioning mechanisms and development means. all these initiatives of study strategically aim at improving adaptation, increasing efficiency, enhancing performance and the personal development of the learners. since most of the studies confirm the existence of a significant correlation between cognitive skills and the tests results (iq scores), it is possible that a carefully monitored quality educational program may contribute to intensifying the intellectual performances of those who study. a proof in this sense is levidow’s study (1994) which was carried out on a group of high-school students who were faced with a fluid intelligence test. the tested subjects had been learning for a year topics in elementary physics within a course which focused upon problem solving and took into consideration the iq of each of them. by the end of the study year, the subjects were tested again (with the same fluid intelligence test). the results of the study show that the subjects had the same iq, but their cognitive competence in solving physics problems had increased. other studies concerning the influence of certain educational programs have been carried out in the usa on sample groups of intellectually competent students with grades of 10 in science classes. the results of these studies show a doubling of students who successfully completed the classes compared to 1993 and an increase in the failure rate from 13% to 25% in 1994.these experiments show only an enhancement of cognitive competences, of school results at the end of completing the learning-specific programs, and not a modification or improvement in iq scores also. successes and better results are obtained by students with an average and above-average iq while few successes are recorded by below-average students, with a low iq (herrnstein and murray, 1994). these experimental data support the fact that there is no linear relationship between intelligence and academic performance or professional success. these variables are interconnected through complex, multiple relationships by which intelligence in connection with educational, differentiated programs influence the development of specific skills and cognitive abilities. the approaches of cognitive psychology claim that general intelligence is a result of the interaction among several mental skills, from knowledge, retention, concentration, information processing to strategies of problem solving. it is clear that in order to deal with an abstract academic theoretical field, a certain level of intelligence as well as of motivation is required, voluntary effort, perseverance, attention, awareness, proper psycho-social environment. although the correlations between the iq and other psycho-social variables (motivation, cognitive skills, leadership skills, initiative, and experience) do not disappear, performance is also based upon non-intellectual, social, educational factors. therefore, success in life, a person’s educational and professional success can be anticipated based on general intelligence, personality factors and socio-educational factors. at the same time, it is obvious that people are different from others in terms of mental skills and cognitive abilities. g. dumitriu – the factors of intelligence development and individual performance 106 5. conclusions certain researchers claim that despite the efforts made for more than half a century to increase the g factor by means of biological, medical and educational programs, these have not succeeded effectively. and this is because being intelligent is not the same with being informed, although a person’s intelligence depends upon learnt and acquired information. to that effect, scientists keep on carefully analysing whether gains in iq reflect in fact gains in general intelligence resulted from informational, educational, medical, cultural, economic and social improvements. no matter the truth for each person, differences in intellectual skills among people are obvious for researchers but not for educators too, therefore the argument between equal opportunities and equal results, objectified in the same socio-educational environment, still persists. in conclusion, the directions of general intelligence development, the routes of mental skills cannot be so easily modified as most educators seem to believe. it has been demonstrated that mental development is possible since childhood up to adolescence [18]. the iq level tends to remain constant, relatively unmodified from adolescence until old age, irrespective of the sex, age, curriculum, socio-economic status ([17], [5], [6], [7]). 6. references [1] carroll, j. b. (1993). human cognitive abilities, wiley, new york. [2] cattel, r, b. (1971). the scientific analysis of personality, penguin press, baltimore. [3] ceci, s. j., (1990), on intelligence… more or less: a bio-ecological treastise on intellectual development, nj, new york: prentice hall. [4] dumitriu, gh. (1998). comunicare şi învăţare. bucharest: editura didactică şi pedagogică, ra. [5] dumitriu, gh., dumitriu, c., (1997). psihologia procesului de învăţământ. bucharest: editura didactică şi pedagogică, ra. [6] dumitriu, gh., (1998). comunicare şi învăţare. bucharest: editura didactică şi pedagogică, ra. [7] dumitriu, gh., (2004). sistemul cognitive şi dezvoltarea competenţelor. bucharest: editura didactică şi pedagogică. [8] gardner, (1983). frames of mind the theory of multiple intelligence. new york: basic books. [9] guilford, j. p. (1967). the nature of human intelligence. new york: bearly limited. [10] greenfield, p. m. (1998). the cultural evolution of iq. in u. neiser (ed.), the rising curve: long term gains in iq and related measures, washington d.c.: american psychological association. [11] herrnstein, r., murray, ch. (1994). in u. neiser, (ed.), the rising curve: long term gains in iq and related measures, washington d.c.: american psychological association, 1998. [12] herrnstein, r. (1973). in r. j. sternberg (ed.), human abilities. an informkfion processing approach, new york: freeman. [13] horn, j. (1985). the texas adoption project: adopted children and their intellectual resemblance to biological and adoptive parents, child development, 54, 268-275. [14] jausovec, n. (1994). flexible thinking: an explanation for individual differences in ability, nj, cresskill: hampton press. [15] huteau, m., lautrey, j. (1997). les tests d’intelligence, paris: ed. la découverte. [16] jensen, a. r., (1972), genetics and education, methuen, london. [17] guilford, p.j., & hoepfner, r. (1971). the analysis of intelligence, mc graw-hill, new york. [18] piaget, j. (1965). psihologia inteligenţei, bucharest: editura ştiinţifică. [19] flynn, j.r., massive iq gains in 14 nations: what iq tests really measure?. psychological bulletin, 101, 170-190. [20] richard, j.f., (1990). les activités mentales. comprendre, raisonner, trouver des solutions, paris: armand colin. [21] gardner, h., (1991). the unschooled mind: how children think and how schools should teach, new york: basic books. [22] swiatek, m. a., persson, b.c. (1991). ten-year longitudinal follow-up if ability matched accelerated and non-accelerated gifted students, journal of educational psychology, 1991, 530-538. brain_3_2 43 on the relationship between rightbrain and leftbrain dominance and reading comprehension test performance of iranian efl learners hassan soleimani, ph.d. department of applied linguistics, payame noor university, 19395-3697, tehran, iran arshia.soleimani@gmail.com fateme sharifi matin department of applied linguistic, payame noor university, tehran, iran fateme_sharifi@yahoo.com abstract a tremendous amount of works have been conducted by psycholinguistics to identify hemisphere processing during second/ foreign language learning, or in other words to investigate the role of the brain hemisphere dominance in language performance of learners. most of these researches have focused on single words and word pairs (e.g., anaki et al., 1998; arzouan et. al., 2007; faust & mahal, 2007) or simple sentences (rapp et al., 2007; kacinik & chiarello, 2007), and it has been discovered that there is an advantage of right hemisphere for metaphors and an advantage of left hemisphere for literal text. but the present research was designed to study iranian efl learners' performance in different reading tasks, so there could be differences between the consequences of the former research and the results of the present study due to the context. here left-brain and right-brain dominance was investigated in 60 individuals (20 right-handed and 10 left-handed male, 20 right-handed and 10 left-handed female) via the edinburg handedness questionnaire (ehq). the research results suggested that the right-handed learners who are supposed to be left-brain outperformed the left-handed ones; and regarding participant's gender, male learners outperformed female learners on reading comprehension test tasks. key words: psycholinguistics, brain hemisphere, left-brain, right-brain, left-brained, rightbrained, reading comprehension, interhemispheric processing. 1. introduction psycholinguistics is a branch of study which examines the relationship between the human mind and language. in other words, it can be said that it is the combination of the disciplines of psychology and linguistics. in psycholinguistic research language users and producers are considered as individuals not samples and representatives of the society. and linguistic performance of each individual is determined by the strengths and limitations of the mental apparatus which all human beings share. in fact, psycholinguistics traces similar patterns of linguistic behavior among large groups of individual speakers of a particular language or of all languages. it examines the processes that occur in brain while producing and perceiving both written and spoken discourse, even though the involving processes may be so well established to be aware of them. since psycholinguistics believes the notion that language is produced by the human mind, it has two interconnected goals; one of them is to understand the processes underlying the language and the other one is to study language as a product of human mind and therefore as an evidence of the way in which human beings organize their thoughts and impose patterns upon their experiences (field, 2003). 2. review of literature in the 1960s, sperry found out that the right and left hemispheres of the brain think and process information in very different ways. before he starts his work on cognition and behavior, for decades it was known that the left or right-hemispheres or halves of the brain are responsible for doing different tasks. in the 1860s, broca found out that speech is related to the front area of the left hemisphere; and in 1940s, it was discovered by penfield and jasper that motor function of one side of the body is related to the opposite hemisphere of the brain; i.e., the left hemisphere commands the person to lift their right hand. by the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 1969s, scientists and doctors conducted research on neural functions of different areas of the brain. the research was done on the patients who suffered from brain damages in which only one or a few aspects of brain functions were affected. evidence from those research lead to the idea that the left hemisphere is superior to the right one and it is responsible for higher order brain functions. in other words, it can be said that our left brain is the dominant half of the brain and so, more evolved that the right one. however, when sperry started to work on human and animal brain and thought, it was found that the whole brain is much greater that its parts. in the 1950s, when he severed connections between the left and right brains of chimpanzees, i.e., the two hemispheres could not communicate with each other and could not access information stored in the opposite brain, the obtained result was that each half of the brain was still able to learn and function (cardarelli, 2010). since the 1940s, specific severe epileptics were treated by surgically severing left and right brain connections (a commissurotomy). severing this connection reduced seizure severity and frequency with otherwise little effect on behavior and the patients’ ability to learn. sperry tested 10 commissurotomy patients and then found out that the two halves of the brain are very specialized. he also discovered that these two halves are totally independent and each one is capable of thought, emotion, and memory which are not accessible to the opposite half of the brain (cardarelli, 2010). in split-brain experiments, they tell to a patient to look at the centre of a screen or piece of paper, and then images or words are presented to one hemisphere. when the image is placed to the right of the centre, it can only seen by the right eye, so, only the left hemisphere can process the image. in commissurotomy patients, there is no connection between the two hemispheres, therefore, scientists are able to test each half undependably (cardarelli, 2010). a patient is able to read a word without hesitation, when it is presented to the left hemisphere. when the same word is presented to the right hemisphere, although the meaning or context of the word will be conjured, the word cannot be read by the patient. for example, when the word walk is written on the crosswalk, although it is the left hemisphere that can read the word, the context and meaning of the word walk can be understood by the right hemisphere. in a similar way, when a picture from an object is presented to patients, the left hemisphere can recognize its name. however, the right hemisphere is able to see the object, but it cannot communicate what it is, even the patient may say that i have not seen anything. here, the patient can also select the presented object from a group of objects, but they have no idea about why the subject has been selected (cardarelli, 2010). the left brain when is isolated is able to calculate and do math functions without problem, but the right brain can only do easy addition problems (just up to the number 20), and it is not able to subtract, divide or multiply. research done by sperry indicated that in fact the passive right hemisphere is superior to the dominant left hemisphere in some ways. it is said that the left brain is responsible for speech, writing, and calculation, and the right brain takes part in the complex tasks such as spatial perception, word comprehension, and non-verbal communication. right-brain tasks constitute important mechanisms; with the help of these mechanisms humans are able to perceive and interact with the world. the right-brain functionality is required for some processes such as music appreciation, intuition, and reading faces. the right brain seems passive and inferior to the left-brain because it is basically mute. it is able to think, process, and feel, but it cannot communicate those thoughts because the major language center of the brain is not located in this hemisphere. however, most evidence up to now shows that both halves of the brain are needed for most tasks and there is no time when one side of the brain is working while the other is only idling (cardarelli, 2010). reading comprehension which is the focus of our research, is often seen as a single skill that depends on a unitary cognitive process, but it is viewed by many scholars as a progressive sequence that moves from visual symbol recognition, to letter-sound correspondence, to phonetic decoding, and finally to text comprehension (chall, 1979; perfetti, 1979, cited in grimes, 2003). many believe that reading process is a unitary process in which readers use the same set of cognitive processes and process and comprehend different types of the text in the same way. however, it is said that reading comprehension is not a singular cognitive process. different cognitive skills may underlie different types of reading comprehension demands (guthric, 1973, cited in grimes, 2003) and h. soleimani, f. sharifi matin on the relationship between rightbrain and leftbrain dominance and reading comprehension test performance of iranian efl learners 45 different kinds of text structure may demand different kinds of cognitive processing abilities. reading comprehension can be viewed as the process of getting meaning from written text. it can be considered as a subvocalized language function in normal subjects involving complicated language processing skills that originate in the left hemisphere. many readers report "hearing" the words in their heads as they read silently. it is known that in as many as 90% of individuals, language processing involves structures in the language and speech areas of the left hemisphere (leonard, 1997, grimes ,2003) and studies of the brain confirm activation of these areas of the brain during reading tasks (shaywittz, pugh, jenner, fulbright, fletcher, gore, and shaywittz, 2000; horwitz, rumsey, and donohue, 1998; carlson, 1998; baynes, 1990, cited in grimes,2003). according to grimes (2003), there are lots of theories that have tried to maintain the role of right and left hemisphere to the reading process. among them graham and kershnur (1996) who proposed that the analytic, sequential, and "auditory" aspects of reading are maintained by the left brain, and holistic, simultaneous, and visual spatial processing during reading by the right brain. children's preferred learning styles through use of questionnaire were investigated by these two researchers and learning styles were compared to reading achievement; it was investigated that dyslexic readers do not indicate a strong learning preference in either auditory (left hemisphere) or visual (right hemisphere) modalities. bakker (19791992) hypothesized that two types of dyslexia resulted from an over-reliance of each hemisphere, with the right hemisphere contributing spatial perceptual reading strategies and the left hemispheric adding syntactic-semantic reading strategies. a balance model of reading developed by this researcher stresses a developmental process in which reading begins as a predominantly right-hemisphere process with emphasis on strict visual processing when decoding before finally switching to a more fluid linguistic process involving language centers of the left hemisphere for fluent readers. later on, in an eeg reading study which supported his model (bakker, 1992), it was mentioned that readers relied heavily on right hemisphere functions to process words visually when decoding, while more experienced readers indicated dominant left brain activation when reading because text comprehension had become much like an internalized language function involving language centers of the left hemisphere. bakker (1992) recorded brain responses at the parietal and temporal locations in the left and right hemispheres of fifty kindergarten children while they were reading single words to test his theory. for four years, follow up brain recordings were also taken at one-year intervals. consequences of the study indicated large hemisphere amplitudes during the first two years of the study, so, it was suggested that the children read the words with mainly right hemisphere activation. on the other hand, data obtained from the final two years of the study showed that a large shift to the left brain activation occurred and that the children read words with mainly left hemisphere activation. findings of this study supported the idea that reading begins as a primarily visual, right hemisphere function but progresses to a more language dominated function mediated by the left hemisphere (grimes, 2003). later on, a bilateral cooperative model of reading was suggested by taylor and taylor (1983). this model introduced the concepts of left and right track processes and proposed that reading is not a sole language function of the left hemisphere. these authors defined that left processes are those aspects of reading that involve processing sequentially ordered material, phonetic coding and syntax, while right tract processes handle pattern-matching functions, relate text to real-world context, and evoke mental associations and images. here, the ideas were not directly related to hemisphere lateralization, but contribution of the hemispheres to these reading processes could be seen. left track processes are consistent with known functions of the left hemisphere. taylor and taylor claimed that left track processes involve processing sequential material, which is a well established function of the hemisphere (halpern, 2000, cited in grimes, 2003) and would account for the accurate processing of letters in sequence when decoding words. it was said that, left track processes also involve phonetic coding and syntactic processing, which are other identified left hemisphere functions (gazzaniga, ivry, and mangun, 1998, cited in grime, 2003) that further contribute to accurate reading. right track processes are also consistent with brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 well-known functions of the right hemisphere. according to taylor and taylor, right track processes handle pattern matching functions, which is a visual spatial process mediated by the right hemisphere (halpen, 2000, cited in grimes, 2003). visual spatial processing identifies the correct orientation of letters, so it plays a role in word identification. it was also stated that right track processes evoke mental associations, which is another well-established role of the right hemisphere (loring-meire and halpen, 1999, cited in grime 2003). mental association relies on the ability to generate a mental image, which is a function that can aid comprehension of text (grimes, 2003). 3. methodology and research design 3.1 participants subject selection in this study was done on the basis of handedness, normal reading ability, age, and also level of the participants. the participants were 60 efl students from different branches of kish institute in tehran in intermediate level; it should be mentioned that in the present study intermediate level has been considered as a continuum, i.e., from pre-intermediate to upperintermediate. all of the subjects of this study were persian speakers for whom english was considered as a foreign language. the samples selected were mixed in terms of their gender, 30 men and women. the subjects were between the ages of 15 to 32 years old (m=23), and on average they have been studying english for 3 years. the students were randomly selected from the available classes in intermediate level, while half of them were male and the other half female sudents. at first there were about 95 subjects in this study, but 35 of them were removed from final data analysis, because a homogeneous group was needed. so, the number of them was decreased to 60 (n= 60). 40 the subjects were right-handed and the other 20 were left-handed as assessed by a questionnaire; namely edinburgh handedness inventory. the mentioned assessment was carried out according to what was made by gonzaleza & goodalea, 2009 and also vanve, 2009. all participants of this study were naïve to the purpose and hypothesis of the study. 3.2 instrument and procedure to meet the requirements of the present study, a host of various instrumentations were used. solution placement test (elementary to intermediate) was used in this study. the test was taken to determine the subject's level and homogeneity. the test helped the researcher to make sure if all of the subjects were in intermediate level as was decided. the mentioned test has been developed by lynda edward (2011) after consultation with teachers and is designed to assess the subject's knowledge of the key language as well as their receptive and productive skills. sine no exact instruments have been found by the researcher to determine right-brain and left-brain dominance (after consulting many experts in the related fields of study), edinburgh handedness questionnaire (ehq), a handedness questionnaire, was used to measure the mentioned phenomenon in subjects of the present study. according to grimes (2003), it has been confirmed that 90% of right-handers have lefthemisphere dominance for language. and also, it has been estimated that over 95% of right-handed people and 70–80% of left-handers show language lateralization to the left hemisphere (annett & alexander, 1996; kimura, 1983; mckeever, seitz, krutsch, & van eys, 1995; rasmussen & milner, 1977, as cited in gonzaleza & goodalea, 2009). the purpose of this study was to check the students' comprehension with regard to each type of reading, so two formats of items including multiple choice and cloze test were applied here. the reading tests were selected from the book intermediate total english: teachers resource book by moreton, naughton, bewsher, and peebles (2006). the present test comprised two passages, one including nine multiple choice items and the other 40 cloze test items; totally 49 questions, each with three answer choices. the first passage including multiple choice items was presented exactly from the mentioned book with no changes, so there was no need to test its validity and reliability. cloze test items for the second passage were developed by the researcher. following the principles of cloze construction, there was no deletion in the first and the last sentence of the text, then words in the other sentences of the passage were count in order and about every seventh word was deleted. h. soleimani, f. sharifi matin on the relationship between rightbrain and leftbrain dominance and reading comprehension test performance of iranian efl learners 47 for the scoring on cloze passage to be easier and more objective, the removed items were presented in the form of three answer choices. the test takers required to attempt to choose the original words from the items provided. it is to be noted that like any other teacher-made or researcher-made tests, there was an obligation to carry out a full validation and reliability before the test become operational. the design of the study was a comparison paradigm (mackay, 2005) with two groups: a left-brain dominant group and a right-brain dominant one. the participants were 60 efl students from different branches of kish institute in tehran in intermediate level; 30 male and 30 female; in each group 20 right-handed and 10 left-handed. each group was asked to perform three tasks mentioned above. the time frame for the study was 65 minutes for the placement test, 10 minutes for the questionnaire, and 30 minutes for the reading test, spread over two sessions. placement test was given to the participants separately in one session, and the questionnaire and the reading test both in another session. 3.3. data analysis depending on the obtained results from the test, nonparametric-tests of association were applied to test the research hypotheses; a non-parametric test was conducted since the assumptions of parametric test were not met. it goes without saying that descriptive statistics is indispensible to arrive any statistical inference. four assumptions were considered in order to analyze the data through parametric tests: interval data, independence, normality, and homogeneity of variances. for interval data and independence there were no statistical tests. the mc and cloze tests were measured on an interval scale while the subjects of the study did not participate in more than one group. normality of each group was tested through ratios of skewness and kurtosis over their respective standard errors. ratios between the ranges of +/1.96 show that the assumption of the normality is met. here, the ratio of 2.03 for the cloze test indicated that it was not distributed normally in terms of its kurtosis. regarding mc test, the skewness of 4.33 and the kurtosis of 7.28 which are higher than +/1.96 indicated that it also did not enjoy a normal distribution. according to these results and also because of unequal groups' sizes, the non-parametric test of mann-whitney u – a non-parametric equivalent for independent t-testwas used to find the answers of the research questions. the obtained results for non-normality of the data on mc and cloze tests was also supported by the results of the kolmogorov-smirnov and shapiro-wolf tests, since all of the statistics had significance values less than .05. 4. results and discussion in what follows, firstly various statistical calculations are presented followed by the discussion as a separate section. table 1. normality test results for mc and cloze test handdom left-handed right-handed cloze test mc cloze test mc n valid missing valid missing 20 0 40 0 20 0 40 0 mean 28.8000 7.4000 30.9500 7.0500 std. deviation 3.90142 1.27321 3.08802 .98580 variance 15.221 1.621 9.536 .972 skewness -.926 -2.217 -.281 .065 std. error of skewness .512 .512 .374 .374 normality test of skewness -1.80 -1.80 -.75 .17 kurtosis 2.016 7.267 -.437 -.934 std. error of kurtosis .992 .992 .733 .733 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 normality test of kurtos 2.03 7.28 .59 -1.27 minimum 18.0 3.0 25.00 5.00 maximum 34.00 9.00 37.00 9.00 the results of the kolmogorov-smirnov and shapiro-wolf tests support the above findings as non-normality of the data on mc and cloze tests. all of the statistics have significance values less than .05. table 2. test of normality for mc and cloze tests kolmogorov-smirnov shapiro-wilk statistic df. sig. statistic df. sig. cloze test .140 60 .005 .951 60 .018 mc .211 60 .000 .873 60 .000 what is the relationship between the brain dominance and reading comprehension ability of iranian efl learners? results obtained from the normality test indicated that the non-parametric tests are needed here; so, twoindependent samples mann-whitney test was run to investigate any significance between the brain dominance and reading comprehension ability of iranian efl learners. the mann-whitney statistic was 313.50, which was not a significant one (p = .173 > .05). according to the mentioned results, it might be concluded that there is not any significant relationship between the brain dominance and reading comprehension ability of iranian efl learners. therefore, the answer to the question is that there is not any significant relationship between the brain dominance and reading comprehension ability of iranian efl learners. meanwhile, the medians for the lefthanded students is 37 and for the right-handed ones is 38 which verify the support of first question answered. table 3. mann-whitney test statistics for brain dominance with reading comprehension mann-whitney u 313.500 wilcoxon w 523.500 z -1.363 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .173 a. grouping variable: handdom table 4. median statistics left-handed and right-handed students on reading comprehension median left-handed 37 right-handed 38 does the brain dominance affect the learner's performance in different reading test tasks? there is not any non-parametric equivalent for multivariate analysis, so two separate mannwhitney tests were run in order to compare the right-handed and left-handed learners' performance on cloze test and mc. so, the second question is divided into two minor ones. as follows: does the brain dominance affect the learners' performance on cloze test? does the brain dominance affect the learners' performance on mc test? regarding the first minor question, mann-whitney statistic of 260.50 is significant (p = .027< .05). so, according to this result, it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between the right-handed and left-handed learners' performance. thus, the answer to the first minor hypothesis is positive. the median for the left-handed learners on cloze test is 29 and for the righth. soleimani, f. sharifi matin on the relationship between rightbrain and leftbrain dominance and reading comprehension test performance of iranian efl learners 49 handed learners is 31. so, the right-handed learners outperformed the left-handed ones on the cloze test. regarding the second minor question, the mann-whitney statistic of 294.50 is not significant (p = .083> .05). so, according to these results, the answer to this question is negative and it can be concluded that there is not any significant difference between the right handed and left-handed learners' performance on mc test. the medians for the left-handed and right-handed students on mc test are 8 and 7 respectively. table 5. mann-whitney test statistics brain dominance on cloze test mann-whitney u 260.500 wilcoxon w 470.500 z -2.209 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .027 a. grouping variable: handdom table 6. median statistics left-handed and right-handed students on cloze test median left-handed 29 right-handed 31 table 7. mann-whitney test statistics brain dominance on mc test mann-whitney u 294.500 wilcoxon w 1114.500 z -1.733 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .083 a. grouping variable: handdom table 8. median statistics left-handed and right-handed students on mc test median left-handed 8 right-handed 7 do left-brain dominant learners outperform the right-brain dominant learners in reading comprehension test tasks? results obtained from the normality test indicated that the non-parametric tests are needed here; so, twoindependent samples mann-whitney was run to investigate any significance between the brain dominance and reading comprehension ability of iranian efl learners. the mannwhitney statistic was 313.50, which was not a significant one, i.e., (p = .173 > .05). according to the mentioned results it can be concluded that there is not any significant relationship between the brain dominance and reading comprehension ability of iranian efl learners. therefore, the answer to the question is not positive and it can be said that left-brain dominant learners do not outperform the right-brain dominant learners in reading comprehension test tasks. moreover, the medians for the left-handed students is 37 and for the right-handed ones is 38 which verify the support of first question answered. does participants' gender affect their performance in reading comprehension test tasks? the mann-whitney statistic of 305.50 is significant (p = .032< .05). based on these results, the answer to the fourth question is negative and it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between the male and female learners' performance on reading comprehension test tasks. the median for the male learners on reading comprehension test is 38.5 and for female learners is brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 37. therefore, it can be said that male students outperformed female learners on reading comprehension test tasks. table 9. mann-whitney test statistics gender on reading comprehension test mann-whitney u 305.500 wilcoxon w 770.500 z -2.147 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .032 a. grouping variable: handdom table 10. median statistics male and female students on reading comprehension test median male 38.5 female 37 5. conclusion regarding the brain dominance, it can be said that although the two hemispheres of the brain seem to be similar, each one has its specific functions. the right hemisphere of the brain is dominant for emotions, creativity, music and rhythm, intuition, sensitivity, daydreaming, spontaneity, humor, emotions, exploration, experimentation, inventiveness, musical expression, handson learning and creativity; and the left hemisphere for mathematical and language abilities, analytical thought, logical thinking, sequencing, categorizing, planning, speech, spelling, as well as word and number recognition. it is worth noticing that both sides of the brain are able to analyze process and store information from thoughts and ideas and also make decisions, but one side of it is usually more dominant than the other side (day, 2009). support for the present study was based on several studies by atchley et al., 1999; coney & evans, 2000; faust et al., 1995; faust & chiarello, 1998, cited in vance, 2009, anaki et al., 1998; arzouan et. al., 2007; faust & mahal, 2007, rapp et al., 2007; kacinik & chiarello, 2007), that had shown activation of right hemisphere for metaphors and an advantage of left hemisphere for literal text based on single words and word pairs. so, it seemed plausible to conduct a study to determine if context could be considered as an influential factor in comprehension of efl learners. results of the study were as follows: 1. there is not any significant relationship between the brain dominance and reading comprehension ability of iranian efl learners. 2. the second question of the present study can be broken down into two minor ones and the results for this question are as follows: a. brain dominance affects the learner's performance on cloze test. the righthanded learners who are supposed to be left-brain dominant outperform the left-handed ones who are right-brain dominant. b. brain dominance does not affect the learner's performance on mc test. in other words there is not any significant difference between the right-handed and left-handed learners' performance on mc test. 3. according to what was mentioned in result number 1, it was rejected that left-brain dominant learners outperform the right-brain dominant learners in reading comprehension. 4. participant's gender affects their performance in reading comprehension task. and, male learners outperform female learners on reading comprehension test tasks. 6. pedagogical implications the research questions investigated in this study have relevance to educational psychology and suggest implications for the improvement of educational practices. h. soleimani, f. sharifi matin on the relationship between rightbrain and leftbrain dominance and reading comprehension test performance of iranian efl learners 51 research on the contribution of the brain hemispheres to the reading process will increase understanding individual differences in the reading process. understanding how reading develops and where it breaks down may lead to more specific and efficient interventions to aid the development of reading skill among efl learners. recognizing reading as a complex cognitive process will allow researchers and educators to identify at which stage and for what reason reading becomes insufficient for learners. it was highly likely that the left hemisphere is involved in complex process of reading. however, it was necessary to continue research to promote our understanding of hemispheres contribution to the reading process. understanding about the brain and its specific areas has encouraged language teachers to teach in a way that reflect these special functions of the brain. for instance, right and left hemisphere teaching is a way that is selected by some teachers who are interested in particular functions of the left and right hemisphere. on the other words, knowing about the brain and the way it learns naturally will be helpful for language teachers and educators to be more effective in their classrooms. providing different materials, time frames and grouping arrangements can be helpful for educators to provide different learning styles for different individuals. because individual differences are not a simple matter, it is an issue that is closely related to personal differences (genessee, 2000). references [1] ahlse'n, e. (2006). introduction to neurolinguistics. philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company. [2] caplan, d. (1995). language and the brain. published in the harvard mahoney neuroscience institute letter; on the brain, vol. 4. no. 4, fall 1995. [3] cherry, k. (2005). left brain vs. right brain: understanding the myth and reality of left brain and right brain dominance. presented in about.com.psychology. [4] christison, m. a. (1999). applications of brain-based research for second language teaching and learning: part 2. tesol matters,vol. 9. no. 3. june/july1999. [5] day, l. (2009). left or right brain dominant? from: baby sensory. retrieved from http:// baby sensory.com. [6] field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss (3rd ed.). london: sage publication. [7] field, j. (2003). psycholinguistics. london: routledge, taylor & francis group. [8] genesee, f. (2000). brain research: implications for second language learning. retrieved december 1st, 2000 from http://escholarship .org/uc/item/58n560k4 [9] grimes, j. a. (2003). the role of the brain's right hemisphere in comprehending spatially oriented text (doctoral dissertation). available from proquest dissertations and theses database. (umi no. 3097972) [10] harley, t. (2001). the psychology of language from data to theory (2nd ed.). edition. [11] hove & new york. psychology press ltd: taylor & francis group. [12] konečná, e. (2008). developing reading skills in english in primary school learners with dyslexia (unpublished master's thesis). university of pardubice; faculty of arts and philosophy [13] mackey, a., & gass, s.m. (2005). second language research, methodology and design. [14] mahwah, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates, publishers. [15] moreton, w., naughton, d., bewsher, a., peebles, j. (2006). intermediate total english: teachers resource book. harlow and england: pearson education limited. [16] randall, m. (2007). memory, psychology and second language learning. amesterdam/ philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company. [17] regard, m., cook, n. d. wieser, h. g., & landis, t. (1994). the dynamics of cerebral dominance during unilateral limbic seizure. online oxford journals, brain, vol. 117, no. 1, pp 91104, 1994. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 [18] sperry, r. w., hubel, d. h., & wiesel, t. n. (1981). some effects of disconnecting the cerebral hemispheres. nobel lecture. retrieved december 8, 1981 from the world wide web: http:// www.nobelprize.org [19] sprenger, m. (1999). learning & memory: the brain in action. alexandria, virginia usa: association for supervision and curriculum development. [20] springer, j. a. (1999). language dominance in neurologically normal and epilepsy subjects: a functional mri study. online oxford journals, brain [vol. 122. no. 11, pp 2033-2046, november 1999]. retrieved from http://int. unionphysiol. sci./am. physiol. soc. [21] taylor, k. i. and regard, m. (2003). language in the right cerebral hemisphere: contributions from reading studies. published in news in psychological science, vol. 18. no. 6, 257-261, december 2003. [22] vance, k. m. (2009). hemispheric difference during metaphoric advertisement comprehension: the influence of brand familiarity (doctoral thesis). available from proquest llc dissertations and theses database. (umi no. 3376876) [23] vikingstad, e. m. et. al., (2000). language hemispheric dominance in patients with congenital lesions of eloquent brain, vol. 47. issue 3pp 562-577. retrieved september 2000, from http:// www. ovidsp.com [24] uhrich, t. (2005). effects of bimanual activity on reading achievement. (doctoral dissertation). available from proquest llc dissertations and theses database. (umi no. 3178835) appendix 1. placement test part 1. grammar and vocabulary complete the sentences with the correct answers. 1. my sister _______ very tired today. a be b am c is d are 2. his _______ is a famous actress. a aunt b uncle c grandfather d son 3. i’d like to be a _______ and work in a hospital. a lawyer b nurse c writer d pilot 4. we _______ like rap music. a doesn’t b isn’t c aren’t d don’t 5. there _______ a lot of water on the floor. what happened? a are b is c be d am 6. he _______ tv at the moment. a watches b is watching c watched d haswatching 7. helen is very _______. she doesn’t go out a lot. a bored b confident c angry d shy 8. did you _______ to the beach yesterday? a went b were c go d goed 9. have you got _______ orange juice? i’m thirsty. a some b a c any d the 10. let’s go into _______ garden. it’s sunny outside. a a b any c – d the 11. he’s _______ for the next train. a looking b waiting c listening d paying 12. mark _______ his car last week. a cleaned b did clean c has cleaned d is cleaning 13. i bought some lovely red _______ today. a cabbages b cucumbers c bananas d apples 14. which bus _______ for when i saw you this morning? a did you wait b had you waited c were you waiting d have you waited 15. where _______ you like to go tonight? a do b would c are d can 16. that’s the _______ film i’ve ever seen! h. soleimani, f. sharifi matin on the relationship between rightbrain and leftbrain dominance and reading comprehension test performance of iranian efl learners 53 a worse b worst c baddest d most bad 17. my dad _______ his car yet. a hasn’t sold b didn’t sell c doesn’t sell d wasn’t sold 18. i’ve been a doctor _______ fifteen years. a since b for c until d by 19. look at the sky. it _______ rain. a will b can c is going to d does 20. if i _______ this homework, the teacher will be angry! a am not finishing b won’t finish c don’t finish d didn’t finished 21. this book is even _______ than the last one! a most boring b boringer c more boring d far boring 22. i’ll meet you _______ i finish work. a if b when c as d so 23. we’re getting married _______ march. a in b on c at d by 24. if you _______ steak for a long time, it goes hard. a cook b are cooking c have cooked d cooked 25. i _______ you outside the cinema, ok? a ’ll see b am going to see c am seeing d see 26. i _______ not be home this evening. phone me on my mobile. a can b could c may d should 27. the criminal _______ outside the hotel last night. a was caught b has been caught c is caught d caught 28. he asked me if i _______ a lift home. a wanted b want c was wanting d had wanted 29. if i _______ older, i’d be able to vote in elections. a had b am c were d have 30. you _______ go to the supermarket this afternoon. i’ve already been. a mustn’t b can’t c needn’t d won’t 31. kathy drives _______ than her sister. a more carefully b more careful c carefully d most carefully 32. the _______ near our village is beautiful. a country b woods c view d countryside 33. i’m _______ i can’t help you with that. a apologise b afraid c regret d sad 34. it was really _______ this morning. i couldn’t see anything on the roads. a cloudy b sunny c icy d foggy 35. can you look _______ my dog while i’m away? a for b at c to d after 36. if i’d started the work earlier i _______ it by now. a would finish b had finished c will finish d would have finished 37. this time next year i _______ in madrid. a am working b will work c will be working d work 38. i wish he _______ in front of our gate. it’s very annoying. a won’t park b wouldn’t park c doesn’t park d can’t park 39. he said he’d seen her the _______ night. a last b before c previous d earlier 40. i _______ agreed to go out. i haven’t got any money! a mustn’t have b shouldn’t have c couldn’t have d wouldn’t have 41. it was good _______ about her recovery, wasn’t it? a information b words c news d reports 42. i _______ the report by 5.00 p.m. you can have it then. a have finished b will have finished c finish d am finishing 43. because of the snow the teachers _______ all the students to go home early. a said b made c told d demanded brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 44.thanks for the meal! it was _______. a delighted b delicious c disgusting d distasteful 45. look! our head teacher _______ on tv right now! a is being interviewed b is been interviewed c is interviewing d is interviewed 46. it’s _______ to drive a car over 115 km/h in the uk. a unlegal b illegal c dislegal d legaless 47. there’s a lot of rubbish in the garden i need to get _______ of. a lost b rid c cleared d taken 48. i’m afraid it’s time we _______. a leave b must leave c are leaving d left 49. he wondered what _______. a is the time? b the time was c was the time d is the time? 50. they _______ our salaries by 5%. a rose b made up c raised d lifted part 2. reading read the text. saucy dragons levi roots, a reggae singer from jamaica, has a big smile on his face these days. in case you missed it, levi recently appeared on the famous reality show for people with business ideas, dragon’s den. the participants have to persuade the team of business experts that their ideas are excellent and hope that two or more of the team will decide to invest money in their business idea. levi did just that! the singer, who has been a successful music artist for several years, also sells something he calls ‘reggae, reggae sauce’. it is made using special secret ingredients from his grandmother and is a hot jamaican sauce that is eaten with meat. until now it has only been possible to buy the sauce from levi’s website or once a year at the famous notting hill carnival. but now, thanks to the tv programme, that is all going to change! levi presented his business idea to the team and started with a catchy reggae song about the sauce to make them sit up and listen. he certainly got their attention! he then described his plans for the sauce. this part of his presentation didn’t go so well. he made mistakes with his figures, saying that he already had an order for the sauce of 2 and a half million when in fact he meant 2 and a half thousand! but, the team were still interested and amazingly, two of the team offered to give £50,000 to the plan in exchange for 40% of the company. mr roots was ecstatic! levi is even happier today. it seems that two of the biggest supermarket chains in the uk are interested in having the sauce on their shelves. in addition to this, levi is recording the ‘reggae, reggae sauce’ song and we will soon be able to buy or download this. ‘it’s all about putting music into food,’ says levi with a big, big smile on his face! and music and food will probably make him a very rich man indeed! 1. are the sentences true or false? 1. at the moment levi isn’t very happy. ___ 2. levi sells something we can eat. ___ 3. his song is a big success. ___ 4. he sang his song on tv. ___ 5. some supermarkets want to sell his product. ___ 2. choose the best answers. 1. dragon’s den is a show about a. cooking. h. soleimani, f. sharifi matin on the relationship between rightbrain and leftbrain dominance and reading comprehension test performance of iranian efl learners 55 b. new business ideas. c.famous people. 2. to make the sauce a. you have to go to notting hill. b. you have to ask a member of levi’s family. c. you need a good recipe book. 3. when levi presented his idea a. he finished with a song. b.two and a half million people were watching. c.he talked about the wrong figures. 4. some people on the team a. own supermarkets. b.didn’t like the taste. c.bought part of levi’s company. 5. today levi a. is a millionaire. b.has two things he can profit from. c.prefers music to food. part 3. writing imagine you have just returned from a two-week holiday. write an e-mail to your friend telling him/her about the holiday. include information about the journey, where you stayed, what you did and the people you met. appendix 2 edinburgh handedness questionnaire (ehq) please indicate your preference in the use of hands for each of the following activities or objects by placing a check in the appropriate column. always left often left both hands often right always right ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- writing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- drawing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- throwing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- using scissors ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- using a toothbrush ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- using a knife ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 using a spoon ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- using a broom (the upper hand) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- striking a match ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- opening a box( the lid) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- appendix 3 reading test part 1. read the text about malta and answer the following questions. malta is a truly wonderful country whose towns are populated with baroque palaces and its countryside abounds with the oldest known human constructions in the world. the best time to visit is spring or autumn as it is still hot enough to get a suntan and hotel prices come down significantly. the weather, sea and sandy beaches are a bonus, however. the main attractions are definitely the island's antiquities and the baroque architecture. there are an amazing number of things to discover as you explore 7,000 years of history. in fact, the maltese islands have been described as one big open-air museum. wherever you go, the scenery on the island and the architecture are truly spectacular. malta is the ideal place to get away from it all with its rocky coastlines, narrow and tranquil village streets, marinas and fishing villages, etc. but the best thing about a stay there is that you can experience several holidays in one and there are endless things to do. for people who are physically fit, it is a great place for rock climbing, trekking and several types of water sports. you can enjoy a busy calendar of cultural events all year round, as malta is also a bilingual country which has strong historical and cultural links to britain. it is also an enjoyable place to learn and practice english, so english courses are available in several language schools and english language newspapers, books and magazines are sold everywhere. people even drive on the left here! the capital of the country is valletta, which is less than two kilometers in length so it is possible to explore this beautiful city in a relatively short time. it has many interesting squares that are surrounded by palaces and other historical buildings. another important tourist attraction is gozo, which is separated from the mainland by three kilometers of sea. this island has a spectacular rocky coastline and also has a relaxing, rural atmosphere. the cuisine has italian, french and maltese influences. standards are generally high and fresh fish is a favourite in local restaurants and bars. many species of seafood are consumed all year around and this is what maltese restaurants do best. several dishes with rice, meat and vegetables are also popular, however. malta's hot, dry summers can be uncomfortable but they are normally very pleasant and the mild winters are also nice. the rain is heaviest in winter but is still only moderate. in the high season, the most economical option is a package tour that includes the flight and seven nights in a two or three star hotel as this will cost under $ 500. whether you end up choosing a package tour or travelling independently in malta, you are guaranteed to have an unforgettable experience. choose the correct definition for these words and expressions. they are underlined in the text so look at them carefully in their context before answering. 1. abounds with means: a) to be full of b) to have a few of c) to be decorated with h. soleimani, f. sharifi matin on the relationship between rightbrain and leftbrain dominance and reading comprehension test performance of iranian efl learners 57 2. bonus means: a) the best thing b) an extra or added benefit c) a nice surprise 3. amazing means: a) incredible b) useful c) interesting 4. to get away from it all means: a) to have fun b) to escape from the pressures and routines of daily life c) to have an adventure 5. endless means: a) fantastic b) with limitations c) without limit 6. standards are generally high means: a) the food has a lot of variety b) the food is normally expensive c) the quality of the food tends to be good 7. mild means: a) variable b) very cold c) gentle or soft, i.e. not too cold 8. the high season means: a) the most popular time of the year for tourists b) the time of the year with the highest temperature c) the festival period 9. travelling independently means: a) travelling on your own b) arranging your travel c) arranging travelling without dependents reading test part 2. read the text and look at the following multiple choice items. decide which word is missing in items 1 – 40. then tick (�) the correct answer. nearly 30 million african could soon be facing famine. the immediate cause is drought, which has destroyed crops and left people and livestock without food and water. but this is not the only 1) -------why africa suffers regularly from famine. 2) ------african countries do not produce enough 3) ------and depend very much on imports 4) ------on having the income to pay 5) ------them. famine is caused by not 6) ------food being produced or people not 7) ------able to obtain it. this may 8) ------because there is not enough water 9) ------because people can't afford to buy 10) -------. even in famine-free years, it 11) ------common across africa for people to 12) ------ have sufficient food, especially in rural 13) -------. the united nations estimates that the 14) ------ in sub-saharan africa is worse 15) ------than it was thirty years ago. 16) ------poverty in africa has left the 17) ------with a population that has the 18) ------food problem in the world. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 interestingly, east 19)------south asia, where there have been 20)------increases in agricultural production and significant 21) ------growth have reduced the number of 22) ------ who are not properly fed 23) ------forty-three percent to thirteen percent 24) ------sub-saharan africa has not managed to get 25) ------rate below the 1969 figure of thirty four 26) ------of the population. the nobel prize-winning economist amartya sen 27) ------argued that hunger 28) ------ famine are caused mostly by poverty and 29) ------just a country's ability to grow 30) ------food. people in poverty often go hungry 31) ------they do not have enough money 32) ------buy food when they have not 33) ------able to produce enough themselves. so 34) ------there is a drought or something similar 35) ------become the first victims of famine. professor sen argue 36) ------if countries in africa could make 37) ------income, they would be able to avoid 38) -------, as they could afford to import 39) ------to make up for any food they 40) ------produce themselves. natural disasters frequently happen, but it is when they hit countries that are already suffering from the effects of other problems that famine become inevitable. 1) reason way factor 2) more most much 3) products exports food 4) rather as much and 5) or yet for 6) too rare enough 7) to being having 8) be have being 9) and or that 10) food lunch anything 11) become is got 12) not no none 13) areas places contexts 14) situation process state 15) before today in future 16) growing to grow grow 17) country city continent 18) big bigger biggest 19) or and as well 20) enormous very an 21) economic economical economist 22) person people crowd 23) to in from 24) but nor as well as 25) the a some 26) percent number amount 27) has have had 28) and yet since 29) not or with 30) very many enough 31) because cause why 32) being been to 33) been being to 34) when that if 35) it that they 36) that whether no matter 37) sufficient too no 38) hungry famine hunger 39) food water nutrition 40) don't doesn't didn't microsoft word brain_6_2015__doc final.doc 106 how to mix the ingredients for a blended course recipe antoanela naaji vasile goldis western university of arad, arad, romania anaaji@uvvg.ro anca mustea elearning& software srl, arad, romania anca.mustea@moodle.ro carmen holotescu university "ioan slavici" timișoara, romania carmen.holotescu@islavici.ro cosmin herman elearning& software srl, arad, romania contact@moodle.ro abstract over the last years, the growing ubiquity of social media, the emerging mobile technologies and the augmented reality become more deeply integrated into the teaching-learning process and also create new opportunities for reinventing the way in which educational actors both perceive and access learning. the major challenges in education that involve tremendous development and innovation are blended courses/ flipped classrooms integrating social media (sm), open educational resources (oer) and massive open online courses (mooc) (johnson et al., 2014). this paper focuses on evaluating the e-learning experiences of various actors in the romanian educational system. there is a tendency to use virtual learning environments with increasing frequency in higher education, many participants experiencing both online and blended courses. another issue approached in this paper concerns the relevance of the components of online/ blended courses. in this context, the paper analyzes the importance of these elements with respect to various fields, such as: exact sciences, social sciences, humanistic studies, medical sciences, etc. in conclusion, we identify the most relevant elements in the development of online/ blended courses for various domains. the results will emphasize the standards required for evaluating the quality of online and blended courses. keywords: e-learning, blended learning, moocs, massive open online courses, online course components, e-learning experience, social media, oer, open educational resources 1. introduction many articles and studies present innovative educational approaches that have been supported by social media (conole and alevizou, 2010; hamid, chang and kurnia, 2010). blogs, microblogs, social networks, media sharing sites, social book-marking, wikis, social aggregation and virtual worlds are used increasingly by students and teachers in the teaching-learning process, in research and in professional devel-opment, for communication and collaboration, for sharing resources or for building personal learning environments. as the classic learning management systems (lms) are considered too inflexible, offering an instructivist model of education, solutions are studied and tested for a con-structivist approach, centered on the student and linking his/her learning needs to peda-gogy and technology. there are many projects/implementations of integrated platforms, in which the social functionality becomes available inside the lms, thus speaking about lms2.0, social lms, open learning environments or social learning environments (crosslin, 2010; dahrendorf, 2010; mott, 2010; jisc, 2011). a. naaji, a. mustea, c. holotescu, c. herman how to mix the ingredients for a blended course recipe 107 in spite of the effective learning opportunities, the new technologies are embraced by a limited number of teachers/facilitators and educational institutions and there is still a gap between the implied technological and pedagogical aspects. the main reasons for this gap are represented by: rigid policies in formal education related to curricular systems and assessment practices; teachers’ lack of training, time and interest to explore, understand, evaluate and use new technologies in the teaching-learning process (conole and culver, 2010); scenarios for innovative approaches and best cases are usually presented in a too formal manner by using learning design languages and tools, which are difficult to un-derstand by the large mass of educators and, furthermore, there is no direct connection between these scenarios and learning environments (conole, 2010). in the romanian educational system only a blended learning approach is accepted by the agency responsible with the accreditation of educational programs. this is an educational form mediating the transition towards exclusively online courses. nevertheless, participants in the educational system had the opportunity to participate in online courses in the form of moocs or in training programs offered for professional development. the paradigm shift from traditional face-to-face education to e-learning comes with several challenges. one of the main challenges concerns the assessment of the quality of e-learning (lewis and chen, 2010; davis and wong, 2007; donelly and o’rouke, 2007, din et al., 2012). this subject is still debatable worldwide. there is an intense study regarding several quality models proposed by various institutions. therefore it is important for the romanian cultural context to identify and propose a quality standard to be used in higher education. in order to develop adequate standards, the experience of online course participants needs to be envisaged. in this context course templates need to be adapted to online education. in order to achieve the quality standards several course elements will be taken into account. on the other hand, the learnerteacher interactions are distinct from traditional education ones, as are the roles and involvement assumed by teachers and learners. the structure and content organization necessary for an optimal elearning experience and efficiency have equally specific requirements, both pedagogical and technical. all these challenges, the paradigm shift from traditional to online education can be confusing for both teachers and learners. most comparisons between e-learning and traditional education have emphasized that it is not the environment, but the instructional design and quality of the online instruction that ensures the course efficiency and students’ learning (clark and mayer, 2011). a. e-learning forms and characteristics there are numerous definitions of e-learning (fee, 2009), therefore in order to avoid confusion we shall define e-learning in accordance with the purpose of this paper. in agreement with r.c. clark and r.e. mayer (2011), “we define e-learning as instruction delivered on a digital device such as a computer or mobile device that is intended to sup-port learning.” in defining the quality of e-learning, three main components were identified: tech-nology, learning content and learning design (fee, 2009). by combining technology, learning content and learning design various taxonomies or forms of e-learning will result. for example, k. fee (2009) identifies five models of e-learning: online courses, integrated online and offline learning, self-managed e-learning, live e-learning and electronic performance support. in this paper, we shall examine all three forms of online education familiar to our participants: online courses, blended learning (combining both online ac-tivities and face-to-face traditional methods) and courses designed for mooc platforms (lewis and chen, 2010; mustea et al., 2014). the most challenging aspect in developing courses for all forms of e-learning is the instructional design. it is here that confusion occurs most often, since e-learning over-comes the simple transposition of traditional courses into digital form. it is also important to consider the differences between pedagogy, adult learning and online learning, as each involves a different educational design (tomei, 2010; imane et al., 2013). e-learning (allagegogy meaning “teaching to transform”) focuses on the learner’s independence and the changing nature of lifelong learning (tomei, 2010). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 108 the characteristics of an online learner are essential for adequately choosing course content and for developing online courses by bearing in mind the characteristics of the e-learning instructional design. the online learner has the following characteristics: ability to work independently and in groups, responsibility in completing assignments and readings, ability to learn by using content in various formats, time management and per-sonal organization skills, and the knowledge and skills to use technology (tomei, 2010). other important aspects for developing online courses are: the structure and the components of a course, the multimedia resources, the teacher-learner and the learn-er-learner interaction, the presentation/ delivery mode, and the role and selection of as-sessment methodologies (naaji et al., 2013). b. quality of e-learning there are numerous aspects to consider when developing an online/ blended course, some of which we mentioned in the previous section. moving beyond the characteristics of e-learning, there is the issue of quality in online education. several models of defining e-learning quality were developed over the last decade (uvalic-trumbic and daniel, 2013; aleksic-maslac, 2013). for example, an e-learning quality guide in higher education developed by the swe-dish national agency for higher education (2008) proposes ten crucial aspects to con-sider when evaluating quality in e-learning: (1) material/ content, (2) structure/ virtual environment, (3) communication, cooperation and interactivity, (4) student assessment, (5) flexibility and adaptability, (6) support (student and staff), (7) staff qualification and experience, (8) vision and institutional leadership, (9) resource allocation and, (10) the holistic and process aspect. other models might emphasize different aspects, such as technology or examination security (donnelly and o’rourke, 2007), but there are also common important elements such as institutional vision, instructional design, course structure, student and staff support, and student assessment. there are several guidelines to what quality in online learning represents, be it online courses, blended learning or moocs. but specific guidelines for the romanian edu-cational system need to be refined, by taking into account both common elements of international guides on e-learning quality, and the cultural context with its constraints. this requirement is becoming more and more stringent as the development of online learning gets exponential. c. the development of online learning and emerging technologies worldwide there is a permanent and rapid development of online learning, as evi-denced by various statistics both in academic and entrepreneurial settings. r. davis and d. wong noted that if in 2001 approximately 3 million people were involved in some form of e-learning, in 2006 their number increased to 6 million people (davis and wong, 2007). statistics concerning an american north-eastern university emphasize a growth from 4 online courses in 1996 to over 500 courses in 2010 (lewis and chen, 2010). an increase in using e-learning for training was also noted in the work force. r.c. clark and r.e. mayer (2011) present the situation of training delivery via computer in the united states: approximately 11% in 2001, 29% in 2006 and 36.5% at the beginning of 2010 by 2011 the massive open online courses (moocs) movement was materialized in the form of multiple platforms offering open courses to large numbers of students: coursera, edx, udacity (martin, 2012; leber, 2012). the 2011 fall ai online class at standford university registered 160,000 a. naaji, a. mustea, c. holotescu, c. herman how to mix the ingredients for a blended course recipe 109 students, 23,000 students completing the ten-week course (martin, 2012). coursera posted more than 200 free courses taught by professors from more than 30 top world universities (martin, 2012). currently coursera has 538 courses posted in english only. european mooc platforms, such as iversity, are also developing (mustea et al., 2014). the new media consortium (nmc) horizon project (hp) is an initiative launched in 2002, which charts the landscape of emerging technologies for teaching, learning, re-search and creative inquiry. the horizon project reports, published annually in collabo-ration with the educause learning initiative and released with a creative commons license (attribution-only), constitute expert research and analysis used by educators, practitioners and leaders across the world to innovate their activities and institutions. table 1 depicts the trends in using technology in education, as resulting from the hp reports published over the last years, between 2008-2015. the emerging technologies are classified according to the adoption time in three categories: one year or less, two to three years and four to five years (nmc, 2010-2015; holotescu, 2015). table 1. emerging technologies in education as reported by the hpr 2008-2015 hpr one year or less two to three years four to five years 2008 grassroots video collaboration webs mobile broadband data mashups collective intelligence social oss 2009 mobiles cloud computing geoeverything the personal web semantic aware apps smart objects 2010 mobile computing open content electronic books simple augmented reality gesture-based computing visual data analysis 2011 electronic books mobiles augmented reality game-based learning game-based learning learning analytics 2012 mobile applications tablet computing gesture-based computing learning analytics gesture-based computing internet of things 2013 moocs tablet computing games&gamification learning analytics 3d printing wearable technology 2014 flipped classroom learning analytics 3d printing games and gamification quantified self virtual assistants 2015 bring your own device (byod) flipped classroom (learning analytics) (-mobile apps) makerspaces wearable technology (collaborative environments) (-games&gamification) adaptive learning technologies the internet of things (wireless power) (flexible displays) the present article targets all the trends expected to be adopted between 2008-2015 (the trends appear in italics in the table above): • mobile applications (the term is similar or close/connected to mobile learning, tablet computing, bring your own device and electronic books) • open content • augmented reality • learning analytics (as part of the visual data analysis trend in hr2010) • massively open online courses • flipped classroom brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 110 • collaborative environments (collaboration webs). the situation of e-learning in romania follows a similar trend, even though on a smaller scale. most romanian universities use proprietary or open-source lmss for on-line/blended courses or for course enhancement. during the last years a high percentage of the pre-university and academic teachers took part in online/ blended trainings on elearning offered by projects co-financed with european funds. romania also appears active in the oer movement, mainly through initiatives of certain institutions/groups and engaged individuals and through specific projects or programmes; moreover, there are a few initiatives at the government level that can become driving forces (holotescu, 2012). while most studies focus on assessing the quality and efficiency of e-learning, only a few of them consider the experience of the actors involved. therefore, we believe it is impor-tant to take a comparative look at how e-learning, blended learning and traditional education are perceived by learners and teachers. 2. research methodology a. objectives and hypothesis the purpose of this study is mostly an exploratory one, more precisely to investigate the importance of different elements used in building and facilitating blended courses from the perspective of all types of actors involved in the romanian educational settings. a previous research (naaji et al., 2013) illustrated the importance of online course elements for students, for which further investigation including teachers, administrative staff and students was required. the first aspect explored in this study was the e-learning experience of participants. further on, we tested two hypotheses: (1) there are course elements significantly more important for all participants; and (2) the importance of course elements differs across domains. b. respondents’ profile based on the findings obtained from the sample group we’ll begin with basic infor-mation about the respondents’ profile. who are they? there were 84 participants in this study, with 41% males (35 participants) and 59% females (51 participants). by age, the higher percentages are allocated to the respondents between 46-55 years old (34%) and between 36-45 (26%). respondents’ demographic data by age 11 individuals (13%) were under 25 years of age 15 (17%) are between 26-35 years 22 (26%) of them were between 36 and 45 years old 29 (34%) are between 46-55 years and only 9 (10%) of them were older than 55 what is their academic profile? what is their role in education? most participants were graduates (39.3%) or postgraduates (54.8%), and only 7% of them were high school graduates or undergraduate students. the respondents have a wide area of roles in the education system, half of them ac-tivating at university level: professor – 3%(3); reader – 5%(4); senior lecturer – 8%(7); junior lecturer -2%(2); researcher 1%(1); academic administrator/faculty develop-ment 3%(3); pre-university teacher – 50%(43); trainer – 3% (3); student – 14% (12) and other 9% (8). forty five participants were involved in hard sciences (exact sciences) (52%), while the other scientific affiliations were the following: 13% humanistic studies, 9% eco-nomic sciences, 8% social sciences, 1% medical sciences, and 16% other domains. a. naaji, a. mustea, c. holotescu, c. herman how to mix the ingredients for a blended course recipe 111 we didn’t take into account demographic characteristics such as: how many years a member staff worked in education, the type of institution (public or private), the size of the organization, tuition / without fees etc. such issues will be addressed and detailed in a future research. c. instruments an online questionnaire was developed in order to gather the demographical data and assess the importance of course elements and e-learning experience. nineteen course elements were assessed by using a likert scale with five points, where 1 means “not at all important” and 5 means “very important”. d. procedure the participants were invited to participate in the study via a google form. the form was designed and developed by using the standard features. the public link of the questionnaire was shared via the academic networks of the authors’ universities, relevant academic mailing lists, personal learning networks and social web platforms. the recommended time to complete the form was between 5-10 minutes. the ques-tionnaire was completed online by all participants, ensuring their anonymity and confi-dentiality. 3. results analysis an important aspect of data analysis concerns the e-learning experience of our par-ticipants. therefore, the first part of data analysis consisted of comparing the different types of experiences. figure 1 illustrates the percentages of participants checking each type of answer. thus, we may conclude that only 11.9 percent had no experiences in-volving e-learning. among those who had some kind of e-learning experience, most participated in on-line courses (two thirds 65.5%), blended learning (34.5%) or massive open online courses (32.1%); the percentage of those participating in moocs (nearly a third of the respondents) is quite impressive from the point of view of the interest in this trending model for personal and professional development. it is worth noting as well that almost one third of the responders have experience in facilitating online courses (31%) and more than a quarter (28.6%) facilitated blended courses, which demonstrates the increasing rate of e-learning integration in romanian education. nevertheless, we can observe that online courses represented the most common e-learning experience. it is important to mention that all percentages are relative to the total number of participants. figure 1. e-learning experience in order to assess the interest of the respondents’ institutions in creating a specific framework for offering online/blended courses and for training the teachers to develop them, a section of the survey contains the following statements: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 112 statements related to the respondents’ institutions yes (%) not yet, but i’m interested in this (%) no (%) my institution provides access to open source lms (such as moodle or claroline) 62 30 8 my institution provides access to proprietary lms (such as ael or blackboard) 35 22 43 my institution has specific policies related to online/blended courses 34 37 29 my institution organizes trainings for online/blended courses development 31 31 37 almost two thirds (62%) of the institutions provide access to open source lmss, while only a third use proprietary lmss (such as ael or blackboard), and we can also note that almost half (43%) of the participants are not even interested in proprietary lmss. all these figures demonstrate once again the openness of the romanian educa-tional system towards online/blended learning and, furthermore, towards open source or free solutions. specific policies related to open/blended courses and trainings for devel-oping such courses are offered only by a third of the institutions, thus the education managers and policy makers should pay an increased attention to these issues. the importance of course elements was assessed on a five-point likert scale, where 1 means “not at all important” and 5 means “very important”. nineteen elements of an online course were evaluated on this scale. the results synthesized in figure 2 illustrate the importance of each element for all participants in this study, regardless of their e-learning experience. figure 2. the mean results, representing the importance of online/blended course components, for all participants a. naaji, a. mustea, c. holotescu, c. herman how to mix the ingredients for a blended course recipe 113 thus, the most important elements of a course were considered to be: applied exer-cises (m = 4.57), course structure (m = 4.54) and clear objectives (m = 4.52). the least important elements of an online course were debates (m = 4.02), social media documen-tation (m = 4.06) and social media collaboration (m = 4.06). nevertheless, we may no-tice that, on the average, all the elements of an online/ blended course were considered important – all scores represented in figure 2 are above four points on the likert scale. by analyzing the significance of these differences, by using the analysis of var-iance, we obtained f = 5.508 at a significance level lower than .001. therefore, there are significant differences between the importance attributed to the various elements of an online/ blended course. furthermore, by using bonferroni post hoc comparisons, we identified and analyzed the elements of an online course considered significantly more important and those significantly less important. applied exercises are significantly more important than debates (p = .000), students collaboration (p = .006), location flexibility (p = .006), testing (p = .023), social media documentation (p = .001), social media collaboration (p = .001), invited lecturers (p = .001), and peer mentoring (p = .001). the course structure is significantly more important than debates (p = .002), students collaboration (p = .017), social media documentation (p = .000), social media collaboration (p = .001), invited lecturers (p = .002), and peer mentoring (p = .030). clear objectives are also significantly more important than debates (p = .013), students collaboration (p = .044), social media documentation (p = .001), social media collaboration (p = .004), invited lecturers (p = .016). there are no statistically significant differences between audio-video resources and any other elements of an online course. there are significant differences only between the elements situated at the two ends of the importance scale. by summarizing these results we may state that all components evaluated are considered important and only some of them were considered significantly different in importance. another comparison we made was related to the importance of course elements for various fields of expertise: exact sciences, social sciences, economic sciences, humanistic studies, medical sciences, and other domains. since there was only one participant for medical sciences, we excluded his results from this comparison, in order to be able to analyze the statistical significance of the observed differences. the average importance of course elements for each domain is illustrated in figure 3. the results emphasize the differences in the importance attributed to various course elements. thus, the elements considered more important by the participants from the field of exact sciences are: peermentoring, invited lecturers, social media collaboration, social media documentation, open educational resources, testing, problem-based tasks, students’ collaboration, self-assessment, debates, course structure and clear objectives. participants from the field of social sciences considered audio-video resources and teacher-student interaction as being more important than they were for the participants from all the other domains. the most important elements for the participants from the field of economic sciences were applied exercises, time flexibility and location flexibility. supplementary resources were equally important for the participants from the field of exact sciences and economic sciences. when testing the statistical significance for these differences by using the kruskal-wallis test, only two of the course elements proved to be significantly different in importance according to the activity domain: clear objectives (chi square = 9.260, p = .026) and problem-based tasks (chi square = 11.279, p = .010). a significance level between .1 and .05 was also found for self-assessment, time flexibility, location flexibility, testing, social media documentation, social media collaboration, invited lecturers. further research on more homogenous groups might find these elements as being significantly different across domains as well. the questionnaire also has two open-ended questions asking respondents to list/ identify the main aspects/ advantages and constraints to uptake in an online/blended course, almost all participants having shared their impressions. the main advantages expressed by participants are listed below: • possibility to integrate new technologies and pedagogies; • mobile learning, flexibility in time and space, the possibility to learn and to interact with materials and peers anytime and everywhere, using mobile devices, at one’s own pace; brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 114 • real-time feedback from teachers, peers, external learners and practitioners; • a large diversity of resources, adapted to all learning styles; • access to quality oer and to updated/multimedia resources posted on social networks; • continuous self-assessment; • possibility to focus on new topics by using the previous/ tacit knowledge; • student-centered learning; • interactivity, imagination, critical thinking and group work are stimulated; • digital skills are improved; • the possibility to build your personal learning environments; • learning communities are nurtured and can continue after the course is over. the disadvantages of online/blended courses noted by participants are summarized in the following paragraph: • there isn’t a national policy related to the integration of new technologies/ pedagogies, oer in education; • teachers should be trained to be able to develop and facilitate online and blended courses; • there are no incentives to reward teachers using open technologies/pedagogies; • student assessment when using online collaboration and social media could be difficult; • there should be a team of experts to develop quality online courses; • the lack of digital skills of both students and teachers could be a barrier for such courses; • time management could be a challenge; • the lack of feedback from teachers could demotivate students. figure 3. e-learning components assessment by domain a. naaji, a. mustea, c. holotescu, c. herman how to mix the ingredients for a blended course recipe 115 4. conclusions given the rapid development of e-learning worldwide and equally in the romanian context, it is necessary to identify the main and quintessential elements of an online/blended course and what defines e-learning quality. in this research we aimed to identify the importance of the components of an online/blended course. we started from the idea that some of the proposed elements will be considered more important, and that differences will be likely to appear across domains. participants varied from the point of view of their e-learning experience, educational background, as well as area of specialization. for all participants, the elements of an online/ blended course proposed in the questionnaire were considered important, all scores being above 4 on a fivepoint likert scale. nevertheless, three course elements were considered significantly more important: applied exercises, course structure, and clear objectives. differences across domains were also identified (clear objectives and problem-based tasks). the results demonstrated the openness of the romanian educational system towards online/blended learning, based especially on open source or free solutions. these results also emphasize and define the directions of future research on e-learning quality and the experiences of all actors involved in e-learning in the romanian educational system. the need for clear policy regarding the integration of new technology in education is revealed by this study: both by quantitative and qualitative results. further studies are needed in order to develop clear and comprehensive guidelines for qualitative online/blended courses. another important need resides in supporting and informing both students and staff about the quality standards of online education. references aleksic-maslac, k., djuras, t., poropat darrer, j. (2013). netspeak standards: measuring the quantity within the closed asynchronous discussions. wseas transaction on advances in engineering education, issue 1, volume 10, pp. 60-69. clark, r.c. and mayer, r.e. (2011). e-learning and the science of instruction: proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning, 3rd ed., san francisco, usa: john wiley & sons. conole, g. (2010). learning design–making practice explicit. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/21864/. conole, g. and alevizou, p. (2010). a literature review of the use of web 2.0 tools in higher education. a report commissioned by the higher education academy. the open university walton hall, milton keynes uk. retrieved from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/evidencenet/conole_alevizou_2010.pdf. conole, g. and culver, j. (2010). the design of cloudworks: applying social networking practice to foster the exchange of learning and teaching ideas and designs. computers & education, 54(3), pp. 679-692. crosslin, m. (2010). social learning environment manifesto. available at http://tinyurl.com/yed9x9t dahrendorf, d. (2010). building open learning environments with opensocial. available at http://tinyurl.com/3luu5oz. davis, r. and wong, d. (2007). conceptualizing and measuring the optimal experience of the elearning environment. decision sciences journal of innovative education, vol. 5, pp. 97-126. din, r., norman, h., karim, a., shah, p., rahmat, f. r., kamarulzaman, f. (2012). hybrid e-training assessment tool for higher education. wseas transaction on advances in engineering education, issue 2, volume 9, pp. 52-61. donnelly, r. and o’rourke, k.c. (2007). what now? evaluating elearning cpd practice in irish third-level education. journal of further and higher education, vol. 31, pp. 31-40. fee, k. (2009). delivering e-learning: a complete strategy for design, application and assessment. london, united kingdom: kogan page, p.14. hamid, s., chang, s. and kurnia, s. (2010). investigation of the use and benefits of online social brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 116 networking (osn) in higher education. the 8th education and information systems, technologies and applications, 29 june – 2 july 2010. orlando, florida, http://tinyurl.com/3vfxnp2. holotescu, c. (2012). oer in romania. report in poerup project: policies for oer uptake. retrieved from: http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/romania. holotescu, c. (2015). a conceptual model for open learning environments. proceedings of international conference on virtual learning, october 2015, timisoara, romania. jisc. (2011). effective use of virtual learning environments. retrieved from http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/effective-use-of-vles/index_html. johnson, l., adams becker, s., estrada, v. and freeman, a. (2014). nmc horizon report: 2014 higher education edition, austin, texas: the new media consortium, retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2014-nmc-horizon-report-he-en.pdf. leber, j. (2012). the technology of massive open online courses. mit technology review, vol. 116, no. 1. lewis, d. and chen, e. (2010). factors leading to a quality e-learning experience. t. kidd, online education and adult learning: new frontiers for teaching practice, new york, usa: information science reference. martin, f.g. (2012). will massive open online courses change how we teach?. communications of the acm, vol. 55, no. 8. mott, j. (2010). envisioning the post-lms era: the open learning network. educause quarterly vol. 33(1). mustea, a., naaji, a. and herman, c. (2014). using moodle for the development of massive open online courses. proceedings of the 10th international scientific conference elearning and software for education, bucharest, romania. naaji, a. mustea, a. and herman, c. (2013). implementation model for new technologies in online education. proceedings of the 24th eaeeie annual conference, crete, greece, pp. 76-80. nmc new media consortium. (2008-2015). horizon project reports. online at http://www.nmc.org/horizon-project/horizon-reports. swedish national agency for higher education, e-learning quality: aspects and criteria for evaluation of e-learning in higher education, stockholm, sweden: högskoleverkets, 2008. tomei, l.a. (2010). a theoretical model for designing online education in support of lifelong learning. t. kidd, online education and adult learning: new frontiers for teaching practice, new york, usa: information science reference. imane, r., bentaleb, m., idrissi, m.k., bennani, s. (2013). an authoring tool for designing learning scenarios adapted to teachers. wseas transaction of computers, issue 12, volume 12, pp. 449462. uvalic-trumbic, s., sir daniel j. (2013). a guide to quality in online learning .academic partnership. microsoft word brain_8_2017_issue_1_vers3.docx 42 right-linear languages generated in systems of knowledge representation based on lsg daniela dănciulescu university of craiova, alexandru ioan cuza 13, craiova 200585, romania danadanciulescu@gmail.com mihaela colhon university of craiova, alexandru ioan cuza 13, craiova 200585, romania mcolhon@inf.ucv.ro gheorghe grigoraş alexandru ioan cuza university of iaşi, bulevardul carol i 11, iaşi 700506, romania grigoras@info.uaic.ro abstract in tudor (preda) (2010) a method for formal languages generation based on labeled stratified graph representations is sketched. the author proves that the considered method can generate regular languages and context-sensitive languages by considering an exemplification of the proposed method for a particular regular language and another one for a particular contextsensitive language. at the end of the study, the author highlights some open problems for future research among which we remind: (1) the study of the language families that can be generated by means of these structures; (2) the study of the infiniteness of the languages that can be represented in stratified graphs. in this paper, we extend the method presented in tudor (preda)(2010), by considering the stratified graph formalism in a system of knowledge representation and reasoning. more precisely, we propose a method that can be applied for generating any right linear language construction. our method is proved and exemplified in several cases. keywords: graph-based representation and reasoning, formal language generation, rightlinear language generation, accepted structured paths, stratified graph. 1. introduction a non-empty and finite set of symbols noted with σ is considered in what follows the alphabet set. a word over an alphabet is a sequence of symbols  = 1 … n, where i σ, . the length of a word will be denoted by ||. obviously, for  = 1 … n, we have || = n and || = 0, where for we mark an empty word. the set of all nonempty words over an alphabet is denoted (instead of the set) σ+. if we want to consider the set of all the words over an alphabet (including the empty word) we denote σ* = σ +{}. for two words:1 = 1 … n and 2 = 1 … m, we note by  the operation of string concatenation. we will have (1). 12 = 1 … n1 … m (1) this operation is not commutative, that is(2), but it is associative (3) with  the neutral element (4). 1221 (2) (12) 3 = 1 (23) (3)  =  =  (4) d. dănciulescu, m. colhon, g. grigoraş right-linear languages generated in systems of knowledge representation based on lsg 43 we obtain that (σ+, ) is a semi-group and (σ*, ) is a free monoid generated by σ. if we take 1, 2 σ* we consider:  2 a sub-word of 1 if there are 1, 2 σ* such that 1 = 122;  2 is a prefix of 1 if 1 = 2 and  σ*;  2 is a suffix of 1 if 1 = 2 and  σ*. a language l over an alphabet σ is defined as a subset of σ*, that is (5). due to the fact that σ* is an infinite set, we can have the language (5) an empty set, a finite or an infinite set. we will note by  = n the word (6), obviously  = 0. l σ* (5)  = (6) a grammar is considered as a tuple (7) such that (8), for σ the set of terminal symbols and n the set of non-terminal symbols. s0 is called the initial symbol and p is the set of grammar productions (rules). g = (n, σ, s0, p) (7) σ n =  (8) the elements of “p” are of the form (9). (ij) p (9) where (10), such that i contains at least a symbol from n and (11). in the rest of the paper, we call the rules of the grammar g the elements (12).a direct derivation in the grammar g is defined over (n σ)* using the binary relation (13). i (n σ) + (10) j (n σ)* (11) (ij)  p (12)  as: ipjiqj if i, j , p, q (n σ)* and (pq) p (13) by * we will note the reflexive and transitive closure of the relation  and by + the transitive closure of the same relation. using these notations, the language generated by the grammar g is considered (14). l (g) = { σ* | s0 +} (14) in this paper, we extend the method presented in tudor (preda)(2010), by considering the stratified graph formalism in a system for knowledge representation and reasoning. more precisely, we propose a method that can be applied for generating any right linear language construction. our method is proved and exemplified in several cases. the paper is organized as follows: the second section provides the theoretical background behind the presented study. section three presents the manner in which the language generation mechanism is designed by means of a system of knowledge representation and reasoning. the final section draws the concluding ideas and our future study. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 44 2. system of knowledge representation based on stratified graph for formal language generation we consider two finite sets s and l0 such that (15), for s a set of nodes labels and l0 a set of arcs labels. we note by (16) a non-empty set of binary relations on s and by f0 a surjective function where (17). following the definitions and the notations firstly introduced by ţăndăreanu (ţăndăreanu, 2000; ţăndăreanu, 2003), the system (18) will denote a labeled graph structure. s \ l0 =  (15) t0 2 s×s (16) f0: l0t0 (17) g0 = (s, l0, t0, f0) (18) by str(g0) we note the set of the structured paths of the graph g0, this concept being defined (dănciulescu and ţăndăreanu, 2013) as follows:  for every al0 and for every x, ys such that (19), we have (20); (x, y) f0(a) (19) ([x, y], a) str(g0) (20)  if (21) and (22) then (23). ([x1, …, xn], u) str(g0) (21) ([y1, …, ym], v) str(g0) (22) ([x1, …, xn, y1, …, ym], [u, v]) str(g0) (23) we take the projection of str(g0) on the second axis (24). str2(g0) = {u | ([x1, …, xn], u) str(g0), n 2} (24) if we take t the composition operation of binary relations from the set 2 s×s defined as (25). t(1, 2) = {(x, z)  2 s×s | ys: (x, y) 1, (y, z) 2 } (25) the pair (2s×s, t) becomes a partial algebra. following (ţăndăreanu, 2000), by the set (26) we will note the closure of the set t0 in the algebra (2 s×s, t). t = clt(t0) (26) for l a binary relation symbol, we consider l the smallest set satisfying the following notations (ţăndăreanu, 2000): 1) l0l; 2) if (27) then (28). a, bl0 (27) l(a, b) l (28) the pair (l, l) also defines a partial algebra. following ţăndăreanu (ţăndăreanu, 2000; ţăndăreanu, 2003) we take (29). f: (l, l)  (2 s×s, t ) (29) d. dănciulescu, m. colhon, g. grigoraş right-linear languages generated in systems of knowledge representation based on lsg 45 a morphism of partial algebras such that (30) and if (31), then (32) (see figure 1). we obtain f(l) = t which means that “for every element of l the associated element of t is computed by the morphism f” (ţăndăreanu, 2000). al0, f(a) = f0(a) (30) f(u), f(v)) dom(t ) (31) (u, v) dom(l) (32) figure 1. the graphical representation of the morphism f: (l, l)  (2 s×s, t) (ţăndăreanu, 2000) from (ţăndăreanu, 2000) for every (33) and for each (t, t ) we can construct a stratified graph (shortly, sg) over g0: (34). g0 = (s, l0, t0, f0) (33) g = (g0, l, t, t , f) (34) the elements of l represent the labels for the binary relations of t defined in the stratified graph structure by means of t the composition operation of binary relations. for each (35), we define trace(u) as the list of symbols from l0, upon which the label u was made up, by considering the symbols of l0 in the exactly the same order they appear in the label u. ul (35) we have:  if ul0 then trace(u) = [u]  if (36) with a, bl0 then trace(u) = [a, b]  if u = l(u1, u2) then trace(u) = trace(u1) trace(u2),for we note the reunion of lists the operation (37). u = l(a, b) (36) [x1, . . . , xn]  [y1, . . . , ym] = [x1, . . . , xn, y1, . . . , ym]. (37) as it is considered in the literature, a formal language is a set of words which are represented by finite strings of letters, symbols or tokens. the set of all the letters or symbols upon which the words are made of is called the alphabet of the formal language. usually, a formal language is defined by means of some formation rules or a “formal grammar” (dănciulescu, 2015). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 46 an interpretation for a stratified graph provides a representation in a domain of knowledge. in the presented approach, we take the domain of knowledge to be a particular formal language. in what follows we will note by v the alphabet of the generated formal language (dănciulescu, 2015). therefore, let us consider the stratified graph (38) over a labeled graph (39). we defined the interpretation of g as a tuple: (40) (dănciulescu, 2015). g = (g0, l, t, u, f) (38) g0 = (s0, l0, t0, f0) (39) i = (v*, ob, d, y) (40) such that:  v* is the set of all strings constructed over the characters of v; in this formalism v* represents the knowledge domain of i  ob: s v* a injective function that maps the symbols of s into the strings of v*  d = (v*, ) is a partial algebra over v*. in what follows we will consider the operation  as a partial operation defined in the following manner: for every natural number m we take m+1 = m  the set of algorithms y = {algu}ul generate the elements of the interpretation domain v*, algu: (41).  v* × v* v*, ul (41) according to this interpretation system, the valuation mapping generated by i is defined as (42). vali : asp(g) y (42) such that (dănciulescu, 2015):  vali([x, y], u) = algu(ob(x), ob(y)), ul0  vali([x1, …, xn], l(u, v)) = vali([x1, …, xk], u) vali([xk, …, xn], v), for l(u, v) l remark. (dănciulescu, 2015) becaused = (v*, ) is a partial algebra, results that(43) if and only if: (44) and (45). vali([x1, …, xk], u) vali([xk, …, xn], v) v* (43) vali([x1, . . . , xk], u), vali([xk, . . . , xn], v) v* (44) vali([x1, . . . , xk], u), vali([xk, . . . , xn], v) dom() (45). remark (dănciulescu, 2015) for each (46), the string (47), is an element ofv*, therefore (48) represents the formal language overvconstructed by means of the abstract notations ofg. (ob1, ob2) y×y (46) algu(ob1, ob2) forul (47) (48) definition (dănciulescu, 2015) we define a stratified graph representation system for formal language generation as follows: sgrs = (g, (v*, ), ob, y) d. dănciulescu, m. colhon, g. grigoraş right-linear languages generated in systems of knowledge representation based on lsg 47 the inference process ipsgrs generated by the system of knowledge representation sgrs is (49) (dănciulescu, 2015). ipsgrs: asp(g) y (49) we obtain that the set y that includes all the words constructed over the alphabet v by means of the algorithms defined in the interpretation system i by considering the representations of the stratified graph g. therefore (50) is an accepted structured path of the structure g, we have (51) (dănciulescu, 2015). dasp(g) (50) ipsgrs(d) = vali(d) (51) following the inference process given above, the output elements of y are defined as follows (dănciulescu, 2015): if we take (52) results (53). c(x, y) = {dasp(g) | first(d) = x, last(d) = y} (52) (53) where: for (54) with (55) and (56). ipsgrs = (54) dasp(g) (55) d = ([x1, …, xn], u), first(d) = x1 (56) last(d) = xn (57) 3. right-linear languages generated in systems of knowledge representation based on stratified graphs a right linear grammar is a context free grammarg = (n, σ, s, p) where each rule has one of the following forms: (58) and (59). s1s2 or s1 for  σ*  {} (58) s1, s2n (59) a grammar is considered as a left linear grammar if all the productions are of the form: (60) and (61). s1s2 or s2, for  σ*  {} (60) a regular grammar is a grammar that is either a right linear or a left linear grammar. in literature there are several generation mechanisms for regular languages like grammars, automata, transition networks and so on. in this study, we will consider the case of right-linear languages generation; we will prove that we can emulate a right-linear grammar using a system of knowledge representation based on stratified graphs by considering appropriate interpretations. indeed, let us consider v a vocabulary. we can define a new mechanism for v* words generation in a system of knowledge representation based on sg if we take (61). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 48 sgrs = (g, (v*, ), {algu}ul) (61) for g = (g0, l, t, t , f) a stratified graph over the labeled graph (62) for (63) a partial algebra over the symbols of the vocabulary v and by  we note the string concatenation operation defined in above. g0 = (s, l0, t0, f0) (62) (v*, ) (63) based on the outputs given by the set of algorithms (64) we defined the interpretationmapping for the elements of str(g0) as the function (65) such that: if (x, y) f(a) then (66) if (x, y) f(l(u, v)) then (67). {algu}ul (64) val: str(g0) v* (65) val(patha(x, y), a) = alga(x, y) (66) val( (x, y), trace(l(u, v))) = (1, 2) (67) theorem. if (68) is a right linear grammar, there exists a system of knowledge representation based on lsg such that (69). g = (n, σ0, s0, p) (68) l(g) = l(sgrs) (69) proof. let us considered (70) labeled graph such that: (71) is the set of nodes, each non-terminal symbol of the grammar g having a correspondent node in the graph g0. in addition, for g0 – the set of nodes we consider a special node noted with f that will be considered as the “final node”. the set of arc labels of g0 is the set of terminal symbols of the grammar g. for every production (72) there are (73) such that (74). for every production (75) we take (76). g0 = (x, σ0, t0, f0) (70) x = n {f} (71) (s1s2) p (72) s1, s2x (73) (s1, s2) f0() (74) (s1) p (75) (s1, f) f0() (76) we take (77) a stratified graph structure over the graph g0. we will prove that for the stratified graph representation system sgrs, defined based on the structure g: (78). g = (g0, l, t, f) (77) sgrs = (g, (σ0, ), {algu}ul) (78) we have l(sgrs) = l(g). indeed, let us consider the following n step of derivation in the grammar g (79) 12 … nsn12 … nn+1sn+1 (79) d. dănciulescu, m. colhon, g. grigoraş right-linear languages generated in systems of knowledge representation based on lsg 49 this step is modeled in the stratified graph g given in figure 1 as it will be proved in what follows: if (80), results that there are the following productions in the grammar g: (81) and by the production of the grammar g we have (82).  = 12 … nl(g) (80) s01 s1 s12 s2 … skk+1sk+1 … (81) s01s112s2 … 1 … k+1sk+1 … 1 … n (*) (82) in order to model these derivations in the stratified graph g, each production of the grammar will be represented in the labeled graph g0 by a direct arc of the form given in figure 2. figure 2. the representation of the rule (skk+1 sk+1)  p in the labeled graph g0 for each non-terminal symbol sk of the grammar g there is a node sk in the graph g0 and for each production (83). sk1 … k+1sk+1 (83) the labeled graph g0 will have a relation (84), corresponding, in the stratified labeled graph g, we will have (85). (sk, sk+1) f0(k+1) (84) (85) suppose (86), so that the equation (*) is satisfied. we obtain (87) which implies the existence of (88) such that (89). this means that (90).  = 1 … nl(g) (86) (s0, s1) f0(1) … (sn-1, f) f0(n) (87) d (88) d = ([s0, s1, …, sn, f], (1, 2), …, n)) (89) 1 … nipsgrs(d) l(sgrs) (90) conversely, assume that (91). we have that (92), which implies that there is the sequence of non-terminals symbols (93) in the grammar g such that (94). we obtain that (95) and the theorem is proved.  = 1 … nl(sgrs) (91) brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 50 (92) s0, …, sn-1 (93) s01s112s2 … 1 … n (94) that l(g) (95) example 1. let us consider the following right linear grammar (96), where (97). we obtain that (98) with a, n 0. g1 = ({s0}, {a, b}, s0, p) (96) p = {(s0abs0), (s0a)} (97) l(g1) = (ab) n (98) figure 3. representation of the grammar g1 in the labelled graph g0 1 if we take the labeled graph g0 1 given in figure 3 and construct the stratified graph structure over (99) such that (100) we obtain (101), (102). g0 1, g = (g0 1, l, t, f) (99) l = {ab, a, l(ab, ab), l(l(ab, ab), a), l(l(ab, ab), ab), l(l(l(ab, ab), ab), a), …} (100) (s0, s0) f(ab) f(l(ab, ab)) f(l(l(ab, ab), ab)) f( (ab, ab), …, ab)), (101) (s0, f) f(a) f(l(ab, a)) f(l(l(ab, ab), a)) f( (ab, ab), …, a)) (102) results that the language generated in the resulted system of knowledge representation over g, (103) is (104). that is (105) with a, n 0. sgrs = (g, ({ab, a}*, ), {algu}ul) (103) l(sgrs) = (104) l(sgrs) = (ab)n (105) 4. conclusions and future work in this paper, we proposed a new system for formal language generation by means of stratified graphs structures. this mechanism can generate languages of the first type and of the second type. more precisely, we propose a new system for formal language generation by means of a system of knowledge based on stratified graphs. we exemplified that, using an interpretation d. dănciulescu, m. colhon, g. grigoraş right-linear languages generated in systems of knowledge representation based on lsg 51 system specially defined for stratified graphs representations, a particular formal language can be obtained by means of the resulted accepted structured paths. from our last work (dănciulescu, 2015), several open problems still remain unsolved: the investigation of the manner in which, by imposing a set of restrictions in the inference process computations, the generated formal language sequences could be affected; the study the formal languages families that can be generated using this type of knowledge system: regular languages, context-sensitive languages, etc. references dănciulescu, d. (2015). formal languages generation in systems of knowledge representation based on stratified graphs. informatica,26(3), 407-417. doi:10.15388/informatica.2015.55. dănciulescu, d., & colhon, m. (2014). splitting the structured paths in stratified graphs. application in natural language generation. analele universitatii "ovidius" constanta seria matematica,22(2), 59-69. doi:10.2478/auom-2014-0031. dănciulescu, d. (2013) systems of knowledge representation based on stratified graphs and their inference process, in proceedings of 9th international conference of applied mathematics, abstracts and pre-proceedings, baia mare. dănciulescu, d., ţăndăreanu, n. (2013) splitting the structured paths in stratified graphs, modelling and development of intelligent systems. in proceedings of the 3th int conference on modeling and development of intelligent systems, university of lucian blaga from sibiu publishing house, issn 2067-3965. negru, v., grigoraş, g., dănciulescu, d. (2015) natural language agreement in the generation mechanism based on stratified graphs. in proceedings of the 7th balkan conference in informatics (bci 2015), craiova, romania. tudor, i. (2016) (2016). properties of stratified languages. annals of the university of craiova,43(2), mathematics and computer science series, 218-230. issn: 1223-6934 tudor, (preda), i.-v. (2010) labelled stratified graphs can generate formal languages. european conference for the applied mathematics and informatics, isbn 978-960-474260-8, 184-189. tudor (preda), i.-v. (2011). considerations regarding formal languages generation using labelled stratified graphs. international journal of applied mathematics and informatics, university press, 2(5), 101-108. tudor (preda), i.-v. (2011). generating natural language by labelled stratified graphs. scientific bulletin, university of piteşti, matematics and informatics series, 17, 89-100. ţăndăreanu, n. (2000). knowledge bases with output. knowledge ans information systems, 2(4), 438-460. ţăndăreanu, n. (2003). collaborations between distinguished representatives for labelled stratified graphs. annals of the university of craiova, mathematics and computer science series, 30(2), 184-192. ţăndăreanu, n. (2004). knowledge representation by labelled stratified graphs. in proceedings of the 8th world multi-conference on systemics, cybernetics and informatics, 5, 345-350. ţăndăreanu, n. (2005). labelled stratified graphs and their applications in knowledge representation, technical report, research centre for artificial intelligence, university of craiova. ţăndăreanu, n. (2006). lecture notes on universal algebra, basic concepts of peano algebras and lattices, research report in artificial intelligence, research centre for artificial intelligence, university of craiova, universitaria publishing house. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 85 the analysis of e-commerce sites with eye-tracking technologies octavian dospinescu faculty of economics and business administration alexandru ioan cuza university of iași bulevardul carol i 22, iași 700505, romania phone: 0232 201 000 doctav@uaic.ro adriana emilia percă-robu faculty of economics and business administration alexandru ioan cuza university of iași bulevardul carol i 22, iași 700505, romania phone: 0232 201 000 robuadriana@gmail.com abstract the e-commerce sites have many dimensions from the final user’s point of view. making websites more usable and improving the users’ experience represents an important step when desiring to keep them from moving away. this study is examining the effects of the interactivity dimensions on users’ content comprehension and their attitudes towards e-commerce websites. by using the eye tracking technology, we investigate the websites interactivity dimensions, identified in the interactivity index, exploring the visual process and drawing the time spent on the site or on various regions of it, the heatmaps, the scanpaths, the percentage fixated, the fixations before, the time to first fixation or the total fixation duration. keywords: interactivity dimensions, website interactivity, eye-tracking, eye movements, human computer interaction 1. introduction in the recent years, the scientists have advocateed a growth of research in analysing the human behaviour by understanding the eye movements. various fields use the eye tracking technology to assess the visual attention, but when appreciating the decision-making process, the specialized literature acknowledge that the eye movements are directly linked to peoples’ cognitive goals. these goals involve different tasks. in the virtual stores, the decision-making process involves the acquisition of visual information rendered by various elements, such as design, animations or more or less controversial applications. during the last years, some technologies were based on qr codes with their benefits and troubles, but these codes have certain limitations (m. muntean, g. mircea, s. bazavan, 2012). also, there are many challenges for electronic government and e-commerce (b. ghilic-micu, m. stoica, c. uscatu, 2015). according to (n. sireteanu, 2012), the complexity of present computing systems has led the research communities to find new ways of designing and managing systems and services. some authors (m. georgescu, d. popescul, 2014) consider that the main characteristic of the new technologies are novelty, the ability to continuously adapt and reshape depending on the users’ needs and the technological discoveries in the field. a new trend (l. radu, 2017) also includes green it technologies and green information systems for a suitable enterprise. there are also some studies (h. schmidt, a. henka, g. zimmermann, 2017) that tried to analyse the adaptability in the e-learning environments based on the eye tracking and gaze path. one way in which we can improve, help and ease the decision-making and acquisition process is to understand the effects of the most important interactivity dimensions on users’ content brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 86 comprehension and their attitude towards the website. therefore, we use the eye tracking technology as the instrument of interactivity dimensions’ assessment. by using the eye tracking technology, we investigate the websites interactivity dimensions, identified in the interactivity index, exploring the visual process and drawing the time spent on the site or on various regions of it, the heatmaps, the scanpaths, the percentage fixated, the fixations before, the time to first fixation or the total fixation duration. moreover, this technology represents a strong reliance for the quantitative approach, which is implemented post-experimentally. the aim of this study is to assess the most important dimensions of websites interactivity on users’ content comprehension and their attitudes towards the e-commerce websites. the dimensions included in this study were previously identified by the experts in the field of information technology (a. robu, 2015). moreover, this research develops an analysis of the heatmaps, scanpaths and of the graphical representations, together with a factorial analysis. the following section provides a brief introduction about the used methodology and presents a conceptual framework about the web sites interactivity dimensions. 2. theoretical background and conceptual development some authors (s. necula, 2016) consider that for the online buyer, the meaning of product’s characteristics, the importance of product’s characteristics, and the meanings of product’s price are the main factors, but we shall prove that the graphical appearance of the website is also a very important factor. making websites more usable and improving the users’ experience represents an important step when desiring to keep them from moving away. this study is examining the effects of the interactivity dimensions on users’ content comprehension and their attitudes towards e-commerce websites. therefore, this section provides the theoretical background that established the ground for this study. efficiency and effectiveness when assessing the websites, efficiency and effectiveness represent two important factors, frequently used in various studies that target the websites’ usability improvement. efficiency indicates the ease of searching and accessing the information (r. keeney, 1999). the perceived ease of use (peou) corresponds to this important determinant from the technology acceptance model (tam). the perceived ease of use indicates the measure in which a certain person expects that using a certain system is made with a minimal effort (f. davis, 1989). on the other side, effectiveness shows the quality of the information which is offered by the system. this could be a factor that helps to increase the value perception (r. ducoffe, 1996). perceived usefulness (pu) corresponds to this determinant from the technology acceptance model. perceived usefulness indicates the measure in which a person believes that using a certain system will help increase his performance. through its various dimensions, interactivity helps increasing the searching process and accessing the information. (d. hoffman, t. novak, 1996), (d. cyr, m. head, a. ivanov, 2009), (s. ghose, w. dou, 1998), (o. dospinescum, p. brodner, 2013), (h. teo, l. oh, c. liu, k. wei, 2003), (a. hausman, j. siekpe, 2009), (l. hurbean, d. fotache, v. pavaloaia, 2016) argue that the information process has a positive influence on attitude. the relationship between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness shows that the intention to use a product is shaped on the basis of the user’s cognitive appreciation on the way, in which a certain system helps or not to his performances’ improvement. thus, the easier a website to use, the more useful it is. if the website is considered useful, but it is hard to use, the user’s performances will be lower because of his effort to navigate. thus, we consider that a high level of interactivity raises the website’s ease of use and helps to its content comprehension. therefore, we assume that (a) a high level of interactivity leads to an increased level of website’s efficiency, (b) a high level of interactivity leads to an increased level of website’s o. dospinescu, a. e. parcă-robu the analysis of e-commerce sites with eye-tracking technologies 87 effectiveness and (c) a high level of efficiency and effectiveness has a positive influence on the level of website’s content comprehension. websites’ content comprehension the interactivity’s influence on website’s content comprehension is mediated by efficiency and effectiveness. the literature argues that a website with limited interactivity dimensions (the lack of functionalities, useless links, imperfect organization) lead to limited search and access to information, disorientation and useless cognitive loading. when improving the websites interactivity, the users’ experience is better and more, feelings of pleasure arouse, as an affective component, and a positive reaction as well, which leads to a direct influence and favourable attitude. therefore, we assume that (a) a high level of interactivity leads to an increased level of the website’s content comprehension and (b) a high level of website’ s content comprehension leads to a favourable attitude towards it. attitude it was argued that a high level of interactivity is frequently associated with positive attitudes towards the website (h. teo, l. oh, c. liu, k. wei, 2003), (a. hausman, j. siekpe, 2009). moreover, attitude is positively influenced by the perceived usefulness. a favourable attitude intensifies the users’ intention to use a certain system or website. therefore, we assume that a high level of interactivity leads to a favourable attitude towards the website. 3. experimental material five interactivity dimensions were used in order to establish the interactivity index. studies have demonstrated that there is a number of interactivity dimensions which significantly contribute to a higher level of website interactivity. therefore, personalization, synchronization and controllability have been found to be the most important dimensions of interactivity (t. carnegie, 2011); (a. robu, 2015); (y. liu, l. shrum, 2002); (w. yoo, y. lee, j. park, 2010); (e. downes, s. mcmillan, 2000). moreover, we included another two dimensions which were found by experts in prior research to be important when developing a website: adaptability and receptivity (a. robu, 2015). based on the prior literature review and experts’ recommendations, each of these five dimensions included in turn five distinctive factors, as follows: the current research paper involves a model that assesses the effects of the three levels of interactivity established by the previous factors. thus, we consider that the influence of interactivity on attitude is mediated by the websites’ efficacy and efficiency that subsequently improve the users’ content comprehension. a high level of interactivity eases the content search through the various dimensions of the construct, the information is clearly delivered and organized. knowing the users’ attitude towards the website, we can predict his behavioural intention. this study assesses the homepages of six e-commerce websites that targeted mobile phone technology. in order to guarantee the objectivity of the study, they were seen for the first time by the participants. the websites were randomly selected from the romanian top e-commerce pages included in trafic.ro. the websites were comprised in three different groups, according to the characteristic score. group achievement was made by calculating the interactivity score, that is by counting the number of factors of the interactivity dimensions for each web page. the characteristic scores of the web pages ranged from 3 to 12, with 3 indicating that on the web page were 3 characteristics. therefore, the calculated mean of the characteristics score was 5.5 and the median was 7. finally, based on the previous results, we categorised the five websites into three groups. the first group included the websites with a characteristic score higher than the median, that is scores 11 and 12. the second group included the websites with a characteristic score equal to the median, that brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 88 is score 7. the last group included the websites with a characteristic score lower than the median, that is scores 3 and 6. table 1. factors of interactivity’s dimensions dimensions factors personalization login functionality; product listing: grid, list; promotions; various applications (currency, calendar, background colour, etc.); user profile storing, latest search. synchronization search characteristic; chat; real time support; email; order tracking. controllability language; currency; filters; shopping cart; animation elements such as videos (product demonstration) and carousels. adaptability blog; forum; social networks; latest news; links. receptivity recommendations; newsletter; security; large images (>40%, according to [23]); related services (product comparison, delivery services, guarantee). table 2 reveals the differences between the three groups or between the three levels of interactivity: high, medium and low. table 2. levels of interactivity dimensions low level medium level high level adaptability latest news. blog; social networks; external links. blog; social networks; latest news. receptivity most popular products. recommendations; newsletter. recommendations; newsletter; large images (>40%); additional services (delivery, guarantee). controllability shopping cart. shopping cart; filters. shopping cart; filters; animation elements (carousel). personalization offers. offers; login functionality. offers; login functionality. synchronization search characteristic; email; order tracking. search characteristic; email. search characteristic; email; real time support. o. dospinescu, a. e. parcă-robu the analysis of e-commerce sites with eye-tracking technologies 89 4. methodology, data collection, measures and procedures participants this study focused on examining an important segment of the market, i.e. generation y. thirty-six participants (11 males and 23 females) were examined. they ranged in age from twenty to twenty-five. all of them were undergraduate students at “alexandru ioan cuza” university of iasi, with a background in informatics. all participants reported at least one online purchase. the subjects have voluntarily registered to participate in this study, after viewing the announcement in a closed group dedicated to students who are affiliated to the informatics specialization. equipment the study used an unobtrusive eye tracker device, the eye tribe tracker, with an accuracy of 0.1-1 degrees. using the infrared light, the eye tracker offered data about participants’ eyes. all participants could move freely, scroll and continue to the next website when ready. figure 1. the eye tribe tracker procedures participants were welcomed in the informatics laboratories of “alexandru ioan cuza” university of iasi and were explained the study’s objectives, their rights, the incentive they receive and the required tasks. each participant was scheduled and informed about the established laboratory. the laboratories were used for one user at a time. no participant reported contact lenses, eyeglasses or strong makeup, which would have required increased attention. before starting the experiment, we explained the procedures of the study (eye-tracking and filling out a questionnaire about the previously assessed web pages). they have signed an informed certificate consent. all participants voluntarily took part in the experiment for a sport club voucher. further, the eye-tracking device was calibrated at a distance between 45-74 cm of each participant’ face. the procedure of calibration consisted of the participant’s watching twelve dots which moved in the corners and centre of the screen. it was ensured that this process took place for each participant. the participants were informed about their role and task: “imagine that you intend to buy a new mobile phone from an online store. therefore, you have to assess six such websites in order to gather information and lately to decide from which one you are the most inclined to buy”. thereafter, the participant received the stimuli. it was assessed only the homepages of the websites and they were displayed in random order. while the process took place, the websites were not online, the participants reviewing only the images of each homepage. acting in this manner, we avoided the companies’ websites updating, if occurring, and thus, maintained the consistency of the study. subsequently, the participants received the post-experimental questionnaire about the previously assessed web pages and demographic information, including their internet experience, age and gender was gathered. after completing the questionnaire, participants received a one-day pass, worth 25 euro, to a sport club, as an incentive. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 90 measures this study involved the use of two instruments: the eye tracker device and the questionnaire. in order to collect the quantitative data reported by participants at the end of the experiment, it was used a post-experimental questionnaire. this instrument included twenty questions and the scales corresponded to the considered objectives. the scales used were validated in several web studies (d. cyr, m. head, a. ivanov, 2009); (a. hausman, j. siekpe, 2009); (s. sundar, s. kalyanaraman, j. brown, 2003); (w. yoo, y. lee and j. park, 2010); (h. teo, l. oh, c. liu, k. wei, 2003). moreover, the eye tribe tracker device gathered qualitative data, resulting in heatmaps and scanpaths. the heatmaps are a two-dimensional data representation, in which the eye tracker’s measures are rendered as colours (a. bojko, 2013). the heatmaps provided large gaze data sets. they revealed the areas that attracted participants the most. in this study, the values of the heatmaps reveal the relative average duration of all fixations. using the fixations as metrics for the construction of the heatmaps represents an important step, taking into account that in this way we exclude the saccades and other data variations which in turn would mislead the final results. in a heatmap, the colours indicate: yellow is warmer than blue and green, orange is warmer than yellow and red is hot. each heatmap peak (i.e. red color) reveals the highest value for fixations duration in a certain area. the duration reveals the level of the cognitive processing of the participant for each assessed website. thus, the heat quantity is proportional with the fixations duration and, as a result, with the level of the cognitive processing. on the other side, scanpaths reveal graphical plots of the fixations. fixations were considered to be linked with an intense cognitive process and thus, it indicates the participants’ attention (b. pan, h. hembrooke, g. gay, l. granka, m. feusner, j. newman, 2004); (r. vertegaal, y. ding, 2002); (s. djamasbi, m. sieges, t. tullis, 2010). figure 2. heatmap vs. scanpath other relevant metrics used in this study are the following ones: percentage fixated in a certain area of interest, fixations before first fixation in a certain area of interest, time to first fixation, total fixation duration. the data analysis was made with the eyeproof software and the eyeproof recorder application which gathered the eyes movements when exposed the stimuli. the recorded parameters by the eye proof recorder were sent online to this study’s database, from theeye proof software. o. dospinescu, a. e. parcă-robu the analysis of e-commerce sites with eye-tracking technologies 91 5. results all data were checked and organized and the areas of interest (aois) were placed in order to extract statistical information. the aois were placed for all six websites and targeted the previously established factors in the interactivity index. the scanpaths were the first analysed data. a scanpath represents a graphical plot of the fixations and saccades. the fixations are represented on the graphic as dots and the saccades (when the gaze is commuting from a position to another) are represented as lines which join the dots. efficiency and effectiveness represent two important factors when assessing the websites, seldom used when trying to improve the web usability. first, we analysed the users’ content comprehension. figure 3 renders the scanpaths for the dicamen.ro website, which was part from the group with high level of interactivity. figure 3. the representation of scanpaths for dicamen.ro a high level of interactivity leads to an increased level of website’s efficiency efficiency indicates the ease of searching and accessing the information. the perceived ease of use corresponds to it and it is part of the model of the technology acceptance. the perceived ease of use indicates the way in which a user expects that the usage of a certain system to be made with a minimal effort. in this graphical representation from above, we acknowledge that the gaze makes a back and forth movement between the various areas of the website and its logo. this observation is valid for all assessed websites. the textual information was viewed in a linear path, without recurrent fixations. this is showed by following the fixations numbers which were in an ascending order. it does not reveal a recurring gaze. the path of the gaze reveals the content comprehension. the websites from the group with high level of interactivity received the most fixations in the areas of animation elements and latest releases. in contrast to the group of high level of interactivity, the group with medium level of interactivity received the most fixations at the websites extremities. all in all, the areas fixated in brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 92 the very first moment from displaying the stimuli interests us the most. therefore, these areas are represented by recommendations area and offers area. the websites from the group with medium level of interactivity presented a chaotic trajectory of the gaze, as though the participants were striving to find a way in order to organize the information and select the interested products. as a comparison, the results show that the group with a low level of interactivity, although with a very simplistic design, involves the highest level of cognitive processing from participants. this result underlines the fact that the participants did not receive the searched information or they were not displayed as expected. the time to the first fixation shows us another difference between the three groups of websites. depending on the fixated area, it confirms that the access to the searched information was made in a short period of time. a high level of interactivity leads to an increased level of website’s effectiveness. some characteristics of interactivity lead to a high level in accessing and searching the information. it contributes to the improvement of this process. the relationship between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness indicates that the usage intention is based on the participant’s cognitive appraisal on the way in which the usage of a certain system contributes or not to his performance improvement. if the website is evaluated as useful, but hard to use, the participant’s performances will decrease because of the higher effort he has to make. thus, a higher level of interactivity increases the ease of use of the website and helps to content comprehension. moreover, there are three indicators that revealed the areas which received attention the most: time to the first fixation, fixations before first fixation and the number of participants who had fixations. analysing these three indicators together, we conclude that participants have fixed the information earlier in the group of websites with a medium and low level of interactivity, and fixed them later in the group with a high level of interactivity. along with the first fixation, an important factor, when assessing the websites’ efficiency, is the number of subjects who had fixations, together with the number of their previous fixations before the first fixation. these factors, analysed together with the duration, indicate the relevance of the area of interest with the shorter duration by observing the number of subjects who had fixations and the efficiency of the areas of interest by observing the number of fixations that the subjects had before fixating our area of interest. therefore, the results underline that most of the subjects (34) have fixated the areas which corresponded to the animation elements, last released products, recommendations, offers and large images in a short period of time (0,30-5,27s) and with a small number of fixations (0,74-16,32 fixations), in comparison with the other areas selected in the present study. the group of websites with the high level of interactivity achieved the shortest duration from the stimuli displaying till the first fixation, including the animation elements (0,30s), without reaching the limit of one fixation and with a maximum number of subjects who had fixations (34). the group of websites with the low level of interactivity achieved almost similar results as the group with the high level of interactivity, with maximum of subjects (34), until one fixation and with a duration of 0,35s. the group of websites with the medium level of interactivity achieved the maximum number of subjects (34) but with a greater number of fixations (4,26) in comparison with the other two groups of websites and with a duration of 1,45s. a high level of efficiency and effectiveness has a positive influence on the level of website’s content comprehension another important result which reveals the positive influence of efficiency and effectiveness on the level of website’s content comprehension are the heatmaps. they reveal information o. dospinescu, a. e. parcă-robu the analysis of e-commerce sites with eye-tracking technologies 93 concerning the websites efficacy by identifying the fixations average duration. figure 4 renders the heatmap for dicamen.ro website. figure 4. the representation of the heatmap for dicamen.ro at a first glance we can state that the subjects had the longest fixation duration on the logo and the phone number. taking into account that they have seen the website for the first time, we would state that they had an intensive cognitive processing on the logo in order to memorize it and thus, to know what to choose in the end. a high level of interactivity leads to an increased level of the website’s content comprehension the group of websites with high level of interactivity received on the heatmaps important fixations in the targeted areas. along with the previously analysed data, as well as with the heatmaps output, we can argue that the subjects have understood and met their tasks in an efficient and effective way. for instance, we can observe on the heatmap for the dicamen.ro website that an intensive cognitive processing took place in the last releases area, when subjects focused their attention on product analysis in order to assess the site offer. if the group of websites with a high level of interactivity received a very good result, the group with a medium level suggests that the subjects needed a helping tool in order to identify the products. this result is identified in the heatmap with an intensive cognitive processing on the left side of the site, where the product categories were placed. they focused more on identifying the categories where the searched product could be found. the scanpaths also support this observation and reveal the gaze trajectory. the participants reviewed the logo, then focused more on the categories and finally they fixated the recommendations area of the page. the group with a low level of interactivity received a reduced activity, focused more on the logo and a few products which were listed in the top area of the page. on both websites the attention followed the same pattern, the subjects focusing more on the logo, then on some filters and a few products. the descriptive statistics suggests that the subjects go on ecommerce websites weekly (58.3%) or daily (22.2%). they considered the filters to be the most important tool on such websites (86%), the website recommendations to be important (50%), as well as the shopping cart (72.2%). in order to investigate the coherence of the data and the capacity to assess the website interactivity, a factorial correspondence analysis was conducted. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 94 hence, the statistical t test 2 result indicated that (sig.=0,010)<0,05. in order to highlight these correlations, the results of the factorial correspondence analysis indicated that the websites from the group with the high level of interactivity were chosen by the subjects to buy the mobile phone. they were the most closed to the origin of the axes. moreover, the website dicamen.ro, from the group with a high level of interactivity was considered very interactive and it is the website chosen from where to buy, in the end, the mobile phone (figure 5). figure 5. the variable representation in the two first factorial axes a high level of website’s content comprehension leads to a favorable attitude towards it the results provided by the eye tracking device for our qualitative analysis are the following ones: the scanpaths and the heatmaps. these were previously discussed. but, in order to sustain these results, we have included in the analysis other metrics which have been relevant to our objectives: time to the first fixation (which indicated the time from the stimuli displaying until the first fixation in a certain area of interest); fixations before (the fixations before the first fixation in a certain area of interest); o. dospinescu, a. e. parcă-robu the analysis of e-commerce sites with eye-tracking technologies 95 percentage fixated (the number of participants who had fixations in a certain area of interest); total fixation duration (the average fixations length in a certain area of interest). therefore, in order to identify more clearly the differences between the three levels of interactivity, we will further present data which will confirm what has previously been identified in the above representations. the following graphics show two examples for each first two metrics mentioned above. a high level of interactivity leads to a favorable attitude towards the website the attitude was positively influenced by the perceived usefulness. the favorable attitude intensified the participant’s intention to use a website. one of the first metric which helped to assess the websites efficiency is the time to first fixation, presented in the following graphics for one site in the high level of interactivity group (dicamen.ro) and from the low level of interactivity group (buyphone.ro). s figure 6. time to the first fixation of the areas of interest (s) for dicamen.ro figure 7. time to the first fixation of the areas of interest (s) for buyphone.ro the following graphics represent the fixations before and are representative for the dicamen.ro and buyphone.ro websites. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 96 figure 8. fixations before, time to the first fixation and the number of participants who had fixations in an area of interest for dicamen.ro figure 9. fixations before, time to the first fixation and the number of participants who had fixations in an area of interest for mobileshop.ro o. dospinescu, a. e. parcă-robu the analysis of e-commerce sites with eye-tracking technologies 97 5. discussions this study sought to take a step toward understanding the interactivity dimensions which have an influence on the users’ content comprehension and their attitude towards the ecommerce websites, targeting the generation y. the eye tracking data showed that the group of websites with a high level of interactivity received the best results concerning the efficiency and effectiveness of the websites. this group had the shortest duration from the stimuli displaying to the first fixation, including animation elements (0,30s), without reaching the limit of one fixation and with a maximum number of subjects who had fixations (34). the results also showed that the group of websites with a high level of interactivity received a normal eye movement trajectory, without intensive cognitive processing which would suggest a possible misunderstanding of the content. moreover, all the subjects identified the areas of interest for the task accomplishment in a very short time for this category of websites. therefore, all the subjects have accomplished the received task, focusing on the areas of interest which comprised the mobile phones. the group with a high level of interactivity were the most efficient, the information being easily identified and appealing to the targeted segment of the market. similarly, the statistical analysis confirmed a positive attitude towards the group of websites with a high level of interactivity. regarding the compatibility between the written reporting and the one received from the eye tracking outputs, two major issues were identified. first, the eye tracking outputs suggests that the subjects were profoundly focused and regardful on all websites logos. according to the written and contradictory answers, the websites logos have influenced them very little (44%) and little (16.7%). regarding the brand of the mobile phone, the written reporting was consistent with the eye tracking results. the most searched brand for the mobile phone was samsung (36.1%) and htc (16.7%). as a result, all the hypothesis were verified: (1) a high level of interactivity leads to an increased level of website’s efficiency, (2) a high level of interactivity leads to an increased level of website’s effectiveness, (3) a high level of efficiency and effectiveness has a positive influence the level of website’s content comprehension, (4) a high level of interactivity leads to an increased level of the website’s content comprehension, (5) a high level of website’ s content comprehension leads to a favourable attitude towards it and (6) a high level of interactivity leads to a favourable attitude towards the website. 6. limitations and future work this study presents several limitations. first, the study investigated only a segment of the generation y. future studies could investigate different segments of the market with different levels of web experience. another important limitation consists in assessing only five interactivity dimensions, each of them including five factors. further studies could investigate a larger number of factors. moreover, in our analysis the logo of the websites, hierarchy of the regions, colours or other similar factors were excluded. moreover, the analysis was limited only to the commerce websites which targeted mobile phones technology. likewise, we analysed only six websites, having in mind that a large number would have a negative cognitive loading. according to (o. kopf, d. homocianu, 2016) if the current results are integrated in an analytical system, the results of predictive analytics can be used to identify patterns, trends and forecast business activity flow. a future direction could be a detailed analysis for mobile phones because there are some studies (n. dospinescu, d. florea, 2016) that consider that one of the conditions for a smartphone to be successful on the market, when technical services and features offered are perceived as undifferentiated, represents the elements of the visual impact. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 98 the eye-tracking device could be a limitation, concerning the fact that the subjects were aware that their activities on the websites are traced by a camera. moreover, the universities laboratories do not represent their natural environment of buying a personal product. concerning the software limitations, we used the eye proof analytics for collecting data, which was in that period in beta version. for this reason, we could gather only a limited number of indicators. future research could include more indicators, so multiple parameters can be calculated. further studies could imply other devices, for instance used complementarily with the neuro imagistic instruments, such as electroencephalogram (eeg) or the magnetic resonance imagistic (rmn). the results of our study could be combined with the results already published (g. slanzi, j. balazs, j. velasquez, 2017), (n. dospinescu, m. tătăruşanu, g. butnaru, l. berechet, 2011) about the perception of users about new technologies and the prediction of web users click intention. 7. conclusion the present work has important implications both in practice as well as in research. it contributes to the human-computer interaction literature by providing a methodology that uses the eye tracking technology when assessing web usability. in practice, the results of this study are useful to web designers, developers, retail companies, as they deliver a scientific way to assess the new trends and also, give directions concerning the websites interactivity dimensions. all the observations from this study are specific for a segment of the generation y. therefore, companies which target this segment of the market can take advantage of the results obtained through eye tracking technology. acknowledgments this work was supported by a grant of the romanian national authority for scientific research and innovation, cncs – uefiscdi, project number pn-ii-ru-te-2014-4-0748. references bojko, a. (2013). eye-tracking in user experience a practical guide to research. new york: rosenfeld media. carnegie, t. (2011). interface as exordium: the rhetoric of interactivity, computers and compositions, pp. 164-173. cyr, d., head, m., & ivanov, a. (2009). perceived interactivity leading to e-loyalty: development of a model for cognitive-affective user responses. international journal of humancomputer studies, pp. 850-869. davis, f. (1989). perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. mis quarterly, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 318-340. djamasbi, s., sieges, m., & tullis, t. (2010). generation y, web design and eye tracking, international journal of human – computer studies, pp. 307-323. dospinescu, n. & florea, d. (2016). smartphone brands design and buying decision. ecoforum journal, vol. 5, pp. 139-150. dospinescu, n., tătăruşanu, m., butnaru, g., & berechet, l. (2011). the perception of students from the economic area on the new learning methods in the knowledge society. the amfiteatru economic journal, vol. 13, no. 30, pp. 527-543. dospinescu, o. & brodner, p. (2013). integrated applications with laser technology. informatică economică, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 53-61. downes, e. & mcmillan, s. (2000). defining interactivity: a qualitative identification of key dimensions. new media and society,vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 157-179. ducoffe, r. (1996). advertising value and advertising on the web. journal of advertising research, vol. 36, pp. 21-35. o. dospinescu, a. e. parcă-robu the analysis of e-commerce sites with eye-tracking technologies 99 georgescu, m. & popescul, d. (2014). the uncertainty of using web 2.0 technologies in egovernment development. romania’s case. procedia economics and finance, vol. 15, pp. 769-776. ghilic-micu, b., stoica, m., & uscatu, c. (2015). challenges of 4d(ata) model for electronic government. informatică economică, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 5-14. ghose, s. & dou, w. (1998). interactive functions and their impacts on the appeal of internet presence sites, journal of advertising research, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 29-43. hausman, a. & siekpe, j. (2009). the effect of web interface on consumer online purchase intention. journal of business research, pp. 5-13. hoffman, d. & novak, t. (1996) marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments: conceptual foundations. journal of marketing, vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 50-68. hurbean, l., fotache, d. & pavaloaia, v. (2016). modern business information systems: the enterprise resource planning and its functions, vol. 1, lambert international publishing. keeney, r. (1999). the value of internet commerce to the customer. management science, vol. 45, pp. 533-542. kopf, o. & homocianu, d. (2016). the business intelligence based business process management challenge. informatica economică, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 7-19. liu, y. & shrum, l. (2002). what is interactivity and is it always such a good thing? implications of definition, person and situation for the influence of interactivity on advertising effectiveness. journal of advertising, pp. 53-64. muntean, m., mircea, g., & bazavan, s. (2012). qr codes usage approach in the virtualized consumption. in proceedings of the 11th international conference on informatics in economy. necula, s. (2016). addressing the problem of information quality from the online environment of e-commerce by using semantic web technologies. in the 15th international conference on informatics in economy. pan, b., hembrooke, h., gay, g., granka, l., feusner, m., & newman, j. (2004). the determinants of web page viewing behaviour: an eye tracking study. in proceedings of eye tracking research and applications. new york. radu, l. (2017). green information system for a suitable enterprise. in sustainable entrepreneurship and investments in the green economy. a. j. vasile and d. nicolo, eds., hershey, pa, ici global, pp. 144-168. robu, a. (2015). a phenomenological approach of e-commerce websites interactivity dimensions: a close look at experts’ challenges. in journal of international conference on marketing and business development, conference proceedings. bucharest, 2015. schmidt, h., henka, a., & zimmermann, g. (2017). gaze-based real-time adaptivity and adaptability in an elearning environment: a pre-release insight. advances in human factors, business management, training and education, vol. 498, pp. 879-890. sireteanu, n. (2012). analysis and design aspects of rich internet applications. in communications of the 18th ibima conference. istanbul, 2012. slanzi, g., balazs, j., & velasquez, j. (2017). combining eye tracking, pupil dilation and eeg analysis for predicting web users click intention. information fusion, vol. 35, pp. 51-57. sundar, s., kalyanaraman, s., & brown, j. (2003). explicating website interactivity: impressionformation effects in political campaign sites. communication research, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 30-59. teo, h., oh, l., liu, c., & wei, k. (2003). an empirical study of the effects of interactivity on web user attitude. international journal of human-computer studies, vol. 58, pp. 281-305. vertegaal, r. & ding, y. (2002). explaining effects of eye gaze on mediated group conversations: amount or synchronization?. in proceedings of cscw, new orleans. yoo, w., lee, y., & park, j. (2010). the role of interactivity in e-tailing: creating value and increasing satisfaction. journal of retailing and consumer services, pp. 89-96. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 100 octavian dospinescu has a phd in cybernetics and statistics since 2009 and he has published as author or co-author over 30 articles. he is author and coauthor of 10 books and teaches in the department of information systems of the faculty of economics and business administration, university alexandru ioan cuza, iasi. dr. dospinescu is a software developer on the .net and android platforms and was involved in seven national and international research projects as a coordinator or member. he is interested in mobile devices software, computer programming and enterprise resource planning systems. adriana emilia percă-robu (b. june 10, 1987) has a phd in marketing and business communication from alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi since 2015. during her studies, she has published many scientific articles and she focuses on human-computer interaction and user behavior, along with eyetracking experiments. currently, she is a web and graphic designer, focusing on improving the interactive user experience. in her research, she is interested in eye tracking, web interaction and consumer behavior. microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_3.doc 55 the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services venera-mihaela cojocariu vasile alecsandri university of bacau, calea marasesti 157, 600115 bacau, romania phone: +40-747-066462 venera_1962@yahoo.com iuliana lazar vasile alecsandri university of bacau, calea marasesti 157, 600115 bacau, romania gabriel lazar vasile alecsandri university of bacau, calea marasesti 157, 600115 bacau, romania abstract this paper represents a thorough phase in the effort to identify and assort the strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services. this paper reviews a synthesis of the assessments on the e-learning educational services through a survey of the specialized literature from 2000 to 2012 in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services which were reported during the past decade. the steps of our approach are the following: 1. the identification of a large number of specialized studies that analyze the above mentioned issue; 2. a basic theoretical review of the research from the perspective of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the elearning educational services and some of their implications on the intellectual development of the beneficiaries; 3. a descriptive statistical data analysis which is carried out in order to extract information about strengths and weaknesses relevant to the literature taken into consideration; 4. results classification and interpretation; 5. formulating practical suggestions for the notion of elearning educational services considering the development of studies on the impact of their use on the intellectual development of the beneficiaries. the study results highlighted that strengths and weaknesses are not 'pure', but ambivalent, simultaneously incorporating meanings and limits with different weights. a predictive model of future e-learning educational services can be designed on the basis of the results obtained in the research. this predictive model is based on a pedagogical concept that takes into account the ambivalence of the higher indices which have been identified. keywords: interactive learning environment; pedagogical issue; teaching/learning strategy; intellectual development of the beneficiaries 1. introduction the concept of e-learning can hardly be the subject of a comprehensive and universally accepted definition, due to the different forms it takes now and to the multiplicity of variables involved, which have a large and permanent dynamic. a relevant study (mata, lazar, & lazar, 2012) highlights some interesting and useful aspects for our study, as a response to the question “what are the e-learning educational services?”: • e-learning is commonly referred to the intentional use of networked information and communications technology in teaching and learning (naidu, 2006). • e-learning is instruction delivered on a digital device such as a computer or mobile device that is intended to support learning. this definition has several elements concerning the what, how, and why of e-learning. what. e-learning courses include both content (information) and instructional methods (techniques) that help people learn the content. how. e-learning courses are delivered via digital devices such as computers and smartphones using words in the form of spoken or printed text and pictures such as illustrations, photos, animation, or video. some forms of e-learning called asynchronous ebrain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 learning are designed for individual self-study. it may be noted that the two components of e-learning analyzed here (content and strategies) correlates with both the development of higher cognitive processes (thinking, memory, imagination, language) and formation / development of new techniques of intellectual work, different from those classic but complementary to them (data search, selection, storage, processing, graphic representation, realization of illustrations, animations, presentations, transfer) (naaji et. al., 2015). why. e-learning lessons are intended to help learners reach personal learning objectives or perform their jobs in ways that improve the bottom-line goals of the organization. in short, the 'e' in e-learning refers to 'how'-the course is digitized so it can be stored in electronic form(clark & mayer, 2008). • e-learning is an internet-based learning process, using internet technology to design, implement, select, manage, support and extend learning, which will not replace traditional education methods, but will greatly improve the efficiency of education (masud & huang, 2012). e-learning educational services represent a distinct category of formative services. it is about those services which offer instruction, training, retention, transfer, consolidation, evaluation, review, systematization by mainstreaming the 'e' dimension in teaching and learning. our analysis will focus only on e-learning educational services in formal learning (although they can be integrated and exploited in any training which is more or less formal or non-formal) and on some of the benefits of intellectual nature that appear. this paper represents a thorough phase in the effort to identify and assort the strengths and weaknesses of the e-learning educational services. in order to identify which strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services were reported during the past decade, this paper reviews a synthesis of the assessments on the e-learning educational services, through a survey of the literature from 2000 to 2012. the spreading of e-learning educational services, which could hardly be thought of 25 years ago, has led to enhancing the research which aimed at analyzing this type of services in terms of their essence and their qualitative dimensions. learning new technology, in particular those related to the web 2.0, offers new opportunities to create and share content and to interact with others. also known as 'social media', web 2.0 encompasses tools that allow individual and collective publishing; sharing of images, audio and video files; the creation and maintenance of online social networks (nedelea & costea, 2016). it is stated that new practices and attitudes have come with these new tools (bennett et al., 2012; jomah, et al., 2016). after two decades of actual educational practice in e-learning educational services, after overcoming the initial methodological and action enthusiasm, a deeper research was generated with regard to the pedagogical richness of these services and, especially, the real meaning of this phrase, which is still unclear (middleton, 2010; slevin, 2008). this aspect is visible in the exponential growth of the research allocated to this problem, especially after 2000. our previous studies led to the identification of9 most representative strengths, respectively 5 weaknesses of e-learning educational services, as follows: � strengths: 1. it is a process in full development in agreement with some of the defining characteristics of the learners in the third millennium; 2. flexibility; 3. customization of learning related to the needs of the learner; 4. a great methodological diversity; 5. a particularintuitive character; 6. interactivity; 7. collaborative learning; 8. it is motivating; 9. focus on the learner. all these strengths are considered as an expression of current trends in the area of psychology and science of education, especially the differentiating learning, and the focus on learning beneficiary, according to its individual cognitive peculiarities. � weaknesses: 1. insufficient compatibility between the technological design of the service and the psychological component of the learning process; 2. flexibility and autonomy in learning are relative and fragile; 3. the limited, inadequate or unattainable character of the v.m. cojocariu, i. lazar, g. lazar the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services 57 learning customization; 4. a possible superficiality in learning which is induced by a wide variety of methodology; 5. a certain kind of reduction of the relations among learners, between them and the teacher, a possible loss of direct communication and immediate collaboration. all these weaknesses are considered as expression of some insufficient (yet) developments and psycho-pedagogical adaptations of the e-learning, especially on the intellectual training component. a very interesting thing we have found since the time of the survey is that some of the identified strengths were also on the weaknesses list, highlighting both their inherent limitations and their ambivalence. the main aim of the study is to identify the ambivalent character of a set of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services. their highlighting and analysis can provide the basis to design an optimal model of creating e-learning educational services to be used in higher education. the term of ambivalence has not been used so far, to our knowledge, with respect to such services. it means, in our view, the real possibility that the same feature of e-learning educational services, (for example, flexibility, customization or methodological diversity) can be analyzed and interpreted unilaterally, monovalently, by authors, either as a strength (flexibility(smetana & bell, 2012))or as a weakness (methodological diversity(cuthbert & slotta, 2004)) or some of them can analyze them simultaneously from two points of view.this study has been developed on the basis on these results. 2. research methodology the documentation and data systematization were performed through a similar procedure as the one reported by liao, chu et al.(2012). keyword indices, “e-learning services”, “strong points”, “weak points” and article abstracts were used to identify 203 articles. the research methodology is based on a two-stage analysis of a package including bibliographic studies published between 20002012 in the literature which is accessible to the general public in the following databases: science direct (elsevier), proquest, and google scholar: 1. a quality study consisting of identifying and grouping the strengths and weaknesses of elearning educational services in the selected literature; 2. astatistical quantity analysis, consisting of identifying the occurrence frequencies of those strengths and weaknesses in the literature. the statistical analysis was carried out in spss® version 20.0 that allowed us to subsequently identify those ambivalent strengths and weaknesses and the frequency of their being simultaneously entered under both categories. the following hypotheses and research objectives were established: hypothesis 1: are there features of e-learning educational services which may be considered strengths and weaknesses (ambivalent) at the same time? hypothesis 2: if such a set exists, is the number of ambivalent features of e-learning educational services enough from a statistical point of view so as to base the design of a model of elearning educational services with a higher pedagogical level? o1. identifying a relevant bibliography on the set issue, published between 2000 and 2012; o2. content quality analysis of selected literature, which results in identifying strengths and weaknesses; o3. quantitative data analysis, classifying the strengths and weaknesses characteristic to elearning educational services on a statistical basis; o4. selecting and highlighting the ambivalent strengths and weaknesses, statistical analysis of their weight. o5. making a system of distinct categories of ambivalent indices to develop a model of vectors required in the generation and operation of specific services, which is optimal from a pedagogical perspective. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 multiple responses analysis allows us to study the composition of the bibliographic package on which the research was conducted. this is a useful operation for the description of percentages of texts which specify different assessments. in this study, texts are represented by the studied articles, and assessments correspond to strengths, respectively weaknesses highlighted in these publications. the significant bibliographic package was generated gradually by successive operations as follows: � creating the primary bibliographic package-203 studies were identified; � creating the final bibliographic package-192 studies were selected from the initial bibliographic package (by excluding the ones which were in both packages); � constituting the three components of the final bibliographic package: 1.102 articles outlining strengths, referred to from now on as 'strong articles'; 101 articles outlining weaknesses,referred to as 'weak articles'; 102 articles from their total, containing the ambivalence idea of some of the strengths and weaknesses, referred to as 'common articles', presented in a separate section of the article's references. the analysis of multiple responses allows us to study multiple choice items. in our case, each item is represented by the strengths and weaknesses which have been identified in the studied literature. the chosen multiple answers analysis method corresponds to the dichotomous variables for each answer. for example, in the case of the article of ossiannilsson (2012), the response to the item 'flexibility' was coded as 1 for yes, if this feature is specified, and 0 if it is not specified. the statistical analysis was carried out by applying the dichotomous multiple responses analysis by the spss®software, version 20.0. this analysis was also done separately, according to the levels of 'categories' variable, namely the period of the appearance of the article, respectively: 2000-2004, 2005-2008and 2009-2012. this type of methodology, inevitably, has a number of limitations(liao, et al., 2012). firstly, making a review of the literature is a difficult task, both from a quantitative and a qualitative point of view. secondly, the selection of texts and analysis relied significantly on the keywords index and article abstracts, which mean, within certain limits, the researcher’s subjective touch. finally, the number of analyzed articles, even if it is important, does not cover, for sure, the whole sphere of publications, being the expression of the author's limited knowledge of this subject. 3. results and their analysis from the multitude of the obtained data only those that serve the hypotheses and objectives set out aboveare present. figure 1. frequencies of strengths and weaknesses through a survey of literature from 2000 to 2012 v.m. cojocariu, i. lazar, g. lazar the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services 59 step i/objective 1identifying a relevant bibliography on the set issue, published between 2000 and 2012 identifying, selecting, organizing and analyzing the studies represent an extremely complex, but absolutely necessary process, providing the theoretical basis for the concept of ambivalence for the strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services. the most relevant aspects are: the comparative analysis of the perspectives offered by the selected studies; identifying the direction the studies evolve to and the interest of the people who use these services; the general rate for the studies’ publication; comparative frequency of reporting the beneficiaries to the strengths and weaknesses during the covered period. we identified 192 specific studies which analyze, directly or indirectly, the subject of the strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services, respectively those containing the idea of some of their strengths and weaknesses ambivalence. the frequencies of strengths and weaknesses reported to intervals corresponding to the years when they were published are shown in figure1. the above presented data analysis shows the following: 1. an accelerated and increasing evolution of studies on the issue of strengths, which has a rate increased by 22.5% in 2005-2008 compared to 2000-2004, by 7.8% in 2009-2012 compared to the previous period and by 30.39% compared to the initial period. although the increasing interest for strengths is obvious during 2009-2012, it was 2.9 times less than in the previous period. along the whole interval when studies related to strengths analysis appeared, the growth rate was an average of 33.3% for that period and 8.3% for the year; 2. an accelerated and increasing evolution of studies on the issue of weaknesses, which has a rate increased by 18.49% in 2005-2008 compared to 2000-2004, by32.8% in 2009-2012 compared to the previous period and by 51.3% compared to the initial period. the increasing interest for weaknesses is permanent and it is the biggest in the interval 20092012. it increased by 2.1times compared to the previous period. along the whole interval when studies related to weaknesses analysis appeared, the growth rate was an average of 33.3% for that period and 8.33% for the year; 3. an identical average growth rate of the interest for the analysis of both strengths and weaknesses for the entire period was 33.3% on each of the three periods in which studies were grouped and 8.3% for each year; 4. a 1.5times greater interest of the authors for the strengthsanalysisbetween2000-2004 (15.7%) than for the weaknesses analysis(10.1%); 5. a 1.3 times greater interest of the authors for the strengths analysis between 2004-2008 (38.2%) compared to the weaknesses analysis (28.6%), with a 0.2 times decrease compared to the previous interval; 6. a much greater interest of the authors for the weaknesses analysis between 20092012(61.3%) compared to the strength sanalysis (46.1%), a 1.3times growth, almost double when compared to the previous interval; 7. a 4.1% greater interest of the authors for strengths than for weaknesses between 2005-2008 compared to 2000-2004, but an extraordinarily high interest of authors for weaknesses, 22.9% more in 2009-2013 compared to the previous period; 8. a significant and more rapid increase of the weight of studies analyzing weaknesses (51.3%) compared to those which analyze strengths(30.4%) along the whole period (2000-2012), which means 20.9%, i.e. 1.7 times more; 9. the trend of strengths and weaknesses analysis is an upward one, but it increases faster for weaknesses studies, especially between 2009-2012, when the growth of studies focused on strengths recorded the slowest rate in the whole interval (7.8%). in terms of linking these data with the practice of e-learning educational services, it must be concluded that as they work, it begins to be more obvious what shortcomings their manifestation has and how interested the creators of these services are in identifying and reducing their weaknesses. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 60 step ii/objective 2-content quality analysis of selected literaturewhich results in identifying strengths and weaknesses the focused reading of the192 studies and the data centralization of the identified strengths and weaknesses, in the chronological order of their appearance was performed. their systematization was done along the process of their identification by means of indices categories. for example, flexibility, interactivity, student-centered learning, accessibility, saving costs – for strengths; reduced social interaction, lack of instructors, cost, long time for preparing online courses, resistance to (new) technology – for weaknesses. step iii/ objective 3-quantitative data analysis, classifying the strengths and weaknesses characteristic to e-learning educational services, on a statistical basis we ordered the obtained data for the identified strengths and weaknesses. this was done by giving a point for each presence of an index, or not giving it for its absence. thus, we quantified a total of 63 strengths and 91 weaknesses. in addition to finding a great diversity of views captured in the selected texts, the primary data analysis allowed us to set the parameters with the highest frequency. so, the most important for strengths is flexibility representing 29.7% of the total of studied bibliography and an occurrence frequency of 13.6% from the total of identified strengths (figure 2). figure 2. frequency of principal strong indices related to 102 'strong articles' figure 3. frequency of principal week indices related to the 101 'week articles' v.m. cojocariu, i. lazar, g. lazar the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services 61 reduced social interaction is the most important for weaknesses, representing 9.4% of the total of studied bibliography and an occurrence frequency of 5.5% (figure3). a significant frequency difference of the weaknesses indices compared to the strengths indices was observed. if the top 5 strengths have frequencies ranging between 13.6% and 7%, none of the weaknesses has an occurrence frequency over 6%, all barely ranging between 5.5% and 3.4%, relative to the middle of strengths frequency range. for the practice of e-learning educational services, this may show either a still insufficient detection or theoretical analysis of weaknesses, or, indeed, the superiority of these services. step iv/objective 4-selecting and highlighting the ambivalent strengths and weaknesses, statistical analysis of ambivalent strengths and weaknesses weight based on the data presented in figure 2 and figure 3 and carrying out a comparative and cumulative analysis to identify ambivalent strengths and weaknesses, the 102 ambivalent strong/weak indices related to the 'common articles' in figure 4 were highlighted. figure 4. frequency of strong/weak indices related to the 102 'common articles' their analysis shows that: 1. there are at least 13 ambivalent indicators identified in the studied literature (table 1); 2. the strengths weight is 62% while the weight of weaknesses is 38.9%, resulting in a pretty big difference in favor of underlining and supporting the strengths, 23.1% more than in favor of weaknesses. these data indicate a significantly higher perception and approach in favor of appreciating the strengths of e-learning educational services, even in the case of their ambivalence. 3. in this context, the data illustrate the following three cases: 3.1. a huge gap between the perception and the interpretation of an index as strength and as weakness (e.g., flexibility is regarded 7.5 times more a strength rather than a weakness). it can be seen that this category of indices definitely belongs to strengths, acknowledged and validated by a large number of studies. in relation to these, efforts will be made for the development, improvement, elevation and obtaining superior parameters. 3.2. a relative correspondence between the perception and the interpretation of an index as strength and as weakness (e.g., the time required to design and implement educational services is considered a strength at a rate of 3.2% and a weakness at a rate of 3.3%). it results that this category of indices has to be studied thoroughly and watched in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 62 experimental studies, to replace the uncertainty area in their analysis, to determine which their area of predominance is, to what extent their identified limits and shortcomings have been reduced to allow their conversion into strengths or not; 3.3. a very large gap between the perception and interpretation of an index as a weakness and as a strength (e.g., lack of instructional delivery is considered as being a weakness 20 times more than a strength).this shows that this category of indices comes into focus as weaknesses which need to be analyzed, studied and experimented in order to reduce their negative impact. table 2. system of common indices on categories and frequencies related to 102 common articles common indices categories frequency (%) 1. flexibility a. technical support 18.6% 2. interactivity “ 15.4% 64.1% 3. accessibility “ 12.4% 4. usability “ 6.2% 5. connection “ 4.3% 6. time “ 7.2% 7. cost b. financial support 12.7% 12.7% 8. develop skills c. educational approach 4.3% 11.8% 9. quality “ 3.9% 10. diversity “ 2.6% 11. delivery “ 1.0% 12. anxiety/reduce social impact d. social impact 7.2% 11.4% 13. responsibility “ 4.2% step v/objective 5-making a system of distinct categories of ambivalent indices an additional and very interesting perspective is provided by the analysis of common indices (ambivalent), based on the 102 works-common articles type, and their frequencies (figure 5). figure 5. frequency of common indices related to 102 'common articles' v.m. cojocariu, i. lazar, g. lazar the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services 63 the data reading indicates 13 ambivalent indices as percentages in descending order: 1. flexibility, 19%; 2. interactivity, 15.4%; 3. cost, 13%; 4. accessibility, 12%; 5. time, 7%; 6. anxiety/reduce social impact, 7%; 7. usability, 6%; 8. connection, 4%; 9. develop skills, 4%; 10. responsibility, 4%; 11. quality, 4%; 12. diversity, 3%; 13. delivery, 1% (figure 5). the first position occupied by flexibility, an index belonging to the technical support category, represented by a percentage of 19%, compared to the last position occupied by delivery, an index belonging to the educational approach category, represented by a percentage of 1% are both appreciated as being relevant. at this level of analysis, we may generalize considering that the two parts of the fight for the better use of new learning technologies are between these (technical) advantages and (pedagogical) limits. table 2. weight of indices categories through a survey of literature from 2000 to 2012 no. category of common indices frequency of common indices category related to 102 'strong articles' frequency of common indices category related to 101 'week articles' frequency of common indices related to 102 'common articles' 1. technical support 47.7% 11.7% 64.1% 2. financial support 6.4% 4.6% 12.7% 3. educational approach 5.7% 14.4% 11.8% 4. social impact 2.2% 8.2% 11.4% total 62% 38.9% 100% the effort to fit common (ambivalent) indices into categories and frequencies generated the system from table 2. we systematized the four categories of indices and presented the following in the order of frequencies in table2: 1. technical support; 2. financial support; 3. educational approach; 4. social impact. we proceeded, also intra-categorically, to creating a hierarchy of indices based on their frequency. the prevalence of indices from the technical category can be remarked in an overwhelming proportion of 64.1%, so that from the total of the first 7 indices (figure 5), 6 indices totally cover technical support. the other three categories of indices are positioned far away from it and the weights are relatively close to each other: financial support, 12.7%; educational approach, 11.8%and social impact, 11.4%. it can be seen that the amount of their weight, 35.9%, is slightly above half the weight of the technical support category. the data confirm the findings of previous partial analyses according to which the technical aspect of educational services represents the researchers and practitioners’ greatest interest. correlating the data presented and analyzed on the basis of figures 2-5, we undertook a systematic synthesis of categories of indices and we obtained the following results: 1. of the whole amount of the consulted literature, 62% of sources highlight strong indices while only 38.9% highlight weak indices, showing a superior interest for the advantages of e-learning educational services; 2. it is interesting that both the largest weight (47.7%)-technical support and the smallest weight (2.2%)-social impact, belong to strong indices; 3. the difference between the highest and lowest weight recorded for strong indices is very high, 45.5%, marking almost a break between the technical support (47.7%) and the other three categories of indices (financial support, educational approach and social impact) which together cover only 14.3% of the strong indices. the data clearly show a higher interest in the technical performances of these services, even users’ exuberance related to their novelty and attractiveness. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 4. the difference between the highest and lowest weight recorded for weak indices is 9.8%, and by reporting it to the same difference of strengths, it is 4.9smaller. at the same time, analyzing differences by category of indices, we can see a more balanced approach, without breaks, even relatively homogeneous, the difference from one category of weak index to another being an average of 3.3%. considering the period when the analyzed studies were published, it can be appreciated that, relative to strengths, users are becoming more interested in technical performance, while in relation to weaknesses they become more cautious and demanding in many fields; 5. for strong indices, the first two categories which become obvious as weight arethe technical support (47.7%) and the financial support (6.4%), showing the manifest support type advantages through which the analyzed services are detached from classical education services. this strong interest for technical and financial aspect is convertible, paradoxically, in a weakness in terms of psycho-pedagogical interest for adapting the e-learning services to cognitive peculiarities of the beneficiaries. these data correlate well with those to be analyzed at point 6; 6. for weak indices, the first two categories which become obvious are the educational approach (14.5%) and the technical support (11.7%). the first weight indicates the serious and profound pedagogical shortcomings of this category of educational services. this result is confirmed by the relatively small weight obtained by the educational approach category as strength (5.7%), 2.6 times smaller than the one highlighted for weaknesses (14.5%).from a theoretical perspective, these data reinforce the prevalence of the technicist approach of elearning educational services, with strong emphasis on the advantages of this type and with a relative delay in getting aware of the individual and social limits and dangers included into this perspective. the 4.1 times smaller weight of technical support (11.7%) as a weakness indicates that although the strengths of this category of indices are clear, there are also at least 25% problems which should be solved in order to optimize them; 7. data relating to the educational approach are of particular importance. they reflect a paradoxical situation: while the indices considered strengths only cover 5.7% of the total of 62%, i.e. a weight of 9.2% of strengths, their weaknesses, being highlighted much better (14.4%), express 31% of the total of weaknesses. it is confirmed the prevailing perception of pedagogical shortcomings of e-learning educational services. by reporting educational approach weightto the weaknesses of the technical support category (11.7%), it seems natural and relatively understandable (meaning that pedagogical limitations of these services are obvious, given the constant innovation and development of the field and the difficult reported to a human resource characterized by fluctuation and subjective parameters), and even higher,with a percentage of 2.7%.however, the weight of strengths awareness of this category of indices is extremely low (5.7%), both in relation to all categories (62%) and especially to the technical support as a strength (47.7%) (addressed 8.36 times more like a strength than the educational approach).these data raise serious questions about the pedagogical effectiveness of these services, or about the interest for the studies addressing this issue. 8. the lowest weight for strong indices belongs to social impact (2.2%) which, together with the weight located in the third position for weak indices (8.2%), 3.7 times bigger than the weight of social impact considered as a strength, determines the understanding of this index (even if ambivalent) as being, in reality, mostly a weakness; 9. the lowest weight for weak indices belongs to financial support (4.6%), 1.8 times less than the social impact and 1.4 times less than the recognition of the same category of indices as strength. these data indicate that the increasing costs arising from the creation and improvement of these services are recognized, and also the availability of public and private companies and institutions to invest in this area. v.m. cojocariu, i. lazar, g. lazar the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services 65 the data reconfirm the researchers and practitioners overriding interest for the technical dimension of educational services, seen as a representative category both for strengths (47.7%) and as an ambivalent category (64.1%). some debatable perspectives are also stated on the pedagogical side of these services which is the leader when it comes to weaknesses (14.4%) and just the third as an ambivalent index (11.8%) because of its poor identification as strength. we are going to fathom the study of ambivalent indices categories by analyzing multiple dichotomous responses. this will allow us to study the variation of common indices, with the following response options: 1 for yes (the index was identified) and 0 for no (the index was not identified).in this article, we will analyze the multiple dichotomous responses by the grouping year variable. table 3. common indices of technical support category grouping by stages years stage years tota l 20002004 2005 2008 20092012 technica l supporta 1. flexibility count 12 17 28 57 % within technical support 21.1% 29.8% 49.1% 2. interactivity count 7 23 17 47 % within technical support 14.9% 48.9% 36.2% 3. accessibility count 7 10 21 38 % within technical support 18.4% 26.3% 55.3% 4. connection count 3 5 5 13 % within technical support 23.1% 38.5% 38.5% 5. usability count 3 6 10 19 % within technical support 15.8% 31.6% 52.6% 6. time count 4 7 11 22 % within technical support 18.2% 31.8% 50.0% total count 19 32 48 99 percentages and totals are based on respondents. a. dichotomy group tabulated at value 1. the evolution of common indices from the technical support category grouped by stage years can be followed in table 3. what do these data show? − firstly there is speeding growth of analyses targeting these indices. − of the total of six indices, four of them record growth on each separate period (flexibility, accessibility, usability, time). one index (interactivity) records growth on the first period, and it has a slight setback in the second, even if it is a higher percentage compared to the first period. the last index (connection) is the only one which records growth on the first period and then it stagnates. − the 'usability' index has the most accelerated growth throughout the period 2000-2012, which is 3.3 times. − for the period 2005-2008 compared to 2000-2004, the most significant growth is given by the 'interactivity' index, 3.3 times, which then will record a decrease of 0.7 times compared to the previous quarter. for the last period, the most representative growth of 2.1 times is given by the 'accessibility' index. overall, we can say that there is still a growing interest from researchers and practitioners for all indices ranging from the technical support category. and these data confirm the previous analysis that emphasized the priority and impact of the technical aspect of e-learning educational services. moreover, unfortunately, confirm their low interest for psycho-pedagogical indicators, with relevance for the cognitive training of the beneficiaries. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 the evolution of common indices from the financial support category grouped by stage years can be followed in table 4. what do these data show? − there is an increasing number of studies aiming at both indices belonging to this category. − while the growth of the 'not evidenced financial support' index is a continuous one, from one time slot to another, the growth recorded by the 'evidenced financial support' index is a two-steps process in which the initial impact of studies on the topic is slightly decreasing by 7.7% and then, on the second interval, there is a larger increase, by 15.4%. − the most accelerated growth, 4.1 times, throughout the period 2000-2012 is recorded by the index 'not evidenced financial support'. − for the period 2005-2008 compared to the period 2000-2004, there is a 2.3 growth in the 'not evidenced financial support' index and a 1.3 times decrease in the 'evidenced financial support' index. for the last interval, the increased interest in studies of the two indices is relatively close, slightly higher for the 'no evidenced financial support' index which is 1.8 times, compared to the growth of the 'evidenced financial support' index which is 1.6 times. table 4. financial support indices grouping by stages years stages years total 20002004 20052008 20092012 financial support no evidenced count 13 30 53 96 % within cost 13.5% 31.3% 55.2% 100.0% evidenced count 13 10 16 39 % within cost 33.3% 25.6% 41.0% 100.0% total count 26 40 69 135 % within cost 19.3% 29.6% 51.1% 100.0% overall, we can say that there is still a growing interest from researchers and practitioners for all indices belonging to the financial support category. the evolution of common indices from the educational approach category grouped by stage years can be followed in table 5. what do these data show? − firstly, there is a rhythmic growth of the analyses related to only two indices (develop skills and diversity strategies) of the total of four. − one of the other two indices (delivery) registers a growth of 33.4% on the first interval, which is almost double, and on the second interval it marks a complete drop, as no studies have been revealed to address this issue. the last index (quality) is the only one which has the most fluctuating evolution, marking an 8.3% decrease in the first period and a 41.6% increase over the last period, which means 3.5 times. − the 'diversity' index has the most accelerated growth, 5 times, throughout the whole period 2000-2012. − for the period 2005-2008, compared to the period 2000-2004, the growth of all three indices that are in progress (develop skills, diversity, delivery) is equal, respectively 2times. for the last interval, the 'quality' index gives the most representative growth of 3.5 times of all 3 indices in progress. throughout the whole period, we can say that there is a fluctuating interest from researchers and practitioners for indices belonging to the educational approach category. studies related to develop skills and methodological diversity have a sustained growth. at the same time, they have not been identified (statistically significant) articles that address the impact of the e-learning educational services on the stimulation/development of higher cognitive processes (thinking, memory, imagination, language). studies related to the quality of these services record a fluctuating v.m. cojocariu, i. lazar, g. lazar the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services 67 evolution, initially marked by a decrease, followed then by the most significant growth, emphasizing the more and more serious concern about this aspect in the last 3 years. delivery seems to be the index for which the researchers’ interest seems to have totally decreased lately. data for (ambivalent) common indices belonging to the social impact category are presented in table 6. table 5. common indices of educational approach category grouping by stages years stages years total 20002004 20052008 20092012 educational approach develop skills count 2 4 7 13 % within educational_benefits 15.4% 30.8% 53.8% diversity count 1 2 5 8 % within educational_benefits 12.5% 25.0% 62.5% quality count 3 2 7 12 % within educational_benefits 25.0% 16.7% 58.3% delivery count 1 2 0 3 % within educational_benefits 33.3% 66.7% 0.0% total count 6 8 16 30 percentages and totals are based on respondents. a. dichotomy group tabulated at value 1. table 6. common indices of social impact category grouping by stages years stages years total 20002004 20052008 2009 2012 social impacta anxiety count 6 6 10 22 % within social impact 27.3% 27.3% 45.5% responsibility count 2 4 7 13 % within social impact 15.4% 30.8% 53.8% total count 8 8 17 33 percentages and totals are based on respondents. a. dichotomy group tabulated at value 1. the cumulated data of the entire analysis confirm hypothesis no. 1 of the research. there is a set of ambivalent strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services, which we have identified on the basis of quality and quantity analysis of a package of 192 papers published between 2000 and 2012. this set has 4 important categories of indices: technical support, educational approach, financial support, social impact. a set of 13 ambivalent indicators were identified by reporting them to the above mentioned categories : 1. flexibility, 19%; 2. interactivity, 15.4%, 3. cost, 13%; 4. accessibility, 12; 5. time, 7%; 6. anxiety/reduce social impact, 7%; 7. usability, 6%; 8. connection, 4%; 9. develop skills, 4%; 10. responsibility, 4%; 11. quality, 4%; 12. diversity, 3%; 13. delivery, 1%. according to the data presented and analyzed in figures 1-4 and tables1-5we can conclude that e-learning educational services are interesting, as practice and also as theory, especially due rather to the prevailing technical and financial benefits (54.1%) than to those of socio-pedagogical and human type (7.9%). accordingly, the difficult issues the beneficiaries of these services are most brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 68 worried about are related mainly to technical support and educational approach (26.1%) and much less to social impact and financial support (12.8%). 4. conclusions the analysis of the studied bibliography has not led us to identify a systematization of strengths and weaknesses, much less to the idea of their ambivalence or their systematization from this point of view. through their approaches most recent studies (bhuasiri et al., 2012; elster, 2010; lin, 2011; smetana & bell, 2012; sun et al., 2008)mention, both our previous statement and the results we obtained from the analysis of the relevant literature.in general, there are developed bibliographic studiesor practical, experimental perspectives(bellefeuille et al., 2008; lee & yoon, 2009; székely & nagy, 2011), related to designing and implementing e-learning solutions in education. most of them are about drawing some conclusions on the strengths and weaknesses of these services; they may also have optimization suggestions, unlike our study which emphasizes their ambivalence. based on these results we consider that the hypothesis 2 of our study is also validated. we have had sufficient data to generate in a future stage of our efforts, a predictive model of e-learning educational services with higher educational level, given the ambivalence of the identified indices. in the same time, in future studies, an additional attention should be paid to the identification of different categories of cognitive effects (superior cognitive processes: thinking, with its forms, memory, imagination, language; specific skills of intellectual work but also cognitive motivation) produced by the use of the e-learning services. compared to the areas of uncertainty identified at the beginning of the study, we have been able, on the basis of the effective study of 192 texts, to give the following responses by systematizing the highlighted perspectives: � e-learning educational services are necessary, for the moment, rather due to the technology they objectify than to the pedagogy they incorporate and promote. an approach from a pedagogical and also a technological perspective is necessary.(cuthbert & slotta, 2004). � strengths and weaknesses are, to a large extent, not 'pure', but ambivalent, simultaneously incorporating meanings and limits with different weights. � the reaction related to those dimensions of e-learning educational services which were identified simultaneously as strengths and weaknesses, must be discerning, cautious and within bounds, so that the maximum impact can be double, both for the positive accents to be valued and the negative ones to be reduced. � programmers of e-learning educational services must become aware of the ambivalence of their services'features, and be supported to adapt their predominantly technical perspective to an interdisciplinary one, with pedagogical and socio-humanistic accents. 5. acknowledgements this research was financially supported by the executive unit for financing higher education, research, development and innovation (grant pn-ii-pt-pcca-2011-3.2-1108, “networked interactive ceramic whiteboards with integrated sound (eno) for teaching and learning science and technology”). v.m. cojocariu, i. lazar, g. lazar the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services 69 references bellefeuille, g., mcgrath, j., & jamieson, d. (2008). a pedagogical response to a changing world: towards a globally-informed pedagogy for child and youth care education and practice. children and youth services review, 30(7), 717-726. bennett, s., bishop, a., dalgarno, b., waycott, j., & kennedy, g. (2012). implementing web 2.0 technologies in higher education: a collective case study. computers & education, 59(2), 524–534. bhuasiri, w., xaymoungkhoun, o., zo, h., rho, j. j., & ciganek, a. p. (2012). critical success factors for e-learning in developing countries: a comparative analysis between ict experts and faculty. computers & education, 58(2), 843-855. clark, r. c. & mayer, r. e. (2008). e-learning and the science of instruction: proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (3rd ed.): pfeiffer. cuthbert, a. j. & slotta, j. d. (2004). research report: designing a web-based design curriculum for middle school science: the wise ‘houses in the desert’ project. international journal of science education, 26(7), 821-844. elster, d. (2010). learning communities in teacher education: the impact of e-competence. international journal of science education, 32(16), 2185-2216. jomah, o., masoud, a. k., kishore, x. p., & aurelia, s. (2016). micro learning: a modernized education system. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 7(1), 103-110. lee, b.c. & yoon, j.o. (2009). learners’ acceptance of e-learning in south korea: theories and results. computers & education, 53(4), 1320-1329. liao, s. h., chu, p. h., & hsiao, p. y. (2012). data mining techniques and applications – a decade review from 2000 to 2011. expert systems with applications, 39(12), 11303–11311. lin, k.-m. (2011). e-learning continuance intention: moderating effects of user e-learning experience. computers & education, 56, 515–526. masud, a. h. & huang, x. (2012). an e-learning system architecture based on cloud computing. world academy of science, engineering and technology, 62, 74-78. mata, l., lazar, i., & lazar, g. (2012). the current framework of e-learning concept representation. paper presented at the international conference “education and creativity for a knowledge based society”, bucuresti middleton, d. (2010). putting the learning into e-learning. european consortium for political research, 9(1), 5-12. naaji, a., mustea, a., holotescu, c., & herman, c. (2015). how to mix the ingredients for a blended course recipe. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 6(1-2), 106-116. naidu, s. (2006). e-learning. a guidebook of principles, procedures and practices: commonwealth educational media center for asia (cemca). nedelea, a. m., & costea, m. (2016). the presence and activity on facebook of the informative travel organizations in romania. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 7(2), 41-48. ossiannilsson, e.s.i. (2012). quality enhancement on e-learning. campus-wide information systems, 29(4), 312 323. slevin, j. (2008). e‐learning and the transformation of social interaction in higher education. learning, media and technology, 33(2), 115-126. smetana, l. k., & bell, r. l. (2012). computer simulations to support science instruction and learning: a critical review of the literature. international journal of science education, 34(9), 1337-1370. sun, p.c., tsai, r.j., finger, g., chen, y.y., & yeh, d. (2008). what drives a successful elearning? an empirical investigation of the critical factors influencing learner satisfaction. computers & education, 50(4), 1183-1202. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 70 székely, l. & nagy, á. (2011). online youth work and eyouth — a guide to the world of the digital natives. children and youth services review, 33(11), 2186-2197. references used for ambivalence study abdelaziz, m., kamel, s. s., karam, o., & abdelrahman, a. (2011). evaluation of e-learning program versus traditional lecture instruction for undergraduate nursing students in a faculty of nursing. teaching and learning in nursing, 6, 50-58. abouchedid, k. & eid, g. m. (2004). e-learning challenges in the arab world: revelations from a case study profile. quality assurance in education, 12(1), 15-27. adams, j. & morgan, g. (2007). "second generation" e-learning: characteristics and design principles. international journal on elearning, 6(2), 157-185. alptekin, s.e. & karsak, e.e. (2011). an integrated decision framework for evaluating and selecting e-learning products. applied soft computing, 11, 2990-2998. andersson, a. (2008). seven major challenges for e-learning in developing countries: case study ebit, sri lanka. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 4(3), 45-62. bahreininejad, a. (2006). e-learning and associated issues in iran. international journal of distance education technologies, 4(4), 1-4. barber, t. c. (2011). the online crit: the community of inquiry meets design education. revue de l'education a distance, 25(1), 2-16. barbour, m. k. & hill, j. (2011). what are they doing and how are they doing it? rural student experiences in virtual schooling. revue de l'education a distance, 25(1), 2-14. baylari, a. & montazer, g. a. (2009). design a personalized e-learning system based on item response theory and artificial neural network approach. expert systems with applications, 36, 8013–8021. beaton-garcia, s., casper, c., & tidwell, j. (2012). e-learning support-a library perspective. distance learning, 9(2), 36-41. bell, m., martin, g., & clarke, t. (2004). engaging in the future of e-learning: a scenarios-based approach. education + training, 46(6), 296-307. berge, z.l. & giles, l. (2008). implementing and sustaining e-learning in the workplace. international journal of web-based learning and teaching technologies, 3(3), 44-53. biasutti, m. (2011). the student experience of a collaborative e-learning university module. computers & education, 57, 1865–1875. bıhmová, p. (2012). educational and professional competence of experts in the prevention of social-pathological phenomena. technology of education, 20(2). bowen, s. t. (2000). e-learning tested. infoworld, 22(44), 38-39. cappel, j. j. & hayen, r. l. (2004). evaluating e-learning: a case study. the journal of computer information systems, 44(4), 49-56. costa, g. j. m. & silva, n. s. a. (2010). knowledge versus content in e-learning: a philosophical discussion. inf syst front, 12, 399–413. costea, o. (2011). the logic of social development and e-learning environments. euromentor journal, 2(1), 119-133. dunn, p. (2001). has e-learning truly arrived in europe? training journal, 34-36. ehlers, u. d. (2009). web 2.0-e-learning 2.0-quality 2.0? quality for new learning cultures. quality assurance in education, 17(3), 296-314. el-deghaidy, h. & nouby, a. (2008). effectiveness of a blended e-learning cooperative approach in an egyptian teacher education programme. computers & education, 51, 988–1006. ferretti, s., roccetti, m., salomoni, p., & mirri, s. (2009). custom e-learning experiences: working with profiles for multiple content sources access and adaptation. journal of access services, 6, 174–192. v.m. cojocariu, i. lazar, g. lazar the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services 71 freriks, t. a. (2004). roi and justification of e-learning. limra's marketfacts quarterly, 23(1), 30-33. fry, k. (2001). e-learning markets and providers: some issues and prospects. education + training, 43(4), 233-239. gierłowski, k. & nowicki, k. (2009). a novel architecture for e-learning knowledge assessment systems. international journal of distance education technologies, 7(2), 1-19. githens, r. p. (2006). cautions: implementing interpersonal interaction in workplace e-learning. techtrends, 50(5), 21-27. gonzalez, j. f., rodrıguez, m. c., nistal, m. l., & rifon, l. a. (2009). reverse oauth: a solution to achieve delegated authorizations in single sign-on e-learning systems. computers & security, 28, 843 – 856. granic, a. & adams, r. (2011). user sensitive research in e-learning: exploring the role of individual user characteristics. univ access inf soc, 10, 307–318. greenhow, c. & belbas, b. (2007). using activity-oriented design methods to study collaborative knowledge-building in e-learning courses within higher education. computer-supported collaborative learning, 2, 363–391. gunasekaran, a., mcneil, r. d., & shaul, d. (2002). e-learning: research and applications. industrial and commercial training, 34(2), 44-53. guri-rosenblit, s. & gros, b. (2011). e-learning: confusing terminology, research gaps and inherent challenges. revue de l'education a distance, 25(1), 1-12. hagen, j. m. & albrechtsen, e. (2009). effects on employees' information security abilities by elearning. information management & computer security, 17(5), 388-407. halkett, r. (2002). e-learning and how to survive it. industrial and commercial training, 34(2), 80-82. hassanzadeh, a., kanaani, f., & elahi, s. (2012). a model for measuring e-learning systems success in universities. expert systems with applications, 39, 10959–10966. heshmatpanah, j. & neyestanak, a. a. l. (2011). e-learning effects on teaching at alborz high school (iran). creative education, 2(2), 71-75. hişmanoğlu, m. (2011). e-learning practices in north cyprus universities: benefits, drawbacks and recommendations for effective implementation. international education studies, 4(4), 149-159. huddlestone, j. & pike, j. (2008). seven key decision factors for selecting e-learning. cogn tech work, 10, 237–247. inglis, a. (2008). approaches to the validation of quality frameworks for e-learning. quality assurance in education, 16(4), 347-362. ion, a. m. (2012). influence of ict development on education. informatica economică, 16(1), 154-163. islam, a., rahim, n. a. a., liang, t. c., & momtaz, h. (2011). effect of demographic factors on e-learning effectiveness in a higher learning institution in malaysia. international education studies, 4(1), 112-121. jones, o., saunders, h., & mires, g. (2010). the e-learning revolution in obstetrics and gynaecology. best practice & research clinical obstetrics and gynaecology, 24, 731–746. jung, i. (2011). the dimensions of e-learning quality: from the learner’s perspective. education tech research dev, 59, 445–464. kang, m., heo, h., jo, i.-h., shin, j., & seo, j. (2010). developing an educational performance indicator for new millennium learners. journal of research on technology in education, 43(2), 157-170. kenney, j., hermens, a., & clarke, t. (2004). the political economy of e-learning educational development: strategies, standardisation and scalability. education + training, 46(6), 370379. khirwadkar, a. (2009). research and development in e-learning: a vision. international forum of teaching and studies, 5(1), 44-72. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 72 kidney, g., cummings, l., & boehm, a. (2007). toward a quality assurance approach to elearning courses. international journal on elearning, 6(1), 17-30. kistow, b. (2009). e-learning at the arthur lok jack graduate school of business: a survey of faculty members. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 5(4), 14-20. koven, j. (2003). tracking trends in e-learning. canadian hr reporter, 16(20), g5. lam, p. & mcnaught, c. (2008). a three-layered cyclic model of e-learning development and evaluation. journal of interactive learning research, 19(2), 313-329. landsberger, j. (2002). accessibility: how easy, or even possible... techtrends, 46(5), 65-67. laxton, r. & applebee, a. c. (2010). developing communities of practice around e-learning and project management. revue de l'education a distance, 24(1), 123-142. lee, j.-y. & reigeluth, c. m. (2009). heuristic task analysis on e-learning course development: a formative research study. asia pacific educ. rev., 10, 169-181. leman, j., trappers, a., brandon, e., & ruppol, x. (2008). migration related socio-cultural changes and e-learning in a european globalising society. stud philos educ, 27, 237–251. lin, k.m. (2011). e-learning continuance intention: moderating effects of user e-learning experience. computers & education, 56, 515–526. loh, c. s. (2008). a suitable textbook for the classroom. however ... educational researcher, 36(9), 573–578. marković, m.r. (2010). education through e-learning: case of serbia. journal of business economics and management, 10(4), 313–319. marshall, s. (2010). a quality framework for continuous improvement of e-learning: the elearning maturity model. revue de l'education a distance, 24(1), 143-166. mccombs, b.l. & vakili, d. (2005). a learner-centered framework for e-learning. teachers college record, 107(8), 1582-1600. mckee, k., maureen (2011). the emperor’s new computer: ict, teachers and teaching. revue de l'education a distance, 25(1), 1-2. mele, j. (2006). the three e'seletronic, education and essential. fleet owner, 101(3), 118-121. meredith, s. & burkle, m. (2006). e-learning: encouraging international perspectives. a mexicanuk comparative case study analysis. international journal on elearning, 5(4), 469-491. mihhailova, g. (2006). e-learning as internationalization strategy in higher education: lecturer's and student's perspective. baltic journal of management, 1(3), 270-284. morgan, g. (2001). thirteen "must ask" questions about e-learning products and services. the learning organization, 8(5), 203-211. mortera-gutiérrez, f. (2006). faculty best practices using blended learning in e-learning and face-to-face instruction. international journal on elearning, 5(3), 313-337. mungania, p., & hatcher, t. (2004). a systemic, flexible, and multidimensional model for evaluating e-learning programs. performance improvement, 43(7), 33-39. munro, r. a. (2005). understanding the buzz around e-learning: "searching for ... asq world conference on quality and improvement proceedings, 59, 131-143. mwambazambi, k. (2011). la pertinence de l’université ouverte et d’études à distance en afrique. revue de l'education a distance, 25(1), 1-8. nafukho, f. m. (2007). the place of e-learning in africa’s institutions of higher learning. higher education policy, 20, 19-43. neville, k., heavin, c., & walsh, e. (2005). a case in customizing e-learning. journal of information technology, 20, 117–129. o’neill, k., singh, g., & o’donoghue, j. (2004). implementing elearning programmes for higher education: a review of the literature. journal of information technology education, 3, 314-323. v.m. cojocariu, i. lazar, g. lazar the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services 73 ozkan, s. & koseler, r. (2009). multi-dimensional students’ evaluation of e-learning systems in the higher education context: an empirical investigation. computers & education, 53, 1285– 1296. özpolat, e. & akar, g. b. (2009). automatic detection of learning styles for an e-learning system. computers & education, 53, 355–367. pinto, a., brunese, l., pinto, f., acampora, c., & romano, l. (2011). e-learning and education in radiology. european journal of radiology, 78, 368–371. pop, c. (2012). evaluation of e-learning platforms: a case study. informatica economică, 16(1), 155-167. roffe, i. (2002). e-learning: engagement, enhancement and execution. quality assurance in education, 10(1), 40-50. savidis, a., grammenos, d., & stephanidis, c. (2007). developing inclusive e-learning and eentertainment to effectively accommodate learning difficulties. univ access inf soc, 5, 401– 419. servage, l. (2005). strategizing for workplace e-learning: some critical considerations. journal of workplace learning, 17(5), 304-317. sharma, k., pandit, p., & pandit, p. (2011). critical success factors in crafting strategic architecture for e-learning at hp university. international journal of educational management, 25(5), 423-452. shurville, s., o'grady, t. b., & mayall, p. (2008). educational and institutional flexibility of australian educational software. campus-wide information systems, 25(2), 74-84. šimonová, i. (2012). e-learning in engineering education: fim uhk contribution to engineering pedagogy. technology of education, 2, 1-8. singh, b., kapil, r., & katare, o. p. (2009). pharmaceutical e-learning: precepts, retrospect and prospects. j young pharm, 1(2), 99-109. smith, k. (2007). supporting e-learning in enterprise: the te3 project. education + training, 49(8), 656-671. sørebø, ø., halvari, h., gulli, v. f., & kristiansen, r. (2009). the role of self-determination theory in explaining teachers’ motivation to continue to use e-learning technology. computers & education, 53, 1177–1187. stocker, d. k., griffin, p. m., & kocher, c. j. (2011). evaluating the knowledge and use of web 2.0 technology among criminal justice students at two-year and graduate level institutions of higher learning. sociological viewpoints, 27, 76-93. suanpang, p., & petocz, p. (2006). e-learning in thailand: an analysis and case study. international journal on elearning, 5(3), 415-438. sung, y.-t., chang, k.-e., & yu, w.-c. (2011). evaluating the reliability and impact of a quality assurance system for e-learning courseware. computers & education, 57, 1615–1627. taylor, l., mcgrath-champ, s., & clarkeburn, h. (2012). supporting student self-study: the educational design of podcasts in a collaborative learning context. active learning in higher education, 13(1), 77–90. torres maldonado, u. p., khan, g. f., moon, j., & rho, j. j. (2011). e-learning motivation and educational portal acceptance in developing countries. online information review, 35(1), 66-85. trotter, a. (2002). e-learning goes to school. education week, 21(35), 13-18. turvey, k. (2010). pedagogical-research designs to capture the symbiotic nature of professional knowledge and learning about e-learning in initial teacher education in the uk. computers & education, 54, 783–790. udo, g. j., bagchi, k. k., & kirs, p. j. (2011). using servqual to assess the quality of elearning experience. computers in human behavior, 27, 1272–1283. uhomoibhi, j. o. (2006). implementing e-learning in northern ireland: prospects and challenges. campus-wide information systems, 23(1), 4-14. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 74 waight, c. l. & stewart, b. l. (2005). valuing the adult learner in e-learning: part two-insights from four companies. journal of workplace learning, 17(5), 398-414. waller, v. (2004). the state of the nation: e-learning in the 21st century. training journal, 30-36. wang, q., zhu, z., chen, l., & yan, h. (2009). e-learning in china. campus-wide information systems, 26(2), 77-81. wang, t. j. (2010). educational benefits of multimedia skills training. techtrends, 54(1), 47-57. wu, h.-y. & lin, h.-y. (2012). a hybrid approach to develop an analytical model for enhancing the service quality of e-learning. computers & education, 58, 1318–1338. yunus, m., salehi, h., & chenzi, c. (2012). integrating social networking tools into esl writing classroom:strengths and weaknesses. english language teaching, 5(8), 42-48. zaharias, p. & koutsabasis, p. (2012). heuristic evaluation of e-learning courses: a comparative analysis of two e-learning heuristic sets. campus-wide information systems, 29(1), 45-60. zahner, j. (2002). teachers explore knowledge management and e-learning as models for professional development. techtrends, 46(3), 11-16. zhang, d. & nunamaker, j. f. (2003). powering e-learning in the new millennium: an overview of e-learning and enabling technology. information systems frontiers, 5(2), 207–218. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 64 the impact of teaching critical thinking on iranian students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions ali taghinezhad department of english language, shiraz branch, islamic azad university, shiraz, iran taghinezhad1@gmail.com mohammad javad riasati2 department of english language, shiraz branch, islamic azad university, shiraz, iran mjriasati2002@yahoo.com ehsan rassaei department of english language, shiraz branch, islamic azad university, shiraz, iran ehsanrassaei@yahoo.com fatemeh behjat department of english language, abadeh branch, islamic azad university, abadeh, iran fb_304@yahoo.com abstract this study was intended to investigate the effectiveness of teaching critical thinking on students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions. to this end, 140 students were selected. 73 students were assigned to the experimental group and 67 were assigned to the control group. the experimental group received instruction in critical thinking strategies whereas the control group did not. the instruments used in this study were the researcher-developed essay test, the ennis-weir critical thinking essay test, and the california critical thinking dispositions inventory (cctdi). a 2-group pretest/posttest quasi-experimental design was utilized to determine the outcome measures. data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent-samples ttest. statistically significant differences were observed in the experimental and the control groups in the total scores of the three instruments. the results indicated an improvement in students’ writing performance and their dispositions toward using critical thinking strategies. nonetheless, some dispositional aspects such as truth-seeking, cognitive maturity, and openmindedness did not differ significantly after the intervention. keywords: critical thinking dispositions inventory, academic writing performance, ennis-weir critical thinking essay test, critical thinking explicit instruction 1. introduction the instruction of cognitive skills such as critical thinking is not a completely new phenomenon. it originated from greek philosophy and received dewey's support after the second world war. it was modified by bloom in the 1950s and became popular in the 1990s. from socratic era to contemporary concerns about educated citizens and high-quality workforces, the ability to think critically and to think rationally is regarded as the primary and necessary result of education (reed, 1998). today, more important than ever, teaching students critical thinking and rational thinking is considered to be the core of liberal education (giancarlo and facione, 2001). critical thinking is always a process which includes assessing one's own thinking process or all other steps in the thinking process of others (sims, 2014). critical thinking is also thought of as an active and ingenious process of conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication as an intellectual process (scriven and paul, 2004; sezer, 2008). this is a process 2 corresponding author a. taghinezhad, m. j. riasati the impact of teaching critical thinking on students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions 65 that can contribute to the use of cognitive skills or strategies to increase the likelihood of a favorable outcome (halpern, 2007; baker, rudd, and pomeroy, 2001). dewey (1933) pointed out that learning to think is the main purpose of education. dressel and mayhew (1954) believe that educational institutions are responsible for teaching students to go beyond simple mental activities and recall of the ideas and facts. some scholars, including scriven maintain that critical thinking training should be the primary task of education (scriven, 1985). today, the world needs people with critical thinking qualities to meet the ever-increasing life challenges. prerequisite for employment in the global economy, the survival of democratic lifestyles, and personal decision-making in a complex and rapidly changing society require individuals who can reason well and make sound judgments. as a country moves toward a technology-based economy, it needs trained personnel who can face global competition, meet employers' needs, be flexible and analytic in thinking, integrate information from a myriad of sources and perspectives, and can effectively make profitable and efficient decisions. psychologists, philosophers, and educators (halpern, 2007; king, 1994) believe that making rational decisions needs the ability to analyze, evaluate, interpret, and synthesize information accurately from various sources, and it is an indispensable tool for successfully accomplishing tasks in a complex and everchanging world for students, staff, and citizens. developing critical thinking skills among undergraduates is an essential life skill that has received extraordinary attention in the past two decades. critical thinking can be developed among college students (halpern, 1998; tsui, 2002), especially if critical thinking instruction and student practice are permeated throughout the curriculum (condon and kelly-riley, 2004). despite widespread expression of concern for the development of critical thinkers, observations and current empirical studies show that most schools, colleges, and universities neither challenge the students to think critically about academic subjects nor do they help them develop reasoning abilities to succeed in dealing with the difficulties of modern life. although active learning methods or student-centered teaching which help students think about what they do would dominate the educational practices of schools and universities our education system still provides students with traditional teaching models. the erroneous daily reasoning and poor debate techniques used by most students (verbally and in writing) suggest that even university education seems to have a limited impact on the critical thinking ability of students, including the rational interpretation of texts and formulation of unbiased arguments. the possible reasons for this shortcoming are as follows: (a) teachers do not receive critical thinking training when they are in college education, and they do not even know what critical thinking means. (b) there are few or no standard textbooks and/or reference books in critical thinking. (c) teachers do not have the time and teaching resources to incorporate critical thinking skills into their classroom teaching methods (d). teachers teach implicitly rather than explicitly. these shortcomings are very important because critical thinking is highly relevant to students’ achievement. like many other countries, the education policy implemented in iran vividly shows that the pedagogical implications of constructivism would influence the teaching practices in schools. however, the available empirical evidence shows that education in iran is still characterized by traditional teaching methods. unfortunately, traditional education models just allow students to receive rather than seek knowledge. in this teaching mode, the spread of knowledge is considered authoritative and can be passed from teacher to student. it is assumed that knowledge and procedures must be instilled in students who are passive recipients during the learning process (ramsden and moses, 1992). this approach also reinforces the importance of traditional implicit models that provide critical thinking instruction and simply regard critical thinking as an implicit goal of the curriculum (reed, 1998; pescatore, 2007). lack of enough empirical data regarding the students’ critical thinking and its approach to language education shows the necessity for this study. such a study can provide some useful information about the teaching of critical thinking and efl in general and academic writing skills in particular. conducting such a study can be significant for the following reasons: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 66  firstly, although research on the students’ critical thinking has been underway in other countries such as the united states and europe, no study has been conducted so far on the undergraduate students’ critical thinking in iran. thus, this study can provide an impetus for the teaching profession to follow a systematic approach to developing a critical thinking pedagogy in language education.  secondly, even though much research has been done on critical thinking approach to learning, very little is known about its effect on the students’ academic writing abilities. moreover, although the effect of critical thinking on general education has been indicated, it is unclear whether its effect will be repeated when critical thinking strategy is applied to different subject areas. this study can help language educators and curriculum designers understand the fact that critical thinking could be the basis for designing programs and course materials that can boost the students’ learning. therefore, this study intends to answer the following questions: 1. does explicit critical thinking strategy instruction help iranian students outperform in their writing ability? 2. do iranian students who receive explicit instruction in critical thinking techniques have different dispositions toward the use of essential skills of thinking compared to those not receiving explicit instruction in essential techniques of thinking? 2. literature review critical thinking (ct) is not a new term. the intellectual origins of ct can be traced back to about 2,400 years ago to socrates’ teaching practice who underlined the significance of questioning which is now called socratic questioning, a strategy for teaching ct (paul, 1985). socrates set the agenda for ct tradition to reflectively question common beliefs and interpretations and carefully distinguish those beliefs that are rational from those that lack sufficient evidence or rational basis (paul & elder, 2008). socrates’ approach was followed by plato, aristotle and greek skeptics who valued the significance of seeing through the chimerical appearance of the deeper realities of life. the ct tradition lasted for centuries until the ct movement in the early 1980s, when ct research in philosophy, psychology, and education broke out (fasko, 2003). the approaches used to define ct in philosophy, psychology, and education are different (see table 1). the philosophical approach focuses on the application of formal rules of logic (lewis & smith, 1993) and emphasizes the quality and standards of thinking. it assumes the best performance of ideas that might not be in line with reality (sternberg, 1986). table 1. definitions of ct in philosophy, psychology and education philosophy psychology education  act persistent and careful  the extension of evidence in  analysis, synthesis, and consideration of any belief or accord with that evidence so as to evaluation. (bloom, 1956) supposed form of knowledge in fill up gaps in the evidence. the light of the grounds that (bartlett, 1958, p. 75)  an investigation whose support it and the further purpose is to explore a conclusions to which it tends.  an active process involving a situation, phenomenon, (dewey, 1933, p. 9) number of denotable mental question, or problem to operations such as induction, arrive at a hypothesis or  the propensity and skill to deduction, reasoning, sequencing, conclusion about it that engage in an activity with classification and definition of integrates all available reflective skepticism. (mcpeck, relationships. (siegel, 1988, p. 118) information and that can 1981, p. 8) therefore be convincingly  the mental processes, strategies, justified. (kurfiss, 1988,  reasonable reflective thinking and representations people use to p. 2) that is focused on deciding what solve problems, make decisions, to believe or do. (ennis, 1985, p. and learn new concepts.  making reasoned 45) (sternberg, 1986, p. 3) judgements. (beyer, 1995, p. 8) a. taghinezhad, m. j. riasati the impact of teaching critical thinking on students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions 67  skillful, responsible thinking that  a set of processes whereby facilitates good judgement people assemble, use and revise  the propensity and skills because it 1) relies upon criteria, internal mental symbols. to engage in activity with 2) is self-correcting, and 3) is (gilhooly, 1996, p. 1) reflective skepticism sensitive to context. (lipman, focused on deciding what 1988, p. 39)  the use of those cognitive skills to believe or do. or strategies that increase the (halonen, 1995, p. 76)  purposeful, self-regulatory probability of a desirable judgement which results in outcome. (halpern, 1998, p. 450)  take new information and interpretation, analysis, interrelate and/or evaluation, and inference, as well  seeing both sides of an issue, rearrange and extend this as explanation of the evidential, being open to new evidence that information to achieve a conceptual, methodological, disconfirms your ideas, reasoning purpose or find possible criteriological, or conceptual dispassionately, demanding that answers in perplexing considerations upon which that claims be backed by evidence, situations. (lewis & judgement is based. (facione, deducing and inferring smith, 1993, p. 136) 1990, p. 3) conclusions from available facts, solving problems, and so forth.  skills which enable  disciplined, self-directed (willingham, 2008, p. 8) individuals to solve thinking that exemplifies the problems for which they perfections of thinking have no ready-made appropriate to a particular mode procedures or solutions. or domain of thought. (paul, (steele, 1997, p. 6) 1992, p. 9) 2.1. ct skills and ct dispositions although there are differences in the three viewpoints about ct definition, there are some common points. firstly, researchers tend to identify certain skills that are closely related to the concept of ct. secondly, researchers believe that ct involves not only skills but also dispositions. it requires a further exploration of prevailing definitions to determine specific ct skills and ct dispositions and their relationships. 2.2. ct skills the common conceptualization of ct relates it to a set of cognitive skills. more precisely, ct skills are called higher-order cognitive skills (halpern, 2007), which need a higher level of complexity of thinking skills. in order to more clearly explain the skills required for ct, researchers such as bloom, ennis, and facione have invested considerable effort in providing the taxonomies of ct skills (see table 2). although the number of skills and the ways of categorization of those skills are different, they provide us with a more tangible conceptualization of ct by presenting a list of skills involved in the abstract thinking process. these skills cannot only be taught, but they are also observable and assessable. if we have a bird's eye view of all these definitions and classifications, it is not difficult to find several skills that most researchers value highly, whether it is from philosophy, psychology or education. these skills which are listed in the table 3, involve making judgments or decisions, reasoning, evaluation and analysis. the claim that these are the most important ct skills may not be definite. however, the agreement reached on these skills implies a generally accepted view that ct is a utilization of skills such as reasoning, evaluating, or analyzing in thinking which aims to enhance the quality of thinking in the judgment and problem solving process. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 68 table 2. taxonomies of ct skills bloom (1956) ennis (1985) facione (1990)  analysis  synthesis  evaluation  focusing on a question  analyzing arguments  asking and answering questions of clarification ion and/or challenge  judging the credibility of a source  observing and judging observation reports, criteria  deducing and judging deductions  inducing and judging inductions  making value judgments  defining terms, and judging definitions in three dimensions  identifying assumptions  deciding on an action  interacting with others  interpretation  analysis  evaluation  inference  explanation  self-regulation table 3. some main ct skills making judgement/decision ennis (1985, 1987); facione (1990); seifert (2010); willingham (2007). reasoning ennis (1987); facione (1990); paul (1992); stahl & stahl (1991); willingham (2007). evaluating bloom (1956); facione (1990); graham (2011); siegel (1988). analyzing bloom (1956); ennis (1987); facione (1990); paul (1992). 2.3. ct dispositions along with the agreement on the idea that ct has a set of cognitive skills, researchers increasingly believe that ct also involves dispositions, which are, as defined by facione (2000), "consistent internal motivations to act toward or respond to persons, events, or circumstances in habitual, yet potentially malleable ways" (p. 64). delphi research experts warn that those who are proficient in ct skills but fail to use them properly are not good critical thinkers (facione, 1990). dewey (1933) emphasized the importance of attitudes. he pointed out that people tend to believe the facts that are consistent with their desires because their personal attitudes have not been examined. he stated that if we are forced to make a choice between personal attributes and the knowledge of logical reasoning principles along with a certain degree of technical skill in manipulating particular logic processes, we should select the former. when it comes to ct teaching in the educational milieu, special emphasis is placed on the ct dispositions as necessary factors for understanding ct instruction and as the final aim of teaching ct (facione, facione, sánchez and gainen, 1995). as ennis (1985) shows, critical thinking ability is different from critical thinking disposition. researchers from different fields of knowledge have attempted to describe the dispositions that an ideal critical thinker should have. dewey (1933) proposed three personal attitudes. these three personal attitudes are a basic part of the general willingness to think in a thoughtful manner: wholeheartedness, open-mindedness, and responsibility. many other researchers (e.g. ennis, 1987; halpern, 1998) advocating for emphasis on ct dispositions also provide a list of ct dispositions. just as in the case of ct skills, although there is no consensus on a comprehensive list of ct dispositions, several intellectual traits are of great a. taghinezhad, m. j. riasati the impact of teaching critical thinking on students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions 69 significance for being a critical thinker, such as open-mindedness, inquisitiveness, fair-mindedness, propensity to seek alternatives, and respect for reason (see table 4). table 4. ct dispositions open-mindedness bailin et al. (1999); dewey (1933); ennis (1987); facione (1990); halpern (1998). fair-mindedness bailin et al. (1999); facione (1990). inquisitiveness bailin et al. (1999); facione (1990). propensity to seek alternatives ennis (1987); lipman (1988). respect for reason bailin et al. (1999). interestingly, it has been found that these prominent dispositions are to some extent overlapping in nature. for example, open-mindedness, as defined by dewey (1933), is “freedom from prejudice, partisanship, and such other habits as close the mind and make it unwilling to consider new problems and entertain new ideas” (p. 30). it expresses a meaning of fairness. paul and elder (2001) define it as unbiased and unprejudiced. dewey also stated that open mindedness also includes actively listening to multiple opinions, paying attention to other possibilities, and recognizing the possibility of mistakes in one’s beliefs, as well as alertness to the spontaneous outreaching for new things. in this sense, it also includes a disposition to seek alternatives and curiosity. nonetheless, this does not mean that critical thinking dispositions come down to openmindedness, because it does not encompass all the virtues that critical thinkers should possess. it can be concluded from all these arguments that the essence of being a critical thinker does not mean being rigorous, but rather being aware of the possible mistakes an individual might make, of the diversity of possible solutions, and the ways to achieve fair results. considering that disposition is an important part of ct, this shows the fact that ct should be seen as not just a set of thinking skills, but should also recognize why and how to use these skills and the willingness of using them where appropriate. this recognition reminds us that, on the one hand, ct arises only when people use it; on the other hand, the key and important goal of ct teaching is to encourage students' ct dispositions. 2.4. the relationship between ct skills and ct dispositions a glance at the definitions of ct identifies two basic aspects of ct and reveals that a thorough understanding of ct should include skills and disposition. facione et al. (1995) assume that ct skills and ct disposition reciprocally reinforce each other. however, the connection between ct skills and ct dispositions is not a one-to-one correspondence, which means that skillscentered courses do not lead to learners willing to think critically, because being skilled does not guarantee that someone is using ct, and having disposition toward critical thinking does not guarantee that the person is skilled (facione, 2000). the relationship between ct skills and ct dispositions reveals two principles about what and how to teach ct. first of all, the teaching of ct involves not only the development of ct skills but also the cultivation of ct dispositions, so that learners can not only use ct skills in an appropriate setting, but also are willing to use ct skills. second, although the teaching of ct skills and ct disposition should not be separated, skills and dispositions are two distinct things (facione, 2000). hence, different approaches should be used for each aspect. an investigation of the perception of ct shows the complexity of the concept, which implies possible challenges to introduce ct into the classroom context. with regard to the actual teaching practice, what teachers want is more than one definition, but an established model that can present a set of tools to facilitate the teaching and learning of ct in different disciplines (jones & haydon, 2012). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 70 table 5. paul and elder’s (2001) ct model elements of thought intellectual standards intellectual traits  purpose  question at issue   clarity accuracy   fair-mindedness intellectual humility  information  precision  intellectual courage  interpretation and inference  concepts   relevance depth   intellectual empathy intellectual integrity  assumptions  implications and   breadth logic   intellectual perseverance confidence in reason consequences  point of view   significance fairness  intellectual autonomy considering ct as the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with regard to its improvement (paul & elder, 2007), paul and the elder presented a 3d model of ct that includes not only ct skills and ct dispositions, but also standards which evaluate the quality of thinking. they believe that critical thinkers regularly use intellectual standards for the elements of reasoning to develop intellectual traits (paul and elder, 2001), paul and the elder provided three components in their ct model (table 5): (1) elements of thought; (ii) intellectual standards; and 3) intellectual traits. 2.5. the significance of learning ct each of us needs critical thinking skills and dispositions when it comes to solving problems and making decisions that affect our lives, our families, our country, and our world. learning requires the power of critical thinking because when it comes to new situations, problem conditions, and opportunities for innovation, learning requires the interpretation and integration of new knowledge, as well as its practical and appropriate application. according to bloom (1956), the key to seeing critical thinking in the academic world is to understand the importance of critical thinking in learning. excellent teachers develop critical thinking at every stage of learning, including initial learning. the key is to train critical thinking teachers to stimulate students' thinking skills by asking questions that inspire ideas that are crucial to the construction of knowledge. according to nummela and rosengren (1986), when the natural tendency of the brain to make meaning from patterns is used in teaching, learning becomes more similar to learning in real life. because the brain creates patterns, the teacher’s task is to organize and present the material and let the brain create meaningful and pertinent connections to extract the patterns. this type of learning is the most easily recognized as a whole, and these methods aim to establish a connection between meanings via creating problem-solving ability and fostering critical thinking skills. critical thinking is of great significance for it makes use of parts of the brain that we rarely use. critical thinking makes us more alert and helps us solve problems. by combining imagination and intuition with reasoning and assessment, learners can achieve perspectives, construct and identify relationships, and improve their understanding. they have the confidence to process data, use the latest sources of information, analyze arguments and solve complicated problems. this occurs if and only if critical thinking is part of the student's classroom activities (powell and tassoni, 2009). they also elucidate that critical thinking and understanding context in an attractive learning situation leads to thinking and informed action. making a well-thought decision and checking its consequences heightens one's moral commitment, enriches ethical understanding, and reinforces civic participation. maimon, peritz, and yancey (2008) explain that critical thinking is not only the basis of university work but also the foundation of democratic social life. critical thinking means being involved rather than necessarily finding fault. critical thinkers never merely collect information and present it without question. they ask about what they see, hear, and read. they involve the a. taghinezhad, m. j. riasati the impact of teaching critical thinking on students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions 71 following skills: cognitive argumentation; analysis and assessment of an argument; and recognition of common logical fallacies. there are many positive and advantageous uses of critical thinking, for example, developing feasible solutions to complicated personal problems, considering what actions to take as a group, or analyzing the assumptions and value of the methods utilized in scientifically reaching an acceptable level of confidence about a specific hypothesis (sumner, 1906). according to sumner (1906), through strong critical thinking, we can assess an argument, for example, as worthy of acceptance since it is based on a true premise. through reflection, a speaker might be regarded as a reliable of information on a particular subject matter. 2.6. theoretical underpinnings of ct instruction in this study, a constructivist learning approach to learning has been considered to be the key theoretical standpoint underpinning critical thinking teaching and learning. constructivism is a philosophy of education which is characterized by students' ownership of the learning process. learning critical thinking is best done through constructivism (leach, 2011). brooks and brooks (1993) see constructivism as a philosophy leading to critical thinking. constructivist learning theory holds that knowledge is constructed from learners' perceptions, experience, and mental representations. meaning is created by individuals and depends on their personal prior and present knowledge structure (wadsworth, 1971). learning is a personal experience built on a scaffold of experience which changes when experience is gained. experience enhances the deep understanding of content (healy, 1990). positive interactions and personal relationships within the classroom build an environment contributing to higher-order thinking (healy, 1990). critical thinking requires students not only to vigorously participate in the content presented, but also with other people involved. although there is a need to improve critical thinking skills in all areas of education, teaching methods can stimulate responses on a lower level of bloom's taxonomy (elder and paul, 2009). rote memorization is common in most classrooms and is the main approach to learning materials. according to brookfield (2006), this passive activity is on a lower level of learning. in contrast, constructivist classrooms tend to be more stimulating, challenging, attractive, and interesting. marzano (2007) pointed out that constructivist teachers are not passive observers. they provide discussion, challenges, and act as promoters to encourage learners to question knowledge. teachers must allow students to build their own knowledge (brooks and brooks, 1993). constructivist teachers are not seen as those who transfer knowledge to their students, but are seen as coordinating individuals on the personal level who pave the way for the ownership of knowledge. constructivist teachers do not consider that students can repeat verbatim, but they can produce, present, display, and build content (brooks and brooks, 1993). content knowledge should be taught via the integration of critical thinking, or as jenkins (2009) mentioned, this process should teach students to think. engaging the brain through critical thinking and problem solving is more advantageous than the rote memorization of pieces of information (matheny, 2009). as lewis and smith (1993) put it, mature brains help solve problems and higher-order thinking. the necessity to teach content is an important hurdle to the teaching of critical thinking skills. other obstacles to the application of critical thinking include the size of the classroom, classroom time, and teacher attitude (slavin, 2009). traditional educational concepts as teachers being considered as the information transmitters and students as passive recipients of knowledge seriously hinder the development of critical thinking skills (marzano, 2007). this teaching philosophy is best described as essentialism. essentialism has replaced progressivism, the educational philosophy advocated by dewey (1933) in the early 20th century. progressivism is considered to be an educational philosophy that promotes critical thinking. in the progressivist classrooms, students are stimulated to communicate with one another, and social merits such as collaboration and tolerance for different viewpoints are developed (sadker and sadker, 2003). teachers in progressivist classrooms integrate content from different topics and plan lessons to provoke inquisitiveness and higher levels of knowledge. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 72 essentialist teachers and managers, on the other hand, decide what is important for students to learn and put little emphasis on their interest (sadker and sadker, 2003). as a means of assessing progress, essentialist teachers mostly focus on achievement scores (sadker & sadker, 2003). 3. method 3.1. research design this research study is a 2-group quasi-experimental pretest/posttest control group design. students were assigned to experimental and control groups. a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest control group design was utilized for this study to determine whether students receiving the critical thinking instruction would perform differently from those in the non-critical thinking group. 3.2. participants the current study was carried out in jahrom university of medical sciences, iran. 140 students participated in this study. they were male and female students studying advanced english writing course at jahrom university of medical sciences. they were from 18 to 25 years of age. the students were selected using convenient (purposive) sampling technique. they were divided into experimental (critical thinking) and control (non-critical thinking) groups. 3.3. instruments the instruments that were used in this study are as follows: a) the researcher-developed essay test an essay writing test was developed to examine whether students who are exposed to explicit instruction in critical thinking perform better in a test that requires them to analyze and interpret topics and write essays than those who do not receive explicit instruction in critical thinking. it is assumed that such a writing test is more comprehensive and can evaluate more aspects of critical thinking. for this purpose, a topic is assigned, and students are required to write so that the researcher can examine whether explicit instruction in critical thinking in the writing course can enhance the students’ performance in essay writing skills. because of the subjective nature of marking an essay, inter-rater reliability can be an inevitable problem. therefore, the reliability of the essay writing skill test must be measured to make sure that coders assign the essay test ratings consistently. b) the ennis-weir critical thinking essay test the second instrument used in this study was the ennis-weir critical thinking essay test (ctet) developed by ennis and weir (1985). although there are several instruments which test critical thinking abilities, this instrument is the most significant instrument for teaching and testing purposes (ennis & weir, 1985). it is an open-ended test because critical thinking is an open-ended activity (ennis & weir, 1985) that can help evaluate an individual’s general ability to assess an argument and to make an argument in response. the reliability of the ennis-weir ctet has been calculated to be from 0.72 to 0.99 (ennis, 2005). c) the california critical thinking dispositions inventory (cctdi) the third instrument used in this study was the california critical thinking dispositions inventory (cctdi). the aim of this instrument was to determine whether the students who receive explicit instruction in critical thinking strategies have different dispositions towards their critical thinking abilities compared to those who do not receive any instruction. this is the first instrument which has been devised for this purpose, and it is conceptually rooted in the delphi report on critical thinking (american philosophical association, 1990). this inventory has seven dimensions and 75 items with a likert scale type. the seven dimensions of this instrument are systematicity, open-mindedness, analyticity, truth-seeking, inquisitiveness, critical thinking, selfconfidence, and cognitive maturity. a. taghinezhad, m. j. riasati the impact of teaching critical thinking on students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions 73 3.4. data collection students were assigned to the control and the experimental groups. the cctdi, the academic writing test, and the ennis-weir critical thinking essay were used to collect data in two phases (pretest and posttest). the students in the experimental and the control groups received instruction in academic writing 3 hours per week for one semester. the instructor gave the students a pretest at the end of the first week of instruction. the instruction then continued for 15 weeks. 3.5. instructional method and materials 3.5.1. experimental group in order to examine the possible impacts of incorporating explicit instruction of critical thinking into academic writing curriculum on iranian university students’ writing performance, students were assigned to experimental and control groups. the apa delphi report on teaching for critical thinking and assessment (facione, 1990) was utilized as the basis for the experimental treatment in the present study. the instructor integrated the critical thinking techniques into the content of academic writing course in the experimental group via (a) providing ct explicit instruction, (b) teaching students how to make use of those techniques to synthesize, analyze, and evaluate texts, (c) presenting support materials in ct classrooms (including leaflets, models) of the instructional techniques, (d) leading socratic discussions based on the elements and criteria suggested in the instructional techniques, (e) assigning classroom activities and giving them adequate time to practice each skill, using both oral and written techniques, and assessing students’ performance. students used two academic efl writing materials (table 6). one of these materials, nevertheless, was revised by the instructor to be used in the experimental group. classroom assignments for the two groups were the same except integrating ct activities into classroom writing assignments explicitly to the experimental group. the instructor provided the students in the experimental group with a package of critical thinking skills and explained to them. it included the definition of ct and ct skills, efficient techniques for developing critical thinking skills and habits of mind, and critical thinking classroom support. the instructor helped them create critical thinking skills to have a better performance in their academic and in everyday life situations. the package from which students could select a strategy to use in a specific situation was borrowed from paul’s model and was taught to students in the experimental group. the package included ct skills and abilities (i.e. evaluation, analysis, explanation, inference, interpretation, and self-regulation (exceptional to delphi report)), the basics of reasoning: the goal of thinking, the problem to be solved, concepts and principles, information, frame of reference, perspective, inferences and solutions, assumptions and implications. the instructor focused on critical thinking strategies in the experimental group. firstly, the instructor utilized scaffolded specific strategies of ct which commenced with rudimentary questioning strategies and ended with higher-order ct skills. he told the students that successful academic writing requires evaluation of information and the author’s tone, data analysis, paraphrasing, and summarizing. academic writers are expected to express their own points of view on the issue after summarizing the information. the students were asked to use elements of reasoning when reading texts and they were encouraged to share views about the text. this collaborative activity helped them better comprehend what types of reasoning were expected of them and improve their understanding of academic writing skills. in the experimental class, besides having socratic discussions on the specified issues, the students were required to give a lecture for approximately 10-15 minutes. in order to enhance the students' critical thinking and academic writing ability, the instructor adopted a comprehensive explicit teaching method, with the following textbooks and other supplementary reading materials: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 74 textbooks: 1. teaching academic esl writing: practical techniques in vocabulary and grammar (hinkel, 2003), and 2. the write stuff: thinking through essays (sims, 2014). 3.5.2. the control group students in the control group were taught the same academic writing course materials as the experimental group. however, the two groups followed different instructional approaches for evaluating and analyzing the materials. instead of teaching students to use the reasoning skills to analyze sources, the instructor asked the students in the control group to complete the questions at the beginning and at end of the sources. however, in order to be able to answer all the questions, students needed to use the elements of reasoning and use academic writers’ strategies for comprehending sources in academic articles. the crucial differences between the approaches used in the control group and in the experimental group were the explicitness of ct instruction i n the experimental group. the instructor attempted to use the same activities in both groups except for the materials of ct instruction. the instruction time was the same both groups. students in both the experimental and the control groups were given the same topic and required to write about it as a post-instruction test. then, the ennis-weir ctet and the cctdi were administered to them. having coded and marked the tests data, the researcher analyzed the data using appropriate statistical procedures. 3.6. data analysis the means and standard deviations for the three instruments, namely academic writing skills test (awst), ennis-weir critical thinking essay test, and the cctdi are presented in table 4. there were 73 students in the experimental group and 67 students in the control group. table 4. descriptive statistics of the pretest and the posttest scores of the instruments experimental group (n = 73) control group (n = 67) pretest posttest pretest posttest instrument mean sd mean sd mean sd mea sd. awst 51.32 13.72 74.68 5.92 51.63 7.58 56.49 12.17 ennis-weir 43.57 7.04 71.42 6.84 44.32 5.72 53.78 7.96 cctdi (total) 279.58 29.87 316.38 26.42 278.12 23.85 292.82 13.87 the results of the descriptive statistics as indicated in table 4 show that the mean pretest of the experimental group is approximately the same as the mean pretest scores found in the control group, demonstrating that the two groups had similar background before the intervention. nevertheless, there was a significant difference between the experimental and the control groups regarding the pretest and the posttest scores. the experimental group had a higher gain on all instruments on the posttest compared to the control group which had a trivial change from pretest to posttest. 3.6.1. impact of explicit instruction in critical thinking on student’s writing performance in order to explore the impact of ct explicit instruction on students’ writing performance, an independent-samples t-test was run. the significance level was set at p < 0.05. table 5 provides the result of the t-test. a. taghinezhad, m. j. riasati the impact of teaching critical thinking on students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions 75 table 5. the independent-samples t-test for the experimental and the control groups regarding essay writing group n mean sd se mean t-value df p (sig.2tailed) posttest e c 73 67 77.68 56.49 5.92 12.1 1.17932 1.71634 7.147 138 .001* significant at p < 0.05 (2-tailed) according to table 5, there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control group with regard to their writing performance (p < 0.05). the mean of the experimental group was significantly higher (m = 77.68, sd = 5.92) compared to that of the control group (m = 56.49, sd = 12.1). the effect size of the difference in the academic writing skills test was calculated at cohen’s d =1.67, demonstrating a very large effect size. 3.6.2. the impact of ct explicit i n s t r u c t i o n o n s t u d e n t s ’ dispositions toward ct table 6 provides the results of descriptive statistics on the cctdi. according to table 6, there was a trivial difference between the mean pretest of the experimental group (m = 279.58) and that of the control group (m = 278.12). nonetheless, the gains at the posttest in both groups were higher than those of the pretest. according to table 6, the experimental group had a more remarkable improvement from pretest to posttest, though students’ gains in both groups had an increase from pretest to posttest. table 6. descriptive statistics of the experimental and the control groups on the cctdi pretest scores posttest scores instrument group n mean sd mean sd experimental 73 279.58 29.87 316.38 26.42 cctdi (total) control 67 278.12 23.85 292.82 13.87 in order to examine whether the mean of the two groups were significantly different in posttest due to instruction or not, an independent-samples t-test was used. table 7 provides the results of the t-test. according to table 7, there was a statistically significant difference between the total mean of the experimental (e) and the control (c) groups (total mean of e = 318.38, sd = 24.1225; total mean of c = 290.82, sd = 15.3267). there was not any statistically significant difference in the mean posttest scores on some cctdi subscales (for example, truth-seeking, cognitive maturity, and openmindedness), whereas the mean posttest scores of some cctdi subscales were significantly different (for example, analyticity, ct inquisitiveness, ct selfconfidence, and systematicity). the mean posttest scores of the experimental group were significantly higher on systematicity (m = 50.1794, sd = 5.4632), analyticity (m = 45.4789, sd = 6.3685), ct self-confidence (m = 43.7419, sd = 3.4123), and ct inquisitiveness (m = 48.3263, sd = 5.6514) than the mean posttest scores of the control group, for instance, analyticity (m = 40.2179, sd = 4.9725), systematicity (m = 43.7317, sd = 5.4971), ct selfconfidence (m = 38.9412, sd = 5.3497), and ct inquisitiveness (m = 43.0179, sd = .7649). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 76 table 7. independent-samples t-test for students’ dispositions toward critical thinking sub-scales group n mean sd se mean t-value df sig.2-tailed truth-seeking e c 73 67 45.2145 44.3697 8.2136 6.1637 1.4712 .9147 1.627 138 .231 open-mindedness e c 73 67 43.4153 42.3265 5.4791 4.8749 .8994 .9461 1.598 138 .219 analyticity e c 73 67 45.4789 40.2179 6.3685 4.9725 .7498 .8124 3.712 138 .003* systematicity e c 73 67 50.1794 43.7317 5.4632 5.4971 .7364 .7968 5.212 138 .000* ct self-confidence e c 73 67 43.7419 38.9412 3.4123 5.3497 .7146 .8794 4.897 138 .000* ct inquisitiveness e c 73 67 48.3263 43.0179 5.6514 5.0912 .8971 .7649 3.964 138 .002* cognitive maturity e c 73 67 42.0298 42.2174 5.6973 5.5897 .8103 .7984 .325 138 .697 cctdi total score e c 73 67 318.38 290.82 24.1225 15.3267 3.7891 2.9148 4.412 138 .000* *significant at p < 0.05 (2-tailed) 4. discussion the purpose of the first question was to investigate whether explicit instruction in ct results in improved performance of iranian students’ academic writing skills. in other words, the aim of this question was to know whether students who receive explicit instruction in ct strategies would perform better on a test which requires them to write, interpret, and analyze an argumentative essay compared to their counterparts who do not receive any explicit instruction in ct techniques. in order to answer this question, the researcher incorporated the critical thinking techniques into the curriculum for the experimental group students through giving them critical a. taghinezhad, m. j. riasati the impact of teaching critical thinking on students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions 77 thinking assignments and activities. to examine the impact of the instruction, students in both groups were given an argumentation essay writing test to advance an argument or claim about a topic and t h e y w e r e r e q u i r e d t o p r o v i d e v a l i d r e a s o n s a n d s u p p o r t i n g e v i d e n c e to convince readers to agree with their stance. the scores they obtained on the essay test were regarded as data for deciding whether students who received instruction outperformed in thinking and writing critically compared to their counterparts who did not receive any instruction. then, the data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and an independent-samples t-test. the magnitude of the difference between the mean scores of the two groups (mean = 74.68 experimental, 51.32 control) showed that the ct instruction had a statistically significant effect on students’ writing performance. the difference was statistically significant p < 0.05 (2-taild) and the effect size was very large (cohen d=1.67). this finding is in line with the finding of a study conducted by chaffee, mcmahon, and stout (2002). worrell and profetto-mcgrath (2007) maintained that using critical thinking strategies with different levels of language ability in english language classes can improve students’ level of thinking and, at the same time, can help language learners better their speaking, listening, reading and writing abilities. lipman (2003) believes that critical thinking techniques can provide learners with instruments which assist them to surpass the linguistic elements and to foster the art of learning another language. studies have indicated that critical thinking in writing enhances the learning experience and makes the language learning more meaningful for the learners. critical thinking is a vehicle through which learners can discover themselves gradually during the language learning process (lipman, 2003). the findings of the present study indicated that a critical thinking approach to learning could be an effective intervention to i m p r o v e s t u d e n t s ’ essay writing abilities. mirman and tishman (1988) state that critical thinking skills entrenched in the curriculum and intertwined in language education can directly bring about learning a language better. the findings of a qualitative also indicated the relationship between ct skills and academic writing abilities (bereiter and scardamalia,1985). one aspect of critical thinking which is an integral component of various models including paul’s model is an individual’s dispositions toward using critical thinking. although an individual might have skills necessary for good reasoning, he or she might not use them. the second research question investigated whether or not students who received ct instruction demonstrated any improvement in their dispositions toward critical thinking during the semester. students in both groups were administered the california critical thinking dispositions inventory (cctdi) both at pre-and-post-instructions of the course in order to determine their dispositions toward critical thinking. no difference was observed between the two groups at the pretest of the experiment. the posttest means of the experimental group, however, were significantly different from those of the control group on the cctdi scores, indicating the impact of ct instruction on students’ ct dispositions toward using them. although an overall improvement was observed in critical thinking dispositions at the posttest, the mean posttest scores on some subscales of cctdi (for example, cognitive maturity, openmindedness, and truth-seeking), did not show any significant difference. this similarity in mean scores in this study shows that exposure to the educational experience, whether through ct explicit instruction, or through traditional teaching method does not seem to have made these students learn truth-seeking, open-mindedness, and cognitive maturity. findings of this present study indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in cctdi between experimental and control groups. this finding is in contrast with reed’s (1998) finding that showed no statistically significant difference between the pretest and posttest overall cctdi scores. on the other hand, the mean posttest scores on some subscales of cctdi (for example, systematicity, analyticity, ct inquisitiveness, and critical thinking self-confidence) were significantly different between the experimental and control groups. this finding is in line with brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 78 tiwari’s (1998) finding that showed a significant difference for these dispositions except ct inquisitiveness. it is also consistent with that of taha (2003) who found statistically significant differences in these cctdi subscales except ct self-confidence. some studies have shown that truth-seeking the most difficult disposition to develop (rimiene, 2002) and ambivalence about truth-seeking is so common (profetto-mcgrath et al, 2003). duchscher (2003) conducted a qualitative study to investigate how nurses perceived critical thinking. she found that the use of reasoning skills is not evident in practice, and it might even be in conflict with professional socialization. qualitative findings identified some barriers to critical thinking such as hierarchy, traditional thought, culture, and lack of confidence to question. other barriers include personal, professional and political risk associated with critical thinking and issues related to power relations. these findings resonate with brookfield’s (1993) study on suicide. profetto-mcgrath et al (2003) found that research appraisal skills can bring about the development of critical thinking dispositions. a possible reason why some dispositional aspect of ct did not increase significantly might be that those aspects were not the focus of instruction as other aspects. therefore, a change might be observed if more time is allocated for teaching that aspect of critical thinking dispositions. lai (2011) believes that cognitive maturity is closely related to developmental growth and improves through time. references american philosophical association. new york, de. (eric document reproduction service no. ed 315423). bailin, s., case, r., coombs, j. r., & daniels, l. b. (1999). conceptualizing critical thinking. journal of curriculum studies, 31(3), 285-302. baker, m., rudd, r., & pomeroy, c. (2001). relationships between critical and creative thinking. journal of southern agricultural education research, 51(1), 173-188. bartlett, f.c. (1958). thinking: an experimental and social study. london: unwin university books. bereiter, c. and scardamalia, m. (1985). cognitive coping strategies and the problem of "inert knowledge." in s. f. chipman, j. w. segal, & r. glaser (eds.), thinking and learning skills: research and open questions (pp. 65-80). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, inc. beyer, b. k. (1985). teaching critical thinking: a direct approach. social education, 49(4), 297303. bloom, b.s. (1956). taxonomy of educational objectives: classification of educational goals. new york: longmans, green. brookfield, s. (1993). on impostorship, cultural suicide, and other dangers: how nurses learn critical thinking. the journal of continuing education in nursing, 24(5), 197-205. brookfield, s. (2006). the skillful teacher: on technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom. san francisco: jossy-bass. brooks, j. g., & brooks, m. g. (1993). in search of understanding: the case for constructivist classrooms. alexandria, va.: association for supervision and curriculum development. condon, w., & kelly-riley, d. (2004). assessing and teaching what we value: the relationship between college-level writing and critical thinking abilities. assessing writing, 9(1), 56-75. dewey, j. (1933). how we think: a restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. chicago: henry regnery. dressel, p., and mayhew, l. (1954). general education: explorations in evaluation. westport, ct: greenwood press. elder, l., & paul, r. (2009). critical thinking: strategies for improving student learning, part iii. journal of developmental education, 32(3), 40. ellis, r. (2005). measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language: a psychometric study. studies in second language acquisition, 27(2), 141-172. a. taghinezhad, m. j. riasati the impact of teaching critical thinking on students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions 79 ennis, r. h. (1987). a taxonomy of critical thinking dispositions and abilities. in j. b. baron & r. j. sternberg (eds.), teaching thinking skills. theory and practice (pp. 9 – 26). n. york: w. h. freeman and company. ennis, r. h., & weir, e. e. (1985). the ennis-weir critical thinking essay test: an instrument for teaching and testing. midwest publications. facione, p. a. (1990). critical thinking: a statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction. millbrae, ca: the california academic press. facione, p. a. (2000). the disposition toward critical thinking: its character, measurement, and relationship to critical thinking skill. informal logic, 20(1), 61-84. facione, p. a., sánchez, c. a., facione, n. c., & gainen, j. (1995). the disposition toward critical thinking. the journal of general education, 44(1), 1-25. fasko, d. (2003). critical thinking: origins, historical development, future direction. in d. fasko (ed.), critical thinking and reasoning: current research, theory and practice (pp.3-20). cresskill, nj: hampton press. giancarlo, c. a., & facione, p. a. (2001). a look across four years at the disposition toward critical thinking among undergraduate students. the journal of general education, 50(1), 29-55. gilhooly, k. (1996). thinking: directive, undirected, and creative. amsterdam: academic press. graham, c. r. (2011). theoretical considerations for understanding technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack). computers & education, 57(3), 1953-1960. halonen, j. s. (1995). demystifying critical thinking. teaching of psychology, 22(1), 75-81. halpern, d. f. (1998). teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains. american psychologist, 53(4), 449-455. halpern, d. f. (2007). the nature and nurture of critical thinking. in r. j. sternberg, h. l. roediger iii, & d. f. halpern (eds.), critical thinking in psychology (pp. 1-14). new york, ny, us: cambridge university press. healy, j. (1990). endangered minds: why our children can’t think. new york: simon & schuster. hinkel, e. (2003). teaching academic esl writing: practical techniques in vocabulary and grammar. new york: routledge. jenkins, r. (2009). our students need more practice in actual thinking. chronicle of higher education, 55(29), 18-19. jones, p. j., & haydon, d. (eds.). (2012). putting it into practice: developing student critical thinking skills in teacher education. charlotte, nc: information age. king, a. (1994). inquiry as a tool in critical thinking. in d. f. halpern (ed.), changing college classrooms: new teaching and learning strategies for an increasingly complex world (pp. 13-38). san francisco: jossey-bass. kurfiss, j. (1988). critical thinking: theory, research, practice and possibilities. washington: higher education. leach, b. t. (2011). critical thinking skills as related to university students' gender and academic discipline (phd dissertation). east tennessee state university, the united states. lewis, a., & smith, d. (1993). defining higher order thinking. theory into practice, 32(3), 131137. lipman, m. (1988). critical thinking: what can it be? educational leadership, 46(1), 38-43. maimon, e. p., peritz, j. h., & yancey, k. b. (2008). a writer’s resource: a handbook for writing and research. columbus: mcgraw hill. marzano, r. j. (2007). the art and science of teaching: a comprehensive framework for effective instruction. alexandria, va: association for supervision and curriculum development. british journal of educational psychology, 75(3), 351-372. matheny, g. (2009). the knowledge vs. skills debate: a false dichotomy. leadership, 39(2), 11-11. mcpeck, j. (1981). critical thinking and education. new york: st. martin's. nummela, r. m., & rosengren, t. m. (1986). what's happening in students' brains may redefine teaching. educational leadership, 43(8), 49-53. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 80 paul, r. & elder, l. (2007). critical thinking: the art of socratic questioning. journal of developmental education, 31(1), 36-37. paul, r. (1985). the critical thinking movement. national forum, 65(1), 23-32. paul, r. (1992). critical thinking: what, why, and how. new directions for community colleges, 92(77), 3-24. paul, r. and elder, l. (2008). the miniature guide to critical thinking concepts and tools. dillon beach: foundation for critical thinking press. paul, r., & elder, l. (2001). critical thinking: tools for taking charge of your learning and your life. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. pescatore, c. (2007). current events as empowering literacy: for english and social studies teachers. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 51(4), 326-339. powell, j.k. & tassoni j. (2009). college composition. usa: miami university press. ramsden, p., & moses, i. (1992). associations between research and teaching in australian higher education. higher education, 23(3), 273-295. reed, j. h. (1998). effect of a model for critical thinking on students' achievement in primary source document analysis (phd dissertation). university of south florida, the united states. rimiene, v. (2002). assessing and developing students' critical thinking. psychology learning & teaching, 2(1), 17-22. sadker, m. & sadker, d. (2003). teachers, schools, and society. new york: mcgraw-hill. scriven, m. (1985). critical for survival. national forum, 65(1), 9-12. scriven, m., & paul, r. (2004). defining critical thinking. retrieved january 25, 2013 from:http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/410 sezer. r. (2008). integration of critical thinking skills into elementary school teacher education courses in mathematics. education, 128(3), 349–362. siegel, h. (1988). educating reason: rationality, critical thinking, and education. new york: routledge. sims, m. (2014). the write stuff: thinking through essays. usa: pearson prentice hall. slavin, r. e. (2009). educational psychology: theory and practice (9th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. stahl, n. n., & stahl, r. j. (1991). we can agree after all: achieving consensus for a critical thinking component of a gifted program using the delphi technique. roeper review, 14(2), 79-88. steele, c. m. (1997). a threat in the air: how stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. american psychologist, 52(6),613-629. sternberg, r. j. (1986). critical thinking: its nature, measurement, and improvement. washington, d. c.: national institute of education. sumner, w. g. (1906). education, history. in w. g. sumner (ed.), folkways: a study of the sociological importance of usages, manners customs, mores, and morals (pp. 1553-1578). boston, ma: the athenaeum press. taha, e. (2003). the dispositions of the undergraduate university nursing students toward critical thinking (master’s thesis). alexandria university, egypt. tsui, l. (2002). fostering critical thinking through effective pedagogy: evidence from four institutional case studies. the journal of higher education, 73(6), 740-763. wadsworth, b. j. (1971). piaget's theory of cognitive development. new york: longman. willingham, d. t. (2008). critical thinking: why is it so hard to teach? arts education policy review, 109(4), 21-32. worrell, j. a., & profetto-mcgrath, j. (2007). critical thinking as an outcome of context-based learning among post rn students: a literature review. nurse education today, 27(5), 420426. brain_3_1 5 an efficient expert system generator for qualitative feed-back loop analysis manoj kumar jain department of computer science, mohanlal sukhadia university, udaipur, india manoj@cse.iitd.ernet.in abstract quite often the variables used in system analysis are qualitative in nature. they cannot be defined precisely, whereas software development for system analysis needs a mathematical framework with precise computations. it is not trivial to capture the uncertainty in the system. fuzzy sets provide us the facility to capture the uncertainty in the system. in normal crisp set where the membership of an element is always certain in a sense that it would be member or not of the given set. in contrast to this a membership functions or possibility (ranging from 0 to 1, including both values) is assigned with each member. system analysis is done through system dynamics which is not very efficient. we present an efficient technique to generate expert system using fuzzy set. in our proposed approach five linguistic qualifiers are used for each variable, namely, very low (vl), low (l), medium (m), high (h), and very high (vh). we capture the influence or feedback in the system with the help of if then else rules and matrices are generated for them which are used for analysis. complete methodology and its applicability are presented here. keywords: analysis, applications, design and data analysis, fuzzy mathematical programming, fuzzy system models, fuzzy relations, linguistic modeling. 1. introduction quite often the variables used in system analysis are qualitative in nature. they cannot be defined precisely, whereas software development for system analysis needs a mathematical framework with precise computations. it is not trivial to capture the uncertainty in the system. fuzzy sets provide us the facility to capture the uncertainty in the system. in normal crisp set where the membership of an element is always certain in a sense that it would be member or not of the given set. in contrast to this a membership function or possibility (ranging from 0 to 1, including both values) is assigned with each member. system analysis is done through system dynamics which is not very efficient. we present an efficient technique to generate expert system using fuzzy set. 1.1. introduction to fuzzy sets since its inception in 1965 by zadeh [1], fuzzy sets have seen an increasing exponential growth. it is a body of concepts and techniques that gave a form of mathematical precision to human cognitive process that in many ways are imprecise and ambiguous, by the standards of classical mathematics. these concepts are gaining a growing acceptability among engineers, scientists, mathematicians, linguists and philosophers. an underlying philosophy of the theory of fuzzy sets is to provide a strict mathematical framework, where imprecise conceptual phenomenon in modelling and decision making may be precisely and rigorously studied. it provides for a gradual transaction from the realm of rigorous, quantitative and precise conceptions. it can also be considered as a modelling language and phenomena exist. according to kaufman [2], fuzziness is s pervasive in human attempts to conceptualize, categorize, classify and relate all perceived phenomena, and thus arises the need of fuzzy set theory. brainovation brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 1.2. need of fuzzy sets in system analysis managerial decision making involves a lot of uncertainties, that could be attributed to various reasons like beliefs and perceptions of managers, uncertain futuristic situations etc. quite often the knowledge of managers is imprecise and vague. similarly, the managerial systems are also comprised of a lot of subjective variables, which are not easily quantifiable with the classical mathematical treatment based on crisp sets. thus much of the information in the knowledge base for such system is imprecise, incomplete or not totally reliable, and management of uncertainty becomes a critical issue in the design of knowledge based systems. in the existing expert systems, uncertainty is dealt with through a combination of predicate logic and probability based methods. such methods are not perfect and have a serious shortcoming that they are not capable of coming to grip with the pervasive fuzziness of information in the knowledge base and consequently are mostly adhoc. a very critical requirement of expert support systems is that of effectively and deeply embedded user interfaces that would enable their human users to easily inspect and control the problem solving process. since managers use natural language most of the time, such user’s interfaces should be able to understand and interpret the natural language concepts. in case of natural language, the extension of a predicate is in general a fuzzy set in which the transaction from membership to non membership is gradual rather than abrupt. almost all the concepts in or about natural languages are fuzzy in nature [3]. thus fuzzy set theoretical approach could be made use of, thereby providing a valuable contribution to user interfaces that enable the user to converse with the computer in a natural language like english. 1.3. problem definition 1.3.1. objective of the study the main objective of the study is to develop an interactive and user friendly software package for qualitative analysis of systems using fuzzy sets. the second objective of the study is to do further methodological developments in the existing methodology for causal loop generation and qualitative analysis of systems using fuzzy sets. 1.3.2. issues covered in this study • creation of feedback loops depending on the causal relationships. • define all the linguistic variables. • creation of if .... then rules for causal relationships. • creation of fuzzy matrices for above relationships. • qualitative analysis of the causal loop structure in the forward direction using fuzzy sets theoretical concepts. • converting possibility distribution into proper linguistic output. 1.3.3. scope of this study the scope of this study is limited to develop an interactive and user friendly software package for qualitative analysis of systems in forward direction only, using fuzzy sets. the output may give guidelines for designing a package for backward analysis. 1.4. organization of this paper related work reported in literature is reported in the next section. section 3 describes the proposed methodology. a case study is presented in the section 4. the paper is concluded with conclusions and directions for future work in the last section. m. k. jain an efficient expert system generator for qualitative feed-back loop analysis 7 2. related work 2.1. introduction to system dynamics the system dynamics (sd) approach with its causal philosophy and purpose of gaining deep insight into the working of a system places heavy emphasis on “looking within the system”. there are mainly six problem solving steps through which the system dynamics methodology operates, such as: problem identification and definition, system conceptualization, model formulation, simulation and validation of the model, policy analysis and improvement, policy implementation. in relation to sd researches, many applications in different fields which have diversity can be seen. for example system thinking and modeling for a complex world [4], applying system dynamics with data mining in a biological model [5], navigating towards sustainable development: a system dynamics approach [6], knowledge based decision making on higher level strategic concerns: system dynamics approach [7] and etc. also the applications and implementations of fuzzy logic in different sciences and industrial problems are much because of its popularity to deals with vague and imprecise information [8], [9]. however the number of studies is focused on application of fuzzy logic in the system dynamics is not large amount. pervious researches for this approach, which are considerable, are tahera.k & ibrahim.r.n [9], seҫkin polat & cafer erhan [10], vassilios karavezyris & klaus peter [11]. sd as developed by forrester [12] is a problem solving approach to complex problems which emphasize the structural aspects of model of systems. it can be used to modeling and simulation real world systems. sd deals with the time dependent behavior of managed systems with the aim of describing the system and understanding, through qualitative and quantitative models, how information feedback governs its behavior, and designing robust information feedback structures and control policies simulation and optimization [13]. sd consists of some components: causal loop diagram, stock and flow diagram and level and rate variables. 2.2. fuzzy logic approach fuzzy sets were introduced by zadeh [1] as an extension of the classical set theory. the fuzzy logic was built around the central concept of a fuzzy sets or membership functions. fuzzy logic expresses vague and subjective relationship mathematically. it is a suitable way to mapping an input space to an output space using a fuzz set. the conventional set theory classifies the elements of the set into crisp set. the membership degree is one, when an element belongs to the set and zero, when an element does not belong to the set. unlike the classical set theory, in the fuzzy set theory, an element can belong to a fuzzy set with the membership degree between zero and one. figure 1 shows the difference between a classical set and a fuzzy set. in the classical set, 30c is considered as cold whereas in the fuzzy set, the degree of coldness for 30c is 0.85 and the degree of hotness for 30c is 0.15, i.e. 30c is cold by 85% and hot by 15%. a membership function is a curve that represents the degree of points which belong to the specific fuzzy variable. selecting the appropriate membership function plays an essential rule in design of a fuzzy logic controller. the shape of membership function could be defined based on the simplicity, convenience, speed and efficiency. many different membership functions are introduced in the literatures such as triangular, trapezoidal and gaussian. the membership function which represented in figure 1(b) is a trapezoidal type. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 figure 1. (a) classical set and (b) fuzzy set 2.3. fuzzy rule based fuzzy rule based is developed to relate the input variables to the output variables by if-then rules. fuzzy rules consist of two parts: an antecedent part stating condition on the input variables, and a consequent part describing the related value of the output variables. a single fuzzy if-then rule assumes as follow: if x is a then y is b where a and b, are linguistic values defined by fuzzy set on the ranges (universes of discourse) x andy, respectively. the ifpart of the rule " x is a " is antecedent or premise, while the then part of the rule "y is b" is consequent or conclusion. an example such a rule might be if service is good then price of food is average in this rule, service and price are two fuzzy variables. the fuzzy values in this rule are good and average descriptions. these values are defined on universes of discourse and determine the degree of element x which belongs to the membership functions. in general, the input to an if-then rule is the current value for the input variable (in this case, service) and the output is an entire fuzzy set (in this case, average). this set will later be defuzzified i.e. assigning one value to the output. the concept of defuzzification is described in the next section. in some case the antecedent or consequent of a rule can also have multiple parts. therefore given particular values of the input variables, the degree of fulfillment of a rule is obtained by aggregating the membership degrees of these input values into the respective fuzzy sets. the fuzzy output is determined by the degrees of fulfillment and the consequent parts of the rules. the most common ways to modify the output fuzzy set are truncation using the min (minimum) function or scaling using the prod (product) function. 2.4. fuzzy inference systems fuzzy inference is the process of formulating the mapping from given inputs to an output using fuzzy logic, the mapping then provides a basis from which a decision can be made. it used for evaluating fuzzy linguistic descriptions using concepts such as membership functions, fuzzy logic operators, and if-then rules [14]. because of its multidisciplinary nature, fis are associated with a number of names, such as fuzzy expert systems, fuzzy modeling, fuzzy associative memory, fuzzy logic controllers, and simply fuzzy systems. in general there are two common types of fis: mamdani and sugeno types [8]. these two types of inference systems vary somewhat in the way outputs are determined. for these two types of fis, there are entire descriptions in the literatures. [15], [16], [17]. m. k. jain an efficient expert system generator for qualitative feed-back loop analysis 9 2.5. application of fuzzy logic for modelling system dynamics if sd has at least one of the below conditions, can be modelled with fuzzy logic. • some of the level or rate or other variables are fuzzy. • the time factor has vagueness. • some of the relations among variables can be replaced by conditional statements, which contain fuzzy variables. these conditional statements usually are in the if-then format. • the degree of uncertainty of variables can be represented by fuzzy probabilities, when the information on hand, is imprecise or incomplete. • some of the operators may be fuzzy. according to these properties the fuzzy logic approach is used to modelling sd. we are working in preparing a framework for qualitative analysis of systems which may contain feedback loops. since the qualitative inputs and outputs can be better handled using fuzzy sets, we have used fuzzy logic based approach in our work. we have developed complete approach and is being presented here. a complete case study is included to support our proposed approach. 3. methodology 3.1. fuzzy relation model not all the situations are very clear and transparent in managerial systems. very often managers have to deal with uncertainties and vagueness. such kinds of systems are not amenable to traditional approaches of crisp mathematical treatment and in such cases a fuzzy set theoretical approach appears to the most appropriate choice. the fuzzy relation model provides an alternative method for qualitative analysis of causal loop structure. it incorporates the uncertainties that could be attributed to the beliefs and perceptions of the user, and models them using various fuzzy set theoretical concepts like linguistic variables, modus ponen’s rule, fuzzy relation composition, possibility distribution etc. three different kinds of qualitative analysis are possible through such an approach. the first is that of forward analysis to see the effects of changes in some variables on those variables which are affected by them using the maximum composition over the relations falling on the particular loop consisting of these variables. the answers are provided in terms of linguistic variables which correspond to the common language of managers are the highly appealing. the second kind of analysis makes use of the possibility theory. possibility distributions are assigned to causal links, which on further analysis helps in estimating the possibility of achieving a desired state of existence. the third kind of approach makes use of the fuzzy relation equation, for the backward analysis of the causal loop structure. it shows how the values of various parameters and variables, to reach the desired state of existence, could be determined using fuzzy relations. besides all these advantages, a great benefit of the fuzzy relation model is that, it could be used for deriving an expert system structure for system dynamics model. it also provides deep insight into the structure and behaviour of the system and feed back obtained from it could be incorporated into causal loop structure. 3.2. defining linguistic variables for every variable all the linguistic variables (in our case, namely, very low, low, medium, high and very high) are to be defined by assigning different possibility distribution for a set of reference data values for variables (we had taken 4). 3.2.1. development of causal loop structure the key variables which explain the way the system works are identified from the verbal description. these loops are drawn using arrows connecting the variables. the direction of arrow denotes the direction of casualty. a set of variables lying on a circular path of casualty constitute a feedback loop. there are two types of feedback loops, namely, positive and negative. to identify the polarity of loops, i.e. whether the loop is positive or negative, pair wise relationships of relevant variables are established. going round the loop, when a change in one variable produces change in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 the same direction in another variable, the relationship is defined as positive. when the change in another variable runs in the opposite direction, the relationship is defined as negative. a reinforcement of change between two variables is indicated by placing a positive sign on the arrow head, and opposite to change is denoted by a negative sign. the polarity of a loop is determined by tracing the loop, assuming that everything else remain constant. going around the loop, if all signs are positive, or negative signs are even in number, the loop polarity is positive, otherwise it is negative. the polarity of the loop is shown in the loop diagram, by making a positive or negative sign in the centre of the loop, surrounded by a circular drawn arrow showing the direction is called the feedback loop structure. in a positive feedback loop, a variable continually feeds back upon it self to reinforce the process of its growth or collapse. this loop can only act to accelerate the initial change introduced in any variable. without constraints introduced by interaction with other loops, each positive feedback loop produces exponential change of all variables lying on it. a negative feedback loop acts to counter the direction of initial change in any of its variables. it is characterized by goal directed or good seeking behavior. as compared to positive feedback loops, negative feedback loops have a variety of behaviors. these loops tend to keep a given system at equilibrium. the simplest form of negative feedback loop behavior is gradual adjustment, without oscillation or fluctuation, i.e. asymptotic growth or asymptotic decay towards a goal. damped oscillation is another kind of behaviour as exhibited by these loops. 3.2.2. compositional rule of inference let x and y be two universes of discourses with base variables x and y respectively. let r(x), r(x,y) and r(y) denote restriction on x and y respectively, with the understanding that r(x), r(x,y) and r(y) are fuzzy relations in x, x x y and y. let a and f denote particular fuzzy subsets of x and x x y. then the compositional rule of inference asserts that the solution of the relational assignment equations (zadeh 1976). r(x) = a and r(x,y) = f is given by r(y) = a*f where a*f is the max-min composition of a and f, as explained as follows. in this sense we can infer r(y) = a*f from r(x) = a and r(x,y) = f. let r(x,y), (x,y) x x y and s(y,z) y x z be two fuzzy relations. then the max-min composition of r max-min s denoted by r * s is r * s = {[(x,z) max over y{min{µ r (x,y), µ s (y,z)}}] x ϵ x, y ϵ y, z ϵ z} here µ represents possibility of membership of a set. 3.2.3. feedback loop analysis impact of change of value of any variable on the other variables in the system is evaluated on the basis of relationships between the variables which we have now represented in form of fuzzy matrices. because of feedback loop the starting variable itself will be modified so the process would be repeated to know the impact of this new value of that particular variable. the process is iterated till the system is stabilized. 3.2.4. conversion of output into linguistic form for interpretation of results in linguistic (user will be interested in this type of output only) form, deterministic approach is used and the interpolation method is used for giving specific outputs. this is done for all the variables. for each variable five linguistic qualifiers, namely, very low, low, medium, high and very high are defined by assigning different possibility distributions four data values of that variable. for each definition, the virtual value (note that deterministic approach is used here! fuzzy logic is needed here also!!) is calculated by the formula e.v. = (p1x1+p2x2+p3x3+p4x4) / (p1+p2+p3+p4) where pi’s and xi’s are possibility and data value respectively for i=1, 2, 3 and 4. m. k. jain an efficient expert system generator for qualitative feed-back loop analysis 11 now we got five levels of values. there are four gaps, between very low and low, between low and medium, between medium and high and between high and very high. we have dividing each gap into six equal parts. then we defined thirteen different linguistic qualifiers, one for each part. these are very low, slightly higher than very low, somewhat low, low, slightly higher than low, somewhat medium, medium, slightly higher than medium, somewhat high, high, slightly higher than high, somewhat very high and very high. at the end of analysis, when we get equilibrium, each variable will have four possibilities p1, p2, p3 and p4 for four data values x1, x2, x3 and x4 respectively. now e.v. (estimated value) is calculated as per the formula described earlier. based on the slot in which this value is lying, proper linguistic output is given. 4. case study 4.1. problem situation it has been observed that the demand is affected by the market size in a positive manner. the market size in turn is affected by disposable income per capita. any increase in demand decreases the average fixed cost fraction, thereby reducing the price. the price affects the market size in a negative manner. also, the sales revenue is affected by the demand in a positive manner and an increase in the sales revenue leads to an increase in the advertising budget which in turn reinforces the demand. 4.2. causal loop diagram the problem situation could be represented in the following form of a causal loop diagram as shown in figure 2. figure 2. causal loop diagram for the problem situation 4.3. data the range of various variables as specified by the manager is shown in table 1. table 1. range of variables dipc market price afcf demand sales advert. size revenue budget (rs/person/ (units/ (rs./unit) (rs./unit) (units/ (rs./ (rs./ week) week) week) week) week) 500 3500 4.8 0.050 400 2000 50 550 4500 4.9 0.125 700 3500 600 600 5500 5.0 0.200 1000 5000 1150 650 6500 5.1 0.275 1300 6500 1700 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 4.4. definitions of linguistic variables we have defined five linguistic variables for each variable, namely, very low (vl), low (l), medium (m), high (h) and very high (vh). definitions for the variables used in our case study are presented. disposable income per capita (dipc) vl = 0.8/500 + 0.4/550 + 0.0/600 + 0.0/650 l = 1.0/500 + 0.8/550 + 0.0/600 + 0.0/650 m = 0.0/500 + 1.0/550 + 0.4/600 + 0.0/650 h = 0.0/500 + 0.6/550 + 1.0/600 + 0.6/650 vh = 0.0/500 + 0.0/550 + 0.6/600 + 1.0/650 market size vl = 0.8/3500 + 0.5/4500 + 0.0/5500 + 0.0/6500 l = 1.0/3500 + 0.8/4500 + 0.5/5500 + 0.0/6500 m = 0.8/3500 + 1.0/4500 + 0.5/5500 + 0.0/6500 h = 0.0/3500 + 0.3/4500 + 0.6/5500 + 1.0/6500 vh = 0.0/3500 + 0.0/4500 + 0.4/5500 + 0.7/6500 price vl = 0.8/4.8 + 0.6/4.9 + 0.0/5.0 + 0.0/5.1 l = 0.8/4.8 + 1.0/4.9 + 0.5/5.0 + 0.0/5.1 m = 0.0/4.8 + 0.8/4.9 + 1.0/5.0 + 0.8/5.1 h = 0.0/4.8 + 0.5/4.9 + 0.8/5.0 + 1.0/5.1 vh = 0.0/4.8 + 0.0/4.9 + 0.3/5.0 + 0.7/5.1 average fixed cost fraction (afcf) vl = 0.7/0.050 + 0.6/0.125 + 0.0/0.200 + 0.0/0.275 l = 0.8/0.050 + 1.0/0.125 + 0.7/0.200 + 0.0/0.275 m = 0.0/0.050 + 0.7/0.125 + 1.0/0.200 + 0.7/0.275 h = 0.0/0.050 + 0.6/0.125 + 0.8/0.200 + 1.0/0.275 vh = 0.0/0.050 + 0.0/0.125 + 0.4/0.200 + 0.7/0.275 demand vl = 0.8/400 + 0.6/700 + 0.0/1000 + 0.0/1300 l = 1.0/400 + 0.8/700 + 0.5/1000 + 0.0/1300 m = 0.0/400 + 1.0/700 + 0.6/1000 + 0.0/1300 h = 0.0/400 + 0.7/700 + 1.0/1000 + 0.6/1300 vh = 0.0/400 + 0.0/700 + 0.6/1000 + 0.9/1300 sales revenue vl = 0.8/2000 + 0.3/3500 + 0.0/5000 + 0.0/6500 l = 1.0/2000 + 0.5/3500 + 0.0/5000 + 0.0/6500 m = 0.0/2000 + 1.0/3500 + 0.7/5000 + 0.0/6500 h = 0.0/2000 + 0.8/3500 + 1.0/5000 + 0.0/6500 vh = 0.0/2000 + 0.0/3500 + 0.6/5000 + 0.9/6500 advertising budget vl = 0.7/50 + 0.5/600 + 0.0/1150 + 0.0/1700 l = 1.0/2000 + 0.8/3500 + 0.0/5000 + 0.0/6500 m = 0.8/2000 + 1.0/3500 + 0.0/5000 + 0.0/6500 h = 0.0/2000 + 0.7/3500 + 1.0/5000 + 0.0/6500 vh = 0.0/2000 + 0.0/3500 + 0.5/5000 + 0.7/6500 relation is captured in form of if ... then...... else if....... else form from the user. using the fuzzy sets defined for linguistic qualifiers, fuzzy relation matrix is generated using maxmin composition as described in the next subsection. m. k. jain an efficient expert system generator for qualitative feed-back loop analysis 13 4.5. specification of rules the problem situation specifies only the positive or negative nature of the relationship. some more detail information is captured in form of if ... then rules. the manager has come out with the following set of rules that hold good for this particular case. r1 (between price and market size): if price is very low then mkt size is very high else if price is low then mkt size is high else if price is medium then mkt size is medium else if price is high then mkt size is low else if price is very high then mkt size is very low r2 (between dipc and market size): if dipc is very low then mkt size is medium else if dipc is low then mkt size is medium else if dipc is medium then mkt size is medium else if dipc is high then mkt size is medium else if dipc is very high then mkt size is high r3 (between market size and demand): if mkt size is very low then demand is medium else if mkt size is low then demand is medium else if mkt size is medium then demand is high else if mkt size is high then demand is very high else if mkt size is very high then demand is very high r4 (between demand and sales revenue): if demand is very low then sales rev is very low else if demand is low then sales rev is low else if demand is medium then sales rev is medium else if demand is high then sales rev is high else if demand is very high then sales rev is very high r5 (between sales revenue and advertising budget): if sales rev is very low then adv bgt is very low else if sales rev is low then adv bgt is low else if sales rev is medium then adv bgt is medium else if sales rev is high then adv bgt is medium else if sales rev is very high then adv bgt is very high r6 (between advertising budget and demand): if adv bgt is very low then demand is medium else if adv bgt is low then demand is medium else if adv bgt is medium then demand is medium else if adv bgt is high then demand is medium else if adv bgt is very high then demand is high r7 (between demand and afcf): if demand is very low then afcf is very high else if demand is low then afcf is high else if demand is medium then afcf is medium else if demand is high then afcf is low else if demand is very high then afcf is very low r8 (between afcf and price): if afcf is very low then price is very low else if afcf is low then price is low else if afcf is medium then price is medium else if afcf is high then price is high else if afcf is very high then price is very high brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 4.6. generating mathematical framework for fuzzy relation considering the linguistic definitions of different variables and relation in form of if ....... then rules, a suitable matrix is generated for each relation. here matrix generation for relation r1 which is between price and market size is presented here. this relation r1 is converted into mathematical form in the following manner. r1 = (0.8/4.8+0.6/4.9) * (0.4/5500+0.7/6500) + (0.8/4.8+1/4.9+0.5/5.0) * (0.3/4500+0.6/5500+1/6500) + (0.8/4.9+1/5.0+0.8/5.1) * (0.8/3500+1/4500+0.5/5500) + (0.5/4.9+0.8/5.0+1/5.1) * (1/3500+0.8/4500+0.2/5500) + (0.3/5.0+0.7/5.1) * (0.8/3500+0.5/4500) r1 = 0.4/(4.8,5500) + 0.7/(4.8,6500) + 0.4/(4.9,5500) + 0.6/(4.9,6500) + 0.3/(4.8,4500) + 0.6/(4.8,5500) + 0.8/(4.8,6500) + 0.3/(4.9,4500) + 0.6/(4.9,5500) + 1.0/(4.9,6500) + 0.3/(5.0,4500) + 0.5/(5.0,5500) + 0.5/(5.0,6500) + 0.8/(4.9,3500) + 0.8/(4.9,4500) + 0.5/(4.9,5500) + 0.8/(5.0,3500) + 1.0/(5.0,4500) + 0.5/(5.0,5500) + 0.8/(5.1,3500) + 0.8/(5.1,4500) + 0.5/(5.1,5500) + 0.5/(4.9,3500) + 0.5/(4.9,4500) + 0.2/(4.9,5500) + 0.8/(5.0,3500) + 0.8/(5.0,4500) + 0.2/(5.0,5500) + 1.0/(5.1,3500) + 0.8/(5.1,4500)+ 0.2/(5.1,5500) + 0.3/(5.0,3500) + 0.3/(5.0,4500) + 0.7/(5.1,3500) + 0.5/(5.1,4500) r1 = 0.0/(4.8,3500) + 0.3/(4.8,4500) + 0.6/(4.8,5500) + 0.8/(4.8,6500) + 0.8/(4.9,3500) + 0.8/(4.9,4500) + 0.6/(4.9,5500) + 1.0/(4.9,6500) + 0.8/(5.0,3500) + 1.0/(5.0,4500) + 0.5/(5.0,5500) + 0.5/(5.0,6500) + 1.0/(5.1,3500) + 0.8/(5.1,4500) + 0.5/(5.1,5500) + 0.0/(5.1,6500) equivalently this relation r1 can be represented in the matrix form as following. matrix for r1 (between price and market size) 3500 4500 5500 6500 4.8 0.0 0.3 0.6 0.8 price 4.9 0.8 0.8 0.6 1.0 5.0 0.8 1.0 0.5 0.5 5.1 1.0 0.8 0.5 0.0 market size similarly matrices are generated for all the causal relations present in the system. such matrices for other relations are presented here. matrix for r2 (between dipc and market size) 3500 4500 5500 6500 500 0.8 1.0 0.5 0.0 dipc 550 0.8 1.0 0.5 0.0 600 0.8 1.0 0.6 0.6 650 0.6 0.6 0.6 1.0 market size matrix for r3 (between market size and demand) m. k. jain an efficient expert system generator for qualitative feed-back loop analysis 15 400 700 1000 1300 3500 0.0 1.0 0.8 0.6 market 4500 0.0 0.8 1.0 0.6 size 5500 0.0 0.5 0.6 0.6 6500 0.0 0.0 0.6 0.9 demand matrix for r4 (between demand and sales revenue) 2000 3500 5000 6500 400 1.0 0.5 0.0 0.0 demand 700 0.8 1.0 0.7 0.0 1000 0.5 0.8 1.0 0.6 1300 0.0 0.6 0.6 0.9 sales revenue matrix for r5 (between sales revenue and advertising budget) 50 600 1150 1700 2000 1.0 0.8 0.0 0.0 sales 3500 0.8 1.0 0.8 0.0 revenue 5000 0.7 0.7 1.0 0.6 6500 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.7 advertising budget matrix for r6 (between advertising budget and demand) 400 700 1000 1300 50 0.0 1.0 0.6 0.0 advertising 600 0.0 1.0 0.6 1.0 budget 1150 0.0 1.0 0.6 0.5 1700 0.0 0.7 0.7 0.6 demand matrix for r7 (between demand and afcf) 0.050 0.125 0.200 0.275 400 0.0 0.6 0.8 1.0 demand 700 0.7 0.7 1.0 0.8 1000 0.8 1.0 0.7 0.6 1300 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.0 afcf matrix for r8 (between afcf and price) 3500 4500 5500 6500 0.050 0.8 0.8 0.5 0.0 afcf 0.125 0.8 1.0 0.7 0.7 0.200 0.7 0.8 1.0 0.8 0.275 0.0 0.7 0.8 1.0 price brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 4.7. system analysis impact of change of value of any variable on the other variables in the system is evaluated on the basis of relationships between the variables which we have now represented in form of fuzzy matrices. because of feedback loop the starting variable itself will be modified so the process would be repeated to know the impact of this new value of that particular variable. the process is iterated till the system is stabilized. now, suppose manger wants to know the effect of very low price in the system, the exogenous variable dipc remains low. we know the definition of very low price as following. 0.8/4.8 + 0.6/4.9 + 0.0/5.0 + 0.0/5.1 we obtain the effect of very low price on the market size by using the corresponding matrix defined earlier, and by min max composition in the following manner. price 0.0 0.3 0.6 0.8 [0.8 0.6 0.0 0.0] * 0.8 0.8 0.6 1.0 0.8 1.0 0.5 0.5 1.0 0.8 0.5 0.0 price market size relation matrix this max min operation is performed in the following manner. when we are performing operation using price row matrix and first column of relation matrix we get value v1 which will be first column value of the result matrix. v1 = max(min(0.8,0.0), min(0.6, 0.8), min(0.0, 0.8), min(0.0, 1.0) = max(0.0, 0.6, 0.0, 0.0) = 0.6 similarly v2, v3 and v4 are calculated using second, third and fourth column of relation matrix as following. v2 = max(min(0.8,0.3), min(0.6, 0.8), min(0.0, 1.0), min(0.0, 0.8) = max(0.3, 0.6, 0.0, 0.0) = 0.6 v3 = max(min(0.8,0.6), min(0.6, 0.6), min(0.0, 0.5), min(0.0, 0.5) = max(0.6, 0.6, 0.0, 0.0) = 0.6 v4 = max(min(0.8,0.8), min(0.6, 1.0), min(0.0, 0.5), min(0.0, 0.0) = max(0.8, 0.6, 0.0, 0.0) = 0.8 this means the result matrix will be as follows. [0.6 0.6 0.6 0.8] it will be interpreted as follows. 0.6/3500+0.6/4500+0.6/5500 +0.8/6500 in this way, we have obtained the effect of very low price on the market size and the result possibility distribution for market size obtained is [0.6 0.6 0.6 0.8]. but our analysis is not complete, because market size is also being affected by dipc and dipc is kept at low. we have following definition for low dipc. low dipc: 1.0/500 + 0.8/550 + 0.0/600 + 0.0/650 this effect is calculated using another corresponding matrix and by doing that, the possibility distribution for market size obtained is [0.8 1.0 0.5 0.0]. since the market size is affected by two variables price and dipc, its current final values of possibilities are found by getting intersection of possibilities (picking minimum). [0.6 0.6 0.6 0.8] ∩ [0.8 1.0 0.5 0.0] = [0.6 0.6 0.6 0.0] m. k. jain an efficient expert system generator for qualitative feed-back loop analysis 17 hence the current possibilities at this stage will be [0.6 0.6 0.6 0]. similarly possibilities of all the variables are calculated. in next iteration, the intersection of newly computed possibilities is done with its previous iteration’s possibilities to get current possibilities at this stage. if the exogenous variable (in this case dipc) is constant, then process will complete when possibility for all variables stabilize. iteration will be complete when the effect of all causal links has calculated in that particular iteration. if the exogenous variable is varying with time then iterations will be calculated till the qualitative input for the exogenous variable is given. in our example, the exogenous variable dipc is constantly low. possibilities of all the variables stabilized in two iterations. the final possibilities distribution is as follows. variable name value [possibility] dipc 500 [1.0], 550 [0.8], 600 [0.0], 650 [0.0] mkt size 3500 [0.6], 4500 [0.6], 5500 [0.5], 6500 [0.0] price 4.8 [0.6], 4.9 [0.6], 5.0 [0.0], 5.1 [0.0] afcf 0.050 [0.6], 0.125 [0.6], 0.200 [0.6], 0.275 [0.6] demand 400 [0.0], 700 [0.6], 1000 [0.6], 1300 [0.6] sales rev 2000 [0.6], 3500 [0.6], 5000 [0.6], 6500 [0.6] adv bgt 50 [0.6], 600 [0.6], 1150 [0.6], 1700 [0.6] as described in our methodology, these possibilities are converted into linguistic form. the final linguistic outputs are as follows. variable name value linguistic output dipc 522.2 low market size 4441.2 medium price 4.85 very low afcf 0.1625 somewhat medium demand 1000 high sales revenue 4250 somewhat high advt. budget 875 high 5. conclusion we have presented a fuzzy sets based technique for qualitative analysis of feedback loops. it is a better solution compared to traditional system dynamics approach. since we use computers in decision making, we have to follow certain precise framework to perform computations. at the same time, everything cannot be precisely defined at managerial level. this means uncertainty is there in the system. fuzzy sets help us in capturing this uncertainty. we have developed complete methodology and demonstrated the same. the success of our methodology depends on the fact that how much correct information is fed in to our system. once that information from a suitable expert is gathered qualitatively our methodology will generate an expert system which can be used a number of times for analysis. the beauty of our approach is that we are accepting qualitative inputs and giving qualitative outputs. this feature will help in wider acceptability of our proposed methodology. references [1] zadeh, l.a., "fuzzy sets", information and control, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 338-353, 1965. [2] kaufmann a. and gupta m.m. (1988), fuzzy mathematical models in engineering and management science, elsevier, isbn: 0444705015. [3] zadeh l.a. (1986), test score semantics as a basis for a computational approach to the representation of meaning, literacy and linguistic computing, vol. 1, issue 5, pages: 24-36. [4] sterman, j.d., "business dynamics: system thinking and modeling for a complex world", mcgraw, 2000. [5] jeng, b., chen, j.x., and liang, t.p., "applying data mining to learn system dynamics in a biological model", international journal of expert systems with applications, vol. 30, no.1, pp. 50-58, 2006. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 [6] hjorth, p., and bagheri, a., "navigating towards sustainable development: a system dynamics approach", international journal of futures, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 74-92, 2006. [7] yim, n-h., kim, s-h., kim, h-w., and kwahk, k-y., "knowledge based decision making on higher level strategic concern: system dynamic approach", international journal of expert systems with applications, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 143-158, 2004. [8] al-najjar, b., and alsyouf, i., "selecting the most efficient maintenance approach using fuzzy multiple criteria decision making", international journal of production economics, vol. 84, no. 1, pp. 85-100, 2003. [9] tahera, k., ibrahim, r.n., and lochert, p.b., "a fuzzy logic approach for dealing with qualitative quality characteristics of a process", international journal of expert systems with applications, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 2630-2638, 2008. [10] polat, s., and bozdaǧ, c.e., "comparison of fuzzy and crisp systems via system dynamics simulation", european journal of operational research, vol. 138, no. 1, pp. 178-190, 2002. [11] karavezyris, v., timpe, k.p., and marzi, r., "application of system dynamics and fuzzy logic to forecasting of municipal solid waste", international journal of mathematics and computers in simulation, vol. 60, no. 3-5, pp. 149-158, 2002. [12] forrester, j.w., "industrial dynamics", john wiley & sons, 1961. [13] coyle, r.g., "system dynamics modeling", chapman & hall: london, 1996. [14] tsoukalas, l., and uhrig, r., "fuzzy and neural applications in engineering", john wiley, 1997. [15] jang, j.s.r., and., sun, c.t., "neuro-fuzzy and soft computing: a computational approach to learning and machine intelligence", prentice hall, 1997. [16] mamdani, e.h., and assilian, s., "an experiment in linguistic synthesis with a fuzzy logic controller", international journal of man-machine studies, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1-13, 1975. [17] takagi, t., and sugeno, m., "fuzzy identification of systems and its applications to modeling and control", ieee transactions of system. man cybernetics, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 116-132, 1985. [18] manoj kumar jain, “development of an expert system generator using fuzzy sets”, international conference on management, incom 2008, 22-24 september, 2008, udaipur, india. edited book: “managing global competitiona holistic approach”, macmillan publication. isbn 10: 0230-63646-2 and isbn 13: 978-0230-63646-0. pages: 509-517. [19] manoj kumar jain: “an efficient expert system generator”, aishwarya research communication, special issue multidisciplinary international conference: emerging issues and global economic senario, focus: emerging trends in ict (august 21-24, 2009), issn: 09753613, vol. 1, part 2, march 2010. pages: 105-110. [20] manoj kumar jain: “information and communication technology expansion using fuzzy sets”, aishwarya research communication, special issue national conference: educational reforms: insights and analysis (october 1-3, 2010), issn: 0975-3613, vol. 2, part 1, october 2010. pages: 79-85. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 107 some results on fuzzy theory angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net abstract the apparition of fuzzy logic [10] has had a double repercussion on scientific research, and has provoked two types of reactions. from a theoretical point of view, it is indeed a very useful generalization of the classical set theory proposed by boole and cantor, in this way making possible our analysis of uncertainty. but unfortunately, in his first steps it had to avoid the assaults of routine minds from the often too rigid mathematical field. this situation improved later, especially in nations with less deep-rooted prejudices. and by contrast, the new theory has obtained a strong rooting in nations with new and increasing scientific potential, such as china, japan, and south korea [9]. more recently it has also become rooted in european countries, such hungary, spain [6], and romania, mainly due to its successful technical applications. we analyze some essential aspects of this new and powerful tool of mathematical analysis. this paper is based on our previous work [2], [3]. keywords: fuzzy theory, artificial intelligence. 1. introduction when we solve problems in artificial intelligence, its representation will be through the fuzzy logic techniques, a very useful procedure. for instance, problems related to the "real world". as you know, it is only one of the "possible worlds". we define the "world" as "a complete and consistent description of how things are or how they could have been". [1],[4],[5],[7],[8]. in such type of questions monotonic logic often does not work, whereas such a type of logic is the classical one in formal worlds, such as in mathematics. also, another non-monotonic logics must be introduced, where now the extension of the set of sentences can modify the conclusion. this happens frequently in the real world: for instance, in medical sciences, or in the common sense reasoning, with partial information, giving temporal, revisable and provisional conclusions. we need fuzzy sets, fuzzy relations and so on, to describe the gradation of certainty in our world. the aforementioned membership function, μ, is shown through a new function, which describes the degree of fulfillment for each element of the property defining the set, or equivalently the degree of mutual relation between every couple of elements. such "membership degree" value can be assigned by the corresponding μ, the "membership function", whose range is the closed unit interval [0, 1]. so, the application can be denoted μ : c → [0,1] according to this, a fuzzy set can be defined by c = {x | μ(x), ∀x ∈ u} where the vertical symbol “|” does not mean "such that", but it adjoins the information on the "membership degree" of such element to the set c. let {ui}}i=1…n be n universes of discourse. we define a fuzzy relation, r, through a membership function that associates each n-uple, {xi}i=1…n, where xi ∈ ui, i = 1, 2, ..., n, with a value in the unit closed interval, [0, 1], {xi}i=1…n ∈ ∏ ui → r ∈ [0,1] (x1, x2, ..., xn) → μ (x1, x2, ..., xn) = r : 0 ≤ r ≤ 1 the fuzzy relation, r, can be defined through such "membership function", μ. in this manner, we will have gradation in the relationship, a. garrido – some results on fuzzy theory 108 0 r, ..., (1/3) r,..., (1/2) r, ..., (2/3) r, ..., 1 r the cartesian product of two fuzzy sets, f (in the universe u1) and g (in the universe u2), is the subsequent fuzzy binary relation f x g = {(x, y) | μf × g (x, y) = min [μf(x), μg(y)], ∀x ∈ u1, ∀y ∈ u2} as you know, we can consider the precedent fuzzy relation as a subset of the adequate cartesian product, r ⊂ f × g the composition of fuzzy relations can be defined by r1 (u1, u2) ◦ r2 (u2, u3) = r3 (u1, u3) where r3 (u1, u3) = {(x, z) | μr1◦r2 (x, z), ∀ x ∈ u1, ∀z ∈ u3} so, μr1◦r2 (x, z) = max {∀y ∈ u2: min (μr1 (x, y), μr2 (y, z))} = max {min (μr1 (x, y), μr2 (y, z))} there exists a clear analogy between the composition of fuzzy relations and the matrix product. for this reason, the composition (◦) of fuzzy relations can also be denominated as the "max-min matrix product". as a particular case of the previous operation of composition between fuzzy relations, we can introduce the composition between a fuzzy set and a fuzzy relation. obviously, in such a case, the fuzzy set can be represented by a row or column matrix. these can be very useful in "fuzzy inference". 2. the non-boolean algebra of fuzzy sets we can introduce new generalized versions of the classical logic. this can be done through the generalized modus ponens or the generalized modus tollens, and also by the hypothetic syllogism. to each fuzzy predicate, we can associate a fuzzy set, defined by such a property, that is, composed by the elements of the universe of discourse such that they totally or partially verify such a condition. so, we can prove this: the class of fuzzy sets, with the operations, ∪, ∩ and c (being c the pass to the complement) does not constitute a boolean algebra it is because neither the contradiction law nor the third excluded principle works in it. both proofs can be expressed easily, in algebraic or geometrical way. 3. difference of fuzzy sets if we take two sets, a and b, the difference is given by a – b = a ∩ c (b) there exist two means of obtaining the difference between fuzzy sets: by simple method: for instance, if we take: a = {a|0.1, b|0.3, c|0.6, d|0.9} and b = {a|0.2, b|0.5, c|0.8, d|1} then c (b) = {a|0.8, b|0.5, c|0.2, d|0} therefore a – b = a ∩ c (b) = {a|0.1, b|0.3, c|0.2, d|0} while the bounded difference is defined through a new operator, θ, according to the membership function, μ a θ b (x) = max {μa(x) μb(x), 0} it is clear that it does not verify the commutative property, because in the previous example, b θ a = {a|0.1, b|0.2, c|0.2, d|0.1} ≠ a θ b brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 109 to introduce the distance between fuzzy sets, a and b, we can consider different possibilities, now based on the values of the membership functions on the point x ∈ u, 1) the well-known euclidean distance, e (a, b) = [∑ {μa(x) μb(x)}²] 1/2 2) the hamming distance, d (a, b) = ∑ |μa(xi) μb(xi)| with i ∈ {1, 2, ..., n}, and xi ∈ u. we can easily prove the four conditions to be distance. and also, the relative hamming distance (δ)can be defined, when the universal set u is finite, for instance, with n elements, if card (u) = n, then δ (a, b) = (1/n) d(a, b) for instance, let a and b be as in the aforementioned example. thus, e (a, b) = 0.316 d (a, b) = 0.6 δ (a, b) = (1/n) d(a, b) so, if n = 4, then δ (a, b) = (1/4) d(a, b) = 0.15 and by generalizing, we can also define the minkowski distance, dw (a, b) = [∑ |μa (x) μb(x)| w}]1/w, with w ∈ [1,+∞] note that when m = 1, we obtain the hamming distance. and when m = 2, we find the euclidean distance. both are particular cases, therefore, of such more general minkowskian distance. 4. fuzzy distance between fuzzy sets we need to introduce the extension principle, according to which if we depart from a cartesian product of universal sets: u = ∏ ui, i = 1, 2,..., r and a collection of fuzzy sets, each one into the corresponding universal set, ai ∈ ui, i = 1, 2,..., r then, we define the cartesian product of fuzzy sets, ∏ ai, i = 1, 2, ..., r by its membership function, μ∏ai (x1, x2, ..., xr) ≡ min {μa1 (x1), μa2 (x2), ..., μar(xr)} let f be the function from the universe u to the universe v. then, the fuzzy set b ⊆ v can be obtained by f and the collection of fuzzy sets, {ai}i=1,2,…, r, in this way: μb (y) = 0, if f⁻¹(y) = ∅ and μb (y) = max [min {μa1(x1), μa2(x2), ..., μar (xr)], if f⁻¹(y)≠∅ if the function f is one-to-one, we have μb (y) = μa (f⁻¹[y]), if f⁻¹(y) ≠ ∅ let (u, d) be a pseudo-metric space. therefore, with d: uxu → r₊∪{0} so that it verifies 1) d (x, x) = 0, ∀x∈u 2) d (x, y) = d (y, x), ∀x, y∈u 3) d (x, z) ≤ d (x, y) + d (y, z), ∀x, y, z ∈ u remember also that with the additional condition 4) if d (x, y) = 0, then x = y it turns d into a distance, and in such a case, (u, d) will be a metric space. a. garrido – some results on fuzzy theory 110 in our pseudo-metric space, (u, d), if we take two fuzzy subsets, a and b, it is possible to introduce by the extension principle the pseudo-metric distance between a and b: ∀ ρ ∈ r₊, μ d(a, b) (ρ) = max [min {μa(a), μb(b)}] and it will also be a fuzzy set. 5. conclusion with these considerations about some special functions in ai we have revealed a more possible approximation to the problems of ai. but also the introduction of fuzzy measures offers us a parallel and very fructiferous alternative way to the classical measure theory, generalizing and so, improving many times very well known results of the mathematical analysis, as may be the lusin theorem, the egorov theorem, the hahn-banach theorem, and many practical results that belongs to combinatorial and fuzzy optimization, etc. this provide a more realistic approach to many problems related with new scientific aspects into the mathematical research, between them may be mentioned the treatment of uncertainty, in data mining, natural-language processing, and so one. all them, are greatly interrelated with the modern graph theory and the probability calculus, which for instance provides us very useful tools, as the probabilistic graphical models, modulating by their nodes and edges, through the associated distributions, which also belongs to the mathematical analysis. and also must be appreciated the very practical and increasing theoretical developments provided by fuzzy theory, in many different problems, as may be the rule-based systems (rbs), which in particular admits to be modeling fuzzifying the basis of facts, and / or the basis of knowledge. obviously, it will be necessary to analyze in detail what results continue being valid (perhaps with little, but very subtle modifications), and which not of those which come from the classic analysis. references [1] clancey, w.j.. (1993). notes on heuristic classification. artificial intelligence, 59, 191-196. [2] garrido, a. (2005). matrix theory and artificial intelligence. proc. int. conf. on matrix theory, technion, haifa (israel). [3] garrido, a., logics in a i. (2005) proc. logic in hungary conference. corvinus university, budapest, and janos bolyai mathematical society. [4] ginsberg, m. (1993). essentials of artificial intelligence. san francisco, ca: morgan kaufmann publ.. [5] kandel, a. (1986). fuzzy mathematical techniques with applications. ma: addison-wesley publ. co. [6] mira, j. et al. (1995). aspectos básicos de la inteligencia artificial. ed. sanz y torres. madrid. [7] nilsson, n. (1980). principles of artificial intelligence. tioga, palo alto, california. [8] pedrycz, w. (1993). fuzzy control and fuzzy systems. second edition. john wiley & sons, new york. [9] wang, l. x. (1997). a course in fuzzy systems and control. prentice-hall. [10] zadeh, l., kacprzyk, j. (1992). fuzzy logic for the management of uncertainty. wiley & sons. publ., new york. microsoft word brain_1_1_rezumate_maghiara_barni_final.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, issn 2067-3957 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience agy. átfogó kutatás a mesterséges intelligencia és fiziológiájával és biokémiájával issn 2067 – 3957 1. kötet, 1. szám január 2010: boldog új évet kívánok! www.brain.edusoft.ro főszerkesztő: pătruţ bogdan 1. vezércikk garrido angel, madridi tudományegyetem (uned), spanyolország összefoglaló vezércikk a “agy. átfogó kutatás a mesterséges intelligenciában és az idegtudományban”. 2. számítógépes módszerek az orvostudományban garrido angel, madridi tudományegyetem (uned), spanyolország összefoglaló a mesterséges intelligenciában szükséges a logika. de a logika klasszikus változatának túl sok hiányossága van. ezért szükséges bevezetni a kifinomultabb eszközöket, mint a fuzzy logika, módális logika, nem monoton logika és mások [2]. a mesterséges intelligenciának abrázolnia kell a kategoriákat, objektumokat, tulajdonságokat, objektumok közötti kapcsolatokat, helyzeteket, állapotokat, időpontokat, eseményeket, okokat és hatásokat, a tudásról szóló tudást stb. a mesterséges intelligencia feladatait két fő csoportba lehet sorolni [3, 4]: kutatási feladatok és ábrázolási feladatok. többféleképpen lehet e célt elérni. pld. léteznek a logika típusai, szabályok, keretek, asszociatív hálózatok, programok, stb., amelyek gyakran kapcsolódnak egymáshoz. hasonlóképpen, a bizonytalansági és kauzálitási feledatok megoldásához nagyon hasznos a bayesi féle hálozatok és az eszenciális gráfok bevezetése. e munkában megpróbalom bemutatni ezen sokoldalú módszerek korszerű alkalmazását az orvostudományban. 3. intelligens közvetítőkön alapuló orvosi diagnozisrendszerek iantovics barna, petru maior egyetem, marosvásárhely, románia összefoglaló a rugalmas és hatékony orvosi diagnosztikai rendszerek fejlesztése egy új kutatási irányzat. a több inteligens közvetítőkre alapozó orvosi rendszerek javíthatják a hagyományosan fejlesztett orvosi informatikai rendszerek hatékonyságat (pld. a szakértő rendszerekét). a korábbi kutatásomban javasoltam egy cmds (contract net based medical diagnosis system) nevű, több intelligens közvetítőkre alapozó orvosi diagnozis rendszert. a cmds rendszer sok, az orvosi dignosztikával kapcsolatos feldatot tud rugalmasan megoldani. a jelen tanulmány a cmds rendszer bővített intelligenciáját vizsgálja meg, ami motiválja a rendszer felhasználását a különböző egészségügyi problémák megoldásához. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, issn 2067-3957 4. adx intelligens közvetítő felhasználása a szótár lexikális bejegyzéseinek morfológiai elemzésére pătruţ bogdan, vasile alecsandri egyetem, bacău, románia összefoglaló e munkának tárgya a szavak morfológiai elemzése, ami a természetes nyelv feldolgozásásnak egy fontos folyamata. a klasszikus megoldást és előnyeit mutatom be. ez a hajlításos paradigmára és egy kiterjedt adatbázis alkalmazására alapul. az adatbázis a szavak gyökeit tartamazza. majd bemutatjuk az eredeti módszert amely dinamikusan képzi a szavak gyökeit, a hajlítási szabályok keretében alkalmazott fonológiai váltakozások segítségével. továbbá bemutatjuk a morfológiai analízis algoritmusának néhány optimalizálását.. 5. metaforikus típusú architektúra: a belső tér a viktoriánus házban boghian ioana, vasile alecsandri egyetem, bacau, románia összefoglaló a jelenlevő munka a reláció fogalmát jelentési aktusként kezeli: a házban levő minden tárgynak van egy bizonyos jelentése. a leírt metaforikus építészet célja a házban levő tárgyak (diszek vagy szerszámok) értelmezése mint a ház hálozatának csomopontjaiként. ugyanakkor a tárgyak térbeli rendezése feltárja nemcsak a személy karakterét avagy foglalkozását, hanem a szociális hierarchiaját is. 6. a konnekcionizmus és az elme számításelmélete garrido angel, madridi tudományegyetem (uned), spanyolország összefoglaló általában a mesterséges intelligencia problémái gyakran az elme filozófiajához kapcsolódnak és emiatt megkérdőjelezhetők. például, a turing által javasolt híres kérdés [16]: a gép képes-e gondolkodni? habár ez egy döntő kérdéssé alakulhat, többeknek abszurdumnak tűnhet. így hát e két legfontosabb és legvitatottabb elméletet szokták legtöbbször figyelembe venni, a konneckcionizmust és az elme számításelméletét. ezek tartalmát elemezzük jelen tanulmányunkban, a múlt vitáival és jelenlegi helyzetükkel. 7. a mesterséges intelligencia eszközeinek optimalizálása garrido angel, madridi tudományegyetem (uned), spanyolország összefoglaló a mesterséges intelligencia történelmi eredete általában az 1956-os darmouthi konferenciától eredeztethető.. de találunk több elrejtett eredetet is [1]. ugyanakkor brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience felsorolhatok nagy jelenkori gondolkodók is, mint neumann jános (akkor john von neumann, mert usa-ban tartozkodott) norbert wiener, alan turing mathison, vagy loft zadeh [12, 14]. a mesterséges intelligenciában szükséges a logika. de a logika klasszikus változatának túl sok hiányossága van. ezért szükséges bevezetni a kifinomultabb eszközöket, mint a fuzzy logika, módális logika, nem monoton logika, stb.[1,2]. a mesterséges intelligenciának abrázolnia kell a kategoriákat, objektumokat, tulajdonságokat, objektumok közötti kapcsolatokat, helyzeteket, állapotokat, időpontokat, eseményeket, okokat és hatásokat, a tudásról szóló ismereteket, stb. a mesterséges intelligencia feladatait két fő csoportba brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, issn 2067-3957 lehet sorolni [3, 5]: kutatási feladatok és ábrázolási feladatok. tehát felhasználható a logika [4], a szabályok, keretek, asszociatív hálózatok, programok, stb., amelyek gyakran kapcsolódnak egymáshoz. e munkában megpróbalom összefoglalni azon területeket ahol a mesterséges intelligencia ábrázolási módszerei alkalmazhatók. valószínű, hogy a modern elmefilozófia két legvitatottabb perspektívája a turing teszt és a kínai szoba elve ennek a két kérdésnek a megoldására lásd a dolgozat záróojegyzetét. 8. gondolatok a sorrendiségről és a szinkronicitásról nechita elena, vasile alecsandri egyetem, bacau, románia összefoglaló ez a dokumentum áttekinti a legkorszerűbb eredményeket a szeriálitásról, a szinkronicitásról és ezek kapcsolatáról, a legújabb elméletek és a komplexitás tudománya keretén belül. 9. az elosztott rendszerek optimalizálása a multi-ágens virtuális idővel rendelkező rendszerek segítségével pandele ioana alexandra, patriciu alina mihaela, vasile alecsandri egyetem, bacau, románia összefoglaló a mesterséges intelligencia és a valós idejű területek összeolvadása egy intelligens, sakkmozgással hasonló döntésnek bizonyult (de ne gondoljanak épp a sakk-mattra, mert az informatikában nehéz aktuálisnak lenni). a mesterséges intelligencia új lehetőségeket kínál a valós idejű rendszereknek. ugyanakkor ez a megoldás jelentős nehézségekkel küzd [2]. elsősorban a valós idejű rendszereknél a reagálási időnek kiszámíthatónak kell lennie, ezzel peddig a mesterséges intelligencia technikák nincsenek ellátva. a probléma megoldásának egyik módja, a szoftver-architektúra fejlesztése. a szoftver architektúrák segítségével olyan intelligens ügynököket tervezünk amelyek valós idejű rendszerekben dolgoznak. ezen architekturák lehetővé teszik az intelligens ügynökök reaktív és akaratlagos viselkedését [2]. azonban, az elosztott rendszereknél, bár fontos szerepe van a globális időnek, ez nehezen teljesíthető. első nézetre a fogalom értelmezése sem világos. ez a cikk kiterjeszti a [6]-os dolgozatot. 10. a bérelszámolás alapjainak tanításához szolgáló rendszer pătruţ bogdan, furdu iulian marius, vasile alecsandri egyetem, bacau, románia összefoglaló a cikkben leírunk egy, a pénzügyi könyvelés automatikus tanítására alkalmas módszert. a módszer a kezdők által gyakran elkövetett hibák kijavításából áll. 11. intelligens közvetítők az anyanyelvi szókincs elsajátításása pătruţ bogdan, vasile alecsandri egyetem, bacau, románia, moldovan grigor, babes-bolyai tudományegyetem kolozsvár, románia összefoglaló a cikk a következőket mutatja be: először az alapvető elképzeléseket egy rendszerről, amely saját elképzelésünk szerint szimulálja a szókincs kialakulását, az érzelmek, szavak és tárgyak közötti kapcsolatok kialakulását a gyermekkorban. másodszor: egy mechanizmus amely által a brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010, issn 2067-3957 rendszer elsajátíthatja az anyanyelv szókincsét a megfigyelések alapján. harmadszor, hogyan lehet megvalósítani egy intelligens ügynököt amely úgy viselkedik mint egy kisgyerek az anyanyelv szókincsének megszerzése közben. 12. kérdések a kollaborációs szociális hálozatok alteritássáról (másságáról) tomozei cosmin ion, floria florinela vasile alecsandri egyetem, bacau, románia összefoglaló az alteritás (másság) fogalma fontossá vált az utóbbi évtizedekben, pontosabban az információs korszakban, amikor a szoftverfejlesztők elé került mint fontos tényező a mások viselkedésének, szükségeinek, céljainak és hitének megértése. legfontosabb célunk a társadalmi képviselet kérdése, ahol a személyeket olyan egyének képezik, amelyek virtuális csoportokban, projektekben és tevékenységekben közreműködnek a világhálón keresztül. ami a mások alteritásának megértését illeti, azt állítjuk, hogy ez egy párbeszédet nyít az informatizált társadalomról, amelyben létfontosságú a kommunikáció és az ismeretek megosztása. 13. marinescu gheorghe dr. orvosi munkásságának áttekintése ivan claudia, független újságíró, bukarest, románia, boghian ioana, vasile alecsandri egyetem, bacau, románia összefoglaló gheorghe marinescu (született 1863 február 28. bukarestben – elhunyt 1938 május 15. bukarestben) ideggyógyász, a román neurológiai iskola alapítója. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 5 a hybrid heuristic for solving the triangulation problem gloria cerasela crişan department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, bacău, 600115, romania ceraselacrisan@ub.ro camelia-mihaela pintea “george cosbuc” national college avram iancu, 70-72, cluj-napoca, romania cmpintea@yahoo.com abstract the triangulation problem consists of finding a simultaneous permutation of rows and columns in a given square matrix, so that the sum of the upper-diagonal entries is maximal. the researchers study this problem intensively, as it has major applications in broad domains. a new hybrid ant colony optimization algorithm is introduced, which starts with a greedy search procedure. it is followed by an improved version of the ant colony system combined with a problem-specific local search. keywords: triangulation problem, ant colony optimization, metaheuristics 1. introduction the triangulation problem (tp) seeks to find, for a given square matrix, a simultaneous permutation of its rows and columns, so that the sum of the above diagonal elements becomes as large as possible. set up more then fifty years ago [3], tp is also known as the linear ordering problem, the maximum acyclic subdigraph problem, the maximum consistent arc set, the median ordering problem, or the minimum feedback arc set. tp arises in various fields including economy, social sciences, linguistics, electrical engineering, logistics, mathematics and archaeology [1]. for example, in economy, the inputoutput matrix rearrangement provides information on the macro-economic stability [3]; in linguistics, the automatic translation is improved by learning procedures based on sentencespecific reordering models [19]; in archaeology, the problem is equivalent to seriation: the seeking for the most probable chronologic order of the artifacts found on a specific site [17]. tp is np-hard [8]; this means that current real-life, complex instances are unlikely to be solved in a reasonable amount of time. the researchers constantly provide heuristic and approximate methods to efficiently obtain near-optimum solutions. ant colony optimization [5] is a metaheuristic that covers the algorithms inspired by the behavior of real ants, when finding the shortest path from nest to food. together with other biologically-inspired methods for solving difficult problems, aco expresses the effectiveness and the versatility observed in nature. the next section presents the triangulation problem and the already existing methods to solve this problem. section 3 introduces the new algorithm, followed by future work tasks and conclusions. brainovations brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 6 2. the triangulation problem the tp considers a square matrix of costs ( ) njiij cc ≤≤ = ,1 and seeks for a permutation σ that maximizes the total cost from (1). ∑ ∑ − = += = 1 1 1 )()()( n i n ij jicz σσσ (1) as many combinatorial optimization problems, the tp has several alternative formulations. as a graph theory problem, it seeks for a spanning acyclic tournament on the complete graph whose weights matrix is c . as an integer programming problem, it is based on the graph theory formulation, having two types of constraints, the tournament polytopes and the 3-dicycle, to prevent cycles [16]. finally, it can be stated as a particular case of quadratic assignment problem [2]. the exact methods for tp solving include cutting plane algorithms [11] or interior point approaches [13]. the approximate methods to solve the tp include the use of the recursive decomposition technique to obtain optimality within a factor of )loglog(log nno [6]. broad heuristic approaches are reported for tp solving: tabu search [9], scatter search [10], iterated local search [12], variable neighborhood search [7] and evolutionary strategies [18]. 3. the algorithm ias-tp the proposed algorithm for solving the tp has an initial greedy phase that rapidly constructs some promising starting solutions. the aco algorithm is the inner ant system [14], based on the ant colony system [4], with an interleaved local search from [15]. ias-tp algorithm procedure greedyinitialsearch procedure ias-im set parameters, initialize pheromone trails while (termination condition not met) do constructantssolutions(including inner rule) localsearchinsertmove globalupdatepheromones end end ias-tp the procedure greedyinitialsearch starts from a random permutation σ for the matrix c and selects (just in one step) the best improvement move from its neighborhood )(σn . the neighborhood of σ is the set of permutations τ that could be obtained from σ by left-compounding with a transposition nrkrk ≤<≤1)),()(( σσ . the cost modification when moving from σ to τ into the tp solution space is (2): ∑ − += −−++− 1 1 )()()()()()()()()()()()( )()( r ki ikrikiirrkkr cccccc σσσσσσσσσσσσ (2) the procedure ias-im is a new aco algorithm. the inner ant system (ias) modifies the local pheromone update rule from the ant colony system (acs), in order to favor the exploration of the available moves. the ias rule [14] modifies the pheromone trails on all the available moves, while in the acs case, only the selected move updates its pheromone value. by considering all the available moves and consequently reflecting their previous quality into the pheromone values, the ias variant is oriented merely to solution space exploration. g. c. crişan, c. m. pintea – a hybrid heuristic for solving the triangulation problem 7 just before the global update rule (that immediately follows in the acs case), our algorithm is hybridized with the local search from [15], based on [7]. an insert move for a permutation σ at )( jσ and i means the deleting of the element )( jσ and inserting it between the elements )1( −iσ and )(iσ . this operation yields a permutation τ (obtained from σ ) with the total cost (for i < j) (3): ∑ − = −+= 1 )()()()( )()()( j ik jkkj cczz σσσσστ (3) the neighborhood for σ , based on this insertion move is (4): { }njjinjijmoveinsertn ,...1,1,...2,1,,...1),),((_|)( +−==== σττσ (4) from )(σn , the ehinsertmovlocalsearc procedure, randomly selects one permutation τ that improves the total cost. finally, the global update rule is applied, and the algorithm is iterated, until the termination conditions are met. this local search procedure was tested in [15] and showed very good results when it hybridizes the classic acs algorithm. in this proposed algorithm, it is used to improve the ics variant. the algorithm implementation is a work in progress task. future work will be done in designing a coarse-grained parallel implementation of this algorithm and exploring its results on the instances from [20]. 4. conclusions the paper introduced a new approach to heuristically solving the triangulation problem. this np-hard problem has broad real-world applications in economy, engineering and logistics. the proposed algorithm is an aco implementation, started from the solutions of a greedy procedure and hybridized with a local search. by including problem-oriented structure of the neighborhood, the local search tends to produce good results. the preliminary tests and the parameter tuning tests show a good and stable behavior on several available instances from [20]. acknowledgments. this research is supported by the grant id 508, new computational paradigms for dynamic complex problems, funded by the ministry of education, research and innovation, romania. references [1] barthélemy, j.p., leclerc, b., monjardet, b. (1986). on the use of ordered sets in problems of comparison and consensus of classifications. journal of classification, 3(2), 187-224. [2] chaovalitwongse, w.a., pardalos, p.m., resende, m.g.c., grundel, d.a. (2010). revised grasp with path-relinking for the linear ordering problem. journal of combinatorial optimization (retrieved 1 february 2010, from http://www2.research.att.com/~mgcr/doc/gpr-lop.pdf). [3] chenery, h.b., watanabe, t. (1958). international comparisons of the structure of productions. econometrica, 26(4), 487-521. [4] dorigo, m., gambardella, l.m. (1997). ant colony system: a cooperative learning approach to the traveling salesman problem. ieee transactions on evolutionary computation, 1(1), 53–66. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 8 [5] dorigo, m., stützle, t. (2004). ant colony optimization. mit press, cambridge. [6] even, g., naor, j., rao, s., schieber. b. (2000). divide–and–conquer approximation algorithms via spreading metrics. journal of the acm, 47, 585–616. [7] garcia, c., perez, d., campos, v., marti, r. (2006). variable neighborhood search for the linear ordering problem. computers and operations research, 33, 3549–3565. [8] garey, m.r., johnson, d.s. (1979). computers and intractability: a guide to the theory of np-completeness. w.h. freeman, new york [9] glover, f., laguna, m. (1997). tabu search. kluwer academic publisher, boston. [10] glover, f. (1998). a template for scatter search and path relinking. in hao, j.k., lutton, e., ronald, e., schoenauer, m., snyers, d. (eds.), artificial evolution. lecture notes in computer science, 1363, 13-54. [11] grötschel, m., jünger, m., reinelt, g. (1984). a cutting plane algorithm for the linear ordering problem. operations research, 32(6), 1195-1220. [12] lourenco, h.r., martin, o., stützle, t. (2002). iterated local search. in glover, f., kochenberger, g. (eds.), handbook of metaheuristics, international series in operations research & management science, 57, 321-353, kluwer academic publishers. [13] mitchell, j.e., borchers, b. (2000). solving linear ordering problem with a combined interior point/simplex cutting plane algorithm. in frenk, h., roos, k., terlaky, t., zhang, s. (eds.), high performance optimization, 349-366, kluwer academic publishers. [14] pintea, c.m., dumitrescu, d. (2005). improving ant systems using a local updating rule. in: cantarella, j.d., ieee proceedings of international symbolic and numerical algorithms for scientific computing, ieee computer society press (pp. 295-2999). [15] pintea, c.m., crişan, g.c., chira, c., dumitrescu, d. (2009). a hybrid ant-based approach to the economic triangulation problem for input-output tables. in: lecture notes in artificial intelligence. the 4th international conference on hybrid artificial intelligence systems, salamanca, spain. [16] reinelt, g. (1985). the linear ordering problem: algorithms and applications. in research and exposition in mathematics, 8, heldermann verlag, berlin [17] robinson, w.r. (1951). a method for chronologically ordering archaeological deposits. american antiquity 16, 93–301. [18] snásel, v., kromer, p., platos, j. (2008). evolutionary approaches to linear ordering problem. in: dexa workshops, ieee computer society (pp. 566–570). [19] tromble, r., eisner, j. (2009). learning linear ordering problems for better translation. in: proceedings of the 2009 conference on empirical methods in natural language processing, singapore (pp. 1007–1016). [20] lolib, at heidelberg university, germany. retrieved 1 february 2010 from http://www.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/groups/comopt/software/lolib/. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final.doc 217 riassunti in italiano brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cervello. ampia ricerca in intelligenza artificiale e neuroscienze volume 1, numero 1 gennaio 2010: tanti auguri! www.brain.edusoft.ro direttore responsabile: bogdan patrut 1. una procedura euristica ibrida per risolvere il problema della triangolazione gloria cerasela crişan, camelia-m. pintea riassunto il problema della triangolazione consiste nel trovare una permutazione simultanea di righe e colonne di una matrice quadrata conosciuta, in modo che la somma degli elementi diagonali superiore sia la massima possibile. i ricercatori studiano intensamente questo problema, con importanti applicazioni in vaste aree. è stato introdotto un nuovo algoritmo ibrido (aco). l'algoritmo inizia con una procedura di ricerca sulla griglia, a cui segue una versione migliorata del ant colony system, combinato con un problema specifico di ricerca locale. 2. una proposta di architettura guidata dai dati (data driven architecture) per la applicazioni in rete nel campo della cardiologia (cardiology network application) horea adrian greblă, călin ovidiu cenan riassunto il documento presenta un quadro per un sistema medico distribuito orientato ad un approccio moderno ed ad un aumento della qualità dei servizi sanitari offerti ai pazienti affetti da malattie croniche cardio-vascolari, attraverso le più recenti tecnologie it & c. il sistema proposto prevede l'interazione online tra le figure principali di un sistema medico: pazienti, medici, organismi sanitari (es. ospedali, cliniche) e le autorità mediche (es. servizi sociali). con l’aiuto di un ampio insieme di procedure mediche collaudate, il sistema provvede ad archiviare cartelle cliniche e offre un servizio di integrazione dei dati tra i diversi tipi di applicazioni sanitarie e gli enti ospedalieri. l'approccio ontologico proposto consente l'interscambio delle conoscenze mediche e le migliori prestazioni con un’organizzazione concettuale dei records relativi a i pazienti. la soluzione proposta consente una diagnosi assistita dal computer e l'analisi multicriteriale dei dati medici, con la possibilità estesa a costruire datawarehouse per un facilitare un datamining medico complesso. 3. ricerca educativa sul livello tecnologico della vita privata liliana mâţă riassunto l’obiettivo di questo studio è quello di analizzare il livello tecnologico nella vita scolastica. fornisce osservazioni sulle ricerche nei documenti relativi ai curricula e la percezione degli studenti delle scuole superiori su quest’argomento come sviluppato nel sistema educativo rumeno. i principali obiettivi di questo tipo di ricerca (aim) sono a) l’identificazione degli aspetti specifici del livello tecnologico e di come si riflette nei libri di testo e nei curricula scolastici. b) definizione del livello di predisposizione degli insegnanti e degli studenti delle scuole superiori verso la tecnolocia nella vita privata. in secondo luogo abbiamo condotto un’osservazione che ha testato il modo in cui 1456 studenti e 890 insegnanti percepiscono la tecnologia nel sistema educativo rumeno. i risultati sono stati suddivisi attraverso le frequenze su temi specifici strutturati sul livello tecnologico dei documenti scolastici e il livello di apertura di studenti ed insegnanti. riassunti in italiano 218 4. la selezione delle operazioni per l'assembler encoding tomasz praczyk riassunto la codifica assembler è un metodo neuro-evolutivo che in una rete neurale è assume la forma di un semplice programma chiamato assembler encoding program. il processo del programma è quello di creare la cosiddetta network definition matrix (matrice di definizione della rete) che detiene tutte le informazioni necessarie per costruire il la rete (network). per generare gli assembler encoding programs sono quindi utilizzate tecniche neuro-evolutive di networking. le prestazioni dell’ assembler encoding dipendono fortemente dalel operazioni utilizzate.per selezionare le più performanti vengono effettuati esperimenti sulle ottimizzazioni come ad esempio quelo di un problema predator-prey(predatore-preda). negli esperimenti sono stati testati aep che svolgevano operazioni di differenti tipologie. i risultati sono elencati al termine del documento. 5. programmi basilari per computer nella terapia dellla dyslalia e dislessia-disgrafica iolanda tobolcea, mirela danubianu riassunto negli ultimi anni ricercatori e terapisti in logopedia hanno avuto sempre più a che fare con l’utilizzo e lo sviluppo di applicazioni informatiche nella terapia dei sisturbi del linguaggio. l'obiettivo principale di questo studio è di valutare l'efficacia dei sistemi informatici per programmi terapeutici in logopedia per rumeni. nel corso dello studio saranno presentati ricerche sperimentale per valutare l'efficacia dei programmi elaborati nella terapia del linguaggio per due disturbi del linguaggio: dyslalia e la dislessia disgraphia (in questo caso sia per disturbi nella lettura che nella scrittura). metodologicamente, l'uso del computer nella fase terapeutica è stata condotta utilizzando i programmi informatici che abbiamo sviluppato e sperimentato durante diversi anni di attività terapeutica. il campione utilizzato nei nostri esperimenti è composto da 120 persone, due gruppi di 60 bambini con disturbi del linguaggio sono stati selezionati per tutti e due i tipi di disturbi: 30 per l'esperimento utilizzando il computer ( 'computer-based') e 30 di controllo ( ‘metodo classico’). l’ ipotesi di studio testata verifica se i risultati ottenuti dai soggetti del gruppo sperimentale sono nettamente migliorati dopo l'utilizzo di programmi informatici, rispetto a quelli del gruppo di controllo, che non hanno utilizzato questo programma, ma una terapia tradizionale. le ipotesi sono state confermate per i disturbi del linguaggio inclusi in questo studio, i risultati dello studio confermano i benefici del’utilizzo dei programmi sul computer in logopedia per correggere questi disturbi e l'influenza positiva di questi programmi in termini di sviluppo della personalità dei bambini. 6. pensare sapone ma dire ‘apones’. il perìodo della preparazione del suono (lautvorspann): càlcolo a ritroso dall’enunciato fino all’innervazione dei muscoli nora wiedenmann riassunto nel modello del presente lavoro (sul discorso e sugli errori nella parola, sulle scoordinazioni e disordini), il perìodo trascorso dall’innervazione dei muscoli fino alla pronuncia (intenzionata come sequenza canonica di suoni nella parola) è calcolato a ritroso. questo perìodo è mostrato come la somma di tutte le durate fisiologiche dei suoni e dei gesti di una articulazione, durate necessarie per produrre un enunciato. il modello introduce due orologi interni basati su fattori positivi o negativi che rappresentano specifici perìodi, a base di fisiologia, nel perìodo della preparazione del suono (lautvorspann). l’uso di questi orologi interni mostra che i gesti (come altre attività motorie) lavorano seguendo un semplice principio di serializzazione: in condizioni non-default (non standard), le alterazioni dei perìodi temporali possono causare errori nel linguaggio dovuti all’errata serializzazione dei suoni, scoordinazioni dei suoni come osservate durante le prime fasi dell’acquisizione del linguaggio, o anche disordini dei suoni come nei casi patologici. queste alterazioni nel perìodo temporale sono modellate variando i fattori delle due orologi interni. il brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 219 càlcolo temporale a ritroso usa come valori predefiniti le durate di suono del contestualmente dipendente munich phondat database of spoken german (vedere appendice 4). come un nuovo approccio umano, questo càlcolo si pone matematicamente come l’approccio di linear programming / operations research. questo lavoro da un forte supporto al classico vecchio sospetto (del 1908) del famoso meringer (linguista austriaco e studioso dei lapsus linguae), cioè che l’uomo pensa ed articola per lo più in una serializzazione differente che è audibile dalle sequenze di suoni pronunciati. 7. stato dell’arte: concetti risolutivi per giochi di coalizione simina brânzei riassunto il documento esamina le soluzioni concettuali riguardanti i giochi di coalizione. i diversi concetti risolutivi sono caratterizzati, in una sorta di nucleo, in valori shapley, impostando una negoziazione, un set stabile nuclei e kernel. daremo un’occhiata ai recenti sviluppi delle rappresentazioni succinte dei giochi di coalizione, come i giochi di votazione ponderata, giochi a risorse coalitive e giochi a cooperazione booleana e contributi marginali a livello di reti. i concetti risolutivi esistenti sono di una complessità proibitiva perfino per semplici classi di giochi. discuteremo una sequenza di operazioni per trovare un concetto risolutivo equilibrato affascinante come il nucleo ma abbastanza docile per poter essere applicato. 8. i fattori di intelligence development e il rendimento individuale gheorghe dumitriu riassunto lo studio presenta alcuni approcci agli elementi, la composizione e la misurazione dell'intelligenza umana. così, nel'approccio psicometrico, c’è una chiara dimostrazione che l'intelligenza è più influenzata dal patrimonio genetico della persona che dal patrimonio culturale della società. la conclusione di alcune ricerche sulla valutazione dell’intelligenza è che i soggetti che ottengono i punteggi più alti in alcuni compiti specifici hanno la tendenza a rispondere bene anche alle altre categorie di test. al contrario, coloro che ottengono i punteggi più bassi o risultati deboli ottengono gli stessi risultati anche negli altri test. 9. alcuni risultati sulla logica confuso angel garrido riassunto l'apparizione di logica confuso (fuzzy logic) ha avuto una doppia ripercussione sulla ricerca scientifica, e quindi, ha provocato due tipi di reazioni. da un punto di vista teorico, è davvero una generalizzazione molto utile della classica teoria degli insiemi a di boole e cantor, nel senso che ha reso possibile la nostra analisi dell'incertezza. ma purtroppo, nei suoi primi passi ha dovuto evitare gli assalti delle routines mentali dal lato dal campo, spesso troppo rigido della matematica. questa situazione è migliorata in seguito, soprattutto in nazioni con meno pregiudizi radicati. e per contrasto, la nuova teoria ha ottenuto un forte radicamento nei paesi con i nuovi e crescenti potenzialità scientifiche, come la cina, il giappone o la corea del sud, e più recentemente nei paesi europei, come l'ungheria, la spagna o la romania, soprattutto grazie al suo successo nelle applicazioni tecniche. analizziamo qui alcuni aspetti essenziali di questo nuovo e potente strumento di analisi matematica. 10. fusione di conoscenze nella rete accademica riassunto i network accademici possono rappresentare un nuovo modelo per la base di insegnanmento della knowledge fusion. nel documento corrente presentiamo un approccio al design del network accademico che unisce esperti di insegnamento e pratica accademica e apre nuove vie nella riassunti in italiano 220 distribuzione della conoscenza. i network accademici che che consideriamo sono modellati matematicamente e rappresentano le fonamenta per l’approccio ontologico alla knoledge fusion in network di questo tipo. 11.un’applicazione delphi per la sintatti e l’analisi lessicale di una frase che usa l’algoritmo di cocke, younger e kasami bogdan pătruţ, ioana boghian riassunto questo documento si focalizza sull’algoritmo di coke, younger, kasami. presentiamo un’applicazione scritta in delphi che analizza il lessico e la sintassi di una frase in lingua rumena. possiamo usare una gramamtica chomsky normal form (cnf). prsenteremo il sorgente di una implementazione delphi nell’algoritmo cyk. 12.un problema di adattamento di dati utilizzando le curve di bézier carmen violeta muraru riassunto l’obiettivo del documento è quello di studiare vecchi e nuovi problemi che riguardano le curve di bézier, importanti strumenti nella modellazione geometrica degli oggetti. utilizzeremo il software mathlab per studiare ed estimare la correzione d’errore dei dati usando le curve di bézier fino a modellare i quadrati e per trovare nuovi metodi all’interno di uno studio che è correntemente in fase di svilupppo riguardo alla distanza tra curve e approssimazione dei dati. 13. stato dell’arte nella verifica della firma biometrica mohamed soltane, noureddine dognmane, noureddine guersi riassunto il documento presenta un’analisi comparativa delel prestazioni di tre algoritmi di stima valutativa: expectation maximization(em), greedy em algorithm (gem) e fiueiredo-jan algorithm (fj) basati sulla modellazione gaussiana dei modelli misti (gmms) per la verifica della firma biometrica. i risultati della simulazione hanno mostrato risultati significativi nelle prestazioni. le prestazioni rilevate nel test di eer=5.49% di “em”, eer=5.04% per “gem” e eer=5.00 per “fj”, mostrano come il regime delle informazioni sul comportamento nella firma biometrica sia robusto e abbia un potere discriminante che può essere esplorato per il riconoscimento dell’identità. 14. la neuroscienza nell’insegnamento della narrativa: facilitare lo sviluppo sociale ed emotivo lisa whalen riassunto le discipline umanistiche e le scienze sono state a lungo considerate due poli opposti che esistono in regni separati e richiedono quindi differenti abilità cognitive. tuttavia, le neuroscienze hanno portato ad un rinnovato interesse per ciò che possiamo sapere del cervello umano attraverso l'individuazione di collegamenti tra le varie discipline. ad esempio, gli studi relativi alla letteratura inglese hanno rivelato che i benefici della lettura di racconti (fiction e non) vanno ben oltre lo sviluppo del linguaggio e in particolare incrementano una maggiore competenza nell’ambito sociale ed emotivo. combinando i risultati dello studio di un’originale tesi di laurea e di una revisione delle ricerche passate e attuali in materia di istruzione, la psicologia, linguistica e neuroscienze, questo saggio esplora come la lettura narrativa serva come prassi per la gestione delle emozioni e delle interazioni sociali nella vita quotidiana. in effetti, diversi studi suggeriscono che la lettura narrativa rafforza quasi ogni parte del cervello, perché il cervello è stato progettato o "cablato" per imparare a pensare in termini di racconti, indipendentemente dai contenuti. questo saggio offre diversi tipi di supporto per la tesi che racconti la lettura facilita lo sviluppo sociale ed emotivo. la ricerca discussa comprende studi che dimostrano che nei racconti la lettura non è un'attività solitaria, ma "un processo sorprendentemente sociale" (krakovsky, 2006, p. 1) ed è legata alla maggiore capacità di brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 221 visualizzare le persone e gli eventi da più prospettive, e aumentata l'empatia per gli altri, e maggiore capacità di interpretare i segnali sociali (atkins, 2000; courtright, mackey, & packard, 2005; davis, 1980; greif & hogan, 1973; harrison, 2008; mar, 2004; mar, oatley, hirsh, de la paz, & peterson , 2006; stanovich & west, 1989, 1992). capire come il cervello elabori le narrazioni e faccia riferimento al funzionamento nella vita reale ha importanti implicazioni per molte discipline, come la psicologia, nel suo tentativo di comprendere e curare il disturbo post traumatico da stress. questo saggio, tuttavia, si concentra sulle implicazioni per l'istruzione. gli insegnamenti che cercano di aiutare gli studenti a sviluppare la possibilità di acuisire abilità necessarie per il pensiero critico e l'empatia necessaria per diventare adulti responsabili, possono essere più efficaci se comprendono anche le il ruolo che la narrativa svolge nello sviluppo sociale ed emotivo degli studenti. 15. fondamenti logici nell’intelligenza artificiale angel garrido riassunto le procedure per la ricerca delle soluzioni ai problemi, nell’intelligenza artificiale, possono essere utilizzate in alcune occasioni senza conoscere il dominio in cui operano ed in altre, conoscendolo. quest’ultima procedura e’ chiamata ricerca euristica. i tale metodo le tecniche matriciali si rivelano essenziali. la loro introduzione ci fornisce un metodo facile e preciso per la ricerca della soluzione. il nostro docuemento spiega come la teoria delle matrici appaia proficuamente partecipe nell’intelligenza artificiale con fattibili applicazioni nella teoria dei giochi. 16. aspetti psicologici-mistica a san evagrio pontico e san massimo il confessore teofil gheorghe popovici riassunto i padri della chiesa sono coloro che hanno vissuto e studiato a fondo i misteri dell'animo umano. il modo in cui un essere umano è preso in considerazione è molto speciale. secondo san massimo, l'uomo è il mediatore fra dio e il creato. creato con corpo e anima, l'uomo è incaricato di conoscere dio anche a durante la sua vita terrena. ma, come diceva platone, l'uomo deve prima conoscere se stesso. i santi padri descrivono a lungo questo sentiero nel quale l'uomo, nel momento in cui rinuncia ai peccati, scopre dio nel suo cuore. queste descrizioni sono estremamente attuali e pertinenti per l'uomo moderno che sembra aver perso un po’ il quadro complessivo del mistero dell'animo umano che mostra il grande destino per il quale è stato creato. 17. elementi di analisi geospaziale elisabeta antonia haller riassunto in una società informatizzata, il volume di dati aumenta in modo imprevisto, rendendo il loro tempo di elaborazione un compito molto difficile. cosi è diventata una priorità il trattamento di dati in informazioni e conoscenze utili. così possiamo dire che il data mining è il risultato degli sviluppi tecnologici. l’interpretazione dei dati spaziali ha fatto oggetto di ricerca nel corso del tempo, giungendo ora ad avere una grande varietà di strumenti e prodotti software per la rappresentazione e l'interpretazione. ciò di cui abbiamo bisogno di capire al di là dei servizi offerti dal’uno o l’altro sistema, soluzione proprietaria oppure open source, è il modo di lavorare e interagire con i dati spaziali. riassunti in italiano 222 18. henric sanielevici dalla critica letteraria all’anatomia oppure come funziona la dimensione del teschio influenza la letteratura? adrian jicu riassunto l'obiettivo del presente documento è quello di affrontare il rapporto tra la critica letteraria e l’anatomia. per essere più precisi si discuterà una delle teorie di henric sanielevici, secondo cui il testo letterario può essere compreso solo tenendo conto del colore degli occhi, la conformazioane dei denti e la dimensione e la forma del cranio dell'autore. 19. il complesso funzionamento del cervello umano: i due emisferi. iulia cristina timofti riassunto il presente studio si rivela solo un assaggio delle possibili funzioni e reazioni che il cervello umano può avere. ho preso in considerazione esempi in situazioni con diverse caratteristiche, sia di una persona normale che di una con capacità di split-brain. queste situazioni dimostrano che il cervello, anche se diviso in due, lavora come un'unica entità, come un avvincente computer che ha come obiettivo principale il trattamento dei dati. 20. intervista con il dott. georgios k. matis, neurochirurgo, democrito università della tracia, facoltà di medicina, alexandroupolis, grecia ruxandra alexandru microsoft word brain_6_2015_dec_34_final4.doc 1 b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4 december 2015 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 2 about the brain journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (mainly) peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, educators, phd students... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in february 2016. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 25th of january, 2016. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief: • bogdan pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors: • barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureș, romania • frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland • gabriela tăbăcaru, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania • carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timișoara, romania • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain • monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2015 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issue 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 6. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 7. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 8. louise connell, university of manchester, united kingdom (psychology, cognitive sciences) 9. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 10. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 11. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 12. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 13. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 14. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 15. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 16. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 17. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 18. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 19. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 20. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 21. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureș, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 22. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 23. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 24. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 25. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 4 26. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 27. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 28. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 29. ana-maria minuț, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 30. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 31. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing, statistics, mathematics) 32. bogdan pătruț, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 33. iulia karin pătruț, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 34. monica pătruț, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (sociology, political science, social media) 35. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 36. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeș-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 37. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 38. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 39. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 40. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 41. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 42. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 43. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 19 logical extraction of neo-cortex structure ronald j. swallow brain research corporation 7681 cross creek circle breinigsville, pa 18031 tel. 610 301 6629, 610 395 6716, brainresearch.bbnow.org rswallow@ptd.net opinion i do not understand why the neocortex is a mystery to everyone. its neuron net circuits are repeated throughout the cortex. it consists of excitatory and inhibitory neurons whose functions have been known for decades. the neuron net circuit is repeated over layers whose axonal outputs feed on as inputs to other layers. the neurons of each layer, each receive axonal inputs from one or more sending layers and all that they need to do is to correlate the axonal input stimulus pattern with their axonal connection patterns from those inputs and produce output frequencies proportional to their resultant psps (psp = post synaptic potential). axonal growth toward a neuron is definitely the mechanism for permanent memory formation and it is just what is needed to implement conditioned reflex learning. this axonal growth must be under the control of the glial cells which conditionally enable axon growth and must be a function of the signals surrounding the neurons. the cortex is known to be able to do pattern recognition and the correlation between an axonal input stimulus and an axonal input connection pattern is just what is needed to do pattern recognition. however, pattern recognition needs normalized correlations and a means to compare these correlations so that the largest correlation in a group of neighboring neurons is recognized by one of the neurons of the group. without normalization, the psps' relative values would not be constrained properly and could not be used to determine the best pattern match. in order to get psps to be compared so that the maximum psp neuron would fire, an inhibitory neuron is needed. by having a group of excitatory neurons feed an inhibitory neuron that feeds back inhibitory axonal signals to those excitatory neurons, one is able to have the psps of the excitatory neurons compared, with the neuron with the largest psps firing before the others do as the inhibitory signal decays after each excitatory stimulus inhibiting the other excitatory neurons with the smaller psps. this inhibitory neuron is needed in order to achieve psp comparisons, no question about it. for a meaningful comparison, the psps must be normalized [1]. as unlikely as it may seem possible, it comes out that the inhibitory connections growing by the same rules as excitatory connections, grow to a value which accomplishes the normalization. that is, as the excitatory axon pattern grows via conditioned reflex rules, the inhibitory axon to each excitatory neuron grows to a value equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the excitatory connections. this can be shown by a mathematical analysis of a group of mutually inhibiting neurons under conditioned reflex learning. this normalization does not require the neurons to behave differently from what has been known for decades about neurons, but rather requires that they interact with an inhibitory neuron as described. thus, by simply having the inhibitory neurons receive from neighboring excitatory neuron with large connection strengths where if the excitatory neuron fires, the inhibitory neuron fires, and by allowing the inhibitory axonal signals be included with the excitatory axonal input signals to the inputs to those excitatory neurons, the neocortex is able to do normalized conditioned reflex pattern recognition as its basic function. if one thinks about it, layers of mutually inhibiting groups of neurons are all that are needed to explain the neocortex functions. the layers of neurons are able to exhibit conditioned reflex behavior between subpatterns, generating new learned behaviors between those subpattern as observed by the human. with layer to layer feedback, multi-stable behavior of layers of neurons results, forming short term memory patterns that become part of the stimulus to other neurons. with brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 20 normalized correlations, there are always axonal input stimulus patterns that will excite every excitatory neuron [1]. the only way to prove this cortex model is to build a simulator, modeling large nets of neurons and observing behaviors that appear human. most certainly we will never be able to measure the neuron nets of the cortex due to their small sizes. this means, that projects must be formed that do these simulations and do not waste r&d efforts to try to measure a wide range of properties of the cortex which don't result in defining neuron nets that can be built and simulated. certainly the area to area connection scheme is needed, but it likely can be varied from that of the human, still with intelligence being exhibited. trials will be needed to determine the initial connection strengths when initiating the simulator. these connections will need to be simple, such as non-zero between corresponding neurons of the mutually inhibiting groups. axon growth toward pulsing neurons is the likely mechanism for memory alteration. having neuron axons back away from neurons, rather than grow toward neurons, has no physical basis and is supported by the fact that the number of axons increases, not decreases, with age in the human. certainly axon connection strengths never become proportional to axon pulsing frequencies, otherwise the nets of neurons will never exhibit permanent past memories, but rather would be a function of recent events only. glial cells are likely participants to axonal growth control. it is likely that they will inhibit axonal growth physically, unless a chemical falls below a concentration. in particular, this would be when the excitatory stimulus (chemically emitted to a neuron by axons to that neuron) to a cell, falls below a critical level, where the correlation between stimulus and connection pattern falls below a limit. the result of such a rule is that learning would only occur if stimulus patterns are new and don’t match well the connection patterns to neurons. the psychological effect would be a curiosity behavior, observed in humans. also, it would result in old age reduction of ability to learn, also observed in humans. progress in understanding how the brain works has been basically non-existent over the last 40 years due to limits in measurement. rather, progress requires simulation to work out the missing details. i predict that simulation will dominate the future efforts of researchers. also, i predict that special purpose hardware will dominate the approach where using conventional computers to simulate nets of neurons in real-time will go out of style very soon because of their high costs. simulation permits an evolution process to arrive upon a successful brain understanding. if a logical conclusion of some property of a neuron net is wrong, simulation will eliminate it. if it is right, simulation will verify it. i believe that i know how the neocortex works, permitting a detailed artificial neuron representation of the full cortex. in the above presentation, i present my logic for my neuron net model and there is direct evidence from neurological experiments to support the model (that the neocortex consists of mutually inhibiting neurons). i am looking for neuro-scientists who support my model and will help me acquire a home for a project to build a neocortex simulator. at least, i hope to find others to communicate with, who might share my theories. for a derivation of the normalization of the axonal patterns to a group of mutually inhibiting neurons, see the bellow text, based on [2]. abstract the post-synaptic potential of a neuron for a long time has been known to be a crosscorrelation between an input axonal frequency pattern and an excititory synaptic strength connection strength pattern. in order for correlations to be useful, they must be able to be compared and must be normalized (covariance of the connection strengths must be constant over all the correlations). a biologically feasible net of neurons was studied (net of n excitatory neurons interacting with an inhibitory neuron) and a very simple pavlovian rule used for connection strength variation (same rule for both excititory and inhibitory neurons). the surprise was that the neurons of such a net are able to compare their correlations in a normalized way. also, the net exhibited greater r. j. swallow logical extraction of neo-cortex structure 21 learning for new input patterns than for old input patterns, thereby explaining the brain’s curiosity drive and reduction of permanent memory plasticity as one ages. figure 1. the structure referring to figure 1, if each neuron n (n = n1, n2, ... nn) receives the same input excitation pattern ai(t), a2(t), ... ai(t) where each of these i inputs to neuron n is weighted by a corresponding component of that neuron’s connection strength pattern v1,n(t), v2,n(t), ... vi,n(t), then the neuron which will fire among the neurons is that with the maximum pn(t) where (1) ∑ ∑ = = = i i ni i i nii tv tvta n ktp 1 , 2 1 , )( )()( )( (1) and where the denominator actually is the inhibitory connection strength, ej,n(t), to neuron n from the inhibitory neuron j. the model presented and studied here uses the same rule for varying inhibitory and excitatory connection strengths. a pavlovian rule (for the growth of these connections) is used. connection strengths increase only. the dynamic range of each connection variable must (for physical reasons) be finite so that the use of only increasing variables requires considerations of what prevents variables from approaching infinity. by requiring the excitatory psp (post synaptic component) porportional to the acetyl-coline around a neuron to fall below a threshold before any connections may increase, did the trick. thus, axons of neurons only grow forward under control of glial cells which can detect the acetylcoline levels. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 22 a group of excitatory neurons interacting with a single inhibitory neuron is observable in the human cortex. it can be shown that the model presented here still results in normalized correlations even if more than one inhibitory neuron is involved, as long as all of these inhibitory neurons are triggered by the pulsing of any one of the excititory neurons. 1. the model and its analysis consider again the net of n excitatory neurons n1, n2, ... nn interacting with the inhibitory neuron j in figure 1. the ai(t) associated with the output of a neuron i does not denote the voltage waveform within neuron i’s output axon, but rather, it denotes the psp voltage waveform which would be produced within a receiving test neuron via a unit connection strength. as pointed out in the previous section, all n neurons receive the same input pulse pattern a1(t), a2(t), ... ai(t) via corresponding sets of connection strengths v1,n(t), v2,n(t), ... vi,n(t). also, there are the connection strengths ej,n1(t), ej,n2(t), ... ej,nn(t) which denote the connection strengths from the inhibitory neuron j to neurons n = n1, n2, ... nn and there are the n excitatory connection strengths vn1,j(t), vn2,j(t), ... vnn,j(t) from each of the n neurons to neuron j. because of the way the output state of a neuron is defined, the psp’s within the n neurons can be written as follows (see equation (2)), )()()()()( , 1 , tetatvtatpsp njj i i niin −= ∑ = (2) and that for neuron j, of course, can be written as in equation (3). ∑ = = nn nn jnnj tvtatpsp 1 , )()()( (3) the usual conditions for pulsing within a neuron n with threshold “theta” is (4) 0))()(()()( >−= ttpsp dt d whenttpsp nnnn θθ (4) where the threshold in any neruron n, theta, is infinite for a short period of time immediately after equation 4 is satisfied, after which theta exponentially decays toward a resting level theta0 with a time constant of around 1 millisec. if the inhibitory neuron j has fired at times tm up to time t, where the psp’s are exponential waveforms, we can write (5) smteta i m t tt j i m sec100)( )( == ∑ − − (5) where a relatively long time constant is assumed for the inhibitory psp waveforms (which has been measured for inhibitory psp waveforms and is rather important in this derivation). a similar output equation applies for each neuron n (6): smteta j m t tt n j m sec3)( )( == ∑ − − (6) where the tm are the times when neuron n has pulsed up to time t. r. j. swallow logical extraction of neo-cortex structure 23 to make this a net of mutually inhibiting neurons, the connection strengths to inhibitory neuron area ssumed to obey the following relation (7): 0, )( θ>tv jn (7) thus, neuron j will pulse for each pulsing of one of the n neurons. if no two neurons among the n neurons pulse within a few millisenconds of each other, one pulse will be produced in the inhibitory neuron per pulse from one of the n neurons. this will be the case if the psp waveforms in the n neurons are not equal, since when neuron one fires, the inhibitory component to the psp waveforms of the n neurons suddenly goes more negative preventing the others from reaching threshold. being more specific, when one of the n neurons fires, shortly thereafter the following conditions is true in all the neurons (8): 0, 1 , )()()()()( θ<+−= ∑ = tvtatetatpsp ni i i injjn (8) where aj(t) decays in an exponential way with a time constant of 100msecs until the first neuron meets the firing condition and adds another exponential component to aj(t), etc. thus, the neuron that will pulse will always be the one which can pulse at the largest value of aj(t). solving for that value of aj(t) for each neuron n (equation 2 substituted into equation 4) and calling it pn(t), the following results (9). )( )()( )( , 1 0, te tvta tp nj i i nii n ∑ = − = θ (9) assuming (10): 0, 1 )()( θ>>∑ = tvta ni i i i (10) then equation (9) reduces to (11): )( )()( )( , 1 , te tvta tp nj i i nii n ∑ == (11) where vi,n(t) / ej,n(t) can be interpreted as an effective excitatory connection strength, wi,n(t). to complete the specification of the model, the synaptic weights are assumed to vary according to the conditioned reflex-like rule as follows: (12) and (13). )()()()( 1, tltatactvdt d nnini = (12) )()()()( 2, tltatactedt d nnjnj = (13) where ln(t) is positive (non-zero) if reinforcement is present, but otherwise this derivation of a normalized cross-correlation is not dependent upon it. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 24 if it is assumed that the frequency of firing of the pulsing inhibitory neuron is greater than 20 pulses per second (determined by the 100 millisec inhibit decay rate), then (14): ondperpulsestisaoffrequencythewhentatp ijjn sec/1)())(max( >>≈ (14) so that (13) can be written as (15): dttltatpctde nnnnj )()())(max()( 2, = (15) which can be combined with (11) to eliminate pn(t), and then both sides of the resulting equation can be multiplied by ej,n(t) / c2 to yield the following equation (16): )()()()()()( 1 1 ,,, 2 tltatvtatdete c n i i nniinjnj ∑ = = (16) taking equation (12) and multiplying both sides by vi,n(t) / c1 and summing over i = 1 to i, we get the following result (17): ∑ ∑ = = = i i i i nnniinini tltatvtatdvtvc 1 1 ,,, 1 )()()()()()( 1 (17) from equations (16) and (17) we get (18): ))(( 1 2 1 ))(( 1 2 1 , 2 21 , 2 1 ted c tvd c nj i i ni∑ = = (18) which when integrated with initial conditions of zero, becomes the following equation (19): )()( 1 , 2 1 2 , 2 tv c c te i i ninj ∑ = = (19) taking the square root of both sides we get the following result (20): ∑ = = i i ninj tvc c te 1 , 2 1 2 , )()( (20) thus, the effective connection strength becomes (21): ∑ = == i i ni ni nj ni ni tv tv c c te tv tw 1 , 2 , 2 1 , , , )( )( )( )( )( (21) which has constant covariance of c2 / c1 as derived by the following equation (22). r. j. swallow logical extraction of neo-cortex structure 25 1 2 1 , 2 1 , 2 1 1 2 , 2 , )( )( )()(cov c c tv tv c c twtwofariance i i ni i i nii i nini === ∑ ∑ ∑ = = = (22) equation (11) becomes (23): ∑ ∑ = == i i ni i i nii n tv tvta c c tp 1 , 2 1 , 2 1 )( )()( )( (23) where the max pn(t) (n = n1, n2, ... nn) determines which neuron will fire and will do so with a normalized correlation. 2. discussion in equations (12) and (13), the an(t) term determines which neuron connections will alter. the ln(t) term determines whether they may alter. the following function for ln(t) is interesting (see (24)): ))()(()( 1 ,1 tvtautl i i niin ∑ = −= θ (24) because it permits learning if the excititory correlation is less than a threshold. it is readily performed by the glial cells that support the neurons. this function represents the “newness” of the input pattern as seen by neuron n. this function will produce a tendancy in a large net of neurons to seek newness, since its trials that seek less newness, are less remembered. this tendancy toward remembering those trials that yield greater newness, explains man’s curiosity drive. since connections only increase, it also explains that there are less input patterns which will produce sufficient newness for learning to occur. this explains man’s poorer permanent memory as he ages. when this paper was first presented over twenty years ago in a remote publication and the audience was generally not interdisciplinarian enough to understand it, there were no inquiries about its contents. today, the typical biologists have calculus behind them, so that this paper should be within their comprehension. it has been impossible to measure the behavior of even a few neurons because of the large number of inputs, their size, and probe damaging effects. this paper has developed this model by deductive reasoning where it was necessary to get neuronal correlations to be normalized. the model is extremely simple with a simple conditioned reflex rule for connection growth, yet it achieves this normalization which required a square-root of the sum of squares of a large number of connection strengths. the connection growth mechanism is very feasible since each pulse reaching a synapse causes the vesicles containing the transmitter chemical to break through the synaptic membrane junction to a neuron, and replacing a portion of that membrane with the membrane of the vesicles, thereby expanding the synaptic contact area. if the glial cells do not “relax”, no learning occurs. if they do relax, the connections increase. looking back at the equations, ln(t) could be negative where the glial cells instead of relaxing actually pressure the synapse to shrink as the vesicles penetrate the synaptic boundry, yet the normalization process would not be altered. permanent memory properties would not necessary exhibit the “newness” seeking behavior, but at least the normalization process would be preserved. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 26 3. conclusion twenty years ago integrated circuits were not of sufficient size and low cost to be used to model a large net of neurons. today this is not the case. an fpga chip connected to 19 memory chips, can be produced to model five hundred thousand frequency neurons (or around 25 million pulsing neurons) in real-time at a cost of $500. a 25 billion pulsing neuron net would cost $500,000. thus, researcher efforts are now feasible to study a full brain model if desired. however, neuronal nets should show very interesting behavior at the 500 million pulsing neuron size. 4. references [1] swallow, r. (1980). a model for normalized cross-correlations at the neuronal level. in: modeling and simulation, volume 11, part 3, proceedings of the eleventh annual pittsburgh conference, may, 1980. [2] brain research corporation, retrieved 1 february 2010, from http://brainresearch.bbnow.org/. 41 the presence and activity on facebook of the informative travel organizations in romania alexandru mircea nedelea associate professor marketing and tourism marketing, ştefan cel mare university of suceava, universitatii no.13, 720229, suceava, romania alexandrun@seap.usv.ro mihai costea ph.d. student, ştefan cel mare university of suceava, universitatii no.13, 720229, suceava, romania mihai_costeaa@yahoo.com abstract in the context of a general increase in tourism activity and in the number of trips, and given that the consumption preferences of tourists are changing rapidly, the need for information becomes urgent and there is a concomitant development of public and private organizations involved in providing the necessary information to tourists who reach for the first time a tourist destination. this category includes tourist information centers (tics), tourism promotion associations and tourism clubs. being intensively based on information, the activity of informative tourism organizations suffers multiple changes, often radical, proving to be a favorable environment for the implementation of new information technologies due to their role in terms of providing and sharing information. in this sense, facebook has special implications, being considered one of the fastest and most effective tools of social media, especially regarding the distribution of information and the promotion of products and services. the major objective of this research aims to highlight the stage of development of informative tourism organizations in romania through the filter of facebook visibility and communication. in this regard, we analysed the current state of presence and communication on facebook of 109 tourism entities from 25 different counties of romania: 43 tourist information centers, 44 entities with the name of association (tourism promotion association, ecotourism associations etc.), 18 travel clubs and 4 tourist information point/offices. 1. introduction tourism is a dynamic field that relies on both services characterized by intangibility and communication. the number of people who believe that tourism is a pleasant way of leisure and employment recovery is in constant growth. as a result, the number of travellers is also rising and gives to the tourism industry an important role in a country's general economic system. moreover, efforts are made at all levels to further stimulate tourism activity, information playing a fundamental role in this case. in other words, tourism, like any other economic services branch, has two components: an informational one and a physical one, but we know that often the travel information component is dominant. moreover, the need for information becomes urgent in the context of a general increase in tourism activity and in the number of passengers, especially given that consumers’ preferences are changing rapidly. inevitably, there is a development of public or private organizations (for profit or ngo) involved in providing the necessary information to tourists who reach for the first time a tourist destination. this category includes national tourist information centers (ntics), public tourist information centers (tics) and private tourist information centers (beyond the control of a local or central authority), tourist information points, association for tourism promotion or tourism clubs. being intensively based on information, the activity of informative tourism organizations suffers multiple changes, often radical, proving to be a favorable environment for the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 implementation of new information technologies due to their role in terms of providing and sharing information. given that the internet is in the center of some social and economic changes that are reflected in the contemporary society, we can say unequivocally that tourist information centers and other informative tourism organizations have been and continue to be the subject of a serious challenge with the development of new information technologies. it has become increasingly obvious that modern tourism development and, thereby, the activity of the operators involved in this sector, is practically impossible without the internet connection. 2. literature review tourist information centers are responsible in terms of tourist information and promotion of local tourism products and services, thereby exerting a direct impact on the economic and social development of the region they belong to (ballantyne et al., 2009, p.778). for tourists, fairly large distances from the place of residence to the destination complicates their familiarization with the tourist offer of the destination in question, the role of informative tourism entities become even more important in these circumstances (plzakova et al., 2013). all these are entities that have a priority to present all travel offers. on their responsibility we find: tourists and other stakeholders information, providing support in finding accommodation and catering solutions, promotion and, in special cases, sale of tourist programs, providing promotional materials (flyers, posters), accompanying guests, delegations and travel journalists in tours/circuits, specific activities of internal and external marketing, market research, services evaluation and claims management, provision and development of quality tourism products and services, cooperation with the local/ regional institutions for a good management of events etc. (hildebrandt et al., 2004). john d'ambra and nina mistilis (2009) believe that the organizations responsible for tourists information play a major role in promoting a destination, because of their unique position as information providers. but with the changes to the it infrastructure, the coverage of these entities and how to respond to the requests of tourists are also undergoing changes. in the context of informatization and popularity of the online environment, the objective of the information centers (regardless of their nature and type of promoted tourism) is to provide integrated, attractive and interactive services and to meet the demands and expectations of tourists (tsekouropoulos et al., 2012). the phenomenon has a fulminant evolution, especially with the innovation in the field of internet, which was the emergence of the concept of web 2.0, which implies that the information be transmitted on the channel many-to-many (more specifically, the content is generated directly by users, for users) and not on the channel one-to-many (typical web 1.0 concept represented especially by the emergence and development of websites) (o`reilly, 2005). we have witnessed an exponential growth of social sites like facebook, twitter, google+ or instagram, under a common concept social media. at a first glance, this had no relevance for tourism organizations due to unstructured and informal content, but today more and more organizations with tourism profile use the internet or social networks to communicate with the external environment (stanciu & costea, 2012). social media, and therefore facebook, is a media channel through which the tourism organization strengthens its reputation on the market, in a period in which tourists are becoming more sophisticated (popescu & grefenstette, 2011). at the same time, as revealed in the study of gretzel and xiang (2010), social media plays a very important role, becoming a source of information for tourists and generating considerable challenges for informative tourism organizations. 3. research methodology a starting point in the realization of this research was the expansion of tics, tourist information points and offices, and tourism associations in the recent years; besides the fact that a.m. nedelea, m. costea – the presence and activity on facebook of the informative travel organizations in romania 43 their number has increased considerably, we can say that their involvement in the promotion of romanian tourism is undoubtedly much higher. the major objective of the present study aims to highlight the stage of development of informative tourism organizations in romania through the filter of visibility and communication on facebook and, therefore, to highlight their familiarization with the techniques and methods specific to this online instrument. a subsidiary objective is trying to estimate the importance which tourist information centers and other similar organizations dedicate to the integration of certain items of social media (like facebook like box, buttons for "sharing") on their websites, and to determine the facebook page updating level, and also the degree of popularity on the social network of the organizations mentioned above. in this regard, we analysed the current state of presence and communication on facebook for 109 informative tourism entities located in 25 romanian counties, selected on the basis of tourist traffic indicators for the period between 2007 and 2013. the structure of the 109 organizations analysed is: 43 tourist information centers (39.45%), 44 entities with the name of the association for tourism promotion, ecotourism promotion, mountaineering promotion etc. (40.36%), 18 tourism clubs (16.51%) and 4 tourist information points/offices (3.67%) (figure 1). note that for the target group formation we collected data published by the ministry of regional development and public administration on www.mdrt.ro website, data from the national tourism authority and national institute of statistics and based on information obtained empirically by successive searches using the google search engine and various travel portals. figure 1. selected romanian counties in order to strengthen the target group of tourism organizations with informative role source: authors specific objectives and hypotheses around which the whole research approach articulates are presented below: objective 1: determining the online visibility of tourism entities with informative role from romania, including their presence on facebook; hypothesis 1: more than half of all informative tourism organizations have their own presentation website. the presence of these entities on social sites is quite shy, tourist information centers and other organizations with similar role not being familiar enough with facebook. objective 2: estimating the importance of integrating social media elements (facebook like box type buttons, "sharing" buttons etc.) on informative tourism organizations websites; hypothesis 2: the vast majority of the organizations under investigation do not have as a priority the implementation of social media elements on their websites. objective 3: determining the update level of facebook pages and the popularity on this social network of the romanian travel organizations with informative role; hypothesis 3: we appreciate that less than half of the analysed entities attach a great importance to updating their facebook pages, hence the relatively low degree of popularity for the vast majority of the investigated organizations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 4. results of research before planning their presence and activity in social media, travel organizations with the role of information and tourism promotion must ensure their online visibility through a website, because the website development is the first step in gaining online success, especially in the context of an increasing information demand of tourists, individual or organizational (rosca et al., 2004). thus, in terms of efficiency in cyberspace, a website is the starting point in defining objectives and strategies on medium and long term. according to research results (figure 2), almost 68% of the entities with tourist information and promotion role own a proper site for the presentation of the work, while 18.35%, most probably do not realize in pragmatic terms the usefulness of such promotional tools. the situation can be cataloged as quite worrying, especially if we consider that today, due to the fulminant development of smartphones, more and more tourists choose to seek information on the internet, even during their trip to a new destination (wang el. al. 2012). no doubt that an activity, even prolific in the offline environment, of a travel information center or tourism association can be dimmed and therefore directly affected by the lack of online presence. it is worth mentioning that some of the organizations that were the subject of this research (13.76%) choose for various reasons (financial, organizational or legal) to promote their activity through the municipality or county official website (the city hall’s website or the county council’s website). this category typically includes tourist information centers founded and operated by local authorities, with a lack of financial autonomy and thus online autonomy. figure 2. online presence through a website of romanian tourism entities with informative role source: authors regarding the integration of social media elements (facebook like box, "sharing" buttons) on the official websites, according to the study conducted, only 42.05% of the organizations that were the subject of research, understand how these elements work and how they can help improve the activity, the remaining approximately 58% neglecting these essential aspects of social media popularization process. figure 3. integration of social media elements on tourism organization’s websites source: authors a.m. nedelea, m. costea – the presence and activity on facebook of the informative travel organizations in romania 45 currently, in romania there are about 8 million facebook users (facebrands.ro). in the recent years there has been a spectacular increase of this phenomenon, which shows how important is the use of social networks for an economic and even for a non-profit entity in order to make the brand known or to promote an activity (dailybusiness.ro). also, according to facebrands statistics of 15 october 2015, the facebook penetration rate in the population is 39.76% and in the total number of romanian internet users is 82.97%. the statistics infirm the preconceived ideas of skeptics that the websites of socialization have no relevance for tourism organizations because the contained information in these websites is unstructured, inconsistent in terms of content and irrelevant for tourism, or newer, the ideas of those who believe that the majority of facebook users are young and very young (under 18). from figure 4 we can see that the segment of major users (over 18 years) totals 88.3% of the total number of facebook users and these users may have at any time the quality of tourists. and globally, the statistics show that facebook has relevance, especially if we take into account factors such as: the total number of facebook users 1.4 billion (an annual increase of approx. 13%) and an utilization rate of facebook on mobile devices 87% (socialbakers.com/statistics/facebook), or the age of the users 30% represents people in the age segment of 25-34 years, as the situation registered in romania. figure 4. facebook adoption rate by age group in romania source: facebrands.ro as we can see in figure 5, the presence on facebook of the organizations involved in information and promotion of tourism activities (54.12%) is lower than the rate of online presence through a website (67.89%), which broadly confirms that social media visibility is the second step in the strategy of online business promotion of entities that were subject of this research. the fact that 99% of the tourist organizations present on facebook already have a website that promotes their own work confirms the previous statement. it is true that in the current economic environment, the presence of an organization on social networks has become prerequisite to ensure competitiveness, but is not far enough. we consider more important an active communication in social media, where the tourist information center or other entity with similar functions can communicate with tourists interested in a particular tourist destination. according to the research, 81.35% of the analysed entities have understood the role and the opportunities of this communication medium, frequently updating their facebook pages with new information, photos, and offers, and constantly communicating with the users. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 figure 5. the attendance rate and active communication on facebook of the romanian tourism organizations with informative role source: authors in terms of the number of likes/fans on facebook, the most popular 10 organizations involved in tourist information and in the promotion of various tourism activities are presented in the table below. we find that in the top of facebook popularity there are entities from almost all areas of the country, which demonstrates that there is not a pole of popularity in social media constituted in a specific area, developed in terms of tourism activities (brasov, bucovina and maramures etc.). however, we can notice that the most popular organizations in terms of number of likes on facebook are very active in this medium of communication. moreover, these entities also have their own websites, where specific social media elements are integrated to help the information distribution directly to the users. however, it should be noted that any correlation between the activity of the tourism organizations in social media, as the independent and factorial variable and their popularity on social networks (in terms of number of likes), as the effect variable, cannot be determined, because the popularity on social media is also determined by other factors including the age of the facebook pages, the paid advertising campaigns, specific conjectural environment etc. table 1 top 10 most popular tics/associations/tourism clubs on facebook county tic/association/ club website web address social media elements like active accounts/ pages neamț tic piatra neamţ yes viziteazaneamt.ro yes 26246 yes argeș miramont touristical-ecological asssociation turistic yes miramont.ro yes 19602 yes argeș montana carpati association yes carpati.org yes 10328 yes alba tic alba iulia yes apulum.ro yes 7813 yes vâlcea "kogayon" association from costesti-valcea yes kogayon.ro yes 6501 yes cluj youth tourism association adeona cluj-napoca yes adeona.ro yes 5485 yes sibiu sibiu county tourism association yes sibiu-turism.ro yes 4912 yes timiș "concordia" tourism club lugoj yes concordialugoj.ro yes 4827 yes brașov tic făgăraș yes fagaras-turism.ro yes 4713 yes bucurești ecology and tourism club ecotur yes club-ecotur.ro yes 4344 yes source: authors a.m. nedelea, m. costea – the presence and activity on facebook of the informative travel organizations in romania 47 5. conclusions this research does not claim to present in an exhaustive manner the whole issue of social media (facebook and its importance in the tourism industry), especially given the complexity of this phenomenon. anyway, the promotion strategies of the tourism organizations with informative role in social media should not be limited to facebook, because today, in cyberspace, there are other social networks, whose number of users is also in constant growth. this paper aims to be a starting point for future research and, at the same time, an argument to convince the stakeholders of the tourism sector in romania to begin a systematic study of the internet communicational phenomenon in a continuous and professional manner, because the undertaken analysis reveals that a large part of the organizations involved in informing the tourists have minimal knowledge about facebook and its usefulness. therefore, they do not yet have a coherent communication strategy in this environment. there are still many units under the administration of public authorities, which can cause a number of management inefficiencies in these organizations with informative role, especially given the lack of financial and decision-making autonomy, which leads further to a lack of online autonomy. this type of inefficiencies combined with a lack of management responsibility and motivation undoubtedly represent the premises for the loss of competitiveness, both offline and online, resulted in poor visibility on social networks and in the absence of presentation websites. it is important to note that similar situations, in terms of extremely low online competitiveness, are common also in the case of some private organizations. it is therefore imperative for urgent action to allow creating and implementing coherent strategies to improve all aspects related to the presence and activity in cyberspace, including social media. given that this communication medium can be considered the fastest and most effective tool in distributing information, promoting products and services, we believe that a presence on social networks is the next step that all tourism organizations must do. references ballantyne, r., hughes, k., & ritchie, b.w. (2009). meeting the needs of tourist: the role and function of australian visitor information centers, journal of travel & tourism marketing, vol. 26, nr. 8, p. 778. d’ambra, j. & mistilis, n. (2009). assessing the e-capability of visitor information centers, journal of travel research, retrieved from http://jtr.sagepub.com/content/early/2009/07/01/0047287509337415.full.pdf+html. hildebrandt, w., maurin, m., & chașovschi, c. (2004). centrul de informare turistică – ghid practic, ed. didactică și pedagogică r.a., bucureşti, c.02. lai, l.s.l. & turban, e. (2008). groups formation and operations in the web 2.0 environment and social networks, group decision and negotiation, 17(5). o’reilly, t. (2005). what is web 2.0: design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. retrieved from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html. plzakova, l., studnicka, p., & vlcek, j. (2013). innovation activities at tourist information centers and an increase in competitiveness for tourism destinations, pp. 446-447, online at https://dspace.tul.cz/bitstream/handle/15240/6940/46%20446.pdf?sequence=1. popescu, a. & grefenstette, g. (2011). mining social media to create personalized recommendations for tourist visits, com.geo, washington, dc, united states. pp.1 – 6. retrieved from https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01081030/document. roşca, i.g., bucur, c.m., paiu, o., timofte-stanciu, c., & vişean, m. (2004). comerţul electronic: concepte, tehnologii şi aplicaţii, ed. economică. stanciu, p. & costea, m. (2012). online visibility of the touristic supply in suceava county, revista de turism, no. 14, p. 47, online at http://revistadeturism.ro/rdt/article/view/50/23. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 tsekouropoulos, g., andreopoulou, z., koliouska, c., koutroumanidis, t., batzios, c., & lefakis, p. (2012). marketing policies through the internet: the case of skiing centers in greece, scientific bulletin – economic sciences, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 66-78. wang, d., park, s., & fesenmaier, dr. (2012). the role of smartphones in mediating touristic experience, journal of travel research, p. 2, online at http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/753852/3/mediation_of_tourist_experience_and_mobile_sri.pdf xiang, z. & gretzel, u. (2010). role of social media in online travel information search, tourism management, vol. 31, nr. 2, p. 179. http://www.dailybusiness.ro/stiri-media-marketing/rolul-social-media-cum-isi-pot-imbunataticompaniile-interactiunea-cu-publicul-78476. http://www.facebrands.ro/demografice.html. http://www.socialbakers.com/statistics/facebook/ microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 111 knowledge fusion in academic networks horea adrian greblă faculty of mathematics and computer science, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca mihail kogalniceanu, 1, cluj-napoca, 400084, romania, horea@cs.ubbcluj.ro călin ovidiu cenan technical university of cluj-napoca memorandumului, 28, cluj-napoca, 400114, romania calin.cenan@cs.utcluj.ro liana stanca faculty of economics and business administration, “babes-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca teodor mihali, 58-60, cluj-napoca, 400591, romania liana.stanca@econ.ubbcluj.ro abstract academic networks can represent a new model for learning based on knowledge fusion. in the current paper we present an approach to the academic network design that brings together expertise of academic trainers and practitioners, and opens new paths in knowledge distribution. the academic networks that we consider are mathematically modeled and they represent the foundation for the ontological approach to knowledge fusion in such a network. keywords: knowledge fusion, data fusion, bayesian network based ontologies, equivalence relation, academic networks, elearning. 1. introduction university degree education faces methodological transformations due to improved and modern means of knowledge presentation and sharing, transformations that turn the learning process from a restrictive into a permissive one. the term of elearning has spread starting with the 90s in the usa, all over europe and, since the year 2000 it has also become common in the romanian academic training [16]. one of the main reasons for which e-learning could not be adopted was because of the population’s access to the internet, or because individuals were not yet prepared to adopt such a model of learning. in these cases, the model was replaced by blended learning. according to [18], romania takes a very honorable 4th place in the report, ahead of other countries, such as the usa. this growth in bandwidth and internet usage made elearning adoption possible and encouraged industry players to involve in the academic learning process in various ways [4]. the emergence and development of social networks in 2003 has led to steps taken towards their integration in the academic world thus resulting in academic networks. academic networks [17] configured as a form of a network spread at metropolitan level that links academic structures, student facilities and technological parks, etc. which can be used to develop a new learning model. this model has two players, the academic world and the non-academic, industrial one, who join efforts to develop an educational process based on quality standards. in our opinion, this new model of education is vital for the romanian education which lacks a major percent of its practical side. within such an educational model the courses developed and taught by the academic trainers (teachers) will be directly sustained by industry partners who work proactively in the teaching process by providing teaching laboratories, wiki logs and knowledge databases, master courses that offer practical solutions to a series of problems they are faced with. benefits that occur based on such an approach are both for students who complete training courses and are quickly absorbed by the labor market and for employers who can eliminate vocational training of the graduates who are subject to employment after college graduation. so, in an academic network, a data (or knowledge) fusion [10] can be defined as a mix of data from industrial and academic fields, offering students h. a. greblă, c. o. cenan, l. stanca – knowledge fusion in academic networks 112 the possibility to understand themes from the theoretical and practical point of view. information provided in the course will be composed as follows: figure 1. data fusion in academic networks data fusion is generally defined [20] as the use of techniques that combine data from multiple sources and gather that information in order to achieve inferences, which will be more efficient and potentially more accurate than if they were achieved by means of a single source. this process can be seen as a set reduction technique with improved confidence. 2. knowledge fusion and data mining based on our previous work in heterogeneous distributed data mining and integration [3] and based on the kraft project [19], we focused our research on knowledge fusion based on anthologies. knowledge fusion [19] can be seen as a succession of steps that locate and extract knowledge that is stored in various forms at different locations, and on top of that data some transformations are performed so that a common representation can be applied as the foundation for problem solving. the kraft project was designed as an agent-based architecture in which 3 types of agents were described: facilitator agents that are in charge of the description and location of data sources, mediator agents that are used to query data sources and fuse the knowledge collected, respectively wrappers that transform data from local format to the common format. our aim is to extend and adapt such an architecture in an academic network based on an ontology that is described later in this paper. our perception of knowledge fusion in such a network is a process that brings together specialists from various fields with the purpose of providing common solutions to different problems [9]. from nonaka and takeuchi‘s point of view [7], [9] knowledge fusion may result in rethinking old knowledge and work methods to obtain better results in all activity fields. knowledge fusion serves as a combination and transformation of various knowledge resources in order to generate new concepts / information. knowledge fusion is a notion that stands at the intersection of the sciences of knowledge and engineering [2],[8] . knowledge fusion on the web, especially in academic networks, as we consider in our approach, appeared and developed following the success of collaborative software which enabled the development of applications which allow players to lead meetings and work together regardless of their geographical position. the role [15] of knowledge applications is: knowledge creation, classification, synthesis, analysis, storage, search and mapping. a common practice in the industry but increasingly used by academic networks are wikis. notions, concepts, principles define/presented by theoretician define/presented by theoretician define/presented by theoretician brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 113 wiki [5] is a website that can be modified and revised by participants/users to knowledge applications. people using wiki can add, modify and delete information without having to possess advanced programming knowledge. such a site gathers a synchronous and/or asynchronous discussion environment with course supports, online libraries, quizzes, exam example problems and solutions. base principles on which the wikis are built are [5]: 1. knowledge has a dynamic nature. 2. knowledge obtained as a result of collective effort has a higher value than that obtained from an individual effort. following major changes that social values have undergone, today it is important for people to have access to knowledge [14] [15] because: 1. on the long term it offers people an advantage on a labor market characterized by a global competition, 2. in the new society based on technologies they are more valuable than natural and material resources; 3. their owner is transformed in a group member. web knowledge fusion [2] [9] have two limitations: 1. the lack of knowledge presentation template makes it difficult to unify them. 2. the large amount of knowledge resources makes it difficult to manage and allocate. so, in an academic network, “knowledge fusion” can be defined as: combining data from multiple academic and trusted non-academic sources so that it offers more levels of understanding and perspectives to all actors involved in the academic research and learning processes. these sources can be seen as faculty libraries, department media servers where lectures, presentations, books, theses are stored, wiki systems, online scientific libraries, but also some industry partners that act proactively in the teaching process by providing hands-on labs, real world practice wiki records, master classes, etc. provided the above, the fusion process can be seen as a special type of data-mining. data-mining is concerned with extracting knowledge from databases (in this case we deal with distributed ones) using machine learning techniques. traditionally, data-mining systems are designed to work on a single data set. however, with the increasing number of distributed databases dispersed over many machines in wans with geographically spread locations, it is necessary to adopt new techniques to improve the overall system response [3]. the development of the bayesian belief networks and associated algorithms made probabilistic reasoning turn into a real option for a large variety of artificial intelligence applications. in this paper, we address the possibility of creating a methodology study for knowledge fusion using bayesian belief network based ontologies with domain applications in academic networks. later on, we develop a prototype of academic network that brings together academic training and practitioners. the academic network that we will develop will be represented as a graph which is the starting node of knowledge fusion, which will be used in the learning process like a bayesian network. 3. a formal approach to academic networks academic networks can be approached using notions and results from the homogeneous binary networks theory. for this reason, we will present a concise presentation of these theories on which the academic networks are based. more details can be found in [13], [11], [12]. let m be a set, a subset mxm⊆ρ is a binary relation on m. instead of the notation ( ) ρ∈yx, we can use ( )yxρ . the ρ relation is called: 1. reflexive if ( )xxρ for any mx ∈ 2. transitive if zxzyandyx ρρρ ⇒ 3. symmetric if xyzy ρρ ⇒ h. a. greblă, c. o. cenan, l. stanca – knowledge fusion in academic networks 114 a relation which is reflexive and symmetric is called a tolerance relation. a tolerance relation which is also transitive is called equivalence relation. if mxm⊆ρ is an equivalence relation and mx ∈ , then }|{ xxmxx ′∈′=〉〈 ρρ is called an equivalence class of x by ρ. one can prove that 〉′〈=〉〈 xx ρρ for any mxx ∈′, for which xx ′ρ . the set }|{/ mxxm ∈〉〈= ρρ is called the quotient set of m by ρ . theorem 1. if iimmi ∈×⊆ ,ρ is a family of reflexive respectively transitive or symmetric relations, then i ii i ∈ ρ is a reflexive, transitive or symmetric relation. from this theorem it results that the intersection of a family of tolerance relations, respectively equivalence relations, is also a tolerance respectively an equivalence relation. if mm ×⊆ρ then the relation i },,|{ reflexivemm ρρρρρρ ′′⊆×⊆′′= is the smallest reflexive relation that includes ρ . the relation ρ is called the reflexive closure on ρ . the same way, one can define the transitive and the symmetric closures on ρ . the relation }a ,,|{ relationtoleranceismm ρρρρρ ′′⊆×⊆′′i respectively }n ,,|{ relationeequivalencaismm ρρρρρ ′′⊆×⊆′′i is the smallest tolerance relation, respectively the smallest equivalence relation that includes ρ . a set }|{ iiai ∈ of subsets of m is called a partition of m if u ii iam ∈ = and jiji aaanyforaa =//= 0i . we denote by ( )me the set of the equivalence relations on m and by p(m) the set of the partitions of m. theorem 2. 1. if )(me∈ρ then ρ/m is a partition of m. 2. if )(mp∈π then the relations πρ defined as: ayxthatsuchayx ∈∈∃⇔ ,πρπ is an equivalence relation on m. the function )()(: mpme →ϕ is a bijection and πρπϕ = − )(1 the evolution of the academic networks can be modeled and analysed using the mathematics theory presented above. for example m={mary-wiki, jon-wiki, victor-wiki, george-wiki, juana-wiki} π ={{mary-wiki, jon-wiki},{victor-wiki, george-wiki},{juana-wiki}} πρ ={(mary-wiki,mary-wiki), (jon-wiki,jon-wiki), (mary-wiki,jon-wiki), (jon-wiki,mary-wiki), (victor-wiki,victor-wiki), (george-wiki,george-wiki), (victor-wiki,george-wiki), (georgewiki,victor-wiki), (juana-wiki,juana-wiki)} πρ/m ={{mary-wiki, jon-wiki },{victor-wiki, george-wiki },{juana-wiki }}= π the reflexive relationship within academic networks is a relationship of a wiki-person’s notes with a network of itself. symmetry members accept each other. the transition allows that if a wiki-person’s note x is linked with y and z then y can develop a relationship with z. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 115 figure 2. equivalence classes in academic networks 4. bayesian network based ontologies any scheme that tries to represent the details of a domain with a certain degree of complexity has to be expressive. in order to build an ontology, we have focused on multi-entity bayesian networks (mebn), which are based on a language that is able to express probability distributions over interpretations of arbitrary first-order domain theories, and we have used them because of their ability to represent [21]. this language is based on first-order logic (it could be sufficient to be based on one of its subsets). a first-order theory implies truth values both for the valid sentences as well as for their negations. a graphical probability model [22] expresses a probability distribution over a collection of related hypotheses as a graph. the graph is used to encode dependencies among the given hypotheses. the local probability distributions represent a specific numerical value for the probability information. together, the graph and the local distributions specify a joint distribution that respects the conditional independence assertions encoded in the graph, and has marginal distributions consistent with the local distributions. like bayesian networks, mebn theories [21] use directed graphs to specify joint probability distributions for a collection of related random variables. the mebn language was built to extend basic bayesian networks to provide first-order expressions, as well as to extend first-order logic to provide probability distributions over results of applied first-order theories. mebn theories [21] extend ordinary bayesian networks. the extension refers to the structure used to represent random variables. random variables take as arguments entities that exist in the domain of applications. every sentence can be expressed in first-order logic and thus it can be represented as a random variable in a mebn theory. because of its modular and compositional nature of the language, mebn probability distributions are specified locally over small groups of hypotheses, after that being integrated into consistent probability distributions at a global level, over sets of hypotheses. mebn theories can be used to express domain-specific ontologies that capture statistical regularities in a particular domain of application. mebn theories with findings can augment statistical information with particular facts germane to a given reasoning problem. mebn uses bayesian learning to refine domain-specific ontologies to incorporate observed evidence. a distributed knowledge fusion approach has to be constructed on top of a platform which provides all the tools necessary to build a knowledge fusion project: some powerful, metadata-driven etl tools designed to bridge the gap between business and it data mining engine, based on a comprehensive set of tools for machine learning and data mining. it has to provide a broad suite of classification, regression, association rules and clustering algorithms that can be used to help you understand the business better and also be h. a. greblă, c. o. cenan, l. stanca – knowledge fusion in academic networks 116 exploited to improve future performance through predictive analytics. (it is a bayesian network based tool) reporting tools, used to enrich report distribution and end user interaction. it has to enable reports that can be sent as email attachments and scheduled to run at a point in time. report prompting using static or dynamic selections have also to be built using such a tool the approaches considered in this paper address both the simple data integration tool for data fusion based on transformations that are defined by users, as depicted in fig. 3 and the more complex approach of data mining using weka. the following simplified pentaho transformation illustrates the way such a fusion can be implemented. data sources can be of various types, ranging from flat files, through xml streaming, web services and databases. the transformations allow data and stream joins, row filtering, splitting fields, execution of scripts on certain intermediate results, data validation processes, so that the result may be more accurate and useful. figure 3. simplified transformation model the following picture (figure 4) depicts the ontology used to model an academic network based on the mathematical formalism previously defined in this paper. in our approach, we have considered the wiki logs for data fusion because they offer a flexible, powerful, and easy to use collaboration platform, and web application platform. a structured wiki is typically used to run a project development space, a document management system, a knowledge base, or any other groupware tool, on an intranet, extranet or the internet. it allows users without programming skills to create web applications. presentations are already part of the academic training process for some time, so they present proved and verified concepts. blogs are also a good source of knowledge as every professional might want to share its knowledge but also be identified as author for some problem resolution, new theory or state of the art presentation of a certain topic. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 117 knowledge domain wiki log blog presentation is built from is built from is built from user account user role user has has academic unit includes includes figure 4. academic network database model 5. conclusions the educational process is becoming more and more complex, involving more than traditional means of teaching. industry can play a major role in student development. new data mining techniques and algorithms, together with some state of the art solutions found for some open problem can increase the speed at which new knowledge is discovered and accumulated. our proposed architecture aims at bringing together the major players in student technical development (university and industry) using different knowledge interaction approaches. references [1] cooper, g. f.. (1990). the computation complexity of probabilistic inference using bayesian belief networks. artificial intelligence, 42, 393–405. [2] gou, j., yang, j., & chen, q. (2005). evolution and evaluation in knowledge fusion system, in: proceedings of iwinac 2005, lncs 3562 (pp. 192-201). heidelberg: springer. [3] grebla, h. a., cenan, c. o., distributed machine learning based in a medical domain. international journal of computers, communications & control (ijccc), 2006, supplem. volume (proceedings of iccc 2006, 200-205. [4] grebla, h. a., chiş, g., stanca, l., ciumaş, c. (2007). e-learning platform for student recuitment and retention. in: proceedings of ieeii. a conference on the state of informatics education in europe ii, 29-30 november 2007, thessaloniki, greece, (pp. 342-351). [5] mitrut, m. (2005). analiza reţelelor sociale.timişoara. retrieved from http://www.banatbusiness.ro/_files/edit_texte/fisiere/analiza_retelelor_sociale.pdf. [6] neapolitan, r.e. (1990). probabilistic reasoning in expert systems. wiley & sons. [7] nonaka, i., takeuchi, h. (1995). the knowledge creating company, new york: [8] ru-qian, l. (2003). knowledge science and computation science. beijing: tsinghua university press. [9] tetsuo, s., jun, u. et al.(1996). fusing multiple data and knowledge sources for signal understanding by genetic algorithm. ieee transactions on industrial electronics, 43, 411-421. [10] tsung-ting, k., shian-shyong, t., yao-tsung, l. (2003). ontology-based knowledge fusion framework using graph partitioning, 2718(2003), 11-20, berlin / heidelberg: springer. [11] purdea, i., pop, i. (2003). algebră. zalău, romania editura gil. h. a. greblă, c. o. cenan, l. stanca – knowledge fusion in academic networks 118 [12] purdea, i., pic, gh. (1977). tratat de algebră, vol. i. bucharest: editura academică. [13] rignet, i. (1948). relations binaires, fermetures, correspondances de galois. bull.soc.math., france, 76 (1-4), 114-155. [14] sage, a. p., rouse, w. b. (1999). information systems frontiers in knowledge management. information systems frontiers 1(3), 205-219. [15] smirnov, al., pashkin, m., chilov, n., levashova, t. & krizhanovsky, a. (2004). fusionbased intelligent support for logistics management. in: basys, volume 159 of ifip international federation for information processing (pp. 209-216), springer. [16] vasilache, d. (2008). guvernarea electronică o introducere. cluj-napoca: ed. casa cărţii de ştiinţă. [17] campus area network definition in wikipedia, from http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/campus_area_network. [18] state of the internet, akaman, from http://www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet/. [19] alun, p. et al. (2000). kraft: an agent architecture for knowledge fusion. international journal of cooperative information systems. [20] klein, l. a. (2004). sensor and data fusion: a tool for information assessment and decision making. spie press, 2004. p. 51. [21] laskey, k.b. (2006). mebn: a logic for open-world probabilistic reasoning (gmu c4i center technical report c4i-06-01). [22] da costa, p. c. g. & laskey, k. b. (2005). multi-entity bayesian networks without multitears [draft], dseor, fairfax, usa: george mason university. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 17 segmentation of heart sounds by re-sampled signal energy method omer deperlioglu afyon kocatepe university, afyonkarahisar, turkey erenler mahallesi, gazlıgöl yolu rektörlük e blok, 03200 afyonkarahisar merkez, turkey tel.: +90 272 228 13 50 deperlioglu@aku.edu.tr abstract auscultation, which means listening to heart sounds, is one of the most basic medical methods used by physicians to diagnose heart diseases. these voices provide considerable information about the pathological cardiac condition of arrhythmia, valve disorders, heart failure and other heart conditions. this is why cardiac sounds have a great prominence in the early diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. heart sounds mainly have two main components, s1 and s2. these components need to be well identified to diagnose heart conditions easily and accurately. in this case, the segmentation of heart sounds comes into play and naturally a lot of work has been done in this regard. the first step in the automatic analysis of heart sounds is the segmentation of heart sound signals. correct detection of heart sounds components is crucial for correct identification of systolic or diastolic regions. thus, the pathological conditions in these regions can be clearly demonstrated. in previous studies, frequency domain studies such as shannon energy and hilbert transformation method were generally performed for segmentation of heart sounds. these methods involve quite long and exhausting stages. for this reason, in this study, a re-sampled energy method which can easily segment heart sounds in the time domain has been developed. the results obtained from the experiments show that the proposed method segments s1 and s2 sounds very efficiently. keywords: cardiac sound characteristic, cardiac cycle, filtering, heart sounds, heart sound segmentation, re-sampled signal energy, 1. introduction deaths in heart diseases in the world are considerably higher than another stigma. for this reason, there are very intensive studies to develop new methods for diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases. generally, there are three types of cardiac signals used to diagnose heart diseases. the first is electrocardiogram (ecg) signals and electrical origin. ecg signals are the resultant signals that examine the electrical activity of the heart muscle. second, heart sounds signals (hss) or their recordings, the phonocardiograms (pcg), are defined as biological signals of physical origin. heart sounds are the physical signals that result in mechanical movements of the heart. another signal is called photoplethysmography (ppg). ppg is a simple optical technique used to perceive volume changes in the peripheral circulation. in other words, it is a non-invasive method that measures changes in blood pressure. ecg, pcg and ppg can occur in different forms due to different cardiac conditions due to heart disease. these differences can be used to diagnose heart disorders. in recent years, many computer-aided studies have been conducted in clinical applications such as automatic segmentation and classification using pcg and ecg signals in order to accurately detect heart related disorders. a great majority of these studies are about heart sounds. the studies done on pcgs is mostly to provide infrastructure for decision support systems by classifying them. in classification studies, support vector machines (svm) algorithm is mostly used with different kernel functions from artificial intelligence methods. as an example, zhenga and colleagues implemented intelligent diagnostics for chronic heart failure using the least squares method of support vector machine classification (svm) algorithm (zhenga et al., 2015). patidar et al. classify brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 18 the pcg signals for the detection of heart valve disease using different core methods (patidar et al., 2014). in the azmy study, normal and abnormal pcg signals were classified by the svm method using a new main wavelet (azmy 2015). maglogiannis et al. have developed a diagnostic system by classifying pcg signals of this condition with the svm-based classification method to define the heart valve disease (maglogiannis et al., 2009). shuping sun et al. have classed pcg signals using the svm method to detect disturbance of ventricular symptoms (shuping sun et al. 2014). ari et al. have developed a system for identifying cardiac abnormalities by classifying pcg signals with the svm-based least squares method (ari et al. 2010). guermoui et al classified pcg signals of five different disorders using the svm method as normal, including aortic stenosis, aortic insufficiency, mitral stenosis and mitral insufficiency (guermoui, et al. 2013). artificial neural network (ann) is a widely used method for classification, although it is not as common as support vector machines. for example, güraksin and his colleagues classify pcg signals using ann by developing a windows operating system-based application. in this study, they used pcg signals related to normal, pulmonary stenosis and mitral stenosis disorders, and discrete fourier transform (dft) for frequency analysis. (guraksin et al 2009). segmentation comes to the fore in order to increase the efficiency and the performance ratio of the classification studies. the segmentation methods of heart sounds that are made previously studies can be divided into two main groups in general. these are some methods using a reference such as ecg to synchronize the segmentation, and other methods that do not use the reference. elsegaier et al. in their study based on the ecg reference, they first detected qrs complexes and t waves to find s1 and s2 segments, respectively (el-segaier et al., 2005). carvalho and his colleagues have tried to overcome this problem by using an unclassified classifier in the selection of the s2 voices because the t waves in the low-quality ecg signals cannot be clearly selected (carvalho et al., 2005). many researchers have tried to identify s1 and s2 voices with a few signal processing and statistical methods to reduce excessive workload, without using the ecg as a reference (kumar, 2006). elgendi et al. have developed a daubechies wavelet algorithm for the automatic detection of s1 and s2 using the wavelet coefficient ‘d6’ based on power spectral analysis (elgendi et al., 2015). other approaches include uncontrolled techniques such as self-organizing map using envelope (liang, lukkarinen, & hartimo, 1997), spectrogram quantization method (liang, lukkarinen, & hartimo, 1998) and mel frequency cepstrum coefficients (2006). choi and jiang, have made a comparative study about shannon energy, the envelope information of hilbert transform, and the cardiac sound characteristic waveform. they said that proposed algorithm provided sufficient performance compared to conventional shannon envelope and hilbert envelope algorithms (choi & jiang, 2008). the algorithm proposed by saini is an automatic detection of two dominant heart sounds based on a 3-order normalized mean shannon energy envelope. this proposed automatic detection and analysis algorithm can effectively detect heart sounds s1 and s2 by reducing the effect of noises in heart sounds. due to the fact that the signal and the envelope calculation is pre-processed, the noises in the heart sounds can be easily suppressed (saini, 2016). oweis, hamad, & shammout, describe in detail a method for segmenting heart sounds based on the energy operator of the teager to perform heart sound segmentation in their work. the proposed segmentation method divides the heart sound signal into two heart sounds, s1 and s2, which dominate, and periods that show systole and diastole durations (oweis, hamad, & shammout, 2014). kudriavtsev, polyshchuk, and roy proposed a method of analyzing heart sounds using the cohen class common time-frequency transformations in their work. they have shown the results of applying these methods to normal and abnormal heart sounds. this method allows for detailed quantitative characterization of heart sounds. it uses a system of integral drawings that characterizes frequency changes with both visual images and time-averaged instantaneous sound intensity (kudriavtsev, polyshchuk, & roy, 2007). o. deperlioglu segmentation of heart sounds by re-sampled signal energy method 19 in this study, a new method proposed that have been segmented heart sounds using by signal energy method based on re-sampling heart sounds signal. firstly, the pcg signals have been preprocessed to involve the re-sampling and normalization of the original recording. after the filtering, re-sampled signal energy calculation is applied on pcg with 100 ms sampling rate. it is presented these steps of re-sampled signal energy methods that is used for segmentation of s1, s2 in detailed. 2. characteristics of heart sounds and phonocardiogram listening to heart sounds is one of the most commonly used methods of diagnosing heart diseases and is called auscultation. generally, the sounds handled by healthy hearts are the same and are called normal sounds. sounds from hearts with physical anomalies are irregular and are called abnormal sounds. heart sounds are listened with acoustic stethoscopes in clinical settings. acoustic stethoscope, which is usually low accuracy level, now leaves its place with electronic stethoscope. electronic stethoscope can detect very low density or very high frequency heart sounds that cannot be heard completely on an acoustic instrument. the waveforms of the heart sounds are more important than the heart sounds themselves in terms of diagnosis. heart sounds are generated by the mechanical movements that occur during the heart cycle. these sounds consist of heart events, such as the movement of the heart valves, the opening and closing of the valves, and the leakage of blood flow. figure 1 shows the general form and components of heart sounds. figure 1. general form and components of heart sounds heart sounds are mainly produced by closing the valves between the upper and lower regions of the heart. that is, at the end of the atrial contraction and at the beginning of the ventricular contraction. the first sound is generated by the closing of the mitral and tricuspid valve, usually in the range of 30 to 100 hz frequencies, and has a duration of 50 to 100 ms. the second sound is formed by a mild backflow channel in the heart before the valve closes and then the veins are closed from the ventricles. it has a higher frequency than the first one. frequencies are usually above 100 hz and have a duration of 25-50 ms. the first sound is called s1 and the second sound is called s2. the interval between s1 and s2 sounds is defined as systole, and the interval between s2 and s1 is defined as diastole. regular or irregular intervals may be used to diagnose heart conditions. as shown in figure 2, heart sounds are not only s1 and s2, but also s3 and s4 sounds. but they are not heard normally because they are at a much lower level. s3 sound occurs in the ventricles with blood flow. s4 sounds are caused by atrial narrowing. these voices are called diastolic voices and are usually not heard in normal adults. however, it is often heard in children. (ahlström 2006; kudriavtsev, 2007). during the heart cycle, the heart primarily performs electrical operations. electrical activity then causes atrial and ventricular contractility. it forces the blood circulating in the body with the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 20 heart chambers. the opening and closing of the heart valves is due to blood acceleration-slowing, which leads to whole heart vibration (leatham 1975). these vibrations can be heard from the chest wall. thus, the condition of the heart can be understood by listening to the heart sounds. figure 2. first, second, third and fourth heart sounds (kudriavtsev, 2007) 3. segmentation of heart sounds in order to develop diagnostic tools for automatic heart disorders using phonocardiogram signals, it is necessary to segment the heart sound into clinically meaningful segments. for example, the systole and diastole spacing, or the segmentation of s1 and s2 audio components, must be detected. when they are detected, the features required for diagnosis can be removed for each type of sound. at the same time, the clear identification of s1 and s2 sounds is one of the most difficult stages to analyze heart sounds. the first step for automatic analysis of heart sounds is segmentation of heart sounds. correct placement of heart sounds is necessary to accurately determine systolic or diastolic intervals. differences in these regions are a sign of heart disease symptoms. (liang et al., 1997). in addition, while the heart sounds are recorded, the pressure applied to the stethoscope, the sounds in the surroundings and the sounds in other body organs also act. this causes noise to occur in the heart sounds. for this reason, pre-processing of heart sounds usually begins with step of normalization and filtering. utilizing the resampled energies of heart sounds, s1 or s2 sounds are segmented to form the infrastructure for classification. the flow chart for these operations is given in figure 3. the processes given in the segmentation flow chart of heart sounds are briefly summarized below. matlab r2017a is used for segmentation of heart sounds. 3.1. resampling and normalization resampling of pcg is usually done to regulate sound value with different sampling rates. resampling should be re-sampled with the same sampling frequency if the heart sounds in the database are recorded with different devices or the sampling times are different. for example, in this study, the all data in the dataset are 1000 hz (fs = 1000 hz). they have not been rearranged at the any sampling frequency. only normalization was performed in this study. in addition, heart sounds must be normalized before noise extraction. normalization can be performed as in equation 1. o. deperlioglu segmentation of heart sounds by re-sampled signal energy method 21 figure 3. process flow diagram in the segmentation of heart sounds figure 4. pcg image after normalization brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 22      ][max nx =n norm x nx (1) the sample normalization scheme was given in figure 4. 3.2. filtering filtering is usually carried out the noises of signal in biomedical systems using digital filters. numerical filtering is defined as the acquisition of desired frequency values according to the characteristics of the desired filter in order to improve the signal in terms of its intended use (shenoi, 2005; thede, 1995). in generally, these filters are designed four types to perform the following operations on unwanted frequency values in the original signal.  if it is above a certain value, it is filtered low.  if it is below a certain value, the high-pass filter is filtered.  if it is between certain values, the band stops filtering.  if it is outside certain values, it is a band-pass filter. in this study, butterworth, chebyshev and elliptic digital filters which are widely used for filtering are used. examples for different filtering operations for the same heart sound are given in figure 5. figure 5. filtering heart sounds with butterworth, chebyshev and elliptic digital filters 3.3. energy of heart sounds in order to determine the beginning and end of the sounds, energy of the sound must be determined. energy parameters have been used since 1970 to determine the beginning and end points. the calculation of the energy of the sound signal is a simple process when compared to other processes. there are two basic parameters in the processing of the sound signal such as zero crossing rate and short time energy. generally, these two parameters are calculated before others. o. deperlioglu segmentation of heart sounds by re-sampled signal energy method 23 nearly half of the results of false recognition result from incorrect detection of the ending point (bulbul & karaci 2007; qiang and youwei, 1998). the biggest problem encountered during the development of sound partitioning systems is to detect the beginning and end of the sound. if the sound signal exceeds a specified threshold energy, it indicates that the sound signal has started. the sound signal falls below a certain threshold energy and this low energy continuation indicates that the sound signal is over (dogan,1999). the numbers of transitions of the sound signal from zero are low in the sections where the sound parts are included. this feature is used to determine the beginning and end points of the sound expressions (bulbul & karaci, 2007). a short time energy calculation is used to calculate the energy that the sound signal has at a given time. the short time energy calculation has three different definitions (bulbul and karaci, 2007; qiang and youwei, 1998). logarithm energy :    n i ixe 1 2)(log (2) sum of square energy:    n i ixe 1 2)( (3) sum of absolute energy:    n i ixe 1 )( (4) in this study, a sum of square energy function in equation 3 was used with resampling of the filtered signal. the screen capture of the matlab codes for the re-sampled energy calculation is shown in figure 6. the resampling time is selected as 100 milliseconds. figure 6. the screen capture of the matlab codes for the resampled energy calculation graphs of re-sampled energy signals for butterworth, chebyshev and elliptic filters is given in figure 7. elliptic filter was used on segmenting process. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 24 figure 7. graphs of resampled energy signals for butterworth, chebyshev and elliptic filters 3.4. segmentation of heart sounds the phonocardiogram, re-sampled energy and time intervals were given in figure 8. as shown in figure 8, the re-sampled energy graphs of heart sounds consist of big, and small triangles. the big triangles correspond to the s1 sounds, and the small triangles correspond to the s2 sounds in the graph. segmentation can be done easily by taking advantage of the base lengths of these triangles. in other words, by selecting intervals where the energy is different from zero, segmentation of s1 and s2 sounds can be done. sample segmentation for t1, t2, t3, and t4 intervals in figure 8 were given in figure 9 (a), (b), (c), (d), respectively. it is seen that t1 and t3 time intervals correspond to s2 sounds and t2, and t4 time intervals correspond to s1 sounds. the desired sound signal at the desired time interval can be selected. in addition, when the signal is filtered with making necessary adjustments in the filter, method can be segmented only for s1 sounds. the results of the phonocardiogram, re-sampled energy and time intervals obtained in the study for the same signal with filter arrangement were given in figure 10. it is seen in figure 10 that the t1, t2, and t3 time intervals correspond only to s1 sounds. already, the selection of the first segment is sufficient. sample segmentations for t1, t2, t3, and t4 intervals in figure 10 were given in figure 11 (a), (b), (c), (d), respectively. o. deperlioglu segmentation of heart sounds by re-sampled signal energy method 25 figure 8. the phonocardiogram, resampled energy and time intervals figure 9. sample segmentation for t1, t2, t3, and t4 intervals in figure 8 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 26 figure 10. the phonocardiogram, resampled energy and time intervals for new filter settings figure 11. sample segmentation for t1, t2, t3, and t4 intervals in figure 10 o. deperlioglu segmentation of heart sounds by re-sampled signal energy method 27 4. conclusions in order to develop diagnostic tools for automatic heart disorders using phonocardiogram signals, it is necessary to segment the heart sound into clinically meaningful segments. so, the pcg signals need to be segmented for definition of these differences. in previous studies, frequency domain studies such as shannon energy and hilbert transformation method were generally performed for segmentation of heart sounds. these methods involve quite long and exhausting stages. for this reason, in this study, a re-sampled energy method which can easily segment heart sounds in the time domain has been developed. the obtained results from the experiments show that the proposed method segments s1 and s2 sounds very efficiently. in this study, only butterworth, chebyshev 1 and elliptical filters have been tested on digital filters in the process of filtering heart sounds. different digital filters can be tried in subsequent studies. different filters may be suggested in the literature for different heart sounds databases. in addition, time intervals can be clarified with artificial intelligence optimization methods. the location and size of the heart sounds can be fully clarified. 5. acknowledgment this paper has been supported by afyon kocatepe university scientific research and projects unit with the project number 17.kari̇yer.60 references ahlström, c. (2006). processing of the phonocardiographic signal-methods for the intelligent stethoscope, disseration, linköping university, institute of technology, linköping, sweden. ari, s., hembram, k., saha, g. (2010). detection of cardiac abnormality from pcg signal using lms based least square svm classifier, expert systems with applications, vol. 37: 8019 8026. azmy, m. m. (2015). classification of normal and abnormal heart sounds using new mother wavelet and support vector machines, 4th international conference on electrical engineering (icee), 1-3. bulbul, h.i., karaci, a., (2007). speech command recognition in computer: pattern recognition method. kastamonu education journal, 15(1), 45-62. carvalho, p., gil, p., henriques, j., antunes m. & eug´enio, l. (2005). low complexity algorithm for heart sound segmentation using the variance fractal dimension, proc. of the int. sym. on intelligent signal processing, 2005, 593-595. choi, s., jiang, z. (2008). comparison of envelope extraction algorithms for cardiac sound signal segmentation, expert systems with applications, 34, 1056–1069. dogan,s. (1999). recognation of voice commands in the pc environment, master thesis, marmara university, i̇nstitute of science and technology, i̇stanbul. elgendi m, kumar s, guo l, rutledge j, coe jy, zemp r, et al. (2015). detection of heart sounds in children with and without pulmonary arterial hypertension―daubechies wavelets approach. plos one, 10(12): e0143146. el-segaier, m., lilja, o., lukkarinen, s., srnmo, l., sepponen r. & pesonen, e. (2005). computerbased detection and analysis of heart sound murmur, annals of biomedical engineering, 33 (7), 937-942. guermoui, m., mekhalfi, m. l. and ferroudji, k. (2013). heart sounds analysis using wavelets responses and support vector machines, in systems, 8th international workshop on signal processing and their applications (wosspa), 233-238. guraksin, g. e., ergun, u. and deperlioglu, o. (2009). performing discrete fourier transform of the heart sounds on the pocket computer. 14th national biomedical engineering meeting, biyomut 2009, pp. 1-4. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 28 kumar, d., carvalho, p. gil, p. henriques, j., antunes, m. & eug´enio, l. (2006). a new algorithm for detection of s1 and s2 heart sounds, in int. conf. of acoustic and speech signal processing (icassp 2006), 1180-1183. kudriavtsev, v., polyshchuk, v. & roy d. l. (2007). heart energy signature spectrogram for cardiovascular diagnosis, biomedical engineering online, 6(16): 1-22. leatham, a. (1975). auscultation of the heart and phonocardiography. churchill livingstone. liang, h., lukkarinen, s. & hartimo, i. (1997). heart sound segmentation algorithm based on heart sound envelogram, proc. of ieee computers in cardiology, 105-108. liang, h., lukkarinen, s. & hartimo, i. (1998). a boundary modification method for heart sound segmentation algorithm”, in proc. of ieee computers in cardiology, 593-595. maglogiannis, i., loukis, e., zaropoulos, e., stasis, a. (2009). support vectors machine-based identification of heart valve diseases using heart sounds, computer methods and programs in biomedicine, 95: 47 61. oweis, r. j., hamad, h., & shammout, m. (2014). heart sounds segmentation utilizing teager energy operator, journal of medical imaging and health informatics, 4(4), 1-12. patidar, s., pachori, r. b. (2014). classification of cardiac sound signals using constrained tunableq wavelet transform, expert systems with applications, 41(16): 7161 7170. saini, m. (2016). proposed algorithm for implementation of shannon energy envelope for heart sound analysis, international journal of electronics & communication technology iject, 7(1), 15-19. shenoi, b.a. (2005). introduction to digital signal processing and filter design, john wiley & sons inc. shuping sun, h. w., jiang, z., fang, y. and tao, t. (2014). segmentation-based heart sound feature extraction combined with classifier models for a vsd diagnosis system, expert systems with applications, 41: 1769 1780. qiang, h., youwei, z. (1998). on prefiltering and endpoint detection of speech signal, signal processing proceedings icsp '98. 1998 fourth international conference on, 1: 749,750. thede, l. (1995) analog & digital filter design using c, prentice hall; 1 edition. zhenga, y., guoa, x., qinb, j., xiao, s. (2015). computer-assisted diagnosis for chronic heart failure by the analysis of their cardiac reserve and heart sound characteristics, computer methods and programs in biomedicine, 122(3): 372 383. omer deperlioglu (b. may 15, 1967) received his bsc in electric and electronic (1988) gazi university, msc in computer science (1996) from afyon kocatepe university, phd in computer science (2001) from gazi university in turkey. now he is associate professor of computer programming in department of science, vocational school of afyon, afyon kocatepe university of afyon, turkey. his current research interests include different aspects of artificial intelligence applied in power electronics, biomedical, and signal processing. he has edited 1 book and (co-) authored 3 books and more than 20 papers, more than 30 conferences participation, member in international technical committee of 4 conferences and workshops. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 63 phonological awareness of persian monolingual children and kurdish-persian bilingual children hassan soleimani department of applied linguistics, payame noor university, tehran, iran nakhl st, tel. : +98 21 2332 0000 arshia.soleimani@gmail.com parisa arabloo ph.d candidate, payame noor university, tehran, iran nakhl st, tel. : +98 21 2332 0000 parisa.arabloo@gmail.com abstract given the importance of phonological awareness in development of literacy skills, it is essential to consider the possible differences of phonological awareness (pa) among pre-school children to plan for training programs in these courses. for this purpose, two groups of pre-school children at the ages of 5to 6years old who were kurdish-persian bilinguals and persian monolinguals were selected in order to investigate the possible differences among pre-school bilinguals and the monolinguals in terms of phonological awareness. soleymani and dastjerdi’s (2002) phonological awareness test was used as the instrument. furthermore, application of the independent samples t-tests indicated a higher ability of kurdish-persian compared to the persian monolingual pre-school children regarding some aspects of phonological awareness. findings of the study could have implications for children second learning language, second language teachers and teacher trainers, task designers and curriculum developers to be more familiar with the factors influencing the phonological achievement. keywords: phonological awareness, literacy, bilingual children, monolingual children 1. introduction learning to read is expected to happen when various types of linguistic abilities have already been developed to form the basis of literacy. phonological awareness (pa) is one of these abilities (morais, 1991). these abilities are indispensable for learning to read and write. in the case that children do not sufficiently develop these abilities, there is a strong possibility that they will experience difficulty in acquiring literacy skills. one of these abilities is phonological awareness. phonological awareness refers to the processing ability to distinguish and manipulate single phonological units in words (torgesen & mathes, 2000). as written language is the printed representation of spoken language, in order to for literacy acquisition to begin, it is first required to understand the relationship between sounds and letters. therefore, young learners or children require having an understanding of sound composition. phonological awareness enables children to distinguish individual sounds of a word. phonological awareness is, in fact, one aspect of metalinguistic awareness which is the ability to reflect on and manipulate the structural aspects of a language. at the pre-literal stage, children are engaged in verbal communication and so they focus on meaning rather than structure to comprehend linguistics messages. however, awareness of language structure is essential for learning to read (hundberg & hoien, 1991). in fact, phonological awareness is one of the four metalinguistic abilities which develops following basic speaking and listening skills and in fact as a separate ability (tunmer & herriman, 1984). the ability of children to understand and attend the sound structure or phonology of a language is found to be related to literacy development and thus enhances literacy skill acquisition, including acquisition of reading skill (bradley & bryant, 1983). decoding grapheme-phoneme correspondences is critical for achievement and becoming proficient reader (francis, d. j., brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 64 shaywitz, s. e., stuebing, k. k., shaywitz, b. a., & fletcher, j. m., 1996) since without this knowledge, children may have difficulties in acquisition of basic reading skills (manis & morrison, 1985). these small difficulties at early stages of learning to read may develop to great difficulties at later stages (stanovich, 1986). according to vygotsky (1962), bilingualism helps the development of the metalinguistic awareness among children. various studies have been conducted since then on the issue, the majority of which found advantages for bilingual children (slobin, 1978). furthermore, as phonological awareness is an indispensable aspect in development of literacy skills, it is important to study the possible differences among bilingual and monolingual preschool children to plan curriculums based effective in this regard. therefore, there may be some advantages of phonological awareness and bilingualism for development of early literacy. 2. literature review phonological awareness (pa) is defined as the ability to estimate and manipulate the phonemic parts of speech. there is a rich background of comparing phonological awareness among bilingual and monolingual children. verhoeven (2007) showed that the phonological processing of bilingual children is different from that of monolingual children and this difference was advantageous. that is, bilingual children had higher levels of phonological awareness. studies also found that this advantage is also significant in different tasks (yelland, g. w., pollard, j., & mercuri, a., 1993). yelland et al (1993) examined the effect of limited exposure to a second language (italian) at early stages of bilingualism among english-speaking children and found that children’s judgment of the sound structure of words is done through determination of whether simple pictures illustrate an object with a short or a long name. however, this advantage was observed at preschool and disappeared at grade one. the superiority of bilinguals over monolinguals was also found at word recognition. caravolas and bruck (1993) compared in a study 4 to 6-year-old czech speaking children with english-speaking children. results of the study indicated that czech speaking children had better and sooner awareness of phonemes, the components of an onset unit than the englishspeaking children, although the children in both groups showed awareness of the whole onset unit around the same age. the developmental differences were found to be due to differences in the structure of complex onsets between those languages. in english, a phoneme can be exclusively combined with specific phonemes in order to form a complex onset. there were more variations among complex onsets in czech than in english. as a result, czech-speaking children need to focus on individual phonemes, while the english-speaking children only need to recognize individual complex onsets to distinguish one complex onset from the others. thus, czech speaking children were phonologically aware earlier than englishspeaking children. ho and bryant (1997) examined 3to 8-year old chinese speaking children in hong kong and compared them with the english-speaking counterparts. it was found that english-speaking children developed rhyme awareness earlier compared to chinese speaking children. chinese is a language with syllables as the basic speech unit. however, chinese syllables can be divided into two parts: the initial segments and the final segments. the initial segments correspond to onsets, and the final segments correspond to rhymes. the ending consonants in the rhymes of english words are usually more auditorily noticeable than those in chinese because the ending consonants in the rhymes of chinese do not have any audible release. therefore, it would be easier for englishspeaking children to tell the similarity of the ending consonants of rhymes in two english words than for chinese speaking children to do it with two chinese words. that is why english-speaking children could acquire the skill to manipulate rhyme units earlier than chinese speaking children. durgunoglu and öney (1999) compared the phonological awareness of 5to 7-year-old turkish-speaking children with english speaking children. they found that the turkish speaking children began to manipulate syllables and final phonemes earlier than the english-speaking children. in turkish, the number of syllable types is less, and the forms are simpler than english. therefore, the syllable boundaries of turkish are more obvious compared to english. therefore, turkish speaking children developed the syllable units’ awareness earlier than english-speaking children. furthermore, turkish suffixes act as grammatical elements to mark person, number, tense, h. soleimani, p. arabloo phonological awareness of persian monolingual children and kurdish-persian bilingual children 65 negation, and so on. addition of a suffix affects the form so that it must follow other grammatical rules as well. similarly, the end of a word changes its form according to english grammatical rules. however, turkish words are much more inflected than those of english. consequently, turkish speaking children are required to pay more attention to final phonemes of words in order to inflect them grammatically than english speaking children. therefore, turkish speaking children develop the awareness of final phonemes earlier than english speaking children. mumtaz and humphreys (2001) examined the phonological awareness of 7-year-old bilingual urdu-english and monolingual english children. it was found that bilingual children had superior phonological awareness compared to monolingual ones. ziegler and goswami (2005) conducted a review of varied cross-language studies on development of phonological awareness and found that children develop phonological awareness in the same sequence in any alphabetic language. that is all children who speak alphabetic languages develop phonological awareness from a larger unit to a smaller unit. kang (2010) examined the possible bilingual advantages in terms of phonological awareness (pa) for 5to 6-year-old korean-english bilingual and korean monolingual children acquiring two phonologically and orthographically different alphabetic languages and investigated the emergent literacy factors that explain variances in their pa. it was found that the bilingual children had a bilingual advantage in pa tasks in both l1 and l2. souza and leite (2014) compared the performance of phonological awareness skills in male and female bilingual and monolingual students. the study presented an observational, crosssectional descriptive study conducted with 17 students from the 3rd grade, aged between seven years and 8 years and 11 months, with similar socioeconomic level, from two private schools, being one a monolingual school, and the other a bilingual one. children at risk for auditory deprivation of any degree, those with learning difficulties, and children enrolled in the school less than two years were excluded from the research. a total of nine bilingual and eight monolingual students was tested using the phonological awareness profile test. results showed that 64.7% of the 17 students tested reached the performance expected for their age, and 35.3% performed above expectation, being 83.3% of the latter bilingual students. the bilingual children presented better performance in the sequential rhyme skill and in the total test score, and the male bilingual children presented better performance in the phoneme addition skill. there was no statistically significant difference when comparing the performance of bilingual and monolingual female students. ahmadian, m., bahrami, l., and aminin s., m. (2016) conducted a study comparing the phonological awareness of pre-school turkish-persian bilingual and persian monolingual preschool children. they found the advantage of pre-school turkish-persian over persian monolingual children in some aspects of phonological awareness. review of the related literature indicated mixed results found in studies on the effect of bilingualism on phonological awareness attributed to the nature of languages under study. in addition, there have been a few studies comparing bilingualism and monolingualism in terms of phonological awareness. given the lack of sufficient studies on the possible advantage of bilingual children over monolingual children in terms of phonological awareness and consequently literacy in iran as a country with various bilingual communities, present study tries to compare the differences between persian-kurdish bilingual and persian monolingual preschool children. 3. research question and hypothesis according to what mentioned before, this study intended to answer the following question and examine the related hypothesis: q: do kurdish-persian bilingual preschool children show any advantages in phonological awareness over their persian monolingual counterparts? brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 66 h0: kurdish-persian bilingual pre-school children show no advantages in phonological awareness over their persian monolingual counterparts. 4. methodology 4.1. participants participants of the study included 30 persian monolinguals and 30 kurdish-persian bilingual pre-school children from different pre-schools in iran in 2016. the 5-6-year-old female participants were chosen based on availability sampling to control the possible effect of gender on findings. in addition, the participants were homogenized in terms of general intelligence regarding their scores on iq tests taken at pre-school, family background, and socioeconomic status and also lack of any impairment or hearing loss problems. 4.2. research instrument soleymani and dastjerdi’s phonological awareness test (2002), in persian, was used to measure the phonological awareness of bilingual and monolingual pre-school children in this study. this is a visual test including 10 subtests measuring one area of phonological awareness including syllable segmentation, alliteration recognition, rhyme recognition, phoneme combination, recognition of words with the same initial phoneme, recognition of words with the same final phoneme, phoneme segmentation, final phoneme naming and deletion, middle phoneme deletion, and initial phoneme naming and deletion. each subtest had 10 items containing several pictures based on the purpose of each subtest. soleymani and dastjerdi (2005) reported a reliability of 0.84 to 0.96 and a validity of 0.84 to 0.96 for the subscales of the test. 4.3. procedure phonological awareness is developed in a sequence including awareness of syllables, onsets, and rhymes which develop before an awareness of phonemes (goswami & bryant, 1990). according to the study of soleymani and dastjerdi (2002), there are specific subtests for different age groups and also anova and tukey test confirm the ability of phonological awareness test (2002) to differentiate between age groups. therefore, this study also followed the same pattern of dividing subtests based on the study age group of 5-6 years old where subtests of 2,3,4,5, and 6 were applied for. these subtests included subtests of alliteration recognition, rhyme recognition, phoneme combination, recognition of words with the same initial phoneme, and recognition of words with the same final phoneme. for each subtest, each participant was first directed through guiding pictures, then they took the main test. it took about 30 minutes for each participant. the participants’ performance was then recorded on the test score sheet; each correct item scored 1. then, the total score and the score of each subtest were summed up for each group. recorded data were then analyzed using spss16. independent samples t-tests were also used to compare the two groups in terms of phonological awareness. 5. results as it was stated, this study aimed to compare the phonological awareness of kurdish-persian bilingual and persian monolingual pre-school children. independent samples t-tests were used to analyze the data taken from kurdish-persian bilingual and persian monolingual pre-school groups. the subtests of alliteration recognition, rhyme recognition, phoneme combination, recognition of words with the same initial phoneme, and recognition of words with the same final phoneme were labeled 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, respectively. tables 1 and 2 present group statistics and the results of the data analysis, respectively. table 1 compares the performances of 30 kurdish-persian bilinguals and 30 persian monolingual pre-school children in the phonological awareness subtests. as it is shown, the mean scores of the participants at kurdish-persian bilingual group are higher than those of the persian monolingual group in each subtest of phonological awareness. that is, the bilingual group’s mean h. soleimani, p. arabloo phonological awareness of persian monolingual children and kurdish-persian bilingual children 67 scores in all the phonological awareness subtests are higher than the mean scores of the monolingual group. table 1. comparison of group statistics in phonological awareness subtest subtests groups n mean std. std. error mean 2 kurdish-persian persian 30 7.50 7.32 1.060 0.648 0.176 0.122 3 kurdish-persian persian 30 7.50 7.26 0.654 0.732 0.113 0.132 4 kurdish-persian persian 30 8.86 8.34 0.241 0.465 0.034 0.103 5 kurdish-persian persian 30 8.76 8.12 0.476 0.434 0.103 0.076 6 kurdish-persian persian 30 7.34 7.16 0.447 0.578 0.98 0.102 in order to measure whether the differences in the means of the two groups are significant and to test out the research hypothesis, the statistical analyses of independent samples t-tests are required. table 2, which is the tabular form of statistical analyses of independent samples t-tests, compares the equality of the variances and mean scores of the two independent groups to reveal the significance of their differences. table 2. comparison of variance and mean scores of study groups levene’s test t-test 95% confidence subtests f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) mean difference std. error difference lower upper 2 equal variance non-equal variance 5.778 0.11 0.698 0.698 48 47 0.376 0.376 0.156 0.156 0.234 0.234 -0.205 -0.203 0.540 0.541 3 equal variance non-equal variance 0.213 0.546 0.6870. 687 48 46.3 0.375 0.375 0.123 0.123 0.176 0.176 -0.243 -0.243 0.412 0.412 4 equal variance non-equal variance 54.187 0.000 3.078 3.078 48 30.05 0.000 0.000 0.345 0.345 0.112 0.112 0.198 0.196 0.594 0.592 5 equal variance non-equal variance 1.324 0.245 1.156 1.156 46 43.62 0.135 0.135 0.146 0.146 0.133 0.133 -0.116 -0.116 0.441 0.441 6 equal variance non-equal variance 0.287 0.476 1.144 1.144 48 45.21 0.115 0.115 0.98 0.98 0.153 0.153 -0.123 -0.124 0.432 0.431 as shown in table 2, given the results of levene’s test, the observed p-value for the second subtest is .011 (p < 0.05), so the null of levene's test is rejected and it was concluded that the variance in phonological awareness of kurdish-persian bilinguals is significantly different from that of persian monolingual pre-school children. the observed p-values for the third, fifth, and sixth subtests are .546, .245, and .476 (p > 0.05), respectively; therefore, the variances in phonological awareness of kurdish-persian bilinguals are not significantly different from that of persian monolingual pre-school children. in the fourth subtest, p < 0.001 shows the significant difference between kurdish-persian and persian pre-school children in phonological awareness. just the p-value of t-test in the fourth phonological awareness subtest is less than α = 0.05 (p < 0.05) and the p-values of t-test in the phonological awareness subtests of 2, 3, 5, and 6 are p > 0.05; thus, there is statistically significant difference between the two means just in terms of the fourth phonological awareness subtest. 6. discussion review of the related literature indicated the advantageous phonological processing of bilingual children compared to monolingual children (verhoeven, 2007) attributed to the nature of languages under study. a few studies compared bilingualism and monolingualism in terms of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 68 phonological awareness in iran as a country with various bilingual communities. given the lack of sufficient studies in this regard, present study tries to compare the differences between persiankurdish bilingual and persian monolingual preschool children. the results of the analysis showed that kurdish-persian preschool children outperformed in phonological awareness subtests of 2 and 4. subtest 2 refers to the alliteration recognition where the child is shown two pictures which have the same initial syllable. subtest 4 deals with the phoneme combination test, where the examiner expresses each phoneme separately for each picture then the child shows the matching picture. the performance of the two groups was not statistically significant in the subtests of rhyme recognition (3), recognition of words with the same initial phoneme (5), and recognition of words with the same final phoneme (6); thus, the participants performed nearly indifferently in these three subtests of phonological awareness. the possible explanation for the difference in the performance of the two groups may be the linguistic background knowledge of bilingual participants who can comprehend and produce at least two languages. more specifically, better performance of bilinguals on subtests of phonological awareness can also be related to their better executive control routinely resulted from the constant requirement to focus attentional process to two activated languages at the same time, as also mentioned by bialystok (2001). the findings of the present study are in line with the findings of bialystok (2002), and verhoeven (2007) and reveal that the phonological processing of bilingual children is different from that of monolingual children and the bilingual children are presumed to build up higher levels of phonological awareness. the present study may confirm their findings that bilingual children take advantage of higher levels of phonological awareness regarding the alliteration recognition and phoneme combination in comparison with their monolingual counterparts. findings of the present study support the results of some previous studies (bruck and genesee, 1995; campbell and sais, 1995; canbay, 2011; rubin & turner, 1989;), which have compared phonological awareness in monolinguals and bilinguals and reported the superiority of bilinguals over monolinguals concerning phonological awareness. it seems literally acceptable that bilingualism may smooth the progress of children’s metalinguistic development, especially their phonological awareness (clark, 1978; slobin, 1978; vygotsky, 1962;). however, the results of the present study contrast with the findings of chiappe and siegel (1999) and bialystok, majumder, and michelle (2003). chiappe and siegel (1999) found no significant difference in phonological awareness between english-speaking monolingual children and punjabi–english bilingual children. the possible explanation for such differences in the findings can be due to the differences in the contexts of these studies, the instruments and tasks used to obtain data, and the nature and kind of the bilingual language of the participants (i.e. chinese, french, turkish, or indi as the second language of the bilingual group may be influential in the findings of previous studies). bialystok et al. (2003) reported negative effects of bilingualism on phonological awareness and concluded that different groups of children assessed by different tasks could demonstrate no clear and consistent effect of bilingualism on the acquisition of phonological awareness. although the present study showed the advantage of pre-school bilinguals over monolinguals concerning phonological awareness, it should not be overestimated because preschool bilingual children showed more phonological awareness than their monolingual counterparts only in the alliteration recognition and phoneme combination subtests and nearly all the participants performed equally in the other phonological awareness subtests. it is assumed that bilinguals process language in higher levels than monolinguals (bialystok, 2001; 2002; verhoeven, 2007) that can be mentioned as one of the reasons for the differences in the phonological awareness of them. phonological awareness is a complex process that may be influenced by various elements; for instance, the use of different tests or tasks, or the similarities and differences between the two languages may affect participants’ phonological processing in the language being studied (tunmer & rohl, 1991). since the outcomes of the studies conducted on phonological awareness of bilinguals and monolinguals have been muddled up, as bialystok et al. (2003) reveal, the h. soleimani, p. arabloo phonological awareness of persian monolingual children and kurdish-persian bilingual children 69 generalizability of claims relating bilingualism to the development of phonological awareness needs to be limited and literacy instruction needs to be more individualized depending on linguistic background. however, further research is required for to examine more varied groups of pre-school children to include more variables of phonological awareness and processing. findings of the study could have implications for children second learning language, second language teachers and teacher trainers, task designers and curriculum developers. the findings would make these groups of audiences more familiar with the factors influencing the phonological achievement. the learners’ capability to concentrate on the phonological or sound structure of language which is shown to be directly influenced by the escalation of literacy and may promote the acquisition of literacy skills and academic achievement (bradley & bryant, 1983; stanovich, 1986). therefore, knowing children’s phonological abilities and disabilities would help teachers and related practitioners to find tasks proper for preparing learners for achieving higher levels of phonological processing. in turn, more phonologically aware children would have higher chance and probability of successful language learning. references ahmadian, m., bahrami, l., & amini, s. m. (2014). a comparative study of the phonological awareness of pre-school persian monolingual and turkish-persian bilingual children. theory and practice in language studies, 6(3), pp. 501-509. bialystok e. (2001). bilingualism in development: language, literacy and cognition. new york, ny, us: cambridge university press. bialystok, e. (1988). levels of bilingualism and levels of linguistic awareness. developmental psychology, 24(4), 560-567. bialystok, e., majumder, s., & michelle m. (2003). developing phonological awareness: is there a bilingual advantage? applied psycholinguistics, 24(1), 27–44. blake, b. j. (2008). all about language. oxford university press. bruck, m., & genesee, f. (1995). phonological awareness in young second language learners. journal of child language, 22(2), 307-324. carroll, d. (2008). psychology of language (5th ed.). usa: thomson higher education clark, e. (1978). awareness of language: some evidence from what children say and do. in a.sinclair, r.j. jarvella, & w.j.m. levelt (eds.), the child’s conception of language (pp. 17-44). new york: springer. francis, d. j., shaywitz, s. e., stuebing, k. k., shaywitz, b. a., & fletcher, j. m. (1996). developmental lag versus deficit models of reading disability: a longitudinal, individual growth curves analysis. journal of educational psychology, 88(1), 3-17. ho, c. s.-h., & bryant, p. (1997). development of phonological awareness of chinese children in hong kong. journal of psycholinguistic research, 26, 109-126. rubin, h., & turner, a. (1989). linguistic awareness skills in grade one children in a french immersion setting. reading and writing: an interdisciplinary journal, 1(1), 73-86. slobin, d. i. (1978). a case study of early language awareness. in a. sinclair, r.j. jarvella & w.j.m. levelt (eds.), the child’s conception of language (pp. 45-54). new york: springer. soleymani, z. & dastjerdi, m. (2002). phonological awareness test. tehran: research center in exceptional children publisher [in persian]. souza, l. b., & leite, a., g., (2014). profile of phonological awareness in bilingual and monolingual children. codas, 26(1):61-7. torgesen, j. k.., & mathes, p. (2000). a basic guide to understanding, assessing, and teaching phonological awareness. austin, tx: pro-ed. yelland, g. w., pollard, j., & mercuri, a. (1993). the metalinguistic benefits of limited contact with a second language. applied psycholinguistics, 14(4), 423-444. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 70 ziegler, j., & goswami, u. (2005). reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across language: a psycholinguistic grain size theory. psychological bulletin, 131 (1), 3-29. hassan soleimani is an associate professor of applied linguistics at payame noor university, iran. dr. soleimani received his ph. d. in applied linguistics from isfahan university in 2008.he has authored several books including nonparametric statistics for applied linguistics research in 2010 and a chapter in issues in materials development by sense publishers, the netherlands, in 2016. he is the author of several articles and has presented some papers in international conferences. his special interests are sla issues in general and research and statistics in particular. he is presently teaching call, first language acquisition, and efl curriculum at pnu phd post graduate school. parisa arabloo is an english teacher in ministry of education and university instructor in tehran, iran. she is a ph.d student at payame noor university, iran. she received his m.a in applied linguistics from azad university, central tehran branch in 2015. she has presented and participated several articles in national and international conferences. she has authored several articles in different areas in tefl and published them. she is a teacher trainer in research and plannig organization of ministry of education in iran. brain_3_1 71 a brief history of fuzzy logic angel garrido faculty of sciences, uned, madrid, spain agarrido@mat.uned.es motto : “everything is vague to a degree which you do not realize until they tried to specify” (bertrand russell, vagueness [1]). abstract the problems of uncertainty, imprecision and vagueness have been discussed for many years. these problems have been major topics in philosophical circles with much debate, in particular, about the nature of vagueness and the ability of traditional boolean logic to cope with concepts and perceptions that are imprecise or vague. the fuzzy logic (which is usually translated into castilian by “lógica borrosa”, or “lógica difusa”, but also by “lógica heurística”) can be considered a bypass-valued logics (multi-valued logic, mvl, its acronym in english). it is founded on, and is closely related to-fuzzy sets theory, and successfully applied on fuzzy systems. you might think that fuzzy logic is quite recent and what has worked for a short time, but its origins date back at least to the greek philosophers and especially plato (428-347 b.c.). it even seems plausible to trace their origins in china and india. because it seems that they were the first to consider that all things need not be of a certain type or quit, but there are a stopover between. that is, be the pioneers in considering that there may be varying degrees of truth and falsehood. in case of colors, for example, between white and black there is a whole infinite scale: the shades of gray. some recent theorems show that in principle fuzzy logic can be used to model any continuous system, be it based in ai, or physics, or biology, or economics, etc. investigators in many fields may find that fuzzy, commonsense models are more useful, and many more accurate than are standard mathematical ones. we analyze here the history and development of this problem: fuzziness, or “borrosidad” (in castilian), essential to work with uncertainty. keywords: mathematical logic, non-classical logics, fuzzy logic, uncertainty, philosophical aspects of fuzzy logic. 1. introduction as we know, logic is the study of the structure and principles of correct reasoning, and more specifically, attempts to establish the principles that guarantee the validity of deductive arguments. the central concept of validity is for logic, because when we affirm the validity of an argument are saying that it is impossible that its conclusion is false if its premises are true. propositions are descriptions of the world, that is, are affirmations or denials of events in various possible worlds, of which the “real world” is just one of them. there is a long philosophical tradition of distinguishing between truth necessary (a priori or “logical”) and facts “contingent” (a posteriori or “factual”). both have really led the two concepts of logical truth, without being opposed to each other, are quite different: the conception of truth as coherence, and the conception of truth as correspondence. according to the point of view of consistency, a proposition is true or false depending on their relationship with respect to a given set of propositions, because they have been consistently applied the rules of that system. under the terms of correspondence, a proposition is true or false, if it agrees with reality, that is, the fact referred to. other views have tried to be overcome such dichotomy. among them may be mentioned the semantic point of view, raised by polish mathematician and philosopher alfred tarski (1902-1983). 2. truth or falsity to further enhance the complexity of the problem, one should bear in mind that not only told the truth or falsity of propositions, but also of theories, ideas and models. and so, we allow new and different conception of truth. brainotes brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 72 the basic idea underlying all these approaches is that of an intrinsic dichotomy between true and false. this opposition implies the validity of two fundamental laws of classical logic: principle of excluded middle: every proposition is true or false, and there is another possibility. principle of non-contradiction: no statement is true and false simultaneously. this basic idea generates a series of paradoxes and dissatisfaction that is based on the need to overcome this strict truth-bivalence of classical logic. accept that a proposition about a future event is true or false becomes necessary or impossible, respectively, the event expressed by the proposition. the solution proposed by jan lukasiewicz himself in his classic 1920, is the acceptance of a logic with three truth values (or three-valued), also called trivalent), which in addition to true and false, accepts a value of indeterminate truth, which is ascribed a truth value or grade of membership of 0.5. in the eighteenth century, david hume (1711-1776) and immanuel kant (1724-1804) were inquiring about such concepts. they concluded that the reasoning is acquired through experiences throughout our lives. hume believed in the logic of common sense, and kant thought that only mathematicians could provide clear and precise definitions, both accepting that there were conflicting principles that had no solution. in conclusion, both were detecting conflicting principles within the so-called classical logic. then in the early twentieth century, the british philosopher and mathematician bertrand russell reported the idea that classical logic inevitably leads to contradictions. a study on the “vagaries” of language [1], concluding that the vagueness is precisely one degree. also charles sanders peirce (1839-1914) somewhat anticipated this, but there are many who, like bart kosko, bertrand russell considered the father of fuzzy logic. because in the early twentieth century, the british philosopher and mathematician bertrand russell (1872-1970) reported the idea that classical logic inevitably leads to contradictions, making a study on the vagaries of language [10], and concluding that the vagueness is precisely one degree. 3. the origins of fuzzy logic according to this theory, we have a transfer function derived from the characteristic function usually called the “membership function”, which runs from the universe of discourse, u, until the unit closed interval of reals, which is [0, 1]. not so in the sets “classic” or “crisp sets”, where the range of the function is reduced to a set consisting of only two elements, namely was the {0, 1}. therefore, fuzzy set theory is a generalization of classical set theory. the thesis then proposed emerged from the study of various thinkers from many different disciplines, who, like him, had a different vision of the problems of traditional logic. the paradox of all sets that do not contain themselves, that is very famous and was proposed by bertrand russell. or the uncertainty principle of quantum physics by werner heisenberg. the theory of “vague sets” (today, so-called fuzzy sets) proceeds from the quantum physicist and german philosopher max black (1937), which also analyzes the problem of modeling “vagueness”. he differs from russell in that he proposes that traditional logic can be used by representing vagueness at an appropriate level of detail and suggests that russell's definition of vagueness confuses vagueness with generality. he discusses vagueness of terms or symbols by using borderline cases where it is unclear whether the term can be used to describe the case. when discussing scientific measurement he points out “the indeterminacy which is characteristic in vagueness is present also in all scientific measurement”. an idea put forward by black is the idea of a consistency profile or curve to enable some analysis of the ambiguity of a word or symbol. to the fuzzy logic researcher of today these curves bear a strong resemblance to the membership functions of (type-1)-fuzzy sets. and also may be considered the subsequent contribution of the polish jan lukasiewiz (1878-1956). so, they must be greatly influenced lofti a. zadeh (b. 1921) to publish that article [2] in the journal information and control, and three years later (since 1968), the socalled “fuzzy algorithm”. a. garrido – a brief history of fuzzy logic 73 at the beginning of its brainstorm, the papers published by lotfi a. zadeh was not well received in the west, even in many cases were bitterly dismissed by the more conservative elements of the scientific community. however, over time began to gain enough supporters, which led to these theories were being extended again and again, settling firmly among the most innovative scientists, and especially among the best professionals, more than anywhere else, initially in japan and then south korea, china and india. europe and the states have been incorporated into this new math, but more slowly. as a matter picturesque, if you will, but true, we can tell that the now recognized by many as “the father of fuzzy logic”, lotfi a. zadeh, in his time met with executives from ibm, which told him that his “discovery” had no interest or no utility. of course, it will be considered a very clear model of intelligence and vision. were it not so, you probably have developed the united states and other western countries many of the remarkable technological advances arising from the new science. zadeh's intention was to create a formalism to handle more efficiently the imprecision of human reasoning. it was in 1971 when he published his “quantitative fuzzy semantics”, in which appeared the formal elements that led to the methodology of fuzzy logic and its applications, as known today. from the above it follows that you may need a radical rethink of our classical concepts of truth and falsehood, replacing the concept of fuzziness (vagueness or fuzziness) as a result of which the truth or falsity are only extreme cases. by fuzziness understand the fact that a proposition may be partially true and partially false simultaneously. a person is not just high or low, but partially may participate in both features, so that only above and below certain heights necessarily called it higher or lower bound, while in the intermediate zone of both heights exist as a graduation which is ceasing to be high. it seems intuitively clear that the concept of fuzziness is rooted in most of our ways of thinking and speaking. another separate issue is the valuation that each individual granted such a fuzzy character (the glass half full or half empty), which depend on subjective psychological issues and difficult to evaluate. the fuzzy principle states that everything is a matter of degree. it will be its more famous “leitmotiv”. all propositions acquire a truth value between one (true) and zero (false), inclusive. the allocation of these extreme values will only be given in the case of logical truths or falsehoods or strong inductions: “all men are mortal” can be an example of strong induction, since there is no counterexample. the arguments for introducing the concept of fuzziness in logic have already been exposed, but it will be necessary to examine in detail some key aspects: a) the historical background and methodological concept. b) the possibility of building an infinite-valued formal language, and if so, try to define their properties and laws. c) the philosophical and practical consequences stemming from such introduction. 4. eastern vs. western perspective the well-known american professor bart kosko [3] highlighted the differences between eastern and western philosophies regarding the concept of truth, summing up in opposition against aristotle buddha. in fact, kosko said that western philosophy, aristotle's successor, has accepted uncritically the bivalent as the system that is useful, but overly simplifying complex reality. put simply: what has won in simplicity is lost in accuracy. by contrast, eastern philosophies: buddha, lao tse, confucius, etc. always have accepted the strict unity of opposites, of what they call (as we know) the yin and yang. on the other hand, if it is true that aristotle was the great introducer of bivalence absolute, we should not ignore that he was not spent entirely overlooked aspects could be fuzzy propositions, as when he commented that: “in any case, what is said according to these (qualities) supports arguably the most and least”, or when we talk about that we can come to knowledge, but without the certainty of it. if aristotle did not study this concept, it may have been lacking the necessary brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 74 mathematical knowledge for development. it was not until the appearance of a calculus increasingly systematic and operational, combinatorial and probability theory, or the new theory, now known as 'crisp', or classic, sets, initiated by cantor, as well as modern statistics and matrix calculations. as mentioned earlier, aristotle did not have the mathematical apparatus for developing a fuzzy logic. the gestation of this construct starts with newton and leibniz, who developed calculus in the seventeenth century. despite the obsession with accuracy in mathematics has made them perfectly applicable sentence einstein: “to the extent that mathematics refer to reality, not true. and to the extent they are true, not refer to reality”. but does not say einstein is undoubtedly the deductive apparatus developed by mathematics facilitates the understanding of reality. the explanation given by aristotle movement is replaced by the most innovative in newton, but thanks to a sharp appoggiatura in calculus, without which it would not have been possible. however, the infinitesimal calculus in depth was only used for the study of physics in the following centuries, experiencing spectacular growth with euler, laplace, lagrange, fourier, and so on. today permeates all sciences, both social and human and natural. this calculus mathematics introduced the question of degree: to what degree is modified by changing seamlessly b, where a is a dependent variable b? classical aristotelian logic has been shown, therefore, and for a long time, quite effective in science so-called “hard”, such as math or physics. but it is insufficient when the predicates contain imprecision, uncertainty or vagueness, on the other hand, is how the brain actually works and human reasoning, and in general, is how systems behave around us. fuzzy logic has also helped that the software can interpret judgments of this kind. 5. applications of fuzzy logic in fuzzy logic, statements are not absolutely true or absolutely false [4]. one thing can be true to 5% (technically, its “degree of truth” is 0.05). and the variables (or categories) are no longer numbers but no names or borders linguistically accurate (high or low, rich or poor, are fat or thin, is healthy or sick, old or young, hot, or cold, or conversely, “is normal”, and with what degree this occurs, etc.), operators that modify them are of the “lot”, “pretty”, “too”, “almost” or “not too much”. these are called fuzzy modifiers (“hedges” or even “fuzzy modifiers”). this is attributed a value to each of these features diffuse, and that value is accentuated or diluted according, for example, the various powers or roots of the initial values or with polynomial expressions that depend on these functions. they are called modifiers “intensification” or “expansion” (dilation), respectively, with gradual effects and variation. the feature of working with border regions is not fully defined itself in this area of mathematics [6]. in 1973, with the basic theory of zadeh fuzzy controllers, other researchers began to apply fuzzy logic to various mechanical and industrial processes, improving existing hitherto. established several research groups at universities fuzzy japanese. thus, professors terano and shibata in tokyo, with professors tanaka and asai in osaka, made major contributions both to the development of fuzzy logic theory and its applications [7, 8]. in 1980 professor ebrahim mandani in the united kingdom [9-11], designed the first fuzzy controller for a steam engine, which would be applied to control a cement plant in denmark, and did-of course-with great success. in 1987 hitachi used a fuzzy controller for the sendai train control, which used an innovative system created by man. since then, the controller has been doing his job very efficiently. it was also during this year of 1987 when the company omron developed the first commercial fuzzy controllers. so the year 1987 is considered the “fuzzy boom” due to the large number of products based on fuzzy logic to be traded. in 1993, fuji fuzzy logic applied to control chemical injection water treatment plants for the first time in japan. it was right there in the country nippon and south korea, where more height fuzzy logic has been, creating close partnerships between government, universities and industries [12, 13]. parallel to the study of the applications of fuzzy logic, professors takagi and sugeno developed the first approach to construct fuzzy rules (fuzzy rules), from training data or training a. garrido – a brief history of fuzzy logic 75 (fuzzy learning). the applications of fuzzy logic in everyday life since then grow rapidly. in fact, already part of it. for example, some brands of washing machine using fuzzy logic are electrolux, aeg and miele, and use these computational methods to moderate the program if the clothes washing “is not very dirty”, which is a vague concept. the technique also is widespread in the abs, braking cars, auto focus cameras, or control of the elevators, spam filters, also called “spam”, and the now ubiquitous video games. manufacturers do not want to give much publicity to the fuzziness implicit in these developments for an obvious reason. to say that their cars' brake controlled by fuzzy logic does not belong to the class of messages that can sell more cars. to build a fuzzy system, an engineer might begin with a set of fuzzy rules from an expert. an engineer might define the degrees of membership in various fuzzy input and output sets with sets of curves. the fuzzy rules, or rules of a fuzzy system, define a set of overlapping patches that relate a full range of inputs to a full range of outputs. in that sense, the fuzzy system approximates some mathematical function or equation of cause and effect. a very important result says that fuzzy systems can approximate any continuous math function. bart kosko [3] proved this uniform convergence theorem by showing that enough small fuzzy patches can sufficiently cover the graph of any function or input/output relation. the theorem also shows that we can pick in advance the maximum error of the approximation and be sure there exists a finite number of fuzzy rules that achieve it. and recent advances in neural networks, or neural nets (in terms of programs that learn from experience), and genetic algorithms (as programs evolve over time) are certainly a fitting complement to fuzzy logic. another key reason for increased research in this field would be the interest in neural networks and fuzzy systems resemblance. wanted relations between the two techniques, thereby obtaining neuro-fuzzy systems, which use learning methods based on neural networks to identify and optimize its parameters [8]. then, as we say, appeared genetic algorithms, which together with neural networks and “fuzzy systems” are powerful and therefore are of great interest for future research, both current and mathematics for the most new, it is already here, quickly taking shape [13]. neural networks are collections of “neurons” and “synapses” that change their values in response to inputs from surrounding neurons and synapses. the neural network acts like a computer, because it maps inputs to outputs. the neurons and synapses may be silicon components, or equations in software, that simulate their behavior. supervised learning, reached through supervised networks, tune the rules of a fuzzy system as if they were synapses. the user provides the first set of rules, which the neural net refines by running through hundreds of thousands of inputs, slightly varying the fuzzy sets each time to see how well the system performs. the network tends to keep the changes that improve performance and to ignore the others. unsupervised learning, reached through unsupervised neural networks, blindly cluster data into groups (by a procedure so-called clustering), the members of which resemble one another. there may be no given right or wrong response or way to organize the data. it is in advance. fuzzy modeling is many times used to transform the knowledge of an expert into a mathematical model. the emphasis is on constructing a fuzzy expert system that replaces the human expert. also as a tool that can assist human observers in the difficult task of transforming their observations into a mathematical model. in many fields of science, human observers have provided linguistic descriptions and explanations of various systems. however, to study these phenomena, there is a need to construct a suitable mathematical model, a process that usually requires a very subtle mathematical understanding. fuzzy modeling is a many more direct and natural approach for transforming the linguistic description into such model. a fuzzy model represents the real system in a form that corresponds closely to the way humans perceive it. thus, the model is easily understandable, and each parameter has a readily perceivable meaning. the model can be easily altered to incorporate new phenomena, and if its behavior is different than expected, it is usually easy to find which rule should be modified, and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 76 how. furthermore, the mathematical procedures used in fuzzy modeling have been tried and tested many times, and their techniques are relatively well documented. the possible “bad reputation”, or the bitter controversy over fuzzy logic, apart from prejudice, will be possibly wrong with a name chosen, as noted at the outset. what is fuzzy logic is not in itself, which has a precise mathematical definition, but the world over which it applies, including our perception of its boundaries and categories [14, 15]. 6. conclusions the fuzzy logic research continues to advance in the leading countries [17-19], if we talk in terms of economic and technical progress, even-though with a slower walk-in countries with more traditional scientific culture and static, as may well be the spanish country. but groups that have formed at least attempt to advance our science always precarious in different “grades” -following that direction. also on deep (on mathematical foundations and philosophical) theoretical consequences, which influences the future challenges [6, 20]. there are two major barriers that prevent full dissemination and absorption of this new way of dealing with science, at least some of their fields. these are the traditional view of mathematical topics, repeated ad nauseam until even when they have long since lost interest and effectiveness. hence, there are those who ignore even this new science has emerged, partly ignorance and partly is contempt. another major difficulty is that it looks like a useful tool around, but not very consistent from the theoretical point of view, looking with disdain, and often are often technical issues from the ivory tower in which entrenched than a few mathematicians. and it is a very pernicious and absurd position where they exist. science and technology are lost or saved together. both have a common origin and are two approaches, often converging to the same reality, which has many facets. logically if a thing is useful it will be the better. account not only the beauty. the real world is not precise and the notions of vagueness, looseness, uncertainty, imprecision, concepts and perceptions are central to the way human beings solve problem. it must be stated that some progress, such as the aggregation operators (t-norms, tconorms, and so on) as well as in fuzzy modeling, are crucial. and alongside all this development, new generalizations of mathematical theories which allow them to be applied in the treatment of uncertainty still waiting, in some states more or less forward, to create a new mathematics, more down to reality. it is also important to note that fields apparently far enough outside and out of the treatment of fuzziness, such as the symmetry and the entropy, have entered into new avenues of research by fuzzy symmetry, the fuzzy entropy, the fuzzy graphs, and so on. about my country, for instance, we must to mention the group working at the department of artificial intelligence at the university of granada, or the center for artificial intelligence research at mieres, created by the government of asturias. there is also a remarkable group of researchers that works in barcelona and in madrid, on diverse fuzzy logic topics. references [1] russell, b. “vagueness” read before the jowett society, oxford, 25 november 1922. first published in the australasian journal of psychology and philosophy, 1 (june 1923): 84-92. this text may be also taken from collected papers, vol. 9, pp. 147-154. [2] zadeh, l.a., “fuzzy sets”, information and control, vol. 8, pp. 338-353, 1965. [3] kosko, b., fuzzy thinking: the new science of fuzzy logic, hyperion, 1993. [4] dubois, d., and prade, h., fuzzy sets and systems: theory and applications, academic press, new york, 1980. [5] jang, j.-s. r., “fuzzy modeling using generalized neural networks and kalman filter algorithm”, proc. of the ninth national conf. on artificial intelligence (aaai-91), pp. 762-767, july 1991. a. garrido – a brief history of fuzzy logic 77 [6] garrido, a., “searching the arcane origins of fuzzy logic”, brain (broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience), vol. 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, pp. 51-57, bacau, 2011. [7] jang, j.-s. r., and sun, c.-t., “neuro-fuzzy modeling and control”, proceedings of the ieee, march 1995. [8] jang, j.-s. r., and sun, c.-t., neuro-fuzzy and soft computing: a computational approach to learning and machine intelligence, prentice hall, 1997. [9] mamdani, e.h., and assilian, s.,“an experiment in linguistic synthesis with a fuzzy logic controller”, international journal of man-machine studies, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1-13, 1975. [10] mamdani, e.h., “advances in the linguistic synthesis of fuzzy controllers”, international journal of man-machine studies, vol. 8, pp. 669-678, 1976. [11] mamdani, e.h., “applications of fuzzy logic to approximate reasoning using linguistic synthesis”, ieee transactions on computers, vol. 26, no. 12, pp. 1182-1191, 1977. [12] sugeno, m., “fuzzy measures and fuzzy integrals: a survey” (m.m. gupta, g. n. saridis, and b.r. gaines, editors), fuzzy automata and decision processes, pp. 89-102, north-holland, ny, 1977. [13] sugeno, m., industrial applications of fuzzy control, elsevier science pub. co.1985. [14] wang, l.-x., adaptive fuzzy systems and control: design and stability analysis, prentice hall, 1994. [15] yager, r., “on a general class of fuzzy connectives”, fuzzy sets and systems, 4:235-242, 1980. [16] zadeh, l.a., “outline of a new approach to the analysis of complex systems and decision processes”, ieee transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 28-44, jan. 1973. [17] zadeh, l.a., “the concept of a linguistic variable and its application to approximate reasoning, parts 1, 2, and 3”, information sciences, 1975, 8:199-249, 8:301-357, 9:43-80. [18] zadeh, l.a., “fuzzy logic”, computer, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 83-93, 1988. [19] zadeh, l.a., “knowledge representation in fuzzy logic”, ieee transactions on knowledge and data engineering, vol. 1, pp. 89-100, 1989. [20] williamson, t., vagueness. routledge, london, 1994. brain_3_2 59 learners test performance and gardner`s mi theory: intercorrelation in a bilingual context bagher azarmi sharif university of technology, tehran, iran bager.azarmi@gmail.com ali jahangard sharif university of technology, tehran, iran jahangard@sharif.ir hossein movassagh sharif university of technology, tehran, iran buali-sina university, hamedan, iran hussein_movassagh@yahoo.com abstract although decisions and inferences made based on test scores depend both on the characteristics of test takers and testing environment, the former seems to have the most overriding importance. the present study which was conducted in a bilingual environment is in line with this assumption and is aimed at investigating intelligence as one of the test taker characteristics. first, it aimed at finding the possible correlation between any of the eight types of intelligences in gardner`s mi theory and eap test performance. second, it intended to survey the intercorrelation among the eight types of intelligences themselves. to that end, 122 male bilingual efl learners who were all sophomore university students were chosen as the participants of the study. they sat for the final eap exam and filled the questionnaire on multiple intelligence. the test takers' scores on eap exam were correlated with their multiple intelligences. the result did not demonstrate any statistically significant go-togetherness between eap test performance and any types of intelligence; however, a significantly positive correlation was observed among the eight types of intelligences themselves showing that all types of intelligences are equally important and ought to be equally dealt with in efl context. key words: eap, multiple intelligence, correlation, intercorrelation. 1.introduction technically speaking, intelligence should not be considered as a unitary construct, since, according to the theories proposed, it is made up of different components with hierarchical organization. intelligence is described as the combination of a general factor and several specific factors. all people can access the general factor to the same extent for all kinds of cognitive acts, while the strength of specific factors fluctuates from one act to another (dörnyei, 2005). in 1930s thurstone made a distinction between seven chief cognitive abilities and listed them as verbal comprehension, word fluency, number facility, spatial visualization, associative memory, perceptual speed, and reasoning. after a while, thurstone proposed seven primary cognitive abilities as: verbal comprehension, word fluency, number facility, spatial visualization, associative memory, perceptual speed, and reasoning (cited in dörnyei, 2005). next, after different theories and models proposed for intelligence, gardner (1983) introduced his prominent theory of multiple intelligences consisting of eight distinct intelligences. 1.1. multiple intelligence gardner`s multiple intelligences was first developed as a reaction to the traditional conceptualizations of intelligence and later became a major contributor to educational practices and reforms. gardner questioned the validity of traditional iq tests in that he thought they would only tap the logic and language, however, the human brain has other equally important competencies. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 60 therefore he defined intelligence as "a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture" (1999: 34). initially the theory consisted of seven distinct intelligences proposed as linguistic, mathematical-logical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal (gardner, 1999). naturalistic intelligence was subsequently introduced by gardner and was added to the previous seven intelligences, therefore made the total of eight distinct intelligences. in stating the rationale of his theory, gardner (1991) posited that: all human beings are capable of at least seven different ways of knowing the world — ways that i have elsewhere labeled the seven human intelligences. according to this analysis, we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves. where individuals differ is in the strength of these intelligences — the so-called profile of intelligences — and in the ways in which such intelligences are invoked and combined to carry out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains (p12). the linguistic intelligence enables us to use the words effectively both in the oral and written form. in other words, this intelligence enables people to manipulate the structure, phonology, and the semantics of language to reach pragmatic results. logical-mathematical intelligence is the capacity to use numbers efficiently. it arouses the sensitivity to logical patterns and relationships, statements and propositions, functions and other related abstractions, and thus demystifies the use of possesses such as categorization, inference, generalization, calculation and hypothesis testing. spatial intelligence is the competence for recognizing the visual-spatial world accurately and applying transformation on that perception. this kind of intelligence is useful in appreciation of color, line, shape, form, space, and the relationship existing among them. bodily kinesthetic intelligence accounts for the use of the whole body to express ideas and meanings and also the use of hands to produce and transform things. musical intelligence involves one's sensitivity to rhythm, pith and melody, duration etc. of a musical piece. it enables people to perceive, transform, discriminate and express musical forms. by musical intelligence, one can recognize the moods, interests, motivations and personalities of other people. intrapersonal intelligence, on the other hand, accounts for recognizing one's own mood, behavior, motivation and interest; or simply put, having a precise picture oneself. naturalistic intelligence, which was added later on by gardner, enables us to recognize and categorize a variety of different kinds of environments. it involves the sensitivity to natural phenomena. armstrong (2009) proposed some key points regarding the mi theory. armstrong claimed that all human beings have access to all types of intelligences. given the appropriate incentive, reinforcement, support, and instruction, most people are capable of enhancing each of the intelligences to a satisfactory level of competency. all intelligences most often work together in an intricate way, that is, no intelligence exists alone and all intelligences interact with one another. finally, armstrong stated that "there are many ways to be intelligent within each category there is no standard set of attributes that one must have to be considered intelligent in a specific area. consequently, a person may not be able to read, yet be highly linguistic because he can tell a terrific story or has a large, oral vocabulary. similarly, a person may be quite awkward on the playing field, yet possess superior bodily-kinesthetic intelligence when she weaves a carpet or creates an inlaid chess table. mi theory emphasizes the rich diversity of ways in which people show their gifts within intelligences as well as between intelligences" (p. 16). gardner (1987) also draws attention to the overriding importance of recognizing and nurturing all of the human intelligences and the combination of those intelligences since it is held that they interact in an abstruse way. 1.2. english for academic purposes (eap) language for specific purposes (lsp) is a movement toward serving the language needs of those who need to learn language so as to carry out particular tasks and roles with it. therefore, the b. azarmi, a. jahangard, h. movassagh learners test performance and gardner`s mi theory: intercorrelation in a bilingual context 61 main purpose is acquiring content and real-world skills by means of a second language rather than acquiring the language for its own sake. english for academic purposes (eap) is a sub category of lsp that was coined by tim johns and appeared in the collection of papers edited by cowie and heaton for the first time (jordan, 2002). eap, currently, refers to any english language teaching course that has a study purpose. hyland (2006) asserts that eap is a very broad term that covers all areas of academic communicative practice from pre-tertiary, undergraduate, and postgraduate teaching and classroom interactions to research genres and administrative practice (such as course documents and doctoral oral defenses). to investigate the relationship between multiple intelligences and eap test performance, three research questions were posed: 1. is there any significant correlation between any type of intelligences and eap test performance? 2. which one of the intelligence types in mi theory is most highly correlated with eap test performance? 3. is there any correlation among the eight types of intelligence in mi theory? three null hypotheses were offered accordingly as follows: 1. there is no correlation between any type of intelligences and eap test performance. 2. none of the intelligence types in mi theory is highly correlated with eap test performance. 3. there is no relationship among the eight types of intelligences in mi theory. 2. methodology 2.1. participants the current study involved 122 iranian second-year university male students, majoring in computer sciences. they speak turkish as their first language, persian as their second language, and they were learning english as a foreign language. the classes were held once a week for 90 minutes and were compulsory for all students. the main activity in the classes was reading technical texts. the amount of participants' past exposure to english, both inside and outside the classroom was estimated by asking them about their backgrounds. they were asked about the past experiences of travelling to or studying in an english-speaking country, and the english classes they had taken so far. results showed that none of the students had been abroad, and that they had studied english for about 6 years, mainly through reading-based formal education in the iranian secondary and high schools. 2.2. instruments two main instruments were applied in this study: an eap test and the multiple intelligence developmental assessment scale (midas). in the final term exam, a test was given to the subjects in four sections: a, b, c, and d. in section ‘a’ they were asked to complete 6 sentences with the given words. in part ‘b’, which included 8 multiple choice items, they were required to select the correct option. in part c that involved 4 items, the correct forms of the words given in parentheses must be used for completing the sentences. in part d, they were asked to translate 2 short paragraphs into persian. midas is a questionnaire recommended by gardner and developed by shearer (1996) for measuring multiple intelligences. the instrument takes 35 minutes to be completed and includes 119 likert-scale (from a to f, with e being the highest and f being `i do not know`) questions that cover eight areas of abilities, skills, interest, and activities. in this study, eight types of intelligence brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 2, may 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 62 were surveyed and recently proposed 9th intelligence (gardner, 1999), existential intelligence, was not included. 2.3. procedure at first eap final test was given to the participants. after finishing the test, they were asked to read the questionnaire on multiple intelligences carefully and mark their desired options in a separate answer sheet. also they were given some extra clarifications for a couple of the items to alleviate any ambiguity. the participants’ results on the two tests were collected and analyzed respectively. 3. data analysis pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was calculated to investigate the relationship between eap test performance and the multiple intelligences. a multiple correlation was run in order to explore the correlation between each of the multiple intelligences and eap test performance on the one hand and the intercorrelation among the different types of intelligences. 4. results and discussion the result of correlational analysis is shown in table 1: table 1. intercorrelation among different types of intelligences and eap test performance intrapersonal interpersonal musical kinesthetic naturalistic linguistics math/logic spatial eap test performance .090 .098 .274 .172 -.003 .113 .065 -.079 intrapersonal .460 .310 .111 .525* .514* .735** .400 interpersonal .634** .531* .565** .493* .427 .671** musical .665** .605** .276 .290 .367 kinesthetic .332 .002 .080 .332 naturalistic .388 .521* .621** linguist .615** .667** math/logic .546* the correlation coefficient for intrapersonal intelligence and eap test performance was .090 which did not indicate any relationship between the two variables (r (122) = 0.090, p<0.05). pearson’s correlation coefficient also yielded a very trivial positive correlation between interpersonal intelligence and eap test performance which was not statistically significant (r (122) = 0.113, p<0.05). there is a proportionately higher correlation between musical intelligence and eap test performance, however, the result is not significant yet again (r (122) = 24, p< .05). a negative correlation was observed between eap test performance and naturalistic and spatial intelligences. the correlation coefficients for eap test performance and naturalistic and spatial intelligences are respectively -.003 and -.079. mathematical-logical intelligence showed a negligible correlation with eap test performance (r (122) = .065, p< .05). the kinesthetic and linguistic intelligence were roughly correlated to the same degree with eap test performance. the correlation coefficient was .172 for kinesthetic intelligence and .113 for linguistic intelligence. the result of the correlation analysis between eap test performance and multiple intelligences did not demonstrate any significant value for the correlation coefficient; therefore, the b. azarmi, a. jahangard, h. movassagh learners test performance and gardner`s mi theory: intercorrelation in a bilingual context 63 first null hypothesis stated as “there is no correlation between any type of intelligences and eap test performance” is confirmed. none of the eight intelligences in the mi theory appeared to have a high significant correlation with eap test performance. however, among the eight intelligences, musical intelligence relatively had the highest correlation with eap test performance. although there was a very low and negligible correlation between eap and the eight types of intelligences, a high significant intercorrelation was observed among the multiple intelligencers themselves; therefore, the third null hypothesis stated as “there is no relationship among the eight types of intelligences in mi theory” is rejected and the relationship among them is confirmed, which is in line with the findings by visser, ashton, and vernon (2006) who also found a high intercorrelation among the eight intelligences. 5. conclusion gardner (1987) held that through recognizing one’s multiple intelligences, we will have a better opportunity for coping more appropriately with the many problems that are confronted in the world. currie (2003) also maintains that in bringing the mi theory into effect in classrooms, it is crucially important that teachers take into account the students’ strength in order to make the process of learning more attainable. the present study was aimed at uncovering the relationship between eap, which is an essential aspect of competence for postgraduate and university students and the eight types of intelligences as a highly critical theory in psychology and education proposed by gardner. the results showed a lack of go-togetherness between the eap test performance and the eight types of intelligences. this lack of correlation might be due to the small number of participants or that particular context in which the study was carried out. another finding of the study was the existence of a significant positive correlation among the eight types of intelligences that support the idea that all different types of intelligences interact with one another in an intricate way, and that all human are equipped with all of these intelligences to some extent. however, this study was performed in a bilingual situation with a limited number of participants; other studies need to be conducted in different contexts with larger number of participants. 6. references [1] armstrong, t. 2009. multiple intelligence in the classroom (3rd ed.). virginia: ascd. [2] currie, k. l. 2003. “multiple intelligence theory and the esl classroom-preliminary considerations.” the internet tesl journal 4.4. retrieved december, 2011 from http://iteslj.org/articles/currie-mitheory.html. [3] dörnyei, z. 2005. the psychology of language learner. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum association, inc.publishers. [4] gardner, h. (1987). “beyond iq: education and human development. harvard educational review 57.2:187–193. [5] gardner, h. (1991). the unschooled mind. new york: basic books. [6] gardner, h. (1999). frames of mind. new york: basic books. [7] hyland, k. (2006). english for academic purposes. new york: routledge. [8] jordan, r. (2002). “the growth of eap in britain.” journal of english for academic purposes 1 .1:69–78. [9] shearer, b. 1996. multiple intelligences developmental assessment scale. greyden press. [10] visser, b. a., ashton, m. c., & vernon, p. a. 2006. “beyond g: putting multiple intelligences theory to test.” intelligence 34: 487-502. brain_4 20 artificial neuron modelling based on wave shape kieran greer distributed computing systems, belfast, uk. http://distributedcomputingsystems.co.uk, e-mail: kgreer@distributedcomputingsystems.co.uk. abstract: this paper describes a new model for an artificial neural network processing unit or neuron. it is slightly different to a traditional feedforward network by the fact that it favours a mechanism of trying to match the wave-like ‘shape’ of the input with the shape of the output against specific value error corrections. the expectation is then that a best fit shape can be transposed into the desired output values more easily. this allows for notions of reinforcement through resonance and also the construction of synapses. keywords: neural network, wave shape, resonance, new algorithm. 1. introduction this paper describes initial ideas for a new artificial neuron, to be used as part of a neural network that relies on shape and resonance for its construction. resonance has been used before, as part of an art network [1], for example. this new neuronal unit however relies on the wave-like shape of the desired output and tries to match that as part of its construction process. it has a slightly different philosophy, where the neuronal cell tries to move away from an exact error correction process, to incorporate measuring similarities between the input and output nodes. this is based on the shape that is formed from the ‘changes’ between the output values. these changes then also relate directly to the input values that caused them. if the input data gets presented in a different order, then the related output data is altered by the same order, changing any related shape in a consistent way. it is really the differences between values that define what the function is. when learning a function, each input point is not rote learnt specifically, but the knowledge of the function is what to do over every possible input. this requires learning all of the points in-between the test dataset as well. it is also consistent with a traditional feedforward backprop algorithm [5]. that type of algorithm was also created from trying to differentiate over a continuous function. the philosophy of the new model is in line with previous publications ([2][3]) which note that human processing might be particularly good at measuring and comparisons, and also that duplication, to allow for comparisons, is important. if a wave-like shape is used, then as part of modelling a real biological neuron, the idea of resonance to reinforce this is possible. waves can reinforce themselves when they are in sync with each other. this was also a reason for the art neural network model, although that has a completely different architecture. the rest of this paper is structured as follows: section 2 describes the model for the new neural network neuron. section 3 gives a very basic overview of what algorithms might be used to create the network. section 4 gives a proof of why the method should work. section 5 gives an example scenario, while section 6 gives some conclusions on the work. 2. neuron model architecture the new model that is described here is attractive for several reasons. it does map to a real biological neuron quite closely. it allows for natural processes such as wave resonance and also allows for the idea of synapses that combine, in a more intelligent way, the potential set of inputs. synapses are the links between the neuronal units, but they can carry more complex information than a single signal and they can join to create more complex networks. traditional neural networks tend to send every output from one node to every node in the next level and rely on a different k. greer artificial neuron modelling based on wave shape 21 weight value for each input to code the network knowledge. this is clearly not the exact structure in a real human brain, where the output from one cell or neuron forms the input to only a certain number of other neurons. a typical processing unit in an artificial neural network might look as shown in figure 1. in figure 1, each input x is weighted by a separate weight value w. these are then summed together to give a total input value for the neuron. this total can then be passed through a function, to transform it into the desired output value. this is then compared to the actual output value d; where the error or differences between the two sets is measured and used to correct the weight values, to bring the two sets of values closer. one way to update the weights is after each individual pattern is presented and processed. another option is to process the error after the presentation of the whole dataset, as part of a batch update. figure 1. typical feedforward artificial neural network processing unit for the new model, shown in figure 2, the ‘differences’ between the outputs is measured and combined, to produce a kind of wave-like shape. if output point 1 has a value of 10, and output point 2 has a value of 5, for example, then this results in the shape moving down 5 points on the wave shape. this shape will, of course, change depending on the order that the dataset values are presented in. also, if new data is presented, then that will produce a different shape. however, there is still an association between the input values and the output values and it is still this relation that is being learnt. the neural network needs to be able to learn a function that can generalise over the presented datasets, so that it can recognise the relation in previously unseen data as well. generalising over trying to learn a wave-like shape, or trying to match the output values exactly looks quite similar, suggesting that the process is at least valid. in figure 2, note that a transposition to move the learned shape up or down first is possible, before a weight value would try to scale it. if the initial match of the combined inputs can be as close as possible, then these adjustments will become less and will be more for fine tuning. figure 2. new neuronal model, based on matching a wave-like representation of the output. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 it would probably be relatively easy to produce a 2-layer neural network based on this model. the error feedback is not particularly complicated and the update method is clear. the errors from the desired output pattern shapes adjust the weights, until the error is small enough to be tolerated. as described in section 0, this could even be performed in a single step, through averaging the total shape changes in the input and output datasets, to create a suitable weight value. if that process proves to be successful, then it will also be a very quick way to construct the neural network. the initial phase of forming the synapses will then become the main challenge. before the weight update process, a search process needs to try to match the inputs, to make their combined values as close as possible to the desired output and there can be more than one group of matches. the process would therefore need to recognise that two groups, with different results combined, would produce a shape closer to the desired goal. there could be technical reasons why this would be the case. if the shapes are as shown, then you can see that combining them gives a shape that is closer. combining compensates where each is missing the correct shape part. shape matching in hidden units is not so clear. a hidden unit would probably only want one output signal, if it was to keep the design integrity. therefore, a hidden unit would not automatically be created and would receive input only from certain other nodes. it would then only link to certain output units along with other input units. because the structure is flexible, an input to any neuron can be removed if it is not usefully matched to any group, thus reducing the number of connections in the final model. 3. basic algorithms a basic form of algorithms that can be used to sort the inputs, find the best fit weight value and calculate the error, are listed in this section. these are described so that the process can be understood more easily, but they are not exact or final. the specific example in section 5 should also help. these algorithms are also more simplistic in the sense that they consider summing and averaging only. the wave shape is not considered in a more intelligent way. therefore, changing any dataset order should not affect the result of these algorithms. 3.1 group inputs together the starting point for training the network is to find the best possible match of the input nodes to the output nodes. this is performed by looking at the whole dataset and trying to match over the dataset as follows: • determine the output shape by calculating the changes in the output values. • use a sort to try to group the inputs together to match this shape as closely as possible. • note that duplication of a shape by different sets of inputs would be allowed (even encouraged) and also different sets that would complement each other might also be allowed. 3.2 adjust vertically once the synapses (input groups) have been formed and their shape is clear, this can be compared to the output shape; with the goal of trying to centre both the output and the input shapes. this then makes the scaling through a weight adjustment easier. the vertical adjustment is made by comparing the overall shape magnitude, as follows: • measure the total input and the total output shape values and average for a single value. • if the input is larger than the output, then move the input down to the level of the output. • if the input is less than the output then move the input up to the level of the output. k. greer artificial neuron modelling based on wave shape 23 3.3 find best fit weight value once the shape of the input group is determined, it can be scaled with a single weight value. the process to find the best fit weight value is as follows: • measure the total input and the total output shape values and average for a single value. • to try to match the output shape more closely, weight the input shape by the value output shape change average / input shape change average. • it is possible that this can be performed after only one iteration, when further changes would not improve the shape. 3.4 calculate the actual values error the error is then calculated for the differences between the actual and desired output values, not the shape. the vertical adjustment can also be included. as a final solution, each input group can only have a single weight value and this must be used for every data pattern that is presented: • get an average weight value for a synapse group from all of the test dataset values. • the neuron actual output value is then all synapse input values, adjusted, and then scaled by their weight values. • the error is the difference between this and the actual output value. 4. proof the following points describe how this model compares with a traditional feedforward network with a weight for each input. the error correction process for either model is to move the input value closer to the desired output value and is a converging process. if the input nodes in a traditional network give the same output values, then the error correction will change the weight for each one in the same way. it could therefore theoretically be replaced with a single weight value. as different input patterns will produce different value sets, this is not practically possible. to add robustness, a traditional neural network needs to seed the initial weight values randomly, so that it can adjust the error in different ways when looking for a solution. instead of this, the new model combines inputs first, to get a better shape match. each input group update could then be a single error correction, which is adjusted in much the same way as for a traditional network, only over different combined (synapse) value sets. 4.1 robustness measuring the differences between the actual and the desired output ‘shapes’ is valid, because this measures a consistent change in the data. this is what associates the input with the related output value in a continuous and general way. so a single weight update for a ‘group’ of inputs is ok, but as the process then has less variability and generality (fewer weights), it should not work as well. one way to improve robustness is to have more than one input group with the correct shape. with different combinations, the sets of input values could still vary and so with new or previously unseen patterns, the behaviour of each group could still be different. also for robustness, as input values are combined, an additional intelligent transformation takes place first. this gives an added dimension to the function that might compensate for the missing additional weights. another test might be to randomly change the order of the presented data patterns, even for the same dataset. in some ways this is better than a traditional neural network, where the data points are more independent of each other, but then a real intelligence of the shape change is required. because the input and output values will both be changed consistently for this, it should not result in a different function. there is therefore the idea of both horizontal and vertical shapes. when determining the synapse groups, this might be over a single (horizontal) pattern, or a consideration based on all input-output pairs. when considering or correcting the network error, it might be possible to produce a shape for each individual point, over all (vertical) datasets. section 5 explains this further. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 4.2 generality if the main process is shape matching, then this implies that most of the functions that are learnt by neural networks are able to match their shapes. each input in a traditional neural network is assigned a weight value, but only one value for the whole dataset, which is also the case for the input synapse group of the new model. this weight therefore must either increase or decrease every value from that input in a consistent way, but cannot accommodate contradictory information. if the input presents the value 10 for an associated output value of 20 and also a value of -10 for an associated output value of 30, then a single weight value for that input will not be able to map both of these closely. the value of 2 is required to make the first input correct, while a value of -3 is required for the second one. this is again the case for either model. a traditional neural network can accommodate some level of redundancy, possibly of this sort, because other inputs will still be correct. the main design is still the same however and so there is not a great deal of difference between the two models in this respect. initial tests over random data show that improvements in the initial input values are possible and sometimes substantial, but the proof is really intuitive. the most difficult task would probably be to find the best matching groups, when the weight scaling is then relatively straightforward. note that the initial values (after sorting) can be used, without scaling, if no improvement can be found. 5. example scenario this example scenario will hopefully help to describe the process further. the test dataset of table 1 describes conditions under which sport gets played in a field somewhere. there are four ‘weather’ input values and one ‘play sport’ output value. there are two datasets in total. if the weather is good, that is high values for sun and light, and low values for wind and rain, then lots of people play sport in the field. if the weather is poor however, that is low values for sun and light, and high values for wind and rain, then very few people play sport in the field. table 1. play sport test dataset. input / output variable scenario 1 scenario 2 input sun high low input daylight high low input wind low high input rain low high output play sport high low the intended neural network might use this data as follows: the output shape is only the single high or low value, so group the sun and daylight input synapses together and the wind and rain ones. this is a horizontal shape match over each pattern and for more complex data, it might require intelligently considering lots of different shapes and combining into the most appropriate set for all patterns. the ‘wind-rain’ combination then requires a different weight value to reverse its input, to match the desired output. when training or error correcting, consider vertical shape changes, where the ‘sun-daylight’ group moves from high to low, as does the desired output, while the ‘wind-rain’ group moves from low to high. therefore, error corrections will adjust the two groups differently. if the ‘sun-daylight’ weight keeps the value as it is and the ‘wind-rain’ one reverses it, then if a new pattern has values of ‘average’ for all inputs, it would suggest an average value for play sport as well. 6. conclusions this paper has described a new model for an artificial neural network processing unit or neuron. it is based more on trying to match wave-like shapes than previous models have attempted. it also has relevance for modelling a real biological neuron, because resonance can play a part in the k. greer artificial neuron modelling based on wave shape 25 reinforcement mechanism and synapses can be formed. even though the exact output is not matched, if the shape that represents the output value change is matched, then the input values can be converted into the correct output values more easily. there is still a relation between the inputs and the outputs that causes this change. the adjustment might only require a vertical transposition and/or a scaling weight update. the process is more predictable than for a traditional neural network, as it does not use a random weight configuration setup. unless the aggregation of input nodes is changed, there is no reason why the same dataset should produce different weight values. the network converges through a clearly defined process. there are however ways to introduce randomness into the learning process, to give it added robustness. one way would be the addition of different sets of hidden units that process inputs in a different ways. another way is to randomly change the order of the presented data patterns, even for the same dataset. or if this does not work, it is still an interesting result. so the initial questions about the network would be accuracy, that is yet to be determined, and also its robustness or ability to generalise. the ability to generalise is assumed, because the process still maps the input to the output in a general way and tries to capture the continuous function that is determined by the shape. if the same input value is associated with a different output value in a different dataset, then a traditional neural network has the same problem. while this is only a first step, the process does show promise. future work will build a test system based on the new architecture and try to determine the levels of accuracy that can be achieved. there are many different types of test, based on the randomness and size of the data, but events have meant that it is easier to publish this new model now and try to provide a more comprehensive set of tests later. it would be interesting to try to find this matching wave-like shape in standard test datasets. although this model has derived from the conclusions of the earlier work [2][3], on the surface it looks like a separate mechanism. the earlier work considered creating links, almost completely through feedback from the environment. there was no controlling algorithm that would try to force certain links only. this mechanism, on the other hand, does have a controlling algorithm that is likely to consistently produce the same result for the same dataset. future work will also try to tie this network model in more with the whole cognitive process. disclosure this paper is a revised version of the pre-print, originally published on dcs and scribd, april 2012. references [1] carpenter, g.a. and tan, a-h. (1995). rule extraction: from neural architecture to symbolic representation, connection science, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 3 – 27. [2] greer, k. (2012). turing: then, now and still key, book chapter in: ‘artificial intelligence, evolutionary computation and metaheuristics (aiecm) turing 2012’, eds. x-s. yang, studies in computational intelligence, springer-verlag. [3] greer, k. (2012). a stochastic hyper-heuristic for matching partial information, advances in artificial intelligence, vol. 2012, article id 790485, 8 pages. doi:10.1155/2012/790485, hindawi. [4] greer, k. (2008). thinking networks – the large and small of it: autonomic and reasoning processes for information networks, currently published with lulu.com, isbn: 1440433275, ean-13: 9781440433276. [5] widrow, b. and lehr, m. (1990). 30 years of adaptive neural networks: perceptron, madaline and backpropagation, proc ieee, vol. 78, no. 9, pp. 1415-1442. brain_4 84 an enhancement over texture feature based multiclass image classification under unknown noise ajay kumar singh deptartment of cse, fet, mits university laxmangarh, sikar, (raj.), india e-mail: ajay.kr.singh07@mitsuniversity.ac.in v p shukla deptartment of mathematics, fet, mits university laxmangarh, sikar, (raj.), india shamik tiwari department of cse, fet, mits university laxmangarh, sikar, (raj.), india e-mail: shamik_tiwar@gmail.com s r biradar deptartment of cse, fet, mits university laxmangarh, sikar, (raj.), india abstract: in this paper we deal with classification of multiclass images using statistical texture features with two approaches. one with statistical texture feature extraction of the whole image, another with feature extraction of image blocks. this paper presents an experimental assessment of classifier in terms of classification accuracy under different constraints of images. this paper examined classification accuracy of multiclass images without noise, with some unknown noise and after filtering of noise using feed forward neural network. results shows that blocking of image improves the performance of classifier. keywords: statistical texture, feature extraction, pattern recognition, multiclass classification, neural network. 1. introduction multi class image classification is very important in image analysis. this plays an important role in many computer vision applications such as biomedical image processing, automated visual inspection, content based image retrieval, and remote sensing applications. image classification algorithms can be designed by finding essential features which have strong discriminating power, and training the classifier to classify the image. scientists and practitioners have made great efforts in developing advanced classification approaches and techniques for improving classification accuracy ([1],[ 2],[ 3],[ 4],[5], [6]). a novel texture classification method via patch-based sparse texton learning is presented in [7]. global image features are extracted for the purpose of texture classification using dominant neighbourhood structure is proposed in [8]. features obtained from the local binary patterns (lbps) are then extracted in order to supply additional local texture features to the generated features from the dominant neighbourhood structure. texture classification system based on gray level cooccurrence matrix (glcm) is presented in [9]. they have calculated glcm from the original texture image and the differences calculated along the first non singleton dimension of the input texture image. different texture images are classified based on wavelet texture feature and neural network in [10]. the learning process is achieved through the modification of the connection weights between units. in the work [11] describes multi spectral classification of land-sat images using a. k. singh, v. p. shukla, s. tiwari & s. r. biradar an enhancement over texture feature based multiclass image classification under unknown noise 85 neural networks. [12] describes the classification of multi spectral remote sensing data using a back propagation neural network. a comparison to conventional supervised classification by using minimal training set in artificial neural network is given in [13]. remotely sensed data by using artificial neural network based have been classified in [14] on software package. in this paper images of 16 classes are classified under different spatial conditions. firstly they are classified without any noise; secondly they are classified under some unknown noise and lastly filtered through wiener filter. this paper is organized into eight different sections including the current one. in the second section different statistical texture features are discussed. section 3 is about noise detection in image and removal of noise with appropriate filtering method in section 4. next is discussion about blocking model in section 5 followed by feed forward neural network in section 6. section 7 is methodology. and the last one section 8 discusses the implementation and result discussion. 2. statistical texture features texture is a property that represents the surface and structure of an image. generally speaking, texture can be defined as a regular repetition of an element or pattern on a surface. statistical methods analyze the spatial distribution of gray values, by computing local features at each point in the image, and deriving a set of statistics from the distributions of the local features [15]. valavanis et al [16] proposed a system to evaluate the diagnostic contribution of various types of textures features which includes first order statistical texture feature in discrimination of hepatic tissue in abdominal non enhanced computed tomography images. depending on the statistical analysis of the image six features are extracted as follows: a. feature (1) mean or the average as described in the equation 2 1 )( 1 ∑ = −= n i i xx n x (1) b. feature (2) the standard deviation: the best known measure of the spread of distribution is simple variance defined in equation 2. ∑ = − − = n i i xx n 1 2)( 1 1 var (2) the standard deviation is a well known measure of deviation from its mean value and is defined in equation 3 as the square root of variance var=σ (3) c. feature (3) smoothness is measured with its second moment as in given equation 4 var)1( 1 1 + −=smoothness (4) d. feature (4) the skewness, or third moment, is a measure of asymmetry of distribution given in equation 5. [ ]∑ = −= n i i xx n skew 1 31 (5) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 86 e. feature (5) energy is statistical measure given in equation 6 ∑∑= i j d jipenergy ),( 2 (6) the gray level co-occurrence matrix dp for displacement vector d=(dx, dy) is defined in equation 7. the entry (i,j) for dp is the number of occurrences of the pair of gray levels i,j which are distance d apart. ( ) ( )( ) }{ jvtiisrivtsrjipd === ),(,),(:,,,),( (7) f. feature (6) entropy is calculated as given in the equation 8 ∑∑−= i i j j dd jipjipentropy ),(log),( (8) it should be noted that spatial gray level co-occurrence estimated image properties are related to the second order statistics of image. thus six statistical texture features are calculated first for every image and then for every block of an image. the feature vector is populated with multiples of six with that of number of blocks in an image. 3. noise detection an image is often corrupted by noise in its acquisition or transmission. noise is any undesired information that degrades the image and appears in images from a variety of sources. figure 1. sample images of sixteen categories basically, there are three standard noise models [17], which model the types of noise encountered in most images; they are additive noise, multiplicative noise and impulse noise. in this work we have considered the occurrence of additive noise. an image function is given by f (x, y) where (x, y) is spatial coordinate and f is intensity at point(x, y). let f (x, y) be the original image, g(x, y) be the noisy version and η(x, y) be the noise function, which returns random values coming from an arbitrary distribution. then the additive noise is given by the equation g(x, y)= f (x, y) + η(x, y) a. k. singh, v. p. shukla, s. tiwari & s. r. biradar an enhancement over texture feature based multiclass image classification under unknown noise 87 additive noise is independent of the pixel values in the original image. typically η(x, y) is symmetric about zero. this has the effect of not altering the average brightness of the image. additive noise is the good model for the thermal noise within photoelectric sensors. in most of the research work of multiclass classification good images are taken for classification. classification of noisy images is rarely done. sometime images which are to be classified may contain noise also, but these are unknown. then the result of filtering may not produce good quality image. so if we know which kind of noise affected the image then appropriate filtering operation will give better noise removal. shamik et. al [18] has discussed a novel method of noise detection and classification. they have detected and classified four types of noise uniform noise, gaussian noise, speckle noise and impulse noise. in this research work we have detected gaussian noise (fig 2) pattern in our images based on methodology discussed in [18]. where statistical moments features are extracted from the noise patterns for noise class detection. this experiment detects the gaussian noise patterns from images. this leads to applying of wiener filter on noisy images, which gives the best noise removal. figure 2. original image affected by gaussian noise 3.1. wiener filtering noise having gaussian-like distribution is very often encountered in acquired data. gaussian noise is characterized by adding to each image pixel a value from a zero-mean gaussian distribution. the zero-mean property of the distribution allows such noise to be removed by locally averaging pixel values [19]. conventional linear filters such as arithmetic mean filter and gaussian filter smooth noises effectively but blur edges. since the goal of the filtering action is to cancel noise while preserving the integrity of edge and detail information, nonlinear approaches generally provide more satisfactory results than linear techniques. figure 3. applying wiener filter on noisy image the wiener filter is the mean square error-optimal stationary linear filter for images degraded by additive noise and blurring. it removes the additive noise and inverts the blurring simultaneously. the wiener filtering is a linear estimation of the original image. the approach is based on a stochastic framework. the orthogonality principle implies that the wiener filter in fourier domain can be expressed as follows: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 88 ),(),(),( ),(),(* ),( 2121 2 21 2121 21 ffsffsffh ffsffh ffw xx xx ηη+ = where ),(),,( 2121 ffsffs xx ηη power spectra of the image and the additive are respectively noise and ),( 21 ffh is blurring filter. it is easy see that the wiener filter has two separate part, an inverse filtering part and a noise smoothing part. it not only performs deconvolution by inverse filtering (high pass filtering) but also removes the noise with a compression operation (lowpass filtering). 4. feed forward neural network a successful pattern classification methodology [17] depends heavily on the particular choice of the features used by the classifier .the back-propagation is the best known and widely used learning algorithm in training multilayer feed forward neural networks. the feed forward neural net refer to the network consisting of a set of sensory units (source nodes) that constitute the input layer, one or more hidden layers of computation nodes, and an output layer of computation nodes. the input signal propagates through the network in a forward direction, from left to right and on a layer-by-layer basis. back propagation is a multi-layer feed forward, supervised learning network based on gradient descent learning rule. this bpnn provides a computationally efficient method for changing the weights in feed forward network, with differentiable activation function units, to learn a training set of input-output data. being a gradient descent method it minimizes the total squared error of the output computed by the net. the aim is to train the network to achieve a balance between the ability to respond correctly to the input patterns that are used for training and the ability to provide good response to the input that are similar. a typical back propagation network of input layer, one hidden layer and output layer is shown in figure 4. the steps in the bpn training algorithm are: step 1: initialize the weights. step 2: while stopping condition is false, execute step 3 to 10. step 3: for each training pair x:t, do steps 4 to 9. step 4: each input unit receives the input signal, xi and broadcasts it to the next layer. figure 4. feed forward back propagation neural network a. k. singh, v. p. shukla, s. tiwari & s. r. biradar an enhancement over texture feature based multiclass image classification under unknown noise 89 step 5: for each hidden layer neuron denoted as . )( injj i ijiojinj zfz vxvz = += ∑ broadcast to the next layer. where voj is the bias on j th hidden unit. step 6: for each output neuron , ( )inkk j jkjok yfy wzw = += ∑inky step 7: compute kδ for each output neuron, ( ) ( ) 1sin 0 ' ==∆ =∆ −= zcew zw yfyt kok jkjk inkkkk αδ αδ δ where kδ is the portion of error correction weight adjustment for wjk i.e. due to an error at the output unit yk, which is back propagated to the hidden unit that feed it into the unit yk and α is learning rate. step 8: for each hidden neuron ( ) joj ijij injinjj m k jkkinj v xv zf pjw αδ αδ δδ δδ =∆ =∆ = ==∑ = ' ,.....2,1 1 where jδ is the portion of error correction weight adjustment for vij i.e. due to the back propagation of error to the hidden unit zj step 9: update weights. ijijij jkjkjk voldvnewv woldwneww ∆+= ∆+= )()( )()( step 10: test for stopping condition. 5. proposed method in computer vision, images or objects are recognised by machine going through two phases shown in the figure 4. first the system is trained with features extracted from sample images in training stage then they are tested on input images in testing stage. the performance of the classifier depends on features extracted from the image. this research work is carried out in three different experiments, first experiment is performed on data set containing the original images of sixteen categories, noisy images are classified in second experiment, and third experiment detects the type of noise brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 90 figure 4. principal stages of image classification system affected the image followed by filtering through appropriate filter, then filtered images are classified. the performance of each of the experiment is measured with two approaches. first approach extracts the statistical texture features of the whole image, and the original image of size 128x128 is divided into sixteen blocks of size 32x32 pixels in second approach. then six statistical texture features discussed in second section are extracted from each of the block producing 96 features from each of the images are used for training and testing stage. a feed forward back propagation neural network (bpnn) is designed for each experiment with 15 hidden layers and 16 outputs. a vector of 6 features is used to train with sample image in first approach. in second approach 16 blocks of size 32x32 pixels are created of 128x128 pixels image which generates a vector 96 features (6 features per block) of image for training. the process is repeated for feature extraction of test samples. a. blocking model blocking model is the concept of dividing the given image into equal sub-block images. the size of the sub-block depends on the size of the original image. in this research work we have divided the image of 128x128 pixels into four sub-blocks of size 32x32 horizontally and four subblocks of size 32x32 vertically, i.e. each original image is divided in 16 blocks as shown in the table 1. 6. experimental setup in this section we have experimented with two approaches of feature extraction and feed forward neural network is designed. three experiments are implemented in matlab 2010b for feature extraction and neural network is trained and tested with feature extracted in each experiments then performance is compared. a. experiment 1 the first experiment is carried out on data set containing 16 class and 50 images of each class for training and 100 images of each class for testing. initially the original images are resized to 128x128 pixels and six texture features are extracted from 800 training images in the first approach. it produces a feature matrix of size 6x800. similarly 6x1600 feature matrix is produced for testing stage. then a neural classifier is designed with ten hidden layers and 16 output layers. feature matrix of training images are used to train the neural network. after that they are tested on a. k. singh, v. p. shukla, s. tiwari & s. r. biradar an enhancement over texture feature based multiclass image classification under unknown noise 91 feature matrix of test image. in second approach, the original images are divided into 16 blocks of size 32x32 pixel each block. so it produces 96 features (16 blocksx6 features) for each image and feature matrix of 96x800 for training image and 96x1600 feature matrix for testing samples. table 1. blocking of original image original image size of each sub-block no. of blocks sample images 128x128 (16384 pixels) 32x32 (1024 pixels) 16 b. experiment 2 second experiment is performed on noisy data set with 50 images each class for training of feed forward neural network, and 100 images each class are used for testing phase. this experiment is also carried out with two approaches as discussed in first experiment. c. experiment 3 classification of noisy images starts with detection of type of noise followed by appropriate filtering operation. then similar approaches are followed for feature extraction as discussed in above experiments. d. design of neural network after extraction of features from training and test samples feed forward neural network is designed with the following parameters no. of hidden layers: 15 no. of output layers: 16 training algorithm: levenberg-marquardt 6. result discussion a. image data base to have a performance analysis the data base is taken from columbia object image library (coil-100) [20]. columbia ob ject image library (coil-100) is a database of color images of 100 objects. the objects were placed on a motorized turntable against a black background. eight hundred images are used for training the neural network, and 1152 are taken for testing. b. results & performance this section describes the performance analysis of proposed multi class image classification. confusion matrix is one method for performance evaluation of classifier. the following terms are calculated from the output of the simulation positivesoutput all positives true rate positive true = negativesoutput all negatives true rate negative true = negativesoutput all negatives false rate negative false = brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 92 positivesoutput all positives false rate positive false = 1) pair wise comparison since each experiment is carried out with two approaches, one with feature extracted from the image without blocking and another feature extraction from blocks of the image. the classification performance (classification rate in percent) is compared for both the approaches in table 2. it depicts that average classification rate is increased in each experiment in second approach. blocking of image enhanced the performance by 4.8 percent in first experiment, 0.45 percent in second experiment and 1.5 percent in third experiment. table 2. performance comparison pairwise experiment 1 experiment 2 experiment 3 image class 1st app 2nd app 1st app 2nd app 1st app 2nd app 1 88 100 84 86 84 90 2 100 100 100 100 100 98 3 100 100 100 60 100 70 4 100 100 90 98 96 98 5 96 100 92 96 100 94 6 98 100 92 88 100 100 7 90 98 94 96 73 98 8 82 100 82 88 94 96 9 100 100 100 96 100 92 10 80 100 66 94 80 98 11 100 100 100 100 100 100 12 100 100 100 100 100 100 13 100 100 100 96 100 100 14 100 100 100 100 100 100 15 92 98 94 100 92 98 16 90 98 92 94 86 96 avg 94.8 99.6 92.8 93.25 94 95.5 2) performance comparison under different constraints this work also deals with classification of multi class images under different constraints of data set. the first experiment is carried out on images without noise, second with gaussian noise and filtered data set in third experiment. performance of the classifier using statistical texture features for two approaches are presented in the table 3. it is observed that performance n the first experiment is best in the first data set i.e. data set without noise in both the approach, while the performance is decreased if the same images are affected by gaussian noise. this is because the texture feature of the original images consists gaussian pattern also. filtering of the noise from the second data set improves the result. the table also shows that feature extraction using blocking of the image enhance the average classification rate in all the case. table 3. performance comparison in different constraints 1st approach 2nd approach image class exp 1 exp 2 exp 3 exp 1 exp 2 exp 3 1 88 84 84 100 86 90 2 100 100 100 100 100 98 3 100 100 100 100 60 70 a. k. singh, v. p. shukla, s. tiwari & s. r. biradar an enhancement over texture feature based multiclass image classification under unknown noise 93 4 100 90 96 100 98 98 5 96 92 100 100 96 94 6 98 92 100 100 88 100 7 90 94 73 98 96 98 8 82 82 94 100 88 96 9 100 100 100 100 96 92 10 80 66 80 100 94 98 11 100 100 100 100 100 100 12 100 100 100 100 100 100 13 100 100 100 100 96 100 14 100 100 100 100 100 100 15 92 94 92 98 100 98 16 90 92 86 98 94 96 avg 94.8 92.8 94 99.6 93.25 95.5 figure 5. performance in experiment 1 for both approaches figure 6. performance in experiment 2 for both approaches brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 94 figure 7. performance in experiment 3 for both approaches figure 8. performance in 1st approach for three data set figure 9. performance in 2nd approach for three data set 7. conclusion in this paper we have presented a novel approach to perform classification in large class datasets with different spatial conditions. we demonstrate the technique over the problem of object recognition and classification in noisy image data sets. the results show very little loss of performance for large gains in terms of classification accuracy. in future work, we shall apply the framework with more strong feature set on a much larger dataset, possibly for the task of multi class image classification. a. k. singh, v. p. shukla, s. tiwari & s. r. biradar an enhancement over texture feature based multiclass image classification under unknown noise 95 acknowledgements. the authors are extremely thankful to faculty of engineering & technology of mody institute of technology & science, lakshmangarh for providing necessary facilities to carried out this research work. references [1] gong, p. and howarth, p.j., “frequency-based contextual classification and gray-level vector reduction for land-use identification”, photogrammetric engineering and remote sensing, 58, pp. 423–437, 1992. [2] kontoes, c. wilkinson, g.g. burrill, a., goffredo, s. and megier, j, “an experimental system for the integration of gis data in knowledge-based image analysis for remote sensing of agriculture”, international journal of geographical information systems, 7, pp. 247–262, 1993. [3] foody g.m.,” approaches for the production and evaluation of fuzzy land cover classification from remotely-sensed data”, international journal of remote sensing, 17,pp. 1317–1340 ,1996. [4] san miguel-ayanz, j. and biging, g.s, “an iterative classification approach for mapping natural resources from satellite imagery” international journal of remote sensing, 17, pp. 957– 982, 1996. [5] aplin, p., atkinson, p.m. and curran, p.j, “per-field classification of land use using the forthcoming very fine spatial resolution satellite sensors: problems and potential solutions”, in p.m. atkinson and n.j. tate, advances in remote sensing and gis analysis, pp. 219–239 (new york: john wiley and sons), 1999. [6] stuckens, j., coppin, p.r. and bauer, m.e., “integrating contextual information with perpixel classification for improved land cover classification”, remote sensing of environment, 71, pp. 282–296, 2000. [7] jin xie and lei zhang, “texture classification via patch-based sparse texton learning”, ieee 17th international conference on image processing, 2010, pp 2737-2740. [8] fakhry m. khellah, “texture classification using dominant neighborhood structure”, ieee transactions on image processing, 2011, pp 3270-3279. [9] a. suresh, k. l. shunmuganathan, “image texture classification using gray level cooccurrence matrix based statistical features”, european journal of scientific research issn 1450-216x vol.75 no.4 (2012), pp. 591-597. [10] ajay kumar singh, shamik twari and v p shukla, “wavelet based multi class image classification using neural network”, international journal of computer applications volume 37 number 4 year of publication: 2012. [11] bischof h., schneider, w. pinz, a.j., “multispectral classification of landsat – images using neural network”, ieee transactions on geo science and remote sensing. 30(3), 482490, 1992. [12] heerman.p.d.and khazenie,, “classification of multi spectral remote sensing data using a back propagation neural network”, ieee trans. geosci. remote sensing, 30(1),81-88,1992. [13] hepner.g.f., “artificial neural network classification using minimal training set:comparision to conventional supervised classification”, photogrammetric engineering and remote sensing, 56,469-473,1990. [14] mohanty.k.k.and majumbar. t.j.,”an artificial neural network (ann) based software package for classification of remotely sensed data”,computers and geosciences ,81-87,1996. [15] ojala, t. and m pietikäinen,, “texture classification. machine vision and media processing unit,” university of oulu, finland, available at http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/cvonline/local_copies/ojala1/texclas.htm. january, 2004. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 96 [16] alavanis lk., mougiakakou s.g., nikita a. and nikita k.s., “evaluation of texture features in hepatic tissue charateriztion from non enhanced ct images”, proceedings of the twenty ninth annual international conference of the ieee engineering in medicine and biology society, lyon, pp 3741-3744. [17] gonzalez, r. and r. woods, 2002. digital image processing. 3rd edn. prentice hall publications, isbn: 9788120336407, pp: 50-51. [18] shamik tiwari, ajay kumar singh and v p shukla., “article: statistical moments based noise classification using feed forward back propagation neural network”, international journal of computer applications 18(2):36-40, march 2011, published by foundation of computer science. [19] a.k.jain, fundamentals of digital image processing, prentice hall, englewood cliffs, 1989. [20] sameer a nene and shree k nayar and hiroshi murase, columbia object image library coil-100, columbia university image library. microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1 111 romanian campaigns on corporate social responsibility – signs of glocalization monica pătruț lecturer, faculty of letters, vasile alecsandri university of bacău, bacău, romania monicapatrut@yahoo.com camelia cmeciu associate professor, faculty of journalism and communication studies, university of bucharest, bucharest, romania cmeciu75@yahoo.com abstract organizations play an important role in the development of the modern society since managers have become aware that financial profit highly depends on community involvement. the active participation of organizations in community life implies to adapt global strategies to local issues or to promote local issues at a global level. actually this is the essence of glocalization. the means by which organizations can achieve these glocal objectives is csr campaigns. csr represents an instrument used to solve diverse issues, such as: human rights, environment and climate change, education, support for vulnerable groups, sustainable development, or establishment of moral capitalism. within the context of the ever-rising internet access of all audiences, csr campaigns have become more visible and have capitalized on the advantages of collective intelligence, internet users’ participation and their user generated contents. the purpose of our study is to provide an insight into (1) the prominence of romanian organizations which are the most socially responsible, (2) the domains in which romanian organizations have invested; (3) the salience of csr 1.0 and csr 2.0 tools used in the promotion of csr campaigns in romania. keywords: glocalization, new media, social media, corporate social responsibility. 1. introduction organizations have gradually undergone a shift (grunig & white, 1992) from a pragmatic social role focused on financial benefits to a radical social role focused on contributing to social change in communities. this concern for the stakeholders’ benefits can be associated with the concept of corporate social responsibility (csr). since 1950, the concept of csr has developed at a theoretical and practical level. the researchers’ and managers’ interest in csr has mainly focused on the ways through which an organization can achieve its financial objectives by socially responsible means. as figure 1 shows, the public debate has contributed to highlighting other concepts: corporate social responsiveness, public social responsibility, corporate social performance, corporate citizenship, corporate sustainability (coman, 2009; de bakker et al., 2005; crişan, 2013). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 112 figure 1. developments in csr-related concepts (de bakker et al., 2005) although csr includes a large number of problems and themes, it focuses on three main aspects (fisher-buttinger & vallaster, 2011): environmental issues and concerns; workplace issues: the way in which employers treat employees, the health and safety of products, the impact of organizational activities on the community; companies’ ethical behavior. this variety of csr issues highlights two important aspects: 1. by planning csr activities and campaigns, organizations seem to take into account the twofold syntagms embedded in the concept of glocalization (“think globally, act locally” and “think locally, act globally”, wakefield, 2009). in terms of csr activities, “think globally, act locally” implies to adapt well-known csr strategies from developed countries to the national, regional, and local cultural and social life, whereas “think locally, act globally” implies to make known local csr strategies worldwide by means of new media and social media. 2. combining the csr internal dimensions (the relationship company employees) with the external dimension (the relationship company – all stakeholders), it is thought that profits, community members and environment may harmoniously coexist in a strategic organizational approach (borţun, 2012; ilieş, 2012; oprea, 2011). having as starting point the syntagm “doing well by doing good” (rawlins, 2005), csr should not be associated with a compulsory law, but with an organizational necessity, without any external pressure. on the long run, the benefits of a constant csr policy are: the company’s image improvement and reputation increase, a more efficient risk management and crisis situations, the brand revitalization, the motivation of valuable employees. moreover, within the relations between organizations and communities, csr is reciprocally advantageous because it generates profit for companies, it involves the support of the communities and of the socially disadvantaged groups and it contributes to the local development (middlemiss, 2010). placed between the economic profit obtained through the production of goods or services and the social profit resulted from the investment in society (cmeciu & cmeciu, 2011), the csr strategy should be embedded within the management objectives and the social investments should be measured in economic terms. table 1 shows the reasons for engaging in csr and the basic approach on this community-based insight into organizational activities (matten, 2006): m. pătruț, c. cmeciu romanian campaigns on corporate social responsibility – signs of glocalization 113 table 1. reasons for engaging into csr activities (matten, 2006) why csr ? motto nature of the drivers key ideas and concepts csr is enhancing the long-term profitability of the company “there is a clear-cut business case in csr” economic shareholder value maximisation socially responsible investment competitive advantage bottom of the pyramid strategies csr solves day-today management problems “csr enables us to manage our stakeholder relations!” managerial -stakeholder theory -corporate social performance csr is the morally right thnig to do “csr means doing the right thing” ethical -business ethics -sustainability csr is a way to be a legitimate and accepted member of society “csr makes us a good corporate citizen !” political -corporate citizenship -accountability transparency understanding that the sustainable financial success depends on the degree in which the business model includes the social responsibility and the proper administration, companies contribute to the shaping and consolidation of moral capitalism (young, 2009). within this new context of glocalization at an organizational level, companies generate five types of capital (reputational, social, human, financial and fixed) and the value of these capitals increases if the companies impose some clear ethical standards for the proper developments of activities. the socially responsible companies use their power wisely to obtain profits and with the help of the state, to provide civic order. taking advantage of the quality of corporate citizens, the companies’ responsible actions at the local level will also imply to honor the human rights and the democratic institutions, to support educational, cultural and environmental projects, to respect the local cultures, to promote peace, security, social diversity and inclusion, to involve employees in civic and community problems, to fights against corruption in the political environment, to avoid the waste of social capital (young, 2009). 2. csr activities in romania corporate social responsibility is closely related to the economic development of a country and to the types of relationships established between organizations and community members. communism and an up-down relationship had not been the proper contexts for the emergence of csr activities in romania. the slow economic development and the limited traction for communicating about the corporate responsibility efforts and achievements are the reasons for which romania is placed in “the starting behind” quadrant, according to the kpmg international survey5 of corporate responsibility reporting 2011. throughout the years, the csr activities have been gradually implemented in romania. the starting point was related to a local problem, namely abandoned children. after the revolution, the first csr activities had a humanitarian role (udrea & ionescu, 2007; dima et al., 2013), helping the disadvantaged categories (children, elder people, women). once big transnational companies (coca-cola, pepsi-cola, philp morris etc.) have invested in romania, the paradigm “think globally, act locally” seems to have been embedded in the romanian companies’ csr strategic management: community involvement, business behavior, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 114 relation with employees, workplace health, and relations with providers and clients. at the local level, the csr actions in romania, after 2000, have mainly focused on restructuring the technologies for improving environment, adopting social measures for employees, developing good relations with local authorities, and developing public-private partnership (source: csr and competitiveness european smes’ good practice – national report romania, 2007). another aspect of glocalization in the csr domain that has been implemented in romania is related to the transparency of csr campaigns. visibility has been attained through two online initiatives which support organizations and governmental institutions to promote their csr activities: csr romania http://www.csr-romania. ro/, a common initiative of the foundation forum for international communications and of the center for sustainability and excellence (cse); responsabilitate socială/ social responsibility http://www.responsabilitatesociala.ro – an initiative of jti romania). the visibility of companies’ csr activities is communicated in two ways: (1) monthly online newsletters; (2) csr case studies as good practices. the case studies encompass different fields into which romanian companies and global companies have invested: � http://www.csr-romania.ro/: education, entrepreneurship, disadvantaged social categories, environment, safety, health, community; � http://www.responsabilitatesociala.ro: education, culture, environment, social and human rights. 3. new media and social media – means of attaining visibility of csr activities at a local level transparency has become the prevailing concept related to csr since “csr communication has become an integral part of corporate reporting” and since “its impact on image building and stakeholder relationship management is widely accepted” (bittner & leimeister, 2011). the technological development from old media system → web 1.0 → web 2.0 has facilitated the implementation of the paradigm “think locally, act globally”. companies have wisely exploited the advantages of new media and social media (wilcox, 2009): widespread broadband; cheap/ free online publishing tools; new distribution channels; mobile devices; 24/7 news and information, and democratized media. but at the same time, the challenges of web 1.0 and web 2.0 have some drawbacks: fragmentation, information overload, polarization (dimitrova, 2007). the involvement of the community member is an important aspect that this technological development has brought. thus at a communication level, glocalization within csr activities has been achieved through the metamorphosis of every human being into a possible online publisher (pătruţ et al., 2013).while web 1.0 is known as “the read only web” and implies only communication via the email, the dial-up, high costs, websites which cannot be changed by other users, web 2.0 is known as “the read write web” (o’reilly, 2005), and it becomes a synonym of communication in real time, broadband internet (high speed, a better quality/ price measure), blogs, podcasts, social networks. 3.1. the shift from csr 1.0 to csr 2.0 starting from the differences between web 1.0 and web 2.0., wayne visser (2010) highlights the discrepancies between csr 1.0 and csr 2.0 (table 2). m. pătruț, c. cmeciu romanian campaigns on corporate social responsibility – signs of glocalization 115 table 2. discrepancies between csr 1.0 and csr 2.0 (visser, 2010) csr 1.0 csr 2.0 a vehicle for companies to establish relationships with communities, channel philanthropic contributions and manage their image. being defined by ‘global commons’, ‘innovative partnerships’ and ‘stakeholder involvement’. included many start-up pioneers like traidcraft, but has ultimately turned into a product for large multinationals like wal-mart. mechanisms include diverse stakeholder panels, real-time transparent reporting and new-wave social entrepreneurship. travelled down the road of “one size fits all” standardization, through codes, standards and guidelines to shape its offering. is recognizing a shift in power from centralized to decentralized, a change in scale from few and big to many and small; and a change in application from single and exclusive to multiple and shared. defined in terms of a journey and of the dna code (visser, 2010), csr 2.0 is considered to have an organic character for organizations in their effort to establish reciprocally beneficial relationships with community members: csr 2.0 = sustainablity (= destination) and responsibility (= journey). csr 2.0 or systemic csr implies a conjunction of responsibility which is “more about the journey – the solutions, responses, management and actions” (visser, 2010) and of sustainability “conceived as the destination – the challenges, vision, strategy and goals”. csr 2.0 = dna code. defining organizations as organisms, visser identifies four responsibility bases that should prevail in every csr 2.0-governed organization: value creation (capital investment, beneficial products, inclusive business), good governance (leadership, transparency, ethical practices), societal contribution (philanthropy, fair labour practices, supply chain integrity), environmental integrity (ecosystem protection, renewable resources, zero waste production). 3.2. reports on csr 2.0 initiatives at a global and glocal level the blending of firm-serving and public-serving motives (kim & lee, 2012) is meant to generate stronger activism among consumers, to help people and young scholars in need, to get involved in environmental, cultural, education issues (pătruţ et al., 2013). social media applications are the best means of making known these csr initiatives since they involve informing, mobilization, and involvement of community members. as the 2011 global social media and csr report on the ftse global 500 shows the ‘banks’ sector is the most productive (12%) in the use of social media in their csr activities, followed by the ‘oil and gas producers’ (11%), the ‘pharmaceutical and biotechnology’ (6%) and the ‘technology, hardware and equipment’ (5%). the advantages (‘collective intelligence’, ‘collaborative networks’, ‘user participation’, visser, 2010) that social media provide were exploited by 60% of the companies, the hierarchy of the forms of social activity being the following: rss posts (107 companies), embedded videos (102 companies), twitter (56 companies), facebook (44 companies), youtube (40 companies), blog (22 companies) and podcasts (7 companies). according to a zelist study (http://www.zelist.ro), in romania, in the last six months of the year 2011 there have been more online comments and posts on the banking services (11 romanian banks included in the study) than on the telecommunications or car industries. the most frequently used social media applications used were: twitter, blogs, and facebook. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 116 4. methodology and research questions in our study we will analyze the csr campaigns (200430.03.2015) that have been taking place in romania since 2004, the year when companies made the first csr reports public. these csr reports were available on the following websites: � http://www.csr-romania.ro, � http://www.responsabilitatesociala.ro, � http://www.csrmedia.ro, � http://www.praward.ro. we have identified 564 csr campaigns: 148 during 2004-2012 (pătruţ, 2013) and 416 csr campaigns during 2013-30.03.2015. the research questions of our study are the following: rq1: which are the main domains of the romanian organization which planned csr campaigns? rq2: which are the main social, cultural, and economic domains towards which csr campaigns are targeted in romania? rq3: which the distribution of romanian csr campaigns in time? rq4: what types of csr campaigns take place in romania? rq5: what type of promotion (online and/ or offline) did romanian companies choose for their csr campaigns? rq6: what was the prominence of csr 1.0 and csr 2.0 tools in csr campaigns in romania? the research method is content analysis of the csr public reports of romanian organizations, posted on the above-mentioned websites. a discrete research method (babbie, 2010), content analysis allows us to study this phenomenon without hindering its development. we started form the analysis framework provided by abbott & monsen (1979) and we adapted it taking into account the data provided by the romanian companies running csr campaigns. corporate social responsibility is perceived as an investment in the organizational future and as a means of helping the community/ society in which organizations run their activities. in romania, csr initiatives have been implemented by multinational companies since 2000 and they have been gradually incorporated into the strategy of national companies. figure 2 provides an insight into the hierarchy of the most socially responsible economic actors (rq1): banking sector (134 csr campaigns), telephone and telecommunications (112), pharmaceutical (73 csr campaigns), oil and gas (64), foundations and ngos (43). number of campaigns 134 73 112 64 44 43 20 11 31 12 13 7 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 b a n k p h a rm a c e u ti c a l t e le p h o n e & t e le c o m m u n ic a ti o n s o il & g a s f o o d & (n o n )a lc o h o li c f o u n d a ti o n s & a s s o c ia ti o n s b u il d in g m a te ri a ls a u to m o ti v e i n d u s tr y it c o s m e ti c t o b a c c o o th e rs figure 2. prominence of the romanian organizations – planners of csr campaigns m. pătruț, c. cmeciu romanian campaigns on corporate social responsibility – signs of glocalization 117 in order to provide an answer to rq2, we have started from the main domains in which organizations have invested at a global level: environment, equal opportunities, investment in employees, community involvement, and product safety and quality. as observed in table 3, the above-mentioned domains have been divided into subdomains in order to provide a more detailed image of the csr campaigns at a local level. we should mention that in many cases a csr campaign may focus on more subdomains because it has more objectives to be accomplished within a time interval. for example, the csr campaign „clujul are suflet”/ ”the city of cluj has soul” (transilvania bank, 2007) succeeded in opening a day care center for disadvantaged young people, a center which was meant to provide them not only with food, shelter and financial support, but also with psychological counseling, personal and professional development programs, support for social inclusion. as observed (table 3), the domain which triggered the economic actors’ attention more was the community involvement in problem solving (n=401), public health, social services, education and personal development, human rights, and non-governmental organizations’ development. on the second place, there are the csr campaigns (n=96) focused on environment issue: pollution control, recycling of waste materials, environment improvement and green areas maintenance. tabel 3. romanian csr campaigns – (sub)domains of interest domain subdomain number of campaigns percentage environment (96 csr campaigns) pollution control 25 4,43 % recycling of waste materials 23 4,07 % environment improvement 23 4,07% green areas maintenance 25 4,43 % equal opportunity (18 csr campaigns) minorities, women, disadvantaged groups on the labor market 18 3,19% investment in their employees (22 csr campaigns) health and safety of employees 10 1,77% advice & training 12 2,12% community involvement (401 csr campaigns) community-elected activities 13 2,30 % public health 69 12,23% assistance & social services 129 22,87% education & personal development 92 16,31% human rights 16 2,83% sports 22 3,90 % tourism 9 1,59% literature & arts 14 2,48% history and heritage 12 2,12% development ngos 25 4,43 % products (27 csr campaigns) product safety and quality 27 5,03% the temporal evolution of csr campaigns in romania shows (figure 3) that there was a timid start in 2004 (only 5 csr campaigns posted on the csr websites) but in time there was an increase by the end of 2010 (23 csr campaigns posted on the csr websites). the economic crisis has had an impact on the organizational budget for csr campaigns and this is obvious in the decrease of the csr campaigns posted on the csr websites in 2011 (7 csr campaigns) and 2012 (only 3 csr campaigns). then the number of csr campaigns has increased in 2013 and 2014. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 118 number of csr campaigns in romania 5 19 25 23 23 20 23 7 3 176 188 52 0 50 100 150 200 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 number of campaigns figure 3. the evolution of csr campaigns in romania (200430.03.2015) to find out the most frequent types of csr campaigns implemented in romania (rq4), we have started from kotler and lee’s typology (2005) of csr activities: promotion of a cause, philanthropic actions, community volunteering, cause-related marketing, social marketing and socially responsible business practices. taking into account the lack of information on the description of csr campaigns provided on the csr websites, we shaped our own typology of csr campaign types (figure 4) : monetary or goods donation, voluntary activities, cause-related marketing, sponsorships of special events, partnerships with public institutions, consultancy and training for internal and/ or external publics, information, education or awareness campaigns, philanthropic foundations within organizations. types of csr campaigns 8% 18% 20% 2%7% 13% 14% 18% philanthropic foundation monetary donation voluntary activities caus e-related marketing sponsors hip information/ education/ awareness campaigns cons ultancy and training partners hip with public authorities figure 4. types of csr campaigns in romania as figure 4 shows, the most frequently used types of csr campaigns in romania are: employees’ and community members’ volunteering (20%), monetary or goods donations (18%), local or national partnerships with public institutions (18%), consultancy and training programs (14%), and information/ education/ awareness campaigns (13%). for the promotion of csr campaigns (rq5), romanian companies used both the online and offline environment (figure 5). out of the 564 csr campaigns that were analyzed, 56% campaigns were promoted only offline, 30% were promoted in both environments and 2% were promoted only online. 12% csr campaigns were promoted neither online nor offline. this lack of promotion was either the investor’s desire to invest more money in helping the vulnerable groups or the immediacy of implementing urgent measures (the 2009 floods, for example). m. pătruț, c. cmeciu romanian campaigns on corporate social responsibility – signs of glocalization 119 promoting csr campaigns 30% 56% 2% 12% offline and online promotion only offline promotion only online promotion without promotion figure 5. offline and/ or online promotion of csr campaigns in romania the last research question (rq6) focused on the prominence of the csr 1.0 and csr 2.0 tools used in the csr campaigns promoted online (figure 6). all of the 45% (n=243) campaigns used the website, as a csr 1.0 tool, to promote their activities and used website title very similar to the csr campaign titles. as csr 2.0 tools, facebook was the most frequently used (n= 125), followed by blogs (n = 124) and youtube (n =56). most organizations, which promoted their csr campaigns online, chose both facebook and blogs to make their events or the information about the campaign visible. youtube was used to upload fragments from the events that took place in the csr campaigns. csr 1.0 and csr 2.0 tools in csr campaigns 45% 22% 23% 10% websites blogs facebook youtube figure 6. csr 1.0 and csr 2.0 tools in csr campaigns in romania as mentioned in 3.2., at a global level, the hierarchy of csr 2.0 tools used by the most profitable 500 companies in 2011 was the following: rss posts, embedded videos, twitter, facebook, youtube , blogs, and podcasts (source: 2011 global social media and csr report on the ftse global 500). as observed, at a local level, the hierarchy is different: facebook, blogs and youtube. the main reason lies in the increase of facebook and blogs in romania as means of self and organizational promotion. 5. conclusions after the revolution, romanian organizations have become aware that investing in local communities through csr campaigns will bring financial benefits. multinational companies investing in romania have provided the global strategies on csr activities, but romanian organizations have adapted these global strategies to the local context. the banking sector is the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 120 most socially responsible both at the global and at the glocal level (romania). the domains in which romanian organizations implemented their csr campaigns are: voluntary actions, donations and philanthropic foundations. throughout the years, the promotion has moved from the offline environment to the online environment where csr 1.0 tools, such as websites, and csr 2.0 tools, such as facebook, are the most frequently used. references : abbott, w.f. & monsen, r. j. (1979). ‘on the measurement of corporate social responsibility: selfreported disclosures as a method of measuring corporate social involvement’, the academy of management journal, vol. 22(3), pp. 501-515. babbie, e. (2010). practica cercetării sociale, iaşi : polirom. bittner, e. a. c. & leimeister, j. m. (2011). ‘towards csr 2.0 potentials and challenges of web 2.0 for corporate social responsibility communication.’ paper presented at the meeting of the 11. european academy of management (euram) 2011 annual meeting, tallinn, estonia, 2011, available at http://pubs.wi-kassel.de/wpcontent/uploads/2013/03/jml_311.pdf . borţun, d.(coord.) (2012). responsabilitatea socială corporativă : de la relaţii publice la dezvoltare durabilă, bucureşti: tritonic. carrol, a.b. (1999). ‘corporate social responsibility: evolution of a definitional construct’, business society, vol. 38(3), pp. 288-289. cmeciu, c. & cmeciu, d. (2011). ‘new insights into corporate social responsibility: the semiotic act of experiencing a city through street naming’, in zdzislaw wasik (ed.). unfolding the semiotic web in urban discourse, frankfurt am main: peter lang, pp.163-180. coman, c. (2009). relaţiile publice: modele teoretice şi studii de caz, bucureşti: editura universităţii din bucureşti. crişan, c. (2013). corporaţiile şi societatea. responsabilitatea socială corporativă între act voluntar şi obligaţie, bucureşti: tritonic. de bakker, frank, g. a., groenewegen, p., & den hond, f. (2005). ‘a bibliometric analysis of 30 years of research and theory on corporate social responsibility and corporate social performance’, business society, vol. 44 (3), pp. 283-317. dima, a.m.,vasilache, s., ghinea, v., & agoston, s. (2013). ‘a model of academic social responsibility ’, transylvanian review of administrative sciences, no. 38 e , pp. 23-43. dimitrova, d. (2007). ‘new media technologies’, in l. lee kaid & ch. holtz-bacha (eds.), encyclopedia of political communication, london : sage publications, retrieved on march 16, 2014 from www.sage-ereference.com/politicalcommunication/article_n434.html. fisher-buttinger, c. & vallaster, c. (2011). noul branding. cum să construieşti capitalul unei mărci, iaşi : polirom. grunig, j. e. & white, j. (1992). ‘the effect of worldviews on public relations theory and practice’, in j. e. grunig et al. (eds.), excellence in public relations and communication management, hillsdale, nj : lawrence erlbaum associates, pp. 51-52. ilieş, v. i. (2012). relaţiile publice şi responsabilitatea socială corporatistă : teorie şi acţiune socială, clujnapoca : presa universitară clujeana. kotler, p. & lee, n. (2005). corporate social responsibility: doing the most good for your company and your cause, hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons inc. matten, d. (2006). ‘why do companies engage in corporate social responsibility? background, reasons and basic concepts’, in judith hennigfeld, manfred pohl, nick tolhurst (eds.), the icca handbook of corporate social responsibility, john wiley & sons ltd, pp. 346. may, s., cheney, g., & roper, j. (2007). the debate over corporate social responsibility, new york: oxford university press. m. pătruț, c. cmeciu romanian campaigns on corporate social responsibility – signs of glocalization 121 middlemiss, n. (2015). cum promovăm programele de responsabilitate corporatistă, available at http://www.csr-romania.ro/articole-si-analize/pr-pentru-csr/478-cum-promovm-programelede-responsabilitate-corporatist.html, accessed on february 20, 2015. oprea, l. (2011). csr vector, bucureşti: universul juridic. pătruţ, b., pătruţ m., & cmeciu c. (2013). ‘framing non-formal education through csr 2.0.’, in bogdan pătruţ, monica pătruţ and camelia cmeciu (eds.), social media and the new academic environment: pedagogical challenges, hershey, pa: igi global, pp. 115-143. pătruţ, m. (2013). ‘corporate social responsibility campaigns aimed at vulnerable groups in romania’ în mihaela tomiţă (ed.). 4rd international conference psycho-social perspectives in the quasi-coercive treatment of offenders.social control and vulnerable groups, medimond, monduzzi editore international proceedings division, pp. 455 – 460. rawlins, b. l. (2005). ‘corporate social responsibility’, in r.l. heath (ed.), encyclopedia of public relations, thousand oaks, london, new delphi : sage publications, pp. 210-214. udrea, c. & ionescu, a.c. (2007). csr and competitiveness european smes’ good practice – national report romania. available at http://www.kmuforschung.ac.at/de/projekte/csr/report%20romania.pdf, accessed on march 10, 2014. visser, w. (2010). ‘the age of responsibility. csr 2.0 and the new dna for business’, journal of business systems. governance and ethics, vol. 5(3), pp. 7–22. wakefield, r. i. (2009). ‘public relations contingencies in a globalized world where even „glocalization” is not sufficient’, public relations journal, 3(4). wilcox, d.l. (2009). ‘preserving reputation in the internet age’, in adela rogojinaru and s. wolstenholme (eds.), current trends in international public relations, bucureşti: tritonic, pp. 13-27. young, s. (2009). capitalism moral. o reconciliere a interesului privat cu binele public, bucureşti: curtea veche. microsoft word brain_8_2017_issue_1_vers3.docx 52 developing distance learning environments in the context of cross-border cooperation sebastian fuicu department of computer and information technology, politehnica university of timisoara, piata victoriei nr. 2, 300006 timisoara, romania sebastian.fuicu@upt.ro mircea popa department of computer and information technology, politehnica university of timisoara, piata victoriei nr. 2, 300006 timisoara, romania mircea.popa@upt.ro dalibor dobrilovic university of novi sad/technical faculty “mihajlo pupin”, zrenjanin, serbia ddobrilo@tfzr.rs marius marcu department of computer and information technology, politehnica university of timisoara, piata victoriei nr. 2, 300006 timisoara, romania marius.marcu@upt.ro razvan bogdam department of computer and information technology, politehnica university of timisoara, piata victoriei nr. 2, 300006 timisoara, romania razvan.bogdan@upt.ro abstract by using a plethora of technologies and formats, the distance learning paradigm offers access to education through a large spectrum of subjects which are situated in different geographic areas. this paper presents the successful collaboration between politehnica university of timisoara, romania, and the technical faculty "mihajlo pupin" of zrenjanin, serbia, which offer a low maintenance cooperation model based on a web cast system that allows subjects from both countries to have access to each other’s educational material. the aim of this project is to raise the interest of pupils, students and graduates to the latest information regarding technical content used in the it industry. the access takes place in real time and from the distance without the necessity of being present in order to receive the information. the obtained results are very encouraging regarding the usage of such a distance learning environment and the further development of such tools and cooperation. keywords: distance learning, cross-border cooperation, courses, webcast system. 1. introduction the process of acquiring different skills by using distance learning technologies and solutions has started to be a de facto trend in education. learning management systems (lms), massive open online courses (mooc), personal learning environments (ple) are just a few approaches which are building the distance learning ecosystem (viunenko, 2016). in all these solutions, the teacher’s attention is focused on all the participants, the classical problem of “triangle of influence” (bogdan, 2016) being overcome due to the usage of this new paradigm. moreover, distance learning environments offer the possibility to foster the development of cross-border regions across the globe by offering free access to education and information for different subjects. s. fuicu, m. popa, d. dobrilovic, m. marcu, r. bogdan developing distance learning environments in the context of cross border cooperation 53 this paper presents the development of a distance learning platform called eduwebcast. this platform has been developed as a cross-border cooperation between politehnica university of timisoara, romania, and the novi sad university/technical faculty “mihajlo pupin”, zrenjanin, serbia. one main issue regards the cross-border cooperation activity which is limited, thus determining low levels of experience amongst the population of the neighboring areas. this project offers a new, innovative, low maintenance cooperation model based on a web cast system that allows subjects from both countries to have access to each other’s educational material. the aim is to capture students and pupils’ interest and to provide them with the latest news and information regarding the technical content used in the it industry, interconnecting graduates who now work in it companies in the border area. the access takes place in real time and from the distance without the necessity to be present in order to receive the information. there are used modern it tools, so very few supplementary costs deriving from travelling and accommodation are required. due to the common challenges faced by the communities from both parts of the crossborder cooperation area there is a need for a high level of cooperation in the fields that concern both countries such as the education sector. using a common platform used for live and ondemand video streaming of learning material provided by two educational institutions, one from serbia and one from romania will help overcome the border as a perceived “division”. furthermore, it will set an important example of promoting greater cooperation and contact between regions and communities on both sides of the border, based on the same principles in other fields of interest. it will also set the necessary infrastructure for possible future accredited distance learning curricula for the universities involved in this project. the common cross-border approach that this solution suggests in the area of education by using specific modern it instruments will also help overcome specific issues related to the connectedness of the region, both internally, between the border regions, and externally, between the border regions and neighboring areas. this is a consequence of the fact that web cast system could be accessed by interested persons and entities from other neighboring areas that might be interested in cooperating with the two universities. the rest of this paper is structured as follows: section 2 presents the literature review in terms of distance learning, section 3 offers the used methodology, while section 4 presents the results of using the eduwebcast system. the last part of the article presents the conclusions. 2. literature review the problem of cross-border cooperation, in terms of building distance learning environments, has been previously presented in the literature by klobučar and gabrijelčič (2014). the stork 2.0 infrastructure (a slovenian platform to be presented) is used to build a virtual learning environment, e-surveys, and job selection. in tsai (2016) it is brought into light a project which is aiming tooffer an interactive distance learning plan. the main purpose of this project is to tighten up the gap between the investments in the educational system from the urban vs. the rural taiwanese environment. while in lytvyn,(2016) it is offered a distance learning approach towards postgraduate studies and which will improve the scientific output of such students. in messias and morgado (2015), the distance learning ecosystem is analyzed by using social network analysis domain, but at the same time, the test scenarios have been optimized to the particular case of learning management systems. a number of papers such as the ones of herasymenko (2016), holotescu & cretu (2013) and uzunboylu & bicen (2011) are analyzing the e-learning and distance learning ecosystem. the analysis is done from the point of view of applied technologies and is also offering guidelines into improving the distance learning experience. other papers, such as babori’s&fassi’s (2016) and chirila & ciocarlie’s (2015) are proposing different techniques in which computer science teaching topics can be improved. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 54 a specific category of state-of-the-art papers like perraton’s(2007), khan & ally’s(2015) and dorrego’s 2016) are dealing with the evaluation of the used technologies and approaches during the distance learning projects. the aim of such studies is to underpin the weaker points of distance learning usage and offer different remedial measures. however, the direct evaluation is not the subject of this paper. 3. methodology this paper presents the case of eduwebcast project which was developed as a crossborder cooperation between two universities. the aim of this project was to build a proper infrastructure that would ensure free access to different courses, but also the latest news in several technical domains. several objectives were formulated, in order to develop these educational systems. objective 1: increasing educational exchanges through a common cross-border approach in the area of technical education by implementing an education webcast system this will help achieve a more balanced and sustainable education not onlyfor pupils and students from the cross-border region but also for whoever might have an interest in the developed courses; as well as constant access to technical information through an innovative method.this grants the improvement of the graduates’ skills who are employed in the companies from the private sectors, thus directly affecting the socio-economic development of the romanian-serbian border area. objective 2: creating a cross-border partnership between the two universities the aim of this partnership would be to implement an infrastructure for live and on-demand video streaming of learning material for the targeted groups and, to this purpose, to establish a long and fruitful cooperation between teachers, pupils, and students on both sides of the border. the joint creation and administration of the webcast project is the ground stone of the partnership between the two universities and will result in more common projects based on the materials obtained through the project, contests between pupils and students, possible periodic educational exchanges. figure 1. components of eduwebcast system s. fuicu, m. popa, d. dobrilovic, m. marcu, r. bogdan developing distance learning environments in the context of cross border cooperation 55 objective 3: improving the quality of education for the students and pupils from the border area both students, who attend the courses of the two universities, and the pupils from the schools in the region and outside of it, who manifest an active interest in the technical field, will have access to the educational materials(courses and lectures) provided by the most important technical universities in the cross-border area. in addition to that, our approach is also aiming the academic stuff who can exchange information, research ideas, teaching techniques so that the target groups can benefit from this experience. objective 4: increasing the overall competitiveness of the economy in the border area. the it companies that employ graduates from the two universities will be able to access the latest technologies and information provided on the software portal of the webcast project thus benefiting from the increased competences of their employees and improving their performances on the market they activate in. therefore, the competitiveness of the it companies in romanian-serbian cross-border area will be enhanced. the eduwebcast system is formed of two main components (as it can be noticed in figure 1), namely the core eduwebcast system (which will include the application server, video server, storage and network infrastructure) and the video lecture preparation system (which include the software and devices needed to record the lectures). 3.1. video lecture creation the video lectures for webcast are created in three approaches: approach 1: video lectures with powerpoint slides and narration in this video lectures,the lecturer had prepared powerpoint or similar presentation slides, he started the presentations and using microphone he made an explanation, in accordance to the current slide on the screen. in some cases, lecturers used a graphical table to write on the slide and to point out some parts of the lecture. the hardware/software combination needed for this approach is: 1. a powerpoint or similar presentation software; 2. headsets with microphone; 3. a video/audio screen capturing software; 4. a graphical table (optional); 5. a software for video/audio editing. in some smaller part of lectures, we benefited from professional help provided by video production companies. approach 2: video lectures with lab exercises in this lectures, we used software and other tools like simulation software, programming ides etc. for performing lab exercises. the lecturer is, similar to the previous case, working in lab exercise software with simultaneous narration while video/audio screen capturing software is recording the lecture. in this case, because we have a bilingual version of the lecture, the procedure is as follows: the first step is to record the lecture in the native language, after that the video is played with the original sound muted, while lecturer is telling the lecture in english. the hardware/software combination needed for this approach is: 1. a lab exercise software; 2. headset with microphone; 3. a video/audio screen capturing software; 4. a graphical table (optional); 5. a software for video/audio editing. in some smaller part of lectures, we benefited from professional help provided by video production companies. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 56 approach 3: video lectures recorder in the professional studio in the case of using the equipment only a small portion of the lectures is directly recorded in the studio, also video production company recorded, edited and produced the whole video. in some cases, bilingual lectures are recorded in a similar way as in approach 2. 4. obtained results first of all, the resulted platform (eduwebcast, 2016) comes with a state-of-the-art section of information technology news. but the gem of the project is actually the portal of the courses. a number of 12 courses have been taught and supported by means of this project. these courses are: digital microsystems; modeling and simulation; mobile computing; computer fundamentals; programming languages; electrical engineering; project management; computer networks; artificial intelligence; it project management; fuzzy systems; machine learning. system started with public operation on the 14th of april, 2015. before being released for public use the system was tested for almost a month. the usage of the system can be divided in two periods: i. from 14th of april until 18th of june. this is the period of official project duration. ii. from 19th of june until the present day. this is the period after the finalization of the project. on following figures, statistic usage is given as monthly and weekly statistic for individual users and sessions. the number of the individual users and of the sessions is far better for the 2015 period, especially for the extent of time until the end of june. this is reasonable because it was during the project and the site is frequently put forward in promotional conferences, in press, in direct contacts with schools, and companies. after that period the site was not promoted additionally, and the only pointer to the site is a number of links found on our institutional websites as one of the services we are offering to the students. considering all that, the figures for 2015 and even 2016, seems to be quite satisfactory. (figure 1, figure 4, and figure 5). it is also interesting to observe that in figure 3, where the usage for 2016 is presented, that in the non-promotional period, the site is mostly used in january (before january exam term), in april, may, and june (before the june exam session and during colloquial exams) or in july and august (before the september exam session). s. fuicu, m. popa, d. dobrilovic, m. marcu, r. bogdan developing distance learning environments in the context of cross border cooperation 57 jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 monthly stats 2015 u s e rs / s e s s io n s users 2015 sessions 2015 jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 2016 u s e rs / s e s s io n s monthly stats users 2016 sessions 2016 figure 2. monthly user/session stats for 2015 figure 3. monthly user/session stats for 2016 1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 2015 s e s s io n s weekly stats sessions 2015 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 2016 s e s s io n s weekly stats sessions 2016 figure 4. weekly session stats for 2015 figure 5. weekly session stats for 2016 5. conclusion the main two issues this paper is dealing with is that the cross-border cooperation activity is limited causing a low level of experience amongst the population of the neighboring areas and the low connectedness between the border regions. there is a clear division between the regions in the cross-border area and although they face common challenges their cooperation is insufficient and unproductive. the presented project of this paper, called eduwebcast, suggests an innovative cooperation model based on a web portal that allows subjects from both countries to have access to common educational materials, know-hows, and practical applications (laboratory materials). the aim is to capture both the students’ as well as pupils’ interest especially if they are interested in following a technical education. the portal also includes the latest news and information regarding technical content used in the it industry, interconnecting graduates who work in companies from the border area. besides providing the information regarding the state of the art in the subjects it tackles, the portal serves as a modern learning tool for the romanian and serbian students or pupils to access the lectures without being at the place and time where the courses are held. this platform also enables students/ pupils to view the courses as many times as they like by accessing the portal. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 58 references babori, a., fihri fassi, h., hariri, a., bideq m. (2016), an e-learning environment for algorithmic: toward an active construction of skills, world journal on educational technology, volume 8, number 2. bogdan, r. (2016), guidelines for developing educational environments in the automotive industry, 1st international conference on smart learning ecosystems and regional developments, timisoara, romania. chirila, c.-b., ciocarlie, h., stoicu-tivadar, l. (2015), generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions, brain broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, bacau, romania, 6(1-2), 1-16. dorrego, e. (2016), distance education and learning evaluation, revista de educacion a distancia, volume 50. eduwebcast platform, [online]. available at: http://eduwebcast.upt.ro/index.php, accessed 15 november 2016 herasymenko, i. (2016), used distance learning technologies, 13th international conference on modern problems of radio engineering. telecommunications and computer science (tcset), pp. 813 816. holotescu, c., cretu, v. (2013), microblogging platforms in education: features, usages and architectures, microblogging in educational settings. how microblogging platforms can be used in formal and informal education, avm akademische verlagsgemeinschaft münchen khan, b.h., ally, m. (2015), international handbook of e-learning, volume 1: theoretical perspectives and research. london, new york: routledge, taylor&francis group, 343 p. klobučar, t., gabrijelčič, d., pagon, v. (2014), cross-border e-learning and academic services based on eids: case of slovenia, echallenges e-2014 conference, pp. 1 9. lytvyn, v., et al. (2016), distance learning method for modern youth promotion and involvement in independent scientific researches, ieee first international conference on data stream mining & processing (dsmp), pp. 269 274. messias, i., morgado, l., barbas m. (2015), students' engagement in distance learning: creating a scenario with lms and social network aggregation, international symposium on computers in education (siie), pp. 44 49. perraton, h. (2007), open and distance learning in the developing world (2nd ed.). london: routledge, 162 p. ş tsai, i-c., et al. (2016), developing taiwan innovative interactive distance learning model: empirical studies, 11th international conference on computer science & education (iccse), pp. 911 916. uzunboylu, h., bicen, h., cavus, n. (2011), the efficient virtual learning environment: a case study of web 2.0 tools and windows live space, computers & education, volume 56, no. 3, pp. 720-726. viunenko, o., et al. (2016), information technologies in the educational process as the basis of modern distance learning, 13th international conference on modern problems of radio engineering. telecommunications and computer science (tcset), pp. 831 834. microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_3_curent.doc 148 an energy-saving concept of the smart building power grid with separated lines for standby devices dmytro zubov universidad politécnica de san luis potosí, san luis potosí, mexico dzubov@ieee.org abstract standby power takes 5-10 % of the residential electricity around the world. some countries lose more than 14 % of the total electricity used in the residential sector. hence, a new energysaving concept that could help to decrease the power losses is discussed in this paper. firstly, the two power lines of infrastructure for continuously connected equipment and for standby devices is proposed for new smart buildings. secondly, the segmented infrastructure with unified hardware units is proposed for existing smart buildings (the new one can apply this principle as well). the contactors (i.e. unified hardware units) consist of the nodemcu lua esp8266 wifi iot development board, acs712t elc-30a current sensor, and the songle relay. the automatic mode is based on three steps: measurement of the current using acs712t elc-30a sensor in all segments except the root; switching off the relays with the current less than or equal to any number in the historical data; switching off the root contactor if all the descendent relays (i.e. contactors) are switched off. second step represents the linear classification with sliding window in machine learning. the software consists of two parts, low-level arduino sketches and high-level c# windows form app. they are connected by mqtt broker mosquitto. the proposed concept was successfully tested using a prototype with three segments, one of which includes smart lighting. the payback period is of approximately one month and a half for the whole-building switch concept. keywords: smart power grid, energy-saving, standby power, iot, mqtt. 1. introduction standby power takes 5-10 % of the residential electricity in the most developed countries 1 . for instance, the average canadian or usa home already has 25 or even more standby devices with active power consumption, greater than 50 w 2 , which is from 2 % to 10 % of the total energy consumption. however, some developed countries, e.g. italy and denmark, have higher standby loss – greater than 14 % of the total electricity used in the residential sector (solanki, sarma mallela, & zhou, 2013). in developing countries, standby devices are not widely in use, as well as statistics is not available for some of them (ajay-d-vimal raj et al., 2009). for instance, a typical university building loses 12.7 % of the total energy in china (li-juan qu et al., 2015), while the average standby power in a mexican home is 24 w, which represents about 10 % (up to 160 kwh annually) of the average household consumption in mexico (lang, 2014). in addition, approximately 1 % of global co2 emissions is a result of the standby energy wasting 3 . nowadays, many countries accept the standards limiting standby power. for instance, mexican official standard norma oficial mexicana nom-032-ener-2013 “límites máximos de potencia eléctrica para equipos y aparatos que demandan energía en espera. métodos de prueba y etiquetado” (“electrical power limits for equipment and devices that require standby power. test procedures and labeling”) sets a limit of 2-15 w, depending on the type of equipment and / or device that requires standby power. 4 the european union commission regulation no. 801/2013 with respect to the ecodesign requirements for standby, off mode electric power consumption of 1 standby power: lawrence berkeley national laboratory. (2016). retrieved from http://standby.lbl.gov 2 cut phantom power to lower energy costs. (2016). retrieved from http://www.greenlivingonline.com/article/cutphantom-power-lower-energy-costs 3 idem 1 4 norma oficial mexicana nom-032-ener-2013, límites máximos de potencia eléctrica para equipos y aparatos que demandan energía en espera. métodos de prueba y etiquetado. (2014). retrieved from http://www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5330530&fecha=23/01/2014 d. zubov an energy-saving concept of the smart building power grid with separated lines for standby devices 149 electrical and electronic household and office equipment, and televisions recommends the maximum networked standby power consumption to be of 8 w for the high network availability (hina) equipment (it resumes functions within milliseconds, e.g. router, network switch, wireless network access point) and of 2 w for the non-hina devices by jan 1, 2019. 5 the measurement of the power consumption is the bottleneck in the analysis of the standby energy. here, two main approaches are as follows: 1. determining the power consumption using the date, time, and physical location of the consumer. 2. determining the power consumption using the current sensors. both approaches can be realized using machine learning methods (mitchell, 2016). for instance, the prediction of power consumption is discussed in rudin et al. (2012), voynichka (2014), and wu et al. (2011) (the first approach). however, the most efficient control is based on feedback from the consumption side (the second approach). the current sensors like acs712 (warren et al., 2011) (maximum 5 a, 20 a, and 30 a versions are available now) can implement this algorithm. however, the issue about the usage of standby devices remains open – only endusers know exactly what device(s) must be connected or disconnected. many research scholars and industry professionals have already discussed the standby power losses (solanki et al., 2013; ajay-d-vimal raj, 2009; li-juan qu et al., 2015; chakraborty & pfaelzer, 2011; alan meier, 2001; mohanty, 2001) and different concepts of the smart power grids (joseph burgett & abdol chini, 2013; cheng-hung tsai, 2013; varghese & premi, 2013; lópezde-armentia et al., 2014) to improve the overall energy efficiency. international electrotechnical commission standard iec 62301:2011 “household electrical appliances – measurement of standby power” specifies “methods of measurement of electrical power consumption in standby mode(s) and other low power modes (off mode and network mode), as applicable”. 6 in joseph burgett & abdol chini (2013), the whole-house (i.e. whole-building) switch concept is presented. in rudin et al. (2012), the algorithms and hardware design are discussed to reduce the standby power consumption for the home appliances; here, the main idea is to analyze the power consumed by the appropriate device and disconnect it if standby level is detected; the devices are connected according to specific algorithms, e.g. pir sensor detects the presence of person, the light sensor detects the dark. in lópez-de-armentia et al. (2014), the concept of eco-aware devices is proposed; here, arduino uno and ethernet shields are used for the learning of several devices, and then this information is applied for the forecasting of next-day operations. however, the segmented structure of the power grid and budget unified hardware are not discussed in these papers. the above-stated analysis shows that the most efficient approach to minimize the standby energy loss is to install the separate power lines for the standby devices (the whole-building switch (wbs) concept in joseph burgett & abdol chini, 2013) or split the power grid into segments with remote control of the contactors (e.g. relays songle srd-05vdc-sl-c [22]). the networking technologies like the internet of things (iot) (slama et al., 2015) can be in use to provide reliable budget solutions of the energy-saving power grids. nowadays, the most known iot hardware platforms are arduino/genuino and raspberry pi (norris, 2015; doukas, 2012). arduino has an industrial version – microcontroller industruino. 7 arduino uno run-time is 50 days approximately, 5 commission regulation (eu) no 801/2013 of 22 august 2013 amending regulation (ec) no 1275/2008 with regard to ecodesign requirements for standby, off mode electric power consumption of electrical and electronic household and office equipment, and amending regulation (ec) no 642/2009 with regard to ecodesign requirements for televisions. (2013). retrieved from http://www.greenlivingonline.com/article/cut-phantom-power-lower-energycosts http://eur-lex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/lexuriserv.do?uri=oj:l:2013:225:0001:0012:en:pdf 6 iec 62301:2011: household electrical appliances measurement of standby power. international electrotechnical commission standard. (2011). retrieved from https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/6789 7 industruino. (2016). retrieved from https://industruino.com brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 150 as well as the price of arduino boards is several times less than the raspberry pi analogues usually. 8 hence, arduino boards are used widely in iot area. in addition, new wifi arduino-compatible boards like nodemcu lua esp8266 are applied for the wireless connection; here, sketches can be developed in arduino integrated development environment (ide). 9 the iot devices are connected by specific iot protocols because of the real-time communication requirements (e.g. limited internet traffic), low performance and memory of iot hardware, as well as the internet connections are slow sometimes. in addition, standard iot protocols connect devices of different brands, which are not able to communicate otherwise because of software and hardware incompatibilities. nowadays, two iot protocols, mqtt and coap (jaffey, 2014; stansberry, 2015), are mainly in use. the first one is based on internet tcp (transmission control protocol), and the second one on udp (user datagram protocol). the viable alternative of the iot protocol depends on the project. if the message is going to be published from one node to many nodes, the mqtt protocol is recommended to use. in the systems with traffic limitations, coap is recommended because it uses udp, which eliminates the overhead of tcp/ip. it makes a big difference in traffic for the system with 1000s of nodes. in the following, the mqtt protocol is applied to transmit/receive the data because of the number of nodes (up to 100 for smart building), feasibility to provide the secure tcp connection among clients/broker (passwords and secure sockets layer cryptography), as well as for the fact that it uses approximately 10 kb of memory for arduino compatible devices (pubsubclient library). based on the above-stated brief analysis of the previous studies, this paper’s main goal is to discuss the new energy-saving concept of the smart building power grid with separated lines for standby devices. the main principles are as follows: 1. the power grid of new smart buildings is installed using two power lines – the first one is for continuously connected equipment like alarm systems and refrigerators, while the second one is for standby devices. in this case, the wbs algorithm (kurkinen, 2016) is recommended. 2. the power grids of existing smart buildings are split into segments with appropriate contactors at the beginning of each segment. in this case, the segments are connected / disconnected according to the needs of the end-users. new smart buildings can apply this principle as well. 3. the contactors are unified hardware units based on nodemcu lua esp8266 wifi iot development board, acs712t elc-30a current sensor, and songle relay, which is budget solution of approximately 5 usd price. the current sensor provides on-line feedback in the intelligent algorithm to switch off the standby devices automatically. this paper is organized as follows: in section 2, the infrastructure of smart building power grid with separated lines for standby devices is discussed. in section 3, the software, automatic mode, and smart lighting are described. the conclusions are summarized in section 4. 2. the infrastructure of smart building power grid with separated lines for standby devices 68 million houses in north america and europe will be smart by 2019 (kurkinen, 2016) with a compound annual growth rate of 37 % and 61 %, respectively. the smart equipment is usually installed together with an upgrade (e.g. aluminum wires are replaced by copper ones) of the power grid. in this case, additional power lines for standby devices are cabled, and the wbs concept is applied using one power switch only (see figure 1). for instance, the songle high-power relay t90 8 arduino – maximum run time and fault tolerance. (2013). retrieved from http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=191416.0 9 user manual for esp-12e devkit based on esp8266. (2016). retrieved from https://smartarduino.gitbooks.io/usermanual-for-esp-12e-devkit/content/index.html d. zubov an energy-saving concept of the smart building power grid with separated lines for standby devices 151 can control the whole building electricity with load up to 30 a using nodemcu lua esp8266 wifi and/or arduino uno / mega boards. 10 figure 1. the whole-building switch concept for the power lines of standby devices the segmented power grid concept is in use if wbs cannot be installed or independent control of different segments is needed. in this case, the nodemcu lua esp8266 wifi board, acs712t elc-30a current sensor, and relay srd-05vdc-sl-c (load is up to 10 a) are proposed to compose the unified hardware unit. this is a budget solution of approximately 5 usd price. the sketches are developed in arduino ide with mqtt protocol for the remote control. figure 2 shows an example of smart power grid with hierarchical structure, where every segment equals a room or office. this approach is similar to the idea presented in alboteanu et al. (2015), where the connecting / disconnecting of renewable energy sources and consumers are made via the appropriate contactors, automatically (or manually) controlled according to the energy consumption/generation. however, the management of micro smart grid is discussed in alboteanu et al. (2015) only. figure 3 shows unified hardware unit based on nodemcu lua esp8266 wifi board (lolin version), acs712t elc-30a current sensor, and relay srd-05vdc-sl-c. the payback period of the wbs concept is calculated for the power lines of standby devices given the active standby active power consumption of 50 w and a price of 0.1 usd per kw. hence, 5 usd divided by 0.12 usd (0.050 kw multiplied by 24 hours and then multiplied by 0.1 usd) equals 42 days, which is payback period for the proposed unified hardware unit with acs712t elc-30a current sensor, and songle high-power relay t90. figure 2. an example of smart power grid with hierarchical structure 10 songle relay t90. (2016). retrieved from http://www.songle.com/en/pdf/2008414165561000.pdf root segment root contactor 1st segment contactor 1 (1st room) contactor 1.1 contactor 1.2 2nd segment contactor 2 (2nd room) 3rd segment contactor 3 (3rd room) 4th segment contactor 4 (4th room) contactor 4.1 contactor 4.2 remote control by internet / intranet smart building power lines for standby devices wbs brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 152 figure 3. the unified hardware unit based on nodemcu lua esp8266 wifi development board, acs712t elc-30a current sensor, and relay srd-05vdc-sl-c 3. the automatic mode algorithm and smart lighting 3.1. description of software the software consists of two parts, low-level arduino sketches and high-level c# windows form appplication. they are connected using the open-source message mqtt broker mosquitto. 11 every hardware unit has the unique identifier and commands to control the relay. the mqtt topic “/vpp/relays” is used by subscribers and publishers. the number “50” sent from c# windows form (it equals number “2” sent from the standard mosquitto publisher) is a command to switch on the second relay, “51” (“3”) – to switch off, respectively. the prototype was developed with one root controller and two descendant relays. the commands are as follows: “52” (“4”) / “53” (“5”) – to switch on / off the first relay, “54” (“6”) / “55” (“7”) – to switch on / off the third relay, respectively. this solution is similar to the one presented in [22], but acs712t elc-30a current sensor and esp8266wifi.h library are applied here. in addition, other commands, e.g. “56” (“8”) to get the value of the current in the 3rd segment, are in use as well. the screen shot of the c# windows form app is shown in figure 4. the text field on the left side includes numbers from 2 to 7, which are commands to control the states of relays. 11 an open source mqtt v3.1/v3.1.1 broker mosquitto. (2016). retrieved from http://mosquitto.org nodemcu lua esp8266 wifi development board acs712t elc-30a current sensor relay srd-05vdc-sl-c power line 127 v 60 hz d. zubov an energy-saving concept of the smart building power grid with separated lines for standby devices 153 figure 4. screen shot of the c# windows form app 3.2. the automatic mode algorithm and smart lighting the automatic mode is activated by clicking the button “turn on the automatic mode” on the windows form appplication. the algorithm is based on the analysis of the states of descendant relays as follows: step 1. measurement of the current using acs712t elc-30a sensor in all segments except for the root. step 2. switching off the relays, where the current is less than or equals any number in the historical data. step 3. switching off the root contactor if all descendent relays (i.e. contactors) are switched off. in step 2, historical data are represented by the last ten values of the current measured when the appropriate relay is switched off by clicking a button on the c# windows form application. the method was successfully tested for the office equipment in the building for the professors at politécnica university of san luis potosí. this approach is a simplified version of the linear classification with sliding window in machine learning (mitchell, 2016). the acs712t elc-30a current sensor on the consumption side, as well as the uniformity of the office equipment, allows using this approach. in case of temporary problems with the wifi router (overheating, troubles with wifi signal, non-stable power supply, etc.), the additional electrical switches are installed. hence, the end-users can manually control the power grid segments. the nodemcu lua esp8266 wifi board has several digital and analog pins, which can be used for different purposes together with switching on/off relays, e.g. to control the motors, to acquire the data from sensors. it allows developing multifunctional smart systems. for instance, the smart lighting unit is created using nodemcu lua esp8266 esp-12 wifi board, arduino light sensor, and relay srd-05vdc-sl-c, which controls the power supply of the lamp. figure 5 shows a simplified example of smart lighting, where the lamp is represented by eight 5 mm light-emitting diodes (leds). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 154 figure 5. an example of smart lighting using nodemcu lua esp8266 esp-12 wifi board, arduino light sensor, and relay srd-05vdc-sl-c. the lamp is represented by eight 5mm leds 4. conclusions in this paper, the new energy-saving concept of the smart building power grid is proposed. the main principles are as follows: 1. the power grid of new smart building is installed using two power lines – the first one is for continuously connected equipment like alarm systems and refrigerators, while the second one is for standby devices. in this case, the wbs algorithm is applied. 2. the power grids of existing smart buildings are split into segments with appropriate contactors at the beginning of each segment. in this case, the segments are connected / disconnected according to the needs of end-users. new smart buildings can apply this principle as well. 3. the contactors are unified hardware units based on nodemcu lua esp8266 wifi iot development board, acs712t elc-30a current sensor, and songle relay, which is the budget solution of approximately 5 usd price. the automatic mode is based on the analysis of the current on the consumption side using acs712t elc-30a sensor. the descendant relays are switched off if the appropriate current is less than or equals any number in the historical data. the data are represented by the last ten values of the current measured when the appropriate relay is switched off by clicking a button on the c# windows form application. this approach is a simplified version of the linear classification with sliding window in machine learning. the final step is to switch off the root contactor if all the descendent relays are switched off. the developed software consists of two parts, low-level arduino sketches and high-level c# windows form appliance. they are connected by mqtt broker mosquitto. the proposed concept was successfully tested using a prototype with three segments, one of which includes smart lighting. the most likely prospect for the further development of this work is the remote control of the power grid using mobile phones and gsm/gprs modules on the smart building side. d. zubov an energy-saving concept of the smart building power grid with separated lines for standby devices 155 references standby power: lawrence berkeley national laboratory. (2016). retrieved from http://standby.lbl.gov cut phantom power to lower energy costs. (2016). retrieved from http://www.greenlivingonline.com/article/cut-phantom-power-lower-energy-costs solanki, p.s., sarma mallela, v., & zhou, c. (2013). an investigation of standby energy losses in residential sector: solutions and policies. int. j. of energy and environment, vol. 4, iss. 1, 117-126. ajay-d-vimal raj, p., sudhakaran, m., & philomen-d-anand raj, p. (2009). estimation of standby power consumption for typical appliances. j. of engineering science and technology review, 2 (1), 141-144. li-juan qu, xiao-li shen, wei chen, li-nan lei, jin-yuan qian, jian ge, & jing-hua wang (2015). standby power consumption analysis of typical university buildings based on energy consumption monitoring platform. in proceedings of the 7th international conference of sudbe2015. reading, uk: university of reading. lang, c. e. (2014). mandatory standard limiting standby power is published. retrieved from http://www.conuee.gob.mx/wb/conuee/standby_power norma oficial mexicana nom-032-ener-2013, límites máximos de potencia eléctrica para equipos y aparatos que demandan energía en espera. métodos de prueba y etiquetado. (2014). retrieved from http://www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5330530&fecha=23/01/2014 commission regulation (eu) no 801/2013 of 22 august 2013 amending regulation (ec) no 1275/2008 with regard to ecodesign requirements for standby, off mode electric power consumption of electrical and electronic household and office equipment, and amending regulation (ec) no 642/2009 with regard to ecodesign requirements for televisions. (2013). retrieved from http://www.greenlivingonline.com/article/cut-phantom-power-lower-energycosts http://eurlex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/lexuriserv.do?uri=oj:l:2013:225:0001:0012:en:pdf mitchell, t. (2016). generative and discriminative classifiers: naive bayes and logistic regression. draft version. retrieved from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tom/mlbook/nbayeslogreg.pdf rudin, c., waltz, d., anderson, r., boulanger, a., salleb-aouissi, a., chow, m., dutta, h., gross, p., huang, b., & ierome, s. (2012). machine learning for the new york city power grid. ieee transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence. retrieved from http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/68634#files-area voynichka, i. (2014). machine learning for the smart grid. retrieved from http://cs229.stanford.edu/proj2014/iliana%20voynichka,%20machine%20learning%20for%2 0the%20smart%20grid.pdf wu, l., kaiser, g., rudin, c., waltz, d., anderson, r., boulanger, a., salleb-aoussi, a., dutta, h., & pooleery, m. (2011). evaluating machine learning for improving power grid reliability. in proceedings of icml 2011 workshop on machine learning for global challenge. retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/rudin/www/docs/wuetalnova11.pdf warren, j.d., adams, j., & molle, h. (2011). arduino robotics. new york, usa: apress media llc. chakraborty, a. & pfaelzer, a. (2011). an overview of standby power management in electrical and electronic power devices and appliances to improve the overall energy efficiency in creating a green world. j. of renewable and sustainable energy, 3 (2), 023112, 10 p. alan meier, k. (2001). a worldwide review of standby power use in homes. lawrence berkeley national laboratory, dec. 2001, 1-5. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 156 mohanty, b. (2001). standby power losses in household electrical appliances and office equipment. regional symposium on energy efficiency standards and labelling. paris, france, brussels, belgium: french agency for the environment and energy management (ademe). joseph burgett, m., & abdol chini, r. (2013). reducing residential miscellaneous electrical loads with a whole-house switch. in proceedings of the 49th asc annual international conference. san luis obispo, ca, usa: california polytechnic state university. cheng-hung tsai (2013). design and implementation of the mechanism to reduce the standby power consumption for home appliances (doctoral dissertation). available from national taiwan university of science and technology dissertations and theses database. (urn no. etd-0724114-184736) varghese, s.s. & premi, g. (2013). user-controlled low power home surveillance system. international j. of emerging technology and advanced engineering, vol. 3, iss. 3,412-416. lópez-de-armentia, j., casado-mansilla, d., lópez-pérez, s., & lópez-de-ipiña, d. (2014). reducing energy waste through eco-aware everyday things. mobile information systems, vol. 10, iss. 1, 79-103. iec 62301:2011: household electrical appliances measurement of standby power. international electrotechnical commission standard. (2011). retrieved from https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/6789 zubov, d. (2016). an iot concept of the small virtual power plant based on arduino platform and mqtt protocol. in proc. of int. conf. “on applied internet and information technologies”. bitola, macedonia: “st kliment ohridski” university. slama, d., puhlmann, f., morrish, j., & rishi bhatnagar, m. (2015). enterprise iot: strategies and best practices for connected products and services. sebastopol, usa: o'reilly media. norris, d. (2015). the internet of things: do-it-yourself at home projects for arduino, raspberry pi, and beaglebone black. new york, usa: mcgraw-hill education. doukas, c. (2012). building internet of things with the arduino. seattle, washington, usa: createspace independent publishing platform, amazon.com. industruino. (2016). retrieved from https://industruino.com arduino – maximum run time and fault tolerance. (2013). retrieved from http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=191416.0 user manual for esp-12e devkit based on esp8266. (2016). retrieved from https://smartarduino.gitbooks.io/user-manual-for-esp-12e-devkit/content/index.html jaffey, t. (2014). mqtt and coap, iot protocols. retrieved from https://eclipse.org/community/eclipse_newsletter/2014/february/article2.php stansberry, j. (2015). the iot communication protocols. retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iot-communication-protocols-james-stansberry kurkinen, l. (2016). smart homes and home automation. retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/pdf/active-healthyageing/berg_smart_homes.pdf songle relay t90. (2016). retrieved from http://www.songle.com/en/pdf/2008414165561000.pdf alboteanu, l., manolea, g., & ivanov, s. (2015). management of renewable energy sources integrated in a micro smart grid. annals of the university of craiova, electrical engineering series, no. 39, 131-137. an open source mqtt v3.1/v3.1.1 broker mosquitto. (2016). retrieved from http://mosquitto.org microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 86 the level of proficiency of special education teachers and their opinions on instructional technologies huseyin bicen near east university, distance learning center, nicosia, northern cyprus yakın doğu blv, lefkoşa, tel.: +90 392 223 64 64 huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr erkan bal near east university, distance learning center, nicosia, northern cyprus yakın doğu blv, lefkoşa, tel.: +90 392 223 64 64 erkan.bal@neu.edu.tr pelin gür near east university, distance learning center, nicosia, northern cyprus yakın doğu blv, lefkoşa, tel.: +90 392 223 64 64 pelin.gur@neu.edu.tr zöhre serttaş near east university, distance learning center, nicosia, northern cyprus zohre.serttas@neu.edu.tr abstract in this study, the aim is to determine the proficiency of special education teachers in terms of using instructional technologies in the trnc. a total of 80 special education teachers from rehabilitation institutes in famagusta, kyrenia, and nicosia participated in this study in the 2016 – 2017 education year, of whom 45 were women and 45 were men. the quantitative research method was used and, in terms of collection tools, a demographic information form along with an opinion survey aimed at defining their usage and skill levels of special education teachers in the trnc related to the use of instructional technologies were used. the data were analysed with the spss 20.00 program. based on the results of the analysis, it was found that the level of using educational technologies was low. according to the data which was obtained from teachers’ opinions, the special education teachers were in favour of using instructional technologies in their lessons. when the results of this study are considered, it can be observed that the special education teachers who have been working in the trnc are in favour of using instructional technologies in their classes; however, they are lacking in terms of equipment and knowledge. keywords: special education, teachers, instructional technologies, skill levels 1. introduction the rapid development of technology has affected different areas and it has created new methods along with different perspectives. along with technology, science has also been progressing rapidly, facilitating activities in daily life and removing the obstacles that block access to knowledge and thus expediting the process (hacıömeroğlu, 2016). undeniably, education is one of the departments in which technology is actively used. new educational trends have been observed as a result of the integration of technology (i̇zci & eroğlu, 2016). replacing traditional education methods, the use of instructional technologies has become widespread in education with student-centred education methods. the opinions that teachers have towards technology, their level of proficiency and also their attitude can affect the students’ adaptation process. in this content, the key factor in the process of integrating technology into education is teachers (çakır & oktay, 2013). the use of instructional technologies is an approach which aims to generate permanent learning with technology and to develop education that is integrated with technology (demirel & yağcı, 2017). the primary aim of instructional technologies is for students to acquire knowledge effectively and permanently (gedik, 2017). instructional technologies have an important role in h. bicen, e. bal, p. gür, z. serttaş the level of proficiency of special education teachers and their opinions on instructional technologies 87 making knowledge permanent and it provides significant opportunities for students to improve themselves through lifelong learning (teralı & tuğun, 2011). instructional technologies provide the opportunity to expedite the learning of students with the tools and materials used. these tools and materials include the internet, projection and microsoft office programs (demirel & yağcı, 2017). teachers largely prefer to use projection, computers and ms office programs during their lessons (özçiftçi & çakır, 2015). because the technology is continually improving and growing, the tools and materials that are used in education have also changed significantly. when technology such as computers, the internet, projection, multimedia, etc. are combined with education, the process of learning becomes more permanent and they also have an important role in enhancing the education (i̇şman, 2015). önal and çakır (2016) defined in their study that computers and projection are the most important tools that mathematics teachers use in their lessons. they also emphasized that it is important that they are competent in the application of ms office software programs that they use to prepare applications to transfer knowledge via projection. it is important for teachers and candidate teachers to use instructional technologies permanently and to integrate technology successfully into education (cabı & ergün, 2016). the technology that is used in education, like in all other departments, contributes significantly to the individuals who have special education requirements (yaman dönmez, avcı & yurdakul, 2016). with the help of improved technology that is becoming more widely integrated into education, this has also enabled technology to begin to be used in special education. koehler and mishra (2008) stated that if the special education teachers’ level of proficiency in terms knowledge of content, pedagogy and technological information is satisfactory, they will find it easy to use instructional technologies and to apply them in their teaching environments. throughout the studies held angeli's (2004) study on teacher candidates show that; they had been incompetent in using computers during their teaching. additionally, gündüz & odabası (2004)'s study states that the teachers needed to integrate their lessons with the technology in order to grow members of the information society. on the other hand, ulaş & ozan (2010)'s study about classroom teachers shows that the teachers rarely used the internet-based technologies and they did not have sufficient necessary for using these technologies. koehler et. al. (2014) emphasize that; the relationship between the teachers and pedagogical and technological knowledge has been positive in interaction in order to produce an effective teaching. messina & tabone (2015)'s studies observed that there had been an increase in terms of teacher self-confidence who use technological software and tools. according to many studies related to this topic; the technological tools had been enriching the media and providing fast and perpetual learning. furthermore, these tools have been effective in terms of increasing lesson interest and student learning eagerness. (aksal, 2011; delen, erhan & bulut, 2011; kenar, 2012; saracaloğlu et. al.). in the literature, it is identified that the most important factor in the process of integrating technology into education is the skills and attitudes of the teachers’ towards using technology. within this context, it of significant importance for special education teachers to follow and use technology. in this study, the aim is to define the proficiency levels of special education teachers who are working in special education schools in the trnc related to their use of technology, their attitudes towards using instructional technologies and their opinions about technology. 1.1. aim of the study the aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the level of the skills of the special education teachers who are working in special education schools and rehabilitation institutes in trnc and their opinions about using instructional technologies in their lessons. within this context, answers to the following questions are sought: in regard to the special education teachers: 1. what are their proficiency levels in terms of instructional technologies? 2. what are their opinions towards using instructional technologies? brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 88 1.2. importance with the help of increasingly enriched educational technological software, the use of technology in education departments has become considerably more widespread. it can be clearly seen in the literature that using technologies in education has increased students’ learning desire and it has made learning permanent. special education students’ interest in technological tools has revealed the importance of using technology in special education. therefore, the special education teachers’ opinions regarding instructional technologies and their efficiency in this field are of particular importance. 2. method 2.1. research model this study is a descriptive analysis and is conducted with the scanning method. in this context, the aim is to determine the nature of the relationship between the level of the skills of using instructional technologies of special education teachers who are in the trnc as well as their opinions towards using these technologies. 2.2. data collection within this study, permission was taken from the head teachers from the special education rehabilitation institutes in famagusta, kyrenia, and nicosia during the 2016-2017 academic year; subsequently, 80 special education teachers were reached, of whom 45 were female and 35 were male. demographic information form, defining the proficiency levels of the special education teachers in the trnc in terms of using instructional technologies, and an opinion survey regarding the use of this technology were used in this study. 2.3. limitations this study is limited to 80 special education teachers in famagusta, kyrenia, and nicosia who were teaching during the 2016-2017 academic year. 2.4. data analysis the data collected from the surveys were transferred to spss 20.00 program for analysis. in term of the scores for the proficiency levels regarding the use of technology, “1” referred to “insufficient”, while “3” referred to “sufficient”. in terms of the opinions regarding the technology, “1” referred to “strongly disagree”, while “5” referred to “strongly agree”. 3. participants in terms of gender distribution, 56.3% of the special education teachers who participated in this study were female (f=45), while 43.7% were male (f=35). furthermore, in terms of the age ranges of the participants, 62.5% were 20-23 (f=50), while 37.5% were 24 or over (f=30). when the teachers’ occupational experience is considered, 52.5% (f=42) of them have had 2 years of experience, 20% of them (f=16) had 3-6 years, 8.8% of them (f=7) had 7-14 years and 18.8% of them (f=15) had 15 years. when the teachers’ usage of computers and mobile devices are considered, 20% of them (f=16) had used such devices for 3-6 years, 52.5% (f=42) had used them for 7-14 years and 27.5% of them had used (f=22) them for more than 15 years. h. bicen, e. bal, p. gür, z. serttaş the level of proficiency of special education teachers and their opinions on instructional technologies 89 4. results and discussion table 1. the symptoms of the teachers’ level of the skills of using instructional technologies of special education teachers no n mean sd 1 i can prepare presentations using software (such as powerpoint, etc.) and present them in class 80 2.88 .51 2 i can prepare course notes using microsoft office programs (such as word, excel, etc.) 80 2.87 .56 3 i can download appropriate videos from the internet according to the content of the lesson 80 2.85 .54 4 i can share my virtual course notes that i have prepared online 80 2.83 .55 5 i can record videos for the lessons and share them with the students or publish them online 80 2.88 .51 6 i can use smartboards in the classroom 80 1.51 .69 7 i can create and apply a quiz in the virtual environment 80 1.35 .65 8 i can create virtual animations according to the lesson 80 1.27 .59 9 i can prepare 3d models with augmented reality technology or download the ready/prepared models and use them in the lessons 80 1.22 .50 10 i can create e-books according to content of the lesson 80 1.22 .52 in table 1, the responses in terms of the teachers’ proficiency levels regarding instructional technologies for special education teachers were placed in order from “sufficient” to “insufficient”. the teachers who participated in this study answered “sufficient” to the statements: “i can prepare presentations using software (such as powerpoint, etc.) and present them in class” (m: 2.88, sd:.51); “i can prepare course notes using microsoft office programs (such as word, excel, etc.)” (m: 2.87, sd: .56); “i can download appropriate videos from the internet according to the content of the lesson” (m: 2.85, sd: .54); “i can share my virtual course notes that i have prepared online” (m: 2.83, sd: .55); “i can record videos for the lessons and share them with the students or publish them online” (m: 2.88, sd: .51). however, the items “i can use smartboards in the classroom” (m: 1.35, sd: .69); “i can create and apply a quiz in the virtual environment” (m: 1.35, sd: .65); “i can create virtual animations according to the lesson” (m: 1.27, sd: .59); “i can prepare 3d models with augmented reality technology or download the ready/prepared models and use them in the lessons” (m: 1.22, sd: .50); “i can create e-books according to content of the lesson” (m: 1.22, sd: .52) were answered as “insufficient” on average. in the study by çelik and gündüz (2015), the results showed that the knowledge of the teachers regarding software and technology for using smartboards was insufficient. they identified that in-service training about the use of instructional technologies must be given to the teachers. according to the data in table 1, it can be seen that although the special education teachers are able to use ms office programs, they are insufficient in adapting themselves to new instructional technologies. in table 2, the opinions of the teachers were put in order from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. the special education teachers answered “strongly agree” to the statements “the content of the lessons is up to date” (m: 4.38, sd: .92); “they are memorable/catchy” (m: 4.27, sd: .89); “it provides repetition/double check” (m: 4.27, sd: .82); “it increases the interest in the lesson” (m: 4.26, sd: 1.05); “it facilitates learning” (m: 4.25 sd: .90) in relation to the use of instructional technologies. however, they answered “agree” to the statements “it expedites learning” (m: 4.19, sd: .89); “it encourages active participation in the lesson” (m: 4.11, sd: .95); “it enables interactive learning” (m: 4.12, sd: 1.04); “it motivates the students who are bored during the lesson” (m: 4.11, sd: .95); “it facilitates access to materials” (m: 4.11, sd: 1.04), “it brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 90 increases the effect of individual learning” (m: 4.10, sd: 1.06); “its easy accessibility increases its utilization” (m: 4.10, sd: 1.06); “it removes the restrictions of space and time” (m: 3.98, sd: 1.01); “it provides learning supported by games” (m: 3.96, sd: 1.08), “it provides cooperative learning” (m: 3.80, sd: 1.19). table 2. special education teachers’ opinions on instructional technologies no n m sd 1 the content of the lessons is up to date 80 4.38 .92 2 they are memorable/catchy 80 4.27 .89 3 it provides repetition/double check 80 4.27 .82 4 it increases the interest in the lesson 80 4.26 1.05 5 it facilitates learning 80 4.25 .90 6 it expedites learning 80 4.19 .89 7 it encourages active participation in the lesson 80 4.17 1.04 8 it enables interactive learning 80 4.12 1.04 9 it motivates the students who are bored during the lesson 80 4.11 .95 10 it facilitates access to materials 80 4.11 1.04 11 it increases the effect of individual learning 80 4.10 1.06 12 its easy accessibility increases its utilization 80 4.03 1.06 13 it removes the restrictions of space and time 80 3.98 1.01 14 it provides learning supported by games 80 3.96 1.08 15 it provides cooperative learning 80 3.80 1.19 1-strongly disagree, 2-disagree, 3-neutral, 4-agree, 5-strongly agree in the study conducted by sakız, özden, aksu and şimşek (2014), the results demonstrated that using instructional technologies and smartboards in science and technology lessons makes learning more effective and permanent. in the questions asked in the survey, the respondents stated that using smartboards increases enjoyment and facilitates learning, which are similar results to the present study. 5. conclusion and further studies according to the opinions obtained from this study, when the special education teachers’ use of instructional technologies is considered, it was found that they use microsoft office programs and prepare presentations, and they also prepare and share their course notes. however, the special education teachers who were able to record or share videos with a variety of tools are unfortunately insufficient in using smartboards, creating e-books and virtual animation videos with augmented reality and 3d technologies. when the special education teachers’ opinions are considered, it can be seen that they gave positive feedback about increasing their knowledge on up-to-date educational methods, that technology would increase student interest in lessons, it facilitates and expedites learning, it removes the concept of space and time, and also it provides cooperative learning. future research should be conducted in experimental studies in which the special education teachers will be given in-service training related to their insufficiencies in new instructional technologies that are used in education. references aksal,a.fahriye (2011). develoing evaluative tool for online learning and teaching process, the turkish online journal of educational technology, 10(3), 69-75. angeli, c. (2005). transforming a teacher education method course through technology: effects on preservice teachers’ technology competency. computers & education,45(4), 383-398. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2004.06.002 h. bicen, e. bal, p. gür, z. serttaş the level of proficiency of special education teachers and their opinions on instructional technologies 91 cabı, e., & ergün, e. (2016). öğretim teknolojileri ve materyal tasarımı dersinin öğretmen adaylarının eğitimde teknoloji kullanımına yönelik kaygılarına etkisi. başkent university journal of education, 3(1). çakır, r., & oktay, s. (2013). bilgi toplumu olma yolunda öğretmenlerin teknoloji kullanımları. gazi üniversitesi endüstriyel sanatlar eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 30, 35-54. çelik, h. c., & gündüz, s. (2015). öğrencilerin matematik dersinde akıllı tahta kullanımına yönelik tutumlarının çeşitli değişkenler açısından i̇ncelenmesi. delen, erhan & bulut, okan (2011). “the relationship between student exposure to technology and their achievement in science and math. turkish online journal of educational technology, 10(3), 311-317. demirel, ö., & yağcı, e. (2017). eğitim, öğretim teknolojisi ve i̇letişim. pegem atıf i̇ndeksi, 2-26. gedik, n. (2017). examining the conceptualization of instructional technology i̇n turkey. contemporary educational technology, 8(1), 76-98. gündüz, s., & odabası, f. (2004). bilgi çaginda ögretmen adaylarinin egitiminde ögretim teknolojileri ve materyal gelistirme dersinin önemi. tojet: the turkish online journal of educational technology, 3(1). hacıömeroğlu, g., kutluca, t., & gündüz, s. (2016). türkiye’de bilgisayar destekli matematik öğretimini temel alan çalişmalarin değerlendirilmesi. journal of theory and practice in education. 2016, 12(6), 1253-1272 i̇şman, a. (2015). eğitim teknolojisi ve öğretim tasarımı. eğitim teknolojileri okumaları editörler: buket akkoyunlu, aytekin i̇şman, hatice ferhan odabaşı, nisan. i̇zci, e., & eroğlu, m. (2016). evaluation of i̇n-service training program named technology usage course i̇n education eğitimde teknoloji kullanımı kursu hizmet içi eğitim programının değerlendirilmesi. journal of human sciences, 13(1), 1666-1688. kenar, i̇.(2012). teknoloji ve derslerde teknoloji kullanımına yönelik veli tutum ölçeği geliştirilmesi ve tablet pc uygulaması. eğitim bilimleri araştırması dergisi, 2(2), 123-136. koehler, m. j., mishra, p., kereluik, k., shin, t. s., & graham, c. r. (2014). the technological pedagogical content knowledge framework. in handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 101-111). springer, new york, ny. koehler, m.,&mishra, p. (2008). introducing tpck. in aacte committee on innovation and technology(eds.), handbook of technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpck), pp. 329. messina, l., & tabone, s. (2015). technology proficiency, tpack and beliefs about technology: a survey with primary school student teachers. rem–research on education and media, 5(1), 11-30. önal, n., & çakır, h. (2016). ortaokul matematik öğretmenlerinin matematik öğretiminde bilişim teknolojileri kullanımına i̇lişkin görüşleri. mersin university journal of the faculty of education, 12(1). özçiftçi, m., & çakır, r. (2015). öğretmenlerin yaşam boyu öğrenme eğilimleri ve eğitim teknolojisi standartları öz yeterliklerinin i̇ncelenmesi. eğitim teknolojisi kuram ve uygulama, 5(1). sakız, g.,özden, b., aksu, d., & şimşek, ö. (2014). fen ve teknoloji dersinde akıllı tahta kullanımının öğrenci başarısına ve dersin i̇şlenişine yönelik tutuma etkisi. atatürk üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi, 18(3). saracaloğlu, a. s., dinçer, b., & dedebali, n. c. (2017). sınıf öğretmeni adaylarının i̇nternet ve teknolojiye yönelik tutumları i̇le bilgisayar özyeterlik algılarının i̇ncelenmesi. journal of international social research, 10(51). teralı, m., & tuğun, v. (2011). internet use profile of university student. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 15, 4068-4070. ulaş, a. h., & ozan, c. (2010). sınıf öğretmenlerinin eğitim teknolojileri açısından yeterlilik düzeyi. atatürk üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi, 14(1). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 92 yaman, f., dönmez, o., avcı, e., & yurdakul, i. k. (2016). i̇şitme engelli öğrencilerin okumayazma eğitiminde mobil uygulama kullanımı. eğitim ve bilim, 41(188). huseyin bicen (huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr) was born in nicosia on december 31, 1986. he began lecturing computer and educational technologies related courses in 2007, at the near east university, ataturk faculty of education, in computer education and instructional technologies department, as a lecturer. since july 2015, he has been associate professor on the same department. since october 2013, he has been head of distance learning centre and department of human resources development in education. hüseyin bicen has two (2) national academic content book published by reputable publishing houses. eight (8) of his articles were indexed at social sciences index (ssci) and thirty (30) were indexed in the educational field indexes (isi, british education index, eric, science direct, scopus etc.). erkan bal (erkan.bal@neu.edu.tr) was born in adana seyhan. he was graduated from visual communication and design from near east university. he was finished his master on department of computer and teaching tecnology and on the same department he is continue to do his phd. he is a lecturer in department of computer and teaching tecnology and coordinator of distance learning at near east university. he has many articles and studies at prestigious index. (ssci,ahci,sci, scopus,science direct etc.). pelin gur (pelin.gur@neu.edu.tr), was born in adana on april 9, 1991. since july 2014, she has been working as a courses coordinator of distance learning centre and a research assistant in faculty of education. she began lecturing special education related courses in 2014, at the near east university, ataturk faculty of education, in special education department. one (1) of her articles was indexed at emerging sources citation index (esci) and one (1) was indexed in the educational field indexes (isi, british education index, eric, science direct, scopus etc.). zohre serttas (zohre.serttas@neu.edu.tr) was born on august 14, 1994 in gaziantep. graduated from department of teaching in computer and instructional technologies in 2016. in 2016, she started her master's degree in special education. on september 5, 2016, she started to work as a course coordinator at the distance education centre. she is working as a lecturer at 2017 2018 spring semester in near east university at atatürk education faculty, department of computer and instructional technologies education. in 2018, she started to teach computer and educational technologies. her research interests are distance education, technology, integration and use of technology in special education and special education. one (1) of her articles was indexed at emerging sources citation index (esci), one (1) of her articles was indexed in web of sciences. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 101 integrating moocs in embedded systems blended courses razvan bogdan department of computer and information technology, politehnica university of timisoara, piata victoriei nr. 2, 300006 timisoara, romania razvan.bogdan@cs.upt.ro abstract massive open online course (mooc) paradigm has been growing in less than a decade from a life-long learning approach to a state-of-the-art method of offering a large plethora of courses and even specializations. not only higher education, but also private companies started to manifest a growing interest into all the possibilities this technology is offering. this phenomenon received extra-consideration when renowned universities like stanford, harvard, école polytechnique fédérale de lausanne, the massachusetts institute of technology and rice university started offering such courses. embedded systems field, on the other side, is one domain that continuously needs attention from educators. the concepts should be presented in a very friendly and approachable way, while in the same time preserving a practical, applicative vision. this paper presents a modality of integrating moocs into embedded systems higher education. the obtained results show that students prefer such a mix to the classical classroom methods of teaching. keywords: massive open online courses (moocs), embedded systems, blended courses, higher education 1. introduction coined in 2008, the term massive open online courses (moocs) has become one of the common words used now-a-days among students, engineers and researchers. the year 2012 was called “the year of mooc” (wu, 2016) and it is the moment when different private companies joined their efforts with top universities to offer high-quality moocs (baran & baraniuk, 2016). the impact of moocs is felt even in the industry because different companies are developing special programs by which are paying their employees the tuition of following their desired courses on mooc platforms. such a facility is deductible based on the obtained certification. different courses have been offered, which are currently migrating towards specializations due to economic reasons (baran & baraniuk, 2016). mooc paradigm offers a number of tangible advantages: providing high quality education, increasing accessibility of higher-education studies, independent learning and so on. even if moocs have been initially designed as standalone courses, one of their state-of-theart use cases is that of blended courses. such courses have been first introduced more than ten years back (holotescu & grosseck, 2014), but the usage of the new education paradigm which are moocs, is pushing forward the promotion of such an approach. blended courses basically deal with a combination of classical teaching methods and also online activities and in the same time offer an integration of synchronous and asynchronous learning tools. one of the academic fields where a spectrum of methods is being researched that can enhance student’s understanding is that of embedded systems. a number of approaches have been proposed (bogdan, 2016), (bogdan & ancusa, 2011), (bogdan & ancusa, 2012), but the problem remains: students find the concepts as being very tedious and tend to avoid building practical solutions. this paper is presenting the case of introducing moocs with no synchronization into the embedded systems courses at “politehnica” university of timisoara, in romania. the rest of this paper is organized as follows: the second section presents previous work relevant to the topic of this paper, while section three offers the used methodology. the last section is devoted to obtained results and conclusions. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 102 2. previous work this section is presenting, first of all, previous work related to moocs. secondly, different approaches to teaching embedded systems are discussed and also how embedded systems have been taught by using moocs. in the end, state-of-the-art literature review regarding teaching blended courses by incorporating moocs is offered. the massive open online courses have been defined in (azvedo & marques, 2016) as being “sets of learning activities and resources, web-based, free-of-charge and usually with no prerequisites, which can be explored simultaneously by hundreds of people.” there are available two types of moocs, namely cmoocs and xmoocs (grosseck & holotescu, 2015). in the first category the participants are required to contribute to the content of the course by bringing new additional, relevant information specific to content of that course. the xmoocs appeared after the cmoocs when different universities like stanford, epfl, the massachusetts institute of technology, rice university (wu, 2016), (baran & baraniuk, 2016), (azvedo & marques, 2016) started to offer structured and instructor-based moocs. such xmoocs are generally including different videos, subtitles (can vary to different languages), recommended readings, assignments and some form of assessments. different approaches are presented in the literature regarding building abilities to categories of computer science students (babori & fassi, 2016), (chirila & ciocarlie, 2015) and especially to those students whose aim is to practically learn embedded systems (bogdan & ancusa, 2012). relevant papers are (bogdan, 2016) and (bogdan & ancusa, 2011), where the authors present a method to teach embedded systems by means of industrial processes. this means that the students not only have to acquire practical knowledge about designing an embedded system application, but also have to to cope with a specific development process. the problem of moving different embedded systems courses towards moocs has been treated in the literature and we might say that this is done fairly with the appearance of the july 2016 number of ieee signal processing magazine. this is devoted for largely presenting the case of digital signal processing courses which have been offered by école polytechnique fédérale de lausanne, the massachusetts institute of technology and rice university on edx and coursera platforms (wu, 2016), (baran & baraniuk, 2016). some other relevant papers are (malchow & renz, 2016) and (malchow & bauer, 2016) which present a method of teaching java programming language by using embedded systems devices such as leds and sensors. in (bruff & fisher, 2013) and (bruff, 2012) is presented the case of a blended course (machine learning course at vanderbilt university) which uses a coursera platform to adopt different resources that can be used in the on-class course. a step by step checklist for using a mooc course to create a blended course is presented in (holotescu & grosseck, 2014) and (grosseck & holotescu, 2015). more than that, in (holotescu & grosseck, 2014) we find a systematic research for blending moocs in a course, but taking into consideration the synchronicity between the course and mooc. it is defined the fact that there is no synchronization between the mooc and the blended course when students have to study different resources from the mooc, but the assignments and evaluations are conducted in the blended course. there is a synchronization between the two approaches when students not only study all the resources, but also take part in the assignments and different forms of evaluation. a detailed overview of moocs and oer used in romania, including two examples of blended courses are offered in (vasiu & andone, 2014), but also in (bogdan, 2017). 3. methodology this paper presents an approach of integrating different moocs into a traditional embedded systems course. different topics and mooc platforms were integrated with the spring 2016 undergraduate embedded systems courses which are taught by the author at the third year of study; the involved students are both on-site and distance learning. for the distance learning students, the platform which is used is called the virtual campus of “politehnica” university of timisoara r. bogdan integrating moocs in embedded systems blended courses 103 (https://cv.upt.ro/course/view.php?id=1563). all the topics, discussions, messages were posted on this platform (figure 1). for the on-site students, the activity consists of face to face meetings, presentations and discussions. these two courses were presented in romanian language, but all the students can meet up the requirements of following an english technical course due to their previous english seminars and courses. the topics of the embedded system course combine technical explanations with practical exercises, so that in the end the students would have a foundation of this domain, but also practical abilities to attack a specific design problem: figure 1. embedded systems course space for distance learning  introductory course: reviews specific notions and terms from previous courses which are very useful in this present course;  what are embedded systems: presents definitions, but also practical examples and applications of embedded systems;  microcontrollers course: general diagram, peripheral devices;  programming a microcontroller: c programming of a microcontroller;  developing practical applications;  testing embedded systems: principles of testing embedded systems based on istqb (international software testing qualifications board) certification. the goal of integrating embedded systems moocs into this course comprises a two-fold approach:  enlarge students’ understanding about embedded systems which, in itself, is not a straight forward field of study; o different notions are explained from different point of view, so the students have more learning opportunities; o obtain auxiliary support regarding different specific topics; o getting to know a large spectrum of applications and design approaches;  allow students to become aware with the mooc paradigm o learn about the most important platforms, courses and specializations which are offered on such technology; o critically evaluate their usage for their own professional development; o making them aware about the “continuous learning” approach. research methods during the first meeting of the blended course, a presentation on massive open online courses (mooc) was offered to the students. they were able to ask questions and have a clear understanding of this. those students who wanted to further read on this topic, additional resources brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 104 were provided at the end of the presentation. students’ task was to enroll into such a course and complete at least 30% of the mooc activities, counting to 20% of their final mark of the blended course. the following steps were followed in order to complete mooc’s integration into the embedded systems course: 1. mooc’s proper selection a. as previously presented, at the first face to face meeting, students were introduced to moocs. for the distance learning students, they had a special activity called moocs in embedded systems, where the same presentation was offered. during this presentation different mooc platforms were introduced, such as coursera, udemy, udacity, khan academy and future learn, but also the concept of mooc directory, such as mooc list (https://www.mooc-list.com/?static=true). b. during this presentation, the author presented also the concept of specialization which very prominent on some platforms as coursera. c. students were invited to choose a course specific to embedded systems topic, so they were encouraged to search after embedded systems, microcontrollers, internet of things courses, but this was not a limitation. as an example, the author demonstrated how one can enroll to a course on the internet of things and embedded systems specialization from coursera. d. as a mandatory activity, students were asked to send the name of a course which they prefer to enroll to. a number of 3 students sent a totally incorrect course, so further explanations were supposed to be offered. e. another activity was the completion of a mooc activity related questionnaire. f. for those students who completed more than 60% of the mooc, the theoretical part of the blended course was automatically recognized as passed. 2. actively participating in the mooc a. all the students had to actively participate in the mooc activities. one of the main concerns of the students even after the initial presentation was if they were supposed to pay, so further clarifications were offered: it was a free subscription, so no student had to pay for the course, only those who wanted to have a certification. b. students had the chance to ask questions on the forum, to solve the homework and participate in different activities. for those students who enrolled in a course that did not offer the possibility to submit homework if they had not paid the full price, the homework could not be evaluated during the mooc. 3. create a learning portfolio a. students had to construct a learning portfolio which was supposed to contain at least: those questions that they asked on forums and the consequent answers, quizzes, homework, other assessments that they participated into, proof of their progress. 4. submit the portfolio for evaluation a. as a mandatory activity, each student had to create an archive with all the portfolio’s material and send it to the author (in the case of on-site students) or upload it on the virtual campus platform (in the case of distance-learning students). 4. obtained results one of the ending tasks of the mooc activity was that the students had to complete a survey. from the two specializations (on-site and distance-learning), a total number of 72 students were enrolled into this activity; 57 students (79.16%) chose to complete the survey. the survey revealed the fact that only 16% of the students have already been enrolled in a mooc. during this activity 70% of the participants preferred to use coursera as a platform, while the rest of 30% used udemy (20%) and edx (10%). it is interesting to note that 64% of the students have completed the r. bogdan integrating moocs in embedded systems blended courses 105 entire course, even if the requirement was only 30% and it was surprising to see that 9% of the participants even wanted to pursue a certification (figure 2a). one of the key points of this study was to understand how students perceive integrating moocs into embedded systems courses. in this regard, we can see that 94.7% of the participants appreciated that such an experience helped them to better understand this domain (figure 2b). in addition to that, in figure 4 it is highly recommended to notice that students were asked to evaluate how advantageous is to follow an embedded systems mooc from the point of view of theoretical and practical knowledge. 49% of the students rated this experiment as most advantageous, 29.8% as advantageous. figure 2. distribution of students who obtained a certification (a); integrating the mooc activity helped students to better understand embedded systems course (b) figure 3. distribution of students’ opinion regarding the way an embedded system course should be taught in relation to moocs (a); distribution of students who would follow again a mooc (b) another key element of this study was to understand if students prefer just following moocs instead of traditional embedded systems courses. the results of this point are presented in figure 3a which shows that 56.1% of the students prefer a mix between moocs and the classical approach of teaching embedded systems, in other words this variant of integrating moocs into courses is most preferred by students, while 31.6% of the students prefer the mooc variant to traditional courses. in figure 3b it is presented the fact that the great majority of the students (there is only one exception) would take again a mooc. (a) (b) (a) (b) (b) brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 106 figure 4. from the point of view of the acquired embedded systems knowledge (theoretical and practical), how would you rate the experience of following an embedded systems mooc? (1 = extremely disadvantageous, 5 = most advantageous) lessons learned after completing the experiment of integrating moocs into an embedded systems course, different lesson can be learned. these will be presented following:  students’ choice of a specific course can be very tedious. in our experience, students cannot decide upon a certain course, therefore some course examples are indeed very helpful.  sometimes students tend to choose from courses which are not specific for that particular domain of the blended course. in order to avoid explaining again what was previously said, it is advisable to have a clear explanation in the first presentation.  the fact that a paid course is not a mandatory option in order to complete the activity should be loud and clear mentioned in the initial presentation. in this way, many forum questions can be avoided.  it is a good idea to have a format for the portfolio, also an example because students do not necessary understand how they should report the progress percentage.  clear deadlines for choosing a mooc and for uploading the portfolio should be established. 5. conclusion and future work massive open online courses (mooc) have proved to be a virtual space to self-paced and active learning which offer the participants the chance to take part into global learning communities. the moocs are a medium to build constant education and learning autonomy. embedded systems are nowadays the motor which build smart cities and future societies. this paper presents a method to integrate moocs into embedded systems courses. the obtained results show that students are extremely favorable to such an approach, but also to moocs as a paradigm. as future work our plan is to continue extending this method to english-taught blended courses, in the same time trying to diversify the resources and practical exercises. references azevedo j. & marques m. (2016). will my mooc succeed? success factors for massive open online courses. 8th world conference on educational sciences. university of alcala, madrid, spain. babori, a., fihri fassi, h., hariri, a., & bideq, m. (2016). an e-learning environment for algorithmic: toward an active construction of skills. world journal on educational technology, 8(2). baran, t., baraniuk r., oppenheim a., prandoni p., & vetterli m. (2016). mooc adventures in signal processing. ieee signal processing magazine, 33(4), 62 83. r. bogdan integrating moocs in embedded systems blended courses 107 bogdan r., ancusa v., & popa m. (2011). teaching microcontrollers by means of industrial processes. 2nd international conference on networking and information technology, 17. bogdan r., ancusa v., & popa m. (2012). intensifying the interest in embedded systems programming using lpc2148 microcontrollers. international journal of information and education technology, 2(4). bogdan, r. (2016). guidelines for developing educational environments in the automotive industry, interaction design and architectures, issue 31, 59 – 73. bogdan, r. (2017). sentiment analysis on embedded systems blended courses. brain broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience 8(1), 17-23. bacau, romania. bruff, d. (2012). teaching with moocs: four cases. retrieved from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/2012/11/teaching-with-moocs-four-cases bruff, d. o., fisher, d. h., mcewen, k. e., & smith, b. e. (2013). wrapping a mooc: student perceptions of an experiment in blended learning. journal of online learning & teaching, 9(2). chirila, c. b., ciocarlie, h., stoicu-tivadar, l. (2015). generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions. brain broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience 6(1-2), 1-16. bacau, romania. grosseck g., holotescu c., bran r., & ivanova m. (2015). a checklist for a mooc activist. 9th international scientific conference elearning and software for education, 538-543. holotescu, c., grosseck, g., crețu, v., & naaji, a. (2014). integrating moocs in blended courses, 10th international scientific conference elearning and software for education. issn 2066 026x. bucharest, romania. malchow m., renz j., bauer m., & meinel c. (2016). enhance embedded system e-learning experience with sensors. ieee global engineering education conference (educon), 175 – 183. malchow m., renz j., bauer m., & meinel c. (2016). improved e-learning experience with embedded led system. annual ieee systems conference (syscon), 1 – 6. vaidya s. & paranjape a. (2014). moocs changing the way of education. ieee international conference on mooc, innovation and technology in education (mite), 362 – 365. vasiu r. & andone d. (2014). oers and moocs – the romanian experience, international conference on web and open access to learning. dubai, united arab emirates. wu, m. (2016). journey of learning, ieee signal processing magazine, 33(4), 3. răzvan bogdan (b. june 20, 1982) received his bsc in computer science (2006), and phd (2009) from "politehnica" university of timisoara. now he is assistant professor of embedded systems in department of computers and information technology, faculty of computers and automation, "politehnica" university of timisoara, romania. his current research interests include different aspects of embedded systems and e-learning technologies. he has (co-) authored 2 books and more than 20 papers. he is member of ieee and acm, being reviewer for elsevier and more than 10 conferences. microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_3.doc 31 a synoptic of software implementation for shift registers based on 16 th degree primitive polynomials mirella amelia mioc integrated center for research, development and innovation in advanced materials, nanotechnologies, and distributed systems – mansid, stefan cel mare university of suceava, românia mmioc@cs.upt.ro abstract almost all of the major applications in the specific fields of communication used a wellknown device called linear feedback shift register. usually lfsr functions in a galois field gf(2 n ), meaning that all the operations are done with arithmetic modulo n degree irreducible and especially primitive polynomials. storing data in galois fields allows effective and manageable manipulation, mainly in computer cryptographic applications. the analysis of functioning for primitive polynomials of 16th degree shows that almost all the obtained results are in the same time distribution. keywords: cryptosystem, irreducible polynomials, pseudo-random sequence, primitive polynomials, shift registers. 1. introduction a code-breaking machine appeared as one of the first forms of shift register early in the 40’s, in colossus. it was a five-stage device built of vacuum tubes and thyratrons. many different implementation forms were developed along the years. the lfsr (linear feedback shift register) is the basis of the stream ciphers and it is the most often used one in hardware designs. a string of memory cells that stored a string of bits and a clock pulse can advance the bits with one position in that string. for each clock pulse the new bit in the string is produced using the xor of certain positions. the basis of every lfsr is developed with a polynomial, which can be irreducible or primitive (angheloiu et al., 1986; schneier, 1996). a primitive polynomial satisfies some additional mathematical conditions and determines for the lfsr to have its maximum possible period, meaning (2n-1), where n is the number of cells of the shift register or the length. lfsr can be built based on xor (exclusive or) circuits or xnor (exclusive denied or). the difference of status is, of course, that the equivalent status will be 1, where it was 0. for an n bits lfsr, all the registers will be configured as shift registers, but only the last significant register will determine the feedback. an n bits register will always have n + 1 signals. every lfsr works by taking the xor of the selected bits in its internal state and any lfsr containing all zero bits will never move to any other state, so one possible state must be excluded from any cycle. a lfsr is composed of memory cells connected together as a shift register with linear feedback. in digital circuits a shift register is formed by flip-flops and exor gates chained together with a synchronous clock. shift registers are a form of sequential logic like counters. always the shift registers produce a discrete delay of a digital signal or waveform. considering that a shift register has n stages, the waveform is delayed by n discrete clock times. usually the naming of the shift register follows a type of convention shown normally in digital logic, with the least significant bit on the left. according to the communication protocol, the signals will be addressed, not the registers. there are n+1 signals for each n-bit register. always the next state of an lfsr is uniquely determined from the previous one by the feedback network. any lfsr will generate a sequence of different states starting with the initial one, called seed. a feedback shift register is composed of: a shift register a feedback function. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 figure 1. basis scheme for a feedback shift register a lfsr can be represented as a polynomial of variable x referred to as the generator polynomial or the characteristic polynomial. the input bit is given from a linear function of the initial status for a special shift register called linear feedback shift register (lfsr). the initial value of the register is called seed and the produced sequence is completely determined by the initial status. because the register has a finite number of possible statuses, after a period the sequence will be repeated. if the feedback function is very well chosen, the produced sequence will be random and the cycle will be very long, called by golomb (1967) maximum lengths shift register sequences. goresky and klapper (2004) show two possibilities to implement a lfsr: • fibonacci form • galois. figure 2. fibonacci implementation in fibonacci form the weight for any status is 0, when there is not any connection and 1 for sending back. exceptions make the first and the last one, both connected, so always on 1. figure 3. galois implementation in galois implementation there is a shift register, whose content is modified each step at a binary value sent to the output. in galois configuration the single shifted out bit is xor ed with several bits in the shift register and in conventional configuration each new bit input to the shift register is the xor of several bits in the register. comparing the two schemes of representation, it is shown that the weight order in galois is opposite to the one in fibonacci. from the hardware point of view, because of the reduced number of xor gates in feedback, galois implementation is faster than fibonacci and so it is much more used. some other names used for these two implementations are simple shift register generator (ssrg) for fibonacci implementation and multiple-return shift register generator (mrsrg) for galois. from the utilization point of view there are two kinds of lfsr: the well-known lfsr, that is an “in-tapping” lfsr and the “out-tapping” lfsr. the “in-tapping” lfsr is usually called a m. a. mioc – a synoptic of software implementation for shift registers based on 16th degree primitive polynomials 33 misr (multiple input shift register). cycle codes belong to algebraically codes for errors detecting. this experiment develops an analysis of a linear feedback shift register and a multiple input – output shift register. by using a primitive polynomial in the polynomials modulo 2 as modular polynomial in the polynomial multiplication, can be created a galois field of order 2n with a polynomial beginning with xn. the most popular and widely used application of galois field is in cryptography. because all the data are represented as a vector in a finite field, encryption and decryption became easily to manipulate and straightforward by using mathematical arithmetic. such kind of field can be denoted as gf(2n) or gf(n) and one of the famous applications for that is in the rijndael algorithm (aes), where n=8. beginning with 2000, rijndael cryptosystem is officially the advanced encryption system (aes) (daemen & rijmen, 2002). the old des (data encryption standard) was broken from electronic frontier foundation in three days (matsui, 1994 ). the two authors, joan daemen and vincent rijmen from holland, chose to use a galois field gf (28) with the following generator polynomial. p(x)=x 8 +x 4 +x 3 +x+1 or ‘11b’ in hexadecimal representation. all arithmetical operations are developed in a galois group. the shift register cryptosystems variant has been developed from the evolution of the encrypting techniques (schneier, 1996). such a cryptosystem is based upon generating a sequence in a finite field, and for obtaining it a feedback shift register is used. there are some methods for using lfsr to build secure ciphers. for increasing the strength of the output from an lfsr it is often used another lfsr for controlling how often it is stepped. another technique uses three lfsrs with different periods and it is known as the geffe generator. it is usually necessary to combine the methods for obtaining more elaborate constructions. almost all the shift registers applications representing generator polynomials need to be developed in a finite field. evariste galois demonstrated that a field is an algebra with both addition and multiplication forming a group. some ground information from algebra demonstrated the importance of working with irreducible polynomials and primitive polynomials. also the importance of using shift registers in cryptosystems based on irreducible polynomials is demonstrated in increasing the obtained security. applications for using the linear feedback shift registers are in a variety of fields: • testing (abramovici et al., 1990; tsui, 1987); • pattern generators; • optimized counters (alfke, 1996); • checksums; • data integrity; • data encryption/ decryption; • built-in self-test (bist); • digital signal processing; • pseudo-random number generation (pn); • scrambler and/descrambler; • signature analyzer (alvarez et al., 2008); • error detection and correction; • wireless communications. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 2. mathematical background this finite field (ff) or galois field (gf) in abstract algebra is a field that contains only finitely many elements. finite fields are important in algebraic theory, number theory, galois theory, cryptography and coding theory (berlekamp, 1968; van lint, 1992). it is possible to classify the finite fields by size. so, for each prime p and positive integer k there is exactly one finite field up to isomorphism of size pk. each finite field of size q is the splitting field of the polynomial xq – x. a cyclic group is similarly the multiplicative group of the field. finite fields have applications in many areas of mathematics and computer science, including coding theory and others. the finite fields can be classified in the following rows: a. the order or the number of elements of a finite field is of the form pn, where n is a positive integer and p is a prime number called the characteristics of the field, b. for every prime number p and positive integer n there exists a finite field with pn elements, c. two finite fields with the same number of elements are isomorphic. it means that under the same remaining of the elements of one of these, both its addition and multiplication tables become identical to the corresponding table of the other one. the use of a naming scheme for finite fields that specifies only the order of the field is justified by this classification. notations for a finite field can be: fp n and gf (p n ). arithmetic in a finite field is different from the standard integer arithmetic (shannon, 1948). in the finite field there is a limited number of elements and the result of any operation performed is an element within that field. each finite field is not infinite, but despite this there are infinitely many different finite fields, and their cardinal (number of elements) is necessarily of the form pn where p is a prime number and n is a positive integer. two finite fields of the same size are isomorphic. the prime p is called the characteristic of the field and the positive integer n is called the dimension of this field over its prime field. finite fields are used in a variety of applications as in the classical coding theory in linear block codes such as bch (bose chaudhuri hocquenghem) and rs (reed solomon) and in cryptography algorithms such as des (data encryption standard) and rijndael encryption algorithm (aes). a binary polynomial f(x) of degree n has the form: f(x) = x n + an-1x n-1 + … +a1x + a0 where ai are binary coefficients. binary polynomials are added and multiplied in the normal manner of adding and multiplying polynomials, except that the resulting coefficients are reduced modulo two. a binary polynomial f(x) divides polynomial h(x) provided one can find a binary polynomial g(x) such that f(x)g(x)=h(x). a binary polynomial f(x) is irreducible if its only divisors are 1 and f(x). an irreducible binomial polynomial on degree n is primitive if f(x) is not a divisor of xr+1 for any r less than 2 n -1. the binary vector and power representations are two other methods of denoting gf(2 n ). as before let f(x) be a primitive binomial polynomial of degree n. considering z be a number such as f(z) = 0. a. binary vector representation for each element h(z) = a0 + a1z + ... + an-1z n-1 in gf(2 n) one can define a binary n-tuple by identifying: h(z)={a0, a1, ..., an-1} m. a. mioc – a synoptic of software implementation for shift registers based on 16th degree primitive polynomials 35 b. power representation it can be shown that since f(x) is a divisor of x2n-1 + 1 and not a divisor of xr + 1 for t less than 2n-1 then z2n-1 = 1 and that zi ≠ zj for i≤j≤2n-1. using the exponential notation z0 = 1, gf(2n) can be defined in terms of zi as: gf(2n) = { z0, z1, z3, .., z2n-2} u {0} this is defined to be the power representation of gf(2n). since every non-zero element in gf(2n) can be expressed as a power of z, this element is a generator of gf(2n). for most applications of gf(2n) to cryptography, the value of n is large and it is impossible to construct a complete look-up table for the field. in transmission of data the binary n-tuple representation (a0, a1, ..., an-1) is used. the discrete log problem is that when the binary n-tuple representation of an element in gf(2n) is given and it will find its power representation. for security reasons it was demonstrated that the maximum number of pseudo-random sequences is obtained by using irreducible polynomials (udar & kagaris, 2007). 3. experimental results and mathematical calculus the main subject of analysis for the functioning of linear feedback shift register (lfsr) and multiple input output shift register (misr) has the irreducible or primitive polynomials for degree 4, 8 and 16 (mioc, 2008). all the analysis is based on the three possible implementations for lfsr (vlăduńiu & crişan, 1989). first of all, there were developed programs for simulating the functioning of the three different types of implementations for comparing the obtained results for 4th degree irreducible polynomials (mioc, 2009). mioc (2008) shows a complete analysis and presentation of the functioning of lfsr for the 8th degree of irreducible polynomials. basic information concerning the comparative analysis of a lfsr and misr has been specified in mioc (2005). table i. the 16 th degree primitive polynomials no octal binary 1 219913 10001000000001011 2 234313 10011100011001011 3 233303 10011011011000011 4 307107 11000111001000111 5 201735 10000001111011101 6 272201 10111010010000001 7 242413 10100010100001011 8 270155 10111000001101101 9 305667 11000101110110111 10 236107 10011110001000111 11 307527 11000111101010111 12 306357 11000110011101111 13 302157 11000010001101111 14 210205 10001000010000101 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 table ii. some common 16 th degree polynomials (x^16+x^5+x^3+x^2+1) ; (x^16+x^14+x^13+x^11+1 ; (x^16+x^5+x^4+x^3+1) ; (x^16+x^13+x^12+x^11+1) ; (x^16+x^5+x^4+x^3+x^2+x+1) ; (x^16+x^15+x^14+x^13+x^12+x^11+1) ; (x^16+x^6+x^4+x+1) ; (x^16+x^15+x^12+x^10+1) ; (x^16+x^7+x^5+x^4+x^3+x^2+1) ; (x^16+x^14+x^13+x^12+x^11+x^9+1) ; (x^16+x^7+x^6+x^4+x^2+x+1) ; (x^16+x^15+x^14+x^12+x^10+x^9+1) ; (x^16+x^8+x^5+x^3+x^2+x+1 ; (x^16+x^15+x^14+x^13+x^11+x^8+1) ; (x^16+x^8+x^5+x^4+x^3+x^2+1) ; (x^16+x^14+x^13+x^12+x^11+x^8+1; (x^16+x^8+x^6+x^3+x^2+x+1) ; (x^16+x^15+x^14+x^13+x^10+x^8+1) ; (x^16+x^8+x^6+x^4+x^3+x^2+1) ; (x^16+x^14+x^13+x^12+x^10+x^8+1) ; (x^16+x^8+x^7+x^4+x^2+x+1; (x^16+x^15+x^14+x^12+x^9+x^8+1; (x^16+x^8+x^7+x^5+1) ; (x^16+x^11+x^9+x^8+1) ; (x^16+x^8+x^7+x^5+x^3+x^2+1) ; (x^16+x^14+x^13+x^11+x^9+x^8+1) ; (x^16+x^8+x^7+x^5+x^4+x^3+x^2+x+1) ; a simulation program for the functioning on lfsr of the 16th degree for the galois implementation was developed. in the following example an analysis for the 14 selected primitive polynomials will be presented. a list with the positions which will influence the future state is called tap sequence. for example, for the next scheme this is [16, 14, 13, 11]. figure 4. scheme for the polynomial with [16, 14, 13, 11] tap sequence this sequence can be represented by a polynomial mod 2, only with coefficients 1 and 0, called feedback polynomial or characteristic polynomial. for the above scheme this polynomial is: p(x)= x^16+x^14+x^13+x^11+1 ; m. a. mioc – a synoptic of software implementation for shift registers based on 16th degree primitive polynomials 37 figure 5. galois implementation for the polynomial x^16+x^12+x^3+x+1 figure 6. fibonacci implementation for the polynomial x^16+x^12+x^3+x+1 figure 7. ring implementation for the polynomial x6+x^12+x^3+x+1 vlăduńiu and crişan (1989) show three types of schemes for a 4th degree polynomial. similar to it, there were developed the three different implementations for the primitive polynomial x^16+x^12+x^3+x+1. it can be specified that these schemes are according to the well-known galois form, fibonacci representation and some other forms that are rarely used, called ring implementation. all of these implementations have the same function, because they describe a linear feedback shift register. in the experimental work there has been analyzed the behavior of 14 primitive polynomial degrees, 16 randomly selected. for each of these polynomials there has been developed the simulation of the specific functioning with a program. because the goal of this experimental work was to compare the different obtained results, a few rows of input data of a different length have been selected. first of all, in this analysis were verified the obtained times with the simulation program and they have been compared to each program. all the analyses submit the obtained results in the case of using galois implementation. times have been measured from 10 runs for the same string of input data and the average time has been calculated. for each primitive polynomial 6 different input data were used. in the following tables all the obtained results are shown by carrying out their time. so, for the 14 selected polynomials and for the input data lengths of 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 and 1000 the corresponding times are presented (display). the following tables contain the time measured in seconds. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 table iii. results of the main program time 20 time 30 time 40 prel 1 0.00003471 0.00005425 0.00006220 prel 2 0.00003864 0.00005288 0.00007746 prel 3 0.00003761 0.00005422 0.00007319 prel 4 0.00003562 0.00005112 0.00006738 prel 5 0.00003662 0.00005137 0.00007063 prel 6 0.00003763 0.00005172 0.00007026 prel 7 0.00004377 0.00005093 0.00007052 prel 8 0.00003557 0.00005649 0.00006912 prel 9 0.000039022 0.000053175 0.00007273 prel 10 0.00003513 0.00005102 0.00007181 prel 11 0.00003442 0.00005404 0.00006725 prel 12 0.00004232 0.00005098 0.00006978 prel 13 0.00003514 0.00005345 0.00006794 prel 14 0.00003489 0.00006187 0.00007052 table iv. results of the main program time 50 time 100 time 1000 prel 1 0.00023055 0.00022300 0.00173524 prel 2 0.00010348 0.00022504 0.00215812 prel 3 0.00008803 0.00022427 0.00224510 prel 4 0.00008655 0.00022607 0.00242678 prel 5 0.00009081 0.00023949 0.00211611 prel 6 0.00008708 0.00022512 0.00226576 prel 7 0.00008897 0.00021033 0.00216120 prel 8 0.00008610 0.00021813 0.00209186 prel 9 0.0001895 0.00209705 0.00348371 prel 10 0.00008959 0.00028245 0.00209705 prel 11 0.00008359 0.00028720 0.00214601 prel 12 0.00008981 0.00023582 0.00203451 prel 13 0.00008942 0.00023207 0.00214814 prel 14 0.00008507 0.00021405 0.00236788 m. a. mioc – a synoptic of software implementation for shift registers based on 16th degree primitive polynomials 39 table v. coefficients number of the generator polynomials generator polynomial coef no. x^16+x^12+x^3+x+1 5 x^16+x^13+x^12+x^11+x^7+x^6+x^3+x+1 9 x^16+x^13+x^12+x^10+x^9+x^7+x^6+x+1 9 x^16+x^15+x^11+x^10+x^9+x^6+x^2+x+1 9 x^16+x^9+x^8+x^7+x^6+x^4+x^3+x^2+1 9 x^16+x^14+x^13+x^12+x^10+x^7+1 7 x^16+x^14+x^10+x^8+x^3+x+1 7 x^16+x^14+x^13+x^11+x^6+x^5+x^3+x^2+1 9 x^16+x^15+x^11+x^9+x^8+x^7+x^5+x^4+ x^2+x+1 11 x^16+x^13+x^12+x^11+x^10+x^6+x^2+x+1 9 x^16+x^15+x^11+x^10+x^9+x^8+x^6+x^4+ x^2+x+1 11 x^16+x^15+x^11+x^10+x^7+x^6+x^5+x^3+ x^2+x+1 11 x^16+x^15+x^10+x^6+x^5+x^3+x^2+x+1 9 x^16+x^12+x^7+x^2+1 5 in the following example, all the steps that simulate operation using the first primitive polynomial and the selected input data are showed. the used operations are shifting and xor. 11010101010101010101 checking input data: 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 initial status 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 step 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 step l 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 step 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 step 3 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 step 4 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 step 5 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 step 6 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 step 7 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 step 8 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 step 9 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 step 10 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 step 11 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 step 12 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 step 13 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 step 14 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 step 15 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 step 16 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 step 17 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 step 18 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 step 19 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 runing time: 0.00003421 seconds brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 the next two graphics show the obtained results from the execution of the main program for each of the 14 degrees, 16th primitive polynomials for three different situations depending on the lengths of the entrance data polynomial. the lengths of the input polynomials were 20. 30. 40, 50, 100 and 1000 bits. the maximum number of sequences is 216-1(solomon, 1967). figure 8. graphic containing the results for 20 bits figure 9. graphic containing the results for 1000 bits m. a. mioc – a synoptic of software implementation for shift registers based on 16th degree primitive polynomials 41 figure 10. graphic containing the results for 1000 bits the distribution obtained depending on the length of the input string shows that time depends on the input length, but for lengths even closer together, the times are also close (this can be seen in figure 8 for 20 bits inputs). time does not change so much depending on which of the 14 different 16th degree primitive polynomials has been used. 4. conclusion the entire analysis of functioning for primitive polynomials of 16th degree proves that almost all the obtained results are in the same distribution of time. the security aspect was taken into consideration, so that the used polynomials are all irreducible or primitive polynomials. a shift register is a device whose function is to shift its contents into adjacent positions within the register or, for the end position, out of the register. the main practical uses for a shift register are the conversion between parallel and serial data and the delay of a serial bit stream. the total number of the generated random state depends on the polynomial feedback. lfsr based on the pn sequence generator is a technique used for different applications in cryptography and also in the communication channel for designing encoder and decoder. this kind of analysis can be done from the hardware or software point of view. panda et al. (2012) show an interesting simulation problem for long bit lfsr on fpga referring 8, 16 and 32 bits. some similar problems are presented and analyzed in this paper. this study focuses on a comparative study of different types of implementations for a linear feed-back shift register for 16th degree primitive or irreducible polynomials. the results of all these experiments were used for obtaining some graphics showing the time distribution. from all the presented graphics it can be concluded that for 1000 bits length the best polynomial is the first one, meaning the polynomial number p1, and the worst is polynomial p9. all this analysis was preceded by another similar one on the same aspects linked with the 8th degree primitive polynomials. 5. acknowledgement this paper was developed and published as a part of the research for obtaining the phd title in stefan cel mare university of succeava, romania. the infrastructure used for this work was partially supported by the project integrated center for research, development and innovation in advanced materials, nanotechnologies, and distributed systems for fabrication and control, contract no. 671/09.04.2015, sectoral operational program for increase of the economic competitiveness co-funded from the european regional development fund. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 references abramovici, m., breuer, m. a., & friedman, a. d. (1990). digital systems testing and testable design, computer science press; alfke, p. (1996). efficient shift registers, lfsr, counters, and long pseudo-random sequence generators, xapp 052, july 7,. alvarez, r., martinez, f.-m., vincent, j.-f., & zamora, a. (2008). a matricial public key cryptosystem with digital signature, wseas transactions on mathematics manuscript , vol.7,no.4 , pp. 195-204. angheloiu, i., gyorfi, e., & patriciu, v.v. (1986). securitatea şi protecńia informańiei în sistemele electronice de calcul, ed. militară, bucureşti,. berlekamp, e. r. (1968). algebraic coding theory, mcgraw-hill, new york. daemen, j. & rijmen, v. (2002). "the design of rijndael: aes the advanced encryption standard", springer-verlag. golomb, s.w. (1967). shift register sequences, holden-day, san francisco, calif. goresky, m. & klapper, a. (2004). fibonacci and galois representations of feedback with carry shift registers, december 4; matsui, m. (1994). the first experimental cryptanalysis of the data encryption standard. in advances in cryptology, proceedings of crypto'94, lncs 839, y. desmedt, ed., springer verlag. mioc, m.a. (2009). simulation study of the functioning of lfsr for grade 4 irreducible polynomials, wseas conference ispra, 21-23 february. mioc, m.a. (2008). study of using shift registers in cryptosystems for grade 8 irreducible polynomials, wseas conference smo, 23-25 september. mioc, m.a. (2005). an analysis of functioning for a linear feed-back shift register and a multiple input-output shift register, buletinul stiintific al universitatii „politehnica” din timisoara, seria electronica si telecomunicatii, transactions on electronics and communications, tom 50(64), fascicola 2. mioc, m.a. (2008). a complete analyze of using shift registers in cryptosystems for grade 4, 8 and 16 irreducible polynomials”, wseas transactions on computers, volume 7, issue 10, issn: 1109-2750, october. panda, a.k., rajput, p., & shukla, b. (2012). fpga implementation of 8, 16 and 32 bit lfsr with maximum length feedback polynomial using vhdl, rajkot, india. schneier, b. (1996). applied cryptology: protocols, algorithms, and source code in c, john wiley and sons, new york; shannon, c.e. (1948). a mathematical theory of communication. retrieved from http://worrydream.com/refs/shannon%20%20a%20mathematical%20theory%20of%20communication.pdf solomon, g. (1967). shift register sequences, aegean park press, laguna hills, canada. tsui, f. (1987) lsi/vlsi testability design, mcgraw-hill book company. udar, s. & kagaris, d. (2007). lfsr reseeding with irreducible polynomials, iolts, pp. 293-298 van lint, j.h. (1992). introduction to coding theory, 2nd ed., springer-verlag, usa. vlăduńiu, m. & crişan, m. (1989). tehnica testării echipamentelor automate de prelucrare a datelor, editura facla, timişoara. brain_3_1 19 an optimized clustering approach for automated detection of white matter lesions in mri brain images m. anitha department of computer science and engineering, sri krishna college of technology, coimbatore, india anitha_murugaiyan@yahoo.com prof. p. tamije selvy (sg) department of computer science and engineering, sri krishna college of technology, coimbatore, india tamijeselvy@gmail.com abstract: settings white matter lesions (wmls) are small areas of dead cells found in parts of the brain. in general, it is difficult for medical experts to accurately quantify the wmls due to decreased contrast between white matter (wm) and grey matter (gm). the aim of this paper is to automatically detect the white matter lesions which is present in the brains of elderly people. wml detection process includes the following stages: 1. image preprocessing, 2. clustering (fuzzy c-means clustering, geostatistical possibilistic clustering and geostatistical fuzzy clustering) and 3.optimization using particle swarm optimization (pso). the proposed system is tested on a database of 208 mri images. gfcm yields high sensitivity of 89%, specificity of 94% and overall accuracy of 93% over fcm and gpc. the clustered brain images are then subjected to particle swarm optimization (pso). the optimized result obtained from gfcm-pso provides sensitivity of 90%, specificity of 94% and accuracy of 95%. the detection results reveals that gfcm and gfcmpso better localizes the large regions of lesions and gives less false positive rate when compared to gpc and gpc-pso which captures the largest loads of wmls only in the upper ventral horns of the brain. keywords: geostatistics, fuzzy clustering, particle swarm optimization, possibilistic clustering, white matter changes 1. introduction medical imaging is the technique used to create images of the human body for clinical or medical science that produce images of the internal aspect of the body. magnetic resonance imaging (mri) is one of the medical imaging techniques. mri of brain is highly sensitive for detecting all forms of white matter abnormalities. non-specific changes in the white matter appear frequently on mri in elderly patients presenting with either stroke or cognitive impairment. in general, human brain consists of main components namely, white matter (wm), grey matter (gm) as shown in figure 1. figure 1.wm and gm of brain brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 neuronal tissue containing mainly long, myelinated axons is known as white matter. closely packed neuron cell bodies form the grey matter. grey matter is in grey color because of the grey nuclei that comprises the cells. myelin is responsible for the white appearance of white matter. white matter lesions (wmls) are commonly found in patients with multiple sclerosis (ms), cerebrovascular disease (cvd), stroke, and other neurological disorders. it is believed that the total volume of the lesions and their progression relate to the aging process as well as disease process. therefore, quantification of white matter lesions is very important in understanding the aging process and diagnosis and assessment of these diseases. 1.1. automated quantification of wml it non-specific changes in the white matter appear frequently on ct and mri in elderly patients presenting with either stroke or cognitive impairment, but are also commonly seen in healthy elderly individuals. evaluation of wmls in mri is conventionally performed using skill and knowledge of experts [2]. this manual assessment on wml results in different ratings [1], [3], which make it non reproducible and difficult for a general agreement. manual assessment of wm lesions is not only time consuming but also shows high inconsistency among human raters. to overcome this drawback of inaccurate prediction, clustering models like fuzzy-set, possibilistic and geostatistic frameworks are proposed for automated detection of white matter changes. the proposed clustering models are derived by extending the objective functions of fcm and possibilistic approach with a geostatistical (spatial) model. the clustered images are further optimized using particle swarm optimization (pso) in order to obtain the most optimist solution. particle swarm optimization (pso) is a population based optimization tool which provides the most optimist solution. 2. related works anbeek et al. [4] proposed k-nearest neighbors algorithm (k-nn) for automatic segmentation of wmls. this is a supervised learning method and used the information from t1-weighted, inversion recovery (ir), proton density-weighted (pd), t2-weighted, and fluid attenuation ir (flair) scans in order to estimate the probability of voxels. t1-weighted scans are a standard basic scan, in particular differentiating fat from water with water darker and fat brighter. this is one of the basic types of mr contrast and is a commonly run clinical scan. t2 weighted scans are another basic type. like the t1-weighted scan, fat is differentiated from water but in this case fat shows darker, and water lighter. for example, in the case of cerebral and spinal study, the csf (cerebrospinal fluid) will be lighter in t2-weighted images. by combining the results of these techniques, binary segmentation results are obtained from the selected threshold values, and therefore the relation between an optimal threshold and lesion volume was separately chosen for each patient. a probability mixture model and the bayesian classifier was used by khayati et al. [5] inorder to extract normal tissue, abnormal tissue and cerebrospinal fluid (csf) which serves primary purpose like buoyancy, protection and chemical stability. normal tissue refers to white matter and grey matter of brain whereas abnormal tissue refers to lesions of brain in flair-mr images. this method does not focus on the lesions of small size or irregular shape. lao et al. [6] proposed an approach for segmenting wml in which support-vector machine (svm) classifier was used in order to classify new scans, and post processing analysis was carried out to eliminate false positives. the strength of svm-based classifiers is the ability to separate overlapping features, but selecting effective features for classifying a particular difficult problem is one of the key issues in pattern classification that should be first identified, where the results are based on only expert-defined information. this method is less accurate. therefore wml image intensities cannot be visually distinguished. lesions are irregular voxels that do not belong to gm, wm and csf and can be classified as outliers in grey and white matter regions. this method was proposed by seghier et al. [7]. after m. anitha, p. tamije selvy an optimized clustering approach for automated detection of white matter lesions in mri brain images 21 combining the segmentation and normalization of images, fuzzy clustering was applied to identify outlier voxels as lesions in normalized grey and white matter segments. spatial smoothing was done using gaussian kernel, which affect the sensitivity and specificity of the method. hernandez et al. [8] presented a multispectral mri approach for segmenting normal and abnormal brain tissue. the procedure was carried out by combining pairs of different mri sequences and modulated them in the red-green color space to enhance the tissue discrimination. fully automated method for csf, gm and wm segmentation based on multimodal mri data is optimized and extended with wml segmentation was proposed by r. de boer, h. a. vrooman, f. van der lijn [9]. v.k.panchal1, harish kundra, ms. jagdeep kaur [10] presented a comparative study of particle swarm optimization (pso) and unsupervised clustering techniques. in order to overcome the shortcomings of traditional clustering algorithms such as local optima and sensitivity to initialization, a new optimization technique, particle swarm optimization is used in association with unsupervised clustering techniques. hesam izakian, ajith [11] abraham proposed hybrid fuzzy c-means and fuzzy-pso. fcm algorithm is integrated with fpso algorithm to form a hybrid clustering algorithm called fcmfpso which maintains the merits of both fcm and pso algorithms. fcm-fpso algorithm applies fcm to the particles in the swarm every number of iterations/generations such that the fitness value of each particle is improved. dian palupi rini, siti mariyam shamsuddin and siti sophiyait yuhaniz [12] proposed a basic variant of particle swarm optimization, in order to improve speed of convergence and quality of solution found by pso. saeed vaneshani and hooshang jazayeri-rad [13] proposed a method for finding the optimum membership functions of a fuzzy system using particle swarm optimization (pso) algorithm. a synthetic algorithm combined from fuzzy logic control and pso algorithm is used to design a controller for a continuous stirred tank reactor (cstr) with the aim of achieving the accurate and acceptable desired results. renske de boer, michiel schaap, fedde van der lijn, henri a. vroomanmarius de groot, aad van der lugt, arfan ikra meike, w. vernooijmonique, m.b. breteler wiro and j. niessen [14] presented a framework for the construction of weighted structural brain networks, containing information about connectivity, which can be effectively analyzed using statistical methods. 3. proposed scheme this paper mainly focuses on automated detection of white matter lesions of brain using fast and efficient clustering algorithms. the goal of clustering a medical image is to simplify the representation of an image into a meaningful image and makes it easier to analyze. as a first step, mri brain image is pre-processed using contrast stretching technique which is one of the efficient image enhancement techniques. the pre-processed image is subjected to clustering. the clustering algorithms include fuzzy c-means clustering (fcm), geostatistical possibilistic clustering (gpc) and geostatistical fuzzy clustering model (gfcm). however clustering techniques are sensitive to initialization and are easily trapped in local optima. in order to obtain an optimized result, the clustered images are undergone optimization. particle swarm optimization (pso) is a stochastic global optimization tool which is used in many optimization problems. figure 2 represents overall process of automatic detection of wmls of brain. since ms lesions present different characteristics from lesions in elderly individuals there are many clustering models to determine the accuracy but those methods are not directly applicable to predict the accurate lesions because of the decreased contrast between white matter and grey matter in elderly people. the proposed clustering models are derived by extending the objective functions of fcm and possibilistic clustering with a geostatistical (spatial) model. these algorithms are applied to real magnetic resonance images and is shown to be more robust to noise and other artifacts than competing approaches. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 figure 2. overall process of the system 3.1. image enhancement (pre-processing) the procedure done before processing by correcting image from different errors is preprocessing. image enhancement is one of the image preprocessing techniques. the aim of image enhancement is to improve the interpretability or perception of information in images for human viewers, or to provide `better' input for other automated image processing techniques. it consists of collection of techniques that seek to improve the visual appearance of an image or to convert the image to a form better suited for analysis by a human or machine [15]. contrast stretching is the image enhancement technique that is commonly used for medical images. contrast stretching process plays an important role in enhancing the quality and contrast of medical images. different types of contrast stretching techniques include local contrast stretching, global contrast stretching, partial contrast stretching, bright and dark contrast stretching. among these techniques, bright contrast stretching is imposed on the brain image. 3.2. fuzzy c-means clustering (fcm) fuzzy c-means has been a very important tool for image processing in clustering objects in an image [16]. fuzzy c-means (fcm) clustering is an unsupervised method derived from fuzzy logic that is suitable for solving multiclass and ambiguous clustering problems. fuzzy c-means (fcm) clustering is an unsupervised technique that has been successfully applied to feature analysis, clustering, and classifier designs in fields such as astronomy, geology, medical imaging, target recognition, and image segmentation. an image can be represented in various feature spaces, and the fcm algorithm classifies the image by grouping similar data points in the feature space into clusters. this clustering is achieved by iteratively minimizing a cost function that is dependent on the distance of the pixels to the cluster centers in the feature domain. there are many acceleration techniques for fcm; there are very large data versions of fcm that utilize both progressive m. anitha, p. tamije selvy an optimized clustering approach for automated detection of white matter lesions in mri brain images 23 sampling and distributed clustering; there are many techniques that use fcm clustering to build fuzzy rule bases for fuzzy systems design; and there are numerous applications of fcm in virtually every major application area of clustering. fcm clustering algorithm is used to calculate the minimization of the fuzzy objective function [11]. it works by assigning membership to each data point corresponding to each cluster center on the basis of distance between the cluster center and the data point. the fuzzy clustering of objects is described by a fuzzy matrix µ , with n rows and c columns in which n is the number of data objects and c is the number of clusters. µ ij, the element in the ith row and jth column in µ , indicates the degree of association or membership function of the ith object with the jth cluster. the characters of µ are as follows: µ ij [0, 1], i=1, 2…., n, j=1, 2…., c (1) c where, ∑µ ij =1, i=1, 2…., n (2) j=1 0<∑ µ ij<n, j=1, 2…., c (3) more the data is near to the cluster center more is its membership towards the particular cluster center. clearly, summation of membership of each data point should be equal to one. its advantages include a straightforward implementation, fairly robust behaviour, applicability to multichannel data. main objective of fuzzy c-means algorithm is to minimize the objective function. n c j (u, v) = ∑ ∑ (µ ij) m ||xi-vj|| 2 (4) i=1 j=1 where, m (m > 1) is a scalar termed the weighting exponent and controls the fuzziness of the resulting clusters and '||xi – vj||' is the euclidean distance between i th data and j th cluster center. the zj, centroid of the jth cluster, is obtained using (5). n zj = ∑ (µ ij) m xi n (5) i=1 ∑ (µ ij) m i=1 3.2.1. fcm algorithm s1 randomly select ‘c’ cluster centers. s2 compute the euclidean distance, ||xi-vj||. s3 calculate the fuzzy membership according to the constraints of eq. (1), (2) and (3). s4 calculate the fuzzy center according such that (5). s5 repeat steps 2) and 3) until the minimum ‘j’ value is incorporated, such that (4). 3.3. geostatistical possibilistic clustering (gpc) although fcm is a very useful clustering method, its memberships do not always correspond well to the degree of belonging of the data [17], and may be inaccurate in a noisy environment. to improve this weakness of fcm and to produce memberships that have a good explanation for the degree of belonging for the data, possibilistic approach was proposed. it is a variation over fuzzy clustering where the membership to clusters can be seen as a degree of typicality membership matrix u, uih ∈ [0, 1]. possibilistic clustering algorithms prove the fact that it can be applied for one cluster at a time. n c n c brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 jgp (u, v) = ∑ ∑ (uij) m [d(xi, vj)] 2 + ∑ 1/(ej) 2 ∑ (1 – uij) m (6) i=1 j=1 j=1 i=1 where, (ej ) 2 is the kriging (geostatistical) variance of estimating vj using xi, i = 1…n-1. 3.3.1. gpc algorithm s1 randomly select ‘c’ cluster centers according to (5). s2 calculate the possibilistic membership. s3 calculate the spatial variability. s4 incorporate spatial variability into objective functions as in (6). s5 minimize the objective functions (a small value of difference) then stop. 3.4. geostatistical fuzzy c-means clustering (gfcm) the fuzzy c-means objective function is generalized to include a spatial penalty on the membership functions. the fuzzy c-means algorithm (fcm) has been utilized in a wide variety of image processing applications such as medical imaging and remote sensing. its advantages include a straightforward implementation, fairly robust behavior, applicability to multichannel data, and the ability to model uncertainty within the data. a major disadvantage of its use in imaging applications is that fcm does not incorporate information about spatial context, causing it to be sensitive to noise and other imaging artifacts. therefore geostatistical fuzzy clustering is proposed. the advantages of the new method are the following: (1) it yields regions more homogeneous than those of other methods, (2) it removes noisy spots, and (3) it is less sensitive to noise than other techniques. it is derived by extending the into the fcm objective function. clustering is a two-pass process at each iteration [18]. the first pass is the same as that in standard fcm to calculate the membership function in the spectral domain. in the second pass, the membership information of each pixel is mapped to the spatial domain, and the spatial function is computed from that. the fcm iteration proceeds with the new membership that is incorporated with the spatial function. the iteration is stopped when the maximum difference between two cluster centers at two successive iterations is less than a threshold. a distinctive observation of the incorporation of the geostatistical modeling into the fuzzy clustering is that it is able to accurately detect the wmls as the regions of interest of an elderly population and provides the bidirectional association between depression and vascular disease. the main aim of is to minimize the objective function, where kriging variance is incorporated it is a derived function. n c n c n c jgf(u, v)=∑∑(uij) m [d(xi,vj)] 2 +∑(uij) m ∑(ej) 2 -∑λi (∑uij-1) (7) i=1j=1 i=1 j=1 i=1 j=1 3.4.1. gfcm algorithm s1 randomly select ‘c’ cluster centers. s2 calculate the fuzzy membership. s3 calculate the spatial variability. s4 incorporate spatial variability into objective function such that (7). s5 minimize the objective functions by setting a lagrangian function. 3.5. particle swarm optimization (pso) particle swarm optimization is a heuristic global optimization method. it is developed from swarm intelligence and is based on the research of bird and fish flock movement behavior [12]. while searching for food, the birds are either scattered or go together before they locate the place where they can find the food. while the birds are searching for food from one place to another, there is always a bird that can smell the food very well, that is, the bird is perceptible of the place where the food can be found, having the better food resource information. because they are m. anitha, p. tamije selvy an optimized clustering approach for automated detection of white matter lesions in mri brain images 25 transmitting the information, especially the good information at any time while searching the food from one place to another, conduced by the good information, the birds will eventually flock to the place where food can be found. as far as particle swam optimization algorithm is concerned, solution swam is compared to the bird swarm, the birds’ moving from one place to another is equal to the development of the solution swarm, good information is equal to the most optimist solution, and the food resource is equal to the most optimist solution during the whole course. the most optimist solution can be worked out in particle swarm optimization algorithm by the cooperation of each individual. the particle without quality and volume serves as each individual, and the simple behavioural pattern is regulated for each particle to show the complexity of the whole particle swarm. this algorithm can be used to work out the complex optimist problems. due to its many advantages including its simplicity and easy implementation, the algorithm can be used widely in the fields such as function optimization, the model classification, machine study, neutral network training, the signal procession, vague system control, automatic adaptation control etc. 3.5.1. advantages of particle swarm optimization (1)pso is based on the intelligence. it can be applied into both scientific research and engineering use. (2)pso have no overlapping and mutation calculation. the search can be carried out by the speed of the particle. during the development of several generations, only the most optimist particle can transmit information onto the other particles, and the speed of the researching is very fast. (3)the calculation in pso is very simple. compared with the other developing calculations, it occupies the bigger optimization ability and it can be completed easily. (4) pso adopts the real number code, and it is decided directly by the solution. the number of the dimension is equal to the constant of the solution. 3.5.2. pso steps s1 initialize pso parameters ( c1,c2,w), and n particles (x,pbest,gbest,v) s2 initialize x, v, pbest for each particle and gbest for the swarm. vid=w*vid + c1*rand()*(pid-xid) + c2*rand()*(pgd-xid) (8) xid=xid+vid, (9) where, x and v position and velocity of particles, w inertia weight, c1 and c2 positive constants, called acceleration coefficients, p number of particles in the swarm, r1 and r2 random values in range [0, 1] . s3 determine the cluster centre. s4 determine the fitness of each particle: f(x) =k/jm therein k is a constant and jm is the objective function s5 update pbest and gbest. s6 update velocities and positions (particles) s7 terminate on convergence or at end of iteration s8 go to step 2 4. experimental results the performance of wml quantification is evaluated using clustering algorithms. when the image is pre-processed, contrast of the image is enhanced. the resulting enhanced image is clustered using the effective clustering algorithms. figure 3 represents the input image for wml detection. in order to increase robustness, the noisy medical image is pre-processed. figure 4 depicts the pre-processed image. bright contrast stretching, which is one of the image enhancement (pre-processing) techniques is applied. after pre-processing the enhanced image is subjected to clustering. three clustering models are proposed to provide accurate results. the algorithms include brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 (1) fcm, (2) gpc and (3) gfcm. as a next step, the clustered brain images are optimized using particle swarm optimization (pso). figure 3. mri of flair image figure 4. enhanced image figure 5(a). wml detection using fcm figure 5(b). wml detection using fcm-pso figure 6(a). wml detection using gpc figure 6(b). wml detection using gpc-pso the first method proposed is fuzzy-c means clustering. when fcm is applied, numerous small regions around the lobes (ventral, parietal, occipital and temporal) are falsely detected as shown in figure 5(a). figure 6(a) shows the extracted wmls which are detected using m. anitha, p. tamije selvy an optimized clustering approach for automated detection of white matter lesions in mri brain images 27 geostatistical possibilistic clustering. gpc could better capture the largest loads of wmls only in the upper ventral horns and it failed to detect other smaller regions of the white matter changes. when gfcm is applied, the regions containing white matter lesions are accurately quantified as shown in figure 7(a). this method provides the best results when compared to fcm and gpc, and provides accuracy of 93% as it incorporates the spatial information. the clustered images are further optimized using particle swarm optimization (pso). figure 5(b), 6(b) and 7(b) shows the optimized results obtained using the hybrid methods fcmpso, gpc-pso and gfcm-pso respectively. figure 7(a). wml detection using gfcm figure 7(b). wml detection using gfcm-pso all scans obtained from different image clustering models are manually ranked based on values in table 1. table 2 represents wml detection rates of optimized images. fcm, gpc and gfcm clustering methods and hybrid optimized methods (fcm-pso, gpc-pso and gfcm-pso) are applied on a dataset of 208 images and ranking is done in terms of under detected, over detected, properly detected as shown in figure 8 and figure 9. the number of images detected properly in gfcm is comparatively high than fcm and gpc. the optimized result of gfmc provides accurate detection of wmls and it properly detects 195 images. table 1. wml detection rates (%) of fcm, gpc and gfcm s.no model over detected under detected properly detected 1 fcm 121 120 144 2 gpc 120 112 165 3 gfcm 74 92 193 table 2. wml detection rates (%) of fcm-pso, gpc-pso and gfcm-pso s.no model over detected under detected properly detected 1 fcm-pso 118 115 152 2 gpc-pso 116 106 171 3 gfcm-pso 62 81 195 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 figure 8. performance analysis of fcm, gpc and gfcm figure 9. performance analysis of fcm-pso, gpc-pso and gfcm-pso in this paper, clustering algorithms are evaluated in terms of sensitivity (se), specificity (sp) and accuracy (acc). taking table iii into account the metrics are defined as se = tp (4) tp+fn sp = tp (5) tn+fp acc= tp+tn (6) tp+fn+tn+fp where, tp-true positive, fn-false negative, tn-true negative, fp-false positive. the performance results show that gfcm provides sensitivity (se) of 89%, specificity (sp) of 93% and overall accuracy (acc) of 93% when compared to fcm and gpc. in turn, the optimized results of gfcm provide overall accuracy of 95%. figures 8(a), 8(b) and 8(c) shows the comparison results of clustering models and optimization technique in terms of se, sp and acc. 0 50 100 150 200 250 over detected under detected properly detected fcm gpc gfc 0 50 100 150 200 250 over detected under detected properly detected fcm-pso gppc-pso gfcm-pso m. anitha, p. tamije selvy an optimized clustering approach for automated detection of white matter lesions in mri brain images 29 table 3. performance results of fcm, gpc, gfcm and hybrid methods on flair image database s.no model sensitivity(%) specificity(%) accuracy(%) 1 fcm 121 120 144 2 gpc 120 112 165 3 gfcm 74 92 193 4 fcm-pso 47 54 53 5 gpc-pso 72 78 81 6 gfcm-pso 90 94 95 figure 8(a). comparing se, sp and acc of figure 8(b). comparing se, sp and acc of fcm and fcm-pso gpc and gpc-pso figure 8(c). comparing se, sp and acc of gfcm and gfcm-pso 5. conclusion the proposed fuzzy c-means clustering, geostatistical possibilistic clustering and geostatistical fuzzy c-means clustering methods are used for automatic detection of wmls in brains of elderly people. the incorporation of the geostatistical estimate variance into the objective functions of fuzzy clustering and possibilistic clustering algorithms is relatively a simple and effective procedure for implementation and can be further explored using various advanced kriging systems in multivariate geostatistics. experimental results using the mri data of elderly individuals shows the advantages that geostatistical fuzzy c-means clustering is the best and effective approach for extracting white matter lesions. more accurate results are obtained by gfcm whereas gpc and fcm provide more false positives in brain image and they are less sensitive to noise. in this paper, in order to overcome the shortcomings clustering techniques, particle swarm algorithm is integrated with clustering algorithms. experimental results over datasets show that the 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 se(%) sp(%) acc(%) fcm fcm-pso 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 se(%) sp(%) acc(%) gpc gpc-pso 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 se (%) sp (%) acc (%) gfcm gfcmpso brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 proposed hybrid method, i.e., gfcm-pso is efficient and can reveal very encouraging results in terms of quality of solution found. references [1] barr, a., and feigenbaum, e. a. (1981), the handbook of artificial intelligence, volumes 1-3, william kaufmann inc. [2] l. o. wahlund, f. barkhof, f. fazekas, l. bronge, m. augustin,m. sj¨ogren, a. wallin, h. ader, d. leys, l. pantoni, f. pasquier, t. erkinjuntti, and p. scheltens, “a new rating scale for agerelated white matter changes applicable to mri and ct,” stroke, vol. 32, pp. 1318–1322, 2001. [3] e. matsusue, s. sugihara, s. fujii, e. ohama, t. kinoshita, and t. ogawa, “white matter changes in elderly people: mr-pathologic correlations,” magn. reson. med. sci., vol. 5, pp. 99– 104, 2006. [4] f. fazekas, “pathological correlates of incidental mri white matter signal hyper intensities,” neurology, vol. 43, pp. 1683–1689, 1993. [5] p. anbeek, k. l. vincken, m. j. p. van osch, r. h. c. bisschops, and j. van der grond, “automatic segmentation of different-sized white matter lesions by voxel probability estimation,” med. image anal., vol. 8, pp. 205–215, 2004. [6] r. khayati, m. vafadust, f. towhidkhah, and s. m. nabavi, “fully automatic segmentation of multiple sclerosis lesions in brain mr flair images using adaptive mixtures method and markov random field model,” comput. biol. med., vol. 38, pp. 379–390, 2008. [7] z. lao, d. shen, d. liu, a. f. jawad, e. r. melhem, l. j. launer, r. n. bryan, and c. davatzikos, “computer assisted segmentation of white matter lesions in 3d mr images using support vector machine,” acad. radiol., vol. 15, pp. 300–313, 2008. [8] m. l. seghier, a. ramlackhansingh, j. crinion, a. p leff, and c. j. price, “lesion identification using unified segmentation-normalisation models and fuzzy clustering,” neuroimage, vol. 41, pp. 1253–1266, 2008. [9] m. delc.v.hernendez, k. j. ferguson, f. m. chappell, and j.m.wardlaw, “newmultispectral mri data fusion technique for white matter lesion segmentation: method and comparison with thresholding in flair images,” eur. radiol., feb. 16, 2010. [10] r. beare, v. srikanth, j. chen, t. g. phan, j. stapleton, r. lipshut, and d. reutens, “development and validation of morphological segmentation of age-related cerebral white matter hyper intensities,” neuroimage, vol. 47, pp.199–203, 2009. [11] v.k.panchal, mr. harish kundra, ms. jagdeep kaur, “comparative study of particle swarm optimization based unsupervised clustering techniques,” ijcsns international journal of computer science and network security, vol.9, no.10, october 2009. [12] hesam izakian, ajith abraham, “fuzzy c-means and fuzzy swarm for fuzzy clustering problem,” expert systems with applications , 38 (2011) , 1835–1838.\ [13] dian palupi rini, siti mariyam shamsuddin and siti sophiyait yuhaniz, “particle swarm optimization: technique, system and challenges,” international journal of computer applications (0975 – 8887), vol. 14– no.1, january 2011. [14] saeed vaneshani and hooshang jazayeri-rad, “optimized fuzzy control by particle swarm optimization technique for control of cstr,” world academy of science, engineering and technology, vol. 59, 2011 [15] r. de boer, h. a. vrooman, f. van der lijn, m.w. vernooij, m. a. ikram, a. van der lugt, m. m. b. breteler, and w. j. niessen, “white matter lesion extension to automatic brain tissue segmentation on mri,” neuroimage, vol. 45, pp. 1151–1161, 2009. [16] kehong yuan, fei peng and wufan chen, “brain image preprocessing and application,” international journal of innovative computing, information and control, vol. 5, pp. 2333—2340 number 8, august 2009. [17] j. c. bezdek, “pattern recognition with fuzzy objective function algorithms,” new york: plenum press, 1981. m. anitha, p. tamije selvy an optimized clustering approach for automated detection of white matter lesions in mri brain images 31 [18] r. krishnapuram and j.m. keller, “a possibilistic approach to clustering,” ieee trans. fuzzy syst., vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 98–110, may 1993. [19] keh-shih chuang a, hong-long tzeng, sharon chen a and jay wu, tzong-jer chen,” fuzzy c-means clustering with spatial information for image segmentation,” computerized medical imaging and graphic,vol. 9–15, 30 (2006). microsoft word brain_6_2015__doc final.doc 30 gestalt processing in human-robot interaction: a novel account for autism research maya dimitrova institute of systems engineering and robotics, bulgarian academy of sciences, department "hybrid systems", bl.2, acad. g. bonchev str., pob 79, 1113 sofia, bulgaria dimitrova@iser.bas.bg abstract the paper presents a novel analysis focused on showing that education is possible through robotic enhancement of the gestalt processing in children with autism, which is not comparable to alternative educational methods such as demonstration and instruction provided solely by human tutors. the paper underlines the conceptualization of cognitive processing of holistic representations traditionally named in psychology as gestalt structures, emerging in the process of human-robot interaction in educational settings. two cognitive processes are proposed in the present study bounding and unfolding and their role in gestalt emergence is outlined. the proposed theoretical approach explains novel findings of autistic perception and gives guidelines for design of robotassistants to the rehabilitation process. keywords: human-robot interaction, gestalt processing, perception, autism, cognitive technology, robot-assistants, rehabilitation robotics 1. introduction with the present-day increased interest in robotic systems entering rehabilitation – physical and psychological – it is necessary to formulate novel principles of communication between the user and the robot in settings, where the robot has become an assistant to the entire rehabilitation process (bailey-van kuren, 2007). these principles are cognitive in nature and help understand in a contemporary manner the cognitive impacts of novel interactive technology such as touchscreenbased user-robot interaction (hashimoto et al., 2011), robots understanding voice (kim et al., 2009) and gestures (hafner et al., 2005), implemented and used in clinical settings. the proposed theoretical framework of the cognitive processing underlying present-day human-robot interaction is based on the following theoretical definition of the gestalt proposed by barry smith: “a gestalt is a whole of relations, but in certain circumstances only part of this whole may be perceived – and this part may be a gestalt in its own right. indeed, it is only in certain simple cases, for example simple visual patterns that the entire gestalt can be perceived in one intuitive glance. in more complicated cases this is not possible, and the greater the manifold of relations between the parts of a given field the less it is possible to grasp all relations simultaneously. we can grasp the gestalt only if we are somehow able, by a cumulative process involving the operations of memory, to unify everything in one intellectual glance, and a discursive process of this sort is indeed indispensable if we are to grasp a melody or other gestalt involving any sort of temporal succession” (smith, 1988, p. 25). human cognition – from a developmental perspective – accumulates the incoming information into gestalts – entities representing the whole of it into one intellectual glance in recursive and adaptive manner. with autism, for example, the disruption of the smooth flow of this recursive process is the main educational obstacle, and it is where robots have been extremely useful in coping with repetitive actions and attention shifts ((bailey-van kuren, 2007; huskens et al., 2013; dimitrova et al, 2012; robins et al., 2006). being complex technological devices with many details capturing attention yet being stable and predictable – makes robots ideal for providing guidance in education and in practicing novel cognitive and social skills. the current paper focuses on the principles as well as on newly discovered elements of gestalt phenomena in their relevance to rehabilitation robotics. the cognitive processes, assumed m. dimitrova gestalt processing in human-robot interaction: a novel account for autism research 31 gestalt in their phenomenological nature, emerge in the context of the psychological reality of the immediate cognition, implicit (spontaneous) retrieval from memory, and the autobiographical nature of the human-agent/robot interaction (dimitrova &wagatsuma, 2011). two cognitive processes are proposed in the present study called (internal) bounding and unfolding. the ‘unfolding’ term is first used by c. von ehrenfels (1988, p. 82) to explain the unfolding of a gestalt in time. here the word unfolding is used to designate an internal dynamic process, operationally defined and described in the present investigation of the emergence of the cognitive ‘whole, being more than the sum of its parts’, as gestalt is being frequently defined. often the term gestalt is used interchangeably with the term “emergent whole” (johansson, 1998). the emergence of a cognitive gestalt structure adds dynamical and psychophysical forces, which are different from the static notion of the “emergent whole”. an eminent example for the dynamic nature of the emergent process is the necker cube, which cannot be perceived as static, but rotates in front of our eyes to the complete exhaustion of the eye gazing process (figure 1). figure 1. necker cube depth illusion (adapted from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/necker_cube]) the ambiguous figure interchangeably displays its front or back wall and this constant process is the spontaneous reaction of the human visual system. none less eminent is the zeigarnik phenomenon (1927), demonstrating that people have superior memories for the interrupted cognitive activities, than for the completed ones (zeigarnik, 1988, p. 300). the memory for the unresolved task stays longer, being constantly retrieved in its various aspects by some internal to the ‘task figure’ cognitive force, which is an energy consuming process like looking at the necker cube. in the present paper the analysis focuses on showing that education is possible through robotic enhancement of the gestalt processing in children with autism, which is not comparable to alternative educational methods such as demonstration and instruction provided solely by human tutors – and therefore much more productive and useful in education of children with special needs. 2. robotic technology in autism research – enhancing the composition of gestalt structures in the process of cognition recently a number of theoretical and experimental paradigms have been proposed, stating that educational rehabilitation – in particular for autistic spectrum conditions (asc) – is much more enhanced if mediated by complex cognitive-technology facilities like robots (huskens et al., 2013; robins et al., 2006; legoff, 2004; perlin, 2004; tentori & hayes, 2010) than by the traditional teacher-student-parent educational paradigm. the assumption, presented here, is that sociallymediated learning is based on deep cognitive gestalt structures, maintaining the basic relations to be understood through the explanations elicited from the teacher. but because social interaction is emotionally demanding in its influence on the student, children with autism will better socialize if the process is mediated by a robot-assistant, being less emotionally redundant and more cognitively focused. legoff developed a measurement tool to assess social interaction in autistic children during therapy (legoff, 2004). in his research on using lego© as a therapeutic medium, social interaction is distinguished in three elements: “(1) initiation of social contact with peers, reflective of social interest and motivation for social contact; (2) duration of social interaction, which reflects the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 development of communication and play skills; and (3) decreases in autistic aloofness and rigidity, with development of age-appropriate social and play behaviors” (legoff, 2004, p. 557). he proposed an indicator of social interaction, called a “self-initiated social contact” (sisc) measure. sisc can be observed through a semi-transparent mirror, or by sampling video recording into short episodes. legoff applied the methodology to observation of children with asc and reported increased amount of self-initiated social contact among these children while playing with lego©. this has subsequently become a popular methodology for quantitative evaluation of the educational influence of technology to children with difficulties in social communication. ken perlin is the founder of games for learning institute employing many computer simulations to education. among numerous simulations, one deserves special attention for implementing a cognitive theory of facial expression of emotions – the theory of paul ekman, who proposed a facial action coding system providing a list of functional descriptions of expressions of the human face (ekman et al, 2002). the demo of a girl’s face can represent the following emotional expressions: frightened; kiss; disappointed; sleeping; annoyed; surprised; happy; arrogant; angry and talk. the interface can manipulate the movement of the following face elements: brows, lids, gaze, head and mouth. these can be manipulated in different directions or with commands like “open”, “wide” and “sneer”. the facedemo is used by the do2learn project funded by the us national institutes of health small business innovative research grant. this applet has helped autistic children learn the association between a holistic facial expression of emotion (configural processing) and the individual parts of the face signifying emotional expressions (featural processing) – like raised eye-brows in surprise – and manage to successfully integrate them in understanding behavioral patterns (http://www.mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/facedemo/). although the applet is two-dimensional in nature – three-dimensionality is achieved by using the laws of perspective and the experience is of immersion in the created reality. it is both entertaining and educative and useful for describing facial expressions of people’s emotions and enhancing the social competence of the learner (perlin, 1997). mosoco is an emergent technology implemented in a smartphone called “mobile social compass” (escobedo et al., 2012). six basic social skills are being encouraged by prompting the user to initiate social contact. the menu displays symbols for the basic social skills – eye contact, space and proximity, start an interaction, asking questions, sharing interests and finish an interaction. the mosoco application has turned out to be an extremely useful tool as an online prompt in starting, maintaining and finishing social interaction for both typical and autistic students, as well as to anyone that feels need for improving their social competence. figure 2. taxonomy of the educational technologies for children with asc m. dimitrova gestalt processing in human-robot interaction: a novel account for autism research 33 a taxonomy of the existing cognitive technologies based on the presence of two design factors – static vs. interactive design and two vs. three-dimensional design is presented in figure 2. the existing technological tools can serve the educational needs in general and the needs of the autistic children in particular. figure 2 depicts four examples of technological tools extensively used to teach social skills to children with asc – lego®, the facedemo applet designed by ken perlin, the mobile platform for instructing children mosoco and a multi-agent platform of interactive robots for teaching social skills admoveo from www.admoveo.nl (counterclockwise in figure 2). they are chosen as examples of the role of cognitive technology in improving different social skills integrated in the general educational level of children – self-initiated social contact, description of facial expressions and the respective emotions they convey, provision of socially significant cues in the process of communication and interactive robots instructing and rewarding collaborative games of children with asc. these 4 abilities comprise complex and multi-level social cognition ability (or gestalt) based on the involved sophisticated technology. the robotic demonstration and instruction is a valuable enhancement of the gestalt processing in children with asc aiming at involving the use of the mirror neuron system in the brain (rizzolatti & fabbri-destro, 2010) which is spared in autism, yet atypically modulated (haffey et al., 2013) to provide better epigenetic adaptation in the process of child development (tramacere et al., 2013). 3. cognitive processing involved in the gestalt dynamics the emergence of holistic entities like images from patterns of pixels and color dots was explained in (johansson, 2006). the elements of the base level are called “concrete collections”, being organized according to some rule, whereas the ‘image’ that is emergent form these concrete collections is organized at the same time according to some ontologically supervenient rule. johansson illustrates the idea of the emergent whole with the example of the popular smiley :-). when the elements – the punctuation marks are placed in arbitrary order, there is a basic rule to preserve their individual format and their spatial relations. this rule may hold for their spatial configuration and it can define a configuration, independent from the one which produces the idea of a face in the viewers’ perception. the face configuration is dependent on the individual configurations and formats of the elements, but emerges on a different – supervenient – level, obeying a different rule on this next level – a rule describing a face. what is important is to bind inferentially the two levels and to preserve the deeper level the meaning. the idea of a face is thus bounded by the format of the individual elements and not that much by their spatial relations any more, since the supervenient rule requires this. as it is formulated by barry smith: “that is, just as we conceive the complex whole in [a] as possessing a certain characteristic whole-property, so we can conceive the different parts of this complex as possessing their own characteristic partproperties in virtue of which they come to make up that total whole which is the original gestalt” (smith, 1988, p. 54). to illustrate the preserved part-properties in the smiley gestalt, just imagine a smiley on a graffiti wall or even a smiley in a graffiti paining (similar to the figure-ground effect). color, paint and texture have their own complex part-properties and nevertheless belong to the smiley as a face. from a gestalt perspective it is necessary to mention another aspect of the smiley example of an emergent whole – the simplicity notion of max wertheimer (1958). nowadays a smiley is a twoelement entity – happy :) and sad :( face – with maximally shrunken base and richness of meaning at the supervenient level – expressing simultaneously a face and a palette of emotions – and is a gestalt. the smiley gestalt is the result from a dynamic (evolved in time) cognitive process, it is immediately given in cognition, memorable, emotionally rich and socially relevant and reflects the special kind of gestalt complexity as defined by edwin rausch (1988). conventional representations of holistic entities like smileys or novel robotic faces come to life because they capture essential gestalt qualities of the perceived image. for example, in figure 3 the robotic faces resemble the smileys in terms of the evoked internal/emotional reactions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 figure 3. robotic faces, similar to smiley emoticons in a study on recognition of emotions, expressed by human vs. robotic faces, evoked potentials were obtained from the visual cortex of people (dubal et al., 2011). the study was the first registration of brain response to emotion, but not to type of face – machine or human. this posed a problem to theories, stating that social recognition comes after perceptual recognition. it is more feasible to adopt a social motivation account of the phenomenon like in (chevallier et al., 2012) and propose the emergence of an emotional gestalt in parallel with the perceptual one. human and machine faces with neutral expressions were not distinguishable in terms of the magnitude of the evoked potentials, whereas the emotional expressions were distinguishable from the neutral faces – either human or machine – in typical experimental subjects. this is an important finding to relate to face recognition in people with asc (behrmann et al., 2006). the forwarded in the present paper hypothesis is that the process of constant translation from emotion recognition to face recognition and vice versa is disrupted in the face gestalt, in a manner similar to as if the perceptual motion of the necker cube is being disrupted. this account supports the hypothesis that autistic perception is a matter of cognitive style rather than cognitive deficit, meaning that autistic features are distributed in the general population of people, but not concentrated in the syndrome only (happe, 1999). therefore, cognitive support to this translation process can improve the cognitive ability of the learner. 4. simulataneous configural and featural processing of the face gestalt in 1980 peter thompson proposed a new experimental paradigm for investigation of perception, called “face thatcherization” (also named “thomson illusion”) (thompson, 1980). imagine that the following face, depicted in figure 4, is a photo of the then uk prime minister margaret thatcher. figure 4. main elements of a face, according to the feature-based processing theories according to the feature-based processing theories of human faces the main elements, noticed and remembered in a face, are the eyes, the nose and the mouth (thompson, 1980; anstis, 2005a). if, however, we distort some of the elements of a face, these should influence perception, m. dimitrova gestalt processing in human-robot interaction: a novel account for autism research 35 regardless of the position of the image – upright or reversed – from the observer viewpoint. figure 5 presents the reversed image of the face on the left and the reversed distorted face on the right. the distortion was achieved by rotating the eyes of the image in the vertical direction. figure 5. the distortion is barely noticeable if the faces are viewed in the reversed position quite surprisingly, if the distortion is viewed in the normal upward position, it evokes strong emotional response to the distorted face to the right in figure 6. figure 6. noticeable subjective response to the distorted face to the right this incongruent perception of upright and reversed distorted faces was interpreted by the author of the illusion as favoring the configural face-processing account – i.e. that distortions become noticeable on a second view, whereas dominant is the perception of the entire configuration as in viewing reversed images of faces. with realistic photos the emotional reaction is much stronger, which made the author remark ironically at the end of the paper: “further research into this illusion might help determine whether face recognition is a serial or a parallel process, is achieved by face specific analysers, searching for distinguishing characteristics or by some perceptual gestalt. it might even tell us something about margaret thatcher” (thompson, 1980, p. 483). stuart anstis designed the so called “blair illusion” as a révérence to peter thompson (anstis, 2005a). it is an example of the same phenomenon as “face thacherisation” in the visual contrast domain. in the contrast domain – a photo negative of an image is used. the features – eyes and mouth – are contrasted to the rest of the image. when the image is viewed in its reversed to normal contrast, the non-reversed elements are not perceived as grotesque (corresponding to viewing the inverted image of a thatcherised face). quite on the contrary and in full parallel with the thatcher effect – when the image is viewed in its normal contrast, with inverted eye and mouth contrast, the effect is equally grotesque. in 2005 stuart anstis concluded his paper on the discovery of an effect in the visual contrast domain mirroring the thatcher effect in the positional domain, which he called blair effect, with the following sentences: “lewis and johnston (1997) found that the thatcher illusion occurs, in albeit a reduced form, when photographic negatives are used. this brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 would suggest that there are similarities between the blair illusion and the thatcher illusion (in much the same way as there are similarities between blair and thatcher)” evidently referring to social gestalt phenomena outside laboratory research. a study on thompson illusion is presented in (milivojevic et al., 2003). in this study the effects of rotation of a “thatcherised” face is measured by behavioral tests and event-related potentials. the main results of the study are the following. the authors compared an objective measure of the effect of rotation with its subjective counterpart. the objective measure was the report of the participants how bizarre the rotated image seemed to them. it has turned out that bizarreness depends on the relative orientation – and is gradual, even though not perfectly matching the angle of rotation. the subjective measure was to report the degree of unpleasantness of the face. as a result, the emotional reaction was abrupt rather than continuous. the study is important in outlining the simultaneity of the objective and subjective processing of faces by our cognitive system. defining bizarreness of an image is a process of decomposition and reality check of the elements of this image. defining pleasantness of the image is unfolding of the idea of a pleasant face and folding of the bizarre image into a configural entity corresponding to an approximately pleasant or unpleasant face. this experiment empirically captures an important gestalt principle of cocoinciding with the reality and co-continuing with it (smith, 1988). reality is commonly analysed by decomposing the givenness of the object – a face – into elements – to be further analysed and further decomposed. the gestalt unfolding process coincides with the decomposition process by extracting the approximate central parts of the objective configuration – the ones produced by the decomposition – to fold them in a cognitive entity without losing the meaning of this entity – the pleasant face or the unpleasant face. a special case of gestalt processing is the perceiving of illusions. illusions make us see things or processes that are not there – for example the kanizsa square like the one depicted in figure 7. figure 7. kanizsa square makes us see a non-existing figure – white square (adapted from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/optical_illusion] the thatcher illusion and the blair illusion are not, in a sense, perceptual illusions per se. they are not visual illusions, but they are, rather, perceptual effects, which – in the context of the initial persons’ photographs – are not even perceptual, but emotional in the evoked response. as explained above – human perception is sensitive to the position of an image – the upright and the reversed position – of a human face. it is also sensitive to the corresponding position of the elements of the image – the eyes and the mouth. the compared effects of viewing different orientations of the whole image together with the inverted elements – also reveal parallel processes of visual scanning for the whole configuration on the one hand and for the individual elements – on the other. the complexity of simultaneously scanning for two things at a time is revealed by the non-homogeneity of these processes in time and space as measured by the response reaction times, bizarreness assessment (objective report) and pleasantness judgment (subjective report). m. dimitrova gestalt processing in human-robot interaction: a novel account for autism research 37 experimental studies on cell response of the monkey’s brain to artificial faces have revealed that areas of the brain responding to luminance contrast, shape of the face, and visual attention are linked (kandel, 2013). these findings support the gestalt understanding of the complexity of face recognition (shape) related to the kanizsa illusion perception (luminance) and attention (featural processing). in autism the constant cognitive movement from one visual facet of the image to another is slower and more serial. people with asc do not perceive the impossible figures as such (liu et al., 2011). they are superior in finding embedded figures in an image (bolte et al., 2007) and less emotionally involved in the process of face recognition (white et al., 2009). the general hypothesis is that the bizarreness assessment would be confused with pleasantness judgment in autism where these processes are performed serially and need a special prompt. 5. orientation of the visual and lexical gestalts – novel cues in an experimental study on visual perception, addressing directly gestalt phenomena, a new gestalt cue for figure-ground assignment was introduced (vechera et al., 2002). the foreground versus the background organization is a strong determinant for decisions on objects seen among image elements. a well-known set of perceptual cues that are often called gestalt cues are the size or area, the symmetry and the convexity vs. concavity judgments. it is generally assumed that figures are ‘small, symmetrical and convex’. the authors asked the question whether these cues are all that are necessary for a region of the image to be judged as a figure. the main result of this study is that regions in the lower portion of a stimulus array appear more figure-like than regions in the upper portion of the display. figure 8. machine faces, perceived as more figure-like(left) and less figure-like (right) the cognitive effect is that an ambiguous image more often is judged as containing a figure when positioned up-down, rather than when positioned left-right. along the results of their experiments, the machine (robotic) face to the left in figure 8 should be perceived as more figurelike, than the one to the right. the authors conducted 8 experiments and found that this was a robust phenomenon. the effect is relative to the horizontal horizon line and the authors suggest that the lower region preference is linked to the pictorial depth perception cues. the authors also discuss the possibility that neural mechanisms in the visual cortex may exist to account for both depth perception and lower region figural preference (vechera et al., 2002). in the lexical domain a similar effect of holistic word processing is described in (anstis, 2005b). the viewers were presented with pairs of three-letter words in quick succession and asked to report if the upper halves of the successively presented words were identical. surprisingly, even when the upper halves of the words were orthographically identical, the error rate was reliably higher than expected and in comparison with matching identical successive words. as the author of the study stuart anstis points out: “students were processing the words not as separable parts, but holistically as perceptual units that could not be perceptually split apart. these results show that in normal circumstances, the visual system cannot, or does not, divide words into upper and lower halves” (anstis, 2005b, p. 239).the author relates the results of his study to studies of visual perception of faces as evidence that the mechanism of holistic processing in the visual and the lexical domains is essentially the same. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 figure 9. the impossible figure (right) is not noticeable as such at first glance this regularity of cognition is about the geometry of the internal representation of the external world, which somehow most often is approximating the euclidean space according to l.m. vekker (1976). in his theory of the gestalt in perception and thinking, vekker postulated that sensations, perceptions and imagination are in a constant process of unfolding to match and take the exact places of the physical objects in the external environment. the geometry of the internal representation of the world is abstract and experiential at the same time. the experiential aspect of the process of immediate cognition can be seen by viewing figure 9. figure 9 right is, at first glance, a quite convincing example of stairs similar to the stairs on the left. even the context (the cat on the ceiling) is noticed on a second scan. the inverted stairs are more likely to remind us of escher’s works than, for example, the normally positioned ones. this effect supports the idea of the semantic depth of spatial learning, relating the experience of art to perceiving of gestalts. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/m._c._escher figure 10. otsu segmentation of the real (left) and the impossible (inverted) figure (right) a possible computational interpretation of this effect of dominance of the configural processing over feature-based processing in typical vision can be provided by the otsu method of image segmentation as illustrated in figure 10 (otsu, 1979). it is obtained with scilab’s image m. dimitrova gestalt processing in human-robot interaction: a novel account for autism research 39 processing toolbox (galda, 2011) and illustrates the dominance of the vertical over horizontal processing in the human visual system. the otsu method assumes that a gray level image can be divided into foreground and background as a binary (black-white) image by minimizing the intraclass variance defined as a weighted sum of the variances of the two classes. the transformed images from figure 9 into otsu images in figure 10 produce dominant image configurations, where the details (like the cat on the ceiling) are lost. people with asc are superior in local processing at the expense of global processing and are, therefore, less susceptible to gestalt grouping (brosnan et. al, 2004). it seems that the otsu-like computation in the brain is less efficient in people with asc than in the typical cognitive processing of human vision. 6. cognitive processing of social-communication signals a possible cognitive architecture and formalization of the process of learning via multisensory integration is presented in figure 11. the formal description of the proposed cognitive architecture, capable of interpreting social-communication signals, signs and symbols, is based on multisensory integration at the level of perception, parallel processing at the level of interpretation and decision making followed by verbalization, as well as performing an action (eye contact, gesture, mimicking) at the level of behaviour. figure 11. cognitive architecture of the process of social signals perception the cognitive architecture evolves in the closed loop of the sensor-effector continuum, dev = cog + beh (1) where dev is the current stage of learning on the part of the cognitive architecture. cog = p(vi,ai,tk) + γ[i(ii) + i(rj)] (2) where cog is the combined multisensory perception p(vi, visual, ai–auditory и tk – tactile) plus interpretation of the incoming information i, modulated by a subjective index γ (rj is feedback correction). beh = τ[b(si) + b(si)׳ + b(rj)] (3) where beh is the combined behavioural response b, modulated by a subjective index τ and b׳ is a spontaneously recollected concept, otherwise 0. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 the different degrees of preservation of the cognitive dynamics will lead to different predictions about the pace of learning and the effectiveness of the education in robot-tutor or human-tutor situations. as a result educational methods can be developed, adapted to the specific cognitive needs of the child. the interplay of the processing in the different cognitive blocks produces the gestalt phenomena of dynamically folding and unfolding the elements of an image into a whole and at the same time processing the individual elements in a holographic manner. disruption of this dynamic process leads to effects of inadequately assigned cognitive resource. in (dimitrova et. al, 2012) the limited resource hypothesis is forwarded assuming that the attention span is narrow yet deep in children with asc. they are less flexible in shifting attention, which is supported by the conducted experiment. in (feil-seifer & mataric, 2012) a robot-assistant capable of automatic classification of positive vs. averse child behavior and socially-aware navigation is implemented. robots of this kind can be augmented with more complex understanding of the emergent learning gestalts on the one hand, and the process of evolving of the learning in autism – on the other. in (huskens et al., 2013) direct comparison between robot intervention and human-tutor intervention was made in order to try and assess the effectiveness of using a robot as an educational method. the amount of self-initiated questions increased and was maintained in both groups – control (human-tutor) and experimental (nao robot), which led to the conclusion that both interventions were effective. in (duquette et al, 2008) some of the interactions like eye contact and physical proximity were more effective in the robot-tutor condition. this is a promising result in support of the present claim that enhancing the gestalt processing would produce better results in education than the traditional approach of presenting novel knowledge element by element. holistic processing in parallel with processing of individual elements is a plausible way of complex natural computing performed by the human brain. 4. conclusion the presented comparative analysis of formation of cognitive representations of the environment – social and physical – as aspects of the gestalt understanding of the surrounding world in typical and people with acs – reveals that the complexity of the adaptation to the world can be usefully mediated by complex cognitive technologies like robot-assistants to the rehabilitation process. the proposed theoretical approach explains novel investigations in the gestalt phenomenon as well as findings of perception in asc that are helpful for guidelines for design of robot-assistants to the educational process. with the inclusion of robots in the educational and instructional activities of all possible aspects of life in the near future, and with the increased cognitive competence implemented in technology, people of different learning styles and educational needs will rely on personalized and individualized instruction. further investigation and deeper understanding of the gestalt phenomena in human cognition will be very useful for building truly intelligent cognitive technologies of the future. acknowledgement: i am grateful to professor barry smith and professor ingvar johansson form ifomis, saarland university, germany, for sharing their work and ideas on the gestalt theory. this work was partially supported by eea grant no d03-90/27.05.2015 of bg09 programme of the financial mechanism of ees 2009-2014, measure “projects for interinstitutional cooperation”. m. dimitrova gestalt processing in human-robot interaction: a novel account for autism research 41 references anstis, s. (2005a). homage to peter thompson: the tony blair illusion. perception, 34, 1417– 1420. anstis, s. (2005b). holistic word processing. perception, 34, 237–240. bailey-van kuren, m. (2007). robotic solutions in pediatric rehabilitation. in s. s. kommu (ed.), rehabilitation robotics (pp. 1-12). i-tech education and publishing, vienna, austria. behrmann, m., thomas, c., & humphreys, k. (2006). seeing differently: visual processing in autism. trends in cognitive sciences, 10(6), 258-264. bolte, s., holtmann, m., poustka, f. scheurich, a., & schmidt, l. (2007). gestalt perception and local-global processing in high-functioning autism. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 37, 1493–1504. brosnan, m., scott, f.j., fox, s., & pye, j. (2004). gestalt processing in autism: failure to processperceptual relationships and the implications for contextual understanding. journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 45 (3), 459–469. chevallier, c., kohls, g., troiani, v., brodkin, e.s., & schultz, r.t. (2012). the social motivation theory of autism. trends in cognitive sciences, 16(4) 231-239. dimitrova, m. &wagatsuma, h. (2011). web agent design based on computational memory and brain research. in: n. tang (ed.) information extraction from the internet (pp. 35-56), hong kong, china, iconcept press ltd. dimitrova, m., vegt, n., & barakova, e. (2012). designing a system of interactive robots for training collaborative skills to autistic children. interactive collaborative learning, proc. icl2012, (pp. 1-8), villah, austria, ieee xplore®. dubal, s., foucher, a., jouvent, r., & nadel, j. (2011). human brain spots emotion in non humanoid robots.social, cognitive and affective neuroscience, 6(1), 90-97. duquette, a., michaud, f., & mercier, h. (2008). exploring the use of a mobile robot as an imitation agent with children with low-functioning autism. autonomous robots, 24(2), 147-157. ekman, p., friesen, w.v., & hager, j.c. (2002). the facial action coding system. second edition. salt lake city: research nexus ebook, london: weidenfeld& nicolson. escobedo, l., nguyen, d., boyd, l., hirano, s., rangel, a., garcía, d., tentori, m., & hayes, g. r. (2012). mosoco: a mobile assistive tool to support children with autism practicing social skills in real-life situations. proc. chi’12 (pp. 2589-2598), austin, texas. feil-seifer, d. & mataric, m.j.(2012). distance-based computational models for facilitating robot interaction with children. journal of human-robot interaction, 1(1), 55-77. ferrari, p.f., tramacere, a., simpson e.a., & iriki, a. (2013). mirror neurons through the lens of epigenetics. trends in cognitive sciences, 17(7), 450-457. galda, h. (2011). image processing with scilaband image processing design toolbox. retrieved from: http://forge.scilab.org/index.php/p/ipd/downloads/388/ haffey, a., press, c., o’connell g., & chakrabarti b. (2013).autistic traits modulate mimicry of social but not nonsocial rewards. autism research, august 12, doi: 10.1002/aur.1323, 1-7. hafner, v. v. & kaplan, f. (2005). learning to interpret pointing gestures: experiments with fourlegged autonomous robots.in s. wermter et al. (eds.), biomimetic neural learning (pp. 225– 234), lnai 3575. happe, f. (1999). autism: cognitive deficit or cognitive style? trends in cognitive sciences, 3 (6), 216-222. hashimoto, s., ishida, a., inami, m., & igarashi, t. (2011). touchme: an augmented reality based remote robot manipulation. proc. 21st international conference on artificial reality and telexistence icat11, (pp. 1-6), osaka, japan. huskens, b., verschuur, r., gillesen, j., didden, r., & barakova, e. (2013). promoting questionasking in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders: effectiveness of a robot intervention compared to a human-trainer intervention. journal of developmental neurorehabilitation, 16 (5), 345-356. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 johansson, i. (1998). pattern as an ontological category. in n. guarino (ed.) formal ontology in information systems fois 1998, (pp. 86-94), amsterdam, ios press. johansson, i. (2006). inference rules, emergent wholes and supervenient properties. triplec – cognition, communication, co-operation, issn 1726-670x. kandel, e. (2013). the new science of mind and the future of knowledge. neuron, 80, 546-560. kim, e. s.,leyzberg, d., tsui, k.m., & scassellati, b. (2009). how people talk when teaching a robot. proc. 4th acm/ieee international conference on human-robot interaction hri '09 (pp. 23-30), acm, la jolla, ca, usa. legoff, d. b. (2004). use of lego(c) as a therapeutic medium for improving social competence. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 34 (5), 557-571. liu, y.,cherkassky, v.l., minshew, n.j., & just, m. a. (2011). autonomy of lower-level perception from global processing in autism: evidence from brain activation and functional connectivity. neuropsychologia, 49, 2105–2111. milivojevic, b., clapp, w.c., johnson, b.w., & corballis, m. c. (2003). turn that frown upside down: erp effects of thatcherization of misorientated faces. psychophysiology, 40(6), 967978. otsu, n. (1979). a threshold selection method from gray-level histogram. ieee transactions on systems, man and cybernetics, 9, 62-66. perlin, k. (1997, august). layered compositing of facial expression. in international conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques: acm siggraph 97 visual proceedings: the art and interdisciplinary programs of siggraph'97 (vol. 3, no. 08, pp. 226-227). rausch, e. (1988). edwin rausch: the ontological morphology of gestalten. in b. smith (ed.), foundations of gestalt theory (pp. 50-58), munchen-vien: philosophiaverlag. rizzolatti, g. & fabbri-destro, m. (2010). mirror neurons: from discovery to autism. experimental brain research, 200 (3-4), 223-237. robins, b., dautenhahn, k., & dubowski, j. (2006). does appearance matter in the interaction of children with autism with a humanoid robot? interaction studies, 7 (3), 479–512. smith, b. (1988). gestalt theory: an essay in philosophy (pp. 11-81). in b. smith (ed.), foundations of gestalt theory, munchen-vien: philosophiaverlag. tentori, m.,& hayes, g. r. (2010). designing for interaction immediacy to enhance social skills of children with autism. journal of ubiquitous computing, acm press, 51-60. thompson, p. (1980). margaret thatcher: a new illusion. perception, 9, 483-484. vechera, s.p., vogel, e.k., & woodman g.f. (2002). lower region: a new cue for figure-ground assignment. journal of experimental psychology: general, 131(2), 194-205. vekker, l.m.(1980). thinking and intellect. psychological processes, volume 2 (in russian). von ehrenfels, c. (1988). on ‘gestalt’ qualities. in: b. smith (ed.), foundations of gestalt theory (pp. 82-117),munchen-vien: philosophiaverlag. wertheimer, m. (1958). principles of perceptual organization. in d.c. beardslee & m. wertheimer (eds.), readings in perception (pp. 121-129), princeton: van norstrand. white, s., o’reilly, h., & frith, u. (2009). big heads, small details and autism. neuropsychologia, 47, 1274–1281. zeigarnik, b. (1955). on finished and unfinished tasks. in ellis (ed.), a source book in gestalt psychology (pp. 300-314), routledge. zwickel, j., white. s. j., senju, a.,&frith, u. (2011). exploring the building blocks of social cognition: spontaneous agency perception and visual perspective taking in asperger syndrome. social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 6, 564-571. brain_3_4_final 19 the effects of call on vocabulary learning: a case of iranian intermediate efl learners parviz maftoon department of english, science and research branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran pmaftoon@srbiau.ac.ir hadi hamidi department of english, science and research branch islamic azad university, mazandaran, iran hamidi_tefl@yahoo.com saeid najafi sarem department of english, hamadan branch, islamic azad university, hamedan, iran s_najafisarem@yahoo.com abstract in the past, vocabulary teaching and learning were often given little priority in second language programs but recently there has been a renewed interest in the nature of vocabulary and its role in learning and teaching. although most teachers might be aware of the importance of technology, say, computer, rarely teachers use it for teaching vocabulary. thus, the current study aims at exploring the effects of call on vocabulary learning of iranian efl learners. in this study, 40 intermediate efl learners, both male and female aged from 16 to 18 studying new interchange, book iii, were chosen randomly from a language institute in tehran. they were divided into two twenty-member groups. the experimental group was given the vts.s (a computer program for teaching vocabularies), a computerized dictionary and provided with teacher efeedback. the control group received no special software and vocabularies were taught using the conventional ways with the help of a paper dictionary. a vocabulary pre-test based on the tests available in their teacher's guide was given to both groups. the aim of this test was to make sure that the students were not familiar with the words in advance. by pre-test/post-test comparison researchers found learners exposed to vts.s teacher e-feedback plus the computerized dictionary scored higher than the control group. both high-stake and low-stake holders can avail from the findings of the study. keywords: call, computerized dictionary, vts.s, educational software, e-feedback 1. introduction effective learning of new lexical items in any language seems to be one of the main goals to be achieved by very language learners. it might not be possible to conduct a message or communicate in a language by those who may know some grammar, but their vocabulary knowledge is not still rich enough. most esl/efl learners must have experienced that the majority of their time spent over the foreign language has been devoted to practicing and remembering vocabulary. not long ago, vocabulary teaching and learning were often given little priority in second language programs but recently there has been a renewed interest in the nature of vocabulary and its role in learning and teaching (richards & renandya, 2002). the role that knowledge of vocabulary plays in second and foreign language acquisition/learning has long been neglected. however, vocabulary is seemingly receiving much attention in the language teaching curriculum. this is partly due to several reasons, such as the influence of comprehension-based approaches to language development, the research efforts of applied linguists, and the exciting possibilities opened up by the development of computer-based language corpora (nunan, 1999, p. 103).in recent years, with the development of computer-assisted brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 language learning (call), the need and opportunity to investigate the effects of multimedia or computer technology on vocabulary acquisition has been felt and created. in line with that, numerous studies such as (aust, kelley, & roby, 1993; brett, 1998; davis & lyman-hager, 1997; plass, chun, mayer, & leutner, 1998) have shown that computerized technologies and multimedia environments can be helpful for learning foreign language vocabulary. 2. review of the related literature 2.1. a brief history of call the world of elt is amazing. it undergoes many changes and experiences with new methods and approaches coming into existence every day. technology has had its share and effect on language teaching/learning too. within the world of technology, computer and its software opened a new horizon to language teaching/learning. according to warschauer (1996), warschauer and healey (1998), computers have been used for language teaching since the 1960s. this 50 years history can be roughly divided into three main stages: behaviorist call, communicative call, and integrative call. each of these stages corresponds to a certain level of technology as well as a certain pedagogical approach. 2.2. definitions and some goals of call under the umbrella term of technology-enhanced language learning (tell), computerassisted language learning (call) can be regarded as an approach which aims at using computer technology in learning or teaching foreign languages. “such a technology, which has become a fixture in many homes nowadays, has significant impact on education and has been more and more integrated into classrooms (davis, 2006). according to warschauer and healey (1998), it is the rise of computer-mediated communication and the internet, more than anything else, which has reshaped the uses of computers for language learning at the end of the 20th century. it seems that computers both in society and in the classrooms have been transformed from a tool for information processing and display to a tool for communication with the help of the internet. computer-assisted language learning laboratories and multimedia lessons can provide drills on oral and visual aspects of language communication in general and vocabulary learning in particular (salaberry, 2001). cai (computer assisted instructions) as salaberry claims can provide monitoring, recording, assessment, and analysis of student language performance. electronic or computerized dictionaries could also provide a full range of synonyms, antonyms, grammatical and stylistic information productively. the capabilities of speech generating of computer makes electronic language teaching and tutoring possible(salaberry, 2001). call can help language learners be more autonomous in terms of language learning. some stakeholders (salaberry, 1999; rost, 2002) indicate that the current computer technology can have many advantages for foreign/second language learning. computer technologies, software and its language learning programs could provide second language learners more independence from classrooms thereby allowing learners have the option to work on their learning material at any time and any place. however, call is not without its criticisms. according to davis (2006), one of the important issues with using technology in language teaching environments is that language education is in danger of being taken over by computer programmers, software developers, hardware vendors or technicians. high cost of software, computer programs, lack of technical support by practitioners and also negative attitudes by both teachers and learners may add fuel to the fire too. 2.3. previous studies a number of studies have been done to see if there is any relationship between computer assisted language learning or any type of computer technology and vocabulary acquisition of efl/esl learners. we turn to some of the studies conducted using computer, multimedia and email p. maftoon, j. hamidi, s. n. sarem the effects of call on vocabulary learning: a case of iranian intermediate efl learners 21 (or any kind of e-feedback) to determine vocabulary learning. gholinia (2010), having thirty firstyear university students majoring in english as her participants, conducted a research to see if computer assisted language learning has any effect on the vocabulary learning of these university students. she also investigated the language learners’ attitude toward the use of computers in language learning. the results of her study showed the usefulness of the applied software in facilitating vocabulary learning, in remembering and also in enhancing the students’ motivations to learn the english language. her study also confirmed that the use of multimedia call software led to a higher-level ability of the learners in the long-term recall of the english vocabularies. in another study conducted by xin and reith (2001), it was found that video technology can be used as a tool for facilitating vocabulary acquisition. in this comparative study of 4th, 5th and 6th grade students with learning disabilities, students were randomly assigned to a video instruction group and to a non-video instruction group for reading vocabulary and comprehension lessons. analysis of pre, post and follow-up tests two weeks after the completion of the lessons indicated that students in the video instruction had statistically higher vocabulary acquisition scores than those in the non-video group. investigating the effect of multimedia annotation modes on l2 vocabulary acquisition, alseghayer (2001), conducted a comparative study to find out which of the image modalities - dynamic video or still picture -is more effective in aiding vocabulary acquisition. he administered two types of tests to 30 esl students: recognition and production. in addition, a face-to-face interview was conducted, and questionnaires were distributed. results of the both tests were analyzed using analysis of variance procedures. his investigations yielded the conclusion that a video clip was more effective in teaching unknown vocabulary words than a still picture. he further found that video better builds a mental image, better creates curiosity leading to increased concentration, and embodies an advantageous combination of modalities (vivid or dynamic image, sound, and printed text). some other studies such as tozcu and coady (2004),somogyi (1996), duquette, renie, & laurier (1998). kang and dennis (1995), iheanacho (1997) all support that computer technologies increase the probability of vocabulary acquisition. in most institutional classes in iran, learners feel bored and are tired of the traditional language teaching methods they are exposed to and this has created discomfort for them while using traditional strategies in learning the four skills. on the one hand different teachers use different strategies for teaching the skills, on the other hand different students use various strategies to learn them. vocabulary teaching/learning has always been one of the mind-boggling issues among language teaching experts/students. the role that knowledge of vocabulary plays in second and foreign language acquisition/learning has long been neglected. however, with the aid of technology enhanced language learning programs it is hoped that vocabulary learning enters a new era. effective learning of new english vocabularies seems to be one of the important aims to be obtained by beginners of efl learners. this research study is thus significant in several respects. first, although most teachers might be aware of the importance of technology and in this particular aspect computer, a few try to use it within their classrooms. second, most studies of call-based language teaching/learning have taken place in foreign countries in an esl situation. this study is targeted at iranian efl learners. third, this study would be of special importance for those students who want to self-study the materials and be autonomous as much as possible. therefore, it is hoped that the findings of this study help both efl teachers and learners move toward a better understanding of using technology and gain new language learning techniques. the results of this study could also potentially provide a solution for materials developers how to best provide the receivers with optimal technology enhanced materials. 2.4. research questions there are few, if any, empirical studies to date to show that using online vocabulary teaching software enhances students’ vocabulary learning at iranian language institutes. therefore, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 the present study is an attempt to investigate the role of call on the vocabulary learning of iranian intermediate efl learners and tries to answer the following research questions: 1. is there any significant difference between call-based vocabulary learning and the traditional one? 2. does the use of related-vocabulary passage writing for computer users with teacher efeedback enhance vocabulary learning? 2.5. research null hypotheses in order to be on the safe side, and also reach to logical answers to the aforementioned research questions, the following null hypotheses are formulated: 1. there is no significant difference between call-based vocabulary learning and the traditional one. 2. the use of related-vocabulary passage writing for computer users with teacher e-feedback does not enhance vocabulary learning. 3. methodology 3.1. participants in order to conduct the research the researcher invited 68 students to participate in this experiment. the students are at intermediate level (studying new interchange, il.1, il.2, and il3) from simin language institute, in which the researcher has been teaching for two years. the students have learnt english for about five years, and reached the intermediate level. the participants are aged from sixteen to eighteen. regardless of the number of the participants that the researcher tried to get them involved in his general proficiency test, there was one problem here that evidently influenced the reliability of the test and ultimately the whole research project, and that was most of the participants in the researcher’s project were female. a general proficiency test was administered to the students on two different days, since it was not possible for the whole students to come on one day and the institute could not accommodate around 70 students at once. to obtain the population required for the experiment, 58 students from three different classes studying new interchange book.3 were chosen and a nelson test was administered. from among those who took the test, two groups (experimental and control) were selected. as it is conventional the scores of the students were ranked and measured. after that, the mean of the students was obtained and then the standard deviations of the scores were calculated. those students located one standard deviation below and one standard deviation above the mean were selected and others were discarded. the researcher was the teacher of the classes, so there was no limitation on conducting the research in his own classes held two times a week for ninety minutes. 3.2. instrumentation the materails used in this research and the tasks that learners engaged in included: • computerized dictionary: the longman exam’s coach english dictionary (2010) was provided for the students of the experimental group. this dictionary had both british and american pronunciation. pronunciation of the words could be played for the students by typing or simply clicking on the words. • nelson test: in order to measure and determine the participants’ level of general english language proficiency and ensure their homogeneity, they were required to do the standard nelson’s intermediate level test. thus, nelson test battery was used as the language proficiency test in this study. this test battery is consisted of 50 items in the form of multiple choice questions and students are supposed to choose the correct answer from among the alternatives. • paper dictionary: all the students of the control group had permanent access to different paper dictionaries such as oxford advanced and cambridge both at home and in the institute. p. maftoon, j. hamidi, s. n. sarem the effects of call on vocabulary learning: a case of iranian intermediate efl learners 23 • pre-test: a standardized pretest consisted of 25 items; all taken from the teacher’s book was given to the students at the beginning of the course in order to make sure that they are not familiar with the words. • post-test: a posttest consisted of 25 items; all taken from the teacher’s book was given to the students at the end of the course in order to investigate and analyze possible differences between the control and the experimental group. • vts.s: which is a simple computer program designed for language teaching enhancement. it contains the new words, their synonym, antonym, definition and one example. it contains two main parts: one for keeping the new words and another section for related-vocabulary passage writing. this software can be used both online and with computer. time recording can be added to the software if needed. 3.3. procedure as it has already been mentioned, in order to make an experimental and a control group, sixty-eight students were chosen from the intermediate level. the first thing to consider is that these participants should be homogenized and then those whose marks are closer to the mean should be chosen for the two experimental and control groups. this is done by calculating the descriptive statistics of the data. it means that the mean, mode, median, and standard deviation of the nelson test scores were computed and then the subtraction of the mean from standard deviation and once again the addition of these two were calculated (mean+/-standard deviation). scores which are below and also above it are discarded and those scores which are between them are chosen. the chosen scores which belong to somehow homogeneous students are randomly divided into two groups, one as a control group and one as an experimental group. in this research the whole number of students chosen were forty-four, so two groups of twenty-two participants were ready. in both groups new vocabularies were taught. in the control group the conventional method that teachers use in their classes was used. in the experimental group, the introduced technique in the research was used. the procedure is as follows: first of all, the twenty-two students of the experimental group were given a cd containing longman computerized dictionary (longman exam’s coach version 2010) and babylon english to persian and persian to english dictionary. all the participants were instructed how to work with these two dictionaries in one session. next step was to teach participants how to work with the vocabulary teaching software (vts.s). to this end, the application was brought in to the class and was explained to the participants via laptop. they were then given instruction how to use it online. but there existed a problem here and that was the researcher was not sure whether all the students could in fact use internet, e.g. they were internet literate or not. having or not having access to the internet at home was not a major problem, since participants could go to the coffee net and work with the application. however, to make sure that all the students could use the internet or not the researcher first asked them to send him emails from their own email addresses. he then asked students to make a passage with the words which were sent to their email addresses by their teacher. after making sure that all the participants were internet literate, the experiment started. right after the training was over, a standardized vocabulary test taken out of their teacher’s guide book by jack c. richards was given to them as a pre-test and a post-test (both experimental and control groups). the experimental group students had to work on the list of new words prepared by the researcher taken from each unit of their book. they had to go through the two computerized dictionary and find definition, example, opposite, synonym, and make one sample sentence from their own. they also had to take the prepared exercises and work on them available in the vts.s application. the next step, these computer users had to prepare a word file in docx format to email their finished work to the researcher after each unit. among the experimental group participants, 11 were randomly chosen to work on related-vocabulary passage writing in order to test the second research questions. these participants had to choose ten words from each unit, make a passage out of them, and email them to the researcher separately. the researcher would then correct, modify and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 email them back to the participants as a feedback. after covering the twenty sessions, a standardized vocabulary post-test was administered to investigate the possible effect. 4. results and discussions 4.1. descriptive statistics as it is shown in table 1, the number of the participants (68) is illustrated. based on the numerical values that you can see on the frequency table these 68 students’ mean, median as well as standard deviation are measured. as it was stated in previous chapter each students’ score has been considered and then (sd+/mean=x) for each of the score was measured. as you can see the mean = 28.3971 and the sd = 6.5429. so, it can be concluded that scores which are placed between these marks can be selected and those higher or lower than them should be discarded. so, from among 68 participants, 44 students were assigned to be located in two (experimental and control) groups. table 1. descriptive analysis of nelson test for 68 students n minimum maximum mean std. deviation nelson 68 16.00 43.00 28.3971 6.54295 valid n (listwise) 68 the table above and appendix a show the distribution of data. you can also see the percentage of the nelson test distinctively in different columns. as an example you can take the fifth row. you can see that 3 students received score 20, or 6 students got score 34 on the nineteenth row (see appendix a) . once the participants were assigned, they were divided in to two groups, 22 for control group and 22 for experimental. also in the graph below you can easily observe those students whose marks located closer to the mean and those, whose marks located further to the mean on the axis. that indicates that the groups are somehow normally divided. figure 4.1. distribution of scores for the nelson test the graph below also shows the ratio of male to female participants. p. maftoon, j. hamidi, s. n. sarem the effects of call on vocabulary learning: a case of iranian intermediate efl learners 25 figure 4.2. ratio of male to female participants after the two groups (c & e) are assigned, now it is time to go to another phase of our research. as you know our research was on the effect of call on vocabulary learning of the students, so we needed a vocabulary test as a pre-test and post-test. for this reason a standardized vocabulary test was necessary to be prepared. a vocabulary test from new interchange’ teacher’s guide, book.3 by jack c. richards was chosen and was piloted in a class of 18 students and after administering the test standardization process was applied and finally out of 50 vocabulary questions 25 tests were chosen as standard questions to be used in both control and experimental groups as a pre and post tests. then as it was mentioned earlier a pre-test was administered to both control and experimental groups. then the control group used the conventional the conventional method of learning vocabularies with the help of a paper dictionary which is quite common in language institutes. on the other hand, the experimental group was given two computerized dictionaries and had access to the vts.s online application. after the treatment a posttest was administered and the obtained results were statistically computed. the following charts show the results gained after the data were statistically computed. the computation is analyzed as follows: a paired sample t-test was used to compute and analyze the data. for this method a brief illustration along with its related charts will be presented here. below you can see a chart in which both c and e groups’ descriptive statistics have been presented. in this chart the mean scores and the standard deviations of both groups (c & e) in pretest and post-test are given. as you see the mean of pre-test in control and experimental group is 5.18 and 5.36 and the standard deviation in control group and experimental group is 1.25 and 1.67 respectively which doesn’t show any significant difference between the two groups at first. table 4.2. descriptive statistics for the vocabulary test (single) n minimum maximum mean std. deviation vocabularypretestcon 22 3.00 7.00 5.1818 1.25874 vocabularypretestexp 22 3.00 8.00 5.3636 1.67745 vocabularypostestcon 22 13.00 23.00 17.8636 2.69560 vocabularypostestexp 22 17.00 25.00 21.9091 2.30753 valid n (listwise) 22 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 table 4.3. descriptive statistics for the vocabulary test (paired) mean n std. deviation std. error mean vocabularypretestcon 5.1818 22 1.25874 .26836 pair 1 vocabularypretestexp 5.3636 22 1.67745 .35763 vocabularypostestcon 17.8636 22 2.69560 .57470 pair 2 vocabularypostestexp 21.9091 22 2.30753 .49197 vocabularypostestexpg1 21.2727 11 2.45320 .73967 pair 3 vocabularypostestexpg2 22.5455 11 2.06706 .62324 vocabularypretestcon 5.1818 22 1.25874 .26836 pair 4 vocabularypostestcon 17.8636 22 2.69560 .57470 vocabularypretestexp 5.3636 22 1.67745 .35763 pair 5 vocabularypostestexp 21.9091 22 2.30753 .49197 but on the other hand when the mean scores of the post-tests of the control and experimental groups are compared, it can be easily understood that the experimental group scored higher than the control one. the mean of the control and experimental group was 17. 86 and 21.90 and the standard deviation was 2.69 and 2.30 respectively. therefore, it shows that the treatment has worked. table 4.4. paired sample correlation for the vocabulary test n correlation sig. pair 1 vocabularypretestcon & vocabularypretestexp 22 .960 .000 pair 2 vocabularypostestcon & vocabularypostestexp 22 .335 .128 pair 3 vocabularypostestexpg1 & vocabularypostestexpg2 11 .421 .197 pair 4 vocabularypretestcon & vocabularypostestcon 22 .611 .003 pair 5 vocabularypretestexp & vocabularypostestexp 22 .673 .001 as it was stated earlier, the 22 experimental participants were divided in to two elevenmember groups in order to investigate further whether related-vocabulary passage writing of the students with teacher e-feedback had any effect on their vocabulary learning or not. as you can see in the descriptive chart below the mean of the group one and group two is 21.27 and 22.54 and standard deviation of 2.54 and 2.06 respectively which shows a slight difference. for the first research question a null hypothesis is made: there is no significant difference between call-based vocabulary learning and the conventional one. in order to test this hypothesis, a paired sample t-test was conducted. as you can see in the chart below the t value of the control and experimental group post-test is 6.53 with standard deviation of 2.90. the mean of the post-test for the control group and the experimental group is 17.86 and 21.90 which shows that the treatment has worked. as shown in table 4.5., the p value = .000 < .05. based on the results, it could be concluded that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the two groups on the posttest. the experimental group scored higher marks than the control group. according to the statistics the mean difference was significant, therefore, it can be concluded that our null hypothesis is rejected. p. maftoon, j. hamidi, s. n. sarem the effects of call on vocabulary learning: a case of iranian intermediate efl learners 27 table 4.5. the conducted t-test for the two groups for the second research question a null hypothesis is made: the use of related-vocabulary passage writing for computer users with teacher e-feedback does not enhance vocabulary learning. in order to test this hypothesis, another sample t-test was conducted. as you can see in the table above, the t value for the experimental group 1 and 2 is 1.72, the mean score as shown in table 4.6. below is 21.27 and 22.54 with standard deviation of 2.45 and 2.06 respectively. as shown in table 4.5., the p value = .116˃ .05 which does not show any significant difference between two groups. therefore, we fail to reject the second null hypothesis which means that the use of relatedvocabulary passage writing for computer users with teacher e-feedback does not enhance vocabulary learning although there seems to be a slight difference. table 4.6. descriptive statistics for the two experimental groups n minimum maximum mean std. deviation vocabularypostestexpg1 11 17.00 24.00 21.2727 2.45320 vocabularypostestexpg2 11 18.00 25.00 22.5455 2.06706 valid n (listwise) 11 5. conclusions and implications although there are many computer software designed so far whose purpose are to manage and organize foreign language learning and teaching, the author of the research aimed at confirming whether using his vocabulary teaching software in remembering and studying new vocabularies may bring necessary efficiency, whereby putting the application (vts.s) among other website programs as an optional useful tool for foreign language learning or teaching. therefore, by presenting the gained results (discussed in data analysis part), the possible effects on language studying and in this particular case vocabulary learning have been discussed and focused on. the research results proved the stated first research hypothesis that there actually is a significant difference between call-based vocabulary learning and the conventional one and unprecedentedly exceeded the researcher’ expectations. but surprisingly the author found that that the use of related-vocabulary passage writing for computer users with teacher e-feedback does not enhance vocabulary learning. after having answered all the questions in the post-tests, the experimental group obtained better results than the control group did. however, in selected in person interviews, some students from both groups were found to be psychologically sensitive to computer and to using its related educational software. although not each foreign language learner may prefer learning english with the help of technology or computer, the difference between preand post-tests within the two groups may suggest that using applications similar to vts.s enhances the learning process and improves the quality of studying the language. furthermore, by having a detailed look on the research results regarding learning the vocabulary, it seems to the author that having access to the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 vts.s application brought much motivation within the experimental group students. the researcher was also wondering whether students would be interested in getting to know other website tools or not. in contrast to feelings present at the beginning of the research that the participants would not use the application too often, or that they easily might get bored with the application and tools, within only two-week access given to them, students showed quite eagerness to use the application and they even introduced it to other students of lower classes too. another issue which also proved the interest and motivation to learning english in this way was that the author was asked also by the control group members to give them the access to the program after the research was over. thus they were given the application in order to use with computer at home. another researcher’s purpose for conducting this research was to motivate himself to use other versions of the application for further researches. on the one hand, being aware of many hours spent on designing the tools and the need to improve, add or modify some missing options for the tools may demotivate the author from further work in this area. on the other hand, the surprising results of the research within the experimental group, as well as many positive remarks given by them (participants), do encourage the author to further develop and modify the application. first of all, the researchers want to stress on the fact that the research conducted was devoted only to the vocabularies taken from students’ study book over a ten-week period. although no questionnaire was used and it was not the focus of the researchers, the authors realized that students in the experimental group were getting more autonomous in terms of looking up the words, finding their definitions, opposites, synonyms, and examples. they could be differentiated from the other students who did not use the computerized dictionary regarding their speaking fluency and specially pronunciation accuracy using the computerized dictionary. after the research was over, the author felt that within the set of vocabularies taught to the students, some of the them were indeed interesting, more practical and useful to the learners (for example such items moody, egotistical, selfish), while others did not seem to pay much role at the current level of the students’ english and might have been substituted for different ones (for instance such words as coincidence, lucky break, and predicament). of course it is quite obvious that students use the new words in their daily conversation which are of higher frequency. similar remarks were also expressed by the students themselves after they finished the ten-week period. furthermore, those students who had to work on related-vocabulary passage writing recalled the words much better that those who did not. this implies that even if students are not supposed to use computer application to do this exercise, they can do it on a piece of paper and hand them in to the teacher for correction and feedback. it was possible for the author to correct the passages and score them, but since the concentration was on the multiple choice tests and there was no exact method of correction, this suggestion was rejected. the authors also consider adding pictures and cartoons to the words listed in the glossary of each section. because pictures and visualization play an important role in any learning process, it seems that such an option added in further versions of the program would improve the effectiveness of absorbing new words and thus affect the research results. apart from that, the researchers wonder about the results of conducting the same research both in rural and urban environments and in different institutes. children from villages may not have such easy access to the internet as children from cities have. of course, this does not mean that village students have no motivation or desire to use technology in studying english. some children from cities may be less ambitious and less diligent . the difference between possible research results in rural and urban environments could be indeed interesting, especially when we distinguish male participants’ results from that of females’. finally, it is worth mentioning that this application has been designed especially for efl teachers and learners and those who study english at language institutes. that is why such a research should be conducted among efl students at english language institutes. this study aimed at empirically examining the efficacy of computer assisted language learning on l2 vocabulary acquisition by providing the students with a vocabulary teaching software and a computerized dictionary. more research is needed related to this study for a thorough p. maftoon, j. hamidi, s. n. sarem the effects of call on vocabulary learning: a case of iranian intermediate efl learners 29 understanding of this issue and for confirmation of the findings stated in this research. this is particularly true when considering that there might be additional variables that would add different intrapersonal effects based on learning style preferences which were not included in this study. interpretations of the findings of this research also led to several suggestions for further research. 1. it is recommended that this study be replicated with a larger sample or number of participants from the same background. 2. the present study may be replicated having native speakers as the participants. 3. it is recommended that a mobile assisted language learning (mall) study be conducted on the effect of vocabulary learning of iranian efl learners. 4. it would be interesting to compare the results across levels of language proficiency. 5. it is recommended that the time-show item be included in the software to see whether spending more time working with computer would improve students’ vocabulary acquisition. these suggested chains of research might shed more light on l2 vocabulary acquisition involving the computer or any kind of technology. they should be able inform us as to which combinations of computer software will enhance second/foreign language vocabulary learning the most. lastly, it is hoped that the outcome of this study be of some help to future research studies. references [1] al-seghayer, k. (2001). the effects of multimedia annotation modes on l2 vocabulary acquisition: a comparative study. language learning and technology, 5(1), 202-232. [2] aust, r., kelley, m. j., & roby w. (1993). the use of hyper-reference and conventional dictionaries. educational technology research and development, 41, 63-73. [3] brett, p. (1998). using multimedia: a descriptive investigation of incidental language learning. computer assisted language learning, 11(2), 179-200. [4] chun, d. m., & plass. j. l. (1996). effects of multimedia annotations on vocabulary acquisition. modern language journal, 80(2), 183-212. [5] davis, j. n., & lyman-hager, m. (1997) computers and l2 reading: student performance, student attitudes. foreign language annals, 30(1), 58-72. [6] davis, r. (2006). utopia or chaos? the impact of technology on language teaching. the internet tesl journal. no.12(11). retrieved may 6, 2012 from http://iteslj.org/articles/davis-impactof technology.html. [7] duquette, l., renie, d., & laurier, m. (1998). the evaluation of vocabulary acquisition when learning french as a second language in a multimedia environment. computer assisted language learning, 11(1), 3-34. [8] gholinia, e. (2010). the utility of computer-assissted language learning (call) in learning english vocabulary by first-year university students in shahrekord. a paper presented at the first conference on elt in the islamic world. (tehran, december 1 3,2010). [9] iheanacho, c. c. (1997). effects of two multimedia computer-assisted language learning programs on vocabulary acquisition of intermediate level esl students. (ph.d. dissertation, virginia polytechnic institute and state university). retrieved may 8, 2012 from scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-11397-193839/.../clems.pdf [10] kang , s. & dennis, j. r. (1995). the effects of computer-enhanced vocabulary lessons on achievement of esl grade school children. computers in the schools, 11(3), 25-35. [11] nunan, d. (1988). second language teaching and learning. new york: heinle & . heinle. [12] plass, j., chun, d., mayer, r., & leutner, d. (1998). supporting visual and verbal learning preferences in second-language multimedia learning environment. journal of educational psychology, 90(1), 25-36. [13] richards, j. c., & renandya, w. a. (2002). methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice. cambridge: cambridge university press. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 [14] rost, m. (2002). new technologies in language education: opportunities for professional growth. retrieved may 8, 2012 from www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/multimedia/pdf/mikerost_pdf.pdf [15] salaberry, r. (1999). call in the year 2000: still developing the research agenda. language learning and technology 3(1), 104-107. [16] salaberry, m. (2001). the use of technology for second language learning and teaching: a retrospective. the modern language journal, 85 (1), 39. doi:10.1111/0026-7902.00096 [17] somogyi, e. (1996). using the concordancer in vocabulary development for the cambridge advanced english (cae) course. on-call, 10(2), 29-35. [18] tozcu, a. & coady, j. (2004). successful learning of frequent vocabulary through call also benefits reading comprehension and speed. computer assisted language learning, 17(5), 473-495. [19] warschauer m. (1996). "computer assisted language learning: an introduction". in s. fotos (eds.), multimedia language teaching (pp. 3-20). tokyo: logos international. [20] warschauer, m., & healey, d. (1998). computers and language learning: an overview. language teaching, 31(2), 57-71. doi:10.1017/s0261444800012970 [21] xin, j.f. & rieth, h. (2001). video-assisted vocabulary instruction for elementary school students with learning disabilities. information technology in childhood education annual, 1, 87-103. appendix a detailed descriptive analysis of nelson test for 68 students frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent 16.00 1 1.5 1.5 1.5 17.00 1 1.5 1.5 2.9 18.00 2 2.9 2.9 5.9 19.00 2 2.9 2.9 8.8 20.00 3 4.4 4.4 13.2 21.00 3 4.4 4.4 17.6 22.00 4 5.9 5.9 23.5 23.00 3 4.4 4.4 27.9 24.00 3 4.4 4.4 32.4 25.00 3 4.4 4.4 36.8 26.00 2 2.9 2.9 39.7 27.00 3 4.4 4.4 44.1 28.00 5 7.4 7.4 51.5 29.00 3 4.4 4.4 55.9 30.00 3 4.4 4.4 60.3 31.00 2 2.9 2.9 63.2 32.00 2 2.9 2.9 66.2 33.00 5 7.4 7.4 73.5 34.00 6 8.8 8.8 82.4 35.00 3 4.4 4.4 86.8 36.00 3 4.4 4.4 91.2 37.00 1 1.5 1.5 92.6 38.00 1 1.5 1.5 94.1 40.00 2 2.9 2.9 97.1 41.00 1 1.5 1.5 98.5 43.00 1 1.5 1.5 100.0 valid total 68 100.0 100.0 microsoft word brain_8_2017_issue_1_vers3.docx b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1 april, 2017 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro 2 about brain the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (in the brainovations and brainstorming sections) peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in july 2017. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is june 1, 2017. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief:  bogdan pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors:  andreea toma, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  cristina lazăr, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  gabriela tăbăcaru, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania  frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland  carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania  angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2017 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 728 88 22 88 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america& "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 6. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 7. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 8. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 9. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 10. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 11. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 12. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 13. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 14. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 15. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 16. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 17. iulian furdu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, bacau, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 18. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 19. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 20. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 21. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 22. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 23. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 24. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 4 25. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 26. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 27. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 28. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 29. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 30. bogdan patrut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 31. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 32. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 33. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bio-inspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 34. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 35. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 36. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 37. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 38. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 39. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 40. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_3_curent.doc b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3 august 2016 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 2 about the brainitiative the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (in the brainovations and brainstorming sections) peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in december 2016. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 1st of november, 2016. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief: • bogdan pătruł, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors: • barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania • frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland • gabriela tăbăcaru, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania • carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain • monica pătruł, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2016 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 3 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanła bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 6. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 7. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 8. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 9. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 10. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 11. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 12. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 13. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 14. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 15. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 16. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 17. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 18. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 19. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 20. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 21. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 4 22. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 23. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 24. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 25. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 26. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 27. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 28. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 29. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 30. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 31. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 32. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 33. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bio-inspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 34. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 35. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 36. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 37. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 38. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 39. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 40. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 101 self-regulation in critical thinking skills of buddhist teenagers for solving problems in indonesia lucky nindi riandika marfu’i indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia universitas pendidikan indonesia, jl. setiabudhi no.229, isola, sukasari, kota bandung, jawa barat 40154, indonesia tel.: +62 22 2013163 riandika.luckybk@student.upi.edu prof. dr. a. juntika nurihsan, m.pd. indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia universitas pendidikan indonesia, jl. setiabudhi no.229, isola, sukasari, kota bandung, jawa barat 40154, indonesia tel.: +62 22 2013163 juntikanurihsan@upi.edu dr. nurhudaya, m.pd. indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia universitas pendidikan indonesia, jl. setiabudhi no.229, isola, sukasari, kota bandung, jawa barat 40154, indonesia tel.: +62 22 2013163 nurhudaya@upi.edu dr.vismaia sabariah damaianti, m.pd. indonesia university of education, bandung, indonesia universitas pendidikan indonesia, jl. setiabudhi no.229, isola, sukasari, kota bandung, jawa barat 40154, indonesia tel.: +62 22 2013163 vismaia@upi.edu abstract teenagers are age-prone to new problems that arise in day life. in the face of problems in buddhism, adolescents are taught to be independent from early adolescence to dealing with various problems in their lives. the adolescent in the buddhist teenagers' has the independence ability taught in the buddhist theory that "make yourself a protector for yourself", so that the individual is required to use his mind in conquering himself." self regulation is component of critical thinking skills as the ability to control ourself to solve the problem where in behaving need consideration using thought for making decision. critical thinking skills is a thought process that includes the ability to interpret, analyze information, evaluate the problem, conclude for decision-making, and ends with self-regulation. this study aims to identify qualitatively the representative of self-regulatory in critical thinking skills on the buddhist adolescents in solving the problem. in the results of this study, the representation of self-regulatory of the buddhist teenagers' critical thinking in solving problems uses independence and thinking systematically without instruction to solve the problems. this research is supporting theory about critical thinking that includes aspects of self-regulation and improvement of self regulatory can be started by group excercise. keywords: self-regulation, critical thinking skills, buddhist teenagers’, solving problems. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 102 1. introduction in the transitional period, adolescence is a developmental stage in which the individual experiences a troubled age. problems in life can be said to be complex that includes personal, social, career, and learning issues. in buddhism, every individual is taught to explore the law of cause and effect. the law of cause and effect reads, "everything arises because of the cause of another condition, impossible without reason, and so on like a chain". the proverb says "who planted, he will reap". this is a common thing in everyday human life. in buddhism, habituation is done in adolescents that live independently from early adolescence to face various problems in his life. the youth of the buddhist community has the ability in terms of independence taught in the buddha that "make yourself a protector for yourselves". so every individual is required to use his mind to conquer himself. in this case, the ability of self-control, emotion, behavior is very important to do. in addition, the principle is also used to interact socially in everyday life especially in religious life because they live in one community that has the same belief. in terms of believes, every single individuals has their own principle namely religious values which are embedded since the early age. this can be a foundation to do the daily activities, to face the problems which are confusing, and this might bring negative behaviour to teenagers. in indonesia, juvenile delinquency is one of the impacts the ability of self-regulation towards teenagers whose low category and the decision which is not based on the religious values and critical thinking. one of the representation of the behaviour which shows low self-regulation of teenager are free-sex, juvenile delinquency, fights between peers, and so forth. self-regulation means the ability to prevent self-behaviour. according to schunk & zimmerman (on kamgar and jadidi, 2016) this regulation is a active thinking system in a way to determine decision, attitude, and feelings aimed to achieve the planned goals. individual conducts self-management by observing, considering, punishing to the attitude itself. this is in accordance with buddhism teaching, that when (s)he perceives bad attitudes from other people, so that (s)he has to re-think that “i accept this behaviour because i have ever done this to other people” or commonly called by “karma”. the self-regulation system is individual behaviour standard and self-observation and introspection as well as self-response. teenagers have anxiety in the face of problems in general. however, if he has a good selfregulation then it will have good self-control also in solving problems. in addition, the use of critical thinking skills aims at the self-regulatory review process resulting in interpretation, analysis, evaluation and conclusions, as well as explanations of evolutionary, conceptual, methodological, or contextual. consideration on the basis of that assessment. critical thinking is a vital investigation tool (phillips & burrell, 2009). in the field of health care, the core of critical thinking can be defined as the ability to analyze, evaluate, reflect, assess information in order to establish selfregulation with the appropriate objectives in context, and problem solving (pieterse, lawrence, & friedrich-nel, 2016). the most important thing is the willingness to continuously improve one's critical thinking capacity, and strive to "do it right." critical thinking is also related to self-reflection and self-regulation. self-reflection and self-regulation are essential for this critical outlook because it is based on students who are independent seekers of understanding and have high curiosity (wilson, 2016). buddhist teenagers have diverse activities and have communities with diverse interests. this makes homogeneity in friendship higher. this is feared will lead to self-regulation in thinking to deal with social problems are very low. very low self-regulation will give rise to vulnerable individuals in the face of problems without thinking of the consequences or consequences after exhaling some emotions when problems arise. this study is intended to represent self-regulation in buddhist teenager critical thinking to solve the problems. it aims to appreciate how far the self-regulation affect towards decision making solving problems based on buddhism teaching practiced since the early age. in the critical thinking skills, indicator is included to self-regulation so that it is needed to prove whether problem solving needs self-regulation in the critical thinking. this becomes a research question in this article. l. n. r. marfu’i, dr. a. j. nurihsan, dr. nurhudaya, dr. vismaia sabariah damaianti self-regulation in critical thinking skills of buddhist teenagers for solving problems in indonesia 103 therefore, it can be identified the effect of the religious values in solving the problems related to the self-regulation towards buddhist teenager. 2. critical thinking skills there are many definitions related to critical thinking. according to ennis (on jane buckley, 2015) crititical thinking refers to think logically and reflectively focused on decision that would do. “decision making that is ” refers to the critical thinking skill, however, the statement “future decision making” refers to disposition of critical thinking. based on the aforementioned, the researcher concluded that critical thinking skill is the skills of logical and reflective thinking focused on decision making which would be trusted. this in line with facione (2015: 3) that the main points of critical thinking are interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, selfregulation. from the six points mentioned, the researcher decided that evaluation and inference are the most prioritized indicator in critical thinking. now, critical thinking has become an important concept for all areas of the organization fielf/world (kelly, on fong, kim, davis, hoang, & kim, 2017). according to bökeoğlu & yılmaz, et.al., (on hürsen, kaplan, & özdal, 2014) not only in the education field, critical thinking is one of the priority behaviors and ability that can be gained by all learners, but also has an important place in the field of organization and business today. in the discussion of the definition of critical thinking skills, it appears that the definition of critical thinking differs in many studies. according to carmel and yezierski critical thinking is the ability to see approaches to skepticism, flexibility and alternatives in solving problems (carmel & yezierski, 2013). critical thinking skills need to be applied in early childhood to practice cognitive abilities and their habitual (miller et al., 2017; peverill, garon, brown, & moore, 2017). critical thinking is an elusive construct to be defined and understood, in part because of the various definitions in the field (moore, 2013). for our study, the definition of critical thinking at work is "self-assessment of goals and judgments that result in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and conclusions, and explanations of judgment based on some judgments" (abram, bernard, borokhovski, waddington, wade, & persson , on forawi, 2016; wade, 2014). critical thinking has been understood in two ways: skill and disposition. the ability to think critically involves a set of capacities including interpreting, predicting, analyzing, and evaluating (buckley, archibald, hargraves, & trochim, 2015). according to demirel, critical thinking is the ability and preference to obtain information effectively, to evaluate and use it (demirel, on rivas, 2017). semer (on rivas, 2017) defines critical thinking as a complex intellectual skill that requires data collection to make conscious, deliberate, or problem-solving decisions (kallet, 2014). integrated problem-solving skills are related to critical thinking skills. thought in depth allows learners to generate reasons for solutions, look at alternatives in strategy, and see parts of the whole. individuals who did not implement critical thinking into their attack strategies often lacked in-depth understanding and culminated in relying on rhetoric or memorization (enright, 1992; hanley, 1990; kallet, 2014; živkoviŀ, 2016). according to hürsen, kaplan, & özdal (2014) when the literature review was conducted, it was found that there are many studies in the field of education regarding the importance of critical thinking to individuals. but it also appears that there are several studies mostly in the fields of science, such as chemistry, biology, physics, economics, art and environmental sciences (doğanay and et al, hubard, on coşkun, tosun, & macaroǧlu, 2009). although the study of critical thinking covers a large area, limited studies show in which direction the study of critical thinking develops. as a result of the literature reviewed according to karabulut, dikmen & usta (on hürsen, kaplan, & özdal, 2014), it is understood that a prepared content analysis study of critical thinking is only done for a single area. in this case, it can be said that critical thinking has a question and answer approach that develops high-level thinking skills and puts individuals at the center (bl burke, sears, kraus, & roberts-cady, 2014; la burke & williams, 2012; fernando & lecturer, 1996 ; gholami, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 104 kordestani, & mohammadipoor, 2016). reflective thinking is necessarily needed in evaluation and logical thinking is also needed. this is supported by the statement from ruggiero (2012), peter (2012), snyder & snyder, (2008) (cited in dwi hendrayani, 2016: 276) stated that the core of the critical thinking skill is evaluation. therefore, this research focuses on the four indicators namely interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference. it can be concluded that the definition of critical thinking skill is the ability to interprete, comprehend, analyze, and evaluate information and make decision regarding the problems ahead. many scholars believed that the aspects of critical thinking skills have correlation with self-regulation. for example, dwi hidayati et al (2016:277) stated that interpretation deals with understanding, expressing the meaning of mathematical statement or mathematics problem. further, analysis means identfying the relationship between given information, problems, and all concepts needed in arranging the problem solving planning. evaluation is credibility of the statement and assess logical strenght of problem solving. the last, inference means to sum up the logical conclusion by giving important and logical reasons. according to airasian, et all. (2010: 106-125) mentioned that aspects in the critical thinking skills above was based on taxonomy bloom as follows: (1) interpretation : cognitive process when students are able to change the information from a form to another form. this aspect can be said as translating, describing, paraphrasing, and clarifying. (2) analysis : this aspect includes differentiating, organizing, and attributing cognitive processes. this encompasses learning to determine part of relevan or important information (to differentiate), the ways to arrange the information parts (to organize), and to determine the goal of the information (to attribute) (3) evaluation : to take decision according to standard criteria, this includes the cognitive process by investigating (internal decisions-based), critisizing (external decision-based ), not all decisions are evaluative. (4) to conclude: when students are able toabstract a consept or principle explaining the examples by observing the characteristics every single example, most importantly,by correlating those characteristics. summarizing and executing are the most used to finish the cognitive assignments. (5) explanation : is the cognitive process when students can make and use causality model in a system. it can be said that they are able to create solving problems model based on social experience and acquired humanities. several definitions related to critical thinking skill has been discussed by many scholars. it can be said that the aspects of critical thinking skills cover ; 1) interpretation 2) analysis 3) evaluation 4) to conclude and 5) to explain. 3. self-regulation in critical thinking skills for solving problems the theory of self-regulation was put forward by the cognitive-social theory figure albert bandura. self-regulation is one component of critical thinking skills related to problem-solving abilities in individuals. this is indicated by the opinion of self-regulation arising from the internal individuals that generate the urge to decide the purpose of life and plan strategies in determining their survival, and used to evaluate and modify behaviors undertaken (cervone & pervin, 2012). based on this opinion it can be concluded that self-regulation is part of critical thinking skills that have indicators of interpretation, analysis, evaluation, concluded, and self-regulation (facione in abdi, 2012; dwyer, hogan, & stewart, 2014). based on the background above, it can said that self-regulation can be used to solve the problems and self-prevention. it is necessarily needed that emotion and cognitive self-prevention to take a decision. further, it has relation to critical thinking skills whose indicator, generally, covers interpretation and evaluation skills. so, those things are able to conclude the information or problems. the activities of organizations that are not required campus surroundings makes the difference in student activities (alfiana, 2013). this statement shows that activities outside the academic including the organization is one of the self-regulatory ability activists. self-regulation l. n. r. marfu’i, dr. a. j. nurihsan, dr. nurhudaya, dr. vismaia sabariah damaianti self-regulation in critical thinking skills of buddhist teenagers for solving problems in indonesia 105 arises from the internal individual that stimulates the individual to decide on his or her life purpose and devises strategies for determining survival, and is used to evaluate and modify behaviors (cervone & pervin, on alfiana, 2013; conover & daiute, 2017). the urgency of self-regulation ability also correlates significantly with academic achievement in school (fasikhah & fatimah, 2013). self-regulation is the ability of a person to display a set of actions aimed at achieving the target of learning by cultivating strategies in the use of cognition, behavior, and affection or emotional (veronica damay, 2010). aspects of self-regulation are 1) metacognitive ability in planning; 2) self-management and interest in doing academic tasks; and 3) the cognitive strategies that learners use to learn (veronica damay, 2010). motivation can have an impact on selfregulation that is able to regulate and direct energy for activity in achieving certain goals (peverill, garon, brown, & moore, 2017). referring to some research results that explain that the intervention conducted on individuals in developing the ability of self-regulation will result in good academic achievement as well (fasikhah & fatimah, 2013). the result of the next research shows that the application of learning based learning has a positive and significant effect on the critical thinking and self-regulation skills of 0,021, meaning that the problem-based learning will improve the selfregulation ability of the students indirectly (anindyta & suwarjo, 2014). the notion of critical thinking skill has been put forward by some experts reviewed in various branches of science. in terms of psychology critical thinking is aimed at, the opinion of selfregulation which is the result of interpretation, analysis, evaluation and inference (gholami, kordestani, & mohammadipoor, 2016; gibbs, gambrill, & blakemore, 2015). the notion of critical thinking is specifically discussed in terms of self-regulation where results based on interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and concluding and explaining clearly, conceptually, methodologically, have clear or contextual measurements or standards (blondy, 2011; smith, 2003). several international studies have shown that self-regulation is part of critical thinking. this is demonstrated by some critical thinking skills instruments abroad that contain self regulation in measurement instruments of critical thinking. one such instrument uses the construct of critical thinking skills theory according to peter a. facione (1990) developed in the cctst (california critical thinking skills test) instrument that includes the components of interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation. 4. adolescent’s cognition development and buddhist teenagers’ the stage of adolescence in its cognitive development enters a formal operational stage in which the individual is able to plan for his future and possess abstract thinking skills. the formal operational phase is the stage by which piaget (in santrock, 2003: 110) more clearly formal operational thinking is more abstract, idealistic and logical. adolescents are also more idealistic in thinking like thinking about the ideal characteristics of oneself, others and the world. teenagers think logically who begin to think like a scientist, devise plans to solve problems and systematically test the way of the unthinkable solution. in cognitive development, adolescents cannot be separated from the social environment. this emphasizes the importance of social and cultural interaction in cognitive development of adolescents. according to piaget (in santrock, 2012: 423) pointed out that the indicator that shows the abstract quality in adolescents in the formal operational stage of adolescent thinking. is the increased tendency to think about the mind itself. one teenager commented, "i started thinking why i was thinking the way i thought i was. then i started thinking about why i think about what i think about what i am. "if this sounds abstract, then it is, and this is a characteristic that marks the increasing focus of abstract thinking and quality. from the above theories, it can be concluded that the fundamental aspects of cognitive change in adolescents are already operational thinking, logical thinking, abstract thinking. another conclusion is to find the idea to put forward something that is viewed from the ability of interpretation, analysis, evaluation, conclude, and explain from a problem or information. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 106 the discussion of buddhist teenagers in this article is limited in the problem and teenagers morality representation. there five rules of morality (pancasila buddhist) which is as morality base. introducing and practicing pancasila must be emphasized to the teenagers in a bid to actualize good human being so that any divergence will be avoided. the principle of the pancasila is ashamedness and anxiety of bad attitude (ottapa). five principles are as follows: (1) i commit to train my self to avoid killing. all creatures want to survive their lifes and expect to live longer. no one has the right to take other’s right, including hurting and embittering physically. this principle is to love all creatures. the effect of violating the principles will shorten the life and live badly. if teenagers do this well, they will not do any crimes or bad attitude. (2) i am determined to train my self to avoid taking items that were not given. everyone has their own possessions and wants to keep as long as possible. the basis for the exercise of these precepts is mutual respect for the ownership of others. the consequences of these sila violations are born poor and deprived. if a teen has understood and is able to practice this pre well, then he will not commit offenses, such as: stealing, snatching, bombing, and plagiarism. (3) i am determined to train my self to avoid immorality. immoral acts are defined as unlawful sex. the purpose of this precept is to suppress an overwhelming sexual appetite that can lead to irregularities. in terms of health is also beneficial to prevent hiv / aids. the consequence of this transgression of sila is unable to foster a long relationship with a spouse and be born in the animal realm. if a teen has understood and is able to practice these precepts well, then he will not commit offenses, such as: cheating, rape and premarital sex. (4) i am determined to train my self to avoid lying. this precept is aimed at not causing others to get lost and deceived, including avoiding defamation and reputation. we should be righteous, honest, useful, and based on love. speeches can be sharper than knives. keeping speech can keep harmony. the consequence of this transgression of sila is the unbelievable of others and has no friends. if a teenager has understood and is able to practice these precepts well, then he will not commit offenses, such as: rude, cheating, broken promises, and slander. (5) i am determined to train myself to avoid food and drink that weakens consciousness. a weakened awareness can confuse the mind. in a state of intoxication, a person can unconsciously commit murder, theft, immoral acts, and harsh speech. as a result of these sila violations is a loss for themselves, due to the lack of awareness of the property is not maintained, the family is not awake, health deteriorated and labeled negative by the environment. if a teen has understood and is capable of performing these precepts well, then he will not commit offenses, such as: consuming alcohol, marijuana, and drugs (samanera vaddhana, 2016). these five things become the rules of action that show the moral values in buddhism. the five pancasila also regulate the behavior of individuals before doing something and in deciding a matter so that there is a special benchmark in doing certain things. 5. research method this study used a qualitative approach with phenomenology study method in early adolescence and middle adolescence with age range 12 to 19 years. the study was conducted at samantabhadra buddhist studio, madiun city. this research was conducted in july 2017. the instruments used were observation as well as direct and indirect interviews. the interview was conducted at the samantabhadra buddhist studio, madiun city. then, the interviews to the teenagers who lived in the sanggar were 21 people and taken using purposive sampling because some teenagers have interest for self-development exercises in school and community respectively. the subjects of this study amounted to 5 teenagers and additional data generated from interviews with studio management. l. n. r. marfu’i, dr. a. j. nurihsan, dr. nurhudaya, dr. vismaia sabariah damaianti self-regulation in critical thinking skills of buddhist teenagers for solving problems in indonesia 107 6. findings based on the results of the study, it can be seen some description of self-regulation in accordance with the theory of self-regulation that has been disclosed in theoretical framework. some of these include the description of self-regulation of teenagers buddhist in samantabhadra studio related to problem solving by using cognitive skills. research subjects used to live all-round regular, from school schedule until after school will even sleep. in this studio, habituation is applied quite well in self-managing and daily activities. based on the results of interviews conducted to the board members namely mrs. ya on november 27, 2017 revealed that "teenagers have been accustomed to live with a regular and scheduled all activities every day from waking up to going to sleep again. if the schedule does not go well, then they will share to the board why they cannot run the routine well ". this custom is indirectly the custom of the buddhist teenagers here to have good self-regulation ability, as it is common with a well-structured life. factors that most influence the motivation of learning and achievement of the teenagers in studio is when parents tell about grief kesahapi faced. this is called family problems or family difficulties, so empathy becomes focused and mindful to think about problems at home rather than focusing on school or studio activities. this is also due to the economic condition of the family is lacking so that their ideals that have been illustrated since now to be difficult to realize, whereas their achievements in the category is quite good and high. all buddhist teenagers at this studio studied at the flagship schools in madiun. the problem that often arises in the achievement motivation of the buddhist teenagers in this studio is that they often feel inferior with students who have higher achievements and because financial support is more secure than they are. self-regulation in overcoming academic problems related to achievement motivation requires planning and cognitive ability in the selection of learning styles. the condition of learning motivation of the teenagers in the studio is quite good. this is also because the support and motivation as the strengthening of teenagers buddhist in this studio is considered quite good. this is indicated by the active board to be the substitute of the teenager's parents who have emotional closeness like their own children. such closeness can be seen from when they speak and consult comfortably and get them morally supportive. states that the pattern of critical thinking of middle adolescents is more systematic than the early adolescents, so this becomes empirical evidence that middle adolescents are better able to cultivate the motivation of learning when he was finding problems (marfu’i, 2017). the buddhist teenager puts the accepted teaching in critical thinking to solve problems and decide on a case by returning to the law in buddhist teachings of causal law. this is illustrated by the example of a case in the school they are experiencing, one of the buddhist teenagers who get bullied treatment from their friends. so the administrators try to give understanding and direction to think again that the harassment has in common with the nature that we have. therefore, we should not hate it. we should introspect ourselves and ask forgiveness of gohonzon for your friend's mistake because the karma came from your friend. over time, the buddhist teenager after reviewing himself in behaving, the hatred disappears and eventually they become good friends. buddhist teenagers always practice buddhist teachings and cause-efect law. this law states that everything we do whether it is good or bad, they will return to ourself. in addition, thanking and respecting each other is very important as well. this is often taught to young buddhist in the studio, especially about self-awareness. in buddha, helping each other and being a good attitude are prominent is the society since there is not caste in buddha. as a result, young buddhist is likely to have good interpersonal communication and excellent self-regulation as they can determine the good and bad things. buddha teaching which is often used as the principle to prevent and control young buddhist in the studio is to give affection to other people.this is called by “maitri karuna” or to love them because every individuals has the soul of the buddha. the way of praying in buddhism is commonly referred to as "daimoku" in the sense that it is a grand name "nammyohorengekyo" repeatedly until he feels himself calm in his feelings, so that in his behavior he will feel no burden. daimoku can be done several times and not limited time, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 108 while there is the term "gongyo" or read the sutra performed twice a day; in the morning and evening. the following will present self-regulation descriptions in critical thinking to solve problems by the buddhist teenagers’. table 1. the description self regulation of critical thinking in buddhist teenagers' no. self regulation of early adolescent self regulation of middle adolescent 1. the making of mind mapping problem solving shows the various branches in making an alternative solution to problem solving. the making of lines in the mind mapping tends to be more systematic and structured in the pattern of problem solving. 2. the first step is to pray and positive thinking in order to think in adult as a form of self-control (self-regulation). the first step in solving the problem is to pray with the name "daimoku" in buddhist terms. 3. there is a root that leads to "tidak mengeluh dengan masalah yang terjadi dalam kehidupan" (said in english: no complaints when there is a problem comes in life) there is a final settlement which shows that he is aware of the error and requires selfintrospection in solving the problem. in table 1 explains the self regulation of buddhist teenagers in indonesia. on both sides of table 1, showing some similarities to the results in which when the adolescent buddhist has problems, the first step is to pray or to be called the "daimoku" in buddhist terms. the equation can be seen in the documentation of the mind mapping of problem solving by buddhist teenagers in the following. figure 1. mind mapping image problem solving of buddhist in middle teens *(this image is presented like the actual research documentation using the indonesian language) l. n. r. marfu’i, dr. a. j. nurihsan, dr. nurhudaya, dr. vismaia sabariah damaianti self-regulation in critical thinking skills of buddhist teenagers for solving problems in indonesia 109 figure 2. mind mapping image problem solving of buddhist in early teens9 in the results of research shown by making mind mapping in solving the problems of one of the teenagers buddhist in solving the problems. one of the buddhist teenagers have represented the "daimoku" in initiating behavior control. the method of solving the problems committed by teens budhist first encountered the problem was to pray according to their belief called "daimoku". after that, the prayer is sung to ask for a solution in front of gohonzon to get enlightenment. when they get into trouble, budhist teenagers are asked to think critically in self-introspection for wrongs committed to others. this is done so that in his life is taught to control his behavior against others related to self regulation. the last stage in solving the problem according to one of the teenagers budhist samantabhadra studio is to direct themselves to be mature in solving and addressing the problem. in the results of this study there are similarities of the first and second mind mapping image documentation results of self regulation in solving the problem. some of the documentation of the research results shows the direction of the arrow line to "daimoku" which is the same as mentioning the great name or praying while in the second picture there is the arrow line to "praying and positive thinking". it can be seen that some equation from result of mind mapping image documentation of problem solving. both results of self-regulation in critical thinking skills buddhist early and middle teenagers show the direction of the arrow line to "daimoku" which is the same as mentioning the great name or praying while in the representation of the arrow line in these problem solving buddhist teenager’s simple mind map to "praying and positive thinking". both levels of youth buddhist in samantabhadra studio have good problem solving skills and have good self-regulation in terms of problem solving. they are considered capable of thinking abstractly and logically thinking in solving problems that are quite disturbing academic activities, so that they are able to balance the use of self-regulation portion in critical thinking to solve their problems this is in line with the theory that self-regulation is highly related to the behaviour in a bid to achieve certain purposes. therefore, it can be concluded that self-regulation affects the success through behaviour control which is appropriate in achieving the goal (alfiana, 2013). when buddhist teenagers are able to practice religious values and buddhist way of life, so they will practice self-regulation by praying or ‘daimoku’. 7. conclusion, implications, limitations based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that self-regulation in critical thinking skills on buddhist teenagers plays a significant role in solving the problems. both mind mapping 9 this image is presented like the actual research documentation using the indonesian language. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 110 pictures of problem solving in early teenagers and medium teenagers shows the similarity. both pictures shown that the vector to “daimoku”or praying. then, the second picture shows praying and positive thingking vector. both levels of buddhist teenagers at samantabhadra studio has the ability to solve the problems very well and self-regulation. they are able to think abstractedly and logically to solve the problems. the implication of this research aims to develop several counselling service materials and teenagers development counselling. the given preservative service in developing teenagers’ cognitive and social potency drive them to be more productive and highly engaged to achieve their dreams. theoritically, this research contributes to the theory that self-regulation is part of critical thinking skills. practically, this research is intended to improve the critical thinking skills needed in identifying the self-regulation to solve teenagers’ problems. the intervention treatment can be done by grouping in order to be effecient. empirically, this implication is intended to enrich the selfregulation reference for buddhist teenagers who live and dedicate in the dormitory. this study is imperfect and unable to be basic criteria for a good research, so this article needs several strategies to develop. the phenomenology of buddhist teenagers cannot be generalized to other buddhist teenagers since this research is included to subjective research or it can only be applied in the region that can be used as research background. the limitation of this research is that the researcher did not intervene the self-regulation, so that the development of the self-regulation of the teenagers were not seen regularly and consistently. the development of counselling service to teenagers whose has risky problems which affect to their self-regulation can be developed more in the future research. then, it can make them uncontrolable. acknowledgement i would like to thank and express gratitude to the indonesia endownment fund for education (lpdp) for its support of my postgraduate study. furthermore, i would like to thank for my lecturer’s prof. dr. juntika nurihsan, m.pd.; dr. nurhudaya, m.pd; and dr. vismaia sabariah damaianti, m.pd. who have providing suggestions for this article preparation, and buddhist teenagers’ in samantabhadra studio who has helped the author in finish the research and reporting the results of this research. references a.chaedar alwasilah. filsafat bahasa dan pendidikan, pp. 149, (2008). bandung: remaja rosdakarya. abdi, a. (2012). a study on the relationship of thinking styles of students and their critical thinking skills. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 47(1987), 1719–1723. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.889 airasian, peter w., et al. kerangka landasan untuk pembelajaran, pengajaran, dan asesmen (revisi taksonomi pendidikan bloom). alih bahasa: agung prihantoro. pp. 106-125, (2010). yogyakarta : pustaka pelajar. alfiana, a. d. (2013). regulasi diri mahasiswa ditinjau dari keikutsertaan dalam organisasi kemahasiswaan. jurnal ilmiah psikologi terapan, 1(2), 245–259. anindyta, p., & suwarjo, s. (2014). pengaruh problem based learning terhadap keterampilan berpikir kritis dan regulasi diri siswa kelas v. jurnal prima edukasia, 2(2), 209–222. https://doi.org/10.21831/jpe.v2i2.2720 blondy, l. c. (2011). measurement and comparison of nursing faculty members ’ critical thinking skills. sage publisher, 33 (2)(western jpurnal of nursing research), 180–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945910381596 buckley, j., archibald, t., hargraves, m., & trochim, w. m. (2015). defining and teaching evaluative thinking : insights from research on critical thinking, 36 (3), 375–388. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214015581706 carmel, j., & yezierski, j. e. (2013). are we keeping the promise? investigation of students’ critical thinking growth. journal of college science teaching, 42 (5), 71-78. l. n. r. marfu’i, dr. a. j. nurihsan, dr. nurhudaya, dr. vismaia sabariah damaianti self-regulation in critical thinking skills of buddhist teenagers for solving problems in indonesia 111 cervone, daniel dan pervine, lawrence a.. (2012). kepribadian. teori dan penelitian. jakarta: salemba humanika. conover, k., & daiute, c. (2017). the process of self-regulation in adolescents: a narrative approach. journal of adolescence, 57, 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2017.03.006 coşkun, y. d., tosun, ü., & macaroǧlu, e. (2009). classroom teachers styles of using and development materials of inclusive education. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 1(1), 2758–2762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2009.01.489 dwi hidayanti, dkk. analisis kemampuan berpikir kritis siswa smp kelas ix pada materi kesebangunan. prosiding konferensi nasional penelitian matematika dan pembelajarannya (knpmp i) ums. no. 276, pp. 276-277, (2016). dwyer, c. p., hogan, m. j., & stewart, i. (2014). an integrated critical thinking framework for the 21st century. thinking skills and creativity, 12, 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2013.12.004 ennis, robert (2011). the nature of critical thinking : an outline of critical thinking dispositions and abilities, [online]. tersedia: http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/rhennis/. [16 juli 2012] facione, peter a. the california critical thinking skills test—college level. technical report #2. factors predictive of ctskills. american philosophical association, newark, del., pp. 3. (2015). fasikhah, s. s., & fatimah, s. (2013). self-regulated learning (srl) dalam meningkatkan prestasi akademik pada mahasiswa. jurnal ilmiah psikologi terapan, 1(1), 145–155. fong, c. j., kim, y., davis, c. w., hoang, t., & kim, y. w. (2017). a meta-analysis on critical thinking and community college student achievement. thinking skills and creativity, 26, 71– 83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2017.06.002 forawi, s. a. (2016). standard-based science education and critical thinking. thinking skills and creativity, 20, 52–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2016.02.005 gholami, m., kordestani, p., & mohammadipoor, f. (2016). nurse education today comparing the effects of problem-based learning and the traditional lecture method on critical thinking skills and metacognitive awareness in nursing students in a critical care nursing course ☆. ynedt, 45, 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2016.06.007 gibbs, l., gambrill, e., & blakemore, j. (2015). about practice, (april 1995), 193–204. hürsen, ç., kaplan, a., & özdal, h. (2014). assessment of creative thinking studies in terms of content analysis. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 143, 1177–1185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.574 inch, edward s., et all. critical thinking and communication: the use of reason in argument 5th , pp. 7. (2006). usa : pearson. kallet, m. (2014). think smarter critical thinking to improve problem-solving and decisionmaking skills. kamgar, n., & jadidi, e. (2016). exploring the relationship of iranian efl learners⿿ critical thinking and self-regulation with their reading comprehension ability. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 232(april), 776–783. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.10.105 marfu’i, l. n. r. (2017). adolescent development in the 21st century: developing critical thinking skills through expressive drawing techniquesby. international e-journal of advances in social sciences (ijasos), iii(9), 773–780. miller, a. l., gearhardt, a. n., fredericks, e. m., katz, b., shapiro, l. f., holden, k., … lumeng, j. c. (2017). targeting self-regulation to promote health behaviors in children. behaviour research and therapy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2017.09.008 peverill, s., garon, n., brown, a., & moore, c. (2017). depleting and motivating self-regulation in preschoolers. cognitive development, 44(september), 116–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2017.09.005 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 112 phillips, w. e., & burrell, d. n. (2009). decision-making skills that encompass a critical thinking orientation for law enforcement professionals, 11(2), 141–149. https://doi.org/10.1350/ijps.2009.11.2.118 pieterse, t., lawrence, h., & friedrich-nel, h. (2016). critical thinking ability of 3rd year radiography students. health sa gesondheid, 21, 381–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hsag.2016.07.002 rivas, p. g. (2017). strategies for teaching and dissemination of artistic heritage by promoting critical and creative thinking among future primary education teachers. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 237(june 2016), 717–722. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.112 samanera vaddhana. (2016). pengetahuan dhamma : solusi untuk masalah remaja. [online]. diakses dari http://inspiring-vaddhana.blogspot.co.id/2016/04/pengetahuan-dhamma-solusiuntuk-masalah.html pada tanggal 30 november 2017 santrock. j. w. perkembangan remaja edisi ke-enam. pp. 110. (2003). jakarta: erlangga. santrock, j.w., life-span development (perkembangan masa-hidup) edisi ketigabelas jilid i. alih bahasa: benedictine wisdyasinta, pp. 423. (2012). jakarta: erlangga. smith, g. f. (2003). beyond critical thinking and decision making : teaching business students how to think, 27(1), 24–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562902239247 veronica damay, r. (2010). pengembangan paket pelatihan regulasi diri untuk siswa smp. fakultas ilmu pendidikan universitas negeri malang. wade, c. (2014). using writing to develop and assess critical thinking. sage publisher, vol. 22 no. wilson, k. (2016). critical reading , critical thinking : delicate scaffolding in english for academic purposes ( eap ). thinking skills and creativity, 22, 256–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2016.10.002 lucky nindi riandika marfu’i (b. september 02, 1993) received her bachelor of education in guidance and counseling (2015) from yogyakarta state university of indonesia, m.pd. candidate in guidance and counseling (on going) in universitas pendidikan indonesia (faculty of education). now, she is master candidate of indonesia endownment fund for education (lpdp) scholarships program. her current research interests include prosocial behavior, critical thinking skills, and assessment of education. she has authored 8 papers and more than 6 conferences participation, member in international program committee of 1 conferences in thailand from australia academy of bussiness leadership. she is a assisstant of lecturer in guidance and counseling subject and educational psychology subject. prof. dr. a. juntika nurihsan, m.pd. (b. june 01, 1966) received his bachelor of education, master of education, and doctoral until professor of guidance and counseling in universitas pendidikan indonesia, faculty of education. his current research interests include guidance and counseling comprehensive, theory of personalities, educational psychology, adolescent development, etc. he has (co-) authored and author of 20 books and more than 20 papers, more than 10 conferences participation, and as a lecturer in educational psychology and guidance and counseling program. dr. nurhudaya, m.pd. (b. july 25, 1960) received his bachelor of education in educational psychology and guidance (1984), master of education in guidance and counseling (1999), and doctoral of guidance and counseling from universitas pendidikan indonesia (2012). now he is an department chairman of educational psychology and guidance, faculty of education, universitas pendidikan indonesia. his current research interests include assessment of education, statistical of l. n. r. marfu’i, dr. a. j. nurihsan, dr. nurhudaya, dr. vismaia sabariah damaianti self-regulation in critical thinking skills of buddhist teenagers for solving problems in indonesia 113 education, guidance and counseling management, etc. he has more than 20 papers, more than 10 conferences participation, and as a lecturer in guidance and counseling program in universitas pendidikan indonesia. dr. vismaia sabariah damaianti, m.pd. (b. april 15, 1967) received her bachelor of education in indonesia language, master of education, and doctoral degree in indonesia language of education from universitas pendidikan indonesia. now she is an lecturer in department of indonesia language of education, faculty of language and arts, universitas pendidikan indonesia. her current research interests include research methodology in language, evaluation of education, and indonesia language. she has more than 10 conferences participation and a lecturer of indonesia language of education in faculty of language and arts and many things of her experiences. brain_3_2 74 instructions for authors author guidelines authors must submit their papers via email to brain@edusoft.ro or they can create an account and submit their papers online, at www.brain.edusoft.ro. submited papers must be written in doc format (microsoft word document), in as clear and as simple as possible english. preferred maximum paper length for the papers is 20 pages, including figures. the template for the paper is at this address: http://www.edusoft.ro/template_for_brain.doc the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point times new roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. the title will be bold 14-point, and the author will be 12-point italic. figures have caption in bottom-center side, and tables have captions in left-top side. use a tab for identing each paragraph and the subtitles, too. the subtitles will be bold 12-point. please use microsoft word 97-2003. we encourage the authors to use the camera ready format even for the first submission. all paper submissions will be carefully reviewed by an editor, and by the members of the scientific board or independent experts, who will provide a written feedback with comments and ratings. authors will be notified of acceptance in maximum 3 weeks. accepted manuscripts should be revised according to the comments of the reviewers and of the editors. for questions concerning manuscript submission, contact mr. bogdan patrut by mail at bogdan@edusoft.ro. submission preparation checklist as part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 1. the submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the editor). 2. the submission file is in microsoft word or rtf document file format. 3. where available, urls for the references have been provided. 4. the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 5. the text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the author guidelines, which is found in about the journal. 6. if submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal (brainovations or brainstorming), the instructions in ensuring a blind review have been followed. ensuring a blind peer review to ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. this involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their m. rezaee, m. farahian, a. m. ahmadi critical thinking in higher education: unfulfilled expectations 75 review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: 1. the authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. 2. with microsoft office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under file in word), by clicking on the following, beginning with file on the main menu of the microsoft application: file > save as > tools (or options with a mac) > security > remove personal information from file properties on save > save. 3. with pdfs, the authors' names should also be removed from document properties found under file on adobe acrobat's main menu. copyright notice authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a creative commons attribution license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work privacy statement the names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. 76 braindexing our journal is currently indexed/listed in the following indexing services and international databases: 1. directory of open access journals (doaj) 2. ebsco (ebsco open access computer science, ebsco open access journals, ebsco open access medical and health collection) 3. indexcopernicus 4. the linguist list 5. google academic 6. ulrichs 7. getcited 8. genamics journalseek 9. zeitschriftendatenbank (zdb) 10. j-gate 11. sherpa/romeo 12. dayang journal system 13. public knowledge project 14. bium (bibliothèque interuniversitaire de medecine et d'odontologie) 15. newjour 16. articlereach direct 17. link+ also, some universities and organizations list our journal in their online libraries: 1. geneva foundation for medical education and research 2. base (bielefeld academic search engine) 3. river campus libraries (univ. of rochester) 4. tulips (university of tsukuba library)) 5. showa university library 6. keio university (shinamomachi media center) 7. university of pennsylvania 8. university of modena and reggio emilia 9. tel aviv university, gitter-smolarz library of life sciences and medicine 10. national autonomous university of mexico, genomic sciences center, institute of biotechnology 11. saint petersburg state university 12. university of puerto rico 13. vrije universiteit brussel 14. queensland university of technology 15. university of florida 16. john brown university 17. université paris-descartes 18. university of regensburg 19. michigan state university 20. university of colorado boulder 21. university of glasgow 22. washington university in saint louis 23. wayne state university 24. california state university, long beach 25. brown university, providence, rhode island 26. the university of honk kong 27. university of nevada, reno 28. ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen 29. dowling college, new york state 30. colgate university, new york state 77 table of contents section brainstorming 1. designing a growing functional modules “artificial brain” 5 jérôme leboeuf-pasquier, eduardo josé gonzález pacheco oceguera 2. self-initiated self-repair attempts by japanese high school learners while speaking english 17 rintaro sato 3. the teacher-student communication pattern: a need to follow? 29 mohammad hashamdar 4. a critical look at the status of affect in second language acquisition research: lessons from vygotsky’s legacy 36 parviz maftoon, somayyeh sabah 5. on the relationship between rightbrain and leftbrain dominance and reading comprehension test performance of iranian efl learners 43 hassan soleimani, fateme sharifi matin 6. learners test performance and gardner`s mi theory: intercorrelation in a bilingual context 59 bagher azarmi, ali jahangard, hossein movassagh 7. critical thinking in higher education: unfulfilled expectations 64 mehrdad rezaee, majid farahian, ali morad ahmadi instructions for authors 74 © 2012 edusoft brain_3_3_ok 25 ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence rosemarie velik ctr carinthian tech research, europastraße 4/1, a-9524 villach/st. magdalen, austria velik.rosi@gmx.at abstract the general objective of artificial intelligence (ai) is to make machines – particularly computers – do things that require intelligence when done by humans. in the last 60 years, ai has significantly progressed and today forms an important part of industry and technology. however, despite the many successes, fundamental questions concerning the creation of human-level intelligence in machines still remain open and will probably not be answerable when continuing on the current, mainly mathematic-algorithmically-guided path of ai. with the novel discipline of brain-like artificial intelligence, one potential way out of this dilemma has been suggested. brainlike ai aims at analyzing and deciphering the working mechanisms of the brain and translating this knowledge into implementable ai architectures with the objective to develop in this way more efficient, flexible, and capable technical systems this article aims at giving a review about this young and still heterogeneous and dynamic research field. keywords: brain-like artificial intelligence, artificial brains, human-level machine intelligence 1. introduction the research field of artificial intelligence (ai) is concerned with making machines – particularly computers – do things that require intelligence when done by humans. in the 60 years of its existence, it has celebrated dramatic successes and equally dramatic failures. today, ai has become an important and essential part of technology and industry and provides solutions to some of the most complex problems in computer science. nevertheless, in terms of its original goal – to create true human-level intelligence in machines – strong ai has not succeeded yet and perhaps never will. today, ai researchers are able to create computers that can perform jobs that are difficult for persons like logic, algebra problem solving, path planning, or playing chess. however, they are still struggling with developing a computer that is capable of carrying out tasks that are simple to do for humans like perceiving their environment, assessing complex situations, and taking everyday life decisions. approaches in the past have mainly concentrated on creating intelligence in computational devices by developing programs that exhibit some kind of “behavior” or “skill” that resembles specific facets of human (or animal) behavior or skills. investigating the structures, information processing principles, and functions in the brain that lead to the emergence of such behavior and skills was so far generally out of scope of ai technology. for this reason, today's computers and ai programs have simply very little in common with actual brains and minds. unfortunately, if continuing this mainly mathematically-algorithmically oriented path, any major breakthrough in ai is rather improbable. a paradigm shift might be necessary. with the novel research field of brain-like artificial intelligence, one potential way out of this dilemma has been suggested [111, 137]. however, the discipline of brain-like artificial intelligence is still not broadly recognized and so far a common research community has not established. researchers influencing this domain are in fact mostly situated on the borders of other research fields. so far, no standard textbooks or overview articles exist concisely defining the field and explaining the objectives, methodologies, difficulties, etc. those who want to gain insight into this domain have to laboriously gather up and put together information themselves from bits widely scattered through brainstorming brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 literature. these circumstances of course do not contribute to an acceleration of the developments in this field. to overcome this problem, this article aims to provide a first comprehensive review on this young domain of science. although it might happen that certain other researchers of this so far disparate and scattered field will disagree on particular points described in this general overview or claim additional material, such a first draft (or chapter) of a “manifesto” for brain-like ai can certainly constitute a basis for fruitful discussions and contribute to further development. the review starts with a brief discussion of the field of artificial intelligence in general and of important current sub-disciplines and their flaws in chapter 2 in order to better understand the backgrounds that led to the emergence of the domain of brain-like artificial intelligence. afterwards, chapters 3 to 8 focus on the description of the field of brain-like artificial intelligence. chapter 3 outlines the basic concept and the general aims of brain-like ai. chapter 4 lists examples of conferences, journals, individual researchers, and research groups that have started to promote and support the idea of brain-inspired ai design. in chapter 5, a demarcation of the current concepts to artificial neural networks – one of the most prominent ancestors of brain-like ai – is made. afterwards, a classification scheme for approaches so far presented is proposed in chapter 6. next, current problems, stumbling blocks, and challenges of the field are summarized in chapter 7. last but not least, a route for how to overcome these problems in the future is suggested in chapter 8. 2. the field of artificial intelligence today and relevant sub-disciplines „artificial intelligence (ai) is the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by humans” [83]. the basic claim of ai is that the central property of (human) intelligence can be precisely described and thus simulated by a machine [78]. over the last 60 years, ai has changed from a computational discipline into a highly interdisciplinary field incorporating many areas [128]. artificial intelligence has given rise to optimism [65, 115], but has also suffered severe setbacks [4, 137]. today, it constitutes an essential part of technology and industry and is providing solutions to some of the most complex problems in computer science [65]. although there does not seem to exist a formal, generally accepted definition for artificial intelligence, various suggestions for specifying the field of ai (or rather particular sub-domains) have been made over the years. john mccarthy, who introduced the term in 1956 [29], defines it as „the science and engineering of making intelligent machines” [78]. more recent ai textbooks describe the domain amongst others as „the study and design of intelligent agents” [98] where an intelligent agent is a system that „perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success” [108]. today, ai research is highly specialized and deeply divided into sub-domains that have little in common with each other and therefore often fail to communicate [79]. sub-branches have grown up around the work of individual researchers, particular institutions, the solution of specific problems, the application of widely differing tools, and longstanding differences of opinion about by what methodology ai should or can be achieved. in the following, a suggestion for a classification of these approaches into five different groups is given (section 2.1) followed by a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of each group (section 2.2). 2.1. a possible classification of existing approaches into sub-disciplines providing a generally accepted taxonomy for classifying existing approaches into subdisciplines of ai is not an easy task. due to the heterogeneity of the field and the overall lack of interchange between groups with different ideologies, there seems to exist more confusion than consensus about this topic. part of the researchers propose a distinction according to either the particular method used (rule-based systems, neural networks, statistics, fuzzy logics, genetic algorithms, ontologies, etc.) or the application (pattern recognition, optimization, planning, theorem proving, machine vision, language processing, reasoning, etc.). however, in practice, this leads to lists of ai classes easily containing several hundred items. if a researcher does not find an appropriate entry for his/her research, he/she is tempted to introduce a new term, which does not r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 27 really contribute to a resolution of the categorization problem. therefore, it is suggested here to better distinguish approaches based to their ideology, methodology, and goal. accordingly, a classification of the five ai sub-disciplines as described below is proposed, including a description of the core essence of each of these domains. the first three sub-disciplines (applied artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence, and embodied artificial intelligence) are the ones that are the most broadly known today. the further two sub-disciplines (bio-inspired artificial intelligence and brain-like artificial intelligence) have been less often explicitly mentioned in literature, are however relevant for this article. when reading these descriptions, one has to be aware that for artificial intelligence in general as well as for the existing sub-disciplines, different, partly not complementary definitions can be found in literature for one and the same term. one example of this are the terms strong ai and weak ai, which were originally introduced by j. searle [110] as part of his chinese room argument to distinguish between two different hypotheses about artificial intelligence. according to the strong ai hypothesis, a suitably designed computer system can actually replicate aspects of human intelligence and thus have a mind. according to the weak ai hypothesis, a computer system can (just) simulate aspects of human intelligence and thus (only) act as if it had a mind. this initial usage of those terms is fundamentally different from the way they are widely used today in academic ai research and textbooks. nowadays, these terms are often rather used to distinguish two particular ai sub-domains (see below) instead of two hypotheses about the achievable goal of ai. furthermore, one has to be aware that boundaries between the different suggested sub-disciplines can in some cases be a bit blurry. being able to provide a perfect, unambiguous taxonomy in a field like ai is probably an illusion. it can thus happen that a particular approach could theoretically be assigned to more than one sub-discipline. for instance, a neural network approach could principally be regarded as a bio-inspired (maybe even slightly brain-inspired) approach. if the focus is however rather on employing a “pre-fabricated” network type to solve a very particular task (e.g., the classification of metallic parts of different shapes [133]), it should better be considered as a method of applied ai. thus, looking at the objectives, methodology, and followed ideology of a research approach is important for achieving the most adequate categorization. • applied artificial intelligence: one potent sub-field of ai, also referred to as mainstream ai by some authors, is applied artificial intelligence [27] (also called narrow artificial intelligence [46] or weak artificial intelligence [17]). applied ai is concerned with the use of hardware and software to study or accomplish specific tasks of problem solving or reasoning that do not encompass the complete range of human cognitive abilities or are in most cases even completely outside their focus. applied ai researchers aim at creating programs that demonstrate “intelligence” in a specialized area such as medical diagnosis, chess playing, algebraic calculation, mathematical theorem-proving, automobile-driving, etc. • artificial general intelligence: a second sub-domain of ai is artificial general intelligence (agi) [46]. agi is not a precisely defined term. p. wang and b. goertzel [146] report that in contrast to applied ai, which aims at particular aspects of applications of intelligence, agi aims at “intelligence” as a whole, having many aspects and being applied in many situations. r. koene [61] points out that “some agi researchers are explicitly pursuing forms of (general) intelligence designed from first principles and without a desire for comparability or compatibility with human intelligence”. however, he also states that “many of the underlying objectives that drive the search for agi also involve an interest in anthropomorphic interpretations of intelligent behavior”. in the proceedings of the third international conference on artificial general intelligence in 2010, agi is described as the research field focusing on the original and ultimate goal of ai – to create broad human-like and trans-human intelligence by exploring all available paths, including theoretical and experimental computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience, and innovative interdisciplinary methodologies [12]. some researchers place the term agi today more or brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 less on a level with the term strong artificial intelligence [27]. in contrast to its original use, strong ai now refers to the design of machines of human intelligence level, i.e., machines that can successfully perform any intellectual task a human being can do [65]. c. pennachin and b. goertzel [94] point out that the term artificial general intelligence (agi) was introduced in order to avoid the connotations “human-level” or “human-like”' of the term strong ai, which were widely used before, and to further allow the inclusion of non-human models. • embodied artificial intelligence: a third important sub-discipline of ai is embodied artificial intelligence [97] (also called embodied intelligence [18], new artificial intelligence [87], behavior-based artificial intelligence [76], or nouvelle artificial intelligence [96]). the goal of embodied artificial intelligence is to study “how intelligence emerges as a result of sensorimotor activity, constrained by the physical body and mental developmental program” [127]. accordingly, the field of embodied intelligence is strongly connected to the design of “intelligent” agents that perceive their environment and take actions that maximize their chances of success [108]. • bio-inspired artificial intelligence: another sub-discipline of ai is the field of bioinspired artificial intelligence [39] (also mentioned in correlation with biologically-inspired artificial intelligence [25], naturally-inspired artificial intelligence [13], bionics [132], and artificial life [14]). bio-inspired artificial intelligence focuses on the design of intelligent machines by taking inspiration from biology. j. chappell et al. [24] point out that this includes “(1) attempts to mimic details of the morphology and behavior of humans or other animals; (2) attempts to apply theories about how neural or evolutionary mechanisms work, to solve engineering problems; (3) applying techniques inspired by social behaviors of organisms, including swarming, flocking, use of pheromone trails, etc.; (4) attempts to understand the problems solved by biological evolution in order to clarify goals and requirements for ai/robotics.” • brain-like artificial intelligence: a further emerging sub-domain of ai holding great promises and being subject of this article is the field of brain-like artificial intelligence [41, 111] (also called brain-inspired artificial intelligence [137]). brain-like artificial intelligence – a term that is currently being established [111] – is concerned with investigating how the human (or animal) brain is structured and how it functions with the aim to emulate these concepts for the design of more efficient, effective, and “intelligent” technical systems [137, 73]. 2.2. weak points of current sub-disciplines in the approximately 60 years since its development and implementation, research in artificial intelligence has produced many useful outputs in terms of solved technical problems and has also contributed insights to our understanding of the “nature of intelligence”. nevertheless, the overall challenge of developing “truly intelligent machines” applicable for all kinds of tasks that can be solved by humans is enormous and much remains to be done to overcome it. different subdisciplines of ai have targeted this challenge from different perspectives. brilliant researchers can be found in each of them. nevertheless, each field today still shows certain “intrinsic” weak points. an attempt to identify and describe them is made in the following. applied artificial intelligence although there exist initiatives to encourage people to focus on the advancement of the scientific understanding of cognitive systems1, researchers today choose to focus for the most part on applied ai [94], i.e., specific sub-problems such as data mining, computer vision, logistics, speech recognition, medical diagnostics, banking software, industrial robotics, search engines, etc., 1 http://www.socsci.ru.nl/cogsys2/pdfs/cogsys2\_opening\_by\_colette\_maloney.pdf r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 29 where they can produce commercial applications and verifiable results [90, 108]. applied ai can therefore be considered as ai mainstream research direction. some of the methods and programs developed in this context are extremely successful in what they do [94]. some ai researchers today still hope that more general purpose ai systems can emerge by combining the programs that solve various sub-problems using an integrated subsumption architecture, agent architecture, or cognitive architecture [44, 86]. however, the success of achieving a general level of intelligence by such “superposition approaches” is heavily doubted by other ai researchers. in an interview in hal's legacy in 2000, m. minsky, one of the pioneers and co-founders of ai, pointed out that “we really haven't progressed too far toward a truly intelligent machine. we have collections of dumb specialists in small domains; the true majesty of general intelligence still awaits our attack. we have got to get back to the deepest questions of ai and general intelligence and quit wasting time on little projects that don't contribute to the main goal.” [45] artificial general intelligence excessive optimism in the 1950s and 1960s concerning artificial general intelligence – although at this time this name was not used – has given way to the recognition of the extreme difficulty of creating human-level intelligence, which is today considered as the possibly hardest problem that science has ever undertaken. thus, in the following decades, most ai researchers have devoted little attention to artificial general intelligence. nevertheless, today, a small number of scientists are active in agi research. the research is extremely diverse and frequently pioneering in nature. estimates of the time needed before a truly flexible agi system could be built, if at all, vary from a decade to over a century [94]. r. kurzweil and colleagues point out that a timeframe between 2015 and 2056 is plausible [65]. however, many ai researchers of other sub-disciplines are not at all convinced that progress will be that fast. critics doubt whether research in the next decades will even produce a system with the overall intellectual ability of an ant [27]. embodied artificial intelligence while applied ai and artificial general intelligence have been centered round the idea of the computational representation of the world, the approach of embodied ai is centered around action in the world. embodied intelligence suggests that the basic assumption of traditional ai, according to which cognition is equal to computation, is not adequate and needs to be reconsidered. when the digital computer was invented, many felt that the core and essence of thinking and intelligence had been found. computers were considered “electronic brains” in those days and the human mind was viewed as a computer [96]. in the 1980s and 1990s, a subset of researchers from artificial intelligence, psychology, cognitive science, and brain science eventually realized that the idea of computers as intelligent machines, at least in the form they exist today, was misguided. they concluded that the brain does not run “programs” and has not evolved to perform mathematical proofs2 but to control behavior that ensures the organism’s survival in the real world [96]. accordingly, they further concluded that intelligence needs a body equipped with sensors and actuators and an environment on which to act. based on this claim, a new sub-discipline of ai evolved: the field of embodied artificial intelligence [18]. embodied intelligence has moved its focus away from computers and towards more interactive systems such as robots or ubiquitous environments equipped with many sensors and actuators. it focuses not necessarily on human intelligence but rather on non-human biological systems such as insects [97]. important research areas in embodied ai today include walking, locomotion, low-level sensory-motor intelligence, orientation behavior, path-finding, elementary behaviors such as following and obstacle avoidance, etc. [97]. 2 in this context it should be mentioned that other researchers partly disagree, as certain animals and particularly humans need cognitive capabilities that allow for planning (acting-as-if), for instance, in order to cope with dangerous situations where a solution cannot be worked out by trial and error as this would most likely result in getting injured or killed [28,125]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 although usually not directly related to each other in scientific literature [92], embodied artificial intelligence seems to have much in common with the domain of cybernetics [57], which already emerged approximately a decade before the field of ai was founded [149]. cybernetics was particularly interested in the question of how “animals and humans maintained equilibrium within, and responded appropriately to, their ever-changing environment” [70]. today, the field of embodied artificial intelligence is still highly diverse and far from being theoretically stable [97]. interestingly, many researchers of embodied intelligence do not refer to themselves as working in artificial intelligence but rather in robotics, engineering of adaptive systems, artificial life, adaptive locomotion, bio-inspired systems, and neuroinformatics [97]. in embodied ai, the identification of the fact that natural intelligent systems are all biological and have to perceive and interact with their environment was without a doubt an important step. however, unfortunately, this approach offered new pitfalls. one essential criticism of embodied ai is that the slogans of embodiment encouraged researchers to focus exclusively on “on-line” interaction of robots with the environment (see for example [101]) without “reflecting” about their activities (e.g., to consider what they did before, why they did it, what would have happened if they had not done it, whether they should try something different next time, etc.). r. pfeifer and f. iida [97] point out that “to date, most robots are specialized, either for walking or other kinds of locomotion purposes, or for sensory-motor manipulation, but rarely are they skilled at performing a wide spectrum of tasks. one of the fundamental unresolved problems has been and still is how thinking emerges from an embodied system. proactively speaking, the central issue could be captured by the question: how does walking relate to thinking?” thus, what happened in the field of embodied ai was that most researchers failed to consider “disconnected” cognition not directly involving sensorimotor coordination as much as researchers in earlier ai failed to consider “connected” (online) cognition, though there was more justification for the omissions in the early days of ai due to still inadequate technology. in this context, a. sloman [124] mentions that “the tautology that a robot that acts and perceives in the world must be embodied is often combined with false premises, such as the premise that a particular type of body is a requirement for intelligence, or for human intelligence, or the premise that all cognition is concerned with sensorimotor interactions, or the premises that all cognition is implemented in a dynamical system closely coupled with sensors and effectors”. he further criticizes that “robots so far produced by „nouvelle ai“ are pre-constructed and typically move around rather pointlessly (possibly doing something useful as a side-effect), or achieve arbitrary goals imposed from outside, as opposed to doing what is required to grow, maintain, or reproduce themselves”. j. starzyk [128] points out that “embodied intelligence revived the field of autonomous robots, but as robotics thrived, research on embodied intelligence started to concentrate on the commercial aspects of robots with a lot of effort spent on embodiment and a little on intelligence. researchers today concentrate on advancements of robotic technology like building artificial skin and muscles. while this might be relevant for the development of robots, it diverts attention from developing intelligence. furthermore, currently, process efficiency dominates over generality. it is more cost efficient and cheaper to design a robot for a specific task than one that can perform various tasks, and most certainly even more than one that can actually make its own decision”. bio-inspired artificial intelligence parallel to the emergence of embodied intelligence, more attention also started to be directed towards the derivation of biological concepts [97]. while artificial intelligence has traditionally focused on the computational reproduction of the behavior and abilities of humans, bio-inspired ai takes inspirations from a wider range of biological structures that show the capability of adaptation and autonomous self-organization. n. forbes [38] describes the focus of the field to be on “the use of biology in algorithm construction, the study of how biological systems communicate and process information, and the development of information processing systems that use biological materials, are based on biological models, or both”. as outlined in [39, 75, 11], bio-inspired ai envisions r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 31 amongst others evolutionary computation, evolutionary electronics, biologically inspired hardware, bioelectronics, amorphous computing, artificial immune systems, genetic algorithms, dna computation, cellular automata, biomolecular self-assembly, artificial neural networks, biorobotics, and swarm intelligence. in the book “bio-inspired artificial intelligence – theories, methods, and technologies”, d. charles et al. [25] categorize biologically-inspired approaches to ai into 7 groups: evolutionary systems, cellular systems, neural systems, developmental systems, immune systems, behavioral systems, and collective systems. like embodied ai, bio-inspired ai also has some common roots with the field of cybernetics, which is interested in human and animal nervous systems [70]. however, the central aim of cybernetics is the understanding with less emphasis on the construction of useful artifacts. without doubt, bio-inspired ai and bio-inspired technology have great potential. however, approaches suggested in this field are of great diversity, which makes it difficult to provide an analysis of the strengths and flaws of this domain with general validity. while some approaches like artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms are already well established methods that find application in various areas, many others are still on the level of very basic research and concept clarification. bio-inspired ai is not yet widely considered as an own, separate research field, but rather it summarizes biologically-inspired approaches introduced in diverse other disciplines. in general, the term “bio-inspired” implies that inspiration for technical development is taken from nature. however, the level of abstraction at which nature serves as archetype varies greatly. part of the approaches currently consider and investigate information processing and computational principles occurring in nature while others analyze biological organisms on a behavioral level or take nature more as a metaphor than as a model [38]. in the latter context, b. sendhoff et al. [111] criticize that so far, the contribution of so called “bio-inspired” ai approaches to a better understanding of “biological intelligence” and “brain intelligence” has been very limited. similar as in classical ai, there exist a number of approaches that have resulted from a symbiotic cooperation between engineers, computer scientists, and researchers from life sciences. however, a significant number of models are still developed by researchers from the technical science discipline only. a. schierwagen [109] comments that in practice, this has sometimes led to so-called bio-inspired technologies that take advantages of fancy biological names as selling arguments without an in-depth exploitation of biological principles. artificial intelligence as a whole in summary, it can be concluded that throughout its history, artificial intelligence has always been a topic of much controversy [29, 90]. taking inventory today, artificial intelligence can achieve good solutions that can compete with or exceed human (or at least higher developed animal) cognitive abilities and skills for problems that are sufficiently well structured and whose complexity can be controlled. today's ai systems particularly outperform humans in jobs that are of an “abstract nature” like logic, solving puzzles and algebra problems, path planning, playing chess, etc. and that can be well described in a mathematic or algorithmic form and thus be relatively easily implemented computationally (see also [97]). certain problems have these characteristics. however, natural environments do not [111]. ai researchers have so far struggled to develop computational systems that are capable of carrying out tasks that are simple and “natural” for humans, e.g., perception in the real world, object manipulation, sensory-motor coordination, locomotion, common sense, evaluating complex situations, making decisions in real world situations, everyday natural language, etc. [96, 137]. j. starzyk [128] criticizes that artificial intelligence often applies the principle of chip design to create a system with no intelligence and call it intelligent as long as it does its job. during its history, artificial intelligence challenges have experienced a revival in various disciplines related to ai, e.g., computational intelligence [98], cognitive automation [129], cognitive computation [55], and cognitive robotics [26]. however, the basic aims and difficulties have remained mainly intact. despite the many successes of artificial intelligence, fundamental problems of intelligence are still unanswered today [128]. as b. sendhoff et al. [111, 112] point out: “superior functionality brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 in a single problem domain can often already be achieved by specialized technological systems (thinking about a simple calculator or a chess program), however, no technological system can robustly cope with the plethora of tasks encountered by any (higher developed) animal during its life time. we have to acknowledge that in spite of its tremendous advances in areas like neural networks, computational and artificial intelligence, and fuzzy systems, existing approaches are still not able to mimic even for instance the lower-level sensory capabilities of humans or animals.” thus, the open question remains: how to continue on the path to machine intelligence for the problem domains that cannot yet be handled with existing approaches? an emerging path that – if followed wisely – could hold a solution to this question is the field of brain-like artificial intelligence. 3. the basic concept and aims of brain-like artificial intelligence 3.1. basic concept as outlined in section 2.2, artificial intelligence today mainly provides methods and tools to automate specific, well-structured tasks that take place in environments of limited complexity. for tasks that show these characteristics, technical systems can compete with or even surpass human performance. however, there does not currently exist a technical system that can even come close to competing with the overall capacity and the capabilities of the human mind. the same holds true for perceptual, motor control, and other cognitive abilities of higher developed animals. in order to substantially progress further a paradigm shift might be necessary in this field. with brain-like ai, a potential way out of the current ai dilemma has been proposed. its basic idea is highly intuitive [35, 95, 99, 135]: use the brain as archetype for ai model development! however – considering the last 60 years of ai history – it is quite clear that it has so far not been that easy to implement this idea properly (see also chapter 7). one difficulty with current approaches in brain-like artificial intelligence is, as it can also be observed in other sub-disciplines of ai, that different researchers have partly divergent opinions on what brain-like artificial intelligence actually is and how it should be done (see also chapter 7). in the book creating brain-like intelligence: from basic principles to complex intelligent systems, b. sendhoff et al. [111] point out: “as the name suggests, we would like to achieve intelligence as demonstrated by brains preferably those of highly evolved creatures.” although part of the contributions presented in this book actually aim at investigating and emulating the structures, information processing principles, and functioning of the brain that lead to the emergence of certain skills and abilities, it is left open if an analogy to the brain is sufficient in terms of externally emitted functions or if it should also be in terms of internal processes and principles. however, if limiting the similarity to emitted functions, no clear demarcation line to the other fields of ai discussed in section 2 – particularly to agi – can be drawn. brain-like artificial intelligence as understood in this article therefore refers to both similarity in internal brain processes and principles and their emitted function. while principally the brain of different higher developed organisms could be analyzed for this purpose (see also section 6.1), the focus is on the human brain in this article. accordingly, the “basic dogma” of brain-like artificial intelligence as used here is the following: “basic dogma” of brain-like artificial intelligence as used here it is well appreciated that the human brain is the most sophisticated, powerful, efficient, effective, flexible and intelligent information processing system known. therefore, the functioning of the human brain, its structural organization, and information processing principles should be used as archetype for designing artificial intelligent systems instead of just emulating its behavior in a black box manner. to achieve this, approaches should not build on work from engineers only but on a close cooperation between engineers and brain scientists. r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 33 acknowledging the simplicity, clarity, and intuitive logic of this basic dogma, the question arises why such a brain-like approach to ai has not already been followed more intensively from the very beginning of the field of ai. one main reason for this is that 60 years ago, when the domain of ai started to evolve, the available body of knowledge about the functioning of the brain was still very limited. apart from simple nerve cell models, the brain could merely be considered as a black box system of which only the external behavior could be observed and studied. the development of new measuring and imaging techniques in the last decades has shed new light on the internal structures, information processing principles, and functioning of the brain. in this context, b. goertzel [45] states: “prior to the last few decades, the traditional disciplines of psychology and neuroscience offered extremely little to ai designers. since the emergence of cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience, things have gotten a little better.” it might now be time to start using and extending this acquired knowledge by translating it to functioning and technically implementable models. 3.2. basic aims in simple words, the research field of brain-like ai is concerned with the development and implementation of concepts and models of the human (or animal) brain and their application in various kinds of technical systems and domains. the motivation for research in brain-like ai is twofold and outlined in the following [41, 48, 99]: • on the one hand, these models and their implementation shall in the future lead to better information processing, computation, and automation systems. domains which are eagerly waiting for such novel “intelligent” approaches in order to deal with their upcoming needs are, amongst others, the field of machine perception [130, 138], sensor fusion [135], ambient intelligence [19], interactive systems [20, 140], smart buildings [67, 136, 139], automation [143], robotics [22, 32, 33], agent technologies [68], information processing [50, 131], computation [6, 142], and web intelligence [151]. • on the other hand, the models shall contribute to a better understanding of the human (or animal) brain. when trying to technically implement models of the brain, unknown points cannot just be left open without even mentioning them as the developed machine has to be able to perform certain functions. therefore, this emulation process is an important means to detect weak points and inconsistencies in current brain theories and to contribute to the development of new brain theories [82, 138, 141, 144]. of course, each researcher will place their particular focus in terms of these two basic motivations. while some concentrate on topics of the first point, others may emphasize the second. 4. support from the scientific community although still being a heterogeneous and emerging discipline, the principal idea of braininspired approaches to solutions in ai is today well supported by numerous researchers. n. zhoung [151] points out that “ai research has not produced major breakthrough recently due to a lack of understanding of human brains and natural intelligence.” he predicts that the next major advancements in ai will most likely result “by an in-depth understanding of human intelligence and its application in the design and implementation of systems with human-level intelligence”. m. minsky suggests that findings about how natural intelligence (particularly the brain) works have to be the basis for developing concepts for technical approaches trying to achieve intelligence [134]. j. kirchmar and g. edelman [63] state that “the analogy to the natural brain must be taken serious” [112]. c. pennachin and b. goertzel [94] comment that “one almost sure way to create artificial general intelligence would be to exactly copy the human brain”. c. goerick [42] discusses: “we would like to create brain-like intelligent systems, hence we have to understand how the brain works. the artifacts we are creating should show what we have understood from the brain so far, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 and should help formulating the next questions aiming for further understanding the brain.” r. koene [61] indicates that “the brain's implementation is not necessarily the best one according to criteria used to measure performance at solving a particular problem, but at least it is an existing implementation, and we have some idea of the specifications that it meets”. d. dietrich and his team emphasize that one way to solve the dilemma of ai and automation in general is the application of bionic approaches, particularly of approaches considering the human brain and mind. they recommend a close cooperation between engineers and brain scientists for this purpose [21, 35, 68, 91, 100, 104, 134, 150]. j. hawkins [51] states that “brains are totally unlike the relatively simple structures of even the most complex computer chip” and that therefore “the way we build computers today won't take us down the path to create truly intelligent machines.” s. potter [99] points out that “yet, little attention in the ai field has been directed toward actual brains.” he illustrates that “the human brain is the best example of intelligence known, with unsurpassed ability for complex, realtime interaction with a dynamic world” and concludes that “if ai were to become less artificial, more brain-like, it might come closer to accomplishing the feats routinely carried out by natural intelligence.” s. amari [6] indicates that “the more is known about the functionality of the brain the more intelligent the information systems will become”. b. goertzel [45] points out that “we have a great deal of respect for the fact that the human brain/mind actually exists and functions, so it would be foolish not to learn from it all that we can.” within the last few years, the first conferences and workshops promoting the topic of brainlike ai have taken place, e.g., the engineering-neuro-psychoanalysis forum (2007)3, the braininspired cognitive systems conference (2004–2012)4, the conference on brain-inspired information technology (2006)5, the international symposium on creating brain-like intelligence (2007)6, the international conference on brain informatics (2009–2012)7, the aaai spring symposium (2006)8 with the title between a rock and a hard place: cognitive science principles meet ai-hard problems, and the international conference on artificial neural networks (2011)9 with focus on machine learning re-inspired by brain and cognition. other conferences have dedicated tracks and special sessions to this topic, e.g., the indin (2008–2010)10 on cognitive and computational intelligence in industrial informatics, the his (2010) on modeling the mind11, and the africon (2011)12 on challenges in autonomic systems looking for new bionic approaches for modeling the mind. similarly, some pioneer journals have started to deal with topics of brain-like ai like the journal of broad research on artificial intelligence and neuroscience13 or the special issue on brain-inspired cognitive agents of the acm transactions on intelligent systems and technology14. moreover, the first books have been published promoting the topic of “brain-inspiredness”. among these are the books simulating the mind: a technical neuropsychoanalytical approach [35], creating brain-like intelligence: from basic principles to complex intelligent systems [111], and brain-like computing and intelligent information systems [6]. 3 http://www.indin2007.org/enf/index.php 4 http://www.conscious-robots.com/en/publications/conferences/bics-2010.-brain-inspired-cognitive-systemsconfe.html 5 http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.authors/712521/description 6 http://wiredshelf.com/book/creating-brain-like-intelligence-276694 7 http://wi-consortium.org/conferences/amtbi11/amtbi.php?conf=bi\&here=cfpart 8 http://www.aaai.org/press/reports/symposia/spring/ss-06-02.php 9 http://www.aaai.org/symposia/fall/fss08symposia.php\#fs04 10 http://indin2010.ist.osaka-u.ac.jp/ 11 http://hsi.wsiz.rzeszow.pl/ 12 http://www.africon2011.co.za/ 13 http://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brain 14 http://tist.acm.org/cfps/tist-si-bica-10.pdf r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 35 5. artificial neural networks – the ancestors of brain-like ai? when claiming that brain-like artificial intelligence is a novel and recent research field, one question that will most certainly pop up is: “is the concept really that new?” the next question that is most likely to follow is: “what about artificial neural networks?” these are justified questions, which will be considered in more detail in the following. in principle, the drive to study and emulate the functions of the (human) brain might date back thousands of years. however, only with the development of modern day electronics have attempts to emulate the brain and thinking processes become more tangible. in the 1940s, the area of neural network research began to emerge [52, 80]. since then, artificial neural network (ann) research has gone through various highs and lows. today, artificial neural networks are used for pattern recognition, classification, and prediction. without doubt, anns are useful tools and have brought solutions to various problems that are difficult to solve with conventional computers. however, they have yet failed to produce any kind of behavior that could be considered truly intelligent. several researchers, for instance h. de garis [31], claimed that this is due to the fact that current networks were just too small in terms of number of used neurons. however, this explanation is most likely insufficient. i. aleksander [3] indicates: “the point is that these puzzles are not puzzles because our neural models are not large enough.” although anns have often been viewed as simplified models of neural processing in the brain, today their relation to biological brain architectures is questionable. in fact, artificial neural networks do contain some neuron-like attributes (connection strengths, inhibition/excitation, etc.) but they overlook many other factors, which may be significant to the brain's functioning [103]. j. hawkins argues that artificial neural network research ignores essential properties of the (human) cortex and instead prefers to focus on simple models that have been successful at solving simple problems [51]. more specifically, up to today, artificial neural networks have mainly been an attempt to emulate processing aspects of individual biological neurons, not of whole neural brain networks and not of learning principles in such biological networks. unlike brains that seem to have already a great deal of organization present even during fetal development, anns generally start from a jumbled, randomized set of connection strengths [103]. the methods for achieving networking through learning in anns are based mainly on mathematical models, not on biological ones. accordingly, the question to what extent anns are actually brain-inspired can be answered as follows. artificial neural networks, as they exist today, are systems that are loosely patterned on the nervous system. their basic processing elements can be considered to be brain-inspired (or better neuron-inspired) and the principal idea to put them together to form networks. however, the rest of the framework, i.e., the way how artificial neurons are structured into networks, how their interconnections are determined through learning processes, etc. is based on mere mathematical assumptions. therefore, it is suggested here that artificial neural networks should rather be classified as an approach of bio-inspired ai or even applied ai than one of brain-like ai. without question, the initial idea behind anns is brilliant and it is astonishing how many tasks can today be solved with them. unfortunately, these promising results in some areas were probably also the reason that have led a number of researchers to come to the inappropriate conclusion that anns as they exist today have much in common with brains. in fact, their success has to be mainly attributed to the mathematical theory behind them and not to biological similarities with the brain. nevertheless, it is not impossible that in the future, further developments in this field based on novel and extended insights from brain research will lead to neural network structures that are actually worthy to be called “brain-like”. 6. possible classifications of brain-like ai approaches as outlined before, the principal idea behind brain-like artificial intelligence has existed for several decades. however, so far, many stumbling blocks and detours had to be taken concerning its implementation. thus, brain-inspired artificial intelligence can still be considered a brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 quite novel, dynamic, and heterogeneous field. different researchers have different opinions regarding by what means and how closely one needs to simulate the brain in order to achieve brainlike behavior [73]. on the one extreme, there are ai approaches that are based purely on abstract mathematical theories of intelligence and do not draw any mapping between natural and artificial cognition at any level. such approaches, which rest on the assumption of vast levels of computing power greater than anything that will be physically possible in a foreseeable future, have clearly nothing to do with brain-inspired artificial intelligence as described and defined in this article. on the other extreme, there are claims, e.g., by r. kurzweil [64], that the most effective path to strong ai is to reverse-engineer the human brain to a level as precise as necessary to replicate its function. in practice, this has led to “brain simulations” aiming at a level of precision as detailed as the cellular level – e.g., in the blue brain project [77] – or even the molecular level – as in the cajal blue brain project15. in sum, regardless of the level of detail of simulation, most approaches suggested so far should be considered as rather loosely brain-like models [41]. looking at the great variety of existing approaches, finding a good classification scheme for them is not an easy task and category boundaries generally remain vague. nevertheless, in the following sub-sections, several possible ways for a classification are suggested. 6.1. biological organism used as blueprint traditionally, artificial intelligence has focused its attention mainly on the cognitive abilities of humans. the roots for this go back as far as to r. descartes who stated that only humans are capable of thought. he considered animal behavior as a series of unthinking mechanical responses to stimuli that originate from the animal's internal or external environment [59]. in contrast, many researchers today disagree with this view – at least for higher developed animals. for instance h. terrace [15] claims that “animals do think but cannot master language”. a. sloman goes even further and attributes animals with some kind of mathematical competences. specifically, his research interests are related to the biological basis of mathematical competence in humans and creative problem solving in other animals [126]. s. kak [59] points out that “as other animals learn concepts nonverbally, it is hard for humans, as verbal animals, to determine their concepts”. based on these facts, brain-like artificial intelligence aiming at the emulation of brain functions cannot only take inspiration from the human brain but principally also from brain architectures of all kinds of higher developed animals. thus, the biological species which is taken as inspiration for the blueprint of a brain-like architecture constitutes one possible way of classification. prominent species for such brain and behavior models have so far ranged from elephants, cats, cheetahs, deer, primates, and squirrels over crows, pigeons, and parrots to octopuses and insects. nevertheless, as a. sloman pointed out in a private discussion with him, one has to be aware that no matter which organism's brain we take as archetype, we cannot avoid explicitly or implicitly focusing on human brains, or at least their competences. after all, we have (at least initially) to use human ways of thinking when we ask what other organisms can and cannot do. 6.2. bottom-up versus top-down design another possibility of categorization is – similar as also in mainstream ai – a division into bottom-up (neural) models and top-down (symbolic) models [27]. generally, in top-down ai, cognition is treated as a high-level phenomenon that is independent of the low-level details of the implementing mechanism. researchers in bottom-up ai take an opposite approach and simulate networks of neurons. they then investigate what aspects of cognition can be recreated in these networks. 15 http://cajalbbp.cesvima.upm.es/ r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 37 6.3. involved discipline of brain science a further method of classification would be the discipline of brain science that served as the inspiration for the technical model. disciplines today involved in this task range from neuroscience over psychology and pedagogics to psychoanalysis. while neuroscience can be considered as a “bottom-level” approach, the further disciplines target the problem of creating artificial intelligence from a “top-level” perspective. furthermore, in the last decades, disciplines started to emerge, which aim at investigating both top and bottom-level aspects of cognition and particularly their correlations. amongst these are neuro-psychology, neuro-psychoanalysis, and cognitive neuroscience. although the methodology of classification based on the underlying brain theory would make sense, it does not seem to have yet found its way into scientific literature. one problem with this kind of classification might certainly be that today, the content and borders of each of these disciplines of brain sciences and cognitive sciences are not clearly defined. each discipline is again split into further sub-disciplines, which show partial overlap but partial contradiction with other subareas. none of the disciplines can so far provide a satisfactory explanation for how the brain works and accordingly cannot yet give a detailed prescription for the construction of truly “intelligent” systems [45] (see also chapter 7). 6.4. emulated brain function another possible way of classification can be done according to the brain function that is emulated. this can range from vision, audition, multimodal perception, and motor control over language processing, decision-making, reasoning, and planning, to emotions, learning, and consciousness. in sum, the effort spent so far in truly brain-like approaches to these challenges is still quite limited. the field which has probably received the most attention is computer and machine vision, particularly for the lower processing levels. interestingly, also in brain sciences, the lower levels of vision are one of the best explored systems of the brain [nishimoto2011]. in this work, the focus is particularly on the development and implementation of models for multimodal perception, “emotional” situation assessment, and decision-making and their interplay. 6.5. large-scale brain simulations versus (brain-inspired) cognitive architectures a methodology related to the bottom-up and top-down categorization of section 6.2 but perhaps more contemporary for a distinction of brain-inspired approaches is suggested by h. garis et al. [41] and b. goertzel et al. [48]. this taxonomy will be described more in detail in the following. the authors distinguish between large-scale brain simulations and (biologically inspired) cognitive architectures 16. in the following, a description of these two classes of approaches is given including a number of examples of so far proposed models. for this purpose, the review articles [48] and [41] will serve as the main references. this description does not at this point include a judgment to which extent the individual mentioned models are actually brain-inspired. a critical reflection about the usage of the term “brain-inspired” and the problems coming along with it is given in chapter 7. large-scale brain simulations large-scale brain simulations describe systems that attempt to simulate in software the structure and dynamics of particular subsystems of the brain. when looking at existing approaches to large-scale brain simulations, it becomes clear that the scope of interpretation of the notion “brain simulation” is broad. different researches are approaching this task with very different objectives in mind. h. garis et al. [41] distinguish between five groups ordering them according to decreasing neurobiological fidelity: 16 the term “biologically inspired” as used by h. garis and b. goertzel mainly refers to architectures inspired by the brain and shall therefore be described under the term brain-inspired cognitive architectures in the following. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 1. models, which can actually be connected to parts of the human brain or body and that can serve the same role as the brain system they emulate. an example is boahen's artificial retina [16]. 2. precise functional simulations of subsystems of the brain, their internal dynamics, and their mapping of inputs to outputs that explain exactly what the brain sub-system does to control the organism. 3. models, which quantitatively simulate the generic behavior and internal dynamics of certain brain sub-systems, however, without precisely functionally simulating these sub-systems. the best known examples of this type are markram's cortical models promoted within the blue brain project [77] and its continuation, the human brain project17. furthermore, such approaches are amongst others targeted by izhikevich's simulations [56] and edelman’s brainbased devices [62]. 4. models, which quantitatively simulate subsystems of the brain or whole brains at a high level, not including a simulation of the particular details of dynamics or inputs/outputs. such approaches have the aim to explore some of the overall properties of the given system. examples are just's caps work [122] or horwitz's cognitive simulations [54]. 5. models, which demonstrate the capacity of hardware to simulate large neural models. these models are based on particular classes of equations. however, there is no claim about the match of the models with empirical neuroscience data. examples are boahen's neurogrid work [16], modha's cat brain simulation [7], or s. furber's spinnaker architecture [60]. all of the abovementioned approaches are validly called large-scale brain simulations but constitute very different forms of research of which not all might be suitable for brain-like ai design. according to h. garis, the first two categories are adequate to serve as components of braininspired cognitive architectures or other ai systems. simulations in the third and fourth category are useful for guiding neuroscience or hardware development but are not directly useful for ai. finally, the fifth category is not directly useful, neither for neuroscience nor ai, but it serves as “proof of principle” with the motivation to lead on to other, more directly useful work in later steps. h. garis points out that at present state of technology, large-scale brain simulations have proven to be useful mainly for refining equations used for neural and synaptic modeling and for helping to substantiate conceptual models of brain structures and functions by connecting these models with detailed electrophysiological data in working simulations. they inform us about the dynamics of brain regions and allow us to probe the complexity that underlies structures such as cortical columns and the emergent nonlinear coherence that arises when large numbers of neurons are appropriately coupled. nevertheless, detailed brain simulations do not yet yield intelligent behaviors not only due to a lack of processing power of (still inadequate) hardware for simulation but more importantly due to a lack of knowledge of the intermediate-scale structure of the brain, so as to be able to encode it into simulations. furthermore, an embodiment of brain signals seems to be important. however, this aspect has been seldom considered so far in brain simulations. h. garis et al. [41] indicate that in case large-scale brain simulation research programs were successful, the biggest benefits are still lying ahead including the followings: 1. gathering and testing neuroscience data 2. cracking the neural code 3. understanding neocortical information processing 4. a novel tool for drug discovery for brain disorders 5. a foundation for whole-brain simulations 6. a foundation for human-like artificial general intelligence 17 http://www.humanbrainproject.eu/ r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 39 garis at al. [41] point out that it is not yet clear whether large-scale brain simulations will be the first approach to lead to success in human-like intelligence, but it is certainly a plausible and promising approach and different researchers in this field have set their long-term sights specifically in this direction. (brain-inspired) cognitive architectures (brain-inspired) cognitive architectures attempt to achieve brain-like functionalities by emulating the brain's high-level architecture without necessarily simulating its lower-level specifics [48]. the term brain-inspired (or biologically-inspired) cognitive architectures became common only within the last years through the darpa funding program administered by the information processing technology office. nevertheless, the basic concept of cognitive architectures itself is as old as the field of artificial intelligence. while there is no rigid demarcation that separates braininspired cognitive architectures from cognitive architectures in general, the term is intended to distinguish cognitive architectures drawing significant direct inspiration from the brain and those based exclusively (or nearly exclusively) on models of the mind [48]. while brain simulations are intended to display not only similar functions to a brain, but also closely similar internal structures and dynamics, brain-inspired cognitive architectures are mainly intended to display (still loosely) similar functions to a brain. they furthermore aim at displaying internal structures that are conceptually inspired by the brain (and not just the mind) but not necessarily extremely similar to it. in practice, drawing a connection between the organization and the activation patterns of the brain and functions of the mind that emerge from them is certainly still a highly challenging task. thus, the “loosely similar functions to the brain” are in many cases still extremely loose and it is doubtful if these approaches should actually be labeled as “brain-inspired cognitive architectures” or rather simply as “cognitive architectures”. in their survey of cognitive architectures, w. duch at al. [36, 48] divide existing cognitive architectures into three paradigms: 1. symbolic architectures: symbolic paradigms follow a long tradition in ai and are based on the assumption that the mind exists mainly to manipulate symbols that represent aspects of the world or themselves [93]. examples for symbolic architectures are amongst many others soar [66], epic [105], icarus [69], nars [145], or sneps [113]. in [48], they are considered to be psychology-inspired cognitive architectures instead of brain-inspired approaches. while symbolic architectures contain many valuable ideas and have yielded some interesting results, it is doubtful whether they will give rise to the emergent structures and dynamics required for human-like general intelligence. 2. emergentist architectures: emergentist cognitive architectures consider abstract symbolic processing to result and emerge from lower-level subsymbolic dynamics, which are in most cases biologically inspired up to a certain extent. they are designed to simulate neural networks or other aspects of human brain function [48]. a few examples for emergentist architectures are htm [51], destin [9], ibca [102], cortronics [117], or nomand [37]. furthermore, there exists a set of emergentist architectures focused specifically on developmental robotics [74] to control robots without significant „hard-wiring“ of knowledge and capabilities. here, robots learn via their engagement with the world [48]. examples for existing architectures are dav [49], sail [148], flowers [11], and im-clever [81]. similar to classical ai connectionist systems, emergentist cognitive architectures have proven to be strong in recognizing patterns in high-dimensional data, reinforcement learning, and associative memory. however, probably due to their so far only quite superficial analogy to brain circuits, they have not yet led to the emergence of any brain-like functions [48]. 3. hybrid architectures: due to the complementary strengths and weaknesses of symbolic and emergentist approaches, researchers have started recently to focus on integrative, hybrid architectures. these combine subsystems operating according to the two different paradigms brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 described above [48]. combinations have been suggested in many different ways. examples are the connection of a large symbolic system with a large subsymbolic system or the creation for populations of small agents, each of which is both symbolic and subsymbolic in nature [48]. examples for hybrid cognitive architectures are clarion [120], dual [88], lida [40], act-r [71], micropsi [10], polyscheme [23], 4caps [58], shruti [114], the novamente ai engine [43], 4d/rcs [2], or opencogprime [47]. in [89], n. nilsson claims that “ai systems that achieve human-level intelligence will involve a combination of symbolic and non-symbolic processing.” résumé in summary, as outlined by b. goertzel at al. in [47], today, “brain simulations tell us about cortical columns and about the way collections of neurons “spontaneously” organize into collectives, but they do not yet tell us anything specific about how brains achieve goals, select actions, or process information. on the other hand, (brain-inspired) cognitive architectures tell us how brains may do things, but so far their intelligent behaviors are quite simplistic compared to real brains.” they consider three possible future directions that could lead to the emergence of human-like artificial intelligence: 1. large-scale brain simulations, which simulate multiple brain regions and their interconnections, thus verging on being brain-inspired cognitive architectures. 2. brain-inspired cognitive architectures, which integrate more detailed neural dynamics into their processing, enabling greater creativity and flexibility of response. 3. hybrid architectures that link brain-inspired cognitive architectures elements with brain simulation elements. b. goertzel at al. give preference to the third option and argue that this will be the most rapid approach towards the twofold goal of understanding the brain and emulating human-like intelligence in computers. in principle, this approach can be considered as an addressing of the problem of emulating the brain by a combined bottom-up neuroscientific and top-down cognitive approach. with this, it is hoped to learn more about the crucial intermediate levels of cognition, about which the least body of knowledge is available currently [45]. 7. general challenges and stumbling blocks considering the potential benefits of using the brain as an archetype for intelligent system design, it is at first glance surprising that so far only relatively limited attention has been paid to this approach in the field of artificial intelligence in comparison to merely mathematically and algorithmically guided concepts. of course, attempts for the design of brain-like ai have existed since the very beginning of ai – with its most popular example being artificial neural networks (see chapter 5). however, up to now, inspiration from the brain has mainly been drawn just on an abstract level not really justifying the label “brain-like” or “brain-inspired” intelligence [137]. as discussed in the following sub-sections, the reasons for this are multiple. while part of them are purely scientific challenges, others have a more “socio-political” character based on different views, perceptions, and ideologies of different ai researchers. the following points seem obvious once they are as explicitly formulated as it is done in this article. however, in the past, the issues ai researchers chose to investigate led to considerable confusion and misunderstandings, particularly amongst younger researchers having entered the field of ai only once it was already as diverse and heterogeneous in its objectives, methods, and ideologies as it is today. i myself at the beginning of my scientific career can be included into this group. thus, outlining the challenges to face and the stumbling blocks to overcome can be very valuable for the sake of better clarity and to avoid a repetition of errors that could have been avoided by learning from the past. r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 41 7.1. decipher the complexity of the brain the most important reason for the quite limited “brain-inspiredness” of existing ai approaches lies most certainly in the complexity of the brain and the difficulty to understand it. existing models in brain sciences are often still only abstract and descriptive instead of a functional character and contain blank spots and inconsistencies. t. deutsch [34] describes the problem as follows: “various sciences have gathered a vast amount of information on the human mind. an unmanageable flood of different theories, ideas, and approaches derived from psychology, neurology, and philosophy could be used as starting points. the problem is: they are piecemeal – no holistic model is provided.” what is particularly missing is an understanding of the intermediate levels of cognitions, i.e., how neural correlates can actually result in cognitive functions. b. goertzel [45] formulates this problem as follows: “on the one hand, the cognitive sciences provide very clear advice regarding what the overall “conceptual architecture” of an artificial general intelligence (agi) system should be like ... we know what the major regions of the brain do, and we also have a decent working decomposition of human cognition into a list of interacting yet significantly distinct faculties. this high-level architecture can be emulated in agi systems. on the other hand, the cognitive sciences provide a variety of suggestions regarding specific low-level mechanisms for carrying out intelligent processing, such as perception, learning, and memory. however, the lowlevel messages from the cognitive sciences are more controversial than the high-level ones for two reasons. first, there is less agreement on them among contemporary experts. and second, it's not always clear that emulating human psychological or neural behavior is a practical approach to implementing intelligence on radically un-brain-like hardware. cognitive theorists recognize that there is more to the human mind/brain than its high-level architecture and low-level mechanisms. however, the cognitive sciences to date have had relatively little to say about the crucial “intermediate level” of intelligence. this is the main reason that the cognitive sciences don't yet provide really powerful prescriptive guidance to agi designers. the cognitive sciences tell us what major parts a mind/brain should have, and they describe some low-level mechanisms that can help these parts to carry out their functions, but they say precious little about how the different parts all work together, and how the low-level mechanisms coordinate to give rise to higher-level dynamics.” m. looks and b. goertzel [73] further indicate: “the best approach to strong ai at present, we suggest, is to learn what we can from the brain about what sort of high level architecture and general dynamics and representations are useful for achieving general intelligence under conditions of limited computational resources – and then fill in the algorithmic level with representations and algorithms that make sense in terms of the mathematics, computer science, and computer hardware and software that we know. this attitude leads into an integrative approach to ai, in which one takes a general architecture loosely inspired by human cognition, and then uses it to bind together components drawn from various areas of mathematics and computer science.” the suggestion to fill blank spots with algorithmic solutions is without doubt reasonable and valid to achieve functioning systems. however, this approach has to be followed with caution as it has in practice led to further problems (see section 7.5 for further details). in summary, researchers that aim at emulating brain functions for technical purposes need, apart from sophisticated skills in engineering, a relatively profound understanding of the state of the art knowledge in brain sciences. apart from this, they need the analytic capacity to detect inconsistencies and blank spots in brain theories and the ingenuity and creativity to propose solutions how to resolve them. 7.2. find the right level of abstraction and detail a second point crucial to successful brain modeling is the specification of the right level of abstraction and detail from which to start. this decision certainly depends on the specific requirements of the system in mind (e.g., what processes need to be explained by the developed model). starting with a neuroscientifically inspired bottom-up design (as in large-scale brain simulations) on a level with too much detail – e.g., with the modeling of molecular processes in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 single neurons when trying to understand the general information flow in larger cortex structures – bears the danger of becoming lost in unnecessary details not directly relevant for the given problem. similarly, starting with a top-down design (as generally in cognitive architectures) and remaining with brain analogies on a too high level of abstraction can lead to models that are too loosely patterned in regards to the organization and principles of the brain. such designs tend to contain rather simplistic metaphors instead of sound models of the brain/mind. in such approaches, researchers are in danger of falling back to classical ai methods and developing solutions of mere mathematical and algorithmic character. in this context, o. sporn [118] comments that “it will be futile and scientifically meaningless to attempt to build intelligent systems by slavishly imitating or replicating the real brain. on the other hand, the extreme computational functionalism of the classical ai movement has done little to advance flexibility and robustness in intelligent systems. what is needed is a new synthesis of brain, cognitive and engineering sciences to harness the complexity of biological systems for the design of a new generation of more capable brain-like intelligence.” similarly, in his article about neuroscience and agi, r. koene [61] points out that “a recurring argument against borrowing from neuroscience in the development of agi has been to note that the low-level design of the brain is very complex, possibly needlessly complex for general intelligence. but other difficulties arise when one instead chooses the most obvious alternative approach: observing high-level processes and implement those”. he raises his concerns about the strong reliance on vastly simplified models of cognition in agi: “the aspects of cognition that are well-explained by the popular cognitive architectures cited in agi research are based, in part, on cherry-picked experiments and corresponding data about human cognitive processes that are the easiest ones to characterize.” 7.3. overcome the lack of interdisciplinarity and collaboration a further possible reason for the limited progress in brain-like ai so far can be found in the fact that many ai researchers – who are still mainly computer scientists and engineers – naturally lack deeper understanding of established brain theories. obtaining this knowledge, e.g., by regular and tight cooperation with brain researchers, could in the future make a huge difference. however, setting up fruitful interdisciplinary collaborations which would benefit from synergies still requires considerable effort. in his article what can ai get from neuroscience, s. potter [99] states: “yet, little attention in the ai field has been directed toward actual brains. although many of the brain's operating principles are still mysterious, thousands of neuroscientists are working hard to figure them out. unfortunately, the way neuroscientists conduct their research is often very reductionistic, building understanding from the bottom up by small increments. a consequence of this fact is that trying to learn, or even keep up with, neuroscience is like trying to drink from a fire hose. general principles that could be applied to ai are hard to find within the overwhelming neuroscience literature. ai researchers, young and old, might do well to become at least somewhat bilingual.” he further suggests: “it's time for ai to move in the brainwards direction. this could involve phd programs that merge ai and neuroscience, journals that seek to unite the two fields, and more conferences at which ai researchers and neuroscientists engage in productive dialogs. neuroscientists have not exactly embraced ai either. both sides need to venture across the divide and learn what the other has to offer.” similarly, b. sendhoff et al. [111] point out: “new principles are usually found at the interfaces between existing disciplines, and traditional boundaries between disciplines have to be broken down to see how complex systems become simple and how the puzzle can be assembled. each of us is rooted in a certain community which we have to serve with the results of our research. looking beyond our fields and working at the interfaces between established areas of research requires effort and an active process. it is our belief that we have to more intensively pursue research approaches that aim at a holistic and embedded view of intelligence from many different disciplines and viewpoints.” a further fact that contributes to the problem is that researchers who are actually active in the field of brain-like artificial intelligence are currently still located on the borders of other r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 43 disciplines. so far, they have spent only moderate effort on collaborating amongst each other. to catalyze the emergence of the field of brain-like ai, it will be necessary that they start to join forces. 7.4. avoid a misapplication of terms the domain of brain-like artificial intelligence is still relatively new and dynamic and only beginning to establish. it is up to now no homogenous research field with well-defined borders and it must struggle with many difficulties and barriers in addition to the ambitious challenge of understanding and emulating the brain based upon incomplete knowledge from neuroscience, cognitive sciences, and other disciplines. one problem with this field that has led to considerable confusion not only amongst the general public but also amongst ai researchers themselves is that there do not exist guidelines or rules for when a model may be called “brain-like” or “brain-inspired”. there are no broadly accepted definitions that define the attribute “brain-like” and how the attribute can be implemented and tested [53]. b. sendhoff et al. [111] state: “what is brain-like intelligence? although it seems necessary to have a good understanding of what one wants to create before one starts, there is no crisp and clear definition.” unfortunately, the term “brain-like” is therefore sometimes misapplied or misused either knowingly or unknowingly. knowingly, this happens for marketing purposes – as the label brain-like (or similar) is often (partly unconsciously) perceived as a synonym for highly sophisticated and advanced hardware and software technology amongst the general public. on the other hand, in the past, this has also occurred partly unknowingly due to engineers' and computer scientists' limited understanding of the difference between the structure and information processing principles of the brain and commonly used computer architectures and programs. in both cases, this has sometimes led to a mere transfer of terms from brain sciences to ai rather than a transfer of sophisticated concepts and principles. t. deutsch [34] advises caution in this context: “one has to be careful when using terms from human sciences. they tend to end as a label for something, which has nothing to do with the original concept they described“. several textbooks, articles, and phd theses written in the past have shown that a conclusive and tight merging of biological and technical concepts is not that straightforward. there exists literature that starts with a description of biological, neural, and cognitive principles in the first chapters and finishes with technical solutions in the last ones without a direct, notable correlation and connection between the former and the latter [5]. in other approaches that claim to be brain-inspired, some correlations between certain mechanisms in the brain and the developed models can be deduced. however, what is still often missing is a clear statement about which parts of the models have taken inspiration from the brain and which elements were guided by mathematic-algorithmic methods and engineering considerations only [100, 107, 121]. 7.5. prevent a drive against the traffic while brain-like ai generally aims at implementing concepts from the brain for the design of technical systems, there exists on the other hand a research niche where engineers aim at understanding the brain by studying the structure and behavior of common (not brain-inspired) computational systems and programs [8]. although such approaches can in certain cases bring some new interesting insights [111], in practice this has on occasion been counterproductive in the past as it has misguided researchers who did not have a clear picture of the differences between today's computational machines and the brain [137]. it should be noted that – if these computational systems and programs were not designed by taking inspiration from nature and the brain/mind – it is scientifically “dubious” to draw conclusions about the functioning of the brain from these designs, at least, without further consultation with brain scientists and their theories about brain function. l. miller states that ai researchers have to be criticized for this in particular as this has not produced theories whose adequacy can be tested by empirical research [82]. m. looks and b. goertzel [73] formulate this criticism in a more moderate way: “we are neutral as to how directly the brain's brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 neuronal network structure and dynamics relate to its cognitive representations and algorithms, and also as to how closely the brain's knowledge representation resembles formal logic and how closely its dynamics resemble logical inference. these are very important questions, but neuroscience has not yet progressed far enough to give us the answers. no one knows how an abstract proposition like “every boy has a dog that every girl likes to call by a special name” is represented or manipulated or learned through experience in the human brain, and until we know this, we won't know the extent to which the conceptual premises of the most popular neural net or logic based approaches to ai are correct.” to be fair, it has to be mentioned that there has started to evolve a research niche called aiinspired biology [24] where cognitive scientists and biologists have joined forces with ai researchers with the aim to illustrate ways in which ai can influence research on natural cognition and formulate new research questions in biology and brain sciences. treating such topics in an interdisciplinary team instead of just amongst engineers certainly has higher probabilities of success. 7.6. tolerate and respect differences in scientific ideology artificial intelligence is not a homogeneous research domain but actually deeply divided into sub-fields with different ideologies, methodologies, and targets. it requires a profound understanding and knowledge about the history and developments in ai to gain an awareness (and maybe also tolerance) of the differences in approaches and aims of the distinct sub-disciplines. this fact is particularly problematic in the field of brain-inspired ai. while other ai domains are focused on approaches based on mathematic, algorithmic, and computation theories, brain-like ai aims (or at least should aim) at using the (human) brain as archetype. it therefore has different objectives and methodologies and targets an absolutely different level of complexity than the mathematic-algorithmic approaches of the more “classical” ai. the problematic of the differences in objectives, ideology, and methodology of different ai domains comes into play when a researcher of one sub-field evaluates the work of a researcher of the other sub-domain. in practice, it seems to happen rather frequently that editors and funding agencies assign research articles or scientific research proposals to reviewers with an “opposing ideology” about how research in ai should be done. in certain cases, this can lead to a misinterpretation and at times an unjustified rejection of scientific work of related but opposing disciplines. this phenomenon is not particularly new in ai (and is probably also common in other fields of science). furthermore, like today, already in 1960, the competition for research funding in ai was intense. as pointed out in [70], there have thus always been personal animosities between ai researchers of different groups. in 1969, for instance, m. minsky and s. papert published their famous work on perceptrons [84] criticizing computational models of the nervous system, which showed “with unanswerable mathematical arguments that such models were incapable of doing certain important computations” [70]. this killed most research in neural computing for the following 15 years. much later, s. paper admitted in an interview [70]: “yes, there was some hostility behind the research reported in perceptrons ... part of the drive came from the fact that funding and research energy was dissipated ... money was at stake.” in recent times, these conditions have turned out to be particularly hard for scientists working in brain-inspired ai. as they are still a minority compared to other ai research communities, the statistical probability that their work is judged (and sometimes misjudged) by experts of opposing fields is relatively high. of course, misjudgment of scientific quality of work does not only occur in a one way direction from classical ai to brain-like ai but also the other way around. a. sloman [111] points out that “lessons learned from and within classical artificial intelligence remain relevant to the research program of creating brain-like intelligence and the reaction against everything related to classical ai may even have held up progress.” however, as the field of brain-like artificial intelligent is still very novel and dynamic and can so far only count on a small community of researchers compared to traditional ai, it is in this case still a quite unequal fight, which can drastically slow down necessary progress. r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 45 7.7. establish suitable measures for validating progress and success as in any other field of engineering and science also in brain-like artificial intelligence, the validation of progress and success is a crucial element [112]. in brain-like ai, the aims, methodologies, and the level of complexity of problems are different from other fields of ai. accordingly, different evaluation mechanisms for judging the value and success of developed approaches have to be found. applied ai tries to achieve some kind of computational behavior that can solve mainly circumscribed and limited problems that would need cognitive capabilities when done by humans. brain-like ai aims at using similar organizational structures and information processing principles like the brain to achieve such tasks. for example, it is impossible to isolate the “person-recognitionbrain-circuits” from the “fruit-recognition-circuits” or the circuits for planning a travel route from the ones taking a decision about what to eat for breakfast. thus, brain-inspired ai cannot focus on isolated problems. it has to aim at solutions targeting human cognitive capabilities at a more general and global level. it has to target topics such as human perception, situation assessment, or human decision-making in a more holistic way and cannot just focus on singular topics such as “face recognition” or “path planning” in a specific context. in applied ai as it focuses on very specific and circumscribed problems, an evaluation and comparison of results amongst each other is relatively straightforward. for example, for a particular classification problem, the number of true and false positives can be determined and compared in different approaches. a qualitative comparison of machine performance with human performance is generally out of the scope of the evaluation. in contrast, in research fields like brain-like ai and also artificial general intelligence (agi), things are not that straightforward. in agi (before strong ai), which has been around since the beginning of ai, the challenge of effectively evaluating performance has been troublesome for scientists for decades. strong ai has the aim of achieving a general level of intelligence instead of just measuring the performance of an approach in very specific sub-tasks. a. adam [1] comments that “if the aim of ai is primarily to create an artificial mind, then the success or failure of the whole ai project should be judged against this one goal”. s. legg [72], who provides an extensive overview and discussion of suggested methods for measuring biological and artificial intelligence, points out that the first fundamental problem for judging artificial intelligence is that “nobody really knows what intelligence is”. r. davis [30] claims that the basic question is not just “what is intelligence?” but equally important also “why is intelligence?” r. sternberg et al. [119] point out that “viewed narrowly, there seem to be almost as many definitions of intelligence as there were experts asked to define it”. this problem is certainly “especially acute when we need to consider artificial systems” – e.g., the computer – “which are significantly different to humans” [72]. in the past, the most prominent approach for evaluating „intelligence“ in the field of agi (before strong ai) was the turing test, originally suggested by a. turing in 1950 [123]. according to the turing test, a machine is “intelligent” if a human judge cannot distinguish its answers from the answers of a person in a communication without direct physical contact. however, in later years, the turing test has been heavily criticized [147] and has been subject to further changes and extensions, e.g., the total turing test [106] which also incorporates video signals and the possibility to pass physical objects “through the hatch” to allow the interrogator to evaluate the subject's perceptual abilities and its “manipulative” abilities. this has led to an extension of earlier efforts using computer vision and robotic object manipulation. however, passing such extended turing tests can just be – if at all – a necessary but not a sufficient condition for intelligence [85]. the turing test is based upon the (doubtful) assumption that “once having a sufficiently precise theory of the mind, it becomes possible to express this theory in a computer program. if the program's input-output behavior matches corresponding human behavior, this is evidence that some of the program's mechanisms could also be operating in humans” [106]. one major problem with the whole turing test is that it can just check for an indistinguishability of human behavior and the „behavior“ a program emits in a particular situation. however, it is important to note that just because two things are brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 indistinguishable from a certain perspective, they do not at all have to be the same. judging progress and success in agi thus remains a hotly debated issue. similar to agi, finding adequate evaluation mechanisms in brain-like ai is a puzzling task. like in agi, the objectives in brain-like ai are much more complex than in applied ai. therefore, it is much more difficult to achieve quantitatively comparable results in the short term. after all, in brain-like ai – if done properly and without too many “workarounds” – the overall functionality of a model only starts to emerge when the whole system starts to sufficiently resemble the organizational structures and information processing principles of the brain. furthermore, a detailed comparison of the performance of developed brain-like models with methods used in applied ai or other fields of engineering – as frequently requested from reviewers – is often simply not feasible due to the fact that the problems addressed with brain-like models often simply do not match in terms of complexity with problems addressed in applied ai and related domains for the following reasons: • unequal performance comparisons: the aim of brain-like ai is usually to provide more general, “global” solutions and not only task-specific solutions as normally addressed in applied ai. a brain-like model targets for instance the problem of (machine) perception in general [138] and not just the distinction of ten specific faces in a number of video frames or single images. thus, research efforts spent until reaching a more global solution – which also needs cooperation with brain-sciences on unresolved questions of brain functioning – are certainly much higher. quantitatively comparing this “general purpose” solution to a “single purpose” approach that is highly specialized and optimized to one single task is certainly not a fair competition if the evaluation concerns only the task for which the “special purpose system” has been optimized. • lack of systems to which to compare: brain-like artificial intelligence targets particularly challenges and applications for which today there are still no satisfactory solutions provided by current technical approaches. in order to compare a particular brain-inspired approach with other purely mathematically/algorithmically-based technical approaches for such a “complex” application, it would therefore be necessary to do both: 1. develop the brain-inspired approach; 2. develop, adapt, and customize purely technical approaches for the given non-trivial problem – developments that can, if done properly, themselves easily take several years or even decades for each chosen approach; this would however need an enormous effort that could only be achieved by combined major resource and time investments from various research groups with different backgrounds having a common interest in amicable competition. applying for funding for such an undertaking seems to be however outside the current funding frameworks. • different requirements for comparison from different disciplines: brain-like ai faces an additional difficulty in comparison to other sub-disciplines of ai and engineering as it is very interdisciplinary. b sendhoff et al. [112] point out: “we are not clear yet, whether we shall position ourselves more within the scope of brain science or technology. in the first case, success has to be judged by neurophysiological or psychological experimental data as is the case in computational neuroscience. in the second case, the target is to provide evidence that the realized system accomplishes its intended requirements. of course, in this case we have the initial burden to clearly define what the intended requirements are against which we want to judge our progress. the fact that there is a continuous transition between both extreme stand-points makes the measurement process even more ambiguous.” seeing the difficulties of quantitative comparisons of brain-like ai approaches to other conventional existing technical approaches and considering the fact that we are at the very beginning of the development of the field of brain-like ai make it necessary to reach for validation r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 47 methods that are different from the ones common in more classical fields of engineering and applied ai. as outlined above for the field of agi which faces partially similar challenges, the discussion of how to do this is still ongoing. nevertheless, the fact that in brain-like ai we can judge both “brain similarity” and “system accomplishment” – as indicated in point three of the itemization above – can actually be considered as an advantage concerning validation criteria in comparison to agi. while agi usually still has to rely on external observations of emitted „intelligent behavior“ only (e.g., the turing test), which has proven to be problematic, brain-like ai can additionally count on an analysis of internal similarities of developed models with the brain on a neural/cognitive level. together with the emitted function of the implemented technical system, the analogies in organizational structures and information processing principles of the underlying model can be compared to the ones of the brain to obtain a judgment of its quality. it is important to note that an ideal brain-like model should show both similarities in externally emitted function and in internal organization and processing! such an evaluation becomes particularly interesting if learning mechanisms are integrated into a model. if these learning mechanisms were actually sufficiently „brain-like“, similar structuring and function principles should evolve after this learning as they can be observed in the developed (human) brain. in the long run, such “self-developed” similarities could be an ultimate proof for adequate brain-like design. 8. recommendations for a way to go in future as outlined in the last section, the field of brain-inspired artificial intelligence is not completely non-problematic for different reasons. while part of the difficulties are issues of “science-policy” and could therefore be addressed by broadening researchers' still sometimes a bit too one-sided view on the topic via a promotion of interaction between disciplines, the most severe drawback is still the fact that the brain is presently not sufficiently understood on all levels to technically emulate its complete function based on existing neuro-cognitive models alone. in the future, symbiotic developments of ai researchers together with brain scientists might be able to change this fact. however, this process will require time. b. goertzel [45] describes this problem and suggests a possible way out of this dilemma as follows: “given the current state of the cognitive sciences, the present-day artificial general intelligence (agi) designer has several recourses: • firstly, he can simply wait until the cognitive sciences advance further, and give more thorough prescriptions for agi design. • secondly, he can ignore the cognitive sciences and attempt to design an agi on other grounds – e.g. based on the mathematics of reasoning, or based on general considerations regarding the dynamics of complex self-organizing systems. of course it's worth reflecting that many of these „other grounds“ – such as mathematical logic – were originally conceived as qualitative models of human thought. but still, in spite of this historical fact and the strong intuitive feelings associated with it, the empirical cognitive sciences have not yet substantiated any deep connections between mathematical logic and human cognition. • or, thirdly, he can seek to create an agi design that is consistent with the information provided by the cognitive sciences, but also introduces additional ideas filling in the gaps they leave.” according to the understanding of brain-like artificial intelligence as followed here, the third suggested approach seems to be the most sensible one for the moment and is therefore the one advocated in this article. however, to avoid confusion, it should always be transparent which parts of the model are actually brain-inspired and which are those that are based on such „technical workarounds“. accordingly, my recommendation for a procedure to follow in the future for the development of brain-like ai systems is the following: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 1. use knowledge about the organizational structures and information processing principles of the brain as basis for model and system development as far as available. 2. based on this, advance the knowledge in brain sciences by reporting detected inconsistencies and blank spots in existing brain theories. 3. in case the emulation of the brain is not possible at a certain point due to blank spots, supplementary logical engineering considerations are allowed to create a functioning technical system. however, it must always be pointed out clearly what “workarounds” have been used and at which place. in fact, such workarounds can in certain cases even enhance the knowledge about the brain by bringing up new hypotheses which have been missing in the big picture about the functioning of the brain. nevertheless, one always has to be clearly aware of the balancing act of drawing conclusions from such technical solutions back to the brain. in the past, they have far too often led to inappropriate claims about the structure and functions of the brain. 4. validate the model in terms of both achieved functionalities and similarities to internal structural organization and processing principles of the brain. 5. when having proposed a new potentially relevant hypothesis concerning particular brain functions, aim at bringing this hypothesis to the attention of the respective discipline of brain science (e.g., via peer-reviewed journal publications) with the encouragement to experimentally verify it with empirical brain science data. during the process of increasing the synergies between artificial intelligence and brain sciences in the way proposed above, a bootstrapping process is likely to occur. brain research will provide better models that can serve as basis for more advanced ai systems. more sophisticated ai systems will give brain scientists the tools to make further discoveries and interpret them [99]. references [1] a. adam. artificial knowing: gender and the thinking machine. psychology pres, 1998. [2] j. albus, h.m. huang, e. messina, k. murphy, m. juberts, a. lacaze, s. balakirsky, m.o. shneier, t. hong, h. scott, et al. 4d/rcs version 2.0: a reference model architecture for unmanned vehicle systems. national institute of standards and technology, gaithersburg, md, nistir, 6912, 2002. [3] i. aleksander. best brain boosts artificial life. bbc news, 1999. [4] the alpac report. technical report, automatic language processing advisory committee, 1966. [5] s.i. amari, n.k. kasabov, and a.p. assembly. brain-like computing and intelligent information systems. springer, 1998. [6] s. amari. brain-like computing and intelligent information systems. springer, 2002. [7] r. ananthanarayanan and d.s. modha. anatomy of a cortical simulator. in acm/ieee cconference on supercomputing, 2007. [8] m.a. arbib. towards an automata theory of brains. communications of the acm, 15(11), 1972. [9] i. arel, d. rose, and t. karnowski. a deep learning architecture comprising homogeneous cortical circuits for scalable spatiotemporal pattern inference. in nips 2009 workshop on deep learning for speech recognition and related applications, 2009. [10] j. bach. principles of synthetic intelligence: psi: an architecture of motivated cognition. oxford university press, usa, 2009. [11] a. baranes and p.y. oudeyer. r-iac: robust intrinsically motivated active learning. in international conference on development and learning, 2009. [12] e. baum, m. hutter, and e. kitzelmann, editors. artificial general intelligence. proceedings of the third conference on artificial general intelligence, 2010. r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 49 [13] j. beal, p. bello, n. cassimatis, m. coen, and p. winston. naturally inspired artificial intelligence. technical report, aaai fall symposium, 2006. [14] m.a. bedau, j.s. mccaskill, n.h. packard, s. rasmussen, c. adami, d.g. green, t. ikegami, k. kaneko, and t.s. ray. open problems in artificial life. artificial life, 6:363-376, 2000. [15] j.l. bermudez. thinking without words. oxford university press, usa, 2003. [16] k. boahen. mimic the nervous system with neuromorphic chips. scientific america, pages 55-63, 2005. [17] n. boltuc and p. boltuc. replication of the hard problem of consciousness in ai and bio-ai: an early conceptual framework. in ai and consciousness: theoretical foundations and current approaches, 2007. [18] r. brooks. intelligence without reason. in 12th international joint conference on artificial intelligence, pages 569-595, 1991. [19] d. bruckner, j. mitterbauer, and r. velik. perception and modeling of scenarios in ambient automation networks with hidden markov models. in 6th international conference on ubiquitous robots and ambient intelligence, 2009. [20] d. bruckner, r. velik, and y. penya. machine perception in automation: a call to arms. eurasip journal on embedded systems, 2011. [21] w. burgstaller, r. lang, p. poerscht, and r. velik. technical model for basic and complex emotions. in 5th ieee international conference on industrial informatics, volume 2, pages 10071012, 2007. [22] w. burgstaller, r. lang, p. poerscht, and r. velik. technical model for basic and complex emotions. in 5th ieee international conference on industrial informatics, volume 2, pages 10071012, 2007. [23] n.l. cassimatis. adaptive algorithmic hybrids for human-level artificial intelligence. frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications, 157:94, 2007. [24] j. chappell, s. thorpe, n. hawes, and a. sloman, editors. ai inspired biology. ssaisb: the society for the study of artificial intelligence and the simulation of behaviour, 2010. [25] d. charles, c. fyfe, d. livingstone, and s. mcglinchey. biologically inspired artificial intelligence for computer games. igi publishing, 2007. [26] a. clark and r. grush. towards a cognitive robotics. adaptive behavior, 7(1), 1999. [27] j. copeland. artificial intelligence: a philosophical introduction. wiley-blackwell, 1993. [27bis] j. copeland. what is artificial intelligence. alanturing.net, 2000. [28] k.j.w. craik. the nature of explanation. cambridge univ pr, 1967. [29] d. crevier. ai: the tumultuous history of the search for artificial intelligence. basic books, 1993. [30] j. davis. biological sensor fusion inspires novel system design. in joint service combat identification systems conference, 1997. [31] h. de garis. cam-brain the evolutionary engineering of a billion neuron artificial brain by 2001 which grows/evolves at electronic speeds inside a cellular automata machine (cam). towards evolvable hardware, pages 76-98, 1996. [32] t. deutsch, r. lang, g. pratl, e. brainin, and s. teicher. applying psychoanalytic and neuro-scientific models to automation. in 2nd iet international conference on intelligent environments, volume 1, pages 111-118, 2006. [33] t. deutsch, a. gruber, r. lang, and r. velik. episodic memory for autonomous agents, ieee conference on human system interactions, pages 621-626 2008. [34] t. deutsch. human bionically inspired autonomous agents. phd thesis, vienna university of technology, 2011. [35] d. dietrich, g. fodor, g. zucker, and d. bruckner, editors. simulating the mind a technical neuropsychoanalytical approach. springer wien new york, 2008. [36] w. duch, r.j. oentaryo, and m. pasquier. cognitive architectures: where do we go from here? in second conference on agi, 2008. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 [37] g.m. edelman. neural darwinism: selection and reentrant signaling in higher brain function, volume 10. neuron, 1993. [38] n. forbes. imitation of life: how biology is inspiring computing. cambridge ma, mit press, 2004. [39] d. floreano and c. mattiussi. bio-inspired artificial intelligence: theories, methods, and technologies. the mit press, 2008. [40] s. franklin and f.g. patterson jr. the lida architecture: adding new modes of learning to an intelligent, autonomous, software agent. integrated design and process technology, 703:7621004, 2006. [41] h. de garis, c. shuo, b. goertzel, and l. ruiting. a world survey of artificial brain projects, part i: large-scale brain simulations. neurocomputing, 3(29):3-29, 2010. [42] c. goerick. towards cognitive robotics. creating brain-like intelligence, pages 192-214, 2009. [43] b. goertzel. from complexity to creativity. exploration in evolutionary, autopoietic, and cognitive dynamics, 1997. [44] b. goertzel, m. looks, and c. pennachin. novamente: an integrative architecture for artificial general intelligence. in proceedings of aaai symposium on achieving human-level intelligence through integrated systems and research, washington dc, 2004. [45] b. goertzel. a comparison of the novamente ai design with the human mind-brain. novamente llc, february 2005. [46] b. goertzel. patterns, hypergraphs and embodied general intelligence. in international joint conference on neural networks, 2006. [47] b. goertzel. opencog prime: a cognitive synergy based architecture for embodied artificial general intelligence. in icci-09, 2009. [48] b. goertzel, r. lian, i. arel, h. de garis, and s. chen. world survey of artificial brain projects, part ii: biologically inspired cognitive architectures. neurocomputing, 74:30-49, december 2010. [49] j.d. han, s.q. zeng, k.y. tham, m. badgero, and j.y. weng. dav: a humanoid robot platform for autonomous mental development. in 2nd international ieee conference on development and learning, pages 73-81, 2002. [50] a. hanazawa. brain-inspired information technology. springer, 2010. [51] j. hawkins and d. george. hierarchical temporal memory: concepts, theory and terminology. whitepaper, numenta inc, 2006. [52] d.o. hebb. the organisation of behaviour. new york: wiley, 1949. [53] c. herrmann and f. ohl. cognitive adequacy in brain-like intelligence. creating brain-like intelligence, pages 314-327, 2009. [54] e. horvitz and m. barry. display of information for time-critical decision making. in 11th conference on uncertainty in artificial intelligence, pages 296-305, 1995. [55] a. hussain. cognitive computation an introduction. cognitive computation, 1(1):1-3, 2009. [56] e.m. izhikevich and g.m. edelman. large-scale model of mammalian thalamocortical systems. pnas, 105:3593-3598, 2008. [57] j. johnston. the allure of machinic life: cybernetics, artificial life, and the new ai. mit press, 2008. [58] m.a. just and s. varma. the organization of thinking: what functional brain imaging reveals about the neuroarchitecture of complex cognition. cognitive, affective, & behavioral neuroscience, 7(3):153-191, 2007. [59] s.c. kak. can we define levels of artificial intelligence? journal of intelligent systems, 6:133-144, 1996. r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 51 [60] m.m. khan, d.r. lester, l.a. plana, a. rast, x. jin, e. painkras, and s.b. furber. spinnaker: mapping neural networks onto a massively-parallel chip multiprocessor. in ieee world congress on computational intelligence, pages 2849-2856, 2008. [61] r. koene. agi and neuroscience: open sourcing the brain. artificial general intelligence, pages 401-406, 2011. [62] j.l. krichmar, a.k. seth, d.a. nitz, j.g. fleischer, and g.m. edelman. spatial navigation and causal analysis in a brain-based device modeling cortical-hippocampal interactions. neuroinformatics, 05:197-222, 2005. [63] j.l. krichmar and g.m. edelman. brain-based devices for the study of nervous systems and the development of intelligent machines. artificial life, 11(1-2):63-77, 2005. [64] r. kurzweil. the age of spiritual machines. penguin, 2000. [65] r. kurzweil. the singularity is near: when humans transcend biology. viking adult, 2005. [66] j.e. laird, a. newell, and p.s.s. rosenbloom. architecture for general intelligence. artificial intelligence, 33:1-62, 1987. [67] r. lang, d. bruckner, r. velik, and t. deutsch. scenario recognition in modern building automation. international journal on intelligent systems and technologies, 4(1):36-44, 2009. [68] r. lang. a decision unit for autonomous agents based on the theory of psychoanalysis. phd thesis, vienna university of technology, 2010. [69] p. langley. an adaptive architecture for physical agents. in ieee/wic/acm int. conf. on intelligent agent technology, pages 18-25, 2005. [70] learningspace. machines, minds and computers. the open university, 2011. http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=401236. [71] c.lebiere j.r. anderson. the newell test for a theory of cognition. behavioral & brain science, 26:587-637, 2003. [72] s. legg and m. hutter. universal intelligence: a definition of machine intelligence. minds and machines, 17(4):391-444, 2007. [73] m. looks and b. goertzel. mixing cognitive science concepts with computer science algorithms and data structures: an integrative approach to strong ai. in aaai spring symposium, cognitive science principles meet ai-hard problems, 2006. [74] m. lungarella, g. metta, r. pfeifer, and g. sandini. developmental robotics: a survey. connection science, 15(4):151-190, 2003. [75] w. maass. imitation of life: how biology is inspiring computing by nancy forbes. pattern analysis & applications, 8(4):390-391, 2006. [76] p. maes. from animals to animats 2, chapter behavior-based artificial intelligence. the mit press, 1993. [77] h. markram. perspectives. nature reviews neuroscience, 7:153-160, 2006. [78] j. mccarthy. what is artificial intelligence? stanford university, computer science department, 2007. http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/whatisai/whatisai.html. [79] p. mccorduck. machines who think. natick, m.a. and peters, a.k., 2004. [80] w.s. mcculloch and w. pitts. a logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity. bulletin of mathematical biology, 5(4):115-133, 1943. [81] g. metta, g. sandini, d. vernon, l. natale, and f. nori. the icub humanoid robot: an open platform for research in embodied cognition. in 8th workshop on performance metrics for intelligent systems, pages 50-56, 2008. [82] l. miller. has artificial intelligence contributed to an understanding of the human mind? a critique of arguments for and against. cognitive science, 2:101-127, 1978. [83] m. minsky. semantic information processing. cambridge, ma: mit press, 1968. [84] m. minsky and p. seymour. perceptrons: an introduction to computational geometry. the mit press, cambridge ma, 1969. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 [85] j. moor. the turing test: the elusive standard of artificial intelligence. springer netherlands, 2003. [86] h. moravec. mind children. harvard university press, 1988. [87] t. munakata, editor. fundamentals of the new artificial intelligence. springer, 2008. [88] a. nestor and b. kokinov. towards active vision in the dual cognitive architecture. informationtheories, page 9, 2004. [89] n. nilsson. the physical symbol system hypothesis: status and prospects. 50 years of artificial intelligence, pages 9-17, 2007. [90] n.j. nilsson. the quest for artificial intelligence and history of ideas and achievements. stanford university, 2010. [91] b. palensky. introducing neuro-psychoanalysis towards the design of cognitive and affective automation systems. phd thesis, vienna university of technology, 2008. [92] p. pangaro and h. von foerster. cybernetics a definition. encyclopedia of computers, 1990. http://www.pangaro.com/published/cyber-macmillan.html. [93] m. pelikan. hierarchical bayesian optimization algorithm: toward a new generation of evolutionary algorithms. springer, 2005. [94] c. pennachin and b. goertzel. artificial general intelligence, chapter contemporary approaches to artificial general intelligence, pages 1-28. springer, 2007. [95] l.i. perlovsky, b. weijers, and c.w. mutz. cognitive foundations for model-based sensor fusion. proceedings of spie, 5096:494-501, 2003. [96] r. pfeifer and c. scheier. understanding intelligence. mit press, 2001. [97] r. pfeifer and f. iida. embodied articial intelligence: trends and challenges. in lecture notes in computer science. springerlink, 2004. [98] d. poole, a. mackworth, and r. goebel. computational intelligence: a logical approach. new york: oxford university press, 1998. [99] s.m. potter. 50 years of artificial intelligence, chapter what can ai get from neuroscience? springer-verlag berlin, heidelberg, 2007. [100] g. pratl. processing and symbolization of ambient sensor data. phd thesis, vienna university of technology, 2006. [101] m. raibert, k. blankespoor, g. nelson, r. playter, et al. bigdog, the rough-terrain quadruped robot. proceedings of the 17th international federation of automation control, pages 10822-10825, 2008. [102] r.c. o'reilly and y. munakata. computational explorations in cognitive neuroscience: understanding of the mind by simulating. cambridge, ma: mit press, 2000. [103] e. reingold and j. nightingale. artificial intelligence tutorial review. psy371, 1999. [104] c. rösener. adaptive behavior arbitration for mobile service robots in building automation. phd thesis, vienna university of technology, 2007. [105] j. rosbe, r.s. chong, and d.e. kieras. modeling with perceptual and memory constraints: an epic-soar model of a simplified enroute air traffic control task. soar technology inc. report, 2001. [106] s.j. russell, p. norvig, j.f. canny, j.m. malik, and d.d. edwards. artificial intelligence: a modern approach, volume 74. prentice hall englewood cliffs, nj, 1995. [107] g. russ, d. dietrich, and c. tamarit. situation dependent behavior in building automation. in workshop of eurasia-ict advances in information and communication technology, pages 319323, 2002. [108] s. russell and p. norvig. artificial intelligence: a modern approach. upper saddle river, new jersey: prentice hall, 2003. [109] a. schierwagen. the way we get bio-inspired: a critical analysis. in from brains to systems, 2010. [110] j.r. searle. minds, brains, and programs. behavioral and brain sciences, 3(03):417-424, 1980. r. velik ai reloaded: objectives, potentials, and challenges of the novel field of brain-like artificial intelligence 53 [111] sendhoff, b.; körner, e.; sporns, o.; ritter, h. & doya, k. creating brain-like intelligence: from basic principles to complex intelligent systems, springerlink, 2009. [112] b. sendhoff, e. körner, and o. sporns. creating brain-like intelligence: from basic principles to complex intelligent systems, chapter creating brain-like intelligence, pages 1-14. springer, 2009. [113] s.c. shapiro, w.j. rapaport, m. kandefer, f.l. johnson, and a. goldfain. metacognition in sneps. ai magazine, 28(1):17, 2007. [114] l. shastri and v. ajjanagadde. from simple associations to systematic reasoning: a connectionist representation of rules, variables and dynamic bindings using temporal synchrony. behavioral and brain sciences, 16:417-417, 1993. [115] h. simon. the shape of automation for men and management. new york: harper & row, 1965. [116] m. sipper. machine nature: the coming age of bio-inspired computing. mcgraw-hill, 2002. [117] j.f. sowa. conceptual structures: information processing in mind and machine. addisonwesley, 1984. [118] o. sporns. creating brain-like intelligence: from basic principles to complex intelligent systems, chapter from complex networks to intelligent systems, pages 15-30. springer, 2009. [119] r.j. sternberg, b.e. conway, j.l. ketron, and m. bernstein. people's conceptions of intelligence. journal of personality and social psychology, 41(1):37, 1981. [120] r. sun and f. alexandre. connectionist-symbolic integration: from unified to hybrid approaches. lawrence erlbaum, 1997. [121] c. tamarit-fuertes. automation system perception first step towards perceptive awareness. phd thesis, vienna university of technology, 2003. [122] r. thibadeau, m.a. just, and p.a. carpenter. a model of the time course and content of reading. cognitive science, 6:157-203, 1982. [123] a.m. turing. computing machinery and intelligence. mind, 59(236):433-460, 1950. [124] a. sloman. some requirements for human-like robots: why the recent over-emphasis on embodiment has held up progress. creating brain-like intelligence, pages 248-277, 2009. [125] a. sloman. if learning maths requires a teacher, where did the first teachers come from. in proc. int. symp. on mathematical practice and cognition, aisb, pages 30-39, 2010. [126] a. sloman. comments on annette karmiloff-smith's (1992) book: beyond modularity: a developmental perspective on cognitive science. http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/misc/beyond-modularity.html, 2011. [127] l. smith. cognition as a dynamic system: principles from embodiment. developmental review, 25(3-4), 2005. [128] j.a. starzyk. frontiers in robotics, automation and control, chapter motivation in embodied intelligence. intech, 2008. [129] r.r. vane and d. griffith. cognitive automation solves many ai-hard problems. in aaai spring symposium, 2006. [130] r. velik. a model for multimodal humanlike perception based on modular hierarchical symbolic information processing, knowledge integration, and learning. in 2nd ieee international conference on bio-inspired models of network, information and computing systems, pages 168175, 2007. [131] r. velik and d. bruckner. neuro-symbolic networks: introduction to a new information processing principle. in 6th ieee international conference on industrial informatics, pages 10421047, 2008. [132] r. velik. neuronal patternand object recognition: methods of analysis in time and frequency domain. vdm verlag, 2009. [133] r. velik. a bionic model for human-like machine perception. suedwestdeutscher verlag fuer hochschulschriften, 2008. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 [134] r. velik. a bionic model for human-like machine perception. phd thesis, vienna university of technology, 2008. [135] r. velik, d. bruckner, r. lang, and t. deutsch. human-computer system interaction: backgrounds and applications, chapter emulating the perceptual system of the brain for the purpose of sensor fusion, pages 17-27. springer berlin/heidelberg, 2009. [136] r. velik and d. bruckner. a bionic approach to dynamic, multimodal scene perception and interpretation in buildings. international journal of intelligent systems and technologies, 4(1):1-9, 2009. [137] velik, r. quo vadis, intelligent machine? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 2010, 1, 1-9. [138] r. velik. towards human-like machine perception 2.0. international review on computers and software, 5(4):476-488, 2010. [139] r. velik and g. zucker. autonomous perception and decision-making in building automation. ieee transactions on industrial electronics, 57(11):3625-3652, 2010. [140] r. velik and h. boley. neurosymbolic alerting rules. ieee transactions on industrial electronics, 57(11):3661-3668, 2010. [141] r. velik. the neuro-symbolic code of perception. journal of cognitive science, 11(2):161180, 2010. [142] r. velik. why machines cannot feel. minds and machines, 20(1):1-18, 2010. [143] r. velik, g. zucker, and d. dietrich. towards automation 2.0: a neuro-cognitive model for environment recognition, decision-making, and action execution. eurasip journal on embedded systems, 2011(11), 2011. [144] r. velik. from simple receptors to complex multimodal percepts: a first global picture on the mechanisms involved in perceptual binding. frontiers in cognitive science, 3:1-13, 2012. [145] p. wang. rigid flexibility: the logic of intelligence. springer verlag, 2006. [146] p. wang and b. goertzel. introduction: aspects of artificial general intelligence. in advance of artificial general intelligence, pages 1-16. ios press, amsterdam, 2007. [147] s. watt. naive psychology and the inverted turing test. psycoloquy, 7:14, 1996. [148] j.weng, w.s. hwang, y. zhang, c. yang, and r. smith. developmental humanoids: humanoids that develop skills automatically. in 1st ieee-ras international conference on humanoid robots, 2000. [149] n. wiener. cybernetics. j. wiley, 1948. [150] h. zeilinger. bionically inspired information representation for embodied software agents. phd thesis, vienna university of technology, 2010. [151] n. zhong. intelligent information processing iv: ifip advances in information and communication technology, volume 288, chapter towards brain-inspired web intelligence. springerlink, 2008. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 1 b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, special issue on educational psychology april, 2018 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 2 about the journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in september 2018. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 10th of july, 2018. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief:  bogdan pătruţ, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania managing editor:  agata asofroniei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania editors:  diana păvăloi, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  ecaterina filimon, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  adina gabor, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain  monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania  barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania  carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania  frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland issn 2068 – 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2018 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania, 600065 bacău, 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82, fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro, e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 6. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 7. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 8. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 9. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 10. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 11. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 12. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 13. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 14. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 15. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 16. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 17. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 18. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 19. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 20. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 21. heather k van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 22. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 4 23. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 24. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 25. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 26. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 27. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 28. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 29. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 30. valeriy perminov, tomsk polytechnic university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 31. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bio-inspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 32. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 33. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 34. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 35. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 36. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 37. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 38. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) consultant reviewers 39. dorin bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 40. răzvan bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 41. cătălin buiu, politehnica university of bucharest, bucharest, romania (robotics) 42. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl milan, italy (computer science) 43. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 44. piotr p chruszczewski, polish academy of sciences, university of wroclaw, poland (social sciences) 45. utku köse, uşak university, uşak, turkey (artificial intelligence) 46. ioan maxim, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (computer science) 47. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence) 48. ioan lucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (linguistics) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 5 49. saim rasheed, king abdulaziz university, jeddah, saudi arabia (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 50. kamil roman, maria curie-sklodowska university in lublin, poland (smart city concept, intelligent transport systems, sustainable urban development) 51. tiberiu socaciu, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 52. hassan soleimani, payame noor university, tehran, iran (applied linguistics) 53. elena-mădălina vătămănescu, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest (social sciences), romania 54. dmytro zubov, soochow university, suzhou, jiangsu, china (computer science) microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final2.docx 33 entrepreneurship learning ecosystem for smart cities through moocs carmen holotescu “ioan slavici” university of timisoara, romania carmenholotescu@gmail.com liliana olivia lucaciu goţiu bucharest university of economic studies, romania lilianalucaciulg@gmail.com diana andone politehnica university of timisoara, romania diana.andone@cm.upt.ro liliana cismariu rd profil consult srl timisoara, romania liliana.cismariu@gmail.com gabriela grosseck west university of timisoara, romania gabriela.grosseck@e-uvt.ro titus slavici “ioan slavici” university of timisoara, romania titusslavici@yahoo.com abstract started in 2008, the new massive open online courses (moocs) paradigm has brought challenges and innovation at all levels of education, aiming to respond to the most pressing learning needs, generated by the new development policies and the rapid evolution of technology. this paper reports on a project proposed by a group of universities and organizations specialized in training, research and consultancy with a view to develop and implement a learning ecosystem in entrepreneurship. the project is built on a package of moocs targeting the learning needs of young entrepreneurs in the context of „smart cities and specializations” policies. the article presents the project concepts and the development and implementation steps, from moocs design, pilot phase, consultancy activities, impact study to proposals for national policies and accreditation. this work could be a starting point for developing new programmes and customized training courses on specific learning needs to support the „smart cities” interventions. keywords: smart cities, smart specializations, entrepreneurship, moocs, learning ecosystem. 1. introduction according to the united nations studies, in 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population lived in urban areas. moreover, virtually all of the future growth of the world’s population, from 54% in 2015 to 60% in 2030, will take place in cities (un, 2016). at the same time, although the overall population of europe is projected to decline and in spite of hosting the largest number of international migrants in 2015, 76 million (un, 2016), the european urbanization will increase from 73.6% in 2015 to 75.8% in 2025 (geohive, 2016). therefore, urban areas worldwide require new and innovative ways to deal with the complexity of living and overcrowding, energy consumption, resource management and environmental protection (manville et al., 2014). they must also focus to succeed in becoming more intelligent, better connected and more open (siso, 2015), thus becoming “smart cities”, requiring smart managers, entrepreneurs and citizens to achieve all these aims. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 34 2. definitions of smart cities. relation with s3 smart specializations strategies. connection with entrepreneurship and education in europe, where urban areas generate approximately 85% of the eu gross domestic product (gdp), smart cities represent a priority for the european commission. a recent eu study established as working definition of a smart city: “a city seeking to address public issues via ictbased solutions on the basis of a multi-stakeholder, municipally based partnership” and mapped the cities fitting this definition across the member states (manville et al., 2014). the concept of “smart city” is dynamic and often context-dependent, being an organic connection between technological, human, and institutional components. a comprehensive list of definitions can be found in (nam and pardo, 2011; manville et al., 2014). buchem and pérezsanagustín (2013) consider that smart cities are “complex ecosystems supported by technological infrastructures transforming citizen engagement, learning and participation”, and also that “smart cities cannot be smart without smart citizens”. various instruments for assessing the ”smartness” of cities and their contribution to competitiveness and well-being of the people have been created. an important and well-known project, called european smart cities (http://www.smart-cities.eu), coordinated by the centre of regional science, vienna university of technology, which started in 2007 and is still in implementation, published the 4th version of the smart city model in 2015. a smart city is well performing in “six key fields of urban development, built on the smart combination of endowments and activities of self-decisive, independent and aware citizens” (giffinger et al., 2007). table 1 quotes the six interconnected characteristics of a smart city model 4.0: smart economy, smart environment, smart governance, smart living, smart mobility and smart people, which are broken down in 31 factors and 74 corresponding indicators (esc, 2015). table 1. smart city characteristics and factors / indicators (esc, 2015) characteristic factors / indicators innovative spirit entrepreneurship economic image & trademarks smart economy flexibility of labor market international embedment ability to transform productivity smart environment attractiveness of natural conditions pollution environmental protection sustainable resource management smart governance participation in decision-making public and social services transparent governance political strategies & perspectives cultural facilities health conditions individual safety smart living education facilities touristic amenity social cohesion housing quality smart mobility local accessibility (inter-)national accessibility availability of ict-infrastructure sustainable, innovative and safe transport systems level of qualification affinity to lifelong learning social and ethnic plurality smart people creativity cosmopolitanism/ open-mindedness participation in public life flexibility c. holotescu, l. o. lucaciu goțiu, d. and one, l. cismariu, g. grosseck, t. slavici entrepreneurship learning ecosystem for smart cities through moocs 35 citizens' capabilities are among the factors measuring smart economy and smart people, such as entrepreneurship, innovative spirit, qualification, affinity to lifelong learning, flexibility or creativity. the model uses indicators relevant to learning, innovation and entrepreneurship, such as: employment rate in knowledge intensive sectors, patent applications per inhabitant, self employment rate, new businesses registration, and participation in lifelong learning. one can note that the smart economy and smart people characteristics demand an innovative education system to produce smart, adaptable and continuing learning entrepreneurs and citizens, while entrepreneurship and education represent real pillars of future city smartness. in 2010, after establishing „smart cities” as a eu priority, the „smart” label was also applied to regional policies, in the context of the economic crisis in europe and the need to stimulate the best from each typology of region. thus, a new term has been coined, smart specialization strategies (s3) (european commission, 2010). s3 is a novel approach to regional economic and social development promoted by the eu, stating that "the discovery of well-defined domains for specialization in a region or country, e.g. of research and innovation (r&i) areas in which it could excel and have comparative advantages, may trigger economic advancement in that region or country” (fotakis et al., 2014). spotting the lack of studies explaining the similarities and differences between the smart city and the s3 paradigms, in spite of their popularity in the eu policies, caraglio and del bo (2013) came with a single unitary framework for both concepts. as concluded by the authors, empirical results suggest that eu regions appear to be on a smart specialization path and that smart cities are more likely to emerge in smartly specialized regions. in the policy context of europe 2020, higher education institutions (heis) and research organizations (ros) play key roles in innovation, education, and the digital agenda, which are all initiatives for smart growth, i.e. smart cities and smart specialization strategies. at large, this means that these institutions are responsible for key activities such as human capital and skills development, knowledge transfer, innovation and enterprise formation and wider community development (fotakis et al., 2014). 3. smart city and s3 initiatives in romania in romania, there are various programmes that offer public funds for the development of “smart cities”. the regional operational programmes 2007-2013 funded interventions for urban development, including smart cities infrastructure, provided that the concept is transposed into the city strategic planning (http://www.inforegio.ro). other operational programmes, such as the human resources development sectorial operational programme for education and training, the increase of economic competitiveness sectorial operational programme for research development and innovation, the administrative capacity development operational programme for governance could have funded other “smartness” dimensions and factors. 2014-2020 european funds continue to support the development of smart cities through the successors of the above-mentioned programmes. additional funding is available from the european commission through other programmes, such as horizon 2020 and cosme. the challenge for the cities, their governments and the relevant stakeholders remains their ability to design integrated measures addressing all elements of the cities’ “smartness” and implement them in a coherent and synergic manner. the literature reveals the first attempts to support strategic approaches for the development of smart cities in romania in 2013, when a national strategy for smart cities was discussed and initiated. it was pointed out that “there are no smart cities without smart people”, and also that “the process of governing smart cities is based on a continuous dialogue between institutions, enterprises, research/universities and different other stakeholders, which need a space to interact – a smart cities platform” (elisei and dimitriu, 2013; http://urbasofia.eu/ro). an association of smart brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 36 cities was launched with the support of some key stakeholders, such as the national institute for research and development in constructions, urban and sustainable territorial development. a few isolated romanian initiatives were presented during the debates, starting with the city of timisoara, which focuses on a smart transport approach, followed by sibiu, which aims to implement the smart grid concept, and also by craiova. these three romanian towns were also assessed in a ranking of european medium-sized cities published in 2007: all three cities scored best on ”smart environment”, but had lower scores on smart economy and smart people dimensions (giffinger, r. et al., 2007). in the autumn of 2013, a very active smart city association was launched in timisoara, meant to develop the software infrastructure of the city, based on open data. thus, with the support of the city hall, it became the first romanian town “to publish datasets on the national open data portal and the first to issue a regulation framework for official open data activities” (http://www.mysmartcity.ro). the smart specialization concept was transposed in romania in a national strategic document, “the national strategy for research, development and innovation 2014-2020” that the romanian government adopted in 2014 (http://www.cdi2020.ro). the strategy was a specific requirement for the programming of competitiveness-related eu funds for 2014-2020, with complementarities in all operational programmes, such as: regional development, competitiveness, rural development and human capital. at a regional level, significant experience has been acquired over the last ten years when the regional development agencies played the role of engines for rdi strategic development. the most prominent region appears to be the west region which is the only romanian region to have priorities on the s3 platform (http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/map), although other regions are registered too. using the experience of two strategic cycles, ris 1 (2005-2008) and ris 2 (20092013), the west region prepared the ris 3 whose general objective included the high level of innovation, the attraction and capitalization of skills and ideas. 4. entrepreneurship in romania. the need for innovation currently there is no consensus in europe on what makes an entrepreneur, thus some current projects and studies aim at developing a european reference framework that defines the key competence for lifelong learning „sense of initiative and entrepreneurship (entrecomp)” and the indicators on entrepreneurial learning and competence (jrc, 2015; henry and chatzichristou, 2014). the entrepreneurship 2020 action plan, launched by the european commission (ec) in 2013, after identifying some of the barriers for entrepreneurs, such as the image of entrepreneurship, heavy bureaucracy and various financial constraints, has proposed three solutions:  entrepreneurial education and training in supporting growth and business creation,  strengthening framework conditions for entrepreneurs by removing the structural barriers and supporting them in the crucial phases of the business lifecycle,  activating the culture of entrepreneurship in europe by nurturing the new generation of entrepreneurs. in order to facilitate networking and support new business ideas a european mentors network for training, advice and coaching is going to be created, but such a network has not been implemented yet. the action plan also mentions the need to stimulate the development of massive open online courses meant for fostering web entrepreneurship and also to set up platforms for mentoring and skill building. c. holotescu, l. o. lucaciu goțiu, d. and one, l. cismariu, g. grosseck, t. slavici entrepreneurship learning ecosystem for smart cities through moocs 37 in romania, the human capital operational programme 2014-2020 is supporting entrepreneurship interventions with european and structural investment funds, in order to address a key weakness of the country’s competitiveness, the reduced entrepreneurial culture, which generates a low density of smes, much below the european average. a recent study (curaj et al., 2015) confirms this weakness and highlights the factors that affect entrepreneurship, such as low quality of management and entrepreneurial education and a small number of opportunity-driven entrepreneurs. among the study recommendations we mention the targeted support for the development of high quality education in management and entrepreneurship programmes. the danubius academic consortium (teodorescu, 2016) proposes an innovative and challenging approach for the soft measures necessary to support smart growth, such as the education, learning and development programs. it integrates three concepts: invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. according to teodorescu, each of these elements alone cannot produce the economic and social benefits expected from the public policies, invention alone remains a “splendid game of mind”, the innovation without invention ends up by cloning and saturating of the market, while “entrepreneurship without innovation input is just a waste of energy and impetus, often a broken hope”. 5. open education and moocs. european and romanian initiatives throughout the years, a variety of eu institutions, organizations or foundations were engaged in launching initiatives for programmes and projects related to open education, seen as „a mode of realizing education enabled by digital technologies aiming to widen access and participation to everyone, offering multiple ways of teaching and learning, building and sharing knowledge, as well as a variety of access routes to bridge formal and non-formal education” (openedu, 2015). some of the recent and current initiatives which act as driving forces for transforming education and learning at all levels are: open education europe (opening up education through new technologies), scale ccr (up-scaling creative classrooms in europe), oereu (open education resources and practices in europe), openuped (a paneuropean mooc initiative), oerup! (erasmus+ project focusing on oers for adult education, one partner is irea romanian institute for adult education), poerup (policies for oer uptake, continuing on the related projects sharedoer and adoerup adult education and oer), home (higher education online: moocs the european way), emma (european multiple mooc aggregator) and d-transform (transforming universities for the digital age). some strategic studies are openedu (proposing a framework for opening up practices in heis), opencred (ways in which the main open education collaborative networks, consortia and platforms in europe offer recognition for open learning) and moocknowledge (a knowledge base with a european view on moocs). started in 2008, the new massive open online courses (moocs) paradigm, a core key of open education, has brought challenges and innovation at all levels of education, aiming to respond to the most pressing learning needs, generated by the new development policies and the rapid evolution of technology. in romania there are many initiatives related to moocs (holotescu, 2012):  implementation of platforms and moocs (http://unicampus.ro, http://novamooc.uvt.ro, http://mooc.ro, http://unibuc-virtual.net, http://eliada.ubbcluj.ro/proiect, http://udemy.com/management-ong, http://estudent.ro, http:// startarium.ro);  experiments for integrating moocs in blended academic courses can be found at the "politehnica" university of timisoara and the „ioan slavici” university of timisoara (holotescu et al., 2014; vasiu and andone, 2014; bogdan, 2017); brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 38  workshops and national conferences on open education organized by the romanian coalition for oers. 6. steps for an entrepreneurship learning ecosystem through moocs for smart cities presently, entrepreneurship is a topic for many courses delivered at all levels of education, from pre-university to university and continuous education. most of them have the following limits (european commission/eacea/eurydice, 2016; curaj et al., 2015):  they are based on a traditional teaching paradigm, the materials are lectured f2f, even if modules are hosted in (closed) lms, without the possibility to interact with external learners and experts, also without concrete group projects to be validated;  the courses are not connected with the current eu priorities and with the needs of cities/regional development. the group of universities and organizations specialized in training, research and consultancy, coordinated by the authors of this paper, already have experience in moocs development and integration (holotescu et al., 2014; vasiu and andone, 2014), and in assessing the learning needs of smart cities (grosseck et al., 2014; andone et al., 2014). the partners are working on implementing an entrepreneurship learning ecosystem, consisting of a training network that uses moocs, also providing (massive) mentoring/coaching and support for finding finance. the trainees should be prepared to become informed, creative and hyper-connected entrepreneurs, to actively participate, collaborate, and develop the activities, decisions and economies of cities/regions. the prospective trainees are part of a diversity of sectors, as the project addresses the needs of the following target groups:  students in pre-university and university systems, who want to better the knowledge received in specific courses and to participate in collaborative projects connected to the real needs of the city/region;  teachers and trainers who want to enlarge their competencies and skills in using open educational practices (oeps) and in updating the entrepreneurship courses they teach;  individuals running their own business who want to extend/improve their knowledge and to adapt/start new businesses that respond to the needs of the city/region;  policy makers for educational and business systems;  regional and local governments, decision makers and staff responsible with policies and programmes related to smart cities development. we intend to distribute the created moocs on different well-known international and european hosting platforms, such as: edx, emma, imoox, eco project. the benefits would be the following:  the visibility of the project is increased, and the project’s content is disseminated;  offering teachers and tutors the possibility to have a critical view of a variety of platforms and to know and work directly with their specific features; equally participating in the communities of practice of trainers using those platforms;  the same critical view will be developed by the participants in moocs; they will also be able to know the courses offered by those platforms and to enlarge their knowledge, skills and competencies by participating in other moocs too. in fact, for each course the project develops, we intend to inform our students about the possibility to participate in other connected curated moocs; c. holotescu, l. o. lucaciu goțiu, d. and one, l. cismariu, g. grosseck, t. slavici entrepreneurship learning ecosystem for smart cities through moocs 39  most of the platforms have the features for video transcripts and materials translation, thus eliminating the language barrier, and assuring openness to a larger participation. the project website will direct to the project moocs, facilitated in blended manner, with f2f, synchronous and asynchronous communication between teachers and participants, and also live lectures from guest teachers/experts; it will also permit the group work of participants and will curate a large category of resources. the project’s online space will facilitate the continuity of the learning communities of participants, peer mentoring for the teachers, the possibility to interact with external learners, practitioners and experts. because at least a part of the courses will have as participants teachers, managers, policy makers and other educational stakeholders, who will create, reflect, validate their own proposals for projects and strategies for smart cities, together with the teaching staff, they will create a real community of practice. the development of moocs uses the structured design and quality criteria (ebner et al., 2014; warburton and mor, 2015). the delivery of moocs must ensure the following issues needed for future recognition by other heis and employers (whittahaus et al., 2016):  checking the identity of the participants,  suitable supervised assessment and evaluation of students participation,  issuing (digital) certificates/online badges to acknowledge learning,  quality assurance and management of the courses,  awarding credit points for transversal courses,  information and collaboration with institutions or bodies which might potentially recognize moocs. the project’s steps are presented below: 1. input for entrepreneurial moocs design: the first phase aims to define the specific competencies for smart cities/regions entrepreneurs, starting with a research that comprises: eu priorities and studies, analysis of the training needs and of the existing entrepreneurship courses and moocs, collection of social media data, interviews and experience of partners, understanding different expectations of smart city stakeholders (universities, public administration, ngos, business companies, professional communities, citizens). a delphi study will collect the feedback from national and european experts for the proposed framework containing the specific competencies, as well as the objectives and learning outcomes and curricula of the entrepreneurship moocs, using a methodology similar to the studies of okoli and pawlowski (2004) and okoli and wang (2015). 2. publish the previous results as open data by using open cc licenses. 3. mooc to train mooc facilitators: only some of the teachers and trainers who will develop the project moocs already have experience in using oeps and in developing and facilitating online courses; thus, they will take part in a mooc specially designed for preparing mooc facilitators, which will be open for other participants as well. the topics of this mooc will concern open education, cc licenses, oeps, oers and moocs and scenarios for integrating them in traditional courses. this course is meant to be a task-based mooc, in the sense that the activities aim to build a strategy for integrating oeps in their own courses and to develop moocs. 4. implement and pilot entrepreneurship moocs: moocs are developed as blended courses, integrating open educational resources and practices, gamification for entrepreneurship, study cases. a badge system will be used for different levels of completion; participants who will complete all tasks will receive a participation certificate. 5. follow up activities: monitor the activities of trainees, run face-to-face and online consultancy activities, consisting in experiments for massive open online consultancy (mooco); brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 40 the project platform could be the space for a community of practice of actors involved in open education, entrepreneurship for smart cities and s3, representing the basis for massive open online research (moor); offer connections with events, startup incubation and seed funding/crowd-funding programmes (http://ree.uefiscdi.ro/funding-resources); find synergies between participants competencies, experience, skills and the needs of the smart cities and smart specialization strategies; facilitate the building of a community of practice between the students and trainers/coaches; at least a percentage of the ideas/projects developed collaboratively during the moocs should take part in local and regional hackathons and participate in seed funding programmes. 6. impact study and empowerment evaluation: define the evaluation metrics for the developed moocs, such as the trainees’ abilities and knowledge, networking connections, number of created smart city applications. 7. pack moocs as nano-degrees or specializations included in formal and informal training programmes, also in master programmes; during the pilot project, moocs will run as optional courses for students in the partner universities. 8. develop a set of proposals for national policies and accreditation system. the partners are currently involved in the first research phase, necessary to prepare the design and curricula of the moocs for entrepreneurs and also for the third phase, designing the mooc meant to train the mooc trainers of the project. in an extended partnership we intend to apply for a grant in order to implement the envisioned project. 7. conclusions started as an initiative of a few universities and training, research and consultancy organizations willing to modernize and update their entrepreneurship education offers, we consider that our project could become one of the strategic programmes of the western region of romania, involving other regions with similar strategies. moreover, this project could respond to the findings of the recent exploratory study related to the romanian entrepreneurial ecosystem (curaj et al., 2015). we estimate that our project has the following impact:  opening education in the organizations participating in the project, towards using oeps;  mooc for training mooc facilitators could address teachers, trainers and practitioners from a wide range of institutions, which could thus adopt the open educational practices too;  it could contribute to the openness movement, spreading the knowledge and benefits of open education and enlarging the communities of practice around oers, moocs, oeps and open licenses;  the participants in the project moocs could become real smart entrepreneurs of their cities and regions;  the large category of actors involved in the project contribute to the building of a real learning ecosystem;  the project could bring a real impact in innovation, in research and in creating smart citizens. acknowledgement this work was partially supported by a grant of the romanian national authority for scientific research and innovation, cncs uefiscdi, project number pn-ii-ru-te-2014-42040: novamooc development and innovative implementation of moocs in higher education. c. holotescu, l. o. lucaciu goțiu, d. and one, l. cismariu, g. grosseck, t. slavici entrepreneurship learning ecosystem for smart cities through moocs 41 references andone, d., holotescu, c., grosseck, g.: learning communities in smart cities. case studies. “dubai 2020: smart city learning” workshop proceedings, nov, dubai, united arab emirates (2014) bogdan, r.: sentiment analysis on embedded systems blended courses. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, vol 8, no 1 (2017) buchem, i., pérez-sanagustín, m.: personal learning environments in smart cities: current approaches and future scenarios. elearning papers no. 35. available at http://openeducationeuropa.eu/sites/default/files/asset/in-depth_35_1.pdf (2013) caragliu, a., del bo, c.: smart specialization strategies and smart cities: an evidence-based assessment of eu policies. working paper 2013-17, university of milan (2013) curaj, a., mitroi, m., paul, c., saftescu, r., simion, e.: the romanian entrepreneurial ecosystem. an exploratory study. prospective press, bucharest, 2015. available at http://ree.uefiscdi.ro (2015) ebner, m., lackner, e., & kopp, m.: how to mooc? a pedagogical guideline for practitioners. in the international scientific conference elearning and software for education proceedings, bucharest, april, 2014 (2014) elisei, p., dimitriu, s.: smart cities in the making: the importance of a strategic urban agenda for today’s romanian cities. conference challenges for romania within horizon 2020 – the eu framework program for research and innovation 2014-2020: preparing european partnering in research and technological development for sustainable constructions and built environment, bucharest 2013 (2013) european commission: regional policy contributing to smart growth in europe 2020. com (2010) 553 final. available at http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/official/ communic/smart_growth/comm2010_553_en.pdf (2010) european commission: entrepreneurship 2020 action plan reigniting the entrepreneurial spirit in europe. european commission, dg enterprise & industry, com (2012), 795. available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/lexuriserv.do?uri=com:2012:0795:fin:en:pdf (2013) european commission/eacea/eurydice: entrepreneurship education at school in europe. eurydice report. luxembourg: publications office of the european union. available at https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/publications:entrepreneurship_ education_at_school_in_europe_-_2016_edition (2016) european smart cities: smart city model 4.0. available at http://www.smartcities.eu/?cid=01&ver=4 (2015) fotakis, c., rosenmöller, m., brennan, j., matei, l., nikolov, r., petiot, c., puukka, j.: the role of universities and research organisations as drivers for smart specialisation at regional level. eu directorate-general for research and innovation. available at https://ec.europa.eu/research/ regions/pdf/publications/ expertreport-universities_and_smart_spec-webpublication-a4.pdf (2014) geohive: report urban /rural division of countries for the years 2015 and 2025. available at http://www.geohive.com/earth/pop_urban.aspx (2016) giffinger, r. et al.: smart cities. ranking of european medium-sized cities. available at http://www.smart-cities.eu/download/smart_cities_final_report.pdf (2007) grosseck, g., ivanova, m., holotescu, c., & malita, l.: massive open online courses as e-bricks for smart cities. in the international scientific conference elearning and software for education proceedings (vol. 4, p. 237), bucharest, 2014 (2014) brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 42 henry, n., chatzichristou, s.: expert group on indicators on entrepreneurial learning and competence: final report. icf ghk on behalf of the european commission. available at http://ec.europa.eu/education/library/reports/2014/entrepreneurial-expert-report_en.pdf (2014) holotescu, c.: oer in romania. poerup project: policies for oer uptake report. available at http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/romania (2012, updated 2017) holotescu, c., grosseck, g., cretu, v. & naaji, a.: integrating moocs in blended courses. in procedings of 10th international conference else, bucharest, 24-25 april 2014 (2014) jrc: entrepreneurship competence project. joint research centre (jrc) science hub. online at https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/entrecomp (2015) manville, c., cochrane, g., cave, j., millard, j., pederson, j. k., thaarup, r. k., ... & kotterink, b.: mapping smart cities in the eu. brussels: european parliament, directorate-general for internal policies, policy department. available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/regdata/etudes/etudes/join/2014/507480/ipolitre_et(2014)507480_en.pdf (2014) nam, t., pardo., a.: conceptualizing smart city with dimensions of technology, people, and institutions. in the proceedings of the 12th annual international conference on digital government research. acm. available at http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/journals/ dgo_2011_smartcity/dgo_2011_smartcity.pdf (2011) okoli, c., and pawlowski, s. d.: the delphi method as a research tool: an example, design considerations and applications, information & management (42:1), pp. 15–29 (doi: 10.1016/j.im.2003.11.002) (2004) okoli, c., & wang, n.: business models for online education and open educational resources: insights from a delphi study. amcis 2015 proceedings (2015) openedu ipts: open education definition work in progress. presentation available at http://www.slideshare.net/inamor/opening-up-higher-education-in-europe-56009940 (2015) siso, r.: smart cities: cooperation at all levels of governance needed. the parliament magazine. available at https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/opinion/smart-cities-cooperationall-levels-governance-needed (2015) teodorescu, g.: integral innovation from brain to business. available at http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/documents/20182/152805/3+session+transformation_geor ge+teodorescu.pdf/2c804518-61f8-4886-a8bd-c4d623289bb7 (2016) united nations commision on population and development: world demographic trends. report of the secretary-general commision on population and development. united nations. april 2016. available at http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/commission/sessions/2016 (2016) vasiu, r. & andone, d.: oers and moocs the romanian experience. in web and open access to learning (icwoal), 2014 international conference (2014) warburton, s., & mor, y.: a set of patterns for the structured design of moocs. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 1-15 (2015) whittahaus, g., inamorato dos santos, a., childs, m., tannhauser, a., conole, g., nkuyubwatsi, b., punie, y.: validation of non-formal mooc-based learning: an analysis of assessment and recognition practices in europe (opencred). institute for prospective technological studies. available at http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/jrc96968 (2016) c. holotescu, l. o. lucaciu goțiu, d. and one, l. cismariu, g. grosseck, t. slavici entrepreneurship learning ecosystem for smart cities through moocs 43 professor carmen holotescu is the dean of the faculty of engineering, also the director of the center for open education, at"ioan slavici" university of timisoara, romania. she has conducted innovative research over the last 16 years, in open education (oe), conceiving and building social media learning spaces and integrating emerging educational technologies, oers and moocs in formal/informal learning settings. she has also been involved in many european projects on new collaborative technologies, to training teachers/e-trainers and participants with different backgrounds, also persons in disadvantaged situations. in 2007, as an expert in the knowledge economy project, carmen holotescu was the author of the first national recommendations on oe for the romanian ministry of education. she is a certified online instructor of university of maryland university college, usa, acting as online tutor for 12 years, between 2002-2013. she has facilitated online courses in cs field, working with students worldwide in multicultural settings. she wrote over 100 articles and book chapters related to elearning/blended learning/open learning, social media, oers and moocs, having more than 1000 citations. carmen holotescu is also the organizer and chair of many national and international conferences, workshops and webinars on oe. gabriela grosseck is associate professor in the department of psychology at the west university of timisoara, romania. she has particular expertise in ict in education (teaching, learning, and researching), a solid experience in students’/teachers’ training both f2f and online environments. for almost a decade she was an editor-in-chief of romanian journal of social informatics. she is author of many articles in the field of e-learning 2.0, speaker at different international events, workshop organizer and a member of editorial committees (journals and conferences). her research interests cover main aspects of open education, oers/oeps and moocs, web 2.0 tools and technologies in higher education, collaborative aspects and proper use of social media (by teachers, students, researchers, policy makers and other educational actors). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 44 microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1.doc 18 intelligent system for diagnosis of a three-phase separator irina ioniță informatics, computer science, mathematics and physics, petroleum-gas university of ploieşti, ploiești, romania tirinelle@yahoo.com liviu ioniță informatics, computer science, mathematics and physics, petroleum-gas university of ploieşti, ploiești, romania lionita@gmail.com abstract intelligent systems for diagnosis have been used in a variety of domains: financial evaluation, credit scoring problem, identification of software and hardware problems of mechanical and electronic equipment, medical diagnosis, fault detection in gas-oil production plants etc. the goal of diagnosis systems is to classify the observed symptoms as being caused by some diagnosis class while advising systems perform such a classification and offer corrective remedies (recommendations). the current paper discuss the opportunity to combine more intelligent techniques and methodologies (intelligent agents, data mining and expert systems) to increase the accuracy of results obtained from the diagnosis of a three-phase separator. the results indicate that the diagnosis hybrid system benefits from the advantages of each module component: intelligent agent module, data mining module and expert system module. keywords: diagnosis, intelligent agents, data mining, expert system 1. introduction the daily operations of an oil and gas production system require many decisions, at different levels of organization and making adequate decision is a difficult task because of the economic and environmental risks occurrence if abnormal situations are not detected and managed appropriately. building a diagnosis system requires many years of experience in domain, a consolidate team of workers (engineers, operators, developers etc.) and a significant volume of data for implementation and testing phase of the system, offline simulations. a diagnosis system is one that is capable of identifying the nature of a problem by examining the observed symptoms (the input of the system) and to produce a diagnosis report with or without an explanation or justification (the output of the system). in many applications of interest it is desirable for the system and quite necessary, to not only identify the possible causes of the problem but also to offer suitable solutions (recommendations) to remediate the anomalies that occurred. identifying the probable cause associated to a fault is performed based on the adequate knowledge of the analyzed domain. the necessary knowledge may be represented in a standard form (i.e. diagnostic rules for expert systems) into the system by domain experts (heuristic knowledge). in other case, machine learning techniques are used for automated knowledge acquisition. the authors proposed a hybrid diagnosis system used in oil industry (diagagentexpertdm), as a result of their research work regarding the application on intelligent techniques in industrial field (ioniță & ionită, 2013, ioniță, 2014, ioniță & ioniță, 2015). the data used for training and testing the system were collected from a gas-oil separation plant (gosp). the task of data mining (dm) component is to provide the best classification model (as decision tree model). the expert system uses the induction rules acquired from the dm component and gives an evaluation report regarding the functioning of a gas-oil separator, as a group of three attributes: alarm, cause, solution. the output of expert system is processed by diagnosis agent which communicates with operator agent (the main agents from the multi-agent system gosp-mas (ioniță, 2014)).the diagnosis i. ioniţă, l. ioniţă intelligent system for diagnosis of a three-phase separator 19 system diagagentexpertdm possess the most important features of each “intelligent” component: adaptive learning from agents, knowledge from expert system module and predictive behavior from data mining component. after a short description of the diagnosis problem and the motivation of the authoress in choosing this subject (in introduction), section 2 of this paper discusses about various approaches to the design of intelligent diagnosis systems, emphasizing their strengths and limitations. this analysis also suggests interesting possibilities for hybrid techniques that combine different approaches (intelligent agent, data mining and expert system), the proposed diagnosis system for a three-phase separator being presented in section 3 of the article. section 4 contains the results and the remarks, and finally, conclusions regarding the research work are mentioned. 2. intelligent techniques for diagnosis in oil industry a definition for agent concept has been proposed by wooldridge in (wooldridge, 2002): “an agent is a computer system that is situated in some environment, and that is capable of autonomous action in this environment in order to meet its design objectives”. an intelligent agent has one or more goals and might communicate with other agents to achieve the proposed goals. he “knows” its environment by perceptions and takes these observations into account when it decides which actions to perform. the main characteristics of an agent are: autonomous (internal states and goals defines the autonomy), proactive (they have a goal to achieve), reactive (they react to changes in the environment when they find it necessary), social (they collaborate and negotiate with other agents), robust (agents can recover from failure), flexible (they have several ways to achieve a goal). in recent years, intelligent agents were mentioned in several research papers for a wide area of application in industrial field: fault management of industrial processes (cerrada, cardillo, aguilar, faneite, 2007) (garcía, leme, pinto & sanchez-pi, 2012), intelligent control and optimization of production wells (engmo & hallen, 2007), intelligent supervision of petroleum processes (atalla & taylor, 2004) (canelón, dávila, morles & c. la hechicera, 2009) (ioniță & ioniță, 2014) (ioniță, 2014), dynamic scheduling in petroleum process (aissani & beldjilali, 2009). the results indicate that agents represents an adequate alternative to solve complex problems due their capabilities mentioned above. using this technology, the production costs were reduced and the response time of industrial system was minimized. data mining is considered the process of discovering patterns in large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics, and database systems (piatetsky-shapiro, brachman, khabaza, kloesgen & simoudis, 1996). in oil and gas industry everyday operation produces large and complex volume of data that it’s difficult to handle using data management tools. traditional sources, such as equipment monitoring and maintenance records provide data that is often stored in data warehouses and used as needed. to support rapid decision-making in key areas such as reservoir modelling, drilling and production optimization, gas and oil companies need tools that integrate and synthesize various data sources into a unified whole and to discover knowledge. it is obvious that an oilfield operator can create strategic advantages over its competitors applying data mining techniques to get important insights from the data it collects from measurements or records provided by industrial equipment (sensors, actuators, control valves, pumps etc.). data mining get the answer to many questions such as: how to select the best candidate well for simulation, how to adjust the parameters of a three-phase separator to assure the proper condition for separation process, how to avoid the anomalies or how to remediate them in a gas-oil production plant, what are the decisions to be taken in order to increase the profit of a gas-oil company etc. (piatetsky-shapiro, brachman, khabaza, kloesgen & simoudis, 1996) (rabiei, gupta, cheong & sanchez soto, 2010) (rabiei, gupta, cheong, & soto, 2009). applications of data mining referring to production operation process in oil field, around production operation control, production operation parameter prediction, the production process fault monitoring and production operation cost control are discussed in (li, li & wu, 2009) (ccoicca, 2013) (aulia, keat, maulut, el-khatib & jasamai, 2010) (badr, 2014) (wang, gao & li, 2012). data mining techniques come to brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 meet organization to benefit from their enormous data with valuable capacities, unknown patterns that can be used in decision-making. an alternative to build intelligent diagnosis systems is expert system technology as is mentioned in (balakrishnan & honavar, 1998) (noureldin & ruveta, 2002). expert systems are known as interactive computer-based decision tools that use both facts and rules to solve complex decision problems based on knowledge acquired from a human expert in a certain domain. the main components of an expert system are: a knowledge base, an inference engine for rationing task and a working memory to hold the facts provided by the user and conclusions obtained during inference procedure. a knowledge engineer has the role to transform the experience of the human personal in knowledge and store it in knowledge base as rules or other standard format for knowledge representation (logic, semantic frameworks etc.). this process (knowledge engineering) can be expansive and time consuming. applications of expert systems in gas and oil field cover the following categories: predicting, diagnosing, planning, monitoring and controlling (ghallab, badr, salem & tolba, 2013; lokko, 2012; ioniță & ioniță, 2013; kopliku & condanni, 1994). some of expert systems advantages are: availability, reliability (consistency), cost effective. compared with intelligent agents, expert system are limited domain and are not always up to date, do not have the learning capacity. engineers have to maintain and configure permanently the expert system, which is considered a disadvantage. the motivation for choosing a special design method for intelligent diagnosis system is influenced by the sources of knowledge, the available amount of data and the representation form. in the next section, the authoress proposed a hybrid system for diagnosis of a three-phase separator taking into account the analysis of intelligent diagnosis systems presented above. the purpose of the gosp is to process the well flow into clean, marketable products such as: oil, natural gas or condensates. a number of additional utility systems are included, which are not part of the actual process but provide energy, water, air or some other utility to the plant (devon, 2013). 3. the hybrid diagnosis system in recent years, large companies (ie. oil and gas companies) realized that can be competitive only if the knowledge hidden in enormous data (daily transactions) is discovered in real time and used properly. for example, end users spend most of their time sorting and filtering the data, and little time searching significance and interpreting the discovered patterns. as a result, volumes of data go unused and important patterns that may help the decision-making remain undiscovered. according to the gartner group (kyte, 2002), the amount of data collected by large companies doubles every year and knowledge workers can analyze only a small part of data. first task of knowledge workers is to extract knowledge and then to find the meaning of the discovered patterns and used them to improve the decision-making capabilities. automation acquisition of the valuable knowledge from the experts and operators, pattern interpreting and real-time decision development are the desirable characteristics of an intelligent diagnosis system. motivated by the advantages of intelligent techniques presented above, the authors propose a method to increase the efficiency of monitoring and diagnosis system: combination of intelligent agents with data mining techniques and expert system technology. the hybrid system will benefit from autonomous agents and their reactive character, from the heuristic reasoning of expert system, and from the ability to extract knowledge and increase accuracy of results using data mining module. the authors’ interest in knowledge-based systems (kbss) and intelligent agents applied in oil industry was found in previous work (ioniță & ionită, 2013; ioniță, 2014; ioniță & ioniță, 2015). an example of multi-agent system applied in oil industry for diagnosis of a gas-oil separation plant is given in (ioniță, 2014). this intelligent diagnosis system named gosp-mas uses several agents that collaborate and communicate with each other in order to achieve the main i. ioniţă, l. ioniţă intelligent system for diagnosis of a three-phase separator 21 goal: the diagnosis of a three-phase separator. the supervisor agent (diagnosis agent) has the main role in the diagnosis system gosp-mas, being responsible with generation of the diagnosis report and with forwarding it to other agent (operator agent). the human operator receives through gui the diagnosis report from operator agent and after analyzing the recommendations listed for the generated alarms can execute the adequate operation to remediate the faults. to improve the quality of diagnosis process, the author proposed in (ioniță, 2014) an expert system (expert-gosp). a similar intelligent diagnosis system based on knowledge-based system technology is described in (ioniță, ioniță, 2013). more than that, to increase the accuracy of result and to refine the solutions/advices generated after diagnosis process a data mining module can be added and integrated in the intelligent diagnosis system. application of data mining technique for diagnosis in oil industry is given in (serapião & bannwart, 2013) (rabiei, gupta, cheong & sanchez soto, 2010) (rabiei, gupta, cheong, & soto, 2009). table 1 presents the analysis of three diagnosis systems (kbs-diag, expert-gosp and diagagentexpertdm). the input for each diagnosis system is represented by the operating parameters associated to a three-phase separator. diagagentexpertdm uses over twenty attributes (table 2), the other two systems use less than fifteen attributes. the output of the diagnosis system is presented as a message to inform the user about the system state and was improved with more information regarding the alarms, causes and solutions. diagagentexpertdm is characterized by adaptive learning, knowledge discovery features and predictive behaviour. table 1. comparison of diagnosis systems diagnosis system input output what techniques are used for diagnosis? features software used to develop the system kbs-diag operating parameters (oil temperature, oil tank pressure, oil tank temperature, water temperature etc.) a message regarding to the alarms occurred and the solutions given induction rules knowledge discovery visual prolog expertgosp operating parameters the diagnosis report built as a group of alarms, causes and solutions decision tree (induction rules as if then else) knowledge discovery exsys corvid diagagent expertdm operating parameters the diagnosis report preprocessed by diagnosis agent data mining model (decision tree) induction rule for expert system intelligent agents adaptive learning knowledge discovery predictive behaviour exsys corvid weka prometheus for the current hybrid system (diagagentexpertdm), data from different sources and in various forms are preprocessed, in order to represent them in a unified way to be able to upload them in a learning module. simultaneously, inconsistency tests are made to eliminate the measurement errors caused by improper calibration of transducers etc. in condition of using a diagnosis method based on process history, the next step in fault identification referring to the gas-oil separation process is to scan the historical data. retrieved data will possess a label with a certain priority which will be used in the next retrieval process. the learning module is supplied with multiple preprocessed data samples, in order to extract knowledge from them. for each data samples, a data mining algorithm will be applied (figure 1). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 figure 1. diagagentexpertdm architecture (adapted from ioniță, 2014) decision trees were developed with weka (weka, 2016), and the obtained rules are implemented in the expert system knowledge base. the induction rules are in the standard form if then else, as following: if measured_value_parameter1 >= accepted_value_min and measured_value_parametru1<= accepted_value_max then decision=stable_system [105/3]; the generated rules describe both normal state of the three-phase separator and the possible scenarios of faults. each rule may have a confidence coefficient calculated as a ratio between the number of observation described by this rule (ie. 105) and the number of misclassified cases (ie. 3). a concrete example, is given below: if: [oil_temp_inside_separator] <=25 then: [alarm] = " oil temperature inside the separator low" [cause] = " cause: temperature control valve fault tcv-41002 or tcv-41003 or thermal insulation vessel damage" [solution] = " solution: verify the operating state of temperature control valve tcv-41002/tcv-41003 or verify thermal isolation vessel" set [report.add] "tempearture alarm" set [report.add] [alarm.value] set [report.add] [cause.value] set [report.add] [solution.value] i. ioniţă, l. ioniţă intelligent system for diagnosis of a three-phase separator 23 more induction rules are presented in (ioniță & ioniță, 2015), as well as gui for the expert system built with exsys corvid. the designed system hold several knowledge bases, whose consistency is subsequently verified. the similar cases from these knowledge bases are analysed, merged, and the confidence coefficient is computed again based on confidence coefficients defined for individual knowledge base. the testing data sets were been collected from the analysed three-phase separator. the process history contains heuristic knowledge from domain experts and operators, technical data from specialized documentation and real-time data collected from field transducers. the expert system generates two levels of process state (normal and abnormal state), being coded as following: red colour means abnormal functioning state, and green colour means a normal functioning state. the graphic interface provides the current condition that may cause alarms and possible occurred problems. 4. results and remarks five data mining models based on decision trees/induction rules were applied: j48, simple cart, lmt, jrip and reptree (witten, frank & hall, 2011). j48 is an implementation of the well-known quinlan algorithm (c4.5) (quinlan, 1993), which is an improvement of the basic id3 algorithm. this classification data mining model builds a decision tree for the given dataset, whose nodes represent discrimination rules acting on selective patterns by recursive partitioning of data, using depth-first strategy. simple cart (classification and regression trees) (timofeev, 2004) is a classification method which uses historical data to construct decision trees, when the number of classes are a priori known. the resulted decision tree are used to classify new data. an important practical characteristic of simple cart is that the structure of its classification or regression trees is invariant with respect to monotone transformations of independent variables. logistic model tree (lmt) represents a combination between a standard tree structures with logistic regression functions at the leaves using posterior class probabilities in order to produce a single decision tree (witten, frank & hall, 2011). lmt consists of a tree structure that is built up of a set of inner nodes and a set of leaves or terminal nodes in an instance space. jrip is a data mining model that implements repeated incremental pruning to produce error reduction (ripper) in java, a prepositional rule learner, as proposed in (cohen, 1995) and is based on the construction of a rule set in which all positive examples are covered. in this algorithm, the discovered knowledge is represented in the form of if then else prediction rules. reduced error pruning tree (reptree) is a simple procedure for learning and pruning decision trees and the main goal is to build a decision or regression tree using information gain as the splitting criterion and prunes trees using reduced-error pruning. this data mining model only sorts values for numeric attributes once. the attributes used for this experiment are presented in table 2. table 2. operating parameters of the three-phase separator attribute (operating parameter) type oil_temp_inside_separator numeric oil_temp_outlet_heat_exchanger_41he002 numeric oil_temp_outlet_heat_exchanger_41he003 numeric water_pressure_outlet_separator numeric gas_pressure_outlet_separator numeric oil_pressure_outlet_separator numeric oil_level_separator numeric water_level_separator numeric alarm_temp_separator nominal brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 attribute (operating parameter) type alarm_temp_41he002 nominal alarm_temp_41he003 nominal alarm_pressure_water (apw) nominal alarm_pressure_gas (apg) nominal alarm_pressure_oil (apo) nominal alarm_level_oil (alo) nominal alarm_level_water(alw) nominal cause_at nominal cause_apw nominal cause_apg nominal cause_apo nominal cause_alo nominal cause_alw nominal solution_temp nominal solution_pw (pw – pressure water) nominal solution_pg (pg – pressure gas) nominal solution_po (po – pressure oil) nominal solution_lo (lo – level oil) nominal solution_lw (lw – level water) nominal diagnosis_report nominal the source arff file (attribute-relation file format) contains 530 records (only 292 of records are used to build the models, the rest of records are used in evaluation phase), the target variable of the model being diagnosis_report with two possible values (normal_state/abnormal_state). after source file loading, the classifier is chosen (j48) and the model is run according to testing options. as a result, a decision tree is built and the statistics are calculated. the procedure is the same in the case of the rest of data mining models (simple cart, jrip, lmt and reptree). the interpretation of evaluation measures (correctly classified instances, misclassified instances, kappa statistic, mean absolute error, root mean squared error) offer the analysis of performance associated to the data mining models (table 3). for example, j48 model classified 270 instances as correct classified which means that instances considered initial with the normal_state value for target attribute (65 instances) were classified as normal_state and the instances considered initial with abnormal_state value for target attribute (205 instances) were classified by model as abnormal_state. the rest of 22 instances were classified as incorrect (the initial value for the target attribute is not identic with the classified one). the comparison of the results indicates a better classification in case of lmt, j48 and reptree models (the root mean squared erorr is respectively 0.23, 0.25 and 027). unlike jrip, which is another classifier based on discovering rules, j48 presented the best performance for unseen data (test set). jrip produced only five simple rules for classifying the flow patterns. the method based on simple cart had only 90.06% performance. i. ioniţă, l. ioniţă intelligent system for diagnosis of a three-phase separator 25 table 3. evaluation measures for a data set containing 292 instances dm model evaluation measures j48 simple cart lmt jrip reptree total number of instances=292 correctly classified instances 92,46% (270 instances) 90,06% (263 instances) 93,83% (274 instances) 88,69% (259 instances) 91,78% (268 instances) incorrect classified instances 7,53% (22 instances) 9,93% (29 instances) 6,16% (18 instances) 11,30% (33 instances) 8,21% (24 instances) kappa statistic 0,80 0,73 0,84 0,70 0,78 mean absolute error 0,09 0,12 0,08 0,14 0,13 root mean squared error 0,25 0,28 0,23 0,31 0,27 precision normal_state 0,84 0,83 0,86 0,76 0,83 abnormal_state 0,95 0,92 0,96 0,93 0,94 recall normal_state 0,86 0,76 0,90 0,80 0,85 abnormal_state 0,94 0,94 0,94 0,91 0,94 fmeasure normal_state 0,85 0,79 0,88 0,78 0,84 abnormal_state 0,94 0,93 0,95 0,92 0,94 roc area (weighted avg.) 0,95 0,93 0,94 0,87 0,91 the experimental evaluation has been extended on multiple data sets and a statistical analysis has been performed on the obtained results. the evaluation measures correspond to the data mining models j48, simplecart, lmt, jrip and reptree applied for 424 instances, respectively 968 instances and are presented in table 4 and table 5. table 4. evaluation measures for a data set containing 424 instances dm model evaluation measures j48 simple cart lmt jrip reptree total number of instances=424 correctly classified instances 93,16% 90,09% 94,57% 87,73% 89,85% incorrect classified instances 6,83% 9,90% 5,42% 12,26% 10,14% kappa statistic 0,84 0,76 0,87 0,71 0,76 mean absolute error 0,09 0,14 0,06 0,17 0,15 root mean squared error 0,24 0,29 0,20 0,33 0,29 precision normal_state 0,91 0,87 0,92 0,82 0,84 abnormal_state 0,93 0,91 0,95 0,89 0,92 recall normal_state 0,86 0,80 0,90 0,77 0,83 abnormal_state 0,96 0,94 0,96 0,92 0,92 fmeasure normal_state 0,89 0,83 0,91 0,80 0,84 abnormal_state 0,95 0,92 0,96 0,91 0,92 roc area (weighted avg.) 0,95 0,92 0,96 0,84 0,92 table 5. evaluation measures for a data set containing 968 instances dm model evaluation measures j48 simple cart lmt jrip reptree total number of instances=968 correctly classified instances 96,79% 95,86% 98,86% 95,35% 94,00% incorrect classified instances 3,20% 4,13% 1,13% 4,64% 5,99% kappa statistic 0,92 0,90 0,97 0,88 0,85 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 mean absolute error 0,03 0,05 0,01 0,06 0,09 root mean squared error 0,16 0,19 0,10 0,20 0,22 precision normal_state 0,94 0,95 0,97 0,93 0,90 abnormal_state 0,97 0,96 0,99 0,96 0,95 recall normal_state 0,95 0,90 0,99 0,91 0,90 abnormal_state 0,97 0,98 0,98 0,97 0,95 fmeasure normal_state 0,94 0,92 0,98 0,92 0,90 abnormal_state 0,97 0,97 0,99 0,96 0,95 roc area (weighted avg.) 0,99 0,97 0,99 0,96 0,96 corresponding to figure 2, the performance of the data mining models increases with the number of instances from the data set. figure 2. correct classified instances for different data sets the data mining models may be considered a superior technique that may be successful applied in diagnosis and may be develop in the future on the base of more training data to increase the accuracy of results. industrial processes are dynamic processes with random behavior and whose evolution over time cannot be predicted unless it is well known the process model and use advanced predictive techniques. consequently, design and implement an automated online monitoring and diagnosis three-phase separator remains a future direction of research conducted so far. conceptually, this system should have permanent access to data collected from field transducers, to be able to identify the type of fault occurred, to locate the fault and provide recommendations to remedy abnormal operating condition. also, updating the database defects with new types of defects occurred and the adequate solutions adopted for eliminating errors in the operating mode is an important feature to be considered during the design of the online diagnosis system. this is possible if the system would have self-learning capabilities. to acquire this "skill", the automatic online diagnosis system may contain a diagnosis module based on artificial neural networks. the hybrid intelligent diagnosis system for a three-phase separator proposed in this paper was developed based on expert system technology, intelligent agents and data mining techniques. the end user (the operator) visualizes the diagnosis report on the gui of diagnosis system i. ioniţă, l. ioniţă intelligent system for diagnosis of a three-phase separator 27 (diagagentexpertdm) and may act according to the recommendation given in the report. a disadvantage of the diagnosis method based on expert system is that induction rules must be performed manually and cannot be adjusted for the new samples of data. to reduce the effect of this disadvantage, it was proposed integration of data mining module able to automatically generate induction rules for the expert system knowledge base. an important task of data mining component is to provide the most efficient classification model in order to quickly identify the alarms and to give the adequate solution. 5. conclusions building monitoring and diagnosis systems in gas and oil industry is a difficult task due the complexity and dynamic of industrial processes. also, fault detection and identification, alarms generation, recommendation editing in a diagnosis report in real-time are key issues for an intelligent diagnosis system based on artificial intelligent technology. this research paper suggests interesting possibilities for hybrid techniques that combine different approaches (intelligent agent, data mining and expert system) for diagnosis of a three-phase separator from a gas-oil separation plant from romania. future work will focus to increase the accuracy of diagnosis process by system testing in various functioning conditions, and to convert the offline diagnosis system to online diagnosis system, adding a neural network module, with learning capabilities. references n. aissani, n. & beldjilali, n. (2009). dynamic scheduling in petroleum process using reinforcement learning, in ciia. serapião, a.b.s. & bannwart, a.c (2013). knowledge discovery for classification of three-phase vertical flow patterns of heavy oil from pressure drop and flow rate data, journal of petroleum engineering, vol. 2013, article id 746315, 8 pages, doi:10.1155/2013/746315. atalla, f., & taylor, j. (2004). modeling and control of three-phase gravity separators in oil production facilities, department of electrical & computer engineering, university of new brunswick, canada, pp. 1-6. aulia, a., keat, t.b., maulut, m.s.b., el-khatib, n., & jasamai, m. (2010), smart oilfield data mining for reservoir analysis, international journal of engineering & technology, 10(06), pp.78-88. badr, n.l. (2014), effectiveness logistic regression approach for petroleum production ratio, international journal of advanced research in computer science, 5(8). balakrishnan, k. & honavar, v. (1998). intelligent diagnosis systems, journal of intelligent systems, 8(3-4), pp.239-290. canelón, m. a. r., dávila, j., morles, e.c., & la hechicera, c. (2009). intelligent supervision of petroleum processes based on multi-agent systems, wseas transactions on systems and control, 4(9), pp. 435-444. ccoicca, y.j. (2013). applications of support vector machines in the exploratory phase of petroleum and natural gas: a survey, international journal of engineering & technology, 2(2), pp.113125. cerrada, m., cardillo, j., aguilar, j., & faneite, r. (2007). agents-based design for fault management systems in industrial processes, computers in industry , 58, pp. 313–328. cohen, w. (1995), fast effective rule induction” in proceedings of the 12th international conference on machine learning, lake tahoe, calif, usa, pp. 115–123. devold, h. (2013). oil and gas production handbook. an introduction to oil and gas production, transport, refining and petrochemical industry, abb oil and gas, oslo, isbn 978-82-9978863-2. engmo, l. & hallen, l. (2007). software agents applied in oil production, https://daim.idi.ntnu.no/masteroppgaver/003/3368/masteroppgave.pdf. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 garcía, a., leme, l., pinto, f. & sanchez-pi, n. (2012). mas for alarm management system in emergencies, advances in artificial intelligence–iberamia 2012, pp.712-721. ghallab, s.a., badr, n., salem, a.b. & tolba, m.f. (2013), a fuzzy expert system for petroleum prediction, wseas, croatia, 2, pp. 77-82. ioniță, i. & ioniță, l. (2013). a knowledge-based system for diagnosis in oil industry, the 19th international conference the knowledge-based organization kbo 2013, conference proceedings 3 applied technical sciences and advanced military technologies, pp. 277-280. ioniță, l. & ioniță, i. (2014). a methodology for agent-oriented systems development applied in oil industry, studies in informatics and control, volume 23, issue 3, issn 1220-1766, pp. 239-248. ioniță, l. (2014). multi-agent system used for technical diagnosis in gas-oil separation plant, the 20th international conference the knowledge-based organization, applied technical sciences and advanced military technologies, conference proceedings 3, „nicolae bălcescu” land forces academy publishing house, sibiu, pp. 42-47. ioniță, l. (2014). sistem multi-agent pentru diagnoză tehnică aplicat în industria de petrol, teză de doctorat, universitatea politehnica din bucurești, școala doctorală automatică și calculatoare, 2014. ioniță, l. & ioniță i. (2015). expert-gosp – expert system for three-phase separator diagnosis, studies in informatics and control, issn 1220-1766, vol. 24(3), pp. 293-300 kopliku, a. & condanni, d.l. (1994). expert system for corrosion evaluation and material selection in oil and gas wells, in european petroleum computer conference. society of petroleum engineers. kyte, a. (2002). measure and improve knowledge worker productivity, garnter group, gartner.com/1_researchanalysis/research_overview.html. li, x., li, h. & wu, z. (2009). model-driven data mining in the oil & gas exploration and production, in knowledge acquisition and modeling, kam'09. second international symposium on (vol. 3, pp. 20-24). ieee. lokko, n.n.b.c. (2012). the role and use of expert systems for offshore assets on the norwegian continental shelf: status quo and value creating measures. noureldin, h. & ruveta, f. (2002). using expert system and object technology for abnormal condition management, in bias 2002 international conference milano. milan, italia. piatetsky-shapiro, g., brachman, r.j., khabaza, t., kloesgen, w., & simoudis, e. (1996). an overview of issues in developing industrial data mining and knowledge discovery applications, in kdd, 96, pp. 89-95. rabiei, m., gupta, r., cheong, y.p. & sanchez soto, g.a. (2010). a novel approach in extracting predictive information from water-oil ratio for enhanced water production mechanism, diagnosis, appea journal, pp.567-579. rabiei, m., gupta, r., cheong, y. p., & soto, g.a.s. (2009). excess water production diagnosis in oil fields using ensemble classifiers, in computational intelligence and software engineering, cise 2009. international conference on (pp. 1-4), ieee. timofeev, r. (2004). classification and regression trees (cart) theory and applications. wang, t., gao, x.w., & li, k. (2012). application of data mining to production operation and control system in oil field, in control and decision conference (ccdc), 24th chinese ieee, pp. 642-647. witten, i.h., frank, m., & hall, m.a. (2011). data mining: practical machine learning tool and technique with java implementation, morgan kaufmann, san francisco, usa, 3rd edition. wooldridge, m. (1993). an introduction to multiagent systems, john wiley & sons, ltd. quinlan, r.r. (1993). c4.5: programs for machine learning, morgan kaufmann, san francisco, usa. weka documentation. (2016) retrieved from http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/ documentation.html, accessed on the 5 th jan. 2016. microsoft word brain_7_issue_4_version_4.doc 23 solving optimization problems via vortex optimization algorithm and cognitive development optimization algorithm ahmet demir karahalli vocational school, usak university, uşak, turkey ahmet.demir@usak.edu.tr utku kose computer sciences application and research center, usak university, uşak, turkey utku.kose@usak.edu.tr abstract in the fields which require finding the most appropriate value, optimization became a vital approach to employ effective solutions. with the use of optimization techniques, many different fields in the modern life have found solutions to their real-world based problems. in this context, classical optimization techniques have had an important popularity. but after a while, more advanced optimization problems required the use of more effective techniques. at this point, computer science took an important role on providing software related techniques to improve the associated literature. today, intelligent optimization techniques based on artificial intelligence are widely used for optimization problems. the objective of this paper is to provide a comparative study on the employment of classical optimization solutions and artificial intelligence solutions for enabling readers to have idea about the potential of intelligent optimization techniques. at this point, two recently developed intelligent optimization algorithms, vortex optimization algorithm (voa) and cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa), have been used to solve some multidisciplinary optimization problems provided in the source book thomas' calculus 11th edition and the obtained results have compared with classical optimization solutions. keywords: optimization, classical optimization, vortex optimization algorithm, cognitive development optimization algorithm, artificial intelligence. 1. introduction the concept of optimization is briefly defined as the choosing of the best set of alternatives in hand by also taking some rules into consideration. 1 when we examine optimization in the context of mathematics, we can say that a common optimization problem provides one or more functions to be optimized and besides the optimization process it requires meeting with some constraints while trying to reach optimum value(s). one cannot deny that the optimization has become an important solution approach especially for real world problems, ever since its first simple uses. classical optimization techniques have provided a way of getting accurate enough results especially on complex problems of applied sciences. in time, many different fields in our life have been associated with the applications within optimization. like many other unstoppable changes in technologies (and even in the world), also the field of optimization has changed. because more advanced optimization problems appeared with technological developments, classical optimization solutions became too weak to be employed. especially, the requirements involved by advanced optimization problems enabled researchers / scientists to think about alternative solutions and thus, many different advanced optimization solutions have been introduced in time. if we look at the current associated literatures, it can be seen that computer science has an important role in improving the optimization field with software oriented techniques. in other words, artificial intelligence, which is a great sub-research field of 1 informs computing society, the nature of mathematical programming, mathematical programming glossary. online (retrieved 10 june 2016): http://glossary.computing.society.informs.org/ver2/mpgwiki/index.php?title=extra:mathematical_programming medlibrary. (2016). mathematical optimization. online (retrieved 10 june 2016): http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/mathematical_optimization brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 computer science, currently occupies a remarkable place in optimization, with its intelligent approaches, methods, and techniques to solve advanced optimization problems. the current literature of artificial intelligence about optimization is mostly associated with research works on swarm intelligence. with an increasing popularity especially in the last decade, the solutions ways introduced in swarm intelligence are generally characterized by a decentralized way of working mimicking behaviors / functions of swarms regarding to social insects, flocks of birds, or even schools of fish, and the most common advantages of these solution ways are robustness and flexibility against especially complex, advanced problems (blum & li, 2008). as a result of the successful results obtained with the techniques / algorithms in swarm intelligence, there has been a remarkable interest in this sub-field of artificial intelligence (in time, even different sub-research subjects on swarm intelligence have appeared). if we focus on the most recent literature, we can see that there are some techniques / algorithms, which are popular and widely used. these are: particle swarm optimization (pso), ant colony optimization (aco), artificial bee colony (abc), firefly algorithm (fa), bat algorithm (ba), cuckoo search (cs). for more information about them, readers are referred to blum & li (2008), bonabeau et al. (1999), engelbrecht (2006), kennedy et al. (2001), kennedy (2011), dorigo & blum, (2005), karaboga & basturk (2008), yang (2009), yang & deb (2009), garnier et al. (2007), rosenberg (2016), foss (2016). the objective of this paper is to provide a comparative study on employing classical optimization solutions and artificial intelligence based solutions for enabling readers to have an idea about the potential of intelligent optimization techniques. at this point, two recently developed intelligent optimization algorithms, vortex optimization algorithm (voa) and cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa), have been used to solve some multidisciplinary optimization problems provided by the source book thomas' calculus 11th edition, and the obtained results have been compared with classical optimization solution ways. by this, the authors aimed to show the effectiveness of two recent intelligent optimization techniques in optimization problems from a multidisciplinary perspective. in the context of the objective of the paper, the organization of the remaining content is as follows: the next two sections are devoted to brief explanations of the employed techniques: vortex optimization algorithm (voa) and cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa). following that, the fourth section is related to applications on optimization problems in order to compare the potential of the related algorithms / techniques with classical optimization solution ways. finally, the paper ends with conclusions and discussions about future works. 2. vortex optimization algorithm as developed by kose and arslan, vortex optimization algorithm (voa) is an intelligent optimization technique, which is inspired from vortex flows / behaviors in nature (kose & arslan, 2015). in this context, voa tries to simulate some dynamics occurred in the context of vortex nature. generally, the algorithm is a swarm intelligence based evolutional technique, which includes many methods of eliminating weak swarm members and improving the solution process by supporting the solution space via new swarm members having adaptive parameters. the most recent algorithmic steps of the voa can be explained briefly as follows (kose & arslan, 2015a; kose et al., 2015): � step 1: define initial parameters (n for number of particles; vorticity (v) values of each particle; max. and min. limits for vorticity value and other values related to function, problem…etc.; and e for elimination rate). � step 2: locate the particles randomly within the solution space and calculate the fitness values for each of them. update the v value of the particle with the best fitness value by using a random value. mark this particle as a vortex and keep its values as the best so far. � step 3: repeat the sub-steps below until the stopping criteria: a. demir, u. kose solving optimization problems via vortex optimization algorithm and cognitive development optimization algorithm 25 o step 3.1: mark each particle, whose fitness value is under the average fitness of all particles, as the vortex. the other – remaining particles are in the ‘normal’ particle status. o step 3.2: update v value of each particle by using the equation 1: particlei_v_change = particlei_v + (random_value * (global_best_v / particlei_v)) particlei_v = particlei_v_change (1) o step 3.3: update the v value of each vortex particle (except from the best particle so far) by using a random value. o step 3.4: update the position of each particle (except from the best particle so far) by using the following equation (equation 2): particlei_position += (random_value * (particlei_v_change * (global_best_position – particlei_position))) (2) o step 3.5: calculate the fitness values according to the new positions of each particle. mark the particle with the best value as a vortex (if it is not a vortex yet) and keep its values as the best so far. o step 3.6: if the number of non-vortex particles is under the value of e, remove all nonparticles from the solution space and create new particles according to the number of removed particles. locate these new particles randomly within the solution space. perform in-system optimization in bigger problems. o step 3.7: return to the step 3.1. if the stopping criteria has not reached yet. � step 4: the best values obtained within the loop is the optimum solution. a flow chart regarding the voa is presented under figure 1. figure 1. flow chart of the voa brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 3. cognitive development optimization algorithm cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa) is another intelligent optimization technique, which was introduced by kose and arslan (2015b). as similar to the voa, codoa includes simple algorithmic steps and equations, which form a solution frame inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development. piaget’s theory explains that each individual goes through different stages of cognitive development like maturation, social interaction, balancing while learning new concepts and finally improving cognitive infrastructure (kose & arslan, 2015b; piaget, 1964; piaget, 1973; singer & revenson, 1997). codoa has been built based on the following phases: initialization phase, socialization phase, maturation phase, rationalizing phase, and balancing phase. all of these phases are some kind of calculation steps, which have been formed as a result of inspirations from the stages of cognitive development. the phases are repeated until the stopping criterion is met (kose & arslan, 2015b). algorithmic steps of the codoaare as follows (kose & arslan, 2015b; piaget, 1964; piaget, 1973; singer & revenson, 1997; kose & arslan, 2016): � step 1 (initialization phase): set initial parameters (n: number of particles; initial interactivity rate (ir) and experience (ex) values for each particle; max. and min. limits (min. limit is 0.0) for ir value (max_ir and min_ir); ml for the maturity limit; and r for the rationality rate. also, set other values related to the function, problem…etc. (e.g. dimension, search domain…etc.). � step 2: place the particles randomly in the solution space and calculate fitness values for each of them. update the ir value of the particle with the best fitness value by using a random value (equation 3). best_particle_ir_(new)=best_particle_ir_(current)+(rand. * best_particle_ir_(current)) (3) also, increase the ex value of this particle by 1. � step 3: repeat the loop steps below until the stopping criterion (e.g. iteration number) is met: o step 3.1 (socialization phase): decrease (by 1) the ex value of each particle, whose fitness value is equal to or above the average fitness of all particles (if the problem is minimization). also, increase (by 1) the ex value of each particle, whose fitness value is under the average fitness of all particles (if the problem is minimization). finally, update the ir value of these particles by using a random value (equation 4). particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * particlej_ir_(current)) (4) o step 3.2: update the ir value of all particles by using the following equation (equation 5): particlei_ir_(new) = rand. * particlei_ir_(current) (5) o step 3.3: update the position of each particle (except from the best particle so far) by using the equation 6: particlei_pos._(new) = particlei_pos._(current) + (rand. * (particlei_ir_(current) * (global_best_pos. – particlei_pos._(current)))) (6) o step 3.4: calculate fitness values according to the new position of each particle. update the ir value of the particle with the better / best fitness value by using a random value (equation 7). best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current))(7) also, increase the ex value of this particle by 1. o step 3.5 (maturation phase): update the ir value of each particle, whose ex value is equal to or under the ml value by using the equation 8: particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * particlej_ir_(current)) (8) calculate the fitness values according to the new position of each particle. update the ir value of the particle with the better / best fitness value by using a random value (equation 9). a. demir, u. kose solving optimization problems via vortex optimization algorithm and cognitive development optimization algorithm 27 best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current))(9) also, increase ex value of this particle by 1. o step 3.6 (rationalizing phase): update ir and positions of each particle, whose ex value is under 0, by using the following equations: particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * (best_particle_ir_(current) / particlej_ir_(current))) (10) particlei_pos._(new) = particlei_pos._(current) + (rand. * (particlei_ir_(current) * (global_best_pos. – particlei_pos._(current)))) (11) update ir of each particle, whose ex value is equal to or above 0, and repeat this r times; by using the equation 12: particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * (best_particle_ir_(current) / particlej_ir_(current))) (12) o step 3.7 (balancing phase): update the ir value of all particles by using the equation 13: particlei_ir_(new) = rand. * particlei_ir_(current) (13) calculate fitness values according to the new position of each particle. update the ir value of the particle with the better / best fitness value by using a random value (equation 14). best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current))(14) also, increase the ex value of this particle by 1. for big problems, perform in-system optimization. return to the step 3.1. if the stopping criteria is not achieved yet. � step 4: the best values obtained within the loop are related to the optimum solution. figure 2 shows a flow chart regarding the codoa (kose, & arslan, 2015b). figure 2.flow chart of the codoa (kose & arslan, 2015b). 4. solving optimization problems via voa and codoa the related problems solved here are from thomas’ calculus 11 th edition (thomas et al., 2005a). in order to see the success of the algorithms: voa and codoa, the solutions offered by these algorithms have been compared with the solutions provided in the solution manual of thomas calculus book (thomas et al., 2005b). in this context, a total of 10 problems have been taken into brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 consideration. in order not to make the readability complex, the problems and their solutions with classical approaches are provided first, and then a comparison with the results provided by voa and codoa are shown under a general table. in order to understand more about the background of classical approaches, the first derivative theorem for local extreme values and also some solution rules in this manner are expressed briefly in the following paragraphs as follows (thomas et al., 2005a): 4.1. the first derivative theorem for local extreme values if f has a local maximum or minimum value at an interior point c of its domain, and if it is defined at c, then ( ) 0f c′ = . 4.1.1. the trapezoidal rule in order to approximate ( ) b a f x dx∫ , use ( )0 1 2 12 2 ... 2 2 n n x t y y y y y− ∆ = + + + + + .the y’s are the values of f at the partition points 0 x a= , 1 x a x= +∆ , 2 2x a x= + ∆ , …, ( )1 1nx a n x− = + − ∆ , n x b= , where ( ) /x b a n∆ = − . 4.1.2. simpson’s rule in order to approximate ( ) b a f x dx∫ , use ( )0 1 2 3 2 14 2 4 ... 2 4 3 n n n x s y y y y y y y− − ∆ = + + + + + + + . the y’s are the values of f at the partition points 0 x a= , 1 x a x= +∆ , 2 2x a x= + ∆ , …, ( )1 1nx a n x− = + − ∆ , nx b= , the number n is even, and ( ) /x b a n∆ = − . 4.2. optimization problems from thomas’ calculus the chosen problems from thomas' calculus 11th edition and their solutions with classical approaches are as follows (problem definitions and necessary explanations regarding the solutions are taken directly from the source books in order to enable readers to get exact information from the original source) (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b): problem – 1: “piping oil from a drilling rig to a refinery”: a drilling rig 12 mi offshore is to be connected by pipe to a refinery onshore, 20 mi straight down the coast from the rig. if a underwater pipe costs $500,000 per mile and a land-based pipe costs $300,000 per mile, what combination of the two will render the least expensive connection? solution – 1: figure 3.problem – 1: “piping oil from a drilling rig to a refinery” (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). a. demir, u. kose solving optimization problems via vortex optimization algorithm and cognitive development optimization algorithm 29 now we introduce the length x of the underwater pipe and the length y of the land-based pipe as variables. the right angle opposite the rig is the key to expressing the relationship between x and y, for the pythagorean theorem gives: ( ) 22 2 12 20x y= + − ( ) 2 144 20x y= + − only the positive root has meaning in this model. the dollar cost of the pipeline is: 500, 000 300, 000c x y= + . to express c as a function of a single variable, we can substitute for x, using the following equation: ( ) ( )2500, 000 144 20 300, 000c y y y= + − + our goal now is to find the minimum value of c(y) on the interval 0 ≤ y ≤ 20. the first derivative of c(y) with respect to y according to the chain rule is: ( ) ( )( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) 2 2 2 20 11 500, 000 300, 000 2 144 20 20 500, 000 300, 000 144 20 y c y y y y − − ′ = + + − − = − + + − setting c’ equal to zero gives: ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) 2 2 2 2 2 500, 000 20 300, 000 144 20 5 20 144 20 3 25 20 144 20 9 16 20 144 9 3 20 12 9 4 20 9 11 29 y y y y y y y y y y or y − = + − ⇒ − = + − ⇒ − = + − ⇒ − = ⇒ − = ± = ± ⇒ = ± ⇒ = = only y = 11 lies in the interval of interest. the values of c at this critical point and at the endpoints are: ( ) ( ) ( ) 11 10, 800, 000 0 11, 661, 900 20 12, 000, 000 c c c = = = the least expensive connection costs $10,800,000, and we achieve it by running the line underwater to the point on shore 11 mi from the refinery. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 figure 4.problem – 1: “piping oil from a drilling rig to a refinery” – solution (as drawn by the authors). problem – 2: “constructing a pipeline”: supertankers off-load oil at a dockingfacility 4 mi offshore. the nearest refinery is 9 mi east of theshore point nearest the docking facility. a pipeline must be constructedconnecting the docking facility with the refinery. the pipeline costs $300,000 per mile if constructed underwater and $200,000 per mile if constructed overland. figure 5.problem – 2: “constructing a pipeline” (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). a. locate point b to minimize the cost of the construction. b. the cost of underwater construction is expected to increase, whereas the cost of overland construction is expected to stay constant. at what cost does it become optimal to construct the pipeline directly to point a? solution – 2: figure 6.problem – 2: “constructing a pipeline” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). a. demir, u. kose solving optimization problems via vortex optimization algorithm and cognitive development optimization algorithm 31 a. the construction cost is ( ) ( )20.3 16 0.2 9c x x x= + + − million dollars, where 0 9x≤ ≤ miles. the following is a graph of ( )c x . figure 7.problem – 2: “constructing a pipeline” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). solving ( ) 2 0.3 0.2 0 16 c x x ′ = − = + gives 8 5 3.58 5 x = ± ≈ ± miles, but only 3.58x = miles is a critical point is the specified domain. evaluating the costs at the critical and endpoints gives ( )0 $3c = million, 8 5 $2.694 5 c   ≈     million, and ( )9 $2.955c ≈ million. therefore, to minimize the cost of construction, the pipeline should be placed from the docking facility to point b, 3.58 miles along the shore from point a, and then along the shore from b to the refinery. b. if the per mile cost of underwater construction is p, then ( ) ( )216 0.2 9c x p x x= + + − and ( ) 2 0.2 0 16 px c x x ′ = − = + gives 2 0.8 0.04 c x p = − , which minimizes the construction cost provided 9 c x ≤ . the value of p that gives 9 c x = miles is 0.218864. consequently, if the underwater construction costs $0.218864 per mile or less, then running the pipeline along a straight line directly from the docking facility to the refinery will minimize the cost of construction. in theory, p would have to be infinite to justify running the pipe directly from the docking facility to point a (i.e., for c x to be zero). for all values of 0.218864p > there is always an ( )0, 9cx ∈ that will give a minimum value for c. this is proved by looking at ( ) ( ) 3/ 2 2 16 16 c c p c x x ′′ = + which is always positive for 0p > . problem – 3: “upgrading a highway”: a highway must be constructed to connect village a with village b. there is a rudimentary roadway that can be upgraded 50 mi south of the line connecting the two villages. the cost of upgrading the existing roadway is of $300,000 per mile, whereas the cost of constructing a new highway is of $500,000 per mile. find the combination between upgrading the existing construction and a new construction, that minimizes the cost of connecting the two villages. clearly define the location of the proposed highway. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 figure 8.problem – 3: “upgrading a highway” (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). solution – 3: there are two options to consider. the first one is to build a new road straight from village a to village b. the second one is to build a new highway segment from village a to the old road, reconstruct a segment of the old road, and build a new highway segment from the old road to village b. figure 9. problem – 3: “upgrading a highway” – solution (as drawn by the authors). the cost of the first option is ( )1 0.5 150c = million dollars =75 million dollars. figure 10.problem – 3: “upgrading a highway” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). the construction cost for the second option is ( ) ( ) ( )22 0.5 2 2500 0.3 150 2c x x x= + + − million dollars for 0 75x≤ ≤ miles. a graph of ( )2c x is shown in figure 11. a. demir, u. kose solving optimization problems via vortex optimization algorithm and cognitive development optimization algorithm 33 figure 11.problem – 3: “upgrading a highway” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). solving ( )2 2 0.6 0 2500 x c x x ′ = − = + give 37.5x = ± miles, but only 37.5x = miles is in the specified domain. in summary, 1 $75c = million, ( )2 0 $95c = million, ( )2 37.5 $85c = million, and ( )2 75 $90.139c = million. consequently, a new road straight from village a to village b is the least expensive option. problem – 4: “locating a pumping station”: two towns lie on the south side of a river. a pumping station is to be located to serve the two towns. a pipeline will be constructed from the pumping station to each of the towns along the line connecting the town and the pumping station. locate the pumping station to minimize the amount of pipeline that must be constructed. figure 12.problem – 4: “locating a pumping station” (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). solution – 4 figure 13.problem – 4: “locating a pumping station” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). the length of the pipeline is ( ) ( ) 22 4 25 10l x x x= + + + − for 0 10x≤ ≤ . a graph of ( )l x is shown in figure 14. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 figure 14.problem – 4: “locating a pumping station” – solution [22, 23]. setting the derivative of ( )l x equal to zero gives ( ) ( ) ( )2 2 10 0 4 25 10 xx l x x x − ′ = − = + + − . note that 2 cos 4 a x x θ= + and ( ) ( )2 10 cos 25 10 b x x θ − = + − .therefore, ( ) 0l x′ = when cos cosa bθ θ= , or a b θ θ= and acp∆ is similar to bdp∆ . use simple proportions to determine x as follows: 10 20 2.857 2 5 7 x x x − = ⇒ = ≈ miles along the coast from town a to town b. if the two towns were on opposite sides of the river, the obvious solution would be to place the pump station on a straight line (the shortest distance) between two towns, again forcing a b θ θ= . the shortest length of pipe is the same regardless of whether the towns are on the same or opposite sides of the river. problem – 5: “the length of a guy wire”: one tower is 50 ft high and another tower is 30 ft high. the towers are 150 ft apart. a guy wire is to run from point a to the top of each tower. figure 15. problem – 5: “length of a guy wire” (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). a. locate point a so that the total length of guy wire is minimal. b. show in general that regardless of the height of the towers, the length of guy wire is minimized if the angles at a are equal. a. demir, u. kose solving optimization problems via vortex optimization algorithm and cognitive development optimization algorithm 35 solution – 5: figure 16. problem – 5: “length of a guy wire” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). a. the length of guy wire is ( ) ( )22900 2500 150l x x x= + + + − for 0 150x≤ ≤ . a graph of ( )l x is shown in figure 17. figure 17. problem – 5: “length of a guy wire” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). setting ( )l x′ equal to zero gives ( ) ( ) ( )2 2 150 0 900 2500 150 xx l x x x − ′ = − = + + − . note that 2 cos 900 c x x θ= + and ( ) ( )2 150 cos 2500 150 b x x θ − = + − . therefore, ( ) 0l x′ = when cos cos c b θ θ= , or c b θ θ= and ace∆ is similar to abd∆ . use simple proportions to determine x as follows: 150 225 56.25 30 50 4 x x x − = ⇒ = = feet. b. figure 18. problem – 5: “length of a guy wire” – solution(as re-drawn by the authors). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 if the heights of the towers are hb b h and c h , and the horizontal distance between them is s, then ( ) ( )22 2 2c bl x h x h s x= + + + − and ( ) ( ) ( )2 2 22c b s xx l x h x h s x − ′ = − + + − . however, 2 2 cos c c x h x θ= + and ( ) ( )22 cos b b s x h s x θ − = + − . therefore, ( ) 0l x′ = when cos cos c b θ θ= , or c b θ θ= and ace∆ is similar to abd∆ . simple proportions can again be used to determine the optimum x: c c b b c hx s x x s h h h h  − = ⇒ =   +  . problem – 6:“the area of an athletic field”: an athletic field is to be built in the shape of a rectangle x units long capped by semicircular regions of radius r at the two ends. the field is to be bounded by a 400-m racetrack. a. express the area of the rectangular portion of the field as a function of x alone or r alone (your choice). b. what values of x and r give the rectangular portion the largest possible area? solution – 6: figure 19.problem – 6: “area of an athletic field” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). a. from the diagram, the perimeter 2 2 400 200p x r x rπ π= + = ⇒ = − . the area a is ( ) 22 400 2rx a r r rπ⇒ = − where 200 0 r π ≤ ≤ . b. ( ) 400 4a r rπ′ = − so the only critical point is 100 r π = . since ( ) 0a r = if 0r = and 200 0x rπ= − = , the values 100 31.83r π = ≈ m and 100x = m maximize the area over the interval 200 0 r π ≤ ≤ . problem – 7:“the alternating current peak value”: suppose that at any given time t (in seconds) the current i (in amperes) in an alternating current circuit is 2 cos 2 sini t t= + . what is the peak value of current for this circuit (the largest magnitude)? solution – 7: 2 sin 2 cos di t t dt = − + , solving 0 tan 1 4 di t t n dt π π= ⇒ = ⇒ = + where n is a nonnegative integer (in this exercise t is never negative) ⇒ the peak value of current is 2 2 amps. a. demir, u. kose solving optimization problems via vortex optimization algorithm and cognitive development optimization algorithm 37 problem – 8:“draining a swamp”: a town wants to drain and fill a small polluted swamp (figure 20). the swamp has an average depth of 5 ft. about how many cubic yards of dirt will it take to fill the area after the swamp is drained? figure 20.problem – 8: “draining a swamp” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). solution – 8: to calculate the volume of the swamp, we estimate the surface area and multiply by 5. to estimate the area, we use simpson’s rule with 20x∆ = ft and the y’s equal to the distances measured across the swamp, as shown in figure 20. ( ) ( ) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 4 2 4 2 4 3 20 146 488 152 216 80 120 13 3 x s y y y y y y y ∆ = + + + + + + = + + + + + + the volume is about ( )( ) 38100 5 40, 500 ft= or 31500 yd problem – 9:“stocking a fish pond”: as the fish and game warden of your township, you are responsible for stocking the town pond with fish before the fishing season. the average depth of the pond is 20 ft. using a scaled map, the distances across the pond at 200-ft intervals are measured, as shown in the accompanying diagram. a. use the trapezoidal rule to estimate the volume of the pond. b. you plan to start the season with one fish per 1000 cubic feet. you intend to have at least 25% of the opening day’s fish population left at the end of the season. what is the maximum number of licenses the town can sell if the average seasonal catch is of 20 fish per license? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 figure 21.problem – 9: “stocking a fish pond” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). solution – 9: figure 22.problem – 9: “stocking a fish pond” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). a. using trapezoid rule, 200 200 100 2 2 x x ∆ ∆ = ⇒ = = ; ( ) ( ) 213,180 100 13,180 1, 318, 000imf x area ft= ⇒ ≈ =∑ since the average depth = 20 ft we obtain volume ≈ 20(area) ≈ 26,360,000 3ft . b. now, number of fish 26, 360 1000 volume = = (to the nearest fish) ⇒ maximum to be caught =%75 of 26,360 = 19,770 ⇒ number of licenses 19, 770 988 20 = . problem – 10:“wing design”: the design of a new airplane requires a gasoline tank of constant cross-sectional area in each wing. a scale drawing of a cross-section is shown here. the tank must hold 5000 lb of gasoline, which has a density of 42 3 /lb ft . estimate the length of the tank. figure 23.problem – 10: “wing design” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). a. demir, u. kose solving optimization problems via vortex optimization algorithm and cognitive development optimization algorithm 39 solution – 10: figure 24.problem – 10: “wing design” – solution (thomas et al., 2005a; thomas et al., 2005b). using simpson's rule, 1 1 3 3 x x ∆ ∆ = ⇒ = ; 33.6 i my =∑ ⇒ cross section area ≈ ( ) 2 1 33.6 11.2 3 ft= . let x be the length of the tank. then the volume v= (cross sectional area) x=11.2x. now 5000 lb of gasoline at 42 3 /lb ft ⇒ 3 3 5000 119.05 119.05 11.2 10.63 42 v ft x x ft= = ⇒ = ⇒ ≈ . 4.3. a comparison of optimization results in addition to the solutions with classical approaches, the related algorithms (voa and codoa) have been applied in each optimization problem. defined values for the parameters of voa and codoaalong the solution processes are shown in table 1. table 1.defined values for the parameters of voa and codoa. voa codoa total number of particles (n): 50 total number of particles (n): 50 total iteration (the stopping criteria): 1500 total iteration (the stopping criteria): 1500 initial vorticity value: 0.50 initial interactivity rate: 0.50 max. vorticity value: 7.0 max. interactivity rate: 10.0 min. vorticity value: -7.0 maturity limit (ml): 3 elimination rate (e): 50 rationality rate (r): 2 the obtained optimum values via different solution ways are provided briefly in table 2. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 table 2.comparison of results with classical optimization and intelligent optimization by voa and codoa. no. problem evaluated optimum valueswith; classical optimization voa codoa 1 “piping oil from a drilling rig to a refinery” 11 11.00000023 11.00000025 2 “constructing a pipeline” a. 3.58 b. 0.218864 a. 3.57770878 b. 0.21886419 a. 3.57794999 b. 0.21886437 3 “upgrading a highway” c1=150 c2=37.5 c1=150 c2=37.50000060 c1=150 c2=37.50000058 4 “locating a pumping station” ≈2.857 2.85714284 2.85714011 5 “length of a guy wire” a. 56.25 b. proved under the solution. a. 56.25000174 b. keeping the angles equal, the function was always at minimum. a. 56.25001853 b. keeping the angles equal, the function was always at minimum. 6 “area of an athletic field” a. out of evaluation concept. b. ≈31.83; 100 a. out of evaluation concept. b. 31.83010059; 100.00001703 a. out of evaluation concept. b. 31.83010968; 100.00001599 7 “peak alternating current” 2.83 2.82986004 2.82979951 8 “draining a swamp” (distances across the swamp) 146; 122; 76; 54; 40; 30; 13 (distances across the swamp) 145.98660207; 122.00032280; 75.75901488; 53.99980502; 40.00000118; 30.11089200; 13.00651000 (distances across the swamp) 145.96803305; 122.00001999; 76.00739888; 53.99000855; 40.00099502; 29.87605209; 13.00788033 9 “stocking a fish pond” a. (distances across the pond) 0; 520; 800; 1000; 1140; 1160; 1110; 860; 0 b. max. lic.= 988 a. (distances across the pond) 0.00000000; 520.00003122; 800.00010055; 1000.01000180; 1139.99866225; 1160.01330288; 1109.78908801; 860.00012000; 0.00000000 a. (distances across the pond) 0.00000000; 520.00003122; 800.00010055; 1000.01000180; 1139.99866225; 1160.01330288; 1109.78908801; 860.00012000; 0.00000000 a. demir, u. kose solving optimization problems via vortex optimization algorithm and cognitive development optimization algorithm 41 b. max. lic.= 988 b. max. lic.= 988 10 “wing design” (distances across the wing / tank) 1.5; 1.6; 1.8; 1.9; 2.0; 2.1; 2.1 (distances across the wing / tank) 1.50002333; 1.59999850; 1.80011019; 1.90000111; 1.99968005; 2.10003689; 2.10003444 (distances across the wing / tank) 1.50111088; 1.60000199; 1.79983001; 1.90044608; 1.97688903; 2.09999809; 2.10099985 5. conclusions and future work this paper has provided a comparative study on classical optimization solutions and artificial intelligence based intelligent solutions for some optimization problems in a multidisciplinary manner. in order to achieve that, the authors have used two recently introduced intelligent optimization algorithm / techniques, vortex optimization algorithm (voa) and cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa), on some optimization problems from the source book, thomas' calculus 11th edition, and compared the obtained results with the ones rendered by the classical optimization. the obtained results show that the artificial intelligence and the techniques introduced under this important field have an effective role on providing desired optimization results. in detail, the employment of artificial intelligence (and so intelligent solutions) is also able to reduce calculation times and efforts spent to solve more advanced optimization problems, thanks to the power of computers and mathematically – logically improved solution steps. the authors believe that this paper is also a reference for enabling readers to have an idea about the potential of intelligent optimization techniques and their role on multidisciplinary cases. in addition to the applications reported here, there are also some future works especially on the employment of voa and codoa on different optimization problems. in detail, the authors plan to use the related techniques on solving more advanced optimization problems in mathematics and comparing the obtained results with some other strong solution ways and even alternative artificial intelligence techniques. on the other hand, there are also some other works to use voa and codoa for designing hybrid models under a multidisciplinary perspective, including many different fields needing more effective and efficient solutions. references blum, c., & li, x. (2008). swarm intelligence in optimization (pp. 43-85). springer berlin heidelberg. bonabeau, e., dorigo, m., & theraulaz, g. (1999). swarm intelligence: from natural to artificial systems (no. 1). oxford university press. engelbrecht, a. p. (2006). fundamentals of computational swarm intelligence.john wiley & sons. kennedy, j., kennedy, j. f., eberhart, r. c., & shi, y. (2001). swarm intelligence. morgan kaufmann. kennedy, j. (2011). particle swarm optimization.in encyclopedia of machine learning (pp. 760766) springer us. dorigo, m., & blum, c. (2005). ant colony optimization theory: a survey. theoretical computer science, 344(2), 243-278. karaboga, d., & basturk, b. (2008). on the performance of artificial bee colony (abc) algorithm.applied soft computing, 8: 687-697. yang, x. s. (2009). firefly algorithms for multimodal optimization. in stochastic algorithms: foundations and applications (pp. 169-178). springer berlin heidelberg. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 yang, x. s., & deb, s. (2009). cuckoo search via lévy flights. in nature & biologically inspired computing, 2009.nabic 2009. world congress on (pp. 210-214). ieee. garnier, s., gautrais, j., & theraulaz, g. (2007). the biological principles of swarm intelligence.swarm intelligence, 1(1), 3-31. rosenberg, l. (2016). artificial swarm intelligence, a human-in-the-loop approach to ai. in thirtieth aaai conference on artificial intelligence. foss, r. a. (2016). major mechanisms contributing to swarm intelligence.systems research and behavioral sciencedoi: 10.1002/sres.2416. kose, u., & arslan, a. (2015). on the idea of a new artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm inspired from the nature of vortex. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 5(1-4), 60-66. kose, u., guraksin, g. e., & deperlioglu, o. (2015). diabetes determination via vortex optimization algorithm based support vector machines. in medical technologies national conference (tiptekno), 2015 (pp. 1-4). ieee. kose, u., & arslan, a. (2015). realizing an optimization approach inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development.broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 6(1-4), 1522. piaget, j. (1964). part i: cognitive development in children: piaget development and learning, journal of research in science teaching, 2(3), 176-186. piaget, j. (1973). main trends in psychology. london: george allen &unwin. singer, d. g.,& revenson, t. a. (1997). a piaget primer: how a child thinks. international universities press, inc., 59 boston post road, madison, ct 06443-1524. kose, u., & arslan, a. (2016). intelligent e-learning system for improving students’ academic achievements in computer programming courses.international journal of engineering education, 32(1-a), 185-198. thomas, g. b., weir, m. d., hass, j., & giordano, f. r. (2005). thomas' calculus 11 th edition.pearson education – addison-wesley. thomas, g. b., weir, m. d., hass, j., & giordano, f. r. (2005). thomas' calculus 11 th edition solution manual. pearson education – addison-wesley. informs computing society, the nature of mathematical programming, mathematical programming glossary. online (retrieved 10 june 2016): http://glossary.computing.society.informs.org/ver2/mpgwiki/index.php?title=extra:mathematic al_programming medlibrary. (2016). mathematical optimization. online (retrieved 10 june 2016): http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/mathematical_optimization microsoft word brain_1_1_rezumate_in_spaniola.rtf brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 i brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cerebro. investigación amplia en inteligencia artificial y neurociencia volumen 1, número 1 enero 2010: ¡feliz año nuevo! www.brain.edusoft.ro editor jefe: bogdan patrut 1. editorial angel garrido facultad de ciencias (uned) madrid, spain resumen el editorial del primer número de la revista: "brain. investigación amplia en inteligencia artificial y neurociencia". 2. metodos computacionales en medicina angel garrido facultad de ciencias (uned) madrid, spain resumen inteligencia artificial necesita la logica. pero su clasica version indica muchas insuficiencias. asi, es obligado introducir herramientas mas sofisticadas, como la logica fuzzy, la logica modal, y la logica no-monotóna. entre las cosas la ia tiene que representar las categorias, los objetos, las propiedades, las relaciones entre los objetos, situaciones, estados, el tiempo, los acontecimientos, las causas, y los efectos etc. problemas en ia pueden ser clasificadas en dos tipos generales [3, 4], problemas de busqueda, y problemas de representacion. existen los varios caminos para alcanzar/conseguir los objetivos. de esta manera, tenemos [3] logica, reglas, marcos, redes asociativas, guiones, y asi sucesivamente, quales son interconectadas. tambien, seria util, cuando nos enfrentamos con los problemas en incertidumbre y causalidad, introducir los redes bayesianas y, particularmente, una herramienta principal como los grafos esenciales. tratamos aquí de mostrar cómo son aplicables estos métodos y su versatilidad, siendo hoy en día fundamentales en medicina. 3. sistemas medicales basados en agentes inteligentes barna iantovics departamiento de matematicas e informatica universidad “petru maior”, târgu mureş, românia resumen el desarrollo de los sistemas de diagnostico medical eficientes y flexibles basados en agentes inteligentes representa una direccion de investigacion reciente. los sistemas médicos multiagente pueden mejorar la eficiencia de los sistemas medicales computacionales tradicionales. en nuestros estudios previos se propuso un nuevo sistema medical multiagente cooperativo de diagnostico, llamado cmds (contract net based medical diagnosis system). el sistema cmds puede, de manera facil, resolver una variedad amplia de problemas de diagnostico. este articulo analisa la inteligencia alta del sistema cmds, la motivacion de su uso en resolver varias problemas medicales. palabras clave: sistema inteligente, sistema multiagente médica, sistema complejo, conocimiento basado en un agente médico, el sistema de diagnóstico médico, el apoyo a las decisiones médicas brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 ii 4. adx – agente para las analisis de las entradas lexicales en un diccionario bogdan pătruţ, facultad de ciencias (universidad “vasile alecsandri” bacău) bacău, românia resumen este papeleo/ articulo hace referencia a una analisis morfologica de palabras, como un proceso importante en el dominio del procesamiento del lenguaje natural. presentaremos la solucion clasica, basada en el uso de las paradigmas flexivas y en una base de datos extendida, que contiene todas las raices de las palabras, para que, al final, presentar algunas desventajas de este metodo. luego, presentaremos un metodo original, que genera dinamicamente las raices de las palabras, usando las alternancias foneticas en el contexto de las reglas flexivas. estan, tambien, presentadas algunas optimizaciones de l’analisis morfologica del algoritmo. palabras clave: procesamiento del lenguaje natural, el análisis morfológico, el tipo de flexion, alternancia fonética, reconocimiento de patrones, árboles de busqueda 5. hacia una arquitectura metaforica: en el interior de la casa victoriana boghian ioana universidad “vasile alecsandri” bacău, românia resumen este artículo tiene como punto de partida el concepto de parentesco: todo que se puede encontrar en el interior de una casa. el tipo metafórico de la arquitectura que hemos probado construir intenta visualizar los tipos de objetos del interior de una casa como nodos relacionados en la web de la casa, mientras que el modo de distribución de los objetos (adornos o herramientas/ aperos) señala no solo la profesión de tal persona o su carácter (objetos como extensión y proyecciones para si) sino indica también una cualquiera jerarquía social. palabras clave: la arquitectura, el espacio, la relación, la identidad, la jerarquía 6. conexionismo vs. teoría computacional de la mente ángel garrido facultad de ciencias de la uned madrid, españa resumen generalmente, los problemas relacionados con la ia pueden ser relacionadas con la filosofía de la mente, y tal vez por ello tienen naturaleza discutible. por consiguiente, por ejemplo, la famosa pregunta :puede una machina pensar? fue propuesta por alan turing [16]. y puede ser considerada la pregunta decisiva, pero para la mayoría de la gente consistiría un sinsentido. pues, dos de las mas fundamentales y debatidas posiciones incluyen la conexión y la teoría computacional de la mente. en este articulo analizamos su contenido, incluyendo las disputas precedentes, y la situación actual. palabras clave: representación del conocimiento, filosofía de la mente, conexionismo, heurística, inteligencia artificial 7. mejorar las herramientas en inteligencia artificial ángel garrido facultad de ciencias de la uned madrid, españa resumen el origen histórico de la inteligencia artificial (ia) esta, habitualmente, establecido en la conferencia de darmouth, en al año 1956. otros orígenes se pueden buscar en [1]. podemos recordar a grandes pensadores como janos neumann (luego, john von neumann, tras su llegada a los estados unidos), norbert wiener, alan mathison turing, o lofti zadeh, por ejemplo [12, 14]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 iii frecuentemente, la ia requiere la lógica. pero, su versión clásica señala muchas insuficiencias. así pues, fue necesario introducir otras herramientas mas sofisticadas, incluyendo la lógica fuzzy, la lógica modal, la lógica non-monótona y así sucesivamente [1, 2]. entre las herramientas que la ia requiere para representar(se) mencionamos: las clases, los objetos, las propiedades, las relaciones entre los objetos, las situaciones, los estados, el tiempo, los eventos, las causas y los efectos, el conocimiento sobre conocimiento, y así sucesivamente. los problemas en ia pueden ser clasificados en dos tipos generales [3, 5], problemas de búsqueda y problemas de representación. en lo que respecta a esta ultima “cumbre”, existen diferentes vías para escalarlas. así, tenemos la lógica, las reglas, los marcos, las redes asociativas, guiones, y así sucesivamente, muchas veces interconectados entre si. en este articulo intentemos una visión panorámica del fin de la aplicación de tal maneras de representaciones en ia. dos de las mas disputadas problemas relacionadas con la filosofía moderna de la mente y con la ia serán probablemente el test de turing y el argumento del cuarto chino. palabras clave: representación del conocimiento, la tecnología heurística, conjuntos difusos, redes bayesianas, la ia en la medicina 8. algunas consideraciones sobre la serialidad y sincronizacion elena nechita universidad “vasile alecsandri” bacău, românia resumen el artículo presenta una incisiva presentación sobre las mas recientes resultados en los campos/ dominios de la sincronización, y de la serialidad, pero su conexión también, a la luz de nuevas teorías y en el rango de la complejidad de la ciencia. palabras clave: serialidad, la sincronización 9. optimización de los sistemas distribuidos utilizando sistemas multi-agentes con el tiempo virtual ioana alexandra pandele, alina mihaela patriciu universidad “vasile alecsandri” bacău, românia resumen la fusión de la inteligencia artificial y áreas de tiempo real ha demostrado ser un movimiento muy inteligente, similar al movimiento asociado a comprobar en el ajedrez (no le permite ir tan lejos como el jaque mate, teniendo en cuenta que el ámbito de la informática es muy resbaladizo cuando se trata de cambios). inteligencia artificial ofrece nuevas posibilidades a los sistemas en tiempo real. sin embargo, este enfoque ha mostrado dificultades importantes. [2]. principalmente, los sistemas en tiempo real tienen requisitos temporales (por lo general requieren tiempos de respuesta predecible) que no son habituales en las técnicas de inteligencia artificial. una de las maneras de resolver este problema es el desarrollo de arquitecturas de software. estas arquitecturas de software se utilizan para diseñar agentes inteligentes que trabajan en entornos de tiempo real. estas arquitecturas tienen varios mecanismos para permitir a los agentes trabajar en entornos de tiempo real que ofrece el comportamiento reactivo (para cumplir los requisitos temporales) y el comportamiento de deliberación. [2] sin embargo, en los sistemas distribuidos, aunque la noción del tiempo global desempeña un papel importante, es difícil darse cuenta, a primera vista, incluso la definición del término en sí no es muy clara. este documento es un trabajo ampliado de [6]. 10. un sistema de aprendizaje de bases de contabilidad financiera bogdan patrut, iulian marius furdu universidad “vasile alecsandri” bacău, românia brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 1 , january 2010 iv resumen este artículo describe un método para enseñar a los estudiantes las bases de la contabilidad financiera. el método se basa en la corrección de algunos errores típicos, que pueden observarse en los principiantes. palabros clave: de contabilidad, correo electrónico, agente de software de aprendizaje 11. agentes inteligentes para la adquisicion del vocabulario de la lengua materna bogdan pătruţ, universidad “vasile alecsandri”, bacău, românia grigor moldovan, universidad “babeş-bolyai”, cluj-napoca, românia resumen el artículo describe lo siguiente: en primer lugar, las ideas básicas de un sistema que simula la manera de adquisición del vocabulario de la lengua materna por un niño y establece algunas correspondencias entre los objetos, las palabras y los sentidos; en segundo lugar: el mecanismo para un sistema que puede aprender el vocabulario de la lengua materna usando observaciones, y, en tercer lugar, como hacer un agente inteligente comportarse de la misma manera que un niño, durante el proceso de adquisición de la lengua materna. palabras clave: lengua materna, el agente inteligente, la inteligencia 12. problemas/cuestiones acerca de la alteridad en las redes sociales colaborativas cosmin tomozei, florinela floria universidad “vasile alecsandri”, bacău, românia resumen la idea de alteridad se ha convertido en un concepto muy importante en las últimas décadas, en la era de la informática, que ofrece/ proporciona reconocimientos a las especialistas en el desarrollo software sobre la importancia de comprender el comportamiento de cada uno, las necesidades, los objetivos y las creencias. el propósito principal seria evidenciar la cuestión de la representación social, relacionada con las imágenes de los individuos como entidades distintas que son integradas en equipos virtuales, proyectos virtuales y e-actividades. en lo que concierne a la conciencia de alteridad de otras personas, podemos afirmar que se puede abrir una perspectiva de dialogo sobre la sociedad de información, siendo esencial compartir y comunicar conocimiento a otras personas. palabras clave: alteridad, la identidad, representaciones sociales, redes sociales, el dialogismo, la globalización, e-actividades, los sistemas de colaboración 13. una excursión en la actividad médica del doctor gheorghe marinescu claudia ivan, periodista, bucharest, ioana boghian, universidad “vasile alecsandri”, bacău, românia resumen gheorghe marinescu (28 de febrero de 1863, bucarest 15 de mayo de 1938, bucarest) fue un neurólogo rumano, fundador de la escuela rumana de neurología. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 153 psychological-mystical aspects at st. evagrius ponticus and st. maximus the confessor gheorghe teofil popovici the orthodox parish of “saint demetrius”, the north deanery 600350 gherăieşti, bacău, romania teofilgheorghe@gmail.com abstract the holy fathers are those who have experienced and deeply studied the mysteries of the human soul. the way a human being is being considered is very special. according to st. maxim, man is the mediator between god and creation. created with body and soul, man is charged with knowing god starting even with his earthly life. but, as plato said, man must at first know himself. the holy fathers describe at length this path along which man, as he renounces sins, discovers god inside his heart. these descriptions are extremely actual and relevant to the modern man who seems to have lost a little of the overall picture of the mystery of the human soul showing the great destiny for which man was created. keywords: patristics, teology 1. introduction for st. maximus, knowing god – the epistemology which makes the subject of dogma – is a theological spirituality issue, an issue which discusses the perfection and transcending of the rational being under the infinite rays of divinity. the process of cognition, as a direct connection between god and the human subject through immanent energy is in fact the process of our becoming divine. the anthropology of st. maximus concerns the dichotomous construction of man who is made up of body and soul which, in turn, consists of several distinct parts that are in contradiction in a fallen man and are to be harmonized through a work of ascetico-mystical restoration. in describing them, st. maximus stoops mainly upon detailed observations concerning man’s relation to god: “enlightened by grace, the saints have found out that the soul has three general movements, all gathered into one: one in the mind, one in reason and one in feeling. the first one is simple and impossible to expound. by this the soul, moving in an incomprehensible way around god, does not apprehend him in any way, from nothing out of those which were created, because it surpasses these all. the second one determines the unknown one according to the cause; by this, the soul moving in a natural way, gathers through doing, as a science, all the natural reasons of the known one only according to the cause, reasons which act upon it like some modeling powers. and the third one is composed. by it, the soul reaches those which are outside, gathers in itself, as from some symbols, the reasons of the seen. feeling, which retained only the spiritual reasons of the sensible things, was simply raised, by means of reason, to mind. reason, which gathered the reasons of things, was united, by means of a unique, simple and undivided thoughtfulness, with the mind. and the mind, which was redeemed through purification from moving around all things, in fact even rested from the natural work inside it (φισικηs ενεργεια), was brought to god. gathered thus entirely in front of god, they were worthy to be wholly united with the wholly god, through the holy spirit …”6 [22] saint evagrius ponticus, a predecessor of maximus the confessor, who had a considerable influence upon him, took the tetrad of the soul’s division from origen and turned it into a triad: mind, anger, lust, by identifying “νουs” with the reasoning side of the soul7 [17]. according to evagrius, all the three parts must be cured on a par with their disease: 6 psb 80, saint maximus the confessor, ambigua, ch. 65: tâlcuire privitoare la partea pasivă a sufletului şi la împărţirile generale şi subîmpărţirile ei, institutului biblic şi de misiune al bisericii ortodoxe române publishing house, bucureşti, 1983, p. 185. 7 lars thumberg, antropologia teologică a sfântului maxim mărturisitorul, sofia publishing house, 2005, “evagrie şi origenismul”, p. 211. g. t. popovici – psychological-mystical aspects at st. evagrius ponticus and st. maximus the confessor 154 “the mind through knowledge, the concupiscent part through restraint, and the irascible part through love”; “the wondering mind [the nous] is stabilized by reading, watching and praying; the burning lust [epithymia] is quenched by hunger, thirst and withdrawal [anachoresis], and raised anger [thymos] is allayed by chants, patience and mercy; but these work when they are made in time and according to the appropriate measures, for those without measure and inappropriately timed are short-lived, and those which are short-lived are rather harmful than helpful:”8 [9] 2. the eight thoughts of wickedness according to evagrius’s system of spirituality passions, which lay hold of man and which should be cleansed away in order to reach an unimpassioned state, love and gnosis, are placed by evagrius in connection with the demons, so that fighting against these is also fighting against demons. this idea becomes an important leitmotif of the entire eastern ascesis [2-7], [11-12], [15-20]. the method by which the devil, or the forces of darkness influence man is constituted by thoughts (λογισμοsin greek)9, imagination, memories and senses and neighbour: “for all the pleasure for the forbidden springs out of a passion for the forbidden, by means of the senses’ doing. because pleasure is nothing but a form of sensation modeled into the organ of the sense by means of some tangible thing or a way of the senses’ working determined by an irrational lust. for lust added to sensation turns into pleasure, by printing a form onto sensation, and the sensation moved by lust gives birth to sensation when it reaches tangible things.”10 in evagrius’s view, only god knows the depths of the soul (the heart or the subconscious), the higher level or the discursive conscience of compound thoughts is available both to man and devil11. coping with one’s passionate thoughts that stop man from uniting with god is done, according to saint evagrius, by uttering appropriate responses to each tempting thought. these responses are taken from the holy scriptures and are grouped so that they may be immediately used as a remedy against attacks12. responses have had a long career especially among egyptian monks, being written in the famous work “antirrhetikos”. being collected mainly from the psalms, they are primarily addressed to god. the holy fathers recommend, first of all, avoiding inner dialogue with these thoughts because man can win no fight against the devil by his own forces: “for without god we cannot fight against our enemies, for they are much stronger than us” (ps 34, 10) [22]. only calling the name of jesus christ, in the shortest and most comprehensive prayer of the votary, has maximum efficiency: “lord jesus christ, son of god, have mercy on me, the sinner”. in classical greek, the word “pathos” (from the verb pascho) means an accident, a disease, or a bad or good frame of mind, instinct, passion, change or transformation. plato is the one who developed the tripartite theory of the soul according to which the soul is made up of three parts: a rational part (logistikon), an irascible part (thymikon, thymos), a concupiscent part (epithymetikon, ephitymia)13. the irascible and the concupiscent parts have a higher wage in the construction of the fallen man, and of demons. according to the blessed augustine, the irascible part and the concupiscent (lusty) one are included in the accidental structure of a fallen intellect and a body and constitute “the passionate side of the soul” [23]. 8 evagrius ponticus, tratatul practic. gnosticul, ch. “remedii generale ale celor trei părţi ale sufletului”, curtea veche publishing house, bucureşti 2009, p. 135. 9 le traité pratique 43, sc 171 (1971), p. 599. 10 psb 80, op.cit., p. 110. 11 according to rené guénon, “simboluri ale ştiinţei sacre”, humanitas publishing house, bucureşti, 2008, p. 495: “it is probably here that the fundamental dualism of good and evil springs from, a dualism which men felt acutely enough, irrespective of his culture or religion (yin and yang – in the religion of asians), being the essential forces which make up the interval of spiritual becoming”; according to carl gustav jung , trei publishing house, vol. 6, bucureşti, 2004, p. 213: “indeed, there are two forms of brahman, namely the created and the uncreated, the mortal and the immortal, the immovable and the movable, being [das seiende] and transcendence [das jenseitige].” 12 st. evagrius ponticus, op.cit., p. 317: “împotriva gândurilor demonului slavei deşarte”, repl. 20: “to our thoughts which urge us into showing our bright actions for transient glory: let not your mouth praise you.” 13 cf. tomas spidlik, spiritualitatea răsăritului creştin-vol.i, deisis publishing house, sibiu 2005, p. 299. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 155 for the stoics, the purpose of human life is the struggle between free reason and passion. the stoics have discovered that, in practical life, there are four sins grouped into two fundamental trends: pleasure (hēdonē) and sorrow (lype)14, which tend to be conducted at present, and lust (ephitymia) and fear (phobos): “and the more he cared about the passion of bodily self-love, the more he invented ways of producing more bodily self-love. and because all wickedness perishes with the conditions that produce it, by finding out that any pleasure is surely followed by pain man will be completely urged towards pleasure and away from pain.15” – are closely related to future things.16 the variations and combinations of these passing states give birth to more complex psychic states of exaltation, decay, hope, latent anxiety of the spirit, trust or panic17. emotional states of this type are also described in psychiatry textbooks. in describing some psychic diseases immune to psychological therapy, carl gustav jung [14] speaks about “emotionally strengthened complexes”18 [13]. thus, here comes science from behind, with small steps, and recovers what practitioners once knew directly from their practical experience. the western scholastic authors draw a finer line between the various types of passions. the passionate side of the soul is not evil through itself alone, they say. they make a clear distinction between the metaphysical meaning of passion (responsiveness)19, which is a good movement of the soul through itself, having been planted by god inside man, and its psychological meaning (where concupiscent emotions, sensual appetites and irascibility are born. in conclusion, passion is a power of the soul planted by god inside man. morally speaking, it is neutral, using it to virtuous purposes makes it morally good, and using it to evil purposes makes it sinful or evil20: “from among thoughts, some of them cut, others are cut. that is, the evil ones remove the good ones, but the evil ones are also removed by the good ones. the holy spirit heeds the thought that we placed first and according to that one he bans or receives us. here is what i mean: i have the thought to welcome strangers and i truly have it for god, but the tempter comes and cuts it away, and sneaks the thought of welcoming strangers for glory into the soul. or, i have the thought to welcome strangers in order to be respectable; but a good thought comes over it, and cuts the evil thought away, directing our virtue towards god and forces us not to do this for the praise of men.”21 [8], [21] passion can be caused by the simple expression of will, driven by imagination. if it were evil by nature, man would automatically cause evil without his consent. but this assumption is invalidated from the start by the fact that man is built, according to the biblical account, after the image and likeness of god. or god is free, through himself as an absolute being, and man created after the image of god is also free to follow even evil if he chooses to do so, but real freedom is the one similar to the image according to which man has been created. thus, man finds his true freedom by living free of passions, according to his archetype: “crawlers and 14 ibidem. 15 filocalia iii, p. 30. 16 ibidem, p. 314. 17 in modern psychology, there are four types of temperaments: choleric, sanguine, flegmatic and melancholic. it is also recognized that although these four types are clearly defined theoretically, in reality they cannot be found in a pure state. the traits of certain types interfere spontaneously, according to certain particularities such as: education, the psycho-somatic state, sex, stress factors, etc. cf gerald matthews, ian j. deary, martha c. whiteman, psihologia personalităţii, polirom publishing house, bucureşti, 2005, p.35. 18 jung analyses the concept of god as subjective, izează notiunea de dumnezeu, ca fiind subiectivă, putting it on account of a complex: “in the language of analytical psychology, the notion of god coincides with that complex of representations which, according to the above definition, concentrates in itself the largest amount of libido (psychic energy). therefore, the notion of god of the soul would actually be different depending on the individual, which corresponds as a matter of fact to experience. god is not even theoretically a stable being, so much the less in practice.”, cf. carl gustav jung, tipuri psihologice, trei publishing house, bucuresti, p.68. 19 toma d’aquino, summa theologiae, polirom publishing house, 2009, i, 77, 2. 20 cf. tomas spidlik, ibidem. 21 pr. prof. dr. dumitru stăniloae, filocalia i , capete despre deosebirea patimilor şi a gândurilor, humanitas publishing house, 3rd edition, 2003, p. 53. g. t. popovici – psychological-mystical aspects at st. evagrius ponticus and st. maximus the confessor 156 beasts, driven here and there by nature, find it really impossible not to stay away from that which brings them pain. but those made after the image of god, driven by reason and empowered by god’s knowledge, who received the law from him, find it possible not to avoid those who harm them and to love those who hate them. that is why the lord says: “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you ...”22 in “spiritual homilies”, saint macarius the great says that “all the struggle of man takes place inside thoughts, so that man may remove the matter of evil thoughts”, or that “the source and origin of all sin is evil thoughts”23 [18]. saint evagrius distinguishes between the struggle of the ascetic as opposed to that of the “worldly man”. “demons fight against worldly men by using particularly things”. winning this battle depends upon man’s capacity to renounce things” 24. but against ascetics, “demons fight using particularly thoughts; because they lack things due to solitude”25 [25]: “all evil things sneak the image of sensible/tangible things into the soul which, by improinting themselves into the mind, make it carry in itself the shapes of those things”.26 if struggling with thoughts affects the inner forum of the human being, the struggle of the worldly man is considered “a novice war” because it implies a more direct fight, exterior to one’s own self. father evagrius ponticus deals with the subject of the thoughts of evil in several writings, and in establishing a list of these one can notice the effort of setting a scheme as accurate and comprehensive as possible as well as its flexibility and refining based on the inner state or the spiritual stage of the direct receivers of his writings, almost always the result of certain specific requests. the focus is sometimes placed on the sin of anger: “the devils’ goal is very much helped by our anger, when it is directed againsta nature, being of great use to any of their tricks. that is why all of them hasten to inflame it day and night. but when they see it connected to goodness they look for rightful reasons to unleash it at once, to heat it up and thus use it for their angry thoughts. that is why we must inflame it neither for just things, nor for unjust ones”27. anger is not evil in itself, but by being well used it brings blessing: “it is very useful to direct our anger against devils, and also useful in our virtue’s doings. but nourishing it from ourselves, as we would nourish a good sprout, is impossible because the spirits asking for pleasures smother it and call the soul again to friendship and familiarity with them”28. the meaning of “spirit” (pneuma) is lost to the use of the term “the spirits of evil” 29. the classic systematization – the one from pratikos 6-14 and antirrhetikos – is: the greed of the stomach (gastrimargia), rioting/fornication (porneia), the love of silver/avarice (philargyria), anger/temper (orgi), sadness (lype), boredom/weariness (akedia), vain glory/vanity (kenodoxia), 22 pr. prof. dr. dumitru stăniloae, filocalia a iia, humanitas publishing house, 3rd edition, 2003, p. 36. 23 psb 34, bucureşti, 1992, p. 122. 24 cf. evagrie ponticul, în luptă cu gândurile, deisis publishing house, sibiu, 2006, p. 35. 25 cristian bădiliţă, tratatul practic, polirom publishing house, bucureşti, 2003, p. 48. 26 pr.prof.dr.dumitru stăniloae, filocalia i, ed.humanitas, 3rd edition, 2003, p. 61. 27 ibidem, cuv.5. 28 ibidem, cuv.9. 29 the problem of the manuscripts forms the first volume of the edition published by antoine and claire guillaumont in the “sources chretiennes" collection. the interested reader may see the paper gîndurile cele mai generale (genikot atoi logismoi). in the monastic literature, logismoi loses its semantic neutrality by turning into “evil thoughts”. in almost all of these writing the meaning is pejorative. in despre cele opt duhuri rele (pg 79,1145a-1164d), evagrius uses the term “spirit” (pneuma) for thought. the theory of the eight evil thoughts of spirits has been undertaken by the entire eastern and then western monastic tradition. cassian, the disciple of evagrius, discipolul lui evagrie, enlarges upon it in the institutes of the coenobia (books v-xii). in fact, the full title of the work is de institutis cenobiorum et de octo principalium uitiorum. here is the list offered by cassian (v, 1, ed. guy, sc 109, p. 190): octo principalia uitia... id estprimum gastrimargiae, quae interpretatur concupiscentia gulae, secundam fornicationis, tertium philargyriae, quod intelligitur auaritia, uelut proprius exprimatur, amor pecuniae; quartum irae; quintum tristitiae; sextum acediae, quod est anxietas siue taedium cordis; septimum cenodoxiae, quod sonat uana seu inanis gloria; octauum superbiae, cf. op.cit., p. 60. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 157 pride/conceit (hyperephaneia)30. if evagrius invented neither the number of thoughts, nor any of the names in their list (these can all be found in origen31), the order and classification undoubtedly belong to the ascet from kellia. this is an ascetic, climbing “order of the battle” which clearly follows three stages of the ascet’s spiritual progress. this starts from the struggle against material, bodily passions (greed, fornication, avarice) related to lust, a struggle led by novices; it continues with the one led by the advanced against the passions of the soul (anger, sadness, boredom) related to irascibility; and it culminates with fighting off more subtle spiritual passions (vain glory, pride), related to intelligence and whose victims are the faultless, the unpassionate and the knowing who have reached the final steps of the spiritual progress: “from among the thoughts, the one of vain glory works alone by many means. it includes almost everybody and opens the doors to all devils, acting as a kind of cunning traitor of the city. that is why it deeply humiliates the mind of the hermit, filling it with many words and things and draggling his prayers by which he struggles to heal all the wounds of his soul. after having been defeated, all devils try to strengthen this thought so that they may be allowed again into the soul by means of it and thus do from the last worse than from the first.3 this thought also gives birth to the thought of pride which has caused the sonorous fall from heaven of the seal of likeness and the crown of beauty. arise from this thought and do not tarry, lest we sell our lives to others, or our time to those without mercy. this devil is driven away by arduous prayer and the labours of not willingly doing or saying something that may help the accursed vain glory.32” therefore, the evagrian catalogue is a systematic inventory of the most general thoughts of evil, but it has an accurate origin and destination: it starts from the experience of the solitary ascets of nitria, kellia and sketis, being written by an experienced anachorite to serve as a guide to other anachorites. in the desert, the souls of the ascetic elites of christianity were tormented not by passionate affections resulted from the contact with things and people, but by the passionate representations of these natural realities, by thoughts activated by memory and amplified in imagination by the evil spirits of demons, as well as by the psychological risks of an extended exposure to a regime of isolation, and by the routine or excesses of ascetic and contemplative life. the eight thoughts make up a chain (concatenatio), each of them being born from the previous one; they are also grouped in four pairs: the greed of the stomach and fornication are achieved in the flesh, avarice and anger occur in the soul caused by factors exterior to it, sadness and boredom are generated by inner causes of the soul, and vain glory and pride have no need at all of a body to come into being: “the demons that resist our work, the first ones who are raised into battle, are those responsible with the lusts of the greed of the stomach, those who sneak the love of silver into our soul and those who dangle us with the glory of men. all the others follow these to take over those injured by them. for one cannot fall into the hands of the spirit of fornication without having first been beaten by the greed of the stomach. just like anger cannot affect the one who fights for food, or money, or glory. and it is impossible to get rid of the devil of sadness for the one who has not denied all these. and pride, the first progeny of the devil, will also be inescapable for those who have not previously torn the love for silver out of their souls, the root of all evil, if 30 cf. r.sinkewicz, evagrius of pontus. the greek ascetic corpus, oxford, 2003, p. 73 and j.danielou, “demon”, dictionnaire de spiritualité iii, 1967, col. 151-189. 31 the entire topic is discussed, based on an exhaustive documentation, by a. guillaumont in his introduction to the edition: evagre le pontique, traité pratique ou le moine (sc 170), paris, 1971, p. 63-84, 90-93. origen admits in horn. josua xv, 5 that the idea according to which each “demon” or “spirit” corresponds to a thought (logismos) was found in the judaic apocrypha testaments of the twelve patriarchs. behind the greek dialogismos lies the judaic notion dcyetser (thought, spirit) found in the old testament, in the texts from qumran and in the testaments of the patriarchs. starting from here, the demons of the evil thoughts have been assimilated to the demons of the celestial spheres crossed by the soul after death like some “customs”. we cannot take into consideration, as a possible source of the evagrian scheme of the eight thoughts, the esoteric-gnostic theory which establishes a correspondence between the seven main vices and the seven spheres of planets through which the soul has passed both in its descent into the world and in its redeeming exit through death. 32 filocalia i, op cit. cuv.13, p. 59. g. t. popovici – psychological-mystical aspects at st. evagrius ponticus and st. maximus the confessor 158 poverty humbles man according to wise solomon. briefly speaking, it is impossible that man may fall under the power of any devil if he has not been previously wounded by their chiefs. that is why the devil presented the savior with these three thoughts: firstly, urging him to turn the stones into bread, secondly by promising him the entire world if he will kneel to him, and thirdly by telling him that he will be covered in glory if he listens because he will not be affected by such a great fall. but the lord, proving to be above all these, commanded the devil to walk behind him. byt his, he taught us that it is impossible for someone to chase away the devil from himself if he has not despised these three thoughts.”33; at the same time, each evil thought (vitium) from the series of the eight main thoughts generate series of special thoughts (vitia).34 but evagrius varies the scheme of the thoughts of evil according to the one to whom it is addressed and his spiritual level. thus, to a certain euloghios, a prominent character (tortured by envy and vain glory) who wanted to enter the monastic life, evagrius writes a comprehensive treaty in the form of a letter, in which he outlines a program of appropriate spiritual life, insisting upon the risks which novices are exposed to. to the same euloghios — according to the oldest manuscripts — evagrius addresses a short piece of writing in the shape of a post-scritpum to the previous treaty about “the evils opposed to virtues” "35. the paper is a remarkable example of ascetic rhetorics offering 245 brief descriptions of nine main vices and of the nine virtues opposing these vices. the “vices” or “evils” are the ones we know from the catalogue of the “eight main thoughts”, with a certain change but, no doubt, determined by the tendencies characteristic of the receiver of the writing: between “vain glory” and “pride” there also appears “envy”. the nine pairs of “evils – virtues” are [1]: gluttony — abstinence (gastrimargia — enkrateia) lust — moderation (porneia — sophrosyne) avarice — possessionlessness (philargyria — aktemosyne) sadness — joy (lype-chara) anger — patience (orgi — makrothymia) acedia — humble (akedia — hypomone) vain glory — freedom from vainglory (kenodoxia — akenodoxia) envy — willingness (phthonos — aphtonia) pride – humility (hyperephaneia — tapeinophrosyne)36 33 pr. prof. dr. dumitru stăniloae, filocalia i, evagrie ponticul, 3rd edition, humanitas publishing house, bucuresti, 2003, p. 60. 34 cf.jean-claude larchet, terapeutica bolilor spirituale, sofia publishing house, bucureşti, 2001, p. 108. 35 “something like this commonly happens to the mind, either by seeing with the eyes, or by hearing with the ears, or by some other sense, or by some memory which imprins in the mind, by moving them, those that have been gathered by means of the body. therefore the devils, it seems to me, by imprint memories into the mind by stirring them … there is also, however, a simple movement of the memory, stirred by us or by the holy powers. through it we speak and spend time with the saints. but we should be careful. for the images which the soul receives together with the body are stirred by memory without the help of the body. this can be seen from the fact that we often suffer from this in sleep. 36 evagrius, de diversis malignis cogitationibus 2, pg 79,1201b. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 159 to some ascets who have already entered the arena of ascetic struggles but ar still at the beginning of a practical life, evagrius addresses a brief – psychological and literary – remarkable treaty on “the eight thoughts”, in the shape of particularly beautiful proverbs37. the success of this writing, whose content consists in a sapiential phenomenology of the eight thoughts of evil through a series of extremely vivid elementary analysis of their psychological pathology, is attested by the fact that it has been the most copied from among the evagrian writings, and is to be found (most often under the name of nil) in over 80 manuscripts.38 psychology has discovered the fact that the psychic of the human being is made up of three layers: the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious. according to specialists, a tenth of man is conscious and nine tenths is unconscious39. as the terms suggest, man is mostly a great unknown, a great mystery. but in specialized therapies, psychologists have discovered that neurotic symptoms, chronic anger or depressions do not yield to the simple treatment of the causes of the disease. by looking more carefully into it, they have discovered the fact that man hides inside himself a wider dimension of both content and complexity. the source of all images which appeared spontaneously during delirium, the source of all symbols, of imaginative creativity, of originality which, after all, constitute a significant part of the complexity of the human character, is located, according to most psychologists, in the unconscious.40 the preliminary knowledge of these things is needed before penetrating deeper into what the holy scripture called “the bottom of the heart”41. the bottom of the heart is, for saint evagrius, the place where the spiritual and the material dimensions meet. the spiritual self-imposed efforts of getting rid of passion and of knowing are aimed precisely at the descent of man, by the light of his conscience, to the bottom of his heart, or of his unconscious. what is there to be found are things which are beyond the power of imagination of the uninitiated. the holy fathers call these representations hideous crawlers, snakes. modern psychology also describes these “archetypal representations” as somewhat belonging to the realm of the legendary. in order to diminish somehow the powerful and unpredictable impact that the revealing of these images may have, psychologists focus more on their positive interpretation. but the holy fathers explain with great brevity the fact that man discovers great obstacles to overcoming oneself in his heart. man is born with a degenerate background which gathers centrifugally through the process of plenum, all these “archetypal images” which, in time, turn into real “tares” or fixations which further degenerate into obsessions, fears and chronic states, bringing the passionate man close to the edge of the abyss. the passionate man turns into a mere executor of one’s own prejudices and conceptions, the level of conscience being drastically decreased and that is why discernment is at its critical borderline. the saint is the one who, by dispassioning himself and knowledge becomes free and independent towards things and ideologies. that is why, it is rightfully said that although he lives like any other man, the dispassionate man has overcome almost entirely the time of his history and the ideologies of his epoch, reaching the maximum level of conscience or awareness.42 in praktikos and in antirrhetikos evagrius also enlarges upon the theme of the relationship between the thoughts of evil and demons in a process in which, following origen and an old judeochristian tradition, closely associates ascetic psychology and demonology. according to jean danielou [4], christian demonology has two main sources: pagan neo-platonic and judaic43. for 37 “the beginning of fruit is flower, and the beginning of achievement is abstinence”, despre lăcomia pântecelui, tratatul practic, op.cit., p. 38 cf .evagrie ponticul, op.cit.,p. 21. 39 cf. arhim. simeon kraiopoulos, te cunoşti pe tine însuţi? viaţa duhovnicească şi problemele psihologice, bizantina publishing house, bucureşti, p. 21. 40 cf carl gustav jung, opere complete,vol.1, trei publishing house, bucureşti, 2003, p. 80. 41 jeremiah 17, 9: “the heart is deeper than anything else; it is man himself: who will ever know it?” 42 carl gustav jung, introducere în psihanaliza junghiană, trei publishing house, bucureşti, 2001, p. 45. 43 j. danielou, “demon", dictionnaire de spiritualité iii, 1967, col. 151-189, about demons in the jewish church literature up to origen. g. t. popovici – psychological-mystical aspects at st. evagrius ponticus and st. maximus the confessor 160 pagans, the demons which can be good or evil, are intermediary beings between gods and people and live in the air between heaven and earth, and preside over the action of mediation between these two zones through magic and religion. jews and christians spoke not of good or evil demons, but of good or evil angels, entirely identifying the demons responsible with pagan practices and idolatry with the evil angels who have revolted aginsta god (cf. the enoh books). demons have become the main causes and agents of evil by excellence, but not only of the religious-social evil, also of the moral-psychological individual one. the jewish intertestamentary (essenian) and paleochristian literature has thus developed not only the demons-idols relationship but also the demonstemptations one, trying to offer an answer to the question: where does the evil in the human heart comes from? obviously, not from god, but from demons and their suggestions. the two “thoughts”, dispositions or tendencies of man towards good or evil, which lead him alond two roads, that of life and that of death, have been viewed as coming from angels and demons — who thus become the patrons of virtues or vices — between whose suggestions the jew and the christian must learn to permanently distinguish. the two “ways” become the two “spirits”: the good one inspires peace and tranquility whereas the evil one, on the contrary, anxiety and torment; and demonology thus becomes a chapter of ascetic psychology. this mutation first occurs widely developed together with the theme of spiritual discernment and of the struggle against thoughts, in the shepherd of hermas44, a capital work in the history of christian spirituality. evagrius himself clearly explains the meaning of the replication method in the significant prologue to antirrhetikos, to which father gabriel bunge rightly dree attention. christianity is not a “religion” of individual self-salvation; we ourselves do not have the power to overcome evil or inner conflict by means of some autogeneous technique. evil does not have only an inner source, its psychological manifestation is the sign of the inner presence of evil and its demons who were defeated only by christ. 3. stages in the volitional work of saint maximus unlike his predecessor, from whom he takes part of the evagrian ideas concerning the platonic triad of the soul, the famous hierachy of the thoughts of evil, saint maximus the confessor brings many innovative contributions to the problem of knowledge, ontological, cosmological, anthropological, and mystical problems, where he enlarges “upon love” in a unique way. as far as evil is concerned, or the source of evil saint maximus makes a significant contribution by defining it: “evil neither was, nor will be something which subsists by its own nature. for it is in no way being, or nature, or hypostasis, or power, or work in those which are. it is neither a quality, nor quantity, relation, time, position, action (ποίησις), movement, skill, passion (passivity, emotion) naturally contemplated in some existence and in neither of all these none of them subsist by some natural affinity. it is neither beginning (principle), nor middle, nor end. but to include it in a definition, i will say that evil is the deviation (έλλειψις) of the workings of the powers (faculties) planted in nature from their purpose and nothing else. or again, evil is the unadvised movement (άλόγιστος) of the natural powers towards something other than their purpose, following a misjudgement.”45 saint maximus creates a true map of the different stages through which the mind, the soul and the will pass when achieving something: “thus, in orderfor secondary, but initiatory causes, to exist, their action should be rooted in obscure states and should develop across the penumbra of an ascent towards an intellectual and moral order which may leave way to the work of reflexion, the calls of conscience, rational and volunteer choice ".46 44 this paper is presented in the opening of the book written by ioan i. ică. jr. and germano marani: “gândirea socială a bisericii, fundamente, documente, analize şi perspective”, deisis publishing house, sibiu 2002, p. 9. 45 filocalia aiiia, p. 29. 46 pr. prof. dr. dumitru stăniloae, filocalia a iiia, humanitas publishing house, 3rd edition, 2003, p. 56. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 161 the simplest scheme could look as follows: suggestion (representation) – will (βουλησιν) − research (ζητησιν) − becoming aware (σκεψισ) − judgement (κρισισ) − choice (προαιρεσισ) − decisive impulse (ορμη) − action (χρισισ). the premise which lies at the basis of all eventual volitional stages is the fundamental capacity of manifesting will (θελησιs). god created man for eternal union with him. the will of man is not enough for this union, but it is compulsory: “but from this position of st. maximus and from those who claim that christ if the being of virtue, it results that one cannot make such a clearcut distinction between the union with god through virtues and mystical union. the union through virtues is not only a union in the sector of the will, but it also reaches the being of man. and the union through being cannot be done without the union through will.”47 the manifestation of will is the fundamental act of the manifestation of the image of god into man: “he has been our way, impulse and attractive goal, he has become a man together with us in front of virtues and of knowing the reasons of the world, helping us to achieve the unimpaired image of the human nature.”48 man’s single, intelligent, rational and very original way of thinking is a proof of the divine origin of man’s immortal soul: “man is made, by his own nature, to want and to reason … and this is, as i have seen, the personal disposition or the skill of the will to choose (γνωμη) which develops through the constantly updated will of man”49. thus, the act of will depends on an innate side and on a side learned through education. in the first stage, saint maximus the confessor has a more stoic rather than aristotelic vision concerning the unity of the forces which drive up man’s soul. in aristotle, will as a rational act is called “βουλισιs”, different from “concupiscence” which is will mixed with sensitive imagination (φαντασια)50 and which maximus also calls “joy of imagination”: “from among the powers of the soul, one of them feeds and supports the increase, another one is immaginative and impulsive and another one is rational and intellectual. the first one is shared among plants. besides it, irrational beings also share the second one. and people, besides these two, also share the third one. the first two powers are subject to corruption, the third one proves to be unalterable and immortal.” 51 the devil or god’s enemy uses man’s will and imagination to give suggestions to him him: “and, if by finding itself inside it makes the soul through spiritual passions to yield to the outside passions too, by means of the body deceive it to surrender entirely to feeling, leaving those whoich are appropriate by nature; or, by being outside, through a touch of the body shapes the unseen soul according to those which are material (πρός τά ύλιά), planting into it a composed form and giving it the appearance of matter received through imagination ...”52 this is because god cannot be fit within the limits of discursive reason or of imagination: “great moses, by setting his tent outside the camp, that is, setting outside the seen his will and reason, starts praying to god. after entering darkness, or the place of knoweldge without shape and matter, he remains there to be initiated in the holy ordinances.”53 for saint maximus, imagination is not opposed to reason. but it is imprinted with the memory of things: “dreaming (φαντασία), this is imagination which is driven in its workings by the emprintings left inside it by the old sins. imagination for the experienced man is no longer a neutral power, but is always influenced, determined by the fantasies it creates, by the facts it has done and the images it has had, although these no longer move inside the conscinece but sank into the 47 pr. prof. dr. dumitru stăniloae, filocalia i, evagrie ponticul, 3rd edition, humanitas publishing house, bucureşti, 2003, p. 325. 48 ibidem, p. 20. 49 lars thunberg, antropologia teologică a sfântului maxim mărturisitorul, sofia publishing house, bucureşti, 2005, p. 244. 50 cf. harry austryn wolfson, the philosophy of the church fathers, harvard university press, 1956, p. 463. 51 filocalia aiia, răspunsuri către talasie, p. 121. 52 filocalia iiia,p.26 53 ibidem, 85. g. t. popovici – psychological-mystical aspects at st. evagrius ponticus and st. maximus the confessor 162 subconscious.”54 this fact is extremely important because the will relates to its object which is the goal (τελοs)55 oment f the act of willing: “the first man, having lost the movement of his natural faculties towards the goal, has ignored its cause ... thus, by breaking and ignoring god’s command and mixing all his mental power with all his being, he embraced the composed and alterable conscience of the sensible/tangible things which leads to passion and has likened himself to unthinking beasts... and falling into irrationality, he has changed the natural function of reason into one contrary to nature”56, whereas choice, the next stage (προαιρεσιs) is associated only with means of reaching this goal. if man wants a good thing, this means that he has the power to guess its usefulness from the start. wanting somehting reasonably means almost knowing (γνωμη) it from the start. the next step, “research”, belongs rather to reason than to will, according to saint maximus, although will is the one which nourishes it. here, iamgination mingles with rational analysis: “for by loosening the will from the things reason is free from by nature, he does not feel their tempations sadden him, as one who has calmed down from any agitation related to them and directed all the power of the soul towards divine liberty”.57 saint maximus also calls it, in another work, “a consistent effort of the rational faculty”, when it is conscious of its goal. in this stage, will nourished by desire seeks to (deliberates upon-βουλευσιs) the most adequate means of achieving the goal, with the help of reason. during the third stage, becoming aware (σκεψιs), saint maximus explicitly states that the object of “becoming aware” is the one which has been “sought”, and the object of “deliberation” is the one which has been “set into awarenes”58, so that nobody decides until becoming aware first: “the one who has achieved the virtues and has increased his awareness, hereon looking at things in a natural way, does and says everything according to the just judgement, slipping in no way from this path.”59 althoguh for aristotle and nemesius the third stage was the one of deliberation, it was still called “βουλευσιs”. this stage aims precisely at the means by which desired good can be reached. maximus, however, draws a finer distinction by calling it “searching lust” (ορεξιs ζητητικη), that is a desire driven by the search for the wanted goal which takes place inside the mind. only a human being can decide on such an intelligent level. the next stage is judging (κρισιs) upon the things which have been delibered upon. a process of analysis takes place during this stage according to the noetic intuition of telling right from wrong (διακρισιs). in the tradition of orthodox spirituality, judgment is the most dominant mark of the divine rational image inside man: “when the mind is daring and stops wondering, by means of the proper search of the word which gives knowledge, which anointed it against passions, about what it should do and should not do, it will certainly fall under the power of passions because of lack of knowledge.”60 this is influenced by man’s bias to different sorts of impressions and representations. the way in which judgement ocurs is affected by acquiescence. man often knows what he wants even before weighing well. saint maximus the confessor shows the connection between reason and the other spiritual forces: “judgements and intentions” which the word is said to judge are the affectionate ties of the soul to god’s reasons and with the thoughts and causes of these connections. for judgement moves memory, which is affection by nature, and intention looks 54 pr.prof. dr.dumitru stăniloae, filocalia a treia, humanitas publishing house, p.74. 55 “and purpose (τέλος) i call the cause of all that are, according to which all are normally desired”, filocalia iiia, p. 29. 56 introduction to quaest ad thalas. p.g. 90, 253. 57 ibidem, p. 316. 58 lars thumberg, op.cit., p. 247. 59 pr. prof. dumitru stăniloae, filocalia aiia, 3rd edition, cuvânt ascetic prin întrebări şi răspunsuri, p. 31. 60 pr. prof. dumitru stăniloae, filocalia ii a, a doua sută a capetelor gnostice, 35, 3rd edition, p. 235. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 163 towards the end, which is characteristic of the cause”61. in passion, for the people subdued to vice, this stage is automatically eliminated, man choosing vice addiction to the detriment of listening to one’s inner reason which judges. judgement then leads to choice – saint maximus says. according to aristotle, choice is not a separate act, but merely the meeting between desire and judgement.62 saint maximus introduces the problem of “lust” (ορμη) in the initial process of manifesting the will. it is already the third time that saint maximus brings this term into discussion. the first time, desire was discussed as a “lust of imagination” (ορεξιs φανταστικη), deliberation as “lust of searching” (ορεξιs ζητητικη) and, thirdly, as “deliberative lust” (ορεξιs βουλευτικη). almost a thousand years before, plato identified this “lust” with “eros”. eros is the desire which pushes the will of man towards commitment. thus, one can say that saint maximus closely follows aristotle’s view.63 the decisive impulse is the final stage which leads man to action or commitment that maxmus also calls “ορμη”. here is a clear stoic influence upon the views of maximus concerning commitment, who generally uses the simplified triad: imagination, lust and consent. for saint maximus, imagination and lust are very closely linked, one being a prerequisite for the other. in order to reach this target, choice should be associated with desire (ορμη) and with use (χρησιs). in conclusion, if there is no initial desire, no positive touch of the eros, man does not reach decision or practice. in other words, if man does not feel joy in commiting a certain thing, he will not be able to build a career in that field, no matter how hard he may try. action or the “use” of conclusions reached after the preliminary processes of deliberation are called “commitment”: “the creator of nature has filled everything with the knowledge of nature called power of carrying out debts.” 64 if the preliminary stages of preparing an action make use of faculties such as imagination, reason, intelligence, commitment is conditioned by means external to the subject such as physical health etc. the deed is the final fruit of thought and deliberation. this fruit is either worthy of god’s reward, or evil, turning man into the devil’s servant: “worshipping is the faithful honoring of god, and serving means serving through facts. this worshipping, that is, faith, being moved by people towards being, has honored it instead of the creator, believing in devils which they also served through their evil deeds.”65 karen horney, a psychologist, psychiatrist and researcher whose theories give greater concision to the ideas of freud, jung or adler, approaches the fundamental problems of society from the perspective of each individual’s spiritual problems. thus, more specifically, she claims that problems start in the structure of man, in the structure of his personality and are related to the attitude that man will have towards his kind. she distinguishes three general attitudes: the movement towards people, the movement against people and the movement of driving people away. when considering the problem of the hermit one notices that the hermit does not walk away from people in a diseased and pathological manner, but on the contrary, he departs from people so that he may recapitulate through peace and prayer.66 by true love, we take the right attitude towards the others, too. there is an abnormal, vicious love which aims at a certain goal, or even at a selfish attachment to god, where man sees himself as humble: “and the goal (τέλος) is called the cause of all that are, according to which all are naturally desired, although the cunning, often covering his envy under the guise of benevolence and cunningly trepanning man to direct his desire towards something of those which are and not 61 filocalia aiii-a, humanitas publishing house, 3rd edition, 2003, p. 328. 62 ibidem, p. 248. 63 ibidem, 250. 64 ibidem, 165. 65 ibidem, 71. 66 arhim. simeon kraiopoulos, te cunoşti pe tine însuţi, ed. bizantină, bucureşti, 2008, p. 46. g. t. popovici – psychological-mystical aspects at st. evagrius ponticus and st. maximus the confessor 164 towards the goal, planted inside him the unknowing of the cause”67. this attitude drives the one who ardently prays to rude and unacceptable insistance, because without realising it, he forgets his status and addresses god with too much courage. for this, god will not even hear such a prayer, considering it a scorn. the same psychologist identifies a special category of people who conform to the general opinion of others in order to be liked by the others at all costs. concerning these, saint maximus the confessor would say: “also, the one who commits or pursues virtue in order to be esteemed by men places human approval above the approval of god, suffering from the passion of being liked by men. and the one who cunningly paints his behavious in the propriety of virtue, willingly hiding his evil disposition of will under the seen apparel of piety, in order to delude people, buys virtue with the cunning hypocrisy”68. this is a perverse way of understanding relationships with others where those concerned slash their greatest value: freedom of thought. these people will conform to others at any cost, they see reality through the eys of others, they develop forms of sickly possessiveness, seek love, appreciation and respect. these are quickly identified and marginalized by everyone.69 another symptom is that of the abnormal dependence upon others manifested by obedience. this person is ready to make any gesture of humility in order to obtain the appreciation of the person with whom he has quarreled. deep inside his soul, the wounds are left unhealed and claim their price. they often experience transient states of imbalance, depression, panic attacks, anger extended to friends for no reason. the more he feels inside like an exploited slave, who does not receive back everything that he offers, the more his state of frustration increases. this kind of obedience or submission was very quickly identified and penalized by the greatest experiencers of wilderness, true connoisseurs of the soul. these states have in common, as we have just seen, the passion of pride. the pride one is always preoccupied with the others’ opinions, with his own image in the eyes of others. this eternal state of tension and stress leads to spiritual and mental disfunctions. that is why the therapeutic models of the holy fathers aim at dispassioning the body and the soul at the same time. if the dispassioning of the body is generally done through poor nutrition, the dispassioning of the soul is carefully done only by the great spiritual masters who passed, themselves, through these states. besides the presented generalized scheme – of the stages of thought and will – there are still a lot of other paradoxical states and situations facing each candidate, also due to the fact that each person is unique in construction and the gifts that were left to him by god. the radical decisions made by the fathers are related to the art of the profound knowledge of the human spirit, decisions which came with long observation work enlightenment from god: “and again he said: if you lawfully fast, do not flaunt. and if you pride yourself on it, you would better eat meat than take pride in it and bosat about it”;70 a normal recommendation with the purpose of not falling into the temptation of pride, or of subjective distorted self-appreciation71. other times, as is the case of father pimen, he restrains from eating in order not to lead the others into error: “it so happened that some of the fathers came to the house of a lover of christ, among who was also father pimen. and as they ate, they were offered meat and all of them ate, except father pimen. and the elders were amazed at his not eating, as they knew his right judgement. and after they rose, they told him: you are pimen and this is what you have done? the old man answered to them: forgive me, fathers, you have eaten and nobody went mad; but had i eaten, because many brothers come close to me, would have been blighted, saying: pimen ate meat and why should we not eat, and they were amazed at his right judgement.”72 and the recommendation of saint anthony addressed to a money-lover brother seems drawn out of the pages of the ancient greek: “a 67 filocalia iii, p. 29. 68 pr. prof. dr. dumitru stăniloae, filocalia ii, humanitas publishing house, 3rd edition, 2003, scolia a 8 a, p. 327. 69 cf. ibidem. 70 patericul egiptean, pentru avva isidor, 4, anastasia publishing house, p. 75. 71 evagrie ponticul, în luptă cu gândurile, deisis publishing house, sibiu 2006, p.167, remediul mândriei: “pride is the absurd temptation which makes man believe that he does not owe anybody what he is but to himself: do not surrender your heart to pride and do not say <<in front of god: i am powerful!>>”(mn 62)”. 72 ibidem, avva pimen, p. 169. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 165 brother, after having denied the world and shared his wealth to the poor, keeping little for himself, went to father anthony. and finding out about this, the elder told him: if you want to become a monk, go to that village and buy some meat and put it around your naked body and come back here. and by doing so, dogs and birds tore off his body. and coming to the elder, the elder asked him whther he did as he had advised him. and showing him his torn body, saint anthony told him: those who deny the world and want to have money, are torn to pieces like this, being fought over by devils.” 4. conclusion knowledge of the experiences and theories of all these fathers, and especially of the most brilliant who have marked through innovation, power of synthesis and grace-inspiring genius and blessing new ages of spirituality is of great significance for posterity. texts such as “antirrhetikos” and “praktikos” belonging to evagrius, or the “ends of love” and the famous interpretations of maximus, which are only drops in the wide ocean of the wisdom of the holy fathers, marked the times of their contemporaries and of their followrs for ever as they described, in a psychological – pedagogic and deeply christian manner, the long and difficult road that every christian must take in order to reach salvation. the aim of dispassioning was receiving the grace of sonship and living with christ starting with this life, as an anticipation of the eternal life in god’s kingdom, according to his word: “and this is eternal life, to know you, the only true god, and jesus christ whom you sent”73. 5. references [1] eliade, m., culianu, i. p. (2007). dicţionar al religiilor. iaşi: ed. polirom. [2] nesteruk, al. (2009). universul în comuniune-către o sinteză neopatristică a teologiei şi ştiinţei, bucharest: ed. curtea veche. [3] barbour, i. g. (2006). când ştiinţa întâlneşte religia. bucharest: ed. curtea veche. [4] danielou, j. (1963). dictionnaire de spiritualite, ascétique et mystique, ed. ii, paris. [5] matthews, g., deary, j. j., whiteman, m. c. (2005). psihologia personalităţii. bucharest: ed. polirom. [6] d’aquino, t. (2009). summa theologiae. iaşi: ed.polirom. [7] spidlik, t. (2005). spiritualitatea răsăritului creştin vol.i, sibiu: ed. deisis. [8] stăniloae, d. (1992) psb 34, bucureşti. [9] evagrius of pontus (2006). în luptă cu gândurile. sibiu: ed. deisis. [10] bădiliţă, c. (2003). tratatul practic. bucharest: ed.polirom. [11] larchet, j.-c. (2001). terapeutica bolilor spirituale. bucharest: ed. sofia. [12] kraiopoulos, s. (2008). te cunoşti pe tine însuţi? viaţa duhovnicească şi problemele psihologice. bucharest: ed. bizantină. [13] jung, c.g. (2003). opere complete,vol.1 şi 6, bucharest: ed.trei. [14] minulescu, m. (2001). introducere în psihanaliza junghiană. bucharest: ed.trei. [15] ică.jr., i. i., marani, g. (2002). gândirea socială a biserici, fundamente, documente, analize şi perspective. sibiu: ed. deisis. [16] guenon, r. (2008). simboluri ale ştiinţei sacre. bucharest: ed.humanitas. [17] thunberg, l. (2005). antropologia teologică a sfântului maxim mărturisitorul. bucharest: ed. sofia. [18] wolfson, h. a. (1956). the philosophy of the church fathers. harvard university press. [19] van gennep, a. (2000). totemismul. bucharest: ed. polirom. [20] dennet, d. c. (2006). tipuri mentale. bucharest: ed. humanitas. [21] stăniloae, d. (2009). filocalia sfintelor nevoinţe ale desăvârşirii, vol.1, 2, 3. bucharest: ed. humanitas. [22] stăniloae, d. (1983). psb 80. ambigua. bucharest: ed. institutului biblic de misiune al bisericii ortodoxe române. [23] sinkewicz, r. (2003). evagrius of pontus. the greek ascetic corpus. oxford 73 ioan 17, 3. microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final2.docx 81 a combination of meta-heuristic and heuristic algorithms for the vrp, ovrp and vrp with simultaneous pickup and delivery maryam ashouri instructor, department of civil engineering, malayer branch, islamic azad university, malayer, iran majid yousefikhoshbakht assistant professor, department of mathematics, faculty of science, bu-ali sina university, hamedan, iran khoshbakht@basu.ac.ir abstract vehicle routing problem (vrp) is a nondeterministic polynomial hard combinatorial optimization problem to serve the consumers from central depots and returned back to the originated depots with given vehicles. furthermore, two of the most important extensions of the vrps are the open vehicle routing problem (ovrp) and vrp with simultaneous pickup and delivery (vrpspd). in ovrp, the vehicles have not return to the depot after last visit and in vrpspd, customers require simultaneous delivery and pick-up service. the aim of this paper is to present a combined effective ant colony optimization (ceaco) which includes sweep and several local search algorithms which is different with common ant colony optimization (aco). an extensive numerical experiment is performed on benchmark problem instances addressed in the literature. the computational result shows that suggested ceaco approach not only presented a very satisfying scalability, but also was competitive with other meta-heuristic algorithms in the literature for solving vrp, ovrp and vrpspd problems. keywords: meta-heuristic algorithms, vehicle routing problem, open vehicle routing problem, simultaneously pickup and delivery, ant colony optimization. 1. introduction the capacitated vehicle routing problem (cvrp) is one of the most important combinatorial optimization problems, which recently has been receiving much attention by researchers and scientists (yousefikhoshbakht & dolatnezhad, 2016). cvrp deals with servicing a set of delivery customers or a set of pickup customers by a set of vehicles stationed at a central depot. each vehicle, visits a set of customers such that every customer is visited exactly once and by exactly one vehicle. furthermore, the capacity of each vehicle must not be violated. the objective of cvrp is to plan a set of routes to service all customers while minimizing the total travel distance (yousefikhoshbakht et al., 2014). the open vehicle routing problem (ovrp) is one of the most important variant of vrp which has recently attracted the attention of scientists and researchers because of many applications in industrial and service firms specially delivering packages and newspapers to homes. this problem similar to vrp involves routing a homogeneous fleet of vehicles that start to move simultaneously from the depot but do not come back to the depot after visiting customers. each vehicle has a fixed capacity and perhaps a route-length restriction which limits the maximum distance it can travel. each customer has a known demand and is serviced by only one visit of a single vehicle. the objective is to design a set of minimum cost routes to serve all customers so that the load on a vehicle is below vehicle capacity at each point on the route. in addition, we need to find the minimum number of vehicles which are required to service all customers. the description of this important variant of the vrp appeared in the literature over 30 years ago in which contractors who are not employees of the delivery company use their own vehicles and do not return to the depot. as a result, researcher interest in the ovrp has increased dramatically and a brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 82 wide variety of new algorithms have been developed over the last ten years to solve the problem (sedighpour et al., 2014). from the point of view of graph theory, the difference between the ovrp and the vrp is that a solution of the former consists of a set of hamiltonian paths rather than hamiltonian cycles. the problem of finding the best hamiltonian path for each set of customers assigned to a vehicle is np-hard (yousefikhoshbakht et al., 2011). hence ovrp is also np-hard. the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery (vrppd) is another important variant of vrp. the major difference between this problem and vrp is that customers may receive or deliver goods simultaneously in vrpspd, while in vrp all customers just receive goods from a depot. deliveries are supplied at the start of the vehicle’s service, while pick-up loads are taken to the same depot at the end of the service. one important characteristic of this problem is that a vehicle’s load in any given route is a mix of pick-up and delivery loads. the vrpsdp belongs to the field of reverse logistics context from a practical point of view. this is gaining increasing importance due to more people becoming environmentally conscious. besides, companies are increasingly faced with the task of managing the reverse flow of finished goods or raw-materials. they get involved with reverse logistics because they can economically profit from it; or they are obliged by legislation; or they feel socially impelled (de brito and dekker, 2004). in the context of this problem, the capacity of the vehicle cannot be exceeded. furthermore, other constraints such as maximum distance or time windows may exist, may be considered in this problem. the objective is to find a set of routes to minimize the total travelling cost while meeting customer demands. one obvious difference among vrp and vrpsdp is the variation of the vehicle load during the whole route. in vrp, the load decreases (increases) monotonously while in the vrpsdp, the load of vehicles varies in a ruleless manner and the maximum may appear in the middle of the route. furthermore, if the total demand of all the customers assigned to the same vehicle does not exceed the capacity limit in vrp, then the feasibility of the route would always behold, no matter what the visiting sequence is. however, it is quite different in the vrpsdp. the vrp holds a central place in logistics management and has been extensively studied in the operational research literature. its great success can be attributed to the fact that it is a very interesting problem both from practical and theoretical points of view. regarding practical point of view, the vrp definitely plays a central role in the efficiency of the operational planning level of distribution management, producing economical routes that contribute to reduction of distribution costs, offering simultaneously significant savings in all related expenses (capital, fuel costs, driver salaries, etc.). this problem was firstly defined by dantzig and ramser more than 50 years ago (dantzig, and ramser, 1959). since then, it has had many applications in other problems. in contrast to the vrp, the ovrp has only been considered by a very limited number of researchers. from the early 1980s to the late 1990s, the ovrp received very little attention in the research operations in literature. however, several researchers have used some algorithms especially metaheuristic ones since 2000. as far as we know, the first author to declare the ovrp was schrage (1981) who raised for the first time the problem dedicated to the description of realistic routing problems, bringing attention to some of its applications. vrpspd was first proposed almost two decades ago from a distribution problem of a public library, with one depot, two vehicles and 22 customers (min, 1989). this author presented a heuristic method to solve this real-life problem by using the below steps: (i) customers are first clustered in such a way that the vehicle's capacity is not exceeded in each group. (ii) one vehicle is assigned to every cluster as traveling salesman problem. (iii) the tsp is solved for each group of customers. in the late sixties, few exact algorithms were developed for a very small number of variables and constraints because the exact algorithms could not perform well for large instances of vrp, m. ashouri, m. yousefikhoshbakht a combination of meta-heuristic and heuristic algorithms for the vrp, ovrp and vrp with simultaneous pickup and delivery 83 ovrp and vrpspd. therefore, nowadays many researchers have focused on meta-heuristic classes of algorithms. these algorithms strived for near optimal solutions in a reasonable computational cost, without however any guarantees of optimality. currently, research activity in the field involves efforts that focus on finding modern meta-heuristics, producing high quality solutions for larger problems, which unfortunately are computationally extremely hard to be applied for exact algorithms (guaranteeing optimality). for example, zhao et al. proposed a hybrid quantum evolution algorithm for solving the vrp and showed that this algorithm is better than a genetic algorithm and a particle swarm optimization algorithm (zhao et al., 2009). teoh et al. combined neighborhood search with a differential evolution algorithm for solving the vrp and compared their algorithm with the cluster and searched heuristic algorithm and other meta-heuristic optimization algorithms to show its performance (teoh et al., 2015). an effective hybrid quantum genetic algorithm to solve the vrp is proposed in cai et al. (2010). in this algorithm, the immune operator is used to improve the local search ability of the algorithm. the author of (bortfeldt, 2012) combined the powerful tabu search with a tree search algorithm for solving the vrp and compared their results to other metaheuristics. the results show the superiority of the hybrid algorithm. wang designed a cellular ant colony optimization algorithm in which the principle of cell automaton with the ant colony optimization search mechanism is combined to improve the algorithm‘s search capability (wang, 2010). letchford et al. (2007) proposed a powerful meta-heuristic algorithm in order to solve ovrp in which some local search algorithms for examining wide solution neighborhoods are used. in their problem, two objective configurations including minimizing the number of routes and minimizing the routing cost of the generated route set are considered simultaneously. furthermore, a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the ovrp was proposed in (repoussis et al., 2010). in this algorithm, the basic solution framework of evolutionary algorithms combined with a memory-based trajectory local search technique was utilized. the proposed method used arcs extracted from parent individuals and the selection and combination of arcs are dictated by a vector of strategy parameters. the results showed that the quality of each new offspring is further enhanced via a memory-based trajectory local search technique in the algorithm. zachariadis & kiranoudis proposed a local search algorithm whose moves are statically encoded into static move descriptor entities to explore the wide neighborhoods within the reasonable computational effort. in the local search operator applied to the candidate solution, only a limited solution part is modified. to diversify of the proposed algorithm, a tabu scheme for preventing iterated solution and a penalization strategy are employed. mirhassani & abolghasemi (2011) proposed a particular decoding technique for a real-value version of particle swarm optimization in order to apply to the ovrp. in this paper, a vector of the customer’s position is constructed in descending order in the decoding method. furthermore, the insert algorithm has been applied to constructed routes which seem promising to result in a better solution. as same as vrp and ovrp, heuristics are thought to be more efficient and very popular for vrpsdp. for examples, salhi and nagy (1999) proposed four insertion heuristics and introduced the weak and strong feasibility of a solution for solving the vrpspd. emmanouil et al. proposed a hybrid algorithm based on tabu search and guided local search for this problem in 2009 (emmanouil et al., 2009). the results show the efficiency of their meta-heuristic algorithm compared to other algorithm on benchmark instances involving from 50 to 400 customers. a large neighborhood search associated with a procedure similar is proposed to solve several variants of the vrp including vrpspd (ropke and pisinger, 2004) and a modified ant colony algorithm is offered in which a new saving based visibility function and pheromone updating procedure (catay, 2010). cruz et al. considered vrpspd and applied a heuristic algorithm combined with cheapest insertion, cheapest insertion with multiple routes, variable neighborhood search, variable brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 84 neighborhood descent, tabu search, etc (cruz et al., 2012). in this algorithm, first three procedures are used to obtain a high quality initial solution, and the last two algorithms are applied as local search methods. the results showed that not only the algorithm was competitive other famous algorithms, but also it was able to generate high quality solutions for some standard instances. goksal et al. presented a particle swarm optimization with a local search and a variable neighborhood descent algorithm (vnd) for solving the vrpspd (goksal et al., 2013). the computational results indicate that the proposed algorithm competes with the heuristic approaches in the literature and improves several best known solutions. finally, a class of extensions to vrp including different problem versions and some more well-known recent versions are proposed in wassan and nagi (2014). in this paper, a central focus was done on novel problem classes and an integer linear programming formulation was also presented. in addition, it is also shown how this formulation can be adapted to cater for other problem versions of vrp. finally, an applied version of vrp called heterogeneous vrpspd was proposed in (avci and topaloglu, 2016). this problem, which can arise in many transportation systems involving both distribution and collection operations, is considered to be an np-hard problem because it generalizes the classical vrp. therefore, a hybrid local search algorithm in which a non-monotone threshold adjusting strategy is integrated with tabu search was proposed for this new problem. in order to test the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, a set of randomly generated problem instances was considered and the results showed the efficiency of the algorithm. because vrp, ovrp and vrpspd are np-hard combinatorial optimization problems, there are some serious difficulties in finding an exact solution in reasonable time. therefore, many researchers have found that the employment of hybrid algorithms for optimization problems can improve the quality of solution results in comparison to heuristic and meta-heuristic approaches (larki and yousefikhoshbakht, 2014). in addition, aco algorithm is one of the optimal algorithms for solving a routing scheme problem, and is also an effective method to find optimal solutions to difficult routing problems. like many meta-heuristic algorithms, the primary aco may fall into local minimum trap during the search process and it might get far from the global optimum. for this reason, we try to propose an effective two-phase aco called ceaco by adopting a behavior between rigid regularity and randomness based on pure chance. at the first stage, these problems are solved by a modified aco algorithm. at the second stage, the lin-kernighan algorithm is used for improving solutions, as this algorithm is one of the most effective local search algorithms. this algorithm leads to overcome premature local optima encountered and evolves towards diverse trajectories of the solution space, and a more extensive search is accomplished. in more details, to enhance the global exploration capability, the 2-opt local search with a high probability of α and 0-1 and 1-1 exchanges with low probability β and μ respectively are used in every iteration of aco algorithm. the main contributions of the paper are as follows: (i) presenting an effective aco algorithm for three routing problems. (ii) combining the aco algorithm with a lin-kernighan algorithm. (iii) presenting a new algorithm which is equipped with diversification and intensification mechanisms for solving the vrp, ovrp and vrpspd. the proposed framework is applied to 14 vrp, 16 ovrp and 28 vrpspd benchmark instances derived from the literature and involving from 50 to 200 customers. the results show the proposed algorithm not only obtained several of the best known solutions, but also presented very satisfying solutions for other instances. the rest of this paper is organized as follows. in section 2, the proposed ceaco are explained and its performance will be described. the computational results of the proposed algorithm are compared with some of the other algorithms on standard vrp, ovrp and vrpspd problems in section 3. finally, the conclusions are presented in section 4. m. ashouri, m. yousefikhoshbakht a combination of meta-heuristic and heuristic algorithms for the vrp, ovrp and vrp with simultaneous pickup and delivery 85 2. the proposed algorithm ant colony optimization (aco) is one of the most popular meta-heuristic algorithms inspired by the behavior of real ants seeking a path between their colony and a source of food. for the first time, this algorithm was used to solve the traveling salesman problem (tsp) as shown in figure 1. 1) set the parameters. 2) place m ants at the depot. 3) for each ant do below steps until there is not unvisited node: select a nest node based on formula (1). deposit pheromone on the obtained arcs. 4) update the best solution and its obtained value until now. 5) if the stop condition is not satisfied, go to step 2. 6) print the best solution and its value. figure 1. the aco for the tsp in the mentioned figure, the probability that any ant chooses one path over other increases as the amount of pheromone present increases. the decision for choosing the unvisited ni node by ant k located at node i is made based on the formula (1) in which both a and b are parameters. in his formula, ijt is amount of the pheromone of edge (i,j), ijh is the inverse distance of edge (i,j) and ants release “pheromone information” ( )ijtd on the respective path while moving from node i to node j by formula ( ) ( ) .ij ij ijt tt t t¬ + d            k i k i nj b ij a ij b ij a ij k ij njif njif ht ht p k i 0 (1) this algorithm uses of pheromone evaporation in order to prevent the rapid convergence of ants to a sub-optimal path by formula (1 ) .t r t¬ in the formula, pheromone density is reduced in each iteration by 0 ≤ r ≤ 1 which is set by the user. besides, t is the matrix for the existing pheromone on the edges of the respective graph. the ant system is the first version of aco which could not produce acceptable results compared with meta-heuristic algorithms of the time. therefore, several variants of aco such as elite ant system (eas), rank based ant system (ras) and max-min ant system (mmas) have been derived from the basic as which are able to produce better results for many combinatorial optimization problems. in the proposed ceaco algorithm, if there are m vehicles in the problem, this number of ants is exactly positioned on n vertices randomly. then ant k selects the next node j from the current node i among the unvisited nodes k in by a new transition rule. this rule is used to better explore the feasible space and is obtained as follows: ( ) [ ( )] [ ( )] [ ( )] [ ( )] [ ( )] [ ( )] k ij k i ij ij ij k i ir ir irr j p t t t t j j t t t                  (2) where ( ) : ij t the amount of pheromone on the edge joining nodes i and j. ( ) : ij t is the heuristic information for the ant visibility measure. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 86 , , :   control parameters which changeable b user. :ijk the savings of combining two nodes on one tour as opposed to serving them on two different tours. the savings of combining any two customers i and j are computed as 0 0ij i j ijc c c    where node 0 is the depot and ijc denotes the distance between nodes i and j. the ceaco mainly consists of the iteration of the three below steps 1) each ant builds the solution independently for n groups 2) apply the 2-opt, insert and move local search algorithms to improve the solutions 3) update the global pheromone information. the literature on meta-heuristics indicates that a promising approach for obtaining highquality solutions is to couple a local search algorithm with a mechanism to generate initial solutions. so, after all ants have constructed their routes and before updating global pheromone, three types of local search schemes including 2opt scheme, insert and swap moves are performed to further reduce the routes length (figure 2). in insert algorithm, a customer is moved to another route but in swap algorithm a customer in a certain route is swapped with another customer from a different route. one of the most commonly encountered moves is the 2-opt which starts with a feasible tour and continues by omitting two arcs of the same route, which are not adjacent and then connects them again by another method in such a way that the new tour length is shorter. in multiple routes, two edges belong to different routes, which form a criss-cross, are selected and two new edges are replaced. it also should be noted that the new solution will be only accepted in state that first, the constraints are not violated specially about each vehicle’s capacity. it can be noted that there are several routes for connecting nodes and producing the tour again, but a state that satisfies the problem’s constraints is acceptable. figure 2. insert (left), swap (middle) and 2-opt exchanges (right) it is noted that the pheromone updating formula was used to simulate the change in the amount of pheromone due to both the addition of a new pheromone deposited by ants on the visited edges, and the pheromone evaporation. when all n groups of ants have completed their schedule, the pheromone level is updated by applying the global updating rule only on the paths that belong to the best found solutions since the beginning. this proposed algorithm ranks the solutions constructed by ants. what distinguishes this algorithm from the other algorithms is the fact that in ceaco the amount of releasing pheromone is based on the rank of the groups of ants in finding solutions by formula (3). m. ashouri, m. yousefikhoshbakht a combination of meta-heuristic and heuristic algorithms for the vrp, ovrp and vrp with simultaneous pickup and delivery 87 1 ( 1) (1 ) ( ) ( ) ij ij ij t t t              (3) where: ( 1). ( , ) ( )( ) 0 ( , ) ij q i j s l tt i j s                (4) in this formula, q is a constant coefficient determined by the user,  is the number of groups of ants which have been ranked,  is the variable indicating ranking index from 1 to  and s  is the edges traversed by an ant group which has gained the  th rank in finding the best solution. in our algorithm,  best groups of ants of the algorithm have been allowed to lay pheromone on the arcs they traversed. the idea of the elitist strategy in the context of the proposed algorithm is to give extra emphasis to the best paths found so far in every iteration. this modification leads to balance between exploitation through emphasizing global best ant and exploration through the emphasis to iteration best ant. furthermore, when the algorithm attained a better solution compared to previous iterations, lin-kernighan algorithm is used to prevent the proposed algorithm from getting trapped in stagnation. in fact, the probability of finding better solutions near a good solution is relatively high. since lin-kernighan algorithm is simple and has high quality to obtain sub-optimal or optimal solutions, this algorithm is used in this paper. besides, in each step of the -opt algorithm,links of the current tour are replaced by links in order to obtain a shorter tour. the time complexity of testing –exchange is equal to o(n) in which there is no nontrivial upper bound of the number of –exchanges. the lin-kernighan algorithm introduced a powerful variable -opt algorithm in which the value of  is changed during its execution. in this algorithm, a growing set of potential exchanges is considered which start with r = 2 at each iteration. these exchanges are chosen in such a way that a feasible tour may be formed at any stage of the process. then, the problem is examined for ascending values of and the algorithm decides what the value of should be. if an interchange of links succeeds in finding a new shorter tour, then the actual tour is replaced with the new tour. this continues until some stopping conditions are satisfied. to save the computation time, we will only apply local search to the best current solution and best found solution until now in each iteration. the idea here is that a better solution may have a better chance to find a global optimum. after each iteration, if the best solution is not changed during 20 times, the algorithm finished and the best found solution is reported. otherwise, the algorithm goes to transition rule step. figure 3 shows the pseudo code of the proposed algorithm. 1) set the parameters of the proposed algorithm, including , , , , and q     . 2) for n groups, place m ants at n vertices randomly. 3) select a nest node for each ant based on a new proposed formula. 4) if there is a node that has not been visited, go to step 3. 5) apply local search algorithms for obtained solutions in each iteration. 6) save the best solution and its value obtained in current iteration. 7) update global pheromone on each edge belonging to the ranked groups. 8) apply lin-kernigan algorithm to the best solution in each iteration and best found solution until now. 8) update the best solution and its value obtained until now. 10) if the best solution till now is improved within 15 iterations, go to step 2. 11) show the best solution and its value. figure 3. the pseudo of ceaco brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 88 3. numerical analysis in this section, the results of the proposed ceaco for solving the vrp instances are shown. at the second and third subsections, the proposed algorithm is used to solve ovrp and vrpspd instances available in the literature. this algorithm is coded in matlab 11 programming language and executed on a pc equipped with an intel pentium iv processor running at 3500 mhz; core i3 and 8 gb of ram running microsoft windows 7 ultimate. because the ceaco is a meta-heuristic algorithm, the best solution found for ten independent runs is reported. 3.1. application in vrp instances in this subsection, the performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on a set of 14 benchmark instances with 50–199 customers which have been widely used as benchmarks. the first 10 instances have customers that are randomly distributed around the depot. in the last four instances, the customers appear in clusters and the depot is not centered. all test instances are subjected to capacity constraints while the problems 6–10, 13 and 14 have, also, the route length limitations. the information of the 14 instances is shown in table 1. in this table, instance, n, m, and bks are the names of instances, number of customers, number of vehicles and the best known solution by other algorithms (bks). in this table, in order to assess the effectiveness of the ceaco, its results are compared to genetic algorithm (ga) (baker and ayechew, 2003), scatter search algorithm combined by ant colony optimization (ss_aco) (zhang and tang, 2009), particle swarm intelligent (pso) (ai, kachitvichyanukul, 2009) and genetic algorithm and particle swarm intelligent (gapso) (marinakis and marinaki, 2010). as can be seen from this table, the proposed algorithm finds the optimal solution for 8 out of 14 problems and is a competitive algorithm compared to the bks. furthermore, the gap of other problems is about as high as 1% and so the proposed algorithm finds nearly the best known solutions. table 1. computational results for standard vrp problems instance n m ga ss_aco pso gapso ceaco bks c1 50 5 524.61 524.61 524.61 524.61 524.61 524.61 c2 75 10 849.77 835.26 844.42 835.26 837.29 835.26 c3 100 8 840.72 830.14 829.40 826.14 826.14 826.14 c4 150 12 1055.85 1038.20 1048.89 1028.42 1069.23 1028.42 c5 199 17 1378.73 1307.18 1323.89 1294.21 1318.13 1291.45 c6 50 6 560.29 559.12 555.43 555.43 555.43 555.43 c7 75 11 914.13 912.68 917.68 909.68 909.68 909.68 c8 100 9 872.82 869.34 867.01 865.94 865.94 865.94 c9 150 14 1193.05 1179.4 1181.14 1163.41 1167.33 1162.55 c10 199 18 1483.06 1410.26 1428.46 1397.51 1395.85 1395.85 c11 120 7 1060.24 1044.12 1051.87 1042.11 1042.11 1042.11 c12 100 10 877.8 824.31 819.56 819.56 830.83 819.56 c13 120 11 1562.25 1556.52 1546.20 1544.57 1548.13 1541.14 c14 100 11 872.34 870.26 866.37 866.37 866.37 866.37 furthermore, the ga has not been able to find the best solutions in thirteen of the fourteen examples. therefore, it is the weakest algorithm among the five presented algorithms. however, ss_aco has been able to find better solutions than the ga and has come up with the best solution in 12 examples. among remaining five algorithms, pso has failed in improving the solutions in 10 examples and has come up with solutions similar to the ones found by ga. from the comparison m. ashouri, m. yousefikhoshbakht a combination of meta-heuristic and heuristic algorithms for the vrp, ovrp and vrp with simultaneous pickup and delivery 89 between gapso and ceaco, it can be seen that gapso in six examples has been able to find better solutions than the proposed algorithm. however, the ceaco has found better solutions than this algorithm for one example. for example, the solution of c6 is shown in figure 4 which is the best found solution until now by other algorithms. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 figure 4. the solution of c6 found by ceaco 3.2. application in ovrp instances in this subsection, 16 instances of ovrp which the number of customers ranges in size from 50 to 199 are considered. in all instances, the vertices are in the euclidean plane and the cost of an edge is equal to the euclidean distance between its end-vertices computed with real numbers. these problems are identified by their original number and prefixed respectively with the letters c and f available in the literature and they are summarized in table 2. the problems c1–c5, c11, c12, f11 and f12 have no driving time constraint, and c6–c10, c13 and c14 are the same instances as c1– c5, c11 and c12, but with a travel time constraint. in this table, some of the characteristics of these problems are described. the first column includes the instance name and the second and third columns show the number of customers n, and the number of used vehicles k. it is noted that this number of vehicles is fixed at the minimum possible for all of these instances estimated through dividing the sum of all customer demands by vehicle capacity. furthermore, the fourth column shows the maximum route length which each vehicle can pass. the objective of the computational experiments is to compare the performance of the proposed algorithm with six below meta-heuristic algorithms for solving ovrp:  tabu search by fu et al. (2005; 2006) (tsf)  tabu search by brandao et al. (2004) (tsb)  tabu search by brandao et al. (2004) (tsan)  record-to-record travel algorithm by li et al. (2007) (orta)  variable neighborhood search by fleszar et al. (2009) (vns)  adaptive large neighborhood search (alns) by pisinger & ropke (2007) this table indicates that some algorithms used different number of vehicles shown in the brackets. furthermore, the last column shows best known solution (bks) by the various algorithms until now. in the proposed algorithm, the minimum number of vehicles as specified by the lower bound of k is used. it is noted that some authors consider the distances as floating point numbers in their algorithms and then report the cost of the solutions with a fixed precision like one decimal place. in this paper, results only for the floating point versions are reported like other papers. table 2 shows that ceaco finds the optimal solution for 10 out of 16 problems published in the literature. moreover, tsb, tsf, tsan, ortr, alns and vns have been able to find 0, 0, 0, 5, 4 and 6 optimal solutions from among these instances. these results indicate that the proposed brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 90 algorithm not only can obtain high quality solutions for all instances but also it is a competitive approach compared to these six algorithms. it should be noted that direct comparisons of the required computational times cannot be conducted as they closely depend on various factors such as the programming languages, the coding abilities of the programmers, the processing power of the computers, the compilers and the running processes on the computers. table 2. results of the proposed algorithm compared to other algorithms instance n k l tsf tsb tsan ortr vns alns ceaco bks c1 50 5 416.1 416.1 438.2 416.06 416.06 408.5 408.5 408.5 c2 75 10 567.1 574.5 584.7 567.14 567.14 564.06 [11] 564.06 564.06 [11] c3 100 8 643.1 641.6 643.4 639.74 639.74 617 617 617 c4 150 12 738.9 740.8 767.4 733.13 733.13 733.13 738.22 733.13 c5 199 16 879.0 [17] 953.4 1010.9 924.96 905.96 870.26 [17] 875.11 870.26 [17] c6 50 5 180 413.0 412.96 416.0 412.96 412.96 400.6 [6] 400.6 400.6 [6] c7 75 10 144 568.5 [11] 634.54 581.0 [11] 568.49 [11] 596.47 560.4 [11] 560.4 [11] 560.4 [11] c8 100 8 207 647.3 644.63 652.1 644.63 644.63 638.2 [9] 647.67 638.2 [9] c9 150 12 180 761.3 [14] 785.2 827.6 [14] 756.38 [14] 760.06 752.0 [14] 757.92 752.0 [14] c10 199 16 180 903.1 884.63 946.8 876.02 875.67 875.67 [17] 903.10 875.67 [17] c11 120 7 724.5 683.4 713.3 682.54 682.12 679.60 [9] 679.60 679.60 [9] c12 100 10 534.7 535.1 543.2 534.24 534.24 534.24 534.24 534.24 c13 120 7 648 922.3 [12] 943.66 994.3 896.50 [12] 904.04 896.50 [12] 896.50 [12] 896.50 [12] c14 100 10 936 600.7 597.3 651.9 [12] 591.87 591.87 591.87 [11] 599.83 591.87 [11] f11 71 4 177.0 177.0 179.5 177.00 178.09 175.0 175.00 175.0 f12 134 7 778.6 781.2 825.9 769.66 769.66 769.66 769.66 769.66 3.3. application in vrpspd instances in this sub-section, the computational experiment is conducted on the dethloff benchmark data set classified into sca3, sca8, con3 and con8 sets. in these data sets, sca instances are generated with customers scattered uniformly in the service region of 100_100 and con instances are produced with half of the customers located uniformly in the service region and the other half are concentrated in the interval [100/3,100/3]. the numbers 3 and 8 after sca or con indicate the parameter for determining vehicle capacity. the characteristic of these algorithms are shown in table 3 as details. in this table, c is the number of customers, v represents the number of vehicles and bks indicates the best solution found on the web. besides, the efficiency and performance of the proposed algorithm are compared with tabu search proposed by tang and galvao in 2006 (ts) and large neighborhood search proposed by ropke and pisinger in 2006 (lns). it should be noted that reported results for each instance is the best one over multiple runs, while lns, ts and the proposed algorithm run 10 times for each instance. the reason considering ts and lns in the comparison to ceaco is to draw a conclusion about performances of these meta-heuristics in vrpspd. it is also important to test the performance of the proposed algorithm against the ts and m. ashouri, m. yousefikhoshbakht a combination of meta-heuristic and heuristic algorithms for the vrp, ovrp and vrp with simultaneous pickup and delivery 91 lns since these meta-heuristic algorithms are the most effective algorithms recently proposed in the literature. finally, the results of ceaco shows the best found solution by the proposed algorithm in ten time iteration and gap is the deviation of the proposed ceaco with respect to the bks. the results show that among the 40 instances, the ceaco has produced the high quality results of 5 instances and equaled another 35. therefore, the proposed algorithm demonstrated a consistent performance, since the average gap between the best solutions obtained by ceaco and the bks solutions was only 0.05% with the highest value in all the instances. table 3. results obtained in dethloff’s instances problem c v ceaco ts lns bks gap sca3-0 50 4 635.62 640.55 636.1 635.62 0 sca3-1 50 4 697.84 697.84 697.8 697.84 0 sca3-2 50 4 659.34 659.34 659.3 659.34 0 sca3-3 50 4 680.04 680.04 680.6 680.04 0 sca3-4 50 4 690.50 690.50 690.5 690.50 0 sca3-5 50 4 659.90 659.90 659.9 659.90 0 sca3-6 50 4 651.09 653.81 651.1 651.09 0 sca3-7 50 4 659.17 659.17 666.1 659.17 0 sca3-8 50 4 719.47 719.47 719.5 719.47 0 sca3-9 50 4 681.00 681 681.0 681.00 0 sca8-0 50 9 961.50 981.47 975.1 961.50 0 sca8-1 50 9 1049.65 1077.44 1052.4 1049.65 0 sca8-2 50 9 1042.75 1050.98 1044.5 1039.64 0.29 sca8-3 50 9 983.34 983.34 999.1 983.34 0 sca8-4 50 9 1065.49 1073.46 1065.5 1065.49 0 sca8-5 50 9 1027.08 1047.24 1027.1 1027.08 0 sca8-6 50 9 971.82 995.59 977.0 971.82 0 sca8-7 50 10 1051.28 1068.56 1061.0 1051.28 0 sca8-8 50 9 1071.18 1080.58 1071.2 1071.18 0 sca8-9 50 9 1063.14 1084.8 1060.5 1060.5 0.25 con3-0 50 4 616.52 631.39 616.5 616.52 0 con3-1 50 4 554.47 554.47 554.5 554.47 0 con3-2 50 4 519.99 522.86 521.4 518.00 0.36 con3-3 50 4 591.19 591.19 591.2 591.19 0 con3-4 50 4 588.79 591.12 588.8 588.79 0 con3-5 50 4 563.70 563.70 563.7 563.70 0 con3-6 50 4 499.05 506.19 500.8 499.05 0 con3-7 50 4 576.48 577.68 576.5 576.48 0 con3-8 50 4 523.05 523.05 523.1 523.05 0 con3-9 50 4 578.25 580.05 586.4 578.25 0 con8-0 50 9 860.48 860.48 857.2 857.17 0.39 con8-1 50 9 740.85 740.85 740.9 740.85 0 con8-2 50 9 712.89 723.32 716.0 712.89 0 con8-3 50 9 811.07 811.23 811.1 811.07 0 con8-4 50 9 772.25 772.25 772.3 772.25 0 con8-5 50 9 754.88 756.91 755.7 754.88 0 con8-6 50 9 678.92 678.92 693.1 678.92 0 con8-7 50 9 811.96 814.5 814.8 811.96 0 con8-8 50 9 771.62 775.59 774.0 767.53 0.53 con8-9 50 9 809.00 809 809.3 809.00 0 as can be seen in this table, the proposed algorithm is a competitive approach compared to the lns and ts. on the other hand, it is seen that lns and ts fail to reach the best results for 18 and 23 out of 40 instances, respectively. in 18 instances, both the ceaco and ts are same but, the brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 92 proposed algorithm finds a better solution than ts in other instances. we also conclude that the proposed method has better solution than the lns for eighteen instances and equal solution for twenty one instances. therefore, the best algorithm is eaco among these three algorithms which has found the best known solutions in 87%. in order to test performance of the ceaco, the second data set of problem instances consist of 50 to 199 customers is suggested by salhi and nagy (1999). the cost matrix is found by calculating the euclidean distances between vertices. characteristic of these instances is shown in table 3 in details. in this table, columns 1-4 show the name of instance, problem size c, number of vehicles v, and the best value result of the ceaco. besides columns 5-9 present results of ant colony system (acs) (gajpal & abad, 2009), particle swarm optimization (pso) (ai & kachitvichyanukul, 2009a), parallel iterative local search (pils) (subramanian et al., 2010), a mixed insertion-based heuristics (ma) (dethloff, 2001) and reactive tabu search (rts) (wassan et al., 2008). table 4. comparison between eaco and other meta-heuristic algorithms instance c v eaco acs pso pils ma rts bks cmt1x 50 3 466.77 466.77 467 466.77 501 468.30 466.77 cmt2x 75 6 668.77 684.21 710 684.21 782 668.77 668.77 cmt3x 100 5 721.27 721.40 738 721.27 847 729.63 721.27 cmt4x 150 7 852.46 854.12 912 852.46 1050 876.50 852.46 cmt5x 199 10 1029.25 1034.87 1167 1029.25 1348 1044.51 1029.25 cmt6x 50 6 556.06 584 556.06 556.06 cmt7x 75 11 901.22 961 903.05 901.22 cmt8x 100 9 865.51 928 879.60 865.51 cmt9x 150 15 1199.11 1299 1220.00 1173.44 cmt10x 199 19 1424.06 1571 1464.58 1424.06 cmt11x 120 4 835.26 839.66 895 833.92 959 861.97 835.26 cmt12x 100 5 644.70 663.01 691 662.22 804 844.70 644.70 cmt13x 120 11 1553.89 1576 1647.51 1551.25 cmt14x 100 10 822.97 871 823.95 821.75 cmt1y 50 3 466.77 466.77 467 466.77 501 458.96 466.77 cmt2y 75 6 663.25 684.94 710 684.21 782 663.25 663.25 cmt3y 100 5 721.27 721.40 740 721.27 847 745.46 721.27 cmt4y 150 7 852.35 855.76 913 852.46 1050 870.44 852.35 cmt5y 199 10 1037.34 1037.34 1142 1029.25 1348 1054.46 1029.25 cmt6y 50 6 556.68 584 558.17 556.68 cmt7y 75 11 901.22 961 903.36 901.22 cmt8y 100 9 865.68 936 917.42 865.68 cmt9y 150 15 1192.74 1299 1213.11 1171.95 cmt10y 199 19 1439.28 1571 1419.79 1419.79 cmt11y 120 4 830.39 840.19 900 833.92 1070 830.39 830.39 cmt12y 100 5a 659.52 663.50 697 662.22 825 659.52 659.52 cmt13y 120 11 1575.67 1576 1647.04 1547.75 cmt14y 100 10 822.35 871 823.34 822.35 finally, the column 10 shows the best known solutions (bks). this table shows that the proposed algorithm can be used to solve vrpspd effectively and the ceaco has produced the high quality results of 21 instances among the 28 instances. furthermore, it can be seen that among these test problems, the maximum relative error is around 2% and the average relative error is less than 0.5%. in more details, the results show that the ma and pso are not powerful algorithms for solving instances of vrpspd and gains worse or equal solutions compared to the ceaco for all m. ashouri, m. yousefikhoshbakht a combination of meta-heuristic and heuristic algorithms for the vrp, ovrp and vrp with simultaneous pickup and delivery 93 instances. besides, the ceaco gains worse solutions than the rts in cmt1y and cmt10y, but it gains better or equal solutions than this algorithm in other problems. furthermore, the results indicate that although the pils obtains a better solution than the ceaco for cmt11x, this algorithm cannot maintain this advantage in the rest of the examples and the proposed algorithm yields better or equal solutions than this algorithm for other instances. moreover, the computational experiments also show that in general the proposed algorithm produces better results compared to acs algorithms in terms of the quality of the solution and could find better solutions for 9 of the 14 instances. 4. conclusion in this paper, we have proposed a combined effective ant colony optimization (ceaco) for solving vrp, ovrp and vrpspd problems. in this algorithm, a new state transition rule, a pheromone updating rule and three local search methods are used to improve the aco in order to find better solutions. furthermore, the lin-kernigan local search algorithm is applied when the best found solution until now is changed during running algorithm. a wide numerical experiment is performed on benchmark of these problems available in the literature. computational results demonstrate that our algorithm has proven to be highly competitive in terms of quality of the solutions and is effective compared to other meta-heuristics. it seems that combining the proposed algorithm with strong other meta-heuristic algorithms can lead to better results for the proposed algorithm. besides, some complex vrpsdp with more constraints such as time windows and multi-depots are a lot of research work in this field. acknowledgement the authors would like to acknowledge the malayer branch, islamic azad university for the financial support of this work. references ai, t. j. & kachitvichyanukul, v. (2009). a particle swarm optimization for the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery, computers & operations research, 36(5), 16931702. avci, m. & topaloglu, s. (2016). a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm for heterogeneous vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery, expert systems with applications, 53, 160-171. baker, b., and ayechew, m. (2003). a genetic algorithm for the vehicle routing problem. computers and operations research, vol. 30, pp. 787–800. bortfeldt, a. (2012). a hybrid algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem with threedimensional loading constraints. computers & operations research, 39(9), pp. 2248-2257. cai, b.b. & zhang, x. h. (2010). hybrid quantum genetic algorithm and its application in vrp, journal of computer simulation, 7, p.068. catay, b. (2010). a new saving based ant algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery, expert systems with applications, 37, 6809–6817. cruz, r. c., silva, t. c. b. d., souza, m. j., coelho, v. n., mine, m. t., & martins, a. x. (2012). genvns-ts-cl-pr: a heuristic approach for solving the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery. electronic notes in discrete mathematics, 39, 217-224. dethloff, j. (2001). vehicle routing and reverse logistics: the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous delivery and pick-up, or spektrum, 23(1), 79-96. emmanouil, e. z., christos, d. t., & chris. t. k. (2009). a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous delivery and pick-up service, expert systems with applications, 36(2), 1070-1081. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 94 goksal, f. p., karaoglan, i. & altiparmak, f. (2013). a hybrid discrete particle swarm optimization for vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery, computers & industrial engineering, 65(1), 39-53. larki, h. & yousefikhoshbakht, m. (2014). solving the multiple traveling salesman problem by a novel meta-heuristic algorithm, journal of optimization in industrial engineering, 7(16), 55-63. letchford, a.n., lysgaard, j., & eglese, r.w. (2007). a branch-and-cut algorithm for the capacitated open vehicle routing problem. journal of the operational research society 58: 1642-1651. marinakis, y. & marinaki, m. (2010). a hybrid genetic – particle swarm optimization algorithm for the vehicle routing problem. expert systems with applications, vol. 37, no. 33, pp. 11461455. mirhassani, s.a. & abolghasemi, n. (2011). a particle swarm optimization algorithm for open vehicle routing problem. expert systems with applications 38(9): 11547-11551. repoussis, p.p., tarantilis, c.d., bräysy, o., & ioannou, g. (2010). a hybrid evolution strategy for the open vehicle routing problem. computers & operations research 37 (3): 443-455. ropke, s. & pisinger, d. (2004). a unified heuristic for a large class of vehicle routing problems with backhauls, technical report 2004/14, university of copenhagen. salhi, s. & nagy, g. (1999). a cluster insertion heuristic for single and multiple depot vehicle routing problems with backhauling. journal of the operational research society, 50(10), 1034-1042. schrage, l. (1981) formulation and structure of more complex/ realistic routing and scheduling problems, networks, 11, 229–232. sedighpour, m., ahmadi, v., yousefikhoshbakht, m., didehvar, f., & rahmati, f. (2014). solving the open vehicle routing problem by a hybrid ant colony optimization. kuwait journal of science, 41(3), 139-162. subramanian, a., drummonda, l. m. a., bentes, c., ochi, l. s., & farias, r. (2010). a parallel heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery. computers & operations research, 37, 1899–1911. tang, f. a. & galvao, r. d. (2006) a tabu search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pick-up and delivery service. computers and operations research, 33(3), 595– 619. teoh, b. e., ponnambalam, s. g., & kanagaraj, g. (2015). differential evolution algorithm with local search for capacitated vehicle routing problem. international journal of bio-inspired computation, 7(5), pp.321-342. wang, y. (2010), solving capacitated vehicle routing problem by cellular ant algorithm, journal of information & computational science, 9, 2295-2304. wassan, n. a., wassan, a. h., & nagy, g. (2008). a reactive tabu search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickups and deliveries. journal of combinatorial optimization, 15(4), 368–386. yousefikhoshbakht, m. & dolatnejad, a. (2016) an efficient combined meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem. brain, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 7(3), pp.125-138. yousefikhoshbakht, m., didehvar, f. & rahmati, f. (2014). an efficient solution for the vrp by using a hybrid elite ant system. international journal of computers communications & control, 9(3), pp.340-347. m. ashouri, m. yousefikhoshbakht a combination of meta-heuristic and heuristic algorithms for the vrp, ovrp and vrp with simultaneous pickup and delivery 95 yousefikhoshbakht, m., sedighpour, m., & mahmoodabadi, e. (2011). a modified elite aco based avoiding premature convergence for traveling salesman problem. journal of industrial engineering international, 7(15), pp. 68-75. zachariadis, e. e. & kiranoudis, c. t. (2010). an open vehicle routing problem metaheuristic for examining wide solution neighborhoods. computers & operations research 37(4): 712723. zhang, x. & tang, l. (2009). a new hybrid ant colony optimization algorithm for the vehicle routing problem. pattern recognition letters, vol. 30, no. 152, pp. 848–855. zhao, y.w., peng, d.j., zhang, j.l., & wu, b. (2009). quantum evolutionary algorithm for capacitated vehicle routing problem. systems engineering-theory & practice, 29(2), pp.159-166. majid yousefikhoshbakht was born in iran, in 1982. he received his b.sc. degree in mathematics from bu-ali sina university, hamedan, iran, in 2006, m.sc. and ph.d. degrees from amirkabir university of technology, tehran, iran, in 2007 and 2014, respectively. currently, he is an assistant professor in the department of the mathematics, bu-ali sina university, hamedan, iran. his research interests include combinatorial optimization problems and artificial intelligence. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 29 studies and research on caffeine content of various products maria poroch-serițan ”ștefan cel mare” university of suceava, faculty of food engineering, romania universitatii street, 13 no, 720229, suceava, romania, tel. +4 0230 216 147 mariap@fia.usv.ro cristina beatrice michitiuc master graduate faculty of food engineering,”ștefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania universitatii street, 13 no, 720229, suceava, romania, tel. +4 0230 216 147 m_crysss@yahoo.com mihaela jarcău ”ștefan cel mare” university of suceava, faculty of food engineering, romania universitatii street, 13 no, 720229, suceava, romania, tel. +4 0230 216 147 mihaela.jarcau@fia.usv.ro abstract caffeine is a pharmacologically active component of many foods, beverages, dietary supplements and drugs. coffee and tea are among the best-known beverages in the world. most people on a global scale consume coffee daily because of their caffeine-rich content. in addition to the benefits it exerts on the human body, it also has some negative aspects: some medical conditions require a restricted caffeine diet, some drugs cannot perform their pharmacological action in the presence of caffeine, it producing addiction. to overcome these aspects, people can replace normal coffee with decaffeinated coffee or black tea. the present study has as main objective the study of the caffeine content of different brands of coffee and black tea on the romanian market. for the study, analyzes were made on different traditional brands and the data obtained were then compared with those obtained for decaffeinated coffee and black tea. it was found that the highest content of coffee was p1 (0.89%), followed by sample p2 (0.46%) and sample p3 (0.22%). for decaffeinated coffee, the smallest quantity is found in sample p5 (0.01%), p4 having a higher content (0.21%). it can be said that black tea is a good substitute for coffee because the caffeine's found values are closer to those present in classic coffee, having a percentage of 0.18%. keywords: caffeine, uv/ vis spectrophotometric method, coffe, tea 1. introduction caffeine (1,3,7-trimethyl-2,6-purindione or, in short, 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) is a methylxanthine-containing purine alkaloid present in the leaves, seeds or fruits of over 63 species of plants around the world, where it acts as a natural pesticide that paralyzes and kills insects feeding on the plant (wanyika et al., 2010). the most common sources of caffeine are coffee, cocoa beans, cola nuts and tea leaves. coffee is, after water and tea, the most consumed drink in the world and has a great cultural, social and economic importance. coffee can be a spice when added to different products, but in most cases it is consumed as a drink to satisfy sensory pleasures and its stimulating effects (bulancea, 2002). coffee has a stimulating effect on the central nervous system, muscle activity and thermogenic effect, it improves visual acuity, and has rapid laxative effect and it is an important diuretic etc.; but regular consumption in large quantities also induces negative consequences such as the promotion of cardiovascular disease, increased gastric secretions, insomnia, etc. (bulancea, 2002), (lascu, 2008). tea is tonic, digestive, diuretic and sudorific (lascu, 2008). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 30 the chemical composition of coffee (caffeine, chlorogenic acids, lipids, sucrose, fats and proteins) oscillates widely, depending on a number of factors, the most important being: geographical origin, species, processing technology, beverage preparation, etc. (bulancea, 2002, franca et al., 2002, wanyika et al., 2010, perrois et al., 2015). caffeine, the bioactive substance in coffee and black tea causes a vasodilatory effect in the vessels of the muscles and increases the force of contraction of the striated muscles by increasing the levels of free fatty acids and plasma glucose, thus reducing the balance of fluids in the body, stimulating the nervous system, of gastric peristalsis and gastrointestinal secretions (wanyika et al., 2010). in the cerebral cortex, it has a psychostimulatory effect, it increases attention, it makes intellectual work easier and a more perfect association of ideas with a better appreciation of sensory stimuli in humans; it has no euphoric effect and does not produce addiction as amphetamine, and at the level of vital bulb centers there is an analeptic effect (stimulation of the respiratory center), stimulation of the vasomotor center (vasoconstriction in certain vascular areas, which can return to normal low blood pressure). caffeine is also used in pure form for the preparation of energy drinks as well as in the pharmaceutical industry, in combination with other substances (antipyretic analgesics to enhance their effect) (health line, 2008). over three cups of coffee per day (a cup containing approximately 150 mg of caffeine), coffee consumption can cause to more sensitive people the acceleration of the pulse, tremors, insomnia and high blood pressure. it can also cause benign (non-cancerous) damage to the breasts and may aggravate premenstrual symptoms to women who use it excessively. caffeine crosses the placenta and enters the fetal circulation, and its pharmacological use has been associated with a low birth weight. excessive drinking during breastfeeding can cause irritability and wakefulness in a breastfed child (wanyika et al., 2010). an excessive caffeine intake in some people seems to increase the sensitivity of the heart to emotional factors and other factors and thus it increases the incidence of additional systole and other arrhythmias. to reduce such inconvenience, decaffeinated coffee may be used. the present study has as main objective the study of the caffeine content of different brands of coffee (with caffeine and decaffeinated) and black tea on the romanian market. 2. materials and methods 2.1. materials different brands of coffee of the two species (arabica and robusta) and black tea were collected from the local market in suceava, romania. the coffee (5 of which two without caffeine) and the tea samples were kept at room temperature throughout the analysis. all reagents were of analytical reagent grade (sigma-aldrich) and all solutions were prepared using distilled water. 2.2. standard solutions for uv/vis spectrophotometry method caffeine stock solution (400 ppm) was prepared by dissolving 40.00 mg caffeine (anhydrous) in 100 ml of distilled water. 0, 4, 8, 16, 24 and 32 ppm caffeine working solutions were prepared by serial dilution of the stock in 25 ml volumetric flasks with addition of 1.0 ml hcl 0.01 m before topping to the mark with distilled water (aznar, 2011). a calibration curve was constructed before analysis of the samples. deionized water was used as the blank. caffeine is directly analyzed by measuring the absorbance at the wavelength of 273.5 nm with a uv vis nir spectrophotometer (shimadzu, model 3600, japan) from the research laboratory of the faculty of food engineering of suceava (poroch-seriţan, 2016). 2.3. sample preparation approximately 0.30 g sample (coffee / tea) is refluxed with 200 ml distilled water for 15 minutes and then the solution is filtered hot, finally adding 5g na2co3. extraction of caffeine is accomplished by treating the filtrate twice with 15 ml chloroform by gentle agitation for a few minutes. the chloroform extracts were combined by adding small amounts of na2so4, then filtered m. poroch-serițan, c. b. michitiuc, m. jarcău studies and research on caffeine content of various products 31 and brought to dryness. once the chloroform is removed, 50 ml distilled water is added and shaken well until complete dissolution is then carried out quantitatively in a 100 ml volumetric flask with distilled water. finally, over 10 ml of this last solution add 1 ml of 0.01 m hydrochloric acid and make up to 25 ml with distilled water (after aznar, 2011). the caffeine levels of the samples were calculated from the regression equation of the best line of fit of the standards with the formula: y = 0.0601, r2 = 0.9991. 3. results and discussion the caffeine content varies widely depending on the type of coffee, the method of roasting green beans and the way the beverages are prepared. in general, roasted coffee has less caffeine because the roasting process reduces the caffeine content of the coffee bean (bulancea, 2002; franca et al., 2002; wanyika et al., 2010; perrois et al., 2015). during roasting, coffee beans lose weight due to the evaporation of water and the decomposition of some of the substances they contain, losing up to 16-18%. this explains that during the roasting the coffee components are modified and a volume increase of the coffee beans is also achieved, up to 25%. it is also noted that about 50% of the weight loss of coffee beans (during the roasting process) is due to water evaporation, and the difference is the decomposition of organic substances, especially sugar, cellulose and caffeic acid. the content of caffeine in roasted coffee decreases very little, due to the sublimation of this substance during the roasting of the green coffee. as green coffee loses an important amount of water, the caffeine content of roasted coffee beans is close to the content of this coffee bean, sometimes even higher (măndiţă, 2002). coffee and tea contain cellulose, which is the main structural material of all plant cells and is insoluble in water. due to this property, cellulose does not raise problems in the process of separating the active principle caffeine. the active compounds in plants with polyphenolic structure and with some common properties are tannins or antioxidants (coffee and tea antioxidants have high absorption in the human body), usually divided into two groups: those that can be hydrolysed (pyrogallol or acid gallic) with water and those that can not be hydrolyzed or are hydrolysed with difficulty (condensed tannins or proanthocyanidins) (aznar, 2011). caffeine is perfectly soluble in hot water so it can be extracted efficiently. caffeine passes into the aqueous solution but also accompanied by other organic compounds that are also soluble in hot water, especially tannins. when tannins are extracted with hot water, some of these compounds are partially hydrolysed to form gallic acid. the chemical treatment of vegetable fruits (tea, coffee, etc.) with a base such as sodium carbonate converts acidic tannins into the respective sodium salts which are highly soluble in water by its ionic character. although caffeine is water-soluble, it is more soluble in chloroform and therefore it can be extracted with this organic solvent, while the sodium salts of gallic acid and tannins remain in the aqueous phase. thus, the extraction of the basic solution with chloroform separates almost pure caffeine. anhydrous sodium sulphate acts by removing the salt and all water-soluble salts that are still retained in the organic solvent (organic layer) or accidentally transferred by decantation. the organic solvent can be easily removed by evaporation or by distillation to obtain caffeine. chloroform was used because of the high solubility of most organic compounds and its low boiling point (62°c) (aznar, 2011). figure 1 show the absorption spectrum of the standard 16 ppm caffeine solution in the wavelength range between 300 and 220 nm, where it was found that in the uv range at the wavelength of 273.5 nm, caffeine has a maximum absorption. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 32 figure 1. the absorption spectrum of the standard 16 ppm caffeine solution concentrations of caffeine from different coffee brands (p1 p5) and black tea (p6) respectively are represented in percent, and the variation of each compared to the others is shown in figure 2. the diagram shows differences in caffeine concentration from the 6 samples depending on the type of analysis sample (coffee with caffeine p1, p2, p3, decaffeinated coffee p4, p5 or tea p6) and coffee (arabica and robusta). figure 2. the caffeine content of the analyzed samples m. poroch-serițan, c. b. michitiuc, m. jarcău studies and research on caffeine content of various products 33 it can be seen that the highest caffeine content of the studied coffee samples has p1 (0.89% caffeine), followed by sample p2 (0.46% caffeine) and sample p3 (0.22% caffeine). in terms of decaffeinated coffee, the smallest quantity is found in the p5 sample (0.01% caffeine), while sample p4 has a higher caffeine content (0.21% caffeine). the p6 black tea sample contains 0.18% caffeine. according to some reseachers, green or roasted natural coffee has a caffeine content of between 0.8% and 2.4%, depending on the species. hečimović et al. (2011), as well as other researchers, concluded that arabica contains little caffeine, with values between 0.7% and 1.5%. in aznar’s (2011) study of 32 coffee samples, the caffeine content was between 0.88% and 1.60%. considering these studies, we can say that the p1 sample with 0.89% caffeine content falls within the upper limits of the literature, while the p3 sample containing 0.22% of caffeine is slightly below the limits. some of these coffee types have different countries of origin so that the caffeine levels found may vary depending on the place of origin. also, in the absence of more information on its characteristics, some of these commercial coffe varieties may be blends of robusta and arabica so that the first variety could increase caffeine concentration because it has a higher content. in support of the possibility of being a mixture comes the fact that p2 has a low caffeine content of 0.46% caffeine, when it was actually a robusta coffee and should have had a higher caffeine content compared to the other analyzed samples. the literature suggests a caffeine content of between 2% and 3.5% in the robusta coffee category (bondesson, 2015). the purpose of decoffining is to produce a coffee that keeps its taste and flavor, but has a very low caffeine content. european legislation permits the labeling of coffee (www.healthline.com/search?q1=caffeine, directive 77/436/eec, directive 79/112/eec, directive 85/573/eec, hotărîre 206/11.03.2009) as decaffeinated if its maximum caffeine content does not exceed 0.12%. from figure 2, it can be seen that only sample p5 complies with the law, with a very low caffeine content of 0.1%. in contrast, sample p4 has a caffeine content of 0.21%. although it is not a high caffeine content, it exceeds the admissible limits. before making any further statements, it should be noted that this non-compliance may be a consequence of the extraction method at the decaffeination stage during which a very rigorous procedure is required for the remaining caffeine content to be extremely low. in the aznar’s study (2011) on two types of decaffeinated coffee, concentrations of 0.21% and 0.39% of caffeine were obtained. the interesting fact is that the p4 sample has almost the same caffeine content as sample p3, respectively 0.21%, compared to 0.22%, as shown in figure 2. in terms of black tea p6, it contains 0.18% caffeine content and it can be said that there are no big differences in caffeine content of normal coffee p3 (0.22%), decaffeinated coffee p4 (0.21%) and black tea p6 (0.18%). therefore, black tea (0.18% caffeine) is an important source of caffeine, and in some studies, quantities of caffeine in black tea are even higher in the range: 1.5% to 3.3% caffeine (yashin et al., 2015). 4. conclusion coffee and tea are beverages of great cultural, social and economic importance throughout the world. these drinks, depending on the concentration in their active principle caffeine, have numerous benefits for the human body, but also a number of harmful effects. in this study, a high caffeine content in the p1 sample (0.89%) was determined, followed by sample p2 (0.46%) and sample p3 (0.22%). in terms of decaffeinated coffee, the smallest quantity is found in the assortment of sample p5 (0.01%), while in sample p4 there was a high content (0.21%) for decaffeinated coffee. with a caffeine content of 0.18%, black tea is a good substitute for coffee, taking into account that caffeine's found values are close to those found in caffeine coffee. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 34 references aznar s.c., proyecto final de carrera, (2011). “determinación analítica de la cafeína en diferentes productos comerciales” pfc presentado para optar al título de ingeniería técnica industrial especialidad química, barcelona, 12 de junio de 2011. bondesson e., (2015). a nutritional analysis on the byproduct coffee husk and its potential utilization in food production – a literature study, faculty of natural resources and agricultural sciences department of food science, independent project in food science, bachelor thesis, 15 hec, ground g2e, online publication: http://stud.epsilon.slu.se. bulancea m, (2002). autentificarea, expertizarea și identificarea falsificărilor produselor alimentare, editura academica, 167 – 164. european council directive of 27 june 1977 on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to coffee extracts and chicory extracts (77/436/eec), http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:31977l0436&from=en, visited in 8.10.2017. european council directive of 18 december 1978 on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs for sale to the ultimate consumer (79/112/eec), http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:31979l0112&from=en, visited in 8.10.2017. european council directive of 19 december 1985 amending directive 77143&/eec on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to coffee extracts and chicory extracts (85 /573/eec), https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail//publication/92b0f2a8-b61b-4664-a9e7-ada3fdf39c46/language-en, visited in 8.10.2017. franca a.s., oliveira l.s., vitorino m.d., (2002). efeito da taxa de aquecimento na evolução da perda de massa e teor de umidade de grãos de café durante a torra, revista brasileira de armazenamento, especial café, 4:3 – 8 health :line (2017). search results for “cafeine”, https://www.healthline.com/search?q1=cafeine, visited in 8.10.2017. hečimović i., belščak-cvitanović a., horžić d., komes d., (2011). comparative study of polyphenols and caffeine in different coffee varieties affected by the degree of roasting, food chemistry, 129:991 – 1000. hotărâre nr. 206, din 11.03.2009, cu privire la aprobarea reglementării tehnice „cafea. extracte de cafea şi de cicoare. ceaiuri şi produse de ceai”, http://lex.justice.md/md/331078/, visited in 8.10.2017. lascu d. (trans.) (2008). enciclopedia alimentelor, bucurești: all. măndiță d, (2002). fructe exotice, stimulente, condimente naturale ghid pentru agenți comerciali, editura tehnică, bucurești. perrois c., strickler s.r., mathieu g., lepelley m., bedon l., michaux s., husson j., mueller l., privat i., differential regulation of caffeine metabolism in coffea arabica (arabica) and coffea canephora (robusta), (2015). planta, 241:179 – 191. poroch–serițan m., (2016). metode și tehnici moderne de analiză a depunerilor galvanice de nichel și a aliajelor sale, bucureşti: politehnica press. yashin a.y., nemzer b.v., combet aspray e., yashin y.i., (2015). determination of the chemical composition of tea by chromatographic methods: a review. journal of food research, 4(3):56 87. wanyika h. n., gatebe e. g., gitu l. m., ngumba e. k., maritim c. w., (2010). determination of caffeine content of tea and instant coffee brands found in the kenyan market, african journal of food science, 4(6):353 – 358. m. poroch-serițan, c. b. michitiuc, m. jarcău studies and research on caffeine content of various products 35 maria poroch-serițan is doctor of science and materials engineering, associated professor of ”ștefan cel mare” university of suceava, faculty of food engineering, romania. she delivers lectures in general, material science, food science and other disciplines oriented bioengineering specialties. maria poroch-serițan is the author of more than 47 publications including the specialties books on material and food science. she current research interests include food chemistry. cristina beatrice michitiuc is a graduate of the faculty of food engineering of the "ştefan cel mare" university of suceava, the food science control and expertise program. she also attended master's degree studies hygiene management, quality control of food products and health insurance population at the faculty of food engineering, 2017 promotion. she is tüv certified on the iso 9001 quality management system. she is currently interested in nutrition and food quality. mihaela jarcău is doctor in physics, lecturer of ”ștefan cel mare” university of suceava, faculty of food engineering, romania from 2011. she delivers lectures in physics, starting teaching in 1990, phd in physics and master's degree in policies and educational management at "al. i. cuza "iasi, faculty of psychology and education sciences, trainer in counseling and guidance, methodist in physics, trainer in quality assurance, following the graduation of courses organized by aracip. mihaela jarcău is the author of more than 20 scientific publications. microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 83 modular versus unitary (non-modular) views on the brain and mind minoo alemi sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran alemi@sharif.ir parisa daftarifard islamic azad university (science and research branch), islamic republic of iran pdaftaryfard@yahoo.com abstract this article aims at delineating the two distinguished paradigms as far as their views towards learning in general and language in particular are concerned. moreover, it attempts to discuss different views on the flaws and praises raised by each of their proponents and opponents. therefore, the purpose of this article is not to claim anything in favor of either view. to this end, this article reviews brain and mind issues as well as modularity and non-modularity views. keywords: brain, mind, modularity views, nonmodularity views 1. introduction psychology as an ancient rooted disciplinary, over 100 years old (anderson, 1995) [1], has been facing many challenges swinging between behavioristic and cognitivistic paradigms to describe and explain its most entranced applied multidisciplinary science of second language acquisition (sla). once the mundane behaviorally oriented tradition focuses on animal learning (behavioristic view towards learning rejecting the role of mind, pre-chomskyan), then the applauded cognitively oriented tradition focuses on human learning (chomskyan and postchomskyan view towards language) and now more empirically oriented novelty focuses on neurological based learning. while the first view towards language learning is outdated, the second and last views are challenging to win the paradigm for settling the sla problems, probably if they can. now, two latter epistemologically different views on learning are challenging over modularity and non-modularity nature of mind. this article aims at delineating the two distinguished paradigms as far as their views towards learning in general and language in particular are concerned. moreover, it attempts to discuss different views on the flaws and praises raised by each of their proponents and opponents. therefore, the purpose of this article is not to claim anything in favor of either view. to this end, this article reviews the following sections: 1. brain and mind issues 2. modularity and non-modularity views 2. brain and mind issues there are two philosophical approaches towards brain and mind relationship. one proposes that the relationship between the mind and brains analogous to the relationship between the hardware and software of a computer (functionalism). another one views brain and mind as identical (materialism). these different views resulted in the advent of two different ontological views towards brain and mind. the former refers to functionalism and the latter is named as materialism (andrade and may, 2004) [2]. in functionalism, "mental processes and states are functional, that is, they cause input information to be transformed into output information or behavior" (andrade and may, 2004, p.2) [2]. however, materialism, the alternative approach, views mind and brain as identical. accordingly, human thought and behavior can be understood by studying neural activity in the brain. while functionalist explains information processing through observing human behavior, the second view focuses on "neural anatomy and biochemistry." brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 84 3. modularity and non-modularity views under the influence of two schools of thought in philosophy, as mentioned above, two approaches to study language learning have emerged: one viewing mind as a uniform system and one looking at the mind as a set of autonomous systems or modules that function mostly independent of one another (fodor, 1983) [8]. the latter assigns a separate module for language and language learning named as "language faculty" (chomsky, 1986 cited in gregg, 1996 a) [10]. although these two approaches are different from each other, there is a near-consensus among the proponents of each school of thought as to the questions are trying to address: what is the nature of language to be learned and how it is acquired? and in the case modularity be real, is second language acquisition (sla) modular? or is first language acquisition (fla) modular but sla is non-modular? 4. modularity view on learning (mind) as mentioned above, modularity approach holds the idea that mind, like brain, consists of separate autonomous parts each with different responsibilities. according to brase (2002, p.3) [3] the concept of " multi modular mind" refers to the idea that "mind is a collection of cognitive adaptations, or modules, that have been naturally selected over evolutionary history in response to specific adaptive problems faced by our ancestors." elsewhere, fodor (1983) [8] assigned two features of domain specificity and content dependence to mind. domain specificity refers to the aspects of the world in which the particular module is applied. by content dependence he meant that each module is assigned to a job; each module is "hard-wired to particular input source." also, sperber (2002) [15] defined cognitive module as a genetically specified computational device in mind whose job is content and domain specific. among these modules, one module is assigned to and responsible for the first language learning which is called "language faculty" or "ug." chomsky (1988, p.68 cited in flynn, 1996) [7] mentioned: the initial state of the language faculty consists of a collection of subsystems, or modules as they are called, each of which is based on certain very general principles. each of these principles admits of a very limited possibility of variation. we may think of the system as a complex network, associated with a switch box that contains a finite number of switches. the network is invariant, but each switch can be in one of two positions, on or off. unless the switches are set, nothing happens. but when the switches are set in one of the permissible ways, the system functions, yielding the entire array of interpretations for linguistic expressions. a slight change in switch settings can yield complex and varied phenomenal consequences as its effects filter through the network. to acquire a language, the child's mind must determine how the switches are. (p.125) chomsky tried to describe the way ug as an autonomous module works in first language acquisition through principles and parameters. while principles are invariant and parameters function as switches. however, the question is that whether the concept of modularity can be applied in l2 learning or not. gregg (1996a, and 1996b) [10] defined modularity in l2 and discussed different positions on the role of ug in l2 acquisition. accordingly, there are two main positions regarding the contribution of language faculty in second language learning: one holds that ug is not directly involved in l2 acquisition and the other one views ug as a causal factor in second language learning. the first position, which is called deism, refers to nonmodularity approach which will be discussed later. the latter is called theism. theism claims that either there is no difference between fla and sla (the strong version) or ug operates in sla as well (the weak view). what actually differentiates weak from strong theism is that in the former ug as well as first language knowledge (l1 ) interference play role while in the latter there is no interference. elsewhere, white (1996) [16] described three possible relations between l1 and second language knowledge (l2). these are (1) same competence, same m. alemi, p. daftarifard modular versus unitary (non-modular) views on the brain and mind 85 means of acquisition, (2) different competence, different means of acquisition, and (3) different competence, same means of acquisition. she provided evidence for each of these three possible relationships. also, flynn (1996) [7] proposes three different possibilities for accessibility to ug as full access, partial access, and no access. another explanation in favor of modularity is restructuring and the notion of u-shaped performance in l2 learning (mclaughlin and heredia, 1996) [13]. u-shape behavior means that once an occurred correct form might appear in wrong form through restructuring. in this view, practice can lead to improvement in performance to an automated one or it may lead to restructuring and overgeneralization. 5. non-modularity view on learning (mind) there are both implicit and explicit denials of modularity approach towards learning. when learning is as a general processing irrespective of objective modularity assumption of the mind is rejected implicitly. there is a surge of research that explicitly deny the plausibility of modularity on the ground that modularity is an abstract improvable model of "boxes and arrows." according to gasser (1990, p.2) [9], traditional modular view "suffers from a very unhuman-like brittleness" and is very symbolic. there is no single version of non-modularity; actually, there are a trend of research whose focus is learning in general not for language. the nonmodular models include: connectionism (gasser 1990) [9], parallel distributed processing (for example, rumelhart, pdp research groups cited in gregg, 1996a) [10], general nativism (o'grady, 1998) [14], and evolutionary connectionism (calabretta & parisi, 2001) [4] each of which will be explained below. according to connectionism view, mind is a more homogeneous system that basically genetically inherits only a general capacity to learn from experience. for connectionism mind is not symbol manipulation and is not a computational system but is the global result of the many interactions taking place in a network of neurons modeled with an artificial neural network and consists entirely of quantitative processes in which physico-chemical causes produce physicochemical effects. chomsky believes that the mind is computational and that there is a specific mental module specialized for language (or for syntax) but he does not believe that language in humans has emerged under some specific evolutionary pressure; connectionism does (fodor, 1983) [8]. connectionism is generally associated with an empiricist position that considers all of mind as the result of learning and experience during life. it is also empiricist in that any claim in this model can be tested and falsified (dilworht, 2005) [5]. connectionism is also anti-innatist in that, it thinks that even if something changes during development it is due not to learning and experience but to some "temporal scheduling encoded in the genetically inherited information" (calabretta and parisi, 2001, p.6) [4]. connectionism, unlike modular models which are anti-developmentalist, is developmental. this means that modules are not present in the phenotype from birth, i.e., in newborns or in infants, but develop later in life and, furthermore, they believe that modules are only very partially encoded in the genotype but are the result of complex interactions between genetically encoded information and learning and experience. current connectionist models, also referred to as neural networks and parallel distributed processing (pdp) models, are related to the work of neuroscientists and computer scientists in the 1940s and 1950s (mcculloch & pitts, 1943 ; rosenblatt, 1962 ), who were interested in the computational power of networks of simple neuron-like processing units. another connectionist model is evolutionary connectionism which does not deny the existence of modules which are as a result of development and learning rather than being innate (calabretta & parisi, 2001) [4]. 6. non-modular models common feature most connectionist models share the following basic features: 1. the system’s memory consists of a network of simple processing units joined by weighted brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 86 connections which determine the degree to which the unit at the source end of the connection activates or inhibits the unit at the destination end of the connection. 2. the behavior of units is based on neurons. they sum the inputs they receive on connections and compute an activation, which is a function of the total input, and an output, which is a function of the activation. 3. in learning models, these weights are adjusted as a consequence of processing. 4. processing is parallel. in most traditional models, as in conventional computers, decisions and actions are made one at a time. in connectionist models, as in the brain, there is activity in many places simultaneously. 7. conclusion the advent of non-modular view is followed by the dissatisfaction with the achievements of classical symbolic models of cognition (gasser, 1990) [9]. however, nonmodularity failed to answer one of the key questions raised by sla, i.e., what is language? modularity is believed to be a symbolic paradigm (gasser, 1990 [9] as well as calabretta & parisi, 2001 [4]), an innateness driven approach (calabretta & parisi, 2001 [4] as well as gregg, 1996b [10]), a computational approach towards language learning (gasser, 1990 [9]; o'grady, 1998 [14]), an antidevelopmentalist approach (calabretta & parisi, 2001) [4], and a grammar based model (o'grady, 1998) [14]. on the opposite, nonmodular approach as connectionism, although vast in variety, is believed to be a subsymbolic paradigm (gasser, 1990) [9], an anti-innatist driven model (calabretta & parisi, 2001 [4]; gregg, 1996b [10]), a developmentalist (calabretta &parisi, 2001) [4], and a rule based approach (gregg, 1996 [10]). the incommensurable nature of these two approaches shows the advent of the possibility of a paradigm shift in the epistemological as well as ontological view towards language and language learning. 8. references [1] anderson, j. r. (1995). learning and memory, an integrated approach. us: john eiley and sons, inc. [2] andrade, j, & may, j. (2004). cognitive psychology. london: bios scientific publishers. [3] brase, g. l. (2002). mental modularity, metaphors, and the marriage of evolutionary and cognitive sciences. cognitive processing, 3 (4), 3-17. [4] calabretta, r., & parisi, d. (2001). evolutionary connectionism and min/brain modularity. modularity: understanding the development and evolution of complex natural systems. cambridge: the mit press. [5] dilworht, j. (2005). the reflexive theory of perception. behavior and philosophy, 33, 17-40. [6] ellis, n. c. (2003). construction, chunking, and connectionism: the emergence of second language structure. in c. doughty & m. h. long (eds.), the handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 63-103). new york: blackwell. [7] flynn, s. (1996). a parameter-setting approach to second language acquisition. . in w. ritchie & t. k. bhatia (eds.), handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 121-158). new york: academic press. [8] fodor, j. a. (1983). the modularity of mind. cambridge: the mit press. [9] gasser, m. (1990). connectionism and universals of second language acquisition. studies in second language acquisition, 12, 179-199. [10] gregg, k. r. (1996). the logical developmental problems of second language acquisition. in w. ritchie & bhatia t. k. (eds.), handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 49-81). new york: academic press. [11] gregg, k. r. (1996). sla theory: construction and assessment. in c. doughty & m. h. long (eds.), the handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 831-865). new york: blackwell. [12] mclaughlin, b. (1987). theories of second-language learning. new york: edward arnold. [13] mclaughlin b., & heredia, r. (1996). information processing approaches to research on m. alemi, p. daftarifard modular versus unitary (non-modular) views on the brain and mind 87 second language acquisition and use. in w. ritchie & t. k. bhatia (eds.), handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 213-228). new york: academic press. [14] o'grady, w. (1998). the radical middle: nativism without universal grammar. in c. doughty & m. long (eds.), the handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 43-62). new york: blackwell. [15] sperber, d. (2002). in defense of massive modularity. in e. dupoux (ed.), language, brain and cognitive development: essays in honor of jacques mehler (pp. 47-57). cambridge: mit press. [16] white, l. (1996). universal grammar and second language acquisition: current trends and new direction. in w. ritchie & t. k. bhatia (eds.), handbook of second language acquisition (pp.85120). new york: academic press. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 71 is the gaze behavior during stair walking affected by pregnancy? marta gimunová faculty of sports studies, masaryk university, brno, czech republic žerotínovo nám. 617/9, 601 77, tel.: +420 549 491 111 gimunova@fsps.muni.cz martin zvonař faculty of sports studies, masaryk university, brno, czech republic žerotínovo nám. 617/9, 601 77, tel.: +420 549 491 111 zvonar@fsps.muni.cz zdenko reguli faculty of sports studies, masaryk university, brno, czech republic žerotínovo nám. 617/9, 601 77, tel.: +420 549 491 111 reguli@fsps.muni.cz pavel ventruba faculty of medicine, masaryk university, brno, czech republic žerotínovo nám. 617/9, 601 77, tel.: +420 549 491 111 ventruba.pavel@fnbrno.cz pavel ružbarský faculty of sports, university of presov, prešov, slovakia 17. novembra 3724/15, 080 01, tel.: +421 51/756 31 10 pavel.ruzbarsky@unipo.sk igor duvač faculty of sports studies, masaryk university, brno, czech republic žerotínovo nám. 617/9, 601 77, tel.: +420 549 491 111 igorduvac@hotmail.com peter šagat department of physical education, prince sultan university, riyadh, saudi arabia prince nasser bin farhan street, salah ad din, 12435 sagat@seznam.cz gheorghe balint department of physical education and sports performance, university of bacau, romania calea mărășești 158, 600115, tel.: 0234 542 411 gbalint@ub.ro abstract during stair walking, there is an increased risk of falling among pregnant women. a substantial contribution for the foot placement and balance control during stair walking is provided by vision. the purpose of this study was to determine whether there are any pregnancy-related changes in gaze behavior during the stair ascending and stair descending. six women participated in this study during their pregnancy, at the 14, 27, 31and 38 gestational weeks. each data collection consisted of descending and ascending a 22-treads staircase, one tread at a time. to monitor the gaze location, a sensomotoric instruments eye-tracking glasses system (smi, inc.) was used. to compare the differences in the stair descent and stair ascent between the first, second, third and fourth data collection sessions effect size obtained by cohen’s d was used. results of the gaze vector analysis revealed the turn of the gaze toward the handrail placement (gaze vector x) and toward the stair treads (gaze vector y), suggesting a wider awareness of the safety facility and a stronger need of the foot placement control during advanced phases of pregnancy. keywords: eye tracking, pregnancy, stair ascending, stair descending brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 72 1. introduction the eye tracking and gaze behavior analysis may serve as an indirect measure of brain function, mainly used in decision-making process studies (dospinescu & perca-robu, 2017; eckstein et al., 2017). the gaze analysis also provides information on attentional focus strategies as looking at particular location reflects both the time needed to process the stimulus and the attention engagement (eckstein et al., 2017). during locomotion, vision has been observed to be a key factor contributing for foot placement and balance control (den otter et al, 2011; patla, & vickers, 1997; hollands, & maple-horvat, 2001) and the deficit in gaze control was observed to increase the risk of falls during stair climbing (di fabio et al., 2008). during pregnancy, the balance is altered and an increased incidence of falling has been reported. about 39 % of the falls happen on the stairs and the risk of falling is increasing with the advancing of the pregnancy. (dunning, lemasters, & bhattacharya, 2010; krkeljas, 2017; inanir et al., 2014) studies on non-pregnant subjects show that during a stair descent stairs edges are fixated for about 69 % of the total time spent on the stairs. the gaze is usually fixated three to five treads ahead during both stair descending and ascending condition. (den otter, et al, 2011; zietz, johannsen, & hollands, 2011; zietz, & hollands, 2009) during stair ascent, the stair edges are fixated for about 48 % of the total time spent at the stairs (den otter et al, 2011) which is in accordance with previous studies showing a substantial contribution of peripheral visual information during the stair ascending (zietz, & hollands, 2009; graci, rabuffetti, & ferrarin, 2017; miyasike-dasilva, & mcilroy, 2012). the aim of this study is to determine whether there are any pregnancy-related changes in gaze behavior during the stair ascending and descending that can contribute to the understanding of increase fall incidence on stairs in this period of women‘s life. 2. material and methods 6 women participated in this study during their pregnancies: at the 14 (±1.74), 27 (±2.45), 31 (±2.42) and 38 (± 1.23) gestational weeks (g.w.). their mean age was 30 years (±2.23), mean height was 167.80 cm (±8.72), and mean body mass at the first, second, third and fourth data collection was 67.09 kg (±8.00), 74.69 kg (±8.93), 77.15 kg (±9.11) and 79.57 kg (±9.37), respectively. inclusion criteria consisted of no medical condition affecting the vision or gait. an informed consent was provided by all participants before the first data collection and ethical board of the faculty of sports studies, masaryk university, brno, czech republic approved the study. at each data collection, participants walked the same u-shaped staircase descending a 22treads (riser: 0.16 m, run: 0.33 m, and width: 1.15 m), making a short u-turn downstairs and ascending back the staircase, one tread at a time (figure 1). only the data of stair walking were taken for further analysis. the staircase was equipped with a handrail on one side but none of the participants used it. to monitor the gaze a sensomotoric instruments (smi) eye-tracking glasses (etg) system (smi, inc.) at a frequency of 60 frames per second and 1280x960 pixel picture was used. calibration was performed using a matrix of 3 points placed on a board in different highs and different horizontal placement. mean gaze vectors of the right eye (x, y, z) for stair descent and stair ascent were obtained for each data collection session. gaze vector x, y, z starts at the eye and heads off in mediolateral, up and down, and anterior-posterior direction, respectively (figure 2) (haffegee, alexandrov, & barrow, 2007; scheel, & staadt, 2015). figure 1. a simplified representation of the analysed staircase path m. gimunová, m. zvonař, z. reguli, p. ventruba, p. ružbarský, i. duvač, p. šagat, g. balint is the gaze behavior during stair walking affected by pregnancy? 73 figure 2. eye-tracking glasses image showing the gaze location during stair ascent. 3. statistical analysis effect size obtained by cohen’s d was used to compare the differences between the first, second, third and fourth data collection sessions for the stair descent and stair ascent. cohen's d is interpreted as ≥ 0.20 small, ≥ 0.50 medium or clinically significant, and ≥ 0.80 large effect (cohen, 1977). 4. results means and standard deviations of gaze vector x, y and z for stair descending and stair ascending at analysed gestational weeks are shown in table 1. table 1: means and standard deviations (sd) of analyzed variables during the stair descent and stair ascent at 14, 27, 31 and 38 gestational weeks. stair descending stair ascending vector x vector y vector z vector x vector y vector z mean -0.08 -0.23 0.86 0.05 -0.11 0.91 14 g.w. sd 0.14 0.2 0.17 0.14 0.18 0.21 mean -0.13 -0.35 0.84 0.01 -0.2 0.9 27 g.w. sd 0.14 0.19 0.17 0.13 0.19 0.21 mean -0.14 -0.34 0.85 0.04 -0.16 0.91 31 g.w. sd 0.15 0.21 0.17 0.15 0.21 0.2 mean -0.15 -0.33 0.85 -0.01 -0.16 0.93 38 g.w. sd 0.13 0.2 0.18 0.15 0.2 0.18 for the stair descending, the effect size analysis showed a small or medium effect of pregnancy on gaze vector x and y (table 2). significant changes in gaze vector x, i.e. changes in the mediolateral direction of the gaze, showed that with advancing pregnancy the gaze turns noticeably towards the handrail location. the clinically significant effect was observed comparing 14 and 38 g.w. for the gaze vector y, i.e. up and down gaze characteristic, the moderately significant effect of pregnancy on the gaze turning towards the stairs was observed comparing the 14 g.w. with 27, 31 and 38 g.w. no effect of advancing pregnancy on gaze vector z, the anterior-posterior direction, was found. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 74 table 2: results of cohen’s d and confidence intervals for analyzed variables for stair descending. cohen's d is interpreted as ≥ 0.20 small (*), ≥ 0.50 medium, clinically significant (**), ≥ 0.80 large effect (***) (cohen, 1977). vector x vector y vector z cohen's d cohen's d cohen's d 14 – 27 g.w. -0.36 (-0.47; -0.25) * -0.62 (-0.78; -0.46) ** 0.12 (-0.02; 0.25) 14 – 31 g.w. -0.41 (-0.53; -0.29) * -0.54 (-0.70; -0.37) ** 0.06 (-0.08; 0.19) 14 – 38 g.w. -0.52 (-0.63; -0.41) ** -0.50 (-0.66; -0.34) ** 0.06 (-0.08; 0.20) for the stair ascending, a small effect of advancing pregnancy on gaze vector x and y was observed (table 3). a small effect of advancing pregnancy was observed in gaze vector x comparing 14 and 27 and 38 g.w. for the gaze vector y, a small effect of pregnancy was found comparing the first measurement with all three following measurements. for gaze vector z no significant changes were found. table 3: results of cohen’s d and confidence intervals for analyzed variables for stair ascending. cohen's d is interpreted as ≥ 0.20 small (*), ≥ 0.50 medium, clinically significant (**), ≥ 0.80 large effect (***) (cohen, 1977). vector x vector y vector z cohen's d cohen's d cohen's d 14 – 27 g.w. 0.30 (0.18; 0.40) * -0.49 (-0.63; -0.33) * 0.05 (-0.12; 0.22) 14 – 31 g.w. 0.07 (-0.04; 0.19) -0.26 (-0.40; -0.09) * 0.00 (-0.17; 0.16) 14 – 38 g.w. 0.28 (0.16; 0.40) * -0.26 (-0.41; -0.10) * -0.10 (-0.27; 0.04) 5. discussion increased risk of falling during stair walking was observed in pregnant women in previous studies (dunning, lemasters, & bhattacharya, 2010; inanir et al., 2014).the purpose of this study was to capture pregnancy-related changes in gaze behavior during the stair ascending and descending as the stair ascent and descent is a challenging type of locomotion also in other populations with increased risk of falling, e.g. older adults (verghese et al., 2008). mean gaze vectors of the right eye (x, y, z) for stair descent and stair ascent were analysed as the gaze vector enables the integrated analysis of gaze behavior during locomotion (müller-feldmeth et al., 2014). during stair descending, a clinically significant effect was observed in this study comparing the first measurement with more advanced phases of pregnancy by gaze vector y, i.e. up and down direction of gaze, when the gaze was turning more towards the stairs. similarly, during the stair ascent, a small effect of advancing pregnancy on gaze vector y was observed. a previous study by den otter et al. (2011) showed that fixating the treads do not simply control the foot placement but may also contributing to the postural control (den otter et al, 2011), suggesting an increased need for both the foot placement and postural control during advances phases of pregnancy. changes in the gaze vector x, i.e. the medio-lateral direction of the gaze, during the stair descent and ascent observed in this study were suggested to be caused by the handrail placement as it provided the sense of security to the participants in advanced phases of pregnancy. the gaze vector analysis of present study provides an important, however, limited understanding of pregnancy-related gaze behavior changes as visual attention includes also gaze fixations and saccade movements of eyes. another limitation of the present study is the same laboratory environment used for all four data collection sessions and the sample of healthy pregnant women with no fall history during their pregnancy. future studies comparing the gaze characteristics of pregnant women with and without the fall history would reveal the pregnancyrelated changes of the visual input relevant for safety stepping. m. gimunová, m. zvonař, z. reguli, p. ventruba, p. ružbarský, i. duvač, p. šagat, g. balint is the gaze behavior during stair walking affected by pregnancy? 75 6. conclusions the presented study analysed the pregnancy-related changes in gaze behavior during the stair ascending and descending as during stair walking the risk of falling is increased during pregnancy. results of gaze vector analysis revealed the turn of the gaze toward the handrail placement (gaze vector x), suggesting a stronger need for awareness of the safety facility, and toward the stair treads (gaze vector y), suggesting a stronger need for the foot placement and postural control during advanced phases of pregnancy as the deficit of visual control is associated with an increased risk of falling. acknowledgements the authors thank kateřina kolářová, petr huta and ondřej mikeska for their help during the data collection sessions. funding this study was supported by the czech ministry of education, youth and sports (grant rozv/24/fsps/01/2016). references cohen, j. (1977). statistical power analysis for behavioral sciences (revised ed.). new york: academic press. den otter, a. r., hoogwerf, m., & van der woude, l.h. (2011).the role of tread fixations in the visual control of stair walking, gait & posture, 34, 169-173. di fabio, r. p., zampieri, c., & tuite, p. (2008). gaze control and foot kinematics during stair climbing: characteristics leading to fall risk in progressive supranuclear palsy. physical therapy, 88(2), 240-250. dospinescu, o., & perca-robu, a. e. (2017). the analysis of e-commerce sites with eye-tracking technologies. brain, 8, 85-100. dunning, k., lemasters, g., & bhattacharya, a. (2010). a major public health issue: the high incidence of falls during pregnancy. matern child health, 14(5), 720-725. eckstein, m. k., guerra-carrillo, b., miller singley, a. t., & bunge, s. a. (2017). beyond eye gaze: what else can eyetracking reveal about cognition and cognitive development? developmental cognitive neuroscience, 25, 69-91. graci, v., rabuffetti, m., frigo, c., & ferrarin, m. (2017). is lower peripheral information weighted differently as a function of step number during step climbing? gait and posture, 52, 52-56. haffegee, a., alexandrov, v., & barrow, r. (2007). eye tracking and gaze vector calculation within immerse virtual environments. proceedings acm symposium on virtual reality software and technology, 225-226. hollands, m. a., & marple-horvat, d. e. (2001). coordination of eye and leg movements during visually guided stepping. j mot behav, 33, 205-216. inanir, a., cakmak, b., hisim, y. & demirturk, f. (2014). evaluation of postural equilibrium and fall risk during pregnancy. gait posture 39, 1122–1125. krkeljas, z. (2017). changes in gait and posture as factors of dynamic stability during walking in pregnancy, human movement science, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2017.12.011. miyasike-dasilva, v., & mcilroy, w. (2012). does it really matter where you look when walking on stairs? insights from a dual-task study. plos one, 7(9), e44722. müller-feldmeth, d., schwarzkopf, s., büchner, s. j., hölscher, c., kallert, g., von stülpnagel, r., & konieczny, l. (2014). location dependent fixation analysis with sight vectors. locomotion as a challenge in mobile eye tracking. et4s@giscience 2014, 67-71. patla, a. e., & vickers, j. n. (1997). where and when do we look as we approach and step over an obstacle in the travel path? neuroreport, 8, 3661–3665. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 76 scheel, c., & staadt, o. (2015). mobile 3d gaze tracking calibration. 12th conference on computer and robot vision, 176-183. verghese, j., wang, c., xue, x., & holtzer, r. (2008). self-reported difficulty in climbing up or down stairs in nondisabled elderly. archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 89, 100-104. zietz, d., & hollands, m. a. (2009). gaze behavior of young and older adults during stair walking. j mot behav, 41, 357-366. zietz, d., johannsen, l., & hollands, m. (2011). stepping characteristics and center of mass control during stair descent: effects of age, fall risk and visual factors. gait and posture, 34, 279-284. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue4_2017_final.doc 41 a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies mohamed soltane electrical engineering & computing department, faculty of sciences & technology yahia fares university of medea, medea, algeria ministry of higher education and scientific research (mhesr) soltane.mohamed@univ-medea.dz; soltane.mohamed.3099@gmail.com & xor99@hotmail.com lotfi messikh electrical engineering department, faculty of engineering sciences university 20 august 1955 of skikda, skikda, algeria abdelhalim zaoui electrical engineering research unit, military poytechnics school , bp 17, bordj-el-bahri, phone +213 (021) 86 34 69, algiers, algeria abstract as the information age matures, a biometric identification technology will be at the heart of computer interaction with humans and the biosphere in which they reside. hence, the reliable information security mechanisms are needed to combat the rising magnitude of identity theft. while cryptography is a powerful tool to achieve information security, one of the main challenges in cryptosystems is to maintain the secrecy of the cryptographic keys. template protection techniques prevent stored reference data from revealing private biometric information and enhance the security of biometric systems against attacks such as identity theft and cross matching. a critical issue in biometric systems is to protect the template of a user which is typically stored in a database or a smart card. the fuzzy vault construct is a challenging biometric cryptosystem that secures both the secret key and the biometric template by binding them within a cryptographic framework. the helper data itself do not leak any information about the biometric template, yet contain sufficient information to align the template and query biometric accurately. this paper reviews the state of the art biometrics cryptosystems from the point of challenging designs strategies. keywords: security and privacy enhancement, biometric-based cryptography, fuzzy vault, helper data, template protection and challenging designs. 1. introduction cryptography (grindlay, 2003) (derived from the greek words kryptos and graphein meaning hidden writing) is the science of codes and ciphers. a cipher is essentially a cryptographic algorithm which is used to convert a message, known as the plaintext, into unreadable cipher-text. cryptography is the science of using mathematics to encrypt and decrypt data (an introduction to cryptography, 1999-2000). conventional cryptography uses encryption keys, which are just bit strings long enough, usually 128 bits or more. these keys, either “symmetric,” “public,” or “private,” are an essential part of any cryptosystem, for example, public key infrastructure (pki). a person cannot memorize such a long random key, so that the key is generated, after several steps, from a password or a pin that can be memorized. the password management is the weakest point of any cryptosystem, as the password can be guessed, found with a brute force search, or stolen by an attacker. on the other hand, biometrics provides a person with unique characteristics which are always there. can they be used as a cryptographic key? unfortunately, the answer is negative: biometric images or templates are variable by nature, i.e., each new biometric sample is always different. needless brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 42 to remind that conventional cryptography does not tolerate a single bit error. a biometric system always produces a yes/no response, which is essentially one bit of information. therefore, an obvious role of biometrics in the conventional cryptosystem is just password management. upon receiving yes response, the system unlocks a password or a key. the key must be stored in a secure location (so called “trusted” device) (cavoukian & stoianov, 2007). 2. motivations what is biometric encryption? biometric encryption (cavoukian & stoianov, 2007) is a process that securely binds a pin or a cryptographic key to a biometric, so that neither the key nor the biometric can be retrieved from the stored template. the key is re-created only if the correct live biometric sample is presented on verification. the digital key (password, pin, etc.) is randomly generated on enrollment, so that the user (or anybody else) does not even know it. the key itself is completely independent of biometrics and, therefore, can always be changed or updated. after a biometric sample is acquired, the be algorithm securely and consistently binds the key to the biometric to create a protected be template, also called “private template.” in essence, the key is encrypted with the biometric. the be template provides an excellent privacy protection and can be stored either in a database or locally (smart card, token, laptop, cell phone, etc.). at the end of the enrollment, both the key and the biometric are discarded. because of its variability, the biometric image or template itself cannot serve as a cryptographic key. however, the amount of information contained in a biometric image is quite large: for example, a typical image of 300x400 pixel size, encoded with eight bits per pixel has 300x400x8 = 960,000 bits of information. of course, this information is highly redundant. one can ask a question: is it possible to consistently extract a relatively small number of bits, say 128, out of these 960,000 bits? or, is it possible to bind a 128 bit key to the biometric information, so that the key could be consistently regenerated? while the answer to the first question is problematic, the second question has given rise to the new area of research, called biometric encryption (be). on verification, the user presents her fresh biometric sample, which, when applied to the legitimate be template, will let the be algorithm retrieve the same key/password. in other words, the biometric serves as a decryption key. at the end of verification, the biometric sample is discarded once again. the be algorithm is designed to account for acceptable variations in the input biometric. on the other hand, an attacker, whose biometric sample is different enough, will not be able to retrieve the password. this encryption/decryption scheme is fuzzy, as the biometric sample is different each time, unlike an encryption key in conventional cryptography (cavoukian & stoianov, 2007). current state of biometric encryption the original concept of biometric encryption for fingerprints was pioneered in 1994 by dr. george tomko (cavoukian & stoianov, 2007), founder of mytec technologies (toronto, canada). since then, many research groups have taken part in the development of be and related technologies. there are about 50 articles and patents published to date, most of which appeared since 2002. besides biometric encryption (be), other terms have been used for this technology, such as: biometric cryptosystem, private template, fuzzy commitment scheme, fuzzy vault, fuzzy extractor, secure sketch, biometric locking, biometric key binding, biometric key generation, virtual pin, biometrically hardened passwords, biometric signature, and biohashing. be and related technologies have drawn attention from major academic research centers specializing in biometrics, such as michigan state university, west virginia university, carnegie mellon university, university of cambridge (u.k.), and university of bologna (italy). among current industry leaders, those worth noting include ibm t.j. watson research center, rsa laboratories, lucent technologies, sandia national laboratories, and philips m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 43 research (cavoukian & stoianov, 2007). virtually all types of biometrics have been tested to bind (or to generate) a digital key: fingerprints, iris, face, keystroke dynamics, voice, handwritten signatures, palm-prints, acoustic ear recognition. the most promising results have been achieved with an iris: frr = 0.47%, far = 0 (or at least less than one in 200,000) to generate a 140-bit key. these error rates are only marginally larger than for a conventional iris-based biometric system with the same input images. the use of fingerprints is also feasible in terms of accuracy for be, with frr greater than 10% at present. unlike an iris, there is a noticeable degradation in accuracy from a conventional fingerprint system. this is understandable since fingerprints are more prone to distortions and other factors that degrade accuracy. it is more difficult to compensate those factors in the case of biometric encryption, since be works in a “blind” mode (the enrolled fingerprint or its minutiae template are not seen). there are several ways to overcome this problem, for example, by using a free air (i.e., contactless) fingerprint sensor, or by using more than one finger from the same person, or by combining several biometrics (cavoukian & stoianov, 2007). face recognition, which is usually considered third (after irises and fingerprints) in terms of accuracy in conventional biometrics, has shown a significant improvement of performance over the last few years. this allowed philips research to create a working be system using a face biometric. the published results range from frr = 3.5% for a face database with low to medium variability of images to frr = 35% for a database with high variability; far = 0 (or at least less than 1 in 100,000) in both cases. the key size used is 58 bits, which may be sufficient as a password replacement. according to communication from dr. michiel van der veen of philips research, their technology, called prividtm, is now operational and ready for deployment; in particular, it will be a part of an eu 3d face project (wp2.5). to the best of our knowledge, the philips system wills the first real life application of be technology (cavoukian & stoianov, 2007). it is not clear if other biometrics have enough entropy (i.e., the amount of non-redundant information) in order to bind a sufficiently long key (e.g. 128 bit). this is an area of future research. some published works provide a general theoretical foundation for be technologies from a cryptographic point of view. they prove that the system can be made secure against “brute force” search attacks. in other words, an attacker checks, at random, all possible combinations in order to retrieve a key (or a biometric). like conventional cryptography, it is assumed that the attacker is fully familiar with the algorithm, and may have a template in hand, but does not have a proper biometric to unlock the secret (i.e., the key bound to the biometric). xuebing zhou (zhou, 2007) proposes a template protection algorithm that merges methods from cryptography, error correction coding and biometrics. the proposed methods are integrated into a 3d face recognition system and tested on the 3d facial images of the frgc database. it is shown that the resulting binary vectors provide an authentication performance that is similar to the original 3d face templates. a high security level is achieved with reasonable false acceptance and false rejection rates of the system, based on an efficient statistical analysis. monther rateb et al. (enayah & samsudin, 2007) proposes a technique to generate a public cryptographic key from user's voice while speaking over a handheld device and making use of the human intelligence to identify/authenticate the voice of the speaker and therefore use the voice as the public key. the generated public key is used to encrypt the transferred data over the open communication channel. the implementation of such a system on mobile phones resists any eavesdrop on phone calls, even from the service provider itself. the proposed protocol also eliminates the need for a trusted third party. marten van dijk et al. (dijk & tuyls, 2005) extend the information theoretic secure constructions for biometrics to the computational setting. based on semantically secure encryption, it introduces robust, fully private and secure biometric key distillation and brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 44 verification. the model incorporates an adversary with side information who has access to a database with reference information. even though its schemes are based on a master key, no master key needs to be stored in biometric sensors. in its scheme it is possible to derive a polynomial number of keys from a single biometric and it shows how to renew keys in a secure and private way without additional interaction with the user. alper kanak (kanak, 2004) gives a brief explanation of biometric cryptography approaches and algorithms which use various biometric data. he basically touches the use of keystroke dynamics, speech and 2d biometric data (such as fingerprint, palm-print, face,...etc). anil k. jain et al. (jain, nandakumar & nagar, 2008) present a high-level categorization of the various vulnerabilities of a biometric system and discuss countermeasures that have been proposed to address these vulnerabilities. in particular, their paper focuses on biometric template security which is an important issue because, unlike passwords and tokens, compromised biometric templates cannot be revoked and reissued. protecting the template is a challenging task due to intra-user variability in the acquired biometric traits. it presents an overview of various biometric template protection schemes and discusses their advantages and limitations in terms of security, revocability, and impact on matching accuracy. a template protection scheme with provable security and acceptable recognition performance has thus far remained elusive. pim tuyls et al. (tuyls & goseling, 2004) formulate the requirements for privacy protecting biometric authentication systems. the secret capacity cs is investigated for the discrete and the continuous case. it presents, furthermore, a general algorithm that meets the requirements and achieves cs as well as cid (the identification capacity). finally, it presents some practical constructions of the general algorithm and analyzes their properties. feng hao et al. (hao, anderson & daugman, 2006) propose the first practical and secure way to integrate the iris biometric into cryptographic applications. a repeatable binary string, which we call a biometric key, is generated reliably from genuine iris codes. a wellknown difficulty has been to cope with the 10 to 20% of error bits within an iris code and derive an error-free key. to solve this problem, the error patterns within iris code were carefully studied and it was devised a two-layer error correction technique that combines hadamard and reed-solomon codes. the key is generated from a subject’s iris image with the aid of auxiliary error-correction data, which do not reveal the key, and can be saved in a tamper-resistant token such as a smart card. the reproduction of the key depends on two factors: the iris biometric and the token. the attacker has to procure both of them to compromise the key. it evaluated their technique using iris samples from 70 different eyes, with 10 samples from each eye. it found that an error-free key can be reproduced reliably from genuine iris codes with a 99.5% success rate. it can generate up to 140 bits of biometric key, more than enough for 128-bit aes. the extraction of a repeatable binary string from biometrics opens new possible applications, where a strong binding is required between a person and cryptographic operations. ari juels et al. (jules & sudan, 2002) describe a simple and novel cryptographic construction that we refer to as a fuzzy vault. a player alice may place a secret value κ in a fuzzy vault and "lock" it using a set a of elements from some public universe u. if bob tries to "unlock" the vault using a set b of similar length, he obtains κ only if b is close to a, i.e., only if a and b overlap substantially. in contrast to previous constructions of this flavor, possess the useful feature of order invariance, meaning that the ordering of a and b is immaterial to the functioning of the vault. as shown, the scheme enjoys provable security against a computationally unbounded attacker. yagiz sutcu et al. (sutcu, li & memon, 2007) examine and show how to apply a recently proposed secure sketch scheme in order to protect the biometric templates. they consider face biometrics and study how the performance of the authentication scheme would be affected after the application of the secure sketch. they further study the trade-off between the m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 45 performance of the scheme and the bound of the entropy loss from the secure sketch. pina bergamo et al. (bergamo, d'arco, santis & kocarev, 2004) study a public key cryptosystem based on chebyshev polynomials, which provides both encryption and digital signature. the cryptosystem works with real numbers and is quite efficient. unfortunately, from their analysis it comes up that it is not secure. they describe an attack which permits to recover the corresponding plaintext from a given cipher-text. the same attack can be applied to produce forgeries if the cryptosystem is used for signing messages. then, they point out that also other primitives, a diffie-hellman like key agreement scheme and an authentication scheme, designed along the same lines of the cryptosystem, are not secure due to the aforementioned attack. they close the paper by discussing the issues and the possibilities of constructing public key cryptosystems on real numbers. a very distinguished research paper comes from walter j. scheirer et al. (scheirer & boult, 2007) on security analysis of leading privacy enhanced technologies (pets) for biometrics including biometric fuzzy vaults (bfv) and biometric encryption (be). the lack of published attacks, combined with various “proven” security properties has been taken by some as a sign that these technologies are ready for deployment. while some of the existing bfv and be techniques have “proven” security properties, those proofs make assumptions that may not, in general, be valid for biometric systems. they review some of the other known attacks against bfv and be techniques. they introduce three disturbing classes of attacks against pet techniques including attack via record multiplicity, surreptitious key-inversion attack, and novel blended substitution attacks. figure 1 an attacker compromises the database, and is able to retrieve the template x (scheirer & boult, 2007). as depicted in figure 1, a traditional biometric system will store the original templates in a database, for use in authentication/identification comparisons. if an attacker can gain access to the database (despite its security measures), all template data (x) can be compromised. unfortunately, illicit access to databases with “private” information has become commonplace, with over 150 million financial/personnel records lost in 2006 (scheirer & boult, 2007). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 46 figure 2 attacks via record multiplicity (arm). an attacker collects multiple enrollment templates, and is able to combine the data, at minimum link records, and in the most dangerous case can retrieve the template x and the secret κ (scheirer & boult, 2007). referring to figure 2, multiple enrollments can be seen for the same set of biometric template data x. each enrollment has its own secret κ, resulting in multiple different encodings which are subsequently transmitted and stored by various systems with the same implementation. in an attack via record multiplicity (arm), if an attacker can harvest several of these encodings, it may be possible to correlate the data contained within, between encodings to link the databases or, in some cases to directly retrieve x and figure 3 the ski attack. if the attacker has knowledge of the secret κ, the template x can be recovered (scheirer & boult, 2007). in bfv and be, the stated goal of the system is the release of a secret key. to be useful, this key needs to be used for something, and if it leaves the vault in plain text form opens up a new range of attacks. figure 3 shows this with encoded data f(κ) and an intercepted secret κ. by knowing κ, an attacker can decode the biometric template data x by identifying values related to κ. m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 47 figure 4 traditional and blended substitution attacks (scheirer & boult, 2007). in the new blended substitution (figure 4), the user’s and attacker’s data are combined in a single template. if they blend using secret it is called an insidious blending as there is no way to detect it is being used. a blended template allows either the user or the attacker to authenticate against the same record. in the traditional substitution case the attacker can authenticate but simultaneously produces a denial of service to the original user, which increases the chance of detection. in the new blended substitution the attacker can use the records simultaneously with the user (scheirer & boult, 2007). at the end five requirements for secure biometric pets architectures have been defined: 1. no combination of data from multiple enrollments by the same individual should be able to be combined to recover the biometric template data or to generate a spoof. 2. if any non-biometric data that is used to encode/decode (e.g. link table), or is released by the system (e.g. key), is known, the biometric template must not be recoverable nor should it allow hill-climbing or spoof generation. 3. it should not be possible for two users to authenticate against the same token with significantly higher frequency than the system’s documented false accept rate. 4. no undetected substitution of records should be possible. 5. any data transmitted outside the system, except during enrollment, should not be suitable to link the underlying user over space/time/companies. threats and vulnerabilities for biometric systems biometrics-based personal authentication systems that use physiological (e.g., fingerprint, face, iris) or behavioral (e.g., speech, handwriting) traits are being increasingly utilized in many applications to enhance the security of physical and logical access systems. even though biometric systems offer several advantages over traditional token (e.g., key) or knowledge (e.g., password) based authentication schemes (e.g., increased user convenience and robustness against imposter users), they are still vulnerable to attacks. andy adler (adler, 2005) describes a potential vulnerability in such systems, that allows a less-than-brute force regeneration of the secret and an estimate of the enrolled image. this vulnerability requires the biometric comparison to "leak" some information from which an analogue for a match score may be calculated. using this match score value, a "hill-climbing" attack is performed against the algorithm to calculate an estimate of the enrolled image, which is then used to decrypt the code. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 48 figure 5 vulnerabilities in biometric systems (adler, 2008). steps a h are analyzed in section 2 (adler, 2005). each presented sample (b) is acquired by a sensor (c) processed via segmentation (d) and feature extraction (d) algorithms. if available, a sample quality (e) assessment algorithm is used to indicate a need to reacquire the sample. biometric features are encoded into a template, which is stored (h) in a database, on an identity card or in secure hardware. for biometric encryption systems, a code or token is combined with the biometric features in the template. during enrollment, biometric samples are linked to a claimed identity (a), and during subsequent verification or identification, samples are tested against enrolled samples, using a matching algorithm (i) and an identity decision (j) is made, either automatically, or by a human agent reviewing biometric system outputs (adler, 2008). 3. biometrics cryptosystems: challenging designs strategies password-based authentication systems do not involve any complex pattern recognition and, hence, they almost always perform accurately, as intended by their system designers. the real challenge in biometric cryptosystems comes from the fact that biometric signal and their representations (e.g., facial image and their computer representation) of a person vary dramatically depending on the acquisition method, acquisition environment, user’s interaction with the acquisition device, and (in some cases) variation in the traits due to various pathophysiological phenomena. a lot of noise is introduced during data acquisition process. this same biometric may change between successive acquisitions (due to wound, ageing etc.) and noise can be introduced to a biometric signal by an acquisition device or the environment, while it is very convenient to use biometric traits for encryption. in its most basic sense, generating a cryptographic key directly from a biometric trait, for instance fingerprints, has not been very successful, as it involves obtaining an exact key from a highly variable data. the greatest challenge is to design cryptosystems that generate non linkable templates, provides good trade-off between accuracy & security and utilize feature adaptation schemes that preserve accuracy and allow easy fusion of modalities. biometric cryptosystems are classified as key release, key binding and key generation systems depending on how the secure sketch is obtained. secure sketch is public information about biometric features stored in databases during enrollment. fuzzy vault and fuzzy commitment are the two most popular techniques used for constructing biometric cryptosystems. figure 6 shows an overview of template protection and related technologies. m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 49 figure 6. overview of template protection and related technologies 3.1. shielding functions every measurement of a biometric modality is accompanied by noise. at enrollment x is assumed to be noiseless. to authenticate, in the sense of classical biometric verification approaches, x′ needs to be matched against the reference x in a fuzzy manner using distance measurement and a decision based on a threshold. as renewability is to be realized, templates cannot be stored without any transformation. this transformation is done with the help of some random part s that is merged with the feature vector. this secret s can also be used as a standard cryptographic key, “fuzzy matching” of s is not possible. to deal with biometric data, the extraction of s must be resilient to noise. shielding functions (linnartz & tuyls, 2003) fulfill this requirement. they form a set of secret extraction codes (sec) – secrets can be extracted correctly out of a dataset up to a certain level of noise. if g is such a function, it can be understood as: (1) it is possible to extract a secret of length k with a biometric x  k. some helper data w0, 1k is needed here. w is computed in order to satisfy the term g(x,w) = s. shielding function has two properties:  δ-contracting – for all biometrics x′ that lie in a certain radius around x, the secret extracted with g, using the same helper data, is equal: g( ,w) = g(x,w) = s (2) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 50  -revealing – the information about s with knowledge of w, which can be sent over insecure channels, should be less than bits. it has been shown in (linnartz & tuyls, 2003) that cannot equal zero. this scheme can be used to enroll and authenticate users. a trusted authority (ta) is needed, otherwise the biometric template or the secret could be compromised. the following steps are necessary for enrollment:  extract biometric x of the user u to enroll.  choose a random secret s.  compute helper data w out of s and x, erase x afterwards.  apply a one-way-function h on s, erase s.  store dataset [u,w, h(s)] for user u in database. figure 7 illustrates principles of privacy protecting systems and figure 8 illustrates an enrollment process incorporating shielding functions. to verify the identity of user u, the secret is recalculated and compared bit-wise with the stored reference created in the enrollment phase:  measure the noise-afflicted x′ of user u.  dataset for claimed identity u is loaded.  w is used to compute s′= g(x′,w).  compute h(s′) and compare it with h(s).  verification is successful if both values are identical, otherwise the user is rejected. if the secret is mapped to the same point in the space. the principle workflow is nearly the same for the different schemes of privacy protection. the concrete implementation depends on the chosen biometric modality the system was designed for and on preferences of the publishers. figure 7. principles of privacy protecting systems m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 51 figure 8. illustration of the basic principle of shielding functions: each grid-point stands for one possible secret word that can be encoded. the circle is an abstraction of the δ-area around the secret s, in which s can be decoded properly. 3.2. fuzzy commitment fuzzy commitment was introduced by juels and wattenberg (juels & wattenberg, 1999) as “... a new type of cryptographic primitive”. one goal is the secure commitment of an embedded value. this secret value can only be regained with a decryption key named “witness”, that it is close to the one used for concealing. hence results the name “fuzzy”. therefore the system qualifies for securing keys with biometric data. it will be seen that the biometric information does not need to be stored for authentication purposes, which implies the possibility to create secure templates. some kind of shielding function is used to provide the required functionality. a fuzzy commitment scheme f consists of a codeword c and a witness x, both having the same size of n-bits. the idea is to express x as an addition of c and helper data δ. the codeword is sealed with a one-way function h, δ remains untouched and can be used to provide resilience to x. the amount of information sealed in h(c) depends on the number of possible codewords |c| = 2k, for higher values of k the security of the system will improve. helper data δ can be seen as the degree of resilience in f. to take a more concrete look at the system: let h be a hash function mapping discrete values (3) the receiver of (α, δ) can re-compute the codeword if he possesses a witness . therefore a decoding function called f is needed that maps values to the nearest possible codeword: (4) to unlock the secret c the helper data has to be subtracted from the noisy witness. (5) if h(c) = α, c′ is the correct commitment. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 52 applied on biometric authentication systems the enrollment phase consists of three steps:  user u presents the biometric x  a codeword c is chosen randomly  the fuzzy commitment is calculated and stored associated to user u at the beginning of the verification phase the biometric x′ of user u is taken. if the commitment can be successfully computed, the user is authenticated because its submitted characteristic is close enough to the original reference template. fuzzy commitment is also capable of forming a challenge-response authentication system based on public key cryptography: enrollment – the codeword c is used to create a pair of a secretand a corresponding public key. the user u stores f(c, x), the public key is registered at a trusted authority (ta). verification – to authenticate against the ta, a random message m is sent to the user u. if u can answer this message with a valid signature of m, he or she is authenticated because the possession of the private key is proven (which can be checked by the ta with the registered public key). to realize an encryption system, the user has to choose c as a symmetric cryptographic key that can be released with the biometric x′. to encrypt a message m the struct (ec(m), f(c, x)) has to be stored. 3.3. fuzzy vault another system for storing secure templates is fuzzy vault from juels and sudan (an introduction to cryptography, 1999-2000; cavoukian & stoianov, 2007; zhou, 2007) from 2002. the convenience of biometrics is combined with the security of cryptography. a biometric template or an unordered set is used to secure a key . a polynomial is constructed – its coefficients are equal to the components of the key. the template x is transformed with our polynomial, some randomly generated points that do not lie on p are added to a set r. these “chaff points” should hinder attackers to reveal both the key and the feature vector. the secure template contains r and h(k). to release k, another feature vector is extracted from a presented biometric characteristic. if x and overlap substantially the original polynomial can be recomputed – many points in r and are equal. otherwise if a certain degree of similarity of the features is not given, solving this problem is hard (polynomial reconstruction problem). error correction techniques enable to regain k even if the biometric characteristic used for unlocking is disturbed by noise. an example illustrates this scheme:  the biometric is defined by x = {2,−1, 5,−2}. remember that this set is unordered.  forming the polynomial is done regarding to k = {−3, 2, 1}: m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 53  as a result the projection is available  chaff point c = {(0, 2); (3,−1)} is added to a new set r = p(x) ∪ c  if the user can separate at least three points out of r = {(2, 5); (0, 2); (−1,−4); (5, 32); (3,−1); (−2,−3)} the polynomial and therefore k can be found – if the degree is i, the polynomial can be defined exactly with the knowledge of i + 1 points laying on it. 3.4. key binding biometric cryptosystems in a key-binding cryptosystem, the biometric template is secured by monolithically binding it with a key within a cryptographic framework. a single entity that embeds both the key and the template is stored in the database as helper data. this helper data does not reveal much information about the key or the biometric template, that is, it is computationally hard to decode the key or the template without any knowledge of the user’s biometric data. usually the helper data is an association of an error correcting code (selected using the key) and the biometric template. when a biometric query differs from the template within certain error tolerance, the associated codeword with similar amount of error can be recovered, which can be decoded to obtain the exact codeword, and hence recover the embedded key. recovery of the correct key implies a successful match. figure 9 illustrates the basic concept of biometric keybinding. advantages  this approach is tolerant to intra-user variations in biometric data and this tolerance is determined by the error correcting capability of the associated codeword. limitations  matching has to be done using error correction schemes and this precludes the use of sophisticated matchers developed specifically for matching the original biometric template. this can possibly lead to a reduction in the matching accuracy.  in general, biometric cryptosystems are not designed to provide diversity and revocability. however, attempts are being made to introduce these two properties into biometric cryptosystems mainly by using them in conjunction with other approaches such as salting (boyen, 2004; boult et. al., 2007; nandakumar et. al., 2007). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 54 figure 9. the basic concept of biometric key-binding 3.5. key release based on biometrics the cryptographic key is stored to database as user records. after successfully biometric based authentication, key is used. in this case, security of system depends on biometric authentication. however, the cryptographic key’s entropy and randomness characters are very high and changing this case is very easy. the characteristics of the biometric key release system design are:  it requires access to biometric templates for biometric matching.  user authentication and key release are completely decoupled. because the system stores biometric template locally, the design raises concerns about the theft of biometric data. figure 10 illustrates the basic concept of biometric (a) key-binding and (b) key-release (zhe, andrew, bok-min & yong-haurt, 2016). m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 55 figure 10. the basic concept of biometric (a) key-binding and (b) key-release (zhe et. al., 2016) 3.6. key generation biometric cryptosystems in this scheme, helper data are derived only from the biometric template. keys are directly generated from the helper data and a given biometric sample. generated key’s entropy is not high and updating this key is difficult. this scheme is also based on error correction code. fuzzy extractor and secure sketch are referred as key generation schemes. figure 11 illustrates the basic concept of biometric key-generation. bkgs (biometric key generators) are generally composed of two algorithms, an enrollment algorithm (enroll) and a key-generation algorithm (keygen):  : the enroll algorithm is a probabilistic algorithm that accepts as input a number of biometric samples , and outputs a template ( ) and a cryptographic key ( ). in the event that do not meet some predetermined criteria, the enroll algorithm might output the failure symbol .  : the key generation algorithm accepts as input one biometric sample (β), brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 56 and a template ( ). the algorithm outputs either a cryptographic key ( ), or the failure symbol if β cannot be used to create a key. the enrollment algorithm estimates the variation inherent to a particular user's biometric reading and computes information needed to error-correct a new sample that is sufficiently close to the enrollment samples. enroll encodes this information into a template and outputs the template and the associated key. the key-generation algorithm uses the template output by the enrollment algorithm and a new biometric sample to output a key. if the provided sample is sufficiently similar to those provided during enrollment, then keygen and enroll output the same keys. generally speaking, there are four classes of information associated with a bkg:  the biometric (β ): a biometric is a measurement of a person's behavior or physiology. a bkg extracts β as algorithmically interpretable representations (e.g., a set of signals). the bkg typically applies statistical functions, or features , to the representations, and uses the output to either derive or lock a cryptographic key (soutar et. al., 1998; hao & wah, 2002; uludag & jain, 2006; wayman, 2001; vielhauer et. al., 2002; hao et. al., 2006).  a template ( ): a template is any piece of information that is stored on the system for the purpose of re-generating the cryptographic key. templates are generally created during an enrollment process and stored so that a user can easily recreate her key. for all practical purposes, templates must be considered publicly available. note that this assumption implies that more standard biometric templates, which are typically employed for authentication purposes and are simply the encoding of a biometric, cannot be used securely in this setting (soutar et. al., 1998; hao & wah, 2002; uludag & jain, 2006; wayman, 2001; vielhauer et. al., 2002; hao et. al., 2006).  the key ( ): a cryptographic key that is derived from (or locked by) one or more biometric samples during an enrollment phase. the key may later be regenerated using another biometric sample that is "close" to the original samples and the template that was also output during enrollment (soutar et. al., 1998; hao & wah, 2002; uludag & jain, 2006; wayman, 2001; vielhauer et. al., 2002; hao et. al., 2006).  auxiliary information ( ): auxiliary information encompasses any public information not intended to be used for key-derivation purposes but that is still readily available to an adversary. auxiliary information is specified with respect to one user and includes any biometric, template, or key, other than those associated with the user in question. it could also include any other information about the environment that might leak information about the biometric, or results of using the key (soutar et. al., 1998; hao & wah, 2002; uludag & jain, 2006; wayman, 2001; vielhauer et. al., 2002; hao et. al., 2006). state of the art of biometric key generation: soutar and tomko (soutar & tomko, 1996) were the first to describe a different approach for generating cryptographic keys from fingerprints using optical computing techniques. fabian et al. (fabian, michael, qi, & susanne, 2001) propose a technique to reliably generate a cryptographic key from a user’s voice while speaking a password. davida et al. (davida, frankel, & matt, 1998) proposed an approach that uses iris codes, which are believed to have the highest entropy of all commonly-used biometrics. monrose et al. (monrose, reiter, li, & wetzel, 2001) proposed the first practical system that exploits behavioral (versus physiological) biometrics for key generation. their technique uses keystroke latencies to increase the entropy of standard passwords. their construction yields a key at least as secure as the password alone, and an empirical analysis showed that in some instances their approach increases the workload of an attacker by a m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 57 multiplicative factor of 215. many constructions followed those of monrose et al., using biometrics such as face, fingerprints, and handwriting. unfortunately, many are susceptible to attacks. hill-climbing attacks have been leveraged against fingerprint, face, and handwritingbased biometric systems by exploiting information leaked during the reconstruction of the key from the biometric template (hao & wah, 2002; monrose et. al., 2002; goh & ngo, 2003; uludag, 2004; adler, 2004; uludag & jain, 2004; vielhauer & steinmetz, 2004; yamazaki et. al., 2005; zheng & zhan, 2006). fuzzy cryptography (jain, ross, & uludag, 2005) has made important contributions by specifying formal security definitions with which bkgs can be analyzed. nevertheless, there remains a gap between theoretical soundness and practical systems. for instance, while fuzzy extractors can be effectively used as a component in a larger biometric key generation system, they do not capture all the practical requirements of a bkg. in particular, it is unclear whether known constructions can correct the kinds of errors typically generated by humans, especially in the case of behavioral biometrics. moreover, fuzzy extractors require biometric inputs with high min-entropy but do not address how to select features that achieve this requisite level of entropy. since this is an inherently empirical question, much of our work is concerned with how to experimentally evaluate the entropy available in a biometric. lastly, jain et al. (jain, ross, & uludag, 2005) enumerate possible attacks against biometric templates and discuss several practical approaches that increase template security. figure 11. the basic concept of biometric key-generation 3.7. cancelable biometrics one of the advantages of passwords and tokens over biometrics is that they can be updated. if a token or a password is lost or stolen, it can be cancelled and replaced by a newer version. this is not naturally available in biometrics. if someone's face is compromised from a database, they cannot cancel or reissue it. cancelable biometrics is a way in which to incorporate protection and the replacement features into biometrics to create a more secure system. cancelable biometric transforms are designed in a way that it should be computationally hard to recover the original biometric data. it was first proposed by ratha et al (ratha, connell, & bolle, 2001). two main categories of cancelable biometrics are distinguished: non-invertible transforms and biometric salting.  non-invertible transforms: in these approaches, biometric data are transformed applying a noninvertible function. in order to provide updatable templates, parameters of the applied transforms are modified. the advantage of applying noninvertible transforms is that potential impostors are not able to reconstruct the entire biometric brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 58 data even if transforms are compromised. however, applying non-invertible transforms mostly implies a loss of accuracy. performance decrease is caused by the fact that transformed biometric templates are difficult to align in order to perform a proper comparison and, in addition, information is reduced. for several approaches these effects have been observed (ratha, connell, & bolle, 2001; zuo, ratha, & connel, 2008). figure 12 illustrates the diagram of biometric cancelable templates from different transforms. figure 12. cancelable templates from different transforms (ratha, connell, & bolle, 2001)  biometric salting: biometric salting usually denotes transforms of biometric templates which are selected to be invertible. any invertible transform of biometric feature vector elements represents an approach to biometric salting even if biometric templates have been extracted in a way that it is not feasible to reconstruct the original biometric signal (savvides, kumar, & khosla, 2004). as a consequence, the parameters of the transformation have to be kept secret. in case user-specific transformations are applied, the parameters of the transformation (which can be seen as a secret seed (teoh, kuan, & lee, 2008) have to be presented at each authentication. impostors may be able to recover the original biometric template in case transformation parameters are compromised, causing a potential performance decrease of the system in case underlying biometric algorithms do not provide high accuracy without secret transformations. while approaches to biometric salting may maintain the recognition performance of biometric systems non-invertible transformations provide higher security (jain, nandakumar, & nagar, 2008). approaches to cb can be classified further with respect parts of biometric systems in which transformations are applied. in the signal domain, transformations are either applied to raw biometric measurements (e.g., face image ratha, connell, & bolle, 2001). in case transformations are applied in signal domain comparators do not need to be adapted. in feature domain extracted biometric features (e.g., face features in teoh, kuan, & lee, 2008) are transformed, thus, a compromise of transformations requires further effort in reconstructing the original biometric from the template (ratha, connell, & bolle, 2001; teoh, kuan, & lee, 2008). figure 13 illustrates the diagram of biometric salting. m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 59 figure 13. block diagram of biometric salting 4. conclusions and future visions skeptics may argue that many earlier attempts at using cryptography for user authentication have failed to displace passwords on the internet! its deep questions with practical significance; that cryptography, which allows us to maintain secrecy in messages containing sensitive information, is based on requiring anyone other than an authorized person to perform a very difficult computation in order to steal the information. the current notions of difficulty are based on the classical algorithmic model. in the quantum world, many computations that are classically difficult are in fact easy tasks. meanwhile the quantum age technology becomes mature to be handled and manipulated by human-beings at the level of elementary particles and subatomic technology. uncertainty principle, discovered and formulated in 1927 by werner heisenberg, states that certain pairs of values cannot both be known to arbitrary precision. that is, the measurement of one of the properties affects the system in such a way that part of information concerning the other value is lost. the uncertainty principle results from the nature of reality itself rather than form an imperfection of measuring methods or tools. the principle is a consequence of the wave-particle duality (krzyszkowska-pytel, 2010). quantum information means a state of an object in a quantum sense (e.g. the state of a particle is described by its wave function) which is unobservable for classic objects, and which communicates with other systems in a quantum way. quantum information is processed in a way that is unreadable to a classic observer. when measuring quantum systems a “classic observer” can read “classic information” contained therein. however, this is possible only to a little degree given the whole content of quantum information contained in the system concerned. uncertainty principle is the barrier as any measurement of one value disturbs the quantum state in such a way that it becomes impossible to measure another value. quantum systems have enormous capacities. the capacities grow exponentially with the number of particles, whereas classic information which is readable for a classic observer grows with the number of particles only in a linear way (just like in the classic information technology) (krzyszkowska-pytel, 2010). dna biometrics code digital information concerning identity contained in a cell. so far this method has been used in forensic medicine. its most considerable disadvantage is the fact that monozygotic twins have identical dna. it is also a very expensive, complicated and slow method. quantum cryptography and dna biometrics can be combined by following for instance the procedure of determining and verifying digital signature. here the digital signature would be substituted with a dna signature which is individual for each man (except for monozygotic twins), and coded in the digital form. the dna signature attached to a message that alice is to send to bob would guarantee that the text of the message is not modified and, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 60 what is most important, it would authenticate the author. such message would be sent via a fully secured channel that rules out eavesdropping (krzyszkowska-pytel, 2010). a cryptographic digital key is generated from a biometric such as a fingerprint or voice and is used to sign transactions initiated by a relying party. raw biometric data is never sent through the network or stored in a central database. biometric encryption is an algorithm for the linking and retrieval of digital keys, which can be used as a method for the secure management of cryptographic keys. the cryptographic key is generated independently from the biometric encryption algorithm and can be updated periodically via a re-enrollment procedure. when crypto-biometric systems eventually come into practical existence, there is a danger that biometric components may be used as a certain proof of existence of a particular subject at a particular time and place. mere incorporation of biometrics into a system does not in itself constitute a proof of identity. it needs to understand how these foolproof guarantees can be theoretically proved in a deployed cryptosystem and how to institute due processes that will provide both technological and sociological freedom to challenge the premises on which non-repudiation is ascertained. the convenience and security provided by biometric encryption will undoubtedly help to promote more widespread use of cryptographic systems. with respect to the design goals, bcss offer significant advantages to enhance the privacy and security of biometric systems, providing reliable biometric authentication at a high security level. techniques which provide provable security/privacy, while achieving practical recognition rates, have remained elusive (even on small datasets). additionally, several new issues and challenges arise deploying these technologies. one fundamental challenge, regarding both technologies, represents the issue of alignment, which significantly effects recognition performance. biometric templates are obscured within both technologies, i.e., alignment of obscured templates without leakage is highly non-trivial. while for some biometric characteristics (e.g., iris) alignment is still feasible, for others (e.g., fingerprints) additional information, which must not lead to template reconstruction, has to be stored. within conventional biometric systems, align-invariant approaches have been proposed for several biometric characteristics. so far, hardly any suggestions have been made to construct aligninvariant bcss. feature adaptation schemes that preserve accuracy have to be utilized in order to obtain common representations of arbitrary biometric characteristics (several approaches to extract binary fingerprint templates have been proposed, e.g., meenakshi & padmavathi, 2009; kanade et.al., 2009; cavoukian & stoianov, 2009) allowing biometric fusion in a form suitable for distinct template protection schemes. focusing on bcss it is not actually clear which biometric characteristics to apply in which type of application. in fact it has been shown that iris or fingerprints exhibit enough reliable information to bind or extract sufficiently long keys providing acceptable trade-offs between accuracy and security, where the best performing schemes are based on fuzzy commitment and fuzzy vault. however, practical error correction codes are designed for communication and data storage purposes such as a perfect error correction code for a desired code length has remained evasive. in addition, a technique to generate chaff points that are indistinguishable from genuine points has not yet been proposed. the fact that false rejection rates are lower bounded by error correction capacities emerges a great challenge since unbounded use of error correction (if applicable) makes the system even more vulnerable (chen, sun, & lam, 2007; stoianov et.al., 2009; monrose, reiter, & wetzel, 1999). other characteristics such as voice or keystroke dynamics (especially behavioral characteristics) were found to reveal only a small amount of stable information, but can still be applied to improve the security of an existing secret (monrose, reiter, & wetzel, 1999; monrose et. al., 2001; chafia, salim, & farid, 2010). in addition, several characteristics can be combined to construct multi-bcss (voderhobli, pattinson, & donelan, 2006), which have received only little consideration so far. thereby security is enhanced and feature vectors can be merged to extract enough reliable data. m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 61 while for some characteristics, extracting of a sufficient amount of reliable features seems to be feasible it still remains questionable if these features exhibit enough entropy. in case extracted features do not meet the requirements of discriminability, systems become vulnerable to several attacks (e.g., false acceptance attacks). in addition, stability of biometric features is required to limit information leakage of stored helper data. besides, several specific attacks to bcss have been proposed. while key approaches have already been exposed to fail high security demands, more sophisticated security studies for all approaches are required since claimed security of these technologies remains unclear due to a lack formal security proofs and rigorous security formulations (voderhobli, pattinson, & donelan, 2006). references an introduction to cryptography, (1990-2000). network associates, inc. and its affiliated companies. http://www.nai.com adler, a. (2004). images can be regenerated from quantized biometric match score data, proceedings of the canadian conference on electrical and computer engineering, niagara falls, canada, 469-472 adler, a. (2005). vulnerabilities in biometric encryption systems, school of information technology and engineering, university of ottawa, ontario, canada adler, a. (2008). biometric system security, systems and computer engineering, carleton university, ottawa, canada bergamo, p., d'arco, p., santis, a. d., & kocarev, l. (2005). security of public key cryptosystems based on chebyshev polynomials boyen, x. (2004). reusable cryptographic fuzzy extractors, proceedings of the acm conference on computer and communications security (acm ccs ’04), 82-91, washington, dc, usa boult, t. e., scheirer, w. j., & woodwork, r. (2007). revocable fingerprint biotokens: accuracy and security analysis, proceedings of the ieee computer society conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (cvpr ’97), 1-8, minneapolis, minn, usa cavoukian, a., stoianov, a. (2009). biometric encryption: the new breed of untraceable biometrics, biometrics: fundamentals, theory, and systems wiley, london cavoukian, a. & stoianov, a. (2007). biometric encryption: a positive-sum technology that achieves strong authentication, security, and privacy, http://www.ipc.on.ca chen, h., sun, h., lam, k. y. (2007). key management using biometrics, int symposium on data, privacy, and e-commerce, 1:321-326 chafia, f., salim, c., & farid, b. (2010). a biometric crypto-system for authentication, proceedings of int conf on machine and web intelligence (icmwi), 434-438 dijk, m. v., & tuyls, p. (2005). secure biometrics, philips research laboratories prof. holstlaan 4, aa 5656 eindhoven, the netherlands davida, g. i., frankel, y., & matt, b. j. (1998). on enabling secure applications through offline biometric identification. in proceedings of the 1998 ieee symposium on security and privacy, 148-157 enayah, m. r., & samsudin, a. (2007). securing telecommunication based on speaker voice as the public key, ijcsns international journal of computer science and network security, vol.7, issue 3 fabian m., michael k. r., qi l. & susanne w. (2001). cryptographic key generation from voice, proceedings of the 2001 ieee symposium on security and privacy grindlay, b. (2013). quantum cryptography: a study into the present technologies and future applications, next generation security software ltd, www.ngssoftware.com goh, a., & ngo, d. c. l. (2003). computation of cryptographic keys from face biometrics. in proceedings of communications and multimedia security, 1-13 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 62 hao, f., anderson, r., & daugman, j. (2006). combining cryptography with biometrics effectively, ieee transactions on computers, computer laboratory, cambridge university, uk hao, f., & wah, c. (2002). private key generation from on-line handwritten signatures, information management and computer security 10, vol. 4, 159-164 jain, a. k., ross, a., & uludag, u. (2005). biometric template security: challenges and solutions, proceedings of european signal processing conference (eusipco) jain, a. k., nandakumar, k., & nagar, a. (2008) biometric template security, hindawi publishing corporation eurasip journal on advances in signal processing volume 2008, article id 579416 juels, a., & wattenberg, m. (1999). a fuzzy commitment scheme, acm conference on computer and communications security, 28-36 jules, a., & sudan, m. (2006). a fuzzy vault scheme, springer science+business media, inc. manufactured in the united states juels, a., & sudan, m. (2006). a fuzzy vault scheme. des. codes cryptography, 38(2):237-257 kanak, a. (2004). biometrics for computer security and cryptography, gebze yüksek teknoloji enstitüsü kanade, s., camara, d, petrovska-delacrtaz, d., & dorizzi, b. (2009). application of biometrics to obtain high entropy cryptographic keys, proceedings of world academy on science, engineering, and technology, hong kong krzyszkowska-pytel, m. (2010). quantum cryptography – the issue of security in selected quantum protocols and the issue of data credibility, theoretical and applied informatics, issn 1896–5334, vol. 22, issue 1, 73–92 linnartz, j. p., & tuyls, p. (2003). new shielding functions to enhance privacy and prevent misuse of biometric templates, audio and video-based biometric person authentication, 393-402 meenakshi, v. s., & padmavathi, g. (2009). security analysis of password hardened multimodal biometric fuzzy vault, proceedings of world academy of science, engineering and technology, 56 monrose, f., reiter, m. k., & wetzel, s. (1999). password hardening based on keystroke dynamics, proceedings of 6th acm conf on computer and communications security, cccs, 73-82 monrose, f., reiter, m. k., li, q., & wetzel, s. (2001). cryptographic key generation from voice, sp ‘01: proc of the 2001 ieee symp on security and privacy, 12 monrose, f., reiter, m. k., li, q., & wetzel, s. (2001). cryptographic key generation from voice (extended abstract), proceeedings of the 2001 ieee symposium on security and privacy, 12-25 monrose, f., reiter, m., li, q., lopresti, d., & shih, c. (2002). towards speech-generated cryptographic keys on resource-constrained devices, proceedings of the eleventh usenix security symposium, 283-296 nandakumar, k., nagar, a., & jain, a. k. (2007). hardening fingerprint fuzzy vault using password, proceedings of 2nd international conference on biometrics, 927-937, seoul, south korea ratha, n. k., connell, j.h., & bolle, r.m. (2001). enhancing security and privacy in biometrics-based authentication systems, ibm syst j 2001, 40:614-634 savvides, m., kumar, b., khosla, p. (2004). cancelable biometric filters for face recognition, icpr ‘04: proc of the pattern recognition, 17th int conf on (icpr’04), 3:922-925 scheirer, w. j., & boult, t. e. (2007). cracking fuzzy vaults and biometric encryption, securics inc. and university of colorado at colorado springs colorado springs, co. soutar, c., & tomko, g. j. (1996). secure private key generation using a fingerprint, cardtech/securetech conference proceedings, 245-252 m. soltane, l. messikh, a. zaoui a review regarding the biometrics cryptography challenging design and strategies 63 soutar, c., roberge, d., stoianov, a., gilroy, r., & kumar, b. v. (1998). biometric encryptiontm using image processing, optical security and counterfeit deterrence techniques ii, vol. 3314, is&t/spie, 178-188 stoianov, a,, kevenaar, t., & van der veen, m. (2009). security issues of biometric encryption, proceedings of the toronto int. conf. science and technology for humanity (tic-sth), 34-39 sutcu, y., & li, q., & memon, n. (2007). how to protect biometric templates teoh, a. b. j., kuan, y. w., & lee, s. (2008). cancellable biometrics and annotations on biohash, pattern recognition, 41(6):2034-2044 tuyls, p., & goseling, j. (2004). capacity and examples of template-protecting biometric authentication systems, philips research, prof. holstlaan 4, 5656 aa eindhoven, the netherlands uludag, u., pankanti, s., prabhakar, s., & jain, a. k. (2004) biometric cryptosystems: issues and challenges, proceedings of the ieee: special issue on multimedia security of digital rights management 92, vol. 6, 948-960. uludag, u., & jain, a. (2004). attacks on biometric systems: a case study in fingerprints, proceedings of spie-ei 2004, security, steganography and watermarking of multimedia contents vi, vol. 5306, 622-633 uludag, u., & pankanti, s., & jain, a. k. (2005). fuzzy vault for fingerprints, avbpa, 310319 uludag, u., & jain, a. k. (2006). securing fingerprint template: fuzzy vault with helper data, privacy research in vision, 163 uludag, u., & jain, a. (2006). securing fingerprint template: fuzzy vault with helper data, proceedings of the ieee workshop on privacy research in vision (priv), new york, ny vielhauer, c., steinmetz, r., & mayerhofer, a. (2002). biometric hash based on statistical features of online signatures, proceedings of the sixteenth international conference on pattern recognition, vol. 1, 123-126 vielhauer, c., & steinmetz, r. (2004). handwriting: feature correlation analysis for biometric hashes, eurasip journal on applied signal processing 4, 542-558 voderhobli, k., pattinson, c., & donelan, h. (2006). a schema for cryptographic key generation using hybrid biometrics, 7th annual postgraduate symp.: the convergence of telecommunications, networking and broadcasting, liverpool wayman, j. (2001). fundamentals of biometric authentication technologies, international journal of image & graphics, 93-114 yamazaki, y., nakashima, a., tasaka, k., & komatsu, n. (2005). a study on vulnerability in online writer verification system, proceedings of the eighth international conference on document analysis and recognition, seoul, south korea, 640-644 zhe, j., andrew, b. j. t., bok-min, g. & yong-haur,t. (2016). biometric cryptosystems: a new biometric key binding and its implementation for fingerprint minutiae-based representation, elsevier pattern recognition, vol. 56, 50-62, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patcog.2016.02.024 zheng, g., li, w., & zhan, c. (2006). cryptographic key generation from biometric data using lattice mapping, icpr '06: proceedings of the 18th international conference on pattern recognition, washington, dc, usa, ieee computer society, 513-516 zhou, x. (2007). template protection and its implementation in 3d face recognition systems, fraunhofer igd, fraunhoferstr. 5, 64283 darmstadt, germany zuo, j., ratha, n. k., & connel, j. h. (2008). cancelable iris biometric, proceedings of the 19th int. conf on pattern recognition (icpr’08), 1-4 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 64 mohamed soltane (prof. dr.) received the m. eng. degree in electronics from badji-mokhtar university of annaba, algeria, in 1995 and the m. sc. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from national university of malaysia in 2005, and the ph. d. degrees in electronics and computer engineering from badji-mokhtar university of annaba, algeria, in 2010. he is currently an associate professor at electrical engineering & computing department, faculty of sciences & technology, yahia fares university of medea, algeria. his research interests include statistical pattern recognition, biometric authentication, cryptography and quantum computing, computer vision and machine learning and microcomputer based system design. lotfi messikh (prof. dr.) is a professor at faculty of engineering sciences, university of skikda, algeria. he holds phd in signal processing from the university of badji mokhtar annaba, algeria. his research interest focus on signal processing, automatic speech processing and system design for photovoltaic applications. abdelhalim zaoui (prof. dr.) is a professor with the electrical engineering research unit, mps, algiers, algeria. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 13 validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multi-agent system approach faisal riaz department of computer sciences & it, mirpur university of science & technology, aj&k, college rd, new mirpur city 10250, pakistan phone: +92 582 7961037 department of computing and technology, iqra university, 5, khayaban-e-johar, islamabad, pakistan fazi_ajku@yahoo.com muaz a. niazi department of computer sciences, comsats institute of information technology, park road, islamabad 45550, pakistan phone: +92 51 9247000 muaz.niazi@gmail.com abstract making roads safer by avoiding road collisions is one of the main reasons for inventing autonomous vehicles (avs). in this context, designing agent-based collision avoidance components of avs which truly represent human cognition and emotions look is a more feasible approach as agents can replace human drivers. however, to the best of our knowledge, very few human emotion and cognition-inspired agent-based studies have previously been conducted in this domain. furthermore, these agent-based solutions have not been validated using any key validation technique. keeping in view this lack of validation practices, we have selected state-of-the-art emotion enabled cognitive agent (eec_agent), which was proposed to avoid lateral collisions between semi-avs. the architecture of eec_agent has been revised using exploratory agent based modeling (eabm) level of the cognitive agent based computing (cabc) framework and real-time fear emotion generation mechanism using the ortony, clore & collins (occ) model has also been introduced. then the proposed fear generation mechanism has been validated using the validated agent based modeling level of cabc framework using a virtual overlay multiagent system (vomas). extensive simulation and practical experiments demonstrate that the enhanced eec_agent exhibits the capability to feel different levels of fear, according to different traffic situations and also needs a smaller stopping sight distance (ssd) and overtaking sight distance (osd) as compared to human drivers. keywords: autonomous vehicles, cognitive agent, emotions, simconnector, vomas agent, validation 1. introduction making roads safer by avoiding road collisions is one of the main reasons for inventing autonomous vehicles (avs) (s. samiee, s. azadi, r. kazemi, a. eichberger, b. rogic, m. semmer, 2016). vine et al. (s. le vine, …, 2016) have proposed collision free intersections using autonomous cars by employing the clear distance ahead approach. rodrıguez-seda et al. (e. j. rodríguez-seda, d. m. stipanović, m. w. spong, 2016) have developed collision–free maneuvers in uncertain road environments for autonomous cars using lyapunov-based analysis. jimenez et al. (f. jiménez, j. e. naranjo, ó. gómez, 2015) have made an autonomous car capable of avoiding road collisions from pedestrians and surrounding vehicles using laser-scanner sensor and detailed digital map. however, designing collision avoidance component of avs inspired by agent based brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 14 modeling, which truly represents human cognition and emotions, looks more feasible as they are replacing human drivers. researchers have proposed many agent based collision avoidance systems. reichardt (d. m. reichardt, 2008) has presented an emotional agent inspired driver’s assistant model which simulates the emotional influence on the human driver’s behavior. the main purpose of this model is to build a framework for learning algorithms, which help in building adaptive driver assistance system. an emotion enabled cognitive agent (eec_agent) inspired lateral collision avoidance scheme between avs has been proposed by riaz et al. (f. riaz, …, 2013). a detailed analysis of cyberphysical systems for collision avoidance has also been proposed by riaz and niazi (f. riaz, m. a. niazi, 2016). an in-vehicle virtual agent based driver assistance system has been proposed by joo and lee-won (y. k. joo, r. j. lee-won, 2016) , which help female drivers to improve their performance during risky situations. a human behavior inspired agent has been proposed by waizman et al. (g. waizman, s. shoval, i. benenson, 2015), which helps the avs to avoid collisions with pedestrians at black spots. an agent based driver assistance system (das) has been proposed by tiengo et al. (w. tiengo, e. b. costa, j. m. fechine, 2016) for the rollover prevention in the heavy duty vehicles. in another work, a rule based cognitive agent inspired intersection collision avoidance system has been proposed by lu et al. (g. lu, …, 2014). however, the problem with these agent-based solutions is that, the claimed functionalities of these agentbased systems have not been validated at any level. in existing literature, different validation techniques for agent-based systems have been proposed by the researchers. these include work on modeling the internet of things such as (k. batool, m. a. niazi, 2017; s. laghari, a. niazi, 2016; a. b. altamimi, r. a. ramadan, 2016). for complex-network based models, a validation methodology has also been proposed by batool and niazi in (k. batool, m. a. niazi, 2014). agents have also been demonstrated to be useful in the domain of multi-agent foraging (o. zedadra, n. jouandeau, h. seridi, g. fortino, 2017). fagiolo et al. (g. fagiolo, c. birchenhall, p. windrum, 2007) have proposed an empirical validation technique to validate the agent-based systems. in another research work, a validation scheme based on philosophical truth theories has been proposed by schmid (a. schmid, 2005). barreteau et al. (o. barreteau,… , 2003) have proposed an iterative participatory approach, known as companion modeling for the validation of agent based systems. makowsky (m. makowsky, 2006) has proposed the agent based simulation itself as a validation technique to validate the functionality of proposed agent system. niazi et. al (m. a. niazi, a. hussain, m. kolberg, 2017) have proposed a novel concept of agent based validation using virtual overlay multi-agent system (vomas) under the framework of cognitive agent based computing (cabc) framework (m. a. niazi, a. hussain, 2012). however, none of these above mentioned validation techniques have been applied to validate such cognitive and emotional agents, which have been tailored especially for autonomous vehicles to enhance their collision avoidance capabilities. contribution: the main contribution of this research work is to validate the existing state-of the-art eec_agent proposed by riaz et al. (f. riaz, …, 2013). however, some secondary contributions have been made as well, which were necessary to perform its validation. the details of the contribution are given as under. 1) the enhanced version of eec_agent known as enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent (eeec_agent) has been proposed by introducing proper emotion generation mechanism using ortony, clore & collins occ model (a. ortony, g. l. clore, a. collins, 1990), as it lacks in simple eec_agent (f. riaz, …, 2013). for this purpose the exploratory agent based modeling (eabm) level of cabc framework has been employed. 2) the validated agent based modeling level of cabc framework has been utilized to validate the eeec_agent functionalities. to validate the eeec_agent virtual overlay multi-agent system (vomas) approach has been employed for comparing and validating the performance of eeec_agent with that of a human driver during the rear end collision situation. for comparison and validation of eeec_agent, stopping sight distance (ssd) f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 15 defined by the american association of state highway and transportation officials (aashto) (a. aashto, 2001) and overtaking sight distance (osd) defined by indian road congress (irc) (m. sarhan, y. hassan, 2008) are used. the extensive experiments prove that eeec_agent enabled avs can avoid rear end and lane changing collisions with smaller ssds and osds respectively as compared to the humandriven vehicles. hence, then validated and truly emotional, cognitive agent-based collision avoidance solution for the autonomous vehicles is revealed. the rest of the paper has been organized as follows. section 2 presents the background. section 3 discusses eabm based design of proposed eeec_agent. simconnect design of the proposed eeec_agent simulation has been presented in section 4. section 5 presents the validation model. section 6 presents experimental setup. section 7 gives results and discussion along with the details of experiments. practical validation of the proposed fear generation mechanism of eeec_agent has been performed in section 8 using prototype av. the paper concludes in section 9. 2. background this background section gives the preliminary information about the key terms utilized in this research work. first of all, the role of emotions in human life has been elucidated along with the occ model of emotions. subsequently, the terms sight distances, cognitive agent based computing, simconnector and vomas agent have been discussed. 2.1. emotions the term ‘emotion’ has been used to refer mental and physical course of action that includes aspects of subjective experience, evaluation and appraisal, motivation and body responses such as arousal and facial expression (e. e. smith, 2009). according to aristotle, emotion is defined as a hat that leads one’s state to become so transformed that his judgment is affected, which is accompanied by pleasure or pain (e. e. smith, 2009) .there are several emotion models, which are proposed by different researchers. however, we are interested in the occ model (a. ortony, g. l. clore, a. collins, 1990).the reason for choosing occ is the primary interest of its authors in the role of cognition which is used to generate emotion. according to occ model, the emotions may be generated due to three major aspects of the world or changes in the world, namely events, agents, or objects. when humans focus on events they are interested in their consequences, whereas they focus on agents and actions, they are interested in their actions. in our work, we are interested in emotions generated due to the reactions to the expected events. these types of emotions are also known as prospect based emotions. 2.2. cognitive agent-based computing (cabc) agent-based modeling (abm) and complex networks (cn) are two popular modeling tools for understanding complex adaptive system (cas). in 2011, a unified framework named cognitive agent-based computing (cabc), combining these two modeling paradigms, was proposed by muaz et al. (m. a. niazi, a. hussain, 2012) for the better understanding of cas. agent based modeling (abm) and complex networks (cn) are two popular modeling tools for understanding complex adaptive system (cas). the cabc helps the cross-disciplinary researchers to develop the understanding of their area related cas using different types of models. it provides guidelines to the multidisciplinary researchers regarding how they can develop computational models of cas even though they belong to social science, life science or computer science. the unified framework provides four understanding and development levels of cas along with related case studies. complex network modeling. the first level of framework, which is useful in modeling complex systems, is complex network modeling. when the interaction data between network nodes brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 16 is available, then using complex network modeling can be useful. this level helps the researchers in building the complex network models along with the network classification. further this level helps in extracting the useful information from the network by determining the global and local quantitative measures related to this network. other statistical and more traditional mathematical models have not such capability to provide details of emergent behavior and patterns of complex networks, which can be achieved by complex network modeling. exploratory agent based modeling. the second level of framework is exploratory agent based modeling (eabm). when the researchers are interested in extending existing ideas related to the agent based modeling which belong to the other fields, the eabm is a useful guideline paradigm in this regard. using eabm, researchers can build experimental or proof of concepts, which help in defining the further scope and feasibility of the future research. using eabm researchers still failed to solve some important problems. dream. using dream level, quantitative comparison of different models can be performed without execution of simulation experiments. the processes of reverse engineering and replication of model can be easily done using dream. hence the abm can be examined visually other than textual description. the visual examination of abm is better in the sense that a model can be analyzed abstractly without visiting its source code. hence using visual approach the comparison between domains across models can be done easily along with teaching cas models. another ultimate benefit of dream is translation of different sub-models from visual model to pseudo code specification model to an agent-based model. the proposed methodology should allow for a translation from these different sub-models such as from a visual (complex network-based) model to pseudo code specification model to an agent-based model. validated agent based modeling. verification and validation are the techniques used for the evaluation of a product or system to determine that it meets its objectives, requirements and specification. these approaches are used together but they are different from each other. the validated agent-based modeling level of the proposed framework is concerned with developing verified and validated agent-based models. this level allows performing in-simulation verification and validation of the agent-based models using a virtual overlay multi-agent system (vomas). to solve this problem muaz et.al proposed a novel concept of virtual overlay multi-agent system (vomas) in (g. nehate, m. rys, 2006). one of core benefits of vomas is that all kinds of agent based models can be validated by using it. the basic idea of vomas is performing validation by making an overlay on the top of agent based simulation without taking an active part in the simulation. using vomas, agent based simulations can be validated both spatially and nonspatially. in this research paper we have utilized two levels of cabc framework. the eabm, which helps us in exploring the role of the occ model in enhancing the emotion generation capabilities of eeec_agent and validated agent based modeling level, which provides us guidelines to validate the functionality of eeec_agent. 2.3. sight distances sight distances are the different types of safe distances between the vehicles which should be maintained to avoid collisions. sight distances are further subdivided in stopping sight distance and overtaking sight distance. stopping sight distance (ssd). the minimum sight distance at any point which enables the driver to stop the vehicle safely without the collision is known as stopping sight distance. it is one of the very basic measures in traffic engineering defined by the (aashto) (c. harlow, s. peng, 2001). ssd basically comprises two distances. the first one is the distance that a vehicle travels during the reaction time of the driver and the second one is the distance that vehicle takes to stop after applying the brakes. f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 17 overtaking sight distance (osd). the overtaking sight distance (osd) is the distance in front of the driver of a vehicle while trying to overtake against opposite direction. irc has given a method to compute osd in (g. nehate, m. rys, 2006). 2.4. vomas agent-based models are getting popular due to their easy application to the different fields of life, such as modeling human muscle development, heat diffusion, turing machine, flocking and different social science mechanisms, etc. in spite of such popularity of agent-based model, validation of these models is still a challenging task. during the modeling of agent-based models, it is important to ensure that the model is working correctly, i.e. verification and the model is giving required outputs i.e. validation. to solve this problem, muaz et al. (m. a. niazi, q. siddique, a. hussain, m. kolberg, 2010) proposed a novel concept of vomas. using vomas, agent-based simulations can be validated both spatially and non-spatially. in our work for the validation of proposed agent-based model of eec_agent, we are using multi-invariant based validation method, which lies in non-spatial validation category. 2.5. simconnector as the natural disaster events occur rarely,testing the performance of disaster alert systems is a challenging task. to overcome this problem, a novel approach was proposed by muaz et.al in (m. niazi, …, 2011) by developing and testing real-time disaster early warning and alerting system by combining two different software environments. in (m. niazi, q. siddique, a. hussain, g. fortino, 2011), the agent-based simulation was used to generate a rare forest fire event and a webbased alert decision support system for generating warnings. for a detailed study of simconnector, the interested readers are referred to (m. niazi, q. siddique, a. hussain, g. fortino, 2011). 3. improvement in the existing architecture of eec_agent using eabm in the introduction section, it has already been discussed that in the current work we are going to improve the existing architecture of eec_agent (f. riaz, s. i. shah, m. raees, i. shafi,a. iqbal, 2013). the main drawback of eec_agent is that it claims to utilize emotions in making collision avoidance decisions, but no proper emotion generation mechanism has been proposed, which helps the cognitive agent to feel emotion according to the changing in the dynamic environment. hence to overcome this issue, we have redesigned the architecture of eec_agent using eabm and explored the role of occ model in the fear generation of eec_agent. in existing literature occ model has not been utilized to model the collision avoidance problems of avs using an agent approach. to our best knowledge, it is the first research work, which is going to explore the role of occ model in this context. the architecture and functionality of the eeec_agent are discussed as follows. architectural features and functionality the architecture of the proposed eeec agent has been shown in figure 1. for the sake of less complexity only two main neurons are considered i.e. hypothalamus neuron (nh) and amygdala neuron (na) because of their direct relation regarding the efficient processing in emergency situations. in addition to generate the notion of fear in an eec agent, the occ model based fear generation module has been introduced (k. batool, m. a. niazi, 2014). it can be seen from the figure 1 that the proposed architecture consists of five main modules: sensory module, artificial thalamus module, occ model based fear generation module, and motor module. to begin with, step 1, the sensory module keeps track of the distance between neighboring avs on a road segment. the sensory module of the eec_agent converts the stimulus information into electrical signals. the artificial thalamus module, similar to the hypothalamus module in the human brain, receives these sensed signals in step 2 for further processing. the brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 18 signals received by thalamus module have different frequencies that reflect on the prevailing intervehicular distance. in step 3, these signals are then checked against the maximum allowed threshold after computing likelihood, desirability and ig variables using occ model based fear generation module. in step 4 and 5, the artificial amygdala module also computes the fear intensity level in coordination with artificial thalamus and occ model based fear generation modules. these different intensity levels are used as controlling interrupts, which are passed to the motor module, in step 6, and in turn it execute the suitable collision avoidance maneuver. figure 1. emotion enabled cognitive agent architecture 4. proposed simconnector design for implementation of eeec_agent the simconnector approach proposed in (m. niazi, q. siddique, a. hussain, g. fortino, 2011) consists of an agent-based simulation, which generates artificial disaster events and then provided this data to the web-based decision support system for generating warnings. figure 2. simconnector design for the implementation however, in our case, agent-based simulation is used for validating the performance of prospect based emotion, i.e. fear inspired road collision avoidance system in real road accident scenarios. we first developed a fuzzy logic based simulator for finding the numeric values of fear related variables such as desirability, likelihood, and ig. these numeric values are provided to the prospect based emotions variables fuzzy logic inference engine crisp values of prospect based emotion (fear) simconnector agent based mode emotions enabled collision f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 19 netlogo platform based model of eec_agent for generating fear and testing its performance in rear-end collisions. fig. 2 depicts our simconnector design. 5. eeec_agent validation model as mentioned earlier, non-validated simulation and results are one of the drawbacks of previously proposed eec_agent (f. riaz, s. i. shah, m. raees, i. shafi, a. iqbal, 2013). to overcome this problem, we have proposed vomas agent-based simulation validation methodology. first, we have elucidated the vomas agent design, and then we have raised the validation question. in the end, three invariants have been defined which will act as filters to validate the agent-based simulation of eeec_agent. vomas agent design in our simulation model, we have designated av as a vomas agent. the vomas agent computes the changes in av’s fear, according to the occ model defined fear related variables and computes the required ssd and osd distances required for efficient collision avoidance during rear end and overtaking scenarios respectively. 5.1. validation question and invariants our validation question can thus be defined as. “how can we validate that the emotion generation mechanism of eeec_agent is working properly and eeec_agent installed av avoids the rear end and overtakes collisions more efficiently than human drivers.” to find out the answer of these validation questions invariants methodology proposed by niazi et al. (m. a. niazi, q. siddique, a. hussain, m. kolberg, 2010) has been utilized and in this regard following four invariants have been defined. the first two invariants help validating that the proposed fear generation mechanism of eeec_agent is working properly. the third and fourth invariants help validating that eeec_agent installed av requires smaller ssd and osd during rear end collision avoidance and overtaking scenarios respectively as compared to human drivers. a) invariant1_typea if the pre-condition that “distance between the rear end of the first av and the front end of the second av is very small” is true, then the fear level exhibited by av would result in a postcondition of “intensity of a fear of a bullet autonomous vehicle is high or very high”. b) invariant1_typeb if the pre-condition that “distance between the rear end of the first av and the front end of the second av is decreasing” is true, then the variation in the distance of av would result in a postcondition of “intensity of a fear of a bullet autonomous vehicle is increasing accordingly”. c) invariant2 if the pre-condition that “bullet_agent autonomous vehicle is successfully reacting to the rear end collision threat using eeec_agent short route reaction time” is true, then stopping sight distance required would result in a post-condition of “eeec_agent requires smaller ssd as compared to the ssd required by human driver”. d) invariant3 if the pre-condition that “bullet_agent autonomous vehicle is successfully reacting to the overtaking collision threat using eeec_agent short route reaction time” is true, then overtaking sight distance required would result in a post-condition of “eeec_agent requires smaller osd as compared to the osd of the human driver”. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 20 6. experiments this section describes the experiments related to the quantitative computation of prospectbased emotion using fuzzy logic and the experiments related to the validation of eec_agent. 6.1. experiment 1 to compute the fear, we have built a mamdani fuzzy inference system, which uses the traceability algorithm defined in (s. laghari, a. niazi, 2016). if prospect (v, e, t) and undesirable (v, e, t) < 0 then set fear-potential (v, e, t) = ff [|desire (v, e, t) |, likelihood (v, e, t), ig (v, e, t)] if fear-potential (v, e, t) > fear-threshold (v, t) then set fear-intensity (v, e, t) = fear-potential (v, e, t) fear-threshold (v, t) else set fear-intensity (v, e, t) =0 implementation details of fuzzy logic to compute the numeric values of the fear emotion for the sake of brevity, we are just giving here short details of the mamdani fuzzy inference system for the computation of different intensities of fear. the details of likelihood variable are given in the coming section along with linguistic tokens and fuzzy rules. sub-experiment 1a the likelihood variable helps in computing the chances of an accident. suppose that the av is following a truck. if the distance between av and the truck is higher or equal to the ssd than the likelihood of accidents will be low and vice versa. after a detailed analysis, it has been observed that distance and speed are two such factors which directly affect the likelihood of an accident. for example, if the speed is high and distance is low, then the likelihood of an accident will be high, and on the other hand, if the speed is low and distance is high then the likelihood of an accident will be low. the experiment 1a has been carried out to compute likelihood variable using fuzzy inference editor as shown in fig. 3. the two input variables distance and speed are defined on the left side and the likelihood variable on the right side. the mathematical function of trimf has been utilized as a membership function for two input and one output variables. to compute the likelihood variable, five linguistic tokens vllh, llh, mlh, hlh and vhlh have been defined which represent very low likelihood, low likelihood, medium likelihood, high likelihood and very high likelihood respectively. table 1. linguistic tokens for likelihood linguistic tokens description vhlh very high likelihood hlh high likelihood mlh medium likelihood llh low likelihood vllh very low likelihood twenty-five rules were defined to obtain the value of the variable likelihood, these rules are presented in table 2. f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 21 table 2. fuzzy rules defined for likelihood if distance is and speed is then likelihood is vhd vhs mlh vhd hs llh vhd ms vllh vhd ls vllh vhd vls vllh hd vhs hlh hd hs mlh hd ms vllh hd ls vllh hd vls vllh md vhs vhlh md hs vhlh md ms mlh md ls llh md vls vllh ld vhs vhlh ld hs vhlh ld ms hlh ld ls mlh ld vls vllh v ld vhs vhlh v ld hs vhlh v ld ms vhlh v ld ls hlh v ld vls mlh figure 3. main simulation screen for likelihood computation the remaining fear variables, i.e. undesirability and ig are computed on the same pattern. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 22 6.2. experiment 2 the purpose of the second type of experiment is to perform the validation of simconnector based design of the eeec_agent using vomas agent. for this purpose, netlogo 5.3 has been utilized which is a standard agent-based simulation environment. the netlogo 5.1 environment consists of patches and turtles. 6.2.2. experimental parameters to perform the simulation experiments empirically, three types of simulation parameter sets are defined. the first set consists of numeric values (table 9, 10 and 11) of prospect based emotions (i.e. fear) variables like the likelihood of accident event, the undesirability of accident event, and ig. the second set of parameters consists of stopping sight distance and overtaking sight distance described by eq. (1) and (2). a v vtssd 2075.1 47.1  (1) where ssd = stopping sight distance in feet, v = design speed in mph, t = brake reaction time in seconds and a = deceleration rate, 11.2 ft/s2. a s vstvosd bb 4 2  (2) here vb = velocity of overtaking vehicle, t = reaction time, s=space before and after overtaking and a = maximum overtaking acceleration at different speeds. the third miscellaneous set of parameters is: number of agents number of vomas agents testing speed range (mph) eeec_agent status reaction time here 0.4397 seconds and 3.8085 seconds are the reaction times for taking collision avoidance maneuver by eeec_agent and human driver respectively. these reaction times are taken in the guidelines of (riaz et. al., 2013). figure 6 shows the experimental environment along with input and output parameters. the two avs are taking part in this validation simulation. the bullet av is acting as a vomas agent whereas the second one is leading av which acts as a target agent. the left side of the simulation world contains input sliders for providing fuzzy logic based numeric values of prospect based emotion variables (undesirability, likelihood, ig). it is important to recall here that these numeric values of prospect based emotions were computed through experiments a), b) and c), presented in section 5.1.1, using fuzzy logic and then provided to the agent based simulation using the proposed simconnector approach. the world size used in the simulation is (-25, -25) to (25, 25) and in this way the total number of patches in the world is 25. to map the real-world distance in feet on 25 patches, each patch is representing a value equal to 100 feet. f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 23 figure 6. main simulation screen of eeec_agent based collision avoidance system in netlogo environment a) experiments-invariant1_typea in this experiment, we have validated the invariant 1. for this purpose, six different types of tests with different parameter values have been designed as presented in table 7. these tests are set up to test the pre-condition that if the distance between both avs will be decreased, what will be its effect on the intensity of the fear of eeec_agent. this set of tests has been performed using the behavior space tool of netlogo 5.3.1 environment and each test has been repeated 50 times. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 24 table 7. parameter values for experiment-invariant1_typea experime nt no separati on min veloci ty max velocity accelerati on_ bullet decelerati on_bullet accelerati on_ target decelerati on_target eee c_ag ent 1 1 10 100 0.06 0.03 0.03 0.03 true 2 1 10 100 0.06 0.06 0.03 0.03 true 3 1 60 100 0.06 0.03 0.03 0.03 true 4 1 60 100 0.06 0.06 0.03 0.03 true 5 1 90 100 0.06 0.03 0.03 0.03 true 6 1 90 100 0.06 0.06 0.03 0.03 true b) experiments-invariant1_typeb to validate the invariant 1_typeb, a different set of experiments has been defined. this experiment consists of five further tests. these five tests have been designed to check the behavior of bullet av (eeec_agent) on different distances from the target av. the parametric values of 5 tests are presented in table 8. table 8. parameter values for experiment-invariant1_typeb experime nt no separati on min velocity max velocit y accelerati on_ bullet decelerati on_bullet accelerati on_ target decelerati on_target eeec_ agent 1 5 10 100 0.06 0.03 0.03 0.03 true 2 9 10 100 0.06 0.06 0.03 0.03 true 3 13 10 100 0.06 0.03 0.03 0.03 true 4 13 60 100 0.06 0.06 0.03 0.03 true 5 17 10 100 0.06 0.06 0.03 0.03 true c) experiment-invariant2 in this experiment, we have validated the invariant 2. the experiments are set up to test the pre-condition that if the bullet autonomous vehicle is successfully reacting to the collision threat using eeec_agent short route reaction time, then eeec_agent requires smaller ssd as compared to the ssd required by human driver. for this purpose, a total of 12 experiments have been performed. d) experiment-invariant3 in this experiment, we have validated the invariant 3. the experiment is set up to test the pre-condition that if the bullet autonomous vehicle is successfully reacting to the collision threat using eeec_agent short route reaction time, the eeec_agent then requires smaller osd as compared to the osd required by human driver. for this purpose, the experiment has been repeated 10 times with different speeds and distances between both avs. 7. results and discussion this section describes the results of both experiments 1 and 2. the results are compared with the state of the art eec_agent proposed in [6]. 7.1. experiment 1 table 9 shows the quantitative values of undesirability from very low (vl) to very high (vh). the terms vld, ld, md, hd, and vhd represent very low desirability, low desirability, medium desirability, high desirability and respectively very high desirability. if the agent has a value between 0-0.24 for its undesirability of an event, then it can be interpreted as the very low undesirability. however, from an abstract analysis, it can be noted that due to the fuzzy nature of f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 25 the fear emotion, the boundary of one intensity level mixes in the boundary of another intensity level. hence, the intensity levels lying between 0.24 and 0.5 will be interpreted as low undesirability and lower than these values as the very low undesirability. in the same way, the other intensity levels of undesirability variable can be interpreted. in the same way, table 10 and table 11 are showing the five quantitative values for finding the different intensity levels of likelihood and ig variables. these quantitative values of desirability, likelihood and ig are presented in table 9, 10 and 11 respectively. these values are then provided to the eeec_agent for computing different intensities of fear in the next section by following the proposed simconnector design. table 9 quantitative values of five intensity levels of desirable variable vld ld md hd vhd 0-0.24 0.1-0.5 0.25-0.73 0.51-0.9 0.76-1 table 10 quantitative values of five intensity levels of likelihood variable vll ll ml hl vhl 0-0.24 0.1-0.5 0.25-0.73 0.51-0.9 0.76-1 table 11 quantitative values of five intensity levels of global variable (ig) vlig lig mig hig vig 0-0.24 0.1-0.5 0.25-0.73 0.51-0.9 0.76-1 7.2. experiment 2 in this section validation of fear generation mechanism of eeec_agent has been performed using vomas agent methodology defined in the cabc framework. 7.2.1. results and discussion: experiment-invariant1_typea for the detailed validation of proposed eeec agent, we have designed two different sets of experiments. furthermore, these two sets of experiments consist of six and five tests respectively. the details of these tests have been provided in the section 5.1.12. before starting the discussion, it is important to mention that the simulation for each test within experiments set 1 has been performed for 100 ticks. however, due to the space limitations, the data of only 8-9 ticks have been shown in the tables 12 to table 17. however, the graphs shown in figure 7 to figure 12 have been generated over 100 ticks. furthermore, to draw graphs more clearly, the intensities of fear have been mapped from the range of [0-1] to the [0-100]. the first set of experiments has been designed to validate the performance of eeec agent on the very short distance between bullet and target av. the results of the first test of experiments have been presented in table 12. in the first test, the bullet av follows the target av with low speed, i.e. 10 mph with high acceleration rate, i.e. 0.06 mph and low deceleration rate i.e. 0.03 mph. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 26 table 12. computation of fear at low speed of bullet av speed=10 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.03 ssd distance fear intensity 0.16 2.9 66 0.35 4.38 49 0.76 6.36 49 2.61 10.36 49 10.23 10.89 66 10.23 9.74 76 10.23 7.0 76 10.23 6.0 76 10.23 5.50 76 figure 7. computation of fear at low speed of bullet av with high acceleration and low deceleration table 13. computation of fear at low speed of bullet av speed=10 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.06 ssd distance fear intensity 0.16 2.9 66 0.16 4.47 49 0.16 7.61 49 0.16 9.95 36 0.16 13.09 26 0.16 18.6 16 0.16 20.17 6 0.16 15.93 26 0.16 10.50 36 figure 8. computation of fear at low speed of bullet av with equally high acceleration and deceleration table 14. computation of fear at moderate speed of bullet av speed=60 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.03 ssd distance fear intensity 3.83 2.87 76 5.87 3.71 76 9.45 3.66 76 10.23 3.39 76 10.23 2.96 76 10.23 2.83 76 10.23 2.68 76 10.23 2.55 76 10.23 2.40 76 10.23 2.27 76 figure 9. computation of fear at moderate speed of bullet av with high acceleration and low deceleration f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 27 table 15. computation of fear at moderate speed of bullet av speed=60 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.06 ssd distance fear intensity 3.83 2.9 76 3.83 2.43 76 3.83 2.05 76 3.83 1.84 76 3.83 1.65 76 3.83 1.56 76 3.83 1.51 76 3.83 1.29 76 3.83 1.24 76 figure 10. computation of fear at moderate speed of bullet av with equally high acceleration and deceleration table 16. computation of fear at high speed of bullet av speed=90 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.03 ssd distance fear intensity 8.34 2.53 76 8.34 7.61 76 10.23 11.98 66 10.23 14.43 49 10.23 16.38 49 10.23 17.83 49 10.23 18.33 36 10.23 19.78 36 10.23 19.50 36 figure 11. computation of fear at high speed of bullet av with high acceleration and low deceleration table 17. computation of fear at high speed of bullet av speed=9 0 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.06 ssd distance fear intensity 8.34 2.48 76 8.34 7.12 76 8.34 10.18 66 8.34 12.8 49 8.34 16.71 36 8.34 20.65 26 8.34 20.51 26 8.34 20.76 26 8.34 20.50 26 figure 12. computation of fear at high speed of bullet av with equally high acceleration and deceleration brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 28 from the table 12, it can be seen that at the beginning of travel the distance between bullet and target av is 2.9 feet and bullet av requires 0.16 feet as ssd to avoid the collision. because of small differences between required ssd and current distance from target av, bullet av starts feeling high fear i.e. 66. after feeling high fear, the bullet vehicle starts decelerating with the deceleration rate of 0.03 mph and the distance between both avs starts increasing. from the 2nd entry of table 12, it can be seen that due to increasing in distance from 2.9 feet to 4.38 feet the bullet av starts feeling medium fear i.e. 49. from the fifth entry of table 12 it can be seen that when the required ssd is very near to the distance between both avs, bullet av starts exhibiting a high intensity of fear again and as the difference between required ssd and distance moves towards high negative value then the bullet av starts feeling very high fear. from these tests, it can be validated that the proposed eeec agent has the capability to feel abrupt fear as well due to the sudden appearance of the leading vehicles on very short distance. the graphical representation of the results of table1 has been shown in figure 7. table 13 presents the simulation results of test 2. in test 2, the initial distance between the bullet-target avs and the speed of bullet av has been considered same as test 1. however, the acceleration and deceleration rates of bullet av have been set to high rate i.e. 0.06 mph. from the table 13, it can be seen that in the beginning of the simulation, eeec_agent enabled bullet av felt high fear due to small differences between required ssd and current distance. in a result, bullet av starts decelerating with the rate of 0.06 mph. due to deceleration maneuver, the distance between both avs starts increasing. in the result, the eeec agent’s fear state switches from high fear to medium fear i.e. 49. an interesting thing in this test can be noted that the ssd remains constant. it is because of equal high acceleration and deceleration rates. from the 6th entry of table 13, it can be observed that when the distance between both avs gets very high i.e. 18.6 feet (on simulation scale) as compared to the required ssd i.e. 0.16 feet then the eec agent fear state presents very low fear i.e. 16. again, the results of test 2 validate the performance of proposed eeec agent over very short, medium and high distances between bullet and target avs. the graphical representation of the results of table 13 has been shown in figure 8. table 14 presents the simulation results of test3, which is designed to test the behavior of the eeec_agent over moderate speed, i.e. 60 mph with acceleration rate, i.e. 0.06 mph and low deceleration rate i.e. 0.03 mph. from the first entry of table 14, it can be seen that over moderate speed, bullet av starts feeling very high fear at the very beginning of travel due to small differences between required ssd and current distance. in the next move, bullet av starts decelerating to avoid the collisions and the distance between both vehicles starts increasing. but still, the eeec_agent remains in the very high fear state because of the high danger of accident as compared to the test 1 and test 2 results, where over low-speed eeec_agent switches from high fear state to medium fear state after performing deceleration maneuver. the results of test 3 and test 4 are almost the same. however, the main difference is that in the test 4 the required ssd remains the same for each tick of simulation due to equally high acceleration and deceleration rates. the graphical representations of table 14 and table 15 are presented in figure 9 and figure 10 respectively. table 16 and 17 present the results of test 5 and 6 respectively. test 5 and 6 are designed to validate the performance of proposed eeec_agent over very high speed i.e. 90 mph with high acceleration and low deceleration rates and with equal high acceleration and deceleration rates respectively. from the table 16, it can be seen that the proposed eeec_agent switches between different fear levels, according to the low or high differences between required ssd and current distance. the graphical representations of table 16 and 17 are presented in figure 11 and figure 12 respectively. from all of these tests it can be concluded that the proposed eeec_agent has been validated to have the capability to feel sudden fear over the different speeds with small initial ssds. hence, these results validate the invariant1_type a claim that if the pre-condition that “distance between the rear end of the first av and the front end of the second av is very small” is f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 29 true, then the fear level exhibited by av would result in a post-condition of “intensity of a fear of a bullet autonomous vehicle is high or very high”. 7.2.2. results and discussion: experiment-invariant1_typeb further validation of the proposed eeec_agent has been provided through an extensive set of tests over different arrangements of experiments. continuing the discussion section, the rest of the validation scenarios have been presented through table 18-22. five different sets of experiments have been designed over different initial separation, covering a range from short to long distances between bullet and target avs. in table 18, results have been given for validating the eeec_agent by placing bullet and target avs 5 separation apart. bullet av is moving at a low speed of 10 mph and accelerating at a rate of 0.06 mph and decelerating with a low rate of 0.03 mph. at tick number 1, which is shown by the first record in table 18, bullet av requires 0.16 feet ssd. whereas, the actual distance, i.e. 6.28 feet between vehicles is greater than the required ssd. that is why medium level fear is felt by eeec_agent i.e. 49. as the bullet av proceeds further by adding 0.06 mph to its current speed, a decrease in the distance has been recorded, which is shown by the second entry of distance in table 18 i.e. 5.77 feet. this decrease in distance increased fear intensity and shifted it to the high level. as bullet av continues to accelerate the required ssd varies with changes in speed on every tick. the fourth record in table 18 shows the status of bullet av with an increased ssd value which is 4.73 due to increasing in its speed. at this point, the autos’ separation has crossed the safety sight distance limit, which is causing our eeec_agent to feel high positive fear i.e. 76. after the violation of ssd, bullet av tends to decelerate. the rest of the entries are confirming the fact that deceleration causing an increment in distance and an ultimately decrement in fear level. graphical representation of all 100 ticks’ data has been provided in figure 13. table 18. computation of fear at low speed of bullet av with separation 5 speed=10 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.03 ssd distance fear intensity 0.16 6.28 49 2.61 5.77 66 3.95 4.60 66 4.73 3.83 76 10.22 7.61 76 10.22 11.98 66 10.22 14.15 49 10.22 18.15 36 10.22 17.50 36 figure 13. computation of fear at low speed of bullet av with high acceleration and low deceleration table 19. computation of fear at low speed of bullet av with separation 9 speed=10 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.06 ssd distance fear intensity 0.16 10.24 36 0.16 12.21 26 0.16 13.27 26 0.16 16.44 16 0.16 19.49 16 0.16 19.60 16 0.16 20.14 160.15 figure 14. computation of fear at low speed of bullet av brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 30 0.16 21.87 6 with equally high acceleration and deceleration table 20 computation of fear at moderate speed of bullet av with separation 13 speed=10 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.03 ssd distance fear intensity 0.15 14.84 26 0.46 16.84 16 5.57 23.28 16 7.47 23.39 26 10.22 21.68 36 10.22 18.17 49 10.22 14.15 66 10.22 11.28 66 table 21 computation of fear at moderate speed of bullet av with separation 13 speed=60 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.06 ssd distance fear intensity 3.83 14.9 36 3.83 16.04 26 3.83 20.03 16 3.83 24.02 6 3.83 22.99 16 3.83 19.30 26 3.83 15.31 36 3.89 11.59 49 figure 15. computation of fear at moderate speed of bullet av with high acceleration and low deceleration figure 16. computation of fear at moderate speed of bullet av with equally high acceleration and deceleration f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 31 table 22. computation of fear at high speed of bullet av with separation 17 speed=10 acceleration= 0.06 deceleration= 0.06 ssd distance fear intensity 0.15 18.37 16 0.15 20.21 6 0.15 22.44 6 0.15 24.12 6 0.15 25.35 6 0.15 20.32 6 0.15 19.88 16 0.15 18.92 16 figure 17. computation of fear at high speed of bullet av with equally high acceleration and deceleration table 19 presents the figures regarding the validation test being performed with a low initial speed of bullet av, i.e. 10 mph with the initial separation of 9. bullet av has equally high acceleration and deceleration rate of 0.06 mph. initial separation has been increased by 4 points than the previous setup. staircase representation shown in figure 12 is substantiating the reality of the increase in the distance causes a decrease in the fear intensity. required ssd for bullet av is 0.16 feet due to its low speed. initial placement of the bullet and target vehicles is far apart. the distance shown by the first record in table 19 is 10.24 feet, which has allowed bullet av to move continuously with mentioned rate by feeling positive low fear given by the value 36. an ssd column of table 19 is baring a constant value due to an equal change in speed caused by both acceleration and deceleration. deceleration of bullet av causing an increase in distance, for instance, entry number 3 shows the distance value of 13.27 feet hence lowering the fear value to 26. fear continues to drop and that is because of the fact that bullet av is decelerating without any considerable fear intensity. figure 14 presents a plot of 100 records to show the overall behavior of eeec_agent. in the continuation of the experiments, the next test has been performed with the initial separation of 13. the results of this scenario have been shown in table 20 and table 21. bullet av is moving with a speed of 10 mph. the first record in table 20 is giving 0.15 feet ssd, 14.85 feet as initial distance and fear value equal to 26 i.e., low fear. bullet vehicles accelerated, but being on low speed as compared to target av, an increase in the distance has been recorded given by the second and third record in table 20. gradual acceleration has put the bullet on a maximum speed of 100 mph and hence ssd required for such a high speed is given by 5th entry i.e. 10.22 feet. the rest of the entries giving a constant figure of 10.22 feet for ssd, but gradual decrease in separation due to the high speed of bullet av. this continuing reduction in the distance value is causing uplift in the fear intensity, exposing by 6th, 7th and 8th records of table 20. by maintaining the said initial separation another test has been conducted by setting the initial speed of bullet av to moderate level i.e. 60 mph. figure 16 depicts the truth of obtaining results that show a constant 3.83 feet ssd value with different distances due to equal acceleration and deceleration rate. by examining the table 21 records, it can be clearly validated that with the increase in distance between vehicles caused (due to the deceleration of bullet vehicle or acceleration of target vehicle) a gradual decline in fear values i.e. 0.36 to 0.26 and then finally to the 6. record number 5 to 10 reveal the reverse of earlier mentioned fact, as presented clearly in figure 16. the last subject of discussion regarding experiment tests is describing the results by putting vehicles distant apart, which is shown by the separation of 17 in the simulation. bullet av is traveling at a speed of 10 mph with equally high acceleration and deceleration rates i.e. 0.06 mph. the initial low speed of bullet av is causing an increase in distance of 18.37 feet to 20.21 feet, brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 32 from 20.21 feet to 25.35 feet and hence lowering the fear from 16 to 6 (shown by record number 1 to 5 in table 22). a gradual decrease in the distance and then a corresponding increase in the fear intensity have been portrayed through the rest of the records of table 22. figure 17 shows the actual behavior of all 100 records that were gathered during 100 runs of the simulation. the downward movement of the orange line (fear) with the upward movement of the gray line (distance) is validating the invariant1_typeb. 7.2.3. results and discussion: experiment-invariant 2 figure 18 shows the validation results of invariant 2. a total of 12 experiments are conducted to validate the claim that if the pre-condition that “bullet agent autonomous vehicle is successfully reacting to the rear end collision threat using eeec_agent short route reaction time” is true, then stopping sight distance required would result in a post-condition of “eeec_agent requires smaller ssd as compared to the ssd required by human driver”. the vertical axis of figure 16 presents different ssd values, whereas the corresponding velocities are given on the horizontal axis. from the figure 18, it can be seen that when the bullet av successfully avoids the collision by traveling at the velocity of 15 mph then it takes ssd= 31.733 feet as a safe distance. whereas in the same case the human driver needs ssd = 106.015 feet. in the same way, when the bullet av successfully avoids the collision by traveling at a high velocity of 50 mph then it takes ssd= 277.184 feet as a safety distance. whereas for the same case the human driver needs ssd = 524.790 feet. hence, the results prove that the claim of invariant 2 is true and the emotions inspired collision avoidance module is working properly in case of rear-end collisions. the eec_agent proposed in (f. riaz, s. i. shah, m. raees, i. shafi, a. iqbal, 2013) is tested for lateral collisions at different speeds. however, the (f. riaz, s. i. shah, m. raees, i. shafi, a. iqbal, 2013) failed to validate the results of the simulation against any standard collision avoidance parameters. we have validated our claim of rear end collisions against the standard stopping sight distance by adapting vomas agent approach defined in cabc framework. figure 18. eeec_agent ssd vs. human driver ssd graph 7.2.4. results and discussion: experiment-invariant 3 figure 19 shows the validation results of invariant 3. total 7 experiments are conducted to validate the claim that if the pre-condition that “bullet vehicle is successfully reacting to the overtaking collision threat using eeec_agent short route reaction time” is true, then overtaking sight distance required would result in a post-condition of “eeec_agent requires smaller osd as compared to the osd of the human driver”. from the figure 19 it can be seen that when the bullet av successfully avoids the collision by traveling at a velocity of 25 mph then it takes osd= 63.408 f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 33 feet as a safe distance. however, for the same case, the human driver needs osd = 85 feet. in the same way, when the bullet av successfully avoids the collision by traveling at a higher velocity of 50 mph then it takes osd= 145.264 feet as a safe distance. whereas for the same case the human driver needs osd = 185 feet. hence, the results prove that the claim of invariant 3 is true and the emotions inspired collision avoidance module is working properly in case of overtaking. figure 19. eeec_agent osd vs. human driver osd graph the eec_agent proposed in (f. riaz, s. i. shah, m. raees, i. shafi, a. iqbal, 2013) is tested for lateral collisions at different speeds. however, the (f. riaz, s. i. shah, m. raees, i. shafi, a. iqbal, 2013) failed to validate the results of the simulation against any standard collision avoidance parameters. we have validated our claim of overtaking collisions against the standard overtaking sight distance parameters by adapting vomas agent approach defined in cabc framework. 8. practical validation of the validation of fear generation mechanism of eeec_agent to further validate the results of vomas agent based simulation regarding fear generation, eeec_agent agent has been deployed in a prototype autonomous vehicle. occ model based application has been developed in the visual c# environment and it has been deployed in av using windows 10 based tablet. different av-obstacle tests have been performed to validate the results of vomas agent based simulation regarding the fear generation mechanism of eeec_agent. the overall architecture of rigorous validation using vomas agent has been presented in figure 20. the prototype av is equipped with high range ultrasonic sonars, which help to measure the distance of av from incoming obstacle. to control these sonars, arduino atmega2560 processor has been utilized, which further pass the results of these sonars to the c# application, which computes the intensity of fear. to validate that the fear generation processes of eeec_agent is practically generating the same results as it generated in netlogo simulation, vomas agent has been considered, which further utilized the invariants defined in section 5.1. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 34 figure 20. proposed practical validation architecture using vomas agent approach figure 21 a and b present the results of different practical validation tests, which have been performed using av-obstacle topology. from the figure 21a, it can be seen that when the av moves at low speed towards an obstacle, then in the beginning, it feels low fear due to high distance i.e. 210 feet. then gradually fear increases as the distance decreases. this confirms the simulation results that the fear generation mechanism of eeec_agent is working properly. (a) eeec_agent installed in av high range ultra sonic sonars arudino microcontroller occ model based fear generation coded in c# validation invariants testing results vomas agent 0 50 100 150 200 250 low low medium medium high 100 100 100 100 100 distance vs. fear intensity at 100 rpm distance f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 35 (b) figure 21. graphic representations of practical validation results a. different fear intensity levels perceived by eeec_agent installed av at 100 rpm speed, b. different fear intensity levels perceived by eeec_agent installed av at 200 rpm speed further, if we analyzed the results of figure 21b then it can be seen that at high speed eeec_agent first feel low fear and then suddenly jump to the medium fear because the distance suddenly decreased from 190 feet to 155 feet. in the same way, other results confirm that the fear increases as the distance between eeec_agent and obstacles decreases. an interesting phenomenon can be noted from the figure 21a and 21 b that at low speed, the eeec_agent feel medium fear after some time, whereas with high speed the eeec_agent suddenly perceive medium fear after feeling low fear. it shows the validation of the proposed fear generation mechanism that fear feeling capability is not fixed but dynamic. hence, it can be seen that the validation of validation has proved that the fear generation mechanism of proposed eeec_agent works accurately according to the different situations. these results can be further utilized by the researchers to build the eeec_agent based systems with more confidence. 9. conclusion a validated enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent (eeec_agent) has been proposed to avoid the collision between autonomous vehicles. for this purpose, prospect based emotions defined by occ model are used to generate fear in eeec_agent. simconnector approach is used to join fuzzy logic environment results with netlogo agent-based simulation. vomas agent is used to validate the performance of eeec_agent in the rear end and overtaking collisions. the extensive experiments proved that validated eeec_agent can perform collision avoidance with smaller ssd and osd as compared to the human driver. the authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in this manuscript. references aashto, a. (2001). policy on geometric design of highways and streets, american association of state highway and transportation officials, washington, dc, vol. 1, no. 990, pp. 158. altamimi, a. b. & ramadan, r. a. (2016). towards internet of things modeling: a gateway approach, complex adaptive systems modeling, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 25. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 low medium medium high high 200 200 200 200 200 distance vs. fear intensity at 200 rpm distance brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 36 barreteau, o., antona, m., d'aquino, p., aubert, s., boissau, s., bousquet, f., daré, w., etienne, m., le page, c., & mathevet, r. (2003). our companion modelling approach, journal of artificial societies and social simulation, vol. 6, no. 1. batool, k. & niazi, m. a. (2014). towards a methodology for validation of centrality measures in complex networks, plos one, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. e90283. batool, k. & niazi, m. a. (2017). modeling the internet of things: a hybrid modeling approach using complex networks and agent-based models, complex adaptive systems modeling, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 4. fagiolo, g., birchenhall, c., & windrum, p. (2007). empirical validation in agent-based models: introduction to the special issue, computational economics, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 189-194. harlow, c. & peng, s. (2001). automatic vehicle classification system with range sensors, transportation research part c: emerging technologies, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 231-247. jiménez, f., naranjo, j. e., & gómez, ó. (2015). autonomous collision avoidance system based on accurate knowledge of the vehicle surroundings, iet intelligent transport systems, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 105-117. joo, y. k. & lee-won, r. j. (2016). an agent-based intervention to assist drivers under stereotype threat: effects of in-vehicle agents' attributional error feedback, cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, vol. 19, no. 10, pp. 615-620. laghari, s. & niazi, a. (2016). modeling the internet of things, self-organizing and other complex adaptive communication networks: a cognitive agent-based computing approach, plos one, vol. 11. lu, g., li, l., wang, y., zhang, r., bao, z., & chen, h. (2014). a rule based control algorithm of connected vehicles in uncontrolled intersection, pp. 115-120. makowsky, m. (2006). an agent-based model of mortality shocks, intergenerational effects, and urban crime, journal of artificial societies and social simulation, vol. 9, no. 2. nehate, g. & rys, m. (2006). 3d calculation of stopping-sight distance from gps data, journal of transportation engineering, vol. 132, no. 9, pp. 691-698. niazi, m. a., & hussain, a. (2012). cognitive agent-based computing-i: a unified framework for modeling complex adaptive systems using agent-based & complex network-based methods. springer science & business media. niazi, m. a., hussain, a., & kolberg, m. (2009). verification and validation of agent based simulations using the vomas (virtual overlay multi-agent system) approach. niazi, m. a., siddique, q., hussain, a., & kolberg, m. (2010). verification & validation of an agent-based forest fire simulation model, p. 1. niazi, m., siddique, q., hussain, a., & fortino, g. (2011). simconnector: an approach to testing disaster-alerting systems using agent based simulation models, pp. 659-665. ortony, a., clore, g. l., & collins, a. (1990). the cognitive structure of emotions: cambridge university press. reichardt, d. m. (2008). approaching driver models which integrate models of emotion and risk. pp. 234-239. riaz, f. & niazi, m. a. (2016). road collisions avoidance using vehicular cyber-physical systems: a taxonomy and review, complex adaptive systems modeling, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 15. riaz, f., shah, s. i., raees, m., shafi, i., & iqbal, a. (2013). lateral pre-crash sensing and avoidance in emotion enabled cognitive agent based vehicle-2-vehicle communication system, international journal of communication networks and information security, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 127. rodríguez-seda, e. j., stipanović, d. m., & spong, m. w. (2016). guaranteed collision avoidance for autonomous systems with acceleration constraints and sensing uncertainties, journal of optimization theory and applications, vol. 168, no. 3, pp. 1014-1038. f. riaz, m. a. niazi validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach 37 samiee, s., azadi, s., kazemi, r., eichberger, a., rogic, b., & semmer, m. (2016). performance evaluation of a novel vehicle collision avoidance lane change algorithm, advanced microsystems for automotive applications 2015, pp. 103-116: springer. sarhan, m. & hassan, y. (2008). three-dimensional, probabilistic highway design: sight distance application, transportation research record: journal of the transportation research board, no. 2060, pp. 10-18. schmid, a. (2005). what is the truth of simulation?, journal of artificial societies and social simulation, vol. 8, no. 4. smith, e. e. & stepehen, m. k. (2009). emotion and cognition. in asoke k. gosh (ed.), cognitive psychology, 1st edition, new delhi: phi learning. tiengo, w., costa, e. b., & fechine, j. m. (2016). reducing risk of rollover in curve for heavyduty vehicles with an agent-based advanced driver assistance system, pp. 65-72. vine, s. l., liu, x., zheng, f., & polak, j. (2016). automated cars: queue discharge at signalized intersections with ‘assured-clear-distance-ahead’driving strategies, transportation research part c: emerging technologies, vol. 62, pp. 35-54. waizman, g., shoval, s., & benenson, i. (2015). micro-simulation model for assessing the risk of vehicle–pedestrian road accidents, journal of intelligent transportation systems, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 63-77. zedadra, o., jouandeau, n., seridi, h., & fortino, g. (2017). multi-agent foraging: state-of-the-art and research challenges, complex adaptive systems modeling, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 3. faisal riaz is a doctoral student at iqra university, pakistan and currently serving as an assistant prof. in the dept. of computer sciences, mirpur university of science and technology. his research interests are vehicular cyber physical systems, cognitive radio, affective computing, and agent based modelling. he has more than 24 research publications in various national/international research journals and conferences. he is the author of two books as well. furthermore, he is head of intelligent transport systems lab at mirpur university of science and technology (must), aj&k pakistan. under the banner of its lab, he has developed the first autonomous vehicle of pakistan. he is the reviewer of many well reputed journals. he has served as a technical program committee member in many international ieee conferences. his reviewing profile can be viewed over https://publons.com/author/742771. 122 abstracts brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1 january-march 2016 www.brain.edusoft.ro editor in chief: bogdan pătruţ 1. brain functors: a mathematical model of intentional perception and action david ellerman abstract category theory has foundational importance because it provides conceptual lenses to characterize what is important and universal in mathematics with adjunctions being the primary lens. if adjunctions are so important in mathematics, then perhaps they will isolate concepts of some importance in the empirical sciences. but the applications of adjunctions have been hampered by an overly restrictive formulation that avoids heteromorphisms or hets. by reformulating an adjunction using hets, it is split into two parts, a left and a right semiadjunction. semiadjunctions (essentially a formulation of universal mapping properties using hets) can then be combined in a new way to define the notion of a brain functor that provides an abstract model of the intentionality of perception and action (as opposed to the passive reception of sense-data or the reflex generation of behavior). 2. intelligent system for diagnosis of a three-phase separator irina ioniţă, liviu ioniţă abstract intelligent systems for diagnosis have been used in a variety of domains: financial evaluation, credit scoring problem, identification of software and hardware problems of mechanical and electronic equipment, medical diagnosis, fault detection in gas-oil production plants etc. the goal of diagnosis systems is to classify the observed symptoms as being caused by some diagnosis class while advising systems perform such a classification and offer corrective remedies (recommendations). the current paper discuss the opportunity to combine more intelligent techniques and methodologies (intelligent agents, data mining and expert systems) to increase the accuracy of results obtained from the diagnosis of a three-phase separator. the results indicate that the diagnosis hybrid system benefits from the advantages of each module component: intelligent agent module, data mining module and expert system module. 3. single trial classification of evoked eeg signals due to rgb colors eman alharbi, saim rasheed, seyed buhari abstract recently, the impact of colors on the brain signals has become one of the leading researches in bci systems. these researches are based on studying the brain behavior after color stimulus, and finding a way to classify its signals offline without considering the real time. moving to the next step, we present a real time classification model (online) for eeg signals evoked by rgb colors stimuli, which is not presented in previous studies. in this research, eeg signals were recorded from 7 subjects through bci2000 toolbox. the empirical mode decomposition (emd) technique was used at the signal analysis stage. various feature extraction methods were investigated to find the best and reliable set, including event-related spectral perturbations (ersp), target mean with feast 123 fourier transform (fft), wavelet packet decomposition (wpd), auto regressive model (ar) and emd residual. a new feature selection method was created based on the peak's time of eeg signal when red and blue colors stimuli are presented. the erp image was used to find out the peak's time, which was around 300 ms for the red color and around 450 ms for the blue color. the classification was performed using the support vector machine (svm) classifier, libsvm toolbox being used for that purpose. the emd residual was found to be the most reliable method that gives the highest classification accuracy with an average of 88.5% and with an execution time of only 14 seconds. 4. computer-mediated security threats into the web 2.0 society bogdan nadolu, delia nadolu abstract this paper is focused on a contemporary very complex and controversial issue related to the ict using: should the internet be censured, or not? the promise of the 4 of a – anyone to be able to send anything, anywhere, anytime is almost achieved. into the digital universe we can find plenty of useful information for positive or negative actions. the global info-sphere has developed a distinct chapter of dark and deep web, where the tracking of information and users is blocked, and thus contents over the laws limits can be easily accessed. 5. modeling, designing, and implementing an avatar-based interactive map stefan andrei, milin joshi, chandrakant rudani, ankur shah, bharatkumar tejwani abstract designing interactive maps has always been a challenge due to the geographical complexity of the earth’s landscape and the difficulty of resolving details to a high resolution. in the past decade or so, one of the most impressive map-based software application, the global positioning system (gps), has probably the highest level of interaction with the user. this article describes an innovative technique for designing an avatar-based virtual interactive map for the lamar university campus, which will entail the buildings’ exterior as well as their interiors. many universities provide 2d or 3d maps and even interactive maps. however, these maps do not provide a complete interaction with the user. to the best of our knowledge, this project is the first avatar-based interaction game that allows 100% interaction with the user. this work provides tremendous help to the freshman students and visitors of lamar university. as an important marketing tool, the main objective is to get better visibility of the campus worldwide and to increase the number of students attending lamar university. 6. modern tools in patient-centred speech therapy for romanian language mirela danubianu, iolanda tobolcea abstract the most common way to communicate with those around us is speech. suffering from a speech disorder can have negative social effects: from leaving the individuals with low confidence and moral to problems with social interaction and the ability to live independently like adults. the speech therapy intervention is a complex process having particular objectives such as: discovery and identification of speech disorder and directing the therapy to correction, recovery, compensation, adaptation and social integration of patients. computer-based speech therapy systems are a real help for therapists by creating a special learning environment. the romanian language is a phonetic one, with special linguistic particularities. this paper aims to present a few computer-based speech therapy systems developed for the treatment of various speech disorders specific to romanian language. 124 7. measuring customer behavior with deep convolutional neural networks veaceslav albu abstract in this paper, we propose a neural network model for human emotion and gesture classification. we demonstrate that the proposed architecture represents an effective tool for real-time processing of customer's behavior for distributed on-land systems, such as information kiosks, automated cashiers and atms. the proposed approach combines most recent biometric techniques with the neural network approach for real-time emotion and behavioral analysis. in the series of experiments, emotions of human subjects were recorded, recognized, and analyzed to give statistical feedback of the overall emotions of a number of targets within a certain time frame. the result of the study allows automatic tracking of user’s behavior based on a limited set of observations. 8. cognitive development optimization algorithm based support vector machines for determining diabetes utku kose, gur emre guraksin, omer deperlioglu abstract the definition, diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus and its complications are very important. first of all, the world health organization (who) and other societies, as well as scientists have done lots of studies regarding this subject. one of the most important research interests of this subject is the computer supported decision systems for diagnosing diabetes. in such systems, artificial intelligence techniques are often used for several disease diagnostics to streamline the diagnostic process in daily routine and avoid misdiagnosis. in this study, a diabetes diagnosis system, which is formed via both support vector machines (svm) and cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa) has been proposed. along the training of svm, codoa was used for determining the sigma parameter of the gauss (rbf) kernel function, and eventually, a classification process was made over the diabetes data set, which is related to pima indians. the proposed approach offers an alternative solution to the field of artificial intelligencebased diabetes diagnosis, and contributes to the related literature on diagnosis processes. 9. the fundamentals regarding the usage of the concept of interface for the modeling of the software artefacts dorin bocu, razvan bocu abstract this paper presents the conceptual foundations of a software system’s solution modelling activity, which is formally based on two essential concepts: the artefact and the interface. this modelling activity envisions two objectives: the explicit emphasis on the interfaces’ importance in the software engineering, and the preparation of the framework inside which the loop structurebehaviour can be formalized considering the inherent benefits for the modelling activity in general, and for the modelling activity automation in particular. 10. micro learning: a modernized education system omer jomah, amamer khalil masoud, xavier patrick kishore, sagaya aurelia abstract learning is an understanding of how the human brain is wired to learning rather than to an approach or a system. it is one of the best and most frequent approaches for the 21st century learners. micro learning is more interesting due to its way of teaching and learning the content in a small, very specific burst. here the learners decide what and when to learn. content, time, curriculum, form, process, mediality, and learning type are the dimensions of micro learning. our paper will discuss about micro learning and about the micro-content management system. the study will reflect the 125 views of different users, and will analyze the collected data. finally, it will be concluded with its pros and cons. 11. romanian campaigns on corporate social responsibility – signs of globalization monica patrut, camelia cmeciu abstract organizations play an important role in the development of the modern society since managers have become aware that financial profit highly depends on community involvement. the active participation of organizations in community life implies to adapt global strategies to local issues or to promote local issues at a global level. actually this is the essence of glocalization. the means by which organizations can achieve these glocal objectives is csr campaigns. csr represents an instrument used to solve diverse issues, such as: human rights, environment and climate change, education, support for vulnerable groups, sustainable development, or establishment of moral capitalism. within the context of the ever-rising internet access of all audiences, csr campaigns have become more visible and have capitalized on the advantages of collective intelligence, internet users’ participation and their user generated contents. the purpose of our study is to provide an insight into (1) the prominence of romanian organizations which are the most socially responsible, (2) the domains in which romanian organizations have invested; (3) the salience of csr 1.0 and csr 2.0 tools used in the promotion of csr campaigns in romania. 126 instructions for authors author guidelines authors must submit their papers via email to brain@edusoft.ro or they can create an account and submit their papers online, at www.brain.edusoft.ro. submitted papers must be written in doc format (microsoft word document), in as clear and as simple as possible english. preferred maximum paper length for the papers is 20 pages, including figures. the template for the paper is at this address: http://brain.edusoft.ro/new_template_for_brain.doc the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point times new roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. the title will be bold 14-point, and the author will be 12-point italic. figures have caption in bottom-center side, and tables have captions in left-top side. use a tab for identing each paragraph and the subtitles, too. the subtitles will be bold 12-point. please use microsoft word 97-2003, or word 2010, 2013. we encourage the authors to use the camera ready format even for the first submission. all paper submissions will be carefully reviewed by an editor, and by the members of the scientific board or independent experts, who will provide a written feedback with comments and ratings. authors will be notified of acceptance in maximum 3 weeks. accepted manuscripts should be revised according to the comments of the reviewers and of the editors. for questions concerning manuscript submission, contact mr. bogdan patrut by mail at bogdan@edusoft.ro. submission preparation checklist as part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 1. the submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the editor). 2. the submission file is in microsoft word (doc, docx) or rtf document file format. 3. where available, urls for the references have been provided. 4. the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 5. the text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the author guidelines, which is found in about the journal. 6. the instructions in ensuring a blind review have been followed. ensuring a blind peer review to ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. this involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their 127 review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: 1. the authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. 2. with microsoft office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under file in word), by clicking on the following, beginning with file on the main menu of the microsoft application: file > save as > tools (or options with a mac) > security > remove personal information from file properties on save > save. 3. with pdfs, the authors' names should also be removed from document properties found under file on adobe acrobat's main menu. copyright notice authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a creative commons attribution license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work privacy statement the names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. 128 indexing our journal is currently indexed/listed in the following indexing services and international databases: 1. emerging sources citation index, esci web of science (thomson-reuters) 2. directory of open access journals (doaj) 3. ebsco (ebsco open access computer science, ebsco open access journals, ebsco open access medical and health collection) 4. indexcopernicus 5. the linguist list 6. google academic 7. ulrichs 8. getcited 9. genamics journalseek 10. zeitschriftendatenbank (zdb) 11. j-gate 12. sherpa/romeo 13. dayang journal system 14. public knowledge project 15. bium (bibliothèque interuniversitaire de medecine et d'odontologie) 16. newjour 17. articlereach direct 18. link+ also, some universities and organizations list our journal in their online libraries: 1. geneva foundation for medical education and research 2. base (bielefeld academic search engine) 3. river campus libraries (univ. of rochester) 4. tulips (university of tsukuba library)) 5. showa university library 6. keio university (shinamomachi media center) 7. university of pennsylvania 8. university of modena and reggio emilia 9. tel aviv university, gitter-smolarz library of life sciences and medicine 10. national autonomous university of mexico, genomic sciences center, institute of biotechnology 11. saint petersburg state university 12. university of puerto rico 13. vrije universiteit brussel 14. queensland university of technology 15. university of florida 16. john brown university 17. université paris-descartes 18. university of regensburg 19. michigan state university 20. university of colorado boulder 21. university of glasgow 22. washington university in saint louis 23. wayne state university 24. california state university, long beach 25. brown university, providence, rhode island http://wokinfo.com/media/pdf/s024651_flyer.pdf 129 26. the university of honk kong 27. university of nevada, reno 28. ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen 29. dowling college, new york state 30. colgate university, new york state http://library.colgate.edu/record=b3185340*eng 130 table of contents 1. motor imagery signal classification for bci system using empirical mode décomposition and bandpower feature extraction 5 dalila trad, tarik al-ani, mohamed jemni 1. brain functors: a mathematical model of intentional perception and action 5 david ellerman 2. intelligent system for diagnosis of a three-phase separator 18 irina ioniţă, liviu ioniţă 3. single trial classification of evoked eeg signals due to rgb colors 29 eman alharbi, saim rasheed, seyed buhari 4. computer-mediated security threats into the web 2.0 society 42 bogdan nadolu, delia nadolu 5. modeling, designing, and implementing an avatar-based interactive map 50 stefan andrei, milin joshi, chandrakant rudani, ankur shah, bharatkumar tejwani 6. modern tools in patient-centred speech therapy for romanian language 61 mirela danubianu, iolanda tobolcea 7. measuring customer behavior with deep convolutional neural networks 74 veaceslav albu 8. cognitive development optimization algorithm based support vector machines for determining diabetes 80 utku kose, gur emre guraksin, omer deperlioglu 9. the fundamentals regarding the usage of the concept of interface for the modeling of the software artefacts 91 dorin bocu, razvan bocu 10. micro learning: a modernized education system 103 omer jomah, amamer khalil masoud, xavier patrick kishore, sagaya aurelia 11. romanian campaigns on corporate social responsibility – signs of globalization 111 monica patrut, camelia cmeciu abstracts 122 instructions for authors 126 © 2016 edusoft microsoft word sara_atef-vahid final 1 cross-linguistic analysis of body part metaphor conceptualization from a cognitive semiosis perspective sara atef-vahid department of foreign languages, iran university of science and technology, iran e-mail: saraatefvahid@yahoo.com keivan zahedi department of foreign languages, iran university of science and technology, iran abstract in accordance with lakovian cognitive linguistics in metaphoric analysis, this paper aims to explore the human cognitive capacity of metaphoric conceptualization of body parts. a contrastive analysis on the cognitive features of metaphorical expressions utilizing various body parts pertaining to the ‘head’ domain, e.g., face and tongue in the english and farsi languages is carried out. after a cross-linguistic comparison of metaphors in both languages, five main linguistic categories emerge. similarities and differences of metaphor construction, mappings and mechanisms in both languages used to convey common concepts are highlighted using these categories. while corroborating lakoff’s approach whereby metaphors constitute an inherent part of language itself, it is shown that there is a universal cognitive grid from which different languages externalize the world differently through semiosis. therefore, the main aim is to show how language invariance and variation may be explained within a cognitive framework. these universals are due to cognitive constraints, whereas languages owe their variation to the options they have out of the cognitively available pool. they are limited to their selections which are restrained by cultural and perhaps religious factors of semiotic mechanisms which are cognitively accessible to them. keywords: cognitive linguistics; lakovian approach; ‘head’ domain metaphors; language invariance and variation 1. introduction the study of language use from a cognitive linguistic viewpoint attempts to recognize human cognition in order to identify underlying conceptual systems which allow for meaning construction. as fauconnier (2006) points out, ‘when we engage in any language activity, we draw unconsciously on vast cognitive and cultural resources, call up models and frames, set up multiple connections, coordinate large arrays of information, and engage in creative mappings, transfers, and elaborations’ p.1. for years, researchers studying language description from a cognitive point of view have been interested in characterizing the way in which people think and reason in terms of abstract propositions. this paper is a comprehensive study of an initial brief report presented by author 2 (2012). in this study, the process of cognitive semiosis which is termed ‘languaging’ is viewed with regards to body parts. the dictionary of webster defines semiosis as ‘a process in which something functions as a sign to an organism,’ and in this circumstance, the organism is the human being. it is asserted that in every language, body parts comprise an indivisible facet of human cognitive semiosis. this inquiry is analyzed based on 2 lakoff’s ‘conceptual metaphors’. in accordance with this framework, this paper aims to make a contrastive study on the cognitive features of metaphorical expressions utilizing various body parts pertaining to the head domain in english and farsi (i.e., modern persian). it has been attempted to explore one of the foundations of linguistic semiosis which is the human cognitive capacity of metaphoric conceptualization by examining the similarities and differences in the metaphorical structuring and mechanisms used to convey common concepts in both languages, and to identify the extent that these differences are manifested in the their linguistic expressions. to elaborate, at a more general, namely macro-level, of analysis, this paper attempts to contribute to the resolution of the old but still heated debate on language invariance and variation, which has proven to be the gordian knot of linguistics today. as langacker (2002) notes: among the fascinations of natural language is its amenability to being characterized by two apparently contradictory statements: (i) that all languages are basically alike; and (ii) that languages may be fundamentally different from one another and can vary without essential limit. linguistic theorists face the challenge of accommodating the observations and insights that support these opposing positions. ideally, an overall account of language structure should specify both the nature of its universality and the extent of its diversity, as well as the source of each (p. 138). in such pursuit, it claims that invariance in language, also known as language universals are not domain-specific, i.e. language internal. they are due to constraints imposed on language by human cognitive systems, especially the semantic-conceptual system. whereas linguistic variation is more domain-specific and relates to what a particular language chooses to opt from the cognitively available grid of semantic grid and how to manifest it linguistically. at a more descriptive, namely micro-level, of analysis, this research aims to demonstrate the similarities and differences of metaphor construction and mappings in farsi and english. it will be attempted to address the following inquires: how do the linguistically distant languages of farsi and english conceptualize common ideas metaphorically using body parts? can the reason for opting for the usage of different body parts in english and farsi be culturally related? what are the different linguistic apparatuses used in english and farsi for the construction of body-part metaphors? how different are the underlying concepts which are referred to metaphorically using a common body part in english and persian? subsequently, lexical and syntactic repercussions and their implications and applications will be discussed. 2. review of the related literature in 1980, lakoff and johnson proposed a theory in which it was claimed that people’s conceptual system is responsible for storing their perceptions, thoughts and actions, and also that everyday language is compiled of metaphorical expressions used to express that conceptual system. as lakoff and johnson (1980) noted: ". .. metaphor pervades our normal conceptual system. because so many of the concepts that are important to us are either abstract or not clearly delineated in our experience (the emotions, ideas, time, etc.), we need to get 3 a grasp on them by means of other concepts that we understand in clearer terms . .." (p. 115). therefore, lakoff and johnson argue that ‘metaphor is a natural phenomenon’ (p.247), ‘it is beyond language as it is found primarily in thought and action’ (p.153). furthermore, many research within the cognitive linguistic framework have provided satisfying data that language and metaphorical thought and the understanding of different linguistic expressions are grounded in embodiment (gibbs, costa lima & francozo, 2004). that is, metaphoric expression arise from people’s normal and ordinary experiences of their bodies in action, and this serves as the source domain in conceptual metaphors (e.g., “i hunger for your sleek laugh” gibbs jr., et al., 2004). ‘according to the cognitive approach, both metaphorical language and thought rise from the basic bodily (sensori-motor) experience of human beings, and it is a key instrument in organizing human thought.’ (kövecses, 2002, preface). over the years, the existence of conceptual metaphors has been empirically supported. research in this vein has given a much clearer picture of how metaphors structure thought. for example, a number of studies showed that systems which were used to show different types of metaphors across languages and cultures (e.g. anger) grew out of the physiology of the underlying concept of metaphors itself (lakoff, 1987; kovecses, 1986). lakoff and johnson (1980) argued that how we describe a situation indicates how we are viewing, storing and linking it, relevant to the knowledge we already have. on the same note, langacker (1999, p. 208) argues that the ability to conceive one situation is dependent on the background provided by another situation. in understanding new information, previous discourse will provide the background to the current expression. similarly, in metaphor comprehension, background information is provided by the source domain for understanding and structuring the target domain. perrin (1987) also concludes that the concepts which are already known can influence what is noticed in a situation. therefore, metaphor is not seen just as a figurative expression which is chosen after perceiving or thinking about a situation, but as a specific mental and neural mapping which to a great extent, influences how people think, reason, and imagine in everyday life (lakoff & johnson, 1999). furthermore, implicit belief systems are revealed by the metaphors which are chosen (marshall, 1990; schon, 1993). following this interpretation, perrin (1987) describes metaphors as a “mnemonic vestige of prior experiences”; in effect, more a “figure of experience” than a figure of speech (p. 255). currently, metaphors are seen in the light of the metaphor conceptual theory which realizes metaphors in two domains: the target and source domains (lakoff & johnson, 2003). metaphor in contemporary thinking refers to a ‘cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system’ (lakoff, 1993, p.203). it is “a structural mapping from one domain of a subject matter (the source domain) to another (the target domain)” (p. 294). the current theory of metaphor attempts to characterize a large number of cross-domain mappings of even the most abstract concepts like time, change, and causation. the general consensus is that these cross-domain mappings are pivotal to ordinary natural language semantics. therefore, developments in metaphor theory have proven metaphor to be ‘basic and constitutive for all the thinking that we do, and that in the scheme of evolution, metaphor, based on source domains of human experience and neural connections to our embodied sensations, actions, and emotions, is what creates the possibility of 'abstract' reasoning, scientific and mathematical thought, philosophical speculation, in other words language and culture quite generally’ (fauconnier, 2006, p. 5). 4 as was stated before, in recent years a main area of interest for cognitive linguists is related to the study of metaphor which is recognized as central to a theory of knowledge (ruiz de mendoza, 1997). from a cognitive linguistics standpoint, our ways of understanding is determined by our embodiment in and with the physical and cultural world (johnson, 1987). as yu (2004) points out ‘in cognitive linguistics, a central concern is the role of the body, and its interaction with culture, in human meaning and understanding’. different languages employ a common technique of metaphorizing body parts to form and express concepts which could have been otherwise difficult to express. studying the metaphorization of lexical items pertaining to the body parts in various languages can be extremely significant in understanding how people in different cultures think in abstract terms. furthermore, their method of conceptualization and their mode of perceiving the world can be studied and compared to identify cross-linguistic differentiation in forming various linguistics expressions. it should be noted that many body metaphors use body parts and organs to denote other concepts such as cities, nations, groups, etc., that is, these body parts are used as source domains to describe other things (e.g., britain may be advised that it can’t be at the heart of europe if it is detached from its arteries, musolff 2004). however, as goschler (2005) point out, there are another set of metaphors which ‘uses different domains (like people, machines, plants, manufactures) to describe the body or bodily functions and body organs. thus, the body is target domain, being metaphorized in terms of technology or other domains’ p. 36 (e.g., in describing foot-and-mouth-disease, ‘...a powerful enemy ... (whose) foot soldiers are beyond number and its capacity for harm beyond imagination’ (stibbe, 2001). research within the cognitive linguistic framework on metaphors is abundant. there has been significant amount of psychological research showing the influence of metaphors in gesture, problem solving, decision making, categorization, learning, memory, and scientific reasoning (e.g., fernandez-duque & johnson, 2002) . these empirical studies illuminate that learning, remembering, problem solving and decision making are affected by the way people metaphorically construct ideas or situations. in reviewing related research we come across two main domains. the first relates to the use of the body as an important tool in the linguistic manifestations of metaphors. gibbs (2003) has argued that the primary way in which people construct and understand metaphorical meaning is the use of their embodied knowledge, that is their subjective experiences of their bodies in action. to this end, embodiment can explain to a certain extent why meanings are expressed through certain words and linguistics expressions by providing the foundation to more abstract concepts. conceptual metaphor theory claims to illuminate various processes of thought and as a result cannot be language-specific, and thus can be used in cross-linguistic research. however, an unresolved issue remains which is the extent to which cognitive universals are prompts for conceptualization and in return, are drawn upon in the creation of shared metaphorical expressions. therefore, it might be expected that certain metaphors are shared by different languages; however, the complex nature of this process and cognitive aspects can result in the manifestation of different metaphoric expressions form a cross-linguistic point of view for various linguistic and cultural reasons. various research within the cognitive linguistics framework have suggested that the domain of body parts is pivotal in metahporising bodily experiences (goosens, 1990; sweetser, 1990; deignan & potter, 2004). heine (1997, p. 40) emphasizes that one of the most important models for expressing concepts is the human body. human categories are used to describe and understand many non-human concepts. the human body tends to be the most important model 5 because is the most accessible to us. in a time-space study conducted by nunez & freeman (1999), the primacy of bodily orientation and real-time bodily action was shown to be ‘at the very core of the cognitive mechanisms that make the concept of time flow possible’ p.58. they concluded that ‘one needs to understand cognition and the mind as fully embodied phenomena’. the second central domain in reviewing the related literature relates to research which is directly or indirectly related to the scope of this study. cross-linguistic research specifically aimed at analyzing body parts in metaphor construction can reveal how different languages attempt to convey certain ideas through the metaphorical mapping of body parts. for example, in seeger’s (1975) research on suya indians from brazil, it was found that “when the suya have learned something—even something visual such as a weaving pattern—they say, ‘it is in my ear’ (p. 214). another research by devereux (2003) showed that sedang moi from indochina use the ‘ear’ as the source domain to conceptualize the concept of ‘the seat of reason’. they use expressions like tlek ‘deaf’ and oh ta ay tue(n) ‘has no ear’ to signify lack of intelligence. mayer (1982) explains that in ommura (paua new guinea) the auditory sense is used to conceptualized all intellectual process (e.g., motives, thoughts, intentions), as seen by the use of verbs such as iero which means both ‘to hear (auditory)’ and ‘to know, to understand’. mberi’s (2003) study has shown that body parts are very pervasive in metaphorical expressions of the shona (a bantu language spkoken by about 75% of zimbabwe;s population) language. for example, the equivalent word for ‘eye’ is ziso which used to conceptualize an array of different meanings (i.e., ndiri ziso renyu ‘i am your eye’ “i am you informer”; pane ziso rake ‘where his/her eye is’ “where his/her hope is”). the shona equivalent of the word ‘head’ is musoro which is used in various linguistic expressions to show the top or main part of various objects or phenomenon (e.g., musoro wechitima "head of train" i.e "train engine"; musoro wechipikiri "the head of a nail" i.e. "the top part of the nail". matama, meaning ‘cheeks’ in english is used to denote the term ‘edges’ (e.g., matama enzira "the cheeks of the path" i.e "edges of the path). the term huma meaning ‘forehead’ is used to express the front part of an object (e..g, huma yechitima "the forehead of a train" i.e. "the front face of the engine" (all example are extracted from mberi, 2003). yu (2004) explains that in the chinese language, the body part ‘eye’ is not only considered an important organ for sight in particular, but it is used in a vast amount of metaphorical expressions to signify a variety of cognitive understandings. in the metaphorical expression ta zhengzhi mian-mu bu quing, ‘he political face-eye not clear’, “he is of dubious political background”, the importance of the face and eyes are denoted in that they can be used to judge the political appearance of a person. other concepts manifested through the application of the eye in linguistics expressions in chinese include, eyes being ‘light sources’ that can extend a ray of light to the target, seeing is ‘reaching out and touching’, attracting one’s attention, using the eyes as a description of emotion, etc. (yu, 2004). in a study by perekhvalskaya (n.d.), it is shown that in mwan (a south mande language), wı̰̄ ‘hair on the head of a person’ denotes ‘roof of a house’ and top of any object that has a <head>’ such as gɔɔ̰̄ ̰̄ɛ ́wiı̰́ŋ̰̀ ‘on the top of a mountain’. lɛ̀ (lit. ‘lip’) denotes ‘antenna (of insects)’; ‘edge (of a cutting instrument)’. líí (lit. ‘mouth’) has the following meanings: 2. ‘door’, ‘entrance’; 3. ‘in, inside (a part is seen outside)’, ‘on (only a part of the object is on something.)’, e.g. zī ɛ́ líí ‘on the road’ (lit. ‘mouth of the road’) (perekhvalskaya, n.d., p. 60). in the mwan language, different body parts are used to conceptualize various feelings, mental activity and emotions. for example, kpéé ‘belly’ is considered a container for thoughts or the place of mental activity (e.g., jā̰ ɛ́ níàŋ́ kpéé ‘i forgot this story’ (lit. ‘the story left my belly’). interestingly enough, perekhvalskaya observed that although in european languages metaphoric expressions using body parts only use a few of the 6 parts of the corresponding metaphor; however, in mwan it is the opposite as the conceptual metaphor of a thing is the human body is used. she points out that in the example a house is the human body, there are various parts of the human body which are used in expressing the different parts of a house (e.g., a house in the mwan language has hair (roof), monuth (door), belly (inside part), forhead (front part), and buttoks (backside) (p.60). perekhvalskaya concluded that ‘conceptual metaphoric basis in the languages of west africa (of which mwan and other south mande languages are typical examples) include an extensive anthropomorphous view of reality’(p. 61). as can be seen, during the process of cognitive semiosis, human beings cognize the world through and by means of their own physique. different languages are impacted by cultural variety and are manifested in the linguistic variations of such semiosis. 3. method the qualitative and quantitative approach used for the analysis of the farsi and english body metaphors in the present study is based on lakovian cognitive linguistics. the underlying theoretical framework which is used for the metaphor analysis will include identifying and comparing the target and source domains of the metaphors in the aforementioned languages. also, since the use of body part metaphors is quite extensive in both languages both in number and types, this study has limited itself to the head metaphors and also among head organs to six parts, namely hair, forehead, nose, lips, tongue, and face, and their persian equivalents مو ,پیشانی, the data collected for this study consists of two different sets: core data and . ور ,زبان ,لب ,دماغ peripheral (complementary) data. in order to collect relevant core data, three instruments were used: an open-ended questionnaire, various dictionaries, and books related to idioms and metaphors. the questionnaire was administered to fifteen native english speakers and fifteen native persian speakers and was designed to elicit the most salient metaphorical expressions related to the mentioned six body parts. general persian and english dictionaries and idiom/metaphor books were used to collect metaphorical entries related to the head domain as well. after metaphors from both languages were collected, they were contrasted with one another to see which expressions were used identically or similarly using a body part. if not, it was attempted to discover if equivalents existed, regardless of the use of body parts in the related metaphor. ultimately, the corpus of this study constituted a total of one-hundred english and farsi metaphors (41 and 59 metaphors respectively) of which eighty-one utilized the target body part (table 1). a linguistic analysis was carried out to determine how metaphors differ in syntactic structuring and semantic organization, and to discover emergent linguistic categories. finally, each metaphor was grouped into the relevant linguistic categories. table 1: the number of english and persian metaphors which contain each relevant body part english persian hair 8 12 forehead 0 2 nose 10 6 lips 7 6 face 8 10 tongue 5 7 total 38 43 total= 81 7 the main focus of this study is to illustrate how the relationship between body and cognition is manifested through the vehicle of metaphorical expressions incorporating body parts. furthermore, it is aimed to show how human cognition and the use of various body parts are modified by cultural factors and possibly religious beliefs. accordingly, this study is not based on quantitative corpus linguistics, rather it attempts to find the relationship between culture, cognition and language using body parts as an apparatus. certain variables were not aimed to be controlled in this study. for example, the population to which the questionnaire was distributed was not controlled in terms of certain factors such as: age, gender, education, social status. also, since this analysis is a synchronic study, hence diachronic analysis and implications were not intended. since, only metaphors related to the parts of the body were used for analysis, consequently, the style of the metaphorical expressions was controlled as well. finally, participants who filled out the questionnaire were randomly chosen. 4. data analysis and discussion as indicated in lakoff (1993), metaphors play a very important role in ordinary language and do not necessarily signify aspects of literature. as the analyzed data show (appendix a), there is an extensive use of metaphor in everyday language in the english and farsi languages; however, their linguistic renderings are not necessarily always the same across the languages. from the collected data, it can be seen that the use of the metaphors are not literary and in fact quite common in both languages. however, the range of the underlying concepts (target domain) that the body part metaphors in both languages convey are varied. for example, hair is used in english to convey concepts such as frustration, relaxation, making small unimportant distinctions between things, showing the smallest possible margin, shock/fright, incapability to inflict physical harm, extreme cleanliness and neatness, and behaving informally/relaxation. from this list, the concepts of making small unimportant distinctions between things, showing the smallest possible margin, shock/fright, making small unimportant distinctions between things have exact farsi equivalents, whereas, ‘frustration’ is shown by the use of the body part hands and feet, and ‘incapability to inflict physical harm’ is shown by the use of the body part hands in farsi. furthermore, the farsi language uses the body part hair to convey other concepts such as precision/paying close attention, old age, talking too much, improbability, immaturity, being inexperienced even with old age, arriving just at the right moment, and dreadfulness. in fact, farsi utilizes three different metaphors containing the body part hair to denote precision. the english language uses the body part nose to covey a variety of different concepts, such as involvement in affairs that does not concern one (farsi uses ‘head’ to denote same concept), inability to see something right in front of you (farsi uses eyes), annoyance (farsi uses nose hair), cause oneself to lose ones opportunities (farsi uses hands), paying much more than something is worth (farsi uses blood), etc. most of these expressions are employed using a different body part in farsi, while this language uses the nose to identify concepts such as being baffled in one’s plans/to look foolish or blank, impetuosity of youth, and weakness, and not allowing someone enjoy something for which the english language has no equivalent. likewise, the lips are used rather equally in both languages to denote similar concepts, while the forehead is used only in farsi to show concepts such as being famous/easily recognized and to show luck. the face is also used in both languages equivalently to show similar concepts such as loss of respect, to speak in person, being straightforward, that ability to speak freely 8 without thinking about the consequences. however, the english language uses the face to denote the concept of embarrassment for which the english language uses the body part eyes. furthermore, farsi also uses the body part face to express the concept of cheekiness and success, while the english language uses the body part cheek to denote the same concept. the body part tongue is used with almost a similar frequency in both languages and denotes similar concepts such as power of words to cause pain, remorse, inability to speak, etc. however, other concepts such as people talking about something, creating problems by talking, not being a match against someone’s ability to speak and reply to anything (i.e., repartee) are used in the farsi language using the body part tongue, while there exists no equivalent in english. (for a complete list of underlying concepts represented by the aforementioned body parts in both languages, refer to appendix b). it can be seen that, although both languages make use of body metaphors, neither the conceptual metaphors nor their linguistic renderings will necessarily always be the same. deignan, gabrys and solska (1997) propose the following possible relationships between any two languages: 1same conceptual metaphor and equivalent linguistic expression 2same conceptual metaphor but different linguistic expression 3different conceptual metaphors used 4words and expressions with similar literal meanings but different metaphorical meanings this study proposes a more detailed classification of possible relationships between the linguistics expressions of two different languages. after a cross-linguistic comparison of metaphors in english and farsi, five different linguistic categories emerged which are as follows (see appendix a for a complete list of the metaphorical expressions and their analysis used in this study): category 1: absence vs. presencea linguistic expression using a certain body part is used in one language but no linguistic expression representing that concept exists in the other language. for example, “piʃani” in farsi which literally means “forehead” is metaphorically utilized to signify luck or recognition. there is no such equivalent in english (table 2). also, there is no farsi equivalent for the english metaphor ‘he’s giving her lip service’ which metaphorically denotes surface agreement with someone or something with no supporting action (table 3). table 2. example of a body part metaphor present in farsi but absent in english english farsi linguistic analysis: in english, no metaphorical expression related to forehead are used; however, in persian, since the forehead is at the top of the face, it is used to show different concepts such as luck and recognition. linguistic category: 1 پیشانی اش بلنده piʃæni-æʃ bolænd-e. forehead-his/her long. ‘she/he has a long forehead’. source domain: forehead target domain: to show luck table 3. example of a body part metaphor present in english but absent in farsi english farsi he’s giving her lip service. source domain: lips target domain: only words but no action. denotes ? 9 only surface agreement with someone or something with no action to support it. linguistic analysis: there is no persian equivalent for this expression. linguistic category: 1 category 2: alternative selectiona linguistic expression using a certain body part is used in one language, while in the other languages, the linguistic expression representing the same concept uses a different body part (i.e., different lexical items used/semantic equivalent). (table 4) table 4. example of alternative selection of body part metaphors in farsi and english english farsi it happened right under your nose. source domain: nose target domain: the inability to see something right in front of you linguistic analysis: in english ‘nose’ is used as the source domain and the preposition ‘under’ is used, but in persian ‘eyes’ are used and the preposition ‘in front of’ is used which is closer to the target domain. linguistic category: 2 .جلو چشات اتفاق افتاد ʤolo ʧeʃat ettefaq oftad. in front eyes-your happened-it ‘it happened in front of your eyes’. source domain: eyes target domain: the inability to see something right in front of one’s eyes 2.1the two languages have alternative selections but similar syntactic structuring (i.e., use of similar preposition and/or verb). (table 5) table 5. example of alternative selection with similar syntactic structuring of body part metaphors in farsi and english english farsi he sticks his nose in other people’s business. source domain: nose target domain: involvement in something that does not concern you linguistic analysis: in english the body part ‘nose’ is used as the source domain but in farsi the ‘head’ is used. however both use the same preposition ‘in’ to show involvement in something. linguistic category: 2 تو ھمھ کار سرک میکشھ . tu hæmeye kar særæk mikeʃe. in all work peeps/sticks-he/she ‘he/she peeps/sticks his/her head in everything’. source domain: head target domain: involvement in something that does not concern one category 3: different selectiona linguistic expression denoting the same underlying concept is used in both languages; however, the source domain in only one of the languages is a body part. (table 6). table 6. example of different selection of body part metaphors in farsi and english english farsi 10 he made us pay through our noses. source domain: nose target domain: paying much more than something is worth linguistic analysis: in english the concept of ‘paying more than something’s worth’ is shown by using the expression ‘through the nose’, however in farsi, it is shown by ‘having to pay the worth of someone’s father’s blood. linguistic category: 3 .قد خون باباش ازمون پول گرفت qædde xun-e babaʃ æz ma pul gereft. in the amount blood father-his/her us money took ‘he took money from us in the amount of his/her father’s blood’. source domain: father’s blood target domain: paying much more than something is worth 3.1the two languages utilize different selection; however, have similar syntactic structuring (i.e., similar use of preposition and/or verb). (table 7) table 7. example of different selection with similar syntactic structuring of body part metaphors in farsi and english english farsi keep your hair on. source domain: hair target domain: relaxation linguistic analysis: english uses ‘hair’ as the source domain while farsi uses ‘coldbloodedness’ which itself it metaphorically used to show ‘coolness’. however both use the same verb ‘keep’. comparing the english metaphor ‘keep you cool’ with the english metaphor ‘to lose one’s cool’ which signifies losing one’s temper or nerves also shows the strategic use of the prepositions ‘keep’ and ‘loose’ in signifying emotions related to temper and relaxation. temper and anger generate heat, so when one is relaxed, one is cool. linguistic category: 3.1 .خونسردی خودت حفظ کن xunsærd-i-ye xodeto hefz kon. cold-blood-your keep ‘keep your cold-bloodedness (coolness)’. source domain: cold-bloodedness target domain: relaxation category 4: similaritya linguistic expression denoting the same concept and using the same body part is used in both languages; however, the linguistic apparatus varies in terms of their syntactic structuring and/or use of prepositions or verbs (table 8). table 8. example of similar body part metaphors in farsi and english english farsi i bit my tongue off. source domain: tongue target domain: to feel remorse after saying something to somebody which may have upset them linguistic analysis: the english and farsi versions are almost identical, except for the addition of the preposition ‘off’ in the english .زبونمو گاز گرفتم zæbunæmo gaz gereftæm. tongue-my bit-me. ‘i bit my tongue’ source domain: tongue target domain: to feel remorse after saying something to somebody which may have upset them 11 version. linguistic category: 4 category 5: identicalitya linguistic expression denoting the same underlying concept is used in both languages and serves an almost semantically and syntactically equivalent purpose. for example, both languages employ the phrase ‘face to ‘face’ in the same manner (table 9). table 9. example of identical body part metaphors in farsi and english english farsi we need to discuss the matter face to face. source domain: face/face target domain: to speak in person linguistic analysis: the source domain in both languages is identical linguistic category: 5 ما باید رو در رو راجب این مسئلھ صحبت .کنیم ma bayæd ru dær ru raʤebe in mæsæle sohbæt konim. we have to face to face about this problem/matter speak-us ‘we have to talk about/discuss this problem/matter face to face’. source domain: face/face target domain: to speak in person after comparing the number of body part metaphorical expressions used in the english and farsi languages, it can be seen that only the body part ‘forehead’ has no related metaphorical expressions in english and it seems that the body part ‘nose’ is more salient in the english language, and the body part ‘hair’ is more salient in the farsi language. the body parts lips, face, and tongue seem to have an almost equivalent semantic range in the english and farsi languages. when analyzing the frequency of each emerged linguistic category (table 10) it can be seen that about 45% of the metaphors fall into linguistic category 1. around 16% fall into linguistic category 2, 9% fall into linguistic category 2.1, 6% fall into linguistic category 3. 1.5% fall into linguistic category 3.1., 14% fall into linguistic category 4, and about 8% fall into linguistic category 5 (table 10). based on these frequencies, it can be seen that although there exists many body metaphors in english and farsi that denote various similar concepts; however, most metaphorical expressions seem to be unique with respect to a particular language. that is, there exists no equivalent in its corresponding language. furthermore, the rate of metaphorical expressions employing different body parts in each language and expressions using the same body parts but with different syntactic structuring are almost equivalent and have the second highest occurrence among the emerged linguistic expressions. this finding could be due to the fact that the english and farsi languages are not only very linguistically distant, but also, the languages are used by people who are very distant cultural-wise. cultural aspects of metaphor although faced with disagreements have been given great momentum in cognitive-based language studies (kövecses, 2005; yu, 2008). the impact of cultural factors on the way we conceptualize the world is so great that “it is hard to distinguish the physical from the cultural basis of a metaphor” (lakoff and johnson (1980, p. 19). many cross-linguistic research in this vein has dealt with socio-cultural aspects, and have found variation in the metaphorisation process (al-zoubi et al, 2006, kövecses, 2005). however, cognitive linguistics has only roughly addressed the issues of socio-cultural factors, giving preference to the theory of 12 embodiment, universal primitives, and focusing on the sensory aspects of thought. quinn (1991) asserts that culture should be given a more important role, since “metaphors, far from constituting understanding, are ordinarily selected to fit a preexisting and culturally shared model”. furthermore, kövecses (2005) argues that physiological process and bodily states that were assumed to have universal conceptualization among speakers of different languages are influenced by socio-cultural constraints. he states that “there can be differences in the range of conceptual metaphors (or, more precisely, the range of source domains) that languages and cultures have available for the conceptualization of particular target domains” (p.70). as ureña gómez moreno (2011) concludes, “people exhibit a culturalised embodied behavior, since the model of thought and the way of structuring realia in a specific community of speakers is not dissociated from their linguistic manifestation, and therefore, from metaphorical patterns of thought”( p.) table 10: frequency of emerged linguistic categories by body parts linguistics categories body parts 1 2 2.1 3 3.1 4 5 hair 10 0 2 1 1 0 3 forehead 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 nose 5 3 2 2 0 2 0 lips 7 4 1 0 0 1 0 face 3 3 1 1 0 2 2 tongue 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 total 29 10 6 4 1 9 5 percent 45% 16% 9% 6% 5% 14% 8% the findings of this research also suggest that each language codifies concepts employing body parts based on the significance of a body part in a related culture. each language associates a particular concept to a body part focusing on a specific feature of that body part. for example, the farsi language has three different metaphorical expressions using the body part ‘hair’ to denote the concept of precision (e.g., مو را از ماست می کشد , mu ra æz mast mikeʃe , hair from yogurt pulls ‘(he/she) pulls out a hair from the yogurt’). the relationship between a ‘thin’ hair strand and precision can easily be perceived. however, in the english language, one of the concepts which is represented by the body part hair is ‘frustration’ (e.g., you are getting into my hair.) the english language has another metaphorical expression using the body part hair to denote ‘relaxation’ (e.g., i let my hair down.) as it can be seen, this language sees the hair as the center of ‘peace’. entering or disturbing this domain can cause frustration. this fact can be seen by the bodily expression in the english culture of literally ‘pulling out one’s hair’ when a person is frustrated. the findings also propose that the linguistic manifestations of underlying concepts employ body parts as the source domain based on the logical relationship that the body part can have with the underlying concept. for example, the concepts of the ability to be trusted with a secret is shared in the english and farsi languages; however, the english language uses the body 13 part lips (my lips are sealed) while the farsi language uses the body part mouth (دھنم قرصھ , dæhænæm qorse, mouth-my firm/strong-is, ‘my mouth is firm/strong’) to denote this concept. however, both seem to share the conceptual metaphor the mouth is a container to emphasize the need to keep the ‘container (mouth)’ closed in order to refrain from letting someone’s secret out. another example of the application of this conceptual metaphor is the use of the expression دھنتو ببند , dæhænet-o bebænd , mouth-your close, ‘close your mouth’, to express the concept of being quiet in farsi, english uses the linguistic expression zip your lips. deignan, gabrys and solska’s (1997) and deignan’s (2003) studies conclude that the importance that a speech community assigns to certain domains determines which metaphors become conventional in that community. that is why culture-specific metaphors are only found in a particular linguistic community. ibarretxe-antunnano (2008) has proposed a flexible motivation schema that attempts to explain the relationship between conceptual mappings, perception and culture. prototypical properties are universal; however, the distribution of the properties in each sense and the attached values of the properties depending on the sense vary. since distribution, values, and interpretation and use of senses are culture-dependent, they will be different according to the culture in which people are embedded in. therefore, the properties that one culture assigns to a particular sense might be assigned to another sense in a different culture, that is, ‘there is a shift of prototypical properties and values based on the cultural background’ (p. 28). this can be seen by the use of the body part eyes in the farsi language to denote the concept of the inability to see something right in front of your eyes, ʤolo ʧeʃat ettefaq oftad, in front eyes-your happened-it, ‘it happened in front of your eyes’, while the english language uses the body part nose to show the same concept, it happened right under your nose. likewise, the concept of looking for something is denoted in the english expression let me have a nose around, while in the farsi form, the phrase ‘looking around (with the eyes)’ is used, بگذار یک براندازی بکنم, you let one looking around-me, ‘let me have a look around’. it seems that the english language uses the body part nose as a sensory organ which can act like the eyes. sharifian (nd) points out that ‘conceptualizations of “body” may be culture-specific and in general body takes part and acts as a conceptual resource for our cultural experience. even the number of senses that we assign to our bodies may vary across different cultures’. yu (2004) explains that the interaction of the body and culture leads to the creation of metaphors. that is, the human body acts as the universal source domain which structure the abstract concepts. bu it is the cultural setting which determine which aspects of bodily experience or which body parts are more salient and meaningful to assist in the understanding of the abstract concepts. for this reason, stienstra (1993) argues that because human experiences are universal, conceptual metaphors are not cultural-dependent, rather their linguistic realization is. to continue on a relevant but different note, most research studies have focused on the relationship between religion and metaphor, focusing on metaphors used in the three creeds of the books of judaism, christianity and islam. less attention has been devoted to the analysis of prevalent metaphors used in the everyday language of speakers with a common religious background. analysis of a few of the farsi body part metaphors used in this study reveals the possible role of religious beliefs in forming certain metaphorical expressions which are used in everyday language. as an example, the ‘loss of reputation’ or ‘respect’ in the farsi language is denoted by the use of metaphors such as ɂaberu-m ræft, water face-my went, ‘the water on my face went’, having the english equivalent of i lost face. in the religion of islam, is necessary to wash the face in an attempt to be purified before prayer. ‘loss’ of this purified water on the face 14 could be paralleled to the loss of respect/reputation. the inclusion of the lexical item ‘water’ in the farsi metaphor may be rooted in religious beliefs which has with passage of time found its way into everyday language use. also, the farsi metaphor muye ezraeel bær tæn-eʃ hæst, ‘hair israel on body-his/her is’, israel’s hair is on his/her body, is associating the human emotion ‘fear’ to the angle of death-israel, which is basically a religious figure. although most english language cultures share this religious figure; however, they do not use the conceptual metaphor israel means fear in the formation of any linguistic expression. therefore it can be proposed that having a common religious concept is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the linguistic realization of a religious-bound metaphor. therefore, this cross-linguistic study suggests that while universal bodily experience may motivate many figurative expressions, the process is sometimes complex, and will not necessarily result in equivalent expressions in different languages, for linguistic, cultural and possibly religious reasons. 5. conclusion a powerful claim of conceptual metaphor theory is that the most central metaphors are grounded in bodily experience. therefore, it might be expected that these metaphors would be shared by different languages. from the analysis it is apparent that both the english and farsi languages use body parts to express various concepts; however, their use, availability, and range of their semantic domains are quite different. this difference can be attributed to the way in which each body part is viewed in each language and their significance in each culture. furthermore, different cultures may motivate different embodiment of the senses, therefore yielding different linguistic manifestations of concepts. different anthropologists have drawn various conclusions in an attempt to explain the underlying reason why particular cultures make certain choices. for example, classen (1993) suggests social factors, while gell (1995) underscores environmental factors. we add another dimension and propose that aside from these factors which impact conceptualization in their own right, religious factors may also be a major determinant which influences the metahporization process. in sum, the basis of human cognition is the physical world which contains a pool of various features which are available for selection limited to their cultural choices of semiotic mechanisms cognitively available to speakers of a particular semiotic system. this paper corroborates the lakovian claim that metaphor is an intrinsic part and parcel of linguistic codification. such codification in turn was demonstrated to point to a universally cognitive grid of human conceptualization, which is basically domain-general, i.e. not specific to languageinternal processes. however, each linguistic code, that is each language, has the luxury of opting, and even not opting, for a certain collection or set of such cognitively available features, on the one hand, and at the same time employing and deploying different domain-specific, i.e. language-internal, mechanisms such as lexical or syntactic formulations to manifest them, on the other hand. in simpler terms, all members of the homo sapiens species can cognitively interact whereas all members of the homo grammaticus sub-species may not cross-codify their cognitive interactions. as a consequence, cognitive translatability is possible due to its universal cognitive availability whereas linguistic translatability is not owing to variable codification possibilities. one way to look at this phenomenon for example is to say that human cognition and the use of various body parts in the formation of metaphors are modified by cultural factors and manifested in language use. an inverse view would be to claim that since the specific choices of different cognitive packages can also be used to identify common cultural beliefs, practices, or views, therefore, it can be hypothesized that language can identify a culture through a universal array of 15 cognitive features used in its linguistics semiosis which can be termed the language cultural identification hypothesis. to conclude, the main focus of this study was to delineate the intrinsic relationship between human physique and human cognition, and show how it is manifested by the use of metaphorical expressions. it attempted to approach finding a solution to the gordian knot, and according to langacker, to reconcile linguistic universalism and language variation and diversity, hence the relationship among language, cognition, culture and perhaps religion using body parts as the apparatus. the findings indicate that limitations in terms of availability, semantic domain and range, and linguistic manifestation of metaphors and the accuracy and appropriateness of their application vary from one language to another. this is because, metaphorical expressions are profoundly embedded and intertwined in our cognitive abilities of semiotic representations. however, semiotic systems such as language are limited and bound by cultural and possibly religious choices of semiotic mechanisms which are cognitively available to them, also, metaphorizing is a type of constrained semiotic superimposition which results from re-experiencing bodily experiences. since body parts are commonly utilized metaphorically, in various extents by different languages, this suggests a universal cognitive framework for humanizing the external world through semiosis. finally, the shared cognitive pool may be selected and externalized differently by different languages, being influenced by culture and possibly religion. 6. references al-zoubi, m.q., al-ali, m.n., & al-hasnawib, a.r. (2007): cogno-cultural issues in translating metaphors. perspectives: studies in translatology, 14, (3), 230–239 classen, c. (1993). worlds of sense. exploring the senses in history and across cultures. london: longman. devereux, g. (2003). ethnopsychological aspects of the terms ‘deaf’ and ‘dumb’. in d. howes (ed.), sensual relations: engaging the senses in culture and social theory (pp. 43-46). ann arbor: university of michigan press. deignan, a. (2003). metaphorical expressions and culture: an indirect link. metaphor and symbol, 18(4), 255–272. deignan, a., gabrys, d., & solska, a. (1997). teaching english metaphors using crosslinguistic awareness-raising activities. english language teaching journal, 51, 352–360. deignan, a., & potter, l. (2004). a corpus study of metaphors and metonyms in english and italian. journal of pragmatics, 36(7), 1231-1252. fauconnier, g. (2006). cognitive linguistics. encyclopedia of cognitive science. fernandez-duque, d., & johnson, m. l. (2002). cause and effect theories of attention: the role of conceptual metaphors. review of general psychology, 6(2), 153. gell, a. (1995). the language of the forest: landscape and phonological iconism in umeda. in e. hirsch and m. o’hanlon (eds.), the anthropology of landscape: perspectives on place and space (pp. 232-254). oxford: clarendon. gibbs, r. w. (2003). embodied experience and linguistic meaning. brain and language, 84(1), 1-15. gibbs, r. w., costa lima, p. l., & francozo, e. (2004). metaphor is grounded in embodied experience. journal of pragmatics, 36, 1189–1211. 16 goossens, l. (1990). metaphtonymy: the interaction of metaphor and metonymy in expressions for linguistic action. cognitive linguistics, 1, 323-340. goschler, j. (2005). embodiment and body metaphors. metaphorik.de 09: 33-52. heine, b. (1997). cognitive foundations of grammar. new york: oxford university press. ibarretxe-antuñano, i. (2008). vision metaphors for the intellect: are they really crosslinguistic? atlantis, 15-33. johnson, m. (1987). the body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination and reason. chicago/london: university of chicago press. ureña gómez moreno, j. m. (2011). metaphor in specialised language: an english-spanish comparative study in marine biology. phd thesis. university of granada. kövecses, z. (1986). metaphors of anger, pride, and love: a lexical approach to the study of concepts. amsterdam: benjamins. kövesces, z. (2002). metaphor: a practical introduction. oxford: oxford university press. kövecses, z. (2005). metaphor in culture: universality and variation. new york: cambridge university press. lakoff, g. (1987). women, fire and dangerous things: what categories reveal about the mind. chicago/london: university of chicago press. lakoff, g. (1993). the contemporary theory of metaphor. in a. ortony (ed), metaphor and thought (2nd ed., pp. 202-250). cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. lakoff, g., & johnson, m. (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: university of chicago press. lakoff, g., & johnson, m. (1999). philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. new york: basic books. lakoff g, johnson m. (2003). afterword. in: lakoff, g and johnson m, (eds.), metaphors we live by. chicago: university of chicago press; 19802003. langacker, r. w. (2002). a study in unified diversity: english and mixtec locatives. in n. j. enfield (ed.), ethnosyntax: explorations in grammar and culture (pp. 138-161). oxford: oxford university press. langacker, r. w. (1999). reference point constructions. grammar and conceptualization. 171202. berlin & new york: mouton de gruyter. marshall, h. h. (1990). metaphor as an instructional tool in encouraging student teacher reflection. theory into practice, 29, 128-132. mayer, j. (1982). body, psyche and society: conceptions of illness in ommura, eastern highlands, papua new guinea. oceania 52: 240-59. mberi, e. (2003). metaphors in shona: a cognitive approach. zambezia, xxx(i), 72-88. musolff, a. (2004): “metaphor and conceptual evolution”, in: metaphorik.de 7, http://www.metaphorik.de/07/musolff.pdf. nunez, r., & freeman, w. j. (eds). (1999). reclaiming cognition: the primacy of action, intention and emotion. thorverton: imprint academic. perekhvalskaya, e. (n.d). body parts and their metaphoric meanings in mwan and other south mande languages. retrieved from http://mandelang.kunstkamera.ru/files/mandelang/perexval_metaph.pdf on 04/12/2011. perrin, s. g. (1987). metaphorical revelations: a description of metaphor as the reciprocal engagement of abstract perspectives and concrete phenomena in experience. metaphor and symbolic activity, 2, 251-280. 17 quinn, n. (1991). the culture basis of metaphor. in j.w. fernández (ed.), beyond metaphor: the theory of tropes in anthropology, (pp. 56–93). stanford, ca: stanford university press. ruiz de mendoza, f.j. (1997). cognitive and pragmatic aspects of metonymy. cuadernos de filología inglesa, 6(2), 161–178. seeger, a. (1975). the meaning of body ornaments: a suya example. ethnology, 14, 211-224. schon, d. a. (1993). generative metaphor: a perspective on problem-setting in social policy. in a. ortony (ed.), metaphor and thought (2nd ed., pp. 137-166). cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. sharifian, f. (forthcoming). distributed, emergent cultural cognition, conceptualisation, and language. in roslyn m. frank, rené dirven, tom ziemke and enrique bernárdez (eds.). body, language, and mind (vol. 2): sociocultural situatedness. berlin/new york: mouton de gruyter. stibbe, a. (2001). from flu-like virus to deadly disease: ideology and the media. journal of media psychology. 6. http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/sfischo/reporting_of_contagious-diseases1.htm stienstra, n. (1993). yhwh is the husband of his people. analysis of a biblical metaphor with special reference to translation. kok pharos, kampen. sweester, e. v. (1990). from etymology to pragmatics: the mind-body metaphor in semantic structure and semantic change. cambridge: cambridge university press. webster dictionary. retrieved from http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/semiosis?show=0&t=1319093812 yu, n. (2003a). metaphor, body, and culture: the chinese understanding of gallbladder and courage. metaphor and symbol, 18(1), 13–31. yu, n. (2004).the eyes for sight and mind. journal of pragmatics, 36, 663–686. yu, n. (2008). the relationship between metaphor, body, and culture. in. j. zlatev, t.ziemke, r. frank, & r. dirven, body, language and mind (vol. ii). interrelations between biology, linguistics and culture (pp. 387–408). berlin: mouton de gruyter. author 2 (2012). microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 127 on a problem of fitting data using bézier curves carmen-violeta muraru department of mathematics and computer science, faculty of sciences, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău calea mărăşeşti, 157, bacău, 600115, romania carmen_7419@yahoo.com, cmuraru@ub.ro abstract the paper’s aim is to study old and new problems regarding the bézier curves, which are important tools in the geometric modelling of shapes. we use the matlab software to study the estimation error of fitting data using bézier curves least square fitting and to find new methods within a study that is currently under development about minimizing the distance between the curve and the approximated data. keywords: bézier curve, fitting data 1. introduction computer-aided geometric design (cagd) is the basis for modern design in most branches of industry, from naval and aeronautic to textile industry and medical imaging. the technology using 3d graphics, virtual reality, animation techniques, etc, requires storing and processing complex images and complex geometric models of shapes (face, limbs, organs, etc). in this context, it is necessary to understand better how to discretize geometric objects such as curves, surfaces, and volumes. some of the design problems are handled by breaking the curves or surfaces into simpler pieces and then specifying how these pieces are joined together with some degree of smoothness. for a detailed study, we would recommend authors such as gallier [1], khan [2], farin [5], recktenwald [6], gravesen [7], etc. usually, the s shape is modeled by a system of equations and we view these equations as defining a certain function. polynomials are incredibly useful mathematical tools because they can be differentiated and integrated easily, and can be pieced together to form spline curves that can approximate any function to any accuracy desired. parametric curves and surfaces representation form the base on which the theory of differential geometry rests and they serve as the point of departure for many cagd practical applications. on the other hand because they offer more flexibility, rational functions are often preferred to polynomial functionals to model curves and surfaces. 2. applications of bézier curves in graphic design the bernstein basis occurs frequently both in computer aided geometric design and in approximation theory for many applications in cagd. usually, the curves in the cagd problems will be defined by a sequence of control points. the curves that are useful in geometric modeling should have a relatively smooth shape and should be intuitively connected with the path of the sequence of control points. one family of curves satisfying this requirement is represented by the bézier curves which use the bernstein polynomials as basis functions. the basis formed by the bernstein functions, )}(),...,(),({ 10 tbtbtb n n nn spans also the linear space np , the space of all polynomials of maximal degree n, where (1) inin i tti n tb −−⎟⎟ ⎠ ⎞ ⎜⎜ ⎝ ⎛ = )1()( ),...,0( ni = (1). given n+1 control points ip with i =0 to n, the bézier parametric curve is given by b(t) as follows (2): ∑ = ≤≤= n i i n i tptbtb 0 10 ,)()( (2) c. v. muraru – on a problem of fitting data using bézier curves 128 in formula (2) we can easily detect the form of the bernstein basis. bézier curves are parametric curves, meaning that the formula above is applied independently to the x and y coordinates of the points for a 2d curve, resulting in (3). ∑ ∑ = = ⋅= ⋅= n i n ii n i n ii tbypytb tbxpxtb 0 0 )(.).( )(.).( (3) the bézier curve passes through its first and last control points, i.e. p0 and p3. the middle control points, i.e. p1 and p2 determine the shape of the curve. rational bézier curves are fundamental for geometric modeling. it is widely known that rational bézier curves of degree two are conics. the curve scheme has been based on mathematical representations of the bernstein bézier, b-spline and nurbs curves. the construction of the bézier curves makes use of the configuration of given control points and polynomial functions, the results of which are curves segments residing within the convex hull of those control polygons. one of the disadvantages of this type of curve is that when the number of control points is increased, the degree of the curve equation will be higher. the computational time required will be of quadratic complexity even though the de casteljau algorithm has been used for the evaluation of the curve segments so the utility in real world application is reduced. each point of the curve is calculated from a parametric mathematical function which uses the coordinates of the control points as parameters. bézier curves were the adopted solution to describe an image in terms of its mathematical representation. with this type of curves, the way graphics was also changed by introducing the concept of vector graphics as opposed to raster images. the vector graphic file will contain the coordinates of control points to describe a series of curves. the problem of zoom in became a matter of increasing the space between the control points and by redrawing a perfectly smooth curve again. there are a lot of very interesting properties of the bézier curves. below are the few that are relevant to our current article: • at t=0, b(t) is p0 and at t=1, b(t) is pn. this means that the bézier curves begin at the first control point (i=0) and finish at the last (i=n). • at t=0 the curve is tangent to the line (p0, p1) and at t=1, the curve is tangent to the line (pn, pn-1) • the curve is always contained within the convex shape described by the control points. as we have mentioned above, the bézier curve uses the bernstein basis function. below are two examples of bézier curves with the associated polygons, in matlab.(figure 1). 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 figure 1. examples of cubic bézier curves ([4]) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 129 another choice for basis polynomials could be the so called hermite polynomials where the input to the computer would now be the coordinates with respect to the hermite basis. this representation is indeed in use in industry, and the cubic polynomial curve in the hermite representation was introduced and published in 1964 [9] by james ferguson at boeing, being thus known as the ferguson curve. 3. a problem of fitting data using bézier curve least square fitting a common problem that often needs to be solved, for example in many branches of industry or in medical imaging, is fitting a curve or a surface through a set of data points. problem: given n +1 data points x0, . . . , xn and a sequence of n +1 reals nuuu ,...,, 10 , with 1+≤ ii uu for all i, 0 ≤ i ≤ n − 1, find a c2-continuous curve f, such that f(ui) = xi, for all i, 0 ≤ i ≤ n. there are many different types of curves that can solve the above problem (defined by fourier series, lagrange interpolants, spline functions, etc), and we need to be more specific as to what kind of curve we would like to use. in most cases, efficiency is the dominant factor, and it turns out that piecewise polynomial curves are usually the best choice because these are the easiest functions to manipulate. even then, the problem is still underdetermined. however, the problem is no longer underdetermined if we specify some “end conditions”, for instance the tangents at x0 and xn. in this case, it can be shown that there is a unique bézier curve solving the above problem if we choose this type of curve. with this type of problem, we also want to minimize the error approximation term. as an input we specify the value of error and provide initial set of breakpoints, i.e., the first point and the last point of the original data. input data is divided into segments based on the initial set of breakpoints. a segment is set of all points between two consecutive breakpoints. we have to fit each segment using cubic bézier curve(s). by means of the fitting process we generate n points (approximated data) using bézier interpolation so that the bézier curve(s) passes through the breakpoints. then we measure the error between the original and the approximated (fitted) data. when the approximated data is not close enough to the original data, an existing segment is split into two segments at a point called new breakpoint. after the splitting number of segments increases by one (a split segment is replaced by two new segments), the number of breakpoints also increases by one (a new breakpoint is added to the set of existing breakpoints). the point where the error is maximum between the original and the approximated data is selected as a new breakpoint and this point is added to the set of breakpoints. 0 2 4 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 2 4 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 figure 2. the process of splitting segments by inserting new points c. v. muraru – on a problem of fitting data using bézier curves 130 after splitting, the same fitting procedure using an updated set of segments and breakpoints is repeated until error is less than or equal to the limit of error. this technique of fitting is called the breakand-fit strategy (see [2]). as we can see in the following figure, this results in replacing the old sequence 321 ,, ppp with a new one 32211 ,',,', ppppp by adding two new points. it is obvious that the new curve is now closer to the control polygon (figure 2). we take into account that on the bézier curve there will be found n+1 points obtained for the next values of parameter t: nnnknnn /,...,/,.../2,/1,/0 corresponding to n+1 control points. in figure 3 we represent two control polygons, p0-p1-p2-p3-p4-p5 and p0-p1-p2-p3’-p4p5, and the coordinates are: cp: (1, 0.5), (0.25, 2.00), (1.25, 3.75), (2.50, 4.00), (4.00, 3.25), (5.00, 1.00) and cp: (1.00, 0.5), (0.25, 2.00), (1.25, 3.75), (2.00, 0.25), (4.00, 3.25), (5.00, 1.00). as it can be observed, p3’ is out of place in a new position and the new bézier curve changed its shape. if the control point ip is moving with id then the new control point will have the coordinates iii dpp += ' , ⎥ ⎦ ⎤ ⎢ ⎣ ⎡ +⎥ ⎦ ⎤ ⎢ ⎣ ⎡ =⎥ ⎦ ⎤ ⎢ ⎣ ⎡ y x i i i i d d y x y x ' (4) where yx dd , represent the coordinates of displacement. in the next figure, based on the matlab code, it is obvious that the positions of all the points of the bézier curve will change. 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 p0 p3' p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 figure 3. two control polygons for the following sequence of parameters values ⎭ ⎬ ⎫ ⎩ ⎨ ⎧ 10 10 , 10 9 ,..., 10 2 , 10 1 , 10 0 , we have the coordinates for the point of the bézier curve in table 1. the maximum distance d=1.2960 corresponds to the point 3p of the control polygon which corresponds to 60.0=t . in a matter of fitting data it is important to estimate the error approximation. one of the conditions for bringing the bézier curve closer to the approximated data is to minimize the next sum (5): ∑ = −= n i ii ubps 0 2))(( (5) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 131 table 1. coordinates for the control polygon of the bézier curve parameter t coordinates of the bézier curve for the first control polygon coordinates of the bézier curve for the second control polygon 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00 1.0000 0.5000 0.7857 1.2586 0.8413 1.9770 1.1003 2.5857 1.5090 3.0347 2.0234 3.2891 2.6070 3.3253 3.2276 3.1274 3.8547 2.6830 4.4571 1.9795 5.0000 1.0000 1.0000 0.5000 0.7817 1.2282 0.8157 1.7850 1.0341 2.0896 1.3938 2.1707 1.8672 2.1172 2.4342 2.0293 3.0732 1.9698 3.7523 1.9150 4.4207 1.7062 5.0000 1.0000 in this case of a bézier curve which fits the control points, there is a certain position of the middle point of the curve for minimizing the squared distance between the original and the fitted data and it is well suited for data approximation. as we have mentioned above, by inserting a new breakpoint the curve gets closer to the polygon and we obtain some numerical results which are presented in table 2. table 2. some numerical results the control polygon ∑ = − n i ii ubp 0 2))(( cp=[1.00, 0.50; 0.25 ,2.00; 1.25, 3.75; 2.50, 4.00; 4.00, 3.25; 5.00, 1.00]; 10.9797 cp=[1.00, 0.50; 0.25, 2.00; 1.25, 3.75; 2.50, 4.00;3.00, 3.75; 4.00, 3.25; 4.50, 2.50; 5.00, 1.00]; 7.9833 cp=[1.00, 0.50; 0.25, 2.00; 1.25, 3.75; 2.50, 4.00;3.00, 3.60 ;4.00, 3.25; 4.00, 2.50; 5.00, 1.00]; 7.7241 cp=[1.00, 0.50;0.50, 1.00; 0.25, 2.00;0.50, 2.80; 1.25, 3.75; 2.50, 4.00; 3.00, 3.75 ;4.00, 3.25; 4.50, 2.50;5.00,1.00] 2.4137 cp=[1.00, 0.50;0.50, 1.00; 0.25, 2.00;0.50, 2.80; 0.70, 3.30;1.25, 3.75; 2.50, 4.00; 3.00, 3.75 ;4.00, 3.25; 4.50, 2.50;5.00, 1.00]; 0.6438 according to table 2, it is obvious that the distance between the bézier curve and the approximated data is getting smaller. for a better understanding of the numerical results from table 2, figure 3 shows how the shape of the bézier curve changes according to the last two control polygons. c. v. muraru – on a problem of fitting data using bézier curves 132 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 figure 3. the changing of the shape of the bézier curve 4. conclusions geometric modeling and computer graphics have been interesting and important subjects for many years from the point of view of scientists and engineers. one of the main and useful applications of these concepts is the treatment of curves and surfaces in terms of control points, a tool extensively used in cagd. the paper is part of a study under development regarding the efficiency and advantages of using bézier curves in the process of fitting data in fields ranging from the automative and aeronautic to textile industry or medical imaging. 5. references [1] gallier, j. (2008). curves and surfaces in geometric modeling theory and algorithms. [2] khan, m. approximation of data using cubic bézier curve least square fitting. retrieved from http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:wgf5avmgoeuj:obberon.com/documents/cubicbezie rleastsquarefit.pdf+khan+approximation+of+data+using+cubic+b%c3%a9zier+curve+least+squa re+fitting&hl=ro&gl=ro&pid=bl&srcid=adgeesifwpi5emrcjppg7iohxdkzefimly_nqbgw s-riqd_sdgrxbrsv_oi_btfppyqrfk0bqphg4nsetexbxqajchixc2k3mn18tfcvhhymih6rs9z_ng6ibk07beillfx4kgwu_f6&sig=ahietbrnlj7i7zc8skikho6 pgmwbszvpuw [3] ursu-fischer, n., ursu, m. (2003). numerical methods in technique and programs in c/c++. cluj-napoca: ed. casa cărţii de stiinţă. [4] nimineţ, v., muraru, c.v. (2009).computational geometry with applications in matlab. iaşi: ed. pim. [5] farin, g. (1997) curves and surfaces for computer aided geometric design. a practical guide, fourth edition, academic press. [6] recktenwald, g. (2007). numerical methods with matlab: implemantation and applications, ed. prentice-hall. [7] gravesen, j. (2002). differential geometry and design of shape and motion. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 139 a facial motion capture system based on neural network classifier using rgb-d data fateme zare mehrjardi computer engineering department, yazd university, iran zarefateme41@yahoo.com mehdi rezaeian3 computer engineering department, yazd university, iran mrezaeian@yazd.ac.ir abstract analysis of live and dynamic movements by computer is one of the areas that draws a great deal of interest to itself. one of the important parts of this area is the motion capture process that can be based on the appearance and facial mode estimation. the aim of this study is to represent 3d facial movements from estimated facial expressions using video image sequences and applying them to computer-generated 3d faces. we propose an algorithm which can classify the given image sequences into one of the motion frames. the contributions of this work lie mainly in two aspects. firstly, an optical flow algorithm is used for feature extraction, that instead of using two subsequent images (or two subsequent frames in a video), the distinction between images and the normal state is used. secondly, we realize a multilayer perceptron network that their inputs are matrices obtained from optical flow algorithm to model a mapping between person movements and database movement categories. a three-dimensional avatar, which is made by means of kinect data, is used to represent the face movements in a graphical environment. in order to evaluate the proposed method, several videos are recorded in order to compare the available modes and discovered modes. the results indicate that the proposed method is effective. keywords: motion capture, depth data, 3d model, facial expression, kinect, optical flow. 1. introduction motion capture is the process of recording a live motion event and translating it into actionable data which allows for a 3d recreation of the performance. in other words, transforming a live performance into a digital performance. the motion capture includes the motion capture of the entire body, the hands, the face etc. the motion capture process can be divided into offline and online. in the former, the data are processed after being recorded and saved in order to separate noisy data, and then applied to the computerized character. while in the latter, the data are recorded and applied to the character simultaneously. they are also associated with noisy data. motion capture process can also be divided into two marked and unmarked types. in the former, some marks are located on different parts of the body. in this method there are problems such as marks overlapping and the person not being comfortable with the special covering. so as to overcome the problems existent in the marked method, unmarked motion capture used. this method is less precise than the marked method (skogstad et al., 2010; lindequist and lönnblom, 2004). this study aims to capture some facial expressions such as mouth, eyebrows, eyes and cheeks by using colorful images and depth data that are obtained from the rgb-d camera. the rest of this paper is structured as follows. a brief review of the related works is represented in the next section. the main concepts are introduced in section 3. section 4 discusses the proposed method. subsequently, the results of the experiments are mentioned in section 5 and finally, section 6 concludes the paper. 3 corresponding author brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 140 2. related works in (michel and el kaliouby, 2003) it is used a facial feature tracker to deal with the problems of face localization and feature extraction in spontaneous expressions. the employed tracker uses a face template for primary localization of 22 face key points from video sequences. moreover, a filter has been used for tracking the situation of these points in the video sequences. for each expression, a vector of feature displacements is calculated by taking the euclidean distance. these replacements are given to the support vector machine classifier. then the svm model determines the mode of an unseen frame by means of feature replacements amounts. in (ge et al., 2008), a system is proposed for reconstructing human facial expressions. the proposed system is composed of four key modules: face detection, feature extraction, classification and artificial emotion generation. in this system, it is assumed that there is only one face in the image and the face take up a significant area in the image. furthermore, opencv library is used to separate the face region from an image and extract facial features. after the separation of the face area, facial feature extraction is conducted to locate the positions of the eyebrows, eyes, eyelids, mouth and wrinkles. these positions can be obtained by some key points along with special mathematical properties. considering the facial action coding system (facs) the twenty-two facial muscles are closely related to human facial expressions. in fact, the human facial expressions are due to the movements of facial muscles beneath the skin. each facial muscle is represented by means of a pair of key points called driven points and fixed points. the driven points are points which can move along the facial expression, while the fixed points are points which are fixed during a facial expression. the elastic forces generated from the facial muscles changes were calculated as the feature vector that is elaborated in the article (ge et al., 2008). afterwards, this vector is given to the svm classifier as an input. a total of 600 videos are prepared for six facial expressions (100 videos for each facial expression), namely happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise. all the videos are captured from one person. then, all the data are randomly divided into two groups 480 videos for training and 120 videos for testing. at the end, a robot is employed in order to simulate the expression modes on it. li (li et al., 2013) proposed a system for representing the face expression modes. the user performs this task in a natural environment without any mark and records a 3d facial video of a person with kinect. in the face-tracking phase, a set of predefined key points on the face are tracked using improved active appearance model. the head 3d models and the 3d movements of these key points are computed. then, the controlled parameters are derived for facial animation according to the underlying facial model. the face tracking role in this system is to extract the defined movement units by means of candide-3 standards. candide-3 standard is a very simple and publicly available face model which has been very popular in many research labs around the world. afterward, a communicative channel is created for transforming the obtained controlled parameters from the face tracking to the 3ds max software for face animation. cao et al. (cao et al., 2014) introduce facewarehouse, a database of 3d facial expression models for visual computing. with an off-the shelf rgbd depth camera, raw datasets from 150 individuals aged 7–80 from several ethnicities were captured. for each person, they captured her neutral expression and 19 other expressions, such as mouth-open, smile, angry, kiss, and eyes-shut. for each rgbd raw data record, a set of facial feature points on the color image, such as eye corners, mouth boundary and nose tip are automatically localized, and manually adjusted if the automatic detection is inaccurate. they then deform a template facial mesh to the depth data as closely as possible while matching the feature points on the color image to their corresponding locations on the mesh. starting from the 20 fitted meshes (one neutral expression and 19 different expressions) of each person, the individual-specific expression blendshapes of the person are constructed. in (seddik et al., 2013), a system is proposed that is able to recognize the facial expressions and then fitted to a 3d face virtual model using the depth and rgb data captured from microsoft’s kinect camera. this system starts working by detecting the face and segmenting its regions. it identifies the facial expressions using eigenface criterion on the rgb images and reconstructs the face from the filtered depth data. f .z. mehrjardi, m. rezaeian a facial motion capture system based on neural network classifier using rgb-d data 141 3. main concepts 3.1. optical flow algorithm an optical flow (of) algorithm calculates the changes of brightness patterns from one frame to another. this task is done by using the intensity values of the neighboring pixels. algorithms that calculate the changes for all the image pixels are referred to as dense optical flow (dof) algorithms. sparse optical flow (sof) algorithms estimate the changes for a selected number of pixels in the image. dof algorithms, such as horn-schunck method (nourani-vatani et al., 2012), calculate the changes at each pixel by using public constraints. these methods generally prevent from feature extraction but are not robust to noise. sof algorithms such as the lucas-kanade approach (nourani-vatani et al., 2012), assume local smoothness. these methods provide more robustness to noise but offer a much sparser flow field. due to this increased robustness, the sof algorithms are preferable over dof algorithms for many applications. in this research, lucas-kanade approach is used. 3.2. steps of facial expression detection each facial expression recognition system should go through some steps before classifying the emotions. the first step consists of separating the face from other available objects in the image or video. when the face is recognized, the face changes and movement should be followed in order to be able to detect the facial emotions. there might be obstacles such as illumination or background changes which can make a difficult detection procedure. when the face is separated, the system must find features such as the lips, eyebrows, cheeks movement, etc. in the last stage after extracting the features to determine what emotions are represented, facial expressions are classified. indeed, the system must have been trained with a database that contains a variety of expressions to be able to recognize the face emotion regardless of the issues such as the age, gender, race, skin color. briefly, a facial expression recognition system consists of the following stages (rangari and gonnade, 2014): • face detection and tracking it • feature extraction • expression mode classification 3.2.1. face detection and face tracking the first step in facial expression analysis is to detect the face from the image or the given video frames and following it in various frames. recognizing the face within an image is termed as face detection or face localization whereas tracking it across the different frames of a video sequence is termed as face tracking. face detection algorithms and tracking it from feature detection algorithms are due to the finding of a special representative in images. one of the popular and improved methods in this domain is kanade-locase-tomasi tracking method. kanade and locase developed a feature extraction algorithm in which two images are corresponded and it is assumed that the second frame in one consecutive frame of images; due to the small inner frame movement, there is a conversion of the first image. in the year 2004, viola and jones (viola and jones, 2004) developed a learning method based on the forehead detection algorithm (vinay, 2012). the algorithm works based on the ada boost learning algorithm and the techniques such as integral image and attentional cascade make the viola-jones algorithm highly efficient and precise. 3.2.2. feature extraction in recent years, many various algorithms have been proposed to extract the facial points from images or video sequences of faces. the four basic approaches are as follow: 3.2.3. geometry-based approaches in geometry -based method, the features are extracted according to the geometrical relations such as the positions and the feature width. geometry-based features describe the shape of the face and its components, such as the mouth or the eyebrow. although in the geometry-based method less memory is needed, its application is difficult (dhawan and dogra, 2012; yen and nithianandan, 2002). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 142 3.2.4. appearance-based approach in appearance-based methods, the images are converted to a vector. in fact, each image is represented with one point in a space with ‘n’ dimensions. due to the multidimensionality of the images, the computing process is very difficult and time consuming. in this manner, statistical methods are used to reduce the images' dimensions in order to be able to obtain the data frequency. in this approach, without losing the original information, the images could be represented in a subspace with less dimensions so called “feature sub space”. for recognition, the image is taken to the sub space and there the similarity between the new image and the given image is analyzed. these subspaces can be divided into two: linear and nonlinear types. from among linear sub spaces it can be referred to the principal component analysis (pca (karamizadeh et al., 2013; kaur and sarabjit singh, 2015)), local binary pattern (lbp (huang et al., 2011; liu et al., 2011)) and the linear discriminant analysis (lda (kaur and sarabjit singh, 2015)). lbp algorithm which is used in this study will be explained later in feature extraction section. each of these three methods, considering their own statistical view point, define one sub space and transfer the data to that sub space. for data comparison it is enough to analyze the similarity between the transferred vectors in the regarding sub space with the entered data to the sub space. linear models are not able to separate the information that its frequency is nonlinear. for overcoming this problem, the data are transferred to a space with high dimensions and then linear functions are used for their separation (dhawan and dogra, 2012; yen and nithianandan, 2002). 3.2.5. template-based approach in template-based methods, a single template or a multiple template which are designed by means of energy functions are used for feature extraction. this method is easily applicable, but it suffers from an insufficient fitness supply and a need for a lot of memory. this method cannot also work with images with complicated backgrounds. some methods for feature extraction use changeable templates for face feature extraction. these are flexible templates that are made by means of a priori knowledge of the form and size of various features. the templates' size and form can be changed in order to be well fitted. each of these templates is evaluated by means of an energy function. the least amount of the energy function corresponds to the best fitness of the image. these methods along with some changes in the scale and the head circular movement, work well in recognizing the eyes and the mouth. but nose and eyebrow modeling has always been a complicated task (bhatt and shah, 2011; bagherian et al., 2009). 3.2.6. color-based approach this approach uses skin color to isolate the face area. any non-skin color region within the face is viewed as a candidate for eyes or mouth. the effectiveness of such techniques on images with various backgrounds is rather limited, due to the diversity of ethnical backgrounds (bhatt and shah, 2011; bagherian et al., 2009). 3.2.7. expression mode classification after the face detection stages and feature extraction, the final stage in face detection system is an appropriate modeling to classify the extracted features of special modes. classification is actually a two-staged process. in the first step, a model is prepared based on the collection of data available in the database. the training data collection consists of records, samples, examples or objects that each contains a set of attributes. for each instance a class label is denoted. each of the training data collection samples is called a training sample that have been selected randomly from the data collection. in the second step, the trained model is used to classify appropriately the new data sample. in this study, the neural network classifier is used. f .z. mehrjardi, m. rezaeian a facial motion capture system based on neural network classifier using rgb-d data 143 4. proposed method 4.1. data collection procedure in this study, data are obtained from the kinect camera that benefits from colorful images and depth data. kinect can record colorful and depth data simultaneously at 30 frames per second. the data are collected from the person who initially pose in front of the camera with normal face mode and then the various modes are represented. it should be noted that data are obtained at different distances from the kinect camera and in different lighting conditions. figure 1 shows various facial modes in our database. open mouth smiling normal pursing lips anger rising the eyebrows figure 1. peak of facial expression in database 4.2. preprocessing in this stage, a video is prepared using the color data captured from kinect camera. the face region in each frame is obtained from the video using viola-jones algorithm (figure 2). because of different distance from the kinect camera, the obtained images from the face must be re-sized, in order to have the same size. at the end, the colored images are converted to gray-scaled images. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 144 normal frame figure 2. facial expression recognition in proposed method 4.3. feature extraction optical flow method is used for feature extraction. it should be noted that since the data are started from the normal state, instead of using the optical flow distinctions of two subsequent frames, the optical flow distinction of all images with the normal image is taken into consideration. in two consecutive frames, differences of all the pictures with the normal picture are taken into sequence of frames face tracking with viola-jones algorithm resize images convert to gray-scale images applying proposed optical flow method f .z. mehrjardi, m. rezaeian a facial motion capture system based on neural network classifier using rgb-d data 145 account. figure 3 shows feature vectors of facial expression of our database. matrices ‘u’ and ‘v’ values that are obtained from this algorithm are used as feature vectors. the ‘u’ matrix represents the position and the ‘v’ matrix represents the change of direction. in the following, the proposed method is combined with some other feature extraction methods (lbp uniform approach and lbp circular approach) and the obtained results will be mentioned. smiling normal rising the eyebrows open mouth pursing lips anger figure 3. feature vectors of facial expression in database the original lbp operator labels the pixels of an image by means of decimal numbers called local binary patterns or lbp codes, which encode the local structure around each pixel. it proceeds thus as illustrated in figure 4: each pixel is compared with its eight neighbors in a 3x3 neighborhood by subtracting the center pixel value. the resulting strictly negative values are encoded with 0 and the others with 1. a binary number is obtained by concatenating all these binary codes in a clockwise direction starting from the top-left one and its corresponding decimal value is used for labeling. the derived binary numbers are referred to as local binary patterns or lbp codes. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 146 figure 4. an example of the uniform lbp operator (huang et al., 2011) formally, given a pixel at ( ), the resulting lbp can be expressed in decimal form as: (1) where and are respectively gray-level values of the central pixel and surrounding pixels in the 3x3 neighborhood, and function s(x) is defined as: (2) one limitation of the basic lbp operator is that its small 3x3 neighborhood cannot capture dominant features with large scale structures. to deal with the texture at different scales the operator was later generalized to use neighborhoods of different sizes. a local neighborhood is defined as a set of sampling points evenly spaced on a circle which is centered at the pixel to be labeled. the sampling points that do not fall within the pixels are interpolated using bilinear interpolation, thus allowing for any radius and any number of sampling points in the neighborhood. figure 5 shows some examples of the extended lbp operator where the notation (p, r) denotes a neighborhood of p sampling points on a circle of radius of r. figure 5. examples of the circular lbp (huang et al., 2011) formally, when given a pixel at ( ), the resulting lbp can be expressed in decimal form as: (3) where and are respectively gray-level values of the central pixel and p surrounding pixels in the circle neighborhood with a radius r, and function s(x) is defined as (huang et al., 2011; liu et al., 2011): (4) f .z. mehrjardi, m. rezaeian a facial motion capture system based on neural network classifier using rgb-d data 147 4.4. mode classification after the feature extraction stage, neural network is used for classifying the modes. in this study, the utilized expressions are normal, smiling, open mouth, rising the eyebrows, anger and pursing modes. in fact, they are some selective modes for face movements. it should be noted that the modes can be increased but in this case we work with these six modes. this paper used three layers feed-forward neural network (figure 6). the proposed neural network includes 800 nodes for the input layer (400 nodes for u matrix and 400 nodes for v matrix), 100 nodes for the hidden layer and 6-nodes for output layer. from the collected data 70% are used for training, 15% for validation and the last 15% are used to evaluate the neural network. figure 6. proposed feed-forward neural network classifier 4.5. 3d model generation face region is separated precisely from video frames by using a segmentation method based on skin color. the depth data corresponding to this separated area is taken for a 3d representation from depth data corresponding to each frame. at the end, a file is prepared for each frame consisting of face points with 6 features: x, y, depth, red, green and blue color. these data are used for producing a 3d model and a graphical avatar for each frame (figure 7). figure 8 shows 3d model of some facial expressions. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 148 figure 7. avatar 3d model generation segmentation method with skin color extract x, y, depth and rgb color 3d model generation and visualization f .z. mehrjardi, m. rezaeian a facial motion capture system based on neural network classifier using rgb-d data 149 5. the experimental results as previously described, the matrices u and v obtained from optical flow algorithm are used as feature vectors and feed-forward neural network is used for classification. for this purpose, 11008 data are used for training the neural network, and out of these data, 4449 are normal data, 1247 smiling, 2473 data for open mouth, 1658 data for rising the eyebrows, 643 data for anger and 538 data for pursing lips mode. these data are obtained from three different persons with different distances (.5-1.5 meters) from kinect camera and in different lightning (different hours of a day and changing the light situation). five people (three people who took part in the training procedure and two persons who did not take part in the training procedure are called ‘seen’ and ‘unseen’ face, respectively) are used for evaluating this network. for simplicity and brevity, specific numbers are used to illustrate different expressions. namely number 1 is used for normal mode, number 2 for smiling, number 3 for open mouth, number 4 for rising the eyebrows, number 5 for anger and number 6 for pursing lips mode. tables 1 and 2 depict numerical results on various videos. the asterisk* sign is used for denoting unseen faces. it should be noted that the video lengths are different. in test procedures, single video feature vectors consisting of different expressions are given to the neural network and the network produces the corresponding labels for each frame as output. if there is a mode in a video which is not available in the data base, the nearest available mode's label to this mode is produced. for example, in test3 and test6 videos, the surprise expression (that have been showed with number 7) is recognized as open mouth expression. at the end, considering the certain numbers of subsequent similar labels (at least 10 frames, because the minimum number of one modes' frames is related to “rising the eyebrow” mode that takes 10 frames), the expressions are detected, and a 3d show of these expressions are represented. for instance, in test8 videos that have been obtained from unseen face, the “smiling” and “open mouth” expressions are well recognized, but expressions related to rising the eyebrows are not detected properly and all the corresponding frames to this expression are regarded as normal expression. figure 9 shows example of generated 3d models. smiling normal rising the eyebrows open mouth figure 8. 3d model of some facial expressions brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 150 a) video frames b) frames of the generated 3d models c) sequence of images used in (yong, 2007) d) sequence of generated 3d models based on images in c figure 9. results of our facial motion capture system(a,b,c,d) f .z. mehrjardi, m. rezaeian a facial motion capture system based on neural network classifier using rgb-d data 151 table 1. experimental results for seen faces test facial expressions in video detected facial expressions test1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 test2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 test3 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 7 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 3 test4 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 6 1 6 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 6 1 6 test5 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 6 1 5 1 5 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 6 1 5 1 5 1 test6 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 3 1 table 2. experimental results for unseen faces test facial expressions in video detected facial expressions test7 * 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 5 1 6 test8* 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 table 3 shows the mode detection accuracy of the proposed method and its combination with two other methods (uniform lbp and circular lbp) for different people. the overall accuracy of the proposed procedure is calculated as this way one video is chosen as input, and after mode detection the three aforementioned steps are applied on this video. the obtained feature vectors are given to the neural network and the corresponding labels to each frame are regarded as output. afterwards, the overall accuracy is calculated from the confusion matrix. however, it should be noted that the expression detection criteria are the observation of a certain number of subsequent similar labels and in the case of observing a limited or sparse number of different labels the final label would not change. figure 10 and 11 show result of different methods for seen and unseen data respectively. table 4 shows results for seen data with proposed method and uniform lbp. table 3. overall accuracy of neural network using different methods test proposed method + uniform lbp proposed method + circular lbp proposed method test1 96.7 95.8 96.3 test2 95.9 96.9 94.4 test3 88.3 81.3 93.8 test4 91 92 95.2 test5 94.7 92.6 96.3 test6 92.6 92 92.3 test7* 47.2 82.1 92.7 test8* 55.9 84.7 79.1 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 152 figure 10. accuracy of different method for seen faces figure 11. accuracy of different method for unseen faces table 4. results of frame detections for proposed method +uniform lbp test facial expressions in video detected facial expressions test1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 test2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 test3 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 7 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 3 test4 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 6 1 6 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 6 1 6 test5 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 6 1 5 1 5 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 6 1 5 1 5 1 test6 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 3 1 6. conclusion the aim of this research is to capture face motion by means of color and depth data obtained from kinect camera. in fact, in a video, a facial expression starts from normal state goes to peak state and then returns to normal mode. the first task for obtaining the facial expressions is removing the face region from other components in each frame. in this study, viola and jones f .z. mehrjardi, m. rezaeian a facial motion capture system based on neural network classifier using rgb-d data 153 algorithm is used to separate the face region from other components and optical flow method is used for feature extraction. in the proposed optical flow method, the distinctions between all frames with the normal frame is taken into consideration, rather than using the distinctions between two consecutive frames. the obtained matrices are used as feature vectors and feed-forward neural network is used for classifying the modes. in the final stage, after the discovery of available modes in video, a 3d show of facial expressions are represented that it can be used to create 3d animations and interactive digital games. based on the results of the present study, our system is able to recognize the facial expressions of different unseen people, but considering the existing hardware condition, it would not be able to work at real time. references skogstad, s. a. van d., jensenius, a. r., & nymoen, k. (2010). “using ir optical marker based motion capture for exploring musical interaction”. proceedings of the conference on new interfaces for musical expression, 407–410. lindequist, j., & lönnblom, d. (2004). “construction of a motion capture system”. school of mathematics and systems engineering. li, d., sun, c., hu, f., zang, d., wang, l., & zhang, m. (2013). “real-time performance-driven facial animation with 3ds max and kinect”. 3rd international conference on consumer electronics, communications and networks, 473–476. michel, p., & el kaliouby, r. (2003). “real time facial expression recognition in video using support vector machines”. proceedings of the 5th international conference on multimodal interfaces, 258–264. ge, s. s., wang, c., & hang, c. c. (2008). “facial expression imitation in human robot interaction”. 17th ieee international symposium on robot and human interactive communication, 213–218. cao, c., weng, y., zhou, s., tong, y., & zhou, k. (2014). "facewarehouse: a 3d facial expression database for visual computing". ieee transactions on visualization and computer graphics 20, 3, 413-425. seddik, b., maamatou, h., gazzah, s., chateau, t., & ben amara, n. e. (2013). “unsupervised facial expressions recognition and avatar reconstruction from kinect”. 10th international multi-conference on systems, signals & device, 1–6. nourani-vatani, n., borges, p. v. k., & roberts, j. m. (2012). “a study of feature extraction algorithms for optical flow tracking”. proceedings of australasian conference on robotics and automation. rangari, s., & gonnade, s. (2014). “a survey on facial expression recognition”. international journal of research in advent technology, 2(9). viola, p., & jones, m. j. (2004). “robust real time face detection”. international journal of computer vision, 57(2), 137-154. vinay, b. (2012). "face expression recognition and analysis: the state of the art". arxiv preprint arxiv:1203.6722. dhawan, s., & dogra, h. (2012). “feature extraction techniques for face recognition”. international journal of engineering, business and enterprise applications, 1–4. yen, g. g., & nithianandan, n. (2002). “facial feature extraction using genetic algorithm”. proceedings of the congress on evolutionary computation, 2, 1895–1900. bhatt, b. g., & shah, z. h. (2011). “face feature extraction techniques : a survey”. national conference on recent trends in engineering & technology. bagherian, e., rahmat, r. w., & udzir, n. i. (2009). “extract of facial feature point”. international journal of computer science and network security, 9(1), 49-53. karamizadeh, s., abdullah, s. m., manaf, a. a., zamani, m., & hooman, a. (2013). “an overview of principal component analysis”. journal of signal and information processing, 4(3), 173– 175. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 154 kaur, a., & sarabjit singh, t. (2015). “face recognition using pca (principal component analysis) and lda (linear discriminant analysis) techniques”. international journal of advanced research in computer and communication engineering, 4(3), 308-310. huang, d., member, s., shan, c., ardabilian, m., wang, y., & chen, l. (2011). “local binary patterns and its application to facial image analysis : a survey”. ieee transactions on systems man and cybernetics part c (applications and reviews), 41(6), 765–781, ieee, 2011. liu, w., wang, y., & li, s. (2011). “lbp feature extraction for facial expression recognition local binary patterns (lbp)”. journal of information & computational science, 8(3), 412–421. yong, y. (2007). facial expression recognition and tracking based on distributed locally linear embedding and expression motion energy. national university of singapore, ph.d. diss. 145p. mehdi rezaeian (b. sep. 22, 1970) has received his b.sc. degree in electronics engineering in 1994 from knt university, tehran, iran. he received his m.sc. degree in biomedical engineering from university of tehran in 1997. in 1999, he joined the faculty of engineering at university of tehran for five years. in 2010, he received his ph.d. degree from swiss federal institute of technology (eth) in zurich. since 1998, his main research is in image processing and computer vision topics. now, he is an assistant professor of department of computer engineering at yazd university, iran. he published more than 50 papers in journals and conferences. fateme zare mehrjardi (b. may 14, 1991) received his bsc in computer engineering (2012), msc in artificial intelligence (2014) from yazd university of iran. her current research interests include different aspects of artificial intelligence applied in image processing, pattern recognition and machine learning. brain_4 97 suicide: neurochemical approaches ritabrata banerjee senior research fellow (dst sponsored research project, govt. of india) raja peary mohan college (affiliated to university of calcutta), uttarpara, hooghly, west bengal712258, india anup k. ghosh asst. professor, dept. of instrumentation science, jadavpur university, calcutta, west bengal 700032, india balaram ghosh asst. professor, dept. of pharmacology, calcutta medical college & hospital, calcutta, west bengal700073, india somnath bhattacharya assc. professor, dept. of genetics, bidhan chandra krishi vishwa vidyalaya, mohanpur, nadia, west bengal741252. india amal c. mondal asst. professor, dept. of physiology, raja peary mohan college (affiliated to university of calcutta), uttarpara, hooghly, west bengal712258, india, mobile phone no. +91 9432209050 e-mail: amal_mondal@rediffmail.com abstract: despite the devastating effect of suicide on numerous lives, there is still a dearth of knowledge concerning its neurochemical aspects. there is increasing evidence that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (bdnf) and nerve growth factor (ngf) are involved in the pathophysiology and treatment of depression through binding and activating their cognate receptors trk b and trk a respectively. the present study was performed to examine whether the expression profiles of bdnf and/or trk b as well as ngf and/or trk a were altered in postmortem brain in subjects who commit suicide and whether these alterations were associated with specific psychopathologic conditions. these studies were performed in hippocampus obtained 21 suicide subjects and 19 non-psychiatric control subjects. the protein and mrna levels of bdnf, trk b and ngf, trk a were determined with sandwich elisa, western blot and rt pcr respectively. given the importance of bdnf and ngf along with their cognate receptors in mediating physiological functions, including cell survival and synaptic plasticity, our findings of reduced expression of bdnf, trk b and ngf, trk a in both protein and mrna levels of postmortem brain in suicide subjects suggest that these molecules may play an important role in the pathophysiological aspects of suicidal behavior. keywords: brain-derived neurotrophic factor (bdnf), nerve growth factor (ngf), suicide, postmortem brain, hippocampus, trkb, trka, rt pcr. elisa 1. introduction suicide is a major public health concern; however, its neurobiology is unclear. post-mortem brain tissue obtained from suicide victims and normal controls offers a useful method for studying the neurobiology of suicide. despite several limitations, these studies have offered important leads in the neurobiology of suicide. in this article, we discuss some important findings resulting from these studies, focusing on neurotrophin studies in suicide. like everywhere else in the world suicide attempts in india have been increasing progressively. despite of dramatic improvements in the medication treatment of psychiatric disorders, there has been relatively little change in suicide rates over the last quarter of a century. india, the second most populous country, is known today as one of the fastest developing nations in the world. along with the increase in economy, there is also increasing number of people who are dying from suicide every year. as per estimation of who's brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 98 latest suicide rate, india along with china, holds the dubious distinction of having the highest suicide rates in the world. in india 98 out of every 100,000 people commit suicide annually [1]. despite the devastating effect of suicide on numerous lives, there is still a dearth of knowledge concerning its underlying cause and pathologic mechanism. several clinical and epidemiological studies have identified stress as an important risk factor in suicide [2]. the role of neurotrophins in directing brain growth and neuronal functioning is being increasingly recognized. neurotrophins not only play an important role in cellular proliferation, migration, and phenotypic differentiation and/or maintenance in the developing central nervous system [3], but also their presence is required in the adult central nervous system for maintenance of neuronal functions, structural integrity of neurons, and neurogenesis [4], which suggests that neurotrophins are biologically significant over the entire lifespan. in addition, a number of studies have demonstrated that neurotrophic factors regulate structural and synaptic and morphological plasticity to modulate the strength or number of synaptic connections and neurotransmission [5]. neurotrophins are structurally related homodimeric proteins that include brain-derived neurotrophic factor (bdnf), nerve growth factor (ngf), neurotrophin (nt)-3, and nt-4/5. they exert their effects after binding to receptor tyrosine kinases (trk), such as trka, trkb, trkc, and p75ngfr, in a specific manner [6]. we therefore, investigated the correlation of neurotrophins and their respective receptors at the level of both protein and mrna in hippocampus obtained from suicide victims and matched non-psychiatric control subjects. the results of the present study demonstrate reduced expression of neurotrophins and their receptors at both protein and mrna level in postmortem brain of suicide victims, indicating a significant association of suicide and down regulation of neurotrophins and their cognate receptors at translational level in hippocampal region of the brain. this results indicate a significant defective brain neurotrophin milleau in indian suicide victims and strengthens role of neurotrophins in the pathophysiology of suicide. 2. materials and methods 2.1. subjects post-mortem brain samples from suicide subjects with major depression and non-psychiatric control subjects were obtained from the calcutta medical college hospital, the hippocampal region of the brains were dissected and stored at -80 ºc. we determined the selected neurotrophins and their respective receptors mrna and protein expression in the hippocampal and cerebellum brain areas obtained from 20 non-psychiatric control subjects (referred as control subjects) and 20 depressed suicide subjects. detailed demographic characteristics of the control and depressed suicide subjects are provided in table 1. the brain samples were free of any neuropathological abnormalities and hiv. this study was approved by the institutional review board (ref. no. 06/b/iec/mch) of the calcutta medical college hospital under west bengal university of health sciences. 2.2. diagnostic methodology all subjects were diagnosed as follows: after giving written informed consent at least one family member was interviewed using procedures based on the diagnostic evaluation after death (dead) and the schedule for clinical interviews for the dsm-iv (scid) (salzman et al. 1983). family members gave permission for clinical records to be obtained from mental health treatment providers when there was a prior history of mental health treatment, and in all cases of suicide. an attempt was made to collect all the available records on each case, from which the appropriate data were extracted and collated using the dead. two senior psychiatrists provided independent dsmiii-r diagnoses; discrepancies were resolved by means of a consensus conference. data on suicide cases were collected and the circumstances of the suicide were determined using the dead form during the same interview process. cases were considered to be suicide only if the manner of death was determined to be suicide by the medical examiner. similarly, controls were verified as free from mental illnesses using such consensus diagnostic procedures. this study was approved by the r. banerjee, a. k. ghosh, b. ghosh, somnath bhattacharya & amal c. mondal suicide: neurochemical approaches 99 institutional review board (ref. no. 06/b/iec/mch), calcutta medical college hospital under west bengal university of health sciences. table 1. demographic characteristics of suicide and control subjects subject no. group sex (m/f) age (yr.) pmi (h) brain ph cause of death psychiatric diagnosis 1 mdd m 45 17.9 6.91 acid poisoning familial dyshermony 2 mdd f 21 24.8 6.23 hanging familial dyshermony 3 mdd m 65 13.9 6.72 wrist cutting major depression, alcohol abuse 4 mdd f 20 21.6 6.92 cuso4 poisoning major depression, adjustment disorder 5 mdd m 59 15.6 6.95 hanging schizophrenia 6 mdd m 53 23 6.1 jumped major depression 7 mdd m 32 26.3 6.4 hanging drug and alcohol abuse 8 mdd f 36 18.8 5.69 acid poisoning major depression 9 mdd m 34 24.3 6.44 hanging major depression, adjustment disorder 10 mdd m 38 24 6.3 wrist cutting major depression, alcohol abuse 11 mdd m 27 24.8 6.65 acid poisoning familial dyshermony 12 mdd m 54 26.1 6.77 multiple injuries drug and alcohol abuse 13 mdd f 18 22 6.55 jumped marital dyshermony 14 mdd f 26 15.5 6.32 hanging marital dyshermony 15 mdd f 62 27 6.2 hanging no psychiatric illness 16 mdd f 46 20.1 6.52 jumped major depression, agoraphobia 17 mdd m 39 11.5 7 run over in metro rail familial dyshermony 18 mdd m 29 24.7 6.66 hanging bipolar disorder 19 mdd m 44 19.3 7.06 multiple injuries schizoaffective disorder 20 mdd m 23 24.8 6.71 wrist cutting major depression, adjustment disorder 21 mdd m 72 24.5 6.25 run over in metro rail familial dyshermony 22 control m 30 22 5.8 atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease ▬ 23 control m 22 19.24 7.33 accidental trauma ▬ 24 control f 23 18.34 6.23 cadiac arrhythmia ▬ 25 control m 43 26.13 5.69 hypertensive heart ▬ 26 control m 67 27.23 5.89 liver cirrhosis ▬ 27 control m 34 15.5 6.35 hypoplastic coronary artery ▬ 28 control f 29 23 6.64 cadiac arrhythmia ▬ 29 control m 47 26.3 6.22 atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease ▬ 30 control f 54 18.8 5.98 atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease ▬ 31 control m 27 24.3 6.43 pneumonia ▬ 32 control m 32 29.13 5.33 subarachnoid haemorrhage ▬ 33 control f 29 18 7.17 anaphylaxis ▬ 34 control f 32 9.5 6.11 mitral valve prolapse ▬ 35 control m 45 17 5.44 hypertensive heart ▬ 36 control m 65 16 6.7 hypoplastic coronary artery ▬ 37 control m 19 10.32 6 accidental trauma ▬ 38 control m 50 17.5 6.11 hypertrophic cardiomyopathy ▬ 39 control m 28 21 5.7 accidental trauma ▬ 40 control f 40 24 6.47 ovarian cancer ▬ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 100 2.3. extraction of hippocampus and western blotting the brains of suicide subjects and control subjects were removed for isolating the hippocampal tissues. 50-100 mg hippocampal tissue of each subject was lysed in 1 ml lysate (50 mmol/l tis-hcl ph 7.4, 50 mmol/l nacl, 1%triton-x 100, 1 mmol/l edta, 100 µg/ml pmsf) and centrifuged at 15000 rpm for 15 minutes at 4°c to obtain the supernatant. the proteins were separated by 12% sds-page and transferred to nitro-cellulose membranes. an western blotting reaction was performed with anti-bdnf polyclonal antibodies (1:1000 dilution in 3% bsa, chemicon, usa), anti-trkb polyclonal antibodies (1:1000 dilution in 3% bsa, chemicon, usa), ngf polyclonal antibodies (1:1000 dilution in 3% bsa, chemicon, usa) and anti-trka polyclonal antibodies (1:400 dilution in 3% bsa, santa cruz, usa) overnight at 4°c. anti-β-actin monoclonal antibody (1:10000 dilution in 3% bsa, sigma, usa) was used as the internal control. membranes were washed three times in tbst and incubated with hrp-conjugated anti-sheep igg (1:1000) for 2 hours at room temperature. immuno-reactive bands were visualized using the enhanced chemilumines-cence (ecl) [santa cruz, c.a, usa]. the optical density value (od) of each band was analyzed with the biology electrophoresis image analysis system (smartview 2001, s/n: sv-0002202, japan). the expression of bdnf, ngf trkb, and trka were determined by calculating the optical density ratio of each band to β-actin protein. 2.4. quantitative evaluation of bdnf and ngf levels by sandwich elisa: endogenous bdnf and ngf levels were measured in hippocampus using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay kit according to the manufacturer instructions (chemicon,usa). hippocampus were immediately extracted by the previous method. rabbit polyclonal antibodies generated against human bdnf and ngf were coated onto two separate microplates and were used to capture bdnf and ngf respectively from the samples. bdnf specific, biotin conjugated, mouse monoclonal antibodies were used to detect the captured bdnf and ngf specific, biotin conjugated, mouse monoclonal antibodies were used to detect the captured ngf separately. after addition of streptavidin-enzyme, substrate and stop solution the amount of bdnf and ngf were determined. the standard curve demonstrates a direct relationship between optical density (od) as well as bdnf and ngf concentrations: i.e., the higher the od the higher the bdnf and ngf concentrations in the samples. the amount of bdnf and ngf were determined by absorbance in 450 nm (tecan infinite m200). a standard curve was produced and it ranged from 7.8 to 500pg/ml of bdnf and ngf. these curves were obtained from a direct relationship between optical density and neurotrophins’ concentrations. total protein concentration was measured by lowry’s method using bovine serum albumin (bsa) as a standard. 2.5. isolation of total mrna from the hippocampus and rt-pcr hippocampal tissues were isolated from all subjects. total mrna was extracted from the 50-100 mg hippocampus according to the instructions of trizol kit (invitrogen, usa). bdnf, ngf, trkb, and trk a mrna in each extraction were determined by real timepolymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr). gapdh, used as an internal control, was co-amplified with bdnf, ngf, trkb, and trk a mrnas. the primers were designed by augct-technology company (beijing, china) according to the serial number from genebank as follows: bdnf: 5’attaggtggcttcataggagac-3’(sense) and 5’-gaacagaacagaacagaacagg3’(antisense); trk b: 5’-tctctcggtctatgccgtggtgg-3’(sense) and 5’tccaggcacttcctcgttcagt-3’(antisense); ngf: 5’ agcgtaatgtccatgttgttctac-3’(sense) and 5’-tgctatctgtgtacggttctgc3’(antisense); trk a: 5’-cttgcgccgcatcctgtcgt-3’ (sense) and 5’gcaggccgcggagggtattc-3’ (antisense) and gapdh: 5’ttgccatcaatgaccccttca-3’ (sense) and 5’-cgccccacttgattttgga-3’ (antisense). r. banerjee, a. k. ghosh, b. ghosh, somnath bhattacharya & amal c. mondal suicide: neurochemical approaches 101 the pcr products were observed after electrophoresis on 1.2% agarose gel and the density of each band was analyzed on the gel image analysis system (smartview 2001, s/n: sv0002202, japan). the level of the mrna was determined by calculating the density ratio of each band of bdnf, trkb, ngf and trk a mrna to gapdh mrna. 2.6 statistical analysis the statistical package for the social science (spss) 15.0 was utilized for statistical analyses. all data are expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean (sem) of n subjects, and have been statistically analyzed with the student’s ttest. p values less than 0.001 were considered statistically significant. 3. results and discussion 3.1 comparison of protein levels of bdnf, trkb, ngf and trka between normal control subjects and suicide victims in the hippocampus the molecular weights of bdnf, trkb, ngf, trka and β-actin were 14 kda, 145 kda, 13.5 kda, 140 kda and 46 kda, respectively. the expression levels of bdnf, ngf, trkb, and trka proteins were normalized against the β-actin protein level, which was used as an internal control. the results showed that the expression of bdnf, ngf, trkb and trka in the hippocampus decreased significantly in the suicide subjects when compared to the control subjects (p<0.05, figure 1). figure 1. representative bands of western blot showing the protein levels of bdnf, trk b, ngf and trk a in hippocampus of suicide subjects and normal controls. data are the mean ± s.d. hippocampus samples were from 19 normal controls and 21 suicide subjects 3.2. comparison of quantitative values of bdnf and ngf between normal control subjects and suicide victims in the hippocampus among the suicidal victims bdnf and ngf levels were significantly reduced in the hippocampus compared to normal control subjects (tbdnf =5.43; df=18; p<0.001; tngf =6.13; df=18; p<0.001 figure 2). such observations clearly indicate the relation of chronic mental depression and hippocampal neurotrophin levels. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 102 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 neurotrophin le ve ls in hippocam pus (pg/m l) bdnf ngf control subjects suicide subjects figure 2. hippocampal bdnf and ngf levels of suicide subjects and normal controls. data are the mean ± s.d. hippocampus samples were from 19 normal controls and 21 suicide subjects 3.3 comparison of mrna levels of bdnf, trkb, ngf and trka between normal control subjects and suicide victims in the hippocampus the lengths of bdnf, ngf, trkb, trka and gapdh amplified fragments were 178 bp, 199 bp, 79 bp, 96 bp and 173 bp respectively and the bands were clear (figure 3). the levels of bdnf, ngf, trkb, and trka mrna and were normalized against gapdh mrna levels as an internal control. compared with the control group, the levels of bdnf, ngf trkb and trka mrna reduced in suicide subjects and the differences were statistically significant (p<0.05). 3.4 correlation between protein and mrna levels of bdnf, ngf, trkb, and trka to examine whether the decreases in protein levels of neurotrophins were associated with their respective mrna levels, we correlated mrna and protein levels of neurotrophins in the combined control and suicide groups. interestingly, we observed a significant correlation between mrna and protein levels of bdnf (r=0.38, p< 0.001), trkb (r=0.42, p<0.001), ngf(r=0.42, p<0.001) and trka (r=0.52, p<0.001) in hippocampus. using human-specific antibodies, we compared protein levels of neurotrophins and their cognitive receptors in the hippocampal regions in normal control subjects and suicide subjects. we observed that protein levels of bdnf, ngf, trkb and trka were similar within hippocampus of all control subjects. in parallel observations the present results also showed similar findings on mrna levels of these neurotrophins and their respective receptors in hippocampus, determined quantitatively with human-specific primers by real time pcr. in contrast, when we compared neurotrophin levels and their respective receptors status between suicide victims and normal control subjects, we observed significant differences in all suicide victims. both protein and mrna levels of bdnf, ngf, trkb, and trka were significantly decreased in hippocampus of suicide victims as compared with normal control subjects. the changes in neurotrophins and their receptors levels were not correlated with gender, ph of the brain, pmi, or age (results are not shown here). our present study, provides the evidence for the first time that two major neurotrophins bdnf and ngf along with their cognitive trkb and trka receptors are not only less expressed in their protein levels but also their transcription levels are also compromised in postmortem brains of suicide subjects as evident from the mrna studies of the present experiment. r. banerjee, a. k. ghosh, b. ghosh, somnath bhattacharya & amal c. mondal suicide: neurochemical approaches 103 figure 3. representative gel electrophoreses showing the mrna levels of bdnf, trk b, ngf and trk a in hippocampus of suicide subjects and normal controls. data are the mean ± s.d. hippocampus samples were from 19 normal controls and 21 suicide subjects 4. conclusion different regions of the brain play a major role in mood regulation and have been implicated in the pathophysiology of affective disorders and suicide [4]. mainly the hippocampus is involved in cognition [7] and is the primary brain area affected by stress [8], one of the major factors in suicidal behavior [4]. therefore, in the present study, the observed decreases in the levels of neurotrophins in hippocampus might be of relevance in suicidal behavior. interestingly, structural abnormalities in cortical and hippocampal brain areas and reduced hippocampal plasticity have been demonstrated in affective disorder patients and during stress [9-12]. some studies even suggest structural abnormalities in brain of suicide victims [13]. the reduced expression of neurotrophins assayed, in the present experiments, could possibly be associated with such structural abnormalities and reduced hippocampal plasticity. interestingly, we observed an unique parallel decrease of the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 4, issues 1-4, october 2013, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 104 mrna and protein levels of bdnf, ngf, trkb and trka in hippocampus of suicide victims. this suggests that the decrease in amount of these neurotrophins and their cognitive receptors could be due to reduced transcription. a number of studies suggest that neurotrophins are regulated in response to stress [14-15]. whether stress might have affected the levels of neurotrophins in the brain of the suicide victims in our cohort is not clear; however, such a possibility cannot be ruled out, because there is a strong relationship between stress and suicidal behavior, and a dysregulated stress system has been demonstrated in suicide victims [16]. the precise mechanisms are still to be elucidated; however, our findings of decreased levels of bdnf and ngf in suicide might be of relevance to its pathophysiology of depression. acknowledgments this work was financially supported by grants from serc [sr/so/hs-57/2008] (dst), govt. of india. references [1] david s. suicide in india south asian connection. portal for south asian christians . 2009. [2] westrin a. stress system alterations and mood disorders in suicidal patients. biomed pharmacother. 2000; 54:142-145. [3] mcallister ak. neurotrophins and neuronal differentiation in the central nervous system. cell mol life sci. 2001; 58:1054 –1060. [4] banerjee r, ghosh ak, ghosh b, bhattacharya s, mondal ac. reduced expression profile of neurotrophins and their cognitive receptors in the hippocampal region of postmortem suicidal brain. nerve. 2012; 1(1):13-17. [5] thoenen h. neurotrophins and activity-dependent plasticity. prog brain res. 2000; 128:183– 191. [6] huang ej, reichardt lf. neurotrophins: roles in neuronal development and function. annu rev neurosci. 2001; 24:677–736. [7] sweatt jd. hippocampal function in cognition. psychopharmacology 2004; 174:99 –110. [8] sala m, perez j, soloff p, ucelli di nemi s, caverzasi e, soares jc, brambilla p. stress and hippocampal abnormalities in psychiatric disorders. eur neuropsychopharmacol. 2004; 14:393– 405. [9] macqueen gm, campbell s, mcewen bs, macdonald k, amano s, joffe rt, et al. course of illness, hippocampal function, and hippocampal volume in major depression. proc natl acad sci u s a 2003; 100:1387–1392. [10] miguel-hidalgo jj, rajkowska g. morphological brain changes in depression: can antidepressants reverse them? cns drugs. 2002; 16:361–372. [11] rajkowska g. histopathology of the prefrontal cortex in major depression: what does it tell us about dysfunctional monoaminergic circuits? prog brain res. 2000; 126:397– 412. [12] sheline yi, gado mh, kraemer hc. untreated depression and hippocampal volume loss. am j psychiatry. 2003; 160:1516 –1518. [13] gould e, tanapat p, rydel t, hastings n. regulation of hippocampal neurogenesis in adulthood. biol psychiatry. 2000; 48:715–720. [14] alfonso j, pollevick gd, van der hart mg, flugge g, fuchs e, frasch ac. identification of genes regulated by chronic psychosocial stress and antidepressant treatment in the hippocampus. eur j neurosci. 2004; 19:659– 666. [15] scaccianoce s, lombardo k, angelucci l. nerve growth factor brain concentration and stress: changes depend on type of stressor and age. int dev neurosci. 2000; 18:469–479. [16] hiroi n, wong ml, licinio j, park c, young m, gold pw, et al. expression of corticotropin releasing hormone receptors type i and type ii mrna in suicide victims and controls. mol psychiatry. 2001; 6:540 –546. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 93 assessment of the contributions and psychological damages of technology to the education at schools by the individuals in these schools behcet öznacar faculty of education, near east university nicosia, northern cyprus yakın doğu blv, lefkoşa, tel.: +90 392 223 64 64 behcet.oznacar@neu.edu.tr abstract the technology and innovations that it has provided have begun to show their effect on education too as in all other fields of life. benefiting from the technological innovations in the field of education in developing world will increase students’ compliance to the changing life conditions. besides that, individuals who have learnt to use technology accurately and productively during their education period will have a set of differences from other individuals in their future life thanks to technology, information and the skills that they will bring in. in this context, this research has been conducted to understand the opinions of administrators, teachers, and parents for the use of technology and to see how much the use of technology is integrated into the system in schools. keywords: school, education, technology, safety of technology, technological education 1. introduction technology is being used in all aspects of life in the current century, while education has an important place for people to improve themselves in all fields and so as they could work in order to survive. of course, education in itself will not provide any advantage to people. however, people can exceed their limits by unifying education and skills and so, they can separate themselves from other individuals. it has become an inevitable end that individuals use technology in all fields besides that. the fact that technology is functional, it is shared and spread over and used in all our life shows how much the use of technology is important in the education field (şişman & i̇zmirli 2012). the importance of technology use in the educational environment increases day by day. in such cases, the school executives taking the lead in the schools where they work as administrative support is very important not only for the efficient use of technology in the integration of teaching and learning activities while managing the school during such a process, but also in the matter of using information and communication technologies as in all other fields. for this reason, school executives should give up the traditional management approach as soon as possible, and they should be the ones who make peace with technology and help others use it and make it indispensable in their own life (bülbül & çühadar 2012). besides that, teachers, students and also parents should embrace technology together with education. it is regarded to be inevitable that technology which is spreading and developing rapidly in our day to integrate with education as in all other fields. human resources should be used effectively and efficiently, equal opportunities should be provided to everyone in the education field and educational technologies should be used in classrooms in order to meet both expectations and demands of the society to give quality educational services to people in today’s world in consideration of the necessity of educational technology (çakır & yıldırım, 2009). the educational technology is denominated as a complicated process analyzing the problems including the aspects of individuals’ learning phenomenon in an organized way and setting forward all related factors, developing, applying, assessing and managing innovations in order to bring solutions for these (yalın, 2014). educational technology in general sense means benefiting from technology productions and technological services in the education field (şahna & başay, 2013). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 94 the place of technology within education grows day by day in order to fulfill the targets of education in an increasing way; besides that, education technology is an important emerging discipline with regard to developing the quality as well as quantity of learning (helvacı, 2008). the definition of instructional technology “applying systematic information obtained in scientific researches into practical fields” has been approved (yalın, 2014). according to another definition, education technology can be defined as systematic design, application and assessment of learning and teaching process in terms of its all specified special targets by using both human and pecuniary resource based on the researches related to learning and communication in order to provide a more effective education (yalın, 2002). 2. method 2.1. design / model of research the qualitative research design will be used in this research. the qualitative research has seven basic features, these are: susceptibility to the natural environment, participant role of the researcher, entirety approach, bringing up perceptions, flexibility in research design, inductive analysis and qualitative data, and it is defined as the research in which qualitative data collection techniques like observation, negotiation and document analysis are used (yıldırım & şimşek, 2013). it is aimed in this study to determine the views of administrators, teachers, and parents who are important stakeholders in education on the benefits and damages of technology use in schools. for this reason, the phenomenology design which is one of the qualitative research designs has been used in the research. 2.2. study group 40 shareholders were selected at primary and secondary education levels from both private and state schools in trnc while determining the study group in this research. more information and data will be obtained regarding the issue by the assessment of all shareholders’ ideas in common ground. 2.3. development of data collection tool this research was conducted as a qualitative research method based case study. the qualitative research has seven basic features, these are: susceptibility to the natural environment, participant role of the researcher, entirety approach, bringing up perceptions, flexibility in research design, inductive analysis and qualitative data, and it is defined as the research in which qualitative data collection technics like observation, negotiation and document analysis are used (yıldırım & şimşek, 2013). 2.4. data collection in this research, the qualitative research method and the interview technique that was composed of standardized open-ended questions with regard to structure were used because of their accordance with the scope of the research. before preparing data collection tool, the idea of experts was received about whether this technic was appropriate or not and it was believed that this technique would be appropriate. diminishing the effect of the researcher on the research was taken as the main objective by asking the same type of questions to the same participants in the standardized open-ended interview. even though the questions have been remarked clearly, the researcher has the right to ask additional questions in order to deepen the questions beyond the answers (yıldırım & şimsek, 2013). the “assessment form of school shareholders regarding benefits and damages of technology use” which consisted of open-ended questions aimed for determining the views of all stakeholders (administrators, teachers, and parents) in schools in relation to both benefits and damages of technology use. similar studies that were conducted in the field or other fields were b. öznacar assessment of the contributions and psychological damages of technology to the education at schools by the individuals in these schools 95 investigated while developing this form, and the questions were determined by being organized accordingly with the subject, importance and objective of this research. in order to ensure the internal validity of the interview form, some questions were removed from interview form questions list or unified due to their similarities upon being investigated by three lecturers. 2.5. coding of analysis one of the most commonly used methods in qualitative data analysis is the content analysis method. the content analysis is a method used in analyzing the written and visual data as well. the written records that were obtained were transferred to computer media by using microsoft office word 2016 program. later on, the following range was followed to analyze the data (kishore, agrawal and rao, 2005). the qualitative data analysis nvivo 11.0 has been used in grouping and coding in categories the data that was obtained from the research. thanks to nvivo 11.0 program, the content could easily be coded, and complex knowledge was arranged easily. the data obtained in the direction of detected objectives in the research was preferred to be investigated upon being digitized. quantification of qualitative data is the process to quantify the data by going through several processes. these processes include putting into numbers the data obtained in printed form by way of interview, observation, and document examination (yıldırım & şimşek, 2008). 2.6. validity and reliability using methods appropriate to fair and moral principles from the point where a researcher conducts literature review with regard to the research subject to the path that he/she follows till it covers the whole research is indispensable for a research. in this study, attention is paid to provide a healthy communication in which participants could express their ideas openly during the interview. in this way, the necessary conditions were supplied to the participants to express themselves comfortably. all sections that were quoted regarding the research were cited. furthermore, the situations which do not comply with ethics such as plagiarism, falsification and slicing on no account are welcomed. besides that, after the whole thesis was written, it was checked completely by using similarity test on a computer environment and it was checked that the thesis was written accordingly with ethical principles. 3. findings this section of the research includes the findings emerging as a result of the analysis of data obtained through appropriate statistical method and interpretations of such data in order to answer the sub-problems of the research and explain demographic information of the sampling group. table 1. do you approve the use of technology in educational system and institutions can you share your ideas on this issue with me? administrator teacher parents total theme f % f % f % % the use of technology in schools is a right step for students to catch up with developing world. it would be a mistake if it were not the use of technology in today’s conditions. as long as effective area and system of technology use is planned accurately, it will be beneficial. 8 %80 10 %50 2 %20 %50 5 %50 5 %25 5 %50 %37,5 9 %90 7 %35 9 %90 %25 as it can be seen in table 1, the common view of all shareholders taking place in educational system is that technology should be integrated into educational system, and this system brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 96 should act in accordance with developing technology. the stress pointing the necessity of arranging the use of technology in educational system accurately and in a planned way can be seen clearly in table 1. table 2. do you think that training of students together with technology is an advantage or disadvantage for them can you share your ideas on this issue with me? administrator teacher parents total theme f % f % f % % development and learning of students in company with technology will contribute them to be ready and have the necessary qualification for business world. technology use of students in institutions where the technology cannot be controlled may turn into disadvantage. control and accurate use of technology can be deemed as advantage as it will bring different viewpoints and skills to students during their education. 6 %60 5 %25 4 %40 %37,5 3 %30 7 % 35 7 %70 %42,5 7 %70 14 %70 2 %20 %57,5 in table 2 it can be seen there is the idea that students who will sustain their educational life in conjunction with technology for the first time will start their life more readily and advantageous than other students due to being within technology age. however, we can see also in table 2 that there is technology control and its negative aspects that would influence students and some ideas pointing that precautions should be taken for such cases. table 3. what do you think about psychological effects of technology on students can you share your ideas on this issue with me? administrator teacher parents total theme f % f % f % % in cases where technology cannot be controlled it is possible that students are abused and psychologically damaged. it can be observed tendency towards violence in students who are not supplied with accurate use of technology due to violent access. the psychology of user based on accurate use of technology could be developed in a way to relieve and make them feel powerful. 8 %80 18 %90 7 % 70 %82,5 5 %50 15 %75 2 %20 %55 9 %90 19 %95 10 %100 %95 it can be seen in table 3 that the use of technology is a threat for abuse incidents that show up later and it is felt in this field. the results like abuse of, exposure of children to the violence or tendency on violence through technology which is not used accurately and safely could come about are among the common views of the participants. besides that, it can be seen that another view which is common among participants is that students’ self-confidence will increase as a result of some improvements such as they may find new things, new ideas on condition that technology is used accurately and in a controlled manner. b. öznacar assessment of the contributions and psychological damages of technology to the education at schools by the individuals in these schools 97 table 4. is technology used in schools accurately and suitably can you share your ideas on this issue with me? administrator teacher parents total theme f % f % f % % there should be taken steps that will integrate technology in lessons and where students will be more active. technology should be dealt not only as a tool for lecturing but also as the content of courses. as we do not have sufficient sub structure and equipment, we cannot make use of technology precisely. teachers should also be taken under several trainings on the issue of accurate use and quality training. 7 %70 15 %75 3 %30 %70 4 %40 10 %50 4 %40 %45 3 %30 12 %55 3 %30 %47,5 8 %80 18 %45 4 %40 %75 as it can be seen in table 4, there is the common view of participants pointing out that they want the contents of courses to be in a way that students could use technology more actively and the technology to be used more effectively not only during lectures but also in the application of the courses. in addition, the lack of substructure and equipment for the use of technology are pronounced to be the biggest problems. using technology actively in schools where there is not any equipment is out of the question. except that, the question is that there should be initiations on providing training by using technology for both teachers and administrators in order that teachers could have the quality of providing a good education with technology and become good users of technology. table 5. should technology use be expanded in schools can you share your ideas on this issue with me? administrator teacher parents total theme f % f % f % % the use of technology as well as its training should be expanded as it is a necessity of the societies and the developing world. the use of technology should not be necessarily spread. 10 %100 20 %100 10 %100 %100 as it can be seen in table 5, the view that technology use should be spread in educational system absolutely is a common point among participants. 4. discussion and result several training methods have been applied in the educational system in different ways from past to present day. nevertheless, the educational system should also take its share of opportunities provided in such a time where the use of technology has gained much importance and that technology occupies an important place in every field of life. the first thing that students will encounter after they finish their schools is their examination with technology. the skills of using technology and revealing a number of ideas and products by using technology is an important issue that should be taught to students during their education. integrating such an educational system in schools may create a system that will provide important advantages for students. the technology used in schools may contribute to students in accessing knowledge equally with the rest of the world and to think differently. however, the situations that may lead to student abuse should be prevented while using technology. the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 98 necessary precautions against such cases should be taken by the administrators, teachers, and parents. first of all, the administrators should be informed about such issues then teachers and finally parents. in this way, the students who are intended to be equipped with the necessary training and consciousness could be equipped with awareness regarding such issues when they observe their own parents at home too. at the same time, when we take a look into the research findings, we can see the domination of the idea that technology should be increased gradually in schools and educational system as the common view of administrators, teachers and parents. a place where there is no technology has become almost unimaginable within developing and changing world conditions, and the educational system cannot escape that. what is important here is to provide a more reliable and accurate training of technology, and allow students learn by being protected. finally, i recommend other researchers who want to conduct similar studies to conduct their researches by dealing with the students in respect to the topic of this research. moreover, i recommend them to investigate the topic from the viewpoint of the students. i also recommend that they conduct studies in different dimensions by taking into consideration the results obtained from similar researches as well as this research and the studies that will contribute to the development of individuals. references: bülbül t,. ve çühaldar c,.(2012). okul yöneticilerinin teknoloji liderliği öz-yeterlik algıları ile bilgi ve i̇letişim teknolojilerine yönelik kabulleri arasındaki i̇lişkinin i̇ncelenmesi mehmet akif ersoy üniversitesi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, yıl 12, sayı 23, haziran 2012, 474 – 499. çakır, r,. ve yıldırım s,.(2009). bilgisayar öretmenleri okullardaki teknoloji entegrasyonu hakkında ne düşünürler : i̇lköğretim online, 8(3), 952-964, 2009. [online]: http://ilkogretim-online.org.tr. helvacı, m.(2008). okul yöneticilerinin teknolojiye karşı tutumlarının i̇ncelenmesi ankara üniversitesi eğitim bilimleri fakültesi dergisi, yıl: 2008, cilt: 41, sayı: 1, 115-133 kishore, r., agrawal, m., rao, h.r., (2005). determinants of sourcing during technology growth and maturity, california state university, canada şahna s., başbay a., (2013). i̇lköğretim bilişim teknolojileri dersinde karşılaşılan sorunlar, i̇lköğretim online, 12(2), 367-382, 2013. [online]: http://ilkogretim-online.org.tr 9/4/2016 tarihinde saat saat 02:15de alınmıştır. şişman, e,. ve i̇zmirli ö,.(2012). kuram ve uygulamada eğitim bilimleri • educational sciences: theory & practice 12(4) güz/autumn 2861-2888 ©2012 eğitim danışmanlığı ve araştırmaları i̇letişim hizmetleri. yalın, i̇.(2002). öğretim teknolojileri materyal geliştirme nobel yayınları 6. baskı yalın, i̇.(2014). öğretim teknolojileri materyal geliştirme nobel yayıncılık 27. basım yıldırım, a. ve şimşek h,.(2013). sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri 9. baskı seçkin yayıncılık yildirim, s. (2007). current utilization of ict in turkish basic education schools: a review of teacher's ict use and barriers to integration. international journal of instructional media, 34(2) 171-186. 84 can facebook help you become mayor? case study: bacău, 2016 monica pătruţ faculty of letters, vasile alecsandri university of bacau, romania monicapatrut@yahoo.com abstract: cleverly used in political communication, facebook helps candidates to raise their visibility, to directly communicate with the citizens and involve them in creating virtual communities and content in order to virally promote political messages. in our study we briefly present the way in which facebook was used, timidly at first, in the election campaign of bacau from 2012 and 2016. the importance of the social media during the local elections in this city has slowly but surly increased. in 2012, the presence on facebook was only an oportunity, much less exploited than television or newspapers. in 2016 all the candidates created their campaign online, some of them exclusively on this social network. however, the success of the 2.0 mayor is not based only on using the social network as (an alternative) news channel, but rather on establishing a bidirectional link and a constant interaction with virtual friends. keywords: political communication, election campaign, social media, bacau, 2016. 1. social media – introductory concepts after having been, for many years, a one-way road, the internet has nowadays turned into an interactive environment that allows users not only to consume information passively but also to generate it. thousands of users are involved in creating the online encyclopedia wikipedia, writing blogs, exchanging video materials, music or photos, collaborating, communicating, commenting, evaluating etc. the users’ goal is no longer consumption, but generation and distribution of new contents, the newly arrived concept being that of participatory web (decrem, 2006). this allows for new forms of social interaction and communication organized directly by the users via blogs and social networks. social communication of the type “a few producing for the many” has been replaced with the “many to many” type of communication, the final result being the creation of a virtual network of people connected on a social and global level (meckel, 2008, p. 17). participatory web or web 2.0 is defined as a “structure of participation”, a new service that allows the creation of technical and social relations based on knowledge or friendship (o’reilly, 2005, p. 30), or a “new form of communicative self-organization” (meckel, 2008, p. 17). with a global coverage scope, being interactive and integrating all the other communication environments, generating a “mass self-communication” (castells, 2009, p. 65), the internet has been rediscovered in the web 2.0 stage and, being an agent of social interaction, changed our culture for ever. the table below illustrates a comparison between web 2.0 and web 1.0 (the early years of the world wide web) insisting upon its potential of stimulating social interaction. if web 1.0 means creating a simpler world to send information and draw advertisors, web 2.0 means creating a collective intelligence, some collaborative networks, and it involves the users participation (castel ls, 2009, p.136). table 1. comparison between web 1.0 and web 2.0 (müller & schumann, 2011) web 1.0 web 2.0 “i am online” “we are the internet” webmaster community consumer prosumer (producer & consumer) research-buy express-connect-share interconnected contents interconnected people preexisting contents user-generated contents read-web read/write-web m. pătruţ can facebook help you become mayor? case study: bacău, 2016 85 web 2.0 is the platform needed for the evolution of social media. it allows for the creation of virtual links among users, with social, commercial, political, educational and cultural applicability. by using communication, social media builds communities, creates and distributes information. social media may take on several forms, including internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis and podcasts, videos, photos, social bookmarking. social media is built on three key-elements: the content created by the user, the communities and the web 2.0 technologies (ahlqvist, bäck, halonen & heinonen, 2008, pp. 13-14). heinonen & halonen (2007, p. 6) define social media as tools, spaces and operating modes for the people who interact with each other, create, share, change and comment on the contents of virtual communities and social networks. kaplan & haenlein (2010, p. 61) define social media as “a group of online applications which grow on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0 and which allow creating and changing the content produced by the users.” in the social media, the information becomes accessible, the users are not mere consumers, but also producers of content, and this fact contributes to the democratization of knowledge. according to kaplan & haenlein (2010), there are six different types of social media: collaborative projects, (micro) blogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds and virtual social worlds. table 2 presents their classification according to the two dimensions. the dimension social presence/media richness stems from media research. social presence refers to the intimacy and immediacy of a medium, where higher social presence implies a larger influence that communication partners have on each other’s behavior, while media richness means the amount of information transmitted in a given time period (kaplan & haenlein 2010, p. 61). the second dimension is that consisting of the social processes of self-presentation and selfdisclosure. self-presentation refers to people’s desire to present themselves and control other’s impressions of them, while self-disclosure is “the conscious or unconscious revelation of personal information” (kaplan & haenlein 2010, p. 62). table 2. classification of social media by social presence/media richness and self-presentation /self-disclosure social presence / media richness low medium high self presentation / self disclosure high blogs social networking sites (e.g., facebook) virtual social worlds (e.g., second life) low collaborative projects (e.g., wikipedia) content communities (e.g., youtube) virtual game worlds (e.g., world of warcraft) (kaplan, haenlein, 2010, p. 62) kietzmann, hermkens, mccarthy & silvestre (2011, 241-251) believe that in the middle of social media is the complexity of the digital identity of the users, which is more or less revealed by each user. the central identity block is consolidated by the six peripheral blocks which this way also emphasise the functions exercised by the users: 1) presence the extent to which the users can find out whether there are also other available/present users online; 2) sharing –the way through which the users exchange, receive/generate and share content; 3) relationships – the extent to which the users refer to each other; 4) reputation – the extent to which the users are familiar with the social status of other users and with the content these other users generate; 5) groupsthe users adhere to and the criteria/values according to which these groups or online communities are constituted; 6) conversation or the extent to which the users communicate to each other. 2. romanian political communication on facebook – a very short presentation with the advent of facebook the political actor may present himself not only as a competent, unique character that is, more or less, similar to and/or distinct from his future voters, but especially as the center of a world. the social network facebook consists of nodes that are, in fact, its brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 86 members. for the political actor, it is vital that he should be a central node, a node with as many connections and as many friends as possible. the larger is the number of connections in the virtual environment, the higher his social status and social importance (dalsgaard, 2008, p. 11). the political actor, the great man, has to display his social capital in the virtual space and insist on presenting the size of the social network that he can turn to for “help”. the large number of friendssupporters may be interpreted as a sign of people’s support and sympathy, and the electoral race may be won through the quantitative dimension of facebook also. between the 2nd and 16th of november, victor ponta had 718 199 fans, and iohannis 874,844, in the case of both candidates the fans being mainly from romania and from the countries in which there are romanian communities (pătruț, 2015, p.130). facebook fragmented the virtual space and the romanian candidates isolating themselves according to ideology, thus the online channel operated less as a platform for debate, but more as a political pr tool (momoc, 2013, pp. 440-442). even if some romanian politicians entered the virtual game, they interacted less with their online friends. in 2012, local and parliamentary elections took place in romania. in both campaigns, the candidates used social media to launch self-promoting messages and attacking topics, to rally supporters to vote and to avoid uncomfortable debates in the election campaign (pătruţ & pătruţ, 2013, pp.429-430; pătruţ, 2013, pp.285-287). the parties and their political actors, in their chase for victory and for preserving the power, use facebook as an effective advertiser or as a discoursive battlefield for users who are paid by the party to post. in this emotional environment sometimes the citizens or communities of citizens who are indignated by the abuses committed by the political power intervene as well. in the virtual society, the emotion is quickly spread at national or global level and, as dâncu (2015, p.309) appreciates, it is created an aching emotional community, shifting from a democracy of opinion to a democracy of emotion. the romanian electors went to vote more out of the indignation against the poor organization of the elections in diaspora in 2014. 3. using facebook in local election campaign (bacău, 2016) 3.1. from a difficult debut (bacău, 2012) ... its first timid uses took place during the electoral campaign for the 2008 romanian parliamentary elections (pătruţ, 2011; pătruţ, 2012) and for the 2009 & 2014 presidential elections (aparaschivei, 2011; bosoteanu, 2012; holotescu et al., 2011, pătruț, 2014). in the local elections of bacau, the first election showdown on facebook took place in 2012 from 11 may until 7 june. although a number of 10 candidates signed up for that electoral competition, only 3 of them were actually present on facebook (c1-romeo stavarache from the national liberal party, c2-cristian manolache from the ecologist party of romania, and c3the independent candidate dumitru sechelariu) and were included in the study made then (pătruţ m, pătruţ b, 2013, pp. 420430). during the election campaign of 2012, the candidate most active on facebook was c3 with 63 posts, followed by c1 with 12 posts, and c2 with 10 posts. candidate c3 posted 4 photos taken during the elections campaign and an advertising material, 16 links to his personal site and 38 to youtube, to the recordings of all the election debates and shows that he had taken part in. c3 also posted 2 announcements about his future media appearances and 2 links to the newspaper hosting his spoken speeches. the other two candidates posted on facebook campaign photos and an advertising material each, links to their personal sites or future media appearances, sent greetings to friends on the 1st of june, child’s day. the three candidates running for mayor of bacău used their facebook accounts, firstly, as vehicles that allowed them to (self)promote themselves by means of acclamations (c192 %, c2 72%, c381%),secondly, to attack their counter-candidates (c13%, c223%, c319%) and thirdly, to defend themselves (c15%, c25%). as expected, posts dealt mostly with politics (80% the average of the three candidates) and less with character. for chapter character, what mattered m. pătruţ can facebook help you become mayor? case study: bacău, 2016 87 more were the candidates’ leadership skills and personal qualities. personal skills were highlighted to a very small degree (c12%, c24%, c35%). a large number of materials were posted on the facebook pages during (pre)elections and an extremely small number once the campaign was over (c12 materials, c2 and c3, 1 material each). practically, our candidates are interested in direct communication with the voters in the virtual environment especially during the elections campaign, this practice becoming less attractive once the campaign is over (pătruţ m, pătruţ b, 2013, pp. 430433). 3.2. ... to the easiest communication channel chosen by the candidates (bacău, 2016) 3.2.1. the political-virtual context the election campaign for the mayoralty of the city of bacau unfolded between 6 may 2016 – 4 june 2016. the candidates who signed up for winning the mayor’s seat were the following: cosmin neculathe social democratic party (noted with c1 in our paper), romeo stavarache – independent candidate (the current mayor, noted with c2 in our paper), dragos luchian – the national liberal party (c3), cristinel manolache – the romanian social patry (psro) (c4), dragos daniel stefan – the alliance of liberals and democrats alde (c5) , claudiu dorneanu – m10 (c6), emil melinte –independent candidate (c7), cristian ghingheş –independent candidate, constantin scripat – people’s movement party. the last two candidates, although active in the virtual environment using their personal facebook accounts, were not included in our study, because we did not have statistical data on their activity on facebook during the election campaign. in the city of bacau 57.583 electors voted yesterday, the turnout was of 34,69%. the county election bureau of bacau announced the following results obtained by the candidates: cosmin necula -35,38% of the number of votes, cristinel manolache (psro): 16,44%, dragos luchian (pnl): 16,16%, romeo stavarache (independent candidate): 10,51%, cristian ghinghes (independent candidate): 7,31%, constantin scripat (pmp): 5,25%, dragos stefan (alde): 4,07%, emil melinte (independent candidate): 2,82% and claudiu dorneanu (m10): 2,06%. facebrands.ro, the service which monitors the activity of the facebook pages in romaina, offers the following data on the users from bacau that had a facebook account in the year of the local elections: 120.040 (52,59% women, 47,1% men), 1,30% of the total romanian users. according to the age indicator, the data is extremely interesting for the candidates in bacau: only 10,43% of the users are under 18 years old, while the rest of 89,57% of the users are adults, citizens with the legal right to vote. 3.2.2. how can facebook help you become mayor? starting from the literature existent in the aria of online political communication (gibson & ward, 2000; foot & schneider, 2006; lilleker et al., 2011), a candidate is advised by his election campaign advisors to unfold an activity that should be as intense as possible in the virtual environment. the candidate informs his electorate about the governing program or campaign activity especially through social media, being permanently connected to the network of his supporters, whom he can mobilize to participate to the campaign and to generate favourable content. in our study dedicated to the activities unfolded on facebook by the candidates for the mayoralty of bacau we will try to offer answers to the following research questions: rq 1was facebook used by the candidates in order to increase their number of virtual supporters/ fans – possible electors? rq 2was facebook used as tool of interactive communication with fans or internet users? rq 3what kind of materials do candidates post on facebook during the election campaign? after creating the public facebook profile, the political actor involved in the election campaign aims to build the portrait of a leader, creating authentic and transparent content and offering his connected fans valuable and interesting information about his political experience and future political projects. the number of people who like the candidate’s page represents a keyindicator which shows the health/vitality of the political actor’s facebook page. fan reach corresponds to the number of fans of page who have seen any given post (ernoult, 2013). http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/author/emericernoult/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 88 figure 1. the number of virtual fans of the candidates’ pages at the beginning and at the ending of the election campaign by offering an answer to the first research question, we notice that all the seven candidates enrolled in the election race managed, in different proportions, to increase their number of facebook page fans. the greatest performance is registered by c1, who manages to gain 614 fans during the campaign, followed by c4 with 314 fans, and by c6 with 184 more fans than he had at the beginning of the campaign. the increases registered by the other candidates were modest, almost insignificant. interactivity is specific to the web 2.0 era and it is the key to an authentic symmetrical and bilateral communication between the current political actor and his fans. on facebook we can measure interactivity in two ways: from user to user and from user to document (tedesco 2007, p.1187). while the first form of interactivity involves sharing different posts from a member of the social network to another, the second one involves liking and commenting on posts/ documents available on the social network. both types of interactivity manage to show the implication/ engagement of the virtual friends in the process of communication with the political actor. the interactivity or the engagement rate offers a clearer and more realistic image on the political actor’s presence on facebook. engagement is “the number of people who clicked anywhere in your post. this includes liking, commenting and sharing and people who’ve viewed your video or clicked on your links and photos. and it also includes people who’ve clicked on a commenter’s name, liked a comment, clicked on your page name and even gave negative feedback by reporting your post” (ernoult, 2013). the number of the engaged users is the number of the unique users who interacted with the analysed page within a certain amount of time. it is a clearer indicator than the number of fans, because the number of fans does not guarantee the exposure to the messages on the page, while these engaged users are users who really did interact with the page, on one hand being engaged in the activity they interacted with, on the other hand generating more exposer to the messages they interacted with among the fans. m. pătruţ can facebook help you become mayor? case study: bacău, 2016 89 figure 2. the engagement of the candidates’ fans during the election campaign (bacau,2016) the rate of engagement of the fans in social media during the campaign shows the political actor’s ability of daily getting the attention of the fans, his ability of sending as many posts as possible to as many fans as possible, and of thus increasing his own visibility on the network (smitha, 2013, p.6). the answer to the second research question is visible in figure 2. this shows how many fans were daily engaged by the active candidates on facebook. by far the most engaged fans were those who supported c1, being constantly present during the whole campaign, and reaching their potential a day before the elections (with a maximum of 950 who liked, commented, shared and clicked on a post on 05.06.2016). at a lower scale, this was also sporadically achieved by c2 (with a maximum of 838 people who liked, commented, shared and commented on a post on 21.05.2016), by c4 (455 in24.05.2016) and constantly by c6 (with a maximum of 619 on 01.06.2016). we can discuss about the interactivity of the facebook page also by starting from the number of interactions whoch the political actor’s fans had with his page during the election campaign. tabel.3 the users’ interactions with the pages of the candidates during the electioncampaign c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6 c7 1 interaction 1784 2179 206 985 219 1255 35 2 interactions 551 528 80 310 53 69 8 3 to 4 interactions 472 372 43 221 51 29 8 5 to 7 interactions 284 183 32 50 22 28 1 8 to 10 interactions 142 68 17 2 7 19 0 11+ interactions 435 84 10 0 2 30 1 the data kindly offered by facebrand.ro, as it can be seen in table 3, show that one particular interaction with the page of the candidate was the most frequent in the case of all seven candidates. also, the bigger the number of interactions is, the lower the number of users who interacted with the page. the candidates’ results was different here as well, c1 managing by far to determine his fans to interact with his page and to involve them in its development process. thoughout the whole campaign, c1 had 3889 engaged fans, c2 had 3415 engaged fans, c41569, c6 -1431, c3389, c5355 and c7-54 engaged fans. by searching for the answer to the third research question, we notice that the most frequently posted type of materials were photographs and videos. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 90 figure 3. the type of the materials posted on facebook by the candidates the candidate c2 transformed his page into a photo album, probably considering that he can convince his virtual visitors to vote him without using words, only with the help of photographies illustrating the transformation of the city during his previous 2 mandates. following the same principle, candidate c4 preponderently resorted to videos of his dialogues with the electors. all the candidates used links to show visitors their appearances in the mass-media or their own posts on youtube. 4. conclusions the local election campaign of 2016 came with someting new: the candidates for the mayoralty of bacau communicated on facebook. the television lost supremacy not only at a national level, but also locally: some candidates communicated with their electors exclusively on facebook, choosing to appear on television very rarely or not at all. in 2012 only 3 of the 10 candidates communicated on facebook, and their communication was occasional and mainly unilateral. in 2016 things changed a lot: to be present on facebook is a compulsory and easy to satisfy condition during a month-long campaign. the citizens are also more present on the network and they are no longer reluctant to ask the candidates questions or to make them propositions for the future development of the city. practically, the most accessed posts of all the candidates are those which include their political program. can facebook help you become mayor? if we try to explain the victory of the candidate c1 and to analyse to what extent he was helped by facebook to win the elections, the answer could sound like this: if you are alrealdy locally famous (1), you started the online communication with the citizens of the city a year before the elections (2), you managed to daily provide your visitors with answers, you engaged them in your virtual campaign (3), and you did all these things not only online, but also offline (4), then the answer is for sure yes (also see the figure in the annexe). intersting were also the facebook campaigns of other candidates (c3, c4, c6), but some of them entered the election race very late and did not count on a solid amount of fame, or were rather vulnerable regarding their public image and did not manage to improve their situation only by using facebook, because they did not have enough personal meetings with their electors. in 2014, the recently chosen president of romania wins the elections with the help of social media, and the political analysts name him „the facebook president” (patrut, 2015, 133). shifting to the local area, two years after the presidential elections we remark the important contribution of this network in choosing the mayor of bacau by informing and engaging the online electors throughout the entire election campaign. m. pătruţ can facebook help you become mayor? case study: bacău, 2016 91 references ahlqvist, t., bäck, a., halonen, m., heinonen, s (2008). social media road maps exploring the futures triggered by social media. vtt tiedotteita valtion teknillinen tutkimuskeskus (2454) http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/tiedotteet/2008/t2454.pdf aparaschivei, p. (2011). “the use of new media in electoral campaigns: analysis on the use of blogs, facebook, twitter and youtube in the 2009 romanian presidential campaign”, journal of media research, vol. 2 (10) 39-60 boşoteanu, i.c. (2012). new media. rolul new media în campania electorală prezidenţială din 2009, iaşi : institutul european castells, m. (2009). communication power, oxford: oxford university press dalsgaard,s. (2008). facework on facebook. the presentation of self in virtual life and its role in the us elections, anthropology today 24 (6), 812 dâncu, v.s. (2015), triburile. o patologie a politicii româneşti de la revoluție la generația facebook. cluj-napoca : școala ardeleană decrem, b. (2006). introducing flock beta 1.. retrieved may 15, 2010, from http://www.flock.com/node/4500 emeric ernoult (2013), 6 facebook metrics marketers should be measuring, http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-page-metrics/ foot, k. a. & schneider, s. m. (2006). web campaigning . cambridge, ma : mit press. gibson, r.k., ward, s. (2000). a proposed methodology for studying the function and effectiveness of party and candidate web sites. in social science computer review 18 (3), 301-319. heinonen, s. & halonen, m. (2007). making sense of social media. interviews and narratives . somed foresight report 2. espoo, finland, http://owela.vtt.fi/owela/ uploads/2007/11/making-sense-of-social-media-vtt-r-04539-07.pdf. holotescu, c., guţu, d., grosseck, g., bran, r.(2011). microbolgging meets politics. the influence of communication in 140 characters on romanian presidential elections in 2009, romanian journal of communication and public relations, 13 (21), 37-46 kaplan, a. m., & haenlein, m. (2010). users of the world, unite! the challenge and opportunities of social media. business horizons, 53(1), 59–68. kietzmann, j. h.,hermkens,k., mccarthy,i.p. and silvestre, b.s. (2011). social media? get serious! understanding the functional building blocks of social media, business horizons , 54, 241-251 lilleker d.g.,michalska k.k.,schweitzer e., jacunski m., jackson n., vedel t.(2011). informing, engaging, mobilising or interacting: searching for a european model of web campaigning. european journal of communication 26(3) : 195-213. meckel, m. (2008). aus vielen wird das eins gefunden wie web 2.0 unsere kommunikation verändert, aus politik und zeitgeschichte , 39,17 müller, r., schumann, w. (2011).web 2.0 , retrieved may 15, 2012 from http://www.dadalosd.org/web20/ momoc, a. (2013). “romanian parliamentarians on social media. mobilizing voters at the poll in the 2012 parliamentary campaign” în pătruț, monica, pătruț, bogdan (editori), web 2.0 in education and politics. the social media revolution, ed: lambert academic publishing, saarbrücken, pp. 422-448 pătruţ, m (2011), blogul – un instrument pentru democratizarea comunicării electorale?, sfera politicii 5(159), 57-65 available at http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/159/art07-patrut.php pătruţ, m (2012), website-ul partidului – instrument de comunicare politică. studiu de caz: www.psd.ro, sfera politicii 3 (169), 145-155 available at http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/169/art14-patrut.php. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 92 pătruţ, m., pătruţ, b. (2013), facebook – communication tool in local elections campaign. case study: bacău, 2012 in monica pătruţ, bogdan pătruţ (eds.) web 2.0 in education and politics. the social media revolution, lambert academic publishing, saarbrücken, pp. 420435 p ătruţ, m. (2014), facebook dispute concerning the presidency. case study: romania, 2012, în bogdan pătruţ, monica pătruţ (eds). social media in politics: case studies on the political power of social media, springer, pp. 245-256 pătruţ, m. (2013), the analysis of parliamentary faces during election campaigns: case study: bacau, 2012 în bogdan pătruţ (coord.)., international conference smart 2013. social media in academia: research and teaching, editura medimond, monduzzi editore international proceedings division, pp. 283-289 pătruţ, m (2015), candidates in the presidential elections in romania (2014): the use of social media in political marketing în studies and scientific researches. economics edition, no 21, 2015, pp.127-135 tedesco, j. c. (2007). examining internet interactivity effects on young adult political information efficacy. american behavioral scientist, 50(9), 1183–1194. smitha, n.(2013) simply measured's complete guide to analytics on facebook, http://simplymeasured.com/blog/facebook-metrics-defined-engagedusers/#sm.001fd9jsc15d3cubu412mrd7eehex www.facebrand.ro annex figure 4. the local election campaign expressed in likes, comments, and shares. 49 the interplay among emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers hadi hamidi department of english language, science and research branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran hamidi_tefl@yahoo.com dr. mohammad khatib, ph.d. (corresponding author) department of english language, university of allameh tabataba’i, tehran, iran mkhatib27@yahoo.com abstract the present study was an attempt to investigate the interplay among iranian efl teachers’ emotional intelligence, classroom management, and their general english language proficiency. the result of the data analysis showed that: 1) there was a statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the classroom management of iranian efl teachers, 2) there was a statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers, and 3) there was a statistically significant relationship between the classroom management and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. teacher trainers, researchers in teacher education, and language teachers may benefit from the findings of the present research. keywords: classroom management, efl teachers, emotional intelligence, language proficiency 1. introduction darling-hammond (1997) believes that outside the child’s home environment, it is the classroom teacher who has the most influence on students’ achievement. the effectiveness of a good language teacher can be interpreted in different aspects. several components constitute the value of a language teacher; classroom management, emotional intelligence, and language proficiency are some of them. classroom management refers to the ways in which student behavior, movement, interaction, etc., during a class is organized and controlled by the teacher (or sometimes by the learners themselves) to enable teaching to take place most effectively (richards & schmidt, 2010). on one hand, teachers with high classroom management ability tend to have better behavior and instructional management (martin & sass, 2010). on the other hand, teachers who are emotionally more able to understand their students’ needs may have better control on students and classroom atmosphere, thereby promoting student success (rust, 2014). researchers have tried to find the relationship between and among several teacher characteristics including either classroom management or emotional intelligence as one of their study variables; the relationship between emotional intelligence (ei) and learning english language vocabulary (alavi & rahimi, 2011), the relationship between classroom teachers’ ei and their classroom management approaches (tok, tok, & dolapcioglu, 2013), the relationship between english as a foreign language students’ emotional intelligence and their language achievement (abdolmanafi, hamidi, & gorgani, 2014), the relationship between efl teachers’ language proficiency level, classroom management, and learning achievement of l2 learners (borzou, 2014), the relationship between the cultural and emotional intelligence of physical education teachers and their classroom management styles (ezzati, amirtash, & tojari, 2015), the relationship among efl teachers’ critical thinking skills, classroom management, and years of experience (hamidi, azizinejad, & rezaei, 2016). however, there has not been a general consensus whether classroom management, emotional intelligence, and language proficiency are positively correlated. nor has a study been carried out to simultaneously find the relationship among these variables. therefore, the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 present study aimed at investigating the possible relationship among iranian efl teachers’ emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency. rq1. is there any statistically significant relationship between emotional intelligence and classroom management of iranian efl teachers? rq2. is there any statistically significant relationship between emotional intelligence and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers? rq3. is there any statistically significant relationship between classroom management and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers? 2. review of the related literature 2.1. emotional intelligence according to mayer, salovey, and caruso (2004), emotions are one of the three fundamental categories of mental operations which include motivation, emotion, and cognition. hence a person with good emotions should be able to think positively and be productive and vice versa. accordingly, emotional intelligence is said to be the mixture of the term emotion and intelligence, which are related to each other. gardner (1993) claimed that old iq tests only measure language and logic, not other skills. it is believed that our brain has other brilliant kinds of intelligence as well, such as emotional intelligence (richards & rodgers, 2001). emotional intelligence is a part of big group called multiple intelligences (mi). bar-on (2004) associates emotional intelligence with effectively understanding oneself and others, relating well to people, and adapting to and coping with the immediate surroundings to be more successful in dealing with environmental demands. bar-on (2004) believes that training can improve the ei of people; hence it can develop over time. bar-on (2004) summarized the components of emotional intelligence as follows:  intrapersonal (self-awareness and self-expression)  interpersonal (social awareness and interpersonal relationship)  stress management (emotional management and regulation)  adaptability (change management)  general mood (self-motivation) recent research has proven the role of ei in academic achievement (abdolmanafi et al., 2014; brackett & salovey, 2006; mayer et al., 2004). this study aims to find the relationship between two abilities of language teachers; the emotional intelligence and the classroom management. 2.2. classroom management definitions of classroom management abound, yet agreement can be found among researchers and practitioners. according to martin and sugarman (1993, p. 19), classroom management “refers to those activities of classroom teachers that create a positive classroom climate within which effective teaching and learning can occur”. classroom management, based on nasey (2012), refers to those actions of the teacher which ensure that things get done. it has to do with rules, routines, structures – meaning instruction, organizing learning materials and activities. generally speaking, classroom management is the ability to control what happens in the classroom. according to scrivener (2012, p.1), “classroom management is the way teachers manage students’ learning by organizing and controlling what happens in their classroom. sometimes, teachers consciously decide not to organize and control, and sometimes they delegate or relinquish such control to the learners”. evertson and weinstein (2006) defined classroom management as “the actions teachers take to create an environment that supports and facilitates both academic and social-emotional learning” (p.4). this definition focuses on both the facilitating aspect of the classroom management and its didactic role in learning moral-social issues. other scholars defined classroom management in various ways. classroom management covers a wide range of techniques, one such technique is h. hamidi, m. khatib – the interplay among emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers 51 discipline. discipline, as believed by scrivener (2012, p.2) is “certainly one area of classroom management, but it is only one, and, interestingly, many of the biggest problems associated with keeping order are often best answered by dealing with other seemingly separate issues of classroom management”. encouraging all students to participate in classroom interaction is another classroom management technique. al-hamdan, (2007) asserted that an effective classroom management means to minimize tension inside the classroom, moderate students' behavior, listen to students' ideas, encourage students to do better and pay attention to their needs. according to psunder (2005), effective classroom management in multi-cultural contexts is establishing a positive teacher-student relationship and teachers' adapting their teaching methods to students' responses. in such setting most teachers did not refer to the cultural and ethnic background of their students. every teacher has his/her own style of classroom management. considering this, well-managed classroom help teachers have good relationships with their students, and better organization and instruction. similarly, as good and brophy (2000) and ritter and hancock (2007) put it, classroom management is the indication of the teachers’ endeavor to monitor students’ learning, behavior and control the classroom in the way that leads to student achievement. 2.3. language proficiency stern (1983) defines proficiency as the actual performance of a learner in a given language, and it includes the mastery of (a) the forms, (b) the linguistic, cognitive, affective and socio-cultural meanings of those forms, (c) the capacity to use the language with focus chiefly on communication and minimum attention to form, and (d) the creativity in language use. clark (1972, as cited in farhady, 1982) defines language proficiency as “to use language for real-life purposes regardless of the manner in which that competence was acquired” (p. 5). bachman and palmer (1996) believe that learner’s language proficiency level is defined as his or her knowledge of l2 grammar and vocabulary, which is a subcomponent of general language ability. language proficiency is the degree of skill which a person can use a language, such as how well a person can read, write, speak, or understand language. this can be contrasted with language achievement, which describes language ability as a result of learning. proficiency may be measured through the use of a proficiency test (richards & schmidt, 2010). 2.4. empirical studies alavi and rahimi (2011) examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (ei) and learning english language vocabulary. the results of their study showed a low and negative correlation between the students’ emotional intelligence and vocabulary knowledge. their findings revealed that male and female students were significantly different from each other in performing on some components of ei. tok, tok, and dolapcioglu (2013) examined the relationship between classroom teachers’ ei and their classroom management approaches, and tried to find out whether ei significantly predicted classroom management approaches. the findings showed that ei was a positive predictor of teacher-centered classroom management with weak predictive power and there was a low-level, positive, and significant relationship between primary school teachers’ ei levels and teachercentered classroom education approach. the results also revealed that ei significantly predicted student-centered classroom management and there was a medium-level, positive, and significant relationship between primary school teachers’ ei levels and their student-centered classroom management approaches. abdolmanafi et al. (2014) investigated the relationship between english as a foreign language students’ emotional intelligence and their language achievement at university level. their study revealed that there was a significant relationship between the students’ emotional intelligence and their language achievement. they also found that girls had higher eq level than boys. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 borzou (2014) investigated the relationship between efl teachers’ language proficiency level, classroom management, and learning achievement of l2 learners. the results of her study showed no significant relationship between the teachers’ language proficiency level and their classroom management, but a high significant relationship with learning achievement of l2 learners. ezzati, amirtash, and tojari (2015) investigated the relationship between cultural and emotional intelligence of physical education teachers and their classroom management styles in a descriptive-correlational study. they found a significant positive relationship between cultural intelligence and classroom management styles. they also found a positive and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and classroom management styles. they concluded that the cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence were good predictors of physical education classrooms’ management styles. hamidi et al. (2016) investigated the relationship among efl teachers’ critical thinking skills, classroom management, and years of experience. their study showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between iranian efl teachers’ classroom management and their critical thinking. they also found that teacher’s years of experience had statistically significant role in their classroom management ability, and concluded that more experienced teachers had better classroom management ability. 3. methodology 3.1. participants there were totally 118 (75 female and 43 male) participants, m.a. students and m.a. holders, from three majors of tefl, english translation, and english literature. their teaching experience and age ranged from 3 to 12 and 26 to 37 respectively. participants were selected from among the teachers applied for the teacher entrance exam at poya, simin, adib-e daneshvaran, and idea english language institutes in mazandaran, north of iran, and sharif english language institute located in hamedan. 3.2. instruments the instruments used in this study were as follows: classroom management: the first instrument used in this study was the standardized classroom management questionnaire developed by martin and sass (2010). this questionnaire was in likert-scale format, having originally 6 options, which was reduced to 5 options in this study in order to ease the answering and scoring process. the questionnaire had 24 items under two components of behavioral and instructional management. each component included 12 items. the cronbach’s alpha reliability of the questionnaire used in this study was calculated to be .83 which shows high reliability index based on the triple division rule (hamidi, 2015). emotional intelligence questionnaire: the other instrument was bar-on emotional quotient inventory (eq-i), which has been proved to be both valid and reliable. abdolmanafi et al. (2014) reported its validity to be .82 which shows high reliability index. it was developed by baron (1997) and was employed in this study. it consists of 32 positively or negatively-keyed items presented on a likert scale of five points. the participants were required to decide whether they 1) strongly disagree 2) disagree 3) neither disagree nor agree 4) agree 5) strongly agree with each statement. a value of 0 was assigned for those who did not answer any items. higher scores indicate higher level of emotional intelligence (bar-on, 1997). test of english as a foreign language (toefl): the language proficiency test was an 80-item multiple choice test chosen out of longman’s toefl preparation guide book (phillips, 2003). there were 20 questions of listening, 20 questions of vocabulary, 20 questions of grammar, and 20 questions of reading comprehension (totally 80). the reliability of the test calculated through kr-21 formula in a pilot study with 30 participants was found to be .86 which shows high consistency. h. hamidi, m. khatib – the interplay among emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers 53 3.3. procedure first, the test of toefl was prepared out of the toefl preparation sample tests (phillips, 2003). then, it was piloted with 30 participants for its reliability. the test was then sent to the 5 english language institutes to be administered to the teachers who wanted to apply for the teacher entrance exam of the language institutes. those who got the scores between -/+ 1sd below and above the mean were considered homogenous members and the rest were discarded. the remained participants were told that they were participating in a research about teacher abilities. next, the two questionnaires of classroom management by martin and sass (2010) and ei by bar-on (1997) were given to the participants to fill out. they had 25 minutes to complete the two questionnaires. finally, the data gathered out of the questionnaires were extracted to be analyzed through spss 22. 4. results this section presents the results of data analysis. the reliability of the questionnaires and the analysis of the research questions are provided. this chapter presents related data analysis for the following null hypotheses: h01. there is no statistically significant relationship between emotional intelligence and classroom management of iranian efl teachers. h02. there is no statistically significant relationship between emotional intelligence and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. h03. there is no statistically significant relationship between classroom management and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. 4.1. demographic information before presenting the analysis for research question, the demographic information of the participants is shown. table 4.1. the demographic information of the initial participants of the study gender number level teaching experience age male 43 m.a. students and m.a. 4 to 12 27-37 female 75 m.a. students and m.a. 3 to 10 26-35 table 4.1. shows the information of the participants. there were totally 118 (75 female and 43 male) participants, m.a. students and m.a. holders, from three majors of tefl, english translation, and english literature. their teaching experience and age ranged from 3 to 12 and 26 to 37 respectively. table 4.2. the descriptive statistics of the initial administration of the toefl n range minimum maximum mean std. deviation variance primary sample 118 40.00 32.00 72.00 54.8136 9.90722 98.153 valid n (listwise) 118 as table 4.2. shows, the mean and standard deviation of the 118 participants were 54.81 and 9.90 respectively. the next table shows the descriptive statistics of the homogenized participants. table 4.3. the descriptive statistics of the homogenized participants n minimum maximum mean std. deviation variance homogenized sample 84 44.00 65.00 55.8333 5.60085 31.369 valid n (listwise) 84 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 according to table 4.3, out of 118 participants, 84 teachers who got a score within the range of one standard deviation below and one standard deviation above the mean were considered homogenized members. the mean and standard deviation of the homogenized participants were 55.83 and 5.60 respectively 4.2. testing the first null hypothesis the first research question of this study investigated the relationship between the emotional intelligence and the classroom management of iranian efl teachers. since the data gathered out of the questionnaires were of ordinal type, the spearman rank-order correlation test was used to determine the possible relationship between the two variables. the descriptive statistics of the two sets of scores is presented below. table 4.4. the descriptive statistics for the emotional intelligence and classroom management scores n range minimum maximum mean std. deviation variance emotional-intelligence 84 1.80 2.91 4.71 3.6899 .53133 .282 classroom-management 84 1.66 2.02 3.68 2.6555 .35128 .123 valid n (listwise) 84 based on table 4.4. above, the minimum and maximum scores taken out of emotional intelligence and classroom management questionnaires were 2.91, 4.71 and 2.02, 3.68 respectively. the next table shows the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test. table 4.5. the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test for the emotional intelligence and classroom management scores emotional-intelligence classroom-management spearman's rho emotional-intelligence correlation coefficient 1.000 .879 ** sig. (2-tailed) . .000 n 84 84 classroom-management correlation coefficient .879 ** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .000 . n 84 84 the spearman's rank-order correlation was run to determine the relationship between the emotional intelligence and the classroom management of iranian efl teachers. there was a strong, positive correlation between these two variables, which was also statistically significant, rs(82) = .88, p<.05. therefore, the researcher safely rejects the null hypothesis that there is no statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the classroom management of iranian efl teachers. 4.3. testing the second null hypothesis the second research question of this study investigated the relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. since the data gathered out of the emotional intelligence questionnaire were of ordinal type and the language proficiency data were interval, the spearman rank-order correlation test was used to determine the possible relationship between the two variables. the descriptive statistics of the two sets of scores is presented below. table 4.6. the descriptive statistics for the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency scores n range minimum maximum mean std. deviation variance emotional-intelligence 84 1.80 2.91 4.71 3.6899 .53133 .282 language-proficiency 84 18.00 46.00 64.00 55.4524 5.05012 25.504 valid n (listwise) 84 h. hamidi, m. khatib – the interplay among emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers 55 based on table 4.6 above, the minimum and maximum scores taken out of the emotional intelligence questionnaire and toefl were 2.91, 4.71 and 46, 64 respectively. the next table shows the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test. table 4.7. the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test for the emotional intelligence and the toefl scores emotional-intelligence language-proficiency spearman's rho emotional-intelligence correlation coefficient 1.000 .542 ** sig. (2-tailed) . .000 n 84 84 language-proficiency correlation coefficient .542 ** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .000 . n 84 84 the spearman's rank-order correlation was run to determine the relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency scores of iranian efl teachers. according to the rule of triple division suggested by hamidi (2015), there was a medium, positive correlation between these two variables, which was also statistically significant, rs(82) = .54, p<.05. therefore, the researcher safely rejects the null hypothesis that there is no statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. 4.4. testing the third null hypothesis the third research question of this study investigated the relationship between the classroom management and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. since the data gathered out of the classroom management questionnaire were of ordinal type and the language proficiency data were interval, the spearman rank-order correlation test was used to determine the possible relationship between the two variables. the descriptive statistics of the two sets of scores is presented below. table 4.8. the descriptive statistics for the classroom management and the language proficiency scores n range minimum maximum mean std. deviation variance classroom-management 84 1.66 2.02 3.68 2.6555 .35128 .123 language-proficiency 84 18.00 46.00 64.00 55.4524 5.05012 25.504 valid n (listwise) 84 based on table 4.8 above, the minimum and maximum scores taken out of the classroom management questionnaire and toefl were 2.02, 3.68 and 46, 64 respectively. the next table shows the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test. table 4.9. the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test for the classroom management and the toefl scores classroom-management language-proficiency spearman's rho classroom-management correlation coefficient 1.000 .683 ** sig. (2-tailed) . .000 n 84 84 language-proficiency correlation coefficient .683 ** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .000 . n 84 84 the spearman's rank-order correlation was run to determine the relationship between the classroom management and the language proficiency scores of iranian efl teachers. according to brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 the rule of triple division suggested by hamidi (2015), there was a strong, positive correlation between these two variables, which was also statistically significant, rs(82) = .68, p<.05. therefore, the researcher safely rejects the null hypothesis that there is no statistically significant relationship between the classroom management and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. 5. discussion and conclusion this correlational study was an attempt to investigate the relationship among iranian efl teachers’ emotional intelligence, classroom management, and their general english language proficiency. the summary of the result and related discussion are presented below. a) there was a statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the classroom management of iranian efl teachers, rs(82) = .88, p<.05. the result of this research question is in line with the findings of tok et al.’s (2013) study. they found a low-level, positive, and significant relationship between primary school teachers’ emotional intelligence levels and teachers’ classroom management. they also found that emotional intelligence is a predictive of the classroom management ability of the teachers. the findings of ezzati et al.’s (2015) confirm that emotional intelligence has positive relationship with teachers’ classroom management and can be a good predictor of classroom management styles. b) there was a moderate positive relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers, rs(82) = .54, p<.05. the findings of abdolmanafi et al. (2014) in which a significant relationship between the students’ emotional intelligence and their language achievement was found are in line with the result of this research question. the result of this research question is in contrast to the findings of alavi and rahini (2011) in which they found low and negative relationship between emotional intelligence and vocabulary knowledge of iranian efl learners. c) there was a statistically significant relationship between the classroom management and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers, rs(82) = .68, p<.05. the result of this research question is in contrast to borzou’s (2014) study in which no significant relationship between the teachers’ language proficiency level and their classroom management was found. however, hamidi (2016) found that there was a positive relationship between the classroom management and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. it might be claimed that those teachers with a higher level of emotional intelligence are more capable of controlling the class in terms of behavior management and thereby creating a more positive relationship with the students. a well rapport with students can lead to mutual understanding and a better bilateral relationship between teachers and students. poor classroom management of the teacher can have demotivating effects on student learning (hu, 2011). however, teachers with more experience usually have a better classroom management ability. years of teaching and learning may also add to the language proficiency of the elt teachers especially if they are permanently exposed to the target language practicing the four skills. the present research has shed some light on some abilities of a language teacher such as classroom management, emotional intelligence, and language proficiency. it is suggested that iranian efl school teachers be compared to efl institute teachers in terms of their emotional intelligence and classroom management ability. it is also suggested that the role of gender of the elt teachers be investigated in their emotional intelligence and classroom management ability. acknowledgement: the authors would like to thank mr. morteza montazeri and mr. saeid najafi sarem for their help in administering the toefl test to their language institute teachers. h. hamidi, m. khatib – the interplay among emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers 57 references abdolmanafi-rokni, s.j., hamidi, h., & gorgani, t. (2014). investigating the relationship between emotional intelligence and language achievement: a case of tefl and non tefl university students. international journal of language learning and applied linguistics world, 5 (3), 117-127. alavi, m., & rahimi, z. (2011). on the relationship between emotional intelligence and vocabulary learning among iranian pre-university efl learners. journal of english studies, 1 (3), 17-25. al-hamdan, j. (2007). higher education classroom management: kuwait university students' views. college student journal, 41(3), 572-582. bachman, l., & palmer, a. (1996). language testing in practice. oxford: oxford university press. bar-on, r. (1997). the emotional quotient inventory: a test of emotional intelligence. toronto, canada: multi-health systems. bar-on, r. (2004). the bar-on emotional quotient inventory (eq-i): national, description, and psychometric properties. in g. geher (ed.), measuring emotional intelligence: common ground and controversy (pp. 124-142). hauppauge, ny: nova science. borzou, f. (2014). the relationship between efl teachers’ language proficiency level and classroom management, and learning achievement of l2 learners (unpublished master’s thesis). islamic azad university, najaf abad branch, isfahan. brackett, m. a., & salovey, p. (2006). measuring emotional intelligence with the mayersaloveycaruso emotional intelligence test (msceit). psicothema, 18 (1), 34-41. darling-hammond, l. (1997). doing what matters most: investing in quality teaching. new york: national commission on teaching & america's future. evertson, c. m., & weinstein, c. s. (2006). classroom management as a field of inquiry. in c. m. everston & c. s. weinstein (eds.), handbook of classroom management: research, practice, and contemporary issues (pp. 3-16). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. ezzati, z., amirtash, a., & tojari, f. (2015). the relationship between cultural and emotional intelligence of physical education teachers and their classroom management styles. indian journal of fundamental and applied life sciences, 5 (2), 547-555. farhady, h. (1982). measures of language proficiency from the learner’s perspective. tesol quarterly, 16 (1), 43-59. doi: 10.2307/3586562. gardner, h. (1993). frames of mind. new york: basic books. good, b., & brophy, j. (2000). cooking in classroom. new york, addison-wesley: educational publishers, inc. hamidi, h. (2015). research methods in applied linguistics. retrieved from http://www.iranelt.com/index.php/introduction-to-research-methods. hamidi, h. (2016). determining the teaching experiential capital in higher education through hybrid assessment (unpublished doctoral dissertation). university of science and research, tehran, iran. hamidi, h., azizinejad, g., & rezaei, m. (2016, in press). the relationship among efl teachers’ critical thinking skills, classroom management, and years of experience. elt voices, 6 (3). hu, r. s. (2011). the relationship between demotivation and efl learners’ english language proficiency. english language teaching, 4 (4), 88-96. doi:10.5539/elt.v4n4p88. martin, j., & sugarman, j. (1993).models of classroom management: principles, applications and critical perspectives (2 nd ed.). calgary, ab: temeron books. martin, n. k., & sass, d. a. (2010). construct validation of the behavior and instructional management scale. teaching and teacher education, 26, 1124-1135. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2009.12.001. http://www.iranelt.com/index.php/introduction-to-research-methods brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 mayer, j. d., salovey, p., & caruso, d. (2004). emotional intelligence: theory, findings, and implications. psychological inquiry, 15(3), 197-215. nasey, c. (2012). teachers’ use of classroom-based management strategies: a survey of new zealand teachers (unpublished master’s thesis). massey university, new zealand. phillips, d. (2003). longman preparation course for the toefl test. ny: pearson education. psunder, m. (2005). how effective is school discipline in preparing students to become responsible citizens? slovenian teachers’ and students’ views. teaching and teacher education, 21(3), 273-286. richards, c.j., & rodgers, s.t. (2001). approaches and methods in language teaching (2 nd ed.). cambridge: cambridge university press. richards, j. c., & schmidt, r. (2010). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. london: pearson education. ritter, j. t., & hancock, d. r. (2007). exploring the relationship between certification sources, experience levels, and classroom management orientations of classroom teachers. teaching and teacher education, 23(7), 1206-1216. rust, d. a. (2014). relationship between the emotional intelligence of teachers and student academic achievement (unpublished doctoral dissertation). university of kentucky. retrieved from uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=edl. scrivener, j. (2012). classroom management techniques. cambridge: cambridge university press. stern, h. (1983). fundamental concepts of language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. tok, t. n., tok, s., & dolapcioglu, s. d. (2013). the relationship between emotional intelligence and classroom management approaches of primary school teachers. educational research, 4 (2), 134-142. microsoft word brain_6_2015_dec_34_final4.doc 5 efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images maria-liliana costin babes-bolyai university, cluj-napoca, romania lilianacostin@yahoo.com abstract fingerprint identification is an important field in the wide domain of biometrics with many applications, in different areas such: judicial, mobile phones, access systems, airports. there are many elaborated algorithms for fingerprint identification, but none of them can guarantee that the results of identification are always 100 % accurate. a first step in a fingerprint image analysing process consists in the pre-processing or filtering. if the result after this step is not by a good quality the upcoming identification process can fail. a major difficulty can appear in case of fingerprint identification if the images that should be identified from a fingerprint image database are noisy with different type of noise. the objectives of the paper are: the successful completion of the noisy digital image filtering, a novel more robust algorithm of identifying the best filtering algorithm and the classification and ranking of the images. the choice about the best filtered images of a set of 9 algorithms is made with a dual method of fuzzy and aggregation model. we are proposing through this paper a set of 9 filters with different novelty designed for processing the digital images using the following methods: quartiles, medians, average, thresholds and histogram equalization, applied all over the image or locally on small areas. finally the statistics reveal the classification and ranking of the best algorithms. keywords: fingerprint image, image noise, statistical analysis, fuzzy selection, classification 1. introduction the identification of individuals based on biometrics are made by different methods like: face recognition, palm recognition, voice recognition or handwriting recognition but one of the most usual approaches consists in the fingerprint based identification. some of the most important implementations of fingerprint algorithms are the iafis-integrated automated fingerprint identification system used by the fbi, which will be followed by the next generation identification system1 developed by lockheed martin in partnership with safran and also commercial applications implemented in: mobile phone applications, different operating systems like: apple-ios, android, access systems and airports. automatic identification based on fingerprints can be synthesized into five distinct phases: pre-processing, feature extraction, feature measurement, classification and matching. at the step of pre-processing the challenge is to find the best methods for enhancing images, taking into consideration the accuracy and the time for execution. in this work we refer to automation of image enhancement implemented through a number of 9 algorithms having different levels of novelty as a defining stage for improving the quality of processed images. in general, digital image processing is a subdomain of digital signal processing and has many advantages versus the analogue image processing, because the multitude of algorithms used is more extensive and does not raise questions of overlapping the signal or the noise (bansal, saini & verma, 2015). modeling in this step is done by algorithms capable of improving image quality, known as filters. quick classification of spatial filters on specific aim can be defined as follows: 1 privacy impact assessment-integrated automated fingerrint identification system (iafis) / next generation identification (ngi) biometric interoperability, https://www.fbi.gov brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 • reducing noise / parasites (noise reduction): median filter (arias-castro & donoho, 2009), filter olympic (drury, 2001), (jensen, 1996), (lillesand & ralph, 1994), p-median filter (hartman & kincaid, 2014), modal filtering of classification results (mendrok & kurowski, 2012); • optimization of the filters’ quality (filters enhancement): cs -comparison and selection filter (kantawan & tsai, 2014), wmmr-med majority filter with minimum weighted range–median (liu, ma, lee & zang. 2007), volter / unsharp filter (suresh, sanha kumari, yashwanth & raghavendra, 2015); • transformation of filters’ texture (texture): range filter, fourier transformation. in the frequency domain the filtering (gonzales & woods, 2002 refers to: • smoothing frequency-domain filters: ideal low pass, butterworth low pass, gaussian low pass; • sharpening frequency-domain filters: ideal high pass, butterworth high pass, gaussian high pass. 2. contributions to image noise reduction in the following we mention some of the major contributions, in the field of image noise reduction: • priyanka kamboj and versha rani (2013) have studied various noise model and filtering techniques to improve the qualitative inspection of an image and the performance criteria of quantitative image analysis techniques; • raymond h. chan, chung-wa ho, and mila nikolova (2005) put forward a two-phase scheme for removing “salt and pepper” noise: an adaptive median filter is used which identify pixels that are likely to be affected by noise and the second the image restoration using a specialized regularization method that applies only to those selected noise candidates. the algorithm can remove “salt and pepper” noise with a noise level as high as 90%; • m. s. nair, k. revathy, and rao tatavarti (2015) showed an improved decision-based algorithm for the restoration of gray-scale and color images that are highly corrupted by “salt and pepper” noise which is efficiently removed by preserving all details by utilizing formerly processed neighboring pixel values to get better image quality than the one using only the previously applied pixel value. the projected algorithm is faster and also produces better result than a standard median filter (smf); • b. singh and r. singh (2014) propose an improved decision based unsymmetrical trimmed median filter algorithm for removing the noise from the color images that are highly corrupted by “salt and pepper” noise; • w. luo (206) suggested that images are often corrupted by noise known as “salt and pepper” which can corrupt the images and proposes that the corrupted pixel take either maximum or minimum gray level. along with these standard median filters has been established as reliable method to remove the “salt and pepper” noise without harming the edge features. though, the major problem of standard median filter (mf) is that the filter is effective only at low noise densities. 3. fingerprint image analysing in the scientific literature the noise is defined as unwanted information which deteriorates image quality and usually appears during the acquiring and transferring process from different type of media or different formats. in the literature are defined two types of noise: • gaussian noise usually resulted from the image acquisition; • impulsive noise (“salt and pepper”) usually introduced while transmitting over an unsecured channel or by acquisition as well. m. l. costin efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images 7 the gaussian noise is a value added to each pixel in an image or a region taken from a zero means gaussian distribution. “salt and pepper” noise is caused by sharp, sudden disturbances in the image and is characterized by white isolated spots in dark areas and black pixels in wide light areas. on the other hand, the “salt and pepper” filter can be employed before doing a gaussian noise reduction. 4. image filters filters are algorithms by a wide range used for removal of those types of noise and they are necessary not only for improving image quality but as a preprocessing phase in almost any application involving digital images (gulhane & alvi, 2012): encoding, pattern recognition, image compression, target tracking and so on. the noise reduction is a two-step process: noise detection and noise reduction. in the first step the noisy pixels are being identified and in the second they are replaced by an estimated value. the gaussian noise removal usually is made by some classical algorithms like: blur/median filter, gaussian filter and weight median filter. some of the classical algorithms of the “salt and pepper” noise reduction are (jasim, 2013): minimum, maximum, mean, rank order, median filters. in this paper we have used for comparing the following classical filters like: blur filter, two derivative of gaussian filter – laplacian of gaussian (log) and (log2), sobel filter, sharp filter and gabor filters. the results obtained after the convolution operation applied on the original images show an overall processing without taking into consideration the “local” statistics. 5. configuring the model the digital fingerprint images used for tests are taken with ink, they are of various dimensions and the sources of images are the databases: fvc20002, fvc20023, and fvc20044. the images were cut to different sizes between 150 to 300 pixels width and height, so they are of heterogeneous dimensions. the proposed model is structured as following: a) design a model for filtering that consist in a set of 9 filters for: enhancement of contrast, noise removal, obtaining the “near” binary image (0 to 255) while preserving the defining details; b) apply a fuzzy/aggregation(sum) model for automatically choose the best filter; c) classify and rank the filters according to those criterions. a) the set of filter algorithms as a general principle the filtering is made overall the image and/or "locally" on smaller surfaces, chosen according to the local statistics. in the following we denote the proposed filter algorithms with a1 to a9, elaborated with classic theory of quartiles with different levels of novelty introduced by different types of thresholds and local processing. the formulas (1), (2) and (3) for calculating the q1, q2, q3 quartiles are: 1 1 4 n q + = (1) 2 2( 1) 4 n q + = (2) 3 3( 1) 4 n q + = (3) 2 fingerprint verification algorithms, 2000, http://bias.csr.unibo.it/fvc2000 3 fingerprint verification algorithms, 2000, http://bias.csr.unibo.it/fvc2002 4 fingerprint verification algorithms, 2000, http://bias.csr.unibo.it/fvc2004 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 in the image processing field, the quartiles are used also for eliminating the outliers (aberrant values) and replacing them with a median value, but in this paper we would like to avoid the median value because often introduces blurring in the resulting image. the set of algorithms uses the quartiles to transform the values under or upper the quartiles q1, q3 (in the overall image) and the q1, q3 (in the 10x10 vicinity) in black or white, leaving the rest of pixels in greyscale or introducing other type of processing like increasing or decreasing the values of pixels in the vicinity of the quartiles or simply by locally adjust values according to the vicinity values. a1 uses quartile (figure 1.) which applies "locally" in small areas, usually 10x10 pixels or estimated using a sample representing approximately 40% of all image data (columns) and transform; start/ read the .tiff file scan the 10x10 vicinity/calculate q1,q2,q3 read the matrix yes if (pixel_value<q1 / pixel_value>q3) pixel_value= 0 / pixel_value =255 yes no no write the .tiff file /stop pixel_value remains the same figure 1.algorithm a1-pseudocode m. l. costin efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images 9 a2-uses the principle of quartiles over the entire image in conjunction with applying the quartiles calculated on small areas "locally"(figure 2.); sta rt/ read the .tiff file scan the 10x10 vicinity/calculates q1,q2,q3 read the matrix / calculates q1,q2,q3 yes if( (pixel_value<q1 or pixel_value>q3)) and (pixel_value<q1 or pixel_value>q3) pixel_value=0 / pixel_value=255 yes no no write the .tiff file /stop pixel_value remains the same figure 2. algorithm a1-pseudocode a3-is achieved by the extrapolation of the values that are "in the immediate" neighborhood of extremes (0 and 255), made in a "local" manner (figure 3.); brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 sta rt/ read the .tiff file scan the 10x10 vicinity/calculates q1,q2,q3, white threshold, black threshold read the matrix / calculates q1,q2,q3 yes if ((pixel_value<=black threshold) or (pixel_value>=white threshold)) pixel_value=0 / pixel_value=255 yes no no write the .tiff file /stop pixel_value remains the same figure 3. algorithm a3-pseudocode a4uses quartiles principle applied globally, in conjunction with the thresholds referred to a3 (figure 4.); m. l. costin efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images 11 sta rt/ read the .tiff file scan the 10x10 vicinity/calculates white_threshold, black_threshold read the matrix / calculates q1,q2,q3 yes if ((pixel_value<=black_threshold) or (pixel_value>=white_threshold) or (pixel_value<=q1 or pixel_value>=q3)) pixel_value=0 / pixel_value=255 yes no no write the .tiff file /stop pixel_value remains the same figure 4. algorithm a4-pseudocode a5-apply thresholds globally across the image (figure 5.); brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 start/ read the .tiff file read the matrix / calculates q1,q2,q3 yes if ( pixel_value<=q1 or pixel_value>=q3) pixel_value=0 / pixel_value=255 yes no no write the .tiff file /stop pixel_value remains the same figure 5. algorithm a5-pseudocode a6-the principle of quartiles applied to the entire image, using the quartiles q1 and q3 as thresholds, but the update refers only for the pixel values only if q1 < q1 or q3 > q3, where q1 and q3 are the quartiles calculated in the 10x10 pixels area (figure 6.); m. l. costin efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images 13 sta rt/ read the .tiff file scan the 10x10 vicinity/calculates q1,q2,q3 read the matrix / calculates q1,q2,q3 yes if ((pixel_value<=q1 and q1<q1) or (pixel_value>=q3 and q3>q3) pixel_value=0 / pixel_value=255 yes no no write the .tiff file /stop pixel_value remains the same figure 6. algorithm a6-pseudocode a7-applied to the entire surface using quartiles(q1 and q3) in conjunction with an algorithm for the processing of gray tones between q1 and q3 is as follows: if in addition is full field the condition that (q2 >q2), when the initial value of the pixel is adjusted at (initial_value*(1-(q2/q1))), and on the other hand if (q2<q2) then the value is adjusted to (initial_value*(1+q3/q2 )), please see figure 7.; brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 sta rt/ read the .tiff file scan the 10x10 vicinity/calculates q1,q2,q3 read the matrix / calculates q1,q2,q3 yes if (pixel_value<=q1 or pixel_value>=q3) pixel_value=0 / pixel_value=255 yes no no write the .tiff file /stop if((q2>q2) or (q2<q2)) pixel_value=pixel_v alue*(1-(q2/q1)) / pixel_value=pixel_v alue(1+q3/q2) yes no figure 7. algorithm a7-pseudocode a8 uses the principles of quartiles per global and additionally adjusts the gray tones between q1 and q3 as follows: -if (q2<q2), the pixel shall be updated with the following value (initial_value *(1.1)); -if (q2 >q2) when the pixel value is updated with (initial_value *(0.9)), and the purpose is to bring q2(local quartile or median) as much closer as possible to q2(2 quartile or median overall global), please see figure 8.; m. l. costin efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images 15 sta rt/ read the .tiff file read the matrix / calculates q1,q2,q3 yes if (pixel_value<=q1 / pixel_value>=q3) pixel_value=0 / pixel_value=255 yes no no write the .tiff file /stop if((q2<q2) / (q2>q2)) pixel_value=pixel_v alue*(1.1) / pixel_value=pixel_v alue*(0.9) yes no figure 8. algorithm a8-pseudocode a9-the most developed algorithm provides more processing at punctual situations(figure 19.), uses global quartiles (q1, q2, q3) in conjunction with the following rules: -if (initial_value<q1), the initial_value=0; -if (initial_value>q3), then initial_value=255, and the gray values between q1 and q3 are using other algorithms in order to eliminate the effect of "salt and pepper" and to deal with alleged membership of a pixel to details. this subset includes the following following situations: -if (initial_value) is black and in its neighborhood (3x3 pixels) is only gray, then the whole neighborhood will be black; -if (initial_value) is white and its neighborhood (3x3 pixels) is in grayscale, the whole neighborhood turns into grayscale; brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 -if (initial_value) is white, and the neighborhood of (3x3 pixels) are all black, then the entire neighborhood turns black; -if (initial_value) is gray and in the neighborhood(3x3 pixels) everything is white, then turns white initial_value; -if in the vicinity of (3x3 pixels) there are three gray neighbors and the rest white, then the middle one is white; -if the neighborhood (3x3 pixels) three neighbors are gray and the rest white, then the middle one is white; -if the vicinity of (5x5 pixels) is composed entirely of gray, the whole vicinity of (3x3 pixels) of the same pixel turns black; -if in the vicinity like in the figure 9. figure 9.vicinity of 6 pixels for local adjustment where m is the column the matrix corresponding to the digital image, and "grey" is any tone between 0 and 255(exclusive),then if gray value of m is less than the value of the(m+1) column, where m is 0 and the corresponding pixel values (m-1) and (m+1) become 255 (white), as shown in figure 10. figure 10.result of the local adjustment applied on figure 9. -if in the vicinity like in the figure 11., figure 11.vicinity of 4 pixels we have the gray value of m less than that of column (m+1), then the value of m is 0 and the value of (m+1) becomes 255, like in figure 12: figure 12.result of local adjustment applied on figure 3. and vice versa, otherwise ; -if in the vicinity like in the figure 13, m-2 255 m-1 gre y m grey m+1 grey m+2 grey m+3 255 m-2 255 m-1 255 m 0 m+1 grey m+2 255 m+3 255 m-1 255 m grey m+1 grey m+2 255 m-1 255 m 0 m+1 255 m+2 255 m. l. costin efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images 17 figure 13.vicinity of 5 pixels tier m pixel’s value is the minimum of (m-1), m and (m+1), then the value at the position m is 0 and (m-1) and (m+1) are 255, as in figure 14; figure 14.result of local adjustment applied on figure 13. or, if the minimum value is at tier(m-1), respectively(m+1), it results like shown in figures 15. and figure 16.: figure 15.result of local adjustment applied on figure 13. where minimum value is at tier m-1 figure 16. result of local adjustment applied on figure 13. where minimum value is at tier m+1 the proposed algorithms refer to two directions: suppressing the noise resulted from acquisition of the fingerprints, the gaussian noise in filters: a1 to a8 and to “salt and pepper” reduction noise in a9. the set of 9 filters make use of some methods like: -thresholds for segmentation of the digital images and adapted for filters a4, a5 and a6; -quartiles that dive ranked data set in four equal groups and they are applied on the filters: a1, a2, a4, a6, a7, a8, a9; -selections of parameters, like in: a7, a8 and the dimension of the local neighborhood (in our case 10x10 pixels); m-2 255 m-1 grey m grey m+1 grey m+2 255 m-2 255 m-1 255 m 0 m+1 255 m+2 255 m-2 255 m-1 0 m 255 m+1 255 m+2 255 m-2 255 m-1 255 m 255 m+1 0 m+2 255 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 start/ read the .tiff file read the matrix / calculates q1,q2,q3 yes if (pixel_value<=q1 / pixel_value>=q3) pixel_value=0 / pixel_value=255 yes no no write the .tiff file /stop if(1. pixel_value=0 and vicinity(3x3)=grey)/ 2.(pixel_value=255 and vicinity(3x3)=grey)/ 3.pixel_value=255 and vicinity(3x3)=black/ 4.pixel_value=grey and vicinity(3x3)=white/ 5.vicinity(3x3)=3pixels grey+6 pixels (255)/ 6.vicinity(5x5)=grey/ 7.vicinity(4x1/5x1/6x1) 1.vicinity (3x3)=0 / 2.vicinity (3x3)=grey/ 3.vicinity (3x3)=black/ 4.pixel_value=255/ 5.pixel_value in the middle=255/ 6.vicinity(3x3)=0/ 7.pixel_values according to figures 2,4,6,8. yes no figure 17. algorithm a9-pseudocode m. l. costin efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images 19 the noise and/or image quality in terms of luminosity/contrast can be realized by classical indicators like: correlation coefficient (r)5, psnr-pick signal to noise ratio (huynh-thu & ghanbari, 2008) and rms-root mean square (rms) (sangwine & horne, 1998), or by custom indicators and in our case they would be our custom indicators: black/white ratio (or white/black) and grey/bw ratio. the correlation coefficient r is denoted in the equation (4) and has values in the interval [0,1] and takes into consideration two matrices: a corresponding to the original image and b correponding to the filtered images(a1 to a9), where amn and bmn are the elements mn from the matrix a and b and a , b are the mean values of matrix a and b. (4) msemean square error in formula 5, is the dominant quantitative performance metric in the field of signal processing. it remains the standard criterion for the assessment of signal quality and fidelity; it is the method of choice for comparing competing signal processing methods. (5) where m, n, i, j, are the width, height of the image, i, j are the pixel positioning coordinates, and a, b are the original and processed matrix. psnr pick signal to noise represents the maximum possible power of a signal and the power of corrupting noise that affects the quality of the images. psnr is expressed in terms of the logarithmic decibel scale and is computed after the formula 6: (6) in our case psnr will be used as an indicator of the useful/noise ratio in the fingerprint images and our optimization process seeks for the higher scores relatively to this indicator. root mean square (rms) contrast does not depend on the spatial frequency content or the spatial distribution of contrast in the image. rms contrast is defined as the standard deviation of the pixel intensities, like in the formula 7: (7) where intensities are the -th -th element of the two-dimensional image of size by , is the average intensity of all pixel values in the image and the image is normalized in the range of [0,1]. the two custom indicators we propose derive from our specific objectives: a balanced black and white image (bw ratio) and on the same time a small grey quantity of pixels(grey/bw): -bw ratio is defined an a sub unitary ratio of the total number of black pixels and total number of white pixels and as closer is to 1 the filtered image is nearly “binarized” in black and white; -grey/bw ratio is a fraction between total number of grey pixels to total number of black plus white pixels and is preferably to be as small as possible to serve the same scope like the bw ratio. b) the fuzzy/aggregation (sum) model for automatically selection of the best filter based on a single indicator it is impossible to make clear delimitation in terms of low correlation or high luminosity (rms) or a clear level of noise. even there are used more indicators a 5 mathworks documentation, http://www.mathworks.com/help/images/ref/corr2.html brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 direct comparison does not gave an appropriate result, more indicators for all the algorithms are provided in the table1, as follows: table 1. classical and custom indicators of noise for some of the filtered images image/ filter black/white ratio(bw) rms psnr grey/ bw distance grey/bw distance psnr distance rms sum best sum distance manhattan best fuzzy 1/1 0.8965 0.8990 0.9109 0.5608 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.8665 0 3.7800 1 1/2 0.4273 0.9232 1.0000 1.0000 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.6360 0 3.7800 1 1/3 0.2048 0.3986 0.7792 0.0225 1.4000 2.0000 0.5000 2.3889 0 6.6800 0 1/4 0.5405 0.9183 0.9802 0.9007 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.6962 0 3.7800 1 1/5 0.6481 0.8942 0.9087 0.4077 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.5674 0 3.7800 1 1/6 0.4273 0.9232 1.0000 1.0000 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.6360 0 3.7800 1 1/7 0.8682 1.0000 0.8888 0.5454 1.4000 0.8000 0.5000 3.9127 1 4.4800 0 1/8 0.6481 0.9100 0.9062 0.4077 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.5807 0 3.7700 0 1/9 0.6117 1.0000 0.8888 0.3813 1.4000 0.8000 0.5000 3.6093 0 4.4800 0 2/1 0.9750 0.8834 0.9212 0.2845 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.8608 1 3.6800 1 2/2 0.5565 0.9117 1.0000 0.4551 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.5981 0 3.7800 0 2/3 0.3694 0.5796 0.8182 0.0119 1.4000 0.8000 0.5000 2.7705 0 5.4800 0 2/4 0.6035 0.9080 0.9885 0.4315 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.6232 0 3.7800 0 2/5 0.9154 0.8797 0.9361 0.2489 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.8022 0 3.6800 1 2/6 0.5565 0.9117 1.0000 0.4551 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.5981 0 3.7800 0 2/7 0.8559 1.0000 0.9030 0.3252 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.8517 0 3.7800 0 2/8 0.9154 0.8660 0.9322 0.2489 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.7846 0 3.6800 1 2/9 0.8340 1.0000 0.9030 0.2198 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.7997 0 3.7800 0 3/1 0.0685 0.7115 0.8882 0.1419 1.4000 0.8000 1.7000 2.8083 0 6.6800 0 3/2 0.4081 0.6080 0.9994 0.9978 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 4.0009 0 3.7800 1 3/3 0.0282 0.2722 0.8596 0.0028 1.4000 0.8000 0.5000 2.1627 0 5.4800 0 3/4 0.1678 0.6029 0.9873 0.4435 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.1960 0 4.7800 0 3/5 0.0742 0.6734 0.9399 0.1606 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 2.8461 0 4.7800 0 3/6 0.4093 0.6081 0.9996 1.0000 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 4.0045 1 3.7800 1 3/7 0.1569 0.6612 0.9438 0.4131 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.1698 0 4.7800 0 3/8 0.0742 0.5299 1.0000 0.1606 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 2.7627 0 4.7800 0 3/9 0.0588 0.6612 0.9438 0.1096 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 2.7720 0 4.7800 0 4/1 0.4280 0.7518 0.7881 0.1034 1.4000 2.0000 1.7000 3.0699 0 6.8800 0 4/2 0.8121 0.6992 0.9914 0.2755 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.7747 0 3.7800 0 4/3 0.1707 0.4260 0.7323 0.0016 1.4000 2.0000 0.5000 2.3305 0 6.6800 0 4/4 0.9332 0.6903 0.9041 0.2283 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.7530 0 3.6800 1 4/5 0.5894 0.7124 0.9456 0.1519 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.3974 0 3.7800 0 4/6 0.8090 0.6996 1.0000 0.2762 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.7813 1 3.7800 0 4/7 0.8814 0.9241 0.7528 0.2186 1.4000 2.0000 0.5000 3.7741 0 5.6800 0 4/8 0.5894 0.6900 0.9405 0.1519 1.4000 0.1000 0.5000 3.3699 0 3.7800 0 4/9 0.3759 0.9241 0.7528 0.0853 1.4000 2.0000 0.5000 3.1370 0 6.6800 0 as a consequence the indicators of fuzzy logic (oussalah, alakhras & hussein, 2015) and the statistical considerations, like weighted sum are very suitable for solving the decision problems: m. l. costin efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images 21 “how to automatically choose the best filter?” or “how to classify these resulting images according to different criterions?”. the implementation stages of a fuzzy selection can be defined as following: identifying the inputs and outputs; define the universe of discussion, variables, linguistic values, affiliation function; inference methods; implementing the model; testing, performance evaluation; return to previous stages if necessary. our fuzzy decision would be: determining the preferred/best filter in terms of “good quality”. stages of the selection process: elaborate the set of factors used for selection; define the ideal profile of the filter; construct each filter profile; determine a matrix of distances to the ideal filter; select the filter evaluation factors are: correlation, bw ratio, grey/bw ratio, psnr, rms. the linguistique values of the utilized factors are for each of them: s-small(low), mmedium(medium) and h-high(high). the ideal filter profile compared to the requirements is defined as follows: 1. correlation >0.90 and the values of factors corresponding would be: s=(0;0.90), m=(0.9;0.98), h=(0.98;1); 2. bw ratio =1 and the values of factors for this criteria are: s=(0;0.40), m=(0.4;0.80), h=(0.80;1); 3. grey/bw =0 and the values for the factors would be: s>0.9, m =(0.4;0.90) and h=(0, 0.4); 4. psnr as high as possible but it is transformed in the range of [0,1] and the best value will be psnr=1 and as a consequence the factors would be like: s=(0;0.90), m=(0.9;0.98), h=(0.98;1); 5. rms like the previous factor it desirable to be as high as possible (=1) because it is transformed in the [0,1] range and the values of factors occupy the same range: s=(0;0.10), m=(0.1;0.90), h=(0.90;1). the fuzzy set of requirements for qualifying as a candidate for the best filter are defined as follows: 1. correlation={0.1/s;0.9/m;1/h}; 2. bw={0.1/s;0.9/m;1/h}; 3. grey/bw={1/s;0.3/m;0/h}; 4. psnr={0/s;0.8/m;1/h}; 5. rms={0/s;0.9/m;1/h}. the fuzzy set for each factor can be described like: 1. correlation: s={1/s;0.9/m;0/h}, m={0.5/s;1/m;0.5/h}; h={0.1/s;0.9/m;1/h}; 2. bw ratio: s={1/s;0.7/m;0.3/h}; m={0.2/s;1/m;0.7/h};h={0.1/s;0.8/m;1/h}; 3. grey/bw: s={0/s;0.3/m;1/h}; m={0/s;0.1/m;0.9/h}; h={1/s;0.2/m;0.1/h}; 4. psnr: s={1/s;0.9/m;0/h}; m={0.5/s;1/m;0.5/h}; h={0.1/s;0.9/m;1/h}; 5. rms: s={1/s;0.9/m;0/h}; m={0.5;s;1/m;0.5/h}; h={0.1/s;0.9/m;1/h}; evaluation through natural language of the filter a1: correlation=h; bw=s; grey/bw=s; psnr=h; rms=h. starting from those values we further construct the affiliation degree of each linguistic value according to the universe of discussion defined relatively to the ideal profile of filters. the distance between each indicator and the ideal value are summed and the smaller gives the best filter. for determining the final decision we can use a variety of distances: euclidian, minkowski, pearson, mahalanobis but for our case we used the manhattan distance and the results are shown in the table1. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 on the aggregation model the indicators are summed as a simple or weighted operation of some normalized indicators: correlation (not very relevant in this case because is very similar), black/white ratio, grey to black/white ratio, psnr, rms and the highest represents the best choice. some results corresponding to 32 images and 9 filters are depicted in the table 1 and in the table 2. is shown a selection of filtered images. table 2. selection of filtered images with the 9 algorithms and the 2 methods of classification a lg or it h m /f il te r im ag e 1 f u zz y s u m im ag e 2 f u zz y s u m im ag e 3 f u zz y s u m im ag e 4 f u s u m a1 ✔✔✔✔ ✅✅✅✅ ✔✔✔✔ a2 ✔✔✔✔ ✔✔✔✔ a3 a4 ✔✔✔✔ ✔✔✔✔ a5 ✔✔✔✔ ✔✔✔✔ ✔✔✔✔ a6 ✔✔✔✔ ✅✅✅✅ ✅✅✅✅ a7 ✅✅✅✅ a8 ✔✔✔✔ ✔✔✔✔ a9 c) the classification stage the classification (malik, gautam, sahai, jha & singh, 2013) and ranking stage can be visualized in the figure 19, the summary of the filtered images is shown in table 3 and the pseudocode of the current step can be visualized in figure 18. the overall results show that the two selection criterion: fuzzy and aggregation indicate that the most efficient algorithm is a6 and according to each criterion there can be made certain decisions to choose the best filters for each situation. also, the results are influenced by the parameters set to calibrate the filtering, the fuzzy profiles, the weighted sum or the vicinity approach. m. l. costin efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images 23 sta rt/ read the .tiff file/ calculate correlation, bw ratio, gra y to bw ratio, rms,psnr no define the ideal fuzzy profile of the filter/ estimate the coefficients for the sum define each fuzzy filter profile calculate the matrix of distances to the ideal profile/ estimate the sum select the best fuzzy/sum filter calculate statistics for all the images of the set update statistics for each filter yes classification/ ranking of the filters stop figure 18. classification/ranking algorithm-pseudocode brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 table 3. sumary of the filtered images with the 9 algorithms and the 2 methods of classification filters/algorithms a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 a9 fuzzy 5 20 1 14 20 20 5 20 7 sum 1 4 2 3 2 11 5 1 6 dynamics of the filtered images 0 5 10 15 20 25 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 a9 fuzzy sum figure 19. dynamics of the filtered images with the 9 algorithms and the 2 methods of classification conclusions designing the model involved three major steps: defining the set of filters customized for our set of fingerprint images, defining the tools for the automatic selection of the best filter in each case and finally the classification after processing a set of images. in the annex were revealed in part the result of each filter and there evaluation and choosing the image that will be used in subsequent stages of research within the meaning of automating the entire process of identification based on fingerprints. as a continuation of the automation process there is intended to estimate the fuzzy and statistical parameters with more sophisticated methods like neural networks. acknowledgements this work was possible with the financial support of the sectorial operational program for human resources development 2007-2013, co-financed by the european social fund, under the project number posdru/159/1.5/s/132400 with the title „young researchers of success – professional development in the interdisciplinary and international context”. references a. gulhane and a. s. alvi (2012). noise reduction of an image by using function approximation techniques, international journal of soft computing and engineering (ijsce), vol.2, no. 1, 2012, pp.60-62. arias-castro, e., donoho, d. (2009). does median filtering truly preserve edges better than linear filtering?, the annals of statistics, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 1172–1206. bansal, u., saini, r., verma, a. (2015). new methodology for sp noise removal in digital image processing, international journal in foundations of computer science & technology (ijfcst), aircc publishing corporation, vol. 5, no. 1, pp.67-73. chan, r.h., ho, c.w., nikolova, m. (2005). salt-and-pepper noise removal by median-type noise detectors and detail-preserving regularization, ieee transactions on image processing, vol. 14, no. 10, pp. 1479-1485. drury, s. (2001). image interpretation in geology (3rd ed.), willey blackwell, pp.123-145. m. l. costin efficient filtering of noisy fingerprint images 25 f.a.jasim (2013). image denoising using interquartile range filter with local averaging, international journal of soft computing and engineering (ijsce), vol. 2, no. 6, pp.424-428. gonzalez, c., woods, r. e. (2002). digital image processing second edition, prentice-hall inc., pp. 148-213. hartman, j.m., kincaid, r.k. (2014). p-median problems with edge reduction, systems and information engineering design symposium (sieds), ieee, pp. 159-161. jantawan, b., tsai, c-f. (2014). a comparison of filter and wrapper approaches with data mining techniques for categorical variables selection, international journal of innovative research in computer and communication engineering, vol. 2, no. 6, 2014, pp.4501-4508. jensen, j.r. (1996). introductory digital image processing: a remote sensing perspective (2nd ed.), prentice-hall, 1996, pp. 153-172. kamboj, p., rani, p. (2013). image enhancement using hybrid filtering technique, international journal of science and research, ijsr, vol. 2, no.6, pp.214-220. lillesand, t.m., ralph w.k. (1994). remote sensing and image interpretation (3rd ed.|), john wiley and sons, pp. 585-618. liu, j., ma, w., lee, s-y., zang, d. (2007). a segmentation method based on dynamic programming for breast mass in mri images, icmb, pp.307-313. luo, w. (2006)/. efficient removal of impulse noise from digital images, consumer electronics, ieee transactions, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 523527. malik,v., gautam, a., sahai,a., jha, a., singh,a. (2013). satellite image classification using fuzzy logic, international journal of recent technology and engineering (ijrte), vol.2, no.2, 2013, pp.204-207 mendrok, k., kurowski, p. (2012). operational modal filter and its application, archive of applied mechanics, publisher springer-verlag, vol. 83, no. 4, pp. 509-519. nair, m.s., revathy, k., tatavarti, r. (2015). removal of salt and pepper noise in images: a new decision based algorithm, international journal in foundations of computer science & technology (ijfcst), vol.5, no.1, 2015, pp.67-73. oussalah, m., alakhras, m., hussein, m.i. (2015). multivariable fuzzy inference system for fingerprinting indoor localization, fuzzy sets and systems, vol.269, pp.65–89 q. huynh-thu, m. ghanbari (2008). scope of validity of psnr in image/video quality assessment, electronics letters, iet, pp. 800–801. s.j.sangwine, r.e.n. horne (1998). the colour image processing handbook, springer science+business media,b.v., pp.127-128. singh, b., singh, r. (2014). high density salt and pepper noise reduction in color images, international journal of computer science trends and technology (ijcst) – vol. 2, no. 2, 2014, pp. 33-40. suresh, b., santha kumari, t.,yashwanth,p., raghavendra, r.r. (2015)/ modified histogram based contrast enhancement using unsharp masking filter for medical images, international journal of research in computer and communication technology, vol. 4, no. 2, 2015, pp.137-140. brain_3_4_final 31 a critical look at the presentation, practice, production (ppp) approach: challenges and promises for elt parviz maftoon department of english, science and research branch, islamic azad university, hesarak, tehran, iran postal code: 1477893855, p.o.box 14515 – 755, tel. +98 311-6692696 pmaftoon@srbiau.ac.ir saeid najafi sarem department of english, science and research branch, islamic azad university, hesarak, tehran, iran postal code: 1477893855, p.o.box 14515 – 755, tel. +98 311-6692696 s_najafisarem@yahoo.com abstract english language teaching has left behind many ups and downs until the introduction of clt and tblt methodologies in recent years. much attempt has been made both by researchers and language instructors to make use of the most efficient teaching practices aimed at enhancing language production and affecting learning outcomes in a positive way. in the same direction, during 1950s an approach emerged in the united kingdom based on behaviorist teaching practices known as ppp, which soon popularized the field of language teaching and employed by many professional schools throughout the world. however, due to ignoring the communication as a main goal of language learning, this approach came under serious attacks and criticisms by various scholars from 1990s onwards. the present paper is an attempt to critically look at this issue from several perspectives: first, in order to know the three ps approach, this article will present its main characteristics and principles. second, it will elaborate on the main challenges and criticisms posed against this approach by various scholars. finally, the advantages of applying the three ps will be discussed as a useful teaching technique rather than an approach or method. also, the implications will be pointed out both for language teachers and learners. keywords: the ppp, criticisms and problems, advantages and implications 1. introduction before 1990s, the "three ps" approach to language teaching was referred to by some scholars as the most common modern methodology employed by professional schools around the world. it is a strong feature of the renowned celta certification and other tefl qualifications offered especially in the united kingdom (ludescher). according to harmer (2001, p. 86) “a variation on audiolingualism in british-based teaching and elsewhere is the procedure most often referred to as ppp which stands for presentation, practice, production,”. it follows the premise that knowledge becomes skill through successive practice and that language is learned in small chunks leading to the whole. this approach views accuracy as a precursor to fluency. as harmer (2001) maintains ppp has been recommended to trainee teachers as a useful teaching procedure from the 1960s onwards. ppp is a three-part teaching paradigm: presentation, practice and production; based on behaviorist theory which states that learning a language is just like learning any other skill. the high degree of teacher control which characterizes the first and second stages of this approach lessens as the class proceeds, allowing the learner to gradually move away from the teacher’s support towards more automatic production and understanding. (ur, 1996, p. 19) ppp uses a classic deductive approach with grammar being explicitly introduced in the presentation stage, the first part of the class, by the teacher. the target language (tl) for the day is chosen by the teacher from a syllabus of discrete language segments. material presented to the students is manipulated, or finely-tuned, to emphasize the tl and remove reference to other brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 language items which have yet to be presented. this is to allow students to concentrate on the tl without further distractions. (read 1985, p. 17, cited in carless, 2009, p. 51) according to richards and renandya (2002), many traditional approaches to language teaching are based on a focus on grammatical form and a cycle of activities that involves presentation of new language item, practice of the item under controlled conditions, and a production phase in which the learners try out the form in a more communicative context. this has been referred to as the p.p.p. approach and it forms the basis of such traditional methods of teaching as audiolingualism and the structural-situational approach. as willis and willis (1996, cited in richards & rodgers, 2001) state a lesson plan based on ppp should have three phases as follows: � presentation stage: the teacher begins the lesson by setting up a situation, either eliciting or modeling some language that the situation calls for. presentation may consist of model sentences, short dialogues illustrating target items, either read from the textbook, heard on the tape or acted out by the teacher. � practice stage: students practice the new language in a controlled way. they drill sentences or dialogues by repeating after the teacher or the tape, in chorus and individually, until they can say them correctly. other practice activities are matching parts of sentences, completing sentences or dialogues and asking and answering questions using the target language. � production stage: students are encouraged to use the new language in a freer way, either for their own purposes and meanings or in a similar context introduced by the teacher. it can be a role play, a simulation activity or a communication task. byrne (1986) also notes that the sequence does not have to be followed rigidly, and that depending on the level of the students, their needs and the teaching materials being used, it would also be possible to move from production to presentation to practice. ppp, in thornbury’s (1999) view, has a logic that is appealing to teachers and learners in that it reflects a notion of practice makes perfect, common in many skills; it allows the teacher to control the content and pace of the lesson; and as skehan (2003) remarks, it provides a clear teacher role, in accordance with power relations often found in classrooms. being familiar with the main features and principles of this approach, in the following section, we will review a number of criticisms which have been mentioned in the literature by various scholars. finally, in the last part of this paper the researcher tries to focus on the advantages associated with ppp and introduce it as a good teaching technique to be utilized by language instructors in many situations. 2. problems with ppp knowing the features and principles of ppp, it should be mentioned that in spite of its popularity for some time in the field of language teaching, from the 1990s onwards, this approach came under sustained attack from academics. some of the major problems associated with it are mentioned here. based on ellis (2003), ppp views language as a series of products that can be acquired sequentially as accumulated entities. however, sla research has shown that learners do not acquire a language in this way. rather they construct a series of systems, known as interlanguages, which are gradually grammaticized and restructured as learners incorporate new features. furthermore, research on developmental sequences has shown that learners pass through a series of transitional stages in acquiring a specific grammatical feature such as negatives, often taking months or even years before they arrive at the target form of the rule. in other words, l2 acquisition is a process that is incompatible with teaching seen as the presentation and practice of a series of products. ppp is seen as lacking a firm basis in second language acquisition (sla) theory; being too linear and behaviorist in nature, so failing to account for learners’ stages of developmental readiness (ellis, 2003); and is thus unlikely to lead to the successful acquisition of taught forms (skehan, 1996). p. maftoon, j. hamidi, s. n. sarem the effects of call on vocabulary learning: a case of iranian intermediate efl learners 33 richards and rodgers (2001, p. 246) mention that there are practical problems with ppp as well. clearly, the production stage calls for grammar tasks, that is, tasks that will elicit the feature that is the target of the lesson. however, it is not easy to design tasks that require learners to use a targeted structure, as learners can always fall back on their strategic competence to by-pass it. the practice stage of the ppp paradigm in particular has attracted a lot of criticism. to summarize the vast amount that has been written, it is seen to be time-consuming (ellis 1988), under tight control from the teacher and therefore rigid (willis, 1990, p. 151), inflexible and lacking the ability to adapt to the ever-changing classroom situation (scrivener, 1996, p.80), and of no use to students’ learning processes (lewis, 1993, p.151). willis stresses that it is conformity, not communication, being practiced. also he explains that teaching grammar as discrete items, with fixed rules will serve only to confuse students once they encounter more complex grammar which will not fit the prototype they have been shown (willis, 1990, p. 4). skehan (1996) points out that such a sequence does not reflect principles of second language acquisition: the underlying theory for a ppp approach has now been discredited. the belief that a precise focus on a particular form leads to learning and automatization (that learners will learn what is taught in the order in which it is taught) no longer carries much credibility in linguistics or psychology. (skehan, 1996, p. 18). in other words, as skehan (1996) contends, language learning does not occur in a linear fashion influenced directly by the instruction that takes place. instead, it is a multifaceted complex process in which many factors including learners’ cognitive and affective characteristics are influentional. it also seems to assume that, in this teaching method, students learn “in straight lines” that is starting from no knowledge, through highly restricted sentence-based utterances and onto immediate production. yet human learning probably is not like that; it is more random, more complicated, and full of interlocking variables and systems. (woodward, 1993, p. 3, cited in harmer, 2001, p. 82). lewis (1993) suggested that ppp was inadequate because it reflected neither the nature of language nor the nature of learning. this criticism seems to be quite logical in that the learners are required to merely mimic a model in a fixed linear order without paying attention to the inherent complexities of the language itself as well the teaching/learning process. scrivener (1996) even wrote that it is fundamentally disabling, not enabling. later, however, scrivener advanced what is perhaps the most worrying aspect of ppp, the fact that it: only describes one kind of lesson; it is inadequate as a general proposal concerning approaches to language in the classroom. it entirely fails to describe the many ways in which teachers can work when, for example, using course books, or when adopting a task-based approach. (p. 79) as was noted, practice comprises one of the basic principles of this approach which follows presentation. however, based on lightbown (1985), sla research demonstrates that practice does not necessarily lead to perfection. this criticism seems to be quite reasonable in that by having students merely practice a language structure, one cannot expect them to learn and internalize that language structure. rather, students need to be provided with feedback by their teachers in order to diagnose the problematic areas to work more and to identify their strength in order to build up their later practices on its basis. another problem associated with this approach, according to wong and van patten (2003) is that it relies heavily on the use of decontextualized and meaningless drills. a set of structural patterns in forms of language chunks are presented to the learners as models and learners have to produce them through pattern practice and repetition. finally, according to harmer (2001) it is teacher-centered and fits uneasily with more humanistic learner-centered frameworks. according to o’hara (2003, cited zhang & atkin, 2010) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 in humanistic education the goal of education is the facilitation of change and learning. learning how to learn is more important than being taught something from the “superior” vantage point of a teacher who unilaterally decides what shall be taught. brown (2007) remarks that, in humanistic learner-centered methodologies, teachers as facilitators must provide the nurturing context for learners to construct their meanings in interaction with others. these principles are clearly in contrast with the main premises of the ppp approach in which teachers are the authority and the model while the learners are considered as merely the passive recipients and practitioners of readymade plans. due to these criticisms and problems mentioned above, as richards and renandya (2002) maintain, this approach was gradually replaced in the 1980s by teaching methods which focused on communication (rather than grammar) as the key dimension of learning and teaching. early models of communicative language teaching used functional units of organization and practice to replace grammatical ones; more recently, however, the unit of task has been proposed as an alternative to other units of presentation or practice. these shifts of focus also had a significant influence on language syllabi. after the 1970s, grammatical syllabuses were superseded by communicative ones based on functions or tasks; grammar-based methodologies such as presentation-practice-production (ppp) lesson format underlying the situational approach gave way to function-and skill-based teaching syllabi; and accuracy activities such as drills and grammar practice were replaced by fluency activities based on interactive-small group work. (richards & renandya, 2002). 3. concluding remarks as was discussed through this paper the ppp popularized as an approach or teaching model during 1950s and1960s underlying such teaching methodologies as grammar-translation, audiolingual and situational teaching method. the main purpose behind this method was to raise language learners capable of producing grammatical language chunks through excessive pattern practice and repetition drills. with communication coming to be noticed as the major goal of language learning, a great number of criticisms were posed against this approach. however, like any other teaching methodology, certain advantages can be sought within this method which may recommend the three ps approach as a good choice to be utilized in certain circumstances. this approach, based on richards and rodgers (2001) solve many of the problems beginning teachers have to struggle with, because many of the basic decisions about what to teach and how to teach it have already been made for them. the ppp prescriptions of present, practice, and produce “offers to the novice teacher the reassurance of a detailed set of sequential steps to follow in the classroom” (richards & rodgers, 2001, p. 246). harmer (1998) in his article, default settings: what models do for trainees, mentions that novice teachers and trainees, need clear models, just as computer users rely, initially, on default settings. he believes that default settings are a good metaphor for the role of the trainer in preservice training where trainees are offered a clear model or models to hang onto and from which they can develop and grow. the default setting that has most commonly been applied to pre-service training is, of course, ppp (harmer, 1998). based on carless (2009) low achieving students probably learn better through traditional methods, such as p-p-p. the ppp, based on the used terminology throughout the whole article, has been referred to in the literature mostly as an approach or teaching method; however, what seems to be the reality is that it can be utilized as a useful technique with a variety of teaching methodologies from the audiolingual to the most common types of communicative approaches. for instance, regardless of the method used it can be utilized as a helpful technique with beginning learners and in teaching pronunciation. in terms of explaining grammar, this technique is clear-cut and condensed, through which the main points can be taught easily. students are normally weak in grammar so we need to use p-p-p to help them improve their grammatical accuracy. p. maftoon, j. hamidi, s. n. sarem the effects of call on vocabulary learning: a case of iranian intermediate efl learners 35 according to lindsay and knight (2006) even many clt classrooms used a ppp model of teaching, but the original model has been developed and modified since it was first introduced and no longer represents clt as the only teaching model. evans (2008) agreed that “ppp has evolved over the years, cherry picking the more attractive elements of other approaches, and incorporating them into its basic format” (p. 22). swan (2005) defends p-p-p as a useful routine for presenting and practicing structural features under semi-controlled conditions. in spite of the emphasis on meaning and on real world communication rather than grammar and hence the emergence of communicative approaches and most recently the task-based language teaching, to our surprise, some scholars move back to old ppp practices and see it as advantageous and superior. eric, an authoritative writer on tblt, remarks: task-based teaching is complex for teachers to get their heads round and also complex to implement. even if you are an informed and committed devotee it would still be difficult to implement. it is easy to get your head around p-p-p because the psycholinguistic theory (if there is such a thing) is simple: practice makes perfect. and you have the immense advantage that you can teach a p-p-p approach simply by following the textbook. a big advantage of a p-p-p approach is that it denies differences between learners; it licenses you to downplay those differences. in contrast, for tblt you have to get your head round a theory that has not yet been fully articulated. a further challenge for a task-based approach is that it forces you to confront the way learners are at different levels and you need to have a methodology that allows you to respond to diversity in your classroom. so a task-based approach forces a teacher to confront difficult problems that are currently not solvable. (cited in carless, 2009, p. 59) moreover gladys (cited in carless, 2009, p. 61) commented as follows: teachers dare not take the risk of bringing new things into the classroom, the risk of getting worse results. they stick to the methods that have been used in the past, whatever results have been achieved they dare not take the risk unless you can show them that tblt works. to conclude this paper, most of the articles available in the literature have dealt with the problems and deficiencies of ppp as an old approach leading to the old methods of gtm and audiolingualism. however, what is true is that ppp can be regarded as a useful technique utilized even in communicative approaches and bearing many advantages as were discussed in the aforementioned sentences. references [1] brown, h. d. (2007). principles of language learning and teaching. (5th, [2] ed.).white plains, ny: pearson education. [3] byrne, d. (1986). teaching oral english. harlow: longman. [4] carless, d. (2009). revisiting the tblt versus p-p-p debate: voices from hong kong. asian journal of english language teaching, 19, 49–66. [5] ellis, r. (1988). the role of practice in classroom learning. aila review, 5, 20-39. [6] ellis, r. (2003). task-based language learning and teaching. oxford: oxford university press. [7] evans, d. (2008). review of ppp. retrieved may 2, 2012 from www.cels.bham.ac.uk/resources/essays/evanssla.pdf. [8] harmer, j. (1998). default settings: what models do for trainees. paper presented at the proceedings of the 11th annual ea education conference. melbourne: melbourne exhibition centre. [9] harmer, j. (2001). the practice of english language teaching. london: pearson education limited. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 [10] lewis, m. (1993) the lexical approach: the state of elt and the way forward. hove: language teaching publications. [11] lightbown, p. (1985). great expectations: second-language acquisition research and classroom teaching. applied linguistics, 6, 173-89. [12] lindsay, c., & knight, p. (2006). learning and teaching english. oxford: oxford university press. [13] penny, u. (1996). a course in language teaching: practice and theory. cambridge: cambridge university press. [14] richards, j. c., & renandya, w. a. (2002). methodology in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. [15] richards, j. c., & rodgers, t. s. (2001). approaches and methods in language teaching. london: cambridge university press. [16] scrivener, j. (1996). arc: a descriptive model for classroom work on language. in j. willis, & d. willis, (eds.), challenge and change in language teaching (pp. 79-92). oxford: macmillan heinemann english language teaching. [17] skehan, p. (1996). second language acquisition research and task-based instruction. in j. willis & d. willis (eds.), challenge and change in language [18] teaching (pp. 17–30). oxford: heinemann. [19] skehan, p. (2003). task-based instruction. language teaching, 36, 1–14. [20] swan, m. (2005). legislation by hypothesis: the case of task-based instruction. [21] applied linguistics, 26(3), 376–401. [22] thornbury, s. (1999). how to teach grammar. harlow: longman. [23] willis, d. (1990). the lexical syllabus: a new approach to language teaching. london: collins cobuild. [24] wong, h., & van patten, b. (2003). the best english: a claim for the superiority of received standard english. society for pure english, 39, 603-21. [25] zhang, l., & atkin, c. (2010). conceptualizing humanistic competence in the language classroom by tjp a chinese case. international education studies, 3(4), 121-127. doi:10.1177/088840649401700203. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 89 state of the art: solution concepts for coalitional games simina brânzei david r. cheriton school of computer science university of waterloo waterloo, n2l 3g1,ontario, canada sbranzei@uwaterloo.ca abstract this paper investigates solution concepts for coalitional games. several solution concepts are characterized, such as the core, shapley value, bargaining set, stable set, nucleolus, and kernel. we look at recent developments of succinct representations of coalitional games, such as weighted voting games, coalitional resource games, cooperative boolean games, and marginal contribution nets. existing solution concepts have prohibitive complexity requirements even for very simple classes of games. we discuss an agenda for finding an equilibrium solution concept that is as appealing as the core, but that is tractable and guaranteed to exist. keywords: theory, coalitions, solution concepts, multiagent systems 1. introduction coalitional (or cooperative) games study how groups of self interested players interact to accomplish more together than they could achieve individually. these interactions are modeled using a set of players, a set of actions, and a preference profile over the joint outcomes. while the players have to cooperate to achieve the outcomes that they want, their reasoning is always selfinterested and they seek the actions most likely to bring the highest possible payoff (utility) for themselves. solution concepts describe, in each game, the set of outcomes believed to arise based on the type of reasoning employed by the players. coalitional solution concepts are often universal, i.e. applicable to all types of coalitional games, and attempt to ensure some form of stability. no matter how good an outcome is for the society at large, it may not be enforced if several players can become rich by deviating. in general, there exists a tension between outcomes that are beneficial for social welfare and outcomes that are stable. in this paper we are mainly concerned with stability. the rest of the paper is structured as follows. section 2 mentions the terms and notations useful when discussing solution concepts. sections 3 through 11 introduce several solution concepts for coalitional games. section 12 is a survey of recent classes of games and their complexity results with respect to solution concepts. section 13 contains an agenda for finding an equilibrium concept for coalitional games that is tractable and guaranteed to exist. 2. preliminaries coalitional game theory focuses on what groups of players can achieve. because of the cooperation required for the players to achieve their goals, there is a need to predict the outcomes of these games with solution concepts that explicitely take the cooperation into account. we first consider the class of transferable utility coalitional games, in which the payoff of a coalition is given and the agents negotiate with each other to divide the payoff. a coalitional game with transferable utility (tu) is a pair (n, v) where n represents the set of players and v is a valuation function v : 2n → r that associates with each coalition s ⊂ n a real value v(n) that the coalition members can freely redistribute among themselves. the set n is also know as the grand coalition and the value v(∅) is zero by default. the function v is also known as a characteristic function and the game (n, v) is said to be in characteristic function form. a coalition s is a subset of players from n. the players are self-interested and attempt to maximize their own payoff (or utility). a coalitional game with nontransferable utility (ntu) is a pair (n, v) where n is a finite set of players indexed by i and v : 2n → 2r|s| is a map that associates to each coalition s ⊂ n a subset v(s) ∈ r|s| of attainable payoff vectors. ntu coalitional games specify exactly what divisions of brainstorming s. brânzei state of the art: solution concepts for coalitional games 90 payoff are allowed and forbid all the other payoff divisions. the class of tu coalitional games is a subset of the class of ntu coalitional games. a tu coalitional game (n, v) can be specified as the ntu game (n, v), where v(s) = { x ∈ r|n| such that ∑i∈s xi = v(s) and xj = 0 if j ∉ s }. we introduce several classes of coalitional games that are useful when discussing solution concepts. a game (n, v) is superadditive if for all coalitions s, t ⊂ n such that s ∩ t =∅, v(s ∪ t) ≥ v(s) + v(t). a game (n, v) is additive if for all coalitions s, t ⊂ n such that s ∩ t =∅, v(s ∪ t) = v(s) + v(t). a game (n, v) is constant-sum if for any coalition s ⊂ n, v(s) + v(n\s) = v(n). a game (n, v) is convex if for all s, t ⊂ n such that s ∩ t =∅, the following inequality holds: v(s ∪ t) ≥ v(s) + v(t) – v(s ∩ t). a game (n, v) is simple if for all coalitions s ⊂ n, v(s) ∈ {0, 1}. a coalition s in a simple game is said to be winning if v(s) = 1 and losing if v(s) = 0. given a coalitional game (n, v), a payoff vector x in rn is feasible if ∑i∈n xi ≤ v(n). that is, no payoff structure can promise the players more utility than the worth of the grand coalition n. a payoff structure is individually rational if any player receives under that payoff structure at least as much utility as they could obtain on their own. that is, for any player i, the inequality xi ≥ v({i}) holds. this is an important requirement in a game since it states that players cannot be forced to accept outcomes that are worse than what they could obtain on their own. the sum ∑i∈s xi is denoted by x(s). a payoff structure is coalitionally rational if for any coalition s ⊂ n it is the case that x(s) ≥ v(s). the pre-imputation set, p, is defined as {x ∈∈ rn such that ∑i∈n xi = v(n)}. the pre-imputations are those payoff structures that are efficient, i.e. distribute completely the payoff of the grand coalition. the imputation set i is defined as {x ∈ p such that xi ≥ vi}. the imputation set consists of those pre-imputations that respect individual rationality. given a set of outcomes, a change from one outcome to another that makes at least one player better off without making any other player worse off is called a pareto improvement. the set of outcomes where no pareto improvements can be made are said to be pareto efficient (or optimal). the social welfare is the sum of utilities of all the players for a given outcome. it is not always the case that outcomes that maximize social welfare are also stable or viceversa. in the game theoretic literature it is usually assumed that the grand coalition forms in equilibrium and the only problem to be solved is the division of payoffs among the players. this assumption is correct in superadditive games, where the addition of any player to a coalition brings positive utility for that coalition. however, it no longer holds in non-superadditive settings, where there may be negative interactions that prevent the players from forming the grand coalition. we will later look at games equipped with coalition structure, i.e. possible partitions of the set of players. 3. the core the core is one of the oldest and best known stability solution concepts in coalitional games. a payoff structure belongs to the core if no group of players can deviate from the current payoff structure and obtain a better utility for themselves by doing so. a payoff vector x is s-feasible if x(s) = v(s), where x(s) = ∑i∈s xi. a payoff vector is feasible if it is n-feasible. formally, the core of a tu coalitional game is the set {x ∈ p such that there is no coalition s and s-feasible payoff vector y such that yi > xi for all i ∈ s }. a slightly different version of the core is given by the set {x ∈ p such that there is no coalition s and payoff structure y ∈ v(s) with yi ≥ xi for all i ∈ s, and yj > xj for at least one player j }. that is, a coalition s can block if it does not degrade any of its members and strictly improves at least one player. this core is also known as the strong core, since it relaxes the conditions for blocking and is therefore more likely to be empty. the strong core is contained in the "weak" core, previously defined. the ntu core has a similar definition to the tu core. the core of the ntu game (n, v) is the set {x ∈ v(n) such that there exists no coalition s and payoff structure y ∈ v(s) such that yi > xi for all i ∈ s}. a deviating group of players is called a blocking coalition (for that allocation). from brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 91 the point of rationality, the core is the set of allocations that respect both individual and coalitional rationality. the following three player majority game has a nonempty core, depending on the value of a parameter. assume that three players can get together one unit of profit, and two of them can obtain α ∈ [0, 1] independently of the actions of the third. a single player gets nothing. formally, the game is the pair (n, v), where n = {1, 2, 3}, v(n) = 1, v(s) = α for |s| = 2, and v({i}) = 0 for any player i ∈ {1,2,3}. the core of the game is given by the set of payoff vectors (x1, x2, x3) such that xi ≥ 0, x(n) = 1 and x(s) ≥ α whenever |s| = 2. the core is nonempty if and only if α ≤ 2/3. as the examples illustrate, the core can be empty. this is problematic, because in empty core instances there is no way to divide the payoff without having some players deviate. the core can also be too large, case in which it leaves the payoff decision problem open. in both cases, other mechanisms such as contracts or social norms have to be used to enforce an outcome. there exist several approaches for guaranteeing nonemptiness of the core, such as identifying constraints that the game should satisfy, or relaxing the definition of the core itself. non-additive constant-sum games always have an empty core. on the other hand, convex games always have a nonempty core. more generally, the bondareva-shapley theorem gives necessary and sufficient conditions for the core to exist. a set λ of non-negative weights over 2n is balanced if for any player i ∈ n, ∑i∈s λ(s) = 1. a game (n, v) is balanced if and only if v(n) ≥ ∑s ⊂ n λ(s) v(s) for every balanced set of weights λ. the theorem (bondareva-shapley) states that a tu coalitional game has a nonempty core if and only if it is balanced. to give some intuition into the notion of balancedness, consider that each player has a unit of time, which they can freely distribute among coalitions that they are a member of. for a coalition s to be active for a fraction of time λ(s), it must be that all of its members are active in s for that fraction of time. in that case, coalition s obtains a payoff of λ(s)v(s). thus the condition of balanced weights requires that players don't allocate more time than they have. the game is balanced if no feasible allocation of time yields more than the value of the grand coalition v(n). the bondareva-shapley theorem does not completely eliminate the difficulty of recognizing empty core games. in many ntu settings there is no obvious way of using the balancedness condition. perhaps more importantly, knowing that a game has a nonempty core does not automatically give an algorithm for searching the core elements. indeed, searching the core by brute force translates into enumerating all game configurations and checking the existence of a blocking coalition for each such configuration. in many games, even clever enumeration algorithms are still exponential because the problem of finding a blocking coalition itself is np-hard. another direction for obtaining existence of the core is to refine its definition. 4. extensions of the core: epsilon-core, core cover, reasonable set, weber set the epsilon-core requires that the players have sufficient incentives in order to deviate. that is, any blocking coalition must guarantee each of its players at least ε more payoff than they are currently getting. equivalently, a payoff vector x is in the epsilon-core of the game (n, v) if and only if for any coalition s ⊂ n, ∑i∈ s xi ≥ v(s) – ε. a variation of the epsilon-core can be obtained by requiring that a blocking coalition must guarantee each of its players at least ε more payoff than they are currently getting. for ε = 0, the two cores coincide. for ε positive, the epsilon-core is more likely to exist. for example, setting ε = ∞ ensures that any configuration is in the epsilon-core, since the cost of deviating is prohibitive. the nonempty epsilon-core obtained for the smallest value of ε is known as the least core. three sets related to the core are the core cover, the reasonable set, and the weber set ([5]). all of these sets contain the core as a subset. we first introduce some definitions required for defining them. the marginal contribution of a player i to a coalition s is mi(s) = v(s) – v(s\{i}). the marginal contribution is the amount by which the value of the coalition s would decrease if player i were to leave the coalition. s. brânzei state of the art: solution concepts for coalitional games 92 the upper vector m of a game (n, v) contains at every coordinate i the marginal contribution mi(n) of the player i to the grand coalition. this value is also known as the utopia payoff. if player i requires more than mi(n), then it is always better for the other players to throw i out. given nonempty coalition s and player i, let the remainder r(s, i) be the amount which remains for player i if all the other players in s receive their utopia payoffs: r(s, i) = v(s) ∑ j ∈ s \{i} mj (n). the lower vector m of a game (n, v) contains at every coordinate i the value: mi = max s : i ∈ s r(s, i). the value mi is the minimum right payoff for player i in the grand coalition. this player has the right to ask at least mi since otherwise he can threaten to form the blocking coalition s, where i would receive mi by allowing all the other players in s to get their utopia payoffs. the core cover cc(n, v) is the set of all imputations contained between the lower vector and the upper vector. that is, cc(n, v) = { x ∈ i such that m ≤ x ≤ m }. the reasonable set is defined as: r(n, v) = {x ∈ rn such that v(i) ≤ xi ≤ max s : i ∈ s [v(s) – v(s\{i}]}. the reasonable set satisfies three axioms: symmetry, covariance, and monotonicity ([6]). symmetry states that a reasonable outcome should not differentiate by players' names. covariance requires that if a game is rescaled by changing the unit and the 0-value payoffs, the outcome should be rescaled accordingly. monotonicity requires that players with larger marginal contributions receive higher payoffs. the weber set is defined using marginal contribution vectors. let π(n) be the set of all permutations σ : n → n. the set pσ(i) = { k ∈ n such that σ-1(k) < σ-1(i) } consists of all the predecessors of i with respect to permutation σ-. the marginal contribution vector mσ ∈ rn with respect to σ has entries mσi = v(pσ(i) ∪ {i}) – v(pσ(i)), for each player i. for example, mσσ(1) = v(σ(1)), mσσ(2) = v(σ(1), σ(2)) – v(σ(1)), ..., mσσ(k) = v(σ(1), ... σ(k)) – v(σ(1), ... σ(k)), for every k ∈ n. the weber set is the convex hull of all the marginal contribution vectors, corresponding to all the permutations of n. the payoff vector mσ described above can be computed by allowing the players to enter the coalition in the order σ(1), ..., σ(n). then each player is given the marginal contribution that he creates by entering in this order. the weber set is characterized axiomatically by additivity, null (or dummy) player, efficiency, and monotonicity([7]). additivity requires that the payoff obtained by combining two disjoint coalitions is the sum of their separate worth. a null player has zero marginal contribution in any coalition and he should always receive zero. efficiency requires that the total gains are distributed. monotonicity has been introduced in the axioms for the reasonable set. it is interesting to observe that for the class of convex games, the core and the weber set coincide. the weber set is closely related to the shapley value, which we introduce next. 5. the shapley value the shapley value is another axiomatic solution concept. it is unique among the solution concepts presented so far in that it always exists and contains exactly one point. the axioms characterizing the shapley value are efficiency, symmetry, null player, and additivity. again, efficiency requires that the worth of the grand coalition is distributed: ∑i∈ s xi = v(n). symmetry states that interchangeable players should receive equal payoff, where two players are interchangeable if they have the same marginal contribution to every coalition. the shapley value is the unique solution concept satisfying these four axioms. the shapley value of player i in game (n, v) is: φi = 1/n! ∑s ⊆ n \ {i} |s|! (|n| |s| 1)! [v(s ∪ {i}) – v(s)]. intuitively, the shapley value captures the average marginal contribution of player i over all the possible orders in which the grand coalition could have been constructed. in convex games, the shapley value is a member of the core. when the shapley value is not in the core, it is possible that although the payoff division satisfies good properties, the players may refuse to stay in those configurations. in other words, the shapley value does not satisfy coalitional rationality and certain groups of players may deviate if it is in their best interest to do so. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 93 osborne and rubinstein ([4]) describe an equivalent formulation of the shapley value in terms of objections and counterobjections. first let (n, v) be a tu coalitional game. for each coalition s ⊂ n, define the subgame (s, vs) be a tu coalitional game such that vs(t) = v(t) for any t ⊆ s. let φ be a feasible payoff function. an objection of player i against player j to the division x of v(n) could take one of the following forms: • "give me more since otherwise i shall leave the game, causing you to obtain φj(n \ {i}, vn \ {i}), which is smaller than your current payoff by xj φj(n \ {i}, vn \ {i})." • "give me more since otherwise i shall convince the other players to exclude you from the game, allowing me to obtain φi(n \ {j}, vn \ {j}), which is larger than my current payoff by φi(n \ {j}, vn \ {j}) – xi." • player j could counteract the first objection by asserting: • "indeed, if you leave i will lose something, but if i leave, you will lose at least as much: xi φi(n \ {j}, vn \ {j}) ≥ xj φj(n \ {i}, vn \ {i}). • player j could counteract the second objection by asserting: • "indeed, by excluding me you will gain something, but i can exclude you and gain at least as much by doing that: φj(n \ {i}, vn \ {i}) – xj ≥ φi(n \ {j}, vn \ {j}) – xi." the shapley value is required to satisfy the property that for every objection of any player i against j, there exists a counterobjection of player j. this requirement is equivalent to the balanced contributions property which states that for every tu coalitional game (n, v), φi(n, v) – φi(n \ {j}, vn \ {j}) = φj(n, v) – φi(n \ {i}, vn \ {i}). the shapley value is the unique solution concept that satisfies the balanced contributions property. 6. the τ-value and the compromise value the τ-value was introduced by tijs ([11]) and is defined on quasi-balanced games. a game (n, v) is quasi-balanced if m ≤ m and ∑i=1,n mi ≤ v(n) ≤ ∑i=1,n mi, where m and m are the lower and upper vectors, respectively. the τ-value for a quasi-balanced game (n, v) is the point in the closed interval [m, m] ∈ rn given by τ = m + λm. the parameter λ ∈ r is uniquely chosen such that ∑i ∈ n τi = v(n). the τ-value is the unique value that satisfies efficiency, restricted proportionality, and the minimal right property([12]) and it always exists. we have already introduced efficiency. the minimal right property states that any player i should receive at least its lower vector value, mi. the restricted proportionality axiom states that the τ-value is proportional to m if the lower vector is zero (mi = 0 for all i ∈ n). the τ-value satisfies a few more properties ([14]): individual rationality, null player, symmetry, and covariance. an example of the τ-value is given for the following game. let (n, v) be such that n = {1, 2, 3} and v({1}) = v({2}) = 0, v({3}) = v({1, 2}) = 100, v({1, 3}) = 200, v({2, 3}) = 300, v(n) = 400. the upper vector for this game is m = (100, 200, 300). the lower vector m1 = max { v({1}) – m2(n), v({1, 3}) – m3(n), v(n) – m2(n) – m3(n) } = max { 0, -100, -100, -100 } = 0. similarly, it can be verified that m2 = 0 and m3 = 100. then the τ-value is the vector τ = (0, 0, 100) + λ(100, 200, 200), where λ is chosen such that ∑i ∈ n τi = 400. this gives λ = 3/5 and so the τ-value is τ=(60, 120, 220). the compromise value is defined on the class of compromise admissible ntu games([14]). the lower and upper vectors can be defined on ntu games similarly to the tu setting. it can be proved that if (n, v) is an ntu game with nonempty core, then any payoff vector x in the core of the game satisfies the inequality m ≤ x ≤ m. for each nonempty coalition s, the set dom(s) = { x ∈ r|s| such that x < y for some y ∈ v(s) }. the payoffs in dom(s) are, in some sense, the best possible for coalition s, since there is no payoff vector y that would make everyone in s happier. an ntu game (n, v) is compromise admissible if m ≤ m, m ∈ v(n), and m ∉ dom(n). for a compromise admissible ntu game, the compromise value t is the unique point on the line between m and m s. brânzei state of the art: solution concepts for coalitional games 94 which lies in v(n) (i.e. t is allowed by the ntu game specification) and is nearest to the utopia payoff m. formally, the compromise value is t = m + α* (m – m), where α* = max { α ∈ [0, 1] such that m + α (m – m) ∈ v(n) }. the compromise value is the equivalent formulation of the τvalue on quasi-balanced tu games. 7. the stable set the stable set, also known as the von neumann-morgenstern solution, was initially proposed for two player games. the main idea behind this solution concept is that a coalition s that is unhappy with the current payoff structure should be able to object, by threatening to implement credible payoffs which are better for all the members of s. an imputation x is an objection of the coalition s to imputation y if xi > yi for all players i ∈ s and x(s) ≤ v(s). in this case, imputation x is said to dominate imputation y via coalition s. observe that the core is the set of all imputations to which there exists no objection. we introduce two notions of stability that will be used to define the stable set. a set of imputations y satisfies internal stability if no imputation y ∈ y has an objection via some coalition s. a set of imputations y satisfies external stability if for any imputation z � y, there exists an objection y ∈ y. a stable set is a set of imputations that satisfy internal and external stability. each stable set can be interpreted as acceptable behaviours in society. no acceptable behaviour is preferred to another, and for every unacceptable behaviour there exists an acceptable alternative. while a game has only one core, it may have more than one stable set, none of which are subsets of each other. however, the core is a subset of any stable set and if the core is a stable set itself, then it is the only one. the stable set may also be empty. an example of a game with a stable set is the following three player majority game. let (n, v) be such that n = {1, 2, 3} and v(s) = 1 for |s| ≥ 2 and v(s) = 0 otherwise. a stable set for this game is y = {(½, ½, 0), (½, 0, ½), (0, ½, ½)}. equality is preferred when sharing the available unit. 8. the bargaining set the bargaining set was proposed by aumann and maschler and is defined similarly to the shapley value, in terms of individual objections and counterobjections. consider a pair (y, s), where s is a coalition and y is a payoff vector feasible from the point of view of s, i.e. ∑i∈s xi ≤ v(s). • (y, s) is an objection of player i against j to payoff x if s includes i but not j and yk > xk for all k ∈ s. that is, player i can find a coalition s that excludes j, and by doing so guarantees a better payoff for all the players in s, including i. • (z, t) is a counterobjection to objection (y, s) if z is a payoff vector feasible for t, coalition t includes player j but not i, zk ≥ xk for all k ∈ t and zk ≥ yk for all k ∈ s ∩ t. that is, player j can counterbalance i's objection by finding a coalition t that excludes i, to which j can guarantee a better payoff than they are currently being offered. the bargaining set of a tu game (n, v) is the set of imputations x such that for every objection (y, s) to x of any player i against any player j, there exists a counterobjection (z, t) that j can make. the core is a subset of the bargaining set, and for convex games they coincide. unlike the core, the bargaining set is always nonempty. in the three player majority game, the bargaining set is the vector y = {(1/3, 1/3, 1/3)}. it can be verified that every individual objection has a counterobjection. there exist several variations on the classical aumann-maschler bargaining set. observe that the core consists of payoff structures to which there exist no objections. however, the core does not asses the credibility of these objections. the bargaining set can be seen as a solution concept that addresses this credibility problem, by stipulating that an objection is justified only when it has no counterobjections. this requirement makes blocking harder and stabilizes the game, ensuring that the bargaining set is always nonempty. mas-colell([9]) proposes a modified version of the bargaining set in which the counterobjections must also be verified for their credibility. dutta et al brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 95 ([8]) generalize this idea to a chain of objections, in which the credibility of each objection is challenged. a terminating object for a chain of objections is an objection to which there exists no counterobjection. since the number of coalitions is finite, it follows that each chain must eventually terminate. this fact is used to assess the validity of the original objection. the consistent bargaining set is the set of payoff structures with no valid objections. bennet ([16]) introduces the aspiration bargaining set. the aspiration approach to coalition formation asks the following question: given a payoff vector x, when can player i view his component xi as potentially attainable? player i could view xi as potentially attainable if there is a coalition s containing i which can afford x, that is x(s) ≤ v(s). a payoff vector x in which each player i can view their payoff xi as potentially attainable is called an anticipation. formally, payoff vector x is an anticipation for the game (n, v) if for every player i ∈ n, there exists a coalition s such that x(s) ≤ v(s). anticipations are not always rational outcomes. for example, in some games an anticipation can be the zero vector, in which every player receives payoff xi = 0. however, the self interest of the players is likely to lead to higher anticipations whenever possible. consider the situation during negotiations where some coalition s has a surplus of payoff after each player received xi, i.e. v(s) > x(s). it would be reasonable to expect that the payoff anticipations would increase until there was no longer a surplus, and anticipations with no surplus are called aspirations. anticipation x is an aspiration if for every anticipation vector y and coalition s that satisfies yj > xj and yi ≥ xi, for all i and some j in s, it follows that y(s) > v(s). not all aspirations are reasonable. if given payoff structure x and two players i, j ∈ s such that every coalition s � i that can realize x also contains j, then player i needs j to realize payoff xi. however, if j can obtain xj without player i, then i is in a vulnerable position with respect to j, and player j can argue that they should receive more payoff. an aspiration in which no player is vulnerable is called a bargaining aspiration, and the set of all bargaining aspirations is called the aspiration bargaining set. the aspiration bargaining set can also be defined for ntu games ([17]). 9. the kernel the kernel was introduced by davis and maschler. given an imputation x of the tu coalitional game (n, v), let e(s, x) = v(s) – x(s) be the excess of the coalition s at x. if the excess is positive, then coalition s must sacrifice the amount e(s, x) to have imputation x implemented. if the excess is negative, then e(s, x) is the bonus that coalition s receives when x is implemented. the kernel is defined in terms of objections and counterobjections as follows: • player i objects against j in imputation x by pointing out there is coalition s that includes i but excludes j, and xj > v({j}). from player i's point of view, coalition s is required to sacrifice too much in the absence of player j. • player j can counterobject to i with coalition t that includes j but excludes i, and e(t, x) ≥ e(s, x). player j's counterargument is the existence of a coalition t that excludes player i and sacrifices equally or more. the kernel is the set of imputations such that for any objection of any player i against any player j, there exists a counterobjection that j can bring. the kernel can be alternatively defined using the maximum excess. for any two players i and j, let sij(x) be the maximum excess of any coalition containing i but not j: sij(x) = max s ∈ c { e(s, x) where i ∈ s and j ∉ s }. then the kernel is the set of imputations x such that for any two players i and j, either sji(x) ≥ sij(x) or xj = v({j}). the requirement xj = v({j}) states that no-one cannot object against a player that merely receives their individually rational outcome. the kernel of the three player majority game is {(1/3, 1/3, 1/3)}. 10. the nucleolus the nucleolus was introduced by schmeidler. the excess e(s, x) can be interpreted as the strength of the complaint of coalition s against imputation x. the higher the complaint, the more unhappy coalition s is with imputation x and the more loudly it protests against x. the nucleolus attempts to minimize the complaints under the budget constraints (the feasibility of x). the s. brânzei state of the art: solution concepts for coalitional games 96 minimization is done by resolving the loudest complaint first, then the next loudest, until finishing all the complaints. the resulting imputation is a lexicographic minimum of all the complaints. the nucleolus of any tu coalitional game is nonempty and a subset of the kernel. since the kernel is a subset of the bargaining set, the nucleolus is also included in the bargaining set. moreover, the nucleolus is a singleton. an equivalent definition of the nucleolus can be formulated in terms of objections and counterobjections. a pair (s, y) consisting of a coalition s and imputation y is an objection to imputation x if e(s, x) > e(s, y). equivalently, y(s) > x(s), implying that coalition s objects to imputation x because it receives a better payoff under imputation y. a coalition t is a counterobjection to the objection (s, y) if e(t, y) > e(t, x) (i.e. x(t) > y(t)) and e(t, y) ≥ e(s, x). coalition t receives a better payoff under imputation y and t has a higher complaint under y than s under x. 11. the shapley-shubik and banzhaf power index the banzhaf power index was introduced by john banzhaf iii for the purpose of analyzing voting systems. the main idea behind the banzhaf power index is that the voting power of a player comes from their ability to change the outcomes of elections. let (n, v) be a simple coalitional game. for each player i, the banzhaf index is defined as the proportion of all voting outcomes in which the result would be different if i changed their vote. intuitively, the player is pivotal for those outcomes. a player that is pivotal for any winning coalition is a dictator. the banzhaf index satisfies symmetry and the dummy player axioms. if the game is normalized, it also satisfies efficiency. the banzhaf index is not additive. formally, the banzhaf index of player i is βi = 1/2n-1 σi∈s⊂n [ v(s) – v(s\{i}) ]. the shapley-shubik power index applies the shapley value to simple games. the players are assumed to vote in order. a player i is pivotal for an ordering if the respective coalition was losing before i was introduced, but winning afterwards. the shapley-shubik index is the fraction of all n! orderings in which the player is pivotal. formally, the shapley-shubik index of player i is φi = σi∈s⊂n 1/|n|! (|s| 1)! (|n| |s|)! [ v(s) – v(s\{i}) ]. both the banzhaf and shapley-shubik indices are weighted marginal contributions. 12. games and representations the standard definition of coalitional games in characteristic function form is exponential in the number of agents. for a game (n, v), the characteristic function v specifies the payoff for each of the 2|n| possible coalitions of n. if these coalition values are not related to each other in a meaningful way, a search algorithm has to examine all the possible coalitions, and thus none of the solution concepts discussed so far can be computed in polynomial time in the number of players. there has been much recent work in the computer science community proposing new classes of coalitional games that are succinct, yet provide a rich enough structure to have interesting coalitional properties. deng and papadimitriou ([23]) suggest using computational complexity as a criterion for judging whether a solution concept is appropriate or not. if a solution concept is to be useful, then the complexity of determining the outcomes predicted by that solution concept should not be too great. as we already mentioned, if the characteristic function randomly assigns values to coalitions, then searching for solution concepts is clearly exponential in the number of players. the question becomes more interesting when the representation is polynomial. deng and papadimitriou propose the following game. given an undirected graph g = (n, e), let wi,j be the weight on each edge (i, j). each node of the graph represents a player and a coalition s can guarantee for its players the weight of the subgraph induced by the corresponding nodes: v(s) = ∑(i, j)⊆ s wi,j. if all the weights are nonnegative, the game is convex. the shapley value for this game can be computed in polynomial time and it is half the sum of edge weights adjacent to each node. the core is easy to find when the game is convex, but intractable otherwise. the kernel, the nucleolus, the epsilon-core, and the bargaining set are also intractable. the stable set is believed to be undecidable. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 97 weighted voting games assign to each player i a weight wi and define an overall game quota q. a coalition s is winning if and only if the sum of weights of its players exceeds the quota. thus v(s) = 1 if ∑i∈s wi ≥ q, and v(s) = 0, otherwise. the game is denoted by (q, w1, ..., wn). computing the shapley value is #p for these games ([24]). there exists a pseudopolynomial time algorithm by dynamic programming. however, approximating the shapley value within a constant factor is intractable. similar hardness results exist for the core, the least core, and the nucleolus. determining emptiness of the core can be done in polynomial time, but finding imputations in the least core or the nucleolus is np-hard. pseudopolynomial algorithms exist for these solution concepts ([24], [25]). chalkiadakis et al ([30]) introduce coalitional games with beliefs, a generalization of coalitional games to environments where players have private beliefs about the capabilities of the other players. they introduce a notion of the core for games with beliefs, with and without coalition structure. they give hardness results and analyze weighted voting games with beliefs. introducing beliefs in weighted voting games adds a layer of complexity and the core-related questions become even harder to answer. qualitative coalitional games have been introduced by wooldridge and dunne ([26]). the players are assumed to have goals that they want to achieve, and are happy when they are in a coalition where they can accomplish at least some of those goals. a qualitative coalitional game is specified by a set n of players and a collection {gi} of sets of goals, where gi represents the goals that player i wants to achieve, and is drawn from a set g of overall goals. in addition, a characteristic function v : 2n → 2p(g), where p(g) is the set of all possible subsets of the goals, and v(s) denotes the goals that coalition s could achieve in each of the possible ways that its players could cooperate. wooldridge and dunne propose a representation based on propositional logic, which is complete, but not always succinct. checking nonemptiness of the core is d1p complete. coalitional resource games ([27]) are a variation of qualitative coalitional games in which the game is given by a set of players, a set of goals for each player, an endowment function that specifies the resources of each player, and a requirement function that indicates, for each goal, the resources that have to be spent in order to achieve that goal. resource games are a strict subset of qualitative coalitional games and can always be represented succinctly. a coalition is successful if it can cooperate in such a way to achieve at least one goal for each of its members. a resource is necessary if exploiting that resource is required for every successful coalition. deciding the success of a coalition and whether a resource is necessary are np-complete and co-np-complete, respectively. dunne et al ([28]) investigate further the complexity of coalitional resource games and show that checking nonemptiness of the core is np-hard. they show that checking stability is exponential in the number of goals, but polynomial in the number of players and resources, and thus feasible for games with bounded number of goals. they also give a negotiation protocol that guarantees several attractive properties. coalitional skill games have been introduced by bachrach and rosenschein ([29]). a coalitional skill game is specified by a set of players, a set of tasks, and a set of skills. each agent is endowed with a set of skills, and every task requires certain skills. a coalition can perform a task if every skill required to perform it is owned by some player in that coalition. the characteristic function of a coalition is the value of the tasks that can be performed by that coalition. the authors examine complexity questions such as determining the value of a coalition, checking nonemptiness of the core and finding it, computing the shapley value and banzhaf power index. the questions about the core can be answered in polynomial time for simpler versions of coalitional skill games, but are intractable otherwise. computing the shapley value is np-hard and the banzhaf power index is #p-complete. cooperative boolean games are a compact family of coalitional games ([30]). each player has a goal which is represented as a formula of boolean variables. a player has unique control over a subset of variables and can freely set their values. however, the action of setting variable values is costly. the game specifies a cost function for each of these actions and the players aim to achieve their goals while minimizing the costs. cost minimization can only be accomplished by s. brânzei state of the art: solution concepts for coalitional games 98 cooperating. search algorithms for the core and the stable set are investigated and turn out to be intractable. there exists a rich literature on hedonic games ([32]), where each player's payoff is entirely determined by the identity of the other members of their coalition. consider a set n of players. a coalition partition π = {sk}k=1,k is a disjoint set of coalitions that exhaustively partitions n. each player has preferences over the coalition structures which are completely determined by the coalition that the player belongs to. a hedonic game is a pair (n, >) of players and preferences. bogomolnaia and jackson study pareto efficiency and the existence of several stability properties, such as the core, individual and nash stability. elkind and wooldridge ([33]) study a succinct, rulebased representation for hedonic games and give hardness results for the complexity of core related questions under this representation. branzei and larson ([34]) look at a subset of hedonic games that can be modeled by a graph for which they characterize the maximal welfare partitions and compute a bound for the cost of stability. network flow games are a class of simple games on a directed graph ([35]). the edges of the graph have capacities corresponding to the bandwidth of the edge. this game models many real situations, such as a network of connected computers, where the edges are the network connections and the weights the number of bits per second that can be transmitted through that connection. given a network n and a set of players s, n↓s denotes the network flow that is completely owned by the players in s. for two points p1 and p2 in the network and an amount of flow (bandwidth) b that has to be ensured between the two points, a simple game can be defined as follows. let the characteristic function v be such that v(s) = 1 if n↓s allows a flow of b between p1 and p2, and v(s) = 0 otherwise. determining the shapley value is np-hard unless restrictions are imposed on the network. bachrach and rosenschein ([36]) show that computing the banzhaf power index in network flow games is also intractable. ieong and shoham ([37]) propose a fully expressive representation based on rules that describe the marginal contributions of the players. marginal contribution nets are succinct for some natural classes of games such as recommendation games, but can be exponential in worst case. marginal contribution nets are used to develop an efficient algorithm for the shapley value, and an algorithm for determining core membership and core emptiness that is exponential only in the treewidth of the net. the synergy representation ([1], ch 12) is complete for superadditive games. the idea is that the game is stored as a pair (n, s), where n is a set of players and s is a function mapping each coalition c to a value s(c). this value is the synergy generated by coalition c when its members work together. it is important to note that only strictly positive synergies are included in the game specification. conitzer and sandholm ([38]) propose a concise approach in which games are decomposed in several issues, such that each issue has its own characteristic function. a multi-issue representation is a collection of coalitional games (issues) (n1, v1), ... (nk, vk) which together form the game (n, v). the set of players is n = n1 ∪ ... ∪ nk and the characteristic function is v(s) = ∑i=1,k vi(ni ∩ s) for every coalition s ⊆ n. the multi-issue representation is universal and allows computation of the shapley value in linear time in the size of the input. algorithms for the core, such as checking core membership remain np-hard. 13. the search for new solution concepts solution concepts have been introduced as tools that can describe and predict the outcomes of coalitional games. as we have seen, many game representations have been recently emerging, but unfortunately the algorithms for computing their solution concepts have prohibitive runtime complexity. the core, perhaps the most convincing equilibrium concept for coalitional games, has some major problems. finding the core is np-hard even for very simple classes of games. in addition, the core can be either empty or too large, cases in which other social rules must be used to select an appropriate outcome. the core extensions, such as the epsilon-core and the least-core are less convincing. the epsilon-core may be appropriate in some settings, where there exist costs brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 99 associated with deviating. however, there is no reason to believe that the utilities of the players are always comparable and that they will incur the same epsilon penalty for deviating every time they try to do so. the epsilon-core can also be empty. the least core is always nonempty, but the smallest epsilon constraint seems somewhat artificial. it is not clear that the cost of blocking can indeed be set up at the value required for the epsilon-core to exist. in addition, finding the least core is at least as hard as finding the core. the stable set always exists, but is often too large to make any meaningful predictions. np-hardness results also exist about the nucleolus, stable set, bargaining set, kernel in a variety of games. the problems illustrated with solution concepts are not unique to coalitional games. pure nash equilibrium, the most influential solution concept in non-cooperative game theory, suffers from similar drawbacks. pure nash equilibrium does not always exist. mixed nash equilibrium is guaranteed to exist, but is not very realistic, since it requires the players to randomize between equally attractive options with the sole purpose of inducing a similar behaviour in their opponent. moreover, nash equilibrium is ppad-complete, thus very likely intractable ([2]). correlated equilibrium, a generalization of nash, is not necessarily a good replacement, as it requires a complicated machinery with a trusted randomizer. fabrikant and papadimitriou ([18]) and papadimitriou ([19]) propose an agenda for finding new game theoretic solution concepts. the solution concept should be a natural, compelling, convincing, and realistic model of behaviour. it should be tractable and guaranteed to exist in order to have universal applicability. there have been several attempts of finding solution concepts to replace nash equilibrium. among these, we mention sink equilibrium, unit recall equilibrium, curb sets, and iterated regret minimization. while this agenda is mostly geared towards noncooperative game theory, we believe that coalitional solution concepts exhibit similar problems and that it would be useful to find a solution concept with these desiderata in mind. in particular, we would like an equilibrium solution concept for coalitional games that is as compelling as the core, but satisfies universal existence and ensures good complexity. it would be interesting to know if requiring individual rationality, tractability, universal existence, and a different notion of group rationality is feasible. an impossibility result for a satisfactory concept of stability in hedonic games has been given by barbera and gerber ([22]). a short list of axioms, namely universal existence, symmetry, pareto optimality, and self-consistency cannot be satisfied by any solution concept. their counterexample parallels arrow's impossibility theorem in voting. the core has also been criticized for the extremely myopic behaviour of the players, who disregard the consequences of their actions. it is possible that by deviating, a player would guide the coalition structure to an equilibrium with possibly disastrous payoff for that player. the stable set has a similar problem. greenberg ([10]) shows that the stable set requires optimism from the members of a deviating coalition, since they would proceed with deviating if at least one of the final outcomes would benefit that coalition. greenberg proposes a version of conservative stability, in which players only proceed with a deviation if every possible final outcome makes its members better of. diamantoudi and xue ([20]) investigate farsightedness in hedonic games. the classic definition of the core does not take into account the fact that players in natural scenarios are computationally bounded, and may not be able to find a blocking coalition. a possible interpretation of boundedness is that blocking coalitions cannot be larger than a parameter k. for k = 1, a player can only check if their individual rationality is respected. for k = n, a player can verify all the possible coalitions when searching for a better payoff. sandholm and lesser ([21]) develop a normative, applicationand protocol-independent theory of coalition formation for computationally bounded players and introduce the bounded-rational core. the bounded-rational core is equivalent to the classical core concept when players have complete search algorithms and computation is costless. there still exist games where the bounded-rational core is empty. another criticism of the core is with respect to its fragility. in any game configuration, it is sufficient that one blocking coalition exists for that configuration to automatically be labeled unstable. this assumption seems quite strong because of its combinatorial operator. in social s. brânzei state of the art: solution concepts for coalitional games 100 settings, if we view riots or revolutions as instances of blocking coalitions, it is not realistic to assume that players will exhaustively search the possible groups in society in order to find a coalition to protest with. rather, what seems to be happening in these situations is that there exists enough unhappiness in that society and, as a result, potential blocking coalitions are numerous and players can easily find a deviating group. acknowledgements i would like to thank professor kate larson for the excellent suggestions and feedback on this paper. 14. references [1] y. shoham and k. leyton-brown. multiagent systems: algorithmic, game-theoretic, and logical foundations. cambridge university press, 2009. [2] c. daskalakis, p. w. goldberg, and c. h. papadimitriou. the complexity of computing a nash equilibrium. proceedings of stoc, 2006. [3] n. nisan, t. roughgarden, e. tardos, and v. vazirani, editors. algorithmic game theory. cambridge university press, 2007. [4] m. osborne and a. rubinstein. a course in game theory. mit press, 1994. [5] r. branzei, d. dimitrov, and s. tijs. models in cooperative game theory. springer verlag, 2005. [6] l. a. gerard-varet and s. zamir. remarks on the reasonable set of outcomes in a general coalition function form game. international journal of game theory, volume 16, issue 2, 1987. [7] j. derks, h. haller, and h. peters. the selectope for cooperative games. international journal of game theory, 29:23–38, 2000. [8] b. dutta, d. ray, k. sengupta, r. vohra. a consistent bargaining set. journal of economictheory, 1989, 49:93-112 [9] a. mas-colell. an equivalence theorem for a bargaining set. journal of mathematical economics, 1989, 18:129-138 [10] j. greenberg. the theory of social situations: an alternative game theoretic approach. cambridge university press, 1990. [11] s. h. tijs. bounds for the core and the τ-value. in o. moeschlin and d. pallaschke, eds., game theory and mathematical economics, north-holland, amsterdam, 1981. [12] s. h. tijs. an axiomatization of the τ -value. math. social sciences 12, 9—20, 1987. [13] j. m. bilbao, a. jimenez-losada, e. lebron, s. h. tijs. the τ -value for games on matroids, 2008. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.77.7808 . [14] s. tijs and g. j. otten. compromise values in cooperative game theory, 1991. top 1 1-51. [15] s. hart. and a. mas-collel, editors. classical cooperative theory i: core-like concepts. springer-verlag, 1997, 35-42. [16] e. bennet. the aspiration approach to predicting coalition formation and payoff distribution in sidepayment games. international journal of game theory, vol 12, 1: 1-28, 1983. [17] e. bennet and w. r. zame. bargaining in cooperative games. international journal of game theory, vol 17, 4: 279-300, 1988. [18] a. fabrikant and c. h. papadimitriou. the complexity of game dynamics: bgp oscillations, sink equlibria, and beyond. soda, 2008. [19] c. h. papadimitriou. the search for equilibrium concepts. sagt, 2008. [20] e. diamantoudi and l. xue. farsighted stability in hedonic games. soc choice welfare, 21:39-61, 2003. [21] t. sandholm and v. lesser. coalitions among computationally bounded agents. artificial intelligence, 94(1), 99-137, special issue on economic principles of multiagent systems. [22] s. barbera and a. gerber. a note on the impossibility of a satisfactory concept of stability for coalition formation games. economics letters, 95:85-90, 2007. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 101 [23] x. deng and c. h. papadimitriou. on the complexity of cooperative solution concepts. mathematics of operations research, 19:257-266, 1994. [24] e. elkind, l. a. goldberg, p. goldberg, and m. wooldridge. computational complexity of weighted threshold games. aaai, 2007. [25] e. elkind and d. pasechnik. computing the nucleolus of weighted voting games. soda, 2009. [26] m. wooldridge and p. e. dunne. on the computational complexity of qualitative coalitional games. artificial intelligence, volume 158, 1: 27-73, 2004. [27] m. wooldridge and p. e. dunne. on the computational complexity of coalitional resource games. artificial intelligence, vol 170, 10: 835-871, 2006. [28] p. e. dunne, s. kraus, e. manisterski, m. wooldridge. solving coalitional resource games. artificial intelligence, vol 174, 1: 20-50, 2010. [29] y. bachrach and j. s. rosenschein. coalitional skill games. aamas, 2008. [30] g. chalkiadakis, e. elkind, and n. r. jennings. simple coalitional games with beliefs. ijcai, 2009. [31] p. e. dunne, w. hoek, s. kraus, m. wooldridge. cooperative boolean games. aamas, 2008. [32] a. bogomolnaia and m. o. jackson. the stability of hedonic coalition structures. games and economic behaviour, 38: 201-230, 2002. [33] e. elkind and m. wooldridge. hedonic coalition nets. aamas 2009. [34] s. branzei and k. larson. coalitional affinity games and the stability gap. ijcai, 2009. [35] m. wooldridge. an introduction to multiagent systems (second edition). john wiley & sons, 2009. [36] y. bachrach and j. s. rosenschein. computing the banzhaf power index in network flow games. aamas, 2007. [37] s. ieong and y. shoham. marginal contribution nets: a compact representation scheme for coalitional games. electronic commerce, 2005. [38] v. conitzer and t. sandholm. computing shapley values, manipulating value division schemes, and checking core membership in multi-issue domains. aaai, 2004. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final.doc 223 zusammenfassungen in deutsch brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience gehirn. breiten forschung in der künstlichen intelligenz und der neurowissenschaften issn 2067-3957 band 1, heft 2 april 2010: “frohe ostern 2010!” www.brain.edusoft.ro chefredakteur: bogdan pătruţ 1. eine hybride heuristik zur lösung des triangulations-problems gloria cerasela crişan, camelia mihaela pintea zusammenfassung das triangulations-problem besteht darin, die gleichzeitige permutation von zeilen und spalten einer gegebenen quadratischen matrix zu finden, sodass die summe der supra-diagonalen elemente maximal ist. die forscher haben dieses problem eingehend studiert, da sich daraus größere anwendungen auf verschiedenen gebieten ergeben. ein neuer, hybrider algorithmus vom typ aco (ant colony optimization) wird eingeführt. der algorithmus beginnt 'umfassend' mit einer 'greedy' suchprozedur. ihr folgt die verbesserte version des ant-colony-systems in kombination mit einer problemspezifischen, lokalen suche. 2. vorschlag einer datenbasierten architektur für eine kardiologie-netzwerk-anwendung horea adrian greblă, călin ovidiu cenan zusammenfassung der artikel stellt ein medizinisches system vor, das einem modernen ansatz folgen und die qualität medizinischer dienste erhöhen soll, die chronisch erkrankten patienten kardiovaskulärer krankheiten geboten werden, und dies mittels neuester it&c-technologien. das vorgeschlagene modell bietet online-interaktion zwischen den haupt-akteuren eines medizinischen systems: patienten, ärzten, medizinischen einrichtungen (z.b. hospitälern, kliniken) und medizinischen kompetenzbereichen (z.b. sozialdiensten). auf der basis allgemein anerkannter medizinischer standards liefert das system die speicherung medizinischer daten und bietet dienste zur datenintegration bezüglich verschiedener arten der gesundheitsvorsorge, ihrer anwendung und ihrer einheiten. der vorgeschlagene ontologische ansatz gestattet den austausch medizinischen wissens und bester praxis, auf der basis konzeptuell organisierter patientendaten. die vorgeschlagene lösung erlaubt computerunterstützte diagnostik und medizinisch multi-kausal basierte datenanalyse, dies eventuell ausweitbar auf die errichtung eines daten-warenhauses für komplexe medizinische daten-recherche. 3. erziehungswissenschaftliche forschung: zur technologischen dimension des privatlebens liliana mâţă zusammenfassung ziel dieser studie ist es, das privatleben in der schule in seiner technologischen dimension zu analysieren. die studie befasst sich mit beobachtender forschung zu curricula-dokumenten und mit der wahrnehmung dieser dimension durch teenager und lehrpersonal an gymnasien, wie sie im rumänischen erziehungssystem entwickelt wurde. die hauptpunkte dieser untersuchung sind: a) die identifizierung spezifischer aspekte der technologischen dimension, wie in schulbüchern und curricula angedacht, und b) die festlegung eines niveaus der offenheit von lehrpersonen und zusammenfassungen in deutsch 224 lernenden gegenüber der technologischen dimension des privatlebens. zunächst führten wir eine inhaltliche analyse von lehr-unterlagen durch, unter beachtung spezifischer themen und kategorien. dann bildeten wir uns einen überblick darüber, wie 1456 studenten und 890 lehrpersonen die technologische dimension des rumänischen erziehungssystems wahrnehmen. die ergebnisse werden ausgedrückt als vorkommenshäufigkeiten von spezifischen themen, die technologisch strukturiert sind, auf dem niveau von schul-dokumenten, und von einem ausgangsniveau für lernende und lehrende an gymnasien. 4. ausgewählte operationen für assembler encoding tomasz praczyk zusammenfassung assembler encoding ist eine neuronal entwickelte methode, bei der ein neuronales netzwerk in form eines simplen programms besteht, genannt assembler encoding program. die aufgabe des programms ist es, die sogenannte network-definitions-matrix zu schaffen, die alle notwendige information zum aufbau des netzwerks enthält. um assembler encoding programs und in der folge neuronale netzwerke zu erzeugen, werden weiterentwickelte techniken verwendet. die performanz von assembler encoding hängt stark ab von operationen, wie sie in assembler encoding-programmen verwendet werden. um die effektivsten operationen zu finden, wurden experimente bezüglich der optimierung und des raubtier-beute-problems durchgeführt. bei den experimenten wurden assembler encoding programs getestet, die mit unterschiedlichen typen von operationen versehen waren. die testergebnisse werden am ende des aufsatzes vorgestellt. 5. computerbasierte programme zur sprechtherapie bei dyslalie und dyslexie-dysgraphie iolanda tobolcea, mirela danubianu zusammenfassung während der letzten jahre waren forscher und therapeuten bezüglich sprechtherapie mehr und mehr befasst mit ausgefeiltem gebrauch von computer-programmen zur therapie von sprechstörungen. das hauptziel dieser studie war die evaluation der therapeutischen wirksamkeit computerbasierter programme für die rumänische sprache in der sprechtherapie. im laufe dieser studie möchten wir experimentelle forschung präsentieren: zur wirksamkeit von computerprogrammen bei der sprechtherapie zweier sprechstörungen: der dyslalie und der dyslexiedysgraphie (also für das gestörte lesen sowie schreiben). methode: der computer wurde in der therapiephase verwendet mit hilfe bestimmter computerbasierter programme, die wir erarbeitet und mit denen wir experimentiert hatten während mehrerer jahre therapeutischer aktivitäten, die testgruppe unserer experimente setzte sich zusammen aus 120 probanden; zwei gruppen von je 60 kindern mit speech disorders wurden ausgewählt für beide arten der sprechstörungen: jeweils 30 für die experimentelle ('computerbasierte') gruppe und 30 für die kontrollgruppe ('klassische methode'). die hypothesen verifizierten, ob die ergebnisse, die sich durch die probanden der experimentellen gruppe ergaben, signifikant besser geworden waren nach der verwendung des computerbasierten programms, verglichen mit den probanden der kontrollgruppe, die dieses programm nicht benutzt, aber eine klassische therapie erhalten hatten. die hypothesen wurden für beide disorders bestätigt: die vorteile computerbasierter programme bei der sprechtherapie zur korrektur dieser disorders beim sprechen wurden bestätigt, ebenfalls der positive einfluss dieser programme auf die entwicklung der kindlichen persönlichkeit. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 225 6. gedacht soap, jedoch gesagt ‘oaps’. der lautvorspann (sound preparation period): backward calculation von der äußerung bis zur muskel-innervierung nora wiedenmann zusammenfassung nach dem hier vorgestellten modell – zu gesprochener sprache und zu versprechern, zu dyskoordinationen und disorders beim sprechen – wird der lautvorspann, die zeitspanne von den frühen muskelinnervations-impetus bis zur zugehörigen lautäußerung (wie intendiert für kanonische sprachlautsequenzen), rückwärts berechnet (backward calculation). diese zeitspanne wird dargestellt als die summe all derjenigen bekannten physiologischen dauern von sprachlauten und sprechgesten, die zur lautproduktion notwendig sind. das modell führt zwei voneinander unabhängige internal clocks ein (als positive oder auch negative faktoren), die bestimmte physiologisch basierte zeitverläufe darstellen helfen während des lautvorspanns (i.e., der sound preparation period). die verwendung dieser internal clocks zeigt, dass sprechgesten – wie auch andere motor activities – nach einem simplen serialisierungsprinzip funktionieren: unter nondefault-bedingungen können variierte zeitabläufe zu versprechern in der lautserialisierung führen, zu dyskoordinationen von lauten (wie beobachtbar während des erstspracherwerbs) oder auch zu disorders als sprechpathologischen fällen. diese zeitablauf-veränderungen werden modelliert durch die variation der faktoren zweier internal clocks. die berechnung der zeitverläufe verwendet als default-werte die lautdauern aus der kontextabhängigen munich phondat database of spoken german (s. appendix 4). als ein neuer ansatz, bezogen auf den menschen, stimmen diese berechnungen mathematisch überein mit dem ansatz von linear programming / operations research. diese arbeit bestätigt den alten verdacht (von 1908) des berühmten österreichischen versprecherforschers / linguisten meringer, dass man nämlich meistens denkt und artikuliert in anderer serialisierung, als dies bei den geäußerten lautsequenzen hörbar ist. 7. state of the art: lösungskonzepte für koalitionsspiele simina brânzei zusammenfassung dieser aufsatz untersucht lösungskonzepte für koalitionsspiele. mehrere lösungskonzepte werden vorgestellt: kern, shapley-wert, bargain set, stable set, nucleolus und kernel. wir betrachten neuere entwicklungen von knappen repräsentationen von koalitionsspielen wie z.b. gewichteten abstimmungsspielen, koalitions-ressourcen-spielen, kooperativen booleschen spielen und marginal-beitrags-netzen. die existierenden lösungskonzepte zeigen prohibitive komplexitätserfordernisse, sogar für sehr einfache spielklassen. wir diskutieren verfahrenspunkte, um ein konzept für gleichgewichtslösungen zu finden, das ebenso attraktiv ist wie der kern, das jedoch praktikabel ist und garantierte zu existieren. 8. die faktoren von intelligenz-entwicklung und individuelle performanz gheorghe dumitriu zusammenfassung diese studie präsentiert einige ansätze zu faktoren, zusammensetzung und messung menschlicher intelligenz. so gibt es, innerhalb des psychometrischen ansatzes, klare evidenz dafür, dass intelligenz stärker beeinflusst wird durch das genetische erbgut des menschen als durch kulturelles, gesellschaftliches erbe. einige intelligenz-forscher kommen zu dem schluss, dass probanden, die hohe scores bei verschiedenen spezifischen aufgaben erhalten, die tendenz zeigen, gut auch auf die anderen testkategorien zu reagieren. im gegensatz dazu erhalten aber diejenigen mit niedrigeren scores oder schwächeren ergebnissen bei den anderen tests ebenfalls die gleichen resultate. zusammenfassungen in deutsch 226 9. einige ergebnisse zur fuzzy-theorie angel garrido zusammenfassung das erscheinen von fuzzy logic hatte eine zweifache auswirkung auf die wissenschaftliche forschung gehabt, und so hat sie zwei arten von reaktionen hervorgerufen. von einem theoretischen gesichtspunkt her ist sie in der tat eine sehr nützliche generalisierung der klassischen set theory, entsprechend boole und cantor, indem sie auf diese weise unsere analyse der unbestimmtheit ermöglicht. aber unglücklicherweise hatte sie in ihren ersten anfängen die angriffe von routine-ansichten der oft allzu rigide denkenden mathematischen disziplin abzuwehren. diese situation hat sich später verbessert, besonders bei nationen mit weniger tief wurzelnden vorurteilen. und im gegensatz dazu verwurzelte die neue theorie stark bei nationen mit neuem und ansteigendem wissenschaftlichen potential, wie china, japan oder süd-korea, und neuerlich europäischen ländern wie ungarn, spanien oder rumänien, haupsächlich wegen der erfolgreichen technischen anwendungen dieser theorie. wir analysieren hier einige besondere aspekte dieses neuen und leistungsstarken tools zur mathematischen analyse. 10. wissensfusion in akademischen netzwerken horea adrian grebla, calin ovidiu cenan, liana stanca zusammenfassung akademische netzwerke können ein neues lernmodell repräsentieren, das auf wissensfusion basiert. in diesem aufsatz bringen wir einen ansatz zu akademischem netzwerk-design, der die erfahrung akademischer trainer und praktiker zusammenführt und der neue wege der wissensverteilung erschließt. die akademischen netzwerke, die wir hier betrachten, sind mathematisch modelliert, und sie stellen die grundlage dar für den ontologischen ansatz zu wissensfusion in solch einem netzwerk. 11. eine delphi-anwendung für die syntaktische und lexikalische analyse eines phrasen verwendenden cocke-younger-kasami -algorithmus. bogdan pătruţ, ioana boghian zusammenfassung dieser aufsatz hat im fokus den cocke-kasami-younger(cky)-algorithmus. wir stellen eine delphi-anwendung vor, die lexik und syntax eines satzes im rumänischen analysiert. wir verwenden eine chomsky-normalform(cnf)-grammatik. wir möchten den source code einer delphi-implementation des ckyalgorithmus vorstellen. 12. über ein problem von passdaten bei gebrauch von bézier-kurven carmen violeta muraru zusammenfassung das ziel dieses aufsatzes ist es, alte und neue probleme zu studieren, die bézier-kurven betreffen, wichtige tools beim modellieren geometrischer formen. wir verwenden die matlab-software, um den schätzfehler bei passdaten zu untersuchen, indem wir die kleinste-quadrat-passung der bézierkurven verwenden, und um neue methoden zu finden innerhalb einer studie, die derzeit in entwicklung ist zur minimierung des abstandes zwischen der kurve und den approximierten daten. 13. state of the art: verifizierung von unterschriften-biometrie-daten mohamed soltane, noureddine doghmane, noureddine guersi zusammenfassung dieser aufsatz zeigt eine vergleichende analyse der performanz von drei schätz-algorithmen: den expectation maximization (em), den greedy em algorithm (gem) und den figueiredo-jain algorithm (fj), basierend auf den gaußschen misch-modellen (gmms) zur verifizierung von unterschriften-biometrie-daten. die simulations-ergebnisse haben signifikante performanzbrain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 227 leistungen gezeigt. die test-performanzen eer=5.49 % für "em", eer=5.04 % für "gem" und eer=5.00 % für "fj" zeigen, dass das verhaltens-informations-schema von unterschriftenbiometrie-daten robust ist und eine discriminating power zeigt, die untersucht werden kann zur identitäts-authentifizierung. 14. die neurowissenschaften des lehrens von erzähltexten: zur erleichterung der sozialen und emotionalen entwicklung lisa whalen zusammenfassung die geisteswissenschaften und die naturwissenschaften sind lange als polare oppositionen betrachtet worden, die in separaten akademischen bereichen existieren und unterschiedliche kognitive skills erfordern. die neurowissenschaften haben jedoch erneutes interesse darüber aufgebracht, was wir lernen können über das menschliche gehirn, indem wir verbindungen zwischen den disziplinen untersuchen. studien zu englischer literatur haben zum beispiel offengelegt, dass die vorteile durch das lesen von erzählender literatur (romanoder sachliteratur) weit über die sprach-entwicklung hinausgehen und steigende kompetenz im sozialen und im gefühlsleben beinhalten. durch die kombination der ergebnisse einer dissertations-studie und der durchsicht vergangener und laufender forschung in den bereichen erziehung, psychologie, linguistik und neurowissenschaften untersucht dieser essay, wie das lesen von erzählender literatur als übung dafür dient, mit seinen gefühlen und sozialen interaktionen im alltag umzugehen. in der tat legen mehrere studien nahe, dass solches lesen nahezu jedes areal des gehirns in seiner funktion stärkt, denn das gehirn ist konstruiert – oder 'verdrahtet' –, um zu denken und zu lernen in begrifflichkeiten von schilderungen, egal über welches thema. dieser essay unterstützt verschiedentlich die behauptung, das lesen von erzähltexten erleichtere die soziale und die emotionale entwicklung. die diskutierte forschung schließt studien ein, die aufzeigen, dass das lesen von erzähltexten nicht nur ein handeln in abgeschiedenheit darstellt, sondern auch „einen überraschenderweise sozialen prozess“ (krakovsky, 2006, s. 1), und dass es auch einhergeht mit der steigenden fähigkeit, leute und ereignisse aus vielfältigen perspektiven zu betrachten, mit der steigenden empathie für andere und der steigenden fähigkeit, soziale zeichen zu interpretieren (atkins, 2000; courtright, mackey & packard, 2005; davis, 1980; greif & hogan, 1973; harrison, 2008; mar, 2004; mar, oatley, hirsh, de la paz & peterson, 2006; stanovich & west, 1989, 1992). das verständnis, wie das gehirn mit erzähltexten umgeht und wie es sie auf funktionen des realen lebens bezieht, ergibt wichtige implikationen für viele disziplinen, beispielsweise die psychologie in ihrem versuch, post-traumatische stress-störungen zu verstehen und zu behandeln. dieser essay richtet den fokus jedoch auf die implikationen für die erziehungswissenschaft. lehrende, die bemüht sind, studierenden zu helfen, entwickeln perspektiven einnehmende fähigkeiten, die notwendig sind für kritisches denken und die empathie, die nötig ist, um verantwortungsbewusste erwachsene zu werden, und diese fähigkeiten können effektiver sein, wenn die lehrenden die rolle verstehen, die erzähltexte bei der sozialen und emotionalen entwicklung von studierenden spielen. 15. logische grundlagen der künstlichen intelligenz angel garrido zusammenfassung im bereich der künstlichen intelligenz (ki) können suchroutinen zur problemlösung in vielen situationen ohne die kenntnis des wissensbereichs und, in anderen situationen, mit dessen kenntnis herbeigeführt werden. im letzteren fall wird dies normalerweise als heuristische suche bezeichnet. bei solchen methoden erweisen sich matrixtechniken als wesentlich. ihre einführung kann uns einen leichten und präzisen einstieg bei der lösungssuche bieten. dieser aufsatz hier erklärt, wie die matrixtheorie in der ki auftritt und fruchtbringend an ihr teilnimmt, mit machbaren anwendungen für die spieltheorie. zusammenfassungen in deutsch 228 16. psychologisch-mystische aspekte zu st. evagrius ponticus und st. maximus dem bekenner gheorghe teofil popovici zusammenfassung die heiligen väter st. evagrius ponticus und st. maximus der bekenner sind die beiden heiligen, die mystische erfahrung gemacht und gründlich die mysterien der menschlichen seele studiert haben. die art und weise, wie ein menschliches wesen betrachtet wird, ist eine ganz besondere. nach maximus ist der mensch der mittler zwischen gott und schöpfung. ausgestattet mit körper und seele, ist der mensch damit beauftragt, bereits während seines erdenlebens gott zu erkennen. aber -wie plato sagt -der mensch muss zunächst sich selbst erkennen. die heiligen väter beschreiben ausführlich diesen weg, auf dem der mensch, indem er auf sünden verzichtet, gott in seinem herzen entdeckt. diese beschreibungen sind äußerst aktuell und von bedeutung für den menschen von heute, der etwas verloren zu haben scheint von der gesamtvorstellung des mysteriums der menschlichen seele, welche die großartige bestimmung zeigt, für die der mensch geschaffen wurde. 17. geo-spatiale analyse-struktur elisabeta antonia haller zusammenfassung in einer computerisierten gesellschaft wächst unerwartet die datenmenge, wodurch ihre verarbeitungs zeit zu einer schwierigen aufgabe wird. priorität muss der datenverarbeitung bei wichtigen informationsund wissensdaten gegeben werden. data mining ist ein natürliches ergebnis technologischer entwicklungen. die interpretation geo-spatialer daten wurde mit der zeit zum forschungsziel, inzwischen mit einer vielfalt an instrumenten und software-produkten für ihre darstellung und interpretation. was zu verstehen notwendig ist, unter den möglichkeiten, die von dem einen oder anderen system geboten werden, von einer 'proprietary'oder aber 'open source'lösung, ist doch, wie sie funktionieren und mit den räumlichen daten umgehen. 18. henric sanielevici – von der literaturkritik zur anatomie oder wie beeinflusst der schädelumfang die literatur? adrian jicu zusammenfassung das ziel dieses aufsatzes ist es, die beziehung zwischen literaturkritik und anatomie zu behandeln, genauer: eine der theorien von henric sanielevici, wonach ein literaturtext nur verstanden werden kann, wenn des autors augenfarbe, zahnstellung sowie umfang und form seines schädels berücksichtigt werden. 19. wie komplex das menschliche gehirn funktioniert: die beiden hemisphären iulia cristina timofti zusammenfassung diese studie lässt gerade einmal eine ahnung bekommen von den möglichen funktionen und reaktionen, die das menschliche gehirn beinhalten kann. als gute beispiele betrachte ich verschiedene situationen, die sowohl für einen normalen menschen als auch für einen split-brain-patienten charakteristisch sind. solche situationen belegen, dass das gehirn, obwohl zweigeteilt, wie eine einzige funktionseinheit arbeitet, wie ein erstaunen erregender computer, der als sein hauptziel die datenverarbeitung hat. 20. interview mit dr. georgios k. matis, neurochirurgen, demokrit-universität thrakien, school, der medizinischen fakultät, alexandroupolis, griechenland ruxandra alexandru microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_3.doc 75 new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheimer disease ben rabeh amira signal, information and technology of information (lrsiti) national engineering school of tunis (enit) amira.benrabeh@gmail.com benzarti faouzi signal, information and technology of information (lrsiti) national engineering school of tunis (enit) benzartif@yahoo.fr amiri hamid signal, information and technology of information (lrsiti) national engineering school of tunis (enit) hamidlamiri@yahoo.fr mouna ben djebara alzheimer service hospital razi, manouba, tunis tunisia mounabdj@yahoo.fr abstract we describe a new computer assisted diagnosis (cad) to automatically detect alzheimer patients (ad), mild cognitive impairment (mci) and elderly controls, based on the segmentation and classification of the hippocampus (h) and corpus calosum (cc) from magnetic resonance images (mri). for the segmentation we used a new method based on a deformable model to extract the area wishes, and then we computed the geometric and texture features. for the classification we proposed a new supervised method. we evaluated the accuracy of our method in a group of 25 patients with ad (age±standard-deviation (sd) =70±6 years), 25 patients with mci (age±sd=65±8 years) and 25 elderly healthy controls (age±sd=60±8 years). for the ad patients we found an accuracy of the classification of 92%, for the mci we found 88% and for the elderly patients we found 96%. overall, we found our method to be 92% accurate. our method can be a useful tool for diagnosing alzheimer’s disease in any of these steps. keywords: computer assisted diagnosis (cad), alzheimer disease (ad), mild cognitive impairment (mci), corpus calosum (cc), hippocampus (h), magnetic resonance imaging (mri), standard deviation (sd). 1. introduction alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia among the elderly; it represents about 65% of dementia cases. alzheimer's disease is distinguished from other dementias by the fact it develops gradually and it mainly affects the short-term memory. however, the diagnosis is not always easy and it can be difficult for physicians to differentiate alzheimer's disease from another dementia (weiner et al., 2015; brumfield, 2014; neville et al., 2015; romero et al., 2014). generally, symptoms appear after 65 years and the prevalence increases sharply with age. however, contrary to popular belief, alzheimer's disease is not a normal consequence of aging. alzheimer’s disease affects about 1% of people between 65 and 69 years old, 20% of those between 85 and 89 years old, and 40% of those between 90 and 95 years old (mahad et al., 2015; geerts et al., 2015; kuffner et al., 2015). it is estimated that 1 in 8 men and 1 in 4 women will suffer from it in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 76 their lives. insofar as women live longer, they are more likely to be affected. we found several stages of alzheimer's disease: mci mild cognitive impairment (memory loss which affects the short-term memory: the ability to remember recent information). the advanced stage (psychiatric problems, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, aggravated by severe memory loss and disorientation) or what is called ad (alzheimer’s disease) (ruan et al., 2014; cummings et al., 2014). in susceptible individuals the involution of the brain tissue is most pronounced in the hippocampus, the corpus callosum and anterior frontal cortex. in subjects with moderately severe alzheimer’s disease, the involution key comes in addition to the bottom and side portions of the temporal cortex and the posterior part of the limbic convolution. the disease is becoming more common. it is estimated that within 20 years, the number of sufferers will double (romero et al., 2015; panza et al., 2014; saykin et al., 2015; collins et al., 2015; hartley et al., 2014). hence the need for a computerized diagnostic system to detected alzheimer's disease. the steps of a computer-assisted diagnostic system may be as follows: • the preprocessing step which serves to improve the quality of the image before any handling. • the segmentation step for detecting the studied lesion. • the description step, which is intended to characterize lesions through mathematical formulations. • the classification step and decision-making by using an appropriate classifier. beginning with the segmentation, it discusses the methods based on the deformable model. we speak of three class methods: parametric, statistical, and geometric. in general, a deformable model can be defined as a curve dipped in the image plane, in a particular position, and which successively deforms until it coincides with the boundary of the object to be detected (aljabar et al., 2009; atif et al., 2006; ardekani et al., 2009; delingette et al., 2001; duvernoy et al., 2005). our literature review on deformable models led us to grouping them into three classes, based on the above criteria: parametric models (andreopoulos et al., 2008; babalola et al., 2009; bascle et al., 1994), geometric (caselles et al., 1997; chan et al., 2001; charmi et al., 2008 ; chen et al., 2005; chen et al., 2004; chen et al., 2009) and statistics (cohen et al., 1991; cootes, 1994 ; cootes, 1995; cootes, 2001). in our method, the interest is in the geometric model. the level set methods (lsm), which are a digital tool to analyze shapes, introduced by osher and sethian (1988), became a theoretical and numerical structure increasingly used in image processing. compared to the active contours, the lsm has the advantage of avoiding the difficulties of topological transformations. indeed, the approached level set is able to handle complex topological changes, e.g. develop a simple outline for two separate contours, or, conversely, combine two separate contours to form one. the level set framework has several methods such as: caselles: geodesic approach (caselles et al., 1997); chan & vese: approach similar regions (chan et al, 2001); lankton: approach inhomogeneous regions (lankton et al, 2008). passing the classification stage, the purpose of the classification is to identify the classes that the objects from descriptive features (attributes, characteristics, etc.) belong to. there are basically two types of classification: supervised and unsupervised. this classification is also called "clustering" or "grouping". in this type of classification it is necessary to identify populations of a data set. suppose one has a set of objects denoted by x = {x1, x2, ..., xn}, characterized by a set of b.r. amira, b. faouzi, a. hamid, m.b. djebara new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheimer disease 77 descriptors d, and the clustering goal is to find the groups they belong to, each object x being noted with c = {c1, c2, ..., cn}. that is to determine a function denoted by ys that associates each element of x to one or more of c. it should be able to assign a new observation to a class. among unsupervised most common methods there are two types of approaches: k-means and hierarchical classification. in the context of supervised already available examples whose class is known and labeled, the data are associated with labeled classes θ = {q1, q2, ..., qn}. the objective is to learn how to use the rules of a learning model that predict a class of new observations which determine a function from descriptors (d) of the object qi, that allows you to combines classesand assign a new observation to the available classes. at the end, there needs to be found a function that ys that associates each element of x to an element of q. we then constructed a model to classify new data. among the supervised methods are cited: the k-nearest neighbors (cover et al., 1967), decision trees (quinlan, 1986), neural networks, support vector machines (svm) (cortes et al., 1995) and bayes classifiers. whatever type of classification, one is faced with different problems. in the supervised case, a significant problem may be the lack of data to perform learning or availability of inadequate data, such uncertainty and imprecision preventing the construction of a correct model. for unsupervised classifications, the demarcation of borders between classes is not always straight forward and recognizable. regardless of the type of classification, multi dimensional data, or the dependence of classification methods to the initial settings, such as the number of classes, can impose problems. in our case, we are interested in the supervised classifier. in this context is our work: performing a diagnostic computer-aided system for detecting alzheimer's disease. like any diagnostic system, our system contains three parts: preprocessing, segmentation and classification. initially, we will present a new segmentation method to segment the hippocampus and corpus callosum regardless of the patient's condition. figure 1. three hippocampus: normal, mci, ad the three figures above present three seahorses relating to three topics: normal subject, mci subject (mild cognitive impairment), alzheimer subject. figure 2. three corpus calosum: normal, mci, ad the three figures above present the corpus callosum relating to three topics: normal topic by mci (mild cognitive impairment), alzheimer’s topic. secondly, we will present our clustering method to classify the test subject between 3 classes: n (normal), mci (mild cognitive impairment), and ad (alzheimer's disease). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 78 2. the proposed method the figure below presents our proposed computer assisted diagnosis. our cad includes 3 steps: preprocessing, segmentation and classification. for the step of preprocessing, we used the nlms (non local means) to improve the quality of image. for the step of segmentation: we have a learning phase to extract the different shapes and to determine the average shape. our proposed automatic method is based on the deformable model. for the step of classification, we present a new supervised method to distinguish between normal, mci and ad. the figure below presents our proposed system. figure 3. proposed computer assisted diagnosis b.r. amira, b. faouzi, a. hamid, m.b. djebara new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheimer disease 79 a. segmentation it seeks to establish a model that describes the shape and typical fluctuations. this requires first the preparation of a learning base to reflect the possible variations in shape of the structure. the preparation of the training set each shape will be modeled by a vector x, built by concatenating the coordinates of the characteristic points placed on its outline: x=(x1, x2,…...xn) (1) the training set can be modeled by a set of vectors: {xi} where i = 1. . n {n number of sample images} and {si} surface, {vi} standard deviation of the area. the principle of this step is be illustrated by the figure below. figure 4. training aligning the forms during the previous step the extraction forms is independent on the parameters of size and position. they may have shapes which are more or less remote in different directions, and others that have relatively different sizes. however, the modeling approach is to study only the essential shape variation between the different configurations of the studied structure in order to solve this problem of variation of size and position. the n forms of the training set must be aligned with one of them. this will place the corresponding vector in a centered position. generating the average shape and confidence intervals the aligned vectors, resultant of the two previous stages, can be organized in the form of a matrix of size (2n, n), called observation matrix. the columns match the shapes and the lines correspond to the coordinates of the points features describing each form. 1 1 n i i x x n = = ∑ the average shape from the training (2) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 80 we also determine: the confidence interval associated with the area [sm 2σ, sm + 2σ] with (sm average size, σ variation of the surface). the confidence interval associated with the surface [vm2σ, vm + 2σ] with (vm average variation, σ std of the variation). the learning algorithm input: training set x (xi, ......, xn) output: 1. determine the initial parameters: the number of images of the learning base: n the number of minutiae: n 2. extraction of forms xi = {xi1, xi2, ..., xin} i = 1... n 3. aligning the learning database 4. generation of average shape 5. generation of confidence intervals associated with the surface and variation. [sm-2σ, sm + 2σ] with (sm average surface variation σ of the surface). [vm -2σ , v m + 2σ] with (vm average variation, σ std of the variation). evolution of the curve the stage in the evolution of the curve (loudness) is divided into two stages: designing a power function whose minimum corresponds to the contours of the object to segment; implementing the evolution equation. based on the work of lankton, the objective is to outline converging towards locally homogeneous regions according to grayscale. energy minimization in out ( , u , u ) ( (x)) (x, y) f( )dydx lan e bφ δ φ φ ω ω = ∫ ∫ r r r uuruur � (3) where (4) 2 in out (x, y) (i(y) u (x)) h( (y)) (i(y) u (x)) h( (y))f φ φ= − + − − r r r r r r r r b ( x , y ) 1 w i t h x y r= − ≤ r r r ur 0 w i th x y r− > r ur ( , uin, uout) ( (x)) (x, y) f( )dydxe bφ δ φ φ ω ω = ∫ ∫ r r r uuruur select only the pixels belonging to the contour ( , uin, uout) ( (x)) (x, y) f( )dydxe bφ δ φ φ ω ω = ∫ ∫ r r r uuruur calculates the data attachment within a neighborhood centered at each point belonging to the contour b.r. amira, b. faouzi, a. hamid, m.b. djebara new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheimer disease 81 equation of evolution outline: ( (x, y) ( (y)) f( (y)) d y) ( (x)) lan e bφ δ φ φ φ δ φ ω ∇ = ∇∫ r r r r r r (5) in the figures below a constraint of the variation is used in order to show the limits. the contour may include more areas surrounding the hippocampus, which are not homogeneous with the desired area. through the confidence interval of variation and priori knowledge can overcome these limitations. figure 5. improvement using variation in the figures below, a constraint of the surface is used to show the limits. the contour may include the hippocampus and more areas surrounding it, which are homogeneous with the desired area. through the surface of the confidence interval and priori knowledge can overcome these limitations. figure 6. improvement using surface the evolution algorithm input: training set x (xi, ......, xn) picture test output: 1. the mean shape is recovered 2. retrieves confidence intervals associated with the surface and variation. [sm-2σ, sm + 2σ] with (sm average surface variation σ of the surface). [vm 2σ , v m + 2σ] with (vm average variation, σ std of the variation). 3. function of evolution stop = false while (stop ~ = true) {// check that the surface of the next fnew form is lower to the upper bound of the confidence interval for the same variation. if ((surface (fnew)> sm + 2σ) || (variation (fnew)> v m + 2σ) stop = true; else // display the new form converging towards the contour of the locally homogeneous regions according to the grayscale.} brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 82 b. classification the new method is a method of supervised classification. it has a learning database to estimate the output associated with a new entry x. the method takes into account the four training samples whose entrance is the closest to the new entry x in four distances: euclidean, manhattan, hausdorff, amed (average minimum euclidean distance). the euclidean distance given two vectors x (x1, x2... xn) and y (y1, y2, ..., yn), different distances are expressed as follows: distance euclidienne: 2 i 1 (x y i) n i i= −∑ (6) distance de manhattan: 1 n i i i x y = −∑ (7) the minimum euclidean distance (med) from x point xi in x to y is computed as: med (xi, y)= min dist (ai, bj) (8) j {1,…, n} then the average minimum euclidean distance (amed) (sahiner et al, 2001) and the hausdorff distance (hd) (huttenlocher et al, 1993) are defined as: i i 1 1 1 1 (x, y) (x , y) (y , x) 2 2 n n i j amed med med n n= = = +∑ ∑ (9) and hd(a,b)=max{max med(xi,y) , max med(yj,x)} (10) i {1,…, n} j{1,…, n} amed measures the average distance while hd measures the maximum distance between the two vectors. the aim of our method is to classify the test subject in three classes (n, mci or ad), so for each vector element e we look for the four nearest neighbors. figure 7. training for classification by using the four distances (euclidean, manhattan, hausdorff, amed average minimum euclidean distance) 4 decisions are eventually obtained: a, b, c, d or a is the result of the test vector assignment to one of three classes using the first euclidean distance. to achieve the final result we use bayes' theorem (hooper, 2013). b.r. amira, b. faouzi, a. hamid, m.b. djebara new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheimer disease 83 the probabilistic model for a classifier is the conditional model 1 n (c | f ,...., f )p (11) where c is a dependent class variable or a class whose instances are few, conditioned by several characteristic variables f1,…fn. when the number of characteristics is large, or when these features can take a large number of values, this model based on probability tables is impossible. therefore, we derive to be more readily soluble. using the bayes' theorem, we write 1 n 1 n 1 n (c) p(f ,..., f | c) (c | f ,..., f ) (f ,...., f ) p p p = (12) 3. results and discussion the results show the hippocampus segmentation using both caselle, chan&vese, lankton and our method. figure 8. the results of the segmentation of the hippocampus. the six lines present: image zoom on the hippocampus area, manually segmented image, the result of the caselle method, the result of the chan&vese method, the result of the lankton method, the result of our method. column 1 shows a healthy subject, column 2 shows a mci (primary stage) and the third column corresponds to an alzheimer's subject (advanced stage) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 84 in figure 9 we present a comparison between the manual segmentation, caselle, chan&vese, lankton and our method. figure 9. a comparison between the results. each column shows the superposition of the corresponding results: caselle (yellow curve), chan & vese (curve blue), lankton (red curve), our method (purple curve), and the ground truth (green curve) for a normal subject, mci and ad we chose the hausdorff distances, dice, mssd (mean sum square distance) and psnr (peak signal-to-noise ratio (psnr)) as a measure of the quality of the segmentation. these metrics are widespread in the medical field and admit multiple applications. in our case, we will use these distances to measure the degree of similarity between two shapes. 2 10 10 log (max | eqmp)psnr = (13) where max is the maximum peak to peak of the original signal, eqmp is the average of values of eqmp (weighted mean square error locally on blocks of 8 x 8 pixels). eqmp is given by: 2 ,2 1 1 1ˆ ˆ(i, i) (i(u, v) i(u, v)) n n p u v u v eqm w n = = = −∑∑ (14) i and i represent the original images degraded respectively in the dct domain. wu, v (2) represents the weight of the weighting in the spatial frequency (u, v). n (equal to 8) represents the size of the matrix to which the weighting w is applied. the dice coefficient is: dice = 2*nnz(segcont &grndtruth)/(nnz(segim) + nnz(grndtruth)) (15) where segcont: segment contour; grndtruth: ground truth; nnz: size of the contour normal the figure shows the calculation results of the four distances: dice, psnr, hausdorff and mss using the four methods (caselles chan & vese, lankton, our method), compared with the ground truth on three samples. b.r. amira, b. faouzi, a. hamid, m.b. djebara new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheimer disease 85 normal figure 10. the results of calculating the hausdorff distances, dice, psnr, mssd between the four methods (caselles, chan & vese, lanktom, and our method) and the ground truth about a subject normal following the segmentation of the hippocampus mci figure 11. results of calculating the hausdorff distances, dice, psnr, mssd between the four methods (caselles chan & vese, lanktom, our method) .and the ground truth about a mci subject following segmentation of the hippocampus. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 86 ad figure 12. results of calculating the hausdorff distances, dice, psnr, mssd between the four methods (caselles chan & vese, lanktom, our method) .and the ground truth about an ad subject following segmentation of the hippocampuss the result shows the corpus calosum segmentation using caselle, chan&vese, lankton, and our method. figure 13. the results of the corpus calosum segmentation. the six lines present in order: image zoom on the hippocampus area, manually segmented image, the result of the caselle method , the result of the chan&vese method, the result of the lankton method, the result of our method. column 1 shows a healthy subject, column 2 mci (primary stage), and the third column corresponds to an alzheimer's subject (advanced stage). b.r. amira, b. faouzi, a. hamid, m.b. djebara new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheimer disease 87 in figure 14, we present in order: the comparison between caselle, chan&vese, lankton manual segmentation and our method. figure 14. a comparison between the results. each column shows the superposition of the corresponding results: caselle (yellow curve), chan & vese (curve blue) lankton (red curve), our method (purple line) and the ground truth (curve green) for a normal subject, mci and ad. normal figure 15. the results of calculating the hausdorff distances, dice, psnr, mssd for the four methods (caselles chan & vese, lanktom, our method) and the ground truth about a normal subject following the corpus calosum segmentation. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 88 mci figure 16. results of calculating the hausdorff distances, dice, psnr, mssd between the four methods (caselles chan & vese, lanktom, our method) and the ground truth about a subject normal following segmentation of the corpus calosum. ad figure 17. the results of calculating the hausdorff distances, dice, psnr, mssd for the four methods (caselles chan & vese, lanktom, our method) and the ground truth about a normal subject following the corpus calosum segmentation. by examining six diagrams, we can clearly observe that the green curve which represents the hausdorff distance has values between 6.34 and 10.16 (mm) for our method of segmentation. on the b.r. amira, b. faouzi, a. hamid, m.b. djebara new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheimer disease 89 contrary, for the other methods, the values of the hausdorff distance often exhibit large variations, passing from 10.81 (mm) to reach 25.46 (mm). for the dice coefficient, our method presents the best values. the values of our method are between 0.885 and 0.918 mm as opposed to the other three methods, whose dice coefficient values vary between 0.681 and 0.873 mm. for the psnr coefficient, our method has values between 16.655 and 19.69 mm as opposed to the other methods whose values vary between 14.09 and 18.34 mm. yet for the mssd distance, our method has values between 6.61 and 13.31 mm, while for the other three methods the values are between 9.67 and 47.571 mm. through these measures, although in some cases the method of casselle & lankton provides acceptable results, we can see that for each sequence our model provides a more stable and comprehensive income closer to the manual segmentation. this can learn about the interests of the integration of priori knowledge. in conclusion, it is clear that the integration of priori knowledge of the form has greatly improved the results of the image sequences segmentation. that necessarily increases the reliability of the diagnostic parameters which is calculated based on these results. the classification results our database contains 500 subjects and for the evaluation of our method we worked with 75 subjects: 25 normal, 25 mci, 25 ad. normal mci ad subject 25 25 25 we present three figures representing the accuracy of the classification using the three methods, knn, svm and our method for normal, mci and alzheimer subjects. figure 18. accuracy of classification using the three methods, knn, svm and our method, for normal subjects brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 90 figure 19. accuracy of classification using the three methods: knn, svm and our method for mci subjects figure 20. the accuracy of classification using the three methods, knn, svm and our method, for ad subjects whatever the patient condition, normal, mci or ad, our method has provided us with better results. advocate example precision for normal patients was found 96% as opposed to 88% for the svm method and 84% for knn. for mci patients was found 88% as opposed to 80% for the svm method and 72% for knn. also for ad patients were found 92% as opposed to 88% for the svm method and 80% for knn. our classification method gave us the best results, finding overall accuracy of 92% as opposed to 84% for the svm method and 78.66% for knn. 4. conculsion we managed to achieve a computer assisted diagnosis system by analyzing the hippocampus and corpus callosum. our first contribution consisted in presenting a new method of segmentation based on a deformable model and priori knowledge. for the second contribution, we proposed a classification method based on the use of the four known metric distances, and the decision was achieved by using bayes. we found a good precision of 92% for detecting alzheimer's disease at any stage. the success of such a system is due to two phases: segmentation and classification. we proposed it as a future work, adding another part to establish the longitudinal monitoring for this disease: the analysis of two mri of the same patient in two different times for determining the changes in the hippocampus texture descriptors. 5. acknowledgments we thank professor mouna ben djebara from the alzheimer service of the hospital razi (tunisia) for kindly providing us brain mri images and manually segmenting the targeted regions hippocampus and corpus callosum. references weiner, m.w., veitch, d.p., aisen, p.s., beckett, l.a., cairns, n.j., cedarbaum, j. et al. (2015). impact of the alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative, 2004 to 2014 . alzheimers dement, 11, pp. 865–884. 2015 alzheimer's disease facts and figures. alzheimers dement. 11, pp. 332–384. brumfield, m. (2014). the critical path institute: transforming competitors into collaborators. nat rev drug discov, 13: 785–786. b.r. amira, b. faouzi, a. hamid, m.b. djebara new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheimer disease 91 neville, j., kopko, s., broadbent, s., aviles, e., stafford, r., solinsky, c.m. et al. (2015). development of a unified clinical trial database for alzheimer's disease. alzheimers dement, 11: 1212–1221. romero, k., sinha, v., allerheiligen, s., danhof, m., pinheiro, j., kruhlak, n. et al. (2014). modeling and simulation for medical product development and evaluation: highlights from the fda-c-path-isop 2013 workshop. j pharmacokinet pharmacodyn, 41: 545–552. mahad, d. h., trapp, b. d., & lassmann, h. (2015). pathological mechanisms in progressive multiple sclerosis. lancet neurol, 14: 183–193. geerts, h., roberts, p., spiros, a., & potkin, s. (2015). understanding responder neurobiology in schizophrenia using a quantitative systems pharmacology model: application to iloperidone. j psychopharmacol, 29: 372–382. kuffner, r., zach, n., norel, r., hawe, j., schoenfeld, d., wang, l. et al. (2015). crowdsourced analysis of clinical trial data to predict amyotrophic lateral sclerosis progression. nat biotechnol, 33: 51–57. ruan, l., lau, b.w., wang, j., huang, l., zhuge, q., wang, b. et al. (2014). neurogenesis in neurological and psychiatric diseases and brain injury: from bench to bedside. prog neurobiol, 115: 116–137. cummings, j.l., morstorf, t., & zhong, k., (2014). alzheimer's disease drug-development pipeline: few candidates, frequent failures. alzheimers res ther, 6:p. 37. romero, k., ito, k., rogers, j.a., polhamus, d., qiu, r., stephenson, d. et al. (2015). the future is now: model-based clinical trial design for alzheimer's disease clin pharmacol ther, 97, pp. 210–214. panza, f., solfrizzi, v., imbimbo, b.p., tortelli, r., santamato, a., & logroscino, g. (2014). amyloid-based immunotherapy for alzheimer's disease in the time of prevention trials: the way forward expert rev clin immunol, 10, pp. 405–419. saykin, a.j., shen, l., yao, x., kim, s., nho, k., risacher, s.l. et al. (2015). genetic studies of quantitative mci and ad phenotypes in adni: progress, opportunities, and plans alzheimers dement, 11, pp. 792–814. collins, f. s. & varmus, h. a. (2015). new initiative on precision medicine n engl j med, 372, pp. 793–795. hartley, s. l., handen, b. l., devenny, d. a., hardison, r., mihaila, i., price, j. c. et al. (2014). cognitive functioning in relation to brain amyloid–beta in healthy adults with down syndrome brain, 137, pp. 2556–2563. aljabar, p., heckemann, r.a., hammers, a., hajnal, j.v., & rueckert, d. (2009). multi-atlas based segmentation of brain images: atlas selection and its effect on accuracy. neuroimage, 46:726– 738. atif, j., nempont, o., colliot, o., angelini e., & bloch. i. (2006). level set deformable models constrained by fuzzy spatial relations. in information processing and management of uncertainty in knowledge-based systems, ipmu, pp. 1534–1541, france. ardekani, b. a. & bachman. a. h. (2009). model-based automatic detection of the anterior and posterior commissures on mri scans. neuroimage, 46:677–682 . delingette, h. & montagnat, j. (2001). shape and topology constraints on parametric active contours. computer vision image understanding, vol.83, pp. 140-171. duvernoy, h. m. (2005 ). the human hippocampus: functional anatomy, vascularization and serial sections with mri. springer. andreopoulos, a. & tsotsos, j. (2008). efficient and generalizable statistical models of shape and appearance for analysis of cardiac mri. medical image analysis, pp. 335-357. aymeric, h. & christine, c. m. (2005). détection robuste et automatique des contours myocardiques sur des séquences irm cardiaques marquées. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 92 babalola, k. o., patenaude, b., aljabar, p., schnabel, j., kennedy, d., crum, w., smith, s., cootes, t., jenkinson, m., & rueckert. d. (2009). an evaluation of structures in the brain. neuroimage, vol. 47, pp. 1435-14 47. bascle, b. (1994). contributions et applications des modèles déformables en vision par ordinateur. thèse de doctorat, université de nice-sophia antipolis. 2008. segmentation des tissus et structures sur les irm cérébrales : agents markoviens locaux coopératifs et formulation bayésienne. thèse de doctorat, institut national polytechnique de grenoble. caselles, l., catt, f., coll, c., & dibos, f. (1991). a geometric model for active contours in image processing. numerische mathematik, pp. 1-3. caselles, v., kimmel, r., & sapiro, g. (1997). geodesic active contours. international journal of computer vision, vol.22, pp. 61-79. chan, t. & vese. l. (2001). active contours without edges. ieee trans. on image processing, vol.10, pp. 266-277. charmi, m. a., derrode, s., & ghorbel, f. (2008). fourier-based geometric shape prior for snakes. pattern recognition letters, vol.29, pp. 897-904. chen, c. h. & lee, g. g. (1997). image segmentation using multiresolution wavelet analysis and expectation-maximization (em) algorithm for digital mammography. international journal of imaging systems and technology, vol.8, pp. 491-504. chen, w. & giger, m. l. (2004). a fuzzy c-means (fcm) based algorithm for intensity inhomogeneity correction and segmentation of mr images. ieee international symposium on biomedical imaging, arlington, va, pp.1307-1310. chen, s. & radke, r. j. (2009). level set segmentation with both shape and intensity priors. 12th ieee international conference on computer vision, pp.763 -770. cohen, l. d. (1991). on active contour models and balloons. cvgip: image understanding, vol.53, pp. 211– 218. cootes, t. f. & taylor, c. j. (1994). combining point distribution models with shape models based on finite element analysis. bmvc94: proceedings of the conference on british machine vision, vol.2, pp. 419-428. cootes, t. f., taylor, c. j., cooper, d. h., & graham. j. (1995). active shape models their training and application. computer vision and image understanding, vol. 61, pp. 38-59. cootes, t. f., edwards, g. j., & taylor, c. j. (2001). active appearance models. ieee trans. pattern anal. mach. intell, vol.23, pp. 681-685. cootes, t. f. & taylor, c. j. (1994). combining point distribution models with shape models based on finite element analysis. bmvc94: proceedings of the conference on british machine vision, vol.2, pp. 419-428. caselles, v., kimmel, r., & sapiro, g. (1997). geodesic active contours, international journal of computer vision . chan, t. & vese, l. (2001). active contours without edges, ieee transactions on image processing. lankton, s. & tannenbaum, a. (2008). localizing region-based active contours, ieee transaction on image processing. cover, t. & hart, p.e. (1967). nearest neighbor pattern classification. iee transactions information theory, 13:21–27. quinlan, j. (1986). induction of decision trees. machine learning, 1(1):81–106. cortes, c. & vapnik, v. (1995). support-vector networks. machine learning, 20(3) :273–297. sahiner, b., petrick, n., chan, h-p., hadjiiski, l.m., paramagul, c., helvie, m. a. et al. (2001). computer-aided characterization of mammographic masses: accuracy of mass segmentation and its effects on characterization. ieee trans med imaging, 20:1275–84. b.r. amira, b. faouzi, a. hamid, m.b. djebara new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheimer disease 93 huttenlocher, d. p., klanderman, g. a., & rucklidge, w. j. (1993). comparing images using the hausdorff distance. ieee trans pattern anal mach intell, 15:850–63. hooper, m. (2013). « richard price, bayes ' theorem, and god », significance, vol. 10, no 1, février. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 108 pseudo-holographic displays as teaching tools in mathematics monica ciobanu department of engineering and computer science vasile goldis western university of arad, bulevardul revoluției 94, arad, romania phone: 0257 211 884 cmmciobanu@gmail.com antoanela naaji department of engineering and computer science vasile goldis western university of arad, bulevardul revoluției 94, arad, romania phone: 0257 211 884 anaaji@uvvg.ro ioan dascal sc antaco romania srl, arad, romania bd. iuliu maniu, nr. 31-33, sc. b et. 2 ap. 10, arad, jud. arad nelu_dascal1@yahoo.com ioan virag automation and computer science faculty politehnica university of timisoara, piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006, romania phone: 0256 403 000 ioan.virag@aut.upt.ro abstract due to the fact that the abstract mathematical notions are often hard to grasp by students, without linking them to a specific physical representation or correlate them with regular facts, our team came up with the idea to create and implement a set of interactive teaching tool packages (ittps) to help them overcome such issues. the ittps consist of theoretical modules and applications in the framework of a hungarian romanian cross-border project, developed with the aid of existing open source software and technologies. the focus of the romanian team was on basic elements of linear algebra and analytic geometry, showcased using an auto-stereoscopic display for the purpose of image visualization. this paper presents an overview of similar technologies and the applications developed for representing pseudo-holographic images of geometric objects, namely vectors, straight lines, planes and conics. one of the developed packages was written using web technologies in order to make the applications available on mobile devices, as well as to eliminate the need to install any additional software. keywords: autostereoscopic display, pseudo-holographic images, teaching tools 1. introduction the trends in modern education lead to the development of online courses due to their benefits especially in terms of flexibility, knowledge achievement and costs. getting education by integrating ict in the learning process motivates learners and offers skills that sometimes lack resources in traditional education. also, the online environment is changing continuously representing a great opportunity for learning, particularly for individuals who want to advance their career. in the last years there has been an increasing development of the massive open online courses (mooc) (provision company webpage, 2016), materialized in the form of multiple m. ciobanu, a. naaji, i. dascal, i. virag pseudo-holographic displays as teaching tools in mathematics 109 platforms, offered to large numbers of students, using technologically enhanced resources and activities, such as virtual laboratories, simulations and cognitive tutors. although many people still consider traditional education better in achieving knowledge, online learning proves to be a great alternative for the study many fields and to boost the level of self-motivation. in this way, students have the chance to study at their own pace and in their own time. in this context, considering the potential and the benefits of e-learning platforms, we created and implemented some courses for mathematical disciplines, adapted to online education (ammeraal, zhang, 2007). the courses were developed as interactive teaching tools packages (ittps), containing both theoretical modules and applications (andrica, topan, 2004; atanasiu, munteanu, postolache, 2003). the topics related to ittps are: mathematical analysis, probability, numerical calculus, computational algebra, linear algebra and analytical geometry. the corresponding applications were made using maxima or were created using java (for android), java 3d and javascript. all of the developed applications are open-source. these results were obtained in the framework of a hungarian romanian cross-border project (see acknowledgement). the aim of our project was to facilitate the understanding of mathematical abstract notions by combining theory with interactive applications. the ittps provide students with a new tool in order to make the content more accessible and help them understand and learn mathematical notions (ciobanu, naaji, virag, dascal, 2016). for some applications, an autostereoscopic display was used for visualizing 3d objects as pseudo-holographic images, as well as the outcome of parameter changes inside mathematical formulas. for each application we developed a version which can be visualized on a classical 2d display and another one adapted for the 3d pseudo-holographic device (ciobanu, ploscar, dascal, virag, naaji, 2015). this new approach (of using a 3d autostereoscopic display for education) differentiates our tools from other existing contributions. 2. technical background and related work the proper rendering of three-dimensional (3d) content cannot be achieved using traditional two-dimensional (2d) displays. this lack of the ability to properly display cues related to the depth of the rendered 3d objects makes it very hard for students to grasp the proper spatial representation of the discussed subjects. the cues needed to understand three-dimensional content displayed on a two-dimensional display are emulated with the help of mathematical algorithms, but the resulting images are still missing some essential pieces that could be properly represented only by using a 3d display device. according to (geng, 2013) there are four major physical (physiological) and five psychological depth cues the human brain uses to gain a 3d sensation based on the viewed images. the physical depth cues are:  accommodation – the measurement of tension in the muscle that changes the focal length of the eyes’ lenses in order to bring into focus a specific 3d object in the scene, allowing us to perceive its 3d depth.  convergence – the difference between the viewing directions of the eyes when looking at the same spot in a 3d scene.  motion parallax – nearby objects appear to move faster in a 3d scene than those that are far away.  binocular disparity – refers to the fact that our left and right eyes see slightly different perspectives of the same 3d object. thus it brings into focus objects at different distances. also according to (geng, 2013) the human visual system can interpret depth by extracting psychological cues from 2d monocular images. these psychological depth cues are: brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 110  linear perspective – the appearance that parallel lines converge at a distant vanishing point on the horizon. this technique was often used by renaissance painters to depict buildings and scenes that appeared more realistic than those painted in the middle ages.  occlusion – the ability of the human visual system to perceive an overlapped 3d object as laying farther away than the object in front of it.  shading – when objects are casting shadows upon another object in the 3d scene, this visual cue helps us determine which object is closer to the viewer. it also helps determine the spatial orientation of the object.  texture – objects with smooth textures are usually interpreted as being farther away since we cannot distinguish too many surface details.  prior knowledge – 3d shapes and sizes of common geometrical structures can help the viewer infer depth cues due to the fact that the brain already knows how they interact with the surrounding light sources. depending on their construction principle, some of the actual 3d displays are able to provide all these depth cues, while others provide only some of them. the current 3d display technologies fall in two major categories: stereoscopic displays (when special eyewear is used to induce the 3d depth sensation) and autostereoscopic displays where different techniques provide a sense of 3d depth without the use of any kind of 3d glasses. autostereoscopic displays, according to (geng, 2013), fall into three major construction types: multiview 3d displays, volumetric 3d displays, and holographic displays, although the latest are more commonly referred as pseudo-holographic displays since they do not use real holograms. the multiview 3d displays usually provide a finite number of different perspectives to a limited number of users by using parallax barriers (gocheva, rahnev, 2008; iltina, iltins, 2013), or lenticular lenses (iordan, 2009; jeon, park, gwag, lee, kwon, 2014) that block the view of a specific set of pixels for the other users. these displays usually provide a lower resolution because, for a display with n views (perspectives), the actual resolution of each view is 1/n of the initial display resolution. volumetric 3d displays use individual voxels that provide accurate volumetric information regarding the rendered 3d objects. the major enhancement of these displays is that they provide a 360-degree view of the displayed model, and not only one single perspective for each viewer as the multiview 3d displays. by their construction principle, the volumetric 3d displays fall into two major categories: static screen volumetric 3d displays as in figure 1 that have no moving parts and swept screen volumetric 3d displays as in figure 2 that usually involves a rotating screen and relies on the persistence of vision. figure 1. 3d led rgb cube source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pswc-hivrrm m. ciobanu, a. naaji, i. dascal, i. virag pseudo-holographic displays as teaching tools in mathematics 111 figure 2. perspecta volumetric display source: http://www.3dcgi.com/cooltech/displays/actualitymilitary3d_sm.jpg pseudo-holographic displays are capable of displaying individual hogels (holographic picture elements) (kim, yoon, yoon, ju, 2015). their major advantage is that the displayed 3d image seems to “float away” from the display providing the viewer with an experience close to an actual hologram. depending on their construction principle, these devices provide a single or several different perspectives of the 3d object to multiple users at the same time. during project development our team used a holovision pseudo-holographic display manufactured by provision (lanman, hirsch, kim, raskar, 2010). this autostereoscopic 3d display allows several students to visualize the projected 3d models at the same time without wearing any kind of special glasses. the holovision device is capable of creating the illusion of a 30 cm image focused at approximately 90 cm in front of the monitor, viewable at a 60-degree angle from the center. the holovision device has an in-built minicomputer that allows the storing of 3d content that later can be played (with a pre-installed media player) if the 3d display is used for commercial purposes. since our team created the teaching tools to be interactive, we could not use the device’s player and connected our laptop to the holovision’s vga port, using it in a similar fashion as a 3d projector. the laptop our team used had a 17.3 inch display, an intel core i3 processor at 2.2 ghz, 4 gb ddr 3 memory and an integrated hd 3000 graphics processor that provided enough processing resources to render the interactive 3d content. 3. the applications developed for interactive teaching tools in this paragraph we present some of the applications developed based on java 3d api and javascript (lucente, 1994; mustea, naaji, herman, 2014). they are related to topics from linear algebra and analytical geometry (osmani, 2014; xie, zhao, yang, et al. 2012), namely vectors, straight lines, planes, and conics. the software was developed in two versions: one for 2d monitors, suitable for individual study, and the other one for autostereoscopic display. in the first version, the text fields and tags are created to input data, positioned in the upper side of the monitor, with buttons for calculations and 3d representation of the images. likewise, results of calculations and details regarding geometric objects are displayed in the lower side of the monitor (figure 3). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 112 figure 3. interface developed for 2d monitor in the second version for the autostereoscopic device (figure 4) the area for data input displayed at the beginning is hidden when 3d objects are represented, thus allowing emphasis of the pseudo-holographic image. two types of interfaces were needed because the 3d image cannot be rendered in the same way on a 2d monitor as on the holovision device, where the 3d model keeps its details even if it is scaled. figure 4. interface developed for holographic display 3.1. the applications developed for representing vectors and elements of vector calculus the vector spaces ittp comprises vector spaces, euclidean vector spaces, and free vectors, emphasizing connections between linear algebra and analytical geometry. isomorphism between a vector space and a real space of the same dimension leads to a vector being expressed with the help of its coordinates relative to a basis. the notions of scalar product of two vectors, vector norm, and angle between two vectors are introduced, with the aim of constructing an orthonormal vector system. definitions have a general character, being valid in an n-dimensional space, but for the applications to have an intuitive support, spaces of dimensions 2 and 3 are considered to represent geometric objects. bounded vectors (oriented segments), equivalence relation on the set of bounded vectors and free vectors (equivalence classes) are defined and elements of vector calculation are presented. one of the applications created allows establishing whether a vector system forms a basis or not, determining a vector’s coordinates in relation to a base. another application represents 3d vectors obtained by multiplication with a scalar, vector addition and subtraction, vector product. in the version for individual study, on a 2d monitor (figure 5), data are introduced in text fields found in the upper side of the monitor. tags indicate 3d coordinates of vector extremities. data input for several vectors and their representation is made m. ciobanu, a. naaji, i. dascal, i. virag pseudo-holographic displays as teaching tools in mathematics 113 by successively clicking the draw button. the delete button allows deleting the last drawn vector, thus making it possible to successively reduce the number of vectors. the add button comprises a submenu which allows selecting the vector addition method, i.e. parallelogram method or triangle method. the subtract button works in a similar way. the multiply button allows calculating the product between a vector and a scalar and the vector product. displayed images can be rotated around the oy axis to better view the result of the performed operation. in the lower side of the monitor there is a text area where the coordinates of the resulting vector are shown. this application was created using java 3d api. figure 5. interface developed for visualizing vector calculus 3.2 the applications developed for representing straight lines and planes the straight lines and planes in 3-dimensional euclidian space ittp defines the theoretical bases related to these topics and presents the application developed for visualizing them. the vector equation of a line is given when one point on the line and the directing vector of the line are known or when two points on the line are known. the vector equation of the plane is given when one point of the plane and one basis are known or when the position vectors of three points on the plane are known. in order to give the cartesian equations of planes and lines, the notion of general (affine) cartesian coordinate system is defined. the following are given: the equation of a plane passing through a point and which is perpendicular to a vector; the vector equation of the plane when one point and two of its direction vectors are known; the parametric equations of the plane; the equation of the plane in the form of a determinant; the equation of the plane through cuts. the necessary and sufficient conditions for two planes to be secant, parallel or to coincide are also presented. the vector equation of a line is re-written in the form of parametric equations of the line when one point on the line and the direction vector are known, i.e. cartesian or canonic equations. the canonic equation of a line is also given when we know the coordinates of two points on the line. one of the developed applications allows generating the image of straight lines and planes. as stated above, two versions of the application were created, the one for individual study being shown in figure 6. the application has tags and text fields in the upper side for inputting data for two planes and two lines. by using buttons, 2 planes or 2 lines or one line and one plane can be selected for viewing. if the two planes or the two lines are parallel or if the line is parallel to the plane, the application displays this information. if the objects intersect each other, the application displays the angle between them in radians and the coordinates of the point or line of intersection. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 114 figure 6. interface developed for visualizing straight lines and planes the notion of common perpendicular to two non-coplanar lines is defined in order to give the formula for distance between two non-coplanar lines. the ittp was thought out by the authors so as the students would assimilate the formulas presented as easily as possible. the version for the autostereoscopic device does not display the results of calculations, but creates a pseudo-holographic image for perceiving the presented notions. the applications were created using java 3d api. 3.3 the applications developed for representing conics the hyperquadrics ittp is structured into three parts, namely: sphere and circle, conics, and quadrics. with regard to sphere, the definition of a sphere and the implicit cartesian equation is presented, as well as the general cartesian equation and parametric equations of the sphere. a classification of points with respect to a sphere, position of a sphere to a straight line, a plane or another sphere is also presented. the circle is defined in 3-dimensional space as the intersection between a sphere and a plane, as well as between two spheres, case which can be reduced to the first one by considering one of the spheres and the radical plane of them. one application is related to the calculus of the power of a point with respect to a sphere. in the version for individual study (figure 3), in the upper side of the monitor there are tags and text fields for data input and the draw button displays the image of the corresponding sphere. by clicking on the surface of the monitor, the application randomly draws a half line starting from that point, which intersects the sphere in two points. at the same time, it calculates and displays the power the point with respect to the sphere in the lower side of the monitor. for two spheres, the data are entered successively and the radical plane is displayed (figure 4). by clicking on the plane, two half lines are randomly drawn, starting from that point and intersecting the spheres. the application calculates and displays the power of the point with respect to the two spheres. a radical axis is drawn for three spheres (figure 3). by clicking on a point on this line, three half lines which intersect the spheres are randomly drawn. the power of the point with respect to the three spheres is calculated and displayed. a radical point is obtained for four spheres. by clicking on the point, four half lines which intersect the spheres are randomly drawn and the power of the point with respect to the spheres is determined. for better viewing, the rotate button rotates the entire set of spheres around the oy axis. another application presents the intersection between a sphere and a straight line, a sphere and a plane and between two spheres (figure 7). m. ciobanu, a. naaji, i. dascal, i. virag pseudo-holographic displays as teaching tools in mathematics 115 figure 7. interface developed for visualizing intersections between a sphere with a line, a plane or a second sphere for the individual study version, the coordinates of the center and radius of the circle obtained as intersection are calculated and displayed in the lower side of the monitor (ciobanu, naaji, virag, dascal, 2016). to have a better image over the 3d model and to see it from different angles, the application allows rotating it. these applications were also made using java 3d api. with regard to conics, the theoretical part of ittp presents them by canonical and general equations as well as the intersection between a conical surface and a plane. an application was developed using java, to represent conics starting from their general equations. orthogonal invariants are defined and the center or vertex of the conic and the axes (or axis) of symmetry are determined. in the version for individual study, all results, including the nature and genus of the conic, are displayed in the left side of the monitor (figure 8). figure 8. interface developed for visualizing conics given by their general equations in another application, the software module used for explaining the conics and the intersection between a cone surface and a plane was written in javascript. the 3d model can be rotated with a regular 2d mouse or with a gyromouse that has built-in gyroscopes which allows for three degrees of movement freedom, enhancing the user experience. for a better view of the conic section, the 3d model can be rotated. different conics such as: circle, ellipse, hyperbola or parabola can be obtained by the movement of the plane on the ox and oy axes, or its rotation around the ox axis. (figure 9) (ciobanu, naaji, virag, dascal, 2016; ciobanu, ploscar, dascal, virag, naaji, 2015). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 116 figure 9. interface for visualizing a conic section the source code for the applications is based on standards like html5, css, the jquery api (jquery api documentation, 2013) for the user interface, the raphael library (the raphaël javascript library home page) for working with vector graphics and the conics3d javascript extension written by lodewijk bogaards (bogaards, 2016) for the visualization of conic sections. 4. conclusions the interactive teaching tools packages (ittps) are designed to present some topics from mathematical disciplines, in order to facilitate the understanding of these abstract subjects. through our applications, for topics from linear algebra and analytical geometry, geometric objects can be visualized with help of an autostereoscopic display where the 3d model can be observed and rotated. the display does not require the use of any kind of special glasses. the applications were developed in two versions, one for the autostereoscopic display, and one for regular 2d flat screen. the resulting ittps are freely available on the involved partner universities e-learning platforms and project web pages. the preliminary results and feedback from the target groups are promising and future testing is required to gain insights regarding the execution times of the various ittps. acknowledgment: the results presented here were financially supported by the hungary-romania crossborder co-operation programme 2007-2013, under the grant no. huro/1001/040/2.3.1., entitled: development of open source software and interactive teaching tools for mathematics – softmat (http://softmat.uvvg.ro). the project was implemented by college of nyiregyhaza, hungary as lead partner, and “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania. references ammeraal, l. & zhang, k. (2007). computer graphics for java programmers. john wiley & sons ltd. andrica, d. & topan, l. (2004). analytic geometry. cluj university press, cluj-napoca. atanasiu, g., munteanu, g., & postolache, m. (2003). algebra liniara, geometrie analitica si diferentiala. ecuatii diferentiale. bucharest: fair partners. bogaards, l. (2016). conic sections app. retrieved from http://www.mrhobo.nl ciobanu, m., naaji, a., virag, i., & dascal, i. (2016). interactive applications for studying mathematics with the use of an autostereoscopic display. soft computing applications, series advances in intelligent and soft computing, vol. 356, springer international publishing switzerland, 673-680. ciobanu, m., ploscar, a., dascal, i., virag, i., & naaji, a. (2015). interactive teaching tools for visualizing geometrical 3d objects using pseudo holographic images. recent advances in m. ciobanu, a. naaji, i. dascal, i. virag pseudo-holographic displays as teaching tools in mathematics 117 computer science, proceedings of the 19th international conference on computers, series recent advances in computer engineering series, nr. 34, 215-218. geng, j. (2013). three-dimensional display technologies. advances in optics and photonics, 5(4), 456–535. gocheva, s. & rahnev, a. (2008). new challenges in e-learning of mathematics via evlm and idelc projects. new aspects of engineering education, proceedings of the 5th wseas / iasme international conference on engineering education, 437-442. iltina, m. & iltins, i. (2013). mathematics with software mathematica at riga technical university. recent advanced in educational methods, proceedings of the 10th international conference on engineering education, 81-86. iordan, a. (2009). development of interactive software for teaching three-dimensional analytic geometry. proceedings of the 9th wseas international conference on distance-learning and web engineering, 23-28. jeon, h. j., park, g., gwag, j. s., lee, j. h., & kwon, j. h. (2014). color-matching liquid crystal display using a lenticular lens array and rgb light sources. journal of the optical society of korea, 18(4), 345-349. jquery api documentation. (2013). retrieved from http://api.jquery.com kim, s. k., yoon, k. y., yoon, s. k., & ju, h. (2015). parallax barrier engineering for image quality improvement in an autostereoscopic 3d display. optics express, vol. 23 (10), p. 13230. lanman, d., hirsch, m., kim, y., & raskar, r. (2010). content-adaptive parallax barriers: optimizing dual-layer 3d displays using low-rank light field factorization. acm siggraph asia 2010 papers (siggraph asia '10). acm, new york, ny, usa, article 163. lucente, m. (1994). diffraction-specific fringe computation for electro-holography (doctoral thesis dissertation). mit dept. of electrical engineering and computer science. mustea, a., naaji, a., & herman, c. (2014). using moodle for the development of massive open online courses. let's build the future through learning innovation, proceedings of the 10th international scientific conference "elearning and software for education", volume 1, carol i national defence university press. osmani, a. (2014). learning javascript design patterns. retrieved from http://addyosmani.com/resources/essentialjsdesignpatterns/book provision company webpage. (2016). retrieved from http://www.provision.tv the raphaël javascript library home page. retreived from http://raphaeljs.com xie, h., zhao, x., yang, y et al. (2012). cross-lenticular lens array for full parallax 3-d display with crosstalk reduction. science china technological sciences, 55 (3), 735–742. monica ciobanu (b. august 15, 1973) received her bsc in mathematics (1996), msc in operator models, variety of applications and optimal control (1997), phd in mathematics (2003) from west university of timisoara, romania. now she is lecturer of mathematics in department of engineering and computer science, faculty of economics, engineering and computer science, “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania. her current research interests include different aspects of linear algebra, differential geometry, dynamical systems, graph’s algorithms and she focused on applications in biology and medical informatics. she has (co-) authored 2 books and more than 25 papers, more than 40 conferences participation. she participated in more than 5 projects, funded by eu, national or international research authorities. within the hungarian romanian cross-border project, development of open source software and interactive teaching tools for mathematics mathematics – softmat, she has been project assistant and coordinator of the project for the “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania. she is a member of tensor society, japan, of balkan society of geometers, romania, and srim (romanian society for medical informatics). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 118 antoanela naaji (b. february, 1963) received her msc in automation and computers (1987), phd in mechanical engineering (2005) from “politehnica” university of timisoara, romania. now she is associate professor of computer science in department of engineering and computer science, faculty of economics, engineering and computer science, “vasile goldis” western university of arad, romania. her current research interests include web technologies (e-learning), biomechanics (modeling of biological systems) and medical informatics. she has (co-) authored and (co-) edited 13 books and more than 90 papers. her preoccupations in the above-mentioned fields are reflected in a number of over 20 projects, as manager or member, funded by eu, national or international research authorities or county council. she is a senior member of ieee, member of eaeeie (european association for electrical engineer and information engineering), agir (general association of romanian engineers) and srim (romanian society for medical informatics). ioan dascal (b. april 15, 1963) received his bsc in informatics (2008), msc in web development technologies (2010) from „vasile goldis” western university of arad. he also received his msc in chemical engineering (1989) from "babesbolyai" university of cluj-napoca. now he is c++ programmer. his main area of interest is programming in c, c++, java, javascript, f#, html, xml, css, php, mysql, etc. his current research interests include functional programming. he has (co-) authored 4 papers. ioan virag (b. march 30, 1977) received his bsc in informatics (2009) and msc in web development technologies (2012) from „vasile goldis” western university of arad. since 2013 he is phd candidate in information technology and computers at the politehnica university of timisoara, automation and computer science faculty. his current research activities include web-based medical imaging applications and gesture-based interaction in biomedical interfaces. he has (co-) authored more than 10 papers and attended numerous international conferences. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final.doc 187 des résumés en français brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cerveau. recherche large en intelligence artificielle et neurosciences volume 1, numéro 2 april 2010: «joyeuses pâques 2010!» www.brain.edusoft.ro sous la direction de: bogdan pătruţ 1. une heuristique hybride pour résoudre le problème de triangulation gloria cerasela crişan, camelia-m. pintea résumé le problème de triangulation consiste à trouver une permutation simultanée des lignes et des colonnes d'une matrice carrée donnée, de sorte que la somme des elements au-dessus de la diagonale est maximale. les chercheurs étudient ce problème de manière intensive, car il a des applications majeurs dans divers domaines. un nouvel algorithme hybride aco (ant colony) est introduit. l'algorithme débute par une procédure de recherche greedy. elle est suivie par une version améliorée du système ant colony mélangé avec un problème de recherche local spécifique. 2. une proposition d’architecture à base de dates pour des applications distribuées en cardiologie horea adrian greblă, călin ovidiu cenan résumé le document présente un cadre pour un système médical distribué pour but d'apporter une approche moderne et augmenter la qualité des services médicaux offerts aux patients chroniques avec des maladies cardio-vasculaires, à travers les dernières technologies de tic. le système proposé permet une interaction en ligne entre les acteurs principaux d'un système médical: les patients, les médecins, les entités médicales (hôpitaux, cliniques) et les autorités médicales (par exemple, services sociaux). avec l'aide des normes médicales largement acceptées, le système fournit le stockage des dossiers médicaux et offre des services d'intégration des données entre différents types d'applications de santé et des entités. l'approche ontologique proposée permet l'échange des connaissances médicales et les meilleures pratiques avec les dossiers des patients sur le plan conceptuel organisé. la solution proposée permet le diagnostic assisté par l’ordinateur et l'analyse des données médicales selon des multicritère, à mesure de la possibilité de construire un entrepôt de données pour l'extraction complexe de données médicaux. 3. recherche en éducation sur la dimension technologique de la vie privée liliana maţă résumé l'objectif de cette étude consiste à analyser la dimension technologique de la vie privée à l'école. il traite d'une recherche d'observation sur les documents de programmes d'études et la perception des collégiens et enseignants concernant cette dimension au niveau de l’enseignement roumain préuniversitaire. les principaux objectifs de la présente recherche visent à: a) identifier des aspects spécifiques de la dimension technologique comme en témoignent les manuels et programmes scolaires et b) définir le degré d'ouverture des enseignants et des collégiens vers la dimension technologique de la vie privée. pour le premier objectif, nous avons effectué une analyse du contenu des documents scolaires, en tenant compte des thèmes spécifiques et des catégories. deuxièmement, nous avons mené une enquête qui a testé la manière dont 1.456 collégiens et 890 enseignants des résumés en français 188 perçoivent la dimension technologique du système éducatif roumain. les résultats sont distingués par les fréquences des thèmes spécifiques structurés sur la dimension technologique au niveau des documents scolaires, et sur le degré d'ouverture des collégiens et des enseignants. 4. la sélection des opérations pour assembler encoding tomasz praczyk résumé assembler encoding est une méthode neuro évolutive, dans lequel un réseau de neurones est représenté sous la forme d'un simple programme appelé assembler encoding program. la tâche du programme est de créer la soi-disant matrice de définir le réseau qui conserve toutes les informations nécessaires pour construire le réseau. des techniques évolutives sont utilisées pour générer des programmes assembler encoding et, en conséquence, des réseaux de neurones. la performance du programme assembler encoding dépend fortement des opérations utilisées dans les programmes assembler encoding. pour sélectionner les actions les plus performantes, des expériences dans l'optimisation et dans le problème du prédateur proie ont été effectuées. dans les expériences, les programmes assembler encoding équipés de différents types d'opérations ont été testés. les résultats des tests sont présentés à la fin du papier. 5. des programmes informatiques dans la thérapie de la dyslalie et la dyslexie-dysgraphie iolanda tobolcea, mirela danubianu résumé au cours des dernières années, les chercheurs et les thérapeutes en logopédie ont été de plus en plus préoccupés par l'élaboration et l'utilisation de programmes informatiques en troubles du langage. l'objectif principal de cette étude a été d'évaluer l'efficacité thérapeutique des programmes dans la thérapie de la parole, pour la langue roumaine. le long de l'étude, nous présenterons la recherche expérimentale en évaluant l'efficacité des programmes informatiques dans la thérapie du langage pour deux troubles du langage: dyslalie, dyslexie-dysgraphie. sur le plan méthodologique, l'utilisation de l'ordinateur dans les phases thérapeutique a été réalisé avec l'aide de quelques ordinateurs à base de programmes (terapers etc) que nous avons élaboré et expérimenté au cours de plusieurs années d'activité thérapeutique. l'échantillon utilisé dans la recherche était composé de 120 sujets, 60 enfants atteints de troubles du langage ont été sélectionnés pour chaque trouble de la parole: 30 pour le groupe expérimental et 30 pour le groupe témoin. les hypothèses de l'étude ont vérifié si les résultats obtenus par les sujets dans le groupe expérimental ont été amélioré de façon significative après l'utilisation du programme informatique, comparativement aux sujets du groupe de contrôles, qui n'ont pas utilisé le programme. les hypothèses ont été confirmées pour les troubles du langage inclus dans la recherche, et les conclusions de l'étude confirment les avantages d'utiliser l'ordinateur à base de programmes au sein de l'orthophonie dans la correction de ces troubles et l'influence positive de ces programmes sur le développement de la personnalité des enfants. mots-clés: programmes informatiques, traitement, enfants, dyslalie, dyslexie-dysgraphie. 5. penser au savon mais dire ‘avons’. la période de préparation de sons: calcul en arrière de dire à l’innervation des muscles nora wiedenmann résumé dans le modèle de cet article, sur le discours et sur les erreurs de langage, dyscoordinations et les troubles, le délai cours à partir du impulsions des innervation des muscles à l'énonciation des sons, comme prévu pour les séquences du discours canonique, est calculé en arrière. ce délai est montré comme la somme de toutes les durées connues physiologique des sons de la parole et gestes de la parole qui sont nécessaires pour produire un énoncé. le modèle introduit deux horloges internes, basées sur des facteurs positifs ou négatifs, ce qui représente certain temps à base physiologique pendant la période de préparation adéquate (lautvorspann). l'utilisation de ces horloges internes montrent que les gestes de la parole – comme d'autres activités motrices – fonctionnent selon un brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 189 principe de sérialisation simple: dans des conditions non par défaut, des altérations du délai peuvent provoquer des erreurs de la sérialisation, dyscoordinations des sons comme observés au cours de l’acquisition de la langue première, ou des troubles du langage comme des cas pathologiques. ces altérations du temps de parcours sont modélisés en faisant varier les deux facteurs de l'horloge interne. le calcul d'utilisations du délai comme valeurs par défaut de la durée des sons dépend du contexte munich phondat base de données de l'allemand parlé (voir l'annexe 4). comme une nouvelle approche humaine, ce calcul mathématique est d'accord avec l'approche de la programmation linéaire / operations research. ce travail apporte un soutien fort à la suspicion assez anciens (de 1908) du célèbre savant autrichien meringer, à savoir que l'on pense surtout et articule dans une sérialisation différent de ce qui est audible quand on prononce des séquences sonores. 7. état de l'art: des concepts de solution pour les jeux de coalition simina brânzei résumé cet article s’intéresse aux concepts de solution pour les jeux de coalition. plusieurs concepts de solution sont caractérisés, comme celui du centre, de la valeur de shapley, de la série de négociations, de la série stable, du nucléole, et du noyau, ou kernel. nous nous intéressons aux développements récents concernant des représentations concises des jeux de coalition, comme les jeux pondérés de vote, les jeux de ressource de coalition, les jeux booléens coopératifs, et aussi les filets de contribution secondaire. les concepts de solution actuels requièrent des conditions prohibitives de complexité, même pour les classes très simples de jeux. on établit un agenda pour trouver un concept de solution d'équilibre tout aussi engageant que le noyau, mais qui soit malleable et dont l’existence est garantie. 8. les facteurs de l'intelligence du développement et de performance individuelle gheorghe dumitriu résumé l'étude présente quelques approches pour les facteurs, la composition et la mesure de l'intelligence humaine. ainsi, dans l'approche psychométrique, il est évident que l'intelligence est plus influencée par l'héritage génétique de la personne que par l'héritage culturel de la société. la conclusion de certaines recherches sur l'évaluation du renseignement est que les sujets qui obtiennent des scores élevés dans certaines tâches spécifiques ont tendance à bien répondre aux autres catégories de tests. au contraire, ceux qui obtiennent des scores plus faibles ou les résultats les plus faibles d'obtenir les mêmes résultats dans les autres essais aussi. 9. quelques résultats sur la théorie du floue angel garrido résumé l'apparition de la logique floue a eu une double répercussion sur la recherche scientifique, et ainsi, il a provoqué deux types de réactions. d'un point de vue théorique, il est en effet une généralisation très utile de la théorie des ensembles classiques en raison de boole et cantor, par rendre possible, de cette façon, l'analyse de l'incertitude. mais malheureusement, dans ses premiers pas, il fallait éviter les assauts de l'esprit de routine du domaine mathématique souvent trop rigide. cette situation s'est améliorée plus tard, surtout dans les nations avec moins de préjugés profondément enracinés. et par contraste, la nouvelle théorie a obtenu un fort enracinement dans les pays avec de nouveaux potentiel scientifique, comme la chine, le japon ou la corée du sud, et plus récemment dans les pays européens, comme la hongrie, l'espagne ou la roumanie, principalement en raison de son succès en applications techniques. nous analysons ici quelques aspects essentiels de cet outil nouveau et puissant de l'analyse mathématique. des résumés en français 190 10. fusion de connaissances dans les réseaux académiques horea adrian grebla, calin ovidiu cenan, liana stanca résumé les réseaux d'enseignement peuvent représenter un nouveau modèle d'apprentissage fondé sur la fusion des connaissances. dans le présent document, nous présentons une approche pour la conception du réseau universitaire qui rassemble l'expertise de formateurs universitaires et praticiens, et ouvre de nouvelles voies dans la diffusion des connaissances. les réseaux universitaires que nous considérons sont mathématiquement modélisés et ils représentent le fondement de l'approche ontologique de la fusion des connaissances dans un tel réseau. 11. une application delphi pour l'analyse lexicale et syntaxique d'une phrase à l'aide de l’algorithme cocke, younger et kasami bogdan pătruţ, ioana boghian résumé ce papier se concentre sur l'algorithme cocke younger kasami (cyk). nous présentons une application delphi qui analize le lexique et la syntaxe d'une phrase en roumain. nous utilisons une forme normale de la grammaire de chomsky (ngc). nous présenterons la source d'une application delphi de l'algorithme de cyk. 12. sur un problème de montage des données à l'aide de courbes de bézier carmen violeta muraru résumé l'objectif de cet article est d'étudier des problèmes anciens et nouveaux sur l'évolution des courbes de bézier, des outils importants dans la modélisation géométrique des formes. nous utilisons le logiciel matlab pour étudier l'erreur d'estimation des données en utilisant la méthode de les monter dans des moindres carrés à l'aide de courbes de bézier et de trouver des nouvelles méthodes dans une étude qui est actuellement en cours d'élaboration à propos la minimisation de la distance entre la courbe et les données d'un rapprochement. 13. état de recherche : vérification biométrique de la signature mohamed soltane, noureddine doghmane, nourddine guersi résumé ce document présente une analyse comparative des performances des trois algorithmes d'estimation: expectation maximization (em), l’algorithme greedy em (gem) et l’algorithme figueiredo-jain (fj) sur la base des modèles de mélanges gaussiens (mgm) pour la vérification biométrique de la signature. les résultats des simulations ont montré des réalisations significatifs de performance. les performances des testes de eer = 5,49% pour le "em", de eer = 5,04% pour le "gem" et de eer = 5,00% pour le "fj", montrent que le système d'information comportementale de la biométrie du signature est robuste et a un pouvoir de discrimination, qui peut être exploré pour l'authentification d'identité. 14. la neuroscience de l’enseignement des narrations: faciliter le développement socio-affectif lisa whalen résumé les humanités et les sciences ont longtemps été considérés comme des pôles opposés qui existent dans des sphères séparées du milieu universitaire et exigent différentes aptitudes cognitives. toutefois, la neuroscience a provoqué un regain d'intérêt dans ce que nous pouvons apprendre sur le cerveau humain en étudiant les liens entre les disciplines. par exemple, des études liées à la littérature anglaise ont révélé que les avantages de la lecture des récits (fiction et non-fiction) s'étendent bien au-delà du développement des langues et comprennent une augmentation des compétences dans le fonctionnement social et affectif. en combinant les résultats d'une étude de dissertation originale et un examen des recherches passées et actuelles de l'éducation, la brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 191 psychologie, la linguistique et les neurosciences, cet essai explore comment la lecture des récits sert de pratique pour la gestion des émotions et des interactions sociales dans la vie quotidienne. en fait, plusieurs études suggèrent que les récits de la lecture renforce presque chaque partie du cerveau parce que le cerveau est conçu – ou «branché » à penser et à apprendre en termes de récits, peu importe le sujet. cet essai prévoit plusieurs types de soutien à la revendication que les récits de la lecture facilite le développement social et affectif. les recherches qu’on discute includent notamment des études montrant que les récits de la lecture n'est pas une activité solitaire, mais «un processus étonnamment sociale" (krakovsky, 2006, p. 1) qui est liée à la capacité accrue pour visualiser les gens et les événements à partir de perspectives multiples, l’augmentation de l'empathie pour les autres, et l’augmentation de la capacité à interpréter les signaux sociaux (atkins, 2000; courtright, mackey, et packard, 2005; davis, 1980; grief & hogan, 1973; harrison, 2008; mar, 2004; mar, oatley, hirsh, de la paz, & peterson , 2006; stanovich & west, 1989, 1992). comprendre comment le cerveau traite les récits et les relie à la vie réelle a des implications importantes pour de nombreuses disciplines comme la psychologie, dans sa tentative pour comprendre et traiter les troubles post-traumatiques. cet essai, cependant, se concentre sur les implications pour l'éducation. les enseignants s'efforcent d'aider les élèves à développer les prises de perspective de capacités nécessaires à la pensée critique et l'empathie nécessaire pour devenir des adultes responsables, efforts qui seront plus efficaces si on comprend le rôle des récits dans le développement social et affectif des élèves. 15. les fondements logiques de l’intelligence artificielle angel garrido résumé les procédures de recherche des solutions aux problèmes, en intelligence artificielle, peuvent être amenée, dans de nombreuses occasions, sans la connaissance du domaine, et dans d'autres situations, avec connaissance d'elle. ce dernier procédé est généralement appelé heuristic search. dans de telles méthodes des techniques de matrice se révèlent essentiels. leur introduction peut nous donner un moyen simple et précis dans la recherche de solutions. notre aticle explique comment la théorie des matrices apparaît et participe utilement à l'ia, avec des applications possibles pour la théorie des jeux. 16. des aspects psychologiques-mystiques chez saint evagre le pontique et saint maxime le confesseur teofil gheorghe popovici résumé ce sont les saints-pères qui ont connu et ont profondément étudié les mystères de l'âme humaine. la façon dont est considéré l’homme est très spéciale. selon st. maxime, l'homme est le médiateur entre dieu et la création. crée avec un corps et une âme, l’homme a pour mission de connaître dieu en commençant même par la vie terrestre. mais, comme l’a dit platon, l'homme doit tout d’abord se connaître lui-même. les saints-pères décrivent bien en détail ce chemin le long duquel l’homme, au fur et à mesure qu’il renonce aux péchés, découvre dieu au fond de son propre coeur. ces descriptions ont une résonance actuelle et s’appliquent parfaitement à l’homme moderne, qui semble avoir perdu un peu l'image générale du mystère de l'âme humaine, celle qui montre la grande destinée pour laquelle l’homme été créé. 17. cadre d'analyse géospatiale elisabeta antonia haller résumé dans une société informatisée, le volume de données augmente de manière inattendue, qui fait de leur traitement en temps utile une tâche très difficile. une priorité est devenue le traitement des données en informations et connaissances utiles. ainsi nous pouvons dire que l'extraction de des résumés en français 192 données est une suite d'évolutions technologiques. l'interprétation des données spatiales a fait l'objet de recherches dans le temps, atteignant, à présent, à avoir une grande variété d'instruments et de produits logiciels de représentation et d'interprétation. ce dont nous avons besoin de comprendre au-delà des facilités offertes par un tel ou tel système, une solution propriétaire ou open source, est de savoir comment ils travaillent et interagissent avec les données spatiales. 18. henric sanielevici depuis la littérature critique à l'anatomie ou comment est-ce que la taille de la crâne influence la literature? adrian jicu résumé l'objectif du présent document est de traiter de la relation entre la critique littéraire et l'anatomie. pour être plus précis elle examinera l'une des théories de henric sanielevici, selon lequel le texte littéraire peut seulement être compris en prenant en compte la couleur des yeux, le conformation de dents et la taille et la forme du crâne de l'auteur. 19. la complexité du fonctionnement du cerveau humain: les deux hémisphères iulia cristina timofti résumé cette étude nous montre juste un aperçu des fonctions possibles et les réactions que le cerveau humain peut avoir. je considérais, comme de bons exemples, des situations différentes caractéristiques à la fois d'une personne normale et d’une avec fraction de cerveau. ces situations prouvent que le cerveau, bien que divisés en deux, fonctionne comme une unité, comme un ordinateur étonnant qui a comme objetif principal le traitement des données. 20. interview avec dr. georgios k. matis, neurochirurgien, université democritus de thrace, école médicale, alexandroupolis, grèce ruxandra alexandru microsoft word brain_6_2015__doc final.doc 43 early warning of heat/cold waves as a smart city subsystem: a retrospective case study of non-anticipative analog methodology dmytro zubov tecnológico de monterrey, school of engineering and sciences, san luis potosi campus, mexico dzubov@ieee.org abstract in this paper, a forecasting of the heat/cold waves is discussed as a subsystem of the smart city concept using the non-anticipative analog method. the prediction algorithm is described by two paradigms. first one (short range) uses quantum computing formalism. d-wave adiabatic quantum computing ising model is employed and evaluated for the forecasting of positive extremes of daily mean air temperature. forecast models are designed with two to five qubits, which represent 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-day historical data, respectively. ising model’s real-valued weights and dimensionless coefficients are calculated using daily mean air temperatures from 119 places around the world as well as sea level (aburatsu, japan).the proposed forecast quantum computing algorithm is simulated based on traditional computer architecture and combinatorial optimization of ising model parameters for the ronald reagan washington national airport dataset with 1-day lead-time on learning sample 1975-2010 yr. analysis of the forecast accuracy (ratio of successful predictions to total number of predictions) on the validation sample 2011-2014 yr shows that ising model with three qubits has 100% accuracy, which is significant as compared to other methods. however, number of identified heat waves is small (only one out of nineteen in this case). second paradigm (long range) uses classical computation in the microsoft azure public cloud. here, the forecast method identifies the dependencies between the current values of two meteorological variables and the future state of another variable. the method is applied to the prediction of heat/cold waves at ronald reagan washington national airport. the data include standard meteorological variables from 119 places around the world, as well as sea level (aburatsu, japan), average monthly darwin and tahiti sea level pressures, soi, equatorial soi, sea surface temperature, and multivariate enso index (131 datasets in total). every dataset is split into two samples, for learning and validation, respectively. initially, the sum of the values at two different locations (minus corresponding expectation values) is calculated with lead-time from 14 to 365 days on summation interval of length from 1 to 365 days. objective function defines the distribution based on two input datasets with appropriate lead-time and summation interval, which have maximum (or minimum) sum compared with the rest of data four times at least (with a minimum time difference of at least 30 days), when a later extreme event occurs in the learning sample. specific extreme events at ronald reagan washington national airport were thus predicted on the validation sample, based on rules referring to events in earlier years. some extremes are specifically predicted (up to 26.3% of all extremes). the methodology has 100% forecast accuracy with respect to the sign of predicted and actual values. nowadays, the smart city project is developed at school of engineering and sciences (san luis potosi), tecnológico de monterrey. the early warning of heat/cold waves as well as technical aspect (remote control with arduino ethernet shield and virtual power plant with solar energy are emphasized) are the main focuses of the internet of things project. 1. introduction we are living a time of internet of things’(iot) intensive growth when ubiquitous computing connects different objects (e.g. cars, computers, fridges, lighting, industrial electronic machines) among each other and to people(dirk slama et al., 2015; charalampos doukas, 2012). iot smart city (luis hernández et al., 2012; hafedh chourabi et al., 2012) is the main approach to enhance quality and performance of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption, and to increase the usage of renewable resources. lightweight hardware (e.g. arduino ethernet shield;https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/arduino ethernet shield) and software (e.g. mqtt iot protocol; valerie lampkin et al. 2012) create a basis of smart city concept. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 success factor of smart city depends considerably on the structure and elements of its framework. the eight basic components include the following (hafedh chourabi et al., 2012): (1) management and organization, (2) technology, (3) governance, (4) policy, (5) people and communities, (6) the economy,(7) built infrastructure, and (8) the natural environment. core to the concept of a smart city is the use of the weather forecasting in the natural environment component to increase sustainability and to better manage natural resources (hafedh chourabi et al., 2012; smart weather solutions, 2013).the weather forecasting can be classified into five main groups based on lead-time: now casting (a period of 0 to 2 hours ahead), a very short range (up to 12 hours), a short range(12 to 72 hours), a medium range (72 to 240 hours), an extended range (beyond 10 days and up to 30 days description of weather parameters, usually averaged and expressed as a departure from climate values for that period), and a long range for the period from 30 days up to two years (http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/dps/gdps-supplement5-appi-4.html). nowadays, the numerical forecast models show high accuracy for lead-times up to two weeks. however, the power grids (e.g. to reserve a gas for the peaksof the energy consuming), the agriculture (e.g. to predict the best period for the planting), the medicine (e.g. to do the appropriate preventives for the period of heat wave when the number of cardiologic problems is increased dramatically), and some other branches need accurate predictions for the longer period (more than two weeks usually). nowadays, a large set of meteorological variables (air temperature, precipitation, wind, pressure, visibility, snow depth, etc.) is used for the forecasting at different locations (kattsov, 2010). they interact constantly, and some variables may be evaluated using the others in accordance with known teleconnection patterns (nada pavlovic berdon, 2013). thus, the reasoning of forecast models must involve the full set of meteorological variables. however, temperature and precipitation are the targets of long-range forecasting mainly because of practical needs. precipitation has a close relationship to air temperature and vice versa (van den dool& nap, 1985). correlation analysis shows that precipitation forecasting is effective within two weeks, but air temperature over a much longer period (greater than a year; zubov &vlasov, 2004). the impact is increased further because extremes can be used for the correction of forecasted averages. a wide spectrum of forecast models has now been developed (vilfand, tishenko, &khan, 2003). they are usually classified into synoptic (vorobiov, 1991), numerical (belov, borisenkov, & panin, 1989), and statistical (onwubolu et al., 2007) groups. the first two are used mainly for short and medium-range forecasting mainly because they produce significant errors at long range and use highly complex equations. heterogeneous algorithms are applied for the weather forecasting – seasonal time series (qiang song, 2011), neural networks (gyanesh shrivastava, 2012), probability theory (sadokov, kozelcova, & kuznecova, 2011), ensemble forecasting (astahova & alferov, 2008), distinct scenarios of anthropogenic forcing (bardin, 2011), dependency on enso cycle (higgins, kim,& unger, 2004), self-organizing systems based on inductive modelling (madala & ivakhnenko, 2004), d-wave adiabatic quantum computing ising models (amin, neil g. dickson, &peter smith, 2013),etc. the nonlinearity and sensitivity of existing forecast models, possible small errors in initial conditions (dust, sand, pollution, etc.), random observation errors, background states, and lack of data combine to reduce the forecast accuracy and complicate the design of models (douglas & phillip j. englehart, 2007; fathalla a. rihan & chris g. collier, 2010; tyndall et al., 2010). inductive self-organizing models show good results when enough of the right data is fundamentally not obtainable. in zubov, 2013 was shown that robust highly accurate long-range forecasting of average daily air temperatures might be achieved using inductive modeling. the principle used in that work to predict high-impact weather events substantiates the interaction of different climate system components centered in different places. the first stage of the forecast reasoning model is the selection of three most data-related places using the pearson productmoment correlation coefficient, which has to be greater than 0.8 in absolute value. the second stage d. zubov early warning of heat/cold waves as a smart city subsystem: a retrospective case study of nonanticipative analog methodology 45 is finding weights of the forecast model to use with the inductive modeling objective function “minimum of regularity plus maximum of conjunctions” with a combinatorial algorithm. this approach corresponds to the teleconnections (glantz, katz, & nicholls, 1991; nada pavlovic berdon, 2013) because of a linkage between weather changes occurring in widely separated regions of the globe. public cloud software-as-a-service is a high-performance tool for np-complex algorithms (collier & shahan, 2015). in particular, windows azure virtual machines (vms) may host the npcomplex apps. if forecast software is developed using windows forms, vms can use standard operating systems windows server 2008/2012 r2 to start executable files. however, reasoning of forecast models takes a lot of time – two weeks for one location approx. hence, new concept using the adiabatic quantum computing is proposed for the computational process speed-up (dahl, 2015; smelyanskiy et al., 2012; mcgeoch & wang, 2013). nowadays, different quantum computer types are discussed (e.g. quantum logic gates, one-way quantum computer, quantum cellular automata, topological quantum computer, adiabatic quantum computer), but only adiabatic quantum computer was built by d-wave systems company. d-wave one has its roots in a 16-qubit processor built in 2006. it led to the firm’s 28-qubit processor in 2007, and then its 128-qubit processor in 2010. dwave two with 512-qubit processor was completed in 2013 (dahl, 2015). hence, the main goal of this paper is to investigate the heat/cold waves’ early warning subsystem of smart city framework. a long-range forecasting non-anticipative analog methodology is the basic approach as well as cloud/quantum computation and lightweight iot protocols. this project is a subpart of the intelligent algorithms’ development for the smart city at school of engineering and sciences, campus san luis potosi, tecnológico de monterrey. the work focuses the remote control with arduino ethernet shield and virtual power plant with solar energy. this paper is organized as follows: in section 2, the principle of non-anticipative analog long-range forecasting of heat/cold waves based on the self-organizing approach is shown; microsoft azure cloud classical computation of the forecast models is discussed as well. in section 3, d-wave adiabatic quantum computing using ising model is presented for the short-range forecasting of heat waves. in section 4, the experiment with iot mqtt lightweight protocol is described using heterogeneous hard(arduino ethernet shield and hp probook 650 g1 laptop) and software (mosquitto mqtt broker, c# console and arduino apps). conclusions are summarized in section 5. 2. principle of the non-anticipative analog long-range forecasting of heat/cold waves using microsoft azure cloud high-performance computing it is assumed that some event (or group of events) a(j) has an impact on another event b(j’), where b(j’) – extreme air temperature (defined as two standard deviations away from the climatologic baseline), j, j’ – event dates and (j’-j)>0. the correlation analysis (zubov, 2013) shows that enough of the right data for the average daily air temperatures is not obtainable in principle. in this case, four-fold repetitions of extreme air temperatures for a give lead time (j’-j) after the same a(j) on the learning sample is taken to establish the validity of a(j) as a predictor. the dependency thus discovered is used as objective function for prediction. a non-anticipative long-range forecast methodology will be illustrated bythe ronald reagan washington national airport air temperature extremes. noaa satellite and information service (http://www7.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo/cdo) is used as a main free data source from 1973 to 2014, providing 119 average daily air temperature datasets from around the world, ronald reagan washington national airport’s mean visibility in miles, mean wind speed in knots, mean dew point in fahrenheit, maximum and minimum temperatures in fahrenheit reported during the day, darwin and tahiti sea level pressures, southern oscillation index (soi), equatorial soi, sea surface temperature, multivariate enso index (average monthly). in addition, sea level data (aburatsu, japan; http://ilikai.soest.hawaii.edu/woce/wocesta.html; average daily) is used. hence, 131 datasets are taken into consideration – xi={xi1, xi2, …, xij, …}, 131,1=i , 15340,1=j (j=1 corresponds to jan 1, 1973, j=15340 – to dec 31, 2014; some stations are presented brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 in table 1). these datasets and resources were selected because of free public access, air temperature daily averages, and data archives since 1973 at least. nowadays, the statistic of extreme temperature anomalies is incomplete, which does not allow to use the detailed weather data generators (adelard et al., 2000).preprocessing standardizes the data using climatological values (baseline) ijx calculated as expectations for the appropriate date from jan 1, 1973 to dec 31, 2013 (e.g. x114,4=39.3 0 f, 4,114x =37.5 0 f, * 4,114 x =-1.8 0 f): ijijij xxx −=* . (1) a value is considered extreme if the difference between this value and its expectation is greater than two standard deviations (sd) in absolute units. considering the ronald reagan washington national airport dataset, positive + +j x ,114 ( 364,1=+j ) and negative − −j x ,114 ( 309,1=−j ) air temperature extremes are studied on the learning sample ( ∈−+ −+ jj xx ,114,114 , e, e – set of extremes). data are split into learning (from 1975 to 2010: 13879,731=j ; years 1973 and 1974 are reserved because of lead-time l and summation interval of length n which are up to one year each) and validation (from 2011 to 2014: 15340,13880=j ) samples. table 1. some stations (i.e. number of datasets) around the world, which are used for the forecast models’ design. i country or region station (named by noaa) i country or region station (named by noaa) 1 algeria annaba 113 united kingdom heathrow airport 2 american samoa tafuna-pago international ap 114 usa ronald reagan washington national airport 3 antigua and barbuda v c bird intl 115 uruguay carrasco intl 4 argentina ministropistarini intl 116 uzbekistan yuzhniy 5 aruba reina beatrix intl 117 vanuatu aneityum 6 australia canberra airport 118 venezuela simon bolivar intl ... ... ... 119 vietnam danang intl considering the ronald reagan washington national airport dataset, the objective function that defines an event a(j) as a precursor to an extreme event b(j’) is based on situations on the learning sample where ( ) [ ] lnii nn ll j ex iii n k lkjilkji maxxx j ,, 13879,731' , 1 0 * )'(, * )'(, 21 * ',114 21 21 >+ ∈ ∈ = ∈ ∈ − = −−−−∑ ∨ ( ) [ ] lnii nn ll j ex iii n k lkjilkji minxx j ,, 13879,731' , 1 0 * )'(, * )'(, 21 * ',114 21 21 <+ ∈ ∈ = ∈ ∈ − = −−−−∑ , (2) [ ] ( ) [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]365,1 365,14 131, 131,1 1 0 * )(, * )(, 13879,731,, 12 121 * ,114 21 max = = = = − = −−−− ∉ = ∑ +≡ n l ii i n k lkjilkji ex jlnii xxmax j , [ ] ( ) [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]365,1 365,14 131, 131,1 1 0 * )(, * )(, 13879,731,, 12 121 * ,114 21 min = = = = − = −−−− ∉ = ∑ +≡ n l ii i n k lkjilkji ex jlnii xxmin j (k – temporal summation index (days); n – length of summation interval (days); jjl −= ' – lead-time (days); iii ∈ 21 , , nn ∈ , ll ∈ for interrelated sets i ⊂ [1,131], n ⊂ [1,365], l ⊂ [14,365] ofmeteorological variables, possible lengths of summation intervals, and lead-times,respectively). cardinality of a set i equals two because of high computational complexity of the proposed nonanticipative analog algorithm. the sets i, n, and lencompass the precursor events a(j) for a given d. zubov early warning of heat/cold waves as a smart city subsystem: a retrospective case study of nonanticipative analog methodology 47 extreme event b(j’), for ljj −= ' . a given event is defined by a unique tuple (i1, i2, n, l ) together with min and max. then, input datasets i1 and i2 with appropriate lead-time l and summation interval of length n are selected to define a prediction rule if the sum of meteorological variables from datasets i1 and i2 is greater than maximum max (or less than minimum min) four times at least (with a time difference greater than 30 days) on the learning sample, for cases where ex j ∈* ',114 only, i.e. where there is an extreme event b(j’) at day j’. hence, every extreme selection rule includes six parameters – the indices of two datasets i1 and i2, the lead-time l , the summation interval of length n, maximum max, and minimum min. max and min are computed as the maximum and minimum values of the sums over the datasets i1 and i2, with the same summation interval n and lead-time l , where an extreme event does not occur on the learning sample (i=114 is the index of the ronald reagan washington national airport dataset, and has to be altered for prediction of extreme events in other locations). a non-anticipative analog method consists of four main steps: 1. generation of the prediction rules. 2. analysis of the prediction rules. the rules with time slots, which are not concentrated at the same frame, are excluded. 3. generation of possible extremes. 4. analysis of the generated possible extremes. the extremes with time slots, which do not correspond to the time slots of the appropriate rules, are excluded. the results of the heat/cold waves’ prediction from 2011 to 2014 at different locations (places are selected randomly) are presented in table 2. table 2. forecast accuracy of the heat/cold waves’ predictions from 2011 to 2014 at different locations. i country or region station (named by noaa) forecast accuracy for the heat waves, % forecast accuracy for the cold waves, % 1 algeria annaba 36.4 0 22 china beijing 0 28.6 70 macedonia skopje 0 7.1 96 russia dolgoprudnyj 0 7.7 112 ukraine zhulyani 0 33.3 114 usa ronald reagan washington national airport 26.3 0 analysis of the presented in table 2 results shows that heat waves can be predicted with accuracy up to 36.4%, cold waves – up to 33.3%. in addition, this methodology has 100% accuracy with respect to the sign of predicted and actual values (zubov, 2015). the forecast software was developed using windows forms and delphi integrated development environment. hence, vms can use standard operating systems windows server 2008/2012 r2 to execute files. in jul 2014, presented methodology got the microsoft research climate data award, which allowed to design the microsoft azure public cloud with 32 processors intel(r) xeon(r) e5-2660 2.20 ghz. the six d-series vms from climate data award as well as one a-series standard tier vm from windows azure educator grant (two intel(r) xeon(r) e52673 2.4 ghz) have been designing the forecast models. azure management portal and screen shot of the vm are shown in fig. 1. visualization of the forecasted data is based on google earth virtual globe (kelly l. murdock, 2009). here, kmz file represents the geographic placemarks in google earth. kmz loads web-site faster because it is a compressed form of kml file. prototype was developed using asp.net technology and hosted in windows azure public cloud against http://gearth.azurewebsites.net. screenshot is shown in fig. 2. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 3. d-wave quantum computing ising model: a case study for the short-range forecasting of heat waves nowadays, only d-wave systems company produces commercially the 2 nd generation adiabatic quantum computer with up to 512 flux qubits (project code name ″vesuvius″). they are microscopic loops of niobium metal that are capable of quantum behavior at low temperatures. hence, electrical currents in the loops can flow in clockwise (+1) or counterclockwise (-1) direction, or both, when in quantum superposition. qubits are connected to neighbors according to the topology of quantum processor. the hardware is controlled by a framework of josephson junctions that allow individual qubit values to be stored and read, and to influence the states of neighboring qubits. d-wave computer uses quantum annealing to minimize the dimensionless energy of an ising model m(s|h,j)= ∑∑ ∈∈ + )(),( , )( genm nmnm gvm mm ssjsh , (3) figure 1. azure management portal and vm with two delphi desktop apps figure 2. screenshot of the google earth web-site’s prototype on the visualization of heat/cold waves d. zubov early warning of heat/cold waves as a smart city subsystem: a retrospective case study of nonanticipative analog methodology 49 where sm∈{-1,+1} – spin variables indexed by the vertices v(g) of graph g with allowed pairwise interactions given by the edges e(g) of g; g – graph which represents the topology of quantum processor; hm∈[-2,2], jm,n∈[-1,1] – real-valued weights and dimensionless coefficients, respectively. because of hm and jm,n ranges, the preprocessing standardizes the data using climatological values ijx calculated as expectations for the appropriate date from jan 1, 1973 to dec 31, 2013: .1 max 1 * ≤ − − =≤− ijij ijij ij xx xx x (4) for the ronald reagan washington national airport (i=114), x114,4=39.3 0 f, 4,114x =37.5 0 f, ijij xx −max =23.70f, and hence * 4,114x =0.076. data (daily mean air temperatures from 119 places around the world as well as sea level at aburatsu, japan) are split into learning (from 1975 to 2010: 13879,731=j , 364 extremes for i=114) and validation (from 2011 to 2014: 15340,13880=j , 42 extremes for i=114) samples. considering the ronald reagan washington national airport dataset, positive extremes + +j x ,114 ∈e ( 364,1=+j , e – set of extremes) are studied on the learning sample. model (3) with three qubits is as follows: m(s|h,j)= ( ) +++++ −−−−− 21* )2(* )1(3* )3(2* )2(1* )1( 5.0222 ssxxsxsxsx jijijijiji ( ) ( ) ,5.05.0 32 * )3( * )2(31 * )3( * )1( ssxxssxx jijijiji −−−− ++++ (5) where * )1(1 2 −= jixh ; * )2(2 2 −= jixh ; * )3(3 2 −= jixh ; ( )* )2(* )1(2,1 5.0 −− += jiji xxj ; ( )* )3(* )1(3,1 5.0 −− += jiji xxj ; ( )* )3( * )2(3,2 5.0 −− += jiji xxj ; exij ∈ * . kets=| s1, s2, s3 >represents a 3-day history. in the forecast algorithm, kets * = * 3 * 2 * 1 ,, sss together with selected dataset i * minimize ising model (3) given min{m(s * |h,j)| exij ∈ * } less than m(s * |h,j)| exij ∉ * . d-wave one/two quantum computers may execute the forecast algorithm using one eight-qubit cell only. several cells can process several data blocks in parallel. the different number of qubits (from 2 to 5) represent 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-day historical data, respectively. it was found that qubit individual (e.g. three-qubit individual s * = * 3 * 2 * 1 ,, sss ) together with selected dataset i * minimize ising model (3) givenm(s * |h,j)| exij ∈ * less than m(s * |h,j)| exij ∉ * . the proposed forecast quantum computing algorithm is simulated using the traditional computer architecture and combinatorial optimization of ising model parameters. a case study for prediction of the heat waves at ronald reagan washington national airport shows the operability of the forecast quantum computing algorithm – three-qubit model with ten prediction rules shows 100% forecast accuracy on validation sample. however, the number of identified heat waves is small (only one out of nineteen in this case). other models with 2, 4, and 5 qubits have 20% (5 prediction rules), 3.8% (41 prediction rules), and 3.8% (84 prediction rules) accuracy, respectively. the presented three-qubit forecast model is applied for the prediction of the heat waves at other five locations:aurelvlaicu, romania – accuracy is 28.6%; bratislava, slovakia – accuracy is brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 21.7%; brussels, belgium – accuracy is 33.3%; sofia, bulgaria – accuracy is 50%; akhisar, turkey – accuracy is 21.4%. these predictions are not ideal, but not zeros. they can be used independently or together with other predictions generated by different method(s). 4. connecting arduino ethernet shield and c# console app mqtt subscribers using mosquitto message broker and publisher as it was mentioned above, iot needs the appropriate lightweight protocols to transmit the info because web-protocols (e.g. tcp) generate several times more traffic usually for iot (e.g. remote connection to the arduino weather station). mqtt (message queuing telemetry transport) and coap (constrained application protocol) iot protocols are mainly in use nowadays (http://postscapes.com/internet-of-things-protocols). in this activity,arduino ethernet shield and c# console app are connected by mqtt mosquitto open source software (http://mosquitto.org).similar work presented against https://iotguys.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/arduino-with-mqtt/.the activity consists of the following steps: 1. download and installation of mosquitto software gainst http://mosquitto.org/download/. 2. download and installation of the latest arduino software against http://arduino.cc/en/main/software. 3. development of the mqtt subscriber based on c programming language in arduino ide. 3. development of the mqtt subscriber based on c# console app (laptop hp probook 650 g1 and windows 10 are used) in visual studio. screen shot of the software is shown in fig. 3. figure 3. screenshot of the mqtt broker, publisher, and two subscribers. 5. conclusions in this paper, a retrospective study of the non-anticipative analog methodology is presented for the early warning of heat/cold waves. the natural environment subsystem of smart city framework uses this approach to enhance quality of the power grids, the agriculture, the medicine, and other branches. an ising model is employed and evaluated for the short-range forecasting of heat waves. the different number of qubits (from 2 to 5) represent 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-day historical data, respectively. qubit individual together with selected dataset i * minimize ising model (3) given m(s * |h,j)| exij ∈ * less than m(s * |h,j)| exij ∉ * . the proposed forecast quantum computing algorithm is simulated using the traditional computer architecture and combinatorial optimization of ising model parameters. the presented three-qubit forecast model is applied for the prediction of the heat waves at six locations: ronald reagan washington national airport, usa – accuracy is 100%; d. zubov early warning of heat/cold waves as a smart city subsystem: a retrospective case study of nonanticipative analog methodology 51 aurelvlaicu, romania – accuracy is 28.6%; bratislava, slovakia – accuracy is 21.7%; brussels, belgium – accuracy is 33.3%; sofia, bulgaria – accuracy is 50%; akhisar, turkey – accuracy is 21.4%. however, the number of identified heat waves is small (e.g. only one out of nineteen for the ronald reagan washington national airport). the classical cloud computation by windows azure vms and data visualization by google earth virtual globe are discussed for the non-anticipative long-range forecasting of heat/cold waves. simulation results show that heat waves can be predicted with accuracy up to 36.4%, cold waves – up to 33.3%. six high-performance d-series vms and one a-series standard tier vm with windows server 2012 r2 operating system have been used for the reasoning of the forecast models. vms were hosted in the windows azure public cloud. visualization of the forecasted data is based on google earth virtual globe and asp.net web-site hosted in windows azure public cloud against http://gearth.azurewebsites.net. the shortand long-range forecast methods have 100% accuracy with respect to the sign of predicted and actual values. the experiment with iot mqtt lightweight protocol using heterogeneous hard(arduino ethernet shield and hp probook 650 g1 laptop) and software (mosquitto mqtt broker, c# console and arduino apps) shows the real time operation of the presented approach. references adelard, l., boyer, h., garde, f., &gatina, j.-c. (2000). detailed weather data generator for building simulations. energy and buildings, 31, 1, 75-88. doi: 10.1016/s03787788(99)00009-2 amin,m.h.s., neil g. dickson, peter smith (2013).adiabatic quantum optimization with qubits. quantum information processing, apr 2013, vol. 12, iss. 4, springer, 2013, pp. 1819-1829. astahova, e.d., &alferov, y.v. (2008). high performance version of the atmosphere spectral model for deterministic and ensemble weather forecast’ design using multiprocessor systems. j. of russian hydrometcentre, 342, 118-133. bardin, m.y. (2011). scenario forecasts of air temperature variations for the regions of the russian federation up to 2030 using the empirical stochastic climate models. russian meteorology and hydrology j., 36, 217-228. belov, p.i., borisenkov, e.p., &panin, b.d. (1989). numerical methods of weather prediction. leningrad: gidrometeoizdat press. charalamposdoukas (2012). building internet of things with the arduino. seattle, washington, united states: amazon.com,createspace independent publishing platform. collier, m., shahan, r. (2015). microsoft azure essentials. washington: microsoft press. dahl, e.d. (2015). quantum computing 101. machine design. retrieved from http://machinedesign.com/technologies/quantum-computing-101 dirkslama, frank puhlmann, jim morrish, rishi m. bhatnagar (2015). enterprise iot: strategies and best practices for connected products and services. california, united states: o'reilly media. douglas, arthur v., & phillip j. englehart. (2007). a climatological perspective of transient synoptic features during name 2004. j. climate, 20, 1947-1954. doi: 10.1175/jcli4095.1 fathalla a. rihan, & chris g. collier. (2010). a basis for improving numerical forecasting in the gulf area by assimilating doppler radar radial winds. int. j. of geosciences, 1, 70-78. doi:10.4236/ijg.2010.12010 glantz, m.h., katz, r.w., & nicholls, n. (eds.) (1991). teleconnections linking worldwide climate anomalies. cambridge university press. gyaneshshrivastava, sanjeev karmakar, manoj kumar kowar, &pulakguhathakurta (2012). application of artificial neural networks in weather forecasting: a comprehensive literature review. int. j. of computer applications, 51, 17-29. doi: 10.5120/8142-1867 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 hafedhchourabi, taewoo nam, shawn walker, j. ramon gil-garcia, sehlmellouli, karinenahon, theresa pardo, & hans jochen scholl (2012). understanding smart cities: an integrative framework. 45th hawaii international conference on system sciences, 2289-2297. doi: 10.1109/hicss.2012.615 higgins, r.w., kim, h-k., & unger, d. (2004). long-lead seasonal temperature and precipitation prediction using tropical pacific sst consolidation forecasts. j. climate, 17, 3398-3414. doi: 10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<3398:lstapp>2.0.co;2 kattsov, v.m. (2010). climate prediction: progress, problems, and prospects. russian meteorology and hydrology j., 35, 10-12. doi: 10.3103/s1068373910010024 kelly l. murdock (2009).google sketchup and sketchup pro 7 bible. indianapolis: wiley publishing. luis hernández, carlos baladrón, javier m. aguiar, lorena calavia , beléncarro, antonio sánchez-esguevillas, diane j. cook, david chinarro, & jorge gómez (2012). a study of the relationship between weather variables andelectric power demand inside a smart grid/smart worldframework. sensors j.,12, 11571-11591. doi:10.3390/s120911571 madala, h.r., &ivakhnenko, a.g. (1994). inductive learning algorithms for complex systems modeling. boca raton: crc press. mcgeoch, c., wang, c. (2013). experimental evaluation of an adiabatic quantum system for combinatorial optimization. cf 2013, 023:1-023:11. nada pavlovicberdon. (2013). the impact of teleconnection on pressure, temperature and precipitation in serbia. int. j. of remote sensing applications, vol. 3, iss. 4, 185-192. doi: 10.14355/ijrsa.2013.0304.03 onwubolu, g.c., buryan, p., garimella, s., ramachandran, v., buadromo, v., & abraham, a. (2007). self-organizing data mining for weather forecasting. iadis european conf. data mining, 81-88. qiang song (2011). average power function of noise and its applications in seasonal time series modeling and forecasting. american j. of operations research, 1, 293-304. doi:10.4236/ajor.2011.14034 sadokov, v.p., kozelcova, v.f., &kuznecova, n.n. (2011). probabilistic forecast of warm and cold weather in belorussia. j. of russian hydrometcentre, 345, 144-154. smart weather solutions (2013). retrieved from schneider electric se corporation: http://www.schneider-electric.com.co/documents/local/xperienceefficiency/smart_weather_solutions.pdf smelyanskiy, v.n., rieffel, e.g., knysh, s.i., williams, c.p., johnson, m.w., thom, m.c., macready, w.g., &pudenz, k.l. (2012). a near-term quantum computing approach for hard computational problems in space exploration. arxiv:1204.2821. tyndall, daniel p., john d. horel, & manuel s. f. v. de pondeca. (2010). sensitivity of surface air temperature analyses to background and observation errors. wea. forecasting j., 25, 852865. doi: 10.1175/2009waf2222304.1 van den dool, h. m., & nap, j. l. (1985). short and long range air temperature forecast near an ocean. mon. wea. rev. j., 113, 878-886. doi: 10.1175/15200493(1985)113<0878:salrat>2.0.co;2 valerie lampkin, weng tat leong, leonardo olivera, swetarawat, nageshsubrahmanyam, rong xiang (2012). building smarter planet solutions with mqtt and ibm websphere mq telemetry. retrieved frominternational business machines corporation: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg248054.pdf vilfand, r.m., tishenko, v.a., & khan, v.m. (2003). surface air temperature’s forecast with month lead time using ensemble approach. gidrometeoizdat press, fundamental and applied hydrometeorological research, 3-13. vorobiov, v.i. (1991). synoptic meteorology. leningrad: gidrometeoizdat press. d. zubov early warning of heat/cold waves as a smart city subsystem: a retrospective case study of nonanticipative analog methodology 53 zubov, d. (2013). average daily air temperature’s long-range forecast using inductive modeling and satellite datasets. proc. of joint 2013 eumetsat meteorological satellite and 19th american meteorological society satellite meteorology, oceanography, and climatology conferences, vienna, austria, sept 16-20, 2013. doi: 10.13140/rg.2.1.3635.9524. retrieved from http://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/news/conferencesandevents/dat_2027670.html zubov, d.a., &vlasov, y.n. (2004). long-term forecasting of the air average temperature and atmospheric precipitations using the linear auto regression model and maximal error’s minimization objective function. scientific j. of v.dahl east ukrainian national university, 40-49. zubov, d. (2015). cloud computation of nonanticipative analogs for heat/cold waves teleconnections. european cooperation j., n 1, 84-94.retrieved from http://we.clmconsulting.pl/index.php/we/article/view/22/36 microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 99 towards a mooc-related strategy in romania carmen holotescu “ioan slavici” university of timisoara, romania strada profesor doctor aurel păunescu podeanu, timișoara tel.: 0256 213 108 carmenholotescu@gmail.com gabriela grosseck west university of timisoara, romania bulevardul vasile pârvan 4, timișoara 300223 tel.: 0256 592 111 gabriela.grosseck@e-uvt.ro abstract a purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the status of open education (oe) in romania, with a focus on massive open online courses (moocs) initiatives in the country. based on the open education activity research in europe, we also highlight a number of significant oe initiatives and policies which may provide effective exemplars for romania to consider. in the last section of the article, we also propose a set of recommendations in order to facilitate the development of open education in the country, aiming to enable stakeholders to make more informed strategic decisions to promote mooc integration in all forms of education. the recommendations are organized on three levels: teachers, institutions and policy makers. this work continues and updates our research and proposals related open education initiatives and policies in romania (holotescu, 2007; holotescu, 2012; holotescu and pepler, 2014; holotescu et al., 2014a; holotescu, andone and grosseck, 2016). keywords: moocs, oers, open education, policies, strategies 1. open education an international perspective over the last two decades the impact of technology can be seen in every field of education. more and more emerging technologies are shaping our practices, emphasizing on the idea of openness in education: open educational resources (oers), open education practices (oeps) or massive open online courses (moocs) have already made their headlines in education. according to inamorato dos santos, punie and mũnoz (2016), open education (oe) is an umbrella term which implies different understandings through time. more specifically, they refer to oe as a “mode of realizing education, often enabled by digital technologies, aiming to widen access and participation to everyone, by removing barriers and making learning accessible, abundant, and customizable for all. it offers multiple ways of teaching and learning, building and sharing knowledge, as well as a variety of access routes to formal and non-formal education, bridging them”. in a nutshell, oe means access to content, courses, support, assessment and certification in ways that are flexible, and accommodate diverse needs. barriers, as regards, for example entry or cost, are reduced or eliminated. there are two key concepts of open education: open educational resources (oers) and massive open online courses (moocs). in 2002, at the “forum on the impact of open courseware for higher education in developing countries”, unesco brought for the first time to the public attention the term of open educational resources. the oers were defined as any teaching, learning and research materials that are freely and openly available to be used, shared, combined, adapted or expanded by teachers, educators, students and independent learners, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or license fees (unesco, 2002). open educational practices (oeps) are closely related to oers, and are defined as a whole “range of practices around the creation, use and management of open educational resources with the intent to improve quality and innovate education” (opal, 2011). a broad perspective of the notion of “openness” can be found in conole (2013), “covering each major phase of the education life cycle, namely, design, delivery, evaluation and research”. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 100 a decade ago, education was challenged by a new paradigm, the massive open online courses (moocs), which have brought innovation at all levels, aiming to respond to the most pressing learning needs, generated by the new development policies and the rapid evolution of technology. it has already been noticed in the literature that every letter in the mooc acronym is negotiable. therefore, the mooc definition embraced by the majority of scholars and researchers and adopted as an operational definition by the authors is the one proposed by the partners of three important european projects (home, eco project, openuped) as: massive open online courses are “courses designed for large numbers of participants, that can be accessed by anyone anywhere as long as they have an internet connection, are open to everyone without entry qualifications, and offer a full/complete course experience online for free” (openuped, 2015). although the number of participants is larger than can be taught in a “normal” campus classroom or college situation, there are at least three features that have to be taken into consideration for the romanian space, namely the interculturality and the diversity (andone, 2016) and the language (jansen, 2015). thus we propose as a number of participants for a massive course to range between 150-2500, where 150 is the dunbar’s number (legrand, 2015). 1.1.. open education initiatives – a european perspective the open education movement has received an important attention since september 2013, when the european commission (ec) published a document entitled “opening up education”, which contains challenges and recommendations to the country members and to the educational and training institutions regarding the important role of technology in increasing educational efficacy and equal rights in education. at that time, the eu emphasized the development of an adequate infrastructure in the area of ict for a proper usage of oers (european commission, 2013). in the following year, the european parliament presented a report with the recommendation of taking into consideration the new technologies and oers as key drivers for ensuring quality in education via more accessible and open online knowledge. as a result, the ec increased the support of the scientific research for the creation, utilization and implementation of moocs and oers (european parliament, 2014). in this regard, some of the recent european initiatives acting as driving forces for transforming education and learning at all levels are:  open education europa (opening up education through new technologies, https://www.openeducationeuropa.eu)  scale ccr (up-scaling creative classrooms in europe, http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/eap/scaleccr.html)  oereu (open education resources and practices in europe, http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/eap/oereu.html)  oerup! (erasmus+ project focusing on oers for adult education, https://www.oerup.eu/about/), one partner being irea, romanian institute for adult education  poerup (policies for oer uptake, http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/main_page). the last one is followed by the related projects sharedoer and adoerup (adult education and oer).  eu programmes also stimulate research and supporting models for both mooc development and implementation. such eu-funded projects of the last years are:  home (higher education online: moocs the european way, http://home.eadtu.eu)  eco (elearning, communication and open-data: massive mobile, ubiquitous and open learning, http://ecolearning.eu)  openuped (a pan-european mooc initiative, http://www.openuped.eu)  emma (the european multiple mooc aggregator, http://platform.europeanmoocs.eu)  moocknowledge (to assess the impact of massive open online courses in europe, http://moocknowledge.eu)  move-me (moocs for university students on the move in europe, http://movemeproject.eu)  langmooc (language learning moocs, http://wwwlangmooc.com)  bizmooc (moocs for the world of business, http://bizmooc.eu)  moonlite (moocs for social inclusion and employability, http://moonliteproject.eu)  reopen (recognition of valid and open learning, http://reopen.eu)  x5gon (cross modal, cross cultural, cross lingual, cross domain, and cross site global oer network, http://www.k4all.org/project/x5gon). c. holotescu, g. grosseck towards a mooc-related strategy in romania 101 in october 2017, during the eadtu conference “online, open and flexible higher education”, the european mooc consortium (emc) was launched, comprising standing platforms and organisations, such as futurelearn, france université numérique (fun), openuped, miríada x and eduopen (jansen, 2017). offering almost 1000 moocs and representing 200 he institutions and companies, the emc's self-declared mission is “to develop activities to increase the awareness and use of digital education and moocs within universities” and “to strengthen the continuing education sector by increasing the credibility and visibility of moocs” (emc, 2017). in a recent survey, castaño muñoz, punie and inamorato dos santos (2016) revealed that the european universities offer numerous moocs, which are important for individual learning, even if certificates are rarely formally recognized. to participate in moocs, digital competencies are needed, and also the feedback from facilitators and peers is important. a survey conducted during november 2016-february 2017 shows that 68% of european higher education institutions already offer or plan to develop moocs, in order to increase institutional visibility and flexible learning opportunities, but also to generate income and explore cost reductions (jansen and konings, 2017). 1.2. open education – the romanian context 1.2.1. oe/oer-related projects romania is also part of the oe movement, being active mainly through the oers and oeps initiatives carried out by institutions, groups, communities and individuals, and through specific projects or programmes. we identified the following directions of action (holotescu, 2012; holotescu et al., 2014a; holotescu and pepler, 2014):  elaboration of proposals at government level related to oer and web2.0. in this respect, in 2007, the first author of this paper has formulated proposals related to oers and web2.0 in a “knowledge based economy project (kep)” report (holotescu, 2007).  the usage of oer and web 2.0 in formal and life-long learning education as strategic lines of development for ict in education is considered from february 2015 as a fundamental topic of the national strategy on digital agenda for romania 2020 (https://www.comunicatii.gov.ro/agendadigitala-pentru-romania-2020). the government programme also mentions the implementation of an e-learning platform and online repositories (http://mrp.gov.ro/web/programul-de-guvernare-20172020/).  the free availability for download of digital textbooks for pre-university education from a section of the ministry of education site (http://manuale.edu.ro), since the autumn of 2014. however, the e-books are not published under open licenses and do not use open formats. at the moment of writing this paper, the project of the textbooks law is being discussed (http://edu.ro/consultare-publică-proiectul-legii-manualului-școlar) and a project to implement an elearning platform and online repositories for oers was launched (http://edu.ro/rețea-de-resurseeducaționale-deschise-la-nivelul-inspectoratelor-școlare-județene).  the support and promotion of open access and oer by the “romanian coalition for oer”, launched in october 2013 (http://educatiedeschisa.ro). the coalition has published guides, has organized workshops and national conferences on open education, and formulated concrete oerelated proposals for the government (http://www.inovarepublica.ro/educatie-deschisa-romania).  training courses related to open educational pedagogies offered by different e-learning players such as kep, moodle romania, didatec, iteach, sloop2desc, activewatch media monitoring, compendiu.ro etc.  publication of guides about “oer for different disciplines” (http://tinyurl.com/kepoerguide), and of open journals related to open education (http://iteach.ro/experientedidactice, http://www.elearning.ro).  open resources curation in public directories, more numerous at pre-university level: http://forum.portal.edu.ro, http://didactic.ro, http://e-scoala.ro, http://dascali.ro, http://educatie.inmures.ro, https://kidibot.ro, http://digitaliada.ro, https://dacobots.com, http://livresq.com etc. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 102  foundation of strong communities and organization of events for open access movement / culture (open source, open data, open licenses etc.). thus, in september 2, 2008 the creative commons romania version was launched with the help of apti (association for technology and internet). 1.2.2. mooc-related projects in the following we mention several ongoing institutional and inter-institutional mooc initiatives developed in the romanian space, at different educational level and by different educational actors (holotescu, andone and grosseck, 2016; holotescu, 2017): a) platforms and moocs implemented by academic institutions:  unicampus (http://unicampus.ro) started in april 2014 by university politehnica timisoara, unicampus offers moocs on a version of moodle platform based on cmoocs methodology (vasiu and andone, 2014).  novamooc (http://novamooc.uvt.ro) is a uefiscdi project about development and innovative implementation of moocs in higher education, run by west university of timisoara (wut) during 2015-2017. wut offers its first mooc on the teachable platform, “practicing english with technology” (https://west-university-timisoara.teachable.com/p/pet).  unibuc virtual (http://www.unibuc-virtual.net) by credis (department of distance learning from bucharest university) developed and ran three moocs for teachers training on a google apps-based platform.  “critical thinking mooc” was developed and ran in 2014 by the maastricht school of management romania on iversity (http://www.msmromania.org/content/msmro-producesfirst-mooc-eastern-europe).  university “babes bolyai” cluj napoca developed through the eliada project materials for four moocs (http://eliada.ubbcluj.ro/proiect). b) platforms and moocs implemented by companies and ngos:  mooc.ro (http://mooc.ro) developed by moodle.ro. currently offers two moocs about moodle and articulate.  estudent (http://estudent.ro) is a platform that offers moocs on psychology, communication, business, geography and romanian language. it was developed by apio, ctrl-d and university teachers/experts.  startarium (http://startarium.ro) is a platform nurturing an entrepreneurship ecosystem. it gathers a group of organizations and experts that offer moocs, mentoring and crowdfunding around 8,000 potential entrepreneurs who design and develop their start-up plans using the platform features.  cursera (http://cursera.ro) developed moocs by medical universities, organizations and hospitals.  moocs on udemy: ngo management, association young initiative (http://udemy.com/management-ong).  mooc in medical education offered by romanian angel appeal foundation (http://raa.ro). c) mooc presence in formal education:  mooc integration in blended academic courses. politehnica university of timisoara was a pioneer by integrating moocs in the following courses: “web programming” (holotescu et al., 2014b), “instructional technologies” (vasiu and andone, 2014) and “embedded systems” (bogdan, 2017). there are also such initiatives at “ioan slavici” university of timisoara for the “multimedia and oop” courses and at west university of timisoara for “digital storytelling course”, a transversal discipline for all second year bachelor students, regarding their specializations. c. holotescu, g. grosseck towards a mooc-related strategy in romania 103  credit (marks) recognition for students’ participation in moocs. it involves the students’ activity in different projects for some courses at the politehnica university of timisoara and the west university of timisoara.  mooc accreditation at the politehnica university of timisoara: “digital marketing” offered by google (http://atelieruldigital.jaromania.org).  teacher continuing professional development using moocs at “ioan slavici” university of timisoara: participation in moocs related to oe, but also to the topics of the taught courses and research.  virtual mobility project: a summer-day's mooc, partners business faculty, university babes-bolyai, cluj-napoca romania, georgia, and the netherlands. d) scientific events related to open education:  workshops and national conferences organized by the romanian coalition for oer.  workshops organized by the politehnica university of timisoara during the open education week (http://elearning.upt.ro).  since 2014, the international conference else has a section dedicated to oer and moocs, co-chaired by the authors (http://elseconference.eu).  smart conference, co-organized by the authors since 2013, has a special focus on open education (http://academia.edusoft.ro/category/conferences).  the international “new trends and perspectives in open education” conference was the first event organized by a he institution on open education topics (https://novamooc.uvt.ro/?page_id=445) . e) projects and studies:  moocbuddy: the first messenger chatbot for moocs (http://facebook.com/mymoocbuddy).  research and doctoral studies (in the last 5 years there are 47 articles indexed in the web of science written by romanian authors, having moocs as research subject).  contributions of educational actors at international level, which implies/underlines the recognition of quality romanian experts involved in oe movement worldwide. see for example the unesco mentoring programme “open education for a better world” http://unesco.ijs.si/project/creating-dynamic-online-courses/. as stated above, the number of initiatives is not so large, but one can note the diversity of projects and of the involved organizations. moocs offered are free and contribute to the institutions visibility and learning flexibility. however, they do not generate income and are not mentioned in official documents yet. as recognition of the romanian achievements related to open education, the eu openedu study summarized the state-of-the-art in a country report (inamorato dos santos et al., 2017), mostly based on the authors’ previous work. furthermore, wang et al. (2017) reveal that romania is one of the 4th most productive country in oer-related studies, with the authors of this article ranking in top 10 of researchers worldwide. the evident drivers that move things towards are both researchers and teaching staff (seldom the policy makers and managers of the institutions) and companies and associations. nevertheless, in the process of developing such moocs related-projects, there were encountered certain difficulties and limitations. thus, as the main barriers in the oers/moocs development and adoption could be considered (holotescu, andone and grosseck, 2016; holotescu, 2017):  rigid policies in formal education related to curricular systems and assessment practices;  the lack of possibility to officially accredit online courses, in spite of an impressive number of projects related to online courses over the last 15 years, and of the policy proposals coming from different organizations (such courses can only be used in a blended approach in formal education);  the lack of mooc-related strategies at national level in formal and continuing education; brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 104  teachers’ lack of time and interest to explore, understand, evaluate and use new technologies, oers and moocs in the teaching-learning process;  a reduced number of training programs for adopting open educational practices;  lack of incentives, official recognition and promotion for teachers implementing open educational practices. 2. recommendations for a mooc-related strategy in romania to foster the inclusion of open education, oers and moocs in the romanian educational system, a set of recommendations is proposed below. the first of them are quoted and updated from the report (holotescu, 2007) and have not been fully implemented, while some of them are new and original, as derived from our experience (holotescu et. al, 2014b; bogdan et. al, 2017). others are quoted and adapted from recent reports of the projects poerup (poerup, 2014), openedu (castaño muñoz et al., 2016; inamorato dos santos et al., 2016), opencred (witthaus et al., 2016), from recent studies (patru and balaji, 2016; jansen and konings, 2017; grech and camilleri, 2017) and from oer congress documents (oer ap, 2017). the last were endorsed by ministers and their designated representatives of 20 countries, romania included. the recommendations are organized on three levels (tabel 1): for policy makers at national levels, for institutions and for teachers themselves, because real changes appear from grass roots level. table 1. recommendations for opening up education in romania for policy makers  the already existing publicly funded educational content should be used more intensively by teachers and students: connections with curricula, the skills they develop should be clearer; encourage and support the sharing of best practices; should be also licensed under cc.  create a repository under cc licenses with the educational projects in which romanian schools, universities and educational organizations have participated.  partnership of the ministry of education with publishers, broadcasters, libraries, cultural institutions to provide open access to their own resources.  encourage a competitive market for the production of educational resources, ensure transparency of supply and equal opportunities to market actors, based on a set of quality criteria, containing pedagogic, design, accessibility and openness principles.  implement an online platform for collaborative production of oers/moocs by institutions, teachers and students, based on open collaborative technologies, presenting open scenarios for learning (holotescu, 2007).  any public outputs from the european commission programs (specifically including erasmus for all and framework) should be made available as open resources under an appropriate license.  budgets for digital education should include money for developing and maintaining oers/moocs.  oer should be allowed on approved materials lists.  quality agencies in enqa (the european association for quality assurance in higher education) should improve their understanding of new modes of learning (including online, distance, oers and moocs) and their impact on quality assurance and recognition.  encourage europe-wide validation of the knowledge and competences developed through online study and informal learning, including but not restricted to oers and moocs (poerup, 2014).  promote the use of moocs for re-skilling and up-skilling both unemployed people and workers, especially those without employer support to training activities; this would help to reduce the unemployment rate.  promote digital competence development in both formal education and professional development activities. this could lead to a higher participation rate of individuals in an open education context and, indirectly, to reduced training costs and a greater flexibility in education (castaño muñoz et al., 2016).  foster dialogue and collaboration between actors in hei internationalization, student mobility and c. holotescu, g. grosseck towards a mooc-related strategy in romania 105 the validation of non-formal and informal learning (witthaus et al., 2016).  the government should support and scale up multi-stakeholder partnerships for efficiency reasons, but also for the benefit of society as a whole (jansen and konings, 2017).  besides open-licensing policies, the government could support the creation of regional or national centres to finance and promote moocs and allied activities (patru and balaji, 2016).  strategic public-private partnerships are needed in order to fully exploit blockchain in (open) education. the implementations of blockchain technology for education are in initial stages, several organizations are in the initial stages of pilot-testing award of certificates using a blockchain, while others are accepting blockchain-based cryptocurrency payments. the potential of the blockchain in areas such as the issuing of certificates, verification of accreditation pathways, lifelong learning passports, intellectual property management and data management should be further investigated (grech and camilleri, 2017). for educational institutions  all teacher training programmes should include topics related to oers, moocs, open licenses and social media/web2.0/collaborative/free tools to create educational materials in a collaborative manner.  developing open-literacy both for the academic and administrative staff.  facilitate the sustainable implementation of oers/moocs by creating incentives for use and reuse, and funding technical infrastructure to increase access to oers/moocs (holotescu, 2007).  moocs could be adopted for individuals already trained in the efficient use of ict and online learning; institutions should determine and increase the digital readiness of both teachers and students.  policies for mooc accreditation should be adopted, applied for students, but also for recognition of the teachers' continuous development and for career advancement opportunities (bogdan et al., 2017).  strong and ongoing collaborations between schools, universities and other educational stakeholders involving oers/mooc projects.  accessibility should be a priority for all oers/moocs, including disability accessibility standards (poerup, 2014).  have a holistic strategy for opening up education that encompasses the 10 dimensions of the openedu framework, making the open education strategy part of the overall institutional strategy.  explore new practices and welcome changes.  revise the practices at all levels: mission statement and vision, current organizational management structures and day-to-day policies, and the institution’s role in the community and globally (inamorato dos santos et al., 2016).  validate open learning by offering credentials for moocs and free and open online courses.  provide flexible options for “free elective courses” or “self-study courses” in the curricula, including open learning for study progression.  join european consortia related to moocs and build partnerships with heis/employment bodies (witthaus et al., 2016).  build the capacity of users to find, re-use, create and share oers/moocs.  empower educators and learners to develop quality, gender-sensitive, culturally and linguistically relevant oers/moocs appropriate to local cultures and to create local language oers/moocs.  ensure inclusive and equitable access to quality oers/moocs (oer ap, 2017).  it is important to acknowledge the need for capacity-building amongst faculties in the management of moocs and to develop a system of recognition and incentives for the faculty.  the design, development and delivery of moocs can be expensive for an institution; thus, continuous evaluation, reuse or adaptation of existing or available moocs is an important aspect to take into consideration (patru and balaji, 2016). for teachers  new skills and tasks are required for teachers facilitating blended courses that integrate moocs: complex course design and management, oers and moocs curation, evaluation of the distributed and collaborative activities of students, facilitation of the local learning community and nurture of its integration in the global communities of moocs and many more.  teachers should be active in communities of practice and attend moocs too on topics they themselves teach and also on topics related to new educational technologies and pedagogies. under these circumstances, each teacher could become a life-long and informed learner.  teachers should assist and guide students to assess their own learning needs for choosing the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 106 moocs in which to participate in order to deepen the course topics (holotescu et al., 2014b).  teachers need digital skills to curate moocs, to assess mooc quality and to use learning analytics (bogdan et al., 2017). as argued by col (2017), the lack of national policies can limit oe adoption and discourage institutions from engaging in oe activities. the regional consultation in europe shows the need that oe take the form of a bottom-up movement, focusing at the institutional level, and that national efforts be coordinated through a strategic policy initiative to complement the bottomup approach. 3. conclusions as specified by the capetown open education declaration (2017), the open education should be connected with other open movements and should place the next generation at its core (capetown, 2017). although the romanian government declared his support for the oe movement, there is no coherent strategy. it is an urgent need to adopt and implement one, for example similar to “opening up slovenia” (http://www.ouslovenia.net), in order to build legal mechanisms for implementing open education and for carrying out concrete, cross-dimensional oe projects, consisting in policy actions, capacity building, services and content, research and development, and supportive environments. another strategic path can be taken by learning from the experience of the polish coalition for open education (śliwowski and grodecka, 2013). thus, the romanian coalition for oer could play an important role as an open education observatory, shaping the policy of openness. we also believe that the involvement of each teacher is important for mainstreaming open education. we hope this paper, with recommendations on three axes, will be a useful reference for further discussions within and between different institutions and policy makers in charge with open education, oers and moocs policies in romania. references andone, d. (@diando70) (23 feb 2016). “yes, i agree. intercultural, diverse is more for massive then just large numberof participants with similar features”. tweet retrieved from https://twitter.com/diando70/status/702042890894254081. bogdan, r. (2017). integrating moocs in embedded systems blended courses. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 8(3), 101-107. bogdan, r., holotescu, c., andone, d. & grosseck, g. (2017). how moocs are being used for corporate training?. the 13th international conference else, bucharest, 27-28 april 2017. retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/9f1bb8be6f96e8b7fe31dc5287e61a69/1?pqorigsite=gscholar&cbl=1876338. capetown declaration. (2017). capetown open education declaration. retrieved from http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/cpt10/. castaño muñoz, j., punie, y. & inamorato dos santos, a. (2016). moocs in europe: evidence from pilot surveys with universities and mooc learners, jrc policy brief. retrieved from: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/jrcsh/files/jrc%20brief%20moocs_jrc101956.pdf. col (2017). open educational resources: global report 2017. burnaby: commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2788. conole, g. (2013). designing for learning in an open world. springer science & business media. emc. (2017). the european mooc consortium mission. retrieved from https://eadtu.eu/home/policy-areas/open-education-and-moocs/services/416-the-europeanmooc-consortium. c. holotescu, g. grosseck towards a mooc-related strategy in romania 107 european commission. (2013). opening up education: innovative teaching and learning for all through new technologies and open educational resources. communication from the commission to the council, the european parliament, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions. retrieved from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/en/txt/?uri=celex%3a52013dc0654. european parliament. committee on culture and education (rapporteur cătălin sorin ivan) (25 march 2014). report on new technologies and open educational resources. retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getdoc.do?pubref=-//ep//text+report+a7-20140249+0+doc+xml+v0//en. grech, a. & camilleri, a. f. (2017) blockchain in education. inamorato dos santos, a. (ed.) eur 28778 en; doi:10.2760/60649. retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eurscientific-and-technical-research-reports/blockchain-education. holotescu, c. & pepler, g. (2014). opening up education in romania. in international conference on social media in academia-research and teaching (smart). retrieved from https://www.edusoft.ro/smart2014.pdf?. holotescu, c. (2007). technical requirements of educational software report. knowledge economy project. retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/189255399/recommendationsfor-ministry-of-education-related-to-open-educational-resources-and-practices. holotescu, c. (2012, updated 2016). oer in romania. poerup project: policies for oer uptake report. retrieved from http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/romania. holotescu, c. (2017). mooc initiatives in romania. workshop “open education from theory to practice. oers and moocs experiences”, march 31, 2017, timisoara, romania. retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/cami13/mooc-initiatives-in-romania. holotescu, c., andone, d. & grosseck, g. (2016). moocs strategies in romanian universities. in jansen, d. & konings, l. (eds.) (2016, june). european policy response on mooc opportunities. eadtu publisher. retrieved from http://home.eadtu.eu/news/111-reporteuropean-policy-response-on-mooc-opportunities. holotescu, c., grosseck, g., cretu, v. & danciu, e. (2014a). the power of the three words and one acronym: oer vs oer. subtitle: i’m not an ogre of the enchanted realm (of cyberspace). i’m an omnipresent educational rescuer (because i use the oer!). procedia social and behavioral sciences, 6th world conference on educational sciences, malta, 2014. vol. 191. pages 2531-2536. retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1877042815027299. holotescu, c., grosseck, g., cretu, v. & naaji, a. (2014b). integrating moocs in blended courses. the 10th international conference else, bucharest, vol. 4, pp. 243-250, 24-25 april 2014. retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/d242a855a51d7ea5de208a872a37ffe8/1?pqorigsite=gscholar&cbl=1876338. inamorato dos santos, a.i, punie, y. & mũnoz, j.c. (2016). opening up education: a support framework for higher education institutions (no. jrc101436). directorate growth & innovation and jrc-seville, joint research centre. retrieved from http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/jrc101436/jrc101436.pdf. inamorato dos santos, i.a., nascimbeni, f., bacsich, p., atenas, j., aceto, s., burgos, d. & punie, y. (2017). policy approaches to open education. case studies from 28 eu member states (openedu policies). jrc science hub, isbn: 978-92-79-73495-3. retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/policy-approaches-open-education-case-studies-28-eumember-states-openedu-policies. jansen, d. & konings, l. (september 2017). mooc strategies of european institutions: status report based on a mapping survey conducted in november 2016 – february 2017. european association of distance teaching universities, the netherlands. retrieved from https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/mooc_strategies_of_euro pean_institutions.pdf. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 108 jansen, d. (2015). defining the context for moocs, online courses and open education. retrieved from http://bizmooc.eu/papers/about-moocs/?print=print . jansen, d. (@darcojansen) (26 october 2017). “#oofhec2017 launch of european #mooc consortium starting with futurelearn, fun, eduopen, #openuped and miríadax”. tweet retrieved from https://twitter.com/darcojansen/status/923490417781374976. legrand, r. (2015). connectivism in practice. how to organize a mooc (chapter 28). in the peragogy handbook. 3rd edition. retrieved from http://peeragogy.github.io/peeragogy.io3/peeragogy-3-0-beta3.pdf. oer ap. (2017). ljubljana oer action plan, 2nd oer congress. retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ljubljana_oer_action_plan_2017.pdf. opal (open educational quality initiative ) (2011). oep guide. guidelines for open educational practices in organizations. retrieved from http://oerworkshop.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/44605120/opal-oep-guidelines.pdf. openuped (2015). definition massive open online courses. retrieved from http://www.openuped.eu/images/docs/definition_massive_open_online_courses.pdf. patru, m. & balaji, v. (2016). making sense of moocs: a guide for policy-makers in developing countries. unesco and commonwealth of learning, 2016. poerup. (2014). policy advice for universities, schools and colleges. deliverable d4.2, 2014. śliwowski, k. & grodecka, k. (2013). open educational resources in poland: challenges and opportunities. unesco: moscow. unesco (2002). forum on the impact of open courseware for higher education in developing countries: final report. paris: unesco, 1-3 july 2002, retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001285/128515e.pdf. vasiu, r. & andone, d. (2014). oers and moocs the romanian experience. in web and open access to learning (icwoal), 2014 international conference on (pp. 1-5). ieee. wang, x., liu, m., li, q. & gao, y. (2017). a bibliometric analysis of 15 years of research on open educational resources. in chen, w. et al. (eds.) proceedings of the 25th international conference on computers in education. new zealand: asia-pacific society for computers in education. retrieved from http://icce2017.canterbury.ac.nz/proceedings_main. witthaus, g. r., inamorato dos santos, i. a., childs, m., tannhauser, a. c., conole, g., nkuyubwatsi, b. & punie, y. (2016). validation of non-formal mooc-based learning: an analysis of assessment and recognition practices in europe (opencred). retrieved from http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/jrc96968/lfna27660enn.pdf. professor carmen holotescu is the dean of the faculty of engineering, also the director of the center for open education, at "ioan slavici" university of timisoara, romania. she has conducted innovative research over the last 16 years, in open education (oe), conceiving and building social media learning spaces and integrating emerging educational technologies, oers and moocs in formal/informal learning settings. she has also been involved in many european projects on new collaborative technologies, to training teachers/e-trainers and participants with different backgrounds, also persons in disadvantaged situations. in 2007, as an expert in the knowledge economy project, carmen holotescu was the author of the first national recommendations on oe for the romanian ministry of education. she is a certified online instructor of university of maryland university college, usa, acting as online tutor for 12 years, between 2002-2013. she has facilitated online courses in cs field, working with students worldwide in multicultural settings. she wrote over 100 articles and book chapters related to elearning/blended learning/open learning, social media, oers and moocs, having more than 1400 citations. carmen holotescu is also the organizer and chair of many national and international conferences, workshops and webinars on oe. c. holotescu, g. grosseck towards a mooc-related strategy in romania 109 gabriela grosseck is associate professor in the department of psychology at the west university of timisoara, romania. she has particular expertise in ict in education (teaching, learning, and researching), a solid experience in students’/teachers’ training both f2f and online environments. for almost a decade she was an editor-in-chief of romanian journal of social informatics. she is author of many articles in the field of e-learning 2.0, speaker at different international events, workshop organizer and a member of editorial committees (journals and conferences). her research interests cover main aspects of open education, oers/oeps and moocs, web 2.0 tools and technologies in higher education, collaborative aspects and proper use of social media (by teachers, students, researchers, policy makers and other educational actors). brain_3_3_ok 1 b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3 october 2012 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 2 about the brainitiative the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (in the brainovations and brainstorming sections) peerreviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next issue (volume 3, issue #4) of the brain in december 2012. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is december 10, 2012. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief: • bogdan pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors: • ioana boghian, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain • nora wiedenmann, munich, germany proofreaders: • ruxandra alexandru, university of minho, portugal (portuguese) • ioana boghian, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (english, romanian) • veronica grecu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (french) • gianluca ceriani, milano, italy (italian) • andrieş valentina, university of edinburgh, united kingdom (english, spanish) • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain (spanish) • barna kovacs, colegiul national "al. papiu i." tg-mures, romania (hungarian) • andra măciucă, milano, italy (italian) • nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (english, german) • jeffrey wood, university of manchester, united kingdom (english) issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2012 edusoft publishing brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 1, february 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 3 address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 6. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 7. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 8. louise connell, university of manchester, united kingdom (psychology, cognitive sciences) 9. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 10. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 11. mariana costache, "m. costache" pshychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 12. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 13. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 14. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 15. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 16. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 17. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 18. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, teoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 19. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 20. annette hohenberger,cognitive science department,informatics institut,middle east technical university, ankara, turkey brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 4 21. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of targu mures, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 22. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 23. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 24. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 25. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 26. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 27. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 28. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 29. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 30. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 31. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing, statistics, mathematics) 32. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 33. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 34. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 35. camelia mihaela pintea, "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 36. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 37. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 38. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 39. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 40. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroklaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 41. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 42. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1_corectata.doc b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1 march 2016 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 2 about the brainitiative the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains (in the brainovations and brainstorming sections) peerreviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in may-june 2016. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 15th of april, 2016. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief: • bogdan pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania editors: • barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania • frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland • gabriela tăbăcaru, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania • carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain • monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2014 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl, milan, italy (software systems, human computer interface) 6. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 7. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 8. louise connell, university of manchester, united kingdom (psychology, cognitive sciences) 9. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 10. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 11. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 12. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 13. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 14. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 15. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 16. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 17. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 18. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 19. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 20. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 21. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 22. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 23. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 24. heather k j van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 25. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 4 26. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 27. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 28. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 29. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 30. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 31. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing, statistics, mathematics) 32. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 33. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 34. valeriy perminov, belovo branch of kemerovo state university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 35. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 36. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 37. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 38. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 39. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 40. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 41. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 42. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 125 ethnolinguistic audio-visual atlas of the cultural food heritage of bacău county – elements of methodology petronela savin vasile alecsandri university of bacău department of romanian language and literature and communication sciences spiru haret str., no. 8, bacau, romania, tel.: +4 0234 542 411 savin.petronela@ub.ro diana trandabăţ faculty of computer science, alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi, romania general berthelot 16, iasi, romania, tel.: +4 0232 201 090 dtrandabat@info.uaic.ro abstract this paper aims to present the methodology behind the platform “ethnolinguistic audiovisual atlas of the cultural food heritage of bacӑu county – ecultfood atlas”. ecultfood atlas platform is a comprehensive linguistic resource, containing the results of field research and scientific documentation on local cultural food traditions. it includes a representative corpus of audio-visual documents recording the traditional food cultural heritage based on surveys involving in special the older generation from the rural county of bacӑu, romania. the methodological challenges of this project include: (1) adapting existing data collecting methods to preserve as much as possible the authenticity of food preparing, (2) organizing collected materials in order to allow various levels of data filtering and (3) presenting the obtained materials in a user-friendly manner. the ecultfood atlas meets the aspirations of eu policies that regard the digitization of cultural resources as a key factor that would contribute to improving accessibility and undivided flow of information in a knowledge economy. once transposed into electronic format, the cultural food heritage of bacӑu county may become a resource for a broad spectrum of activities impacting sectors such as education, economy and tourism. keywords: methodology, food heritage, digitization, audio-visual atlas 1. introduction the ecultfood atlas is developed within the frame of the project pn-iii-p2-2.1-bg2016-0390 the digitization of the cultural food heritage. the region of bacău – ecultfood, project coordinated by “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău, in partnership with the “alexandru ioan cuza” university of iaşi and the cultural association “art-traditions-heritage without borders”. the project runs between 1.10.2016-30.10.2018, being funded by the executive agency for financing higher education, research, development and innovation (uefiscdi) through the national plan for research-development and innovation for the period 2015-2020 (pncdi iii) through direction p2 – increasing the competitiveness of the romanian economy through cdi, line 1 – transfer of knowledge to the economic agent. the ecultfood project has as area of intervention the intangible cultural heritage of traditional food, fulfilling the function of protection (research, promotion) and dissemination (diffusion, including via new models developed in the on-line environment) supporting, first and foremost, education as cultural intervention. its main aim is to preserve, in cartographic and computerized form, a representative corpus of audio-visual documents recording the traditional food cultural heritage based on surveys involving the older generation from the rural county of bacӑu. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 126 approaching the middle of the implementation of the project, we consider that the most important methodological aspects related to the establishment of the database have been validated, therefore, they should be presented to the interested public. the philosophy of this project has started from the premise that in the area of food cultural heritage, more than in any other field, each community has historically accumulated layers of popular knowledge as a result of the interaction with the environment and living conditions, many of these having a proven scientific basis (bergflødt et al, 2012). thanks to cultural inter-generation transmission, traditional knowledge acquires its character of historical continuity in resource use practice. their rediscovery does not contradict the idea of progress, but, on the contrary, it includes it (cannarella and piccioni 2011, handayani and prawito 2009). throughout the world, the interest in food cultural heritage has increased, having as consequence the promotion of popular food knowledge. the interest in returning to organic farming and habits of traditional food culture is evident at the level of european economic policies. the registration of food in quality schemes at national and european level, such as traditional products, protected designation of origin or protected geographical indication, is a proof in this direction10. the e-cultfood project aims to rediscover this heritage, reflected by the knowledge about traditional food, by preserving in a cartographic and computerized form a representative body of audiovisual documents recording the food cultural heritage taken over through inquiry in special from the older generation in bacău county. the result of this will be the creation of an ethnolinguistic audiovisual atlas of the cultural food heritage of bacău county, in the form of a complex database containing the results of field research and scientific documentation on food traditions in the region. in 2009, the council of the european union laid the foundations for a strategic framework for education and training cooperation, et 2020, in which culture is seen as an essential tool in delivering educational services, through the development of creativity and an innovative approach to all age groups. transformed into an educational resource, the main product of this project, the ethno-linguistic audiovisual atlas of the cultural food heritage of bacău county, emphasizes this educational component of traditional culture, designed to connect the more experienced and younger generations with tools that capitalize on creative and experiential learning. thus, one of the main directions of long-term development, valorization and diversification of the cultural consumption of young people is exploited by using the methods of stimulating creativity and innovation with the help of the new technologies. 2. ethnolinguistic audio-visual atlas of the cultural food heritage of bacӑu county – technical projection the platform ecultfood atlas is projected as a comprehensive database containing the results of field research and scientific documentation on cultural local food traditions. it includes a representative corpus of audio-visual documents recording the cultural food heritage based on surveys involving in special the older generation from the rural county of bacӑu. 2.1. data collection methodology the proposed research methodology is an interdisciplinary one combining the methods of socio-human sciences with those of information technology. the main method used to value food heritage items is that of the field survey, conducted on the basis of the ethnological experiment, of the semi-direct thematic interview and participant observation (o’reilly 2005: 84-112). the semistructured interview has the advantage of providing the interviewee with a certain freedom of communication in relation to a topic controlled by a researcher (geraud, leservoisier, pottier 2001: 10 however, in romania, the interest for developing this segment is still small. according to the statistics provided by the ministry of agriculture and sustainable development, 526 products were registered in the national register of traditional products (rnpt) during the period 2005-2016, of which only 1 product was registered at european level in the protected geographical indication category (pgi). in the same category, italy registered 114 products, france, 127 products, spain, 91, and germany, 86. p. savin, d. trandabat ethnolinguistic audio-visual atlas of the cultural food heritage of bacău county – elements of methodology 127 42). to elaborate the semi-structured interviews, there was designed an interview guide with 50 theme-related topics on the recording of knowledge and practices of traditional food, cooking techniques and recipes. the list of thematic subjects was based on the organization of the immaterial heritage elements made by narcisa ştiucă (2009: 133-140)11 in the collective work patrimoniul cultural imaterial din românia. repertoriu i / immaterial cultural heritage in romania. repertory i, to which there were added elements identified as a result of documentation and field survey. the planned field investigations aimed at recording the traditional menus, codes and eating habits of the inhabitants of bacău county. between november 2016 and july 2017, all the 32 localities planned to be surveyed on the criterion of representativeness for the geocultural diversity of the region were investigated during at least one visit there. there have already been archived audiovisual documents that have recorded real communication situations in the form of dialogue with 82 informants from the 32 localities in bacău county, which we here present in the chronological order of the visits: frumuşelu (glăvănești), glăvăneşti (glăvăneşti), muncelu (glăvăneşti), ludaşi (balcani), balcani (balcani), răţeni (balcani), buda (blăgeşti), apa asău (asău), valea mică (roşiori), gioseni (gioseni), galbeni (nicolae bălcescu), bălăneasa (livezi), mănăstirea caşin (caşin), caşin (caşin), blidari (căiuţi), pârjol (pârjol), bereşti (sascut), somuşca (cleja), ţârdenii mici (blăgeşti), chetriş (tamaşi), prăjeşti (prăjeşti), faraoani (faraoani), pustiana (pîrjol), mâlosu (lipova), dumbrava (gura văii), vâlcele (târgu-ocna), răchitiş (ghimeş-făget), berzunți (berzunți), scurta (orbeni), pâncești (pâncești), răstoaca (răcăciuni), oituz (oituz). for collecting immaterial heritage items, video and photo techniques were used. two types of movies were obtained:  procedural videos: these types of videos are recording of the actual, on-the-spot realization by informants of a dish, considered representative of local food culture.  evocative videos: this type of recording contains evocative discourse about traditional dishes, with informants recalling from memory and presenting recipes, habits, dietary codes, but not actually making the dish. videos were manually annotated to include transcripts of the interview. additionally, a set of photos were taken before and during the interviews, which were classified in different categories: panoramic views of the investigated locality, images of the informant's household, initial, intermediary and final steps of food preparation , including dishes in the final form storage facilities food preparation tools and installations, images of the informant in different communication situations. the final representation for each thematic subject includes a set of videos, images and texts representing the literal transcription of the video. while at the moment all information is in romanian language, we foreseen the translation of a limited number of highly specific topics, accompanied by a box of additional information (cultural, ethnographic, linguistic references on the subject). 11 narcisa ştiucă organized the immaterial heritage elements according to the following criteria: 1) the functional criterion, meaning the context of the preparation and of the consumption (the festive time – community and family – and the everyday/ordinary time) as well as the symbolic valences of the dishes; 2) the area of distribution (general, zonal, local) and the current frequency of preparation and consumption respectively; 3) representativeness and identity value (degree of occupational and ethnic specificity); 4) traditional technique (recipe-type) and execution style (local and regional cooking and consumption variants, as well as their designations); (5) the age of documentary attestation, storage, replacement or disposal of food ingredients or dishes (ştiucă 2009: 132). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 128 figure 1. dobojer “shaped bread” – gioseni village, bacău county (source: https://www.facebook.com/ecultfood/?fref=ts) 2.2. content digitization methodology the project transfers the latest achievements in the field of geolinguistics (sprachatlas des dolomitenladinischen und angrenzender dialekte12, atlas linguistique audiovisuel du valais romand13, atlas lingvistic audiovizual al bucovinei14) into the research of immaterial patrimony. at the same time, it capitalizes on the experience of the digitization team, who has worked on highly complex projects such as the computerization of the dicţionarul tezaur al limbii romȃne and noul atlas al limbii romȃne. moldova şi bucovina, and of the team responsible with the collection, research and organization of immaterial heritage elements that have already completed complex activities of collecting and researching the cultural and linguistic heritage of the region of moldavia. the interface for the linguistic resource supporting the atlas will be developed based on the interoperability of operating systems and internet browsing programs. data will be accessed from any operating system, desktop or mobile, via a web browser (firefox, google chrome, safari, etc.). the interface made available to users will be an interactive one and will allow them to have access to relevant ethnolinguistic materials from the entire network of geographical points, in the context in which it was obtained, structured into two broad categories: (1) the answers to the thematic subjects in the form of ethnoand socio-texts recorded by each informant, doubled by (2) researchers' notes on the respective subject, resulting from the research of various sources of documentation. each thematic subject will benefit from images and video recordings of the food heritage items taken from the field during investigations. three major categories of content were obtained: a repertoire of recipes, a repertoire of codes and food behaviours, and a set of information about the investigation circumstances. the first category, the repertoire of recipes collected through inquiry from an elderly generation from bacău county, will be organized under the title dishes from the elders and will include videos, photos and texts. the collected data has been organized into a taxonomy with various feature, allowing customized searches according to different criteria: name of dish general category (preparations based on cereals, meat, eggs, milk, plants, beverages), basic ingredient (wheat, corn, hemp, pork, lamb etc.), 12 https://www.sbg.ac.at/rom/people/proj/ald/allgemwillkomm.htm 13 http://www2.unine.ch/islc/page-35066.html 14 http://www.philippide.ro/alab/ p. savin, d. trandabat ethnolinguistic audio-visual atlas of the cultural food heritage of bacău county – elements of methodology 129 the stage of processing of the main ingredient (husked beans, crushed grains, flour, cob etc.), preparation tools (grinding mortar, kneading pot, triturator, sieve, wooden cutting pad, roller etc.), presence of the transforming agent (yeast, baking powder, leaven, rennet etc), secondary ingredients (honey, sugar, salt, nuts, eggs, milk etc.), with filling (with or without filling), the process of preparation (boiling, roasting, frying, heating, baking, salting etc.), the preparation agent (fire, salt, brine, vinegar), the preparation mediator (water, air, smoke, milk, fat etc.), preparation tools (pot, kettle, griddle, sieve etc.), installations (hob, oven, trivet, drying rack etc.), number of stages, slow/fast character, fasting/feasting food, ritualistic food (everyday, ritual), religious cult (orthodox, catholic), context of preparation (family cycle, calendar cycle), documentary reference (attestation of recipe in monographs, e.g. lupescu 2000, pamfile 1910 etc.), definition (extracted from dictionaries), presence in phraseologisms (idioms, phrases, proverbs, sayings etc.). the second category of content is represented by a repertoire of texts about codes and food behaviours under the title of celebrations and eves. also for this category, we have to deal with the three types of files, video, photo and text resulting from transcribing the interview from the film. these contents will also be accessed by filters such as: ritual/daily character, religious cult (orthodox or catholic), context of performance (calendar or family cycle), evoked event (calendar feast: new year, christmas, epiphany, etc., holy days; family event: wedding, baptism, funeral). the third category of contents, which is called people and tastes, consists of a set of metadata about the interview, organized as follows: locality code, locality, commune, date of investigation, house, kitchen, other preparation and storage areas, informants, year of birth, researchers, person-mediator, investigation group. all contents will be made available to the users of the site, allowing both the general public and the specialized user to access the data collection, according to their knowledge interests. 3. conclusions the most important novelty of this database is that the material collected is, first of all, the discourse related to the elements of food heritage. moreover, the realization of this new type of intangible patrimony would respond to a methodological desideratum, in the midst of recent theoretical debates, namely the transition from the material sampling survey to the form of communication inquiry, much more appropriate to the reproduction of the cultural specificity of an ethnographic area (dumistrăcel et alii 1997). corroborating an interview guide appropriate to documenting traditional food culture elements with a syncretic digital technique (audio-video/photo) to collect ethno-linguistic and ethnographic material will enable the creation of interactive multimedia document databases that will eventually turn the ethno-linguistic audio-visual atlas of the cultural food heritage of bacău county into a virtual museum, capable of facilitating innovative approaches in the field of education, economics and linguistic and ethnographic research. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 130 for the natural language processing field, the linguistic resource developed through this project is a valuable collection, with multiple possible further extensions. on one side, the transcriptions of contemporary rural spoken language, summing to about 100 hours, can be used to train a speech to text convertor for the romania language. on another side, the collection of recipes, in textual form, can be used to refine existing text mining tools, or develop new ones, based on extraction of opinions, sentiments or events. following the implementation of the project pn-iii-p2-2.1-bg-2016-0390 the digitization of food cultural heritage. the bacau region – ecultfood, there will remain the platform ethnolinguistic audiovisual atlas of the cultural food heritage of bacău county, a community of users linked by professional interests and common learning experiences, and a community of researchers and practitioners with research expertise in the field of generating research products with socioeconomic utility. the training process will be continued in the virtual environment by using the traditional digitized food treasure of bacău county as a patrimonial resource designed to connect the experienced generations with the young ones through tools that capitalize on creative and experiential learning. human resources and accumulated know-how will make it possible, through the exchange of best practices, to replicate the project at national level as well. references bergflødt, sigurd, amilien, virginie, skuland, silje e. (2012). nordic food culture(s) – thoughts and perspectives by way of introduction, anthropology of food 7 (https://aof.revues.org/7296, accessed on 10.06.2017) cannarella, carmelo, piccioni, valeria (2011). traditiovations: creating innovation from the past and antique techniques for rural areas. technovation, 31, pp. 689-699. dumistrăcel, stelian, in collab. with doina hreapcă and ion-horia bîrleanu (1997). ancheta dialectală ca formă de comunicare. iaşi, editura academiei române géraud, marie-odile, leservoisier, olivier, pottier, richard (2001). noţiunile-cheie ale etnologiei (analize şi texte). iaşi, polirom. goode, e. (1992). collective behavior, new york, harcourt brace jovanovich handayani, i.p., prawito, p., (2009), indigenous soil knowledge for sustainable agricultura, in „sociology, organic farming, climate change and soil science”, 3, pp. 303-317. hedeșan, otilia (2005). lecții despre calendar. curs de folclor. timişoara, editura universității de vest lévi-strauss, claude (1995). mitologice. i. crud şi gătit, translation and preface by ioan pânzaru. bucureşti, editura babel lupescu, mihai (2000). din bucătăria ţăranului român. bucureşti, editura paideia o’reilly, karen (2005). ethnographic methods. routledge, london&new york. pamfile, tudor (1910). industria casnică textilă la români. trecutul şi starea ei de astăzi. contribuţiuni de artă şi tehnică populară. bucureşti, librăria socec & comp. ştiucă, narcisa-alexandra (2009). alimentaţie tradiţională, in s. ispas (coord.) patrimoniul cultural imaterial din românia. bucurești, cimec. ştiucă, narcisa-alexandra (2007). cercetarea etnologică de teren, astăzi, bucureşti, ed. universităţii. trandabăț, diana, savin, petronela, gîfu, daniela, macovei, andreea (2016). the e-cultfood project, proceedings of the 12th international conference “linguistic resources and tools for processing the romanian language”, mălini, 27-29 october 2016, eds. maria mitrofan, daniela gîfu, dan tufiș, dan cristea, pp. 187-190. trandabăț, diana, gîfu, daniela (eds.) (2016). linguistic linked open data, 12th eurolan 2015 summer school and rumour 2015 workshop, revised selected papers, springer. acknowledgements this work was supported by a grant of the romanian national authority for scientific research and innovation, cncs/cccdi – uefiscdi, project number pn-iii-p2-2.1-bg-20160390, within pncdi iii. p. savin, d. trandabat ethnolinguistic audio-visual atlas of the cultural food heritage of bacău county – elements of methodology 131 petronela savin is a lecturer in linguistics at faculty of letters, vasile alecsandri university of bacau, romania. between 2010 and 2013 she was a postdoctoral researcher in alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi, romania. petronela savin’s research interest is on pointing out some characteristics of romanian food terminology, by explaining and inventorying a series of terms and expressions that give the specificity of romanian cuisine. diana trandabat graduated the faculty of linguistics at the university "al. i. cuza" of iasi, romania. after graduating the msc program in computational linguistics, she was phd student at the faculty of computer science, university "al. i. cuza" of iasi, romania, under the supervision of prof. dan cristea. her phd thesis focused on semantic role labelling (srl): creating a srl resource for romanian, developing a language independent srl tool, and applying it to several nlp processes. i obtained my phd in march 2010. diana trandabat is also research assistant at the institute for computer science, romanian academy, since may 2005. her work at the institute for computer science started with analysing the structure of the verbal group for romanian. in parallel, she worked on developing the web page archive for the romanian sounds. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 172 henric sanielevici from literary criticism to anatomy or how does the size of the skull influence literature? adrian jicu department of romanian language and literature, faculty of letters, “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău spiru haret, 8, 600114, bacău, romania jicuadrian@yahoo.com abstract the aim of the present paper is to deal with the relationship between literary criticism and anatomy. to be more precise it will discuss one of henric sanielevici’s theories, according to which the literary text can only be understood by taking into account the colour of the eyes, the conformation of teeth and size and the shape of the author’s skull. key-words: skull, brain, dolicephalic, brachicephalic, interdisciplinarity, anatomy, anthropology, literary criticism 1. introduction interdisciplinarity is today widely spread. literary criticism makes no exception, especially in the second half of the xxth century, when it develops connections to different fields such as religion, sociology, psychology, psychoanalysis or neurosciences. yet, the begginins of such an interdisciplinary approach in criticism can be traced around 1900, when a romanian thinker, henric sanielevici, almost unknown today, comes with some revolutionary ideas, aiming at changing the status of literary criticism from an artistic impression into a solid science. the present paper deals with his contributions to the development of determinism and materialism into a personal model of interpreting literature. 2. literary criticism and determinism in the second half of the 19th century the second half of the 19th century in the european culture is characterized by an extraordinary development of science and technique, which has an enormous impact on arts and, implicitly, on literature. the separation from religion is evident and darwin’s on the origin of species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life (1859) turns out to be a crucial moment in the evolution of humankind. trust on the unlimited powers of science becomes the engine for radical changes in all fields of life. literary criticism makes no exception, using a large range of methods and techniques in the investigation process and getting closer to natural sciences hoping to acquire objectivity. more and more elements from apparently incompatible fields such as history, biology, sociology, psychology or medicine, are used in interpreting literature, a fact that can be considered a fist step in interdisciplinary approaches. after the extraordinary development of aestethics in germany, where immanuel kant had settled the basic elements of a strong idealistic, subjective trend in the european philosophy, some other important german thinkers developed concepts of extreme importance for the understanting of literature. j. g. fichte, schelling and hegel continue kant’s ideas, struggling to prove that art can only be understood by both senses and mind. taking into account the ambivalence of the text, it becomes impossible to deal with literature using only the tools offered by science. although influent, not all philosophers and thinkers share such ideas. gradually, especially in france, villemain, sainte-beuve and taine strive for orientating criticism towards science. under the influence of important changes in politics, industry and society, they come with a different point of view, which does not necessarily reject idealism, but tries to get a more objective interpretation. after sainte-beuve has practiced biografism as a research method and granted the art of portrayal with an unprecedented importance, taine produces a real revolution in aesthetics considering brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 173 artistic works as facts and products whose characteristics and reasons need to be explained. thus, the connection between art and natural sciences is established. literary criticism becomes a kind of applied anatomy of artistic works, based on the laws of determinism and universal causality. in fact, taine makes nothing else but borrows concepts and methods from natural sciences and applies them to literature. analyzing the text as the effect of some causes, he moves the interest on identifying the last one, considered “the three major forces of mankind history: the race, the environment and the moment.”74 this is the well-known deterministic triad that will be developed according to different principles. for the time being it is important to accept that taine’s contribution to the development of aesthetics is crucial. he is no longer interested in proving the value of a literary work (which is considered implicit), but in identifying in literature the psychology of a people. far from being infallible taine turns modern through the rigorous cartesian way in which he built a great system, capable of describing the ineffable of literature in terms of positive sciences. his ideas will be taken forward by emile hennequin, whose name is usually associated with aestopsychology, a combination of methods in the field of aesthetics and psychology in explaining the literary phenomenon. another important name is georg brandes, danish esthetician who has made important contributions in this area. brandes explains the phenomenon of art in a positivist manner, focusing on genetic factors. his aesthetic conception tries to eliminate irrational factors in explaining the literary phenomenon. he applies a social and historic type of genetics to texts seeking causal explanations and the specific of each writer. literary history is viewed as a sequence of actions and reactions. brandes is not limited to biographical, social or political information, aspiring to make a history of the human spirit. the comparative approach, he suggests, also gives birth to value judgments, essential to any critical act. in fact, his criticism makes a synthesis of hegel’s philosophy and of materialist rationality. 3. the influence of scientific criticism in romanian thinking and literature the effects of these mutations in european thinking begins to be felt in romania after 1870, especially in socialist circles, primarily through the work of constantin dobrogeanu-gherea. his ideas and theories about the importance of social factors in understanding literature will be carried on, among others, by henric sanielevici (1875-1951), one of the most interesting romanian literary critics, who aspires to a synthesis of all sciences and claims to be a pioneer in european thinking at that time. unlike others, sanielevici seems to be capable of innovation, developing external suggestions into original contributions. his early cultural journalism proves solid knowledge and he will gradually develop a personal design, starting from taine’s determinism joined by influences from hennequin, brandes, lanson or kautsky. due to his interest in anthropology, he goes to berlin, in 1901, to study. in 1904 he delivers a conference at the anthropological society in paris, brachicephaly is caused by mastication, wanting to resolve the problem of cephalic index. the courage of a young romanian researcher to argue with important names in anthropology and to reject nyström’s hypothesis that the brachycephaly is normal and dolicephalia is abnormal was considered strange and his communication was not successful. the decision of the jury stimulates him to continue his researches until 1926, when he published la vie des mammifères et des hommes fossiles, which he considered his major scientific work. after a romanian stay he goes back to germany, for specialization. he sets at göttingen, where he attends lectures at the university and studies at the local anatomic and anthropologic museum. in march 1912, he holds a conference at the anthropological society of teachers from the university of göttingen, where he suggests that “homo europaeus” owes his physical characteristics to his fisherman life in the postglacial tundra. the idea was greeted with ironic smiles. without collapse, sanielevici published his study in “anatomischer anzeiger”, hoping that the scientific world will recognize his contribution. during this period, he works hard, attending libraries and exhibits. in the blumenbach collection he finds a 74 by race taine understands nation, by milieu, environment and by moment, he refers to time. a. jicu – henric sanielevici from literary criticism to anatomy 174 skull on which gall, a famous phrenologist, drew some circles to distinguish the center of friendships, of travel and so on. such marks and gall’s theory according to which there are certain centers in the human brain responsible for different emotions made the romanian researcher laugh. 4. henric sanielevici’s basic ideas about literature and criticism although he continues the scientific direction in romanian criticism, sanielevici often recants his model, gherea, choosing a rather unusual direction, one in which biology and anatomy play a key role in understanding literature. unlike contemporary romanian critics such as garabet ibrăileanu, for whom the contribution of biology to understanding literature is secondary, for sanielevici it becomes crucial to open a gate to anthropology and thus to an original point of view. his fundamental study is from literary criticism to the biology of mammals and opens with a shocking confession: “many years have passed since literary criticism led me to study anthropology. the path is, contrary to how one might think, short and straight.”75 unhappy with the inaccuracy of classifications in psychology and literary history, sanielevici aims at identifying those very causes that made people different during the history of mankind. after years of systematic observation, sanielevici reaches the conclusion that there are ongoing relations between the character of a person and his physical appearance. considering the history of literature as a branch of sociology, he suggests a classification based on scientific criteria: “things being so, one can easily understand the importance of classification, defining and finding the laws that have governed the apparition of literary production, set by me in the iron classicism. a perfect classification of a class of phenomena can be done only in close connection with the law of their production.”76 sanielevici considers classifications made according to the most typical feature (the result of the cause generating effects on all the others. applying lamarck’s principle to the biology of man (who is a mammal), he believes to have solved the problem of character. then, defining temperament as the sum of physical forces and character as a way in which these forces are grouped under the influence of social environment, the critic maintains that the substrate of temperaments has a genetic explanation. the individual is a unity of body and soul, physiognomy and stature which must be studied to help us identify the basis character and then the spiritual qualities. hence, the belief that he has found the solution to revolutionize psychology: “years of observation led me to the conclusion that the character of an individual and his physical appearance particularly the face are relatively constant.”77 applying the results of these observations, sanielevici explains the literary text by means of elements belonging to anthropology. a rigorous classification in this field can be made only through a comparative study of literary schools in different countries and periods to distinguish the particular features: “the history of literature teaches us that a great writer never appears isolated, but is the highest expression of a school, of a literary current. taine has shown us that shakespeare, who seems a meteor today, was surrounded by a group of playwrights not much inferior to him.”78 following this reasoning, sanielevici comes to the surprising and ridiculous conclusion that the configuration of the jaws and the eye color are factors that can explain the art phenomenon. belonging to a certain race and diet are also essential in understanding the anatomy and psychology of the individual, which, in turn, contribute to shaping the psychology of a people. starting from the premise that biology and anthropology have not been established as real science yet, sanielevici claims to have explained the evolution of man on earth and thus to have contributed decisively to gaining an autonomous status for the two disciplines. according to his theory, the five natural types of environment during the ice age (warm woods, cool woods, warm steppe, cold steppe and tundra) correspond to the five human races (nut eater, snails eater, onion 75 henric sanielevici, critical and philosophical researches, bucureşti, editura pentru literatură, 1968, p. 235. 76 henric sanielevici, new critical studies, bucureşti, socec, 1920, p. 141. 77 henric sanielevici, critical and philosophical researches, bucureşti, editura pentru literatură, 1968, p. 390. 78 h. sanielevici, critical studies, bucureşti, editura literară a casei şcoalelor, 1927, p. 57. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 175 eater, meat eater of and fish eater) which can be described taking into account function and the environment. in an attempt to define science, sanielevici shows that it aims at coordinating a class of phenomena by more and more general rules and establishes seven stages of this process: description of phenomena, finding similarities and differences, the classification of phenomena from different points of view, setting precise definitions within the classification system and, most importantly, establishing causal relationships and their coordination in general rules.79 of all these seven sciences (mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and sociology), only the first four came in the fifth stage, while the others didn’t even complete any classifications. in solving a problem sanielevici thinks that the most important factor is not the amount of knowledge you have, but the power of orientation, the way you choose. this extremely important ability has, in his opinion, three stages: the right judgment (given by the study of logics), dialectical thinking (which allows you to analyze all the aspects) and intuition. applying the results of these observations in literature, henric sanielevici changes the initial meanings taine has given to determinism and explains the literary text only by means of elements belonging to anthropology. thus, he comes to surprising conclusions, far from the initial intention of changing literary criticism into a solid science, with rules, objective criteria and links to other disciplines. one of the most interesting examples is that of a comparative approach in which he discusses about two contemporaries: “here are, for instance, two writers, vlahuţă and sadoveanu, whose physiognomies and psychologies are known to readers of literature. well, can anyone imagine a melancholic and sensitive person such as vlahuţă with sadoveanu’s physiognomy and, on the contrary, a calm optimist like sadoveanu with vlahuţă’s physiognomy? it takes a special sense to recognize that sadoveanu’s spiritual qualities send to blonde people, while vlahuţă’s to the south-europe or to the east? vlahuţă has the dark-brown face of a spanish, sicilian or greek from the islands: the face of a mediterranean or west asian brachicephal. his big eyes, black as oil and terribly expressive, his serious appearance and slow movements betray the hidden excitement and concentrated nature of a spanish man. he used to be the typical representative of the urban petty bourgeoisie and intellectuals, in the lyric-romantic literary movement before 1900. intense lyricism, subjectivity and a deep unsatisfaction, concise and polished style, shaping reality through abstractization and self-observation, love of solitude, individualism nothing is missing from the psychology of the mediterranean. on the other hand, sadoveanu has the classic appearance of the blonde brachycephal in slavic regions: stuff body, short neck, big, round head, round face, small nose, small eyes, deep in their sockets, long upper lip, blond complection; to his germanic psychology perfect memory, plasticity, objective judgment, manly and calm aspect, optimism, elementary, intense and superficial feelings, a general tendency towards human life, constant activity he adds under the germanic appearance, the alpine impulsiveness, which unleashed itself only in literature”80. in fact, even if part of his observations fit the two writers, they can not be taken for granted as a coherent system for interpreting literature. a writer, regardless of belonging to a particular race, remains an individual. using elements and methods from anatomy, biology or anthropology does not necessarily involve scientific results. in sanielevici’s case, there is a paradox. his theories are usually strong, supported by hard work and years of study. he aims at making a synthesis of scientific elements to have a complex approach of the literary text. unfortunately for him, in practice he frequently fails. he reaches attractive conclusions, but most of them are unacceptable. henric sanielevici’s contribution remains crucial, because he built a complex system, a complicated, interdisciplinary algorithm to explain literary works. after a first phase, when taine’s influence is evident, sanielevici finds his own direction in the romanian literary criticism, striving to explain literature by means of some particular sciences: anatomy, biology, anthropology and 79 the whole theory can be found in literary schools and genres, part of new critical studies, ed. cit., pp. 137-145. 80 ibidem, pp. 247-248. a. jicu – henric sanielevici from literary criticism to anatomy 176 history. that is why, in 1935, after almost five decades of work, he comes to the conclusion that the only possibility of interpreting literature is anthropology. 5. conclusion although sanielevici’s intention of defining criticism as a true science is still interesting and also his ideas about using new sciences at that time (such as anatomy, biology, anthropology etc.) anticipate interdisciplinarity, they were considered strange. in fact they are not that strange as claimed, but were abusively applied in interpreting literature. i believe that they need to reconsidered, because in theory sanielevici was extremely inventive, but in practice he ussally overexagerated and nobody accepted his model of evaluating literature. references [1] sanielevici, h. (1968). critical and philosophical researches. bucharest: editura pentru literatură, p. 235. [2] sanielevici, h. (1920). new critical studies. bucharest: socec, p. 141. [3] sanielevici, h. (1968). critical and philosophical researches. bucharest: editura pentru literatură, p. 390. [4] sanielevici, h (1927). critical studies. bucharest: editura literară a casei şcoalelor, p. 57. [5] taine, h. (1965). history of english literature. bucharest: e.l.u.. brain_3_3_ok 55 discrete wavelet transform method: a new optimized robust digital image watermarking scheme hassan talebi department of telecommunication, ahar branch, islamic azad university, ahar, iran p.o.box: 5451116714, tel: +98 (914)1001101 h-talebi@iau-ahar.ac.ir behzad poursoleyman department of control, ahar branch, islamic azad university, ahar, iran p.o.box: 5451116714, tel: +98 (914)1001101 b-poursoleyman@iau-ahar.ac.ir abstract in this paper, a wavelet-based logo watermarking scheme is presented. the logo watermark is embedded into all sub-blocks of the lln sub-band of the transformed host image, using quantization technique. extracted logos from all sub-blocks are mixed to make the extracted watermark from distorted watermarked image. knowing the quantization step-size, dimensions of logo and the level of wavelet transform, the watermark is extracted, without any need to have access to the original image. robustness of the proposed algorithm was tested against the following attacks: jpeg2000 and old jpeg compression, adding salt and pepper noise, median filtering, rotating, cropping and scaling. the promising experimental results are reported and discussed. keywords: wavelet transform, watermarking, quantization technique, 1. introduction nowadays protecting the copyright of the digital media has become an important topic due to digital media can be copied and modified easily. many watermarking techniques have been proposed to solve the copyright protection problem for multimedia images. the spatial and transform domains are two common methods for image watermarking. embedding the watermark into the transform-domain generally helps to increase the imperceptibility, security, and robustness. therefore, at present, most of image watermarking methods are in the transform domain, where dft [1], dct [2], dwt [3] are three main transform methods used. in terms of the extracting scheme, watermarking algorithms are also divided into two groups: blind and non-blind watermarking. in a non-blind watermarking the original image is necessary for the watermark extraction whereas in a blind watermarking the original image is not needed for watermark extraction. the paper is organized as follows: section 2 explains the proposed algorithms for watermark embedding and extraction. experimental results are presented in section 3. 2. proposed watermarking scheme nowadays, most watermarking algorithms use wavelet and quantization techniques; the use of wavelet domain watermarking has the advantage of making the watermark robust against many of the distortions that change high frequency components of image such as compression and lowpass filtering; however, it cannot resist the attacks such as cropping that destroy a whole region of the watermarked image because each pixel of watermark is usually embedded only in one region of the host image. most of the wavelet based watermarking methods divide a wavelet sub-band to small subblocks and then embed each bit of logo watermark in one sub-block by quantizing the coefficients of that sub-band but for increasing robustness of our scheme against cropping attack, we proposed a method that embeds one logo in each sub-block. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 therefore, each bit of the logo watermark is stored in one coefficient of a sub-block to keep the capacity of watermarking fixed. when a region of the watermarked image is destroyed; the whole watermark can be extracted using other regions of the watermarked image by merging extracted watermarks. figure 1 shows result of merging logo watermarks that were extracted from a compressed (with jpeg2000 algorithm) watermarked image. 2.1. watermark embedding algorithm suppose the host image i is a gray-level image with n by n pixels and logo watermark w is a binary image with m by m pixels. the watermark is embedded through the following steps: a b c figure 1. (a) original watermark (b) extracted watermarks after compression(c) merged watermark step 1: the host image is decomposed into n level using discrete wavelet transform. we select lln sub-band of the decomposed image for watermark embedding. step 2: the selected sub-band is divided into small sub-blocks bk with the size of m×m. figure 2 shows the sub-blocks. step 3: the logo watermark is inserted to all of the sub-blocks by quantizing the coefficients of them according to the following formula: where qk(i,j) is used to represent wavelet coefficients of bk sub-block and qk′(i,j) is used to represent the same coefficients after quantization. w(i,j) is the logo watermark, m is an integer and q is the quantization step size. step 4: finally, with new coefficient values, the host image is reconstructed to form the watermarked image. h. talebi, b. poursoleyman discrete wavelet transform method: a new optimized robust digital image watermarking scheme 57 the choice of n should be made based on an optimal compromise among robustness, invisibility and the attack. with a good choice, the watermark could be made more robust against image degrading. selecting small n can cause to reduce robustness of algorithm but will increase execution speed and decrease the degradation of watermarked image. selecting a large n can also cause to increase robustness of algorithm but will decrease the dimensions of lln region so it causes to decrease number of sub-blocks(k). it is obvious that there is a relation between n, m, n and k, in optimal case: n=m×k×2n. 2.2. watermark extraction algorithm whereas most of methods for watermark extraction require the original image, the proposed method does not. for extracting watermark logo, the size of host image, size of watermark image, quantization step size (q), level of decomposition (n), number of sub-blocks (k) are needed. the watermark is extracted through the following steps: step 1: the watermarked image is decomposed into level n using discrete wavelet transform. lln sub-band of the decomposed image is divided into sub-blocks bk with the size of m×m. step 2: pixels of logo watermark wk corresponded to each sub-block bk are extracted with the following formula. where qk(i,j) is used to represent wavelet coefficients of sub-block bk, m is an integer and q is the quantization step size. step 3: if no distortion happens for watermarked image, all extracted logos wk should be the same as the embedded logo. but if any distortion was happened for watermarked image, the extracted watermarks will be merged by voting to obtain the final result. merging is done based on the following formulas [4]: where wk(i,j) is used to represent extracted watermark from sub-block bk and w(i,j) is used to represent the merged watermark. k is number of sub-blocks. 3. experimental results in the following experiments, two gray-level images with size of 512 by 512, “baby” and “hookah” are the test images. the binary image “iau” with size of 32 by 32 is used in our simulations as a watermark. figure 3 shows the watermark. in the experiments haar wavelet filter was used for discrete wavelet transform. the level of wavelet decomposition (n) and the number of sub-blocks (k) were also assumed to be 2 and 16 respectively. the proposed watermarking algorithm is evaluated from the point view of embedded watermark transparency and robustness; the result of each is shown in next two sections. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 figure 2. ll2 sub-band is divided into sub-block 3.1. image quality the psnr (peak signal to noise ratio) is widely used to measure the difference between two images based on pixel differences. in the watermarking case, is used to evaluate the quality of the watermarked image. for a n1×n2 pixels image with pixels luminance values ranging from zero (black) to lmax white, the psnr is defined as[5]: where mse is mean square error defined as: where io and iw are the respective luminance values of the original and watermarked images. selecting a good q for this scheme is very important because increasing q can cause degradation of visual perception of watermarked image but increases it’s robustness against many attacks; therefore q and psnr are in inverse proportion. but this measure is not very accurate and we can’t select the correct q value according to the psnr value; the threshold of q for degradation of watermarked image is different for every image and depends on its spatial frequency. figure 4 shows original and watermarked images of “hookah” and “baby”. figure 2. the watermark used for embedding 3.2. robustness against image processing a set of distortions is applied to the watermarked image and the watermark is extracted from the distorted image. we used bit correct rate (bcr) to evaluate our proposed algorithm and it is calculated from the following equation [6]: ll2 hl2 hl2 lh2 hh2 lh2 hh2 b1 b2 … bk m m n h. talebi, b. poursoleyman discrete wavelet transform method: a new optimized robust digital image watermarking scheme 59 a b c d figure 4. (a) the original “hookah” image (b) watermarked “hookah” with q=35 (c) the original “baby” image (d) watermarked “baby” with q=35 where w(i,j) and w'(i, j) are respectively original and extracted watermarks with size of m1×m2 pixels. the robustness of the proposed watermarking scheme is evaluated against several attacks including adding salt & pepper noise, rotation, scaling, cropping, filtering, jpeg and jpeg2000 compression. table 1 shows psnr and bcr values of the watermarked images under the above distortions. table 1. psnr (db) of distorted watermarked images and bcr values of extracted watermarks under different distortions host image hookah (q=35) baby (q=35) attacks psnr bcr psnr bcr jpeg2000 ( rate = 0.1 bpp ) 36.03 0.99 37.96 0.99 jpeg ( quality=20% ) 32.30 0.91 32.43 0.93 median filter ( window 7×7 ) 30.12 0.91 26.76 0.95 salt & pepper noise( nd=0.05 ) 18.41 0.93 17.85 0.82 image resize ( scale = ¼ ) 27.84 0.98 26.14 0.97 image rotation (deg = 0.5° ) 23.31 0.86 22.23 0.91 center crop (40%) 9.33 0.98 7.19 0.98 surrounding crop (45%) 9.29 0.95 5.97 0.97 in general digital images are stored and transmitted after image compression. jpeg is more popular among image compression methods than still images. the watermarked images are compressed by jpeg2000 and jpeg compression with different compression ratios. figure 5(a1) and (a2) show the compressed version of figure 4(a) respectively under jpeg2000 (0.1 bpp) and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 60 jpeg (quality=20%) compression. the corresponding extracted results are showed in figure 5 (b1) and (b2) with high bcr values (0.99) and (0.91). we investigated the robustness by smoothing the watermarked image with median filter whose window size is 7×7 pixels. figure 5(a3) shows the smoothed version of figure 4(a) under median filtering. the corresponding extracted result is shown in figure 5(b3) with high bcr value (0.91). we evaluated the robustness by adding salt & pepper noise to the watermarked image. in this test, the density of additive noise was 0.05. figure 5(a4) shows image of figure 4(a) after adding salt & pepper. extracted watermark is showed in figure 5(b4) with high bcr value (0.93). in figure 5(a5), even though the wavelet transform is not rotationally invariant, our proposed method can extract the watermark for small rotations. extracted logo from 0.5° rotated watermarked image with bcr value of (0.86) is shown in figure 5(b5). as we predicted, this watermarking method is very robust against image cropping. we extract 98% and 95% of watermark from the watermarked images that was cropped from center and surrounding with ratios of 40% and 45% respectively. figure 5(a6) and (a7) show these cropped watermarked images and their corresponding extracted results are showed in figure 5(b6) and (b7). image resizing is also a common geometric transformation. the watermarked image is reduced to 25% of its original image size. next, in order to detect the watermark, the reduced image is recovered to its original dimensions. figure 5(a8) shows the reduced and recovered version of figure 4(a) and extracted watermark with high bcr value of (0.98) is shown in figure 5(b8). the above simulations and analyses have all confirmed that the proposed scheme has high robustness against common geometric transformations, filtering, and compression. however, this scheme cannot well resist rotation and additive noise attacks. in some cases, we cannot detect the watermark correctly. 4. conclusions this paper has described a scheme for digital watermarking of still images based on discrete wavelet transform. in the proposed method, the embedded logo watermark can be extracted without access to the original image. it has been confirmed that the proposed watermarking method is able to extract the embedded logo watermark from the watermarked images that have degraded through compression, filtering, cropping and scaling. although this algorithm is not robust against rotation, it can completely extract the watermark from watermarked images that lose about 35% of their areas by cropping attack. a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3 a4 b4 a5 b5 a6 b6 h. talebi, b. poursoleyman discrete wavelet transform method: a new optimized robust digital image watermarking scheme 61 a7 b7 a8 b8 figure 6. (a1), (a2), (a3), (a4), (a5), (a6), (a7) and (a8) watermarked image is degraded respectively through jpeg2000 compression, jpeg compression, median filtering, adding salt&pepper noise, rotating, center cropping, surrounding cropping and scaling. (b1), (b2), (b3), (b4), (b5), (b6), (b7) and (b8) the corresponding extracted watermarks. 5. references [1] l. tzu-chao, l. chao-ming, "wavelet-based copyright-protection scheme for digital images based on local features, "journal of information sciences, vol. 179, pp. 3349-3358, sep. 2009. [2] m. r. soheili, "redundant watermarking using wavelet packets," in ieee/acs int. conf. on computer systems and applications, april 2008, pp. 591-598. [3] s. ghannam, abou-chadi, f.e.z., "enhancing performance of image watermarks using wavelet packet," in int. conf. on computer engineering & systems, nov. 2008, pp. 83-87. [4] w. wei, m. aidong, c. xiaobo, "robust image watermarking scheme based on phase features in dft domain and generalized radon transformations," in 2nd international congress on image and signal processing, oct. 2009, pp. 1 – 5. [5] z. dazhi, w. boying, s. jiebao, h. heyan "a new robust watermarking algorithm based on dwt," in 2nd international congress on image and signal processing, oct. 2009, pp. 1-6. [6] z. yigang, l. jia "blind watermarking algorithm based on dct for color images," in 2nd international congress on image and signal processing, oct. 2009, pp. 1-3. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 36 a corpus study on the difference between moocs and real classes adel rahimi sharif university of technology, tehran, iran tehran, azadi avenue, iran tel.: +98 21 6601 3126 adel.rahimi@mehr.sharif.edu parvaneh khosravizadeh sharif university of technology, tehran, iran tehran, azadi avenue, iran tel.: +98 21 6601 3126 khosravizadeh@sharif.edu abstract in this paper we take a look at how the language of online classes (moocs) differs from those of real classes. three corpora were created for this analysis; mooc corpus, lecture capture corpus, and philosophy lecture capture. three factors were used in the study: formality, sentiment analysis, vocabulary analysis. formality score was used to understand how formal the text is. sentiment categorization of words was used to realize the positivity of the words used in the classes and finally top words used in corpora was analyzed to understand the usage. it was realized that the formality measure of real classes is slightly lower than online classes and professors use more positive words in real classes than online classes and the vocabulary usage is heavily under the influence of subject. keywords: mooc, online classes, sentiment analysis, computer-related courses 1. introduction mooc stands for massive online open course. the first word, massive, denotes the fact that moocs are “all-at-once-ness” (johnson, nafukho, valentin, le counte & valentin, 2014). in other words, moocs are created once but will be distributed through internet platforms many times. stephen downes and george siemens created the first mooc in 2008 and used this term for the first time in a course titled “connectivism and connective knowledge” (downes, 2012, p.10). this particular class had 2,000 nonpaying students enrolled (daniel, 2012). in 2011 stanford university offered the course introduction to artificial intelligence. initially 160,000 students enrolled and over 20,000 students completed the course. udacity focuses on free education. udacity incorporation, founded by sebastien thrun, was the first company which began to offer online courses. since then, san jose university, mit, and harvard among others began to offer on-line courses and establish mooc platforms. in terms of quality, the courses in moocs were just class materials published online by university professors, however, currently instructors are designing high quality tailored materials. different types of moocs have evolved from the beginning; edx, khan academy and coursera employ their very own style in creating class contents. table 1. comparison of key aspects of moocs or open education initiatives from (yuan, 2013) # first name and family name for profit free to access certification institutional credits 1 edx ⤬ ✔ ✔ ⤬ 2 coursera ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 3 udacity ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 4 udemy ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 5 p2pu ⤬ ✔ ⤬ ⤬ based on class-central.com, as of 2016 there are more than 4,000 moocs. distribution of moocs over subjects (data by class-central.com): a. rahimi, p. khosravizadeh a corpus study on the difference between moocs and real classes 37 table 2. comparison of moocs distribution in different subjects (data from: class-central.com) subject percent science 11.3% business & management 16.8% mathematics 4.09% engineering 6.11% art and design 6.73% programming 7.44% health and medicine 8.27% education and teaching 9.36% humanities 9.41% computer science 9.74% social sciences 10.8% as belanger and thornton (2013) suggest, the main reasons behind the popularity of moocs are; • to support lifelong learning or gain an understanding of the subject matter, with no particular expectations for completion or achievement, • for fun, entertainment, social experience and intellectual stimulation, • convenience, often in conjunction with barriers to traditional education options, • to experience or explore online education. 2. related works although moocs have a brief history, they have evolved so vastly during present time. several studies have been conducted on how moocs were started. daneil (2012) describes a short history of moocs and expands it in the wider context of distant learning. yuan (2013) describes a history of moocs and an analysis on the mooc-style open educations. also describes the challenges for moocs. clow (2013) in a paper titled “moocs and the funnel of participation” uses funnel as a metaphor for describing dropout rates in moocs. jordan (2014) used public dataset to visualize the completion rates on moocs. in the terms of being difficulty level konnikova, (2014)1 states that if moocs were to challenge students they would likely be more effective. keats, (2016)2 in an article in wired magazine describes a history of moocs and writes that moocs should be expansive in order to be successful and replace formal education. in another paper dellarocas and alstyne (2013) explains business models for moocs and how making money out of moocs would work. chen (2014) used text mining to understand the challenges of moocs. his study showed that among other challenges, moocs need to overcome course quality, high dropout rates, unavailable course credits, ineffective assessments, and complex copyright issues. rodriguez (2012) classifies moocs into two categories: ai-stanford and connectivist moocs (c-moocs). rodriguez (2012) suggests that c-moocs are more social than ai-stanford. jordan (2014) also reported completion data on 24 moocs the data shows the highest competition rate was for functional programming principles in scala which was 19.2%. 1 konnikova, m (2014). will moocs be flukes? the new yorker, retrieved on july, 21, 2017 from www.newyorker.com/science/mariakonnikova/moocs-failure-solutions 2 keats, j. (2016). are moocs in danger of becoming irrelevant? the new yorker. retrieved on august, 10, 2017 from http://www.wired.co.uk/article/improving-moocs-jonathon-keats brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 38 jordan (2014) also reported that most moocs had 43,000 students enrolled but the completion rate is only 6.5%. although many students drop out from the course, onah, sinclair, and boyatt (2014) shows that many participants follow the course in their own “preferred way”. onah et al. (2014) also suggests “structure of ‘a course’ may not be helpful to all participants and supporting different patterns of engagement and presentation of material may be beneficial.” reasons for dropout suggested by onah et al. (2014) are: no real intention to complete, lack of time, course difficulty and lack of support, lack of digital skills or learning skills, bad experience, bad expectations of the course, starting late, peer review. brinton, chiang, jain, lam, liu, and wong (2014) analyzed discussion forums in the moocs and identified two features of the discussion forums in the moocs: 1) high decline rate, 2) high volume noisy discussions. brinton et al. then proposes a unified generative model for discussion threads and an algorithm for “ranking thread relevance”. wen, yang, and rose (2014) uses sentiment analysis to “monitor students’ trending opinions towards the course and major course tools”. wen et al. (2014) also reported that there is a high correlation between number of dropouts and sentiments expressed in the discussion forums. 3. mooc/lc corpus design the main subject of this study is focused towards computer science and computer related courses. the following 3 corpora were prepared for this study: 1. moocs computer corpus (computer) 2. lecture capture corpus (computer) 3. lecture capture (philosophy) table 3. list of courses used in the mooc corpus course course provider number of word token computer science 101 stanford university 79039 natural language processing columbia university 136215 an introduction to interactive programming in python (part i) rice university 145336 text retrieval and search engines university of illinois at urbana-champaign 77986 neural networks university of toronto 122714 digital signal processing école polytechnique fédérale de lausanne 154333 cs1 compilers stanford university 196639 computational investing, part i georgia institute of technology 74173 c++ for c programmers university of california, santa cruz 63327 biology meets programming: bioinformatics for beginners university of california, san diego 10257 audio signal processing for music applications stanford university 144364 1204383 a. rahimi, p. khosravizadeh a corpus study on the difference between moocs and real classes 39 the corpus is made of coursera class subtitle which is exactly what the instructor is saying. some files were originally in .srt format. the subtitle was first converted to .txt then a cleaning method was applied on the corpus meaning all the numbers and special characters were removed. the second corpus is from real university classes referred to as lecture capture. this corpus is the data from mit ocw, cs50 website, and other course websites that offer closed captions for people with hard of hearing. table 4. list of courses used in the lc corpus course course provider number of word tokens 6.001 mit 121245 cs50 harvard university 342458 computer science e-76: building mobile applications harvard university 133298 computer science e1 computers and internet harvard university 223938 cs50 (2016) harvard university 246036 software engineering harvard university 66783 1133758 the third corpus is the lecture capture corpus for philosophy classes. same as lecture capture corpus the corpus is compiled from course websites. table 5. list of courses used in the philosophy lecture capture corpus course course provider number of word tokens philosophy and the science of human nature yale university 159210 introduction to political philosophy yale university 145114 death yale university 191559 495883 the reason behind choosing several courses in moocs and only few courses from lc corpus is that the length of the classes in universities is much longer than those of the moocs and therefore to stratify the corpus, the number of moocs is higher. in order for the corpora to be in the same category, courses have been chosen meticulously so that: firstly, they do not differ in terms of theme, class organization, and other possible affecting factors. secondly, the number of word tokens in the corpora to be roughly equal so that it does not affect quantitative factors. 4. analysis 4.1. formality to analyze formality in the corpus, (heylighen and dewaele, 1999) f-score measurement was employed to indicate how formal the instructors’ speech is. as the formula supposes: f = (noun frequency + adjective freq. + preposition freq. + article freq. – pronoun freq. – verb freq. – adverb freq. – interjection freq. + 100) / 2 thus, initially it is required to analyze parts of speech in the corpora. in the first step stanford pos tagger was used to tag all the words in both corpora. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 40 mooc corpus f-score: f = (19.466+ 1.635+ 7.144+ 3.267+ 10.456+ 12.6230 6.0918.0107.1443.521+100) / 2 = 59.9 the f-score in moocs is slightly higher than the other two. this 10 percent doesn’t drastically change the formality whereas; it can be a measure for further studies on the formality of online classes. lecture capture corpus f-score: f = (1.132+19.66+6.626+0.12+3.38+10.57-6.56-18.6768.874-4.04+100) / 2 = 51.67 philosophy lc corpus f-score: f = (9.2 + 0.53 + 3.48+ 4.94+ 1.44+ 4.420 3.037.762.6111.348+ 100) / 2 = 54.63 the formality score for philosophy lecture capture is ~55%. this number is slightly higher than the lecture capture. this shows that the subject has a role in the formality of class as well as the course platform. 4.2. sentiment sentiment analysis can be employed as a measure to study how positive or negative the lecturers’ speech actually is. in this measure, the affin wordlist nielsen (2011) was used. the affin wordlist is a list of vocabularies based on positive or negative sentiment of each word. table 5. distribution of words by sentiment in the mooc corpus frequency percent -4 16 .0 -3 804 2.2 -2 5650 15.4 -1 4591 12.5 1 9112 24.9 2 13306 36.3 3 2770 7.6 4 357 1.0 5 2 .0 more than 69 percent of the words used in the mooc classes, in the computer-related subjects, are positive words. the most frequent positive category is +2 and the most frequent nonpositive word category is -2. table 6. distribution of words by sentiment in the lecture capture corpus frequency percent -4 3 .0 -3 131 .3 -2 1705 3.3 -1 6499 12.5 1 6077 11.7 2 12938 24.9 3 19541 37.6 4 4502 8.7 5 637 1.2 a. rahimi, p. khosravizadeh a corpus study on the difference between moocs and real classes 41 in the philosophy lecture capture class, percentage of +3 words is the highest. also the most frequent negative word is -1. table 7. distribution of words by sentiment in the lecture capture corpus frequency percent -4 1 .0 -3 32 .3 -2 901 9.7 -1 1930 20.7 1 972 10.4 2 1909 20.5 3 2675 28.7 4 825 8.8 5 85 .9 the lecture capture is slightly different in terms of category distribution. approximately 50% of the corpus is in the positive category. table 8. distribution of words by sentiment in the all corpora mooc lc philosophy lectures -4 .0 .0 .0 -3 2.2 .3 .3 -2 15.4 3.3 9.7 -1 12.5 12.5 20.7 1 24.9 11.7 10.4 2 36.3 24.9 20.5 3 7.6 37.6 28.7 4 1.0 8.7 8.8 5 .0 1.2 .9 positive 69.8 84.1 69.3 the above table shows that the corpus with the most frequent positive vocabulary, having more than 80% of its words in the positive category, is the lc corpus. the philosophy lc and the mooc classes were more or less the same having ~70%. 4.3. top vocabularies  moocs: going one let okay see two like use get  lc corpus top vocabularies: going like one brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 42 let go right actually see get want  philosophy lc corpus top vocabularies: think say would us life question going things way like in the terms of top vocabulary, difference between mooc and lc is little but the philosophy lc is much more different than the other two. this indicates that choosing frequent vocabularies is under the influence of the subject. 5. results the f score shows the moocs in general, are slightly more formal, and in particular computer-related courses (referred to as mooc corpus), is the most formal among all. sentiment distribution shows that lecture capture is more positive in term of word usage, while mooc in the second place, and philosophy lc in the third, suggest subject might have an impact on the word usage. the top vocabulary list states that, subject heavily influences the frequent words instructors choose, and thus it will not change in real or virtual classes. these data show how and why moocs are different from real classes and how instructors can get the most out of their class time. references belanger, v., thornton, j. (2013). bioelectricity: a quantitative approach. duke university press. brinton, c. g., chiang, m., jain, s., lam, h., liu, z. & wong, f. m. f. (2014). learning about social learning in moocs: from statistical analysis to generative model, ieee transactions on learning technologies, 7(4), pp. 346-359. chen, y. (2014). investigating moocs through blog mining. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(2), pp. 85-106. clow, d. (2013). moocs and the funnel of participation. in proceedings of the third international conference on learning analytics and knowledge. new york, ny, usa: acm. pp. 185-189. daniel, j. (2012). making sense of moocs: musings in a maze of myth, paradox and possibility. journal of interactive media in education. 2012(3). doi: http://doi.org/10.5334/2012-18 dellarocas, c., & van alstyne, m. (2013). money models for moocs. communications of the acm, 56(8), pp. 25-28. downes, s. (2012). connectivism and connective knowledge: essays on meaning and learning networks. retrieved from http://www.downes.ca/files/books/connective_knowledge19may2012.pdf heylighen, f., & dewaele, j. m. (1999). formality of language: definition, measurement and behavioral determinants. internal report, center "leo apostel", free university of brussels. a. rahimi, p. khosravizadeh a corpus study on the difference between moocs and real classes 43 johnson, d., nafukho, f., valentin, m., lecounte, j., & valentin, c. (2014). the origins of moocs: the beginning of the revolution of all at once-ness. in proceedings of 15th international conference on human resource development research and practice across europe. edinburgh, uk: edinburgh napier university business school. jordan, k. (2014). initial trends in enrolment and completion of massive open online courses. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 15(1), 133-160. nielsen, f. (2011). a new anew: evaluation of a word list for sentiment analysis in microblogs. in proceedings of the eswc2011 workshop on ’making sense of microposts’: big things come in small packages. heraklion, crete, greece, may 30, 2011 onah, d. f. o., sinclair, j. and boyatt, r. (2014). dropout rates of massive open online courses: behavioural patterns. in proceedings of the 6th international conference on education and new learning technologies, barcelona, spain, 7-9 jul 2014. pp. 5825-5834. rodriguez, c. o. (2012). moocs and the ai-stanford like courses: two successful and distinct course formats for massive open online courses. european journal of open, distance and elearning, 15(2). wen, m., yang, d. & rose. c. p. (2014). sentiment analysis in mooc discussion forums: what does it tell us? in proceedings of the 7th international conference on educational data mining (edm 2014), pp. 130–137, 2014. yuan, l., & powell, s. (2013). moocs and open education: implications for higher education. centre for educational technology & inoperability standards. retrieved from http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/moocs-and-open-education.pdf. adel rahimi is msc student of computational linguistics at sharif university of technology. his research interests include: machine learning, natural language processing, and computational linguistics. he is currently member of the sharif speech and language processing lab. you can visit the personal website of mr adel rahimi at: http://adelr.ir/ parvaneh khosravizadeh is an assistant professor at sharif university of technology in the field of computational linguistics. her research interests include machine learning, machine translation, discourse analysis, and psycholinguistics. you can see the google academic profile of professor khosravizadeh here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uch_97caaaaj&hl=en microsoft word brain_7_issue_4_version_4.doc 43 the differences between emergentism & skill acquisition theory naeemeh kharaghani department of english, quchan branch, islamic azad university, quchan, iran naeemehkharaghani@gmail.com abstract although both emergentism and skill acquisition theory developed in the same field (cognitive theories) and as an attempt to replace universal grammar-based approaches, there are some differences between these two theories. the differences lie under their different models of knowledge representation and their diverse degree of emphasis on the role of input. in addition, skill acquisition considers the process of learning while emergentism considers input and output, and what goes on in between has not been considered. finally it should be mentioned that these two theories take different views towards the learning process. keywords: emergentism, skill acquisition, cognitive theories. 1. introduction second language acquisition (sla) is an interesting field of study and many theories exist to explain the nature of this phenomenon. one of these theories is the cognitive theory. mitchell& myles (2004) state that cognitive theories could be divided into two main groups in this field of study: processing approaches and emergentist approaches. processing approaches focus on the process of learning and they do not try to explain the nature of knowledge in details (robinson, 2001). however, the emergentist approaches do not think that the separation between knowledge and the process of learning is necessary since general cognitive principles could explain the feature of language knowledge and how it is processed. emergentist approaches consider competence and performance as being the same and in fact no distinction between these two has been made. in this theory, “the learner is seen as operating a complex processing system that deals with linguistic information in similar ways to other kinds of information” (mitchell& myles, 2004, p.120). therefore, this article tries to shed light on the differences between the skill acquisition theory as a processing approach and the emergentist one. but first it tries to make the definition of emergentism clear. which type of emergentism was considered in this paper? emergentism is based on “a general approach to cognition that stresses the interaction between organism and environment and that denies the existence of pre-determined, domain specific faculties or capacities” (gregg, 2003, p.43). in language acquisition, emergentists state “that simple learning mechanisms are sufficient to bring about the emergence of complex language representations “(p.45). in general, emergentism identifies language as a dynamic system whose interacting features could not be reduced to the combination of their components. however, there are two types of emergentism (robinson, 2001). 2. emergentist approaches to language acquisition there are two types of emergentism based on the governing strategy that was adopted (gregg, 2003). on type is based on input. therefore, it is called input-based emergentism (emergentist-connectionist model). the other one considers the role of the processing working memory; however, it does not ignore the contribution of the input to the process of language acquisition. on the other hand, it emphasizes on the frequency of occurrence. in this paper, there was an attempt to differentiate the skill acquisition theory from the emergentism-connectionism model (its strong version). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 2.1. what is the emergentist-connectionist model? this is a theory in the field of cognitive science and its root could also be traced back to neo-behaviorism. the connectionist model tries to elaborate cognition by considering neural networks and their connections. in fact, this view provides a computer system to offer a cognitive modeling. as medler (1998) states “unlike classical systems which use explicit, often logical, rules arranged in an hierarchy to manipulate symbols in a serial manner, however, connectionist systems rely on parallel processing of sub-symbols, using statistical properties instead of logical rules to transform information”(p.62) in this view, mind is composed of different neurons which are classified into different groups with different functions. the first group is called input units which receive the information. the second group is called output units which display the information, and the third group refers to the units between input and output units which is called hidden (processing) units. each unit has an activation level and the units are connected to each other. each connection has its own weight which describes the strength of the connection. here is a simple illustration of a simple neural net: figure1.the representation of neural network in connectionism (garson, 2015, p.2) therefore, connectionism tries to explain the underlying learning mechanism in the process of language learning based on the connections and activation level. however, skill acquisition focuses on the underlying knowledge which makes possible the mastery of skill. 3. what is the skill acquisition model? skill acquisition is a theory in the field of cognitive science. it believes that learning a language is quite similar to learning other skills such as driving a car or playing the piano. this theory mentions that language leaning involves different stages of the cognitive process. as segalowitz (2003) maintains one existing approach to sla, it spots it as a particular form of complex skill acquisition. this theory believes that language learning (like other skills) starts with conscious attention, controlled processing and effort, but through practice it will lead to automaticity (schneider& shiffrin, 1997). for example, when a person wants to learn how to drive a car, he/she needs to pay attention to different points while driving a car; however, that person through practice could automatically drive a car with less attention. in skill acquisition theory, there is a movement from declarative to procedural knowledge. indeed, this theory explains the underlying knowledge which is required to perform a specific skill and the productive skills are the representation of the system which has been internalized (littlewood, 2004). meanwhile, skill acquisition is a theory rooted in cognitive science and neo-behaviorism and even connectionism (dekeyser & criado, 2013) . however, some may be interested in the differences which make skill acquisition and connectionism different. since a clear cut distinction naeemeh kharaghani the differences between emergentism & skill acquisition theory 45 between these two is not an easy task, the author tries to draw on different scholars’ view towards the differences by elaborating on the theory, role of knowledge and significance of input. 4. skill acquisition vs. emergentism considering the underlying assumptions, these two theories fall within different cognitive theories. skill acquisition is considered as a psycholinguistic model. psycholinguistic analyses suggest that language is similar to other cognitive processes. psycholinguistics shows that language skill is the result of earlier language use and it is affected by the learner's practice and experience with the language and the world. anderson (1982 as cited in robinson & ellis, 2008) showed that “this function applies to a wide range of skills including cigar rolling, syllogistic reasoning, book writing, industrial production, reading inverted text and lexical decision” (p.251). on the other hand, emergentism draws both on social-interactionist and nativist theories by focusing mainly both on the role of input and innate mechanisms in the process of language learning. children are born with neurons and brain which make them able to acquire language (hollich, hirsh-pasek, & golinkoff, 2000). hulstijn (2002) draws on another distinction, elaborating on different models of knowledge. symbolic models such as skill acquisition and emergentist connectionist models are different on how they represent knowledge. symbolic models signify knowledge in terms of symbols and rules that establish the relation between these symbols. skill acquisition as a symbolic model represents the knowledge structure as it contains a component of declarative and a component of procedural organization. however, hulstijn (2002) defined emergentist connectionist models as “a type of architecture in which knowledge is represented not only by means of symbols but also in a distributed way, as a pattern of activation in a neural network containing hidden units” (p.121). therefore, these two approaches are different on how they consider knowledge structure. in a similar vein, these two theories took different views towards the role of implicit knowledge. implicit knowledge based on the skill acquisition theory results from automatized explicit knowledge which is usually done through practice (dekeyser, 2003). on the other hand, implicit knowledge in emergentist theories would develop during “meaning-focused communication; aided, perhaps, by some focus on form” (ellis, 1998, p.152). the next difference between these two theories is the role of input. emergentism is based on input. one type of this approach is based on input and it is called input-based emergentism; however, “skill acquisition is believed to be based on out-put and it is mainly concerned with language behaviors” (dekeyser, 2003, p.320). meanwhile, van patten & williams (2007) mentions that dekeyser’s theory does not explain three main points which are as follows: 1. exposure to input is necessary for sl; 2. a good deal of sla happens incidentally and; 3. learners come to know more than what they have been exposed to in the input (p.112). therefore, as it was mentioned, the role of input hasn't been considered in the skill acquisition theory. finally, it could be concluded that skill acquisition does consider the process of learning and “it does not speculate on learners got from "a" to "b" point” (mclaughlin, 1987, p. 154). however, strong versions of emergentism models (connectionism) relate input directly to output and the process of acquisition is not taken into consideration. (vanpatten & williams, 2007). meanwhile, mitchell and myles (2004) mention that the emergentist connectionist model considerably differs from other models as “it does not believe that the learning of rules underlies the construction of linguistic knowledge, but rather that this happens through the associative process” (p.121). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 table1: summary of the differences between emergentism and the skill acquisition theory skill acquisition emergentism it is based on psycholinguistic theory. it is based on social-interactionist and nativist theories. output is important. input is important. knowledge structure is based on symbolic models. knowledge structure is based on symbolic models and patterns of activation. implicit knowledge results from explicit knowledge. implicit knowledge results from meaningfocused communication. the process of learning is important. the process of learning is not important. 5. conclusion in general, as it was indicated, both emergentism and skill acquisition theory developed under the term cognitive theories as a response to ug_ based approaches and nativism. however these two belong to different approaches in cognitive psychology and there are some differences considering their underlying assumptions such as: the role of input, model of knowledge and significance attributed to the process of learning. it could be concluded from the present study that these two theories belong to different approaches in the field of cognitive science and they study language learning from different perspectives. if we consider the role of cognition as a central factor, it could be highlighted that connectionism starts with analyzing the internal processes and relate them directly to their external manipulation (no distinction between competence and performance is made). the role of input and its activation level and strength of connections which is calculated through weight of connections have been highlighted in connectionism. meanwhile, the role of environment is implied to be limited only to the provider of the input. however, the environment’s significance and features are not discussed in details and the lens is focused on the connections and associations. on the other hand, skill acquisition focuses both on nature and nurture (ghaemi, & hassannejad, 2015). in fact, the observed skills are used to visualize the cognitive processes. through analyzing performance, competence and the underlying cognitive processes are studied. therefore, it could be said that these two theories approach cognition and its processes through opposite directions. emergentism starts with input, but skill acquisition starts with skill (output). as a result, depending on the purpose of instruction, each of these theories could be taken by practitioners. if the focus is on the developmental stages of language learning, practice and then the final output, skill acquisition theory would be beneficial to be applied in the context. however, if the focus is on the characteristics of input and input manipulation, emergentism would be the practical underlying theory in the context. references dekeyser, r. (2003). implicit and explicit learning. in c. doughty & m.long, the handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 311-349).oxford: blackwell. dekeyser, r. m., & criado, r. (2013). automatization, skill acquisition, and practice in second language acquisition .in c. a. chapelle (ed.), the encyclopedia of applied linguistics. london: blackwell. ellis, n. (1998). emergentism, connectionism, and language learning. language learning, 48, 631664. garson, j. (2015). "connectionism", the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. retrieved august 2015 from:http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/connectionism. ghaemi, f., & hassannejad, e. (2015). emergentism: a key to language acquisition. international journal of language learning and applied linguistics world, 8, 311-318. gregg, k. (2003). the state of emergentism in second language acquisition. second language research, 19, 42-75. naeemeh kharaghani the differences between emergentism & skill acquisition theory 47 hollich g., hirsh-pasek, k., & golinkoff, r. m. (2000). the emergentist coalition model. monographs of the society for research in child development, 65, 17–24. hulstijn, j. (2002). towards a unified account of the representation, processing and acquisition of second language knowledge. second language research, 18, 193– 223. littlewood,w.(2004).second language learning .in a. davis, & c. elder,the handbook of applied linguistics, (pp.501-555).oxford: blackwell. mclaughlin,b.(1987).theories of second-language learning. new york: arnold medler.da. (1998). a brief history of cnnectionism. neural computing surveys,1,61–101. mitchell, r., & myles, f. (2004). second language learning theories (2nd ed.). new york: oup. robinson, p. (2001). cognition and second language instruction. cambridge: cambridge university press. robinson, p. & ellis, n. (2008). handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition. newyork: routledge schneider, w., & shiffrin, r. (1997). controlled and automatic controlled processing: detection , search and attention. psychological review, 84,1-66. segalowitz, n. (2003). automaticity and second languages. in c.j.doughty & m.h. long (ed.).handbook of second language acquisition, (pp.382-408). malden, m.a: blackwell publishing. vanpatten, b., & williams, j. (2007). theories in second language acquisition. mahweh, nj: lawrence erlbaum microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 118 instructions for authors author guidelines authors must submit their papers via email to brain@edusoft.ro or they can create an account and submit their papers online, at www.brain.edusoft.ro. submited paper must be written in doc format (microsoft word document), as clear and as simple as possible english. preferred maximum paper length for the papers is 20 pages, including figures. the template for the paper is at this address: http://brain.edusoft.ro/new_template_for_brain.doc the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point times new roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. the title will be bold 14-point, and the author will be 12-point italic. figures have caption in bottom-center side, and tables have captions in left-top side. use a tab for identing each paragraph and the subtitles, too. the subtitles will be bold 12-point. please use microsoft word. we encourage the authors to use the camera ready format even for the first submission. all paper submissions will be carefully reviewed by an editor, and by the members of the scientific board or independent experts, who will provide a written feedback with comments and ratings. authors will be notified of acceptance in maximum 3 weeks. accepted manuscripts should be revised according to the comments of the reviewers and of the editors. for questions concerning manuscript submission, contact mr. bogdan patrut by mail at bogdan@edusoft.ro. submission preparation checklist as part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 1. the submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the editor). 2. the submission file is in microsoft word or rtf document file format. 3. where available, urls for the references have been provided. 4. the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 5. the text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the author guidelines, which is found in about the journal. 6. if submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in ensuring a blind review have been followed. ensuring a blind peer review to ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. this involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their v. holotescu, r. vasiu, d. andone a critical analysis of mobile applications for learning. study case: virtual campus app 119 review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: 1. the authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. 2. with microsoft office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under file in word), by clicking on the following, beginning with file on the main menu of the microsoft application: file > save as > tools (or options with a mac) > security > remove personal information from file properties on save > save. 3. with pdfs, the authors' names should also be removed from document properties found under file on adobe acrobat's main menu. copyright notice authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a creative commons attribution license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work privacy statement the names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 120 indexing our journal is currently indexed/listed in the following indexing services and international databases: 1. web of science (index emerging sources citation index) by clarivate analytics (former thomson-reuters, isi) 2. directory of open access journals (doaj) 3. ebsco (ebsco open access computer science, ebsco open access journals, ebsco open access medical and health collection) 4. indexcopernicus 5. the linguist list 6. google academic 7. ulrichs 8. getcited 9. genamics journalseek 10. zeitschriftendatenbank (zdb) 11. j-gate 12. sherpa/romeo 13. dayang journal system 14. public knowledge project 15. bium (bibliothèque interuniversitaire de medecine et d'odontologie) 16. newjour 17. articlereach direct 18. link+ also, some universities and organizations list our journal in their online libraries: 1. geneva foundation for medical education and research 2. base (bielefeld academic search engine) 3. river campus libraries (univ. of rochester) 4. tulips (university of tsukuba library)) 5. showa university library 6. keio university (shinamomachi media center) 7. university of pennsylvania 8. university of modena and reggio emilia 9. tel aviv university, gitter-smolarz library of life sciences and medicine 10. national autonomous university of mexico, genomic sciences center, institute of biotechnology 11. saint petersburg state university 12. university of puerto rico 13. vrije universiteit brussel 14. queensland university of technology 15. university of florida 16. john brown university 17. université paris-descartes 18. university of regensburg 19. michigan state university 20. university of colorado boulder 21. university of glasgow 22. washington university in saint louis 23. wayne state university 24. california state university, long beach 25. brown university, providence, rhode island 26. the university of honk kong 27. university of nevada, reno 28. ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen 29. dowling college, new york state 30. colgate university, new york state v. holotescu, r. vasiu, d. andone a critical analysis of mobile applications for learning. study case: virtual campus app 121 table of contents articles 1. prototyping 3d virtual learning environments with x3d-based content and visualization tools 6 livia stefan (national university of arts, bucharest, romania), sorin hermon (cyprus institute, nicossia, cyprus), marina faka (cyprus institute (cyi), nicossia, cyprus) 2. could neuroenhancement be an ethical approache in social practice? 21 antonio sandu (stefan cel mare university of suceava, romania, university of oradea, romania, lumen research center in social and humanistic sciences, iasi, romania), elena unguru (university of oradea, romania, lumen research center in social & humanistic sciences, iasi, romania) 3. the interplay among efl teachers´ teaching experience, critical thinking, and classroom management 30 maryam zakian (university of science and technology of mazandaran, behshahr, iran) 4. attention as a source of variation in sla 39 naeemeh kharaghani (islamic azad university, quchan, iran) 5. intention reconsideration in wumpus world and intentional inference in adolescents 45 carlos pelta (complutense university of madrid, madrid, spain) 6. success in mobile and ubiquitous learning: indicators of effectiveness 56 billy t.m. wong (the open university of hong kong, hong kong sar, china) 7. the impact of teaching critical thinking on iranian students’ writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions 64 ali taghinezhad (islamic azad university, shiraz, iran), mohammad javad riasati (islamic azad university, shiraz, iran), ehsan rassaei (islamic azad university, shiraz, iran), fatemeh behjat (islamic azad university, abadeh, iran) 8. how moocs support collaborative and conflict management in schools 81 fahriye altınay (near east university nicosia, northern cyprus), gokmen dagli (near east university, nicosia, northern cyprus & university of kyrenia, northern cyprus), zehra altınay (near east university nicosia, northern cyprus) 9. the level of proficiency of special education teachers and their opinions on instructional technologies 86 huseyin bicen (near east university, distance learning center, nicosia, northern cyprus), erkan bal (near east university, distance learning center, nicosia, northern cyprus), pelin gür (near east university, distance learning center, nicosia, northern cyprus), zöhre serttaş (near east university, distance learning center, nicosia, northern cyprus) 10.assessment of the contributions and psychological damages of technology to the education at schools by the individuals in these schools 93 behcet öznacar (near east university nicosia, northern cyprus) 11. towards a mooc-related strategy in romania 99 carmen holotescu (“ioan slavici” university of timisoara, romania), gabriela grosseck (west university of timisoara, romania) 12. a critical analysis of mobile applications for learning. study case: virtual campus app 110 victor holotescu (university politehnica of timisoara, romania), radu vasiu (university politehnica of timisoara, romania), diana andone (university politehnica of timisoara, romania) instructions for authors 118 microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1 74 measuring customer behavior with deep convolutional neural networks veaceslav albu institute of mathematics and computer science, 5 academiei, chisinau, republic of moldova, md 2028 vaalbu@googlemail.com abstract in this paper we propose a neural network model for human emotion and gesture classification. we demonstrate that the proposed architecture represents an effective tool for realtime processing of customer's behavior for distributed on-land systems, such as information kiosks, automated cashiers and atms. the proposed approach combines most recent biometric techniques with the neural network approach for real-time emotion and behavioral analysis. in the series of experiments, emotions of human subjects were recorded, recognized, and analyzed to give statistical feedback of the overall emotions of a number of targets within a certain time frame. the result of the study allows automatic tracking of user’s behavior based on a limited set of observations. keywords: deep neural networks, computer vision, emotion classification, gesture classification 1. introduction recognition of human behavior can be most efficiently achieved by visually detecting facial features and specific body movements, such as gestures. using computer vision and machine learning algorithms for processing these features, recorded by infrared cameras, we can classify emotional states and behavioral patterns of multiple targets. the aim of this paper is to provide statistical observations and measurements of human behavior during the standard interaction with a user interface of a commonly used software. for academic purposes, we have chosen a very limited number of emotional states and behavioral patterns by studying only type of such standard interaction: the interaction of a user with typical atm equipment, since it provides us with very distinctive patterns of ‘typical’ and ‘non-typical’ behavior and facial expressions. during this study, we observed the behavior of human subjects during standard interaction with the atm versus nonstandard interaction. automated analysis of these behaviors with the machine learning techniques allowed us to train a complex convolutional neural network (cnn) to classify behavior of a user by classification both body movements and facial features. such a feedback can provide important measures for user response to an interaction with any chosen system with a limited number of gestures involved. we use infrared cameras to automatically detect features and the movements of the limbs in order to classify user behavior into typical or untypical for the kind of task he is performing. we restrict ourselves to only one type of interaction; however, this kind of classification task is very useful in the number of applications, where the number of gestures of the human is limited, such as: • customers at the various types of automated machines. for this category of users, the algorithm can be used for detection of unusual/fraudulent behavior to decrease the workload of the closed-circuit television (cctv), or video surveillance, operators who monitor users of these machines: o customer at the atm machine; o customer at the ticket machine in the underground; o customer at the automated cashier in the countries, where such payment type is widely used; • drivers. for this category of users, the algorithm can be used for detection of dangerous actions and preventing the unwanted consequences, such as sleeping, loss of attention etc.: o train driver in the train line/underground; o track driver; o automobile driver; v. albu measuring customer behavior with deep convolutional neural networks 75 • workers. here, we could classify correct vs. incorrect actions, identify such unwanted stated as loss of attention, sickness, tiredness etc. o assembly line workers; o construction workers (e.g. on high buildings, underground, mines). the aim of current paper is to analyze the person's actions during the interaction with a user interface and implement the algorithm, which will be able to classify the human behavior (normal vs. abnormal) in real time (perez-sala et al., 2014). the processing of facial features with infrared cameras for academic and industrial purposes is rapidly developing: it is used in gaming system domain (maccormick, 2013; vera et al., 2011), as well as in the security systems 1 . in this study, we also use infrared cameras, imbedded in the kinect microsoft system, however the usage of other types of infrared cameras is also possible. the output from the infrared camera (point cloud) is used as an input to the neural network architecture, which classify the user’s behavior based on his gestures and facial expressions. user’s movements are classified into two categories (typical and non-typical), whereas facial expressions are classified into six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise (erkman & friesen, 1978). to solve the problem of emotion and gesture recognition, we use convolutional neural networks (cnn), which proved to be extremely effective for classification of the large amount of data. despite the similarity between artificial neural network and convolutional neural network, cnn is more effective because it uses alteration of convolutional and subsampling layers. the contribution of the current study is mainly in the application of the algorithms: we combine the particular type of nns with the infrared input for recognition and classification of facial features and body movements. as far as we aware, this type of application has not been mentioned in the literature so far. 2. background 2.1. literature review the type of the convolutional network, described in this study, was first proposed by fukushima in the theoretical model, called “neocognitron” (fukushima, 1980). one of the earliest representatives of this class of models, neocognitron is a hierarchical network in which feature complexity and translation invariance were alternately increased in different layers of simple and complex cells. the recognition occurred in different levels of processing hierarchy by a template match, and a pooling operation over units tuned to the same feature but at different positions. starting with the neocognitron for translation-invariant object recognition, several hierarchical models, employing pooling mechanisms and convolutional layers, have been proposed. the concept of pooling of units tuned to transformed versions of the same object or feature was subsequently proposed by perrett and oram (perrett & oram, 1993). they proposed a scheme, which provides 3d object recognition through 2d shape description. this scheme involves viewer-centred description of objects. shape components were used as features for object comparison. first, these components were used to activate representations of the approximate appearance of one object type at one view, orientation and size. the invariance was achieved through a series of independent analyses with a subsequent pooling of results, which are performed at each pooling stage. therefore, the system performed parallel processing with computations performed in a series of hierarchical steps. in 1997 similar type of neural network was proposed by logothetis et al (logothetis et al., 1994). they constructed a regularization rbf network for 3d object recognition, based on radialbasis functions (rbfs). this model had a continuation, proposed by riesenhuber and poggio, widely known as hmax model. the structure of hmax model is similar to fukushima’s neocognitron with its feature complexity-increasing simple-cell (s) layers and invariance-increasing complex cell (c) layers (riesenhuber & poggio, 1999; riesenhuber & poggio, 2000). hmax uses another type of pooling mechanism, which is called max operation. this mechanism allows to 1 aurora face recognition system http://www.facerec.com/deep-learning/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 76 increase invariance in the complex cell layers. it uses the following principle: the most strongly activated afferent of the c-cell determines the response of the pooling unit, providing the ability to isolate essential feature from background and thus build feature detectors invariant to scale and translation changes. more complex features in higher levels of hmax are built from simpler features. the tolerance to deformations in their local arrangement is achieved by the invariance properties of the lower level units. from the point of view of biological plausibility, visual areas of the primate cortex in this model are considered as a number of modules (v1-v4, it, pfc), modelled as a hierarchy of increasingly sophisticated representations, naturally extending the model of simple to complex cells of hubel and wiesel (hubel & wiesel, 1962). an important breakthrough of cnns came with the widespread use of the backpropagation learning algorithm for multi-layer feed-forward nns. lecun et al. (lecun et al., 1998) presented the first cnn that was trained by backpropagation and applied it to the problem of handwritten digit recognition. the term convolutional neural network refers to nn models that are similar to the one proposed by lecun et al., which is actually a simpler model than the neocognitron and its extensions, mentioned above. since 2012, when deep neural network first demonstrated their performance, they were used in a large number of applications for computer vision. alex krizhevsky et al. trained a large, deep convolutional neural network to classify the 1.2 million high-resolution images in the imagenet lsvrc-2010 contest into the 1000 different 1000 different classes (krizhevsky, sutskever, & hinton, 2012). on the test data, they achieved extremely small error rates, which were considerably better than the previous state-of-the-art. the proposed neural network had 60 million parameters and 650,000 neurons, consisted of five convolutional layers, some of which are followed by maxpooling layers, and three fully-connected layers with a final 1000-way softmax. the softmax function, or normalized exponential, is a generalization of the logistic function that converts a kdimensional vector z of arbitrary real values to a k-dimensional vector sigma(z) of real values in the range (0, 1) that add up to 1. in neural network simulations, the softmax function is often implemented at the final layer of a network used for classification. 2.2. related work recently, the field of applications of deep learning for sensor and infrared cameras processing is rapidly evolving. recently, similar algorithm was applied for night vision systems in vehicles (wang et al., 2016). in that study, vehicle candidates for classification are detected from the infrared frame, contours are generated by using a local adaptive threshold based on maximum distance. the obtained vehicle candidates are verified using a deep belief network (dbn) based classifier. also deep neural networks were recently applied for detection of faces in airports for robust feature recognition 2 . the system recognizes faces and compares them with the database of passengers. it is implemented in heathrow and manchester airports. 3. methodology 3.1. model architecture a deep neural network (dnn) is an artificial neural network (nn) with multiple hidden layers of units between the input and output layers. similar to shallow anns, dnns can model complex non-linear relationships. dnn architectures, e.g., for object detection and parsing generate compositional models where the object is expressed as a layered composition of image primitives (lecun et al., 1989). the extra layers enable composition of features from lower layers, giving the potential of modeling complex data with fewer units than a similarly performing shallow network. 2 aurora face recognition system http://www.facerec.com/deep-learning/ v. albu measuring customer behavior with deep convolutional neural networks 77 figure 1. cnn architecture (adopted from krizhevsky et al. ’12) the architecture of a cnn can be described as following. a small pixel region goes to input neurons and then connects to a first convolution hidden layer (figure1). there we can see a set of learnable filters, which are activated during the presentation some particular type of feature in pixel region in the input. on this phase, cnn does shift invariance, which is carried by feature map. subsampling layer goes next. there we have two processes: local averaging and sampling. as a result, we get declining resolution of feature map. to correspond this task cnn needs supervised learning. before starting the experiment, we gave a set of labeled videos with different emotional experience. the system analyses images and finds similar features. then the system creates a map, where it arranges videos in accordance with similar features. thereby, images with similar emotions form certain class. to test the system, we add other videos and correct the system when it refers them improperly. the proposed model consists of four convolutional layers, followed by max-pooling layers, and three fully-connected layers with a final classificatory presented with mlp (with six basic outputs, corresponding to basic emotions for emotion classification and two outputs for motion classification for typical and non-typical behavior). the input data was presented as infrared camera output. 3.2. model implementation and training the computations were performed on python, using theano cnn library. theano is a python library that allows defining, optimizing, and evaluating mathematical expressions involving multi-dimensional arrays efficiently (bastien et al., 2012). the model was trained with the trained data and model evaluation was performed on the test data with the the k-fold cross-validation (for details, see next subsection). the computations were performed on the amazon ec2 machine 3 . 3.3. model evaluation the validation of the neural network model was performed with the leave one out cross validation (loocv) technique. the use of loocv was essential for appropriate estimation of optimal level of regularization and parameters (connection weights) of neural network obtained (1). cross-validation is a model validation technique for assessing how the results of a statistical analysis will generalize to an independent data set. loocv is a particular case of leave-p-out crossvalidation. leave-p-out cross-validation (lpocv) involves using p observations as the validation set and the remaining observations as the training set. this is repeated on all ways to cut the original sample on a validation set of p observations and a training set. lpo cross-validation requires to learn and validate c n p times (where n is the number of observations in the original sample). in leave-one-out cross-validation we assume p = 1. however, for our purpose loocv appeared to be relatively slow. therefore, the validation of the cnn network results was performed with the k-fold cross-validation technique (golub & van loan, 1996). in k-fold cross-validation, the original sample 3 https://portal.aws.amazon.com brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 78 is randomly partitioned into k equal sized subsamples. of the k subsamples, a single subsample is retained as the validation data for testing the model, and the remaining k − 1 subsamples are used as training data. the cross-validation process is then repeated k times (the folds), with each of the k subsamples used exactly once as the validation data. the k results from the folds can then be averaged (or otherwise combined) to produce a single estimation. the advantage of this method over repeated random sub-sampling (see below) is that all observations are used for both training and validation, and each observation is used for validation exactly once. 10-fold cross-validation is commonly used, but in general k remains an unfixed parameter. when k=n (the number of observations), the k-fold cross-validation is exactly the leave-one-out cross-validation. 4. results and discussion 4.1. infrared input processing in this study, we used one of the approaches to recognition of gestures is body tracking: classification of the body movements. one of the classification techniques for this method is pattern recognition: i.e. special video/infrared camera recognizes human actions: waving, jumping, hand gestures etc. among the first successful representatives of this technology are kinect from microsoft (maccormick, 2013). the kinect uses structured light and machine learning as follows: • the depth map is constructed by analyzing a speckle pattern of infrared laser light. • body parts are inferred using a randomized decision forest, learned from over 1 million training examples. • starts with 100,000 depth images with known skeletons (from a motion capture system). • transforms depth image to body part image. • transforms the body part image into a skeleton. 4.2. psychological experiments we conducted a series of experiments in order to evaluate how effectively the proposed system can detect normal vs. abnormal behavior of customer during interaction with atm. for the purposes of experiment, we developed an atm simulation software that was used in the stand-alone terminal. during the interaction session, body movements of users and facial expressions were recorded by a camera, mounted on the top of the terminal. these records were later evaluated by human observers; and behavior, displayed on these records, was classified as typical or non-typical. in order to preserve the uniformity of the data, we showed the videos on the same equipment which were used during the atm experiment session. thirty healthy subjects, age 21-37, with normal or corrected-to-normal vision, participated in the experiment. simultaneously, the data from two series of experiments was processed with an infrared camera and used as an input to the cnn algorithm. each subject performed 10 sessions with the atm-simulation software and 5 video session. during each session, the recognition of the upper-body movements (in the range of the camera, mounted on the top of the typical atm machine) was performed together with facial features classification and recognition. among thirty subjects, we used 22 as examples of ‘normal’ behavior and 8 as examples of ‘abnormal’ behavior. 4.3. comparison to related work the field of application of dnn to sensor input recognition is relatively new, but rapidly developing. a large number of studies exist, but to our knowledge, this particular application has not been studies so far. among similar works, we can mention our previous works, in which we have applies rbfn-som model to the same problem (veaceslav & cojocaru, 2015; veaceslav, 2016). in comparison to this type of architecture, we have managed to achieve a better accuracy (1,5 – 2%), but the computational costs of application of dnns is much higher. 4.3. results in this study, we developed a nn model for recognition of body movements on two types (typical and non-typical) and facial expression accuracy (of 18% and 38% error rate, respectively). these results are achieved independently and combined afterwards with a simple classification v. albu measuring customer behavior with deep convolutional neural networks 79 algorithm. to improve system’s results, the proposed model requires a large amount of training data, which we cannot be easily obtained. therefore, the natural continuation of current research would be conducting further field tests to obtain more training data and improve performance. references perez-sala, x., escalera, s., angulo, c., & gonzalez, j. (2014). survey on model based approaches for 2d and 3d visual human pose recovery. sensors, vol. 14, pp. 4189-4210. maccormick, j. (2013). how does kinect work. john maccormick, “how does the kinect work?” retrieved from http://users.dickinson.edu/~jmac/selected-talks/kinect.pdf. vera, l., gimeno, j., coma, i., & ferńandez, m. (2011). augmented mirror: interactive augmented reality system based on kinect,” human-computer interaction–interact 2011, pp. 483– 486, 2011. aurora face recognition system http://www.facerec.com/deep-learning/ erkman, p. & friesen, w. (1978). facial action coding system: a technique for the measurement of facial movement. consulting psychologists press, palo alto, 1978. fukushima, k. (1980). neocognitron: a self-organizing neural network model for mechanism pattern recognition unaffected by shift in position, biological cybernetics, 36(4):193-202. perrett, d. i., & oram, m. w. (1993). neurophysiology of shape processing. image and vison computing, 11(6), 317-333. riesenhuber, m. & poggio, t. (1999). hierarchical models of object recognition in cortex. nature neuroscience 2:1019–1025. riesenhuber, m. & poggio, t. (2000). models of object recognition. nature neuroscience 3(supp.): 1199-1204. hubel, d. & wiesel, t. (1962). receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat’s visual cortex, journal of physiology, 160(1): 106–154.2. lecun, y.a., bottou, l., orr, g.b. & müller, k.r. (1998). efficient backprop, neural networks: tricks of the trade, pp. 9-48. krizhevsky, a., sutskever, i., & hinton, g. (2012.) imagenet classification with deep convolutional neural networks. proc. neural information and processing systems. available at http://papers.nips.cc/paper/4824-imagenet-classification-with-deep-convolutional-neuralnetworks.pdf lecun, y., boser, b., denker, j.s., henderson, d., howard, r.e., hubbard, w., & jackel, l.d. (1989) backpropagation applied to handwritten zip code recognition, neural computation, vol. 1, pp. ,541-551. bastien, f., lamblin, p., pascanu, r., bergstra, j., goodfellow, i., bergeron, a., bouchard, n., warde-farley, d., & bengio, y. (2012). “theano: new features and speed improvements”. nips 2012 deep learning workshop. golub, g.h. & van loan, c.g. (1996). matrix computations (3 ed.) ithaka, ny, p. 784. wang, h., cai, y., chen, x., & chen, l. (2016). night-time vehicle sensing in far infrared image with deep learning, journal of sensors, v.2016, p. 8. veaceslav, a. & cojocaru, s. (2015). measuring human emotions with modular neural networks and computer vision based applications. computer science journal of moldova, vol.23, no.1(67), pp. 40-61. veaceslav, a. (2016). measuring human emotions with modular neural networks. the proceedings of the 7th international multi-conference on complexity, informatics and cybernetics: imcic 2016, march 8 11, 2016, orlando, florida, usa. logothetis, n., bricolo, e., poggio, t. (1994). 3d object recognition: a model of view-tuned neurons. retrieved from http://papers.nips.cc/paper/1296-3d-object-recognition-a-model-ofview-tuned-neurons.pdf microsoft word brain_vol8_issue4_2017_final.doc 5 symptomatic decision support system for neurological disorders nitin balaji bilgi professor, department of computer science, maratha mandal engineering college, belgaum karnataka, india tel: +91 9448420899 nbbbgm@gmail.com gurusidheshwar m. wali practicing neurologist, belgaum karnataka, india akashta mense priyanka takkekar bhagyashri yaddi sudarshan patil students of department of computer science & engineering, mmec, belgaum-591113, india abstract symptomatic decision support system for neurological disorders is a web-based decision support system for diagnosis of neurologic disorders. this system uses web based decision support system by encoding rules of the neurology domain and also by developing a framework to learn from the cases of the patients. this knowledge encoding is essentially the implementation of two artificial reasoning techniques called case-based reasoning and rule-based reasoning. the system will collect rules of the neurology domain expert and also the case history of the patients. the system will use the rules and cases to achieve the objective of assisting the decision-making process for the domain experts. decision support system will give the patient a symptomatic diagnostic conclusion. the system will provide case study of patients and also will display results in form of graphs. keywords: decision support system, neurological disorders, neurology 1. introduction the scientific name homo-sapiens (latin: "wise man") is because of our mental capacities which are so important to our everyday lives. the field of artificial intelligence (ai) attempts to understand these capacities, better known as intelligent entities. ai, being a broad topic, combines computer science, physiology and philosophy. one of the large-scale applications of the field of ai is the development of decision support system. a decision support system is a knowledge-based computer program containing knowledge of human decision in a particular domain. in this research work, we intend to develop a hybrid decision system which integrates rule-based reasoning and case-based reasoning techniques (adhikari et. al.; 2015). a rule-based system is used when the problem area is narrow and also for well-understood domain theory. to overcome these limitations, the case-based reasoning technique is also integrated. this solves new problems based also on the solutions of similar past problems rather than merely using rules. this system is extensively used in the various fields of medicine, especially for medical diagnosis purpose. some of these systems are already implemented to help in the diagnostics process related to blood infections, heart problems and kidney disorders. we intend to implement this system in the domain of neurology (adhikari et. al.; 2015). neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 6 effectors tissue, such as muscle. physicians who specialize in neurology are called neurologists, and are trained to investigate or diagnose and treat neurological disorders (adhikari et. al.; 2015). computer aided tools are extensively used in the medical field these days. these tools possess a property of quick and accurate result, but require long learning processes and can be supported with decision support systems, which are not readily available in small hospitals and rural areas. the use of decision support system can fulfill requirements of fast decision making for neurologists. hence, the purpose is to develop a symptomatic decision support system as a flexible diagnostic support system (logeswaran et.al.; 2015). in the medical domain, the knowledge of experts does not only consist of rules, but a mixture of textbook knowledge and experience. the latter consists of cases, typical and exceptional ones, and the reasoning of physicians takes them into account. in medical knowledge based systems there are two sorts of knowledge, objective knowledge, which can be found in textbooks, and subjective knowledge, which is limited in space and time and which changes frequently (schmidt, gierl; 2012). symptomatic decision support system for neurological disorders is a web-based decision support system for the diagnosis of neurologic disorders. this system uses web based decision support system by encoding rules in the neurology domain. this system essentially has implementation of two artificial reasoning techniques called cbr (case-based reasoning and rbr (rule-based reasoning). the system will collect rules of the neurology domain expert and cases of the patients. it will provide the patient with a diagnosis, and will provide them with the case study of related patients, which will be displayed in graphical form. 1.1. artificial intelligence the tools of artificial intelligence (ai) can be divided into two broad types: knowledgebased systems (kbss) and computational intelligence (ci). kbss use explicit representations of knowledge in the form of words and symbols. this explicit representation makes the knowledge more easily read and understood by a human than the numerically derived implicit models in computational intelligence (josefiok et. al., 2015). 1.2. neurology domain neurological disorders are disorders that can affect the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), the peripheral nervous system, or the autonomic nervous system (adhikari et. al.; 2015). the following are the disorders which are considered for the research work:  parkinson  epilepsy  stroke 2. knowledge-based systems knowledge-based system is an artificial intelligence technique used to store complex information regarding a problem. the component of an expert system that contains the system knowledge organized in a collection of facts about the system domain. there are two reasoning methodologies which are followed for extracting data stored, they are:  rule based reasoning  case-based reasoning 2.1. rule-based reasoning rule-based systems have been around for quite some time now without breaking into mainstream computing. these systems represent the rules in the form of simple if–then blocks and n.b. bilgi, g.m. wali, akashta mense, priyanka takkekar, bhagyashri yaddi, sudarshan patil symptomatic decision support system for neurological disorders 7 the collections of facts and are controlled by an inference engine. in this research work, a rule is represented in form of decision chart (berk, 1985). the idea of rule-based systems is to represent a domain expert’s knowledge in a form called rules. in a typical rule-based expert system, a rule consists of several premises and a conclusion. if all the premises are true, then the conclusion is considered true. the components of a rule-based expert system include the knowledge-base, inference-engine, knowledge acquisition component, and explanation system as illustrated in below fig no. 1. figure 1. rule based system cycle knowledge-base: a declarative representation of the expertise, often in if then rules. inference engine: the code at the core of the system, which derives recommendations from the knowledge base and problem-specific data in working storage. knowledge acquisition: new rules can be added to the knowledge-base by using the knowledge acquisition sub-system. explanation sub-system: is its ability to explain its advice or recommendations, and even to justify why a certain action was recommended. knowledge-base is represented in a computer in the form of rules, consisting of a if and then part. if part lists a set of conditions in some logical combinations. if the if part of the rule is satisfied, the then part can be concluded (bilgi, kulkarni; 2008). an inference engine tries to derive answers from the knowledge base. it is the brain of the expert system which provides a methodology for reasoning about the information in the knowledge-base, and for formulating conclusion (bilgi, kulkarni; 2008). two people are involved in this system:  knowledge engineer: a knowledge engineer is a computer scientist who knows how to design and implement programs that incorporates ai techniques.  domain expert: a domain expert is an individual who has significant expertise in the domain. 2.2. inference in rule-based systems two control strategies: forward chaining and backward chaining (leake, 1996). example of inference engine: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 8 figure 2. rule diagram 2.3. forward chaining forward chaining works from the facts toward a conclusion, sometimes called the datadriven approach. to chain forward, match data in working memory against 'conditions' of rules in the rule-base. when one of them fires, this is liable to produce more data, so the cycle continues (schmidt, gierl; 2012). process of moving from the “if” patterns to the “then “patterns and whenever an “if” pattern is observed to match an assertion: the antecedent is satisfied whenever the entire “if” patterns of a rule are satisfied ---> the rule is triggered; a triggered rule establishes a new assertion ---> it is fired. forward chaining is the data-driven reasoning. the reasoning starts from the known data and proceeds forward with that data. each time, only the topmost rule is executed. when fired, the rule adds a new fact in the database. any rule can be executed only once. the match-fire cycle stops when no further rules can be fired. figure 3. forward chaining cycle  forward chaining is a technique for gathering information and then inferring from it whatever can be inferred.  however, in forward chaining, many rules may be executed that have nothing to do with the established goal.  therefore, if our goal is to infer only one particular fact, the forward chaining inference technique would not be efficient. 2.4. backward chaining backward chaining is the goal-driven reasoning. in backward chaining, an expert system has the goal (a hypothetical solution) and the inference engine attempts to find the evidence to prove it. first, the knowledge-base is searched to find rules that might have the desired solution. such rules must have the goal in their then (action) parts. if such a rule is found and its if n.b. bilgi, g.m. wali, akashta mense, priyanka takkekar, bhagyashri yaddi, sudarshan patil symptomatic decision support system for neurological disorders 9 (condition) part matches data in the database, then the rule is fired and the goal is proved. however, this is rarely the case (schmidt, gierl; 2012, leake; 1996). thus the inference engine puts aside the rule it is working with (the rule is said to stack) and sets up a new goal, a sub goal, to prove the if part of this rule. then the knowledge base is searched again for rules that can prove the sub goal. the inference engine repeats the process of stacking the rules until no rules are found in the knowledge base to prove the current sub goal. figure 4. backward chaining cycle backward chaining works the other way around:  keeps a list of yet unsatisfied atoms q starting with the query atom.  tries to find rules which head match atoms in q (after unification) and replaces the atom from q by the atoms of the body of the matching rule.  proceed recursively until no more atoms have to be satisfied.  backward chaining keeps track of the substitution needed during the proof. 2.5. case-based reasoning case-based reasoning (cbr) has become a successful technique for knowledge-based systems in many domains, while in medical domains some more problems arise to use this method. we are going to discuss the appropriateness of cbr for medical knowledge-based systems, point out problems, limitations and possibilities how they can be partly overcome (schmidt, gierl; 2012). case-based reasoning means to use previous experience in form of cases to understand and solve new problems. a case-based reasoner remembers former cases similar to the current problem and attempts to modify their solutions to fit the current case (fig no.5 shows the case-based reasoning cycle (robert & chi, 1991). the underlying idea is the assumption that similar problems have similar solutions. though this assumption is not always true, it holds for many practical domains. cbr consists of two main tasks (robert & chi, 1991; spyropoulos, papagounos, 1995): the first is the retrieval, which is the search for or the calculation of most similar cases. if the case base is rather small, a sequential calculation is possible, otherwise faster non-sequential indexing (spyropoulos, papagounos, 1995; spyropoulos, parvantonis, 1996a) or classification algorithms (e.g. id3 (spyropoulos et. al., 1996b) or nearest neighbor match (spyropoulos & papagounos, 1997)) should be applied. for this task much research has been undertaken in the recent years and actually it has become correspondingly easy to find sophisticated cbr retrieval algorithms adequate for nearly every sort of application problem. the second task, the adaptation (reuse and revision) means a modification of solutions of former similar cases to fit for a current one. if there are no important differences between a current and a similar case, a simple solution transfer is sufficient. sometimes only few substitutions are required, but sometimes the adaptation is a very complicated process. so far, no general adaptation brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 10 methods or algorithms have been developed; the adaptation is still absolutely domain dependent (schmidt, gierl; 2012). figure 5. case-based reasoning cycle the problem of updating the changeable subjective knowledge can partly be solved by incrementally incorporating new up-to-date cases. both sorts of knowledge can clearly separate: objective textbook knowledge can be represented in forms of rules or functions, while subjective knowledge is contained in cases. so, the arguments for case-oriented methods are as follows:  reasoning with cases corresponds with the decision-making process of physicians.  incorporating new cases means automatically updating parts of the changeable knowledge.  objective and subjective knowledge can be clearly separated.  as cases are routinely stored, integration into clinic communication systems is easy. 3. literature survey the proposed system symptomatic decision support system is a system developed mainly to help medical practitioners to detect neurological disorders at an early stage. this is performed by using simple query and answer session. the system will query for the symptoms and, on the basis of algorithm, will apply inference procedure on answers of queries, the output resulting as a possible disease diagnosis with accuracy. the proposed system is able to diagnose neurological disorders like epilepsy, stroke disease, parkinson’s disease. a literature survey of related papers was conducted and following are some of papers which are reviewed. n.b. bilgi, g.m. wali, akashta mense, priyanka takkekar, bhagyashri yaddi, sudarshan patil symptomatic decision support system for neurological disorders 11 badri adhikari, md. hasan ansari, priti shrestha and susma pant propose a ‘neurology diagnosis system’ which is a web-based expert system. the system will use the rules and cases to achieve the objective of assisting the decision-making process of the domain experts. the architectural goal is to improve rule-based reasoning by augmenting it with case-based reasoning. the idea is to fine-tune the performance of the rules. another advantage is that if the case-based reasoning misses a similar case, the architecture will, at least, have a reasonable default answer generated by the rule-based system (adhikari et. al.; 2015). rainer schmidt, lothar gierl has attempted to apply the complete cbr cycle in rather exceptional way. some systems have recently been developed, which, on the one hand, use only parts of the cbr method, mainly the retrieval, and, on the other hand, enrich the method by a generalization step to fill the knowledge gap between the specificity of single cases and general rules (schmidt, gierl; 2012). atul krishan sharma, stuti gupta have proposed a system which is a rule based expert system allowing non-experts to detect the nervous system disorders at an early stage. the system consists of a knowledge-base with some facts, and of developing a framework to learn from the cases of the patients. this knowledge encoding basis of facts is updated with the medical practitioner filling in the symptoms as input. the system by applying inference procedures will return the output as results (bilgi, kulkarni; 2008). dr. d.k. sreekantha, t.m. girish and dr. r.v. kulkarni have developed an innovative it based solution system to help doctors in rural areas to gain expertise in neuro-science and treat patients like expert neurologist. the present work comprises an exhaustive survey of relevant literature of most relevant articles on soft computing techniques applied in neuro-science. this literature survey reveals that many researchers have applied soft computing techniques to neurology problems. this survey would help us to understand the difficulties and limitations of such tools/software in an indian context (sharma & gupta, 2014). mirco josefiok, oliver norkus and j¨urgen sauer have observed that dss consist of three basic components: a data-management component, a knowledge-base and a user interface. in case of web-based dss, they can be probably deployed on individual servers. dss are very close to database management systems (dbms) and are often built on top of a dbms (sreekantha et. al., 2015). from all the surveys above we come to the conclusion that there is basically a great need for the decision support system for neurology. the proposed system i.e. symptomatic decision support system is a system developed mainly to help medical practitioners to detect neurological disorder at an early stage. this is performed by using simple query and answer session. the system will query for the symptoms and on the basis of algorithm will apply inference procedure on answers of queries the output resulting as a possible disease diagnosis with accuracy. the proposed system is able to diagnose neurological disorders like epilepsy, stroke, and parkinson’s disease. 4. implementation there are lots of web-based applications which utilize (xampp server, mysql and php). the software stack which is open source is easy to use and also reliable and reasonable in performance, we are using xampp server set up on our server side. 4.1. php module this is basically used for data linking in this system and it is used for linking sign up/login form. the question form is used for checking the ticking of check box. this same mechanism is used for other two diseases. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 12 4.2. database module in this module the data of the patients is stored for the disease which is selected by them. the analysis is displayed, a case study is performed and three types of graphs are displayed i.e. pie chart, bar chart and the symptoms graph for case study. this mechanism is the same for other two diseases also.  pi-chart module pi-chart is a php library that will help to create anti-aliased charts or pictures directly from web server. pie chart is a circular statistical graphic which is divided into slices to illustrate numeric proportions; it displays the entered patient’s data in form of percentage. it also displays the parkinson and non-parkinson patients in form of percentage.  bar chart bar chart is vertical and horizontal presentation of data it shows the number of parkinson and non-parkinson patients horizontally.  symptoms graph symptoms graph i.e. line graph which will show the symptoms of the patients i.e. the mostly ticked symptom in checkbox. 5. result figure 6. home page n.b. bilgi, g.m. wali, akashta mense, priyanka takkekar, bhagyashri yaddi, sudarshan patil symptomatic decision support system for neurological disorders 13 figure 7. decision support system figure 8. when patient ticks the checkbox brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 14 figure 9. bar graph of parkinson patient’s data figure 10. pie chart of parkinson patient’s data figure 11. parkinson symptoms line graph 6. conclusion / future work in this paper named “symptomatic decision support system for neurological disorders” we have implemented our proposed system and tried to make the neurology analysis easier for both doctors and patients. this would help doctors to easily put a diagnosis without any paper work. the user can save money and time by using this system. n.b. bilgi, g.m. wali, akashta mense, priyanka takkekar, bhagyashri yaddi, sudarshan patil symptomatic decision support system for neurological disorders 15 this research work can be further extended with additions of more neurological diseases and the related symptoms. the system can be further modified and improved as per the doctors and patients’ needs. more tools like chat application can be implemented so that the patient can communicate directly with the doctor, as it will reduce time and will help the patient to know treatment options early. 7. references adhikari, b. et. al. (2015). presentation, http://slideplayer.com/slide/4849984/ berk, a. a. (1985). the language of artificial intelligence, van nostrand reinhold, 1-25 bharathi, p., gowthami, m., & logeswaran, c. (2015). brain tumor detection using hybrid techniques and support vector machine, international journal of advanced research in computer science and software engineering 5(5), may, 2015, 248-255 blaha, m., rumbaugh, j. (2005). object–oriented modeling and design with uml, 2nd edition, pearson educaton bilgi, n. b., & kulkarni, r. v. (2008). an investigative survey of application of knowledge based system in legal domain, international journal of information technology and knowledge management, issn no 0973-4414, 517-525 josefiok, m., norkus, o., & sauer, j. (2015). an approach for a web-based diagnosis cockpit for the field of neurology, web 2015 : the third international conference on building and exploring web based environments leake, d.b. (1996). case-based reasoning: experiences, lessons, and future direction, aaai press/ mit press robert, t.h., & chi, m. y. (1991). an integrated approach of rule-based and case-based reasoning for decision support, csc '91 proceedings of the 19th annual conference on computer science pages, acm, 255-267 schmidt, r., & gierl, l. (2012). case-based reasoning for medical knowledge-based systems, series: studies in health technology and informatics. vol. 77: medical infobahn for europe, 720-725 sharma, a. k., & gupta, s. (2014). neurological disorder diagnosis system, international journal in applied science and engineering technology (ijraset), vol. 2 issue 5, issn: 23219653, 296-301 sreekantha, d. k., girish, t. m., & kulkarni, r.v. (2015). knowledgebase systems in neuroscience a study, international journal on soft computing, artificial intelligence and applications (ijscai), vol. 4, issue 2, 1-11 spyropoulos, b., & papagounos, g. (1995). a theoretical approach to artificial intelligence systems in medicine, artificial intelligence in medicine, 455-465 spyropoulos, b., & parvantonis, p. (1996). a universal system for the diagnostic evaluation of biomedical signals, proceedings of the amia annual fall symposium spyropoulos, b., parvantonis, p., mikronis, a., maragkos, m., & argyrakis, g. (1996). a universal bio-signal and pattern acquisition, processing and decision supporting system, proceedings of the ieee engineering in medicine and biology society 18th ann. intern conference spyropoulos, b., & papagounos, g. (1997). decision making in a modern hospital: some theoretical and practical aspects, proceedings of the ieee engineering in medicine and biology society, 19th ann. intern. conference, chicago brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 16 spyropoulos, b., & papagounos, g. (2009). ethical aspects of the employment of expert systems in medicine, proceedings of the 4th international conference on ethical issues of information technology, rotterdam schildt, h. (2003). the complete reference c++, 4th edition, tata mcgraw hill somerville, l. (2007). software engineering, 8th edition, pearson education 17 computational intelligence in a human brain model viorel gaftea research institute for artificial intelligence "mihai drăgănescu", casa academiei, 13, calea 13 septembrie, cam. 3310, 050711 bucharest, romania viorel.gaftea@acad.ro abstract this paper focuses on the current trends in the domain of brain research and on the current stage of development of the research for software and hardware solutions, communication capabilities between human beings and machines, new technologies, nanoscience and internet of things (iot) devices. the proposed model for the human brain assumes the main similarities between human intelligence and the chess game thinking process. tactical and strategic reasoning and the need to follow the rules of the chess game are all very similar to the activities of the human brain. the main objective for a living being and the chess game player are the same: securing a position, surviving and eliminating the adversaries. the brain resolves these goals and, moreover, the being’s movement, actions and speech are sustained by the vital five senses and equilibrium. the chess game strategy helps us understand the human brain better and to replicate easier in the proposed ‘software and hardware’ sah model. keywords: brain model: artificial intelligence, brain interfacing, computational thinking. 1. introduction the new trends in artificial intelligence, robotics, iot gave an impetus to the “human brain research”. the greatest challenge we are facing in our century science is ‘understanding’ the human brain. big initiatives have started in europe, such as: the human brain project 1 in the university of zurich, the federal institute of technology (eth), or in japan, kyoto university or australia. the present article brings a new interesting approach; it does not include the results of other research papers in the same area of expertise where the approach was made on anatomical, mathematical (ellerman, 2016), or purely technical concepts. 2. explanatory framework the proposed model, compared to other models (timofti, 2010), approaches the philosophical components of the living being and exceeds the levels of the anatomical or only technical approach (aman & ciobanu, 2011). the growth in brain research has led to no homogeneity models assumption. conceptually, the human brain development starts from the reproduction systems to the mature human body, also as the developing model for any form of life. forms of intelligence govern the evolution from the cell to the body. the reproduction cells ‘are looking’, as the whole body, to the genetic information contained in deoxyribonucleic acid (dna). the dna gives instructions for ‘life’, it gives us the opportunity to see its role in the evolution of plants and animals. the dna is a history book of the evolution because mitochondrial dna, inherited solely from the mother, contains the information that can recreate the genetic history of humans. the dna assures the way in which the information is transmitted from the cell to the body, and it has four basic components called nucleotides, combined in 3.5 billions pairs, so the dna is 23 meters long and it contains 3 gb of data. the four nucleotides are called adenine, cytosine, thymine, and guanine. these ideas lead some research from the cell biology to the ‘membrane 1 human brain project, https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 computing’ theory, the upper level of ‘communication p systems’ theory. the academician gheorghe păun, in his speech, “searching computers in the biological cell” (păun, 2014) given at the romanian academy on 24.10.2014, described the new research path defined by him in the new computational model “membrane computing” (păun, rozenberg, saloma, 2008). human brain research must consider and finally manage a large volume of information, for which big data tools might be needed (mayer-schonberger & cukier, 2013). the dna contains the information and the code, but how it is processed by the brain is still an open research area. in this context, we resumed and presented the current technical capabilities necessary to cover the huge volume of information and the processing capabilities needed in the simulation of the brain, starting from the basic dimensions of genetic information. 3. dimensions of the memo-informatic support of the genetic information to confirm what has been mentioned, some statistical values must be considered:  dna is a molecule within the cell;  dna is compressed into chromosomes x, y;  a human being has 23 pairs of chromosomes;  proteins consist of amino acid chains;  we have 100,000 kinds of proteins in the body;  the proteins are 20 kinds of amino acids;  the protein has a length of ~ 150 amino acids;  the shortest possible chain would be 20 150 ~ 10 195 ;  atoms in the observable universe are about 10 80 ;  a grain of sand contains millions of atoms ~ ‘n’ x 10 6 . these values show the complexity and the numerous angles of view, in which life and any part of the body must be looked at. 4. summary statistics of brain and computing power evolution  the human brain weighs between 1.3 and 1.4 kg.  its size has decreased by ~ 150 cm3 in last 5000 years from the average 1,350 cm3.  cerebral cortex neurons number is ~ 100 billion. the global research leading to electronic chips that mimic human brain functions, like in the university of zurich, the federal institute of technology (eth) 2 , where was treat the brain functions as a microchip with huge storage and access capabilities 3 . for example, intel's xeon server chip has 4.31billion transistors. 5. “sah” brain model based on a chess game the assigned name “sah” brain model means “software and hardware” and it is based on the chess game rules and strategy, and it will first be shortly presented in the cognitive context. the actual proposed model will bring to us a number of issues for harmonizing the conceptual assumptions instead of one state of the art section:  harmonization of input-outputs mainly in terms of architectural representation and in terms of context functionalities for adapting the design to reality features: 2 eth zürich cybathlon wettkampf für athleten mit behinderungen, http://www.cybathlon.ethz.ch/thedisciplines/bci-race.html 3 visualizing rna activity within the brain tissues of live mice for faster and more accurate discovery and development of novel drugs, research kyoto university, http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/research/research_results/2015/150619_1.html v. gaftea computational intelligence in a human brain model 19  for personalization of functionalities and use of resources to respond to needs, interests and behavior;  for a cluster of functionalities regarding decision systems;  new technologies that have also permitted access to the knowledge from research and industry. figure 1. being brain and chess game strategy similarities finally, the following similar reactions between a chess player and a human being must be mentioned and considered. the power of reason for every being, human brain, or chess game player lies in similarities and has three main directions (see figure 1): a) secure their own position, a position or an action in life, similar with an action in a chess game define securing the position in the action, in life, or in the attack in order to assure the ‘survival’ as a being, or ‘eliminating adversaries’ in terms of assuring ‘food for life’. b) survival as a being or as a chess game player the brain must take decisions regarding the status of the being with respect to an action/activity of the current life, or in a chess game as a player. c) eliminating adversaries the main goal in a chess game is ‘eliminating adversaries’, but there is a similar goal for any being and it is translated “eating for living”. these three reasons for existence, for both a human and an animal action, require a similar surviving type of the brain activity. this observation facilitates to propose a computational model based on the chess game that allows an ‘intelligent simulation’ of human brain functions. 6. some common assumptions there are several common assumptions related to the model we have previously defined:  interface with the human senses and brain output are in an interdependence that can be modeled.  the senses (hearing, sight, taste, smell, touch) are the inputs for the brain interfacing with the external environment.  equilibrium and stability are common for decision or movements.  walking or actions (movement) and speech are considered outputs of the brain decision.  the model easily leads to build a performing robot or a brain model.  decision, after the process of analysis, generates the action and it is internally registered as brain learning process being quantifiable in a register or memory. human brain was the reference as a model in robotics and artificial intelligence. in both situations, robotics or brain simulation, brain interfaces and outputs, computational intelligence, are three main goals: secure own position; survival as being or as chess player; eliminating adversaries brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 built as a cybernetic model. interfacing with voice, image, signals and sensors assure connections with the environment. outputs are reflected in static or physical equilibrium, speech and movements, all reflecting the mobile intelligent actions. now, the internet of things (iot) is the new trends in technology, strongly influenced by the computational intelligence (kelemen, 2011), which brings added value to any modelling approach. the proposed model engages in an integrated way, cognitive knowledge of living organisms with robotics, artificial intelligence and new technologies. 7. description of the “sah” human brain model the proposed model will define the conceptual vision and similitude of the computational intelligence of human brain with the chess game thinking. the model starts from the basic assumption of a software chess game for computers. descriptions of the ways used for the assignment of the roles of the chess pieces are starting from the analogies used in the chess game software solutions and both of the “living organism or chess game” strategy. 8. description of the “chess game” software concept the chess game is designed to play automatically or with a human player at different levels of difficulty. the pieces (see figure 4) are assigned with values, the static schemes are memorized as open or fixed schemes depending on the level of difficulty, the thinking process of the game is dictated by an analysis, and when assigning the value of scheme must be taken into account the values of the player’s own pieces, or of the pieces of the adversary. there is a time limited decision between the best scores obtained by analysis and finally, results an action as a piece movement respecting the rules assigned for movements. in this process are already mentioned the thinking and learning process that conduct us to the computational intelligence and artificial intelligence concepts. if necessary, more affiliations of the game can be specified and the same thinking style must be maintained. 9. description of the sah human brain model concept the proposed sah human brain model starts assigning the main attributes to the “heavy pieces” (king, queen, rooks, bishops, knights) and assigning to pawns the interfaces as an advanced guard. the interface represents senses and processed human actions (equilibrium, movements, and speech) and it results from the brain activity (see figure 2). figure 2. processes and interfaces of the sah human brain model the two sides, ‘processes side’ and the ‘interfaces side’ of the brain modeled as chess table assign a similar strategy. the similar interface assumptions can be associated to any other beings. there are two types of components for the model: software and hardware. the software component identifies the different components of the processing part of the brain and there are not topically subordinate to each other but in a strong interoperability. processes – interfaces – main activities thinking learning analysis decision rules memory action movements speech sight hearing touch equilibrium smell taste v. gaftea computational intelligence in a human brain model 21 1 king 1 queen 2 rooks 2 bishops 2 knights 8 pawns the hardware component identifies the different interfaces of the senses (hearing, sight, taste, smell, touch) that assure external information to the processing part of the human brain. figure 3. assigning ` the “sah” human brain model the role of the chess pieces the components are not topically subordinated to each other but in a strong interoperability and used for outputs reflected as result of thinking, actions to receiving information from the sensor of the interfaces, movement or speaking. figure 4. name and role of the chess pieces in assigning the brain function to the computational processing units the strategy of the chess game will be pursued: 1 king – consciousness, mind, resolving undefined situations, undetermined risk analysis, feedback: 1 queen – implementation strategy, thinking, learning; 2 rooks – initial knowledge memory and learning memory; 2 bishops – good or updated, time or emergency decision; 2 knights – rules, open schemes, fixed processes, templates; 8 pawns – interfaces with own senses and actions. double chess pieces will be assigned in the model with initial knowledge (‘ marked) that can be updated as a learning experience to a second set (“ marked). the software adopted tactics and the strategy follow three main directions, by analyzing the data in the logical chains: “memory -> rules -> processes -> templates”, to execute: “codification of parts and schemes-> thinking -> learning”, through a process unit to: “assign values and pointing the parts or schemes of action”, based on initial values and create a “win grid association scheme”, so as to produce a similar “decision system” of the brain activities. the results of the supervising processes associated with the “king” and the “queen” pieces will be marked in a register for the best results in order to see the winner’s analysis as a result of the thinking. important roles are assigned to decision: “equilibrium”, defining the “thinking result” or “movement actions” as final outputs including signals or speech. memory” seeing rules” taste learning” equilibrium thinking” movement consciousness speech decision’ tactile rules’ smell memory’ hearing process units and interfaces of the sah human brain model brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 10. extended block diagram three vertical areas are defined in the field of activities: processes units, computational intelligence block, and smart interfaces block (details are presented in figure 5). figure 5. block diagram of the sah human brain model the processes units fully communicate with the computational intelligence block, central processing unit and smart interfaces. some specific links and functions are not specified here. smart interfaces defined for “sight, sound, taste, touch and hearing senses” are bidirectional and completed by input-output interfaces that ensure the communication for output actions like “speech, sound, movements” and other commands resulting in the thinking process. an important issue is the ‘equilibrium’ that must be treated in either “decision or movement” framework. interfacing the model with smart interfaces will be the way of “connecting the machine with the environment”. iot sensors add the new capabilities required at this time. this combination fully meets a neural network which commands the central nervous system and the rest of the brain. a circular dependency graph of brain processes is built around computational intelligence, decisions for equilibrium in the “decision or movement” and the “running-thinking-learning” processes. the theoretical neuroscience and computational neuroscience are heavily involved in the functional shaping. this type of brain processing analysis would be extremely difficult without using advanced simulation tools. the new proposed chess game model for the human brain helps us to understand better the functions of the human brain and replicate in a computing environment. 11. identify the hardware processing units, neural networks, interfaces and study throughout the entire body, regions of the brain, cellular and molecular interface circuits will be great research topics in a such project. event selection memory’ & big data rules’ / opens predefined decision’ memory” /big data learning rules” updated decision undefined, risk & feedback analysis v. gaftea computational intelligence in a human brain model 23 the nucleic acids research, visualizing rna activity can already potentially lead to faster and more accurate screening processes for the discovery and development of brain’s secrets. information technology, big data, iot, neural sciences and new developments in computing capacities and nano, micro devices provide the support in knowledge and necessary hardware to approach the proposed model. intel already claims that by 2026 processors will have as many transistors as there are neurons in a brain. since 1971, when the first-gen intel processor had 2,300 transistors and ran at 740 khz, the latest fourth-gen intel core processor has 1.7billion transistors and runs as 3ghz. according to intel, the human brain runs around 1k hz. after alan turing (1912-‘54), a british mathematician who made history with his breaking of the german u-boat enigma cipher in world war ii, the brain simulation by a computer can be the 21st century goal. 12. conclusions today the strategic goal in science is moving to the artificial intelligence. the brain model helps us define more developed computational and interface solutions to permit simulation, signal processing, speech processing, image processing in an intercommunication process. the independent decision or a computer assisted decision in the model will be the result of a complex interdisciplinary work. the proposed model combines the philosophical nature of a living being which assumes the main similarities between human intelligence and the chess game thinking process, a new contribution from the point of view of comparison with other similar works. this new proposal captures most of the brain's cognitive capabilities, but does not show very detailed how the parts of the brain work together to produce cognition. in this new conception, the presented solution is a software one. connecting more processes units assigned to the brain’s functions, increasing the number of score analysis registers, extending the interfaces with smart devices and applying last acquirements in artificial intelligence and neural networks, can help us to build very complex model and extend it easy, reproducing the higher capabilities of the human brain. moreover, technologies like gps can bring us new sensitive capabilities to the model. from the investment in the knowledge of the brain will benefit the society as a whole, by contributing to developing more intelligent machines, robots and a better understanding of the human being, brain capacities and control of activity or health status. it would be therefore relevant to start an initiative and an institution in charge of research and development (“strategia naţională privind agenda digitală pentru românia 2020”, 2014) and the thematic orientation on a human brain research project in romania too (“romania's development strategy in the next 20 years”, 2015). acknowledgment this paper is dedicated to the 150 th anniversary of the romanian academy and 25 th anniversary of science and information technology section. references păun, g. (2014). “căutând calculatoare în celula biologică”, bucuresti, editura academiei române, isbn 978-973-27-2504-7. păun, g., rozenberg, g., & saloma, a. (2008). “the oxford handbook of membrane computing”, oxford university press, pp. 58–83, 282-288, isbn 978-0-19-955667-0 kelemen, j. (2011). “computation, cooperation, and life”, springer, vol. lecture notes in computer science, pp. 138–186, isbn 978-3-642-19999-8 mayer-schonberger, v. & cukier, k. (2013). “ big data”, springer, pp.123–173, isbn 978-01-84854-792-0 aman, b. & ciobanu, g. (2011). “mobility in process calculi and natural computing”, springer, vol. natural computing series, pp. 39–135, isbn 978-3-642-24866-5. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 “strategia naţională privind agenda digitală pentru românia 2020”. (2014). retrieved from http://www.mcsi.ro/cmspages/getfile.aspx?nodeguid=0617c1d7-182f-44c0-a9784d8653e2c31d “romania's development strategy in the next 20 years”. (2015). editura academiei, retrieved from http://www.acad.ro/bdar/strategiaar/doc11/strategia.pdf timofti, i.c. (2010). "the complex functioning of the human brain: the two hemispheres", retrieved from https://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brain/article/view/29 ellerman, d. (2016), brain functors:a mathematical model of intentional perception and action, retrieved from https://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brain/article/view/567 human brain project, (2016, march,30) retrieved from https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/ eth zürich cybathlon wettkampf für athleten mit behinderungen, http://www.cybathlon.ethz.ch/the-disciplines/bci-race.html visualizing rna activity within the brain tissues of live mice for faster and more accurate discovery and development of novel drugs, research kyoto university, http://www.kyotou.ac.jp/en/research/research_results/2015/150619_1.html microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 143 the neuroscience of teaching narratives: facilitating social and emotional development lisa whalen north hennepin community college, 7411 85th avenue north brooklyn park, mn 55445-2299, united states lisa.whalen@nhcc.edu abstract humanities and the sciences have long been considered polar opposites that exist in separate realms of academia and require different cognitive skills. however, neuroscience has brought about renewed interest in what we can learn about the human brain by investigating links between disciplines. for example, studies related to english literature have revealed that the benefits of reading narratives (fiction and nonfiction stories) extend far beyond language development and include increased competence in social and emotional functioning. by combining the results of an original dissertation study and a review of past and current research in education, psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience, this essay explores how reading narratives serves as practice for managing emotions and social interactions in everyday life. in fact, several studies suggest that reading narratives strengthens nearly every part of the brain because the brain is designed—or “wired”—to think and learn in terms of narratives, regardless of subject matter. this essay provides several types of support for the claim that reading narratives facilitates social and emotional development. research discussed includes studies showing that reading narratives is not a solitary activity but “a surprisingly social process” ([30], p. 1) and is linked to increased ability to view people and events from multiple perspectives, increased empathy for others, and increased ability to interpret social cues ([2], [8], [10], [11],[18], [21], [33], [35], [36], [44]). understanding how the brain processes narratives and relates them to real life functioning has important implications for many disciplines, such as psychology, in its attempt to understand and treat post-traumatic stress disorder. this essay, however, focuses on the implications for education. teachers striving to help students develop the perspective-taking abilities necessary for critical thinking and the empathy necessary to become responsible adults may be more effective if they understand the role narratives play in students’ social and emotional development. keywords: neuroscience, narratives, social development, emotional development 1. introduction once upon a time, reading narratives (stories) was considered a leisure-time activity, something done for pleasure, not for benefit [34]. studying narratives was limited to english departments, which were being relegated to “dark ages” status by the rapid growth of fields such as business and technology. however, the future for narratives appears to include a happily ever after, as researchers in psychology, higher education, and neuroscience have discovered that reading narratives offers many benefits. based on dissertation research and a review of the literature, this article explains how reading narratives facilitates social and emotional development by allowing readers to simulate and practice real-world social interaction. 2. definition and brief history of narrative narratives come in many forms—plays, novels, movies, etc., and can be imaginary (fiction) or based in fact (nonfiction) [24], [33]. at a minimum, narratives include a setting, a character with a goal, and one or more impediments to accomplishing the goal [33]. narratives are among the oldest and most important forms of human communication (coste, 1989). even before the development of language, human beings’ earliest ancestors painted images on cave walls to record their history for future generations, demonstrating a self-awareness not observed in other forms of life [17],[14]. in fact, self-awareness, one of the key characteristics l. whalen – the neuroscience of teaching narratives: facilitating social and emotional development 144 setting human beings apart from other animals, appears to be bound up with narrative. unlike other living organisms, human beings can distinguish between self and other by the age of two, the same age at which they begin to understand narratives and empathize with the characters in them [22]. by the early teenage years, human beings develop their own life narratives—stories that enable them to understand who they are as individuals according to their unique history. they use narratives as a means of sharing knowledge, developing relationships, and building societies [16], [39]. narratives are especially effective for building relationships because in addition to providing factual knowledge, they enable readers to simulate—or live through vicariously—storytellers’ experiences [24]. in my 2010 dissertation study, i found a statistically significant correlation between the number of narratives college students read and their ability to simulate characters’ experiences—or what m. h. davis (1980, [11]) calls “fantasy.” my study also showed that fantasy is related to the ability to simulate the experiences of other people in real life, a key factor in both empathy and social competence. 3. reading narratives enhances social competence data from my dissertation study revealed a statistically significant correlation between the ability to simulate fictional characters’ experiences and what davis [11] called perspective-taking, or the ability to simulate the experiences of people in real life. mar, oatley, dela paz, hirsh, and peterson [35], [38] found that study participants with high fantasy scores also scored higher on measures of empathy and social competence, implying that reading narratives may increase empathy and social competence by providing three types of mental practice for real-world social interaction: simulating characters’ worlds, simulating characters’ emotions, simulating characters’ behavior [15], [36]. 4. readers simulate characters’ worlds coplan [9] and rall and harris [41] found that readers’ simulate characters’ experiences so completely that they recreate characters’ worlds, placing themselves within those worlds. coplan discovered that readers gather and process information based on characters’ physical orientation within narrative worlds. her study showed that readers identified with and simulated the main character’s experiences more often and in more detail than those of any other character. participants then read and processed sentences that supported the main character’s perspective more quickly than sentences that opposed the main character’s perspective or that indicated a neutral perspective. both coplan and rall and harris found that readers demonstrated greater recall of objects in a narrative when the objects were located closer to the main character or within the character’s sightline (i.e., in front of rather than behind the character) regardless of how the author wrote about the objects. they concludes that if readers merely observed a character’s experience, they would have recalled objects by the amount of detail the author provided rather than by the objects’ proximity and visibility to the main character. the implication, they contend, is that readers mentally created narrative worlds and became the character(s) while still maintaining awareness of themselves as living beings in a world outside of the narrative. this dual existence allowed readers to experience and learn from characters’ behavior. 5. readers simulate characters’ emotions readers undergo a dual existence in terms of characters’ emotions as well [6]. readers feel characters’ emotions with the same intensity as emotions produced by real-world situations in their own lives, but they can also reflect on simulated emotions, comparing them to what they have felt or imagine they would feel in similar real-world circumstances [47]. feeling characters’ emotions and comparing them to real-world circumstances increases readers’ social competence by providing them with opportunities to practice managing their emotions, reacting to what they feel, and observing likely outcomes of their reactions without having to deal with the consequences of their reactions. for example, readers of a narrative about domestic violence gain firsthand factual and emotional knowledge of what domestic violence feels like without enduring physical harm [32]. as brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 145 mar and oatley (2008, [34]), explain, reading narratives “trains us to extend our understanding toward other people, to embody (to some extent) and understand their beliefs and emotions” and to anticipate their reactions and behavior, making us more likely to react constructively (p. 181). narratives help make this training more readily accessible than training obtained from expository texts. 6. long-term benefits of reading narratives knowledge absorbed through the simulated experiences prompted by narratives is more likely to be stored in long-term memory and more easily recalled than knowledge absorbed from expository writing because nearly all cognitive recall is initiated by emotion [1], [12], [13]. the brain stores and recalls factual information according to the emotions associated with the information. when readers face real-life encounters similar to those they have read about, they match the emotions caused by the real-life encounter with simulated emotions from narratives. among the information readers access through simulated emotions are consequences associated with behavior they read about in the narrative; readers are then able to imitate the behavior they remember as being the most likely to lead to a positive outcome. readers also abstract knowledge from narrative simulations to apply it more broadly. mar and oatley (2008) explain, “the understanding gleaned from complex social events [in narratives] can be seen to generalize from one instance to many similar instances” (p. 177). without being aware of it, readers treat each character in a narrative as a synecdoche [21], [37]. for example, events and characteristics associated with the evil stepmother in the cinderella narrative are stored in memory as “stepmother.” when readers encounter a stepmother in the real world, they compare and contrast her to information stored in memory as “stepmother,” modifying and abstracting the idea of “stepmother” as it is stored in memory. howe [23] found that in addition to applying abstracted knowledge to real situations, readers also apply it to hypothetical circumstances. howe explains that readers “may begin to construct emotions for situations that may not be directly in [their] own particular experience” (p. 9). this is an important stage in the development of empathy. the ability to simulate others’ emotions and predict their behavior in addition to managing one’s own emotions and behavior is associated with increased social competence. in fact, harrison (2008) and mar (2004) found that because of their highly developed empathy and ability to determine which behaviors are likely to lead to a desirable outcome, readers are often perceived as having greater social competence when compared to nonreaders. 7. simulating characters’ behavior according to batson [4], empathy lies at the heart of social ability. researchers believe that the brain’s innate capacity for empathy plays a role in why humans tend to think and learn through narratives and why narratives serve as practice for increased social competence. the human brain contains cells called mirror neurons that prompt readers to imitate characters’ behaviors, the most primitive form of empathy ([43], [27]. [28]). brain scans show that the same areas of the brain stimulated by performing an action are also stimulated by reading about someone else performing that action [29], [17], [40]. controlled experiments show that when a character expresses an emotion (e.g., the character frowns), readers’ mirror neurons cause them to frown too, though they may not be aware of it. the brain links muscle movements required for frowning with the emotions most often associated frowns (e.g., sadness), so readers feel sadness as soon as they read that a character has frowned. this is the start of the emotion-simulation process. mar and oatley (2008) found that narratives are more likely than expository text to prompt mirror neuron-invoked empathy. they explain that reading narratives “appears to invoke a socialprocessing mode in readers, priming them for the understanding of social relations” ([34], p. 182). a number of studies support mar and oatley’s contention. banyard [3] found that narratives were more effective than textbooks in increasing both knowledge of mental illness and empathy for l. whalen – the neuroscience of teaching narratives: facilitating social and emotional development 146 individuals suffering from mental illness among psychology majors in college. beveridge [5] found that complaints about medical students’ lack of empathy dropped significantly after the students were assigned to read narratives. hanson [20] and kroner and mills [31] discovered that narratives are more effective than expository texts in prompting empathy for victims of sexual assault and in decreasing incidences of repeat offenses among violent sex offenders. hakemulder (2001) found that narratives were more effective than expository accounts in increasing empathy among white women for the plight of women in algeria [19]. studies examining the effect of narratives on whites’ perceptions of african-americans showed similar results [21]. butcher [7] found that high school students who read fantasy narratives were more accepting of people who were different than non-readers. butcher also found that fantasy readers were less likely to demonstrate black-white thinking and were perceived as better socially adapted. 8. conclusions: implications for higher education educators outside of english departments are taking another look at narratives and their ability to facilitate social and emotional development. numerous studies have indicated that the development of empathy and social competence may be more important than intelligence when it comes to academic success. vandervoort (2006), a professor in social sciences at the university of hawaii, explains in [45] that “knowledge about ourselves and others, as well as the ability to use this knowledge to solve problems, is a keystone to academic learning and success” (p. 4). jo-an vargo, head of the primary school at holland hall, adds that academic learning is “enhanced when supported by these [social and] emotional skills” (as qtd. in [42], p. 124). their conclusions have been supported by izaguirre [25], jaeger [26], and volkwein and cabrera [46]. though still considered a leisure-time activity, reading narratives is proving to be more beneficial than was once imagined. future research may indicate that reading narratives leads students to happy endings not only in novels, but in real life as well. references [1] adelson, r. (2004, december). emotional learning holds up with age. science watch, 35(11). retrieved march 7, 2008, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec04/learning.html. [2] atkins, m. w. (2000). the relationship of empathy and developmental maturity among a group of college students. dissertation abstracts international, 61(3). (umi no. att 9967024). retrieved november 11, 2008, from proquest database. [3] banyard, v. l. (2000). using first-person accounts to teach students about psychological disorders. teaching of psychology, 27(1), 40-43. [4] batson, c. d. (1991). the altruism question: toward a social-psychological answer. hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. [5] beveridge, a. (2003). should psychiatrists read fiction? british journal of psychiatry, 182, 385387. [6] boruah, b. h. (1988). fiction and emotion: a study in aesthetics and the philosophy of mind. new york: oxford university press. [7] butcher, m. (n.d.). reading fantasy literature and its effect on the development of empathy: a study of harry potter readers. retrieved february 2, 2010, from jupiter.plainedgeschools.org [8] campbell, r. (2001). learning from interactive story readings. early years, 21(2), 97-105). [9] coplan (2004). empathic engagement with narrative fictions. journal of aesthetics and art criticism, 62(2), 141-52. [10] courtright, k. e., & mackey, d. a., & packard, s. h. (2005, april). empathy among college students and criminal justice majors: identifying predispositional traits and the role of education. journal of criminal justice education, 16(1), 125-144. [11] davis, m. h. (1980). a multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy. jsas catalogue of selected documents in psychology, 10, 85-100. [12] dirkx, j. m. (2001, spring). the power of feelings: emotion, imagination, and the construction of meaning in adult learning. new directions in adult and continuing education, 89, 63-72. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 147 [13] dirkx, j. m. (2006, spring). engaging emotions in adult learning: a jungian perspective on emotion and transformative learning. new directions for adult and continuing education, 109, 15-26. [14] develt, e. (2007, january). rock art and the material culture of siberian and central asian shamanism. the archaeology of shamanism, pp. 43-54. retrieved february 2, 2010, from http://scandinavian.wisc.edu/dubois/courses_folder/shamanism_readings/2_9_13/devlet.pdf [15] erikson, e. h. (1959). late adolescence. in: d. h. funkenstein (ed.), the student and mental health. cambridge, ma: riverside press. [16] erikson, e. h. (1968). identity, youth and crisis. new york: w. w. norton & company. [17] gallese, v., & goldman, a. (1998, december). mirror neurons and the simulation theory of mind-reading. trends in cognitive sciences, 2(12), 493-501. [18] greif, e. b., & hogan, r. (1973). the theory and measurement of empathy. journal of counseling and psychology, 20(3), 280-284. retrieved january 20, 2009, from sciencedirect database. [19] hakemulder, j. (2001). how to make the alle menschen bruder: literature in multicultural and multi-form society. in: schram, d., & steen, g. (eds.), the psychology and sociology of literature: in honor of elrud ibsch, pp. 225-452. [20] hanson, r. k. (2003). empathy deficits of sexual offenders: a conceptual model. journal of sexual aggression, 9, 13-23. [21] harrison, m. c. (2008, october). the paradox of fiction and the ethics of empathy: reconceiving dicken’s realism. narrative, 16(3), 256-278. [22] hoffman, m. (2000). empathy and moral development: implications for caring and justice. cambridge: cambridge university press. [23] howe, (2000). imagined emotions: a phenomenology of unreal emotion. dissertation abstracts international, 61(10). (umi no. aat 9990322) [24] ingram, m. a., & nakazawa, m. (2003). developing empathy among community college counselors through sociocultural poetry. community college journal of research and practice, 27, 485-493. [25] izaguirre, r. (2008). the relationship among emotional intelligence, academic achievement, and demographic characteristics in first-year community college students. dissertation abstracts international, 69(6). (umi no. aat 3318590). [26] jaeger, a. j. (2003). job competencies and the curriculum: an inquiry into emotional intelligence in graduate professional education. research in higher education, 44(6), 615-639. [27] keen, s. (2006, october). a theory of narrative empathy. narrative, 14(3), 207-236. [28] keen, s. (2007). empathy and the novel. oxford: oxford univ. press. [29] kourtzi, z., & kanwisher, n. (2000). activation in human mt/mst by static images with implied motion. journal of cognitive neuroscience, 12, 48-55. [30] krakovsky, m. (2006). novel delights: reading books can help you read minds. psychology today, 50-53. [31] kroner, d. g., & mills, j. f. (1998). the structure of antisocial attitudes among violent and sexual offenders. international journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 42(3), 246-257. [32] kurkjian, j. w., & banks, w. (1978). the properties of empathy explored and developed through literature. personnel guidance journal, number, 56(10), 634-636. [33] mar, r. a., (2004). the neuropsychology of narrative: story comprehension, story production, and their interrelation. neuropsychologia, 42(10), 1414-1434. [34] mar, r., & oatley, k. (2008). the function of fiction is the abstraction and simulation of social experience. perspectives on psychological science, 3(3), 173-192. [35] mar, r. a., oatley, k., hirsh, j., dela paz, j., & peterson, b. (2006). bookworms versus nerds: exposure to fiction versus non-fiction, divergent associations with social ability, and the simulation of fictional social worlds. journal of research in personality, 40, 694-712. l. whalen – the neuroscience of teaching narratives: facilitating social and emotional development 148 [36] mcleod, j. (1999). a narrative social constructionist approach to therapeutic empathy. counseling psychology quarterly, 12(4), 377-394. [37] nussbaum, m. c. (2001). upheavals of thought: the intelligence of emotions. cambridge: cambridge university press. [38] oatley, k. (2002). emotions and the story worlds of fiction. in t. c. brock, j. j. strange, m. c. green (eds.), narrative impact: social and cognitive foundations. erlbaum, mahwah, nj, pp. 39–69. [39] pennebaker, j. w., & seagal, j. d. (1999). forming a story: the health benefits of narrative. journal of clinical psychology, 55, 1243–1254. [40] pulvermuller, f., harle, m., & hummel, f. (2001). walking or talking?: behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of action verb processing. brain and languages, 78, 143-168. [41] rall, j., & harris, p. l. (2000). in cinderella’s slippers? story comprehension from the protagonist’s point of view. developmental psychology, 36(2), 202-208. [42] salovey, d., & sluyter, p. (eds.), (1997). emotional development and emotional intelligence: educational implications. new york: basicbooks. [43] singer, t., & fehr, e. (2005, july). the neuroeconomics of mind reading and empathy. iza discussion paper no. 1647 (pp. 1-14). thr institute for empirical research in economics. retrieved february 2, 2010, from http://www.iew.unizh.ch/wp/, ftp://ftp.iza.org/dps/dp1647.pdf. [44] stanovich, k. e., & west, r. f. (1989, fall). exposure to print and orthographic processing. reading research quarterly, 24, 402-433. [45] vandervoort, d. j. (2006). the importance of emotional intelligence in higher education. current psychology: developmental, learning, personality, social, 25(1), 4-7. [46] volkwein, j. f., & cabrera, a. f. (1998, may). student measures associated with favorable classroom experiences. paper presented at the annual meeting of the association for institutional research, minneapolis, mn. [47] worth, s. e. (1997). fiction, belief, and emotive response. dissertation abstracts international, 58(7), 2697. (umi no. aat 9801354). retrieved january 4, 2009, from proquest database. (proquest document id 736565691) microsoft word brain_5_2014-bogdan 2 16 electrophysiological neuroimaging using sloreta comparing 100 schizophrenia patients to 48 patients with major depression andy r. eugene department of molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, division of clinical pharmacology, gonda 19, mayo clinic, 200 first street sw, rochester, minnesota 55905, usa tel.: +1-507-255-9365 e-mail: eugene.andy@mayo.edu jolanta masiak neurophysiology unit, department of psychiatry, medical university of lublin, ul. gluska 1 (spsk nr 1), lublin 20-439, poland e-mail: jolantamasiak@wp.pl abstract in this retrospective of electroencephalograms were to identify a surrogate biomarker for the dopamine d2 receptors in the brain by comparing patients diagnosed with schizophrenia taking atypical antipsychotics to depressive patients medicated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. to achieve this, thirty-seconds of resting eeg were spectrally transformed in sloreta. three-dimensional statistical non-paramentric maps (snpm) for the sloreta global field power within each band were then computed. our results illustrated that the right superior frontal gyrus (t=2.049, p=0.007), along the dopamine mesolimbic pathway, had higher neuronal oscillations in the delta frequency band in the 100 schizophrenia patients as compared to the 32depressive female patients. the comparisons with both the 48 depressive patient cohort or the sixteen male depressive patient cohort did not yield any statistically significant findings. we conclude that the superior frontal gyrus should be investigated as a possible surrogate biomarker for preclinical and clinical drug discovery in neuropharmacology. keywords: dopamine receptors; schizophrenia; sloreta; mesolimbic 1. introduction clinical sciences often compare disease to healthy controls, in hopes of identifying the difference between the healthy versus the sick patients. however, in these days where there are increasing numbers of drug repurposing efforts and searches for orphan drug receptors comparing differences between diagnostic patient groups will become more prevalent, especially in neuropharmacology. current trends have used positron emission tomography (pet) scans to evaluate receptor binding to construct pharmacokinetic-receptor occupancy models, however, often times, participants enrolled in the study rarely reach 50 in each cohort. electroencephalography (eeg) neuroimaging techniques are refined and the cost is very attractive for major drug companies, such as merck, pfizer, and astrazeneca, are looking to use eeg as a surrogate biomarker in both preclinical and clinical programs (leiser et al., 2011; wilson et al., 2014). electroencephalographic recordings, with patients at rest, have been sited to very sensitive as a diagnostic tool, for neurodevelopmental disability, behavioral pathologies, and for genetic associations (pievani et al., 2011). moreover, there have been consistent reports, throughout the years, that patients suffering from schizophrenia have an increased slow wave, “delta and theta frequency band,” neuronal activity on recorded electroencephalograms, while there is a decrease in neuronal activity of the higher frequencies, alpha and beta (sponheim et al., 1994, 1997; williamson and mamelak, 1987). in this retrospective electroencephalography neuroimaging analysis, we will investigate the pharmacodynamics neuroimaging differences of patients with schizophrenia medicated with atypical antipsychotics (ataps) and compare them to patients with major depressive disorder medicated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (ssris). the ataps act mainly via the dopamine-d2 receptors and serotonin 5ht2 receptors while the ssris increase serotonin in the a. r. eugene, j. masiak, electrophysiological neuroimaging using sloreta comparing 100 schizophrenia patients to 48 patients with major depression 17 brain. our hypothesize is that conducting the whole brain, voxel-by-voxel, t-tests in these diagnostic groups, we expect to isolate the dopamine d2-receptor pathway, due to there being no statistical differences in the serotonin 5ht2 neurotransmitter effects in the ataps and ssris. 2. methods 2.1. patients this study was a retrospective chart review of the electroencephalogram database at the neurophysiology unit at the medical university of lublin’s department of psychiatry. all patients were diagnosed by a board-certified psychiatrist using the diagnostic criteria from the international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (icd-10) section on mental, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental disorders. during the patient’s electroencephalogram selection in our experimental electrophysiological neuroimaging analysis, we decided to compare eeg neuroimaging results of 100 schizophrenia patients to 48 depressive patients, for our first comparison. following that, we kept the 100 schizophrenia patients consistent and compared gender differences in the depressive patients by evaluating 16 depressive male patients in the second analysis, and in the third and final comparison, we compared the 100 schizophrenia patients to 32 depressive female patients. for the 100 schizophrenia (icd-10 code f20) patients, the group wide and gender-specific average ages and standard deviation of the ages are as follows: 100 schizophrenia patients (average age = 32 ± 11.8) as one comparative cohort with 65 schizophrenia males (average age = 31 ± 10.6) and 35 schizophrenia females (average age = 35 ± 13.7). next, for the 48 patients diagnosed with major depression (icd-10 code f32) or depressive episode (icd-10 code f33), the group wide and gender-specific average ages and standard deviation of the ages are as follows: 48 major depressive disorder and depressive episode patients (mean age =49 ± 12.9), 16 major depressive disorder or depressive episode males (average age =45 ± 15.1), 32 major depressive disorder or depressive episode females (average age =50 ± 11.7). all patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were medicated with atypical antipsychotics, olanzapine (dose 5mg/day to 20mg/day) or risperidone (dose 1mg/day to 4mg/day) blocking both dopamine d2 and serotonin 5-ht2 receptors. whereas, all of the patients diagnosed with major depression or depressive episode were medicated with sertraline (50mg/day to 200mg/day maximum dose) or citalopram (20mg/day to 40mg/day maximum dose). this research protocol was approved by the bioethical commission of the medical university of lublin. figure 1. group comparisons designed for isolating the mesolimbic dopamine d2-receptor pathway using statistical non-paramentric mapping unpaired t-test. the expectation is to have the serotonin 5ht2 receptor pathway cancel out and result in the dopaminergic pathway. atap: atypical antipsychotics brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 5, issues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 2.2. eeg recording all patients were comfortably seated at a semi-recumbent position in a sound and lighted attenuated room, while 20-minutes or more of routine eye-open and eyes-closed resting eeg data were recorded using the 19-channel eeg analysis station (elmiko medical, poland) and ag/agcl electrodes. patients eeg recordings were in accordance to the international 10/20 system with electrodes placed at fp2, f8, t8/t4, p8/t6, o2, f4, c4, p4, fp1, f7, t7/t3, p7/t5, o1, f3, c3, p3, fz, cz, and pz. electrodes were referenced to linked earlobes and impedances were kept below 5 kω. the data sampling rate was 250 hz, and the acquired signals were filtered with a bandpass filter of 0.15–70 hz after sampling. prior to data analysis, artifact detection was performed, visually, to exclude eye-movements, head-movements, muscle-movements, and segments of decreased alertness. eeg recordings were then exported using elmiko’s eeg digitrak analysis software to the ascii format for later processing. 2.3. neuroimaging – loreta following the export of the ascii formatted data from the elmiko eeg acquisition system, 30-seconds of eyes-open eeg signals were recomputed to the average reference. subsequently, spectral analysis was performed for the same 30-seconds of artifact-free data of each icd-10 diagnostic group. the cross-spectra were averaged across the 50% overlapping windows, which yielded 7 eeg frequency bands: delta (1.5–6 hz), theta (6.5–8 hz), alpha-1 (8.5–10 hz), alpha-2 (10.5–12 hz), beta-1 (12.5–18 hz), beta-2 (18.5–21 hz) and beta-3 (21.5–30 hz) (kubicki et al., 1979). lastly, loreta was used to estimate the 3-dimensional intracerebral current density distribution (pascual-marqui, 2002; pascual-marqui et al., 1994). the three-dimensional intracerebral neuronal source activity, illustrating statistical non-parametric maps of neuronal activity, are derived from the 19-channel electrodes were assessed using low resolution brain electrotomography (loreta) (pascual-marqui et al., 1994). when considering the available methodologies of detecting intracerebral activity, it is important to note that of all available published three-dimensional, discrete, distributed, linear eeg/magnetoecephalography (meg) tomography methods for solving the classic eeg inverse problem, loreta has been identified to report the lowest localization error (to within 1 voxel resolution on average) (pascualmarqui et al., 1994). the source localization results from loreta, even without utilizing an individual patient’s mri anatomical scans, has demonstrated that with as many as 16-electrodes, and using the approximate three-shell head model registered to the talairach human brain (talairach and tournoux, 1988), localization accuracy of eeg is 10 mm, for worst cases (cohen et al., 1990). by adding the expected localization error, as a result of the head model, the average error is not expected to exceed 2 to 3 cm in the final loreta source localization results. loreta inverse solutions are a model of the 3d distribution of electric neuronal activity, represented by adjacent voxels, has maximum synchrony relative to the orientation and strength between neighboring neuronal populations (pascual-marqui et al., 1994). loreta inverse solutions are restricted to 2394 voxels (spatial resolution=7 mm) within cortical gray matter and hippocampi, as determined by the digitized talairach and probability atlases of the brain imaging centre, montreal neurological institute (mni305). eeg electrode coordinates are derived from cross-registrations between spherical and head geometry (towle et al., 1993). concerning the validity of the neuronal activation results, currently, loreta has received robust theoretical and cross-modal validation from localization studies combining this method with both structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography (pet), visual and auditory event-related potentials, and well as intracranial recordings (pascual-marqui et al., 1994). in our investigation of the gender-based diagnostic (icd-10) group differences, standardized loreta (sloreta) (pascual-marqui et al., 1994) was used. the sloreta inverse solutions are constrained to the mni152 (mazziotta et al., 2001) template composed of 6239 cortical gray matter voxels at 5mm spatial resolution. a. r. eugene, j. masiak, electrophysiological neuroimaging using sloreta comparing 100 schizophrenia patients to 48 patients with major depression 19 the sloreta software package was used as a new improvement relative to loreta. with sloreta, realistic scalp electrode coordinates are adapted to a 10/5 electrode system (oostenveld and praamstra, 2001) and are registered to the montreal neurological institute’s mni152 (mazziotta et al., 2001) scalp, with a 12-parameter transformation followed by a spline solution that projects the electrodes onto the scalp with minimal distortion (jurcak et al., 2007). by transforming the electrode system, sloreta provides a much more realistic head-surface based coordinate system. moreover, the sloreta transformation matrix for the inverse solution uses the electric potential lead field computed within the boundary element method applied to the mni152 digitized structural mri template (fuchs et al., 2002). futher, the identified sloreta inverse solutions are reported on mni152 template which is composed of 6239 cortical gray matter voxels at 5 mm with anatomical labels as brodmann areas are also reported using mni space, with correction to talairach space (brett et al., 2002). 2.4. statistical analysis the demographic differences between the patient groups were graphically represented using microsoft excel. the localization of the differences in activity between the two clinical diagnostic groups were assessed by voxel-by-voxel unpaired t-tests of the loreta images, based on the logtransformed power of the estimated electric current density, which resulted in t statistic 3dimensional images. in these images, cortical voxels of statistically significant differences were displayed as statistical parametric maps (spms) using a randomization strategy that determined the critical probability threshold values for the actually observed statistic with corrections for multiple testing (holmes et al., 1996). to visualize the global distributions of the t-test differences, for each band we computed the location of the mean center of gravity of all voxels with positive and negative t-values. to correct for multiple comparisons, a nonparametric single-threshold test was applied on the basis of the theory of randomization and on permutation tests (holmes et al., 1996). the omnibus null hypothesis of no activation anywhere in the brain was rejected if at least one t-value (i.e. voxel, tmax) was above the critical threshold for p = 0.05, determined by 5,000 randomizations (horacek et al., 2007). lastly, to visualize the age distribution of the schizophrenia patients, epi info™ 6 (http://www.cdc.gov/epiinfo), public domain statistical software for epidemiology developed by centers for disease control and prevention (cdc) in atlanta, georgia, united states of america was used. 3. results the results of the t-tests yielded non-statistically significant results when comparing the one-hundred schizophrenia patients to the entire cohort of forty-eight depressive patient cohort with the one-tailed test identifying the left middle frontal gyrus (t=1.851, p=0.12300, ba 10, mni x= -35, y=25, z=50). similarly, the where non-statistically significant results for the one-tailed t-tests comparing the one-hundred schizophrenia patients to the sixteen male depressive patients; the right superior temporal gyrus (t=2.285, p=0.35840, ba 41, mni x= 40, y= -35, z= 5) was identified. contrastingly, the results of the one-hundred males and females diagnosed with schizophrenia compared to the thirty-two females diagnosed with major depressive disorder or depressive episodes. the one-hundred male and female schizophrenia patients had an average age of 32-years-old and a standard deviation of 11.8-years. whereas, the depressive episode and major depressive disorder females had an average age of 50-years old and a standard deviation of 11.7-years. the statistically significant neuroimaging results identified the delta (1.5–6 hz) frequency band at the neuroanatomical location of the region of the superior frontal gyrus (p=0.007; t=2.08, ba 10, x=25, y=55, z=30) with greater neuronal oscillations and synchrony in the one-hundred males and females diagnosed with schizophrenia than the thirty-two females diagnosed with depressive episodes and major depressive disorder. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 5, issues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 table 1: patient group results of sloreta analysis between the 100 schizophrenia patients vs. 32 depressive females. sloreta brain mapping results patient group with the statistically significant neuronal synchronization 100 schizophrenia patients whole brain voxel-wise t-test result t=2.08 p-value p=0.007 frequency band delta frequency band (1.5hz-6hz) neuroanatomical locations(s) right superior frontal gyrus lobe frontal lobe brodmann area 10 montreal neurological institute coordinates x=25, y=55, z=30 figure 2. resting state neuroimaging findings illustrating the action of atypical antipsychotics on postsynaptic dopamine d2-receptors following whole brain voxel-by-voxel unpaired t-tests that are based on statistical non-parametric map (snpm) of sloreta images in 100 schizophrenia patients. the yellow/orange shades indicate increased neuronal activity in the delta frequency band in the right superior frontal gyrus (brodmann area=10; mni: x=25, y=55, z=30) along the dopamine mesolimbic pathway. structural anatomy is shown in grey scale (a – anterior; s – superior; p – posterior; l – left; r – right). a. r. eugene, j. masiak, electrophysiological neuroimaging using sloreta comparing 100 schizophrenia patients to 48 patients with major depression 21 4. discussion 4.1. superior frontal gyrus volumes size in a genome wide association study (gwas) of 281 patients with schizophrenia (52.0% males, 146 males and 135 females; mean age 36.0±12.4 years) and 413 healthy controls (49.6% males, 205 males and 208 females; mean age 36.4±12.8 years) investigating schizophrenia-related phenotypes, they found single-nucleotide polymorphisms (snps) associated with superior frontal gyrus volumes in schizophrenia-related social functions (hashimoto et al., 2014). in this same study, the team found genotype effects of rs4654899 on gray matter volume of right sfg were found in patients with schizophrenia as well controls. a study at harvard medical school with seventeen schizophrenia patients, gender and parental socio-economic status-matched subjects, with all seventeen affective (mainly manic) psychosis, and seventeen normal comparison subjects, age-matched within a narrow age range (1829 years), identified gray matter volume reduction superior frontal gyrus (sfg) in the schizophrenia patients (hirayasu et al., 2001). this study found significant left prefrontal gray matter volume reduction and trend level reduction on the right (hirayasu et al., 2001). another study identified that patient with schizophrenia had selectively activity in the sfg that extended medially to the anterior cingulate region and caudally to the paracingulate region, as with the findings in our study (goldberg et al., 2006). similarly, another study at harvard university with twenty-six individuals with schizophrenia and twenty-nine controls demonstrated that schizophrenia participants had thinner cortex in a region of the superior frontal gyrus (ba10) (tully et al., 2014). with all of these findings finding an associative decreased cortical volume in patients with schizophrenia will naturally result in neurophysiological abnormalities and may serve as a biomarker both, morphologically, and in our case, neurophysiologically with patients with schizophrenia. 4.1. potential treatment options based on these findings, what is practical way for a patient to improve their brain volumes? a study set out to examine exercise effects on cerebral volume and cortical thickness in schizophrenia patients and resulted that cardio-respiratory fitness improvement attenuated brain volume changes in schizophrenia patients and increased thickness in large areas of the cortex in both schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. similarly, another study found an improvement of brain volume, specifically the hippocampus, with exercise in patients suffering from schizophrenia (pajonk et al., 2010). exercise should be recommended for patients with schizophrenia. in a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of 92 patients with schizophrenia treated with risperidone where subjects were randomly assigned to receive 200mg per day of minocycline found that rates of treatment response (43.6%) in the minocycline group were significantly higher than those in the placebo group (10.0%) after 16weeks of treatment (liu et al., 2014). 4.2. associations of toxoplasmosis and psychosis a meta-analysis of the association of psychosis and anti-toxoplasma gondii igm antibodies, at the department of psychiatry and health behavior at the georgia regents university, found an increased seroprevalence of toxoplasma gondii igm in patients with acute psychosis suggesting that infections may be relevant to the etiopathophysiology of relapse in some patients with schizophrenia (monroe et al., 2014). moreover, a study in prague identified that toxoplasmosis triggers schizophrenia in predisposed subjects (flegr et al., 2014). it may very well be that the toxoplasmosis parasite increasing dopamine secretions in the frontal lobes may very well lead to decreased cerebral volumes. cat feces, sexual contact, and eating raw or undercooked pork are well known transmitters of the toxoplasmosis parasite and may be advisable that patients take precautions of the possibility of these triggering symptoms of psychosis with these possible routes of infection. another adjunct brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 5, issues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 to atypical antipsychotics may be to treat the potential cerebral toxoplasmosis infection with cotrimoxazole or pyrimethamine/clindamycin (patil et al., 2011). figure 3. resulting comparisons isolating the dopamine d2 mesolimbic pathway using statistical nonparamentric mapping (snpm) indicating statically significant (p<0.05), via unpaired t-tests, results of 100 schizophrenia patients medicated with atypical antipsychotics (ataps) compared with 32 depressive patients medicated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (ssris). *indicates the non-statistically significant findings. ***indicates the group snpm pathway with statistically significant p<0.05 findings. the figure below is a histogram distribution of the ages of one hundred schizophrenia patients in this study. there appears to be a cyclical peak every ten-years cycles at 20, 30, 40, and 50-year-old patients. this may suggest a recent finding that cd8 t cells, which play a pivotal role in mediating long-term immunity to toxoplasma, are down-regulated in schizophrenia patients (bhadra et al., 2013). based on the aforementioned statements, a vaccine for toxoplasmosis may be difficult to achieve, but the treatment and screening possibilities in patients with psychosis are available today. figure 4. histogram age distributions of the 100 schizophrenia patients illustrating clusters of patients at 20, 30, 40, and 50 years old. a. r. eugene, j. masiak, electrophysiological neuroimaging using sloreta comparing 100 schizophrenia patients to 48 patients with major depression 23 5. conclusion from our analysis, the findings indicate that in comparing patient groups of schizophrenia versus depression, there is increased neuronal oscillatory activity in the superior frontal gyrus may be indicative of a translatable biomarker for targeting new drug receptor binding in neuropharmacology. moreover, the pharmacodynamic effects of atypical antipsychotics, olanzapine or risperidone in our schizophrenia patients resulted in resting eeg frequencies in the delta band and may be improved with adjunct compounds. from a treatment perspective, there may be room aiding in management of patients with schizophrenia with anti-inflammatory compounds, exercise regimens, minocycline, cotrimoxazole, or pyrimethamine/clindamycin in facilitating the healing process of schizophrenia and psychosis. 6. acknowledgments we would like to thank ms. katarzyna ziniuk for consistently recording the electroencephalograms in the neurophysiology laboratory. this work was supported by nih t32 gm008685 clinical pharmacology training grant. 7. conflicts of interest the authors declare no conflict of interest. 8. references bhadra r, cobb da, weiss lm, khan ia. psychiatric disorders in toxoplasma seropositive patients--the cd8 connection. [internet]. schizophr. bull. 2013; 39: 485–9.[cited 2015 jan 25] available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=3627775&tool=pmcentrez&render type=abstract brett m, johnsrude is, owen am. the problem of functional localization in the human brain. nat. rev. neurosci. 2002; 3: 243–249. cohen d, cuffin bn, yunokuchi k, maniewski r, purcell c, cosgrove gr, et al. meg versus eeg localization test using implanted sources in the human brain. ann. neurol. 1990; 28: 811–817. flegr j, klapilová k, kaňková s. toxoplasmosis can be a sexually transmitted infection with serious clinical consequences. not all routes of infection are created equal. med. hypotheses 2014 fuchs m, kastner j, wagner m, hawes s, ebersole js. a standardized boundary element method volume conductor model. clin. neurophysiol. 2002; 113: 702–712. goldberg ii, harel m, malach r. when the brain loses its self: prefrontal inactivation during sensorimotor processing. neuron 2006; 50: 329–339. hashimoto r, ikeda m, yamashita f, ohi k, yamamori h, yasuda y, et al. common variants at 1p36 are associated with superior frontal gyrus volume. [internet]. transl. psychiatry 2014; 4: e472.[cited 2015 jan 24] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25335168 hirayasu y, tanaka s, shenton me, salisbury df, desantis ma, levitt jj, et al. prefrontal gray matter volume reduction in first episode schizophrenia. [internet]. cereb. cortex 2001; 11: 374–81.[cited 2015 jan 24] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11278200 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 5, issues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 holmes ap, blair rc, watson jd, ford i. nonparametric analysis of statistic images from functional mapping experiments. j. cereb. blood flow metab. 1996; 16: 7–22. horacek j, brunovsky m, novak t, skrdlantova l, klirova m, bubenikova-valesova v, et al. effect of low-frequency rtms on electromagnetic tomography (loreta) and regional brain metabolism (pet) in schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations. neuropsychobiology 2007; 55: 132–142. jurcak v, tsuzuki d, dan i. 10/20, 10/10, and 10/5 systems revisited: their validity as relative headsurface-based positioning systems. [internet]. neuroimage 2007; 34: 1600–11.[cited 2014 jul 10] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17207640 kubicki s, herrmann wm, fichte k, freund g. reflections on the topics: eeg frequency bands and regulation of vigilance. pharmakopsychiatr. neuropsychopharmakol. 1979; 12: 237–245. leiser sc, dunlop j, bowlby mr, devilbiss dm. aligning strategies for using eeg as a surrogate biomarker: a review of preclinical and clinical research. biochem. pharmacol. 2011; 81: 1408–1421. liu f, guo x, wu r, ou j, zheng y, zhang b, et al. minocycline supplementation for treatment of negative symptoms in early-phase schizophrenia: a double blind, randomized, controlled trial. schizophr. res. 2014; 153: 169–176. mazziotta j, toga a, evans a, fox p, lancaster j, zilles k, et al. a probabilistic atlas and reference system for the human brain: international consortium for brain mapping (icbm). philos. trans. r. soc. lond. b. biol. sci. 2001; 356: 1293–1322. monroe jm, buckley pf, miller bj. meta-analysis of anti-toxoplasma gondii igm antibodies in acute psychosis. [internet]. schizophr. bull. 2014[cited 2015 jan 25] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25385789 oostenveld r, praamstra p. the five percent electrode system for high-resolution eeg and erp measurements. clin. neurophysiol. 2001; 112: 713–719. pajonk f-g, wobrock t, gruber o, scherk h, berner d, kaizl i, et al. hippocampal plasticity in response to exercise in schizophrenia. arch. gen. psychiatry 2010; 67: 133–143. pascual-marqui rd, michel cm, lehmann d. low resolution electromagnetic tomography: a new method for localizing electrical activity in the brain. [internet]. int. j. psychophysiol. 1994; 18: 49–65.available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7876038 pascual-marqui rd. standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sloreta): technical details. methods find. exp. clin. pharmacol. 2002; 24 suppl d: 5–12. patil h v, patil vc, rajmane v, raje v. successful treatment of cerebral toxoplasmosis with cotrimoxazole [internet]. indian j. sex. transm. dis. 2011; 32: 44–46.available from: http://www.embase.com/search/results?subaction=viewrecord&from=export&id=l361929610 \nhttp://dx.doi.org/10.4103/02537184.81255\nhttp://sfx.library.uu.nl/utrecht?sid=embase&issn=02537184&id=doi:10.4103/ 0253-7184.81255&atitle=successful+treatment+of+cerebra microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 1 b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3 september, 2017 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro 2 about the journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in december 2017. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 1st of november, 2017. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief:  bogdan pătruţ, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania editors:  agata asofroniei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland  angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain  barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania  carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania  monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania  emilia șteț, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania proofreader:  ionela carmen iaut, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania issn 2068 – 0473, e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2017 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 6. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 7. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 8. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 9. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 10. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 11. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 12. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 13. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 14. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 15. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 16. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 17. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 18. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 19. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 20. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 21. heather k van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 22. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 23. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 24. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 25. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 26. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 27. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 4 28. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 29. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 30. valeriy perminov, tomsk polytechnic university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 31. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bio-inspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 32. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 33. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 34. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 35. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 36. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 37. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 38. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) consultant reviewers 39. dorin bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 40. răzvan bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 41. cătălin buiu, politehnica university of bucharest, bucharest, romania (robotics) 42. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl milan, italy (computer science) 43. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 44. piotr p chruszczewski, polish academy of sciences, university of wroclaw, poland (social sciences) 45. utku köse, uşak university, uşak, turkey (artificial intelligence) 46. ioan maxim, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (computer science) 47. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence) 48. ioan lucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (linguistics) 49. saim rasheed, king abdulaziz university, jeddah, saudi arabia (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 50. tiberiu socaciu, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 51. hassan soleimani, payame noor university, tehran, iran (applied linguistics) 52. elena-mădălina vătămănescu, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest (social sciences), romania 53. dmytro zubov, soochow university, suzhou, jiangsu, china (computer science) microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 30 the interplay among efl teachers´ teaching experience, critical thinking, and classroom management maryam zakian department of general courses, university of science and technology of mazandaran, behshahr, iran p. o. box 48518, 78195, m.zakian@mazust.ac.ir abstract the purpose of this study is to seek the possible relationship between the classroom management, critical thinking, and years of teaching experience of iranian efl teachers. a total of 85 teachers (50 female and 35 male) ranging in age from 20 to 38 and varied in their elt experience from 2 to 18 years were invited to participate in this research. the researchers employed two kinds of instruments to conduct this correlational research: (1) a questionnaire on critical thinking by honey (2000), and (2) a questionnaire on classroom management by martin and sass (2010), both of which were of likert-scale type. the result of the data analysis showed that there was an almost strong positive relationship between iranian efl teachers classroom management and critical thinking, which was also statistically significant, rs = .722, p ˂.05. the result of the mann-whitney u test for the second inferential statistics showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the teachers with different teaching experiences, u=611.50, p = .008 ˂ 0.05. hence, it was concluded that more experienced teachers had better classroom management ability. keywords: classroom management, critical thinking, teachers’ experience 1. background classroom management, often called classroom discipline, has been a priority for teachers for as long as there have been opinion surveys of educational priorities; effective classroom management focuses on preventive rather than reactive procedures and establishes a positive classroom environment in which the teacher concentrates on students who behave appropriately (lewis &sugai, 1999). according to evertson and weinstein (2006), classroom management has two distinct purposes: (1) it seeks to establish and sustain an orderly environment, so students can engage in meaningful academic learning, and (2) it aims to enhance student social and moral growth. recently, efl researchers/teachers have concentrated on the identification of such teacher characteristics and investigation of their effects on the process, progress, and growth of teaching. one of the intellectual abilities which have been recognized as determiners of learning/teaching is critical thinking (vaughn, 2008). before english teachers adopt interventions to foster their students’ critical and creative thinking, it is important that they bear in mind that a friendly, supportive, and non-threatening classroom atmosphere can have a positive impact on students’ motivation and language performance and that a positive climate for learning has been identified by many practitioners as a critical factor in effective learning (little, 1997). critical thinking helps teachers make a shift from using mechanical activities to problem-solving types in their classes (bessick, 2008). developing critical thinking on the part of the teachers (especially in higher education) may assist them to become more creative, efficient, and successful language teachers, thereby leading to better classroom management abilities (hamidi, 2016). classroom management has been widely used in the research studies related to efl teachers. for example, hamidi and khatib (2016) investigated the interplay among emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. their findings showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the classroom management and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. the findings of unal and unal m. zakian the interplay among efl teachers´ teaching experience, critical thinking, and classroom management 31 (2012) demonstrated that experienced teachers were more likely to prefer to be in control in their classrooms than beginning teachers while interacting with students when making decisions. however, even though many studies have reported positive relationships between years of experience and classroom management abilities in classroom atmosphere (hagger & mcintyre, 2000; kerrins & cushing, 2000; unal & unal, 2012), and also between critical thinking and language proficiency (grosser & mirnanel, 2013), there has been very little research, especially in an iranian context, reported on the role of critical thinking skills in classroom management. regarding the importance of critical thinking skills, years of teaching experience, and classroom management ability in the success of foreign language teachers and efl teaching, the researchers seek to find the possible relationship among the three mentioned variables. in line with the purpose of the study, the present research aims to answer the following research questions: rq1. is there any statistically significant relationship between classroom management and critical thinking of iranian efl teachers? rq2. do efl teachers’ years of experience have any statistically significant role in their classroom management ability? 1.1. classroom management classroom management refers to the ways in which student behavior, movement, interaction, etc., during a class is organized and controlled by the teacher (or sometimes by the learners themselves) to enable teaching to take place more effectively. classroom management includes procedures for grouping students for different types of classroom activities, use of lesson plans, handling the equipment, aids, etc., and the direction and management of student behavior and activity (richards & schmidt, 2010). teaching is complex of knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes. the general abilities and dispositions, which ennis has identified with critical thinking, do seem to connect closely with the results of the research on teacher thinking. it is probably no exaggeration to say that classroom management has been a primary concern of teachers the moment they have entered the classrooms. however, the systematic study of effective classroom management is a relatively recent phenomenon (brophy, 1996). classroom management is not a gift bestowed upon some teachers and though it is true that some teachers adapt to classroom management techniques easily, classroom management is a skill that can be gained through training and many years of experience in the field (bosch, 2006, as cited in unal & unal, 2012). experienced teachers identify the establishment of classroom management as one of the major goals that needs to be accomplished in the first week of the year. beginning teachers cite classroom management as one of their most serious challenges. school administrators indicate poor classroom management as a major reason for low evaluations, as well as a primary reason why teachers are not hired (savage &savage, as cited in unal & unal, 2012). efl teachers are believed to have combined years of service and a repertoire of classroom skills and strategies. they typically have the ability to prioritize tasks and to attend selectively to a number of key classroom matters (hagger& mcintyre, 2000). they are generally able to manage the dynamic nature of a classroom setting and to deal effectively with the most salient aspect of a classroom—unpredictability (doyle, 1990). compared to beginning teachers, experienced teachers tend to be less hesitant and more flexible and adaptable (kerrins & cushing, 2000). 1.2. critical thinking the way we think affects all aspects of our private and social life and education is not an exception. human beings think differently and teachers who have key roles in education do so as well. recently proper attention has been given to the ways teachers think and now teaching is more characterized as a thinking activity (richards & farell, 2005). critical thinking is an important concept in education and is generally defined as the ability to think rationally and make good decisions in doing something or believing something (ennis, 2011). critical thinking includes special skills to identify a problem, analyze it, and make inferences to solve it. it also requires judging the validity and reliability of assumptions and sources of data, making decisions based on brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 32 specific reasoning criteria, and applying inductive and deductive logic (diestler, 2001). critical thinking, as scriven and paul (2004) assert, is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. in its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. critical thinking has roots in two primary academic disciplines: philosophy and psychology (lewis & smith, 1993). nickerson (as cited in schafersman, 1991) characterizes a good critical thinker in terms of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and habitual ways of behaving and lists some of the characteristics of a good critical thinker as follow:  uses evidence skillfully and impartially  organizes thoughts and articulates them concisely and coherently  distinguishers between logically valid and invalid inferences  suspends judgment in the absence of sufficient evidence to support a decision  understands the difference between reasoning and rationalizing  attempts to anticipate the probable consequences of alternative actions  understands the idea of degrees of belief  sees similarities and analogies that are not superficially apparent  can learn independently and has an abiding interest in doing so  applies problem-solving techniques in domains other than those already learned according to schafersman (1991), critical thinking can be taught during lectures, laboratories, homework, quantitative exercises, term papers, and exams. 2. empirical research there have been some studies done worldwide aiming at finding the relationship among the classroom management, critical thinking, and years of teaching experience (of course not done simultaneously). in a study by smith (2002), it was revealed that teachers, who employed strong beliefs in their critical thinking abilities, were better problem solvers in their classrooms and obtained strong perceptions in their classroom management. in a similar research done by simonsen, fairbanks, briesch, myers, and sugai (2008), it was found that teachers, who had positive beliefs about classroom management skills had similar beliefs about the critical thinking abilities as well. one research study, conducted by unal and unal (2012), demonstrated that experienced teachers were more likely to prefer to be in control in their classrooms than beginning teachers while interacting with students when making decisions. the results of the study done by demirdag (2015) indicated that teachers had positive beliefs about their classroom management skills and critical thinking abilities. however, the findings also indicated that there was not any significant relationship between classroom management skills and critical thinking abilities of high school teachers. hamidi and khatib (2016) investigated the interplay among emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. their findings showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the classroom management and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. 3. method 3.1. participants a total of 85 teachers including 50 females and 35 male participants, ranging in age from 20 to 38 and varied in their elt experience from 2 years to 18 years participated in this research. fifty-two of the teachers had m.a. and thirty-three of them had b.a. degree in tefl and translation. iranian teachers at intermediate, upper-intermediate, and advanced levels from private english language m. zakian the interplay among efl teachers´ teaching experience, critical thinking, and classroom management 33 institutes were selected based on convenience sampling to take part in the study from mazandaran province. 3.2. instruments the researchers employed two kinds of instruments to conduct this correlational research: a questionnaire on critical thinking by honey (2000), and a questionnaire on classroom management by martin and sass (2010). the critical thinking questionnaire intends to explore what a person might or might not do when thinking critically about a subject. developed by honey (2000), this questionnaire aims at evaluating the three main skills of comprehension, analysis, and evaluation of the participants. it is a likert-type questionnaire with 30 items that allows researchers to investigate the learners’ ability in note-taking, summarizing, questioning, paraphrasing, researching, inferencing, discussing, classifying, outlining, comparing and contrasting, distinguishing, synthesizing, inductive, and deductive reasoning. the questionnaire of classroom management, developed by martin and sass (2010), was also used. it was a 5-point likert-type questionnaire with 24 items including the components of behavioral management as well as instructional management. 3.2. procedure participants were given the classroom management questionnaire first. it took them 10 minutes to complete. they were then given the critical thinking questionnaire to fill out. as to the critical thinking questionnaire, the participants were asked to rate the frequency of each category they used on a 5-point liker-scale option, ranging from never (1 point), seldom (2 points), sometimes (3 points), often (4 points), to always (5 points). therefore, the participants’ scores would range from 1 to 5. participants’ scores were ranked ordinally from 1 to 5. the researchers used spearman’s rank-order correlation formula to answer the research questions 1 and 2. 4. result 4.1. answering the first research question the first research question of this research was as follows: rq1. is there any statistically significant relationship between classroom management and critical thinking of iranian efl teachers? since the data did not enjoy normal distribution, the non-parametric spearman rank-order correlation test was used. the following table shows the result of the correlation test between the classroom management and critical thinking of iranian efl teachers (table 1). table 1. the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test between the classroom management and critical thinking classroommanagement criticalthinking correlation coefficient 1.000 .722** sig. (2-tailed) . .000 classroommanagement n 86 86 correlation coefficient .722** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .000 . spearman's rho critical-thinking n 86 86 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). the spearman rank-order correlation was run to determine the relationship between iranian efl teachers’ classroom management and critical thinking. the result of data analysis showed that there was a strong positive correlation between iranian efl teachers cm and ct, which was also statistically significant, rs = .722, p ˂.05. thus, the null-hypothesis that there is no brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 34 statistically significant relationship between iranian efl teachers’ classroom management and their critical thinking was rejected. 4.2. answering the second research question the second research question of this research was as follows: rq2. do efl teacher’s years of experience have any statistically significant role in their classroom management ability? since the data did not enjoy normal distribution, the non-parametric man-whitney u test was used for the mean comparison. the following table shows the ranks-table for the two variables (table 2). table 2. ranks table for the teachers with 2-10 and 11-18 years of experience experience-year n mean rank sum of ranks 2-10 4 7 37.01 1739.50 11-18 3 9 51.32 2001.50 classroommanagement total 8 6 as it can be seen in table 2 above, the mean rank for the teachers with 2-10 (n= 47) and 1118 (n=39) years of experience are 37.01 and 51.32 respectively. table 3 below shows the result of the mann-whitney u test. table 4.3 the man-whitney u test for the teachers with 2-10 and 11-18 years of experience classroom-management mann-whitney u 611.500 wilcoxon w 1739.500 z -2.648 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .008 a. grouping variable: experience-year the mann-whitney u test was run to compare the mean scores of the teachers with 2-10 (n= 47) and 11-18 (n=39) years of experience considering their classroom management ability. the result of the mann-whitney u test showed that there was statistically significant difference between the two groups, u=611.50, p = .008˂0.05. therefore, the null hypothesis that teacher’s years of experience do not have any statistically significant role in their classroom management ability was rejected, putting emphasis on the superiority of the more experienced teachers in their classroom management ability. 5. discussion and conclusion considering the importance of the classroom management ability and critical thinking skills in the success of foreign language teachers and efl teaching, the present study was an attempt to seek the possible relationship between the classroom management, critical thinking, and years of teaching experience of iranian efl teachers. the result of the data analysis showed that there was an almost strong positive relationship between iranian efl teachers classroom management and critical thinking, which was also statistically significant, rs = .722, p ˂.05. the result of the mannwhitney u test for the second inferential statistics showed that there was statistically significant difference between the teachers with different teaching experiences, u=611.50, p = .008 ˂ 0.05. m. zakian the interplay among efl teachers´ teaching experience, critical thinking, and classroom management 35 hence, it was concluded that more experienced teachers had better classroom management ability. the result of this study was in line with the findings of unal and unal (2012) in which it was shown that experienced teachers were more likely to prefer to be in control in their classrooms than beginning teachers while interacting with students when making decisions. findings of hamidi and khatib (2016) also support the results of this study by showing that there was a statistically significant relationship between the classroom management and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. although demirdag (2015), in his research, indicated that teachers had positive beliefs about their classroom management skills and critical thinking abilities, his findings were in contrast to the findings of the present study in that he found no significant relationship between classroom management skills and critical thinking abilities of high school teachers. this could be due to the context in which he carried out the study (turkey) or the place in which the study was carried out (high school vs. private language institute). the findings of the present research showed a positive relationship between the classroom management and critical thinking of iranian efl teachers indicating that the ability of critical thinking improves as the ability to control and manage the class increases. findings further indicated that more experienced teachers were more likely to prefer to be in control in their classrooms than beginning teachers while interacting with students as confirmed by unal and unal (2012). teachers tend to change their thinking and management skills as they become more experienced. it can also be concluded, as supported by simonsen et al. (2008) and smith (2002), that teachers, who employ stronger beliefs in their critical thinking abilities, can be better problem solvers in their classrooms and may obtain stronger perceptions in their classroom management. this study can have some implications for teacher educators and language institute managers. teacher educators should bear in mind that both critical thinking and classroom management abilities are crucial elements of successful teachers. therefore, in their education process, educators need to focus on these two abilities in order to have more effective teachers. language institute managers need either to hire more experienced teachers in order to have better teaching personnel or to work on both critical thinking and classroom management abilities of their available teachers. it is suggested that the classroom management and critical thinking abilities of efl teachers be compared to each other across levels of proficiency. gender comparison would perhaps yield an interesting result in that male/female teachers might be found to differ in their classroom management or critical thinking ability. references ascione, b., frank, r., &walter, r. (1982). classroom management in elementary mainstreaming classrooms. journal of educational psychology, 74 (1), 85-95. bessick, s. c. (2008). improved critical thinking skills as a result of direct instruction and their rela tionship to academic achievement (unpublished doctoral dissertation). indiana university of pennsylvania. brophy, j., & evertson, c. (1976).learning from teaching: a developmental perspective. boston, ma: allyn and bacon. burden, p. r. (1995).classroom management and discipline. longman, white plains, ny. brookfield, s. d. (1991). developing critical thinkers: challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting. boston: open university press. brophy, j. e. (1996). teaching problem students. new york: guilford. bosch, k. (2006). planning classroom management: a five-step process to creating a positive learning environment. thou sand oaks, ca: corwin press. carter, k., & doyle, w. (1995). preconceptions in learning to teach. the educational forum, 59 (2), 186-195. chamot, a.u. (1995). learning strategies and listening comprehension. in d. mendelsohn & j. rubin (eds.), a guide for the teaching of second language listening (pp. 13-30). san diegi, california: dominie press. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 36 demirdag, s. (2015). the relationship between critical thinking abilities and classroom management skills of high school teachers. retrieved from http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/err/article-full-text-pdf/53f819051913 diestler, s. (2001). becoming a critical thinker: a user friendly manual. nj: prentice hall. doyle, w. (1990). classroom knowledge as a foundation for teaching. teachers college record, 91, 347–360. dubin, f., & oldstein, e. (1986). course design. cambridge: cambridge university press. ennis, r. (1987). a taxonomy of critical thinking dispositions and abilities. informal logic, 18 (2), 165-182. ennis, r. (2011). critical thinking: reflection and perspective part i. critical thinking across the dis ciplines, 26 (1) 4-18. emmer, e. t., sanford, j. p., clements, b. s., & martin, j. (1982). improving classroom management and organization in junior high schools: an experimental investigation. austin: university of texas. emmer, e. t., sanford, j. p., evertson, c. m., clements, b. s., & martin, j. (1981). the classroom management improvement study: an experiment in elementary school classroom. austin: univer sity of texas. emmer, e., evertson, c., & anderson, l. (1980). effective management at the beginning of the school year. elementary school journal, 80, 219–231 evertson, c. m., & emmer, e. t. (1982). preventive classroom management. in d. duke (ed.), helping teachers manage classrooms (pp. 2–31). alexandria, va: ascd. evertson, c., emmer, e., sanford, j., & clements, b. (1983). improving classroom management: an experiment in elementary classrooms. elementary school journal, 84, 173–188. fuller, b. & clark, b. (1994). raising school effects while ignoring culture? conditions and the influ ence of classroom tools, rules and pedagogy. review of educational research, 6 (1), 119 – 57 evertson, c. m., & weinstein, c. s. (2006). classroom management as a field of inquiry. handbook of classroom management: research, practice, and contemporary issues (pp. 3-16). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. fawns, r., & nance, d. (1993). teacher knowledge, education studies and advanced skills. credentials australian journal of education, 37, 3, 248-258. freely, a. j., & steinberg, d. l. (2000). argumentation and debate: critical thinking for reasoned de cision-making. stamford: wadsworth. fisher, a. (2001). critical thinking: an introduction. new york: cambridge university press. fahim, m., bagherkazemi, m., &alemi, m. (2010). the relationship between test takers’ critical thinking ability and their performance on the reading section of toefl. journal of language teaching and research, 1, 830-837 fahim, m., & komijani, a. (2010). critical thinking ability, l2 vocabulary knowledge, and l2 voca bulary learning strategies. journal of english studies, 1, 23-38. gonzalez, l., & carter, k. (1996). correspondence in cooperating teachers' and student teachers' in terpretations of classroom events. teaching and teacher education, 12 (1), 39-47. grosser, m. m., & nel, m. (2013). the relationship between the critical thinking skills and the academic language proficiency of prospective teachers. south african journal of education, 33 (2), 1-17. hamidi, h. (2016). determining the teaching experiential capital in higher education through hybrid assessment (unpublished doctoral dissertation). university of science and research, tehran, iran. hamidi, h., & khatib, m. (2016). the interplay among emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 7 (2), 49-58. hamidi, h., & montazeri, m. (2014). dictionary of second language acquisition. retrieved from m. zakian the interplay among efl teachers´ teaching experience, critical thinking, and classroom management 37 http://www.iranelt.com/index.php/introduction-to-sla. huitt, w. (1998). critical thinking: an overview. educational psychology interactive. retrieved from http://chiron.valdostaedu/whuitt/col/cogsys/critthnk.html. hagger, h., &mcintyre, d. (2000). what can research tell us about teacher education? oxford review of education, 26(3-4), 483-495. honey, p. (2000). critical thinking questionnaire. retrieved from http://www.peter honey publica tions.com. kerrins, j., &cushing, k. (2000). taking a second look: expert and novice differences when observing the same classroom teaching segment a second time. journal of personnel evaluation in educa tion, 14 (1), 5-24. lewis, a., & smith, d. (1993). defining higher order thinking. theory into practice, 32(3), 131– 137. lewis, t. j., & sugai, g. (1999). effective behavior support: a systems approach to proactive school wide management. focus on exceptional children, 31, 1-24. little, s. (1997). preparing tertiary teachers for problem-based learning. in d. boud & g. feletti (eds.), the challenge of problem based learning (pp. 36-44). london: kogan page limited. martin, n. k., yin, z., & baldwin, b. (1998). construct validation of the attitudes and beliefs on classroom control in ventory. journal of classroom interaction, 33 (2), 6-15. martin, n.k. & sass, d.a. (2010). construct validation of the behavior and instructional management scale. teaching and teacher education, 26 (5), 1124-1135. nikoopour, j., amini farsani, m., &nasiri, m. (2011). on the relationship between critical thinking and language learning strategies among iranian efl learners. journal of technology & education, 5, 195-200. richards, j. c., & farrell, t.s.c. (2005). professional development for language teachers. new york: cambridge university press. richards, j. c., & schmidt, r. (2010). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguis tics. london: pearson education. rashid, r. a., &hashim, r. a. (2008). the relationship between critical thinking and language profi ciency of malaysian and undergraduates. proceedings of the international conference, symposia and campus events, 19-21. australia: edith cowan university. sanford, j., &evertson, c. (1981). classroom management in a low ses junior high: three case studies. journal of teacher education, 32(1), 34–38. sabers, d., cushing, k., &berlinder, b. (1991). differences among teachers in a task characterized by simultaneity, multidimensionality, and immediacy. american educational research journal, 28(1), 63-88. schafersman, s. d. (1991). an introduction to critical thinking. retrieved from facultycen ter.ischool.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/critical-thinking.pdf. scriven m., & paul, r. (2004). defining critical thinking: a statement to the national council for ecellence in critical thinking. retrieved fromhttp://www.criticalthinking.org/ universi ty/univclass/defining.html. simonsen, b., fairbanks, s., briesch, a., myers, d., & sugai, g. (2008). evidence-based practices in classroom management:considerations for research to practice.educ. treatment children. 31(3), 351-380. smith, l. (2002). reconceptualizing context from a situated perspective: teacher beliefs and the activity of teaching within the context of science reform (unpublished doctoral dissertation). the university of utah. unal, z., & unal, a. (2012). the impact of years of teaching experience on the classroom management approaches of elementary school teachers. retrieved fromfiles.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed533783.pdf. vaughn, l. (2008). the power of critical thinking: effective reasoning about ordinary and extraordinary claims. oxford: oxford university press. varrella, g. (2000). science teachers at the top of their game: what is teacher expertise? clearing brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 38 house, 74 (1), 43-45. wilkins, d. (1974). second language learning and teaching. london: edward arnold. wright, i. (2002). is that right? critical thinking and the social world of the young learner. toronto: pippin publishing corporation weinstein, c. s., &mignano jr., a. j. (1993). elementary classroom management: lessons from re search and practice. new york: mcgraw-hill. maryam zakian has been teaching english for about 10 years at different english language institutes as well as universities. she has carried out a number of research studies, translated many scholarly articles, and presented a number of papers in different conferences and seminars inside the country. her area of interest includes call, language assessment, teacher education, and research statistics. she is currently a faculty member at the state university of science and technology of mazandaran. microsoft word issue-4.docx b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 november, 2018 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 2 about the journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next issues of the brain in january, 2019. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles for the future issues is the 1stth of february, 2019. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief:  bogdan pătruţ, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania managing editor:  agata asofroniei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania editors:  frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland  angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain  barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania  carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania  monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 – 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2018 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 6. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 7. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 8. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 9. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 10. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 11. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 12. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 13. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 14. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 15. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 16. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 17. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 18. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 19. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 20. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 21. heather k van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 22. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 4 23. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 24. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 25. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 26. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 27. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 28. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 29. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 30. valeriy perminov, tomsk polytechnic university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 31. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 32. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 33. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 34. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 35. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 36. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 37. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 38. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) consultant reviewers 39. dorin bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 40. răzvan bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 41. cătălin buiu, politehnica university of bucharest, bucharest, romania (robotics) 42. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl milan, italy (computer science) 43. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 44. piotr p chruszczewski, polish academy of sciences, university of wroclaw, poland (social sciences) 45. utku köse, uşak university, uşak, turkey (artificial intelligence) 46. ioan maxim, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (computer science) 47. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence) 48. ioan lucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (linguistics) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 5 49. saim rasheed, king abdulaziz university, jeddah, saudi arabia (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 50. kamil roman, maria curie-sklodowska university in lublin, poland (smart city concept, intelligent transport systems, sustainable urban development) 51. tiberiu socaciu, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 52. hassan soleimani, payame noor university, tehran, iran (applied linguistics) 53. elena-mădălina vătămănescu, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest (social sciences), romania 53. dmytro zubov, soochow university, suzhou, jiangsu, china (computer science) microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 38 teaching area studies through two different on-line platforms valentina marinescu university of bucharest, blvd. regina elisabeta 4-12, bucharest 030018, romania phone: 021 307 7300 vmarinescu9@yahoo.com abstract e-learning includes forms of teaching supported by the internet, computers, mobile devices, video tapes, and satellite tv. the term can apply both to out-of-classroom and in-classroom teaching. in recent years e-learning has become increasingly popular at universities around the world, because technology is a part of virtually every aspect of life. rapid evolution of communication has changed language pedagogy and language use, enabling new forms of discourse and new ways to create and participate in communities (kern 2006, 1). under such circumstances it is important to explore new possibilities in teaching new topics and to give students a taste of new challenges. according to blake (2008, 2) technology, if used wisely, could play a major role in enhancing l2 learners’ contact with the other cultures and languages, especially in the absence of studying abroad. traditional classes can become more interesting when combined with technology. wong and looi (2010, 14) claim that online-learning can fill in the gaps between formal learning styles. the present article presents the opinions and attitudes towards on-line set of courses for a sample of 80 romanian students who were enrolled in an on-line learning project in “area studies” namely, east asia studies. the project covered two academic years (2015 and 2016) and leads to the establishment of a virtual network of east european and central asia universities on “area studies”. at the end of each course students were asked to fill a short questionnaire about the online course they attend. the results of this small-scale survey showed both the positive character of using e-learning tools for teaching “area studies” and their limitations. at the same time, due to the length of the project (e.g. two years covered through different courses) the results allowed to make a comparison between two online platforms used during classes – bluejeans and cisco webex – and to devise the ways of improving the future uses of online platforms during the next academic year’ courses. key-words: e-learning platforms, learning, students’ assessments. 1. e-learning and online platforms in romania studies conducted in recent years have shown an increasing demand for distance learning programmes, especially those programs that primarily use e-learning solutions. the percentage of students preferring the part-time education has increased during 2000-2009, on average, from 17.6% to 25.3% of all students in the european countries which had adopted the bologna system in tertiary education (eacea, 2012). e-learning includes forms of teaching supported by the internet, computers, mobile devices, video tapes, and satellite tv. the term can apply to out-of-classroom and in-classroom teaching. in the twenty-first century, e-learning has become increasingly popular at universities around the world, because technology is a part of virtually every aspect of life. rapid evolution of communication has changed language pedagogy and language use, enabling new forms of discourse and new ways to create and participate in communities (kern, 2006: 1). so it is important to explore new possibilities in teaching foreign languages and to give students a taste of new challenges. according to blake (2008: 2) technology, if used wisely, could play a major role in enhancing learners’ contact with the target language, especially in the absence of studying abroad. traditional classes can become more interesting when combined with technology. according to wong and looi (2010: 14) e-learning can fill in the gaps between formal learning styles. of course, studying foreign languages only through internet media cannot entirely replace teachers. instructors v. marinescu teaching area studies through two different on-line platforms 39 and attending lectures are very important. furthermore, if the preferences and needs of language learners can be allowed to have bearing on what is learnt and how, mobile technologies have a clear role to play in the realization of such an objective (kukulska-hulme, 2009: 164). in recent years, romanian higher-education e-learning has been developing, but is still at an early stage. thus, the first romanian online educational portal, www.1educat.ro, was developed in 2001 and its success had led to the launch of academia on-line elearning system, in 2003 (falcescu and istrate, 2003). at the same time, learning with ict or online support have seen a strong development in recent years in romania, most universities having their courses on e-learning platforms – of moodle or other open source environments (tuomi, 2013; siemens, 2005), but only after login in with an affiliate student or teacher account. in the same time, the internet penetration in romania is now up to 55%, the mobile internet use doubled in the last years and its broadband speed situated romania on top 1-3 in the last years (vasiu and and one, 2014). over the last decade, there has been a tremendous amount of distance education research (anderson and rourke, 2005; hanor and hayden, 2008; saw et al., 2008), with a common focus on the use in education of video, videoconferencing, and video streaming systems on demand. this research shows that interactive videoconferencing and video streaming technologies can be extremely effective media for delivering quality education to geographically dispersed student populations. video conferencing involves a two-way video, audio and data communication between two or more parties over a remote connection (jeong and lee, 2007). video conferencing is carried out over a variety of media, the most popular of which uses internet protocol (ip) technology. the cost of video conferencing over ip is getting so low that it has become the most popular means of video conferencing (surender, 2007). in the existing scientific literature, there has been an emergence of papers analysing the impact of instructional ict-based innovations on student performance. these works can be divided into two different groups, depending on the methodology used in the analysis of digital effects and on the conclusions about the efficiency of online courses. on one hand, there are studies that have assessed that online students perform worse than their face-to-face counterparts (brown and liedholm, 2002; coates, humphreys, kane and vachris, 2004). works in this group compare online with on-campus courses and share a common trait: they define online courses as a homogeneous commodity, without a detailed specification of the methodology and technology used in teaching and learning processes; this constraint does not allow them to capture differences in performance for different complementarities of teaching method, ict uses and student profile. on the other hand, some works defend the idea that the discussion about whether or not to use technology in higher education courses is no longer of concern because the real significant issue is in what manner technology is used at the university, teacher and student level (deed and edwards ,2010; sosin, blecha, bartlett and daniel, 2004). in other words, the benefit for students’ performance derived from the adoption of innovations in the technology of teaching and learning does not affect all teaching and learning methodologies equally, because this benefit is based on a necessary equilibrium between institutional policy towards ict adoption, students’ abilities, technology uses in the educational process by teachers and students, and the selection of a methodology that matches with digital uses. 2. research methodology the present study is focused on the analysis of students’ opinions and assessments regarding the content and ways of presenting an on-line set of courses for a sample of romanian students who were enrolled in an on-line learning project in “area studies” namely, east asia studies. the on-line courses were delivered by and within a network of european and asian tertiary education institutions starting with 2012 until 2016. the network covered twelve countries, brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 40 including romania, and it functioned as a virtual network of east european and central asia universities on “area studies”. courses were delivered one lecture per week on a virtual platform and each course last one academic semester. various professors delivered courses and the evaluation of students took into account both physical presence and activities within the off-line environment (individual and group assignments in the classroom) and on-line platforms (forum discussions, on-line debates etc). at the end of each course students were asked to fill a short off-line (printed) questionnaire about the course they attend. the questionnaire had a standardised shape and focused on the opinions and assessments regarding the content of the course, ways in which the topic was presented, technical issues related to on-line platforms. no socio-demographic data regarding the respondents was recorded in all successive ‘waves’ of questionnaires’ application. the sample used in this study has a volume of 80 students, 62 women and 18 men, all aged 20-30 years, from different faculties of the university of bucharest namely, sociology, history, political sciences, foreign languages, letters, law. the data were collected in four ‘waves’: may 2015, december 2015, may 2016 and december 2016. both deductive and inductive statistics were performed in analysing the set of data with the help of spss package. 3. research hypothesis we have the following research hypothesis for our analysis: h1: romanian students will favour on-line courses over off-line courses in their overall academic assessments of east asia studies programs. h2: romanian students will positively assess their performances derived from using the elearning platforms in teaching and learning about east asia. h3: romanian students will assess off-line courses as homogeneous whole, without paying attention to the technological aspects (e.g. e-learning platforms) used in teaching and learning about east asia. 4. data analysis during the two years considered 40,6% of the students had used the cisco webex platform, while 59,4% of the sample had used bluejeans for on-line courses. as regards the courses they have followed, 28,1% of the students followed a course on “international relations”, 25% of them were enrolled the introductory course on “arts in east asia”, 18,8% of students were enrolled in “research design in social sciences”, 15,6% of respondents followed the course “identity politics in post-soviet space” and 12,5% of the students have attended the course “political economy in central and eastern asia”. when we consider the e-learning platform on which the courses were delivered the results showed that 40,6% of the students attended courses delivered using ciscowebex platform and 59,45% of them were enrolled in courses which had been delivered through bluejeans platform. only two courses (“political economy in central and eastern asia” and “research design in social sciences”) used a unique platform in both years considered and the rest of them had been delivered via both cisco-webex platform and bluejeans one (see in this respect table 1). table 1. type of the platforms and name of the course delivered name of the platform name of the course attended cisco-webex platform bluejeans platform identity politics in post-soviet space 40 60 arts in east asia 37,5 62,5 international relations 22 77,8 political economy of development in central and eastern asia 100 research design in social sciences 100 v. marinescu teaching area studies through two different on-line platforms 41 when asked about the degree of satisfaction with the course they attended 37,5% of the students strongly agreed with the sentence “overall the course was satisfactory and i would recommend this course to other students”, while 28,1% of them “agreed” on that and only 12,5% “disagreed” with this sentence. as regards the satisfaction with a specific course delivered online our data showed that the students enrolled at the courses “international relations” and “identity politics in post-soviet space” had a higher degree of satisfaction: 66,7% and, respectively, 40% declared that they “strongly agree” with the sentence “overall the course was satisfactory and i shall recommend it to other students”. at the same time, “political economy of development in central and eastern asia” was the course less appreciated by the students, with only 25% of them “strongly agreeing” and “agreeing” on the fact that it was satisfactory (see also table 2). table 2. overall the course was satisfactory and i shall recommend it to other students and name of the course name of the course overall the course was satisfactory and i shall recommend it to other students identity politics in post-soviet space arts in east asia international relations political economy of development in central and eastern asia research design strongly agree 40 12 66,7 25 33,3 agree 20 50 11,1 50 so and so 20 25 11,1 25 16, disagree 20 12,5 11,1 25 strongly disagree 25 when the degree of satisfaction about the course is assessed together with the e-platform on which it was delivered one could notice that those streamed live on cisco-webex platform received a greater percentage (77% “strongly agree” and “agree” with the fact that the course was satisfactory) than those which used bluejeans (57,9% “strongly agree” and “agree” with the same sentence) (see in this respect table 3). table 3. overall the course was satisfactory and i shall recommend it to other students and type of platform name of the platform overall the course was satisfactory and i shall recommend it to other students cisco-webex platform bluejeans platform strongly agree 38,5 36,8 agree 38,5 21,1 so and so 7,7 26,3 disagree 15,4 10,5 strongly disagree 5,3 the percentage of the students who assessed that the quality of on-line instruction was similar to classroom based instruction was very high – 73,1% of the total sample. 72,5% of the students who were enrolled in a course delivered via cisco-webex platform and 57,9% of those who attended a course presented on bluejeans platform agreed that they could not find any difference between off-line lectures and their on-line courses in east asia studies. from here we can conclude that our first research hypothesis (h1) was not validated by the empirical data. a set of questions from our questionnaire referred to respondents’ self-assessments of own performances related to attending the on-line courses on east asia studies. our results showed that a difference in personal assessments of performance in learning between the students who attended their course on one platform or another was recorded. students who were enrolled in courses brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 42 delivered via cisco-webex platform “strongly agreed” with the fact that “the textbook and course materials helped me to acquire knowledge” (53,8%), with the statements “the course assignments were manageable and helpful for the learning process” (46,2%) and with “i was comfortable by taking the course via the videoconferencing” (46,2%). for those students who attended the courses which used bluejeans platform the sentences with which they “strongly agreed” in a higher percentage were “the textbook and course materials helped me to acquire knowledge” (68,4%) and “i was comfortable by taking the course via the videoconferencing” (63,2%) (see table 4 in this respect). table 4. assessments of performances related to attending the on-line courses on east asia studies and type of platform strongly agree on the fact that… ciscowebex platform bluejeans platform the text book and course materials helped me to acquire knowledge 53,8 68,4 the level of difficulty of this course was challenging and appropriate 38,5 21,1 the course assignments were manageable and helpful for the learning process 46,2 15,8 i was comfortable by taking the course via the videoconferencing 46,2 63,2 the lectures were conducted in a punctual manner. a substitute class was offered for any cancelation of the class 30,8 36,8 moving beyond the descriptive presentation of data and using the inductive statistics we can notice that the positive assessments of the course assignments, the use of e-learning platforms and the ways in which the courses were conducted were positively correlated with the platforms used to deliver the courses (see in this respect table 5). table 5. assessments of performances related to attending the on-line courses on east asia studies bivariate correlations platform pearson correlation -.051 sig. (2-tailed) .624 the text book and course materials helped me to acquire knowledge n 96 pearson correlation -.045 sig. (2-tailed) .666 the level of difficulty of this course was challenging and appropriate n 96 pearson correlation .330(**) sig. (2-tailed) .001 the course assignments were manageable and helpful for the learning process n 96 pearson correlation .273(*) sig. (2-tailed) .015 i was comfortable by taking the course via the videoconferencing n 78 pearson correlation .115 sig. (2-tailed) .263 the lectures were conducted in a punctual manner. a substitute class was offered for any cancelation of the class n 96 ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). v. marinescu teaching area studies through two different on-line platforms 43 when a logistic regression was modelled with the same set of data one can notice that the textbook and course materials play a significant role in the degree of positive assessments of students’ own performance at the on-line courses, with every addition of such materials resulting in a 9% increase in the odds that the e-learning learning and teaching would be highly appreciated and, on the other hand, in a 3% increase in the odds that the students will assess the level of the course as challenging and appropriate. the fact that the lectures were conducted in a punctual manner and a substitute class was offered for any cancelation of the class leads to a 1,5% increase in the odds that the students’ would positively assess their own performance at the on-line courses on east asia studies. we can say, as such, that our second research hypothesis (h2) was validated both by the descriptive and inductive statistics. table 6. assessments of the on-line courses as a whole and type of platform strongly agree on the fact that… cisco-webex platform bluejeans platform the professor was good at motivating the students to participate in the class 23,1 31,6 the course was delivered in accordance with the syllabus 46,2 47,4 the professor clearly explained the evaluation methods; objective grading standards were applied 61,5 47,4 my participation in the classroom was the same as in a regular classroom 42,9 10,5 i think the quality of instruction was similar to classroom based instruction 85,7 31,6 the courses which were delivered via cisco-webex and bluejeans platforms had been assessed mainly as a whole, the students did not pay much attention to the technological aspects (e.g. e-learning platforms) used in teaching and learning about east asia. thus, 61,5% of those students who used cisco-webex platform and 47,4% of those enrolled on the courses delivered through bluejeans platform “strongly agreed” that their participation in the on-line classes was the same as in a regular one. also, 85,7% of the students who attended a course on cisco-webex platform and 31,6% of those who were enrolled in a course which used bluejeans platform “strongly agreed” that the quality of instruction in those on-line courses was similar to classroom based instruction (see also table 6). the professor’s involvement in the lectures delivered, personal evaluation of the online courses as similar with the off-line ones and the assessment of on-line instructions’ quality was positively correlated with the platforms used to deliver the courses (see in this respect table 7). as the data shows, in terms of the assessments of the on-line courses as a whole, the teacher’s abilities to motivate the students to participate in the class plays a significant role, every additional effort of the teacher in this respect resulting in a 7% increase in the odds that the on-line course will be assessed as a homogeneous whole. the fact that the professor clearly explained the evaluation method and he/she applied objective grading standards at the end of the course leads to a 4%increase in the odds that the students will neglect the technological aspects (e.g. e-learning platforms) used in teaching and learning about east asia. one can notice, again, that the third research hypothesis (h3) was validated both by descriptive statistics and by inferential modelling of the empirical set of data we have analysed. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 44 table 7. assessments of the on-line courses as a whole bivariate correlations platform pearson correlation ,133 sig. (2-tailed) ,196 the professor was good at motivating the students to participate in the class n 96 pearson correlation ,079 sig. (2-tailed) ,442 the course was delivered in accordance with the syllabus n 96 pearson correlation ,011 sig. (2-tailed) ,917 the professor clearly explained the evaluation methods, objective grading standards were applied n 96 pearson correlation ,238(*) sig. (2-tailed) ,036 my participation in the classroom was the same as in a regular classroom n 78 pearson correlation ,302(**) sig. (2-tailed) ,007 i think the quality of instruction was similar to classroom based instruction n 78 * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). 5. conclusions pedagogical researches and the existing academic literature (allen, 2002) have proved that e-learning technologies not only influenced student learning capabilities and teaching methods, but globally supported the development of the student centred learning model, by having a strong impact on both teaching and learning (allen, 2002). therefore, e-learning systems tend to be viewed more and more as advanced tools which assist teachers in creating a cooperative, multidisciplinary and explorative learning environment and students in accessing these learning facilities and developing learning interactions within this environment (holotescu, 2014). those changes in the educational model are clear exemplified by our empirical results. our first research hypothesis (h1) was not validated by the descriptive statistics. the romanian students did not favour on-line courses over off-line courses in their overall academic assessments of east asia studies programs. on the contrary, in 2015 and 2016 they tended to equate the quality of on-line courses with that of off-line ones. instead, the second research hypothesis (h2) was validated both by the descriptive and inductive statistics. the romanian students positively assessed their performances derived from using the e-learning platforms in teaching and learning about east asia topics. the same situation was recorded in the case of the third research hypothesis (h3), which was validated by our analysis. the romanian students had assessed the courses delivered via eplatforms as homogeneous wholes. they did not differentiate between the quality of the off-line and on-line courses, paying little attention to the technological aspects used in teaching and learning about east asia. our analysis showed that video conferencing enabled learning is a new way of acquiring knowledge, which is highly adaptable to different kinds of student profiles, from people that do not have time to attend normal courses to a practical enhancement of ordinary courses with additional access to the knowledge. as the results of our survey showed, the use of e-learning platform in v. marinescu teaching area studies through two different on-line platforms 45 teaching and learning about one domain (in our case, east asia studies) co-operation, exchange of knowledge and consultation processes among students and available expert authorities (professor/instructor) were considered as having the same importance as other aspects of learning, such as the contents that are provided in books and materials for the courses. beyond methodological and practical implications, the present study has some elements of theoretical relevance. as the results showed, the “new” educational model developed through the use of e-learning platforms encouraged students to become more responsible of their educational path and modified the teachers’ role: the professors were tutors who guided the students in the educational universe created by the e-learning system and emphasized cooperative and project learning. for future studies in the field of on-line education, our results suggest that more refined items could be inserted into analysis to measure more specific the impact of e-learning platforms on teaching and learning area studies. references allen, m. (2002). guide to e-learning, wiley, 2002. anderson, t. & rourke, l. (2005). videoconferencing in kindergarten-to-grade 12 settings: a review of the literature. edmonton: alberta education. blake, r. j., chun, d. m., & morningstar, k. d. (2008). brave new digital classroom. calico journal, 28(2): 569-570. brown, b.w. & liedholm, c. e. (2002). can web courses replace the classroom in principles of microeconomics?. the american economic review, 92 (2), 444-448. coates, d., humphreys, b. r., kane, j., vachris, m. a., agarwal, r., & day, e. (2004). no significant distance between face-to-face and online instruction: evidence form principle of economics. economics of education review, 23, 533–546. deed, c. & edwards, a. (2010). using social networks in learning and teaching in higher education: an australian case study. international journal of knowledge society research, 1(2), 1–12. eacea. (2013). the european higher education area in 2012: bologna process implementation report. retrieved from http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice elearningeuropa. (2016). elearning europa. retrieved from http://www.elearningeuropa.info falcescu, d. & istrate, o. (2003). academia online platforma educationala de elearning. in laboratorul pentru tehnologia informatiei în educatie al fumn (ed.) tehnologie si educatie. fundația universitară a mării negre, bucurești. hanor, j. & hayden. k. (2008). expanding distance learning through videoconferencing. 24th annual conference on distance teaching & learning. retrieved from http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/resource_library/proceedings/08_12735.pdf holotescu, c. (2014). oer in romania, poerup project: policies for oer uptake report. retrieved from http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/romania jeong, c. & lee, e. (2007). context aware human computer interaction for ubiquitous learning. in symposium on human interface and the management of information. (pp. 364-373). springer berlin heidelberg, 2007. kern, r. (2006). perspectives on technology in learning and teaching languages. tesol quarterly, 40(1), 183-210. kukulska-hulme, a. (2009). will mobile learning change language learning? recall, 21(2), 157165. saw, k. g., majid, o., ghani, n. a., atan, h., idrus, r. m., rahman, z. a., & tan, k. e. (2008). the videoconferencing learning environment: technology, interaction and learning intersect. british journal of educational technology, 39 (3), 475-485. siemens, g. (2005). connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age. international journal of instructional technology and distance learning, 2(1), 3-10. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 46 sosin, k., blecha, b. j., agarwal, r., bartlett, r. l., & daniel, j. i. (2004). efficiency in the use of technology in economic education: some preliminary results. the american economic review, 94(2), 253-258. retrieved from http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~rajshree/research/17%20sosin%20et%20al.%20-%202004.pdf tuomi, i. (2013). open educational resources and the transformation of education. european journal of education, 48 (1), 58-78. vasiu, r. & andone, d. (2014, november). oers and moocs the romanian experience. in web and open access to learning (icwoal), 2014 international conference on (pp. 1-5). ieee. wong, l. h., & looi, c. k. (2010). vocabulary learning by mobile-assisted authentic content creation and social meaning-making: two case studies. journal of computer assisted learning, 26(5), 421-433. 91 abstracts brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2 june 2016 www.brain.edusoft.ro editor in chief: bogdan pătruţ 1. motor imagery signal classification for bci system using empirical mode décomposition and bandpower feature extraction dalila trad, tarik al-ani, mohamed jemni abstract the idea that brain activity could be used as a communication channel has rapidly developed. indeed, electroencephalography (eeg) is the most common technique to measure the brain activity on the scalp and in real-time. in this study we examine the use of eeg signals in brain computer interface (bci). this approach consists of combining the empirical mode decomposition (emd) and band power (bp) for the extraction of eeg signals in order to classify motor imagery (mi). this new feature extraction approach is intended for non-stationary and non-linear characteristics mi eeg. the emd method is proposed to decompose the eeg signal into a set of stationary time series called intrinsic mode functions (imf). these imfs are analyzed with the bandpower (bp) to detect the characteristics of sensorimotor rhythms (mu and beta) when a subject imagines a left or right hand movement. finally, the data were just reconstructed with the specific imfs and the bandpower is applied on the new database. once the new feature vector is rebuilt, the classification of mi is performed using two types of classifiers: generative and discriminant. the results obtained show that the emd allows the most reliable features to be extracted from eeg and that the classification rate obtained is higher and better than using the direct bp approach only. such a system is a promising communication channel for people suffering from severe paralysis, for instance, people with myopathic diseases or muscular dystrophy (md) in order to help them move a joystick to a desired direction corresponding to the specific motor imagery. 2. computational intelligence in a human brain model viorel gaftea abstract this paper focuses on the current trends in brain research domain and the current stage of development of research for software and hardware solutions, communication capabilities between: human beings and machines, new technologies, nano-science and internet of things (iot) devices. the proposed model for human brain assumes main similitude between human intelligence and the chess game thinking process. tactical & strategic reasoning and the need to follow the rules of the chess game, all are very similar with the activities of the human brain. the main objective for a living being and the chess game player are the same: securing a position, surviving and eliminating the adversaries. the brain resolves these goals, and more, the being movement, actions and speech are sustained by the vital five senses and equilibrium. the chess game strategy helps us understand the human brain better and easier replicate in the proposed ‘software and hardware’ sah model. 92 3. redesigning a flexible material master data application with language dependency mihaela muntean, cornelia muntean abstract based on some inconveniences identified within a material master data application of the sap mm module, the current paper proposes an alternative technical solution for designing the popup layout screen of the material master data application with respect to language dependency. the application should present the text of all tabs, areas and fields in the desired language based on the user logon preferences. also it has been implemented a possibility to sort the data in the desired order, so the customer isn’t forced, as before, to search for a certain field, when updating certain materials. the proposed solution suggests the use of five database tables, combined within three maintenance views, which build a view cluster. the advantage of the redesigned application consists of easier maintainability of the data (fields, areas and tabs can be easily added, deleted, reordered and renamed) and all the data within the view cluster can be translated into any language supported by the system. 4. from oer to open education: perceptions of student teachers after creating digital stories with creative common resources gemma tur, santos urbina, juan moreno abstract the current study explores the perceptions of three groups of student teachers in spain after having used open licensed resources to construct their storytelling artifacts as oer. the theoretical framework briefly reviews the concept of open education and oer and the affordance and drawbacks previously observed in research. data is obtained through a survey that enables the observation of students’ tendency to adapt oer, open educational practices and the open movement. the results reveal a general positive impact on student perceptions, although nuances and challenges are observed. the part containing the discussion and conclusions suggests some implications of this current step of research for future implementation in teacher education and related research. 5. the presence and activity on facebook of the informative travel organizations in romania alexandru mircea nedelea, mihai costea abstract in the context of a general increase in tourism activity and in the number of trips, and given that the consumption preferences of tourists are changing rapidly, the need for information becomes urgent and there is a concomitant development of public and private organizations involved in providing the necessary information to tourists who reach for the first time a tourist destination. this category includes tourist information centers (tics), tourism promotion associations and tourism clubs. being intensively based on information, the activity of informative tourism organizations suffers multiple changes, often radical, proving to be a favorable environment for the implementation of new information technologies due to their role in terms of providing and sharing information. in this sense, facebook has special implications, being considered one of the fastest and most effective tools of social media, especially regarding the distribution of information and the promotion of products and services. the major objective of this research aims to highlight the stage of development of informative tourism organizations in romania through the filter of facebook visibility and communication. in this regard, we analysed the current state of presence and communication on facebook of 109 tourism entities from 25 different counties of romania: 43 tourist information centers, 44 entities with the name of association (tourism promotion association, ecotourism associations etc.), 18 travel clubs and 4 tourist information point/offices. 93 6. the interplay among emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers hadi hamidi, mohammad khatib abstract the present study was an attempt to investigate the interplay among iranian efl teachers’ emotional intelligence, classroom management, and their general english language proficiency. the result of the data analysis showed that: 1) there was a statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the classroom management of iranian efl teachers, 2) there was a statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers, and 3) there was a statistically significant relationship between the classroom management and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. teacher trainers, researchers in teacher education, and language teachers may benefit from the findings of the present research. 7. the effect of caretakers’ frequency and positional saliency on noun bias in persian children: a study on child language development hassan soleimani, mahboubeh rahmanian, manoochehr jafari gohar abstract noun bias in children’s early vocabulary development is a long-held belief. the present study intended to examine the correlation between the input features like frequency and positional saliency in infant-directed speech and the noun bias characteristic of infants in their early child lexical development. to this purpose, the utterances of ten persian children aged 1;4 and their caretakers at a kindergarten in isfahan, iran, were transcribed for twelve sessions. persian language with its sov order that gives much importance to verbs compared to nouns can make noun bias hypothesis of infants unstable. the results demonstrated a positive correlation between the frequency of nouns and verbs in persian caretakers’ utterances and the lexical development of children on age of 1;4. the transcriptions also identified a significant noun bias in the utterances of persian children. therefore, the lexical items in adult utterances can predict the initial lexical repertoire of infants. it can be inferred that nurture and the utterances heard by children might play a significant role in child vocabulary development. 8. on the relationship between brain laterality and language proficiency in l2: a replication study nima shakouri, parviz maftoon abstract the present paper attempted to investigate whether there is any significant relationship between participants' brain laterality and l2 proficiency level. to carry out the experiment, 30 participants administered in the present study. fifteen of them did not have any english language learning experience and were at the start of language learning, while the rest had attended l2 learning classes for about 2 years in a popular english language center, located in bandar-e anzali, iran. finally, the researchers concluded that the activity of the right hemisphere went up by the increase in language proficiency among bilinguals. thereupon, the result of the paper was at variance with albert and obler's (1978) early work on hemispheric differentiation, which indicated that bilinguals were less hemispheric dominant than monolinguals. 94 9. two new software behavioral design patterns: obligation link and history reminder stefan andrei, arnob saha, sojibur rahman abstract finding proper design patterns has always been an important research topic in the software engineering community. one of the main responsibilities of the software developers is to determine which design pattern fits best to solve a particular problem. design patterns support the effort of exploring the use of artificial intelligence in better management of software development and maintenance process by providing faster, less costly, smarter and on-time decisions (pena-mora & vadhavkar, 1996). there has been a permanent interest in finding new design patterns, especially in the last two decades. many new design patterns apply in various areas of computer science, such as software security, software parallelism, large-scale software evolving, artificial intelligence, and more. to the best of our knowledge, the “obligation link” and “history reminder” design patterns are new and can be applied in software development in many areas of computer science including artificial intelligence. 95 instructions for authors author guidelines authors must submit their papers via email to brain@edusoft.ro or they can create an account and submit their papers online, at www.brain.edusoft.ro. submitted papers must be written in doc format (microsoft word document), in as clear and as simple as possible english. preferred maximum paper length for the papers is 20 pages, including figures. the template for the paper is at this address: http://brain.edusoft.ro/new_template_for_brain.doc the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point times new roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. the title will be bold 14-point, and the author will be 12-point italic. figures have caption in bottom-center side, and tables have captions in left-top side. use a tab for identing each paragraph and the subtitles, too. the subtitles will be bold 12-point. please use microsoft word 97-2003, or word 2010, 2013. we encourage the authors to use the camera ready format even for the first submission. all paper submissions will be carefully reviewed by an editor, and by the members of the scientific board or independent experts, who will provide a written feedback with comments and ratings. authors will be notified of acceptance in maximum 3 weeks. accepted manuscripts should be revised according to the comments of the reviewers and of the editors. for questions concerning manuscript submission, contact mr. bogdan patrut by mail at bogdan@edusoft.ro. submission preparation checklist as part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 1. the submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the editor). 2. the submission file is in microsoft word (doc, docx) or rtf document file format. 3. where available, urls for the references have been provided. 4. the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 5. the text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the author guidelines, which is found in about the journal. 6. the instructions in ensuring a blind review have been followed. ensuring a blind peer review to ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. this involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their 96 review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: 1. the authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. 2. with microsoft office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under file in word), by clicking on the following, beginning with file on the main menu of the microsoft application: file > save as > tools (or options with a mac) > security > remove personal information from file properties on save > save. 3. with pdfs, the authors' names should also be removed from document properties found under file on adobe acrobat's main menu. copyright notice authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a creative commons attribution license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work privacy statement the names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. 97 indexing our journal is currently indexed/listed in the following indexing services and international databases: 1. emerging sources citation index, esci web of science (thomson-reuters) 2. directory of open access journals (doaj) 3. ebsco (ebsco open access computer science, ebsco open access journals, ebsco open access medical and health collection) 4. indexcopernicus 5. the linguist list 6. google academic 7. ulrichs 8. getcited 9. genamics journalseek 10. zeitschriftendatenbank (zdb) 11. j-gate 12. sherpa/romeo 13. dayang journal system 14. public knowledge project 15. bium (bibliothèque interuniversitaire de medecine et d'odontologie) 16. newjour 17. articlereach direct 18. link+ also, some universities and organizations list our journal in their online libraries: 1. geneva foundation for medical education and research 2. base (bielefeld academic search engine) 3. river campus libraries (univ. of rochester) 4. tulips (university of tsukuba library)) 5. showa university library 6. keio university (shinamomachi media center) 7. university of pennsylvania 8. university of modena and reggio emilia 9. tel aviv university, gitter-smolarz library of life sciences and medicine 10. national autonomous university of mexico, genomic sciences center, institute of biotechnology 11. saint petersburg state university 12. university of puerto rico 13. vrije universiteit brussel 14. queensland university of technology 15. university of florida 16. john brown university 17. université paris-descartes 18. university of regensburg 19. michigan state university 20. university of colorado boulder 21. university of glasgow 22. washington university in saint louis 23. wayne state university 24. california state university, long beach 25. brown university, providence, rhode island http://wokinfo.com/media/pdf/s024651_flyer.pdf 98 26. the university of honk kong 27. university of nevada, reno 28. ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen 29. dowling college, new york state 30. colgate university, new york state http://library.colgate.edu/record=b3185340*eng 99 table of contents 1. motor imagery signal classification for bci system using empirical mode décomposition and bandpower feature extraction 5 dalila trad, tarik al-ani, mohamed jemni 2. computational intelligence in a human brain model 17 viorel gaftea 3. redesigning a flexible material master data application with language dependency 25 mihaela muntean, cornelia muntean 4. from oer to open education: perceptions of student teachers after creating digital stories with creative common resources 34 gemma tur, santos urbina, juan moreno 5. the presence and activity on facebook of the informative travel organizations in romania 41 alexandru mircea nedelea, mihai costea 6. the interplay among emotional intelligence, classroom management, and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers 49 hadi hamidi, mohammad khatib 7. the effect of caretakers’ frequency and positional saliency on noun bias in persian children: a study on child language development 59 hassan soleimani, mahboubeh rahmanian, manoochehr jafari gohar 8. on the relationship between brain laterality and language proficiency in l2: a replication study 69 nima shakouri, parviz maftoon 9. two new software behavioral design patterns: obligation link and history reminder 78 stefan andrei, arnob saha, sojibur rahman abstracts 91 instructions for authors 95 © 2016 edusoft microsoft word issue3.docx 63 comparison of the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational cultural attitudes among nurses fatemeh rezaei department of nursing, islamic azad university, babol branch gorji abad, babol, 47135, iran phone: 011 32415132 ostadebartar@yahoo.com maedeh faraji douki department of nursing, razi hospital, qaemshahr, iran mazandaran province, qaemshahr, yoosef reza, iran phone: +98 11 4221 8018 shaghayegh gorzin mataee department of nursing, razi hospital, qaemshahr, iran mazandaran province, qaemshahr, yoosef reza, iran phone: +98 11 4221 8018 zeynab marzban department of nursing, faculty of nursing and midwifery, babol branch islamic azad university gorji abad, babol, 47135, iran phone: 011 32415132 elham mirza department of nursing, faculty of nursing and midwifery, babol branch islamic azad university gorji abad, babol, 47135, iran phone: 011 32415132 abstract introduction: considering the importance of emotional intelligence and its impact on different spheres of life, including career progression, job satisfaction, work environment and organizational performance, this article has been designed to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational culture of nurses. methods: the research is a descriptive analytical and cross-sectional study which was performed on 168 nurses of ayatollah rohani hospital in babol using two emotional intelligence questionnaires (α=0.93) and hofstede organizational culture questionnaire (α=0.73). sampling method was simple random. data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (pearson correlation coefficient test). findings: there is a direct and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational culture (r=0.61); also, there was an inverse and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and male-female cultures (r=-0.23); there was no relationship between emotional intelligence and other organizational culture scales, including individualism-collectivism, trust-risk culture, and the culture of the distribution of just-unfriendly power. conclusion: considering the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational culture in this study, and also the influence of some of the components of emotional intelligence on organizational culture, education of all indicators of emotional intelligence is recommended for the growth and enhancement of individual and professional capabilities of individuals. keywords: emotional intelligence, organizational culture, nurses brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 64 1. introduction emotional intelligence as a form of capacity for the ability to perceive, express, recognize, use and manage the excitement of oneself and others (mayer & salovey, 2010), and in terms of bar-on, the non-cognitive abilities are skills that affect the ability of a successful encounter with the demands, constraints and environmental pressures (bar-on, 2010). its features include: understanding your own feelings, using for proper decisions in life, the ability to manage your mood (taylor et. al., 2010) the use and management of your excitement and others (mayer et. al., 2011), enjoy happiness and vitality, independence and better performance in work and having success and more in life (saarni, 2010). emotional intelligence has advantages and disadvantages. in this regard, goleman introduces both individual and organizational dimensions. in the dimension of self-evaluation and self-awareness, lead to recognizing the strengths and areas of progress, increasing the capabilities and social capabilities, the skills of obtaining peace of mind, self-esteem and high motivation. organizational dimension leads to higher levels of learning, teamwork and greater motivation, less satisfaction and less ethical problems, increased creativity and innovation, better returns and better job performance (goleman, 2011). according to mount et al., emotional intelligence capabilities play an important role in the workplace (mount et. al., 2012). robbins believes that today, in order to improve performance in organizations, knowledge about emotions can be used (robbins, 2012) and this knowledge in the development and job satisfaction (abraham, 2012) organizational performance, decision-making, motivation, leadership, interpersonal conflicts (dearborn, 2013); because individuals succeed in paying attention to emotional abilities and in their communications can well understand the feelings of others and respond to them accordingly, and this is the ability to create the appropriate organizational culture and context in the organization, which is a competitive advantage in today's competitive world. it can be said that while the driving force behind the developments of the twentieth century has been intelligence or rational intelligence, according to the evidence at the beginning of the 21st century, emotional intelligence will bring about change. in a study, stead showed that among the indicators of emotional intelligence, such as evaluation, self-esteem, location, control and emotional stability are among the best job and career predictors (stead, 2015). brown in a study found that emotional intelligence for successful leadership is essential and that leaders must have all the features of emotional intelligence including consistency, optimism, empathy, and self-consciousness (brown, 2014). studies conducted by barik and mount showed that emotional intelligence and behavioral characteristics play a significant role in the stability and job performance (barrick & mount, 2010). barsade and gibson concluded that intimate and social people who express their feelings are more effective and successful in their careers (barsade & gibson, 2010). megerian and sosik showed in their studies that managers who have self-awareness (one of the emotional intelligence scales) have more influence on subordinates than those who are not self-aware (sosik & megerian, 2010). in a study, stain and book concluded that emotional and social skills play an important role in the ability of individuals to acquire jobs that they want. abraham concluded that there was a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and control with job satisfaction and organizational commitment (stein & book, 2011). the results of mokhtaripour, siyadat and amiri's study showed that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and variables such as leadership efficiency, double effort, and effectiveness (mokhtaripour et. al., 2015). on the other hand, organizational culture is considered as an important and fundamental component in the body of the organization and as a social reality based on the interactions of members of the organization (smircich, 2010). in other words, organizational culture can be understood as the norms, values, and assumptions that the organization's members share, and in addition to giving a distinct identity to the organization, it ensures the integrity of the employees, and gradually develops certain norms and values and assumptions, although it is a product of organizational life, it also affects behavior. this could have an effect on the organization's performance. therefore, the type of organization’s culture and its relationship with different variables has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of management. research results f. rezaei, m. f. douki, s. g. mataee, z. marzban, e. mirza comparison of the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational cultural attitudes among nurses 65 indicate that organizational culture has a significant relationship with creativity and job satisfaction and inversely correlates with burnout (andriopoulos, 2011). in this regard, considering the mentioned issues and the role and effect of emotional intelligence and organizational culture on performance, stability, survival and job satisfaction, this study was designed to answer this research question; is there a relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational culture among nurses in ayatollah rohani hospital in babol? 2. methods the study is descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional. the statistical population of this study was all nurses of ayatollah rohani hospital in babol in 2017. they were selected by simple random sampling method in 168 subjects. after receiving the referral, the researcher received the statistics and characteristics of the nurses from the hospital statistics department and made simple random sampling. then, in the office hours, referring to the nurses concerned, they completed the questionnaires individually and in person to complete the sample. the required information was collected through two questionnaires of emotional intelligence and organizational culture of hofstede (hofstede et. al., 1990). in this regard, the questionnaire of emotional intelligence consists of 90 questions in 15 scales (problem solving, happiness, independence, stress tolerance, self-flourishing, self-awareness, realism, interpersonal relationships, optimism, self-esteem, shake control, flexibility, accountability, empathy and self-expression). the questionnaire was standardized and its reliability was reported through cranbach's alpha (α = 0.87). the hofstede cultural organizational questions has 25 closed-answer questions in four dimensions (malefemale-femininity; individualism-collectivism; assurance-risk-taking; the distribution of just-unfriendly power) with cranbach's alpha of 0.73. descriptive statistics and pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data using spss-18 software. 3. findings the following descriptive indexes including mean and standard deviation of emotional intelligence and then organizational culture have been reported: problem solving was 22.83 ± 2.08, happiness was 21.5 ± 2.7, independence was 22.38 ± 3.6, stress tolerance 20.27 ± 3.29, self-flourishing was 24.16 ± 3.32, emotional self-awareness was 21.44 ± 3.68, realism was 20.98 ± 3.5, interpersonal relationships were 24 ± 4.2, optimism was 23.15 ± 2.56, selfesteem was 22.56 ± 3.59, shaking control was 20.46 ± 3.89, flexibility was 18.3 ± 3.65, social accountability was 25.33 ± 2.45, 24.15 ± 3.08 and 24.07 ± 4.38 respectively. the results indicate that the highest mean is related to the index of accountability, empathy and interpersonal relationships. the mean and standard deviation of organizational culture is as follows: male-female-femininity was 2.16 ± 0.62; individualism-collectivism was 3.54 ± 0.51; avoiding uncertainty 4.25 ± 0.42 and a power distribution of 3.6 ± 0.37. according to the above results, on the scale of male-female-femininity, the cultural balance; on the scale of the individualism-collectivism, the culture of collectivism; on the scale of reliability-risk taking, the culture of avoiding uncertainty and on the scale of fair-unfair power, the culture of unfair power has been identified. table 1. relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational culture variables emotional intelligence organizational culture correlation coefficient 0.61 significance level <0.0002 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 66 according to table 1, there is a direct and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational culture. the results of table 2 show that there is an inverse relationship between emotional intelligence and male-female-femininity culture, but there is no relation between emotional intelligence and other scales. table 2. the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational culture indicators variables malefemalefemininity individualismcollectivism reliabilityrisk taking fair-unfair power emotional intelligence correlation coefficient -0.23 0.016 0.17 0.08 significance level 0.001 0.85 0.014 0.22 4. discussion in the present study, direct and significant relationship was found between emotional intelligence and organizational culture (table 1). the result is in line with the results of moshabaki and khalili shojaee's research (2009) (moshabaki et. al., 2010). it is also consistent with the results of weihua, blanche, martins, andriopoulos, ahmadi et al. research on the relationship between organizational culture and creativity (martins et. al., 2013; ahmadi et. al., 2011). emotional intelligence includes a set of abilities that can lead to a person's better living in various aspects of his individual, family, social, educational, and career life. people with these abilities can better communicate in different areas, and have the maximum use of the minimum facilities available. these individuals with high emotional intelligence and having the appropriate competencies and emotional skills that affect their abilities can be achieved by agreeing on the values and beliefs in the organization that is, organizational culture, adaptation to change, coordination in work, and alignment of the goals of the individual in pursuit of organizational goals in the proper manner. concerning the effect of emotional intelligence on organizational culture indexes or the opposite of organizational culture on emotional intelligence, four sub-hypotheses suggested in the present study were not approved for hypotheses and three hypotheses were not approved (table 2). this means that there is an inverse relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational cultural attitudes based on male-femalefemininity indices, means, by increasing the emotional intelligence of the staff culture from patriarchy. in the case of the results, a similar study was not found to make the comparison. in explaining this result, one can point out that the role of men and women in the world today is close together and women as an independent and self-employed workforce, women have gone a long way in the economic field and, based on their considerable merits, have taken important positions in various areas of the community; this relationship can be attributed to the incredible qualities and competencies of women; or, in other words, emotional intelligence seems to lead culture toward meritocracy. also, because more percentage of the research sample was devoted to women, they reflect a different role from the gender perspective in the workplace. there was no relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational culture attitudes based on the index of individualism-collectivism (table 2). obviously, with regard to the characteristics of emotional intelligence, it is believed that, as it grows, the ruling culture of the organization should be a culture of collectivism; particularly in today's organizations where teamwork and group work are of particular importance, employees are likely to be unaware of the commitment and responsibility they face to individual work and the characteristics of the work f. rezaei, m. f. douki, s. g. mataee, z. marzban, e. mirza comparison of the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational cultural attitudes among nurses 67 environment between the two communication variables. on the other hand, the culture of collectivism in the workplace may not be encouraged and made to work on them in the workplace, as well as limitations or accountability. therefore, despite the high mean of empathy, social responsibility in the emotional intelligence test, there was no correlation between emotional intelligence and collectivist culture. however, people show their emotions, perspectives, and behaviors based on the feedback and conflict of the environment. there was no relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational culture index of reliability-risk taking (table 2). it seems that the result can be due to this, although people with emotional intelligence do not become confused and anxious due to features such as optimism, accountability, realism, problem solving, and high stress tolerance in dealing with obstacles and problems, and by working diligently, they are willing to avoid risks due to their knowledge of organizational structure and characteristics of the work environment, and they are more than likely to accept certain predictable outcomes. there was no relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational cultural views based on the distribution index of fair-unfriendly power relations (table 2). emotional intelligence indicators are such that individuals with emotional intelligence with flexibility as well as centrality of power identify and know well who, how, where and where they should benefit from it. as part of the work they want for others, on the other hand, in organizations and working environments, there is a different definition of power and centrality, and there is little room for maneuver for balanced views. therefore, employees must come up with a combination of what they are. accordingly, emotional intelligence with the distribution of power is not associated with a specific time. 5. conclusion considering the results and the effect and impact of the two variables studied in this study, as well as the effect and importance of emotions on individuals' behavior, organizations can work in agreement on the values and beliefs in the organization, that is, the organization's culture, in order to coordinate individual and organizational goals in order to increase the organization's performance. also, the effectiveness of organizations is not possible without considering emotional intelligence, because the most important asset of organizations is its human resources. regarding the characteristics of emotional intelligence, teaching its indicators, especially negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, shake control and tolerance of psychological stress that can be very effective in the organization's work process is recommended. references mayer, d.j., & salovey p. (2010). what is emotional intelligence: inp. salovey & d. sluyter (eds). emotional development and emotional intelligence: implication for educators. new york: basic books, pp. 3-31. bar-on, r. (2010). the emotional quotient inventory (e-q-i): technical manual. toronto canada: multi health systems. inc. taylor, c., lillis, c., lemone, p., & lynn, p. (2010). fundamentals of nursing: the art and science of nursing care. 7th ed. philadelphia: lippincott williams & wilkins. mayer, j. d., salovey p., caruso, d. r., sitarenios g. (2011). emotional intelligence as a standard intelligence emotional 2011, 1, pp. 232-242. saarni, c. (2010). issues of cultural meaning fullness in emotional development. development psychology 2010, 34, pp. 647682. goleman, d. (2011). leader ship that gets results. harvard business review 2011, 8 (2), pp. 88100. mount, g., island, f., & druskt, v. (2012) linking emotional intelligence and performance at work: current research evidence with individuals and groups. the american journal of psychology, 122 (1), pp. 131. available from: http: \\ www.workpsychologyarena.com robbins, s. (2012). organic behavior, 9th ed. prentice hall, inc. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 68 abraham, r. (2012) negative affectivity: moderator or confound in emotional outcome relation. dearborn k. (2013). studies in ei redefine our approach to leadership development public personnel management. available at: www.findarticles.com. stead, m. (2015). career change emotional intelligence for knowledge workers. www.ezinearticles.com. brown, i. m. (2014). emotional intelligence important to business success. american business journals inc., 26 (3), pp. 64. barrick, m. r., & mount, m. r. (2010). the big five personality dimensions and performance: a meta analysis. journal of personal psychology. barsade, s., & gibson, d. e. (2010). group emotion: a view from the top and bottom. ind getal (ed). research on managing groups and teams. greenwich: ct: and i press. sosik, j. j., & megerian, l, e. (2010). understanding leader in emotional intelligence and performance. group & organization management, 2 (3), pp. 36-39. stein, s., & book, h. (2011). the eq edge. new york on: standard. mokhtaripour, m, siyadat, s. a., & amiri, s. (2015). the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership performance in educational group leaders from the university of isfahan. journal of foundations of education, 8 (2), pp. 95-110. smircich, l. (2010). concepts of culture and organizational analysis administrative academic quarterly. management journal, 35, pp. 1036-1056. andriopoulos, c. (2011). determinants of organizational creativity: a literature review. management dec., 39 (10), pp. 834-840. hofstede, g., neuijen, b., ohayv, d. d., & sanders, g. (1990). measuring organizational cultures: a qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases. administrative science quarterly, 35(2), pp. 286–316. moshabaki, a., kh. shojaee, v. (2010). the relationship of emotional intelligence of managers and organizational climate with organizational learning (case study: national iranian oil company). applied sociology; 20 (3), pp. 51-74. martins, e. c., & blanche, f. (2013). building organizational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation, european. journal of innovation management, 6 (1), pp. 64-74. ahmadi, s. a. a., mobaraki, h., daraei, m. r., & salamzadeh, y. (2011). analyzing the relationship between organizational culture and staff creativity in the ministry of health and medical education. j shahrekord univ med sci, 13 (4), pp. 28-34. microsoft word brain_8_2017_issue_1_vers3.docx 5 image finder mobile application based on neural networks nabil m. hewahi department of computer science, college of information technology, university of bahrain, sakheer p.o. box 32038, kingdom of bahrain nhewahi@uob.edu.bh saira rashid department of computer science, college of information technology, university of bahrain, sakheer p.o. box 32038, kingdom of bahrain monrichi@msn.com abstract nowadays taking photos via mobile phone has become a very important part of everyone’s life. almost each and every person who has a smart phone also has thousands of photos in their mobile device. at times it becomes very difficult to find a particular photo from thousands of photos, and it takes time. this research was done to come up with an innovative solution that could solve this problem. the solution will allow the user to find the required photo by simply drawing a sketch on the objects in the required picture, for example a tree or car, etc. two types of supervised artificial neural networks are used for this purpose; one is trained to identify the handmade sketches and other is trained to identify the images. the proposed approach introduces a mechanism to relate the sketches with the images by matching them after training. the experimentation results for testing the trained neural networks reached 100% for the sketches, and 84% for the images of two objects as a case study. keywords: image recognition, neural networks, sketches. 1. introduction this research is a base for a mobile application which will allow users to find specific pictures from their mobile devices by drawing a sketch of the object. the aim of this research is to provide a possible solution and techniques to develop such an application. artificial neural networks (ann) is one of the best solutions available for pattern recognition, handwriting recognition, image recognition, and machine learning (egmontpetersen et al., 2002; ramírez-quintana et al., 2012; yang et al., 2012). in our research work we us ann as a recognizing tool. a number of sketches and real images are collected and treated independently using neural networks. ann can be used in classification and clustering, where classification can be performed using supervised learning, whereas clustering can be performed using unsupervised learning. a supervised learning based on ann is used in our research. in ann supervised learning, the system has to first be trained using several training examples, and only after we expect it to be able to recognize any problem instance related to the training examples and the system domain. the backpropagation algorithm is being used to train our neural networks (rumelhart et al., 1986). two anns are used, one for sketches training and another for real images training. 1.2 background bergen (2011) stated that from the invention of cameras to the present day, around 3.5 trillion photos have been taken over the course of history. today, people are taking four times more photos than they were 10 years ago. it is estimated that nowadays, every two minutes, people snap as many photos as the entire world took in the 1800s. so the number of photos is brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 6 dramatically increasing and day-by-day it is becoming difficult for people to find some specific photos among the huge number of photos stored in their devices. when the user wants to find out a certain picture in his mobile, he/she has to search it image by image, which takes too much time. another option is to tag each image, but this process is not suitable either because the user has to remember the tags, not to mention that giving tags to images also takes time. in this work we propose another solution to solve the problem by allowing the user to sketch an object for it to be found among the real images saved in the mobile. the proposed solution is based on supervised neural networks using the backpropgation algorithm. egmont-petersen (2002) raised a major question in their research and tried to answer it. the question was the following: “what are the major applications of neural networks in image processing now and in nearby future” (egmont-petersen et al., 2002). figure 1. methodology used in the research by (egmont-petersen et al., 2002) figure 1 shows the methodology used by egmont-petersen et al. (2002) to come up with an answer to their research question. their study says that image recognition using neural networks goes through the stages shown in figure 1. in our research we shall use this general proposed approach. yang et al. (2012) conducted a research on the character feature extraction method based on the integrated neural network. in their research, the hand written recognition system was developed using integrated neural networks. in order to do so, to train the network, there was conducted an experiment to demonstrate the use of the integrated back-propagation neural network algorithm, and good results were achieved. basu et al. (2010) studied the use of artificial neural network in pattern recognition. in their study, they tried to summarize and compare few of the well-known methods that are used in various phases of a pattern recognition system using artificial neural network. they also tried to identify research topics and applications of artificial neural network. they summarized and compared the research done on interactive voice response (ivr), stock price pattern recognition, load forecasting for electric power system, face recognition, electrocardiogram (ecg) pattern recognition, rain attenuation model, optical character recognition (ocr), fault detection of induction motor and linear matched filtering, all based on artificial neural network. they found that after applying artificial neural networks to each of the above pattern recognition methods, they showed better results as compared to the those obtained without applying artificial neural networks. n. m. hewahi, s. rashid image finder mobile application based on neural networks 7 ramírez-quintana et al. (2012) presented a very good survey on applying neural networks on image processing applications in various areas such as engineering, science, medicine, industry and security. this study covered 160 related papers and concluded that neural networks perform very well in medicine, especially with mri segmentation and detection. however, the performance was better with applications related to biometrics. this study has led to the conclusion that neural networks will last for a long period for image processing applications. based on various applications of neural networks on image recognition and classifications, we select neural networks as a tool to help us in developing our application. 2. methodology in this section we present in details the methodology used for this research. figure 2 depicts the used methodology. the adopted approach is based on first training the system to be able to recognize certain sketches by providing it with various hand-drawn examples such as trees, cars and mountains. secondly, the system has to be trained again to recognize real images by providing it with real images such as trees, cars and mountains. figure 2. the used approach figure 2. the used approach train system to analyse sketches and generate weights train system to analyse real images and generate weights use the weights and classify the images in the mobile device store the classified images names in database new images added to the device will be classified and added to the database take the sketched image drawn by the user, analyze it and go to the database to find the matching images. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 8 the training process we use in both trainings is based on neural networks, using the backpropgation algorithm. by using this algorithm, we are going to finally obtain the weights that will be used in our model to make the system recognize the input given by the user. figure 3. the used methodology once the training for the hand drawn sketches is over, we are going to get weights that will be used to recognize any inputted hand drawn sketches. for example, if the user draws a tree, the system will be able to recognize what has been drawn as a tree, using the obtained weights from the neural networks. on the other hand, once the training for the real images is n. m. hewahi, s. rashid image finder mobile application based on neural networks 9 over, it means that if we provide our system with a real image, for example a tree, the system will be able to recognize it using the obtained weights from the training phase. the general mechanism to be followed is: 1.train the system to recognize hand drawn sketches using neural networks and get the final weights of the neural network. 2.train the system to recognize real images using neural networks, and get the final weights of the neural network. 3.using the weights obtained in step 2, recognize all the images in the mobile. 4.store the recognized images in step 3 in a special database in the mobile phone containing information about the image and its class/category (tree or a car for example). 5.any new image saved in the mobile phone can be recognized by our system and added to the database. 6.if the user draws a sketch, the system will recognize the sketch, and then it searches in the database to find and show all the corresponding drawings. it means, if the drawing is a tree, the application will show all the images with a tree saved in the mobile phone. the detailed steps of the methodological approach are shown in figure 2 and figure 3. it is to be noticed that in order to apply our approach there are various steps that need to be followed, as explained in the next section. 3. the proposed approach the full details of every step in the proposed approach will be explained in this section. 3.1. data for neural network training we use two types of data, one is related to hand drawn sketches and the other is related to real images. this yields to use two neural networks as below:  data to train the neural network to recognize handmade sketches;  data to train the neural network to recognize objects in the pictures taken by the camera. 3.2. handmade sketches a mobile application is developed to collect the data of the sketches of the required objects. two types of objects are considered as a case study to be drawn onto the mobile application in various ways, to help the system get trained on various types of hand drawing related to these objects. the sketches are then cropped minutely and are converted to integer numbers based on the color intensity of each pixel. the sketches are cropped to improve the reliability of the data. instead of taking the whole area of the drawing canvas, only the part where the user made the drawing is taken into account and saved. all these steps are described below. 3.2.1. mobile application for sketches figure 5 shows the interface of the mobile application that is created to collect the data of the sketches. it contains a drawing canvas; where drawings are made and it also contains few text boxes which are filled with the information of the drawing. for example, if the drawing is a tree, ‘1’ is written in the tree text box. furthermore, the undo and redo buttons help modify the drawing and the clear button clears everything drawn onto the drawing canvas. 3.2.2. cropping the sketch the drawing of a tree is shown on the drawing canvas in figure 4. it is clear from the figure that there is some empty area on top, right, left and bottom of the drawing sketch, which can cause problems while using this image for training the neural network. therefore, there is brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 10 implemented a crop function which crops the image very minutely and removes the empty space as shown in figure 5. figure 4. mobile application to collect sketch data figure 5. cropped sketch 3.2.3. resizing the cropped sketch after the sketch is cropped it is converted to a fixed size of 40x40 pixels. this is done to keep all the sketches of same size to get the same input from every sketch for the neural network. this means we are going to have 1600 inputs for the neural networks, which is too much and will lead to a long time of training. 3.2.4 image to numbers finally, the cropped and resized image is taken and it is passed to a function that converts the image to an integer matrix of size 40x40, so a total of 1600 integer values is taken. the integer values are between 0-255, which is the color intensity of each pixel of the image. 3.2.5 reducing the size as previously described, there are a total of 1600 integers, which can be the input to the dataset for neural networks. but it is a huge number, so in order to minimize the size of inputs to n. m. hewahi, s. rashid image finder mobile application based on neural networks 11 the neural network the 40x40 matrix is reduced to 20x20 by skipping odd rows and columns of the original matrix. figure 6 shows a matrix containing green and red rows and columns. if this was the 40x40 matrix, then the red part of this matrix would be skipped to convert it into a 20x20 sized matrix. now there are only 20x20=400 values, which is a reasonable input size for the neural network. figure 6. reducing size of sketch 3.3 real pictures the other part of the developed approach is to collect the data about the same two objects of the real pictures taken by the camera. these images are converted into black and white pictures and then treated the same way as the sketches, i.e. black and white pictures are also converted into integers based on the color of each pixel. 3.4 mobile application for images another very simple mobile application is developed, one which goes through all the pictures in the mobile device and selects the pictures with the names (tree0, tree1, …) and (car0, car1, …)only, one by one, doing the following:  resizes the picture into 100x100 pixels;  applies a black and white sketch filter on the picture;  converts the picture to integer numbers according to the color intensity of each pixel;  as the object is always in the middle of the picture, out of 100x100 only the 40x40 pixels in the middle are taken into account;  the 40x40 pixels size array is then reduced to 20x20 by skipping odd rows and columns. now there are only 20x20=200 values, which is a reasonable input size for the neural network. by the end of this stage we have two datasets, one for the handmade sketches and the second one for the pictures. so at this point we are ready to start training our neural network, a process that is explained in the next chapter. 4. experimentation and results in this section, we introduce some of the implementation issues and we describe the experimentation performed to train both neural networks. 4.1. implementation the two mobile applications described in the previous section are developed using c# language and are developed for windows phone 8.1 silverlight. some of the main functions of the application are described below. 4.1.1. crop function this function takes five parameters, a writeablebitmap type of object, the location of the starting point on x coordinate, the location of the starting point on y coordinate, width and height. it crops the image according to these parameters as shown in figure 7. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 12 figure 7. cropping image 4.1.2. image to integer function this function takes only one parameter that is a writeablebitmap type of object and it returns a long array which contains the value of the color intensity of each pixel of the image. this is how it converts from image to integer. 4.1.3. reducing image size from 40x40 to 20x20 the above mentioned function is to reduce the image size from 40x40 to 20x20 by skipping one row and one column and keep each one of them. 4.2. experimentation all the experimentation is done using the open source weka. “weka is a collection of machine learning algorithms for solving real-world data mining problems. it is written in java and runs on almost any platform. the algorithms can either be applied directly to a dataset or called from your own java code”(weka-machine-learning-software-in-java.soft112.com). for each of the both neural networks for sketches and images, weka created 400 nodes for the input layer, 201 for the hidden layer and two nodes for the output layer. 4.2.1. sketch recognition it is described in the previous section that a mobile application is used to collect data about the sketches and the data is converted to 20x20=400 integer numbers to give it as input to weka. our experimentation includes only two objects for recognition i.e. trees and cars. total tree sketches used = 175 total car sketches used = 72 learning rate = 0.3 momentum = 0.2 number of epochs = 500 70% of data is used to train the neural network and the remaining 30% is used for testing the trained neural network. figure 8 shows the neural network for sketches. the results are shown in figure 9 and are as follows: total correct recognition = 100% n. m. hewahi, s. rashid image finder mobile application based on neural networks 13 total incorrect recognition = 0% error per epoch = 0.0000007 figure 8. training neural network for sketches brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 14 figure 9. weka results for sketches 4.3.2. image recognition the dataset of the real images is also treated the same way as the dataset of the sketches. total tree images used = 86 total car images used = 54 learning rate = 0.3 momentum = 0.2 number of epochs = 500 70% of data is used to train the neural network and the remaining 30% is used for testing the trained neural network. figure 10 shows the neural network for images. the results are shown in figure 11 and are as follows: total correct recognition = 83.7838% total incorrect recognition = 16.2162% error per epoch = 0.0235851 n. m. hewahi, s. rashid image finder mobile application based on neural networks 15 figure 10. training neural network for images figure 11.weka results for images 4.4. discussion based on the obtained results, it is clear that the proposed approach is very effective in recognizing the sketches. about 84% for recognizing the images is also considered to be a very good percentage, which can be improved by providing more examples or by changing some of the parameter values, such as the learning rate and the momentum. if the system works with these two percentage values, the expected accuracy cannot be less than 84%, which is very good, and in case the percentage of image recognition increases, the overall accuracy of the system will also increase. it is expected that the more objects included, the lower the percentage of accuracy, especially if the objects look like each other, but the expected accuracy would be still acceptable. the obtained results give a very good indication that the mobile application will work very well based on our approach. before fully implementing the mobile application, further experiments need to be performed. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 16 5. conclusion in this research we proposed a way to find images saved in a mobile phone by drawing sketches. the main approach is based on two supervised neural networks, one for sketches and the other for images. the experiments were performed using weka. the accuracy of sketches recognition reached 100%, whereas the accuracy of real images recognition reached about 84% with two objects, a car and tree. the obtained results give a general indication that the mobile application would give good results, however, more there need to be done more experiments with more objects in order to scale the accuracy of the approach before implementing the mobile application. some of the future directions are: 1. conducting more experiments using various objects; 2. improving the accuracy of image recognition; 3. implementing the mobile application; 4. upgrading the approach for it to be able to recognize more than one object in the sketch and image. references basu, j. k., bhattacharyya, d., & kim, t. (2010). use of artificial neural network in pattern recognition. international journal of software engineering and its applications ,4(2), 23-34. retrieved april 2, 2010 bergen, j. (2011, september 20). facebook stores 10,000x more photos than the library of congress. retrieved february 10, 2016, from http://www.geek.com/geek-cetera/facebookstores-10000x-more-photos-than-the-library-of-congress-1422873/. egmont-petersen, m., ridder, d.d. and handels, h. (2002). image processing with neural networks. pattern recognition, 35(10), pp. 2279-2301. doi:10.1016/s0031-3203(01)00178-9 machine learning software in java. (2011, march 24). retrieved may 26, 2015, from http://weka-machine-learning-software-in-java.soft112.com/ mustafidah, h., hartati, s., wardoyo, r., & harjoko, a. (2014). selection of most appropriate backpropagation training algorithm in data pattern recognition. international journal of computer trends and technology,14(2), 92-95. doi:10.14445/22312803/ijctt-v14p120 ramírez-quintana, j., a, chacon-murguia, m., i, & chacon-hinojos, j., f. (2012). artificial neural image processing applications: a survey . artificial neural image processing applications: a survey ,20(1). rumelhart, d. e., hinton, g. e., & williams, r. j. (1986). learning representations by backpropagating errors. nature,323(6088), 533-536. doi:10.1038/323533a0 yang, j., yan, x., & yao, b. (2012). character feature extraction method based on integrated neural network. aasri procedia, 3, 197-202. doi:10.1016/j.aasri.2012.11.033 microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_2.doc 5 automatic anthropometric system development using machine learning long the nguyen irkutsk national technical university, lermontov 83, 664074, irkutsk, russia thelongit88@gmail.com huong thu nguyen irkutsk national technical university, lermontov 83, 664074, irkutsk, russia thuhuongyb@gmail.com abstract the contactless automatic anthropometric system is proposed for the reconstruction of the 3d-model of the human body using the conventional smartphone. our approach involves three main steps. the first step is the extraction of 12 anthropological features. then we determine the most important features. finally, we employ these features to build the 3d model of the human body and classify them according to gender and the commonly used sizes. keywords: random forest, feature extraction, anthropometric features, data classification, 3d-model, anthropometry, image processing, artificial intelligence. 1. introduction the development of an automatic anthropometric system is a challenging problem which has various potential applications in medical monitoring, fitness and clothing industry. in this paper, we take this challenge using the state-of-the-art methods of artificial intelligence and image processing involving features analysis. the selection and dimension reduction of features are two methods commonly used to reduce the feature space. they are important components in the classification in various fields. one of the challenges in the classification is a very large number of features. features analysis and classification are challenging research topics of computer science. in this article, we present a new approach to anthropometric features extraction and classification. we select the most valuable features to model the human body. 2. related work the state-of-the-art image processing algorithms and automatic extraction of the human body features are widely used in many fields, such as non-contact measurement of body size (lin, 2008), the construction of a 3d-model of the human body (wang, 2010; lin, 2012; han, 2015). at the moment, most of the classification algorithms can handle only a limited amount of data. in quinlan (1985) and shepherd (1983) the authors proposed an approach using the decision tree algorithm in a hierarchical tree structure used to classify objects on the basis of series of rules. the decision tree classification method is very efficient and easy to understand. however, engineers must be accurate when it comes to the application using the decision trees in the building classification models as follows: the efficiency of classification based on the decision tree (series of rules) largely depends on the training data. support vector machine (svm) is widely used in the field of identification and classification as well; here readers may refer to cortes (1985), wang (2005). in aixin sun (2002) and linli xu (2005), the authors published a method for svm which can conduct classification pretty good for text classification tasks, as well as many other applications. svm is a binary classifier which operates only when data are presented with a maximum of two classes. this means that for classifying data into more than two classes, they must use svm several times in the area, which leads to an increase in time. research shows that there are many areas to improve the classification algorithms such as the use of hybrid algorithms, kernel based methods, and also features extraction, which is one of the main ways to boost the performance. integral transforms play an important role in image and signal processing. for more details (sidorov, 2014). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 3. anthropometric system our purpose is to develop an automatic measurement and modeling system based on 2d images (front and side images). this system used to image processing methods and machine learning algorithms. our system has 3 main parts; there are human body feature extraction, training and testing processes, and the classification for new data. the novelty of our approach: classification of anthropometric features based on machine learning algorithms. development a non-contact anthropometric program for the smartphones on operation system android. construction of a 3d-model of the human body based on the results of anthropometric features extraction. our system can also be used to integrate to different environments, such as online shopping websites to support users fitting their clothes sizes and medical applications. the flowchart of our anthropometric system is described in figure 1. figure 1. flowchart of anthropometric system we propose an efficient, simple and robust human body feature extraction based on the front and side images of a human body. description of anthropometric data men/women: dataset based on an experiment is used to test the system data describing the anthropometric features of men, includes 12 sizes of the human body, which are presented in figure 2. l. the nguyen, h. thu nguyen automatic anthropometric system development using machine learning 7 figure 2. human body sizes for men/women. two main methods are used in the system: graph cuts method and iterative closest point (icp) algorithm. besides, we also use these techniques in image processing: canny edge detection operator (liyuan li, 2006) and morphology are used to find the body silhouette. histogram equalization is used for adjusting image intensities to enhance contrast. we propose to use the method of supervised graph cuts image segmentation method to improve the quality segmentation of the human body parts. the method graph cuts finds the optimal solution to a binary problem. however, when each pixel can be assigned many labels, finding the solution can be computationally expensive. for the following type of energy, series of graph cuts can be used to find a convenient local mínimum. such as follows ( ) ( ) ( ) qp nqp qppp pp p ffvfidfe ,, , ,∑∑ ∈∈ += , (1) where ppn ×⊂ is a set of neighborhood pixels. )( pp fd is a function derived from the observed data that measures the cost of assigning the label fp to the pixel p. ),( , qpqp ffv measures the cost of assigning the labels fp, fq to the adjacent pixels p, q and is used to impose spatial smoothness. energy functions of the form (1) can be justified on bayesian grounds using the well-known markov random fields (mrf) formulation (s. geman,1984), (s. li, 1995). figure 3 describes the steps implemented graph cuts algorithm for the segmentation of human body parts. the results obtained are 5 main sections that include the hands, the legs, the center of the body (chest, waist, hips), and the head. the result of the display image is taken from the human image database, which was collected by us (нгуен, 2016). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 figure 3. (3.a) – the flowchart of graph cuts method; (3.b)the result of graph cuts image segmentation. the proposed method was tested on ten human subjects and the defined feature points were correctly extracted by iterative closest point (icp) for 2d curves. among these feature points, there are 15 points with geometrical properties that perfectly indicate the concavity and convexity of the curves corresponding to the definitions of the landmarks related to garment measurements. the key concept of the standard icp algorithm can be summarized in two steps: compute correspondences between the two scans. compute a transformation which minimizes the distance between corresponding points. it is forced to add a maximum matching threshold dmax. in most implementations of icp, the choice of dmax represents a tradeoff between convergence and accuracy. a low-value result in bad convergence, a large value causes incorrect correspondences to pull the final alignment away from the correct value. figure 4 describes the steps of the algorithm which determines the point features closest to object boundary. the result of the algorithm is described by images cut from the program (нгуен, 2016). l. the nguyen, h. thu nguyen automatic anthropometric system development using machine learning 9 figure 4. flowchart and results of icp algorithm random forest (breiman, 2001; breiman, 2002) is a classification method developed by leo breiman at the university of california, berkeley. in fact, random forest uses a method called “bagging” stands for the “bootstrap aggregating” idea and ho's “random subspace method” to construct a collection of decision trees with controlled variations. let us briefly outline the basic idea of a random forest algorithm below. at each tree split, a random sample of m features is drawn, and only those m features are considered for splitting. typically pm = or p 2 log , where p is the number of features. for each tree grown on a bootstrap sample, the error rate for observations left out of the bootstrap sample is monitored. this is called the “out-of-bag” error rate. the random forest is a powerful classification method because of the following. first, errors are minimized as a result of a random forest, synthesizing through training (learner). the second, random choice at every stage in the random forest will reduce the correlation between the learners in the synthesis of the results. in addition, we also found that the total error of layered forest trees depends on their individual errors in forest trees, as well as the correlation between the trees. the article uses the wrapper model (christopher tong, 2000) with the objective function for the evaluation, random forest algorithm is shown in figure 5. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 figure 5. flowchart of data classification we propose to use the method (dong thi ngoc lan, 2012) to evaluate and find out good sets of features from the original sets of features as follows: step 1: create m subsets of features from n sets of original features. each set has 2(n/m) features. including n/m equal features , n/m random features. step 2: use random forest to calculate estimates of subsets of features, then receiving a set of values of f(i)(i = 1, .., m). ∑ = = m i i kf j w 1 . step 3: the weight of each feature i is calculated by this formula: 0= ij k if the i feature is not selected in the j feature. 1= ij k if the i feature is selected in the j feature. step 4: developing a new set includes p of the best features. step 5: return to step 1 when meeting one of these two conditions: the number of features is smaller than the permitted threshold, the number of loops is determined. algorithm 1: proposed algorithm to select “important features” in this paper, we focus on presenting the result of classification for anthropometric features (men/women) based on random forest algorithm. to select optimal features from original features (12 features) using proposed algorithm, which improves from random forest algorithm. the dataset a two-dimensional table 45 x 12 includes 50 records, each record has 12 features as training data. records in the dataset are divided into classes designated by xs (extra small), s (small), m (medium), l (large) and xl (extra large) are based on standards (beretta clothing chart), (nguyen the long, 2015) and the dataset 5x12, both verification data. we set up parameters for both of process 1 and process 2: m=3 subsets of features from n=12 sets of original features. process 1: realization of the basic algorithm random forest on the anthropometric dataset for men/women will be performed 5 times. each time of run will perform diagonally verification with the number of trees 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, respectively. the results are shown in table 1. l. the nguyen, h. thu nguyen automatic anthropometric system development using machine learning 11 table 1. average run time, average value, standard deviation of basic random forest algorithm – number of trees :100,200,300,400,500 number of trees average run time average value standard deviation minimum value maximum value 100 0.2589 0.0348 0.0250 0.0139 0.0606 200 0.3851 0.0276 0.0200 0.0152 0.0352 300 0.9660 0.0217 0.0125 0.0121 0.0336 400 1.6625 0.0183 0.0150 0.0076 0.0270 500 3.2027 0.0166 0.0115 0.0102 0.0254 process 2: we employ the algorithm (see algorithm 1 above) to select the optimal features from original features (12 features) on the human database. from 12 original features, we divided into m subset based on sample function. each subset includes n/m random features. where n is the amount of features and m is the parameter to split. then we have a new file named “important features” which includes 4 features – these are the optimal features from the 12 features. we do the same part 1 with “important features” to classify with the rf algorithm. table 2 contains results of the rf classification with “important features”. table 2. average run time, average value, standard deviation of proposed algorithm – number of trees: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 to select “important features”. number of trees average run time average value standard deviation minimum value maximum value 100 0.04236 0.0116 0.00833 0.00463 0.0202 200 0.18836 0.0092 0.00667 0.00516 0.0117 300 0.5026 0.02178 0.00416 0.0040 0.0221 400 0.6564 0.00726 0.0050 0.0071 0.009 500 1.4270 0.00553 0.00383 0.00513 0.0085 4. application and results of the classification for the reconstruction of 3d-models. in the training process we defined that labels 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are matched with the model's sizes, i.e. 0: xs extra small, 1: s small, 3: m medium, 4: l large, 5:xl extra large. thus, when the testing process returns the label of each record we compared them to find the fittest model with the object in the image. 3d-models were built with the support of the library min3d (min3d library) and makehuman (make human library), and the theory is based on the method of analysis of integrated dynamic models. the program was built by java programming language. the database has 100 models, the corresponding body size xs, s, m, l, xl. each body size has 20 models that are based on the various parameters of each body. our goal is to use 4 optimal features (basic anthropometric features height, chest, waist, hip) "important features", which are selected from the proposed algorithm respectively. we created a formula to calculate and find out which model in the library is the best fitting one: ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )       −+−+−+−= ∑ = n i iiii hhwwccbbminmodel 1 2 222 where: chest (b), waist circumference (w), hip circumference (c), height (h). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 figure 6. the result of building a 3d model based on rf and svm classification with “important features”. from the chart of figure 6, we found that "important features" gave the best 3d model, which fits with the object in the image. the pattern is close to 90% compared with the true size. apply classification algorithm rf increases the accuracy of the results and reduces computing time for the program. there are many methods for data classifying. one of them is the method of the support vector machine (svm). the svm method is represented by vladimir n. vapnik (1995) in support vector machines (svm) a set of learning algorithms similar with the supervisor has two main tasks: the classification and the regression analysis. in this article we use the method of the svm classification problem for the size of the human body with 5 classes to compare the performance between svm methods and random forest algorithm. this type of svm training includes minimizing the error function: ∑ = + n i i t cww 12 1 ξ (2) subject to the constraints: ( )( ) nibxwy iii t i ...,; 101 =≥−≥+ ξξφ (3) where c is the capacity constant, w is the vector of coefficients, b is a constant, and ξi represents parameters for handling non-separable data (inputs). the index i labels the n training cases. the comparison of results (average time and error of algorithm) obtained using svm and random forest are shown in tables 3. the error of the svm algorithm is calculated based on equation (2) and the error of algorithm random forest is calculated by oob (out-of-bag) error. table3. performance of svm and random forest for data classification with an optimal set of data svm rf-100 rf-200 rf-300 rf-400 rf-500 average time 0.600 0.2589 0.3851 0.9660 1.6625 3.2027 error of algorithm 0.22 0.025 0.0200 0.0125 0.0150 0.0115 in two cases, using the svm classifier and random forest with trees 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 datasets before and after optimization commented as follows: the running time of random forest is greater comparing with svm, because more trees are generated, many cases will be considered. in particular, increasing the number of trees, while labeling is long, but random forest provides higher accuracy svm. based on anthropometric features and machine learning algorithms, we have built an android app in the smartphone environment. this app can automatically extract l. the nguyen, h. thu nguyen automatic anthropometric system development using machine learning 13 anthropometric features (12 features). the user must stand in front of the smartphone camera and takes 2 pictures. then input their height (centimeters) for calibration. the application automatically extracts human parameters to enable adequate 3d models reconstruction. the results of the android application are demonstrated in figure 7 and figure 8. figure7. model 3d of women body. figure 8. model 3d of man body. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 5. conclusion in this article, we constructed the tool for the reconstruction of an accurate 3d-model of the human body based on non-contact measurements using the conventional smartphone camera. in order to improve the efficiency of the optimal features selection and classification, we suggested using the random forest algorithm. the article details the steps of the proposed algorithm, and performed experiments to prove the correctness of our approach. we run experiments using two datasets, which are based on international standards of men and women body size. the experiments were performed and then evaluated the results obtained from the original random forest program and the proposed method, the analysis, and comparison of the schedule. the experimental data shows that the proposed method allows the random forest algorithm work faster, more stable and results are more accurate. 6. acknowledgements the authors are thankful to dr. denis sidorov for his kind interest in this work and supervision. we give thanks to aleksei zhukov for valuable discussions of random forest. references quinlan, j.r. (1985). decision trees and multi-valued attributes. in j.e. hayes and d. michie (eds.), machine intelligence 11. oxford university press (in press). shepherd, b.a. (1983). an appraisal of a decision-tree approach to image classification. proceedings of the eighth international joint conference on artificial intelligence. karlsruhe, west germany: morgan kaufmann. cortes, c. & vapnik, v.(1985). support-vector networks. machine learning, volume 20, no. 3, 273-297. lipo, w. (2005). support vector machines: theory and applications. volume 177. springer science and business media. sun, a., lim, e.p., & ng. sun, w.k. (2002). web classification using support vector machine. proceedings of the 4th international workshop on web information and data management, mclean, virginia, usa, 2002 (acm press). xu, l. & schuurmans, d. (2005). unsupervised and semi-supervised multiclass support vector machines. aaai, 904-910. lin, y.-l. & wang, m.j.j (2008).: automatic feature extraction from front and side images. in: international conference on industrial engineering and engineering management, ieee, singapore, 1949-1953. lin, y.-l. & wang, m.-j.j (2010). constructing 3d human model from 2d images. in: international conference on industrial engineering and engineering management, ieee, xiemen, 1902-1906. lin, y.-l. & wang, m.-j.j.(2012). constructing 3d human model from front and side images. expert systems with applications, vol. 39, no. 5, 5012-5018. han, e. (2015). 3d body-scanning to help online shoppers and the perfect clothes fit. the sydney morning herald. national newspaper (australia). molina, l.c., belanche, l., & nebot, a. (2002). feature selection algorithms: a survey and experimental evaluation. icdm 2002: 306-313 breiman, l. (2002), manual on setting up, using, and understanding random forests v3.1. retrieved from http://oz.berkeley.edu/users/breiman/using_random_forests_v3.1.pdf breiman, l. (2001). random forests, machine learning journal paper, vol. 45. beretta clothing chart. retrieved from http://www.ableammo.com/catalog/beretta_clothing_chart.php svetnik, v., liaw, a., & tong, c. (2000). variable selection in random forest with application to quantitative structure activity relationship, biometrics research, merck co., inc. p.o. box 2000 ry33-300, rahway, nj 07065, usa l. the nguyen, h. thu nguyen automatic anthropometric system development using machine learning 15 geman, s. & geman, d. (1984). stochastic relaxation, gibbs distributions, and the bayesian restoration of images, ieee trans. pattern analysis and machine intelligence, vol. 6, 721734. li, s. (1995), markov random field modeling in computer vision. springerverlag. min3d library. retrieved from https://code.google.com/p/min3d make human library. retrieved from http://www.makehuman.org nguyen the long, nguyen thu huong, & zhukov, a. (2015). studies of anthropometrical features using machine learning approach. supplementary proceedings of the 4th international conference on analysis of images, social networks and texts (aist). ceur workshop proceedings, 96-105. dong thi ngoc lan (2012). nghien cuu, xay dung phuong phap trich chon thuoc tinh nham lam tang hieu qua phan lop doi voi du lieu da chieu, luan van thac sy cntt, dai hoc cong nghe dai hoc quoc gia ha noi, 2012, 36-43. support vector machine (svm). retrieved from http://www.statistica.ru/branches-maths/metodopornykh-vektorov-supported-vector-machine-svm/ liyuan li, ruijiang luo, weimin huang, & how-lung eng (2006). context-controlled adaptive background subtraction. proceeding ninth ieee international workshop on performance evaluation of tracking and surveillance (pets), new york, usa, 31-38. сидоров д.н., нгуен т.л. нгуен т.х (2016). программа бесконтакной антропометрии для смартфонов на операционной системе андроид, № 2015661864. canny, j. (1986). a computational approach to edge detection. ieee transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence, vol. 8, no. 6, 679-698. sidorov, d. (2014). integral dynamical models: singularities, signals and control, world scientific series on nonlinear science series a, volume 87, world scientific. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 110 a critical analysis of mobile applications for learning. study case: virtual campus app victor holotescu university politehnica of timisoara, romania victor.holotescu@yahoo.ro radu vasiu university politehnica of timisoara, romania radu.vasiu@cm.upt.ro diana andone university politehnica of timisoara, romania diana.andone@cm.upt.ro abstract during the last years, the worldwide education has been challenged and innovated by the online and blended learning approaches, and the openness towards social media (sm), open educational resources (oers) and massive open online courses (moocs). university politehnica of timisoara, romania is one of the pioneering higher education institution in the country, adopting an open education strategy with an important impact on the quality of education. the changing engine is represented by the center of elearning, which implemented the virtual campus for supporting the academic programs, and also the unicampus mooc platform. the aim of the paper is twofold. firstly, to present and evaluate the virtual campus mobile application comparing it with mobile applications accompanying mooc platforms. then, to produce the requirements for an enhanced version of this application and the principles for the development of a mobile application for unicampus. we hope that the paper conclusions regarding quality applications for mobile learning will be useful for teachers and developers designing open and mobile learning environments and applications. keywords: open education, online learning, mobile learning, mobile applications, moocs. 1. introduction over the last years, the adoption of emerging technologies, open educational practices (oeps), open educational resources (oers) and massive open online courses (moocs) are challenging and transforming the educational processes, bringing the openness of teaching and learning. open education means access to content, courses, support, assessment and certification in ways that are flexible, and accommodate diverse needs (inamorato dos santos et al., 2016). also, new opportunities in learning are implied by the rapid diffusion of mobile technologies, mobile learning becoming a driver both in traditional and continuing education. mobile learning means “learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using personal electronic devices” (crompton, 2013). 2. upt virtual campus platform and its mobile application university politehnica of timisoara (upt), romania is one of the pioneering higher education institution in the country, adopting an open education strategy with an important impact on the quality of education (vasiu and andone, 2014). the changing engine is represented by the center of elearning, which implemented the virtual campus in 2009, for supporting the academic programs, and also the unicampus platform in 2014, for delivering moocs. v. holotescu, r. vasiu, d. andone a critical analysis of mobile applications for learning. study case: virtual campus app 111 the virtual campus platform is a customized and extended version of the open-source learning management system moodle, and hosts online spaces for blended courses at undergraduate, master and doctoral levels, also for teacher training and research projects. the academic and administrative support for all faculties, and also for distance learning, provides students and teachers with multiple delivery models, and connections with social media and collaborative platforms (ciuclea et al., 2016, ternauciuc et al., 2018). mobile learning is enabled through the virtual campus (vc) application, developed by the first author and launched in march 2017, as a native android mobile app, built based on the web services api from moodle, which is lacking a few plugins broadly used in the courses available on the platform (https://docs.moodle.org/dev/web_service_api_functions). the vc app was downloaded and used by 350 students, representing a percentage of 5% of the total number of the students enrolled on the platform courses. the application has features corresponding to the desktop version of the platform. in developing it, there were applied principles related to mobile learning usability and design, trying to provide enhanced possibilities for learning on-the-go and also specific notifications (machun et al., 2012; harrison et al., 2013; mocofan, 2017). figure 1 presents a series of screenshots of the vc app. after signing in the app, a student can view and visit all the courses in which he or she is enrolled (fig.1a), from where can manually download materials to study offline (fig.1b). also, the user can visit the discussions forums to see what is new (fig.1e), query the calendar (fig.1c), to display upcoming exams or homework deadlines (fig.1d), and also look up for any homework on a specific screen. figire 1. screenshots of the virtual campus mobile application (a, b, c) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 112 figure 2. screenshots of the virtual campus mobile application (d, e) 3. evaluation of the virtual campus mobile application in may 2017, two months after the release, the virtual campus application has been the subject of usability testing of a group of 15 students enrolled in the master studies of upt. the objective of the usability testing was to find out how good the user interface and experience are, and which improvements are suggested by the students for an increased learning satisfaction. the students have followed the complete steps for a usability test, which consisted of (hhs, 2006):  signing an end-user agreement for not disclosing any information the subject has been witnessing;  completing a pre-questionnaire to find out how familiar the students are with web and mobile technologies and what role should they be assigned during the tests;  each subject has taken part in 4 types of usability testing;  at the end, subjects were offered a thank you gift. we applied the moderated technique called concurrent think aloud. the usability testing was conducted by a moderator who greeted the subjects and helped them to follow the steps of the tests. in order to get as many information as possible, the setting of the environment consisted of a room with a table, chair, and a smartphone to be used during the test. besides those, two cameras were used, one facing the smartphone on the table and one facing the subject in order to monitor the facial expressions. there were also 6 different observers:  2 time observers who had the role to register the time taken for each task to be completed;  2 error observers, registering the number of errors the subjects have encountered during a task;  2 observers writing comments they found useful during each individual task. v. holotescu, r. vasiu, d. andone a critical analysis of mobile applications for learning. study case: virtual campus app 113 after all the subjects have went through the moderated user testing and made themselves familiar with the mobile app, in a focus group interview, they have been asked different questions about improvements and remarks. this testing method was also recorded. to obtain a complete feedback from the subjects, as a final test, the users have been asked to fill in a final questionnaire, in order to assess their satisfaction regarding the app been using for a couple of hours. the most important findings are listed below:  during the pre-questionnaire we found out that most of the users considered themselves having medium knowledge regarding using mobile apps for learning, using them occasionally, only 2 of the students considering themselves as power users.  during the moderated usability testing, most of the subjects had problems with the fact that some pages had to open in a web browser and also having to log in multiple times, sometimes even encountering errors while doing so. besides this, students find it a little difficult to add events to their calendar for different course work deadlines or exams.  during the focus group, subjects found useful to have instant access to the course content they are looking for, compared to the web version of the platform. the subjects considered necessary to have a better interface for the calendar, because here the pace of the course is given.  the questionnaire showed that students are overall satisfied with the mobile application and that they will be using it in the future, with the remark that login issues should be fixed. we found out that our mobile app is an overall good app, with minor bug fixes that need to be solved, but with the major issue that some platform modules are missing, with the disadvantage that users have to log in a web view again to access them. a question we have been asking ourselves after the usability testing was how important the calendar was on the virtual campus, and how should we remake the user experience to bring the calendar in front, while also keeping the course contents in the main screen. we found out that notifications are very useful in learning apps, in order to keep the user engaged in the courses, reminding them not to overdue deadlines or about updates in the course contents. some new features suggested by students were: a search option through courses. also, in order to integrate more the mobile apps in the academic life, notifications related to different events and projects in university could be sent. the conclusion of the user testing was that with small improvements we can make the app more useful for the students. because we didn’t have the possibility to bring all the necessary data inside the app, due to the missing modules in api, we concluded to give up the native android and ios development and to adapt the open-source hybrid ionic app, developed by moodle, for an enhanced vc mobile application. 4. critical analysis of mobile applications for learning in order to enlarge the specifications and requirements for the improvements to be brought by the next version of the virtual campus mobile application, also to prepare those for the unicampus mobile application, we realized a critical analysis of a few mobile applications for learning, consisting in a number of applications integrated with mooc platforms, and one for professional training – linkedin learning (https://www.linkedin.com/learning). the vc app has close features because it assures the access to multiple courses in which a student is enrolled in an academic year, also the number of students participating in a course is usually between one and two hundred. we have selected five mobile applications corresponding to the mooc platforms: coursera (http://coursera.org), edx (http://edx.org), udacity (http://udacity.com), canvas (http://canvas.net), and udemy (http://udemy.com), starting from the top of the first 33 mooc platforms, ranked based brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 114 on the number of courses offered (class central, 2017) and the list of mooc providers (class central, 2018). most of the other mooc platforms are country-specific (china, taiwan, italy, germany, spain, france, mexico, russia, ukraine, thailand, jordan, japan, korea, indonesia) or/and don't have mobile applications. the specific features of the mobile applications which are different of those of the desktop version will be highlighted. also, there will be described the features for mobile browsers for the futurelearn european platform, which is not accompanied by a mobile application. the list of compared functionalities for mobile applications were defined after consulting similar studies (mihaescu, 2016), being grouped in categories defined by the mobilegogy model (machun et al., 2012): location, technical, culture, satisfaction and design. because of the limited space of this article, we will present only the most innovative features for mobile learning of the analysed applications. all the above mobile applications are free, while the one for edx is also open-source, corresponding to open edx (https://open.edx.org). 20% of coursera learners complete their courses using exclusively the mobile app. the mobile app has the following specific features: taking notes and bookmarking videos, also reminders settings for work at the course. for offline work there are available: download videos and readings, and access them from the course dashboard; also complete surveys while offline and submit when online, thus upgrading the course progress (samuelson, 2017). the edx mobile app permits the course completion on the go too. it has facilities for new accounts creation, and also video uploading by course creators (edx, 2017). while the other mobile apps are designed for students, not having administrative features, canvas came with two separate apps for students and teachers. for students, it assures the communication between users across courses and groups, also sends notifications for new grades and course updates. for teachers, the app allows them to facilitate their courses on the go, providing quick access to three of the most frequent course facilitation tasks: grading browse submissions and provide feedback, communicating send announcements and messages, and updating change due dates, publish assignments and update course content (canvas, 2015). starting from the idea that most students use at least occasionally mobile devices to access a mooc platform, futurelearn was built in 2012 using mobile first, responsive web design, meaning that its pages adapt to whatever device used to display them. the mobile first requires a new approach to planning, ux design, and development, starting with the design for the smallest screen and working the way up (gremillion, 2017). the experience on futurelearn is consistent and the same, no matter the browser is open on phone, tablet or desktop, so it is no need for a mobile app. also the product is accessible using screen readers and other assistive technologies, such as cognitive aids (futurelearn, 2013). thus, this platform came with a different approach than the others, which at the beginning built the platform for desktop usage, and after a few months or years started to design a mobile application. the analysis depicted many features for offline activities using mobile applications. to accomplish these, a solution is to integrate the elearning standard experience api – xapi in native mobile applications in order to record locally learners' experiences and progress data, as learning record stores, and then data is synchronized with the platform when network connection is available (xapi, 2016). xapi has hundreds of adopters, one being moodle (2017). 5. specifications for virtual campus app following the suggestions for improvements resulted from the students’ evaluation and the mobile applications analysis presented in the previous sections, a new version of the virtual campus application is in developing starting from the moodle mobile open source code found on github. both ios and android versions will be available and will have all the plugins necessary to contain the same information as the web version. v. holotescu, r. vasiu, d. andone a critical analysis of mobile applications for learning. study case: virtual campus app 115 the user will be able to stay logged in inside the app and to receive different types of notifications. the application will have the ability to be set up for working offline, while users have the possibility to change the application language, which can be useful for foreign or erasmus students. additionally, users will be able to customize the app based on some preferences available in a settings screen, check their grades, send direct messages to other students or professors and also save important documents under “my files” section. during the beta phase of development, a focus group with teachers will be organized in order to present the new apps and to understand what new features are needed to support the courses facilitation on the go. figure 3. screenshots of the new vc app 6. implementation details the new version is built with angularjs using the ionic framework (https://ionicframework.com/docs) and is currently in alpha version, soon to be released and replace the old application. the ionic framework is used to build hybrid mobile applications using html5, which are basically small websites that work inside a web view, inside the application and have access to the native platform layer. the main advantage of using ionic is the ability to write cross platform applications which can work on both android and ios, with the downside that sometimes can be a little sluggish, which adds up to not have the same user experience, not being able to be as immersive as a native application. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 116 7. conclusions in order to increase the adoption rate of the virtual campus apps, we plan to follow actions such as:  on the virtual campus platform to place the links for downloading the mobile apps;  to better make known the apps to teachers, by organizing training sessions and webinars and providing concrete scenarios for using apps in the teaching process. as future research we plan to evaluate the effectiveness of mobile learning and how it is influenced by factors such as teaching and facilitation methods, subject disciplines, collaborative work, peer and social interactions, but also how these educational issues are supported by the updated mobile application features. also the degree in which mobile learning produces digital skills improvement and changes in the processes of information access both for students and teachers (wong, 2018). the unicampus app will permit us to extend the evaluation to wider groups of learners. references canvas. (2015). student and teacher mobile applications guides. retrieved from https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/guides/mobile-guide. ciuclea, c., prostean, g., andone, d., & draghici, a. (2016, august). integrating e-learning platforms in teaching/learning. a critical review upon the virtual campus usage in upt. in international workshop soft computing applications (pp. 225-234). springer, cham. class central. (2017). massive list of mooc providers around the world where to find moocs: the definitive guide to mooc providers. retrieved from https://www.classcentral.com/report/mooc-providers-list. class central. (2018). mooc providers. retrieved from https://www.class-central.com/providers. edx. (2017). mobile features. retrieved from https://open.edx.org/features-roadmap/mobile. crompton, h. (2013). a historical overview of mobile learning: toward learner-centered education. in berge, z. l. & muilenburg, l. y. (eds.), handbook of mobile learning (pp. 3–14). florence, ky: routledge. futurelearn. (2013). being responsive. retrieved from https://about.futurelearn.com/blog/beingresponsive. gremillion, b. (2017). a hands-on guide to mobile first responsive design. studio by uxpin. retrieved from https://www.uxpin.com/studio/blog/a-hands-on-guide-to-mobile-first-design. harrison, r., flood, d., duce, d. (2013). usability of mobile applications: literature review and rationale for a new usability model. journal of interaction science 2013, vol 1(1). hhs. (2006). the research-based web design & usability guidelines. running a usability test. retrieved from https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/running-usabilitytests.html. inamorato dos santos, a.i, punie, y. & mũnoz, j.c. (2016). opening up education: a support framework for higher education institutions (no. jrc101436). directorate growth & innovation and jrc-seville, joint research centre. retrieved from http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/jrc101436/jrc101436.pdf. mihaescu, v. (2016). the development and implementation of a mooc platform model from a technical and educational perspective. phd thesis. upt. editura politehnica timisoara, romania. mocofan, m. (2017). improvement of courses interactivity using web and mobile technologies for instant feedback. proceedings of the 11th international technology, education and development conference valencia, spain. 6-8 march, 2017. moodle. (2017). moodle, the lrs? getting started with xapi learning record stores. retrieved from https://www.moodlenews.com/2017/moodle-the-lrs-getting-started-with-xapi-learningrecord-stores. v. holotescu, r. vasiu, d. andone a critical analysis of mobile applications for learning. study case: virtual campus app 117 samuelson, j. (2017). new mobile features: transcripts, notes, and reminders. retrieved from https://blog.coursera.org/new-mobile-features-transcripts-notes-reminders. ternauciuc, a., andone, d., ciuclea, a. (2018). development of a moodle extension for improving the management of the educational process. in the international scientific conference elearning and software for education, bucharest, romania, april, 2018, vol.4, p.363. vasiu, r., & andone, d. (2014, november). oers and moocs—the romanian experience. in web and open access to learning (icwoal), 2014 international conference on (pp. 1-5). ieee. wong, b.t.m. (2018) success in mobile and ubiquitous learning: indicators of effectiveness. brain broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, vol 9, special issue on educational psychology. xapi. (2016). a mobile device’s story. retrieved from https://xapi.com/a-mobile-devices-story. victor holotescu is a student in the multimedia technologies master program of upt, in the second year. he has a 5 years experience in mobile application development. in his portfolio there are the tpark parking applications, also the artencounters, arttm, and upt virtual campus apps. he has won many awards in profile competitions and hackathons. also he participated in an erasmus internship at the university of oulu, finland. radu vasiu is professor at the faculty of electronics and telecommunications engineering of the politehnica university of timisoara. his latest research interests are in e-learning, multimedia, web technologies, open data and smart cities. he is the president of politehnica university senate and director of the multimedia research centre. he published 12 books and over 100 papers presented at different international conferences. he was involved in 30 research or international cooperation projects and is part of 7 international professional associations. currently, prof. vasiu acts as president of the international association for e-science (iafes), that promotes at international level the use of ict in science and technology. dr. ing. diana andone is the director of the elearning center of politehnica university of timisoara, responsible for planning and implementing elearning. diana andone holds a phd in designing elearning spaces for digital students with university of brighton, uk. the publication list comprises 17 books and over 80 papers presented at international conferences. in the last years she was involved in over 30 eu funded projects, recently with a focus in open education, publishing and technologies. she was co-ordinator of the lll vicadis (virtual campus for digital students) project and national responsible on m-commerce, skill2e, cbvi, i2agora, tafcity, esil, e-taster, e-report projects, as well as the national didatec project (training in blended-learning and new educational technologies for university academic staff). she is now leading the unicampus project with the goal of creating the first romanian moocs. she actively promotes open educational resources (oer), open knowledge (okf) and massive open online courses (moocs) as part of her everyday activities or through her work in different associations or task-force. microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final2.docx 96 personality questionnaires as a basis for improvement of university courses in applied computer science and informatics vladimir ivančević university of novi sad, faculty of technical science, trg dositeja obradovića 6, 21000 novi sad, serbia dragoman@uns.ac.rs marko knežević university of novi sad, faculty of technical science, trg dositeja obradovića 6, 21000 novi sad, serbia marko.knezevic@uns.ac.rs ivan luković university of novi sad, faculty of technical science, trg dositeja obradovića 6, 21000 novi sad, serbia ivan@uns.ac.rs abstract in this paper, we lay the foundation for an adaptation of the teaching process to the personality traits and academic performance of the university students enrolled in applied computer science and informatics (acsi). we discuss how such an adaptation could be supported by an analytical software solution and present the initial version of this solution. in the form of a case study, we discuss the scores from a personality questionnaire that was administered to a group of university students enrolled in an introductory programming course at the faculty of technical sciences, university of novi sad, serbia. during a non-mandatory workshop on programming, the participants completed the 48-item short-scale eysenck personality questionnaire–revised (epq– r). by using various exploratory and analytical techniques, we inspect the student epq–r scores and elaborate on the specificities of the participating student group. as part of our efforts to understand the broader relevance of different student personality traits in an academic environment, we also discuss how the epq–r scores of students could provide information valuable to the process of improving student learning and performance in university courses in acsi. keywords: academic performance, personality questionnaire, epq–r, computer science education. 1. introduction providing a satisfying environment for students that is also conducive to learning represents an important challenge for educators. higher education, which still seems to retain much of its formal and traditional aura, presents a specific set of educational issues. in a setting that tends to be crowded, competitive, and oriented to specialized knowledge and skills, a student may relatively easily be overshadowed by more prominent peers or even completely overlooked by teachers. this problem is further aggravated by the fact that each area of study in higher education has its own specificities within the educational process. in study programs on applied computer science and informatics (acsi), there are some special requirements that educators may need to consider. to organize practical classes and assignments, acsi departments need laboratories where each enrolled student has a computer at disposal during the class hours. in general, this leads to somewhat smaller capacities of computer laboratories as opposed to traditional classrooms. as a result, class groups in acsi programs tend to be smaller, which could be beneficial to both students and teachers. in such an environment, a student may get more attention and support from the v. ivančević, m. knežević, i. luković personality questionnaires as a basis for improvement of university courses in applied computer science and informatics 97 teacher, while the teacher may get the chance to learn more about the progress of each student in the group and address concrete difficulties that a student faces when learning a new material. in addition to this, acsi students are often given project assignments that demand team work, which resembles actual working environments in it (information technology) industry. this kind of group assignments tends to be effective and popular with acsi students. however, besides skill mastery that is needed also in individual assignments, team work demands tackling group dynamics, which, if not properly maintained, may lead to negative outcomes. the two aforementioned specificities of university education in acsi, i.e., smaller class groups and higher reliance on group projects, provide better opportunities for teachers to understand individual students and adapt the teaching process to the particularities of the class group. at the same time, it is expected that this kind of adaptation would be most natural and effective in smaller student groups and teams. besides the information collected in everyday classroom interaction, the teacher may learn much about students from concrete data concerning student academic performance and student personality. for instance, student academic performance in previous assignments or similar courses might be indicative of student results in future. by using this kind of information, the teacher could more precisely identify the struggling students, even well in advance, and provide timely support. moreover, formation of teams for project assignments may also be based on academic performance so that there is both diversity within the team with respect to previous academic performance and overall balance between the teams in the same respect. understanding personality traits of students could be useful in the tasks of providing support and forming project teams. personality traits of students might also be indicative of academic success or success in a particular field. furthermore, by taking into account the personality of a student in the context of group project assignments, the student could be assigned to a team that would allow better collaboration and learning. as a result of the proliferation of it resources, the process of storing, retrieving, and analyzing data has become less complicated. the records about student academic performance and personality may be collected and stored within a single data repository. nowadays, student scores on individual course assignments are usually stored in digital format, which facilitates the process of exporting and merging student data for different assignments and courses. on the other hand, information about personality traits of individual students is not routinely collected and saved for later usage. nonetheless, by implementing computer-based administration and processing of personality questionnaires, the discovery of personality information becomes a straightforward process whose output, i.e., data about students’ personality traits, may be added to the same central repository as in the case of academic performance records. the goal of the research whose foundations are presented in this paper is to allow for more meaningful teacher intervention and better learning outcomes for students in acsi by helping university teachers gain data-based insights into their acsi class groups. this kind of insight could be more easily obtained with the support of an advanced software solution that would feature  a data repository for collecting and storing data about student academic performance and personality traits and  a software tool for analyzing the data available in the data repository and providing readable student profiles. from the common data repository, student data may be manually or even automatically accessed, combined, and used to create individual student profiles. these profiles would be both academic and psychological in their nature. owing to their wider scope, it may be expected that the overall value of these profiles for both the teacher and the students would be higher than for the case in which a structurally simpler profile is considered. moreover, the construction of these profiles could be based both on the general relationships between personality and academic performance that brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 98 have been reported in the scientific literature, as well as on the patterns that could be extracted from the repository in a data analysis process. in this paper, we focus on the following important aspects of the supporting software solution:  the technical aspect, i.e., the nature and structure of the central data repository and the analytical tool, and  the conceptual aspect, i.e., the feasibility of including personality information in the process of making inferences about future academic performance and behavior of students. with respect to the technical aspect of the software solution, we briefly present a data warehouse, which is used as the central data repository in the software solution, and the analytical tool. as an illustration of the conceptual aspect of the software solution, we provide a case study in which some of the basic insights that may be gained from data are reported. the personality data for the case study were collected during a programming workshop for students who were at the time enrolled in one of the two selected acsi study programs at the faculty of technical sciences, university of novi sad, serbia. the short version of the eysenck personality questionnaire– revised (epq–r), which is a popular and widely used personality questionnaire, was administered during the workshop. in addition to introduction and conclusion, this paper contains three more sections. section 2 is devoted to personality questionnaires and their usage, as well as potential relationships between academic performance and personality traits, mostly with respect to the eysenck personality questionnaire and its common versions. in section 3, there is an overview of the software solution, which comprises the data warehouse and the analytical tool, while section 4 covers the conducted case study. 2. related work as an important personality theorist and researcher, hans eysenck is widely recognized for his selection of main personality dimensions that consists of psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism (revelle, 2016; zuckerman & glicksohn, 2016). the revised and improved versions of personality questionnaires built around these dimensions, named the eysenck personality questionnaire–revised (epq–r), may be found in (eysenck et al., 1985), where both the regular questionnaire (100-item) and the short questionnaire (48-item) are available. eysenck personality questionnaires have been thoroughly evaluated and widely used around the world. there are examples of their usage for large english-speaking countries (francis et al., 1991), but there are also translations of these and other related questionnaires into many languages, including spanish (aluja et al., 2003), italian (dazzi, 2011; san martini et al., 1996), greek (alexopoulos & kalaitzidis, 2004), finnish (lajunen & scherler, 1999), turkish (lajunen & scherler, 1999), urdu (lewis & musharraf, 2014), and hindi (tiwari et al, 2009). a large number of epq-related studies have been methodically conducted across various countries (eysenck & barrett, 2013). in a large systematic literature review and meta-analysis of studies on correlates of academic performance (richardson et al., 2012), numerous significant constructs were identified, including various personality traits, motivational factors, and learning approaches. many researchers have investigated and uncovered relationships between student personality and academic behavior and performance. there are examples for such research for university seminars (furnham & medhurst, 1995), as well as for common academic practice (chamorro-premuzic & furnham, 2003). some of the more recent findings also indicate that there is a relationship between certain personality traits, intelligence, and personal success in education (boyle et al., 2016). moreover, there is some v. ivančević, m. knežević, i. luković personality questionnaires as a basis for improvement of university courses in applied computer science and informatics 99 evidence supporting the existence of a relationship between personality and learning styles (furnham, 1992). 3. software solution there are two main components in the present software solution: a data warehouse for storing collected data and an analytical software tool. the analytical tool is tightly related to the data warehouse and tailored primarily for exploration and analysis of data contained therein. the data warehouse contains collected data about student academic performance and personality traits. we opted for a data warehouse because its typical schema design is organized in terms of facts and dimensions, which is especially suited for data querying and analysis. we formed the present data warehouse schema by following a constellation schema design, which was necessary as we identified two regular fact tables, one for student results in course assessments and the other for student scores on a particular personality questionnaire. we identified the following dimensions for student performance on academic assessments: time, place, institution, study program, study program progress, course, assessment type, assessment measurement unit, administrator (i.e., responsible teacher), and student. in the context of personality traits data, we selected the following dimensions: time, place, institution, study program, personality questionnaire, personality questionnaire scale, personality questionnaire language, personality questionnaire administrator, student, and session. all dimensions were denormalized, which resulted in having one table per dimension. surrogate keys were formed for each dimension table and each fact table separately. for the purpose of tracking changes in dimension tables, journaling tables were added to the data warehouse. a data warehouse for academic performance data that was presented in (ivančević et al., 2011) served as a starting point in the formation of the present data warehouse. the initial version of the data warehouse underwent various changes and was extended to encompass personality data. in figure 1, we give a graphical overview of a schema segment covering data about student scores on scales of personality questionnaires. in this graphical overview, primary keys are denoted by the key symbol and foreign keys by the rhombus symbol, while the role of tables may be discerned by the prefix in the table name, i.e., the dim prefix denotes a dimension, while the fac prefix denotes a fact. the extract, transform, and load (etl) process, which is responsible for populating the data warehouse with clean records, was designed for comma-separated values (csv) files (shafranovich, 2005) as primary data sources. to this end, we wrote an auxiliary program in the java programming language that extracts data from csv files and prepares the data for loading into the data warehouse. the design of the data warehouse, which includes formation of the presented schema, was carried out using mysql workbench 6.3 community edition (mysql, n.d.), an integrated tools environment for the mysql database management system (dbms), while the implementation was performed using mysql server 5.7 community edition (mysql, n.d.), a relational dbms. the analytical tool, which is also part of the software solution, is a web application that retrieves data from the data warehouse or external csv files matching the required structure and allows analysts to perform exploration and analysis of data concerning student performance and personality. it is organized into various modules, each supporting one principal exploratory or analytical task. the analytical tool was built using the shiny framework (shiny, n.d.), a framework for building analytical web applications based on the r environment for statistical computing (r, n.d.). as there is a large growing collection of packages for r, there is a solid basis for extension of the analytical tool with latest or still experimental analytical procedures. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 100 figure 1. a data warehouse schema segment for scores of university students on scales of personality questionnaires v. ivančević, m. knežević, i. luković personality questionnaires as a basis for improvement of university courses in applied computer science and informatics 101 the shiny framework further facilitates the development and extension process as it allows developers to leverage the analytical capabilities of the r environment and focus on building analytical functionalities. for these reasons, new features may be regularly added to the analytical tool. at present, various common statistical summaries and visualizations may be created by using the analytical tool, but there is also support for other techniques, some of which are illustrated in section 4. 4. case study in 2014, after the end of the winter semester, the valentine’s day workshop on the c programming language was organized at the faculty of technical sciences, university of novi sad, serbia. the undergraduate students who had just completed the regular classes in programming languages and data structures (plds), an introductory first-year course on programming, were invited to participate in the workshop. this invitation was addressed to the students of two acsirelated undergraduate study programs: computing and control (cc) and power software engineering (pse). in total, 24 students (19 males and 5 females) aged 19 to 20 responded and fully participated in the workshop. during the workshop, participating students could learn more about certain topics on c programming that had not been covered during the plds course and complete a test on the material covered in the workshop. they were also given the 48-item short-scale epq–r (eysenck et al. 1995), which contained 12 items for each of the four contained scales: psychoticism (p), extraversion (e), neuroticism (n), and lie (l). the epq–r data from the workshop were processed and loaded into the data warehouse. overall epq–r scores of students are given in table 1. when interpreting these scores, participant self-selection should be considered as the participating students voluntarily responded to a general invitation to the workshop. moreover, the size of the sample should also be taken into account, especially for the female group of participants. for these reasons, the reported scores should be carefully interpreted when attempting to form conclusions about overall personality traits for the whole population of plds students or acsi students in general. nonetheless, the male/female ratio and the cc/pse ratio that are observed for all the cc and pse students then enrolled in the plds course appeared to be relatively well preserved in the sample of participating students. the results in table 1 are arranged into five groups: a group covering all participants, a group pair organized by gender (male vs. female), and a group pair organized by study program (cc vs. pse). for each group-scale combination, the mean score and the standard deviation (sd) were calculated. although both the group pair for gender and the group pair for study program are imbalanced in terms of group size (19 males vs. 5 females and 18 cc students vs. 6 pse students), the overall difference in scores across the four epq–r scales is greater between the students of different gender. table 1. epq–r scores of students by group and scale p e n l group n mean sd mean sd mean sd mean sd male 19 4.05 1.72 6.74 3.45 3.11 2.33 5.53 2.20 female 5 2.20 0.45 9.80 2.17 4.80 3.63 7.20 4.27 cc 18 3.67 1.50 6.72 3.58 3.50 1.92 5.78 2.44 pse 6 3.67 2.42 9.33 2.07 3.33 4.46 6.17 3.71 total 24 3.67 1.71 7.38 3.42 3.46 2.65 5.88 2.72 the higher p scores for males and the higher n scores for females generally correspond to the overall differences between the genders that were reported in the original epq–r paper (eysenck et al., 1985). nonetheless, the relatively small differences between the genders in their e scores and l scores in the original study appear to be more pronounced in the present study. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 102 when examining the results of a particular group, a comparison with another group is usually performed. by using the new analytical tool, it is possible to inspect and analyze the collected personality data, which includes comparison of two data samples by scores on common scales. however, comparison of personality data is a delicate task. measuring instruments should be reliable and standardized (eysenck & barrett, 2013), while cross-cultural applicability of the used questionnaire needs to be checked before making a comparison across different cultural contexts (alexopoulos & kalaitzidis, 2004). figure 2. comparison of mean scores on the epq–r scales between the male students who participated in the workshop and a male group of similar age from the original epq–r study (eysenck et al., 1985), as shown in the analytical tool we performed two comparisons of samples by scores on the epq–r scales, but, because the compared samples originate from different spatial, temporal, and demographic contexts, the results and their interpretation should not be regarded as definitive. nonetheless, the examples presented in this case study are indicative of some characteristics of the analyzed group, while also serving as an v. ivančević, m. knežević, i. luković personality questionnaires as a basis for improvement of university courses in applied computer science and informatics 103 illustration of the capabilities of the analytical tool and depicting its intended role in the improvement of acsi courses. in the first comparison by scores on scales, we used the analytical tool to compare the personality data of male participants from the workshop to the reported summary data from the original epq–r study (eysenck et al., 1985) that were obtained for the short-scale epq–r and a sample of males aged 16-20 which is part of sample b from the original epq–r study. the comparison results are given in figure 2 in the form in which they appear within the analytical tool. the data for the workshop participants were loaded from the data warehouse, while the summary data from the original epq–r study were loaded from a csv file. the bar chart featured in figure 2 shows mean scores on the epq–r scales for the selected workshop participants (denoted by blue bars) and the selected participants of the original epq–r study (denoted by yellow bars). the mean scores on the p scale agree between the two samples, but the overall scores for the other scales vary. in the second comparison by scores on scales, we compared the personality data from the workshop to more recent personality data collected in serbia. in a psychology-related study about gastrointestinal disorders (filipović et al., 2013), the authors assessed personality traits for a control group of 60 individuals by using what seems to be the same or at least a similar type of questionnaire as in the present study, i.e., a questionnaire of 48 items distributed equally between the psychoticism, neuroticism, lie, and extraversion scales. when the mean scores for all the participants of the workshop are contrasted with the mean scores for the control group in the other study (filipović et al., 2013), a good match may be observed for the p and e scales (3.67 vs. 3.73 and 7.38 vs. 7.43, respectively), but there is still some variation for the n scale and especially the l scale (3.46 vs. 4.43 and 5.88 vs. 2.23, respectively). in both comparisons, largest differences were observed with respect to the l scale. the l scores for the workshop sample are considerably higher than the corresponding values for the other two samples considered. however, a sound discussion of the underlying causes would require additional investigation. in general, tables might not be the most fitting presentation technique when many values need to be shown. in the case of multiple dimensions, i.e., scales, which are common for personality questionnaires, even bar charts lose some of their usefulness. radial axes and visualization of individual instances within a radial coordinate system, e.g., by applying the radviz method (radial coordinate visualization) (nováková, 2009), may be used to form an overview of a sample across multiple dimensions. we used an implementation of the radviz method from the svdvis package for r (chung, 2015) to create a radial visualization for epq–r scores of all the participating students, which is shown in figure 3. the radial visualization in figure 3 depicts each participating student as a dot whose color indicates the gender of the student, blue for male students (m) and red for female students (f). the position of a dot in the visualization is determined by the scores of the associated student on the four epq–r scales. the radial overview may provide a much clearer outline of clustering within the analyzed group. although there are only five female students, they are concentrated in a relatively narrow area within the radial coordinate system. on the other hand, the division of data points by gender might not be the only useful strategy when visually inspecting the analyzed sample in a coordinate system. numerous clustering algorithms may be used to determine which data points share similar scores across the epq–r scales, i.e., which data points belong to the same cluster of similar entities based on their corresponding epq–r scores. a radial visualization in which data points were organized into three clusters is given in figure 4. each cluster is marked by a different color: cluster 1 by red, cluster 2 by green, and cluster 3 by blue. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 104 figure 3. radial visualization of scores across the epq–r scales for the male and female participants figure 4. radial visualization of scores across the epq–r scales for clustered data about all the participants v. ivančević, m. knežević, i. luković personality questionnaires as a basis for improvement of university courses in applied computer science and informatics 105 the clusters were generated using an implementation of a hierarchical clustering algorithm available in the r environment (r, n.d.). the top three clusters were extracted from a hierarchical cluster tree shown in figure 5, while the color of data points in the visualization shown in figure 4 was determined based on cluster labels. hierarchical clusters could be used when investigating which students in the analyzed sample share similar personality traits. this could be especially useful for smaller student groups as the teacher may manually inspect the cluster tree and its leaves, which designate individual students. for instance, there are three students in cluster 3, who are represented within the tree in figure 5 by identifiers 14, 22, and 24. the students with identifiers 14 and 22 are more closely linked and more similar to each other than to the student with identifier 24. this kind of cluster forming and representation would be suitable for teachers who need to split a group of students into an arbitrary number of distinct subgroups. the differences between these subgroups with respect to gender, personality, performance, or some other factor could then serve as a basis for forming diverse project teams in acsi courses. as indicated in recommendations for collaborative group work, a heterogeneous group should have four students and exhibit variety in academic ability, gender composition, and international membership (lawrie et al., 2014). moreover, it seems that some diversity in a student project team, e.g., diversity in gender, or certain patterns in representation of particular learning styles within the team may be linked to better team performance (lau et al., 2012). nonetheless, the effects and importance of different types of diversity in a team may change with time (harrison et al., 2002), so careful consideration of multiple criteria is needed when attempting to direct the team formation process. figure 5. hierarchical clustering by scores across the epq–r scales for data about all the participants 5. conclusion in this paper, we discuss how personality questionnaires may be used to collect data about personality traits of students and how these data, together with data about academic performance of students, may allow the teacher to better understand the student population. this improved understanding is necessary to perform some adaptations of the teaching process and potentially increase student learning and performance in university-level acsi courses. we provide an overview of the initial version of a software solution for collection and analysis of data about student academic performance and personality traits. we also present a case study in which we applied the software solution and provided examples of using various data analysis techniques. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 106 these examples represent various usage scenarios whose purpose is to provide different insights about the analyzed student population. by using the software solution, the teacher may inspect student data and perform analyses designed specifically for the domains of education and psychology. the discovered patterns could be used to tailor student collaboration and teaching in small groups of students to certain psychological characteristics of individual students. there are many research directions for future work. in order to support additional features, e.g., extensive data visualizations or predictive performance models, we may utilize latest analytical procedures and extend the software solution on a regular basis. we intend to organize new workshops to collect larger data samples that better represent the overall student population and experiment with different personality questionnaires to identify which questionnaires and scales should be used to get data for reliable prediction of student performance and behavior in acsi courses. an integrated set of data about student personality and performance could be a basis for generation of new research ideas and hypotheses. personality data for students from similar study programs or even other study areas could be used in new comparisons of samples to learn more about the students involved. novel learning methods that could be beneficial for students in acsi courses, e.g., micro-learning (jomah et al., 2016), may be evaluated with the help of the software solution. data from experiments about such methods could be first stored and then analyzed using the software solution to check for improvements in student learning. we also plan to do research concerning creation and comparison of causal models that link teaching practices and student personality and learning styles with learning outcomes and student academic performance. the goal is to provide teachers with a unified software solution for student profiling that could issue early warnings for struggling students and offer teaching recommendations based on the available data. acknowledgements some of the findings reported in this paper were also orally presented at the smart 2016 – scientific methods in academic research and teaching conference held on november 17-20, 2016, at the central library of the polytechnic university of timişoara in timişoara, romania. the research was supported by the ministry of education, science, and technological development of the republic of serbia under grant iii-44010. the authors are especially grateful to all the colleagues from the chair of applied computer science at the faculty of technical sciences, university of novi sad, serbia, who helped with the organization of the student workshop, in particular to srđan popov, stefan nikolić, and milanka bjelica. references alexopoulos, d. s. & kalaitzidis, i. (2004). psychometric properties of eysenck personality questionnaire-revised (epq-r) short scale in greece. personality and individual differences, 37, 1205-1220. aluja, a., garcía, o., & garcía, l. f. (2003). a psychometric analysis of the revised eysenck personality questionnaire short scale. personality and individual differences, 35, 449-460. boyle, g. j., stankov, l., martin, n. g., petrides, k. v., eysenck, m. w., ortet, g., hans, j., eysenck, & raymond, b. (2016). cattell on intelligence and personality. personality and individual differences, 103, 40-47. chamorro-premuzic, t. & furnham, a. (2003). personality predicts academic performance: evidence from two longitudinal university samples. journal of research in personality, 37, 319-338. chung, n. c. (2015). package svdvis – singular value decomposition visualization. retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/svdvis. v. ivančević, m. knežević, i. luković personality questionnaires as a basis for improvement of university courses in applied computer science and informatics 107 dazzi, c. (2011). the eysenck personality questionnaire – revised (epq-r): a confirmation of the factorial structure in the italian context. personality and individual differences, 50, 790-794. eysenck, s. & barrett, p. (2013). re-introduction to cross-cultural studies of the epq. personality and individual differences, 54, 485-489. eysenck, s. b. g., eysenck, h. j., & barrett, p. (1985). a revised version of the psychoticism scale. personality and individual differences, 6, 21-29. filipović, b. f., randjelovic, t., ille, t., markovic, o., milovanović, b., kovacevic, n., & filipović, b. r. (2013). anxiety, personality traits and quality of life in functional dyspepsia-suffering patients. european journal of internal medicine, 24, 83-86. francis, l. j., philipchalk, r., & brown, l. b. (1991). the comparability of the short form epqr with the epq among students in england, the u.s.a., canada and australia. personality and individual differences, 12, 1129-1132. furnham, a. & medhurst, s. (1995). personality correlates of academic seminar behaviour: a study of four instruments. personality and individual differences, 19, 197-208. furnham, a. (1992). personality and learning style: a study of three instruments. personality and individual differences, 13, 429-438. harrison, d. a., price, k. h., gavin, j. h., & florey, a. t. (2002). time, teams, and task performance: changing effects of surfaceand deep-level diversity on group functioning. academy of management journal, 45, 1029-1045. ivančević, v., čeliković, m., aleksić, s., & luković, i. (2011). an application of educational data mining techniques at faculty of technical sciences in novi sad. in proceedings of the 5th international conference on information technology (pp. 1-7). amman, jordan: al-zaytoonah university of jordan. jomah, o., masoud, a. k., kishore, x. p., & aurelia s. (2016). micro learning: a modernized education system. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 7, 103-110. lajunen, t. & scherler, h. r. (1999). is the epq lie scale bidimensional? validation study of the structure of the epq lie scale among finnish and turkish university students. personality and individual differences, 26, 657-664. lau, k., beckman, s. l., & agogino, a. m. (2012). diversity in design teams: an investigation of learning styles and their impact on team performance and innovation. international journal of engineering education, 28, 293-301. lawrie, g. a., gahan, l. r., matthews, k. e., weaver, g. c., bailey, c., adams, p., kavanagh, l. j., long, p. d., & taylor, m. (2014). technology supported facilitation and assessment of small group collaborative inquiry learning in large first-year classes. journal of learning design, 7, 120-135. lewis, c. a. & musharraf, s. (2014). the short form eysenck personality questionnaire-revised (epqr-s) and the revised abbreviated eysenck personality questionnaire (epqr-a): urdu translations. journal of pakistan medical association, 64, 225-226. mysql (n.d.). the world’s most popular open source database. retrieved from https://www.mysql.com. nováková, l. (2009). visualization data for data mining. doctoral dissertation. prague, czech republic: czech technical university in prague. r (n.d.). the r project for statistical computing. retrieved from https://www.r-project.org. revelle, w. h. (2016). hans eysenck: personality theorist. personality and individual difference, 103, 32-39. richardson, m., abraham, c., & bond, r. (2012). psychological correlates of university students’ academic performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. psychological bulletin, 138, 353-387. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 108 san martini, p., mazzotti, e., & setaro, s. (1996). factor structure and psychometric features of the italian version for the epq-r. personality and individual differences, 21, 877-882. shafranovich, y. (2005). common format and mime type for comma-separated values (csv) files, ietf rfc 4180. retrieved from http://ietf.org/rfc/rfc4180.txt. shiny (n.d.). shiny by rstudio. retrieved from http://shiny.rstudio.com. tiwari, t., singh, a. l., & singh, i. l. (2009). the short-form revised eysenck personality questionnaire: a hindi edition (epqrs-h). industrial psychiatry journal, 18, 27-31. zuckerman, m. & glicksohn, j. (2016). hans eysenck’s personality model and the constructs of sensation seeking and impulsivity. personality and individual differences, 103, 48-52. vladimir ivančević is a teaching assistant in applied computer science and informatics at the faculty of technical sciences of the university of novi sad, serbia. at the same institution, he obtained his bsc, msc, and phd degrees in electrical and computer engineering. his principal research interests include databases, business intelligence, and data science. he has been active in various research projects focused on application of computer science and informatics in domains such as education, epidemiology, and software engineering. marko knežević is a phd candidate at the department of computing and control engineering at the faculty of technical sciences, university of novi sad. moreover, he works as a data scientist at nordeus where he applies causal inference and machine learning in gaming industry. he worked as a teaching assistant from october 2012 until september 2016 as well as a software developer at execom between feb 2015 and march 2016. marko holds a master of science degree in electrical and computer engineering from the faculty of technical sciences, university of novi sad. ivan luković received his m.sc. degree in informatics from the faculty of military and technical sciences in zagreb in 1990. he completed his mr (2 year) degree at the university of belgrade, faculty of electrical engineering in 1993, and his ph.d. at the university of novi sad, faculty of technical sciences in 1996. currently, he works as a full professor at the faculty of technical sciences at the university of novi sad, where he lectures in several computer science and informatics courses. his research interests are related to database systems, business intelligence systems, and software engineering. he is the author or co-author of over 150 papers, 4 books, and 30 industry projects and software solutions in the area. microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_3.doc 115 prediction of thyroid disease using data mining techniques irina ionińă informatics, computer science, mathematics and physics, petroleum-gas university of ploieşti, ploieşti, romania tirinelle@yahoo.com liviu ionińă informatics, computer science, mathematics and physics, petroleum-gas university of ploieşti, ploieşti, romania lionita@gmail.com abstract recently, thyroid diseases are more and more spread worldwide. in romania, for example, one of eight women suffers from hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism or thyroid cancer. various research studies estimate that about 30% of romanians are diagnosed with endemic goiter. factors that affect the thyroid function are: stress, infection, trauma, toxins, low-calorie diet, certain medication etc. it is very important to prevent such diseases rather than cure them, because the majority of treatments consist in long term medication or in chirurgical intervention. the current study refers to thyroid disease classification in two of the most common thyroid dysfunctions (hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism) among the population. the authors analyzed and compared four classification models: naive bayes, decision tree, multilayer perceptron and radial basis function network. the results indicate a significant accuracy for all the classification models mentioned above, the best classification rate being that of the decision tree model. the data set used to build and to validate the classifier was provided by uci machine learning repository and by a website with romanian data. the framework for building and testing the classification models was knime analytics platform and weka, two data mining software. keywords: data mining, classification model, thyroid diseases, neural network, decision tree, naïve bayes 1. introduction prevention in health care is a continuous concern for the doctors and the correct diagnostic at the right time for a patient is crucial, due to the implied risk. recently, the usual medical report can be accompanied by an additional report given by a decision support system or other advanced diagnosis techniques based on symptoms. questions such as: “what are the most important factors that affect thyroid?”, “which is the category of the population predisposed to goiter disease?”, “what is the most adequate treatment for a certain disease?” etc. may find answers in applying data mining techniques. health care data can be processed and after rigorous usage can provide knowledge used in decision making, diagnosing diseases more rapidly and accurately, offering better medication for patients and minimizing the death risk. the authors focus their work on using classification methods and identifying the best algorithm for classification thyroid disorders. thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland, which is located at the bottom of the throat responsible for producing two active thyroid hormones, levothyroxine (t4) and triiodothyronine (t3) that affect some functions of the body such as: stabilizing body temperature, blood pressure, regulating the heart rate etc. reverse t3 (rt3) is manufactured from thyroxine (t4), and its role is to block the action of t3. an abnormal function of the thyroid implies the occurrence of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, two of the common thyroid affections. hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid or low thyroid) means that the thyroid gland doesn't produce enough of certain important hormones. without an adequate treatment, hypothyroidism can cause various health problems such as: obesity, joint pain, infertility and heart disease. hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) refers to a condition in which the thyroid gland produces too much of the hormone thyroxin. in this case, the body's metabolism is accelerating significantly, causing sudden weight loss, a rapid or irregular heartbeat, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 116 sweating, and nervousness or irritability (emedonline, 2016). in figure 1 are presented the main factors that affect the thyroid function. it is obvious that factors such as stress, infection, toxins, trauma and certain medication are directly responsible for the improper production of thyroid hormones. symptoms identification and the early detection of abnormal values of thyroid hormones after clinical investigation will help in establishing the proper diagnostic and to prescribe the right medication. the patient must periodically evaluate his clinical state in order to receive the treatment as long as he needs it. figure 1. factors that affect thyroid function (the institute for functional medicine, 2014) the paper is organized in three main sections. after a short introduction, in section 2 are mentioned the solutions given by data mining techniques in health care, highlighting the importance of discovering patterns, relations between various data (initial appearing to be insignificant) and to make predictions based on volumes of data. section 3 consists in the experiments proposed by the authors, regarding the classification of thyroid diseases and the results obtained after running the data mining algorithms. the discussions on the applied classification methods and the interpretation of evaluation measurements are presented at the end of this section. the paper ends with the authors’ conclusions regarding the research work and their future preoccupation. 2. data mining in health care data mining refers to extracting unknown patterns from an enormous volume of data involving different methods and algorithms which exist at the intersection of fields such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems (piatetsky-shapiro & parker, 2011). hospitals, clinics and medical analysis laboratories accumulate a large amount of patient data over the years. these data provide a basis for the analysis of risk factors for many diseases (various types of cancer, heart diseases, diabetes, hepatitis etc.). in literature are mentioned certain applications of data mining techniques in the health domain, some of them being presented in the following paragraphs. the authors have narrowed their research area on thyroid disorders and the examples given below are strictly about the related work described in literature, regarding the application of data mining for these classes of diseases. the majority of examples refer to diagnosing diseases of thyroid using decision trees, artificial neural networks, support vector machine, expert systems etc. for example, the diagnosis of thyroid disorders using ann’s is discussed in gharehchopogh, i. ioniţă, l. ioniţă prediction of thyroid disease using data mining techniques 117 molany & mokri (2013), anupama shukla & prabhdeep kaur (2015), prerana, parveen sehgal & khushboo taneja (2015). the authors of the research work presented in margret, lakshmipathi & kumar (2012) proposed the diagnosis of thyroid disease using decision tree splitting rules. the classification of the thyroid nodules was performed with support vector machines in chuan-yu chang, ming-fang tsai & shao-jerchen (2008), while a comparison study by data mining classification algorithms (c 4.5, c5.0) for thyroid cancer set is presented in upadhayay, shukla & kumar (2013). a diagnosis expert system based on fuzzy rules is described in keleş & keleş, (2008), while a three-stage expert system based on support vector machines is presented in hui-ling chen et al. (2012). all the mentioned studies have the same goal, namely the diagnosis of thyroid disorders, classifying the stored data in medical databases and predicting the occurrence of a certain disease on population. data mining can help to design the patient profile prone to develop a thyroid dysfunction and to identify the risk factors for these categories of diseases. the next section of the paper consists in two subsections. on the first one we present the experiments developed on a database provided by uci machine learning repository (uci, 2016), containing data about clinical history of patients with thyroid disorders. on the second subsection we used data about romanian patients collected from a web site (tiroida.ro, 2016). the authors considered for classification of data four data mining algorithms: naive bayes, decision trees, multilayer perceptron and rbf network to build a robust classifier. the goal of this study is to find the best classification model in order to make future classification of new patient data more accurately. in this paper more experiments are discussed and an interpretation of results (evaluation measurements) is given. 3. experiments and results experiment a. the authors used for their experiments a data set (uci, 2016) containing 756 records about persons with thyroid dysfunctions. the classification model has 22 attributes; the class attribute is the target and it has three possible values: hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism and normal. the current data set was extracted and preprocessed from the original file. a description of the attributes used in the experiments is given in figure 2 (an extract from thyroid.arff test file). figure 2. attributes of the classification models used in the experiments 6 attributes have numeric values (age, tsh, t3, tt4, t4u, fti), 15 attributes are categorical with two possible values (0/1). the class attribute is categorical too, but it can take three possible values (1 – hypothyroidism, 2 – hyperthyroidism or 3 – normal). the software used to build and test the data mining models is knime analytics platform 2.12.1 (knime, 2015). knime (konstanz brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 118 information miner) is a user-friendly and comprehensive open-source data integration, processing, analysis, and exploration platform that enables the user to visually create data flows (diagrams), selectively execute some or all the analysis steps, and later investigate and understand the results through interactive views on data and models (knime, 2015). according to a survey posted by gregory piatetsky (piatetsky, 2016), knime is on the list with the top 10 most popular tools in 2016 as analytic data mining software. also, the authors worked with other free data mining tools such as weka (weka, 2016), but they focused on knime because this is a tool blending for python, r, sql, java, weka, and many more. the proposed knime diagram representing the data mining models is given in figure 3. the nodes that constitute the model diagram are: arff reader – the input node used to load the data set in arff format, partitioning – the node with the role of data set partition (for training and for the validation of the classification model), naive bayes learner and decision tree learner – the nodes used to build the classification model, naive bayes predictor and decision tree predictor – the nodes used to validate the model, scorer – the node reports a confusion matrix and the accompanying quality measures in its view, normalizer – the data set are normalized to be able to apply the neural network models, multilayer perceptron and rbfnetwork – the nodes corresponding to the neural network classification models, weka predictor – a node implemented in weka to validate the models. figure 3. knime diagram the authors considered for classification of data four data mining algorithms: naive bayes, decision trees, multilayer perceptron and rbf network. naive bayes methods represent a set of supervised learning algorithms based on applying bayes’ theorem with the “naive” assumption of independence between every pair of features. given a class variable y and a dependent feature vector bayes’ theorem states the following relationship (naive, 2016, md. faisal kabir, chowdhury mofizur rahman, almgir hossain & keshav dahal, 2011): i. ioniţă, l. ioniţă prediction of thyroid disease using data mining techniques 119 (1) using the relation: (2) for all i, the relationship may be simplified to: (3) is constant given the input. considering this, the following classification rule can be used: (4) (5) the advantages of this classifier are: fast to train (single scan), fast to classify, not sensitive to irrelevant features, handles real and discrete data, handles well streaming data. as a disadvantage we are mentioning that this model assumes independence of features. decision trees represent a classification method used in various fields like education, medicine, financial analysis, industry etc. algorithms such as id3, cart, c4.5 are well-known in the data mining field and are characterized as simple and easy to understand. a decision tree induction generates a flow chart like a tree structure, where each internal node denotes a test on an attribute, each branch represents an outcome of the test, and each leaf node consists in a class label (upadhayay, shukla, kumar, 2013). in knime, the algorithm associated to the decision tree learner node provides two quality measures for split calculation (the gini index and the gain ratio). cart uses gini index as an attribute selection measure to build a decision tree. c 4.5 builds decision trees from a set of training data in the same way as id3, using the concept of information entropy. further, there exists a post pruning method to reduce the tree size and increase prediction accuracy, based on the minimum description length principle (mdl). for the current classification problem the authors have to define a function: , where data_set represent the records in a database of patients with tuples – the values of attributes and – where gini index is calculated as: (6) where is the probability that a tuple in data_set belongs to class ci. gain ratio can be defined as a modification of the information gain, it uses normalized information gain to reduce its bias on large attributes (kaur, & wasan, 2006). the mathematic formula is: (7) (8) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 120 multilayer perceptron is a feedforward neural network with one or more number of hidden layers between input and output layer. the mlp algorithm consists in several steps such as (noriega, 2016): a. the network is initialized with all weights set to numbers generated randomly between -1 and +1. b. the first training pattern is taken and the activation function applies to obtain the network output. c. a comparison between the network output and the target output is effectuated. d. the back-propagation method is applying to calculate the error backwards (during this step both the output layer of weights and the input weights must be corrected). e. the global error is calculated based on the average difference between the target and the output vector. f. the first five steps repeat for each pattern in the training data set in order to complete one epoch. g. the training data set is generated randomly for the next epoch in order to avoid the network being influenced by the order of the data. h. the stop criterion is the established number of epochs or the moment when the error remains at the same value. for the study case presented in the current paper, the network inputs are considered all the 21 attributes mentioned above, and the output is the class attribute. radial basis function network (rbf network) is known as a supervised feed forward neural network with one hidden layer. it uses relatively smaller number of locally tuned units and its behavior is adaptive. the activation functions for these artificial neural networks are radial basis functions. the output of a rbf network is a linear combination of radial basis functions of the inputs and neuron parameters (venkatesan & anitha, 2006). after the normalization of data set, using the knime node namely normalizer, the full data set was split into two partitions: the training set for model construction (66%) and the hold-out set for model evaluation (33%). the results of the experiment are presented in the table 1. table 1. evaluation measurements for classification models accuracy statistics classification models naïve bayes decision tree mlp rbf network c la ss e s h y p e rt h y ro id is m (1 ) recall 0.444 0.778 0.25 0.5 precision 0.4 1 0.5 0.667 sensitivity 0.444 0.778 0.25 0.5 specifity 0.976 1 0.992 0.992 f-measure 0.421 0.875 0.333 0.571 h y p o th y ro id is m (2 ) recall 0.5 0.9 0.333 0.417 precision 0.455 0.6 0.571 0.625 sensitivity 0.5 0.9 0.333 0.417 specifity 0.976 0.976 0.988 0.998 f-measure 0.476 0.72 0.421 0.5 n o rm a l (3 ) recall 0.971 0.975 1 0.987 precision 0.979 0.978 0.964 0.963 sensitivity 0.971 0.975 1 0.987 specifity 0.737 0.842 0.55 0.55 f-measure 0.975 0.981 0.981 0.975 accuracy 0.934 (93.4%) 0.965 (96.5%) 0.946 (94.6%) 0.946 (94.6%) i. ioniţă, l. ioniţă prediction of thyroid disease using data mining techniques 121 the accuracy of the classification models is over 90%, the best model being decision tree with 96.5% accuracy. if the number of epochs for mlp model increases to 1500 (initial was set to 500) the accuracy of the classification model increases to 95.34%. the authors initially considered the decision tree model gini index as quality measure and not pruning method. for the same data set, but choosing mdl as a post pruning method, the accuracy of the decision tree model increases to 96.9%. other experiment consists in analyzing the modification occurred after changing the partition percent to 70%. the obtained results are presented in table 2. table 2. accuracy for classification models classification models naïve bayes decision tree mlp rbf network accuracy 91.63% 96.91% 95.15% 96.03% the authors analyzed the impact of certain attributes over the classification model accuracy. in the next experiment the following attributes were ignored: query_on_thyroxine, query_on_hypothyroid, query_on_hyperthyroid. table 3 presents the accuracy in this case. the classification model based on decision tree obtained the best accuracy (97.35%), while naïve bayes obtained the weakest classification. table 3. accuracy of classification model after removing three of the model attributes classification models naïve bayes decision tree mlp rbf network accuracy 89.96% 97.35% 94.71% 94.27% as we observed, decision tree model was the model with the highest accuracy for the classification of thyroid diseases, followed by mlp and rbf network models. the results indicate that, normal outcome had been recognized by all the considered models accurately, whereas is not the same for hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism classes. a possible cause may be the increase number of observations regarding the thyroid diseases (hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism). experiment b. on the first experiment, the authors did not use data of romanian patients because there is no availability for records of such database due the confidentiality of the patients. however, the authors collected data from a site (tiroida.ro, 2016) on persons with thyroid disorders, but this data refers only to a small range of parameters (tsh, ft4, atpo tpo antibodies, t3 etc.). the normal range for each parameter varies from one laboratory to another and is difficult to keep only the adequate values. after a careful analysis and data processing, a data set with 140 records resulted and consists in row material for the second experiment, discussed in the current paper. the attributes used to apply data mining algorithms are: tsh, ft4, atpo, age, sex and class. the target is class with three possible values: 1hyperthyroidism, 2hypothyroidism and 3 – normal. on the experiment b, weka was the analytic platform used to build the data mining models simple cart, j48, multilayer perceptron, rbf network and naïve bayes. as test option, the authors chose 10-folds cross validation (table 4) and percentage split=66% (table 5). the results are depicted below. as we observe, simple cart, mlp and j48 obtained the best accuracy (over 80%), while rbf network only 64.28%. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 122 table 4. evaluation measurements for classification models applied on romanian data set test option: 10-folds cross-validation classification models test option: 10-folds cross-validation accuracy statistics simple cart j48 mlp rbf network naïve bayes c la ss e s h y p e rt h y ro id i sm ( 1 ) recall 0.528 0.556 0.528 0.167 0.25 precision 0.826 0.741 0.864 0.136 0.474 roc area 0.661 0.761 0.77 0.62 0.687 f-measure 0.644 0.635 0.655 0.128 0.327 h y p o th y ro id i sm ( 2 ) recall 0.808 0.731 0.808 0.692 0.692 precision 0.808 0.826 0.778 0.643 0.692 roc area 0.848 0.828 0.896 0.908 0.878 f-measure 0.808 0.776 0.792 0.667 0.692 n o rm a l (3 ) recall 0.949 0.936 0.949 0.846 0.885 precision 0.813 0.811 0.813 0.71 0.726 roc area 0.811 0.808 0.836 0.806 0.85 f-measure 0.876 0.869 0.876 0.772 0.798 accuracy 81.42% 80.00% 81.42% 64.28% 68.57% table 5. evaluation measurements for classification models applied on romanian data set. test option: percentage split = 66% classification models test option: percentage split = 66% accuracy statistics simple cart j48 mlp rbf network naïve bayes c la ss e s h y p e rt h y ro id i sm ( 1 ) recall 0.7 0.7 0.3 0.4 0.2 precision 1 0.875 0.5 0.5 0.286 roc area 0.824 0.812 0.632 0.655 0.7 f-measure 0.824 0.778 0.375 0.444 0.235 h y p o th y ro id is m ( 2 ) recall 0.75 0.75 0.875 0.875 0.625 precision 0.857 0.857 0.875 0.875 0.833 roc area 0.884 0.823 0.975 0.944 0.972 f-measure 0.8 0.8 0.875 0.875 0.714 n o rm a l (3 ) recall 1 1 0.9 0.9 0.9 precision 0.882 0.909 0.794 0.844 0.771 roc area 0.889 0.917 0.794 0.82 0.907 f-measure 0.938 0.952 0.844 0.871 0.831 accuracy 89.58% 89.68% 77.08% 79.16% 70.83% i. ioniţă, l. ioniţă prediction of thyroid disease using data mining techniques 123 by setting the percentage split to the value 66%, we improved the classification accuracy (over 89%), namely: the best classification rate was associated to j48 and simple cart models, followed by rbf network model. compared with the experimental results on the first discussion (experiment a), on the second experiment the accuracy of classification models is lower and it’s influenced by a lack of information contained by the romanian database and the quality of the data. also, the classification models from experiment a use more predictors than data mining models from the experiment b. the future work of the authors will focus on obtaining answers to questions like: who are the persons most affected by thyroid diseases? what segment of age concentrates the thyroid cancer? how can we prevent thyroid diseases on the youth? by applying data mining algorithms. 4. conclusions as the medical reports show serious thyroid dysfunctions among the population, more affected being women, thyroid classification is a very important subject for researchers in medical science. in literature are mentioned various research works in the field of thyroid classification based on different data mining techniques used to build robust classifier. in this paper the authors discussed about applying four classification models (naïve bayes, decision tree, mlp and rbf network) on thyroid data set to identify more accurately the dysfunction of thyroid namely hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. the best classification model was the decision tree model in all the effectuated experiments. the future work will focus on the identification of factors that affect the thyroid diseases and on testing more data mining techniques for the classification of different diseases (diabetes, heart diseases etc.). references piatetsky-shapiro, g. & parker, g. (2011). lesson: data mining, and knowledge discovery: an introduction, introduction to data mining. kd nuggets. gharehchopogh, f.s, molany, m., & mokri, f.d. (2013). using artificial neural network in diagnosis of thyroid disease: a case study”, international journal on computational sciences & applications (ijcsa) vol.3, no.4. shukla, a. & kaur, p. (2009). diagnosis of thyroid disorders using artificial neural networks, ieee international advance computing conference (iacc 2009)– patiala ,india, pp 1016-1020. prerana, sehgal, p., & taneja, k. (2015). predictive data mining for diagnosis of thyroid disease using neural network, international journal of research in management, science & technology (e-issn: 2321-3264), vol. 3, no. 2. margret, j., lakshmipathi, b., & kumar, s.a. (2012). diagnosis of thyroid disorders using decision tree splitting rules, international journal of computer applications (0975 – 8887) volume 44– no. 8. chang, c.y., tsai, m.f., & shao-jerchen (2008). classification of the thyroid nodules using support vector machines, international joint conference on neural, networks, pp 30933098. upadhayay, a., shukla, s., & kumar, s. (2013), empirical comparison by data mining classification algorithms (c 4.5 & c 5.0) for thyroid cancer data set, international journal of computer science & communication networks,vol 3(1), 64-68, issn:2249-5789. keleş, a. & keleş, a. (2008). estdd: expert system for thyroid diseases diagnosis. expert systems with applications 34.1, pp. 242-246. hui-ling chen et al. (2012). a three-stage expert system based on support vector machines for thyroid disease diagnosis, journal of medical systems, volume 36 issue 3, june 2012, pp. 1953-1963. uci machine learning repository. (2016), https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/machine-learningdatabases/thyroid-disease/ , accessed in 5 may 2016. knime software. (2015) https://www.knime.org/, accessed in september 2015. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 124 naïve. (2016). http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~eamonn/ce/bayesian%20classification%20withinsect_ examples.pdf, accessed in 20 april 2016 md. kabir, f., rahman, c.m., hossain, a., & dahal, k. (2011). enhancement classification accuracy of naïve bayes data mining models, international journal of computer application (ijca),vol.28(3). venkatesan, p. & anitha, s. (2006). application of rbf neural network for diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, current science, vol. 91, no. 9, pp. 1195-1199. kaur, h. & wasan, s. k. (2006). empirical study on applications of data mining techniques in healthcare, journal of computer science 2(2), 194200. piatetsky, g. (2016), r, python duel as top analytics, data science software – kdnuggets 2016 software poll results, kdnuggets, http://www.kdnuggets.com/2016/06/r-python-top-analyticsdata-mining-data-science-software.html noriega, l. (2016). multilayer perceptron tutorial, http://www.cs.sun.ac.za/~kroon/courses/ machine_learning/lecture5/mlp.pdf, accesed in 10 april 2016. emedonline. (2016). http://www.emedonline.ro/afectiuni/view.article.php/c1/59/p3, accesed in 10 april 2016. the institute for functional medicine. (2015), factors that affect thyroid function, http://tulawellnessmd.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/understanding-factors-that-affectthe-thyroid-diagram.pdf, accesed in may 2016. http://tiroida.ro/, accessed on august 2016 weka 3: data mining software in java, http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/, accessed in june 2016 93 exploring user engagement in information networks: behavioural – based navigation modelling, ideas and directions vesna kumbaroska university of information science and technology, st. paul the apostle, ohrid, macedonia vesna.gega@uist.edu.mk pece mitrevski faculty of information and communication technologies, university st. clement of ohrid, bitola, macedonia pece.mitrevski@fikt.uklo.edu.mk abstract revealing an endless array of user behaviors in an online environment is a very good indicator of the user’s interests either in the process of browsing or in purchasing. one such behavior is the navigation behavior, so detected user navigation patterns are able to be used for practical purposes such as: improving user engagement, turning most browsers into buyers, personalize content or interface, etc. in this regard, our research represents a connection between navigation modelling and user engagement. a usage of the generalized stochastic petri nets concept for stochastic behavioral-based modelling of the navigation process is proposed for measuring user engagement components. different types of users are automatically identified and clustered according to their navigation behaviors, thus the developed model gives great insight into the navigation process. as part of this study, peterson’s model for measuring the user engagement is explored and a direct calculation of its components is illustrated. at the same time, asssuming that several user sessions/visits are initialized in a certain time frame, following the petri nets dynamics is indicating that the proposed behavioral – based model could be used for user engagement metrics calculation, thus some basic ideas are discussed, and initial directions are given. keywords: user behaviour, navigation behavior patterns, generalized stochastic petri net, continuous time markov chain, user engagement. 1. introduction and background there are plenty of definitions related to the user engagement (arapakis et al., 2014; o’brien & toms, 2008), but we give prominence to the following (lehmann et al., 2012): “user engagement is the quality of the user experience that emphasizes the positive aspects of the interaction, and in particular the phenomena associated with being captivated by a web application, and so being motivated to use it.” measuring user engagement is a complex process that is strictly dependent on the web site application, thus there are not unique measures for it (lehmann et al., 2012). basic analytic metrics such as session duration, number of visits per session, number of sessions/visits per user, clickthrough rates, time spent on site, number of page views, etc., are mentioned in: antovski & armenski, 2012; arapakis et al., 2014; lehmann et al., 2012; o’brien & toms, 2008. the conversion rate and the abandonment rate are other metrics concerned with user engagement, loyalty and experience. the first one refers to the percentage of users who successfully completed a desired action. the second one is more related to the electronic commerce, meaning the percentage of users who did not become buyers, in other words, left their carts without a purchase. another approach where user (visitor) engagement is defined as a function of several indexes (components) is described in peterson & carrabis (2008): “visitor engagement is a function of the number of clicks (ci), the visit duration (di), the rate at which the visitor returns to the site over time (ri), their overall loyalty to the site (li), their measured awareness of the brand (bi), their willingness to directly contribute feedback (fi) and the likelihood that they will engage in specific activities on the site designed to increase awareness and create a lasting impression (ii)”. in this research, we propose a behavioral – based modelling considering the most commonly identified brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 94 user navigation patterns across information networks, illustrated through the example of an electronic bookstore. one of our goals is to indicate that such behavioral – based model which provides profound knowledge on the processes of navigation could be used for user engagement metrics calculation. as another contribution, we illustrate a direct calculation of the user engagement components of peterson’s model (peterson & carrabis, 2008). additionally, we compute conversion rate and abandonment rate metrics, thus obtaining a more detailed picture of the overall user experience. usually, user navigation behaviour modelling relies on predictive mathematical models built on log data collected in a period of time (pass et al., 2006; ruthven, 2011). this is massive data, usually with complex structure, and its analysis discovers important information about the users and their behaviour in different aspects. statistical analyses and applications of data mining techniques are usually applied to study such kind of data in order to gain knowledge of the user’s actions: discovering user search or navigation patterns (awad & khalil, 2012; tadeusz et al., 2000), predicting and proposing future user actions and personalization based on user behaviour (leino, 2014; schafer et al., 2001), etc. riivo & potisepp (2009) used a data mining approach to discover common user navigation behaviour patterns and sequences of transitions based on the website visit duration. an application of another data mining approach in combination with a semi-markov process in discrete time is mentioned in jenamani et al. (2003), once again, to understand and describe the user behaviour in order to improve the design of the website and the evaluation performance. a combination of log data and website structure analysis is used in the approach of priyanka et al. (2010) for predicting user behaviour with the aim to improve the website performance. both the discovering of the website structure and the prediction of the next user’s action prediction are realized using the concept of petri nets. for the same purpose – predicting the next user’s action, bahadori et al. (2013) developed a model using coloured petri nets, based on former user profiles and current user sessions. modelling and analysing the structure of the website using another petri nets formalism for path completion is found in the work of shih-yang et al. (2007), where web pages are presented as states, and transitions as arcs. an evolution of this approach can be found in the research of pozung et al. (2008), where the concept of stochastic time petri nets is implemented for website structure modelling and subsequent future user behaviour predicting. a behaviour model of an electronic store costumer exploiting the stochastic petri nets (ajmone et al., 1984) in order to improve the quality of web services, reliability, performance and availability is suggested by mitrevski et al. (2014). detailed investigation of user online search and navigation behaviour in enclosed spaces is done by yongli et al. (2014) in order to improve user satisfaction when using the internet and doing online shopping. another interesting aspect of user navigation behaviour is the clustering process. for example, the research of su & chen (2014) presents a new approach for clustering patterns revealed of navigational data from chinese electronic store, which combines navigational paths, visit frequency and retention on a web page or category. sequence clustering is specific type of clustering which utilizes not only the sequences of transitions but also their order as a way to discover useful information about the user behaviour. one such method used to group user behaviour according to the similarity of the user actions order is presented by (maclennan & tang, 2005), where combination of standard clustering methods and techniques to analyse sequences based on markov chain is used. our paper adds to this work, exploring the concept of generalized stochastic petri nets for modelling and analysis of navigation patterns across information networks. the model complex solution relies on continuous time markov chain and it is applied on two dynamically detected types of users, based on their traverse paths (gega & mitrevski, 2015a; gega & mitrevski, 2015b). user navigation behavior can be used to analyze and measure the user engagement. thus, as another contribution, we propose application of the developed behavioral – based model for measuring user engagement in information network. vesna kumbaroska exploring user engagement in information networks: behavioural – based navigation modelling, ideas and directions 95 the rest of the paper is organized as follows. section 2 represents an overview of the petri net formalism. also, details about the model, the chosen scenario and the clustering methodology are provided. section 3 focuses on the peterson’s user engagement model, thus direct application of this model is shown and described. additionally, this section presents some basic ideas and initial directions towards user engagement metrics calculation using the proposed behavioural – based model. finally, we conclude the paper and give future research direction in section 4. using petri nets to capture navigation behaviour patterns the basic elements of pn are: places, transitions, tokens and arcs. usually, places are presented as circles, transitions as rectangular boxes and tokens as black dots. places are related to states, transitions are related to actions that can change the states and arcs determine directed relation between places and transitions (molloy, 1982; murata, 1989). the marking of pn is closely related to tokens and it is used to describe the dynamic behaviour of the system. in that context, a transition is enabled if all its input places contain at least one token. an enabled transition can fire by removing one (more) token from all its input places, and adding one (more) token in all its output places, following the arcs. the behaviour in a standard pn is discrete only. it means all the transitions are instantaneous or fire instantly. an extension of this concept is gspn (ajmone et al., 1984; dingle et al., 2009), where immediate and timed transitions are introduced. here, the firing delays of timed transition are stochastic, usually exponentially distributed random variables. it means a timer is associated to each enabled timed transition, in such way that the timer value is sampled from (negative) exponential distribution with appropriate rate parameter. the timer constantly decreases, and when its value will become zero, the timed transition will fire. usually, immediate transitions are presented as black rectangular boxes or bars, and timed transitions as white rectangular boxes. the immediate transition fire with priority over timed transitions. the markings could be tangible and vanishing. a tangible marking is a marking where only timed transitions are enabled. contrary to this, a vanishing marking is a marking where immediate transitions are enabled (or combination of immediate and timed transitions are enabled). the dynamic nature of pn, especially gspn, indicates that they can be accommodated for modelling real user navigation behaviour. the focus in our research is placed on discovering and modelling navigation behaviour of bookstore users, specifically examined in the case of the first macedonian electronic bookstore 2 (antovski & armenski, 2012;), but easily generalized and applicable on other much known services, which structure is similar to the selected scenario. case study model the navigation data used for this study is collected server side in a certain time frame and it is in a standard w3c format. the log file contains about 415000 records so that each record contains data belonging to several categories (attributes), but for this research particularly important categories are: userid, date and time and url visited. in order to transform the data into easily interpretable format for further usage, it was necessary to do pre-processing and data cleaning tasks. it means removal of all incomplete records or records that lack any of the key attributes or they are inconsistent. we dynamically identify users, visits, and page views per user and per visit, as shown in table 1. table 1. information about the log file the total number of records analyzed 322000 unique users 1984 unique visits 15433 2 www.kupikniga.mk brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 96 mean min/max sd time between two successive visits 3d:20h:06m:59s (0d:0h:0m:0s, 332d:23h:52m:57s) visits per user 7.78 (1, 229) 13.89 views per visit 20.85 (1, 2929) 52.60 prior to model construction, there was a need to understand the web site topology, which means creating representation of the web site from the log data, as it is shown in figure 1. all web pages revealed are classified into four categories, based on their use. the ‘a’ category web pages are related to the products sold, in our case books. web pages referred to general store information and help are categorized as ‘b’. next, the ‘c’ category web pages are only available for logged users, and they are associated with user’s profile information. at the end, the ‘d’ category web pages are directly connected with the purchasing process. figure 1. web site representation based on the web site topology, using gspn notation, our model comprises 10 places, and 44 timed transitions, as shown in table 2 and table 3, respectively. table 2. places in the gspn model place name place description initial marking a a category page 1 b b category page 0 e ended user session 0 l login 0 ml mylounge (mybookstore) 0 c c category page 0 d1 addtocart 0 d2 addressentry 0 d3 lastcartpreview 0 d4 payingcasys 0 table 3. transitions in the gspn model transition name transition description rate ta_cont, ta1, ta2, ta3, ta4, ta5, ta6 visit an a category page α tb, tb_cont, tb1, tb2, tb3, tb4, tb5 visit a b category page λ te_a, te_b, te_l, te_ml, te_c, te_d1, te_d2, te_d3, te_d4 end the session μ vesna kumbaroska exploring user engagement in information networks: behavioural – based navigation modelling, ideas and directions 97 tl, tl1, tl2, tl_cont login κ tml, tml1, tml2, tml3, tml4, tml5, tml_cont visit mylounge page ν tc, tc_cont visit a c category page θ td1, td1_cont visit addtocart page ε td2, td2_cont visit addressentry page γ td3, td3_cont visit lastcartpreview page δ td4, td4_cont visit payingcasys page β the gspn dynamics of the model is graphicaly depicted in figure 2, and can be described using the terminology of ctmc (ajmone et al., 1984; murata, 1989). figure 2. graphical model presentation clustering methodology detected user behavior from navigation patterns indicates that there are different types of users. therefore, we group the users based on their navigation patterns, applying the sequence clustering algorithm proposed by (maclenann, 2005). according to the set of input parameters and the data set, the users are automatically grouped into two clusters, as an optimal solution for this problem. as illustrated in figure 3, the number of users in each cluster is approximately equal, 916 in the first cluster and 1068 in the second cluster. figure 3. number of users in the two clusters brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 98 the visual cluster profiling is given in figure 4, thus each column represents a cluster, each row represents a sequential attribute and each cell contains a histogram of user actions sequence. figure 4. cluster profiles from the visual inspection of figure 4, we can notice that most prevalent actions differ in the both clusters. such a difference is the following: in the first cluster’s sequences, seeing a book details as an a category page, is most common, versus the second cluster where users prefer filtering books by category, also as an a category page. deeper insight is given in figure 5 and figure 6, where characteristic transitions for the both clusters are visualized. actually, these diagrams represent markov chains where each node is a sequential state and each arc is a transition from one state to another, which means it is directed. also, each arc contains a weight which is related to the transition probability. the diverse colour of the node is linked to the node popularity, which means more popular states are darker and vice versa. in this direction, we can discuss some of the most frequent navigation behavior patterns for the first cluster, demonstrated in figure 5: 40% of the users start their visit seeing details for a book (‘a’ category). around half of them (47%) choose to visit the same page again later. 22% of the users start their visit with the default page (‘a’ category). also, around 40% of these users visit the same page again. similar, around 20% of the users start their visit previewing their lounge (‘c’ category), and only 22% of them decide to review their orders. one third of the users that have bought a book (‘d’ category) choose to visit the default page (‘a’ category). similar, 32% of the users that have changed the delivery address (‘c’ category), choose to see their cart (‘d’ category), but almost 62% of them decide to see their cart again later. etc. similar, some of the most frequent navigation behavior patterns for the second cluster, demonstrated in figure 6 are: 35% of the users start their visit seeing details for a book (‘a’ category). one third of them (36%) choose to visit the same page again later. 22% of the users start their visit previewing their lounge (‘c’ category). 66% of the users which have invited friends (‘c’ category) choose to ask for help (‘a’ category) and 37% of those users end the visit. 27% of the users that have changed the delivery address (‘c’ category), choose to see their cart for the last time (‘d’ category), but almost 64% of this users decide to see their cart again later. etc. vesna kumbaroska exploring user engagement in information networks: behavioural – based navigation modelling, ideas and directions 99 figure 5. state transition diagram for cluster 1 figure 6. state transition diagram for cluster 2 in this regard, the understanding of the stochastic process that underlies this gspn model and evaluation of appropriate performance measures for both clusters, is subject of our other study (gega & mitrevski, 2015a; gega & mitrevski, 2015b), where we use efficient time and space algorithm for computing steady state solutions of deterministic (dspn) and stochastic (spn) petri nets, proposed by (bause & kritzinger, 1996; ciardo et al., 1989). the obtained results include the average sojourn time in each of the transient states, the total time spent in these transient states, the average number of visits, as well as the cumulative sojourn time. this is not the scope of this paper. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 100 ‘measuring the immeasurable’ in practice in the peterson’s model (peterson & carrabis, 2008), as we mentioned in the introductory section, the user engagement is defined as a composition of seven different components (indexes). in this section we use the quantitative data obtained from the log analysis in order to compute some of these components. (1) the first component ( ) is clickdept index and it is related to the percentage of users who have number of page views per session greater than or equal to some threshold. on user level, this index is calculated as: (2) the second component ( ) is duration index and it refers to the percentage of users whose session duration is greater than or equal to some threshold. once again, on user level, it is computed as: (3) the percentage of users who come and leave the web site within some time frame, usually expressed in days, is represented by the recency index ( ). with other words, it is web site visiting frequency, thus the index value is directly proportional to the sessions frequency. for each user separately, the index is computed as: (4) the loyalty index ( ) is the fourth component, concerning the percentage of users whose number of reoccurring sessions is greater than or equal to some threshold. the basic formula on user level is: (5) the percentage of users who come to the site directly or by searching branded keywords is presented by the brand index ( ). it means the level of attention the visitor is paying to the brand prior to visiting the web site. next, the sixth component ( ) is feedback index and it concerns the percentage of users who leave feedback, comment or rating, on the web site. for each user it is calculated as: (6) the last component is ( ) is interaction index and it is related to the percentage of users who visit or have interaction with a specific content on the web site, for example, adding an item to a cart or placing an order. the corresponding formula on user basis is: (7) if one of the indexes in formula 3.1 could not be calculated, it should be replaced with zero, which will not affect the result at all. determining user engagement components from log data instead of sessions used for the calculations in the original work (peterson & carrabis, 2008), this research work illustrates application of the time between two subsequent visits. in this section we discuss the threshold values and results determined from the log data for the both clusters respectively. vesna kumbaroska exploring user engagement in information networks: behavioural – based navigation modelling, ideas and directions 101 for the first cluster it is found that the largest percentage of users (around 48%) have visits with average page views per visit between 1 and 10. similar, in the second cluster, more than a half of the users (around 59%) also have visits with average page views per visit between 1 and 10. it is shown in figure 7, for the both clusters respectively. this threshold is used for clickdepth index calculation, thus the distributions of , for all 916 users over 7570 visits in the first cluster and for all 1068 users over 7863 visits in the second cluster, are depicted in figure 8. figure 7. average page views per visit in cluster 1 (left) and cluster 2 (right) figure 8. distributions of for all 916 users over 7570 visits in cluster 1 (left) and for all 1068 users over 7863 visits in cluster 2 (right) for the first cluster it is found that the largest percentage of users (around 17%) have visits with average length between 1 and 10 minutes. in the second cluster, around one third of the users (27%) have visits with average length less than 1 minute and between 1 and 10 minutes. it is graphically depicted in figure 9, for the both clusters respectively. this threshold is used for duration index calculation, thus the distributions of , for all 916 users over 7570 visits in the first cluster and for all 1068 users over 7863 visits in the second cluster, are depicted in figure 10. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 102 figure 9. average visit length in cluster 1 (left) and cluster 2 (right) figure 10. distributions of for all 916 users over 7570 visits in cluster 1 (left) and for all 1068 users over 7863 visits in cluster 2 (right) our study discovers that most of the users return to the web site in the rage of 1 to 10 days. specifically, 31% of the users in the first cluster and 58% of the users in the second cluster return to the site in that range. graphical representation is given in figure 11. this range is considered as a threshold used for recency index calculation, thus the distributions of , for all 916 users over 7570 visits in the first cluster and for all 1068 users over 7863 visits in the second cluster, are shown in figure 12. vesna kumbaroska exploring user engagement in information networks: behavioural – based navigation modelling, ideas and directions 103 figure 11. average return frequency in cluster 1 (left) and cluster 2 (right) figure 12. distributions of for all 916 users over 7570 visits in cluster 1 (left) and for all 1068 users over 7863 visits in cluster 2 (right) also, we reveal that very large portion of the users, more accurately, 74% of the first cluster and 86% of the second cluster, have between 1 and 10 reoccurring visits, as it is shown in figure 13. this threshold is used for loyalty index calculation, thus the distributions of , for all 916 users over 7570 visits in the first cluster and for all 1068 users over 7863 visits in the second cluster, are shown in figure 14. figure 13. average number of visits in cluster 1 (left) and cluster 2 (right) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 104 figure 14. distributions of for all 916 users over 7570 visits in cluster 1 (left) and for all 1068 users over 7863 visits in cluster 2 (right) for calculation, we decide to use adding a book to the cart and buying a book as content of interest. the distributions of , for all 916 users over 7570 visits in the first cluster and for all 1068 users over 7863 visits in the second cluster, are shown in figure 15. figure 15. distributions of for all 916 users over 7570 visits in cluster 1 (left) and for all 1068 users over 7863 visits in cluster 2 (right) our log doesn’t contain data that can be used for and indexes calculation, so they are replaced with 0 in the final formula. the average user engagement in the first and the second cluster respectively is: 41.21% (8) according to the results, we see that some components in the first cluster have higher values than in the second cluster and vice versa, but the final outcome shows that users in the second cluster are a little bit more engaged than the users in the first cluster. additional to this components we compute conversion rate and abandonment rate, thus we get more detailed picture of the whole process in relation to the set of unique users actions. according to the log data, the web site is visited by 1984 unique users but only 362 of them bought a book, which leads to 18.25% conversion rate for buying a book. also, one third of 961 users who added something to the cart become buyers and two thirds of them left the cart without a purchase, which causes 62.33% abandonment rate. specifically, in the first cluster only small portion of 916 users successfully bought a book, resulting in 20.21% conversion rate. this is slightly better than vesna kumbaroska exploring user engagement in information networks: behavioural – based navigation modelling, ideas and directions 105 the second cluster where only 16.57% from 1068 users have buying transactions. similar to the global scenario, one third of 514 users in the first cluster and 449 users in the second cluster who added a book in the cart, become buyers. also, two thirds of the users left the cart without a purchase, which results in abandonment rate of 64.01% in the first cluster and 60.58% in the second cluster. in the three cases, abandonment rate is within commonly accepted boundaries and near to the average 3 . behavioral – based approach for determining user engagement components assuming that several user sessions/visits are initialized in a certain time frame, following the “token game” (murata, 1989), the proposed behavioral – based model could be used for user engagement metrics calculation. in this section we discuss some basic ideas and give initial directions. the component could be calculated as average number of transition firings per unit of time, as given in formula (3.10). it is actually the frequency of firing a transition (ajmone et al., 1984) calculated as given in formula 3.9. the transitions in our model are related to clicks, so actually we obtain the number of clicks during a visit and each visit has different number of clicks. (9) (10) above, is a marking in the set of markings where the transition is enabled. the average sojourn time in a given marking can be calculated as a reciprocal value of the sum of the rates of the transitions enabled in that marking which lead the gspn from that marking to other marking (ajmone et al., 1984): (11) based on this, if we adjust the model to contain information about the distribution of the times between two successive visits, the component could be easily calculated. additionally, if this kind of model is generated on user level, the components and also could be determined. as we said in the previous section, the log doesn’t contain data related to the and components calculation. from this fact we can also say that the model is not developed in direction for и components calculation. the component could be calculated as total probability of taking some desired action. as we mentioned earlier, adding a book in the cart could be considered as an action of interest, thus following the model it is presented by the state , which is reachable only by sequential firing of several transitions in the following order: . according to this, could be computed as: (12) once again, the model doesn’t include information about the number of users who took the action of interest, thus we equalize the conversion rate calculation with component calculation, which means equalization of the term ‘user’ with the term ‘time between two successive visits’. abandonment rate could be calculated as: (13) 3 http://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 106 it expresses the probability of adding something to the cart ( ), but not making a purchase ). conclusion this paper proposes a novel approach for calculating several user engagement components, based on a gspn behavioral – based navigation model. we identified and analyzed the most common user navigation patterns across information networks, illustrated through the example of an electronic bookstore. the navigation data used in this study is collected server side in a certain time frame and contains about 415000 records. first, the main contribution of this research work is the suggested behavioural-based model that provides profound knowledge about the processes of navigation, specifically examined for different types of users, automatically identified and clustered into two clusters according to their navigational behaviour. the developed model is based on stochastic modelling using the concept of generalized stochastic petri nets which complex solution relies on continuous time markov chain. second, we described several approaches for measuring the user engagement, but we gave special prominence to the peterson’s model (peterson & carrabis, 2008). after the observation of user navigation behavior from the log, we illustrated direct calculation of the peterson’s model user engagement components, for the both clusters of users separately. additionally, we computed conversion rate and abandonment rate metrics, thus more detailed picture of the overall user experience is obtained. third, assuming that several user sessions/visits are initialized in a certain time frame, following the dynamic “token game” (murata, 1989), we indicated that the proposed behavioral – based model could be used for user engagement metrics calculation, thus we discussed some basic ideas and gave initial directions. however, this suggested approach requires a lot of improvements and inclusions in order to enable calculation of all presented user engagement components, and that could be considered as a future direction. references ajmone, m., conte, g. & balbo, g. (1984) ‘a class of generalized stochastic petri nets for the performance evaluation of multiprocessor systems’, acm transactions on computer systems, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 93-122. antovski, l., & armenski, g. (2012) ‘kupikniga.mk: transforming a website into a profitable ecommerce system using assisted conversions funnel’, ict innovations 2012 web proceedings, ict act, skopje, pp. 321-329. arapakis, i., lalmas, m., cambazoglu, b. b., marcos, m. c., & jose, j. m. (2014) ‘user engagement in online news: under the scope of sentiment, interest, affect, and gaze’, journal of the association for information science and technology, 65(10), 1988-2005. awad, m., & khalil, i. (2012) ‘prediction of user's web-browsing behavior: application of markov model’, systems, man, and cybernetics, part b: cybernetics, ieee transactions on, 42(4), 1131-1142. bahadori, m., harounabadi, a., & sadeghzadeh, m. (2013) ‘modeling user navigation behavior in web by colored petri nets to determine the user's interest in recommending web pages’, management science letters, volume 3 issue 1, pp. 359-366. bause, f., & kritzinger, p. s. (1996) ‘stochastic petri nets’ , vieweg+ teubner verlag, pp: 163171. chiola, g., franceschinis, g., gaeta, r., & ribaudo, m. (1995), ‘greatspn 1.7: graphical editor and analyzer for timed and stochastic petri nets’, performance evaluation, 24(1), pp: 47-68. ciardo, g., muppala, j. & trivedi, t. (1989) ‘spnp: stochastic petri net package’, petri nets and performance models. pnpm89., proceedings of the third international workshop on digital object identifier, 10.1109/pnpm.1989.68548, pp. 142-151. vesna kumbaroska exploring user engagement in information networks: behavioural – based navigation modelling, ideas and directions 107 dingle, n. j., knottenbelt, w. j., & suto, t. (2009) ‘pipe2: a tool for the performance evaluation of generalised stochastic petri nets’, acm sigmetrics performance evaluation review, 36(4), pp. 34-39. gega, v., & mitrevski, p. j. (2015a), towards modelling and analyzing navigation behaviour patterns using generalized stochastic petri nets, international conference on applied internet and information technologies (aiit 2015), pp. xx-xx, zrenjanin, serbia. gega, v., & mitrevski, p. j. (2015b) ‘using generalised stochastic petri nets to model and analyse search behaviour patterns’, international journal of reasoning-based intelligent systems, 7(12), pp. 26-34. jenamani, m., mohapatra, p. k., & ghose, s. (2003) ‘a stochastic model of e-customer behavior’, electronic commerce research and applications, 2(1), pp. 81-94. jensen, k. (2013) ‘coloured petri nets: basic concepts, analysis methods and practical use’, (vol. 1), springer science & business media. leino, j. (2014) ‘user factors in recommender systems: case studies in e-commerce’, news recommending, and e-learning. lehmann, j., lalmas, m., yom-tov, e., & dupret, g. (2012) ‘models of user engagement’, in user modeling, adaptation, and personalization, pp. 164-175, springer berlin heidelberg. maclennan, j., & tang, z. (2005) ‘data mining with sql server 2005’, wiley. mitrevski, p.j. & hristoski, i.s., (2014) ‘behavioral-based performability modeling and evaluation of e-commerce systems’, electronic commerce research and applications 13(5), pp. 320340. molloy, m. k. (1982) ‘performance analysis using stochastic petri nets’, computers, ieee transactions on, 100(9), pp. 913-917. murata, t. (1989) ‘petri nets: properties, analysis and applications’, proceedings of the ieee, vol.77, no.4, pp. 541-580. o'brien, h. l., & toms, e. g. (2008) ‘what is user engagement? a conceptual framework for defining user engagement with technology’, journal of the american society for information science and technology, 59(6), pp. 938-955. pass, g., chowdhury, a., torgeson, c., (2006) ‘a picture of search’, proceeding infoscale '06 proceedings of the 1st international conference on scalable information systems, article no.1. peterson, e. t., & carrabis, j. (2008) ‘measuring the immeasurable: visitor engagement’, in web analytics demystified, 14, 16. po-zung, c., sun, c., & shih-yang, y. (2008) ‘modeling and analysis the web structure using stochastic timed petri nets’ journal of software 3.8, pp.19-26. priyanka, m., gulati, p., & sharma, a., (2010) ‘a novel approach for predicting user behavior for improving web performance’, international journal on computer science and engineering 2.04. riivo, k., & potisepp, k. (2009) ‘click-stream data analysis of web traffic’. ruthven, i. (2011) ‘information retrieval in context’, advanced topics in information retrieval, the information retrieval series, vol. 33, pp. 187-207. schafer, j. b., konstan, j. a., & riedl, j. (2001) ‘e-commerce recommendation applications’, in applications of data mining to electronic commerce, pp. 115-153, springer us. shih-yang, y., po-zung, c., & sun, c. (2007) ‘using petri nets to enhance web usage mining.’ acta polytechnica hungarica 4.3. su, q., & chen, l. (2014). ‘a method for discovering clusters of e-commerce interest patterns using click-stream data’. electronic commerce research and applications. tadeusz, m., wojciechowski, m., & zakrzewicz, m., (2000). ‘web users clustering’, proc. of the 15th international symposium on computer and information sciences. yongli, r., tomko, m., ong k., & sanderson m. (2014) ‘how people use the web in large indoor spaces’, proceedings of the 23rd acm international conference on conference on information and knowledge management. acm. microsoft word brain_final_curent_7_2.doc 59 the effect of caretakers’ frequency and positional saliency on noun bias in persian children: a study on child language development hassan soleimani department of applied linguistics, payame noor university, tehran, iran arshia.soleimani@gmail.com mahboubeh rahmanian ph.d candidate, payame noor university, tehran, iran mahboubeh.rahmanian@gmail.com manoochehr jafari gohar department of applied linguistics, payame noor university, tehran, iran jafarigohar2007@yahoo.com abstract noun bias in children’s early vocabulary development is a long-held belief. the present study intended to examine the correlation between the input features like frequency and positional saliency in infant-directed speech and the noun bias characteristic of infants in their early child lexical development. to this purpose, the utterances of ten persian children aged 1;4 and their caretakers at a kindergarten in isfahan, iran, were transcribed for twelve sessions. persian language with its sov order that gives much importance to verbs compared to nouns can make noun bias hypothesis of infants unstable. the results demonstrated a positive correlation between the frequency of nouns and verbs in persian caretakers’ utterances and the lexical development of children on age of 1;4. the transcriptions also identified a significant noun bias in the utterances of persian children. therefore, the lexical items in adult utterances can predict the initial lexical repertoire of infants. it can be inferred that nurture and the utterances heard by children might play a significant role in child vocabulary development. key words: frequency, positional saliency, noun bias, persian, infant-directed speech 1. introduction early and rapid linguistic growth of children can hardly be ignored. in addition, lexical development has recently become one of the most significant discussions in the field of first language acquisition (e.g., brent & siskind, 2001; ludingtion, 2013). however, the two word categories of noun and verb have for long been believed to be the starting point of learning a language for children. due to the rapid acquisition of nouns in infancy, noun bias position observed in natural contexts where children acquire their mother tongue cannot be ignored (bornstein, et al., 2004). likewise, piccin and waxman (2007) believe that both children and adults can perceive nouns better compared to the encountered verbs. it is worth mentioning that noun bias experiments have produced similar results in diverse languages such as english, french, dutch, and so forth (bornstein et al., 2004). the fact remains, however, that first language literature is not devoid of contrary results in this field too. verb bias (e.g., tardif, shatz & naigles, 1997) and similar behavior of both nouns and verbs (e.g., ogura, dale, yamashita, murase, & mahieu, 2006) were observed in korean, mandarin-chinese, and japanese children. however, these contradictory evidences can be explained resorting to the language and research contexts in which the investigations were conducted (ogura, et al., 2006). a recent evidence by hao, et al. (2015) who conducted a study about the lexical development of 928 chinese-speaking children about 1;0 and 2;6 unravelled the interactive effects "between the conceptual (imageability) and linguistic properties (word frequency, word length, and grammatical category) that jointly shape the development of mandarin-speaking brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 60 children's early vocabulary" (hao, et al., 2015; p. 505). gentner (1982) also believes in the preference of nouns over verbs for early lexical learning due to the linguistic and teaching variables such as frequency, order, and lexical components of the words. snedeker, geren, and shafto (2012) who collected some evidence from pre-schoolers and infants for one year identified that the participants could only manifest one-word items (i.e., nouns and social vocabularies) for the earlier time period and developing the verbs, adjectives, and multiwords were postponed to later times. the impact of previous experiences on vocabulary learning was also highlighted in their study. 1.1. frequency although there exists a similar trend in children's learning vocabulary items, some factors such as health (hoff, 2003), inner environment of the house (linver, brooks-gunn, & kohen, 2002), and outer side experience of children (hoff & naigles, 2002) can affect it. among the experiences perceived by children, input factors such as frequency and positional saliency can be mentioned. multiple studies have drawn attention to the frequency factor among others (ogura, et al., 2006; ellis, 2002; arnon, 2015). frequency, considered as one of the features of emergentist paradigm, was mostly defended by ellis (2002) who puts a step forward by stating that language learning can be regarded as data collection for the frequency of form-function mappings (2006). furthermore, tomasello (2003, p. 327) also believes that language learning "depends crucially on the type and token frequency with which certain structures appear in the input". frequency as the number of words the child hears in adult utterances has been dedicated a major role in acquiring different languages (ogura, et al., 2006) and can give us a comprehensive view of the psychological processes involved in learning (arnon, 2015). some researchers like goodman, dale, and li (2008) hold that the frequency factor in infant-directed speech can speed up language learning for children. similarly, ellis (2002, p. 143) in his paper "concludes by considering the history of frequency as an explanatory concept in theoretical and applied linguistics, its 40 years of exile, and its necessary reinstatement as a bridging variable that binds the different schools of language acquisition research." giving such significance to frequency has made many researchers concentrate on it more broadly. most studies (e.g., hoff & naigles, 2002; huttenlocher, haight, bryk, seltzer, & lyons, 1991; vibbert & bornstein, 1989) investigated the correlation between the amount of parental or care givers' speech addressing the children. understandably the quantity or frequency of their speech had a positive relationship with the children's vocabulary capacity in general. along the same lines, naigles and hoff-ginsberg (1998) conducted a study on the children aged 1;4 to 2;1 in order to predict the order of learning 25 verbs. the results were interesting since prediction of the age of learning the verbs came true considering the amount of verbs used by their mothers and the differential grammatical contexts the verbs were used in. as prediction is concerned, blackwell (2005) in his study demonstrated the same results for another lexical category, the adjective. for him, the grammatical context and the quantity of mothers' speech had a predictive effect on the age of children's adjective learning. in another study, matthews, lieven, theakston, and tomasello (2005) compared the amounts of low, high, and average frequency in children's' acquisition of word order. the sample consisted of two groups aged 2;9 and 3;9 for whom the different amounts of frequencies were examined in sov word order. the findings showed that "the ability to use english word order develops from lexically specific schemas formed around frequent, distributionally regular items (e.g. verbs, pronouns) into more abstract, productive schemas as experience of the language is accrued" (p.121). however, goodman, dale, and li (2008) who searched for the relationship between the age of acquisition of multiple 562 words and the input exposed to the children in the normative database of the macarthur communicative development inventories found some contradictory results to the previous findings in the literature. examining the total groups of the words, he discovered that the lexical categories of verbs and adjectives and closed class lexical items which had a high frequency in the database could not bring about sooner vocabulary growth. nevertheless, when he considered the single vocabularies by themselves, the results were in h. soleimani, m. rahmanian, m. j. gohar the effect of caretakers’ frequency and positional saliency on noun bias in persian children: a study on child language development 61 keeping with the general understanding of frequency. understandably, frequency played a major role in learning verbs and adjectives. by the same token ellis and schmidt (1998) investigated the impact of frequency and regularity on learning regular and irregular morphemes in adult learning. their study showed contradictory behaviors of frequency. as a matter of fact, at the beginning of the acquisition, frequency had a positive effect on the learning of regular and irregular syntactic forms and, as the time passed, frequency unraveled to have contradictory results only for the regular forms. 1.2. positional saliency as it was pointed out, frequency is examined in different contexts for different lexical items; however, few studies have elaborated on the part of positional saliency for the children's early language development. positional saliency refers to the order in which words can happen in a multiword infant-directed utterance. the pattern of saliency can be for the first, middle, and last part of the care givers' speech. by and large, it is held that the lexical items in the first and last parts of an utterance can be more easily acquired (gentner (1982). golinkoff and alioto (1995) argue the better discernment and grouping of the beginning and the final part of utterances as the reason behind this positional saliency. the study of positional saliency was mostly investigated for the recognition tasks. shady and gerken (1999) who compared the recognition of final and middle lexical items in the children aged two years demonstrated the priority of final words over middle words. similarly, resorting to headturn preference procedure (jusczyk & aslin, 1995), seidl and johnson (2006) detected that compared to the middle words, children aged at 0;7 to 0;8 were mostly sensitive to the first and last parts of the words occurring in listening exercises. however, in contrast to the previous findings, naigles and hoff-ginsberg (1998) showed that the frequency of a verb occurring in the last part of the mothers' speech could not help children to figure out their grammatical class and in effect they had behaved poorly in using the verbs in making their own statements. searching for interesting results attract us to a study conducted by goldfield (1993) who combined the three factors of noun-bias, frequency, and sentence position. the paper investigating the nouns and verbs used in one-year-olds-directed speech drew a demarcation line between the time when mothers and children played with toys and the regular time and reported that in general nouns rather than verbs were more frequently used in the final position of the infant-directed utterances. it conclusively showed the importance of frequency in the acquisition of nouns in oneyear-old children during the time when they played with the toys. along the same lines, mosaic (model of syntax acquisition in children) designed by freudenthal, pine, and gobet (2009) attempted to discover the role of frequency and positional saliency in learning the main forms of the verbs in english, french, dutch, and spanish. however, having a tentative conclusion about the correlation between the early acquisition of nouns and the two variables of frequency and positional saliency cannot come into existence unless we investigate it for multiple languages. as far as we found out in the literature, no study has been conducted in order to find out if these two variables can be important for early lexical development of the persian children. therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the part of frequency and positional saliency in the acquisition of nouns and verbs for the persian monolingual children. this research study could have some beneficial outcomes in the area of child language acquisition. frequency and saliency in spite of their familiarity and intuitiveness in first language acquisition have confused many researchers and theorists. furthermore, what distinguishes this study from others in the literature is investigating these issues in persian language as an indoeuropean language in transcription data collection format. mahootian (1997) characterizes persian as a language with simple and compound verbs. compound verbs in this language refer to the fact that preliminary elements of noun, adjective, adverb, prepositional phrases are used prior to the main verbs. therefore, the point of departure here is the issue whether we can observe the similar behavior of noun bias in a language which respects its verbs by giving them so flexibility. in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 62 addition, comprehensiveness of studying both nouns and verbs and non cross-sectionality are the other features which distinguish this research paper from others. 1.3. research hypotheses the controversy about scientific evidence for frequency and pattern saliency made us examine the following research hypotheses: null hypothesis 1: the speech of persian children aged 1;4 has similar frequency for verbs and nouns. null hypothesis 2: the nouns and verbs used in the speech of persian caretakers directing children aged 1;4 are not positionally sensitive. null hypothesis 3: there is no relationship between the frequency of nouns and verbs in persian caretakers speech and the noun and verb development of the children aged 1;4. null hypothesis 4: there is no relationship between the positional saliency of the persian caretakers speech in terms of noun and verb and the noun and verb development of the children aged 1;4. 2. method 2.1. participants in order to examine the role of frequency and positional saliency in lexical growth of the children, a non-random sample of ten monolingual persian children aged 1;4 were selected based on availability criterion. the sample containing six girls and four boys were from a kindergarten in isfahan, iran. the criteria for selecting the subjects were based on consultation with the manager and the caretakers of the kindergarten about children's health, psychological, and linguistic problems. since the inner environment of the place in which children live can affect their linguistic behavior, the caretakers were consulted about this issue too. 2.2. data collection procedure along with the purpose of the study, some caretakers were selected in order to talk to the children. the study was conducted for 12 sessions in one month (i.e., three times a week). each session had two parts of playing with unfamiliar toys and a break time. in the playing context which lasted for 15 minutes, the caretakers were asked to introduce the unfamiliar toys to the children and play with them. thanks to a video-recorder, the linguistic data of the dyads were coded during the interaction. the first 150 utterances of the transcriptions were selected as the main corpus. among the selected utterances, the proper nouns and auxiliaries were crossed out. in fact, only the usual and basic nouns and verbs produced by the caretakers and children were analyzed in order to answer the questions of the research. in addition, for the purpose of the research, we only collected two-word and more than two-word utterances in order to have the three different patterns of the word positions (i.e., first, middle, and final positional saliency). here, we resorted to the usual definitions for saliency. as the name indicates, first and final saliency refers to words placed at the beginning and end of an utterance respectively. for middle saliency, on the other hand, we only considered the words which were trapped between two other words such as articles. for instance, in the utterance: this rabbit has slept. (. hijkاmn شmpqn rsا ) , we have the word شmpqn in the middle saliency and the words rsا and ijkاmn in the first and last saliencies, respectively. 3. results 3.1. testing the first null hypothesis h0 1: the speech of persian children aged 1;4 has similar frequency for nouns and verbs. as it was stated, input factors like frequency and positional saliency are among the input factors which can help children in language acquisition. the significance of frequency is highlighted by many researchers (ellis, 2002). along the same lines, ellis (2006) makes language learning similar to having a repertoire of frequent words. however, this hypothesis considers the frequency with h. soleimani, m. rahmanian, m. j. gohar the effect of caretakers’ frequency and positional saliency on noun bias in persian children: a study on child language development 63 which persian children aged 1;4 state their vocabularies. the observed frequencies of this hypothesis illustrated that 80 out of 1120 utterances of the children were nouns (table 1).on the other hand, while 160 verbs were expected, 120 verbs were observed. the observed data again confirm noun bias hypothesis and decreases the importance of verbs in infant-directed speech. table 2 illustrates the observed and expected values to be significant. significant difference could be observed in the proportion of nouns and verbs used by the children aged 1;4, χ2 (1, n = 240) = 30, p < .000. table 1. observed and expected numbers for the nouns and verbs used by persian children aged 1;4 observed n expected n residual noun 120 80.0 40.0 verb 120 160.0 -40.0 total 240 table 2. chi-square test for the nouns and verbs used by persian children aged 1;4 group chi-square 30.00a df 1 asymp. sig. .000 3.2. testing the second null hypothesis h0 2: the nouns and verbs used in the speech of persian caretakers directing children aged 1;4 are not positionally sensitive. a two-way anova between groups was run to examine the impact of lexical categories of nouns and verbs on the three positional saliency levels in the child-directed speech of caretakers. in fact, we had three levels (the first, middle, and final saliency) for each of the two categories (nouns and verbs). table 3 shows the descriptive statistics of the two independent variables of nouns (m = 36.01, sd = 25.72) and verbs (m = 32.66, sd = 30.22). table 3. descriptive statistics of the nouns and verbs used in the speech of persian caretakers directing children aged 1;4 lexical saliency m sd n noun first 65.77 17.50 120 middle 8.99 3.12 120 final 33.29 6.55 120 total 36.01 25.72 360 verb first 17.85 5.75 120 middle 8.95 3.07 120 final 71.18 20.72 120 total 32.66 30.22 360 total first 41.81 27.30 240 middle 8.97 3.09 240 final 52.23 24.40 240 total 34.34 28.09 720 the interaction effect between positional saliency and lexical types (table 4) was statistically significant f (2, 714) = 800.69, p=.000. in addition, the main effect for nouns and verbs f (1, 714) = 14.60, p=.000 and saliency f (2, 714)= 883.04, p=.000 also came up to statistical significance. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 table 4. two-way anova of the nouns and verbs used in the speech of persian caretakers directing children aged 1;4 source type iii sum of squares df ms f sig. cohen’s d corrected model 468612.20a 5 93722.44 676.41 .00 .82 intercept 849200.73 1 849200.73 6128.86 .00 .89 lexical 2023.40 1 2023.40 14.60 .00 .02 saliency 244705.01 2 122352.51 883.04 .00 .71 lexical * saliency 221883.78 2 110941.89 800.69 .00 .69 error 98930.05 714 138.55 total 1416743.00 720 corrected total 567542.26 719 in addition, as can be seen in table 5 lexical categories and saliency had a large effect size (partial effect size= .69). tukey post-hoc test indicated all the differences between the groups of saliency were statistically different. table 5. tukey post hoc for the nouns and verbs used in the speech of persian caretakers directing children aged 1;4 (i) saliency (j) saliency mean difference (i-j) std. error sig. first middle 32.84 * 1.07 .00 final -10.42* 1.07 .00 middle first -32.84* 1.07 .00 final -43.26* 1.07 .00 final first 10.42* 1.07 .00 middle 43.26* 1.07 .00 3.3. testing the third null hypothesis h0 3: there is no relationship between the frequency of nouns and verbs in persian caretakers speech and the noun and verb development of the children aged 1;4. as tomasello (2003) argues language learning is based to a great extent on the frequency with which infants hear the words. similarly, some researchers like goodman, dale, and li (2008) underscores frequency in child-directed speech in accelerating the learning process. as for the relationship between the positional saliency of the persian caretakers speech and the noun and verb development of the children aged 1;4, the results of pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (table 6) revealed a positive correlation between the two variables; r =.193, n = 240, p < .0005. table 6. pearson product-moment correlation coefficient between the frequency of nouns and verbs in persian caretakers speech and the noun and verb development of the children aged 1;4 caretaker lexical child lexical care lexical pearson correlation 1 .19** sig. (2-tailed) .00 n 240 240 child lexical pearson correlation .19** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .00 n 240 240 ** p < .01 level. h. soleimani, m. rahmanian, m. j. gohar the effect of caretakers’ frequency and positional saliency on noun bias in persian children: a study on child language development 65 3.4 testing the fourth null hypothesis h04: there is no relationship between the positional saliency of the persian caretakers speech in terms of noun and verb and the noun and verb development of the children aged 1;4. the results obtained from the parson product-moment correlation coefficient in table 7 investigating the relationship between the positional saliency of the persian caretakers speech in terms of noun and verb and the noun and verb development of the children aged 1;4 indicate a positive correlation between the lexical categories used by children and caretakers; r = -.73, n = 720, p < .0005. however, no significant relationship was found between the saliency of the nouns and verbs used by the caretaker and the lexical items used by the children; r =.048, n = 720, p > .0005. table 7. pearson product-moment correlation coefficient between the positional saliency of the persian caretakers speech in terms of noun and verb and the noun and verb development of the children aged 1;4 caretaker lexical of caretaker saliency of caretaker child lexical caretaker pearson correlation 1 -.06 .15** .04 sig. (2-tailed) .10 .00 .19 n 720 720 720 720 lexical of caretaker pearson correlation -.06 1 .00 -.73** sig. (2-tailed) .10 1.00 .00 n 720 720 720 720 saliency of caretaker pearson correlation .15** .00 1 .00 sig. (2-tailed) .00 1.00 1.00 n 720 720 720 720 child lexical pearson correlation .04 -.73** .00 1 sig. (2-tailed) .19 .00 1.00 n 720 720 720 720 ** p < .01 level. 4. discussion and conclusions can we attribute any successful achievement in first language learning to frequency and saliency in child-directed speech? generally, ambridge, kidd, rowland, and theakston (2015) hold that while frequency affects the acquisition of lexical items, it does so by the interaction of some factors like positional saliency and speech length. this research paper investigating the role of frequency and saliency in a rarely examined language brought some important views into consideration. comprehensiveness as one of the features of this research probed the frequency of nouns and verbs in the utterances uttered by children. inasmuch as one of the features of childdirected speech is not concerned with effect but relationship, the other hypotheses dealt with the correlation between nouns and verbs used by adults and children aged 1;4. transcriptions of the speech of the caretakers and children in the kindergarten for 12 sessions made us somehow convinced that noun bias hypothesis can be survived in most contexts. the first research hypothesis concerns with the issue that the children used nouns in a higher proportion than verbs. although noun bias is not a surprising issue, the proportion is somehow amazing. the produced results corroborate the findings of a great deal of the previous studies in this domain (e.g., gentner, 1982; snedeker, geren, & shafto, 2012; hao et al., 2015). however, in contrast to the findings by tardif, shatz, and naigles, (1997) for verb bias and ogura, et al., (2006) for nouns and verbs behaving similarly, no such evidence was detected in earlier acquisition of lexical items. the frequency and initial saliency position of nouns in persian can be claimed as the reasons behind this finding. furthermore, hao et al. (2015) explained conceptual and linguistic properties like frequency as the reasons behind this early lexical acquisition. the second hypothesis or the sensitivity to saliency in first, middle, and final parts of persian caretakers yielded significant differences between the three positions giving prominence to the first saliency for nouns and last brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 saliency for verbs. this also can be attributed to the importance persian gives to the subject and verb in sov order. to put it simply, caretakers did not change their basic order in the child-directed utterances. the third hypothesis which sought the relationship between the frequency of nouns and verbs in persian caretakers speech and the noun and verb increase in children on age of 1;4 demonstrated a positive correlation between the lexical items used by caretakers and children. however the correlation statistics (r = .19) was very low for this relationship. although the results differ from goodman, dale, and li (2008) in his investigation of total groups of words and ellis and schmidt (1998), they are consistent with most of the earlier findings (e.g., ogura, et al., 2006; ellis, 2002; arnon, 2015; goodman, dale, & li (2008). the finding in the last hypothesis was unexpected and showed no significant correlation between the positional saliency of the persian caretakers’ speech and the nouns and verbs used by children at this age. even though few studies have been conducted in this area, the findings of the current study did not support the previous researches (e.g., golinkoff & alioto, 1995; shady & gerken, 1999; seidl & johnson, 2006; naigles & hoff-ginsberg, 1998). this study attempted to examine the relationship between ten persian children aged 1;4 and their caretakers in order to find out if some input features in infant-directed speech such as word frequency and positional saliency can be enumerated as the reasons behind noun significance in early child development of lexical items. nouns were mostly in the first position and verbs in the last positions in infant-directed speech. the positive correlation between frequency of nouns and verbs in persian caretakers speech and lexical development of infants on age of 1;4 shows that the amount of verbs and nouns used in infant-directed speech can predict the acquisition of lexical items in children. in general, the results of this study indicate that the outer side experience of children (hoff & naigles, 2002) can play an important role in child vocabulary development. although in the present study, frequency and positional saliency could so much contribute to the previous literature, there are some other factors which might explain the superiority of nouns over other categories. there are some neurological and natural factors behind this issue. markman (1987) proposes whole object constraint in which children think that any unfamiliar word refers to an object generally and not its specific characteristics. gentner (2006) in his natural partitions hypothesis hold that real objects referring to nouns can be distinguished much better compared to the objects referring to verbs. in another hypothesis by researchers, it is assumed that since verbs are somehow dependent on their noun arguments to be understood, they are more likely to be acquired later (golinkoff & hirsh-pasek, 2008). the other factor attributes to neurocognitive field. the analysis done over brain damaged patients who show some problems in uttering nouns and verbs revealed that uttering a noun is relevant to the left middle fusiform gyrus and uttering a verb is relevant to some sections of the left middle frontal gyrus (caramazza & hillis, 1991; damasio & tranel, 1993; laiacona & caramazza, 2004). among the linguistic factors in child-directed speech, prosody is another factor which refers to rhythm, stress, and intonation with which children can distinguish grammatical categories in the utterances directed to them (kemler, hirsh-pasek, jusczyk, & cassidy, 1989). generally, 16-month-old infants can say several words but their comprehension and their dependence on nonverbal communication is much more than that (sullivan). however, children’s lexical enhancement like many of their developments is the result of innateness and environment. although the impact of nature cannot be dismissed, nurture can also play an essential role in this domain. 4.1. limitations of the study in this study, a number of important limitations need to be considered. first, most of the participants of this study were girls who are generally believed to develop their verbal behaviors sooner than boys (özçalskan & goldin-meadow, 2010). another limitation is that it could become more longitudinal in order to have more reliable findings. the involvement, interest, motivation, previous knowledge, and experience of the caretakers are among the other factors which can affect their behavior toward the child. this differential behavior undoubtedly can threat the validity of any study. h. soleimani, m. rahmanian, m. j. gohar the effect of caretakers’ frequency and positional saliency on noun bias in persian children: a study on child language development 67 references ambridge, b., kidd, e., rowland, c., & theakston, a. (2015). the ubiquity of frequency effects in first language acquisition. journal of child language, 42, 239-273. doi: 10.1017/s030500091400049x arnon, i. (2015). what can frequency effects tell us about the building blocks and mechanisms of language learning? journal of child language, 42, 274-277. doi:10.1017/s0305000914000610 blackwell, a. a. (2005). acquiring the english adjective lexicon: relationship with input properties and adjectival semantic typology. journal of child language, 32, 535-562. bornstein, m. h., cote, l. r., maital, s., painter, k., park, s. y., pascual, l., pêcheux, m-g., ruel, g., venuti, p., & vyt, a. (2004). cross-linguistic analysis of vocabulary in young children: spanish, dutch, french, hebrew, italian, korean and american english. child development, 75, 1115-1139. brent rent, m. r. & siskind, j. m. (2001). the role of exposure to isolated words in early vocabulary development. cognition, 81, 33-44. caramazza, a. & hillis, a. e. (1991). lexical organization of nouns and verbs in the brain. nature, 349, 788-790. damasio, a. r. & tranel, d. (1993). nouns and verbs are retrieved with differently distributed neural systems. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 90, 4957–4960. ellis, n. (2002). frequency effects in language processing: a review with implications for theories of implicit and explicit language acquisition. studies in second language acquisition, 24, 143–188. doi: 10.1017.s0272263102002024 ellis, n. & schmidt, r. (1998). rules or associations in the acquisition of morphology? the frequency by regularity interaction in human and pdp learning of morphosyntax. language and cognitive processes, 13 (2/3), 307–336. freudenthal, d., pine, j. m., & gobet, f. (2009). simulating the referential properties of dutch, german, and english root infinitives in mosaic. language learning and development, 5, 129. gentner, d. (1982). why nouns are learned before verbs: linguistic relativity versus natural partitioning. in s. a. kuczaj (ed.), language development: language, thought, and culture (vol. 2, pp. 301-334). hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. gentner, d. (2006). why verbs are hard to learn. in k. hirsh-pasek & r. m. golinkoff (eds), action meets word: how children learn verbs (pp. 544–564). new york: oxford university press. goldfield, b. (1993). nouns bias in maternal speech to one-year-olds. journal of child language, 20, 58-100. golinkoff, r. m. & alioto, a. (1995). infant-directed speech facilitates lexical learning in adults hearing chinese: implications for language acquisition. journal of child language, 22, 703726. golinkoff, r. m. & hirsh-pasek, k. (2008). how toddlers begin to learn verbs. trends in cognitive science, 12, 397–403. goodman, j. c., dale, p. s., & li, p. (2008). does frequency count? parental input and the acquisition of vocabulary. journal of child language, 35, 515-531. hao, m., liu, y., shu, h., xing, a., jiang, y., & li, p. (2015). developmental changes in the early child lexicon in mandarin chinese. journal of child language, 42 (03), 505-553. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s030500091400018x hoff, e. (2003). the specificity of environmental influence: socioeconomic status affects early vocabulary development via maternal speech. child development, 74 (5), 1368-1378. hoff, e. & naigles, l. (2002). how children use input to acquire a lexicon. child development, 73, 418-433. huttenlocher, j., haight, w., bryk, a., seltzer, m., & lyons, t. (1991). early vocabulary growth: relation to language input and gender. developmental psychology, 27, 236-248. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 68 jusczyk, p. w. & aslin, r. n. (1995). infants’ detection of the sound patterns of words in fluent speech. cognitive psychology, 29, 1-23. kemler, n. d. g., hirsh-pasek, k., jusczyk, p. w., & cassidy, k. w. (1989). how the prosodic cues in motherese might assist language learning. journal of child language, 16, 55–68. laiacona, m. & caramazza, a. (2004). the noun/verb dissociation in language production: varieties of causes. cognitive neuropsychology, 21, 103–124. linver, m. r., brooks-gunn, j., & kohen, d. e. (2002). family processes and pathways from income to young children’s development. developmental psychology, 38, 719-738. ludingtion, j. d. (2013). cross-situational learning of foreign vocabulary reveals a possible noun bias in adulthood. theory and practice in language studies, 3(4), 545-555. doi:10.4304/tpls.3.4.545-555 mahootian, s. (1997). persian. london: routledge. markman, e. m. (1987). how children constrain the possible meanings of words. in u. neisser (ed.), concepts and conceptual development: ecological and intellectual factors in categorization (pp. 255–287). cambridge university press. matthews, m., lieven, e., & theakston, a. (2005). the role of frequency in the acquisition of english word order. cognitive development, 20 (1), 121-136. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s0885201404000851. naigles, l. r. & hoff-ginsberg, e. (1998). why are some verbs learned before other verbs? effects of input frequency and structure on children’s early verb use. journal of child language, 25, 95-120. ogura, t., dale, p. s., yamashita, y., murase, t., & mahieu, a. (2006). the use of nouns and verbs by japanese children and their caregivers in book-reading and toy-playing contexts. journal of child language, 33, 1-29. özçalskan, s. & goldin-meadow, s. (2010). sex differences in language first appear in gesture. developmental science, 13(5), 752-760. piccin, t. b. & waxman, s. r. (2007). why nouns trump verbs in word learning: new evidence from children and adults in the human simulation paradigm. language learning and development, 3(4), 295-323. doi:10.1080/15475440701377535 seidl, a. & johnson, e. (2006). infant word segmentation revisited: edge alignment facilitates target extraction. developmental science, 9, 565-573. shady, m. e. & gerken, l. a. (1999). grammatical and caregiver cues in early sentence comprehension. journal of child language, 26, 1-13. snedeker, j., geren, j., & shafto, c. l. (2012). disentangling the effects of cognitive development and linguistic expertise: a longitudinal study of the acquisition of english in internationally adopted children. cognitive psychology, 65, 39-76. doi: 10.1016 / j.cogpsych .2012.01.004 sullivan, d. (n.d.). your 16-month-old's language and cognitive development: fine-tuning skills. baby center. retrieved from http://www.babycenter.com/0_your-16-month-olds-languageand-cognitive-development-fine-t_1213782.bc tardif, t., shatz, m., & naigles, l. (1997). caregiver speech and children's use of nouns versus verbs: a comparison of english, italian, and mandarin. journal of child language, 24, 535566. tomasello, m. (2003). constructing a language: a usage-based theory of language acquisition. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. vibbert, m. & bornstein, m. h. (1989). specific associations between domains of mother–child interaction and toddler referential language and pretense play. infant behavior and development, 12,163-184. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 155 new ideas for brain modelling 4 kieran greer distributed computing systems, belfast, united kingdom office 2038, po box 1213, belfast, bt1 9jy, uk. http://distributedcomputingsystems.co.uk kieran.greer@ntlworld.com abstract this paper continues the research that considers a new cognitive model based strongly on the human brain. in particular, it considers the neural binding structure of an earlier paper. it also describes some new methods in the areas of image processing and behaviour simulation. the work is all based on earlier research by the author and the new additions are intended to fit in with the overall design. for image processing, a grid-like structure is used with ‘full linking’. each cell in the classifier grid stores a list of all other cells it gets associated with and this is used as the learned image that new input is compared to. for the behaviour metric, a new prediction equation is suggested, as part of a simulation, that uses feedback and history to dynamically determine its course of action. while the new methods are from widely different topics, both can be compared with the binary-analog type of interface that is the main focus of the paper. it is suggested that the simplest of linking between a tree and ensemble can explain neural binding and variable signal strengths. keywords: image, behaviour, binary-analog, neural, cognitive, clustering. 1. introduction this paper continues the research that considers a new cognitive model based strongly on the human brain, last updated in greer (2016). in particular, it considers figure 4 of that paper (figure below) and how it might be useful in practice. the paper also describes some new methods in the areas of image processing and behaviour simulation. the image processing introduces a most classical form of pattern cross-referencing, while the behaviour equations used feedback for a memory-type of cross-referencing. the work is all based on earlier research by the author and the new additions are intended to fit in with the overall design. for image processing, a grid-like structure is used with ‘full linking’, if you like. each cell in the classifier grid stores a list of all other cells it gets associated with and this is used as the learned image that new input is compared with. for the behaviour metric, a new prediction equation is suggested, as part of a simulation, that uses feedback and history to dynamically determine its current state and course of action. while the new methods are from widely different topics, both can be compared with the binary-analog type of interface that is the main focus of the paper. sensory input may be static and binary, but crossreferences result in variable comparisons that make the input more dynamic. it is suggested that the simplest of linking between a tree and ensemble can explain neural binding and variable signal strengths. the rest of the paper is organised as follows: section 0 introduces an image processing method that cross-references at a pixel level to associate images. section 0 describes some related work. section 0 re-visits the behaviour metric of an earlier paper and updates that with a new predictive equation. this feeds earlier evaluations back into the equation, to allow it to self-adjust. section 0 describes concept aggregation or binding, for realising global concepts, while section 0 considers a process for neural binding that could relate to consciousness. finally, section 0 gives some conclusions to the work. 2. image processing this section describes a very basic image recognition algorithm, but one that has characteristics of the other algorithms developed as part of the work, see the related work section. for this paper, images are represented by a 2-d grid, with a black cell meaning that a pixel is brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 156 present and a white cell meaning that it is empty. a classifier can use the same grid-like structure, where all of the cells can link to each other. the author has used this structure before in greer (2016) and it is a type of entropy classifier. it attempts to reduce the error overall and is not so concerned with minimising individual associations. the paper greer (2017) describes a classifier that is conjecturally more visual in nature than other types and it also uses a complete linking method. instead of several levels of feature refactoring, it is a 1-level impression only. with the image classifier, each cell stores a count of every other cell it gets associated with, when averaging this can determine what cells are most similar to the pixel in question. figure is an example of the clustering technique. if the top lhs grid is the first image to be mapped, then for cell a1, the other black cells are recorded as shown, with a count of 1. the count would then be incremented each time a cell is recorded again, for example, after the second image, cell a3 would lose a count. the idea of linking everything this way has now been used 3 times. figure 1. example mapping of cells presented as an image. using this algorithm, a set of hand-written numbers (chars74k, 2017) was selected as the test data. there were 9 numbers in total and 55 examples of each number. each number was trained on a separate classifier, where each cell would store the other related cell associations. the counts could then be averaged to produce the weight values. to use the system, a new binary image would be presented to each of the trained classifiers and it would be assigned to the classifier that matched closest. it is easy to recognise pixels in the input image, but the problem is sorting any other pixels that they are associated with. for each pixel in the input image therefore, the weighted value of the related classifier cell can be retrieved. this would also have links to other cells, maybe not in the input image. for example, if the counts are as shown and a new image is presented that contains pixels in cells a1 and a2 – then the classifier would return cells a1, a2 plus b1 and c1. a3 might not be returned depending on a set threshold value. the success score is then the percentage of retrieved weighted cells in the classifier that are also in the input image, compared to the number that are not in the image. for this example, 2 cells are in the input image while 2 cells are not, leading to a success score of 1. the weight value of the cell can be considered as an association strength and the idea may be auto-associative. after training on the hand-written numbers, the same dataset was fed through the classifiers again for recognition only. the test results are not particularly good and to improve it, some level of scaling would be required. there is a problem of a larger image covering a smaller one with the currently tried dataset. an average success score of only 46% was achieved with this basic version, with a best score for a number of 89% and a worst score of 15%; although state-of-the-art is only about 55%. it was interesting that the classifier would try to return a picture that was more a reflection of itself. so regardless of what the input was, for example, the number 1 classifier would try to return an image that looked like a ‘1’. if the input image was a ‘4’ however, then maybe the number 4 classifier would return a more accurate comparison and therefore win the matching competition. k. gree new ideas for brain modelling 4 157 3. related work the author’s own papers that are quoted (greer, 2011-2017) are all relevant to the research of this paper. the image processing of section 0 has already been tried in de campos, babu and varma (2009), where they tested the full dataset. their results were better overall, with maybe 55% accuracy and over a larger dataset. as stated however, the tests here are only initial results and it would be expected that some improvement would be possible, especially if the images can be scaled. the recently found paper kowalski (1972) looks significant and the general architecture (greer, 2016, figure 2, for example)) could have analogies with bi-directional searches in the and-or with theorem-proving graphs architecture of that paper. as suggested, and-or could work from goals to axioms (the neural network in the general model and theorem-proving from axioms to goals (the concept trees in the general model). the paper sukanya and gayathri (2013) models at a higher behaviour level, but it is interesting that the behaviours are considered to be unique (time or sequence-based) sets of events and these event patterns are then clustered, rather than each individual event. the idea of using unique sets of nodes to cluster with has also been used for the symbolic neural network (greer, 2011). an earlier paper on control theory (yashchin, 1987) posts some interesting equations that are similar to ones in this paper. equation 1 there, for example, looks like the image success score ratio and equation 7 is a likelihood ratio test that is also trying to maximise inside some type of sequence. the behaviour metric of section 0 has only been updated with a new predictive equation, where the first paper (greer, 2013) notes some references, including bryant and miikkulainen, (2007); hanks, pollack and cohen, (1993); macal and north, (2010) and pollack and ringuette, (1990). one interesting aspect of the equation is that it uses a feedback mechanism which appears to be similar to one that was part of another research project and even in the project code4. 3.1. cognitive modelling hawkins and blakeslee, (2004) describe how a region of the cortex might work (p. 57) and they note an input signal being voted on by a higher level, where one higher level pattern set will win and switch off the other sets. they also state explicitly that the higher level is voting to ‘fit’ its label better than the other patterns. it may be trying to return its own image as the input signal and the best match there with the input signal should win. the theory that they state is that a region learns when it may be important and then it can become partially active, as part of a memory or prediction. so, this is a type of reasoning, to play over previous scenarios, even when they have not happened in the current situation yet. that can then maybe be reinforced further by specific instance values, making it the real decision. the following quote is also interesting: ‘every moment in your waking life, each region of your neocortex is comparing a set of expected columns driven from above with the set of observed columns driven from below. where the two sets intersect is what we perceive. if we had perfect input from below and perfect predictions, then the set of perceived columns would always be contained in the set of predicted columns. we often don't have such agreement. the method of combining partial prediction with partial input resolves ambiguous input, it fills in missing pieces of information, and it decides between alternative views.’ the paper (senkowski et.al., 2008) introduces the idea of temporal synchrony and synchronised oscillatory activity as important for multisensory perception. 3.2. neural binding there is quite a lot of research and philosophy into the idea of neural binding. at its most basic, it means ‘how do neural ensembles that fire together be understood to represent the said concept’. for example, questions like ‘why don’t we confuse a red circle and a blue square with a blue circle and a red square’ (feldman, 2013) need to be answered. it includes the idea of consciousness and how the brain is able to be coherent, but while there are lots of theories, there are 4 cognitive algorithm by boris kazachenko, http://www.cognitivealgorithm.info/. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 158 not a lot of very specific results for the binding mechanism itself. some cognitive models for the real brain include temporal logic or predicate calculus rules (feldman, 2013) to explain how variables can bind with each other and reasoning can be obtained. this includes the flow of information in both directions and so the basic circuits of this and earlier papers would not be too extravagant. the paper mashour (2004) is a philosophical paper about how the neural binding mechanism may work. it argues for quantum mechanics, to allow neurons to be represented in more than 1 pattern simultaneously and probably the resulting merging of the patterns into a consciousness. the author would only favour quantum mechanics as a last resort and in section 0, a relatively simple method for representing the same neuron in different patterns is suggested. if time differences between the patterns is very small, then they could still merge into a single coherent message. this could be especially true for the argument against hebbian cell assemblies. the paper cer and o'reilly (2006) describes a theory that is quite similar. they call the framework the specialized neural regions for global efficiency (snrge) framework. the paper describes that ‘the specializations associated with different brain areas represent computational trade-offs that are inherent in the neurobiological implementation of cognitive processes. that is, the trade-offs are a direct consequence of what computational processes can be easily implemented in the underlying biology.’ the specializations of the paper correspond anatomically to the hippocampus (hc), the prefrontal cortex (pfc), and all of neocortex that is posterior to prefrontal cortex (posterior cortex, pc). essentially, prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus appear to serve as memory areas that dynamically and interactively support the computation that is being performed by posterior brain areas. the pc stores overlapping distributed representations used to encode semantic and perceptual information. the hc stores sparse, pattern separated representations used to rapidly encode ('bind') entire patterns of information across cortex while minimizing interference. the fc stores isolated stripes (columns) of neurons capable of sustained firing (i.e., active maintenance or working memory). they argue against temporal synchrony, because of the ‘red circle blue square’ question and prefer to argue for coarse-coded distributed representations (ccdr) (hinton, mcclelland and rumelhart, 1986 and others) instead. 4. cognitive behaviour an earlier paper introduced a set of equations that were based on the collective behaviour research of garnier, gautrais and theraulaz (2007). they proposed a set of characteristics for modelling the stigmergic behaviour of very simple animals, such as ants. they proposed to use coordination, cooperation, deliberation and collaboration, as follows:  coordination – is the appropriate organisation in space and time of the tasks required to solve a specific problem.  cooperation – occurs when individuals achieve together a task that could not be done by a single one.  deliberation – refers to mechanisms that occur when a colony faces several opportunities. these mechanisms result in a collective choice for at least one of the opportunities.  collaboration – means that different activities are performed simultaneously by groups of specialised individuals. they note that these are not mutually exclusive, but rather contribute together to accomplish the various collective tasks of the colony. this led to a set of equations by the author (greer, 2013) for modelling these types of entity. the model is actually behaviour-based not entity-based, where the entity instances are then made up of a set of the pre-defined behaviours, with the following characteristics: 1. individual agent characteristics: relate to an agent as an individual: 1.1. ability: this defines how well the behaviour is able to execute the required action. 1.2. flexibility: this defines how well an agent performing a behaviour can adapt or change to a different behaviour if the situation requires it to. this can be seen as the ability to make that k. gree new ideas for brain modelling 4 159 decision individually. the collective capabilities described next can then be seen as the ability to be flexible after an environment response. 2. collaborative agent characteristics: these relate to the agent working in a team environment: 2.1. coordination: this defines how well the agent can coordinate its actions with those of other agents. this is again a behaviour selection, related to flexibility, but this variable measures the group aspect of the attribute after interaction with other agents. 2.2. cooperation: this defines how well an agent performing an action can cooperate with other agents also involved in that action. how well can the selected behaviours work together? 2.3. communication: this defines how well the agents can communicate with each other. this is defined as an input signal and an output signal for each behaviour type. behaviours could require local or remote communication, for example. the metric is quite well balanced, with approximately half of the evaluation going to the individual capabilities and half going to the group capabilities. 4.1. problem modelling it is possible to specify a problem with all of the related agents and actions that are part of the solution space. the modelling is based around the behaviour types that are used to solve the problem, where the same type definitions can be used, both to model the problem and also to simulate its execution. the agents are defined by agent types, where an agent type can perform a particular set of behaviours. so, if the same behaviour type is to be performed at different levels of success; for static values, this would require different behaviour definitions, or for dynamic ones the value can change through an equation. 4.2. behaviour equations the problem is therefore modelled as sets of agents that can each perform a set of behaviours. the problem success likelihood (psl) is the summed result of the behaviour scores and estimates how well the problem can be solved. the top part of the psl value, shown in equation 1, evaluates the average agent complexity (ecs), as just described. when modelling, this is measured for all of the behaviour type instances (bs) that are part of the problem behaviour set (pbs). this can be no larger than the optimal problem complexity (pc) value of 1.0. the problem complexity is a factor of how intelligent the agents need to be to solve it. because the evaluations are all normalised, in a static specification, the maximum value that the problem complexity can be is 1.0. if all behaviours are perfect, they will also only sum to 1 as well. the problem success likelihood, can therefore be defined as follows: psl = (1) 4.2.1. individual parameters the individual capabilities of a behaviour can be modelled as follows: ecs = (2) is = (3) the agent or entity complexity (ecs) for behaviour s is a factor of its ability to perform the related behaviour attributes of intelligence and collective capabilities. the agent intelligence (is) is a factor of its ability (bas) and flexibility (bfs) capabilities for the specified behaviour. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 160 4.2.2. team work the collective or team work capabilities (cols) of a behaviour are modelled as follows: cols = (4) coms = (5) the collective capabilities of the agent performing the behaviour are its ability to cooperate with other agents (cops), coordinate its actions with them (cors) and also communicate this (coms), normalised. the communication capabilities of the agent for the behaviour s include its ability to send a signal to another agent (sos) and also its ability to receive a signal from another agent (sis). 4.3. prediction operation for the metric when simulating the problem, the problem complexity value can change. the success likelihood then becomes an individual evaluation, based on its knowledge and understanding of the environment. this can be defined by the subset of behaviours the agent has either performed or has interacted with from other agents. for a more intelligent agent, the memory or history of earlier events can lead to a prediction operation that can reason over the earlier events. it could be a deliberation function that is fed the history of earlier and/or possible choices, before selecting the most appropriate one. for example, equation 3 of section 0 defines agent intelligence as a combination of ability and flexibility. the idea is the ability to perform the intended behaviour but also flexibility to change or adapt the individual behaviour depending on some response. ideally, an agent would score high in both and a modelling scenario that uses static values would be able to demonstrate this. if instead, running the agents in a simulation, it may be more interesting to let them change their behaviours dynamically, but again constrained by the pre-defined environment. this leads to the idea of a prediction metric that is influenced by what the agent can do and also what it did in the past. the current situation is the most important and so the decision there has the largest weight. the prediction could then include decreasing values for earlier related events. these can be factored as a count of earlier events times a factor for the time when they occurred. if the behaviour was not repeated, then maybe something went wrong, such as an unfavourable response. these responses, including for the current situation, would change the state of the agent into what it then has to deal with. the equation would be something like: (6) where: ecs1 is the currently selected individual behaviour complexity, ecm is any previously selected individual behaviour complexity, for any related scenario, n is number of times in memory that the previous event occurred, r is the response or impact of the event, t is the last time the event occurred, m is the total number of behaviour-response pairs stored in memory, f is some function evaluation over the variable set, maybe ‘n(ec + r) / t’ if r is a specific response, or a multiplication if it is the weight of the response. when the agent selects a new behaviour, it is expecting a positive response. after a reply from the environment, the individual behaviour plus the response is fed back into the equation to get a new amount. if this is less than expected – ‘current pr plus new ec’, then the response has k. gree new ideas for brain modelling 4 161 been a negative one and possibly a different behaviour should be selected. this type of process can repeat, with bad responses being flagged and not selected again, for example, until a decision is made, maybe a new stable state is reached. as the equation calculates, it also feeds back its current state to update its evaluation for the next selection. the responses are therefore even more responsible for changing the agent state, where the behaviour selection, using the entity complexity, is an individual one, maybe based more on knowledge. so again, there is a hint of a simpler evaluation, which is the knowledge-based decision, balancing itself with the more complex decision, after the response is also factored in. 4.4. self-adjusting evaluation a more intelligent version of the metric for a simulation might therefore look as follows: (7) where the predictive equation can replace the entity complexity and both of the flexibility parts. the prediction is modelled as in equation 6, by the agent decision plus its reaction to any response. a dynamic problem complexity can be measured as in equation 8 and is essentially the fraction of all behaviours that the agent knows about. depending on how this is measured, a multiplication might be more appropriate for the psl. however, if i only ‘know’ about 1 behaviour, for example, then based on my own knowledge, i can solve that more easily than if i have to deal with several known behaviours. (8) the collective capabilities are thus reduced to cooperation and communication with other entities, where coordination is moved to the predictive part. (8) 4.5. testing the behaviour metric was tested in greer (2013). there has not been an opportunity to test the new predictive equation or its feedback algorithm and so this paper presents the theory of it only and notes the relation of the theory to the other research. however, a worked example described next, should help to show how it would work in practice. 4.6. worked behaviour example consider the following scenario: an agent finds itself in a situation s1. the agent is modelled with behaviours b1 to b5 and the world is modelled with behaviours b1 to b10. the agent has encountered the same scenario s1 before and attempted the following behaviour set with related events, to deal with it: event b3 was tried at time t3 and resulted in a response r8. event b4 was tried at time t2 and resulted in response r6. based on this, behaviour b4 is selected again, leading to the equation: pr = b4s1 + (1 x (b4 + r6) / 2) + (1 x (b3 + r8) / 3) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 162 the scene is an interactive one, with another agent able to reply. the other agent also knows the scenario and replies with a behaviour b10. this is found to be unfavourable for the agent and reduces its overall evaluation through the equation: pr = (b4s1 + r10s1) + (1 x (b4 + r6) / t2) + (1 x (b3 + r8) / t3), where r10s1 is negative. therefore, the prediction reduces and the agent is required to try again. it now has knowledge of the reply b10 and also knows not to use behaviour b4 if it doesn’t have to. therefore, a new response based on its new history could lead to: pr = b2s1 + (1 x (b4s1 + r10s1) / t2) + (1 x (b4 + r6) / t3) + (1 x (b3 + r8) / t4) the reply by the environment, b10 again, is not as unfavourable now and so the prediction increases. based on other criteria, the behaviour can be played again, or a satisfactory situation may have been achieved. in either case, to resolve this situation, two behaviours were tried and both were fed back into the evaluation function. the first one even counted as part of the history for selecting the second one. 5. concept binding concept aggregation or binding is mentioned as part of the symbolic neural network (greer, 2011). this is an experience-based structure that combines lower-level concepts into more complex global ones and would work in the more intelligent brain region. other related papers (greer, 2017;2016) have developed algorithms that link everything together and then sort using entropy. the image-processing model of section 0, for example, introduces the variable structure through cross-referencing. the behaviour metric of section 0 does not fit quite as obviously. the sensory input must still come first from the environment, before deciding on a plan. the behaviour selection and reasoning process must therefore occur afterwards, using the higher-level brain regions to sort the lower-level ones. but a binding is simply a repeat of the pattern and it does not have to represent anything other than what the ensemble mass represents. so it can be used in exactly the same context. with one visual system theory (singer and gray, 1995 and others), synchronous oscillations in neuronal ensembles bind neurons representing different features of an object. gestalt psychology is also used, where objects are seen independently of their separate pieces. they have an ‘other’ interpretation of the sub-features and not just a summed whole of them. although, there are still problems with the theories, including the requirement for too many independent neural constellations to represent every feature. the numerical problem can therefore be helped with some level of cross-referencing. the question like ‘why don’t we confuse a red circle and a blue square with a blue circle and a red square’ (feldman, 2013) could be answered if ‘red’, ‘blue’, ‘circle’ or ‘square’ are individual concepts that also cross-reference each other. individual means a base node in a tree and crossreference means a leaf node in another tree. if a tree is accepted as part of a circuit, then the base neuron will receive positive feedback, which may be recognised more because of the greater firing effort. leaf nodes would also have to be relevant to complete a circuit, but they may also be peripheral to a main concept and so can act more as links. one leaf node would also be the base of another tree, when both trees could be active at the same time and relate to the same larger concept. this is illustrated in figure . the concepts of red, blue, circle and square are all base concepts learned by the system and also have cross-referenced branches in other trees. some neurons can have 1000 branches or more5. if the senses send signals about red and circle, for example, then the two central trees can complete a circuit, even if the concepts exist in other places as well. for 5 prof k. arai, sai’14. k. gree new ideas for brain modelling 4 163 reasoning then, there would also be influences from the higher-level processes that perform other types of aggregation, or for synchronisation. figure 2. one level of linking in a temporal model defines a particular ensemble mix. it is therefore possible to give concepts graded strengths and also any arbitrary mix of the learned base set. this is already part of the concept trees research (greer, 2014), where a leaf node in one tree links to a base node in another tree. or to put it another way, if a base node branches to link with another tree, it represents the same thing in any other tree. the concept tree may be too semantic for the level being considered here and their base concepts would not be ‘anchored’ because there is an idea that concept trees can re-join with each other. so possibly, the path description for figure is only 1 or 2 levels deep – the base node and its same branches. the related concept base (greer, 2011) however has been used to manage flat hierarchies in that paper, or the trees in other papers, where the flat hierarchy has been associated with a cognitive process. 6. neural binding for a binary-analog interface while section 0 looked at the coarser concept binding, this section considers again the idea of neuron binding6. biology has already suggested theories about neural oscillations and binding that include neural pairing. the pairing helps to group the neurons into specific patterns that the brain can understand, when different features can become synchronised and oscillate together. the binding theory of this paper is described in figure . in the figure, a neuron in a base ensemble mass binds with a neuron in a related hierarchical structure. the hierarchy gives more meaning to the structure and helps to guide a search process, but it is not clear how or why this structure would form. signal strength would be an attractive option to produce the hierarchical neuron, but if the base node has the strongest signal, then that should result in a longer link to its paired neuron. the construction of the hierarchy is therefore more likely to be based on time. when neurons fire they create new neurons and a neuron must exist before it can form a link to another one. the neurons that form first are therefore more likely to link to other neurons that form later and so in a mechanical sense, the hierarchy could be created. it is also useful to consider electrical synapses, which can be bi-directional and setup an oscillating wave between close neural regions. they are created along with chemical synapses. the point of the pairing is this resonance and so a weaker electrical signal would be ideal. quantum mechanics is one theory used to exaplin how the conscious might work, where several patterns and states can collapse into one. with a paired neuron however, there can be resonance between the pair without a quantum element. this resonance could produce a signal, similar to how different sized pipes produce a note. the resonance is obviously very quick and so it would all meld into the one signal. if the base ensemble can refresh the whole pattern as well, then that variable process can (re)activate parts of the structure and in a timed way. this model fits deeper in the brain however and is not intended for the intelligent cortex area. 6 see wikipedia, for example. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 164 the model is also based on the idea of an auto-associative neural network. the hopfield neural network (hopfield, 1982), and its stochastic equivalents are auto-associative or memory networks. with the memory networks, information is sent between the input and the output until a stable state is reached, when the information does not then change. these are resonance networks, such as bidirectional associative memory (bam), or others (rojas, 1996), but they can only provide a memory recall – they map the input pattern directly to the output pattern. if some of the input pattern is missing however, they can still provide an accurate recall of the whole pattern. they also prefer the data vectors to be orthogonal without overlap. this is however ideal for the binding that only wants to reproduce the base ensemble in the hierarchy. figure 3. neuron pairing: an ensemble neuron links with a hierarchal neuron. also figure 4 in greer (2016) image processing example an an example, the image-processing algorithm of section 0 is mapped to the neuron pairing architecture in this section. this is not final and there are questions about how exactly it might work, but there is also a clear process that can relate the two. the first thing to consider is the neuron ensemble and while neurons are continually being created, the ensemble mass is assumed to exist already. when some of it is excited, this then starts the binding process with the neurons in the hierarchy. the process is shown in figure . the lhs represents the lower ensemble mass, where an input has activated the central column of black neurons. with the image-processing algorithm, each pixel (neuron) on the rhs image relates to the same pixel (neuron) on the lhs image. the grey squares represent additional pixels (neurons) that have been associated during the reinforcement procedure. the binding process can probably include more than 1 base beuron and hierarchy at a time and it is probably not the case that only the grey squares would be further up a hierarchy. while that part is not clear, what is good about the binding is that it should introduce more accuracy into the recognition result. it would require for both the input sensory image and the stored hierarchy image to both fire the same related set of neurons, for the oscillations to register a persistent signal between them. if there is a neuron in the hierarchy that sends a signal back to the sensory input and it is not part of the pattern, then it cannot oscillate, so that part of the error can be removed. if part of the sensory input is missing from the hierarchy, then it cannot oscillate and so that part of the input needs to be learned. a third possibility is if the hierarchy returns a signal not in the sensory input, but that has links in the ensemble mass. it may usually be part of the input pattern and so through the links it can get activated as part of the pattern. a fourth possibility is if a lot of the hierarchy sends back signals to inactive neurons, but the hierarchy should be more accurate and k. gree new ideas for brain modelling 4 165 is activated from the ensemble. it is also controlled from further levels above, so this possibility is not as likely. figure 4. lhs relates to neuron binding ensemble mass, with central column activated. rhs relates to hierarchy, with a direct mapping. the two red lines show where the ensemble is missing and so it needs to be learned. the blue lines show extra neurons from the hierarchy back to the ensemble, but can be removed as error. the other paired black squares represent where the patterns match and can oscillate together. 7. conclusions this paper has mostly considered a binding problem and the implications of a binary-analog conversion process. this has led to some interesting results, both in the areas of image processing and higher-level reasoning. it has also helped when thinking about the temporal synchrony problems of neural binding and how separate parts can be re-combined into a more coherent whole. the binding can also help with recognition accuracy. the behaviour metric has been updated to include a predictive part that may be used as part of a simulation. this allows the metric to be more intelligent and should help to clarify the flexibility attributes that it has. a behaviour decision is based on the agent’s current state, its abilities and also its memory. if the model of this and earlier papers is used, then (sub)concepts can in fact be represented individually, with lots of cross-linking representing the different contexts. with so many neurons in the brain, depending on how a scenario is broken down, why could it not accommodate this? for the pattern ensembles, base nodes that link as branches in other trees can simply represent themselves. this is a simplification of concept trees, where symbolically or conceptually, the node representation is only 1 or 2 levels deep. if there is a tree structure however, then there can be deeper paths that can relate to graded signal strengths, or even allow for different connection patterns over the same ensemble. also key is reinforcement from above, through reasoning, that completes the circuits. it can still be shown that the ideas fit together into a common model, even if it uses a lot of standard and compatible structures. acknowledgement i would like to thank the reviewer for some useful comments about the paper structure and content. references greer, k., (2016), new ideas for brain modelling 3, available on arxiv at https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.00369. greer, k., (2017), a single-pass classifier for categorical data, special issue on: ijcsyse recent advances in evolutionary and natural computing practice and applications, int. j. computational systems engineering, inderscience, vol. 3, nos. 1/2, pp. 27 34. also available on arxiv at http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.02521. the chars74k dataset, http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/cvssp/demos/chars74k/. (last accessed 15/8/17). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 166 greer, k. (2014). concept trees: building dynamic concepts from semi-structured data using nature-inspired methods, in: q. zhu, a.t azar (eds.), complex system modelling and control through intelligent soft computations, studies in fuzziness and soft computing, springer-verlag, germany, vol. 319, pp. 221 – 252, 2014. published on arvix at http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.3515. greer, k. (2013). a metric for modelling and measuring complex behavioural systems, iosr journal of engineering (iosrjen), vol. 3, issue 11, november, pp. 19 – 28, e-issn: 22503021, p-issn: 2278-8719. published on arxiv at http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.0770. greer, k. (2012). turing: then, now and still key, in: x-s. yang (eds.), artificial intelligence, evolutionary computation and metaheuristics (aiecm) turing 2012, studies in computational intelligence, 2013, vol. 427/2013, pp. 43-62, doi: 10.1007/978-3-64229694-9_3, springer-verlag berlin heidelberg. published on arxiv at http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.2541. greer, k. (2011). symbolic neural networks for clustering higher-level concepts, naun international journal of computers, issue 3, vol. 5, pp. 378 – 386, extended version of the wseas/europment international conference on computers and computing (iccc’11). yashchin, e., (1987), some aspects of the theory of statistical control schemes, ibm j. res. develop., vol. 31 no. 2, pp. 199 – 205. bryant, b.d. and miikkulainen, r., (2007), acquiring visibly intelligent behavior with exampleguided neuroevolution, in proceedings of the twenty-second national conference on artificial intelligence (aaai-07), pp. 801 808. hanks, s., pollack, m.e., and cohen, p.r., (1993), benchmarks, test beds, controlled experimentation, and the design of agent architectures, ai magazine. vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 17 42. macal, c.m. and north, m.j., (2010), tutorial on agent-based modelling and simulation, journal of simulation, operational research society ltd., vol. 4, pp. 151–162. pollack, m., and ringuette, m., (1990), introducing the tileworld: experimentally evaluating agent architectures, in proceedings of the eighth national conference on artificial intelligence, menlo park, calif.: american association for artificial intelligence, pp. 183 189. hawkins, j. and blakeslee, s. on intelligence. times books, 2004. senkowski, d., schneider, t.r., foxe, j.j. and engel, a.k., (2008), crossmodal binding through neural coherence: implications for multisensory processing, trends in neurosciences, vol. 31, no. 8, pp. 401 409, doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2008.05.002. de campos, t.e., babu, b.r. and varma, m., (2009), character recognition in natural images, in proceedings of the international conference on computer vision theory and applications (visapp), lisbon, portugal. kowalski, r., (1972), and-or graphs, theorem-proving graphs and bi-directional search, machine intelligence 7. sukanya, p. and gayathri, k.s., (2013), an unsupervised pattern clustering approach for identifying abnormal user behaviors in smart homes, ijcsn international journal of computer science and network, vol. 2, issue 3, pp. 115 122. singer, w. and gray, c.m. (1995). visual feature integration and the temporal correlation hypothesis, annu rev neurosci. vol. 18, pp. 555 586. feldman, j., (2013), the neural binding problem(s), cognitive neurodynamics, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1-11. mashour, g.a., (2004), the cognitive binding problem: from kant to quantum neurodynamics, neuroquantology, issue 1, pp. 29-38. cer, d.m. and o'reilly, r.c., (2006), neural mechanisms of binding in the hippocampus and neocortex: insights from computational models, h.d. zimmer, a. mecklinger, and u. lindenberger (eds) handbook of binding and memory: perspectives from cognitive neuroscience, pp.193 220, oxford university press. k. gree new ideas for brain modelling 4 167 hinton, g.e., mcclelland, j.l., and rumelhart, d.e., (1986), distributed representations. in d.e. rumelhart, j.l. mcclelland, & pdp research group (eds.), parallel distributed processing. vol. 1: foundations (chap. 3, pp. 77–109). cambridge, ma: mit press. garnier, s., gautrais, j., and theraulaz, g., (2007), the biological principles of swarm intelligence, swarm intelligence. vol. 1, pp. 3 – 31. hopfield, j.j. (1982). neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities, proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the usa, vol. 79, no. 8, pp. 2554 2558. rojas, r. neural networks: a systematic introduction, springer-verlag, berlin and online at books.google.com, 1996. kieran greer completed a bsc in geology, an msc in computer science, and a dphil in artificial intelligence in 1998. he currently runs his own company, distributed computing systems (.co.uk), and specialises in the areas of artificial intelligence and distributed information systems. his software products include 'licas' and 'textflo'. he has worked previously at the two universities in northern ireland and since then, as a freelancer. he maintains a research profile in his areas of expertise, where he has developed his own cognitive and neural network models, for example. he is also an experienced software engineer and has self-published one book. brain_3_4_final 37 bilingual lexical activation in sentence and non-sentence context: a study of cross-language lexical processing mehraban hamavandy tarbiat modares university, tehran, iran mehraban2544@gmail.com mohammad golshan azad university of meibod, yazd, iran mohammadd_golshann@yahoo.com abstract research on word recognition across languages has gained popularity in recent years, due to its overall bearing on the psycholinguistic account of language acquisition. to this end, this study was an attempt to demonstrate the differential influences of l2 proficiency, and type of context on the lexical recognition and retrieval of bilinguals. for this purpose, ten participants who were native speakers of persian and were learning english at the two distinct levels of elementary and advanced were requested to recite two texts, one in persian and one in english, which were specifically modified for the current research purpose. the results revealed that while advanced learners were better performers on l2 lexis retrieval, their bare word recognition in l1 lagged behind in latency from elementary learners. keywords: lexical access, bilingualism, cross-language differences, sentence processing 1. introduction the expanding awareness on the importance of becoming a bilingual1 in modern world has stimulated a plethora of research on the different processes of turning into a bilingual, including studies on how bilinguals recognize words in their first or second language. a core concern, especially in the psycholinguistic account of bilingualism (and sla as well) has been the nature with which bilinguals activate lexical representations from both of their languages when reading a language. a central issue with regard to this area (macnamara & kushnir, 1971) was related to the debate of whether the process of word recognition for a bilingual undergoes the initial activation of word representations from a target language only (language-selective lexical access) or whether all words known to an individual, including those from a non-target language, are considered as potential candidates for recognition (nonselective access). many studies have endeavored to disambiguate the phenomenon, among which most have revealed that the two languages do interrelate and interact during the process of word recognition. as an example, it has been shown that when bilinguals recognize words in one of their languages, they process identical words in another language (e.g. the words none in english as compared with naan [meaning bread] in persian). assuming the dominance of non-selective lexical activation for bilinguals, what remains is to understand the nature of the lexical items that become activated (e.g., orthographic, phonological, and/or semantic) and the way context and linguistic task can probably influence the process of activation. for example, in the monolingual domain, much research has been devoted to determine the extent to which phonological codes within a language are automatically activated during visual word identification. these studies gave proof that phonological codes become activated and affect the visual identification of words (glushko, 1979; perfetti & bell, 1991; van orden, 1987). further it has been specified that visual word identification is influenced by the consistency of mappings between orthographic and phonological codes. when an orthographic code (e.g., lead) maps on to multiple phonological codes (e.g., [lid] and [lod]), feed-forward activation from those competing 1 bilingual in this article refers to both professional speakers of two languages as well as second language learners brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 codes inhibits performance (hino, et. al., 2002; stone, et. al., 1997). these studies were significant in revealing that, even in orthographically based tasks, phonological codes are activated and influence performance. similarly, when a phonological code (e.g., [meid]) maps onto multiple orthographic codes (e.g., maid,made), feed-backward activation from those competing codes inhibits performance (pexman, et. al., 2001; pexman, et. al., 2002). in the present study one of the questions raised was whether similar ‘phonological dynamics’ (as stated by schwarts et. al., 2005) across the two languages of english and persian take place. among other factors (variables) that have been identified in previous studies which might contribute to the understanding of how certain lexical items in the repertoire of the language speaker (learner) are demonstrated during l1/l2 word recognition one can refer to the following. word frequency the word frequency influence (more frequent words are recognized faster than words with a lower frequency) is one of the most robust findings in the visual word recognition literature (howes & solomon, 1951; schilling, et. al., 1998; whaley, 1978).this factor has been treated as a predominant variable in almost every model of word recognition. for instance, interactive activation models of lexical access assume that frequency affects the resting activation levels of word representations (mcclelland & rumelhart, 1981). although the degree of the effect is to a large extent reported to be task dependent, it has been assumed for all standard tasks of word recognition. for the bilingual domain, some evidence suggests that the frequency effect might even be larger in the second as compared with the first language (van wijnendaele & brysbaert, 2002). akamatsu (2002) showed that bilingual speakers with chinese, japanese, or persian as l1 and english as l2 displayed differential effects of word frequency but comparable effects of phonological regularity in english word naming. finally, baayen et al. (2006) demonstrated that the relative frequency in written compared with spoken english (quantified as the ratio between the two) played an important role in both english monolingual lexical decision and word naming: the more frequent a word was in spoken relative to written english, the faster it was recognized. language orthographic neighborhood effects of orthographic neighborhood (i.e., words that are different from their neighboring word in one letter only) are deemed to influence word selection through activation of multiple words during word recognition. the relative importance of various neighborhood measures for the different standard word recognition tasks has been discussed extensively in the literature on word recognition (e.g. andrews, 1997; perea & rosa, 2000; carreiras et al., 1997; grainger & jacobs, 1996). the number of higher frequency neighbors has repeatedly been found to slow down recognition latencies for the target word, whereas the total number of neighbors had no or only little effect on recognition performance. grainger & jacobs(1996) found that higher frequency neighbors delay the pass of the recognition threshold for a target word through lateral inhibition. morphological family size findings of many studies have revealed that the amount of derivations and compounds, from which a word occurs, named as the morphological size, facilitates response latencies in monolingual and bilingual lexical decision (de jong, et. al., 2000; dijkstra, et. al. 2005; schreuder & baayen, 1997). it is contended that the number of morphological family members have effect on recognition latencies, and not only their frequency. this argument is against a purely frequency-based account of the morphological family size effect. word length results of most word recognition tasks have indicated that for words that are longer, more time is demanded to recognize them. consequently, as mcginnies, et. al. (1952) have stated, owing to the possible transfer of reading strategies from l1 to l2, word length effects may also differ for m. hamavandy, m. golshan bilingual lexical activation in sentence and non-sentence context: a study of crosslanguage lexical processing 39 bilingual readers varying in their l1 when reading words in their l2. ziegler et al. (2001) have also shown that word length effects were larger in german as opposed to english, due mainly to the more shallow orthography of german language than english. number of meanings lexical items which have several meanings have been subject to many studies whose main aim has been to perceive the relationship between the form and semantic level of word representation. yet, there has been no hard-and-fast compliance on whether, why, and how this factor can be influential on word recognition (e.g., borowsky & masson, 1996; duffy, et. al. , 1988; hino, et. al., 2006), and whether related word senses have to be discriminated from unrelated word meanings (klein & murphy, 2001; rodd, et. al., 2002). it has been hypothesized that native/nonnative speakers of a certain language are heavily influenced by the number of word meanings during a word recognition task that probably entails relatively little semantic processing. considering that representations of l2 words have been regarded as less “richly populated” (i.e., possessing fewer senses) than l1 words it is possible that the number of meanings affects word recognition in the first but not in the second language (finkbeiner, et. al., 2004). familiarity the respondents’ familiarity with the word has been assumed to be a highly determinant factor during word recognition process (especially in the setting of the native language speakers (kreuz, 1987; williams & morris, 2004). gernsbacher (1984) for instance reported that effects of other variables (word frequency, word length, and number of meanings) on lexical decision latencies disappeared when familiarity was controlled for. in addition to the mentioned studies which mainly investigated the variables which influence word recognition, a number of other relevant researches tried to shed light on the process of the activation of the pronunciation of the words, usually taking place cross-linguistically. as an instance, jared and szucs (2002) in their study asked french-english and english-french bilinguals name words in three blocks of trials; two in english only and a third in french separating the two english blocks. the english words included heterophonic homographs of french words [e.g., pain (meaning ‘‘bread’’)] and unambiguous controls (e.g., camera). their initial hypothesis was that if phonological representations from the non-target language are active, then competition between alternative pronunciations of the same word should delay naming for the heterophonic homographs. therefore, the french naming block was included to test the hypothesis that the requirement to produce in the non-target language would further increase this ‘cost’. when bilinguals named words in their weaker l2, there were increased latencies for the interlingual homographs, both before and after the french naming block. when bilinguals named words in their l1( as their more dominant language), in this case english, there was once again a cost for naming the homographs, yet the influence was found only after the l2 was activated by a block of french word naming. the finding being in line with non-selective theory of language activation, since bilinguals seemed to activate phonological codes from both of their languages, even when reading in their l1. though, how influential l1 is, depends upon the time when l2 had been activated. in a very similar approach, jared and kroll (2001) investigated whether and to what extent sub-lexical phonology was influenced by similar cross-language effects. participants of their study who were english-french bilinguals named english words that either had word body ‘enemies’ in french (e.g., pain), english (e.g., steak) or no enemies in either french or english (e.g., stump). the final finding revealed a very analogous pattern with that of jared and szucs (2002), mentioned earlier. participants who were bilinguals of english & french, named words in english (that had word body enemies in french), in a longer duration of time, yet this ‘cost’ was found to take place only after naming the french word block. taken together, these studies mainly imply that effects of cross-language activation are constrained when production is in the l1 and lexical selection is required by the task brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 another related question sought for in the literature is, how the cognitive nature of l2 reading is distinct from reading in the native language (l1) and how might this difference account for the probable decreased reading rate? there are at least two fundamental characteristics mentioned in sla literature that distinguish l2 reading. first, basic word recognition processes may be slowed in l2 due to decreased familiarity and frequency of use of the language (as mentioned earlier). second, there is now abundant evidence from psycholinguistic research suggesting that bilinguals are not able to selectively turn o? one of their languages during comprehension (dijkstra, et. al. 2001; dijkstra, et. al., 2000; dijkstra, et. al., 1999; dijkstra, et. al., 1998). it is believed that information embedded in the context at the sentence level can also guide lexical access in l1( and at times l2) of bilinguals lexical access out of context: monolingual and bilingual studies if lexis is presented to the readers in an out-of-context fashion, it can be expected that they will face ambiguity with regards to lexical selection. this ambiguity has been shown to take place at multiple lexical levels including semantic (e.g., bugs) and phonological (e.g., lead). what has aroused many studies in this field has been the dexterity of many skilled readers, who irrespective of the extent pf lexical ambiguity, can quickly prompt to process words such as homonyms and homo graphs and integrate them into the text being read. this issue has been a source of interest for many researchers to see how multiple meanings of words are represented, activated, and ultimately selected. other studies have also investigated the processing of ambiguous words out of context, for instance, in a lexical decision task. the obtained results showed that recognition performance for homonyms are facilitated relative to unambiguous words (pexman & lupker, 1999; rodd, et. al. , 2002). rod et. al., for instance, suggest that the multiple representations of homonyms are activated in parallel. they maintain that lexical access, at least in isolated word recognition tasks, involves the initial activation of numerous lexical competitors within the lexicon. lexical access in sentence context: monolingual and bilingual studies in every day communication, words are most often encountered in a meaningful context and not in isolation. the question can therefore be whether the presence of a meaningful context constrains cross-language activation? putting it another way, can information activated top-down from semantics in?uence the bottom-up processes of lexical access? in the monolingual domain, it has been contended that context aids in the interpretation of ambiguous words. however, what is still debated is the point at which selection of the appropriate meaning takes place and how early in the process of lexical access context can exert its effect. according to context-dependent accounts, the conceptual representations of sentences that readers build have an early influence on lexical access. thus, language processing is seen as being highly interactive, such that lexical knowledge, world knowledge, and the semantic and syntactic information provided by a sentence interact with the bottom-up processes that drive lexical access. this account is based on the ending that words are processed faster when they are embedded in a congruent sentence context than a neutral or incongruent context (e.g., simpson et al., 1989; stanovich & west, 1979). this study was directed toward finding answer to two questions. first, to investigate the lexical access and the amount of word recognition with regard to the proficiency level of the subjects, and second, to probe the role of context in accessing lexical items with consideration of the differences between the two languages (l1 and l2). 2. method participants participants of this study were ten learners of english (as their l2) whose l1 was persian. the gender variable was controlled for in the study (all subjects were male), and the subjects’ ages ranged 17-29. they were at different levels of proficiency in english (five were elementary and five at the advanced level), who were under education for their foreign language (english) by the m. hamavandy, m. golshan bilingual lexical activation in sentence and non-sentence context: a study of crosslanguage lexical processing 41 time the experiment was conducted. the participants were rewarded for participation in the experiment by giving 3 extra hours of instruction on their listening comprehension. materials two similar texts, one in the l1 of the participants (farsi) and one in their l2 (english) was used in the study. the texts were similar in meaning and its lexical items met the following criteria: they were between five to eight letters long each; the first and last letter was left in its place and the in-between letters were randomized. only content words were used (i.e., nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs); they were monosyllabic; and each word had only one possible spelling and one pronunciation. to make sure all the lexical items would be known by the participants, the unjumbled text was given to two other students in each level to indicate the unfamiliar words. words that were indicated as unknown were excluded from the text, and were replaced with their synonyms. also, two lists of lexical items (which met the above-mentioned criteria) one in persian and one in english each consisting of ten words were given to the participants for recitation. (see appendix) design and procedure participants were presented with the two texts and the words (in the l1 and l2 of subjects) and were asked to read them aloud, while their responses were recorded. participants were instructed to respond quickly and accurately and to guess if they did not know a word’s pronunciation. reaction time (rt) was recorded in seconds from the onset of stimulus presentation to the end of articulation. participants were given 3-5 practice trials prior to the experiment. 4. results of the experiment analyses of variance were performed on naming latencies and mean percent error scores. mean naming latencies (in seconds) and percent error rates for naming the lexical items in english (l1) and persian (l2) were also calculated. latency data a two-way anova was performed to determine whether and to what degree overall effect of language and proficiency level could be detected on lexical recognition time duration. there was significant effect of language, f1 (1, 8) = 17.63, p ˂ 0.05, mse=12597.28; f2 (l, 8) =328.01, p ˂ 0.05, mse=0.401.29, reflecting longer naming latencies in l2 than l1. this main effect was qualified by an interaction with level of proficiency in the subject analysis, f3 (1, 8) = 485.32, p ˂ 0.05, mse=0.386.6. paired t-tests performed with a bonferroni correction showed that elementary learners named slower than advanced peers in l2, t (l, 1) = 6.10, p ˂ 0.05, while this difference in latency was not observed in l1, t (1, 1) = 0.17, p ˂ 0.05. also, a three-way (language type [l1 or l2], proficiency level, phonological similarity) anova was performed on the mean naming latencies and percent error rates. in the analysis of naming latencies, the main effect of the proficiency level of the subjects turned out as the most significant factor, f1(2, 17) = 16.35, p ˂ 0.05, mse = 22399.95; f2(2, 43) = 43.71, p ˂ 0.05, mse = 3370.15 indicating longer latencies for the advanced participants who were reciting in l1 (persian) relative to that of elementary learners. another central research question addressed in the present study was the significant interaction between the proficiency level of the subjects and phonological similarity of the lexical items. the anova results indicated that, as mentioned earlier, advanced learners were slower in their l1. probably naming latencies were delayed when a highly similar phonological representation in the l1 mapped on to two, or more distinct phonological representations in l2, lengthening the lexical activation. other studies with a similar finding have considered it as an evidence for feed-forward activation from orthography to phonology across the subjects’ two languages. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 error data a two-way anova (language, proficiency) revealed a main effect of language, reflecting increased error rates in l2 relative to l1. f1 (l, 8) = 10.55, p ˂ 0.05, mse = 4.6. there was no significant effect of proficiency observed on error rates for the subjects’ l1. f2 (1, 12) = 3.10, p ˂ 0.05, mse = 55.5 5. discussion and conclusion results of the present study imply that the degree to which lexical items become activated across languages highly depends on the proficiency level as well as the phonological distance (feedforward or –backward ness) of lexical items. this differential effect of phonological distance on word recognition has also been reported in previous studies, which demonstrated that under some circumstances language-specific phonologic (orthographic) distance cues can be indicative of word recognition timing (vaid, et. al., 2002, thomas & allport, 2000). as in the present study, gottlob et al. (1999) found that words that mapped on to two phonological representations for the readers’ l2 (e.g., lead) were delayed in a naming task. they explained this effect of phonological ambiguity within a ‘resonance approach’ to lexical access. according to this view, word recognition occurs through resonance, which is achieved when feed forward and -backward activation between orthographic, phonological, and semantics codes is mutually reinforcing. thus, lexical processing will be delayed whenever there is a mismatch between the codes. in a similar vein kroll et. al. (2002) and schwarts et. al. (2005) found close results with the present study. in those studies the researchers also observed difference in lexical representations across the languages of their subjects with regard to their l2 proficiency level. kroll et. al., for instance, conclude that lexical representations in the l2, even for relatively proficient bilinguals, are weaker than those in the li, lengthening the time in which information becomes activated and increasing the likelihood that competitive dynamics will influence processing another objective of the present study was to examine the nature of bilingual lexical activation in sentence context. more speci?cally, it was hoped to determine whether the presence of a sentence context would modify cross-language, non-selective activation. overall the ?ndings demonstrated that the mere presence of a sentence context, and the language cues it might provide, were not su?cient to constrain non-selectivity since e?ects of cross-language activation persisted in low-constraint sentences. instead, e?ects of non-selectivity were decreased only when the sentences provided rich semantic information. this can be an indication that the top-down processes of sentence comprehension can interact directly with the bottom-up processes of lexical access and reduce the number of lexical entries that compete for selection. although findings of the present study are indicative of interactions between the top-down processes of sentence comprehension and the bottom-up processes of lexical access, it could not definitively be concluded that actual selective access had taken place. during l1 lexical recognition for advanced learners an interfering context effect was obtained. this effect was absent in bare noun naming. the question therefore can be what caused the interference effect in word naming within a textual constraint? one claim can be that in bare noun naming, phonological codes can be directly accessed from the orthographic input codes, as the task does not require lexical-semantic retrieval of other words. in the framework proposed by levelt et al. (1999), an accessed lemma (i.e. abstract lexical representations) spreads activation to the corresponding lexical concept, which co-activates related concepts and their lemmas. this, in turn, will lead to competition among semantically related lemmas, which can be a cause of the observed interference effect in this study. the semantic interference effect observed in this study is also compatible with findings reported by vitkovitch and humphreys (1991) that demonstrated increased error rates in picture naming when targets were preceded by items from the same semantic category. the authors claim that most probably lexical competition has been at the root of that effect there, too. m. hamavandy, m. golshan bilingual lexical activation in sentence and non-sentence context: a study of crosslanguage lexical processing 43 in future research it will be critical to understand whether and how these interactions are constrained by contextual support in situations that may better reflect the real-life language experience of bilinguals. references [1] akamatsu, n. (2002). a similarity in word-recognition procedures among second language readers with different first language backgrounds. applied psycholinguistics. 23, 117–133. [2] andrews, s. (1997). the effect of orthographic similarity on lexical retrieval: resolving neighborhood conflicts. psychonomic bulletin & review.4, 439–461. [3] baayen, r. h., feldman, l., & schreuder, r. (2006). morphological influences on the recognition of monosyllabic monomorphemic words. journal of memory and language, 55, 290–313. [4] borowsky, r., & masson, m. e. j. (1996). semantic ambiguity effects in word identification. journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition, 22, 63–85. [5] carreiras, m., perea, m., & grainger, j. (1997). effects of orthographic neighborhood in visual word recognition: cross-task comparisons. journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition, 23, 857–871. [6] de jong, n. h., schreuder, r., & baayen, r. h. (2000). the morphological family size effect and morphology. language and cognitive processes, 15, 329–365. [7] dijkstra, t., & van heuven, w. j. b. (2002). the architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: from identification to decision. bilingualism: language and cognition, 5, 175–197. [8] dijkstra, t., grainger, j., & van heuven, w. j. b. (1999). recognition of cognates and interlingual homographs: the neglected role of phonology. journal of memory and language, 41, 496–518. [9] dijkstra, t., moscoso, f., schulpen, b., schreuder, r., & baayen, r. h. (2005). a roommate in cream: morphological family size effects on interlingual homograph recognition. language and cognitive processes, 20, 7–41. [10] dijkstra, t., van jaarsveld, h., & ten brinke, s. (1998). interlingual homograph recognition: effects of task demands and language intermixing. bilingualism: language and cognition, 1, 51–66. [11] duffy, s. a., morris, r. k., & rayner, k. (1988). lexical ambiguity and fixation times in reading. journal of memory and language, 27, 429–446. [12] gernsbacher, m. a. (1984). resolving 20 years of inconsistent interactions between lexical familiarity and orthography, concreteness, and polysemy. journal of experimental psychology: general, 113, 256–281. [13] grainger, j., & jacobs, a. m. (1996). orthographic processing in visual word recognition: a multiple read-out model. psychological review, 103, 518–565. [14] hino, y., lupker, s. j., & pexman, p. m. (2002). ambiguity and synonymy effects in lexical decision, naming, and semantic categorization tasks: interactions between orthography, phonology, and semantics. journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory and cognition, 28, 686-713. [15] hino, y., pexman, p. m., & lupker, s. j. (2006). ambiguity and relatedness effects in semantic tasks: are they due to semantic coding? journal of memory and language, 55, 247–273. [16] howes, d. h., & solomon, r. l. (1951). visual duration threshold as a function of wordprobability. journal of experimental psychology, 41, 401–410. [17] jared, d., & kroll, j. f. (2001). do bilinguals activate phonological representations in one or both of their languages when naming words? journal of memory and language, 44,2-31. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 4, "brain and language", december 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 [18] jared, d., & szucs, c. (2002). phonological activation in bilinguals: evidence from interlingual homograph recognition. bilingualism: language and cognition, 5, 225 239. [19] klein, d. e., & murphy, g. l. (2001). the representation of polysemous words. journal of memory and language, 45, 259–282. [20] kreuz, r. j. (1987). the subjective familiarity of english homophones. memory & cognition, 15, 154–168. [21] kroll, j. f.,michael, e., tokowicz, n., & dufour, r. (2002). the development of lexical fluency in a second language. second language research, 18, 137-171. [22] levelt, w. j. m., roelofs, a., & meyer, a. s. (1999). a theory of lexical access in speech production. behavioral and brain sciences, 22, 1-38. [23] macnamara, j., & kushnir, s. l. (1971). linguistic independence of bilinguals: the input switch. journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 10, 480–487. [24] mcclelland, j. l., & rumelhart, d. e. (1981). an interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: part 1. an account of basic findings. psychological review, 88, 375–407. [25] mcginnies, e., comer, p. b., & lacey, o. l. (1952). visual-recognition thresholds as a function of word length and word frequency. journal of experimental psychology, 44, 65– 69. [26] perea, m., & rosa, e. (2000). the effects of orthographic neighborhood in reading and laboratory word identification tasks: a review. psicologica, 21, 327–340. [27] perfetti, c. a., & bell, l. (1991). phonemic activation during the 40 ms of word identification: evidence from backward masking and priming. journal of memory and language, 30, 473-485. [28] pexman, p. m., lupker, s. j., & jared, d. (2001). homophone effects in lexical decision. journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory and cognition, 27, 139-156. [29] pexman, p. m., lupker, s. j., & reggin, l. d. (2002). phonological effects in visual word recognition: investigating the impact of feedback activation. journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory and cognition, 28, 572-584. [30] rodd, j. m., gaskell, g., & marslen-wilson, w. (2002). making sense of semantic ambiguity: semantic competition in lexical access. journal of memory and language, 46, 245–266. [31] rodd, j. m., gaskell, g., & marslen-wilson, w. (2002). making sense of semantic ambiguity: semantic competition in lexical access. journal of memory and language, 46, 245–266. [32] schwartz, a. kroll, j., diaz, m. (2007). reading words in spanish and english: mapping orthography to phonology in two languages. journal of language and cognitive processes. 22 (1), 106-129. [33] schilling, h. e. h., rayner, k., & chumbley, j. i. (1998). comparing naming, lexical decision, and eye fixation times: word frequency effects and individual differences. memory & cognition, 26, 1270–1281. [34] schreuder, r., & baayen, r. h. (1997). how complex simplex words can be. journal of memory and language, 37, 118–139. [35] simpson, g. b., peterson, r. r., casteel, m. a., & burgess, c. (1989). lexical and sentence context e?ects in word recognition. journal of experimental psychology: learning memory and cognition, 15, 88–97. [36] stanovich, k. e., &west, r. f. (1979).mechanisms of sentence context effects in reading: automatic activation and conscious attention. memory & cognition, 7, 77–85. [37] stone, g. o., vanhoy, m., & van orden, g. c. (1997). perception is a two-way street: feed forward and feedback phonology in visual word recognition. journal of memory and language, 36, 337 359. m. hamavandy, m. golshan bilingual lexical activation in sentence and non-sentence context: a study of crosslanguage lexical processing 45 [38] thomas, m. s. c., & allport, a. (2000). language switching costs in bilingual visual word recognition. journal of memory and language, 43,44 -66. [39] vaid, j., & frenck-mestre, c. (2002). do orthographic cues aid language recognition? a laterality study with french-english bilinguals. brain and language, 82,47 -53. [40] van orden, g. c. (1987). a rows is a rose: spelling, sound and reading. memory & cognition, 15, 181-198. [41] van wijnendaele, i., & brysbaert, m. (2002). visual word recognition in bilinguals: phonological priming from the second to the first language. journal of experimental psychology: human perception and performance, 28, 616–627. [42] vitkovitch, m., humphreys, g. w., & lloyd-jones, t. j. (1993). on naming a giraffe a zebra: picture naming errors across different object categories. journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition, 19, 243-259. [43] whaley, c. p. (1978). word–nonword classification time. journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 17, 143–154. [44] williams, r. s., & morris, r. k. (2004). eye movements, word familiarity, and vocabulary acquisition. european journal of cognitive psychology, 16, 312–339. [45] ziegler, j. c., perry, c., jacobs, a. m., & braun, m. (2001). identical words are read differently in different languages. psychological science, 12, 379–384. appendix: materials of the study english text aoccdrnig to rscheearch at cmabrigde uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnat tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. the rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. tihs is bcuseae the huamn mind deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. amzanig huh? متن فارسی برپايه تقحيقات داشنگاه کميربج ، مھم نسيت حروف واژگان به چه تربيتی چنيش شده اند ، بلکه تھنا درست بودن حرف اول اين به اين دليل است . بقيه متيواند کام; در ھم رتخيه باشد ولی شما قادر به خواندن باشيد بی ھيچ ملشکی. و آخر اھيمت دارد جالب بود، مگر نه؟. را به تھنايی نمی خاوند بکله ھر واژه را به صورت کلی درک مکنيدکه مغز انسان ھر حرف لغات فارسی آماشيدنی ترليی التکريسته مبانع باتکری کتنور وادلين مباسقه موجدوات اتنخاب english words agnry dreive cenvoy nitoce batceria stertch frezeer radaiotr borad chnace microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 2 may, 2018 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-8957 2 about the journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in september 2018. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 10th of july, 2018. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief:  bogdan pătruţ, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania managing editor:  agata asofroniei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania editors:  diana păvăloi, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  ecaterina filimon, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  adina gabor, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania  angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain  monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania  barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania  carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania  frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland issn 2068 – 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2018 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania, 600065 bacău, 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82, fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro, e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-8957 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 6. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 7. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 8. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 9. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 10. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 11. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 12. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 13. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 14. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 15. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 16. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 17. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 18. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 19. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 20. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 21. heather k van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 22. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-8957 4 23. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 24. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 25. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 26. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 27. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 28. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 29. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 30. valeriy perminov, tomsk polytechnic university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 31. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bio-inspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 32. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 33. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 34. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 35. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 36. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 37. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 38. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) consultant reviewers 39. dorin bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 40. răzvan bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 41. cătălin buiu, politehnica university of bucharest, bucharest, romania (robotics) 42. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl milan, italy (computer science) 43. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 44. piotr p chruszczewski, polish academy of sciences, university of wroclaw, poland (social sciences) 45. utku köse, uşak university, uşak, turkey (artificial intelligence) 46. ioan maxim, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (computer science) 47. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence) 48. ioan lucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (linguistics) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 5 49. saim rasheed, king abdulaziz university, jeddah, saudi arabia (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 50. kamil roman, maria curie-sklodowska university in lublin, poland (smart city concept, intelligent transport systems, sustainable urban development) 51. tiberiu socaciu, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 52. hassan soleimani, payame noor university, tehran, iran (applied linguistics) 53. elena-mădălina vătămănescu, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest (social sciences), romania 54. dmytro zubov, soochow university, suzhou, jiangsu, china (computer science) brain_3_3_ok 62 hybridization of fuzzy clustering and hierarchical method for link discovery enseih davoodi jam department of computer science, university of isfahan, isfahan, iran nc_davodi.softcom@yahoo.com mohammadali nematbakhsh department of computer science, university of isfahan, isfahan, iran nematbakhsh@eng.ui.ac.ir mojgan askarizade department of computer science,university of isfahan, isfahan, iran mojgan.askarizade@gmail.com abstract clustering is an active research topic in data mining and different methods have been proposed in the literature. most of these methods are based on numerical attributes. recently, there have been several proposals to develop clustering methods that support mixed attributes. there are three basic groups of clustering methods: partitional methods, hierarchical methods and densitybased methods. this paper proposes a hybrid clustering algorithm that combines the advantages of hierarchical clustering and fuzzy clustering techniques and considers mixed attributes. the proposed algorithms improve the fuzzy algorithm by making it less dependent on the initial parameters such as randomly chosen initial cluster centers, and it can determine the number of clusters based on the complexity of cluster structure. our approach is organized in two phases: first, the division of data in two clusters; then the determination of the worst cluster and splitting. the number of clusters is unknown, but our algorithms can find this parameter based on the complexity of cluster structure. we demonstrate the effectiveness of the clustering approach by evaluating datasets of linked data. we applied the proposed algorithms on three different datasets. experimental results the proposed algorithm is suitable for link discovery between datasets of linked data. clustering can decrease the number of comparisons before link discovery. keywords: hierarchical method, fuzzy clustering, similarity measure, linked data 1. introduction the linked data movement has experienced exponential growth in terms of published data sets. within two years, the number of triples has grown from 4.7 to 34 billion and therefore there is a lack of linked discovery techniques to find more and more links between knowledge bases. the task of a link discovery is to compare entities and suggests a set of entities whose similarity is above a given threshold. clustering can decrease the number of comparisons before link discovery. clustering is an important tool for analyzing data. clustering is the process of grouping a data set in such a way that the similarity between data within a cluster is maximized while the similarity between data of different clusters is minimized. a number of clustering techniques have been developed, and these can be classified as hierarchical, partitional and density-based methods. hierarchical techniques produce a nested sequence of partitions, which a single, all inclusive cluster at the top and singleton clusters of individual points at the bottom. agglomerative and divisive are two types of hierarchical clustering methods [1]. agglomerative clustering methods start with each object in a distinct cluster and successively merge them to larger clusters until a stopping criterion is satisfied. alternatively, divisive hierarchical clustering started with all objects in one cluster. it subdivides the cluster into smaller and smaller pieces, until each object forms a cluster on its own or until it satisfies certain termination conditions, such as a desired number of cluster is obtained or the diameter of each cluster is within a certain threshold. from another perspective, clustering algorithms can be classified into two categories, hard clustering and fuzzy clustering. while in hard clustering an entity belongs only to one cluster but fuzzy clustering methods, allow the entities to e. davoodi jam, m. nematbakhsh, m. askarizade hybridization of fuzzy clustering and hierarchical method for link discovery 63 belong to several clusters simultaneously, with certain degrees of membership. the memberships help us discover more advanced relations between a given entities and the disclosed clusters [2]. related works that focus on linked data include bizer et al[3] who presented a ”multidimensional blocking” for link discovery. this method is organized in three phases: • index generation • index aggregation • comparison pair generation the overhead of” multidimensional blocking” is higher than that of standard blocking. the current known framework for link discovery on the web is silk. it provides a flexible, declarative language for specifying link condition. the weakness of silk is that the recall is not guaranteed to occur [4]. in this paper, we present a hybrid clustering algorithm that combines the advantages of hierarchical clustering and fuzzy clustering techniques. our algorithm cluster similar entities of data sets and reduce the number of comparisons before link discovery. our approach is organized in two phases: 1. first based on feature selection principles, the properties of entities are selected. then the entities are divided into two clusters by random initialization of cluster centers. 2. in the split phase, the worst cluster is determined and split. this stage is repeated until the optimal number of clusters is achieved. the most important advantage of our approach is: • the intelligent finding of the number of clusters. • the ability to run on metric and semimetric space. • the consideration of the various types of entity properties. • less dependent on randomly chosen initial cluster centers. the remainder of this paper is structured as follow: a formal definition for the problem is presented in section 2. we present the approach in section 3 and report on the results of experimental evaluation in section 4. we conclude with the discussion and an outlook on future work in section 5. 2. problem formulation given two relations with the same features ra (f1, f2 …, ft) and rb (f1, f2 …, ft). a fuzzy matching function fmf takes as input triple ( ) and produces a fuzzy output {[0,1]} where: • ra ra is an entity with attribute values (ra(f1),…,ra(ft)) and ra(f1) dom(ra.f1), …, ra(ft) dom(ra.ft). • rb rb is a record with attribute values (rb(f1),…,rb(ft)) and rb(f1) dom(rb.f1),…,rb(ft) dom(rb.ft). • are predefined similarity thresholds for the corresponding attributes f1, … ft in ra and rb. the output of the fuzzy matching function fmf is decided based on: )1( where are predefined similarity measures or distance functions defined over the domains of corresponding attribute fi for the relations ra and rb. 3. approach in this section, we present our model in more detail. figure 1 gives an overview of the workflow. our approach is organized in two phases: first, the division of data in two clusters; then brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 the determination of the worst cluster and splitting. the number of clusters is unknown, but our algorithms can find this parameter based on the complexity of cluster structure. figure 1. workflow of approach initialization of clustering our approach is a branch of divisive hierarchical clustering. divisive hierarchical clustering started with all objects in one cluster. it subdivides the cluster into smaller pieces, until each object forms a cluster on its own. feature selection clustering activity is based on feature selection. feature selection is the process of identifying the most effective subset of the original feature to use in clustering. the best subset contains the least number of dimensions. subset selection algorithms can be classified into wrappers, filters. a wrapper method evaluates the candidate feature subsets by the learning algorithm. in clustering, a wrapper method uses a clustering algorithm. filter methods use an evaluation function that bases on properties of the data and is independent on any algorithm. advantages of filter method are that they scale to high-dimensional datasets and they are computationally simple and fast but the wrapper methods have higher accuracy [5]. we use wrapper method and evaluate the subset with an enhancement of fuzzy clustering. similarity measure it is natural to ask what type of standards we should use to determine the closeness, or how to measure the distance or similarity between a pair of entities. extracting features from entities is based on the domain of the datasets; a similarity measure is assigned to the features. since datasets of linked data typically involve a variety of different data types, various similarity measures are defined. most of the well-known clustering methods are implemented only for numerical data. the proposed clustering algorithm allows different types of data features such as numeric, symbolic and string data. numeric similarity: the similarity of two numbers is computed with: )2( feature selection similarity measure compute score split worst e. davoodi jam, m. nematbakhsh, m. askarizade hybridization of fuzzy clustering and hierarchical method for link discovery 65 string similarity: a number of string similarity measures have been developed and presented in the literature. we use the “jaro-winkler”[6]: )3( consequently, the following function is defined: )4( final similarity: this function is the weighted average of the above similarity measures: )5( initial cluster centers the proposed method chooses two randomlyselected entities as the initial centers. after the initial cluster centers have been selected, each entity is assigned to the closest cluster, based on its distance from the cluster centers. for each clustering step, calculates membership matrix based on fuzzy clustering algorithm: )6( for i=1,2,…..,c and j=1,2,…….,n c is the number of cluster n is the number of entities. d is distance the two entities. fuzzy clustering methods, allow the entities to belong to several clusters simultaneously, with certain degrees of membership. the memberships help us discover more advanced relations between a given entities and the disclosed clusters [2].after this step, all entities are divided into two clusters. to continue in the next step, we need to find new centers. for this purpose the following steps are carried out: a. to find the entities which have the highest similarity to their centers, the cluster members are sorted in descending order. b. 20 percent of previously sorted entities are listed under t as “sim list”.an average of the feature of entities of “sim list” is calculated. for numeric properties, the average number and for string properties, the lcs algorithm18 is used. c. finally, a new cluster center is computed with: )7( the pseudo-code of the proposed algorithm is represented in algorithm 1. 1 longest common subsequence brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 input: cluster c with its entities output: new center. begin entities are sorted in descending order. simlist � %20 sorted entities. wn�weigh of numeric properties. wstr� weigh of string properties. wsym� weigh of symbolic properties calculate average; begin foreach entities € simlist begin anp� average number properties (a,b)=a+b/2 astrp� average string properties(a,b)=lcs(a,b) end end newcnetr=((anp*wn)+(astrp*wstr)/ total weight end. split cluster the general idea in the splitting is to identify the “worst” cluster and split it, thus increasing the number of clusters one by one [7]. to find the worst cluster, point(i) is assigned to each cluster i: )8( small point (i) shows that cluster i is large and spare in distribution. hence, the cluster which takes of minimum of point (i) will be the candidate for worst cluster. cluster w is identified to be split, supposing that the cluster center is and the number of clusters for each step is c. the algorithms for splitting can be formulated follows: 1. from among the entities of w the one labeled “not try” and has the lowest similarity with the c-1 cluster centers is chosen and named . 2. the distance of all entities of w from and are calculated and the w cluster is split into and on basis of the calculated distance. 3. calculate distance of each entities from and . then split cluster w into and based on calculated distance. is assigned as the cth cluster center if otherwise the label of should be changed to “try” and go to step 2. after two steps, a new cluster is created. step 1 and 2 are repeated with the reminding entities of w until c+1th clusters are found. the pseudo-code of the proposed algorithm is represented in algorithm 2. input: cluster w, center , output: new cluster and begin find begin foreach entities w entity has minimum distance with c-1 center and not tested. end. e. davoodi jam, m. nematbakhsh, m. askarizade hybridization of fuzzy clustering and hierarchical method for link discovery 67 spilt w begin foreach entities w begin dis1 calculate distance dis2 calculate distance if (dis1>dis2) else end. if split w to and else is tested. end. end. the split worst cluster phase should be repeated until the optimal number of clusters is achieved. choosing this parameter is a difficult problem. in each step of the algorithm, if the number of new cluster member is more than 20 percent of candidate cluster members, the split occurs. based on the distribution, clusters broken or stops and the optimal number of clusters are obtained. 4. evaluation datasets description to prove the efficacy of the proposed approach, the performance of the clustering algorithm has been tested on three datasets of linked data: dbpedia, linkedgeodata19 and linkedmdb datasets. dbpedia is a community effort to extract structured information from wikipedia and to make this information available on the web that currently contains more than 3.64 million resources[8]. another dataset is linkedgeodata that consist of 20 billion triples and the linkedmdb database contains 3.5 million of rdf triples . we used a dataset consisting of 100,000 triples from dbpedia, 200,000 triples from linkedgeodata for experiment 1 and 1000 triples from linkedmdb and 1000 triple from dbpedia for experiment 2. performance evaluation experiment 1: first, we interlinked places of dbpedia and linkedgeodata datasets without the use of any clustering method. the result was comparisons. then, we evaluated how the clustering method reduces the number of comparisons. table 1 summarizes the results. the evaluation shows that clustering reduces the number of comparisons by a factor of 142,857. table 1. result of experiment1 2 http://www.linkedgeodata.org method comparisons full evaluation clustering 140,000 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 68 figure 2. decrease comparisons. experiment 2: the proposed model does not depend on any specific domain, so we evalute our model with the data sets on a different domain. in this experimnet, the movies of linkedmdb and dbpedia data set are linked. table 2 summarizes the results. table 2. results of experiment 2 method comparisons full evaluation 1000000 clustering 900 figure 3. different domain quality evaluation this section provides a summary of the quality evaluation of the implemented model. after clustering, each entities of datasets falls into one of the following groups: • the entities which were recognized in same cluster and this recognition are correct. • the entities which were recognized in same cluster but this recognition are incorrect. • the entities which were recognized in different clusters but this recognition are incorrect and they are same in real. in order to evaluate the quality of the interlinking linkedgeodata and dbpedia, 500 place of linkedgeodata which currently have correct owl:sameas link to corresponded places in dbpedia are randomly selected. the results show that how many entities fall within each of the above defined groups. table 3. interlinking between linkedmdb and dbpedia type of group count correct derived entities 475 incorrect derived entities 25 notderived entities 25 e. davoodi jam, m. nematbakhsh, m. askarizade hybridization of fuzzy clustering and hierarchical method for link discovery 69 the two most frequent and basic measures for information retrieval effectiveness are precision and recall. precision (p) is the fraction total of number detection similar entities that are true: )9( )10( recall (r) is the fraction total of number similar entities that are true detection: )11( results from table 4 and equations 9, 10 shows that the precision is %100 and recall is %95. our algorithm is an efficient clustering algorithm has some features that are mentioned in table 4. table 4. feature of our algorithm features y/n scalability y ability to cluster different types of attributes y ability to discover clusters with different shapes n minimal input parameter y not sensitive to noise n insensitive to the order of input records y ability to handle high dimensionality y we explained the following two central evaluation questions: • what is the best number of cluster? different performances of the tests indicate the number of clusters depend on the data sets and dispersal of their members is between and . • does the initial selection of centers affect the result? the proposed algorithm was run with different initial centers and results show a random selection of centers does not affect the final results. 5. discussion and future work in this paper, we propose a new hybrid algorithm, which combines the features of fuzzy algorithm and hierarchical algorithm. our algorithm decreases the number of comparisons on link discovery. using hierarchical algorithm in the first level, the data is divided into two groups. in the second level the worst cluster is determined by matrix memberships and then it split. this stage is repeated until the optimal number of clusters is achieved.creating typed links, between the entities of different datasets is one of the key challenges on web of data .we presented the clustering approach, which decreases the number of comparisons on link discovery. the results of linking the movies in linkedmdb to corresponding movies in dbpedia and also linking the places in linkedgeodata to the places of dbpedia show the it reduces the number of comparisons without loss of recall and precision. hopefully in the future, we will be able to elevate the proposed method recall to 100 % using the membership matrix. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 3, issue 3, october 2012, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 70 references [1] rui xu , donald c. wunsch ii, survey of clustering algorithms, ieee trans.on neural networks, vol.16, no.3, may 2005, pp.645-678. [2] frank höppner, frank klawonn, rudlof kruse, fuzzy cluster analysis, methods for classification, data analysis, and image recognition. new york:wiley, 1999. [3] r. isele, a. jentzsch, c. bizer, “efficient multidimensional blocking for link discovery without losing recall,” fourteenth international workshop on theweb and databases (webdb 2011), june 12, 2011 athens, greece. [4] j. volz, c. bizer, m. geaedlke, g.kobilarov, “silk-a link discovery framework for the web of data,” ldow 2009, april 20, 2009, madrid, spain. [5] anli k. jain, m narasimha murty, patrick j. flynn, data clustering: a review, acm computing surveys, vol. 31, no. 3, september 1999. [6] gonzalo navarro, a guided tour to approximate string matching, acm comput. surv., 33, 2001. [7] haojun sun, shengrui wang, qingshan jiang, fcm-based model selection algorithms for determining the number of cluster, pattern recognit 37:2027-2037. [8] christopher sahnwldt, (2011,julay). dataset. [online]. available: http://wiki.dbpedia.org/datasets. [9] christian. bizer, tom. heath, tim. berners-lee, linked data the story so far, journal on semantic web and information systems, special issue on linked data, 2009. [10] okite hassanzadeh, reynold xin, renee j.miller, etal, linkage query writer, proceedings of the vldbe ndowment, 2(2):1590–1593, 2009. [11] janson tong-li wang, xiong wang, king-ip lin, et al, evaluating a class of distancemapping algorithms for data mining and clustering, in proceeeding of the 5th acm sigkdd international conference on knowledge discovery and data mining. acm, 1999.data. acm, 1995.. [12] volker roth, julian laub, motoaki kawanabe, joachim m. buhmann, optimal cluster preserving embedding of nonmetric proximity data, ieee transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence (2003). [13] julius volz, christian bizer, martin geaedlke, g.kobilarov, silk-a link discovery framework for the web of data, ldow 2009, april 20, 2009, madrid, spain. [14] miin-shen yang, pei-yuan hwang, de-hua chen, fuzzy clustering algorithms for mixed feature variables, fuzzy sets and systems 141, pp. 301–317, 2004. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue4_2017_final.doc 65 a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows fateme maleki department of computer science, faculty of mathematics, university of sistan and baluchestan, zahedan, iran p.o.box 98135-674, tel. +98 54 3113 2500 majid yousefikhoshbakht assistant professor, department of mathematics, faculty of science, bu-ali sina university, district 2, hamadan, +98 81 3838 1601 hamadān province, iran khoshbakht@basu.ac.ir amin rahati department of computer science, faculty of mathematics, university of sistan and baluchestan, zahedan, iran p.o.box 98135-674, tel. +98 54 3113 2500 abstract this paper presents a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm (hsghsa) to improve the performance of harmony search algorithm (hsa) for solving vehicle routing problems with time windows (vrptw). to explore the search space more efficiently, the proposed hsghsa couples an improved variant of hsa called global best harmony search algorithm with a self-adaptive mechanism for tuning its control parameters. moreover, the hsghsa adopts six local search (ls) neighborhood structures to enhance its exploitation capability. the effectiveness of hsghsa is evaluated against solomon’s vrptw benchmark and its performance is compared with hsa and several state-of-the-art algorithms. the obtained results confirm that the hsghsa produces very competitive results compared to the other algorithms. keywords: harmony search algorithm, global best harmony search algorithm, vehicle routing problem, time windows, metaheuristic algorithms. 1. introduction transportation is an important domain of human activity that supports and makes possible most other social and economic activities. transportation by vehicle is one of the most common approach to accomplish such a process. however, finding an optimum transportation route is a complex problem that has been widely investigated for the distribution systems. the problem known as the vehicle routing problem (vrp) is a combinatorial optimization problem and belongs to the family of np-hard problems (fu, aloulou, & triki, 2017). there are various types of vrps. for example, the vrp which comes with the time window constraints is called vrp with time windows (vrptw). the problem is considered closer to real life situations due to its time window constraints in comparison to capacitated vrp in which only vehicle capacity constraint is considered. in vrptw, we have the task to provide goods of a specified quantity to a set of geographically scattered customers. each customer has a specified time window within which they can be served. we have set of vehicles having limited capacity at our disposal to provide service. the aim is designing a least cost routing plan to deliver the goods from the depot to the customers under the following conditions: each vehicle must start its route from the depot and end it at the depot. the total demands of all customers in each route should not exceed the capacity of the vehicle. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 66 if a vehicle arrives earlier than the start time window of a customer, it must wait to serve the customer during its time window. if the vehicle arrives after the end time window of that customer, then it cannot serve the customer. each customer must be served only once during his/her time window. so far, many researchers from various fields have tried to solve the vrptw using exact, heuristic, and metaheuristic methods. exact methods are able to find optimal solutions for vrptw but they are only recommended for problems with small size vrptw. in contrast, heuristic, and metaheuristic algorithms are able to tackle large-sized vrptw problems but these methods do not guarantee to obtain the optimal solutions (bräysy & gendreau, 2005a). azi et al. introduced an exact algorithm for a vrptw (azi, gendreau, & potvin, 2010), but yassen et al. (yassen et.al., 2015a) proposed a meta-harmony search algorithm (meta-hsa) to solve vrptw which uses two hs algorithms, an hsa-optimizer and hsa-solver. the hsaoptimizer adaptively adjusts the components and the configurations of the hsa-solver (ls) based on the search status. the hsa-solver, which is a hybridization of hsa and local search, takes the configuration generated by the hsa-optimizer as input and then solves the given problem instance. the proposed meta-hsa in this paper is used to adjust the parameter values, ls types and ls configurations (parameter values and neighborhood operators). yassen et al. (yassen et.al., 2015b) applied a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm to solve vrptw, which hybridizes hsa with simulated annealing for improving the performance of hsa. they also investigated the effect of hybridizing ls algorithms with hsa for vrptw in (yassen et. al., 2015c) and used three well-known ls algorithms: hill climbing, simulated annealing, and reactive tabu search to hybridize with the harmony search algorithm. ursani et al. (ursani et. al., 2011) presented localized optimization framework in which a problem is decomposed into sub-problems and optimization is done on those sub-problems independent of each other. they used a genetic algorithm as an optimization method and adapted it to fit within the framework of vrptw as a problem domain. nagata et al. (nagata, bräysy, & dullaert, 2010) developed a penalty-based memetic algorithm for the vrptw by extending the edge assembly memetic algorithm (eama) of nagata (nagata, 2007) for the capacitated vrp. the suggested eama is based on the two-stage approach. an initial population of solutions, each consisting of the same number of routes, is generated with a sophisticated route minimization procedure developed by nagata and braysy (nagata & bräysy, 2009). a subsequent procedure of the eama is then applied for minimizing the total travel distance for the determined number of routes. in this paper, adapted edge assembly crossover (eax) (nagata, 2006) is used to the vrptw and a novel penalty function for the time window violation is developed. yu et al. (yu , yang , & yao, 2011) proposed a hybrid approach, which consists of ant colony optimization (aco) and tabu search, to solve the vrptw. baños et al. (baños et. al., 2013) proposed a multiobjective procedure based on simulated annealing called the multiple temperature pareto simulated annealing (mt-psa). this paper deals with a multi-objective variant of the vrptw that simultaneously minimizes the travelled distance and the imbalance of the routes. this imbalance is analyzed from two perspectives: the imbalance in the distances travelled by the vehicles, and the imbalance in the loads delivered by them. ding et al. (ding et. al., 2012) presented a hybrid ant colony optimization to solve vrptw by adjusting pheromone approach and introducing a disaster operator. this modification leads to prevent the search process from getting trapped in the local optimal solution by taking the candidate list into consideration and combining the aco with the saving algorithm and ƛ-interchange mechanism. in this work, the saving algorithm (clarke & wright, 1964) is used to initially assign each customer to a separate route and ƛ -interchange mechanism (osman, 1993) to improve the convergence speed of aco. table 1 shows a summary of the history of vrptw. f. maleki, m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. rahati a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows 67 table 1. the summary of the history of vrptw author the proposed approach the number of best known solutions obtained year azi et. al. (2010) the introduction of a branch-and-price approach not available 2010 nagata et al. (2010) penalty-based memetic algorithm for the vrptw by extending the edge assembly memetic algorithm (eama) obtains 45 best known solutions and improves 1 than the best-known solutions in the literature 2010 ursani et al. (2011) localized genetic algorithm (lga) obtained 18 best known solutions and 10 new best solutions 2011 yu et al. (2011) a hybrid of ant colony optimization and tabu search (aco–tabu) obtains 41 best known solutions and improves 4 than the best-known solutions in the literature 2011 ding et al. (2012) hybrid ant colony optimization (haco) obtains 3 best known solutions and improves 3 than the best-known solutions in the literature 2012 baños et al. (2013) multi-objective procedure based on simulated annealing, the multiple temperature pareto simulated annealing (mt-psa) not available 2013 barbucha (2014) cooperative population learning algorithm (cpla) obtains 17 best known solutions and improves 9 than the best-known solutions in the literature 2014 yassen et al. (2015a) meta-harmony search algorithm (metahsa) not available 2015 harmony search algorithm (hsa) introduced for the first time in 2001 (geem et. al., 2001) was inspired by the process of the orchestra playing the music. in comparison to other main stream meta-heuristics, hsa has fewer mathematical parameters and is robust enough for the wide range of applications. that is why hsa gained much attention for solving engineering problems (lin et. al., 2017; gao et. al., 2015). however, the performance of hsa highly depends on parameter selection and inaccurate parameter selection can lead to poor performance of hsa in local searches. on the other hand, population-based methods are integrated with ls algorithm (blum et. al., 2011) to increase the exploitation process. therefore, we hybridize hsa with ls algorithms in order to improve the quality of solutions and enhance the exploitation in this work. furthermore, we used hill climbing (hc), simulated annealing (sa) and great deluge algorithm (gd) as the ls algorithms randomly mixed with self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm (sghsa) in the proposed hsghsa algorithm. in addition, six local search neighborhood structures i.e., relocate, interchange, end customer interchange, or-opt, 2-opt star, and cross exchanges (bräysy & gendreau, 2005a) are also used for further improvement in the solution. the solomon’s vrptw benchmark is employed to evaluate the performance of the hsghsa compared to the results of the standard hsa and the best-known results in the literature. the results show that the proposed algorithm is significantly efficient and finds closely the best-known solutions (bkss) for most of the instances. the rest of the paper is structured as follows. in the section 2, classic hsa and sghsa are explained. the proposed method is described in more detail in the section 3 and in the next section, the experimental design is presented and the proposed algorithm is compared with some of the famous metaheuristic algorithms on standard vrptw problems in the section 5. finally, the conclusions are presented in the section 6. 2. harmony search algorithm hsa is a new population-based meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by the process of playing the music when a musician is looking for better harmony. in the algorithm, harmony in music is similar to solution vector, and the musician’s improvisations are similar to local and global search schemes. hsa is inclusive of three basic phases, namely, initialization, improvisation of a harmony vector and updating the harmony memory (hm). in the initialization phase, an initial population of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 68 harmonies is randomly created and stored in a hm. in the next phase, a new harmony by using a memory consideration rule and a pitch adjustment rule are improvised. in the final phase, the harmony memory is updated if the new harmony is better than the worst harmony vector in the hm. generally, hsa has five parameters as follows: harmony memory size (hms) is the number of solution vectors in the hm. harmony memory consideration rate (hmcr) is used to improvise a new harmony and varies between 0 and 1. depending on the hmcr, the decision variable of the new harmony is selected for hm. pitch adjustment rate (par) is the value, which varies between 0 and 1. the decision variable of new harmony is regulated if the randomly generated number between 0 and 1 turns out to be less than the value of par. the step size of the par parameter called distance bandwidth (bw). the termination condition based on the number of improvisations (ni). 2.1. self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm the self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm (sghsa) (quan-ke pan et. al., 2010) is a variant of hsa used an adaptive parameter tuning method and a new improvisation scheme. this algorithm uses a fixed user-specified value of the harmony memory size (hms) and the number of improvisations (ni). hmcr and the pitch adjustment rate (par) parameters are dynamically adapted to a suitable range by recording their historic values corresponding to created harmonies in the harmony memory (hm). sghsa starts with specified standard deviation and initial values of hmcr and par equivalent to their normal distribution means hmcrm and parm. during the evolution, if the generated new harmony is replaced with the worst harmony in the hm then hmcr and par values are recorded. after a specified number of iterations learning period (lp), hmcrm and parm are recalculated by averaging all the recorded hmcr and par values during this period. sghsa consists of the following five steps. step 1: problem and algorithm parameter initialization. set parameters hms, lp, ni, and initialize bwmax, bwmin, hmcrm and parm step 2: harmony memory initialization and evaluation. initialize hm from a uniform distribution and evaluate it. set the generation counter lp=1. step 3: new harmony improvisation. generate hmcr and par according to hmcrm and parm. yield bw according to bwmax and bwmin. improvise a new harmony: to generate a new harmony, a new decision variable (with probability hmcr) from the best harmony is selected in the hm or randomly generate (with probability 1-hmcr). if the new decision variable has been inherited from the best harmony in the hm, then it should be adjusted (with probability par). step 4: harmony memory update. updated hm if the new harmony is better than the worst harmony in the hm and record the values of hmcr and par. step 5: termination criterion check. if lp=lp, recalculate hmcrm and parm according to the recorded values of hmcr and par. reset lp=1; otherwise increase generation counter lp. if ni is completed, return the best harmony vector in the hm; otherwise go back to step 3. figure 1 shows the pseudo code of the sghsa described above. step 1: set parameters hms, lp and ni. step 2: initialize , , hmcrm and parm. f. maleki, m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. rahati a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows 69 step 3: initialize and evaluate hm. set generation counter lp = 1. step 4: generate hmcr and par according to hmcrm and parm. yield bw according to and . step 5: improvise a new harmony xnew as follows: for (j = 1 to d) do if then if then endif else endif end for step 6: if , update the hm as and record the values of hcmr and par. step 7: if lp = lp, recalculate hmcrm (parm) according to the recorded values of hcmr (par) and reset lp = 1; otherwise,lp = lp + 1; step 8: if ni is completed, return the best harmony vector xb in the hm; otherwise go back to step 4. figure 1. the pseudo-code of sghsa 3. the solution method in this section, the proposed algorithm is explained in more details. this work aims to propose a method that is better than all proposed methods based on harmony search for vrptw in the literature by comparing the results of the application of hsghsa with those obtained via the state-of-the-art methods. 3.1. adapting sghsa to solve the vrptw the sghsa starts with a population of harmonies and, iteratively, generates a new harmonious solution for a specific problem instance. this algorithm process consists of five phases as follows: 1. initialize the problem and algorithm parameters. 2. initialize the harmony memory and randomly generate the initial population of solutions stored in hm: to create a solution first, an empty route is created and an un-routed customer is randomly selected and added to the current route such that it does not violate the vrptw constraints. then, the nearest un-routed customer to the last inserted customer is selected and appended to the current route (if it satisfies the imposed constraints). if no un-routed customer can be inserted into the current route, a new route is created. the process of creating new routes is repeated until all customers are routed. 3. new harmony improvisation: to create a new harmony, an empty solution x is created, and a random number r between zero and one is generated. if r is less than hmcr, a route is randomly selected from the best solution stored in hm and added it to x. otherwise, a route is randomly created and appended to x. any route selected from the best solution in hm is improved with regard to the par as follows: first, a random number r between zero and one is generated. if r is less than par, a neighborhood operator is randomly selected and applied to the current route while respecting vrptw constraints. since improvising a new solution in the sghsa is based on the best solution in hm, if the size of the created solution x in terms of the number of routes equals to the best solution in hm, the improvisation process will be terminated. the created solution x is usually infeasible, because vrpwt is a constrained problem and given the process of improvising a new solution x, routes of a new solution x are either routes of the best solution in hm or randomly generated. so, with a very high probability, there are brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 70 customers who are either duplicated or deleted on these routes. a repair mechanism is employed to convert this infeasible solution into a feasible solution by eliminating the repeated customers and the assignment of the lost customers while maintaining vrptw constraints. figure 2 shows an example of the process of repair mechanism for 9 nodes. in this example, the node 1 represents depot and nodes 2 to 9 represent customers. 4. the harmony memory is updated. the quality of the solution x is calculated and replaced with the worst solution in hm and record the values of hmcr and par, if x has better quality than another one. 5. termination criterion is checked. steps 3-5 are repeated iteratively until the stopping condition based on the learning period is reached. then, the best-solution obtained will be returned. figure 2. repair mechanism 3.2. local search algorithms local search algorithms (ls) have an important role in the exploitation of the search space used to intensify the search process in order to improve the algorithm convergence. in this work, these algorithms are adopted to improve sghsa exploitation and applied to the improvised solution. for this purpose, the improvised solution is used as an initial solution for the ls algorithms. unlike other methods, ls algorithms utilize several neighborhood structures at each iteration to generate a new neighbor solution. this procedure is iteratively repeated until the ls stopping condition is achieved. the ls neighborhood structures are (bräysy & gendreau, 2005a): relocate: transfers a customer from one route to another. exchange: swap two customers in different routes. end customer interchange: swap two end customers in different routes. or-opt: relocate a chain of l consecutive customers so that three customers in the original tour are replaced by new three ones. 2-opt: exchanges the end segments of two routes so that the last customers of a route are introduced after the first customers of another route. cross-exchange: first, remove customers i-1, i, k and k+1 from a first route while customers j-1, j, l and l+1 are removed from a second route. then, the segments i–k and j–l, which may contain an arbitrary number of customers are swapped, are swapped as is shown in figure 3. f. maleki, m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. rahati a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows 71 figure 3. cross-exchange the probability of p is used to apply ls algorithm, which is calculated by the following equation: 3.2.1 sa sa (kirkpatrick et. al., 1983) is a randomized method that has major advantage of its ability to avoid falling into local minima in comparison to other methods used in this paper. according to the annealing acceptance criterion, sa probabilistically accepts worse solutions in order to flee from the local optima. this algorithm begins with an initial solution x and iteratively generates a neighborhood solution x’ via six neighborhood structures. if the quality of x’ is better than x, this solution is replaced with x’. otherwise, the worse solution might be accepted based on a certain probability p calculated as follows: where δf is the difference between the quality of x and x’, and t is the current temperature. at each iteration, the temperature is decreased using the geometric scheduled as follows: where is the cooling rate ( ). the search process is repeated until the stopping criterion is met (see figure 4 (yassen et. al., 2015a)). simulated annealing algorithm 1. input: cooling schedule ; 2. ; /* given of the initial solution */ 3. ; /* starting temperature */ 4. while stopping criteria is not met do 5. generate a neighborhood solution x’; 6. 7. if 8. x=x’ ; /*accept the neighbor solution*/ ; 9. else 10. accept x’ with a probability 11. end 12. /* temperature update*/; 13. 14. output best solution found ; figure. 4. the pseudo-code of sa 3.2.2. gd gd (dueck, 1993) is a generic algorithm applied to optimization problems which is similar in many ways to the hill-climbing and simulated annealing algorithms. the main difference gd with the sa is the deterministic acceptance function of neighboring solutions. at each iteration, a generated neighbor solution is accepted if its quality is less than the current boundary value, named level (see figure 5) (talbi, 2009). the initial objective function is considered as the initial value of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 72 the level. the value of the level is monotonically decreased during the search using rain speed (up) via equation 4. great deluge algorithm 1. input: 2. ; /* given of the initial solution */ 3. choose the rain speed up ; /* up > 0 */ 4. choose the initial water level level ; 5. while stopping criteria is not met do 6. generate a neighborhood solution x’; 7. if level 8. x=x’ ; /*accept the neighbor solution*/ ; 9. end 10. level = level − up ; /* update the water level */; 11. end 12. output: best solution found. figure 5. the pseudo-code of gd 3.2.3. hc hc (simion, 2013) is a simple optimization algorithm which starts with an initial solution x and iteratively create a neighbor solution x’ using the six neighborhood structures. if the quality of x' is better than x, substitute x with x'. otherwise, x' is discarded and a new iteration is started (see figure 6) (yassen et. al., 2015a; gehring & homberger, 2001). the search process will be repeated until the stopping criterion is met. hill climbing algorithm 1. ; /* given of the initial solution */ 2. while stopping criteria is not met do 3. generate n(x) /* generation of candidate neighbors */ ; 4. if there is no better neighbor then 5. stop 6. end 7. x=x’ /*select a better neighbor x’ of n(x)*/; 8. end 9. output final solution found (local optima).; figure 6. the pseudo-code of hc 3.3. hsghsa hsghsa is a hybrid evolutionary algorithm whose performance is dependent on the efficiency of three major components including, hsa parameters, the type of ls algorithm and the ls neighborhood structures. these components have outstanding contribution in creating balance between exploitation and exploration and increase the ability of hsghsa to solve various optimization problems. the process of adjusting these components is very difficult depending on the nature of the problem that will be discussed and no specific values of these components, which work well on all samples, exist. to ensure proper selection of hsa parameters in the first component, we use sghsa that employs an adaptive parameter tuning method and parameters with regard to the vrptw problem which are self-adapted through a learning mechanism or dynamic. type of ls algorithm in the second component is guaranteed to select simulated annealing, hill climbing and great deluge ls algorithms that had good performance on the vrptw (yassen et. al., 2015a, 2015b, 2015c) (bent & van hentenryck, 2004) (baños et. al., 2013; ding et. al., 2012; clarke et. al., 1964; osman, 1993) and is randomly determined to hybridize with sghsa. since ls plays such an important role in the algorithm’s performance, we use several neighborhood structures. the hsghsa method presented in figure 7 is described in the following steps: f. maleki, m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. rahati a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows 73 1. initialize the parameter values of sghsa (hms, lp, ni, hmcrm, parm, hmcrstd and parstd), and ls algorithms. 2. harmony memory initialization and evaluation. 3. new harmony improvisation. 4. apply local search: to improve the improvised solution x, an ls algorithm is used. the ls algorithm generates a neighbor's solution, using six neighborhood structures, that is respectively applied to the improvised solution x. the neighbor's solution will replace x if the quality of neighbor's solution is better than that of x; otherwise, the neighbor's solution will be rejected. 5. the harmony memory is updated. the quality of the solution x is calculated and replaced with the worst solution in hm and record the values of hmcr and par, if x has better quality than the bad one. 6. termination criterion is checked. steps 3-6 are repeated iteratively until the stopping condition based on the learning period is reached. then, the best obtained solution will be returned. figure 7. the flow chart of hsghsa 4. experimental design we used solomon’s vrptw benchmark (solomon, 1987) to evaluate the performance of the hsghsa. this benchmark contains 56 instances of solomon with 100 customers, which are divided on six groups depending on the geographic location of the customers (r1, r2, c1, c2, rc1, rc2). the instances belonging to r1 and r2 groups located in random positions and c1 and c2 groups are in clusters. the rc1 and rc2 groups contain a mix of both random and clustered customers. the features of these instance sets are illustrated in table 2. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 74 table 2. the characteristics of solomon’s vrptw datasets dataset features r1 r2 c1 c2 rc1 rc2 number of instants 12 11 9 8 8 8 number of customers 100 100 100 100 100 100 number of vehicle 25 25 25 25 25 25 capacity of vehicle 200 1000 200 700 200 1000 distribution of customers random random cluster cluster random/ cluster random/ cluster since the process of setting parameters plays an important role in achieving optimal solutions, in this section the parameter setting of the proposed algorithm is considered. the parameter values of hsghsa are self-adaptive and are adjusted during the evolution, but the initial values of parameters sghsa and ls algorithms should be adjusted. these parameters include hms, lp, ni, hmcrm, parm, hmcrstd and parstd for sghsa and , t, up for ls algorithms. the proposed hsghsa is coded in matlab 2014 and run on the 2.40 ghz intel core i3 processor with windows 8 operating system. the initial values of parameters hmcrm, parm, hmcrstd and parstd are 0.98, 0.9,0.01 and 0.05 respectively, as suggested in (quan-ke pan et. al., 2010). although these values in reference (quan-ke pan et. al., 2010) are for continuous optimization problems, but due to the self-compatibility of these parameters in the sghsa, these values are updated during the run in accordance with the problem conditions. the values of the parameters hms and lp are fixed in 20 and 100 based on the preliminary test, respectively (see table 3). this test is performed on six varied instances (r1-01, r2-01, c1-09, c2-06, rc1-01 and rc2-01) with 10 times execution of the proposed algorithm. table 3: the results of the different hms and lp values hms lp r1-01 r2-01 c1-09 c2-06 rc1-01 rc2-01 average 50 1650.7 1207.5 856.22 638.53 1705.7 1370.9 1238.3 100 1646.5 1184.3 862.23 642.25 1699.9 1370.0 1234.2 5 200 1649.6 1211.6 862.56 653.37 1714.3 1369.3 1243.5 50 1636.5 1203.1 874.67 650.95 1699.3 1351.8 1236.1 100 1649.8 1201.1 837.39 694.21 1686.2 1364.8 1238.9 10 200 1651 1207.9 886.96 645.95 1683.7 1351.4 1237.8 50 1641.8 1186.4 891.06 632.99 1697.3 1336.0 1230.9 100 1663.8 1188.7 838.45 686.09 1673.6 1332.8 1230.6 20 200 1655.5 1205.2 866.03 672.80 1689.3 1335.2 1237.3 gd has only one parameter that is the rain speed parameter (up) calculated by equation 5 as suggested in (yassen et. al., 2015a). sa algorithm has two parameters, initial temperature (t) and the cooling schedule ( ) fixed to 100 and 0.9, respectively. 5. experimental results in this section, we will investigate the effectiveness of the hsghsa in tackling vrptw. for this purpose, in section 5.1 the results obtained by the hsghsa have been tabulated and compared with the best-known results in the literature and state-of the-art methods. in section 5.2, the results of the hsghsa are compared to the standard hsa and its variants. finally, in section 5.3, we compare the results of the hsghsa with hsa-hc, hsa-sa, hsa-rts and meta-hsa (yassen et. al., 2015a, 2015b, 2015c). f. maleki, m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. rahati a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows 75 the stopping criterion of the proposed method is decided based on the running time as suggested in (yassen et. al., 2015a, 2015b, 2015c), which has been fixed in 25 minutes. the stopping criterion for the ls algorithms is adopted according to the number of non-improved iterations (ni_l=1000). because the proposed approach is a metaheuristic algorithm, the results are reported for 31 independent runs to obtain an accurate statistical analysis and the best solution found for all instances is reported. 5.1. evaluation of hsghsa performance and comparison with other methods tables 4 show the results obtained by the proposed hsghsa method for instances belonging to each data set c1, r1, rc1, c2, r2, and rc2, respectively. the first column of the table is the instances name, and column 2 is the value of the best-known solution (bks) in the literature and is divided into 3 sub-columns a, b and c. column a, b and c give information about total distance traveled (td), number of vehicles (nv) and the reference (ref) of the heuristic. column 3 gives information about the results obtained by hsghsa which is divided into 5 subcolumns a, b, c, d and e. column a, b and c give information about best, average (ave) and standard deviation (std) in 31 runs respectively. column d gives the number of vehicles nv, column e gives the percent deviation between the best obtained solution and best-known. the is calculated as follows: where is the best result obtained by hsghsa and is the best-known value (td) in the literature. a negative value of gap indicates that the best result obtained by the proposed method is better than the best-known on an instance and a positive value of gap indicates that the best-known is better than the best result obtained by proposed method. finally, the zero represents the same performance methods. according to the results listed in table 4 and percentage deviation, we can see that hsghsa has attained 5 best-known solutions shown in bold and has improved r1-01 best-known solution with percentage deviations -1.05. furthermore, the proposed algorithm was able to obtain very close solutions to bks in other instances such that gap of 18 instances is less than 4 percentages. table 4: the results obtained by the hsghsa on solomon’s vrptw benchmark bks hsghsa data set a. td b. nv c. ref a. best b. avg c. std d. nv e. gap% c1-01 828.94 10 2* 828.94 843.11 25.03 10 0 c1-02 828.94 10 2* 828.94 896.56 31.41 10 0 c1-03 828.06 10 2* 857.63 919.34 29.04 10 3.57 c1-04 824.78 10 2* 888.5 949.78 29.72 10 7.72 c1-05 828.94 10 2* 828.94 831.05 4.66 10 0 c1-06 828.94 10 2* 830.33 845.27 25.80 10 0.16 c1-07 828.94 10 2* 828.94 834.23 11.87 10 0 c1-08 828.94 10 2* 831.93 896.32 38.88 10 0.36 c1-09 828.94 10 2* 831.83 881.87 27.13 10 0.34 r1-01 1642.87 20 5* 1625.6 1662 12.623 20 -1.05 r1-02 1472.62 18 5* 1480.3 1523.2 14.32 18 0.52 r1-03 1213.62 14 2* 1241.2 1271.8 14.35 15 2.27 r1-04 982.01 10 2* 1046.6 1083.4 18.64 11 6.57 r1-05 1360.83 15 5* 1390.8 1430.2 16.27 16 2.20 r1-06 1241.518 13 5* 1281 1307.3 12.44 15 3.18 r1-07 1076.125 11 5* 1133.3 1161.1 17.37 11 5.31 r1-08 948.573 10 5* 988.49 1017.7 14.63 11 4.20 r1-09 1151.839 13 5* 1217.2 1268.7 24.74 13 5.67 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 76 r1-10 1080.36 11 2* 1131 1177.1 19.59 12 4.68 r1-11 1053.496 12 5* 1101.2 1160.3 19.91 12 4.52 r1-12 953.63 10 2* 1029.8 1059.1 16.96 11 7.98 rc1-01 1623.58 15 2* 1670.6 1704.2 22.83 16 2.89 rc1-02 1466.84 14 5* 1519.4 1547.9 16.13 15 3.58 rc1-03 1261.67 11 3* 1345.8 1412.8 24.82 12 6.66 rc1-04 1135.48 10 4* 1198.2 1248.7 17.48 11 5.52 rc1-05 1518.600 16 5* 1564.8 1606.4 20.18 16 3.04 rc1-06 1377.352 13 5* 1432.9 1452.2 19.01 14 4.03 rc1-07 1212.830 12 5* 1285.2 1321.4 17.04 13 5.96 rc1-08 1117.526 11 5* 1188.7 1229.7 22.12 11 6.36 c2-01 591.56 3 2* 591.56 655.64 29.15 3 0 c2-02 591.56 3 2* 609.94 653.96 25.04 3 3.10 c2-03 591.17 3 2* 620.81 700.43 25.98 3 5.01 c2-04 590.60 3 2* 632.89 700.74 43.52 3 7.16 c2-05 588.88 3 2* 591.42 644.48 27.72 3 0.43 c2-06 588.49 3 2* 615.74 674.53 28.97 3 4.63 c2-07 588.29 3 2* 598.77 639.33 26.913 3 1.78 c2-08 588.32 3 2* 619.24 682.22 37.66 3 5.25 r2-01 1147.80 9 1* 1184.3 1223.3 22.41 9 3.18 r2-02 1039.32 5 1* 1071.5 1188.4 245.19 6 3.09 r2-03 874.87 5 1* 915.64 961.57 57.121 6 4.66 r2-04 735.8 3 1* 814.21 952.54 240.66 5 10.65 r2-05 954.160 5 1* 1014.6 1053.6 20.48 6 6.33 r2-06 884.25 4 1* 945.75 1008.7 49.21 4 6.95 r2-07 797.99 4 1* 861.62 948.33 144.63 6 7.97 r2-08 705.62 3 1* 772.67 856.03 217.96 4 9.50 r2-09 860.11 5 5* 912.19 994.38 214.25 6 6.05 r2-10 910.98 5 1* 959.99 1020.2 31.38 6 5.37 r2-11 755.82 4 1* 823.73 885.91 37.31 4 8.98 rc2-01 1266.11 9 1* 1302.2 1346 21.23 8 2.85 rc2-02 1096.75 8 1* 1130.8 1200.4 28.711 7 3.10 rc2-03 926.89 5 1* 996.87 1061.1 113.9 6 7.55 rc2-04 786.38 4 1* 849.94 988.70 207.29 4 8.08 rc2-05 1157.55 7 1* 1240.8 1296.7 34.25 8 7.19 rc2-06 1056.21 7 1* 1124.3 1173.1 34.54 7 6.44 rc2-07 966.08 7 1* 1060.6 1143.2 77.87 6 9.78 rc2-08 779.84 4 5* 876.05 949.19 48.89 5 12.33 1* de olivera, vasconcelos, alvarenga, mesquita, & de souza, 2007 2* rochat & taillard, 1995 3* shaw, 1998 4* cordeau, laporte, & mercier, 2001 5* alvarenga, mateus, & tomi, 2007 in addition, in order to demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithm, six of the solutions found in the examples in the previous tables are presented in figure 8. this figure shows the results of hsghsa for the r101, r201, c101, c201, rc101, and rc201 instances in which nv is the number of vehicles and td is the total distance. it should be noted that in the r1-01 examples presented in this figure, the proposed algorithm has been able to improve the optimum solution compared to the best-known solution. furthermore, the hsghsa results are compared to those obtained by other state-of-the-art methods in the literature. we select twelve works that have obtained the best results on vrptw in table 5. f. maleki, m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. rahati a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows 77 these methods contain the following: meta-hsa: hybrid harmony search algorithm (yassen et. al., 2015a) nb10: penalty-based edge assembly memetic algorithm (nagata et. al., 2010) homberger: hybrid ant colony with tabu search (homberger & gehring, 2002) bvh: two-stage hybrid local search (bent & van hentenryck, 2004) ch01: parallel two-phase metaheuristic (gehring & homberger, 2001) ch99: two evolutionary meta-heuristics (homberger & gehring, 1999) clm: unified tabu search (cordeau et. al, 2001) b01: reactive variable neighborhood search (bräysy, 2003) ea2: fast evolutionary metaheuristic (bräysy & dullaert, 2003) lc03: cooperative parallel meta-heuristic (le bouthillier & crainic, 2005) lck05: guided cooperative search (le bouthillier et. al., 2005) pdr09: branch-and-price-based large neighborhood search algorithm (prescott-gagnon et. al., 2009) table 5 presents the best solutions obtained via the application of meta-hsa, homberger, clm, ch01, ch99, b01, bvh, ea2, lc03, lck05, pdr09, nb10 and hsghsa on solomon’s benchmark datasets including, r1, r2, c1, c2, rc1 and rc2 alongside the published best results. each row in this table contains 3 parts of the average total distances obtained for each dataset (td), the percentage of deviation from the published best (%td) and the average number of vehicles for each dataset(nv). the method for calculating percentages is given below. 100%         b bh td tdtd td (7) where is distance of heuristic concerned and is distance of best solution. the results show that the proposed hsghsa has been able to find better solutions than other algorithms for two group instances, r2 and rc2 out of six. furthermore, in 4 groups, including r1, c1, c2 and rc1, although the algorithm cannot obtain better solutions than others, the high quality solutions are gained and the quality of the solutions are acceptable compared with most of the algorithms. in more details, the proposed algorithm has obtained the solutions with 3.44, 6.31, 1.34, 3.42, 4.59 and 6.79 presents of %td respectively in comparison with the published best solutions. although hsghsa did not manage to beat the best-known results for all datasets, the obtained results for these datasets are very competitive. table 5: comparison of the performance of the proposed hsghsa and different heuristics algorithms r1 r2 c1 c2 rc1 rc2 published best nv 13.08 4.73 10.00 3 12.75 6.38 td 1181.45 878.79 828.38 589.86 1339.24 1004.48 meta-hsa td 1207.76 977.19 838.47 605.41 1381.96 1099.12 %td +2.23 +11.19 +1.22 +2.64 +3.19 +9.42 nv homberger td 1226.38 969.96 828.38 589.86 1392.57 1144.43 %td +3.80 +10.3 0 0 +3.98 +13.93 nv 12.00 2.73 10.00 3.00 11.63 3.25 clm td 1210.14 969.57 828.38 589.86 1389.78 1134.52 %td +2.43 +10.33 0 0 +3.77 +12.95 nv 12.08 2.73 10.00 3.00 11.50 3.25 ch01 td 1217.57 961.59 828.63 590.33 1395.13 1139.73 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 78 %td +3.06 +9.42 +0.03 +0.08 +4.17 +13.46 nv 12.00 2.73 10.00 3.00 11.50 3.25 ch99 td 1198 947 829 590 1365 1144 %td +1.40 +7.76 +0.07 +0.02 +1.92 +13.89 nv 1242 2.82 10.00 3.00 11.88 3.25 b01 td 1222.12 975.12 828.38 589.86 1389.58 1128.39 %td +3.44 +10.96 0 0 +3.6 +12.34 nv 11.92 2.73 10.0 3.00 11.50 3.25 bvh td 1231.08 954.18 828.38 589.86 1384.17 1124.47 %td +4.20 +8.58 0 0 +3.35 +11.95 nv 12.18 2.73 10.00 3.00 11.50 3.25 ea2 td 1220.14 977.57 828.38 589.86 1397.44 1140.06 %td +3.27 +11.24 0 0 +4.35 +13.49 nv 12.00 2.73 10.00 3.00 11.50 3.25 lc03 td 1209.19 963.62 828.38 589.86 1389.22 1143.70 %td +2.35 +9.65 0 0 +3.73 +13.86 nv 12.08 2.73 10.00 3.00 11.50 3.25 lck05 td 1214.20 954.32 828.38 589.86 1389.22 1143.70 %td +2.77 +8.59 0 0 +3.73 +13.86 nv 11.92 2.73 10.00 3.00 11.50 3.25 pdr09 td 1210.34 955.74 828.38 589.86 1384.16 1119.44 %td +2.45 +8.76 0 0 +3.35 +11.44 nv 11.92 2.73 10.00 3.00 11.50 3.25 nb10 td 1210.34 952.08 828.38 589.86 1384.72 1119.45 %td +2.44 +8.34 0 0 +3.39 +11.45 nv 11.92 2.73 10.00 3.00 11.50 3.25 hsghsa td 1222.20 934.2 839.55 610.04 1400.7 1072.69 %td +3.44 +6.31 +1.35 +3.42 +4.59 +6.79 nv 13.08 4.72 10.00 3.00 12.75 6.37 figure 8. the results of instances: r101, r201, c101, c201, rc101 and rc201 f. maleki, m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. rahati a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows 79 the hsghsa incorporates the local search algorithms in order to exploit local routing solutions. to demonstrate the effectiveness of local exploitation in hsghsa, the convergence trace of the best and average the traveled distance in a population for six selected instances (one from each category) with and without the local search are plotted in figure 9. as shown in figure 9, the hsghsa hybrid with local search performs better by having lowered the traveled distance for almost all instances than the one without any local exploitation. it has also been observed that other instances in the solomon’s 56 data sets exhibit similar convergence performances as those shown in figure 8, which confirm the importance of incorporating local search exploitation in hsghsa. 5.2. comparisons of the hsghsa with the standard hsa its variants according to various methods of parameter setting, many versions of hsa were presented in the literature. in this subsection, we investigate the performance of the hsghsa and compare it with the standard hsa and seven other well-known hsa variants including classic has, improved harmony search algorithm (ihsa) (mahdavi et. al., 2007), global best harmony search algorithm (ghsa) (omran & mahdavi, 2008), sghsa (quan-ke pan et. al., 2010), harmony search algorithm with dynamic subpopulation (dhsa) (pan et. al., 2011), modified harmony search algorithm (mhsa) (cheng et. al., 2008), self-adaptive harmony search algorithm (shsa) (yadav et. al., 2012), and intelligent tuned harmony search algorithm (ithsa) (yadav et. al., 2012). the results of the standard hsa and hsa variants have been collected from (yassen et. al., 2015a). the standard hsa and the hsa variants use three ls neighborhood structures (relocate, exchange and two-opt star). to show the method’s performance more clearly, the best, avr and std of the results of eight mentioned algorithms and the proposed algorithm are tabulated in table 6 in which the best results of nine algorithms are highlighted in bold. moreover, mean of best, ave and std of all algorithms for nine instances are shown in this table. the following remarks upon the computational of this table shows that the proposed method appears to be robust generating high-quality solutions for every benchmark instance. precisely, the objective values of the hsghsa method appear to be clearly lower than those obtained by the other algorithms. with the exception of the obtained results of benchmark instance by three algorithms, hsa, dhsa and mhsa, the proposed methodology produces higher quality solutions than other five algorithms. by according to the results listed, the performance of the hsghsa in terms of all indexes, the best, average and standard deviation, is much better than the basic hsa and its variants. in fact, using six neighboring structures leads to enhance the exploitation ability instead of randomly using a neighborhood structure. besides, the results of the columns hsghsa and sghsa show that even with the same parameter setting, the results are very different due to the use of different neighboring structures. it is noted that applying the self-adaptive method for parameters setting, have a significant impact on the obtained results. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 80 figure 9. comparison of simulations with and without local search exploitation in hsghsa 5.3. comparisons of hsghsa with the proposed methods based on hsa to solve vrptw in literature in 2015, yassen et al. proposed hsa-hc, hsa-sa, and hsa-rts (yassen et. al., 2015c) that hybridized hsa with ls algorithms and also meta-hsa (yassen et. al., 2015a) to solve vrptw. in this section, the performance of hsghsa is compared to these four hybrid schemes on eight different instances in table 7. according to the results listed in this table, the tabulated f. maleki, m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. rahati a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows 81 comparison results show that all of the methods obtained the same results on instances r1-01, c102 and c2-01 with the exception of meta-hsa for the benchmark instance c2-01 and hsghsa for the benchmark instance r1-01. besides, the results indicate that although both algorithms hsarts and meta-hsa can obtain three bkss, the first one finds the best solutions for r1-01, c1-02 and c2-01 and the best solutions of r1-01, r2-01 and c1-02 are obtained by the second algorithm. also, meta-hsa outperformed hsa-hc, hsa-sa, hsa-rts and hsghsa on instance c2-06. furthermore, hsa-sa have been able to find the bkss in four examples out of eight, including r101, c1-02, c2-01 and rc2-01, but hsa-sa obtained the best results for the two instances, c1-09 and rc1-01. by comparing results of these algorithms, it is concluded that not only two best-known solutions on instances c1-02 and c2-01 are obtained, but also the algorithm can improve results of three instances, r1-01, r2-01 and rc2-01. therefore, although the hsghsa did not manage to beat the best-known results for all instances, the obtained results by the proposed algorithm for these instances are very competitive and generally better than hsa-hc, hsa-sa, hsa-rts and meta-hsa. 6. conclusion in this work, a hybridized sghsa has been proposed to solve the vrptw and is used to explore the search. besides, the randomly ls algorithm is selected of three well-known ls algorithm and is used to further improve the solution generated by the sghsa. the 56 vrptw instances of solomon’s benchmark are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. table 6: the best, ave and std results of hsghsa compared to the other algorithms has ihsa ghsa sghsa hsghsa dataset best ave std best ave std best ave std best ave std best ave std r1-01 1704.11 1762.02 29.13 1692.5 1767 37.05 2389.48 2534.3 85.81 2025.19 2245.04 104.94 1625.6 1662 12.623 r1-03 1387.59 1497.12 39.37 1412.28 1507.72 50.76 2125.59 2366.45 93.58 1646.71 1846.03 99.78 1241.2 1271.8 14.358 r2-01 1858.5 1990.66 75.73 1824.19 1983.83 96.69 2106.68 2294.26 85.78 1846.44 2150.17 133.94 1184.3 1223.3 22.415 c1-02 1228.2 1456.81 104 1176.51 1402.57 117.08 2708.38 2920.21 129.48 1616.49 2051.46 273.28 828.94 896.56 31.415 c1-09 1362.78 1615.31 133.59 1418.72 1659.52 111.6 2894.76 3079.97 111.26 1690.83 2127.45 248.93 831.83 881.87 27.133 c2-06 1516.25 1802.84 171.22 1505.35 1758.84 148.17 2109.02 2308.17 124.97 1677.9 2226.03 265.53 615.74 674.53 28.971 c2-08 1414.39 1679.24 130.67 1297.89 1666.59 153.07 1805.01 2161.45 130.52 1751.98 2091.27 242.35 619.24 682.22 37.66 rc1-01 1734.57 1814.3 48.28 1703.34 1811.43 42.16 2537.67 2742 101.4 2097..18 2325.94 135.17 1670.6 1704.2 22.837 rc2-01 2106.93 2237.13 89.22 2084.07 2260.14 90.68 2497.04 2701.32 111.01 2227.3 2448.81 158.03 1302.2 1346 21.232 mean 1590.37 1761.71 91.25 1568.32 1757.52 94.14 2352.63 2567.57 108.20 1810.36 2168.02 184.66 1102.18 1149.16 24.30 dhsa mhsa shsa ithsa hsghsa dataset best ave std best ave std best ave std best ave std best ave std r1-01 1704.11 1956.56 57.73 1692.5 1836.07 43.84 2389.48 1741.15 21.65 2025.19 1771.57 31.61 1625.6 1662 12.623 r1-03 1387.59 1613.44 57.72 1412.28 1586.46 44.7 2125.59 1447.27 23.83 1646.71 1485.82 34.75 1241.2 1271.8 14.358 r2-01 1858.5 2024.42 140.67 1824.19 2099.55 95.18 2106.68 1521.87 37.16 1846.44 1991.73 130.52 1184.3 1223.3 22.415 c1-02 1228.2 1623.65 147.43 1176.51 1614.25 147.89 2708.38 1197.21 55.87 1616.49 1334.46 121.16 828.94 896.56 31.415 c1-09 1362.78 1841.43 151.67 1418.72 1833.45 142.58 2894.76 1225.69 64.8 1690.83 1603.77 120.06 831.83 881.87 27.133 c2-06 1516.25 2051.09 199.4 1505.35 1968.11 213.28 2109.02 888.88 43.71 1677.9 2050.26 426.17 615.74 674.53 28.971 c2-08 1414.39 2021.68 171.32 1297.89 1938.39 166.3 1805.01 862.95 40.16 1751.98 2042.63 501.94 619.24 682.22 37.66 rc1-01 1734.57 1998.28 92.51 1703.34 1893.67 68.19 2537.67 1800.66 37.9 2097..18 1830.43 50.74 1670.6 1704.2 22.837 rc2-01 2106.93 2362.23 110 2084.07 2412.18 146.35 2497.04 1772.53 38.89 2227.3 2282.6 105.77 1302.2 1346 21.232 mean 1590.37 1943.64 125.38 1568.32 1909.3 118.70 2352.63 1384.25 40.44 1810.36 1821.48 169.19 1102.18 1149.16 24.30 table 7: the best results of hsghsa compared to the proposed methods based on ha. dataset best know hsa-hc hsa-sa hsa-rts meta-hsa hsghsa r1-01 1642.88 1642.88 1642.88 1642.88 1642.88 1625.6 r2-01 1202.96 1203.61 1203.61 1258.61 1202.96 1184.3 c1-02 828.94 828.94 828.94 828.94 828.94 828.94 c1-09 828.94 831.79 831.30 866.40 832.29 831.83 c2-01 591.56 591.56 591.56 591.56 591.56 c2-06 588.49 644.32 650.44 699.22 594.7 619.24 rc1-01 1631.17 1632.20 1631.17 1660.22 1639.73 1670.6 rc2-01 1326.45 1326.45 1332.09 1366.48 1345.16 1302.2 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 82 the obtained results showed that the use of six neighborhood structures has a significant impact on results and the proposed method achieved competitive results compared to algorithms proposed in the literature and it even acts better than the other methods on r2 and rc2 dataset. the other results also showed that the proposed method outperformed the standard hsa and its variants and it is an effective solution method for vrptw. it seems that using effective heuristic algorithms can lead to gaining better solutions than other famous algorithm. furthermore, this powerful metaheuristic can be used for solving for other versions of vrp. future projects will focus on working on such ideas and making them operational. references azi, n., gendreau, m., potvin, j. y. (2010). an exact algorithm for a vehicle routing problem with time windows and multiple use of vehicles, european journal of operational research 202, 756-763 alvarenga, g. b., mateus, g. r., tomi, g. d. (2007). a genetic and set partitioning two phase approach for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, computers & operations research 34, 1561–1584 baños, r., ortega, j., gil, fernández, a., & de toro, f. (2013). a simulated annealing-based parallel multi-objective approach to vehicle routing problems with time windows, expert systems with applications 40, 1696-1707 bent, r., van hentenryck, p. (2004). a two-stage hybrid local search for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, transp. sci. 38 (4), 515-530 blum, c., puchinger, j., raidl, g. r., & roli, a. (2011). hybrid metaheuristics in combinatorial optimization: a survey, applied soft computing, 11(6):4135-4151 bräysy, o., & gendreau, m. (2005a). vehicle routing problem with time windows, part i: route construction and local search algorithms, transportation science, 39 (1):104–118 bräysy, o. (2003). a reactive variable neighborhood search for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, informs j. comput. 15, 347-368 bräysy, o., & dullaert, w. (2003). a fast evolutionary metaheuristic for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, int. j. artif. intell. 12 (2), 153-172 cheng, y., li, l., lansivaara, t., chi, s., & sun, y. (2008). an improved harmony search minimization algorithm using different slip surface generation methods for slope stability analysis, engineering optimization, 40(2):95–115 clarke, g., & wright, j. w. (1964). scheduling of vehicles from a central depot to a number of delivery points, oper. res. 12 (4), 568-581 cordeau, j. f., laporte, g., & mercier, a. (2001). a unified tabu search heuristic for vehicle routing problems with time windows, j. oper. res. soc. 52, 928-936 dariusz, b. (2014). a cooperative population learning algorithm for vehicle routing problem with time windows. neurocomputing 146, 210-229 de olivera, h. c. b., vasconcelos, g. c., alvarenga, g. b., mesquita, r. v., & de souza, m. m. (2007). in: j.-f. puget (ed.), proceedings of the 2007 ieee symposium on computational intelligence in scheduling (ci-sched), springer-verlag, new york, 417-431 ding, q., hu, x., sun, l., & wang, y. (2012). an improved ant colony optimization and its application to vehicle routing problem with time windows, neurocomputing 98, 101-107 dueck, g. (1993). new optimization heuristics: the great deluge algorithm and the record-torecord travel, journal of computational physics, 104(1):86-92 fu, l.l., aloulou, m.a. & triki, c. (2017). integrated production scheduling and vehicle routing problem with job splitting and delivery time windows, international journal of production research, 1-16. gao, k.z., suganthan, p.n., pan, q.k. and tasgetiren, m.f. (2015). an effective discrete harmony search algorithm for flexible job shop scheduling problem with fuzzy processing time, international journal of production research, 53(19), 5896-5911 f. maleki, m. yousefikhoshbakht, a. rahati a hybrid self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows 83 geem, z. w., kim, j. h., & loganathan, g. (2001). a new heuristic optimization algorithm: harmony search, simulation, 76(2):60–68 gehring, h., homberger, j. (2001) a parallel two-phase metaheuristic for routing problems with time windows, asia-pac. j. oper. res. 18, 35-47 homberger, j., & gehring, h. (1999). two evolutionary meta-heuristics for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, inf. syst. oper. res. 37, 297–318 homberger, j., & gehring, h. (2002). parallelization of two phase metaheuristic for routing problems with time windows, journal of heuristics 8, 251-276 kirkpatrick, s., gelatt, c. d., vecchi, m. p., et al. (1983). optimization by simmulated annealing, science, 220(4598):671-680 le bouthillier, a., & crainic, t. g. (2005). a cooperative parallel meta-heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, comput. oper. res. 32 (7), 1685-1708 le bouthillier, a., crainic, t. g., & kropf, p. (2005). a guided cooperative search for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, ieee intell. syst. 20 (4), 36-42 lin, j., liu, m., hao, j. & gu, p. (2017). many-objective harmony search for integrated order planning in steelmaking-continuous casting-hot rolling production of multi-plants, international journal of production research, 55(14), 4003-4020 mahdavi, m., fesanghary, m., & damangir, e. (2007). an improved harmony search algorithm for solving optimization problems. applied mathematics and computation, 188(2):1567–1579 nagata, y., bräysy, o., & dullaert, w. (2010). a penalty-based edge assembly memetic algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, computers & operations research 37, 724737 nagata, y. (2007). edge assembly crossover for the capacitated vehicle routing problem, proceedings of the 7th european conference on evolutionary computation in combinatorial optimization, 124-53 nagata, y, & bräysy, o. (2009). a powerful route minimization heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, operations research letters, in press nagata, y. (2006). new eax crossover for large tsp instances, proceedings of the 9th international conference on parallel problem solving from nature, 372–81 omran, m. g. and mahdavi, m. (2008). global-best harmony search, applied mathematics and computation, 198(2):643–656 osman, i. h. (1993). metastrategy simulated annealing and tabu search algorithms for the vehicle routing problem, ann. oper. res. 41, 421-451 pan, q. k., suganthan, p. n., tasgetiren, m. f., & liang, j. j. (2010). a self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm for continuous optimization problems, applied mathematics and computation 216, 830-848 pan, q. k., suganthan, p. n., liang, j. j., & tasgetiren, m. f. (2011). a local-best harmony search algorithm with dynamic sub-harmony memories for lot-streaming flow shop scheduling problem, expert systems with applications, 38 (4): 3252–3259 prescott-gagnon, e., desaulniers, g., & rousseau, l. m. (2009). a branch-and-price-based large neighborhood search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, networks 54 (4), 190-204 rochat, y., & taillard, ´e. d. (1995). probabilistic diversification and intensification in local search for vehicle routing. journal of heuristics,1(1): 147–167 shaw, p. (1998). using constraint programming and local search methods to solve vehicle routing problems, in: m. maher, j.-f. puget (eds.), principles and practice of constraint programming, lecture notes in computer science simon, d. (2013). chapter 2 of evolutionary optimization algorithms biologically-inspired and population-based approaches to computer intelligence, published by john wiley & sons, inc., hoboken, new jersey. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 84 solomon, m. m. (1987). algorithms for the vehicle routing and scheduling problems with time window constraints. operations research, 35 (2):254-265. talbi, e. g. (2009). from design to implementation: wiley online library ursani, z., essam, d., cornforth, d., & stocker, r. (2011). localized genetic algorithm for vehicle routing problem with time windows, applied soft computing 11, 5375–5390 wang, c. m. & huang, y.f. (2010). self-adaptive harmony search algorithm for optimization, expert systems with applications, 37(4):2826– 2837 yassen, e. t., ayob, m., nazri, m. z. a., sabar, n. r. (2015a). meta-harmony search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, information sciences, doi: 10.1016/j.ins.2015.07.009 yassen, e. t., ayob, m., & nazri, m. z. a. (2015b). a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm for vehicle routing problem with time windows, international journal on artificial intelligence tools vol. 24, issue 6, 1550021 yassen, e. t., ayob, m., & nazri, m. z. a. (2015c). the effect of hybridizing local search algorithms with time windows, journal of theoretical and applied information technology yadav, p., kumar, r., panda, s. k., & chang, c. (2012). an intelligent tuned harmony search algorithm for optimization, information sciences, 196:47–72 yu, b., yang, z. z., yao, b. z. (2011). a hybrid algorithm for vehicle routing problem with time windows, expert systems with applications 38, 435-441 microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 44 multi-layer analysis regarding massive online open courses attractiveness towards academic environment olga bucovețchi university “politehnica” of bucharest, bucharest, romania splaiul independenței 313, bucurești 060042 tel.: +4 021 402 9100 olga.bucovetchi@upb.ro radu d. stanciu university “politehnica” of bucharest, bucharest, romania splaiul independenței 313, bucurești 060042 tel.: +4 021 402 9100 radu.stanciu@upb.ro abstract starting 2008 there was developed a new concept regarding elearning – massive online open courses (mooc). its rapid growth is also reflected within research and development activities. in the current paper, we have attempted to analyze this academic interest between 2008 and 2016. a number of 3264 articles were collected from isi web of science. the authors assess the attractiveness of moocs as academic topic of discussion in terms of most cited papers, most cited authors, the co-citation networks (papers and countries). we applied bibliometric methods on collected publications by using citespace as tool for analyzing and visualizing the results. keywords: bibliometric research, citespace, elearning, mooc 1. introduction nowadays mooc platforms embed various content that can be used to obtain ects in prestigious universities, for personal development (bucovetchi et al., 2015), or in entrepreneurship (holotescu, c. et al., 2017). mooc provides a virtual space to self-paced and active learning which offer the participants the chance to take part into global learning communities (bogdan, r., 2017). the main objective of this paper is to analyze if the academic interest towards elearning and mooc increased in the same manner as the interest of users regarding moocs. the starting point of the analysis was the assessment of the evolution of mooc platforms attractiveness 2014-2017 (see table 1). the criteria taken into consideration when assessing the attractiveness were site value and the daily unique visitors of coursera, edx, udacity and udemy. table 1. evolution of mooc platform attractiveness [source: bucovetchi et al., 2015 and www.www.siteprice.org] platform coursera edx udacity udemy year 2014 2017 2014 2017 2014 2017 2014 2017 site value ($) 6,216,699 4,533,552 2,378,607 3,332,245 1,621,500 2,129,558 8,323,318 8,879,258 daily unique visitors 553,301 545,000 209,667 298,983 143,084 219,990 753,214 824,853 with the exception of coursera platform, all other mooc increased their attractiveness as it can easily be seen. the authors consider that the involution of coursera is generated by coursera’s policy to introduce more and more payable services (by comparison with 2014 when all classes were free). the main objective of this paper is to analyze if the academic interest towards mooc as particular expression increased in the same manner as the interest of users regarding moocs. o. bucovețchi, r. d. stanciu multi-layer analysis regarding massive online open courses attractiveness towards academic environment 45 2. methodology the research resulted in collecting data from web of science, namely research publications. as shahiari, n. and gheorghe, a.v., 2015 considered that publishing the results of a research is a critical part of any scientific activity, within the demarche, the authors analyzed the publications published between 2008 and 2016 that contained the items “mooc” or “elearning” in topic. the present paper presents the results of citation analysis used as bibliometric method. all data were analyzed using citespace as software tool for a better visualization of trends. according to p. pradhan, 2016, citespace is a freely available java application developed by chaomei chen in 2004 (chen, 2004, chen, 2016) for progressive knowledge domain visualization and analyzing trends and patterns in scientific literature. “it helps to conduct interactive visual analytic studies of scientific literature concerning a scientific field, a discipline, or an institution, and identify and interpret salient patterns and trends. citespace provides various functions to facilitate the understanding and interpretation of network patterns and historical patterns, including identifying the fast-growth topical areas, finding citation hotspots in the land of publications, decomposing a network into clusters, automatic labelling clusters with terms from citing articles, geospatial patterns of collaboration, and unique areas of international collaboration. citespace supports structural and temporal analyses of a variety of networks derived from scientific publications, including collaboration networks, author co-citation networks, and document co-citation networks”. this research was conducted on the 18th of october 2017. we collected a number of 3264, namely 2365 proceeding papers, 766 articles, 48 editorial materials, 46 meeting abstracts, 43 book chapters, 15 reviews, 15 book reviews, 14 letters, 4 news items and 1 correction. we downloaded full record information of all 3264 publications and processed them with citespace. 3. results starting from the definition given by clark, rc in 2016 based on what “elearning is the instruction delivered on a digital device (such as a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet or smart phone)” the authors assumed that mooc is a category of elearning. however, analyzing the results presented in table 2, it came up that in academic literature only during the past 4 years the 2 elements (moocs and elearning) were discussed simultaneously, yet not frequently. top 5 of the web of science categories of the analyzed scientific publications are education educational research (1,714), computer science theory methods (458), computer science information systems (446), computer science interdisciplinary applications (411), and engineering electrical electronic (363) table 2. the number of publications containing “mooc” of “elearning” in topic between 2008 and 2016 [source: isi web of science] no. year mooc or elearning mooc elearning 1 2008 131 2 129 2 2009 123 2 121 3 2010 250 3 247 4 2011 207 5 204 5 2012 228 5 223 6 2013 281 84 200 7 2014 481 268 224 8 2015 737 495 262 9 2016 826 591 249 total 3264 1455 1859 when drawing the chart of the 9-year evolution (see figure 1), one may conclude that the interest for elearning is almost constant, yet in terms of moocs, the attractiveness is growing year brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 46 after year. in authors’ opinion, the article published in november 2012 in new york times3 that considered 2012 – “the year of the mooc” represents the breaking point in starting moocs evolution as research topic. figure 1. 9 year-evolution of the number of publications containing “mooc” or “elearning” in topic. looking at figure 2, one can intuitively say that the first four countries involved in mooc/elearning phenomena are united states, spain, china and romania. this is also proven by data in table.3. the bigger the node is represented within the figure, the more productive the country is. when assessing the numeric results, it is interesting to conclude that the first 5 countries published 46% out of the entire released academic production. figure 2. country publication network 3 the year of the mooc, new york times (2012). retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapidpace.html. www.siteprice.org. o. bucovețchi, r. d. stanciu multi-layer analysis regarding massive online open courses attractiveness towards academic environment 47 table.3 most productive countries (2008-2016) (in number of articles) 1 339 u.s.a. 2 298 spain 3 273 peoples republic of china 4 245 romania 5 172 england 6 151 germany 7 127 australia 8 97 czech republic 9 81 canada 10 80 india an interesting fact is revealed when assessing tables 4 and 5 and figure 3: even is the most cited and/or co-cited article released between 2008 and 2016 is moocs: a systematic study of the published literature 2008-2012 written by liyanagunawardena, t.r., adams, a.a. and williams, s.a., the most cited publication in the mentioned period is the one written in 2003 by everett m. rogers, “diffusion of innovation”. table 4. most cited authors (2008-2016) no. author, cited article 1 rogers, e., 2003, diffusion innovation 2 zhang, d.s., 2004, commun. acm, v47, p75 3 siemens, g., 2005, int. j. instructional, v2 4 ellaway, r., 2008, med. teach., v30, p455 5 sun, p.c., 2008, comput. educ., v50, p1183 6 conole, g., 2007, open flex. learn ser. 7 hill, p., 2013, emerging student pat. 8 kop, r., 2011, int. rev. res. open. dis., v12 9 siemens, g., 2008, connectivism connect 10 lewin, t., 2012, ny times table 5. list of the most cited articles published 2008-2016 (source: isi web of science) no. article times cited 1 liyanagunawardena, t.r., adams, a.a. & williams, s.a. (2013). moocs: a systematic study of the published literature 2008-2012, in international review of research in open and distance learning, 14, 3, 202-227 163 2 kop, r., fournier, h. & mak, j.s.f. (2011). pedagogy of abundance or pedagogy to support human beings? participant support on massive open online courses, international review of research in open and distance learning, 12, 7, 74-93 107 3 jordan, k. (2014). initial trends in enrolment and completion of massive open online courses, international review of research in open and distance learning, 15, 1 89 4 hew, k.f. & cheung, w.s. (2014, june). students' and instructors' use of massive open online courses (moocs): motivations and challenges, educational research review, 12, 45-58 66 5 fini, a. (2009). the technological dimension of a massive open online course: the case of the cck08 course tools, international review of research in open and distance learning, 10, 5 57 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 48 figure 3. the most co-cited articles published 2008-2016 4. conclusions moocs are a very timely topic of discussion both in academic environment and in personal development area. techrepublic4 published a report released by data scientist community kaggle that concluded that “32% of full-time data scientists started learning machine learning or data science through a mooc”. both numbers of mooc platforms and users’ interest in moocs increased since 2012 – the year of mooc therefore the present demarche aimed to investigate also the academic interest within this particular elearning area between 2008 and 2016. this analysis revealed that the number of released publications on this topic is constantly increasing. furthermore, the most productive countries (in terms of number of publications) are usa, spain and china. moreover, given the top five of the most cited articles, the most representative journal within the domain is international review of research in open and distance learning. references bogdan, f. (2017, september). integrating moocs in embedded systems blended courses, brain-broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 8 (3), pp. 33-44. bucovețchi, o.m.c., simion, p.c. & stanciu r.d. (2015). the newest trend in personal development mooc platforms, the 11th international scientific conference elearning and software for education bucharest, 404-409. chen, c. (2004). searching for intellectual turning points: progressive knowledge domain visualization. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america (pnas), 101 (suppl. 1), 5303-5310. 4 report: 59% of employed data scientists learned skills on their own or via a mooc, https://www.techrepublic.com/article/report-59-of-employed-data-scientists-learned-skills-on-their-own-or-via-a-mooc/ o. bucovețchi, r. d. stanciu multi-layer analysis regarding massive online open courses attractiveness towards academic environment 49 chen, c. (2016). citespace: a practical guide for mapping scientific literature. nova science publishers. clark, r.c. & mayer, r.e. (2016). e-learning and the science of instruction: proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning”, 4th . ed. john wiley & sons. denisco rayome, a. (2017, october 30) report: 59% of employed data scientists learned skills on their own or via a mooc, retrieved from: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/report-59-of-employeddata-scientists-learned-skills-on-their-own-or-via-a-mooc/ holotescu, c., lucaciu goțiu, l. o., andone, d., cismariu, l., grosseck, g. & slavici, t. (2017, july). entrepreneurship learning ecosystem for smart cities through moocs, brain-broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 8 (2), 33-44. papano, l. (2012, october 2) the year of the mooc. retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplyingat-a-rapid-pace.html pradhan, p., (2016, october-december). science mapping and visualization tools used in bibliometric & scientometric studies: an overview. inflibnet newsletter, 23, 4, 19-33, retrieved from: http://ir.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/1944/2132. shahiari, n. & gheorghe, a.v., (2015). a multi-layered analysis of unconventional shale energies research domain, the 7th international conference of management and industrial engineering, management – the key driver for creating value, 22nd23th october, bucharest, romania, 182-195. zhang, x., gao, y., yan, x., ordóñez de pablos, p., sun, y. & cao, x. (2015). from e-learning to sociallearning: mapping development of studies on social media-supported knowledge management, comput human behav, 51, 803-811. olga bucovetchi received her msc in economic engineering (2006), phd in industrial engineering (2014) from university politehnica of bucharest. now she is lecturer at university politehnica of bucharest. she is member of amier (association of economist managers and engineers in romania) and arpic (romanian association for the promotion of critical infrastructure and services protection). while working at upb she had several collaborations within national and international research projects. her main research activities deal with risk management, critical infrastructure protection, education management and business continuity. in these fields she wrote many articles and coauthored several publications. professor radu stanciu graduated the chemical engineering school at university politehnica of bucharest (upb) in 1986. he received the ph.d. degree in management and industrial engineering (1999). as full professor in the economic engineering department, upb; he is holding courses in human resource management and development, general management, and entrepreneurial development. he wrote over fifty essays issued in different scientific specialized reviews on hr management, general management, business management and consultancy. he has almost eighty scientific reports and papers (author or co-author) in human resource management, risk management, e-learning, business development, and related areas. prof. stanciu was affiliated with center for business excellence (cbe) between 1991 and 2000, and was washington state university certified master business counselor (mbc). he has business counseling and training expertise formed as counselor and lead instructor in numerous programs founded by usaid, phare, and british know how fund in romania, bulgaria, and moldova, in domains like business plan development and evaluation, marketing strategies and human resources issues. prof. stanciu is an active member in many romanian and international professional associations in management and engineering. microsoft word brain_6_2015__doc final.doc 54 business process management – a traditional approach versus a knowledge based approach roberto paiano department of engineering for innovation, university of salento, 73100 lecce, italy roberto.paiano@unisalento.it adriana caione department of engineering for innovation, university of salento, 73100 lecce, italy adriana.caione@unisalento.it anna lisa guido department of engineering for innovation, university of salento, 73100 lecce, italy annalisa.guido@unisalento.it angelo martella department of engineering for innovation, university of salento, 73100 lecce, italy angelo.martella@unisalento.it andrea pandurino department of engineering for innovation, university of salento, 73100 lecce, italy andrea.pandurino@unisalento.it abstract the enterprise management represents a heterogeneous aggregate of both resources and assets that need to be coordinated and orchestrated in order to reach the goals related to the business mission. influences and forces that may influence this process, and also for that they should be considered, are not concentrated in the business environment, but they are related to the entire operational context of a company. for this reason, business processes must be the most versatile and flexible with respect to the changes that occur within the whole operational context of a company. considering the supportive role that information systems play in favour of business process management bpm, it is also essential to implement a constant, continuous and quick mechanism for the information system alignment with respect to the evolution followed by business processes. in particular, such mechanism must intervene on bpm systems in order to keep them aligned and compliant with respect to both the context changes and the regulations. in order to facilitate this alignment mechanism, companies are already referring to the support offered by specific solutions, such as knowledge bases. in this context, a possible solution might be the approach we propose, which is based on a specific framework called process management system. our methodology implements a knowledge base support for business experts, which is not limited to the bpm operating phases, but includes also the engineering and prototyping activities of the corresponding information system. this paper aims to compare and evaluate a traditional bpm approach with respect to the approach we propose. in effect, such analysis aims to emphasize the lack of traditional methodology especially with respect to the alignment between business processes and information systems, along with their compliance with context domain and regulations. keywords: business process management, compliance, knowledge base, user experience, business is alignment 1. introduction the enterprise management represents a heterogeneous aggregate of both resources and assets that the enterpriser has to coordinate and orchestrate in order to achieve the goals related to the business mission. this coordination and orchestration process must be properly designed and r. paiano, a.driana caione, a. l. guido, a. martella, a. pandurino business process management – a traditional approach versus a knowledge based approach 55 implemented, mainly referring to the definition of the relevant business processes, and trying to fully exploit the support offered by the ict technologies. the workflow management coalition (www.wfmc.org) defines a process as a “set of one or more linked procedures or activities which collectively realize a business objective or policy goal, normally within the context of an organizational structure defining functional roles and relationships”. centrality of business processes is focused in (rikhardsson et al., 2006) and (zoet et al., 2011), and in particular in (zoet et al., 2011) is reported “business processes are used to manage and execute an organizations’ coordinated, value-adding activities and are thereby among their most important assets or capabilities”. in order to achieve an efficient and effective process management, it is necessary that the same management is the most versatile and flexible with respect to the changes that occur within the operational context of a company. for sure, these changes can represent a chance for the companies to improve their competitive position, but for this purpose it is also essential to ensure the business process compliance with respect to the reference regulations for the organizations. with regard to the business process compliance, in (sadiq and governatori, 2015) authors report “the ever-increasing obligations of regulatory compliance are presenting a new breed of challenges for organizations across several industry sectors. aligning control objectives that stem from regulations and legislation with business objectives devised for improved business performance is a foremost challenge. compliance is defined as ensuring that business processes, operations, and practice are in accordance with a prescribed and/or agreed set of norms. compliance requirements may stem from legislature and regulatory bodies (e.g., sarbanes-oxley, basel ii, hipaa), standards and codes of practice (e.g., scor, iso9000), and also business partner contracts”. in effect, the regulation rules inevitably provide impact on all the business process phases, and consequently even on the knowledge amount a business actor must know about technical knowhow and legislative information. the correlation between regulation compliance and business process management is also highlighted in (governatori & sadiq, 2008), in which it is emphasized that “the key point is that compliance is a relationship between two sets of specifications: the specifications for executing a business process and the specifications regulating a business”. among the more traditional bpm approaches, enterprise architecture – ea – provides to organize and undertake a series of both studies and activities aimed to the company representation in the form of as-is and to-be. with regard to enterprise architecture, authors in (wegmann, 2002) state that it represents “the discipline whose purpose is to align more effectively the strategies of enterprises together with their processes and their resources (business and it). enterprise architecture is complex because it involves different types of practitioners with different goals and practices during the lifecycle of the required changes”. therefore, according to the enterprise architecture approach, it is essential to organize a multi-disciplinary team in order to produce such company representations. such team is made up of both domain and information technology experts and aims at solving the information gap problem, using an appropriate knowledge exchange. while domain experts contribute to the knowledge exchange trying to share their know-how regarding the company operational context, it experts aspire to interpret, translate and wire this know-how in both the bpm solution and the related information systems. as already mentioned in (wegmann, 2002), the results produced by this knowledge exchange greatly depends on the experience of both parties in being able to appropriately identify and dissect each focal point of the business context analysis. in this regard, several authors have already pointed out the importance of organizational modelling before requirements elicitation (kavakli & loucopoulos, 2004; regev & wegmann, 2004; eric, 1995). in particular, the authors in (de la vara gonzález and diaz, 2007) state that “the development of an information system (is) is a complex process that not only requires the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 resolution of technical problems, but that also requires the organizational environment related to the application domain to be taken into account. in business contexts the application domain is constituted by the organization where the system will be deployed. therefore, a good knowledge of the application domain is critical to be able to succeed in requirements elicitation”. moreover, also referring to (alexander, 2003) and (dumas et al., 2005), the authors in (de la vara gonzález and diaz, 2007) assert “nowadays, it is widely acknowledged that any is must be a business process support system (or process-aware information system) that manages and executes operational processes involving people, applications, and/or information sources on the basis of process models”. in this context, misconduct or little careful analysis can cause heavy deficiencies within the corporate information systems, primarily in those related to the business process management. in addition, it is also possible that part of the knowledge exchanged between the multi-disciplinary team members can be misinterpreted and/or lost, if not properly formalized, handled and stored. taking into account the supportive role information systems play in the business process management, it is essential to implement a constant, continuous and quick mechanism for the information system alignment with respect to the evolution followed by business processes. as documented in (luftman et al., 1993; mckeen & smith, 2003), alignment concept firstly appears in the early 70s, even if a specific definition can be found in (ullah & lai, 2011), where it is defined as “the optimized synchronization between dynamic business objectives and technological support by respective is”. the importance and the necessity to keep constantly aligned business processes and information systems of a company is also underlined in (wang et al., 2008), where the authors verbatim quote “misalignment between business and it is one of the critical reasons why enterprises fail to get the full potential of their it investments. meanwhile, which enterprises have accomplished a high degree of alignment usually you are associated with better business efficiency and effectiveness performance”. on the contrary, a slow or non-alignment information system process can cause poor or misleading support to the business actors. in effect, during the fulfilment of their activities, business actors must be able to be fully aware of both their role and the informative and legislative framework of the processes in which they are involved. the compliance management concept is introduced in (el kharbili et al., 2008) and the authors define it as “the term referring to the definition of means to avoid such illegal actions by controlling an enterprise’s activities. by extension, compliance management also refers to standards, frameworks, and software used to ensure the company’s observance of legal texts. in the context of bpm, compliance management applies on business processes and the related resources like data and systems”. in order to facilitate the alignment mechanism of the bpm systems with respect to the regulation rules, companies are already used to refer to the support offered by specific solutions, such as knowledge bases. in literature, there are already various compliance management frameworks that allow modelling business processes by also using concepts that can be retrieved from knowledge bases, although such frameworks do not guarantee, or do not make it particularly easy, the process of alignment of the corresponding information systems. the framework we propose, which is called process management system, might represent a possible solution to these problems. such framework is capable of enabling business experts to be the most autonomous possible not only during the bpm operating phases, but also during the engineering and prototyping activities of the corresponding information systems, especially from the user experience – ux – point of view. this paper aims to make a comparison and an evaluation between our and traditional methodologies in the field of business process management. in particular, the paper emphasizes the lack of traditional approach with respect to the problem of the alignment between business r. paiano, a.driana caione, a. l. guido, a. martella, a. pandurino business process management – a traditional approach versus a knowledge based approach 57 processes and information systems, along with their compliance with context domain and regulations. the present paper provides in section 2 the related works/background with respect to some semantic bpm frameworks along with the most important bpm solutions and rich internet application – ria – design methodologies. moreover, in section 2 it is presented an interesting comparative analysis between the bpm solutions we have considered. section 3 introduces the traditional approach in business process management, in order to point out its shortcomings with respect to the alignment between business processes, information systems and the operational context. section 4 introduces our methodology phases, along with the corresponding software components, that process management system provides. section 5 shows an evaluation in terms of effort and performance in adopting the traditional and the process management system–based approaches. finally, section 7 includes some conclusions. 2. background as previously described, the necessity to design and develop the framework we propose stems from the need to adequately support the business process planning, execution and management, also using the business and regulation knowledge sharing. moreover, it is necessary to properly model and implement the support web information system able to allow the execution of business process in an informational contextualized environment. in literature, there are already frameworks and methodologies aimed to the rias development within the business process management context, and in the following we provide a brief survey of such solutions. 2.1. workflow management system the workflow management coalition (www.wfmc.org) defines a workflow as “the automation of a business process or of a part thereof, during which documents, information or tasks are passed from one participant to another in order to be processed in compliance with a set of procedural regulations”. in (caione et al., 2015) authors propose a survey on five of the most important open source workflow management systems that are selected from a sweeping panorama of both open source and commercial solutions. intalio bpms (www.intalio.com) its main particularity is to be independent from any other proprietary technologies. intalio provides a wide set of components in order to support the business process design, deployment and management, along with a specific web application management toolkit. bonitasoft (http://it.bonitasoft.com) it is an interesting solution able to combine a specific environment for the business process design, and a powerful workflow engine capable to support the business process management along with the correspondent user interface prototyping. jbpm (www.jbpm.org) it is an open source and java-based solution offered by jboss and it is particularly lightweight. jbpm adopt the concept of executable business process, which represents a specific process that is ready to be executed by the workflow engine because it is characterized by a sufficient information detail. activiti bpmn 2.0 (www.activiti.org) it is an open source and apache-licensed lightweight solution, especially implemented for java developers. an important characteristic of activiti is its compliance with respect to the version 2.0 of bpmn standard by omg (object management group). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 camunda (www.camunda.com) it is a java-based framework for process automation. the most important component in camunda is the workflow engine, which is responsible for the execution of processes, even defined using the bpmn 2.0 standard. in order to study and compare the above-mentioned workflow solutions, the analysis is based on of the following eight key aspects: • process editor oriented to business and/or it experts • apis availability for business and/or it experts • connectors availability • bpmn 2.0 compliance • fast prototyping • prototyped application customization • process monitoring • engine source code customization. among the above-mentioned key aspects, particular attention has been paid to the possibility to extend the solutions. such extension aims to customize the solution in order to make it compliant with the reference requirements, but especially in order to implement the necessary service to interface a knowledge base. the results of this comparative analysis are summarized in table 1 and have elected jbpm as the best solution with respect to the considered key aspects. table 1. comparative analysis between open source workflow engines open source workflow engine solutions analysis key aspects intalio bonita jbpm activiti camunda process editor oriented to business expert with it expert support business expert business expert it expert it expert apis available for non-expert user (engine not customizable) it expert it and business expert it expert (engine not customizable) it expert connectors availability yes yes no no no bpmn 2.0 compliant yes yes yes yes no fast prototyping yes but with the support of it expert yes yes but with the support of it expert yes but with the support of it experts yes but with the support of it expert prototyped application customization yes yes no no no process monitoring yes – oriented to the business expert yes – oriented to the business expert yes – oriented to the business and it expert yes – oriented to the it expert yes – oriented to the it expert engine source code customization no no yes yes yes-active support from the community another important key aspect we have considered in order to perform the comparative analysis is the possibility for the process editor to be oriented to business and/or it experts. in effect, such aspect is particularly useful in order to bridge the knowledge gap between these kinds of experts. at this proposal, it is worth mentioning the super project (www.ip-super.org), whose main goal is to reduce the distance in supporting the bpm automation between business and it r. paiano, a.driana caione, a. l. guido, a. martella, a. pandurino business process management – a traditional approach versus a knowledge based approach 59 expert skills. super implements a specific semantic-based framework in order to define, execute and analyse business processes. in addition, super offers the possibility to organize and share the specific knowledge able to make the most dynamic and adaptable the processes with respect to both company and domain changes. the main focus areas of super project are: • ontology stack: an ontological business process representation, particularly able to support reasoning and advanced queries; • modelling environment and execution engine: respectively able to support business process modelling and execution, also using semantic annotations; • composition and discovery framework: used in order to research and compose all the services necessary to implement a business process; • mediation framework: useful to manage the specific heterogeneity that characterizes data and processes; • use cases and prototypes: able to assess the project results also within real application scenarios. super semantic bpm platform ssbpmp (el kharbili & pulvermüller, 2009) represents a framework directly obtained as a super extension. ssbpmp uses a specific ontology related to both policy and regulation modelling, in order to support the compliance management within the bpm context. such ontology is used during the phase related to the business process modelling, by defining some references between an element of the process and a policy assertion. 2.2. rich internet application in (hernandez et al., 2014) authors introduce a comprehensive review of the frameworks, methodologies and tools for developing rich internet applications. rias represent a new generation of internet applications that combine behaviours and features of both web and desktop applications, such as: • client-server architecture; • data-intensive handling and business logic execution on both the client and server side; • highly interactive multimedia content. so, rias change the way the web client interacts with the server, by removing or minimizing frequent server transactions from the user experience. in literature there are many software development methodologies for rias, and most of them are obtained as extensions of traditional web application ones. in the following, a list of the most important ria development methodologies is reported. rich user experience rux method rux (preciado et al., 2007) represents a model-driven methodology for the ux design of a ria application that refers to web 2.0 paradigms along with features such as multimedia, multichannel and interactivity. rux can be easily integrated with models for web engineering, such as webml, uwe, oohdm, oo-h and rich-idm, and is able to model data, business logic and ux of a web application. rux model consists of the following four phases: concepts and tasks, abstract interface, concrete interface and final interface. concepts and tasks represents the first phase provided by rux and is related to the starting web 1.0 model. on the contrary, the remaining phases are mainly based on components of the ux defined by rux. the abstract interface represents the abstract conceptual representation of the ux model with all the features that are common to every device and platform, and therefore devoid of any spatial, graphical and behavioural dependence. in effect, each abstract interface component is also independent from both the device and the ria rendering technology. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 60 finally, while concrete interface aims to optimize the ux model with respect to one or more specific target devices, final interface represents the final result of rux methodology, and consists of the source code that implement the corresponding ria application. webml extension webml extension (bozzon et al., 2006) provides a methodology for distributed data and events modelling in data-intensive rias. it specifically focuses on client or server side actions and aims to enrich data specifications along two dimensions: data location and data duration; while location can be either server or client side, duration can be persistent or temporary. object oriented hypermedia oohdm extension oohdm extension (urbieta et al., 2007) represents a new approach in the ria interface design that uses abstract data view adv models to express a high level of abstraction directly from the structure and behaviour of the user interface. using advanced techniques for the requirement separation, oohdm extension enables to create even complex interfaces with a very simple composition. ooh4ria ooh4ria (meliá et al., 2008) extends the object oriented hypermedia – ooh – method by introducing many new model elements, which complement the ooh models for ria domain and navigation, using the following two additional models: • presentation model: which captures the different widgets used to implement the user interface; • orchestration model: which represents the interaction between widgets and the rest of the system. by adopting a model-based approach, ooh4ria introduces new structures and behaviour models to constitute a complete ria and to apply transformations that reduce the effort and accelerate the web development. the oohria models use uml syntax, based on mof (metaobject facility) meta-models. uwe-r uwe-r (machado and ribeiro, 2009) represents a lightweight extension of uwe for rias that is able to particularly cover navigation, process and presentation aspects. for this purpose, uwe-r introduces new modelling elements that directly inherit structure and behaviour from uwe elements. model-driven approach proposed usixml usixml (martinez-ruiz et al., 2006) is based on the assumption that designed interfaces have to be platform and vendor independent. usixml implements a model-based design and uses a series of xslt extensible stylesheet language transformations model transformations to generate a final user interface starting from an abstract interface model and coded for a specific platform. object oriented web solution – oows – and interaction patterns interaction pattern concept (valverde and pastor, 2008) represents the reference model able to describe a common user-system interaction. such pattern can be a guideline in generating ria interface code, using a specific transformation rule set. in effect, interaction patterns can adequately model the ria structural aspects, while behavioural ones are just textually described. finally, no specific details are given about the transformation rules in (valverde and pastor, 2008). r. paiano, a.driana caione, a. l. guido, a. martella, a. pandurino business process management – a traditional approach versus a knowledge based approach 61 3. the business process management traditional approach business process management provides significant support for the identification and structuring of business processes with the purpose of optimizing the activities and workflow management. enterprise architect represents the traditional discipline whose focus is the alignment of business strategies with processes and resources, business and it (zachman, 1997). as stated in (wegmann, 2002), “ea projects deals with the enterprise in all its aspects. as a consequence, ea teams have to be multi-disciplinary. an ea team includes specialists (typically upper management, functional managers and senior staff members) together with architects. the role of the architect is to federate the efforts of the specialists to ensure successful projects”. in ea projects, the adopted strategy is to analyze a company in order to produce a representation in terms of as-is and to-be. to achieve this goal, it is necessary to establish a close interaction between the different professionals inside and outside the company, as well as to create process models that are aligned with the organization's processes and in line with business requirements, regulations and laws. so, considering that models should reflect all the changes that occur inside and outside the company, it is necessary to own a clear and complete knowledge about the entire business domain, for sure in terms of organization, processes and activities, but also about the reference regulations, laws and standards. in effect, such knowledge is essentially prerogative of domain and legal experts, so they have to share that information with process and it experts during the definition, implementation and monitoring of business processes. moreover, having experts a different cultural background, it is also necessary to define a common dictionary in order to obtain an efficient and effective knowhow sharing and transferring process. at this proposal, in (guido et al., 2015) some guidelines for domain and legal experts are presented. these guidelines are particularly useful in order to provide a schematic representation of regulation rules, in an attempt to make them easy to understand by process and it experts. in this way, it is possible to reduce the skill and knowledge gap among the various specialists. process and it experts represent the main actors in the context of bpm lifecycle. while the former care about business processes analysis and modeling, the latter are involved in the processes implementation and execution, along with the design and development of the relative supporting information systems. going into the details of the bpm lifecycle, we describe below the main phases reported in literature: � business process design: involves the collection of useful information that characterizes the organization in order to model business processes and tasks. considering that only part of this information is well known, in order to retrieve the remaining part, it is necessary to affect both domain and legal experts. the design consists of a graphic representation that typically adopts a standard notation, such as business process modeling notation (bpmn), which includes actors and activity flows along with any annotations and comments written in natural language. at this level, the processes do not have sufficient information in order to be executed by a workflow engine. in effect, to achieve this goal it is necessary to perform a specific transformation able to obtain an executable process starting from an analytical one. � process implementation: during this phase, it experts transform the processes modeled in the previous step into executable processes. this operation implies the addition of the execution parameters, the use of web services along with the interaction with storage systems and knowledge bases. web services are assigned to each task in a manual and static way; similarly, data format and execution parameter types are defined. the resulting processes can then be deployed within a workflow engine. � process execution: after the processes deployment, the process instances can be created and executed. web service calls eventually defined for a task are automatically performed, except for those that need of input parameters that the user has to directly specify. in this case, user must explicitly start and run the task, providing the necessary input parameters. during this phase, the user may require the support of both domain and legal experts. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 62 � process analysis: during this phase the running process instances are monitored through the analysis of various execution details, such as the branches followed by the control flow, the current values of the process and task parameters, etc. in this phase, some key performance indicators are specified and are evaluated during every instance execution. it is also possible to check both the process and the output compliance with respect to the company domain and the regulations. the process mining activity operates on process log and is used in order to perform the conformance checking, optimization and performance analysis. in the bpm context, another important necessity is the possibility to design and implement an easy to use information system, able to support the process management also referring to the application domain, company organization, regulations and activities. in particular, the most important aspect of the information system to realize is the user experience modeling that must aim to organize the contents in an exhaustive and appropriate manner, also by using the contributions that complementary information systems can provide. as can be noted, traditional approach requires considerable effort in terms of modeling and development and especially it strongly depends on the knowledge offered by both the domain and legal experts, along the whole bpm lifecycle, but also during the support information system modeling and development. therefore, if on one hand there is the necessity to resort to semantic technologies, such as knowledge bases, on the other it is necessary to have supported by software tools able to perform an automatic model transformation along with the support information system generation. in that way, it becomes possible: i) to increase the bpm lifecycle automation degree, ii) to support the process and it experts during the domain and regulation information retrieval, iii) to ensure a certain adaptability of business processes in order to respond to changes and/or unexpected events and iv) to automate the process of modeling and creation of the web application. 4. the process management system approach the approach we propose is based on a specially designed and implemented framework called process management system (caione et al., in press) starting from a specific methodology. this methodology involves a process management that consists of four main phases, as many as those that temporally characterize the process lifecycle, and which are respectively known as: planning time, design time, situation time and run-time. each phase is characterized and supported by specific interactions with a knowledge base. in particular, knowledge base contains all the information about the business domain, regulations, standards, corporate structure and business processes, in the form of concepts and relationships between them (paiano et al., 2015). this kind of support can facilitate the activities performed by business experts, process designers and it specialists since they can directly retrieve from the knowledge base the information to model and execute the necessary business processes. in that way, it is possible to reduce the gap in knowledge domain and the necessary interactions with both domain and legal experts. in effect, skills and knowledge that these experts can provide are strictly necessary during the definition and implementation of the knowledge base. r. paiano, a.driana caione, a. l. guido, a. martella, a. pandurino business process management – a traditional approach versus a knowledge based approach 63 figure 1. project management system – conceptual model (part 1) figure 2. project management system – conceptual model (part 2) the following is a detailed description of the macro-phases provided by the process management system framework (figure 1 and figure 2). in particular, the description is intended to identify and characterize each macro-phase, in order to provide information on the specific functions performed by each of the software components in the game, in addition to a precise description related to the respective dynamics of interaction. considering that, with except for situation time, it is possible to make a mapping between the phases provided by the approaches we are evaluating, for every macro-phase we report in brackets the corresponding traditional approach phase/phases. � planning time (process design). in this phase, the process designer essentially refers to a specific editor called business process editor to model the necessary sub-process templates using the bpmn standard notation. sub-process templates are similar to business processes, but they cannot be executed by workflow engine. they can model blocks of bpmn elements that can be used by process designers in order to model runnable processes. in addition to supporting the sub-process template creation and editing, the business process editor allows brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 64 the process designer to characterize, also semantically, the elements of the model. in effect, during the modeling activity, the process designer can semantically characterize the elements of a sub-process template by establishing an association with specific concepts/resources directly retrieved from the knowledge base. to this end, the process designer uses a graphical interface made available by the software module called kb explorer. using this interface, the process designers can consult the knowledge base in order to explore and select the related concepts/resources during the semantic characterization of the model. actually, the software module called kb middleware is responsible to make available the feature related to the knowledge base consultation. in particular, this module performs web service calls to implement interaction with the knowledge base. in that way, it is possible to make available a consultation that is based on the knowledge base concepts rather than on their structure. at this phase, the output generated by business process editor consists of the subprocess template model designed by the process designer using two formats: one compatible with the workflow engine standard and another suitable for the transmission to the knowledge base; � design time (process design and implementation). it represents the phase during which the process designer creates the business process models, using the business process editor. to this end, the process designer can use the primitives provided by the bpmn notation, but above all he/she may use the sub-process templates previously defined, during the planning time phase. as before, even during this phase it is possible to semantically characterize a process. at the completion of the business process composition, the process designer can proceed with its implementation through the setting of: i) the execution parameters; ii) the business logic that underlies the single task of a process; iii) the user experience model of the web prototype by which the user starts the business process execution. the process designer may decide to explicitly specify the parameter values for the execution or to recover them from the knowledge base, referring to the features implemented by kb middleware. the process designer, possibly supported by it experts, implements the business logic related to the corresponding tasks of the process, also by using the appropriate environment provided by the workflow engine. for the web prototype generation, the process management system refers to its specific module called web application editor webae, which adopts idm and rich-idm methodologies in order to model the ux schema. during this operation, the web application designer can define some access points to the workflow engine, possibly associated with some integration points of information. while access points are references to the workflow engine able to start one of the processes defined in design time, integration points represent the information and legislative framework for the process referenced by the corresponding access point. in order to define the integration point for a process, the web application designer can also refer to the resources present in the knowledge base. from the point of view of the prototype user interface, webae module translates the integration points into contents to make available to the user and the access point into a hyperlink able to start a new instance of the related business process. like subprocess templates, even processes are stored in two formats: one compatible with the workflow engine standard and another suitable for the transmission to the knowledge base. finally, the format used to represent the ux models of the web prototype is xmi – xml metadata interchange – especially because it is not necessary to store them in the knowledge base; � run-time (process execution and analysis). it represents the phase during which the processes previously modeled are executed. this phase is completely delegated to the workflow engine, which makes available the necessary infrastructure for the processes execution. in effect, the reference workflow engine has been further extended in order to enable a more detailed process monitoring, but above all to support the execution parameters storing in the knowledge base, using the software module kb middleware. in fact, these r. paiano, a.driana caione, a. l. guido, a. martella, a. pandurino business process management – a traditional approach versus a knowledge based approach 65 parameters are particularly relevant in order to improve processes themselves during the analysis phase. for the purposes of the web prototype deployment and implementation, the reference servlet container for the process management system is apache tomcat (http://tomcat.apache.org); � situation time. it represents the phase during which, following to an alert related to an unexpected event, it is necessary to identify a process, or a composition of processes and/or sub-process templates, able to handle such an event. actually, process management system is able to handle both unexpected and expected events, and uses a publish/subscribe communication pattern in order to support the subscription for receiving signals about a specific topic. after analyzing the event occurring, the knowledge management system sends an event & situation reference ontology view object to the process management system module called situation analyzer. this object is constituted by a subset of concepts/resources of the knowledge base that is able to fully describe the occurred event. at this point, situation analyzer tries to identify the business processes of the workflow engine that can eventually handle the event, by comparing the concepts in event & situation reference ontology view and those referenced by each of the models, related to both processes and sub-process templates, produced in planning and design time. if the situation analyzer identifies a process that is fully compatible in terms of concepts with the occurred event, then it elects such a process to be the event handler. otherwise, the situation analyzer identifies processes and/or sub-process templates that suitably compounded can possibly handle the event. to this end, the process management system offers a specific module called process recomposer. this module enables the designer to specifically compose the event handler, starting from the processes and/or sub-process templates previously selected by the situation analyzer. finally, the process recomposer also represents the business process editor module the designer uses in order to: i) check the consistency of the process that results from the composition performed by the process designer using the processes and/or sub-process templates identified by the situation analyzer; ii) complete the realization activities related to the compounded process, such as the definition of both the execution parameters and the ux model of the web prototype. 5. evaluation in order to evaluate effort and performance obtained in using traditional and process management system based approaches, we refer to a case study related to the implementation of a system for the academic exam management. 5.1. traditional approach design and development in order to design and develop the exam management system using a traditional approach, we have referred to a struts-based application already implemented in-house by our university staff. business processes have been modeled according to the bpmn standard. to this purpose, the exam management know-how already acquired by the technical staff has been enriched with the information obtained during the interviews with both professors and administrative staff. the technical team has also referred to documents like the student guide and ministerial regulations in order to acquire the know-how related to more precise legal and administrative rules. in table 2 are shown the canonical phases that distinguish a software design and development project, along with both the corresponding working hours and the effort in percentage terms. the amount related to the working hours represents the number of hours of productive work, which is obtained excluding from the calculation holidays, illness and other activities in the project (training, meetings, etc.). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 66 table 2. traditional approach effort and working hours traditional approach effort and working hours project phases effort % elapsed time working hours – wh (40/week) analysis 17 % 400 wh process design and implementation 7 % 160 wh ux design 7 % 160 wh development and unit test 54 % 1.280 wh system test 13 % 320 wh deployment 2 % 40 wh total on the phases 100 % 2.360 wh 5.2. process management system approach design and development for the evaluation of the approach using the process management system, we have referred to a student team during the web information systems academic course that have a good knowledge of both the application domain and the idm notation. in order to compare the performance achieved using the process management system based approach, we have decided to make available to the students a knowledge base already modelled and developed by specific domain experts, essentially for supporting their know-how. in effect, the knowledge base contains information about the academic exam management domain, along with its reference regulations and laws. in this way, it is possible to ensure the comparability between the application developed by the academic staff and those implemented by the students, with the same domain and functional requirements. the student team has modeled the processes, in bpmn standard notation, also using the interaction with the knowledge base. during both the design and implementation time, students were constantly supported by the information consulted and retrieved from the domain knowledge base. during the application development, it is important to note that using a traditional approach, the developer fulfils all the activities provide by the business process, while using the process management system based one, the developer intervenes at both design and run time. in particular, at design time the developer manages the integration of the rich-idm model of the ria prototype with the previous modeled business processes. while the operations at run time the developer directly performs on the ria prototype aim to: � manage the integration with the database in order to implement the create, read, update and delete – crud – operations. to this end, it was possible to reuse all the business logic already implemented by the technical team; � intervene on the user interface of the ria prototype in order to make available the crud operations within the user interface; � intervene on the visual aspects of the ria prototype application. the learning curve related to the use of the process management system has an average of two weeks, in analogy with the learning curve of the struts framework. the activities carried out during the trial in the classroom are the following: � business process modeling based on the use of the editor provided by the process management system; � user experience modeling of the ria prototype based on idm methodology and fulfilled by using the idm editor provided by the process management system; � validation and adaptation of the bpmn models designed by students compared to those obtained by academic staff; r. paiano, a.driana caione, a. l. guido, a. martella, a. pandurino business process management – a traditional approach versus a knowledge based approach 67 � validation and adaptation of the idm models designed by students compared to that obtained by academic staff; � ria application creation, using the prototype generator provided by the webae framework. table 3 shows the results in terms of effort and working hours for every canonical project phase, using the process management system based approach. table 3. process management system approach effort and working hours. process management system approach effort and working hours project phases effort % elapsed time working hours – wh (40/week) analysis 44 % 320 wh process design and implementation 11 % 80 wh ux design 17 % 120 wh development and unit test 11 % 80 wh system test 11 % 80 wh deployment 6 % 40 wh total on the phases 100 % 720 wh comparing the results obtained in using the two approaches (figure 3), it is possible to note a significant reduction in terms of both effort and working hours in correspondence of design and development phases. figure 3. traditional approach and process management system approach – effort percentage comparison 6. conclusions the present paper aims to make a comparison between a traditional and the process management system based bpm approaches, in order to evaluate the improvement in terms of performance and effort that is possible to obtain using the methodology we propose. in this case, the most important result that the adoption of the process management system realizes is the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 68 continuous and constant alignment of bpm systems to the changes that occur in the operating context of a company. in addition, using the solution we propose it is also possible to obtain relevant results in the short, but mostly in the long period. the results that our methodology can obtain in the short period are: � compression of the analysis phase, especially in terms of time spent for interviews and knowledge exchange; � compression of the design phases, especially in terms of time spent for checking the compliance with regulations and laws; � compression of the implementation phase related to the web prototype that supports the bpm system. on the contrary, the results that are possible to obtain in the long period are: � alignment and compliance of the business processes affected by possible changes in a quick and easy manner; � adjustment and improvement of the ux model of the web prototype in a quick and easy manner; � automatic generation and fast prototyping of the web application that supports the bpm system. in summary, the results obtained in terms of performance and effort during the case study we have conducted to perform the evaluation can confirm what was our expectations. references alexander, i. f. (2003, june). are there requirements for bps?. in caise workshops. bozzon, a., comai, s., fraternali, p., & carughi, g. t. (2006, may). capturing ria concepts in a web modeling language. in proceedings of the 15th international conference on world wide web (pp. 907-908). acm. caione a., guido a.l., paiano r., pandurino a. (2105). a survey of open source workflow management system. international journal of emerging trends & technology in computer science, issn: 2278-6856 vol. 4, pp.22-26. caione, a., guido, a. l., martella, a., paiano, r., & pandurino, a. (in press). knowledge base support for dynamic information system management. information systems and e-business management, 1-44. de la vara gonzález, j. l., & díaz, j. s. (2007, june). business process-driven requirements engineering: a goal-based approach. in proceedings of the 8th workshop on business process modeling. dumas, m., van der aalst, w. m., & ter hofstede, a. h. (2005). process-aware information systems: bridging people and software through process technology. john wiley & sons. el kharbili, m., & pulvermüller, e. (2009). a semantic framework for compliance management in business process management. in bpsc (pp. 60-80). el kharbili, m., stein, s., markovic, i., & pulvermüller, e. (2008). towards a framework for semantic business process compliance management. proceedings of grcis, 2008. eric, s. y. (1995). modelling strategic relationships for process reengineering. governatori, g., & sadiq, s. (2008). the journey to business process compliance. guido, a. l., paiano, r., & pandurino, a. (2015, september). from laws to business process: reducing the skill gap between legal professional and business process analyst. in internet technologies and applications (ita), 2015 (pp. 23-28). ieee. hernandez, g.a., morales, v.y.r. and mendoza, l.o.c. (2014). frameworks, methodologies, and tools for developing rich internet applications. igi global. kavakli, e., & loucopoulos, p. (2004). goal modeling in requirements engineering: analysis and critique. information modeling methods and methodologies: advanced topics in database research: advanced topics in database research, 102. r. paiano, a.driana caione, a. l. guido, a. martella, a. pandurino business process management – a traditional approach versus a knowledge based approach 69 luftman, j. n., lewis, p. r., & oldach, s. h. (1993). transforming the enterprise: the alignment of business and information technology strategies. ibm systems journal, 32(1), 198-221. machado, l., & ribeiro, j. (2009). uwe-r: an extension to a web engineering methodology for rich internet applications. wseas transactions on information science and applications, 6(4), 601-610. martinez-ruiz, f. j., arteaga, j. m., vanderdonckt, j., gonzalez-calleros, j. m., & mendoza, r. (2006, october). a first draft of a model-driven method for designing graphical user interfaces of rich internet applications. in web congress, 2006. la-web'06. fourth latin american (pp. 32-38). ieee. mckeen, j. d., & smith, h. (2003). making it happen: critical issues in it management. wiley. meliá, s., gomez, j., perez, s., & diaz, o. (2008, july). a model-driven development for gwtbased rich internet applications with ooh4ria. in web engineering, 2008. icwe'08. eighth international conference on (pp. 13-23). ieee. paiano r., pandurino a., guido a.l., ritrovato p., laria g., d'apice c. (2015). in italian chapter of ais (itais), 2015 preciado, j. c., linaje, m., comai, s., & sanchez-figueroa, f. (2007, october). designing rich internet applications with web engineering methodologies. in web site evolution, 2007. wse 2007. 9th ieee international workshop on (pp. 23-30). ieee. regev, g., & wegmann, a. (2004, september). defining early it system requirements with regulation principles: the lightswitch approach. in requirements engineering conference, 2004. proceedings. 12th ieee international (pp. 144-153). ieee. rikhardsson, p., best, p. j., green, p., & rosemann, m. (2006). business process risk management and internal control: a proposed research agenda in the context of compliance and erp systems. sadiq, s., & governatori, g. (2015). managing regulatory compliance in business processes. in handbook on business process management 2 (pp. 265-288). springer berlin heidelberg. ullah, a., & lai, r. (2011). a requirements engineering approach to improving it-business alignment. in information systems development (pp. 771-779). springer new york. urbieta, m., rossi, g., ginzburg, j., & schwabe, d. (2007, october). designing the interface of rich internet applications. in web conference, 2007. la-web 2007. latin american (pp. 144153). ieee. valverde, f., & pastor, o. (2008). applying interaction patterns: towards a model-driven approach for rich internet applications development. proc. 7th int. wsh. web-oriented software technologies (iwwost’08). wang, x., zhou, x., & jiang, l. (2008, october). a method of business and it alignment based on enterprise architecture. in service operations and logistics, and informatics, 2008. ieee/soli 2008. ieee international conference on (vol. 1, pp. 740-745). ieee. wegmann, a. (2002). the systemic enterprise architecture methodology (seam). business and it alignment for competitiveness (no. lams-report-2002-009). zachman, j. a. (1997). enterprise architecture: the issue of the century. database programming and design, 10(3), 44-53. zoet, m., versendaal, j., ravesteyn, p., & welke, r. j. (2011). alignment of business process management and business rules. in ecis. microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1.doc 5 brain functors: a mathematical model of intentional perception and action david ellerman philosophy department, university of california at riverside, 900 university ave. riverside, ca 92521, riverside, california, usa david@ellerman.org abstract category theory has foundational importance because it provides conceptual lenses to characterize what is important and universal in mathematics with adjunctions being the primary lens. if adjunctions are so important in mathematics, then perhaps they will isolate concepts of some importance in the empirical sciences. but the applications of adjunctions have been hampered by an overly restrictive formulation that avoids heteromorphisms or hets. by reformulating an adjunction using hets, it is split into two parts, a left and a right semiadjunction. semiadjunctions (essentially a formulation of universal mapping properties using hets) can then be combined in a new way to define the notion of a brain functor that provides an abstract model of the intentionality of perception and action (as opposed to the passive reception of sense-data or the reflex generation of behavior). keywords: category theory, adjunctions, brain functors, heteromorphisms, intentional perception and action. 1. introduction category theory has foundational importance because it provides conceptual lenses to characterize what is important and universal in mathematics—with an adjunction (or pair of adjoint functors) being the primary lens. the mathematical importance of adjunctions is now well recognized. as steven awodey put it in his recent text: the notion of adjoint functor applies everything that we have learned up to now to unify and subsume all the different universal mapping properties that we have encountered, from free groups to limits to exponentials. but more importantly, it also captures an important mathematical phenomenon that is invisible without the lens of category theory. indeed, i will make the admittedly provocative claim that adjointness is a concept of fundamental logical and mathematical importance that is not captured elsewhere in mathematics. (awodey, 2006, p. 179) if a concept, like that of a pair of adjoint functors, is of such importance in mathematics, then one might expect it to have applications, perhaps of some importance, in the empirical sciences. yet this seems to be rarely the case, particularly in the life sciences. perhaps the problem has been finding the right level of generality or specificity where non-trivial applications can be found, i.e., finding out "where theory lives." this paper argues that the application of adjoints has been hampered by an overly specific formulation of the adjunctive properties that only uses homomorphisms or homs 1 (object-to-object morphisms within a category). a reformulation of adjunctions using heteromorphisms or hets (object-to-object morphisms between objects of different categories) allows an adjunction to be split into two "semiadjunctions." the argument is that a semiadjunction (essentially a reformulation of a universal mapping property using hets) turns out to be the right concept for applications. moreover, by "splitting the atom" of an adjunction into two semiadjunctions, the semiadjunctions can be recombined in a different way to define the cognate notion of a "brain functor"–which, as the name indicates, may have applications in cognitive science. 1 "hom" is pronounced to rhyme with "tom" or "bomb." brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 there is already a considerable but widely varying literature on the application of category theory to the life sciences–such as the work of robert rosen (1991) and his followers 2 as well as andrée ehresmann and jean-paul vanbremeersch (2007) and their commentators. 3 but it is still early days, and many approaches need to be tried to find out "where theory lives." the approach taken here is based on a specific use of the characteristic concepts of category theory, namely universal mapping properties, to define a general schema of determination through universals. the closest approach in the literature (but without the hets and semiadjunctions) is that of françois magnan and gonzalo reyes (1994) which emphasizes that "category theory provides means to circumscribe and study what is universal in mathematics and other scientific disciplines." (magnan & reyes, 1994, p. 57). their intended field of application is cognitive science. we may even suggest that universals of the mind may be expressed by means of universal properties in the theory of categories and much of the work done up to now in this area seems to bear out this suggestion.... by discussing the process of counting in some detail, we give evidence that this universal ability of the human mind may be conveniently conceptualized in terms of this theory of universals which is category theory. (magnan and reyes, 1994, p. 59) the approach of determination through universals, like any approach, should be judged on how well it isolates and describes the essential and important features of biological and cognitive systems. 2. adjunctions, hets, and semiadjunctions in the body of this paper, i will try to keep the mathematics at a minimal conceptual level– which the mathematical formulations restricted to the appendix. category theory lends itself to visualization in diagrams so that non-mathematical style of presentation is emphasized by an abundant use of diagrams. a category is intuitively a set of objects of the same type. morphisms between objects should be thought of as a type of determining relation or cause-effect relation between the objects. when a morphism is between objects of the same category, it is called a homomorphism or hom, and when between objects of different categories it is a heteromorphism or het. 4 one of the problems in the conventional treatment of category theory 5 is that it tries to ignore heteromorphisms even though hets are a natural part of working mathematics. this leads to certain definitions being rather contrived (to avoid mentioning hets), the usual treatment of the universal mapping properties in adjunctions being the case in point. adjunctions will be introduced informally and in the natural manner using hets. the general setting is how the objects in one category (e.g., the "environment" in a life sciences context), the "sending" category, will "affect" or "determine" objects in another category (e.g., "organisms"), the "receiving" category. we start with an object x in the sending category, an object a in the receiving category, and a specific het determination d : x → a from x to a. 6 2 see (zafiris, 2012) and that paper’s references. 3 see (kainen, 2009) for kainen’s comments on the ehresmann-vanbremeersch approach, kainen’s own approach, and a broad bibliography of relevant papers. 4 see (ellerman, 2006; 2015) for the introduction of heteromorphisms in category theory. 5 the standard presentation is mac lane’s text (1971) but lawvere and schanuel’s book (1997) is a more conceptual introduction. magnan and reyes (1994) give an excellent informal treatment of the main universal constructions. 6 hets are represented by thin arrows → and homs by thick arrows ⇒. d. ellerman brain functors: a mathematical model of intentional perception and action 7 figure 1: het d: x→a one of the most important concepts isolated by category theory (more basic than adjunctions) is the concept of a universal mapping property or ump 7 which models an important type of determination, determination through universals. with each sending object x in the sending category, there is an associated receiving universal f(x) in the receiving category, and there is a universal receiving het hx : x →f(x). the universal mapping property is: for every het d : x →a, there is a unique hom f(d) : f(x)⇒a in the receiving category such that: f(d)hx = x→f(x) ⇒a = x→a = d, i.e., such that the determination through the receiving universal het hx: x→f(x) followed by the hom f(d): f(x)⇒a is the same as the original het d: x→a. figure 2: scheme for determination by a receiving universal f(x) moreover given any hom f : f(x)⇒a in the receiving category, preceding it by the universal receiving het hx would give a het f hx : x →a which would play the role of d : x→a in the above equation. hence there is a one-to-one correspondence (or isomorphism) between the hets d : x→a and the homs f : f(x)⇒a. this isomorphism is also canonical or natural (in the category-theoretic sense), and can be represented as: homreceiving(f(x),a) ≅ hetx,a). even before completing our definition of an adjunction, we can define the above situation, given by the association of the receiving universal f(x) with each object x in the sending category (and similarly for morphisms so it is a "functor") along with the canonical isomorphism homreceiving(f(x),a) ≅ het(x,a) as a left semiadjunction. then we return to the specific het d and take the dual case which will define the dual notion of a "right semiadjunction." with each receiving object a in the receiving category, there is an associated sending universal g(a) in the sending category, and there is a sending universal het ea : 7 a ump illustrates the philosophical notion of a concrete or self-participating universal (ellerman, 1988). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 g(a)→a. the universal mapping property is: for every het d : x→a, there is a unique hom g(d) : x⇒g(a) in the sending category such that: eag(d) = x⇒g(a)→a = x→a = d i.e., such that the determination through the universal sending het ea : g(a)→a preceded by the hom g(d) : x⇒g(a) is the same as the original het d : x→a. figure 3: scheme for determination by a sending universal g(a) moreover given any hom g : x⇒g(a) in the sending category, following it by the universal sending het ea would give a het eag : x→a which would play the role of d : x→a in the above equation. hence there is a one-to-one correspondence (or isomorphism) between the hets d : x→a and the homs g : x⇒g(a). this isomorphism is also canonical or natural, and can be represented as: het(x,a) ≅ homsending(x,g(a)). dually, we can define the above situation, given by the association of the sending universal g(a) with each object a in the receiving category along with the canonical isomorphism het(x,a) ≅ homsending(x,g(a)), as a right semiadjunction. now we are prepared to define an adjunction essentially as: adjunction = left semiadjunction + right semiadjunction homreceiving(f(x),a) ≅ het(x,a) ≅ homsending(x,g(a)). figure 4: the adjunctive square diagram recall that the conventional "heterophobic" treatment of an adjunction keeps the hets "in the closet," so the defining natural isomorphism just leaves out the middle het term het(x, a) to give the het-free notion of an adjunction: hom(f(x),a) ≅ hom(x,g(a)) where f( ) is the left adjoint and g( ) is the right adjoint. d. ellerman brain functors: a mathematical model of intentional perception and action 9 in almost all adjunctions, one of the adjoints is rather trivial and contrived so the principal universal mapping property is expressed by the other adjoint, but one needs the trivial adjoint in order to avoid the hets. this has hampered applications since it is the main receiving or sending universal that is important, not the trivial other adjoint needed to formulate the het-free adjunction. moreover since determinations between quite different type of objects are important in applications, hets are an essential part of the story, and thus the treatment of adjunction leaving out the hets also hampers applications. but by bringing the hets "out of the closet," we can "fission" the adjunction into two semiadjunctions, one of which is typically appropriate in an application. and we can recombine the two semiadjunctions in a different way to define a "brain functor"–which combines two non-trivial dual semiadjunctions in one scheme of two-way determination. 3. determinations through receiving universals 3.1. active/indirect versus passive/direct learning in the most generic example of determination through a receiving universal (i.e., the determinative scheme of a left semiadjunction), the sending category or domain is the "environment" while the receiving category or domain is an "organism" and the factoring of a het determination d : x→a through the receiving universal f(x) is a type of selective "recognition." this recalls a much older theme of "recollection." one of the tell-tale signs of a process of determination through universals is the indirectness of the factorization through a universal. the interplay between these two accounts dates back at least to the platonic-socratic account of learning not as the result of direct external instruction but as a process of catalyzing internal recollection. one of the striking epigrams of neo-platonism is the thesis that “no man ever does or can teach another anything” (burnyeat, 1987, p. 1). in the early fifth century, augustine in de magistro (the teacher) made the point contrasting “outward” passive instruction with active learning “within.” but men are mistaken, so that they call those teachers who are not, merely because for the most part there is no delay between the time of speaking and the time of cognition. and since after the speaker has reminded them, the pupils quickly learn within, they think that they have been taught outwardly by him who prompts them. [chapter xiv] in the nineteenth century, wilhelm von humboldt made the same point even recognizing the symmetry between listener and speaker (a symmetry captured by the right semiadjunctions). nothing can be present in the mind (seele) that has not originated from one’s own activity. moreover understanding and speaking are but different effects of the selfsame power of speech. speaking is never comparable to the transmission of mere matter (stoff). in the person comprehending as well as in the speaker, the subject matter must be developed by the individual’s own innate power. what the listener receives is merely the harmonious vocal stimulus. (humboldt 1997, p. 102) a similar theme has been a mainstay in active learning theories of education. as john dewey put it: it is that no thought, no idea, can possibly be conveyed as an idea from one person to another. when it is told, it is, to the one to whom it is told, another given fact, not an idea. the communication may stimulate the other person to realize the question for himself and to think out a like idea, or it may smother his intellectual interest and suppress his dawning effort at thought. (dewey 1916, p. 159) 3.2. language understanding the ordinary understanding of language is an example well-modeled by determination through a receiving universal. if the auditory input is in a language that the listener understands, that means there is an internal process triggered by the auditory signals that recognizes, interprets, and understands the input. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 figure 5: language recognition as a receiving universal the determination through the receiving universal thus adds a second level to the input which is variously called recognition, understanding, or the intentionality of perception. this second level is often indicated by saying that the sensory input is "perceived as", "recognized as", or "understood as" something further. 3.3. generic "recognition" or "perception" before turning to right semiadjunctions, it might be useful to present a rather generic version of determination through a receiving universal as model of "recognition" or "perception" that captures many of the common features of the various examples. the determination through the receiving universal is the active internal process that supplies the "interpretation" or "intentionality" to the raw sense data. the red blotch is seen as a tomato; the sound "ya" is understood as indicating agreement, and so forth. in the passive/direct alternative, the raw sensory input supplies lockean "perception" like writing on a blank slate or a stamp making an impression on wax. figure 6: "perception" as determination through a receiving universal 4. determinations through a sending universal 4.1. generic "action" dual to the generic model of "perception" is the generic model of "action"–which is the determinative scheme given by a right semiadjunction. in the model of perception, there is the uninterpreted message as just a sensory input (the external het), and then there is the second level where the factorization (the internal hom) through the receiving universal recognizes the interpretation, meaning, or intentionality of the message. in the dual model of "action," the external het specifies the external behavior (which could be even a reflex behavior) while internal hom factoring through a sending universal that supplies the "intentionality" of the "action" (where an "action" is a "behavior" plus the second level of "intentionality"). in each case, we end up with a certain behavior but determined by two different means. d. ellerman brain functors: a mathematical model of intentional perception and action 11 figure 7: "action" as determination through a sending universal 4.2. language action the dual to "language understanding" is language production or linguistic action (e.g., "speech acts"). the role of the specific het is played by some auditory output such as utterances (humboldt’s "vocal stimulus"). but the corresponding internal specific hom is the speech act (i.e., internal speech with intentionality) that through the language faculty produces the same outputs but as intentional speech. figure 8: language production through a sending universal 5. brain functors 5.1. recombination of left and right semiadjunctions it might be noted that the same faculty, e.g., the language faculty, may play both the role of the receiving or perception universal and the sending or action universal. hence it should be possible to recombine the semiadjunctions so that the two universals coincide, and that yields the concept of the brain functor (the "brain" being that universal for both perception and action). from the mathematical viewpoint, the key to this was using the hets to split an adjunction into left and right semiadjunctions which can then be recombined in the opposite way. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 figure 9: different way to combine semiadjunctions to make a brain functor. the recombined semiadjunctions then form a brain functor. in the following butterfly diagram for a brain functor, we use labels appropriate to the "brain" label. figure 10: brain functor: scheme for receiving and sending through one universal mathematically, for each het x→a there is a unique internal "perceiving" hom f(x)⇒a so there is a canonical isomorphism: hom(f(x), a) ≅ het(x, a). and for each het a→x in the other direction, there is a unique internal "action" hom a⇒f(x) so there is also a canonical isomorphism: het(a, x) ≅ hom(a, f(x)). the concept of a brain functor is the natural cognate or associated concept to an adjunction. for an adjunction, there are two functors that represent on the left and right the hets going one way between the categories: hom(f(x), a) ≅ het(x, a) ≅ hom(x,g(a)). for a brain functor, there is one functor that represents on the left and right the hets going the two ways between the categories: hom(f(x), a) ≅ het(x, a) and het(a, x) ≅ hom(a, f(x)). hence the general scheme given by a brain functor is receiving and sending determination through one universal (the "brain"). d. ellerman brain functors: a mathematical model of intentional perception and action 13 5.2. simple two-way determinations through one universal the simplest form of a brain "functor" is just a two-way representation or coding system that constructs and implements a set of codes. given some set of objects, it is encoded using some isomorphic set of representations or codes for the objects, and then given an instance of the code, it is decoded to determine the object. coordinatizing is a form of coding. the geometrical plane is a collection of points, and the cartesian coordinate system represents each point p by a pair (xp, yp) of coordinates. given a point p , the "coordinate" function selects the coordinates (xp, yp) of the point which is the recognized or coded output, and given the coordinates or code for a point (xp, yp) as an input, the "plot" function designates the point. figure 11: coding and decoding cartesian coordinates of geometrical points 5.3. the language faculty a brain functor, broadly put, is any universal mechanism of determination that can factor determination either way through a universal–rather than an adjunction that factors one way determination through two (receiving and sending) universals. in some contexts in the life sciences, determination is strictly one way so one might expect to find a semiadjunction but not a two-way system like a brain functor. an application of the scheme for a brain functor in the cognitive sciences is to model the language faculty where there is two way determination between vocal stimuli and internal representations. the previous semiadjunctions for language understanding and language action can be merged to arrive at the brain-like function of the language faculty. figure 12: language faculty as two-way determination through a universal brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 6. summary the following table gives the principal exact category-theoretic concepts to describe the corresponding schemes of determination through universals as well as the main generic examples. table 1: principal forms of determination through universals ct concept determination through universals generic example left semiadjunction det. through a receiving universal intentional perception right semiadjunction det. through a sending universal intentional action brain functor two-way det. through a universal perception + action the importance of category-theoretical universals in isolating the important concepts in pure mathematics suggests that the universals may play a similar role in the empirical sciences. our results suggest that this is indeed the case in the biological and cognitive sciences. the categorytheoretic schemes of determination through universals are at a high level of abstraction, but, in this case at least, that seems to be where some significant theory lives. note particularly how the physiological "duality" for "afferent versus efferent" or "sensory versus motor" comes out natually as an instance of category-theoretic duality. regardless of the great differences in the underlying substrate processes, many of the most important mechanisms and faculties of the cognitive sciences not only seem to fit into, but also to have their key features characterized by, the schemes for determination through universals. 7. appendix: defining hets in category theory category theory groups together in categories the mathematical objects with some common structure (e.g., sets, partially ordered sets, groups, rings, and so forth) and the appropriate morphisms between such objects. since the morphisms are between objects of similar structure, they are ordinarily called “homomorphisms.” but there have always been other morphisms which occur in mathematical practice that are between objects with different structures (i.e., in different categories) such as the insertion-ofgenerators map from a set to the free group on that set. indeed, the working mathematician might well characterize the free group f(x) on a set x as the group such that for any set-to-group map f : x→g, there is a unique group homomorphism f*: f(x)⇒g that factors f through the canonical insertion of generators i: x→f (x), i.e., f = f*i. in order to contrast these morphisms such as f : x→g and i : x→f (x) with the homomorphisms between objects within a category such as f : f(x)⇒g, the former are called heteromorphisms or hets (for short). hets are like chimeras since they have a tail in one category and a head in another category. we assume familiarity with the usual machinery of category theory (bifunctors, in particular) which can be adapted to give a rigorous treatment of heteromorphisms (and their compositions with homomorphisms) that is parallel to the usual bifunctorial treatment of homomorphisms. the cross-category object-to-object hets d : x→a will be indicated by thin arrows (→) rather than thick arrows (⇒⇒⇒⇒). the first question is how do heteromorphisms compose with one another? but that is not necessary. chimera do not need to ‘mate’ with other chimera to form a ‘species’ or category; they only need to mate with the intra-category morphisms on each side to form other chimera. 8 given a het d : x→a from an object in a category x to an object in a category a, and homs h : x'⇒x in x and k : a⇒a' in a, the composition dh : x'⇒x→a is another het x'→a and the composition kd : x→a⇒a' is another het x→a'. 8 the chimera genes are dominant in these mongrel matings. while mules cannot mate with mules, it is ‘as if’mules could mate with either horses or donkeys to produce other mules. d. ellerman brain functors: a mathematical model of intentional perception and action 15 figure 13: composition of hets and homs this action is exactly described by a bifunctor het : x op ×a →set (functors and bifunctors between categories are represented by ordinary → arrrows and are not hets) where het(x,a) = {f:x→a} and where set is the category of sets and set functions. the natural machinery to treat object-to-object morphisms between categories are het-bifunctors het : x op ×a →set that generalize the hom-bifunctors hom : x op ×x→set used to treat object-to-object morphisms within a category. 9 for any a-hom k : a⇒a'and any het d:x→a in het(x, a), there is a composite het kd: x→a⇒a' = x→a', i.e., k induces a map het(x, k) : het(x,a)→het(x,a'). for an x-hom h: x'⇒x and het d:x→a in het(x,a), there is the composite het hd:x'⇒x →a = x'→a, i.e., h induces a map het(h,a) : het(x,a)→het(x',a) (note the reversal of direction). the induced maps would respect identity and composite morphisms in each category. moreover, composition is associative in the sense that (kd)h = k(dh). this means that the assignments of sets of chimera morphisms het(x, a) = {f:x→a} and the induced maps between them constitute a bifunctor het: x op ×a→set (contravariant in the first variable and covariant in the second). with this motivation, we may turn around and define heteromorphisms from x-objects to aobjects as the elements in the values of a given bifunctor het : x op ×a→set. this would be analogous to defining the homomorphisms in x as the elements in the values of a given hombifunctor homx: x op ×x→set and similarly for homa:a op ×a→set. given any bifunctor het : x op ×a→→→→set, it is representable on the left if for each x-object x, there is an a-object f(x) that represents the functor het(x,-), i e , there is an isomorphism ψx,a: homa(f(x),a) ≅ het(x,a) natural in a.this defines a functor f: x→a, and any such functor with natural isomorphisms homa(f(x),a) ≅ het(x,a) is a left semiadjunction. given a bifunctor het : x op ×a→set, it is representable on the right if for each a-object a, there is an x-object g(a) that represents the functor het(-,a), i.e., there is an isomorphism φx,a: het(x,a) ≅ homx(x,g(a)) natural in x. this defines a functor g : a→x, and any such functor with natural isomorphisms het(x,a) ≅ homx(x,g(a)) is a right semiadjunction. an adjunction is given by two functors f : x→a and g : a→x that form left and right semiadjunctions, i.e., homa(f(x),a) ≅ het(x,a) ≅ homx(x,g(a)) natural in x and a. the identity hom 1f(x) in homa(f(x), f(x)) is associated by the left isomorphism with the universal receiving het hx : x→f(x), and the identity hom 1g(a) in homx(g(a), g(a)) is associated by the right isomorphism with the universal sending het ea : g(a)→a. then for any het d in het(x, a), the uniquely associated hom f(d) in homa(f(x), a) 9 such het-bifunctors and generalizations replacing set by other categories have been studied by the australian school under the name of profunctors (kelly, 1982), by the french school under the name of distributors (bénabou, 1973), and by f. william lawvere under the name of bimodules (lawvere, 2002). however, the guiding interpretation has been interestingly different. “roughly speaking, a distributor is to a functor what a relation is to a mapping” [borceux, 1994, p. 308] (and hence the name “profunctor” in the australian school). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 gives: d = f(d)hx. and for the same d, the uniquely associated g(d) in homx(x, g(a)) gives: d = eag(d). combining the two gives the adjunctive square diagram (figure 4) used previously in the text. figure 14: adjunctive square diagram finally, a brain functor is a functor f: x→a that is a left semiadjunction for het(x, a) and a right semiadjunction for het(a, x), i.e., homa(f(x),a) ≅ het(x,a) and het(a,x) ≅ homa(a,f(x)). for each d in het(x, a), there is a unique hom f(d) in homa(f(x), a) so that the upper triangular ‘wing’ in the butterfly diagram commutes. for each d' in het(a, x), there is a unique hom g(d') in homa(a, f(x)) so that the lower triangular ‘wing’ commutes. figure 15: mathematical butterfly diagram for a brain functor if a functor f : x→a has a right adjoint g : a →x, then: homa(f(x),a) ≅ het(x,a) ≅ homx(x,g(a)). if the functor f also has a left adjoint h : a→x, then: homx(h(a),x) ≅ het(a,x) ≅ homa(a,f(x)). then taking the isomorphisms that do not involve g or h gives: homa(f(x),a) ≅ het(x,a) and het(a,x) ≅ homa(a,f(x)), i.e., f is a brain functor. hence all functors that have both right and left adjoints are brain functors. d. ellerman brain functors: a mathematical model of intentional perception and action 17 references awodey, s., (2006). category theory. clarendon press, oxford. bénabou, j., (1973). les distributeurs (33). institut de mathématique pure et appliquée. borceux, f. (1994). handbook of categorical algebra 1: basic category theory. cambridge: cambridge university press. burnyeat, m. (1987). wittgenstein and augustine de magistro. proceedings of the aristotelian society, supp. volume lxi, 1–24. dewey, j. (1916). democracy and education. new york: free press. ehresmann, a. c., & vanbremeersch, j. p. (2007). memory evolutive systems: hierarchy, emergence, cognition. amsterdam: elsevier. ellerman, d. (1988). category theory and concrete universals. erkenntnis, 28, 409–29. ellerman, d. (2006). a theory of adjoint functors—with some thoughts on their philosophical significance. in g. sica (ed.), what is category theory? (pp. 127–183). milan: polimetrica. ellerman, d. (2015). on adjoints and brain functors. axiomathes (online first). http://doi.org/10.1007/s10516-015-9278-7. humboldt, w. von. (1997). the nature and conformation of language. in k. mueller-vollmer (ed.), the hermeneutics reader (pp. 99–105). new york: continuum. kainen, p. c. (2009). on the ehresmann-vanbremeersch theory and mathematical biology. axiomathes, 19, 225–244. kelly, m. (1982). basic concepts of enriched category theory. cambridge: cambridge university press. lawvere, f. w. (2002). metric spaces, generalized logic, and closed categories. reprints in theory and applications of categories, 1(1), 1–37. lawvere, f. w., & schanuel, s. (1997). conceptual mathematics: a first introduction to categories. new york: cambridge university press. mac lane, s. (1971). categories for the working mathematician. new york: springer verlag. magnan, f., & reyes, g. e. (1994). category theory as a conceptual tool in the study of cognition. in j. macnamara & g. e. reyes (eds.), the logical foundations of cognition (pp. 57–90). new york: oxford university press. rosen, r. (1991). life itself. a comprenhensive inquiry into the nature, origin, and fabrication of life. new york: columbia university press. zafiris, e. (2012). rosen’s modelling relations via categorical adjunctions. international journal of general systems, 41(5), 439–474. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 114 the role of language in teaching and learning mathematics aslanbek naziev ryazan state university, ryazan, russian federation ulitsa svobody, 46, ryazan', ryazanskaya oblast', russian federation, 390000 tel.: +7 491 297-15-15 a.naziev@rsu.edu.ru abstract the purpose of this paper is to emphasize the role of language in the process of teaching and learning mathematics. we will begin with the definition of mathematics given by cassiodorus (in its essential features repeated in kolmogorov’s famous article “mathematics” from the “great soviet encyclopedia” and explored in the author’s book humanitarian oriented mathematics teaching in general school ryazan, ryazan institute of education development, 2000, 112 p.). this definition illuminates the exceptional role of language in the building, discovering, understanding, teaching, and learning of mathematics. we show that this role is predetermined by the abstract character of mathematics. the abstract object cannot be shown; it can only be described with the help of language. this gives rise to the problem of identifying abstract entities on the grounds of their descriptions. we accentuate the way the language of set theory helps finding the solution of this problem. we illustrate this through the examples from elementary geometry and elementary algebra. and we especially underline the importance of this solution when working with events in the probability theory. after that, we are going to show how proof and language help to form and develop imagery thinking and, thereby, illuminate the possibility of the left brain hemisphere to participate in the formation of imagery thinking. keywords: mathematics, teaching, and learning, language, imagery thinking, functional brain asymmetry 1. introduction most students of mathematics are very disparaging to the language. and they cannot be blamed for this, since the traditional manner of teaching mathematics pushes them to feel this way. let us take a look at the lecture on mathematical analysis. the lecturer says: if functions and are continuous at the point , then the function is continuous at the point . but what he writes on the desk is rather different, namely . and this is precisely what his students write in their notebooks, getting accustomed, therefore, to omit words in mathematical texts and implicitly forming in them the belief that mathematics is only the convoluted signs, that words are extraneous, that they are a “literature”. several years ago, this author invited 24 pupils from a mathematics class of one of the ryazan schools to solve the following problem: prove that the function defined by the rule “ ” is not periodical. all pupils wrote , a. naziev the role of language in teaching and learning mathematics 115 and stopped. none of them solved the problem. when the author suggested that they should remember the definition of the periodical function, they said that the boxed equality is nothing but the required definition. now, let us remember the genuine definition. the function is called periodical if there exists t0 such that for all xd(f) we have . and let us look at the solution of the problem. suppose that the function defined by the rule “y=x2” is periodical. then there exists t0 such that for all we have . but then, in particular, we have (t-t)2=t2, i. e.0=t2, so t=0 — a contradiction. that is all! as we can see, in order to solve the problem one must only repeat the definition with minor changes. why were 24 high school mathematics students not able to solve this simple problem? because they were unable to repeat the definition. but why were they unable to repeat the definition? because they did not see the words present in the definition. and why is this? because their teacher told them that in mathematics there should be no words! to appreciate the role of language in mathematics, one has to start with the definition of mathematics. 2. what is mathematics? mathematics, unlike other scientific disciplines, can be characterized from two perspectives: from the point of view of the object and on from the point of view of the method. 2.1. mathematics from the point of view of matter from the point of view of the matter, “mathematics is the science of quantitative relations and spatial forms in the real world. quantitative relations (in the general philosophical sense of this term) are characterized, contrary to qualitative, only by their indifference to the specific nature of those objects; they relate... … spatial forms one may consider as a particular case of quantitative relations. … mathematics only teaches those relations indifferent to the concrete nature of the objects they relate. … in the indicated general sense, all relations taught by mathematics always are quantitative.” (kolmogorov (1954); translation into english is mine. — a. n.) this leads us to the following remarkable definition of mathematics, known as early as vith century ad (kolmogorov did not mention it): “mathematica, quam latine possumus dicere ‘doctrinalem’, scientia est quae abstractam considerat quantitatem. abstracta enim quantitas dicitur, quam intellectu a materia separantes uel ab aliis accidentibus, ut est par, impar, uel ab alis huiuscemodi, in sola ratiocinatione tractamus.” “mathematics is the science of abstract quantity. and abstract quantity is what we learn purely speculatively, distracting it in mind from the substance and random manifestations”. (cassiodorus, (1979), 1st edition vi century ad; (translation into english is mine. — a. n.) 2.2. mathematics from the point of view of method the abstract character of mathematics predetermines the exceptional role of language in the building, teaching, and learning of mathematics. we cannot show an abstract entity, we can only describe it with the help of language. that is why mathematicians are forced to be extremely exact in their formulations. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 116 a. mathematics is the proof. “since the time of the greeks to say “mathematics” means to say “proof”. (bourbaki, 1957) “…mathematics is coextensive with demonstrative reasoning, which pervades the sciences just as far as their concepts are raised to a sufficiently abstract and definite, mathematical-logical level”. (polya, 1981) i mention again that the abstract character of mathematics, predetermines the exceptional role of language in the building, teaching, and learning of mathematics. we cannot show an abstract entity, we only can describe it with the help of language. that is why mathematicians are forced to be extremely exact in their formulations. we cannot show a geometrical point because the point has no dimensions. we cannot show a geometrical line, firstly because the line has no thickness, and secondly, because it is infinite in both directions. that is why we are forced to describe points, lines, and the relations among them with the help of axioms, and, in the last analysis, with the help of language. and we must understand that “points”, “lines”, “triangles” etc. from pictures are not points, lines, triangles themselves, but only their imperfect representations. we cannot show numbers. for example, in the following picture, we can see three cats. well, we see the cats, but where is three? figure 1. three cats three is connected with this picture mentally. three cannot be shown, it only may be thinkable. oh, maybe this 3, a. naziev the role of language in teaching and learning mathematics 117 is number three? no! why? because, if we agree that this is number three, then we must agree that this 3 is also number three but the second number is greater than the first one! so, we must distinguish between numbers, abstract entities, and their representations with the help (of signs) of language. analogously, in probability theory, we cannot show events. let us imagine that we roll a dice and it falls down as is shown in the following picture (figure 2a): figure 2a. a dice figure 2b. a dice what event can we see? none! why? because events, similarly to all other mathematical objects, are abstract entities. (if you think that you see the events, try to explain what events do you see on figs 2a and 2b, identical or different?) we do not (and cannot!) see the event, we see a dice with four points on the top face, five points on the right face and one point on the front face. events are connected with this picture mentally, and we have a large amount of such events:  it is rolled a dice with four points,  it is rolled a dice with an even number of points,  it is not rolled a dice with less than 4 points (3,2,1,0),  it is not rolled a dice with more than 4 points (5,6,7 etc). there is an infinite number of events that can be mentally associated with the above single picture and none of them can be mentioned as the event represented by this picture. now, the question arises naturally: how can we learn about these events? the answer is obvious from the preceding paragraph: we learn that with the help of language, namely, with the help of linguistic descriptions of these abstract entities. after we realize this, we will face the next problem: how to identify or distinguish the events on the grounds of their descriptions? similar questions arise in all other branches of mathematics. are the properties of real numbers expressed by the sentences “ ” and “ ” distinct or identical? are the geometric figures described as “the locus of points equidistant from the ends of the line segment” and as “the line through the middle of the line segment perpendicular to the segment” distinct or identical? are the functions defined by the conditions “ ” and “ ” distinct or identical? etc. the solution of all of these problems was found by georg cantor (1845–1918). this solution is contained in the rule: translate your problems to the language of set theory where you have exact criteria of identity and difference. or, as quine (1966) wrote, “one of the sources of clarity in mathematics is the tendency to talk of classes rather than properties. whatever is accomplished by referring to a property can generally be accomplished at least as well by referring to the class of all the things that have the property. clarity is gained in that for classes we have a clear idea of sameness and difference: it is a question simply of their having the same or different members.” for example, instead of thinking about properties, expressed by the sentences “ ” and “ ” we should instead think about the sets of real numbers such that , brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 118 respectively. by doing so, we can see that these two sets are identical and we can express this by saying that the properties are identical. therefore, due to cantor, mysterious properties became fully intelligible sets and the problems regarding their difference or identity vanished. similarly, the locus of points equidistant from the ends of the line segment and the line through the middle of the line segment perpendicular to the segment became identical sets of points and the problem vanishes. again, the functions defined by the conditions “ ” and “ ” became identical sets of ordered pairs of real numbers, and the problem also vanishes. now turn to the probability theory. here is the solution as it follows: first of all, divide all events into elementary and compound events. elementary events are those which cannot be decomposed into the other events, compound events are those which can be. this may be expressed in other words. elementary events are those which come directly, compound events are those which come indirectly, by means of other events. elementary events are called outcomes or samples. for example, when we roll a dice, the event consisting of dropping out of six points comes directly, whereas the event consisting in the dropping of an even number of points does not come directly, it only comes by means of other events: the dropping of two, of four, of six points. thus, all events, elementary or not, come by means of elementary events, or samples. now, the solution in the spirit of cantor of the problem of difference and identity of events consists in set-theoretic interpretation of events. according to this interpretation, every event is seen as the set of samples in which given event is dropped. due to this principle, we get exact rules for deciding all questions regarding the differentness and identicalness of events. for example, let us toss a dice and consider these events:  more than zero points dropped;  less than seven points dropped. descriptions of these events are quite different. and what could be said about the events? the sets of samples corresponding to these descriptions are identical, and this enables us to conclude (according to the set-theoretic interpretation of events) that these events are identical. b. mathematics teaching and formation of imagery thinking are we able to see with our eyes a line and a circle which have exactly one common point? no! we can draw a line and a circle a thousand times, and every time we will see either no common point, two common points, or the whole segment of common points (look at figure 3 below). figure 3. circle and lines so it is impossible to see that with our own eyes. we only can “see” this in our mind with the help of proof. (“not with the eyes of the head, but with the eyes of the mind”, as galilei liked to say.) therefore, if we restrict ourselves to looking at pictures, we will have an incorrect image. to have the correct image, we need a proof. and we can give it. a. naziev the role of language in teaching and learning mathematics 119 proof. let be a circle with the center and radius . take a point on the circle. draw segment and the line passing through perpendicular to . then is the perpendicular dropped to from (and its length equals ). and for any other point of the line , the segment is inclined to the line and so , i. e. and has only one common point (namely, ). this example, among other things, shows how the image is forming in a verbal-logical way. looking at pictures creates the impression that the line and the circle cannot have only one common point. but this is only the beginning of the process of reflection of the studied phenomena in our mind, while the image is the result of reflection. and if we stop at the stage of looking, we will have a wrong image. reasoning shows us the fallacy of representations based on direct perception and leads to an adequate reflection of the phenomenon in our mind. as a result, the right image is formed with the help of reasoning, that is, in a verbally-logical way. thus, the proof is a very important tool for the formation of imagery thinking (contrary to looking!). let us illustrate this with the help of another example. four spheres of the same radius touch each other pair-wise externally. find the radius of the sphere that touches each of these spheres internally. the author repeatedly gave this task to the graduates of the school. more than 40% of the decision-makers didn’t solve this problem. they have arbitrarily replaced the given spheres with the circles and began from the picture represented in figure 4a, from which it is clear that they misunderstood the condition “touch each other pair-wise”. instead of the right “each touches each” they interpreted this condition in their own way, believing that the circles are divided into pairs touching each other. (a similar error occurs when one says that a parallelogram is a quadrilateral whose sides are pair-wise parallel.) they also replaced the fifth sphere with a circle and at the same time incorrectly interpreted the condition “touches internally”. instead of remembering what this condition means (each pair of touched spheres have a common tangent plane and lie on one side of it), they believed that it is talked about a sphere enclosed in the inner area bounded by these spheres and found the radius of a small circle represented on figure 4b (not noticing that the case they are considering refers to an external touch). figure 4a. four circles figure 4b. five circles two gross errors made due to a misunderstanding of the conditions of the problem (and therefore of a linguistic nature). it is clear that in this case there can be no question of forming the right images. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 120 now we are going to create the right images. let's start with four equal circles since this error was made. we want to form the correct image of four circles of the same radius on the plane, pair-wise touching each other externally. is it possible, and if possible, how? answer: this is impossible. indeed, if two circles on a plane touched externally, the distance between their centers is equal to the sum of their radii. let the radii of all four circles be . consider three of these circles. in view of what has just been said, their centers are located at the vertices of a regular triangle with the side of length 2 . the center of the fourth circle is equidistant from the centers of these three circles and, hence, is the center of the circle circumscribed near the regular triangle with a side of length 2 . but, on the other hand, it must be away from each of these centers by 2 . it turns out that the radius of a circle, which is circumscribed near a regular triangle with the side of length 2 , is equal to 2 , which is incorrect. hence, on the plane, four circles of the same radius cannot pair-wise touch each other. another example one can find is in the domain of spheres.there, it is possible to find four spheres of equal radii pairwise touching each other and in one way only, namely, in the way where the centers of the spheres are located at the vertices of a regular tetrahedron with the side of length 2 . in order to obtain a sphere touching the four given spheres internally, we take the sphere circumscribed near this tetrahedron, enlarge its radius by , and prove that obtained sphere is the required one. so, we have found the required sphere. let us stress again that that was done by means of the language and proof, that is, in a verbally-logical way. let us consider a more complicated example. how many roots has the equation in order to answer this question, note that the functions are mutually inverse, so their graphs are symmetrical by the bisector of the first and third coordinate angles, and because each of them intersects this bisector, they intersect it in one point. besides, these functions are both decreasing, and it seems that their graphs go something like this: a. naziev the role of language in teaching and learning mathematics 121 figure 5. “evident” behavior of the graphs of the functions and . it seems obvious that the graphs of our functions have only one common point, and thus the given equation — only one root. but wait! we see other roots, and ! so, how many roots does this equation really have? we tried asking a computer to give the answer. the computer gave the following answer: figure 6, where in blue is the graph of the function , and in red is the graph of the function . this entire story shows us again that we cannot rely on the evidence. we need proof! thorough analysis with the help of the first and second derivatives (vilenkin, 1980) proves that given equation has exactly three roots, , , and one more root corresponding to the point lying on the mentioned bisector; this root cannot be found by elementary methods. graphs of the functions go like the blue and the red curves in figure 7, only much closer one to another. figure 6. computer’s answer brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 122 figure 7. schematic drawing of the graphs of the functions after research this is the right image of this situation; not precise, but right, in the sense that it rightly reflects the joint behavior of the graphs of the functions. it is important to mention, that, again, the right image is obtained due to proof. all the above examples show that proof is an indispensable tool for obtaining the right images. now, note that it couldn’t be otherwise! remember what a. n. whitehead wrote about proof, understanding, and self-evidence: … understanding is not primarily based on inference. understanding is self-evidence. … but the large self-evidence of mathematical science is denied to humans. … …our clarity of intuition is limited, and it flickers. thus inference enters as means for the attainment of such understanding as we can achieve. proofs are the tools for the extension of our imperfect selfevidence. 3. language, proof, and functional brain asymmetry the researcher of the processes of intelligence and creativity paul torrens (1915–2003) was among the first who paid attention to the working features of the hemispheres from a person's brain. the scientist conducted an experiment in the course of which four types of thinking were established:  left hemisphere thinking, as one that is built on logic and analysis;  right hemisphere thinking, where the thinking process is directed by emotions, intuition, and images;  mixed thinking, where both right and left hemispheres are equally active, each of which is switched on at the right moment; a. naziev the role of language in teaching and learning mathematics 123  integrated thinking, when the right hemisphere and left hemisphere thinking work simultaneously. torrens stressed that among these types of thinking there are no good or bad types: everyone has advantages and disadvantages. however, the scientists and educators in recent years have increasingly attached importance to the development of right hemisphere thinking. they rightly point out that the classical education system is built in such a way as to develop predominantly left hemisphere thinking, almost completely ignoring the development of right hemispheric skills, and the main culprit of this state of affairs they believe is mathematics. but this writer is sure that it's not the mathematics to blame, but the traditional system of teaching, including mathematics teaching. the author suggested the conception of humanitarian oriented mathematics teaching (naziev, 2000) according to which “to teach mathematics means to systematically encourage the students to discover their own proofs”. he was repeatedly criticized for this position, seeing in it an emphasis on verbal and logical at the expense of figurative. all the examples considered above are made in the spirit of this conception. and all these examples demonstrate that with a correct understanding of the verbally-logical, not only that it does not damage the figurative, but on the contrary, it contributes to its development. this shows that the danger of left-hemispheric thinking is exaggerated. but the danger of the right hemispheric is very real. this danger (without mentioning it explicitly) warned (huizinga, 1936, in inverse translation from russian): “it is the increased visual suggestibility (read — right-hemisphereness) that achilles heel, which beats modern people advertisement, using the weakening ability of judgment, the ability to think and evaluate independently. this applies to both commercial and political advertisement.” a person permeated by a holistic perception loses the ability to analyze and critically evaluate the information coming to him. and as a result, he is subject to the thoughtless repetition of thoughts and phrases imposed on him from outside. as a result, the desire to defeat verbalism generates the worst version of it, for which huizinga finds an extremely accurate name, verbicide. one artist, familiar to the author, likes to repeat: do not go deep, do not analyze, look at it as a whole, take it in one piece. this type of artistic perception and behavior is especially appealing to despotic bosses who want their orders to be executed without hesitation, without delving into them or analyzing. so, the seemingly good aspiration to the integrity of perception opens the way to conformism and through it to tyranny. those who are inclined to overvalue the creative potential of the right hemisphere should carefully think over the following words by (ivanov, 1994); just one phrase full of profound meaning: “the right hemisphere in the norm (when censorship of the left hemisphere is carried out) is wordless, and this is the source of his creative potential.” therefore, to uncover the creative potential of the right hemisphere, censorship of the left hemisphere is necessary. and what happens when the right hemisphere is freed from this censorship is written one page earlier: “self-killing is the limiting case that can be characterized as the killing of the left hemisphere by the right hemisphere.” 3. conclusions our research has shown that teaching mathematics should be done in a humanitarian way. teaching mathematics has to be an activity directed to the discovering of proofs, that connects the left hemisphere to help the right hemisphere to build the right images, thereby, opening the way to “achieving a perfect harmony of the left and right”, the necessity of which was repeatedly stressed by the outstanding russian neurolinguist vyach vs. ivanov. moreover, although it seems strange, teaching mathematics in the spirit of the author’s conception, contributes, albeit small, to the prevention of tyranny and suicide. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 124 references bourbaki, n. (1957). eléments de mathématique, livre i, théories des ensembles, hermann. cassiodorus, f. m. a. (1979, first edition 562). institutiones, berkeley, california, united states: university of california press. retrieved from http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/resources/ cassiodorus/institutiones.txt huizinga, j. (1936). in the shadow of tomorrow, ny, w.w. norton & company. ivanov, v. vs. (1994). unconscious, functional asymmetry, language, and creativity, in the unconscious, novocherkassk, saguna agency, pp. 168–173. kolmogorov, a. n. (1954). mathematics, (russian), in the great soviet encyclopedy, vol. 26, moscow: state scientific publishing “great soviet encyclopedy”. naziev, a. kh. (2000). humanitarian oriented mathematics teaching in general school, ryazan, ryazan institute of education development. polya, g. (1981). mathematical discovery, john wiley & sons, new york & chichester & brisbane and toronto. quine, w. v. o. (1966). foundations of mathematics, in quine w. v. o. (auth.), the ways of paradox and other essays, ny, random house, pp. 24–34. vilenkin, n. ya. (1980). three points, three points, three points…, quant, 48–50. whitehead, a. n. (1938). modes of thought, new york, us: the free press. aslanbek naziev (b. april 3 1946) received his master’s degree in mathematics and programming, ph d degree (russian “candidate of sciences”) in mathematics and sc d degree (russian “doctor of sciences”) in mathematics education, all from the moscow state pedagogical university. now he is full professor in department of mathematics and mathematics teaching, faculty of physics and mathematics, ryazan state university, ryazan, russian federation. his current research interests include philosophy of (mathematics) education, humanitarian oriented mathematics teaching, logical problems of mathematics education, integrating of ict and mathematics in mathematics and science education, multidimensional education, and many other topics. he has (co-)authored more than 120 printed works (including 7 books) and more than 100 electronic publications, participated a large amount of scientific conferences (13 just in 2017), in many conferences he was a key-note speaker (4 just in 2017). microsoft word brain_7_issue_4_version_5_editat_cristina.doc 48 conscience in language teaching and its relationship with language proficiency and emotional intelligence of efl teachers sedighe jalili kalangestani department of english language, sowme’eh sara branch, islamic azad university, guilan, iran abstract the present study aimed to explore the relationship among iranian efl teachers’ language teaching conscience, language proficiency, and emotional intelligence. to this purpose, 82 homogenized language teachers, m.a. students and m.a. holders in tefl, english literature, and english translation, both males and females, were taken as the participants. the result of the data analysis showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the language teaching conscience and the emotional intelligence of iranian efl teachers, rs(80) = .83, p < .05, 2). there was also a statistically significant relationship between the language teaching conscience and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers, rs(80) = .59, p < .05. and finally, there was a statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers, rs(80) = .52, p < .05. teacher trainers, researchers in teacher education, and language teachers can benefit from the findings of this study. keywords: iranian efl teachers, emotional intelligence, language teaching conscience, language proficiency 1. introduction several factors contribute to the efficacy of an english language teacher, among which, language proficiency and emotional intelligence can be named. yet, there is a newly developed factor which claims to add value to a language teacher; this new factor is called language teaching conscience. conscience is the sense of right and wrong which tells us whether what we are doing is morally right or wrong based on particular norms, rules, or religions (hamidi & montazeri, 2014). conscientious teachers seem to be more responsible for their job, classroom practice, and students’ needs. on the other hand, teachers who are emotionally more able to understand their students’ needs may have better control on students and classroom atmosphere, thereby promoting student success (rust, 2014). finding the relationship among different teacher characteristics including either emotional intelligence or language proficiency as one of their study variables has been the goal of many language researchers. for example, alavi and rahimi (2011) investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence and learning english language vocabulary. tok, tok, and dolapcioglu (2013) carried out a study to find the relationship between classroom teachers’ emotional intelligence and their classroom management ability. abdolmanafi, hamidi, and gorgani (2014) investigated the relationship between english as a foreign language students’ emotional intelligence (ei) and their language achievement scores. borzou (2014) in a study sought the relationship between efl teachers’ language proficiency, classroom management ability, and learning achievement of second language learners. in another study, ezzati, amirtash, and tojari (2015) tried to find the relationship between emotional intelligence, classroom management styles, and cultural intelligence of physical education teachers. the new concept of conscience in language teaching (which is quite an unfamiliar variable) is foreseen to play an important role in the classroom setting. yet, no study has yet been done to investigate the relationship among teachers’ characteristics and the role teachers’ conscience in language teaching. hence, the present study was an attempt to investigate the possible relationship among iranian efl teachers’ language teaching conscience, emotional intelligence, and language proficiency. to this purpose, the following research questions have been proposed: s. j. kalangestani conscience in language teaching and its relationship with language proficiency and emotional intelligence of efl teachers 49 1. is there any statistically significant relationship between the language teaching conscience and the emotional intelligence of iranian efl teachers? 2. is there any statistically significant relationship between the language teaching conscience and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers? 3. is there any statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers? 2. review of the related literature 2.1 language teaching conscience conscience, based on hamidi and montazeri (2014), is the sense of right and wrong. it is the part of our mind that tells us whether what we are doing is morally right or wrong based on particular norms, rules, or religions. a conscientious person (in this context a teacher) tries to do her/his work or responsibility well and as completely as possible. conscientious language teachers in typical classroom environments, as freiermuth and jarrell (2006) mention, care about their students and do their best to support students as well as motivating them to show signs of interest in expressing themselves in the foreign language. unless students receive support from their teachers, they might not experience effective interaction among themselves; therefore, poor language production is possible to happen. 2.2 language proficiency the term ‘language proficiency’ has been defined with different wordings, yet similar meanings in the literature. the actual performance of language learners which includes the mastery of the forms, the linguistic, cognitive, affective and sociocultural meanings of those forms, the capacity to use the language with focus chiefly on communication and minimum attention to form, and the creativity in language use, is one sort of definition proposed by stern (1983). as clark (1972, as cited in farhady, 1982) explains, by language proficiency it is meant “to use a language for real-life purposes not considering the manner in which that competence was acquired” (p. 5). in similar vein, bachman and palmer (1996) associate language proficiency level of learners to their knowledge of the foreign language skill domains (grammar and vocabulary) which are subcomponents of general language ability. in this regard, the term language proficiency can be used to refer to the degree of skill which language learners are able to use a language, such as how well a learner speaks, listens, reads, writes, or understands the language. of course, we should pay attention that language achievement is not interchangeable with language proficiency. the former considers language ability as a result of particular learning in particular time. language proficiency, as richards and schmidt (2010) assert, can be measured through the use of standardized proficiency tests. 2.3 emotional intelligence according to mayer, salovey, and caruso (2004), emotions are one of the three fundamental categories of mental operations which include motivation, emotion, and cognition. hence a person with good emotions should be able to think positively and be productive and vice versa. accordingly, emotional intelligence is said to be the mixture of the term emotion and intelligence which are associated with each other. gardner (1993) asserted that old intelligence quotient tests simply measure logic and language disregarding other skills. it is believed that our brain posses some other outstanding types of intelligence as well such as emotional intelligence (richards & rodgers, 2001). emotional intelligence, therefore, can be considered one part of a comprehensive group named multiple intelligences. bar-on (2004) associates emotional intelligence with relating well to people, effectively understanding our own needs and that of others, adapting to and dealing with the immediate surroundings to be more winning in coping with environmental needs. bar-on (2004) believes that training can improve the ei of people; hence it can develop over time. bar-on (2004) summarized brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 the components of emotional intelligence as self-awareness and self-expression (intrapersonal), social awareness and interpersonal relationship (interpersonal), emotional management and regulation (stress management), change management (adaptability), and self-motivation (general mood). recent research studies have proved the role of ei in academic achievement (abdolmanafi et al., 2014; brackett & salovey, 2006; mayer et al., 2004). this study aims to find the relationship between two seemingly psychological attributes of language teachers; the language teaching conscience and the emotional intelligence. 3. methodology 3.1 participants the participants of this study were 84 homogenized (in terms of general english language proficiency) m.a. students and m.a. holders from three majors of tefl, english translation, and english literature. since two of the participants failed to return the filled out questionnaires, the remaining 82 were taken into consideration. their teaching experience varied from 3 to 12 years and their age ranged from 26 to 37 respectively. participants were chosen from among those teachers took part in the english language teacher entrance exam at poya, simin, adib-e daneshvaran, and idea english language institutes in mazandaran, north of iran. 3.2 instruments three instruments have been used in this study including: emotional intelligence questionnaire: bar-on’s emotional quotient inventory, which has been proved to be both valid and reliable, was used in order to assess the ei level of the participants. abdolmanafi, hamidi, and gorgani (2014) reported its validity to be .82 which shows high reliability index. developed by bar-on (1997), this questionnaire had 32 (1 to 5 likert scale type) positively or negatively-keyed items. the participants were asked to read the items and choose one level which best fitted their feeling, understanding, or action. higher scores, based on bar-on (1997), shows higher level of emotional intelligence. language teaching conscience questionnaire: the second instrument measured the conscience of english language teachers in their teaching practice. the instrument, developed by hamidi (2016), had 24 items with 5 components including conscience in problem solving, job commitment, appropriate use of time, caring about learning, and following the rules respectively. each item included five options which ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree in a likert scale format. participants were given 10 minutes to fill out the questionnaire. test of english as a foreign language (toefl): the language proficiency test was an 80-item multiple choice test chosen out of longman’s toefl preparation guide book (phillips, 2003). there were 20 questions of listening, 20 questions of vocabulary, 20 questions of grammar, and 20 questions of reading comprehension (totally 80). the reliability of the test calculated through kr-21 formula in a pilot study with 30 participants was found to be .86 which shows high consistency. 3.3 procedure the test of toefl, prepared out of the toefl preparation sample tests (phillips, 2003), was administered to 115 teachers, the aim of which was to have homogenized participants (teachers) in terms of their english language proficiency. the mentioned test had already been piloted with a group of 30 participants and proved to have a reliability index of .86 calculated through the kr-21 formula. from among 115, 82 teachers who got the scores between -/+ 1 standard deviation below and above the mean were considered homogenous members and were taken as the participants of the study. then, the two questionnaires of language teaching conscience (hamidi, 2016) and emotional intelligence (bar-on, 1997) were given to the participants to fill out. s. j. kalangestani conscience in language teaching and its relationship with language proficiency and emotional intelligence of efl teachers 51 they had 25 minutes to complete the two questionnaires. finally, the data gathered out of the questionnaires were extracted to be analyzed through spss 22. 4. results this section presents the results of data analysis. the reliability of the questionnaires and the analysis of the research questions are provided. this chapter presents related data analyses to test the following null hypotheses: h01. there is no statistically significant relationship between language teaching conscience and emotional intelligence of iranian efl teachers. h02. there is no statistically significant relationship between language teaching conscience and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. h03. there is no statistically significant relationship between language emotional intelligence and language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. before presenting the analysis for research question, the demographic information of the participants is shown. table 1. the demographic table for the participants of the study gender number level teaching experience major male 29 m.a. students and m.a. holders 4 to 12 tefl, translation, english literature female 53 m.a. students and m.a. holders 3 to 10 tefl, translation, english literature as table 4.1 shows, there was a total number of 82 (53 females and 29 males) participants at m.a. level with the teaching experience ranging from 3 to 10 for females and 4 to 12 for males. the participants’ major were tefl, english translation, and english literature. the next part deals with the analyses of the research questions. the descriptive statistics and the related inferential statistics are provided. it is worth mentioning that since at least one set of data was of ordinal type, the non-parametric spearman’s rank-order correlation test was run in order to investigate the possible relationship between the two variables, and thus there was no need to run any test of normality. 4.1 analysis of the first research question the first research question of this study investigated the relationship between the language teaching conscience and the emotional intelligence of iranian efl teachers. since the data gathered out of the questionnaires were of ordinal type, the spearman rank-order correlation test was used to determine the possible relationship between the two mentioned variables. the descriptive statistics of the two sets of scores is presented below. table 2. the descriptive statistics for the teaching conscience and the emotional intelligence scores n minimum maximum mean std. deviation teaching conscience 82 2.66 4.01 3.2807 .39776 emotional intelligence 82 2.94 4.51 3.6870 .51858 valid n (listwise) 82 as table 2 above shows, the minimum and maximum scores for the language teaching conscience and the emotional intelligence questionnaires were 2.66, 4.01 and 2.94, 4.51 respectively. the following table shows the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 table 3. the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test for the teaching conscience and the emotional intelligence scores teaching conscience ei spearman's rho teaching_conscience correlation coefficient 1.000 .834 ** sig. (2-tailed) . .000 n 82 82 ei correlation coefficient .834 ** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .000 . n 82 82 the spearman's rank-order correlation was run to determine the relationship between the language teaching conscience and the emotional intelligence of iranian efl teachers. there was a strong, positive correlation between the two mentioned variables, which was also statistically significant, rs(80) = .83, p < .05. therefore, the researcher safely rejects the null hypothesis that there is no statistically significant relationship between the language teaching conscience and the emotional intelligence of iranian efl teachers. 4.2 analysis of the second research question the first research question of this study investigated the relationship between the language teaching conscience and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. since the data gathered out of the questionnaires were of ordinal type, the spearman rank-order correlation test was used to determine the possible relationship between the two mentioned variables. the descriptive statistics of the two sets of scores is presented below. table 4. the descriptive statistics for the teaching conscience and the language proficiency scores n minimum maximum mean std. deviation teaching conscience 82 2.66 4.01 3.2807 .39776 language proficiency 82 45.00 65.00 55.4756 4.98201 valid n (listwise) 82 as table 4 above shows, the minimum and maximum scores for the language teaching conscience and the language proficiency questionnaires were 2.66, 4.01 and 45, 65 respectively. the following table shows the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test. table 5. the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test for the teaching conscience and the language proficiency scores teaching conscience lp spearman's rho teaching_conscience correlation coefficient 1.000 .589 ** sig. (2-tailed) . .000 n 82 82 lp correlation coefficient .589 ** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .000 . n 82 82 the spearman's rank-order correlation was run to determine the relationship between the language teaching conscience and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. based on the triple division rule, there was a medium, positive correlation between the two mentioned variables, which was also statistically significant, rs(80) = .59, p < .05. therefore, the researcher safely rejects the null hypothesis that there is no statistically significant relationship between the language teaching conscience and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. s. j. kalangestani conscience in language teaching and its relationship with language proficiency and emotional intelligence of efl teachers 53 4.3 analysis of the third research question the third research question of this study investigated the relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. since the data gathered out of the questionnaires were of ordinal type, the spearman rank-order correlation test was used to determine the possible relationship between the two mentioned variables. the descriptive statistics of the two sets of scores is presented below. table 6. the descriptive statistics for the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency scores n minimum maximum mean std. deviation /emotional intelligence 82 2.94 4.51 3.6870 .51858 language proficiency 82 45.00 65.00 55.4756 4.98201 valid n (listwise) 82 as table 6 above shows, the minimum and maximum scores for the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency questionnaires were 2.94, 4.51 and 45, 65 respectively. the following table shows the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test. table 7. the result of the spearman rank-order correlation test for the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency scores ei lp spearman's rho ei correlation coefficient 1.000 .522 ** sig. (2-tailed) . .000 n 82 82 lp correlation coefficient .522 ** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .000 . n 82 82 the spearman's rank-order correlation was run to determine the relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. based on the triple division rule, there was a medium, positive correlation between the two mentioned variables, which was also statistically significant, rs(80) = .52, p < .05. therefore, the researcher safely rejects the null hypothesis that there is no statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl teachers. 5. conclusion and discussion this study was correlational in nature and aimed at investigating the interplay among iranian efl teachers’ language teaching conscience, emotional intelligence, and their general english language proficiency. the summary of the result and related discussion are presented below. 1) there was a strong, positive correlation between the language teaching conscience and the emotional intelligence of iranian efl language teachers, which was also statistically significant, rs(80) = .83, p < .05. 2) there was a medium, positive correlation between the language teaching conscience and the language proficiency of iranian efl language teachers, which was also statistically significant, rs(80) = .59, p < .05. 3) there was a medium, positive correlation between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of iranian efl language teachers, which was also statistically significant, rs(80) = .52, p < .05. although the present research was concerned with the efl teachers, findings of abdolmanafi et al. (2014) in which significant relationship between the students’ emotional intelligence and their language achievement was found are in line with the result of this research brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 question. the result of this research question is in contrast to the findings of alavi and rahimi (2011) in which they found low and negative relationship between emotional intelligence and vocabulary knowledge of iranian efl learners. language teaching conscience was found to be more correlated with emotional intelligence (rs(80) = .83) than with the language proficiency (rs(80) = .59). it might be claimed that those teachers with higher level of language teaching conscience are emotionally more aware of the needs of the students and thereby creating a more positive relationship with students. bar-on (2004) associates emotional intelligence with effectively understanding oneself and others, relating well to people, and adapting to and coping with the immediate surroundings to be more successful in dealing with environmental demands such as students’ needs. the present research has shed some light on some psychological abilities of language teachers such as language teaching conscience and emotional intelligence as well as their general english language proficiency. it is suggested that iranian efl school teachers be compared to efl institute teachers in terms of their language teaching conscience and emotional intelligence with regard to their language proficiency. it is also suggested that the role of gender of the elt teachers be investigated in their language teaching conscience and emotional intelligence. references abdolmanafi-rokni, s.j., hamidi, h., & gorgani, t. (2014). investigating the relationship between emotional intelligence and language achievement: a case of tefl and non-tefl university students. international journal of language learning and applied linguistics world, 5 (3), 117-127. alavi, m., & rahimi, z. (2011). on the relationship between emotional intelligence and vocabulary learning among iranian pre-university efl learners. journal of english studies, 1 (3), 17-25. bachman, l., & palmer, a. (1996). language testing in practice. oxford: oxford university press. bar-on, r. (1997). the emotional quotient inventory (eq-i): a test of emotional intelligence. toronto, canada: multi-health systems. bar-on, r. (2004). the bar-on emotional quotient inventory (eq-i): national, description, and psychometric properties. in g. geher (ed.), measuring emotional intelligence: common ground and controversy (pp. 124-142). hauppauge, ny: nova science. borzou, f. (2014). the relationship between efl teachers’ language proficiency level and classroom management, and learning achievement of l2 learners (unpublished master’s thesis). islamic azad university, najaf abad branch, isfahan. brackett, m. a., & salovey, p. (2006). measuring emotional intelligence with the mayersaloveycaruso emotional intelligence test (msceit). psicothema, 18 (1), 34-41. ezzati, z., amirtash, a., & tojari, f. (2015). the relationship between cultural and emotional intelligence of physical education teachers and their classroom management styles. indian journal of fundamental and applied life sciences, 5 (2), 547-555. farhady, h. (1982). measures of language proficiency from the learner’s perspective. tesol quarterly, 16 (1), 4359. doi: 10.2307/3586562. freiermuth, m., & jarrell, d. (2006). willingness to communicate: can online chat help? international journal of applied linguistics, 16 (2), 189-212. gardner, h. (1993). frames of mind. new york: basic books. hamidi, h. (2016). determining the teaching experiential capital in higher education through hybrid assessment (unpublished doctoral dissertation). university of science and research, tehran, iran. hamidi, h., azizinejad, g., & rezaei, m. (2016, in press). the relationship among efl teachers’ critical thinking skills, classroom management, and years of experience. elt voices, 6 (4). hamidi, h., & montazeri, m. (2014). dictionary of second language acquisition. retrieved from http://www.iranelt.com/index.php/introduction-to-sla. s. j. kalangestani conscience in language teaching and its relationship with language proficiency and emotional intelligence of efl teachers 55 mayer, j. d., salovey, p., & caruso, d. (2004). emotional intelligence: theory, findings and implications. psychological inquiry, 15(3), 197-215. phillips, d. (2003). longman preparation course for the toefl test. ny: pearson education. richards, c.j., & rodgers, s.t. (2001). approaches and methods in language teaching (2 nd ed.). cambridge: cambridge university press. richards, j. c., & schmidt, r. (2010). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. london: pearson education. rust, d. a. (2014). relationship between the emotional intelligence of teachers and student academic achievement (unpublished doctoral dissertation). university of kentucky. stern, h. (1983). fundamental concepts of language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. tok, t. n., tok, s., & dolapcioglu, s. d. (2013). the relationship between emotional intelligence and classroom management approaches of primary school teachers. educational research, 4 (2), 134-142. microsoft word brain_7_issue1_version1 51 modeling, designing, and implementing an avatar-based interactive map stefan andrei lamar university, beaumont, tx 77710, u.s.a. stefan.andrei@lamar.edu milin joshi california state university, long beach, ca 90840, u.s.a. milincjoshi@gmail.com chandrakantrudani lamar university, beaumont, tx 77710, u.s.a. rudani.c@gmail.com ankur shah lamar university, beaumont, tx 77710, u.s.a. ashah8@lamar.edu bharatkumartejwani lamar university, beaumont, tx 77710, u.s.a. btejwani@lamar.edu abstract designing interactive maps has always been a challenge due to the geographical complexity of the earth’s landscape and the difficulty of resolving details to a high resolution. in the past decade or so, one of the most impressive map-based software application, the global positioning system (gps), has probably the highest level of interaction with the user. this article describes an innovative technique for designing an avatar-based virtual interactive map for the lamar university campus, which will entail the buildings’ exterior as well as their interiors. many universities provide 2d or 3d maps and even interactive maps. however, these maps do not provide a complete interaction with the user. to the best of our knowledge, this project is the first avatar-based interaction game that allows 100% interaction with the user. this work provides tremendous help to the freshman students and visitors of lamar university. as an important marketing tool, the main objective is to get better visibility of the campus worldwide and to increase the number of students attending lamar university. keywords: interactive map, avatar-based game, marketing tool, software, virtual reality. 1. introduction most institutions providing so-called ‘interactive maps’ only have zoom-in capability and left-right and up-down cursors. these maps do not provide digitized photos from real pictures nor buildings’ interiors. among these interactive maps, the global positioning systems (gps) have perhaps the highest interaction in the sense of communicating with satellites to detect the approximate position of the gps’ user. however, these systems provide only navigation in the exterior of the buildings, and they have a certain approximation. it is known that it is very challenging to model and design a 100% interactive map. this article describes an innovative technique to model and design exteriors, interiors, and the distances between buildings. the user will be modeled by an avatar carrying a hover-board on his/her back. the exterior and interior of the buildings are photographed and then digitized to create the real feeling of the building. it is believed that this work is of tremendous help to the freshman students, potential students, and visitors of lamar university. it is very likely that the freshman students are not familiar with the buildings’ locations and general departments of interests, such as health center, records office, admission office, dining hall, library, and many more. despite the fact that brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 interactive maps are already planted across the campus, it takes time to get the exact path to the destination. hence, the most important advantage of using this interactive navigation tool is saving time for the students and making them independent. with the use of this avatar-based game, new visitors/guests/residents can take virtual tours, which will be available through the lamar university campus’ website. by utilizing the innovation, he/she can get to know the lamar university campus at any moment of time from anywhere in the world. we think that this project is an important marketing tool because it will have a positive impact due to at least two major objectives: 1. allows better visibility of lamar university worldwide; 2. increases the number of students attending lamar university. 2. background this project is built using the unity5 software package, one of the best platforms offered for developing 2d and 3d games due to its interactive experiences and high-end content for users 1 . developing this project has its own benefits, such as its deployment over a number of platforms available in the current market of smart-devices, such as ios, android, windows phone, windows pc, mac os, linux/unix web browsers, samsung smart tv, android tv, xbox one, xbox 360, ps4, ps3, ps vista, wii u, blackberry, windows store, and virtual reality platform, like oculus rift gear. unity5 has its competitors in the current market, such as unreal engine, gamemaker studio, and cryengine. choosing unity5 for this project was the most suitable choice because it offers three programming languages: c#, javascript, and boo. it also supports assets from major 3d modeling software applications like autodesk maya, cinema4d, 3ds max, softimage and blender. the objectives of this innovation are to accurately simulate a tour, model the dynamic look, and feeling of each and every asset around the lamar university campus. the next section presents the methodology and the data structures implemented, while developing the avatar-based game. 3. the methodology and the data structures this project uses unity5’s navigation and path finding systems to reach the selected destination along with several different components, which makes unity5 software unique compared to different 3d game software. there are certain definitions from unity5 software, which we would like to mention in order to help understanding the implementation of our project. the avatar-based navigation system allowed us to create characters, which can navigate the game world using the unity5 navmesh system. our project uses the unity5 navigation system to give the game character (or agent) the ability to understand that they need to take the stairs for reaching the second floor of a building. the navmesh (the data structure for navigation mesh) is an abstract data structure largely used in artificial intelligence for representing the walkable surfaces of the game world and finding paths from one walkable location to another. it is abstract because it can be later implemented for many particular navigation meshes. the data structure is built (also called baked) automatically from your level geometry. a navigation mesh is a collection of two-dimensional convex polygons that define the portion of an environment traversable by agents. convex polygons represent a useful representation, since we know that there are no obstructions between any two points inside a polygon. in addition to the polygon’s boundaries, we store information about which polygons are neighbors to each other. this allows us to examine the whole walkable area. path finding between polygons in the mesh can be done with one of the large number of graph search algorithms, such as a*. in robotics this mechanism of linking two-dimensional convex polygons is known as meadow mapping. this concept is actually already implemented in unity5. to find the path between two locations in a scene, we first need to map the start and destination locations to their nearest polygon(s). the software may initialize searching from the start location, visiting all the neighbors until it reaches the destination polygon. tracing the visited polygons allows the software to find the sequence of polygons, which will lead from the start to the destination. 1 unity communityunity technologies. www.unity3d.com/community, [accessed on february 20, 2015] s. andrei, m. joshi, c. rudani, a. shah, b. tejwani modeling, designing, and implementing an avatar-based interactive map 53 the navmesh agent component helped us make characters, which avoid each other while moving towards their goal. agents reason about the game world using the navmesh, and they know how to avoid each other as well as moving obstacles. the off-meshlink component helped us to incorporate navigation shortcuts, which cannot be represented using a walkable surface. for example, opening a door before walking through it can be described as an off-mesh link. the navmeshobstacle component describes moving obstacles the agents (also known as characters) should avoid, while navigating the world game. a door or building wall controlled by the physics system is a good example of an obstacle. while the obstacle is moving, the agents do their best to avoid it. however, once the obstacle becomes stationary, it will carve a hole in the navmesh. hence, the agents can change their paths to move around it. alternatively, if the stationary obstacle is blocking the path way, the agents can find a different route. when we want to design an intelligent software able to move characters in the game, at least two problems have to be solved: 1. how to compute the level (i.e., the floor number or altitude) to find the destination 2. how to move there. despite the fact that these two problems are tightly coupled, they are quite different in nature. the problem of determining the level is more global and static due to the fact that it takes into account the whole scene. moving to destination is more local and dynamic because it only considers the direction to move. the navigation system needs its own data to represent the walkable areas in a game scene. the walkable areas define the places in the scene where the agent can stand and move. in unity5 the agents are described as cylinders. the walkable area is built automatically from the geometry in the scene by testing the locations where the agent can stand. the locations are connected to a surface laying on top of the scene geometry. the sequence of polygons which describes the path from the start to the destination is called a corridor. the agent will reach the destination by always heading towards the next visible corner of the corridor. in addition, the agent will find all the corners of the corridor in one swoop and animate the character to move along the line segments connecting the corners. the steering logic takes the position of the next corner in order to figure out a desired direction and speed (or velocity) needed to reach the destination. obstacle avoidance chooses a new velocity, which balances between moving in the desired direction and preventing future collisions with other agents and edges of the navigation mesh. unity5 is using reciprocal velocity obstacles (rvo) to predict and prevent collisions. finally, after steering and obstacle avoidance, the final velocity is calculated. in unity5 the agents are simulated using a simple dynamic model, which also takes into account acceleration to allow more natural and smooth movement. at this stage it is possible to alter the velocity from the simulated agent to the mecanim animation system to move the character or let the navigation system take effect. once the agent has been moved using either method, the simulated agent location is moved and constrained to navmesh. one of the most important things to understand about having a robust navigation is the difference between global and local navigation. global navigation is used to find the corridor across the world. finding a path across the world is a costly operation requiring quite a lot of processing power and memory. the linear list of polygons describing the path is a flexible data structure for steering, and it can be locally adjusted as the agent’s position moves. in contrast, local navigation tries to figure out how to efficiently move towards the next corner without colliding with other agents or moving objects. in a nutshell, the cost allows the user to control the areas favored by the pathfinder when looking for a path. for example, if you set the cost of an area to, say, 3.0, traveling across that area is considered to be three times longer than alternative routes. to fully understand how the cost works, information in regards to the pathfinder must be provided. unity5 uses a* algorithm to calculate the shortest path on the navmesh. a* works on a graph of connected nodes. the algorithm starts from the nearest node to the path start and visits the connecting nodes until the destination is reached. since the unity5 navigation representation is a mesh of polygons, the first thing the pathfinder needs to do is to place a point on each polygon, which is the location of the node. the shortest path is then calculated between these nodes. the cost brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 to move between two nodes depends on the distance of travel and the cost associated with the area type of the polygon under the link, which is distance * cost. for example, if the cost of an area is, say, 2.0, the distance across the polygon will appear to be twice as long. the a* algorithm requires that all costs must be larger than 1.0. the effect of the costs on the resulting path can be hard to tune, especially for longer paths. the best way to approach costs is to treat them as hints. for instance, if someone wants the agents to not use off-mesh links too often, then their cost should increase. however, it can be challenging to tune a behavior where the agents prefer to walk on sidewalks. a point is intermediary if it is an intersection of two non-collinear lines. denoting the number of intermediary points from the source point to the destination point by n, the a* algorithm 2 has a worst time complexity of o(n 3 ). 3 another important concept is that the pathfinder does not always choose the shortest path. the reason for this is the node placement. the effect can be noticeable in scenarios where big open areas are next to tiny obstacles, which results in navigation mesh with very big and small polygons. in such cases the nodes on the big polygons may get placed anywhere in the big polygon, and from the pathfinder’s point of view, it looks like a detour. the cost per area type can be set globally in the areas tab. the following main data structures from the unity5 project have been used in our project: 1. arraytools functions to use built-in arrays like a java arraylist; 2. deepcopy creates a deep copy of an array or hashtable; 3. multikeydictionary – similar to a dictionary, but with two keys for each element; 4. objectcopier an alternative to iclonable; 5. parallelkeydictionary like a dictionary, but you can have identical keys; 6. reflectedobject reflects a target object, providing quick access by name to reading/writing its fields/properties, and calling its methods; 7. set a set data structure. let us briefly describe some considerations about converting an analog photo into a digital photo. the main idea is to create a gray scale image exported from microdem in gimp 4 .the next step is to create a new 3dterrainobject in unity, which supports 3d texture 5 use and creation from the shader and the script. while use cases of 3d textures might not seem as straightforward at first, they can be an integral part of implementing specific kinds of effects such as 3d color correction. the following snippet of java-like pseudo-code creates a “neutral” 3d texture 6 : varnewc : color[] = new color[dim * dim * dim]; varoneoverdim : float = 1.0f / (1.0f * dim 1.0f); for(vari : int = 0; i< dim; i++) for(var j : int = 0; j < dim; j++) for(var k : int = 0; k < dim; k++) newc[i + (j*dim) + (k*dim*dim)] = new color((i*1.0f)*oneoverdim, (j*1.0f)*oneoverdim, (k*1.0f)*oneoverdim, 1.0f); 2 ***, the a* pathfinding project for unity 3d. http://arongranberg.com/astar/docs/graph-updates.php, [accessed on february 29, 2016]; zeng & church, 2009. 3 posts and topics unity technologies.http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/767153/a-pathfinding-questions-1.html, [accessed on february 29, 2016] 4 importing gis in unity. http://electricarchaeology.ca/2015/06/08/importing-gis-data-into-unity/, june 8, 2015 [accessed on february 29, 2016] 5 3d textures unity technologies. http://docs.unity3d.com/manual/class-texture3d.html, [accessed on february 29, 2016] 6 historical maps into unity3d. http://electricarchaeology.ca/2015/06/09/historical-maps-into-unity3d/, june 9, 2015 [accessed on february 29, 2016]; li & wang, 2013 s. andrei, m. joshi, c. rudani, a. shah, b. tejwani modeling, designing, and implementing an avatar-based interactive map 55 4. the agile software development process and its uml diagrams the software process on which this project was developed is the well-known agile development model. the agile model has five phases: designing, building, configuring, testing, and releasing prototype versions. compared to other software development processes, the agile process follows a continuous improvement cycle, exposing flaws earlier and reducing the development time. as a consequence, its value is achieved faster as software versions arrive to the customer more frequently. in conclusion, the advantages of using the agile development model are shorter development cycles, early departmental feedback, and its continuous improvement. here is a list of guidelines that we used in our project’s implementation and analysis: • any difficulty in design, coding and testing a modification should signal the need for redesign or re-coding. • modifications should fit easily into isolated and easy-to-find modules. if they do not, some redesign is possibly needed. • modifications to tables should be especially easy to make. if any table modification is not quickly and easily done, redesign is indicated. • modifications should become easier to make as the iterations progress. if they are not, there is a basic problem, such as a design flaw or a proliferation of patches. • patches should normally be allowed to exist for only one or two iterations. patches may be necessary to avoid redesigning during an implementation phase. • the existing implementation should be analyzed frequently to determine how well it measures up to project goals. • program analysis facilities should be used whenever available to aid in the analysis of partial implementations. • user reaction should be solicited and analyzed for indications of deficiencies in the current implementation. these are true advantages of the agile model: • the feedback from early versions improves later stages. • the possibility of changes in requirements is reduced because of the shorter time span between the design of a component and its delivery. • users get benefits earlier than with the conventional approach. • early delivery of some useful components improves software cost because a portion of return investment can be received early. • smaller sub-projects are easier to control and manage. • “gold-plating”, which are requesting features that are unnecessary and not in fact used, is reduced because users will know that if a feature is not in the current increment it can be included in the next version. the next section describes the unified modelling language (uml) diagrams designed for the project, which are a state diagrams (also known as statecharts) for the player movement, the navigation system (figure 1). in addition, we used a class diagram for the player and camera movement (figure 2). when the avatar-based game starts, the state of the player is idle, i.e., player_idle. when the user selects the building, it enables the navigation path towards the destination. if the user selects any arrow keys (right, left & up) the state of the player will change to running (i.e., player_running). also, the path will diminish along with the player movement; hence, the state of navigation path will change to changing_path. furthermore, the path will also be diminishing along with the player’s movement, so the state of the navigation’s path will change brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 to changing_path. if no arrow keys are selected the state of path will again change to idle as the path is not changing now. thus, if no arrow keys are selected, the state of the player will change to player_idle. if the rightmost close button of the game is selected, the avatar-based game will stop. figure 1. the statechart for the player movement and the navigation system s. andrei, m. joshi, c. rudani, a. shah, b. tejwani modeling, designing, and implementing an avatar-based interactive map 57 figure 2. the class diagram for the player and camera movements 5. experimental results this section is dedicated to show the screenshots of our implementation for this project. in particular, we incorporated the following buildings from the lamar university campus: 1. the maes building 2. the students health center 3. the records office 4. the wimberley building (the admission office, the international student services office, etc.) 5. the dining hall 6. the mary and john gray library 7. the center for innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship (cice) building brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 figure 3 shows an avatar ready to start the game. the user has the option to click the button called ‘go cardinals! start’ button. once that happens, the avatar gets to choose going to one of the buildings of interest mentioned above. figure 3. the ‘welcome screen’ of our implementation figure 4 represents the navigation path to the department of computer science inside the maes building after selecting the option “d.c.s.”, which stands for department of computer science. figure 4. an inside view of the “maes building along with the navigation path” figure 5 represents the avatar standing outside and in front of the mary and john gray library after selecting the option “library”. the library’s main purpose is to facilitate students with a variety of scholarly information within the overall composition of the university’s stated mission. figure 5 shows the path generated by a* algorithms with a red color. s. andrei, m. joshi, c. rudani, a. shah, b. tejwani modeling, designing, and implementing an avatar-based interactive map 59 figure 5. a front view of the “mary and john gray library” figure 6 exhibits the ambience of the study environment that allows students to have group discussions, and when to access internet, and more. the photographs have been digitized in a very realistic way. figure 6. an inside view of mary and john gray library 6. conclusion and future work this article introduced the modelling, designing, and implementation of the avatar–based virtual campus tour. it has thoroughly explained the design, methodology, implementation, and working set of the game. in our regular periodic meetings, we followed an agile software developing process by showing early releases to colleagues interested to invest in this ambitious project. with rapid prototyping, we converted each physical building into avatar-based virtual buildings. our team is dedicated to working on future enhancements and constantly keeping an eye on new requirements that can be helpful to everyone. the following improvements may be considered as a future work: an autonomous navigation, an android application, designing all buildings of the lamar university campus, and public website access (on the lamar university’s public domain to be available online). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 1, march 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 60 we will introduce a novel path planning and replanning algorithm the two-way d∗ (twd∗) algorithm based on a two-dimensional occupancy grid map of the environment based on a twodimensional occupancy grid map of the environment. references wadhwa, b., andrei, s., & jien, s.y. (2007). software engineering. an object-oriented approach. mcgraw-hill, revised edition. unity communityunity technologies. www.unity3d.com/community, [accessed on february 20, 2015] categories of services unity technologies. blogs.unity3d.com/category/services/, [accessed on march 12, 2015] navigation mesh agent unity technologies. docs.unity3d.com/manual/classnavmeshagent.html, [accessed on april 5, 2015] ***, the a* pathfinding project for unity 3d. http://arongranberg.com/astar/docs/graphupdates.php, [accessed on february 29, 2016] 3d textures unity technologies. http://docs.unity3d.com/manual/class-texture3d.html, [accessed on february 29, 2016] importing gis in unity. http://electricarchaeology.ca/2015/06/08/importing-gis-data-into-unity/, june 8, 2015 [accessed on february 29, 2016] historical maps into unity3d. http://electricarchaeology.ca/2015/06/09/historical-maps-intounity3d/, june 9, 2015 [accessed on february 29, 2016] posts and topics unity technologies.http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/767153/a-pathfindingquestions-1.html, [accessed on february 29, 2016] li, s. & wang, h. (2013). realistic 3d face modeling and application research. international journal of electronic commerce studies, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 203-212. zeng, w. & church, r.l. (2009). finding shortest paths on real road networks: the case for a*. international journal of geographical information science,vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 531–543. microsoft word issue3.docx b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 3 september, 2018 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 1 about the journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in september 2018. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 10th of september, 2018. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief:  bogdan pătruţ, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania managing editor:  agata asofroniei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania editors:  frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland  angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain  barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania  carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania  monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 – 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2018 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 2 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 6. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 7. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 8. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 9. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 10. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 11. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 12. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 13. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 14. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 15. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 16. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 17. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 18. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 19. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 20. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 21. heather k van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 22. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 23. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 3 24. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 25. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 26. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 27. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 28. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 29. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 30. valeriy perminov, tomsk polytechnic university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 31. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 32. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 33. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 34. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 35. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 36. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 37. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 38. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) consultant reviewers 39. dorin bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 40. răzvan bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 41. cătălin buiu, politehnica university of bucharest, bucharest, romania (robotics) 42. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl milan, italy (computer science) 43. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 44. piotr p chruszczewski, polish academy of sciences, university of wroclaw, poland (social sciences) 45. utku köse, uşak university, uşak, turkey (artificial intelligence) 46. ioan maxim, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (computer science) 47. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence) 48. ioan lucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (linguistics) 49. saim rasheed, king abdulaziz university, jeddah, saudi arabia (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 50. kamil roman, maria curie-sklodowska university in lublin, poland (smart city concept, intelligent transport systems, sustainable urban development) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 4 51. tiberiu socaciu, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 52. hassan soleimani, payame noor university, tehran, iran (applied linguistics) 53. elena-mădălina vătămănescu, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest (social sciences), romania 53. dmytro zubov, soochow university, suzhou, jiangsu, china (computer science) microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 119 instructions for authors author guidelines authors must submit their papers via email to brain@edusoft.ro or they can create an account and submit their papers online, at www.brain.edusoft.ro. submitted papers must be written in doc/docx format (microsoft word document), in as clear and as simple as possible english. preferred maximum paper length for the papers is 20 pages, including figures. the template for the paper is at this address: http://brain.edusoft.ro/new_template_for_brain.doc the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point times new roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. the title will be bold 14-point, and the author will be 12-point italic. figures have caption in bottom-center side, and tables have captions in left-top side. use a tab for identing each paragraph and the subtitles, too. the subtitles will be bold 12-point. please use microsoft word 97-2003, or word 2010, 2013. we encourage the authors to use the camera ready format even for the first submission. all paper submissions will be carefully reviewed by an editor, and by the members of the scientific board or independent experts, who will provide a written feedback with comments and ratings. authors will be notified of acceptance in maximum 3 weeks. accepted manuscripts should be revised according to the comments of the reviewers and of the editors. for questions concerning manuscript submission, contact dr. bogdan patrut by e-mail at brain@edusoft.ro. submission preparation checklist as part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 1. the submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the editor). 2. the submission file is in microsoft word (doc, docx) or rtf document file format. 3. where available, urls for the references have been provided. 4. the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 5. the text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the author guidelines, which is found in about the journal. 6.the instructions in ensuring a blind review have been followed. ensuring a blind peer review to ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. this involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: 1. the authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. 2. with microsoft office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under file in word), by clicking on the following, beginning with file on the main menu of the microsoft application: file > save as > tools (or options with a mac) > security > remove personal information from file properties on save > save. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 120 3. with pdfs, the authors' names should also be removed from document properties found under file on adobe acrobat's main menu. copyright notice authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a creative commons attribution license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work privacy statement the names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. it is understood that only original manuscripts can be submitted to the journal. the work has to be an unpublished one, which is not under consideration somewhere else. brain journal does not tolerate plagiarism, and absolutely requires proper citation. each submitted paper will be checked for originality using both human evaluation or in-house developed anti-plagiarism software. for questions concerning manuscript submission, contact professor bogdan patrut, by e-mail to bogdan@edusoft.ro. 121 indexing our journal is currently indexed/listed in the following indexing services and international databases: 1. emerging sources citation index, esci web of science (clarivate analytics / thomson-reuters) 2. directory of open access journals (doaj) 3. ebsco (ebsco open access computer science, ebsco open access journals, ebsco open access medical and health collection) 4. google academic 5. getcited 6. genamics journalseek 7. zeitschriftendatenbank (zdb) 8. j-gate 9. sherpa/romeo 10. dayang journal system 11. public knowledge project 12. bium (bibliothèque interuniversitaire de medecine et d'odontologie) 13. newjour 14. articlereach direct 15. link+ 16. indexcopernicus 17. the linguist list 18. ulrichs also, several universities and organizations list our journal in their online libraries: 1. geneva foundation for medical education and research 2. base (bielefeld academic search engine) 3. river campus libraries (univ. of rochester) 4. tulips (university of tsukuba library)) 5. showa university library 6. keio university (shinamomachi media center) 7. university of pennsylvania 8. university of modena and reggio emilia 9. tel aviv university, gitter-smolarz library of life sciences and medicine 10. national autonomous university of mexico, genomic sciences center, institute of 11. biotechnology 12. saint petersburg state university 13. university of puerto rico 14. vrije universiteit brussel 15. queensland university of technology 16. university of florida 17. john brown university 18. université paris-descartes 19. university of regensburg 20. michigan state university 21. university of colorado boulder 22. university of glasgow 23. washington university in saint louis 24. wayne state university 25. california state university, long beach 26. brown university, providence, rhode island 27. the university of honk kong 28. university of nevada, reno 29. ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen 30. dowling college, new york state 31. colgate university, new york state 122 abstracts brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn 2068 – 0473, e-issn 2067 3957 volume 8, issue 3 september 2017 www.brain.edusoft.ro editor in chief: bogdan pătruţ 1. a robust approach of facial orientation recognition from facial features kishor datta gupta, md manjurul ahsan, stefan andrei, kazi md. rokibul alam abstract face orientation recognition is an important topic in computer vision and pattern recognition. due to the non-rigid properties of faces, it is computationally expensive and difficult to achieve good recognition accuracy and robustness in face orientation recognition. in this paper, we propose an image mapping technique for face analysis in smart camera networks with a feature extraction and data from the facial feature. we estimate the face orientation angles in all camera views, based on the matched imaged data. our objective is to obtain a set of facial structures which can work as landmarks for tracking and recognition of facial expressions. 2. validation of enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent using virtual overlay multiagent system approach faisal riaz, muaz a. niazi abstract making roads safer by avoiding road collisions is one of the main reasons for inventing autonomous vehicles (avs). in this context, designing agent-based collision avoidance components of avs which truly represent human cognition and emotions look is a more feasible approach as agents can replace human drivers. however, to the best of our knowledge, very few human emotion and cognition-inspired agent-based studies have previously been conducted in this domain. furthermore, these agent-based solutions have not been validated using any key validation technique. keeping in view this lack of validation practices, we have selected state-of-the-art emotion enabled cognitive agent (eec_agent), which was proposed to avoid lateral collisions between semi-avs. the architecture of eec_agent has been revised using exploratory agent based modeling (eabm) level of the cognitive agent based computing (cabc) framework and real-time fear emotion generation mechanism using the ortony, clore & collins (occ) model has also been introduced. then the proposed fear generation mechanism has been validated using the validated agent based modeling level of cabc framework using a virtual overlay multiagent system (vomas). extensive simulation and practical experiments demonstrate that the enhanced eec_agent exhibits the capability to feel different levels of fear, according to different traffic situations and also needs a smaller stopping sight distance (ssd) and overtaking sight distance (osd) as compared to human drivers. abstracts 123 3. teaching area studies through two different on-line platforms valentina marinescu abstract e-learning includes forms of teaching supported by the internet, computers, mobile devices, video tapes, and satellite tv. the term can apply both to out-of-classroom and in-classroom teaching. in recent years e-learning has become increasingly popular at universities around the world, because technology is a part of virtually every aspect of life. rapid evolution of communication has changed language pedagogy and language use, enabling new forms of discourse and new ways to create and participate in communities (kern 2006, 1). under such circumstances it is important to explore new possibilities in teaching new topics and to give students a taste of new challenges. according to blake (2008, 2) technology, if used wisely, could play a major role in enhancing l2 learners’ contact with the other cultures and languages, especially in the absence of studying abroad. traditional classes can become more interesting when combined with technology. wong and looi (2010, 14) claim that online-learning can fill in the gaps between formal learning styles. the present article presents the opinions and attitudes towards on-line set of courses for a sample of 80 romanian students who were enrolled in an on-line learning project in “area studies” namely, east asia studies. the project covered two academic years (2015 and 2016) and leads to the establishment of a virtual network of east european and central asia universities on “area studies”. at the end of each course students were asked to fill a short questionnaire about the online course they attend. the results of this small-scale survey showed both the positive character of using e-learning tools for teaching “area studies” and their limitations. at the same time, due to the length of the project (e.g. two years covered through different courses) the results allowed to make a comparison between two online platforms used during classes – bluejeans and cisco webex – and to devise the ways of improving the future uses of online platforms during the next academic year’ courses. 4. social media as medical validator laura broasca, versavia-maria ancusa, horia ciocarlie abstract big data mining can lead to previously undiscovered links between genes, diseases, symptoms, drugs, etc. however, this mathematical correlation needs medical confirmation and that implies additional efforts of time, human and financial resources that are not always possible. internet reviews, posts, hashtags can establish an informal corroboration tool, easily available. this paper explores the receptiveness towards a negative bias in health-related electronic word of mouth. 5. the impact of cooperative learning on female medical students’ happiness and social support ali taghinezhad, rahim pendar, samira rahimi, maryam jamalzadeh, mahboobeh azadikhah abstract cooperative learning has appeared as a new approach to teaching. this approach is utilized for small heterogeneous groups of students who cooperate to achieve a common goal. this study aimed at investigating the impact of cooperative learning on female medical students’ happiness and social support. to this end, 72 female students of medicine at shiraz medical school were selected using cluster sampling and divided into experimental and control groups. the students were administered social support and happiness questionnaires as a pre-test. the same questionnaires were administered to them at the end of the term as a post-test. the students in the experimental group were taught to use cooperative learning strategies and the students in the control group followed the traditional approach. data were analyzed using spss. the statistical procedures used for analyzing the data were mean, standard deviation, and multivariate analysis of covariance. the findings of the study indicated that cooperative learning had a significant impact on the level of happiness and social support of students compared to the conventional approach. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 124 6. artificial intelligence as a decision-making tool in planning the research simina maris, titus slavici, petre nenu, liliana baciu abstract the quality of a finite product is influenced both on quantitative and qualitative factors and thus it is somewhat difficult to determine the major factors which affect it and their degree of influence. in this paper we present the usage of artificial intelligence (in particular artificial neural networks) in the development of an efficient research plan for studying the quality of finite products in particular, wood briquettes obtained from various biomass mixtures. 7. an intelligent method to process romanian language internet reviews versavia-maria ancusa, olimpia ban, marian cornea abstract internet reviews are a valuable information mine, however most research is oriented towards english based ones. the romanian language reviews exhibit specific grammar rules, dialect challenges and polymorphism, which need customized methods to be dealt with. this paper offers a method for aggregating heterogeneous romanian language reviews into a homogenous corpus, fit for further analyse. 8. the analysis of e-commerce sites with eye-tracking technologies octavian dospinescu, adriana emilia percă-robu abstract the e-commerce sites have many dimensions from the final user’s point of view. making websites more usable and improving the users’ experience represent an important step when desiring to keep them from moving away. this study is examining the effects of the interactivity dimensions on users’ content comprehension and their attitudes towards e-commerce websites. by using the eye tracking technology, we investigate the websites interactivity dimensions, identified in the interactivity index, exploring the visual process and drawing the time spent on the site or on various regions of it, the heatmaps, the scanpaths, the percentage fixated, the fixations before, the time to first fixation or the total fixation duration. 9. integrating moocs in embedded systems blended courses razvan bogdan abstract massive open online course (mooc) paradigm has been growing in less than a decade from a life-long learning approach to a state-of-the-art method of offering a large plethora of courses and even specializations. not only higher education, but also private companies started to manifest a growing interest into all the possibilities this technology is offering. this phenomenon received extra-consideration when renowned universities like stanford, harvard, école polytechnique fédérale de lausanne, the massachusetts institute of technology and rice university started offering such courses. embedded systems field on the other side is one domain that continuously needs attention from educators. the concepts should be presented in a very friendly and approachable way, while in the same time preserving a practical, applicative vision. this paper is presenting a modality of integrating moocs into embedded systems higher education. the obtained results show that students prefer such a mix to the classical classroom methods of teaching. 10. pseudo-holographic displays as teaching tools in mathematics monica ciobanu, antoanela naaji, ioan dascal, ioan virag abstract due to the fact that the abstract mathematical notions are often hard to grasp by students, without linking them to a specific physical representation or correlate them with regular facts, our team abstracts 125 came up with the idea to create and implement a set of interactive teaching tool packages (ittps) to help them overcome such issues. the ittps are consisting of theoretical modules and applications in the framework of a hungarian romanian cross-border project, developed with the aid of existing open source software and technologies. the focus of the romanian team was on basic elements of linear algebra and analytic geometry, showcased using an autostereoscopic display for the purpose of image visualization. this paper presents an overview of similar technologies and the applications developed for representing pseudo-holographic images of geometric objects, namely vectors, straight lines, planes and conics. one of the developed packages was written using web technologies in order to make the applications available on mobile devices, as well as to eliminate the need to install any additional software. microsoft word brain_6_2015__doc final 5 the brain and propranolol pharmacokinetics in the elderly andy r. eugene division of clinical pharmacology, department of molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, gonda 19, mayo clinic, 200 first street sw, rochester, minnesota 55905, usa tel.: +1-507-284-2790; fax: +1-507-284-4455 e-mail: eugene.andy@mayo.edu wayne t. nicholson department of anesthesiology, mayo clinic, 200 first st sw, rochester, mn 55905. e-mail nicholson.wayne@mayo.edu abstract propranolol, a non-selective β-blocker, has been found to have a tremendous array of indications. recent evidence has suggested that propranolol may be effective in patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder by suppressing activity in the amygdala and thereby inhibiting emotional memory formation. dosage requirements have been well established in the pediatric and adult population, however, there has been no definitive geriatric dose recommended in the package inserts made available to the public. the aim of this paper is to use pharmacokinetic simulations in order to establish a pharmacokinetic profile dosage equivalent for the elderly as has been found in young patients. after completing the monte-carlo simulations for the elderly and young patients, a single 10mg dose in the elderly has shown comparable pharmacokinetic profiles as found in young patients administered a 40mg single dose. keywords: propranolol; elderly; pharmacokinetics; brain 1. introduction propranolol, a sympatholytic nonselective beta blocker, β1 and β2 receptors,has been successfully used in patients with a variety of clinical indications ranging from pediatrics cases of hemangioma, to thyrotoxicosis, and familial tremor (essential tremor), angina, and in patients who suffered from a previous myocardial infarction(lawley et al., 2009; olakowska and olakowski, 2006). neurological actions of propranolol, due to its lipophilic properties have been effective in treating patients with social anxiety(tyrer and lader, 1974; wohleb et al., 2011).in a study with fifty-two healthy right-handed participants (18 to 30 years old; 26 men, 26 women), propranolol was found to inhibit memory consolidation in the amygdala and the hippocampus(schwabe et al., 2012). the mechanism for propranolol's influence on enhancing emotional memories is due to noradrenenaline and the drug's effect on blocking noradrenergic receptors(cahill et al., 1994; strange and dolan, 2004). when considering the neurological effects of propranolol in the elderly, tremendous caution is warranted due to the wide array of physiological changes that occur in aging (lichtman, 2007; zoller, 1987). elderly dosage requirements play a critical role in minimizing both adverse drug reactions and drug-to-drug interactions. thus, in an attempt to provide insight into the differences of plasma drug levels between young versus elderly patients, this paper attempts to provide insight for selecting an appropriate dose for propranolol.this is will accomplished using monte-carlo-based pharmacokinetic simulations of propranolol in young populations and elderly populations. remembering that, propranolol was the pioneer beta-blocker whose discovery led the winning of the nobel prize, in 1988, by dr. james black, a pharmacologist, from lanarkshire, britain(black, 1989; black et al., 1997; nobelprize.org, 1989). in this simulation-based investigation, one may hypothesize that due to the physiological changes relative to aging, elderly patients will have higher plasma levels of propranolol as compared to young patients at the same dose and that β-receptor blockade. moreover, plasma concentration will be achieved quicker in elderly patients as well as similar plasma concentration of brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-4, november 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 propranolol will be achieved in elderly patients at approximately half of the dose of younger patients. 2. methods 2.1. patient data the pharmacokinetic plasma levels for propranolol have been primarily referenced from the castleden et al article published in the british journal of clinical pharmacology in 1975(castleden et al., 1975). models parameters were derived for both the young and elderly simulations from the 1975 publications. the resultant simulations where later validated with a different dataset based from the digitized values from castleden et al 1979 publication(castleden and george, 1979), for the elderly patients, and the taegtmeyeret al 2014(taegtmeyer et al., 2014) publication for the younger patients. the young patient, castleden et al 1975, cohort included 9-participants (5-male and 4-females) with an average age of 27 ± 2; while, the elderly patient cohort included 9participants (3-males and 6-females) with a mean age of 77 ± 2. both groups were administered a single-oral dose of 40mg of propranolol. a secondary reference for plasma propranolol levels was from an article by taegtmeyer et al in 2014, where five healthy participants with three males and two females had average age was 37 ± 17. the later publication would serve to further corroborate the calculated pharmacokinetic simulation drug levels. 2.2. pharmacokinetic analysis study samples were modeled using pksolver, a microsoft excel add-in programmed in microsoft’s visual basic that computes pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic model parameters(zhang et al., 2010). the pharmacokinetic (pk) simulations were accomplished using a classical one-compartmental model with first order absorption and linear elimination using the accelera for sandwich simulator, which was developed using matlab version 6.5.1.199709, release 13 (the mathworks inc., natick, ma, usa)(shampine and reichelt, 1997; shampine et al., 1999). the pk/pd simulator, accelera for sandwich simulator (a4s), was developed by pfizer’s global clinical pharmacology in sandwich, united kingdom(germani et al., 2013). similarly, the pharmacodynamic (pd) portion with the linked pk data was realized using the a4s simulator. lastly, microsoft excel 2010 was used to visualize the results. the pfizer a4s simulator has been cross-validated with the commercially available software winnonlin (wnl), version 3.1 and is used by pfizer’s internal scientist for pkpd simulations(germani et al., 2013). pharmacokinetic models follow the same nomenclature and parameterization as the nonmem software (bauer, 2011) where used in a4s to simulate the results. simulation parameters for propranolol were based on the advan2 and trans1 subroutines describing a one-compartment linear model with first-order absorption for the elderly patients and the advan4 and trans1 subroutine, which describe a two-compartment linear model with first-order absorption, for the young patients. 3. results based on the castleden et al 1975 propranolol plasma values in the young and elderly participants, pksolver, provided the following modeling results outlined in table1 and table2. based on these values, the simulation parameters were ready for the pharmacokinetic simulations using the pfizer accelera for sandwich software package. to properly fit the experimental blood samples, coefficients of variations, covariates, of 20% for the volume in the central compartment (vc) and 10% for the absorption rate constant (ka) for both young and elderly patients. a. r. eugene, w. t. nicholson the brain and propranolol pharmacokinetics in the elderly 7 table 1.the advan4 trans1 subroutine of a two-compartment linear model with first-order absorption to describe the propranolol kinetics in young patients. param eter estim ate cv % vc 0.667 445 l 20 v2 8.609 88 l 0 ka 0.965 986 1/hr 10 k10 1.40e -05 1/hr 0 k12 0.602 943 1/hr 0 k21 0.046 273 1/hr 0 cl/f 9.27e -06 l/hr 0 q 0.398 408 l/hr 0 alpha 1.00e -06 1/hr 0 beta 0.649 23 1/hr 0 table 2.the advan2 trans1 subroutine of a one-compartment linear model with first-order absorption to describe propranolol kinetics in elderly patients. param eter estim ate cv % vc/f 0.178 2 l 20 cl/f 0.059 7 l/hr 0 k10 0.331 667 1/hr 0 ka 0.556 hr 10 table 2.calculated pharmacokinetic parameters in a single-dose of 40mg of propranolol in young versus elderly participants. young elderly auc (mg/l*hr) 154.739 633.35 cmax (mg/l) 27.8303 102.911 tmax (hr) 1.36918 2.29915 t1/2 (hr) -2.16535 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-4, november 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 propranolol has been found to be therapeutically effective, to obtain a clinical response by beta-adrenoceptor blockade, at plasma levels of greater than 20 ng/ml(coltart et al., 1971; frishman, 1988; johnsson and regàrdh, 1976). thus, to display the data, we used highlighted plasma concentration where the pharmacokinetic curve falls below 20ng/ml threshold for therapeutic efficacy in the patient’s plasma. figure 1.(a)results of the monte-carlo simulations to describe pharmacokinetics of young patients with validation from the taegtmeyer 2014 publication(taegtmeyer et al., 2014). the dotted lines illustrate the 10 th and 90 th percentiles of plasma levels of the young population. figure 2.(a)results of the monte-carlo simulations describing a population of elderly patients after a single oral dose of propranolol. the population has been validated with the castleden et al 1979 publication(castleden and george, 1979). the dotted lines illustrate the 10 th and 90 th percentiles of plasma levels of the elderly population. a. r. eugene, w. t. nicholson the brain and propranolol pharmacokinetics in the elderly 9 table 3. propranolol single oral dose pharmacokinetics in young participants compared to elderly patients at 40mg. young elderly dose 40mg 40mg auc (mg/l*hr) 154.739 633.35 cmax (mg/l) 27.8303 102.911 tmax (hr) 1.36918 2.29915 t1/2 (hr) -2.16535 in effort to identify the recommended propranolol dosage for elderly patients, we identified the patient package inserts from the food and drug administration (fda) inderal label, who manufacture propranolol. based from fda wyeth propranolol label, for dosing in the geriatric population,the label states that there were not sufficient numbers of clinical study participants who were 65-years and older to properly determine the difference in response young and elderly patients. thus, the package insert (see 1 ) recommends clinicians start at the lower end of the dosing range, without further details. similarly, pfizer manufactures inderal® la (propranolol hci), which is the long-acting form of propranolol and their package insert (see 2 ) states, “there is no information available for elderly patients.” though the kinetics for the long-acting formdiffers from the standard form, manufactured by wyeth, we would suspect a 10mg dose for the elderly would achieve a similar maximum plasma concentration (cmax) to that of the younger patient cohort.this 10mg, which is 25% of the original 40mg, dosing schedule is based on our simulations at 10mg in the geriatric population. figure 4. simulation (monte-carlo, n=200) results elderly patients taking a 10mg oral dose resulting in similar cmax, maximum plasma concentration, to the young patients taking a 40mg oral dose. the dotted lines illustrate the 10 th and 90 th percentiles of plasma levels of the elderly population with a 10mg oral administration of propranolol. 1 http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2011/016418s080,016762s017,017683s008lbl.pdf 2 http://www.pfizer.ca/en/our_products/products/monograph/265 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-4, november 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 table 4.summary table of propranolol single oral dosing pharmacokinetics in young, 40mg, versus elderly patients at 40mg and 10mg. young elderly elderlynew dose 40mg 40mg 10mg auc (mg/l*hr) 154.739 633.35 164.28 cmax (mg/l) 27.8303 102.911 25.4874 tmax (hr) 1.36918 2.29915 2.28764 t1/2 (hr) -2.16535 2.25417 it is important to note that plasma propranolol levels above 100ng/ml would completely saturate the beta-adrenergic receptors and thus provide no therapeutic benefit to elderly patients, especially patients with angina pectoris (pine et al., 1975). for many indications, an initial propranolol dose recommendation for the adult patient is 40mg and it is clear based on this model 10mg would be yield comparable pharmacokinetics in the older population relative to the younger population. 4. discussion considering the differences single-dose pharmacokinetics between young and elderly patients, starting a regimen of 40mg t.i.d. in the elderly population would further complicate therapy. we are able to reject the null hypothesis, and accept our original hypotheses, but slightly modify the elderly dosing from one-half that of the younger patient’s dose to, actually, one-fourth of the propranolol dose (i.e. from 40mg to 10mg) in the elderly to achieve similar peak plasma concentrationsas in younger patients. 4.1. patients with angina apharmacodynamic model,with parameters in the table below, may be used to visualize the propranolol concentration-effect (β-blockade) relationship in patients suffering from angina pectoris. these results have been adapted from the pine et al article published in circulation in 1975 which identified a linear relationship plasma propranolol (ng/ml) to an effect of % β-adrenergic blockade in a single-oral dose of 40mg propranolol in exercising individuals (pine et al., 1975). figure 5.(a)linear (y=0.45x + 57.74) dose-response relationship between plasma propranolol to % βadrenergeric blockade derived from healthy study participants and translate into patients with angina pectoris. this image has been adapted from(pine et al., 1975). a. r. eugene, w. t. nicholson the brain and propranolol pharmacokinetics in the elderly 11 the relationship may be expressed in the form of a hill stimulation linear model as shown below and is valid for a minimum concentration of 14ng/ml, which corresponds to 64% betaadrenergic receptor blockade. table 5. the pharmacodynamics plasma propranolol concentration and effect (% β-adrenergeric blockade) values from the pine et al publication for therapeutic benefit in patients with angina pectoris (pine et al., 1975). (plasma concentration, % effect) values referenced from pine et al (c1, e1) c2 = 14 ng/ml, e2 = 64 (% effect) (c2, e2) c2 = 90 ng/ml, e2 = 98 (% effect) table 5.description of the pharmacodynamics variables describing the hill stimulation linear model for propranolol. variables description e intensity of the effect (% of β-receptor pharmacologic blockade) e0 baseline effect in the absence of the drug (propranolol); e0=57.74 g slope of linear concentration-effect relationship; g=0.45 c propranolol concentration at the effect (β-adrenergic receptor) sites 4.2. propranolol and the amygdala in the past decade, there has been much interest in identifying treatment in adding to the current treatment options for war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). the studies investigating secondary-preventative measures for ptsd using propranolol due to the drug’s ability to inhibit the actions of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine,which has been implicated to enhance the consolidation(mcghee et al., 2009; pitman et al., 2002; stein et al., 2007).further, in a double-blind, placebo-controlled,functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri) study, in healthy volunteers, hurlemann et al. found that a single oral 40mg dose of propranolol attenuatedthe leftbasolateral amygdala responses to the face perception paradigm(hurlemann et al., 2010). the study participants were eighteen healthy (9 females, 9 males; mean age 23 years; age range 19–31 years) who had their fmri acquisition 1.5-hours after the oral administration of propranolol. an adapted image of the study findings are shown in figure 6. figure 6.amygdala hypofunction after a single oral 40-mg dose, 1.5-hours post-dose, in young study participants.the image has been adapted from (hurlemann et al., 2010). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-4, november 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 based on our propranolol dosing findings for matching the peak propranolol concentration in both the young and in elderly, these results may help pave the way for starting dosages for clinical trials looking to co-administer risperidone with propranolol in elderly patients who may be at an increased risk for fractures(liperoti et al., 2007). a recent study identified that, in rats, propranolol protected against trabecular bone-loss in female mice treated with the atypical antipsychotic risperidone(motyl et al., 2012). these findings are based on the implications that maintenance of sympathetic tone is important in understanding the osteoporotic process of coupling and uncouplingduring bone remodeling (farr et al., 2012). overall, propranolol has proven to have a myriad of indications and proper dosage in the elderly yielding similar pharmacokinetics as in the adult has been identified here in this paper, however, investigations as to the neurological pharmacodynamics would need to be investigated. 5. acknowledgements this work was supported by nih t32 gm008685 clinical pharmacology training grant. 6. conflicts of interest the author declares no conflict of interest. references bauer r. nonmem users guides [internet]. nonmem proj. group, univ. 2011available from: https://nonmem.iconplc.com/nonmem7/release_notes_plus/nm720.pdf black j. nobel lecture in physiology or medicine--1988. drugs from emasculated hormones: the principle of syntopic antagonism. [internet]. in vitro cell. dev. biol. 1989; 25: 311–20.[cited 2015 mar 23] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2565896 black jw, duncan wa, shanks rg. comparison of some properties of pronethalol and propranolol. 1965. [internet]. br. j. pharmacol. 1997; 120: 285–99; discussion 283–4.[cited 2015 mar 23] available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1510623&tool=pmcentrez&rende rtype=abstract cahill l, prins b, weber m, mcgaugh jl. beta-adrenergic activation and memory for emotional events. [internet]. nature 1994; 371: 702–4.[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7935815 castleden cm, george cf. the effect of ageing on the hepatic clearance of propranolol. [internet]. br. j. clin. pharmacol. 1979; 7: 49–54.[cited 2015 mar 23] available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1429596&tool=pmcentrez&rende rtype=abstract castleden cm, kaye cm, parsons rl. the effect of age on plasma levels of propranolol and practolol in man. br. j. clin. pharmacol. 1975; 2: 303–306. coltart dj, gibson dg, shand dg. plasma propranolol levels associated with suppression of ventricular ectopic beats. br. med. j. 1971; 1: 490–491. farr jn, charkoudian n, barnes jn, monroe dg, mccready lk, atkinson ej, et al. relationship of sympathetic activity to bone microstructure, turnover, and plasma osteopontin levels in women. j. clin. endocrinol. metab. 2012; 97: 4219–4227. a. r. eugene, w. t. nicholson the brain and propranolol pharmacokinetics in the elderly 13 frishman wh. beta-adrenergic receptor blockers. adverse effects and drug interactions. hypertension 1988; 11: ii21–i29. germani m, del bene f, rocchetti m, van der graaf ph. a4s: a user-friendly graphical tool for pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (pk/pd) simulation. comput. methods programs biomed. 2013; 110: 203–214. hurlemann r, walter h, rehme ak, kukolja j, santoro sc, schmidt c, et al. human amygdala reactivity is diminished by the β-noradrenergic antagonist propranolol. psychol. med. 2010; 40: 1839–1848. johnsson g, regàrdh cg. clinical pharmacokinetics of beta-adrenoreceptor blocking drugs. [internet]. clin. pharmacokinet. 1976; 1: 233–63.[cited 2015 mar 23] available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13958 lawley lp, siegfried e, todd jl. propranolol treatment for hemangioma of infancy: risks and recommendations. pediatr. dermatol. 2009; 26: 610–614. lichtman sm. pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in the elderly. clin. adv. hematol. oncol. 2007; 5: 181–182. liperoti r, onder g, lapane kl, mor v, friedman jh, bernabei r, et al. conventional or atypical antipsychotics and the risk of femur fracture among elderly patients: results of a case-control study. j. clin. psychiatry 2007; 68: 929–934. mcghee ll, maani cv, garza th, desocio pa, gaylord km, black ih. the effect of propranolol on posttraumatic stress disorder in burned service members [internet]. j. burn care res. 2009; 30: 92. available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19060728\nhttp://journals.lww.com/burncareresearch/ abstract/2009/01000/the_effect_of_propranolol_on_posttraumatic_stress.13.aspx motyl kj, dick-de-paula i, maloney ae, lotinun s, bornstein s, de paula fja, et al. trabecular bone loss after administration of the second-generation antipsychotic risperidone is independent of weight gain. bone 2012; 50: 490–498. nobelprize.org. “sir james w. black biographical” [internet]. nobel media ab 2014 1989[cited 2015 aug 3] available from: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1988/black-bio.html olakowska e, olakowski m. propranolol--a place in the modern therapy. wiad. lek. 2006; 59: 388–391. pine m, favrot l, smith s, mcdonald k, chidsey ca. correlation of plasma propranolol concentration with therapeutic response in patients with angina pectoris. circulation 1975; 52: 886–893. pitman rk, sanders km, zusman rm, healy ar, cheema f, lasko nb, et al. pilot study of secondary prevention of posttraumatic stress disorder with propranolol. biol. psychiatry 2002; 51: 189–192. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-4, november 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 schwabe l, nader k, wolf ot, beaudry t, pruessner jc. neural signature of reconsolidation impairments by propranolol in humans. biol. psychiatry 2012; 71: 380–386. shampine lf, reichelt mw, kierzenka ja. solving index-1 daes in matlab and simulink. siam rev. 1999; 41: 538–552. shampine lf, reichelt mw. the matlab ode suite. siam j. sci. comput. 1997; 18: 1–22. stein mb, kerridge c, dimsdale je, hoyt db. pharmacotherapy to prevent ptsd: results from a randomized controlled proof-of-concept trial in physically injured patients. j. trauma. stress 2007; 20: 923–932. strange ba, dolan rj. beta-adrenergic modulation of emotional memory-evoked human amygdala and hippocampal responses. [internet]. proc. natl. acad. sci. u. s. a. 2004; 101: 11454– 8.[cited 2015 jul 15] available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=509222&tool=pmcentrez&render type=abstract taegtmeyer ab, haschke m, tchambaz l, buylaert m, tschöpl m, beuers u, et al. a study of the relationship between serum bile acids and propranolol pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in patients with liver cirrhosis and in healthy controls. [internet]. plos one 2014; 9: e97885.[cited 2015 mar 23] available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=4048194&tool=pmcentrez&rende rtype=abstract tyrer pj, lader mh. response to propranolol and diazepam in somatic and psychic anxiety. 1974. wohleb es, hanke ml, corona aw, powell nd, stiner lm, bailey mt, et al. β-adrenergic receptor antagonism prevents anxiety-like behavior and microglial reactivity induced by repeated social defeat. j. neurosci. 2011; 31: 6277–6288. zhang y, huo m, zhou j, xie s. pksolver: an add-in program for pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data analysis in microsoft excel. comput. methods programs biomed. 2010; 99: 306–314. zoller dp. the physiology of aging. am. fam. physician 1987; 36: 112–116. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 39 attention as a source of variation in sla naeemeh kharaghani department of english, quchan branch, islamic azad university, quchan, iran quchan, razavi khorasan province, tel.: +98 51 4701 1001 naeemehkharaghani@gmail.com abstract learner differences in the field of second language acquisition could be studied from different perspectives. the reason lies in the fact that each individual is unique considering cognitive, affective and socio-cultural factors. one of the considerations in the field of individual differences is the role of attention and its different degrees in the process of language learning. this study focuses on the meaning of attention with respect to its definitions and its significant role in sla. it discusses briefly three main approaches to the definition of attention in sla theories namely schmidt’ noticing hypothesis, robinson model and tomlin and villa’s functional model of input processing. it also draws the interest of teachers to the differences exist in the field of sla considering the role of attention in interlanguage. it concludes that teachers should recognize that not all learners have the same level of attention which is an influential factor in the process of second language learning. 1. introduction individual differences are an important concept in the field of second language acquisition. this importance would be highlighted when we consider that individuals are different both cognitively and affectively. each language learner is unique in his/her potential, ability, needs, learning styles, interests, and motivation. variation exists in background knowledge and social and economic condition (tomlinson, 2003). dealing with variations among language learners shed light on the reasons for success and failure among individuals in the process of second language learning. in this regard, crawford (2002) mentions that it is “to a large extent the learners, not the teachers, who controls what is learnt since it is they who selectively organize the sensory input into meaningful chunks (p.87)”. one of the variations that is studied is learning styles and personality patterns among which attention and its role could be highlighted. attention is necessary for learning to take place and the degree of attention called noticing is the key condition for learning l2 grammatical forms (schmidt, 1995). 2. what is attention? attention refers to the way we approach data in our context. in fact, it describes the addition of definite input into our minds’ processing possessions or in other words it deals with the focus of consciousness on a specific object. it is a cognitive process discussed in the field of cognitive psychology. there are different definitions of attention. a few of them have been mentioned in this article. richards and schmidt (2002) define attention as “the ability a person has to concentrate on some things while ignoring others” (p. 37). according to swain and suzuki (2008), “attention is a limited capacity system and is the process of selecting information for further processing, while awareness is the subjective experience of noticing” (p. 558). robinson (2003) classifies attention as the procedure that encodes language input, maintains it active in working and short-term memory, and recovers it from long-term memory. meanwhile, “there are therefore different levels of attention, from more focused to more general. another characteristic of attention is that our capacity for it is limited, due to limitations in our working memory” (leowen &reinders, 2011, p.15). they also state that much learning happens in the presence of attention. the degree of attention varies, and it plays a central role in the process of learning. the more attention is paid to something, the more likely it is going to be brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 40 learned. some factors affect the degree of attention. they are as follows (leowen &reinders, 2011): 1.the difficulty of what is going to be learned. 2.the degree of motivation 3.the degree of anxiety 2.1. attention and language acquisition schmidt (2001) mentions that recognizing attention is necessary to understand every single phase of second language acquisition process. the role of attention has become particularly significant in the field of second language acquisition because of its important function in input, processing, development, variation, and instruction. meanwhile, attention has been specifically defined in the process of second language acquisition since one of the differences which have been displayed in this process is the level of attention. therefore, this study is going to elaborate on the notion of attention from different perspectives in sla. in sla theories, attention has been emphasized differently. krashen (1982) considers no role for attention in the acquisition process; however, schmidt’s (1990, 1995) with his noticing hypothesis mentions that there is no learning without attention. he also states that noticing requires awareness (through attention) which is necessary for learning. therefore, one of the significant notions in some sla theories is the definition of “attention” and its role in the process of acquisition. wickens & mccarley (2008) elaborates on the importance of attention by bringing two main reasons: 1. attention and its role are significant per se as fundamental aspects of information processing theories of sla 2. attention underlies another psychological phenomenon. attention and memory for language input are essential for sla, and are also closely related. “attention is the process that encodes language input, keeps it active in working and short-term memory, and retrieves it from long-term memory”. (doughty &long, 2008, p.631). meanwhile, attention can be studied in information processing theories. the degree of attention varies in less demanding tasks in comparison with the demanding ones. at this level, attention is considered as having functions that control our actions and help our learning about the environment. gass&mackey(2013,p.248) explain the functions as follows: “these functions include selecting information for processing, focusing on it and inhibiti ng distractions, activating concepts in long-term memory, and coordinating participation in multiple simultaneous activities. many of the models of attention that have guided sla research have their origins in areas of cognitive science addressing one of these issues”. therefore, among second language theories those which belong to cognitive psychology focus on the role of attention; however, those theories which do not belong to cognitive psychology such as emergentism do not elaborate on the role of attention. attention has been viewed as one of the “motivational behavior” that along with effort and persistence causes individual differences among second language learners and in the process of interlanguage. interlanguage is a system which develops gradually as learners try to acquire the second language. this language has its own rules which are highly systematic. meanwhile, one significant factor which is influential in the process of interlanguage is input and its role. the input and attention that they receive vary among individuals and they are effective in the process of learning the second language. 2.2. different definitions of attention in sla in the 1980s, it was believed that learning can happen without attention since the focus was on unconscious learning. however, by the mid-1990s, attention and its mechanisms have received a lot of attention and they have been discussed in the field of sla (gass & mackey, 2007). there are four ideas considering attention in sla. the first idea is that attention is a limited capacity system n. kharaghani attention as a source of variation in sla 41 and brain cannot process all stimuli at the same time. the second suggestion of attention is that it selects what should be attended due to an overwhelming amount of stimuli. the third idea considers controlled rather than automatic processing of information during the process of attention. finally, the fourth concept of attention states that coordination is required among stimuli and their responses in order to establish, keep, stop and redirect attention in the process of doing actions (tomlin& villa, 1994). as a result, approaches to the role of attention in sla could be summarized into three main approaches: schmidt’s (1990) noticing hypothesis, tomlin and villa’s (1994) functional model of input processing and robinson’s (1995) model. these approaches are going to be discussed briefly. 2.2.1. schmidt schmidt’s definition of attention is closely linked with the concept of awareness. he states that attention is limited, selective and subject to voluntary control. schmidt (2001) mentions that the capacity of attention is limited; therefore, it is selective and it pays to factors which are more salient and then to redundant features. meanwhile, attention could be controlled voluntarily. it means that inner motivation guides the direction of attention. he further adds the following features to attention: 1. it controls access to consciousness 2. it is essential for the control of action and; 3. it is essential for learning schmidt also believes in noticing. schmidt’s (1990) in noticing hypothesis mentions that attention controls access to awareness and is responsible for noticing, which is the necessary and sufficient condition for the alteration of input into intake. in fact, he believes that attention at the level of noticing is required for changing input to become intake in the process of learning. schmidt (1990) mentions that the following factors would influence noticing and as a result attention: 1. instruction: it improves attention by forming the expectation of learners. 2. frequency: when an item comes more commonly in the input, the possibility that the item will be noticed and added into the interlanguage system is increased. 3. perceptual salience: salient input will be noticed more. 4. skill level: it refers to the ability of the learners to routinize the previously learned materials which affect the readiness of learners in the process of learning. 5. task demands: it refers to the features of the tasks which make learners notice more. 6. comparing: noticing input is not enough and comparing input with output is required to make input to become intake. this comparison helps learners to find the significance of the items that should be noticed more. 2.2.2. tomlin & villa tomlin and villa (1994) believe that awareness and attention are not related to each other. they also doubt about the necessity of awareness in learning; meanwhile, attention and awareness are not connected to each other in the process of learning. tomlin and villa (1994) consider three features for attention. they are: alertness, orientation and detection. (1) alertness, which is general readiness to deal with incoming stimuli, (2) orientation, which is the direction of attentional resources to a certain type of stimuli, and (3) detection, which is the cognitive registration of stimuli. they claim that none of the components require awareness for processing and detection is required for further processing of the input and the other two components just facilitate the process of detection (robinson, 2013). 2.2.3. robinson two types of attention have been advocated by robinson (1995). the first one is the filter theory which considers the idea of selection in the process of attention. this theory mentions that there is much information around us but our perceptual system acts as a filter and removes irrelevant information. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 42 the second model of attention is the capacity theory supported by robinson (1995, 2003). this theory does not consider attention as a filter instead it deals with attention as a spotlight. this concept explains that attention could be narrowed down for focal attention and broadened at the time of global one. meanwhile, robinson (2003) states that attention along with rehearsal in short-term memory change input to intake. he mentions that learning is possible to take place even when a learner detects the form without subjective awareness, but the amount of learning is very limited. robinson (2003) mentions three stages of processing in which attention plays a significant role: 1.auditory/visual intake 2.decision making 3.monitoring via sustained attention these stages correspond with “the selection of information, capacity of resources and effort needed to sustain information” (vatpatten, williams, rott & overstreet, 2004, p.87). robinson combined the two models (tomlin and villa & schmidt models) of attention into one model mentioning that detection happens before noticing and noticing comes at later stages. in other words, robinson’s model recognizes tomlin and villa’s concept of detection in language learning but its impact on learning has been decreased by considering it at an earlier stage in the process of learning before schmidt’s notion of noticing, which he has put at a later and more central stage of input processing (vatpatten, williams, rott & overstreet, 2004). 2.3. attention as a source of individual differences almost all theories in the field of sla consider some roles for attention. more specifically, cognitive theories place a central role for attention (sanz, 2005). schmidt (2001) states that: the concept of attention is necessary to understand every phase of second language acquisition, “including the progress of interlanguages over time, variation within interlanguage at particular points in time, the development of second language fluency, the role of individual differences such as motivation, aptitude and learning strategies in second language learning and the ways in which interaction, negotiation for meaning and all forms of instruction contribute to language learning”(p.3). gardner (1988 as cited in schmidt, 2010) considers motivated learners as active ones who pay more attention. paying attention leads to more noticing and as a result more learning. he also mentions that there is a link between motivation and cognitive and metacognitive strategies which deal with focusing or sustaining information. many factors affect the degree of attention in sla among individuals. tarone (1996 as cited in schmidt, 2001, p.8) mentions that “language learners should not be viewed solely as decontextualized information processors, emphasizing that social context (including interactional pressures) is what causes a speaker to pay more or less attention to one or another linguistic form”. therefore, the environment and its features affect the degree of attention and, as a result, affect the process of language acquisition among individuals and their interlanguage. interlanguage variations exist among individuals. interlanguage incorporates factors from linguistics’ theories of mind such as language acquisition device and cognitive psychology’s elements such as learning strategies (ellis, 2008). tarone (1983) defined interlanguage as a range of speech styles as a kind of learning styles. learners move between styles based on the degree of attention they pay to language form. they change from the superordinate style in which attention is chiefly concentrated on language form to the vernacular style in which the smallest amount of attention is paid to language form. although tarone does not ignore that other theories can present explanations of second language acquisition, she mentions that “all models of sla must consider interlanguage variation. therefore, it could be argued that learners display differences in the process of interlanguage due to different reasons. one of these reasons is the degree of attention which is one of the n. kharaghani attention as a source of variation in sla 43 personality patterns of language learners categorized as learning styles (ehrman , lever oxford , 2003). 3. conclusion this study focuses on the importance of attention in the field of sla. schmidt (2010) mentions that attention and noticing are central concepts for understanding second and foreign language learning. meanwhile, ellis (2008) considers noticing and attention as requirements for learning. he also states that unconscious learning is very limited. therefore, evidence displays that noticing has a great influence on second and foreign language learning. meanwhile, individual differences are a key component of this process, and they involve who notices what (schmidt, 2010). in addition, “research on the role of attention in second language acquisition supports a positive relationship between awareness of the target forms and their subsequent recognition and learning” (camps, 2003, p.205). therefore, considering the different degrees of attention as a source of variation in the process of interlanguage, teachers should recognize that not all learners have the same level of attention which is a determining variable in the process of second language learning. in addition, instructional designers in the field of sla should “avoid applying only one type of activities; rather, employ various learning activities so that each student with a different learning style could have an opportunity to benefit as much as possible from the learning units” (tomlinson, 2010, p.252). finally, the function of attention in sla could be highlighted in the new methods of teaching grammar. recently, teachers apply the focus on form approach to teach grammar. this method of teaching highlights the role of attention in the process of language development. in fact, it advocates that l2 forms must be noticed in order to be learned. references camps, j. (2003). concurrent and retrospective verbal reports as tools to better understand the role of attention in second language tasks. international journal of applied linguistics,13,201-221. crawford, j. (2002). the role of materials in the language classrooms: finding the balance. in j.c richards & w. a. renandya, methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice, (pp.80-91). cambridge: cambridge university press. doughty, c. j., & long, m.h.(2008). the handbook of second language acquisition. oxford: blackwell. ehrman, m. e., leaver, b. l. ,& oxford, r. (2003). brief overview of individual differences in second language learning. system 31, 313330. ellis, r. (2008). second language acquisition. oxford: oxford university press. gass, s. m., & mackey, a. (2013).the routledge handbook of second language acquisition. newyork: routledge. gass, s. & mackey, a. (2007). input, interaction and output in sla. in b. vanpatten & j. williams (eds.), theories in second language acquisition: an introduction (pp. 175–199). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates inc. krashen, s. (1982). principles and practice in second language acquisition. oxford: pergamon. leowen, s., & reinders, h. (2011). key concepts in second language acquisition. newyork: macmillan. robinson, p. (2013). the routledge encyclopedia of second language acquisition. london and newyork: routledge. robinson, p. (2003). attention and memory during sla. in c. doughty & m. long (eds.), the handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 631-678). new york: blackwell. robinson, p. (1995). attention, memory, and the noticing hypothesis. language learning, 45, 283301. richards, j., & schmidt, r. (2002). longman dictionary of applied linguistics. (3rd ed.). london: pearson education limited. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 44 sanz, c. (2005). mind and context in adult second language acquisition: methods, theory and practice. washington: georgetown university press. schmidt, r. (2010). attention, awareness, and individual differences in language learning. in w. m. chan, s. chi, k. n. cin, j. istanto, m. nagami, j. w. sew, t. suthiwan, & i. walker, proceedings of clasic 2010, singapore, december 2-4 (pp. 721-737). singapore: national university of singapore, centre for language studies. schmidt, r. (2001). "attention."in p. robinson (ed.), cognition and second language instruction (pp. 3-32). cambridge university press. schmidt, r. (1995). consciousness and foreign language learning: a tutorial on the role of attention and awareness in learning. in r. schmidt (ed.), attention and awareness in foreign language learning (pp. 1–64). honolulu: university of hawaii’, second language teaching and curriculum center. schmidt, r. (1990).the role of consciousness in second language learning. applied linguistics,11, 129–58. swain, m., & suzuki, w. (2008). interaction, output, and communicative language learning. in b. spolsky & f. m. hult (eds.), the handbook of educational linguistics (pp. 557-570). oxford: blackwell publishing ltd. tarone, e. (1983). on the variability of interlanguage systems. applied linguistics, 4(2), 142163. tomlin, r. s., & villa, v. (1994). attention in cognitive science and second language acquisition. studies in second language acquisition, 16(2), 183-203 tomlinson, c. (2010). grading and differentiation: paradox or good practice? theory into practice, 44, 262-269. tomlinson, c. (2003). differentiating instruction in response to student readiness, interest, and learning profile in academically diverse classrooms: a review of literature. journal for the education of the gifted, 27.retrived april 2011 from: http://etseo.org/info/raas/di%20review%20of%20lit.pdf. vanpatten, b., williams, j., rott, s., & overstreet, m. (2004). formmeaning connections in second language acquisition. london: lawrence erlbaum associates. wickens, c. d., & mccarley, j. c. (2008). applied attention theory. new york: routledge, taylor & francis group. naeemeh kharaghai is an assistant professor at quchan azad university. she got her phd in tefl from islamic azad university, science and research branch, tehran, iran. her areas of interest are sla, psycholinguistics and language teaching. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 77 review of recent trends in measuring the computing systems intelligence laszlo barna iantovics petru maior university, târgu mureș, romania 1 nicolae iorga, 540088, tel.: 0265 262 275 ibarna@science.upm.ro adrian gligor petru maior university, târgu mureș, romania 1 nicolae iorga, 540088, tel.: 0265 262 275 adrian.gligor@ing.upm.ro muaz a. niazi1 comsats institute of it, islamabad, pakistan park road, tarlai kalan, 45550 muaz.niazi@ieee.org anna iuliana biro university of medicine and pharmacy, târgu mureș, romania 38 gheorghe marinescu, tel.: 0265 215 551 biro.iulia@umftgm.ro sandor miklos szilagyi petru maior university, târgu mureș, romania 1 nicolae iorga, 540088, tel.: 0265 262 275 sandor.szilagyi@science.upm.ro daniel tokody óbuda university, budapest, hungary bécsi út 96b, 1034, tel.: +36 1 666 5603 daniel_tokodi@msn.com abstract many difficult problems, from the philosophy of computation point of view, could require computing systems that have some kind of intelligence in order to be solved. recently, we have seen a large number of artificial intelligent systems used in a number of scientific, technical and social domains. usage of such an approach often has a focus on healthcare. these systems can provide solutions to a very large set of problems such as, but not limited to: elder patient care; medical diagnosis; medical decision support; out-of-hospital emergency care; drug classification among others. a recent key focus is that most of these developed intelligent systems are agent-based approaches, or in other words, they can be considered as agent-based intelligent systems (abiss). abiss are formally based on a set of interacting intelligent agents (ias) in addition to the use of intelligent cooperative approaches namely forming intelligent cooperative multiagent systems (icmass). the main direction of study consists in the possibility to measure the artificial systems intelligence, frequently called machine intelligence quotient (miq). recently, we performed some research related to the measuring of the machine intelligence. there is presented a comprehensive review of the scientific literature related to the measuring of the miq. we consider that the measuring of the machine intelligence is very actual and important, which could allow the differentiation of abiss based on their intelligence, choosing of the agent-based systems able to solve the most intelligently specific problems. as the main conclusion of the performed study, we mention that cannot be given a unanimous definition of the abiss intelligence. even if the machine intelligence cannot be defined, it could be measured. we discuss this affirmation more in-depth in the paper. this is similar to the human intelligence that is not understood very well but can be measured using human intelligence tests. 1 corresponding author brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 78 keywords: intelligent agent-based system, machine intelligence, machine intelligence measure, machine intelligence quotient, computational hard problem, computational hard image processing, cardiac image processing, cardiovascular diseases images, human intelligence, biological intelligence 1. introduction in this study, we call generically intelligent agent-based systems (abiss) the intelligent agents (ias), and the intelligent cooperative multiagent systems (icmass). the motivation for using this generic name is based on the fact that, from the external point of view, a cooperative multiagent system can itself be viewed as an individual system. whoever submits a problem for solving to the system maybe does not perceive that the problem is solved by an agent or cooperatively by more agents. a human or an agent submits a problem to the system, and the problem consequently is solved cooperatively by the agents’ members of the system. there are many abiss applied for a very large variety of problems solving by different type and complexity (iqbal, altaf, aslam, mahmood, & khan, 2016; popescu-bodorin, & balas, 2010). as examples of applications of icmass and ias we mention: support for automated radiology exam (shang, & popescu, 2000); monitoring systems (patrut, & tomozei, 2010); accounting education (patrut, varlan, socaciu, 2008); detection and continuity perception on fish otolith images (guillaud, troadec, benzinou, bihan, & rodin, 2002); real-time configuration of ip networks (yang, galis, guo, & liu 2003); homecare e-services for elder peoples (campana, moreno, riano, & varga, 2007); smart emergency applications based on multiagent systems (bergenti, & poggi, 2010); intelligent agents applied in the library environment (liu, 2011); problems solving such as interactive e-learning and e-testing (arif, illahi, karim, shamshirband, alam, farid, iqbal, buang, & balas, 2015); safe and effective acute care delivery (pickering, litell, herasevich, & gajic, 2012); agent-based execution of personalized home care treatments (isern, moreno, sánchez, hajnal, pedone, & varga, 2011); smart e-health environment for diabetes management (kafalı, bromuri, sindlar, van der weide, aguilar pelaez, schaechtle, alves, zufferey, rodriguez-villegas, schumacher, & stathis, 2013); agent-based health monitoring of elderly people in indoor environments (vaidehi, vardhini, yogeshwaran, inbasagar, bhargavi, & hemalatha, 2013); integrative multi-agent clinical decision support system (shirabad, wilk, michalowski, & farion, 2012); collaborative intelligent agent-based approach for proactive postmarketing drug safety surveillance (ji, ying, farber, yen, dews, miller, & massanari, 2010). in the papers (kerti, & nyikes, 2015; iantovics, 2015; nyikes, németh, & kerti, 2016; albini, & rajnai, 2018) there are treated a variety of aspects related to the security in different systems including agent-based systems. in the scientific literature, the computational intelligence is considered as a set of fields that include: neural networks (mcculloch, & pitts, 1943; hebb, 1949), evolutionary computing (fraser, 1958; holland, 1975) and fuzzy logic (zadeh, 1965). methods of computational intelligence are applied to many computational hard problems solving. applications of computational intelligence include neural networks used for handwritten zip code recognition (lecun, boser, denker, henderson, howard, hubbard¸ & jackel, 1989); autonomous evolution of computer programs based on evolutionary algorithms (koza, 1992). there are applications of the fuzzy logic for the control of the movement of high-speed trains. an example in this sense is the high-speed train in sendai (kosko, 1994), in which the method based on fuzzy logic was able to improve the economy, comfort, and precision of the ride. in order to eliminate a frequent confusion in understanding, we outline the difference between intelligent systems and the computational intelligence. if an intelligent system uses one or more methods based on computational intelligence, this does not make it automatically an intelligent system. for illustrative purpose, we mention a very simple mobile robotic agent (mobile robot with agent properties) able of recognizing different objects based on the image of the objects using neural networks. based just on the fact that the robotic agent uses a neural network (a field that belongs to the computational intelligence) cannot be considered an intelligent agent-based l. b. iantovics, a. gligor, m. a. niazi, a. i. biro, s. m. szilagyi, d. tokody review of recent trends in measuring the computing systems intelligence 79 system. but, intelligent systems can use other methods based on computational intelligence for different problems (or subproblems) solving during their operation. in spite of a large number of studies and research, there is still a lack of a universal comprehensive definition of intelligence from the agent-based system perspective. in this paper, we analyze by making a comprehensive study of the scientific literature, beginning with the biological intelligence, the possibility of giving a definition to the agent-based systems intelligence. we also outline, as a general conclusion, that such definitions are not so important in comparison to the measuring of machine intelligence. in the performed study of definition of machine intelligence, we start from analyzing the biological intelligence. the existence of some properties of the abiss that could be associated with the intelligence does not allow a quantitative evaluation; they just formally prove its existence. based on the importance of the quantitative evaluation of the machine intelligence, we made a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art of the research and studies related to measuring the machine intelligence. as one of the conclusions of our study, we mention that there is no universal view of what the machine intelligence is. there is no standardization of intelligence measuring. we consider that the evaluation of an artificial system’s intelligence must be based on some metrics or tests that allow the effective measuring of the quantity of intelligence. such an obtained measure is frequently called machine intelligence quotient (miq). the obtained machine intelligence measure of an intelligent system should allow the comparison of the studied intelligent system with the intelligence of another system. the upcoming part of the paper is organized as follows: in section 2 we analyze the possibility of definition of the intelligence of abiss, the first subsection analyses the biological intelligence, the second subsection analyzes the possibility of definition of machine intelligence; section 3 analyses the necessity and possibility of measuring the machine intelligence of artificial agent-based systems; in section 4 we discuss the studied subjects and section 5 outlines the final conclusions of our study. 2. can the intelligence of agent-based systems defined? 2.1. biological intelligence the result of long-term evolution of life on earth the biological intelligence of different life forms, ranging from very simple (such as plants) to very complex (such as humans) is the subject of many studies and a large amount of research. frequent studies related to different kind of biological intelligence include: the intelligence of horses (krueger, & heinze, 2008; krueger, farmer, & heinze, 2014; schuetz, farmer, & krueger, 2016), intelligence of pigs (broom, sena, & moynihan, 2009), intelligence of dogs (coren, 1995), intelligence of primates (reader, hager, & laland, 2011) and so one. figures 1, 2, and 3 present some biological life forms that are frequently considered intelligent. trewavas (2002; 2005) considered that plants intelligence should be based on principles such as their ability to adjust their morphology, and phenotype accordingly to ensure selfpreservation and reproduction. figure 1.1 presents an intelligent plant (carnivorous) that uses a strategy for catching very fast flying insects. in order to eat the insect, it makes a movement. figure 1.1 presents the catching of an insect by a carnivorous plant. the intelligence of colonies of ants, termites and other insects that live in large colonies is considered at the colony level (brady, fisher, schultz, & ward, 2014; johnson, borowiec, chiu, lee, atallah, & ward, 2013). figure 1.2 presents the coherent intelligent surviving behaviour of a colony of a species of ants. the ants make a structural reorganization in order to move on the surface of the water. figure 1.3 presents a very large school of fish with an intelligent coherent collective feeding and self-protecting behaviour. each individual fish has a very simple behavior. based on this it cannot be considered intelligent. the intelligence in large schools of fish emerges at the collective level (shaw, 1978; parrish, viscedo, & grunbaum, 2002). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 80 some species of birds have been shown capable of using different tools. many studies consider the crows as very intelligent. smirnova, lazareva, and zorina (2000) suggested that crows have some kind of numerical ability. figure 2.1 presents a crow that uses a tool, a small stone in order to catch a worm from a glass of water. figure 1. intelligence of different simple living creature (accessed 01.11.2017). 1.1. a carnivorous plants catching an insect (https://phys.org/news/2016-05-colombia-peace-reveal-jungle-species.html); 1.2. a colony of ants solving a very complex task (https://mappingignorance.org/2016/05/27/rafting-ants); 1.3. the collective behaviour of a school of fish (https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/shoaling_and_schooling) the dolphins in many studies are considered intelligent at the individual level. an advanced ability of dolphins is the self-awareness. marten and psarakos (1995) presented an interesting study based on self-view television to distinguish between self-examination and social behavior in the bottlenose dolphin. the most well-known abilities of dolphins are to teach, learn and cooperate. dolphins have a complex communication and social behaviour. figure 2.2 presents the image of a common group of dolphins. some studies prove that primates are one of the most intelligent in the class of animals (reader, hager, & laland, 2011). orangutans are one of the most intelligent primates. the ability of orangutans to use different types of tools in order to perform tasks is well-known. figure 2.3 presents an orangutan that uses a spear to catch fish. the orangutans can be considered intelligent at individual level. figure 2. intelligence of different living creature (accessed 01.11.2017). 2.1. a crow solving a complex task (https://www.disclose.tv/spooky-genius-crow-had-to-be-removed-from-scientific-experiment314886). 2.2. a group of dolphins with a social behaviour (http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/04/teamwork-builds-big-brains); 2.3. an orangutan that use a spear to fish (https://primatology.net/2008/04/29/orangutan-photographed-using-tool-as-spear-to-fish) elephants are large mammals of the elephantidae family that are frequently considered very intelligent. one of their impressive ability is the very good long-term memory. elephants exhibit mirror self-recognition, which is an indication of self-awareness and cognition (plotnik, de waal, & reiss, 2006). figure 3.1 presents an elephant named suda painting a picture in the chiang mai, thailand. the study of the intelligence of cephalopods is very interesting based on the fact that they have a very complex nervous system fundamentally different from that of vertebrates. it’s interesting that only a part of it is localized in the brain (hochner, 2012). they represent one of the most intelligent invertebrates and an important example of advanced cognitive evolution in animals. l. b. iantovics, a. gligor, m. a. niazi, a. i. biro, s. m. szilagyi, d. tokody review of recent trends in measuring the computing systems intelligence 81 many observations proved that octopus species have an impressive spatial learning capacity, advanced navigational abilities, and advanced predatory techniques. the dexterity is important for using and manipulating tools. zullo, sumbre, agnisola, flash, & hochner, (2009) studied the successful dexterity of octopuses. they have highly sensitive suction cups and prehensile arms, squid, and cuttlefish. this allows them to hold and manipulate objects. the motor skills of octopuses (figure 3.2) do not seem to depend upon mapping their body. some species of parrots are able to mimic very well the human speech. there were performed many studies with parrots that shown that some individuals are able to associate words with their meanings. another observed ability is to form simple sentences. it has been shown that some grey parrots perform at the cognitive level of a 3-year-old child in some tasks. pepperberg (2006) proved that some parrots can count up to 6. figure 3.3 presents a frequently studied species of parrots, called african grey parrot. figure 3. intelligence of different living creature (accessed 01.11.2017). 3.1. a painting elephant (http://www.wittyfacts.com/suda-the-painting-elephant/); 3.2. a common octopus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/octopus). 3.3. an african grey parrot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/grey_parrot) considering humans, the intelligence consists in the cognitive abilities that allow them to perform tasks such as to learn, to understand, and to reason (neisser, boodoo, bouchard, boykin, brody, ceci, halpern, loehlin, perloff, sternberg, & urbina, 1996). intelligence enables humans to experience and think. they have capacities such as: recognizing complex patterns, comprehending ideas, making complex planning, solving difficult problems, and making complex decisions. such highly advanced cognitive abilities are very few evolved in other living creatures. this makes the humans more intelligent than any other species on earth. as a conclusion to the performed study related to the biological intelligence, with some of the studied references presented in this subsection, we mention that the biological intelligence is the result of the very long-term evolution of life on earth, and it emerged in different forms, observable in different living creatures. the evolution of life on earth is by a 0.5 billion of years (bell, boehnke, harrison, mao, & 2015). also, it should be mentioned that supported by some of the studied works mentioned in this section, we consider that the biological intelligence generally, and biological intelligence of different life forms particularly, cannot be uniquely defined. the biological intelligence cannot be completely understood. the biological intelligence is a very good source of inspiration for the design of intelligent systems. for example, we mention the learning ability of different species used as inspiration for the design of machine learning algorithms. 2.2. machine intelligence and intelligent systems one of the major branches of the design of abiss consists of the intelligent agent-based robotic agents. the intelligent robotic agents are robots with properties of intelligent embedded agents that could be static (they are not able to move in the physical environment) or mobile (able to move in the physical environment). there have been developed many robotic agents at worldwide able to perform simple tasks (as an example we mention the scenario of a robotic agent composed of complex sensors, able to identify objects in the physical environment) as well as very complex problems (for example, out of the next-generation developments that could be designed in the near future, we mention the intelligent autonomous flying drones able to transport goods and passengers). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 82 figure 2.1 presents erica, a well-known more than 23-year-old humanoid robot developed by professor hiroshi ishiguro from osaka university. erica understands spoken japanese not only with audio; but also with body language, such as blinking, moving the head, and raising the eyebrows. atlas is a highly advanced bipedal humanoid robot developed by the american robotics company boston dynamics. the 1.8-meter high robot is designed for a variety of search and rescue tasks. atlas robot was unveiled to the public on july 11, 2013. figure 2.2 presents the photo of the atlas robot that is more recent then the erica robot. figure 4. intelligent robots (accessed 01.11.2017). 4.1. erica, a humanoid robot (https://www.tech-review.com/erica-is-the-latest-japanese-robot-with-human-appearance.html). 4.2. atlas, a bipedal humanoid robot developed by boston dynamics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/atlas_(robot)) one of the most highly quoted and interesting definitions of machine intelligence was presented by alan turing (1950). turing considered a computing system intelligent if a human assessor could not decide the nature of the system (being human or artificial) based on questions asked from a room hidden from a human assessor. until recently there were performed different discussions and comments on the turing test. hernández-orallo (2000) presents an interesting study related to the turing test. dowe and hajek, (1998) propose a computational extension of the turing test. the design and development of intelligent systems are historically very recent. but, even if the advance of hardware and software is very fast, it will take a longer time until the artificial computing systems will attain a similar intelligence with the humans. based on this fact, we consider that is not appropriate to formulate the problem of the direct comparison at a general level of human intelligence with the machine intelligence. different definitions were proposed for the intelligence of the agents (russell, & norvig, 2003; iantovics, & zamfirescu, 2013). many authors (russell, & norvig, 2003; iantovics, 2005) argue that the intelligence of the agents cannot be defined universally. the impossibility to give a universal definition to the human intelligence is based mostly on the enormous complexity of the human brain and complexity of the human thinking and decision making. similarly, we may consider the impossibility of universal definition of intelligence of the agents based on the very large variety (by type and complexity) of intelligent agents. the machine intelligence frequently is defined based on different abilities such as (iantovics, 2005; sharkey, 2006): autonomous learning, self-adaptation, and evolution. these principles of considering the intelligence are inspired by biological life forms able to learn autonomously during their life cycle, to adapt to the environment and to evolve during more generations. we would like to outline that not all the designed agents are intelligent. there is not a required property of an agent to be intelligent. beni and wang (1990) introduced the concept of swarm intelligence (si), which is widely used in artificial intelligence. si was introduced in the context of cellular robotic systems. si at a general level can be defined as the collective behavior of self-organized, decentralized, natural or artificial systems. cooperative multiagent systems are composed of two or more agents that cooperatively solve undertaken problems. the members agents of a cooperative multiagent system are not necessarily intelligent but, at the system’s level, many times is emerging an increased intelligence. frequently, the intelligence of a cooperative multiagent system is considered at the system’s level. l. b. iantovics, a. gligor, m. a. niazi, a. i. biro, s. m. szilagyi, d. tokody review of recent trends in measuring the computing systems intelligence 83 there are many developed cooperative systems composed of very simple agents that at the system’s level are considered intelligent. yang, galis, guo, and liu (2003) presented an intelligent cooperative mobile multiagent system composed of simple reactive agents. the mobile agents are specialized in a computer network administration. they are endowed with knowledge retained as a set of rules which describe network administration tasks. the multiagent system could be considered intelligent based on the fact that it simulates the behavior of a human network administrator. in some cooperative systems, the member agents can organize themselves into cooperative coalitions/groups. each coalition being able to solve cooperatively problems. iantovics and zamfirescu (2013) presented such an adaptive cooperative multiagent system, able to reorganize autonomously the coalitions in order to solve more intelligently problems. the biological and artificial intelligence are by a completely different type (figure 5). recently, the biological intelligence is the source of inspiration for the development of many intelligent artificial systems and different problem-solving algorithms. figure 5. what machine intelligence is (accessed 01.11.2017) http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/measuring-artificial-intelligence-quotient) for example, we mention the very well-known problem-solving based on the behaviour of natural ants which are in search for food. marco dorigo (dorigo, maniezzo, & colorni, 1991; colorni, dorigo, & maniezzo 1991; dorigo, 1992; dorigo, maniezzo, & colorni 1996) proposed the problem-solving based on simple computing cooperative agents that mimic the behavior of natural ants. there are many such algorithms and systems (swarms of mobile robots) applied for different problems solving, such as the min-max ant system (stützle, & hoos, 2000), ant colony system (dorigo, & gambardella, 1997), best worst-ant system (cordon, herrera, viana, & moreno, 2000). applications of the problem-solving based on natural ants include: post-rolment course timetabling problem-solving (jaradat, & ayob, 2010), quadratic assignment problem-solving (stützle, 1997) and many others. 3. measuring the machine intelligence even if there is no unique definition of the human intelligence, there are different tests used to measure the human intelligence called intelligence quotient (iq) (chase, 2005; kaufman, 2009; nicolas, andrieu, croizet, sanitioso, & burman, 2013; raven, 1936; bilker, hansen, brensinger, richard, gur, & gur, 2012; wechsler, 1939; kaufman, & lichtenberger, 2006; kaufman, & kaufman, 1983; kaufman, & kaufman, 2004). there are some critics of human iq measuring, arguing that iq test scores alone ignore many important aspects of human mental ability (neisser, boodoo, bouchard, boykin, brody, ceci, halpern, loehlin, perloff, sternberg, & urbina, 1996). schmidt and hunter (2004) accentuate the importance of iq for school and job performance. schreiner (2000) presents a study realized by the national institute of standards and technology from us (nist). the study was related to the creating of standard measures for intelligent systems. nist's initial approach for establishing metrics attempts to address different theoretical and pragmatic subjects. schreiner accentuates the important open research question brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 84 related to how precisely intelligent systems can be defined and how to measure and compare the cognitive capabilities that intelligent systems should provide. fox, beveridge, and glasspool (2003) present a research focused on agents with cognitive capabilities. they consider very important the agents with belief‐desire‐intention architecture (bdi) as a class of cognitive agents. there was designed a benchmark agent model appropriate for comparing agent-based systems. proforma is an agent technology for modeling medical expertise. the benchmark was realized is order to carry out a case study analysis of this technology. the analysis was realized based on three points of view: object-oriented programming, logic programming and agent-oriented programming. there were presented different strengths and weaknesses of proforma. legg and hutter (2006) proposed a formal measure of intelligence. the authors appreciate that the performance in easy environments counts less toward an agent’s intelligence that does performance in difficult environments. an interesting study related to the intelligence of computing systems is realized by legg and hutter (2007). they show that a fundamental problem in ai is that the notion of intelligence cannot be uniquely defined. based on the researchers’ affirmation, nobody really knows what the intelligence is. there is outlined that the artificial cognitive systems are significantly different from humans. in the presented study, were considered some definitions of the human intelligence. based on these definitions there were established some essential features, which later are mathematically formalized in order to produce a general measure of intelligence for artificial cognitive systems. the main objective was to capture the concept of machine intelligence. it is also realized a survey of other tests and definitions of the machine intelligence. anthon and jannett (2007) consider the agent-based systems’ intelligence based on the ability to compare different alternatives by various complexities. in the study ,it is considered an agent-based system one that perceives the environment via distributed sensors. for measuring the machine intelligence, a specific approach is applied. the proposal was tested by comparing the miq on different agent-based scenarios. hibbard (2009) proves that a constraint on universal turing machines is necessary for legg’s and hutter’s formal measure of intelligence to be unbiased. the measure proposed by legg and hutter, defined in terms of turing machines, is adapted to finite state machines. a no free lunch result is proved for the finite version of the measure. hernández-orallo and dowe (2010) present the idea of a general test called universal anytime intelligence test. the authors of the study emphasize that such a test should be able to measure the intelligence level of any artificial or biological system. the proposal is based on the ctests and compression-enhanced turing tests developed in the 1990s. there are presented different tests highlighting their advantages and limitations. hibbard (2011) proposed an intelligence metric based on a hierarchy of sets of increasingly difficult environments. an agent’s intelligence is measured according to the ordinal of the most difficult set of environments that it can pass. the proposed measure is defined based on turing machine and finite state machine models of computing. legg and veness (2013) analyze the formal definition of machine intelligence that they call universal intelligence measure (uim) based on hutter’s universal artificial intelligence theory. it is an extension of ray solomonoff’s work called universal induction (solomonoff, 1964a, 1964b; solomonoff, 1978). legg and veness consider that the uim is asymptotically computable. building a practical intelligence test based on this principle is not appropriate. legg and veness study some practical issues involved in designing an applicable uim. they developed a prototype implementation that was used in order to evaluate different intelligent artificial agents. frequently swarm systems are considered intelligent. winklerová (2013) the collective intelligence of particle swarm system assess according to a proposed maturity model. the proposed model is based on the maturity model of c2 (command and control) operational space and the model of collaborating software. the aim of the study was to obtain a more thorough explanation of how the global intelligent behavior of the particle swarm emerges. l. b. iantovics, a. gligor, m. a. niazi, a. i. biro, s. m. szilagyi, d. tokody review of recent trends in measuring the computing systems intelligence 85 besold, hernandez-orallo, and schmid (2015) studied some difficult problems for the humans that could be used as benchmark problems for intelligent systems. detterman (2011) proposed a challenge for the miq measuring by well-known human iq tests. sanghi and dowe (2003) presented a computer program that was evaluated successfully on some standard human iq tests. it surpassed the average human intelligence on some tests, by scoring above 100 (sanghi and dowe, 2003). 100 is the average human iq value. even if this computer program performed very well on some standard iq tests developed for humans, we consider that the artificial and human intelligence cannot be directly compared. this is based on the fact that they are by a completely different type and are not directly comparable. chmait, dowe, green and li (2015) presented a study related to the intelligence of cmass. the researchers consider that the intelligence of the cmass is influenced by the communication and observation abilities of the member agents. the authors formulate the research question, which of the factors from a considered set of factors has a more significant influence on the intelligence. the solving of the research question is approached using an information-theoretical approach. using some tests, collaborative agents are compared considering different kind of communication and observation abilities. based on the obtained results, chmait, dowe, green and li formulate the conclusion, that the effectiveness of cmass with low observation/perception abilities can be significantly improved by increasing the communication efficiency. chmait, dowe, green, li and insa-cabrera (2015) presents an interesting study related to the intelligence of cooperative coalitions of agents. it is proposed a metric considered universal, appropriate to empirically measure intelligence of different agents. the study presents different situations over which a coalition of agents can be more intelligent than other coalitions. there are discussed different influencing factors to the collective intelligence of cooperative coalitions of agents. some studies focus on measuring the machine intelligence using intelligence testing frameworks. chmait, li, dowe, and green (2016) elaborated some dynamic intelligence tests for measuring the collective intelligence. they presented a technical description of a proposed testing framework, design, and implementation. it is presented how it can be used to quantitatively evaluate the machine intelligence. zitnick, agrawal, antol, mitchell, batra, and parikh, (2016) analyze tasks that are easy for humans but difficult for computing machines. there is presented a case study that explores the very popular problem by image captioning, analyzing its limitations in the context of a task for measuring machine intelligence. as an alternative task, there are analyzed the visual question answering tests, that included a machine's ability to reason about language and vision. there is described a dataset unprecedented in size created for the task that contained more than 760,000 human generated questions about images. metrintmeas metric (iantovics, emmert-streib, arik, 2017) is able to measure the machine intelligence of an evaluated swarm system and compare it with a considered reference machine intelligence value. the metric makes also a classification of a studied swarm system, by verifying if it belongs to the class of swarm systems with the considered reference machine intelligence value. there is given a definition to the swarm systems' evolution in intelligence. the evolution of a swarm system in the intelligence is defined as an increase in intelligence, measurable by using the metrintmeas metric. arik, iantovics, and szilagyi (2017) propose a method called outintsys for the detection of the systems with a statistically extremely low and extremely high intelligence, from a set of intelligent systems that solves the same type(s) of problems. the proposed method can be applied in choosing the most intelligent systems from a set of intelligent systems able to solve difficult problems. iantovics, rotar and niazi (2018) proposed a novel metric called metrintpair for measuring the machine intelligence of cmass. the metrintpair is able to analyze two cmass at an application of the metric. it makes an accurate comparison of the intelligence of the two studied brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 86 cmass, and at the same time verifies if they can be included in the same class of intelligence. systems that can solve problems with the same intelligence from the statistical point of view are classified in the same class. the intelligence comparison of two cmass is based on specific pairwise problem-solving intelligence evaluations. recently (acm technews, october 18, 2017) at the chinese academy of sciences have been developed a universal intelligence test that can be applied to both machines and humans. according to the researchers, it is appropriate to rank intelligent assistants such as google assistant and siri on the same intelligence scale that can be used for humans. according to a case study performed using the proposed intelligence test, it has been shown that even a six-year-old human outperforms the very advanced digital google assistant. during our study, we identified that an important aspect that should be treated at the development of intelligent systems is the analysis of the necessary intelligence. the analysis of necessary intelligence is important because sometimes an increased intelligence may even have disadvantages. for instance, if we have to consider an extremely intelligent agent as one that uses complex specializations for data processing and analyzing, but solves very simple problems, it would probably have to make considerably more complex computations (e.g. verification of numerous conditions) than would actually be necessary. there are very few intelligence metrics presented in the scientific literature related to the importance of intelligent systems in solving problems. in this subsection, we presented some of the studies related to the machine intelligence measuring that we considered relevant. only few designed metrics are able to make an effective comparison of more agent-based systems’ intelligence. comparisons should allow the classification of intelligent systems in classes of intelligence. many designed metrics are dependent on some aspects, such as the intelligent system’s architecture that is the most frequent. based on this fact, their effective practical utilization is limited. agent-based systems for solving the same type of problem could have a very large variety of architecture (reactive, bdi, subsumption and any other). this fact motivates the necessity to design metrics able to make an accurate comparison of the intelligence of more intelligent systems (two intelligent systems or any number of intelligent systems). we appreciate that such intelligence metrics must be universal, and should not depend on some relatively particular aspects such as the agent-based systems architecture. in previous studies (iantovics, emmert-streib, & arik, 2017; iantovics, rotar, & niazi, 2018) we proved that the intelligence of the artificial systems, similarly with the intelligence of the humans have a variability. this is a suggestion to the researchers that would like to develop intelligence metrics to include in the analysis of the design of the metrics the treating of the aspect related to the variability of the intelligence of an agent-based system in problem-solving. 4. discussions many difficult problems solving require computational intelligence or intelligent systems. we have discussed in the introduction section the difference between the notions computational intelligence and intelligent computing system. the importance of design intelligent systems is proved by the existence of many problem-solving solutions based on them. most of the intelligent systems are agent-based, that could be intelligent agents or intelligent cooperative multiagent systems. the intelligence of the agent-based systems, ias or icmass cannot be unequally defined. sometimes it is necessary to give some relatively particular definition to abiss in order to make them understandable. such definitions of machine intelligence by our opinion must be based mostly on different kinds of problem-solving abilities such as: solving difficult problems; or could include some other aspects of problem-solving such as the efficiency, flexibility, and accuracy. difficulties in problem-solving could consist in aspects such as they are np-hard; present different types of uncertainty, such as missing or erroneous data. image analysis (that could include medical images among others) consists in the extraction of some meaningful information from digital images (solomon, & breckon, 2010). image analysis can range from the reading of bar-coded tags to l. b. iantovics, a. gligor, m. a. niazi, a. i. biro, s. m. szilagyi, d. tokody review of recent trends in measuring the computing systems intelligence 87 identifying a person based on its photo. many image analysis problems are computationally difficult. we would like to outline the problem-solving difficulty from human and computational point of view. a problem-solving could be difficult to humans but easily solvable by computing systems. for example, we mention the search in a very large collection of data. a problem-solving could be easy to humans but difficult to solve by computing systems. in this category of problems can be mentioned some image processing in different domains such as the healthcare. image processing could present different difficulties to computing systems (georgieva, kountchev, draganov, 2014; draganov, 2014; georgieva, draganov, 2016). there are many approaches of image processing based on intelligent agents such as: medical image segmentation based on intelligent agents (bensag, youssfi, bouattane, 2015). a problem could be difficult to be solved to human specialists and computing systems in the same time. for example, we mention the comorbidities in humans. a comorbidity (maj, 2005) is the presence of one or more additional diseases or disorders co-occurring with a primary disease or disorder. in many cases, comorbidities are so difficult that should be solved by more physicians and frequently claim for the support, or even a stronger assistance of medical information and/or decision support systems. expert systems are classically well known for problem solving that would require human specialty knowledge. mycin (shortliffe, & buchanan, 1975; buchanan, & shortliffe, 1984) is an example of classical well-known medical expert system. there are some developments of intelligent agents who extend the classical expert systems with agent properties allowing them additional intelligence. lópezortega and villar-medina (2009) presented a multiagent system able to construct production orders that combine/hybridize an expert system and a neural network. we would like to outline that our consideration related to the artificial intelligence consists in the fact that the intelligence of artificial systems could not be uniquely defined, but could be measured. in analogy, we mention the human intelligence that cannot be precisely defined. nobody knows what the human intelligence is, but there are intelligence tests able to measure the human intelligence. as examples of the best-known human iq tests we mention stanford-binet (chase, 2005; kaufman, 2009; nicolas, andrieu, croizet, sanitioso, & burman, 2013), raven's progressive matrices (rpm) (raven, 1936; bilker, hansen, brensinger, richard, gur, & gur, 2012), wechsler adult intelligence scale (kaufman, lichtenberger, 2006; wechsler, 1939) and kaufman assessment battery for children (kaufman, & kaufman, 1983; kaufman, & kaufman, 2004). such evaluated test results at humans have applicative value, based on the fact that the intelligence influences how the humans solve complex problems at the job, the students how easily could learn. we would like to outline that intelligence is not the only influencing factor in efficient solving of less or more complex problems. problem-solving by the humans is influenced also by other aspects such as the detained problem-solving specialty knowledge. based on a comprehensive study of the literature, we can conclude that there is no universal view of what an intelligence metric should measure. an important subject that could be derived consists in the standardizations of the intelligence metrics. there are very few reported metrics for the measuring of the machine intelligence which are based on different principles of measuring the machine intelligence. we consider the measuring of the machine intelligence as an open direction that should be focused on the principle of problem-solving ability. elaborated metrics must be able to measure the machine intelligence of an artificial system and the obtained intelligence measure must be comparable (should allow the comparison with the intelligence of other systems). if a metric is able to obtain the miq value of abiss, it should indicate which system how intelligently can solve problems. as an important property that an intelligence metric should possess, we mention the requested necessary universality. this is based on the fact that a type of problem (or more types of problems) could be solved by agent-based systems with a very large variety of architectures. for example, we mention an intelligent agent able to autonomously pilot a flying drone, which could have a large variety of architecture such as: hybrid, stratified, subsumption etc. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 88 some studies (hernández-orallo, & dowe, 2010; legg, & veness, 2013) consider the notion of universal intelligence metric at the general level, considering the capability to measure the intelligence of computing systems and the humans. we consider the universality in the context of computing systems. we consider the notion of universality as not dependent on the intelligent system architecture. in our study, we have not considered appropriate the comparison measuring of the intelligence of humans and computing system with the same metric/test. 5. conclusions the intelligence of artificial systems cannot be unanimously defined. there can be formulated just relatively particular definitions. even though the evolution of intelligent systems is very fast, at this moment the artificial systems intelligence cannot be compared with the intelligence of the humans. we consider that it is just a matter of time when the artificial systems will become more intelligent than the humans. this moment we cannot predict it but it could come sooner than is expected. as a simple motivation, we mention a principle of complex systems that we call hiding of the complexity; this allows the handling higher and higher complexity tasks more and more easily by different computing systems. we indicate as a very important research direction the measuring of the machine intelligence by universal metrics that could allow the differentiation between systems based on their intelligence. elaborated effective intelligence metrics will have a large applicability. there are lots of systems whose intelligence should be measured. as examples, we mention intelligent agents able to drive autonomously or semi-autonomously cars, collaborative flying drones able to inspect distant lands, complex moving swarms of robots and many others. acknowledgment this study has been supported by the coroflow project pn-iii-p2-2.1-bg-2016-0343, contract 114bg/2016 references acm technews, october, 18, (2017). intelligent machines. now there's an iq test for siri and friends, communications of the acm, acm technews, october, 18, 2017 (https://cacm.acm.org/news/221980-now-theres-an-iq-test-for-siri-and-friends/fulltext) accessed on november 2017. albini, a., & rajnai, z. (2018). general architecture of cloud. the 11th international conference inter-eng, 5-6 october 2017, petru maior university, tirgu-mures, romania. procedia manufacturing, 22, 2018, 485-490. anthon, a., & jannett, t.c. (2007). measuring machine intelligence of an agent-based distributed sensor network system. in k. elleithy (ed.), advances and innovations in systems, computing sciences and software engineering, springer, pp. 531-535. arif, m., illahi, m., karim, a., shamshirband, s., alam, k.a., farid, s., iqbal, s., buang, z., & balas, v.e. (2015). an architecture of agent-based multi-layer interactive e-learning and etesting platform, quality & quantity, 49(6), 2435-2458. arik, s., iantovics, l.b., & szilagyi, s.m. (2017). outintsys a novel method for the detection of the most intelligent cooperative multiagent systems. in d. liu, s. xie, y. li, d. zhao, elalfy e.s. (eds.) 24th international conference on neural information processing (iconip 2017), guangzhou, china, november 14-18. neural information processing, lecture notes in computer science, 10637, 31-40. bell, e.a., boehnke, p., harrison, t.m., & mao, w.l. (2015). potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion year-old zircon, proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 112(47), 14518-14521. beni, g., & wang, j. (1990). self organizing sensory systems. in j.t. tou, j.g. balchen (eds.), proc. of nato advanced workshop on highly redundant sensing in robotic systems, il ciocco, italy, (pp.251-262). springer. l. b. iantovics, a. gligor, m. a. niazi, a. i. biro, s. m. szilagyi, d. tokody review of recent trends in measuring the computing systems intelligence 89 bensag, h., youssfi, m., bouattane, o. (2015). embedded agent for medical image segmentation, 27th international conference on microelectronics (icm), 20-23 dec. 2015, ieee conference society press, 190-193. bergenti, f., & poggi, a., (2010). developing smart emergency applications with multi-agent systems. international journal of e-health and medical communications 1(4), 1-13. besold, t., hernandez-orallo, j, & schmid, u. (2015). can machine intelligence be measured in the same way as human intelligence? künstliche intelligenz, 29(3), 291–297. bilker, w.b., hansen, j.a., brensinger, c.m., richard, j., gur, r.e., & gur, r.c. (2012). development of abbreviated nine-item forms of the raven's standard progressive matrices test. assessment, 19 (3), 354-369. brady, s.g., fisher, b.l., schultz, t.r., & ward, p.s (2014). the rise of army ants and their relatives: diversification of specialized predatory doryline ants. bmc evolutionary biology, 14, 2-14. broom, d.m., sena, h., & moynihan, k.l. (2009). pigs learn what a mirror image represents and use it to obtain information. animal behaviour, 78(5), 1037-1041. buchanan, b.g., & shortliffe, e.h. (1984). rule based expert systems: the mycin experiments of the stanford heuristic programming project. reading, ma: addison-wesley. campana, f., moreno, a., riano, d., & varga, l.z. (2007). k4care: knowledge-based homecare eservices for an ageing europe. in: annicchiarico, r., cortés, u., and urdiales, c. (eds.), agent technology and e-health software agent technologies and autonomic computing. basel, switzerland: birkhäuser, (pp. 95-115). chmait, n., dowe, d.l., green, d.g., & li, y.f. (2015). observation, communication and intelligence in agent-based systems, in bieger j, goertzel b, potapov a, (eds.), artificial general intelligence, lecture notes in computer science, 9205, 50-59. chmait, n., dowe, d.l., green, d.g., li, y.f., & insa-cabrera, j. (2015). measuring universal intelligence in agent-based systems using the anytime intelligence test, technical report, monash university, report number 2015/279. chmait, n., li, y.f., dowe, d.l., & green, d.g. (2016). a dynamic intelligence test framework for evaluating ai agents, in proc. workshop evaluating general-purpose ai, egpai 2016, 1-8. chase, d. (2005). underlying factor structures of the stanford-binet intelligence scales fifth edition. drexel university. colorni, a., dorigo, m., & maniezzo, v. (1991). distributed optimization by ant colonies. in actes de la première conférence européenne sur la vie artificielle, paris, france: elsevier publishing (pp. 134–142). cordon, o., herrera, f., de viana i.f., & moreno, l. (2000). a new aco model integrating evolutionary computation concepts: the best-worst ant system. proc. of ants’2000. from ant colonies to artificial ants: second international workshop on ant algorithms, brussels, belgium, september 7-9, (pp. 22–29). coren, s. (1995). the intelligence of dogs. new york: bantam books. detterman, d.k. (2011). a challenge to watson. intelligence, 39(2), 77-78. dorigo, m. (1992). optimization, learning and natural algorithms (in italian). phd thesis, dipartimento di elettronica, politecnico di milano, milan, italy. dorigo, m., & gambardella, l.m. (1997). ant colony system: a cooperative learning approach to the traveling salesman problem. ieee transactions on evolutionary computation, 1(1), 5366. dorigo, m., maniezzo, v., & colorni, a. (1991). positive feedback as a search strategy. technical report 91-016, dipartimento di elettronica, politecnico di milano, milan, italy. dorigo, m., maniezzo, v., & colorni, a. (1996). ant system: optimization by a colony of cooperating agents, ieee transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics part b, 26(1), 29-41. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 90 dowe, d.l., & hajek, a.r. (1998). a non-behavioural, computational extension to the turing test. in: intl. conf. on computational intelligence & multimedia applications (iccima 1998), gippsland, australia, pp. 101-106 (february 1998). draganov, i. (2014). inverse pyramid decomposition of wavelet spectrum for image compression. international journal of reasoning-based intelligent systems, 6(1/2), 19-23. fraser, a.s. (1958). monte carlo analyses of genetic models. nature, 181(4603), 208-209. fox, j., beveridge, m., & glasspool, d. (2003). understanding intelligent agents: analysis and synthesis, ai communications, 16(3), 139-152. georgieva, v. draganov, i. (2016). multistage approach for simple kidney cysts segmentation in ct images. in: new approaches in intelligent image analysis. springer international publishing, 2016. (pp. 223-251). georgieva, v., kountchev, r., draganov, i. (2014). an adaptive approach for noise reduction in sequences of ct images. in: advanced intelligent computational technologies and decision support systems. springer international publishing, 43-52. guillaud, a., troadec, h, benzinou, a., bihan, j.l., & rodin, v. (2002). multiagent system for edge detection and continuity perception on fish otolith images. eurasip journal on applied signal processing, 7, 746-753. hebb, d. (1949). the organization of behavior. new york: wiley. hernández-orallo, j. (2000) beyond the turing test. j. logic, language & information, 9(4), 447466. hernández-orallo, j., & dowe, d.l. (2010). measuring universal intelligence: towards an anytime intelligence test, artificial intelligence, 174(18), 1508-1539. hibbard, b. (2009). bias and no free lunch in formal measures of intelligence, journal of artificial general intelligence, 1(1), 54-61. hibbard, b. (2011). measuring agent intelligence via hierarchies of environments, in schmidhuber j, thórisson kr, looks m, editors, artificial general intelligence, lecture notes in computer science, 6830, 303-308. hochner, b. (2012). an embodied view of octopus neurobiology. current biology, 22(20), r887r892. holland, j.h. (1975). adaptation in natural and artificial systems, university of michigan press. fuzzy sets and systems. in j fox, (ed.). system theory. brooklyn, ny: polytechnic press, 29-39. iantovics, l.b. (2005). a new intelligent mobile multiagent system. proc.of the ieee-sofa 2005. szeged-hungary and arad-romania, ieee cs press. 153-159. iantovics, l.b. (2015). a knowledge-based security approach for intrusion detection, jdcta: international journal of digital content technology and its applications, 9(5), 11-20. iantovics, l.b., emmert-streib, f., & arik, s., (2017). metrintmeas a novel metric for measuring the intelligence of a swarm of cooperating agents. cognitive systems research, 45, 17-29. iantovics, l.b., rotar, c., & niazi, m.a. (2018). metrintpair a novel accurate metric for the comparison of two cooperative multiagent systems intelligence based on paired intelligence measurements. international journal of intelligent systems, 33(3), 463-486. iantovics, l.b., & zamfirescu, c.b. (2013). erms:an evolutionary reorganizing multiagent system. innovative computing, information and control, 9(3), 1171-1188. iqbal, s., altaf, w., aslam, m., mahmood, w., & khan, m.u.g. (2016) application of intelligent agents in health-care: review, artificial intelligence review, 46(1), 83-112. isern, d., moreno, a., sánchez, d., hajnal, a., pedone, g., & varga, l.z., (2011). agent-based execution of personalized home care treatments. applied intelligence, 34(2), 155-180. jaradat, g.m., & ayob, m. (2010). an elitist-ant system for solving the post-enrolment course timetabling problem. communications in computer and information science, 118, 167176. l. b. iantovics, a. gligor, m. a. niazi, a. i. biro, s. m. szilagyi, d. tokody review of recent trends in measuring the computing systems intelligence 91 ji, y., ying, h., farber, m.s., yen, j., dews, p., miller, r.e., & massanari, r.m., (2010). a distributed, collaborative intelligent agent system approach for proactive postmarketing drug safety surveillance. ieee trans inf technol biomed, 14(3), 826-837. johnson, b.r., borowiec, m.l., chiu, j.c., lee, e.k., atallah, j., & ward, p.s. (2013). phylogenomics resolves evolutionary relationships among ants, bees, and wasps. current biology, 23(20), 1-5. kafalı, ö., bromuri, s., sindlar, m., van der weide, t., aguilar pelaez, e., schaechtle, u., alves, b., zufferey, d., rodriguez-villegas, e., schumacher, m.i., & stathis, k., (2013). commodity12: a smart e-health environment for diabetes management. journal of ambient intelligence and smart environments, 5(5), 479-502. kaufman, a.s., & kaufman, n.l. (1983). kaufman assessment battery for children. circle pines, mn: american guidance service. kaufman, a.s., & kaufman, n.l. (2004). kaufman assessment battery for children second edition. circle pines, mn: american guidance service. kaufman, a.s., lichtenberger, e. (2006). assessing adolescent and adult intelligence (3rd ed.). hoboken (nj): wiley. kaufman, a.s. (2009). iq testing 101. new york: springer publishing. kerti, a, nyikes, z., (2015). overview of the information security standardization, acta technica corvininesis bulletin of engineering, 8(3), 109-116. kosko, b. (1994). fuzzy thinking: the new science of fuzzy logic. hyperion. koza, j.r. (1992). genetic programming: on the programming of computers by means of natural selection. cambridge, ma: mit press. krueger, k., farmer, k., & heinze, j. (2014). the effects of age, rank and neophobia on social learning in horses. animal cognition, 17(3), 645-655. krueger, k., & heinze, j. (2008). horse sense: social status of horses (equus caballus) affects their likelihood of copying other horses behavior. animal cognition, 11(3), 431-439. lecun, y., boser, b., denker, j.s., henderson, d., howard, hubbard¸ r.e., jackel, l.d. (1989). backpropagation applied to handwritten zip code recognition, neural computation, 1(4), 541-551. legg, s, & hutter, m. (2006). a formal measure of machine intelligence. in proceedings of the 15th annual machine learning conference of belgium and the netherlands, benelearn 2006, ghent, pp. 73-80. legg, s, & hutter, m. (2007). universal intelligence: a definition of machine intelligence, journal minds and machines archive, 17(4), 391-444. legg, s., & veness, j. (2013). an approximation of the universal intelligence measure. in dowe dl, editor, algorithmic probability and friends. bayesian prediction and artificial intelligence, lecture notes in computer science, 7070, 236-249. liu, g. (2011). the application of intelligent agents in libraries: a survey, program, 45(1), 78-97. lópez-ortega, o., & villar-medina, i. (2009). a multi-agent system to construct production orders by employing an expert system and a neural network. expert systems with applications, 36(2), 2937-2946. maj, m (2005), psychiatric comorbidity': an artefact of current diagnostic systems?, br j psychiatry, 186(3), 182-184. marten, k., & psarakos, s. (1995). using self-view television to distinguish between selfexamination and social behavior in the bottlenose dolphin (tursiops truncatus). consciousness and cognition, 4(2), 205-224. mcculloch, w. & pitts, w. (1943). a logical calculus of ideas immanent in nervous activity. bulletin of mathematical biophysics, 5(4), 115-133. neisser, u., boodoo, g., bouchard, t.j.; boykin, a.w., brody, n., ceci, s.j., halpern, d.f., loehlin, j.c., perloff, r., sternberg, r.j., & urbina, s. (1996). intelligence: knowns and unknowns. american psychologist, 51(2), 77-101. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 92 nicolas, s., andrieu, b., croizet, j.-c., sanitioso, r. b., & burman, j. t. (2013). sick? or slow? on the origins of intelligence as a psychological object. intelligence, 41(5), 699-711. nyikes, z., németh, zs., & kerti, a. (2016). the electronic information security aspects of the administration system, in a. szakal (ed.) 2016 ieee 11th international symposium on applied computational intelligence and informatics (saci), timisoara, romania, ieee computer society press pp. 327-331. parrish, j.k., viscedo, s.c., & grunbaum, d. (2002). self organised fish-schools: an examination of emergent properties. biological bulletin, 202(3), 296-305. patrut, b., & tomozei, c. (2010). agent technology in monitoring systems, int. j. of computers, communications & control, 5(5), 852-861. patrut, b., varlan, s.e., & socaciu, t. (2008). conttest-a multi-agent system for accounting education, proceedings of the third international multi-conference on computing in the global information technology (iccgi 2008), ieee computer society, 217-222. pepperberg, i.m. (2006). grey parrot numerical competence: a review. animal cognition, 9(4), 377--391. pickering, b.w., litell, j.m., herasevich, v., & gajic, o., (2012). clinical review: the hospital of the future building intelligent environments to facilitate safe and effective acute care delivery. crit. care., 16(2), 220. plotnik, j.m., de waal f.b.m., & reiss, d. (2006). self-recognition in an asian elephant. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 103(45), 17053-17057. popescu-bodorin, n., & balas, v.e. (2010). from cognitive binary logic to cognitive intelligent agents, 14th international conference on intelligent engineering systems (ines), ieee conference proceedings, 337-340. raven, j.c. (1936). mental tests used in genetic studies: the performance of related individuals on tests mainly educative and mainly reproductive. msc thesis, university of london, london. reader, s.m., hager, y., & laland, k.n. (2011). the evolution of primate general and cultural intelligence. philosophical transactions of the royal society b: biological sciences, 366(1567), 1017-1027. russell, s.j., & norvig, p. (2003). artificial intelligence: a modern approach (2nd ed.), upper saddle river, new jersey: prentice hall. sanghi, p., & dowe, d.l. (2003). a computer program capable of passing i.q. tests. in slezak p. p. (ed.), proceedings of the joint international conference on cognitive science, 4th iccs international conference on cognitive science and 7th ascs australasian society for cognitive science (iccs/ascs2003) (pp. 570–575). schmidt, f.l., & hunter, j., (2004). general mental ability in the world of work: occupational attainment and job performance. j pers soc psychol. 86(1), 162-173. schreiner, k. (2000). measuring is: toward a us standard, ieee intelligent systems and their applications, 15(5), 19-21. schuetz, a., farmer, k., & krueger, k. (2016). social learning across species: horses (equus caballus) learn from humans by observation. animal cognition, 20(3), 567-573. shang, y., & popescu, m. (2000) intelligent agent support for automated radiology exam, proc. spie 4118, h. shi, p.c. coffield, d. sinha (eds.). parallel and distributed methods for image processing iv, vol. 4118, (9 october 2000). sharkey, a.j.c. (2006). robots, insects and swarm intelligence. artificial intelligence review, 26(4), 255-268. shaw, e (1978). schooling fishes. american scientist, 66, 166-175. shirabad, j.s., wilk, s., michalowski, w., & farion, k. (2012). implementing an integrative multiagent clinical decision support system with open source software. journal of medical systems, 36(1), 123-137. shortliffe, e.h., & buchanan, b.g. (1975). a model of inexact reasoning in medicine. mathematical biosciences, 23(3-4), 351-379. smirnova, a.a., lazareva, o.f., & zorina, z.a. (2000). use of number by crows: investigation by matching and oddity learning. journal of experimental analysis of behaviour, 73, 163-176. l. b. iantovics, a. gligor, m. a. niazi, a. i. biro, s. m. szilagyi, d. tokody review of recent trends in measuring the computing systems intelligence 93 solomon, c.j., & breckon, t.p. (2010). fundamentals of digital image processing: a practical approach with examples in matlab. uk: wiley-blackwell. solomonoff, r.j. (1964a). a formal theory of inductive inference. part i. information and control, 7(1), 1-22. solomonoff, r.j. (1964b). a formal theory of inductive inference. part ii. information and control, 7(2), 224-254. solomonoff, r.j. (1978). complexity-based induction systems: comparisons and convergence theorems. ieee transactions information theory, 24, 422-432. stützle t. (1997). max-min ant system for the quadratic assignment problem, technical report aida-97-4, fb informatik, tu darmstadt, germany. stützle, t., & hoos, h.h., (2000). max-min ant system. future generation computer systems, 16, 889-914. trewavas, a. (2002). mindless mastery. nature, 415(6874),841. trewavas, a. (2005). green plants as intelligent organisms. trends in plant science, 10(9),413-419. turing, a.m. (1950). computing machinery and intelligence. mind, 59, 433-460. vaidehi, v., vardhini, m., yogeshwaran, h., inbasagar, g., bhargavi, r., & hemalatha, c.s. (2013). agent based health monitoring of elderly people in indoor environments using wireless sensor networks. procedia computer science, 19, 64-71. zadeh, l.a. (1965). fuzzy sets. information and control, 8(3), 338-353. zitnick, c.l., agrawal, a., antol, s., mitchell, m., batra, & d., parikh, d. (2016), measuring machine intelligence through visual question answering, ai magazine, 37(1), 63-72. zullo, l., sumbre, g., agnisola, c., flash, t., & hochner, b. (2009). nonsomatotopic organization of the higher motor centers in octopus., current biology, 19(19), 1632-16326. wechsler, d. (1939). the measurement of adult intelligence. baltimore (md): williams & witkins. winklerová, z. (2013). maturity of the particle swarm as a metric for measuring the collective intelligence of the swarm, in y. tan, y. shi, h. mo (eds.), advances in swarm intelligence, lecture notes in computer science, 7928, 40-54. yang, k., galis, a., guo, x., & liu, d. (2003). rule-driven mobile intelligent agents for realtime configuration of ip networks. in v. palade, r.j. howlett, l. jain (eds.) international conference on knowledge-based intelligent information and engineering systems, lecture notes in computer science, 2773, 921-928. laszlo barna iantovics received his b.sc and m.sc degree in mathematics and informatics at the transylvania university of brasov; a ph.d. in artificial intelligence at babes-bolyai univ. of cluj-napoca and finished a postdoctoral study in artificial intelligence at alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi. dr. iantovics recently is associate professor at petru maior university, teaching also at university of medicine and pharmacy from tirgu mures. he is the director of the research center “advanced computational technologies” from petru maior university. his principal research interests include the intelligent systems, measuring the machine intelligence, computational intelligence, biostatistics, and artificial intelligence applied for difficult problems solving in healthcare, topics on that he published dozens of papers and book chapters and contributed to more research projects as project director or researcher. adrian gligor is associate professor at the "petru maior university" of tîrgumureș at the electrical engineering and computers department. he has received his b.sc in automation and industrial informatics (1997), m.sc in advanced systems for energetic and industrial process control (1999) from "petru maior university" of tîrgu-mureș and phd in civil engineering (2007) from technical university of cluj napoca. his areas of research interest include real-time and embedded systems, process control, system modeling, high performance computing and artificial intelligence. he has brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 94 (co-) authored 6 books or book chapters, more than 75 scientific papers published in journals or conferences proceedings, member in international program committee of 3 conferences and workshops. dr. muaz m. niazi is chief scientific officer (professor) at the comsats institute of it, islamabad, pakistan. he has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, an ms, and a phd in computer sciences from boston university, ma, usa, and the university of stirling, scotland, uk respectively. his areas of research interest include modeling, simulation, and engineering of complex adaptive systems (cas) using various techniques such as agent-based and complex network based approaches. dr. niazi is the founding editor-in-chief of springer nature complex adaptive systems modeling and igi global’s international journal of privacy and health information management. anna iuliana biró is currently working as lecturer at university of medicine and pharmacy tirgu-mures, and as rheumatologist at emergency clinical county hospital tirgu-mures, romania. she is member of romanian society of rheumatology, hungarian association of rheumatologists and member of hungarian academy of sciences. she has published 37 scientific papers as first author or co-author. her research focus is on clinical and therapeutic aspects of inflammatory rheumatic diseases, and includes rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus as well as spondyloarthritis. dr. sándor miklós szilágyi, professor at the "petru maior” university of tîrgu-mureș has received his bsc in automation and industrial informatics (1996) from "petru maior” university of tîrgu-mureș, phd in computer science (2008) from budapest university of technology and economics and habilitation in informatics (2016) from "babeș bolyai” university of cluj napoca. his areas of research interest include artificial intelligence, biological system modeling, parallel and distributed computing, real-time systems and bioinformatics. he has (co-) authored 8 books or book chapters, more than 100 scientific papers, more than 25 conferences participation, member in international program committee of 3 conferences and workshops. daniel tokody is a doctoral candidate at doctoral school of safety and security sciences, óbuda university, budapest, hungary. he is an electrical engineer (bsc and msc). daniel tokody is the general board member of association of hungarian phd and dla students and member of ieee smc technical committee on homeland security. daniel does research in safety engineering, electrical engineering and railway engineering. his areas of research interest include intelligent systems, intelligent cooperative systems development, and safety-critical systems. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 47 social media as medical validator laura broasca computer and information technology department, automation and computers faculty, politehnica university of timisoara, piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006, romania phone: 0256 403 000 laura.broasca@cs.upt.ro versavia-maria ancusa computer and information technology department, automation and computers faculty, politehnica university of timisoara, piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006, romania phone: 0256 403 000 versavia.ancusa@cs.upt.ro horia ciocarlie computer and information technology department, automation and computers faculty, politehnica university of timisoara, piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006, romania phone: 0256 403 000 horia.ciocarlie@cs.upt.ro abstract big data mining can lead to previously undiscovered links between genes, diseases, symptoms, drugs, etc. however, this mathematical correlation needs medical confirmation and that implies additional efforts of time, human and financial resources that are not always possible. internet reviews, posts, hashtags can establish an informal corroboration tool, easily available. this paper explores the receptiveness towards a negative bias in health-related electronic word of mouth. keywords: electronic word of mouth (ewom), complex networks 1. introduction the electronic word of mouth (ewom) paradigm (yoo, gretzel, & zach, 2011) is a communication form, adapted to the globalized, digitalized world in which we live today, where persons that never met, communicate in this impersonal manner (chung & buhalis, 2008). precisely this impersonal factor is the one that offers credibility (ayeh, au, & law, 2013) to a product / company / notion as differences in opinion and the emergence of a general personalized image create trust and confidence in that reality (litvin, goldsmith, & pan, 2008). conversely, when evaluating credibility of the ewom, the social factors play an unexpected role, as most people use personal details clustering (park & allen, 2013) and peripheral cues (metzger, flanagin, & zwarun, 2003), not a clear, logical, fact-based judgement to reach a conclusion. even so, the credibility of the ewom surpasses the one of the traditional information sources (dickinger, 2011). taking into account the aforementioned premises, this paper aims to research the following hypotheses: h1: there is a case in which social media reports medical issues with a bias towards negative experiences, even though scientific consensus opposes this view h2: positive medical issues have short lifespan and limited diffusion on social media as opposed to negative ones together, these two hypotheses can show if a social validation of mathematical correlation is sustainable and therefore can be further part (or not) in a medical discovery data mining tool. otherwise stated, the hypotheses try to determine if the intelligence of masses prevails in a social electronic environment, or is overwhelmed by emotional factors. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 48 2. state-of-the-art social media has become an important factor influencing people’s perception of the world and implicitly their decisions (brunson, 2013), therefore having a clear measure of how much it weighs comes natural. scientific applications like (correia, li, & rocha, 2016) try to take advantage of the way people represent their life on social media and extrapolate medical results. it is our belief that in order to create a more complete picture, not only one network should be used to mine for relevant data, like in (correia, li, & rocha, 2016), but a correlation of the most widely used networks should be used. facebook, youtube, twitter and instagram are the top most popular social networks in 2016 (kallas, 2016). hashtags have become an important flag which helps grouping posts by topics. these can also help extracting statistics regarding topics like vaccines, illnesses, diseases and many more. hashtags can be corroborated (one facebook post can contain multiple hashtags) and thus, the statistics may become more and more refined. vaccines, heart diseases, cancer, autism, metabolic diseases are just some of the most debated and controversial health-related discussion topics (because of their high frequency) (gerber & offit, 2009). people’s opinion on such topics can be clearly expressed in facebook posts by associating such keywords with attributes that describe their vision of them. in order to analyse the way ewom shapes general public opinion, we needed a controversial, yet well-known subject, with enough relevant information available both in the scientific and social forums. vaccines fit these requirements as they have been for some time a notorious debated subject, with people strongly divided into two opposing categories: one perspective views vaccines as being good/efficient and helping people immunize against diseases that could severely damage large masses of people, while the other completely opposite view is that vaccines have little to no effect in protecting people against illnesses (unicef, regional office for central and eastern europe and the commonwealth of independent states, 2013). these different opinions can be quantized by the ewom in terms of frequency with the help of social media tools such as google trends or public apis that help extract statistics such as the number of searches for these topics and the most used words associated with such topics: #vaccine #good, #vaccine #bad, #vaccine #autism, #vaccine #aids, #vaccine #efficiency, #vaccineswork, #dontvaccinate, #educatebeforeyouvaccinate, #vaccine #death. however, even if a good number of people inclines towards a negative opinion on vaccines, heart disease, autism, etc., this does not necessarily mean that the inefficiency of such methods is scientifically proven. some studies explain how bad news spreads faster than positive news, and generally tends to have a greater impact on people’s decisional process and their overall perspective on the topic (penn state university, 2013). in addition, easy access to social media nowadays favors the quick spread of information and opinions of all inclinations, which in turn greatly amplifies the impact on both direct users but also their immediate social circle. furthermore, negative information (scientifically proven or not) tends to be exaggerated, even though there is not a clear, logical, provable evidence to support it. in simple terms, for vaccines, there are too many factors to take into consideration when analysing the effect of treatments upon human health. starting with the preparation conditions of vaccines, transportation, storage / depositing conditions, treatment administration and combined with the special case of every patient who takes the treatment. the fact that the vaccine may interact negatively with a previous condition that the patient may suffer from and knows/does not know of, can change its outcome, etc. while the scientific world has a favourable outlook on vaccines, we shall explore them through social media. in order to evaluate their impact, we shall correlate search trends and queries, hashtag activity as well as influencers. 3. results one of the indicators that suggest an increasing interest in vaccines and treatment topics are the high number of internet blogs (weblogs), facebook posts, twitter posts, instagram posts and other types of social media websites that contain documented/undocumented information on these topics. the differentiation between research articles or plain old blog/facebook/twitter posts is not l. broască, v. m. ancusa, h. ciocarlie social media as medical validator 49 taken into account here. a google trends comparison, presented in figure 1, shows the popularity for terms like: “vaccines work”, “don’t vaccinate”, “vaccine free”, “anti vax”, ” vaccines death”. the evolution of these trends is shown over a five years’ period. in order to quantify the frequency and popularity of the considered search words, the maximum value of 100 has been assigned by google trends to the most searched-for word. this is then taken as a reference when scaling all other search words popularity. if one other term has a value of 50, it means that it has been half as searched for, compared to the one with value 100. thus, the search term “vaccine free” has the highest interest over this period of time, reaching peak popularity on 6-12 january 2013. these key words indicate an opposing attitude towards vaccines and seem to be constantly on top of any other vaccine-related search terms used over time. another negative combination of vaccine-related words which has had an increasing trend is “anti vax”, reaching its peak popularity of 79 on 1-7 february 2015 and afterwards following a crescent pattern. figure 1. google trends comparison between vaccine-related search words taking into account only the “vaccines work” search term, there is a clear periodicity associated with it, making it different from the other terms. there is a phase of rapid growth followed by a plateau (july-january), then a dip in december, followed by a surge in january, then a slow decrease until july. this could be explained through the flu season periodic variation, accounting for the holiday month for the dip. furthermore, search trends on google correlate show that people tend to be more sceptical towards these topics and expect that they have a negative health impact. google correlate works on the principle of discovering search queries similar to the one given by the user (inc, 2016). table 1 shows top queries related to the word “vaccine” sorted by their associated pearson correlation coefficients (from the most relevant to the less relevant). apart from semantically related search words like “the vaccine”, “vaccinate”, ”vaccinating”, there are neutral searches that suggest the need to find out more about the effects of vaccines, but also search words that suggest either interest on the negative effects of vaccines, either a negative opinion on them. their high correlation factors suggest they have become more and more associated with the word “vaccine” and thus, an increasing general interest or controversy. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 50 we used the same tool to investigate the correlation between the topmost negative syntaxes (positions 6, 17 and 19 from table 1) with the object of our investigation. the results are presented in figures 2, 3 and 4. table 1. correlated queries for “vaccine” search word # correlation coefficient correlated queries for "vaccine" 1 0.8889 get vaccinated 2 0.8702 the vaccine 3 0.8651 vaccinate 4 0.8424 vaccinating 5 0.8397 vaccinate or not 5 0.8377 herd immunity 6 0.8351 against vaccines 7 0.8337 vaccinations 8 0.8319 vaccinated 9 0.8306 live vaccine 10 0.825 are vaccines safe 11 0.8247 cause autism 12 0.8225 vaccine inserts 13 0.8224 ingredients in vaccines 14 0.8117 to vaccinate or not 15 0.8084 vaccines bad 16 0.8074 vaccination facts 17 0.8071 vaccine related deaths 18 0.8023 immunized 19 0.799 vaccinations cause autism 20 0.7976 vaccination statistics 21 0.797 vaccine injuries 22 0.7953 vaccine truth 23 0.7932 not vaccinating 24 0.7929 against vaccinations 25 0.7895 vaccinate your child 26 0.7886 is there mercury in vaccines 27 0.7884 vaccine debate 28 0.7874 vaccines are safe 29 0.7839 immunocompromised figures 2, 3 and 4 show that there is a close direct correlation over time between “against vaccines” / “vaccinations cause autism” / “vaccine related deaths” and “vaccine”. as the user’s interest in vaccines grows, so does their interest in the others. correlation factors vary between 0.83 and 0.79 and all of them have an increasing trend. l. broască, v. m. ancusa, h. ciocarlie social media as medical validator 51 figure 2. correlated search activity for terms “vaccines” and “against vaccines” figure 3. correlated search activity for terms“vaccines” and“vaccine related deaths” brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 52 figure 4. correlated search activity for terms “vaccines” and “vaccinations cause autism” “the units on the y-axis are standard deviations away from the mean. each time a series is normalized so that its mean is 0.0 and its standard deviation is 1.0. this puts all series on the same scale so that they’re easier to compare. google correlate only shows you positive correlations. but sometimes the negative correlations can be just as interesting”(inc, 2016). negative correlation factors suggest “queries which are negatively correlated with your data” (inc, 2016). figure 5. top 10 “#vaccine” related hashtags l. broască, v. m. ancusa, h. ciocarlie social media as medical validator 53 all three correlation figures (2, 3 and 4) show that the red line (correlated search terms) closely follows the blue line (“vaccine” topic) over the selected time frame. statistics are based on google tracked data, gathered during a period of more than 5 years. the trends supporting this increasing cautiousness, scepticism can also be observed in the type and number of facebook/twitter/instagram hashtags used by social media users. by means of hashtagify.me (a free tool for twitter hashtags analysis/statistics), a list of top 10 related twitter hashtags has been composed and is presented in figure 5. vaccines are mostly correlated with diseases but also with negative attributes such as depression, autism, death, etc. this can also be seen in figures 6 and 7 (generated via hashtagify.me) which show popularity and correlated factors for all top 10 #vaccine related hashtags. figure 6. top 10 “#dontvaccinate” related hashtags figure 7 shows a close correlation between terms like #vaccine, apart from the increasing popularity of #autism. among the negative related words are #depression (also with an increased popularity of 63.9). the weekly trend refers to week starting with the 24th to the 30th of october and the monthly trend encompasses hashtag trends for the whole month of october 2016. these statistics come to show that a negative bias is becoming more present in the use of twitter hashtags. however, this does not mean that all the information spread via tweets is negative or that the people contributing to this trend are actually medical specialists or doctors. one other factor that can increase the speed of information propagation is the people, which are most influential social media-wise. the number of followers (twitter and facebook) or number of friends (facebook) is a good indicator towards how much influence people have over their social circle. it comes natural then to discover how many of them have good documented opinion or have studies in this field. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 54 figure 7. popularity and correlation factors of top 10 #vaccine related hashtags on the one hand, top 6 twitter influencers (figure 8) for #vaccine are either large organizations (unicef, gatesfoundation, who) or very well-known people. although twitter organizations accounts do have a great number of followers, the simple fact that they represent an organization and not a single human being makes social users relate less to their opinion. despite their large number of followers, people behind billgates or hillaryclinton accounts are not necessarily popular for their experience and knowledge in the medical domain, but rather for other non-related domains (it, politics, etc.). this cannot stand as a guarantee when looking for data to validate or invalidate for that matter medical theories or discoveries. figure 8. all-time top 6 twitter influencers for #vaccine and #antivaccine hashtags (generated via hashtagify.me) l. broască, v. m. ancusa, h. ciocarlie social media as medical validator 55 on the other hand, influential people that spread or propagate negative hashtags are not all against vaccines (some tend to use both negative and positive hashtags in the same post/tweet) and, same as the case of positive influencers, do not all have a medical preparation or a solid medical knowledge. in fact, only two of these major influencers (drbloem and healthranger) are actually against vaccination. the influence of some non-scientific alarmist opinions is definitely visible to a lot of social media users and can induce a certain bias, however an attempt to triage the information they spread into categories (good or bad) and draw conclusions regarding the benefits or damaging side effects of vaccines could lead to a wrong result that would not reflect reality. 4. conclusion taking into account all that was presented, we consider that there is a tendency towards a negative bias in terms of search words, hashtags and in the ewom, therefore rendering hypothesis h1 as true. internet users propagate and read more and more negative information (compared to positive information) and are inclined to become more sceptical towards medical treatments. since the information they read and spread does not always come from scientists or people with a medical background, statistics regarding the efficiency of such treatments become less reliable or relevant. the periodicity present in positive messages, as well as the corporate nature of their backers makes them easily discarded, yet just as easily re-iterated, leaning the answer for hypothesis h2 towards mostly true. as a result, it is our opinion that medical research validation regarding controversial health subjects cannot be based (solely) on social media due to factors like negative biases, social influence (google trends, google correlate or increasing amounts of negative web content), medically unprepared people with a high visibility among social media users that spread non-scientific opinions. references ayeh, j., au, n., & law, r. (2013). do we believe in tripadvisor? examining credibility perceptions and online travelers’ attitude toward using user-generated content. journal of travel research, 4(52), 437-452. brunson, e. k. (2013). the impact of social networks on parents’. pediatrics. chung, j. y. & buhalis, d. (2008). web 2.0: a study of online travel community. (springer, ed.) information and communication technologies in tourism, 70-81. dickinger, a. (2011). the trustworthiness of online channels for experience and goal-directed search tasks. journal of travel research, 4(50), 378-391. gerber, j. s. & offit, p. a. (2009). vaccines and autism: a tale of shifting hypotheses. oxford journals. clinical infectious diseases, 48(4), 456-461. google correlate tutorial. (2016). retrieved october 10, 2016, from https://www.google.com/trends/correlate/tutorial litvin, s., goldsmith, r., & pan, b. (2008). electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management. tourism management, 29, 458-468. metzger, m. j., flanagin, a. j., & zwarun, l. (2003). college student web use, perceptions of information credibility, and verification behavior. computers & education (41), 271-290. park, s. & allen, j. (2013). responding to online reviews: problem solving and engagement in hotels. cornell hospitality quarterly, 54(1), 64-73. penn state university. (2013, april 4). on twitter, anti-vaccination sentiments spread more easily than pro-vaccination sentiments. retrieved october 10, 2016, from http://science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2013-news/salathe4-2013 unicef, regional office for central and eastern europe and the commonwealth of independent states. (2013, april ). tracking anti vaccination sentiment in eastern european social media networks. retrieved october 15, 2016, from brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 56 http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/tracking_antivaccine_sentiment_in_eastern_european_social_media_networks.pdf yoo, k., gretzel, u., & zach, f. (2011). travel opinion leaders and seekers. information and communication technologies in tourism: proceedings of the international conference (pp. 525-535). new york: springer. laura broasca (b. october 27, 1989) received her bsc in computer science (2012) and msc in advanced computer systems (2014) from “politehnica” university of timisoara. she is now pursuing her phd in computer science at the same university exploring big data and bioinformatics. versavia-maria ancusa (b. march 11, 1981) received his bsc in computer science (2004), msc in advanced computer systems (2005), phd in computer science (2009) from “politehnica” university of timisoara. now she is a senior lecturer in department of computers and information technology, automation and computer faculty, “politehnica” university of timisoara. horia ciocarlie (b. march 9, 1953) started working at politehnica university of timisoara since 1977, from 1995 reaching professor status and from 2007 being certified to lead phd research. his fertile teaching and research activity is reflected in numerous scientific publications: over 130 published papers, 12 books, 7 manuals, 6 applications compendiums, 5 e-books, 9 lecture notes. his experience is further enhanced by leading 4 international grants, 5 national grants, 15 research contracts, most of them being interdisciplinary in nature, therefore leading to many innovative researches, reflected in the 11 patents owned. his activities also reflect an active interest in the development of sustainable high-quality education and research. abstracts brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3 august 2016 www.brain.edusoft.ro editor in chief: bogdan pătruţ 1. automatic anthropometric system development using machine learning long the nguyen, irkutsk national technical university, irkutsk, russia huong thu n guyen, irkutsk national technical university, irkutsk, russia abstract the contactless automatic anthropometric system is proposed for the reconstruction of the 3dmodel of the human body using the conventional smartphone. o ur approach involves three main steps. the first step is the extraction of 12 anthropological features. then we determine the most important features. finally, we employ these features to build the 3d model of the human body and classify them according to gender and the commonly used sizes. 2. the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the "middle -aged approach" elena-mădălina vătămănescu, bucharest university of economic studies, bucharest, romania elena-alexandra gorgos, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest, romania andreia-gabriela andrei, alexandru ioan c uza university of iasi, iasi, romania vlad-andrei alexandru, center for research in management and leadership, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest, romania abstract nowadays, scholars have become interested in the ways new media influence young people, but its influence on middle-aged people have not been thoroughly examined. this age category is often ignored as most of the online activities are performed by young persons. new media gathers a wide range of phenomena which may become concepts of the network society through their diversity, knowledge and novelty. interactivity is the most important characteristic, turning the user into a content creator, not just into a receiver. moreover, what was once considered to be a personal state of mind tends to become a part of the public domain. starting from these premises, the article advances the idea that the internet can be beneficial not just for teenagers, but also for the middleaged group oriented towards keeping in touch with relatives and friends and towards finding online useful information. at this level, the present paper aims to discover direc tions given by network society in the lives of middle-aged people. to this end, the research relies on an interview-based survey which addresses the way people may adapt to communication technology and to its particularities, exploring advantages or discovering potential drawbacks. abs tracts 3. a synoptic of software implementation for shift registers based on 16 th degree primitive polynomials mirella amelia mioc, stefan cel mare university of suceava, suceava, romania abstract almost all of the major applications in the specific fields of communication used a well-known device called linear feedback shift register. usually lfsr functions in a galois field gf(2 n ), meaning that all the operations are done with arithmetic modulo n degree irreducible and especially primitive polynomials. storing data in galois fields allows effective and manageable manipulation, mainly in computer cryptographic applications. the analysis of functioning for primitive polynomials of 16th degree shows that almost all the obtained results are in the same time distribution. 4. micro expression recognition using the eulerian video magnification method elham zarezadeh, science and art university, yazd, iran mehdi rezaeian, faculty of computer engineering, yazd university, yazd, iran abstract in this paper we propose a new approach for facial micro expressions recognition. for this purpose the eulerian video magnification (evm) method is used to retrieve the subtle motions of the face. the results of this method are obtained as in the ma gnified images sequence. in this study the numerical tests are performed on two databases: spontaneous micro expression (smic) and category and sourcing managers executive (casme). we evaluate our proposed method in two phases using the eigenface method. i n phase 1 we recognize the type of a micro expression, for example emotional versus unemotional in smic database. phase 2 classifies the recognized micro expression as negative versus positive in smic database and happiness versus disgust in casme database. the results show that the eigenface method by the evm method for the retrieval of subtle motions of the face increases the performance of micro expression recognition. moreover, the proposed approach is more accurate and promising than the previous works in micro expressions recognition. 5. the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services venera-mihaela cojocariu, vasile alecsandri university of bacau, bacau, romania iuliana lazar, vasile alecsandri university of bacau, bacau, romania gabriel lazar, vasile alecsandri university of bacau, bacau, romania abstract this paper represents a thorough phase in the effort to identify and assort the strengths and weaknesses of elearning educational services. this paper reviews a synt hesis of the assessments on the e-learning educational services through a survey of the specialized literature from 2000 to 2012 in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of elearning educational services which were reported during the past decade. the steps of our approach are the following: 1. the identification of a large number of specialized studies that analyze the above mentioned issue; 2. a basic theoretical review of the research from the perspective of identifying the strengths and weakne sses of the elearning educational services and some of their implications on the intellectual development of the beneficiaries; 3. a descriptive statistical data analysis which is carried out in order to extract information about strengths and weaknesses relevant to the literature taken into consideration; 4. results classification and interpretation; 5. formulating practical suggestions for the notion of e learning educational services considering the development of studies on the impact of their use on the intellectual development of the beneficiaries. the study results highlighted that strengths and weaknesses are not 'pure', but ambivalent, simultaneously incorporating meanings and limits with different weights. a predictive model of future elearning educational services can be designed on abs tracts the basis of the results obtained in the research. this predictive model is based on a pedagogical concept that takes into account the ambivalence of the higher indices which have been identified. 6. new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheime r disease ben rabeh amira, national engineering school of tunis (enit), tunis, tunisia benzarti faouzi, national engineering school of tunis (enit), tunis, tunisia amiri hamid, national engineering school of tunis (enit), tunis, tunisia mouna ben djebara, hospital razi, manouba, tunis, tunisia abstract we describe a new computer assisted diagnosis (cad) to automatically detect alzheimer patients (ad), mild cognitive impairment (mci) and elderly controls, based on the segmentation and classification of the hippocampus (h) and corpus calosum (cc) from magnetic resonance images (mri). for the segmentation we used a new method based on a deformable model to extract the area wishes, and then we computed the geometric and texture features. for the classification we proposed a new supervised method. we evaluated the accuracy of our method in a group of 25 patients with ad (age±standard-deviation (sd) =70±6 years), 25 patients with mci (age±sd=65±8 years) and 25 elderly healthy controls (age±sd=60±8 years). for the ad patients we found an accuracy of the classification of 92%, for the mci we found 88% and for the elderly patients we found 96%. overall, we found our method to be 92% accurate. our method can be a useful tool for diagnosing alzheimer’s disease in any of these steps. 7. participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k -12 children livia ştefan, institute for computers itc sa bucharest, romania dragoş gheorghiu, doctoral school, national university of arts, bucharest, romania abstract this article details a set of participatory pedagogical experiments conducted within a research gra nt pn ii idei (”time maps. real communities, virtual worlds, experimented pasts”) performed with the purpose of helping rural communities in identifying their cultural heritage and transmitting it to the younger generations by means of modern it technologies, including web 2.0. in a danub ian rural community, several points of archaeological interest (pois) were identified, which were then included in a geographic augmented reality application for smartphones and tablets. subsequently, the geographic data we re collected from the archaeological site by the k -12 children, under the coordination of an academic staff member of the national university of arts in bucharest, and stored on their devices using google maps. the augmented information provided on the site was annotated and shared with other k-12 children, through different social networks sites (sns) and content postings. this first stage experiment was extended to the development of a social learning environment complementary to the educational site ( www.timemaps.net) to support the transmission of several traditional technologies (textile, ceramic, glass) in a collaborative manner. we consider that our experiments can significantly increase the visibility of the information pertaining to the identity of target places and communities among the younger generation. a mobilelearning paradigm, in combination with web 2.0 technologies, was the support for a distributed and low-cost platform for communication and collaboration. social networks linked the archaeological heritage and the academic research with the larger community of rural k -12 children. the article analyzes this platform as a solution for creating, collecting and sharing educational content, and presents conclusions on using social media for effective blended learning and transmittal of the cultural he ritage. abs tracts 8. prediction of thyroid disease using data mining techniques irina ioniţă, petroleum-gas university of ploieşti, ploieşti, romania liviu ioniţă, petroleumgas university of ploieşti, ploieşti, romania abstract recently, thyroid diseases are more and more spread worldwide. in romania, for example, one of eight women suffers from hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism or thyroid cancer. various research studies estimate that about 30% of romanians are diagnosed with endemic goiter. factors that affect the thyroid function are: stress, infection, trauma, toxins, low-calorie diet, certain medication etc. it is very important to prevent such diseases rather than cure them, because the majority of treatments consist in long term medication or in chirurgical intervention. the current study refers to thyroid disease classification in two of the most common thyroid dysfunctions (hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism) among the population. the authors analyzed and compared four classification models: naive bayes, decision tree, multilayer perceptron and radial basis function network. the results indicate a significant accuracy for all the classification models mentioned above, the best classification rate being that of the decision tree model. the data set used to build and to validate the classifier was provided by uci machine learning repository and by a website with romanian data. the framework for building and testing the classification models was knime analytics platform and weka, two data mining software. 9. an efficient combined meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the traveling salesman proble m majid yousefikhoshbakht, bu-ali sina university, hamedan, iran azam dolatnejad, islamic azad university, tehran, iran abstract the traveling salesman problem (tsp) is one of the most important np-hard problems and probably the most famous and extensively studied problem in the field of combinatorial optimization. in this problem, a salesman is required to visit each of n given nodes once and only once, starting from any node and returning to the original place of departure. this paper presents an efficient evolutionary optimization algorithm developed through combining imperialist competitive algorithm and linkernighan algorithm called (micalk) in order to solve the tsp. the mic alk is tested on 44 tsp instances involving from 24 to 1655 nodes from the literature so that 26 best known solutions of the benchmark problem are also found by our algorithm. furthermore, the performance of micalk is compared with several metaheuristic algorithms, including ga, ba, iba, ica, gsap, abo, pso and bco on 32 instances from tsplib. the results indicate that the micalk performs well and is quite competitive with the above algorithms. 10. a repeated signal difference for recognising patterns kieran greer, distributed computing systems, belfast, uk abstract this paper describes a new mechanism that might help with defining pattern sequences, by the fact that it can produce an upper bound on the ensemble value that can persistently oscillate with the actual values produced from each pattern. with every firing event, a node also receives an on/off feedback switch. if the node fires then it sends a feedback result depending on the input signal strength. if the input signal is positive or larger, it can store an ‘on’ switch feedback for the next iteration. if the signal is negative or smaller it can store an ‘off’ switch feedback for the next iteration. if the node does not fire, then it does not affect the current feedback situation and receives the switch command produced by the last active pattern event for the same neuron. the upper bound therefore also represents the largest or most enclosing pattern set and the lower value is for the actual set of firing patterns. if the pattern sequence repeats, it will oscillate between the two abs tracts values, allowing them to be recognised and measured more easily, over time. tests show that changing the sequence ordering produces different value sets, which can also be measured. 11. an energy-saving concept of the smart b uilding power grid with separated lines for standby devices dmytro zubov, universidad politécnica de san luis potosí, san luis potosí, mexico abstract standby power takes 5-10 % of the residential electricity around the world. some countries lose more than 14 % of the total electricity used in the residential sector. hence, a new energy-saving concept that could help to decrease the power losses is discussed in this paper. firstly, the two power lines of infrastructure for continuously connected equipment and for standby devices is proposed for new smart buildings. secondly, the segmented infrastructure with unified hardware units is proposed for existing smart buildings (the new one can apply this principle as well). the contactors (i.e. unified hardware units) consist of the nodemcu lua esp8266 wifi iot development board, acs712t elc-30a current sensor, and the songle relay. the automatic mode is based on three steps: measurement of the current using acs712t elc -30a sensor in all segments except the root; switching off the relays with the current less than or equal to any numb er in the historical data; switching off the root contactor if all the descendent relays (i.e. contactors) are switched off. second step represents the linear classification with sliding window in machine learning. the software consists of two parts, lowlevel arduino sketches and highlevel c# windows form app. they are connected by mqtt broker mosquitto. the proposed concept was successfully tested using a prototype with three segments, one of which includes smart lighting. the payback period is of approximately one month and a half for the whole-building switch concept. instructions for authors author guidelines authors must submit their papers via email to brain@edusoft.ro or they can create an account and submit their papers online, at www.brain.edusoft.ro. submitted papers must be written in doc format (microsoft word document), in as clear and as simple as possible english. preferred maximum paper length for the papers is 20 pages, including figures. the template for the paper is at this address: http://brain.edusoft.ro/ne w_te mplate_for_brain.doc the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point times new roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. the title will be bold 14-point, and the author will be 12-point italic. figures have caption in bottom-center side, and tables have captions in left-top side. use a tab for identing each paragraph and the subtitles, too. the subtitles will be bold 12-point. please use microsoft word 97-2003, or word 2010, 2013. we encourage the authors to use the camera ready format even for the first submission. all paper submissions will be carefully reviewed b y an editor, and by the members of the scientific board or independent experts, who will provide a written feedback with comments and ratings. authors will be notified of acceptance in maximum 3 weeks. accepted manuscripts should be revised according to the comments of the reviewers and of the editors. for questions concerning manuscript submission, contact mr. bogdan patrut by mail at bogdan@edusoft.ro. submission preparation checklist as part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 1. the submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the editor). 2. the submission file is in microsoft word (doc, docx) or rtf document file format. 3. where available, urls for the references have been provided. 4. the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 5. the text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the author guidelines, which is found in about the journal. 6. the instructions in ensuring a blind review have been followed. ensuring a blind peer review to ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. this involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: brain. broad res earch i n arti fi ci al intelli gence and neuros ci ence vol ume 5, is s ues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (onli ne), issn 2068 0473 (pri nt) 1. the authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. 2. with microsoft office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under file in word), by clicking on the following, beginning with file on the main menu of the microsoft application: file > save as > tools (or options with a mac) > security > remove personal information from file properties on save > save. 3. with pdfs, the authors' names should also be removed from document properties found under file on adobe acrobat's main menu. copyright notice authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a creative commons attribution license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work privacy statement the names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. indexing our journal is currently indexed/listed in the following indexing services and international databases: 1. emerging sources c itation index, esci web of science (thomson-reuters) 2. directory of open access journals (doaj) 3. ebsco (ebsco open access computer science, ebsco open access journals, ebsco open access medical and health collection) 4. indexcopernicus 5. the linguist list 6. google academic 7. ulrichs 8. getcited 9. genamics journalseek 10. zeitschriftendatenbank (zdb) 11. j-gate 12. sherpa/romeo 13. dayang journal system 14. public knowledge project 15. bium (bibliothèque interuniversitaire de medecine et d'odontologie) 16. newjour 17. articlereach direct 18. link+ also, some universities and organizations list our journal in their online libraries: 1. geneva foundation for medical education and research 2. base (bielefeld academic search engine) 3. river campus libraries (univ. of rochester) 4. tulips (university of tsukuba library)) 5. showa university library 6. keio university (shinamomachi media center) 7. university of pennsylvania 8. university of modena and reggio emilia 9. tel aviv university, gitter-smolarz library of life sciences and medicine 10. national autonomous university of mexico, genomic sciences center, institute of biotechnology 11. saint petersburg state university 12. university of puerto rico 13. vrije universiteit brussel 14. queensland university of technology 15. university of florida 16. john brown university 17. université paris-descartes 18. university of regensburg 19. michigan state university 20. university of colorado boulder 21. university of glasgow 22. washington university in saint louis 23. wayne state university 24. california state university, long beach 25. brown university, providence, rhode island http://wokinfo.com/media/pdf/s024651_flyer.pdf 26. the university of honk kong 27. university of nevada, reno 28. ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen 29. dowling college, new york state 30. colgate university, new york state http://library.colgate.edu/record=b3185340*eng tab le of conten ts 1. automatic anthropometric system development using machine learning 5 long the nguyen, huong thu nguyen 2. the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the "middle -aged approach" 16 elena-mădălina vătămănescu, elena-alexandra gorgos, andreia-gabriela andrei, vlad-andrei alexandru 3. a synoptic of software implementation for shift registers based on 16 th degree primitive polynomials 31 mirella amelia mioc 4. micro expression recognition using the eulerian video magnification method 43 elham zarezadeh, mehdi rezaeian 5. the ambivalence of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning educational services 55 venera-mihaela cojocariu, iuliana lazar, gabriel lazar 6. new computer assisted diagnostic to detect alzheime r disease 75 ben rabeh amira, benzarti faouzi, amiri hamid, mouna ben djebara 7. participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k -12 children 94 livia ştefan, dragoş gheorghiu 8. prediction of thyroid disease using data mining techniques 115 irina ioniţă, liviu ioniţă 9. an efficient combined meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the traveling salesman proble m 125 majid yousefikhoshbakht, azam dolatnejad 10. a repeated signal difference for recognising patterns 139 kieran greer 11. an energy-saving concept of the smart b uilding power grid with separated lines for standby devices 148 dmytro zubov abstracts 157 instructions for authors 162 © 2016 edusoft microsoft word brain_8_2017_issue_1_vers3.docx 17 sentiment analysis on embedded systems blended courses răzvan bogdan department of computers and information technology, politehnica university of timisoara, piata victoriei nr. 2, 300006 timisoara, romania razvan.bogdan@cs.upt.ro abstract massive open online courses (moocs) have been producing an electrified feeling in the academic circles since 2012. this was amplified once profit initiatives like coursera and udacity joined their forces with renowned universities like stanford, harvard and the massachusetts institute of technology. this paper presents a modality of integrating embedded systems moocs into blended courses, but at the same time it provides an evaluation of this approach: the sentiment analysis technique. such an evaluation not only reveals the polarity, but also valuable insights into improving the course content and integration of moocs into the intricacies of teaching embedded systems. keywords: massive open online courses (moocs), embedded systems, blended courses, sentiment analysis. 1. introduction massive open online courses (moocs) started to become a paradigm in higher education in 2012, when coursera, edx and udacity commenced the large scale promotion of open online courses. the lectures in this case may include videos, quizzes and online assessments, group discussions, but also peer review (russell & klemmer, 2013; xia, 2015; baran & baraniuk, 2016). even if initially moocs launched their journey as stand-alone courses, they started to be used in blended courses. different approaches are available in scientific literature (holotescu & grosseck, 2014; bicen & ozdamli, 2014; bruff & fisher, 2013) which present a spectrum of courses that were taught in a successful mix between classical teaching methods and moocs. one type of courses which is still underrepresented in the field of blended courses is that of embedded systems. different methods and techniques have been researched in teaching stateof-the-art academic courses (chirila & ciocarlie, 2015), but also embedded systems courses in general (bogdan, 2016; malchow & renz, 2016; malchow & bauer, 2016). students not only have to understand and apply specific programming techniques (babori & fassi, 2016), but they also have to cope with specific notions like ports, analogue to digital converters, pulse width modulation, registers and so on. students often tend to better understand a specific embedded systems concept when being explained by several persons, in different ways. this further helps them in practical activities and projects. one state-of-the-art technique which is used to recognize and extract subjective information in different corpora is sentiment analysis (cambria & schuller, 2016; tang & wei, 2016; schouten & frasincar, 2016). this technique is currently applied to determine “the attitude of a speaker or a writer with respect to some topic or the overall contextual polarity of a document” (charissiadis & karacapilidis, 2016). the classification of polarity in a certain corpus is meant to determine if the opinion is positive, negative or neutral, so that a certain product is improved (grimes, 2014). such a technique has been successfully applied to analyzing reviews, texts, social media comments in order to make use of the results on a plethora of applications, especially brand decisions, customer service and marketing. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 18 the aim of this paper is to understand, based on sentiment analysis, how students react to blending embedded systems moocs into embedded systems courses. the blending variant (holotescu & grosseck, 2014) is with no synchronization applied to embedded systems courses at “politehnica” university of timisoara, in romania, third year of study. based on the obtained results, different adjustments can be performed towards the practical blending process, but, above all, towards a better understanding of the notions by the students. the rest of this paper is organized as follows: the second section presents relevant previous work, while section three offers the used methodology. the last section is offering the obtained results and conclusions. 2. previous work this paper is dealing with two main themes: the first one, integrating moocs in embedded systems courses, and the second one, evaluating such a blending by means of sentiment analysis. integrating moocs in blended courses has been successfully presented by several authors in their works (holotescu & grosseck, 2014; bicen & ozdamli, 2014; bruff & fisher, 2013), being applied to different courses such as web programming and machine learning. holotescu & grosseck (2014) develop and apply both the methodology and the modalities in which moocs can be integrated into blended courses are described. the pedagogical benefits of such a technique vary from learner-centric teaching, offering self-paced study, skills development for collaborative environments and also building skills for continuing and autonomous learning. moocs evaluation has been treated in the literature from different angles. first of all, in baran & baraniuk (2016) is presented a very thought-provoking discussion about the future of moocs from both the time and economical points of view. in lei & hou (2016) is proposed a very interesting evaluation system based on facial expression. each subject is given a certain number of tasks and the face reactions are being recorded. the reactions are further on analyzed based on seven emotional engagement attributes and three sentiment engagement attributes. in pireva & imran (2016) a learner decision journey framework is proposed for analyzing moocs in order to generate future improvements. teaching embedded systems topics has been quite largely presented in scientific literature. a very interesting paper is that of baran & baraniuk (2016) where the authors are largely describing their experience of developing signal processing moocs. the involved educators are coming from école polytechnique fédérale de lausanne, the massachusetts institute of technology and rice university. in bogdan (2016) a project for teaching embedded systems by e-learning techniques is presented. such a solution can be applied to embedded systems-related industries, such as the automotive industry. in malchow & renz (2016) and malchow & bauer (2016) is presented the case of teaching different programming languages such as java by using embedded systems devices (leds, sensors, development boards). according to grimes (2014) sentiment analysis can be used for business improving, based on customer experience, surveys, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. in this regard, textual data offers useful information on how a particular product has impacted a certain market, but most of all, how the product can be improved. the problem of analyzing individuals’ sentiments based on their tweets is presented in maharani (2014) and gautam & yadav (2014). the opinion is classified in sentiment classes, being used as a key factor in decision making. such results can be used for customer review classification where the opinions are positive, negative or neutral. relevant techniques and tools regarding sentiment analysis are presented in cambria & schuller (2016), while tang & wei (2016) provide a method to design neural networks for learning task-specific word embedding in order to take into consideration the sentiment transmitted by the text. in schouten & frasincar (2016) is presented an algorithm r. bogdan image finder mobile application based on neural networks sentiment analysis on embedded systems blended courses 19 which deals with aspect-level sentiment analysis. in this case the sentiment is aggregated on different entities being present within the analyzed text. 3. methodology this paper is presenting a modality in which embedded systems massive open online courses (moocs) can be integrated in a traditional course, but more important is offering a sentiment analysis research of the impact that this integration had upon students. the study is applied to embedded systems course which is taught at “politehnica” university of timisoara, third year of study. two categories of students were involved: the on-site students and distance learning students. the first group is faced with a traditional approach of teaching a course (namely, face to face meetings, presentations and discussions) while for the second one, the platform which is used is called the virtual campus of “politehnica” university of timisoara (https://cv.upt.ro/course/view.php?id=1563). messages, assisted activities, homework and so on were posted on the virtual space of the course. the topics of the embedded systems course vary from introductory elements (like ports, analogue-to-digital converters, pulse width modulation, buses etc.) to advanced ones (design, testing based on international software testing qualifications board certification etc.). the goal of integrating moocs in traditional embedded systems courses is to broaden students’ practical perception of embedded systems intricacies, but also to allow students to become aware of the mooc technologies. such integration would not be complete if the process itself is not evaluated (bicen & ozdamli, 2014), therefore the second major goal is to realize a sentiment analysis on the feedback received from the students. this way, not only can the polarity of such a blending be discovered, but also insights into further developing the course are reveled. 3.1. research methods the utilized research methods can be divided into two major tracks: activities pertaining to the moocs integration into the blended course and specific methods used to obtain the results of the sentiment analysis. a. integrating massive open online courses into embedded systems courses the first meeting of the class for the blended course was meant to offer students a presentation on moocs. for distance-learning students a special activity was created, entitled moocs in embedded systems. as a mandatory activity, they were asked to enroll in such a course and complete at least 30% of the mooc activities, counting to 20% of their final mark in the blended course. further steps were taken in order to complete such integration. a) moocs’ selection: in the first lecture different mooc platforms were presented, such as coursera, edx, udemy, but also moocs directories (https://www.mooclist.com/?static=true) and students were asked to choose an embedded systems-related course. at the end of the activity a survey was conducted, which was the base of the sentiment analysis part. for those students who completed more than 60% of the chosen mooc, the theoretical part of the blended course was recognized as passed. b) students were asked to actively participate in the mooc’s activities, without paying any course subscription, unless they desired to obtain a certification. c) the students had to create a learning portfolio containing questions from the forums, quizzes, assignments, proof of lecture progress and so on. at the end of the activity, this portfolio was supposed to be submitted for evaluation. b. the methodology used to obtain the sentiment analysis results in order to perform the sentiment analysis, the following steps were followed: brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 20 a) one of the steps while integrating moocs in the embedded systems course was to complete an online english survey regarding the moocs in embedded systems activities. special sections of the survey were designed in such a way so that students should be able to write large comments and feedbacks. this information represented the base for our sentiment analysis (corpus for analysis). b) giving the fact that the survey was conducted in english, further corrections were supposed to be applied. c) in order to have a clear understanding of the sentiment of the students, different tools for sentiment analysis were searched. in this regard, we decided to analyze our corpus with the natural language toolkit (nltk) platform which is based on the python programming language (nltk, 2016), with semantria, which is a software coming from lexalytics (semantria, 2016), and also with vivekn (vivekn, 2016). another interesting sentiment analysis tool called sentistrength is presented in thelwall & buckley (2012) and sentistrength (2016), but it presents a limit towards the length of the analyzed text. d) obtain the positive, negative, neutral attributes from the above mentioned tools. e) based on the analysis from point c), obtain the areas where the course should be improved. f) based on the analysis from point c), obtain the main textual categories and a sentiment score for each category. g) perform a sentiment analysis of the tweets from tweeter which are related with integrating embedded systems courses into blended courses. h) compare of the obtained results in point c) with the polarity obtained in analyzing the tweets. 4. the results obtained from the sentiment analysis point of view from the two specializations where the integration of moocs into blended courses was applied (on-site and distance-learning), a total number of 72 students were enrolled in this activity; 57 students (79.16%) chose to complete the survey. in order to determine the sentiment analysis from the corpus collected during the students’ survey, the proposed steps from the previous section were implemented. table 1. polarity results from different tools # used tool positive neutral negative 1 natural language toolkit (nltk) x 2 semantria x 3 vivekn x in table 1 the results from nltk, semantria and vivekn are summarized. it can be seen that the polarity of the corpus is positive for all three tools. the students appreciated the blended course and moocs integration as a positive experience. a special case is that of sentistrength whose results are not relevant giving the fact that only one sentence at a time could be analyzed. in figure 1 the semantria output is presented, having a positive polarity, with a score of 0.218. what is interesting to note here are the keywords extracted from students’ feedback. they noticed the integration of moocs in the embedded systems course as positive due to the fact that the new information is perceived as easier and the gained knowledge seems to be valuable. students are affected by too many concepts and also by the idea of paying for the course. r. bogdan image finder mobile application based on neural networks sentiment analysis on embedded systems blended courses 21 figure 1. semantria result figure 2. twitter sentiment analysis results figure 3. sentiment analysis on extracted themes figure 3 is presenting the sentiment analysis results from the point of view of the themes extracted from the corpus. the same preoccupation for the cost of the course is revealed, but this time the fact that moocs are free is appreciated. students perceive that an integration of moocs into blended courses leads to a rapid information of the topics, such a feature receiving a high positive score of +3.46. the detailed explanations in this blended approach received a positive impact from the students with a total score of +2.70, but also the gained knowledge is among the most highly rated corpus themes. in order to validate our results, the next step was to extract the sentiment analysis from tweeter’s tweets (figure 2) which are based on blending embedded systems-related courses. the obtained polarity is positive, so this results shows not only that students appreciated this in a positive manner, but also that the proposed technique for integrating moocs into embedded systems courses is a viable one. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 22 5. conclusion this paper presents a modality in which specific massive open online courses (moocs) can be integrated into a blended embedded systems course in a non-synchronous way. such a field of study possesses different challenges in terms of theoretical notions, but also practical appliances. at the same time, embedded systems are the motor which is developing the internet of things and smart cities, so great concern is devoted to how students perceive different techniques of teaching embedded systems, like the one presented in this paper. in order to evaluate this technique, this paper is using sentiment analysis offering the polarity, but also information on how the course can be improved. the obtained results are very encouraging since the students had a positive polarity to the integration of moocs in embedded systems courses, and their answers also showed which parts need further consideration. references babori, a., fihri fassi, h., hariri, a., bideq m. (2016). an e-learning environment for algorithmic: toward an active construction of skills, world journal on educational technology, 8(2). baran, t., baraniuk r., oppenheim a., prandoni p., vetterli m. (2016). mooc adventures in signal processing, ieee signal processing magazine, 33(4), 62 83. bicen, h., ozdamli, f., uzunboylu, f. (2014), online and blended learning approach on instructional multimedia development courses in teacher education, interactive learning environments, 22(4), 529 – 548. bogdan, r. (2016), guidelines for developing educational environments in the automotive industry, 1st international conference on smart learning ecosystems and regional developments, timisoara, romania. bruff, d. o., fisher, d. h., mcewen, k. e., smith, b. e. (2013). wrapping a mooc: student perceptions of an experiment in blended learning, journal of online learning & teaching, 9(2). cambria, e., schuller, b., xia, y., havasi, c. (2016). new avenues in opinion mining and sentiment analysis, ieee intelligent systems, 28(2), 15 21. charissiadis, a., karacapilidis, n. (2015). strengthening the rationale of recommendations through a hybrid explanations building framework, proceedings of the 7th kes international conference on intelligent decision technologies, 311 – 325. chirila, c.-b., ciocarlie, h., stoicu-tivadar, l. (2015). generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions, brain broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, bacau, romania, 6(1-2), pp. 1-16. gautam, g., yadav, d. (2014). sentiment analysis of twitter data using machine learning approaches and semantic analysis, seventh international conference on contemporary computing, india, 437 442. grimes, s., (2014), text analytics 2014: user perspectives on solutions and providers, alta plana, available at: http://www.digitalreasoning.com/resources/text-analytics-2014digital-reasoning.pdf holotescu, c., grosseck, g., creţu, v., & naaji, a. (2014), integrating moocs in blended courses, 10th international scientific conference elearning and software for education, bucharest, romania, issn 2066 026x. lei, c., hou, x., kwok, t. et. al. (2015), advancing mooc and spoc development via a learner decision journey analytic framework, ieee international conference on teaching, assessment, and learning for engineering (tale), united international college, zhuhai, china, 149 -156. r. bogdan image finder mobile application based on neural networks sentiment analysis on embedded systems blended courses 23 maharani, w. (2013), microblogging sentiment analysis with lexical based and machine learning approaches, international conference of information and communication technology (icoict), indonesia, 439 443. malchow m., renz j., bauer m., meinel c. (2016), improved e-learning experience with embedded led system, annual ieee systems conference (syscon), 1 – 6. malchow m., renz j., bauer m., meinel c. (2016), enhance embedded system e-learning experience with sensors, ieee global engineering education conference (educon), 175 183. “official site of sentistrength”, [online]. available: http://sentistrength.wlv.ac.uk/, accessed 15 november 2016 “official site of nltk”, [online]. available: http://www.nltk.org/, accessed 15 november 2016 “official site of semantria”, [online]. available: https://www.lexalytics.com, accessed 15 november 2016 “official site of vivekn”, [online]. available: http://sentiment.vivekn.com/, accessed 15 november 2016 pireva, k., imran, a., dalipi, f. (2015), user behaviour analysis on lms and mooc, ieee conference on e-learning, e-management and e-services, melaka, indonesia, 21 -26. russell, d., klemmer s., fox a., latulipe c., duneier m., losh, e. (2013), will massive online open courses (moocs) change education?, in chi '13 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems (chi ea '13), new york, usa, 2395-2398. schouten, k., frasincar, f. (2016), survey on aspect-level sentiment analysis, ieee transactions on knowledge and data engineering, 28(3), 813 830. tang, d., wei, f., qin, b., yang, n., liu, t., zhou, m. (2016), sentiment embeddings with applications to sentiment analysis, ieee transactions on knowledge and data engineering, 28(2), 496 509. thelwall, m., buckley, k., paltoglou, g., (2012), sentiment strength detection for the social web, journal of the american society for information science and technology, 63(1), 163173. xia, b.s. (2015), benefit and cost analysis of massive open online courses: pedagogical implications on higher education, international journal of cyber behavior, psychology and learning, 5(3), 47-55. microsoft word issue-1_vol-10.docx 20 evaluation of multidisciplinary effects of artificial intelligence with optimization perspective m. hanefi calp karadeniz technical university department of management information systems faculty of economics & administrative sciences 61080, trabzon, turkey phone: +90 462 377 3000 mhcalp@ktu.edu.tr abstract artificial intelligence has an important place in the scientific community as a result of its successful outputs in terms of different fields. in time, the field of artificial intelligence has been divided into many sub-fields because of increasing number of different solution approaches, methods, and techniques. machine learning has the most remarkable role with its functions to learn from samples from the environment. on the other hand, intelligent optimization done by inspiring from nature and swarms had its own unique scientific literature, with effective solutions provided for optimization problems from different fields. because intelligent optimization can be applied in different fields effectively, this study aims to provide a general discussion on multidisciplinary effects of artificial intelligence by considering its optimization oriented solutions. the study briefly focuses on background of the intelligent optimization briefly and then gives application examples of intelligent optimization from a multidisciplinary perspective. keywords: artificial intelligence; intelligent optimization; optimization; swarm intelligence; metaheuristics. 1. introduction technology is a triggering factor in changing life style of people communities and developing the future of the world. after the industrial revolution, technological developments have gained a positive momentum to provide effective technological tools and because of that, our life has always affected by new technologies. at this point, computer and communication technologies have also another revolutionary role in especially 20th century and they have caused the virtual world to dominate the real world (jones, 1998, winston, 2002, thurlow et. al., 2004). in detail, there are many different kinds of technological tools discussed widely but artificial intelligence and the intelligent technologies are recently has the spotlights on them. nowadays, there is a remarkable interest in using intelligent technologies to solve especially daily life problems. the role of artificial intelligence in transforming our lives into an automated one and making our daily life more practical in this way has been a usual thing for majority of people. but on the background, there is a long historical way taken by the field of artificial intelligence. although it was firstly affected scientific community and scientific research studies greatly, results of technological developments have started to affect our lives after especially start of the 21st century. today, it is possible to see effects of artificial intelligence and its intelligent approaches, methods, and techniques in almost all fields of the life (russell & norvig, 2016; michalski et. al., 2013; mccorduck, 2009). because real world problems are generally associated with classification, suggestion, clustering, control, prediction, optimization or recognition, artificial intelligence has become an important solution tool for many fields (russell & norvig, 2016; nilsson, 2014; nabiyev, 2005; elmas, 2007; ghahramani, 2015; calp & akcayol, 2018; dener & calp, 2018; sahin et. al., 2014; erkalan et. al., 2012). actually, our problems in even different fields of the life can be solved with those solution approaches and because intelligent techniques – algorithms by artificial intelligence has enough flexibility and robustness to be adapted in different forms of problems, popularity of m.h. calp evaluation of multidisciplinary effects of artificial intelligence with optimization perspective 21 artificial intelligence has increased rapidly day-by-day. at this point, especially optimization has an effective role on improving the literature of artificial intelligence and it has even formed a separate literature in time. although optimization techniques – algorithms of artificial intelligence has no mechanism like learning from samples (machine learning), they are widely used in real world problems. objective of this study is to provide a general discussion of the role of artificial intelligence, by considering its role in solving problems with optimization perspective. because the life is full of optimization, using intelligent optimization techniques – algorithms should be evaluated by focusing on different fields, which means a multidisciplinary perspective. that research is a general discussion on why the artificial intelligence is an effective scientific and technological field and why its optimization oriented solutions can be discussed to understand success of that field better. it is believed that this study will be an effective reference for anyone, who is interested in artificial intelligence, intelligent optimization and general applications in this manner. associated with the objective of the study, organization of the remaining content is as follows: the next section is devoted to general information about what is optimization and how traditional optimization was transformed into intelligent optimization by artificial intelligence. additionally, the section also provides information about mechanisms that artificial intelligence runs in order to achieve intelligent optimization. after that, the third section discussed about multidisciplinary optimization applications of artificial intelligence. in this way, it is aimed to enable readers to understand more about how intelligent optimization can be realized in different fields. following to the third section, a future direction perspective is provided under the fourth section, in order to evaluate the future with current information. finally, the content is finished with a general discussion on conclusions. 2. optimization perspective for artificial intelligence in this section, it is aimed to discuss some about how we can evaluate use of artificial intelligence from the optimization perspective. first of all, some discussion on what is optimization and how we can see mechanisms of the artificial intelligence as an optimization will be provided. after that, especially use of intelligent optimization techniques will be discussed by considering different fields. 2.1. from traditional optimization to intelligent optimization from a mathematical view, optimization can be defined as finding the most appropriate value (in terms of maximization or minimization) of a variable (or variables) for an objective model (govan, 2006; kose 2017). here, the optimization can be realized with alternative ways but the main point is to find the appropriate value by considering the objective mathematical model, its constants, variables, coefficients, and even constraints. because the events in the life can be actually defined with mathematical models, it is possible to say that the optimization is associated with all the life and its problems. because of that, optimization has been one of the most remarkable issues of especially mathematics and statistics (kose, 2017; torn & zilinskas, 1989). in a traditional manner, optimization is associated with use of some certain mathematical rules in order to solve the optimization task. but as the life becomes more difficult and advanced to be supported with technology, more advanced optimization problems have started to require use of effective and efficient solution ways. although even advanced optimization problems can be solved finally as a result of some efforts, it has become not a good way to use traditional solution ways when the time and even real-time solution became a vital factor in solution. because of that, alternative techniques – algorithms have been introduced to the literature. hill climbing algorithm is known as one these techniques and it has been widely used for optimization problems (ohashi et. al., 2003; luke, 2009). but because problems of real-life is a typical ocean related to technological improvements, more advanced optimization problems required more advanced solution ways. at brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 22 this point, artificial intelligence has become the most effective technology to derive some solutions for solving even most advanced optimization problems. mathematically, an optimization problem can be defined as follows (kose, 2017; karaboga, 2014): f(v,y) = cv + y + a (1) g(), h(), …etc. considering the equation 1, the optimization problem can include objective function(s) like f(), g(), h(),…etc. in an objective function, v, and y corresponds to variable(s), c is for coefficient(s), and the function may be supported with constants like a. it is important to mention that the variables in the function(s) can be limited with some constraints defined (kose, 2017; karaboga, 2014; mucherino & seref, 2009). the main objective is to find appropriate value(s) maximizing or minimizing the objective function(s). as the model becomes more complex, it is more vital to use advanced solution ways. intelligent optimization is currently known as the most effective one in this manner. before explaining the mechanisms of intelligent optimization, it is important to explain what kind of optimization tasks are generally solved with intelligent optimization. these are actually associated with the formation of problems but the formation of problems has the role of shaping solution techniques – algorithms in artificial intelligence. first of all, the optimization problems done by artificial intelligence are classified mainly into two types of optimization: continuous optimization, and combinatorial optimization. they can be defined briefly as follows:  continuous optimization: continuous optimization is associated with finding continuous – real numbers of optimization problems. here, problems should be modeled with objective function(s) and the function(s) should be supported with the appropriate variables, coefficients, constants, and constraints, in order to define the problem accurately (kose, 2017; andréasson et. al., 2005).  combinatorial optimization: combinatorial optimization is focused on finding the most appropriate combination of some known potential solution components, in order to reach to the desired output. in combinatorial optimization, the objective function(s) can be modeled easily but the main point here is to model the potential solution components properly (papadimitriou & steiglitz, 1998).  except from the related classification, the optimization tasks are also defined with their application time. from that perspective, there are two different optimization ways: static optimization, and dynamic optimization. it is possible to define them as follows:  static optimization: static optimization is done at a certain, specific time and because of that it does not generally need the accurate evaluation of how many times the optimization will be realized and how the time is important in this manner (leonard et. al., 1992).  dynamic optimization: dynamic optimization is done along a time period so it is important to control the optimization and the problem accurately. because of that, it is possible to express that the dynamic optimization may be also called as real time optimization (kamien & schwartz, 2012).  another way of optimization is associated with the number of objective functions considered in the optimization problem. considering the objective functions, it is possible to talk about single-objective optimization, and multi-objective optimization:  single-objective optimization: when the target optimization model has only one objective function like f(), that is exactly a single-objective optimization problem (kose, 2017; deb, 2014). m.h. calp evaluation of multidisciplinary effects of artificial intelligence with optimization perspective 23  multi-objective optimization: when the target optimization model consists of more than one objective function like f(), g(), h(),…etc., it is possible to express that this optimization problem is a multi-objective one. here, functions may be included in some other ones and the problem can be more complex to be solved because of that (kose, 2017; deb, 2014). figure 1. classification of optimization from different perspectives 2.2. intelligent optimization mechanisms in order to achieve intelligent optimization mechanisms, artificial intelligence generally takes its power from randomness, chance factor, and heuristic solution approaches. because the real life is in a flow with lots of randomness and heuristic events caused within some chance factors. of course, it can be possible to predict the future or instant events if all the variables are known but because that’s impossible with current technological state, even intelligent optimization explains that with chance factor. as general, essential intelligent optimization mechanisms used by artificial intelligence can be explained briefly as follows:  random walk: randomness is achieved by using random values in intelligent optimization solutions. use of random values in this manner causes the particles in intelligent optimization techniques – algorithms to move within the solution space. that is briefly called as random walk. in some forms of intelligent optimization solutions, those random walks are sometimes based on some natural movements of swarms (i.e. levy flights) (kose, 2017; karaboga, 2014; wang, 2001; reynolds & rhodes, 2009).  swarm intelligence: intelligent optimization is generally inspired from the nature. in detail, intelligent optimization algorithms employ algorithmic steps including mathematical and logical approaches as connected with natural dynamics or living organisms. when living organisms are considered, it is possible to say that collective behaviors of swarms are important inspirations for intelligent optimization of artificial intelligence. furthermore, swarm oriented techniques – algorithms have caused forming a literature called as swarm intelligence under the field of artificial intelligence (kose, 2017; karaboga, 2014; kose & vasant, 2018; bonabeau et. al., 1999; eberhart et. al.; 2001; panigrahi et. al., 2011).  algorithmic flow: as general, intelligent optimization techniques are in the form of iterative algorithmic forms, by considering the other mechanisms expressed in this section. as long as the techniques use particles and direct them in the solution space till a stopping criterion, intelligent optimization mechanism can be generally explained with some typical algorithmic flows (kose, 2017; wang, 2001).  heuristic and meta-heuristic: intelligent optimization solutions are based on heuristic approaches. in addition to the mentioned other mechanisms so far, that mechanism allows brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 24 the techniques – algorithms to deal with the optimization tasks. but in time, it has been seen that some heuristic techniques – algorithms are problem dependent and because of that there has been a need for problem-independent solutions. in time, meta-heuristic techniques – algorithms, which are problem-independent, have been introduced to the associated literature (gendreau & potvin, 2010; vasant et. al., 2017; boussaï et. al., 2013; yang, 2010; sörensen et. al., 2018). figure 2. intelligent optimization mechanisms used by artificial intelligence considering the related intelligent optimization mechanisms, it is possible to see many multidisciplinary applications. such applications are generally based on continuous or combinatorial optimization problems. furthermore, some alternative artificial intelligence techniques (i.e. artificial neural networks) can be seen as optimization oriented solutions. eventually, there is a multidisciplinary characteristic of artificial intelligence event it is evaluated in the context of optimization approach. 3. multidisciplinary intelligent optimization applications multidisciplinary apply of intelligent optimization is a widely followed research interest in the scientific community. because it is an effective way to formulize real world problems with an optimization oriented approach, different fields are often interested in using artificial intelligence and its optimization solutions. some application examples can be discussed briefly as follows:  design: one of the most remarkable uses of intelligent optimization is design. the design concept here can be a physical design of a product, technical engineering of a machine or just finding appropriate components of a mathematical model explaining the exact design. in the associated literature, efforts for the optimization done over design problems are called briefly as design optimization. readers are referred to (sobieszczanski-sobieski & haftka, 1997; rao et. al., 2011; gandomi et. al., 2015; aydogdu et. al., 2016; baykasoglu & ozsoydan, 2015; de et. al., 2015; mirjalili et. al., 2017) for some remarkable and recent applications.  planning: planning is an important factor on solving many different types of real world problems. when it is evaluated in terms of optimization, planning may be accepted as a typical combinatorial optimization approach. in the applications, planning can be done for determining a business strategy, movement of logistic vehicles, figuring out paths / routes m.h. calp evaluation of multidisciplinary effects of artificial intelligence with optimization perspective 25 that buses can follow in a city, or determining an educational strategy / learning path that will be followed at an institution by considering currently rising popularity of interactive and web based educational solutions (yang et. al., 2012; wu et. al., 2010; zhong et. al., 2018). on the other hand, the optimization may be a continuous one over a function to organize the whole planning. eventually, it is important to determine exact potential solution components or values and determine the optimum way via intelligent optimization in this way. some additional, recent and remarkable examples of intelligent optimization for planning can be found at (chaurasia & singh, 2015; kumawat et. al., 2017; modiri et. al., 2015; wang et. al., 2016; fister et. al., 2015; lemos et. al., 2018).  prediction: although the prediction problem is generally solved with machine learning techniques, sometimes it can be possible to have some predictive data by using optimization approaches. here, the prediction problem is tried to be solved via optimization modelling. because the prediction is important for many fields of the modern life, it is possible to see such applications of intelligent optimization from mechanical engineering to energy studies or from biology / medical oriented studies to data oriented problems of different fields. readers are referred to (martinez et. al., 2010; de carvalho et. al., 2010; calp, 2019) for some example applications.  control: sometimes the problem of control can be effectively solved with optimization oriented solutions. in this way, it can be possible to provide even dynamic control solutions for some real world problems. the control concept here can be also a technical term to meet with the planning, which is more dynamic as occurred real-time. some examples of using intelligent optimization for control tasks can be examined from (bhatt et. al., 2010; kusiak & zhang, 2010; connor et. al., 2017) by readers.  optimizing machine learning: nowadays, a widely followed research way is to use artificial intelligence techniques in order to form hybrid systems. in detail, that is done in order to improve effectiveness and accurateness of the solution designed for the objective problem. in this sense, intelligent optimization is often used by researchers in order to train machine learning techniques. at this point, because the training of machine learning techniques is a typical optimization approach, use of intelligent optimization techniques in this way can be accepted as an application approach. in the literature, some well-known techniques like artificial neural networks or support vector machines are often employed by researchers, in order to have effective processes for training and desired results at the end (camci et. al., 2018; aljarah, et. al., 2018; thom et. al., 2018; aljarah et. al., 2018; calp, 2019). 4. future directions explanations so far have focused on how intelligent optimization is achieved thanks to artificial intelligence and also how that solution way is done in a multidisciplinary manner. moving from the explanations and considering the current state of the associated literature, it is also possible to express some perspectives on the future state. in this context, some remarkable predictions on the future are as follows:  the literature of intelligent optimization is very active and there is a great potential for the future. there has been always a remarkable effort to design and develop new optimization techniques – algorithms and it seems that the future will be same because of the unstoppable nature of arising optimization problems along with the changing, dynamic life – real world.  intelligent optimization techniques – algorithms are widely used for solving problems. however, these techniques – algorithms are also used for optimizing other artificial intelligence based solutions or traditional, mathematical solutions. in this context, researchers are generally motivated about developing hybrid systems using that solution process. because the literature of artificial intelligence is currently finding its way through brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 26 solutions, it possible to predict that the future will be connected with increased use of hybrid systems.  because of rapid technological developments, the need for dynamic and instant optimization solutions increases in time. at this point, the future will be probably based on using dynamic optimization and developing robust enough techniques – solution ways to deal with that issue.  because the real world is surrounded with all continuous and combinatorial optimization oriented problems, popularity of those optimization mechanisms will be increasing in the future. for the continuous optimization, it can be said that the complexity of multi-objective optimization problems will increase and that complexity will affect also modelling combinatorial optimization as the life will always bring more complex form of all optimization solution types.  it is clear that the multidisciplinary application scope of intelligent optimization will be alive in the future. because artificial intelligence has enough ability to deal with even predicted future problems and it is widely supported with newly developed technologies and scientific fields.  it is also clear that newer problems of real life will be tried to be solved by artificial intelligence and its related techniques. at this point, intelligent optimization will always have a flexible solution scope and employ a strong role in providing desired outputs for us. 5. conclusions this study provided a general discussion on how intelligent optimization by artificial intelligence is realized effectively in a multidisciplinary perspective. in detail, the study has started to explain essentials of optimization and focused how the transformation to intelligent optimization was done. additionally, the study has also focused on how intelligent optimization mechanisms are realized within designed techniques – algorithms. in this way, it is possible to understand how optimization takes place in the real life and how intelligent optimization has important role for solving the real problems. the literature of intelligent optimization is still remarkable for researchers and has a great potential to improve the artificial intelligence literature. the study has also provided some explanations in order point reasons for that situation. following to that, the study has also provided some discussions on multidisciplinary applications of intelligent optimization and expressed some ideas about future directions. references aljarah, i., ala’m, a. z., faris, h., hassonah, m. a., mirjalili, s., & saadeh, h. (2018). simultaneous feature selection and support vector machine optimization using the grasshopper optimization algorithm. cognitive computation, 1-18. aljarah, i., faris, h., & mirjalili, s. (2018). optimizing connection weights in neural networks using the whale optimization algorithm. soft computing, 22(1), 1-15. andréasson, n., evgrafov, a., patriksson, m., gustavsson, e., & önnheim, m. (2005). an introduction to continuous optimization: foundations and fundamental algorithms (vol. 28). lund: studentlitteratur. aydogdu, i., akin, a., & saka, m. p. (2016). design optimization of real world steel space frames using artificial bee colony algorithm with levy flight distribution. advances in engineering software, 92, 1-14. baykasoglu, a., & ozsoydan, f. b. (2015). adaptive firefly algorithm with chaos for mechanical design optimization problems. applied soft computing, 36, 152-164. bhatt, p., roy, r., & ghoshal, s. p. (2010). ga/particle swarm intelligence based optimization of two specific varieties of controller devices applied to two-area multi-units automatic generation control. international journal of electrical power & energy systems, 32(4), 299310. m.h. calp evaluation of multidisciplinary effects of artificial intelligence with optimization perspective 27 bonabeau, e., marco, d. d. r. d. f., dorigo, m., théraulaz, g., & theraulaz, g. (1999). swarm intelligence: from natural to artificial systems (no. 1). oxford university press. boussaïd, i., lepagnot, j., & siarry, p. (2013). a survey on optimization metaheuristics. information sciences, 237, 82-117. calp, m. h. (2019). a hybrid anfis-ga approach for estimation of regional rainfall amount. gazi university journal of science, 32 (1) (accepted in press). calp, m. h. (2019). an estimation of personnel food demand quantity for businesses by using artificial neural networks. journal of polytechnic, doi: 10.2339/politeknik.444380 (accepted in press). calp, m. h., & akcayol, m. a. (2018). optimization of project scheduling activities in dynamic cpm and pert networks using genetic algorithms. süleyman demirel university journal of natural and applied sciences (sdu j nat appl sci), 22(2), 615-627. camci, e., kripalani, d. r., ma, l., kayacan, e., & khanesar, m. a. (2018). an aerial robot for rice farm quality inspection with type-2 fuzzy neural networks tuned by particle swarm optimization-sliding mode control hybrid algorithm. swarm and evolutionary computation, 41, 1-8. chaurasia, s. n., & singh, a. (2015). a hybrid swarm intelligence approach to the registration area planning problem. information sciences, 302, 50-69. connor, j., seyedmahmoudian, m., & horan, b. (2017). using particle swarm optimization for pid optimization for altitude control on a quadrotor. in universities power engineering conference (aupec), 2017 australasian (pp. 1-6). ieee. de carvalho, a. b., pozo, a., & vergilio, s. r. (2010). a symbolic fault-prediction model based on multiobjective particle swarm optimization. journal of systems and software, 83(5), 868882. de, b. p., kar, r., mandal, d., & ghoshal, s. p. (2015). optimal selection of components value for analog active filter design using simplex particle swarm optimization. international journal of machine learning and cybernetics, 6(4), 621-636. deb, k. (2014). multi-objective optimization. in search methodologies (pp. 403-449). springer, boston, ma. degiacomi, m. t., & dal peraro, m. (2013). macromolecular symmetric assembly prediction using swarm intelligence dynamic modeling. structure, 21(7), 1097-1106. dener, m., & calp, m. h. (2018). solving the exam scheduling problems in central exams with genetic algorithms. mugla journal of science and technology, 4(1), 102-115. eberhart, r. c., shi, y., & kennedy, j. (2001). swarm intelligence. elsevier. elmas, c. (2007). artificial intelligence applications (artificial neural network, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms) – (in turkish). seckin press. erkalan, m., calp, m. h., sahin, i. (2012). designing and realizing an expert system to be used to profession choosing by utilizing multiple intelligences theory. international journal of informatics technologies. 5(2), 49-55. fister, i., rauter, s., yang, x. s., & ljubič, k. (2015). planning the sports training sessions with the bat algorithm. neurocomputing, 149, 993-1002. gandomi, a. h., kashani, a. r., roke, d. a., & mousavi, m. (2015). optimization of retaining wall design using recent swarm intelligence techniques. engineering structures, 103, 72-84. gendreau, m., & potvin, j. y. (2010). handbook of metaheuristics (vol. 2). new york: springer. ghahramani, z. (2015). probabilistic machine learning and artificial intelligence. nature, 521(7553), 452. govan, a. (2006). introduction to optimization. in north carolina state university, samsi ndhs, undergraduate workshop. jones, s. (ed.). (1998). cybersociety 2.0: revisiting computer-mediated community and technology (vol. 2). sage publications. kamien, m. i., & schwartz, n. l. (2012). dynamic optimization: the calculus of variations and optimal control in economics and management. courier corporation. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 28 karaboga, d. (2014). artificial intelligence optimization algorithms (in turkish). nobel press. kose, u. (2017). development of artificial intelligence based optimization algorithms (in turkish). phd. thesis. selcuk university, dept. of computer engineering. kose, u., & vasant, p. (2018). a model of swarm intelligence based optimization framework adjustable according to problems. in innovative computing, optimization and its applications (pp. 21-38). springer, cham. kumawat, m., gupta, n., jain, n., & bansal, r. c. (2017). swarm-intelligence-based optimal planning of distributed generators in distribution network for minimizing energy loss. electric power components and systems, 45(6), 589-600. kusiak, a., & zhang, z. (2011). adaptive control of a wind turbine with data mining and swarm intelligence. ieee transactions on sustainable energy, 2(1), 28-36. lemos, j. y., joshi, a. r., d’souza, m. m., & d’souza, a. d. (2018). design a smart and intelligent routing network using optimization techniques. in data management, analytics and innovation (pp. 297-310). springer, singapore. leonard, d., van long, n., & ngo, v. l. (1992). optimal control theory and static optimization in economics. cambridge university press. luke, s. (2009). essentials of metaheuristics (vol. 113). raleigh: lulu. martinez, e., alvarez, m. m., & trevino, v. (2010). compact cancer biomarkers discovery using a swarm intelligence feature selection algorithm. computational biology and chemistry, 34(4), 244-250. mccorduck, p. (2009). machines who think: a personal inquiry into the history and prospects of artificial intelligence. ak peters / crc press. michalski, r. s., carbonell, j. g., & mitchell, t. m. (eds.). (2013). machine learning: an artificial intelligence approach. springer science & business media. mirjalili, s., gandomi, a. h., mirjalili, s. z., saremi, s., faris, h., & mirjalili, s. m. (2017). salp swarm algorithm: a bio-inspired optimizer for engineering design problems. advances in engineering software, 114, 163-191. modiri, a., gu, x., hagan, a., & sawant, a. (2015, may). improved swarm intelligence solution in large scale radiation therapy inverse planning. in biomedical conference (glbc), 2015 ieee great lakes (pp. 1-4). ieee. mucherino, a., & seref, o. (2009). modeling and solving real-life global optimization problems with meta-heuristic methods. in advances in modeling agricultural systems (pp. 403-419). springer, boston, ma. nabiyev, v. v. (2005). artificial intelligence: problems, methods, algorithms (in turkish). seckin press. nilsson, n. j. (2014). principles of artificial intelligence. morgan kaufmann. ohashi, t., aghbari, z., & makinouchi, a. (2003, june). hill-climbing algorithm for efficient colorbased image segmentation. in iasted international conference on signal processing, pattern recognition, and applications (pp. 17-22). panigrahi, b. k., shi, y., & lim, m. h. (eds.). (2011). handbook of swarm intelligence: concepts, principles and applications (vol. 8). springer science & business media. papadimitriou, c. h., & steiglitz, k. (1998). combinatorial optimization: algorithms and complexity. courier corporation. rao, r. v., savsani, v. j., & vakharia, d. p. (2011). teaching–learning-based optimization: a novel method for constrained mechanical design optimization problems. computer-aided design, 43(3), 303-315. reynolds, a. m., & rhodes, c. j. (2009). the lévy flight paradigm: random search patterns and mechanisms. ecology, 90(4), 877-887. russell, s. j., & norvig, p. (2016). artificial intelligence: a modern approach. malaysia; pearson education limited,. m.h. calp evaluation of multidisciplinary effects of artificial intelligence with optimization perspective 29 sahin, i., calp, m. h., & ozkan, a. (2014). an expert system design and application for hydroponics greenhouse systems. gazi university journal of science, 27(2). sobieszczanski-sobieski, j., & haftka, r. t. (1997). multidisciplinary aerospace design optimization: survey of recent developments. structural optimization, 14(1), 1-23. sörensen, k., sevaux, m., & glover, f. (2018). a history of metaheuristics. handbook of heuristics, 1-18. thom, h. t., ming-yuan, c. h. o., & tuan, v. q. (2018). a novel perturbed particle swarm optimization-based support vector machine for fault diagnosis in power distribution systems. turkish journal of electrical engineering & computer sciences, 26(1), 518-529. thurlow, c., lengel, l., & tomic, a. (2004). computer mediated communication. sage. torn, a., & zilinskas, a. (1989). global optimization. springer-verlag new york, inc.. vasant, p., kose, u., & watada, j. (2017). metaheuristic techniques in enhancing the efficiency and performance of thermo-electric cooling devices. energies, 10(11), 1703. wang, g. g., chu, h. e., & mirjalili, s. (2016). three-dimensional path planning for ucav using an improved bat algorithm. aerospace science and technology, 49, 231-238. wang, l. (2001). intelligent optimization algorithms with applications. tsinghua university & springer press, beijing. winston, b. (2002). media, technology and society: a history: from the telegraph to the internet. routledge. wu, z., ni, z., gu, l., & liu, x. (2010). a revised discrete particle swarm optimization for cloud workflow scheduling. in computational intelligence and security (cis), 2010 international conference on (pp. 184-188). ieee. yang, x. s. (2010). nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithms. luniver press. yang, x. s., deb, s., karamanoglu, m., & he, x. (2012). cuckoo search for business optimization applications. in computing and communication systems (ncccs), 2012 national conference on (pp. 1-5). ieee. zhong, s., zhou, l., ma, s., jia, n., zhang, l., & yao, b. (2018). the optimization of bus rapid transit route based on an improved particle swarm optimization. transportation letters, 10(5), 257-268. hanefi m. calp received his ph. d. degree in 2018 from the department of management information systems at gazi university, one of the most prestigious universities in turkey. he works as assistant professor in the department of management information systems of the faculty of economics & administrative sciences of the karadeniz technical university. his research interest includes management information systems, artifical neural networks, expert systems, fuzzy logic, risk management, risk analysis, human-computer interaction, technology management, knowledge management, digital transformation and project management. microsoft word issue3.docx 98 affective-motivational responses identified by means of the pedagogical diary in the initial training of teachers venera mihaela cojocariu; prof. ph. d., “vasile alecsandri” university of bacau, romania calea mărăşeşti, nr. 157, bacău, 600115 phone: 0234 542 411 venera@ub.ro gabriel mareș “vasile alecsandri” university of bacau, romania “al. i. cuza” university of iași calea mărăşeşti, nr. 157, bacău, 600115 phone: 0234 542 411 mares.gabriel@ub.ro abstract the pedagogical diary may show a versatile utility in the initial teacher training process. our study aims to highlight the results obtained by capitalizing the pedagogical diary during a semester’s activity, the discipline of history of pedagogy, academic year 2016-2017. the sample consisted of 70 1st-year students from the pedagogy of primary and preschool education. our effort was to identify motivational-affective responses generated using the pedagogical diary and semistructured entries at the end of each seminar. the suggested structure comprised the requirement to write down the experiences generated by successively covering the curriculum topics. their qualitative analysis focused on identifying the types of affective states, their correlation with types of motivation, as well as identifying specific types of motivation. keywords: pedagogical diary, motivation, affectivity, initial teacher training 1. introduction the pedagogical diary – a tool for knowing and stimulating student motivation concerned with the increase of students' academic performance as well as their personal and professional development, teachers seek, identify, experiment, adapt and capitalize on more flexible, polyvalent, creative teaching strategies. their aim is to ensure an optimal combination of the content of learning with its form, the algorithmic aspect with the heuristic one, for a successful, balanced, exciting, attractive learning process that becomes the generator of the desire/action to learn (crețu, 2015). in this context, the pedagogical journal is a critical, reflexive teaching strategy with a strong formative impact, "an effective means of monitoring and developing reflective practice in higher education" (bruno, dell’aversana, 2017, p.1). known and exploited in practice and in research, especially for its formative virtues related to the development of metacognition, critical and reflexive thinking, the pedagogical diary is increasingly used for other associated effects. one of them is about building learning motivation. from the many theories and explanatory models, we recall those systematized by kourelis (2007): 1. achievement motivation theory; 2. self-determination theory; 3. attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction (arcs) motivation model; 4. learner orientation theory. beyond the diversity of these theories used in pedagogical diary research conducted by the mentioned author, two important conclusions are required: the integration of the pedagogical diary in the didactic process can stimulate student motivation; its impact is positive but different depending on the age of students (idem). the authors interested in finding realistic solutions to the complexity of ways to stimulate motivation by reference to these models have raised the following question: what is the best way to motivate students? williams & williams have answered by drawing the analogy with a “group of blind men discovering for the first time what an elephant is like” (2011, p.18). each of them will find a way, but none will be able to encompass the whole. in this respect, the authors give us a picture of ways to stimulate student v. – m. cojocariu, g. mareș affective-motivational responses identified by means of the pedagogical diary in the initial training of teachers 99 motivation, systematized into five key ingredients, each of them assuming and incorporating numerous opportunities for exploitation: student, teacher, content, method/process, environment (idem). their analysis highlights the compatibility and convergence of many of them with the use of the pedagogical diary. along the axis of forward and reverse determinations that includes (type of) task – type of student engagement – result – motivation, we can identify serious theoretical, practical, experimental arguments that support the pedagogical diary as a powerful motivational source for students. many of them are usually correlated with the models of motivation. for example, the model of jones (2009), the music model of academic motivation, highlights 5 components: empowerment, usefulness, success, interest and caring. a quick analysis shows how this model can relate to the effects of using the pedagogical diary for all these components. we systematize, from the literature, other arguments that directly or indirectly support the use of the pedagogical diary for training/developing motivational vectors: it generates positive effects “in enhancing motivation and self confidence” (farrah, 2012, p. 1019; walker, 2006; park, 2003); it motivates students and makes them know what they want to achieve and by what means (learning journal, 2016); “it increases active involvement in, and ownership of, learning” (moon, 2003, p.6; bruno, dell’aversana, 2017); it develops learning motivation, active engagement in one’s learning and training (trif, popescu (2013); it “encourages students to reflect on course materials” (wynne, 2010, p.4); it raises awareness of thoughts, moods, opinions which are sources of further learning improvement (mcclure, 2005); it develops the skills needed to encourage and support lifelong learning (toros & medar, 2015). resuming one of our conclusions formulated in a recent study (cojocariu, mares, 2018), we reiterate the idea that the pedagogical diary should be used “as a starting point/catalyst to generate/maintain/ activate students' motivation for their own training”. 2. research methodology the research was conducted during the 2nd semester of the 2016-2017 academic year (february-may, 14 weeks) at "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, at the discipline of the history of pedagogy. this is part of the curriculum for the pedagogy of primary and pre-school education study program, 1st year. we have explored how to use the pedagogical diary at a compulsory discipline as a first learning experience during the initial teacher training program to identify motivational-affective vectors that support the training process. research methods: content analysis of pedagogical diaries, statistical and mathematical methods. 2.1. study purpose, hypotheses and objectives purpose: the analysis of how the use of the pedagogical diary at the discipline of the history of pedagogy can be capitalized as a strategy for identifying the motivational-affective vectors that supported the activity of the students. hypotheses (h) and objectives (o): the overall hypothesis (h1): can the integration of the pedagogical diary into the teaching activity allow for the identification of motivational vectors? o1: identifying entries from the students’ diaries that illustrate the motivational vectors; o2: quantifying the entries from the students’ diaries that illustrate the motivational vectors. h2: the extrinsic motivational vectors highlighted by the pedagogical diary are more numerous than the intrinsic motivational ones: o3: establishing the degree of representativeness of extrinsic motivational vectors revealed by the students' diaries o4: establishing the degree of representativeness of intrinsic motivational vectors revealed by the students' diaries brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 100 h3: the positive motivational vectors highlighted by the pedagogical diary are more numerous than the negative motivational ones: o5: establishing the degree of representativeness of positive motivational vectors revealed by the students' diaries o6: establishing the degree of representativeness of negative motivational vectors revealed by the students' diaries h4: the affective-motivational vectors highlighted by the pedagogical diary are more numerous than cognitive-motivational ones: o7: establishing the degree of representativeness of affective-motivational vectors revealed by the students' diaries o8: establishing the degree of representativeness of cognitive-motivational vectors revealed by the students' diaries 2.2. the design of the pedagogical diary the pedagogical diary used in this research was designed for analysis from a dual perspective, as a product and process. in terms of product, we have analysed, in another context (cojocariu & mares, 2018), both the content and the form of the elaborated diaries. in terms of process, students were encouraged to reflect on the reasons that supported them in elaborating the diary, the interests they had during their work. they were asked to identify and name, step by step, (as freely and honestly as possible) the states they had experienced during the elaboration of the diary and express them in their own way. these are expressed (in terms of our research) in the following 6 indicators: 1. affective-motivational vectors; 2. cognitive-motivational vectors; 3. extrinsic motivational vectors; 4. intrinsic motivational vectors; 5. positive motivational vectors; 6. negative motivational vectors. 2.3. the research sample the sample consisted of 70 1st-year students from the pedagogy of primary and preschool education, academic year 2016-2017. they submitted 67 diaries; we identified motivationalaffective responses generated using the pedagogical diary at the end of each lecture/seminar. 2.4. procedure the group was asked to produce a pedagogical diary for the discipline of the history of pedagogy. during the first meeting, students were instructed on how to fill in the diary, at the end of each seminar, and informed on the diary’s purpose: 1. to improve learning; 2. to carry out a formative and complementary evaluation; 3. to contribute to a superior (personal and professional) development of reflexibility. there were constant reminders about filling in the diary, at the end of each seminar, regarding the affective-motivational component. the diary was handed over to the teacher after examination. the quantitative approach was used to establish and compare answer frequency; the qualitative approach was used to identify motivational vectors, classify and interpret it. all students agreed on using the diaries in this research. 2.5. stages of the study the study implied covering the following stages: 1. analysis of specialized literature and identification/selection of articles, references on the use of the pedagogical diary and reflective methods in education; 2. structuring the requirements for the development of the pedagogical diary and its realization guide in order to capture both the general reflective elements and the specific elements referring to the motivational vectors; 3. elaborating and revising the reflective guide for students; 4. presenting to students the reflexive diary working methodology; 5. practicing, with the students, during the initial seminars from the discipline history of pedagogy, of the reflexive/selfreflexive strategy; 6. covering the curriculum specific to the discipline the history of pedagogy and v. – m. cojocariu, g. mareș affective-motivational responses identified by means of the pedagogical diary in the initial training of teachers 101 the systematic filling in of the diaries by the students; 7. collecting the diaries and analysing their contents; 8. identifying the types of motivational vectors and realization of the database; 9. interpreting the data and formulating conclusions and recommendations, identifying future research/improvement directions on how to integrate and exploit the pedagogical diary in the teacher training process. 3. presentation and analysis of results after the collection of the diaries from the students who participated in our study, there followed the stage of their analysis, aiming to identify the types of motivation that led the students to get involved in the process of adding entries to their pedagogical diaries. after quantification of the results and qualitative analysis of their contents, we found that 182 reasons were issued/reported, on average each student expressed 2.71 reasons (m = 2.71), the maximum number of reasons being 8/student, and the minimum number being 2/student. following the analysis of the journals, we identified the categories of the invoked reasons and established their distribution (table 1). from the perspective of reason polarization, their distribution is presented as follows: table 1. polarization of reasons identified in the journals types of reasons number of reasons identified in the diaries, in terms of reason polarization intrinsic reasons 169 extrinsic reasons 13 positive reasons 167 negative reasons 15 cognitive reasons 96 affective reasons 86 total 182 these data enable us to state that the overall hypothesis (h1): can integrating the pedagogical diary into the teaching activity allow for the identification of motivational vectors? has been validated. the data from table 1, analysed below, confirm this hypothesis, in agreement with the reference literature. the data from table 1 highlight the predominance of intrinsic reasons (n = 169) compared to the extrinsic ones (n = 13). this may be correlated with the predisposition towards a reflective attitude of the subjects of the research. for example, the author of journal no. 66 (j66), referring to the usefulness of the seminar, asserts that it has helped her to understand “what this discipline requires, to learn new things that support her evolution and achieve her goals”; also, that: “... today's experience has helped me to become aware of the world in which i live, it has helped me realize, as socrates said, that the most important thing is to know myself”. the comparative analysis of data that reflects the intrinsic (n = 169) and extrinsic (n = 13) reasons reveals a wide difference in their weight, 13 times. these evidences confirm h2: the extrinsic motivational vectors highlighted by the pedagogical diary are more numerous than the intrinsic motivational ones. for the initial teacher training, these results are auspicious, meaning that the students who have opted for this profession start preparing with well-defined intrinsic reasons that will support them both in their academic training, especially in their future career. the comparative data analysis highlights a wide difference between positive (n = 167) and negative (n = 15) reasons, above 11 times. these data confirm h3: the positive motivational vectors highlighted by the pedagogical diary are more numerous than the negative ones. regarding the comparative analysis of the cognitive (n = 96) and affective (n = 86) reasons, we may notice that unlike the other cognitive reasons analysed above, these reasons are brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 102 very close in number, although the cognitive reasons have a slight advance to the affective ones, of only 1.11 times; hence, it is difficult to draw a conclusion on the validity or invalidity of h4: the motivational-affective vectors highlighted by the pedagogical diary are more numerous than cognitive-motivational ones. if we strictly refer to the data, the hypothesis is invalidated. given the very small difference in the results (96 cognitive, 86 affective, a difference of 10 entries) as well as the relatively small number of students who were the subject of our study, we do not have enough data to validate or invalidate this hypothesis. if the study continues on representative groups of students, sufficient data can be collected to indicate significant results. the analysis of the combination of the reasons for the participants in the study shows that the greatest share of the combination of reasons is the combination of intrinsic cognitive positive reasons (45.5%) (table 2). the arguments that support this combination of factors are: interest in the discipline and its content. for example, from j33 we find out that: “everything i learned has raised my interest and curiosity about the theme and i would like to study more thoroughly [...], i felt very good during this seminar, i came across new ideas and perspectives”. students believe that the use of the reflective diary triggers a process of self-analysis and self-reflection. for example, the same j33 writes that she has asked herself “...why education leads directly to humanization but also to loss of personal identity ...”. the combination of intrinsic-affective-positive reasons (38.4%) is supported by arguments such as: the affective response caused by content study and analysis, the joy of discovering pedagogical models that place emphasis on the emotional life of children, generating positive emotional responses based on reporting the pedagogical models to their own learning experiences or to the model of the educator/education that the student would like to offer as a teacher/future teacher. from j14, we find that “a course/seminar is more attractive when the opinions of colleagues differ, and each of them supports their views with different life experiences, with different world views”. appreciating the predominance of intrinsic cognitive positive reasons (45.5%) as an extremely important vector for learning, we highlight the relative balance between these and the intrinsic affective positive (38.4%) ones. the small difference between them (only 7.1%) as well as their total (83.9%) support and validate their complementarity and the possibility of using the pedagogical diary to highlight the motivational affective vectors that supported the activity of the students. table 2. combinations of reasons of the study participants combinations of reasons n percentage intrinsic-affective-negative 8 4,4% intrinsic-affective-positive 70 38,4% extrinsic-affective-positive 2 1% extrinsic-affective-negative 4 2,2% intrinsic-cognitive-negative 3 1,5% intrinsic-cognitive-positive 82 45,5% extrinsic-cognitivenegative 0 0 extrinsic-cognitivepositive 13 7% total of reason combinations 182 100% v. – m. cojocariu, g. mareș affective-motivational responses identified by means of the pedagogical diary in the initial training of teachers 103 in the qualitative analysis of the pedagogical diaries we have found exciting motivational perspectives, which produce unusual combinations of reasons, cognitive-affective-positive: “new learning horizons have been opened, but at the same time i felt good, relaxed, focused ...” (j50). sometimes, argumentation begins with affective-cognitive-positive reasons and then intertwines very closely with the cognitive-affective-positive ones: “i felt good with my colleagues who make me feel full of energy; they motivate me to overcome myself [...] whereas during the past seminar i was faced with difficulties [...] when i had to gather my ideas and formulate an appropriate argument, this time the debated theme was easier for me” (j14). 4. conclusions… open issues according to the data obtained and the observations made by us during the entire academic semester, we can say that the pedagogical diary proves to be both a current strategy of identifying the motivational affective vectors that supported the activity of the students (according to the purpose set by us at the beginning of the study) as well as an incentive/support/development for them. the major goal with which it is integrated in the teaching process is “to facilitate reflection and allow students to express feelings regarding their educational experiences” (walker, 2006, p. 216). the pedagogical diary is often selected by teachers and used in school practice for two distinct purposes: 1. assimilation of contents/building intellectual work skills and abilities the students participating in the study have also identified the utility as a facilitator of learning, noting that it is: “ ... a useful resource in understanding, processing and assimilation of knowledge ... i have acquired a great amount of knowledge” (j50); 2. formative/summative assessment. however, its versatility makes it possible to extend the range of reflexive use, with a significant emphasis on the following dimensions: 1. formative, involving the identification of student/students' set of values (cojocariu, mares, 2018); 2. generator of self-analysis and projection in relation to the education of one’s own children “[...] i started thinking about my son; i was wondering if he could become an educated man, able to discern between good and evil, but ... who knows?” (j27); 3. openness towards lifelong learning: “i have realized that i should read more, that permanent education should become one of the most important issues ...” (j27); 4. the correlation between professional and personal, family development: “everything that we have learned today is important for our didactic activity and not only. we have often learned things that i can also apply in my family ...“ (j27). the data obtained by us from this study reveals the fact that all the approaches presented by the students imply assuming a certain attitude and motivational-affective perspective, in most cases intrinsic and positive. we note the balance between the cognitive and emotional accents, that maintained and directed the students’ learning effort, also generating an intellectual state of reflection and an affective state of well-being, freedom of expression, authentic expression and desire for knowledge good milestones for future responsible professional engagement. while maintaining our analysis in the area of initial teacher education, we highlight two issues relevant to the further development of our studies: 1. enhancing practical and experimental approaches to capitalizing on the pedagogical diary to increase the motivation of learning in the academic environment, especially for students who are preparing for a teaching career. we base our present and future efforts on the conviction that the pedagogical diary enables learners to understand their own learning process and to increase their active involvement in learning and personal ownership of their development” (bruno, dell'aversana, 2017, p.2). from this point of view, we anticipate positive results on motivation, on school performance and the reflexive ability of future teachers. 2. expanding the study on the valences of the pedagogical diary in relation to the activity of the teacher. if the students who are now training for the teaching career are equipped with this strategy, then as teachers they will be able to use it in a double direction: for their students and for themselves. we base our expectations on the idea that “the teaching diaries will continue to be a brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 104 useful tool for developing not only methods to motivate students, but also to watch progress of both the teacher and the learner” (kourelis, 2007, p. 19). the exploitation of the pedagogical diary in these directions is not an easy one, but, reaping the benefits of the last years of studies on this topic as well as the creativity of the teachers, we appreciate that its role in the teaching activity can be extended, especially at the level of high school education and the education of adults. references bruno, a., dell’aversana, g. (2017). reflective practice for psychology students: the use of reflective diary feedback in higher education. psychology learning and teaching, 16, 248– 260. cojocariu, v.-m., mares, g. (2018). pedagogical diary a way of identifying some of the values of future primary and preschool teachers, paper presented at the fifth international conference on adult education education for values – continuity and context, iași, românia, chișinău, moldova, 2018. crețu, d. m. (2015). a model for promoting academic motivation. procedia social and behavioral sciences, vol.180, 751 – 758. farrah, m. (2012). reflective journal writing as an effective technique in the writing process. an najah univ. j. res. (humanities), vol. 26, no. 4, 997-1025. jones, b. d. (2009). motivating students to engage in learning: the music model of academic motivation. international journal of teaching and learning in higher education, 21 (2), 272-285. kourelis, e.p. (2007). a teacher's diary as a valid tool for researching student motivation, university of birmingham, 141. mcclure, p. (2005). reflection on practice, a 8resource commissioned by the making practice based learning work project, an educational development project funded through fdtl phase 4 project number 174/02 and produced by staff from the university of ulster. http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415537902/data/learning/8_reflection%20in%20pr actice.pdf. moon, j. (2003). learning journals and logs, reflective diaries. centre for teaching and learning, good practice in teaching and learning, university of exeter. park, c. (2003). engaging students inthe learning process: the learning diary. diary of geography in higher education, vol. 27, no.2, 183–199. trif, l., popescu, t. (2013). the reflective diary, an effective professional training instrument for future teachers. procedia social and behavioral sciences, vol. 93, 1070 – 1074. toros, k., medar, m. (2015). social work students’ thoughts on self-reflection: a qualitative study based on reflective diarying. international diary of humanities and social science, vol. 5, no. 3, 89-96. walker, s. e. (2006). journal writing as a teaching technique to promote reflection. journal of athletic training, vol.41, no. 2, 216–221. williams, k.c., williams, c.c. (2011). five key ingredients for improving student motivation. research in higher education journal, 11. 104-122, http://aabri.com/manuscripts/11834.pdf wynne, r. (2010). student perceptions of reflective learning activities, mid atlantic asee conference, october 15-16, 2010, villanova university. xxx (2016). learning journal. study skills advice sheet – university of worcester, 1-4 https://www.worcester.ac.uk/studyskills/documents/learning_journals_2016.pdf v. – m. cojocariu, g. mareș affective-motivational responses identified by means of the pedagogical diary in the initial training of teachers 105 venera-mihaela cojocariu (b. august 9, 1962) received his bachelor degree in philosophy (1985) from university of bucureşti, faculty of history philosophy his and phd in education sciences (2000) from “al. i. cuza” university, iaşi. now she is professor of education sciences in the preand in-service teacher training department, faculty of sciences, "v. alecsandri" university of bacau, romania. his current research interests include different aspects of educational strategies and the axiological universe of teachers. she has (co-) authored 18 books and more than 51 papers published in professional journals, more than 58 studies published in volumes, more than 55 scientific reviewer for books and curricular auxiliaries, more than 40 participations in international conferences, engaging as a director or member in over 20 projects. gabriel mareș (b. february 11, 1975) received his bachelor degree in science of education (1999) from university “al. i. cuza” university, iaşi, bachelor degree in psychology (2007) and master degree (2008) since 2013 he is phd student in education sciences at “al. i. cuza” university, iaşi. his research concerns are in the sphere of parenting education, therapeutic relationship, working with people with special needs. these research are reflected in articles and chapters of books, textbooks, and course materials, participation at conferences. he has clinical expertise in working with hivinfected people, people with chronic diseases and also in teaching as trainer in life skills development programs for children and young people. microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final2.docx 45 cursor movement – a valuable indicator in intelligent system design versavia-maria ancusa computer and information technology department, “politehnica” university of timisoara, romania versavia.ancusa@cs.upt.ro ciprian-maniu dragoe freelancer, sibiu, romania ciprian.dragoe@gmail.com abstract systems that react to emotional information allow for better satisfaction of the user’s needs, stated or otherwise. special support should be built-in, in order to read and measure the timevariable user’s affective state. this paper presents how cursor movement can accurately measure two basic emotional states and introduces a way to measure the emotional flow graph of an application, which allows for better user design. keywords: emotional state, cursor movement, hypnosis, complex network, design 1. introduction digital devices are all around us, in an increasingly large number, exploiting a multitude of available data, nonetheless the user’s emotional state when using them is often ignored or considered a dispensable input. however, researchers have postulated for more than 10 years that technology efficiency is strongly interlinked to triggers in the human’s emotional state and their behavior (tao & tan, 2005). the whole argument is intrinsically placed in an interdisciplinary setting, linking psychology, medicine, artificial intelligence, education, neuroscience, cognitive science, design and whatsoever engineering fields needed to implement the solution, therefore crisscrossing “technical, material and social systems” (mazé & redström, 2008) when creating a new product or service, like for example a learning service, the whole design process is a vehicle to create or satisfy needs (mazé & redström, 2008) and there are various branches of science involved (figure 1) depending on the desired depth in approaching the human factor. the aforementioned factor can envelop needs, habits, actions and behaviors, all reflected in emotional states (wood, quinn, & kashy, 2002), (baumeister, dewall, vohs, & alquist, 2009), when using the generically referred product. while there is an obvious “intrinsic and mutual correlation between the product design and user activities” (lockton, harrison, & stanton, the design with intent method: a design tool for influencing user behavior, 2010), the more challenging trait to understand is that emotional information can be reflected in the whole psychological ensemble leading to needs (esposito, esposito, & vogeld, 2015), therefore creating a more consistent work framework and easily understandable homogenous design approach. although it is considered that design itself influences user behavior by presenting them with an opportunity to play along, there is a trend (lockton, harrison, & stanton, the design with intent method: a design tool for influencing user behavior, 2010) that argues that there are “systems intentionally designed to influence behavior differently from that usually associated with the situation, or in situations where a user would not otherwise have a strong idea of what to do (e.g. with an unfamiliar interface)”. in such systems the designer’s intent interacts at product level with user’s context (experiences, environment, and capabilities) which due to sheer possibility volume may lead to a very varied response. a solution is to target universal experiences (lockton, harrison, & stanton, the design with intent method: a design tool for influencing user behavior, 2010) in order to reduce the response variability, however the data amount available suggests a possible data brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 46 mining approach. emotion data mining emerged only recently (borras-morell, 2015), (reagan, mitchell, kiley, danforth, & dodds, 2016) and it is still not a product design tactic. figure 1. science branches involved in translating product features to human needs approach notwithstanding, designing product features involves basically a two-step process: (a) detecting and recognizing emotional information and (b) exhibiting a suitable reaction to the previously considered input. since needs are reflected in the emotional impact, a method to measure the emotions is necessary (abraham & michie, 2008) to correctly assess the impact. referring strictly to a software product, in order to implement the capability to sense the users’ emotional state, the first step should be developing an affective database (tao & tan, 2005), to allow correct identification of the affective status. this results in a translation between the affective status of the user and the computer, therefore allowing the program to process the user emotion just like any other input, successfully “digitizing” emotion. once this milestone is achieved, the research can then focus on developing affective characteristics for the machines, designing evolving algorithms to promote emotional adjustment, etc. in other words, this is the moment in which the computer will exhibit an output, which can be interpreted as an emotional reaction by humans, leading to another emotional reaction from the user and entering a feed-back loop. humans need multi-modal communication in order to recognize the “honest feeling” (ekman & friesen, 1969), therefore the machine generated response must be exhibited on more than one communication channel. the idea of multi-modal communication can also be found in (lockton, harrison, & stanton, the design with intent method: a design tool for influencing user behavior, 2010), although from a design perspective, where an approach consistent of six design lenses presents a particular interest, especially for three of them: (1) the persuasive lens which represents the link to persuasive technology “changing attitudes and so changing behavior through contextual information, advice and guidance”, (2) the visual lens referring to “how users perceive patterns and meanings as they interact with the systems around them, and the use of metaphors” and (3) the cognitive lens or “how people make decisions”. each of these lenses have different patterns, with each pattern underlined by a pattern behavior, usage outcome or user behavior final state. in (lockton, harrison, & stanton, the design with intent method: a design tool for influencing user behavior, 2010) is suggested that simultaneous application of two or more design patterns to obtain a target behavior is a more advantageous option, like for example the visual and persuasive lenses. from a data mining point of view the idea of patterns creates a different outlook, that it is our opinion should be used in conjunction with the design perspective. v. m. ancusa, c. m. dragoe cursor movement – a valuable indicator in intelligent system design 47 this paper aims to present a method used to read user behavior in a working computer environment, creating reliable means of emotion acquiring and identification and also measures to assess the overall emotional impact and plan for design improvements. 2. measuring emotions an emotional state in a pure form is something very hard to trigger in a test subject, as often it is mixed with other emotional states. however two affirmations can be made referring to such a state: (1) an emotion is the result of an emotional state, represented a cognitive response of and (2) an emotional state is dependent on the previous emotional state(s) as well as the outside sensory inputs reception by the person (davidson, et al., 2003). each emotion can be reduced to a mix of basic emotional states (ekman & friesen, 1969), but in order to successfully measure it, we need to determine the type, number, measuring characteristics of the said emotional states. 2.1. determining the basic emotional states model the concept of basic emotional states, although seems simple, is the subject of a heated debate in the realm of psychology and consensus cannot be reached regarding to their number, designation and description, all dependent on the model used (ekman & friesen, 1969). a very practical solution is to find the most common basic emotional states and use them as baselines, similar to the scheme used in (hoque & picard, march 2011) “to simplify the classification and to establish a common benchmark, there has been a trend to use and analyze basic emotional states” for this paper, we chose two basic emotional states: relaxation and stress, found in almost all psychological models. our choice is further motivated by several factors: (a) the emotional distance between these states, allowing for a good margin of error; (b) importance in the product design process (michie, van stralen, & west, 2011); (c) commonality of triggers to induce the states. 2.2. isolating an emotional state another milestone in measuring emotions is determining the parameters that trigger an emotional state; we aren't aware of all and often vary from person to person. an example of this problem is putting two individuals in the context of delivering a public speech, one of them might feel comfortable or even happy, while the other might feel stressed. the same stimulus has a different reaction in the individual, making it more difficult to create a controlled experiment that produces the same result in every person. the solution presented in this paper is to use hypnosis. shrouded by a lot of controversy and uncertainty, hypnosis can be practiced within a rigorous scientific environment. the most widespread definition of hypnosis is the one issued by the british medical association (british medical association, 1955) that describes hypnosis as a “temporary condition of altered perception in the subject which may be induced by another person and in which a variety of phenomena may appear spontaneously or in response to verbal or other stimuli. these phenomena include alterations in consciousness and memory, increased susceptibility to suggestion, and the production in the subject of responses and ideas unfamiliar to him in his normal state of mind. further phenomena such as anesthesia, paralysis and the rigidity of muscles, and vasomotor changes can be produced and removed in hypnotic state.” according to (burrows, stanley, & bloom, 2001), when a subject is under hypnosis his awareness is fixated on an interior cognitive sentience, which in turn leads to a reduction in the focus on the external sources of information. the central nervous systems’ responses are attenuated as the external environments’ indicators are mainly ignored. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 48 from the previous paragraph the ideas regarding altered perception and narrow focus should be highlighted. if the stimuli that trigger that perception are well applied, the perception of the subject can be oriented in such a matter as to produce an emotional state. that state can be refined to the purest form, because a subject under hypnosis can be made to easily ignore unwanted stimuli, thus obtaining a very high purity of the triggered emotional state. the subject’s own subconscious is responsible for clearing the mind and triggering the emotional state, therefore achieving a personal customization of pure version emotional state. 2.3. quantifying an emotional state the intensity of an emotional state is best reflected in the way the body reacts (ekman & friesen, 1969), as it bypasses the social norms and echoes the mental changes. in table 1, we present a comparison of existing methods used to measure and quantify emotional states. table 1. method comparison purpose device data processing pitfalls papers facial expression recognition video capture device minimum a 2 stepprocess: overlay of mesh or muscle model gabor wavelets, markov models invalid in certain cases: botox, paralysis, etc. (mckeown, valstar, cowie, pantic, & schröder, 2012) (eckhardt & goodwin, 2012) (mcduff, kaliouby, & picard, nov. 2011) (hoque, morency, & picard, are you friendly or just polite? analysis of smiles in spontaneous face-to-face interactions, oct. 2011) gesture processing video capture and/or motion sensors cluster recognition, based on built database long observation time certain impaired conditions calibrated on culture specific social norms (balomenos, et al., 2005) (baltrusaitis, et al., march 2011) full-body motion translation array of motion sensors, specific measuring space complex geometrical, time variable processing some parts (hands) can be more controlled than others (feet) some transitions too fast to be transformed into movement (ahn, teeters, wang, breazeal, & picard, sept 2007) (gao, ma, chen, & wu, 2005) emotional speech processing camera, high quality microphone, synchronization between devices filtering and segmentation various types of probability distribution language specific elements certain disorders (e.g.: autism) change patterns (hoque m. e., analysis of speech properties of neurotypicals and individuals diagnosed with autism and down syndrome, oct. 2008) (hernandez, morris, & picard, oct. 2011) (callejas, griol, & lópez-cózar, 2011) (morris & picard, may 2011) whole emotional state various, synchronized to work together (e.g.: webcam=video +audio; motion sensors, , wearable sensors, cell) data mining statistical or geometrical processing too many parameters (usually) expensive equipment very difficult to find a good reference model (poh, mcduff, & picard, 2011) (hussein, monkaresi, & calvo, 2012) (kapoor & picard, november 2005) v. m. ancusa, c. m. dragoe cursor movement – a valuable indicator in intelligent system design 49 as it can be seen, all these methods generally require extra-hardware as well as moderate to advanced data processing techniques. while indubitably accurate, such methods are not the easy, seamless interaction medium that advanced intelligent emotional reactive systems require, especially in a world in which mobile computing assumes an increasingly larger market share. in today’s world, most of the interaction is “at the click of the mouse”, leading us to the quest to find a way to quantify emotional states with mouse click or screen taps for the mobile users. if proven to work, it would be an extremely interesting way to measure emotions: it is built-in (no extra-hardware needed), it is ubiquitous and quick to process. 3. experimental results the purpose of our experiments was to determine if we can use the mouse usage patterns as an accurate emotional sensing device for two basic emotional states: relaxation and stress. we selected a lot of 77 volunteers with similar academic backgrounds and comparable computer knowledge. the ratio male/female was almost equal. none of the subjects had any prior knowledge of hypnosis or any prior expectations. the experiments were conducted after the presentation and signing of the informed consent form, scripted based on the stanford informed consent form (stanford university). we maintained a constant testing environment and tried to dilute the effects of outside light on the mood by keeping the blinds closed. hypnosis was used to isolate each of the selected emotional states. the was also conducted according to the stanford protocol for hypnosis (stanford university), which is the most referenced protocol and offers the most reproducible results. the hypnosis was induced by c. dragoe, a fully certified nlp practitioner in order to safely conduct these experiments. moreover, all experiments were carefully monitored by an external observer (v. ancusa) and also by filming the subjects, with their preciously given accord and knowledge, in order to show the participants that nothing nefarious was done to them. in order to capture the emotional states, we synchronized the computer program and the users and using only the mouse, in a single modal manner, we captured users’ reactions to the induced states. the course of action adopted for the experiment can be resumed in 4 clear steps. 1. present the context and scope of the experiment to the test subjects. 2. use a hypnotic script to elicit the emotional state 3. use the mouse to interact with the computer and capture this interaction using a dedicated program that simulates a simple, repeated, choice action activity. 4. use a break state to change the emotional state of the test subjects, as to not to affect their future actions. the application that measures the way the user interacts with the pc mouse simulates a simple strategy game. the goal is to choose between different objects in random pattern a particular one. the learning curve of the game is designed to be very fast in order for the subject to quickly understand all the principles and thus the results collected during the test to not be influenced by accommodation to the mechanics. each 77 individual response were evaluated using the mouse acceleration (reaction) and the number of mouse clicks as indicators for one’s emotional state. simply plotting acceleration over time provides little information; reaction seems to be very chaotic, and somewhat similar between the two states (figure 2). however, when looking at the median values of acceleration and clicks, a clear difference appears between the states: more clicks for relaxation, higher acceleration for stress (figure 3). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 50 figure 2. detailed view of the individual response figure 3. average values in acceleration and clicks the experiment shows a fundamental difference in the cognitive mode: relaxation allows more targets to be hit, albeit reaching them slowly, while stress favors reaching the target faster, but not more accurate. referring to table 1, we managed to determine whole emotional states, using a single cheap capture device, with minimal data processing that so far can only determine two states. 4. designing for emotional reactions the whole purpose of the previous test was to determine if we can identify emotional states easily with no added hardware costs and we proved that there is a way to do that. next, this knowledge will be applied in the software interface design. v. m. ancusa, c. m. dragoe cursor movement – a valuable indicator in intelligent system design 51 studies from different fields (arroyo & wei, 2006), (mäkiaho & poranen, 2012), (lockton, harrison, cain, stanton, & jennings, 2013), (seelye, et al., 2015), (hehman, stolier, & freeman, 2014) have shown that mouse trajectory and clicks are environment (application, device) and user specific, especially if mapped over a long working session (figure 4). figure 4. mouse trajectory – images taken from http://iographica.com 4 hours in photoshop (left) vs. 4 hours in eclipse (right) seen from a complex network perspective, these types of traces show a good potential for clustering, which, when combined with clicks and acceleration, should provide a hint on the user’s emotional state while using the program, invaluable for a good interface design. in order to achieve that, we propose the following workflow: step 1: measure user interaction with location, time and click details. record menus and toolbars position and constituents (especially if dynamic). step 2: determine the user baseline, maximum and minimum reactions; categorize events, select relevant interface items step 3: construct a geographical interaction network based on the previous measurements and compute spatial flow data with hierarchical clustering (using the technique from (zhu & guo, 2014)). color the clusters differently for relaxation and stress. step 4: analyze results, for the given environment and user. step 2 is where the previously presented experiments make a difference. since we proved that stress and relaxation are opposites, when measured in clicks and acceleration, taking into account that normal users have a mix of these two states, we assume that over a long period of time the mix is even. it is very hard to remain completely relaxed or completely stressed for a long period (more than 2-4 hours) and even if one state takes longer than the other one, since neither are “pure” (no hypnosis used) using average as a baseline makes sense. worst case scenario would be the baseline to be skewed, but even in that case step 3 will show the data flow correctly, with a bias on the transitions, still acceptable in order to analyze the workflow. in conclusion, in step 2, we average the clicks and the accelerations to determine the baselines, determine the maximum and minimum values and scale everything in a linear fashion, using stress and relaxation as the two opposites of the scale. step 3 is the most challenging, from a computer science point-of-view as it requires merging of a flow clustering algorithm with the previous nodes classification, as well as image recognition for toolbars items, in order to cut the desired elements. this step currently requires a lot of programmer interaction and needs automation in the future. moreover, after testing the workflow, we reached the conclusion that dynamic (not always present) toolbars can generate a lot of errors, as sometimes they float and are subsequently recognized as two or more specific clusters, instead of a single cluster. this issue will also need tweaking in the future. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 52 it is worth mentioning that the presented workflow fits the general big data analysis model (fisher, deline, czerwinski, & drucke, 2012) as step 1 is data gathering, step 2 – data cleaning, step 3 – processing and 4 – data analysis. to test this strategy, we used it to analyze a designer’s workflow in a graphical editing program for 3 hours. the results are presented in figure 5. we also recorded the clicks with iograph for easier reproduction of the results and that represents the image from the top left corner. the interface of the program is in rightmost upper corner, while the result of step 3 is offered in the bottom image. based on this result, the non-automated part, step 4 begins with analyzing this data and classifying it into stressed/relaxed. the most intense work area was somewhere in the middle of the screen and that cluster also displays the highest stress markers (cluster a). two other areas of intense work were b and c, which are more relaxed and peripherally displayed. the most used items from the toolbar were selection tool and shape tool, color selection, layer toolbar and align temporary (dynamic) toolbar. from all the user interface items, the one that shows the highest stress markers is the align toolbar. when we asked our subject why he thinks that happened, he recognized that the program he learned graphical editing on had a right side floating toolbar, much easier to use than the one in this program and he always enjoyed that one more. another interesting fact to analyze is why there are 3 work areas and two show relaxation markers, while the other one does not. the answer is in the nature of the work: graphical design, which accesses the right side of the brain, allows more importance for the peripheral queues while the analytical side favors central images. by-playing the work process, we could see that zones b and c had more creative acts: shape creations, color selection than zone a, which had more analytical acts: aligns, layer cleaning, etc. figure 5. emotional flow after 3 hours of graphical editing v. m. ancusa, c. m. dragoe cursor movement – a valuable indicator in intelligent system design 53 to resume, we started with a product interface, found a way to determine two opposite states, than used that way to map user interaction with the product and determine the emotional answer to that interface. the results can then be used to improve product design, to elicit certain emotional responses, etc. for example, in this case, due to the rapid movement (anger) patterns in the aligning phase, a layout that minimizes this can be developed, using a shortcut menu or dynamically appearing guidelines. furthermore, the user interface can be imagined to be able to learn working patterns and shift the shortcut menu from an aligning menu, if it detects anger patterns, into a color/shape picking menu, if it detects relaxation patterns, therefore assessing the emotional impact and improving the design of the interface in the same time. 5. conclusion and future work future work will focus on creating a computer interface to illicit the emotional responses via multi-modal visual-kinesthetic queues and on customizing the isolation of the emotional state, adding more emotional states and comparing the baselines for them. also interesting would be injecting some diversity (age, backgrounds, maybe even cognitive impaired) in the testing lot, and trying to successfully determine their emotional states. this emotional flow idea can be used by game makers, in order to create a more immergeable game, even with only the two emotional states evaluated. references abraham, c., & michie, s. (2008). a taxonomy of behavior change techniques used in interventions. categorizing intervention content. ahn, h., teeters, a., wang, a., breazeal, c., & picard, r. (sept 2007). stoop to conquer: posture and affect interact to influence computer users' persistence. 2nd international conference on affective computing and intelligent interaction. lisbon, portugal. arroyo, e. s., & wei, w. (2006). teaching user interface design using a web-based usability tool. proceedings of the conference on human factors in computing systems chi. montreal, canada: acm. doi:10.1.1.126.5970. balomenos, t., raouzaiou, a., loannou, s., drosopoulos, a., karpouzis, k., & kollias, s. (2005). emotion analysis in man-machine interaction systems. in s. bengio, & h. bourlard (ed.), mlmi 2004. lncs 3361, pp. 318—328. heidelberg : springer-verlag berlin. baltrusaitis, t., mcduff, d., banda, n., mahmoud, m., kaliouby, r., robinson, p., & picard, r. (march 2011). real-time inference of mental states from facial expressions and upper body gestures. 9th ieee international conference on automatic face and gesture recognition and workshops (fg'11). santa barbara, ca, usa. baumeister, r. f., dewall, c. n., vohs, k. d., & alquist, j. l. (2009). does emotion cause behavior (apart from making people do stupid, destructive things)? in c. r. agnew, d. e. carlston, w. g. graziano, & j. r. kelly (eds.), then a miracle occurs: focusing on behavior in social psychological theory and research (p. chapter 7). new york: oxford university press. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377798.003.0007. borras-morell, e. j. (2015). data mining for pulsing the emotion on the web. methods mol biol., 1246, 123-130. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-1985-7_8. british medical association. (1955). medical use of hypnotism. british medical journal, 1. burrows, g. d., stanley, r. o., & bloom, p. b. (eds.). (2001). international handbook of hypnosis. sussex, uk: wiley. doi:10.1002/0470846402. callejas, z., griol, d., & lópez-cózar, r. (2011). predicting user mental states in spoken dialogue systems. eurasip journal on advances in signal processing, 6, 1-23. davidson, k. w., goldstein, m., kaplan, r. m., kaufmann, p. g., knatterund, g. l., orleans, c. t.... whitlock, e. p. (2003). evidence-based behavioral medicine: what is it and how do we achieve it? annals of behavioral medicine, 26, 161-171. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 54 eckhardt, m., & goodwin, m. (2012). influencing gaze behavior and expression recognition. extended abstract of imfar 2012. toronto, canada. ekman, p., & friesen, w. v. (1969). the repertoire of nonverbal behavior: categories, origins, usage, and coding. semiotica, 1, 49-98. esposito, a., esposito, a. m., & vogeld, c. (2015). needs and challenges in human computer interaction for processing social emotional information. pattern recognition letters, 66(15 november 2015), 41-51. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.patrec.2015.02.013. fisher, d., deline, r., czerwinski, m., & drucke, s. (2012, may june). interactions with big data analytics. interactions, 50-59. gao, y., ma, l., chen, z., & wu, x. (2005). motion normalization. in j. tao, t. tan, & r. picard (eds.), acii 2005, lncs 3784 (pp. 95-101). heidelberg: spring-verlag, berlin. hehman, e., stolier, r. m., & freeman, j. b. (2014). advanced mouse-tracking analytic techniques for enhancing psychological science. group processes & intergroup relations, 18(3), 384401. doi:10.1177/1368430214538325. hernandez, j., morris, r., & picard, r. (oct. 2011). call center stress recognition with personspecific models. affective computing and intelligent interaction. memphis, usa. hoque, m. e. (oct. 2008). analysis of speech properties of neurotypicals and individuals diagnosed with autism and down syndrome. 10th acm conference on computers and accessibility (assets). halifax, canada. hoque, m. e., morency, l., & picard, r. (oct. 2011). are you friendly or just polite? analysis of smiles in spontaneous face-to-face interactions. affective computing and intelligent interaction. memphis, usa. hoque, m., & picard, r. (march 2011). acted vs. natural frustration and delight: many people smile in natural frustration. 9th ieee international conference on automatic face and gesture recognition (fg'11). santa barbara, ca, usa. hussein, m., monkaresi, h., & calvo, r. (2012). categorical vs. dimensional representations in multimodal affect detection during learning. intelligent tutoring systems. chania, greece. kapoor, a., & picard, r. (november 2005). multimodal affect recognition in learning environments. acm mm. singapore. lockton, d., harrison, d. j., & stanton, n. a. (2010, may). the design with intent method: a design tool for influencing user behaviour. applied ergonomics, 41(3), 382-392. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2009.09.001. lockton, d., harrison, d. j., cain, r., stanton, n. a., & jennings, p. (2013). exploring problemframing through behavioural heuristics. international journal of design, 7(1), 37-53. mäkiaho, p., & poranen, t. (2012). tool usage in students’ software projects. tampere, finland : school of information sciences, university of tampere. mazé, r., & redström, j. (2008). switch! energy ecologies in everyday life. international journal of design, 2(3), 55-70. mcduff, d., kaliouby, r., & picard, r. (nov. 2011). crowdsourced data collection of facial responses. 13th ieee international conference on multimodal interaction (icmi'11). alicante, spain. mckeown, g., valstar, m., cowie, r., pantic, m., & schröder, m. (2012). the semaine database: annotated multimodal records of emotionally colored conversations between a person and a limited agent. ieee transactions on affective computing, 3(1), 5-17. michie, s., van stralen, m. m., & west, r. (2011). the behaviour change wheel: a new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions. implementation science, 6(42). morris, r., & picard, r. (may 2011). computer-mediated exposure therapy for auditory sensitivity in autism spectrum disorder. extended abstract of imfar. san diego, ca, usa. v. m. ancusa, c. m. dragoe cursor movement – a valuable indicator in intelligent system design 55 poh, m., mcduff, d., & picard, r. (2011). advancements in non-contact, multiparameter physiological measurements using a webcam. ieee transactions on biomedical engineering, 58(1), 7-11. reagan, a. j., mitchell, l., kiley, d., danforth, c. m., & dodds, p. s. (2016). the emotional arcs of stories are dominated by six basic shapes. the computing research repository , september. seelye, a., hagler, s., mattek, n., howieson, d. b., wild, k., dodge, h. h., & kaye, j. a. (2015). computer mouse movement patterns: a potential marker of mild cognitive impairment. alzheimers dement (amst)., 1(4), 472–480. doi: 10.1016/j.dadm.2015.09.006. stanford university. (n.d.). stanford human subjects experiments guideliness. retrieved from http://humansubjects.stanford.edu/hrpp/chapter12.html. tao, j., & tan, t. (2005). affective computing: a review. in j. tao, t. tan, & r. w. picard (eds.), acii 2005, lncs 3784 (pp. 981-995). heidelberg: springer-verlag berlin. wood, w., quinn, j. m., & kashy, d. a. (2002). habits in everyday life: thought, emotion, and action. journal of personality and social psychology, 83(6), 1281-1297. doi:10.1037//00223514.83.6.1281. zhu, x., & guo, d. (2014). mapping large spatial flow data with hierarchical clustering. transactions in gis, 18(3), 421-435. doi:10.1111/tgis.12100. versavia-maria ancusa (b. march 11, 1981) received her bsc in computer science (2004), msc in advanced computer systems (2005), and phd in computer science (2009) from “politehnica” university of timisoara. now she is a senior lecturer in department of computers and information technology, automation and computer faculty, “politehnica” university of timisoara. ciprian-maniu dragoe (b. july 14, 1987) received his bsc in computer science (2010), msc in advanced computer systems (2012) from “politehnica” university of timisoara. after 3 years working for continental aeg, he is now a freelance engineer, specialized in psychological computer science program development. microsoft word issue-4.docx 115 mind maping as support for economic studies e-learning ramona lacurezeanu babes-bolyai university, fsega str. teodor mihali 58-60, cluj-napoca 400591, romania phone: 0264 418 652 ramona.lacurezeanu@eco.ubbcluj.ro liana stanca babes-bolyai university, fsega str. teodor mihali 58-60, cluj-napoca 400591, romania phone: 0264 418 652 liana.stanca@eco.ubbcluj.ro adriana tiron-tudor babes-bolyai university, fsega str. teodor mihali 58-60, cluj-napoca 400591, romania phone: 0264 418 652 adriana.tiron@econ.ubbcluj.ro sergiu zagan babes-bolyai university, fsega str. teodor mihali 58-60, cluj-napoca 400591, romania phone: 0264 418 652 sergiu.zagan@econ.ubbcluj.ro abstract the web 2.0.-era education is in a continuous reformation and evolution. nowadays, information technologies are developed and widespread impetuously. thus, digital mind maps are becoming more and more popular but little is known about the use of this subject and its application in the economic academic field. this paper aims to offer some results in mind mapping applied to a course from the higher education in the economic area by using a mixed research methodology. thus, we combined a survey and a participant observation, aimed to illustrate the way in which we projected, implemented and used the web2 instruments with mind mapping. on the one hand, this framework is useful for measuring the students’ attitude towards traditional teaching with web 2.0 instruments with mind mapping. on the other hand, we want to check if the engagement of the students will increase. so, our study will provide conclusions in the field of research related to the measurement of students' attitudes and engagement in teaching-learning in the economic field, in a period in which all those involved are working to increase the degree of digitization of the university education. the outcome of this study can be considered favorable on "our framework" implementation to the digitalization area of the economic academic field. keywords: mind mapping, web 2.0, social learning environment, teaching/learning methods. 1. introduction nowadays, education worldwide has become the core from which all the other systems emerge like in a network. changes in education today are determined mainly by the necessity of establishing a functional relationship between demand and supply in education. the fast pace of changes in society determines the integration of the educational system in an era of continuous reformation. at the end of the twenty-first century, according to (conole & alevizou, 2010), the main goal of education in higher education is to develop new skills to expand the capabilities of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 116 learners in order to prepare them for a world in a continuous change while the acquisition of new knowledge becomes a secondary objective. the immediate effect of these changes was to reconsider the theories and the learning styles along three major axes: associative (learning is done through structured tasks, essentially the behavioral approach adapted to the reality of digitization), cognitive (learning by understanding and reflecting on individual types of learning metacognition mind-mapping tools) and situational (learning as a social practice that confers constructivism and connectivity to the foreground, developing the communities of practitioners). on the basis of these theorems of the necessary changes imposed in higher education, it is observed that in romania, the current period is defined by attempts to find the methods that offer flexible features to the educational system, oriented more on research and at the same time on the needs of the market in accordance with the policies of the bologna system. from the documents europe 2020 strategy, the partnership for 21st century skills we can see that all the changes in higher education are to eliminate the gap between education and labor market. this gap was generated by the changes imposed by the omnipresence of the internet in the human life. in addition to knowing the discipline and the professional skills, employers emphasize that students as potential employees need to develop the skills for "teamwork, problem solving, self-management, business knowledge, ict knowledge, good interpersonal skills and communication, ability to use their own initiative, but also to follow the instructions, "leadership skills" (lowden et. al., 2011). in the process of integrating hiring skills, teachers can create more reflective environments oriented to learners (berdrow & evers, 2011) and become facilitators of self-development and learning abilities (yorke & knight, 2004). so, in terms of critical competencies, early 21st century policies followed by our country state that “critical thinking, generalist (broad) competencies, ict competencies enabling expert work, decision-making, handling of dynamic situations, working as a member of a team, and communicating effectively” (seitzinger, 2006) are required of active members of present-day society. in developing countries such as romania, the current period is defined by attempts of changing higher education into a more flexible system, more research oriented and, at the same time, meeting the needs of the labor market. considering these reference points, an idea has emerged that students should improve their digital and critical (analysis and synthesis) skills during college. digital skills are defined as a series of knowledge, abilities, and attitudes which should be formed by the end of compulsory education (cohen-scali, 2012). structuring these key competences is made at the crossroads of several educational paradigms which refer both to “academic” fields and inter and trans-disciplinary metacognitive aspects, achieved through the effort of several curricular areas. through critical competences, the student is endowed with “general critical thinking, tic competences which will allow him to do expert work, decision making, and the management of dynamic situations, teamwork and effective communication" (sackman, 1970). the digital and critical competences and skills (cohen-scali, 2012) “are necessary for all the active members of current societies”. in other words, the teaching methods represent an adaptation of present methods to technology in (popescu & cioiu, 2011; robins et. al., 2003; rusk et. al., 2008) referring to digital teaching and learning which can be better adapted to each student’s needs. another advantage of the new methods is the easiness with which one can record, analyze and maintain in time the students’ progress, enabling teachers to offer customized feedback in less time, identifying the areas in which the student needs more support. in this context, our paper will complete the research about applying different teaching methods conceived around tic instruments such as: wiki, blogs, podcasts, social media, moodle platform in order to increases students’ involvement in the course. the paper presents a course framework combining traditional learning methods with web 2.0 tools and visual thinking and learning theories built on mind-mapping in order to offer relevant results to tel (technology enhanced learning). the results are related to prototypes of high-technology teaching and learning needed in higher education to synchronize with the documents europe 2020 strategy, the partnership for 21st century skills. the relatively new element introduced in our experiments in technology enhanced learning (tel) is a mind-mapping r. lacurezeanu, l. stanca, a. tiron-tudor, s. zagan mind maping as support for economic studies e-learning 117 tool. mind-mapping in our experiment is used to measure the degree of association between the way in which the teacher elaborates the whole teaching-learning approach and the student participates, engages and offers feedback. the student's feedback in this experiment includes his behavior within the web2.0 wiki platform and in physical space. the feedback thus interpreted becomes a typology of matter approach that can be illustrated by mind-mapping tools on the basis of which the teacher is offered all the tools necessary to reorganize the matter so as to deliver knowledge in the optimum way of the process. the article is structured on the following three sections: the next section refers to an overview of the relevant literature, then it presents the teaching/learning scenario created by teachers which is centered on wiki and visual learning techniques, more exactly mind mapping; a quantitative analysis to measure students’ attitude towards the introduction of visual learning techniques and last, but not least, the conclusions referring to the student’s availability to increase his engagement level due to the introduction of the new visual methods. 2. theoretical framework tel's applied literature in higher education contains numerous studies that attempt to demonstrate what the most effective teaching methods of learning are in a changing world. change involves a vast, diversified literature which, depending on the research area, is trying to determine what tel means (kirkwood & price, 2014). our conclusion is that in nowadays approach, learning mix, metacognitive theories, and successful it tools are more frequently found. this statement is supported by a radiography of the literature that addresses tel. tel, according to (walker et. al., 2012) means assessing the impact of the technology use in the higher education sector while for (naismith et. al., 2004; sim & hew, 2010; asztalos, 2014; felea & stanca, 2015) means analyzing the impact of a certain web 2.0 technology used in order to adapt the teaching techniques of a subject and to increase student engagement. in (novak & canas, 2006) the web 2.0, more precisely wiki is approached as a tool for measuring quantitatively the social teaching process. according to (pennington, 2003) wiki has begun to gain popularity in the field of teaching and computer-mediated (cmc) teaching. according to (ware & warschauer, 2006; purdy, 2009) it is demonstrated that wiki is a beneficial tool for developing asynchronous communication in order to measure the student's ability to compose contexts and specialist speeches typical of the wiki's compositional principles. (lundin, 2008) demonstrates that wikis ease the collaboration process, facilitate interactions, and develop the creative ability of the student to write. (kubincová et. al., 2013) are the promoters of the idea that the involvement in education of social media tools, namely wiki, allows participants to develop technical, linguistic, and skills such as co-operation, organization and planning of collaborative tasks, but also communication skills, critical and analytical thinking, and the ability to express ideas. in our view, it is necessary to extend the domain with results offered by the dimension studied by (mezirow, 1996) more precisely "learning is understood as the process of using a prior interpretation to construct a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one's experience in order to guide future action". according to (mezirow, 2000) theory, the learning process is formed and circumscribed by a reference framework. in our interpretation, the frame of reference in the process of learning a subject by students is the framework created by the teacher on a subject. the reference framework of our course is a significance structure (translated by mind-mapping tools) that includes assumptions and expectations that incorporate the teacher's tactile views and influences students' thinking, beliefs and actions. in this context, according to (novak & gowin, 1984), mind mapping tools justify their presence by being able to illustrate the significance schemes and the perspectives of significance of the teacher and the student, making the dialogue and the collaboration between the two much easy and directly increasing the quality of the teachinglearning assisted by technology. we support the idea that through the course, the teacher has an impact on the student's significance systems, more precisely he/she will act on the beliefs, values and feelings that reflect the interpretation of the experience accumulated by the subjects involved in an educational act that extends for a 14-week period with medium and long-term impact that can be captured, represented, measured and interpreted by mind-mapping. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 118 the concept of maps used in the teaching-learning process has emerged since the early 1980s (croasdell et. al., 2003) as a tool for representing a specific type of mental model. in the literature, we can see that (chang et. al., 2001) used the concept of maps to represent and measure individual knowledge by graphically visualizing the concepts (represented as nodes) and the relationships between them represented as arches. while (gouli et. al., 2004; grundspenkis, 2008) used the concept of maps in knowledge assessment and feedback, (tergan, 2005) considers important that mind mapping should be used in the assessment of knowledge because it allows to identify the cognitive structure of the student's knowledge and in the background, the teacher identifies parts of the course that do not have the expected impact at the moment of their creation. the results of (tergan, 2005) show that the conceptual maps, the knowledge assessment system are able to adapt to the level of knowledge of each trainee in the technical field. (newbern & dansereau, 1995) demonstrates that conceptual maps have the great potential to promote spatial learning strategies by visualizing the processes of knowledge and support of individual knowledge management, such as the acquisition, organization, representation, evaluation, communication, location and use of knowledge. in addition, (newbern & dansereau, 1995) concludes that they have the potential to represent and make available the conceptual and content knowledge of a field being indicated in the design, implementation and testing of e-learning scenarios. (waterhouse, 2004) have shown that mapping of concepts is rarely used spontaneously by students because it is a demanding cognitive activity. the results of the field are complemented by (waterhouse, 2004) which demonstrates that the process of map modification can sometimes be messy and cumbersome because it requires both efficient learning strategies and knowledge and information management. (newbern & dansereau, 1995) analyzed the digital potential of conceptual maps and concluded that they are needed in the individual knowledge management processes as part of any e-learning scenario in which matrices are to be adapted to each type of learning. these results are added to the results (novak, 1998) which demonstrated that the roles of the main actors in the teaching and learning process have changed. teachers in the digital age have a role of guides and trainers while passive learners are starting to become active. these changes are very strongly promoted by continuously upgraded technology so as to facilitate the access to lifelong learning through e-learning and m-learning. according to (novak & gowin, 1984) in the field of education, mapping of the mind refers to the development of meaningful learning, i.e. a new piece of knowledge becomes significant for learners if it is built into the knowledge structures they understand. agreeing to (kearsley & schneiderman, 1999), mind mapping is understood to be diagrams expressing significant reciprocal relations between terms in the form of statements. by overlapping (mezirow, 2000)'s theory with the theory of mind-mapping, in social learning as an integral part of collaborative learning, we decided that these form a mixed one. in our view, (mezirow, 2000)’s theory of mind-mapping can be used to illustrate the significance schemes and perspectives of significance of the teacher and the student to study the correlation between the two sides, predicting that at the beginning of the course there is a weak correlation and at the end of the 14 weeks, a correlation from average to significant. the use of wiki has enabled us to position ourselves in the area of social learning and we believe that the learning environment created by wiki systems is more suited to teaching computer science with collaborative activities and survey-based activities. wiki, according to the theory of social learning (mcloughlin & lee, 2007) is a framework that facilitates the student's knowledge and digital skills (feedback generates commitment (mcloughlin & lee, 2007) and (self-) evaluation. (novak & canas, 2006; mcloughlin & lee, 2008). the added value of the framework developed by the authors in the experiment is the further development of academic and professional inter-curricular competences (mcloughlin & lee, 2008; gardner, 2006) and the inclusion of a new term, visual learning. 3. research objectives 3.1. the context of the research we are talking about a world which is activating, socializing, collaborating, learning and developing in web 2.0. the basic properties of web 2.0 are: socializing, collaboration, creativity, authenticity and sharing (jolly, 1984). in this context there is a new visual learning term which is based r. lacurezeanu, l. stanca, a. tiron-tudor, s. zagan mind maping as support for economic studies e-learning 119 on mind mapping techniques. mind mapping introduced in the teaching and learning process helps students visualize and externalize concepts (eppler, 2006), understand connections between different ideas use in presentations, develop their critical thinking, brainstorming and why not, their decision making process and study management. also, mind mapping (jolly, 1984; eppler, 2006) stimulates areas of the symbolical, metaphysical and constructive zone of the human mental, as it is accepted that there are mental representations, fixed images or fluid ones which have the role to allow the teacher to provide the student with information in concrete language. moreover, the introduction of visual learning techniques of mind mapping type can significantly improve students’ learning compared to traditional frontal teaching (novak & canas, 2006). in the last decade, it is used largely in primary and secondary education and stimulates critical thinking successfully (nettleship, 1992) and it is demonstrated that mind mapping matches the cognitive learning theory enabling the creation of knowledge graphs (eriksson & hauer, 2004). the literature (asztalos, 2014; felea & stanca, 2015; lee, 2010; talbot, 2012; pinto et. al., 2009; grosseck & holotescu, 2012; bacher et. al., 2004) confirms that the introduction of mind mapping in teaching allowed students to understand, integrate and clarify the studied concepts (in fields such as mathematics, accounting, it, foreign languages, management, marketing, project management, etc); moreover, students became more involved. in this context, the present paper intends to present the results obtained by introducing mind mapping besides wiki in the teaching/learning process of making decisions in tourism. we will illustrate the way in which we projected, implemented and used the web 2.0. instruments and mind mapping in order to measure students’ attitudes towards teaching with the help of web 2.0. instruments combined with traditional and mind mapping and on the other hand to check if the format of the new course increases students’ engagement. the platform originally aimed at the course management, but we realized that it has become a learning community that aims to support the student involvement through the social wiki features and to promote autonomy and independent work through personal workspaces. in the environment thus created, learning takes place both autonomously and through interaction with colleagues with advanced knowledge in the field of tourism in order to solve tasks with increased difficulty. the role of the teacher implies a careful scheme of activities and adapting the training to the needs, interests and styles of the individual. this creates a community in which the diversity of learning experiences could have an impact on the learners' ability to play in the academic world and on the labor market. the structure of the platform created according to the teacher's vision is shown in figure 1. figure 1. mindmaps methods the wiki platform offers the ability to memorize the student’s activity in it. the memorizing process is based on the wiki viewing and editing facilities. the data generated in this way allows us to analyze how students go through the course materials and solve their homework and the degree of involvement in the course. we will extract and translate the log data into a sequence of events in order to analyze whether the teacher's vision of how the design and brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 120 implementation of the platform overlaps the way in which the student perceives the matter. in this context, the assumptions of the research are: 1. the developed learning framework fosters the student engagement in the course; 2. the mind mapping of the teacher when developing the course is associated with the mind mapping of the student. 3.2. methodology the current research is based on the course named business support systems from tourism master program from the faculty of economics and business administration, babeș-bolyai university, cluj-napoca. the course takes place during 14 weeks, from october to february and consists of a series of lectures where the information is presented using mind mapping techniques and instructions including topics for individual or group assignments. the course has also assigned a wiki having a support role and being the collaboration environment with the teacher. both teaching materials and the assignments (requirements and detailed explanations) are available on the wiki. further, we will explain the wiki structure seen as a ubiquitous dashboard during the 14 weeks of study. the wiki consists of 10 pages, each of them allowing an easy navigation within the other pages. aatcsfsega space has the following structure: one guard page (home) consisting of the general information about the course, the approached topics (each of them displayed on distinct page including teaching materials, tutorials, references, etc.) and the evaluation methods. this e-learning framework started in the academic year 2016-2017 in order to share the study resources for business support systems from first year, master program. finally it became a learning space/environment used during lectures, instructions and individual work based on projects. about wiki: basic notions, wiki tutorial, technical issues, online learning advice, course organization and requirements, course’s topics and teaching materials for each unit, assignments: instructions – learning materials and assignments, lectures. wiki registration is made based on an e-mail invitation which must be confirmed by the student. there were 55 enrolled students and each student was registered based on username and password. students were demanded to use simple and catchy usernames. after registration, for authentication the only things required are the username and the password. moreover, each student could customize its own profile (using settings option) by adding the real first name and surname, a picture, etc. the aim of this section is to present the mind mapping of the teacher who organized the course. we support the idea that during a course design a teacher relies on mind mapping. the teacher's mind mapping assumes that a student who will acquire moderate to excellent knowledge must regularly engage themselves in the coursework, both on the wiki platform and at face-to-face meetings. a regular behavior with good final results was identified by the teacher, and presented below: table 1. example of average values for a regular participation behavior average views/ month average edits/ month personal page – edits personal page views class attendance wiki page final grade 132.3 25.6 250 90.4 5 5 10 we can note: attendance and wikipage were graded with values in the interval [1,5], where 1 is poor, 2.5 average and 5 is excellent, the final grade was noted with 10, which represents the maximum on a 1 to 10 scale. concerning the course we can observe that the students will have to accomplish tasks such as:  add textual knowledge for objects, for example, by the instrumentality of telling stories or write articles/web pages containing contextual data – it’s about contextualization and testing  collect and propose new topics within teaching materials  moderation of content for archiving  add new user – personal information r. lacurezeanu, l. stanca, a. tiron-tudor, s. zagan mind maping as support for economic studies e-learning 121  view existing traces  create new account – the user creates an account in order to use all the facilities of the wiki  synchrony and asynchrony communication with the site administration and/or other users  delete account – all users categories can delete their own accounts  ask for additional information – the users or the potential users will be able to ask for information through the contact information from website. based on the literature review (nettleship, 1992; eriksson & hauer, 2004; lee, 2010) each course with all its involved elements/tools is based on the mind mapping of the teacher who designed it. in this context this section’s aim is to outline the teacher’s mind mapping (see figure 1). the teacher expects that students respect the behavior designed by the teacher. the justification of this requirement is based on the idea that all the information taught can be assimilated by the student only if the mind mapping of the teacher is respected. in our view, the success of a lecture is measured by the students’ degree of engagement, the assimilated information by students, and all of these by the successful instilling of the mind mapping previewed/planned by the teacher at the beginning of course’s creation. next section introduces the statistical analysis whose aim on one hand is to depict students’ attitude with respect to mind mapping utilization during the teaching/learning process and on the other hand validation of our idea according to which the success of a course is provided by the teacher’s capacity to instil his mind mapping to students. 4. results and findings the analysis is realized on 55 students from first year at business support systems from tourism master program. the used sampling method is an empirical one, the sampling approach being purposive (non-probability), more exactly a voluntary sample. thus, the students voluntarily came both to the presentation having as topic the use of mind mapping in economical universities’ education and to fill the survey. the analysis is made based on the students’ answers within a survey consisting of 11 questions related to self-efficacy for it&c in economic fields, it&c anxiety, digital abilities improvement, student engagement experiences, and to obtain qualitative feedback on the tutorials. the aim of this study is to prove if mind mapping applied on teaching-learning process is a decisional factor in students’ desire to course participation and engagement. achievement was rated on a 5-point scale that varied from 1 = very poorly, 3 = average and 5 = very well. the questionnaire thus resulted in subscales to measure engaging with other students, cognitive engagement, and skill development. the statistical analysis started with the descriptive analysis followed by the validation analysis and the reliability of questions’ scale. for the statistical study, we used spss 13.0 and the, shapiro-wilks test, internal consistency analysis, chi-square test, n-par chi-square, pearson chi-square kurskal-wallis test and marginal homogeneity tests. the decision to apply them was based on the results of the shapiro-wilks test. we used the twostep method according to studies by gower, 1971; ichino & yaguchi, 1994; cole, 2009) to optimally determine the number of existing clusters in a mixed data set. the analysis started with the identification of the student whose profile is characterized by a regular commitment to a system created by the teacher, extended by the students as a result of their learning experience during the course. we insist on the fact that participants do not have prior knowledge of wiki usage in the learning process. the student profile was built by studying the relationships between the attributes: class participation ([0.1] -42.46%, [1; 2.5] -31%, [2.5, 5]27%) , personal wiki pages ([1; 2.5] -69%, [2.5; 4] -25.39%; [4.5] -7.50%), page changes ([0; 15.6]90] represents 33% interaction, where access was measured by the number of views for all wiki pages, including personal pages, and selfemployment, measured by the number of edits on the personal pages, representing user-generated content produced by students’ response to various activities offered by the teacher. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 122 we identified the student profile based on the data collected through an online questionnaire at the beginning of the academic year. based on the results obtained in terms of age, the participants are divided into two groups: the majority (74.3%) are aged between 18 and 21; 25.7% are aged between 22 and 30 years. as for sex, the majority (79%) are women. most students studied ict between 5 and 8 years20% and the remaining 80% studied 1 to 4 years. similarly, their interest in assimilating the computer literacy in the field of tourism is quite high, 48.7% being very interested, 33% interested and 18.3% relatively interested. furthermore, we considered it necessary to find out whether the interest in ict is or not correlated with the number of years of study. after applying the pearson chi-square test (χ2 = 23.504, p = 0.04), it resulted that there is a correlation between the number of years of study and the interest in ict, and according to the kendall index tau-b = -2.163, p = 0.03 there is a linear indirect correlation, i.e. people with a high interest have studied for a longer period. finally, the prior use of students' e-learning platforms was considered and the results identified three major groups: 23.5% never used, 48.2% used little and 28.3% had had previous experience in e-learning platforms. the study’s hypothesis is unilateral according to the result of the analysis of different groups and interaction effect with the tool made with anova (chi-square=75, p-value=0.000), there are differences between the survey’s items generated by students’ answers. the survey can differentiate students’ attitudes toward mind mapping use within teaching-learning depending on their reactions. the hypothesis of the study is unilateral according to the analysis of the differences between groups and the interaction effect with the anova instrument there are differences between the items of the questionnaire generated by the students’ responses. the analysis continued with factor analysis. the first step in such a study is to eliminate items which show the correlation smaller 0.3. within the study there were no such items. factor analysis is appropriate for our model, confirmed by the result of kaiser-meyer-olkin, test which specifies how data variability is caused by the tool. the value of the kaiser-meyer-olkin test is 0.443 so, the factor analysis in this case is indicated to be done. the result of the bartlett test p=0.000 indicates that the factor analysis is useful with the given data. according to kaiser’s criterion (from communalities the values must be higher than 0.4) the latent root is made of the following items: the level of using social networks generally; the level of using social networks for one’s own education; the presentation made on the topic of using mind mapping in education can help you get an idea about the course; the course convinced you to use mind mapping in the teaching/learning process; mind mapping will help you systematize the course; mind mapping is relevant in learning motivation; do you consider that it is timely to introduce this new method in teaching at fsega; do you consider that using a new instrument in your preparation will increase your engagement level in the course. in this context the study continued by testing the hypothesis not null. there is not a set of restricted items but this hypothesis in our study is rejected and we accept the alternative one that, there is a restricted set of items which determines the validity of the instrument in a proportion of 73.321% (in addition, the second null hypothesis is rejected, the alternative one is accepted according to which there are items which correlate moderately in the study). the statistics continued with testing the hypothesis according to which the proportion of the answers pro-using mind mapping in the teaching/learning process is equal with the proportion of the answers against it. the testing of this hypothesis imposed the use of the n-par chi-square test according to which, after the experiment, the students have an attitude of accepting mind mapping in education which results from:  the level of using social networks generally is identical among the students from the study so it did not generate statistical differences (chi-square=3.901,p-value=0.543);  the students from the study use social networks for their own education;  the students are familiar with the mind mapping concept and accept it as being useful (chisquare=26.327,p-value=0.000); r. lacurezeanu, l. stanca, a. tiron-tudor, s. zagan mind maping as support for economic studies e-learning 123  the presentations exposed during the course using mind mapping techniques help them assimilate the knowledge (chi-square=39.091,p-value=0.000);  the course convinced them to use mind mapping in taking notes (chi-square=20.909,pvalue=0.000);  mind mapping helps them systematize the course (chi-square=23.909,p-value=0.000);  the presentation of the mind mapping techniques increased the motivation in participating at the learning process (chi-square=98.327,p-value=0.000);  the course presentation through the mind mapping techniques that is a necessary ingredient in generating the increase of the participant number in the teaching/learning process (chisquare=72.255,p-value=0.000);  accept that it is timely to introduce this new method in teaching at fsega (chisquare=139,818,p-value=0.000);  assert that using a new instrument (mm) in your preparation will generate an increase of the engagement in the course activities (chi-square=20.909,p-value=0.000);  the digital skills acquired in high school and in the first year are not considered enough in using mm instruments (chi-square=3.309,p-value=0.191). the study continued by testing the hypothesis according to which the teacher’s mind mapping when creating the course was not assimilated by the students. the validation of this hypothesis was made on the basis of view and collected publishing houses from wiki. in this process the first step was applying the shapiro-wilks test, according to which (p=0.000<0.05), data were not normally distributed. so, to check the statistical hypothesis we applied the kurskal-wallis test for independent and unequal samples. the result of kurskal-wallis test for view (chi-square=69.253,pvalue=0.000) and for publishing houses (chi-square=53.475,p-value=0.000) imposes the rejection of the null hypothesis and accepting the alternative one. the conclusion is that students have different levels of engagement from one month to another in the course activity. in this context we continued the study by testing the following null hypothesis: students do not have a homogeneous behavior during the semester. the alternative hypothesis is students have a homogeneous hypothesis during the semester. the result of the marginal homogeneity mean mh test statistic= 1295,500, p-value=0.002. the test imposes the rejection of the null hypothesis and accepting the alternative one. in this context, we continued the analysis by using the twostep method to find the number of clusters that exists in a sum of different types of data. the null hypothesis of this stage is the following: there is no association between mind student mapping and teachers in the process of learning and teaching itc in assisting decisions in the tourism field. in order to validate/invalidate this hypothesis, we applied the cluster analysis based on the variables studied. the null hypothesis is rejected, and the result demonstrates that students group themselves in two clusters based on the studied attributes. these groups are characterized by the fact that the in-class inertia value significantly exceeds the values of inertia within the same class. the participants' interest rate was measured on the basis of these variables: view (with f = 116.129; p = 0.005) and edits (with f = 64.677; p = 0.03). the result of the cluster analysis (k-means method) based on the variables studied, demonstrates that students can be grouped in two clusters based on the attributes studied, as it follows: 1. the first cluster of students (64%) includes people with a mind-mapping that is poorly associated with the itc teacher of tourism decision-making, while the number of people with a high level of interest is very low. participation/involvement in the theoretical and practical activities of the course is below the average attendance expected by the teacher considered necessary to assimilate the knowledge provided by the course. the scores obtained by participants vary from one extreme to another, from 10 to 7 and even lower than 6. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 124 2. the second cluster of students (36%) includes people with a mind-mapping that is poorly associated with the teacher's. participation/involvement in theoretical and practical activities is constant throughout the semester and is above the expected attendance of the teacher as necessary to assimilate the knowledge provided by the course. the scores obtained by participants are between 8 and 10. to summarize, the results of the analysis are the follows: students accept the use of mind mapping in teaching and consider it is the necessary ingredient for increasing students’ engagement by using mind mapping in teaching. the student’s non-homogeneous behavior in the wiki is one which we consider as normal because only 65% of the students managed to understand the teacher’s mind mapping from the moment of the course creation. the conclusions of the study justify the students’ behavioral characteristics who accept the use of the mind mapping techniques in the teaching/learning process and consider that, based on that, the students’ level of engagement during the course will increase because they know how to follow the course, can assimilate the necessary resources for participating to the course, attend the course, with the final aim (motivation, desire) to assimilate knowledge. on the basis of the analysis we can make the following statements: 1. there is a small proportion of students who have a constant involvement in the theoretical and practical activities of the course, and the assimilated knowledge of the course is that predicted by the teacher when implementing the wiki, their mind-mapping is associated with the mind mapping of the teacher; 2. the conclusion drawn from the study is that the involvement of the young specialist in the development of a basic subject at the required level of 2017 remains in most cases fluctuating with a different level of attention/involvement, generating a difficult student profile, hard to track; 3. students' willingness and motivation to learn through the use of all the media at their disposal is low without an external stimulus; 4. introducing a framework containing mind-mapping, web 2.0 technologies and traditional teaching methods have the direct effect of changing the passive approach to university courses in a committed and collaborative approach. to this is added the fact that the results of the statistical analysis presented in this paper validate our idea that the success of a course is ensured both by the teacher's ability to inspire the cartography of the minds of the students participating in the course and the existence of some students presenting a mind-mapping similar to that of the teacher; 5. the creation of a web 2.0-assisted course is made as a mix of (mezirow, 2000)'s classical theory with the theory of mind-mapping, in the social learning process, as an integral part of the collaborative learning, resulting in a new concept of significant learning validating the results from the works of (newbern & dansereau, 1995). in (kirkwood & price, 2014; novak & gowin, 1984; chang et. al., 2001) consider the itc tools and learning theories together mix the areas of the symbolic, metaphysical and constructive areas of human mental, there are mental representations, fixed images or fluid ones that have the role of allowing the teacher to provide the student with information in concrete language. from our study and from (lee, 2010), it is clear that the wiki use in teaching/learning is generally positive, generating an improvement in the quality of the student work by assimilating and developing professional student skills. moreover, the study supports the results (talbot, 2012), according to which the teacher should guide the students, provide them with suggestions and tips for the efficient use of their materials and their tasks. on the basis of the results, we can conclude, as well as other specialists in the domain (popescu & cioiu, 2011; felea & stanca, 2015; talbot, 2012; pinto et. al., 2009) that a wiki helps both to develop formative and informative valences, critical thinking and creativity of the participants as well as the development / improvement of digital competences at individual and group level. wiki allows students to practice the most important competence which allows them to work in today's knowledge-based society, namely content-making. from the experiment we made by r. lacurezeanu, l. stanca, a. tiron-tudor, s. zagan mind maping as support for economic studies e-learning 125 introducing the wiki-mapping alongside wiki, we found that the latter tool involves visual intelligence and provides a way to navigate in a much larger space of ideas in a smaller visual field; furthermore, it allows work teams in the wiki to achieve a much higher level of productivity. mind-mapping is not fully utilized in its use alongside wiki, due to its limitations; in wiki, one person can change the page at a time and save it for others to see your changes. 5. conclusion higher education is a trendy topic both in romania and worldwide. itc technologies influence more and more education at any level (primary, secondary, tertiary) and type (formal, informal and non-formal). the study fundaments the need of implementing mind-mapping combined with wiki in the teaching-learning relation at academic level. in romanian education web 2.0 by wiki started to be promoted ay high-school level, but also at faculty level in subjects such as computer science and language teaching, respectively. our experiment is the first of this type in romanian literature and puts together the two instruments: wiki and mind mapping learning. the results of this experimental study demonstrate that mind mapping raises interest among students to exploit its potential in their own academic education after understanding the role and relevance of mm as study methods and learning strategy. moreover, it illustrates the types of engagement behaviors of the students in the economic field, tourism, in the teaching-learning process with itc help, demonstrates that the students who know what they want and how to get the information having a well-defined purpose at the beginning of the course are actually the students who understand the teacher’s mind mapping and implicitly are considerably more engaged. through this article we bring a counter argument to the conclusions of the specialists in the field 44,15,16,46 where it is sustained that only by constraint can students participate in the education process but we continue to support in this study the affirmations of those studies according to which wiki can help: develop formative and informative valences, critical thinking and creativity; developing digital competences individually and in group, students practice the most important competence in our contemporary society and that is content creation; participative learning and discovering the on-line environment. the article is among the articles which analyze the current discussions about this mind mapping method and it refers to its integration in a component of the teaching and evaluation strategy for students in economics in web 2.0 era. the results obtained in the article bring arguments in favor of the idea that teachers must think differently in order to offer students the chance to access new learning methods, new ways of finding information and collaborating, as these are considered key elements in modern pedagogical practice. moreover, the article demonstrates the advantages of using mm in teaching and evaluation, emphasizing the role of this method in facilitating the assimilation of information in short time. in the authors’ vision the mind mapping techniques have a high potential in offering students a strategy for retaining information, integrating critical thinking and problem solving. the authors demonstrated in the article that mind mapping is useful both individually and for group activity, so mind mapping needs to be introduced in training and development processes, especially in the learning/accumulation stage. this research has certain limitations. firstly, the results may be a consequence of the organization of our faculty. secondly, the small number of students used in the research as well as the period under analysis. thirdly, it is unclear whether wiki and mind-mapping can be used to promote student engagement or create student-driven course content suitable for assessment. in our future research we will analyze the engagement of economics students to create a picture/map of their digital knowledge anchored in their economic knowledge with a clear result, the development of the prototype of student skills in the digital era as the basis for the process of developing a curriculum anchored in the digitization era. references asztalos, r. (2014). the use of a wiki at a college in hungary as a tool to enhance personal learning. in s. jager, l. bradley, e. j. meima, & s. thouësny (eds), call design: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 126 principles and practice; proceedings of the 2014 eurocall conference, groningen, the netherlands (pp. 18-22). dublin: researchpublishing.net. doi:10.14705/rpnet.2014.000188. bacher, j., wenzig, k., & vogler, m. (2004). spss twostep cluster a first evaluation, available:http://www.statisticalinnovations.com/products/twostep.pdf [05 may 2017]. berdrow, i., & evers, f. t. (2011). bases of competence: a framework for facilitating reflective learner -centered educational environments, journal of management education, 35(3), pp.406-427. chang, k. e., sung, y. t., & chen, s. f. (2001). learning through computer-based concept mapping with scaffolding aid. journal of computer assisted learning, vol. 17, pp. 21-33. cohen-scali, v. (2012). competence and competence development, budrich academic barbara budrich publishers, budrich unipress ltd. stauffenbergstr. cole, m. (2009). using wiki technology to support student engagement: lessons from the trenches. computers & education 52, pp. 141-146. conole, g., & alevizou, p. (2010). a literature review of the use of web 2.0 tools in higher education. hea academy, york, uk. croasdell, david t., freeman, lee a., & urbaczewski, a. (2003). concept maps for teaching and assessment, communications of the association for information systems: vol. 12, pp. 396405. eppler, m. j. (2006). a comparison between concept maps, mind maps, conceptual diagrams, and visual metaphors as complementary tools for knowledge construction and sharing, in inf visualization, 5, pp.202-210. eriksson, l. t., & hauer, a. m. (2004). mind mapping marketing: a creative approach in developing marketing skills, in journal of marketing education, 26(2), pp.74-187. felea, c., & stanca, l. (2015). wiki tools in teaching english for academic purposes an analysis of student learning behaviour pattern, in “carol i” national defence university publishing house. vol. 1, pp.82-91. gardner, h. (2006). the development and education of the mind: the selected works of howard gardner, new york : routledge. gouli, e. et al. (2004). compass: an adaptive web-based concept map assessment tool. proceedings of the first international conference on concept mapping 2004. gower, j. c. (1971). a general coefficient of similarity and some of its properties, biometrics, 27, 857– 872. grundspenkis, j. (2008). development of concept map based adaptive knowledge assessment system. in e-learning, pp. 395-402. grosseck, g., & holotescu, c. (2012). an empirical analysis of the educational effects of social media in universities and colleges,in the 8th international scientific conference elearning and software for education, volume i, pp. 156-164. ichino, m., & yaguchi, h. (1994). generalized minkowski metrics for mixed feature-type data analysis. ieee transactions on systems, man and cybernetics, 24, 698–708. jolly , d. (1984). writing task, in new york: cambridge university. kearsley g., & schneiderman b. (1999). engagement theory: a framework for technology-based teaching and learning. naval seas system command. kirkwood, a., & price, l. (2014). technology-enhanced learning and teaching in higher education: what is ‘enhanced’ and how do we know? a critical literature review. learning, media and technology, 39(1) pp. 6–36. kubincová z., homola, m., & bejdová, v. (2013). motivational effect of peer review in blogbased activities, advances in web-based learning – icwl 2013, lecture notes in computer science volume 8167, 2013, pp 194-203. lee l. (2010). exploring wiki-mediated collaborative writing: a case study in an elementary spanish course, calico journal, 27. r. lacurezeanu, l. stanca, a. tiron-tudor, s. zagan mind maping as support for economic studies e-learning 127 lowden, k., hall, s., elliot, d., & lewin, j. (2011). employers’ perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates, london: edge foundation. lundin, r. w. (2008). teaching with wikis: toward a networked pedagogy. computers and composition, 25, pp.432-448. mcloughlin c., & lee m. j. (2007). social software and par-ticipatory learning: pedagogical choices with technology affordances in the web 2.0 era. in ict: providing choices for learners and learning. proceedings ascilite singapore, pp.664-675. mcloughlin c., & lee m. j. (2008). mapping the digital terrain: new media and social software as catalysts for pedagogical change”,proceedings ascilite melbourne, pp. 564-575. mezirow, j. (1996). contemporary paradigms of learning. adult education quarterly, 46(3), pp.158-173. mezirow, j. (2000). learning to think like an adult: core concepts of transformation theory. in j. mezirow & associates (eds.), learning as transformation, pp. 3–34. naismith, l., lonsdale, p., vavoula, g., & sharples, m. (2004). literature review in mobile technologies and learning. nesta futurelab report 11. bristol. nettleship, j. (1992). active learning in economics: mind maps and wall charts in economics, 28, 1992, pp.69-71. newbern, d., & dansereau, d. f. (1995). knowledge maps for knowledge management. in k.m. wiig (ed.), knowledge management methods: practical approaches to managing knowledge, volume 3 of knowledge management series. novak, j. d., & canas, a. j. (2006). the theory underlying concept maps and how to construct them, in technical report ihmc,http://cmap.ihmcus/publication/researchpapers. novak, j. d., & gowin, d. b. (1984). learning how to learn. new york: cambridge university press. novak, j. (1998). learning, creating and using knowledge. concept maps™ as facilitative tools in schools and in corporations. london: lawrence erlbaum. pennington, m. (2003). the impact of the computer in second language writing. in b. kroll, exploring the dynamics of second language writing pp. 287-310. pinto zipp, g., maher, c., & d’antoni, a.v. (2009). mind maps: useful schematic tool for organizing and integrating concepts of complex patient care in the clinic and classroom, in journal of college teaching and learning, 6(2), pp. 59-68. purdy, j. p. (2009). when the tenets of composition go public: a study of writing in wikipedia. college composition and communication, 61(2), pp.351-373. popescu, e., & cioiu, d. (2011). integrating web 2.0 tools in a social learning environment, advances in web-based learning, lecture notes in computer science volume 7048, pp 41-50. robins, a., rountree, j., & rountree, n. (2003). learning and teaching programming: a review and discussion. in computer science education, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 137-72. rusk, n., resnick, m., berg, r., & pezalla-granlund, m. (2008). new pathways into robotics: strategies for broadening participation, journal of science education and technology, vol. 17, no. 1. seitzinger, j. (2006). be constructive: blogs, podcasts, and wikis as constructivist learning tools, learning solutions e-magazine. http://www.elearningguild .com/pdf/2/073106des.pdf. sackman, h. (1970). mancomputer problem solving: experimental evaluation of timesharing and batch processing in auerbach, princeton, nj. sim, j. w. s., & hew, k. f. (2010). the use of weblogs in higher education settings: a review of empirical research. educational research review, 5(2), 151-163. talbot m. (2012). the use of wikis to enhance student learning in tourism education: presented at the association for tourism in higher education annual conference, cambridge, uk. tergan s. o. (2005). digital concept maps for managing knowledge and information. in: tergan so., keller t. (eds) knowledge and information visualization. lecture notes in computer science, vol 3426. springer, berlin, heidelberg. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 128 walker, r., voce, j., & ahmed, j. (2012). survey of technology enhanced learning for higher education in the uk, oxford: universities and colleges information systems association. accessed january 18, 2013. ware, p. d., & warschauer, m. (2006). electronic feedbackand second language writing. in k. hyland & f. hyland. feedback in second language writing: contexts and issues, pp. 105122. waterhouse s. (2004). deviant and non-deviant identities in the classroom: patrolling the boundaries of the normal social world. european journal of special needs education. 2004 pp.69-84. yorke, m., & knight, p. t. (2004). learning & employability.embedding employability into the curriculum, london: routledge falmer. dr. ramona lacurezeanu received her phd degree in 2000 in the field of cybernetics and economic statistics (business information systems). she is associate professor in the department business information systems from faculty of economics and business administration, babeş-bolyai university, cluj-napoca, romania. her current research interests include distance education, software technologies and computer systems. dr. liana stanca is an associate professor in the department business information systems from faculty of economics and business administration, babeş-bolyai university, cluj-napoca, romania. her research interest is in business informatics, programming languages, educational technologies and teaching methods. dr. adriana tiron-tudor is a full professor and phd supervisor in accounting and auditing at babes-bolyai university, faculty of economics and business administration, cluj-napoca, romania. her research interest is also in the area of improvements in education by using modern tools and the impact of new technologies on accounting and auditing profession. dr. sergiu zagan is a lecturer of the department of modern languages and business communication within the faculty of economics and business administration of babeş-bolyai university, cluj-napoca, romania. he has a phd in linguistics and a master degree in literature. he has published articles on topics such as: professional discourse, discourse analysis, theory and practice in teaching business french. 5 motor imagery signal classification for bci system using empirical mode décomposition and bandpower feature extraction dalila trad esstt, latice 5, avenue taha hussein, b. p. : 56, bab menara, 1008 tunisia trad.dalila@gmail.com tarik al-ani dep. informatique, cit descartes-bp 99, 93162 noisy-le-grand, uvsq, lisv, 10/12 avenue de /europe,78140 velizy, france and esiee-paris, france. t.alani@esiee.fr mohamed jemni esstt, latice 5, avenue taha hussein, b. p. : 56, bab menara, 1008 tunisia mohamed.jemni@alecso.org.tn abstract the idea that brain activity could be used as a communication channel has rapidly developed. indeed, electroencephalography (eeg) is the most common technique to measure the brain activity on the scalp and in real-time. in this study we examine the use of eeg signals in brain computer interface (bci). this approach consists of combining the empirical mode decomposition (emd) and band power (bp) for the extraction of eeg signals in order to classify motor imagery (mi). this new feature extraction approach is intended for non-stationary and non-linear characteristics mi eeg. the emd method is proposed to decompose the eeg signal into a set of stationary time series called intrinsic mode functions (imf). these imfs are analyzed with the bandpower (bp) to detect the characteristics of sensorimotor rhythms (mu and beta) when a subject imagines a left or right hand movement. finally, the data were just reconstructed with the specific imfs and the bandpower is applied on the new database. once the new feature vector is rebuilt, the classification of mi is performed using two types of classifiers: generative and discriminant. the results obtained show that the emd allows the most reliable features to be extracted from eeg and that the classification rate obtained is higher and better than using the direct bp approach only. such a system is a promising communication channel for people suffering from severe paralysis, for instance, people with myopathic diseases or muscular dystrophy (md) in order to help them move a joystick to a desired direction corresponding to the specific motor imagery. keywords: brain computer interface, motor imagery, bandpower, empirical mode decomposition, hidden markov model, support vector machines, cohens kappa coefficient. 1. introduction a bci system is a communication and control pathway between a brain and an external device. it does not require any external devices or muscle intervention to issue commands and complete the interaction (abdulkader et al., 2015). this system primarily concerns the medical domain and mainly the field of disability. so, the major goal of the bci research is to provide severely disabled people with a new communication channel, which is not based on the traditional motor output channels (van erp et al., 2012). a bci system is represented as a system in a continuous closed, generally composed of six steps, (see fig 1): 1. brain activity measurement, 2. preprocessing, 3. feature extraction, 4. classification, 5. translation into a command and feedback. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 6 figure 1. general architecture of an online (bci) one major challenge of our bci system is to describe the signals eeg by a few relevant values called features i.e. step 3 in fig (1). the success of the mental imagery classification depends on the choice of features used to characterize the raw eeg signals. these features can then be used in step 4 in order to classify the user’s mental state. several approaches for feature extraction have been proposed in literature. these approaches are based on time, frequency or time-frequency methods (al-ani & trad, 2010; pfurtscheller, 2004). a common way to gain bci control is to use motor imagery of left and right hand movement, which is based on event-related desynchronization/synchronisation (erd/ers) in specific frequency bands. for instance, imagination of left or right hand movement results in amplitude causes an attenuation (event-related desynchronization (erd)) of  (8-13hz) and central  (13-30hz) rhythms at the contra-lateral sensorimotor representation area and, in an amplitude increase (event-related synchronization (ers)) within the  band (30-40hz) at the ipsilateral hemisphere (pfurtscheller, 1999; neuper & pfurtscheller, 1999). several common band power techniques were employed in the bci literature. herman et al. (herman et al., 2008) demonstrated that the yule and welch psd approaches, mainly dominate the other studied ones. these approaches are based essentially on some linearity and stationary hypothesis such as the use of fast fourier transform (fft) spectrum in a short-time segment of data. the accuracy of the fft calculation is closely related to the choice of the duration of the signal segment. however, the nature of the eeg signal is non stationary and nonlinear. the main non-stationary and nonlinear feature extraction technique is the wavelet transform (wt) (samar et al., 1999). various kinds of wavelets have been used for bci, such as morlet wavelets (lemm et al., 2004) and wavelet packet decomposition (hettiarachchi et al. 2014). despite being more effective than the fft, wt approach shows a much bigger ambiguity in signal decomposition. however, it cannot provide higher resolution both in time and frequency domain, besides, the decomposition of signal is not adaptive. in this paper, we applied a recent technique proposed by huang et al. (huang et al. 1998), called the empirical mode decomposition (emd) for nonlinear and non-stationary time series data for pattern extraction from motor imagery eeg of left and right hand imaginary movement. this method emd is a data driven approach (i.e. one does not need to define a mother wavelet beforehand) that can be used to decompose adaptively a signal into a finite number of monocomponent signals, which are known as intrinsic mode functions (imf s) or modes. it considers signals at their local oscillations, but they are not necessarily considered in the sense of fourier harmonics. their extraction is non-linear, whereas their recombination for exact reconstruction of the signal is linear. the imfs admit well-behaved hilbert transforms (ht) (long et al. 1995) and they satisfy the following properties: they are symmetric, different imfs yield different instantaneous local frequencies as functions of time that give sharp identifications of embedded structures. in this work, we propose a hybrid approach combining the emd and bp for feature extraction from the eeg signals. we first apply the emd to select only the imfs corresponding to sensorimotor rhythms (mu and beta) using welch-based psd to extract the reliable information of eeg during left and right hand movement imagination. based on these new features, the experimental using two classifiers hidden markov models (hmms) and support vector machines (svm) results show that the proposed method improves recognition rate greatly. d. trad, t. al-ani, m. jemni motor imagery signal classification for bci system using empirical mode décomposition and bandpower feature extraction 7 2. methods 2.1. participants and experimental paradigm the eeg signals used for this experiment were recorded by a real-time eeg acquisition hardware g.gammasys active electrode system along with a g.usbamp amplifier g.tec, guger technologies. in this study, the eeg data of ten subjects (two young females and seven young males with ages ranging from about 22 to 35 years), recorded during imagination of the left and right hand movements. a subject training session in our work consisted of one experimental run of 40 trials with randomized direction of the cues (20 left-hand imagination and 20 right-hand imagination). for each subject, we used only 4 out of the best sessions (i.e. 160 trials/subject). therefore, each subject is seated in a comfortable armchair 150 cm in front of a computer screen. at the beginning of each trial (t = 0 s), a fixation cross-appeared on the black screen. after two seconds a warning stimulus was given in the form of a beep. from 3 to 4.25s, an arrow (cue stimulus), pointing to the left or right, was shown on the screen. the subject was instructed to imagine a left or right hand movement until the end of the trial, depending on the direction of the arrow. the eeg was sampled and classified on-line throughout the session. between 4.25 and 8s, the classification result was used to give a continuously updated feedback stimulus in the form of a horizontal bar that appeared in the center of the screen. the paradigm is illustrated in fig (2). figure 2. timing of one trial of the experiment with continuous feedback (guger et al, 2001) 2.2. preprocessing two bipolar eeg channels were measured over c3 and c4 according to the international 1020 system (jasper 1958). the left ear served as reference and the fpz as ground. the signals were sampled at 256 hz and bandpass-filtered between 0.5 hz and 30 hz. an additional 50 hz notch filter was enabled to suppress line noise. 2.3. feature extraction once the raw eeg data is recorded and pre-processed, the following step is to extract its intrinsic features. this step is essential in the functioning of bcis due to the important measured amount of brain activities. the aim of this step is then to find a better representation of the eeg signal while keeping the most relevant properties corresponding to the performed mental imagery. this information is called features. in this work, we propose a robust method bases on bp and emd to extract the relevant eeg features corresponding to mi. 2.3.1. bandpower the features may be extracted from the eeg signals by estimating the power distribution of the eeg in predefined frequency bands. in general, the band power is estimated by digitally bandbrain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 8 pass filtering a signal in a given frequency band, then squaring the filtered signal and finally averaging the obtained values over a given time window. pfurtscheller et al. (pfurtscheller et al.,1997) used the bp and demonstrated that for each subject, different frequency components were found in the  and  bands which provided best discrimination between left and right hand movement imagination. these frequency bands varied between 9 and 14 hz and between 18 and 26 hz. such features have been notably used with success for motor imagery classification. 2.3.2. empirical mode decomposition (emd): the traditional emd was recently proposed as an adaptive time-frequency data analysis method (huang et al., 1998). an algorithm based on an empirical framework defines it. the basic emd is defined by a process called sifting to break down any multimodal signal to a sum of basis components called intrinsic mode functions (imfs). the imfs are zero-mean am-fm signals which must satisfy two conditions: the first one is that the number of extrema and that of zero-crossing must differ at most by one; the second one is that the mean value between the upper and lower envelopes are equal to zero at any point. conceptually, the establishment of this method is quite simple: one needs to consider a signal at its local oscillation level, remove the fastest oscillation and iterate the process on the residue considered as a new signal. at the end of the sifting processes, a given signal x(t) can be written as a sum of a finite number of imfs, im(t), m = 1. 2, .... m, and a final residue rm(t) (equation1): (1) the decomposition is stopped at step m, if either the residue is a mono-component signal or has only 2 extrema. the stopping criterion must be set to ensure that the obtained signal satisfies the properties of an imf while limiting the number of iterations. for more details about the different steps of the sifting process for the calculation of the imfi as well as the stopping criterion definition see (huang et al., 1998). since the decomposition into imfs is based on the local characteristic time scale of the data, it applies to nonlinear and non-stationary processes. the imfs admit well-behaved hilbert transforms (ht) and they satisfy the following properties: they are symmetric, different imfs yield different instantaneous local frequencies as functions of time that give sharp identifications of embedded structures. the decomposition is done linearly or non-linearly depending on the data. this complete and almost orthogonal decomposition is empirically realized by identifying the physical local characteristic time scales intrinsic to these data, which is the lapse between successive extrema. 2.3.3. emd and bp for motor imagery in this work, we propose a direct nonlinear approach to extract the more relevant imfs corresponding to the different frequency components in the  and  bands and then obtain the bp in order to use them as features for mental task classification (see fig. 3). the feature vector pi used for the demonstration in this paper is composed, for each sample i, 1 < i < 2048, in a given trial (among a total of 160 trials) of four bandpower, calculated of the rhythms  and  in positions c3 and c4 (trad et al., 2011). fig. 4 shows the emd decomposition result of one-trial (left hand movement imagination) for subject 2 in the channels c3 and c4 respectively (the pre-filtered eeg signal used for this illustration is not corrupted by blinking artifact.). each channel is decomposed into ten imfs and one residue. )()()( 1 trtitx m m m m    d. trad, t. al-ani, m. jemni motor imagery signal classification for bci system using empirical mode décomposition and bandpower feature extraction 9 welch based psd method was applied to analyze the different characteristics of each imf. this method was applied to each imf to find the active frequency bands such as the  and  rhythms. fig. 5 shows the psd in each imf shown in fig.4. the major advantage of emd is that the input signal may be decomposed directly and adaptively to basic functions (imfs), each with a distinct time scale. the imfs are ordered in increasing time scales, i.e., decreasing frequency. based on this property, we can notice that the characteristics of the active frequency bands corresponding to  [8-12hz] and  [13-30hz] are located only in imf 1, imf 2 on c3 and c4. therefore, the new signal is reconstructed by keeping only the two first imfs. emd also allows eliminating the artifacts in the eeg during the recording sessions like eye blinks and eyeball movements. in fig 5, we noted that ocular artifact frequency is generally low around 5hz with high amplitude. this artifact appears mainly in imf3 and imf4. finally, band power was applied for the new signal. as a last step, the logarithm of the bp is calculated in order to transform the distribution of this feature to a more gaussian like shape, because the classifiers we used, such as hmms and svm assume normally distributed features. a) figure 3. hybrid emd-bp approach for one trail feature extraction brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 10 b) figure 4. the emd decomposition results for subject 2 when he imagines left hand movement. from top-left to down-right: the raw signal, the ten imfs and the residue in channel c4 (a) and in c3 (b) a) d. trad, t. al-ani, m. jemni motor imagery signal classification for bci system using empirical mode décomposition and bandpower feature extraction 11 b) figure 5. psd (db/hz) vs freaquency (hz) of each imf showen in fig 4 in channel c4 (a) and in c3 (b) 2.4. classification the goal of the classification step is to assign automatically a class to the feature vector previously extracted. in this study, four feature sets for each feature extraction approach, bp and emd+bp, were used for classification and for test. two sets of feature vectors; one for lmi and the other for rmi were used to train the classifier (creating one model for each mi) while the two other sets of feature vectors, one for left and the other for right mi were used for test. each set contains 40 feature matrices each of dimension 4x2048. we evaluated our feature extraction approach by using 2 classifiers. 2.4.1. hidden markov model (hmm) the hmms approach is very efficient nonlinear technique used for the classification of time series (rabiner, 1989). it necessitates two stages: a training stage where the stochastic process models are estimated through extensive observation corpus and decoding or detection stage where the model may be used off/on-line to obtain the likelihoods of the given test sequence evaluated by each model. a hmm is defined by the following compact notation to indicate the complete parameter set of the model  = (ii, a, b), where ii, a and b are the initial state distribution vector, matrix of state transition probabilities and the set of the observation probability distribution in each state, respectively:  ii = [ii 1, ii 2, ..., ii ns], ii i = p(q1 = si), a = [aij ], aij = p(qt+1 = sj | qt = si). where 1 ≤ i, j ≤ n, si, sj  s, s = {s1, s2, ..., sn}, t  {1, 2, ..., t }. the observation at time (or index) t, ot, is considered in this paper as continuous or real-valued k-dimensional vector ot  r k , 1 ≤ t ≤ t, 1 ≤ t ≤ t. for a continuous observation, the state conditional probability of the observation bi(ot) may be defined by a finite mixture of any log-concave or elliptically symmetric probability density function (pdf), e.g. gaussian pdf, with state conditional observation mean vector µi and state conditional observation covariance matrix si. in this paper we consider only a single multivariate gaussian pdf, so b may be defined as b = {µi, si} i = 1,2, ... ,ns. at each instant of time t, the model is in one of the states i, 1 ≤ i ≤ ns. it outputs ot according to a density function bi(ot) and then jumps to state j, 1 ≤ j ≤ ns with probability aij. the state transition matrix defines the structure of the hmm (rabiner, 1989). the model  may be obtained off-line by a given training procedure. in practice, given an brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 12 observation sequence o = {01, o2, ..., ot}, and an initial model , the hmms need three fundamental problems to be solved: 1. how to calculate the likelihood p(o|)? the solution to this problem provides a score of how o belongs to . 2. how to determine the most likely state sequence that corresponds to a given observation sequence o? the solution to this problem provides the sequence of the hidden states corresponding to the given observation sequence o. 3. how to adjust the model  in order to maximize p(o|)? this is the problem of estimating the model parameters given a corpus of training observations sequences. problems 1 and 2 are solved in the decoding or classification stage using the forward or the viterbi algorithms (rabiner, 1989), while problem 3 is solved during the training phase using either a conventional algorithm such as the baum-welch algorithm (rabiner, 1989) or other optimizationbased algorithm, e.g., (al-ani & hamam, 1978). our training scheme is based on baum-welch training algorithm and the bayesian inference criterion (bic). this scheme makes the training procedure independent of the a priori knowledge of the structure of each hmm needed in the baum-welch algorithm. the decoding or classification may be realised on-line using the stochastic dynamic programming based viterbi algorithm. this algorithm needs all the constructed hmms to classify on-line a given observation sequence. in our work, two hmms were built for rmi and lmi using 40 training feature sequences from each mi. each sequence is composed of t = 2048 feature vectors of dimension k = 4 each. 2.4.2. support vector machines (svm) svm was first introduced by vapnik (vapnik, 1998) (vapnik, 2000). it is based on two fundamental principles: 1. maximum margin which is the distance between the border of separation and the closest samples. in svms, the boundary of separation is chosen as the one that maximizes the margin. this is justified by the theory of vapnik-chervonenkis (or statistical theory of learning) (vapnik, 1998). the problem is to find the optimal separating boundary from a given training set. this is done by formulating the problem as a quadratic optimization problem for which there are known algorithms. 2. in order to deal with cases where the data are not linearly separable, we increase of the size of the input space. to be able to handle nonlinear separable data, we transform the space of input data to another space with larger size in which the probability that a linear boundary exists is higher. this transformation is realised by using a nonlinear kernel function. several kernel functions may be used to design the svms. in our work, the gaussian radial basis function (rbf):  k(x,y) exp ||xy || 2  2         (2) with a scaling factor, , of 1 was selected as it gives the most accurate results. in our work, two classes svm was built for rmi and lmi using 40 training feature sequences from each mi. each sequence is composed of t = 2048 feature vectors of dimension k = 4 each. 2.5. statistical performance evaluation method: cohen’s kappa coefficient training the classifiers presented above was designed to minimize the classification error or to increase the classification rate usually measured by the rate of correctly classified trials. to interpret the classification performance, we take as reference the percentage rate reached by a random classification. indeed, evaluating the performance of a classifier, based on a given features, is an important issue since its performance may be used for simplifying human training. the evaluation the performance of our feature extraction is based on the performance of the d. trad, t. al-ani, m. jemni motor imagery signal classification for bci system using empirical mode décomposition and bandpower feature extraction 13 classification results on rmi and lmi. in order to compare our new feature extraction method results with the traditional feature extraction method results, we used the cohen’s kappa coefficient (cohen, 1960). it allows to measure the agreement between two classifiers in classification into two categories. the value of the cohens k ranges between 1 and -1, where 1 corresponds to perfectly correct classification and values less than 1 imply less than perfect agreement. let p0 the observed agreement among two classifiers and pe the expected agreement. the cohens kappa k is defined by:  k  po pe 1pe (3) 3. results and discussion 3.1. confusion matrices the recognition rate calculated by hmm and svm for the 10 subjects is represented by the confusion matrix (table 1) for the two feature extraction methods direct bp and emd + bp. it is clearly seen that the combination of the two features methods, emd and bp gives the best classification rates for almost all subjects. based on these matrices, the performance of our approach was evaluated using k scores. table 1. confusion matrix: recognition rates calculated by hmms and svm in the case of rmi and lmi. these results are showen for both methods of feature extraction (bp and emd+bp) for all subjects. subject fe true class hmm predicted class svm –predicted class predicted class 1 rmi lmi rmi lmi bp rmi 70 30 86.25 13.75 lmi 2.5 97.5 36.25 63.75 emd+bp rmi 90 10 85 15 lmi 2.5 97.5 2.50 97.50 2 bp rmi 77.5 22.5 76.25 23.75 lmi 7.5 923 40 60 emd+bp rmi 75 25 75 25 lmi 2.5 97.5 25 75 3 bp rmi 57.5 42.5 61.25 38.75 lmi 35 65 33.75 66.25 emd+bp rmi 72.5 27.5 61.87 38.13 lmi 40 60 25 75 4 bp rmi 71.42 28.58 55.62 44.38 lmi 37.15 62.85 42.50 75.50 emd+bp rmi 71.42 28.58 77.50 22.50 lmi 42.85 57.15 82.75 71.25 5 bp rmi 52.5 47.5 76.25 23.75 lmi 42.5 57.5 33.13 61.87 emd+bp rmi 72.5 27.5 76.25 23.75 lmi 40 60 27.50 72.50 6 bp rmi 80 20 67.50 32.50 lmi 50 50 32.50 76.50 emd+bp rmi 85 15 68.12 31.88 lmi 47.5 523 17.50 8230 7 bp rmi 80 20 70.62 29.38 lmi 35 65 28.75 71.25 emd+bp rmi 80 20 78.12 21.88 lmi 32.5 67.5 29.38 70.62 8 bp rmi 87.5 12.5 57.50 42.50 lmi 32.5 67.5 45.63 54.37 emd+bp rmi 90 10 38.75 16.25 lmi 37.5 62.5 33.75 66.25 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 14 9 bp rmi 60 40 78.12 21.88 lmi 45 55 28.13 71.87 emd+bp rmi 82.5 17.5 77.50 22.50 lmi 25 75 7.50 72.50 10 bp rmi 60 40 66.87 33.13 lmi 42.5 57.5 36.88 63.12 emd+bp rmi 75 25 75 25 lmi 35 65 25 75 3.2. cohen’s kappa coefficient table 2 gives the kappavalues for each one of the ten subjects in order to evaluate our method of feature extraction based on emd+bp. the average score obtained by the hmm classifier when the feature vectors are generated by emd+bp is equal to 0.54 while that obtained when the feature vectors are generated by bp is equal to 0.4, i.e., an increase of 35%. for the svm classifier, the average score increases from 0.34 to 0.52, i.e., an increase of 53% using the methods bp and emd+bp respectively. therefore, the use of the emd+bp approach with the two classifiers gives to the kappa scores a significant superiority compared to the direct bp approach. table 2. k-values obtained by the two types of classifiers (c) hmms and svm with the two types of features extraction (fe) methods: bp and emd+bp for 10 subjects during rmi and lmi as well as their mean values c fe 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 mean k hmm bp 0.6 0.8 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.2 0.2 0.40 emd+bp 0.8 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.6 0.4 034 svm bp 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.34 emd+bp 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.4 0.6 0.6 0.6 032 3.3. translation into a command once the motor imagery is identified, a command may be associated to this mental task in order to control a machine (prataksita et al., (2014)) (guger et al., 1999). in this work, we constructed a new simuhnk/mathwork model to translate on-line the eeg signals into low-level commands. fig. 6 shows our experimental eeg-based bci system (trad et al., 2015). 1. off-line phase: in the first step, the eeg signals are recorded while subjects imagine a right and left hand movement. the second step is the preprocessing and feature extraction of eeg data. in this step, we implemented our method to extract the relevant features of the eeg. this method is based on the combination of emd and bp. in the third step, we implemented the hmm classifier to assign a model to each motor imagery task: l for lmi and 2 for rmi. 2. on-line phase: once the motor imagery is identified by one of the two models, a lowlevel command can be then associated to this mental task. this mechanism was implemented with simulink/mathworks. emd + bp and viterbi algorithm (rabiner 1989) are implemented as an embedded function in simulink in order to identify the motor imagery on-line. viterbi algorithm has two inputs data, the first input is the eeg data and the second is the two models already constructed in the first step (offline). the viterbi-based recognition result is translated into a command to reinforce the movement of the joystick (right or left) in order to help persons with myopathic diseases or muscular dystrophy to move this joystick to a desired direction. d. trad, t. al-ani, m. jemni motor imagery signal classification for bci system using empirical mode décomposition and bandpower feature extraction 15 4. conclusion the work presented in this paper concerns the steps of feature extraction and classification for motor imagery in bci framework. these steps are essential for the design of bci systems since these systems represent a direct communication channel between the brain of a subject and a machine without any direct muscular intervention. our approach is based on indirect, independent and asynchronous bci systems. ten healthy subjects participated in the realization of this process by imagining two hand movements. during our work, we have studied the changes in frequency and amplitude of the eeg from each subject participating in our experiment. changes in frequency distribution within the bands of sensorimotor  and  rhythms vary from one individual to another and evolve strongly over time. for this reason it is essential to carry a preliminary study for each subject. once the values of sensorimotor rhythms are determined for each subject, it is easier to control subject's brain activity when one realizes motor imagery. this is achieved through the feedback returned to subject. emd is particularly important in extracting directly from the eegs the time courses of  and  rhythms. this facilitates the detection of the reactive erd/ers bands for individual subjects, i.e., no need to choose an individual subject specific frequency band. another advantage of emd is not only that it is a data driven approach but also it has the advantage of removing or reducing the artifacts and the noise affecting the eeg signal. therefore, we deduce that the classification rate in the two movements imagination are better using emd+bp approach than the direct bp approach. when subject motor imagery is recognized, we translated the eeg signal to a low-level command. this system could allow subjects who suffer from severe motor disabilities to better reinforce a joysticks movement to right or left. references abdulkader, s. n., atia, a., & mostafa, m.-s. (2015). brain computer interfacing: applications and challenges. egyptian informatics journal 16, 213–230 van erp, j., lotte, f., & tangermann, m. (2012). brain-computer interfaces: beyond medical applications. ieee computer 45, 26–34 al-ani, t. & trad, d. (2010). signal processing and classification approaches for brain-computer interface. in intelligent and biosensors, ed. v. s. somerset (intech), 25–66 pfurtscheller, g. (2004). brain-computer interface state of the art and future prospects. in proceedings of european signal processing conference (vienna, austria), 509–510 figure 6. the general conception of our asynchronous system bci (offline online) for reinforcement of a joystick movement brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 pfurtscheller, g. (1999). eeg event-related desynchronization (erd) and eventrelated synchronization (ers). electroencephalography: basic principles, clinical applications and related fields, 4th ed , 958–967 neuper, c. & pfurtscheller, g. (1999). motor imagery and erd related desyncronization. in eventrelated synchronisation, eds. g. pfurtscheller and e. f. h. lopes da silva (amsterdam handbook of electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology. revised edition: elsevier), 303–525 herman, p., prasad, g., mcginnity, t., & coyle, d. (2008). comparative analysis of spectral approaches to feature extraction for eeg-based motor imagery classification. ieee transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering 16, 317–326 samar, v., bopardikar, a., rao, r., & swartz., k. (1999). wavelet analysis of neuroelectric waveforms: a conceptual tutorial. brain and language 66, 7–60 lemm, s., schafer, c., & curio, g. (2004). bci competition 2003data set iii: probabilistic modeling of sensorimotor mu rhythms for classification of imaginary hand movements. ieee transactions on biomedical engineering 51, 10771080 hettiarachchi, i., nguyen, t., & nahavandi, s. (2014). motor imagery data classification for bci application using wavelet packet feature extraction. in neural information processing (springer international publishing), 519–526 huang, n. e., shen, z., long, s. r., wu, m. c., shih, h. h., zheng, q., et al. (1998). the empirical mode decomposition and the hilbert spectrum for nonlinear and non-stationary time series analysis. in proceedings of the royal society. vol. 454, 903–995 long, s. r., huang, n., tung, c., wu, m., lin, r., & mollo-christensen, y., e yuan (1995). the hilbert techniques: an alternate approach for non-steady time series analysis. ieee geoscience remote sensing soc. lett. 3, 6–11 guger, c., schlogl, a., neuper, c., walterspacher, d., strein, t. & pfurtscheller, g. (2001) rapid prototyping of an eeg-based brain-computer interface (bci), electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology 9, 49-58. jasper, h. (1958). the ten-twenty electrode system of the international federation. in electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology. vol. 10, 370–375 pfurtscheller, g., neuper, c., flotzinger, d. & pregenzer, m. (1997). eegbased discrimination between imagination of right and left hand movement. in electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology. vol. 103, 642–651 trad, d., al-ani, t., monacelli, e. & jemni, m. (2011). nonlinear and nonstationary framework for feature extraction and classification of motor imagery. international conference on rehabilitation robotics, ieee, 1-6 rabiner, l. r. (1989). a tutorial on hidden markov models and selected application in speech recognition. in proceedings ieee. vol. 77, 267–296 al-ani, t. & hamam, y. (1978). a low complexity simulated annealing approach for training hidden markov models. international journal of operational research (ijor) 8, 483–510 vapnik, v. n. (1998). computational learning theory (john wiley & sons) vapnik, v. n. (2000). the nature of statistical learning theory (2nd ed., springer) cohen, j. (1960). a coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. educational and psychological measurement 20, 37–46 prataksita, n., lin, y-t., chou, h-c. & kuo, c-h. (2014). brain-robot control interface: development and application. bioelectronics and bioinformatics (isbb), ieee, 1-4 guger, c., harkam, w., hertnaes, c. & pfurtscheller, g. (1999). prosthetic control by an eegbased brain-computer interface (bci). proceedings aaate, vol 45, 799-804. trad, d., al-ani, t., & jemni, m. (2015). a feature extraction technique of eeg based on emd-bp for motor imagery classification in bci. in 2015 5th international conference on information communication technology and accessibility (icta) (ieee), 1–6 microsoft word 1152_medical-diagnosis-with-a-novel-svm-codoa-based_15_10_18 (1).docx 6 medical diagnosis with a novel svm-codoa based hybrid approach m. hanefi calp karadeniz technical university faculty of economics & administrative sciences department of management information systems 61080, trabzon, turkey phone: +90 462 377 3000 mhcalp@ktu.edu.tr abstract machine learning is an important sub-field of the artificial intelligence and it has been become a very critical task to train machine learning techniques via effective method or techniques. recently, researchers try to use alternative techniques to improve ability of machine learning techniques. moving from the explanations, objective of this study is to introduce a novel svm-codoa (cognitive development optimization algorithm trained support vector machines) system for general medical diagnosis. in detail, the system consists of a svm, which is trained by codoa, a newly developed optimization algorithm. as it is known, use of optimization algorithms is an essential task to train and improve machine learning techniques. in this sense, the study has provided a medical diagnosis oriented problem scope in order to show effectiveness of the svm-codoa hybrid formation. keywords: support vector machines, cognitive development optimization algorithm, machine learning, artificial intelligence, medical diagnosis. 1. introduction artificial intelligence has taken many steps since its first introduction to the scientific community. including many different problem and application types like classification, recognition, control, diagnosis, and prediction (russell, 2016; ertel, 2018; nabiyev, 2005), artificial intelligence has become an important scientific field for our life. because of its successful outputs in different fields, it has already become a multidisciplinary science and a remarkable research interest in this manner has risen accordingly. today, we can see the associated literature of artificial intelligence is very powerful and two important sub-fields: machine learning, and intelligent optimization have the most reputable role in this manner. both these sub-fields form the exact learning intelligent system infrastructure via different solution approaches logically and mathematically advanced and inspired from especially the nature or swarms in the real life (michalski et. al., 2013; alpaydin, 2009; eberhart et. al., 2001; yang, 2010). while machine learning has an active role in the core of the artificial intelligence field, with its mechanism to learn from samples or experiences for a trained intelligent system, intelligent optimization just uses certain algorithms – techniques to deal with optimization tasks. but before training of machine learning techniques is a typical optimization, intelligent optimization algorithms – techniques are widely used for training machine learning techniques. in this way, different types of hybrid systems are developed for better solution approaches (hojjat, 2018; bahrami et. al., 2017; akbal, 2018; kumar et. al., 2018; frazzon et. al., 2018). artificial intelligence and the recent research interest: using hybrid system are widely applied in research studies within different fields. the more the objective research becomes important, the more use of hybrid system has become popular. as associated with that, an important application scope of hybrid systems has become medical diagnosis. because it is a vital factor to have accurate diagnosis results for certain diseases, researchers are currently focused on developing alternative and effective intelligent solutions for medical diagnosis. in the associated literature, it is possible to see many different examples of using artificial intelligence and even hybrid systems for medical diagnosis purposes (kononenko, 2001; dilsizian & siegel, 2014; amato et. al., 2013; choi et. al., 2017; malav et. al., 2017; hassanien et. al., 2014; kumar et. al., 2015; vasant, 2018; cankaya et. al., 2018; karakoc, 2018). since the future is connected with the technological advantages of artificial intelligence, it becomes a remarkable research tasks to search for alternative systems performing good diagnosis performances for medical data. m. h. calp medical diagnosis with a novel svm-codoa based hybrid approach 7 moving from the explanations so far, objective of this study is to introduce a novel svmcodoa (cognitive development optimization algorithm trained support vector machines) system for general medical diagnosis. in detail, the system consists of a svm, which is trained by codoa, a newly developed optimization algorithm. as it is known, use of optimization algorithms is an essential task to train and improve machine learning techniques. in this sense, the work provides a medical diagnosis oriented problem scope in order to show effectiveness of the svmcodoa hybrid formation. this study is a general research report for the performed study. so, it is aimed firstly to express some about the employed techniques for the whole svm-codoa hybrid system, which was applied in the scope of medical diagnosis topic. in detail, it is also important to have information about how the svm is trained by the codoa so that the necessary explanations are provided accordingly. the system developed in this study was used for some known medical data in order to have accurate information about its performance and diagnosis ability. 2. methods and the problem solution it is important to have information about what is lying behind the hybrid system considered here and how the objective medical diagnosis problem has been solved in this context. the following sub-sections are devoted to that. the techniques – algorithms utilized in the study have been: svm, codoa, genetic algorithm (ga), differential evolution algorithm (de), clonal selection algorithm (csa), and particle swarm optimization algorithm (pso) respectively. these techniques are briefly described below. 2.1. support vector machines (svm) as introduced in 1979 by vapnik and lerner, support vector machines (svm) is used for especially classification and regression tasks (comak et. al., 2007; vapnik et. al., 1997; santhanam, 2015). it briefly focuses on finding the optimally separating hyper-plane classifying the target data. in this context, the margin(s) regarding the classes-groups are tried to be maximized, which means a typical optimization task. support vectors are called here as typical subset of data instances associated with the term: hyper-plane and the distance between nearest support vector and the hyper-plane is a margin. in detail, svm actually deals with both regression and classification problems by using its two typical variations: linear svm and non-linear svm. linear one is for separating the data with linear decision boundary (especially for two classes-groups) and the nonlinear one is for separating the data thanks to nonlinear decision boundary (santhanam, 2015; tamura & tanno, 2009). objective of a svm is to find the optimum separating hyper-plane, which can classify data points and divide them with classification points. svm in this manner aims to determine the state in which the distance between different (generally two) classes is at the maximum level. figure 1 shows an example for support vectors and the maximum / optimum separating margin hyper-plane (hepworth et. al., 2012). figure 1. svm and the related components (hepworth et. al., 2012) linear svm corresponds to classifying the data points with two classes. but in many applications, the objective data is indistinguishable with a linear way so that issue is solved thanks brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 8 to a higher dimensional space approach. the solution approach here is based on that the non-linear support vector regarding the original input space is adjusted in a higher dimensional feature space, which can be divided into the training data. as called as non-linear svm, that type of the technique benefits from kernel function in order to transform m-dimensional data into a new data set, which corresponds to a higher dimension classification, which is still linear. at this point, choosing the appropriate kernel function is important because it is connected with the exact performance shown. some widely used kernel functions in non-linear svm are as follows (cankaya et. al., 2018): linear function: 𝐾 𝑥 , 𝑥 = 𝑥 𝑥 (1) polynomial function: 𝐾 𝑥 , 𝑥 = 1 + 𝑥 𝑥 (2) gaussian (rbf) function: 𝐾 𝑥 , 𝑥 = 𝑒 (3) 2.2. a recent optimization technique: cognitive development optimization algorithm cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa) is an artificial intelligence based optimization technique, which can be used for optimization tasks. that optimization algorithm is briefly inspired from the piaget’s theory on cognitive development. in detail, the cognitive development corresponds to our natural development as expressed by piaget and we experience some typical process like social interaction, maturation, or balancing during learning something in this manner (kose, 2017; piaget, 1964; piaget, 1973; singer & revenson, 1997). similarly, the codoa includes some certain solution stages as: starting, socialization, maturation, rationalizing, and balancing. the stages include mathematical and logical operations around n particles taking role in the objective optimization solution space (kose, 2017). the steps of the codoa are briefly as follows (kose, 2017):  1st step (starting): adjust initial parameters like n: number of particles, ir: initial interactivity rate, r: rationality rate, ml: maturity limit, ex: experience for each particle, max. and min. value for ir.  2nd step: spread particles randomly to the solution space. calculate fitness. renew ir of the best particle with the following equation and increase its ex value by 1 (b is for the best, p is for the particle): b_p_ir_(new) = b_p_ir_(current) + (rand. * b_p_ir_(current)) (4)  3rd step: repeat the following steps till the stop criterion is met: 3.1st step (socialization): decrease ex the particles, whose fitness is equal to or above average fitness by 1 (considering the problem is minimization). in addition, increase ex of the particles in contrast situation, by 1. (consideration the problem is minimization). also, renew ir of these particles via the following: pj_ir_(new) = pj_ir_(current) + (rand. * pj_ir_(current)) (5) 3.2nd step: renew ir of all particles via: pi_ir_(new) = rand. * pi_ir_(current) (6) 3.3th step 3.3: renew position of each particle (except from the best one) via the following: pi_pos._(new) = pi_pos._(current) + (rand. * (pi_ir_(current) * (global_best_pos. – pi_pos._(current)))) (7) 3.4th step: calculate fitness. renew ir of the best particle with a random value and increase its ex by 1: b_p_ir_(new) = b_p_ir_(current) + (rand. * b_p_ir_(current)) (8) m. h. calp medical diagnosis with a novel svm-codoa based hybrid approach 9 3.5th step (maturation): renew ir of the particle, whose ex is equal to or under the ml, with the following: pj_ir_(new) = pj_ir_(current) + (rand. * pj_ir_(current)) (9) calculate fitness and update ir of the best particle and increase its ex by 1: b_p_ir_(new) = b_p_ir_(current) + (rand. * b_p_ir_(current)) (10) 3.6th step (rationalizing): renew ir and positions of the particles, whose ex is under 0: pj_ir_(new) = pj_ir_(current) + (rand. * (b_p_ir_(current) / pj_ir_(current))) (11) pi_pos._(new) = pi_pos._(current) + (rand. * (pi_ir_(current) * (global_best_pos. – pi_pos._(current)))) (12) renew ir of the particles, whose ex is equal to or above 0, and repeat that r times, via the following: pj_ir_(new) = pj_ir_(current) + (rand. * (b_p_ir_(current) / pj_ir_(current))) (13) 3.7th step 3.7 (balancing): renew ir of all particles by using the following: pi_ir_(new) = rand. * pi_ir_(current) (14) calculate fitness. renew ir of the best particle, increase its ex by 1 and realize in-system optimization for advanced problems: b_p_ir_(new) = b_p_ir_(current) + (rand. * b_p_ir_(current)) (15) return to the 3.1st step, if the stopping criteria is not met yet.  4th step: end of the optimization process. the result(s) are the best / optimum value(s). by following the related algorithmic steps, the codoa is able to deal with optimization tasks. in this context, that mechanism was used for training purposes of svm, as explained under the following paragraphs. 2.3. genetic algorithm (ga) ga is the first artificial intelligence technique inspired by basic elements and phenomena of the theory of evolution. ga is generally based on subjecting a variety of genetic manipulations according to the fitness values of individuals which are represented as chromosomes. in other definition, ga determines the fitness value of each individual, randomly selects a number of pairs of individuals, generates two new individuals (offspring solutions) from each selected pair of parent solutions, and uses a two-point crossover operator for this. that is, according to the results of the initial population, processes such as crossing and mutation are carried out. new individuals are obtained through relatively better individuals. the process required to create each new generation continues until the desired result is obtained or a certain stop criterion is reached. in summary, gas produce resolutions to optimization problems utilizing methods of natural evolution (inheritance, mutation, selection, and crossover) (kramer, 2017; holand, 1992; calp & akcayol, 2018; john & krishnakumar, 2017; kadri & boctor, 2018; dener & calp, 2018). in table 1, general framework of ga was given. table 1. the framework of ga step 1: creation of population (with n individuals, according to target problem). iterative steps for each individual and each purpose function size: step 2: calculation of fitness function value. step 3: selection of individuals who will enter reproductive process. step 4: crossing of selected individuals. step 5: mutation of some individuals. step 6: obtaining of optimal solution (it is the global best position and value(s) at end of the iterative process). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 10 2.4. differential evolution algorithm (de) differential evolution (de) is a parallel direct search method. the de algorithm is a population-based algorithm using similar with genetic algorithms operators; crossover, mutation and selection. the initial vector populations chosen randomly and should cover the entire parameter space. the main difference in constructing better solutions is that genetic algorithms rely on crossover while de relies on mutation operation. the algorithm uses mutation operation as a search mechanism and selection operation to direct the search toward the prospective regions in the search space. the de algorithm also uses a non-uniform crossover that can take child vector parameters from one parent more often than it does from others. by using the components of the existing population members to construct trial vectors, the recombination (crossover) operator efficiently shuffles information about successful combinations, enabling the search for a better solution space (storn & price, 1997; fleetwodd, 2004; karaboga & okdem, 2004; mallipeddi et. al., 2011). in table 2, general framework of de was given. table 2. the framework of de step 1: initialization (randomly initialize the population of an individual) step 2: evaluation (evaluation of the objective values of all individuals) repeat until termination criteria are met step 3: mutation (generating of a donor vector) step 4: recombination (crossover) step 5: evaluation (evaluating of the objective values of the trial vectors) step 6: selection (performing of a selection operation between each individual and its corresponding trial vector in order to generate the new individual for the next generation) 2.5. clonal selection algorithm (csa) csa is a class of algorithms inspired by the clonal selection of acquired immunity. these algorithms focus on the darwinian attributes of the theory, where selection is inspired by the affinity of antigen–antibody interactions, reproduction is inspired by cell division, and variation is inspired by somatic hyper-mutation. csa was modeled by being inspired by the principle of biological clonal selection. the purpose of the clonal selection principle is to provide the antibody diversity that can fight against the antigens. whenever a new antigen is encountered, the immune network is updated according to these antigens, thereby increasing the identifiability of the antigens (xu et. al., 2018; bernardino et. al., 2011; yavuz et. al., 2018; ulutas & kulturel-konak, 2011). in table 3, general framework of csa was given. table 3. the framework of csa step 1: initialization (randomly initialize a population n of antibodies) repeat steps 2–5 until termination criterion is met step 2: evaluation (determine the affinity of each antibody) step 3: selection and cloning (select a number (n) of the highest affinity antibodies and generate clones independently and proportionally to their affinities) step 4: hyper-mutation (generating matured clones. the higher the affinity, the smaller the mutation rate) step 5: clone evaluation and reselection (determine the affinity of the matured clones in relation to antigen. select the antibody with the highest affinity from the matured clones and form the new population n.) 2.6. particle swarm optimization algorithm (pso) particle swarm optimization (pso) is one of the most fundamental of intelligent optimization algorithms. in the algorithm, iterative steps are taken in order to find the optimum of the n particles scattered in the solution space and at this point parameters such as position and velocity are the determinants of general movements. the particle positions obtained as a result of the movements are used to calculate the fitness function (s) of the problem within the scope of the variables they correspond to. the best personal position (optimal value) obtained by each particle so far during position changes and the global position value (position that provides the global optimum value) so far in the solution process are taken into account. the particles are trying to reach a solution by following the particle m. h. calp medical diagnosis with a novel svm-codoa based hybrid approach 11 which provides the global optimum under the influence of these values. in other words and summary, pso is an algorithm developed in general by looking for food search movements in flocks of animals such as birds and fish in nature. the pso algorithm operates on a population (swarm) of candidate solutions (particles). the algorithm begins with particles initialized to random positions. each iteration updates every particle’s velocity. after all particles are updated, the global best is updated from the swarm’s current set of personal bests (kennedy, 2011; clerc, 2010; butcher et. al., 2018; eberhart & kennedy, 1995; shi & eberhart, 1998). in table 4, general framework of csa was given. table 4. the framework of pso step 1: setup: randomly dispense the n particle in the solution space and set the initial speed (v: velocity) value for each particle. make the starting position of each particle at the same time the best personal position. assign the values of the algorithm parameters. make arrangements for the problem to be solved. iterative steps (for each particle and each fitness function size): step 2: calculating of the fitness function value according to the position of the particle. step 3: updating of position of the particle (if the location of the snippet is better than your personal best location so far). step 4: updating of speed of the particle. step 5: updating of location of the particle with the current speed. step 6: obtaining of optimum solution (at the end of the iterative process, the optimum solution is the global best position and value (s)). 2.7. medical diagnosis with the novel svm-codoa in this study, it is aimed to perform medical diagnosis by using the appropriate data, which is suitable to be used for classification purposes. in detail, the svm is trained with the codoa in order to achieve the appropriate, trained svm, which can classify the newly encountered data for the accurate diagnosis. in detail, some remarkable points of the introduced problem solution for the medical diagnosis are as follows (figure 2): 1. the main objective is to find the optimum sigma (σ) parameter of the gaussian (rbf) kernel function of the non-linear svm. 2. in order to find the optimum sigma (σ), each particle of the codoa corresponds to that parameter so that they can move through the optimization process in order to find the optimum value. 3. for an objective medical diagnosis problem, codoa is run according to a specific iteration number (stopping criterion). in each iteration turn, the determined sigma (σ) values are used for the diagnosis over the training data. in this context, the following diagnosis accuracy calculation is used to determine the best particle in the related iteration and renew the particle – algorithm parameters by considering it: 100 ∗ (16) 4. at the end of the optimization process regarding the codoa, the best particle has the optimum sigma (σ) value allowing the non-linear svm to perform the best classification – diagnosis for the objective medical diagnosis problem. figure 2. svm-codoa system for medical diagnosis brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 12 3. medical diagnosis applications in order to see its performance on medical data, svm-codoa system was applied in three different medical data obtained from the uci repository (uci, 2018). as the thyroid data set, the first set includes 2800 training data, and 972 test data respectively with 21 attributes considered. the second data set: hepatitis data set includes 155 data (as separated into 100 training data, 55 test data in this study), with 19 attributes. finally, the third data set: chronic kidney disease data set includes 400 data (as separated into 295 training data, 105 test data in this study), with 25 attributes. for the codoa, default parameters were set as ir: 0.50, max. interactivity: 10, ml:3, and rationality rate: 2 with a total of 90 particles (n) run in a total of 5000 iterations, as suggested by (kose et. al., 2016). considering the diagnosis accuracy calculation expressed in the equation 16, table 5 provides findings obtained with the svm-codoa system for three separate medical data sets. table 5. findings obtained with the svm-codoa system for three separate medical data sets data set test data true diagnosis false diagnosis accuracy (%) thyroid disease 972 939 33 96.60 hepatitis disease 55 49 6 89.10 chronic kidney disease 105 91 14 86.67 in addition to the self-performance evaluation, the svm-codoa system was compared with also four alternative systems formed with different intelligent optimization techniques – algorithms (genetic algorithm (ga), differential evolution algorithm (de), clonal selection algorithm (csa), and particle swarm optimization algorithm (pso)) but same gaussian (rbf) kernel function based non-linear svm. default parameters of these algorithms from were used for running same 5000-iteration optimization process with 90 particles. for accurate findings, the whole systems including svm-codoa were run 50 times and average accuracy values for three medical diagnosis data sets were considered. table 6 provides findings of true and false diagnosis for all systems and the objective data sets (best values are in bold). table 6. average findings obtained with all alternative hybrid systems, after 50 independent runs data set svm-codoa svm-ga svm-de svm-csa svm-pso td* fd* td* fd* td* fd* td* fd* td* fd* thyroid disease 934 38 860 112 906 66 883 89 897 75 hepatitis disease 47 8 39 16 49 6 44 11 43 12 chronic kidney disease 88 17 79 26 84 21 85 20 81 24 * td: true diagnosis / fd: false diagnosis / best values are in bold. considering the findings, figure 3 shows graphics of average accuracy values for each system and the objective medical diagnosis data set. m. h. calp medical diagnosis with a novel svm-codoa based hybrid approach 13 figure 3. average accuracy of different svm based hybrid systems for objective medical diagnosis data sets as it can be seen from the findings, the svm-codoa system developed in this study is successful enough to perform accurate medical diagnosis for even different diseases. in detail, the system is not only successful in its own solution approach but also better in general than some other alternative svm based hybrid systems formed with different intelligent optimization techniques – algorithms. although the svm-de is the best performing for the hepatitis disease data set, svmcodoa provides very near results to svm-de in terms of diagnosis. 4. conclusions and future work in this study, a svm-codoa system was introduced for medical diagnosis problem. in detail, a recent intelligent optimization (artificial intelligence based optimization) algorithm: cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa) was used for training a non-linear support vector machines (svm) for better classification, which means also better diagnosis. briefly, codoa particles were employed for finding the optimum sigma (σ) parameter of the gaussian kernel function of the svm so that it can perform an accurate diagnosis over the objective medical data. in the application works, the developed svm-codoa was applied in some different medical data and the obtained results showed that the system is effective enough in diagnosis operations. further, the formed system is also better than four different svm based systems formed via alternative intelligent optimization techniques – algorithms. in addition to the performed research, there are also some alternative future works planned by the author. briefly, the system will be used for alternative medical data and the effect of different parameters will be evaluated. finally, there will also some efforts to use codoa for different parameter optimization of the non-linear svm. references akbal, b. (2018). hybrid gsa-ann methods to forecast sheath current of high voltage underground cable lines. jcp, 13(4), 417-425. alpaydin, e. (2009). introduction to machine learning. mit press. amato, f., lópez, a., peña-méndez, e. m., vaňhara, p., hampl, a., & havel, j. (2013). artificial neural networks in medical diagnosis. bahrami, s., niaei, a., illán-gómez, m. j., tarjomannejad, a., mousavi, s. m., & albaladejo-fuentes, v. (2017). catalytic reduction of no by co over ceo2-mox (0.25)(m= mn, fe and cu) mixed oxides—modeling and optimization of catalyst preparation by hybrid ann-ga. journal of environmental chemical engineering, 5(5), 4937-4947. bernardino, h. s., barbosa, h. j., & fonseca, l. g. (2011). surrogate-assisted clonal selection algorithms for expensive optimization problems. evolutionary intelligence, 4(2), 81-97. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 14 butcher, s. g., sheppard, j. w., & strasser, s. (2018, july). pareto improving selection of the global best in particle swarm optimization. in 2018 ieee congress on evolutionary computation (cec) (pp. 1-8). ieee. calp, m. h., & akcayol, m. a. (2018). optimization of project scheduling activities in dynamic cpm and pert networks using genetic algorithms. süleyman demirel university journal of natural and applied sciences (sdu j nat appl sci), 22(2), 615-627. cankaya, s. f., cankaya, i. a., yigit, t., & koyun, a. (2018). diabetes diagnosis system based on support vector machines trained by vortex optimization algorithm. in nature-inspired intelligent techniques for solving biomedical engineering problems (pp. 203-218). igi global. choi, y. j., baek, j. h., park, h. s., shim, w. h., kim, t. y., shong, y. k., & lee, j. h. (2017). a computer-aided diagnosis system using artificial intelligence for the diagnosis and characterization of thyroid nodules on ultrasound: initial clinical assessment. thyroid, 27(4), 546-552. clerc, m. (2010). particle swarm optimization (vol. 93). john wiley & sons. comak, e., arslan, a., & turkoglu, i. (2007). a decision support system based on support machines for diagnosis of the heart valve diseases”, computers in biology and medicine, 37, 21-27. dener, m., & calp, m. h. (2018). solving the exam scheduling problems in central exams with genetic algorithms. mugla journal of science and technology, 4(1), 102-115. dilsizian, s. e., & siegel, e. l. (2014). artificial intelligence in medicine and cardiac imaging: harnessing big data and advanced computing to provide personalized medical diagnosis and treatment. current cardiology reports, 16(1), 441. eberhart, r. c., shi, y., & kennedy, j. (2001). swarm intelligence. elsevier. eberhart, r., & kennedy, j. (1995, october). a new optimizer using particle swarm theory. in micro machine and human science, 1995. mhs'95., proceedings of the sixth international symposium on (pp. 39-43). ieee. ertel, w. (2018). introduction to artificial intelligence. springer. fleetwood, k. (2004). an introduction to differential evolution. in proceedings of mathematics and statistics of complex systems (mascos) one day symposium, 26th november, brisbane, australia (pp. 785-791). frazzon, e. m., albrecht, a., pires, m., israel, e., kück, m., & freitag, m. (2018). hybrid approach for the integrated scheduling of production and transport processes along supply chains. international journal of production research, 56(5), 2019-2035. hassanien, a. e., moftah, h. m., azar, a. t., & shoman, m. (2014). mri breast cancer diagnosis hybrid approach using adaptive ant-based segmentation and multilayer perceptron neural networks classifier. applied soft computing, 14, 62-71. hepworth, p. j., nefedov, a. v., muchnik, i. b., & morgan, k. l. (2012). broiler chickens can benefit from machine learning: support vector machine analysis of observational epidemiological data. journal of the royal society interface, rsif20110852. hojjat, m. (2018). modeling heat transfer of non-newtonian nanofluids using hybrid annmetaheuristic optimization algorithm. journal of particle science & technology, 3(4), 233-241. holland, j. h. (1992). genetic algorithms. scientific american, 267(1), 66-73. john, a. k., & krishnakumar, k. (2017). performing multiobjective optimization on perforated plate matrix heat exchanger surfaces using genetic algorithm. international journal for simulation and multidisciplinary design optimization, 8, a3. kadri, r. l., & boctor, f. f. (2018). an efficient genetic algorithm to solve the resource-constrained project scheduling problem with transfer times: the single mode case. european journal of operational research, 265(2), 454-462. karaboğa, d., & ökdem, s. (2004). a simple and global optimization algorithm for engineering problems: differential evolution algorithm. turkish journal of electrical engineering & computer sciences, 12(1), 53-60. m. h. calp medical diagnosis with a novel svm-codoa based hybrid approach 15 karakoc, m. m. (2018). prediction of electroencephalogram time series via artificial neuro-fuzzy inference system trained by league championship algorithm. in nature-inspired intelligent techniques for solving biomedical engineering problems (pp. 232-248). igi global. kennedy, j. (2011). particle swarm optimization. in encyclopedia of machine learning (pp. 760-766). springer, boston, ma. kononenko, i. (2001). machine learning for medical diagnosis: history, state of the art and perspective. artificial intelligence in medicine, 23(1), 89-109. kose, u. (2017). development of artificial intelligence based optimization algorithms (in turkish). phd. thesis. selcuk university, dept. of computer engineering. kose, u., guraksin, g. e., & deperlioglu, o. (2016). cognitive development optimization algorithm based support vector machines for determining diabetes. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 7(1), 80-90. kramer, o. (2017). genetic algorithm essentials (vol. 679). springer. kumar, m., bhutani, k., & aggarwal, s. (2015). hybrid model for medical diagnosis using neutrosophic cognitive maps with genetic algorithms. in fuzzy systems (fuzz-ieee), 2015 ieee international conference on (pp. 1-7). ieee. kumar, p. b., sahu, c., & parhi, d. r. (2018). a hybridized regression-adaptive ant colony optimization approach for navigation of humanoids in a cluttered environment. applied soft computing, 68, 565-585. malav, a., kadam, k., & kamat, p. (2017). prediction of heart disease using k-means and artificial neural network as hybrid approach to improve accuracy. international journal of engineering and technology, 9(4). mallipeddi, r., suganthan, p. n., pan, q. k., & tasgetiren, m. f. (2011). differential evolution algorithm with ensemble of parameters and mutation strategies. applied soft computing, 11(2), 1679-1696. michalski, r. s., carbonell, j. g., & mitchell, t. m. (eds.). (2013). machine learning: an artificial intelligence approach. springer science & business media. nabiyev, v. v. (2005). artificial intelligence: problems, methods, algorithms (in turkish). seckin press. piaget, j. (1964). part i: cognitive development in children: piaget development and learning, journal of research in science teaching, 2(3), 176-186. piaget, j. (1973). main trends in psychology. london: george allen &unwin. russell, s. j., & norvig, p. (2016). artificial intelligence: a modern approach. malaysia; pearson education limited,. santhanam, padmavathi, t. m. s. (2015). application of k-means and genetic algorithms for dimension reduction by integrating svm for diabetes diagnosis, procedia computer science, 47, 76 83, 2015. shi, y., & eberhart, r. (1998, may). a modified particle swarm optimizer. in evolutionary computation proceedings, 1998. ieee world congress on computational intelligence, the 1998 ieee international conference on (pp. 69-73). ieee. singer, d. g. & revenson, t. a. (1997). a piaget primer: how a child thinks. international universities press, inc., 59 boston post road, madison, ct 06443-1524. storn, r., & price, k. (1997). differential evolution–a simple and efficient heuristic for global optimization over continuous spaces. journal of global optimization, 11(4), 341-359. tamura, h., & tanno, k.(2009). midpoint validation method for support vector machines with margin adjustment technique, international journal of innovative computing, information and control, 5(11(a)), 4025-4032. uci (2018). uci repository of machine learning databases. online: https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/index.php (retrieved 5th april 2018). ulutas, b. h., & kulturel-konak, s. (2011). a review of clonal selection algorithm and its applications. artificial intelligence review, 36(2), 117-138. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 16 vapnik, v., golowich, s., & smola, a. (1997). support vector method for function approximation, regression estimation, and signal processing.” advances in neural information processing systems 9, 281–287. vasant, p. (2018). a general medical diagnosis system formed by artificial neural networks and swarm intelligence techniques. in nature-inspired intelligent techniques for solving biomedical engineering problems (pp. 130-145). igi global. xu, n., ding, y., ren, l., & hao, k. (2018). degeneration recognizing clonal selection algorithm for multimodal optimization. ieee transactions on cybernetics, 48(3), 848-861. yang, x. s. (2010). nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithms. luniver press. yavuz, b. ç., yurtay, n., & ozkan, o. (2018). prediction of protein secondary structure with clonal selection algorithm and multilayer perceptron. ieee access, 6, 45256-45261. dr. hanefi m. calp received his phd degree in 2018 from the department of management information systems at gazi university, one of the most prestigious universities in turkey. he works as an assistant professor in the department of management information systems of the faculty of economics & administrative sciences of the karadeniz technical university. his research interest includes management information systems, artifical neural networks, expert systems, fuzzy logic, risk management, risk analysis, human-computer interaction, technology management and project management. microsoft word issue-1_vol-10.docx 141 relationship between adults’ blood pressure, occupation and physical activity: a cross-sectional study among 20 to 65 years adults in sabzevar, iran babak moeini associate professor of health education, social determinants of health research center, hamadan university of medical sciences, hamadan, iran phone: 09125420453 babak_moeini@umsha.ac.ir mohamad mahdi hazavehei professor of health education, research center for health science and department of public health, school of health, hamadan university of medical sciences, hamadan, iran phone: 09133272522 hazavehei@gmail.com abbas moghimbeigi professor of biostatistics, modeling of non-communicable disease research center and department of biostatistics. school of public health, hamadan university of medical sciences, hamadan, iran phone: 09125683772 moghim_b@yahoo.com shahram homayonfar md. associate professor department of cardiology, school of medicine, hamadan university of medical sciences, hamadan, iran. phone: 09181115202 shahram1338@gmail.com alireza moslem department of anestheiology, sabzevar university of medical sciences asadabadi st., sabzevar, razavi khorasan, iran phone: 051-44011004 drmoslem@medsab.ac.ir seyed jamal mirmoosavi md, msc, phd student, school of medicine, persian medicine research center, sabzevar university of medical sciences, sabzevar, iran phone: 09155158707 mirmoosavij@medsab.ac.ir maryam delawari heravi health education and promotion. department of public health, neyshabur university of medical sciences, neyshabur, iran phd student of health education and promotion, department of public health, school of public health, hamadan university of medical sciences, hamadan, iran phone: 09159724076 corresponding author: delavarim1@nums.ac.ir, delavari27@yahoo.com abstract due to its high prevalence and association with cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure is a health problem in industrialized and developing countries. in industrialized countries, 25% of adults and 60% of people over 60 have high blood pressure. researches indicated that most risk factors for high blood pressure were related to individuals’ behavior and awareness, and educational programs, as one of the essential tools for changing lifestyle of the patients, have a significant impact on reducing risk-related behaviors and increasing healthy behaviors. job stress is an important factor in occurrence of hypertension and heart disease. this study is an analytical brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 142 research conducted in sabzevar, khorasan razavi, in 2015-2016. sabzevar has a population of 320,000 people. the target group of this study includes all the people in sabzevar who aged between 20-65 (54%). for systolic blood pressure, difference between the number of classes of the two gender was significant (p = 0.006) with men's blood pressure was higher than that of women. in this study, subjects with systolic blood pressure of less than 13.99 were more likely to have normal body mass index. this finding is in line with the results of the research carried out by winkelmayer. in their study. it was also reported that more than 75% of patients with high blood pressure had bmi> 25%. keywords: high blood pressure (hbp); occupation; sabzevar; body mass index (bmi). 1. introduction due to its high prevalence and association with cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure (hbp) is a health problem in industrialized and developing countries. in industrialized countries, 25% of adults and 60% of people over 60 have hbp (kearney et. al., 2004). about $500 billion annually and about 4% of gross national income for no communicable diseases are being spent in lowand middle-income countries where cardiovascular diseases, including hbp, account for roughly half of the cost (bloom et. al., 2012). according to the literature, risk factors for cardiovascular diseases are as follows: 1. substance risk factors such as age, gender, history of disease in first-degree family members 2. intermediate risk factors such as high blood sugar, impaired blood lipids (i.e. low hdl cholesterol and ldl cholesterol), hpb, obesity, overweightness, and stress. 3. behavioral risk factors such as inappropriate diet, lack of exercise, smoking, and alcohol. in the middle east, hbp has been one of the most prevalent non-communicable disease in recent years. studies in iran also indicated high prevalence of hypertension (sezavar et. al., 2003). researches showed that most risk factors for hbp are related to individuals’ behavior and awareness, and educational programs, as one of the essential tools for changing lifestyle of patients, have a significant impact on reducing risk-related behaviors and increasing healthy behaviors (bartlett, 1995). occupational stress is an important factor in occurrence of hypertension and heart disease. it affects blood pressure both directly and indirectly. it is direct when affects blood pressure through variable physiologic factors such as hbp, high cholesterol, increased left ventricular mass, high hormonal concentration, specific catecholamine, high plasma fibrinogen concentrations, increased response, finding platelets, vasospasm of the vessels, inflammation, lack of electrical stability, and atherosclerosis. in an indirect way, it affects blood pressure through changes in life style and behavioral risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and reduced physical activity (milani et. al., 2007). body function in a way to respond to life-threatening issues in which brain reacts by releasing cascades of chemicals and hormones in the body which speed up heart rate and increase respiration rate. they increase blood pressure and increase the amount of energy stored in the muscles (hammar et. al., 1998). occupational stress may exacerbate inflammation in coronary arteries (coronary arteries) and lead to blood clots in the arteries which is a sign of a heart attack. stress may also make it harder to practice such as exercise, proper diet, smoking, and sleeping (kivimäki et. al., 2008). the purpose of this study was to determine the level of blood pressure in individuals and determine the relationship between blood pressure and occupation. the research also determined hbp risk factors. s. tashakori, s. haghighat designing the intelligent system detecting a sense of wonder in english speech signal using fuzzy-nervous inference-adaptive system (anfis) 143 2. research methodology this study is an analytical study conducted in sabzevar, khorasan razavi, in 2015-2016. sabzevar has a population of 320,000 people. the target group of this study includes all the people in sabzevar who aged between 20-65 (54%). 1452 people of sabzevar (744 men and 708 women), aged 20-65 years old, enrolled in the study. samples were selected by random cluster sampling method. in order to assess the subjects’ knowledge of complications of hypertension and its risk factors, a foreign-researcher-made questionnaires was developed. to measure the validity of the questionnaire, in addition to reviewing and reviewing articles related to hypertension. after completing the questionnaires, several faculty members of hamadan university of medical sciences re-evaluated it and their constructive comments were applied. 2.1. sampling ten out of fifteen urban health centers were randomly selected. health volunteers began to collect the information and anthropometric measurements to examine the current status of the population regarding blood pressure, occupation, physical activity, stress, smoking, and questionnaires, by visiting the subjects at their homes and workplaces, in person and face-to-face. this article is derived from a phd thesis in health education and health promotion. 3. results table 1. frequency of the surveyed subjects divided by gender gender number percent man 744 51.2 woman 708 48.8 total 1452 100 table 2. frequency of subjects age number percent 17-27 258 17.9 28-38 630 43.8 39-49 373 25.9 50-60 155 10.8 above 60 23 1.6 total 1439 100 90% of the subjects were married. 2 2 2 1 )( )1)(( d ppz n     brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 144 table 3. blood pressure status of the study subjects divided by gender *: chi-square test statistics chi-square test was used for both variablesfor the systolic blood pressure variable, difference between the genders was significant (p = 0.006) with men's blood pressure higher than that of women. table 4. number and frequency of various occupational groups job number percent government's employee 257 %17 free trade jobs 295 %20 worker 297 %20 housework 448 %30 retired 36 %2 student 77 %5 unemployed 42 %2 table 5. bmi status of in various occupational groups bmi 15-18/49 18/5-24/99 25-29/99 over 30 job government's employee 8 86 102 61 free trade jobs 15 141 101 38 housework 38 167 149 94 retired 3 16 9 8 student 16 52 7 2 unemployed 5 22 11 4 total 101 615 471 265 4. discussion in this study, subjects with systolic blood pressure less than 13.99 were more likely to have normal bmi. this finding is in line with the results of the research carried out by winkelmayer.. it was also reported that more than 75% of the patients with hbp had bmi> 25% (winkelmayer et. variable male female total test statistic frequency % frequency % frequency % pvalue* systolic blood pressure normal <120 468 62.9 471 66.5 939 64.7 12.44 prehypertension 120139 242 32.5 185 26.1 427 29.4 hypertension (stage 1) 140159 33 4.4 46 6.5 79 5.4 0/006 hypertension (stage 2) ≥160 1 0.1 6 0.8 7 0.5 diastolic blood pressure normal <80 471 63.6 465 65.7 936 64.5 prehypertension 8089 196 26.3 175 24.7 371 26.5 0.7 hypertension (stage 1) 90109 56 7.5 53 7.5 109 7.5 0/701 hypertension (stage 2) ≥110 21 2.8 51 2.1 36 2.5 s. tashakori, s. haghighat designing the intelligent system detecting a sense of wonder in english speech signal using fuzzy-nervous inference-adaptive system (anfis) 145 al., 2005). according to the findings of this study. these findings were consistent with the study of heidari and kajjar. in their study, 77.5% of the subjects with hbp were overweight and obese. they reported that with increasing age, systolic blood pressure increased which could be due to weight gain and obesity that happens over time (najar et. al., 2005). a survey by the harvard university, "women's health survey" (whs), which studied 17,000 women's medical problems as a disease-prevention study, showed that women who were under high-pressure jobs, compared with their colleagues who have less stressful jobs, are 40% more at risk for heart disease (including heart attack and the need for surgery to remove coronary artery bypass grafts) (lee et. al., 2003). researchers used the definition of "job pressure" that combines job-related requirements and individual control over one's occupation. job requirements are related to the measure, acceleration, and work hardness. control means the ability of an individual to make decisions about a job or to be creative in doing the job (chandola et. al., 2008). in a study by gold et al. on 660 personnel employed in 8 hospitals covered by mashhad university of medical sciences, it was found that the mean score of emotional fatigue and personality deterioration among personnel was moderate and average the score for personal adequacy and achievement was low. severity emotional exhaustion in 38.6% of personnel was low, in 30.2% was moderate, and in 31.2% of them was high. the severity of personality deterioration in 58% of personnel was low, in 24.5% was moderate, and in 17.4% was high. because people spend about one-third of their time in work environments, mental stress and physical damage to their health have a huge impact (talaei et. al., 2008; yamada et. al., 2002). in the present study, there was no meaningful relationship between the level of education and the level of physical activity. these findings were consistent with the findings of the study of karylipour ghoraghani et al. that they did not get any meaningful relationship between educational level and physical activity (gharlipour et. al., 2011). the percentage of systolic hypertension in stages 1 and 2 was higher in women than in men. in women, 7.3% and in men 4.5%. the percentage of overweight systolic blood in men is higher than in women. in men, 32.5% and in women are 26.1%, that is, the blood pressure of men is higher for women, which is also consistent with the study of duc anh ha et al. in 2011 (ha et. al., 2013; yousefi et. al., 2018). in this study, physical activity was low in most of the people, which is consistent with the findings of the study of hazavehei et al., they achieved low physical activity. in their study, 45.4% of subjects did not had any daily physical activity (hazavehei et. al., 2015). 5. conclusion most of the subjects had low physical activity and were overweight and obese. obesity was seen more often in people whose jobs were government employees. most people over the age of 50 had behavioral risk factors that caused high blood pressure. references bartlett, ee. (1995). cost-benefit analysis of patient education. patient education and counseling. 26(1):87-91. bloom, d.e., cafiero, e., jané-llopis, e., abrahams-gessel, s., bloom, lr., fathima, s., feigl, ab., gaziano, t., hamandi, a., mowafi, m., & o’farrell, d. (2012). the global economic burden of noncommunicable diseases. program on the global demography of aging. chandola, t., britton, a., brunner, e., hemingway, h., malik, m., kumari, m., badrick, e., kivimaki, m., & marmot, m. (2008). work stress and coronary heart disease: what are the mechanisms?. european heart journal. ;29(5):640-8. chen, f.y., chen, s.m., huang, h.t., lee, s.r., liu, y.l., & jou, h.j. (2009). effects of a lifestyle program on risks for cardiovascular disease in women. taiwanese journal of obstetrics and gynecology. 48(1):49-52. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 146 gharlipour gharghani, z., sayarpour, s.m., & moeini, b. (2011). associated factors with regular physical activity among emergency medical personnel in hamadan: applying health belief model. j health syst res. 7(6):710-717. ha, d.a., goldberg, r.j., allison, j.j., chu, t.h., & nguyen, h.l. (2013). prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of high blood pressure: a population-based survey in thai nguyen, vietnam. plos one. 8(6):e66792. hammar, n., alfredsson, l., johnson, j.v. (1998), social support at work, and incidence of myocardial infarction. occupational and environmental medicine. 55(8):548-53 hazavehei, s,m., dashti, s., moeini, b., faradmal, j., shahrabadi, r., & yazdi, a,h. (2015). factors related to self-care behaviors in hypertensive individuals based on health belief model. koomesh. 17(1):37-44. kearney, p.m., whelton, m., reynolds, k., whelton, p.k., & he, j. (2004). worldwide prevalence of hypertension: a systematic review. journal of hypertension. 22(1):11-9. kivimäki, m., theorell, t., westerlund, h., vahtera ,j., & alfredsson, l. (2008). job strain and ischaemic disease: does the inclusion of older employees in the cohort dilute the association? the wolf stockholm study. journal of epidemiology & community health. 62(4):372-4. lee, s., colditz, ga., berkman, lf., & kawachi, i. (2003). caregiving and risk of coronary heart disease in us women: a prospective study. american journal of preventive medicine. 24(2) 113-9. milani, r.v., lavie, c.j. (2007). stopping stress at its origins. hypertension. 49(2):268-9. najar, l., heydari, a., & behnam vashani, b. (2005). the relationship between lifestyle and essential hypertension in sabzevar. journal of sabzevar university of medical sciences. 11(2) 49–55. sezavar, s., abbaszadeh, l., hosseinian, a., iranparvar, m., & khodamoradzadeh, m. (2003). a survey on hypertension controlling in type ii diabetic patients referring to diabetes clinic of bou-ali hospital, ardabil. journal of ardabil university of medical sciences. 3(3):27-32. talaei, a., mokhber, n., mohammad–nejad, m, & samari, a.a. (2008). burnout and its related factors in staffs of university hospitals in mashhad in 2006. koomesh. 9(3):237-46. winkelmayer, w.c., stampfer, m.j., willett, w.c., curhan, g.c. (2005). habitual caffeine intake and the risk of hypertension in women. jama. 294(18):2330-5. yamada, y., ishizaki, m., & tsuritani, i. (2002). prevention of weight gain and obesity in occupational populations: a new target of health promotion services at worksites. journal of occupational health. 44(6) 373-84. yousefi, m., najafi saleh, h., yaseri, m., jalilzadeh, m., & mohammadi, a.a. (2018). association of consumption of excess hard water, body mass index and waist circumference with risk of hypertension in individuals living in hard and soft water areas. environmental geochemistry and health. doi: 10.1007/s10653-018-0206-9. microsoft word brain_6_2015_dec_34_final4.doc 26 new ideas for brain modelling kieran greer distributed computing systems, belfast, united kingdom http://distributedcomputingsystems.co.uk kieran.greer@ntlworld.com abstract this paper describes some biologically-inspired processes that could be used to build the sort of networks that we associate with the human brain. new to this paper, a ‘refined’ neuron will be proposed. this is a group of neurons that by joining together can produce a more analogue system, but with the same level of control and reliability that a binary neuron would have. with this new structure, it will be possible to think of an essentially binary system in terms of a more variable set of values. the paper also shows how recent research can be combined with established theories, to produce a more complete picture. the propositions are largely in line with conventional thinking, but possibly with one or two more radical suggestions. an earlier cognitive model can be filled in with more specific details, based on the new research results, where the components appear to fit together almost seamlessly. the intention of the research has been to describe plausible ‘mechanical’ processes that can produce the appropriate brain structures and mechanisms, but that could be used without the magical ‘intelligence’ part that is still not fully understood. there are also some important updates from an earlier version of this paper. keywords: neuron, neural network, cognitive model, self-organise, analogue, resonance. 1. introduction this paper describes some biologically-inspired processes that could be used to build the sort of networks that we associate with the human brain. the biological background is probably what an ai researcher interested in the area would know about, but the proposed processes might offer a new way of looking at the problem. so while a computer model or simulator is the goal, the processes map more closely to a real human brain, at least in theory. this paper firstly considers how a more refined processing unit can be constructed from similar binary-operating components. if studying this topic, it is easy to think in binary terms only, but the question of how our sophisticated intelligence derives from that is difficult to answer. the thought process might try to find a particularly clever or complicated function that works inside of a neuron, to compensate for its apparent simplicity. the computer scientist would also try to use a distributed architecture, to combine several units for an operation, again to make the whole process more complex and variable. that is the direction of this paper, but it will attempt to show that the modeller’s thinking process can begin to look at a collection of neurons as a single unit that can deliver a complex and variable set of values reliably. it can be constructed relatively easily and with some degree of accuracy, by a mechanical process that the simple neuron might not be thought to accommodate. the second half of the paper gives a detailed review of related work. some of this is quite old now, but it helps to show that the basic principles for building these neural systems are included. this paper then recaps on some other recent research and is able to demonstrate a new level of detail that integrates the new technology almost seamlessly. a completely new model is not proposed, where the 3-level architecture described in greer (2013a) or greer (2008), is still being looked at. that model contains a number of quite abstract components and the recent research can replace those with more detailed ones. that is, they would be able to fit in somewhere, even if the whole picture is not complete. some mathematical theories help to back this up, and even if the proposed solutions are not 100% correct biologically, they would be useful for building a computergenerated system. the idea and importance of resonance is outlined and proposed as part of a new theory, even if it is not explicitly defined in the current new model. the rest of this paper is structured as follows: section 0 describes some background work that can help to explain the reasons for a new model. section 0 describes the refined neuronal component. section 0 gives an alternative feedback mechanism that is essential for the new model. k. greer new ideas for brain modelling 27 it also provides an example set of equations that might be used to simulate the system. this is only an example set, to show how relatively simple it would be to re-produce the desired activity. section 0 describes a plausible process for linking these neurons automatically and in an arbitrary way. section 0 extends section 0, listing other related work. section 0 puts the new neuron and a lot of the earlier research into context, by suggesting how it fits in with the current cognitive model and other research. finally, section 0 gives some comments on the work. 2. background to the proposal a lot of research on this topic has described how neurons and synapses can grow and cluster to form more complex structures. there are also different types of entity with slightly different functionality, but it is still very unclear what exactly goes on and it is difficult to map the processes onto basic computer models. the superficially simplistic nature of neurons is written about in rojas (1996) for example, which discusses that a binary signal is limiting. it then explains that adding more states to a single unit comes at a price and that it has been worked out mathematically that the binary unit with 2 states is the most efficient. this is because the signal also needs to be decoded, which is expensive. therefore, if more states can be achieved through different connection sets instead, this would be desirable and it might also add new knowledge to the network. also in rojas (1996) chapter 2, it is explained how any logic function can be built from the mcculloch-pitts neurons (mcculloch & pitts, 1943) and also a hint at the new architecture in this paper; by pointing out that any weighted neuron can be replaced by an unweighted one, with additional ‘redundant’ connections. a weight value of 3, for example, can be replaced with a single connection that is split into 3 inputs, but that is definitely a different design. the author has listed a number of papers (greer, 2014a greer et al., 2007) that were investigated separately, but might still provide a coherent view. these have made lots of suggestions that turn out also to be mostly established theories. for example, hierarchies, reasons for duplicating, use of patterns, timing and how to cluster; which are also of course, the established theories. there are also one or two more radical ideas, including this paper, which could change the failure of a previous theory. with regard to automatic network construction, there has been a lot of research looking at modelling the brain neuron more closely, including binary units with thresholds and excitatory or inhibitory inputs. the paper (vogels, kanaka rajan & abbott, 2005) is one example that focuses on dynamic stimulus-driven models. it describes one equation for the firing rate that includes external sensory inputs, as well as from other neurons. it also states that for the firing to be sustained, that is, to be relevant, requires sufficient feedback from other firing neurons. once the process starts however, this can then excite and bring in more firing neurons, when inhibitory inputs also need to fire, to stop the process from saturating. they note that the network must be sensitive to external stimuli, but useful forms of signal propagation must also be generated internally. the paper (hill et al., 2012) shows evidence of a chemospecific steering and aligning process for synaptic connections. that is, there may be some purpose behind how synapses grow and connect. it describes however that this is only the case for certain types of local connection, although other researchers have produced slightly different theories there. the paper (ales, 2008) gives an argument that a mechanical process, more than an electro-chemical one, is responsible for moving the signals around the brain. this includes mechanical pressure to generate impulses. in rojas (1996), only an ion pump is described, where the activity results solely from ions moving through a fluid environment. it is argued in (ales, 2008) however that this is not sufficient to explain the forces involved and some form of mechanical process, controlling pressure, is also required. this can also help linking appendages to grow, as it can influence fluid movement. a hierarchical network structure for the human brain is well known and is written about in many texts. in the hierarchy, some hidden or middle-layer neurons do not represent anything specifically, but are more for structural or clustering purposes. in hawkins & blakeslee (2004) it is also noted that there are abstract structures or points in a hierarchy, representing largely how the structure has formed. this can also include lateral connections between hierarchies. there are also ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ levels of the hierarchy, as more basic concepts are grouped into higher-level brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 ones. it is then explained that feedback is more common than signals travelling forwards only. this feedback helps to make predictions, or to confirm a certain pattern of firing, as part of an autoassociative ‘memory-prediction’ structure. the brain needs to remember the past to predict what will happen in the present, to allow you to reason about that. this paper is more concerned with mechanical processes that can operate automatically and together, than the processes that are the intelligent reasoning. it can therefore ignore a very complex model of the neuron itself and consider how to model the pattern-forming mechanisms and the interactions between them. 3. refined neuronal unit to explain the theory, a simplified model will be used, with neurons connected only by synapses. the term synapse will cover all of the connectors – including dendrites or axons, for example. consider a single neuron with a number of inputs from other neurons and a single output. this neuron will be called the ‘main’ neuron here. each input transmits a signal with a strength value of 1. the activation function is stepwise, where if the threshold value is met, the neuron itself outputs a signal with a strength value of 1 and if not, it outputs nothing, or 0. this is essentially a binary function and is being called a ‘course’ neuron here. all neurons are therefore the same and operate in the same simplistic way. consider structures that then use these course neurons, as shown in figure 1. the most basic is a single main neuron with a number of inputs, 5 for example and its own output (1a). if the threshold value is 4, then 4 of the 5 inputs must fire for the neuron itself to fire. consider a second scenario where the neuron has 25 other neurons that wish to connect with it through their related synapses (1b). in this case, if all of the input neurons connect directly, then only 4 of the 25 neurons need to fire to trigger the main neuron. this is a very low number of inputs and might even cause the concept that the neuron represents to lose most of its meaning. (1a) single neuron (1b) single neuron with more inputs (1c) refined neuron with intermediary layer figure 1. from course to refined neuronal unit structure. k. greer new ideas for brain modelling 29 what if there are now a number of units as part of a middle or intermediary layer, still made from the same neuronal unit (1c). maybe 5 of each of the input neurons connect to 1 middle layer neuron. the 5 middle layer neurons then connect with the main neuron. then, 4 of the 5 intermediary neurons must fire and each of those will only fire if 4 of the related 5 input neurons fire. therefore, for the main concept neuron to fire now requires 16 of the original input neuron set to fire, which is more meaningful in itself. it is also interesting with relation to the earlier cognitive model that was suggested (greer, 2013a; greer, 2008). this new neuron could operate in the middle aggregating and averaging level of that model. the level below optimises a linking process, while the level above attempts more intelligent interactions. the middle level takes the optimised links and through some very simple operations can derive some low level of knowledge automatically, such as sum and average a set of links on a particular path. relating links in this way can also lead to low-level clusters or ensembles. the model was designed with autonomous query processes also in mind (greer et al., 2007), which is why it includes this averaging idea. it is interesting however that adding intermediary neurons might balance the number that fire towards an average number. if 4 are required to fire and 25 is the maximum possible, then 14 or 15 might be an average figure. adding intermediary units would tend towards this sort of number. another idea in the middle level was to automatically find a ‘best’ value and this might also be inherent in the mechanism. this is discussed further in section 0. adding intermediary units have also made the structure more analogue, as each input neuron is now represented by a fraction of its true signal strength. in effect, each input neuron now sends a signal represented by one quarter of its true value. this new entity will be called a ‘refined’ neuron (ren). the term does not relate specifically to a single neuronal component or to a specific set of them. the term relates, slightly abstractly, to the main neuron plus its set of would-be inputs that have now been converted into a more analogue set of values. the inputs could have derived from any number of other neuron sources. the process can be further modified by allowing some neurons to connect directly, while others go through one or more intermediary layers. the changing of a neuron’s signal strength is then performed by adding more intermediary units, where the binary operation of the neuron itself is unchanged. therefore, each input can have a very different weight or influence over the result of another neuron firing and it can all be controlled using the same simple units, but with a more complex set of connections. 4. alternative feedback mechanism while a hierarchical structure is included in most research work on this topic and therefore the input/output value sets must also be implicit, it is difficult to recall a paper that suggests looking at a group of neurons in this way. the importance shifts more to the synaptic connection and structures, with the operation of the neuron itself regarded as constant. the paper (mcculloch & pitts, 1943) notes that synapses can vary in size and transmission speeds and even that the threshold of a neuron can be changed. this could lead to different firing rates for the neuron as well, but for a reliable system that works over and over again, the simplest configuration is the best. this would be to change the relatively static synaptic structure and have the neurons firing, mostly under one state or condition, without additional ‘moving parts’ that might be prone to damage over time. in hawkins & blakeslee (2004) it is described how feedback to the same region is more common than signals in one direction only. this is realised by sending a neuron’s output signal, back into the input areas again. the idea being that this confirms what the correct patterns are, by completing a circuit and therefore producing reinforcement. this paper will suggest a slightly different form of feedback, but one that must work in conjunction with the cyclic feedback. instead of completing circuits or cycles, a firing event can send information back up the same synapse channel that it originated from. as will be suggested in later sections, there are in fact some practical advantages to this form of feedback. a repulsive force might simply be the rejection of the ion channel, when there is too much input, as described in figure 1, or simply the ejection of the neuron contents to all available outlets. this theory prefers a more physical movement, related to pressure changes. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 5. behaviour after firing the following scenario describes how the model would work: before firing, the neuron acts like a capacitor and soaks up the input signal until the threshold value is met. as soon as it is triggered, the firing process forces a signal out through any allowed channel. the signal is of course directed mainly through the output channel, but it would be desirable if it could at least block the direction that new input signals would come from. the idea is that instead of reinforcement through completing circuits, after firing, a neuron rejects or blocks the input signal for a while, maybe also accommodated by the neuron collapsing. this can cause turbulence and a resulting stimulus that might excite the brain area and get recognised. each synapse channel can then get excited locally, from the forward and blocked signals only, where a search process will excite many different channels. the purpose of the turbulence is that it marks a change from the normal firing that happens as part of the random search. the other option is to speed up the firing rate through the cyclic reinforcement, but this continues until inhibitors switch it off. the inhibitors however use a form of saturation and so the purpose of that is not to recognise something specific. while a general area could become excited that way, resonance must be key for a more specific type of recognition. wave shape and resonance is also the basis for the paper (greer, 2013b). feedback equation set this theory is intended for a computer simulation and it should be possible to create some mathematical equations to model the main process relatively easily. for example, to calculate an amount that might get rejected by a neuron can be as simple as: let n be the number of direct input synapses from other neurons. let tm be the threshold for the main neuron. let is be the input signal from a single direct synapse. let isn be the total input signal from all direct synapses. let aesn be the average excess input value, for each input synapse. let δ be the distance from the firing neuron, with relation to the feedback signal. let aesnx be the average excess input value, for each input synapse, at distance δ. then: isn = aesn = (isn – tm) / n. each input synapse can be assigned the default value of 1, for example. the main neuron threshold can also be assigned some value, set it to 5 in this case. therefore after the main neuron itself fires and collapses, rejecting any other signals during that time, it will reject for each synapse the calculated aesn value. this looks ok mathematically, as it is proportional to the total number of inputs n, where more inputs will give a larger average rejection value. it is easy to imagine that as the rejection value becomes larger, it will counter any signal flowing forwards with a force that might cause a disturbance and possible subsequent events. for example, if there are 10 inputs, then the excess is (10 – 5) / 10 = 0.5, but if there are 50 inputs, then the excess is (50 – 5) / 50 = 0.9. this calculation is therefore very easy, but a more complete system would need to include other factors, more specifically with modelling the synapse, how much excess signal a neuron absorbs firing and also how the continuing input signal contributes to the resulting rejection force and turbulence. it should also be noted that a repulsive force will also reduce with distance and so a more accurate measurement of it would need to consider the distance it might travel backwards and also the opposing forces that it might meet. some sort of degradation value should be included, where the rejection is largest at the blocking point and gracefully degrades as it travels further back and meets resistance from continuing forward channels. if, for example, the repulsive force moves k. greer new ideas for brain modelling 31 10 distance units, with a combined opposing input force of 5 units, then each backwards distance unit has to deal with an additional 5 units of resistance. this results in 5, 10, 15, 20, … , up to 50 units, for the furthest point away. another consideration could be that the forward moving force is weakened by both the repulsive force and any previously blocked input. there are physical theories (thermodynamics) that cover this sort of fluid interaction however. the simplest case is therefore probably inadequate, but can be formulated as: if there is always the same forward force, the resistance to the repulsive force is constant and refreshed, and so it can be mostly measured using distance and static force amounts. aesnx = aesn (δ × combined forward forces). so while the neuron itself does not require a complex set of values and can be modelled simply, other factors would probably need to be included for a sophisticated and accurate model. as the stopping criterion is known however – a balanced state, it would be possible to test randomly, different sets of values, representing different neuron firing configurations or inputs, and measure time and amounts before the whole system does reach a balanced state. the whole system is still relatively simplistic for modelling. 6. automatic network construction this section describes a plausible automatic process for constructing a network based on the new neuronal model. it is from a computer science perspective and will suggest mechanical processes that can be simulated in a computer program. mechanical network process there is a main neuron with a number of synapse inputs from other similar neuronal units. the inputs send signals, where the signal strength collectively is too strong. the main neuron’s threshold is met and so it fires and then simulates the refractory period, by rejecting the excess input that it receives. this excess rejected signal counters more input travelling to the main neuron, where a set of equations relating to section 0, determines the strength. then something like the following might happen: • this force causes turbulence and stimulates a ‘sideways growth’ of some sort to the synapse. • the new growths from different synapses meet and join. • they also form a new neuron, so that their combined input values only, produce the ‘unit’ output value again. • the new intermediary neuron then links with the main neuron again and the original connection paths get closed (or partially closed?). • note that time is a critical element in the whole process as well, when only neurons firing at the same time will affect each other. • the new neuron layers would lead to a more balanced system that would not upset the overall energy that causes signals to flow. they would also naturally start to represent (sub)concepts in their own right, adding new information to the brain. the schematic of figure 2 illustrates how an intermediary neuron might form. in figure 2(a), there are 3 neurons sending input signals. the red-brown wavy line represents additional turbulence created when there is too much input and some is ejected backwards. the red-brown semi-circles are areas of the synapse that have been influenced by the energy and start to grow. two of them meet in figure 2(b) and also a new neuron somehow forms. this grows forward through an attractive stimulus, where it finds the main neuron again. therefore the input from two of the original neurons is reduced to only one input signal through the new intermediary one. in the figure 2(b), in fact, one of the original input paths has closed completely, while the other is still open, but with a reduced signal. this is only a theory of course. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 32 2 (a) 2 (b) figure 2. schematic showing the new intermediary neuron formation. technical problems there are one or two obvious technical problems with this mechanical process. firstly, two synapses, representing two different neurons, may join, but the neurons might not always fire at the same time. for example: • neuron a fires only with the neuron group that produces the excess input. • neuron b also fires during this time, but also at other times. • when these join, the new intermediary neuron will fire only when both neurons a and b fire, which is ok for neuron a, but not for neuron b. • neuron a is part of the excess signal group only and so the main neuron that it connects to needs the re-balancing to adjust for this excess energy. this new intermediary unit does not change the signal that the main neuron receives or when it receives it. • neuron b however sends signals at other times to the main neuron. this still needs to be sent, even when the new intermediary neuron does not fire. one answer to this problem is to make the intermediary layer construction primarily dependent on the closing time of the original path. if the input signal’s force is countered, the path further on must be closing first, where the rejected signal collides and causes turbulence, or stagnation. if the rule requires the amount of rejection to be proportional to the amount of closure; then neurons that only fire as part of an excess set, will always receive the repulsive force and close together. neurons also firing at other times however will be able to complete the process occasionally, which might help to keep the path open. another factor here could be sets of neurons confusing the one that fired more often, if they require slightly different movement directions, which could delay it joining with any specific group. this feature is mentioned again in section 0. there is proof that synapses can shrink or enlarge. so it is only when there is too much input and the system becomes unbalanced, that the turbulence becomes enough to force other types of activity. there is also the other extreme where a neuron fires less often than the excess group, but the excess group always fires when it does. in that case, its feedback will occur less often and the excess group will have grown new links more quickly, possibly relieving the additional pressure before the less frequently firing neuron is encouraged to complete the new path link. summary to summarise: each synapse growth is therefore attracted to other neuron sets firing at the same time and tries to join up with the closest resonating set. if the neurons fire at the same time then they probably represent the same global concept in some sense (greer, 2011). for an accurate computer model, there is still no specification of what the correct synapse connections would be, which is critical. with incorrect connections, everything will still be wrong and not make sense. therefore, some theory on how the synapse is guided would be useful, especially one that can be practically modelled. on the other hand, the relationship between the connecting synapse and the k. greer new ideas for brain modelling 33 neuron is completely flexible, meaning that any sort of chaotic structure can be built. the main basic principles are therefore: 1. the system will try to self-organise itself through more intermediary units. 2. the intermediary units create a more balanced system, add meaning to the network and can produce a more varied signal. 3. neurons firing together can represent a common concept or goal. 4. synapses firing at the same time will try to link up with each other, or their related neurons. 5. resonance is important, where out-of-sync neurons will be able to perform differently. biological network comparison there are real biological processes that this model can be mapped to. the main neuron firing and then collapsing, when a refractory period prevents it from firing again, is the real biological process. this can help to prevent cycles, or attractors (weisbuch, 1999), from occurring. if the synapses are still sending input signals, maybe the neuron cannot absorb the signal then and will instead simply block the new input. inhibitors are typically required to control the firing process, so the process must produce excess signal in any case. in rojas (1996) it is explained that selective channels need to be opened and can be closed after depolarisation (firing), but this is for electrical ion signals more than fluid ones. the paper (ales, 2008) argues for a mechanical process, with a pressure loss. if that is correct, then a physical block could take place. it is unclear if a fluid signal would be forcibly ejected back again, because a membrane is still involved, but the collapsing neuron must eject its content and movement must be involved. the paper (waxman, 2012) describes that more than one type of sodium channel can be created and that they interact with each other, producing a variable signal. small currents are also involved, so blocking of ‘something’ looks possible, which must then cause some sort of turbulence or disruption. if the ejected signal meets a signal travelling in the other direction, this turbulence might stimulate growth in that area. this growth would necessarily be sideways and would help to relieve pressure or excitation. the rest of the process is then clear again, where some of the tasks are required, even without this new theory. neurons need to form and synapses need to find other neurons, as part of any brain construction. hebb’s law (hebb, 1949) ‘neurons that wire together fire together’, would also suggest that the closer neurons would be more likely to combine into a single unit, while the paper (hill et al., 2012) suggests that an attracting stimulus can control growth direction. so there is a clear set of biological processes that could, at least in theory, map to the mechanical ones. 7. related work the related work is divided into sections, supporting different aspects of the new view that is described in section 0. the earlier papers (greer, 2014a greer, 2008) might need to be read at some stage, but a general understanding should be possible without reading them first. specifically, this paper is more biologically-oriented than might be usual. the author is not particularly expert in that area, but the underlying mechanisms need to be compared with real biological ones. other neural network models in particular, are described in detail. the relevance of the book by hawkins and blakeslee (2004) has already been noted in this and other papers. neural networks there are lots of other neural network models and it would not be possible to mention all potentially relevant ones, suggesting that the model(s) of this paper contain(s) some popular features. the classic paper by mcculloch and pitts (1943) gives original research on looking at the human brain as a collection of binary operating neurons. they describe a set of theorems under which these neurons behave, including synaptic links with excitatory or inhibitory connections. they argue that if there is a definite set of rules or theorems under which the neurons behave, this can then be described by propositional logic. a layered or hierarchical structure is implicit in all of the descriptions and used to explain how a temporal factor can be added and possibly measured, through a spatial structure. they then focus more on behaviour and states, rather than precise mathematical values. so while they show how the neurons might fire, the idea of controlling and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 34 measuring the signal value accurately is not really addressed. hebb (1949) combined up-to-date data about behaviour and the mind into a single theory. hebb’s law is often paraphrased as ‘neurons that fire together wire together’. positive feedback increases the bond between the firing cells. a combination of his work finally brought together the two realms of human perception that for a long time could not be connected properly. that is, it connected the biological function of the brain as an organ together with the higher function of the mind. this paper proposes automatic mechanisms for a lower level, but does overlap into some higher-level functionality. ultimately, resonance in the excited brain area will be the key to it getting recognised as the relevant pattern. if the search path finds node groups that can agree on the current state and fire together, causing a stronger signal in some way, then this is what the brain will recognise as positive feedback to a search process. adaptive resonance theory (carpenter, grossberg & rosen, 1991; grossberg, 2013) is an example of trying to use resonance, created by a matching agreement, as part of a neural network model. the primary intuition behind the art model is that object identification and recognition generally occur as a result of the interaction of 'top-down' observer expectations with 'bottom-up' sensory information. the model postulates that 'top-down' expectations take the form of a memory template or prototype that is then compared with the actual features of an object, as detected by the senses. this comparison gives rise to a matching process with existing categories and produces a measure of difference. as long as this difference does not exceed a set threshold called the 'vigilance parameter', the sensed object will be considered a member of the expected class1. the learning process has two stages. an input pattern is matched to existing categories, where the process is self-organising and only one category can fire. only if the input matches a category, does a training stage take place, to update the related weight values. if there is no match, then an uncommitted neuron is committed and adjusted towards matching the input vector. there are examples of the real human brain using art methods in some processes (grossberg, 2013). two other models that are related to hebbian reinforcement and energy equilibrium states are hopfield neural networks (hopfield, 1982) and the stochastic version called boltzmann machines (ackley, hinton & sejnowski, 1985). these are recurrent neural networks that can also act as (auto)associative memories. like human associations through similarity, they can retrieve whole patterns when presented with only part of the pattern as input. during training, the only goal is a reduction in the global energy state. neurons learn the underlying statistical characteristics instead of direct adjustments for each pattern. a majority rule can then determine the resulting output. there is evidence that brain activity during sleep employs a boltzmann-like learning algorithm, in order to integrate new information and memories into its structure (wolchover, 2013). the article also states that ‘neuroscientists have long known that sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation, helping to integrate newly learned information.’ the middle layer of the cognitive model in greer (2013a) or greer (2008) might benefit from a boltzmann-like machine, although, it would be against the ren model suggested here, which would also operate in that aggregating layer. the recurrent neural networks have some problems with storage capacity as well. there are also examples of other relevant models. if thinking about equilibrium, then other self-organising neural networks include fukishima (1988) or kohonen (1990). gasnet (smith, husbands, philippides & o'shea, 2002) neural networks use a method of influencing your surrounding area, even if there is no direct synaptic connection. the neuron emits a ‘gas’ that could be compared to an ion attraction and it is known to speed up convergence. the new model of greer (2011) contained a feature, where it would be trained in one direction to cluster, but used in the opposite direction to retrieve feature sets. many neural networks send feedback this way, but possibly not for retrieving the network information. the paper (fukishima, 1988) tries to create a visual pattern recogniser. it is interesting because it tries to copy the brain structure quite closely and has some apparent similarities with the ideas of this paper. that model is self-organising and 1 wikipedia description, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/adaptive_resonance_theory. k. greer new ideas for brain modelling 35 hierarchical. it also proposes some form of resonance through the backward motion of signals, and includes static and selective learning processes. the problem of noisy input is tackled by allowing a ‘region’ to represent the same thing, instead of a specific point. this is included as part of the learning process and is implemented through layers that can recognise the same pattern point, but at different positions. the theory behind this is described in amari (1990), who describes different ways of implementing it. note that this does not add understanding, where different images of the same thing would not necessarily be recognised. there is also an implementation of inhibitory units that can suppress a feature if it is not correct. the pattern recognition occurs when both the forward hierarchical categorisation and the backward reinforcement or resonance agree, to produce the resulting output. the papers (ackley, hinton & sejnowski, 1985; amari, 1990) both note that even connectionist systems require sequential and logical processing to successfully model the human brain. this is also written about in greer (2013a). as illustrated by the previous section, as well as the more popular statistical networks, other models try to copy the human brain more closely. the mathematical theories of some of these are written about in amari (1990), which could act as an introductory tutorial. the section iii on statistical neurodynamics might be particularly useful, for example. as part of one equation set, there is a clearly defined explanation for an end or terminating node that is part of an arbitrarily connected graph. nodes can therefore be defined individually, or in arbitrarily linked collections, with states defined between either type. the next section 0 of this review also describes why terminating nodes are important. there are also fuzzy neural networks (rojas, 1996, chpt. 11) that might look related to greer (2011), but it is difficult to give a close match there. the fuzzy aspect suggested later in section 0 is of a different type. one final group of networks that might be worth mentioning are the evolutionary or hybrid ones. they use the traditional statistical methods, but allow changes through other evolutionary methods, such as genetic algorithms (holland, 1975). the paper (lim & choe, 2006) proposes a biologically plausible mechanism at a single neuron level, for compensating for neural transmission delay. this is the time for the signal to travel in the sensor or brain, during which the real environment might have changed. to cope with this, the brain is required to extrapolate information, to align precisely its internal perceptual state with the real environmental state. they propose to use recurrent neural networks, because the feedback loops make available the history of previous activations (also hawkins & blakeslee, 2004). the evolution that takes place is an enforced subpopulation algorithm (esp) type. instead of full networks, single neurons are evolved so that best neurons from each subpopulation can be put together to form a complete network. the network can then learn independent sub-functions and they also give some time-based equations for the activation level of neurons at the synapse connection points. the paper (montes de oca, garrido & jose, 2005) is interesting, because it takes a similarly flexible approach to the one that this paper is suggesting. it proposes to use neural gas networks, where the network connection topology can be learned by a localised stigmergic ant-based algorithm, instead of a global one. they even have the idea of creating intermediary units between influenced areas, to reduce the network error. ‘the squared error of the nearest unit in turn is accumulated, so that after λ input signals have been learned, a new unit is created half between the two neighboring units with the highest accumulated errors.’ so this includes the ideas of hebbian influence, arbitrary structure and the addition of close units to reduce the error. minsky’s frames one of the earlier models by minsky (1974) describes a ‘frame’ structure for representing objects or concepts and can be made from networks of nodes with relations. frames appear to be more logic-based and therefore fit better with semantics and formal knowledge structures. it is interesting here because it also contains the notion of terminals or slots that must be filled with specific instances of data. these terminals are more fixed and can be linked to by any groups of the frame nodes. therefore, there are different paths to the terminals and a crossing-over, or merging, between paths would be likely. as the frame-based system deals strongly with logic and knowledge, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 36 a direct map to a brain process using them might be represented more by the higher-level thought processes than stimulus-driven pattern recognition phases. while frames are logic-based, the paper does note the requirement for some form of replacement, possibly analogous to a merging or aggregating operation. when a proposed frame cannot be made to fit reality, the network provides a replacement frame. this inter-frame structure makes it possible to represent other knowledge about facts, analogies, and other information useful in understanding. a search through the linked frames or nodes then also involves a matching process, ending with a match on the terminals. human biology this section is more biologically-oriented. the author is not very expert there and the papers are more of a random selection that might make some relevant points. the paper (fukishima, 1988) notes that analog signals can also be sent by different firing frequencies. the paper (vogels, kanaka rajan & abbott, 2005) is one example that gives an equation for the firing rate that includes external sensory inputs as well as from other neurons. it also states that for the firing to be sustained, that is, to be relevant, requires sufficient feedback from the firing neurons, to maintain the level of excitation. once the process starts however, this can then excite and bring in other firing neurons, when inhibitory inputs also need to fire, to stop the process from saturating. a weighted equation is given to describe how the process can self-stabilise if ‘enough’ inhibitory inputs fire. the paper (hill et al., 2012) studies the real biological brain and in particular, the chemospecific steering and aligning process for synaptic connections. it notes that there are different types of neuron, synaptic growth and also theories about the processes. current theory suggests that growth is driven by the neuron itself and also suggests that the neuron is required first, before the synapses can grow to it. this paper requires a charged signal to attract, but neuron or synapse first is not clear. however, they do note a pairwise chemospecific signalling process, as opposed to something that is just random and they also note that their result is consistent with the known preferences of different types of ‘interneurons’ to form synapses on specific domains of nearby neurons. therefore, the idea of an intermediary neuron already exists. the paper (lim & choe, 2006) also quotes (markram, wang & tsodyks, 1998), which investigates differential signalling, based on selective synaptic modifications. they attribute signal changes to changes in frequency and compare synaptic depression, when it becomes unavailable for use, to the neuron collapse. differential values can be used to support the idea of analogue values and pressure, and the paper in general shows some support for the ren ideas. it notes the blocking of channels, that synapses between two neurons can behave differently; and there is some confusion why some block while others facilitate, over what appears to be the same type of neuron. the paper (waxman, 2012) describes that more than one type of sodium channel can be created and that they interact with each other, producing a variable signal. small currents are involved, even for ion channels and they work at different potentials, etc. it is also described how neurons can change states and start firing at different rates. the paper (kandel, 2001) describes that there are both positive and negative regulators. the positive regulators can give rise to the growth of new synaptic connections and this can also form memories. there are also memory suppressors, to ensure that only salient features are learned. long-term memory endures by virtue of the growth of new synaptic connections, a structural change that parallels the duration of the behavioural memory. as the memory fades, the connections retract over time. the paper (ales, 2008) argues for a mechanical process, with a pressure loss, which is favourable for this paper was well. the paper argues that an ion pump is not sufficient to explain the forces involved; where one might think that fluid pressure plays a part in the construction of the synapse and also in keeping pathways open, for example. it also argues that a steady pressure state must be maintained throughout the brain and; as the brain needs to solve differential equations, it needs to be analogue in that respect. to support this might be the paper (willie et al., 2012) that describes how brain perfusion is highly sensitive to changes in co2 or o2. an increase in blood flow and resulting gases would possibly increase pressure as well, where their results also challenge conventional theory. k. greer new ideas for brain modelling 37 so, there appears to be constructive synaptic processes and these can form memory structures. excess signal is definitely produced and must be dealt with. there are different types of neuron and sodium channel, where the sodium channel represents a variable signal. the signal or excitation is normally thought to be a mixture of the ion channels, more than through pressure from momentum. intermediate neurons already exist. if there is some evidence for pressure changes, then that is good for this paper. for something the size of a synapse channel however, it would be very small. 8. matching with the earlier research a number of earlier papers (greer, 2014a greer, 2008) have been published that describe different aspects of a cognitive model that might resemble a human brain. there was no particular plan there, but either by chance, or through some common underlying theories, it is possible to put a lot of the previous research together, into a single coherent model. this would be a model that would operate in a way similar to what a real human brain does, but might not model it exactly. earlier research started with greer (2008) or greer et al. (2007) that looked at how a generic cognitive model might be developed from very simple mechanisms, such as stigmergic or dynamic links. these links are created through feedback only and therefore do not rely on any particular rule or piece of knowledge. they are therefore much more flexible, as the feedback would be able to represent anything. the construction process is also largely automatic or mechanical, which is a key requirement. the hyper heuristic of greer (2012) is not a neural network and is not currently part of the cognitive model. it does however contain some important features. one is to try to match instead of maximise and another is an inherent location consideration, as part of the matching process. while it is not built from neurons, it might be useful somewhere to evaluate things and matching does appear to be a key element of some neural network models. the following sections describe the other related models. symbolic and arbitrary the model of greer (2011) suggested a new neural network construction. the design is symbolic in nature, which is seen as an advantage in some cases, because the network can then be understood and reasoned over. each node can represent an individual concept and clustering can be determined locally, between only a few nodes. as well as labelled concepts however, you can also have unlabelled ones that only the network itself will understand. clustering is based on time, where events presented at the same time get clustered into a unique hidden-layer group. its construction process is dynamic, where the connections will continually change and nodes are added or removed. it is more for clustering than a fixed pattern-recognition setup. figure 3 gives an example of what it might look like, where the middle layer clusters low-level concepts into higherlevel ones. figure 3. schematic of a three layer symbolic neural network. the network is trained in one direction to cluster, but used in the opposite direction to retrieve feature sets. the preferred construction solution was to always keep a higher-level concept part (t0 – t2) as it was formed and relate them through the base level global nodes (gc0) with links. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 38 in that case, each higher-level concept represents a particular event in time. it is not combined with the other concept parts, but can be associated through links coming from a base layer node. only the exact same presentation again will therefore reinforce a specific higher-level concept part. so each hidden node (t0 – t2) is updated separately, but because they all have overlapping input nodes (c0 – c4), the global concept would group them together2. it might then be the global concept that gets asked for, to return the individual parts. for example, asking for the food items (c0 – c4) of a recipe (gc0). keeping each intermediary group separate allows it to filter out noisy values better. as part of the learning process however, each weight update is then very specific. for smaller datasets this is not a problem, but for the real world it probably would be. this has to be balanced against an alternative of forming a single cluster if the input node sets overlap, where t0, t1 and t2 would form a single group, but cannot then be told apart. for more realistic data, real-world images for example, might require a more fuzzy form of feedback reinforcement. lots of intermediary units will be created and destroyed, so for any to survive might require some flexibility on the edges of a cluster, so that the core feature can have slightly different variations at the edges. an alternative to this is to make the ‘feedback’ a bit fuzzy instead and keep the hidden layer nodes as they are. so each unit remains distinct, but the feedback is to an area, not a specific unit, as in the real brain. therefore, separate clusters that are ‘conceptually’ grouped inside of the selected area can receive common feedback and be updated. as a larger cluster group is rarer or less likely, it makes sense to use nesting this way. in figure 3, for example, if the group c1, c2, c3 is presented again (t1), a group consisting of c2 and c3 could also be reinforced. one consisting of c1 and c5 would not. this is also interesting because the paper (greer, 2014a) argues for a nested structure for representing concepts. concept trees another paper (greer, 2014b) suggested a way of linking concepts or knowledge that uses a very simple rule that would allow them to be created automatically and be generally applicable. by only allowing concepts that have a lower count value, to be linked to concepts that have higher or equal count values, a sound structure can be generated. if some concept at a tree branch realised a higher count value than its parent, it would be removed from the tree structure and form the base of a new tree. this has a normalising effect on the structure, where the nodes that are used more often, are placed at the tree bases, from where they can be indexed. an example of this is shown in figure 4, which is similar to the paper. text has been clustered to produce ‘black cat sat mat’ and ‘black cat drank milk’ tree paths. in figure (4a), the ‘drank – milk’ branch has been updated more times than the ‘black – cat’ root, suggesting that it might be better as the base of a new tree. this is therefore automatically performed, resulting in two trees, as shown in figure (4b). a dynamic link between the two trees (m) is then added, to maintain the path. these ‘concept trees’ are also logical with respect to nature in general and the intention is to research this more in the future. tree structures themselves naturally tend towards leaf nodes at the end of terminal branches and it is a bit like the terminals of minsky’s frames (minsky, 1974). the linking and indexing of the concept trees can also exhibit the art-like features of top-down and bottom-up control, with different link sets representing either more control, or a conceptual aggregation-type of process. unless ‘black cat’ is asked for, the tree will not be searched, but once started, if there is no ‘m’ branch link, the search cannot go from tree 1 to tree 2. 2 in the figure, the linking is dynamic and t2 was created, but then lost its associating links, leaving it isolated but still part of the global cluster. a hidden node t3, for example might have had c3 and c4, but then died. k. greer new ideas for brain modelling 39 4(a) 4(b) figure 4. example of a concept tree, with a new base being created. if trying to use this design as part of a brain structure – nodes are linked by synapses, where groups can differ from each other. it is also known that some sort of hierarchy exists (for example, hawkins & blakeslee, 2004). the idea however is that through their natural formation and use, neurons with many connections and possibly larger collective sizes, will link to other groups with fewer connections and smaller sizes, until the end groups have almost no extensions and are particular in some way. these end points represent final ideas/objects/concepts that the brain knows about and would not need to investigate further. if thinking about a coffee cup, for example, the brain does not try to search further into molecular structures, but stops at the coffee cup concept (usually). if the connection structure naturally tends to smaller and smaller entities, then the search can stop when it hits one of the more singular or end neuron groups. this would have to fit in with the traditional theories of completing circuits, but as other theories also note terminal points that should be possible. the dead end is then the point from where the resonance can be recognised. memory and search direct memory retrieval searches and searches for processes look different. retrieving a memory request might use an end concept directly, for example. there is a reference to a structure in greer (2008), section 9.3.7 that tries to index different concept sets through unique keys. it has the same idea as the indexing system being used in the concept trees, where the paper (greer, 2014b) outlines the similarities. the idea of concept trees, or linking through smaller and smaller entities, fits nicely with a memory structure and can be built largely from existing static knowledge. a memory recall is usually quite quick and usually for more simplistic pieces of information. if the design puts these at the end of tree structures, memories are these smaller trees that terminate. a more complex problem might require more than one initial concept to fire and for their searches to combine or agree over a wider range of paths. they would start searching from their root neurons for associations to the more complex problem and might need to combine to reinforce certain channels or ideas. these combined searches then also need to find common terminating conditions. this more dynamic process is considered again in the following sections. so a concept tree is a static piece of knowledge that gets searched over. it can be created and changed dynamically over time, but that would be a slower process. searches are very quick, but can only search over the already created static knowledge and therefore need to combine search paths, to generate a richer and more variable pool of knowledge. different indexing can be used however to access the initial base tree concepts, or to traverse between trees, providing added levels of dynamism. so the search possibly expands first, before contracting to the terminal states. one question is: can a search only ever stop at a physical world object of some sort? this is because the terminal state must be recognised and so must exist in some form. concept trees can accommodate this, where the base concepts would be the physical objects that then link to different scenarios at the leaf nodes. the scenarios are specific instances or descriptive examples, possibly with specific values sets. memory recall might index single base concepts, but a search to solve a problem can find sets of basic objects, apply constraints to find specific instance examples and also brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 40 allow these to traverse across each other for reinforcement. it is also appealing if thinking about very young humans or babies. they probably learn to recognise the physical objects first and then later start to form associations and processes between them. so the natural process would be to create the physical objects first. another question that could be asked is: can anything really new be thought? for this paper, the question is more about ‘thinking’ of something new and not reasoning over a new real-world situation. if searches trace over existing structure, then it might require changing the structure, which might be more difficult without real-world references to index. that is possibly what invention is, which also reveals how difficult it is. the paper (grossberg, 2013) has also asked this question, with respect to the art model and also provided some technical answers. in that case, it appears to deal more with a real but unfamiliar world, than a person’s own internal imagination. aggregations and stimulus the papers greer (2014a), greer (2013a) and this one describe how stimulus is key to the thinking process and how intelligence might be the result of an ensemble or aggregation of a large number of neurons, all firing together. while this is already known, if it is the case, then that makes it easier to replace one concept in a thought process by another one. we sometimes do this when reasoning, to create new scenarios that never actually existed, but still contain our known elements. it is also a well-known memory technique. the replacement of part of a thought would be easier if all of the neurons fired together in an ensemble. it is difficult to imagine that the brain would surgically move specific concepts as part of the search process. it is more likely to be the case that different neural ensembles would balance themselves against desired responses, where index sets can provide some control over what concept groups get activated and are combined. for example, consider listening to recorded music. each segment of the recorded track is a single noise, but when played in sequence, we can tell each instrument from the other. the brain can separate out from the aggregated sound, the different musical instruments, as the pattern changes. resonance and pressure this is possibly the most controversial or unlikely part of the new model in a biological sense, but uses the idea is that neurons in-sync with each other do the same thing. the papers (ales, 2008; fukishima, 1988) might also have had similar ideas. for this process to work, it is required that a signal travels in both directions through the synaptic channels. it might be more commonly thought that information flows in a one-way system, but cycles back to complete circuits for reinforcement purposes. cycling is necessary to sustain the signal and also possibly for history recall, but a direct feedback has other advantages. consider the experiment for creating a standing wave from a moving rope. it is achieved by two people holding the rope and moving it quickly, up and down, to send waves in opposite directions that collide and combine, to produce the standing wave. so this is the proposed new mechanism for the creation of resonance that the brain signal creates. when a dead end (firing blocked or singular concept) is found, this sends the signal back again, where it combines with the signal flowing in the other direction to produce resonance. the whole search path can be recognised as it gets excited by the feedback. it is almost easier mechanically for the path already created, as part of the search, to receive feedback that tells specific neurons that they are relevant. figure 5 tries to show these new ideas in action, as part of a search process. this is only one part of a larger search group, is very schematic and is simply trying to illustrate the new theory. as the forward and backward signals collide and create turbulence, the whole brain area can get excited and resonate. how a neuron would close or become a terminal one however, is not clear. the complete cognitive model that is being considered is still the original model, described in greer (2013a) or greer (2008), for example. it consists of 3 levels: the bottom level is mostly for optimising and creates individual links between nodes. the middle level is for aggregating the bottom level links. the top level is then for clustering the aggregated sets of links, k. greer new ideas for brain modelling 41 for higher-level reasoning. the middle level’s self-organising abilities would be useful and different neural network models could be tried there, including the new ren structure that is suggested in this paper. the top level can make use of concept trees (greer, 2014b), or the neural network model of greer (2011), for example. it might be best to view the different levels as functional and not physical. the linking operations are different, but they can all occupy the same physical space and work on the same single structure. figure 5. the new neuronal model in action. regional and temporal feedback time is maybe slightly ignored in computer models of the human brain, but essential for any state-based system (amari, 1990). recognising specific areas or regions is also a problem to be solved. the symbolic neural network of section 0 works well, as it can filter out noisy input, by using very specific clusters. when training however, the reinforcement updates need to be equally exact. as suggested, a more general structure to the feedback mechanism could be tried. the papers hawkins & blakeslee (2004) and lim & choe (2006) note the requirement of a temporal feedback, so that historical events are recognised and can then be predicted or reasoned about. hebb’s rule would suggest that similar groups would form closely to each other, as opposed to far apart, if no other influence is involved. this is also inherent in the model of greer (2012). therefore, instead of the feedback going to one specific cluster set, let it go to a general area and influence all of the relevant cluster groups in that area. a detailed discussion of that is too much for this paper, but it is included to try to keep in-sync with a real biological model. the point is that similar concepts are likely to be grouped closely together and so it makes more sense that a general feedback could influence more than one of them at a time. think of a line of patterns or states that trigger each other. if the correct result is state 1, then if we also reinforce state 0 or state 2 that is still probably ok. adding detail to the cognitive model on writing this paper, it has become clear that the neural network and the concept trees can be closely related with each other, both in terms of their structure and also how they are formed and used. while the concept trees are more static and can be built from existing knowledge, the symbolic neural network is more dynamic and influenced by time. a search process might start with specific concepts, broaden out and then narrow to terminating states. a search is also involved for real-world problem-solving or predictions and not just for direct memory or information retrieval. so another idea of this paper is to join the neural network with the concept tree, to produce a more autonomous system. it can be searched over at different levels, store existing knowledge, or produce previously unknown concepts from experience. this is illustrated in figure 6, where brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 42 similar types of architecture have probably been proposed before, for example carpenter, grossberg & rosen (1991), fukishima (1988) or grossberg (2013). to complete the picture, the indexing to the base of the concept trees is provided by a lower level of stimulus. this can be refined using the ren neurons, for example that act as the indexers to the structured knowledge in the higher level. each part of the architecture has a construction stage and a usage stage. time is again key, where node groups presented during the construction stage do not have to be the same as the groups presented during the usage stage. a terminal state might be a conclusion to a process and not a physical object, but it is still something that has existed previously. figure 6. integration with the cognitive model, built from the new clustering structures. in the top level, one can see how the concept trees, built from existing knowledge can provide a platform on which the neural network can be built. if a set of tree nodes are used as part of a particular search result, then that is an abstract time-based group that represents something. if the cognitive model wishes to store that information, it could use the neural network to cluster it into the hidden layer units and then the single global concept. these are more abstract and could be dynamic concepts or processes, for example. so this could marry the static knowledge with a more dynamic reasoning process, but how it is accessed or searched over is still unclear. a memorybased search might only use the concept trees, by presenting a set of indexes to the base tree nodes only. remember that a search can also link between trees. a process search might then require a circuit that connects with the global neural network concepts as well. if the c0 to c4 concepts of figure 3 were replaced by more descriptive concept trees, then the clustering principle is the same, even if the process can become more complex when tree paths are considered. the original cognitive model, described in greer (2013a) or greer (2008), for example, already has an upper-level structure of more complex concepts that can trigger each other. the triggering acts as a form of process creation and allows for more intelligent thought. integrating the new model components, it is possible to simply allow triggers between the global neural network concepts, as they already represent more complex entities and the sub-entities have not been defined exactly. as a hierarchy is already known about, this is just another top level to it. for the concept tree / neural network combination, the same architecture is described in (greer, 2014b), section 7.3. with these two construction processes, one relates to knowledge-based concept trees and to small k. greer new ideas for brain modelling 43 but specific entities, while the other relates to the event-based clustering and also to self-organising these smaller structures. following earlier papers’ food examples, you could imagine a human tasting different food types and learning what they are made of; but when in a restaurant, selecting a menu based on the food types and discovering some new recipe through the experience. the lower level is added to try to complete the picture. the exact functionality there is unclear, or how exactly nodes would be activated, but the ren model can help. it is interesting, as noted in section 0, that the ‘aggregations’ of the query process this originated from, might be inherent in the structure. adding more intermediary units will force up the number of neurons required to fire, closer to an average value and if they are also separated, then added accuracy is required. the idea of preferred or better neurons is not impossible. as described in section 0, a neuron that fires more often might keep its direct path. if it is then involved in a firing pattern, it will have more influence, suggesting that it has a better value. a stimulus input could even be thought of as a query request, where an autonomic response could start in the lower levels. also remember that the levels may be functional and not physical, where the ren, or whatever, is also with the hierarchical nodes, and so on. 9. discussion looking at a cross-section, or magnified image of a real brain, shows how completely random the structure is. a computer model would struggle to create this sort of structure and prefers a much more ordered one. while the new model is mostly concerned with the search and retrieval process, the first part of this paper showed an arbitrary construction process as well – how the channels that get searched over might form in the first place. the resulting simplified neuronal operation would give added confidence that the same type of neuron can be modelled reliably, including threshold and output signal strength. it can give a desirable variety of signal strengths through a layered hierarchical structure that can be created as part of any random process. although, its usefulness needs to be tested further. as far as the brain is concerned, when the appropriate stimulus is encountered, all of the neurons that are related to it can fire together, representing the same concept in some way. this would be regarded as what they are supposed to do and it is self-organising. it could lead to better models of how neurons interact, if more sophisticated sets of values can be considered. maybe some sensors or input/output connectors with the real world could be connected with the computer simulator to test the theory. the middle or intermediary units are useful for different purposes. if a neuron has a large number of direct inputs, much larger than the required threshold, they would lose some of their meaning. if these are clustered by intermediary units first, then each intermediary unit must represent some sort of abstract concept by itself, even if it is not a real world one. the excess feedback would almost force the creation of these sub-concepts, as part of a self-organising system. if pressure plays a part, then excess amounts would need to be adjusted. then the other reason is the original point of the theory to produce that apparent analogue set of values, from binary-operating neurons. this type of model is actually less complicated than the real one, but it has the problem of passing a signal in both directions and through a membrane. lots of the features that have been mentioned might be found in other models or technologies, but they probably do not appear in exactly the same format as described in these research papers. while the narrowing tree structure of concept trees is not new, the idea that it can be used as a sort of rule for creating linked structures probably is, although, markov models may also have the same statistical property. the neural network design (greer, 2011) is possibly new. the construction and usage directions are largely to do with what it represents, where different cluster levels are involved. it might be a question of granularity as to whether other models inherently contain this process as well however. aggregations and stimulus is commonly accepted, but the idea that a more refined neuron can be automatically and reliably created as part of that might be new. memory structures are obvious, but the idea of a terminating condition that results in a signal being fed back down the same channel again, appears to be quite radical. the commonly accepted view is one of cycling and completing one-way circuits, because the signal only travels brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 44 one way through a neuron. while cycling is required, to reinforce the process, there must be some sort of terminating condition, to indicate a successful result. a resonance feedback process can work in harmony with the other established theories, mathematically at least. it is slightly more forceful than the other processes, but also provides slightly different functionality. circuits, for example, could be more for search and information retrieval (greer, 2014b), while inhibitors can help with timing or process control (greer, 2014a) and so these established methods can work in the same model as the new ideas, without contradiction. the idea of pressure or force is the most radical. it might be the current thought that the brain is made up more of a kind of amorphous gel that can get electrically charged and then change. the resonance option is that the synapse grows into the gel, but it would be an internal pushing force that controls the process. while the new model might, or might not, be 100% correct biologically, it appears to be mathematically sound. this is important, because it is then possible to build a consistent computer model from it that will do something, even if it does not produce intelligent thought, which is the ultimate goal. as the model simulates the real human brain closely, if it is shown to work in some way, then this will probably have relevance to future research in that area. so there is much here that could be used to build an artificial model of the human brain. acknowledgements this paper is a much extended version of the first version ‘the re(de)fined neuron’, published on scribd3 (feb 2013). this version has made some important changes or updates and also added a substantial amount of new information, regarding further supporting arguments and a more complete system. it was originally accepted in 2014 for the igi jitr special issue on: ‘from natural computing to self-organizing intelligent complex systems’, which was subsequently cancelled. references ackley, d.h., hinton, g.e. & sejnowski, t.j. (1985). a learning algorithm for boltzmann machines. cognitive science, 9, 147 169. ales, g. (2008, july). electronic, chemical and mechanical processes in the human brain. 12th wseas international conference on systems, heraklion, greece, 637 – 642, isbn 978-9606766-83-1, issn 1790-2769. amari, s-i. (1990). mathematical foundations of neurocomputing. proc. ieee, 78(9), 1443 – 1463. carpenter, g., grossberg, s., & rosen, d. (1991). fuzzy art: fast stable learning and categorization of analog patterns by an adaptive resonance system. neural networks, 4, 759 – 771. fukishima, k. (1988). a neural network for visual pattern recognition. ieee computer, 21(3), 65 – 75. greer, k. (2014a). arguments for nested patterns in neural ensembles. the science and information organisation conference (sai’14). greer, k. (2014b). concept trees: building dynamic concepts from semi-structured data using nature-inspired methods. in quanmin, z. & ahmad, t.a. (eds.), complex system modelling and control through intelligent soft computations, by: studies in fuzziness and soft computing, springer-verlag, germany. greer, k. (2013a). turing: then, now and still key. in x-s. yang (ed.), artificial intelligence, evolutionary computation and metaheuristics (aiecm) turing 2012, studies in computational intelligence, 427/2013, 43 62, doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-29694-9_3, springerverlag berlin heidelberg. 3 http://www.scribd.com/doc/123586190/the-re-de-fined-neuron. k. greer new ideas for brain modelling 45 greer, k. (2013b). artificial neuron modelling based on wave shape, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 4(1-4), 20 25, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print). greer, k. (2012). a stochastic hyper-heuristic for matching partial information. advances in artificial intelligence, 2012, article id 790485, doi:10.1155/2012/790485, hindawi. greer, k. (2011). symbolic neural networks for clustering higher-level concepts. naun international journal of computers, 3(5), 378 – 386, extended version of the wseas/europment international conference on computers and computing (iccc’11). greer, k. (2008). thinking networks – the large and small of it: autonomic and reasoning processes for information networks. lulu.com, isbn: 1440433275. also available on google books. greer, k., baumgarten, m., mulvenna, m., nugent, c. and curran, k. (2007, september). knowledge-based reasoning through stigmergic linking, international workshop on selforganising systems iwsos’07. in hutchison, d. & katz, r.h. (eds.), lecture notes in computer science (lncs), 4725, pp. 240 – 254, springer-verlag. grossberg, s. (2013). adaptive resonance theory. scholarpedia, 8(5), 1569. hawkins, j. & blakeslee, s. (2004). on intelligence. times books. hebb, d.o. (1949). the organisation of behaviour. hill, s.l., wang, y., riachi, i., schürmann, f. & markram, h. (2012). statistical connectivity provides a sufficient foundation for specific functional connectivity in neocortical neural microcircuits. proceedings of the national academy of sciences. holland, j.h. (1975). adaptation in natural and artificial systems. university of michigan press. hopfield, j.j. (1982). neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the usa, 79(8), 2554 – 2558. kandel, e.r. (2001). the molecular biology of memory storage: a dialogue between genes and synapses. science magazine, 294(5544), 1030 1038. kohonen, t. (1990). the self-organizing map. proceedings of the ieee, 78(9), 1464 1480, issn: 0018-9219. lim, h. & choe, y. (2006). facilitating neural dynamics for delay compensation and prediction in evolutionary neural networks. gecco’06, seattle, washington, usa, 167 174. mcculloch, w.s. & pitts, w. (1943). a logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity. bulletin of mathematical biophysics, 5. markram, h.,wang, y. & tsodyks, m. (1998). differential signaling via the same axon of neocortical pyramidal neurons. in proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the usa, 95. minsky, m. (1974). a framework for representing knowledge. massachusetts institute of technology cambridge, ma, usa. montes de oca, m.a., garrido, l. & jose l.a. (2005). an hybridization of an ant-based clustering algorithm with growing neural gas networks for classification tasks. acm symposium on applied computing, santa fe, new mexico, usa, 9 13. rojas, r. (1996). neural networks: a systematic introduction. springer-verlag, berlin and online at books.google.com. smith, t., husbands, p., philippides, a. & o'shea, m. (2002). temporally adaptive networks: analysis of gasnet robot controllers. in standish, abbass & bedau (eds.), artificial life viii, (mit press), 274 282. vogels, t.p., kanaka rajan, k. & abbott, l.f. (2005). neural network dynamics. annu. rev. neurosci., 28, 357 376. waxman, s.g. (2012). sodium channels, the electrogenisome and the electrogenistat: lessons and questions from the clinic. the journal of physiology, 2601 – 2612. weisbuch, g. (1999). the complex adaptive systems approach to biology. evolution and cognition, 5(1), 1 11. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 3-4, december 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 46 willie, c.k., macleod, d.b., shaw, a.d., smith, k.j., tzeng, y.c., eves, n.d., ikeda, k, graham, j., lewis, n.c., day, t.a. & ainslie, p.n. (2012). regional brain blood flow in man during acute changes in arterial blood gases. the journal of physiology, 590(14), 3261 – 3275. wolchover, n. (2013). as machines get smarter, evidence they learn like us, https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20130723-as-machines-get-smarter-evidence-theylearn-like-us/. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final_final.doc 180 interview with mr. dr. georgios k. matis, neurosurgeon, democritus university of thrace, medical school, alexandroupolis, greece ruxandra alexandru faculty of letters, university of bucharest edgar quinet, 5-7, bucharest, romania ruxi89@yahoo.com doctor georgios k. matis, one of our journal reviewers, is a young greek resident neurosurgeon with an enviable experience. he graduated high school in 1995 with an impressive academic score of 19.7/20, being the first among his classmates. for this reason he was awarded the “john and vasileia karagianni award” from municipality of thessaloniki. in 2002 he graduated the medical school of aristotle university of thessaloniki, greece, where he achieved the score of 8.17/10. later on, in march 2002 he was given the medical license. moreover, he worked as a rural doctor in arnaia, greece, for one year. then he attended 1.5 years of general surgery as a resident: in the general hospital of poligiros, greece, and in the university general hospital of alexandroupolis, greece. dr. matis served in the greek army where he worked as a doctor in the military camp “versi” and as a teacher on health issues. from march 2007 to november 2007 he was a resident in neurosurgery in the 417 military hospital (nimts, athens, greece). from february 2008, he has continued his residency in neurosurgery at the general hospital of thessaloniki, greece, “g. papanikolaou”. the expected date of residency completion is december 2011. furthermore, he teaches “neurosurgery” and “general surgery” to the 3rd, 4th, and 6th year medical students at the medical school from alexandroupolis. he holds a phd (democritus university of thrace, medical school, alexandroupolis, greece). the title of his thesis is: “correlation of gcs, ct, and apache-ii findings in head injured patients”. he is a reviewer for several academic journals like “brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience”, “molecules”, “ιnternational journal of medicine and medical sciences”, “recent patents on medical imaging”, “journal of pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutics”, in “nursing2010” journal and he is also an instructor in ekab (national center of urgent help), teaching “traumatic brain injuries” course. also, dr. matis is a reviewer for the national health and medical research council (nhmrc) of the australian government for evaluating research programs (2009 nhmrc project grants scheme). the evaluated protocol was: “exploring the role of erythropoietin therapy after traumatic brain injury: from bed to bench-side” (id: 606624). moreover, he is a reviewer (sentinel reader) of the centre for evidencebased practice, school of rehabilitation science, mcmaster university, ontario, canada in the context of the system “mcmaster online rating of evidence (more) – clinical relevance online rating system” (discipline name: chronic pain). he passed the atls (advanced trauma life support) exam at the american college of surgeons (june 2004). he also holds a msc in health services management (hellenic open university, patra, greece) with a grade of 8.74/10. the tile of his thesis was: “satisfaction survey of the inpatients of the university general hospital of alexandroupolis”. in addition, he got specialized in “financial management and informatics” (national and kapodistriako university of athens, athens, greece – e-learning). ruxandra alexandru, brain (ra): doctor georgios k. matis, we would like to ask you several questions about your work and your free time as well. would you accept it? dr. georgios k. matis: sure. brainterviews brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 181 ra: being a neurosurgeon, could you please tell us what the most risky surgical manoeuvre in neurosurgery is? how often is it used? gm: the clipping of aneurysms – several times/month if endovascular treatment is not indicated or not effective. ra: what are the most frequent diseases that need neurosurgical intervention? gm: hydrocephalus after subarachnoid hemorrhage, epior subdural haematomas, intracerebral hematomas, lumbar spondylosis, vertebral disc herniation (cervical and lumbar segment). ra: what was the most difficult case that you confronted with? could you please describe the way you managed to cope with it? what do you have to do as a physician in this case? gm: a ruptured brain aneurysm of basilar artery in a 14 year-old child which led to death. unfortunately, this was a hopeless situation. ra: what is the newest invention for the treatment of the neurodegenerative disease? gm: the use of several peptides. ra: considering the fact that you were involved with the clinical studies about the prevention and treatment of the parkinson’s disease, which one got the best results? gm: i am not involved in such trials as a researcher. however, as a reviewer i believe that this in an issue under examination. ra: what is the most difficult post operative recovery for the patients that undergo a brain surgical intervention? gm: to remove tracheostomy, the intensive physiotherapy programme. ra: when did you choose your profession? gm: at the age of 17. ra: what did you want to become when you were a child? gm: as odd as it might seem, nothing specific. ra: if you could go back in the past, what profession would you choose? gm: the same. ra: concerning your profession, what are your regrets? gm: in greece physicians are not appropriately trained as medical students. too much theory and little practice. ra: concerning your profession, what is your biggest satisfaction? gm: a pair of non-dilated pupils… ra: what do you usually do in your free time? gm: read stories to my son, travel, write articles for medical journals. ra: thank you. interview conducted and condensed by ruxandra alexandru. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue4_2017_final.doc 85 brain and artificial intelligence ángel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, 9 senda del rey, madrid 28040, spain tel. +34 91 398 86 90 / 71 13 agarrido@mat.uned.es abstract from ancient times, the history of human beings has developed through a succession of steps and sometimes jumps, until reaching at the relative sophistication of the modern brain and culture. researchers are attempting to create systems that mimic human thinking, understand speech, or beat the best human chess player. understanding the mechanisms of intelligence, and creating intelligent artefacts are the twin goals of artificial intelligence (ai). great mathematical minds have played a key role in ai in recent years; to name only a few, janos neumann (also known as john von neumann), konrad zuse, norbert wiener, claude e. shannon, alan m. turing, grigore moisil, lofti a. zadeh, ronald r. yager, michio sugeno, solomon marcus, or lászlo a. barabási. introducing the study of ai is not merely useful because of its capability to solve difficult problems, but also because of its mathematical nature. it prepares us to understand the current world, enabling us to act on the challenges of the future. keywords: classical and non-classical logics, fuzzy logic, uncertainty, brain, networks, artificial intelligence, neuroscience. motto: everything is vague to a degree which you do not realize until they have tried to specify. (bertrand russell, 1923) 1. introduction the historical origin of artificial intelligence as a scientific field was established at the darmouth conference (1956). in that year, john mccarthy coined the term, defined as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”. but this definition does not cover the actual breadth of the field. ai is multi-connected with many other fields, such as neuroscience or philosophy; and we can trace its origins further back, to arcane origins, perhaps to plato, raymond lully (raimundo lulio, in spanish), g. w. leibniz, blaise pascal, charles babbage, leonardo torres quevedo, etc., with their attempts to create thinking machines. a suggestive definition of the field would be to say that it is the area of computer science that focuses on creating machines that can engage on behaviors that humans consider intelligent. the history of ai field is long and fruitful; just recall topics as diverse and important as the famous turing test, the strong vs weak ai discussion, the chinese room argument, and so on. and modern ai has spanned more than fifty years now. we know the origin of ideas about thinking machines and the mechanisms through which the human brain works; the possibility of mimicking their behavior if we create some computational structure similar to the neuron, or perhaps the neural system, its synapses or connections between neurons, leads to the production of what is called a neural network. the central purpose of ai would be to create an admissible model for human knowledge. its subject is, therefore, “pure form”. we try to emulate the way of reasoning of a human brain. research directed towards this goal can only happen in a succession of approximated steps, but the attempts proceed always in this sense. initially, ai worked over idealizations of the real world. its natural fields were, therefore, “formal worlds”. search procedures operated in the space of states, which contains the set of all states (or nodes, in the case of representation by graphs), that we can obtain when we apply all the available operators. many early ai programs used the same basic algorithm. to achieve some goal brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 86 (winning a game or proving a theorem), they proceeded step by step towards it (by making a move or a deduction each time) like searching through a maze, backtracking whenever they reached a dead end. this paradigm was called “reasoning as search”. 2. connection ai brain studying artificial intelligence is interesting not only because of its potential to tackle many open problems, both inside the field and in application to others scientific areas, and even in the study of the humanities, but also because it is a new and very creative branch of mathematics, and it prepares us to understand the current world, enabling us to act on the challenges of the future. “an artificial human brain can be built within the next ten years”, said henry markram, israeli-born scientist, professor at the polytechnic of lausanne and director of the blue brain project (bbp), also called human brain project. bbp: this is a project by the swiss government, and also funded by private donations, with the aim of trying to build an artificial copy of the mammalian (and therefore human) brain. in 2013 many euros were assigned to this project (and another on graphene) for research over the next ten years. turning to this project, prof. markram’s team is concentrated in the study of the `neocortex´, which is the layer of the brain responsible for higher functions directly, like, for example, the conscious thought. in recent years, this team has managed to decipher the structure of the `neocortical column´. by working with a software model that reproduces tens of thousands of neurons, all different from each other, they managed to create the artificial brain. all this opens up new and promising perspectives for science in its support for improving the lives of humans. we would need a laptop for each neuron. therefore, ten thousand laptops are needed. so this team will use an ibm supercomputer with ten thousand processors. through simulations we can observe brain function and behavior in dysfunctional situations, as in the case of depression or alzheimer. the tool will be able to understand what happens in the brain and may try different behaviors. it's like in aeronautics: a model simulates the flight and can test how it would be affected by wind, rain and other weather conditions, and how they respond to the aircraft. now they are trying to do something similar with the brain. it is expected that in the future, neuroscientists know how the brain is formed, develops and ages, or the mechanisms by which we learn and improve our intellectual capacities. we should also mention another program, somewhat parallel in purpose to the previous, which is the american brain project. their budget is for a similar amount, and aims to emulate the achievements of the human genome project. it can be seen as a kind of `spatial´ new career, but now between europe and the usa. the map of the brain will be built thanks to these new `cartographers´ of neuroscience, an initiative that will see its results in the coming years. very big companies like google, ibm, or microsoft collaborated in these projects. á. garrido brain and artificial intelligence 87 3. the future of neuroscience quantum computing is the `next generation´ of technology to transform our world. it is based on quantum mechanics properties that are completely different from the classic ones. in the world of the smallest particles, we can assume that the laws of nature are frequently defied. now, using particles like photons, it was possible to create a new element: the minimal unity of quantum information, named qubit (quantum bit), which allows us to process information so that if you dedicate centuries of classical computation, it would not be possible. and since the classical method is linear, in quantum case we can solve more than one operation at a time. lately, watson has concentrated on other tasks, such as developing new recipes from existing. trying to create a mathematical model that allows us to understand cultural evolution is still a very difficult task, but nevertheless, is starting to be addressed by authors such as donald davidson, daniel dennett, as well as some theorist of artificial intelligence. it is a matter then of growing interest. 4. new applications of fuzzy logic in fuzzy logic, statements are not absolutely true or absolutely false (dubois, 1980). one thing can be 5% true (technically, its “degree of truth” is 0.05). additionally, the variables (or categories) are no longer numbers and do not have borders linguistically accurate (high or low, rich or poor, fat or thin, healthy or sick, old or young, hot or cold, etc., depending on the occurrence degree of these properties), and the operators that modify them are “lot”, “pretty”, “too”, “almost” or “not too much”. these are called fuzzy modifiers (“hedges” or even “fuzzy modifiers”). this attributes a value to each of these features diffuse, and that value is accentuated or diluted accordingly, for example, the various powers or roots of the initial values or with polynomial expressions that depend on these functions. they are called modifiers “intensification” or “expansion” (dilation), respectively, with gradual effects and variation. the feature of working with border regions is not fully defined itself in this area of mathematics (garrido, 2011). in 1973, with the basic theory of zadeh fuzzy controllers, other researchers began to apply fuzzy logic to various mechanical and industrial processes, improving existing hitherto. several research groups have been established in japan. thus, professors terano and shibata from tokyo, with professors tanaka and asai from osaka, made major contributions both to the development of fuzzy logic theory and its applications (jang, sun, 1995, 1997). in 1980 professor ebrahim mandani in the united kingdom (mamdani, 1975, 1976, 1977), designed the first fuzzy controller for a steam engine, which would be applied to control a cement plant in denmark, and did-of course-with great success. in 1987 hitachi used a fuzzy controller for the sendai train control, which used an innovative system created by man. since then, the controller has been doing its job very efficiently. it was also during 1987 when the company omron developed the first commercial fuzzy controllers. so the year 1987 is considered the “fuzzy boom” due to the large number of traded products based on fuzzy logic. in 1993, fuji fuzzy logic was used to control chemical injection water treatment for plants for the first time in japan. the fuzzy technology grew in importance mainly in japan and south korea, having the support of the government, universities and industries. (sugeno, 1977, 1985). parallel to the study of the applications of fuzzy logic, professors takagi and sugeno developed the first approach to construct fuzzy rules (fuzzy rules), from training data or training (fuzzy learning). since then, the applications of fuzzy logic in everyday life have grown rapidly. in fact, it is already a part of it. for example, some brands of washing machine using fuzzy logic are electrolux, aeg and miele, and they use these computational methods to moderate the program if the clothes washing “is not very dirty”, which is a vague concept. the technique is also widespread in the abs, braking cars, auto focus cameras, or control of the elevators, spam filters, also called “spam”, and the now ubiquitous video games. manufacturers do not want to give much publicity to brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 88 the fuzziness involved in these developments for an obvious reason. to say that their cars brake is controlled by fuzzy logic does not contribute to their sales. to build a fuzzy system, an engineer might begin with a set of fuzzy rules from an expert. an engineer might define the degrees of membership in various fuzzy input and output sets with a sets of curves. the fuzzy rules, or the rules of a fuzzy system, define a set of overlapping patches that relate a full range of inputs to a full range of outputs. in that sense, the fuzzy system approximates some mathematical function or equation of cause and effect. a very important result says that fuzzy systems can approximate any continuous math function. bart kosko (kosko, 1993) proved this uniform convergence theorem by showing that enough small fuzzy patches can sufficiently cover the graph of any function or input/output relation. the theorem also shows that we can pick in advance the maximum error of the approximation and be sure that there are a finite number of fuzzy rules that achieve it. recent advances in neural networks, or neural nets (in terms of programs that learn from experience), and genetic algorithms (as programs evolve over time) are certainly a fitting complement to fuzzy logic. another key reason for increased research in this field would be the interest in the resemblance between neural networks and fuzzy systems. the result from analyzing the relations between these two techniques are neuro-fuzzy systems, which use learning methods based on neural networks in order to identify and optimize its parameters (jang, sun, 1997). then appeared genetic algorithms, which together with neural networks and “fuzzy systems” are powerful and therefore are of great interest for future research, both current and mathematics for the most new, it is already here, quickly taking shape (sugeno, 1985). neural networks are collections of “neurons” and “synapses” that change their values in response to inputs from surrounding neurons and synapses. the neural network acts like a computer, because it maps inputs to outputs. the neurons and synapses may be silicon components, or equations in software, that simulate their behavior. supervised learning, reached through supervised networks, tune the rules of a fuzzy system as if they were synapses. the user provides the first set of rules, which the neural net refines by running through hundreds of thousands of inputs, slightly varying the fuzzy sets each time to see how well the system performs. the network tends to keep the changes that improve performance and ignores the others. unsupervised learning, reached through unsupervised neural networks, blindly cluster data into groups (by a procedure so-called clustering), the members of which resemble one another. there may be no given right or wrong response or way to organize the data. it is in advance. fuzzy modeling is many times used to transform the knowledge of an expert into a mathematical model. the emphasis is on constructing a fuzzy expert system that replaces the human expert, and also as a tool that can assist human observers in the difficult task of transforming their observations into a mathematical model. in many fields of science, human observers have provided linguistic descriptions and explanations of various systems. however, to study these phenomena, there is a need to construct a suitable mathematical model, a process that usually requires a very subtle mathematical understanding. fuzzy modeling is a much more direct and natural approach for transforming the linguistic description into such a model. 5. fuzzy modeling a fuzzy model represents the real system in a form that corresponds closely to the way humans perceive it. thus, the model is easily understandable, and each parameter has a readily perceivable meaning. the model can be easily altered to incorporate new phenomena, and if its behavior is different than expected, it is usually easy to find which rule should be modified, and how. furthermore, the mathematical procedures used in fuzzy modeling have been tried and tested many times, and their techniques are relatively well documented. á. garrido brain and artificial intelligence 89 the fuzzy logic research continues to advance in the leading countries (zadeh, 1975, 1988, 1989) in terms of economic and technical progress, as well as in less advanced countries, such as spain. but groups that have formed attempt to advance our science in this direction, as well as on deep (on mathematical foundations and philosophical) theoretical consequences, which influence the future challenges (garrido, 2011, 2017). it must be stated that there has been some important progress when it comes to the aggregation operators (t-norms, t-conorms, and so on) in fuzzy modeling. alongside all this development, new generalizations of the existing mathematical theories will come to create a new science, which will apply a lot more to our reality. it is also important to note that fields apparently far enough outside of the treatment of fuzziness, such as the symmetry and the entropy, have entered into new avenues of research by fuzzy symmetry, the fuzzy entropy, the fuzzy graphs, and so on (garrido, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017). there are more and more applications of all the new branches of artificial intelligence and robotics. among the most outstanding, we have the investigations carried out under the direction of professor doctor manuella kadar, with a view on the automation of the industrial processes of ceramic production, in the region of transylvania. it has the support of european union funds. in this team is integrated the author of this article. acknowledgement this work was supported by a grant of the romanian national authority for scientific research and innovation, cncs/cccdi –uefiscdi, project number pn-iii-p2-2.1-bg-20160333, within pncdi iii. references dubois, d., & prade, h. (1980). fuzzy sets and systems: theory and applications, academic press, new york garrido, a. (2011). searching the arcane origins of fuzzy logic, brain (broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience), vol. 2, issue 2, may-june 2011, pp. 51-57, bacau garrido, a. (2014). lógicas de nuestro tiempo. dykinson, madrid garrido, a. (2015). lógica aplicada. vaguedad e incertidumbre. dykinson, madrid garrido, a. (2016). lógica matemática e inteligencia artificial. dykinson, madrid garrido, a. (2017). filosofía y computación, dykinson, madrid jang, j.-s. r. (1991). fuzzy modeling using generalized neural networks and kalman filter algorithm, proc. of the ninth national conf. on artificial intelligence (aaai-91), 762-767 jang, j.-s. r., & sun, c.-t. (1995). neuro-fuzzy modeling and control, proceedings of the ieee jang, j.-s. r., and sun, c.-t. (1997). neuro-fuzzy and soft computing: a computational approach to learning and machine intelligence, prentice hall kosko, b. (1993). fuzzy thinking: the new science of fuzzy logic, hyperion mamdani, e.h., & assilian, s. (1975). an experiment in linguistic synthesis with a fuzzy logic controller, international journal of man-machine studies, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-13 mamdani, e.h. (1976). advances in the linguistic synthesis of fuzzy controllers, international journal of man-machine studies, vol. 8, 669-678 mamdani, e.h. (1977). applications of fuzzy logic to approximate reasoning using linguistic synthesis, ieee transactions on computers, vol. 26, issue 12, 1182-1191 russell, b. (1922-1923). vagueness. read before the jowett society, oxford, 25 november 1922. first published in the australasian journal of psychology and philosophy, 1 (june 1923): 84-92. this text may be also taken from collected papers, vol. 9, 147-154 sugeno, m. (1977). fuzzy measures and fuzzy integrals: a survey (m.m. gupta, g. n. saridis, and b.r. gaines, editors), fuzzy automata and decision processes, 89-102, north-holland, ny sugeno, m. (1985). industrial applications of fuzzy control, elsevier science pub. co. wang, l.-x. (1994). adaptive fuzzy systems and control: design and stability analysis, prentice hall brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 90 williamson, t. (1994). vagueness. routledge, london yager, r. (1980). on a general class of fuzzy connectives, fuzzy sets and systems, 4:235-242 zadeh, l.a. (1965). fuzzy sets, information and control, vol. 8, 338-353 zadeh, l.a. (1973). outline of a new approach to the analysis of complex systems and decision processes, ieee transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, vol. 3, issue 1, 28-44 zadeh, l.a. (1975). the concept of a linguistic variable and its application to approximate reasoning, parts 1, 2, and 3, information sciences, 8:199-249, 8:301-357, 9:43-80 zadeh, l.a. (1988). fuzzy logic, computer, vol. 1, issue 4, 83-93 zadeh, l.a. (1989). knowledge representation in fuzzy logic, ieee transactions on knowledge and data engineering, vol. 1, 89-100 angel garrido (b. july 10, 1956) received his bsc in pure mathematics, msc in computer science (1979), phd in mathematical logic and computer science, with summa cum laude, first extraordinary price of doctorate, by uned. now he is permanent full professor of mathematical analysis in department of fundamental mathematics, faculty of sciences, at uned. gold medal at the `vasile alecsandri´ university of bacau, romania. his current research interests include very different aspects of artificial intelligence and fuzzy measures. he has authored 2 books and 248 published papers, with more than 50 participation in high level conferences, being a member of international program committee of 32 conferences and workshops, editor-in chief of axioms, guest-editor of symmetry, and many other journals. microsoft word final_curent_brain_7_issue2_version2_aristita.doc 69 on the relationship between brain laterality and language proficiency in l2: a replication study nima shakouri department of english, science and research branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran nimashakouri55@gmail.com parviz maftoon (corresponding author) department of english, science and research branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran pmaftoon@srbiau.ac.ir abstract the present paper attempted to investigate whether there is any significant relationship between participants' brain laterality and l2 proficiency level. to carry out the experiment, 30 participants administered in the present study. fifteen of them did not have any english language learning experience and were at the start of language learning, while the rest had attended l2 learning classes for about 2 years in a popular english language center, located in bandar-e anzali, iran. finally, the researchers concluded that the activity of the right hemisphere went up by the increase in language proficiency among bilinguals. thereupon, the result of the paper was at variance with albert and obler's (1978) early work on hemispheric differentiation, which indicated that bilinguals were less hemispheric dominant than monolinguals. keywords: divided visual field, laterality, left hemisphere, right hemisphere, sla 1. introduction in the early 1970s, neuroscientists came to hold that the right hemisphere plays a vital role in second language acquisition (sla) (faruji, 2011). based on a prevailing hypothesis (i.e., stage hypothesis) raised by obler, albert, and gordon (1975), which was amended later by galloway and krashen (1978), bilinguals are initially dependent, to a great extent, upon the right hemisphere, but with an increase in l2 proficiency, they become more left-hemisphere lateralized. obler (1981), also, contends "the [right hemisphere] participation is particularly active during the early stages of learning l2" (p. 458). indeed, as to obler, the very participation is due to strategies of acquisition (e.g., guessing at meanings and using formulaic utterances) which are centered in the right hemisphere. although research on brain laterality is not a new topic, it is given a fresh and lively airing in this paper. in fact, "a basic requirement for scientific integrity is the ability to replicate the results of research" (burman, reed, & alm, 2010, p. 787). accordingly, abbuhl (2012) contends that replication should be considered as an absolute prerequisite for future research. schmidt (2009) also contends that replicability is one of the cornerstones of the scientific method, and sla is not an exception. thereupon, the present paper endeavored to reinvestigate whether there is any significant relationship between l2 learners' brain laterality and language proficiency. 2. review of the related literature 2. 1. brain dominance undeniably, human beings' brain is highly interactive (jensen, 2002). as to jensen, there are no such things as right-brained or left-brained people. there are only propensities; that is, one hemisphere is more active than another. caplan (1995) contends that brain “dominance is a preference, not an absolute" (p. 303). along the same vein, birjandi and seyyedrezaei (2012) assert that although functions are lateralized, these functions differ across individuals. in a study carried out by voyger (1996), the results indicated that males showed more left-brain laterality than females in the visual and auditory modality functions. even within various language tasks, the degree of dominance might differ. wagner et al (1998) found out that during a verbal encoding task, greater brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 70 activation on the left hemisphere is associated with the words that were later remembered, but less involvement on the left hemisphere is seen in words that were forgotten. besides, pulvermliller and mohr (1996) put forth that there was an increase in the right brain involvement when the subjects were required to process the function words, whereas the processing of content words is less strongly lateralized. similarly, boeree (2004) contends language functions including grammar and vocabulary are usually lateralized to the left hemisphere, while prosodic language functions (e.g., intonations and stress) are often lateralized to the right hemisphere of the brain (ross & monnot, 2008). that cerebral lateralization for language learning in bilinguals differs from that in monolinguals has also yielded impressive results. paradis (2000) asserts that both monolinguals and bilinguals make use of the same areas of the brain, but different circuits within these areas are involved. although a variety of factors gets involved in the nature of cerebral lateralization, including sex, the level of hormones, the language complexity, and the relationship between l1 and l2, research shows more right hemisphere involvement on the part of females for word processing in comparison with males (shanon, 1982). parallel to the same conviction, scholars (e.g., beauchet, 2006) put forth that the level of hormones in the two sexes highly influences brain cognitive functioning. beauchet, in this regard, maintains that reduced cognitive ability is related to the low levels of testosterone; henceforth, to him "testosterone substitution may improve some aspects of cognitive ability" (p. 773). regarding language complexity, grosjean (1989) asserts that brain involvement during sentence-level processing differs depending on the complexity of the sentence structure. grosjean maintains that the processing of the words in isolations results in left hemisphere involvement. in contrast, when the sentences containing the same words are processed, more activation on the right hemisphere is resulted. moreover, according to birjandi and seyyedrezaei (2012), the linguistic distance between l1 and l2 is also a moderating factor in bilinguals’ brain lateralization. the bigger the similarity between the structures of l1 and l2, the greater the differences in language laterality. based on the abovementioned literature, the present work is a case study to reinvestigate whether the brain laterality has a plausible relationship with learners' language proficiency level. 2.2. cerebral asymmetry without a doubt, cerebral asymmetry is one of the most basic aspects of the neuropsychological organization of the human brain (banich, 2003). as to gur et al. (2000), what makes male brain functioning distinct from female brain functioning is that male brains process information with more asymmetries. put differently, the asymmetries in male brain are seen in the intrahemispheric activation rather than in the interhemispheric activation (magon, 2009). indeed, both sexes regularly use hemispheres of the brain. nevertheless, females' brain processes language simultaneously in the two hemispheres, whereas males’ brain processes the language on the left side earlier. parallel to the same argument, evidence accumulated in the literature on monolinguals suggests that the left hemisphere is responsible for processing language (appel & muysken, 1987). that is, monolinguals are more hemispheric dominant. however, to several scholars (e.g., paradis, 1990), the hemispheric asymmetry between bilinguals and monolinguals is vigorously opposed. to paradis, bilinguals differ neither neuroanatomically nor neurophysiologically. moreover, paradis claims that bilinguals can make use of the same cerebral mechanisms that are available to monolinguals. in fact, bilinguals can compensate for gaps in their implicit linguistic competence by relying on their right hemisphere. n. shakouri, p. maftoon on the relationship between brain laterality and language proficiency in l2: a replicative study 71 2.3. divided visual field divided visual field (dvf) method has the ability to answer several important questions regarding the lateralization of brain function (banich, 2003; bourne, 2006). according to banich (2003), dvf can play an important role "in aiding our interpretation of important phenomena that have been revealed by more recent methods in neuropsychology, such as functioning brain images (e.g., fmri)" (p. 61). regarding the advantages of dvf methodology over neuroimaging technology, banich asserts that decreases in the working memory capacity among the old are together with changes in brain activation patterns. as a result, more activation in frontal areas during both verbal and spatial working memory tasks among the elderly are observed. a variety of answers can be brought to the table including the inability of neural hardware or the emergence of a compensatory mechanism, but what is crystal clear is that neuroimaging technology, as to banich, fails to find an answer to the cited question. banich claims: if the bilateral activity is a compensatory mechanism to demanding task conditions, then one would predict that the elderly should exhibit an across-hemisphere advantage at lower levels of task complexity than should younger adults. in contrast, if the lateralized neural hardware for working memory is disrupted, no difference between the younger and older adults should be found with regards to the relative advantage of intervs. intra-hemispheric processing. in fact, the elderly resort to coupled processing in the cerebral hemispheres at lower levels of task difficulty/complexity than do younger adults, convincingly demonstrating that neuroimaging findings are a dynamic response of the elderly brain to increased complexity. (pp. 61-62) moreover, in the field of sla, the use of neuroimaging is costly and not easily available to researchers. henceforth, several scholars (banich & shenker, 1994; diamond & beaumont, 1972; poffenberger, 1912) find dvf methodology an easy way of examining a variety of lateralized processes. as to beaumont (1983), the rationale behind dvf methodology is that a stimulus presented to one visual field is received and processed by the contralateral hemisphere. nevertheless, easiness in methodology should not be sacrificed at the expense of accuracy. "strict methodological controls [including the selection of participants, methods of fixation control, presenting stimuli unilaterally, methods of responding, and measures that can be taken] are necessary to maximize the validity of conclusions drawn from dvf studies" (bourne, 2006, p. 389). bourne insists that considering the lateralized process, researchers need to identify the participants with an atypical pattern of asymmetry because they will provide data anomalous. in this regard, inspired by the work of pujol, deus, losilla, and capdevila (199) who found that 96% of the right-handed people were lateralized to the left hemisphere, bourne (2006) asserts "one of the simplest ways of identifying such individuals is to restrict the participants to right-handers" (p. 375). in a study to investigate the influence of handedness on affective lateralization, tan (2013) employs a dvf image-discrimination paradigm. in each condition, the participants are asked to decide whether the picture demonstrated on the visual field is emotional or neutral. in sum, better task performance was expected when stimuli were presented to individuals' dominant hemispheres. tan found out that right-handers are expected to have improved the left hemisphere performance for emotional stimuli, and left-handers improved their right hemisphere performance for emotional stimuli. however, dvf studies have also produced conflicting results. in a study conducted by gainotti, caltagironi, and miceli (1984), they found that several people showed a left visual field advantage on a test of semantic discrimination of words matched with pictures. thus, the participants appear to be right-brain dominant. however, mishkin and forgays (1952) found a right hemisphere advantage in visual word recognition. hines, satz, and clementino (1973) also found better recall for digit sequences presented in the right visual half-field for right-handers. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 72 2.4. purpose and research question concerning what has been brought in the literature, the present study attempted to investigate whether there was any significant relationship between learners' language proficiency level and brain laterality. in the following study, the researchers using divided visual field (dvf) method endeavored to examine if there was any significant difference in the activity of the left and right side of the brain among individuals who have not been exposed to learning l2 and those who have been studying for the last 2 years. henceforth, the following research question is raised. is there any significant relationship between iranians' brain laterality and l2 language proficiency level? 3. methodology 3.1. participants participants included two groups of 15 learners studying at a popular language center located in the north of iran, bandar-e anzali. the first group (7 males and 8 females) was selected from a subject pool of 90 learners. the very group was reported to be studying at the intermediate level; they have been studying in the very language center for about two years. the second group including 6 males and 9 females was randomly selected from a subject pool of 80 learners who has recently registered and had no considerable language experience. moreover, the study was limited to the participants whose learning style was visual. besides, to avoid anomalous data, the participants were restricted to the right-handed ones. to make sure that the selected groups were homogenized on their language proficiency level, the present researchers made use of babel english language placement test. as a result, the first group was at the intermediate level, and the second group at the beginning level of language proficiency. the participants were all adults with their age ranging from 16 to 26, of both genders and of similar nationality. 3.2 instrumentation and materials in the following research, the researchers made use of the following instruments and materials: babel test. to become sure that participants were homogeneous, the researchers used babel test. barsch's learning style inventory (lsi). to find out participants' learning style, the current study also used barsch's (1980) learning style inventory. lsi was used in order to identify whether the participants were visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners. the edinburgh handedness inventory (oldfield, 1971). to determine handedness, the researchers used the edinburgh handedness inventory composed of 10 items. as reported by dorthe, blumenthal, jason, and lantz (1995), the very questionnaire is reported to have high test-retest reliability. tachistoscope. to determine participants' brain laterality, the researchers used a tachistoscope. 3.3. data collection and analysis procedures the researchers first selected 68 language learners (36 females and 32 males) out of 90, based on the students' level of language proficiency from a well-known language center located in iran. the participants were reported to have been placed at the intermediate level of proficiency. to ensure the homogeneity of learners, babel test was also employed. the researchers have also selected 55 language learners (34 females and 21 males) out of 80, based on the students' language level of proficiency. the students were reported to be beginners studying at the very language center. to see if the participants were homogeneous, babel test was used. n. shakouri, p. maftoon on the relationship between brain laterality and language proficiency in l2: a replicative study 73 in so doing, the researchers, having distributed barsch's (1980) learning style inventory, examined the learners’ learning style and finally selected the learners who had visual learning style and eliminated those who had auditory and/or kinesthetic learning styles. later on, having employed the edinburgh handedness inventory, the present researchers selected those students who were right-handed. in the end, 30 students (i.e., 15 beginners and 15 intermediates) were selected. to determine the brain laterality, the researchers act as follows: the dvf paradigm was conducted using a tachistoscope. the stimuli presented on the monitor of the tachistoscope were mainly lexical items in l2, presented in two separate horizontal lines. the words included cat, dog, ant, rat, goat, duck, bear, and lion, which were adequately screened in terms of word length, frequency, concreteness, imaginability, and number of phonemes. to determine the participants' brain laterality, the researchers did as follows: having distributed the words in two lines, the subjects are allowed to recite them in 20 seconds: (above words) cat dog goat bear (below words) rat ant duck lion to carry out the experiment, 90 times, each given word was presented in random order and visual field. words were presented for 180 ms, with a fixation crosschair. the participants were instructed to maintain visual focus on the region of the screen where the fixation crosshair was placed, in order to maintain a divided visual field. accordingly, when the above words were presented, either in the left or right visual fields, the participants were requested to push the h button of the key board, but when the below words were presented, they were going to push the g button. the same experiment was also done on a group of participants who has recently started learning an l2. to make the participants familiar with the process of experiment, the researchers had presented earlier a preview of the stimuli prior to each condition; these previews were manually covered in an effort to reduce confounding. specifically, it was done to prevent the use of memorization strategies, rather than affective appraisals, in the task. in sum, the practice round was presented first, and participants were free to repeat the round until they felt comfortable at performing the task. immediately after the practice round, participants underwent both experimental conditions in the counterbalanced order. in order to determine the dominant hemisphere, banich (2003) suggests a simple formula. to banich, the difference between performance in each visual field (rvf-lvf) divided by some measure of overall performance (rvf+lvf) provides a percentage measure of asymmetric performance of the items. in other words, if the report of an item is about 10% superior in the visual field, asymmetries will be proved. significant asymmetries generally range from 20 milliseconds and up. in effect, by analyzing reaction time and judgment errors, brain functional laterality can be determined. shorter reaction times and fewer judgment errors on the part of the related hemisphere are indicative that the given hemisphere is dominant (alves, fukusima, & aznar-casanova, 2008). 4. results testing the null hypothesis there is no significant relationship between brain laterality and individuals' language proficiency level. to test the null hypothesis, a chi-square test was administered to investigate the possible relationship between efl learners’ language proficiency level and brain laterality. the results are shown in table 4.1 and 4.2. table 4.1. the relationship between language proficiency level and brain laterality count proficiency * laterality cross tabulation brain laterality total left right language proficiency level intermediate 1 14 15 beginner 13 2 15 total 14 16 30 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 74 table 4.1 displays that out of 30 participants, sixteen intermediate participants had right dominant cerebral hemisphere. moreover, it also showed that the majority of the participants who were beginners were left-brained d (n= 14). in comparison, most of the intermediate participants had right brain dominance (n= 14). this suggested that most participants with right-brain dominance were among intermediates. table 4.2. chisquare test for the relationship between language proficiency level and brain laterality value df asymp.sig. (2-sided) exact sig. (2-sided) exact sig. (1-sided) pearson chi-square 19.286 1 .000 fisher's exact test .000 .000 n of valid cases 30 since a 2 by 2 table was used to examine the possible relationship between language proficiency levels (beginners and intermediate) and brain laterality (right and left), fisher’s exact probability test with an associated significance level of .000 was reported. in addition, the twosided asymptotic significance of the chi-square statistic for the participants’ foreign language proficiency and their brain laterality was lower than (0.05), so it could be concluded that the relationship between these two variables was not due to chance variation, which implied that each participant with specific foreign language proficiency level had different brain laterality. this meant that the proportion of intermediates that were right-brained was significantly different from the proportion of beginners who had left brain dominance. consequently, there appeared to be a significant association between foreign language proficiency and brain laterality. to show the strength and direction of this relationship, phi and cramer’s v test was also run. table 4.3. symmetric measures for the relationship between language proficiency level and brain laterality value approx. sig. nominal by nominal phi .802 .000 cramer's v .802 .000 n of valid cases 30 based on the results of phi and cramer’s v, there appeared to be a significant association between foreign language proficiency and brain laterality. the value of phi came to (.802; sig. (.000) ≤.05). thus, the null hypothesis, stating that there is a relationship between foreign language proficiency level and brain laterality, was rejected. 5. conclusion and discussion streams of research provide us with information about the brain of bilinguals and monolinguals. previous studies of sla are coupled with speculations. there is a variety of hypotheses regarding the influence of language experience on cerebral lateralization. two early hypotheses are second language hypothesis raised by genesee (1982) and galloway and krashen's (1978) balanced bilingual hypothesis. to genesee (1982), bilinguals show greater right hemisphere involvement in language experience. in contrast, galloway and krashen (1978) assert that less proficient bilinguals are less right hemisphere lateralized than monolinguals. conversely, stage hypothesis suggested by obler, albert, and gordon (1975) maintains that language proficiency has a significant effect on brain laterality. that is, bilinguals are initially dependent on the right hemisphere, but with an increase in l2 proficiency, they become more left-hemisphere lateralized. to conclude, the current research findings differ from those proposed by albert and obler (1978). to them, with an increase in language proficiency, the right hemispheric dominance gets less dominant. to albert and obler, bilinguals were less hemispheric dominant than monolinguals. conversely, to several scholars (e.g., albanese, 1985), proficiency in l2 increases the dominance of n. shakouri, p. maftoon on the relationship between brain laterality and language proficiency in l2: a replicative study 75 the right hemisphere. in effect, the findings of the present work are compatible with the scholars (e.g., albanese, 1985; kasaeeian, 1993) whose studies on the brain have indicated that more activation on the right hemisphere is resulted from the proficiency in l2. the implications of neuroscience for sla can clearly be seen in the following category, that is, the brain laterality. scholars (e.g., piaw, 2011; springer & deutsch, 1993) assert that when people are thinking or learning, they prefer to rely on either the left or the right brain. accordingly, sperry (1981) holds that different hemispheres are responsible for different learning tasks. the left hemisphere is accountable for an analytical, logical, and linear approach to problems, while the right hemisphere is concerned with intuitive, synthesist and non-linear approaches. thus, the investigation of the left and right brain dominants helps the teachers and curriculum designers with the choice of the topics used for the four language skills: reading, speaking, writing, and listening. in fact, interesting topics provide a stimulus that transmits the impulse to thalamus which leads to a map formation in the hippocampus (sylwester, 1995). however, future studies with larger samples and improved imaging and analysis techniques are expected to investigate whether the two hemispheres accountable for different learning tasks can contribute to the language proficiency. references abbuhl, r. (2012). why, when, and how to replicate research. in a. mackey & s. m. gass, research methods in second language acquisition: a practical guide (pp. 296-312). london: wiley & blackwell. albanese, j. f. (1985). language lateralization in english french bilinguals. brain and language, 24, 284-296. albert, m., & obler, l. (1978). the bilingual brain: neuropsychological and neurolinguistic aspects of bilingualism. new york: academic press. alves, n. t., fukusima, s. s., & aznar-casanova, j. a. (2008). models of brain asymmetry in emotional processing. psychology and neuroscience, 1(1), 63-66. appel, r., & muysken, p. (1987). language contact and bilingualism. london: edward arnold. banich, m. t. (2003). the divided visual technique in laterality and interhemispheric integration. in k. hugdahl (ed.), experimental methods in neuropsychology (pp. 47-64). new york: springer science business media, llc. banich, m. t., & shenker, j. i. (1994). investigations of interhemispheric processing: methodological considerations. neuropsychology, 8, 263-277. barsch, j. (1980). barsch learning style inventory. retrieved from http://windward. hawaii edu /trio/forms/participant_inventories.pdf. beauchet, o. (2006). testosterone and cognitive function: current clinical evidence of a relationship. european journal of endocrinology, 155, 773-781. beaumont, j. g. (1982). divided visual field studies of cerebral organization. new york: academic press. birjandi, p., & seyyedrezaei, s. h. (2012). left or right hemisphere? a novel answer to the old question of lateralization by introducing irl (individualistic relativistic lateralization). theory and practice in language studies, 2(8), 1762-1766. doi:10.4304/tpls.2.8 boeree, c. g. (2004). speech and the brain. retrieved from http:// webspace. ship.edu /cgboer /speech brain.html bourne, v. j. (2006). the divided visual field paradigm: methodological consideration. laterality, 11(4), 373-393. burman, l. e., reed, w. r., & alm, j. (2010). a call for replication studies. public finance review, 38(6), 787-793. doi. 10.1177/1091142110385210 caplan, d. (1995). language and the brain. the harvard mahoney neuroscience institute letter on the brain, 4(4), 302-313. diamond, s., & beaumont, g. (1972). processing in perceptual integration between the cerebral hemispheres. british journal of psychology, 63, 509 –514. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 2, june 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 76 dorthe, n. j., blumenthal, t. d., jason, d. r., & lantz, p. e. (1995). the use of next-of-kin in assessing handedness. percept mot skills, 81(1), 203-208. faruji, l. f. (2011). neurolinguistics aspects of second language acquisition. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 2(4), 36-40. gainotti, g., caltagironi, c., & miceli, c. (1983). selective impairment of semantic lexical discrimination in right brain damaged patients. in e. perecman (ed.), cognitive processing in the right hemisphere (pp. 149-167). new york: academic press galloway, l., & krashen, s. (1978). cerebral organization in bilingualism and second language. paper presented at the second language research forum, uso. genesee, f. (1982). experimental neuropsychological research on second language processing. tesol quarterly, 16, 315-321. grosjean, f. (1989). neurologists beware! the bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person. brain and language, 36, 3-5. gur, r. c., alsop, d., glahn, d., petty, r., swanson, g. l., maldjian, j. a., turetsky, b. i., detre, j. a., gee, j. & gur, r. e. (2000). an fmri study of sex differences in regional activation to a verbal and a spatial task. brain and language, 74(2), 157–170. hines, d., satz, p., & clementino, t. (1973). perceptual and memory components of the superior recall of letters from the right visual half-fields. neuropsychologia, 11(2), 175-180. jensen, e. (2000). brain-based learning. california: corwin press. kasaeeian, z. (1993). a study on brain laterality among english-persian bilinguals. applied sociology, 5, 67-76. magon, a. j. (2009). gender, the brain and education: do boys and girls learn differently? (unpublished master's thesis). amsterdam university, amsterdam. retrieved in 2012 from http://dspace.library. uvic.ca:8080/bitstream. mishkin, m., & forgays, d. g. (1952). word recognition as a function of retinal locus. journal of experimental psychology, 43, 43-48. obler, l. (1981). right hemisphere participation in second language acquisition. in k. diller (ed.), individual differences and universals in language learning aptitude (pp. 53-64). rowley: newbury house. obler, l. k., albert, m. l., & gordon, h. w. (1975). asymmetrical cerebral dominance in bilinguals. paper presented at the academy of aphasia. victoria, canada. oldfield, r. c. (1971). the assessment and analysis of handedness: the edinburgh inventory. neuropsychologia, 9(1), 97-113. paradis, m. (1990). language lateralization in bilinguals: enough already! brain and language, 39, 576–586. paradis, m. (2000). the neurolinguistics of bilingualism in the next decades. brain and language, 71, 178-180. piaw, c. y. (2011). brain hemisphericity and language learning style of the malaysian chinese. retrieved from http://repository.um.edu. my/id/eprint/10199. poffenberger, a. (1912). reaction time to retinal stimulation with special reference to the time lost in conduction through nervous centers. archives of psychology, 23, 1-73. pujol, j., deus, j., losilla, j. m., & capdevila, a. (1999). cerebral lateralization of language in normal left-handed people studied by functional mri. neurology, 52(5), 1038-1043. pulvermiiller, e, & mohr, b. (1996). the concept of transcortical cell assemblies: a key to the understanding of cortical lateralization and interhemispheric interaction. neuroscience & biobehavioral reviews 20(4), 557-566. ross, e. d., & monnot, m. (2008). neurology of affective prosody and its functional-anatomic organization in right hemisphere. brain lang, 104 (1), 51–74. doi:10.1016/ j.bandl.2007. 04.007. pmid 17537499. schmidt, s. (2009). shall we really do it again? the powerful concept of replication is neglected in the social sciences. review of general psychology, 13, 90–100. n. shakouri, p. maftoon on the relationship between brain laterality and language proficiency in l2: a replicative study 77 shanon, b. (1982). lateralization effects in the perception of hebrew and english words. brain and language, 17, 107-123. sperry, r. (1981). some effects of disconnecting the cerebral hemispheres. retrieved from http://people.uncw.edu/puente/sperry/sperrypapers/80s springer, s. p., & deutsch, g. (1993). left brain, right brain. new york: w. h. freeman & company. sylwester, r. (1995). a celebration of neurons. virginia: association for supervision and curriculum development. tan, k. a. m. (2013). effects of handedness on affective lateralization: a divided visual-field study. retrieved from www.andrew.cmu. edu/.../(2013 %20 tan)%20. voyger, d. (1996). on the magnetic laterality effects and sex differences in functional lateralities. laterality, 1(1), 51-83. wagner, a. d., schacter, d.l., rotte, m., koutstaal, w., maril, a., dale, a.m., rosen, b. r., & buckner, r. l. (1998). building memories: remembering and forgetting of verbal experiences as predicted by brain activity. science, 281, 1188–1190. microsoft word brain_7_issue_4_version_5_editat_cristina.doc 56 the role of the conceptual invariants regarding the prevention of the software artefacts’ obsolescence răzvan bocu department of mathematics and computer science, transilvania university of braşov, eroilor 29, braşov 500036, romania razvan.bocu@unitbv.ro dorin bocu department of mathematics and computer science, transilvania university of braşov, eroilor 29, braşov 500036, romania d.bocu@unitbv.ro abstract: the paper presents a series of considerations regarding the role of the conceptual invariants concerning the prevention of the artefacts’ obsolescence, with an emphasis on the software engineering. the concept of artefact has the meaning that is defined in (bocu & bocu, 2016). the emphasizing of the invariants’ role has the goal to allow the understanding, with the respective approximation, of this invariants’ role considering the continuous qualitative progress of the human artefacts, generally speaking, but also in connection to the software systems engineering. keywords: artefact, structure, behaviour. 1. introduction the literature in the field of software engineering highlights the importance of the concept of structure during the modeling process of the systemic artefacts. there are numerous papers that highlight the importance of the interface considering the capability of an artefact to cooperate. let us consider that for a given artefact the structure (s) and the interface (i) are invariants, which are featured by certain stability (st). in this context, let us denote by sts the stability of s, and by sti the stability of i. in the present paper, we intend to explain the role that the stability of these invariants plays regarding the obsolescence of the software systems. the following aspects are considered. 1. the manner by which sts and sti, as artefacts’ features, relate to the need to change the requirements of the environment towards the artefact. 2. what is the nature of an artefact’s behavioural dependence to its invariants that belong to the categories s and i? 2. structure, behaviour and change before approaching the two aspects by synthesizing and extending the contribution from (bocu & bocu, 2016), let us study the figure 1. the figure 1 is tributary to the uml vocabulary, and it uses concepts like actor, diagram, and interaction. it illustrates the fact that rca, as invariant that belongs to category s, and iaa, as invariant that belongs to category i, are components of the artefact that simultaneously realize: • the timing of the artefact’s internal degradation rhythm (rca); • the intelligent connection of the artefact to the changes that affect its behaviour as the time runs out (iaa). thus, the structure of an artefact is the trick to which the software systems developer resorts in order to systematize and optimize the relations between the artefact’s components, but also to avail of the necessary respite to design new methods for the control of an artefact’s structural and behavioural insufficiencies, regardless of the perspective that is considered when observing these insufficiencies. it can be stated that every structure is the synthetic expression of the immanent r. bocu, d. bocu the role of the conceptual invariants regarding the prevention of the software artefacts’ obsolescence 57 intentions of an artefact to restore itself. the necessity for an artefact to restructure, without considering the founding intelligence, has two components: • the internal dynamics of the artefact. in time, this may highlight insufficiencies, which put together mean obsolescence; • the dynamics of the artefact’s relations with the environment inside which it operates. this may also highlight insufficiencies that contribute to the obsolescence of the artefact and its operating environment. figure 1. structure and behaviour during the specification of an artefact the reorganization of the artefacts maintains their internal dynamics to an admissible level of obsolescence, in order to preserve an evolutive trend in the world of the artefacts over a long time. the reorganization of the artefacts’ interfaces keeps the dynamics of their relations with the environment at a level of obsolescence, which is acceptable for maintaining, over a long time, an evolutive trend concerning the artefact’s relations with the environment. in order to conclude, the invariants of the type s and i may help us to specify the artefacts that are analyzed, from a historical perspective, as an adaptation model to different kinds of changes, which determine the rethinking of the requirements towards the artefacts. figure 2 synthetically presents the approximative evolutive model of an artefact in agreement with the numerous exigencies of the operating environment. the essential benefits of an artefact’s evolution may be the following: • a better granularity; • an added degree of scalability; • increased adaptability; • excellent interoperability with other artefacts; • very good reliability; • etc. the role of the changes regarding the evolution of the artefacts’ structure and behaviour in (bocu & bocu, 2016) it is suggested that there are possible four essential types concerning the modification of an artefact’s utility: <<associated to relations of type rca>> ociate behaviour relationships between the internal components of an artefact (rca) environment interfaces of the artefact (iaa) actor (a) structure interaction diagrams for the artefact’s components (dica) interaction diagrams between actors and the artefact (diaa) <<associated to relation a-iaa>> brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 1. the modification of the artefact’s environmental interface; 2. the modification of the interfaces that are intended for the customization of the access to the primary structural resources of the artefact; 3. the changes that are brought to the primary structure of the artefact; 4. the modification of the artefact’s architecture. these types of changes appear in the descending order of their occurring frequency. thus, it is reasonable to expect that most of the iterations, which are due to some new requirements, consider changes at the level of the artefact’s environmental interface. at the same time, the modification of the artefact’s architecture is a potentially costly initiative that should generate a cautious attitude or, on the contrary, radical changes, as the architectural changes are justifiably considered. considering that we may be interested in explaining the changes of an artefact both as a necessity and as a component of a causal chain, questions like the following are plausible: • is the artefact affected by chaos? • would the artefact benefit from the re-specification of its objectives? • does the artefact require additional efficiency? • does the artefact have problems with its active interaction towards the environmental context? figure 1. the adaptation of the artefacts to changes artefact(rcai , iaai , dicai , diaai ) technological changes requirements changes screening for hidden errors new modelling paradigms user assessment on medium and long term artefact(rcai+1 , iaai+1 , dicai+1 , diaai+1 ) r. bocu, d. bocu the role of the conceptual invariants regarding the prevention of the software artefacts’ obsolescence 59 given the fact that each of the already presented scenarios infers the existence of an intelligent observer that identifies and defines the need for change, we may appreciate the change as the modality through which an artefact adapts to new requirements in the operating environment. some of the frequent and practical causes that generate change are presented in figure 2. considering a broader perspective, it becomes plausible the hypothesis according to which the artefact’s operating environment may adapt to potential changes of the artefact. this paper does not intend to explore this perspective. thus, we may state that the change is key to the artefacts’ survival. considering the perspective of survival, the change is the expression of an artefact’s behaviour. as soon as the behaviour of an artefact is analyzed, two fundamental types of changes may be observed: • changes of the artefacts’ states as a result of their interaction with the environment. these interactions’ description is dependent on the current structure of the artefacts; • changes to the artefacts’ current structure. the first type of changes defines the artefact’s behaviour, and it is founded on a given structural invariance. this type of behaviour is captured by various types of uml interaction diagrams, as it is illustrated in figure 1. the second type of changes defines the artefact’s behaviour, which is associated to a certain reorganization demarche. thus, the developers of the it systems call for changes in order to structure and re-structure the artefacts, with the goal to maintain their highest possible quality standards. it is important to mention the it systems developers’ capacity to specify artefacts with a structure that is, at the same time: • simple (easy to understand and use); • adaptive (to new requirements, functional or non-functional); • scalable. the quality of a reasonable software system is founded on a certain modulaization strategy. the artefacts of a software system, in general, have to be structured abiding to the rules of a quality modularization. considering the perspective of the modularization, the artefacts have to be gradually consistent. this gradual consistence of the artefacts is a direct consequence of the gradual coupling, which pertains to an artefact’s components. more precisely, we can speak about the: • consistence and coupling that are associated to an architectural level artefact’s components; • consistence and coupling that are associated to an artefact’s components. this is an artefact at the level of a shared resources package; • consistence and coupling that are associated to an objectual level artefact’s components; • consistence and coupling that are associated to an operational level artefact’s components; we may appreciate that, from an informational perspective, both the universe and the world of the software artefacts are edifices that are based on a rationality, which is essentially defined by the number of the modularization levels that structure their components. this strictly respects the gradualness of their consistency and coupling. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 60 this entire paper has the goal to raise the details at the standards of high level and large stretch facts, in order to allow for a better understanding of the software systems modelling to be achieved. the performant information systems favour finding unsuspected meanings in a certain detail, and also details full of meaning inside each metaphor or reasoning of the human thinking. as a consequence, the full realization of the human being from a spiritual perspective is conditioned by his ability to see bridges between the concrete and immediate truths, and the world full of promises of the abstractions. in the first paragraph, the following question has been asked: „what is the nature of the artefact’s behavioural dependence on its structural invariants?” the temptation to provide a dogmatic answer to this question is strong. this is caused by the preconceptions that specialists from different fields exhibit regarding the concept of structure. thus, it seems relatively possible, honorable and comfortable to assert that the behavioural performances of an artefact are derivable from its structure. the challenge is to interpret such an assertion. if the structural stability of the human artefacts was high, it would not be exaggerated to assert that only a remarkable structure (sr) can sustain a special behaviour (cd). in a symbolic manner, the nature is the creator that skillfully applies this principle. each natural creation is a remarkable example concerning the usage of the principle . considering that we have mentioned the nature, it is immediate to ask a question such as the following: „what did the nature consider when it specified the structure of the animal called rabbit?” it is not the moment to explain why the nature invented an animal like the rabbit. nevertheless, it is correct to remark the fact that the specification of the structure of the animal called rabbit was a demarche governed by a holistic thinking. in paper (bocu & bocu, 2016), it has already been stated that the structure of an artefact can be grasped through a demarche that clearly defines the role of the artefact in the environment. thus, the assertion has the following correct interpretation for the creator of artefacts: step 1: the requirements of the environment towards the artefact are specified (this demarche mixes the structural decisions with the behavioural decisions; the latter ones prevail). step 2: the structure of the artefact is specified (this demarche mixes the structural decisions with the behavioural decisions; the former ones prevail). step 3: the structural and behavioural specifications are implemented, as they have been elaborated during the first two steps. step 4: the artefact is tested. step 5: any of the first three steps may be resumed any time that this is necessary. the strong link between the structure and behaviour is obvious. this link is specified, implemented and assessed in an iterative and incremental manner. thus, the idea that a remarkable structure is an absolute precondition for an excellent behaviour, which may seem tempting in the first instance, is not feasible in the real world of the software systems developers. the borders between structure and behaviour are not as firm as those with algorithmic and dogmatic perspectives on the development process would like. this is the reason why the case r. bocu, d. bocu the role of the conceptual invariants regarding the prevention of the software artefacts’ obsolescence 61 development tools offer a generous support regarding the capture of the systems’ structural aspects, while the capture of their behaviour is still a problem, which is not entirely addressed yet. for the moment, it can be stated that during the realization of an artefact, there are iterative (not accidental) returns towards its structure and behaviour. at the same time, it has to be systematically checked whether the process is certainly going closer to the desired solution. 3. conclusions according to figure 2, but also considering the aspects that are highlighted in the first three sections of this paper, the obsolescence of the software artefacts is unavoidable. thus, the people that are involved into the realization and maintenance of the software artefacts only have the alternative to address the obsolescence through appropriate methods. tackling the artefacts’ obsolescence is generally possible through proper changes that are effected on the artefacts themselves. the modification of an artefact creates in the short term discomfort for other artefacts. the amplification of this discomfort beyond a certain tolerance threshold is perceived as obsolescence. thus, it is useful to found the modelling of the software artefacts on conceptual invariants, together with clear and pragmatic usage principles for these conceptual invariants, in order to have the guarantee of a reasonable longevity of the artefacts. in practice, the invariants of a modelling language represent the basic tools to counteract the obsolescence of the software artefacts. it can be stated that the methodic structuring of the artefacts and their related modelling demarches, represent the most powerful method to combat the obsolescence of the software artefacts. considering this approach, the artefacts’ obsolescence is ameliorated. this brings benefits during the lifecyle phases that involve the controlled accumulation of the obsolescence, but also during the phases that suppose the reorganization of the framework that helps to address the obsolescence. the paper (czibula & czibula, 2016) suggestively illustrates the complexity of a demarche that involves the reorganization of an artefact at the moment t, if the reason for this is represented by the obsolescence of the conceptual apparatus that has been used to model the artefact at the moment t-1. the paper (czibula & czibula, 2016) and the real world situations also suggest the importance of the invariants oriented modelling for the realization of the support tools, which are used to reorganize the framework that is used to address the software artefacts’ obsolescence. consequently, it is obvious that the invariants oriented modelling of the software artefacts is a substantially superior approach, when compared to the existing practices in the software systems industry, which are excessively tributary to the improvisation, random development workflow, and also the logic of the successive approximations. references bocu, d. & bocu, r. (2016). the fundamentals regarding the usage of the concept of interface for the modeling of the software artefacts, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 7, issue 1, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print). czibula, i., g. & czibula, g. (2016). on converting software systems to object oriented arhitectures, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 1, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print). blacha, m. (2010). patterns of data modeling, crc press. dargan, p., a., (2005). open systems and standards for software product development, artech house, inc. tidwell, j. (2005). designing interfaces, o’reilly. rozanski, n. & woods, e. (2011). software systems architecture: working with stakeholders using viewpoints and perspectives, addison-wesley. chen, l., (2015). continuous delivery: huge benefits, but challenges too, ieee software, volume 32, issue 2. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 4, november 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 62 haav, h.-m., ojamaa, a., grigorenko, p., & kotkas, v. (2015). ontology-based integration of software artefacts for dsl development, springer international publishing. afonso, l.m., de g. cerqueira, r.f., & de souza, c.s. (2012). evaluating application programming interfaces as communication artefacts, psychology of programming interest group. pete, i. & balasubraniam, d. (2015). handling the differential evolution of software artefacts: a framework for consistency management, ieee saner conference. microsoft word brain_5_2014-bogdan 46 brain signal analysis using eeg and entropy to study the effect of physical and mental tasks on cognitive performance dineshen chuckravanen school of life sciences, department of sport and exercise sciences, northumbria university, newcastle, ne1 8st, united kingdom dineshen2013@gmail.com sujan rajbhandari communications engineering, university of oxford, united kingdom sujan.rajbhandari@eng.ox.ac.uk andre bester bester labs, newcastle upon tyne, united kingdom anb@besterlabs.com abstract: some theoretical control models posit that the fatigue which is developed during physical activity is not always peripheral and it is the brain which causes this feeling of fatigue. this fatigue develops due to a decrease of metabolic resources to and from the brain that modulates physical performance. therefore, this research was conducted to find out if there was finite level of metabolic energy resources in the brain, by performing both mental and physical activities to exhaustion. it was found that there was an overflow of information during the exercise-involved experiment. the circular relationship between fatigue, cognitive performance and arousal state insinuates that one should apply more effort to maintain performance levels which would require more energy resources that eventually accelerates the development of fatigue. thus, there appeared to be a limited amount of energy resources in the brain as shown by the cognitive performance of the participants. keywords: attention, cognitive performance, eeg analysis, entropy analysis, mental fatigue 1. introduction up to now, very little is known about the psychophysiological mechanisms that underlie mental fatigue and the cognitive functions [13]. specifically within athletics, the ability to allocate and maintain attention during sporting competition can be as much taxing as the physical exertion associated with the sporting activity for successful performance [42]. however, minimal research has evolved in exploring cognitive fatigue as a possible performance mediator within athletics and hence, the influence of fatigue on attention and performance is still unclear. the studies that examined the impact of either acute or long-term exercise on cognition are equivocal, and it was suggested that physical exercise has a possible small positive effect on cognition [20]. further studies are, therefore, needed to investigate the effects of exercise on cognitive performances [20, 50]. based on the principle that processing in the brain is competitive, and it has finite metabolic resources, a new mechanistic explanation for the effect of exercise on the brain function, called the “transient hypofrontality hypothesis” was developed [16]. this hypothesis states that during physical exercise the extensive neural activation which is needed to run motor patterns, assimilate sensory inputs, and coordinate autonomic regulation causes a decrease in brain activity [16, 17]. in addition, the limitation of most studies related to the effect of exercise on cognition used only reaction time as the sole measure of cognition even in studies employing complex behavioural tasks [8]. those relatively few studies [15, 44] that included response accuracy in their analysis, reported that there was either no change or increased accuracy with exercise. therefore, by conducting this cognitive fatigue study, it was hoped to observe the response of cortical activities to d. chuckravanen, s. rajbhandari, a. bester brain signal analysis using eeg and entropy to study the effect of physical and mental tasks on cognitive performance 47 an exhausting physical exercise, and how physical activity affects cognitive performance in terms of reaction time and accuracy as they seemed to reflect important aspects of cognition. the next section describes the methodology used to conduct this experimental case study. 2. methodology 2.1 participants details this research study was approved by the ethics committee of the school of life sciences, northumbria university at newcastle. twelve healthy and right-handed participants (6 males and 6 females) were recruited and their mean (± standard deviation) height was 1.73 (±0.08) m. the participants’ age ranged from 25.9 to 33.3 years, and their body mass ranged from 56.6 kg to 82.8 kg. all the participants came to the neurophysiology laboratory on three separate occasions with at least one week apart so as to reduce any learning effect [32, 55]. in addition, these volunteers were moderately to highly mentally and physically active as they were required to complete a series of cognitive tasks lasting for half an hour on two occasions, and also on one occasion they had to cycle as hard as they could for about half an hour or until they felt they could not continue this physical activity anymore. 2.2 description of the cognitive tasks the rapid visual information processing (rvip) and modified stroop (mst) tasks were used in this research study, and the psychological strain which was placed by these tasks on the participants was mostly cognitive [6, 12]. hence, they needed to sustain attention for half an hour for them to be accurate and quick in their responses during the cognitive trials. for the modified stroop task (mst), the participants had to respond to the colour of the word appearing at the centre of a computer screen (red, blue, yellow and green) by pressing respectively and quickly the numerical keys (1, 2, 8 and 9) on the keyboard. moreover, if the word that appeared on the screen was written in grey, they were required to respond to the word. for instance, if the word yellow was written in grey colour, then the participants would need to press the numerical key ‘8’ which was associated to yellow colour. in addition, during the modified stroop task, they had to count mentally the number of white squares (size of 9 cm by 9 cm) and white circles (diameter size was 9 cm) that appeared randomly and sparsely at the centre of the screen. the duration of this type of cognitive task was 5 minutes. as for the rapid visual information processing (rvip) task, the participants were required to respond to a specific sequence (odd or even) of integer numbers from 0 to 9 which appeared one at a time every 600 ms on the computer screen. for example, when they noticed three consecutive odd numbers (e.g. 3, 5, 7) or three consecutive even numbers (e.g. 2, 8, 6), they had to press the ‘spacebar’ on the keyboard as quickly and accurately as they could. the duration of this cognitive task was also 5 minutes. and then, these cognitive tasks were alternately presented to the participants for a period of 30 minutes so that there were in all three rvips and three msts which represented the cognitive battery test. 2.3 hardware and software resources the material resources that were used for this study comprised of research powerlab, and octal bio amp systems (powerlab, adinstruments, australia) for the recording of the electroencephalogram (eeg) data. the electro-caps (the electro-cap size can be small, medium or large) consist of ag/agcl electrodes embedded in the elastic electro-cap fabric to record eeg activities from the scalp, and these data was transmitted to the powerlab systems via an electro-cap interface (electro-cap international, inc., usa). moreover, the eci electro-gel was used to reduce the resistance between the eeg electrodes and the scalp, and a digital multimeter (draper 52320, uk) was used to measure this impedance. in addition, a ‘0-volt’ potential 8-lines cable was used as a reference baseline voltage to measure the eeg potentials. couple with that, a parallel communication interface port was used to send 8-bit parallel data from the research powerlab to the installed e-prime software workstation. this communication interface was used to send 8-bit data to brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 5, issues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 48 ‘timestamp’ the responses of the participants while responding to the visual stimuli on the computer screen. these 8-bit data actually represented 2-digit numbers called digital bytes that were assigned ‘comment texts’ (i.e. blue, red, green, yellow, square, circle, odd and even) to display on the realtime brain signal data upon the trigger of the corresponding visual stimuli. these would help to convert the continuous eeg data into data epochs time locked to specified event types for analysis purposes. finally, the software that were used in this experimental case study were chart 5 for windows (research powerlab) to record and process the physiological signals, the e-prime software version 2.0 to implement and conduct the mental fatigue tasks, and matlab software 7.0 for data analysis. 2.4 study protocol and procedures on the first visit to the physiology laboratory, the participants completed each a screening health questionnaire to determine their eligibility for taking part in this research study and then, they were each assigned an identification number to protect their anonymity. the right size electro cap was identified using the electro-cap head tape measure (electro-cap international, inc., usa) for each participant, and then they were given each a practice session on the cognitive tasks that they would need to complete during their second and third visits. moreover, this first visit allowed the participants to familiarise themselves with the laboratory environment and the procedures. during the second visit (also named the ‘control’ experiment), the participants completed first the multidimensional fatigue inventory (mfi-20) questionnaire which comprised of 20 items assessing the general fatigue, physical fatigue, mental fatigue, reduced activity and reduced motivation. before starting the cognitive battery test, the participants sat comfortably facing the computer monitor at a distance of about 60 cm [10] and the appropriate eeg electro-cap was fitted onto the participant’s scalp according to the manufacturer’s instructions (electro-cap international inc., usa). next, a blunted needle was used to fill each electro-cap electrode, relevant to this study, with the eci electro-gel to ensure the impedance between the eeg electrode and the scalp was less than 5000 ω using the digital multimeter. then, eeg activities at the frontal midline (fz), central midline (cz), and parietal midline (pz) were recorded while the reference ag/agcl electrodes were attached to a1 representing the left ear lobe [51], and the ground electrode was located at afz representing the anterior frontal of the scalp [3]. the sampling frequency was set at 400 hz which was sufficient to capture the eeg activities based on nyquist’s criterion [47]. then, after each 5 min-block of cognitive task (either rvip or mst), they had to complete the visual analogue scales (vas) so that their mental fatigue, physical fatigue and concentration were quickly and easily monitored during the trial. for these visual analogue scales, the participants were required to mark in-between the horizontal scales that consisted of two extreme marks ‘0’ and ‘10’ representing low and high respectively. afterwards, at the end of the cognitive experiment, they had to fill again the mfi-20 questionnaire to compare any changes in the subjective feeling measures between pre and post the cognitive battery experiment. as a preliminary procedure, a pilot study was conducted to test the reliability of the mfi questionnaire items using cronbach’s alpha [14, 45]. the value of the cronbach’s alpha was found to be 0.82 which showed a reliable tool for assessing the internal consistency of a psychometric test in representing subjectively the fatigue felt by these participants for this type of cognitive experiment [14, 45]. on their third visit (also named as the ‘exercise’ experiment), the participants each performed, first of all, an exhausting cycling exercise bout for about half an hour. they wore comfortable clothes and footwear to perform this tiring cycling bout on the velotron (velotronpro, racermate inc., usa) whereby they were instructed to cycle as hard as they could till they could not continue this physical activity anymore. after completing this physical activity, they had to complete the mfi-20 questionnaire, and then, during the cognitive trial, they were asked to complete the series of rvip and modified stroop tasks similar to the second visit, while eeg data were recorded following the same procedure as described for the second visit. finally, after d. chuckravanen, s. rajbhandari, a. bester brain signal analysis using eeg and entropy to study the effect of physical and mental tasks on cognitive performance 49 completing the cognitive battery test, they filled again the mfi-20 questionnaire. as precautions, the participants were requested to try not to blink while responding to the visual cues, during the cognitive experiments, to reduce interference of the electrooculogram activities [19] to the measured eeg signals. apart from the visual cues on the screen, there were neither other visual stimuli nor auditory stimuli that would distract the participants from the cognitive trials. 2.5 data analysis eeg activities were recorded while the participants performed the series of cognitive tasks in both experimental conditions (control and exercise). the following subsections explain in more details the recording and analysis of the eeg activities as well as the event related potentials (erp) data. 2.5.1 eeg analysis eeg activities were recorded continuously from the midline placements fz, cz and pz according to the international 10-20 system electrode placement using the ag/agcl electrodes embedded in the elastic electro cap fabric (figure 1). the cortical eeg activities were amplified, digitized, sampled at a frequency rate of 400hz, and online filtered using a pass band of 0.1 to 100hz using the powerlab systems [33]. then, the eeg signals were digitally low pass filtered with a cut-off frequency of 30 hz, and online reduced to a sample frequency of 100 hz to analyse the eeg frequency bands of interest [3]. moreover, artefacts such as blinking and fast eye movements were removed from the recorded signals based on any amplitude greater than ±70 µv [26]. then, these processed signals were used for the eeg analysis. figure 1. the 10-20 international system electrode placement showing the eeg electrode placement, the reference electrode (a1 left earlobe) and the ground electrode (afz), fz (frontal midline electrode), cz (central midline electrode) and pz (parietal midline electrode). for the eeg analysis, the average power in the theta band (4 – 8 hz), and alpha band (8 – 12 hz) were computed at the frontal and parietal electrodes fz and pz respectively. next, the ratio of these two powers was determined, and named the ‘cognitive ratio’ as several researchers found that the fronto-parietal network play important roles in cognitive activities [2, 9, 22]. 2.5.2 entropy analysis moreover, the entropy (i.e. the amount of information flow or content) of the eeg signals (fz, cz and pz) were computed using matlab software to represent an additional mathematical measure to compare the cognitive performance of the participants for each experimental condition (i.e. control vs. exercise cognitive trials). the entropy of a signal is becoming an emerging and promising mathematical method, especially in current clinical context, in quantifying the amount of information flow especially in the electroencephalogram (eeg) signals using both the degree of brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 5, issues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 50 spatial and temporal integration of neuronal activity in the brain [5]. the mathematical principle of entropy is described as follows. the information entropy was initially developed to measure and evaluate the information content of a transmitted communication signal [47]. therefore, the entropy (h) is defined as the average amount of information per source output and is expressed by following equation: h = ∑ pi log2 pi (bits/source output) (1) where pi represents the probability of occurrence of the i th output, log2 is the logarithm function to base 2, and the summation (∑) of all the probabilities is equal to 1. from the entropy measures together with the eeg analysis, it was hoped to be able to observe any changes or associations in the brain activities with cognitive performance. 2.6 statistical analysis firstly, all recorded and computed data were tested for normality using kolmogorovsmirnov (k-s) test [21, 31]. then, a two-way factorial anova (analysis of variance) was used to investigate the effects of time (6 intervals of 5 minutes) on various variables (e.g. reaction time, accuracy, cognitive ratio, heart rate, rr-interval and subjective measures of fatigue) for two experimental conditions (control and exercise) for same group of participants. when the main analysis indicated a significant interaction (p < 0.05) between the factors, follow-up analysis were achieved, adjusting error rates according to bonferroni correction [4]. furthermore, paired t-test was used to compare the means of any dependent variable subjected to these two experimental conditions. 3. results the results are divided into several sections that are namely the subjective measures that consisted of the visual analogue scales (mental fatigue, physical fatigue and concentration) and the mfi-20 questionnaire that assessed the general fatigue, physical fatigue, mental fatigue, reduced motivation, reduced activity pre and post the cognitive battery test; the cognitive performance of the participants in terms of both reaction time and percentage accuracy of responses to visual cues followed by the eeg and entropy analysis. 3.1 subjective measures of fatigue a two-way (2 experimental conditions x 6 time intervals) factorial anova with repeated measures was conducted on the visual analogue scale data to determine whether there was a statistical significance in the means of dependent variables that were mental fatigue, physical fatigue and concentration between the two experimental conditions (control vs. exercise) but on the same group of individuals. the within-subject variable was the time-on-task repeated measures that were denoted as time5, time10, time15, time20, time25, and time30 (i.e. time5 means 5 minutes of the cognitive task had elapsed, time10 means 10 minutes of the cognitive task had elapsed, and so on till completion of the cognitive task). the model assumptions in terms of normality using kolgomorovsmirnov (k-s) test [21, 31] and homogeneity of covariance using box’s test [1, 46] were evaluated and met in this statistical analysis. furthermore, the mfi-20 subjective measures were analysed using a 2 (two experimental conditions) x 2 (pre and post cognitive tasks) factorial anova with repeated measures, and the statistical results of these subjective measures of fatigue are as follows in the subsequent subsections. 3.1.1 visual analogue scales (vas) subjective measures as shown in figure 2, it was found that there was a statistically significant interaction in the percentage of mental fatigue between the condition type and time-on-task factor times (f(6, 22) = 492.19, p < 0.001) as well as there was a significant main effect of time-on-task (time5 to time30) (f(5, 22) = 463.794, p < 0.001). in addition, there was also a significant main effect in the condition d. chuckravanen, s. rajbhandari, a. bester brain signal analysis using eeg and entropy to study the effect of physical and mental tasks on cognitive performance 51 type (f (1, 22) = 713.133, p < 0.001) which represented a large effect size. for the physical fatigue subjective measure, there was a significant difference between the two experimental conditions (p < 0.001), and within the subject test times (p < 0.001). however, there was no significant difference between the means of the concentration visual analogue scale for these two experimental conditions (p = 0.057) despite a significant difference (p < 0.001) in the time-on-task repeated measures. figure 2. energy-vas subjective measures for the participants (n=12) under two conditions (control and exercise involved cognitive task). 3.1.2 multi-fatigue inventory (mfi) subjective measures a summary of results is shown in table 1 depicting the mean value together with the respective standard deviation for each subjective measure, and for each experimental condition (control vs. exercise-involved) at the start and at the end of the cognitive tasks. there was a significant difference between the mean of each dependent variable subjected for both experimental conditions and also between pre and post each experimental condition (p < 0.05). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 5, issues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 52 table 1. summary of the mfi measures obtained from the participants (n = 12) under these two conditions (control and exercise involved cognitive tasks). the double asterisk (**) denotes a statistical significance at p < 0.01 between the means of the subjective measures for pre-control and pre-exercise whereas the single asterisk (*) denotes a statistical significance between the means for post-control and post-exercise experimental condition with statistical significance p < 0.05. type of fatigue type of trial general fatigue physical fatigue reduced activity reduced motivation mental fatigue control (pre) 5.5±1.8 ** 5.4±2.2 ** 5.3±1.9 ** 4.5±1.7 ** 4.3±1.2** control (post) 10.6±2.6 * 7.3±2.9 ** 9.0±2.9 ** 9.6±3.2 * 13.3±1.7 * exercise (pre) 11.6±3.1 ** 11.8±2.6 ** 13.4±4.0 ** 9.6±2.7 ** 8.4±2.6 ** exercise (post) 15.4±2.2 * 15.5±2.3 ** 14.9±2.7 ** 14.0±4.2 * 15.0±1.9 * 3.2 cognitive performance (reaction time and accuracy) the cognitive performance, in terms of reaction time of the participants in choosing the correct responses by pressing the appropriate key as well as the mean percentage of accuracy for all the participants subjected to these two experimental conditions, was evaluated for each 5 minutes time-on-task interval. the dependent variables that were reaction time and accuracy were analysed using two-way (2 experimental conditions x 6 time intervals) factorial anova with repeated measures. 3.2.1 reaction time performance the mean reaction time of the participants in responding to the visual cues over the whole duration of the cognitive task for the control experiment was 475 ± 19.2 ms, and that for the exercise-involved experiment was 410.6 ± 16.6 ms. it was observed that the reaction times decreased linearly with increasing time-on-task for the control experiment with reaction times at time5 (5 minutes elapsed) of cognitive task was 550 ± 20 ms and at time30 (30 minutes elapsed) was 405 ± 20 ms (p < 0.01), and the contrary was found for the exercise-involved task whereby reaction times increased linearly till to the completion of the cognitive experiment (time5 was 320 ± 10 ms vs. time30 was 470 ± 20 ms, p < 0.01). it was found that there was also a significant interactive effect between the repeated measures of time-on-task and experimental conditions (f(6, 22) = 1418.8, p < 0.001). 3.2.2 accuracy performance the participants performed significantly better (f(1, 22) = 93.875, p < 0.01) in the control trial with a mean percentage accuracy of (91.3 ± 1.2)% as compared to their accuracy of response performance for the exercise-involved cognitive trial which was (89.1 ± 1.4)%. however, there was no significant interactive effect between time-on-task and the two experimental conditions (p = 0.236, non-significant). d. chuckravanen, s. rajbhandari, a. bester brain signal analysis using eeg and entropy to study the effect of physical and mental tasks on cognitive performance 53 in both cognitive trials, it was found that the percentage accuracy of the responses decreased linearly based on the 6 data time intervals from time5 to time30. furthermore, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the percentage of accuracy of the responses of the participants for the control and exercise experimental conditions in counting mentally the low probability target visual cues that were the white squares and white circles randomly shown up on the screen for the modified stroop task. 3.3 eeg analysis in figure 3, the notation fzθ represents the theta band power at the frontal midline, the notation pzα represents the alpha band power at the parietal midline of the brain and the cognitive ratio is the ratio of the frontal theta band power to the parietal alpha band power. for the whole duration of the cognitive trial, the mean (± standard deviation) of the theta band power, at the fronto-midline (fz) for all the participants, was 6.76 (±1.74) μv 2 for the exercise-involved cognitive trial vs. 6.59 (±1.68) μv 2 for the control cognitive trial. whilst the mean (± standard deviation) of the alpha band power of the participants at the parieto-midline (pz) was 4.25 (±0.928) μv 2 for the exercise experiment as compared to 4.37 (±0.725) μv 2 for the control experiment. from the frontoparietal network data analysis, it was found that there was no significant difference between the cognitive ratios computed for both exercise and control cognitive trials (f(1, 22) = 3.140; p = 0.09) even though the cognitive ratios were slightly higher for the exercise-involved cognitive trial than that of the control trial. however, there was a significant effect of the within subject factor time-ontask (p < 0.01), and there was also a significant difference in the cognitive ratio between the first 10 minutes (2.82 ± 0.31) of the cognitive trial as compared to that for the last 20 minutes (1.14 ± 0.16) of the cognitive trial for both experimental conditions (control vs. exercise-involved cognitive task trials, p < 0.01). figure 3. cognitive ratio for both exercise-involved and no exercise (control) involved cognitive tasks (n = 12). 3.4 entropy analysis a further investigation was conducted by analysing the entropy of the eeg signals in order to find out the amount of information flowing in the frontal and parietal regions in both conditions brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 5, issues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 54 (see table 2). a 2-way factorial anova with repeated measures (2 experimental conditions x 3 locations in the brain) was applied to the entropy data, and the statistical analysis revealed that there was a significant difference in the mean entropy between the frontal region (fz) and the parietal (pz) region (p < 0.05). in fact, the ratio of the entropy of the eeg signals at fz to that of pz for the control experiment was 0.867, and the ratio of the entropy of the eeg signals at fz region to that of pz for the exercise-involved cognitive task trial was 1.25. table 2 shows a summary of the entropy results of the eeg signals for the three brain regions (cz, fz and pz) analysed in two experimental conditions (control vs. exercise) for 12 participants. the asterisk symbol * represents a statistical significance between the means of the entropy of eeg activities at pz and fz for both conditions with statistical p < 0.05. table 2. descriptive statistics for entropy brain locations conditions mean range n cz control 2.0325 0.23542 12 exercise 2.0392 0.57619 12 total 2.0358 0.43046 24 fz control 1.9958 * 1.49913 12 exercise 2.3033 * 0.92830 12 total 2.1496 1.22949 24 pz control 2.3008 * 1.31144 12 exercise 1.8408 * 0.43025 12 total 2.0708 0.98300 24 4. discussions 4.1 questionnaire analysis (fatigue-related subjective measures) the visual analogue scales subjective measures showed that the participants felt more fatigued mentally and physically in the exercise-involved cognitive trial than the control experiment. furthermore, there was an increase in the physical fatigue and mental fatigue as well as a decrease in concentration with increasing cognitive time-on-task trials for both experimental conditions. in the same line of thought, certain researchers [18, 38] showed that the subjective measures of fatigue were significantly greater than initial fatigue ratings as time-on-task increased. from the mfi results, both mental and physical fatigue subjective measures were significantly greater in the exercise-involved cognitive experiment than that of the control experiment. furthermore, the participants felt more reduced motivation and reduced activity for the exercise-involved cognitive experiment than the control experiment as well as they felt more reduced motivation and reduced activity at the end than at the start of the experimental conditions. in addition, mcmorris and graydon (1996) stated that motivation would not increase with increasing time-on-task as the task demands were maintained same across trial blocks. in fact, for the exercise-involved cognitive trial, the author observed that most of the participants around time20 (20 minutes of the cognitive task had elapsed), started to feel very sleepy or tired (initiation of yawning processes) [24, 30] and they stated as post-study comments that they needed a ‘good nap or sleep’. 4.2 cognitive performance (reaction time and accuracy of responses) interestingly, the participants subjected to the exercise-involved cognitive experiment had overall a lower mean reaction time (or faster speed) in pressing the numerical keys when presented with a particular visual stimulus or when the chunk of odd or even numbers was found. however, the reaction time of the participants in the exercise-involved cognitive task increased exponentially with increasing time on task. in contrast to that, the reaction time of the participants for the control experiment decreases exponentially, and hence they performed at faster speed during the last time d. chuckravanen, s. rajbhandari, a. bester brain signal analysis using eeg and entropy to study the effect of physical and mental tasks on cognitive performance 55 interval (time30) of the cognitive trial. several researchers indicated a relationship between cognitive task length and response time. firstly, one research study [29] found a non-monotonic effect on reaction time while another study [35] found a positive relationship between response time and cognitive task length. furthermore, a mixed relationship was found [4] based on post error responses which was negative and post correct responses which was positive after either a medium or long-haul physical task performance. in this research study, the participants were more accurate in their responses during the control experiment than during the exercise-involved cognitive experiment. couple with that, the accuracy of the responses to the visual cues decreased significantly for both experimental conditions as time-on-task increased. lorist et al. (2000) emphasized a negative relationship between task duration and performance as response accuracy decreased significantly across the participants with increasing time-on-task. another subjective report of fatigue [33] showed that as fatigue increased, response accuracy decreased independent of time-on-task. certain researchers [53, 54] demonstrated that when the subjective reports of fatigue increased, the number of visual fixations increased as more fixations were needed to extract sufficient information from the visual scene which might contribute to a greater sensation of fatigue. following a physical and a series of mental fatiguing task, the participants’ arousal decreased based on the subjective measures of fatigue where they seemed to disengage from the task even though that the cognitive task demand was same across the cognitive block trials. overall, the participants subjected to the control experiment performed better in terms of higher percentage accuracy of their responses but with slower reaction times than in the exercise-involved cognitive experiment. the following sections elaborate the results from the eeg analysis. 4.3 eeg analysis there was no difference in the means of alpha band power at pz and theta band power at fz subjected to both experimental conditions. moreover, there was no difference in the cognitive ratio (frontal theta band power to parietal alpha band power) between the two experimental conditions. however, there was a difference in the cognitive ratio with increasing time-on-task including an abrupt reduction in cognitive ratio after 10 minutes of the cognitive trial had elapsed for both control and exercise cognitive experiments. the decrements in cognitive function (cognitive ratio and poor accuracy) that were observed during the sustained mental work can be regarded as cognitive fatigue which subsequently prevented the alert participants to continue high mental performance [25, 40]. in addition, a progressive increase was found [36] in the eeg power in the frequency range of 4 hz to 14 hz as alertness decreased and error rates increased in a vigilance mental task. cheng et al. (2007) found that there was a significant difference between the theta band and alpha band frequency power before a mental fatigued 3-hour visual display task session as compared to post session. when people feel fatigued during or after prolonged periods of cognitive activity, they have the tendency to lose concentration and cannot focus their attention on the tasks they are performing [3]. furthermore, some researchers found that when arousal level dropped, eeg activities changed from fast and low amplitude waves to slow and high amplitude waves, and this decrease in arousal brought about a corresponding increase in low-frequency alpha and theta activities [27, 28, 43] which might be reflecting a decrease in cortical activation [11]. hence, the amount of alpha and theta power can provide an indication of the level of fatigue which one experiences during mental fatiguing tasks [4]. 4.4 entropy analysis as the cognitive ratio is based on a particular frequency range principle, the advantage of using the entropy mathematical method was that it considers the total information content of the eeg signal across the brain regions under investigation [52]. it was found that the mean entropy was significantly different between the fronto-midline and the parieto-midline regions of the brain, and the ratio of the entropies of these two brain areas was higher during the exercise-involved experiment than in the control experiment. therefore, it appeared that there was an "overload" of brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 5, issues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 56 information that prevented the participants in performing well, and remarkably, the cognitive ratio was also slightly higher during exercise than that of the control session. during competitive sporting environments, mathews and desmond (2002) stated that high task difficulty, prolonged task exposure and multiple task demands could induce a great level of information processing which subsequently increased the mental workload. such increments in mental workloads caused a depletion of the cognitive system’s resources that were available for task completion and consequently promoted the development of fatigue [37]. according to activation theory [23], the continuum ranging from low activation (e.g. sleep) to high activation (e.g. excited states) is a function of cortical bombardment by the ascending reticular activating system [49], and the relationship between activation and level of performance is represented by the inverted u curve [56]. this means that, with an increasing activation level, the level of performance increases monotically but after exceeding an optimal point, the relation becomes nonmonotonic which implies that further increase in activation level beyond this optimal point decreases the level of performance; this reduction in performance is related to the amount of increase in the level of activation. therefore, the overflow of information as shown by the entropy ratio prevented the participants to focus properly their attention which might contribute to the reason why their response accuracy decreased specifically during the exercise-involved cognitive trial. 5. conclusions this research investigated whether there were finite metabolic resources in the brain by performing exhausting physical and cognitive tasks. the decreasing cognitive performance in terms of poor accuracy of responses, and faster reaction times following a tiring exercise-involved cognitive trial showed that there was definitely a change in the cognitive behaviour in the central system as compared to the control cognitive trial. according to the subjective measures of fatigue (i.e. reduced activity, motivation and concentration as well as increased mental fatigue and general fatigue), it was certain that the cognitive load which was perceived by the participants post a tiring physical activity seemed to increase even though the cognitive task demand placed mentally on them was kept constant throughout the cognitive trials. this insinuates that for a perceived ‘cognitive load’ to increase, there should be a decrease in the level of arousal or metabolic energy in the brain. in this research, the high cognitive ratio and information processing (i.e. entropy) across the fronto-parietal network during the exercise-involved cognitive trial impaired cognitive performance by decreasing the arousal state according to the inverted-u relationship of performance with increasing arousal level. it may be deduced from the research findings that the brain appeared to have finite metabolic resources. therefore, for sport performance to be a peak level, the central systems should be equipped with necessary metabolic energy resources to reach optimum arousal and complete successfully a physical activity. 6. references [1] anderson, t. w. (1958). introduction to multivariate statistical analysis. new york, john wiley & sons, inc. [2] baumeister j, reinecke k, liesen h, weiss m (2008). cortical activity of skilled performance in a complex sports related motor task. eur. j appl. physiol., 104, 625-631. [3] boksem, m. a. s., meijman, t. f., & lorist, m. m. (2006). mental fatigue, motivation and action monitoring. journal of biological psychology, 72, 123-132. [4] boksem, m. a. s., lorist, m. m., & meijman, t. f. (2005). effects of mental fatigue on attention: an erp study. cognitive brain research, 25, 106-117. [5] bruhn j, bouillon tw, radulescu l, hoeft a, bertaccini e, shafer sl (2003), ‘correlation of approximate entropy, bispectral index, and spectral edge frequency 95 d. chuckravanen, s. rajbhandari, a. bester brain signal analysis using eeg and entropy to study the effect of physical and mental tasks on cognitive performance 57 (sef95) with clinical signs of ‘anesthetic depth’ during co-administration of propofol and remifentanil’, anesthesiology, 3, pp. 621-7. [6] capuron, l., welberg, l., heim, c., wagner, d., solomon, l., papanicolaou, d. a., craddock, r. c., miller, a. h., & reeves, w. c. (2005). cognitive dysfunction related to subjective report of mental fatigue in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. neuropsychopharmocology. [7] cheng, sy, lee hy, shu cm, hsu ht (2007), 'electroencephalographic study of mental fatigue in visual display terminal tasks', j med. biol. eng. vol 27(3). http://jmbe.bme.ncku.edu.tw/index.php/bme/article/view/215 [8] chmura, j., nazar, k., & kaciuba-uscilko, h. (1994). choice reaction time during graded exercise in relation to blood lactate and plasma catecholamine threshold. international journal of sports medicine, 15, 172-176. [9] chuckravanen, d. (2012). multiple system modelling and analysis of physiological and brain activity and performance at rest and during exercise. doctoral dissertation, northumbria university, newcastle, united kingdom [10] corr, p. j. (2002). j.a gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory: tests of the joint subsystems hypothesis of anxiety and impulsitivity. personality and individual differences, 33, 511-532. [11]cook, i, o’hara r, uitdehaage, shj, mandelkern m, leuchter af (1998), ‘assessing the accuracy of topographic eeg mapping for determing local brain function’, electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology, vol. 107, pp.408-414. [12] coull, j. t., frith, c. d., frackowiak, r. s., & grasby, p. m. (1996). a fronto-parietal network for rapid visual information processing: a pet study of sustained attention and working memory. neuropsychologia, 34(11), 1085-95. [13] cox, r. h. (1994). sport psychology: concepts and applications. madison, wi: brown & benchmark. [14] cronbach, l. j. (1951). coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. psychometrika, 16(3), 297-334. [15] deligniѐres, d., & brisswalter, j. (1995). effects of heat stress and physical exertion on simple and choice reaction time. ix th european congress on sport psychology, bruxelles. [16] dietrich, a. (2003). functional neuroanatomy of altered states of consciousness: the transient hypofrontality hypothesis. consciousness and cognition, 12, 231-256. [17] dietrich, a., & sparling p. b. (2004). endurance exercise selectively impairs prefrontal dependent cognition. brain and cognition, 55, 516-524. [18] dureman, e. i., & boden, c (1972). fatigue in simulated car-driving. ergonomics, 15, 299-305. [19] erfanian, a., & mahmoudi, b. (2005). real-time ocular artifact suppression using recurrent neural network for electro-encephalogram based brain-computer interface. medical and biological engineering and computing, 43, 296-305. [20] etnier, j. l., salazar, w., landers, d. m., petruzzello, s. j., han, m., & nowell, p., (1997). the influence of physical fitness and exercise upon cognitive functioning: a metaanalysis. journal of sport exercise psychology, 19 (3), 249–277. [21] fasano, g., & franceschini, a. (1987). a multidimensional version of the kolmogorov–smirnov test. monthly notices of the royal astronomical society, 225, 155– 170, issn 0035-8711. [22] gevins a., smith me, mcevoy l, yu d. (1997). high resolution mapping of cortical activation related to working memory: effects of task difficulty, type of processing, and practice. cereb. cortex, 7, 374-385. [23] hebb, do. (1955), ‘drives and the c.n.s (conceptual nervous system)’, psychological review, 62, pp. 243-254. http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/hebb/. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 5, issues 1-4, december 2014, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 58 [24] hermanowicz n. (2007), ‘cranial nerves ix (glossopharyngeal) and x (vagus). in: goetz cg, ed. textbook of clinical neurology. 3rd ed. philadelphia, pa: saunders elsevier, chapter 13. [25] hockey, grj (1997) ‘compensatory control in the regulation of human performance under stress and high workload: a cognitive energetical framework. biological psychology, 45, pp. 73-93. [26] holm, a., lukander, k., korpela, j., sallinen, m., & muller k. m. i. (2009). estimating brain load from the eeg. the scientific world journal, 9, 639-651. [27] klimesch, w. (1997), ‘eeg alpha rhythms and memory processes’ international journal of psychophysiology, vol., 26, pp. 319-340. [28] lafrance c, dumont m (2000), ‘diurnal variations in the waking eeg: comparison with sleep latencies and subjective alertness’, journal of sleep research, vol. 9, pp. 243248. [29] levitt, s., & gutin b (1971). multiple choice reaction time and movement time during physical exertion. research quarterly, 42, 405-410. [30] lewinter mm. (2007), ‘pencardial diseases. in: libby p, bonow ro, mann dl, zipes dp, eds. braunwald's heart disease: a textbook of cardiovascular medicine’, 8th ed. philadelphia, pa: saunders elsevier, chap 70. [31] lopes, r. h. c., reid, i., hobson, p.r. (2007, april 23–27). the two-dimensional kolmogorov-smirnov test. xi international workshop on advanced computing and analysis techniques in physics research, amsterdam, the netherlands. [32] lord, s. w., clayton, r. h., hall, m. c. s, gray, j. c., murray, a., mccomb & kenny r. a. (1998). reproducibility of three different methods of measuring baroflex sensitivity in normal subjects. clinical science, 95, 575-581. [33] lorist, m. m., klein, m, nieuwenhuis, s., de jong, r., mulder, g., & meijman, t. f. (2000). mental fatigue and task control: planning and preparation. psychophysiology, 37, 614-625. [34] luck, s. j., & hillyard, s. a. (1994). electrophysiological correlates of feature analysis during visual search. psychophysiology, 31, 291-308. [35] macchi, m. m., boulos, z., ranney, t., simmons, l., & campbell, s. s. (2002). effects of an afternoon nap on nighttime alertness and performance in long-haul drivers. accident analysis and prevention, 34, 825-834. [36]makeig, s and inlow, m (1993), ‘lapses in alertness: coherence of fluctuations in performance and the eeg spectrum’, electroencephalogr. clin. neurophysiol., 86, pp. 2325. [37] matthews, g., and desmond, p.a (2002). 'task-induced fatigue states and simulated driving performance', the quaterly journal of experimental psychology, 55a(2), pp. 659686. [38] matthew, r., (2004). physiological methods and measurements in driving simulation. proc. of the human factors and ergonomics soc. annual meeting, 48(19), 2330-2334. [39] mcmorris, t. & graydon, j. (1996). the effect of exercise on soccer decision-making tasks of differing complexities. journal of human movement studies, 30, 177-193. [40] montgomery, ld, montgomery rw et al. (1995) ‘rheoencephalographic and electroencephalographic measures of cognitive workload: analytical procedures. biol. psychol., 40, pp. 143-159. [41] nash, a. j., williams, c. s. (1982). effects of preparatory set and task demands on auditory event-related potentials. journal of biological psychology, 15(1-2), 15-31. [42] nideffer, r. m. (1993). concentration and attention control training. in jm williams (ed.), applied sport psychology: personal growth to peak performance, 243-261, toronto, mayfield. d. chuckravanen, s. rajbhandari, a. bester brain signal analysis using eeg and entropy to study the effect of physical and mental tasks on cognitive performance 59 [43]oken bs, salinsky m (1992), ‘alertness and attention: basic science and electrophysiologic correlates’, journal of clinical neurophysiology, vol. 9(4), pp. 480-494. [44] paas, f. g. w. c. & adam, j. j. (1991). human information processing during physical exercise. ergonomics, 34, 1385-1397. [45] schmitt, n. (1996). uses and abuses of coefficient alpha. psychological assessment, 8, 350-353. [46] seber, g. a. f. (1984). multivariate observations. new york: john wiley & sons, inc. shannon c. e. (1949, january). communication in the presence of noise. proc. institute of radio engineers, 37 (1), 10–21. reprint as classic paper in: proc. ieee, vol. 86, no. 2, (feb. 1998) [47] shannon, c.e. (1948). a mathematical theory of communication. bell system technical journal, 27, 379–423. [48] st clair gibson, a., noakes t. d. (2004). evidence for complex system integration and dynamic neural regulation of skeletal muscle recruitment during exercise in humans. british journal of sports medicine, 38, 797-806. [49] steriade, m. (1996). ‘arousal: revisiting the reticular activating system’, science 272 (5259), pp. 225–226. [50] tomporowski, p. d. (2002). effects of acute bouts of exercise on cognition. acta psychologica scandinavia, 112(3), 297-324. [51] uetake, a., & murata, a. (2000). assessment of mental fatigue during vdt task using event-related potential (p300). proc. of the 2000 ieee international workshop on robot and human interactive communication, osaka, japan. [52]viertio-oja h, maja v, sarkela m., talja p., tenkanen n, tolvanen-laakso h, paloheimo m, vakkuri a, yli-hankala a, merilainen p (2004), 'description of the entropy algorithm as applied in the datex-ohmeda s/5(tm) entropy module', acta anaesthesiol. scand, 48, pp. 154-161. [53]williams am, davids k and williams k (1999). visual perception and action in sport. london: e and fn spon. [54]williams am (2000), ‘perceptual skill in soccer: implications for talent identification and development’, journal of sport sciences, 18, pp. 737-750. [55] wright, t. p. (1936). factors affecting the cost of airplanes. journal of aeronautical sciences, 3(4), 122-128. [56] yerkes, r.m. & dodson, j.d. (1908). ‘the relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-formation’, journal of comparative neurology and psychology, 18, pp. 459-482. microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx 85 psychosocial and legal aspects of penitentiary work in bulgaria rumen vasilev department of social sciences, faculty of medicine trakia university 6015, stara zagora, bulgaria phone: +359 42 699 209 rumvas2003@yahoo.com vesela mareva department of social sciences, faculty of medicine trakia university 6015, stara zagora, bulgaria phone: +359 42 699 209 vesela.mareva@gmail.com krasimira benkova department of social sciences, faculty of medicine trakia university 6015, stara zagora, bulgaria phone: +359 42 699 209 b_enkova@abv.bg iliyana stefanova kirilova-moutafova medical insitute of mol, department of social sciences, faculty of medicine trakia university 6015, stara zagora, bulgaria phone: +359 42 699 209 ilianskk@abv.bg abstract the article analyzes penitentiary work and treats it as a possible model of prevention with regard to prisoners. emphasis is placed on the existing legal norms that allow for the realization of this universal human right, as well as some psychosocial aspects in its application. the aim is to present the problem of the existence of a unified, realistic legal model for penitentiary work in terms of its psychosocial aspect, protected by law. the subject of analysis is the framework of the existing legal system, which has adopted the international legal norms for the implementation of penitentiary work and has become an essential part of the social life of the prisoners. the possibilities for its positive impact on this category of citizens are outlined. keywords: penitentiary legislation; penitentiary work; psychosocial impact; legal norms. introduction hidden from the eyes of the public, far from the media interests, penitentiary work is particularly important in its psychosocial nature. long broken with slave labor, to those in exile, with the labor of convicts and those in concentration camps today in democratic societies norms require a new approach and a different look busy with positive social saturation labor of prisoners. according to traikov, "the evolution of the murderous wicked labor and heavy physical labor, used as a repressive measure and as an element of the content of the punishment, to the modern understanding of labor only as a means of educating the convict and his preparation for the life of freedom accompanies the development of penitentiary law in the 20th century. confirmation brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 86 of this evolution is also the overall legal framework of prison labor in bulgaria by the provisional rules for the establishment of prisons of 1879 and the act on the work of the prisoners from 1922 to the acting the penal code and the law on serving the penalties. taken in this aspect, the present law on the execution of penalties and detention, enshrined in our contemporary democratic, legal and political constructs, formalises the work of this category of citizens and emphasizes its social and personal psychological significance. political and socio-economic development of the country forced the reconsideration of the overall legal and social doctrine of the legal application possibilities of the penitentiary labor. the nature and characteristics of this specific labor undergone positive development and of punishment he is no longer a social necessity for inmates and society, so that the meaning and philosophy of art. 41, para. 1 of the current penal code be redrafted to the current day text that makes public key objectives for the prisoners in their work, "serving a sentence of imprisonment is accompanied by suitable, respectively paid community service, which seeks rehabilitation of convicts, and the creation and improvement of their professional qualifications. " from labor, devalued and made for physical effort, for his own sake, and as a kind of revenge against the convicted, he has other characteristics today that do not distinguish him from the conditions, necessity and efficiency of any other type of labor. the purpose of penitentiary work is busy with the expectation to become a social instrument whose elements will bring about the unconscious but presently re-educating impact on the behavior of the prisoners. they will also influence them psychologically and will make them rethink the essence of their entire existence up to and after the moment of transgression at the penitentiary, even more so that the application of this labor is realized under conditions of special regime unknown to the convicted and radically different labor outside prison. the theme of the practical realization of penitentiary work and its psychosocial aspects as an influence on prisoners has always been relevant in the legal circles, has also generated polar discussion views in political circles expressed over time because it is saturated and treated with a peculiarity to society sensitivity. looking at some of the moral and social aspects of penitentiary work and its psychological impact on the convicted, we should also try to analyze the applicable legal framework as well as the conditions in which it is implemented. in this context, it is necessary to answer the question whether and to what extent it complies with the existing international norms, such as the texts of art. 10, p. 3 of the international covenant on civil rights, the first sentence of which reads: "the prison regime includes such treatment for those convicted, the main purpose of which is their correction and social re-education." this is the point of trying to analyze the penitentiary work in the present work because this work brings its social saturation, its nature is socially different from the work of all outside prisons, and the urge to implement it and its benefits have special and different characteristics from the generally applicable labor because they are dictated by radically different conditions. the history of penitential labor, as an element of the social and economic models of societies, provides us with many and varied information about its initial nature. it is always the equivalent of the socio-economic system that models it, articulates it in legal acts, and implements in practice whether or not it develops at the rate at which the socio-economic system develops or does not develop in society. the processes of societal development, industrialization, war and wars, the modernization of the views of political parties, the new social ideas in the processes of their democratization and their widening social influence undoubtedly forced a new perspective on this particular work. this is because the political systems and political forces defining the direction of the economic, social and social development in our country work in an effort to synchronize our national legislation by taking it in line with the recommendation rec (2006) 2 of the committee of ministers of the member states on the european prison rules where part i of the basic principles contains the following texts: "p. 5. life in prison should be as close as possible to the positive r. vasilev, v. mareva, k. benkova, i. s. kirilova-moutafova psychosocial and legal aspects of penitentiary work in bulgaria 87 aspects of life in society "and so on." 6 deprivation of liberty should be managed in such a way as to facilitate the reintegration of persons deprived of their liberty "as directly relevant to our national legislation. globalization and the ability to trace the restructuring of the economic, social and political space, the socio-economic and political impediments in it necessitated the adoption of new, modern policies regarding the convergence of the social and legal framework applied to prisoners in terms of the possibility to work in prisons. the time when michel foucault described the birth of the prisons, and in which fyodor dostoevsky wrote about the psychology of the labor has long passed. "the exercise of ruling power in punishing crimes is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of justice," foucault wrote, seeking an emphasis on power relations, emphasizing the role of the rulers, the development and the temporality in them. in order to explain the changes, he does not analyze the development of the trial and sentencing as a humanitarian act with the main aim of lesser violence and correction of the perpetrators of crime, on the contrary, he regards the act of pronouncing the verdict as a pompous theatrical performance with supposedly selfand analyzes his influence in people's minds while dostoevsky defends the thesis that humanity as a whole is a sensitive, humanitarian and moral product. based on the moral principles laid down in the people's spirit, he emphasizes his view that every society has penitentiary institutions because none has managed to escape crime and the need to impose penalties. according to yankov, “dostoevsky points out that the existing system of isolation and punishment of criminals is not intended to correct or correct criminals, but merely to punish them in order to remove them from society, preventing it from other similar acts against its constructive integrity committed "dostoevsky stresses that every society has such institutions, because so far no society has managed to escape crime and the need to punish criminals. in connection with this, he quite soberly and clearly states that the existing system of isolation and punishment of criminals is not intended to confront or bring criminals to justice.” the historical view of the development of penitentiary work shows the temporality of its unproductive and unprincipled application to: slaves, prisoners, exiles and convicts for political reasons, from the time when it was imposed as exploitative and revenge of the rulers in favor of their protection until the moment when its fullness is of social significance for the person and society and the applicable framework, is not the only one of the ruling authorities but the legislative framework in the social legal framework tion many years have passed. historically the violation of human rights in the past is not comparable stronger than today, obezstoynostyavaneto life of convicted and received prison was common practice. the modern postmodern sense of penitentiary work is in the possibility of making the sentenced person become an element of his re-education, activating opportunities to reconsider his behavior and guilt to realize it, to ease his destiny and to leave the penitentiary institution before the deadline of the verdict. so meaningful and legally represented, the essence of penitentiary labor has not been subject to any legal system until the time of the adoption of a democratic legal models in society. the psychosocial aspects of penitentiary work, the realities in the penitentiary boundaries and the perspectives in them do not exclude two main factors present in the lives of the prisoners that can be realized: the ability to educate and the possibilities to work. for this category of persons stressful effect on prison life is particularly high severity situation such as moral and ethical standards. psychosocial environment in penitentiary establishments is testing the physical, moral and intellectual character of inmates, and according to kaplan and zadok, 2002, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 88 anti-social personality disorder occurs in about 90% of persons placed in penitentiary establishments. these are people who suffer with emotional competence namely emotions are immature, superficial and shallow emotions; low threshold of irritation; quick intensity of negative emotions explosion; loss or lack of self-control over impulsive behavior; rigidity of negative affect; lack of compassion (empathy), lack of emotional resonance; lack of guilt; nartsistichnost, inability to emotionally connect; a sense of superiority and grandiosity; emotional instability of self variable feelings of abandonment, uselessness, emptiness, have suicidal impulses and show hostility. they observed significant deficiencies in terms of social competence not constructed disorders and communication skills: communication hampered by the inability to establish friendly contacts; problem with leadership; manipulative; socially unacceptable standards of behavior; antisocial of outlook views; life position of hostility and compensation; style habitual aggressive behavior inherent and parents or other family members; integration into the lifestyle of gangs, groups of anti-social behavior or terrorist acts; ineffective coping with problematic life situations through confrontation, acts of violence or substance abuse; unpredictable in perspective, there are no plans for the future; action without considering the consequences; inability to use their own experience in problem solving. people with antisocial (disruptive) personality disorder usually are not able to promote and maintain therapeutic relationship, and most often they are seen as 'curable' only specialized (usually forensic) facilities. their behavior is corrected difficult. most modern forms of psychotherapy are ineffective, and some even considered to be kontraindikirani as increasing manipulation of people with this type of personality abnormality. it seems a form of choice for psychotherapy is occupational therapy. due to the large discrepancy between the behavior of persons with antisocial personality disorder and the existing social norms, they need firm boundaries and regulation in communicating with others and training to comply with framework and rules. these are the potential benefits with which the impact through systemic work can be effective in those with this psychopathology. in this particular category of working people there is a sharp change in the intensity of life and the different nature of social contacts, the profile of the social atmosphere and its meaning transform and interfere with the interpersonal relations known from everyday life in the free society. the impact of unemployment and forced imprisonment in prison have a negative psychosocial impact on the convicted, and often lead to: frustration, social deprivation, aggression, deadsuppation and self-aggression, including a breakdown of social inclusion capabilities. conditions with a particular degree of weight on the psyche of the convicted, containing complex relationships and relationships between the complex realization of the personal psyche and the performance or non-performance of the work activity. under the conditions of the penitentiary environment, the overall behavior of convicted and in particular labor is subject to different organization and different dynamics, compared to our ordinary and familiar labor process. the facts and norms explaining the behavior of the persons in the penitentiary in working conditions and the process of mutual adaptation between them and the environment in which they work are inconsistently different as the purpose and meaning of behavior with the working environment outside prisons. analyzing the social opportunities of penitentiary establishments in terms of working hours, at the time considered three major paradigms opposing and invariably present in theoretical discussions in the application of penitentiary policies:  the first deals with deprivation of liberty as a means of depriving the sentenced person of another crime;  the second relates to deprivation of liberty as an opportunity to guarantee the rights of the convict; r. vasilev, v. mareva, k. benkova, i. s. kirilova-moutafova psychosocial and legal aspects of penitentiary work in bulgaria 89  the third is burdened with the positives of the first two, and considers imprisonment as an opportunity for a convict to reconsider his conduct and his life in a positive way and to correct his behavior. for those psychosocial characteristics comprehended in their humane, not criminal discourse regarding deprivation of liberty must be held without dismissing that regardless of the conditions of penitentiary isolation human rights and dignity of the condemned must be respected unconditionally . in this respect labor rights of prisoners, as part of the socialization process should be implemented harmonized with the existing legal texts and depending on the conditions under which their sentence is served. legal realized penitentiary framework outlines a long time and warring closed regime daily, bitu and socialization completely changed social, moral, ethical and temporal pattern of life. this environment and work in it are a counterpoint to the environment from which convicted enter the penitentiary institution. viewed through the prism of permanently changing legal frameworks temporality and increased requirements to existing domestic realities in prisons, psycho-social environment is in constant development. as a reflection from the clash of different realities among the most common psycho-physical problems that prisoners are entrusted with are the known states of: stress, general fatigue, reduced subjective well-being, reduced self-esteem. in the historical profile of our national legislation, the legal framework governing the health care of convicts, their placement in hospitals, the use of free medicines, advocacy, visits and correspondence is realized through the provisional rules for the establishment of prisons. penitentiary work is devoted to chapter ix "for prisoners' occupations" of the rules, in which item 37 is written: "the prisoners who are still under investigation are used only for prison, ie they cut wood, carry water, clean the prison yards, etc .; and convicted of imprisonment for crimes or misdemeanors, except for the execution of the aforementioned work in jail, may be ordered for urban and private work with the necessary guardian and a daily salary based on the annual fee approved by the governor. non-imminent debtors and spiritual faces escape from all affairs. " it impresses the legislator's attitude in early penitentiary legislation with his will to order labor from both investigative and prisoners, admissible types of work, and labor valuation. in the same rules, "form 3" presents the "book for the enrollment of the money earned by the prisoners", indicating "the genus" of the work, the year, the month and the "number" the name of the prisoner and the genus (type) of the work, the sum (earned for the type of work amount) and the gospel for the "receipt". national penitentiary legislation, as the result of ongoing legal reform is developed and complemented in 1896 with "criminal law" and in 1904 entered into force and "rules of procedure of the prisoners as a regulation detailing these their legal options". in 1922, these rules are enriched and developed into "law on the work of prisoners." the progressive positive development of the penitentiary legislation and availability of these acts are assessment that the legislature gives this kind of work and legislative determination to have a functioning regulatory framework with effective rules. in the criminal law of 1896, in its book one, chapter ii, "on penalties," there are listed the types of punishments and the possibilities for labor through the following texts: "16. convicted to a strict prison of prison, they are held in common wards, and they receive food and clothing in the dungeon. the prisoners of this family are divided into two quarters: 1) sentenced to at least five years, and 2) convicted in less than five years. prisoners of the first day of discharge, according to the rules of dungeon rule, use heavy labor, and at night, if possible, separate themselves. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 90 for the work done, both inside and outside the prison, prisoners receive no reward; however, dungeon management is given the right to allow prisoners with proven good behavior after two thirds of the sentence imposed to them to deal with their own choices by receiving in their favor a third part of the net proceeds of the proceeds their work. such prisoners for their bad behavior can always be returned from prison to their first state of affairs. the prisoners of the second order are engaged in their work, as far as it is not contrary to the dignity of the law; but one third of the net income of everybody's work is devoted to his own benefit, and the other two are retained to keep the prisoners at all." for the first time in our national legislation texts related to penitentiary labor were written as a compulsory act and as a counterpoint to idleness in prisons, with the possibility that one-third of the net income from this work could be handed over to the convict. the legal analysis of the characteristics of these options implies that this is a success for national legislation because:  for the first time in its legal field, the legislator has found legal application of the possibility for those sentenced to work;  prioritized the behavior of convicted persons as a major factor in their existence and development in prison;  the possibility expressed in the text "... proved good behavior" is credited by the legislator with the actual actions of the prison administration to judge the quality of the situation of the sentenced labor in order to obtain the right to personal income, on payment. these opportunities postered for the first time in our legal space should be assessed as texts high legal value and social significance and the approach of the legislature to validate the terms of employment in prisons is a ratio of the country itself to the specifics of the labor protection rights of man. the existing legal framework is evaluating the impact of this work on psychosocial profile prisoners. back in time this work carried significant social reflections on society associated with changes in infrastructure and the construction of major economic and social facilities. it is particularly profitable for the state, because it is low paid and in some cases even free. it is important to remember how difficult it was for the administration of the respective prison to arrange this type of operation. at book one, chapter ii. for the punishments, p.16 of the criminal law of 1896, the legislator added the following text: "(added: h. 27 january 1904) prisoners sentenced to imprisonment for at least five years are in prison, using state or public work outside prison, as well as convicted prisoners of less than five years of imprisoned prison or of a prison prison, who wish to use the same work outside prison, obtain a reduction in the penalty imposed on them way that he counts here's a sentence served 20 working days broyata for one month in the prison.” from a psycho-social point of view, the legislator's decision to include a text under which to implement a sentence reduction for prison staff, the administration recognizing twenty working days in one month is impressive. this legal opportunity is an incentive for convicts to try to correct their behavior through labor and is socially meaningful because it binds their overall attitude to their self-discipline and re-education. even today, this legal circumstance is in force under the national act on the execution of penalty and detention in prison, as well as in the regulations for its implementation, which regulate the execution of sentences and the possibility of working in prisons. the right to work, as the basic human right of every bulgarian citizen, is a basic text in a place in art. 48, para 1 of the constitution of our country, according to which: "citizens have the right to work. the state is responsible for creating the conditions for the implementation of this right. "and is detailed in the following paragraphs, which reads:" the state creates conditions for the realization of the right to work of the persons with physical and mental disabilities. r. vasilev, v. mareva, k. benkova, i. s. kirilova-moutafova psychosocial and legal aspects of penitentiary work in bulgaria 91 every citizen freely chooses his profession and place of work. no one can be forced to do forced labor. " of course, the constitutional texts are about the legislature's principal positions and attitudes towards labor in general. penitentiary work is specific and different from the general one, and the ability to exercise is among the main legal possibilities for convicted according to the legislation in force in our country. in this sense, in the overall legal framework of our country, containing the criminal code, the penalty enforcement act and the detention order, and the rules for its implementation, unified with the international and community law in force, texts are written that realize the possibilities for penitentiary work. the legal philosophy of the criminal code of the republic of bulgaria, located in the texts of art. 41, para. 1, imposes the thesis on the realization of paid penitentiary labor as a means aiming at: "... the re-education of the convicted as well as the creation and improvement of their professional qualification", not excluding the meaning of para. 2, according to which "other measures for education and training are also applied". this text has been multiplied in art. 77, para 1 of the penalty execution and detention act, according to which: "at the time of serving the punishment, the prisoners have the right to a suitable job" as well as rights in this aspect, as an opportunity on the part of the administration , in order to realize the personal preference of the convict in his choice of a certain type of work. the european penitentiary labor norms resulting from recommendation rec (2006) 2 of the committee of ministers of the member states on the european prison rules, adopted by the committee of ministers on 11 january 2006, have been implemented in our penal code opportunity within the meaning of art. 41, para. 3, according to which: "the work done (yes) is counted as a reduction in the sentence, with two working days being considered as three days' imprisonment". this legal realization shows the social and legal meaning objectified by the legislator in the legislation of our country related to the protection of the human rights of the serving sentences. according to part i, basic principles of the above recommendation, which is obligatory for our country character for the meaning of art. 5, para. 4 of the constitution, according to which: "international treaties ratified by constitutional order, promulgated and enacted for the republic of bulgaria, are part of the domestic law of the country. they take precedence over those norms of domestic law that contradict them ", p. 1" the human rights of all prisoners must be respected. " such is the philosophy of the legal acts, which are mandatory in the european sphere, mandatory for implementation in our country as a full member of the european union. current legislation in our country in this direction not only precludes be applied work in penitentiary establishments, but it refined in the modern sense under existing labor legislation harmonized with the norms of the existing community and international law. the present study is not intended to detail the norms determining labor in penitentiary institutions, but it should be pointed out that they were implemented on the basis of existing modern labor and penitentiary legislation in an attempt to prevent discrimination of convicted persons and not to violate their human rights. from this point of view, following the legal analysis, it is suggested that in the regulations for the application of the penalty and prison act, those legal norms which are most closely related to the labor code in terms of labor, the breaks made, its differentiation into paid and voluntary, its differentiation for its placement by sex, the presence of pregnancy, the conditions related to its payment, as well as all the details regarding compliance with the labor protection norms. despite these findings, indicating the relatively detailed legal framework of prison labor in line with inter-national norms and close to the national legal framework regulating labor outside prisons, it should be stressed that the two types of labor are too unequal. in conclusion of the above analysis, the following important conclusions can be drawn:  labor inmates are not included in the social security system and therefore their work is not counted as length of service;  this work does not necessarily bind prison administrations with a commitment to insurance; brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 92  national criminal and penitentiary legislation does not impose imperative norms in the direction of the exercise of this work, and the existing texts are directed only towards the desired legal possibilities for realization;  the legislator did not implement the legal protection of penitentiary workers on an equal footing with those outside the prisons. based on this analysis and existing legal standards on prison labor should be given the legal possibility of unification of national legislation in the direction of the inclusion of labor penitentiary system of social security. references constitution of the republic of bulgaria, prom. state gazette, no. 56 of july 13, 1991, on the record of the apis, apis-law. criminal code of the republic of bulgaria, prom. state gazette, no. 26 april 2, 1968, rev. ap bis, apis-right. criminal code, validated by decree no 43, of 2.02.1896 y., dv, number. 40 from 21.02.1896 y., http://www.sadebnopravo.bg. foucault, m. (1998). "supervision and punishment. the birth of the prison ", p. 51, im" st. kliment ohridski ", isbn 954-07-1112-6. international covenant on civil and political rights, ratified by the presidential decree no. 1199 on 23.07.1970 g. dv, br. 60 ot 1970 g. in force in bulgaria from 23.03.1976 y. issued by the ministry of foreign affairs, number 43 of 28.05.1976 y., www.apis.bg (apis-7, apispravo). kaplan and sadok`s synopsis of psychiatry 11th edition behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry editors: b.j. sadock, v.a. sadok, p. ruiz;: isbn 978160913711:9 wolter kuwer (2015) 737-739. law on execution of penalties and detention in custody, prom. state gazette, no. 25 april 04, 2009, rev. ap bis, apis-law). law on the work of prisoners, set up with decree no. 9 on tsar boris iii, dv, number 267 from 27.02. 1922 y provisional rules for the establishment of prisons, set up by kniyaz dondukov-korsakov on 29.01. 1879 y., s. state printing house, 1888у. recommendation rec. (2006). 2 of the committee of ministers of the member states on the european prison rules, adopted by the committee of ministers on 11.01.2006, rules on the enforcement of the law on the execution of sentences and detention in custody, issued by the minister of justice dv. br. 9 of 2 february 2010, www.apis.bg (apis-7, apis-pravo). yankov, y. (2007). political and legal teachings of political genesis, srednovekovie, kniga 2, rusiya, t. 5, p. 262-263, isd. "yanus" eood, isbn 978-954-8550-62-8. zdravko, t. (2007). criminal enforcement act.. „albatros“, y., p. 206, isbn 978-954-751-080-7. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 168 a corpus-driven study of contrastive markers in cantonese‒english political interpreting jun pan hong kong baptist university, hong kong baptist university rd, kowloon tong, hong kong janicepan@hkbu.edu.hk billy tak ming wong open university of hong kong, hong kong 30 good shepherd st, ho man tin, hong kong. tel.: +852 2711 2100 billywtm@gmail.com abstract political interpreting, as a significant means for foreign language speakers to access a government’s official policies, has been regarded as an intensive and stressful task. any single misinterpretation or misuse of strategy can lead to regional and even international disputes. it will therefore be interesting to study the pragmatic strategies applied by interpreters working in political settings, especially when they render propositions that may sound unfavorable or contrastive to people’s presuppositions. in this regard, the use of contrastive markers, an important type of pragmatic markers, serves as an important linguistic indicator of the application of such strategies. nevertheless, not much has been explored in this aspect. this paper, therefore, studies the use of contrastive markers in the interpreting of policy addresses from cantonese to english. a parallel corpus, consisting of policy addresses delivered by chief executives in hong kong (about 0.22 million words) and their english interpretations (about 0.29 million words), was used in the study. the cantonese contrastive markers — bat gwo and daan (hai) (comparable in meaning to however and but respectively in english), and their renditions in english — were compared and analyzed. the two cantonese contrastive markers were found to correspond to a variety of renditions in english. these findings show how interpreters apply pragmatic strategies when dealing with the extreme situations in political interpreting. they shed light on the development of e-learning for pragmatic competence training of interpreters working in political settings, as well as natural language processing applications for handling such a high-level linguistic feature. keywords: interpreting, linguistics, e-learning, natural language processing 1. introduction political interpreting serves as a significant means for foreign language speakers to access a government’s official policies (gagnon, 2010; schäffner & bassnett, 2010). interpreters of senior government officials therefore often face great challenges and work under extreme stress, as any misinterpretation or misuse of interpreting strategy can lead to regional and even international disputes. apart from excellent language abilities and a broad knowledge base, interpreters working in political settings need to be sensitive to the pragmatics of political discourse, including but not limited to “understatement, unspoken assumptions or subtle emphases, innuendo and hedging, or things left unsaid”, and render them appropriately in the target language (buri, 2015, para.17). it is therefore important to study the pragmatic strategies applied by interpreters in political settings, especially when they render propositions that may sound unfavorable or contrastive to people’s presuppositions. in this regard, the use of contrastive markers — a major type of pragmatic markers — serves as a key linguistic indicator of the application of such strategies. nevertheless, not much has been explored in this aspect. in addition, chinese is often regarded as a language that is typically implicit and pragmatically significantly different from english, which can be evidenced by its politeness maxims of self-denigration, address-term, refinement, agreement and virtue (gu, 1992). an examination of the use of contrastive markers that signal non-agreement in this language and their renditions in j. pan, b. t. m. wong a corpus-driven study of contrastive markers in cantonese‒english political interpreting 169 english can offer special insights to the pragmatics of political discourse and to natural language processing applications with language pairs that are pragmatically significantly different. cantonese is a variety of chinese that is spoken in the pearl river delta and is the principal language used in hong kong. as a spoken variety of chinese used in south china, cantonese is considered demonstrating greater subtlety than standard chinese, or putonghua does, especially at the pragmatic level. against this background, this study was conducted to investigate the use of contrastive markers in cantonese‒english political interpreting. 2. literature review 2.1. political interpreting situated at the intersection between political and media discourse, political interpreting poses great challenges to the interpreters due to its complicated role as “an integral part of political activity” (schäffner & bassnett, 2010, p. 13): where foreign policy of individual states is concerned, translation becomes relevant, for example, for delivering speeches during state visits. translations of such speeches are made available on government or embassy websites and are sometimes also published in bulletins or the media. in this way, a government can communicate its political aims and decisions to the outside world. gagnon (2010, p. 255) also suggests that political interpreting or translation may show shifts that “had an impact on the target society”. according to xu (2000, p. 38, as in yang, 2012, p. 16), “a diplomatic translator is usually a diplomat, who is required to translate or interpret not only the leaders’ speeches but also their attitude and mood, and even the political atmosphere on the spot”. apart from the great challenges at the pragmatic level, interpreting for senior government officials is often regarded as an intensive and stressful task. buri (2015, para. 14), for instance, illustrates that interpreters working in political or diplomatic settings are “under continuous scrutiny” and may be “easily transformed into scapegoats especially when there are misunderstandings or friction between parties — straightforwardly attributed to misinterpretation”. yang (2012, p. 12) emphasizes that diplomatic translators and interpreters should be able to employ the tools of discourse analysis and “analyze the political meaning of the diplomatic language by reading between the lines”. wang (2008), in particular, calls for a textual perspective in chinese-to-english translation of political documents to ensure accuracy and effectiveness in the rendition of meaning. in sum, previous studies on political interpreting have highlighted its great challenges at the pragmatic level and the significance of interpreters’ ability in pragmatic and discourse analysis. however, not much work has been done to investigate interpreters’ pragmatic strategies in dealing with the challenges of rendering the non-propositional meaning in political and diplomatic settings, leaving a significant void to fill in the training of political interpreters in discourse competence and the enhancement of the quality of interpreter-mediated political discourse. 2.2. contrastive markers fraser (1996, p. 168) defines pragmatic markers as “the linguistically encoded clues which signal the speaker’s potential communicative intentions”. he provides a four-level scheme to cover the types of pragmatic markers, including basic markers (structural, lexical and hybrid), commentary markers, parallel markers and discourse markers. discourse markers are further divided into four categories, namely, topic change markers, contrastive markers, elaborative markers, and inferential markers. as a subset of discourse markers, contrastive markers can be illustrated by the use of expressions such as however, but, on the contrary, etc. contrastive markers, often used as adversative conjunctions, constitute a general meaning that is “contrary to expectation” (halliday & hasan, 1976, p. 250). they signal that “the utterance following is either a denial or a contrast of some proposition associated with the preceding brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 170 discourse” (fraser, 1996, p. 187). contrastive markers also indicate “the unexpected, surprising nature of what is being said in view of what was said before” (biber et al., 2002, p. 878). two typical contrastive markers, i.e., but and however, are among the most well researched in this category. in particular, but is regarded as signaling denial of expectation and contrast (blakesmore, 1989). it is less subtle as compared to however, which communicates the pragmatic meaning of concession (quirk et al., 1985), implies the closing of a topic (of a digression) or reintroduces a prior topic (bublitz, 1988). corresponding to these two, the expressions bat gwo (不過, comparable to however in english) and daan (hai) (但[是], comparable to but in english) constitute the two most representative contrastive markers in cantonese, with the former more subtle than the latter (see cuhk, 2014). despite their important roles in signaling contrastive meaning with different degrees of subtlety, the translation or interpretation of the cantonese pair of contrastive markers bat gwo and daan (hai) has been seldom discussed, in particular in the sensitive and subtle political discourse. 3. the study this study aims to investigate the use of contrastive markers in cantonese‒english political interpreting. it focuses particularly on two cantonese contrastive markers — bat gwo and daan (hai) — and their closest equivalences in english — however and but, respectively. the two pairs of contrastive markers are chosen for their representativeness in the two languages. 3.1. research questions to uncover the use of contrastive markers in cantonese and english, the study focuses on the following research questions: i. how frequent is the use of the four contrastive markers (two in cantonese and two in english) in cantonese and english political speeches? ii. how are the four contrastive markers translated/interpreted into another language? 3.2. corpus data a parallel corpus was built up as the source of data for the study. the corpus includes the annual policy address speeches from 1997 to 2017, which were delivered in cantonese by chief executives of the hong kong sar government. simultaneous interpreting in english was provided during the speeches. the cantonese and english texts for the corpus were collected from the government website, which provides the published version of the policy addresses in chinese and english and the video recordings of the speeches in the two languages. the published version was used as a basis and checked against the video recordings. the features of oral speeches which were removed or amended in the published version, such as the words which occur only in cantonese speeches but not in standard written chinese, were recovered and included in the texts for the corpus. further processing was performed on the chinese and english texts. word segmentation was done for the cantonese texts using the software tool segmentant (anthony, 2015), so that both the cantonese and english texts have a consistent form of word segmentation with space used as a delimiter. all the texts were checked manually to ensure that they are aligned to the counterparts in another language at the paragraph level. 3.3. analysis methods the cantonese and english texts were compiled into the parallel corpus using the software tool antpconc (anthony, 2014). instances of each of the four contrastive markers were searched and located using the tool, which retrieved both the paragraphs containing the markers and the corresponding paragraphs in another language. manual checking was performed to identify the translation of the contrastive markers. then the frequencies of the contrastive markers and their translations were counted. j. pan, b. t. m. wong a corpus-driven study of contrastive markers in cantonese‒english political interpreting 171 4. findings 4.1. corpus statistics table 1 presents the overall corpus statistics for the cantonese and english texts. the cantonese and english parts have a total of about 0.22 million tokens and 0.29 million tokens, respectively. the cantonese part has a higher type-token ratio (ttr) than the english part — 8.4% and 3.0%, respectively — which means that the former has a larger lexical variety in general. table 1. overall corpus statistics token type ttr cantonese 223,082 (word) 18,836 (word) 8.4% english 291,286 8,855 3.0% table 2 shows the frequency of the contrastive markers in the corpus, including the total occurrence frequency and the average frequency per 10k words. despite that the contrastive markers are the major ones in the two languages, their use in the data varies. the cantonese marker bat gwo was only used about 2 times per 10k on average, comparing with daan (hai) which was used more than 12 times on average. the two english markers show less variation in their frequency of use, with however being used for about 3.5 times and but for about 5 times on average. the results suggest that each contrastive marker has its own patterns of use in each language. table 2. frequency of the contrastive markers in the corpus contrastive markers total freq. (all) avg. freq. (per 10k) cantonese bat gwo 45 2.02 daan (hai) 287 12.87 english however 101 3.47 but 147 5.05 4.2. the renditions of “bat gwo” and “daan (hai)” the renditions of bat gwo and daan (hai) were closely examined by looking into how they were interpreted. figure 1 lists all the renditions of bat gwo and their frequency. the figures show that bat gwo was most often interpreted into however (frequency=22) — its closest equivalence in english. there were, however, 7 cases that bat gwo was interpreted into but — its stronger and less subtle correspondence that indicates denial and contrast. apart from rendering into these two most common english contrastive markers, there were also 5 cases that bat gwo was not interpreted at all, suggesting a possible mitigation strategy employed by the interpreter(s). likewise, the rest of bat gwo were rendered into other markers including nevertheless, nonetheless, while, yet, having said that / that said, all of which indicate concession and topic change, yet with an even higher degree of subtlety as compared to however. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 172 figure 1. the frequency of different renditions of “bat gwo” in the english sub-corpus the renditions of daan (hai) show a similar pattern (figure 2). among the 287 cases of daan (hai), the majority were interpreted into but (frequency=74) — its closest equivalence in english that signals denial and contrast. a total of 60 daan (hai) received no interpretation at all, which, again, indicates a possible mitigation strategy employed by the interpreter(s). similar to the case of bat gwo, however — the other frequently used english marker apart from but — was the next most often employed rendition of daan (hai) in the english sub-corpus. in addition to but and however, daan (hai) was also rendered into the following english markers: although, despite, while, nevertheless, yet, having said that / that said, nonetheless, though, notwithstanding, on the other, regardless, even so, and after, most of which signal concession and topic change, with an even higher degree of subtlety as compared to however. figure 2. the frequency of different renditions of “daan (hai)” in the english sub-corpus j. pan, b. t. m. wong a corpus-driven study of contrastive markers in cantonese‒english political interpreting 173 4.3. the use of “however” and “but” the use of however and but in the english sub-corpus was also investigated through looking into their source segments in the cantonese sub-corpus. figure 3 lists all the cantonese source segments of however and their frequency. the figures show that the use of however mostly resulted from the employment of daan (hai) in the cantonese source text (frequency=52). there were 24 instances of however which corresponded to no source segment at all, indicating a possible trend of explicitation — a feature of interpreted or translated language. only 21 cases of however were caused by the use of bat gwo — its closest equivalence in cantonese. the rest 4 cases resulted from the use of the cantonese marker ho si (可是) (frequency=3; close in meaning to both however and but in english, indicating concession or contrast) and zeon gun (儘管) (frequency=1; close in meaning to although or in spite of in english, indicating concession or topic change). figure 3. the frequency of different source segments of “however” in the cantonese sub-corpus likewise, figure 4 lists all the cantonese source segments of but and their frequency. the results show that most of the use of but was contributed by daan (hai) — its closest equivalence in cantonese. however, there were 52 instances of the use of but which corresponded to no source segments at all in the cantonese sub-corpus, indicating, again, the possibility of explicitation. the rest of the 16 instances of but were attributed by the use of the cantonese markers ji (而) (frequency=8; close in meaning to however and but, indicating concession or contrast), followed by bat gwo (frequency=7) and koek (卻) (frequency=1; close in meaning to however and but, indicating concession or contrast). figure 4. the frequency of different source segments of “but” in the cantonese sub-corpus brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 174 5. conclusions and implications this study investigates the use of contrastive markers, in particular the cantonese markers bat gwo and daan (hai) and their closest equivalences, however and but, in english, through a parallel corpus consisting of policy addresses delivered by chief executives in hong kong and their english interpretations. the findings suggest that interpreters tend to employ mitigation strategies in political interpreting, and confirm a possible trend of explicitation in interpreted language from cantonese to english (cf. shlesinger, 2009). these findings shed light on the development of elearning for pragmatic competence training of interpreters working in political settings, as well as natural language processing applications for handling such a high level linguistic feature. 5.1. pragmatic strategies applied by interpreters the markers bat gwo and daan (hai), and their closest equivalences in english, i.e., however and but, were found to be the most frequently used contrastive markers in the cantonese and english political speeches. the markers daan (hai) and but, both indicating denial of expectation and contrast, were found to be even more frequently used than the subtler markers bat gwo and however. the use of daan (hai) even exceeds that of but as indicated by the average frequency per 10k, indicating the possible adoption of mitigation strategies by interpreters working from cantonese to english in political settings. this trend of mitigation is also evidenced in the renditions of bat gwo and daan (hai) in the english sub-corpus by the many instances of nil translation, and the substantial number of however attributed by the use of daan (hai) in the cantonese sub-corpus. to conclude, the findings suggest that interpreters tend to intentionally monitor the use and rendition of contrastive markers when interpreting the speeches delivered by senior government officials in cantonese by reducing the use of contrastive markers showing denial and contrast, and employing additional contrastive markers that suggest concession and topic change. these findings provide evidence to the delicacies of political interpreting and show the importance of pragmatic awareness enhancement in the training of political interpreters. the study also shows that both speakers and interpreters employ different varieties of contrastive markers in political speeches, in addition to the most representative ones bat gwo and daan (hai) in cantonese, and their closest equivalences, however and but, in english:  contrastive markers in cantonese (by frequency): daan (hai) 但(是); bat gwo不過; ho si可是; zeon gun儘管; ji而; and koek卻.  contrastive markers in english (by frequency): but; however; although…,…; despite…,…; while; nevertheless; yet; having said that / that said; nonetheless; though; notwithstanding; on the other hand; regardless … , …; even so; and after all. these findings suggest that political interpreters should be equipped with a large repertoire of pragmatic resources in both languages in order to render appropriately or even shift slightly the pragmatic meaning of source texts in political settings. 5.2. e-learning for pragmatic competence training and natural language processing applications this study has shown the diversity in how contrastive markers are translated/interpreted into another language. the results suggest that real texts are needed to be provided as a reference for learners to explore the context of use for the varieties of contrastive markers. this would require corpus analysis tools, such as concordancer, to facilitate learners to search and examine corpus data. the parallel texts and instances of contrastive markers collected in this study thus serve as a foundation. a cantonese‒english parallel corpus with contrastive markers annotated can be built up as a corpus-based e-learning resource that helps student interpreters to master relevant interpreting strategies to handle each of the contrastive markers in different contexts. its benefits have already been emphasized in literature, that “the advantage of using translation corpora is especially strong j. pan, b. t. m. wong a corpus-driven study of contrastive markers in cantonese‒english political interpreting 175 for pragmatic markers, precisely because of their underspecified core meaning and their polysemous nature” (aijmer & simon-vandenbergen, 2006, p. 6). for the development of natural language processing applications, processing of high-level linguistic features at the discourse level has been challenging (wong & kit, 2012; wong & lee, 2013). it has been suffering from the lack of linguistic rules guiding the analysis and translation of the discourse markers. this study contributes to showing there is no simple one-to-one mapping between english and cantonese contrastive markers. it has also resulted in a collection of corpusbased instances regarding the use and translation of the markers, which facilitates future work on examining more contextual features to identify the parallel relationships between the markers in the two languages. what should be noted is that the source texts came from a small number of speakers — only three chief executives in the past 20 years, and thus the use of contrastive markers may be influenced by personal spoken styles of the speakers. this may be verified by future work on comparing the use of contrastive markers by the different speakers. another possible extension of the study is to examine the use of the same contrastive markers in a comparable corpus consisting of similar speeches delivered by native speakers of english, which will provide further evidence as to the featured use of pragmatic markers in differentiating interpreted speeches and non-interpreted speeches delivered in english. such findings will provide further reference to setting criteria for strengthening the political pragmatic competence of student interpreters towards a native-like level (cf. pan & wong, 2015a, 2015b). despite the limitations, the present study offers a close examination of the use of contrastive markers in both cantonese and english political speeches. its findings show the delicacies of political discourse and indicate the significance of interpreters (and translators) in the process of coconstructing such a discourse. they also provide important implications for e-learning design for pragmatic competence training and natural language processing applications. acknowledgements this study is sponsored by hksar’s research grants council under its early career scheme (project number: 22608716). references aijmer, k. & simon-vandenbergen, a.-m. (2006). introduction. in karin aijmer & anne-marie simon-vandenbergen (eds.), pragmatic markers in contrast (pp. 1–10). amsterdam: elsevier. anthony, l. (2014). antpconc (version 1.1.0) [computer software]. tokyo, japan: waseda university. retrieved from http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/ anthony, l. (2015). segmentant (version 1.1.0) [computer software]. tokyo, japan: waseda university. retrieved from http://www.laurenceanthony.net/ biber, d., conrad, s., reppen, r., byrd, p., & helt, m. (2002). speaking and writing in the university: a multidimensional comparison. tesol quarterly, 36(1), 9–48. blakesmore, d. (1989). denial and contrast: a relevance theoretic account of but. linguistics and philosophy, 12(1), 15–37. bublitz, w. (1988). supportive fellow-speakers and cooperative conversations. amsterdam: john benjamins. buri, m. r. (2015). interpreting in diplomatic settings. aiic.net. retrieved from http://aiic.net/p/7349. cuhk. (2014). conjunctions. in a comparative database of modern chinese and cantonese. retrieved from http://apps.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/hanyu/page/terms.aspx?target=%e9%80%a3%e8%a9%9e. fraser, b. (1996). pragmatic markers. pragmatics, 6, 167–190. gagnon, c. (2010). political translation. in y. gambier & l. van doorslaer (eds.), handbook of translation studies (pp. 252–256). amsterdam: john benjamins. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 176 gu y. g. (1992). pragmatic politeness and culture. foreign language teaching and research, 4, 30–32. halliday, m.a.k. & hasan, r. (1976). cohesion in english. london: longman. pan, j., & wong, b. t.m. (2015a). investigating pragmatic markers in interpreted political speeches from chinese to english: a preliminary study. in “found in translation” – translations are the children of their time. synchrony and diachrony in translation, interpretation and terminology (p. 6), bucharest, romania. pan, j., & wong, b. t.m. (2015b). pragmatic markers in interpreted political discourse: a corpusdriven study. in international conference on corpus linguistics and technology advancement 2015 (p. 48), hong kong, china. quirk, r., greenbaum, s., leech, g., & svartvik, j. (1985). a comprehensive grammar of the english language. london: longman. schäffner, c. & bassnett, s. (2010). politics, media and translation: exploring synergies. in c. schäffner & s. bassnett (eds.), political discourse, media and translation (pp. 1–31). newcastle: cambridge scholars publishing. shlesinger, m. (2009). towards a definition of interpretese: an intermodal, corpus-based study. in g. hansen, a. chesterman, & h. gerzymisch-arbogast (eds.), efforts and models in interpreting and translation research: a tribute to daniel gile (pp. 237–253). amsterdam: john benjamins. wang, x. p. (2008). a textual perspective on the translation of political documents. journal of nanchang university, 39, 151–155. wong, b. t. m. & kit, c. (2012). extending machine translation evaluation metrics with lexical cohesion to document level. in the conference on empirical methods in natural language processing and computational natural language learning (emnlp-conll) (pp. 1060– 1068). jeju, korea. wong, b. t. m. & lee, s. y. m. (2013). annotating legitimate disagreement in corpus construction. in the 11th workshop on asian language resources (pp. 51–57). nagoya, japan. yang, m. (2012). the principles and tactics on diplomatic translation: a chinese perspective. babel, 58(1), 1–18. xu, y. (2000). features in diplomatic interpretation of translation and diplomatic interpreters’ qualities. chinese translators journal, (3). 35–38. jun pan is assistant professor in the translation programme and director of the m.a. programme in translation and bilingual communication at hong kong baptist university. she is an experienced conference interpreter and interpreter trainer and has been researching in interpreting and translation for many years. her research interests include corpus-based interpreting studies, learner factors in interpreter training, and professionalism in interpreting. billy tak ming wong is research fellow of the open university of hong kong. he has been teaching and conducting research on computational linguistics, computeraided translation and educational technology for years. he has widely published on evaluation of machine translation quality and the impacts of technology on education. microsoft word brain_6_2015__doc final.doc 14 realizing an optimization approach inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development utku kose computer sciences application and research center usak university, computer sciences application and research center, uşak, 64200, turkey utku.kose@usak.edu.tr ahmet arslan department of computer engineering, selcuk university, 42075 konya, turkey ahmetarslan@selcuk.edu.tr abstract the objective of this paper is to introduce an artificial intelligence based optimization approach, which is inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development. the approach has been designed according to essential processes that an individual may experience while learning something new or improving his / her knowledge. these processes are associated with the piaget’s ideas on an individual’s cognitive development. the approach expressed in this paper is a simple algorithm employing swarm intelligence oriented tasks in order to overcome single-objective optimization problems. for evaluating effectiveness of this early version of the algorithm, test operations have been done via some benchmark functions. the obtained results show that the approach / algorithm can be an alternative to the literature in terms of single-objective optimization. the authors have suggested the name: cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa) for the related intelligent optimization approach. keywords: artificial intelligence; optimization; swarm intelligence; piaget’s theory on cognitive development; cognitive development optimization algorithm 1. introduction nowadays, developments and improvements in different technologies have active role on ensuring better life standards. it is also clear that newer solutions, which are used effectively for real-world problems, are widely designed thanks to technological developments and improvements. on the other hand, multidisciplinary interactions also have an important role on designing new solution approaches, methods, or techniques for specific fields. when we focus more on recent scientific works, it can be seen that theories, designed mathematical approaches are employed within very different fields in order to overcome some problems or try to obtain alternative solution ways. another important point is that such interactions are because of common problems that are solved in the context of different fields. for example, the problem of optimization has been widely taken into consideration by researchers although their interest fields are different. if we examine different literatures associated with employment of optimization problems, we can figure out that there is a remarkable research interest in solving optimization problems by using alternative ways. recently, there has been a great momentum in designing novel methods, and techniques as alternative solution ways to real-world based optimization problems. at this point, also some specific interest fields have appeared as a result of many different research works reported. swarm intelligence is one of these fields and it is an important focus point within which effective and accurate solutions for optimization tasks are introduced, thanks to strong relations with different disciplines and bio-inspired computation (blum & li, 2008), (garnier, gautrais & theraulaz, 2007), (hinchey, sterritt & rouff, 2007), (kennedy, kennedy, eberhart & shi, 2001), (parpinelli & lopes, 2011), (yang, cui, xiao, gandomi & karamanoglu, 2013). swarm intelligence is mainly related to the scope of artificial intelligence and because of this; especially intelligent optimization solution approaches, methods, or techniques are often developed. intelligent algorithms, designed and developed in the context of swarm intelligence employs some essential features and functions, which are inspired from swarms like fish swarms, bird swarms in the nature. u. kose, a. arslan realizing an optimization approach inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development 15 additionally, such features and functions are used for obtaining new swarm intelligence oriented algorithms, which are focused on some theories, mathematical systems…etc. from different fields. artificial intelligence is the science and research field of the future. furthermore, it can be expressed that swarm intelligence has an important potential on shaping the solution ways of the future; as an active sub-field of artificial intelligence. this paper introduces an artificial intelligence based optimization approach, which is inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development. briefly, the approach has been designed according to essential processes that an individual may experience while learning something new or improving his / her knowledge. these processes are associated with the piaget’s ideas on an individual’s cognitive development. generally, the approach explained within this paper is a simple algorithm, which includes swarm intelligence oriented tasks in order to overcome single-objective optimization problems. it has been aimed to form an easy-to-apply algorithmic form in order to understand its solution approach easily and make it portable to integrate any problem. in order to evaluate the effectiveness of this early version of the algorithm, test operations have been done via some benchmark functions. the authors have suggested the name: cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa) for this intelligent optimization approach. according to the objective of this paper, the remaining content is organized as follows: the next section provides a look to the history of the approach and the development process so far. following to that section, the third section expresses the fundamentals of the developed algorithm. it briefly explains the approach and provides steps of the designed algorithm, which is named as the cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa). next to the third section, a brief evaluation process performed via some optimization benchmark functions is reported under the fourth section. finally, the paper is ended by discussing about conclusions and future works. 2. the history of the optimization approach and development just before focusing on the optimization approach inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development, it is a good idea to focus on the history of the approach and development of the algorithm. in this sense, the foremost points regarding to ‘the history’ can be explained as follows: � while working on developments regarding to another artificial intelligence based optimization algorithm: vortex optimization algorithm (voa), which has been developed by the same authors, a new idea on using essentials of piaget’s related theory to develop alternative approach has been thought. � after first ideas, the authors have focused on piaget’s theory on cognitive development; in order to understand more about this theory and its detail. � after having enough knowledge on ‘piaget’s theory’, it has been tried to form connections between theoretical aspects of the theory and essential features / functions often employed within swarm intelligence. � while designing the algorithm structure, it has been aimed to use simple equations as similar to the approach used in development process of the voa. it is also important that the authors have inspired from essential equations used along the voa; in order to ensure simple swarm movements towards better values. � while forming algorithmic connections to the piaget’s theory on cognitive development, the authors have done some experimental studies regarding to usage of additional parameters along the new approach. finally, some parameters like interactivity rate or maturity limit have been included in the related algorithm structure. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 16 after providing a brief report on history of the approach and so development process, it is now better to explain details of the algorithmic structure. 3. an a.i. based optimization approach inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development in general, cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa) is an artificial intelligence based, single-objective optimization approach, which comes with simple equations and inspires from piaget’s theory on cognitive development. cognitive development can be defined briefly as a natural development process related to each individual. piaget has expressed that individuals generally have different stages like maturation, social interaction, balancing while learning new concepts and improving his / her cognitive infrastructure (piaget, 1964, 1973), (singer & revenson, 1997). codoa employs steps regarding to following phases:initialization phase,socialization phase,maturation phase,rationalizing phase, and balancing phase. the related phases are some kind of calculation steps, which have been formed as a result of inspirations from stages of cognitive development. the phases are repeated until the stopping criterion is met. algorithmic details of the codoa can be expressed briefly as follows: � step 1 (initialization phase): set initial parameters (n: number of particles; initial interactivity rate (ir) and experience (ex) values for each particle; max. and min. limits (min. limit is 0.0) for ir value (max_ir and min_ir); ml for the maturity limit; and r for the rationality rate. also, set other values related to the function, problem…etc. (e.g. dimension, search domain…etc.). � step 2: place the particles randomly in the solution space, and calculate fitness values for each of them. update the ir value of the particle with the best fitness value by using a random value (equation 1). best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current)) (1) also, increase ex value of this particle by 1. � step 3: repeat the loop steps below until the stopping criterion (e.g. iteration number) is met: o step 3.1 (socialization phase): decrease (by 1) ex value of each particle, whose fitness value is equal to or above the average fitness of all particles (if the problem is minimization). also, increase (by 1) ex value of each particle, whose fitness value is under the average fitness of all particles (if the problem is minimization). finally, update the ir value of these particles by using a random value (equation 2). particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * particlej_ir_(current)) (2) o step 3.2: update the ir value of all particles by using the equation 3: particlei_ir_(new) = rand. * particlei_ir_(current) (3) u. kose, a. arslan realizing an optimization approach inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development 17 o step 3.3: update position of each particle (except from the best particle so far) by using the equation 4: particlei_pos._(new) = particlei_pos._(current) + (rand. * (particlei_ir_(current) * (global_best_pos. – particlei_pos._(current)))) (4) o step 3.4: calculate fitness values according to new positions of each particle. update the ir value of the particle with the better / best fitness value by using a random value (equation 5). best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current)) (5) also, increase ex value of this particle by 1. o step 3.5 (maturation phase): update ir value of each particle, whose ex value is equal to or under the ml value by using the equation 6: particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * particlej_ir_(current)) (6) calculate fitness values according to new positions of each particle. update the ir value of the particle with the better / best fitness value by using a random value (equation 7). best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current)) (7) also, increase ex value of this particle by 1. o step 3.6 (rationalizing phase): update ir and positions of each particle, whose ex value is under 0, by using the following equations: particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * (best_particle_ir_(current) / particlej_ir_(current))) (8) particlei_pos._(new) = particlei_pos._(current) + (rand. * (particlei_ir_(current) * (global_best_pos. – particlei_pos._(current)))) (9) update ir of each particle, whoseex value is equal to or above 0, and repeat this r times; by using the equation 10: particlej_ir_(new) = particlej_ir_(current) + (rand. * (best_particle_ir_(current) / particlej_ir_(current))) (10) o step 3.7 (balancing phase): update the ir value of all particles by using the equation 11: particlei_ir_(new) = rand. * particlei_ir_(current) (11) calculate fitness values according to new positions of each particle. update the ir value of the particle with the better / best fitness value by using a random value (equation 12). best_particle_ir_(new) = best_particle_ir_(current) + (rand. * best_particle_ir_(current))(12) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 also, increase ex value of this particle by 1. return to the step 3.1. if the stopping criteria is not achieved yet. � step 4: the best values obtained within the loop are related to the optimum solution. a flowchart regarding to the codoa is shown in figure 1. figure 1.flowchart of the codoa. 4. evaluation for having an idea about the effectiveness of the codoa, some single-objective optimization benchmark functions have been solved in terms of different dimensions. general conditions for the performed tests are as follows: � total number of particles (n): 50 � total iteration (the stopping criteria): 5000 � initial interactivity rate: 0.50 u. kose, a. arslan realizing an optimization approach inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development 19 � max. interactivity rate: 10.0 � maturity limit (ml): 3 � rationality rate (r): 2 � dimensions: 2 for first four functions and 2, 5, 10, 20, and 30 respectively for the last two functions. � remaining specific values have been determined according to characteristics of each function. table 1 shows brief information regarding to the benchmark functions used along the test process. table 1.benchmark functions used along the test process. function formula search domain minimum booth’s beale’s goldstein–price mccormick three-hump camel sphere rosenbrock table 2 provides a brief report for the obtained results after the test operations done with benchmark functions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 table 2.obtained results after the test operations done with benchmark functions. minimization results for the dimensions as: function 2 5 10 20 30 booth’s 0.0000 x x x x beale’s 0.0000 x x x x goldstein– price 3.0000 x x x x mccormick 1.9133 x x x x three-hump camel 0.0000 x x x x sphere 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 rosenbrock 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0161 8.1197 x: not applicable according to the table 2, the codoa reaches to the desired values for the used benchmark functions. except from the rosenbrock with 30 dimensions, codoa can be closer to the minimum values especially for bigger dimensional sphere and rosenbrock functions, although the number of total iteration and also of particles were low (5000 and 50). 5. conclusion and future work in this paper a new artificial intelligence based optimization approach, which is inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development, has been introduced. called as the cognitive development optimization algorithm (codoa), the paper has provided information about how this approach has been realized in the context of an algorithmic structure and reported brief test / evaluation processes done via some benchmark functions. generally, the codoa seems to effective enough for solving single-objective optimization problems. in the sense of the performed evaluation process, it may need additional modifications (or new tests with changed initial parameters) only for rosenbrock function with dimension higher than 20. in the sense of the codoa, some future works can be explained briefly as follows: � further works will be based on also comparison of the codoa with other alternative algorithms in the literature. � this paper has focused on some single-objective benchmark functions. so, there can be more works on other remaining benchmark functions. � because of results on rosenbrock function with dimension of 30, there will be additional works to see if algorithm can be improved or the current early version can be adapted with changed initial parameters. � the authors have already started some works regarding to optimization problems from different fields. � there will be also some more works on codoa particle / algorithm parameters; in order see if changed parameters can improve performance and accurateness. u. kose, a. arslan realizing an optimization approach inspired from piaget’s theory on cognitive development 21 references blum, c., & li, x. (2008). swarm intelligence in optimization (pp. 43-85). springer berlin heidelberg. garnier, s., gautrais, j., &theraulaz, g. (2007). the biological principles of swarm intelligence. swarm intelligence, 1(1), 3-31. hinchey, m. g., sterritt, r., &rouff, c. (2007). swarms and swarm intelligence. computer, 40(4), 111-113. kennedy, j., kennedy, j. f., eberhart, r. c., & shi, y. (2001). swarm intelligence. morgan kaufmann. parpinelli, r. s., & lopes, h. s. (2011). new inspirations in swarm intelligence: a survey. international journal of bio-inspired computation, 3(1), 1-16. piaget, j. (1964). part i: cognitive development in children: piaget development and learning, journal of research in science teaching, 2(3), 176-186. piaget, j. (1973). main trends in psychology. london: george allen &unwin. singer, d. g. & revenson, t. a. (1997). a piaget primer: how a child thinks. international universities press, inc., 59 boston post road, madison, ct 06443-1524. yang, x. s., cui, z., xiao, r., gandomi, a. h., &karamanoglu, m. (eds.). (2013). swarm intelligence and bio-inspired computation: theory and applications. newnes. microsoft word special-issue-asamblare.docx 12 the impact of pharmacologic and prosthetic-aesthetic treatment in elderly with temporomandibular joint disorders and neuropsychiatric affectation laura elisabeta checherita grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 checherita.laura@gmail.com anamaria ciubara dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 anamburlea@yahoo.com lucian stefan burlea grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 lucianburlea@yahoo.com daniela manuc faculty of dental medicine carol davila university of medicine and pharmacy bulevardul eroii sanitari 8, bucharest 050474, romania phone: 021 318 0719 d_manuc@yahoo.com ovidiu stamatin faculty of dental medicine grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 ovidiustamatin@yahoo.com elena mihaela carausu faculty of dental medicine grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 mihaelacarausu@yahoo.com abstract the temporomandibular joint (tmj) imbalances and dysfunctions can lead to a group of different affections named temporomandibular disorders (tmds). elderly with tmds are experiencing severe phenomena due to instability centric relationship, craniomandibular malrelations, hypotonia, edentation and general chronic diseases. the aim of our study is to investigate the efficiency of the pharmacologic treatment followed by prosthetic-aesthetic and gnathological treatment in elderly patients. this prospective study is based on data obtained from 96 patients, aged 65-74, 67 female and 29 male. the data was analyzed by correlating the independent variables with the dependent ones and the prevalence of tmds. study results revealed a high prevalence of tmds (27.35%). the prevalence of tmj pain (81.25%) and depressive manifestations were high (47.92%). after the pharmacologic medication, in association with l. e. checherita, a. ciubara, l. s. burlea, d. manuc, o. stamatin, e. m. carausu the impact of pharmacologic and prosthetic-aesthetic treatment in elderly with temporomandibular joint disorders and neuropsychiatric affectation 13 prosthetic-aesthetic and gnathological treatment, the prevalence of depressive manifestations decreased (at 32.29%). in conclusion, the pharmacologic medication followed by prosthetic-aesthetic and gnathological treatment determine improved outcomes in elderly patients with tmds not only in terms of pain and neuropsychiatric manifestations, but also clinically, i.e., at tmj function level and in all the facial and oral aspects. keywords: dental public health; temporomandibular joint (tmj), temporomandibular disorders (tmds); algodysfunctional syndrome (ads); prosthetic-aesthetic and gnathologic treatment; neuropsychiatric affectation. 1. introduction population ageing is an undeniable fact; by the year 2025, the world will host 1.2 billion people aged 60 and over and rising to 1.9 billion in 2050. in 2017, people aged over 65 was 19.4% of the european population. the increase of geriatric population and their specific pathology, most of the health problems of older age being the result of chronic diseases, explain the high consumption of health services and medicines registered worldwide in the last 10 years (world report on ageing and health, 2015). for our country, the demographic data on 2017 showed that the share of persons aged 65 years and over was 17.8% of the romanian total population ("population statistics at regional level statistics explained", 2019; chisnoiu et. al., 2015). the ageing of populations worldwide demands comprehensive public-health responses. so, by now, two international policy instruments have guided action on ageing: “political declaration and madrid international plan of action on ageing” (2002) and the “world health organization’s active ageing: a policy framework” (geneva: world health organization, 2002). temporomandibular disorders (tmds) has been described as a cluster of different diseases (such as arthritis of the tmj, ankylosis of the tmj, internal derangement of tmj etc.), characterized by pain in the preauricular area, in the tmj and face, masticatory muscles and other muscles of the head and neck, limitation or deviations in mandibular range of motion, and clicking of the tmj during mandibular function. elderly patients are experiencing more severe phenomena due to instability centric relationship, edentation, hypotonia and altered craniomandibular relationships, chronic diseases, neurologic and psychiatric affectations (petersen & yamamoto, 2005). also, all the imbalances of tmj can lead to algodysfunctional syndrome (ads) (plesh et. al., 2011). a person is considered to have a tmd only if pain or limitation of motion is enough severe to make them seek professional care ("overview of temporomandibular disorders dental disorders msd manual professional edition", 2019; petersen et. al., 2013). 2. aim and objective nowadays, the scientific interest for tmds in the elderly is high and this pathology is considered a priority public health issue that requires special attention from dental medicine professionals. the purpose of our study is to investigate the impact of the tmds pharmacologic treatment, prosthetic-aesthetical, gnathological treatment and the neuropsychiatric affectations in elderly patients, outlining as first objective the evaluation of treatment effectiveness. one of the tmds that we will take into consideration in the study is the tmj arthrosis, which is, in fact, one of the frequent pathologies at this level in elderly patients. 3. material and method this is a prospective study based on data obtained between january 4, 2016 and october 30, 2018 from 358 elderly persons, aged 65-74, from iasi county and galati county. because we lost 7 patients from the study, for domicile changing reasons (4 persons) or death (3 persons), the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 14 response rate was 96.93%. the study involved 351 elderly persons, 114 men and 237 women; 103 of them were aged 65-74. in our final study group 96 elderly patients remained (mean age: 69.27 ± 5.73 years), diagnosed with tmds: 67 female and 29 male gender. data concerning general, oral and mental health were retrieved from elderly patients with painful tmds according to the research diagnostic criteria ("overview of temporomandibular disorders dental disorders msd manual professional edition", 2019; schiffman et. al., 2014). the inclusion criteria in our study were: agreement to participate in the study; age 65-74; definite diagnosis of tmds. also, in the last 90 days, all patients had to have experienced: pain in the temporomandibular region (or chronic pain at the level of stomatognatic system and cephalic extremity); presence of muscular tonus and muscular contraction alterations or muscular dysfunction (such, limitation of mouth opening, and deviation of mandible from the medial line during the opening, fatigue of cephalic extremity muscles and functional alteration of stomatognatic system). from the study the following categories were excluded: uncooperative elderly persons or those who did not respect the prescribed treatment; patients who refused to participate; mental diseases with mms less than 19; alcohol addicts (fillingim et. al., 2013). also excluded were the elderly with tmj affliction, trauma, rheumatoid arthritis or neoplasm and with all the other conditions that mimic the tmds ("overview of temporomandibular disorders dental disorders msd manual professional edition", 2019). study protocol we started the study (step 1) with the questionnaires (gonzalez et. al., 2011): a) “tmj pain screener” for tmj pain in the mandible or in the muscles, in the previous 90 days; b) “symptoms of tmds questionnaire” for subjective symptoms; c) “geriatric depression scale” (gds) and distress inventory for mental health and neuropsychiatric affectation (kroenke, spitzer, williams & löwe, 2009). we mention that the diagnosis of mental health affections in the elderly remains a problem because the symptoms are often masked or negated by the patient or their family, are frequent somatization of the diseases or cognitive disorder as its main manifestation (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 2013). the pain is the most common tmds symptom ("the national institutes of health (nih) consensus development program: management of temporomandibular disorders", 2019). in elderly patients, the pain is disabling and can impair cognitive functions, disrupt the sleep cycle, lead to a decrease in activities of daily living and stop elderly people to participate in social activities. nowadays, it is recognized that chronic pain is influenced by a dynamic interaction between physical, psychological and social factors. step 2 of our study was the tmj objective examination for clinical signs and a muscular examination; tmds diagnosis was based on a standard clinical examination and paraclinical exams, such as tmj tomography. the objective examination of the tmj has been realized by inspection, palpation and auscultation. pretragienical areas are statically and dynamically examined, both of the tmjs, firstly separate and then simultaneously for comparison. any static or dynamic deformation of the unilateral or bilateral pretragienical area has been registered both in mandibular rest or in occlusion and movement. during the tmj examination, the patient was ordered to execute closing/opening movements, aperture movements, laterality, protrusion, with a frequency that shall not be tiring and which permits careful observation. the presence of clicks in the tmj during opening/closing of the mouth has been monitored. the examination of the muscles in dynamic aims to detect the pain provoked by contraction and symmetric, equal participation in the realization of the mandibular dynamic movement. the examination of the muscles in order to determine the painful points and the irradiation areas is made by inspection and palpation; any painful areas, trigger areas with determinations at distance, as they are noted in the observation paper, circumscribing the painful area at direct palpation, trigger area, irradiation area. l. e. checherita, a. ciubara, l. s. burlea, d. manuc, o. stamatin, e. m. carausu the impact of pharmacologic and prosthetic-aesthetic treatment in elderly with temporomandibular joint disorders and neuropsychiatric affectation 15 step 3 of our study included: a) administering anti-inflammatory medication to control the tmds symptoms; b) prosthetic-aesthetic and gnatological treatment. prior to prescribing the medication, we considered the following: the existence in patients’ history of any allergic reactions or adverse drug reactions; indications, contraindications, interactions and dosage of prescribed drugs; medication tolerance and evolution of the symptoms under treatment were monitored. nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsaids) have been most commonly prescribed for pain in the orofacial region; nsaids were indicated for mild to moderate acute inflammatory conditions in the tmj and are generally beneficial for patients with inflammatory tmds resulting from disc displacement without reduction (ouanounou et. al., 2017). in our study, we administered anti-inflammatory medicine frequently used in tmj medication (as ibuprofen 800-1200 mg/day), for a period of 10to maximum 14 days. for all elderly patients the lowest effective dose was used to control tmds symptoms for the shortest treatment duration. variables as independent variables, demographic factors such as age, gender (male/female) and social environment (rural area/urban area) were taken into account. as dependent variables, we considered: general health indicators (pain), mental health indicators (depression, distress), symptoms of tmds, results of objective tmj examination for clinical signs or muscular examination and the use of dental prosthesis. the statistical analysis was performed with the spss 20.0 software package for windows (spss software, 2012). the obtained data allowed for the classification of patients with respect to gender distribution, age group distribution, clinical aspects, type of tmds treatment instituted, appreciation of chronic pain and mental health indicators. to assess the significance of the identified differences we performed the chi-squared test (pearson χ2); p values ≤ 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. especially, the chisquare test was used to evaluate the prevalence of tmds with gender and its association with mental health indicators (prevalence of distress and depression). the patients were informed about the study and the content of the questionnaire and appropriate consent was taken from all subjects. 4. results and discussions general characteristics of the studied group 96 elderly patients were included in the study: 67 (69.79%) female and 29 (30.21%) male gender (figure 1), the gender ratio being f/m=67/29= 2.31/1. elderly patients are divided depending on the social environment: 55 (57.29%) patients from rural and 41 (42.71%) patients from urban areas (figure 2). figure 1. gender distribution figure 2. social environment distribution 69.79% 30.21%30.21% female male 57.29%42.71% rural urban brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 16 also, the elderly patients were classified on age groups: 43 (44.79%) were aged 65-69 and 56 (58.33%) were aged 70-74 (table 1). table 1. general characteristics of the studied group the prevalence of tmds symptoms before treatment is presented in table 2. at the beginning of our study, the calculated prevalence of tmds in elderly patients was 27.35%: 25.44% in men and 28.27% in women. the unitary holistic vision supports the dishomeostatic theory in the generation of tmds and the idea of the conjugate action of trigger factors (dascalu, antohe, golovcencu & zegan, 2017; trandafir et. al., 2018). tmds severity after treatment, the severity of tmds decreased (with 8.33%) both in male (with 13.79%) and female (with 5.97%) patients. the self-reported pain disclosed tmj chronic problems. after treatment, the following could be noted: a decrease of moderate pain prevalence (with 6.21%) and a growth of pain free prevalence (with 3.13%). nevertheless, these changes are statistically insignificant (χ2c=1.281, df=3, p=0.73364968). table 2. reported tmds symptoms before treatment age: gender: variables: 65-74 years pearson’s χ2 male female total χ2c degrees of freedom (df) p value statistical significance n1 (%) n2 (%) n (%) 29 30.21 67 69.79 96 100.00 social environment: -urban; -rural. 11 18 26.83 32.73 30 37 73.17 67.27 41 55 42.71 57.27 0.388 1 0.533355256 ns age groups: -65-69 years; -70-74 years. 12 17 27.91 30.36 31 39 72.09 69.64 43 56 44.79 58.33 0.07 1 0.79133678 ns age: gender: variables: 65-74 years pearson’s χ2c male female total χ2c degrees of freedom (df) p value statistical significance n1 (%) n2 (%) n (%) tmds prevalence 29 25.44 67 28.27 96 27.35 0.311 1 0.57706719 ns tmds severity: -mild; -moderate; -severe. 11 15 3 37.93 51.72 10.35 24 37 6 35.82 55.22 8.96 35 52 9 36.46 54.17 9.37 0.112 2 0.9455391 ns pain in the last 90 days: -pain free; -mild; -moderate; 2 9 15 2 6.90 31.03 51.72 6.90 5 20 36 4 7.46 29.85 53.73 5.97 7 29 51 6 7.29 30.21 53.13 6.25 0.075 4 0.99931421 ns l. e. checherita, a. ciubara, l. s. burlea, d. manuc, o. stamatin, e. m. carausu the impact of pharmacologic and prosthetic-aesthetic treatment in elderly with temporomandibular joint disorders and neuropsychiatric affectation 17 the prevalence of tmds symptoms after treatment is presented in table 3. table 3. reported symptoms of tmds after treatment -severe; -non-response. 1 3.45 2 2.99 3 3.13 pain detected at palpation by examiner: -no; -yes. 7 22 24.14 75.86 11 56 16.42 83.58 18 78 18.75 81.25 0.792 1 0.37349605 ns headache attributed to tmds 14 48.28 35 52.24 49 51.04 0.127 1 0.72156305 ns depression: -mild depressive mood; -medium -depressive mood. 17 8 9 58.62 27.59 31.03 29 26 7 43.28 38.81 10.45 46 34 16 47.92 35.42 16.67 1.908 1 0.16718559 ns distress prevalence 6 20.69 17 25.37 23 23.96 0.244 1 0.62133191 ns dental prosthesis use 14 48.28 41 61.19 55 57.29 1.38 1 0.24010115 ns age: gender: variables: 65-74 years pearson’s χ2c male female total χ2c degrees of freedom (df) p value statistical significance n1 (%) n2 (%) n (%) tmds severity: -mild; -moderate; -severe. 15 12 2 51.72 41.38 6.90 28 35 4 41.79 52.24 5.97 43 47 6 44.79 48.96 6.25 0.991 2 0.6092662 ns self reported chronic pain: -pain free; -mild; -moderate; -severe. 3 12 12 2 10.34 41.38 41.38 6.90 7 24 34 2 10.45 35.82 50.75 2.99 10 36 46 4 10.42 37.50 47.92 4.17 1.281 3 0.73364968 ns pain detected at palpation by examiner: -pain free; -yes. 9 20 31.03 68.97 16 51 23.88 76.12 25 71 26.04 73.96 0.538 1 0.43626278 ns headache attributed to tmds 11 37.93 23 34.33 34 35.42 0.115 1 0.73452197 ns depression: 10 34.48 21 31.34 31 32.29 0.091 1 0.76290969 ns brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 18 after treatment, the prevalence of pain detected at palpation by examiner decreased (by 7.29%) in elderly patients, both in males (by 6.89%) and females (by 7.46%), but these changes are also statistically insignificant (χ2c=0.538, df=1, p=0.43626278). the prevalence of headache attributed to tmj disorders decreased (by 15.62%) in elderly patients. after treatment, in male gender subjects, a decrease of headache prevalence attributed to tmds (with 10.35%) can be noted; similarly to female gender subjects, a decrease (by 17.91%) of the tmds headache prevalence attributable to the treatment, statistically significant (χ2c=4.377, df=1, p=0.3642706) was observed. neuropsychiatric affectation elderly patients with persistent tmds problems may suffer psychologically and socially. failed treatments and recurrent pain contribute to distress (23.96%) and depression (figure 3). at the beginning of our study, the prevalence of depressive manifestations was high (47.92%); after pharmacological followed by prosthetic-aesthetical treatment, prevalence decreased (at 32.29%), which is statistically significant (χ2c=4.879, df=1, p=0.02718536). therapeutic effectiveness the effects of the nsaids were preserved throughout the time of administration; it can also be mentioned that improved outcomes were not observed only in terms of pain but also in terms of the clinical function of the tmj. figure 3. prevalence of neuropsychiatric affectation in elderly patients with tmds before and after treatment another important parameter that we took into consideration was the side effects of the nsaids treatment. in our study there were no usual side effects during the administration of any of the used drugs, if the basic rules are observed. -mild depressive mood; -medium depressive mood. 7 3 24.14 10.34 14 7 20.90 10.45 21 10 21.88 10.42 distress prevalence 3 10.34 11 16.42 14 14.58 0.599 1 0.43895983 ns dental aestheticprosthetic treatment 28 96.55 63 94.03 91 94.79 14.972 1 0.00010912 ss l. e. checherita, a. ciubara, l. s. burlea, d. manuc, o. stamatin, e. m. carausu the impact of pharmacologic and prosthetic-aesthetic treatment in elderly with temporomandibular joint disorders and neuropsychiatric affectation 19 elderly patients have been applied, simultaneously, different fix prosthetic treatments (condratovici et. al., 2018; oancea et. al., 2018), as follows: in 67 cases (69.79%) acrylic prostheses were applied and in the rest, both fixed and mobile, in 2 cases (2.08%) the method of relaxation mouth guards being used; only 5 elderly patients (5.21%) rejected the prosthetic treatment (figure 4). figure 4. prosthetic-aesthetic and gnathological treatment in elderly patients at the facial level, the appearance of the teeth and oral cavity as a whole is of particular importance, and by its morphology and complexity of functions, its physical and psychological significance is the dominant facial element. psychiatric disorders are secondary to body shape changes (facial features, facet level, golden proportions and intraoral signs) due to the projection of one’s own body morphology, which determines the degree of comfort of the individual in the report with the normal body composition. intraoral signs of edentation no longer correspond to the normal facial image created; inducing confusion can cause psychological imbalance or depression. in conclusion, pharmacologic medication followed by prosthetic-aesthetic and gnathological treatments determine improved health outcomes in elderly patients with tmds, not only in terms of tmj pain and neuropsychiatric manifestations (depression and distress), but also clinically, i.e., at tmj function level and in all the facial and oral aspects. contribution of the authors: all authors have equal contribution. conflict of interest: nothing to declare. references active ageing: a policy framework. geneva: world health organization. (2002). (who/nmh/ nph/02.8; retrieved from http://whqlibdoc. who.int/hq/2002/who_nmh_nph_02.8.pdf chisnoiu, a & monica picos, alina & popa, sever & daniel chisnoiu, petre & lascu, liana & andrei, picos & chisnoiu, radu. (2015). factors involved in the etiology of temporomandibular disorders a literature review. clujul medical. 88. 10.15386/cjmed-485. condratovici, c. p., ilie, m., mihai, m., condratovici, a. p., chihai, j., baciu, g. (2018). anxiety associated with visit to the dentist. romanian journal of oral rehabilitation. 10(2), 86-90. dascalu, c., antohe, m., golovcencu, l., & zegan, g. (2017). interaction schemes for the analysis of combined action of risk factors. 2017 e-health and bioengineering conference (ehb). doi: 10.1109/ehb.2017.7995461 diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders; 5th edition (dsm-5). (2013) arlington county (va): american psychiatric association. fillingim, r., ohrbach, r., greenspan, j., knott, c., diatchenko, l., & dubner, r. et. al. (2013). psychological factors associated with development of tmd: the oppera prospective cohort study. the journal of pain, 14(12), t75-t90. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2013.06.009. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 20 gonzalez, y., schiffman, e., gordon, s., seago, b., truelove, e., slade, g., & ohrbach, r. (2011). development of a brief and effective temporomandibular disorder pain screening questionnaire. the journal of the american dental association, 142(10), 1183-1191. doi: 10.14219/jada.archive.2011.0088. kroenke, k., spitzer, r., williams, j., & löwe, b. (2009). an ultra-brief screening scale for anxiety and depression: the phq–4. psychosomatics, 50(6), 613-621. doi: 10.1016/s00333182(09)70864-3. oancea, luminita & alexandru, petre & burlibasa, m & totu, eugenia & cristache, corina. (2018). variability in colour reproduction of metal-ceramic crowns. revista de chimie. 69. 2655-2661. ouanounou, aviv & goldberg, michael & a haas, daniel. (2017). pharmacotherapy in temporomandibular disorders: a review. journal (canadian dental association). 83. h7. overview of temporomandibular disorders dental disorders msd manual professional edition. (2019). retrieved from https://www.msdmanuals.com/professional/dentaldisorders/temporomandibular-disorders/overview-of-temporomandibular-disorders petersen, p. e., baez, r. j., & world health organization. ( 2013) . oral health surveys: basic methods, 5th ed. world health organization. petersen, p., & yamamoto, t. (2005). improving the oral health of older people: the approach of the who global oral health programme. community dentistry and oral epidemiology, 33(2), 81-92. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0528.2004.00219.x plesh, octavia & adams, sally & gansky, stuart. (2011). temporomandibular joint and muscle disorder-type pain and comorbid pains in a national us sample. journal of orofacial pain. 25. 190-8. political declaration and madrid international plan of action on ageing. new york: united nations. (2002). retrieved from http://www. un.org/en/events/pastevents/pdfs/madrid_plan.pdf population statistics at regional level statistics explained. (2019). retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=population_statistics_at_ regional_level schiffman, e., ohrbach, r., truelove, e., look, j., anderson, g., & goulet, j. et. al. (2014). diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular disorders (dc/tmd) for clinical and research applications: recommendations of the international rdc/tmd consortium network* and orofacial pain special interest group†. journal of oral & facial pain and headache, 28(1), 6-27. doi: 10.11607/jop.1151. spss software. (2012). the national institutes of health (nih) consensus development program: management of temporomandibular disorders. (2019). retrieved from https://consensus.nih.gov/1996/1996temporomandibulardisorders018html.htm trandafir, laura & baciu, g & constantin, maria-magdalena & maștaleru, alexandra & oanaraluca, temneanu & mihai, b & novac, o & frasinariu, o.e. & ivan, a & tudorachi, n.b. & hiary, r.a.l. & moscalu, mihaela. (2018). predictive biological markers in posttherapeutic evolution in obese patients. revista de chimie. 69. 3048-3051. world report on ageing and health. who, geneva. (2015). isbn: 978 92 4 069481 1. microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 88 some notes on artificial intelligence as a new mathematical tool angel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net abstract mathematics is a mere instance of first-order predicate calculus. therefore it belongs to applied monotonic logic. so, we have found the limitations of classical logic reasoning and the clear advantages of fuzzy logic and many other new interesting tools. we present here some of the most useful tools of this new field of mathematics, so-called artificial intelligence. keywords: computer science; artificial intelligence; game theory; graph theory; heuristics; mathematics. 1. introduction among the things that artificial intelligence (ai) needs in order to implement a representation are categories, objects, properties, relationships and so on. all of them are connected to mathematics, also constituting very adequate and illustrative examples. for instance, by showing fuzzy sets together with the usual crisp or classical sets, there results a particular case of the precedent. or, by typical concepts and strategies that are often supported by discrete mathematics, as well as the more convenient use of graph theory tools in many fields [1]. the ideas about thinking machines [5], the working mechanism of the human brain, the possibility of replicating its behavior may be materialized if we are able to produce some computational structure similar to a neural system, to reproduce its synapses by creating artificial neural networks... these are no science fiction fictional subjects. rather, they are real objects of study, and they have been so for a long time. recently, these topics have sprung up with renewed interest. the fundamental purpose of ai would be to create an admissible model for human knowledge. its subject is, therefore, "pure form“. we attempt to emulate the way a human brain reasons [12, 14]. this should be reached in successive, approximating steps, but the attempts always proceed in this sense. initially, these works on ai were over-idealizations of the real world. the fields were, therefore, "formal worlds". such search procedures were into the space of states, which contains the set of all states, or nodes, in the case of representation by graphs, that we can obtain when we apply all the available operators. early ai programs used the same basic algorithm. to achieve a certain goal (winning a game or proving a theorem), they proceeded step by step to it (by making a move or a deduction each time) as if searching through a maze, backtracking whenever they reached a dead end. this paradigm was called "reasoning as search”. ai began as the quest to create machines that could think for themselves, and perhaps someday out-think humans. over the years, ai has evolved into a more pragmatic discipline. ai uses different strategies to solve the complex practical problems [12, 15]. and intelligence itself is now known to be too complex to be described by a single theory. instead, multiple theories characterize the subject, with distinct levels of abstraction [14]. at the lowest, neural networks, genetic algorithms and other forms aid in understanding adaptation, perception, interaction, etc., with the physical world. on a more abstract level, designers of expert systems, natural language…, reflect the role of processes in creating, sustaining, and transmitting knowledge. the techniques for solving problems, in ai, can be of two types: a. garrido some notes on artificial intelligence as a new mathematical tool 89 • declarative: they permit the description of the known aspects of the problem (it is the heuristic treatment), and • procedural: which itemize the necessary paths to reach the solution of the problem (it is the algorithmic treatment). but to pose problems is equivalent to constructing their solutions. this requires an agent, the system or program to execute; a set of actions, which allow us to reach such objectives; and a procedure of election, which allows us to decide between distinct paths towards reaching its solution. the inference in rule based systems (rbs) consists of establishing the certainty of some typical statement, from the information into the base of facts (bf) and the knowledge base (kb). we have two available methods, going forward, and going backward concatenation. the rules show advantages on classical logic, where the reasoning was monotonic, with inferences without contradiction with pre-existing established facts. and, in the rbs, we can delete or substitute facts from the base of facts, according to the new inferences. all are provisional and modifiable; this is what made the reasoning non-monotonic. another question is this: if there exists more than one rule that can be applied at a given time, which one should be executed first? such set of rules constitutes, in each step, the conflict set (which would be dynamic). the underlying decision problem is called resolution of conflicts, or control of reasoning. 2. searching strategies there exist different strategies to select a rule for each step: ordering of rules, control of agendas, criterion of actuality, and criterion of specificity. the criterion of specificity leads to executing, first of all, the more specific rules, i.e. those with more facts in its antecedent. we also have mechanisms of control in rbs. so, by the mechanism of refractarity, we forbid repeating the execution of an already used rule, unless more information exists that would allow or recommend such a case; rule sets allow us to activate or also to neutralize blocks of rules; and meta-rules, or rules which treat (or reason) about other rules. such meta-rules can collaborate in control of reasoning, with the change or assignation of priorities to different rules, according to the evolution of circumstances. nets: out of these, the most recent studies deal with bayesian networks. before its apparition [12], the purpose was to obtain useful systems for medical diagnosis, by classical statistical techniques, such as the bayes rule. a bayesian net is represented as a pair (g, d), where g will be a directed, acyclic and connected graph, and d will be a probability distribution, associated with the corresponding random variables. such distribution must verify the property of directional separation, according to which the probability of a random variable does not depend on its non descendant nodes. the inference in bayesian networks consists in establishing on the net, for the known variables, their values, and for the unknown variables, their respective probabilities. the objective of bayesian networks in medicine would be to find the probability of success of a certain diagnosis, given certain symptoms. a classical and illustrative example of bayesian network will be the well-known net socalled asia (see figure 1): brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 90 figure 1. asia bayesian network we need to work with the following hypotheses, exclusivity, exhaustivity and conditional independence. according to the principle of exclusivity, two different diagnoses cannot be right at the same time. with exhaustivity, we suppose that all possible diagnoses are at hand. and by the ci (conditional independence), the discoveries found must be mutually independent to a given diagnosis. the usual problem with such hypotheses is their inadequacy to the real world. so, it is very convenient to introduce bayesian networks. in the process, the correspondence between state and node of the graph, and between arc (edge into the graph) and operator is clear. by searching in extent, we advance in the graph through levels. or, we obtain the least cost solution, if it exists (see figure 2). but, by depth searching we must expand one link each time, from the root – node (see figure 3). if we reach a blind alley in the graph, we go back to the nearest node, and from this, we take one branch in the graph. it is usual to establish an exploration limit, or depth limit, fixing the maximal length from the root. figure 2. search in extent figure 3. search in depth a. garrido some notes on artificial intelligence as a new mathematical tool 91 a “knowledge engineer” attempts to translate the most interesting information of an expert in a certain domain, by a computer program, in order to carry out some task. it is the purpose of expert systems (es). the first of them was mycin (1974) which diagnoses bacterial infections of the blood and suggested treatments. currently, most feasible kinds of es try to put some information in one of a fixed set of categories using several sources of information. an example would be advising whether to accept a proposed credit card purchase. information is available about the owner of the credit card, his record of payment and also about the item he is buying, the type of establishment from which he is buying it, etc. this approach is also very usual in medical prediction and diagnosis. heuristic search, i.e. searching with knowledge of the domain [12]. initially, it was hoped that every path could be explored by the computer. but it sounds too optimistic! such an exploration would be unfeasible, because of the well-known phenomenon of "combinatorial explosion” of the branching, when we expand. both, spatial and temporal complexity, can advise us against its realization. for this, we need to select the most promising trajectories. in this way, we cannot obtain the best solution (optimum), but a solution close to it, efficiently. now, we introduce a new mathematical tool, the so-called heuristic evaluation function, f. by such a function, we assign a value, f (n), to each node n. so, such f (n) gives us the estimation of the distance (unknown value) from the current node, n, until the final node, m. also, there are strategies for the treatment of searching problems with two adversaries. in this case, the general purpose is to select the necessary steps to win the game. chess is a good example and, in fact, it was its origin. but also go, or other games [2]. we may assume alternative moves: the ideal for each move would be when the player knows his possibilities and realizes the most unfavorable move for its adversary [6, 7]. when we formulate a problem, we start from the statement, or the explanation of it, in natural language [13]. fundamentally, its treatment is based on the "level of knowledge”, introduced by newell, in 1981, as "abstract level of interpretation of systems, in ai". also basic is the “rationality principle”, according to which "if a system has the knowledge according to which one of its actions leads to one of its goal then such action is carried out". 3. some conclusions all these problems, their methods of solution or approximation tools, may be adequately implemented in the class-room [3, 11]. for instance, implementing mathematical games, such as chess or go, would improve the logical capacities of students, in any school level: in the elemental level, it may be an interesting stimulant to promote hidden potentialities [9, 10, 11]. in higher levels [8], it may contribute to strengthen the logical and deductive qualities of the researchers, by challenges such as the halting problem, or the travelling salesman problem (tsp), or even the still unanswered question of the 21st-century generation, p versus np, with its multiple implications [4]. the aforementioned tools, currently very useful in mathematics and ai, such as the graph theory tools, may be used to explain classical and very exciting questions. 4. references [1] courant, r. (1996), what is mathematics? an elementary approach to ideas and methods. oup. [2] chen, z. (2009), “heuristic reasoning on graph and game complexity of sudoku”. the smithsonian/nasa astrophysics system. [3] guzmán. m. de (2001), para pensar mejor. desarrollo de la creatividad a través de los procesos matemáticos. ediciones pirámide, madrid. [4] kahneman, d.; slovic, p., and tversky (1982), judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases. cup. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 92 [5] mccorduck, p. (2004), machines who think (2nd ed.), natick, ma: a. k. peters, ltd. [6] mitchell, d. (1997): mathematical origami. tarquin publishing. [7] mitchell, d. (2009): complete origami. firefly books. [8] pólya, g. (2009): how to solve it: a new aspect of mathematical method. ishi press. first edition, 1945. [9] pólya, g. (1990): mathematics and plausible reasoning: in two volumes, vol. i: induction and analogy in mathematics. vol. ii: patterns of plausible inference. both in princeton university press. [10] pólya, g. (1981): mathematical discovery: on understanding, learning and teaching problem solving. wiley. [11] pólya, and kirkpatrick (2009): the stanford mathematics problem book: with hints and solutions. dover mathematical books. [12] russell, s., and norvig, p. (2003), artificial intelligence: a modern approach (2nd ed.), prentice hall. [13] samuel, a. l. (1959), "some studies in machine learning using the game of checkers”, ibm journal of research and development 3 (3): 210−219. [14] searle, j. (1980), "minds, brains, and programs", behavioral and sciences 3 (3): 417–457. [15] turing a. (1950), "computing machinery and intelligence", mind, lix (236): 433–460. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 50 teachers’ beliefs in balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance in efl classrooms ismail tahir graduate program in english language teaching state university of malang, indonesia tel.: +6285340449654 ismailtahir43@yahoo.com abstract linguistic competence and teaching performance among english teachers in efl (english as a foreign language) classrooms have been at the center of linguists’ discussion, both theoretical and applied in the 21st century. this study attempts to examine the importance of balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance in learning and teaching of english classrooms. moreover, this study aims at exploring the different ways of linguistic competence and teaching performance defined by linguists. it also investigates how differing interpretations of these two concepts influence learning and teaching in foreign language classrooms. following the idea above, an online survey was conducted to discover the efl teachers’ beliefs about linguistic competence and teaching performance in efl teaching practices. the result indicated that most of them have a clear idea toward the concept of linguistic competencies and teaching performance and believed that it is important for efl teachers to have a good command of linguistic competence in order to help them perform better in their teaching practices/performances. therefore, linguistic competencies and teaching performance should be placed equally. keywords: linguistic competence, teaching performance, efl teachers, efl classroom. 1. background of the study it is an important element to discuss the linguistic competence related to teachers’ competence in the teaching and learning process because teachers have to design, implement, and develop the syllabus. mowla (2008) stated that teachers should improve their language skills in order to get well-educated learners who will be involved in the teaching-learning process. by considering this purpose, thus, efl teachers have to be competent linguistically and professionally particularly in the language they teach. linguistic competence can be defined as the system of linguistic knowledge (chomsky, 1965). it is different from a linguistic performance that emphasizes on the way of the language system which is used in communication. linguistic competence, therefore, deals primarily with an idea between a speaker and a listener in applying the language knowledge in actual performance. applied to language learning and teaching, linguistic competence plays an important aspect for language teachers in order to gain the goals of language learning and teaching. hattie (2009) argued that the quality of a teacher is one of the key factors that may have contributed a lot to the students’ achievement. thus, as language teachers, particularly english foreign language (efl) teachers, should have linguistic competence such as communicative competence including general competencies. the general competencies can be categorized both in linguistics and language teaching performance. it is because both linguistic competence and teaching performance have influenced the process of teaching and learning in language classrooms. it is because there was a significant difference between teachers’ linguistic competence and their achievement as language teachers (majeed, n. t. & yassein, m. t. 2013). as a result of the research conducted by these researchers, it is found that efl teachers must have well enough linguistic competence because it is found that efl teachers, especially in that research, did not develop their linguistic competence through selfdevelopment. i. tahir teachers’ beliefs in balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance in efl classrooms 51 therefore, it is suggested that efl teachers should be continuously involved with inservice training courses in order to develop their linguistic competence. by considering this case, it automatically will help efl teachers to create and do an effective language classroom. in line with this case, newby (2011) established that there is a relationship between the use of a linguistic code of a language (performance) and the basic rules of language knowledge stored in the minds of a person (competence). therefore, this current research is conducted to seek how important linguistic competence to influence efl teachers’ performance in learning and teaching process. as good language teachers, they do not only have to know well about pedagogical competence, interpersonal skill, and personal qualities, but they also have to consider more about technical knowledge (hartatik, 2011). it can be illustrated in the picture below. figure 1. good characters of efl teachers (hartatik, 2011) this concept is about how efl teachers understand the linguistic system of english phonology, grammar, and discourse. they may also comprehensively grasp the basic principles of language learning and teaching. in relation to this concept, efl teachers, therefore, should be encouraged to have a good skill about language knowledge and language use because it will let them give the opportunity for their students to interact using english in both receptive and productive skills such as speaking and listening (tahir, 2017). wong (2011) stated that language knowledge is about the structure of a language while language use is related to the language production and the use of the language physically such as spoken or written skill. in addition, efl teachers should have fluent competence in language skills (speaking, writing, listening and reading) which can be related to the understanding of the close connection between language and culture so that they can relate teaching and learning process to the real experience. moreover, efl teachers should place the knowledge as the first aspect in order to develop the students’ achievement in a foreign language. patel (2003) cited in tahir (2017) stated the holistic approach which covers some aspects that should be considered by efl teachers such as knowledge, self, discipline, personal and professional development, and learning and teaching. pedagogical competence interpersonal skill personal skill technical knowledge linguistic competence teaching performance efl teachers brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 52 2. research objective the objective of this study is to investigate the efl teachers’ beliefs, perspective, and suggestions about balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance in the elf classrooms. 3. research problem the research problem is formulated as “what are the efl teachers’ beliefs, perspective, and suggestion about balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance in the efl classrooms?” 4. research methodology the research design is descriptive qualitative. for collecting the data, the researcher conducted an online survey among efl teachers. those all teachers were randomly selected. there were 132 efl teachers participated in the current study. after receiving 132 questionnaires, however, out of 132 efl teachers 30 of them answered and returned the questionnaires. out of 30 teachers who returned the questionnaires, 5 of them were willing to be interviewed by telephone. these 30 efl teachers (12 male and 18 female) were randomly taken from the different level of schools such as an elementary school, a junior high school, a senior high school, and a private english course in gorontalo, indonesia, to respond to the questionnaire. besides, these participants consist of 3 teachers from elementary schools, 6 teachers from junior high schools, 6 teachers from senior high schools, and 15 teachers from private schools. the questionnaire and interview were used to gather efl teachers’ perspectives about the concept of linguistic competence and teaching practices in efl classrooms. additionally, the survey conducted based on the characteristics of good language teachers, which consists of four major areas namely pedagogical competence, interpersonal skill and personal skill, and technical knowledge. moreover, the questionnaire or the interview designed by the researcher consists of two main parts of questions. the first part was about efl teachers’ general identity while another part was about the questions of their beliefs and perspective about linguistic competence and teaching performance. regarding their perspective and beliefs about linguistic competence and teaching performance, there were seven general questions formulated by the researcher. those are about the important aspect to understand the linguistic system of english phonology, grammar, and discourse in efl classrooms; their perspective about efl teachers’ responsibility to comprehensively grasp the basic principles of language learning and teaching, efl teachers have to have fluent competence in language skills (speaking, writing, listening, and reading), efl teachers need to know and do the effective classroom teaching by understanding the knowledge and skill of english and teachers’ quality. 5. results from the questionnaire and interview provided by the researchers to the participants, the result indicated that about 50% efl teachers were from formal schools (elementary schools, junior high schools, and senior high schools) and 50 % efl teachers were from non-formal schools (private schools). this result can be seen in the table 1. table 1. the total of participants schools gender total elementary schools female (2), male (1) 3 junior high schools female (3), male (3) 6 senior high schools female (2), male (4) 6 private schools female (9), male (6) 15 total 30 i. tahir teachers’ beliefs in balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance in efl classrooms 53 furthermore, all participants have been asked and interviewed about their perspective on efl teachers’ linguistic competencies and teaching performances. the general indicators of the questions to get the information are stated in the table 2. table 2: teachers’ perspective about linguistic competence and teaching performance in efl classrooms items variables frequency percent (%) is it important to understand the linguistic system of english phonology, grammar, and discourse in efl classrooms? why? strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 9 14 4 3 20.7 47.5 8.6 7.5 do you think efl teachers need to comprehensively grasp the basic principles of language learning and teaching? why? strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 6 15 5 4 16.2 52.7 12.6 8.6 why does an english teacher have to have fluent competence in speaking, writing, listening, and reading? strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 8 17 3 2 19.2 66.7 7.5 6.7 do you agree that efl teachers need to understand the close connection between language and culture? why? strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 15 9 4 2 52.7 20.7 8.6 6.7 do you think teachers need to know and to do the effective classroom teaching by understanding the knowledge and skills of english? why? strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 10 15 5 0 25.7 52.7 12.6 0 do you think efl teachers' quality is one of the key factors that influence students' achievement? why? strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 8 12 6 4 19.2 34.6 16.2 8.6 because there were seven general questions formulated by the researcher, in the current research, one of those seven questions is not mentioned in the table above. this is because the efl teachers’ suggestions were gathered as recommendations to the future efl teachers. therefore, further explanation will be provided in the next part. furthermore, based on the results above, it can be determined that most of the participants stated “agree” in answering those seven general questions. the calculation of this result can be drawn in the table below. table 3. the amount of responses of the general questions variables questions response(s) strongly agree question 1 question 2 question 3 question 4 question 5 question 6 total 9 6 8 15 10 8 56 agree question 1 question 2 question 3 question 4 question 5 question 6 total 14 15 17 9 15 12 82 disagree question 1 4 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 54 question 2 question 3 question 4 question 5 question 6 total 5 3 4 5 6 27 strongly disagree question 1 question 2 question 3 question 4 question 5 question 6 total 3 4 2 2 0 4 15 the table above determines that most of efl teachers from different level schools agreed with the given questions. by analyzing the result from this table, it shows that most of efl teachers in gorontalo state their argument in the “agree” aspect, which shows 82 total responses. however, their argument in the “strongly agree” answer is in the second place which shows 56 total responses, and the following aspects, the “disagree” and “strongly disagree” aspects, are in the third and fourth places which shows 27 and 15 total responses. 6. discussions the questionnaire and interview help the researcher to gather the participants’ responses related to the linguistic competence and teaching performances in english teaching and learning process. 6.1. efl teachers’ beliefs about balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance most of the participants agree that it is important for efl teachers to master and understand the linguistic system because they believe that teachers need to have better skills than students. in addition, it will also help them to speak and write correctly in order to make them professional because all those items of the linguistic system will influence teachers’ pedagogical skill, interpersonal skill, and personal qualities. in relation to pedagogical skill, the linguistic system will help teachers to prepare better and suitable lesson before they teach in a classroom. this is due to guiding students to a better understanding and application of english usage. this means that teachers need to integrate the linguistic aspects, not completely teach the theory. in other words, linguistic competence in terms of english phonology, grammar, and discourse are the fundamental of learning english. however, another side from the participants’ perspective explained that not all the linguistic elements are important because when teaching english grammar, they tend to apply the use of language grammar into a daily conversation rather than explaining the structure, particularly for elementary students. in contrast, it is important for teachers to teach grammar rules for advanced levels because of their level of education. moreover, efl teachers need to have the basic principles of language learning and teaching. all participants involved in this current research argued that they strongly agreed if efl teachers have to have good enough basic principles before teaching in order to make the students comprehend the material so that the result of teaching and learning will be maximum. it is because mastering basic principles of language learning is a must. in addition, teachers are obligated to comprehend basic principles of language learning and teaching. even though they are gifted to be a teacher, understanding the notions of language, learning, and teaching, will expand their insight and deliver a successful learning in practice because the basic principle of teaching is the first key to the teachers’ needs in order to make the effective teaching goals. hattie (2009) emphasized that a teacher’s competence plays major roles in students’ achievement. i. tahir teachers’ beliefs in balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance in efl classrooms 55 in relation to the students’ achievement, therefore, teachers are not only teachers but are also promoters, motivators, and facilitators or role model for their students. in relation to this concept, efl teachers should propose a pedagogical framework consisted of teacher wisdom (teachers’ experiences, strategies, personal role and task design), device features (any kinds of language learning devices), learner mobility (place and time in language learning and teaching), and language dynamics (the variation of communication and language use (kukulska-hulme, norris, and donohue (2015, cited in tahir, 2017). the pedagogical framework is drawn in the picture below. figure 2. pedagogical framework this is also in line with the teachers’ language competence. due to the effective teaching and learning, teachers are expected to have fluent competence in language skills such as speaking, writing, listening and reading. it is an important aspect to be mastered by efl teachers since these language skills are connected to each other, for example, the integration between listening and speaking or reading and writing (receptive and productive skills). moreover, it leads to a concept that the teacher’s competence will influence the students’ competence. however, there are six participants who were not really sure about having all these language skills in teaching and learning. they argue that a teacher may have no preference or the skill that they understand the most. therefore, it will be alright if a teacher may have no perfect comprehension in one of the skills. nevertheless, it is continuously equipping them with sufficient knowledge of the four language skill essentials. 6.2. efl teacher’s perspective about language and culture to support teaching performance to connect the language and culture in language teaching and learning should be understood by efl teachers. it is a good thing if teachers include culture in language teaching due to the compulsory skills. also, to understand the language, both teachers and students should understand the culture as well as possible because they are acquired together and are not separate (mitchell and myles, 2004 cited in ho, 2009). as a consequence, teachers should learn the culture in order to make a connection between the language use, for example, the use of formal words the teacher taught to the students or informal vocabularies that are only used in a specific situation. in relation to culture, understanding the language will be demonstrated about understanding the culture which can take teachers and students to the way of life, the way they think, feel, exist, and relate to each other. efl teachers, of course, will be challenged with this situation because they are capable of reflecting the relationship between two cultures. it also helps students to experience new things, particularly about culture, because the culture contributes to the students’ achievement, especially if the topic is interesting. pedagogical framework teacher wisdom device features language dynamics learner mobility brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 56 6.3. efl teachers’ suggestions to all efl teachers about balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance there are actually several points that should be considered as efl teachers to balance their linguistic competence and teaching performance. it is because teaching a language is teaching to people how to communicate to others using other languages. in relation to the teaching and learning process, students’ confidence in using the language is more important than sticking to the patterns and making students use correct grammar usage. teachers should let the students communicate and do “trials, mistakes, and errors” so they can learn more from practice than methods of learning. another perspective given by the participants was about reading. all efl teachers may improve their linguistic competencies and teaching performances by reading and studying the material of linguistic competences and practicing it in the classroom. the teachers can also share information with other teachers and absolutely join in a workshop about linguistic competencies. however, to be a good teacher who balances linguistic competence and teaching performance, it should be from their heart. teachers do not have to think a lot about money or salary due to being a teacher is a great job. thus, teachers should rely more on the responsibility of teachers in order to make the students change the world by pursuing their dreams. 7. conclusions and suggestions to live in today’s multicultural world, efl teachers should encourage themselves to be professional. they are expected to have a good competence in language especially english as a foreign language. they need to develop their knowledge about english in order to support their performances in teaching english. thus, they are not only expected to develop their language knowledge or linguistic competence but they should also try to be good english teachers by mastering their linguistic competence and their ability to teach english their students. by having the whole explanation about this current research, it can be concluded that most of efl teachers in gorontalo, indonesia, have strong argumentations about balancing their linguistic competence and teaching performance in teaching english as a foreign language. moreover, it is really important to have good enough linguistic competence in order to support or help teachers to teach in language classrooms. thus, the characteristic of teachers in terms of their competencies is needed. to have good characteristics of efl teachers, they have to encourage themselves to have good linguistic competence and teaching performance for a better practice in efl classrooms. references bhatt, d., & lilian, l. (2016). an analysis of receptive and productive skills of english language with special reference to indigenous people in odisha. international journal of english language, literature and translation studies (ijelr), 3(3), 633-639. brown, h.d. & lee, h. (2015). teaching by principles, an interactive approach to language pedagogy. pearson education: new york browne, c. & fotos, s. (2004). new perspectives on call for second language classrooms. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. chen, z., & yeung, a. s. (2015). learning to teach in a research-oriented schools-based language teaching programme. electronic journal of foreign language teaching, 12(2), 183-199. chomsky, n. (1965). aspects of the theory of syntax. cambridge, ma: mit press. council of minister education canada. (2013). speaking for excellence: language competencies for effective practice. retrieved april 30, 2017. retrieved from www.cmec.ca cresweell, j.w. (2012) educational research, university of nebraska-lincoln: pearson ellis, r. (2003). second language acquisition. great clarendon street, oxford: new york funk, h. (2012). four models of language learning and acquisition and their methodological implications for textbook design. electronic journal of foreign language teaching, 9(1), 298-311. i. tahir teachers’ beliefs in balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance in efl classrooms 57 hartatik,, s.f. (2011). improving teachers professionalism: toward better english language teaching in indonesia. in h. cahyani & b. y. cahyono (eds), best practices in the teaching of english (pp. 411-423). malang: state university of press. hattie, j. a. c. (2009).visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement, london, uk: routledge. ho, s. t. k. (2009). addressing culture in efl classrooms: the challenge of shifting from a traditional to an international stance. electronic journal of foreign language teaching, 6(1), 63-76. karabuga, f. (2015). match or mismatch between learning styles of prep-class efl students and efl teachers. electronic journal of foreign language teaching, 12(2), 276-288. kirmizi, o. (2011). philosophical and theoretical bases of applied linguistics and second language acquisition. ethos: dialogues in philosophy and social sciences, 4(2), 14-30. lam, h. c. (2011). a critical analysis of the various ways of teaching chinese characters. electronic journal of foreign language teaching,8(1), 57-70. larenas, c. d. & hernandes, p. a. (2015). a case study on efl teachers’ beliefs about the teaching and learning of english in public education. porta linguarum, 171-186 latief, m. a. (2015). research methods on language learning: an introduction. malang: um press. majeed, n. t. & yassein, m. t. (2013). an assessment of lingusictic competence of intermediate school teachers of english as a foreign language. university of tikrit & university of anbar, 113-130 martinez, i. m.p. (1996). the importance of language strategies in foreign language teaching. cuadernos de filologia inglesa, 5(1), 103-120. merc, a. (2015). assessing the performance in elt teaching practicum: students teachers’ views. international journal of higher education, 4(2), 44-56. mowla, d.s. (2008) techniques of teaching english. hyderabad: sri vinayaka art printers. mundhe, g.b. (2015). teaching receptive and productive language skills with the help of techniques. an international journal in english, 1(2), 1-6. newby, d. (2011). competence and performance in learning and teaching: theories and practices. the 19th istal paper, 15-30. nguyen, h. p. c. (2015). efl teaching practicums in vietnam: the vexed partnership between universities and schools. electronic journal of foreign language teaching,12(2), 169182. sadeghi, k. & soleimani, m. (2015). language education and applied linguistics: bridging the two fields, howard nicolas and donna starks. iranian journal of langauge teaching research, 3(1), 141-143. swanson, p.b. (2013). from teacher training through the first year on the job: changes in foreign language teacher efficacy. electronic journal of foreign language teaching,10(1), 5-16. tahir, i. (2017). english pedagogy through holistic approach for efl students’ engagement in indonesia. people: international journal of social sciences: 3(1), 273-287. tahir, i. (2017). the effect of implementing the experiential learning model in listening comprehension for the eleventh graders at sman 1 telaga biru. advances in language literary studies: 8(5), 46-50 thomson, n. (2012). language teaching strategies and techniques used to support students learning in a language other than their mother tongue. kongsberg international school widdowson, h. g. (1984). exploration in applied linguistic 2. oxford: oxford university press. wong, r. m. h. (2011). developing teacher awareness of language use and language knowledge in english classrooms: four longitudinal cases. electronic journal of foreign language teaching, 8(1), 19-38. yazdanmehr, e. & akbari, r. (2015). an expert efl teacher’s class management. iranian journal of langauge teaching research, 3(2), 1-13. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 58 yuan, r., & lee, i. (2014). pre-service teachers’ changing beliefs in the teaching practicum: three cases in an efl context. system, 44(1), 1-12. ismail tahir received the spd degree in 2015 from english language teaching (elt) program of state university of gorontalo, indonesia. currently, he is taking his master degree in elt program of state university of malang, indonesia. his research interests include teaching english as a foreign language (tefl), english language teaching (elt) method, learning strategy use, and teaching speaking and listening. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 163 perceptions of romanian students on uses and value of educational resources shared via ict. case study: politehnica university timisoara mariana cernicova politehnica university of timisoara, romania piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006 tel: +40-256 404014 mariana.cernicova@upt.ro vasile gherheș politehnica university of timisoara, romania piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006 tel: +40-256 404014 vasile.gherhes@upt.ro abstract in the technology-dense environment of the “millennial generation”, the use of ict for educational purposes is inevitable. students use multiple devices for communicating with peers and professors, for interaction with institutions, retrieve content, propose topics, and inquire for information at a pace and in a volume, that can be overwhelming without the intervention of ict. computer assisted teaching and learning already have a history both in practice, and in research. however, new technologies and convergent devices make way for a new philosophy on educational processes. the present study considers the perceptions of students at politehnica university regarding the shared educational resources, both on a vertical communication stream (professor-tostudent) and horizontally (student-to-student). the study explores common practices of students who need to evaluate, decide and create or not a virtual learning community, since they are enrolled and expected to attend classes in the traditional manner. the outcomes of the sociological survey are useful for educating critical thinking in evaluating educational resources on the part of the students, but also help professors in higher education to make informed decisions regarding their educational practices. keywords: educational resource, ict, sharing, educational practice, student 1. context and aims of the study the digital revolution that impacted economic life, social interactions, communication habits and even subtle elements of identity-building could not leave education aside. educational systems all over the world attempted considered a matter of pedagogical modernity the incorporation of technology in classroom activities. the birth of world wide web and later the convergence of technologies, the possibilities offered by practically unlimited capabilities of internet to store, organize and allow for retrieval of information – all these challenged educators to address several crucial questions around the essence of the educational process and the capacity of such traditional structures as higher education to preserve its roles and functions, while navigating the unchartered waters of modernity (aviram, 2010). the millennial or net generation reach already the age when it fills in the amphitheaters of universities (oblinger and lippincott, 2005). the young adults bring along their intensive use of technology, their dependence on often checking-up (and checking-in) their status on the internet, their restlessness with linear communication, no longer in fashion, no longer considered valuable. the fact that digital immigrants are called to teach digital natives is underlined over and over for more than 15 years, ever since marc prensky warned the educators that the new generation is “wired” differently than those born in the 20th century (prensky, 2001). the wake-up call for schools rang loudly, and creative schools need to understand the grassroots revolution that is transforming education (robinson, 2015). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 164 a vast literature deals with different aspects of the way in which education in general, and universities behave in the web 2.0 context. we were particularly interested in the communication processes mediated by technology and carried out via the channels available due to an unprecedented proliferation of platforms. it is largely accepted that both faculty and students make use of facebook, wiki, blogs, linkedin and so on for educational purposes and for personal development (moran, m., seaman, j., tinti-kane, h., 2012; gherheş, v., obrad, c. 2016). connectivism is a distinctive feature of social interaction and it and profoundly impacts sharing knowledge in a large variety of uses, educational ones included (brindley, j. e., walti, c., blaschke l. m., 2009). it ensures that the continuum of contact is maintained, despite the discontinuous, nonlinear face-to-face contact of the networked students and faculty. while understanding that higher education shifts in educational philosophy and practice are significant, we focused on an instance of the educational process: the uses of the various tools of communication in educational purposes. we embarked on a journey to understand how students and faculty in a selected institution, politehnica university of timisoara, make use of technology for teaching, learning, problemsolving, resource-sharing in the educational process, aiming to grasp the big picture of learning communities in romania and, further, to identify the features that can be considered as typical for student presence in online and offline learning communities. we focused on the following objectives: o1. identify the main communication tools employed by students for learning o2. determine the types of (online) groups used by students for educational purposes and the time spent on each group o3. identify the characteristics of the group used for educational purposes (membership, time, frequency of posting) and the relevance of these characteristics for learning o4. highlighting the features of the group used for learning purposes we resonated with the study carried out by hong and gardner (2014) on platforms used for learning contexts and we were aware of the challenges posed by the task of creating effective study groups, but we were interested to refine our tools of building and using virtual groups that best suit our students and to measure students’ readiness to embrace the multiple functions that virtual groups can offer for problem-solving and content-sharing in the learning process. 2. methodology we collected data by resorting to a qualitative method, through a face-to-face applied questionnaire in spring 2016, favoring this method to ensure a larger response rate than the ones obtained via online polling. the research was conducted by applying an anonymous questionnaire to almost 400 subjects from various years of study (1 to 4), derived from polytechnic university of timisoara, the error recorded as one of 5%. we turned to the traditionally applied questionnaires because of the low rate of responses received through online forums on previous research on similar populations. questionnaires were applied both in technical specializations in the university and at the typical humanist, the specialty (technical education vs. humanistic education) being one of the variables further analyzed as being relevant for the student population. other variables that may influence the results were: gender (male-female) and year of study (1-2-3-4). as a corpus, we polled students in politehnica university timisoara, enrolled in traditional formations, obtaining 374 valid questionnaires (11 questions) self-administered by students. prior to launching the survey, we tested the design of the questionnaire on a pilot group and corrected some of the questions, estimated the time, necessary to fill in the questionnaires and discussed the relevance of the questions with the targeted population. the error rate in processing the results is 5%. 3. findings and discussion a first issue for this study was to identify the main tools used by students for learning. as it can be seen from the chart below, to document learning purposes (seminar, laboratory, exam) most of the students use websites (29.4%) and wikis (28.1%). for projects and other tasks in seminars they prefer facebook (22%) followed by wiki (21%) and web pages (20.1%). (figure 1). m. cernicova, v. gherheș perceptions of romanian students on uses and value of educational resources shared via ict. case study: politehnica university timisoara 165 7,1% 18,6% 22,0% ,2% 5,0% ,2% 2,9% 2,9% 7,0% ,3% 10,3% ,3% 28,1% 4,4% 1,2% 29,4% 21,0% 20,1% 4,8% 14,2% phone e-mail facebook linkedin youtube twitter wiki blog whatsapp web page for classroom projects and seminar tasks to document learning purposes (seminar, laboratory, exam) as student, what are your main instruments used for… figure 1. tools for documentation to distribute (share) learning support materials, almost half of the respondents declare that facebook is by far their first choice (53%), followed by an asynchronous email communication (28.6%) (figure 2). figure 2. tools for resource sharing communication with teachers is done primarily through e-mail (55.8%), followed by communication via facebook (27.9%). the data change when the question investigated communication habits among colleagues, carried out almost equally through facebook platform (38.1%) and the mobile phone (34.9%). not very far from these, the whatsapp channel leaves behind other means of communication (20.2%) (figure 3). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 166 figure 3. tools for communication/contact some of the results are not surprising, since facebook-dependence in the student population is one of the main features of the millennial generation. even during face-to-face student-teacher interaction man students cannot refrain from peeking at their smartphones, to see the updates on their social networks. they transfer their communicational habits from extra-curricular life to the educational setting and seem to feel more comfortable in the company of the familiar platform. 81.3% of students of the university politehnica timişoara are primarily members of a group set up on facebook, the frequency of access for learning purposes being several times a day. in this ranking, using the same criteria (frequency of accessing the group), whatsapp ranks second in the students’ preferences (23.5%). in association with the school year, there is a slightly decreasing trend of using groups created on facebook for learning: while in the group of students in year 1, 84.6% visit several times per day the group for learning purposes, for those who are in the final year of study the share is 75%. for students in the 2nd and 3rd year of studies the recorded figures are relatively similar (78.9% and 79.6%) (table 1). differences are also encountered when considering the variable type of specialization. while students in technology are accustomed to transfer their skills from study to life and vice versa, the students in communication studies, for instance, have a lower density of technologically mediated information incorporated in their curriculum (cernicova-bucă, 2015) (table 2). slight differences among these groups could be measured. thus, 76.6% of the students in humanities access specific groups several times per day for learning, while students in technical faculties declare that 84.3% share this behavior. students in humanities use more than their colleagues of technical profile the whatsapp possibility for learning groups (36.7% versus 21.9%). this preference is shared mainly by students in the 1st year of study (37.7%). students of 2nd and 3rd year of study have different predispositions, the values of the measured parameter being significantly lower (19.5% to 23.4% at year 2 and year 3). table 1. frequency of access by year of study year 1 year 2 year 3 year 4 are you a member of a facebook group/access several times/day 84.6% 78.9% 79.6% 75.0% m. cernicova, v. gherheș perceptions of romanian students on uses and value of educational resources shared via ict. case study: politehnica university timisoara 167 table 2. frequency of access by type of specialization humanities technical faculties are you a member of a facebook group/access several times/day 76.6% 84.3% as it can be seen from the chart below (figure 4), 61.2% of respondents declare that they are not members of google groups, and about one third are not members of groups constituted on whatsapp (35%) and yahoo (34.8%). 81,3 13,1 2,4 1,6 ,5 ,3 ,8 8,6 10,8 6,5 5,8 1,4 5,8 61,2 5,3 8,6 8,8 9,1 4,8 7,2 34,8 23,5 10,2 5,3 3,5 2,7 4,0 35,0 1.several times per day 2. once per day 3. 3-5 times per week 4. 1-2 times per week 5. 3-4 times per month 6. less than once per month 7. i am not a member facebook group google group yahoo group whatsapp group how often do you use... figure 4. membership of groups and frequency of access 72% of the respondents stated that the initiators of the learning groups were peers, followed by the faculty 13% and 9% by teachers (figure 5). as a feature, we noticed that the 1st year students share of registered teachers as initiators of groups is higher compared to other years (e.g. 15.4% in the 1st year and only 6.6% for 2nd year students), similarly being registered for faculty (18.6% and 5.9% in year 1 to year 2). teachers’ initiative of creating virtual learning groups recorded higher scores with non-technical specializations (humanities) than those from the technical specialization (19.3% and 3.1%), but when we measured the faculty engagement, the results presented a reverse situation (17.5% of the groups where crated by technical faculties, versus 5.5% of the humanities sections). who initi ated the group you use most frequently for study? facu lty 13% teac hers 9 % p eers 72% i do n’t kno w/ no res po nse 6% figure 5. initiators of the group brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 168 in almost two thirds of cases groups are closed and allow only students from the same year of study (67%) and only in 26% of cases the groups are open to teachers. the most significant differences are found in students of the 1st year, where the total open groups and teachers is high: 49.4% recorded in the year of study. in other words, students in the 1st year of study are more open to receive teachers group members, one possible explanation being that in this year of the study, as initiators, teachers had an important role (figure 6). figure 6. group openness the time spent by respondents in the learning group was another aspect of interest. thus, almost half of the respondents (47%) spend less than 30 minutes per day on the platform allocated to the group, followed by those who allocate between 30 minutes and one hour per day (29%) and those that allocate between 12 hours (12%). most students of the university politehnica timisoara appreciate that new information is posted daily for the learning group (59%), followed by those who believe that information is distributed several times a week (37%). as it can be seen from the charts, most groups are used to distribute learning resources (courses, support materials, etc.) to distribute announcements from teachers and to assist colleagues in solving various tasks for school. the interaction with peers and teachers is not the main attribute of these structures (figure 7, a & b). a. problem-solving b. resource-sharing figure 7. problem solving and resource-sharing closed, only students from the same year of study can participate 67% closed, only students and teachers can participate 26% open, anyone can participate 2% i don’ t know/no response 5% the group you use for study is … 3,5 7,8 38,5 29,0 31,6 39,8 44,8 42,5 15,8 15,3 12,8 2,9 ,5 ,8 1,91,1 0 10 20 30 40 50 to pose questions to colleagues to ask for peers’ assistance to ask for teachers’ assistance never rarel y sometimes often very oft en i d on’t kno w/no respons e 4,5 23,6 10,7 21,4 25,4 18,7 47,9 25,7 37,4 18,7 14,4 16,6 4,8 9,4 15,5 1,3 1,6 1,1 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 to assist colleagues in solving various tasks for school to distribute announcements from teachers to distribute learning resources (courses, support materials, etc.) never rarely sometimes often m. cernicova, v. gherheș perceptions of romanian students on uses and value of educational resources shared via ict. case study: politehnica university timisoara 169 we highlight the fact that students in the final year of study (4th year) recorded the highest scores in using the group to distribute learning resources (cumulative categories very often and frequently recorded 66.7%). second year students recorded a lower and more balanced usage: both variants of answers (very often that often) are 36.2%. ranking the answers according to the parameter agreement / disagreement expressed by the subjects of the specific statements / characteristics of the group used for learning purposes, we consider important the following ideas: 72.1% of respondents believe that the group is useful for their courses (total agreement), a value to which one can add 20.3 of respondents, who partially agree with this statement. there is an increasing trend by year of study, the values recorded for total agreement with this statement from the 1st year being 67.3% and 75% in the 4th year (figure 8 a & b). ,8 1,4 3,5 1,1 1,4 10,3 5,7 11,9 30,3 20,3 27,6 32,2 72,1 57,7 23,8 i beli eve that the group is useful for the group ensures quick access to the group helps me for learning purposes total disagreem en t p artial dis agre eme nt2 neu tral partial agre eme nt to tal agreemen t a. learning purposes 7,7 15,5 ,3 9,7 15,2 4,6 33,7 23,6 12,4 31,8 22,0 30,5 17,1 23,7 52,2 the group helps me better understand the content of learning resources the group hel ps me compensate i nfo rmati on missed by absenting from class the group is used to extract useful resources for seminar / lab / exam total disagree men t pa rtial disagree men t n eutral partial agreement total agreement b. task solving figure 8. learning purposes and task solving another statement that received high scores of agreements was: groups ensure quick access to information i need for learning (total agreement 57.7%, 27.7% partial agreement). for this assertion the variable reflecting the year of study shows descending trend values (first year students 58.3% strongly agree, and 41.7% next year). slight differences are recorded and followed by the criterion of specialization: students in humanities display higher values compared to those in technical sciences (62.9% and 53.5%). • the group is used to extract useful resources for seminar / lab / exam. (average recorded for an overall agreement of 52.2%). this statement does not display significant differences compared to the variables included in the study. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 170 • 42.6% of students do not use a social media account created specifically for this group. the highest values recorded in the 4th year (66.7%) and lowest in the first year of study (34.6%). • other issues that respondents mostly agreed with (partially or totally) were: confidence that the information posted on the group is correct (33% strongly agree and 37.8% partially agree), usefulness of the group to ask questions about deadlines and requirements that must be met in achieving tasks / activities (40.5% and 29.5% total agreement partial agreement, i am confident that the group helps me find answers to questions (25.5% strongly agree and 37.9 partial agreement), etc. • only 11.6% of respondents believe that the presence of the professor in the group discourages him/her to be active. almost a third of respondents are not bothered by the fact that teachers are (or can be) enrolled in the group member list (figure 9 a & b). 4,9 14,8 20,7 7,6 15,6 14,7 17,6 41,8 38,0 29,5 20,8 18,5 40,5 7,0 8,2 i resort to the group to ask questions about the group increased my learning rate the group helps me reduce the time total disagreement partial disagreement neutral partial agreement tota l a greement a. time management 19,2 4,0 1,9 17,3 10,2 6,5 33,0 21,5 20,8 21,9 32,5 37,8 8,6 31,7 33,0 the us e of the g roup helps me accomplish my tasks quicker i am confident tha t the group helps me find eas ily the necess ary information i am confident tha t the information posted on the group is correct total disa gree men t partial d is agreement neu tral p artial agreem ent to tal agreemen t b. information quality figure 9. time management and information quality less relevant items in terms of scores have not been subjected to secondary analysis. most probably in our further research we will poll only those results that proved to bear rich information and can provide evidence-based guidelines for action. m. cernicova, v. gherheș perceptions of romanian students on uses and value of educational resources shared via ict. case study: politehnica university timisoara 171 some of the responses depend on the frequency and novelty of educational resources posted by professors, whose digital competences were not part of this study. however, the institutional culture in politehnica indicated that professors need to can face the needs of the technologydependent students, and master at least a minimum of social media tools for educational purposes (grosseck, holotescu 2013). (figure 10). 2,7 42,6 32,9 14,0 8,1 10,1 16,7 5,9 25,7 20,8 31,8 28,8 37,9 10,1 7,0 20,7 25,5 16,4 11,6 30,6 i am confident that the group helps me find answersa to questions i use a dedicated social media account to access this group the presence of the teacher in the group inhibits my participation i trust more the resources posted on the group when the teacher is a member of the group total disagreement partial disagreement neutral partial agreement total agreement figure 10. confidence in group usefulness 4. methodological limitations and new research directions the results of this study were only recorded from students of polytechnic university of timisoara and cannot be generalized to the entire population of students from the region / city but can be used in furthering research at local or even national levels. in the future we plan to expand the research area in other universities from timisoara, to capture any differences pertaining to the specific training and initiate a series of qualitative research to capture more accurately the motivations and essential aspects of the analyzed subject. also, more variables can be included and investigated, such as, for instance, the associations between aspects of tasks-solving and group performances in learning communities. and we share the concern regarding the reliability of social networks and risks of online learning communities, who need to develop digital literacy, to avoid the perils of unreliable or fake information (nadolu, 2016). 5. conclusions and consequences the present study underlines the fact that online groups support learning communities and can be used to enhance the learning experience of our students. we set up to find answers to four research questions, aiming not only to determine whether students transfer their communication habits from everyday use to learning environments, but also to refine the features of students’ behavior, expectations and perceptions regarding technology-mediated communication. we found that out of all platforms, students prefer facebook, and groups excluding the presence of a teacher, the so-called closed groups giving them the feeling of freedom and the avoidance of the polite, formal communication, obligatory when professors join or even only oversee the communication. last, but not least, the responses to the survey testify that sharing is a common practice in the student population. we believe that the findings of the present study bear consequences for faculty members who may find inspirational the need to acknowledge and exploit the common uses of learning groups and habits of students. also, teachers are encouraged to enhance the use of ict even for traditionally enrolled students and to make informed decisions regarding their educational practices. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 172 for the pedagogical study this case study enriches the knowledge on the uses of social software in the student population, contributes to the debate on the characteristics of “millennial students” and can offer ideas concerning the use of virtual community groups for educational purposes. references aviram, a. (2010). navigating through the storm: reinventing education for postmodern democracies, sense publishers, rotterdam/boston/taipei. brindley, j. e., walti, c., blaschke l. m., (2009), creating effective collaborative learning groups in an online environment, in international review of research in open and distance learning, volume 10, number 3. cermicova-bucă, m., (2015). developing ict skills for communication studies, in a technology dense environment. a romanian experience, in proceedings of the 10th international conference on virtual learning, ed. universitatii din bucuresti, pp. 186-191. gherheș, v., obrad, c., (2016). the role and importance of facebook among students in timișoara, in professional communication and translation studies, 9 / 2016, pp. 21-26 grosseck, g., holotescu, c., (2013). using social media tools for academic communication, presentation for pcts – professional communication and translation studies conference, retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/cami13/using-social-media-for-academiccommunication. hong, y., gardner l., (2014). facebook groups: perception and usage among undergraduates in the context of learning, in proceedings of the 35th international conference on information systems "building a better world through information systems", 1-18, 2014, moran, m., seaman, j., tinti-kane, h., (2012), teaching, learning, and sharing: how today’s higher education faculty use social media, pearson learning solutions. nadolu, b., nadolu, d., (2016), computer-mediated security threats into the web 2.0 society, in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 7, issue 1, march 2016 oblinger, j. l., lippincott, j. k., (2005). educating the net generation, brockport bookshelf. book 272. http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/bookshelf/272 prensky, m., (2001), digital natives, digital immigrants, in on the horizon, ncb university press, vol. 9 no. 5, october 2001. robinson, k., aronica, l., (2015), creative schools. the grassroots revolution that’s transforming education, penguin books, new york. mariana cernicova-bucă (b. february 16, 1960) received her phd in linguistics (1998) from west university of timisoara. currently she is associate professor of communication in the department of communication and foreign languages at politehnica university of timisoara, romania. her current research interests include public communication (journalism, pr and the interaction between them), pr strategies and their efficiency, communicational dimensions of democracy and public administration, branding and image-making, different aspects of communication sciences and higher education. she has (co-) authored 23 books and more than 20 papers, member in the international program committee of 5 conferences and workshops. vasile gherheş (b. november 17, 1973) received his phd in sociology at the university of bucharest, with a thesis on the virtual communities. currently he is associate professor of communication and department chair in the department of communication and foreign languages at politehnica university of timisoara, romania. he authored 3 books, numerous papers and carried out local, regional and national surveys on a variety of topics, ranging from cultural consumption to audience ratings of media enterprises. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue4_2017_final.doc 25 chaos/ complexity theory: the impact of sensitivity to initial conditions on students’ test performance ali taghinezhad noncommunicable diseases research center, fasa university of medical sciences, fasa, iran avicenna square, fasa, 74615-168 fars, iran phone: +98 71 5335 0994 taghinezhad1@gmail.com mehdi dastpak1 research center for social determinants of health, jahrom university of medical sciences, jahrom, iran md_dataforse@yahoo.com hadi sameni research center for noncommunicable diseases, faculty of medicine, jahrom university of medical sciences, jahrom, iran. hadisameni@gmail.com maryam jamalzadeh bushehr branch, islamic azad university, behesarkh blvd., bushehr, iran jamalzadeh_ma@yahoo.com roya azadikhah tabriz university of medical sciences, tabriz, iran east azerbaijan province, tabriz, univesity main st, iran roya.azadikhah93@gmail.com mahboobeh azadikhah shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran tehran province, tehran, velenjak, 7th floor, bldg no.2 sbums, arabi ave, 19839-63113, iran phone: +98 21 2243 9770 mamazadi1@gmail.com mohsen ahkami kerman university of medical sciences, kerman, iran haft-bagh highway, kerman 7616913555, iran tel.: +98 34 3132 5856, kerman, iran mohsen5883@gmail.com abstract the purpose of this study was to investigate empirically the application of one of the cornerstones of chaos theory, that is, sensitivity to initial conditions, to language assessment. in doing so, 20 iranian students at masters’ level participated in this study. they were majoring in nanophysics in islamic azad university of bushehr. they were sophomores aged 23 to 30. in order to ensure homogeneity, they were administered a test of reading comprehension called pet. then, another test of reading comprehension was administered to them based on “english for the students of physics”. having taken that test, the students took the same test after two weeks in different versions. the versions were created by changing the order of items. the analysis of the data showed that 75.83% of students performed better in the second version of the test. this showed the effect of changing the order of items on the students’ performance which is consistent with the principle of 1 corresponding author brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 26 sensitivity to initial conditions in chaos theory. the implications of the findings will be discussed at the end of the study. 1. introduction several research fields have been influenced by chaos theory among which linguistics is applied. chaos theory is grounded in the big bang theory when the systematic nature of the world was created based on a chaotic act of god. the notion of chaos/complexity dates back to 1960s, when lorenz, a meteorologist, found out that a very small difference could bring about large changes in weather that make weather forecasts a l m o s t impossible to predict. one of the cornerstones of chaos theory is known as sensitivity to initial conditions. it states that a small change in the initial conditions may l e a d t o a dramatic change in the long-term behavior of a system (de bot, 2008 cited in larsen-freeman & camer on, 2008). however, the concept of chaos complexity has been used in other fields of study like mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. mcandrew (1997) believes that reality cannot be found without chaos. chaos theory is a paradoxical concept. larsen -freeman (1997) implies that this theory has a contradictory paradoxical concept. the characteristics of the concept of complexity are as follows: a) it involves interconnectivity; b) it is not always random; c) it is not predictable; d) it is nonarbitrary; e) it involves sensitivity to initial conditions; and f) it is dynamic. figure 1 depicts the features of complexity. figure 1. features of complexity according to larsen-freeman (2000), complexity is a metaphorical notion. in order to shed light on this concept, a distinction must be drawn between the term complexity and complicatedness. the former implies a system which is not independent, whereas the latter means not being simple. something is complex provided that several independent agents have an interaction with each other. therefore, the agents in a system are its components. they interact with each other in an unpredictable manner. out of these interactions a pattern emerges which informs the interactions occurring among agents. 1.1. chaos theory and language larson-freeman (1997) maintains that language is a complex and nonlinear system. it is dynamic since it changes with the passage of time, or it changes with the passage of time because it is dynamic. in fact, dynamicity is equal to growth and change. it involves non-linearity. since a. taghinezhad, m. dastpak, h. sameni, m. jamalzadeh, r. azadikhah, m. azadikhah, m. ahkami chaos/ complexity theory: the impact of sensitivity to initial conditions on students’ test performance 27 there is no one-to-one correspondence between form and function, it is nonlinear. similarly, since there is no difference between the current use of language and its growth or change, it is dynamic. another reason for the dynamicity of language refers to the creativity of human beings in using the language. this feature makes humans distinguishable from other creatures. considering the fact that humans and languages are dynamic, this will yield a dynamic system which is chaotic. it was believed that exposure to the forms of a given language will trigger the linguistic competence and that language is acquired with ease. however, since language is a dynamic phenomenon, other aspects of language must be taken into consideration as well. therefore, the term nurture which includes the social and strategic competences can play a compensatory role when there is deficiency in performance. figure 2 indicates the variable influencing a chaotic phenomenon. figure 2. variables influencing a chaotic phenomenon thietart & forgues (1995) show that the state of a system changes from stable to periodic and vice versa when the strength of the relationship among variables changes. in other words, the time-dependent variables in a dynamic system are non-linear. 1.2. sensitivity to initial conditions one of the cornerstones of chaos/complexity theory is sensitivity to initial conditions. chaos theory was first introduced in physical sciences in order to explicate the process of complex dynamic systems. such systems usually have many elements which interact with others and bring about a change of order of complexity at higher levels. researchers investigate such changes in order to understand how these changes occur. such changes are usually non-linear meaning that there is no proportion between the effect and the cause. the reason for such nonlinearity lies in the fact that such systems are sensitive to initial conditions. this feature of chaos/complexity theory is also known as butterfly effect, by which, the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in a country can influence a weather system in another country. this sensitivity to initial conditions can make complex systems chaotic. 1.3. chaos/complexity theory and language learning according to chaos/complexity theory, language is an accumulation of static units which are combined in speech dynamically (mallows, 2002). he further adds that the dynamic patterns of complex systems indicate feedback loops. nothing controls that system because the dynamics emerg e f r o m within the system itself, and the system benefits from t h a t feedback to move forward, and to develop. these systems are adaptive and change their internal organization to m a k e u s e o f the new conditions. such feedback loops provide the chance of having a dynamic system. in the field of language learning, such loops have not been designed because of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 28 the large number of changing factors which influence them or are influenced by them. the factors are illustrated in figure 3. figure 3. factors influencing language learning since all facets in any segment are somehow connected with one another, any change in one would lead to a change in the representation of the output. larsen-freeman (1997) claims that feedback loops can be applied to learning. van lier (1996) believes that learning is not caused by environmental stimuli, nor is it genetically determined as nativists believe. he states that learning is the result of complex interactions between order and chaos which has been called by waldrop (1994) as “the edge of chaos”. undoubtedly, there is much in common between language and complex non-linear systems. languages undergo a lot of chaos and order throughout their development and they pass through linear diachronic changes. new forms occur in a language in an unpredictable manner (tamjid, 2007). different forms are used with the same meanings. 2. method 2.1. participants twenty students participated in this study. they were the students of nanophysics at master’s level. of the total twenty students, there were 8 male students and 12 female students aged 23 to 30. they were sophomore majoring in nanophysics at islamic azad university of bushehr, iran. almost all of the students had taken some english classes before at some english language institutes. 2.2. instruments the instrument utilized in this study was pet proficiency test (cambridge esol examinations, 2003) which was used to make sure about the homogeneity of the participants. it was used as a screening test at the beginning of this study. this test was comprised of some sections among which only the reading section was selected. the reading section included 35 multiple choice items. the researchers used only the reading section since it was relevant to the purpose of this research study. having made sure about the homogeneity of the participants with regard to their reading comprehension ability, the researchers administered the students a test of reading comprehension based on their english course book named “english for the students of physics” written by rahimi & fathollahi (2016). a. taghinezhad, m. dastpak, h. sameni, m. jamalzadeh, r. azadikhah, m. azadikhah, m. ahkami chaos/ complexity theory: the impact of sensitivity to initial conditions on students’ test performance 29 2.3. data collection procedure all the students took the test in one session. it took them about 15 minutes to answer the questions. after two weeks, all the students took the same test again. however, in the second test, the order of the items was changed. in other words, there were 40 different versions of the same test. in fact, in each version, the first item was changed to another position. thus, two different versions of the same test were administered to each student in two different sessions. one version was the same for all students and one was different for each student with regard to the order of the items. 2.4. data analysis the data were analyzed at two levels: in group and individually. at the group level, the researchers conducted a paired-samples t-test to find out whether the results of the two versions of the exam were significantly different or not. actually, this was done to see whether sensitivity to initial conditions of the chaos theory had any impact on the students’ performance on reading comprehension exams. having done that, the researchers analyzed the data individually. in fact, the researchers compared the scores of the students to see whether changing the order of the items had any effects on their performance. 3. results table 1 provides the descriptive statistics of the students’ performance on the two version of the test. as it can be observed in table 1, the mean of the students in the second administration of the test is higher than that of the first administration. table 1. descriptive statistics of students’ performance on the two reading comprehension exams mean std. deviation std. error mean first administration 12.41 3.21 0.72 second administration 16.04 2.98 0.63 in table 2, however, the results of a paired-samples t-test show that the difference was not statistically significant (sig (2-tailed) = .35) (see table 2). table 2. results of paired-samples t-test for the students’ performance on the two reading comprehension exams t df sig (2-tailed) -1.47 19 0.35 according to table 2, the students’ performance was not statistically significant on the two different versions of the exams. however, this does not clarify whether their scores had a statistically significant relationship with one another or not. therefore, pearson correlation coefficient was conducted. table 3 shows the result. table 3. pearson correlation coefficient for the students’ performance on the two reading comprehension exams n correlation coefficient sig. scores on the two administrations 20 0.52 0.24 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 30 according to table 3, there is no statistically significant relationship between students’ scores on the two versions of the exam. this means that despite the fact that the overall performances of the students were nearly the same; this similarity is related to the group performance rather than performance of each individual. therefore, data were analyzed to find out whether there was any difference in scores due to the change in order of test items or not. table 4 shows the results. table 4. changes in scores on the first and second administration of the exams no change increase in scores decrease in scores total change 31.57 50.12 25.71 75.83 according to table 4, the total change in scores was 75.83%. as it can be seen, 31.57% of scores had no changes. 4. discussion and conclusion this study aimed at investigating the empirical application of one of the tenets of chaos theory, namely, sensitivity to initial conditions. for this purpose, 20 students participated in this study. the researchers examined the effect of changing the first item that the students received in a reading comprehension exam. the results of the paired-samples t-test showed no significant effect in terms of the group performance. however, regarding the individual differences, the findings indicated 75.83% of students performed better in the second administration of the exam compared to their performance on the first administration of the exam. according to the concept of sensitivity to initial conditions this effect could be attributed to the first item. it can be claimed that the first item can play a significant role in the students’ performance on the subsequent items. for example, if the students know the answer to the first item, it could affect them emotionally and, therefore, this could affect their performance on the following items and their overall test performance would change. that is probably why many tests start with easy items to prevent any negative emotional effect on the test takers. this is especially true in power tests the purpose of which is to measure the test takers' ability level (bachman, 1990). the finding of this study is in line with that of ahmadi (2011) who investigated the effect of sensitivity to initial conditions. he concluded that an unimportant initial condition might bring about an unexpected outcome. it seems that when the order of items is changed, the cognitive load for the test takers will change as well, and consequently it will have positive or negative impacts on their performance. that is to say, since each item demands a certain cognitive functioning, changing the order of items makes the items interact differently leading to the increase or decrease in the difficulty level of the test items. for this reason, the first item can play a significant role in helping the test takers perform better or worse on the whole test. this is in line with the principle of sensitivity to initial conditions according to which slight changes ingrained in a complicated system at a given point can bring about big differences (harshbarger, 2007). test developers can benefit from the findings of this study. they should pay close attention to the order of presenting items in a test. based on sensitivity to initial conditions, a trivial initial condition might lead to a big and unprecedented outcome. teachers, on the other hand, can make use of this information, so that they are more careful about using the test results. students, too, can benefit from this fact because such an effect can help them utilize effective strategies in coping with the affective impact of the initial conditions. 5. limitations of the study this study like other studies suffers from some limitations. one of the limitations of this study is that the sample size was small, and that is why the independent-samples t-test did not a. taghinezhad, m. dastpak, h. sameni, m. jamalzadeh, r. azadikhah, m. azadikhah, m. ahkami chaos/ complexity theory: the impact of sensitivity to initial conditions on students’ test performance 31 show a statistically significant difference in the test takers’ performance on the two tests. the reason for selecting such a small sample was the unavailability of the participants. therefore, a similar study could be conducted on a larger sample. moreover, this study just investigated the effect of sensitivity to initial conditions on students’ reading comprehension performance and other skills remained unexplored. therefore, more studies can be done on other language skills. references ahmadi, a. (2011). chaos theory and language assessment: the effect of sensitivity to initial conditions on test performance. international journal of humanities and social science, 1(17), 293-296. harshbarger, b. (2007). chaos, complexity and language learning. language research bulletin, 22, 17-31. larsen-freeman, d. (1997). chaos/complexity science and second language acquisition. applied linguistics, 18(2), 141-165. larsen-freeman, d. (2000). techniques and principles in language learning (2nd ed.). oxford: oxford university press. larsen-freeman, d., & cameron, l. (2008). complex systems and applied linguistics. oxford: oxford university press. mallows, d. (2002). non‐linearity and the observed lesson. elt journal, 56(1), 3-10. mcandrew, d. a. (1997). chaos, complexity, and fuzziness: science looks at teaching english. the english journal, 86(7), 37-43. tamjid, n. h. (2007). chaos/complexity theory in second language acquisition. novitasroyal, 1(1), 10-17. thietart, r. a., & forgues, b. (1995). chaos theory and organization. organization science, 6(1), 19-31. van lier, l. (1996). interaction in the language curriculum: awareness, autonomy, and authenticity. london: longman. waldrop, m.m. (1994). complexity: the emerging science at the edge of order and chaos. london: penguin books ali taghinezhad is a university lecturer at the university of medical sciences, fasa, iran. he has published several articles in the field of second language acquisition. his areas of interest include language testing, second language learning issues, psycho-linguistics, and educational psychology. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final.doc 198 resumen en español brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience cerebro. investigación amplia en inteligencia artificial y neurociencia volumen 1, número 2 enero 2010: ¡feliz primavera 2010! www.brain.edusoft.ro editor jefe: bogdan patrut 1. una heurística para resolver el problema de la triangulación gloria cerasela crişan, camelia-m. pintea resumen el problema de la triangulación consiste en encontrar una permutación simultánea de filas y columnas de una matriz cuadrada dada, de modo que la suma de los elementos por encima de la diagonal principal sea máxima. los investigadores estudian este problema intensamente, porque tiene importantes aplicaciones en diversos campos. un nuevo algoritmo híbrido tipo aco es introducido. el algoritmo empieza con un procedimiento de búsqueda voraz. esta es seguida por una versión mejorada del sistema de “ant colony” mezclada con un problema de búsqueda local específica. palabras clave: el problema de la triangulación, optimización del “ant colony”, metaheurísticas. 2. propuesta de arquitectura basada en datos para aplicaciones distribuidas en cardiología horea adrian greblă, călin ovidiu cenan resumen este trabajo presenta el marco para un sistema distribuido médico, diseñado para ofrecer un enfoque moderno y para aumentar la calidad de los servicios de salud ofrecidos a los pacientes con enfermedades crónicas cardiovasculares, a través de las tecnologías tic más recientes. el sistema propuesto permite la interacción en línea entre los principales actores del sistema de salud: pacientes, médicos, entidades médicas (por ejemplo, hospitales, clínicas), y las autoridades médicas (por ejemplo, servicios sociales). con la ayuda de los estándares ampliamente aceptados en medicina, el sistema permite el almacenamiento de registros médicos y ofrece servicios de integración de datos entre los diferentes tipos de aplicaciones en el campo de salud y otras entidades. el enfoque ontológico propuesto permite el intercambio de información médica y de las mejores prácticas con los registros médicos de los pacientes, organizados de modo conceptual. la solución propuesta permite llevar a cabo el diagnóstico asistido por ordenador, así como el análisis de los datos médicos, sobre la base de varios criterios, con la posibilidad de construir una base de datos para una operación compleja de los datos médicos. palabras clave: arquitectura de datos impulsada, cardiología, sistema multi-agente 3. investigación educativa sobre la dimensión tecnológica de la privacidad liliana mâţă resumen el objetivo de este estudio es analizar la dimensión tecnológica de la privacidad desde una perspectiva educativa. se trata de una investigación de los documentos curriculares, así como de la percepción de los estudiantes de secundaria y de los maestros sobre esta dimensión en el nivel preuniversitario rumano. los principales objetivos de este estudio son: a) identificar las características de la dimensión tecnológica en los programas y libros de texto, y b) descubrir el grado de apertura de los profesores y estudiantes de secundaria a la dimensión tecnológica de la privacidad. para brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 199 lograr el primer objetivo, se utilizó el análisis de contenido temático, los temas y las categorías específicas. para lograr el segundo objetivo, se aplicaron cuestionarios para identificar el grado de apertura de 1456 estudiantes de secundaria y 890 maestros de educación pre-universitaria rumana. los resultados de la investigación se destacan por la frecuencia de los temas específicos para la dimensión tecnológica en los documentos de la escuela y el grado de apertura de los estudiantes de secundaria y los maestros. palabras clave: intimidad, dimensión tecnológica, documentos de plan de estudios, nivel de iniciación. 4. seleccionar las operaciones de codificación en ensamblador tomasz praczyk resumen la codificación en ensamblador es un método neuro-evolutivo mediante el cual una red neuronal es representada como un simple programa llamado “programa de codificación en ensamblador”. el programa tiene que crear una matriz de definición de la red, que mantiene toda la información necesaria para construir dicha red. para generar programas de codificación en ensamblador, y por lo tanto, redes neuronales, se utilizan técnicas de evolución. el rendimiento del programa de codificación en ensamblador depende mucho de las operaciones utilizadas en los programas de codificación en ensamblador. para seleccionar las operaciones más eficaces se han realizado experimentos en optimización y problemas del tipo presa depredador. en los experimentos, se probaron los programas de codificación en ensamblador con distintos tipos de operaciones. los resultados de las pruebas se enumeran al final del documento. palabras clave: redes neuronales artificiales, el programa de codificación en ensamblador. 5. el software en terapia de voz de la dislalia y la dislexia-disgrafia iolanda tobolcea, mirela danubianu resumen en los últimos años las preocupaciones de los investigadores y terapeutas en logopedia se están convirtiendo cada vez más en el desarrollo y el uso de software en la terapia de los trastornos del habla. el principal objetivo de este estudio ha sido evaluar la eficacia terapéutica de los programas de ordenador en rumano para la terapia del habla. durante el estudio presentamos el enfoque de la investigación experimental a través del control de la eficacia de los programas de ordenador, en la terapia del habla a dos trastornos de lenguaje: dislalia, y la dislexia-disgrafia. en términos de metodología, el uso del ordenador en las fases terapéuticas se realizó con la ayuda de software (terapers, etc.), que hemos desarrollado y probado durante muchos años de actividad terapéutica. la muestra para la investigación constaba de 120 personas. para cada trastorno del lenguaje fueron seleccionados 60 niños: 30 para el grupo experimental y 30 sujetos para el grupo de control. las hipótesis del estudio examinaron si los resultados obtenidos de los sujetos del grupo experimental son significativamente más altos después de explorar el software, en comparación con los sujetos del grupo de control que no utilizaron este programa. las hipótesis han sido confirmadas para los trastornos del lenguaje incluidos en la investigación, y los resultados del estudio confirman los beneficios de usar nuestro software en la terapia del lenguaje para la corrección de estas alteraciones, así como su influencia positiva en el desarrollo de la personalidad de estos niños. palabras clave: software, terapia, niños, dislalia, dislexia-disgrafia. 6. pensando “jabón”, pero diciendo “abonj”. durante la preparación del sonido: el cálculo de atrás de la expresión nora wiedenmann resumen en el modelo presentado en este artículo -sobre el lenguaje y los errores, las discordancias y los desórdenes – el intervalo desde la excitación muscular en los sonidos de expresión, considerada resumen en español 200 como destinada a secuencias canónica de la palabra, se calcula a la inversa. éste intervalo se muestra como la suma de todos los rangos fisiológicos conocidos de los sonidos del habla, y los gestos de expresión que son necesarios para producir la emisión. el modelo introduce dos relojes internos, basados en factores positivos o negativos, que representan ciertos períodos fisiológicos de tiempo, durante la preparación del sonido (lautvorspann). el uso de estos relojes internos muestra que los gestos de expresión como otras actividades motrices operan bajo un principio simple de serialización: en condiciones no-predeterminadas, los cambios de intervalo pueden dar lugar a errores del habla a la serialización del sonidos, discordancias de los sonidos, del modo que se observó en la adquisición del primer idioma, trastornos del habla que representan casos patológicos, etc. estos cambios de intervalo se modelan a través de la variación de dos factores del reloj interno. el cálculo de los rangos utiliza como valores predeterminados los términos de sonido del contexto ofrecido de la base de datos munchen phondat de la lengua alemana hablada (véase el anexo 4). como un enfoque humanista nuevo, este cálculo matemático está de acuerdo con el enfoque de programación lineal / investigación operativa. esto le da un fuerte apoyo a una conjetura bastante antigua (de 1908) del famoso científico austríaco meringer, que en principio, pensamos y formulamos como una serialización distinta de la que se escucha en las secuencias habladas. palabras clave: elaboración de modelos de producción del habla; músculos del habla y la serialización; inervación; serialización de sonido; calendario gesto del habla; los errores del habla; patologías del habla; trastornos del habla; la fisiología del habla; sonido antes posible-referencial conexos; antes kinestésica-referencial propioceptiva, erps. 7. estado del arte: conceptos de soluciones en la teoría de los juegos simina brânzei resumen este trabajo investiga algunos conceptos de solución para los juegos de coalición. varios conceptos de solución se caracterizan, como el núcleo, el valor de shapley, sistema de negociación, conjunto estable, nucleolo y el núcleo. analizamos la evolución reciente de las representaciones de los juegos de coalición, como los juegos de votación ponderada, los juegos de los recursos de coalición, juegos cooperativos booleanos y las redes de contribución marginal. conceptos de soluciones existentes tienen requisitos de complejidad prohibitiva (intratabilidad), incluso para juegos de tipo muy simple. discutimos una agenda para encontrar un concepto de solución de equilibrio que sea tan atractivo como el núcleo, pero que es tratable y está garantizada su existencia palabras clave: teoría, coaliciones, conceptos solución, sistema multiagente. 8. factores de desarrollo de la inteligencia y el rendimiento individual gheorghe dumitriu resumen el estudio presenta algunos enfoques sobre los factores, la composición y la medición de la inteligencia humana. así, en el enfoque psicométrico hay pruebas claras de que la inteligencia está más influenciada por la herencia genética de la persona que el patrimonio cultural de la sociedad. la conclusión de la investigación sobre la evaluación de la inteligencia es que los sujetos que obtienen mejores resultados en algunas muestras específicas tienden a responder bien y a las demás categorías de pruebas. en cambio, aquellos que han obtenido puntuaciones más bajas obtienen los mismos resultados y en las otras pruebas. palabras clave: inteligencia, factores de la inteligencia, evaluación, rendimiento. 9. algunos resultados en la teoría “fuzzy” (difusa o borrosa) angel garrido resumen la aparición de la lógica difusa tuvo un paulatino efecto sobre la investigación científica y así, llegó a causar dos tipos de reacciones. de hecho, se trata de una generalización -muy útil, por ciertode la teoría clásica de conjuntos, debida a boole y a cantor, la cual hace posible nuestro análisis de la brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 201 incertidumbre. pero lamentablemente, en sus primeros pasos tuvo que evitar los ataques de ciertas mentes rutinarias, dentro del campo a menudo demasiado rígido de las matemáticas. esta situación fue mejorando con el tiempo, especialmente en los países con menos prejuicios de ese tipo, o no tan profundamente arraigados. puesto que por el contrario, la nueva teoría obtuvo una gran aceptación en países con nuevo y creciente potencial científico, entre los que pueden ser mencionados china, japón o corea del sur, y más recientemente, en países europeos con tradición científica “clásica”, como hungría, polonia, españa o rumania; sobre todo, gracias a sus aplicaciones técnicas de notable éxito. nosotros analizamos aquí algunos aspectos esenciales de esta nueva y poderosa herramienta del análisis matemático. palabras clave: teoría fuzzy, inteligencia artificial. 10. la fusión del conocimiento en las redes académicas horea adrian grebla, calin ovidiu cenan, liana stanca resumen los redes académicas pueden representar un nuevo modelo de aprendizaje basado en la fusión de los conocimientos. en este trabajo vamos a presentar un enfoque del diseño de las redes académicas de redes que reúnen los conocimientos especializados de los formadores académicos y profesionales, y que abre nuevos caminos en la distribución del conocimiento. las redes académicas que consideramos se modelan matemáticamente y son la base del enfoque ontológico dentro de la fusión de conocimientos en dicha red. palabras clave: la fusión del conocimiento, fusión de datos, redes bayesianas basadas en ontologías, relación de equivalencia, redes académicas, e-learning. 11. una aplicación delphi para el análisis sintáctico y léxico de una oración, usando el algoritmo cocke, younger y kasami bogdan pătruţ, ioana boghian resumen este documento se centra en el algoritmo cocke, younger y kasami (cyk). vamos a presentar una aplicación delphi que analice el vocabulario y la sintaxis de una frase en rumano. utilizaremos para ello una gramática chomsky en forma normal (gcn). vamos a presentar la fuente de una implementación delphi del algoritmo cyk. palabras clave: algoritmo cky, análisis léxico, programación delphi. 12. acerca de un problema de organización de los datos usando los curvas bézier carmen violeta muraru resumen el propósito del trabajo es estudiar problemas clásico y nuevos relativos a las curvas de bézier, herramientas importantes en el modelado geométrico de las formas. vamos a utilizar el software matlab para estudiar el error de estimación de los datos de montaje, usando el montaje en una escuadra de las curvas bézier y encontraremos nuevos métodos en un estudio que está actualmente en desarrollo, con respecto a la reducción al mínimo de la distancia entre la curva y los datos aproximados. palabras clave: curva de bézier, ajuste de datos. 13. estado del arte: la verificación biométrica de la firma mohamed soltane, noureddine doghmane, nourddine guersi resumen este trabajo presenta un análisis comparativo de los rendimientos de tres algoritmos de estimación: maximización de las expectativas (em), algoritmo voraz, o greedy em (gem) y algoritmo de figueiredo-jain (fj), basado en modelos mixtos de gauss (mmg), de verificación biométrica de la resumen en español 202 firma. los resultados de la simulación han demostrado rendimientos significativos. las pruebas de rendimiento de ree = 5,49%, para "em", ree = 5,04% para "gem" y ree = 5,00% para "fj", muestran que el sistema de información de comportamiento de la biométrica de la firma es robusto y tiene un poder de discriminación que puede ser explorado para la autenticación de la identidad. palabras clave: autenticación biométrica, comportamiento, firma, decisiones suaves y modal de mezcla gausiana, em, gem y fj. 14. la neurociencia de la enseñanza de la historia: facilitar el desarrollo social y emocional lisa whalen resumen las ciencias humanas y técnicas han sido consideradas durante mucho tiempo como polos opuestos, que existen en ámbitos separados del mundo académico y necesitan diferentes habilidades cognitivas. sin embargo, la neurociencia ha traído un renovado interés acerca de lo que podemos aprender sobre el cerebro humano, a través de la investigación de vínculos entre las disciplinas. por ejemplo, los estudios relacionados con la literatura inglesa muestran que los beneficios de la lectura de historias (de ficción y de no ficción) se extienden mucho más allá del desarrollo del lenguaje e implican un aumento de la competencia en el funcionamiento social y emocional. al combinar los resultados de un estudio de tesis originales y una revisión de investigaciones pasadas y actuales en el campo de la educación, de la psicología, de la linguística y de la neurociencia, el presente ensayo examina la manera en que la lectura de relatos sirve como práctica para la gestión de las emociones y las interacciones sociales en la vida cotidiana. de hecho, varios estudios sugieren que la lectura de cuentos fortalece casi todas las partes del cerebro, porque está diseñado el cerebro o "conectado" para pensar y aprender en términos de historias, independientemente de la materia. este ensayo ofrece varios tipos de apoyo para la afirmación de que la lectura de las narraciones facilita el desarrollo social y emocional. la investigación planteada incluye estudios que muestran que la lectura de relatos no es una actividad solitaria, sino "un proceso sorprendentemente social" (krakovsky, 2006, p. 1), y está asociada con una mayor capacidad para visualizar personas y eventos desde varias perspectivas, el aumento de la empatía por los demás, y el aumento de la capacidad para interpretar las claves sociales (atkins, 2000; courtright, mackey, y packard, 2005, davis, 1980; tristeza y hogan, 1973, harrison, 2008, mar 2004; mar, oatley, hirsh, de la paz, y peterson, 2006, stanovich y west, 1989, 1992). la compresión del modo en que el cerebro procesa las historias y las relacion con sus funcionamiento real tiene implicaciones importantes para varias disciplinas, como la psicología, en el intento de comprender y tratar el síndrome de estrés posttraumático. sin embargo, este ensayo se centra en las implicaciones en la educación. los profesores que están trabajando para ayudar a los estudiantes a desarrollar habilidades para tomar una posición, lo cual es necesario para el pensamiento crítico y la empatía, a su vez, siendo necesarias para convertirse en adultos responsables, pueden ser más eficaces si se entiende el papel que juegan las narraciones en el desarrollo social y emocional de los estudiantes. 15. fundamentos lógicos de la inteligencia artificial angel garrido resumen dentro de los procedimientos para buscar soluciones a los problemas presentados en inteligencia artificial (ai), estos se pueden llevar a cabo en diversas situaciones.en unos casos, sin el conocimiento de dominio, y en otras situaciones, con cierto conocimiento del mismo. este último procedimiento generalmente se llama búsqueda heurística. en tal método, las técnicas matriciales revelan ser esenciales. su introducción nos puede dar una simple y precisa guía para la búsqueda de soluciones. nuestro documento explica cómo la teoría de matrices aparece y participa fructíferamente en ia, con aplicaciones factibles y útiles en determinados campos, como el de la teoría de juegos. palabras clave: inteligencia artificial, lógica difusa, teoría de juegos, juegos infinitos. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 203 16. los aspectos psicológico-místicos de san evagrio póntico y san máximo el confesor gheorghe teofil popovici resumen los santos padres son los que mejor han experimentado y profundizado en los misterios del alma humana. la forma en que se considera el ser humano es muy especial. según san máximo, el hombre es el mediador entre dios y la creación. creado con cuerpo y alma, el hombre está todavía durante su vida terrena tratando de conocer a dios. pero como dijo platón, el hombre tiene que conocerse a sí mismo primero. los santos padres describen en detalle este camino, mediante el cual un hombre, a medida que renuncia a los pecados, descubre a dios en sus corazones. estas descripciones son muy actuales y relevantes para el hombre moderno, que parece haber perdido algo de la imagen global del misterio del alma humana, que muestra el gran destino para el que fue creado el hombre. 17. sistema de análisis geoespacial elisabeta antonia haller resumen en una sociedad que está en constante expansión de la información, el volumen de datos se aumenta en una forma tan inesperada que su procesamiento en tiempo útil es una tarea extremadamente difícil. se ha convertido en una de las prioridades la transformación de los datos en informaciones y conocimientos útiles. así, podemos decir que la minería de datos (o data mining) es un resultado natural del desarrollo tecnológico. la interpretación de los datos espaciales fue objeto de la investigación a través del tiempo, llegando ahora a alcanzar una amplia variedad de herramientas y productos software para la representación y la interpretación. lo que debemos entender, sin embargo, por encima de las conveniencias de un producto o de otro, de unas soluciones con propietario u otras abiertas (open source), es la forma en que estas trabajan e interactúan con los datos espaciales. 18. henric sanielevici – de la crítica literaria en la anatomía, o de cómo influye el tamaño del cráneo en la literatura adrian jicu resumen el objetivo principal de este trabajo es mostrar la relación entre la crítica literaria y la anatomía. en concreto, en él se va a presentar una de las teorías de henry sanielevici, según la cual el texto literario puede ser verdaderamente entendido sólo teniendo en cuenta el color de los ojos, el dispositivo de la mandíbula, la conformación del aparato de la mandíbula y el tamaño y forma del cráneo del autor. palabras clave: cráneo, cerebro, dolicéfalo, braquicéfalo, interdisciplinariedad, anatomía, antropología, crítica literaria. 19. el operación complejo del cerebro humano: los dos hemisferios iulia cristina timofti resumen este estudio muestra sólo una pequeña parte de las funciones y las posibles reacciones que puede tener el cerebro humano. consideramos, como ejemplos, las diferentes situaciones típicas de una persona normal, y las de otra con sólo una parte del cerebro. estos casos muestran que el cerebro, aunque dividido en dos, funcionaría como una unidad, como una computadora asombrosa, que tiene como objetivo principal el procesamiento de los datos. palabras clave: hemisferio izquierdo, hemisferio derecho, estímulos sensoriales, la mente inconsciente resumen en español 204 20. entrevista con el dr. georgios k. matis, neurocirujano, de la universidad demócrito de tracia, y la escuela de medicina, alexandroupolis, grecia ruxandra alexandru microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_2.doc 16 the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the "middleaged approach" elena-mădălina vătămănescu bucharest university of economic studies, 11 tache ionescu, sector 1, bucharest, romania madalina.vatamanescu@yahoo.com elena-alexandra gorgos national university of political studies and public administration, 30a expozitiei blvd., sector 1, 102104, bucharest, romania alexa_elena85@yahoo.com andreia-gabriela andrei alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi, 11 carol i blvd., 700506, iasi, romania andrei.andreia@gmail.com vlad-andrei alexandru center for research in management and leadership, national university of political studies and public administration, 30a expozitiei blvd., sector 1, 102104, bucharest, romania alexandruvlad_05@ymail.com abstract nowadays, scholars have become interested in the ways new media influence young people, but its influence on middle-aged people have not been thoroughly examined. this age category is often ignored as most of the online activities are performed by young persons. new media gathers a wide range of phenomena which may become concepts of the network society through their diversity, knowledge and novelty. interactivity is the most important characteristic, turning the user into a content creator, not just into a receiver. moreover, what was once considered to be a personal state of mind tends to become a part of the public domain. starting from these premises, the article advances the idea that the internet can be beneficial not just for teenagers, but also for the middleaged group oriented towards keeping in touch with relatives and friends and towards finding online useful information. at this level, the present paper aims to discover directions given by network society in the lives of middle-aged people. to this end, the research relies on an interview-based survey which addresses the way people may adapt to communication technology and to its particularities, exploring advantages or discovering potential drawbacks. keywords: network society, new media, middle-aged people. 1. introduction at present, new media do not unfold a genuine substitution of face-to-face communication, but a “potentially fruitful interplay” emerges between the two frames of reference (van dijk, 2012). nevertheless, online communities perceived as groups composed of persons who populate the internet and all the inherent applications – have become an important part of the contemporary culture and their influence is still growing (vătămănescu & pană, 2010; vătămănescu, 2014; wiest & eltantawy, 2015; vătămănescu et al., 2016). the awareness of others’ presence and the knowledge gained are essential in online communication. on the other hand, using online communication may not turn out to be very efficient in promoting social relationships if one merges with his computer and forgets face-to-face communication (katz & rice, 2002). when trying to stay in touch with someone, other people, physically approached to the internet user, might be ignored. in this way, it may be experienced a lack of social compatibility or a lack of proper discussions, the online discussion taking advantage. therefore, social relationships are weak on the one side and become powerful on the other side, marked by technology. continuing this line of argumentation, van dijk (2012) deems that face-to-face communication may be totally substituted by mediate communication, causing the decrease of communication quality. e.m. vătămănescu, e.a. gorgos, a.g. andrei the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the "middle-aged approach" 17 the online model alters by age, most of the users being young. however, technology becomes one way or another, indispensable for middle-aged people when their labor imposes disposing of new media in different ways: electronic mail, blogs, instant messaging, specialized forums or even social networks. beyond daily events, there are trends among middle-aged individuals to give a new trajectory to social practices, changing cultural patterns. focusing on the practices developed online, this paper supports the theory that strong social online relations tend to adopt the image of social relationships born and developed offline. in this light, the present study discloses the participation of middle-aged people in the development of the network society, by considering the concept of “bonding” (putnam, 2000). new media are being used among closely related factions to communicate and keep personal relations alive. along with bonding, the usage of the internet responds to the work-related agenda. thus, the study fathoms a specific dimension of the network society, focusing on individuals aged between 50 and 65, considering the respondents’ availability for engaging in this research. peacock and künemund (2007) integrated people between 55 and 64 years old in middle-aged group. 2. literature review: new media and the network society to all the lifelines we already had, a new one is being added. not only roads, electricity cables, water pipes, gas lines, sewers, post-boxes, telephone wires and cable television are part of human beings lives, but the internet advent becomes a case of dependence, as well (van dijk, 2012, wartella, rideout, lauricella, & connell, 2014). young people’s lives are dominated by networks, using chat-boxes, email conversations, instant messaging and blogging. per a contrario, for people who are older, the digital world seems like a place of hardship and of a certain level of technological ability (szabo, 2014). to control one’s own power of learning, one requires personal autonomy, benevolence and the most important thing, a formal support (hargittai, 2002, lahtiranta & kimppa, 2006, wagner, hassanein, & head, 2010). older adults have different concerns and requirements than young adults because of physical and cognitive changes, which become relevant after 45 years old (hawthorn, 2007). learning and understanding become new constructs for middle-aged people who have to obtain performance in their professional field. usually, the internet is used by older people who have an interest in obtaining knowledge from the online environment and the usage is a consequence of the possibility to develop technological skills (sourbati, 2004). after gaining some skills in using new media, older people are able to make a choice (van brakel, 2011), at least in their personal lives: offer attention to online world and spend time online or leave the internet experience behind, in the indoors or their professional space. jan van dijk (2012, p.2) has buttressed that almost every organization in the developed world “has become completely dependent on economic networks reach into the farthest corners and edges of the world”. the management of all infrastructures of society is more effective when having online communication. networks have more influence on the entire society, including social systems and personal lives. as van dijk (2012) admits, networks are becoming an enthusiastic part of society. approaching the same concept of influence, rice (1999) insisted that new media provide more ways to choose desired information, which augments the influence of culture on people’s mind. in this respect, castells (2009, p.120) underlined that individuals use ‘‘virtual reality” to expand their world according to their preferences. with the arrival of new media in the 1980s, the interference for the social environment was considered by some people “pollution”, according to kubicek (as cited in van dijk, 2012). face-toface communication was affected in its quality because of the internet. new media are responsible for the diminishing of direct communication, as posited by van dijk (2012) – the “dystopians” metaphor described in his publication, the network society. in the 1990s, these dystopian views were replaced by utopian views which uphold the idea that, in essence, new media improved the quality of communication, the concept of freedom and online communication dominating the new era of democracy (dahlgren, 2005, downey & fenton, 2003, van dijk, 2012). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 18 in the first decade of the 21st century, a so-named “syntopian” view arises (katz & rice, 2002), as a calibrated view of the previous ones. nevertheless, middle-aged clusters, without inherited or already developed skills, seem to enjoy learning about new technological devices and using new media channels instead of traditional media (freedman & schlosberg, 2011). even for middle-aged persons, the online area requires competence improvement (bernatowicz & iwanski, 2012), and the adaptation of new media to their professional lives is necessary for developing a competitive spirit or more, for fulfilling the desire not to be left outside the professional circle. the trend of the 21st century is virtual mobilization (díaz romero, 2013), a concept seen as a modality for achieving goals, a new version for civic action – exchanging knowledge, submitting or creating petitions-, fortifies participation and civic engagement, and restores collective action, regardless of age. an interesting area in the digital space is participation considering that the networked public is different from other type of audience; its properties are persistence, the power of replicating, searching and invisibility (graber, 2012; stroeker, van der graaf, & buiskool, 2014). making something public on the internet might damage or, on the contrary, might improve someone’s situation. the new participatory relations can even help the process of learning and of creating communities of informal learning (lewis, pea, & rosen, 2010). the audiences have an outcome as participants and gainers of a new democracy or as preys of a new manipulation area (livingstone, 1999, pavlik, 1999). even so, the highest level of thinking -ethical thinkingis the rarest used in online communication because it implies reflection about the exposure of one’s mind, which can help or harm another person (davis, katz, james, & santo, 2010). assuming a social role is the most significant and the most intricate endeavor. the internet is used to communicate and socialize, to find information, to be entertained, generate income and run a business (bachmann et al., 2010; mittal & mittal, 2013; wiest & eltantawy, 2015; vătămănescu et al., 2015, 2016). similar interests and views allow the creation of groups that share the same perspectives. still, the research made by mittal and mittal (2013) highlights the criticism on the reliability of the information, time consuming and cyber bullying. old media did not entail computer technology as a procedure, but new media require the presence of a computer or a smart phone. our coeval network society presumes consumption, some even militate that life is made only of acquiring products and services (loos & ekström, 2014) that help people entertain themselves, as for older individuals, they help them maintain a good health among other interests. the number of elderly consumers who use electronic communication and online services is growing faster whereas new media sustain two main aspects of middle-aged people’s concerns nowadays: health-care treatment and disease prevention (lenhart, purcell, smith, & zickuhr, 2010, p.27; hall, stellefson, & bernhardt, 2012). loos and ekström (2014) enforce that new media are a potential market enlargement taking into consideration that older people can express, almost instantaneous, through forums and organized digital campaigns, their opinions, their needs and their requirements about any kind of health care product available online. friemel (2014, p.13) talks about a “pre-retirement computer use”, sustaining that if people get used to computers from their working periods, they will probably continue using the internet even after quitting their jobs. certainly, this expected effect is likely to happen to middle-aged people and not to old seniors, whose physical abilities become weaker. notwithstanding, all media are social frames, many of the characteristics of new media dwell on the ideal of interpersonal communication (rice, 1999). the credibility of the ideas released on the internet is questionable because of the real interests that exist behind them. as an example, new media are populated by people who have made up their identity (andrei et al., 2010) and this way the receiver cannot really trust the opinions exposed. as rice (1999) sustains, accountability may be difficult to settle. one paradox of the increased accessibility is that individuals must choose, have pre-determined learning and make efforts to give sense to communication. interconnectivity generates immediate answering, but these instant messages, as feedback, may harm communication in some aspects because sometimes it is better that a message be very well considered and a suitable e.m. vătămănescu, e.a. gorgos, a.g. andrei the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the "middle-aged approach" 19 answer take some time. this is another paradox spotlighted by the author. becoming known by others, it is congruent to learning more about personal potential and about making a difference since the internet tends to promote “commonality” and leave behind uniqueness (rice, 1999; turner, 2009; vătămănescu et al., 2015, 2016). once technology has thrived as a consumer product, ruling groups were concerned about media reception with reference to behavior, affection and cognition (rakow, 1999). the choices offered by new media are important not just for active users, but also for the less experienced ones. gaining information, having contacts with people all over the world, playing games, transform a simple human being into a very complex one, acting at multiple levels. in this process, the user chooses paths to follow, elements to display, creating a unique work (manovich, 2001). the externalization of mind has become a new desire. pursuant to manovich, interactive computer media suits a new trend to objectify the mind’s operations. mental processes of reflection, problem solving and association are materialized by following a certain internet page, moving to another link and choosing the desired scenes. interactive media demands individuals to identify with someone else’s mental structure; the demand for standardization requires the sharing of undeveloped impressions. an interesting view was brought into light by poster (1999), who considered novelty in media as well as organization and technology “a matter of content”. the internet exceeds the limits of usual print and broadcasts models by “enabling many-to-many communications…; providing instantaneous global contact and inserting the modern subject into a machine that is networked” (poster, 1999, p.15). . he advances the term “underdetermination” through which certain social objects (virtual) are overdetermined in such a manner that their complexity increases. these objects need social construction and cultural creation. after a person downloads an image of a painting from the internet, that image may be modified in a special program and used again without restrictions, for personal joy. conversely, if that image could have only been admired in an art gallery, the installation of a modified picture would not have been able to emerge. even so, many have opposing conceits, considering that the internet is a real market of point of views, sustaining that it embraces adopting the ideas of others and limits social trysts (benkler, 2006). benkler (2006) argues that individuals are invaded with information because different people talk about different matters and it becomes more difficult for messages to be read and adapted. the reflection on the inherent potential is that new information and communication technologies cultivate and amplify human cognition. lévy (1997) deems that there has been a quantitative technological revolution in human knowledge, which has produced a new relation to mastery. knowledge is deemed as being in conjunction with modernity. via internet there has been introduced a new relation between human and knowledge. as a reaction to this new relation, society records new changes and if these changes are considered as being essential and innovator, the situation is marked as social revolution. in cyberspace, knowledge has become a manifestation of the individuals who populate it (lévy, 1997). cyberspace may be described as a world of communities liable to share knowledge and increase the potential for collective intelligence (thackeray et al., 2008). the conversation produced by web users turns into collective knowledge because even if no one is omniscient, everyone detains information and shares it using the internet. in the virtual world, the knowledge area is based on social harmonization; “global compatibility and interoperability” erase the division of society and conflicts (lévy, 1997). a new foundation, based on cultural harmonization appeared through new media, at this level, lévy (1997) concluded that cyberspace, with its virtual communities, its interactive simulations (logan, 2010), its abundance of texts and images will be the mediator of collective intelligence. the vision of virtual society consists in the transformation of civilization and the creation of collective intelligence. the congregations developing in the electronic space, which guarantee the revival of the political and social life, are, in reality, products of network capitalism and are not in contrariety with its interests. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 20 the network culture is an “out-of-territory and an out-of-time culture”; it has its own terms and has no limits in space and in time (robins, 1999). abolishing borders has been one aspect of global change. another aspect was creating communities in which different knowledge and cultures could be joined, considering that all the mandatory steps were taken to achieve a new context. this new structure has to convince all its inhabitants that time and space are no longer imposed limits and that their beliefs, gospels, rules and needs can be applied and satisfied in this new dimension. middle-aged internet users continue to resort to new media for managing their daily communication system and seem more and more enthusiastic in turning to new technological devices which ensure communication and other social activities (madden, 2010). in the information society, some individuals obtain advantages while others are deprived (van brakel, 2011, van dijk, 2012). the complexity and costs of technology may intensify existing social inequalities or even produce categories of people who do not match with the information society. new media promote well-informed citizens, employees and consumers and the communication between these social spheres and the organizations or institutions they are involved with. in this way, democracy would be intensified (vătămănescu, gorgos, & andrei, 2015); reaching the conclusion that capitalism thrives. still, jan van dick (2012) asserts that technology is susceptible to control from above and democracy could be damaged. in this line of thought, some would argue that even freedom is affected by the decrease of privacy, for the individual is supposed to be registered, to be transparent and examined for personal characteristics. middle-aged people do not contribute to the reconfiguration of online media, they are not interested in being digital product providers; they are simply users, who in some cases consume the services distributed by new media (bachmann et al., 2010). the reinforcement of the democratic area, lead by new media, might take place for the middle-age stage, if this category of people decides to involve more in the public zone their personal, cultural, political and economical aspects, for the community’s benefit. new media are the opportunity for middle-aged people to learn about self-determination. pursuant to fabiś and tomczyk (2013) this chance of self-improvement, given by new media, involves three functions: (1) the egotic function, defined through spiritual development; (2) the altruistic function, thinking not just about self-benefit, but about helping others with the acquired knowledge, and (3) the emancipation function, which directs the process of learning to leave behind oppressive rules and fight for discovering ways of making life more qualitative. in line with the previous positive arguments for new media to be used by middle-aged persons, i convey the assertion of madden (2010) who stated that the generational divide could be surpassed by the virtue of sharing skills and encouraging participation towards progress. the interest of every manager is to achieve, through communication and support, a more balanced intergenerational formula in order to improve the offered services, the quality of work, and to avoid potential conflicts between workers coming from different age cohorts. age is one dimension when trying to understand the capacity of the society to adopt new ways of communicating and of challenging humans’ own possibilities to admit that technological evolution is a realization and not a depreciation of self-retrieval. still, hope, schwaba and piper (2014) affirm in their study that older people value deeper communications that are conducted by telephones and written letters by reason of privacy settings, information credibility and content significance. even if online communications are created to help older persons to keep social connectivity, especially with younger people, most of the older people do not appeal very often and for a very long time to social media. although older people manifest desire social contact, few of them dedicate their time to spending it in the virtual world; their general opinion is that social media harms language and destroys, in many ways, real interactions (hope, schwaba, & piper, 2014). katz (2009) deems about cultural aging, a concept that is used as a contrast to the concept of chronological age. our research objectives consist not only of investigating the theoretical perspective of new media, with direct reference to the fact that the 21st century is dominated by applied technology, but e.m. vătămănescu, e.a. gorgos, a.g. andrei the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the "middle-aged approach" 21 also investigating a profound issue that epitomize actual lives – network society. theoretical background helps researchers build the research methods and techniques and can help reveal the reasons and the ways new media are adopted and maintained by middle-aged people. research questions the research questions envisage the following directions: 1) does the use of new media influence the behaviors of middle-aged people in the offline environment? 2) what are the main drivers for online participation in case of middle-aged people? these questions serve to enlighten aspects which mark the psychic and the societal area of living in a network society from the middleaged people standpoint: not too old to learn and not too young to abide more as different researchers posit (bachmann, kaufhold, lewis, & de zuñiga, 2010; wagner, hassanein, & head, 2010). 3. methodology in order to generate detailed and in-depth descriptions of the participants’ experiences, the paper resorted to phenomenological interviews. the phenomenological approach has as purpose to elucidate the specific. the personal perspective and interpretation are ways of gaining insights into people’s motivations and actions; the respondents are asked to describe their perception of the phenomenon in different situations. in this phenomenological study, we focused our research on discovering the meaning of this phenomenon: living in a network society (englander, 2012). online participation is seen differently through the lenses of middle-aged people: as a mean to stay in touch with persons living at long distances, a way to gain new acquaintances from health perspectives or receiving news, all together enjoying communicative space or handling job requirements, less a possibility to examine others or to waste time. the interviewees’ observations, perceptions and understandings were investigated by employing a semi-structured in-depth based, mainly, on open-ended questions (vătămănescu, pînzaru, & anghel, 2014). this option catalyzed the opportunity to discuss some topics in a more detailed manner and the descriptions were further explored through probes. we considered individual interviews more appropriate to provide detailed information about the meaning of the situations and of the social contexts to each participant in the setting. in line with this objective we resorted to face-to-face interviews as the best procedure to collect high quality data and of granting a greater degree of flexibility. resorting to a qualitative research method was driven by the intention to investigate the varied concerns and expectations of the interviewees. the participants were selected by using a snowball sampling. they were also selected taking into account their seniority; two main criteria of selection being followed: 1) respondents should have been between 50 and 65 years old and 2) respondents should have been employed and have had a high level of education (bachelor’s degree). the active generation now situates midlife between people’s 40s and 60s and this is an extension because traditionally speaking, the concept of middle life started with the age of 35 and did not close at 60 years old, but much earlier (kleyman, as cited in dahmen & cozma, 2009). the interviews were conducted in two different cities from romania: iasi and bacau, with 16 individuals: 8 women and 8 men. we preferred choosing equal numbers to avoid the bias of gender. the interviews took place at respondents’ offices and proceeded in march of 2015; the time of the interview being established in accordance with the respondents’ desire, with a view to avoid hyperactivity and time pressure. the time dedicated by the interviewees for our research varied between 40 minutes and 70 minutes, having as delimitation factors their perceptiveness and their proper canvass availability. questions were posed in an informal manner and after the completion of the sociological inquiry we considered ourselves satisfied by the received answers and we did not consider a possible iteration. the objective was to uncover the widest range of meanings held by the participants. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 22 the structure of the interview followed the three-phase qualitative interview: focused life story (the respondents’ experiences were put in context by asking them to provide as much information as possible about themselves in relation to the topic of the study); the details of experience (concrete details of their experience in the research topic area); reflection on the meaning (how they make intellectual and emotional connections with the experiences that are the subject of the research topic) (seidman, as cited in vătămănescu et al., 2014). 4. findings the interview questions were received naturally by all the respondents who were open to discuss in detail the advanced topics. to start with the common aspects of having or not an individual contract for internet services, the 16 interviewees declared they have signed one and they are interested in keeping it available for at least another 2 years. we considered 2 years of online activity enough for the respondents to be able to express opinions and subscribe to a certain group of users, according to interests, necessity and time dedicated to the virtual world. focusing on the respondents’ reasons to use the internet, the examples gathered were: information, public relations and keeping in touch with the beloved ones. as valerian (50 y.o.) asserts: “i need the internet for staying informed and for receiving and conveying information [...] i don’t need it only during my spare time, but in my office time, too. it is extremely important for my work priorities.” accordingly, other respondents (daniel, 50 y.o., ariston, 56 y.o.) said they were interested in using the online environment for obtaining more details from different service areas and to improve their knowledge. yet, for most of the respondents, using new media is not just a selfdisposed option, it has become a daily work routine. on this aspect, some sustained that internet’s usage was an obligation and highlighted the importance of showing feedback to the demands expressed on formal online channels during work hours. public organizations and, in some cases, private institutions, offer online services or at least have a public office which stays in contact with the beneficiaries of their services. the discussion about the benefits brought about by the new media gathered multiple opinions, both convergent and divergent. victor (58 y.o.) clearly states: “even from the first time i entered the virtual world, i was amazed by all the opportunities that you can take advantage of […] such as finding different services, accessing news online and searching for organizations’ programs, activities and functions”. similar opinions were embraced by other respondents (maria, 56 y.o., daniel, 50 y.o.) who stated that the usage of new media helps them evolve, the time dedicated to the virtual space being perceived as an aid towards receiving solutions to common problems and developing a spirit of community, new for their background in digital space. the fact that new media help people enrich their knowledge and their personal status is also mentioned as an opportunity to strengthen life prospects and to provide, in some cases, specialized advice without paying the expert, as it happens in the offline environment. an opposite approach to the aforementioned opinion is brought to the fore by ilie (62 y.o.) who still believes that new media are just a path to remember that mediated communication cannot supply an appropriate and genuine interaction: for me, it is obvious that new media is just an excellent device which replaces other old communication devices like phoning or sending letters. i am not evolving as a human being or as a professional if i just have some conversations online. i have my own thoughts, tasks and demands that i am able to order and solve alone. other interviewees (tiberiu, 58 y.o., elena f., 51 y.o.) believe new media can be helpful as an addition to the already formed behavior and furniture of one’s mind, the rise of new media being appreciated as a new nature of understanding personal self and professional knowledge: the internet can be very useful as a completion after some specialized courses and read books. a virtual environment is not a base. information is not the same thing as knowledge. for example, you can get certain information that cannot be applied in practice or you can get a professional advice which is wrong or unreal and if you don’t have the basic data, you might very easily make a mistake. so, we have to distinguish: to know, to understand, to realize and to do. e.m. vătămănescu, e.a. gorgos, a.g. andrei the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the "middle-aged approach" 23 the issue regarding the gains of new media was underlined by elena v. (53 y.o.) who speaks about the promotion of different programs on social sites, which may bring the enrichment of students’ participation and co-action: i find new media a source of promoting social programs and international studies exchanges for students. i usually promote these kind of activities via e-mail and facebook because i know for sure that my students are more attracted by reading news on their smart phones, tablets or laptops than reading it on a paper displayed at the university. technology thrives and i have to adapt, professionally speaking! following the aforementioned idea, most of the interviewees suggested that even though accessing and practicing on the internet is not entirely benefic for them, it is considered many times fruitful for what they have to achieve and the disappearing of the internet would be a problem. in contrast, from other participants’ standpoint, new media are not a source of making friends or changing lives. a few of them argue that new media are beneficial just for getting prime-time news, but not as a development of mind or soul. the intensification of feelings and enhancing common knowledge could be reached just through real dates: face-to-face interactions. still, most of the interviewees insisted on the fact that new media offer a new perspective on personal development whereas accessing social sites, e-mail, and different political, social, medical or touristic blogs has the power of transferring thoughts, images, places, recipes in their minds and souls. nevertheless, these respondents strongly agreed that however interesting new media are, the participation to direct courses and conferences is more consistent in creating real connections and vivid relations over time. online connections are not a powerful bond with other people; they are fleeting whereas they are grounded on momentary needs such as receiving an advice in a certain domain or receiving information for the accomplishment of different activities. the exception applies to members of the same family or to pre-established relationships in offline area. conversely, ariston (56 y.o.) describes new media as an artifact: when spending my time in a virtual mode, i really learn something extra, but, on the other hand, i think it is an artificial mode of having conversations and of getting information. maybe it would be better if i talked with a specialist face-to-face and if i gave a call instead of typing at the computer. for me, new media do not provide an enlargement. as theory describes, new media influence the conduct of users and people are very easily influenced by the information driven online. still, this issue was elucidated by the respondents, the majority claiming that they surely are not influenced by new media because they do not spend online a lot of time. the respondents talked about dependence at a “lower level”. they pointed out that they experienced situations when their children admitted that they couldn’t pass a day without logging on their twitter and facebook accounts, though the question about new media’s influence was addressed personally to the middle-aged, they also found it properly to talk about their children’s subjection to new media. even though the interviewees have not personally acknowledged the influence of new media, the answers to another item revealed that they do not realize the latent influence. when they were asked if they felt an impact on their family life due to the use of new media, almost all of them answered that sometimes they felt disconnected from the real world. in this manner, the response of valerian (50 y.o.) is enlightening: “because i do not use new media so often, i have always believed my family doesn’t notice my absence in their spare time. but more recently my wife has complained to me that i am different, i have changed my behavior and i do not spend enough time with her. i was perplexed inasmuch as i dedicated 3 hours per day for twitter, youtube and an online sports newspaper. it is not so much time”. as we can notice from the previous quotation, chosen as a representative answer for many users, the respondents do not see themselves in the situation of being influenced in their behavior by new media’s usage, however resentful they appear they state that other people physically close to them claim the lack of their offline presence. another important topic for debate has been the transformation created by the usage of new media in the organizations where the respondents work. approximately all the respondents indicated the same conversion in their work place: human computerization”. ilie (62 y.o.) claims: “i am not brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 24 able to understand my boss why he prefers to e-mail daily tasks to me instead of entering my office and tell them to me directly. from my point of view, it is wrong to adopt this attitude as a manager. it’s incomprehensible to me! we have to discuss freely, if we have this chance, not computerbased!”. in the same manner is given the response of marieta (56 y.o.): “i am sure that using emails is easier, faster and with no cost, but i have to admit i am really annoyed by the ones who send documents on e-mail instead of communicating via fax and phone. i have a lot of papers and i do not have the extra time to stay and read 100 e-mails per day! on the other hand, the application we use for registering all the received documents is online and is nationally networked. for this, i am really content. contrariwise, other respondents (nina, 55 y.o., victor, 58 y.o., mariana, 56 y.o.) mentioned that their job would be impossible without online applications inasmuch as the online environment creates a better ground for instant messaging and for synchronous communication, saving time and effort. they also consider that new media influence the development of institutions in a good manner. a given example is the system of online booking for different services or making online petitions to public institutions, which denotes institutional modernization and an easier way to public access. we can draw the main idea that online applications and specialized sites can speed up communication and getting information, but the workers still have a limited time for solving assignments. the introduction and usage of new media help the organizations perform, but the workers’ capacity and reliability must not be ignored. all the participants to this study have declared they were not able to give up using new media or getting information online. for instance, marieta (56 y.o.) stresses: “i think it would be benefic for my friends and family if i give up new media, but i started to get used to being online, chatting, getting recipes, receiving comments on my photos on facebook and i do not feel like abandoning this. what about work? even if i want to give it up, my boss doesn’t allow it!”. at the same time, other respondents claim that new media are important to them because they are better informed and they receive the desired information or news from different fields of activity before seeing them on mass media channels and they consider this possibility as a move for leadership in their formed social space (especially at work). still, gathering all the respondents’ opinions, it can be concluded that the new media’s relinquishment is facile for the persons who use it just for keeping in touch because distance may be surpassed, but for those whose work is inefficient or whose obligations or addiction require internet usage, it is almost impossible to think of quitting it. unraveling that most of the participants use new media for communication, several questions addressed the consequences of new media on direct communication. the items brought to the fore a significant issue about the potential substitution of face-to-face communication for computer-mediated communication. first of all, the respondents mentioned the arguable nature of the quality of the communication. secondly, the accuracy of the communication is at stake along with the perceived emotions and the open discussions between people. in this respect, almost all the respondents expressed their absolute and inalterable view that nothing can be compared with having a real conversation, without a suitable device for assuring the visualization and voice or without technical interruptions. physical interrelation is undeniable the most favorite one, even if it is not always the most greeted. as gheorghe (59 y.o.) highlights “in spite of our predilection of choosing more often technological devices, i sustain face-to-face communication which implies seeing perfectly face expressions, body gestures, eye contact. it is true that there are social sites and mobile applications which provide visual contact, not just voice call or texting, but i still think direct gestures happening in front of you are more cogent than those seen through a system. they are not totally synchronous”. accordingly, interviewees sanctioned the trend of using social media in some situations where distance was not an obstacle for face-to-face meetings such as living in the same town. the inconvenience of speaking virtually with physically approached persons was pointed out by a lot of participants. as mariana (56 y.o.) posits, “i perfectly understand persons who communicate via internet when they are separated by long distances, but i cannot approve of e.m. vătămănescu, e.a. gorgos, a.g. andrei the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the "middle-aged approach" 25 internet usage for communicating with people who live in the same area. it is more pleasant to talk to a friend or acquaintance face-to-face, not through superficial surroundings”. speaking about the proliferation of computer-mediated communication, some of the respondents accused the duality in individuals’ behaviors; the online public sphere permits users to remain anonymous or to declare another identity than their own. they said loyalty and soul’s configuration could not be perceived without face-to-face meetings. another idea marked the essence of the majority of the answers, helping us configure the way new media reality is conceptualized by middle-aged people. thus, maria (56 y.o.) buttressed that “in a battlefield between direct communication and mediated communication, surely the winner would be direct communication because nothing compares with direct connection; feelings are deeper and emotions flood”. conversely, marieta (56 y.o.) considers new media are a very good replacement of face-to-face communication, taking into account the fact that they ensure visual and not only voice contact. she often uses yahoo messenger for establishing meetings with her friends and changing recipes and advice. in the same tone, others declare new media as a perfectly rooted reflection of face-to-face communication, a new kind of relation with other people, a way of creating new social circles, and a source of entertainment at low cost. the respondents appreciated conducting a direct interview and they assured me they would not have enjoyed an online interview via skypetm or another online application. still, marieta (56 y.o.) and florentina (59 y.o.) declared they enjoyed talking face-to-face to the interviewer, but they would not have been disturbed if the interviews had taken place online. some questions were designed to make hidden thoughts rise. at this point, teodor (59 y.o.) pertinently concludes: we witness a decay of ethical values. security services sustain that by recording all conversations they can discover villains. i do not entirely agree. what about our privacy? i do not have something to hide from the law system, however i do not want that strangers hear my private conversations and make me a sketch. is this democracy? is this permanent watch a proof of democracy? or it is a return to the past? the respondents asserted that the last items were a real challenge. a common perspective on the issues emerged as almost all the interviewees marked out online communication as an expression of new democracy and new age. still, they do not perceive new media as a perfect replacement of face-to-face communication because people cannot feel things genuinely when conversations are mediated by computers or other technological devices. even if a lot of people often pretend being led by technology, this way of thinking should change. as some respondents posit, the main concern is the future of the world. in this respect, some respondents manifested the desire of sharing their concern about forthcoming communication. their children dedicate too much time to new media and less to own family and this situation will affect the entire community. considering the obtained answers from the participants, it can be asserted that direct speech is imperious for the existence of a real society and face-to-face communication means quality time, certainly, without ignoring positive things brought in the lives of middle-aged people by digital communication, which fulfills people’s needs, mostly for long-distanced communication. 5. discussion and conclusions as it is stated by the respondents, from their points of view the behaviors of middle-aged people are undeniable influenced by the use of new media, both professionally and personally. new media influence middle-aged demeanors because of the stress they feel about having to adopt new technologies at their work place, which sometimes requires formal support. in terms of personal usage of new media, in the spare time, indirectly, the contribution in families’ obligations tends to diminish. on one hand, new media create for middle-aged people benefits and a minimum addiction, especially in receiving information and talking with persons abroad, and on the other hand, physically closed people feel neglected because of the virtual world in which their relatives immerse. the main reasons for the online participation of middle-aged people are work liabilities, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 26 talking to relatives who live in other countries, news report and getting information. most of the interviewees admitted that if one of the factors that are responsible for the apparition of these motives disappears, they would easily give up on the online participation. this computer mediated communication is just another way of unfolding the transmitter-receiver relationship: two-way communication is the common agreed communication for middle-aged people; they do not show interest in many-to-many communication or three-way communication. their prime desire for adopting new media (online news channels, e-mail, social sites, official institutional blogs, skypetm etc.) is maintaining a strictly social and professional form of linking to the network society so that they do not feel excluded. the way the networked society influences middle-aged people to relate, form opinions and act in a continuously changing climate stands for a milestone nowadays. society brings about a constant transformation in terms of technology and lifestyle. at present, the work routine encompasses internet usage, whether it implies special platforms or different applications. in this new framework, middle-aged people are forced to mold the new practices and adapt to the produced modifications in order to continue working and fulfilling their tasks. furthermore, people get professional training and attend special courses when new assignments are introduced. technological change should alleviate work. for all that, a new issue arises: computers have been made to be used by people; instead people cannot become themselves “computerized”. although the internet has reached a bright and positive phase, easing work and reducing the period of solving a work-related problem, contrariwise other factors intervene, leading to the overestimation of human’s vigorousness. an illustrative example is the situation when someone receives 100 e-mails in 100 minutes. this network society persuades middle-aged people to seize an opportunity for documentation, urgent conversation and long distance communication. nevertheless, it is practically impossible to replace face-to-face communication with computer-mediated communication. at most, one can speak about a beginning or completion of face-to-face communication through new media. nevertheless, the network society is perceived by middle-aged people as a new configuration of immediate relations and a new way to tackle societal strategies and develop new practices in conversation and in acquiring services or mainly information, from a double perspective: for job activities and for the personal area. the dimension of the network society is not paramount to interviewees, but the fact that they are part of it and they have benefits and not only difficulties in adapting, is quite relevant. what springs in the minds of the participants is that real life, social partners and authentic commitment are put into place in the online environment as an effect of digitalization and extended offline relations. another aspect draws attention in this study. even if the participants have not been asked about the influence of new media on their children, middle-aged people found occasion to complain about the predilection of their youngsters to “live” online. they expressed concern about the exceptional attention given to virtual space. these statements emphasize an intermediate influence of new media on middle-aged individuals. they feel neglected by their children and also indignant at these new situations. this impression of presuming internet influence on others is called “influence of presumed media influence” because while thinking to be intelligent enough to resist the media influence, individuals assume a simple draft (chia, 2010). without admitting to it, they are in the same position although they sustain that new media do not influence them in their behavior thanks to minimal exposure and stringent interest. nevertheless, they mention that their family members accuse them of spending enough time on the internet. as a future perspective, we consider it would be very interesting to conduct a research in order to reveal the relations of communication between middle-aged-parents and their children. the differences in perceiving new media by this age stages, which always have to interact, would be a first step in solving communication deadlocks. the literature review helped building the base of the interview and structuring issues. as it can be extracted from the empirical research, middle-aged people are not an accustomed category of users, meaning those who develop an addiction to the new media and who e.m. vătămănescu, e.a. gorgos, a.g. andrei the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the "middle-aged approach" 27 submit to its dominance; on the contrary, middle-aged persons usually feel neglected as human beings because of the aforementioned technological space. the network society is the actual and still evolving community; it means that the present time and future perspectives and its denial can only lead to a self-outsourcing. the concept enlarged by middle-aged people remains that of putnam (2000) “bonding”-, whereas phenomenological interviews inferred that middle-aged people acknowledged new media as being just a path to keep alive human relationships when space is a dividing factor. from a eye view of a bird, the present study may be seen as a step forward to the understanding of new media in the lives of middle-aged people. as an exploratory endeavor, it relies solely on a qualitative perspective without statistical significance. the findings reflect the viewpoints of 16 interviewees, aged between 50 and 65 years. the qualitative approach offered the possibility of a better understanding of the interviewees’ ideas, perspectives and feelings, but the research would be more valuable if followed by a quantitative questionnaire-based survey, covering a larger population. references andrei, a., iosub, d., & iacob, a. (2010). motivations for using social networking sites: the case of romania. revista economică, 5(52), 17-22. bachmann, i., kaufhold, k., lewis, s.c., & de zuñiga, h.g. (2010). news platform preferences: advancing the effects of age and media consumption on political participation. international journal of internet science, 5(1), 34-47. benkler, y. (2006). the wealth of networks: how social production transforms markets and freedom. new haven, ct: yale university press. bernatowicz, a. & iwanski, r. (2012). informational marginalization in digital media among people over 45 years of age in poland. journal of international scientific publications: media and mass communication, 1, 3-12. van brakel, a. (2011). older people. new media choice: why (not) use the internet?. master’s thesis, from university of twente. retrieved from http://essay.utwente.nl/61260/1/brakel_van_alexander_s_0189405__scriptie%2bsummary.pdf castells, m. (2009). communication power. oxford: oxford university press. chia, s.c. (2010). how social influence mediates media effects on adolescents’ materialism. communication research, 37(3), 400-419. dahlgren, p. (2005). the internet, public spheres, and political communication: dispersion and deliberation. political communication, 22, 147-162. dahmen, n.s. & cozma, r. (eds.) (2009). media takes: on aging. retrieved from www.ilcusa.org. davis, k., katz, s., james, c., & santo, r. (2010). fostering cross-generational dialogues about the ethics of online life. journal of media literacy education, 2(2). retrieved from http://jmle.org/blog/?p=302. díaz romero, l. (2013). enhancing civic engagement in the digital age: global activism, new media and the virtual public sphere. paper presented at congreso internaciónal comunicacion y sociedad [the international communication and society congress], logroño. van dick, j. (2012). the network society (3rded.). london, thousand oaks ca, new delhi, singapore: sage publications ltd. downey, j. & fenton, n. (2003). new media, counter publicity and the public sphere. new media & society, 5(2), 185-202. englander, m. (2012). the interview: data collection in descriptive phenomenological human scientific research. journal of phenomenological psychology, 43, 13-35. fabiś, a. & tomczyk, l. (2013). what old people need new media for? retrieved from brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 28 https://www.pulib.sk/web/kniznica/elpub/dokument/lukac1/subor/fabis_tomczyk.pdf. freedman, d. & schlosberg, j. (2011). mapping digital media: united kingdom. a report by the open society foundations. retrieved from https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/mapping-digital-media-unitedkingdom-20110701.pdf friemel, t.n. (2014). the digital divide has grown old: determinants of a digital divide among seniors. new media & society, 12th of june 2014, 1-19. retrieved from http://friemel.com/docs/friemel_2014_nms_digital-divide.pdf graber, d. (2012). new media literacy education (nmle): a developmental approach. journal of media literacy education, 4(1), 82-92. hall, a.k., stellefson, m., & bernhardt, j.m. (2012). healthy ageing 2.0: the potential of new media and technology. preventing chronic disease, 9. retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/221691491_healthy_aging_2.0_the_potential_of_n ew_media_and_technology. hargittai, e. (2002). second-level digital divide: differences in people’s online skills. first monday, 7(4). retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_4/hargittai/index.html. hawthorn, d. (2007). interface design and engagement with older people. behavior & information technology, 26(4), 333-341. hope, a., schwaba, t., & piper, a.m. (2014). understanding digital and material social communications for older adults. retrieved from http://ampiper.soc.northwestern.edu/hopechi2014.pdf. katz, j.e. & rice, r.e. (2002). project syntopia: social consequences of internet use. it and society, 1(1), 166-179. katz, s. (2009). cultural aging: life course, lifestyle, and senior worlds. toronto, canada: university of toronto press. lahtiranta, j., & kimppa, k. (2006). elderly people and emerging threats of the internet and new media. bretrieved from http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-0-387-392295_2.pdf. lenhart, a., purcell, k., smith, a., & zickuhr, k. (2010). social media & mobile internet use among teens and young adults. retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/reports/2010/socialmedia-and-young-adults.aspx. lévy, p. (1997). cyberculture. paris: editions odile jacob. lewis, s., pea, r., and rosen, j. (2010). beyond participation to co-creation of meaning: mobile social media in generative learning communities. social science information, 49(3), 351-369. livingstone, s. (1999). new media, new audiences? new media & society, 1(1), 59-66. logan, r.k. (2010). understanding new media: extending marshall mcluhan. retrieved from http://www.peterlang.com/download/extract/58328/extract_311125.pdf. loos, e., & ekström, m. (2014). visually representing the generation of older consumers as a diverse audience: towards a multidimensional market segmentation typology. journal of audience & reception studies, 11(2), 258-273. retrieved from http://www.participations.org/volume%2011/issue%202/14.pdf. madden, m. (2010). older adults and social media: social networking use among those ages 50 and older nearly doubled over the past year. retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/reports/2010/older-adults-and-social-media.aspx. manovich, l. (2001). the language of new media. cambridge, massachusetts, london, england: the mit press. mittal, r., & mittal, c.g. (2013). traditional and new media are friends. international journal of research & development in technology and management sciences, 19(25). retrieved from http://journal.rtmnline.in/vol19iss25/05224.pdf. pavlik, j.v. (1999). new media and news: implications for the future of journalism. new media & society, 1(1), 54-59. e.m. vătămănescu, e.a. gorgos, a.g. andrei the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the "middle-aged approach" 29 peacock, s.e., & künemund, h. (2007). senior citizens and internet technology. european journal of ageing, 4(4), 191–200. poster, m. (1999). what’s new about new media? new media & society, 1(1), 12-17. putnam, r.d. (2000). bowling alone. new york: simon & schuster. rakow, r.f. (1999). the public at the table: from public access to public participation. new media & society, 1(1), 74-82. rice, r.e. (1999). artifacts and paradoxes in new media. new media & society, 1(1), 24-32. robins, k. (1999). new media and knowledge. new media & society, 1(1), 18-24. seidman, i. (1998). interviewing as qualitative research: a guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. new york: teachers college press. sourbati, m. (2004). internet use in sheltered housing: older people’s access to new media and online service delivery. london: joseph rowntree foundation. stroeker, n., van der graaf, a., & buiskool, b.-j. (2014). communicating “europe” to its citizens: state of affairs and prospects. retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/studies. szabo, l.-v. (2014). sense and context: elements of new media communication. retrieved from www.upm.ro/ldmd/ldmd-01/cpr/cpr%2001%2051.pdf. thackeray, r., neiger, b.l., hanson, c.l., & mckenzie, j.f. (2008). enhancing promotional strategies within social marketing programs: use of web 2.0 social media. health promotion practice, 9(4), 338-343. turner, f. (2009). burning man at google: a cultural infrastructure for new media production. new media & society, 11(1&2), 73-94. vătămănescu, e.–m. (2014). investigating facebook friendships through the five similarity dimensions. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(22), 252-266. vătămănescu, e.-m., & pană, a.-d. (2010). the application of the communication accommodation theory to virtual communities: a preliminary research on the online identities. the international journal of interdisciplinary social sciences, 5(4), 279-290. vătămănescu, e.-m., pînzaru, f., & anghel, l.c. (2014). a managerial perspective on common identity-based and common bond-based groups in non-governmental organizations. patterns of interaction, attachment and social network configuration. management dynamics in the knowledge economy, 2(2), 265-282. vătămănescu, e.-m., gorgos e.-a., & andrei a.g. (2015). new media as a catalyst of the european identity. in g. c. pascariu, r. łigănaşu, c. încalńărău, and simionov, l.m. (eds.). regional development and integration. new challenges for the eu. eurint 2015 proceedings (pp. 353-370). iaşi: editura universităńii „alexandru ioan cuza” iaşi. vătămănescu, e.-m., andrei, a.-g., leovaridis, c., & dumitriu, l.-d. (2015). exploring network-based intellectual capital as a competitive advantage. an insight into european universities from developing economies. in cegarra navarro, j.g. (ed.), proceedings of the 7th european conference on intellectual capital ecic 2015 (pp. 350-358). reading, uk: academic conferences and publishing international limited (isbn: 978-1-910810-00-2, issn: 2049 0933). vătămănescu, e.-m., andrei, a.g., dumitriu, d.-l., & leovaridis, c. (2016). harnessing networkbased intellectual capital in online academic networks. from the organizational policies and practices towards competitiveness. journal of knowledge management, 20(3), 594-619. wagner, n., hassanein, k., & head, m. (2010). computer use by older adults: a multi-disciplinary review. computers in human behavior, 26, 870-882. wartella, e., rideout, v., lauricella, a.r., & connell, s.l. (2014). parenting in the age of digital technology: a national survey. northwestern university, center on media and human development, school of communication. retrieved from http://familieslearning.org/pdf/parentingagedigitaltechnology.pdf. wiest, j.b., & eltantawy, n. (2015). mediatization in the arab world: a cross-cultural comparison of new media use. online journal of communication and media technologies, 5(2), 120-142. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 30 appendix interview guide 1. do you have an internet contract in progress? are you interested in maintaining it? 2. do you need the internet? in what situations do you use it? 3. does your work require the internet usage or is the internet just an option? 4. in your opinion, what are the main reasons for using new media (e-mail, forums, blogs, instant messaging, social sites etc.)? 5. how much time do you spend virtually? 6. do you consider that the time spent virtually yields benefits for your personal or professional development? 7. it is often said that new media influences users’ behavior. do you find yourself in this situation? if yes, how? 8. researchers assert that new media can lead to business or organization development. do you agree? 9. can new media replace face-to-face communication? 10. would you have enjoyed more this interview if it were conducted online? for example, via skypetm? 11. could you give up using new media in your personal or professional environment? 12. how is new media affecting your relationships with close people (colleagues, friends, relatives)? 13. do you consider that new media changes the way you work or interact at work? microsoft word brain_8_2017_issue_1_vers3.docx 59 artificial systems and models for risk covering operations laurenţiu-mihai treapăt college of management, national university of political studies and public administration 6 povernei st., sector 1, 010643 bucharest, romania laurentiu.treapat@facultateademanagement.ro anda gheorghiu college of management, national university of political studies and public administration 6 povernei st., sector 1, 010643 bucharest, romania anda.gheorgiu@facultateademanagement.ro abstract mainly, this paper focuses on the roles of artificial intelligence based systems and especially on risk-covering operations. in this context, the paper comes with theoretical explanations on real-life based examples and applications. from a general perspective, the paper enriches its value with a wide discussion on the related subject. the paper aims to revise the volatilities’ estimation models and the correlations between the various time series and also by presenting the risk metrics methodology, as explained is a case study. the advantages that the var estimation offers, consist of its ability to quantitatively and numerically express the risk level of a portfolio, at a certain moment in time and also the risk of on open position (in titles, in fx, commodities or granted loans), belonging to an economic agent or even individual; hence, its role in a more efficient capital allocation, in the assumed risk delimitation, and also as a performance measurement instrument. in this paper and the study case that completes our work, we aim to prove how we can prevent considerable losses and even bankruptcies if var is known and applied accordingly. for this reason, the universities in romania should include or increase their curricula with the study of the var model as an artificial intelligence tool. the simplicity of the presented case study, most probably, is the strongest argument of the current work because it can be understood also by the readers that are not necessarily very experienced in the risk management field. keywords: var, volatility, artificial systems and econometrics models. 1. introduction value at risk, also known as var by all the risk management specialists, is a financial technique, a mathematical model able to offer, in any moment, an exact quantitative aspect of the exposure to the market risk. for working with the var tool, the user needs to have a cognitive focus to a high interdisciplinary knowledge achieved during his/her student years, such as mathematics, economics, computer science, psychology and soft skills combined with a core foundation of an artificial intelligence, like mathematical and econometrics modeling. between 1994-1996 j. p. morgan created and improved this methodology for financial risk analysis and evaluation. this method is recognized even today as being the most efficient method used in the market risk management, being, in fact, an interaction between human thinking and artificial systems and models. the analysis of the var framework methodology in this paper is begun by defining the notion and presenting its advantages and limits. further on, in this paper, we will specify the various var calculation and simulation modalities for the portfolios with exposures to the market risk. here, we will exemplify the most used methods of risk management and of var estimation for a portfolio comprising financial assets in foreign currencies. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 60 2. acknowledging the subject our paper will demonstrate that the exposure to complex financial operations attracts risks that may occur as a result of some speculative positions deliberately taken by a bank (by its own account trading), or may derive from the market creator activities for the clients (dealing operations). the modification financial market conditions may affect the bank through the three main interdependent, yet separately managed transmission channels. these are: the variation of the evolution trend and of the interest rate levels, the variation of the foreign currency exchange rate, the variation of the local currency value (of various assets and liabilities expressed in a foreign currency) and, consequently, the variation of the financial assets rate that may affect the market value of the titles portfolio and the value of the titles issued by the bank (bonds or shares). as laypersons, we may be intrigued by the complexity of the var model. but, if we understand how our own intelligence works, we can use this knowledge to make the mathematical models better and we can make them to support us, even to protect our financial investments. moreover, by transforming the behavior of the computers and mathematical models more similar to humans’ behavior, we learn more about how our own cognition works. all these market risk types of exposures will be empirically explained in the following pages for useful purposes. the interest rate risk is in relation with the position associated with the fixed revenue titles and with their derivates, as ross, westerfield, & jordan (2010) considered. the risk factors that are in the direct relation with the interest rate are estimated in all the currencies for which the bank has sensitive positions to the interest rate, within the balance sheet and also outside of it. the risk factors refer to the sensitivity of the portfolio accepted by the market, where the short and long position on various instruments may be compensated. it is known that the bank has a “long position” when the assets with fixed interest rate are bigger than the liabilities with fixed interest rate. this position is favorable to the bank during the decreasing periods of interest rate, as it benefits from the fixed level of interest rates for the assets (that are bigger), while the interest rated is decreasing. the position of the bank is “short” when the assets with fixed interest rate are smaller than the liabilities of the same type, to the benefit of the bank, in the period of interest rate increase, as the level of the interest rate stays fixed at a lower level compared with the market trend. the objective of any bank, concerning the prevention of the risk associated with the variation of the interest rate, is to achieve the largest possible margin between the average level of the passive interests and one of the active interests, at the same time maintaining this margin for as long as possible, meaning, in conditions of minimum volatility of the market. this goal could be achieved by artificial intelligence models as var and simulations. the foreign currency risk or the risk of the currency rate is determined by the probability that a variation of the currency rate on the market, to lead to a net profit diminishing for the bank or to negative influences upon the banking interest margin. several studies (ionescu, 2003 and roxin, 1997) underline the idea that the risk impacts, the banking operations using foreign currency. banking operations performed in their name of the banks or at the clients’ orders, the exposure being directly proportional to the difference between the assets and liabilities in foreign currency from the same maturity category, and has three components. the first component is the exposure, due to transactions developed with assets and liabilities that are sensitive to risks. the second is represented by the exposure associated with the operations of conversion from one foreign currency to another. and, the last one is the economic exposure that undertakes the influence of the foreign currency rates fluctuations upon the bank’s value and is calculated as the discounted value of all the incomes obtained by the bank, in all its operating foreign currencies. we can easily understand that without support of the macroeconomics l.-m. treapăt, a. gheorghiu artificial systems and models for risk covering operations 61 models and artificial intelligence simulations applied on the various portfolios of assets and liabilities, this task could be almost impossible to be achieved, only by human intelligence. the risk of shares represents the probability that a bank registers losses or does not achieve the estimated incomes, following the unexpected modifications of the owned financial assets prices on the market. this risk category refers to having certain positions in the trade register, positions that are related to the shares or instruments having a similar behavior and their derivates (e.g. futures and swaps). also, the risk related to shares is calculated for the specific risk that is associated with the ownership of a title and also, for the position on the market, as a whole. for the derivates, the risk is evaluated by converting the derivate into a notional position of shares on the initial instrument. the equilibrium prices are the ones that settle the market which is based on the rate between the demand and supply. when this report is unbalanced, the prices of the financial assets record significant variations that express the volatility of the price. for a complex and diversified portfolio of financial assets, the effect of the title-variation may be compensated, at least partially, by reverse variations of other ownerships, fact that, at the level of an entire bank that professionally manages the assets and liabilities, may not only lead to avoiding deficits, but also has to lead to profit making. we may, thus, state that the sources of risk on the market are the price variations of the financial portfolio, of the own capital instruments, of the interests spread and of the foreign currencies exchange rates. this is why; its major components are the risk related to the shares position, the risk related to the goods, the risk of the interest rate and the foreign currency exchange rate risk. each risk component includes a certain aspect regarding the general risk on the market and an aspect regarding the specific risk, both having their origins in the portfolio structure that is specific to the bank. besides the standard instruments, the market risk is applied to the various derivate instruments such as the options, the derivates on shares or the foreign currency ones and also the derivates on the interest rate. thus, the role of the artificial systems and models for risk covering operations becomes not only very important, but even indispensable. as hastie et al. (2009) demonstrated, the role of the artificial systems is to discover patterns in big data sets, involving models at the intersection of artificial intelligence, mathematics, machine learning, statistics, econometrics and database systems. acting this way, the artificial models for risk covering operations accomplish new steps towards the "knowledge discovery in databases" process fayyad et al. (1996). the overall goal of the artificial models is to extract information from a data set and transform it into an understandable structure for users. aside from the analysis step, han and kamber (2001) show us that data mining concepts and techniques involve database and data management aspects, data pre-processing, interestingness metrics, complexity considerations, post-processing of discovered structures, visualization, and online updating. 3. the impact of the major players upon the market and the ways to determine its volatility by artificial systems and calculation models the presence of the big institutional investors, such as the pension funds, the insurance companies or the investment funds, had also a certain impact upon the structure of the market and upon the market risk. the institutional investors adjust their own investment portfolios having a stable liquidity and that are traded at a wide range, by means of high-value transactions, as on markets with increasing prices, the high-value acquisitions tend to increase the prices even more. on the contrary, the markets with descending trends become more tensed when massive stock unit packages of institutional dimension are sold. eventually, this leads to enlarging the spread of the prices variation and, implicitly, to a greater market risk. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 62 the exposure to the market risk, determined by the growth of the number of banks, is due to the diversification trend of their activity, from its traditional function of intermediation to activities of market creating and of own name trading activities by which the banks are saving “risk capital” for activities that involve deliberately risk taking. in this case, this risk should be well managed and a better management is possible by the use of new it&c intelligent tools. after the market risk sources are acknowledged, we must analyze the ways and means of contamination with these risk factors, namely the variation of the evolution trend and of the interest rates level, the variation of the foreign exchange rates and consequently of the value of the external assets and liabilities, in local currency, and also the variation of the financial assets price that impacts the market value of the commercial title portfolio and also of the bank issued ones (shares, bonds). the evaluation of the impact upon the activity or measuring the risk on the market consists of determining the volatility of the results or of the market values (implied volatility, calculated with a formula similar to the engel curve equation (eq. 1) :    n i itit rv 1 22  ), the evaluation could be done using one or some of the following methods: the method of the percentage variation of the price of the fixed assets, that, through its value, indicates the volatility; the method of the standard variation or of the standard main square deviation, that highlights a standard modification more or less, around the average price variation of the financial asset; the method of the correlations, that relies on a set of indicators calculated by extrapolating an already known historical trend; the method of the simulations, that consists in fixing a maximum accepted level for the losses and simulating all the possible situations for the existing portfolio, with considering the various volatility degrees; the method of the scenarios consists in choosing certain scenarios that are very likely to be achieved, out of the already performed simulations, calculating a volatility for all the scenarios and optimum value for a certain scenario. a simplistic approach when evaluating the market risk deals with every market where the bank is exposed as a separate entity and does not consider the relations that may exist among different markets. consequently, every risk is individually assessed. a more comprehensive approach concerns the evaluation of the risk from a consolidated perspective that considers the existing relation among the markets and the fact that the fluctuation on one market may have an impact on various others. for example, the fluctuation of the foreign exchange rate may also affect the price of the bonds issued in a certain currency. considering the on-growing interference of the banks in the investment and trading activities, but also the increased volatility of the market, the precise and on time evaluation of the market risk has become necessary. at the same time, it is mandatory to evaluate the ricks attributed to the investment portfolios with a stable liquidity, of the trading portfolios, and also of the positions that are whether in the balance sheet or outside of it. the capacity to systematically evaluate the risk and to efficiently manage the open net position is crucial. the methods vary from the calculation of the open net position (the sensitivity of the factor “market”) to the value at risk calculation and to other more complex riskl.-m. treapăt, a. gheorghiu artificial systems and models for risk covering operations 63 estimations. once the term transactions which are not yet settled, are taken into account, a projected position is determined and its accounting value is converted into the market value, then it is given to a common nominator which represents the equivalent position of the “cash” market. this methodology belongs to the static type of market-risk evaluation instruments, known as standard instruments or instruments based on tables. this estimation offers a simple value at risk as one single factor, the correlation between the positions is not considered. based on the open net position, we can estimate the potential income or the capital at risk, by multiplying the open net position (the sensitivity of the risk factor on the market) with the volatility price. it is assumed that the randomness of the variance process changes alongside the variance, as opposed to the square root of the variance taken from the heston model. the basic heston model assumes that the price of the asset is determined by a stochastic process, as wilmott (2006) demonstrated. the model specifies that the instantaneous interest rate follows the stochastic differential equation, modifying the random market risk factor with 3 parameters. in finance, vasicek (1977) elaborated a mathematical model describing the evolution of the interest rates. this is a type of one-factor short rate model describing the interest rate movements driven by only one source of the market risk. the model can be used in the expertise of the interest rate derivatives and it has also been adapted for the credit markets, although it has the disadvantage of allowing negative interest rates. in order to clarify any misunderstanding regarding the value of the inferred correlation, damghani (2013) introduced a statistical test which uses the measured correlations in different moments of the financial industry. with all those aforementioned models, an issue that the analysts and the supervision entities often face is that the banks deliberately avoid or postpone admitting the existence of deficits. this type of practice is carried out in order to transfer the low-quality investment assets from one institution to another (or to the permanent investment category that is “kept for the tenor”). the transfer between institutions can be done by simultaneous purchase and sales or by swapping the assets with the other banks or the non-banking financial institutions. for example, the bonds-swapping consists in the simultaneous sale and purchase of a title, for an over-evaluated price compared to the market price that is depreciated. the ias 39 accounting standard closed this gate as the title has yet to be presented at its fair value (if it is not kept for tenor). the less developed infrastructure on the secondary market could, at the same time, increase the risk and complicate its evaluation even more. for example, in certain markets, the settlement is done few days or few weeks after the transaction is completed. this extended settlement period involves an exact evaluation of the partner’s risk – namely, the risk that, within the settlement period, the payment related to the position to be completed and the partner not to have made the delivery. in certain countries, the financial instruments markets are not liquid, and thus potentially generating a volatility of the initial price that is much higher and implicitly, generating a higher risk exposure. all this show us that the risk relies on events likely to happen and it is obvious that no human evaluation without an adequate intelligent instrument or model (but, used always by human-mind) can illustrate the multiple faceted nature of the market risk. even the most uncomplicated aspects of the market risk management may present a problem in real life situations – particularly when the bank does not have an adequate system of molding the investment portfolio. 4. how to cover the risk of the open positions through mathematical simulation all these extended developments of the mathematical and econometrics models, together with derivate instruments that we have been mentioned before, allow their users to cover the risk of the open positions in more complex ways. as the liquidity of the market is a crucial precondition for using such instruments this expanded the researchers’ preoccupation for the evaluation and the efficiency of the risk covering operations, with a number of sophisticated methods, such as mathematical simulation. our current work also channels the attention upon brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 64 these preoccupations, thus we will perform an empirical analysis of the most used methods of evaluation and measurement of the exposures of the romanian banks to the market risk, as treapăt and anghel (2016) argue in a recent research. 4.1. the value at risk (var) most of the banks highly exposed to the market risk which play crucial roles, have implemented complex risk indicators and instruments for evaluating the impact of the risk upon the activity, tools that can be applied on different markets. although the specific arrangements may differ, these internal evaluation models are usually framing into a common conceptual scenery. typically, these models are evaluating the aggregated exposure to the market risk of a bank and, taking in consideration the probability level, they estimate the amount that the bank would lose if it owned certain assets for a certain period of time. such models relying on var cover a series of market risks; the bank may “adjust” the structure of its portfolio by choosing from a series of options in order to diversify its portfolio, to reduce the risk it is exposed to and/or the associated capital requirements. the data that is the input in the var-based model contains information about the positions and the prices of the bank, the volatility and their risk factors, such as the term of the assets. the data must be comprehensive enough in order to illustrate all the risks that are incidental to the balance sheet positions of the bank and to the positions outside the balance sheet of the bank. all the risks covered by the model must include all the positions related to the interest, foreign currency rates, shares, commodities, and to the options in the portfolio of the bank. the evaluation parameters include the duration of the ownership, the historical time span considered for the observation, the prices of the risk factors, and the trust interval that enables a cautious judgment for an optimal protection level (meaning, that it identifies the maximum acceptable losses). the time span considered for the observation will be chosen by the bank with the purpose that it can illustrate relevant market conditions for its risk management strategy. usually, the internal models combine the potential modification of the value of each position that would result from the variations that are specific to the basic risk factors, with the probability that these variations occur. the value modifications are accumulated at the level of the segments in the trade registry and/or for all the activities and markets. the var value can be calculated by using one of the methods presented below: 1. the method of the historical simulation which calculates the hypothetic modification of the value of the current portfolio, and it is based on the historic variations of the risk factors (at a level of trust of 99%, we could consider the lowest value out of 100 daily observations and to apply this profitability to the current portfolio, thus determining the maximum loss for the following variations). 2. the delta-normal method or the method of the variance/covariance is the most widely used method by the portfolio managers. through this method it is assumed that the distribution of the assets profitability is normal and that the daily profitability is successively independent (meaning it is not influenced by the profitability previous of the previous days). for calculating the potential modification of the current portfolio value, we have to calculate the average and the standard deviation of the assets profitability. this mathematical operation is done in order to obtain a combination between the risk factors sensitivities and the individual positions within the covariance matrix, representing the risk factors volatilities and the correlations among the asset. 3. the monte carlo simulation method builds up the distribution of the current portfolio, using an enlarged sample of price scenarios randomly combined, whose probabilities are, usually, based on the previous experience. this method is more flexible than the other two methods and does not rely on hypotheses about the normality of the profitability, but the scenarios number rapidly increases alongside the complexity of the portfolio and the related risk factors. l.-m. treapăt, a. gheorghiu artificial systems and models for risk covering operations 65 the basel committee established certain quality standards for the internal models, when they are used in the context of capital adequacy. if the recent volatility of prices was elevated, the qualitative standards contain a trust interval with a single limit, of 99%, an ownership period of 10 trading days, and a historical observation time span of minimum 1 year. yet, a shorter observation time span will generate a higher value in contrast to the time horizon that is covering a larger period, but is usually less volatile. the var numbers must be cumulated by summing them up, on risk categories factors, while considering the crossed correlations in every category. the standard, regarding the capital for the market risk as established by the basel committee, requires that the var to be calculated on a daily bases and, also, the capital requirements related to the market risk to be daily accomplished. the capital requirements are expressed in values: the maximum between the previous day var and the average of the daily var indicators, alongside the previous 60 days in line. afterwards, this is multiplied with an additional multiplying factor “k” (that has a minimum value of 3.0), designated by the national supervising authorities and related with the quality of the bank’s risk management system. the supervising entities will increase “k” with a factor between 0.0 and 1.0; according to how many times the projected var was exceeded as resulted of the reverse testing of the internal model. this “plus” factor is connected with the “ex-after” application of the internal model. this measure will probably introduce and stipulate the banks to fix and use, on a regular basis, “a routine and exact program” of stress tests for identifying the events or influences that may have a negative impact upon the position of the capital of the bank. 4.2. the stress test the aim of the stress test is to identify the events and influences that may generate a loss – namely, the ones that have a negative impact upon the position of the capital of the bank. the stress tests must have both a qualitative and a qualitative nature. the quantitative criteria must identify possible stress scenarios that might occur within the market environment; scenarios that are specific for the banks. the qualitative criteria must focus on two key aspects of the stress test: the evaluation of the capacity of the bank to absorb big losses, and on the identification the measures that the bank can adopt in order to reduce the risk and to preserve the capital. following the conducted researches, we have discovered that it is almost impossible to elaborate a standard scenario for the stress test, able to have a consistent impact upon all banks, because the environment could be influenced, practically, by an infinite set of variables. consequently, the methodology we propose for stress testing involves a series of stages, such as: 1. reviewing information about the biggest losses that were effectively registered on a certain time span, in comparison with the losses levels as estimated by the internal system for the risk assessment of the bank. this step of the methodology offers information about the “top” losses degrees while covered by a certain var estimation. 2. the simulation of the extreme stress scenarios, including also a test of the current portfolio compared the previous periods of time that presented significant turbulences. this type of test must include both the price variations and the big decreases in the level of liquidity; facts that are usually associated with these events. 3. the sensitivity degree evaluation of the bank exposure to the market risk, towards the modification of the estimations about the volatilities and correlations. in other words, the current position of the banks must be compared with the extreme values of the variations for volatilities and correlations within the historical time span. 4. performing the specific test scenarios, that illustrates the trading portfolio’s features of one bank, in the most adverse conditions. the results of the stress tests must be periodically reviewed by the committee that manages the risk and by the superior management and must be reflected as the upcoming modifications, regarding the policies for specific risk management and the exposure limits. if the brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 66 stress tests indicate a certain vulnerability, the bank must immediately take the necessary measures concerning the situations and the risks that generate the respective vulnerability. the stress test scenarios and the testing results are, usually, subject to a supervisory attention (central bank). normally, the complexity of the stress tests reflects the complexity of the exposures to the market risk and to the respective market environments of one bank. based on a relatively simple analysis, we could evaluate the impact upon the capital of the banks if the expected volatility of the market price would materialize. the estimations which were generated this way can be used also as instruments for the evaluation of the portfolios and, also, as management instruments. for example, these estimations can be compared with the gained profit or the registered losses, during the period of observation. the comparison of the effective impact upon the profits towards the reported profits enables us, in addition, to evaluate the quality of the market risk management. by its nature, the market risk demands a constant managerial attention and an adequate analysis. in our opinion, the prudent managers must be aware of the exact way in which the exposures of the bank to the market risk are correlating with its capital. 4.3 mark to market this activity refers to (re)evaluating portfolios of a bank for reflecting the variation of the assets prices, which is due to the fluctuations of the price on the market. this policy requires that the asset to be (re)evaluated at its market value according to the 39thaccounting international standard. the volume and the nature of the activities a bank engages in determine, in general, the prudent frequency of the evaluation. it is considered prudent for a bank to (re)evaluate the positions of the investment portfolio having a stable liquidity, at least monthly. as the assets in the trading portfolio are being continuously sold and purchased, the positions related to the trading portfolio of a bank must be evaluated and marked to the market at least once a day. other aspects that should be approached by the policies concerning the marking to market are: the responsibility of the evaluation and the method used for determining the new (market) price of the asset. the policy regarding the risk management must stipulate that the prices are determined (also the marking to the market) by employees that are independent from the respective dealer, trader or its managers. the market risk management policy must, also, include the requirements concerning the stop-loss sale and the consultation that are related to a predetermined limit for the exposure to the loss (risk budget). the stop-loss exposure limit must be determined concerning the bank capital structure, the incomes trends, and, also, concerning the overall risk profile. when the losses for the positions of a bank reach an unacceptable level, the positions should be automatically closed or consultations must be initiated in order to set or reconfirm the strategy for stopping the losses. the consultations must held by specialists in the risk management or belonging to the committee for administrating the assets and liabilities. the advanced it technology, available in the recent years, was compulsory for developing plenty of new instruments. the technology improved the quality and the access to information, and thus increased the efficiency and the liquidity of the interfacing secondary markets. as gheorhiu (2016) highlights,“…in 2016, the world bank has placed romania 37th out of 189 economies analyzed in terms of ease of doing business... internet services in romania exceed those from many developed countries. in the latest five years, only bucharest has attracted more than 170 start-ups and means a rapid growth of big software companies and it services. the presence of global technology corporations such as intel, motorola, microsoft, oracle, sun microsystems, boeing, nokia and others, helped the growth of the it industry, through software development activities and r&d own centers in romania. at the present moment, romania is the third leading country (after india and china) among software exporters and the most important competitive advantage in software development consists of its highly qualified, cost-effective human resources. it workforce is a driving force of romania”. l.-m. treapăt, a. gheorghiu artificial systems and models for risk covering operations 67 the model and the analytical techniques, providing pertinent and exact information and which are consistent at an internal level, offer the necessary technical support for developing the transactions and the decision making acts. moreover, the complex it programs allowed processing and evaluating the risk transactions simultaneously, offering the necessary information for the management and employees, thus understating the exact nature of the risk and the value of the open positions, in real time. the technological capacity, artificial intelligence and skilled young specialists, enabled the banks to engage themselves in trading, meaning that they can assume positions for financial instruments, including positions for derivative products outside balance-sheet instruments. the banks assume such positions to benefiting, on a short term, from the current or anticipated differences between the purchasing and sale prices or from other price or interest rate variations. 5. how to use standard deviation models for a better management of the interest rate, fx risk and price variation for the financial assets the concern of the interest margins, regarding their stability and preservation, becomes understandable, because, as we know from past experiences that from 2003-2008, some banks had margins between 12% and 18% attributed to the interests in national currencies and margins between 7% and 8% attributed to the loans granted in foreign currencies. of course, the margins decreased nowadays, but still they are high. thus, we have encountered the situation when the weight of the incomes from interests is between 60-70% from the total incomes achieved by some banks or even more for the banks that do not have such a wide range of products and services to bring commissions or other non-interest incomes. a different situation, regarding the margin between the asset and liabilities interests concerns, was acknowledged starting with the 4th quarter of 2008 and properly felt during 2009, following, on the one hand, the financing severe price increase of the sources, and on the other, the blocking of the real estate market. this fact determined a dramatic decrease concerning the demand of loans for immovable assets or the mortgage loans, but also of the consumption loans. from the analyses performed at certain commercial banks in romania, we acknowledged that, by the end of the second semester of 2009, the in the same loans categories the average balances were between approximately 30-40% which did not impact by the crisis. these values resulted from the average balances of the ist, iind, and iiird quarters of 2008. the sensitivity to the variation of the interest on the market is illustrated by the margin variation, under the influence of, at least, two categories of factors. internal factors, respectively, the ones that are related to the balance sheet structure, the assets quality, the account receivable eligibility, the maturities management, etc. and external factors related, mainly, to the general economic conditions, the political and social stability, etc. if the former are related to the internal organization and the professionalism of the bank employees, being up to them the degree of the influence these factors, the latter are related to the general micro-climate of the market. the effects of the unforeseen modifications of the interest rates have an impact upon the balance sheet elements with fixed interest rate that cannot be aligned to the market and their dimension gives, in fact, the exposure to risk or the so-called position of the bank to the margin variation that can be long, short or neutral. the bank finds itself in a long position where the fixed interest assets are bigger than the fixed interest liabilities. this position is favorable for the bank in the periods of interests decrease as it benefits from the fix level of the interests for assets (that are bigger) in period in which the interest of such assets are decreasing. the position of the bank is short when the fixed interest assets are smaller than the liabilities of this kind. the periods of interest rate increase are to the benefit of the bank, as the level of the interest calculated for the resources remains fixed at an inferior level, compared with the trend on the market. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 68 the neuter position is ideal, and appears in the case of equality between the fixed interest assets and liabilities, but it does not secure 100% the bank and does not enables the possibility to the treasurers to speculate the variation of the interest rate. another modality to manage the interest rate variation risk is the management of the gap. the interest rate variation risk relies on anticipating the trends and immunizing the bank by periodically modifying the assets and liabilities (adequacy). taking in consideration the classic approach, without artificial intelligence is more difficult, the gap management involves a recurrent calculation (usually, monthly or quarterly) of the indicator. the calculation is based on the data in the balance sheet or other verification reports, anticipating the evolution of the interest rate level on the market and, correspondingly, adapting the structure of the assets and liabilities elements according to the sensitivity degree (fixed or variable assets). the assets and liabilities, sensitive to the interest rate, are grouped in tenor intervals (up to 1 month, 3-6 months, 6-12 months and over 12 months), according to the time left until the moment of the interest rate rehabilitation and/or until the tenor. according to this method, we can evaluate by simulations the influence of the interest rate modification (in general, with 1%) of the net interest incomes of the bank. this influence is quantities on various time horizons. the grouped gaps management is the second method, supported by artificial intelligence. this method is based on grouping the assets and liabilities in sensitive and non-sensitive according to the variation of the interest rate, within a matrix in which the tenors are intersected with every element that is a subject of the analysis. the dynamic management of the gaps is based on the forecast regarding the modification in time of the interest, recalculating the portfolio for every dynamic work hypothesis using some it programs. we found that the artificial intelligence models and the simulation methods permit the analysis of the influences that the uncertain sources have upon some parameters of the interest rate risk, foreign currency risk (fx), and price variation for the financial assets. the unforeseen modifications of the prices on the market for the owned financial assets represent the most dangerous enemy of the investors. the equilibrium prices are the ones to adjust the market based on the request and demand ratio. when this ratio is unbalanced, the prices of the financial assets record significant variations that express the volatility of the price. for a proper management of the prices volatility, we have to analyze the factors that generate and augment this instability and to search for remedies to place these variations within an acceptability range, beyond which the exposure at risk must be necessarily covered by specific methods. this is why, for a complex and diverse portfolio of financial assets, we could rely on artificial intelligence. our opinion is that only by artificial intelligence simulation techniques the effect of financial titles variations may be, at least, compensated with the reverse variations of other owned elements. at the level of a bank that manages plenty of assets and liabilities, the artificial models for standard estimation of the deviation is the only intelligent way to avoid losses. among the prevention and management measures, in what the price variation risk for the financial assets is concerned, the most commonly used technique is the one of grouping the volatilities. this technique relies on obtaining statistical information about the previous standard deviation, that by extrapolation – based on a model and simulation techniques – calculates the present and the anticipated standard deviation. the registered values for the volatilities are grouped, thus succeeding in making pertinent analyses regarding the prices modification in one way or reversely. 6. discussions based on a case study in the prospective time, not using the artificial intelligence tools as artificial systems and models for risk covering operations, in financial competitions between major players, may trigger major effects upon the investments performance and even bankruptcies. in order to l.-m. treapăt, a. gheorghiu artificial systems and models for risk covering operations 69 demonstrate the practical utility of applying the artificial systems in the daily activities of the companies and persons that temporarily have certain liquidities (investors), we will use a calculation example supported by artificial intelligence for the titles portfolio with “n” financial assets, called optimal or immune to the market risk in certain limits, that field specialists described in the recent research works (treapăt and anghel, 2016, p.154-155). a particular situation from the issues presented above in this paper is due to the fact that many banks build portfolios from the financial assets that exist on the market and also offer the possibility for the clients to create deposits by investing in such portfolios. in the structure of some portfolios of this kind, there are mainly bonds issued by the state, but also other kinds of financial assets. as any investor in this type of portfolios is permanently exposed to the market risks, it is useful to follow an indicator that, by a single value, calculates the total inducted risk of this type of portfolio without spreading it at the level of the risks created by every asset in particular. a response to such a necessity is represented by the value at risk (var), an intelligent estimation method that helps investors to choose in an argumentatively way from a series of options for diversifying its portfolios and increase their options. in order to mold the phenomenon, some romanian authors (arsene and marin, 2007) considered a portfolio consisting of “n” financial assets, according to the description above, at the present moment “t”. if we note with (1), the value of the asset “i” at the moment “t”, and we will admit that the number of assets “i” included in the portfolio is “ni”, then, the value of the portfolio at the moment “t” will be calculated with the following formula (2): si(t), i= 1,2,3,…., n(1) n ∏ (t) = ∑ ni(t) si(t) (2) i=1 legend: si(t) – the value of the asset “i” at the moment “i”; ni – the number of assets purchased by the bank, at the value that was taken into consideration in the present formula; ∏(t) – the value of the built portfolio; v – var ; r – the number of necessary simulations for determining the var. the value of the portfolio at the moment “t” will change in time, both due to the modifications in the structure of the portfolio (the numbers ni(t)), and also to the modification of the values of the components si(t). consequently, we can speak about a future value of the portfolio “∏ (t + δt)” after “δt” time units. we call the value at risk (var) that corresponds to a certain period of time “δt” and to a level of trust of “p” percents, the number “v” bellow which the value of the portfolio at one point “t + δt” will not decrease, with a level of trust of “p%”, namely: (3) probability [ ∏ (t + δt) ≥ v] = p (eq.3) brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 70 for the case of the banks, it is recommended that, for calculating the value at risk, to use the following values: δt = 10 days and p = 99%. then, we can express more eloquently that, for a surety degree of 99% in the following 10 days, the value of the owned portfolio will not decrease under “v” monetary units. of course, the values in view for “δt” and “p” can be modified as the user of the model wishes, following its own interest. we would also like to mention that the relation for defining the value at risk can be written in equivalent, as follows: probability [ ∏ (t + δt) ∏ (t ) < v] = 1p (eq.4) a high number (k) of simulations are to be done for the evolution of the financial assets prices that are included in the structure of the portfolio. for every simulation, the future value of the portfolio will be calculated [∏ (t + δt)]. taking in consideration the above mentioned calculation, we will keep in mind k(1-p) unfavorable values and, consequently, the k(1p)+1 value, in an increasing order, will be var. if we have an available data base, containing the daily movements of prices for the assets in the portfolio (and, of course, every bank has such statistics), it can be used as a simulation fund. this type of calculation called historical simulation has the advantage that the method relies on a distribution of probabilities that really existed. 7. conclusions by the extended theoretical approach and case study presented in this paper, we can demonstrate not only the scientific validity of the artificial intelligence methods, but also its practical utility for the investors. in the current paper, we presented various methods for risk estimation, thus enabling a better understanding of the great diversity of situations that might occur in practice. this paper offers the readers the possibility to choose consciously the proper method for their exposures. we consider that the usage of a single model could cancel the flexibility necessary for adjusting every exposed-to-risks entity to the real features of the portfolio held at a certain moment in time, “t”. following the researches we accomplished our work hypothesis because it is almost impossible to elaborate a standard scenario for the stress test, in such a manner that it will have a consistent impact upon all of us. this is why, the approach that we suggest for the stress test involves a series of stages that allow revising the information about the greatest real losses, simulating the extreme stress scenarios, assessing the sensitivity degree of the exposure, and also, rolling the test scenarios that illustrates the transitioning features of the portfolio in the most adverse/difficult situations. but, this could be achieved only by using the intelligent models. if we ask ourselves “why?”, then the answer could be that, slowly the human thinking has been proving its huge potential to the academic, scientific, and business community. actually, there are scientific opinions (vătămănescu et al., 2016, p.19) that a new relation was built between human and knowledge. if we try to express some future thoughts, we believe that studying the artificial models profoundly in universities and not only using them in financial institutions, we should be able to mold and stimulate aspects of cognition. this way, we learn how to create artificial information systems that mimic econometric systems, as well as how to use theoretical insights for a better understanding of the cognitive processing in the human brain. acknowledgment as previously stated, creating this paper was one of the targeted objective of an on-going wider research, initially presented by treapăt and anghel (2016) at strategica international academic conference, the 4th edition, in bucharest. this objective is now completed with a new l.-m. treapăt, a. gheorghiu artificial systems and models for risk covering operations 71 research conducted towards a new direction, namely how much the financial techniques, mathematical and econometrics models support us, humans, to deal with the estimation models volatilities and with correlations between the various series of data. having this new approach of our research, we strive to demonstrate that interactions between the human thinking, the artificial systems, and the intelligent tools, help us to gain, at least, a partial control over the imminent hazard of a risky investment. references arsene, c., marin, d. (2007).modelarea deciziei financiare [modelling the financial decision]. bucharest: a.s.e. publishing house. bartov, e., bodnar, g.m. & kaul, a. (1996). exchange rate variability and the riskiness of u.s. multinational firms: evidence from the breakdown of the bretton woods system. journal of financial economics, 42(1), pp.105-132. basno, c. & dardac, n., (2002). management bancar [banking management]. bucuresti, economica printing house. bernstein, j. (2000). piața contractelor futures. [the market of the futures contracts]. bucuresti, herma printing house. bodnar, g. m., hayt, g. s., marston, r. c. & smithson, c. w. (1995). wharton survey of derivatives usage by u.s.non-financial firms. financial management, 24(2), pp. 104114. caracota, c.r. & enusi, m. (2005). gestionarea riscului valutar [the management of the foreign exchange risk].bucuresti, tribuna economica magazine (7). choi, j. j., & prasad, a. m. (1995). exchange risk sensitivity and its determinants: a firm and industry analysis of u.s. multinationals. financial management, 24(3), pp.77-88. ciurlău, l. (2006). managementul riscului valutar prin intermediul tehnicilor de hedging [the management of the foreign exchange risk by hedging techniques]. finanteprovocările viitorului [finance-the challenges of the future] magazine, 5, pp. 235240. copeland, l. (2000). exchange rates and international finance. prentice hall. dhanani, a. (2000). risky business. financial management, pp. 30-31. fayyad, u., piatetsky-shapiro, g., smyth, p. (1996). "from data mining to knowledge discovery in databases", retrieved october 2016. gheorghiu, a. (2016). “technology entrepreneurship in romania a great opportunity for the future years”. strategica international academic conference, 4-th. edition, bucharest, pp.395-405. goldberg, s.r. & tritschler, c.a. (1995). financial reporting for foreign exchange derivatives. accounting horizons, 9(2), pp. 1-15. han, j., kamber, m. (2001). data mining: concepts and techniques. morgan kaufmann. p. 5. isbn 978-1-55860-489-6. hastie, t., tibshirani, r., friedman, j. (2009). "the elements of statistical learning: data mining, inference, and prediction". retrieved 2012-08-07 hull, j. (2000). options, futures and other derivatives, mc graw hill. ionescu, c. (2003). managementul riscului [risk management]. cluj-napoca: dacia publishing house, p.17. mahdavi damghani b. (2013). the non-misleading value of inferred correlation: an introduction to the cointelation model. wilmott magazine, (67), pp.50-58. makar, s. d. & huffman, s. p. (1997). foreign currency risk management practices in u.s. multinationals. journal of applied business research, 13(2), pp. 7386. mathur, i. (1982).managing foreign exchange risk profitably. columbia journal of world business, 17(4), pp. 23-30. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 1, april 2017, issn 2068-0473, e-issn 2067-3957 72 niţu i. (2000). managementul riscului bancar [the banking risk management]. bucharest: expert printing house. phillips, a. l. (1995). derivatives practices and instruments survey. financial management journal, 24(2), 115. ross, westerfield, & jordan (2010). fundamentals of corporate finance. mcgraw hill. p. 746. roxin, l. (1997). gestiunea riscurilor bancare [banking risk management]. bucharest: didactică şi pedagogică r.a.publishing house, p.194. sarno, l. & taylor, m. (2002). the economics of exchange rates. cambridge: university press publishing house. steiner, r. (1998). mastering financial calculations. a step by step guide to the mathematics of financial market instruments. new jersey: prentice hall. treapăt, l-m., anghel, l-c.(2016). managing the market risk in banks. strategica international academic conference, 4-th. edition, bucharest, pp.147-156. the national academies press (1991). artificial intelligence in mathematical modeling. retrieved from: https://www.nap.edu/read/1909/chapter/6, p.31. vasicek, o. (1977). an equilibrium characterization of the term structure, j.financial economics, 5: 177–188 vătămănescu, e.m., gorgos, e.a., andrei, a.g. alexandru, v.a. (2016). the technological advent and dynamics of the network society. the middle-aged approach. brainbroad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience journal, 7(3), 16-30. wilmott, p. (2006). paul wilmott on quantitative finance (2nd ed), p. 861. microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final2.docx 109 a literature review on recommender systems algorithms, techniques and evaluations kasra madadipouya asia pacific university of technology & innovation, kuala lumpur, malaysia kasra_mp@live.com sivananthan chelliah asia pacific university of technology & innovation, kuala lumpur, malaysia sivananthan@apiit.edu.my abstract one of the most crucial issues, nowadays, is to provide personalized services to each individual based on their preferences. to achieve this goal, recommender system could be utilized as a tool to help the users in decision-making process offering different items and options. they are utilized to predict and recommend relevant items to end users. in this case an item could be anything such as a document, a location, a movie, an article or even a user (friend suggestion). the main objective of the recommender systems is to suggest items which have great potential to be liked by users. in modern recommender systems, various methods are combined together with the aim of extracting patterns in available datasets. combination of different algorithms make prediction more convoluted since various parameters should be taken into account in providing recommendations. recommendations could be personalized or non-personalized. in non-personalized type, selection of the items for a user is based on the number of the times that an item has been visited in the past by other users. however, in the personalized type, the main objective is to provide the best items to the user based on her taste and preferences. although, in many domains recommender systems gained significant improvements and provide better services for users, it still requires further research to improve accuracy of recommendations in many aspects. in fact, the current available recommender systems are far from the ideal model of the recommender system. this paper reviews state of art in recommender systems algorithms and techniques which is necessary to identify the gaps and improvement areas. in addition to that, we provide possible solutions to overcome shortages and known issues of recommender systems as well as discussing about recommender systems evaluation methods and metrics in details. keywords: recommender systems, collaborative filtering, content-based filtering, recommendation, evaluation metrics 1. introduction in the last few years www (world wide web) has faced with enormous growth in information and number of online users, in particular with the creation of web 2.0. in the first version of web (web 1.0) users have accessed to databases of information and knowledge; however, they were limited in terms of contribution and information accessibility. on the other hand, in the second generation of www which is known as web 2.0, the internet faced significant improvements in user interactions and behaviors. web 2.0 can be characterized as a paradigm that facilitates communication, interoperability, user-centered design, and information sharing and collaboration on the web (o’reilly, 2005; sharma, 2008; madadipouya, 2013). furthermore, in this generation we see an obvious shift from solitary and local to worldwide collaboration and contribution. moreover, improvements of web 2.0 have changed the way of creating and accessing information. by contrast of web 1.0, web 2.0 information management and accessibility are distributed and done by users’ collaborations instead of accessing, creating, and managing information on a specific computer or browser. for instance, wikipedia is an obvious example of brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 110 this collaboration which everybody can access to its content and able to edit or even add new materials to it. other examples are videos and pictures sharing sites, blogs, and more importantly social networks which are gaining daily popularity. however, the growth of web 2.0 that facilitates ease of access to the vast amount of data at anytime, anywhere resulted in a new issue called, information overload which makes finding appropriate information tedious. as a result, users are facing difficulty of understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one has too much information about that issue. in order to overcome with aforementioned challenge and assist users to select suitable option among many possibilities, online recommender systems have come to existence to provide a technological proxy (chen, 2011), to determine if a user would like a specific item via making prediction, or recommending top items to the user based on her preferences and analyzing the user behavior. recommender systems (rs) can be widely applied in different areas (jannach, 2010). for instance, they are used in e-commerce websites, online auctions, online music stores, social networks, and media streaming platforms. among various range of recommender systems, people mostly use recommender systems in social network, e-commerce, and online streaming sites, where in social networks as an instance, a user receives friend recommendations based on people who has in her friend list (mutual friend). in e-commerce website, also people use recommender systems extensively in order to get product suggestions and information which may are useful and helping them to make better purchase decision. suggested items could be from top seller list or based on the analysis of the past purchases (kim et al., 2005). recommender systems differ with information retrieval (ir) in many areas, although both focus on providing better information to users. it can be said that also recommender systems established based on ir and if. additionally, ir has differences with rs in contextual and practical situations. each is used for different purposes and tasks. these differences could be classified in three main categories. one associated with objects, other related to users’ issues and the last one considers on general environment. hence, it can be seen that rs fundamentally is the same as ir system according to baeza-yates and ribeironeto (1999) in terms of goals and purposes, however, the operation methods are dissimilar. in this work, we review state of art in recommender systems algorithms and techniques which is necessary to identify the gaps and improvement areas. in addition to that, we provide possible solutions to overcome shortages and known issues of recommender systems as well as discussing about recommender systems evaluation methods and metrics in details. the remainder of this paper is organized as follows: section 2 provides an in-depth review of recommender system types. section 3 presents the shortcoming of the current recommender systems. in section 4 we provided some solutions to address the issues highlighted in previous section. then we reviewed different approaches on how to evaluation recommender systems. finally, in the last section we draw some conclusions and provide recommendations for further research on this topic. 2. types of recommender systems two types of recommender systems are widely adapted which are collaborative filtering and content-based filtering respectively. in collaborative filtering, that is also referred as social filtering (shardanand & maes, 1995), items are selected based on the correlation between the current (active) user and other users of the system (su & khoshgoftaar, 2009). however, in content-based filtering items are recommended based on the correlation between items and the user preferences (adomavicius et al., 2005). the user interests are firstly analyzed and the result of the user profile analysis compared with available items on the system to provide recommendations to the user. it k. madadipouya, s. chelliah a literature review on recommender systems algorithms, techniques and evaluations 111 can be said that in collaborative filtering similarity between users are considered in the recommendation process, whereas, in content-based filtering the focus is on similarity between the user and items (bogers & van den bosch, 2009). in addition to mentioned techniques there are also different hybrid approaches which developed by combination of collaborative filtering and contentbased filtering in order to overcome with certain limitations that each technique has. the following subsections discuss each technique in details. 2.1. content-based filtering due to information overloading in the web which is explained before, different approaches provided to tackle with this issue. one common method that used to automatically categorize, filter, and provide recommendations to users is content-based filtering (ferman et al., 2002). this method compares the available items with a user’s profile and item rated previously to find the best match to generate recommendations. this technique is different from if and ir methods. for instance, information retrieval allows users to specify their interest explicitly in form of keywords. this means that users retrieve their needed information, however, content-based filtering is based on finding suitable information automatically. in this technique, at first, data about the target user is gathered. this data could be acquired explicitly and implicitly with doing analysis on the user profile. then based on the analysis the user’s tastes identified and as a result a set of items will be recommended to the users. although, ir has significant differences with recommender systems, however, content-based algorithms are driven from ir (jannach, 2010). in content-based filtering available items, rated items and users’ preferences are shown as vectors (yih, 2009). cf uses this technique by letting each user profile be represented by a vector, and then compare user similarities by interpreting the vectors. in addition, some ir techniques can be utilized in content-based filtering such as boolean search indexes (arnold & voss, 2004). in this technique keywords are combined with boolean operators as a part of the recommendation process (cummins, 2008). probabilistic retrieval systems are also another information retrieval technique that is used in content-based filtering. in technique, probabilistic reasoning is employed for getting the probability of a document in order to know whether the document is met the user’s needs (lee & lee, 2005). natural language query is another method that looks for queries in natural sentences (siddiqui & tiwary, 2008). many different recommender system applications leverage on content-based filtering to provide recommendations to users. for instance, stubleupon is a recommender system that assists users in web browsing (trivedi et al., 2010). in this system, the user behavior is tracked and based on the history and interaction appropriate web pages are recommended to the user. content-based filtering is also widely used in music domain. last.fm (petersen & hansen, 2011) is a successful example of content-based recommender system in the music industry. in last.fm, predictions are given to users based on previous items that they rated over time. google news is a successful news recommender system which is used both collaborative and content-based filtering approaches to provide recommendations. in this system, the user clicks behavior is modeled in order to identify the likelihood interest of articles by the user (liu, dolan & pedersen, 2010). all the mentioned examples have one feature in common. they are functioning on textual contents or textual metadata or meta-description. textual information could be easily parsed and categorized automatically with available techniques. however, for other types of media such as audios, videos and pictures, still there is no unified technique to categorize them automatically without human intervention. most of the time these types of media are categorized manually which time and resource consuming (massa & avesani, 2007). due to this reason content-based recommender system is not suitable for large dynamic environments which keep vast various amount of multimedia information. however, if information could be categorized without direct human involvement the problem could be mitigated to some extends. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 112 2.2. collaborative filtering collaborative filtering (cf) functions in a different way from content-based filtering. in collaborative filtering, instead of comparing user interests with available items, the user is compared with the other users and similar users are found (adomavicius & tuzhilin, 2005). then in the next step based on the similar users, peer users, recommendations are provided for the active user. additionally, in collaborative approach all users are involved in rating based on their interests. in this way, similar users who have the same tastes are linked together (put in the same group/community). therefore, it can be said that collaborative filtering does not have content-based filtering limitation since it does not depend on the contents; as a result, filtering information from any sources is possible. moreover, using collaborative filtering makes complex and deep relationships between users and items, such as the needed quality or taste of a certain user. this feature makes it possible to make difference between poor document and well written document by contrast of pure content-based approach (ricci, rokach & shapira, 2011). lastly, collaborative filtering returns more accurate results since it utilizes real users ranking instead of pure machine made predictions. for instance, in music recommender area, a user who has listened to several poorquality jazz songs might conclude that jazz music is not interesting. meanwhile, another user that also disliked those poor jazz songs such as the first user may find a new interesting jazz song and rates a new jazz song high rate. in this situation, since both users have similar taste, the system recommends the interesting jazz song to the first user. then the first user might discover that jazz genre is not that much bad as he previously considered. finally, cf helps to create communities, as explained before which none of mentioned facts would be possible using content-based filtering. it is vital to know that collaborative filtering does not compete with content-based approach. both of these technologies are mostly combined together in order to make better and more accurate system. this mixture made a new type of recommender system which is called as hybrid recommender systems. some successful systems that used hybrid approach are pandora (petersen & hansen, 2011), facebook, and movielens (devi & venkatesh, 2009). hybrid approach is discussed in the next section in details. 2.2.1. collaborative filtering techniques collaborative filtering could be implemented in the forms of memory-based (usually userbased) or model-based. in memory-based approach the entire user database is kept in memory and the entire database is traversed in each operation. in this approach recommendations are more accurate but when system database is very large, this approach is almost impractical due to existed limitation in primary memory for keeping the database. in addition, when database is big traversing the entire database could be time consuming. model-based approach on the other hand does not have the aforementioned limitations of memory-based. in this method, instead of keeping the entire database in memory just specific collection of data which are already trained using machine learning methods are kept in memory. although, in some extends model-based approach has similar related limitations to memorybased, this approach is more efficient and feasible to implement in real world scenarios. both approaches are addressed in details with their strengths and weaknesses in next sections. 2.2.1.1. memory-based collaborative filtering a memory-based cf (nearest-neighbor) approach, mostly called as a form of implementation of the “word of mouth” phenomenon (jin, chai & si, 2004) since the entire user database with their preferences are kept in memory. for each prediction computation is performed k. madadipouya, s. chelliah a literature review on recommender systems algorithms, techniques and evaluations 113 on the whole database. this method could predict a user interests on a specific item based on the rating information of similar user profiles. it reflects where the prediction of a specific item (belonging to a specific user) is done by sorting the row vectors (user profiles) by its dissimilarity toward the user. in this method, more rating by more similar users leads to more rating prediction. various types of memory-based recommender systems have been developed. decker and lenz (2007) stated that goldberg on 1992 developed certain type of memory-based cf system which is called tapestry. this system relies on each user to identify similar users manually. ringo and grouplens also developed separately developed the systems which in prediction task were automated for the first time. in grouplens method pearson correlation coefficient was utilized to provide automatic predictions (nguyen & haddawy, 1998), however, in ringo project the main concern was testing various metrics for finding similarity between users such as correlation and means squared. in a work by madadipouya (2015a) a new collaborative filtering proposed to take into account users’ location. the proposed method has been implemented using modified pearson correlation and applied in a movie dataset. the end result demonstrated some enhancement over the baseline pearson method (madadipouya, 2015b). jannach (2010) proposed a similarity vector based on the cosine measure to find the similarity between the users. this approach mostly is used in information retrieval systems. apart from developments which have been done by researchers, some commercial websites also have developed their own version of memory-based collaborative filtering. the most successful and significance examples are amazoon and cdnow. several equations and formulas could be used in the memory-based approach in order to find the similarity between two users which are called mostly as similarity index function. one of the most used and the best of them is pearson correlation coefficient which is used to find similarity between two users based on the rated items of the user (jannach, 2010). in addition to that this method could be used to find missed values in the database. equation (1) demonstrates pearson correlation coefficient. in the equation, we use u = {u1, …, un} to denote the set of users, p = {p1, …, pm} for the set of products (items), and r as an n × m matrix of ratings ri,j, with i {1…m}. the equation (1) returns a real number between to -1. if two users strongly have similar tastes to each other the output of the equation is closer to 1 whereas if their tastes are dissimilar the output be closer to -1. with respect to the determination of the set of similar users, one common measure used in recommender systems is pearson’s correlation coefficient. the similarity sim(a,b) of users a and b, given the rating matrix r, is defined in above equation. the symbol rx corresponds to the average rating of user x which in the above equation is users a, b. in addition to pearson coefficient correlation other similarity index is also could be used in order to find the similarity between two users. one of them is adjusted cosine similarity. the metric measures the similarity between two ndimensional vectors based on the angle between them. this measure is also commonly used in the fields of information retrieval and text mining to compare two text documents, in which documents are represented as vectors of terms (jannach, 2010). the similarity between two items a and b – viewed as the corresponding rating vectors a and b – is formally defined as follow, equation (2). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 114 ba ba basim   * ),(   (2) the  symbol is the dot product of vectors, a  is the euclidian length of the vector that defines as the square root of the dot product of the vector. although many others similarity indexes are existed to evaluate the similarity between users in the recommender system, according to herlocker, et al. (2004), empirical analyses show that for user-based recommender systems – and at least for the best studied recommendation domains – the pearson coefficient outperforms other measures. memory-based recommender systems are very popular and reached to high level of using since it is simple and intuitive on a conceptual level while avoiding the complications of a potentially expensive model-building stage. however, it has its own issues which are mentioned as following (hofmann, 2004; sarwar et al., 2000a):  sparsity: in practice, memory-based approach ought to be used to evaluate large item sets. in such systems, even a very active user barely could reach to visit or rate 1 percent of all available items. therefore, in some extends memory-based method is unable to give any recommendations to a particular user or the recommendation results would be poor.  scalability: most of memory-based recommender systems suffer from scalability problem since growing number of users and items cause tremendous growth in computations which sometimes could impose huge load. as a result, in systems which have millions of users and items scalability of the system could cause serious issues.  learning: in memory-based approach, systems do not learn about the user profile, hence it is unable to the previous interactions or observations in the following operations to improve the recommendations quality. the weaknesses of memory-based cf systems, especially the learning and scalability problems led to the exploration of an alternative, model-based cf, approach. 2.2.1.2. model-based collaborative filtering the motivation of model-based collaborative filtering arose when memory-based approach faced with problems. in model-based approach, a model that reflects user preferences is created. this task is accomplished, firstly, by compiling the entire dataset into a descriptive model of users, ratings and items. the model could be built offline in order to reduce time and avoid computation load. the procedure of compiling a model might take up to several hours or even days depend of the dataset size. after creating the model, recommendations could be provided based on the model. recommendations are provided usually based on the similarity between items instead of users. prediction is provided to a user by calculating the average of similar items that the user rated (sarwar et al., 2000b; sarwar et al., 2001; linden, smith & york, 2003; deshpande & karypis, 2004). however, the sorting process is the same as memory-based collaborative filtering, which is based on differences between items. one possible distinctive point could be that in memory-based method, the column of vectors is sorted toward specific user, however, in model-based cf, this sort is done toward the specific item. sorting grantees that ratings from highly similar items are received stronger and better weight. the size of created model is considerably smaller than the actual database size. this model then could be kept in memory which boosts the performance of the recommendation system as well. early research on this approach evaluated two probabilistic models, bayesian clustering and bayesian networks (ricci, rokach & shapira, 2011). in the first method, similar users are clustered into one group or class. given the user’s class membership, the ratings are assumed to be k. madadipouya, s. chelliah a literature review on recommender systems algorithms, techniques and evaluations 115 independent. the number of classes and model parameters could be different in each dataset and the values are not constant. however, in bayesian network, every node in the network refers to an item in the database. each node state reflects the possible rate of the item. both the structures of the network, which encodes the dependencies between items, and the conditional probabilities, are learned from the dataset. in some context clustering is known as a natural preprocessing for collaborative filtering rongfei, maozhong & chao (2010). in preprocessing step items and users are clustered and they are classified in groups based on the similarities with other items or users. in every class of users, estimation about each class of items is made. estimations are made with the use of different probability, techniques and statistical which used to compare estimations with synthetic and real data. additionally, some works have done on rule-based approach for doing model-based collaborative filtering (lin, alvarez & ruiz, 2002; abel et al., 2008; najafabadi et al., 2017). in this approach, some association rules are applied in order to figure out the relationship between copurchased items. then the system provides recommendation, based on items relationships (sarwar et al., 2000a). as discussed earlier, memory-based approaches have shortcomings such as scalability and data sparsity. in addition to the mentioned techniques, dimensionality reduction methods can be applied to overcome scalability and data sparsity issues in particular (wang, vries & reinders, 2004). another method by huang, chen & zeng (2004) tries to solve data sparsity problem with utilizing transitive association among items and users. additionally, some graph-based methods are explored for solving data sparsity. however, in dimensionality reduction approaches such as svd (sarwar et al., 2000b) some useful information could be discarded due to the matrix reduction operation (xue et al., 2005) and as a result the accuracy of recommendations might be decreased. in order to have more effective recommender system both model-based and memory-based approaches could also be combined together (xue et al., 2005). in a work by wang, vries and reinders (2006) a framework suggested to include recommendation results of model-based approach into final prediction which eliminates need of data clustering. in comparison between model-based and memory-based approaches, it can be concluded that model-based approach has some advantages over the other method which discussed as follow: first of all, model-based cf might add extra values to predictive abilities. this could be done, with highlighting specific correlations in data. second of all, the amount of memory which is needed for this approach are considerably less than the memory-based approach. lastly, the prediction could be made quicker since the model size is smaller and it is also kept in memory, however, on the other hand compiling the model may take long time like several hours or days based on the database size which can be done offline. additionally, adding the new items or users require the trained model to be created again. model-based approach could be suitable for environments which preference or item changes occur gradually such as book or even car recommender systems which new items are not added hourly or even daily. however, for very dynamic environments that items are changing rapidly, on daily or hourly basis, model-based approach does not perform effectively since creating or updating models is a time-consuming process. for instance, news items are constantly changing and have a very short lifespan, usually between few hours to few days, as a result having a model-based rs for such a case requires updating the models very frequently, few times in a day, which imposes heavy computational loads as constructing models usually takes between few hours to few days. 2.3. hybrid approach many commercial and non-commercial systems are utilized hybrid approach which is made by combining both content-based and collaborative methods. this could be very effective way to cross the limitations that each collaborative and content-based method faces with (adomavicius and brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 116 tuzhilin, 2005). four main approaches could be created by combining collaborative filtering and content-based filtering which are described as below. 2.3.1. combining results separately in this approach, each method functions separately but at the final recommendation stage, results of individual method are combined together to deliver to users. in other word, the best results or recommendations of individual system are mixed together for formation of final recommendations (li & kim, 2003). 2.3.2. adding content-based filtering characteristics to collaborative filtering the main focus of this approach is to combine some features of content-based approach into collaborative. in this method, content-based profiles and items are used to calculate similarity between two users. the goal of using this is to overcome data sparsity issue to some extends and minimizing its side effects which could be resulted in providing poor recommendations to users (pazzani, 1999). another advantage of using this method is that, the given recommendations are not only rated highly by similar users but also it is scores highly against the active user profile. 2.3.3. adding collaborative filtering characteristics to content-based filtering in this approach, some collaborative features are combined into content-based approach by contrast of the previous approach. for instance, in this method, a collaborative view of relation between users could be created which users’ profiles are illustrated by vectors term (li and kim, 2003). this improves the performance of content-based filtering. 2.3.4. developing a single unified recommender system in this method, a new unify model is created which utilizes both methods characteristics. gunawardana and meek (2009) proposed a new recommender system based on using content-based and collaborative characteristics. in their work, for instance the age, gender of users or the genre of movies are used in a single rule-based classifier. 3. recommender systems shortcomings regardless of techniques to use, recommender systems have some shortcomings. in this section, we discuss the issues that are common in rs. 3.1. cold start recommender systems might suffer from the cold start problem (siddiqui & tiwary, 2008). to generate recommendations reasonable amount of information are needed. therefore, there are some situations that lack of data causes rs to not make recommendations or the generated recommendations are poor. cold start problem could be occurring due to adding new item, adding new user or launching a new system.  new user: when a user signs up for an account for the first time, the system is unable to suggest personalized recommendations to the user, since; the system has not had any information about the user. additionally, the user has not rated any items yet. this means that the system is unable to provide accurate recommendation to user. the new user problem exists in both content-based and collaborative approaches. in order to build the user profile and produce coherent results, there should be enough user feedback, which is generally the ratings that are given to the items (lika, kolomvatsos & hadjiefthymiades, 2014). hybrid, approach could overcome, the cold start issue to some extends. for instance, when a user signs up to a system for the first time, the system can ask about the user interests explicitly k. madadipouya, s. chelliah a literature review on recommender systems algorithms, techniques and evaluations 117  new item: adding new item is similar to new user problem which causes rs to not make recommendations based on the newly added items. this is due to lack of enough rating for the items or insufficient user reviews and feedback. this problem is more obvious in collaborative filtering techniques, specifically, those rely on item to item approach for making recommendations. therefore, when a new item is added there is no data about that item (lika, kolomvatsos & hadjiefthymiades, 2014). for instance, in movie domain when a new movie is added to the system, there is no rating available to demonstrate the movie quality or popularity. as a result, the movie could not be recommended to users until sufficient numbers of ratings are gathered. to mollify the impact partially items metadata can be used. when a new item is added the metadata of the item could be leveraged to give recommendations or comparing the item with other items.  new system: new system problem is the synthesis of the new user and new item problems which occurs clearly when a system has just been constructed. 3.2. data sparsity data sparsity is a crucial problem in recommender systems. data sparsity plays an important role in recommendation systems. in a work by ricci, rokach & shapira (2011), data sparsity problem is discussed in collaborative filtering approach. in the work, it is concluded that the data sparsity negatively affects in the recommendations which is provided by collaborative filtering. for instance, in newspaper domain, some recent news is just rated by few people. in such condition, even if the news is highly important or crucial for people and have high rating only by few people, the chances of being recommended to other users is very slim (sarwar et al., 2001). amazon company put a lot of effort to remove data sparsity problem. in a work by linden, smith & york (2003), a new method is suggested to improve similarity matrices under sparsity data with using gathered data from movie-lens. various experiments are also done regarding sparsity problem and they conducted that random walk recommender algorithm has better performance in comparison with the other approaches when the dataset is sparse. additionally, experiments have proven that using matrix factorization techniques such as svd could reduce the side effects of data sparsity (sarwar et al., 2001). 3.3. lack of sufficient context-awareness even though some context such as location, time, season, date, and so on are taken into consideration to some extends, there are still various factors such as user emotion, mood, and other parameters should be catered since they influence user decisions in reality. user demand might change with the aforementioned context which cannot be satisfied thoroughly via available state of the art recommender systems. 3.4. over-specialization another issue of recommender system is over-specialization especially in content-based filtering. in such systems, the main objective is to recommend items that highly match with user preferences, however, this could lead to suggest items that the user already visited. for instance, in news recommender system that is established base on content-based filtering, a user may receive recommended news that she has already read and not different ones that the user may like (massa & avesani, 2007). this problem as stated before happens in pure content-based filtering system (melville, mooney & nagarajan, 2002). the common solution for this problem is to add some random items in recommendation list. in a work by park, yoo and cho (2006), authors proposed a method that uses genetic algorithm to reduce the chance of recommending very similar items. beside this, outside-the-box (otb) recommendation by abbassi et al. (2009) reflects that taking some risks are helpful to cope with over-specialization issue. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 118 as over-specialization problem is related with content-based filtering, collaborative filtering techniques can be used in order to eliminate the problem. however, resnick et al. (1994) deals with over-specialization problem by presenting a personalization strategy without making use of collaborative filtering approaches. in the system, a different reasoning mechanism is used which offers semantically related items, instead of using semantic approaches and finally, the obtained system is used for recommending tv-programs. 4. solution to improve recommender systems to provide high quality recommender system several approaches could be utilized. this section introduces some methods for improving recommender systems capabilities. 4.1. intrusiveness based on users’ opinions and interests’ recommendations are provided to them. their opinions could be gathered through items that rated or explicitly asking preferences. in other word, gathered information could be divided into two intrusive (explicit) or non-intrusive (implicit). in an explicit way, a user idea is reflected by expressing her interests directly via rating which is normally saved in a binary form (like or dislike) or in numerical scale. in the binary form the user just can indicate whether she likes or dislikes certain items, whereas, in numerical scale the user has more options and freedom for expressing the degree of interest. one example of intrusive binary rating is a famous video-sharing website youtube which allows registered users to reflect their feelings, by clicking on thumbs up or thumbs down. amazon by contrast of youtube utilizes intrusive numerical rating which scale of one (bad) to five (good) are used to rate items. implicit rating is done via analyzing user behavior selections to predict rating or provide recommendations. the user preferences could be gathered based on browsing data in web applications, purchasing history or other forms. however, this approach seems often inaccurate and unable to make accurate predictions. in fact, non-intrusive method could not be used as a replacement of explicit method. intrusiveness could overcome cold start as well as data sparsity problems. to tackle the former, a recommender system could enforce certain obligations including requiring users to explicitly specifying their preferences or rate certain items on sign up before be able to actually using the system. however, this may not work for item-based recommender systems. one possible solution is to assign certain users as referees to rate and review items upon adding to the system. similar approaches as stated above could be applied with some enhancements to minimize the side effects of data sparsity. first, a crowd sourcing mechanism can be established to the system where redeemable reward points will be given to loyal users to rate or provide reviews of determined items. second, the average of ratings can be calculated for items that barely received rates and this average be used to reduce user-item matrix sparsity. the latter method is less accurate since the average does not demonstrate the accurate rating for all users. 4.2. richer context-awareness providing accurate recommendation is the vital task of recommender systems. poor and incorrect recommendations cause user disappointment, which affects user trust. several recommendation systems exist that consider about fixed user preferences and they are not able to provide accurate recommendations when user preferences are changed based on the context. with the advancement of technologies contextual data has become one of the most valuable knowledge sources to improve recommendations and provide more user specific recommendations under similar circumstances that are related with similar user preferences in future (adomavicius &tuzhilin, 2015; baltrunas et al., 2012; gorgoglione, panniello & tuzhilin, 2011). k. madadipouya, s. chelliah a literature review on recommender systems algorithms, techniques and evaluations 119 context in recommender systems could be any form of information that is utilized to portray an entity situation (adomavicius et al., 2011). the entity could be defined as location of a user, identity of people near the user, the objects around, and the changes in these elements which considered for the interaction between a user and an application, including the user and applications themselves (wang, 2011). for instance, lbs technologies can be leveraged to track user location and activities (madadipouya, 2014) to significantly boost quality of recommendations. in the most basic form, this can overcome a classic recommender system problem where a user located in a city, let’s say chicago, seeking for restaurants recommendations may receive suggestions that are located in different city, let’s in seattle (levandoski et al., 2012). in addition to that, context can assist to infer latent relationships between data in recommender systems. for instance, by considering user location as the simplest form of context, levandoski et al. (2012) proved that most of users located in the same or near geographical location have similar tastes to each other. this demonstrates that usefulness of a specific recommendation might depend on its context. however, context is not limited to location only. in fact, it is just a sub-category of context-aware recommender systems (cars) which most of available carss leverage on and other contextual parameters are partially neglected (meehan et al., 2012). as a result, taking into consideration other contextual parameters (mood, emotion, stereotypes, etc.) in effective ways could improve the quality of recommendations significantly. 4.3. manual modeling of content similarity metadata could be added to item manually via content providers, or by allowing users to add related information when using recommender systems. for instance, in movie domain metadata such as genre and other features could be provided and added to a movie by its producer or this information could be provided by users to set a movie properties. in a movie recommender system by garden and dudek (2006) this facility was provided to allow user to even set new keywords for movies which resulted in providing more accurate recommendations based on features set by users. the big advantage of this solution is that it adapts changes regarding what the users find important, something which can be changed over time. as mentioned earlier, manually categorization of content can be expensive, time-consuming, error-prone and highly subjective. due to this, many systems aim to automate the procedure. 4.4. computational modeling of multimedia content similarity many works have been conducted to automate multimedia content similarity modeling in recommender systems. as stated earlier content labeling for the multimedia items are usually done manually, however, having some mechanisms to automate multimedia items metadata labeling can be highly beneficial. compare with manual labeling this approach is significantly faster and is less resource intensive. some research has been conducted for instance, in music domain with the aim of automating classification procedure based on genre and artist. in 2004, a world-wide cross-validation of music similarity systems was conducted, in the form of a public competition during the international symposium on music information retrieval (ismir). the result of this competition reflected that it is possible to classify 729 music tracks into 6 various genres with 78.8% accuracy. they were also able to identify artists from a collection of 120 music titles out of a list of 40 artists with 24% accuracy. musicsurfer is another example of content-based recommender system which fetches meta descriptions (song descriptions) such as harmony, instrumentation and rhythm from music signals automatically. cano, koppenberger & wack (2005) also developed a car music recommender system which is able to classify wide range of songs. in that system, some musical features could be extracted automatically from songs and music without any prior information or brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 120 data. then the extracted information could be saved in a server with music. in addition to that, a user could listen to song based on moods, and the system is able to provide personalized recommendations based on previously selected songs. 5. evaluation of recommender systems evaluation of recommender systems is a vital part to benchmark performance of a proposed approach. usually coverage and accuracy metrics are utilized to evaluate performance of a recommender system (wu, he & yang, 2012). in coverage metric, percentage of items that a recommender system could make prediction is considered (ge, delgado-battenfeld & jannach, 2010). however, in accuracy metric, effectiveness of the system could be reflected in either statistical or decision support (wu, he & yang, 2012). the most known techniques to evaluate coverage and accuracy are root mean squared error (rmse) and mean absolute error (mae). decision support by these metrics shows how well a recommender system is able to generate recommendations which could be highly rated by a user. for instance, recall and precision measures are included which precision refers to percentage of receiving high rates among other predictions that supposed to get high rate and recall demonstrates percentage of correctly predicted high ratings among all the ratings known to be high (wu he et al., 2012). all mentioned measures have certain issues to some extends. one of the problem is that users just only intend to rate those items that they select to rate. therefore, a set of rated items is more likely to give incorrect view of the users’ preferences since, the users just rated items that they like not those which they do not like. thus, the metrics just reflect the accuracy of the items which user attempted to rate, though, the metrics unable to properly evaluate a random item that has not been rated. the other problem that most of the evaluation metrics have is “quality” evaluation and recommendations “usefulness”. this means that most of the metrics do not consider recommendations quality or degree of usefulness. 6. conclusion this work provided a broad overview of available recommender systems techniques with their pros and cons. in addition to that shortcomings of each technique have been discussed and some suggestions have been made which can be leveraged to improve quality of recommendations. finally, methods to evaluate recommender systems have been discussed. recommender systems are closely related to information filtering with the idea of having personalized decision guides for users. there are mainly three algorithmic techniques for computing recommendations. content-based filtering selects items to recommend based on the correlation between contents and a user profile. collaborative filtering chooses items based on the correlation between users with similar preferences. cf are often classified as memory-based or model-based, which means that rating predictions are based on the entire collection of previously rated items, or on a model that reflects previously rated items respectively. in addition, third type of recommender system is hybrid filtering approach which tries to avoid certain limitations related to content-based and collaborative filtering by combining both approaches to cover each other disadvantages. current recommender systems have shortcomings such as cold start, sparsity, and lack of enough context awareness. these issues could be partially addressed by taking applying some role enforcement mechanism, crowd sourcing, and taking further contextual parameters into account. these are the open areas in recommender systems. k. madadipouya, s. chelliah a literature review on recommender systems algorithms, techniques and evaluations 121 various available evaluation metrics can also be applied to evaluate performance of recommender systems by measuring their coverage and accuracy, but the current metrics are insufficient for evaluating quality and usefulness of recommender systems. references abbassi, z., amer-yahia, s., lakshmanan, l. v., vassilvitskii, s., & yu, c. (2009, october). getting recommender systems to think outside the box. in proceedings of the third acm conference on recommender systems (pp. 285-288). acm. abel, f., bittencourt, i. i., henze, n., krause, d., & vassileva, j. (2008, july). a rule-based recommender system for online discussion forums. in international conference on adaptive hypermedia and adaptive web-based systems (pp. 12-21). springer berlin heidelberg. adomavicius, g., & tuzhilin, a. (2005). toward the next generation of recommender systems: a survey of the state-of-the-art and possible extensions. ieee transactions on knowledge and data engineering, 17(6), 734-749. adomavicius, g., & tuzhilin, a. (2015). context-aware recommender systems. in recommender systems handbook (pp. 191-226). springer us. adomavicius, g., mobasher, m., ricci, f., & tuzhilin, a. (2011). context-aware recommender systems. in ai magazine, ai access foundation, 32(3), 67-80. adomavicius, g., sankaranarayanan, r., sen, s., & tuzhilin, a. (2005). incorporating contextual information in recommender systems using a multidimensional approach. acm transactions on information systems (tois), 23(1), 103-145. arnold, j. f., & voss, l. l. (2004). u.s. patent no. 6,745,161. washington, dc: u.s. patent and trademark office. baeza-yates, r., & ribeiro-neto, b. (1999). modern information retrieval (vol. 463). new york: acm press. baltrunas, l., ludwig, b., peer, s., & ricci, f. (2012). context relevance assessment and exploitation in mobile recommender systems. personal and ubiquitous computing, 16(5), 507-526. bogers, t., & van den bosch, a. (2009). collaborative and content-based filtering for item recommendation on social bookmarking websites. submitted to cikm, 9. cano, p., koppenberger, m., & wack, n. (2005, november). content-based music audio recommendation. in proceedings of the 13th annual acm international conference on multimedia (pp. 211-212). acm. chen, y. (2011, october). interface and interaction design for group and social recommender systems. in proceedings of the fifth acm conference on recommender systems (pp. 363366). acm. cummins, r. (2008). the evolution and analysis of term-weighting schemes in information retrieval (doctoral dissertation, national university of ireland, galway). decker, r., & lenz, h. j. (eds.). (2007). advances in data analysis: proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the gesellschaft für klassifikation ev, freie universität berlin, march 8-10, 2006. springer science & business media. deshpande, m., & karypis, g. (2004). item-based top-n recommendation algorithms. acm transactions on information systems (tois), 22(1), 143-177. devi, m. k., & venkatesh, p. (2009, december). an improved collaborative recommender system. in networks and communications, 2009. netcom'09. first international conference on (pp. 386-391). ieee. ferman, a. m., errico, j. h., beek, p. v., & sezan, m. i. (2002, july). content-based filtering and personalization using structured metadata. in proceedings of the 2nd acm/ieee-cs joint conference on digital libraries (pp. 393-393). acm. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 122 garden, m., & dudek, g. (2006, july). mixed collaborative and content-based filtering with usercontributed semantic features. in aaai (vol. 6, pp. 1307-1312). ge, m., delgado-battenfeld, c., & jannach, d. (2010). beyond accuracy: evaluating recommender systems by coverage and serendipity. in proceedings of the fourth acm conference on recommender systems (pp. 257-260). acm. gorgoglione, m., panniello, u., & tuzhilin, a. (2011, october). the effect of context-aware recommendations on customer purchasing behavior and trust. in proceedings of the fifth acm conference on recommender systems (pp. 85-92). acm. gunawardana, a., & meek, c. (2009, october). a unified approach to building hybrid recommender systems. in proceedings of the third acm conference on recommender systems (pp. 117-124). acm. herlocker, j. l., konstan, j. a., terveen, l. g., & riedl, j. t. (2004). evaluating collaborative filtering recommender systems. acm transactions on information systems (tois), 22(1), 553. hofmann, t. (2004). latent semantic models for collaborative filtering. acm transactions on information systems (tois), 22(1), 89-115. huang, z., chen, h., & zeng, d. (2004). applying associative retrieval techniques to alleviate the sparsity problem in collaborative filtering. acm transactions on information systems (tois), 22(1), 116-142. jannach, d., zanker, m., felfernig, a., & friedrich, g. (2010). recommender systems: an introduction. cambridge university press. jin, r., chai, j. y., & si, l. (2004, july). an automatic weighting scheme for collaborative filtering. in proceedings of the 27th annual international acm sigir conference on research and development in information retrieval (pp. 337-344). acm. kim, y. s., yum, b. j., song, j., & kim, s. m. (2005). development of a recommender system based on navigational and behavioral patterns of customers in e-commerce sites. expert systems with applications, 28(2), 381-393. lee, c., & lee, g. g. (2005). probabilistic information retrieval model for a dependency structured indexing system. information processing & management, 41(2), 161-175. levandoski, j. j., sarwat, m., eldawy, a., & mokbel, m. f. (2012, april). lars: a location-aware recommender system. in data engineering (icde), 2012 ieee 28th international conference on (pp. 450-461). ieee. li, q., & kim, b. m. (2003, july). an approach for combining content-based and collaborative filters. in proceedings of the sixth international workshop on information retrieval with asian languages-volume 11 (pp. 17-24). association for computational linguistics. lika, b., kolomvatsos, k., & hadjiefthymiades, s. (2014). facing the cold start problem in recommender systems. expert systems with applications, 41(4), 2065-2073. lin, w., alvarez, s. a., & ruiz, c. (2002). efficient adaptive-support association rule mining for recommender systems. data mining and knowledge discovery, 6(1), 83-105. linden, g., smith, b., & york, j. (2003). amazon.com recommendations: item-to-item collaborative filtering. ieee internet computing, 7(1), 76-80. liu, j., dolan, p., & pedersen, e. r. (2010, february). personalized news recommendation based on click behavior. in proceedings of the 15th international conference on intelligent user interfaces (pp. 31-40). acm. madadipouya, k. (2013). survey on how web 2.0 can facilitate knowledge management. ijcer, 2(6), 693-695. k. madadipouya, s. chelliah a literature review on recommender systems algorithms, techniques and evaluations 123 madadipouya, k. (2014). an examination and report on potential methods of strategic locationbased service applications on mobile networks and devices. arxiv preprint arxiv:1411.4294. madadipouya, k. (2015a). a location-based recommender system framework to improve accuracy in user-based collaborative filtering. madadipouya, k. (2015b). a location-based movie recommender system using collaborative filtering. arxiv preprint arxiv:1508.01696. massa, p., & avesani, p. (2007, october). trust-aware recommender systems. in proceedings of the 2007 acm conference on recommender systems (pp. 17-24). acm. meehan, k., lunney, t., curran, k., & mccaughey, a. (2012). visit: virtual intelligent system for informing tourists. pgnet, liverpool. melville, p., mooney, r. j., & nagarajan, r. (2002, july). content-boosted collaborative filtering for improved recommendations. in aaai/iaai (pp. 187-192). najafabadi, m. k., mahrin, m. n. r., chuprat, s., & sarkan, h. m. (2017). improving the accuracy of collaborative filtering recommendations using clustering and association rules mining on implicit data. computers in human behavior, 67, 113-128. nguyen, h., & haddawy, p. (1998, july). diva: applying decision theory to collaborative filtering. in proc. of the aaai workshop on recommender systems. o’reilly, t. (2005). what is web 2.0. park, h. s., yoo, j. o., & cho, s. b. (2006, september). a context-aware music recommendation system using fuzzy bayesian networks with utility theory. in international conference on fuzzy systems and knowledge discovery (pp. 970-979). springer berlin heidelberg. pazzani, m. j. (1999). a framework for collaborative, content-based and demographic filtering. artificial intelligence review, 13(5-6), 393-408. petersen, m. k., & hansen, l. k. (2011, march). emotional nodes among lines of lyrics. in automatic face & gesture recognition and workshops (fg 2011), 2011 ieee international conference on (pp. 821-826). ieee. resnick, p., iacovou, n., suchak, m., bergstrom, p., & riedl, j. (1994, october). grouplens: an open architecture for collaborative filtering of netnews. in proceedings of the 1994 acm conference on computer supported cooperative work (pp. 175-186). acm. ricci, f., rokach, l., & shapira, b. (2011). introduction to recommender systems handbook (pp. 135). springer us. rongfei, j., maozhong, j., & chao, l. (2010, june). a new clustering method for collaborative filtering. in networking and information technology (icnit), 2010 international conference on (pp. 488-492). ieee. sarwar, b., karypis, g., konstan, j., & riedl, j. (2000a, october). analysis of recommendation algorithms for e-commerce. in proceedings of the 2nd acm conference on electronic commerce (pp. 158-167). acm. sarwar, b., karypis, g., konstan, j., & riedl, j. (2000b). application of dimensionality reduction in recommender system-a case study (no. tr-00-043). minnesota univ minneapolis dept of computer science. sarwar, b., karypis, g., konstan, j., & riedl, j. (2001, april). item-based collaborative filtering recommendation algorithms. in proceedings of the 10th international conference on world wide web (pp. 285-295). acm. shardanand, u., & maes, p. (1995, may). social information filtering: algorithms for automating “word of mouth”. in proceedings of the sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 210-217). acm press/addison-wesley publishing co. sharma, p. (2008). core characteristics of web 2.0 services. startup reviews| tech news| tech events| tech tips| business technology tips» blog archive. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 124 siddiqui, t. j., & tiwary, u. s. (2008). utilizing local context for effective information retrieval. international journal of information technology & decision making, 7(01), 5-21. su, x. & khoshgoftaar, t. m. (2009). a survey of collaborative filtering techniques. advances in artificial intelligence, 2009, 4. takeuchi, y. & sugimoto, m. (2006). cityvoyager: an outdoor recommendation system based on user location history. ubiquitous intelligence and computing, 625-636. trivedi, a., rai, p., duvall, s. l., & daumé iii, h. (2010, october). exploiting tag and word correlations for improved webpage clustering. in proceedings of the 2nd international workshop on search and mining user-generated contents (pp. 3-12). acm. wang, j., de vries, a. p., & reinders, m. j. (2006, august). unifying user-based and item-based collaborative filtering approaches by similarity fusion. in proceedings of the 29th annual international acm sigir conference on research and development in information retrieval (pp. 501-508). acm. wang, l. (2011, july). understanding and using contextual information in recommender systems. in proceedings of the 34th international acm sigir conference on research and development in information retrieval (pp. 1329-1330). acm. wu, w., he, l., & yang, j. (2012, november). evaluating recommender systems. in digital information management (icdim), 2012 seventh international conference on (pp. 56-61). ieee. xue, g. r., lin, c., yang, q., xi, w., zeng, h. j., yu, y., & chen, z. (2005, august). scalable collaborative filtering using cluster-based smoothing. in proceedings of the 28th annual international acm sigir conference on research and development in information retrieval (pp. 114-121). acm. yih, w. t. (2009, august). learning term-weighting functions for similarity measures. in proceedings of the 2009 conference on empirical methods in natural language processing: volume 2-volume 2 (pp. 793-802). association for computational linguistics. kasra madadipouya received his m.sc. degree in software engineering from asia pacific university of technology & innovation. his research interests include recommender systems, data mining, sentiment analysis, and machine learning. sivananthan chelliah holds a masters in software engineering. presently, sivananthan is a senior lecturer at asia pacific university of technology & innovation for the past 17 years, supervising masters and undergraduate research projects and teaching a broad spectrum of software engineering modules. prior to joining the university, sivananthan has 22 years of active involvement software consultancy and in developing and managing software projects spanning over a number of industries including mining, housing, manufacturing, hospitality, financial, shipping, software quality management and infrastructure. sivananthan microsoft word brain_7_issue_3_version_3.doc 94 participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children livia ştefan institute for computers itc sa bucharest, romania livia.stefan@itc.ro dragoş gheorghiu doctoral school, national university of arts, bucharest, romania gheorghiu_dragos@yahoo.com abstract this article details a set of participatory pedagogical experiments conducted within a research grant pn ii idei (”time maps. real communities, virtual worlds, experimented pasts”) performed with the purpose of helping rural communities in identifying their cultural heritage and transmitting it to the younger generations by means of modern it technologies, including web 2.0. in a danubian rural community, several points of archaeological interest (pois) were identified, which were then included in a geographic augmented reality application for smartphones and tablets. subsequently, the geographic data were collected from the archaeological site by the k-12 children, under the coordination of an academic staff member of the national university of arts in bucharest, and stored on their devices using google maps. the augmented information provided on the site was annotated and shared with other k-12 children, through different social networks sites (sns) and content postings. this first stage experiment was extended to the development of a social learning environment complementary to the educational site (www.timemaps.net) to support the transmission of several traditional technologies (textile, ceramic, glass) in a collaborative manner. we consider that our experiments can significantly increase the visibility of the information pertaining to the identity of target places and communities among the younger generation. a mobile-learning paradigm, in combination with web 2.0 technologies, was the support for a distributed and low-cost platform for communication and collaboration. social networks linked the archaeological heritage and the academic research with the larger community of rural k-12 children. the article analyzes this platform as a solution for creating, collecting and sharing educational content, and presents conclusions on using social media for effective blended learning and transmittal of the cultural heritage. keywords: immaterial heritage, blended-learning, social learning, augmented reality, social media, google+, microblogging, user-created content, learning community. 1. introduction social media is a concept associated with information and inter-personal communication in virtual communities. azuma (1997) asserts that “a person is in a more advantageous position to gain and control novel information if s/he is connected to others who themselves are not directly connected to one another”. social media is an umbrella term embracing several technologies that implement the web 2.0 concepts, as first defined by o’reilly (2005) in 2004 during the first web 2.0 conference: content creation, aggregation, tagging, retrieval, or distribution with the purpose of fulfilling social functions and activities, such as the promotion of ideas or news, sharing content, perform user’s or communities’ promotion, socialization, collaboration, communication, networking, blogging or annotation (zeiler & schauer, 2011). this results in distributed informational clusters or “ecosystems” (brown et al., 2011) organized in categories or topics. in levin (2013) a definition of social media is given as a “new way of forming social consciousness” and “online identities”. according to nentwich & konig (2012), social media represents “a group of internet-based applications that built on the ideological and technological foundation of the web 2.0. allows the creation and exchange of user generated content”. l. ştefan, d. gheorghiu participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children 95 web 2.0 tools comprise media sharing (e.g.youtube, trilulilu, flickr, pinterest, slideshare, panoramio, scribd or google drive as a cloud service), social-networking (e.g. facebook, myspace, linkedin), blogging (e.g. wordpress, blogger, google+) and micro-blogging (e.g. twitter, identi.ca, cirip.ro), mini-blogging (tumblr), wikis (e.g. wikipedia, wikispaces), social bookmarking (del.icio.us), syndication (rss feeds, digg), service mash-ups, and also virtual worlds as social platforms (e.g. second life, active worlds) [21]). used in e-learning settings, social media can play an important role by facilitating the creation and distribution of information, and the creation of communities where both teachers and students are stimulated to assume participative roles. in a knowledge-based society social media is most important for facilitating the decentralization of the access and control of the information “on a massive scale” [20]. in this context, social media led to learning 2.0, a new concept of social learning, in which the student is offered not only the access to an archive of information in order to be self-paced studied, but also to a dynamic environment in which the knowledge is constructed through socialization, participation and as needed (brown et. al., 2011). as a technology supporting and enhancing teaching and learning, social media can make the educational process continue beyond the actual presentation of a lesson and beyond an educational system, on a life-long perspective. according to bassani (2013), the social media technologies, particularly the micro-blogging, are seen as a way of constructing “virtual learning communities (vlc)”, adding and enhancing the social aspect of the learning process. in this paper we propose and present an experimental learning system for k12 children which uses mobile technologies, augmented reality and social media, focused on teacher-learner and learner-learner communication and cooperation, and on research, experimentation and play-like learning, all creatively combined. with the support of social media services and other web 2.0 technologies, the proposed learning community can be extended to larger groups of children and schools. this article will present and discuss a part of the experiments carried out in vădastra village, a danube rural community in southern romania, olt county, with the local school teachers and children (aged 10-14 years), specifically those involving the use of social media at different stages of the project implementation educational content creation, processing and sharing. the experiments consisted in using social media from desktop stations and from mobile devices, and also from a mobile augmented reality application (mar), with the purpose of implementing a distributed learning platform for a community situated in a remote and relatively isolated romanian village. from the existing social media services, google maps, panoramio, google+, twitter, youtube and google drive were chosen and also mixed with mobile technologies to create a solution able to bridge and mitigate the obstacles of digital divide and poverty, and also to stimulate children’s creativity and interactivity in a social learning environment. the present article is part of the educational strategy subset of a larger exploratory research project time maps, funded by a pn ii idei grant 1 , which intends to reconstruct the memory of forgotten places and share it with the local communities, thus helping them to preserve and safeguard their material and immaterial heritage and on the other hand sustaining the education of those communities. the paper is organized as follows: in section 2 the time maps project rationale and its larger educational objectives are presented; in section 3 a literature survey on using social media for setting learning environments is summarized; section 4 contains an overview on important research work addressing issues related with our project; section 5 gives details on the development stages of the time maps social learning environment, starting with a theoretical background of the employed education technologies; in section 6 are presented the pedagogical methods of our learning environment which uses social media for complementary educational information; section 7 gives details on the experimentation of the learning environment, followed in 1 “the time maps. real communities, virtual worlds, experimented pasts”, director professor dragoş gheorghiu. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 96 section 8 by a description of results evaluation and discussion based both on surveys and statistical data on the usage of different social media, and in section 9 by conclusions on time maps elearning solutions based on social media, augmented reality and mobile learning as modern and effective educational tools complementary to the traditional methods. 2. project rationale the following imperative arguments of contemporary society justify the project: the necessity to relate art and science to create new instruments for visual epistemic exploration in the humanities and science; the necessity to apply and develop hybrid concepts between real and virtual; the necessity to work in real and virtual networks at the urban and rural levels; the necessity to preserve the cultural memory and to bring the past within the present; the necessity to reveal culturally invisible places; the necessity to help poor communities who can benefit from it, to build a new identity through the exploitation of the local past. in addition, this project demonstrates how art can act as a social link between urban (academic) and rural communities. particularly, the article is concerned with new methods of learning in the 21 st century in rural romania and is based on a case study conducted in vădastra village in southern oltenia, for which we experimented mobile technologies and social media. the distributed learning space was constructed in social media networks in order to allow the children to play an active role and foster dynamic, interactive relationships between them and their teachers (brown et al., 2011; chaloupka et al. 1998). social media also allowed the teachers to more easily follow the progress of the learners. from a technical point of view, we considered that the technologies and services of web 2.0, were appropriate for the design and implementation of a distributed network for sharing multimedia educational content, and mostly to support an informal learning model based on an active community involving k-12 children, school teachers and university professors, technicians and artists. this network can be accessed from anywhere and at any time, both from fixed and mobile terminals, provided that an internet connection is available. from an economic perspective, we used social media to create a cost-effective learning solution for a community that has scarce financial and technical resources and only a basic communication infrastructure. free web services which do not require a permanent internet connection were employed. we considered this strategy to be a practical and realistic means of linking the academic system with a remote k-12 educational system. beyond the short-term objective of enhancing learning our system has also a long-term objective to identify skilled children able either to further transmit the immaterial heritage as craftsmen or to follow a higher artistic education. 3. social media supporting learning environments applied in education, social media can add or enhance the social components of different elearning environments with the clear objective to improve the teaching performance and the learning outcomes. social media can support different learning purposes by “implementing new ways of learning, fostering collaboration, increase motivation and learning results, accessibility, personalization, management of learning” (popescu, 2013). a social learning environment has the advantage of offering to learners “a less stressing environment” (popescu, 2013), or an environment more suitable for those having communication problems (e.g. more introverted). holland (2013) presents specific challenges for introducing social media in higher education which also pertains to k-12 education, when the re-design of the pedagogical content is considered. the learning affordances associated with different social media tools in terms of functionality, cognitive dimension and specific activities are presented in detail by hew & cheung (2013). l. ştefan, d. gheorghiu participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children 97 as a learning tool, social media can be considered a form of blended learning which supports the existing theories of learning (e.g. social or constructivist learning, see siemens, 2005) but also lead to new e-learning paradigms (e.g. personal or learner-centered learning environment) or pedagogical models (e.g. the flipped classroom, see holland, 2013). such new e-learning paradigms developed in relation to the web 2.0 affordances are: “social constructivism” (vygotsky, 1978), “learning communities” (wenger et al., 2002; brown et. al., 2011), “trusted social spaces” (kester et al., 2007), “community as a whole” (koper et al., 2004), “communities of inquiry” (garisson & anderson, 2003) or “socially mediated knowledge” (alevizou et al., 2012). 4. related work our research continues and creatively develops the current practices and state-of-the art in using social media technologies in education. according to popescu (2013), citing inagaki et. al. (2012), 16.1% of projects concern the k12 education, while 63% concern the tertiary education; 14.7% concern technology, and 8.8% art education. also popescu (2013) cites redecker et al. (2009), pointing out that 15% of experiments “address more than one learning in parallel”, and that web 2.0 “has the potential to overcome the division between formal and informal learning”. vocational courses are also driven by social media environments. several research projects started by investigating students’ opinion on the use of social media in the educational system (holotescu & grosseck, 2012). a very interesting study was done by fitzgerald et al. (2009), in which students were asked to categorize the social media activities in a) browsing, b) participation, and c) contribution. some projects using social media in higher education rely on students’ access to the internet and on the availability of desktop pcs and mobile devices (kennedy et al., 2009), while in other projects, professional social media-based platforms are implemented (popescu, 2013, moga, 2013). experiments related to our research on combining augmented reality (ar) and social networks for learning and teaching purposes are presented in belimpasakis (2009), bell (2009), liu et al. (2008), rusu et al. (2013); holotescu et al. (2013), and experiments with media sharing services and 3d virtual reconstructions for vocational education and preservation of local technological tradition are described in rusu et al. (2013). in holotescu et al. (2013) the research is focused on using “mobile micro-technologies as a new strand of integration within educational practices” and proposes cirip.ro as a romanian microblogging platform to be employed on mobile ar applications for educational purposes. related to our experiments with twitter for the community of teachers there are those of junco et al. (2010) and of ziden et al. (2013) where twitter is integrated in the high-education systems for academic discussions, tasks, assignments and for the enhancement of students’ engagement. as a conclusion of our literature survey we can state that most of the experiments were designed to use different social media as professional educational tools, and for this purpose the students were given a previous hands-on lesson. in our project we explored social media for k-12 children and school teachers to develop a learning community, as a tool complementary to other traditional face-to-face and e-learning methods, e.g. workshops, the time maps educational site (http://www.timemaps.net), videoconferences. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 98 5. the development of the social learning environment 5.1. methods and technologies the practical method proposed to implement the project’s objectives was the creation of archaeological information layers, allowing a vertical immersion of the user in the past layers of times. the archaeological and pedagogical experiments took place in vădastra, where two main layers of past dwelling were identified, that define the site identity a prehistoric one, according to mateescu (1959, 1975) and a roman one, quite visible as surface finds, but not yet archaeologically investigated. these two layers were geographically marked and further used in the educational process in a mobile augmented reality application for smartphones and tablet pcs (gheorghiu & stefan, 2012) (figure 3). with augmented reality (ar) it technology it is possible to overlap computer-generated ("virtual") information over real life objects or scenes. the result is what it is called an “augmented” reality, which offers an enhanced perception, an improved understanding and a new user experience. the technical definition of the augmented reality is given by azuma (1997): "an environment that includes both virtual reality and real-world elements". the information generated by the computer according to the technical ar definition (azuma, 1997) consists of 3d images, thus acting on the visual perception, the sense with the most important cognitive impact. mobile augmented reality (mar) allows the visualization of location-sensitive information using modern mobile devices equipped with video camera, gps receivers, and orientation sensors, i.e. compass and accelerometer. the mar paradigm has the technical advantage of being based on readily available portable equipment, thus a gateway to the broader mass of users, and not only to the academic research circles. this is why mar has become, especially in the latest years, a driving technology for the mobile learning paradigm. mar supports the contextualization of the learning process and a situation in "true learning contexts" (dede, 2009; geddes, 2004). at present, the ar technology encompasses a broader range of augmented content, such as 2d images, texts, audio, video files. educause (http://www.educause.com) states that augmented reality is important for educational implementations because it is an innovative technology for the search, visualization and manipulation of information. micro-blogging services (e.g. twitter) are powerful social media platforms for publishing and sharing short messages and also for networking and following other users on specific or related interest topics. in educational projects twitter can stimulate a synthetic communication, because it imposes a limited number of characters for message postings. recently, the service has been extended with the facility to attach 6 second-short movies, furthermore stimulating the ability to express essential ideas. another important feature of the twitter is that it uses t.co (http://t.co/), an url shortening service, with the declared purpose of protecting users from malicious sites and offering the possibility to track the clicks on the links inside the tweets (http://www.pearanalytics.com. twitter-study. (2009)) and providing a useful statistics. in our research we explored the augmented reality as a technology operating with similar concepts and media: geotagging and geolocation. a geotag is: “a gps coordinate that associates content such as videos, textual information, audio or any user-generated content to a specific location” (jisc observatory, 2011). ar applications can use geotagged content offered by third party providers or user-created content, collected by means of geo-referenced services like google maps or panoramio, or provided by geo content aggregators (georss). the augmented media is triggered by a pre-defined geographic location or device orientation. this category of ar applications are named geo-ar or augmented reality browsers, because they are context-aware. geo-tagged information is used as a collection of pois (points of interest). a larger set of pois can be aggregated using kml, the google maps’ file format. l. ştefan, d. gheorghiu participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children 99 video files. these are similar to podcasts, very familiar in web 2.0 environments. the development of ar applications makes use of processes similar to those found in social media technologies, such as: authoring the process of creating a link between the real world objects and the virtual (digital augmentation) and defining a behavior (not initiated by a user’s action) of this virtual object (jisc observatory, 2011). the content creator can specify a reference to a poi but also to an image or fiducial marker to which the digital object is related. the result can take the form of markup, which provides a structured format for describing the pois and the augmented information. markup languages for ar are arml (http://openarml.org/wikitude4.html http://openarml.org/wikitude4.html), karml (https://research.cc.gatech.edu/polaris/content/karmlreference) or standard xml. the provenance of the content the process of content source specification before being used in an authoring/publishing process (jisc observatory, 2011). publishing the process that allows the discovery of the augmentations. metadata are used in the data transfer between the servers (jisc observatory, 2011). regarding the existing commercial ar platforms, two important features may differentiate them: a) crowd sourcing, which allows content creation by regular users using facilities available in the browser itself, and b) integration with social media, i.e. social networks sites (sns) or other environments for content sharing. users can comment and invite others to share their ar experience, by posting short text messages, images or movies, i.e. contributing by means of microblogging. if users contribute with content, this can be visualized by future users of the ar application. different e-learning solutions combined with social media tools represent an original approach developed within our project and will be described in the following sections. 5.2. development of the social learning tools the learning experiment in vădastra village began by geo-referencing some points of interest in the archaeological area (gheorghiu & stefan, 2013a; 2013b), which were identified from the archaeological published materials and from information provided by the villagers, as well as resulting from fieldwork conducted for over a decade (i.e. archaeological experimentation) in this village (gheorghiu, 2001; 2008). the geographic data (pois) was collected on the archaeological site by the k-12 children under the coordination of a project team member from the national university of arts bucharest (nua). social media techniques were used in all the stages of the experiment, as recommended by nentwiwich & konig (2012): a) the content production; b) the content processing; and c) the content distribution, publication and sharing. a poi collection was established using the application “gps test” from the android play store and loaded on google maps, the android version. the geographic coordinates were corrected, filtered and used in the authoring process of a geo-ar application for smartphones and tablets, and also in panoramio, google maps and google+, for sharing multimedia artistic and educational content (photos and videos). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 100 figure 1. an experiment of building a prehistoric house, carried out by professor dragoş gheorghiu in vădastra. posted on panoramio at: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/46824541 figure 2. an experiment with sunken up-draught kilns, carried out by professor dragoş gheorghiu in vădastra, posted in panoramio at: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/46824577 the second stage was represented by the physical reconstruction at real scale of a prehistoric house and of a corner of a roman villa rustica, designed and coordinated by professor dragoş gheorghiu. in these physical reconstructions video recordings and photo shoots were produced by specialist members of the project team, in order to be used later as augmentations in the ar application and for distribution by means of sns. the third stage was represented by the 3d virtual reconstruction process of the historical contexts, in our case a prehistoric village and a complete roman villa rustica, with the help of students from the design department, nua, coordinated by professor arch. andreea hasnaş. the ar application was created and tested on two commercial ar platforms, layar and junaio, and recently moved on the aurasma platform (https://www.aurasma.com/). the pois were augmented with the 3d virtual reconstructions, and also with 2d images and videos representing 3d virtual tours and technological processes (figures 3, 4, 5). the ar application was connected to teachers’ emails and to twitter, facebook and google+ project’s pages. l. ştefan, d. gheorghiu participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children 101 figure 3. augmented reality with archaeological stratigraphy (a prehistoric house and a roman villa reconstructed in 3d) figure 4. augmented reality with video movie and social media (a vertical loom in front of two reconstructed kilns and a wall of a roman villa rustica) figure 5. fiber artist alexandra rusu (nua) working at a roman vertical loom (video movie) the fourth stage was the use of social media to build a social learning network based on content and experience sharing and creation. the following web 2.0 services were used as a distributed platform able to support our experimental learning system: a) panoramio (http://www.panoramio.com/user/7606828) (figure 6) as a geo-referenced photo-sharing service over google maps and google earth for sharing project’s essential results; b) twitter (https://twitter.com/maps_of_time) (figure 7), as a social network and micro-blogging service for short announcements and comments; c) google+ (https://plus.google.com/114705936110835992130?hl=en#114705936110835992130/posts?hl=en) (figure 8), as a platform for sharing and tagging multiple content (photo, video), blogging and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 102 video chatting service with the recent google hangout, for sharing educational content; d) google drive (levin, 2013) for cloud storage and collaborative document editing. we also created a youtube channel for public distribution of video content (https://www.youtube.com/timemapsnet), (rusu et al., 2013) and a facebook page of vădastra school (https://www.facebook.com/scoalavădastra). figure 6. virtual space on panoramio+ with the experiments carried in vădastra village figure 7. the projects’s twitter page for educational and research micro-blogging figure 8. virtual social space on google+ l. ştefan, d. gheorghiu participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children 103 for micro-blogging we hashtagged the main topic as #maps_of_time and created keywords related to three ancient technologies specific for the studied contexts (textiles, glass, ceramics) to facilitate a categorization of the topics and their retrieval. to achieve a unified and coherent platform, the personal spaces of the social networks were customized with logos and landing pages, designed by associate professor marina theodorescu (nua). 6. the pedagogical methods based on the complementarity of social media educational information as it can be observed starting with our early experiments, the educational information can be transmitted using a mixed usage of different social media, and also between these and the educational time maps web site (http://www.timemaps.net). in the second stage of the experiments, we proceeded to a more advanced and original use of social media services, i.e. the combination of google+, for building a learning and teaching community between vădastra and nua, with twitter, for building a community of teachers and researchers, members of the time maps project and followers of our tweets on related interest topics (heritage and education). consequently the information from the website could be studied by children in a more coherent manner, by also using the google+ project’s page on which images and films, along with teachers’ instructions and questionnaires were posted. the google suite (google+) has one login for all its services and offers a social platform with several functions: content share and tagging; social networking and blogging; or videoconference. to build the learning and teaching community we developed on google+ project’s page (https://plus.google.com/114705936110835992130?hl=en#114705936110835992130/posts?hl=en) an educational blog, accessible only to a restricted number of users (i.e. teachers and school children). for this protection we used the google+ concept of circles, and we chose the most restricted one, i.e. “friends” circle. the header of the educational blog is presented publicly, i.e. is visible for every google user, but the postings are visible only after users were accepted in the “time maps” circle of friends. the authorization of users was performed as follows: the vădastra school entered with its existing account, the same for its facebook page, accessed in common by teachers and school children, with the purpose that children be assisted by their teachers and also for facilitating the management of the page in this stage of the experiment. the teachers from nua have used their individual accounts, with a specialized profile: archaeology and virtual learning applications, textile and glass. the children answered the questions with the comment function of google+ microblogging. in this way each child could see the answers given by other colleagues, from which he/she can learn or be stimulated to give a better answer, as this is signed with her/his full name. although the children entered the page from a common user account, i.e. the school’s account, they could be easily traced for their answers. in this section we are presenting 3 cases of complementary experimentation of the social media tools created within the project. general knowledge about prehistory and roman period for this subject two video films were posted on google+ (a performance and a 3d reconstruction), slightly different from those available on the time maps web site, but containing the same information. the children had to make a little effort to relate this information with the one presented on the site, to make a connection between the questions, the fragments from videos at which the answers referred to and the information from the site. the set of questionnaires lead the school children through the majority of data offered by the web site regarding to the two historical periods (figures 9, 10). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 104 figure 9. the educational blog on google+ time maps page – the weaving techniques figure 10. the educational blog on google+ time maps page – the glass manufacturing techniques table 1. questionnaire "lessons to understand local history in a virtual environment" topic: educational content purpose questions local history (roman/iron age): a video representing a virtual tour in the roman villa rustica general knowledge about architectural elements and technologies from roman period. describe the virtual tour through the roman villa using the information from time maps site (hint: http://timemaps.net/timemap/?page_id=44) which are the building components of a roman villa? which are the technological operations which took place in a roman villa? use the information from time maps site (hint: http://timemaps.net/timemap/?page_id=512&imgid=0) describe a few objects manufactured in the roman workshop , using the information from time maps site (hint: http://timemaps.net/timemap/?page_id=514&imgid=0) l. ştefan, d. gheorghiu participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children 105 local history (prehistory): a video of making ceramics. general knowledge about the prehistoric technology of ceramics. describe the action from this film using the information from the time maps site. what operations are necessary for manufacturing a ceramic bowl? use the information from time maps site (hint: http://timemaps.net/timemap/?page_id=359) describe ceramic objects found in a prehistoric house, using the information from time maps site (hint: http://timemaps.net/timemap/?page_id=42) table 2. questionnaire "lessons to understand local history in a virtual environment" topic: educational content purpose questions local history: links to panoramio and google earth use of google earth and panoramio for searching geographical information and discovering the local history. try to find on google earth or on the village map the place with prehistoric or roman remains. search on panoramio the places with these remains. have you identified the experiments from vădastra on panoramio? (http://www.panoramio.com/user/7606828) what other nua’s team experiments did you found on panoramio? table 3. questionnaire "lessons to understand local history in a virtual environment" topic: educational content purpose questions local history: images of qr codes for launching the mobile augmented reality applications hands-on for using the geolocation function on smartphones. what represent these images? which are the it tools which help you to use these images? describe what happened after you scanned the images. do you know what geolocation with smartphone means? can you identify this technique in the time maps site? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 106 general knowledge about traditional weaving table 4. questionnaire "lessons of traditional weaving technology" topic: educational content purpose questions textile: 2 videos with nua technicians and teachers working at vertical looms; photo album. general knowledge about the traditional textile technology what is the activity presented in the video? use http://timemaps.net/timemap/?page_id=44 access the roman level and discover the film with this kind of kiln). describe the working techniques. what kind of loom do you see in the picture? access the time maps site on http://timemaps.net/timemap/?page_id=6 and find at each historic level (prehistory, roman and modern) this kind of loom. what kind of fibers can you make using this kind of loom? use the information from time maps site (hint: http://timemaps.net/timemap/?page_id=15) watch the images and try to briefly describe the preparing stage before start weaving. watch in this video the weaving stages. could you reproduce them if you had the necessary loom and materials? see also: http://timemaps.net/timemap/?page_id=15 use your reduced-sized loom and try to reproduce a motive (vegetal, zoomorphic or geometric) inspired by local textile tradition. general knowledge about glass manufacturing table 5. questionnaire "lessons of roman glass technology " topic: educational content purpose questions glass: images of re-enactments with technicians from nua general knowledge regarding the roman glass technology what was the purpose of building this kiln at vădastra? what was the purpose of covering the top of the kiln? approximate the temperature inside the kiln. what objects are the craftsmen making in front of the kiln? l. ştefan, d. gheorghiu participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children 107 7. experimentation of the social learning environment a summer school was organized in august-july 2012 during which the experiment was prepared and initiated. the children were provided with android smartphones and tablet pcs with provided by the project. after that start-up several campaigns were organized for the experimentation of the system, at which 10 school children aged 10-14 years, 4 teachers from vădastra school, 4 university professors and 3 assistant professors from the nua participated. before the experimentation, a survey was done among teachers and children to evaluate the existing knowledge level. 7.1. phase 1 a first educational level allowed village children and university students working in the project to go through an information discovery stage using smartphones and tablet pcs. it was a kind of play of discovering the historical information within the local landscape, but this play was restricted to a limited number of participants. during the onsite experimentation of the ar application, in order to progress beyond the simple level of “play” involving a small group of participants, the beneficiaries of the application (i.e. school children and teachers) were encouraged to: a) comment and share their personal experience of participating in the authoring process (on the school’s facebook page and on google+); b) send onsite comments and annotations, i.e. to contribute by microblogging (via twitter); c) participate in the creation of new content and share it through the google+ project’s page. the teachers from nua accessed the project accounts created in panoramio (http://www.panoramio.com/user/7606828) and google+ (https://plus.google.com/114705936110835992130?hl=en#114705936110835992130/posts?hl=en) to post educational content. on twitter (figure 10) under the form of micro-blogging posts, they shared texts, photos and short movies, to make short announcements of the events that took place in relation to the project. the information from a) and b) has been used by other colleagues in the local school and in the future will be used by other schools in the country or abroad. this represented the second educational level of the project, i.e. the analysis of the collected data. information from c) was further analyzed by university teachers, filtered and added as an enhancement to the content of the ar platform. an example of user-created content are the movies made with smartphone cameras, recording the children 2 while performing traditional crafts (figures 11, 12). figure 11. children applying weaving techniques under the control of the staff from nua bucharest 2 based on parents’ agreement brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 108 figure 12. children applying glass-engraving techniques under the control of the staff from the nua bucharest 7.2. phase 2 in order to achieve the third educational level, we experimented the social media tools, i.e. the project’s google+ educational blog, by posting information complementary to that available on the time maps website, and also thematic questionnaires to foster a question-answer (q&a) learning style. this allowed us to monitor and evaluate the information retention. in this stage we encountered the challenge to stimulate children and teachers to continue using our learning system, by posting new educational content, announcements and social messages. after a period of experimentation we proceeded to a statistical evaluation of children’s answers, which is presented in the next section. during this experimentation phase a symposium was organized at vădastra school with the purpose to present our learning experiment to a group of 30 teachers from the olt county. an open history lesson on the time maps web site was held by a history teacher, and a school girl described the facebook page of the vădastra school (figure13), maintained by both teachers and children. the invited teachers gave a feedback on the effectiveness and utility of the time maps learning system by responding to a questionnaire-based survey, which was posted on the google+ page (figure 14). figure 13. school girl presenting vădastra school’s facebook page l. ştefan, d. gheorghiu participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children 109 figure 14. the survey as a public posting on google+ time maps page 8. discussion and results evaluation apart from other research projects which address the higher education (popescu, 2013), we did not make a pre-experiment survey regarding the familiarity and proficiency of children on using social media. we created the tools and offered them for practical use in complementarity of other forms of learning experimented in the time maps project (face-to-face workshops, virtual reconstructions, video-conferences) and to extract useful information for further improvements. the social media services were chosen among those that we considered to be more suitable with the time maps project’s particularities, i.e. panoramio, google+, facebook and twitter. during our learning experiment nua teachers created tweets (i.e. on twitter project’s page) to draw attention to certain topics and conclude on the level of interest in the technologies taught, and also toward our e-learning experiment. for more proficient children, twitter contributed to their computer literacy, due to its higher degree of difficulty of use compared to other sns, e.g. facebook. we considered twitter to be the most sophisticated social media instrument in the project, which required a hands-on experience regarding the shorthand commands. as a criticism to twitter we mention the fact that the children could also see other topics, including those from the “twitter world”, thus the environment had to be prepared beforehand with twitter-specific security settings. because of this particularity the page on twitter was used in second stage only by teachers and researchers. nevertheless, microblogging with twitter postings allowed an accurate message tracking and information collection by means of retweets. for statistics, twitter’s free counters, the section "trends", listing the most followed items and "lists”, listing the users interested in our posts, were analyzed. for more complex and detailed statistics, free services can be used, such as tweetreach (http://www.tweetreach.com). panoramio was chosen due to its management of the content copyright, which is useful as we posted copyrighted images, while google+ was chosen for its rapid content sharing and social networking in controlled groups. google+ and google drive platforms were able to a more complex virtual environment, for collaboration, creativity, learning reflection and assessment. google+ also enabled storage of the onsite user-created content, and allowed the creation of photo and video blogs. google drive allowed collaboration on the development of teaching materials by school teachers from vădastra school, including an online survey. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 110 regarding the experience of google+ social learning community we encountered the following problems: on using the environment: we had to give both teachers and children hands-on explanations; on processing the collected answers: we had to do it manually, as no suitable tools are available, like those offered by facebook and twitter; managing the virtual space: users had to adhere to the google+ circles of friends before being able to access the educational blog; that needed time maps to act as a moderator to accept or reject users. we also point out the following the advantages of google+: google+ is a more user-friendly than other social environments and very suitable for use by school children than other blogging environments (e.g. wordpress); thus it stimulated the play-like learning. google+ is more customizable than other social environments; by allowing teachers to post questionnaires and to share images and videos or links to content on the time maps website, the google+ page acted as an aggregator of information and a for scaffolding the learning process. after different stages of experimentation, we produced different statistical analysis of our results: a. concerning the most accessed social media. it indicated that panoramio was the most visited (figure 15) and google+ had the majority of postings (figure 16). figure 15. social media visits figure 16. social media postings the statistics indicate that the different social networks had different levels of impact on the children and that in the future developments the focus should be on those more frequently accessed. l. ştefan, d. gheorghiu participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children 111 b. concerning the pedagogical content. a survey was done among teachers and children to evaluate the interest in our solutions and the quality of the educational content and therefore of the overall efficiency [table 6]. the survey was posted on project’s google+ page (https://plus.google.com/114705936110835992130?hl=en#114705936110835992130/pos ts?hl=en) (figure 14). table 6. questionnaire on the efficiency of the pedagogical content questions answers which do you consider the most interesting historic period – the prehistory or the roman period? prehistory (16); roman (16) which objects did you liked most? ceramic vases (10); the glass kiln or the ceramic kiln (11); the vertical loom (2); all (1). how realistic did you consider the 3d architectural reconstructions (give a mark from 1 to 7) mark 3 (1); mark 5 (9); mark 6 (4); mark 7 (15). how realistic did you consider the 3d reconstructions of the objects (give a mark from 1 to 7) mark 3 (1); mark 5 (9); mark 6 (4); mark 7 (15). do you appreciate as useful the question-and answer learning and evaluation using the google+ blog? yes (25); no -. c. concerning the acquired knowledge. several surveys comprising 10 questions were conducted, with the purpose of evaluation the impact of different learning experiments on the information retention. as a conclusion of the survey, the best results were obtained consequently to a mixed valorization of different learning tools. table 7. evaluation of the knowledge topic correct answers after face-to-face learning correct answers using e-learning with website and mobile applications correct answers using e-learning with website and socialmedia local history 6/10 8/10 9/10 textile 5/10 7/10 8/10 glass 4/10 7/10 8/10 9. conclusions we conducted an ict educational experiment by creatively combining multiple technologies – mobile devices, geographic ar with social media. we consider that with our experiments the information related to the identity of several places and communities could become visible for the young generation. social media allowed us to enhance the informal educational process, initially implemented with contextual learning and user mobility, with participation, reflection and interaction outside of actual lessons and also provided us with tools for analyzing the efficiency of our experiment. we have created a distributed learning community around educational content presenting traditional crafts, for communication and collaboration among k-12 children and university teachers. several well-known social media services have been experimented for geographic and social content sharing and tagging, socialization and microblogging, each stimulating different ways of brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 112 learning and communicating ideas. for the k-12 children social media was a tool for engaging them and making more aware of the learning process. for teachers, it was a valuable assessment tool. the main challenge was to maintain the learning system and children’s interest with periodic postings, status updates and communication messages. the time maps project allowed a remote connection linking two learning systems employing it technologies and social media, which led us to a creative usage of the ensemble of technologies with the purpose of implementing a complex remote education system. the time maps social media tools also proved to be a cost-effective technology and infrastructure for our approach, in which academia can engage creatively and effectively in the development of k-12 education in villages. thus, the gap that currently exists between the academic and the k-12 educational systems can be overcome. our social media tools can also open a new way for future collaboration and information transmission in various knowledge fields. initially designed as means of capturing and sharing of content and user experiences, their experimentation during several months proved that through systematic use and maintenance of the quality of the information it can lead to knowledge creation. the data collected during our experiment, further refined by teachers from nua and from the vădastra school can be further integrated at an institutional level. although the process of setting up the social networks was rapid, extra work was necessary to periodically update the information on the social networks and afterwards to find specialized tools for the analysis of the multiple postings, in order to extract valuable information. we conclude that such de-centralization of the learning space, ed by social interactions, facilitated the overall learning process and allowed a collaborative and creative content development. furthermore, it highlighted a differentiation among the children, regarding their involvement and learning outcomes. 10. acknowledgements we wish to thank mrs. laura voicu, the principal of vădastra school, vădastra village, olt county, romania, and to professor narcisa balteanu, for their help and participation in our experimentations. the authors also thank professor arch. andreea hasnaş, assistant professor alexandra rusu, technician elena hăut, and lecturer dan popovici (nua) for their collaboration, and m. bogdan căpruciu for useful suggestions. the project was financed by an exploratory research, grant pn ii idei (the maps of time. real communities, virtual worlds, experimented pasts). images by d. gheorghiu. references alevizou, p., galley, r., & conole, g. (2012). collectivity, performance and self-representation: analysing cloudworks as a public space for networked learning and reflection. in: dirckinckholmfeld, lone; hodgson, vivien and mcconnell, david eds. exploring the theory, pedagogy and practice of networked learning. new york: springer, 75–97. azuma, r. (1997). a survey of augmented reality. presence: teleoperators and virtual environments. vol. 6, no. 4, 355-388. bassani, p.b.s. (2013). virtual learning communities: interaction in blended learning, doi: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4574-5.ch001. retrieved from www.academia.edu (accessed 18 july 2016). belimpasakis, p. (2009). from social networks and web mash-ups towards mixed reality. mixed reality solutions. invited lecture at the 2nd summer school on network and information security (nis'09), organized by the european network and information security agency (enisa) and the foundation for research and technology hellas (forth), crete, greece (accessed 17 july 2016). l. ştefan, d. gheorghiu participative teaching with mobile devices and social networks for k-12 children 113 bell, a. (2009). exploring web.2.0: second generation interactive tools-blogs, podcasts, wikis, virtual worlds, and more, georgetown: kathy crossing press. brown j., s. & adler, r., p. (2011). minds on fire. open education, the long tail, and learning 2.0. (available at www.educause.com, accessed 18 july 2016). chaloupka, m. & koppi, t. (1998). a vignette model for distributed teaching and learning. centre for teaching and learning, university of sydney, alt-j, vol 1. dede, c. (2009). immersive interfaces for engagement and learning, science 323(5910), 66-69. garisson, d. r. & anderson, t. (2003). e-learning in the 21 st century: a framework for research and practice, london: routledge/flamer. geddes, s., j. (2004). mobile learning in the 21st century: benefit for learners. knowledge tree ejournal: an e-journal of flexible learning in vet, vol. 30 no.3, 214-28. fitzgerald, r., barrass, s., campbell, j., hinton, s., ryan, y., whitelaw, m., bruns, a., miles, a., steele, j., & mcginness, n. (2009). digital learning communities (dlc): investigating the application of social software to networked learning (cg6-36). project report (available at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/18476/, accessed 18 july 2016). gheorghiu, d. (2001). le projet vădastra, préhistorie européenne, 16-17, liège. gheorghiu, d. (2008). cultural landscapes in the lower danube area. experimenting tell settlements, documenta praehistorica xxxv, 7-13. gheorghiu, d. & ştefan, l. (2012). mobile technologies and the use of augmented reality for saving the immaterial heritage, in: arnold, d., kaminski, j., niccolucci, f., stork, a. (eds.), the 13th international symposium on virtual reality, archaeology and cultural heritage vast, 21-24. gheorghiu, d. & ştefan, l. (2013a). preserving monuments in the memory of local communities using augmented reality applications, world archaeological congress proceedings, jordan, 179. gheorghiu, d. & ştefan, l. (2013b). patrimoniu imaterial şi memorie digitală. recuperarea, stocarea şi transmiterea tehnologiilor din trecut. al treilea simpozion arheoinvest, arheologia şi politicile de protejare a patrimoniului cultural, iaşi. hew, k. f. & cheung, w. s. (2013). use of web 2.0 technologies in k-12 and higher education: the search for evidence-based practice, educational research review, 9, 47-64. holland, c. (2013). learning 2.0 – pedagogy and social-media: a critique of pedagogical models/approaches deployed in the infusion of social media in higher education, in: pătruń b. (ed.), smart2013 social media in academia: research and teaching, conference proceedings, bologna: medimond, 17. holotescu, c. & grosseck, g. (2012). an empirical analysis of the educational effects of social media in universities and colleges, else conference proceedings, 156-164. holotescu, c., grosseck, g., & ivanova, m. (2013). educational augmented reality and locationbased application. case study: microblogging, in: pătruń b. (ed.), smart2013 social media in academia: research and teaching, conference proceedings, bologna: medimond, 26. inagaki, t., nakahashi, y., yabuuchi, t., & tanaka, k. (2012). consideration of competencies of the future learners from a review of “web 2.0” literature, international journal for educational media and technology, vol.6, no.1, 61-68. jisc observatory. augmented reality for smartphones. a guide for developers and content publishers (2011) (available at http://observatory.jisc.ac.uk/docs/ar_smartphones.pdf, (accessed 17 july 2016). junco, r., heiberger, g., & loken, e. (2010). the effect of twitter on college student engagement and grades, blackwell publishing ltd. kennedy, g., dalgarno, s., gray, k., waycott, j., judd, t., bishop, a., maton, k., krause, k. l., & chang, r. (2009). educating the net generation: a handbook of findings for practice and policy (available at http://www.netgen.unimelb.edu.au/outcomes/handbook.html, accessed 17 july 2016). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 7, issue 3, august 2016, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 114 kester, l., sloep, p. b., van rosmalen, p., brouns, f., koné, m., & koper, r. (2007). facilitating community building in learning networks through peer tutoring in ad hoc transient communities, journal international journal of web based communities archive, volume 3 issue 2, 198-205. koper, r., pannekeet, k., hendriks, m., & hummel, h. (2004). building communities for the exchange of learning objects: theoretical foundations and requirements, alt-j, vol 12 (1) levin, i. (2013). academic education in era of digital culture, in: pătruń b. (ed.), smart2013 social media in academia: research and teaching, conference proceedings, bologna: medimond, 11. liu, m., olmanson, j., wang, p., & horton, l. (2008). an exploration of mash-ups and their potential educational uses. computers in the schools, 25(3/4), 243-258. mateescu, c. (1959). săpături arheologice la vădastra, materiale şi cercetări arheologice, 61-74 mateescu, c. (1975). remarks on cattle breeding and agriculture in the middle and late neolithic of the lower danube. dacia xix, 13-18. moga, l. (2013). integrating blended-learning in higher education, in: pătruń b. (ed.), smart2013 social media in academia: research and teaching, conference proceedings, bologna: medimond, 224. nentwich, m. & konig r. (2012). cyberscience 2.0 research in the age of digital social networks. campus verlag gmbh. o’reilly, t. (2005). what is web 2.0? design patterns and business models for the next generation of software (available at http:oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html (accessed 17 july 2016). popescu, e. (2013). social learning environments, sittech, craiova. redecker c., mutka, k. a., & punie, y. (2009). learning 2.0 the impact of social media on learning in europe, (available at http://www.ict-21.ch/com-ict/img/pdf/learning-2.0-eu17pages-jrc56958.pdf, accessed 18 july 2016). rusu, a., şerbănescu, a., clondir, r., & popovici, d. (2013). social media for preserving local technological tradition, in: pătruń b. (ed.), smart2013 social media in academia: research and teaching, conference proceedings, bologna: medimond, 139. siemens, g. (2005). connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age, international journal of instructional technology distance learning. 2(1) (http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm. accessed on 17 july 2016). vygotsky, l. (1978). mind and society: the development of higher mental process, cambridge: harvard university press. zeiller, m. & schauer, b. (2011). adoption, motivation and success factors of social media for team collaboration in smes. i-know '11 proceedings of the 11th international conference on knowledge management and knowledge technologies, new york: acm. ziden, a.a. & rahman, m.f.a. (2013). exploring the use of social networking media by malaysian higher education institutions, in: pătruń b. (ed.), smart2013 social media in academia: research and teaching, conference proceedings, bologna: medimond, 61. wenger, e., mcdermott, r. & snyder, w. (2002). cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge, cambridge: harvard business school press. microsoft word issue3.docx 5 the ics paradigm in knowledge and modelling dorin bocu transilvania university of braşov, romania bulevardul eroilor 29, brașov 500036 phone: +40 268 413000 d.bocu@unitbv.ro răzvan bocu transilvania university of braşov, romania bulevardul eroilor 29, brașov 500036 phone: +40 268 413000 razvan.bocu@unitbv.ro abstract starting from the surprise caused by the careful reading of the contributions provided in (bjorner, 2006a) and (bjorner, 2006b), it has become clear that the modelling activity in the software engineering is a dynamic kind of intellectual engagement, which requires numerous internal clarifications. furthermore, it claims the right to use the fundamental cognitive abilities in order to add rigour and efficiency to the sterotypes that are used in the software industry in order to abstract various artefacts, which constitute the solution of a software system. the authors of this paper are pleased to find out that the exploration of the human thinking’s limits and subtleties create valuable results in all scientific fields, including the engineering of the software systems. this paper describes the ics (intuitive, circumstantial, speculative) modelling paradigm, which aims to make the development process of the software systems more efficient. keywords: modelling, intuitive, circumstantial, speculative 1. preliminaries the two perspectives on the problematic of knowledge are the following:  the knowledge acquired through individual excellence (kaie1);  the knowledge acquired through associative excellence (kaae2). essentially, both kaie and kaae are based on the iterative and incremental consideration of the following steps3: 1. the identification of a problem that does not have a solution, or the existing solution is not satisfactory; 2. the specification of the objectives that synthetically define the manner through which the problem solution contributes to the improvement of the system that generated the problem; 3. the refinement of the problem statement; 4. the elaboration of the problem solution; 5. the implementation of the problem solution; 6. the assessment of the solution’s impact over the system that generated the problem. considering each of the highlighted steps, the individual or the involved scientific community combine, considering more or less formalized rules, the following types of knowledge:  the sensory-perceptual (intuitive) knowledge;  the circumstantial4 knowledge;  the speculative5 knowledge; 1 the individual is the author of a singular research and modelling process. 2 the research and modelling process is realized by a scientific community. 3 although these steps resemble to some specific activities in the field of software engineering, the things are essentially the same in any domain. 4 more details regarding circumstantial knowledge in section 2. 5 more details regarding speculative knowledge in section 3. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 6  the artistic6 knowledge;  the demiurgical knowledge.7 the combined investigative schemes that have long been used highlight the importance of a cognitive approach’s iterativity and incrementality, in order to ensure an ascending trend of the knowledge from a historical perspective. thus, it can be concluded that the incentive to advance the knowledge is the human being’s appetite to address the problems, which are often created by himself. additionally, there are numerous problems implied by the laws of the universe. their resolution is always debatable and topical. furthermore, there are many issues, which are determined by the human being’s demiurgical mimicry. their resolution bears the seal of singurality that is not capable to resonate in a satisfactory manner with the symphony of the big ideas, which exist at the foundation of the natural universe. the human knowledge, irrespective of the approached problems, is approximate. it is up to the human being that the long series of achievements in relation to knowledge, resonate in a more profound manner with the expectations of the absolute spirit of the knowledge, regardless of its embodiment. it is already proven that the advancement of the knowledge is a long and difficult process. the fundamental abilities that the human being uses during this process are the ones that have already been presented. this paper does not intend to contradict other points of view regarding the understanding and modelling of the human knowledge abilities. the obstacles that affect this approach are obvious. the human thinking is not pure mathematics, it is not reducible to philosophical sentences, it is not the art to write genius poetry, it is not even the art to just make assertions that respect the mathematical logic. the limits of these ways through which thought manifests are known. additionally, it is difficult to understand the subtleties of the human thinking. the theory of knowledge studies the multiple dillemas that accompany the process, which tries to understand and model the human thinking. the history of the mankind does not know a relevant philosopher that didn’t try to explain the role and the fundamental mechanisms of the human thinking. the mathematicians tried to establish the logical foundations of thinking. moreover, the specialists that work in the field of the education sciences have formulated numerous theories that attempt to decipher the mchanisms of the human thinking, as they are perceived from an educational perspective. these specialists haven’t managed to design a uniform model, but even more, there is contradiction concerning the way they understand:  the conceptual framework that discusses about the mechanisms of the human thinking;  the capabilities that are required in order to allow the humans to think;  the utility of the infinity in the attempt to explain the human thinking;  the problem of truth, as an essential premise for any system that formalizes the processes of thought;  etc. this paper intends to found a research model regarding the methodic exploration of the human thinking limits, which intends to find new modalities to understand the complexity of the universe. in this context, it can be asserted that the concrete reality, which is understood through the intuitive and circumstantial knowledge, are coded and valued using the abstraction power of the speculative knowledge. each scientific field is supported by its own “evangelists” that are able to elaborate reference contributions for their discipline of interest. as an example, the software engineering may consider the following such contributions: 6 this will be discussed in a separate paper. 7 this will be discussed in a separate paper. d. bocu, r. bocu the ics paradigm in knowledge and modelling 7  design patterns;  architectural models;  the principle of encapsulation;  the dependency inversion principle (dip);  etc. these are examples of remarkable products of the speculative knowledge, and their significance goes well beyond the field of software engineering. the design patterns may be regarded as a genuine model for the creation of a thesaurus, which is made of the valuable experience that is accumulated in a certain knowledge domain. the principle of encapsulation abstracts a cooperation formula, which is mutually beneficial between the creator of an artefact and its beneficiaries. the dependency inversion principle clearly states an axiom, which finally seems to be evident in any domain of activity: “the details should depend on abstractions. the opposite is against the demands of the speculative knowledge”. 2. the conceptual foundations of the sensory-perceptual knowledge this paper is not necessarily an alternative to the numerous clarifications brought to the mechanisms of the human thinking by important scholars in scientific fields, such as phylosophy, psychology, pedagogy, logic, artificial intelligence, etc. the certainties that emerge include the fact that at the foundations of the human thinking, the sensory-perceptual paradigm is very important. without the sensory-perceptual component, the human thinking is decoupled from reality. the human connection to the reality is a sophisticated process, which has its roots in the perception of reality, using the huge analytical potential of the „instruments” that the humans use in order to interact with the visible and concrete part of the reality. the human being is able to use multiple capabilities in order to receive information about the reality in the form of sensations. nevertheless, some philosophers ironized the virtues of the sensory-perceptual knowledge, by accusing it of missing outstanding systemic-structural features. the sensory-perceptual knowledge was invented by the creator in order to mainly support the information collection relative to the real world artefacts. the quantitative complexity of the data that can be acquired through sensory-perceptual mechanisms may pose significant challenges to the upper levels of the human thinking. as a consequence, the next step in the effort to understand the reality is materialized in the human’s ability to obtain unifying representations in the form of perceptions, considering the rich variety of the data gathered using the tools of the sensory-perceptual knowledge. considering that this paper is preoccupied to understand and model the various components of the human knowledge, a few considerations will be made, which are of interest for the sensoryperceptual level. definition 1. let us call sensation any data that refers to the state of a real world artefact, and this data has been fetched with an essentially sensory knowledge device (eskd). thus, the eskd devices are used in order to ensure the direct contact with the real world. it is usually asserted that the sensation is unmediated knowledge. this is a comfortable statement, which may be criticized if the operating mechanisms of teh eskd devices are studied attentively. the following invariant aspects are particularly important for the specialists in any scientific field:  the sensation is a subjective representation of a feature that pertains to a real world artefact;  the eskd artefacts, which the humans possess, are able to learn;  the basic method used in order to instruct an eskd artefact is the iteration, which includes the methodical testing of the acquired data’s accuracy;  the iterative usage of an eskd artefact is premise for obtaining more data with a sensory substrate; brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 8  the precision of the sensory data is inherently approximate, as the sensation is a subjective representation of the real world. considering more formal than operational reasons, it can me observed that the usage/ operating schema of an eskd artefact is iterative and incremental, which may ensure, in the long run, an ascending trend of the sensory data’s quality. this evolution is necessary in order to offer consistency to the iterations that are present at the knowledge levels, which are placed above the sensory level. definition 2. let us call perception a subjective representation of an artefact, which is obtained by capitalizing the sensory data acquisitions. it is obvious that:  the perception is a synthesis product of the human’s cognitive and intuitive abilities;  it may be considered that perception is the product of an intuitive abstraction effort;  perception allows the human to report to the real world artefacts in the absence of a direct contact with them. it is not sensational to highlight that by learning to properly handle the perception, the human being retains the essential out of the large amount of data that can be acquired by using the eskd mechanism. considering the level of perception, the essential is, in contrast with the speculative idea of essential, the same thing as the tadpole is in comparison with the frog into which it eventually transforms. nevertheless, the perception is used in order to maintain the natural link between the sensory-perceptual knowledge, and the sophisticated world of speculative knowledge. the perception anticipates the affinity of the speculative knowledge for the systematic abstractization, and it also highlights the need to associate the abstractions with an adequate intuitive support. the convergence process between the human thinking and the meaning of the data acquired using the eskd artefacts is laborious. considering this perspective, it can be asserted that perception is an intermediate product, which is obtained when the human is preoccupied with highlighting the meaning of the data that is obtained using the eskd artefacts. the power and brightness of the acquired sensory-perceptual data meanings is valued in a superior way only if the subject of a cognitive experiment accesses superior levels of knowledge: the circumstantial, the speculative, the artistic, the demiurgical. the preceding assertion is illustrated by highlighting the important role that mathematics can play, considering its numerous branches, in order to elaborate a framework for perception modelling, while presuming that sensation is a solved problem. more precisely, given some statistical data that represent the evolution of some processes in society, it is possible to use complex statistical models and indicators in order to extract significant ideas out of these large amounts of statistical data. 3. the conceptual foundations of the circumstantial knowledge 3.1. remarks regarding the circumstantial knowledge the real world, becoming a subject of research, has to be understood and / or modelled. understanding the world and modelling it are two activities that help humans to develop a complex relationship with the universe and its hidden creator. understanding or modelling the world means to be producer and / or consumer of knowledge. the preoccupation for the field of knowledge means to be part of the group of people that are interested in their own intelligence. the human intelligence efficiently combines the monotony that is inherent to the circumstantial knowledge with the satisfaction that accompanies the vast and profound connections, which are realized by the speculative knowledge. the circumstantial knowledge has the goal to describe the primary structure of the artefacts that are studied or modelled. d. bocu, r. bocu the ics paradigm in knowledge and modelling 9 the primary structure of a studied artefact abstracts the boundaries of the field in which this survives and relates. the survival of an artefact in a certain relational concept defines its utility. additionally, changing the analysis perspective, the utility of an artefact is conditioned by the rationality of its structural contents. the following definition has the role to better clarify the idea of circumstantial knowledge. definition 3. let us call circumstantial knowledge any method that a human uses in order to understand and represent the structural invariants of a real or conceptual artefact. the syntagm “structural invariant”, which is mildly pleonastic, has been deliberately used in order to indicate the focus of the circumstantial knowledge towards the structure of the real world or conceptual artefacts. the first requirement that a creator manifests over the structure of an artefact is represented by a certain stability over time, which refers to the temporal invariance that allows for the artefact’s structural potential to be valorized and assessed. as a consequence, it is natural to enquire why the realization of a product that aspires to the temporal invariance is the opera of a knowledge type that is called circumstantial. the intention of the syntagm “circumstantial knowledge” is to highlight the fact that the circumstantial thinking means to relate as rigorously as possible to the circumstances that found a cognitive approach. in spite of the good intentions of a circumstantial cognitive approach, the errors, either assumed or involuntary, always exist, which naturally highlight the quality of the circumstantial knowledge products’ invariance over time. as a consequence, it seems realistic any cognitive approach that makes out of the systematic doubt an ingredient that guarantees the benefits of the spiral in an iterative cognitive approach. the spiral of knowledge gives substance to the second essential attribute of a cognitive approach, the incrementality. in the context of scientific knowledge and modelling, the incrementality guarantees the authentic and effective increase in knowledge. it can be stated that the structure of an artefact abstracts:  the granularity of the artefact’s internal structure, which is expressed through: o the list of components; o the list of the relationships between components;  the granularity of the interface that is used by the artefact in relation with the environment, which is expressed through: o the list of components; o the list of the relationships between components; o the list of the components’ relationships with the artefact’s environment; o the list of the components’ relationships with the system’s internal structure. it is correct to mention, through anticipation, that the comprehension and representation of the structural invariants of an artefact can be facilitated by the circumstantial knowledge, while the discovery, specification and optimal assessment of the structural invariants is, in essence, the vocation of the speculative knowledge. thus, the idea to suggest the autonomy of the two types of knowledge is unsustainable. the large or small progresses in the field of knowledge have been invariably obtained by combining, in an inspired manner, the monotonous rigour of the circumstantial knowledge, with the unconventional creativity that defines the speculative knowledge. the circumstantial knowledge helps us to anchor in the circumstantial reality. the accuracy of this process is dependent on the horizon and efficiency of the procedures that are used by the circumstantial knowledge in order to explain or model a segment of reality. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 10 the horizon of a knowledge method defines the momentary limits of the method. the efficiency of a knowledge method measures the accuracy and the novelty of the data that is obtained by using the method. the circumstantial knowledge is mostly analytic. through anticipation, it can be stated that the speculative form of knowledge is indispensable for the elaboration of the synergetic representation models of the data that is obtained through circumstantial methods. furthermore, on the other hand, the speculative knowledge is permanently preoccupied with searching the reasons for which a creator chose a particular way of structuring the produced artefact. the identification and the explanation of these reasons is possible by using analysis and interpretation methods in the context of artefacts systems. considering the results that it generates, the speculative knowledge is essentially preoccupied with understanding the specificity of a system, which distinguishes the system from its components, or the mechanical sum of these components. thus, it is justified and useful to recognize the preponderantly synthetic character of the speculative knowledge. 3.2. invariants in the context of the circumstantial knowledge the following paragraphs present the essential landmarks of an approach that is centred towards the circumstantial knowledge. these landmarks may be naturally considered invariants as long as they are not affected by obsolescence. although these invariants are present in any circumstantial knowledge approach, it can be admitted, once more, the fact that their presentation is partially tributary to mechanisms that are specific to the field of the software systems engineering. the invariants that are discussed, which refer to the realization of a software artefact, are the following:  the identification and definition of the problem that requires the realization of the target artefact (idp);  the beneficiary’s point of view concerning the features of the target artefact (bpv);  the expert’s point of view regarding the knowledge / modelling, relative to the realization of the target artefact (epv);  the analysis of the problem that requires the realization of the target artefact (ap);  the abstractization of the target artefact’s solution (as) using: o the existing formal framework; o the experience accumulated by the users of the existing formal framework;  the definition of the conceptual artefacts that are part of the target artefact (dca);  the relationship between the conceptual artefacts, which are components of the target artefact (rca);  the appeal to the speculative knowledge in order to rethink the formal framework8 (asp); essential remarks regarding idp the sensory-perceptual knowledge is strongly oriented towards obtaining intuitive representations of existing real world artefacts. at the same time, the circumstantial knowledge is oriented towards solving the problems. regardless of their nature, the problems have to be identified and defined. the two components of an idp approach are the following: 8 in order to rethink its own formal framework, the circumstantial appeals to the speculative knowledge. otherwise, the spiral of the knowledge progress loses altitude. d. bocu, r. bocu the ics paradigm in knowledge and modelling 11  the analysis of the system at a certain moment, which is oriented towards the identification and the definition of its circumstantial limits;  the analysis of the system at a certain moment, which is oriented towards the identification of its evolutive potential’s limits; in other words, the problem statement is drafted considering the state of the system and its environment at the moment when the idp approach is conducted, but also by anticipating the changes that may occur in the system’s environment. these may contribute to the system’s degradation or disappearance over time. essential remarks regarding bpv the process of solving a problem always has its beneficiaries. the proper knowledge concerning the points of view of the problem’s beneficiaries has the following essential advantages:  it contributes to the adequacy of the solution relative to the demands of the environment that will value it (the mission of the artefact – the managerial perspective, the vision regarding the realization of the artefact – the managerial perspective);  it assures an optimal framework for the assessment of all the component artefacts, and the target integrative artefact, during the entire problem solving process;  it contributes to the elaboration of reliable models, which allows the solution to relate to the inevitable changes of the problem’s statement. essential remarks regarding epv without minimizing the importance of idp and bpv, epv represents a defining moment for the process that has the role to solve a problem. it is sufficiently demonstrated by the accumulated human experience regarding the problems solving in various domains, the fact that “each problem has several solutions”. the duty of the expert is to find the most attractive solution at a certain moment. thus, the solution of a problem can be assimilated to an artefact with certain particular features. considering a non-exhaustive perspective, it can be stated that such an artefact is attractive if:  it is ingenious;  it is easy to implement;  the data that it produces become input for other artefacts, with reasonable costs;  etc. as a consequence, it is natural to state that the vision, which founds the realization of the artefact that embodies the solution of a problem, is essential for the attractiveness of such an artefact. the formation of the specific abilities for an expert that belongs to a certain field of knowledge / modelling is a process that is conditioned by proper individual and associative evolution (i.e., kaie and kaae). the cognitive abilities of the expert at the circumstantial level must excel not only through the vastness of the data concerning the domain that is researched / modelled, but also through the optimal interpretation / valorization of this data, using speculative patterns that are already substantiated and operationalized. essential remarks regarding ap the analysis is an old method for starting the embodiment of a vision, which an expert adopted in order to obtain the solution of a problem. the motivation that underlies the vision orientates the analysis activity in a certain direction. each vision represents, in fact, a compromise that the expert makes with the hope that a systemically attractive artefact will be realized. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 12 the analysis activity should produce circumstantial data, which are strictly required in order to found an abstraction approach for the optimal solution of the problem. the choice of the abstraction method should also be the subject of the analysis activity. essential remarks regarding as enhanced with the ability to abstract, the human may widely open the gates of the unknown. all the data that is obtained about the invisible and visible world become the raw material, which fuel the human’s capacity to abstract. considering the vast list of the invariants that manifest during the human abstraction activity, let us mention the following;  the identification and definition of the essential considering the two perspectives:  the essential as a circumstantial ingredient;  the essential as a speculative ingredient;  the formalization of the conceptual schemes for the refinement of a problem’s solution;  the optimization of the abstraction effort’s reusage;  the planned management concerning the complexity of the artefact’s elaboration process;  the rationalization of the artefacts’ adaptation schemes to persistent changes;  the methodic storage of the most performant abstraction schemes. the essential, as a circumstantial ingredient, is discovered following the abstraction effort’s focus on multiple behavioural stereotypes of the artefacts in the environmental context, at the moment when the abstraction approach is effected. the choice for an essential set of stereotypes is a problem, which has a solution that is naturally affected by obsolescence. nevertheless, the obsolescence has to be slow, and it should not threat the essential structural equilibria of the artefacts. the essential, as a speculative ingredient, considering the remarks in section 3.1, is indispensable for the elaboration of the synergistic representation models of the data that is obtained through circumstantial methods. the speculative knowledge is the only one able to define the reasons why a creator chooses a certain way for structuring the artefact that is produced. essential remarks regarding dca fully aware of the importance of abstraction, the experts in research / modelling have to assume the definition of the component conceptual artefacts, which prepare an optimal framework for the implementation of the artefact that is the final goal of the abstraction approach. in this context, a series of decisions are taken, which can be assessed from a formal and personal perspective, that is, essentially from a circumstantial perspective. the definition of the component artefacts is, in theory, continuously perfectible. nevertheless, in circumstantial terms, it can be completed after the aspects regarding the relationships between the artefacts are addressed. essential remarks regarding rca the responsibility regarding the specification of the relationships between the component conceptual artefacts can be considered the ultimate challenge for an expert that aims to excel by using the circumstantial potential, which exists at a given moment. the definition of the component artefacts imposes certain limits to the utility of an artefact. the relationship between the component conceptual artefacts of a problem’s solution, imposes limits to the adaptation of the solution to challenges, such as:  the changes in the domain of the problem;  the technological changes;  the changes concerning the speculative paradigms that are used;  etc. d. bocu, r. bocu the ics paradigm in knowledge and modelling 13 essential remarks regarding asp considering any domain of activity, the progress is conditioned by the appeal to the speculative knowledge, in order to rethink the formal framework in which the activity occurs. in the absence of this systematic approach, stagnation is the optimistic variant, while the pessimistic variant, the regress and the dissolution of the infrastructure that may keep an ascending trend of the knowledge in a community, is not excluded. the consideration of the speculative knowledge does not have only scientific or artistic connotations. each step forward in science or arts may bring oblivion on truths and beauties that once seemed to be eternal. thus, the consideration of the speculative knowledge is a tool that can be used, in principle, only by the wise without provoking imbalances in the universe that makes use of the speculative knowledge. consequently, it seems not only reasonable, but also useful, the activity to develop the ethical dimension of any human speculative approach. the speculative knowledge is responsible for the way the human cognitive abilities support his moral aspirations. 4. the conceptual foundations of the speculative knowledge 4.1. the definition of the speculative knowledge first, let us define an as reasonable as possible definition of the speculative knowledge, in order to prove its usefulness. definition 3. let us call speculative knowledge any method that is used to discover new meanings in a certain circumstantial context. in other words, the speculative knowledge can help us to discover the usefulness of a circumstantial cognitive approach. naturally, the discussion about usefulness does not only imply the advantages, but also the disadvantages of a certain way to structure reality. these disadvantages may be obvious or subtle. furthermore, the speculative knowledge is responsible for defining a correct formal framework for the elaboration of a circumstantial cognitive approach. consequently, observing the field of manifestation of the speculative knowledge at a high level of abstraction, it is possible to emphasize two hypostases in which the speculative knowledge is very useful:  the retrospective speculative knowledge (rsk), which refers to an individual’s ability to see the way forward, in order to determine the true structure of an artefact that is directly observed. it can be stated that such an individual has the gift of the retrospective speculative knowledge (rsk).  the anticipatory speculative knowledge (ask), which refers to an individual’s ability to see beyond the farthest artefact, which can be observed by the human eye. it can be stated that such an individual has the gift of the anticipatory speculative knowledge (ask). it can be mentioned that both rsk and ask are main branches of the speculative knowledge, which have links with creativity. this is an implied ability for someone that manifests in a certain domain of knowledge. the high level creativity, which surprises through novelty, astonishes through the complexity of the connections, and excels through the simplicity and originality of the solutions, cannot exist outside of rsk and ask. 4.2. invariants in the speculative knowledge the model of the spiral is important for the research and modelling processes. following, a brief perspective concerning the invariants that operate in the speculative knowledge is presented ( the detailed presentation of this invariants constitutes the subject of a future paper): brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 14  the identification / definition of the research / modelling domain;  the elaboration of the support paradigms for research / modelling;  the expert’s point of view in the scope of knowledge / modelling;  the analysis of the problem;  the abstraction of the solution using;  the existing formal framework;  the experience accumulated by the users of the existing formal framework;  the definition of the conceptual artefacts;  the relationship between the conceptual artefacts;  the appeal to the speculative knowledge in order to rethink the own formal framework9. 5. brief considerations at the boundary between circumstantial and speculative in the context of the presentation of a cognitive approach’s particularities, which efficiently combines the circumstantial and speculative knowledge, the remarks contained in table 1 and table 2 are useful. table 1. the human being as a subject of the knowledge, from curiosity to the nostalgia of the absolute truth the human, as actor of the knowledge, is motivated by: the human, as actor of the knowledge, is capable of: curiosity intuitive circumstantial knowledge personal interest stereotyped circumstantial knowledge the appetite for abstraction  intuitive speculative knowledge  formalized circumstantial knowledge the appetite for the speculative reasoning  formalized speculative knowledge at the niche level (rsk)  the refinement of the support formalisms for the circumstantial knowledge (rsk) the nostalgia of the absolute truth  unifying speculative knowledge (ask)  reinventing the support formalisms for the circumstantial knowledge (ask) considering the information that is presented in table 1, let us study the synthetic ideas that are contained in table 2. table 2. five maturity levels for a subject of the knowledge the level of the knowledge’s subject the behaviour of the knowledge’s subject the curious man collects data out of curiosity, approximately in the same way that the bee collects pollen, without questioning or dramatizing. the man that is guided by interest collects and stores data with a well determined goal, in the same way the mole fills its storeroom with carrots, in order to have food during the winter. 9 the speculative knowledge critically examines its own efficiency d. bocu, r. bocu the ics paradigm in knowledge and modelling 15 the man that has appetite for abstraction collects and stores the data using the advantages of formalization (the control of redundancy and the optimization of the scenarios). he has the soul warmed by the hope that the monotonous appearance of the data may communicate a lot about the beauty of the moment and the fantasies of the eternity, if the data reaches an optimal level of structuring. the man that has appetite for the speculative reasoning he knows that the limits of the knowledge exist, and their inertia can only be addressed using the instruments of the speculative reasoning. the man that has the nostalgia of the absolute truth he is continuously looking for a speculative formula, which is using the absolute truth, in order to give meaning to the existence of mankind and, eventually, to the existence of the universe. thus, there are five maturity levels of a cognitive approach’s subject, which may be synthetically characterized as follows, cosidering the objects that the subject of the cognitive approach relates to:  level 1: implies real world objects, as they are perceived by their users;  level 2: implies the external representation model of the real world objects. this representation is thought to be accessible and useful to the experts in the problem’s domain;  level 3: implies the internal representation model of the real world atomic objects. this representation has the role to facilitate and optimize the processing that is specific to the implied objects. these models represent the entrance door of the objects represented in external format into the operating logic of a problem’s solution. consequently, the internal representation model of the real world atomic objects is part of the specific formalism that operates in the domain of the solution;  level 4: it corresponds to the durable representation models of the artefacts, which are featured by a significant structural potential;  level 5: it involves the elaboration of investigative methods, which aim to find the optimal modelling variant of the artefacts. 6. conclusions modelling the knowledge itself is an old wish of the researchers. understanding and especially simulating some of the cognitive skills of man are challenges, which force the rethinking of the links with the world of intelligent systems, with the intelligence itself. considering the modest quantitative and qualitative achievements in the field of the artificial intelligence, and the numerous applications of the classical computer science that may benefit of some added intelligence, thus becoming super smart artefacts, it becomes clear why this paper draws a vision of knowledge from the ics perspective. the next step is represented by the refinement of the ics paradigm, such that, as an example, the software engineering and the computer programming map in a more natural fashion on the patterns of the natural intelligence. this may offer to the specialists in the field of the software systems engineering an approach with unsuspected virtues in other paradigms. references bjorner, d. (2006). software engineering 1. abstraction and modelling, springer verlag. bjorner, d. (2006). software engineering 2. specification of systems and languages, springer verlag. bocu, d., bocu, r. (2016). the fundamentals regarding the usage of the concept of interface for the modeling of the software artefacts, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 7, issue 1. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 16 bocu, d., bocu, r. (2016). the role of the conceptual invariants regarding the prevention of the software artefacts’ obsolescence, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 7, issue 4. dorin bocu (b. august 3, 1955) received his bsc in informatics (1980), phd in mathematics (1996) from transilvania university of braşov. now he is a research and teaching staff member in the department of mathematics and computer science, the transilvania university of brasov, romania. his current research interests include software engineering, object oriented programming and artificial intelligence. he is the author or coauthor of 40 technical papers, together with eleven books and book chapters. razvan bocu (b. april 17, 1982) received a b.s. degree in computer science from transilvania university of brasov in 2005, a b.s. degree in sociology from transilvania university of brasov in 2007, an m.s. degree in computer science from the transilvania university of brasov in 2006, and a ph.d. degree from the national university of ireland, cork, in 2010. now he is a research and teaching staff member in the department of mathematics and computer science, the transilvania university of brasov, romania. he is the author or coauthor of 25 technical papers, together with four books and book chapters. dr. bocu is an editorial reviewing board member of two technical journals in the field of information technology and biotechnology. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 6 using the genetic algorithm for the optimization of dynamic school bus routing problem özkan ünsal department of computer engineering, süleyman demirel university, turkey çünür mahallesi, isparta 32260, turkey tel.: +90 246 211 10 00 ozkanunsal@gmail.com tuncay yiğit department of computer engineering, süleyman demirel university, turkey çünür mahallesi, isparta 32260, turkey tel.: +90 246 211 10 00 tuncayyigit@sdu.edu.tr abstract vehicle routing problems (vrp) are complicated problems, which can be encountered in a variety of different fields and are not possible to solve using conventional methods. thanks to the technological advancements in areas such as the global positioning system (gps), geographical information systems (gis), mobile communication networks, and traffic sensors, it is now possible to solve the vrp in a dynamic and real-time manner. in this study, the school bus routing problem (sbrp), which is a sub-branch of vrps, was optimized by means of an application developed using genetic algorithms(ga), which is one of the heuristic methods. by using the application developed based on mobile communication and gps, the instantaneous locations of stops and the school bus were determined and the shortest and most convenient route for the vehicle to follow was dynamically identified. the experimental results obtained at the end of this study showed that the existing school bus routes can be optimized using ga and therefore the costs associated with the routing can be reduced. keywords: vehicle routing problem, dynamic school bus routing problem, genetic algorithms, optimization 1. introduction transportation and distribution systems are necessary in every field of daily life and concern all sectors. the use of these systems brings along considerable expenses to enterprises. the expenses associated with distribution correspond to 15-20% of the product costs (rushton, croucher & baker, 2006). the growing population, globalizing economy, and increasing demand for consumption make the use of transportation and distribution systems even more important and widespread. this usage density brings along certain problems such as loss of time, traffic jams, additional expenses, and environmental pollution. traffic jams, road and weather conditions, and unplanned route choices can be listed among the reasons for increasingly longer periods spent in traffic. longer time-spans allocated to transportation cause significant increases in fuel costs and air pollution, which also raises health concerns. traffic is a major source of air pollution in urban areas of developing countries that leads to high exposure risk of urban dwellers (oanh, kongpran, hang, parkpian, hung, lee & bae, 2013). the time loss can be minimized by means of suitable route selection before starting the journey and the routing plans that can be updated against adverse situations such as traffic, road, weather, and accidents. many countries and many enterprises obtained considerable savings in terms of cost and time via optimization studies on transport and traffic control systems. school buses are being used more and more frequently due to current socio-economic structures, changing family patterns, earlier age limit to start to school, and increasingly longer distances between school and houses. route planning is difficult to fully optimize, as the location of bus stops might continuously change due to the discontinuation of the student on a particular day or ö. ünsal, t. yiğit using the genetic algorithm for the optimization of dynamic school bus routing problem 7 address changes. in addition, factors such as multiple routes available between two stops, and changing drivers working on the same route also contribute to the difficulties arising when the route planning is desired to be optimized. thanks to the advancements in today’s information and communication technologies, vehicle fleets can be managed in real-time. when jointly used, devices like gis, gps, traffic flow sensors and cellular telephones are able to provide real-time data, such as current vehicle locations, new customer requests, and periodic estimates of road travel times (khouadjiaa, sarasolab, albab, jourdana & talbia, 2012). this brings along the opportunity to dynamically redefine the vehicle routes, based on changing conditions. these dynamically defined routes make the saving targets in terms of cost and time in the optimization of vrp even more efficient. it was seen that more successful solutions were obtained when heuristic techniques instead of conventional methods were used for the solution of complicated problems (np-hard) such as vrp. from 1959 onwards, this method and related algorithms have been successfully used for the solution of problems related to vrp and its sub-types that are applied in many sectors including collection/distribution, transportation, military, and emergency services. the vrp is an npcomplete problem, preventing the use of exact algorithms for certain instances of the problem, and thus requiring the use of heuristic approaches (hsu, hsu & lin, 2014). for the optimization of these problems, which always attracted scholarly interest, not only classical heuristic methods such as the classic saving and sweep method, but also meta-heuristics such as tabu search, simulated annealing, ant colony, and (ga) have been widely used. ga is a searching and optimization technique that was introduced by john holland in 1975 on the basis of darwin’s theory, “only the best survive”. in particular, classification optimization problems and multi-dimensional optimization problems that are quite difficult to solve using conventional programming techniques can be easily and rapidly solved using ga. in the relevant literature, there are numerous studies in which ga is applied to solve a vrp. in their study conducted to implement ga to solve sbrp, sghaier, guedria, and mraihi concluded that the number of vehicles in a school bus network can be reduced by bringing down the transportation costs (sghaier, guedria & mraihi, 2013). in the current study, the visual software that was developed using c#.net programming language and the ga optimization technique to detect the most suitable and shortest route on the map for school bus services will be discussed. for this software, 10 of the school bus services’ routes in the ankara province in turkey were used as case studies to apply the ga method to solve the sbrp. the routes that the school buses follow and the gps locations of the stops were determined by means of mobile software and were displayed on google maps. the present study aims to improve currently available routes, and to update these routes online using the instantaneous gps locations of the students, tracked down by means of mobile software support. the goal is to avoid the current time, cost, and work-load losses and to reduce air pollution and traffic density by improving the routes. 2. vrp and sbrp 2.1. vrp and literature review vrp is widely described as the process where the distribution vehicles deliver goods in a depot to the clients found in geographically dispersed locations and then return to the depot on the optimum route. the vrp, first introduced by dantzig and ramser in 1959, aims to minimize the total distance to be covered during the routing of the vehicles in a centrally-located depot (dantzig & ramser, 1959). the routing process is operated by taking the vehicle capacities into consideration so as to ensure that each client located on the routing plan is visited only once. the depot, vehicle, and goods concepts mentioned in the general description of vrp can be re-adapted as school, student and bus stop, based on different sectors that the problem applies to. figure 1 shows a scheme indicating the vrp solution applied to a distribution system, where the clientele network is dispersed over three different zones. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 8 figure 1. example of a vrp solution vrp, which is one of the np-hard types of problems, has been studied for more than fifty years, and a number of solution models and algorithms have been developed thus far. for the optimization of this complicated problem, which is not possible to solve using conventional methods, primarily meta-heuristic techniques were preferred for a more efficient and rapid solution. the heuristic methods reported in the literature in relation to vrp are normally examined in two groups: classical methods and meta-heuristic methods. the first known classical heuristic method, applicable to vrp, is the classic saving method developed by clarke and wright in 1964. later, the sweep method and improved petal heuristic methods were introduced by gillet and miller (gillet & miller, 1974), and foster and ryan (foster & ryan, 1976), respectively. among the metaheuristic methods used for the same purpose, one can list tabu search, simulated annealing, ant colony, and ga. in particular, a number of metaheuristic techniques have been successfully applied for the solution of vrp and its variants, such as: simulated annealing (osman, 1993, samadi-dana, paydar & jouzdani, 2017), tabu search (gendreau, hertz & laporte, 1994, taillard, badeau, gendreau, gendreau & potvin, 1997), granular tabu search (toth & vigo, 2003), ga (van breedam, 1996), guided local search (kilby, prosser & shaw, 1999), variable neighborhood search (bräysy, 2003), greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (resende & ribeiro, 2003), differential evolution algorithm (teoh, ponnambalam & kanagaraj, 2015) and ant colony optimization (reimann, doerner & hartl, 2004, yigit & unsal, 2016). today, various studies aim to solve a vrp in many sectors including the distribution of cargo, newspapers, milk, bread, mail and posts, as well as medical and chemical waste collection systems, and personnel and school busses. all of these examples have their own limitations and criteria, such as quality of the transported material, and the last stop to reach, as well as the stop from which the route will begin (for example, in the case of school bus services, the last stop in the morning and the first stop in the evening is the school), necessity to reach a certain stop before the others (cargo sent by a client to another). these limitations should be taken into consideration in the algorithms implemented to create solutions to the problems. the objective of vrp is to determine a set of conditions such that (çatay, 2010):  each vehicle travels exactly one route.  each customer is visited only once by one of the vehicles completely satisfying its demand and supply.  the load carried by a vehicle between any pair of adjacent customers on the route must not exceed its capacity.  total distance given by the sum of the arcs belonging to these routes is minimal.  vehicle routes starting and ending point must be the central distribution warehouse. the mathematical description of general vrp was made by laporte as given below (laporte, 1992): ö. ünsal, t. yiğit using the genetic algorithm for the optimization of dynamic school bus routing problem 9 let g = (v, a) be a graph where v = {0 . . . . , n} is a set of vertices representing cities with the depot located at vertex 0, and a is the set of arcs. according to this description, the objective function of vrp is as follows: where cij is the matrix expressing the distance between each arc (i,j) node, while i≠j. cij represents the time, cost or distance parameter that should be minimized in the objective function (ariasrojas, jiménez & montoya-torres, 2012). for a classical vrp, the euclid equation shown in equation number 2 is used to calculate the distance between i and j nodes having certain x and y coordinates in a classic vrp, d(i,j) is assumed to be the same as d(j, i). xij, as shown in equation number 3, stands for a logical variable, whose value varies based on whether arc(i,j) is found in the optimum solution set. 2.2. dynamic school bus routing problem(dsbrp) sbrp, which is a sub-group of vrp, is defined also as a kind of travelling salesman problem. the sbrp includes determining the shortest route for a school bus to pick up all the students from the pre-determined stops and to take them to school, and to pick the students up from school and leave them at the pre-determined stops. the first studies regarding sbrp were carried out by newton and thomas in 1969. in later years, numerous studies were carried out regarding sbrp. in the studies conducted by spada et al. in 2005, meta-heuristic methods were applied to sbrp and a decision-making model was developed (spada, bierlaire & liebling, 2005). fügenschuh carried out a study in 2009 on school bus route planning in germany, and concluded that fewer school busses would be needed if schools started their daily schedule at different times (fügenschuh, 2009). in their study dated 2010, park and kim carried out an extensive examination of different types of sbrp and a wide literature review (park & kim, 2010). martinez and viegas carried out a study in 2011 to examine the specific case of the students in lisbon using school bus service, and exhibited a two-step approach towards the solution of sbrp. in the first step, they collected information regarding the geographical locations of the students, and assigned these locations to different school busses in the most ideal way. in the second step, the most convenient routes were planned for the identified vehicles (martínez & viegas, 2011). in the studies conducted by samadi-dana et al. in 2017, a robust optimisation model for sbrp with uncertainty in times associated with moving from one bus stop to another is developed and a solution methodology based on simulated annealing algorithm, is presented for solving the proposed model (samadidana, paydar & jouzdani, 2017). although a number of studies focusing on sbrp can be found in the relevant literature with a variety of purposes, the following issues appear as the most frequent goals:  to minimize costs associated with transportation  to minimize time spent on transportation (corberán, fernández, laguna & martí, 2002)  to minimize the total number of vehicles used for transportation  to identify the stops where the students are taken and dropped off (thangiah, bryan, anthony & william, 2008) this problem consists of a number of sub-problems. the problem is solved in five steps (park & kim, 2010).  data preparation brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 10  selection of stops  route development  scheduling school bell  route planning in the data preparation step, the addresses of the school and the students as well as the existing roads between these are determined. in the second step, the student addresses are assigned to different stops. in the third step, the route is planned for a single school. if the solution is to be made for more than one school, then the school bells are scheduled for each school, and in the fifth step the route is planned for all schools. vrp’s can also be classified into two categories as dynamic and static routing problems. in the static vrp’s, the stops/locations that the vehicle will visit are pre-specified and do not change during the distribution/collection process. in dynamic vrp’s, on the other hand, new stops can be added to the planned route during the process or certain stops can be omitted. in similar dynamic problems, some or all of the access points are not known in the beginning. these points are dynamically defined during the route design or planning stages. in the dynamic vrp, using a realtime communication network between the vehicle and decision-making system, the vehicle routes can be re-defined during the operation. this type of problems is defined as online or real-time problems by some scholars (pillac, gendreau, guéret & medaglia, 2013). two examples of this can be certain orders getting cancelled or new orders being taken while a water distribution vehicle is on its route, or a school bus being informed on its route that certain students will be absent from school that day. in current conditions, dynamic vrp’s are more frequently needed, and are attributed with a more specific importance. the first study dealing with dynamic vrp was carried out by wilson and colvin (pillac, gendreau, guéret & medaglia, 2013). the enhancements in gps, traffic sensors, and mobile communication systems caused a further acceleration in studies carried out in this field. within the context of this study, dsbrp will be investigated. dsbrp is graphically explained in figure 2. figure 2. a dynamic school bus routing case in the previous sections, a number of heuristic methods that are applicable to vrp were mentioned. in this study, school bus route distances (cij) were optimized for the vrp objective function using ga. in the mathematical formulation of the problem, the vehicles represented as the set v correspond to the school busses, the central distribution depot represented as vo to the school, the connections represented as set a to the routes between students’ houses and the school, and finally the clients to the bus stops. 3. solving dsbrp with ga 3.1. genetic algorithms (gas) gas, which are based on the evolutionary approach method in the nature, are a metaheuristic technique used in the solution of searching and optimization problems. gas were ö. ünsal, t. yiğit using the genetic algorithm for the optimization of dynamic school bus routing problem 11 recognized as an important technique for optimization after the doctorate dissertation of goldberg, where the use of a ga was proposed for the purpose of gas pipeline checks, and then the publication of the book entitled “genetic algorithms in search, optimization, and machine learning” in 1989 (goldberg, 1989). gas are mostly used for the solution of the problems, where a mathematical model cannot be constructed, the solution domain is too large and there are an extremely high number of factors affecting the problem. therefore, they are successfully applied to the solution of quite complicated problems such as scheduling, assignment, travelling salesman, network design, logistics, and school service routing. gas assess not a single solution, but a multiple number of solutions simultaneously. this characteristic is called the ga’s parallel search feature. since gas that provide the opportunity to work with a high number of parameters form the solution space through binary coding the variables’ values, they do not require theoretical information regarding the problem. gas work on a population composed of different chromosomes corresponding to different eventual solutions to a given problem (mohanta, parhi & patel, 2011). the costs of gas associated with problem solving are lower than that of other heuristic methods, and their flowcharts are simpler. they do not scan the whole solution space, but only a specific part of it. through this more effective way of searching, they reach a solution more rapidly. another advantage of this method is that they can simultaneously examine the population composed of different solutions, and therefore they can skip local best solutions (goldberg, 1989). ga characteristics:  they aim to access better points through the random points selected from the solution space by means of operators;  they use only function values instead of derivative information;  they use the codes of the variables in the binary system, instead of the variables themselves;  they use probabilistic rules instead of deterministic ones while producing new solutions (goldberg, 1989). a simple ga follows the solution steps given below: determine iteration number and population size start with a random initial population for each iteration calculate the conformity value for each individual in the population apply selection, crossover and mutation operators update population show best solution due to intrinsic features, ga eliminates the bad individuals, i.e. unsuitable solutions, thanks to the operators. ga stops searching for a solution either when the selected conformity value is obtained, or a better solution cannot be produced or the selected number of iterations is performed. 3.2. implementation of ga to dsbrp in the previous section, the steps required for dsbrp were listed as data preparation, selection of stops and route planning. in this section, these steps will be enlightened with more details and the manner in which school bus routes are formed using ga will be explained. for the route that is aimed to be planned, n number of bus stops was selected. therefore, v= {0,1,…..,n}. the school is denominated as v0 and vn during the evening and morning hours, respectively. the roads connecting the school and bus stops are shown as set a, and the problem was defined so that g=(v,a). distances between the school and bus stops were calculated and cij matrix was formed. in this study, the actual distances between different points were calculated using the gps (lat, lng) locations of bus stops. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 12 the distance optimization needed for the formation of the objective function that can be seen in equation number 1 was done using ga operators and parameters. the flowchart that can be seen in figure 3 shows how the school bus routes are formed using ga. figure 3. the flow diagram of the sbrp solution by using ga 3.2.1 data preparation in this study, the existing school bus routes and the gps locations (lat, lng) of the related bus stops and the school were collected using mobile software and recorded in a database. ö. ünsal, t. yiğit using the genetic algorithm for the optimization of dynamic school bus routing problem 13 3.2.2 bus stop selection in order to ensure a dynamic assessment of the problem, route planning was performed not for all the students using the school bus, but only for selected bus stops. moreover, the change of the initial and final stops in the morning and in the evening was also taken into consideration. 3.2.3 forming the route with ga parameters the following parameters were used for the solution of the problem: number of iterations, population size, crossover size, cross-breeding and mutation possibility and whether the school is the initial or final stop of the route. coding each chromosome found in the population formed in the ga is structurally an equal-length coded series. the chromosomes are made of genes. for coding purposes, binary, permutation, and value coding methods are widely used. in the travelling salesman or other similar vrps, permutation coding technique is preferred over the other techniques. using the permutation coding technique, each chromosome found in the population is expressed in terms of the numbers of each stop to be followed in the route, as shown in figure 4. figure 4. example of a chromosome structure with permutation coding creating initial population a solution space compatible with a given population size is formed at the beginning of a ga procedure. each chromosome found in the solution space represents a potential solution. the initial population can be randomly formed, without depending on any rules; however, it can also be formed applying certain rules established based on the nature of the problem. for sbrp, the initial population is formed in a random fashion, paying extra attention to the following two limitations:  the genes (bus stops) in the chromosomes (route) should not repeat themselves; and  the initial and final stops of the obtained solution should be constant. in the randomly produced solutions, it is possible that the genes in the chromosomes are repetitive. however, since in sbrp the school service should call at each bus stop once, the chromosomes were formed accordingly. in the sbrp, the school is the initial point in the mornings, while it is the final point in the evenings. this principle was used to fix the initial and final stops depending on the time of the solution. in the exemplary chromosome given in figure 4 (route), the stop represented by a 0 is the school and since this route was formed for the morning hours, 0 is the last gene. fitness function for each chromosome in the population, a compatibility function depending on the structure of the problem is calculated. in the solution space, the chromosomes with higher compatibility functions are more likely to be selected and passed down to the next generation. for this problem, the compatibility function for each chromosome found in the population was calculated as the total length of the established route (l), as shown in equation number 4. while calculating this distance, the cij matrix was used. selection and crossover after calculating the compatibility functions of the chromosomes in the population, the crossing over is conducted to produce new individuals. the selection process identifies the families that should participate in the production of new individuals for the following generation (goldberg, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 14 1989). in the ga, roulette wheel, elitism, tournament, and consecutive selection methods can be used. in the selection mechanism, the individuals passed down from the previous generation occasionally cannot produce a better individual. in that case, the compatibility of the individuals might worsen, while producing the exact opposite is what is expected. to avoid this, the elitism operator is used and it is ensured that the best individual of the previous generation is passed down to the next generation, even though the current population is diminishing on an overall basis as a result of the production operators (goldberg, 1989). in the current study, the consecutive selection method and elitism selection were preferred. for this aim, after calculating the compatibility function, the population was ranked according to the population function values (total route length). in case the crossover possibility is realized, the number of individuals to select will be determined according to the parameter related to the crossover size. to ensure a high level of variability in the generation, it is suggested that this possibility is taken as 50% and 95% (goldberg, 1989). the crossover process allows the production of a new individual using the genes taken from two individuals, based on the selected crossover method. in this study, a single point crossover method was selected. during the crossing over, limitations that were previously mentioned regarding the formation of a new initial population were taken into consideration. the identified initial or final point was fixed and kept out of the context of crossing over. an example of crossover can be seen in figure 5. figure 5. crossover process mutation the individuals obtained at the end of crossing over might not provide the desired level of variability. in that case, the produced individuals are mutated independently from another individual in such a way that their own gene sequence will change. the mutation process is performed in the event that the mutation possibility that is specified in the beginning comes true. the results obtained from mutation can enhance the outcome or make it worse. it is of utmost importance to specify the most suitable mutation possibility. this possibility should be high enough to prevent the method from becoming stuck at a local point, but at the same time, low enough to allow the best results produced by crossing over and multiplexing. in this study, the mutation possibility was selected as 10%, and the locations of two randomly selected bus stops were changed during the mutation process. as in the crossing over, also during this process, the limitations regarding producing a new individual (route) were adapted. figure 6 shows an example to mutation process. ö. ünsal, t. yiğit using the genetic algorithm for the optimization of dynamic school bus routing problem 15 figure 6. mutation process 4. developed software and experimental results for this study, the school bus routes within the ankara province were used as case studies. the school bus routes were recorded by using the android application and instantaneous gps monitoring method. the home address of each student was taken as a stopping point. at the end of each route, the distances between the beginning and end points were recorded. after transferring the obtained route data into the database, the ill-adapted points were eliminated. by means of the developed application, the existing school bus routes are dynamically optimized using ga. it was developed both as a mobile and desktop application. using androidbased mobile software, the information regarding gps locations of bus stops and school buses is transferred to the server on a real-time basis. using the desktop software, where gas are run, these coordinates are shown on a google map, and the most suitable route is produced and sent to the school bus via server. this method provides the opportunity to dynamically reflect certain factors such as a different initial point for the school bus, some students being absent from the school on a particular day, and eventual changes on the existing roads on the route production process. figure 7. application main form which includes route, bus stops and ga parameters the application was developed using c#.net programming language. in order to store the planned route and points at the route, on the other hand, a sqlite database was used. in this application, gmap.net was added to locate the routes on google maps. the coordinates, as well as latitude and longitude values of each point on the route, were recorded in the database. figure 7 shows the main form, where the routes are produced; bus stops are added to/deleted from the routes, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 16 the locations of the bus stops belonging to a given route are loaded in the bus stops’ list and on a map, and the bus stops for which one desires to produce a solution are selected and ga parameters are defined. when the main form is loaded for the first time, the route records in the database are uploaded in the routes list, while the locations of the bus stops found in the active route are uploaded in the bus stops’ list and on the map together with their names, numbers, and gps locations. the area that can be seen on the map is adjusted in such a way that the uploaded stops are located in the center. in order to add a bus stop to the selected route, the add bus stop option is clicked, and after the name of the bus stop is typed, the location of the bus stop is clicked twice. when a bus stop existing in the database is desired to be deleted, on the other hand, the location of that particular bus stop is clicked on the map, while the delete bus stop option is on. the bus stops that are desired to be included in the solution should be signed. after making the bus stop selection, number of iterations, population size, crossover size, and crossover and mutation rates are entered using the section where the ga parameters are defined. the parameter values for the developed application are given in table 1. table 1. application default ga parameters during the route planning, school is the initial point if the students are going home from school, whereas it is the final point if they are going to the school from their homes. the application provides the opportunity to fix not only the school, but also the bus stops as initial or final points. since the authors hope to develop a routing solution for more than one school in a future study, both the initial and final bus stops were given the opportunity to be selected so that the school bus can complete distribution/collection duties for one school and can go to another school for routing. when these selections are made, the initial and final genes of the chromosomes produced in the population were fixed through these selections. when the tsp option is on, on the other hand, the school bus returning to the initial point after completing the distribution/collection duties is included in the routing process. the information regarding solutions, route distances and the number of iterations produced after all the parameters are defined and the relevant selections are made are listed as shown in figure 8. under the solutions list, total crossover, total number of mutations, and algorithm working times are shown. parameter default value iteration number 1000 population size 1000 crossover size 200 crossover probability 90% mutation probability 10% ö. ünsal, t. yiğit using the genetic algorithm for the optimization of dynamic school bus routing problem 17 figure 8. listing of obtained solutions after running ga on the route when the solution that is desired to be viewed is double clicked, the connections between bus stops are drawn in turn, and the route is shown as can be seen in figure 9. figure 9. step by step drawing of the selected route solution the ga procedure was carried out using the parameter values that can be seen in table 1, for a total of 10 school bus services’ routes identified by means of mobile-based software for a school located in the ankara province. the obtained experimental results are shown in table 2 and figure 10. the algorithm working duration also includes the formation of a distances’ matrix. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 18 table 2. obtained experimental results information of the collected routes results of ga no number of bus stop distance (km) best distance obtained (km) iteration number running time (sec) optimization rate (%) 1 16 17.85 15.64 321 0.468 12.38 2 17 18.45 15.90 231 0.496 13.82 3 16 17.11 14.45 701 0.424 15.55 4 12 11.16 10.84 26 0.376 2.87 5 7 7.01 6.98 8 0.294 0.42 6 11 14.47 10.43 248 0.370 27.92 7 10 6.73 4.21 18 0.328 37.44 8 12 16.84 11.79 23 1.227 29.98 9 17 17 14.72 606 7.46 13.41 10 13 15 11.69 167 7.35 22.07 the obtained experimental results showed that the distances can be better optimized with an increasing number of bus stops, and a better solution was obtained for those routes, where the school was fixed as either an initial or a final point. at the end of the optimization studies carried out using ga on the routes of a school bus fleet composed of 10 vehicles, whose total daily route distance is 141.62 km, the total distance to cover was reduced up to 116.65 km, which corresponds to an improvement of approximately 17.63%. according to these results, the 25491.6 km-distance, which is normally covered in one school year (180 day) using the existing routes, can be reduced to 20997 km. therefore, it is estimated that a cost saving of 4494.6 km can be achieved. figure 10. obtained experimental results based on the results obtained from the application, it can be concluded that existing route distances can be successfully optimized using ga. as mentioned also in the previous sections, the traffic density can be reduced by means of shorter route distances. it will, therefore, be possible also to reduce the time spent in traffic, as well as the adverse effects of air pollution due to traffic. in addition to these, the fuel costs can be considerably reduced by means of route optimization studies. ö. ünsal, t. yiğit using the genetic algorithm for the optimization of dynamic school bus routing problem 19 5. conclusions transport and distribution systems are needed in every field of the daily life. when these systems are not managed properly, they can start causing additional costs, environmental pollutions, and time loss. vrps are complicated problems with a considerable number of sub-branches that become increasingly more important, parallel to the technological advancements. with suitable routing, costs, time, and workload losses and environmental pollution can be significantly reduced. thanks to today’s technological means, the routing studies can be carried out dynamically and more effective solutions can be developed. in the present study, ga was used for the optimization of dsbrp, which is a sub-branch of vrp. the developed application was tested on existing school bus routes in the ankara province. it was clearly seen that the application helped achieve successful results in the optimization of school bus routes. based on the results obtained for the sample routes, it was concluded that the total distance to cover can be improved by 17.63%. thanks to the mobile-support feature of the application, real-time solutions can be obtained. a future study is planned to initially distribute the students according to the capacities of school busses, and to carry out the routing process for a school bus network serving more than one school. in addition, to solve the problem, applying different artificial intelligence techniques such as particle swarm optimization are considered. references arias-rojas, j.s., jiménez, j.f. & montoya-torres, j.r. (2012). solving of school bus routing problem by ant colony optimization, revista eia, 17, 193-208. bräysy, o. (2003). a reactive variable neighborhood search for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, informs journal on computing, 15(4), 347–368. corberán, a., fernández, e., laguna, m. & martí, r. (2002). heuristic solutions to the problem of routing school buses with multiple objectives, journal of the operational research society, 53(4), 427-435. çatay, b. (2010). a new saving-based ant algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery, expert systems with applications, 37, 6809–6817. dantzig, g. b. & ramser, j.h. (1959). the truck dispatching problem, management science, 6(1), 80-91. foster, b.a. & ryan, d.m. (1976). an integer programming approach to the vehicle scheduling problem, operational research quarterly, 27(2), 367-384. fügenschuh, a. (2009). solving a school bus scheduling problem with integer programming, european journal of operational research, 193(3), 867-884. gendreau, m., hertz, a. & laporte, g. (1994). a tabu search heuristic for the vehicle routing problem, management science, 40(10), 1276–1290. gillet, b. & miller, l. (1974). a heuristic algorithm for the vehicle dispatch problem, operations research, 22(2), 340-349. goldberg, d.e. (1989). genetic algorithms in search, optimization, and machine learning, addisson-wesley, reading, ma. hsu, l., hsu, c. & lin, t. (2014). an intelligent artificial system: artificial immune based hybrid genetic algorithm for the vehicle routing problem, applied mathematics & information sciences, 8(3), 1191-1200. khouadjiaa, m.r., sarasolab, b., albab, e., jourdana, l. & talbia, e.g. (2012). a comparative study between dynamic adapted pso and vns for the vehicle routing problem with dynamic requests, applied soft computing, 12, 1426–1439. kilby, p., prosser, p. & shaw, p. (1999). guided local search for the vehicle routing problem, metaheuristics: advances and trends in local search paradigms for optimization, 473–486, kluwer academic, boston. laporte, g. (1992). the vehicle routing problem: an overview of exact and approximate algorithms, european journal of operational research, 59, 345-358. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 20 martínez, l.m. & viegas, j.m. (2011). design and deployment of an innovative school bus service in lisbon, procedia social and behavioral sciences, 20, 120-130. mohanta, j.c., parhi, d.r. & patel, s.k. (2011). path planning strategy for autonomous mobile robot navigation using petri-ga optimisation, computers and electrical engineering, 37, 1058–1070. oanh, n.t.k., kongpran, j., hang, n.t., parkpian, p., hung, n.t.q., lee, s.b. & bae, g.n. (2013). characterization of gaseous pollutants and pm2.5 at fixed roadsides and along vehicle travelling routes in bangkok metropolitan region, atmospheric environment, 77, 674-685. osman, i.h. (1993). metastrategy simulated annealing and tabu search algorithms for the vehicle routing problem, annals of operations research, 41, 421–451. park, j. & kim, b. (2010). the school bus routing problem: a review, european journal of operational research, 202, 311–319. pillac, v., gendreau, m., guéret, c. & medaglia, a.l. (2013). a review of dynamic vehicle routing problems, european journal of operational research, 225, 1–11. reimann, m., doerner, k. & hartl, r.f. (2004). d-ants: savings based ants divide and conquer the vehicle routing problem, computers and operations research, 31(4), 563-591. resende, m.g.c. & ribeiro, c.c. (2003). greedy randomized adaptive search procedures, handbook of metaheuristics, 219-249, kluwer academic, boston. rushton, a., croucher, p. & baker p. (2006). handbook of logistics and distribution management, 3rd edition, kogan page, london. samadi-dana, s., paydar, m.m. & jouzdani, j. (2017). a simulated annealing solution method for robust school bus routing, international journal of operational research, 28(3), 307–326. sghaier, b.s., guedria, b.n. & mraihi, r. (2013). solving school bus routing problem with genetic algorithm, in advanced logistics and transport (icalt), 2013 international conference on ieee, pp 7-12. spada, m., bierlaire, m. & liebling, t.m. (2005). decision-aiding methodology for the school bus routing and scheduling problem, transportation science, 39(4), 477-490. taillard, è.d., badeau, p., gendreau, m., gendreau, f. & potvin, j.y (1997). a tabu search heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with soft time windows, transportation science, 3(2), 170-186. teoh, b.e., ponnambalam, s.g. & kanagaraj, g. (2015). differential evolution algorithm with local search for capacitated vehicle routing problem, international journal of bio-inspired computation, 7(5), 321-342. thangiah, s.r., bryan, w., anthony, p. & william, m. (2008). school bus routing in rural school districts, computer-aided systems in public transport, 600, 209-232. toth, p. & vigo, d. (2003). the granular tabu search and its application to the vehicle routing problem, informs journal on computing, 15(4), 333–346. van breedam, a. (1996). an analysis of the effect of local improvement operators in genetic algorithms and simulated annealing for the vehicle routing problem, ruca working paper, 96/14, university of antwerp, belgium. yigit, t. & unsal, o. (2016). using the ant colony algorithm for real-time automatic route of school buses, international arab journal of information technology, 13(5), 559-565. dr. özkan ünsal received his bs degree in 2008 and ms degree in 2011 from gazi university, turkey in the field of computer education. he received phd degree in 2017 from süleyman demirel university, turkey in the field of computer engineering. his current research interests include machine learning, artificial intelligence, optimization, vehicle routing and software technologies. ö. ünsal, t. yiğit using the genetic algorithm for the optimization of dynamic school bus routing problem 21 dr. tuncay yiğit received his bs degree in 1997, ms degree in 2000 and phd degree in 2005 from gazi university in turkey in the field of electric education. between 1998 and 2006, he worked as a lecturer in the department of computer education, gazi university, turkey. since 2007, he is working as a professor in the department of computer engineering, süleyman demirel university, turkey. his current research interests include artificial intelligence, optimization, distance education, software technologies and computer systems. microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 april 2019 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 2 about the journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next issue of the brain in august/september, 2019. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 15th of may, 2019. papers sent after this deadline will be considered for future issues. send your articles to agata@edusoft.ro. editorial team editor in chief:  bogdan pătruţ, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania managing editor:  agata asofroniei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania editors:  frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland  angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain  barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania  carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania  monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 – 0473 e-issn 2067 – 3957 (c) 2019 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro official e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro managing editor e-mail: agata@edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. dorin bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 5. răzvan bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 6. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 7. cătălin buiu, politehnica university of bucharest, bucharest, romania (robotics) 8. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl milan, italy (computer science) 9. piotr p chruszczewski, polish academy of sciences, university of wroclaw, poland (social sciences) 10. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 11. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 12. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 13. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 14. ana-maria ciubara (burlea), dunărea de jos university of galați, romania (psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience) 15. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 16. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 17. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 18. omer deperlioglu, afyon kocatepe university, afyonkarahisar, turkey (computer programing, m-learning, fuzzy control, self-directed learning, fuzzy logic control, artificial intelligence) 19. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 20. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 21. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 22. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 23. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 24. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 4 25. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 26. utku köse, uşak university, uşak, turkey (artificial intelligence) 27. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) 28. ilya levin, tel aviv university, tel aviv, israel (computer design, cultural studies of information society, science and technology education) 29. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 30. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 31. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 32. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 33. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 34. aslanbek naziev, ryazan state university, ryazan, ryazan oblast, russia (mathematics) 35. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence) 36. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 37. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 38. valeriy perminov, tomsk polytechnic university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 39. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bio-inspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 40. ioan lucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (linguistics) 41. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 42. saim rasheed, king abdulaziz university, jeddah, saudi arabia (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 43. kamil roman, maria curie-sklodowska university in lublin, poland (smart city concept, intelligent transport systems, sustainable urban development) 44. tiberiu socaciu, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 45. hassan soleimani, payame noor university, tehran, iran (applied linguistics) 46. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 47. elena-mădălina vătămănescu, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest (social sciences), romania 48. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 49. dmytro zubov, soochow university, suzhou, jiangsu, china (computer science) microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 45 intention reconsideration in wumpus world and intentional inference in adolescents carlos pelta complutense university of madrid, madrid, spain campus de somosaguas, ctra. de húmera, s/n, 28223, pozuelo de alarcón cpelta@psi-ucm.es abstract adolescence is usually described as a period of search for sensations, great impulsivity, and risky behavior. how can this circumstance affect the intentional inference of adolescents who have to reconsider their intentions after performing a task? in this article we show that adolescents who had seen a very cautious agent acting in a classic wumpus world (cww) environment and who had quite reliably predicted their movements in a later round, adopted a much more risky prediction of the agent's movements when they had to reconsider some of their original intentions in a slightly modified wumpus world environment (or mcww-modified classic wumpus world-version). this result could support the vision of adolescents as optimistic improvisers in their decisionmaking processes. keywords: adolescence, wumpus world, intention reconsideration, intentional inference, 1. introduction adolescence is a period of great impulsiveness and risk-taking (for a general cognitive perspective and not only circumscribed to the period of adolescence, see kahneman & lovallo, 1993). this behavior can be adaptive insofar as it encourages them to explore new situations and to acquire key skills for adulthood. but it can also have serious consequences such as accidents, suicidal behavior or unwanted relationships. among other pieces of neurological evidence (wadman, 2018), it seems that adolescence is a period of increased sensitivity to rewards (romer et al. 2016). several studies have shown an increased activation of the ventral striatum in adolescence compared to adulthood (see galván, 2010; galván, 2016). in geier et al. (2010); adolescents between 13 and 17 years old with adults aged 18 to 30 years were compared in a series of trials with a reward against neutral trials. the adolescents showed a percentage of correct answers comparable to that of the adults, the imaging tests indicating an increased activation in the ventral striatal zone during the period of preparation of the responses and anticipation of the rewards. the participation of the ventral striatum in adolescents immediately preceding the response and with access to processing the reward signal a little faster than adults, could explain their vulnerability to impulsivity in decision-making, in the sense that they can devote less time than adults to evaluate and appropriately interpret rewards with goal-oriented behavior (see luna et al., 2013). in the same direction, galván et al. (2007) emphasize that adolescents show an exaggerated activity of the nucleus accumbens for the rewards in comparison with children and adults. specifically, for adolescents a less risky behavior was associated with the anticipation of negative consequences, also giving the inverse correlation (galván, 2017). in turn, small et al. (1993) already showed that adolescents who do not engage in risky behavior anticipate significantly more costs for behaviors than their more risky peers (see chick and reyna, 2012 and wilhelms et al., 2015, in the context of the fuzzy-trace theory). the authors show that when the magnitude of the reward is high, adolescents who rest on verbatim thinking (a mental representation of the literal stimulus) and who, therefore, literally analyze the expected value of a reward, are more likely to take health risks. the dual systems model (see shulman et al., 2015) characterizes adolescence as a time of high socio-emotional reactivity (relative to previous and subsequent periods) and a cognitive control that is still maturing. the model posits that is the confluence of the developmental patterns of the socioemotional and cognitive control systems-relatively high responsiveness to reward combined brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 46 with relatively weak self-regulation that renders adolescents particularly vulnerable to risk-taking. shulman & cauffman (2014), using a scale that surveyed involvement in a wide range of risktaking behaviors, found that weak impulse control and sensation-seeking involved self-reported engagement in risky behaviors. in recent decades, there has been a rich synergy between psychology and artificial intelligence that has led to the proliferation of artificial simulation environments that have tried to validate some interesting hypotheses of cognitive psychology. kinny & georgeff (1991) conducted a comparative experimental study of two behavioral strategies of artificial agents in their interaction with their environment. these two authors used a simulation environment called tileworld. it is a two-dimensional environment in which there are agents, tiles, obstacles, and holes. an obstacle is an immovable object. the holes have to be covered with tiles by the agent. an agent gets points by covering holes with tiles, in order to reach as many points as possible. it is an inherently dynamic domain. beginning with a state of the environment generated at random, the environment changes in time in discrete steps holes appearing and disappearing. the holes appear randomly and have a certain life expectancy, unless they disappear due to actions of the agent. the interval between the appearance of successive holes is called hole gestation time. in the experiment of kinny and georgeff, the tiles were omitted. an agent reached points simply by occupying the holes. the agent had perfect knowledge of the state of the world and only generated plans to visit a single hole at a time. the dynamism in the domain was represented by the rapidity of change in the environment and was manipulated by adjusting the clock speeds of the environment and the agent. the effectiveness of the agent was represented by the sum of the values of the holes occupied, divided by the sum of the scores of all the holes that appear in the environment during a trial. the results of the simulations showed that a cautious agent surpassed an agent of bold behavior in highly dynamic environments. castelfranchi et al. (2006) have designed three types of agents that interact in different types of worlds. first of all, cautious agents avoid accidents in an unsafe environment unlike the rash agents that get the worst results in damage avoidance. the third type of agents or adaptive agents obtain results comparatively similar to those of the cautious agents. the cautious agents are agents that anticipate risks and choose, among the actions, the safest. they choose those actions and plans with the lowest expected risk value, while the rash agents prefer to choose between the quickest actions or plans and try to reach their objectives sooner. to find out the human psychological ability to infer the intentions of a programmed artificial system, we have chosen the environment wumpus world (see russell & norvig, 1994) and we have modified it slightly in such a way that, in a first round, a group of adolescent students observed the behavior of a very cautious agent, that is, an agent who is continually checking if there is any danger signal to be avoided. the agent prefers a safer mode of action although this may be slower. it is a classic wumpus world environment with an agent programmed in a very cautious way. subjects observed step by step the behavior of the cautious agent during a round of the game. next, the subjects had to predict in the most reliable way possible what movements the agent would make by moving it along the board. later, a version of wumpus world introduced slight modifications and forced the subjects to reconsider the initial intentions and the actions of the artificial agent programmed with a very cautious behavior. after witnessing a round made by the agent itself, the human agents had to move the artificial agent on the board step by step using the cursor, appearing on the game screen its position and trying to predict what the movements of the artificial agent would be, taking into account they had seen it before. the participants always tried to infer the intentions, predicting how the artificial agent would behave as seen in the first round of the game or exhibition round. as the artificial agent moved around the board, the subjects pressed the step button and both the position of the agent inferred by the subjects themselves and the real position it occupied according to their very cautious programming appeared on the screen. thus it was possible to compare the programmed movements of the artificial agent with the movements inferred by the human agents, in this case, a group of adolescents, and it was verified if the adolescents had c. pelta intention reconsideration in wumpus world and intentional inference in adolescents 47 been more or less cautious than the programmed artificial agent, drawing the appropriate conclusions about its process of inference of the agent's intentions in the wumpus world environment. 2. classic wumpus world and our modified version we now go on to describe the environment of the classic wumpus world or cww version and the modification (mcww) that we have proposed for the experiment carried out and that implies a reconsideration of intentions. reconsidering intentions is a case of metacognition, understood as metareasoning (see russell & wefald, 1991). the reconsideration of intentions assumes that "(...) an agent has devised a (partial) plan of action for a particular environment, as it appeared to the agent at some time t. but then, at some later time t´> t-, perhaps in the course of executing the plan, the agent's view on the world changes"(see van zee & icard, 2015), perhaps also because the context of the environment varies. the classic wumpus world environment is deterministic, non-accessible (the agent only has a partial perception of its environment), static (except the agent, other objects do not move) and discrete. the classic wumpus world environment (from here, cww) consists of a grid of 64 squares, 6 pits, a bar of gold and a wumpus. the intelligent agent's goal is to traverse the grid and grab the gold. if the agent lands in a square where there is a pit or a wumpus, the agent perishes. in squares adjacent to pits the agent will perceive a "breeze", squares adjacent to the wumpus have a "stench" and the square with gold has a "glitter". if the agent runs into a wall it perceives a "bump". the agent has the following 5 percepts introduced by russell and norvig: stench implies that wumpus is nearby; breeze implies that pit is nearby; glitter implies that gold is here; bump implies running into a wall; finally, scream implies that the agent shoots wumpus with an arrow. our agent is programmed to be very cautious and to always start in the upper left corner of the grid, on the square that will be labeled (0,0). its actions will be: move north; move south; move west; move east; move back; grab; shoot and climb (assumed after the agent grabs the gold). the fundamental goal of the agent is preceded by intention 1 and consists of accessing the gold, for which it must be placed frontally in the square adjacent to it. to access the gold, the agent may first attempt to kill the wumpus (intention 2), by shooting an arrow (which is not represented in the environment). the agent can only hit the wumpus when she is in front of it (never diagonally). the agent only has an arrow and can fail but, if successful, he kills the wumpus. when dying, the wumpus screams. the agent dies if it enters the grid occupied by the wumpus or if it falls into a grid in which there is a pit. if the gold is found, the agent returns to its cave. it may happen that she returns to its cave without fulfilling any or only fulfilling one of the two intentions. in our experiment, our agent will be very cautious because it has the following beliefs (see to, 2010): (a) if it can not leave its cave, it will not even try; (b) it always avoids danger (it always moves back if it lands on a square where there is a breeze or stench); (c) it does not perish in the hands of the wumpus (if there is no path free of breeze or stench, the agent prefers to perish in a pit than face death with the wumpus, and will choose the square with a breeze); (d) sometimes, the agent will retreat without grabbing the gold and (e) sometimes it will give up a fight against wumpus without randomly shooting the arrow. in our modified version, the following different characteristics are given: 1. the five initial perceptions are simplified to only three: breeze, glitter, and scream. the agent perceives the death of the wumpus even when it does not scream for such death. 2. the wumpus does not scream because it is killed by the agent. it screams randomly because it is hungry, once it has woken up. our agent may be forced to reconsider her intention 2, showing even more cautious behavior. 3. the agent can kill the wumpus (and fulfill intention 2) only if it has counted exactly two wumpus appearances awake. in any case, the agent always avoids the presence of the wumpus. it brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 48 is a priority for the agent to save its life before trying to fulfill its intentions to get the gold (intention 1) or to kill the wumpus (intention 2). 4. the novelty of a map, that is, an 8x8 board added to the world, is introduced in the mcww design, as opposed to the cww version. this map is responsible for showing on the screen the agent's knowledge base or the inferences she makes as she moves and receives the different perceptions on the board. in this way, it is easier for the experimental subjects to predict the possible movements of the agent. as an example, observe a sequence of screens of the board of our version mcww in which it is seen that the agent kills the wumpus (the goal of intention 2). see the figures 1-3: figure 1. screen showing the agent in the cave. figure 2. screen showing the agent hunting the wumpus. c. pelta intention reconsideration in wumpus world and intentional inference in adolescents 49 figure 3. screen showing the agent finding the gold. 3. psychology of intentions the concept of intention is very difficult to define (see gonzález marqués & pelta, 2010). in any case, it is a mental state that can be associated with a series of particular mental states. according to pacherie & haggard (2010), intentions possess two distinctive characteristics: they are accessible to the conscience and maintain some connection with a subsequent action. a series of neuroscientific studies have sought to decode the brain processes that predict the specific content of a subsequent action (see haggard & eimer, 1999 and soon et al., 2008). immediately before the initiation of the action, a motor content would be generated once the specific situation and the context of action are established. we call this kind of motor execution, "immediate intention" (see pacherie & haggard, 2010). from a neural point of view, immediate intentions are conscious experiences tending to the action, generated by the motor systems of the middle frontal cortex. psychologically, immediate intentions are predictive in the sense that they precede actions. but they also have an episodic, rather than abstract and semantic quality. however, human beings also have the capacity to be guided by plans and to apply temporally very distant intentions. these intentions are called prospective intentions. bratman (1987) speaks of intentions directed towards the future and highlights the commitment to action that is characteristic of all intentions. in this commitment to action, there is a volitional dimension and a dimension centered on reasoning. in the volitional dimension, intentions are characterized by controlling behavior against ordinary desires, for being pro-attitudes. in the rational dimension, the intentions have a planning value. but between their initial formation and their eventual execution, the intentions possess a characteristic stability or inertia. in the absence of new relevant information, the intentions will resist reconsideration. but although non-reconsideration is the default option, as bratman underlines, future-oriented intentions can not be irreversible since such irreversibility would be irrational once things can change. we are epistemically limited creatures, with limited temporal and cognitive resources to handle information, to deliberate about options, to extract consequences, etc. thanks to the fact that we are capable of forming prospective intentions, we can withstand the pressure of time and the environment that forces us to a careless deliberation. and even if the intentions resist the reconsideration, they can be revoked. in this article, we propose an experiment in which a series of adolescent students have to predict the movements of an artificial agent in a classic wumpus world (cww) environment and the movements of this agent in a slightly modified classic wumpus world environment (mcww). the agent has been programmed in a very cautious way in her movements. we compare if the movements predicted by the subjects for the agent adjust to the real movements given by the agent and if the failures produced in predicting such movements are mostly cautious or bold, analyzing the consequences. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 50 4. methodology the participants were 34 healthy adolescent students (16 males, 18 females, mean age = 17.17, s.d. = 0.25) of psychology as an optional choice in the second year of a-level of one high school in madrid. previously, the students received a class of 55 minutes at the computer, explaining the classic version of wumpus world (cww) and also an instruction sheet. then they had to use a modified version of the classic version of wumpus world (mcww) with the characteristics described above. each student used a dell desktop computer with adm athlon 64 microprocessor. the experiment studied the fidelity in the inference of the intentions of the artificial agent by the subjects both in a cww environment and in a mcww environment. firstly, participants observed step by step how the cautious programmed agent was moving along the board of the cww environment until the end of the round. the positions that the agent was occupying until the final movement were displayed on the screen. next, each student started with a random board and participated in a round of the game, trying to predict the movements that the artificial agent would make. below we can see, in table 1, an abbreviated list of the movements predicted by an experimental subject in the cww condition (in bold, the movements predicted by the subject versus the real movements made by the programmed agent are marked): table 1. movements predicted by an experimental subject in the cww condition. step 1: position 1,0 position 1,0 step 2: position 2,0 position 2,0 step 3: position 3,0 position 3,0 step 4: position 4,0 position 4,0 step 5: position 5,0 position 5,0 step 6: position 6,0 position 6,0 step 7: position 6,1 position 7,0 step 8: position 7,1 position 7,1 step 9: position 7,2 position 6,1 step 10: position 6,2 position 6,2 step 11: position 5,2 position 5,2 step 12: position 4,2 position 4,2 step 13: position 3,2 position 3,2 step 14: position 2,2 position 2,2 step 15: position 1,2 position 1,2 step 16: position 1,1 position 1,1 step 17: position 1,0 position 1,0 step 18: position 0,0 cave position 0,0 afterwards, each student observed a round of the game in the mcww condition and participated in a new round trying to infer the movements that the programmed agent would make. apart from statistically comparing the correct predictions and non-correct predictions of the subjects in the inference of the intentions of the artificial agent in both versions of the environment, a distinction was made between the failures caused by cautious movements and bold movements. those movements farthest from the safe squares were considered as bold movements, that is, furthest from the agent's cave but closer to the cave of the wumpus and to the squares occupied by pits. 5. results we have used the spss 18.0 statistical program and we have obtained the percentage of correct predictions and non-correct predictions regarding the movements made by the artificial agent, as well as the percentage difference between cautious movements and bold movements predicted by the subjects. we have introduced other statistical descriptions and included the corresponding confidence intervals. to determine the significance of the differences between the cww condition and the cmww condition, we have applied various anovas to correct and non-correct predictions and, within the non-correct predictions, to the difference between cautious predictions and bold predictions. firstly, we look at the difference between correct and non-correct predictions. with respect to the correct predictions, in the cmww condition, the total sample was 34 [n = 34]. there were 186 hits (20%) on the total movements. the sample had a mean 23.40 (sd = 9.33), 95% ci [4.80, 6.14]. in the cww condition, the total sample was 34 [n = 34] and there were 517 hits (63%) on the total movements. the sample had a mean 15.50 (sd = 8.57), 95% ci [12.51, 18.49]. in the anova of the comparison in correct predictions between cmww and cww, we found a significant difference in favor of cww, as shown in the following table 1. c. pelta intention reconsideration in wumpus world and intentional inference in adolescents 51 table 2. correct predictions anova in conditions cmww and cww. ss df ms f between conditions 11.05 1 .50 3.80 within conditions 5.94 66 .13 total 17.00 67 **p <0 .05 as for the non-correct predictions and with respect to the total movements, for [n = 34], in the cmww condition there were 738 failures over a total of 924 movements (80%). in contrast, in the cww condition, 304 failures were made on the total of 821 movements made (37%). in the cmww condition, the mean was 21.71 (sd = 11.19), 95% ci [17.80, 25.61]. in the cww condition, the mean was 8.94 (sd = 4.29), 95% ci [7.44, 10.44]. in the anova of the comparison between cmww and cww with respect to the failures, we had a significant difference in favor of cmww (see table 2). table 3. non-correct predictions anova in conditions cmww and cww. ss df ms f between conditions 2769.94 1 2769.94 38.54 within conditions 4742.94 66 71.86 total 7512.88 67 **p <0 .05 in the total of failures we have distinguished between cautious and not cautious (bold) failures (the difference between the first and second types of failures was already indicated above). in the case of cautious or conservative failures, we have that for [n = 34], the mean was 7.70 (sd = .88), 95% ci [7.38, 8.01]. with regard to bold failures, the mean was 14.36 (sd = 10.01), 95% ci [10.81, 17.91]. now let us analyze what kind of failures have occurred in each of the versions of wumpus world. in the cmww condition, the cautious failures were 258 over a total of 738 wrong movements (35%) and we have that, for [n = 34], the mean was 7.59 (sd = 2.59), 95% ci [6.68, 8.49]. the bold failures were 480 out of a total of 738 wrong movements (65%) and the mean was 13.82 (sd = 9.33), 95% ci [10.57, 17.08]. see the figure 4: figure 4. failures percentage in the cmww condition. in the anova that compares the two types of failures in the cmww condition, we have found a significant difference in favor of the group of bold failures versus the group of cautious failures, as can be seen in table 4. table 4. cautious failures versus bold failures anova in the cmww condition. ss df ms f between conditions 660.94 1 660.94 14.07 within conditions 3099.17 66 46.95 total 3760.11 67 **p <0 .05 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 52 in the cww condition, the cautious failures, for [n = 34], there were 139 out of a total of 304 wrong movements (46%) and the mean was 4.09 (sd = 2.22), 95% ci [3.31, 4.86] . on the other hand, the bold failures were 165 out of a total of 304 wrong movements (54%) and the mean was 4.85 (sd = 1.48), 95% ci [4.34, 5.37]. see the figure 5: figure 5. failures percentage in the cww condition in the anova comparing the two types of failures in the cww condition, there was not a significant difference in favor of the group of bold failures versus the cautious failures group. to conclude, we give an account of the comparative results between the cmww and cmw conditions with regard to bold type failures. in the cmww, 480 failures were given bold and in the cww condition there were 165 bold failures. in the first case and for [n = 34], the mean was 14.12 (sd = 9.84), 95% ci [10.68, 17.55]. in the second case, for [n = 34], the mean was 4.91 (sd = 3.43), 95% ci [3.71, 6.11]. in the anova comparing the bold failures in both conditions, a significant difference was found in favor of the cmww condition (see table 5). table 5. cautious failures versus bold failures anova in cmww and cww conditions. ss df ms f between conditions 1440.72 1 1440.72 104.69 within conditions 908.26 66 13.76 total 2348.98 67 **p <0 .05 6. discussion it is very indicative that, in the classic version of wumpus world or condition cww, the number of total movements has always been lower than those produced in the modified condition or condition cmww. and so, for example, when we recount the movements generated by the subjects in both conditions, and always for [n = 34], the subjects executed 821 total movements in the cww condition compared to the 924 movements made in the cmww condition (something else 10%). the difference in the number of failures produced in both conditions is still more significant. and so, in the cww condition, there were only 304 failures (37% of total movements) compared to the 738 failures produced by the subjects in the cmww condition (80% of total movements). in parallel, and as regards the correct predictions in the two conditions, the number of hits by the subjects in the cww condition was very high-517 (63% of the total number of movements) compared to only 186 hits by the participants in the cmww condition (20% of the total movements). this result is very logical, given that in the classic version or cww condition the subjects did not hesitate, as they did not have to reconsider intentions and had more certainty to stick to. in short, we have verified that there was a notable statistical difference between the two conditions between the percentages of correct predictions and non-correct predictions, as well as, in failures, between those arising from bold versus cautious movements. in the cmww condition, we c. pelta intention reconsideration in wumpus world and intentional inference in adolescents 53 have found a higher percentage of non-correct predictions than correct predictions and a higher percentage of failures produced by bold movements versus cautious movements. even with the presence of a map incorporated into the agent's inference board, subjects have been much less cautious in anticipating the movements to be made by the artificial agent. in the anovas we have found that such differences have been significant. according to pacherie and haggard (2010) it seems as if our group of adolescents had behaved like optimistic improvisers reconsidering intentions. improvisers because they do not seem to think much about how the cautious artificial agent will act and optimistic because, significantly, their failures involve taking risks rather than being the product of cautious decisions. this should not surprise us based on what we discussed in the introduction about the impulsive decision-making by adolescents but, in any case, it shows how their behavior seems to move away from what pacherie and haggard called “neurotic planners”, that is, subjects who make extensive use of mental time travel to imaginatively combine and recombine possible situations and strategies for enacting their intentions. 7. conclusion in this article, we have tried to demonstrate how a sample of adolescents was unable to predict the behavior of a cautious artificial agent in the wumpus world environment of artificial intelligence when a series of initially given intentions had to be reconsidered. numerous studies have shown how adolescents usually opt for risky decisions in multiple daily tasks (duell et al. 2016; blakemore 2017; do et al. 2017) but until now this had not been verified in a task that put in contact the psychology with the artificial intelligence in the field of the inference of intentions. the conclusion is that adolescents have committed more failures, and among these failures have committed more failures of type bold than of cautious type in their predictions of the movements of the artificial agent, in the modified version or mcww version that in the classic version or cww condition. these results would support the vision of adolescents as optimistic improvisers (see pacherie & haggard, 2010) in their decision-making processes. we have analyzed the ability of adolescents to predict the behavior of an artificially programmed agent in a cautious manner by concluding their preference for bold choices when they have had to reconsider intentions. but there is a wide field in the study of adolescent behavior using ai tools. for example, it seems proven that adolescent behavior is more impulsive and emotional under "hot" or arousing conditions (figner et al., 2009; somerville et al, 2011). a next step would be the design of computer games from which the decision-making behavior of adolescents was analyzed, introducing emotions and extreme conditions in those games. references blakemore, s-j. (2017).avoiding social risk in adolescence. in press in current directions in psychological science. retrieved preprint from https://sites.google.com/site/blake morelab/recent_publications. bratman, m. (1987). intention, plans and practical reasoning. stanford: csli. castelfranchi, c., falcone, r.,& piunti, m. (2006). agents with anticipatory behaviors: to be cautious in a risky environment, proceedings ecai (frontiers in ai and applications), 693694. chick, c.f., & reyna, v.f.(2012).a fuzzy-trace theory of adolescent risk-taking: beyond selfcontrol and sensation seeking. in v.f. reyna, s.chapman, m. dougherty,&j.confrey (eds.), the adolescent brain: learning, reasoning, and decision making. washington dc: apa, 379428. do, k.t., moreira, j.f., & telzer, e.h. (2017). but is helping you worth the risk? defining prosocial risk taking in adolescence, developmental cognitive neuroscience, 25, 260-271.retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1878929 316300561. duell, n., steinberg, i., chein, j., al-hassam, s.m., bacchini, d., lei, c. et al. (2016). interaction of reward seeking and self-regulation in the prediction of risk taking: a cross-national test of the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 54 dual systems model, developmental psychology, 52(10), 1593-1605. retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev 00 00152. figner, b., mackinlay, r.j., wilkening, f., & weber, e.u. (2009). affective and deliberative processes in risky choice:age differences in risk taking in the columbia card task, journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition, 35(3), 709-730. galván, a.(2010). adolescent development of the reward system,frontiers in human science 4(6), 1-9. galván, a.(2016).insights about adolescent behavior, plasticity,and policy from neuroscience research, neuron, 83(2), 262-265. retrieved from https://www.cell.com/neuron/pdf/s 0896-6273(14)00549-2.pdf. galván, a. (2017). the neuroscience of adolescence. cambridge: c.u.p. galván, a., hare, t., voss, h., glover, g. & casey, b.j. (2007). risk-taking and the adoles cent brain: who is at risk?, developmental science, 10(2), f8-f14. geier, c.f., terwilliger, r., teslovich, t, velanova, k., & luna, b.(2010).immaturities in re ward processing and its influence on inhibitory control in adolescence,cerebral cortex, 20, 1613-1629. gonzález marqués, j., & pelta, c. (2010).implementation intentions and artificial agents, int. journal of psychology and psychological therapy, 10(1), 41-53. haggard, p., & eimer, m. (1999). on the relation between brain potentials and the awareness of voluntary movements, experimental brain research, 126(1), 128-133. kahneman, d.,& lovallo, d.(1993).timid choices and bold forecasts:a cognitive perspective on risk taking, management science, 39(1), 17-31. kinny, d., & georgeff, m. (1991). commitment and effectiveness of situated agents, proc.of the twelfth international joint conference on artificial intelligence(ijcai91),sidney australia. luna, b., paulsen, d.j, padmanabhan, a.,&geier, c.(2013).the teenage brain:cognitive control and motivation, current directions in psychological science, 22(2), 94-100. pacherie, e.,& haggard, p. (2010).what are intentions? in l.nadel, & w.sinnott-armstrong. conscious will and responsibility. a tribute to benjamin libet. oxford: oup, 70-84. romer, d., reyna, v., & satterthwaite, t.d. (2016).beyond stereotypes of adolescent risk taking: placing the adolescent brain in developmental context, developmental cogniti neuroscience, 27(2017), 19-34. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org./10.1016/j.den., 2017.07.007. russell, s., & norvig, p. (2006).artificial intelligence: a modern approach.nj:prentice-hall. russell, s., & wefald, e. (1991). principles of metareasoning, artificial intelligence,49(1-3), 361-395. small, s.a., silverberg, s.b.,& kerns, d. (1993). adolescents´perceptions of the costs and benefits of engaging in health compromising behaviors,journal of youth and adolescence, 22(1), 7387. shulman, e.p., & cauffman, e. (2014). deciding in the dark: age differences in intuitive risk judgment, developmental psychology 50(1), 167. shulman, e.p., smith, a.r., silva, k., icenogle, g., duell, n., chein, j., & steinberg,l.(2016). the dual systems model: review, reappraisal and reaffirmation, develop. cognitive neuroscience, 17, 103-117. somerville, l.h., hare, t., & casey, b. j.(2011).frontostriatal maduration predicts cognitive control failure to appetitive cues in adolescents, journal of cognitive neuroscience, 23(9), 21232134. retrieved from https://dx.doi.org./10.1162/jocn.2010.21572. soon, c.s., brass, m., heinze, h.j., & haynes, j.d. (2008). unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain, nature neuroscience, 11(5), 543-545. to, e. (2010). final project course csc457. depaul university.retrieved from http://shrike. depaul.edu/~yto/csc457/newprofinalproject_ericto.htm. van zee, m., & icard, t. (2015). intention reconsideration as metareasoning, borm nips workshop, 1-7. c. pelta intention reconsideration in wumpus world and intentional inference in adolescents 55 wadman, m. (2018).watching the teen brain grow, science, 359(6373).retrieved from https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6371/13. wilhelms, e., corbin, j.c., & reyna, v.f.(2015).gist memory in reasoning and decision making: age, experience and expertise. in a. feeney, & v.f. reyna (eds.), reasoning as memory. n. york: psychology press. carlos pelta received his phd in psychology (2015) from complutense university of madrid. his current research interests include different aspects of artificial intelligence applied in psychology like the design of a computer system for teaching psychology (psico-a). he has (co-) authored more than 30 papers and conferences presentations, being member in many international societies and participating in several research projects. see code: mcww (modified classic wumpus world) author: carlos pelta, on the website of the journal, attached to this article. microsoft word brain_6_2015__doc final.doc 70 generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions ciprian-bogdan chirilă computers and technology information department, politehnica university of timişoara, piata victoriei nr. 2,timișoara 300006, romania tel.: 0256 403 000 chirila@cs.upt.ro horia ciocârlie computers and technology information department, politehnica university of timişoara, romania horia@cs.upt.ro lăcrămioara stoicu-tivadar automation and applied informatics department, politehnica university of timişoara, vasile parvan street, no. 2, 300223 timisoara, romania lacramioara-stoicu.tivadar@aut.upt.ro abstract the development of interactive e-learning content requires special skills like programming techniques, web integration, graphic design etc. generally, online educators do not possess such skills and their e-learning products tend to be static like presentation slides and textbooks. in this paper we propose a new interactive model of generative learning objects as a compromise between static, dull materials and dynamic, complex software e-learning materials developed by specialized teams. we find that random numbers based automatic initialization learning objects increases content diversity, interactivity thus enabling learners’ engagement. the resulted learning object model is at a limited level of complexity related to special e-learning software, intuitive and capable of increasing learners’ interactivity, engagement and motivation through dynamic content. the approach was applied successfully on several computer programming disciplines. keywords: e-learning, learning objects, generative learning objects, meta-programming, compiling techniques, function composition 1. introduction e-learning is a key area of research with a great influence on the developments of several industries. for example, the nowadays itc industry is in a continuous growth because of its applications in almost all industrial domains. companies tend to lack qualified human resources and because of that they reject high economical value projects. in response to this lack of human resource problem, universities started to develop several alternative study programs, many of them are based on e-learning technology and namely on electronic learning materials. learning objects (lo) are considered to be digital resources that support learning and can be delivered across networks in large or small sizes (wiley, 2000). in order to increase the reusability and interoperability of los, standards were developed by several organizations (ieee learning technology standards committee) (e.g. lom http://ltsc.ieee.org/doc/wg12/lomv4.1.htm.) in the general family of los there is a special subset named generative learning objects (glos) based on instantiable pedagogical patterns. glos will be presented in detail in section 2. in our approach we refine the general glo concept and we enhance it with variability and interactivity features. in this article we address the problem of static content of learning materials that is exhibited to learners and are highly used in the current approaches. most of the resulted materials are presentation slides, textbook chapters and other static resources that are deployed in online learning management systems. the enumerated static resources have several disadvantages like: i) the lack of content interactivity; ii) the lack of material engagement; c.b. chirila, h. ciocârlie, l. stoicu-tivadar generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions 71 iii) the lack of answer related feedback; iv) the lack of context diversity. in order to solve these problems we used the following approach: i) we developed static content materials, specifically learning objects; ii) we analyzed their variability potential; iii) we abstracted their variability models; iv) we created parametrization models to generate different values based on random numbers according to their learning objectives. we propose a solution to these problems in the form of a new generative learning object model having the following features: i) instantiation based on random number generators the context of the instantiated learning objects is different for each learning use case; ii) automatic instantiation of the learning objects with the values of the already initialized parameters; iii) automatic answer computation enabling automatic correctness assessment; iv) automatic contextual feedback generation. on the other hand we also propose a formalism to support the creation and development of such learning objects together with the runtime environment in order to be exploited in practice. figure 1. the aglo workflow figure 1 depicts the workflow of our los. starting from left to right, on the back-end side, the educator develops the metamodel of the autogenerative learning object (aglo) in a web browser. the editing consists in either writing xml formalisms or using specialized editing tools. the completed model is saved in storage facilities like a file system or database engine. next, the meta-model file is requested by a learner in his learning process through the help of a web browser. at this point the web browser with the help of an interpreter and auxiliary libraries instantiates the aglo meta-model resulting in an html instance exposing an interactive behavior. the approach was applied successfully on several computer science disciplines. the rest of the article is structured as follows. in section 2 we present previous research in the area of generative learning objects. section 3 presents our model of the autogenerative learning objects. in section 4 we explain the competence hierarchy which stands as support for the autogenerative learning objects. section 5 describes a case study of our approach applied to computer programming disciplines. in section 6 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 72 we present implementation details of the developed prototype. section 7 presents the experimental results. section 8 concludes and sets the perspectives. 2. related works in this section we present related works on glos. the glo concept was conceived by tom boyle and is based on software engineering principles like: modularity, cohesion, decoupling and composition (boyle, 2003). a lo that is cohesive, decoupled and pedagogically rich can be repurposed for different uses. glos are considered to be the second generation learning objects embedding rich pedagogical templates and being structured for reuse (boyle, 2006). regular los can be abstracted in patterns in order to be reused and to enable new resources to inherit the effectiveness of the originals (jones & boyle, 2007). in this sense glos represent design patterns implemented as reusable templates. glos main principle is borrowed from the object-oriented programming paradigm where the object model is described at meta-level through the class concept and afterward at run-time is instantiated into a concrete object. thus, the reuse is not focused on content but on the design. the second glo approach was designed by damasevicius and stuikys. (stuikys & damasevicius, 2007) presents a knowledge based glo model composed out of knowledge-based interface, and a knowledge based body. the body contains a rich structure: declarative part, a procedural part, a contextual part and a managerial part. the content is based on commonalityvariability analysis for model creation. they present an object for the learning of homogeneous boolean functions where the parameters variability scope determines the scope of the whole lo domain. (stuikys & damasevicius, 2008) describes the glo model through the variability dimension of the lo domain. the result of the domain analysis is expressed with the help of feature diagrams (fd). the fd representation expresses the intention of a concept using mandatory, optional and alternative features. it is considered a generic high level model for the glo. some design principles are explained for the creation of glos. (stuikys & damasevicius, 2008) describes the glo development process using fds and generative techniques. fds are used to represent knowledge, commonality-variability relationships between features and are considered to be highlevel specification for generative reuse. (damasevicius & stuikys, 2008) focuses on technological aspects of glo development. the technologies involved in glo creation are multiple: i) feature diagrams in order to model variability resulting feature models; ii) multilanguage design (separation of concerns) domain languages to implement domain functionality and external languages for preprocessing, scripting to implement the model generalization; iii) metaprogramming for the manipulation of programs as data used to implement generalization in the domain; iv) generative specifications development in the form of open promol metalanguage used to describe glo metamodels. (stuikys & brauklyte, 2009) defines glos aggregation as internal sequencing of generative contents. (damasevicius & stuikys, 2009) presents how lo sequences can be generated from models expressed with feature diagrams using metaprogramming techniques. in their approach the glo model has the form of a script in open promol meta-language editable by the educator, and instantiable into html markups in order to be consumed by the learner. (stuikys, burbaite, & damasevicius, 2013) presents an application of glo models in computer science programming disciplines using lego robots. their glo model includes several modules responsible with the robot manipulation according to its learning objective. (burbaite et al., 2014) introduces contextaware glos for computer science topics where a new glo dimension is found, namely the one of teaching context which may have variants. (chirila, 2013; chirila, 2014a) present generative techniques for los based on random numbers applied to primary and middle school arithmetic discipline. (chirila, 2014c) presents noninteractive generative models implemented as c programs and used in computer science disciplines written exams like: data structures, programming language fundamental concepts, compiling techniques, operating systems. (chirila, 2014b) presents potential uses of the generative concepts in biomedical informatics, namely in the pharmacology discipline. c.b. chirila, h. ciocârlie, l. stoicu-tivadar generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions 73 in (han & kraemer, 2009) a similar learning object model is presented. their model is based on the idea of configurable samples, process called pedagogical parametrization, while our model is based on random numbers. the learning object is structured according the bloom taxonomy cognitive layers, while in our approach the actions are driven by a curricula derived competence tree. the approach is exemplified with a finite automaton study, while our approach is applied to two computer science disciplines. their implementation uses flash and flex web technologies, while ours uses javascript and several associated libraries. (oldfield, 2008) exemplifies an application of the glo concept in economical sciences, namely in a depreciation lo, based on template reuse. 3. the autogenerative learning object model 3.1 the function composition mathematical model in this section we define the mathematical model of aglos instantiated with random numbers. by jsf we denote all functions and operators from the javascript language standard: (http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/ecma-262.htm). by if we denote one function from the set of all available functions jsf : .:)( vvxf i → vector >=< nxxxx ,...,, 21 is the argument of fsi ff ∈ and n is the number of arguments for the x vector, vxi ∈ . set astdiv ∪∪∪= is the set of all possible argument values for if functions, composed out of: i) integers zlli ii ∩+−−= ],1[ , where i l is the range limit; ii) doubles (floating point values) qlld dd ∩+−−= ],1[ , where nl d ∈ is the range limit; iii) strings as vectors of character codes >=< stn sssst ,...,, 21 , where zsi ∩∈ ]255,0[ and st n is the length of the string nnst ∈ ; iv) arrays >=< arn aaaar ,...,, 21 , where sdiai ∪∪∈ and an is the length of the array nn ar ∈ . we define the expression construction function ie as: ),)(...()( 21 xfffxe ki ooo= where    ∈ ∈ = valuegenerated random as, alueconstant v as, vyy vaa x i we define aglo as a tuple: >=< faqtsag ,,,, where: s is the scenario section, t is the theoretical section, q is the question section, a is the answers section, f is the feedbacks section. we define the scenario section as: ,)(),...,(),( 21 >=< yeyeyes sn as a vector of composed functions. we define the theory section as: .]255,0[,,...,, 21 zttttt int ∩∈>=< we define the question section as: ,,...,, 21 >=< qn qqqq    ∈ ∈ = valuegenerated random as),( alueconstant v as, vyye vaa q i i we define the answers section as: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 74 ,,...,, 21 >=< an aaaa    ∈ ∈ = valuegenerated random as),( alueconstant v as, vyye vaa a i i we define the feedback section as: ,,...,, 21 >=< fn ffff    ∈ ∈ = valuegenerated random as),( alueconstant v as, vyye vaa f i i 3.2 the ebnf model the proposed model is defined using the ebnf meta-language resulting in the concise grammar from figures 2 and 3. we will not present the full xml schema because of clarity and space reasons. structurally, the aglo model has six sections: i) name; ii) scenario; iii) theory; iv) question; v) answers; vi) feedbacks. next, we will explain each section in details. 01 aglodef ::= "<action>" name scenario [theory] question answers feedbacks "</action>" 02 name ::= "<name>" (id)* "</name>" 03 scenario ::= "<scenario>" [ comment ] symbol* "</scenario>" 04 comment ::= (id|ct)* 05 symbol ::= "<symbol>" symbolname type expression "</symbol>" 06 symbolname ::= "<name>" id "</name>" 07 type ::= "<type>" ("boolean" | "int" | "float" | "double" | "string" | "array") "</type>" 08 expression ::= "<expr>" function "(" expressionlist ")" "</expr>" 09 expressionlist ::= expression (, expression)* 10 function ::= (element from functions and operators list of javascript using random numbers) figure 2. autogenerative learning object model definition (1) the scenario is the section where the educator expresses the main ideas of the learning object, informally, in natural language, just like programming language comments (see lines 03-04). by id we denote the identifier token and by ct we denote any constant or literal: integer, float, character or string. in the scenario section we define symbols that set up the details of the aglo dynamic context. these symbols act as instantiation parameters for the aglo in order to be referenced in the next sections. such a symbol has several properties like: a name, a type and an initialization expression based on random numbers (see lines 05-10). the name is a regular identifier (see line 06), the type is an identifier in a specific non-restrictive list of: boolean, integer, float, double, string and array (see line 07). this meta-information is useful in symbol values further formatting. expressions are formed out of several unary, binary operators and functions that will not be detailed in the grammar from figure 2 because of space reasons (see line 10). in order to simplify the implementation and to increase its portability we rely on the javascript [10] expressions that can be evaluated with the ”eval” javascript function. these expressions are the key to the controlled random number based object instantiation. the expressions may call native javascript functions and also user defined functions gathered in domain specific libraries. for example, in the context of data c.b. chirila, h. ciocârlie, l. stoicu-tivadar generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions 75 structures we designed a function library capable of generating random trees controlled by several parameters like: the number of nodes, the number of levels, the degree etc. in this aglo section the educator must define symbols for all the pedagogical logic of all remaining sections like: question, answers and feedbacks. 11 theory ::= "<theory>" (id)* "</theory>" 12 question ::= "<question>" (id | value)* "</question>" 13 value ::= "<value>" "<name>" id "</name>" "</value>" 14 answers ::= "<answers>" (answer)+ "</answers>" 15 answer ::= "<answer>" "<id>" integer_literal "</id>" (id | value)* correctness "</answer>" 16 index ::= integer_literal 17 correctness ::= "<correct>" ("true" | "false") "</correct>" 18 feedbacks ::= "<feedbacks>" (feedback)+ "</feedbacks>" 19 feedback ::= "<feedback>" answeridlist (id | value)* active "</feedback>" 20 answeridlist ::= "<answeridlist>" (integer_literal)+ "</answeridlist>" 21 active ::= "<active>" ("true" | "false") "</active>" figure 3. autogenerative learning object model definition (2) formally, the theory section (see line 11) contains only static data. here the educator places theoretical information about the learned concept in html format. the question, answers and feedbacks sections (see lines 12-13, 14-17, 18-21) contain a mix of static data and dynamic values referring the previously computed symbol values. the semantic of these sections is to create a dynamic content to be presented to the learner. formalisms for specific details are also present, like: i) correctness because we need to know which is the correct answer if they are multiple; ii) feedbacks answer identifier list because feedbacks may be related to certain answers and showed to the learner only in certain conditions. 4. the competence tree in this section we will present the support for our aglos. as we designed our aglos to refer micro-contexts we need an organizational structure for them. grouping aglos in a simple sequence would result in poor access for both learner and tutor. we inspired ourselves from the curricula of disciplines and from their attached competences. in order to be able to model detailed learning aspects we structured the competencies hierarchically under the form of a five level tree, namely a competence tree. 4.1. domains we consider that the top level nodes are the domain nodes denoted by dom. these nodes will correspond to full disciplines from the university curricula. in this article we validated our aglo model approach on two disciplines, namely data structures and algorithms and algorithm design and analysis from university politehnica timişoara, romania. 4.2. general competences on the second level of the competence tree we set the general competences denoted by gc. these nodes consist in main lecture topics like: array abstract data type or array linear search. in this particular case of the proposed disciplines we consider that both data structures and algorithms should be treated on the same level from the pedagogical point of view being aware of the fact that algorithms behave as operators that are applied to their corresponding data structure. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 76 4.3. specific competences on the third level of the competence tree we set the specific competences denoted by sc. these nodes refer to properties of the previous level nodes. for example, for the array abstract data type gc node we created the following scs: i) definitions informal and mathematical; ii) operators mathematical notation, semantics; iii) implementations related to primitive language concepts or composed structures. another example of scs for a searching algorithm contains the followings: i) principles main ideas of the algorithm; ii) use cases practical situations where the algorithm is used; iii) input data valid and invalid input data for the algorithm, specific properties; iv) output data valid and invalid output data, specific properties; v) recognition in practice several forms that the algorithm may have; vi) algorithm steps the general phases of the process; vii) pseudocode diagram and textual representations; viii) code and moves basic execution steps of the code lines; ix) variables the role of each variable, specific values; x) other versions improved versions, benefits, drawbacks. 4.4. variables on the fourth level of the competence tree we designed a special kind of nodes called variables denoted by var. these nodes represent another level of detail before the final nodes, namely the aglos. 4.5. actions on the fifth level of our competence tree we link the aglo instances detailed in section 3 with action nodes or act. 5. case study on computer programming disciplines in this section we will present a case study applied on computer programming disciplines, namely on data structures and algorithms with emphasis on the generalized tree data structure. 5.1 aglo model example in this subsection we describe an aglo model example. figure 4 presents in details all the xml elements containing aglo metadata. <action dom="02" gc="11" sc="04" var="01" act="03"> <name> <text> act03 knows how to fill in the parent index array </text> </name> <scenario> <text> i) to generate a random tree with 8 to 12 nodes having character keys; ii) to compute the indexes array; iii) to compute the parent indexes array; iv) to access the names of the first two keys; </text> ... </scenario> figure 4. aglo name and description the root xml element is the action element equipped with attributes reflecting its location in the competence tree. domain 02 refers to the trees and graphs disciplines, general competence 11 refers to general trees, specific competence 04 refers to trees representations, variable 01 refers to c.b. chirila, h. ciocârlie, l. stoicu-tivadar generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions 77 parent index array representation while action 03, the analyzed aglo, deals with filling in the parent index array for a randomly generated tree. the first xml element is reserved for the name of the analyzed aglo that is displayed to the learner for localization and selection purposes. the second xml element is the scenario element containing a text description of the aglo and a set of symbols. the description is expressed in natural language and we can notice that it contains four main steps: i) random tree generation; ii) index computation for presentation; iii) parent index computation for answer validation; iv) access to the first two keys for particular feedback generation. in the scenario section depicted in figure 5 several symbols are defined with the following semantics. <scenario> ... <symbol name="nnoofnodes" type="integer"> random(8,12,0); </symbol> <symbol name="tabkeys" type="array"> random_array({"nnoofelements":v("nnoofnodes"), "tabtypes":["character"]}); </symbol> <symbol name="tree" type="tree"> random_tree({"nnoofnodes":v("nnoofnodes"), "tabkeys":v("tabkeys")}); </symbol> <symbol name="treesvg" type="string"> v("tree").tosvg(); </symbol> <symbol name="tabindexes" type="array"> v("tree").indexes(); </symbol> <symbol name="tabparents" type="array"> v("tree").parents(); </symbol> <symbol name="node1" type="character"> v("tabkeys")[0]; </symbol> <symbol name="node2" type="character"> v("tabkeys")[1]; </symbol> </scenario> figure 5. aglo scenario symbols the first symbol is an integer and it is defined to store the number of nodes in the tree to be generated. the generation was done using the random () function with three parameters minimum value, maximum value and number of decimals. in this case we considered that the tree should have between 8 to 12 nodes. the second symbol is an array that was created by random generation for the tree keys. the size of the array has the same value as the number of nodes. for the generation we used the random array () function which accepts as argument a json object with several properties like the number of elements and the array of types. for the current aglo we used the previously generated value and the character type for the keys array. to access the value of a symbol we designed a value access function named v (). the third symbol is of type tree and is generated using the random tree () function accepting as arguments the number of nodes and the types array embedded into a json object. there are available also other generation parameters like degree or height for the tree. the fourth symbol, named treesvg, of type string, will store the svg (scalable vector graphic) representation of the generated tree. the svg representation is obtained by transforming the tree generated data structure into svg primitives like lines, texts, circles etc. this symbol will be used to display the graphic form of the tree in the browser for the learners’ eye. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 78 the fifth symbol named tabindexes of type array holds the array of node indexes, generally integer numbers from 0 to nnoofnodes − 1. the symbol is initialized with a dedicated function call applied on the tree in object-oriented manner tree.indexes(). the sixth symbol name tabparents of type array holds the index array of parent nodes. the symbol is initialized with the value returned by a tree method tree.parents(). the seventh and eighth symbols named node1 and node2, both of type character, are initialized with the first two values from the keys array. these symbols will be used later in the feedback section. their initialization is based on accessing the keys using the array indexing operator. next, we discuss about the presentation sections of the aglo depicted in figure 6. <question> given the following tree:<br/> <value name="treesvg"/> the key array is given below:<br/> <value name="tabindexes"/><br/><value name="tabkeys"/><br/> please, fill in the parent index array. </question> <answers> <answer id="1"> <text><value name="tabparents"/></text> <correct>true</correct> </answer> </answers> <feedbacks> <feedback> for each node we fill in the index of its parent.<br/> node <value name="node1"> has index 0 and has no parent so we will use the -1 invalid index.<br/> node <value name="node2"/> has index 1 and his parent is <value name="node1"/> which has the index 0.<br/> etc. </feedback> </feedbacks> </action> figure 6. aglo presentation sections the question section will reference the tree svg representation, the array of indexes and the array of keys. the referencing is implemented through the use of <value> xml elements qualified with name attributes. the semantic of these elements is that each element will be replaced with their corresponding value, so the e-learning content will be dynamic. each running session will have a different tree and associated index arrays. the <answers> xml element is composed out of several individual <answer> xml elements. each <answer> element will be a mix of static and dynamic values. in the current aglo example we used only one answer that is the correct one where we referred the array of parent indexes that the learner must fill in. the computed values and the filled in values are compared and a result is issued in the form of a mark to be transmitted to the learner. the feedbacks section consists in several feedback elements having dynamic content. in our aglo example we help the learner by providing the first two steps in order to show the logic of the response. in the current example we explain how to choose the parent index for the root node and how to get the parent of the next node. the rest of the exercise is left for the student. 5.2 aglo model instantiation example in this subsection we give an example of a model instantiation. we describe the instantiation process for all the symbols in the aglo model. the nnoofelements symbol was instantiated with the generated value of 10. the tabkeys symbol was instantiated with the [a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i] generated array. the tree symbol was instantiated with a ”tree” object built with arguments equal with previously instantiated symbols. class ”tree” is part of the auxiliary javascript library. the c.b. chirila, h. ciocârlie, l. stoicu-tivadar generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions 79 treesvg symbol was assigned to the tree svg string representation obtained by a method call and is depicted in figure 7. figure 7. generated tree example the tabindexes symbol was instantiated with the [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] computed array. the tabparents symbol was instantiated with the [−1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 4, 4, 6, 6, 6] computed array. so b, c, d and e will have a as parent, f, g will have e as parent, etc. the node1 and node2 symbols will get the a and b values from the tabkeys array. all presentation sections will embed and exhibit the generated and computed values to the aglo interpreter component to implement interactivity. table 1. number of actions in the competence tree dom 01 search, sort actions no dom02 tree, graph actions no gc10 linear search 19 gc11 generalized tree 70 gc11 binary search 53 gc21 binary tree 19 gc12 interp. search 11 gc22 binary ord. tree 5 gc21 insert sort 49 gc71 graph definitions 28 gc22 select sort 13 gc72 graph abs. data type 9 gc23 bubble sort 7 gc73 depth-first search 25 gc31 shell sort 6 gc74 breadth-first search 23 gc32 heap sort 11 gc81 prim algorithm 10 gc33 quick sort 11 gc83 krushkal algorithm 25 total 180 total 214 in table 1 we count the number of actions in each gc for the two implemented domains dom01 (array searching and sorting) and dom02 (tree, graph abstract data types). 6. prototype implementation in this section we will present the main aspects about our prototype implementation. the prototype is implemented in javascript using the jquery library and html markup language and following the principles of object-oriented programming technology as much as the language allows it. the prototype design consists in several classes created with the help of the “prototype” reflection facility of javascript programming language. we created several modules in order to manage the implemented functionalities. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 80 the user interface module contains the following classes: i) index.js – represents the javascript interpreter entry point, creates and launches the application object; ii) application.js – instantiates the message table object, sets up the path to the xml data files, initializes the aglo interpreter and the table of symbols, initializes the breadcrumb object for navigation; iii) menu.js – models the menus and the corresponding items ; iv) breadcrumb.js – utility class that stores the current path in the competence tree in any moment of the runtime; v) messages.js – models the internationalization feature of the prototype for romanian and english languages; the competences module contains several classes like: i) domains.js – helper class allowing to manage domains; ii) domain.js – models a domain and manages the general competences; iii) generalcompetence.js – models a general competence and manages the specific competences; iv) specificcompetence.js – models a specific competence and manages variables; v) variable.js – models a variable and manages the actions; vi) action.js – models an action and launches the aglo interpreter; the aglo interpreter module contains the following classes: i) glointerpreter.js – builds the html presentation for the considered action; ii) tableofsymbols.js – class which manages symbols based on random values; iii) symbol.js – models the symbol with name, type, initialization expression and value; iv) theory.js – models the theoretical section; v) question.js – models the question section; vi) answers.js – models the answers section; vii) feedbacks.js – models the feedback section. for the content specific functionality we designed a random module which contains functionality generating random data structures according to parameters: i) random.js – models a generator for random numbers like integers, floats, characters, strings; ii) randomarray.js – models a generator for random arrays according to several parameters; iii) randomorderedarray.js – models a generator for random ordered arrays according to several parameters; ii) tree.js – models a random tree generator according to several parameters, expressed as svg markups; iii) graph.js – models a random graph generator according to several parameters, expressed as svg markups; iv) utility classes like: node.js, circle.js, line.js used to build the tree and graph data structures and to export them as svg markups; v) linearsearch.js – models several running states of the linear search algorithm, initiated by random input. for the front-end we used the bootstrap library to implement navigation in the competence tree with the help of a breadcrumb class in order to mark the current path in the tree. for the aglo interpreter implementation we used xml-to-json library, to facilitate the access to xml elements of the aglo files. we designed a class to model a table of symbols having html dom tree c.b. chirila, h. ciocârlie, l. stoicu-tivadar generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions 81 translation facilities. we modeled classes for each aglo section: scenario, theory, questions, and feedbacks. we modeled domain specific classes for the learned concepts like trees and graphs having generative methods controllable through parameters. figure 8 depicts our prototype front-end. figure 8. prototype front-end 7. experimental results after using aglos in knowledge assessment we invited the subject students to fulfill an impression questionnaire on which we computed analytics and drew conclusions. most of the subjects work in companies 92.9%. their age is balanced between 21 and 30 at 50%, between 31 and 40 at 42.9%, while over the age of 41 there are only 7.1%. among the subjects 78.60% are male, while 21.4% are female. all subjects 100% are from timisoara. 78.60% study in a private university, while 14.3% study in a state university. the majority of 92.90% use their laptops in their study process with a maximum intensity of 5 on scale from 1 to 5, while only 7.10% use their laptops with an intensity of 4 on the same scale. the tablet use is quite low 21.40% use the tablet regularly, 7.10% on rare occasions, and 71.40% on very rare occasions. the mobile phones use statistics shows that 42% of the subjects use them very often and 28.60% use them on very rare occasions. given the results we can estimate that the mobile phone usage will increase. we have to include in the further developments a mobile phone version of the web aglo application or at least optimizations in this sense. a considerable percentage of the subjects 78.6% declared that they understood the semantics of aglos. 50% of the subjects consider the aglos as good and 21.4% as very good for their study process. 21% would like to use them in the near future. 0% considers them boring. the aglo uses are spread among lectures 42.90%, laboratory works 85.70%, and laboratory tests 42.9%. regarding the attractiveness of the aglo concept we got the following results: i) 35.70% liked it very much; ii) 50% liked it much; iii) 14.30% liked it equally. the usefulness of the aglos was measured at 78.60%. the subjects would use aglos mostly in laboratory activities: 71.40% and less in final exams: 28.60%. the importance of the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 6, issues 1-2, september 2015, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068 0473 (print) 82 restarting capability of an exercise object with different input data and new contexts was measured at 71.40%. in order to prevent exam frauds we proposed the use of generated subjects with a unique instance per student. the importance of this aspect is measured at 85.7% for the subjects. the availability for aglos modification and tuning decreases linearly from 35.70% to 21.40% in the second half of the graphic. 71.5% of the subjects would recommend aglos to acquaintances. an overwhelming 78.60% would like to use editing fields for the creation, modification and tuning of aglos in the expense of text formats xml and json. 8. conclusions and future work the current paper presents an expressive model of learning object aglo with variable content based on controlled random number parameters and automatic initialization and answer correctness assessment. we created facilities that enable the development of engaging e-learning materials using formalisms of flexible complexity through the aglo model and its interpreter. learners will benefit from the content variability feature of the aglos and from the interactivity implemented through the feedback mechanism. educators have new methods and tools for developing dynamic learning objects with different levels of complexity depending on their imaginative and modeling skills. from the implementation point of view the prototype uses modern web 2.0 technologies that enable portability on multiple platforms and mobile devices. the approach has also several drawbacks. one drawback is related to expressing new semantics. the solution adopted in the generative model relies on domain specific libraries when the learning content is complex. another drawback is related to aglos development time which is increased compared to the development time for static materials. in our experiments we learned that educator practice and experience reduce this development time and that is directly related to the complexity of the designed aglo. a different drawback is related to testing complexity of aglo which is difficult because of the random numbers based generated expressions. one solution is to use the unit testing technique and to decouple the random numbers generation with extreme condition simulation. as future work we intend to integrate the aglo concept in widespread learning management systems. another direction of research is in the area of aglo development facilities. for example, a pattern catalog would enable educators to create more easily diverse and complex aglos. 9. acknowledgement this paper is supported by the sectorial operational programme human resources development (sop hrd), financed from the european social fund and by the romanian government under the project number posdru 159/1.5/s/134378.”. references boyle, t. (2003), design principles for authoring dynamic, reusable learning objects, australian journal of education technology, volume 19(1), pp. 46-58. boyle, t. (2006), the design and development of second generation learning objects, invited talk at ed media 2006, world conference on educational multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications, orlando, florida, june 28. burbaite, r.; bespalova, k.; damasevicius, r.; stuikys, v. (2014), context aware generative learning objects for teaching computer science, international journal of engineering education, volume 30(4), pp. 929-936. chirila, c.b. (2013), a dialog based game component for a competencies based elearning framework, in proceedings of saci 2013 8-th ieee international symposium on applied computational intelligence and informatics, pp. 055-060, timisoara, romania, may. c.b. chirila, h. ciocârlie, l. stoicu-tivadar generative learning objects instantiated with random numbers based expressions 83 chirila, c.b. (2014), educational resources as web game frameworks for primary and middle school students, in proceedings of else 2014 international scientific conference elearning and software education, bucharest, romania, april. chirila, c.b. (2014), generative learning objects in biomedical informatics, 2014 romanian medical informatics conference (romedinf), bucharest, romania, june. chirila, c.b. (2014), generative learning object assessment items for a set of computer science disciplines, in proceedings of sofa 2014 6-th international workshop on soft computing applications advances in intelligent and soft computing, springer verlag, issn 1867-5662, timisoara, romania, july. damasevicius, r.; stuikys, v. (2008), on the technlogical aspects of generative learning object development, third international conference on informatics in secondary schools evolution and perspectives (issep 2008), pp. 337-348, torun, poland, july. damasevicius, r.; stuikys, v. (2009), specification and generation of learning object sequences for e-learning using sequence feature diagrams and metaprogramming techniques, in proceedings of 2009 9-th international conference on advanced learning technologies, pp. 572576, riga, latvia. ecma international: standard ecma-262 ecmascript language specification edition 5.1 (2011),http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/ecma-262.htm. han, p.; kraemer, b.j. (2009), generating interactive learning objects from configurable samples, emphin proceedings of international conference on mobile, hybrid and on-line learning, pp. 1-6, cancun, mexico, february. jones, r.; boyle, t. (2007), learning object patterns for programming, interdisciplinary journal of knowledge and learning objects, vol. 3. jung, h.; park, c. (2012), authoring adaptive hypermedia using ontologies international journal of computers communications & control, issn 1841-9836, volume 7(2), pp. 285-301, june. ieee learning technology standards commitee (2000), lom working draft v4.1, http://ltsc.ieee.org/doc/wg12/lomv4.1.htm. oldfield, j.d. (2008), an implementation of the generative learning object model in accounting, in proceedings of asciilite (australasian society for computers in learning in tertiary education), melbourne, australia. stuikys, v.; damasevicius, r. (2007), towards knowledge-based generative learning objects, information technology and control, 36(2), issn 1392-124x. stuikys v.; damasevicius r. (2008), development of generative learning objects using feature diagrams and generative techniques, journal of informatics in education, volume 7(2), pp. 277-288, institute of mathematics and informatics, vilnius, lithuania. stuikys, v.; brauklyte, i. (2009), aggregating of learning object units derived from a generative learning object, journal of informatics in education, volume 8(2), pp. 295-314, institute of mathematics and informatics, vilnius, lithuania. stuikys, v.; burbaite, r.; damasevicius, r. (2013), teaching of computer science topics using meta-programming-based glos and lego robots, journal of informatics in education, volume 12(1), pp. 125-142, institute of mathematics and informatics, vilnius, lithuania. wiley d. (2000) connecting learning objects to instructional design theory: a definition, a metaphor, and a taxonomy. d. wiley (ed.), the instructional use of learning objects: online version. retrieved january 05, 2015 from http://reusability.org/read/chapters/wiley.doc microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final2.docx 56 pros and cons gamification and gaming in classroom iulian furdu “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău, bacău, romania ifurdu@ub.ro cosmin tomozei “vasile alecsandri” university of bacău, bacău, romania cosmin.tomozei@ub.ro utku köse uşak university, uşak, turkey utku.kose@usak.edu.tr abstract the aim of the current work is to assess the challenges that gamification in education are facing nowadays. benefits and disadvantages of using gamification in classroom are both discussed to offer a clearer view on the impact of using gamification within learning process. exploratory study –cases are provided to investigate the relation between motivation and engagement of the students and gamification in training. following this idea, a survey was conducted to assess how students’ behavior and motivation is affected by introducing a single, specific gamification element during a semester learning process. to stimulate competition among students, a ranking type plugin was introduced within the university learning management system used for extramural education. the results prove that motivation decreases by comparison to the previous semester. keywords: learning environment, game-based learning, learning approaches, gamification 1. introduction teachers have to use different teaching methods and approaches that allow students to be active participants with strong motivation and engagement to their own learning, and new approaches and techniques in order to implement active learning. gamification in training is one of these trends. introduced in 2002 by nick pelling (pelling, 2011), the gamification did not gain popularity until 2010 when a wide process to incorporate game elements in software was started, marking the point from which big companies like microsoft, sap, deloitte will start using gamification techniques in various applications (silverman, 2011). even if the term gamification suffers various overlaps, it is widely accepted that gamification represents the integration of “game-based mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking to engage people, motivate action, promote learning, and solve problems” (kapp, 2012), in non-game contexts. we are living in an era in which learners grew up as digital natives and have different learning styles, and new attitude to the learning process. these realities require modern pedagogical paradigms and trends in education (kiryakova, 2014), in order to fulfill students’ requirements, needs, and preferences, to keep them engaged and motivated during their learning process, and gamification is a trend aiming to maintain an active learning. apart from education (menezes, c. c. n., & de bortolli, r., 2016), gamification has found its way into domains like marketing, (van grove, j., 2011), knowledge management (shpakova, a, dörfler, v. & macbryde, l., 2016), politics (rethinking elections with gamification, 2015), health (menezes j.jr., gusmão, c., &machiavelli, j., 2013), road safety (blohm, i. & leimeister, j. m., 2013), etc., and analysts predict it will become a 11.10 billion dollar industry by 2020, (gamification market, 2016). this paper is organized as follows: section 2 provides an overview on gamification basic concepts and trends by means of different study cases and examples, section 3 describes some pros and cons of using gamification, next section describes a survey taken to assess how students’ behavior and motivation is affected by introducing a new element of gamification (among others i. furdu, c. tomozei, u. köse pros and cons gamification and gaming in classroom 57 already introduced) within the learning management system platform used in the teaching process for bachelor students in computer science. the last section concludes and summarizes the work. 2. gaming and gamification: an overview and basic concepts both, games and gamification are rewarding for the educational system and for the learning experience in general. the main differences between game-based learning and gamification imply, firstly, that using gamification does not involve adapting the content to fit the game story and rules as in game-based learning. on the other hand, gamification is used to transform the learning experience into an educational game by using game elements to motivate and keep the students active (usually by a system of rewards or by indicating their level of performance), while in gamebased learning activities, games are used to achieve skills or knowledge. according to (lee, j. j. & hammer, j., 2011) “understanding the role of gamification in education, means understanding under what circumstances game elements can drive learning behavior”. this understanding can be derived from various gamification projects. instead of receiving traditional grades, students earn “experience points” for completing assignments (laster, j, 2010). during a semester, this lead to a class average of b instead of a previous c. in new york, in a charter school, game designers have participated together with teachers to provide a new curriculum, for providing students with playful activities during the whole day (corbett, 2010). improving students` activity during lectures can be obtain by gamification techniques, but further research needs to be done to more accurately match gamification types to learning styles (rapeepisarn et al. 2008). presenting gamification mechanics during classes by implementing them into grade system can be easily obtained by using elearning environments hybridized with immersive interactive scenarios, like in lifesavera learn by doing model to teach the basic steps in responding to a situation where a person suffers a heart attack or choking (gamification in elearning, 2017). the proper use of narrative layers can improve engagement of user and points can be gained using short assignments (missions). the students can choose the assignments as they like to obtain enough points to pass the classes. obviously, for harder tasks they will get more points, but none of the tasks are obligatory. other gamification elements include avatars, badges, levels, reputation level, tasks, etc. details are presented in figure 1. figure 1. game-design elements and motives (blohm, i. & leimeister, j. m., 2013). making the rewards for accomplishing tasks visible to other players or providing leaderboards are ways of encouraging players to compete. 3. pro and cons gamification an effective gamification concept is one that captures and retains learners’ attention, engages, entertains and challenges them, and finally teaches them. according to andrew phelps gamification is “in its really early days, and we’re still drilling into how and why this stuff brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 58 works and what makes it effective.” (pros and cons gamification in classroom, 2013). despite this uncertainty, some benefits of using gamification in the instructional process are (gamification in elearning, 2017): a better learning experience is obtained by combining “fun” with learning during the game. a good gamification strategy will make participants more active and high levels of engagement will increase feedback and retention. instant feedback. since gamification provides metrics it can be easily seen, as trainer, how a participant is progressing. from the students’ perspective, tests and assignments, as well as all other activities provide different levels/ways of feedback, so that learners know what they know or what they should know. better learning environment. the learning experience is personalized; the learners could evolve in their own rhythm, in a safe way. gratification system provides an effective, informal learning environment that helps learners practice real life situations and challenges. gamification is about a lot more than just surface level benefits granted by points, badges, reputation level as it can catalyze behavioral change, especially if combined with the scientific principles of cyclical learning and ensuring retention. gamification is versatile since, by using it, most learning needs can be fulfilled, including product sales, customer support, soft skills, awareness creation, etc., resulting a performance gain for organizations. by the other hand some drawbacks of using gamification in an excessively or wrong way must be considered. by making play mandatory, gamification might create rule-based experiences that feel just like school. the effort, not mastery, should be rewarded, and the students should learn to see failure as an opportunity, instead of becoming unmotivated or fearful. activities need to be designed so that students can repeat them in case of an unsuccessful attempt (kiryakova, g., angelova, n. & yordanova, l., 2014). feedback can be used as a correction of students’ actions and should be a stimulus to their further activities. also, the trainers should balance metrics with real engagement. the design of the challenges and the setting of the content have to be carefully considered in order to make it as neutral as possible while not seeming trivial and boring. according to kathy sierra, a popular technology blogger, author and game developer, rewards “should be left at the classroom door” (gamification in the classroom, 2014) “a welldesigned game only deploys certain mechanics to support an intrinsically rewarding experience”. if the experience is removed but the mechanics kept, the users psychology changes so that, in essence, it “uses mechanics to drive mechanical behaviors” with little or no gain for the educational process. nevertheless, motivators like points, badges, leaderboards are not effective for students who aren’t naturally competitive, and if these elements will have a central role, the students will finally lose their interest. 4. a survey on introducing moodle ranking block within extramural education a study was conducted aiming to assess the impact of introduction of ranking block plugin as a gamification element within moodle learning management system (ranking block moodle, 2017). we mention that the moodle platform, version 3.2 is dedicated to extramural and distance learning. it supports various gamification elements such as avatars, badges, leaderboard, levels, displaying quiz results or progress bars. the ranking block plugin was introduced and configured to be available for procedural programming course activities, at the beginning of the first semester of 2016, which starts in october. it displays a course leaderboard visible to all users as a way of obtaining recognition from other users. it is based on points instead of badges and it can monitor included activities based on accumulated points. the experiment involved first year bachelor i. furdu, c. tomozei, u. köse pros and cons gamification and gaming in classroom 59 students in computer science (32 students, extramural education) from uvab university (www.ub.ro) who are using the moodle platform in their tutorial based activities. the main page of uvab moodle platform is presented in figure 2. figure 2. course categories within uvab university moodle platform, (portal-eifr.ub.ro) in the previous semester completion tracking was enabled and set to show activities as complete when conditions are met. also quiz and lesson completions were set to require a passing grade. badges and progress bar plugin were also available. at the end of the second semester a questionnaire-based survey was conducted to evaluate the impact of introducing the moodle ranking plugin as a gamification element. the most relevant question for this purpose was “does the ranking board motivated you in your studies?”. consequently, the results obtained for this item are to be presented. the level of response is 87,5%; the answers to the above question are generally positive, as the results from table 1 proves, but, despite this fact, the number of platform accesses decreases between the two semesters. table 1. motivational status # “does the ranking board motivated you in your studies?” f % 1 yes 12 42.8 2 partially 6 21.4 3 no 10 35.7 total respondents 28 100 (87,5%) figure 3 shows the number of course/activities accesses, per week, for the first and the second semester. combining this with a lower rate of activities completion (not shown here) for the second semester, it is empirically proved that the introduction of the ranking block did not have the assumed motivational effect for students. a good explanation could be the fact that the top 4 students were at the end of semester far ahead from the others, which, most probably weakened the group motivation. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 60 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 # week f sem 1 sem 2 figure 3. number of platform visits/week during first and second semester graphic trends are similar in each 14 weeks semester. in the first month, students are receiving their tasks and usually they access the platform more than in the rest of semester, except the last weeks when they start to prepare for exams and to fulfill their end of semester tasks. the students’ workload was similar in each semester, so that this aspect could not bias the results. however, the adaptation process of first-year students to the university requirements/working style could influence the outcome, but not to a relevant extent. overall, the decrease in using the platform was of 9,16%, from 932 visits in the first semester to 854 in the second one. 5. conclusions and future work benefits and disadvantages of using gamification in classroom were discussed in order to offer a clearer view on the impact of using gamification within learning process. the relation between motivation and engagement of the students and gamification in training was explored by study-cases. a survey was conducted to assess how students’ behavior and motivation is affected by introducing for a semester, a ranking type plugin within the university learning management system used for extramural education. the results empirically proved that motivation decreases by introducing leaderboards in given circumstances (students, year, and specialization). to increase the consistency of the study, future work will assess if the negative trend recovers after eliminating the ranking plugin, and explore other gamification techniques to improve learning experiences for students. references blohm, i. & leimeister, j. m. (2013). gamification. design of itbased enhancing services for motivational support and behavioral change. in business & information systems engineering (bise). corbett, s. (2010, september 19). learning by playing: video games in the classroom. retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html. gamification in elearning. 6 killer examples of gamification in elearning. (2017). retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/6-killer-examples-gamification-in-elearning. gamification in the classroom. (2014). retrieved from http://neatoday.org/2014/06/23/gamification-in-the-classroom-the-right-or-wrong-way-tomotivate-students. i. furdu, c. tomozei, u. köse pros and cons gamification and gaming in classroom 61 gamification market. (2016, february). retrieved from http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/market-reports/gamification-market-991.html. http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/at-indiana-u-a-class-on-game-design-has-studentsplaying-to-win/21981. kapp, k. m. (2012). the gamification of learning and instruction: game-based methods and strategies for training and education. john wiley & sons. kiryakova, g., angelova, n., & yordanova, l. (2014). gamification in education, proceedings of 9th international balkan education and science conference. laster, j. (2010). at indiana u., a class on game design has students playing to win. retrieved from: lee, j. j. & hammer, j. (2011). gamification in education: what, how, why bother? academic exchange quarterly, 15(2). menezes j.jr., gusmão, c., & machiavelli, j. (2013). a proposal of mobile system to support scenario-based learning for health promotion, procedia technology, (9): 1142-1148. menezes, c. c. n., & de bortolli, r. (2016). potential of gamification as assessment tool. creative education, 7, 561-566. pelling, n. (2011). the (short) prehistory of gamification, retrieved from https://nanodome.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/the-short-prehistory-of-gamification. pros and cons gamification in classroom. (2013). retrieved from http://www.edtechmagazine.com /higher/article/2013/07/pros-and-cons-gamification-classroom. ranking block moodle. (2017). retrieved from https://moodle.org/plugins/block_ranking. rapeepisarn, k., kok w. w., chun c. f., & myint s. k. (2008). the relationship between game genres, learning techniques and learning styles in educational computer games. in technologies for e-learning and digital entertainment. springer, 497–508. rethinking elections with gamification. (2015). huffingtonpost. retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabe-zichermann/improve-voter-turn-out_b_2127459.html. shpakova, a, dörfler, v., & macbryde, l. (2016). the role(s) of gamification in knowledge management, the 16th annual conference of the european academy of management, euram, retrieved from http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/56368. silverman, r. (2011, november 2). latest game theory: mixing work and play companies adopt gaming techniques to motivate employees. wallstreet journal. tufekci, a. bektas, g.a. & kose, u. (2015). a research on contribution of computer gamebased learning environments to students’ motivation, 4(4), 235-244. journal of global research in education and social science. retrieved from www.ikpress.org. van grove, j. (2011). gamification: how competition is reinventing business, marketing & everyday life. mashable. iulian furdu received his bsc in mathematics and physics (1995), phd in computer science (2010) from "gheorghe asachi" technical university of iaşi, romania. his current research interests include different aspects of artificial intelligence, gis, e-education. he contributed to 6 research and development projects, (co-)authored 10 books and book chapters, and more than 40 research papers. researcherid: c-6818-2015. cosmin tomozei, phd in cybernetics, is lecturer in computer science, at vasile alecsandri university of bacau, romania. his main research areas are: object oriented programming, functional programming in lisp and f#, software reengineering and distributed applications development. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 62 utku köse received the b.s. degree in 2008 from computer education of gazi university, turkey as a faculty valedictorian. he received m.s. degree in 2010 from afyon kocatepe university, turkey in the field of computer and d.s. / ph. d. degree in 2017 from selcuk university, turkey in the field of computer engineering. between 2009 and 2011, he has worked as a research assistant in afyon kocatepe university. following, he has also worked as a lecturer and vocational school vice director in afyon kocatepe university between 2011 and 2012. currently, he is a lecturer in usak university, turkey and also the director of the computer sciences application and research center at the same university. his research interest includes artificial intelligence, optimization, chaos theory, distance education, e-learning, computer education, and computer science. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 57 the impact of cooperative learning on female medical students’ happiness and social support ali taghinezhad noncommunicable diseases research center, fasa university of medical sciences, fasa, iran avicenna square, fasa, 74615-168 fars, iran phone: +98 71 5335 0994 taghinezhad1@gmail.com rahim pendar1 research center for non-communicable diseases, jahrom university of medical sciences, jahrom, iran shahid motahhari blvd., jahrom, iran pendarr@yahoo.com samira rahimi general department of fars province education, fars, iran rahimis23@yahoo.com maryam jamalzadeh bushehr branch, islamic azad university, behesarkh blvd., bushehr, iran jamalzadeh_ma@yahoo.com mahboobeh azadikhah shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran tehran province, tehran, velenjak, 7th floor, bldg no.2 sbums, arabi ave, 19839-63113, iran phone: +98 21 2243 9770 mamazadi1@gmail.com abstract cooperative learning has appeared as a new approach to teaching. this approach is utilized for small heterogeneous groups of students who cooperate to achieve a common goal. this study aimed at investigating the impact of cooperative learning on female medical students’ happiness and social support. to this end, 72 female students of medicine at shiraz medical school were selected using cluster sampling and divided into experimental and control groups. the students were administered social support and happiness questionnaires as a pre-test. the same questionnaires were administered to them at the end of the term as a post-test. the students in the experimental group were taught to use cooperative learning strategies and the students in the control group followed the traditional approach. data were analyzed using spss. the statistical procedures used for analyzing the data were mean, standard deviation, and multivariate analysis of covariance. the findings of the study indicated that cooperative learning had a significant impact on the level of happiness and social support of students compared to the conventional approach. keywords: cooperative learning, happiness, social support, 1. introduction human beings have always endeavored to transfer their experience and knowledge to their children and future generations. for this purpose, researchers have investigated different approaches to teaching. one of newly investigated approaches to teaching is cooperative learning. cooperative is a new approach which has emerged over the past decade. researchers in the field of education are mainly concerned with presenting a new approach which can prepare students to face a number of challenges in learning issues. therefore, they focused their attention on learner-centered methods 1 corresponding author brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 58 which could meet the needs of students (richards & rogers, 1986). cooperative learning refers to a teaching approach that is used for small groups of students who strive to achieve a common goal. (kagan, 1994). students are responsible for their teammates’ learning and their own. the main tenets of cooperative learning are as follows: 1. positive interdependence: it occurs when what individuals gain in teamwork activities are correlated positively. 2. individual accountability: it occurs when all students are accountable for performing a share of their work and for learning the materials. 3. equal participation: this occurs when each member of the group is given an equal share of input and responsibility. 4. simultaneous interaction: it occurs when the time of the class is designed to allow a myriad of student interactions during the period. there are different ways through which cooperative goals can be achieved. johnson & johnson (2002) have classified them as follows: teams-games-tournaments (tgt), group investigation (gi), learning together & alone, constructive controversy (cc), student teams achievement divisions (stad), team accelerated instruction (tai), jigsaw procedure, complex instruction (ci), cooperative learning structures, and cooperative integrated reading & composition (circ). one of the significant aspects of any classroom is social support which might affect students’ academic achievement, physical and mental health (ghaith, 2002). the main factor in social support is social relationship and consequently the establishment of positive social relations leads to more social support (hosseini et al, 2012). most of the definitions about social support are rooted in individuals’ perception of being liked and attracting other people’s attention. the most common definition of social support is emphasis on the quality of the relationship with people who provide support when we are in need. orozco (2007) believes that social support refers to the help and support that parents, friends, and other people provide which an individual perceives based on his social status. in another definition, cobb (1976) states that social support refers to psychological and material support received from social networks. he maintains that a feeling of being valued and being loved is created in the individual. hupcey (1998) believes that social support includes the following factors: source, the mutual sense of well-being or care, positive outcome, the existence of a relationship between the provider and the receiver, and lack of bias in support. it is worth mentioning that, not all the relationships that an individual has with others are considered as social support unless that individual considers them as available and suitable for meeting his needs (ghaedi & yaaghoobi, 2008). among the main objectives of any educational system in every country is the creation of mental health and increasing the level of happiness in students. happiness is an inherent characteristic of human beings which has engaged the minds of thinkers to the extent that aristotle described it as “the development and nourishment of the loftiest traits of human beings” (samakamani, 2006). kashdan (2004) has defined happiness as a set of emotions and cognitive evaluation, and believes that happiness is a positively evaluated quality of individuals’ lives. argyle (2001) defines happiness as a state of joy (positive emotions), being satisfied with life, and lack of depression and anxiety (negative emotions). this is probably the most comprehensive definition of happiness because both positive and negative emotions have been taken into account as internal factors and life satisfaction as an external factor. diener, suh and oishi (1997) believe that happiness has three constituents: cognitive, affective, and social. the cognitive part involves a kind of thinking and processing which leads to optimism. the affective part refers to the happy and positive temperament, and the social constituent represents the expansion of relations of an individual with others and hence the establishment of social support. looking at the approaches to teaching, we can find three main approaches; the first is “competitive approach” in which students try to win in competition to other students. in this a. taghinezhad, r. pendar, s. rahimi, m. jamalzadeh, m. azadikhah the impact of cooperative learning on female medical students’ happiness and social support 59 approach, the prevailing attitude is that if you win then i am the loser and if i win then others will lose. this approach can be the source of fear, anxiety and frustration among students. another approach is the “individualistic learning approach” in which the success or failure of an individual is related to himself rather than others. in this approach, fatigue, lack of variety and motivation, isolation and withdrawal from others can be the consequences of the learning process. the third approach is the “cooperative approach”. a large number of studies indicate that the groups that participate in cooperative learning not only have a more effective learning but they also have more positive attitudes and more skills in interpersonal relationships. it is important to mention that these skills can be acquired and families and schools play a significant role in developing these skills (ghaltash, 2004). cooperative learning has a long history. this approach has attracted a lot of researchers’ attention during the last three decades because studies have shown that students have more academic achievements when they have more chance of interacting with each other and when they work together to reach a common goal johnson & johnson, 2002; slavin, 1996). slavin (1995) maintains that cooperative learning is a means of strengthening thinking skills and enhancing learning, improving the relationship among students of different races, and preparing them to play a role in group activities. according to johnson & johnson (1994), cooperative learning is an approach in which students cooperate together in a heterogeneous group to maximize their learning. in fact, they cooperate together to reach a common goal and to solve problems. it is worth mentioning that not every group work is necessarily considered as cooperation. in group work activities, students might try to compete with each other and just pretend to be cooperating; whereas in cooperative work, students work together in a non-competitive way to reach common goals (joyce, weil & calhoun, 2004). this study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of cooperative learning on female medical students’ happiness and social support. 2. literature review some researchers investigated the relationship between cooperative approach, social support, and happiness (e.g. johnson et al., 1985) and indicated that cooperative learning is correlated with social support, and the more students participate in cooperative activities, the more social support they will receive. ghaith (2002) showed that cooperative learning and the level of teachers’ support for their students are positively correlated with students’ academic achievement and their perceived academic support from their teachers and their classmates. burchinal et al. (2008) assessed the role of protective factors (parents, friends, and school) in academic achievement and social adjustment of the students. also, lavasani et al. (2011) proved the effectiveness of cooperative approach in students’ social skills. keshavarz and vafaeian (2007) investigated the factors affecting happiness and concluded that there is a positive relationship between the level of happiness and physical and mental health, family and social relationship, optimism about the future, and attitude toward joy. in another study, ghasemi, abedi & baghban (2007), studied the effect of group teaching based on snyder’s hope theory on elderly’s level of happiness and found that group teaching brought about an increase in the level of happiness. from among all the previous studies, it can be concluded that students must be provided with social support and must have happiness and mental health in order to be able to deal with their assignments. therefore, students must be provided with a suitable environment in which they receive social support and feel happy. a similar study was done by babamoradi, karami & sadipour (2017) that investigated the effectiveness of cooperative learning in social support and happiness. the study was done on male students in the city of quds. they indicated that cooperative learning had a positive effect on the level of happiness and social support. however, the participants in the study were all boys and to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, no study has been done investigating the effect of cooperative learning on female students’ level of happiness and social support. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 60 in another study, johnson et al. (1985) investigated the effect of prolonged implementation of cooperative learning on social support within the classroom. they found that cooperative learning was highly related to social support within the classroom and that the longer and more frequently students engaged in cooperative learning, the greater the social support within the classroom. ghaith (2002) examined the relationship between cooperative learning, perception of social support, and academic achievement. the findings revealed that cooperative learning and the degree of academic support that is provided by teachers are positively correlated with achievement, and learners' feelings of alienation from school were found to be negatively correlated with achievement. moreover, the analysis revealed that cooperative learning is positively correlated with the perceived degrees of academic and personal support that is provided by teachers and peers, but not correlated with the feelings of alienation from school. dominguez-fuentes and hombrados-mendieta (2012) investigated the association between perceived social support and happiness in immigrant women in spain based on social convoy model. they found that the main social support predictor of happiness was satisfaction with the support received. they also found that the best predictors of happiness were emotional support from the family and instrumental support from the indigenous population and associations. in another study, liping (2001) examined the relationship between happiness and social support in a survey of 304 men and women using questionnaires. the results indicated that men had significantly more social support and showed more positive affect compared to women. another finding of the study was that women's use of social support was higher than that of men. also, there were no gender differences in happiness, interpersonal support and negative affect. 3. method 3.1. participants the participants who took part in this study were 72 students of medical sciences at shiraz university of medical sciences, iran. they were selected using cluster sampling method. 36 students were assigned to the control group and 36 students were assigned to the experimental group. the students were between18 and 23 years of age. 3.2. design this is a quasi-experimental study with an intact pre-test post-test design in which the participants were selected and assigned to experimental and control groups. the quasi-experimental study involves intact groups of subjects instead of assigning the participants randomly to the experimental and control groups (dörnyei, 2007). 3.3. instruments the instruments used in this study were as follows: oxford happiness questionnaire (ohq): the oxford happiness questionnaire was developed by hills and argyle (2002): the oxford happiness questionnaire was derived as a modified version of the oxford happiness inventory by argyle et al. (1989). they suggested that happiness is a combination of three main components: the frequency and degree of positive affect or joy; the average level of satisfaction over a period; and the absence of negative feelings such as depression and anxiety. this questionnaire has 29 items which include the 20 items of the oxford happiness inventory and an additional 9 items (nourbala et al, 2002). this revised questionnaire has 5 scales including life health, positive mood, satisfaction, competency and self-esteem. responses are based on a 6-point likert scale. hills and argyle (2002) reported acceptable validity for the oxford happiness questionnaire by providing data on correlations with other self-report scales of personality traits, human strengths and subjective well-being. in iran, alipoor and noorbala (1999), calculated the cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of this questionnaire as 0.93. the personality variables correlate very strongly with this scale. with regard to its construct validity, the oxford happiness questionnaire seems to be the preferred measure. a. taghinezhad, r. pendar, s. rahimi, m. jamalzadeh, m. azadikhah the impact of cooperative learning on female medical students’ happiness and social support 61 social support appraisals (ss-a) scale: the second instrument used in this study was social support appraisals (ssa). this scale is comprised of 23 items on family support (8 items), friends support (7 items), and support from others (8 items) (15). reliability of ss-a has been determined at 0.75 by asgari et al. (2010) using cronbach’s alpha for the iranian population. in order to confirm the reliability of ss-a, the researchers measured the internal consistency by using cronbach’s alpha, which was estimated at 0.77, 0.76, 0.74, and 0.84 for the social support from family, friends, others, and total of social support, respectively. 3.4. procedure in order to determine the effect of cooperative learning on students’ social support and happiness, 72 students of two classes at shiraz university of medical sciences were selected to participate in this study. one class was assigned to the experimental group to receive the treatment in cooperative learning method. the other class was assigned to the control group. to make sure that the two groups did not differ significantly, both groups were administered a pre-test. the results of the independent-samples t-test for comparing the pre-test scores of the two groups indicated that the two groups did not differ significantly regarding their social support and happiness scores. in one class, the instruction was based on teacher-directed classrooms in which the teacher gave a lecture and the students took notes. in the other class, the materials were presented to the experimental group using cooperative learning techniques. in one session, the students were explained in detail about the cooperative learning approach. they were divided into nine groups of four. a name was assigned for each group and every group selected a leader. the materials were presented to the students so that they could exchange their ideas about them. in the other group, the same materials were presented using traditional method. the leader of each group talked about the result of their discussion, and the results were ultimately summed up by the teacher. the teacher’s encouragement was given to the groups while the success belonged to all members of the groups. however, the students were notified that their scores in the final exam will be based on individual qualifications. there were fourteen sessions totally. in the fourteenth session, the students were given a pre-test. 4. results the results of the frequency distribution of each group are presented in table 1. the descriptive statistics of pre-test and post-test of happiness and social support are provided in table 2. table 1. frequency distribution of experimental and control group group frequency percentage experimental 36 50% control 36 50% table 2. descriptive statistics and standard deviation of pre-test and post-test of happiness and social support pre-test post-test variable group experimental control experimental control mean 14.47 15.21 17.21 14.97 social support sd 3.32 2.65 2.95 3.62 mean 51.12 48.36 52.47 49.38 happiness sd 8.96 6.52 6.38 5.94 the results of table 2 indicate that the mean and the standard deviation of pre-test and posttest of the control group in the social support variable were 14.47, 3.32 and 17.21, 2.95 brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 62 respectively. the mean and the standard deviation of pre-test and post-test in social support variable in the control group were 15.21, 2.65 and 14.97, 3.62 respectively. the mean and the standard deviation of pre-test and post-test in happiness variable in the experimental group were 51.12, 8.96 and 52.47, 6.36 respectively. the mean and the standard deviation of pre-test and post-test in happiness variable in the control group were 48.36, 6.52 and 49.38, 5.94 respectively. the results indicated that in both happiness and social support, the mean of the experimental group had an increase in the post-test compared to that of the control group. considering the fact that this study was a pretest posttest design, the researchers used analysis of covariance (ancova) in order to analyze the data and to control the effect of the pretest. in order to ensure about the precision of the findings, the following assumptions should be satisfied: the homogeneity of regression coefficient, correlation of dependent variables, homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices, and the homogeneity of variances. to test the homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices, box’s m test was performed. the results are provided in table 3. table 3. box's test of equality of covariance matrices box’s m f df1 df2 sig. 1.86 .72 3 71432 .61 the results in table 3 indicate that the significance level of box’s m test is larger than 0.05. therefore, it can be concluded that the null hypothesis is accepted and the variance-covariance matrices are homogeneous. to test the homogeneity of variances, levene’s test was used. the results of the levene’s test are presented in table 4. table 4. levene's test of equality of variances variable f df1 df2 sig. social support 1.62 1 70 0.21 happiness 0.47 1 70 0.62 the results indicated that in both variable of happiness and social support, the significance level was greater than 0.05. thus, it can be said that the assumption of the equality of variances is met. moreover, the results of the homogeneity of the regression coefficients are reported in table 5. table 5. homogeneity test of regression coefficients source of change sum of squares df mean squares f sig. the interaction of group and social support pretest 3.24 1 3.24 0.58 0.61 the interaction of group and happiness pretest 51.12 1 51.12 2.75 0.24 table 5 provides the results of the homogeneity test of regression coefficients. according to table 5, the value of f for the interaction between group and social support pretest is .58 and the significance level is 0.61. therefore, the data support the homogeneity of regression slopes. also, the value of f for the interaction of group and happiness is 2.75 and the significance level is 0.24. the interaction between group and happiness is not statistically significant and the data support the homogeneity of regression slopes. also, bartlett's test was used to determine the correlation between dependent variables. the results of bartlett’s test are presented in table 6 below. table 6. bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. chi-square df sig. 23.72 1 0.003 a. taghinezhad, r. pendar, s. rahimi, m. jamalzadeh, m. azadikhah the impact of cooperative learning on female medical students’ happiness and social support 63 the results of bartlett’s test indicate that there is a statistically significant correlation between dependent variables. with all the necessary assumptions met for the multivariate analysis of covariance (mancova), we present the results in table 7. table 7. the results of mancova tests values f df error degree of freedom sig pillai’s trace .372 8.67 2 65 0.001 wilks’ lambda .847 8.67 2 65 0.001 hotelling’s trace .481 8.67 2 65 0.001 roy’s greatest root .481 8.67 2 65 0.001 according to table 7, the significance level of pillai’s trace, wilks’ lambda, hotelling’s trace, and roy’s greatest root is less than 0.05. therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and we conclude that there is a statistically significant difference between the social support and happiness. table 8. univariate ancova source dependent variable sum of squares df mean squares f sig. social support posttest 82.34 1 82.34 13.52 0.002 group happiness posttest 187.94 1 187.94 8.92 0.003 social support posttest 362.31 68 6.35 error happiness posttest 1214.37 68 22.61 according to table 8, the mean of social support in the experiment is significantly different from that of the control group after eliminating the effect of pretest. the modified mean of social support in the experimental group posttest is 16.21 and for the control group, it is 14.92. the findings indicate that the cooperative learning approach, compared to the traditional approach, has been more effective in students’ social support. also, the mean of happiness in the experimental group is significantly different from that of the control group after eliminating the effect of pretest. the modified mean of happiness in the experimental group posttest is 49.72, and for the control group, it is 45.91. therefore, we can conclude that the cooperative learning approach, compared to the traditional approach, has been more effective in students’ level of happiness. 5. discussion and conclusion this study aimed at investigating the impact of cooperative learning approach on female medical students’ level of happiness and social support. the results indicated that cooperative learning approach had a statistically significant impact on students’ happiness and social support. the results of this study are indirectly in line with those of johnson et al (1985), ghaith (2002), burchinal et al (2008), and lavasani et al (2011). one of the reasons why cooperative learning was effective in students’ social support was that the students learned social skills when they participated in cooperative activities and consequently they could make friends in the group and establish positive interactions. in fact, they received psychological support from their classmates in the group and this helped the students to have a feeling of being lovely and respected. in such an atmosphere, learners learn together without feeling stressed, and learning from each other is maximized. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 64 in cooperative learning approach, learners share their resources and each student puts his efforts on a specific part of the assignment. this, in turn, might reduce students’ hatred of school (ghaith, 2002). students who are taught using this approach, trust others and enjoy having social interaction with others. they learn the right way of expressing their positive and negative feelings, and they also learn how to react to other people’s criticism. they can manage their relationships better and they will probably find more friends. they can more easily cope with conflicts and challenges. the students’ happiness scores were also analyzed. the results of pretest and posttest in the experimental and the control groups indicated that there was a significant difference in the posttest scores in the two groups. therefore, we can conclude that the cooperative learning approach has been more effective in students’ level of happiness compared to the traditional approach. this finding is in line with that of keshavarz and vafaeian (2007), ghasemi et al (2007), hills & argyle (2011), kocak (2008). in explaining the results, it can be said that one of the characteristics of cooperative learning is the formation of learning groups which serve two functions: on the one hand, these groups provide a friendly atmosphere for the students to be together, and on the other hand, they help weak students learn better and more efficiently. cooperative learning approach is an effective tool in the ability to ask, the clarity of expressing one’s ideas, developing mutual respect, and creating a learning milieu full of enjoyment (mizuno, 2011). in this process, students can manage their relationships better and know each other better and they can establish friendly relationships with other students. consequently, constructive relationships with others lead to a higher level of happiness. on the other hand, these groups of people experience a lower level of stress and as schiffrin & nelson (2010) believe, one of the most significant factors in individuals’ happiness is the level of stress. in other words, the lower the stress, the higher the happiness. gilman (2001) found that depression, stress, and having a weak relationship with peers can lead to lack of happiness in individuals. another outcome of using cooperative learning approach is academic achievement. studies have shown that cooperative learning approach has a significant impact on students’ academic achievement (mcmaster & fuchs, 2002). therefore, it can be concluded that the higher the academic achievement, the higher the satisfaction and hence the higher the level of happiness. considering the useful outcomes of cooperative learning approach, the use of this approach seems necessary in any educational settings. items marked (r) should be scored in reverse sd = strongly disagree, md = moderately disagree, sld = slightly disagree 4, sla = slightly agree, ma = moderately agree, sa = strongly agree references alipoor, a. & noorbala, a. a. (1999). a preliminary evaluation of the validity and reliability of the oxford happiness questionnaire in students in the universities of tehran. iranian journal of psychiatry and clinical psychology, 5(1), 55-66. argyle, m. (2001). the psychology of happiness. 2nd east sussex, england: routledge. argyle, m., martin, m., & crossland, j. (1989). happiness as a function of personality and social encounters. recent advances in social psychology: an international perspective, 189-203. asgari, p. & sharafodin, h. (2010). relationship between social anxiety, social support and a sense of hope and well-being of students. n find psychol, 3(9):25-36. babamoradi, a., karami, a., & sadipour, e. (2017). the effectiveness of cooperative learning in social support and happiness. studies in educational psychology, 14(25), 1-22. burchinal, m. r., roberts, j. e., zeisel, s. a., & rowley, s. j. (2008). social risk and protective factors for african american children's academic achievement and adjustment during the transition to middle school. developmental psychology, 44(1), 272-286. cobb, s. (1976). social support as a moderator of life stress. psychosomatic medicine, 38(5), 300314. a. taghinezhad, r. pendar, s. rahimi, m. jamalzadeh, m. azadikhah the impact of cooperative learning on female medical students’ happiness and social support 65 diener, e., suh, e., & oishi, s. (1997). recent findings on subjective well-being. indian journal of clinical psychology, 24, 25-41. dominguez-fuentes, j. m., & hombrados-mendieta, m. i. (2012). social support and happiness in immigrant women in spain. psychological reports, 110(3), 977-990. dörnyei, z. (2007). research methods in applied linguistics: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies. oxford university press. erikson, k. (2003). should happiness be our ultimate goal?. retrieved from www.karlerksoneterprises.htm ghaedi, g., & yaaghoobi, h. (2008). a study on the relationship between different dimensions of perceived social support and different aspects of wellbeing. armaghane danesh, 13(2), 69-81. ghaith, g. m. (2002). the relationship between cooperative learning, perception of social support, and academic achievement. system, 30, 263–273. ghaltash , a. (2004). examining the effect of cooperative learning on fifth grade students' social skills of primary schools in the city of kareei (fars province) in 2004 – 2005 school year (ma thesis). tehran, teachers education university. ghasemi, a., abedi, a., & baghban, i. (2007). the impact of group education based on snyder’s hope theory on the rate of happiness in elderly’s life. journal of applied psychology, 11, 17–40. gilman, r. (2001). the relationship between life satisfaction, social interest, and frequency of extracurricular activities among adolescent students. journal of youth and adolescence, 30(6), 749-767. hills, p. & argyle, m. (2001). happiness, introversion-extraversion and happy introverts. personality and individual differences, 30(4), 595-608. hupcey, j. e. (1998). social support: assessing conceptual coherence. qualitative health research, 8(3), 304-318. johnson, a. w. & johnson, r. (2002). cooperative learning methods: a meta-analysis. journal of research in education, 12(1), 5-14. johnson, d. w. & johnson, r. t. (1994). learning together and alone. cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning. allyn and bacon, 160 gould street, needham heights, ma 02194. johnson, d. w., johnson, r. t., buckman, l. a., & richards, p. s. (1985). the effect of prolonged implementation of cooperative learning on social support within the classroom. the journal of psychology, 119(5), 405-411. joyce, b., weil, m., & calhoun, e. (2004). models of teaching, 7th ed. boston: pearson. kagan, s. (1994). cooperative learning (vol. 2). san juan capistrano, ca: kagan cooperative learning. kashdan, t. b. (2004). the assessment of subjective well-being (issues raised by the oxford happiness questionnaire). personality and individual differences, 36(5), 1225-1232. keshavarz, a. & vafaeian, m. (2007). the study of the effective factors on the amount of happiness. applied psychology, 2, 51–62. kocak, r. (2008). the effects of cooperative learning on psychological and social traits among undergraduate students. social behavior and personality: an international journal, 36(6), 771-782. lavasani, m. g., afzali, l., borhanzadeh, s., afzali, f., & davoodi, m. (2011). the effect of cooperative learning on the social skills of first grade elementary school girls. procediasocial and behavioral sciences, 15, 1802-1805. liping, x. z. c. (2001). the relationship between happiness and social support . journal of chinese psychology acta psychologica sinica, 5, 009. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 66 mcmaster, k. n., & fuchs, d. (2002). effects of cooperative learning on the academic achievement of students with learning disabilities: an update of tateyama sniezek’s review. learning disabilities research & practice, 17(2), 107-117. mizuno, m. (2011). cooperative learning for fostering knowledge construction in japanese high school. online submission. nourbala, a. & bagheri-yazdi, a. (2002). mental health status in the population aged 15 years and above in iran. journal of hakim, 5(1), 1-10. orozco, v. (2007). ethnic identity, perceived social support, coping strategies, university environment, cultural congruity, and resilience of lanina/o college students (doctoral dissertation). ohio state university. richards, j. c. & rodgers, t. s. (2014). approaches and methods in language teaching. cambridge university press. samakamani, m. (2006). happiness in islam. farming training publications. schiffrin, h. h. & nelson, s. k. (2010). stressed and happy? investigating the relationship between happiness and perceived stress. journal of happiness studies, 11(1), 33-39. slavin, r. e. (1995). cooperative learning: theory, research and practice. 2nd ed boston: allyn and bacon. slavin, r. e. (1996). research on cooperative learning and achievement: what we know, what we need to know. contemporary educational psychology, 21(1), 43-69. vaux, a., phillips, j., holly, l., thomson, b., williams, d., & stewart, d. (1986). the social support appraisals (ss-a) scale: studies of reliability and validity. american journal of community psychology, 14(2), 195-218. a. taghinezhad, r. pendar, s. rahimi, m. jamalzadeh, m. azadikhah the impact of cooperative learning on female medical students’ happiness and social support 67 appendix i. the oxford happiness questionnaire question sd md sld sla ma sa 1. i don’t feel particularly pleased with the way i am. r 2. i am intensely interested in other people. 3. i feel that life is very rewarding. 4. i have very warm feelings towards almost everyone. 5. i rarely wake up feeling rested r 6. i am not particularly optimistic about the future. r 7. i find most things amusing 8. i am always committed and involved. 9. life is good. 10. i do not think that the world is a good place. r 11. i laugh a lot. 12. i am well satisfied about everything in my life. 13. i don’t think i look attractive. r 14. there is a gap between what i would like to do and what i have done. r 15. i am very happy. 16. i find beauty in some things. 17. i always have a cheerful effect on others. 18. i can fit in (find time for) everything i want to. 19. i feel that i am not especially in control of my life. r 20. i feel able to take anything on. 21. i feel fully mentally alert. 22. i often experience joy and elation. 23. i don’t find it easy to make decisions. r 24. i don’t have a particular sense of meaning and purpose in my life. r 25. i feel i have a great deal of energy. 26. i usually have a good influence on events. 27. i don’t have fun with other people. r 28. i don’t feel particularly healthy. r 29. i don’t have particularly happy memories of the past. r brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 68 appendix ii. social support appraisal scale strong ly disagr ee disagre e agree strongly agree 1. my friends respect me. 2. my family cares for me very much. 3. i am not important to others. 4. my family holds me in high esteem. 5. i am well liked. 6. i can rely on my friends 7. i am really admired by my family. 8. i am respected by other people. 9. i am loved dearly by my family. 10. my friends don’t care about my welfare. 11. members of my family rely on me. 12. i am held in high esteem. 13. i can’t rely on my family for support. 14. people admire me. 15. i feel a strong bond with my friends. 16. my friends look out for me. 17. i feel valued by other people. 18. my family really respects me. 19. my friends and i are really important to each other. 20. i feel like i belong. 21. if i died tomorrow, very few people would miss me. 22. i don’t feel close to members of my family. 23. my friends and i have done a lot for one another. microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 57 design and implementation of an autonomous humanoid robot based on fuzzy rule-based motion controller s. hamidreza mohades kasaei islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran h.kasaee@khuisf.ac.ir s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran m.kasaee@khuisf.ac.ir s. alireza mohades kasaei islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran alireza.kasaee@gamil.com s. a. monadjemi islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran monadjemi@eng.ui.ac.ir mohsen taheri islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran css_mt@yahoo.com abstract research on humanoid robotics in mechatronics and automation laboratory, electrical and computer engineering, islamic azad university khorasgan branch (isfahan) of iran was started at the beginning of this decade. various research prototypes for humanoid robots have been designed and are going through evolution over these years. this paper describes the hardware and software design of the kid size humanoid robot systems of the persia team in 2009. the robot has 20 actuated degrees of freedom based on hitec hsr898. in this paper we have tried to focus on areas such as mechanical structure, image processing unit, robot controller, robot ai and behavior learning. in 2009, our developments for the kid size humanoid robot include: (1) the design and construction of our new humanoid robots (2) the design and construction of a new hardware and software controller to be used in our robots. the project is described in two main parts: hardware and software. the software is developed a robot application which consists walking controller, autonomous motion robot, self localization base on vision and particle filter, local ai, trajectory planning, motion controller and network. the hardware consists of the mechanical structure and the driver circuit board. each robot is able to walk, fast walk, pass, kick and dribble when it catches the ball. these humanoids have been successfully participating in various robotic soccer competitions. this project is still in progress and some new interesting methods are described in the current report. keywords: humanoid robot, image processing, control systems, machine vision. 1. introduction the robocup scenario of soccer playing legged robots represents an extraordinary challenge for the design, control and stability of autonomous bipedal and quadrupedal robots. in a game, fast, goal oriented motions must be planned autonomously and implemented online while preserving the robot’s postural stability and adapting them in real-time to the quickly changing environment. in the humanoid league, many technology issues and scientific areas must be integrated to implement the humanoid robot, such as mechanics, electronics, control, computer science, and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 58 semiconductor. besides, the research technologies of humanoid walking control, autonomous motion, vision and ai system, kicking and shooting ball will be applied [1-10]. the humanoid league team of the persia was founded in 2008. in 2008 we ranked 1st place humanoid kid size soccer robot league in 1st national khwarizmi robotic competitions the khwarizmi robotic is one of the, iranian major robotic event. in 2009 we achieved the 5th in the 3rd international iran-open competitions in the 3-3 games out of 15 teams. the basis for our success was the robust and reliable hardware design, well-structured software architecture and efficient algorithms for sensor fusion and behavior generation. our main research interest is both, the development of learning robots and the development of improved sensor fusion and sensor integration techniques. in order to let the robot can autonomous play a soccer game, three basic skills are designed and implemented on it: image understanding for environment perception, move ability, and artificial intelligence. in order to let the robot have a high ability of environmental detection, a camera and array of sensor are equipped on the body of the implemented robot to obtain the information of the environment to decide an appropriate action. we used available personal digital assistant (pda) for processing vision and higher level reasoning and brain of our robot. a control board with an atmega128 microcontroller is mainly utilized to control the robot. many functions are implemented on this system so that it can receive the vision signal obtained by the camera via a cf port and process the data obtained by gyroscopes and the digital compass. it also can process the high level artificial intelligence, such as the navigation. the humanoid robot is designed as a soccer player so that the implemented robot can walk, turn, and shoot the ball. in this paper, we will at first describe the general hardware design of the persia humanoid robocup team, (section 2) and after that focus on our scientific approaches in sensor fusion and learning (section 3). finally, section 4 concludes this paper. this document describes the current state of the project as well as the intended development for the robocup 2010 competition. figure 1. persia humanoid robot in robocup iranopen2010 competition 2. mechanical design figure2 shows our humanoid soccer robot, persia robot includes motion mechanism, shooting and dribbling mechanism. persia kid-size humanoids are built with aluminum brackets. the kinematics chains are powered by high-torque servomotors. the actuators used in the persia robots are the hitec servo motor. the motion mechanism consists of 18 degrees of freedom g. blioju ekg through sound-card 59 distributed in 5 per leg, 3 per arm and other two degrees of freedom as a pan-tilt system holding the head, we use an aluminum mechanism powered by two micro servomotors directly controlled by the camera, providing object tracking independently from leg or arm motions. figure 2 shows one of the constructions used for our robots. knee joints are considered to bend in both directions which help faster response of the robot in backward walking. efforts have been made to hold the proportions as much as possible human like. the persia robot is 38cm tall and weighs about 1.6 kg. it has 18 degrees of freedom: 5 in each leg, 3 in each hand and 2 in head. to facilitate exchange of the players, all robots use mechanically the same structure. figure 2. mechanical construction of the persia humanoid robots the persia humanoid robot designed for has multipurpose capability. this robot equipped with main board for motion control, vision sensor, other balancing sensors, servo motors and etc. figure 3 shows picture of the robot and overview of the persia humanoid robot control system. figure 3. (a) our humanoid soccer robot, (b) overview of the control system brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 60 our robots perform high mobility and stability. the maximum speed is approximately 0.25m/s. it can also walk to any direction and targeting smoothly. for stable walking, we use an acceleration and gyro sensors. the acceleration sensor is also used to detect falls. in our robots we use two processors; one is used for motion control and receives data from gyro and acceleration sensors via a/d converter, and another is used for image recognition, behavior determination and so on. 3. robot software in soccer game, for example, the robot searches a ball and two goals, and moves to its desired location with avoiding many obstacles, therefore we developed our humanoid robot software in visual c++ and robot software is divided into four sections: vision, artificial intelligent, behavior engine, and motion control (actuation). figure 4 shows the block diagram of the software which runs in the robot’s main processor. the program consists of 4 main blocks: • hardware interface: contains all low level routines to access hardware of the robot including sensors and actuators. • vision: contains image processing algorithms such as recognition of landmarks and other object. self localization is done using particle filtering. particles are scored by comparing a simulated image from each particle with the current frame captured by camera. using “sampling-importance resampling” method, a new distribution of the particles is created after each step. particles are also updated using a motion model. final distribution of the particles converges to the real pose of the robot. • planning: planning system of the robot is based on a multi layer, and multi thread structure. the layers are named strategy, role, behavior and motion. each layer contains a scenario which runs in parallel with the scenarios in the other layers. a scenario in a higher level can terminate and change the scenario running in the lower level; however it is usually done in synchronization with the lower level scenario to avoid conflicts and instabilities. (such as stopping the walking motion while one of the feet is still in the air). • network: mainly responsible for the wireless communication of the robot with the other robots or the referee box. this is done via wlan. • motion control: manages all the actuators of the robot, and controls locomotion or any other action of the robot according to the requests from cognition. • sensor control: manages other sensors, and interacts with the sub-controller. a. motion control persia humanoid robot has two kinds of locomotion pattern: omni directional walking and special actions such as kicking and getup. special actions are described using key frames, which can be edited very fast by our software tool humanoidrobotcontrol. omni directional walking means the robot can walk in every direction with variable step length. the behavior module determines the target position and orientation according to the results of localization and the sensor measurements, and then constructs an action series which consists of the elementary gaits to realize omni directional walking. the implementation of forward walking is applying virtual slope walking in the sagittal plane with the lateral swing movement for lateral stability. the sideward walking and turning is realized by carefully designing the key frames. all of above gait is generated by connecting the key frames with smooth sinusoids. the forward walking speed of persia humanoid robot is 25cm/s. the image sequences of forward walking are shown in figure 5. g. blioju ekg through sound-card 61 figure 4. (a)our humanoid soccer robot, (b) overview of the control system figure 5. forward walking image sequence the image sequences of sideward walking and turning are shown in figure 6 respectively. figure 6. forward walking image sequence b. image processing one of the primary tasks for the vision system is to locate a particular goal and calculate the robot’s position in relation to it. utilizing a camera, each time the personal digital assistant (pda) on each robot performs the processing of the current frame and calculates the position and direction of the robot. it also determines the position and position of the opponent robots as well as the position and velocity of the ball. the image-processing algorithm first filters the image by using a table for labeling the colors (color adjustment) then recognizes the contiguous regions through either a bfs or a dfs search algorithm and finally extracts the necessary information like: selflocalization, ball, and goal and opponent robot position by looking in the image. sometimes for better image processing the rgb color space is converted to hsl (hue, saturation and luminance). to recognize a certain color, a combination of conditions on hue, saturation and rgb brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 62 is used. this procedure makes the color recognition independent from the change of brightness and other unpredicted conditions. we are trying to evaluate new methods to find some kinds of objects based on pattern recognition to reduce the effect of changing the colors on algorithm. the image processor receives its data through sd port connected to a camera with the speed of 7 frames per second. c. artificial intelligent in this section the ai part of the software is briefly introduced. there are three distinct layers: ai core, role engine and behavior engine. ai core receives the computed field data from world map modeling unit and determines the play state according to the ball, opponents and our robots positions. considering the current game strategy, determination of the play state is done by fuzzy decision-making to avoid undesirable and sudden changes of roles or behaviors.[3-4] figure 7. world model construction and artificial intelligent structure running on the pda d. role engine role engine module receives information from ai core; process them, and then selected a role. this module is the main section of robot software. the proposed rules for role engine have been turned by various experiences and they are independent of game field conditions. the output of this module is a set of high level commands that send to behavior engine. some of high level commands which are produced by role engine module are: • go to position • go to ball • targeting • shooting ball • … g. blioju ekg through sound-card 63 e. behaviors engine this module receives information from artificial intelligent unit. total functions about robot behavior such as stability motors actions, robot path planning, turn camera, walking, shooting, dribbling; motion and etc are controlled in this section. figure 8. artificial intelligence algorithm f. trajectory since the motion trajectory of each robot is divided into several median points that the robot should reach them one by one in a sequence the output obtained after the execution of ai will be a set of position and velocity vectors. so the task of the trajectory will be to guide the robots through the opponents to reach the destination. the routine used for this purpose is the potential field method (also an alternative new method is in progress which models the robot motion through opponents same as the flowing of a bulk of water through obstacles). in this method different electrical charges are assigned to our robots, opponents and the ball. then by calculating the potential field of this system of charges a path will be suggested for the robot. at a higher level, predictions can be used to anticipate the position of the opponents and make better decisions in order to reach the desired vector. figure 9. path planning with algorithm of potential fields brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 64 4. conclusion and future work in this paper, we present the details of design and implemented method of our humanoid soccer robot. the performance of our robot team in iran-open robocup competitions 2010 (3st place) and 1st national khwarizmi robotic competitions in 2009 showed that the combination of methods and techniques that described in this paper are led to a successful humanoid robot. in our robot, omni directional walking, vision system and a novel motion controller based on artificial neural network and pd controller have been combined to create a comprehensive humanoid robot. our robots can get up from a fall, walk forward and backward, turn right and left, and kick the ball. a camera, two ir sensors and a digital compass are integrated so that the robot can obtain the environmental information to decide the action behavior. we try to making the robot more stable and reliable as the result of our researches. future plans are to develop and implement autonomous team actions towards participation in the three-by-three games similar to other leagues in robocup. further information’s and video about our works are presented on our website http://www.iranadro.com/humanoidindex.htm 5. references [1] wong, c.c., cheng, c.t., wang, h.y., li, s.a., huang, k.h., wan, s.c., yang, y.t., hsu, c.l., wang, y.t., jhou, s.d., chan, h.m., huang, j.c., hu, y.y.: description of tkupapago team for humanoid league of robocup 2005. robocup internationalsymposium 2005 (2005). [2] zhou, c., jagannathan, k.: adaptive network based fuzzy of a dynamic biped walking control robot. ieee int. conf. on robotics and automation. 4 (2000) 3829-3834. [3] pauk, j. h., chung, h.: zmp compensation by on-line trajectory generation for biped robots. ieee international conference on systems, man, and cybernetics. 4 (1999) 960-965. [4] huang, q., li, k., nakamura, y.: humanoid walk control with feedforward dynamic pattern and feedback sensory reflection. ieee international symposium on computational intelligence in robotics and automation. (2001) 29-34. [5] sugihara, t., nakamura, y., inoue, h.: real time humanoid motion generation through zmp manipulation based on inverted pendulum control. ieee international conference on robotics and automation. 2 (2002) 1404-1409. [6] furuta, t.: design and construction of a series of compact humanoid robots and development of biped walk control strategies. ieee international conference on robotics and autonomous systems. (2001) 65-88. [7] vukobratovic, m., frank, a. a., juricic, d.: on the stability of biped locomotion. ieee trans. bio-med. eng. 17 (1970) 25-36. [8] golliday, c. l., jr., hemami, h.: an approach analyzing biped locomotion dynamics and designing robot locomotion control. ieee trans. aut. contr. (1977) 963-972. [9]miyazaki, f., arimoto, s: a control theoretic study on dynamical biped locomotion.asme j. dyna., syst., meas., contr. 102 (1980) 233-239. [10] furusho, j., masubuchi, m.: a theoretically motivated reduced order model for the control of dynamic biped locomotion. asme j. dyna., syst., meas., contr. 109 (1987) 155-163.d. equations microsoft word articol-6.docx 57 illness perception of young patients with hiv infection manuela arbune professor, clinical department, dunarea de jos university of galati, romania manuela.arbune@ugal.ro mihaela debita professor, morpho-functional department, dunarea de jos university of galati, romania mihaela.debita@ugal.ro mihai mutica elisabeta doamna psychiatry hospital, galati, romania mutica1@yahoo.com abstract the infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) has become a chronic disease due to effective antiretroviral therapy (arvt) that can provide complete and sustained viral suppression. the perception of hiv diagnosis has changed, from “condemnation to death” to longterm survival and life expectancy similar to the general population. the hiv epidemic in romania is predominant in cases diagnosed in infants born in 1987-1991, with nosocomially transmission during the first years of life. the aim of our work is to assess the perceptions of the course of the disease among persons living with hiv and the influence of factors such as demographic factors, time of hiv diagnostic, immunity and viral suppression under the arvt. the brief version of illness perception questionnaire (ipq) for assessment of cognitive and emotional representations of illness, comprehensibility and an inventory questionnaire scoring symptoms were applied by a cross-sectional study among patients in the daily clinic for hiv evaluation and treatment from the infectious diseases hospital in galati, romania. the most frequent age of patients with hiv from the clinic is under 35 years and they have good knowledge about their disease. the arvt is efficiently controlling the clinical and viral markers of disease. however, half of the respondents are emotionally affected by living with hiv. the negative perception of hiv infection is more severe among females and people with viral failure treatment, although various and even contradictory perceptions were found, according to the answers collected. the adherence support of medical teams requires personalized management of hiv patients. keywords: hiv, illness perception, questionnaire introduction over 35 years have passed since the emergence of the infection with human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) is spreading into a pandemic. many impressive scientific discoveries from the last years were accomplished to better understand the pathology of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (aids) and to use efficient antiretroviral drugs, improving the life expectancy of hiv infected patients [1]. impressive aids is arguably the greatest global healthcare challenge facing our generation. although there is not a cure and an effective vaccine until now, a comprehensive treatment program can improve the quality of life for people living with hiv (plwh) [2]. the effective antiretroviral therapy (arvt) can provide complete and sustained viral suppression, very good control of the symptoms, and almost zero epidemiological transmission. in other words, hiv infection has become a manageable chronic disease. the perception of hiv diagnosis has changed, from “condemnation to death” toward long-term survival disease, with life brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 58 expectancy similar to the general population [3]. however, both for patients and the general population, discrimination is the main perception related to hiv infection [4]. the hiv epidemic in romania is distinctive owing to the high number of people born during 1987-1991, nosocomially infected during their early childhood. presently, over one third of romanian plwh were diagnosed near three decades ago [5]. furthermore, people from the same cohort of age newly diagnosed with hiv infection are related to other transmission ways, mostly by heterosexual contact, sex between men or intravenous drug use. perinatal transmission was evidenced in a minority of cases. the aim of our study is to assess the perceptions of the disease among young persons living with hiv and the influence of demographic factors, the assumed way of hiv transmission, the length of hiv diagnostic, the immunity and viral suppression under the arvt. methods we have conducted a cross-sectional study among 115 patients with hiv, presented for routine monitorization and antiretroviral treatment to the daily clinic of the infectious diseases hospital in galati, romania. the including criteria were: age between 20 and 35 years, on current antiretroviral treatment, time of hiv diagnostic over 2 years, and written informed consent for the study questionnaire. we have excluded the severely ill patients with opportunistic or intercurrent associated diseases, depressive patients with score over 13 by depression back-ii inventory [6], such as patients with neurocognitive impairment, according to screening test by international hiv dementia scale score less than 8/12 [7]. we used the brief version of “illness perception questionnaire” (ipq), with a causal openended response item and eight items rated a 0-to 10 response scale, assessing cognitive illness representations (item 1 consequences, item 2 timeline, item 3 personal control, item 4 treatment control, item 5 identity), emotional representations (item 6 concern, item 8 emotions) and comprehensibility (item 7). the score was computed as a sum of the scores for items 1, 2, 5, 6, 8 and of reverse score items 3, 4, and 7. a higher score reflects a more negative perception of the illness [8]. at the end of ipq, the patients expressed their opinion related to the cause of their hiv disease, by choosing one of the following items: stress, heredity, a virus or other microbe, food, bad luck, medical negligence, pollution, own behavior, negative thoughts, familial problems, overwork, emotional state, age, alcohol, smoking, an accident, their personality or immunity [9]. the identity score (is) inventoried 14 symptoms, each of them rated with 1 point [10]. an additional questionnaire collected the demographic data, the risk factors for hiv transmission, the length of hiv diagnostic, current cd4 lymphocytes count and the status detectable or undetectable of arnhiv viral load. data analysis used statistical software package xl-stat. descriptive statistics, correlation analysis including pearson, spearman and kendall correlation coefficients and simple linear regression were applied. results there were 115 eligible patients evaluated by ipq. they were selected from 351 plwh monitored in the infectious diseases clinic in galati, during march 2018. the average age was 28±1.58 years [min 22; max 34], 48.7% were female, 43.3% lived in rural areas. the average time of formal education was 8.2±3.69 years. a percent of 53% were married or had a stable partner, and 44.3% are raising one or more children. there were 41.3% smokers, while 28.6% plwh admitted alcohol use [table i]. the experience of hiv diagnostic was variable, since 2 to 28 years, with an average of 15.6±6.6. this is related to arvt experience of average 7±2.3 drugs combination, but with average length of 7 ±4 years for the current arvt [table ii]. the transmission way was mainly nosocomial (75%), followed by sexual (10%) and perinatal (5%), while for 10% it was unknown [figure 1]. m. arbune , m. debita, m. mutica illness perception of young patients with hiv infection 59 the median of the current immunity was 523.5/mm3 of lcd4, and 70.4% (81/115) patients dropped under virologic target with undetectable viral load. table i: demographic characteristics n % p ci 0,95 gender female 56 48.7% 0.77 0.40; 0.60 living area rural 50 43.3% 0.161 0.34; 0.52 married or couple 61 53% 0.513 0.43; 0.62 children 51 44.3% 0.22 0.35; 0.53 smoking 59 41.3 % 0.77 0.39; 0.57 alcohol use 33 28.6% <0.001 0.20; 0.37 table ii: characteristics of hiv average sd median min max time of hiv diagnostic 15.6 ±6.6 16 2 28 treatment “experience” (no. of arvt combinations) 7 ±2.3 6 1 13 duration of current arvt (years) 7 ±4 7 1 16 current immunity (cd4 lymphocyte count/mm3) 533 ±282 523.5 25 1390 we asked the patients to identify the cause of the disease among the following items: stress, heredity, a virus or other microbe, food, bad luck, medical negligence, pollution, own behavior, negative thoughts, familial problems, over work, emotional state, age, alcohol, smoking, an accident, their personality or immunity. medical negligence was considered the cause of their hv infection in 67%, bad luck in 9%, a virus in 7%, own behavior in 5% and 12% answered “i don’t know” [figure 2]. the inventory of the symptoms that are attributable to hiv was identified by the second item. headache was found most frequently (30%). near a quarter of patients complained of sore eyes (25.66%), stiff joints (24.78%) and fatigue (24.78%). other symptoms were: dizziness (21.73%), sleep difficulties (21.4%), loss of strength (21.24%), upset stomach (19.47%), pain (15.9%), breathlessness (15%), nausea (11.5%), sore throat (10.6%), weight loss (9.73%) and wheeziness (4.4%) [table iii]. based on the sum of identified symptoms for each patient, the average identity score (is) was 2.55±2.71. remarkably, almost half of the patients (46.9%; 54/115) did not complain of any symptom. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 60 table iii: inventory of experienced symptoms related to hiv experienced symptoms related to hiv yes no frequency 1 pain 18 95 15.9% 2 sore throat 12 101 10.6% 3 nausea 13 100 11.5% 4 breathlessness 17 96 15% 5 weight loss 11 102 9.73% 6 fatigue 28 85 24.78% 7 stiff joints 28 85 24.78% 8 wheeziness 5 108 4.4% 9 sore eyes 29 84 25.66% 10 headaches 34 79 30% 11 upset stomach 22 91 19.47% 12 sleep difficulties 24 89 21.24% 13 dizziness 25 89 21.73% 14 loss of strength 24 89 21.24% on a scale from 0 to 10, the answers to the brief ipq were scored and analysed for each item [table iv]. table iv: summary of ipq answers among hiv patients question dimension of illness perception μ* № score 0 № score 10 av. points 1 how much does your illness affect your life? consequences 5 0 30 4.6 2 how long do you think your illness will continue? timeline 10 3 88 7.2 3 how much control do you feel you have over your illness? personal control 10 0 62 1.5 4 how much do you think your treatment can help your illness? treatment control 10 3 10 0.8 5 what are the illness symptoms you experience? “identity” 0 59 13 2.4 6 how concerned are you about your illness? concern 1 50 29 6 7 how well do you feel you understand your illness? coherence 10 0 58 2.2 8 how much does your illness affect you emotional 4 42 21 4.1 m. arbune , m. debita, m. mutica illness perception of young patients with hiv infection 61 emotionally? representation μ*: median score the average global score was 28.8±8.6 [figures 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8]. discussions during daily life, people living with hiv frequently face up to discrimination and negative public attitudes leading to the disturbance of own perception of illness [11]. stigma and discrimination against plwh are variable by geographical region, race, gender, culture and religious believes. the stigmatization of plwh has consequences on professional employment, education and health care, as well as on the coping ability. commonly, multiple stigmatizing situations interfere with hiv, including poverty, sexual orientation, drug use, poor education, detention, violence, nutrition, mental health and physical appearance [12]. romanian young plwh have done that since early childhood, experiencing premature discrimination and frequent exclusion during basic education. growing up with hiv is accompanied by emotional immaturity, low self efficacy to the adult age and commonly a special perception of the illness. most nosocomially infected patients are aware that they were innocent victims of medical neglect many years ago [figure 1, figure 2]. figure 1: distribution by way of hiv transmission figure 2: distribution by perception of cause of hiv infection regarding the consequences of the disease, we found different perceptions, scaling from extreme low impact (29.5%) to full impact (26%) on daily life [figure 3.1]. the timeline of hiv was marked by 76.5% patients as incurable infection, according to current science and medical knowledge [figure 3.2]. most patients perceived the complete control of the disease, both personal control (63.7%) and treatment induced control (82.3%). the treatment is perceived as more trustworthy than own personal resources for illness control [figure 3.3, figure 3.4]. overall, this perception seems to be realistic and is comparable with the marker of arvt outcome, evidenced in 70.4% cases by undetectable hiv viral load. illness identity was not at all perceived by 52.2% of patients and 71.3% cases perceived a score less than 4/10, that could be explained by the efficient arvt [figure 3.5]. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 62 figure 3.1: perception of illness consequences figure 3.2: perception of illness timeline figure 3.3: perception of illness personal control figure 3.4: perception of illness treatment control figure 3.5: perception of illness identity figure 3.6: perception of illness concern coherence means that patients understand their disease. over a half of patients consider they fully comprehend the illness [figure 3.7]. emotions were perceived by the scale of concern and emotional representation. most answers expressed no concern (44.25%) and no illness influence for emotional representation (38%) [figure 3.6, figure 3.8]. m. arbune , m. debita, m. mutica illness perception of young patients with hiv infection 63 figure 3.7: perception of illness coherence figure 3.8: perception of illness emotional representation significant corelations of the brief ipq global score were found with the identy score of symptoms [figure 4], virologic status (detectable or undetectable) [figure 5] and female gender [figure 6]. more intensive perception of infection in hiv infected women was also the result of a previous brazilian study [13]. figure 4: correlation of global score ipq figure 5: correlation of global score and identity symptoms score and category of hv viral load figure 6: correlation of global score and gender figure 7: graphic representation of partial scores of illness perception and hiv transmission ways the partial scores of the brief ipq were similar, regardless of the way hiv was transmitted, with the exception of emotional representation, which was more pronounced in sexually infected individuals [figure 7]. the literature of chronic diseases, including hiv, proved that illness perception influences the experience, management and adherence [10,13]. at a practical level, the evaluation of the ipq should be used for the management of patient centered care, by focusing on enhancing the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 64 understanding of patient perspective in order to reach the best adherence [14,15,16,17]. conclusions romanian young plwh have long experienced the disease and are mostly well controlled under the antiretroviral therapy. women express more negative hiv perception than men. the perception of the disease correlates with symptom score and virological response to antiretroviral therapy. exploring the illness perception should be considered good clinical practice for clinician-patient communication, in order to improve the adherence and the quality of life for hiv-infected patients. references 1. mocroft, a., ledergerber, b., katlama, c., kirk, o., reiss, p., d’arminio monforte, a., et al. (2003). decline in the aids and death rates in the eurosida study: an observational study. lancet 362, 22–29. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(03)13802-0. 2. lupu, vasilevaleriu; ignat, ancuta; stoleriu, gabriela; ciubara, alexandru bogdan; ciubara, anamaria; lupu, valeriu; burlea, marin; stratciuc, sergiu vaccination of children in romania between civic obligation and personal choice revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 2017; 56: 123-132 3. hageman j. a (2018). historical perspective of hiv infection. pediatr ann, 47: e226. doi: 10.3928/19382359-20180522-03. 4. masoudnia e.(2015). public perceptions about hiv/aids and discriminatory attitudes toward people living with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in iran. sahara-j: journal of social aspects of hiv/aids, 12: 1, 116-122. 5. dente, k., & hess, j. (2006). pediatric aids in romania-a country faces its epidemic and serves as a model of success. medgenmed : medscape general medicine, 8(2), 11. 6. beck, a. t., steer, r. a., & brown, g. k. (1996). manual for the beck depression inventory-ii 7. sacktor nc, wong m, nakasujja n, et al.(2005) the international hiv dementia scale: a new rapid screening test for hiv dementia. aids. 19, 1367–1374. 8. broadbent, e., petne, k.j., main, j., weinman, j., (2006). the brief illness perception questionnaire (bipq). journal of psychosomatic research, 60, 631-637. 9. moss-morris, r., weinman, j., petrie, k. j., horne, r., cameron, l.d., & buick, d. (2002). the revised illness perception questionnaire (ipq-r). psychology and health. 17, 1-16. 10. ciubară, a., burlea, ş. l., săcuiu, i., radu, d. a., untu, i., &chiriţă, r. alcohol addiction–a psychosocial perspective. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 2015; 187: 536-540 11. caliari js, teles sa, reis rk, gir e.(2017). factors related to the perceived stigmatization of people living with hiv. rev esc enferm usp, 51:e03248. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220x2016046703248. 12. maria j. figueiras & nuno c. alves (2007) lay perceptions of serious illnesses: an adapted version of the revised illness perception questionnaire (ipq-r) for healthy people, psychology & health, 22:2, 143-158,doi: 10.1080/14768320600774462. 13. renesto, h., falbo, a., souza, e., & vasconcelos, m. (2014). coping and perception of women with hiv infection . revista de saúde pública, 48(1), 36-42. https://doi.org/10.1590/s00348910.2014048003186. 14. borghi, l., galli, f., and vegni, e. a. m. (2016). “the patient-centered medicine as the theoretical framework for patient engagement,” in promoting patient engagement and participation for effective healthcare reform, ed. g. graffigna (hershey, pa: igi global), 25– 39. doi: 10.4018/978-1-4666-9992-2.ch002. 15. leone d, borghi l, lamiani g, barlascini l, bini t, d’arminio monforte a and vegni e (2016) illness representations of hiv positive patients are associated with virologic success. front. psychol. 7:1991. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01991. m. arbune , m. debita, m. mutica illness perception of young patients with hiv infection 65 16. zolnierek, k. b., and dimatteo, m. r. (2009). physician communication and patient adherence to treatment: a meta-analysis. med. care47, 826–834. doi: 10.1097/mlr.0b013e31819a5acc. 17. falup-pecurariu, oana et al (2017) effects of prophylactic ibuprofen and paracetamol administration on the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of the 10-valent pneumococcal nontypeable haemophilus influenzae protein d conjugated vaccine (phid-cv) co-administered with dtpa-combined vaccines in children: an open-label, randomized, controlled, noninferiority trial human vaccines & immunotherapeutics; 13 (3): 649-660; doi: 10.1080/21645515.2016.1223001 microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 42 ekg through sound-card gheorghe blioju transgaz sa mediaş, romania niku211x@yahoo.com abstract this paper describes a cheapest method to realise a compact monitoring ekg system, using a electronic device and software. the device will be able to increase biosignals and forward them to the pc through the sound-card. it will also have software specialized in taking over the received signals and displaying them on the screen of the pc. keywords: electrocardiograph, ekg, sound-card, heart monitoring 1. introduction our purpose is to realize a cheap and compact monitoring ekg system with applications in the medical system. the paper is based on [3-17] regarding the medical, electronic and programming aspects. recent studies have highlighted the fact that heart diseases have become the main factor of mortality. this has led to an increasing demand for monitoring equipment and for certain procedures of processing heart signals. the electrocardiograph is the device which receives the electric biological signal produced by the heart, amplifies it and forwards it to an analogic or digital shape to be further processed. the market demands are now directed towards the mobility of these devices, an increasingly better data processing and a lower energy consumption. modern ekg devices (electro-cardio-graph) are equipped with a printer, digital processing, pc communication or internet links, or with mobile telecommunication networks. although the concept of ekg is not new, the main feature of this project lies in offering a simple, compact, low energy consumption, financially atractive product which meets with the medical health standards of protection and operability. the device will be able to increase biosignals and forward them to the pc through the sound-card. it will also have software dedicated to taking over the received signals and displaying them on the screen of the pc. 1. the electrocardiogram in august 1887, the british physiologist august d. wallter published the first studies of human electrocardiography, performed with a capillary electrometer. in 1889, he experimentally demonstrated these human electrocardiography studies on the occasion of the first congress of physiology in bale. taking part in the demonstration was also the dutch physiologist willem einthoven who, later in 1901, invented a new, more efficient device for ekg recording. einthoven wasd awarded the nobel prize in 1924 for the invention of the electrocardiograph [2]. the electrocardiogram represents the registration, at the surface of the body, of the cyclic fluctuations of the electric field induced by the rhythmic activity of the heart. this recording is called electrocardiogram (ekg or ecg) and is performed with the help of a device called electrocardiograph. the electrocardiogram reflects the electrical events of cardiac excitation such as heart rate, rhythm and excitation source, pulse propagation and provides information about the anatomical orientation of the heart and the relative size of the heart’s compartments. the ekg does not provide information on the heart’s mechanical activity (contraction efficiency and blood pomping). the heart can be viewed in terms of a battery, a generator of electric power embedded in a conductive mass (the body). the heart generates an electric field which can be highlighted on the surface of the body through electrodes placed on the skin. g. blioju ekg through sound-card 43 2. einthoven’s triangle in terms of power, the trunk and the limbs can be represented as an equilateral triangle with one of the peaks oriented towards the abdomen and the other two towards the shoulders. since the human body is a conductive mass, an electrode attached to the arm is the electric equivalent of a connection to the shoulder and an electrode attached to the foot is the equivalent of a connection to the abdomen. using this principle, we obtain the following three standard bipolar limb derivations (figure1): • derivation i: negative electrode to the right hand and positive electrode to the left hand • derivation ii: positive electrode to the left foot, negative to the right hand • derivation iii: positive electrode to the left foot, negative to the left hand. figure 1. bipolar limb derivations to obtain these derivations, the subject is attached to 4 electrodes, one for each limb. by convention, the fourth electrode, the one from the right foot, is used for electrical grounding. in terms of power, the bipolar limb derivations define a reference point in the middle of the heart. this connection is negative in case of unipolar derivations. unipolar limb derivations: • avr: plus for the right arm, the negative connection being established in the point from the middle of the heart • avl: positive connection for the left arm, the negative connection being established in the point from the middle of the heart • avf: positive connection for the left foot, the negative connection being established in the point from the middle of the heart where: a = augmented; v = unipolar; r, l, f = right, left, foot unipolar precardiac derivations are six and are obtained by placing positive electrodes on the chest, in standard position. the negative electrode is represented, in this case also, by the electric point at the middle of the heart. the deviations are denoted by the letter v (“unipolar”): v1, v2, .....v6. 3. the electrocardiograph the electrocardiograph is composed of ekg amplifier, recorder module and power supply source. the ekg amplifier takes the signals sent through the electrodes and through a system of a magnetic type of coupling achieved through transformers with the purpose of complete isolation, and forwards them to the digital display module. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 44 the recorder module applies the signal to the preamplifier’s non-inverted input and then passes through the limiter which establishes the maximum left or right limits of the stylus, to avoid breaking the recording tape. the power supply of the device contains mainly a convertor with an output transformer and a reaction transformer powered either from a network through a downward transformer followed by a rectifier and filter, or from an accumulator battery. to comply with the rules of patient protection, the supply for the electrocardiograph’s preamplifier is done floatingly according to the grounding null (figure 2). figure 2. patient protection in relation to the parasite signals of electric lines the requirements for the isolation transformer are: • reduced capacity between windings • high dielectric stiffness of the insulation the electrocardiograph should measure electric signals with amplitudes of about 1mv, but should simultaneously ensure a good rejection of the network hum at the input of the preamplifier as a common mode noise of 50hz. the ratio of minimum common-mode rejection can be calculated on the basis of an equivalent scheme. the value of the coupling capacity between the patient’s body and the supply network is approximately 10-15 pf. through this capacity and the patient, a current of approximately1µa and with the frequence of 50 hz closes towards the mass. this current will determine an efective tension of approximately 10 mv on the grounding electrode’s equivalent resistance in contact with the patient. this sound tension will occur at the two inputs of the amplifier as a value of commonmode. to reduce the influence of this noise, one needs to find out the value of the ratio of the common mode rejection so that the output noise may represent 1% of the ekg signal. the ratio of the cmrr common-mode rejection will be, in this case, calculated by the relation (1): db mvvv mvef cmmr 69 01,0*1 10 == (1) by using an isolated preamplifier, the grounding of the patient is done through a value capacity of 100-150 pf. the common mode noise tension determined by this capacity will have a value of approximately 20 vef. the common mode rejection ratio will have to be increased up to 20 vef / 0,01mvvv, which is 135 db. for this type of electrocardiograph, a careful design of the preamplifier is required. the electrodes which can be used by the electrocardiograph are of several types, according to their shape: flat, with suction, or flexible single-use. the value of the contact impedance between the electrodes and the skin can reach 10k, so that an amplifier input impedance of 1m is appropriate. in practice, due to the fact that the contact impedances of the two electrodes are not equal, and to obtain a common mode rejection ration of 80 db, one should choose a preamplifier input impedance of 100m. force line grounding electrode g. blioju ekg through sound-card 45 the disturbing electrical signals which are superimposed to the ekg signal are those coming from the muscles (emg) whose spectrum of frequency exceeds that of the ekg. this interference can be eliminated with a low-pass filter. to establish the diagnosis, the ekg signal must be measured in a frequency band of 100 hz, while a band of 40 hz is sufficient for monitoring. the spectral component of interest is given by the lowest frequency from the ekg signal which exceeds 1 hz, which corresponds to a heart rate of 60 beats per minute. using a high-pass filter, with a cut-off frequency of 1 hz, will distort the shape of the signal through the insertion of a phase delay. in order to maintain the shape of the signal within acceptable limits, a high-pass filter with a cut-off frequency for 3 db of 0,05 hz or 0,1 hz is frequently used. 4. general presentation of the amplifier the amplifier we have realized has the following parametres: a) input signal: 2mv for the alternative component and 250mv for the continuous component, produced by the contact between the skin and the electrode b) band width is between 0.5hz and 35hz c) amplification varies between 200 and 4010 the ekg amplifier is made up of the following functional blocks (see figure 3): • instrumentation amplifier • the circuit which performs the common-mode “right leg” reaction • high-pass filter • low-pass filter • output amplifier • power supply block figure 3. the block diagram of the ekg amplifier 4.1. the circuit which performs the common-mode “right leg” reaction the common mode “right leg” type of system is an alternative to connecting the patient to the ground, in many modern electrocardiographs. the operational amplifier used in the reaction is op97, a low-power amplifier with an extremely large common-mode rejection (minimum 114db). the circuit applies to the patient’s right foot an inverted version of common-mode interference with the purpose of cancelling the total interference. the operational amplifier has a common-mode rejection of 91 ⎟⎟ ⎠ ⎞ ⎜⎜ ⎝ ⎛ ω ω = k m iirr r 11 1 32 4 and a low-pass cut-off of 160hz for stability. we have equation (2): fk f db μπ 1.0102 1 3 ×ω× =− (2) the circuit can also provide protection against accidental electrocution. rx3 limits the discharged current in case of dangerous tensions between patient and earth. component list diferential amplifier / right leg high-pas filter lowpass filter output amplifier power supply block brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 46 ic2=op97, rx3=220k, r1=10k, r2,r3=22k, r4=1m, c1=0.1uf 4.2. high-pass filter it allows signals with frequencies up to 0.05 hz (cut-off frequence) to pass unaltered while it strongly attenuates those exceeding the cut-off frequency. figure 4 shows the electronic scheme. this filter adjusts the low impedance exit of the instrumentation amplifier with the high impedance entrance of the high-pass filter. figure 4. high-pass filter electronic component list c2,c3,c4,c5=2,2 uf, r5,r6,r7,r8=1,5 mohmi to calculate the filter, one may use the calculation application found at http://sim.okawadenshi.jp/en/crhikeisan.htm [1] or the following equation (3): rc f c π = 2 1 (3) 4.3 low-pass filter the low-pass filter, presented in figure 5, allows signals with frequencies up to 34 hz (cutoff frequency) to pass unaltered while it strongly attenuates those with frequencies exceeding the cut-off frequency. it is an active filter, of the butterworth sallen-key type which contains one of the four operational amplifiers of the tl084 integrated circuit. figure 5. low-pass filter to the high-pass filter from the preamplifier from the highpass to the output amplifier g. blioju ekg through sound-card 47 the cut-off frequency can be calculated by using the simulator at http://sim.okawadenshi.jp/en/crhikeisan.htm or the following equation (4): 21212 1 ccrr f c π = (4) component list ic3a=tl084, c6,c9,c7,c8=0,047uf, r9,r10=100k, r11,r12=1k tl084 technical specifications (figure 6): low-power, small input current, the circuit has protection against short-circuiting. also, distortions are of the 0.003% typ. the input impedance is high due to the jfet input. the circuit contains four operational amplifiers with jfet input. figure 6. the capsule of the integrated tl084 circuit 4.4. the output amplifier the electronic scheme of the output amplifier shown in figure 7 contains one of the operational amplifiers found in the integrated tl084 circuit used in the low-pass filter. with the help of the potentiometer p1 one can adjust the amplification level from 10 to 210. figure 7. output amplifier the amplification of the circuit can be calculated using the following formula (5): g = ra / rb (5) component list ic3b=tl084, r13=1k brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 48 r14=10k, r15=20k p1=200k, c10=2.2uf 4.5. the power supply block the power supply block shown in figure 8 supplies the circuits of the ekg amplifier with the tension required for proper functioning. supplying the fitting is done with a dual tension obtained from two 9v batteries. since they work on bipolar input signals, integrated circuits must be supplied from a source of dual tension of ±5v provided by the regulatory integrated circuits ic4 and ic5, which lower the tension of -+9v. the condensers c11,c12,c13,c14 clear the supplying circuit. figure 8. the power supply block component list ic4=7805, ic5=7905, c11,c12,c13,c14=0,1uf 7805 technical specifications output tensions of +5v, maximum output current 1,5 a, protection against short-circuit figure 9. the 7805 integrated circuit 7905 technical specifications output tension -5v; output maximum current 1,5 a; protection against short-circuit g. blioju ekg through sound-card 49 figure 10. the 7905 integrated circuit 4.6. practical achievement the electronic circuit was assembled on two dubly copper placated test plates which were placed on a chassis made up of a hard plastic plate (figure11). the preamplifier was armoured with an iron plate to reduce the influence of the electric network. the entire assembly was introduced in a plastic box specially designed for electronit fittings. the linking cables of the three electrodes are also armoured and connect to the electronic module via rca sockets. figure 11. practical realization of the ekg amplifier the connection with the computer is done through an armoured cable equipped with a jack socket at the microphone’s input into the sound card. the electrodes used are self-adhesive, single-use and were ordered from a distributor in medical equipment. 5. graphical representation soft for the ekg signal in the current chapter we shall describe a type of software for monitoring a patient’s (human subject) heart activity. through the sound-card (the microphone socket), the program takes audio signals amplified by the electronic fitting presented in the last chapter and displays them graphically on the screen of the computer. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 50 we shall first present the way in which the program (called heart monitor) is used, together with the electronic fitting, and then we shall present and explain the instructions for the program. 5.1. use of the ekg program after installing the software (from the setup.exe file from the delivery cd), you run it from the start menu → programs → heart monitor (group) → heart monitor (program). the program works on the windows xp operating system, but also on previous versions of 32 de bytes, it requires a minimum hard-disk free space (1 mo), a sound-card of 16 bytes (minimum), with microphone socket, and a video-card with a resolution of at least 800x600 pixels. after starting the program, the electronic equipment will be set up on a fixed support (a table), and the silvery jack will be plugged into the sound-card, in the microphone socket (figure 12). then, the three electrodes will be attached to the patient. the patient will lie down on a plane surface (a bed or a stretcher for consultations), relaxed, with the arms stretched and the head towards the right (see figure 13). figure 12. plug-ins and sockets of the sound-card the positive electrode will be applied on the patient’s chest, in the direction of the heart (figure 14), the negative electrode on the right forearm (figure 15), and the mass electrode on the calf of the right leg (figure 16). g. blioju ekg through sound-card 51 figure 13. the correct position of the patient’s body during heart activity monitorization figure 14. attaching the electrode in the direction of the heart brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 52 figure 15. attaching the electrode to the right hand figure 16. attaching the electrode to the right leg the electrodes will be labelled, so that their installation may be correctly done. for a reduced resistence to the connection between the electrodes and the skin, the electrodes will be moistened with a piece of cotton soaked in sodium chlorate, with a concentration of 15-25% (figure 17 left). one can also use a special ekg gel which can be ordered from online pharmacies (figure 17 right). figure 17. nacl (20%) solution and ekg gel after that, the patient will be asked to wait for a few minutes, during which he will relax, and we will adjust the amplitude of the input signal into the computer’s sound-card, through the microphone socket. for this, we will use the program sound control from start → programs → accessories → entertaiment → sound control (figure 18). g. blioju ekg through sound-card 53 figure 18. adjusting the signal input through the microphone socket as soon as all the elements of the electronic fitting have been fettled, the “start” button from the heart monitor program will be pressed. for auto configuration, one can check the “auto configuration” option. autoconfiguration means a level margin where the tops of a sine curve are read, so that the program will display the number of heart beats per minute. one can also opt to manually choose a level, which will be entered in the corresponding field, after unchecking the “auto configuration” option. in the field labelled with “time (sec)” one should introduce the number of seconds which represents the period in which the signal is represented graphically between the left and right limits of the representation zones (see figure 19). figure 19. the initial interface of the heart monitor software in case the number of seconds (figure 9 shows 10 seconds) increases, then the representation of the electrocardiogram will be coarser and if the number of seconds decreases then the representation will be more accurate (figure 20). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 54 figure 20. coarse electrocardiogram figure 21. accurate electrocardiogram figure 22 shows our patient’s electrocardiogram (c.b., female, aged 21, clinically healthy, blood pressure 10/7, blood group a2). g. blioju ekg through sound-card 55 figure 22. example of electrocardiogram to properly represent the bioelectrical signal, the sources of electromagnetic noise will be eliminated (medical, electric, electronic equipment, gsm devices, radios and tvs, computers, etc.), and the patient will stay still. for paper printing, one may press the print screen key and then the graphical representation can be copied into a program (e.g. word, paint) and printed on graph paper. for the interpretation of results and the establishment of a diagnosis, a cardiologist will be appealed to. in case the patient’s pulse is zero, the text field will display the message “dead patient. call on a priest”, and if the pulse is higher than 50, then the message displayed will be "dum de dum de do". also, if the pulse is higher than 110, the message displayed will be “take exercise!”, and for a pulse higher than 300, the message “pulse is too high. make sure the electrodes are properly connected” will appear. 5.2. experiments and technical data after the experiments that we have carried out on a number of 50 subjects (25 men and 25 women), aged between 14 and 60, healthy as well as suffering from various heart diseases, the obtained results were comparable to those obtained by a professional electrocardiograph. the cost for the entire monitoring system we have realised rises to 2000 euros (500 euros for the computer, 500 euros for the licensed software (windows xp and visual basic 6), 500 euros for the components of the electronic fitting, 500 euros for the labour) as compared to the cost of an electrocardiograph which costs 20.000 euros. our program was realised and tested on a compaq laptop having the following features: • processor p 3 la 1000 mhz • ram 512 mb • hd -19 gb • video-card –radeon 7500 agp for software development we have used the visual basic 6.0 visual programming environment because it allows both interactions with the video-card as well as easy achievement of graphic user interfaces (gui). we have made a module called fucntions.bas which contains the functions specialized in accessing the sound device (sound-card). for this purpose, we have defined a few constants and brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 56 then we have implemented the waveinaddbuffer function, on the basis of the dynamic system library winmm.dll (windows multimedia), which takes over the sound signal. we have also written the opening and closing functions of the sound entrance (waveinopen, waveinclose), as well as other functions required by direct access to the audio signal from the microphone. these were achieved with the help of the “constant thought recordscope v1.0” software. 6. conclusions and future works the objectives aimed at have been reached. an electronic monitoring system for ekg signals was obtained at a low cost, which can be used both for people and animals. although soundcards have certain limitations in amplifying low frequencies, the ekg monitoring system is worth further development. we will develop a complex system for electronic stimulation of the temporal lobes of the brain, in order to generate modification in the emotions of a young person. this system will use the ekg device we described above. the ekg will monitor the heart activity, to see how the subject will act at the temporal lobes stimulation. 7. references [1] http://sim.okawa-denshi.jp/en/crhikeisan.htm [2] http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/.../ecg/ [3] http://www.analog.com [4] http://www.escardio.org [5] http://www.ti.com [6] http://www.cardiologie.ro [7] http://programare.org/kb.php?cat=8&mode=cat [8] http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/hills/4377/ [9] http://www.emedicinehealth.com/electrocardiogram.../article_em.htm [10] http://adam.about.com/encyclopedia/ecg.htm [11] http://delivery.gettyimages.com/xd/dv394018.mov?c...d... [12] http://www.ishop.ro/.../visual-basic-net-sfaturi-si-tehnici_jamsa-kris-trad-voindoru.html [13] http://www.electrocardiograf.ro [14] http://www.scienceclarified.com/.../electrocardiogram.html [15] carp, c., tratat de cardiologie. vol. 2 [16] * * *, ghid clinic de cardiologie, ulrich stierle colmar niederstadt [17] bostaca, i., marcu, c., diagnostic electrocardiografic 89 a comparative study on the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders among laparoscopic surgical technologists in circulatory and scrub roles golchin shahijani faculty of nursing and midwifery isfahan university of medical sciences hezar jerib street, isfahan, iran 8174673461 phone: +98 31 3792 3071 mahnaz shakerian department of occupational health shiraz university of medical science central building of shiraz university of medical sciences, zand st., shiraz, iran po box: 71348-14336 ahmad ghadami nursing and midwifery care research center, faculty of nursing and midwifery isfahan university of medical sciences hezar jerib street, isfahan, iran 8174673461 phone: +98 31 3792 3071 ghadami@nm.mui.ac.ir abstract background: musculoskeletal disorders are of the most important occupational injuries and diseases, in which the work environment and individual activities play an essential role in their prevalence. since laparoscopy has become a preferred approach to treating many of the actions, the aim of this study was to determine the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders among laparoscopic surgery technologists and comparing them between circulatory and scrubbing roles. materials and methods: in this descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study, 49 participants were evaluated by reba method in al-zahra hospital, isfahan, iran, 2017. data was collected through reba form and analyzed using spss software version 20. results: 94% of our samples were women mostly married with an age range of 32/17 years. the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was 98.87% with a mean overall risk of 7.2 ± 0.75 in the role of circulatory and 5.31 ± 0.63 in the role of scrub. conclusion: considering the fact that surgical technologists are at risk due to the nature of their job and to promote their health, ergonomic interventions are critically suggested for equipment, tools and environments as well as including ergonomics in their educational curriculum and regular exercise programs. keywords: musculoskeletal disorders; risk factors, postures; laparoscopy; circulatory and scrub. 1. introduction laparoscopic techniques for minimally invasive surgery (mis) are rapidly developing (janki et. al., 2017; bartnicka et. al., 2013) so that it might have been considered as the first choice for many surgeries such as cholecystectomy and has become a golden standard for removal of the gallbladder (janki et. al., 2017; bartnicka et. al., 2018; kramp et. al., 2014). although there are many advantages in laparoscopic procedures such as less pain after surgery, shorter recovery time and better results for patients (janki et. al., 2017; bartnicka et. al., 2018; choi et. al., 2018), they require a fixed port position contributing to different awkward postures (el-badry et. al., 2018) and certain technical constraints (sánchez-margallo et. al., 2017). there may be ergonomic problems, therefore, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 90 with techniques or tools (bartnicka et. al., 2018). among health workers, especially nurses, workrelated musculoskeletal disorders (wmsds) are a major global concern (nur azma et. al., 2016) and the number of cases has risen since 1980 (athena et. al., 2014). for example, the number of wmsds complaints in taiwanese nurses, has gone up from 28.35% in 2006 to 33.65% in 2010 (chung et. al., 2013). also, based on the statistics, the reported complains among nurses who experienced wmsds symptoms at least in one region of their body were 88% in malaysia, (nur azma et. al., 2016), 48% in the united states (zhang et. al., 2018), 85% in saudi arabia (attar., 2014), 66% in switzerland (nützi et. al., 2015), 80.8% in africa 80.8% (munabi et. al., 2014), 100% in iran (zamanian et. al., 2017). the cost of these disorders is estimated about 4% of the world's gross domestic product. for instance, back injuries among the operating room staff have caused direct costs of $ 37,000 and indirect costs of $ 147,000 (king, 2011). in addition, ignoring the risk factors and injuries of musculoskeletal disorders over time, it may result in increasing absenteeism, medical expenses, pre-retirement, and reducing the working quality and productivity, as well as the lack of workforce, abundant economic effects on individuals, organizations, and societies or even in more severe cases the death of a person (ballester arias & garcía, 2017; taghinejad et. al., 2015). therefore, by assessing the wmsds risk factors, high risk tasks can be identified and it may be possible to eliminate or reduce these risk factors through ergonomically designing the layout (choobineh et. al., 2013; choobineh et. al., 2012), tools and equipment (choobineh et. al., 2012) contemporary with an organized educational intervention (copenhaver et. al., 2017; epstein et. al., 2018) with the aim of adopting suitable work postures (el-badry et. al., 2018; abdollahzade et. al., 2016), exercise (stolt et. al., 2018; heba et. al., 2018) aerobics and physical strength training (szeto et. al., 2013; wang et. al., 2017) prevented the spread of it (dana et. al., 2013; wang et. al., 2017). as previously mentioned, laparoscopic approach encompasses unique ergonomic challenges compared to open surgery (wang et. al., 2017). although, some studies have shown a relationship between laparoscopy and more musculoskeletal pain in surgeons (dalager et. al., 2018; choi, 2015), some other studies like wang robert et. al. (2017) a reduction of ergonomic stress was observed in some muscles among surgeons doing laparoscopic practice compared with that of open surgery (wang et. al., 2017). however, there is no detailed ergonomic information on the impact of this new technology on the activities of surgical technologists during laparoscopic surgery since so far few studies have been conducted specifically on these people, especially in the role of circular. in the surgical team, surgical technologists are only part of the team with two different roles of circulatory and scrub among surgical operations. they in surgical procedures of most medical centers, the surgical technologists would act as a circulatory, the interface between the surgical sterilization team and the non-sterile environment (choobineh et. al., 2010) and in the role of scrub, they act simultaneously as scrubs and as the first assistant throughout the entire course of surgery which means, ergonomically working in worse situation than even nursing. so, although new technology may yield credible advantages for surgical team like improving patient surgery outcomes (dalager et. al., 2017) or even reducing the risk of transmitting biological agents; it is unclear in terms of ergonomics what impacts would have on the person with the role(s) of the circulatory and/or scrub. based on the mentioned points, the need for a study with regard to the risk factors leading to wmsds is felt among these people. therefore, this study aimed at comparing the wmsds risk factors among laparoscopic surgery technologists with the two roles of circular and scrubbing. laparoscopic history laparoscopy goes back to 1901 (supe et. al., 2010), the first laparoscopy in alzahra hospital, however, dates back to 1995, firstly done by attend thorax on laparoscopic cholecystectomy. today's other operations such as herniorrhaphy, bariatric, diagnostic laparoscopy, hysterectomy, cystectomy, thymectomy, pulmonary, nephrectomy, and diagnostic infertility have also been developed. cholecystectomy in the studied hospital is performed based on the american method, i.e. the surgeon standing on the left side of the patient (kramp et. al., 2014), through 4 g. shahijani, m. shakerian, a. ghadami a comparative study on the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders among laparoscopic surgical technologists in circulatory and scrub roles 91 separate ports with trendelenburg reversal of the patient after pneumoperitoneum with an average time of 103 minutes (from patient arrival to departure). ergonomic problems the advent of minimal invasive surgery (mis) has changed the environment of today's operating rooms (wasielewski et. al., 2017). these operating rooms, which are originally designed for open surgical operations, are not responsive to large equipment used in laparoscopic devices. although the laparoscopic method has currently become a preferred approach to many practices, the shortage of laparoscopic equipment is critically felt as in the 11 rooms where laparoscopic surgery takes place; only 7 tray carts exist containing laparoscopic equipment (monitor, insufflator, cold light source, dvd and ccd drawer). these carts are, inevitably, kept outdoors and away from the operating room contributing to personnel’s obligation to relocate, reconnect, and reassemble these equipment for each operation. the 6 monitors available include one very low qualified 14 inch, two ordinary 20 inch and four fairly good qualified flat monitors permanently located on the highest floor of each card. the heights of the monitor center to the ground are 1640, 1665, 1680, 1750 mm in the ordinary and flat ones, respectively. the ccd drawer is also placed on the lowest floorboard with a height of 280 and 230, 470, 490 mm from the floor. despite open operations through which only a pack and a set are required, laparoscopic cholecystectomy needs more widespread sets and dishes including at least one pack cloth (6900 kg) or disposable (approx. 200 g), a small set (2700 g) or a large general (3900 g) dish of homolog handhold (6200 g) laparoscopic dish (6200 g) dish hook and lens (3900 g) and sometimes also dishes of advance (6900 g), the trocar dish (3600 g) and the additional instrument dishes (6100 g). these dishes are also kept in the workroom at a height of 1880 mm from the ground floor and at 5 floors away from the main operating room. sets (small and general) and packs (fabric and disposable) are also located in the hall away from the rooms and have the heights of 1040, 830 and 1150,230 mm from the floor, respectively, (figure 1). figure 1. sets and packs are located in the hall away the hospital surgical beds are of the two types of manual and automatic with the minimum and maximum adjustable heights of 750970mm and 700-1000 mm, respectively, adjusted to the surgeon. the laparoscopic instrument used in cholecystectomy, including scissor (length 470 and 455 mm), clip applier (455, 460 and 470 mm), grasper 470 mm, hook 355 mm, lens and ccd altogether were (395+1353 = 530 mm) (figure 2). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 92 figure 2. the laparoscopic instrument used in cholecystectomy to use electro cautery and ligasure for a dissection, cut and coagulate tissues, a foot pedal should be placed on the floor where the surgeon is standing. to make an appropriate lighting of the operation field, before and after using the camera, the ceiling-connected siliatic lights are applied. depending on the presence of one or two residents, the scrub can be placed either on the left or right side of the patient. since the monitor is adjusted to be placed on the right side of the patient depending on the surgeon location, the distances between the surgical technologist's eye to the center of the image on the right or left are 774 and 1372 mm, respectively, and the average distance between the elbow of the scrub to the ground floor is 1005 mm. the minimum distance traveled by a surgical technologist in each operation include: 18 surgical room to a stoke set and pack 42 steps, patient admission 172steps, the pharmacy 118 steps, workshop 148 steps, recovery for sample delivery 282 steps, record patient profile in the book 20 steps and computer out of the room 32 steps, scrub sink 116 steps, computer in the room 10 steps, set sialtic light 12 steps, the cautery and the suction device 20 steps, connect the serum 12 steps, pouring formalin solution 22 steps and unpacking the inside of the commode each is 18 steps 2. methods 2.1. participants and procedures this study is descriptive analytical and cross-sectional performed after obtaining the code of ethics from isfahan university of medical sciences from march2017 to july 2018, at al-zahra hospital ,isfahan, iran. a written consent was given to the participants to partook in the study for 5 months. the study population included 57 (50 females and 7 males) of laparoscopic technologists in the hospital voluntarily enrolled in the study. after considering inclusion criteria (participation in laparoscopic cholecystectomy in scrub and circulatory roles, voluntary and satisfactory partaking in the research, not having any musculoskeletal disorder and history of bone or joint surgery and no pregnancy) and exclusion criteria(the participants dissatisfaction with continuing cooperation, inactivity in the laparoscopic field, reluctance to take photos, leaving and death), 8 people were excluded from the study and 49 people partook in this study to be evaluated at least 2 times and up to 4 times(139 scrub role and 149 circular role). 2.2. data collection and procedure initially, the researcher made a list of the most important tasks performed by the circular [bringing pack and surgical sets, opening sterile instruments on the surgical table, pushing or pulling equipment, attaching the delivery of scrub connectors to the corresponding devices(cautery pen, cord, serum set , etc.), delivery of instrumentation and materials to the surgical team (cautery pedal and ccd), patient relocation] and scrub [delivering sterile instruments from the circulatory, g. shahijani, m. shakerian, a. ghadami a comparative study on the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders among laparoscopic surgical technologists in circulatory and scrub roles 93 surgical table setup, pulling up the surgical table, helping the surgeon in the field of operation and delivery of dirty tools used to operate the workroom] pre prepared. in the following days, a two-part general nordic questionnaire was used containing demographic information (age, gender, weight, height, dominant hand, regular exercise, level of education, work experience, marital status, ergonomic awareness, job satisfaction, visual requirement, satisfaction from the monthly program and the operating room's agent). the following tool were used to evaluate the persons:  reba: an observational method validated and verifiable used to assess the health jobs work statuses. to evaluate the circulatory (by the researcher) and the scrub (by the occupational health professional) in the tasks determined by rapid entire body assessment, with a digital camera sony hx1, one or more photos of each task are provided. then the reba checklist was scored; also, force exertion rating score (less than 5 kg = 0, 10 kg = 1 and more than 10 kg = 2), hand pairing with load score (load with proper handle = 0, acceptable with hand = 1, unacceptable with hand = 2 and load without handle with inappropriate postures = 3) and activity type (static or dynamic = 1) were involved. finally, the other person who did not know the details of the checklist for interpretation in the course of the work and the research objectives entered the reba software. score 1: negative level of risk that no corrective action is required. 2 to 3: low risk level, further studies are required. 4 to 7: moderate level of risk and corrective action is required. there are 8 to 10 levels of risk that corrective actions should be implemented in the near future. 11 to 15 levels are very high and immediate ergonomic action is required (pazouki et. al., 2017). 2.3. data analysis the research data were both quantitative (continuous and consecutive) and qualitative (nominal) and were analyzed using spss 20 software. in order to determine the overall risk score of musculoskeletal disorders in the role of scrub and circulatory, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, percentage and frequency) was applied. for comparing the scores of the two tasks, paired t-test was used. a repeated measure of variance analysis was applied to determine the average risk score in each of the tasks by separating the circular and scrub roles (after assuring that the assumption of sphere was determined by the makhli test). then, using the lfb test, two tasks were compared. finally, we used independent t-test to determine the distribution of musculoskeletal disorders and the comparison of the mean overall risk score of circulatory and scrub. 3. results 3.1. sample characteristics approximately 94% of the research population was women (46 women, 3 men). the participants aged 23 to 48 years (mean 32.17±64.6) with mean height and weight was 163.8 and 61.8, respectively. most of the participants were right-handed (83.7%) and job tenure ranged from 1 to 25 years (9.26± 6.2). 68.8 % of them were married and 79.6% had no regular exercise. 3.2. working postures the average rba score for all of the evaluated activities was obtained higher than 6 (table 1). also, the task of the instrument delivery to the surgical team (foot pedal) had the highest score of 9.29± 1.25 (p <0.001) and the task of patients transfer had the lowest score of 6.4± 1.43 (p <0.001). based on the score obtained from the scrub tasks shown in table (2); it was found that the rba score was between 4 and 6. the lowest score for surgical operation was 4.3± 1.11 (p <0.001), and the highest score for delivery of the surgical instrument used in the work room was 6.1 ± 1.2 (p <0.001). based on the results, (tables 1 and 2), it was found that the average risk score was significantly different between some tasks of circular and (p <0.001) in a way that the greatest brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 94 difference was observed between pedal delivery and patient displacement tasks (p <0.001). also, the results (table 3) showed that the average overall risk score in the circulatory tasks was higher than that of the scrub (p <0.001). table 1. determining and comparing frequency distribution gender in two groups duties average rba score standard deviation fvalue pvalue difference between two tasks 1. bringing surgery set and pack surgery 6.55 1.43 46.8 < 0.001 1 2 0.2 3 -2.67 4 0.81 5 -1.1 2. open sterile instruments 6.35 1.14 46.8 < 0.001 6 0.41 2 3 -2.87 4 -1.0 3. delivery of tools to the team surgery 9.22 1.25 46.8 < 0.001 5 -1.32 6 0.21 3 4 equipment relocation 7.4 1.12 46.8 < 0.001 4 -1.86 5 -1.55 6 3.1 5. attach serum set 7.67 1.25 46.8 < 0.001 4 5 0.31 6 1.23 6. patient relocation 16.14 1.43 46.8 < 0.001 5 6 1.54 table 2. comparison of average risk score in different tasks of scrub role and difference between tasks duties average rba score standard deviation fvalu pvalu difference between two tasks 1. the surgical table set up 5.0 1.2 18.01 < 0.001 1 2 0.47 3 0.86 4 0.71 5 -1.2 2. prevent the surgical table 4.43 1.1 18.01 < 0.001 2 3 -1.33 4 -1.2 5 -1.63 3. delivery of tools from circulator 5.8 1.1 18.01 < 0.001 3 4 0.15 5 -0.3 4. help the surgeon 5.61 1.3 18.01 < 0.001 4 5 -0.45 5. deliver tool to work room 6.1 1.2 18.01 < 0.001 g. shahijani, m. shakerian, a. ghadami a comparative study on the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders among laparoscopic surgical technologists in circulatory and scrub roles 95 table 3. level of risk and priority level of corrective actions based on reba score in different tasks 4. discussion the new method of laparoscopy threatens the ergonomic conditions of surgical technologists working as circulator and scrub. based on the results, the level of risk for circulator role was obtained medium and high in each of its tasks. therefore, implementing ergonomic interventions as well as corrective actions should be taken into account. in a study carried out by murty et. al. (2010) on 12 endoscopic nurses working in five different tasks, using method, and after 26 observations it was found that the scores related to the back and neck regions in each task were high or very high among the participants (murty et. al., 2010). in another study in 2017, 62 surgeons, first assistant and scrubs were evaluated by the rula method, and it was found that during the surgery almost 95% of people had ergonomic problems among which 37.1% were at high risk (pazouki et. al., 2017). in our study, the highest risk score of 9.22 was for those participants working with foot pedal. the reason is that foot pedal is located on the floor requiring the person bending trunk and legs more than 90 degrees inducing a high risk of wmsds (figure 3). although the patient transplantation task allocated score of 6/14 which means being at a moderate level it received the lowest score compared to the other tasks. figure 3. participants working with foot pedal type of duty rba score danger level priority level corrective actions the need for action correction and time bringing surgery set and pack 7 medium 2 necessary opening sterile instruments 6 medium 2 necessary deliver the tool to the surgical team 9 top 3 essential (sooner) equipment relocation 7 medium 2 necessary attach serum set 8 top 3 essential (sooner) patient relocation 6 medium 2 necessary the surgical table set up 5 medium 2 necessary prevent the surgical table 4 medium 2 necessary delivery of tools from the circulator 6 medium 2 necessary help the surgeon 6 medium 2 necessary deliver tool to work room 6 medium 2 necessary brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 96 when transferring, the greatest amount of force exertion is concentrated on patient transferor. most of the time, circulator holds only the patient's legs with a relatively acceptable posture. however, if the circulator is positioned on the patient's side, the arms are bent up to 45 to 90 degrees forward and the trunk is also bent more than 60 degrees which impose a high level of risk to the person (figure 4). figure 4. transferring, the greatest amount of force exertion is concentrated on patient transferor the average risk score difference between the two tasks of pedal delivery and patient’s transferring was the highest (p <0.001).after pedal delivery, ccd used by surgery team had the highest risk score as the ccd was placed at the bottom of the laparoscopic cart slot at less than 500 mm from the floor that required the participants awkward postures to do the task (figure 5). figure 5. ccd used by surgery team serum attachment is also associated with a high level of high serum holder (7.67 grade) and an unpleasant postures of extension and neck rotation, deviation to the front of the arm exceeds 90 degrees, shoulder height, rotation, and extension of 0 to 20 degrees of trunk (figure 6). g. shahijani, m. shakerian, a. ghadami a comparative study on the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders among laparoscopic surgical technologists in circulatory and scrub roles 97 figure 6. serum attachment is also associated with a high level of high serum holder in front of the device, such as the setting of sialtic light (7/4 grade) surgical technologist has to raise more than 90 degrees of arm, shoulder up, neck extension and the trunk and the unbalanced position of the legs. this posture can be justified by the attachment of the light to the ceiling and its height from the ground floor (figure 7). figure 7. the setting of sialtic light figure 8. to remove cloth pack from the lower floor of the hallway brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 98 if using cloth pack (6900 g) the surgical technologist will have to remove it from the lower floor of the hallway at an altitude of 230 mm from the floor which in this case faces a significant change in posture (figure 8). the displacement of heavy dishes (6200 g) stored at high altitudes of the work room encasement (1880 mm) is considered as one of the other ergonomic issues that the circulators were encountered with (figure 9). figure 9. the displacement of heavy dishes scrub was another role that the surgical technologist was responsible for. according to our findings, the technologists in this role face a medium-risk (4-6) level. abdullah zadeh et. al. (2016) also found similar results in his study so that the average score of rba was 7.7 in three scrub activities (abdollahzade et. al., 2016). the greatest difference here was between the average risk scores obtained for pulling the table and delivering the tool to the work room as the lowest score was related to the task of pulling the surgery table. this finding can be due to the participants’ relatively better postures. in a way that most participants try to approach tothe surgical bed (arm deviation forward up to 20 degrees) with holding up trunk in a right posture (straight or bending 0 to 20 degrees) and sometimes slightly bent (0 to 20 degrees) holding the hand in the middle of the table (no abduction of the arms before surgery beginning. in this situation, the worst posture was observed in the wrist (abduction and extensions up to 15 degrees). noteworthy, sometimes the participants would approach to the table from the side of the surgical bed requiring trunk to be twisted and bent 20 to 60 degrees, following by an unbalanced position of the legs, abduction of the arms, an angle of less than 60 degrees for forearms and the awkward posture of the wrists (figure 10). figure 10. the displacement of heavy dishes g. shahijani, m. shakerian, a. ghadami a comparative study on the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders among laparoscopic surgical technologists in circulatory and scrub roles 99 in the delivery of tools to the work room although the level of risk is moderate but the highest score is (6/1). at the end of surgery the scrub should put the tool in the sink of the work room. since the height of these sinks is low individual puts inside the sink one single instrument on the surgical table with a rotating posture and bending 20 to 60 degrees trunk, unbalanced position of the legs, deviation 45 to 90 degrees of arm (figure 11). figure 11. at the end of surgery the scrub should put the tool in the sink of the work room in the help to the surgeon as well although the trunk is almost in perpendicular position but with an average risk level (5.61), it encounters ergonomic problems. janki also believes in laparoscopy the neck and back are in the vertical position and static state (janki et. al., 2017). in the process of tools delivery to the work room, although the level of risk was moderate, the highest score was obtained (6/1). at the end of surgery, the scrub was responsible for putting the tool in the sink of the work room. since the height of these sinks is low for most of the individuals, they put the devices one by one inside the sink with a rotating posture with a 20 to 60 degree trunk bending, unbalanced position of the legs, and an arm deviation of 45 to 90 degree (figure. 11). also, when helping to the surgeon although the trunk was almost in perpendicular position, the average risk level was obtained relatively high (5.61) janki also believed that in laparoscopy process the neck and back may be in the vertical position and static state (janki et. al., 2017). this can be explained by the fact that surgical technologists simultaneously play the both roles of scrub and first assistant. pazuki also pointed out this issue in his study (pazouki et. al., 2017). in case of presence only one resident or surgeon, the technologist had to use simultaneously both the right and left hands, respectively, to keep and adjust the camera to accurately transfer the field of surgery image to the monitor with an average time of 4380 seconds and maintaining and tension tightening the grasper for a good exposure for bile bladder with an average time of 2640 seconds. this condition caused the technologist to get an unpleasant static posture due to ports limit which would increase the range of motion to degree 4 (bartnicka et. al., 2013). the grasper held the right or left hand with tensing it on the right side of the patient where the monitor was located. in this case, two inappropriate ergonomic conditions occur including to reduce the distance to the monitor (mm770) and neck rotation and extension (figure 12). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 100 figure 12. surgical technologists simultaneously play the both roles of scrub and first assistant previous studies also showed that if the monitor was not in the proper position, extension, bending and static neck rotation may occur. to deliver the tool to the surgeon may mostly require a worse posture. holding the camera with a hand or grasper and availability of the device on the mayo table forced the participants to rotate, bend trunk up to 20 to 60, stretching and abduction of the arms, unbalanced position of the legs and the neck rotation and extension (figure 13). figure 13. to deliver the tool to the surgeon may mostly require a worse posture research constraints in this study, the participation of male surgical technologists was very small as a result, the results cannot be safely attributed to the male society. one of the advantages of this research is the evaluation of individuals in a completely real and alive surgical condition and the imaging of a point that is visible to all the angles. 5. conclusion the study was conducted for concern about the rapid growth of laparoscopy and the lack of knowledge of ergonomic conditions in surgical technologists. polling data and observations indicate that there is a real problem in this population with a high level of prevalence of disorders. the roles of both roles raise people with a moderate level of risk. perhaps this risk is more in the role of a circulatory. as a result, some challenges require new engineering solutions in equipment, tools and environment, and integration of ergonomics in educational curriculum to adapt the working g. shahijani, m. shakerian, a. ghadami a comparative study on the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders among laparoscopic surgical technologists in circulatory and scrub roles 101 conditions to the individual's abilities and characteristics with the aim of increasing the safety, productivity and job satisfaction of the employees. acknowledgement the present paper is drawn from one of the parts of the master's thesis of the operating room approved by the code 396858 at isfahan university of medical sciences. hereby, i express my gratitude the nursing and midwifery faculty for its collaboration in the research. also, i thank the isfahan university of medical sciences and the research office for cooperating and funding. references abdollahzade f, mohammadi f, dianat i, asghari e, asghari-jafarabadi m, sokhanvar z. (2016). working posture and its predictors in hospital operating room nurses. health promotion perspectives. 6(1):17. athena rp, elnaz rp, marzieh p. .(2014).the effect of ergonomic principles on reducing the risk of musculoskeletal disorders rula in computer users. quarterly journal of iranian ergonomics and human factors engineering. 3(1):25-30. ] persian [ attar sm. .(2014). frequency and risk factors of musculoskeletal pain in nurses at a tertiary centre in jeddah, saudi arabia: a cross sectional study. bmc research notes. 7(1):61. ballester arias a, garcía a. .(2017). asociación entre la exposición laboral a factores psicosociales y la existencia de trastornos musculoesqueléticos en personal de enfermería: revisión sistemática y meta-análisis. revista española de salud pública. 91(1):e1-e27. bartnicka j, ziętkiewicz a, kowalski g. .(2013).analysis of selected ergonomic problems in the use of surgical laparoscopic tools. zeszyty naukowe/akademia morska w szczecinie.34 (106):19--26. bartnicka j, zietkiewicz aa, kowalski gj. .(2018). ergonomic study on wrist posture when using laparoscopic tools in four different techniques regarding minimally invasive surgery. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics. 24(3):438-449. choi sd. (2018). a review of the ergonomic issues in the laparoscopic operating room. journal of healthcare engineering. 3(4):587-6. choi, s.h. (2015). re-examining the dimensionality of leisure motivation and leisure satisfaction in a multicultural context: evidence from macau. humanities & social sciences reviews, 3(1), 06-10. choobineh a, daneshmandi h, fallahpour a, rahimi fard h. .(2012). ergonomic evaluation of the risk of musculoskeletal disorders in employees of a petrochemical company. health of iran,. 10(3):80-90] .persian [ choobineh a, movahed m, tabatabaie sh, kumashiro m. .(2010). perceived demands and musculoskeletal disorders in operating room nurses of shiraz city hospitals. industrial health. 48(1):74-84. choobineh ar, daneshmandi, hadipourf, fard r, hoda. .(2013).ergonomic evaluation of the risk of musculoskeletal disorders in employees of a petrochemical company. iranian occupational health journal. 10 (3): 78-88. chung y-c, hung c-t, li s-f, lee h-m, wang s-g, chang s-c, et. al.(2013).risk of musculoskeletal disorder among taiwanese nurses cohort: a nationwide population-based study. bmc musculoskeletal disorders.14(1):144. copenhaver ms, friend th, fitzgerald-brown c, fernandez m, addesa m, cassidy j. (2017).improving operating room and surgical instrumentation efficiency, safety, and communication via the implementation of emergency laparoscopic cholecystectomy and appendectomy conversion case carts. perioperative care and operating room management. 8:33-7. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 102 dalager t, jensen p, winther t, savarimuthu t, markauskas a, mogensen o, et. al. .(2018). surgeons’ muscle load during robotic-assisted laparoscopy performed with a regular office chair and the preferred of two ergonomic chairs: a pilot study. applied ergonomics. dalager t, søgaard k, bech kt, mogensen o, jensen pt. .(2017).musculoskeletal pain among surgeons performing minimally invasive surgery: a systematic review. surgical endoscopy. 31(2):516-26. dana, a., hamzeh a. (2013). the relationship between religiosity and athletic aggression in professional athletes, uct journal of social sciences and humanities research, 4, 01-05. el-badry a, allam h, marawan h. .(2018). neck and upper limb pain among gynecologists working at menoufia governorate in egypt. egyptian journal of occupational medicine. 42(1):123-32. epstein s, sparer eh, tran bn, ruan qz, dennerlein jt, singhal d, et. al. .(2018).prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among surgeons and interventionalists: a systematic review and meta-analysis. jama surgery. 153(2):e174947-e. heba ali hassan a, eglal hassanein a-h. .(2018).the effect of ergonomics program on nurses' knowledge and practice in operating room. journal of nursing and health science ( iosrjnhs). 7(1):6-15. janki s, mulder ee, ijzermans jn, tran tk. (2017).ergonomics in the operating room. surgical endoscopy. (2017). 31(6):2457-66. king ca. .(2011).health care worker safety in surgery. aorn journal. 94(5):457-68. kramp kh, van det mj, totte er, hoff c, pierie j-pe.(2014). ergonomic assessment of the french and american position for laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the mis suite. surgical endoscopy.28 (5): 1571-8. munabi ig, buwembo w, kitara dl, ochieng j, mwaka es. (2014). musculoskeletal disorder risk factors among nursing professionals in low resource settings: a cross-sectional study in uganda. bmc nursing. 13(1):7. murty m. (2010). musculoskeletal disorders in endoscopy nursing. gastroenterology nursing.;33(5):354-61. nur azma b, rusli b, oxley j, quek k.(2016).work related musculoskeletal disorders in female nursing personnel: prevalence and impact. international journal of collaborative research on internal medicine and public health. 8(3):294-98. nützi m, koch p, baur h, elfering a. .(2015).work–family conflict, task interruptions, and influence at work predict musculoskeletal pain in operating room nurses. safety and health at work. 6(4):329-37. pazouki a, sadati l, zarei f, golchini e, fruzesh r, bakhtiary j.(2017).ergonomic challenges encountered by laparoscopic surgeons, surgical first assistants, and operating room nurses involved in minimally invasive surgeries by using rula method. journal of minimally invasive surgical sciences. 6 (4).p:344-6 sánchez-margallo ja, sánchez-margallo fm.(2017).initial experience using a robotic-driven laparoscopic needle holder with ergonomic handle: assessment of surgeons’ task performance and ergonomics. international journal of computer assisted radiology and surgery. 12(12):2069-77. stolt m, miikkola m, suhonen r ,leino-kilpi h. .(2018).nurses’ perceptions of their foot health: implications for occupational health care. workplace health & safety. 2018;66(3):136-43. supe an, kulkarni gv, supe pa. .(2010).ergonomics in laparoscopic surgery. journal of minimal access surgery. 6(2):31. szeto g, wong t, law r, lee e, lau t, so b,.(2013). the impact of a multifaceted ergonomic intervention program on promoting occupational health in community nurses. applied ergonomics. 44(3):414-22. taghinejad h, azadi a, suhrabi z, sayedinia m. .(2015).musculoskeletal disorders and their related risk factors among iranian nurses. biotechnology and health sciences. 3(1). g. shahijani, m. shakerian, a. ghadami a comparative study on the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders among laparoscopic surgical technologists in circulatory and scrub roles 103 wang r, liang z, zihni am, ray s, awad mm. .(2017).which causes more ergonomic stress: laparoscopic or open surgery? surgical endoscopy. 31(8):3286-90. wasielewski a.(2017). guideline implementation: minimally invasive surgery, part 1 .aorn journal.106(1):50-9. zamanian z, norouzi f, esfandiari z, rahgosai m, hasan f, kohnavard b. .(2017). assessment of the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in nurses. armaghane danesh. (10):976-86. zhang y, duffy jf, de castillero er, wang k. .(2018). chronotype, sleep characteristics, and musculoskeletal disorders among hospital nurses. workplace health & safety;66(1):8-15. microsoft word issue3.docx 106 towards medical neutrosophic krp systems ali amer mohammed saeed doctoral school of computer science, university of pitești, romania str. târgul din vale 1, pitești 110040 phone: 0348 453 100 ali.amer81@gmail.com bogdan patrut computer science department, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania bulevardul carol i nr. 11, iași 700506 phone: 0232 20 1000 bogdan@edusoft.ro daniel dănciulescu faculty of physical education and sport, university of craiova, romania st. a. i. cuza no.13, craiova, ro-200585 phone: +40 251 414398 danieldanciulescu@gmail.com alexandru tugui accounting, business informatics and statistics department, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania bulevardul carol i nr. 11, iași 700506 phone: 0232 20 1000 altug@uaic.ro daniela dănciulescu computer science department, university of craiova, romania st. a. i. cuza no.13, craiova, ro-200585 phone: +40 251 414398 dana.danciulescu@ucv.ro abstract the development of computer systems for representation, storage and processing the knowledge related to a domain or specific field is a strong requirement nowadays, mainly for medical diagnosis and computer assisted therapy. the management of imprecision measurements, paradoxical data, and unconventional inference techniques is possible using the neutrosophic paradigm. this paper describes the neutrosophic algebraic numbers and illustrates their usage in developing knowledge representation and processing systems. finally, some ideas on medical diagnosis systems are presented. keywords: neutrosophic numbers, neutrosophic logic, knowledge representation and processing, medical informatics 1. introduction knowledge representation and processing (krp) systems are frameworks for implementing expert systems to operate on different fields. to be effective, an appropriate krp system for a domain must meet the following functionalities: 1) knowledge acquisition and preprocessing (in order to optimize its structure); 2) storing and retrieving knowledge in / from a knowledge base; 3) query processing; 4) producing knowledge following judgments on existing knowledge, and 5) providing a user interface that ensures the introduction and extraction of knowledge pieces. a. a. m. saeed, b. patrut, d. dănciulescu, a. tugui, d. dănciulescu towards medical neutrosophic krp systems 107 knowledge acquisition, filtering, and processing deals with real challenges when experience imprecision measurements, paradoxical data, and unconventional inference techniques. to manage such situations, smarandache, see (smarandache f., 2007), introduced the degree of indeterminacy/neutrality (i) as a new component since 1995, in order to extend both fuzzy (zadeh, 1965) and intuitionistic fuzzy (atanassov, 1998) concepts. in the following we are interested in using real neutrosophic numbers. initially, integer neutrosophic systems were introduced in 2003 by vasantha kandasamy & smarandache, see (vasantha kandasamy, 2006). recently, operations on real neutrosophic numbers were introduced and their augmented value was demonstrated in (smarandache, 2016), and (mohammed saeed, 2018). in order to process imprecise measurements, an indeterminacy component is necessary to be added. formally, a real neutrosophic number in algebraic format, written as a + bi, has a as the determinate (the known) part, and b as the indeterminate part, and i is the indeterminacy operator with i2 = i, i + i = 2i, and i i = 0. the following properties are important for supporting knowledge representation and processing under neutrosophic assumptions:  if n is any positive integer then in = i, xi+yi = (x+y)i, 0i = 0, both 1/i, and i/i are undefined.  if x = a + bi, and y = c + di are two real neutrosophic numbers, then: 1) x + y = (a + c) + (b + d)i, 2) x y = (a c) +(b d)i, 3) x = a + bi (with  a real number), 4) xy = ac + (ad + bc + bd)i, 5) x/y = u + vi, when defined, with u = a/c, and v = (bc ad) / (c(c + d)), 6) x2 = a2 + (2ab + b2)i.  if a, and a + b are such that √𝑎, and √𝑎 + 𝑏 are both defined, then √𝑎 + 𝑏𝐼 = u + vi, where u + vi  {t1, t2, t3, t4}, with t1 = (√𝑎, -√𝑎 + √𝑎 + 𝑏), t2 = (√𝑎, -√𝑎 − √𝑎 + 𝑏), t3 = (−√𝑎, √𝑎 + √𝑎 + 𝑏), and t4 = (−√𝑎, √𝑎 − √𝑎 + 𝑏). a partial order on the set of real neutrosophic numbers, denoted by [], can be defined according to the following rules: 1. a + bi  c + di if and only if a = c and b = d. 2. if a < c then a + bi [] c + di, 3. if a = c, and b  d then a + bi [] c + di. another useful model, called real neutrosophic quadruple number, is an entity of the form (a, bt, ci, df), written as a+bt+ci+df, where t, i, f have their usual neutrosophic logic meanings and a, b, c, d are real numbers. the component a is the known part and bt+ci+df is the unknown part. following (smarandache, 2015), in a pessimistic model (formally: t<i<f), is assumed that ti = it = i, tf = ft = f, if = fi = f, tt = t2 = t, ii = i2 = i, ff = f2 = f, 0t = 0i = 0f = 0. the following properties are important for supporting knowledge representation and processing under quadruple neutrosophic format:  if x = a1 + b1t +c1i +d1f, and y = a2 + b2t +c2i +d2f, then x + y = (a1+a2) + (b1+b2)t + (c1+c2)i + (d1+d2)f, x y = (a1-a2) + (b1-b2)t + (c1-c2)i + (d1-d2)f, xy = a1a2 + (a1b2 + a2b1 + b1b2)t + (a1c2 + a2c1 + c1c2 + c1b2 + c2b1)i +.(a1d2 + a2d1 + b1d2 + b2d1 + c1d2 + c2d1 + d1d2)f.  if x = a1 + b1t +c1i +d1f, and m is a real number (scalar) then mx = ma1 + mb1t +mc1i +md1f.  if x = a1 + b1t +c1i +d1f, y = a2 + b2t +c2i +d2f, and m and n are real scalars, then m(x + y) = mx + my, (m + n)x = mx + nx, (mn)x = m(nx), -x = -a1 b1t c1i d1f. an optimistic (formally: t>i>f) quadruple model is based on assumptions: ti = it = t, tf = ft = t, and if = fi = i. if x = a1 + b1t +c1i +d1f, and y = a2 + b2t +c2i +d2f then , xy = a1a2 + (a1b2 + a2b1 + b1b2+ c1b2 + c2b1+ d1b2 + d2b1)t + (a1c2 + a2c1 + c1c2+ c1d2 + c2d1)i +.(a1d2 + a2d1 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 108 + d1d2)f. depending on the real situation under modelling, an optimistic or a pessimistic model can be selected. 2. neutrosophic krp systems architecture according to (mohammed saeed, 2016), any architectural model of a generic krp system must contain at least five interconnected components mi, i in {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. the module m1 takes user data or interpretations that, based on analytics processes (to reject or accept for representation suitability in the field of the problem) will trigger segmentation procedures, extraction of features, and will constitute structures appropriate to knowledge base storage m2. the knowledge acquisition, which is a representative process of the component m1, follows four steps: defining and extracting information, conceptualizing, formalizing, and implementing. the first phase is dedicated to extracting information from publications (books, magazines, audiovideo materials) and from experts in the field, in an informal manner, usually through descriptions and records. in the second phase the interpretation of the information, the identification of the concepts and the relations between them takes place. the third phase, one of the formalization, will identify the most appropriate representation and will specify the syntax and the semantics of the representation. finally, implementation of formal representation takes place in a language appropriate for computerized processing. the m2 module knowledge base contains knowledge pieces that have been acquired by human experts in close association with the problem area and that describe certain situations, real facts, rules, etc. generally, within a dedicated krp system, the knowledge base uses the data stored in a database db (specific to the problem), the m2 module having the task of indicating how intelligently the data stored in the db is processed on the basis of knowledge specific to solving problems in the particular area. the module m3 takes facts from the knowledge base and sends them directly to the user or sends them to the resolver (module m4) to "derive" using the resolution principle new knowledge that it will be delivered to the user or recorded in the knowledge base (the case of automated learning). the module m4 is the inference engine. this can be a program (or a microprogrammed integrated circuit) that has general inference mechanisms for processing knowledge using the most diverse reasoning methods. following the judgments made, it is possible to make changes to the pieces of knowledge. some rules will be removed or replaced with others. practically, the module m4 has a rule-based system (rbs). the rbs is a static set of knowledge, the inference engine is the one to dynamically discover new knowledge by consulting the bases of rules, bases of facts, and other bases relevant to the problem under consideration. to increase inferential engine efficiency, krp systems can use rulebooks. the rulebook is a data structure that memorizes, according to a particular format, the rules, usually in the form of an indexed list. the item on the first position will be the first used (fact, rule). the list position is based on a priority indicator set by the krp analyst or based on the efficiency of the inference algorithm in the context of conflict resolution. basically, it is a kind of sorting method, usually downward after the priority pointer, and when the same priorities the order is set in relation to the conflict resolution strategy. moreover, the module m4 must provide the user with information on how to obtain the solution (the reasoning steps). the human machine interface is represented by the module m5. this module provides the user interface and allows access to information and knowledge recorded or provided by various components of the krp system. the module m5 provides multiple access levels: regular user, knowledge base administrator (field specialist), database administrator (specialist in problem solving for a specific type of activity), and krp system administrator. the technical implementation of a krp system can appeal to various components (plug-ins) that are independent of the data, facts, or rules needed to solve concrete problems. any framework of neutrosophic krp systems should consider the following components (mohammed saeed, 2018): 1) the input module (oriented to crisp data); 2) the neutrosophication a. a. m. saeed, b. patrut, d. dănciulescu, a. tugui, d. dănciulescu towards medical neutrosophic krp systems 109 unit (able to convert crisp data to neutrosophic representation; 3) the neutrosophic knowledge base (storing facts/rules and their associated degrees in tif format: t truth, i indeterminacy, f falsehood); 4) the neutrosophic inference engine (based on neutrosophic logic); 5) the deneutrosophication unit used to convert from neutrosophic representations to crisp values, and 6) the output module (crisp data visualization). the neutrosophic unit preprocesses crisp input data to identify valid cases, invalid cases, and ambiguous cases. the items in the knowledge base are described by algebraic (including quadruples) neutrosophic numbers, or tif values, with t degree of membership, i degree of indeterminacy, and f degree of non-membership, when working with neutrosophic sets or tif-neutrosophic numbers. example 1. let x1, x2, ..., xk be a number of repeated measurements of the indicator x. let a = min {xi | i = 1, 2, ..., k}, c = max{xi | i = 1, 2, ..., k}, and b = c-a. the indicator x can be described by the neutrosophic number x = a + bi. hence, the sequence 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 can be described by 1+2i. example 2. let x1, x2, ..., xk be a number of repeated measurements of the indicator x. let a = min {xi | i = 1, 2, ..., k}, e is the median of the measurements, b = e a, f is the third quartile of the measurements, c = f e, h = max {xi | i = 1, 2, ..., k}, and d = h-f. the indicator x can be described by the neutrosophic number x = a + bt+ci+df. the sequence 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 can be described by 1 + 1t+0i+1f. example 3. the sequence 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 10 can be described by 1 + 1t + 1i + 7f. the neutrosophic knowledge base is composed by facts and their neutrosophic level of validity, and by rules described in a t-neutrosophic norm format. various neutrosophic logic operators, t-norms, and t-conorms in neutrosophic frameworks can be found in (albeanu, 2013) and (albeanu, 2014). the neutrosophic inference engine uses neutrosophic logic operators, and provides the final result after evaluating the implication operator. according to the operators, the result is a neutrosophic entity, in general in tif format. let x (resp. y) be the data input (resp. output) domain and a1, a2, …, an (resp. b1, b2, …, bn) be neutrosophic sets of x (resp. y). let t be a neutrosophic triangular norm and rb the rule base (set of neutrosophic rules): if x is ai (t, i, f) then y is bi (t, i, f), i = 1, 2, …, n. the final evaluation can be obtained by (t(x is ai, y is bi), i = 1, 2, …, n), taking into account the components t, i, and f for every set. the deneutrosophication unit is responsible with filtering membership/validity information in order to provide a center of gravity, or a particular mean of data. if the result is a neutrosophic number in quadruple format, the associated robust crisp value is the median. if x = a + bt + ci + df, then median e = a + b. another robust crisp value is the interquartile based indicator m = a + 3b/4 + c/2. if the result is a tif entity (given by three functions t(x), i(x), and f(x)), then a indicator function is computed h(x) = pt(x) +qi(x) + r(1-f(x)), where p, q, and r are positive parameters generated according to the importance/risk of components. finally, for the function h is applied any defuzzification method: center of gravity, center of area etc. 3. towards medical neutrosophic krp systems it is large accepted that obtaining and applying "medical knowledge" are essential tasks to assure a high quality health care system. according to (boegl et al., 2004), "the nature of the relationships between symptoms, physical signs, laboratory data, clinical findings, and diagnostic hypotheses can be characterized as a collection of empirical facts, statistical data, scientific cause– effect structures, and human experience." computer systems like mycin (shortlife, 1976) and oncocin (shortlife, 1986) are only some well-known classical medical expert systems. more aspects can be discovered in the included references on medical informatics. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 110 a medical diagnosis problem, however, often has to manage a large amount of uncertain, inconsistent, or indeterminate data. this remark emphasized the necessity to use fuzzy, intuitionistic fuzzy, or neutrosophic krp systems for medical diagnosis, where for every patient (the crisp universe p), a set of symptoms (findings) are stored based on neutrosophic numbers. a set of diseases (and associated therapies) is known by the system according to a rule base depending on the symptoms. applicability of neutrosophic science in medical informatics was considered in (ansari et al., 2011). also, (ali et al., 2017) developed a neutrosophic recommender system for medical diagnosis based on algebraic neutrosophic measures. in (boegl et al., 2004) there are identified two subtypes of medical concepts to be considered by a krp. one type is related to medical entities: findings, diseases, and therapies. other type is represented by medical data that describes quantitative medical concepts such as results from physical examinations, various measurements including laboratory data: complete blood count (cbc), blood chemistries and electrolytes, urinalysis (ua) etc. an algebraic krp system will convert every sequence of crisp data to neutrosophic numbers or linguistic variables modeled by triangular or trapezoidal neutrosophic numbers with membership functions for the tif components. the system should differentiate between males and females in order to establish an adequate result. a medical krp system implements medical algorithms (based on “decision trees”) that are useful for a partial diagnose based on the most appropriate laboratory tests. in the following, let us use the neutrosophic numbers in a+bi format associated to normal values of cbc items: hemoglobin (g/dl) = 13.5+3i (male) and 12 + 3i (female), hematocrit (%) = 41+9i (male) and 36+8i (female), rbc’s (x106/ml) = 4.5+i (male) and 4+0.9i (female), mcv = 80+20i, mch = 26+8i. when consider the electrolytes, the common values can be converted to calcium (mg/dl) = 8.8+1.5i, chloride (meq/l) = 95+12i, magnesium (meq/l) = 1.6+0.8i, phosphate (mg/dl) = 2.5+2i, potassium (meq/l) = 3.5+1.7i, sodium (meq/l) = 135+12i. if the file of a patient p contains repeated measurements on some item, then a representation a+bt+ci+df can be given, when analyzing the data sequence by descriptive statistics, as described above. also, the degree of imprecision in the quantitative measurement of any item is given by the magnitude of the coefficient of variation, expressed usually as a percent, obtained from multiple measurements of the item using the formula: (stdev/mean)×100; where mean and stdev are the mean and standard deviation of the values obtained from the multiple measurements of an item. as described in the first section, the coefficient of variation can be computed in a neutrosophic framework by appropriate operations. in the medical world, krps are developed for specific oriented subjects. the available knowledge from experts is converted to suitable models and inference rules in order to build an efficient tool. both single and multi decision criteria can be used to establish diseases and associated therapies for patients. the above presentation is a preliminary investigation and in depth developments should be developed for specific medical fields. 4. conclusions the usage of neutrosophic numbers, neutrosophic logical operators and the inference procedures in order to build knowledge representation and processing systems is presented in general case, and examples oriented to medical diagnosis and computer assisted therapy shown new applications of neutrosophy. the present investigation can be extended to cover more neutrosophic models, including neutrosophic intervals for medical krp systems. references albeanu, g. (2013). neutrosophic computational models i, an. univ. spiru haret, ser. mat.inform., 9(2), 13-22. a. a. m. saeed, b. patrut, d. dănciulescu, a. tugui, d. dănciulescu towards medical neutrosophic krp systems 111 albeanu, g. (2014). neutrosophic computational models ii, an. univ. spiru haret, ser. mat.inform., 10(2), 33-36. ali, m., son, l., thanh, n. d. (2017). a neutrosophic recommender system for medical diagnosis based on algebraic neutrosophic measures, applied soft computing, doi:10.1016/ j.asoc.2017.10.012. andone, i., mockler, r.j., dologite, d.g., tugui, a., dezvoltarea sistemelor inteligente in economie: metodologie si studii de caz, editura economică, bucuresti, (2001). ansari, a. q., biswas, r., aggarwal, s. (2011). proposal for applicability of neutrosophic set theory in medical ai, international journal of computer applications 27(5), 5-11. atanassov, k. t. (1988). review and new results on intuitionistic fuzzy sets, mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence seminar, preprint im-mfais-1-88, sofia (reprinted in j. bioautomation 2016, 20(s1), s7-s16). boegl, k., adlassnig, k.-p., hayashi, y., rothenfluh, t. e., leitich, h. (2004). knowledge acquisition in the fuzzy knowledge representation framework of a medical consultation system, artificial intelligence in medicine 30, 1-26. drăgulescu, d., albu, a. (2007). medical predictions system. acta polytechnica ungarica, 4(3), 89101 (https://www.uni-obuda.hu/journal/dragulescu_albu_11.pdf), retrieved january 23, 2018 iancu, i., dănciulescu, d. (2011). intuitionistic fuzzy sets for optional courses selection, annals of the university of craiova, mathematics and computer science series, 38(3), 22-30. liberman, a. l., newman-toker, d. e. (2017). symptom-disease pair analysis of diagnostic error (spade): a conceptual framework and methodological approach for unearthing misdiagnosis-related harms using big data, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2017-007032. mohammed saeed, a. a., (2016). systems for knowledge representation and processing (krp systems), doctoral school research report, university of pitești. mohammed saeed, a. a. (2018). recent neutrosophic models for krp systems, in proceedings of the 7th international conference on computers communications and control (icccc), may 08-12, 2018 (in press). shortliffe, e. h. (1976). computer-based medical consultations: mycin, new york: elsevier. shortliffe, e. h. (1986). medical expert systems knowledge tools for physicians, medical informatics, westj med. 145, 830-839. siedushev, o., burov, e. (2017). forms of fuziness in data and knowledge bases, lpnu, http://science.lpnu.ua/sites/default/files/journal-paper/2017/may/2450/burovsedusheven.pdf. retrieved january 23, 2018. smarandache, f. (2007). a unifying field in logics: neutrosophic logic. neutrosophy, neutrosophic set, neutrosophic probability and statistics (6th edition), ann arbor: proquest information & learning. smarandache, f. (2015). neutrosophic quadruple numbers, refined neutrosophic quadruple numbers, absorbance law, and the multiplication of neutrosophic quadruple numbers, neutrosophic sets and systems 10, 96–98. smarandache, f. (2016). subtraction and division of neutrosophic numbers, critical review, 13, 103-110. thanh, n. d., son, l., ali, m. (2017). neutrosophic recommender system for medical diagnosis based on algebraic similarity measure and clustering, ieee international conference on fuzzy systems, doi: 10.1109/fuzz-ieee.2017.8015387. vasantha kandasamy, w. b., smarandache, f. (2003). fuzzy cognitive maps and neutrosophic cognitive maps. phoenix: xiquan. vasantha kandasamy, w. b. (2006). smarandache neutrosophic algebraic structures. phoenix: hexis. văduva, i., albeanu, g. (2004). introducere în modelarea fuzzy (introduction to fuzzy modelling), bucharest university publishing house. zadeh, l. (1965). fuzzy sets, information and control, 8, 338-353. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 112 wang, m., liu, m., liu, j., wang, s., guodong, l., qian, b. (2017). safe medicine recommendation via medical knowledge graph embedding, computing research repository, http://arxiv.org/abs/1710.05980. webmd symptom checker, https://symptoms.webmd.com/#/info *** common laboratory values: http://www.globalrph.com/labs.htm brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, sup.1, pages: 01-07 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/24 the socioeconomic impact produced by patients with dementia and hip fractures andrei vlad bradeanu¹, alexandru bogdan ciubara 2 , stefan lucian burlea 3 , anamaria ciubara 4 1 dunarea de jos university of galati, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, galati, romania. 2 “dunarea de jos” university of galati, galati, romania. 3 “grigore t. popa” university of medicine and pharmacy, iasi, romania. 4 “dunarea de jos” university of galati, galati, romania. abstract: age is one of the most important parameters influencing the occurrence of hip fractures in patients over the age of 65 but also their mental state is a decisive factor. in the first three months, older adults have eight times higher risk of dying of a hip fracture if compared with people who have not suffered such type of injury. in the last 10 years, several studies showed considerable increase in the well-being of patients who have both pathologies but for the caregivers it proved to be a very hard task. the management of hospitalization costs of dementia and hip fracture patients cannot include only the period of hospitalization, but should also include the 1-year period of recovery. in uk, the annual incidence of hip fracture is 79,243, accident and emergency costs per hip fracture is 297 pounds and hospitalization costs per hip fracture is 13,765 pounds. health and social care for hip bone fractures in one year amounts to 2 billion euros but specialists expect the number of hip fractures to increase reaching 104,000 cases by 2025. keywords: hip fracture; dementia; socio-economic impact. how to cite: bradeanu, a.v., ciubara, a.b., burlea, s.l., & ciubara, a. (2020). the socio-economic impact produced by patients with dementia and hip fractures. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1sup1), 0107. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/24 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/24 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1sup1/24 brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 2 age is one of the most important parameters influencing the occurrence of hip fractures in patients over the age of 65 but also their mental state is a decisive factor. in the first three months, older adults have eight times higher risk of dying of a hip fracture if compared with people who have not suffered such type of injury. the risk of death still continues in the first ten years. in 1990 there were around 1.31 million people with hip fracture in the world and it will be an exponential increase of hip fracture in 2050 reaching 6.3 million. high incidence of hips fracture worldwide includes: south america, europe and middle east part of europe. more than 35,000 canadians and more than 270,000 americans suffer from hip fracture annually. otherwise, the number of people who suffer from dementia was 47.5 million in 2015 but the increase is exponential and will reach 75.6 million in 2030 and 135.46 in 2050. dementia incidence doubles every 5 years in people aged 65 to 90 and it will be twofold in europe, threefold in asia, fourfold in latin america and more than twofold in america in 2050 (dharmarajan & banik, 2006; beaupre et al., 2006; cummings et al., 1995; lyons, 1997; brennan-olsen, 2018). in the last 10 years, several studies showed considerable increase in the well-being of pacients who have both pathologies but for the caregivers it proved to be a very hard task. for relatives caring for people with dementia and bone fracture it is more difficult and burdensome than caring for loved ones with other pathologies and disabilities. the most common profile for caregivers is white female married with children and middle study with full or part-time job who mainly take care of their parents. more in-depth studies about noticed that dementia caregivers suffer a lot of negative effects such as depression and show a higher risk to develop anxiety than nondementia caregivers. one such dementia caregiver spent more hours per day helping the patient (serban & tataru, 2018): to get out of bed or chair, get dressed, get to the toilet and come back, shower or bathe, get fed, take pills or other medication and injections. the nondementia caregiver has different types of tasks: manage finances, go shopping, prepare meals and transportation to the market/shop or other places and come back. the impact on the socioeconomic life of caregivers who are employed is that they have to accept jobs without claims, take retirement early and, most importantly, give up work entirely (ory et al., 1999; sulkava et al., 1985) families may be motivated to provide care for dementia patients for several reasons: love or reciprocity, spiritual fulfillment, debt sense, guilt, social pressures and greed. people who do these things out of obligation are the socio-economic impact produced by patients with dementia and hip … andrei vlad bradeanu, et al. 3 at greater risk of having psychological problems (fesun, 2019) than caregivers. in the usa, one quarter of dementia caregivers provide about 40 hours per week including bath, nourishment, toilet, dressing, while in developing countries it is around 12 hours per week as they are also attending their own everyday activities. a 1994 to 1998 study on 238 patients suffering from hip bone fracture (35% trochanteric fracture treated by osteosynthesis, 52% collar fracture femur treated by hemiarthroplasty and 13% collar fracture femur received total prosthesis) provides an analysis about the hospitalization period. the normal hospitalization period for geriatric people was 18 days, for patients with mild dementia was 29 days while for people with moderate dementia was 47 days. (johansson & skoog, 1996; johnell & kanis, 2006). successful rehabilitation of patients without dementia was 20 times higher than in patients with dementia and the average of geriatric hospitalization of patients with dementia was 34 days (buchner & larson, 1987; kyo et al., 1993; parker & palmer, 1995). the management of hospitalization costs (tomaziu-todosia, 2019) of dementia and hip fracture patients cannot include only the period of hospitalization, but should also include the 1-year period of recovery. costs can include: surgery intervention, surgery implants, laboratory and radiological investigation, medication prescribed and other treatment and investigation for associated comorbidities such as arterial hypertension, diabetes, arthritis and renal failure.(14) these comorbidities will greatly influence the price but the costs is influenced by the number of hospitalization days. (hernlund et al., 2013; burge et al., 2001; stevenson et al., 2006). a hip fracture should normally be operated within the first 24 hours (roche et al., 2005). for example, the approximate hospitalization costs in 2002 in singapore only for treatment of hip fractures without dementia was 7367 $. in 2010, in the european union, there were approximately 600,000 hip fractures costing 20 billion euros. in uk, the annual incidence of hip fracture is 79,243, accident and emergency costs per hip fracture is 297 pounds and hospitalization costs per hip fracture is 13,765 pounds (national clinical guideline centre, 2011). health and social care for hip bone fractures in one year amounts to 2 billion euros but specialists expect the number of hip fractures to increase reaching 104,000 cases by 2025 (nurmi et al., 203; luo & xu, 2005; barr et al., 2005; fleurence et al., 2004). in the near future all governments in the world will want to reduce the costs of hospitalization (marinescu & gheorghiu, 2019) through: brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 4 decreasing the patient’s length of hospital stay, early screening of patients with osteoporosis, treatment of osteoporosis with bisphosphonate, calcium and vitamin d supplements to prevent hip fractures, use of hip protectors, education of young people about this diseases (pasco et al., 2005; wiktorowicz et al., 2001; liporace et al., 2005; parker et al., 2006; brecht et al., 2004; willis, 2002). in the us, hospitalization costs for only one patient with delirium amounts to 60516 $, and for all patients with this pathology it reaches 143 billion $ (pandharipande et al., 2005). in canada the costs for patients with delirium pathology in one year is estimated to be 1.25 billion$ (74 million $ for drugs, hospitalization and diagnosis; 10 milion $ for research; 389 billion $ for public information campaigns; 615 million $ for paid services) (hay & ernst, 1987). references barr, r. j., stewart, a., torgerson, d. j., seymour, d. g., & reid, d. m. (2005). screening elderly women for risk of future fractures – participation rates and impact on incidence of falls and fractures. calcif tissue int, 76(4), 243248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-004-0101-5 beaupre, l. a., cinats, j. g., senthilselvan, a., lier, d., jones, c. a., scharfenberger, a., johnston, d. w., & saunders, l. d. (2006). reduced morbidity for elderly patients with a hip fracture after implementation of perioperative evidence-based clinical pathway. quality and safety in health care, 15(5), 375-9. https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2005.017095 brecht, j. g., kruse, h. p., mohrke, w., oestreich, a., & huppertz, e. (2004). healtheconomic comparison of three recommended drugs for the treatment of osteoporosis. international journal of clinical pharmacology research, 24(1),1-10. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15575171 brennan-olsen, s. (2018). why hip fractures in the elderly are often a death sentence. the conversation. retrieved from https://theconversation.com/why-hip-fractures-in-the-elderly-are-often-adeath-sentence-95784 buchner, d. m., & larson, e. b. (1987). falls and fractures in patients with the alzheimer's type dementia. jama: the journal of the american medical association, 257(11), 1492. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1987.03390110068028 burge, r. t., worley, d., johansen, a., bhattacharyya, s., & bose, u. (2001). the cost of osteoporotic fractures in the uk: projections for 2000–2020. journal of medical economics, 4(1-4), 51–62. https://doi.org/10.3111/200104051062 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-004-0101-5 https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2005.017095 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15575171 https://theconversation.com/why-hip-fractures-in-the-elderly-are-often-a-death-sentence-95784 https://theconversation.com/why-hip-fractures-in-the-elderly-are-often-a-death-sentence-95784 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1987.03390110068028 https://doi.org/10.3111/200104051062 the socio-economic impact produced by patients with dementia and hip … andrei vlad bradeanu, et al. 5 cummings, s. r., nevitt, m. c., browner, w. s., stone, k., fox, k. m., ensrud, k. e., cauley, j., black, d., & vogt, t. m. (1995). risk factors for hip fracture in white women. new england journal of medicine, 332(12), 767-73. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm199503233321202 dharmarajan, t. s., & banik, p. (2006). hip fracture: risk factors, preoperative assessment, and postoperative management. postgraduate medicine, 119(1), 31-38. https://doi.org/10.3810/pgm.2006.06.1638 fesun, h. (2019). relationship between the syndrome of emotional burnout and characterological qualities of a person, comparative aspect. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(1), 57-72. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/96 fleurence, r. l. (2004). cost-effectiveness of fracture prevention treatments in the elderly. international journal of technology assessment in health care, 20(2), 184191. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266462304000960 hay, j. w., & ernst, r. l. (1987). the economic costs of alzheimer's disease. american journal of public health, 77, 1169-1175. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.77.9.1169 hernlund, e., svedbom, a., ivergard, m., compston, j., cooper, c., stenmark, j., mccloskey, e. v., jonsson, b., & kanis, j. a. (2013). osteoporosis in the european union: medical management, epidemiology and economic burden. archives of osteoporosis, 8, 136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11657013-0136-1 johansson, c., & skoog, i. (1996). a population-based study on the association between dementia and hip fractures in 85-year olds. aging clinical and experimental research, 8(3), 189-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03339676 johnell, o., & kanis, j. a. (2006). an estimate of the worldwide prevalence and disability associated with osteoporotic fractures. osteoporosis international, 17(12), 1726–1733. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-006-0172-4 kyo, t., takaoka, k., & ono, k. (1993). femoral neck fracture. factors related to ambulation and prognosis. clinical orthopaedics and related research, 292, 21522. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8519112 liporace, f. a., egol, k. a., tejwani, n., zuckerman, j. d., & koval, k. j. (2005). what’s new in hip fractures? current concepts. american journal of orthopedy, 34, 66-74. luo, l. z., & xu, l. (2005). study on direct economic-burden and its risk factors of osteoporotic hip fracture. zhonghua liu xing bing xue za zhi, 26(2), 669672.retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16471214 lyons, a. r. (1997). clinical outcomes and treatment of hip fractures. american journal of medicine, 103(2), 51s-63s. https://doi.org/10.1016/s00029343(97)90027-9 https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm199503233321202 https://doi.org/10.3810/pgm.2006.06.1638 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/96 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266462304000960 https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.77.9.1169 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11657-013-0136-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11657-013-0136-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03339676 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-006-0172-4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8519112 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16471214 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0002-9343(97)90027-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0002-9343(97)90027-9 brain. broad research in april, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1, sup.1 6 marinescu, a., & gheorghiu, s. (2019). ethics controlling military medical practice. logos universality mentality education novelty: philosophy & humanistic sciences, 7(1), 51-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/18 national clinical guideline centre. (2011). hip fracture: the management of hip fracture in adults. retrieved from https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg124/evidence/full-guideline183081997 nurmi, i., narinen, a., luthje, p., & tanninen, s. (2003). cost analysis of hip fracture treatment among the elderly for the public health services: a 1year prospective study in 106 consecutive patients. archives of orthopaedic and trauma surgery, 123(10), 551-554. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-0030583-z ory, m. g., hoffman, r. r., yee, j. l., tennstedt, s., & schulz, r. (1999). prevalence and impact of caregiving: a detailed comparison between dementia and nondementia caregivers. the gerontologist, 39(2), 177–185. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/39.2.177 pandharipande, p., jackson, j., & ely, e. w. (2005). delirium: acute cognitive dysfunction in the critically ill. current opinion in internal medicine, 4(5), 448456. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ccx.0000170503.76528.4b parker, m. j., & palmer, c. r. (1995). prediction of rehabilitation after hip fracture. age and ageing, 24(2), 96-98. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/24.2.96 parker, m. j., gillespie, w. j., & gillespie, l. d. (2006). effectiveness of hip protectors for preventing hip fractures in elderly people: systematic review. bmj, 332(7541), 571-574. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38753.375324.7c pasco, j. a., sanders, k. m., hoekstra, f. m., henry, m. j., nicholson, g. c., & kotowicz, m. a. (2005). the human cost of fracture. osteoporosis international, 16(12), 2046-2052. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-005-1997y roche, j. j., wenn, r. t., sahota, o., & moran, c. g. (2005). effect of comorbidities and postoperative complications on mortality after hip fracture in elderly people: prospective observational cohort study. bmj, 331(7529), 1374. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38643.663843.55 serban, a., & tataru, s. (2018). the influence of general data protection regulation on patient engagement. logos universality mentality education novelty: law, 6(1), 56-72. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/07 stevenson, m. d., davis, s. e., & kanis, j. a. (2006). the hospitalisation costs and out-patient costs of fragility fractures. women's health medicine, 3(4), 149–151. https://doi.org/10.1383/wohm.2006.3.4.149 sulkava, r., wikström, j., aromaa, a., raitasalo, r., lehtinen, v., lahtela, k., & palo, j. (1985). prevalence of severe dementia in finland. neurology, 35(7), 1025–1029. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.35.7.1025 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenphs/18 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg124/evidence/full-guideline-183081997 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg124/evidence/full-guideline-183081997 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-003-0583-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-003-0583-z https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/39.2.177 https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ccx.0000170503.76528.4b https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/24.2.96 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38753.375324.7c https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-005-1997-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-005-1997-y https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38643.663843.55 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/lumenlaw/07 https://doi.org/10.1383/wohm.2006.3.4.149 https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.35.7.1025 the socio-economic impact produced by patients with dementia and hip … andrei vlad bradeanu, et al. 7 tomaziu-todosia, m. (2019). the importance of public health policies in the social economic development of romania. postmodern openings, 10(2), 162-172. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/78 wiktorowicz, m. e., goeree, r., papaioannou, a., adachi, j. d., & papadimitropoulos, e. (2001). economic implications of hip fracture: health service use, institutional care and cost in canada. osteoporosis international, 12(4), 271-278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001980170116 willis, m. s. (2002). the health economics of calcium and vitamin d3 for the prevention of osteoporotic hip fractures in sweden. international journal of technology assessment in health care, 18(4), 791-807. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266462302000600 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/po/78 https://doi.org/10.1007/s001980170116 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266462302000600 microsoft word brain_1_3_alemi_bagher_mi.doc brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 0 the relationship between test takers’ multiple intelligences and their performance on the reading sections of toefl and ielts mansoor fahim allameh tabataba'i university, tehran, iran dr.mfahim@yahoo.com marzieh bagherkazemi allameh tabataba'i university, tehran, iran m_bk43@yahoo.com minoo alemi sharif university of technology, tehran, iran alemi@sharif.ir abstract the present study aimed at investigating the hypothetical relationship between the multiple intelligences of test takers and their performance on the reading sections of toefl and ielts. howard gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences suggests that intelligence is not a single and solely inborn capacity, rather a multiple construct which is only partly genetic, and can be crystallized or paralyzed over one’s lifetime. based on the theory, there are eight types of intelligence: linguistic, mathematical, musical, bodily, spatial, intrapersonal, interpersonal and naturalist, but the list is not exhaustive. the multiple intelligences of test takers were estimated by means of midas, the multiple intelligences developmental assessment scales, developed by shearer (1994). subsequently, the bias detection for the reading section of toefl was carried out on 90 participants, and this subtest was found to correlate positively with linguistic and logical intelligences. by the same token, 89 out of the 163 participants in the study were included in the analysis of the relationship between the multiple intelligences of test takers and their performance on the reading section of ielts, and this test proved biased toward linguistic and spatial intelligences. the implications concern the inadequacy of the definition of language proficiency .moreover, measurement-driven instruction courses and preparatory materials of the two proficiency tests, toefl and ielts, can benefit from the results of the study by being designed in such a way as to represent the intelligences which are positively correlated with performance on the tests in question. keywords: midas, multiple intelligences, language proficiency, regression analysis, standardized test, test bias 1. introduction one of the primary concerns of language testers of all time is the validity of the interpretations and uses of test scores. decades backward, spolsky (1968) [30] had addressed the problem of validity: “the central problem of language testing as of all testing is validity” (p.94). validity, according to messick (1989; cited in bachman, 1990) [5], is the extent to which the uses and actions based on test scores are adequate and appropriate. as such, validity is not an easily attainable end in itself, taking into account the prodigious diversity of test takers’ characteristics. “the process of test validation must go beyond reliability and examine the relation between test performance and factors outside the test itself” (ibid, p.239). [5] similarly, ensuring the reliability of test scores is a considerable undertaking as, according to bachman (1990) [5], factors outside the test itself such as test takers’ idiosyncrasies may turn into systematic sources of measurement error, while “a perfectly reliable score, or measure, would be one which is free from errors of measurement” (p.24) [5]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 1 intelligence, as a cognitive capacity of the brain, can be hypothesized to influence language test performance. the view of intelligence adopted in the present study is that put forth by howard gardner under the rubric ‘multiple intelligences’, or mi, a critique to the standard view of intelligence as a unitary trait measured through traditional iq tests. gardner claimed in his “frames of mind” (1983) [14] that the multiplicity of human cognitive faculties or intelligences needs to be appreciated if we are to account for the intellectual diversity of human beings. there are, according to him, eight types of intelligence that reflect different ways of interacting with the world: logical/mathematical, verbal/linguistic, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. gardner’s initiative has been embraced by a host of educators, including language educators and assessment scholars. while mi generally disfavors standardized testing, and advocates ‘alternative assessment’ instead, the investigation of the possible relationship between test takers’ multiple intelligences and their performance on standardized norm-referenced tests can provide some deep insights into the general characteristics of such tests. therefore, in an attempt to contribute to the study of the reliability, validity and bias on the one hand and to the enhancement of the efficiency of preparatory materials and courses, on the other, of two different ubiquitous tests of proficiency, toefl and ielts, the present study enquired into the hypothesized interaction between test takers’ multiple intelligences and their performance on the reading sections of these english language proficiency tests. questions 1. is the reading section of toefl biased toward any of the multiple intelligences? 2. is the reading section of ielts biased toward any of the multiple intelligences? null hypotheses (h0) 1. there is no significant relationship between test takers’ multiple intelligences and their performance on the reading section of toefl. 2. there is no significant relationship between test takers’ multiple intelligences and their performance on the reading section of ielts. 2. literature review 2.1. the essence of gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences motivated by his recognition of no mention of art in cognitive psychology and his neurological research on brain damage (gardner, 2003 [17]; gardner & hatch, 1989 [15]), gardner first presented his theory of multiple intelligences in a revolutionary book, “frames of mind” (1983) [14], seeking to capture all of the ways humans can excel. he posed a colossal mutiny against the prevailingly held conceptualizations of intelligence, entailing a single, fixed and measurable factor labeled ‘g’, grounded in factor analytic approaches and favored by purists. he defined intelligence as “the ability to solve problems and to create products that are valued in one or more cultural settings” (gardner, 1983; cited in gardner, 1999, p.33) [16]. this definition brings to light the ways gardner’s conceptualization of an intelligence differs from that of his predecessors: the consideration of the product creation dimension of intelligence and the significance of culture in the way intelligence is conceived. upon surfing the existing literature (brown, 2000 [6]; christison, 1998 [10]; gardner, 1983 [14], 1999 [16], 2003 [17]; harmer, 2001 [19]; richard and rodgers, 2001 [29]), the essence of his theory can be stated as the following principles: 1. there are eight types of intelligence that reflect different ways of interacting with the world: logical, linguistic, visual, bodily, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. 2. all these universal and autonomous capacities or intelligences are innately endowed in all human beings, but people are unique in the strengths and combinations –profilesof these intelligences on biological and experiential accounts. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 2 3. intelligences rarely operate independently as they tend to complement each other when people try to solve problems or fashion products. 4. there is more than one way to be intelligent in each of the intelligence types. 5. we can all improve each of the intelligences, though some people will improve more readily in one or more areas through training and practice. 6. intelligences are not subject to value judgments. in other words, despite the positive connotation of the word ‘intelligence’, it, in its different types, can be put to good and nefarious purposes. 7. gardner’s theory implies an individualized pedagogy, one in which teachers teach and assess students based on their individual strengths and weaknesses. it is in line with such recurring educational themes as learner differentiation, humanism and psychological flow. 2.2. gardner’s criteria of an intelligence to provide a clear-cut distinction between an intelligence on the one hand and a talent or an aptitude on the other, gardner (1983) [14] stipulated a set of eight criteria or signs, “a reasonable set of factors to be considered in the study of human cognition” (gardner, 1999, p. 41) [16]: 1. potential isolation by brain damage, manifesting the biological basis of an intelligence; 2. the existence of idiot savants, prodigies and other exceptional individuals; 3. an identifiable core operation or set of operations; 4. a distinctive developmental history, along with a definable set of expert end-state performances; 5. an evolutionary history and evolutionary plausibility; 6. support from experimental psychological tasks; 7. support from psychological findings; 8. susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system. 2.3. gardner’s multiple intelligences defined initially, howard gardner (1983) [14] posited the existence of seven intelligences. however, his listing was provisional, as later, in 1993, he added an eighth type, namely naturalist intelligence, and is now dubious about a ninth possibility, existential intelligence, as the sensitivity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life (gardner,1999) [16]: so far, i’m sticking to my 8 ½ intelligences, but i can readily foresee a time when the list could grow, or when the boundaries among the intelligences might be reconfigured (gardner, 2003, p. 10) [17]. what follows is a definition of the intelligences: 1. logical intelligence: it entails the ability to think conceptually and abstractly, and the capacity to discern logical or numerical patterns. this is what, in gardner’s terms, piaget, the most influential figure in developmental psychology, was actually focusing on. from an educational perspective, people with high logical intelligence learn and are assessed best through scientific demonstrations, calculations, creating codes, logical problems, puzzles, inductive and deductive reasoning, mental formulae and the like (christison, 1997; cited in richards & rodgers, 2001 [29]; georg, 1997 [18]). 2. linguistic intelligence: it encompasses well-developed verbal skills and sensitivity to the sounds, meanings and rhythms of words. it “involves sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals” (gardner, 1999, p.41) [16]. people with high verbal intelligence learn and demonstrate what they have learnt at their best through worksheets, word games, memorizing, using word processors, vocabulary quizzes, recall of verbal information, reporting and other similar tools and techniques (christison, 1997; cited in richards &rodgers, 2001 [29]; georg, 1997 [18]). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 3 3. musical intelligence: it is best described as the ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timber. gardner (1999) [16] states that it is structurally parallel to verbal intelligence and, therefore, apt to be called an intelligence and not a talent. people with high musical intelligence learn best through music appreciation, linking music with learnt concepts, analyzing musical structures, listening, and other activities of the sort (christison, 1997; cited in richards & rodgers, 2001 [29]; georg, 1997 [18]). 4. bodily intelligence: it’s the ability to control one’s body movements and to handle objects adroitly to solve problems or to fashion products. it encompasses the adeptness to comprehend the world through body experiences, to express ideas and emotions and communicate with others physically (gaffney, 1995) [13]. people with high bodily intelligence learn best through role plays, hands-on activities, miming, field trips, processing knowledge by means of bodily sensations, and interacting with the world (christison, 1997; cited in richards & rodgers, 2001 [29]; georg, 1997 [18]). 5. visual intelligence: visual intelligence can be defined as the capacity to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately and abstractly, and “to recognize and manipulate the patterns of wide space as well as the patterns of more confined areas” (gardner, 1999, p.42) [16]. among the best learning and assessment tools appropriate for such learners are flow charts and graphs, movies, imaginative storytelling, visualization, understanding and creating maps, and sketching (christison, 1997; cited in richards & rodgers, 2001 [29]; georg, 1997 [18]). 6. interpersonal intelligence: it denotes a person’s capacity to detect and respond appropriately to the moods, desires, motivations and feelings of others, and “to work effectively with others” (gardner, 1999, p.43) [16]. it’s evident in teachers, salespersons and politicians (richards & rodgers, 2001) [29]. people with high interpersonal intelligence benefit most from such learning activities as pair work, group brainstorming, peer tutoring, role plays, etc. (christison, 1997; cited in richards & rodgers, 2001 [29]; georg, 1997 [18]). 7. intrapersonal intelligence: it means the capacity to be self-aware and in tune with inner feelings, values, beliefs and thinking processes, and “to use such information effectively in regulating one’s own life” (gardner, 1999, p.43) [16]. people with high intrapersonal intelligence learn and demonstrate what they have learnt best through independent student work, personal projection, complex introspective questions and answers, journal keeping, options for homework, etc. (christison, 1997; cited in richards & rodgers, 2001 [29]; georg, 1997 [18]). 8. naturalist intelligence: it’s the ability to recognize and categorize animals, plants and other objects in the environment. to cater for naturalist learners, teachers can draw upon such learning and assessment tools as videos, texts and films on nature, field trips and the like (christison, 1997; cited in richards & rodgers, 2001 [29]; georg, 1997 [18]). 2. 4. multiple intelligences and recurring educational themes since 1983, gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences has found a ready audience among educators and curriculum designers alike, and this has come as a surprise to gardner himself: “the fervor with which educators embraced his [gardner’s] premise that we have multiple intelligences surprised gardner himself” (checkley, 1997, p.8) [9]. centuries ago, plato had put in words what is now considered the drift of mi theory in education: “do not train youth to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each” (cited in campbell, 1997, p.14) [8]. mi can be regarded as a “learner-based philosophy” (richards &rodgers, 2001, p.115) [29] that is inextricably interwoven with the recurring themes in today’s educational psychology as follows: brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 4 1. differentiation: mi is consonant with the motto of today’s educators in general and language educators in particular: “cater for individual learner differences”. according to gardner (1999) [16], the traditional view of intelligence leads to an educational course in which everyone has to study the same material and is treated in the same way. however, an mi-based education echoes the fact that we are all different and possess different kinds of mind, and it is only with the appreciation of these differences that education works most effectively. on the whole, mi calls for a personalized, rather than a homogenized, education and is committed to achieving educational understanding. 2. psychological flow: a second buzzword in education today is ‘psychological flow’. it can be defined as a mental state that entails “total absorption in a satisfying task” (strevens, 1986, p.26) [35]. deeply seated in individual differences, mi is a ringing endorsement of an education which offers pleasurable and magnified learning experiences based on learners’ natural talents. this has proved to catapult learners, especially language learners, toward the heights of learning and improvement. in other words, an ideal educational system, gardner believes, is one that makes learners want to do what they have to do (larsen, 2002) [22]. 3. humanism: gardner’s theory is in line with one of the popular and promising forces in education today: ‘humanistic teaching’. arnold (1998) [4] asserts “humanistic language teachers are concerned with the whole person and should have no difficulty accommodating many areas of experience and learning in their classrooms” (p.240). these same themes of ‘catering for the wholeperson’ and ‘the diversity of learning experiences’ are exactly what the proponents of mi are committed to. gardner maintains “we should think in terms of as large a part of humanity as possible” (cited in larsen, 2002, p.6) [22]. given what was said above, the theory of multiple intelligences can bring about a fundamental reform in the educational system, and not surprisingly “educational institutions have recently been applying gardner’s intelligences to a multitude of school-oriented learning” (brown, 2000, p.102) [6]. on a smaller scale, mi theory has spurred many a teacher to reconsider their teaching methods and many a researcher alike to put forward the best ways of applying the theory within schools and classrooms in general and language learning classrooms in particular. the educational application of mi is espoused and explicated on by armstrong (1994) [1] who, attempting to teach how to tell the time to a group of first graders, states “one can use this model to teach virtually everything from the “schwa” sound to the rain forest and back” (p.1). taking a similar path, walters (1992) [36] counts two of the valued advantages of an mi-based classroom: 1. problem solving: an mi-founded pedagogy evens up the pitfalls of the traditional restricted context that fails to reflect problem solving in the world outside school. 2. self-esteem: failing to recognize the importance of certain intelligences, schools tend to raise the self-esteem of the favored group and lower that of the group that they don’t favor. in this case, mi serves as a remedy. by the same token, wilson (1998) [37], an enthusiastic proponent of mi, talks of the immense popularity of the theory among educators: “much like a grassroots started at the bottom of the educational pyramid” (p.3). she brings up six reasons for this widespread acceptance among teachers and researchers: 1. the proliferation of the published work and presentations on the theory, serving to raise awareness of the virtues of its application in the classroom; 2. its adaptability for a broad range of instructional experiences and curricular applications; 3. empowering learners, providing them with supportive scaffolds and enhancing their metacognitive and study skills; 4. fostering levels of personal, interpersonal, professional and cultural understanding; 5. creating a state of psychological flow; 6. validating teachers’ insightful and qualitative assessment of learners’ natural faculties; brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 5 7. broadening the conception of giftedness and providing teachers with a more comprehensive and egalitarian view. 2. 5. multiple intelligences and language learning before gardner’s initiation of mi, the relationship between language learning and intelligence had been sketched differently by different scholars. some denied the existence of such a relationship, reasoning that successful language learners represented a wide range of iqs (brown, 2000) [6]. others argued in favor of this hypothesized tie, and in some cases went to extremes for it. for example, oller (1981) [27] deemed general intelligence and language proficiency as more or less the same thing. along the same lines, taking a more diluted view of the hypothesized connection between intelligence and language learning, lightbown and spada (1999) [24] review the state of the art on such a relationship and conclude that the ’intelligence’ connection with language learning can only be taken for granted with reference to particular areas of language learning like reading, grammar and vocabulary, but not with oral skills. despite the swings of the pendulum, mi theory has gained recognition among language educators and foreign or second language teachers, though gardner himself believes that such a relation is not to be taken for granted: “i’m less persuaded that it [mi] can be useful in mastering a foreign language, though i admire those teachers of foreign languages who claim success using mi approaches” (2003, p.11) [17]. according to brown (2000) [6], gardner’s theory underlines those attributes that are pivotal to second language learning success. by the same token, richards and rodgers (2001) [29] assert that, from an mi perspective, language is integrated with music, interpersonal relationships, bodily activity and alike; what’s more, it encompasses all that is critical in communication, so it “is not seen as limited to a “linguistic” perspective” (ibid, p.117) [29]. thus, aspects of language such as rhythm and tone, for example, “are more closely linked to, say, a theory of music than to a theory of linguistics” (ibid) [29]. as far as the application of mi in a language learning classroom is concerned, michael berman (1998; cited in palmberg, 2002) [28] was the first educator to systematically apply mi to elt. in his book “a multiple intelligences road to an elt classroom”, he emphasizes the importance for teachers to cater for the various intelligence profiles that exist in a language learning environment. in the majority of language learning classrooms, according to larsen-freeman (2000) [23], verbal and interpersonal intelligences are likely to be compulsively regularly activated, while other intelligences may not receive any particular attention on the part of teachers. consequently, within an mi framework, language teachers are strongly recommended to represent the other intelligences as well, “while not losing sight that their purpose is to teach language” (ibid, p.172) [23]. 2. 6. multiple intelligences and reading: how can the eight intelligences be involved? although we have generally tended to associate the reading skill with linguistic intelligence and with distinctive brain structures in the left hemisphere, one can demonstrate the interplay of all the eight intelligences when it comes to processing the actual experience of reading. embarking on a task of reading, the reader proceeds through a number of stages employing one or more intelligences: 1. looking at the visual configuration of the letters (spatial intelligence); 2. making visual image-sound correspondences (musical, linguistic and naturalist intelligences); 3. grounding the visual and auditory sensations into a structure of meaning (bodily intelligence); 4. drawing upon deep intuitive syntactic structures (logical intelligence); brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 6 5. visualizing the reading material (spatial intelligence), experiencing himself/herself physically engaged in a text (bodily intelligence), having emotional reactions (intrapersonal intelligence), guessing the author’s intents or beliefs (interpersonal intelligence), thinking critically about the reading material (logical intelligence), etc. this way, several or all of the intelligences are brought to bear on the multilayered process of reading. such a broad view of the reading process accounts, at least in part, for the range of difficulties readers generally encounter; examples include failing to comprehend whole texts, problems with the underlying grammatical structures of sentences, and inability to visualize the reading material or to understand the author’s intent (armstrong, 2003) [3]. 2. 7. multiple intelligences and assessment fairness in assessment in general and language assessment in particular can be of substantive concern to both assessors and those who are assessed once the vitality of immediate and far reaching consequences of assessment acts is brought to light. in other words, a fair assessment is tantamount to the assessor’s staunch commitment to ‘ethics’ as an intrinsic part of his/her profession. given this, a salient aspect of assessment is the validity of the procedures and measures utilized to assess individuals, and consequently the extent to which such procedures and measures cater for the cognitive differences among those who are assessed. mi theory proposes a quintessential restructuring of the orthodox way in which educators assess their students’ learning progress. it dissents from short answer, standardized, and normreferenced testing, postulating, in essence, that such tests represent a very restricted context for problem solving. from an mi perspective, learners should not be assessed in a uniform fashion on the grounds that they do not learn in the same way (armstrong, 2000 [2]; gardner, 1999 [16]; walters, 1992 [36]). walters (1992) asserts that mi theory is oriented toward more authentic or alternative assessments with the purpose of paying due attention to the unique intelligence profiles of learners. in a similar vein, costanzo and paxton (1999) [11] contend that schools have traditionally dwelled on linguistic and logical intelligences and fallen short of recognizing individual differences. they take refuge in mi as “it stimulates teachers to plan assessments that allow students to draw upon these [other] intelligences when trying to demonstrate mastery of content material” (p.24). similarly, kallenbach (1999) [21] believes that changing the learners’ paradigm of effective teaching and learning can be fulfilled through coupling mi-based lessons with regular reflection and self-assessment of what is helping adults to learn. 3. methodology in compliance with such new trends in language assessment, the present study is an attempt to find out the extent to which the reading sections of toefl and ielts are aligned with howard gardner’s theory of ‘multiple intelligences’. in order to answer the research questions, the following methodology was adopted: 3. 1.materials 3.1.1. midas: to obtain an estimate of the participants’ mastery in each of the eight intelligences posited by gardner, the multiple intelligences developmental assessment scales (midas) was used. these scales were developed by shearer (1994) to provide an objective or reasonable measure of the multiple intelligences as reported by the person or by a knowledgeable informant. according to shearer (1996) [31], the scales in midas have been so developed as to describe the course and direction of intellectual growth and achievement potential in specific areas of skill for the eight intelligences. the results consist of scores on the 8 subscales of the questionnaire, usually expressed in percentages. the reliability and validity of midas have been minutely demonstrated by shearer (www.miresearch.org) [39]. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 7 3.1.2. the reading section of general training ielts: on this reading test, there are 40 questions for the candidates to be answered within 60 minutes, following 3 sections of increasing difficulty containing texts taken from notices, advertisements, leaflets, newspapers, instruction manuals, books and magazines(www.ielts.org) [38]. each item is worth one mark and scoring is facilitated through the availability of an answer key indicating alternative words/phrases within an individual answer (cambridge ielts 2, 2002) [7]. the reading module in the present study was first scored through number-right scoring, whereby each item is assigned one mark, and then scaled on full and half band scores from 0 to 9 ; the scores below 30 (below the band score 6) were excluded from the analysis. 3.1.3. the reading section of paper-based toefl: the reading section makes up the third section of the toefl. it contains 50 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 55 minutes. candidates will find 5 or 6 passages, each followed by 9 to 11 multiple-choice questions. passages are written in a formal, academic style, typical of most college or university level texts and journals (www.toefl.org) [40]. the questions include vocabulary, cohesion, and reading comprehension items including factual questions and questions about the main idea of individual paragraphs and the whole passage. each item is worth one mark (matthiesen, 1999) [25]. the scoring was carried out by first calculating the number right scores and then converting them to scaled scores ranging from 31 to 67. the test takers scoring below the number right score 38 (the scaled score 54) were excluded from the data analysis. 3.2. participants for the purposes of the present study, initially 163 (68 male and 95 female) iranian efl learners, ranging in age from 22 to 36, and of a variety of academic backgrounds, volunteered to take part in the study. they were all advanced learners at a private english language institute in iran, namely kish, and had no prior experience on either toefl or ielts, i.e. they hadn’t done any toefl or ielts courses prior to the study so as to control for their ‘test wiseness’. 3.3. procedure the researcher set on the task of testing the hypotheses by selecting participants in such a way as to leave out ‘language proficiency’ as a control variable. therefore, she initially obtained the consent of 163 male and female advanced efl learners at kish language institute to take part in the study. they had all been placed in two consecutive (fourth and fifth) advanced courses through achievement or placement tests, and the nuance in their language proficiency could therefore be ignored. each participant attended a 120 minute testing session, first taking the reading section of the toefl within 55 minutes followed by a 15 minute break, and taking the reading section of the ielts within 50 minutes afterwards. overall, eight such testing sessions were held, supervised by the researcher. after each session, the test takers were given the midas to fill in whenever they got the time to as no time limitation has been set by the questionnaire developer, and asked to hand in their completed midas answer sheets within one week of receiving the questionnaires. later, in order to equate participants on their english reading proficiency, the researcher omitted from the data analysis the scores lower than 30 (band score 6) on the reading section of ielts, and lower than 38 (scaled score 54) on the reading section of the toefl (i.e., lower than the 75% of the whole score on either test). totally, 77 participants met the score requirement on both tests; 12 more participants met the score requirement on the reading section of ielts; and 13 more participants met the requirement on the reading section of toefl. the remaining 61 participants fall into two groups: 1. eleven didn’t fill out the midas. 2. fifty met the score requirement on neither toefl nor ielts. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 8 3.4. design for the present study, the eight multiple intelligences comprised the set of independent variables, and the participants’ scores on the reading sections of toefl and ielts were the two dependent variables. seeking such a relationship makes the research apt for the label ‘applied correlational’. as for the general design of the study, it can be said of an ‘ex-post-facto’ nature because the researcher exerted no control over the independent variables, namely the eight intelligences put forth by gardner. 4. data analysis and results in order to test each of the null hypotheses, multiple regression analyses were run, via spss 11.5, twice with two different entry systems. the first stage of the analysis for each research question aimed at finding out whether the null hypotheses were to be rejected. in the second stage, a more detailed picture of the correlations and the predictability of the dependent variable based on the independent variables was provided. 4.1. investigating the first research question as mentioned earlier, out of 163 participants who took the toefl reading, 90 met the score requirement (i.e. their scaled scores were 54 or above) and provided their mi profiles. the information concerning the 90 valid cases’ performance on midas and the toefl reading is presented in table 1. the descriptive statistics on the toefl provides further evidence as to the homogeneity of the sample on reading proficiency. simply put, with a mean of 56.46 and a standard deviation of 3.051, all the 90 scaled scores, which range from 54 to 66, fall within a standard deviation range from –0.5 to +1.5. this table also contains some statistical information on the distribution of the intelligences within the sample. among all the intelligences, the participants show the greatest mastery in linguistic intelligence. table 1. descriptive statistics n range minimum maximum mean std. deviation tofel reading score 90 12 54 66 56.46 3.051 musical 90 67.0 17.0 84.0 49.754 16.6156 bodily 90 78.6 14.4 93.0 49.041 14.8687 logical 90 70.0 23.0 93.0 57.923 15.4207 spatial 90 74.4 17.8 92.2 55.808 17.3522 linguistic 90 83.7 12.3 96.0 63.843 16.1350 interpersonal 90 63.6 23.0 86.6 55.539 16.2140 intrapersonal 90 69.3 23.0 92.3 58.291 17.1491 naturalist 90 81.7 6.0 87.7 46.286 16.9112 valid n 90 data analysis results for the first research question statistically speaking, the assumption behind the null hypothesis is that the multiple correlation or multiple regression equals zero (r=0). in order to test the hypothesis, the researcher ran a multiple regression analysis with the data using the “enter” entry system. the output can be seen in the following table (table 2). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 9 table 2. model summary (1) model r r square adjusted r square std. error of the estimate 1 .577(a) .333 .267 2.612 a predictors: (constant), naturalist intelligence, linguistic intelligence, bodily intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, logical intelligence, spatial intelligence as the data indicate, the correlation coefficient between the set of independent variables, namely the eight intelligences, and the dependent variable, namely scores on the reading section of the toefl has a value of 0.577 (r=0.577). more specifically, the common variance between the intelligences and the toefl reading scores, represented with ‘r square’ in the table, is 0.333. it would mean that only 33.3% of an examinee’s score on the reading section of the toefl can be accounted for by their level of mastery in the eight multiple intelligences. table 3. partial and part correlations model correlations zero-order partial part sig. musical int. -.093 -.045 -.036 .689 bodily int. -.223 -.183 -.152 .097 logical int. .393 .353 .308 .001 spatial int. .069 .024 .020 .827 linguistic int. .354 .281 .239 .010 inter personal int. -.188 -.173 -.143 .119 intra personal int. -.138 -.191 -.159 .084 naturalist int. -.059 -.027 -.022 .810 a dependent variable: tofel score the second stage of the analysis was intended to see how well each of the eight intelligences correlated with scores on the reading section of toefl. the following table (table 3) presents the partial correlations between each of the intelligences and the toefl reading score, along with their levels of significance the data indicate that linguistic and logical intelligences are significantly correlated with the dependent variable (r=0.281 and α=0.010 for linguistic intelligence, and r=0.353 and α=0.001 for logical intelligence), while intrapersonal and bodily intelligences negatively correlate with the toefl reading score, and for them only a trend toward statistical significance is observable (rosner, 1986) [30]. hence, these four intelligences were entered in the final model. at this stage of the analysis, the relative effect of each of the relevant intelligences was determined. the following table contains the output of the analysis: table 4. model summary (2) model r r square adjusted r square std. error of the estimate 1 .393(a) .154 .145 2.821 2 .481(b) .232 .214 2.705 3 .519(c) .270 .244 2.652 4 .556(d) .309 .276 2.595 a predictors: (constant), logical intelligence b predictors: (constant), logical intelligence, bodily intelligence c predictors: (constant), logical intelligence, bodily intelligence, linguistic intelligence d predictors: (constant), logical intelligence, bodily intelligence, linguistic intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence as indicated in the model, logical intelligence was the first intelligence analyzed, based upon which 15.4% of the toefl reading score can be accounted for. however when paired together, logical and bodily intelligences show a relatively higher correlation with the dependent brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 10 variable (r=0.481), and also the predictability of the toefl reading score, as the common variance (r square) shows, rises to 23.2%. in a similar vein, when the effects of the other two intelligences, linguistic and intrapersonal respectively, are included step by step, the correlation coefficient goes up and finally reaches 0.556, and the predictability of the toefl reading score also increases to 30.9%. 4.2. investigating the second research question as far as the second research question is concerned, out of the 163 participants who took the ielts, 74 scored less than 30 (the band score 6) on the test or did not provide their mi profiles, while the remaining 89 served as valid active cases in the study. the statistical values concerning the participants’ performance on the reading section of ielts and midas are presented in table 5: table 5 descriptive statistics n range minimum maximum mean std. deviation ielts reading score 89 2.50 6.00 8.50 7.0674 .63152 musical 89 67.3 15.7 83.0 47.447 17.1020 bodily 89 66.0 15.0 81.0 47.731 13.7442 logical 89 76.0 17.0 93.0 56.219 16.7156 spatial 89 64.8 27.4 92.2 57.080 16.0187 linguistic 89 82.0 14.0 96.0 62.487 17.9667 interpersonal 89 70.6 16.0 86.6 55.109 16.9023 intrapersonal 89 74.8 17.5 92.3 58.033 17.6628 naturalist 89 80.6 10.4 91.0 45.237 17.3587 valid n 89 as for the participants’ performance on the ielts reading section, the value of the mean (7.0674) and the standard deviation (o.63152) indicate a wider distribution of scores than what was observed for the toefl reading. the lower standard deviation can be accounted for by the fact that the ielts scores are reported on band scales (here from 6 to 8.5). in addition, most of the scores cluster within one standard deviation from the mean. it is also evident in table 5. that among all the intelligences, the highest mean (63.8) and range belong to linguistic intelligence. data analysis results for the second research question based on the second null hypothesis, the multiple correlation or multiple regression (r) between the multiple intelligences and scores on the general training reading module of ilels has a value of zero. to test the hypothesis, the researcher ran the multiple regression analysis and came up with table 6. the table provides evidence for the rejection of the second hypothesis. table 6 model summary (1) model r r square adjusted r square std. error of the estimate 1 .507(a) .257 .183 .57087 a predictors: (constant), naturalist intelligence, linguistic intelligence, bodily intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, logical intelligence, spatial intelligence in actual fact, there is some degree of correlation between the eight intelligences as the set of independent variables and scores on the reading section of ielts (r=0.507). the r square which is the common variance between the intelligences considered as a whole and the dependent variable equals 0.257. the implication is that about a quarter (25.7%) of the score on the reading brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 11 section of ielts can be predicted based on a test taker’s mi profile, therefore the assumption of no multiple correlation is rendered untenable. table 7 presents the partial correlations between each of the eight intelligences and the ielts reading score alongside the zero-order or bivariate correlations and the levels of significance. it can be observed that linguistic and spatial intelligences correlate significantly with the dependent variable. the partial correlation has a value of 0.291 for the spatial intelligence and 0.370 for the linguistic intelligence, and both correlations are highly significant at 0.01 level. it would mean that linguistic and spatial intelligences can be taken as the best predictors of the score on the general training reading module of ielts. table 7 partial and part correlation coefficients (a) model correlations zero-order partial part sig. 1 musical int. .006 -.131 -.114 .242 bodily int. .057 -.001 .000 .996 logical int. .111 -.164 -.144 .140 spatial int. .355 .291 .262 .008 linguistic int. .392 .370 .343 .001 inter personal int. .028 -.037 -.032 .741 intra personal int. .097 -.071 -.062 .523 naturalist int. .021 .015 .013 .896 a dependent variable: ielts score finally, utilizing the ‘stepwise’ entry system, the researcher once more regressed the independent variables on the dependent variable. the output can be seen in the following table: table 8. model summary (2) model r r square adjusted r square std. error of the estimate 1 .392(a) .153 .144 .58436 2 .455(b) .207 .188 .56894 a predictors: (constant), linguistic intelligence b predictors: (constant), linguistic intelligence, spatial intelligence it is evident in the table above that apart from linguistic and spatial intelligences, all other intelligences have been omitted from the analysis as they proved not to correlate with the dependent variable. the first variable entered into the model is the linguistic intelligence based upon which 15.3% of the ielts reading score can be predicted and the correlation has a value of 0.355. this intelligence is then paired with spatial intelligence in the second model; the correlation rises to 0.455 and the common variance increases by nearly 5%. in other words, given a test taker’s linguistic and spatial intelligences, about 20% of his/her score on the general training reading module of ielts is predictable. 5. discussion and conclusions the fact that the reading sections of ielts and toefl were found to favor some of the multiple intelligences comes as bad news and good news. in other words, there are both positive and negative implications. the negative implications relate to the fact that such standardized tests as toefl and ielts are supposed to operatonalize english language proficiency as their underlying construct and nothing else. mousavi (1999) [26] defines a ‘language proficiency test’ as “a test which measures how much of a language someone has learnt. it seeks to answer the question: “having learnt this much, what can the student do with it?” ” (p.288). accordingly, if language proficiency tests are found to be in favor of a particular group of test takers, or biased toward them, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 12 “the validity of inferences we make on the basis of the test scores” is jeopardized (mousavi, 1999, p.397) [26]. this means that to ensure the validity of widely used standardized language proficiency tests, bias detection is always welcomed. as an example of bias detection on the reading sections of toefl and ielts, the present study proved that test takers’ multiple intelligences can in fact influence their performance on the reading sections of these two tests. the significance of the problem comes to light if one considers the inordinate number of those who take ielts and toefl every year with their unique intelligence profiles. one might argue that these tests are expected to test the language proficiency of test takers and not their multiple intelligences. a viable solution, according to farhady(1981) [12], is to alter the definition of english reading proficiency in such a way that the test takers’ multiple intelligences are taken into account. it is evident, however, that inducting the test takers’ multiple intelligences in the definition of language proficiency would entail numerous problems, but it is worth considering. in actual fact, this redefining might entail the revising or even redeveloping of the tests in question so that they cater for all the eight intelligences, or at least the ones which seem to be relevant, equally well. this way, mi proponents’ call-out for an ‘intelligence-fair assessment’ can be, to some extent, fulfilled, and the construct validity of the tests partly ensured. moreover, by measuring a broader range of cognitive skills or intelligences, individuals who might have been labeled as low performers when assessed on a limited set of cognitive skills may have better opportunities to demonstrate their level of proficiency (stemler, grigorenko, jarvin & sternberg, 2006) [33]. on a smaller and more practical scale, though, the results of the present study can prove beneficial to ielts and toefl instructors and material developers. simply put, now that we have found out which intelligences ielts and toefl’s reading sections are biased toward, their preparatory courses and materials can be designed partly around these intelligences until the ets professionals improve the tests so that they represent all the eight intelligences put forth by gardner. the theory of multiple intelligences has mostly been applied to language acquisition and authentic assessment programs, and only few researchers have extended it to the area of standardized and norm-referenced testing. to compound the problem, most of the work done in this area has taken the traditional view of intelligence (iq) for granted, and failed to appreciate its multiplicity. the present study was then intended to fill in the gap to some extent, through the investigation of the relationship between test takers’ multiple intelligences and their performance on the reading sections of toefl and ielts. in the end, it is noteworthy that “because theorists of intelligence disagree as to what it is, any consideration of its relationship to other constructs must be tentative at best” (sternberg, grigorenko & kidd, 2005, p.46) [34]. moreover, the correlations observed do not imply a causeeffect relationship between the intelligences and the dependent variables, and this kind of misinterpretation of the results, called post hoc fallacy, needs to be avoided. these and the low correlations observed preclude carrying the implications too far. however, the popularity of mi among educators over other theories of intelligence makes it apt as one of the promising bases (if not the one) of language teaching and testing. 8. references [1] armstrong, t. (1994). multiple intelligences: seven ways to approach curriculum. retrieved october 23, 2007 from http://www.thomasarmstrong.com. [2] armstrong, t. (2000). multiple intelligences in the classroom. alexandria: association for supervision. [3] armstrong, t. (2003). the multiple intelligences of reading and writing: making the words come alive. alexandria: association for supervision. [4] arnold, j. (1998). towards more humanistic english teaching. elt journal, 52 (3): 235-242. [5] bachman, l.f. (1990). fundamental considerations in language testing. oxford: oxford university press. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 13 [6] brown, h.d. (2000). principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). new york: addison wesley longman, inc. [7] cambridge ielts 2 (2002). cambridge: cambridge university press. [8] campbell, l. (1997). variations on a theme-how teachers interpret mi theory. educational leadership, 55 (1): p. 14-19 [9] checkley, k. (1997). the first seven... and eight: a conversation with howard gardner. educational leadership, 55 (1): p. 8-13 [10] christison, m.a. (1998). applying multiple intelligences theory in pre-service and in-service tefl education programs. forum, 36 (2): 2-17. [11] costanzo, m. &paxton, d. (1999). multiple assessments for multiple intelligences. focus on basics, 3 (1): 24-27. [12] farhady, h. (1981). measures of language proficiency from the learner perspective. tesol quarterly, 16 (1): 43-59. [13] gaffney, k. (1995). multiple intelligences and the arts. retrieved october, 2006 from http://www.njcommunity.org. [14] gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. new york: basic books. [15] gardner, h. & hatch, t. (1989). multiple intelligences go to school: educational implications of the theory of multiple intelligences. educational researcher, 18 (8): 4-9. [16] gardner, h. (1999). intelligence reframed: multiple intelligences for the 21st century. new york: basic books. [17] gardner, h. (2003). multiple intelligences after 20 years. paper presented at the american educational research association, chicago, illinois. [18] georg, m. (1997). purposeful learning through multiple intelligences. nevada city, ca: performance learning systems, inc. [19] harmer, j. (2001). the practice of english language teaching (3rd ed.). england: pearson education limited. [20] hatch, e. & farhady, h. (1981). research design and statistics for applied linguistics. tehran: rahnama publications. [21] kallenbach, s. (1999). emerging themes in adult multiple intelligences research. focus on basics, 3 (1): 16-20. [22] larsen, s.n. (2002). an interview with howard gardner. retrieved january 25, 2008 from http://www.howardgardner.com. [23] larsen-freeman, d. (2000). techniques and principles in language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. [24] lightbown, p.m. & spada, n. (1999). how languages are learned . oxford: oxford university press. [25] matthiesen, s.j. (1999). barron’s essential words for the toefl (2nd ed.). usa: barron’s. [26] mousavi, s.a. (1999). a dictionary of language testing (2nd ed.). tehran: rahnama publications. [27] oller, j.w. jr. (1981). language as intelligence. language learning, 31 (3): 465492. [28] palmberg, r. (2002).catering for multiple intelligences in efl coursebooks. retrieved february 3, 2008 from http://www.tefl.net. [29] richards, j.c. & rodgers, t.s. (2001). approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). cambridge: cambridge university press. [30] rosner, b. (1986). fundamentals of biostatistics. massachusetts: harvard university press. [31] shearer, b. (1996). the midas: a guide to assessment and education for the multiple intelligences. columbus, oh: greyden press. [32] spolsky, b. (1968). language testing-the problem of validation. tesol quarterly, 2 (2): 8494. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3 , july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 14 [33] stemler, s., grigorenko, e.l., jarvin, l. & sternberg, r.j. (2006). using the theory of successful intelligence as a basis for augmenting ap exams in psychology and statistics. contemporary educational psychology, 31 (3): 344-376. [34] sternberg, r.j., grigorenko, e.l. & kidd, k.k. (2005). intelligence, race and genetics. american psychologist, 60 (1): 46-59. [35] strevens, p. (1986). applied linguistics: an overview introduction to applied linguistics, in w. grabe & r.b. kaplan (eds.) (1992), introduction to applied linguistics. london: addison wesley publishing company, inc. [36] walters, j. (1992). application of multiple intelligence: research in alternative assessment. presentation at the second national research symposium on limited english proficient student issues, washington, d.c. [37] wilson, l.o. (1998). what’s the big attraction? why teachers are drawn to using multiple intelligences theory in their classrooms? retrieved october 26, 2007 from http://www.newhorizons.org. microsoft word issue 3.docx 25 investigating the effect of hypnotherapy on reducing anxiety and pain during labor anahita sahour islamic azad university (iau) mazandaran province, farah abad rd, iran +98 11 3303 3729 mohammad kazem fakhri islamic azad university (iau) mazandaran province, farah abad rd, iran +98 11 3303 3729 mahdi pourasghar university of medical sciences mazandaran province, sari, farah abad road, iran +(98-11) 33044051-2 abstract background: majority of women go through levels of anxiety during pregnancy. in this respect, anxiety and fear of labor pain are among the most common causes for elective cesareansection as a preferred type of childbirth by pregnant women. however, caesarean-section delivery as a surgical technique can be accompanied by adverse side effects and outcomes for mother-infant health. thus, the use of non-pharmaceutical approaches moderating anxiety and pain during labor can be beneficial in promoting the health status of mothers and babies. accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of hypnotherapy on reducing anxiety and pain during labor among pregnant women. methodology: this study was an experimental research with a pre-test/posttest design comprised of experimental and control groups. among the pregnant women referring to hospitals affiliated to social security organization in mazandaran province, 30 nulliparous pregnant women with gestational age of 27-33 weeks were selected via convenience sampling method and then they were randomly designed to experimental and control groups of 15 individuals. the research instruments in this study included the spielberger state-trait anxiety inventory (stai), mcgill pain questionnaire (index), as well as the standard numeric rating scale (nrs) and visual analogue scale (vas). in addition to routine prenatal care for pregnant women in the experimental group, hypnotherapy was used for 8 sessions to reduce prenatal anxiety and then it was employed to moderate pain during labor as an analgesic. however, the control group only received routine prenatal care. the data were also analyzed using the spss software (version 25) and parametric test of covariance (ancova); independent t test and nonparametric u mann whitney findings: comparing the post-test state-trait anxiety in both control and experimental groups, it was found that hypnotherapy could reduce anxiety in pregnant women in the experimental group. furthermore; comparing the variable of pain in the experimental and control groups revealed that the mean score of pain in the experimental group was lower than the significance level (p-value<0.00). conclusion: it was concluded that hypnotherapy was effective in reducing anxiety and pain during labor and it could be used as a non-pharmaceutical approach during pregnancy and childbirth care. keywords: hypnotherapy; state anxiety; trait anxiety; labor pain. 1. introduction the process of pregnancy and parenting is considered as one of the biggest psychological and biological changes associated with anxiety symptoms. although provision of physical care for pregnant women has been expanded over hundreds of years in developed countries, mental health brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 26 care has been still neglected as an important part in childbirth and midwifery. in this respect, most women are likely to suffer from an onset or worsening of anxiety disorders during their pregnancy (malary, shahhosseini, pourasghar & hamzehgardeshi, 2015). about 7-20% of pregnant women experience stress and anxiety concerning their decreased daily ability and functioning due to insomnia, obsessive thoughts, neuromuscular pains, panic attacks, hot flushes, or restlessness. it has been also proven that prenatal anxiety can predict physiological, mentalpsychological, and motor growth, as well as behavioral-emotional problems in early childhood. similarly, some studies have revealed that the symptoms of too much stress and anxiety reported before childbirth have been accompanied by a possible increase in levels of depression in postpartum period (legrand, grévin-laroche, josse, polidori, quinart, & taïar, 2017). as well; pain has been considered as a multidimensional experience with its own physiological, psychological, and social aspects. in terms of grading labor pain, it has been introduced as one of the most severe pains compared with all types of pain (melzack, & wall, 1988). majority of pregnant women are also afraid of pain during labor. the given fear, like anxiety, can be accompanied by more painful experiences (leeman, fontaine, king, klein & ratcliffe, 2003). reminding labor pain may be also harmful and cause distress and anxiety about future deliveries and, according to some experts, lead to severe negative reactions affecting sexual and psychological outcomes after childbirth (stewart, 1982). extreme fear of labor can cause anxiety and pain during pregnancy which may play a role in opting for elective cesarean-section (c-section) delivery by mothers. requests for c-section with no medical or obstetric reasons are a general issue in the twenty-first century and the most common cause for elective c-section is the fear of natural (vaginal) delivery. according to the results of the review study by gibbense (2010), iran with a rate of 41.9% has the second place following brazil (45.9%) in terms of c-section delivery which is higher than the acceptable percentage proposed by the world health organization (who) ( i.e. 10-15%) (andaroon, kordi, kimiaei & ismaili, 2017). one of the main reasons for c-section is the increase in clients’ own requests. in this respect, pregnant women consider this type of childbirth as a method with less pain and fewer side effects than natural delivery. death rate from c-section is also seven times higher than that in natural delivery, and the main side effects of c-section delivery can include postpartum endomyometritis, bleeding, urinary tract infection, and thromboembolism. c-section can also have risks for infants such as premature birth, transient tachypnea of the newborn (ttn), persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (pphn), as well as injuries such as wounds, bruises, or other problems (jamshidi avanaki, khakbazan, babaei & seyyed nouri, 2004). treatment of pain in patients is one of the uses of hypnosis. today, this phenomenon is employed across the world on a large scale to reduce the consumption of synthetic and chemical drugs as well as narcotics and to lower costs of treatments and pressures on insurance companies. hypnotherapy can be also considered as an effective approach to pain treatment in decision-making systems (agah, 2010). in this respect, hypnosis can be effective through three major mechanisms for controlling pain: muscle relaxation, perceptual change, and cognitive distraction. most often, pain is accompanied by reactive muscle tension; thus, techniques that create more relaxation can reduce pain in the body (sadock, sadock & ruiz, 2005). despite the benefits of using hypnosis in moderating pain and anxiety during labor, the clinical use of this approach has been underestimated, especially in iran. therefore, research studies examining the clinical benefits of this treatment can provide great services to mother-infant health in a community. accordingly, the purpose of this research study was to investigate the effect of hypnotherapy as a non-pharmaceutical approach on reducing anxiety and pain during labor in pregnant women. 2. materials and methods this study was of applied experimental research type because it was to investigate the effect of hypnotherapy on pregnant women. to this end, the study participants were selected through a. sahour , m. k. fakhri, m. pourasghar investigating the effect of hypnotherapy on reducing anxiety and pain during labor 27 convenience sampling method. then, they were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. to conduct the clinical trial in this study, a pretest/posttest design was used. the statistical population also consisted of pregnant women referring to hospitals affiliated to social security organization in mazandaran province. using a cross-sectional design; at first, three hospitals from five hospitals affiliated to social security organization in mazandaran province were randomly selected. after that, 30 nulliparous women with a gestational age of 27-33 weeks, referring to the mentioned hospitals between october 2017 and march 2017 in order to control their pregnancy and delivery, were selected using convenience sampling method and then they were randomly assigned to two groups of 15 individuals in the experimental (13 people after the sample loss) and control (12 individuals following the sample loss) groups. the inclusion criteria in this research study were nulliparous women with the gestational age of 27-33 weeks, no contraindication of natural delivery, completion of consent form, no infection with major depressive disorder or suicidal thoughts, no uncontrolled seizure, as well as no paranoid, anti-social, and psychotic personality disorder. the mentioned criteria were investigated during interviews with the pregnant women. the exclusion criteria were also unwillingness to cooperate in the research study at any time, being absent in more than two sessions out of the total eight sessions, as well as occurrence of contraindication of natural delivery in the process of research implementation. to observe the ethical considerations, the reasons for conducting the research as well as its procedure and conditions were explained to the pregnant women participating in this study during the initial interviews; then, the consent form was completed by the pregnant women and their husbands. during the research procedure, each participant who was unwilling to continue cooperation was allowed to withdraw. the principle of confidentiality as an important research principle was also observed. moreover, the pregnant women attended all hypnotherapy sessions free of charge during their pregnancy and delivery. based on similar research studies (downe et al., 2015; cyna et al., 2011; finlayson, 2015; harmon, 1990; freeman, 1986), the number of hypnotherapy sessions was considered by eight sessions of 50 minutes. the content of the training sessions was as follows:  session one: taking a medical history, explaining the project, and determining the prevailing modulated sense in mothers, and also specifying their hypnotic personality characteristics as well as correcting misunderstanding about hypnotherapy  session two: inductions, deepening, and suggestions to increase relaxation, senselessness, and lack of pain  session three: strengthening ego to control pain and anxiety  session four: practicing the control room of the mind to deal with anxiety and pain  session five: age return to moderate anxiety-provoking and painful experiences in the past  session six: age progress and successful labor experience with relaxation and pain control  session seven: forgiving oneself or others and teaching self-hypnosis  session eight: wrapping up previous sessions and teaching conditionalization to reduce labor pain one of the research instruments used in this study was a demographic characteristics questionnaire including items such as age, education levels, occupation, gestational age, place of residence (city-village), history of infertility, and history of being affected with anxiety disorders. the spielberger state-trait anxiety inventory (stai) was another questionnaire employed in the present research study. this questionnaire consisted of separate self-measurement scales for state-trait anxiety. the state anxiety is one whose occurrence is situational and it is also devoted to stressful situations and the trait anxiety signifies individual differences in response to stressful situations with different levels of state anxiety (spielberger, gorsuch, lushene, vagg & jacobs, 1983). the stai was developed in 1970 by spielberger containing 40 items in which items 1 to 20 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 28 are assigned to the state anxiety and items 21 to 40 are devoted to the trait one. items related to the state anxiety are scored via a four-point likert-type scale (never, sometimes, usually, and almost always) and the items related to the trait anxiety are also scored the same including never, sometimes, usually, and almost always (spielberger, gorsuch, lushene, vagg & jacobs, 1983). the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the sub-scales of the state-trait anxiety were also respectively reported by 0.92 and 0.90 by spielberger et al. (1970). moreover, the coefficients of the test-retest reliability for the state-trait anxiety were obtained by 0.62 and 0.68; respectively. in a research study on 219 patients affected with generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and normal individuals; cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the scale of state anxiety was 0.92 and that was 0.90 for the trait one (taghavi, najafi, kianersi & aghayan, 2013). the results of another study conducted on 600 individuals in the city of mashhad in iran also revealed that the reliability of this questionnaire measured through cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the scales of state anxiety, trait anxiety, and the total scale was 0.91, 0.90, and 0.94; respectively (safavi & ma’aroufi, 2012). the other questionnaire used in this study was mcgill pain questionnaire (index) with a set of statements aimed at measuring individuals’ perception of pain in a variety of dimensions including sensory, affective, and evaluative perceptions of pain, as well as pains of various types and diverse origins. the mcgill pain questionnaire (index) is one of the most prominent instruments for pain measurement which was administered for the first time by melzack on 297 patients suffering from different types of pain (melzack, 1975). the given questionnaire includes two independent factors: one called sensory pain describing pain experience by a person, and the other one is affective pain that illustrates and accounts for the effect of the sense of pain experience (mason, arceneaux, abouhassan, lauterbach, seebach & fauerbach, 2008). the reliability and validity of this questionnaire was determined by durkin et al. in 2009. the findings of this study also showed a high reliability and validity for this questionnaire. as well, the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated four pain scales including chronic pain, varied pain, neuroleptic pain, and affective pain. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the given scales were also reported by 0.87, 0.87, 0.83, and 0.86; respectively (dworkin, turk, revicki, harding, coyne & peirce-sandner, et al., 2009). this questionnaire was reviewed in iran and its validity and reliability were reported to be desirable. for example, khosravi et al. (2012) reported the total cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.85 in their investigation (khosravi, sadighi, sanambar, moradi & zendehdel, 2013). in another study, cronbach’s alpha coefficient for this questionnaire was reported by 0.7336 (fathi, 2014). another research instrument employed in this study was the standard numeric rating scale (nrs) and visual analogue scale (vas). within the nrs and vas, the patient shows the severity of their pains in numbers from 0 to 10 on a scale. it is clear that the higher the scores selected by patients, the more the severity of pain. this research instrument has been extensively used and its validity and reliability have been proved in terms of acute pain. this scale is the modified form of johnson’s nrs and vas that was endowed with good construct and concurrent validity (0.816). it had also positive correlation for examining the severity of pain. in one study, the validity and the criterion validity of this scale ranged from 0.76 to 0.84, and its reliability was estimated by 0.60 to 0.77 using different methods (ghamari givi, share’ei, mohammadipour rik, abolghasemi & nader pilehrood, 2012). atashzadeh shoorideh as well as bastani et al. (2015) in their study used the nrs and vas for the measurement of the severity of the pain. the validity of this questionnaire using content and face validity and its reliability measured via internal consistency method were also determined by r=0.88 (bastani, sobhani & emamzadeh ghasemi, 2015). 3. research procedure to measure the level of state-trait anxiety, the stai was administered. before the onset of hypnotherapy, levels of anxiety in both study groups were measured during the first session. after a. sahour , m. k. fakhri, m. pourasghar investigating the effect of hypnotherapy on reducing anxiety and pain during labor 29 eight 50-minute weekly hypnotherapy sessions for the experimental group, the levels of anxiety in both experimental and control groups were re-measured at the end of the eighth session. individuals in the experimental group also became familiar with hypnotherapy during therapeutic sessions and practiced self-hypnosis exercises at home based on the subjects of the sessions. after the end of the therapeutic sessions, self-hypnosis continued until the delivery time on a daily basis by mothers. with the start of uterine contractions and the active labor phase, the hypnotic inductions of no pain during labor were performed by the therapist for the pregnant mothers during delivery. the severity of pain during labor was also measured through the nrs and vas and then the mcgill pain questionnaire (index) was used immediately after the end of the third labor phase in the labor room to examine the quality of pain in both experimental and control groups. 4. findings the mean age of the individuals in the control group was 25.24 and the standard deviation of their age was 5.52. the mean and standard deviation of age in the experimental group was also 28 and 4.14; respectively. the two study groups did not have a significant difference in their mean age (p-value=0.080). the mean gestational age of the control group was 34.75 and their standard deviation was 1.65. the mean and the standard deviation of gestational age in the experimental group were also 33.69 and 2.21; respectively. it was observed that gestational age in both groups was not statistically significant (p-value=0.192). table 1 group control experimental mean standard deviation mean standard deviation age 24.25 5.52 28 4.71 independent t-test results t=1.831 df=23 p-value=0.08 gestational age 34.75 1.65 33.69 2.21 independent t-test results t=1.343 df=23 p-value=0.192 table 2. frequency distribution and educational percentage of research units in control and experimental group education levels control experimental frequency percentage frequency percentage high school diploma and higher 8 66/7 6 46/2 university graduate 4 33/3 7 53/8 total 12 100 13 100 consequence of chi-squared test 𝜒 = 06/1 df=1 p-value= 302/0 as shown in the table2 the p value in chi-square test is achieved 0/302 it was shown that there were no significant differences between the control and experimental group in terms of education and were homogeny. fischer’s exact test results for the other demographic information presented in table3 show that there were no significant differences between two groups and were hemogen and majority of pregnant women were resident of the city and they haven’t history of infertility and anxiety symptoms. table 3 variable group control experimental p value frequency percentage frequency percentage occupation housewife 9 75 11 84.6 0/787 employee 2 16.8 2 45.4 university students 1 8.3 0 0 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 30 place of residence city 9 75 12 92.3 0/322 village 3 23 1 7.7 infertility status yes 0 0 1 7.7 0/999 no 12 100 12 92.3 anxiety symptoms yes 1 8.3 1 7.7 0/999 no 11 91.7 12 92.3 table 4. normality review of anxiety score using shapiro vilk test group variable z degree of freedoom level of significance normality pretest experimental trait anxiety 0/949 13 0/577 normal state anxiety 0/959 13 0/734 normal anxiety 0/934 13 0/386 normal control trait anxiety 0/895 12 0/136 normal state anxiety 0/942 12 0/524 normal anxiety 0/919 13 0/281 normal post.test experimental trait anxiety 0/924 13 0/280 normal state anxiety 0/912 13 0/196 normal anxiety 0/924 13 0/287 normal control trait anxiety 0/891 12 0/120 normal state anxiety 0/959 12 0/769 normal anxiety 0/896 12 0/140 normal the score listed in the table4 shown variables distribution are normal. given the distribution of research variables (anxiety; trait and state anxiety) in pre and post-test are normal and measurement scale was interval scale; for data analysing ancova parameteric test hase employed. table 5. mean score and standard deviation in control and experimental group group test index trait anxiety state anxiety anxiety experimental pretest m 39/15 43/00 82/15 sd 8/01 8/92 15/68 post.test m 25/67 22/15 47/82 sd 2/35 1/72 3/31 control pretest m 38/58 42/50 81/08 sd 10/59 8/58 18/31 post.test m 40/17 45/83 86/00 sd 11/61 10/09 21/11 results of table 5: mean score and standard deviation in anxiety and it’s component (trait and state anxiety) ividedd in to two group is presented in the table. the pretest anxiety mean score in experimental group was 82/15 and post-test mean score was 47/82; in control group was 81/08 and 86 respectively which in descriptive term the post-test mean scores in experimental group was lower than pre-test scors but the post test scores in control group were increased. table 6. mcgill numerical indices of pain in control and experimental groups and their test of significance mcgill pain control experimental mannwhitney u test results mean standard deviation mean standard deviation sensory 21.91 4.98 6.69 3.7 pvalue˂0.001 affective 6 1.9 0.84 0.8 pvalue˂0.001 evaluative 4 1.34 0.84 1.14 pvalue˂0.001 varied 11 3.46 2.76 2.27 pvalue˂0.001 a. sahour , m. k. fakhri, m. pourasghar investigating the effect of hypnotherapy on reducing anxiety and pain during labor 31 the findings in table 5 indicated that pain in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group (p-value˂0.001). table 7. distribution of frequency and percentage of severity of pain among participants in control and experimental groups and its test of significance pain group control experimental frequency percentage frequency percentage mild 0 0 1 7.7 moderate 0 0 7 53.8 severe 0 0 4 30.8 very severe 3 25 1 7.7 profound (unbearable) 9 75 0 0 total 12 100 13 100 standard deviation ± mean 9.66±0.65 4.84±2.07 mann whitney u test p-value˂0.001 the results of the non-parametric test of mann-whitney u test were illustrated in table 6 revealing that pain in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group (p-value˂0.001). there can be seen that pain in most women in the control group was at profound (unbearable) levels by 75%, but 53.8% of the women in experimental group had moderate levels of pain. 5. discussion the results of this study demonstrated that the mean score of anxiety at the end of the research study was significantly lower in the experimental group and it also decreased compared with that in the control group, so the research hypothesis was confirmed. in this regard, abbasi (2014) investigated the effect of hypnosis on reducing anxiety during labor in pregnant women (vandevusse, irland, healthcare, berner, fuller & adams, 2007). in this quasi-experimental study, conducted with a control group (12 individuals) and an experimental group (12 individuals), the findings showed that hypnosis was effective as a complementary and safe treatment for anxiety in pregnant women (abbasi fashami, 2013). moreover, the results of of hammond’s meta-analysis (2010) revealed that hypnosis had been useful in reducing state anxiety along with stressful situations (hammond, 2010). it should be noted that individuals’ physical functions can be controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which can be affected by their minds. they are, in fact, the unintentional psychological reactions that are apparently out of individuals’ control and intention. the minds of individuals are also able to control their bodies. during hypnosis, people receive relaxing inductions and they are asked to focus on imagery for relaxation which can cause mental relaxation, followed by physical relaxation and reduced muscle tensions. also, the findings of the present study suggested that hypnosis could significantly reduce pain in the experimental group compared to that in the control group. the mcgill pain questionnaire (index) scores in the sensory, affective, evaluative, and varied dimensions were respectively 21.91, 6, 4, and 11 in the control group and 6.69, 0.84, 0.84, and 2.76 in the experimental group indicating that hypnosis had reduced pain in the experimental group. given the measurement of severity of pain using nrs and vas, it was concluded that pain in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group. it was also found that pain in most women i.e. 75% in the control group was at profound (unbearable) levels and 53.8% of women in the experimental group were suffering from moderate pain. these results were consistent with the findings by saadatmand in 1994 (saadatmand, 1995) and vandevusse in 2011 (vandevusse, irland, healthcare, berner, fuller & adams, 2007) in terms of the impact of hypnotherapy on pain relief. in his review study, madden (2016) observed no significant difference brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 32 in reducing pain between experimental and control groups in the investigations reviewed. he explained that there were few studies examining the use of hypnosis during childbirth. although interventions could show a bit of hope, further research studies were needed on the clinical benefits of controlling and managing pain in care centers for pregnant mothers. he also stated that more research studies with higher quality were required because the number of women examined had been small (madden, middleton, cyna, matthewson & jones, 2016). in explaining the reason for the effect of hypnotherapy in reducing pain, it was argued that the presence of segregation and induction, as two components of the three most important components of the hypnotic condition, were effective. hypnotic inductions could also distract a person from the delivery environment and her attention could be focused on pleasant imagery, so perception of pain could be reduced, and direct hypnosis could lower the severity of pain in a person and make her feel less painful. thus; it was concluded that using this simple and inexpensive approach with no side effects could lead to satisfaction with the process of delivery. it is suggested to conduct further research studies at a wider level and with more sample size. during labor, a hypnotherapist can be also preferably a gynecologist or a midwife who is responsible for controlling pregnancy and childbirth, in order to maintain their authority at a higherlevel during hypnotherapy. to create high-grade analgesia, samples should be selected from individuals with high hypnotic levels. therefore; hypnotherapy, as an inexpensive and safe approach to reduce anxiety and labor pain should be included in the prenatal care procurement protocol by the ministry of health, treatment, and medical education. acknowledgments we, hereby, appreciate and express our gratitude to all the participants in this research and all those who collaborated in this study. references abbasi fashami, n. (2013). the effectiveness of hypnotherapy on reducing maternal anxiety in pregnant women. master’s thesis in clinical psychology, islamic azad university, sari branch. agah, m. (2010). new approaches of hypnotherapy in pain treatment and its strategic necessities in iran. journal of strategy, 19(55), 261-278. andaroon, n., kordi, m., kimiaei, a., & ismaili, h. (2017). relationship between deep fear of labor and choice of type of delivery in nulliparous women. journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 5, 68-75. bastani, f., sobhani, m., & emamzadeh ghasemi, h. (2015). effect of acupressure on fatigue in women with multiple sclerosis. global journal of health science, 7(4). dworkin, r., turk, d., revicki, d., harding, g., coyne, k., & peirce-sandner, s. et al. (2009). development and initial validation of an expanded and revised version of the short-form mcgill pain questionnaire (sf-mpq-2). pain, 144(1), 35-42. fathi, f. (2014). examining the effect of hypnotherapy on pain control, death anxiety, resilience, and improvement of cancer cells in patients with acute myeloid leukemia undergoing chemotherapy. master’s thesis in clinical psychology, islamic azad university, sari branch. ghamari givi, h., share’ei, s. j. a., mohammadipour rik, n., abolghasemi, a. & nader pilehrood, m. (2012). exploring the effectiveness of relaxation and distraction techniques to reduce and control pain in children admitted to general hospitals. quarterly journal of counseling and psychotherapy culture. 3(10), 102-114. hammond, d. (2010). hypnosis in the treatment of anxietyand stress-related disorders. expert review of neurotherapeutics, 10(2), 263-273. a. sahour , m. k. fakhri, m. pourasghar investigating the effect of hypnotherapy on reducing anxiety and pain during labor 33 jamshidi avanaki, f., khakbazan, z., babaei, g., & seyyed nouri, t. (2004). evaluating the reasons for elective cesarean-section delivery by pregnant women referring to healthcare centers in the city of rasht. quarterly journal of hayat (life), (22), 51-60. khosravi, m & sadighi, sanambar & moradi, s & zendehdel, kazem. (2013). persian-mcgill pain questionnaire; translation, adaptation and reliability in cancer patients: a brief report. journal of school of medicine, tehran university medical journal. 71(1), 53-58. leeman, l., fontaine, p., king, v., klein, m., & ratcliffe, s. (2003). the nature and management of labor pain: part i. nonpharmacological pain relief. american family physician, 68(6), 1109-1112. legrand, f., grévin-laroche, c., josse, e., polidori, g., quinart, h., & taïar, r. (2017). effects of hypnosis during pregnancy: a psychophysiological study on maternal stress. medical hypotheses, 102, 123-127. madden k, middleton p, cyna am, matthewson m, jones l (2016) hypnosis for painmanagement during labour and childbirth. cochrane database of systematic reviews, (5). malary, m., shahhosseini, z., pourasghar, m., & hamzehgardeshi, z. (2015). couples communication skills and anxiety of pregnancy: a narrative review. materia socio medica, 27(4), 286-290. mason, s. t., arceneaux, l. l., abouhassan, w., lauterbach, d., seebach, c., & fauerbach, j. a. (2008). confirmatory factor analysis of the short form mcgill pain questionnaire with burn patients. eplasty, 8. melzack, r. (1975). the mcgill pain questionnaire: major properties and scoring methods. pain, 1(3), 277-299. melzack, r., & wall, p. (1988). the challenge of pain. london:penguin. saadatmand, m. (1995). investigating the effect of hypnosis on reducing pain during labor in pregnant women referring to izadi maternity hospital in the city of qom. articles of scientific journals, isfahan university of medical sciences, isfahan, school of nursing and midwifery, 7, 40-45. sadock, b., sadock, v., & ruiz, p. (2005). kaplan & sadock's comprehensive textbook of psychiatry (9th ed.). safavi, m. & ma’aroufi, s. (2012). correlation between attachment styles and state-trait anxiety. journal of medical sciences, islamic azad university 22(4), 307-311. spielberger, c.d., gorsuch, r.l., lushene, r., vagg, p.r. & jacobs, g.a. (1983) manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory. consulting psychologists press, palo alto. stewart, d. (1982). psychiatric symptoms following attempted natural childbirth. cmaj, 127(8), 713–716. taghavi m., najafi m., kianersi f., aghayan s. (2013). comparing alexithymia, defense styles, and state-trait anxiety in patients with generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, and normal individuals. journal of clinical psychology, 5(2), 67-76. vandevusse l., irland j., healthcare w. f., berner m. a., fuller s. & adams d. (2007). hypnosis for childbirth: a retrospective comparative analysis of outcomes in one obstetrician's practice’ american journal of clinical hypnosis, 50(2), 109-119. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 177 approximation solutions of boundary-contact problems of non-classical diffusion models coupled-elasticity manana chumburidze akaki tsereteli state university 22/6 str. k.meskhi, kutaisi, georgia, 4600 maminachumb02@gmail.com david lekveishvili akaki tsereteli state university 59 str.tamar mephe , kutaisi, georgia, 4600 david.lekveishvili@atsu.edu.ge elza bitsadze phd student of georgian technical university 22/74 str.javakhishvili, kutaisi, georgia, 4600 eliza-bitsadze@mail.ru abstract in this article we formulate and analyze a class of diffusion pde models for oscillation systems of coupled–elasticity in 2-d bounded domains. approximate method in green-lindsay formulation with thermal and diffusion relaxation times has been developed. basic boundarycontact problems for isotropic inhomogeneous finite and infinite media with the inclusion of piecewise elastic material in assumptions that surface is sufficiently smooth have been investigated. the tools applied in this development are based on singular integral equations, laplace transform, the potential method, green’s tensors and generalized fourier series analysis. keywords: approximate method, boundary-contact problems, coupled thermo-diffusion 1. introduction many methods in the theory of non-classical thermo-elasticity require to the solution of boundary-contact problems (bcps). a great attention is payed to the construction of solutions in the form that admit efficient numerical evaluation (chumburidze, 2014; kupradze, 1983). in this work, a numerical approximation for the solution of bcps for 2-d oscillation systems coupled thermoelastic diffusion materials (chumburidze, 2017) with thermal and diffusion relaxation times has been developed. in particular, the problem is investigated for isotropic piecewise inhomogeneous elastic materials with sufficiently smooth surfaces. solutions for the finite domain when oscillations are not equal to the natural frequencies and for infinite domain in assumptions that solutions satisfy of radiation conditions in infinite have been constructed. algorithms of numerical solution have been obtained for particular cases of boundarycontact conditions when the couple-stresses components, displacement components, rotation, heat flux and temperature, concentration and chemical potential are represented on the surface of holder class. throughout of paper we introduce the following notations: e2 two-dimensional euclidean space, x=(xj); y=(yj); j=1,2 points of this space, d(0) is infinite domain with inclusion another elastic material d(1) bounded by the close surface sl(2)(), >0 with outward positive normal vector. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 178 investigation of pseudo oscillation systems of generalized coupled thermo-diffusion model for 2-d isotropic homogeneous elastic materials in the green-lindsay (green, lindsay, 1972) formulation is presented in (chumburidze, 2014). let us consider isotropic inhomogeneous elastic materials. in this case, in order of results in publications (chumburidze, 2016; burchuladze, 1985) the following mathematical model has been obtained: where u=(u1,u2) is a displacement vector, u3 is a characteristic of rotation, u4 is a temperature variation, u5 is a chemical potential, , constants of elasticity of d(r) domains (r=0,1),  is a two-dimensional laplacian operator; (corresponds to the general dynamical problems) (chumburidze, 2016; sherief, 2004), (r) = ((1r), 3r, 4r, 5r) =(1r, 2r, 3r, 4r, 5r) c 0,(d(r)), >0 are the given vectors. are the given vectors. let us construct matrices of generalized stress operators of coupled thermo-elasticity in d(r) domains: the matrices of (1) pseudo oscillation systems have the form: m. chumburidze, d. lekveishvili, e. bitsadze approximation solutions of boundary-contact problems of non-classical diffusion models coupled-elasticity 179 therefore, (1) can be written in the form: 2. approximate solutions of bbcp in our investigations, we consider bbcp of pseudo oscillation problems in assumption that are not equal to the natural frequencies in internal problems and satisfy of radiation conditions for external problems (chumburidze,2016, eshkuvatov, 2009): 3. statement problem. it is required to find regular solutions u(x) = (u, u, u4, u5) with thefollowing conditions: the existence and uniqueness of this solution has been proved in (chumburidze, 2014), (kupradze, 1983). 4. solution solution of the problem will be found by use the formula of regular solutions (chumburidze, 2014), (constanda, 2014). take in account of boundary-contact conditions (4) we will get: ( 6 (7) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 180 (8) where fundamental solution of (3) system (chumburidze,2014, jiang, 2011). symbol sign transpose of a matrix. allow us consider the matrices: and a vector of ten components: then (6) and (8) to get the following form: (9) (10) let us construct auxiliary domains bounded by the closed surfaces of holder class (chumburidze,2016) in the following assumptions: are everywhere accounted set of points. let us insert points: and in (9) and (10) correspondingly, then we will get: (11) (j=1,2,…) (12) in left side of equations (11) and (12) we have scalar multiplications of on the accounted set of vectors(chumburidze,2017): (13) and on the right side of same equations (11) and (12) we have vectors which are known. let us consider accounted set of vectors: (14) where (15) allow us make numbering of elements in (14) by the following form: (16) the next theorem is proved there: m. chumburidze, d. lekveishvili, e. bitsadze approximation solutions of boundary-contact problems of non-classical diffusion models coupled-elasticity 181 theorem. accounted set of vectors is linearly independent and full in the space proof: let us define the constants an(n=1,..,n) from the conditions of minimization mean-squared norm: (17) so, are sought by the solution the system: where n is any number. in order (16) we have: however accordingly (11), (12) and (15) we have: hence should be sought from the following system: (18) take in account the property of linearly dependent vectors we can discuss that (18) system is uniquely solvable(chumburidze,2016) . allow us construct the following vectors: we should prove that are approximate solutions. indeed in order (5) and (7) we have: by using cauchy-bunyakovski inequality (chumburidze,2017) we have: where functions are bounded (chumburidze, 2014 orlando, 1985). also according to (17) we have: therefore: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 182 5. conclusion thus, approximate solutions of bbcp by using the boundary integral method and generalized furrier series analysis for an infinite domain with inclusion another elastic material have been constructed. as a result, it will be shown that same method is reliable for obtaining numerical approximation for infinite domain with inclusion of several elastic materials. references chumburidze, m. (2014). non-classical models of the some theory of boundary value problems. saarbrcken, germany. chumburidze, m., & lekveishvili, d. (2017). numerical approximation of basic boundary-contact problems, doi 10.1115/detc2017-67097, asme, pp. v009t07a021; 7 pages. chumburidze, m., & lekveishvili, d. (2014). approximate solution of some mixed boundary value problems of the generalized theory of couple-stress thermo-elasticity. world academy of science, engineering and technology, 6(28), 161-163. constanda, c. (2014). generalized fourier series. mathematical methods for elastic plates, springer. chumburidze, m. (2016). approximate solution of some boundary value problems of coupled thermo-elasticity.mathematical and computational approaches in advancing modern science and engineering, springer, doi 10.1007/978-3-319-30379-6_7, pp 71-80. kupradze, v. d., gegelia, t. g., basheleishvili, m. o., & burchuladze, t. v. (1983). threedimensional problems of the mathematical theory of elasticity and thermo elasticity. north-holland, amsterdam-new york. eshkuvatov, z., & long, n. (2009). approximate solution of singular integral equations of the first kind with cauchy kernel, applied mathematics letters doi:10.1016/j.aml.2008.08.001. mathon, r., johnston, r. l. (1977). the approximate solution of elliptic boundary-value problems by fundamental solutions, siam journal on numerical analysis. 638–650. chen, w., wang, f. z. (2010). a method of fundamental solutions without fictitious boundary, engineering analysis with boundary elements. 34 530–532. jiang, x. & chen, w. (2011). method of fundamental solution and boundary knot method for helmholtz equations: a comparative study (chinese). chinese journal of computational mechanics. 28, 3338–344. ezzat, m., zakaria, m. (2004). generalized thermoelasticity with temperature dependent modulus of elasticity under three theories. j. appl. math. comput. 14, 193–212. green, e., lindsay, k.a. (1972). thermoelasticity. j. elast. 2, 1–7. orlando, f. (1985). hankel functions. mathematical methods for physicists, 3rd edn. academic,orlando. rezazadeh, g., vahdat, a. (2012). thermoelastic damping in a micro-beam resonator using modified couple stress theory. acta mechanica, springer 223(6), 1137–1152. sherief, h., hamza, f., saleh, h. (2004). the theory of generalized thermoelastic diffusion. int. j. eng 5, 591–608. hazewinkel, m., (ed.) (2001). fundamental solution, springer. ezzat, m., zakaria, m. (2004). generalized thermoelasticity with temperature dependent modulus of elasticity under three theories. j. appl. math. comput. 14, 193–212. burchuladze, t., gegelia, t. (1985). development of the potential method in elasticity theory.mecniereba, tbilisi. m. chumburidze, d. lekveishvili, e. bitsadze approximation solutions of boundary-contact problems of non-classical diffusion models coupled-elasticity 183 dr. manana chumburidze has obtained phd degree in mathematics sciences in ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university of georgia in 1999. she is associate professor of department computer sciences at akaki tsereteli state university of georgia. she is membership of the american society of mechanical engineers (asme) and member of the scientific and technical committee of editorial review board on mechanics and computational sciences in the waset (world academy of science, engineering and technology) organization of usa. dr. david lekveishvili has obtained phd degree in mathematics sciences in lomonosov moscow state university in 1983. he is dean of faculty exact and natural sciences and associate professor department of mathematics at akaki tsereteli state university of georgia. research interests include applied mathematics, partial differential equations, computer science. he is author several articles and active participant different international conferences in the world academy of science, engineering and technology. elza bitsadze is a phd student of georgian technical university and teacher of computing of department computer science at akaki tsereteli state university of georgia. her research interest is computer sciences. she is author several articles and active participant different international conferences. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue4_2017_final.doc 91 brief literature review on the mechanisms involved in producing axial difussion injury iuliana hunea the institute of forensic medicine, 4, buna vestire str., iasi, romania, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, tel.: +40 232 267 801, romania zamisnicu.iuliana@gmail.com simona irina damian the institute of forensic medicine, iasi, romania; department of forensic medicine, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, tel.: +40 232 267 801, romania si_damian@yahoo.com sofia david the institute of forensic medicine, iasi, romania; department of forensic medicine, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, tel.: +40 232 267 801, romania ddavid.sofia@yahoo.com madalina-maria diac the institute of forensic medicine, iasi, romania; department of forensic medicine, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, tel.: +40 232 267 801, romania madalina_dc89@yahoo.com diana bulgaru iliescu the institute of forensic medicine, iasi, romania; department of forensic medicine, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, tel.: +40 232 267 801, romania bulgarudiana@yahoo.com manuela ciocoiu pathophysiology department, "gr. t. popa" university of medicine and pharmacy, 16, universitatii str., iasi 700115, tel.: +40 232 267 801, romania mciocoiu2003@yahoo.com abstract current work reviews the concept, pathological mechanism and the process of diagnosing diffuse axonal lesions (dai). the pathological mechanism underlying dai is complicated, including axotomy with the appearance of retraction bulbs, interrupted protein transport along axonal neurophilaments, massive influx of calcium ions and calpain-mediated hydrolysis, axonal cytoskeletal cell degradation, beta-amyloid precursor protein accumulation and changes in glial cells. the transition from primary axotomy to secondary axotomy causes a very complex, calciumdependent biochemical cascade. keywords: brain injuries, diffuse axonal injury, axotomy, beta-amyloid; 1. introduction with an incidence of 235-556 / 100,000 inhabitants, the craniocerebral trauma, whether closed or open, is the most studied area within the forensic expertise. in the case of trauma with exitus, craniocerebral trauma is the first cause of violent death in its various forms, possibly accompanied by legal implications. craniocerebral trauma is a pathological condition that is caused by the action of forces of a mechanical nature on the cephalic extremity and which, through static brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 92 and / or dynamic-acceleration-deceleration mechanisms, result in at least one of the following: change of consciousness, anterograde or retrograde amnesia related to the moment of trauma, hemorrhage fractures, pathological changes such as disorientation, agitation, confusion, cognitive or behavioral disorders, intracranial lesions, neurological disorders such as changes in motor, sensitive or reflex functions, speech disorders or epileptic seizures. for this reason, the diagnosis of severity of the trauma is retrospective, which is established only at the moment of discharge, which is useful in the forensic practice. brain lesions have two forensic classifications: focal and diffuse. focal lesions are the result of collision forces acting on the skull, resulting in compression of the cerebral tissue under the impact site (shock) and the opposite side of the impact (reaction). focal lesions are extradural and subdual hematomas (produced by shock or reaction), intraparenchymatous hematomas, contusion, subarachnoid hemorrhage, the latter being also an entity of cerebral diffuse lesions vascular diffuse lesions, along with hypoxic-ischemic lesions, edema cerebral and diffuse axonal lesions. pathology of diffuse axonal lesions (dai) was described in 1956 by specialist neurologist sabina strich of oxford university as a clinical syndrome associated with extensive anatomopathological lesions in cerebral white matter (strich, 1956). the term itself was introduced by hume adams et al., defining cases of coma of traumatic etiology greater than 6 hours associated with diffuse and extensive lesions in the white matter, which he classified according to severity in three degrees based on the depth of localization, as follows: grade 1 at the interface between the cerebral cortex, the cerebral core and the oval core, grade 2 in the calcite, grade 3 in the dorsolateral quadrant of the cerebral trunk (geddes et al., 2000; meythaler et al. 2001). it has now been established that the diffuse axonal lesion terminology is to be used for human lesions and the traumatic axonal lesion to define both human lesions and those produced on the biobase (johnson et al., 2013). 2. alternative definitions of dai scientific literature, also, mentioned others definitions of dai, such as: i) a form of brain injury generated by shearing forces that occur between different parts of the brain as a result of rotational acceleration (david, 2011); ii) post-traumatic brain injury which occurs over a broad swath of myelinated tracts of the cns, resulting in significant neurologic effects, ranging from loss of consciousness to persistent vegetative state (segen, 2012); iii) a brain injury in which damage in the form of extensive lesions in white matter tracts occurs over a widespread area (iwata, 2004). dai most commonly occurs in motor vehicle crashes when the vehicle suddenly stops, and the corpus callosum together with the brainstem are often affected. being a major cause of unconsciousness and persistent vegetative state after severe head trauma, dai is one of the most common and devastating types of traumatic brain injury (gong et al., 2007). 3. biomechanics of dai diffuse axonal injury, as the result of traumatic shearing forces which occur when the head is rapidly accelerated or decelerated, as may happen in car accidents, falls, and assaults. the most frequent cause of dai are vehicle accidents, but it can also occur as the result of child abuse (such as shaken baby syndrome). immediate disconnection of axons could be observed in severe brain injury, but the major damage of dai is delayed secondary axon disconnections slowly developed over an extended time course. tracts of axons, which appear white due to myelination, are referred to as white matter. lesions in both grey and white matters are found in postmortem brains in ct and mri exams. besides mechanical breaking of the axonal cytoskeleton, dai pathology also includes secondary physiological changes such as interrupted axonal transport, progressive swellings and degeneration. recent studies have linked these changes to twisting and misalignment of broken axon microtubules, as well as tau and app deposition. i. hunea, s. i. damian, s. david, m.-m. diac, d. bulgaru iliescu, m. ciocoiu brief literature review on the mechanisms involved in producing axial difussion injury 93 the biomechanics of craniocerebral traumas leading to dai are explained by sudden changes in brain position leading to diffuse intraparenchymatous forces with neural functional impairment, so-called primary axotomy, followed by a morphological substrate secondary axotomy; initially the tendon appeared tensioned and subsequently edematiate (swelling axonal) with the occurrence of dai-specific axonal retraction bulbs-microscopic lesions (smith, 2003). the retraction bulbs are visible after at least 4-12 hours from craniocerebral trauma, in arginine impregnation and after one hour by immuno-histochemistry techniques that highlight the presence of the beta-amyloid precursor protein at the level of the affected axons, this becoming the main goal of dai diagnosis. antibodies that identify the amino-terminal domain of this protein are administered. during normal head movement, tension in axons is not deleterious, in vitro studies showing that the axon has the ability to stretch up to 100% of its length due to viscoelasticity without causing intra-axonal lesions. axonal lesion is dependent on magnitude and duration of force. the physical properties of the brain such as its mass and shape are essential (adams et al., 1982). density differences between gray and white matter explain why dais form at the limit between them by shear, tension and compression forces (povlishock, 1992). the presence of the falx cerebri can be a barrier, of which the brain hits, especially in lateral movements, which is why these movements are considered more likely to produce dais than the antero-posterior ones. also, in rotational motion, the cerebral hemispheres move away from one another, thus explaining lesions in the calf body. the forces acting on the skull are not fully understood, but are common in both road accidents and precipitations, trough acceleration-deceleration mechanisms, and also in the so-called “baby shaken syndrome”. the contact forces intervene when the head is blocked or hit directly, producing in most cases only focal lesions. in some cases, however, it has been shown that contact forces also induce rapid acceleration and deceleration, imparting inertial forces to the brain (adams et al., 1982). in connection with the last pathological entity listed above, joseph shapiro has launched a new hypothesis regarding tanatogenesis, claiming that death does not occur as a result of dai production, but as a result of nerve damage that intimates the diaphragm at the time of movement flexion extension of the neck. death is caused by respiratory failure, given that at this age, breathing is of the abdominal type, supported by diaphragmatic movements. 3.1. physio pathological mechanism two pathological forms of injured axons appear after traumatic brain injury. initially called retraction bulbs, they were identified at the proximal end of the discontinued axon. later, it was observed that these bulbs are formed by progressive axonal focal dilation, which ultimately leads to secondary axotomy, now denominated as axonal bulbs or reactive axonal swelling. in other axons, these dilations were observed not to evolve, taking the name of axonal varicosities. in humans, this swelling is visible from the first hour after the trauma, appearing as dilations of 10-20 μm, which increase in size, reaching 24-48 hours at 50μm (maxwell, 1996; chamoun et al. 2010; farkas, 2007, singh et al.,2006). 3.1.1. povlishock’s theory it has been proposed by povlishock and others that trauma induces compaction of nfs due to proteolysis of the sidearms resulting in impaired transport with subsequent swelling. povlishock et al. initially claimed that the mechanical forces act directly on the cytoskeleton and neurofilaments, subsequent disturbance of axonal transport. it has been found that the most affected axons are disturbed by sodium homeostasis and intracellular calcium, elevating its levels which cause progressive focal dissolution in the subaxolemic alpha2-spectrin and subacute ankirin system and the passive accumulation of water contributing to the progression of swelling. meanwhile sweeling can coexist with retraction bulbs and progressive sweeling. these include mitochondrial damage with cytoskeletal alteration and axonal transport, resulting in cell debris accumulated in the swelling. this process leads to secondary or delayed axotomy, which disconnects the two axonal brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 94 ends, forming the characteristic image of dai, such as the retraction bulbs, largely characterized by povlishock et al. 3.1.2. adams’s theory during this time, adams et al., along with bullock et al., were those who argued that secondary axotomy is the result of focal alterations of the permeability of the axolem, with the massive increase in the influx of ca (adams, 1982). interestingly, however, dynamic stretch of axons in vitro did not induce axolemma impermeablility to small proteins unless primary axotomy had occurred. in addition, with ion channel blockade, calcium did not freely diffuse into these axons, until primary axotomy occurred with a greater than 75% increase in length (wolf, 1999). taken together, these data suggest that changes in axolemmal permeability reflect the most extreme circumstance of traumatic axonal trauma that only occur in severe injury. these circumstances may include immediate disconnection of axons due to tissue tears or a physical wrenching of the tissue across obstructions such as the tentorium and foramen magnum (genneralli, 1989). 3.1.3. maxwell’s theory maxwell et al. revealed a correlation between the two quoted theories, showing that in the end the massive influx of ca leads to the lysis of the cytoskeleton, especially at the level of myelinated axons. they started from the analysis of ranvier nodes and paranodal regions rich in channels of na, ca channels, na / ca exchangers, ca-atp dependent pumps, the presence of mitochondria, microtubules and neurofilaments, and cytoskeleton rich in ankrines 3 and alpha 2spectrin, susceptible to dependent calpain-ca injury. moderate to severe injuries operate at the level of na channels voltage and mechanical dependencies, which have the ability to transform the mechanical stimulus into electrical stimulation through the phenomenon of mechanotransduction. this massive activation of the na channels will lead to a massive flow of ca via ca / na exchanger and the activation of the l and n voltage-dependent calcium channels along with depolarization, which should normally maintain longer potential of action at the axonal level. calcium will activate numerous proteolytic enzymes, including dependent calpain-ca, which will lead to the proteolysis of the h-port inactivation of the dependent na-voltage channels. thus, a vicious circle closes, with an influx of na, which will increase the intracellular ca influx (zhang et al., 2009). these phenomena of alteration of axonal ion homeostasis represent the so-called primary axotomy throughout this period (up to one hour), with no morphological changes being visualized. 3.1.4. other theories another mechanism is also the ca influx via mecano-dependent isa calcium channels. the traumatic force transferred to the brain tissue will lead to the uncontrolled release of neurotransmitters from presynaptic vesicles, glutamate increasing about 50 times, leading to an excessive influx of calcium and sodium into the neurons, and at the level of glial cells by binding to n-methyl-d-aspartate receptors aspartic acid and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4isoxazolepropionic acid (ampa) receptors, resulting in an over-activation of the channels that are responsabile with na and ca influx (gong et al., 2007). experimental studies have shown that blocking the physopathological chain at this level by administering nimodipine would lead to a significant limitation of diffuse axonal lesions. with the progression of the pathophysiology chain take place the axonal dilations with accumulation of mitochondria, neurofilaments and microtubes, with the secondary collapse of the axoloma and the myelin sheath, result lobed and disconnected axonal segments, visible in about 2 hours from the time of trauma. the proximal axonal segment continues to expand by accumulation of intracellular debris via anterograde axonal transport, and the distal one suffers walerian degeneration. in the case of very severe injuries, the ca-dependent destructive cascade is accelerated by the micropores formed in the axolem, initially at the ranvier nodules. the consequences are the same as those mentioned above, with the transformation of anterograde i. hunea, s. i. damian, s. david, m.-m. diac, d. bulgaru iliescu, m. ciocoiu brief literature review on the mechanisms involved in producing axial difussion injury 95 transport into retrograde and the accumulation of the beta-amyloid precursor protein with proximal axonal swelling, while the distal end fragments and suffers walerian degeneration (michikawa et al., 2000; hirsch-reinshagen et al., 2005). it seems that in some axons, apoptosis occurs, in others necrosis. pathophysiological pathways leading to necrosis are: 1) enzyme activation ca dependednt enos and nnos, producing nitric oxide and cell lysis, cell death and necrosis; 2) activation of ca-dependent calpain, lysosomal lysis, cathepsin release, generalized proteolysis, cell death and necrosis; 3) reactive oxygen species at the mitochondrial level, membrane micropores, with increasing ca influx, cell death, necrosis. apoptosis is the consequence of the release of cytochrome c at the mitochondrial level, which activates the 1-apafl protein, which in turn activates caspase 9, acting on caspase 3, inducing apoptosis (michikawa et al., 2000). necrosis occurs in the absence of energy, whereas apoptosis is dependent on the presence of atp, so functional mitochondria. in neuronal tissue with excessive mitochondrial destruction, cellular necrosis will occur. in programmed cell death no breakdown of the axoloma and inflammatory response was observed. it is suggested that apoptosis or necrosis is dictated by intracellular calcium levels; in neurons with relatively low calcium concentration occurs apoptosis, and vice versa leading to necrosis (hirsch-reinshagen, 2005). 4. the diagnosis of dai 4.1. clinical diagnosis the clinical diagnosis of dai is used to describe posttraumatic nosological scenery characterized by the presence of a prolonged coma condition immediately installed posttraumatically in the absence of space replacement processes or ischemic lesions. depending on the duration of combative state generalli and col. classified as minor, moderate and major dais, as follows: minor dai glasgow scale coma (gsc) ≤8, for 6-24 hours with disappearance in case of presence of cerebral trauma within a few hours, moderate dai: gsc ≤8, with duration of days or weeks, with constant signs of cerebral cortex, disappearing after 24 hours, major dai gsc ≤8, lasting weeks to months, with accentuated sympathetic tone (hta, generalized hyperstimulation, hyperthermia). 4.2. biochemical diagnosis two biomarkers have been identified that detect the necrosis / apoptosis ratio. these are sbdp150 and 145, resulting from calpain segregation, which are the subjects of necrosis and sbdp120, produced by segregation of caspase 3, correlated with programmed cell death (wahrle et al., 2004). taking into account the pathophysiological mechanisms presented up to this point, the therapeutic targets are directed towards the restoration of ionic homeostasis, mitochondrial protection, proteolysis inhibition and cytoskeletal stabilization. tau protein is an intracellular microtubule-associated protein highly enriched in axons which levels are connected with related to axonal disruption. selectins seems to have a very high predictive value in coma then neurofilaments, presenting more coherent predictive patterns (vaagenes, 1994). 4.3. histological diagnosis dai in humans is characterized histologically by widespread damage to the axons of the brainstem, parasagittal white matter of the cerebral cortex, corpus callosum, and the gray-white matter junctions of the cerebral cortex. the deformation of the brain due to plastic flow of the neural structures associated with dai explains the micropathological findings. photomicrographs captured two major forms of traumatic axonal pathology revealed by immunoreactivity of accumulating neurofilament protein: first ones are elongated varicose swellings of damaged axons with swollen regions encompassing several hundred micrometers, but no clearly identifiable region of disconnection; second ones are axonal bulbs that demonstrate the characteristic discrete region of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 96 swelling at the terminal stump of disconnected axons. remarkably, these axonal bulbs are preceded by axonal shafts of relatively normal diameters (bar = 50µm) (smith, 2003). the microscopic lesions are highlighted by axonal retraction bulbs. the retraction bulbs are visible at least 4-12 hours after craniocerebral trauma, in arginine impregnation and after one hour by immuno-histochemistry techniques that highlight the presence of the beta-amyloid precursor protein at the level of the affected axons, this becoming the main goal of dai diagnosis. antibodies that identify the amino-terminal domain of this protein are administered. experimental studies reveled on sham animal’s different axonal profiles as granular or more elongated, fusiform swellings at both animals with a singular tbi and animals with repetitive tbi, also. app immunoreactive neurons are only present in the repetitive tbi group, and occasionally observed in the cortex underneath the impact site. usual and special staining, as hematoxylin eosin and luxol fast blue/cresy violet not always reveal evidence of focal structural pathology of dai. (mouzon et al., 2012). 5. genetic predispositions recent studies highlight an inter-human variability of dai tolerance, experimentally finding a correlation between apoe epsilon4 allele and notable severity of dai. in the nervous system, apoe plays no role in cholesterol homeostasis, but also in synaptogenesis, neuronal plasticity, and glial cell growth. apoe is produced in the liver, but has been shown not to have the same origin as in cerebrospinal fluid, and it cannot cross the blood-brain barrier. the latter occurs at astrocytic, microglial and neuronal level. under normal circumstances, astrocyte produces twice the amount of cholesterol than the neuron, so it will exhibit higher levels of apoe. the transport of apoe cholesterol involves interaction with the atp binding cassette transporter a1 (abca1), which initiates the intracellular cholesterol efflux to the apoe acceptor protein (wahrle et al., 2004; weers et al., 2003). in abaca1 murine models, apoe expression decreased by 70-80% and was associated with decreased cholesterol efflux and increased amyloid level (morrow et al., 2000). the n-terminal end of apoe4 showed a significant decrease in resistance to chemical and caloric denaturation, while apoe2 was more resistamt to ph acid. proteolysis of apoe, with the accumulation of cytosol-derived fragments, alters the cytoskeleton and disturbs the mitochondrial energy balance (thomas et al., 2003). studies published in 2014 by narayan yoganandan in which positive and negative apoe4 murine models were subjected to the same angular acceleration resulted in the production of axonal lesions gr1 at an aceration of 1200 rad / sec2 for apoe4 negative and 900 rad / sec2 for the apoe4 positive, axle lesions gr2 at 1500 rad / sec2 for the first category, respectively 1100 rad / sec2 for the second and axonal lesions gr 3 at a angular acceleration of 1700 rad / sec2 for negative apoe4 and 1300 rad / sec2 for apoe4 positive (weers et al., 2003). smith et al. describe postmortem findings on a series of 239 cases of violent death through craniocerebral trauma. they found a relationship between the apoe ε4 allele and the severity of ischemic brain contusions and lesions, but not between its presence and other pathological changes after tbi, such as the extension of diffuse axonal lesions. the mechanisms involved in increasing susceptibility to the severity of contusions in the apoe4 positive population are multiple, proposing the following hypotheses: apoe4 acts by increasing neuronal sensitivity to the consequences of neurotoxic agents such as amyloid β, traumatic lesions, oxidative stress, ischemia and inflammation, or by the effects prior to the tbi, on vascular wall pathology such as atherosclerosis, amyloid angiopathy or blood clotting mechanisms. (thomas et al., 2003). 6. conclusions the pathological mechanism underlying dai involves specific biochemical pathways and locations of injury may, in part, explain the severity of prognostic. i. hunea, s. i. damian, s. david, m.-m. diac, d. bulgaru iliescu, m. ciocoiu brief literature review on the mechanisms involved in producing axial difussion injury 97 diffuse axonal injury represents a new challenge for medical staff, still being an unknown entity, which causes a serious impairment of the brain function. much of the attention so far has been paid to the definition of dai and the criteria for its pathological diagnosis. it has been discussed from the perspective of biochemical importance and also the standpoint of certain criteria for the pathological diagnosis of dai. however, since the time when dai was initially described, there have been few discussions about the physiopathological mechanism. this paper is an attempt to address this issue. references adams jh, graham di, murray ls, et al.(1982), difuse axonal injury due to nonmissile head injury in humans: an analysis of 45 cases. ann neurol.;12: 123-145. chamoun r, suki d, gopinath sp, et al. (2010) role of extracellular glutamate measured by cerebral microdialysis in severe traumatic brain injury. j neurosurg.;113:564–70. david fm, douglas hs. (2011), biomechanics of concussion. clin sports med.; 30(1): 19–vii. farkas o, povlishock jt.(2007) cellular and subcellular change evoked by diffuse traumatic brain injury: a complex web of change extending far beyond focal damage. prog brain res.;161:43–59. geddes jf, whitwell hl, graham di. (2000), traumatic axonal injury: practical issues for diagnosis in medicolegal cases. neuropathol appl neurobiol;26:105–16. gennarelli ta, thibault le, tipperman r, et al.(1989) axonal injury in the optic nerve: a model that simulates diffuse axonal injury in the brain. j neurosurg;71:244–53 gong js, morita sy, kobayashi m, handa t, fujita sc, yanagisawa k, et al. (2007) novel action of apolipoprotein e (apoe): apoe isoform specifically inhibits lipid-particle-mediated cholesterol release from neurons. mol neurodegener.;2:9. hirsch-reinshagen v, maia lf, burgess bl, blain jf, naus ke, mcisaac sa, et al.(2005) the absence of abca1 decreases soluble apoe levels but does not diminish amyloid deposition in two murine models of alzheimer disease. the journal of biological chemistry; 280:43243–56. iwata a., stys p.k., wolf j.a., chen x.h., taylor, a.g., meaney d.f, smith d.h. (2004). traumatic axonal injury induces proteolytic cleavage of the voltage-gated sodium channels modulated by tetrodotoxin and protease inhibitors. the journal of neuroscience. 24 (19): 4605—4613. johnson v.e. stewart w. smith d.h. (2013), axonal pathology in traumatic brain injury. exp. neurol.; 246:35-42. maxwell wl. (1996), histopathological canges in central nodals of ranvier after strech injury. microsc rec. tech.;34:522-35. merenda a, bullock r. (2006) clinical treatments for mitochondrial dysfunctions after brain injury. curr opin crit care.;12:90–6. meythaler jm, peduzzi jd, eleftheriou e, et al. (2001), current concepts: diffuse axonal injuryassociated traumatic brain injury. arch phys med rehabil.;82:1461–71. michikawa m, fan qw, isobe i, yanagisawa k.(2000) apolipoprotein e exhibits isoform-specific promotion of lipid efflux from astrocytes and neurons in culture. j neurochem.;74:1008–16. morrow ja, segall ml, lund-katz s, phillips mc, knapp m, rupp b, et al. (2000) differences in stability among the human apolipoprotein e isoforms determined by the amino-terminal domain. biochemistry.;39:11657–66. mouzon, b., chaytow, h., crynen, g., bachmeier, c., stewart, j., mullan, m., stewart, w., crawforf, f. (2012). repetitive mild traumatic brain injury in a mouse model produces learning and memory deficits accompanied by histological changes. journal of neurotrauma; 29:1–13 povlishock jt. (1992), traumatically induced axonal injury: pathogenesis and pathobiological implications. brain pathol.;2:1–12. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 98 siman r. mcintosh t.k. soltesz k.m. chen z. neumar r.w. roberts v.l.(2004) proteins released from degenerating neurons are surrogate markers for acute brain damage. neurobiol. dis.;16:311–320. segen jc. (2012), concis dictionary of modern medicine. mcgraw-hill professional publishing. singh in, sullivan pg, deng y, et al. (2006), time course of post-traumatic mitochondrial oxidative damage and dysfunction in a mouse model of focal traumatic brain injury: implications for neuroprotective therapy. j cereb blood flow metab.;26:1407–18. smith d.h. meaney d.f. shull w.h. (2003), diffuse axonal injury in head trauma. j. head trauma rehabil.;18:307–316. strich sj. (1956), diffuse degeneration of the cerebral white matter in severe dementia following head injury. j neurol neurosurg psychiatry.;19:163–85. thomas a. gennarelli, frank a. pintar, and narayan yoganandan. (2003) biomechanical tolerances for diffuse brain injury and a hypothesis for genotypic variability in response to trauma. annu proc assoc adv automot med;47:624-628. vaagenes p, mullie a, fodstad dt, abramson n, safar p. the use of cytosolic enzyme increase in cerebrospinal fluid of patients resuscitated after cardiac arrest. brain resuscitation clinical trial i study group. am j emerg med. 1994; 12(6): 621-624. wahrle se, jiang h, parsadanian m, legleiter j, han x, fryer jd, et al. (2004) abca1 is required for normal central nervous system apoe levels and for lipidation of astrocyte-secreted apoe. the journal of biological chemistry.;279:40987–93. weers pm, narayanaswami v, choy n, luty r, hicks l, kay cm, et al.(2003) lipid binding ability of human apolipoprotein e n-terminal domain isoforms: correlation with protein stability? biophysical chemistry.;100:481–92. wolf ja, meaney df, lusardi ta, smith dh. (1999). calcium influx and membrane permeability in axons after dynamic stretch injury in vitro. j neurotrauma;16:966 zhang z. larner s.f. liu m.c. zheng w. hayes r.l. wang k.k. (2009) multiple alphaii-spectrin breakdown products distinguish calpain and caspase dominated necrotic and apoptotic cell death pathways. apoptosis.;14:1289–1298. zipfel gj, babcock dj, lee jm, et al.(2000) neuronal apoptosis after cns injury: the roles of glutamate and calcium. j neurotrauma.;17:857–69. microsoft word brain_1_2_final_final.doc 193 összefoglalók magyar nyelven brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience agy. átfogó kutatás a mesterséges intelligencia és fiziológiájával és biokémiájával issn 2067 – 3957 1. kötet, 2. szám április 2010: boldog tavasz! www.brain.edusoft.ro főszerkesztő: pătruţ bogdan 1. vezércikk 1. hibrid heurisztika a triangularizációs probléma megoldására gloria-cerasela crişan, pintea camelia-mihaela összefoglaló a triangularizációs probléma lényege sorok és oszlopok olyan egymásutáni permutációjának a megkeresése egy négyzetes matrixban, melyben a föátló fölötti értékek maximálisak. a kutató behatóan tanulmányozza ezt a problémát, hiszen a probléma egy sor szakterületen alkalmazható. bevezetésre kerül egy új hibrid aco (ant colony optimization) algoritmus az algoritmus egy mohó keresési eljárással indul, majd ezt követi egy továbbfejlesztett ant colony system algoritmus, probléma-specifikus helyi kereséssel feljavítva. 2. a javasolt data driven architecture for cardiology network application greblă horea adrian, cenan călin ovidiu összefoglaló a dolgozat egy osztott orvosi rendszer keretrendszerét mutatja be, amelynek célja krónikus szívbetegek ellátásának, it&c technológiák által támogatott javítása. a javasolt rendszer online kapcsolatot biztosít az orvosi rendszer főszereplői között, legyenek azok páciensek, orvosok, intézmények és szociális szervezetek. a széles körben elfogadott orvosi szabványok segítségével a rendszer ellátja az orvosi adatok tárolását, továbbá szolgáltatásokat nyújt adatintegrálás területén, illetve a különböző egészségügyi alkalmazások területén. a javasolt megoldás lehetővé teszi legjobb megoldás kiválasztását a konceptuálisan megszervezett beteg-adatokkal. a javasolt megoldás lehetővé teszi a számítógép által támogatott diagnosztizálást, illetve lehetőség van egy adatbázis kidolgozására is. 3. a magánélet technológiai vetületének kutatása oktatási szempontból mâţă liliana összefoglaló a tanulmány célja a magánélet technológiai dimenziójának a vizsgálata az iskolákban. alapja a romániai oktatásban végzett megfigyelés alapú kutatás, tárgya a tananyag és ennek percepciója a tanárok és diákok körében. a kutatás fő céljai: a) a technológiai vetületek beazonosítása a szöveggyűjteményekből és a tananyagból b) a tanárok és diákok nyitottságának a vizsgálata magánélet technológiai vetületének irányában. elsősorban egy tartalmi analízist alkalmaztunk az iskolai dokumentumok esetében, specifikus témák és kategóriák figyelembevételével. másodsorban egy olyan felmérést folytattunk le amelynek keretében 1456 diákot illetve 890 tanárt vizsgáltunk a romániai tanítási rendszer technológiai vetületének percepciója szempontjából. összefoglalók magyar nyelven 194 4. gépi kódolás kiválasztási műveletei praczyk tomasz összefoglaló a gépi kódolás esetünkben egy olyan neuró-evolucionárius módszer, amelyben egy neurális hálózat egy assembler encoding program-nak nevezett egyszerű program. a program feladata, hogy egy úgynevezett hálózatleíró matrixot készítsen, amely a hálózat építéséhez szükséges összes információt tárolja. az assembler encoding program generálásához neuró-evolucionárius módszereket használtunk. az assembler encoding teljesítménye függ az assembler encoding program műveleteitől. a leghatékonyebb műveletek kiválasztására optimizálási kisérletek folytattunk illetve a ragadozó-áldozat modellt alkalmaztuk. a kísérletek során teszteltük az assembler encoding programs-ot. a kísérletek eredménye a dolgozat végén található. 5. számítógépes programok a dyslalia és diszlexia-diszgráfia logopédiás kezelésében tobolcea iolanda, danubianu mirela összefoglaló az elmúlt években a logopédusok nagy figyelmet fordítottak a beszédzavarok gyógyitásának számítógéppel támogatott változataira. a tanulmányunk fő célja a számítógép által támogatott logopédiás kezelések hatékonyságának a vizsgálata. a tanulmányban két beszédzavar, számítógép által támogatott, javítását vizsgáljuk, ezek a dyslalia és diszlexia-diszgráfia. a beszédzavarok javítása általunk kidolgozott számítógépes programokkal történt, melyek hatékonyságát néhány év terápiás gyakorlatával ellenőriztünk. a minta 120 egyedből állt, 60-60 mindkét beszédhiba típusból kiválasztva, ebbő 30-30 számítógéppel javított csoport, illetve klasszikus módszerekkel javított kontrol csoport. a vizsgálatok bebizonyították, a számítógéppel támogatott beszédjavítás hatékonyságát, továbbá a programoknak a gyermek személyiségére gyakorolt pozitiv hatását. 6. “szappan”-t gondolni "appansz"-ot mondani. a beszédhang előkészítésének folyamata: háttérszámítások a hangképzéstől a beszédizom beidegzéséig. wiedenmann nora összefoglaló ebben a cikkben a modell-a beszéd és a beszéd hiba, dyscoordinations, valamint a betegségek, a határidőt, természetesen a izom beidegzés impetuses a megnyilatkozás, mint a hangok szánt kánonjogi beszéd hang sorozatok számítják visszafelé. ez az idő folyamán jelenik meg az összeg az összes ismert élettani időtartamát beszédhangok és a beszéd gesztusokat, amelyek szükségesek, hogy készítsen megnyilatkozás. a modellt vezet be a két belső órák alapján pozitív vagy negatív tényezőkre, ami bizonyos fiziológiai alapú idő-kurzusok során a gondos előkészítő időszak (lautvorspann). ezeknek a használata belső órák azt mutatják, hogy a beszéd-gesztusok, mint a többi gépjármű-tevékenységek szerint a munkát egy egyszerű szerializációnak elv: a nem alapértelmezett feltételek, a változtatásokat az időben tanfolyamok beszédet hibákat okozhat a hang szerializációnak, dyscoordinations a hangok mint során megfigyelt az anyanyelv elsajátítása, illetve beszédzavarok a kóros eseteket. ezek a változások az idő-tanfolyam modellezett változtatásával a két belső-nappal tényezők. a számítást az idő-tanfolyamok felhasználás alapértékeket a hang időtartama a kontextus-függő münchen phondat adatbázisa beszélt német (lásd a 4. függeléket). egy új, az emberi megközelítés, ez a számítás matematikai egyetért azzal a koncepcióval, lineáris programozási / operations research. ehhez a munkához nyújt jelentős támogatást, hogy a meglehetősen régi gyanú (1908) a híres osztrák tudós meringer beszéd hiba, nevezetesen, hogy egy erősen fogalmaz, és úgy gondolja, egy másik szerializációnak hallható, mint az ember kiejtett hang-sorozatokat. 7. megoldáskoncepciók a játekelméletben brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 195 brânzei simina összefoglaló ebben a dolgozatban egy sor játékelméletben fellelhető megoldás koncepciót vizsgálunk, különös tekintettel a koaliciós játékokra. olyan klasszikus megoldáselméletek, mint a nash-egyensúl, a mag, shapley érték, alku-halmaz, stabil-halmaz, nucleolus és a kernel módszerek kerülnek először bemutatásra. amíg ezek a megoldáskoncepciók általános játék osztályok modellezésére alkalmasak, néha a racionalitás szempontjából ellentmondásosak, mert az eredmények nem intuitivak és nem felelnek meg a játékos viselkedésének. továbbá, a megoldásokat kiszámító algoritmusok számítástechnikailag kezelhetetlenek, merevek, problémássá teszik a valós alkalmazásukat. új megoldáskoncepciókat keresünk, és felleltározunk új megoldáskoncepciókat, mint a tartályegyensúly, egységvisszahívás illetve a sajnálatismétlés minimizációjának koncepciója. 8. az intelligenciafejlesztés és egyéni teljesítmény javításának tényezői dumitriu gheorghe összefoglaló a dolgozat a human intelligencia néhány tényezőjét, illetve annak mérését és összetevőit mutatja be így, a pszichometrikus megközelítésen belül bizonyítékok vannak arra, hogy az intelligencia inkább a genetikus tenyezők mint a társadalmi-kulturális háttér függvénye. az intelligenciakiértékelés kutatásának egyik következtetése az, hogy azok az egyedek akik magas pontszámot érnek el egy speciális feladat megoldásakor, más típusú feladatok esetében is képesek a jó válaszokra és viszont: a gyengébb eredményeket produkálók, más, különböző feladatok esetében is gyengébb eredményeket érnek el. 9. a fuzzy elmélet néhány eredményéről garrido angel összefoglaló a fuzzy lokgika megjelenése kettős visszahatással volt a tudományos kutatásra, és így két típusú reakciót váltott ki. elméleti szempontból egy valóban hasznos általánosítása a boole és cantod féle halmazelméletnek, lehetőve teve ezáltal a bizonytalanság elemzését. kezdetben sajnos el kellett kerülnie a matematikai rutin túl merev megközelítését. javulás az előitéletmentesen gondolkodó nemzetek esetében mutatkozott . az új elmélet jelentősen beágyazódott olyan, nagy tudományos potenciállal rendelkező nemzetek esetében mint kína, japán vagy dél-korea, továbbá olyan európai országokban mint magyarország, spanyolország vagy románia, a technikai alkalmazhatósák következményeként. a dolgozatban matematikai analízis ezen új módszerének néhány lényeges aspektusát elemezzük. a 10. akadémiai hálozatok tudásfúziója greblă horea adrian, cenan călin ovidiu, stanca liana összefoglaló a tudásfúzión nyugvó akadémiai hálózatok a tanulás egy újabb forrását jelenthetik . a jelen dolgozatban egy akadémiai hálozat lehetséges megtervezését mutatjuk be, amely akadémikus oktatók és gyakorlók tapasztalatait gyűjti egybe, és tárja fel az ismeretmegosztás új útjait. az általunk vizsgált, matematikailag modellezet egyetemi hálózatok a tudásfúzió ontológiai megközelítésének alapjait jelentik ezekben a hálózatokban. 11. delphi alkalmazás egy mondat szintaktikai és lexikai elemzésére, cocke, younger és kasami algoritmusával pătruţ bogdan, boghian ioana összefoglaló összefoglalók magyar nyelven 196 a dolgozat középpontjában cocke, younger, és kasami (cyk) algoritmusa áll. bemutatunk egy delphi-ben megírt alkalmazást, amely egy román nyelvű mondatot elemez lexikai és szintaktikai szempontból. bemutatjuk a cyk algoritmus delphi forráskódját. 12. egy bézier-görbéket felhasználó adatilleszkedési problémáról muraru carmen violeta összefoglaló a dolgozat célja a bézier görbékhez kapcsolódó régebbi és új problémák tanulmányozása. tanulmányozzuk a matlabbal előállított adatilleszkedés bézier-görbékkel történő megvalósításának becslési hibáit, új módszerek felderítésének érdekében, amelyek esetében a görbe és az általa közelített adat távolsága minimális. 13. csúcstechnológia: aláírás biometria ellenőrzése soltane mohamed, doghmane noureddine, guersi nourddine összefoglaló a dolgozat három becslési algoritmus telyesítményelemzését mutatja be: elvárás maximálás (em), mohó em algoritmus(gem), és figueiredo-jain algoritmus (fj), mely utóbbi alapját a gauss-féle keverék model képezi. a szimuláció eredményei jelentős teljesítményfejlődést mutatott. a vizsgálati teljesítményét eer = 5,49% "em" esetében, eer = 5,04% "gem" esetében, és eer = 5,00% a "fj"vizsgáltuk/ az eredmények azt mutatják, hogy az aláírásellenörzés biometrikus modellje megbízható, és eldöntő erővel bír, amely alkalmazható a személyazonosság hitelesítésére. 14. a tanítás narratíváinak, elbeszéléseinek, idegtudománya mint a szociális és emocionális fejlődés elősegítője whalen lisa összefoglaló a humán tantárgyak és a reáliákról sokáig azt tartották, hogy szöges ellentétben állanak egymással, a tudomány más-más birodalmai állanak melyek különböző kognitiv képességeket igényelnek. azonban az idegtudomány narratives új oldalát mutatja meg azáltal, hogy a különböző diszciplínák közötti kapcsolatot kutatja. például az angol irodalomhoz kapcsolódó kutatások feltárták, hogy az olvasási narratívák, (regények és valós történetek) jóval túlmutatnak a nyelvi fejlődésen, és társadalmi és érzelmi funkciók fejlődésében játszanak szerepet. egy eredeti disszertáció és jelenlegi és múltbeli pszihológiai illetve nyelvtudományi és idegtudományi kutatások eredményeit egybevetve, a jelen dolgozat azt vizsgálja, hogyan szolgálja az olvasás az érzelmek és szociális kölcsönhatások fejlődését a mindennap életben. némely kutatások az sugallják, hogy az olvasás az agy minden részét erősíti, mert az agy úgy van tervezve, hogy az az elbeszélésekkel tanuljon, annak tartalmától függetlenül. a jelen dolgozat érveket mutat be annak bizonyítására,hogy az olvasás fejleszti az érzelmeket és a szociális kapcsolattartást. a kutatás bemutatja, hogy az olvasásnem egy magányos tevékenység, hanem egy “meglepő társadalmi folyamat” (krakovsky, 2006, p. 1) melynek eredményeként nővekszik annak képessége, hogy az eseményeket és az személyeket sokoldalú perspektívában lássuk, empátianövelőhatása van, és segíti a társadalmi szerepek megértését. (atkins, 2000; courtright, mackey, & packard, 2005; davis, 1980; greif & hogan, 1973; harrison, 2008; mar, 2004; mar, oatley, hirsh, de la paz, & peterson, 2006; stanovich & west, 1989, 1992). megértve az agynak az olvasást feldolgozó munkáját és ennek hatását a pszihológiára, melynek célja a poszt-traumatikus stresszállapotok megértése és kezelése, fontos következtetésekhez jutunk. a dolgozat középpontjában a tanítás-nevelés áll. a tanárok igyekezete, hogy a tanítványok kritikus gondolkodását fejlesszék, hatékonyebb lehet, ha megértik az olvasás hatását a tanítványok társadalmi és érzelmi fejlődésére 15. a mesterséges intelligencia logikai alapjai brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 2 , april 2010, ”happy spring 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 197 garrido angel összefoglaló a mesterséges intelligencia egy sor problémára adhat megoldást, a kutatott terület behatóbb ismerete nélkül. ezt az eljárást heurisztikus kutatásnak nevezzük. ezekben a kutatási technikákban a matrix technikák meghatározónak bizonyulnak. ezen technikák bevezetése pontos és könnyű módszert biztosít a megoldások keresésében. a dolgozat bemutatja, játékelméleti példákkal, a matrix elmélet gyümölcsöző hatását a mesterséges inteligenciára 16. pszichológiai és misztikus szempontok szent evagriusz pontikusznál és szent maximusz a hitvallónál popovici gheorghe teofil összefoglaló a szentatyák voltak azok akik mélyen megélték és tanulmányozták az emberi lélek rejtelmeit. az ember megitélése igen különös. szent maximusz szerint az ember közvetítő isten és a teremtett világ között. a testtel és lélekkel rendelkező ember kora ífjúkorátol istenismerettel rendelkezik . plato szerint azonban az ember elsősorban önmagát kell megismerje. a szentatyák részletesen leírják az utat ahogyan az ember megtagadja a bűnt és felismeri istent a szívében. ezek a leírások módefelett aktuálisak és fontosak a modern ember számára aki, úgy tűnik, elvesztette az emberi lélek misztrériumának teljességéről szóló tudást, amelyben megmutatkozott a sors amiért az ember teremtetett. 17. keretrendszerek térinformatikai elemzése haller elisabeta antonia összefoglaló egy informatizált társadalomban az adatok menyisége váratlanul megnő, feldolgozásuk ideje egy igen nehéz feladat. prioritást kell biztosítani a hasznos információkat tároló adatoknak. eképpen megállapíthatjuk, hogy az adatbányászat a technológiai fejlődés természetes velejárója. az idők során a téradat fogalma a kutatások középpontjában állt, és ma már egy sor eszköz és szoft termék áll a rendelkezesünkre ezek ábrázolására és értelmezésére. az eszközök nyújtotta lehetőségek megismerése és megértése mellett szüksegünk van a téradatok és az őket feldolgozó eszközök kölcsönhatásainak megértésére. 18. henric sanielevici – az irodalomkritikától az anatómiáig, azaz hogyan befolyásolja a koponya nagysága az irodalmat? jicu adrian összefoglaló a jelen dolgozat célja az anatómia és az irodalomkritika kapcsolatának vizsgálata. pontosabban henric sanielevici egy elméletét tárgyaljuk amely szerint egy irodalmi szöveg cask akkor érthető teljesen, ha figyelembe vesszük a szemek színét, a fogak állását és a szerző koponyájának alakját. 19. a komplex működése az emberi agy: a két agyfélteke timofti iulia cristina összefoglaló a jelen tanulmány csak egy pillantás az emberi agy lehetséges reakcióira és funkcióira. tárgyalunk különböző normális agyú és agyhasított emberre egyaránt jellemző helyzeteket. az eredmények azt bizonyítják, hogy az agy bár kettéosztott, mégis egy egységként működik, akár egy csodálatos számítógép, melynek célja az adatfeldogozás. 20. interjú dr. georgios k. matis, idegsebésszel, démokritosz trákia egyetem, orvosi fakultás, alexandroupolis, görögország alexandru ruxandra microsoft word issue-1_vol-10.docx 55 designing the intelligent system detecting a sense of wonder in english speech signal using fuzzy-nervous inference-adaptive system (anfis) sakine tashakori university of sistan and baluchestan sistan and baluchestan province, zahedan, daneshgah boulevard, iran phone: +98 54 3113 2505 sakine.tashakori@yahoo.com salman haghighat andisheh university fars province, jahrom, andishe st, iran salman.haghighat110@gmail.com abstract the purpose of this research is to design an intelligent diagnostic system for detecting a sense of wonder in english speech signal using fuzzy-nervous inference-adaptive system (anfis). for english, the recognition of some surprise feelings such as anger, grief, joy and hatred has been made, but due to the difficulty of creating a speech database in a state of wonder and a shortage of resources in this case, even in other languages, so far, no sense of wonder has been detected in the english speech. in the absence of a suitable database in english for the identification of emotions, at first, a wonder-neutral database (without feeling) was created in persian, containing 30 sentences with a sense of surprise and neutrality. then, lpc coefficients and frequency characteristics of speech signals such as maximum, minimum, middle and mean (obtained by fft) were extracted. finally, the neuro-fuzzy adaptive network (anfis) was used to create a sense of wonder with an average accuracy of about 94.93%. keywords: emotion detection; english speech signal; fuzzy-nervous inference-adaptive system (anfis). 1. introduction one of the important features of speech is the transfer of the emotional state of the speaker to the listener. a speech describes various emotional states of an individual, including anger, happiness, surprise, fear, and so on. understanding the sense of speech suggests more information to the listener in addition to its lexical meaning. therefore, the listener is not only concerned with what the speaker says, but also the feeling along with it. by increasing the transaction between man and machine, the need for automatic conversation between these two and the removal of the human operator is of particular importance. there is a lot of research to make it easier to communicate between them. understanding human emotions from the machine and providing a good response to it is one of the areas that helps to reach this goal. creating a system for recognizing the sense of speech signal, due to the increased transaction between man and machine, plays an important role in everyday life and needs to increase more and more. in this regard, research is required to diagnose the sense of wonder in the english speech signal. in ghaderian and ahadi’s article (2008), the ferment speech parameters and step frequency for emotional states of anger and grief are extracted in persian language and are determined by decision tree method and gmm speech mode. mousavian, nourest, and rahati (2007), investigated the influence of culture and social norms on anger, happiness, sadness and neutrality during data collection and recognition of emotions considering the characteristics of local culture in persian language. the length and brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 56 coefficients of lpc are used along with the length and frequency characteristics and used to recognize the anfis combination method. nourest et al (2009) investigated the feelings of hatred, anger, fear, sadness, happiness and neutral state in persian language. to recognize the sensation, various sound features under the waveform, jitter, shimmer, sound intensity and, finally, the fractal dimension of the sound signal have been used. in anagnostopoulos et al’s paper (2012), all speech recognition systems worked between 2000 and 2011, with extractive features, and all databases and researches (in german, chinese, mandarin, hindi, french, slavic and spanish). then, all the linguistic, non-verbal, linear and nonlinear features are defined and classified and all emotional states of hatred, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise, fatigue, interest, anxiety, hostility, vanity, satisfaction, hope and humor, and a variety of methods for analyzing various characteristics and recognizing the feeling that has been suggested so far has been described and compared by shashidhar and his colleges (2011). hamidi and mansoorizad (2012) recognized feelings of anger, hatred, fear, sadness, joy for persian language. significance of speech signal, such as step and intensity, energy and mfcc coefficients, has been applied to detect feelings, mlp neural network with accuracy of 78%. pathak (2011) studied feelings of grief, anger, happiness, hatred, fear, and and used to obtain a better result in recognizing the sensation in the speech signal from neural networks. staroniewicz (2012 and 2009) studied six feelings of hatred, anger, fear, sadness, joy and surprise, along with neutral state in polish. different emotional features such as severity, formant and lpc coefficients have been analyzed with the help of neural network, supporting vector machine and decision tree. vogot et al (2008) studied various created databases in english and categorized various extracted features of speech, such as step, energy, and formant and finally, some methods for the analysis of various emotional features and sensory recognition such as neural network, supporting vector machine, decision tree and markov secret model have been evaluated. according to the research, it is observed that the recognition of some emotions, including anger, joy, grief for the persian speech signal, has been made, but the difficulty of creating a speech database in a state of wonder has not caused the discovery of a sense of wonder for english speech yet. therefore, with the aim of expanding the information in this field, the purpose of this research is to find an effective method for detecting a surprise by analyzing the lpc coefficients and signal frequency characteristics. yousefinejad et al. (2015) conducted a study titled "detecting the sense of surprise" in the english speech signal. according to this research, it is challenging for computers to detect feelings. the main reason is the inability of the computer to understand the user's feelings. the purpose of this paper is to design a speech recognition system and provide a new method for improving the system. so far different features have been used in this regard, but none have practically linked the relationship between the range of sound and emotional states. because the bionic wavelet has more to do with this connection, it seems to be able to help separate emotional states. for this purpose, in this study, the bionic wavelet was used to extract the characteristic of audio signals in the automatic recognition of emotions from speech. the structure of the bionics is consistent with the structure of the human ear, and since human beings have a good understanding of speech sentiment, the use of a bionic wavelet can be useful for automatically detecting emotions from speech. the proposed structure has been evaluated on the berlin database and persian emotional speech data, which contains short sentences and expressions of negative emotions of fear, anger, discomfort, and normal state, and so on. the results of the experiments show that the proposed algorithm offers acceptable performance compared to the automatic recognition of emotions from existing speech. pourvhayed and ayat (2012) conducted a study titled "detection of sensation in persian speech signal" using neural network. in this paper, attempts have been made to design and implement a neural network based system to determine and recognize the sensation of wonder in persian singular speech. for persian, some emotions such as anger, grief, joy and hatred have been s. tashakori, s. haghighat designing the intelligent system detecting a sense of wonder in english speech signal using fuzzy-nervous inference-adaptive system (anfis) 57 recognized, but due to the difficulty of creating a spoken word database in a state of wonder and a shortage of resources in this case, even in other languages, as a result, no detection of the sensation of wonder in the persian language is done so far. due to the inaccessibility of a suitable persian database for emotion detection, a surprisingly neutral database (without feeling) was created in persian, consisting of 260 sentences with a surprise and neutral sensation. marawi and the ismailis (2014) conducted a research entitled persian database for detecting feeling from speech. today, one of the issues that play an important role in human-machine interaction is the recognition of sensation from the speech signal, so the use of a comprehensive database in the system for recognizing the feeling is important. so far, various databases have been provided in english, danish, and other languages, but the persian databases have not been seen so far. therefore, in this article, persian emoticons are presented as emotional drums for speech recognition. this database contains 748 sentences with 8 feelings of anger, fatigue, hatred, fear, natural discomfort, surprise and joy. the sentences are expressed by 33 speakers (18 men and 15 women). in order to evaluate and compare the proposed database and the famous berlin database, various features from the sentences of these two databases were extracted. ebrahimpour and mahmoudian (1394) conducted a research entitled detection of speech emotions using feature selection based on recursive models. today, recognizing the sense of speech in cases where there is a relationship between human and machine are considered. despite many efforts in this field, there is still a long way between the natural feelings of humans and the perception of the computer. in this article, the database of berlin data as the most famous database available with 550 sentences created by professional actors in the lab environment, of which 61 sentences have been used with different feelings such as happiness, hatred, neutral, fear, discomfort, anger and fatigue. various features of the sentences of this base are extracted individually and due to the large number of features, a method is needed to reduce the space of the property before applying the classification algorithm. to this end, a back-up vector-based recursive method (svm) has been developed to extract the effective features in recognizing the sensation of existing data. the median diagnostic value is obtained only with the use of eight attributes more effectively than among the 75 existing attributes. this article contains five sections. the second part describes how to collect the database in english. the third part will show how to extract the appropriate features. in the fourth section, the results obtained in this paper will be presented and analyzed. in the fifth part, the conclusions and future work will be discussed. 2. database one of the problems that exist in the field of emotional speech processing in english is the lack of or limited emotional database in english. unfortunately, there is no standard and known database in english language as the other languages (anagnostopoulos, 2012; shashidhar, 2012; lugger and yang, 2007). the following measures were taken to prepare the database: designing english speech signals data preparation of databases in two emotional states: wonder and neutral 2.1. designing the persian sign language signal data for the design of the data, a set of sentences prepared by the researcher has been extracted and used among professors and learners. 12 sentences were chosen randomly. 2.2. preparation of databases in two emotional states: wonder and neutral with the help of 10 professors and efl learners (5 professors and 5 efl learners), the selected sentences were expressed in two emotional states, with a sense of wonder and without any feelings (neutral). each person expressed twelve sentences twice, and tried to collect the best sounds, altogether 240 sentences were captured in two states: wonder and neutral. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 58 then the silence between the words in the sentences was deleted, using the praat software, and each of the sentences was stored in separate files. 2.3. quality assessment of the database to ensure the high reliability and the naturalness of the sounds recorded for the database, the listener's test is performed, which after the preliminary validation (evaluated by 3 recorded voices), some suspicious sounds (not in the emotional state) or low-quality acoustic sounds were omitted and eventually a wonder-neutral database with 200 recordings was obtained. 3. feature extraction there is a very wide range of suitable and efficient features such as energy, velocity, step, mfcc coefficients (shashidhar, 2012) and fractal dimension (noorest et al, 2009). in this study, lpc coefficients and frequency characteristics of speech signals such as maximum, minimum, middle, and mean are used to detect sensation. in the presented method, each of the signal sentences in the database is initially divided between zero and one, and then each sentence is divided into several subclasses. for each sub word, a suitable number of lpc coefficients were calculated using matlab software. then, by applying the fourier transform on subclasses, frequency characteristics such as maximum, minimum, middle, mean, mode, medium of frequency range, and domain for each one were extracted. in total, 47 features were used to recognize speech. 4. detection of feeling to identify emotions, an appropriate method for classifying emotions should be used. if adaptive neural fuzzy network is selected, the selection of a suitable adaptive neural network (anfis) and appropriate instructional training has effect in the improvement of system performance. multi-layer adaptive neural network fuzzy network method, one of the most powerful techniques for classification of information, was selected in this research. several parameters such as the number of hidden layers, the number of neurons in each hidden layer, and educational algorithm are effective for teaching multilayer perceptron neural network. after examination, the neural network of the multilayer perceptron with two layers of cover was considered and 47 features extracted from the speech signal were given as input, in its first layer there were 24, and in the second layer there were 12 neurons. an emotional database was created from 200 existing sentences, 160 sentences for teaching and 40 other sentences for network testing. since the dispersion of data is very high, we first normalize it to minimize the error rate. initial implementation: s. tashakori, s. haghighat designing the intelligent system detecting a sense of wonder in english speech signal using fuzzy-nervous inference-adaptive system (anfis) 59 figure 1. initial implementation of the application created model structure: the structure of the created neural network has an input, the input, depending on its nature, has a number of different membership functions, which directs them to an output, and eventually 12 rules are derived. figure 2. network structure created for system training brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 60 in the provided anfis model, the error rate reaches zero according to the input data after 10. this confidence level is obtained by the anfis model, which provides 70% of the input data as the training to the network and keeps the remaining data for testing the suggested model. the training of the network proceeds to a point where the error reaches zero or a small amount that is inclined to zero. in our proposed network after the epoch, the error rate reached an ideal value of zero, which we could conclude 12 fuzzy rules. finally, the overall conclusion is that with more features, more accurate estimation of the degree of emotion detection can be achieved. according to the results, 12 rules are obtained:  if (input1 is in1mf1) then (output is out1mf1) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf2) then (output is out1mf2) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf3) then (output is out1mf3) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf4) then (output is out1mf4) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf5) then (output is out1mf5) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf6) then (output is out1mf6) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf7) then (output is out1mf7) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf8) then (output is out1mf8) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf9) then (output is out1mf9) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf10) then (output is out1mf10) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf11) then (output is out1mf11) (1)  if (input1 is in1mf12) then (output is out1mf12) (1) in order to quantify the precise amount of orders, there is a need to phase out a set of fuzzy rules that are trained with the help of anfis. designed with the help of a gui, this is easily possible and is displayed by placing each number in the desired range in the output. figure 3. shape of the rules for estimating s. tashakori, s. haghighat designing the intelligent system detecting a sense of wonder in english speech signal using fuzzy-nervous inference-adaptive system (anfis) 61 figure 4. trend line forecast, detecting a sense of wonder in the english speech signal in order to evaluate the network, all the speeches in the database (both wonder and neutral) were given to the anfis network and the result was compared with the input. 10 errors were identified from the instruction set to the system, and after giving the test set it counted 5 errors. based on the above, the average accuracy of the system is about 94.23%. the results presented in table 1 indicate that the proposed algorithm is well-suited for both the training and the test set. in table 1, the results of the proposed method have been compared with other studies. with a glance at its contents, one can find that the proposed method offers far better results than other methods used so far for other languages. it should be noted that increasing the sample of the existing set of speeches in the database can play a significant role in improving the results, as the number of anfis network training samples is increased. table 1. the results of the proposed algorithm for the created database correct answer percentage number of set number of errors in detection the name of the set of speech signals 95.15% 200 10 educational speech of emotional signal set 94.23% 240 15 the whole emotional speech of database brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 62 table 2. comparing the results with similar research answer percentage research done 60 % in (hamidi et. al., 2012) 57.7% in (nourest et. al., 2009) 94.23% suggested method table 3. compare the results with other learning machines correct answer percentage the name of the emotional speech database data base %94.23 anfis %84.13 fuzzy %91.49 ann %96.63 deep learning %95.86 (reinforcement learning) the model of fuzzy systems is based on building a scientific basis using expert knowledge. however, in some processes where human experiences are not available, it is difficult to construct this scientific basis, so if the initial parameters of the comparative system are properly applied by the expert, the convergence rate of the parameters to their optimal values, as well as the convergence of the output response to the optimum route, significantly increases. one of the most suitable methods for setting parameters is the adaptation of neuro-fuzzy networks. in the end, the results of the anfis model with the ann model were compared and it was observed that the anfis model, due to the use of fuzzy rules, has more capability to ann models in predicting the sensation of surprise in the english speech signal. the results of this research are consistent with the results of the above mentioned studies. they also concluded that the fuzzy-nerve inference method had a higher accuracy than the neural network method, but other machine learning techniques, such as deep learning, provides better results for training. 5. conclusion in this article, we have tried to find a suitable way to detect a sense of wonder in the english speech signal. the lpc coefficients are extracted with the maximum, minimum, middle, mean and average frequency range from the created database, and using the nerve fuzzy adaptive network has led to a wonder sensation with high accuracy and speed. finally, the proposed system for the database reached to 94.23% accuracy. for future research, you can detect a sense of wonder from the noiseless speech signal to get better results. also, in addition to extraction features, other sound features such as formant and step can also be used to detect a sense of wonder. references anagnostopoulos, ch.n., iliou, th., & giannoukos, i. (2012). features and classifiers for emotion recognition from speech: a survey from 2000 to 2011. springer science+ business media. ebrahimpour, b., & mahmoudian, h. (2014). speech emotion detection using feature selection based on recursive models, 7th national conference on electrical and electronic engineering, islamic azad university, gonabad, iran. gharayan, d., & ahadi, m. (2008). recognition of emotional speech and speech mode identification in persian language. modares technical and engineering magazine, special issue of electrical engineering, no. 34 . hamidi, m., & mansoorizad, m. (2012). emotion recognition from persian speech with neural network. international journal of artificial intelligence & applications (ijaia), 2 (5), 107112. s. tashakori, s. haghighat designing the intelligent system detecting a sense of wonder in english speech signal using fuzzy-nervous inference-adaptive system (anfis) 63 lugger, m., & yang, b. (2007). the relevance of voice quality features in speaker independent emotion recognition. ieee icassp. iv, 17–20. marwi, h., & ismailian, z. (2014). introduction of persian databases to detect feeling of speech, shahrood university of technology, iran. mousavian, e., nourest, r., & rahati, s. (2007). recognition of human emotions using a neural network-fuzzy. eighth conference of intelligent systems, ferdowsi university of mashhad. nourest, r., rahati, s., sharifi, sh., & mousavian, e. (2009). recognition of sentiment in persian speech using fractal subjects. proceedings of 17th iranian conference on electrical engineering, iranian university of science and technology.vol. 8, 348-348. pathak, s. (2011). recognizing emotions from speech. electronics computer technology (icect). 4, 107 – 109. pouroohid, m., & ayat, s. (2012). detection of the sensation of surprise in persian speech signal using neural network, second national computer conference, sanandaj, sama faculty of engineering shashidhar g., koolagudi, k., & sreenivasa, r. (2012). emotion recognition from speech: a review. springer science+business media, 15, 99–117. staroniewicz, piotr. (2009). recognition of emotional state in polish speech – comparison between human and automatic efficiency. springer, heidelberg, 5707, 33–40. staroniewicz, piotr. (2011). automatic recognition of emotional state in polish. springer, heidelberg, 347–353. vogt, t., andre, e., & wagner j. (2008). automatic recognition of emotions from speech: a review of the literature and recommendations for practical realization. springer, heidelberg, 4868, 75–91. yousefinejad, r., haji bagher naeini, b., & shafieian, m. (2015). detection of the sensation of speech signal using the bionuclear wavelet, scientific journal of sound and vibration, vol. 5, no. 9. microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx 103 designing and programming an efficient software for sizing and counting various particles using image processing technique seyed vahid seyedin dep. of computer engineering, islamic azad university, south tehran branch no. 223, headquarter of islamic azad university, south tehran branch, zip area 11, azarshahr street, north iranshahr street, karimkhan-e-zand avenue, tehran, iran phone: + (98-21) 88830826-30 seyed hadi seyedin dep. of chemical engineering, islamic azad university, science and research branch science and research branch, daneshgah blvd, simon bulivar blvd, tehran, iran phone: 44865179-82 shadi.seyedin@iran.ir atiyeh sadat seyedin dep. of biotechnology engineering, university of tehran, faculty of new sciences and technologies tehran province, tehran, enghelab square, iran phone: +98 21 61111 abstract main purpose of the present study is to develop an appropriate computer program to size and count particles in digital images focusing on eliminating undesirable objects from the image. in this study, the user friendly graphical user interface (gui) tool is developed using matlab to measure the size of every particle of the digital image. the step by step process optimizes synthesis process of micro particles. it also facilitates generation of the required statistical analysis for medical science, material science and other applications. the described image processing system reduces total measuring time, eliminates subjective observer error in sizing and determines fine particles, considerably. this method can be used as a simple pattern recognition technique to size and count a relatively large number of particles in a short time. it is applicable to filter out images of undesirable objects such as redundant spots or noises in the image and clearly, by taking high resolution photos, the result of the processed images would be more reliable. keywords: counting particles; image processing; particle size distribution; image segmentation; cell morphology; medical imaging; matlab. 1. introduction particle size distribution of granular or powder materials is usually evaluated for research and experimental works. most of the systems used for particle measurement such as light microscopes are too expensive and they are not available everywhere. one of the approaches proposed to overcome this problem is to use image processing as an in-situ test method because this method only requires a camera and a computer and it is a fast and cheap method for measuring size of particles. in recent years, production and application of particles have increased extensively due to their unique physical and chemical properties (rajeshwari et al., 2013). in order to ensure good use of resources from environmental and economic aspects, the quality of materials should be characterized. particle size distribution of materials is one of the tests used widely in new sciences such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, material science, metallurgy and geotechnical engineering to evaluate quality of materials. size of particles is measured using complementary techniques like x-ray diffraction (xrd), scanning electron microscopy (sem) and light microscope providing the average information from a large number of particles instead of a single crystal. to our knowledge, using these techniques for a single crystal results in difficult interpretation (reetz et al., 2000; brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 104 coster & chermant, 2001). image analysis techniques are extensively used in medical and electronic industries (coster & chermant, 2001). also, this method gives rise to larger diameter and cross-sectional area of nanoparticles than those obtained from one-by-one inspection in sem and tem images (phromsuwan et al., 2013). furthermore, using this approach, images are analyzed with little human intervention and the images are more accurate and more objective than those obtained using a global threshold. as a natural extension of the concept, the results can be greatly improved by applying an adaptive threshold to selected regions of the images interactively (gontard et al., 2011). in addition to shape characteristics, size characteristics of aggregates including particle size distribution with image analysis have also been discussed in the past (fernlund, 1998; kumara et al., 2011). the image processing method directly calculates inter-particle distance of suspension and aerodynamic particle size distributions from pharmaceutical inhalers. this direct measurement method is more reliable than previous theoretical models (fishler et al., 2018; maiti et al., 2017). digital image processing generates size distribution of particles which is fast and accurate and it is often expressed in terms of area function or number of particles. in general, 2-d images are used for image analysis. however, volume of particles cannot be measured directly in 2-d images. the results showed that 2-d images give good results when particles are placed on a stable location. however, it is a time-consuming process due to the fact that location of particles should be changed manually twice to obtain images for measuring dimensions of the three axes. as mentioned in the literature, volume of particles is determined using 2-d images with some assumptions or using a time-consuming process, for example, measuring mass of individual particles (banta et al., 2003). the real-time image technique of sensing and processing is one of the most promising methods for sizing and counting small particles. by applying this technique, one can store real-time images in a computer through a digital camera so that the stored information can be analyzed automatically (ow, 1981; ahler & alexander, 1985). the main advantage of this technique is that measurement and analysis can be performed in a very short time. the other advantage of this technique is elimination of a subjective human error which is almost unavoidable in manual sizing and counting (weiss et al., 1984). in spite of these advantages, there are some basic problems related to system resolution and light diffraction (https://www.mathworks.com/discovery/digitalimage-processing.html). in the present research, images of the particles have been captured. then, diameters and numbers of particles have been measured and counted using image processing and pattern recognition techniques. since matlab is an advanced procedural language and user friendly tool for data analysis and mathematical computing function, this software has been used as a powerful programming tool for this purpose. the image processing toolbox provides a wide collection of advanced image processing functions and interactive tools for enhancing and analyzing digital images. the toolbox functions implemented in the open matlab language have been used to build up the customized algorithms (hahn & valentine, 2016). it is known that image processing techniques can be easily used to implement complex image processes, mainly for fast prototyping (fernlund, 2005), so a simplified algorithm has been proposed to determine size of particles from digital images. to provide statistical information from the image, the software provided by means of matlab gui and programming knowledge have been utilized. in this study, an image processing method is developed for calculating particle sizes directly, which is tremendously practical for particle sizing and counting digital images in various science researches. 2. methodology 2.1. particles the objects including odd-shaped foreign materials, in contact or overlapping particles, parts of single particles cut off by the image frame boundaries and noises in image background are shown in figure 1. s. v. seyedin, s. h. seyedin, a. s. seyedin designing and programming an efficient software for sizing and counting various particles using image processing technique 105 figure 1. the schematic image of particles containing undesirable objects in background particle sizes varying from 500 µm to 1 mm are used in laboratory test and image analysis. the particles have various shapes and the mean diameter of particles in 2d* is computed by image processing method. in this work, the particles are put on a black background. before processing by computer, the original images are converted to bw (black and white). 2.2. photographic system the system has two parts. a light source, a digital camera and a computer program for image sensing and processing operations to determine particle size distribution. the system has a digital camera also (canon model eos – 60d) and an appropriate lens (type efs 18-135, f3.5 5.6) with automatic focus used to obtain high resolution images. 2.3. image capturing process particles are arranged manually such that particles stand on a stable position. similar arrangement for aggregates of 35mm diameter were used in (kumara et al., 2012; pratt, 1978). in this arrangement, thickness (i.e., short axis) of particles cannot be measured directly, since 2-d images measure only the long and intermediate axes. in this research, particles are arranged without touching or overlapping each other to reduce application of unnecessary image processing techniques and increase accuracy. particles are placed on a black sheet and a suitable light source is used to obtain photographs of particles with better contrast during photography process. the main light was back light. figure 2. image capturing system and various positions of the light source it can be seen in figure 2 that the top light is applied to strengthen back light effect with an attracted light sheet (black sheet). a scale (ruler) is also used during image analysis process. this * . two dimentional. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 106 system includes a digital camera for photography and a computer program to control the image processing performing the pattern recognition algorithm. figure 3. block diagram of image sensing and processing system in the present study, the digital images have a resolution of 1494 x 2656 pixels (picture elements) with 256 brightness levels ranging from zero (black) to 255 (white). 3. image processing 3.1. image processing system as mentioned before, a gui (graphical user interface) software is programmed by matlab r2014b. image analysis is done in matlab. matlab can read many image formats including tiff, gif, jpeg, bmp, dicom, fits and jpeg which are used in this research. matlab can calculate area and pixel value statistics of user defined selections. it supports standard image processing functions such as contrast manipulation, sharpening, smoothing, edge detection and median filtering. figure 4. the gui software that allows the user to measure selected particles in image processing, the pixel region tool is provided by matlab to set on each pixel region over image and it is displayed in the image tool. the major group of displayed pixels can be seen in extreme close-up using the pixel region tool in a new window. current position of the pixel region in the specified image can be approximated by checking the pixel information. thus, pixel coordinates (x and y) in the board image coordinate system is obtained (figure5). s. v. seyedin, s. h. seyedin, a. s. seyedin designing and programming an efficient software for sizing and counting various particles using image processing technique 107 figure 5. the gui program that allows the user to investigate pixel information of selected image to illustrate the significance of this problem, an example is shown in figure 6. two solid circles with equal diameters are considered. in figure 6, brightness level histogram of two circles is shown. the number of pixels corresponding to diameter of the object depends on the selected threshold level. however, if the threshold level is lowered to a brightness level of 100, the number of pixels representing diameter of the left circle will be 50 whereas diameter of the right circle will be 51. if the threshold level is raised to a brightness level of 175, the number of pixels representing diameter of the right circle becomes larger than the left circle. the proper threshold level can be determined from distribution of the brightness levels in the digital image frame (gonzalez et al., 2004). for intensity images, n bins of the histogram are half-open intervals with width of a/(n-1). in particular, the p th bin is the half-open interval. a(p 1.5)/(n 1) x ( 0.5)/( 1)a p n      (1) the input image can be logical, uint8, uint16 or double (kim & lee, 1990). scale factor, a, depends on the image class. a is 1 if the intensity image is double and 255 or the intensity image is uint8 or uint16 class support. figure6 shows histogram of pixel values at the top of each color bar of the color map. before image processing, the original image must be converted to bmp format because the bmp file format is capable of storing 2d digital images with arbitrary width, height and resolution. in matlab, original images can be converted into binary images. usually, it is assumed that binary images have white objects and black background. binary images are very important to make some process by programming commands, such as erode, dilate, open, close, fill holes, water shed and etc. erode removes pixels from the edge of black objects. dilate adds pixels to the edges of black objects. open performs an erosion operation followed by dilation. close performs a dilation operation followed by erosion. fill holes fills holes (empty space) in objects. due to some light effects, there might be white spots in black objects. these white spots should be eliminated using fill holes. water shed separates or cuts touching particles. in this research, particles are arranged without touching or overlapping each other. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 108 figure 6. the intensity histogram of two solid circles with equal diameters figure 7 shows the image analysis process. first, pixel values are converted into mm using a scale factor (ruler). figure 7. image analysis process 36 various particles are placed on a black color sheet. the shadow effect and quality of digital images for comparing the results are investigated. these digital images with different brightness levels are converted to binary images of bw (black and white) based on the threshold level. to our knowledge, one should take care in choosing the threshold level so that it does not distort the information (particle diameters in the present case) of the original images; several methods have been proposed in the past (castleman, 1979). calibration of scale factor is done with the scale placed on the images as shown in figure 8. then, images are converted into binary images after unnecessary parts of the images are cut without disturbing particles in the images to eliminate any bad light affecting edges of the images if any bad light exists. figure 8 shows original image of jpg type (4096 x 3072 pixels) and binary images of particles, respectively. figure 8. (a) original image and (b) binary image of sample particles on black color sheet s. v. seyedin, s. h. seyedin, a. s. seyedin designing and programming an efficient software for sizing and counting various particles using image processing technique 109 3.2. pattern recognition algorithm in order to identify particles from the binary images, connectivity of pixels with the same brightness level should be considered. in the present study, pixels indicating the objects (particles) are considered to have 8-connectivity whereas the pixels indicating background are considered to have 4-connectivity (see figure 9). in the 4-connectivity, only four adjacent pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions are considered. on the other hand, in 8-connectivity, four adjacent pixels in the diagonal directions are taken into account in addition to the pixels considered in 4-connectivity. the line-by-line method is used as a basic scheme of the pattern recognition algorithm to distinguish the objects from the background (park, 2018). in the line-by-line method, several adjacent rows are simultaneously taken into account for analysis and this procedure is continued sequentially from the top to the bottom line of the image. in fig 9, two connectivity models are presented for calculating the object size. the particles (objects) are white and image background has black colors (bw image). thus the 0 and 1 matrix is used for image processing and se is the structure element (objects in the image) in matlab. figure 9. (a) the 0 and 1 matrix of bw image, (b) two types of pixels connectivity the cases of abnormal connectivity are observed when the image contains undesirable objects such as particles in contact or odd-shaped foreign materials. therefore, if this abnormal connectivity is properly handled, undesirable objects during pattern recognition process can be automatically filtered out. during isolation and image modification process, in which the patterns are recognized, the digitized binary image is modified. through image modification process, brightness level of the blank space (hole in an object) inside the object boundary is converted into the brightness level of the runs (dark) and all voids are eliminated. in addition, the overlapping particles are converted into a single particle. then the image of the two particles in contact is converted into two distinct parts (see figure 10). figure 10. process of filtering the image. (a) original image; (b) isolation and image modification brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 110 based on quality of the images judged by the operator, number of steps for modification such as dilate, fill holes and erode processes are decided. it is important that number of dilate and erode process steps is always equal to ensure that pixels of real particles are not increased or removed. 3.3. labeling and measuring objects in a binary image a connected component in a binary image is a set of pixels that form a connected group. for example, the binary image below has three connected components. connected component labeling is the process of identifying the connected components in an image and assigning a unique label to each one that is called a label matrix (see figure 11). figure 11. the label matrix of some objects in the background the overall algorithm for pattern recognition of image processing is shown as the flow chart in figure 12. figure 12. pattern recognition flowchart 4. test of the recognition program to check performance of the present measurement system, two sample cases are tested. in the first part of the test, the reference picture in figure 13 which contains some objects of known size, is prepared as a specimen. s. v. seyedin, s. h. seyedin, a. s. seyedin designing and programming an efficient software for sizing and counting various particles using image processing technique 111 figure 13. reference picture of 20 objects for checking the program results of manual counting and sizing are shown and compared in table 1. table 1. the results of reference image processing and comparing to actual value object no. real value calculated by software difference (%) mean diameter (mm) area (mm2) area (pixel) area (mm2) 1 10 100 900 99.8 0.2 2 5 25 225 24.95 0.2 3 2 4 36 3.99 0.25 4 1 1 11 1.1 9 5 10 78.5 710 78.1 0.5 6 5 19.625 175 19.32 1.554 7 2 3.14 30 3.32 5.42 8 1 0.785 9 0.81 3.1 9 5 50 447 49.56 0.88 10 2.5 12.5 119 13.1 4.58 11 1 2 19 2.1 4.76 12 0.5 0.5 6 0.66 24.242 13 10 75 669 74.18 1.09 14 5 18.75 174 19.29 2.8 15 2 3 26 2.8 6.67 16 1 0.75 9 0.81 7.4 17 10 150.72 1350 149.7 0.67 18 5 37.68 337 37.425 0.66 19 2 6.0288 54 5.985 0.72 20 1 1.5072 16 1.8 9.04 also, as shown in table.1, error range is observed for each shape group. this may be due to the discretization error originating from the process of converting the original digital image into the binary digital image; however, there might be a certain error involved in making objects when preparing the reference picture. the actual area is calculated using the mathematical formula for various geometrical shapes. 5. results and discussion the measure tool is projected to aid measuring the size of particles in an image. to measure the image, little illustration is required to calibrate the pixel using a scale before processing. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 112 5.1. image processing toolbox the tool is planned for high quality measurements and it uses image processing toolbox of matlab. these tools allow the user to select, zoom, readjust and confirm the selection. it also allows placing the measurement tool which can be customized using its control points. in this gui measure tool, a set of plotting options can be established by setting it. the intensity is calculated by plotting the pixel values on discretized points of the measured line and its averages. for a particle, the average intensity is calculated for every pixel within the particle. 5.2. sizing and counting particles figure 14 is the number histogram of sizes of the 36 particles obtained from the reference picture shown in figure 8 with the unit pixel length being set to 0.03125 mm. the unit pixel length is based on the value in scale on the original image. figure 14. the diagram of particle size distribution for sample 36 particles it is confirmed that the identified and measured system only prescribes objects (particles). thus, the algorithm for pattern recognition is proved to be proper for the present purpose. in the second part of the test, the mean area of particle surface (mm2) for the sample of the 36 particles is shown in figure15. in this test, the threshold level of intensity is chosen about 0.5 for better processing. it should be noted that the measured particle size depends on accurate value of number of pixels involving metric unit to the scale in the digital image. s. v. seyedin, s. h. seyedin, a. s. seyedin designing and programming an efficient software for sizing and counting various particles using image processing technique 113 figure 15. the diagram of particles mean cross-sectional area distribution for sample 36 particles the average size of particles, 2.7352 mm is calculated using program and the standard deviation is 1.2385mm which shows clearly that results of the automatic measurement are quite satisfactory. if the size of a pixel is increased (that is, if the photographs of the particles have lower magnification), results of the automatic measurement would be of lower accuracy due to maximum measurement uncertainty. since tiny or small objects with lower resolution show weak results, it is essential to obtain high-quality and high-contrast photographs of the objects. this method can be used as a simple pattern recognition technique programmed to size and count a relatively large number of particles in a short time and it is applicable to filter out images of undesirable objects such as redundant spots or noises in the image. proper choices of the magnification in constructing an image frame and a threshold level to convert the original image to a binary digital image are important. furthermore, due to light effects, it is observed that black color sheets are better than white color sheets for placing particles. 6. measuring the blood cells by means of an image segmentation the analysis of the blood cells is used for evidencing several diseases in humans and animals. usually, the analysis is performed manually by means of an optical microscope. however, some approaches, based on an automatic image processing, exist for evidencing and counting the blood cells in the given specimens. measurements of the cell morphology are possible too. here we show a method which uses a processing based on an image segmentation obtained by thresholding. after the segmentation, the area of the cells is easily evaluated. their perimeters are measured using a rose of directions (amelia, c., s. 2017). besides the counting of particles, from the micrographs that we can obtain by microscopes, some measurements concerning the shape of on cells are possible. in fact, the measurement of the size and size distribution of blood cells is the proper task for the method that we have recently developed and applied. to the counting of particles we can add some measurements concerning the cell morphology, measurements that we can obtain by means of a rose of directions. one of the measures is the perimeter of the cell, but it is possible to give several other parameters. in image processing, a segmentation is a method of partitioning an image into multiple sets of pixels, defined as super-pixels, in order to have a representation which can be simpler than the original one or more brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 114 useful to the following desired analyses. specifically, the segmentation is a process of assigning a label to every pixel in an image, such that the pixels having the same label share certain characteristics. several methods exist for the image segmentation, but here we use a method based on a thresholding of grey-scale images. by selecting a suitable threshold, the image is converted into a binary (black and white) image. in several cases, this is enough for evidencing the domains among the black or the white pixels. therefore, here we start immediately to show the results of the segmentation of an image of blood cells. we show that we can measure their apparent areas and perimeters. once we have obtained the binary image, we have at our disposal a matrix of black and white pixels. starting from the left/upper corner of this matrix, we move on each rowfrom left to right, from the upper to the lower row of the image. we focus on black pixels and characterize each of them by a sequential integer number k, which is acting as a label of the single pixel. some of these labels will be the labels identifying the domains, or super-pixels, to which the pixels belong (see figure 16). figure 16. labeling of the black objects inclue black pixels. the white pixels have a label k=0. each black pixel has a label different from zero, with a value which is increasing as we move from left to right on the rows. however, the final values is fixed according to the labels of the black pixels above and on the left of the considered pixel. the label of a black pixel is determined according to the labels k of the nearest black pixels above (a) and on the left (l) of the considered pixel. if the labels ka and kl are the same, their value is the label of the pixel under examination. if these labels are different, the pixel assumes as its label the lower valueamong them. then, all the pixels having the label with the larger value change their labels into the value of the smaller one. this approach can be easily obtained by logic instructions in any programming language (here we use matlab 2016a). it gives to each of the super-pixels a different label. after this procedure, we have a matrix of labels. suppose, that we want to segment the blood cells, so mark all the pixels belonging to the desired object. all pixels under the threshold may belong to the objects. we can determine the threshold level by imagesc (b < threshold); in matlab programming and is between 0 to 255 for each pixel. 6.1. counting and sizing human blood cells let us consider the image of human blood cells figure17 (a). the colour image is converted into a grey-scale image and then the binary image obtained manually by means of bmp image (figure17, b). as we can see, the white cell is not well defined in the binary image. for this reason, in this preliminary work, we modified manually the image to be used for segmentation. the modified image is given in the figure17 (c). s. v. seyedin, s. h. seyedin, a. s. seyedin designing and programming an efficient software for sizing and counting various particles using image processing technique 115 figure 17. (a) human blood cells magnified 40 times, (b) bmp image, (c) modified image figure 18. segmentation and size distribution.of the various white cell of course, we can measure the size and the perimeter of the cells too. in this preliminary work, in the case of the human blood, we needed to act manually to adjust the shape of the white cell. further work is necessary to determine an automatic manner of improving the visibility of the white cells. an example of thresholding using generalized method is given in the figure19. the result is quite interesting, because it is evidencing the white cells. by the segmentation of the figure19, right panel, we can measure the morphology of the white cells. another interesting result which it was obtained using a three-level image made of white, black and grey pixels. the results is reproduced in the figure 20. using only the black pixels, we have a map as given in the figure20 (a). using only the grey pixels, we have the image figure20 (b), in the same figure. on these two images, the approach for having the cell morphology can be applied, after an imagej (software) watershed separation. an issue still exists for the red cells and it includes in the fact that some domains can have an empty. a method of processing the shape of the cells having an empty core is under development. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 116 figure 19. (a)microscopic image of blood cells on the left. (b) assuming the best bi-level image being that giving the largest number of edge pixels with threshold value of 102 figure 20. (a) original and (b) three-level images. (c) the black pixels and, (d) the grey pixels we can apply the approach previously discussed for the determination of the cell morphology. s. v. seyedin, s. h. seyedin, a. s. seyedin designing and programming an efficient software for sizing and counting various particles using image processing technique 117 7. conclusion the research presents automated procedure to set together size and shape of particles to identify their boundaries in images and specify shape variations with shape group and size of the particles. the advantage of this algorithm is that it provides a tool to measure size of particles in digital images using matlab. this tool expedites the process of obtaining information of particles which helps optimizing the synthesis process of particles. thus, an efficient and economic system for measuring particles’ size is developed and tested. the system can handle a relatively large number of particles in a short time and can filter out images of undesirable objects such as noises, fine dots, spots and odd-shaped foreign materials in the background without complicated feedback processes. size (diameters) of particles are obtained from the arithmetic mean value of the xdirectional length of the longest continuous strip of pixels and the y-directional length of the modified binary image of each object (particles). the test results show that the main error originates from converting the original images into binary images. thus, the threshold level should be chosen carefully. the proper choice of magnification in constructing an image frame is another important consideration. in addition, for better image sensing, it is essential to obtain high-contrast photographs of particles. the image processing system described here, saves measuring time, eliminates possible subjective errors by observers in sizing and counting particles, considerably and is shown to be substantially efficient. it can be understood that black color sheets are better than white color sheets for placing particles. shadow effects on black color sheets should be less than that of white color sheets. also, the result of a segmentation is a set of "segments", or “superpixels”, or “domains” that are covering the background of the whole image. the segmentation can also give a set of contours that is of "edges", extracted from the image. in this case, the segmentation gives an "edge detection". in addition, results of this method are more accurate for larger object and high-resolution images. references ahler, k. d., & alexander, d. r. (1985). microcomputer based digital image processing system developed to count and size laser-generated small particle images. optical engineering, 24(6), 241060. amelia, c., s. (2017). measuring the blood cells by means of an image segmentation. philica, banta, l., cheng, k., & zaniewski, j. (2003). estimation of limestone particle mass from 2d images. powder technology, 132(2-3), 184-189. castleman, k. r. (1979). stereometric ranging. digital image processing, prentice-hall, inc., englewood cliffs, new jersey, 364-369. coster, m., & chermant, j. l. (2001). image analysis and mathematical morphology for civil engineering materials. cement and concrete composites, 23(2-3), 133-151. fernlund, j. m. (1998). the effect of particle form on sieve analysis: a test by image analysis. engineering geology, 50(1-2), 111-124. fernlund, j. m. r. (2005). image analysis method for determining 3-d size distribution of coarse aggregates. bulletin of engineering geology and the environment, 64(2), 159-166. fishler, r., verhoeven, f., de kruijf, w., & sznitman, j. (2018). particle sizing of pharmaceutical aerosols via direct imaging of particle settling velocities. european journal of pharmaceutical sciences, 113, 152-158. gontard, l. c., ozkaya, d., & dunin-borkowski, r. e. (2011). a simple algorithm for measuring particle size distributions on an uneven background from tem images. ultramicroscopy, 111(2), 101-106. gonzalez, r. c., woods, r. e., & eddins, s. l. (2004). digital image processing using matlab, prentice hall. upper saddle river, nj. hahn, b., & valentine, d. t. (2016). essential matlab for engineers and scientists. academic press. https://www.mathworks.com/discovery/digital-image-processing.html brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 118 kim, i. g., & lee, s. y. (1990). a simple technique for sizing and counting spray drops using digital image processing. experimental thermal and fluid science, 3(2), 214-221. kumara, g. h. a. j. j., hayano, k., & ogiwara, k. (2011). fundamental study on particle size distribution of coarse materials by image analysis. in first international conference on geotechnique, construction materials and environment(pp. 399-404). kumara, g. h. a., hayano, k., & ogiwara, k. (2012). image analysis techniques on evaluation of particle size distribution of gravel. int. j. geomate, 3(1), 290-297. maiti, a., chakravarty, d., biswas, k., & halder, a. (2017). development of a mass model in estimating weight-wise particle size distribution using digital image processing. international journal of mining science and technology, 27(3), 435-443. ow, c. s. (1981). pattern recognition procedures for a television-minicomputer spray droplet sizing system. journal of the institute of energy, 9, 119-123. park, d. y. (2018). direct calculation of inter-particle distance in suspension by image processing. powder technology, 330, 252-258. philica, available hal, hal-01654006. phromsuwan, u., sirisathitkul, c., sirisathitkul, y., uyyanonvara, b., & muneesawang, p. (2013). application of image processing to determine size distribution of magnetic nanoparticles. journal of magnetics, 18(3), 311-316. pratt, w. k. (1978). digital picture processing. rajeshwari, a., prathna, t. c., balajee, j., chandrasekaran, n., mandal, a. b., & mukherjee, a. (2013). computational approach for particle size measurement of silver nanoparticle from electron microscopic image. int. j. pharm. pharm. sci, 5(2), 619. reetz, m. t., maase, m., schilling, t., & tesche, b. (2000). computer image processing of transmission electron micrograph pictures as a fast and reliable tool to analyze the size of nanoparticles. the journal of physical chemistry b, 104(37), 8779-8781. weiss, b. a., derov, p., debiase, d., & simmons, h. c. (1984). fluid particle sizing using a fully automated optical imaging system. optical engineering, 23(5), 235561. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 59 extending the storage capacity and noise reduction of a faster qr-code kishor datta gupta department of computer science lamar university, beaumont, usa 400 s m l king jr pkwy, beaumont, tx 77705, united states of america tel. +1 409-880-7011 kgupta@lamar.edu md manjurul ahsan department of industrial engineering lamar university, beaumont, usa 400 s m l king jr pkwy, beaumont, tx 77705, united states of america tel. +1 409-880-7011 mahsan2@lamar.edu dr stefan andrei department of computer science lamar university, beaumont, usa 400 s m l king jr pkwy, beaumont, tx 77705, united states of america tel. +1 409-880-7011 s.andrei@lamar.edu abstract quick response code has been widely used in the automatic identification fields (liu, ju, & mingjun, 2008). the present work illustrates an image processing system able to discover, split and decodes the most common 2d symbol used in bar code applications. the different symbol is processed by manipulating their similarities, to achieve an integrated computational structure (ouaviani, pavan, bottazzi, brunelli, caselli, & guerrero, 1999). there is not enough novel approach which could be effective for data transferring to alter various sizes, a little noisy or damaged and various lighting conditions of bar code image. we proposed a faster qr code which has more storage and can scan faster. the new qr code generation takes twice the time than normal qr code but it can also store double qr code data. it's scanning is as faster as other qr code scanning technique. we deducted the level of color percentage despite positions of color bits in that module, which increased its scanning speed and reduced noise error rate to less than 10 percent. keywords: quick response code, recognition, scanning technique. 1.introduction in 1994, a japanese hardware company first introduced “quick response code”, which is known as qr codes. back then, it was designed to allow high-speed component (furht, borko ,2011). currently, it is used not only for getting information of commercial products but also used for smartphone tagging. beginning of computer age, it was necessary to have machine readable medium or automated data medium, by automated data medium we meant a form of something which could store data that only a computer can read. there are many forms available but here we will discuss only one of the optical medium. it is printed data matrix generated image on any substance. the first example of it is barcode. the barcode was influenced by morse code, its primary use was for tagging each product (figure 1). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 60 figure 1. a sample linear barcode in starting all barcodes was 1d or known as linear, but still, there are many standards and many types of barcode. to increase data capacity and reduce the error rate, 2d barcode was introduced. the most popular one of them is qr code. but qr code also has the limitation of data capacity so researcher introduced high capacity color barcode. however, the introduction of color in qr codes created new challenging problems. as consequence, the color barcode concept did not get too much popularity. figure 2. 1d barcode examples a) 2d postal barcode b) colored railroad barcode c) code 49 barcode d) the universal product code the 1d or linear bar codes are mainly based on the width of each line by a predefined standard width. for the width based barcode an example is shown in figure 2 (d). here, the big limitation is for more data barcode width size will get bigger. as we can see barcode to bitwise waveform transfer in figure 3. figure 3. barcode width read for this reason, the linear code is used to only store small code words data, such as product number or country code. to store more data, 2d barcode was introduced, for example figure 4 shows a 2d barcode. advantages of 2d barcodes over linear barcode are not only storage of more information, but also reduced the error rate, the data encryption, the much less space, the possibility k. d. gupta, m. ahsan, s. andrei extending the storage capacity and noise reduction of a faster qr-code 61 to scan in all directions and printing in curve area.5 this makes 2d barcodes more usable in all fields. when microsoft introduced high capacity color code (figure 4(d)) it comes with more storage and more features. however, it also faces some image processing issues. as other standard 2d codes are based on black and white, this does not depend that much on scanner quality or printed material quality. as a result, microsoft discontinued its research on color codes. several attempts to solve this problem taken by many other researchers notably by homayoun bagherinia and robert manduchi in 2011 (bagherinia homayoun and roberto manduchi, 2011). figure 4. 2d barcode examples a) maxicode b) crontosign c)shotcode d)hccb e)qrcode f)hccbq 2. standard qr code: to the human eye, all barcodes will look very similar. but if we look it more closely we will see some differences, although without most trained eye we cannot recover any meaningful data. this is because all data are generally encrypted. in linear barcodes, normally binary data or symbol for each letter of english alphabet and number are used. for 2d code, we normally directly use binary codes of respective data. information in qrcodes can split up in 6 parts as shown in figure 5. as like as: quiet zone, finder patterns, alignment pattern, timing pattern, version information, data cells. (hartley, richard, and andrew, zisserman,2003) 5 "how qr codes (and other 2d barcodes) work." explain that stuff. july 02, 2016. accessed june 17, 2017. http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-data-matrix-codes-work.html brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 62 figure 5. qrcode data blocks information 3. our proposed qr method based on our work on qr code scanning, we think there could be new qr code possible which able to store more data. our idea is use half the area of black bit instead of full area. it has faster decoding and encoding speed. 3.1. encoding method first, we will convert data to normal qr code, then the black bits we will make them one third instead of full, and place in the middle, then we prepare another qr code same way, rotate that in 90 degrees and place it on first qr code. and we should add a finder-bit so while decoding we get the info of decoding bit size, which is essential to start decoding method (yang, zhibo, huanle xu, jianyuan deng, chen change loy, and wing cheong lau, 2017). figure 6. encoding qr code step1 in our experimental setup, we placed a black bit in top-left most corner. in figure 6 and figure 7 these encoding steps are explained. k. d. gupta, m. ahsan, s. andrei extending the storage capacity and noise reduction of a faster qr-code 63 figure 7. encoding qr code step 2 3.2. procedural steps for encoding steps of encoding are as follows: step 1. convert the data in binarystring consisting only 1 and 0. step 2. split the binarystring in two part, part1 and part2 step 3. add ending bit 1 in the end of both part1 and part2 step 4. divide imagesize with the sqrt of part2 data length. this will be the bitsize step 5. place a rectangle in bitsize at the top-left most corner in image. step 6. take another two samesize bitmap. step 7. in bitmap1, take each character from part1 and started to draw line if value which width is one third of the bitsize but length is equal to bit size. after reach at image end increase x position by bit-size and start again. step 8. in bitmap2, take each character from part1 and started to draw line if value which width is one third of the bitsize but length is equal to bit size. after reach at image end increase x position by bit-size and start again. step 9. merge bitmap1 and bitmap2 and get the image the image we get from step 9 is our desired new qr code. based on image size, our bit limit increase and decrease. if we use 1024 as image size, theocratically we will be able to keep 262144 bit data in our code, but technically it betters to keep one fifth of that to avoid decoding issues. 3.3. pseudocode for encoding the pseudocode of the encoding process is explained below and details source code are available in appendix a. pseudocode: var result = stringtobinary(inputtext); var part1 = first half of result + "1"; var part2 = second half of result + "1"; var sqrt =sqrt(part2 data size); var bitsize = imagesize/sqrt; var x = sizeofbit / 3; var y = 0; foreach (char c in part1) { if(c==1) var bitmap1 = draw line in x and y position with width of bitsize/3 and lenght of bitsize; if(y>=imagesize) {y = 0; x = x + sizeofbit;} } y = sizeofbit / 3; x =0; foreach (char c in part2) { if(c==1) var bitmap2 = draw line in x and y position with width of bitsize/3 and lenght of bitsize; if(y>=imagesize) {x = 0; y= y+ sizeofbit;}} var qrcodeimage = new image (imagesize + bitsize,imagesize + bitsize); qrcodeimage draw rectengale at 0,0 point with bitsize as height and width; qrcodeimage =draw bitmap1 and bitmap2 from bitsize,bitsize location; qrcodeimage save at filelocation; brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 64 3.4. implementation of encoding we implemented in visual studio. we use default c# image library for decoding purpose and after that, we save the image in jpeg format. in figure 8, we paste a text from cnn news at our inputbox and in figure 9 we converted it to binary, third image is our desired qr code. figure 8. encoding in visual studio for datainput. figure 9. generate qr code we can see in figure 3, in topleft corner we placed bit size. this we will use as finder pattern in decoding steps. after that, we can save the image as qr code in the file directory. we used 1024 as image size. add a rectangle for of size-bit add extra size, based on length of data bit. time to encode normally done below 100ms for normally 300 to 500 words, largely based on data content, as for 0 we don’t use draw functions. k. d. gupta, m. ahsan, s. andrei extending the storage capacity and noise reduction of a faster qr-code 65 4. experimental results of encoding we ran several tests on our application, and save the resulting image in our file directory. also, we measure the processing time for encoding method. in table 1, we showd some of the examples alongside results and processing time in milliseconds. table 1. encoding experimental result input text output qr in 1024size process time in milliseconds “hello world” 75 “lamar university kishor datta gupta l20421951” 73 abstract of this paper 103 page 1 of this paper 115 article from“http://artssciences.lamar.edu/computerscience/news/lamar-university-virtualmap.html” 555 5. analysis of encoding from the table, we can see if data size increases our encoding speed also decrease. for more data, we will be needed to increase our image size. the zbar and zxing qrcode reader software need more time than our encoding method, mostly because they need to draw the rectangle and fill that while are drawing the only line which gives us the better performance as we are drawing on sorted image matrix. our time complexity is t(n) = t(n/2) +t(n/2) => o(n) = n one of the issues in the encoding process is rounding up the floating bit size to integer point, as we flooring the results, we have to waste some space. if data is big, then this waste of space gets more visible, in figure 10 there is an example shown. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 66 figure 10. waste of space in right bottom corner in figure 10 we can see due to floor the float value to nearest integer value creates a blank space in right bottom corner. for decoding purpose we mark last bit as black one, so after the last data, we have to keep all white. in future, we could use this space to store error correction bits. another possibility is brought that in the center and use for curvature detection. 5.1. decoding method we can apply bar code decoding system here that’s why it will be much faster, and we will ignore black length less than the module size. this way it would be faster than other qr code, we have to scan horizontal and vertical and ignore lest than module size black color block as 1. as seen in figure 11 and figure 12. figure 11. decoding vertical scanning figure 12. decoding horizontal scanning k. d. gupta, m. ahsan, s. andrei extending the storage capacity and noise reduction of a faster qr-code 67 5.2. procedural steps for decoding in decodings, steps can be divided into three parts. one gets the bit size from processed image, second is scan and get the data bits, third and last is decode the data in text, in below pseudocode step 1 to 4 is for getting the bit size and 5 to 8 is for scanning purpose. steps of decoding are step 1. get the input image . step 2. convert the image in greyscale. step 3. convert input image in binary image. using threshold value 128. step 4. started from top left corner to width or height, check every pixel value. if get 255 , that pixel position represent the bitsize step 5. start to go pixel by pixel horizontally and check blackbit are equal or atleast 3/4th of bitsize or not. if yes we will add that as 1 bit . if not that will add as 0 bit. step 6. if it is the the most right bottom pixel we go step 7. else after reach the end of image height, will increase position of x by bitsize and go to step 5. step 7. start to go pixel by pixel vertically and check blackbit are equal or atleast 3/4th of bitsize or not. if yes we will add that as 1 bit . if not that will add as 0 bit. step 8. if it is the the most right bottom pixel we go step 9. else after reach the end of image width, will increase position of x by bitsize and go to step 7. step 9. convert the data from binary to ascii. after step 9, we will get our resulted text in ascii format. we have to remember before converting to ascii we have to remove every bit after last 1. as that’s the ending flag bit. 5.3. pseudocode for decoding the pseudocode of the decoding process is explained below and details source code is available in appendix b. pseducode for sizebit var image = qrcodeimage var greyscaleimage = convert qrcodeimage to greyscale vat bbinaryimage =convert greyscaleimage to binary using threshold 128; for (int j = 1; j < img.height; j++){ var pixel = getpixelat 1,j point; if (pixel == 255){bitsize = j; break;} } after getting the bit size we can start scanning the image file and decoding to binary. pseducode for decoding for (int i = bitsize +bitsize/3; i < img.width; i = i + bitsize; ) {int ptb,ptw,bitsizecount = 0; for (int j = bitsize ; j < img.height; j++) { bitsizecount++ int pixel = bbinaryimage.getpixelat 1,j point; if (pixel == 255){ ptb++;ptw = 0; } if (pixel == 0) {ptb=0;ptw++; } if (bitsize == bitsizecount) { if (ptb >= ptw) horijontal = horijontal + 0; else horijontal = horijontal + 1; ptb,ptw,bitsizecount = 0;}} } for (int j = bitsize + bitsize / 3; j < img.height; j = j + bitsize;) { int ptb,ptw,bitsizecount = 0; for (int i = bitsize ; i < img.height; i++) { bitsizecount++ int pixel = bbinaryimage.getpixelat 1,j point; if (pixel == 255){ ptb++;ptw = 0; } if (pixel == 0) {ptb=0;ptw++; } if (bitsize == bitsizecount) { if (ptb > ptw) vertical = vertical + 0; else vertical = vertical + 1; ptb,ptw,bitsizecount = 0; }} } var binaryresult = horijontal+vertical; var result = binrayresult to ascii convertion brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 68 5.4. implementation of decoding we use default aforge image library for decoding purpose and after that, we use normal file reader to scan the image. in figure 13, we load a qr code from our file directory and in figure 14 we decoded it to binary and convert that binary in the text, results are shown in two textboxes. figure 13. qr code load in application figure 14. qr code decoded and result shown. after image convert to binary, we start for determining the size bit. in figure 15 at top left corner, sizebit is present. using that sizebit we started to scan the image. k. d. gupta, m. ahsan, s. andrei extending the storage capacity and noise reduction of a faster qr-code 69 figure 15. decoding with grid line for better understanding, we draw redline while scanning in figure 15 when we get the constant black line which length is almost equal to bit size, we will consider that as 1 otherwise, that’s a 0. we also have to remember some digit does convert to binary ok, and it still does not support other than ascii code. 6. experimental results of decoding we ran several decoding tests from the qr code which we encoded and saved in our file directory. we calculated the processing time for encoding method. in below table, we showed some of the examples alongside results and processing time in milliseconds. table 16. decoding experimental result input image output processing time ms data length “hello world” 32 96 “lamar university” 26 136 thesis name 12 536 abstract of this thesis 210 8800 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 70 acknowledgment of this thesis 165 6424 7.analysis the decoding is much faster than encoding, and also compare to other qr code decoding systems. its speed is faster as linear bar code. its time complexity depends on bitsize. if n = image size/bitsize . then time complexity is 2t(n) => o(n). also as lines are sequential we do not have to worry about cross color modulation error. also as we are using one-third area of the bit module, it has more error prone than other qr code scanning, that’s why in this case our zone based error detection system will be helpful as it will work none the less the printer or printing materials faults. 7.1. advantages of new qr code there are several new advantages of our proposed qr code over currently most used qr codes, these are  our qr code can store almost double data than universal qr code.  our qr code encoding and decoding time are faster than universal qr code.  our qr code can detect curvature distortion issue better.  cross module color issue can be ignore . as we are reduced the size of blackbits one third , it giving us the option to add more data than normal qr code. also while encoding instead of draw a black rectengualr bit , we draw a single line. also in a 2d matrix which is sorted. it makes the encoding speed faster . in decoding time, we use to scan in single line. so its take less time than othe qr code which read a full rectengular bit and determine its color to measure its black bit or white bit. while we are just chking for black line. this procedure also help us to avoid curve distortion and cross module distortion issue. 7.2. limitations of new qr code our new qr code has some big limitations , these are  for large data if image size small it will not work.  if image size can not be divisible by bitsize , for large data size we will be lost line after read some data.  this new qr code issue is more vulnarbel for light glare and illumination issue. for solving, these issues we need to increase image size respect to data size, and we can always add garbage data to keep bit size a divisor for image size. in future, we can try to solve these issues. 8. conclusion in our new qr code method, we can also add the third and 4th layer of qr code by rotating 45 and 135 degrees respectively, that’s why it can store 4x data than normal qr code. and if we apply hiq color bits instead of binary bits, that could make this qr code a huge storage of database to use securely. also, it needs to make applicable for camera work, especially for mobile camera. another room of improvement is, adding curvature detection bits. if we could do this than it will be possible to make it user-friendly in consumer level. references bagherinia, homayoun, and roberto manduchi. "a theory of color barcodes". in computer vision workshops (iccv workshops), 2011 ieee international conference on, pp. 806-813. furht, borko, ed. handbook of augmented reality. springer science & business media, 2011. k. d. gupta, m. ahsan, s. andrei extending the storage capacity and noise reduction of a faster qr-code 71 hartley, richard, and andrew zisserman. „multiple view geometry in computer vision”. cambridge university press, 2003. liu, yue, ju yang, and mingjun liu. (2008). "recognition of qr code with mobile phones".in control and decision conference, 2008. ccdc 2008. chinese, pp. 203-206. ieee. ouaviani, e., a. pavan, m. bottazzi, e. brunelli, f. caselli, and m. guerrero. (1999)"a common image processing framework for 2d barcode reading.",pp. 652-655. yang, zhibo, huanle xu, jianyuan deng, chen change loy, and wing cheong lau. "robust and fast decoding of high-capacity color qr codes for mobile applications". arxiv preprint arxiv:1704.06447 (2017). ştefan andrei received his bsc in computer science (1994) and msc in computer science (1995) from alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi, and phd in computer science (2000) from hamburg university. he was awarded with four competitive scholarships, as follows: the singapore mit alliance computer science fellowship, 2002-2005, the world bank joint japan graduate scholarship program, 1998-2000, the tempus fellowship, 1998-1998, and daad scholarship, german government, 5/19977/1997. dr. andrei wrote over 100 publications published in prestigious journals and conference proceedings which have more than 200 non-self international citations in reputable publications. he has given invited talks at more than 20 reputable universities and industrial companies. he has been a program committee member or co-chair of more than 40 international reputable conferences and a pi, co-pi, or senior personnel of more than 11 funded research grant proposals. he was promoted to acm senior member in april 2013. currently, he is an associate professor and chair of the department of computer science with lamar university, beaumont, tx, u.s.a. his research interests are in the areas of optimization techniques, verification, and scheduling analysis for multiprocessor platforms for real-time embedded systems, software engineering and translation systems. microsoft word issue 3.docx 124 the effects of consumers’ fomo tendencies on impulse buying and the effects of impulse buying on postpurchase regret: an investigation on retail stores* işıl karapinar çelik bolu abant izzet baysal university bai̇bü gölköy yerleşkesi, 14030, turkey phone: +90 374 254 10 00 isilkarapinar@ibu.edu.tr oya eru bolu abant izzet baysal university bai̇bü gölköy yerleşkesi, 14030, turkey phone: +90 374 254 10 00 oya.eru@gmail.com ruziye cop bolu abant izzet baysal university bai̇bü gölköy yerleşkesi, 14030, turkey phone: +90 374 254 10 00 ruziyecop@hotmail.com abstract nowadays the internet has become an indispensable part of life. individuals spend a great part of their time constantly checking their social media accounts. individuals who have a constant fear of missing out behind by the experiences of others show a tendency towards fomo. however, the desire to be included in a group leads individuals to act impulsively. the main aim of the study is to investigate the effects of fomo tendencies on impulse purchasing and post-purchase regret, and the effects of impulse purchasing on the post-purchase regret. data were collected from 507 people by survey method; a total of 121 respondents who gave the answer “no” to the question “do you follow retail stores' opportunity brochures online/in store?” were excluded, and a total of 386 questionnaires were included in the analyses, which were carried out through quantitative analysis techniques. the results of the study suggest that fomo tendency affects impulse purchasing and impulse purchasing has an influence on post-purchase regret. keywords: fomo; impulse purchasing; postpurchase regret. 1. introduction having become an indispensable part of our lives as a result of developments in communication and information technologies, the internet is now a means of communication that enables people to find any kind of information they want, to have fun, and to contact their friends (balcı and gülnar 2009: 6). online platforms where individuals can interact with each other can be defined as social media (sayımer, 2008:123). there are several reasons for individuals' increased use of social media, one of which is the desire to become involved in a social group, which can be explained through maslow's hierarchy of needs (the theory of human motivation). according to this theory, individuals have certain basic needs, which form a pyramid starting from most basic needs. physiological needs are at the bottom of the pyramid, followed by needs for safety, social, belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. according to maslow, self-actualization is the greatest yearning of individuals (plotnik, 2009). as individuals meet their basic needs, they wish to fulfil their needs at the next step. *this study is a revised version of the paper, presented in the iii.international applied social sciences congress (ciasos 2019). i. k. çelik, o. eru, r. cop the effects of consumers’ fomo tendencies on impulse buying and the effects of impulse buying on postpurchase regret: an investigation on retail stores 125 hence, an individual whose physical and safety needs have been met would feel the need for socialization. the widespread use of the internet and social media raises people's yearning for socialization. even though the concept of fomo (fear of missing out) has been an integral part of the relevant literature for a long time, it is only recently that it has gained greater prevalence thanks to the use of social media. one reason for this might be that individuals do not want to miss out on what is happening on their social media. today, individuals wish to be constantly involved in social settings; they share and view content on social networks, and thus have a greater tendency towards fomo (gökler et al., 2016: 54). businesses wishing to take advantage of this fear and worry have tended to do this by stimulating consumers' impulse purchasing behaviour. consumers who have made such impulse purchases sometimes experience post-purchasing regret. taking all of the above into consideration, this study aimed to examine the effects of consumers' fomo tendencies on impulse purchases and how impulse purchases influence post-purchasing regret. 2. fomo an indispensable aspect of human nature, the fear of missing out can be traced back much further than one might imagine. however, voboril (2010) was the first to use the word "fomo" in the literature (hodkinson, 2019). there have been several definitions proposed for fomo. reagle (2015, 2), for example, defined fear of missing out as worry of envy of missed experiences. according to herman (2011), fomo is a fearful attitude towards the possibility of failing to exhaust available opportunities and missing the expected joy associated with succeeding in doing so. jones (2016) defined fomo as an anxiety or apprehension around the idea that others might be experiencing something one is not. cambridge english dictionary defines fomo in terms of its association with social media. according to this definition, fomo is a worried feeling that you may miss exciting events that other people are going to, especially caused by things you see on social media (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/, 2018). dan herman (2012) defined fomo as a socio-cultural phenomenon, and a novel motivation, and a personality factor that influences customers psychologically. there have been few studies examining fomo empirically in the literature (alt 2005, przybylski et al. 2013). these studies have shown that the fomo effect is more prevalent among people with a lack of fulfilment of basic psychological needs (odabaşı, 2017). individuals who experience this feeling more intensely constantly compare their lives with those of others, thinking other people have better life standards than theirs (aydın 2018: 416). due to rapid advances in technology, fomo has become more common, which can be explained by the widespread use of social media today. the contents shared on social media platforms causes individuals to have the fear of missing out. przyblski et al. (2013) emphasized that fomo is not a new concept, yet the only reason for the perception that fomo has emerged recently is the day by day increase in the possibility to contact other people through social media, and developed the fear of missing out scale. their study also found that the tendency for fomo is the driving force behind social media use, and that young individuals tend to have greater fomo. gökler et al. (2016) aimed to determine the validity and reliability of the turkish version of przybylski et al.'s (2013) fear of missing out scale (fomos). their study revealed that fomos is a valid and reliable scale to measure fomo in university students. in the study investigating the validity and reliability of fomo in american youth, perrone (2016) sought to explain the relationship between fomo and the frequency of social media use in terms of variables such as gender, age, and ethnicity, and found significant differences between the tendency of fomo and social media use and demographics. rifkin et al. (2015) stated that individuals tended to experience fomo when they see the photos of a social activity they missed on social media. it was found that fomo caused the rate of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 126 utilization of expected benefit from both the missed-out experience and the current experience to drop. hoşgör et al. (2017) investigated the prevalence of fomo among university students. they found that variables such as age, duration of smart phone use, daily frequency of checking smart phone, the duration of having a social media account, number of social media accounts, and daily duration of social media use influenced fomo tendency. fomo is a phenomenon that is closely related to consumption and marketing (odabaşı 2017). businesses seek to stimulate the tendency of fomo, and to influence consumers' purchasing decision by creating a perception that products and services are in short supply through various campaigns, thus leading consumers to experience the fear of missing out (hodkinson, 2019: 2). a study by compare metrics revealed that 73% of customers who do online shopping experience fomo while looking for products (starr, 2014). another study showed that purchasing behaviour could be significantly influenced by fomo, reporting that 68% of the study participants made purchases within 24 hours after they had seen somebody else's actual experience, as a result of their fomo. it has been reported that participants made their purchases after seeing online content about trips (59%), partiesevents (56%), and food (29%) due to their fomo (overmyer, 2016). a study by jwt intelligence (2012) reported that fomo could have the potential to increase spending due to the fact that it increases use of social media and motivates consumers to have more experiences. certain objects or opportunities become more valuable as they become less accessible, which is called the scarcity principle. the scarcity principle has theoretical support from the theory that states that "any commodity will be valued to the extent that it is unavailable" (brock 1968, 246). in other words, when an object is scarce, individuals are conditioned to perceive it as more valuable. this perception is augmented by individuals' experience with supply and demand economy, daily encounters, and popular press (lynn 1991; shen, 2013). according to cialdini (2001), individuals are vulnerable to scarcity, as people want to have more of things they can have less of. the number of studies in the relevant literature on fomo tendency is relatively few. argan et al. (2018) put forward the concept of "fonsumer" by combining the concepts of fomo and consumer, examined this novel concept in terms of theoretical grounds, and associated it with consumer behaviour. they found that the behaviour of consumers with fomo tendency before, during, and after decision making manifested differed significantly from that of traditional consumers. in the study investigating the effects of fomo tendency on consumers' instinctive purchasing behaviour and whether perceived scarcity influenced this tendency, aydın (2018) found that perceived scarcity increased fomo, and fomo had a positive influence on impulse purchases. the use of augmented content, daily deals websites, social networking, the use of search engines, gamification, viral marketing, e-mail marketing, and mobile marketing are among the tools businesses employ for e-marketing activities (mert, 2016: 20-22). among these, social media marketing has gained greater prominence over recent years. businesses and marketing directors reach audiences through social media tools to promote their products and services by sharing videos, posters, or sale announcements on their social media accounts. businesses aim to gain loyal customers by interacting with consumers on social media by giving them an opportunity to share their wishes, comments, and complaints (toksarı et al., 2014: 7). by understanding consumers better through social media marketing, businesses wishing to employ different marketing strategies can make a better analysis of their needs and influence consumers in the purchasing process. social media has come to be medium in which products and services supplied by businesses can be evaluated, appreciated, and bought by target consumers, and where businesses and consumers can communicate with each other (sarıtaş et al., 2017: 96). the possibility of consumer-business communication through social media leads to consumer loyalty, thus increasing sales of products and services (can, 2017: 208). in promotional activities, it is of utmost importance for businesses that the full scope of opportunities be employed to reach consumers with fomo tendency. businesses may need to use innovative techniques to differentiate themselves from their competitors. in this regard, social media provides a novel opportunity for them (odabaşı 2017). i. k. çelik, o. eru, r. cop the effects of consumers’ fomo tendencies on impulse buying and the effects of impulse buying on postpurchase regret: an investigation on retail stores 127 businesses have begun to create campaigns that stimulate consumers' fomo tendency in their promotional activities on social media. they are constantly developing strategies based on fomo tendency of individuals due to social media use to gain competitive edge (gürhan-canli et al., 2016). consumers tend to make their purchasing decisions after listening to their acquaintances' ideas. thanks to the internet and social media, consumers have the opportunity to reach any kind of information about the product or service prior to their purchase. information gathered from online sources has an influence on consumers' purchasing decisions (sarıtaş, 2017: 98). as individuals with fomo tend to try to be like the majority they follow on social media, they have a greater fear of missing out on opportunities and developments, and they are influenced more by the ideas and comments of the people they follow on social media. fomo induces individuals' tendency towards making impulse purchases, which may be due to their increased purchasing intention due to their sentimental actions as a result of fomo. seeing others' experiences, lives, and lifestyles may lead to a feeling of inadequacy, which may trigger the desire for not missing out. consumers may get in a mood whereby they think "i must buy more, consume more, experience more." or even "i must have the most experiences" as a result of this (www.pazarlamasyon.com, 2018). 3. retailing retailing can be defined as the full extent of activities related to the selling of products and services directly to end users for personal use. therefore, a retailer refers to a mediator who markets a variety of products and services along with a good shopping experience to end users to satisfy their needs and demands. retailers target end users (varinli and oyman, 2013). the distribution of consumer goods begins with the manufacturer and ends with end users, with at least one intermediary called retailer (mucuk. 2014). today, retailing is no longer confined to providing the physical trade of goods that consumers demand. concepts such as retailing, shopping, entertainment, and recreation have begun to become interrelated. with the fierce competition in retailing and the advent of online retailing, retailers have incorporated entertainment and recreation into their traditional retailing activities, increased their scope of products to continue their existence, and become intermediaries that market experiences to consumers (varinli and oyman, 2013). the carrying out of retailing activities in stores led to the emergence of "store retailing", which is divided into two groups, namely food oriented and general merchandise. these two groups are then divided into subgroups. food-oriented store retailers include convenience stores, conventional supermarkets, food-based superstores, combination stores, limited-line stores, and warehouse stores, whereas general merchandise stores include specialty stores, variety stores, department stores, discount stores, convenience chains, outlet stores, depot clubs, district bazaars, and flea markets (megep, 2011; kurşunluoğlu, 2009). a subtype of retail stores, a chain store is defined as "the possession and operation of more than one store under the same business, enterprise, cooperative, etc. (tek, 1999:589). market chains are a kind of chain stores. these markets make it possible for consumers to meet their needs swiftly, and they often employ strategies such as weekly deals, discounts, and promotions that stimulate purchasing in order to make their products emotionally attractive to consumers. market chains announce their weekly deals, discounts, and promotions on their social media accounts. consumers may be inclined to experience fomo when they see posts of products bought from these market chains by social media users on their stories or other social media aside from the official social media account of the market. chain retail markets that sell certain products as deals on certain days of the week with special slogans aim to stimulate consumers to make purchases. by marketing their products on certain days through catch-phrases such as "weekly deals, one-time limited offer, don't let this opportunity pass by you!", chain retail stores create a perception of "scarcity" of limited-stock products. the limitation of deals to certain days is also aimed at brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 128 stimulating consumers. the "buy now or miss out" phrase has been found to increase fomo tendency (https://www.feedough.com, 2018). 4. impulse purchasing early studies on impulse purchasing tended to focus on consumers' in-store purchasing behaviour. studies on impulse purchasing gained momentum after dupont's research on consumers' purchasing habits and research funded by point-of-purchase advertising institute (rook, 1987: 190). the term impulse purchasing was first coined in 1950 by clover, who investigated the relationship between impulse purchasing and the store environment. at that time, impulse purchasing was defined as the act of unplanned, immediate purchases in the studies of dupont, point-of-purchase advertising institute, and clover (ünsalan, 2016: 575). stern (1962) regarded impulse purchasing as synonymous with impulse buying, and defined the term as an individual's act of purchasing that was not planned to be made. in the years that followed, researchers provided a broader definition of impulse purchasing by including the affective aspect of the phenomenon, suggesting that impulse purchasing is more than that with no pre-purchasing intention (sirhindi, 2010: 1). haussman (2000) stated that impulse purchasing had product-based definitions until the 1980s. hence, the focus of the time was on the stimulating effect of the product rather than the consumer, and it was believed that it was the products that drove consumers to make impulse purchases. however, later studies showed that consumers were already inclined to making impulse purchases, rather than this act being influenced by the products offered. based on this point of view, the behavioural aspects of impulse purchasing were studied, and it was revealed that this act had an affective component (akturan, 2009: 65). an economical person would make his purchases of products and services based on an evaluation of costs and benefits, while most people manifest less rational behaviour while making their purchases. consumers may buy a product or service to relieve depressed mood, to exhibit their identity, or merely to have fun other than meeting a certain need. these irrational buying acts are what verplanken and herabadi (2001) called impulse purchases. according to rook (1987), impulse purchasing occurs when the consumer experiences a sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buy something immediately. impulse purchasing is hedonically complex and leads to emotional conflicts. in addition, the consequences of the impulse purchase tend to be ignored. beatty and ferrell (1998) defined impulse purchasing as a sudden and immediate purchase with no pre-purchasing intentions either to buy the specific product category or to fulfil a specific buying task. according to rook and gardner (1993), impulse purchasing refers to an unplanned behaviour involving quick decision making and tendency for immediate acquisition of the product. stern (1962) stated that impulse purchasing is influenced by economic, cultural, as well as personality, time, and place-related factors. factors that influence impulse purchasing are generally divided into two categories, namely internal and external factors. external factors refer to stimulants such as the visual aspects, way of display, advertisement banners or the presence of nice fragrances, colours, or music that are placed by the marketer to lure consumers to buy more products. in addition to external factors, internal factors that reflect consumers' personality traits have significant effects on consumers' tendency for impulse purchasing (cinjarevic, 2010: 172). stern (1962) specified nine factors that stimulate consumers to make more impulse purchases, namely low price, marginal benefit of the product, mass distribution, self-service, widespread advertising, prominent shop displays, short product lives, small size and light weight, and easy storage. samarin and moniri (2012) showed the significant effect of store layout, decoration, having credit cards, income levels, and discount shopping on impulse purchasing. there are some studies investigating how consumer attributes such as age, gender, cultural background, and mood correlate with impulse purchasing ((wood, 1998; dittmarr et al., 1995; kacen and lee, 2002, beatty and ferrell, 1998)). wood (1998) found age to be a significant factor in impulse purchasing, and reported that consumers aged between 18 and 39 tended to make more i. k. çelik, o. eru, r. cop the effects of consumers’ fomo tendencies on impulse buying and the effects of impulse buying on postpurchase regret: an investigation on retail stores 129 impulse purchases. beatty and ferrell (1998) reported that consumer's mood is a determinant of impulse purchasing. if one is in a good mood, then one could act more generously in rewarding oneself, thus manifesting greater tendency for impulse purchasing. ditmaar et al. (1995) found women more likely to make impulse purchases than men. investigating the role of culture, kacen and lee (2002) showed that culture was a significant determinant of impulse purchases both in regional and personal level. beatty and ferrell (1998) and bong's (2010) studies into the shopping pleasure revealed that one with greater shopping pleasure tends to walk in the store for longer periods, thus having stronger impulses to make impulse purchases unlike one that does not take pleasure in shopping, who would tend to keep the browsing duration short, and therefore would be less inclined to engage in impulse purchasing. verplanken and herabadi (2001) found a significant correlation between the tendency for impulse purchasing, which involves cognitive and affective dimensions, and personality traits. with the advances in the use of the internet over recent years, research on impulse purchasing has begun to focus on online impulse purchases. madhavaram and laverie (2004) determined online photos, banner advertisements, extra discounts in online advertisements and special offers to stimulate impulse purchasing behaviour. examining the correlation between text advertisements in the form of sms sent to consumers' mobile phones and impulse purchasing, davis and sajitos found increased purchasing behaviour thanks to mobile services (burgess et al., 2014: 5). the catchphrases and slogans employed by businesses in their promotional activities on the internet and social media stimulate fomo and create a tendency to make impulse purchases. businesses that make use of limited-stock and limited-time offers, special deals, and make consumers feel special trigger impulse purchasing behaviour (https://www.feedough.com,, 2018). based on this fact, the first hypothesis of the present study is "h1: consumers' tendency of fomo influences impulse purchasing behaviour". 5. post-purchasing regret according to turkish language association, the word "regretful" refers to someone who is feeling sad as a result of seeing the negative results of what s/he has done (http://tdk.gov.tr, 02.10. 2018). tsiros and mittal (2000) define regret as one's realization that the choice one considered suitable and made under pressure was actually mistaken. psychology and economy were the first fields in which studies on regret were carried out. however, with a historical point of view, regret has been studied in various realms such as medicine, organizational behaviour, law, and marketing (zeelenberg and pieters, 2007). according to zeelenberg, beattie, plight, and vries (1996), regret affects individuals at two stages, namely post-decision and pre-decision. at both stages, regret influences individuals' behaviour and attitudes as well as future decisions (cit. akçi and kılınç, 2016: 110). following a purchasing decision, consumers tend to evaluate whether the choice they made was actually worth the price they paid for it. in cases where the consumer believes the benefit derived from the purchased product was less than one of its substitutes, the consumer feels regretful about the purchase. post-purchasing regret may be felt due to the choice made or the belief that an unnecessary spending was made (korur and kimzan, 2016: 55). consumers may regret some impulse purchases they made under the influence of fomo. based on these, the second hypothesis of the present study is "h2: participants' fomo tendency influences their post-purchasing regret". in addition to the aforementioned factors, this study investigated whether impulse purchases influenced post-purchasing regret. hence, the third hypothesis of the study is "h3: impulse purchasing influences post-purchasing regret". 6. methodology the present study mainly aimed to investigate the effects of consumers' fomo tendency on impulse purchases and post-purchasing regret, and the effects of impulse purchases on postbrain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 130 purchasing regret. the importance of this study arises from the limited body of research into fomo in the marketing literature. the target population of this study was chain retail store customers. due to the large number of individuals in the population and the difficulty of reaching all of them, convenience sampling method was used for the purposes of the study. convenience sampling method involves the inclusion of only accessible individuals in the study sample (gegez 2005: 194). data were collected through a survey. based on the assumption that the greater proportion of customers of chain retail stores are female (bektaş, 2018), only female participants were included in the survey, which constitutes one of the limitations of the present study. the participants were then limited to those who gave a positive answer to the question “do you follow weekly offers of retail stores online/from the store?". the survey that was carried out was composed of four parts, which constituted questions aiming to gather information on demographics, fomo tendency, impulse purchasing, and post-purchasing regret, respectively. of the scales employed for the purposes of this study, the fomo tendency scale consisting of five statements was adapted from lim’s (2016) study, the impulse purchasing scale composed of nine statements was adapted from fisher's (1995) study, and the post-purchasing regret scale of three statements was adapted from tsiros and mittal's (2000) study. the statements in the survey were first translated from english to turkish, and retranslated into english in order to prevent any semantic shifts. at this stage, expert opinion was taken. the confirmed survey statements were digitalized and the survey was administered to a total of 507 participants online between the dates of 20.07.2018 and 28.10.2018. participants who gave a negative answer to the question "do you follow weekly offers of retail stores online/from the store?" (n= 121) were excluded from the study sample, and data gathered from a total of 386 survey respondents were analyzed on spss package software. 7. results the findings of the present study are as follows: 7.1. demographical data table 1. demographical data results age n % occupation n % 18-27 113 29.3 civil servant 111 28.8 28-38 155 40.2 private sector employee 142 36.8 39 or older 118 31.5 student 81 21 other 52 14.4 income n % level of education n % 0-1000 85 22.6 college 64 16.6 1001-2500 88 22.79 bachelor's degree 210 54.4 2501-3500 50 12.95 postgraduate degree 112 29 3501-4500 70 18.1 marital status 4501 and higher 93 24.1 married 266 68.9 single 120 31.1 according to the findings of the study, 40.2% of the participants were between 28-38 years old. since all of the participants were women, there is no gender data in the table. 36.8% of the participants work in the private sector. 24.1% of the participants have monthly income of 4501 tl and above. 68.9% of the participants were married. and 54.4% of the participants were bachelors. 7.2. factor analysis the statements in the survey were put to factor analysis. the suitability of the variables for factor analysis was examined through kmo and bartlett's test. following this, factor analysis was i. k. çelik, o. eru, r. cop the effects of consumers’ fomo tendencies on impulse buying and the effects of impulse buying on postpurchase regret: an investigation on retail stores 131 conducted for the statements in the scales employed in the study. the scales and related kmo and bartlett's test values are summarized in table 2. table 2 kmo and bartlett's test values of the scale these values confirm the suitability of the statements for factor analysis. factor loads and reliability coefficients of the scales employed in the analyses are given in table 3. table 3. factor loads, reliability coefficients, and explained variance scores of the statements on fomo tendency, impulse purchasing, and post-purchasing regret statements factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 i become anxious during a sale and tend to buy more than i actually need. ,878 i have the habit of visiting stores even though my schedule is full for fear of missing out. ,863 i tend to panic buy during a sale for fear of missing out. ,857 i have the urge to buy during a sale even though there is nothing that i really want. ,843 i have the constant urge to check for the latest product deals on brochures for fear of missing out. ,822 i often buy things without thinking. ,921 "i see it, i buy it" describes me. ,886 "buy now, think about it later" describes me. ,873 i often buy things spontaneously. ,931 "just do it" describes the way i buy things. ,891 sometimes i feel like buying things on the spur-of-themoment. ,768 i buy things according to how i feel at the moment. ,648 i frequently feel sorry about having chosen the things i bought. ,918 i frequently regret having chosen the things i bought. ,877 i often think i should have chosen a product different from what i bought. ,823 total explained variance 72.683 61.481 76.350 reliability (cronbach's alpha coefficient) 0.903 0.812 0.835 a scale can be considered to be reliable when cronbach's alpha coefficient is greater that 0.6 (loewanthal, 2004). based on this, it was concluded that all of the factors analyzed as well as the scale as a whole were reliable. the factor analyses conducted revealed that the 5 items of the fomo tendency scale could be collected under a single factor, similar to the 7 items in the impulse purchasing scale having a single dimension, and the 3 items in the post-purchasing regret scale collected under a single dimension. scales kmo bartlett's test p value fomo tendency 0.852 0.000 impulse purchasing 0.909 0.000 post-purchasing regret 0.685 0.000 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 132 7.3. hypothesis testing the first three hypotheses formed for the purposes of this study were analyzed through regression analysis, while independent sample t-test and anova were respectively used for the analyses of the fourth, fifth, and sixth hypotheses. the findings of the analyses performed are as follows. table 4. regression analysis β f p t r2 consumers' tendency of fomo influences impulse purchasing behaviour. ,881 1138.812 ,000 33.746 ,748 participants' fomo tendency influences their postpurchasing regret. ,040 ,766 ,000 ,875 ,002 participants' impulse purchasing behaviour influences post-purchasing regret. ,251 20.121 ,000 4.486 ,050 simple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the extent to which impulse purchasing behaviour influenced fomo tendency and post-purchasing regret, with statistically significant findings. therefore, the hypotheses h1, h2, and h3 were confirmed. the present study also looked into possible significant differences between participants' demographic attributes and their fomo tendency, impulse purchasing behaviour, and postpurchasing regret. the hypotheses formed for this purpose are listed below. h4: there is a significant difference between fomo tendency and demographic attributes. h5: there is a significant difference between impulse purchasing and demographic attributes. h6: there is a significant difference between post-purchasing regret and demographic attributes. 7.4. discriminant analysis independent sample t-test was conducted in order to determine whether participants differed from each other in their fomo tendencies, impulse purchasing, and their perceived post-purchasing regret according to their marital status. the findings are given in table 5. table 5. independent sample t-test scales marital status mean t p fomo tendency married 3.7361 9.967 ,000* single 2.9500 9.884 ,000* impulse purchasing married 3.5397 9.967 ,000* single 2.9138 10.433 ,000* post-purchasing regret married 2.2318 ,713 ,476 single 2.1753 ,772 ,441 the findings suggest that married and single participants differed from each other significantly in terms of fomo tendency and impulse purchasing. 7.5. anova test results anova test was carried out to determine whether participants differed from each other in their fomo tendencies, impulse purchasing, and their perceived post-purchasing regret according to their demographic attributes, the results of which are provided in table 6. i. k. çelik, o. eru, r. cop the effects of consumers’ fomo tendencies on impulse buying and the effects of impulse buying on postpurchase regret: an investigation on retail stores 133 table 6. anova test results scales items about demographics f value p value fomo tendency occupation 2.043 ,072 level of education 3.057 ,017* age 2.043 ,072 impulse purchasing occupation 1.886 ,096 level of education 3.496 ,008* age 4.331 ,005* post-purchasing regret occupation 2.045 ,072 level of education 0.136 ,969 age 0.906 ,438 there is a significant difference between participants' fomo tendency and level of education (f= 3.057; p= 0.017). to determine whether the observed differences were due to the presence of two or more groups, multiple tukey test was conducted. the findings suggest that high school graduates (mean=3.2000) significantly differ from participants with undergraduate (mean=3.6143) and bachelor's (mean= 3.4581) degrees, and participants with postgraduate degrees (mean= 3.6339) differ from those with bachelor's degrees (mean= 3.0300). it was also found that participants' impulse purchasing behaviour differed significantly according to their level of education (f=3.496; p=0.018) and age (f=4.331; p=0.005). to determine whether the observed differences were due to the presence of two or more groups, multiple tukey test was conducted, the results of which showed that high school graduates (mean=2.9222) differed significantly from those with undergraduate (mean=3.4339), bachelor's (mean=3.3233) and postgraduate (mean= 3.4583) degrees. as for age, significant differences were found between participants aged 18-28 (mean= 3.1898) and those aged 28-38 (mean= 3.4122) and 38-48 (mean= 3.5159). 8. conclusion and recommendations the present study aimed to investigate the effects of consumers' fomo tendencies on their impulse purchasing behaviour and whether impulse purchases influenced post-purchasing regret. in addition, it was aimed to determine the extent to which these factors differed according to participants' demographic attributes. the analyses carried out revealed that fomo tendency significantly influenced impulse purchasing and had a partial effect on post-purchasing regret, and post-purchasing regret was influenced by impulse purchasing. it was also found that fomo tendency differed significantly from the variables of level of education and marital status. there were significant differences between impulse purchasing and marital status, age, and level of education. however, there was no significant difference between post-purchasing regret and any of the demographic attributes. the findings of the present study showed that fomo tendency influenced impulse purchasing, which is in line with previous research (aydın, 2018). the rise in the number of virtual and social media led to an increase in the sharing of food or events such as holidays, parties, organizations, and weddings, which, in turn, sets stage for fomo-induced purchasing behaviour brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 134 (ulaştıran, 2017). hodkinson (2019) states that fomo may influence purchasing behaviour especially when social participation, group consumption, and services and experiential consumption are concerned. according to aydın (2018), travel purchases are the type of purchase in which fomo has the greatest impact. therefore, it can be stated that the use of elements that stimulate fomo tendency by travel businesses in their campaigns online or on social media could influence consumers' purchasing decisions. fomo effect can be a valuable tool in marketing campaigns in terms of reaching consumers (hodkinson 2019). as far as marketing is concerned, understanding consumers with fomo tendency and providing products and services in a way suited to their attitudes and behaviour is of great importance for businesses. aydın (2018) also draws attention to the fact that fomo leads people to live beyond their actual needs and makes needs obscure, and that individuals turn to their peers in order to decide what new products and services they need to purchase, and therefore they make impulse purchases. within this context, businesses may find it beneficial to be actively engaged in social media. the fear of missing out (fomo) influences everything individuals do, including what they buy. as fomo is more common in individuals who use social media more frequently, businesses may employ strategies aimed at stimulating fomo in their social media campaigns (gotter, 2018). the internet and social media have caused consumers to lead constantly changing lives and to become accustomed to change and novelty in life (hermann. 2011). many consumers express their views about a product or brand according to the input and obtained from other people on their social media networks. by taking these views into consideration, marketing experts may benefit from fomo in order to increase consumers' motivation as well as purchasing intention (abel et al. 2016). according to solomon (2002), impulse purchasing behaviour occurs when the consumer is not accustomed to the store layout, is under time pressure, or remembers that s/he needs something while wandering in the store. consumers with fomo tendency are made aware of deals through persuasive messages and offers. the use of the phenomenon of scarcity, found to increase attractiveness of a product, induces individuals' fomo tendency (gierl & huettl, 2010). advertisers emphasize the scarcity of the product through cunning messages such as "limited-time sale", "valid only for a limited time", or "almost out of stock", which are aimed at reaching as many customers as possible (cheng, 2016). previous reports in the literature suggest that impulse purchasing behaviour has an influence on post-purchasing regret, in line with the findings of the present study. consumers experience post-purchasing regret when they realize that their purchasing decision was wrong (landman, 1987; tsiros & mittal, 2000; heitmann, lehmann & herrmann, 2007). females experience more regret due to impulse purchases than males (colley & burgers, 2003). females' possibility of making impulse purchases is higher due to the fact that they visit stores more frequently (george & yaoyuneyong, 2010). the findings of the present study showed that females experienced post-purchasing regret, but because the study population was entirely composed of females, this finding could not be generalized. this study was limited in terms of the items in the survey, the sample size, time, and responses obtained. it is hoped that the findings could be supported by more extensive future research, which could focus on whether consumers living in turkey exhibit such a tendency, or measure and compare the relationship between fomo tendency and such variables as generations, family income, sale promotions, credit card use, word of mouth marketing. among the many directions future studies can take are the effects of fomo tendency in terms of products or services, phenomena such as yolo (you only live once), fobo (fear of being offline), or jomo (joy of missing out) that are closely related to fomo, and the possible mediating role of fomo (aydın, 2018). i. k. çelik, o. eru, r. cop the effects of consumers’ fomo tendencies on impulse buying and the effects of impulse buying on postpurchase regret: an investigation on retail stores 135 the facts that the sample consisted of females only, that the study was carried out in a limited period of time, and that the findings were restricted to the responses provided by the participants are among the limitations of the present study. references abel, j.p., buff c.l., burr, s.a. (2016). social media and the fear of missing out: scale development and assessment’, journal of business & economics research, 14(1): 33-44. akçi, y. ve kılınç, k. (2016). tüketicilerin alış veriş sonrası pişmanlıklarının ve gösterdikleri tepkilerinin i̇ncelenmesi. i̇şletme araştırmaları dergisi, 8(4), 108-131. akturan, u. (2009). tüketicilerin cinsiyetlerine i̇lişkin olarak i̇çgüdüsel alışveriş eğilimlerindeki farklılıkların belirlenmesi: üniversite öğrencilerine yönelik pilot bir araştırma. yönetim dergisi, 20(64), 62-77. argan, m. & tokay argan, m. (2006). viral pazarlama veya i̇nternet üzerinde ağızdan ağıza reklam: kuramsal bir çerçeve. anadolu üniversitesi sosyal bilimler dergisi, 6(11):231250. argan, m., tokay argan, m. & i̇pek, g. (2018). i wish i were! anatomy of a fonsumer. i̇nternet uygulamaları ve yönetimi dergisi, 9(1), s.43-57. aydın, h. (2018). sosyal medyadaki gelişmeleri kaçırma korkusunun (fomo) i̇çgüdüsel alımlara etkisinin öz belirleme kuramı i̇le açıklanması. uluslararası i̇ktisadi ve i̇dari i̇ncelemeler dergisi, 17. uik özel sayısı, 415-426. george, b. p., & yaoyuneyong, g. (2010). impulse buying and cognitive dissonance: a study conducted among the spring break student shoppers. young consumers, 11(4), 291-306. balcı, ş., & gülnar, b. (2009). üniversite öğrencileri arasında internet bağımlılığı ve internet bağımlılarının profili. selçuk üniversitesi i̇letişim dergisi 6 (1), 5-22. beatty, s. e., & ferrell, m. e. (1998). impulse buying: modeling its precursors. journal of retailing, 74(2), 169-191. bektaş,c. (2018). sektör analizi retrieved from; https://www.nativemedia.com.tr/assets/i̇mage/uploads/raporlar/nativebaski.pdf. bong, s. (2016). the influence of impulse buying toward consumer store loyalty at hypermarket in jakarta. business and entrepreneurial review (ber), 10(1), 25-44. brock, t. c. (1968). implications of commodity theory for value change. in greenwald et al. (eds) psychological foundations of attititudes, 247–73. new york: academic press. burgess, b., yaoyuneyong, g., and gibbs, s. (2014). gender, self-construal and impulse buying behaviour of young thai consumers. asian journal of business research, 1-15 can, l. (2017). sosyal medya pazarlaması kanalı olarak instagram’da algılanan sürü davranışı ve satın alma niyeti. uluslararası hakemli sosyal bilimler e-dergisi-akademik bakış dergisi, (59). cialdini, r. b. (2001). harnessing the science of persuasion. harvard business review,79 (9), 72–81. činjarević, m. (2010). cognitive and affective aspects of impulse buying. zbornik radova-sarajevo business and economics review (sber), (30), 168-184. dittmar, h., beattie, j., & friese, s. (1995). gender identity and material symbols: objects and decision considerations in impulse purchases. journal of economic psychology, 16(3), 491-511. dossey, l. (2014). fomo, digital dementia, and our dangerous experiment. explore: the journal of science and healing, 10(2), 69-73. gegez, a. e. (2005). pazarlama arastirmalari. istanbul: beta basım yayım dağıtım aş. gierl, h., & huettl, v. (2010). are scarce products always more attractive? the interaction of different types of scarcity signals with products' suitability for conspicuous consumption. international journal of research in marketing, 27(3), 225-235. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 136 gökler, m. e., aydın, r., ünal, e., & metintaş, s. (2016). sosyal ortamlarda gelişmeleri kaçırma korkusu ölçeğinin türkçe sürümünün geçerlilik ve güvenilirliğinin değerlendirilmesi. anadolu psikiyatri dergisi, 17(1), 52-59. hayran, c., anik, l., & gurhan-canli, z. (2016). exploring the antecedents and consumer behavioral consequences of. acr north american advances. hodkinson, c. (2019). fear of missing out’(fomo) marketing appeals: a conceptual model. journal of marketing communications, 25(1), 65-88. hoşgör, h; koç tütüncü, s.; gündüz hoşgör, d. & tandoğan, ö. (2017). üniversite öğrencileri arasında sosyal medyadaki gelişmeleri kaçırma korkusu yaygınlığının farklı değişkenler açısından i̇ncelenmesi. international journal of academic value studies. 3(17),213-223. jones, c. (2016). if you don’t have fomo you don’t know what you’re missing out on. retrieved from; http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/courtney-jones/i̇f-you-donthave-fomo-you-dont-know-what-youre-missing-out-on/. jwt intelli̇gence (2012) fear of missing out (fomo). retrieved from; https://www.slideshare.net/jwtintelligence/the-fear-of-missing-out-fomomarch-2012-update, kacen, j. j., & lee, j. a. (2002). the influence of culture on consumer impulsive buying behavior. journal of consumer psychology, 12(2), 163-176. korur, m. g., & kimzan, h. s. (2016). kompulsif satın alma eğilimi ve alışveriş sonrası pişmanlık i̇lişkisinde kontrolsüz kredi kartı kullanımının rolü: avm müşterileri üzerine bir araştırma. tüketici ve tüketim araştırmaları dergisi, 8(1), 43-71. kurşunluoğlu, e. (2009). mağazalı perakendeciler ve müşteri servisleri. journal of yasar university, 4(14). lim, z. c. w. (2016). tendency towards the fear of missing out. (doctoral dissertation) curtin university. loewenthal, k. m. (2004). an introduction to psychological tests and scales (2 ed.). hove, uk: psychology press. lynn, m. (1991). scarcity effects on value: a quantitative review of the commodity theory literature. psychology & marketing, 8(1), 43-57. mert, g. (2016). seyahat acentelerinde teknolojik pazarlamanın satış üzerine etkisi. 15. ulusal i̇şletmecilik kongresi, i̇stanbul, 19-37. mucuk, i̇., (2014). modern i̇şletmecilik, türkmen kitabevi, i̇stanbul. odabaşı,y. (2016), fomo bir pazarlama silahı olabilir mi?. brandmap, retrieved from; https://www.brandmap.com.tr/brandmap-makale9 overmyer, k (2016). how-the-fomo phenomenoni̇s driving-new-trends-i̇n-marketing/. retrieved from; https://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/marketing/ pazarlama ve perakende–perakendeciliğin özellikleri. ankara: megep (mesleki eğitim ve öğretim sisteminin güçlendirmesi projesi 2011 perrone, m. a. (2016). # fomo: establishing validity of the fear of missing out scale with an adolescent population (doctoral dissertation). alfred university,usa. plotnik, r., (2009). psikolojiye giriş. çev.: geniş, t. kaktüs yayınları. i̇stanbul. przybylski, a. k., murayama, k., dehaan, c. r., & gladwell, v. (2013). motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. computers in human behavior, 29(4), 1841-1848. reagle, j. (2015). following the joneses: fomo and conspicuous sociality. first monday, 20(10). rifkin, j., cindy, c., & kahn, b. (2015). fomo: how the fear of missing out leads to missing out. association for consumer research north american advances 43, 244-248. rook, d. w. (1987). the buying i̇mpulse. the journal of consumer research, 14(2), 189-199. rook, d. w., & fisher, r. j. (1995). normative influences on impulsive buying behavior. journal of consumer research, 22(3), 305-313. i. k. çelik, o. eru, r. cop the effects of consumers’ fomo tendencies on impulse buying and the effects of impulse buying on postpurchase regret: an investigation on retail stores 137 sarıtaş, a., korkmaz, i̇., tunca, m.z. (2017). pazarlama i̇letişiminde i̇novatif bir kanal olarak sosyal medyanın kullanımı: otomotiv sektörü üzerine bir araştırma. uluslararası i̇ktisadi ve i̇dari i̇ncelemeler dergisi, 22.upk ahmet hamdi i̇slamoğlu özel sayısı, 95-108. sayımer, i̇., (2008). sanal ortamda halkla i̇lişkiler. beta yayınları, i̇stanbul. shen, f (2013). information congruity i̇n scarcity appeal: a structural equation modeling study of timelimited promotions. journal of marketing communications 22 (2): 1–20. sirhindi, a. (2010). a critical review of in-store and online impulse purchase behaviour. unpublished master thesis, oklahama state university, stillwater, oklahama. solomon, m. r. (2002). consumer behavior: buying having and being. pretince hall of i̇ndia. starr, b., (2014). shopper fomo – what is it & are you dealing with it appropriately?. retrieved from; https://searchengineland.com/shopper-fomo-what-is-it-are-youdealing-with-it-189029 stern, h. (1962). the significance of impulse buying today. journal of marketing, 26(2), s.5962. toksarı, m., & bayraktar, m. m. m. (2014). tüketici algılarını etkileyen faktörlerde sosyal medyanın rolü: niğde üniversitesi i̇ibf örneği. uşak üniversitesi sosyal bilimler dergisi, 20 (20), 1-28. tsiros, m., & mittal, v. (2000). regret: a model of its antecedents and consequences i̇n consumer decision making. journal of consumer reserach, 26, 401-417. ulaştıran, t. (2017). çağımızın salgını fomo: pazarlama dünyasındaki başarısının ardındaki gerçekler. retrieved from; http://www.pazarlamasyon.com/pazarlama/dijitalpazarlama/cagimizin-salgini-fomo-pazarlama-dunyasindaki-basarisinin-ardindakigercekler/ ünsalan, m. (2016). stimulating factors of i̇mpulse buying behavior: a literature review. gazi üniversitesi i̇ktisadi ve i̇dari bilimler fakültesi dergisi, 18 (2), 572-593. varinli, i̇., ve oyman, m. (2013). perakendeciliğe giriş. eskişehir: açıköğretim fakültesi yayınları: 1808 verplanken, b., & herabadi, a., (2011). individual differences i̇n i̇mpulse buying tendency: feeling and no thinking. european journal of personality, (15), 71-83. wiesner, l. (2017). fighting fomo a study on i̇mplications for solving the phenomenon of the fear of missing out. (doctoral dissertation), university of twente, hollanda. wood, m. (1998). socio-economic status, delay of gratifcation, and impulse buying. journal of economic psychology, 19, 295-320. zeelenberg, m., & pieters, r. (2007). a theory of regret regulation 1.0. journal of consumer psychology, 17, 3-18. tek, ö. b. (1999). pazarlama i̇lkeleri: global yönetimsel yaklaşım türkiye uygulamaları. beta yayıncılık. i̇stanbul. pişmanlık (02.10.2018) retrieved from; http://tdk.gov.tr fomo (22.07.2018) retrieved from; https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ fomo (10.10.2018) retrieved from; https://www.feedough.com işıl karapınar çelik is graduate of business administration at kocatepe university, afyon. she is working as a research assistant at abant izzet baysal university in bolu. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 138 oya ero oya eru is a graduate of the business administration department of aydın adnan menderes university. she is a faculty member at bolu abant i̇zzet baysal university. ruziye cop is graduate of business administration at gazi university, ankara. she is working as a professor at abant izzet baysal university in bolu. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 138 analysis and evaluation of the implementation level of the smart city concept in selected polish cities kamil roman maria curie-sklodowska university in lublin, poland plac marii skłodowskiej-curie 5, 20-400 lublin, polonia, tel.: +48 81 537 51 00 kamilroman61@gmail.com abstract the approach of smart city is getting more and more important for both academics and policy makers. despite this, there is still confusion on what a smart city is and several similar terms are often used interchangeably. this paper aims at clarifying the meaning of the word “smart” in the context of cities development and to identify the main dimensions and elements characterizing a smart city. furthermore, performance measures of a smart city will be identified. the aim of the article is to analyse and evaluate the degree of implementation of the smart city concept in selected cities in poland. the article will also cover the use of information and communication technologies (ict) to improve selected areas of the city. the article also analyses the main barriers that make it difficult to invest in smart city. in the following publication, the main research method was a questionnaire, which was sent to the 57 cities-capitals of the lublin and mazovian voivodships. the paper also presents the prospects for the development of smart city initiative in poland. the research has shown that the level of implementation of smart city initiative is low. the main barrier to such investment is the lack of adequate funds and insufficient human resources and knowledge. keywords: urban development, smart city, poland, cities 1. introduction at present, in world literature there is lack of word for systematic and unambiguous definition for the smart city approach. r.g hollands recognized smart city as an “urban labelling” phenomenon, and while convincing real smart city to stand up, he emphasises many aspects of them, which are hidden behind self-declaratory attribution of this label (hollands 2008). in the opinion of a. caragliu and p. nijkamp, a smart city is where resources are invested in the intellectual capital and innovative infrastructural projects to improve the quality of life and increase their satisfaction and prosperity (caragliu c., nijkamp p 2011). k kourtit and p. nijkamp believe that smart cities are the result of increased knowledge and creativity in making strategic decisions for improving the socio-economic, environmental, logistical and competitive conditions of cities. smart cities are based on a combination of human factors, such as qualified staff, infrastructure (modern communication technologies), social capital (interpersonal relationships), and entrepreneurial citizenship (creativity and risk-taking). a city can be considered compatible with the idea of the smart city if it "systematically uses available data, communication technologies, and resource saving technologies to reduce their consumption and to continuously improve the quality of life of citizens or increase the competitiveness of local economies.16 currently, smart city is a concept that gradually gains the attention of city leaders. more and more agglomerations declare their willingness to become “smart”. there are many ways of assessing the development of the cities in the world in terms of the degree of implementation of the smart city concept. building a comprehensive model for measuring the effectiveness of smart city initiatives is a difficult task, mainly because smart city is a multifaceted, multi-technical approach that covers a wide range of cities and requires a number of initiatives (dameri, 2017). 16 i. homeier, smart city wien initiative, urban development and planning impacts conference, vienna, may 2013źródło:http://www.impacts.org/euroconference/vienna2013/presentations/vienna%20impacts%20smart%20city.pd f k. roman analysis and evaluation of the implementation level of the smart city concept in selected polish cities 139 one of these methods of measurement was created by researchers from three research centres: center of regional science at the vienna university of technology (austria), the otb research institute for housing, the urban and mobility studies program at delft university of technology (netherlands), and the department of geography at the university of ljubljana (slovakia). nearly 70 cities with a population of 100 to 500 thousand inhabitants, with the number of inhabitants living in the higher schools, and the number of inhabitants around the agglomeration exceeding 1500 thousand inhabitants. in this opinion, the method of assessing the activities of cities is the most appropriate in terms of polish realities (sobczak 2017). this method established six factors for assessing the intelligence of the city, which included 31 indicators, based on which one could assess the degree of implementation of the smart city concept. figure 1 shows the following six dimensions of project evaluation for the development of smart cities: figure 1. factors for assessing a smart city source: giffinger r. (2007), smart cities: ranking of european medium-sized cities, vienna, austria: centre of regional science (srf), vienna university of technology. http://www.smart-cities.eu/press-ressources.html smart governance intelligent governance is based on the use of available technology to coordinate activities carried out by the city and other local government units. through synergies, it is possible to work with other stakeholders to meet the needs of the people. smart economy the economy is considered intelligent if it has the ability to adapt to market needs and has the ability to create innovative and modern solutions tailored to the needs of the market. smart mobility intelligent mobility is all activities aimed at providing residents with access to efficient, ecological and modern transport networks. to do this, it is necessary to use available technologies to obtain passenger needs data. by using this type of information, it is possible to shape the city's transport policy in line with the demands placed by the residents. transport policy in the aspect of smart city concept is the sustainable development of transport by increasing coordination between its branches and their integration. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 140 smart environment smart environment is the use of data from advanced measurement equipment to identify key areas of urban space and spatial planning and to provide city leaders with information that is conducive to achieving their objectives. this policy focuses on the sustainable use of resources while improving the quality of life for citizens. smart people smart people is an approach that involves locating people in the process of undertaking city development initiatives. by attracting and using the human capital available in the city, it is possible to create innovative and modern solutions, where there is a social need. smart living smart living can be considered as activities aimed at using information and communication technologies to improve the quality of life of residents attracting creative classes. in implementing this dimension, education plays a central role in shaping new talents in the city and attracting creative classes. 2. methodology to investigate the degree of implementation of the smart city concept in polish cities, the survey was conducted. the purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the actions taken by local authorities that may be considered to implement the smart city concept. in particular, they relate to smart management activities, which include exchanges of information between city dwellers, central and city services, police, fire brigades, and ambulance services. the study hypothesized that the lack of coordination between the activities of decision makers related to the functioning and the development of the city results in ineffective use of available resources. in the long run, this can contribute to lowering efficiency of the urban structure and have negative impact to the city's competitiveness on other units. in order to verify the main hypothesis, the author made a detailed analysis of the determinants of city management processes by formulating the following specific hypotheses: 1. the degree of implementation of smart city initiatives in poland is significantly higher in large agglomerations. 2. the use of information and communication technologies in the analysed cities is low. 3. inadequate human resources, knowledge, and lack of adequate funds are the main barriers to the development of the smart city concept in poland. a survey questionnaire was sent to 57 polish cities, which are the seat of the counties in mazovian and lublin voivodships. the study covered most small and medium towns. up to 100 thousand inhabitants. 17 completed questionnaires were received with the success rate of 21.05% 3. obtained results as can be seen from the data presented in the chart 2, the implementation of the smart city concept in the analysed cities can be considered as low. only one city out of 17 participating in the survey has fully implemented the smart city initiative, and two agglomerations are working to implement smart solutions. of the seventeen analysed entities, they have a general plan for implementing the smart city concept and most respondents (53%) does not currently have a coherent strategy for becoming smart city. representatives from the three centres, who completed the questionnaire, stated that their pilot projects are being implemented in their city to implement such initiatives. when analysing the responses, it can be concluded that the degree of implementation of smart city policy in the examined cities can be considered insufficient. k. roman analysis and evaluation of the implementation level of the smart city concept in selected polish cities 141 figure 2. stage of implementation smart city concept in the surveyed cities the second aspect was the use of information and communication technologies in order to improve the efficiency of selected areas in functioning of the cities. observations were made on elements such as labour market, cooperation with local entrepreneurs, the support for new businesses (start-ups), cooperation with research and development centres, and schools or universities. the surveyed cities could indicate the degree of implementation of the activities carried out in this area by using a five-step scale, where 0 meant no implementation of the element and five was full implementation of the initiative. figure 3. the degree of the use of icts to improve efficiency in the following areas according to data presented in chart 3, only 2 of the 16 cities that responded to this question fully utilize ict to improve efficiency in the local labour market. most respondents (31.25%) do not use this kind of technology to improve the processes in the city, and 4 agglomerations use the available technology on an average level. the results suggest that the degree of exploitation of modern solutions to improve the functioning of the labour market is strongly diversified. modern technologies can also be an important support tool that cities can apply to companies operating in their area. in the case of cities participating in the study, only two of them (12.50%) make use of the knowledge and tools available to them in order to create better conditions for local businesses. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 142 the same situation applies to the use of ict to support new businesses. only two cities (12.5%) use them in a high level and three in moderate (18.75%). another important element from the point of view of the degree of implementation of the smart city concept is research and development cooperation with universities. in the case of the respondents, only one of the cities defined the level of their cooperation with the local universities as high. in other cities, it is moderate (6.25%), low (25%) or very low (25%), and six of them do not cooperate at all (37.50%). the low level of r & d cooperation may be due to the fact that in each of the analysed cities there are higher education institutions. the analysed research entities are in most cases small cities with up to 50 thousand inhabitants. the surveyed cities use ict to streamline activities in the areas listed in chart 3 through the following actions:  using dedicated web sites for specific industries;  possessing a program that allows you to send messages with an approximate date of payment for permission to sell alcoholic beverages;  the labour market is supported by a website, where employers can submit current job offers, and jobseekers are instructed on how to apply effectively;  in the area of cooperation with local companies, regular e-mails are used to inform about the planned actions of the municipality of importance for entrepreneurs;  for startups, there is an information on the program "entrepreneurship grodzisk", which offers training for people planning to start a business or those that have recently started it;  the exchange of correspondence, through appropriate bookmarks on the website and mobile applications;  building a broadband network that provides free internet access to all organizational units and institutions subordinate to the city;  through the use of websites, databases, e-services in the city hall. by analysing figure 3, it can be concluded that the level of ict use for smart city policy is low. this type of variation can mainly be the result of differences in the objectives of the city's development strategy, the competence of city officials, and the availability of the funds. nowadays, urban managers have to make decisions in the wake of turbulent environment changes and the rapid aging of technology. investments in new technologies are costly and not every city is able to bear the costs associated with them. figure 4. main elements of transport policy in the city sustainable urban transport is a significant area of development. the accumulation of large population centres in a limited area creates the risk of congestion and traffic congestion. in order to reduce congestion, the city uses a number of practices to improve transport. k. roman analysis and evaluation of the implementation level of the smart city concept in selected polish cities 143 they mainly concern (stawasz, sikora fernandez, 2015):  • applications of computerized traffic control systems;  • introduction of intersection monitoring;  • terminal equipment for dynamic passenger information;  • providing information on current traffic flow to public transport drivers;  • effective lighting management depending on traffic conditions;  • use of gps in public transport vehicles;  • use of kiss & ride, park & ride. figure 4 shows the main elements of the urban transport development strategy that filled the research questionnaire. each of the surveyed subjects could identify three main objectives of transport policy. as indicated by the results, the most frequently indicated action in the area of sustainable transport development was the construction of bicycle paths (13 indications), the reconstruction of existing communication networks (8 indications) and activities aimed at limiting the number of cars in the city centre (8 indications). the smart city concept is gradually evolving. according to boyd cohen today, we can distinguish three generations of smart cities: smart cities 1.0 powered by state-of-the-art technologies, smart cities 2.0 with a leading role in public administration, and smart cities 3.0, based on creative engagement of residents and stakeholders. (cohen, 2017). the city in terms of smart city 3.0 requires decision-makers to take action for a strong and creative engagement in the development of urban space and the inclusion of residents in the process (carta, 2017). the surveyed cities are engaging the residents in the city's decision-making process by:  operation of non-governmental organizations (15 indications);  organizing social consultations (17 indications);  creating participatory budgets (9 indicators);  inclusion of inhabitants in the process of developing strategies for the development of selected urban areas (10 indications);  support of grassroots initiatives that promote social participation and participation (13 recommendations). figure 5. inclusion of residents in the decision-making process brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 144 figure 6. main barriers in implementing smart city initiatives the implementation of smart city operations in polish cities requires long-term actions and large financial investments. smart city is a multidimensional concept, with a number of aspects in mind. representatives of the surveyed cities were asked about the main barriers that hinder implementation of the smart city concept. cities listed the following barriers in the implementation of smart city initiatives:  inadequate finances (12 indications);  inadequate human resources and knowledge (9 indications);  no support and involvement of residents (3 indications);  technological delays (6 indications);  municipalities' sufficiency (5 indications);  lack of coordination between individual units of local government (3 indications). the responses indicate that insufficient funds and lack of adequate resources are the biggest barriers to implement the smart city concept in the analysed cities. 4. conclusions preliminary results of the research prove that the level of implementation of the smart city concept is low. most of the surveyed cities do not currently have an action plan to implement the smart city concept. the use of information and communication technologies in the analysed cities is low. research has proved the validity of the hypothesis 1. the degree of implementation of smart city initiatives in poland is significantly higher in large agglomerations. 2. the use of information and communication technologies in the analysed cities is low. 3. inadequate human resources, knowledge and lack of adequate funds are the main barriers to the development of the smart city concept in poland. research has shown that the surveyed cities rarely use available icts to improve the functioning of the city's processes. the major problems faced by the analysed cities in implementing the smart city concept are insufficient funds and the lack of adequate human resources and knowledge. it seems necessary to support central funds or to invest in public-private partnerships in order to realize intelligent investments. this will allow for an increase in the dynamics of large capital investment. k. roman analysis and evaluation of the implementation level of the smart city concept in selected polish cities 145 the results of our research could be useful for policy makers and city stakeholders to identify smart cities, to plan incentives for their development and, through the identified measures of performance, to monitor the progresses of cities towards getting more smarter cities. 5. limitations of research these are the preliminary results of the study. after receiving all the questionnaires, results may change. my research was limited to small towns in poland located in mazovian and lublin voivodships. in order to investigate the degree of implementation smart city concept in polish cities, it is also necessary to include bigger cities from other voivodships and more population. references carta, m. (2017). creative city 3.0: smart cities for the urban age, ws5 – smart cities and sustainable urban development, p.2, retrieved from https://iris.unipa.it/retrieve/handle/10447/70877/57354/230%20creative%20city%203.0%20 %28ix%20biennal%2c%202012%29.pdf caragliu, c., nijkamp, p. (2011). smart cities in europe, „journal of urban technology” vol. 18, issue 2, pp. 69-70. cohen, b., the 3 generations of smart cities, retrieved from: https://www.fastcompany.com/3047795/the-3-generations-of-smart-cities hollands, r. g. (2008). will the real smart city please stand up? city: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 303-305. dameri, r. p. (2017). smart city implementation, creating economic and public value in innovative urban systems, berlin, germany: springer, pp.74. giffinger, r. et. al. (2007). smart cities: ranking of european medium-sized cities, vienna, austria: centre of regional science (srf), vienna university of technology, retrieved from: http://www.smart-cities.eu/press-ressources.html. sobczak, a. (2015). które miasta można uznać za “inteligentne? retrieved from http://inteligentnemiasta.pl/ktore-miasta-mozna-uznac-za-inteligentne/4899/ stawasz d., sikora-fernandez d.,(2015),zarządzanie w polskich miastach zgodnie z koncepcją smart city, placet, warszawa, pp. 123. kamil roman (b. april 4, 1991) received his bsc in logistics (2014), msc in logistics management (2016). now he is phd student of management in department of management information systems, faculty of economics, maria curie-skłodowska university of lublin, poland. his current research interests include different aspects of implementation of the smart city concept, intelligent transport systems, sustainable urban development. he has authored more than 10 papers, and more than 10 conferences participation. microsoft word special-issue-asamblare.docx 21 social-cultural influences and personality disorders favoring drug consumption oana chicoș dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 oana_koh@yahoo.com domenico perri s. giuseppe moscati hospital viale antonio gramsci, 81031 aversa ce, italy phone: +39 081 500 1111 liliana capriș elisabeta doamna psychiatric hospital, galați, romania lilianacapris@yahoo.com andra irina bulgaru iliescu grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 andra_irina_ai@yahoo.com kantor cristina grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 cristina.kantor@umfiasi.ro abstract due to the fact that crime is a social phenomenon, we consider necessary to analyze it as an individual action committed by a real person in an actual circumstance. we mention that crime is a human action, determined by certain psychological elements, necessities, reasons, purposes. in romania, the evolution of the crime phenomenon is a consequence of the impact of severe socioeconomic issues, characteristic of the transition period, as well as of the authority crisis transited by the competent state institutions. the defective legislation and the overburdening of the criminal justice system, associated with the lack of staff and logistics, have limited the effect of preventive and repressive measures. therefore, people who consume substances submitted for national inspection are called drug addicts or drug abusers. according to the world health organization, narcomania is “the state of constant or chronic intoxication, harmful for the individual and for society, caused by the repeated consumption of a certain drug (natural or artificial) – it is characterized by the following – an irresistible need to continue consuming it and acquiring it by all means, a tendency to increase its dosage and a psychical, sometimes physical addiction for the effects of the drug”. drugs of all types have been considered “magic” pills the molecular structure of which is well known by chemists, physicians and pharmacists. in literature they are also called “millenary fragile molecules”, which from ancient times were “glorified”, but in fact they do not have supernatural powers, but deceive people, being in fact a “two-faced coin”. the first face is the one which creates appeal and the second is the one which creates addiction, making us change our behavior and avoid our family and lose our friends. thus we can state that one of the highest challenges of humanity is represented by drug consumption. the multiple environmental changes and the set of social, economic, and psychological changes are aspects which negatively influence people. conclusions: as a general conclusion, we can state that presently, illicit drug trafficking and consumption is the most successful business. the illicit drug market is considered the most “dynamic” brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 22 crime market. regarding the facts previously mentioned, we want to show that the citizens of the european union spend over 24 billion lei a year on drugs. keywords: social phenomenon; personality disorders; socio-cultural influence; crime; intoxicating state. 1. introduction drug abuse has a particular impact on the consumer, his/her family, the community he/she belongs to and society in general. therefore, the illegal use of drugs is directly dependant on the increase in crime and health problems (affecting the nervous, circulatory, respiratory, reproductive system etc.). “the illicit manufacturing, distribution and consumption of drugs, with billions in business profit, contribute to the corruption setting and even to the destabilizing of governments; this traffic implies not only the breach of laws and conventions, but also many criminal activities, tax evasions, illegal fund transfers, breaches of law regarding import and export, crimes, terrorism. narcotics are often used as currency in purchasing weapons and the drug dealer networks get to have power and control over certain parts of the world” (abraham, baconi, & bălălău, 2008) (our translation). acknowledging the spread and danger of drug consumption in europe “is also reflected by the fact that the european union is the main international donor which supports the activity of the united nations organization office for fighting against drugs and crime” (european observer for drugs and toxicomania, annual report, 2007). as also mentioned in the abstract, people who consume substances submitted for national inspection are called drug addicts or drug abusers. therefore, coming back to the aspects which are related to drug consumers, according to the world health organization, narcomania is “the state of constant or chronic intoxication, harmful for the individual and for society, caused by the repeated consumption of a certain drug (natural or artificial) – it is characterized by the following – an irresistible need to continue consuming it and acquiring it by all means, a tendency to increase its dosage and a psychical, sometimes physical addiction for the effects of the drug” (annual report of the world health organization, 1957). in terms of the facts mentioned above, people who consume substances submitted to national inspection are included “in a vast majority, among people with personality disorders. personality disorders are the result of an immature, insufficient or unbalanced personality development or of certain elements of it, characterized by a distorted way of perceiving reality, of thinking and relating to the world” (holdevici, 1997). in general, these cases reflect “personality disorders if the personality features are inflexible and unable to adapt, with consequences on the social functioning and occupational performance as well as on the subjective physical state, in terms of personality disorders. they are considered individual entities different from the classic psychiatric syndromes, among the most important for the phenomenon of illicit drug consumption being: the borderline personality, the antisocial personality (psychopathic or sociopathic), the cyclothymia personality, the depressive personality etc.” (holdevici, 1997). the need for a complex study in this field is high even more so as presently, due to the existing economic situation in our country, some of the moral and legal standards have suspended their operation, contributing to a reluctant quivering of the young people’s behavior between extremely conflicting educational and normative references. the experience of nongovernmental and governmental organizations with the help of their information, education, assistance, guidance and counseling programs and by actually involving in the prevention and intervention for solving certain cases in which children are the victims of different forms of neglect in the family and society and the fact that many minors surrender to drug consumption and crimes, many of them ending up in reform centers and penitentiaries for minors and young people following their crimes, justifies once again the importance of the social delinquency phenomenon. m. golu considers that “the individual from a group suffers, in terms of the internal psychical setting and external behavioral manifestation, the moderation, guiding influence of the controlling o. chicoș, l. capriș, a. i. bulgaru iliescu, kantor c. social-cultural influences and personality disorders favoring drug consumption 23 entirety of the group” (golu, 2000). the quoted author mentions a series of premises of group integration: “these are part of the genetic filiation categories (kindred relations) or physical phenomena such as:  necessities, internal needs of the individual (such as the need for social acknowledgement and appreciation – which directs the individual to the need for value or rise or the opposite, the need to be submissive, obedient),  psychical mechanisms (imitation – mechanism by which the individual imitates behavior means perceived by another individual, emotional resonance (consonance) or compromise and conciliation – as mechanisms by which discrepancies and animosities are toned down and similarities and proximities are highlighted),  personality features, such as sociability”. in the development period, when the personality is in a full structuring and organizing process and especially at puberty and adolescence, young people are highly exposed and present increased vulnerability. due to common actions performed by the main special instances with the role of socializing (family, school, work group, other educational aspects), most teenagers conform to the requirements of the group manifesting according to social values and standards. however, there are teenagers who move away from the desirable conduct patterns, adopting deflective, nonconformist behaviors (whose number is considered to have increased in the last years). according to certain psychologists (rășcanu & zivari, 2002), the prevention of illicit drug consumption and juvenile delinquency should be practiced in the following ways:  primarily (for all citizens);  secondarily (minors who consume drugs and/or occasional delinquents);  tertiary (minors with persistent addictive and delinquent behavior). 2. social-cultural and legal implications of drug consumption besides the special features of each type of “particular-pathological personality which is characterized by the specific style of interpersonal-social relation by behavior and expressivity in general, in most cases there can be also identified a set of characteristics which indicate precisely the vulnerability of the subject, interpreted as imbalanced development, noting that the list below does not have sufficient objective evidence, lacking operational definitions and quantity evaluation means for the meaning of good or sufficient, acceptable” (cohen, 1986). these personality features which indicate the person’s vulnerability are:  “not performing and the presence of a sufficient psychical autonomy (with regard to independence associated with good intercommunication, mutual identification, interpersonal collaboration);  self-identity and also self-esteem in relation to the opening and dialogue towards other people and which are imbalanced;  reduced tolerance to frustration in terms of subjective living and reactivity;  insufficient spontaneity and intentionality in terms of the proximate climate towards others, with difficulties in relating to others;  reduced ability in solving practical issues and in the attempt to face inevitable stressful life circumstances;  reduced ability for self-controlling the impulses and action plans, such as perseverance and finalization;  reduced ability to relax, acquire life satisfaction, to ability to be happy;  imbalanced moral consciousness in the cultural and ideological given context” (gheorghe & giorgescu, 2011). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 24 the progress recorded in the field of biological and psychological research from the middle of the last century have determined most researchers to focus on the aspects which contribute to the formation and development of the human being, transforming from its biological to its social stage:  heredity;  environment;  education. the difference between these researchers represents the acknowledging or highlighting of a certain aspect or another. education is the decisional factor of the psycho-individual development of a person (gheorghe & giorgescu, 2011). it systemizes and organizes the environmental influences. it has a social function, being the intermediate between man and environmental conditions. through education, the child acquires standards, values, and patterns which are afterwards manifested in personal options in his/her behavior. the formation and development of the human personality is thus a process oriented, organized and acknowledged through education. in this way, e. surdu shows that: “education tracks down the hereditary dispositions, differentiates, alters them, urges their functioning, consolidates the power, making them qualities”.moreover, “the unorganized environmental influences are directed by education, rendered to man in academic form in order to make them lasting and constant” (gheorghe & giorgescu, 2011). it is rightfully claimed that one of the defining elements of modern society is change. however, the new millennium we have entered has inherited many social, economic and political issues which, although highly marking the last half of the 20th century, are far from finding solutions. among these issues we mention: international terrorism, racism, drug trafficking and consumption, the increase in poverty, illiterate and unemployed people, etc. if we were to compare this to the general population, in terms of delinquent people, there were recorded high levels of drug consumption and especially problematic drug consumption. we underline the fact that the relation between drug consumption and the actions related to crime is not at all linear and universal. not all backslider delinquents are involved in drug consumption and not all people who consume drugs commit crimes. “a specific distribution of aspects and conditions makes delinquents and drug consumers follow a series of directions which may lead (or not) to the connection between drugs and crime. it’s important to distinguish between the causal connections between crime and drugs, which refer to a generic influence on the lifestyle and circumstantial connections, which refer to specific circumstances in which a crime was committed. the need to reduce the level of crime related to drugs is an important objective in europe. still, there are many meanings of the term crime related to drugs among the different subjects and scientific streams” (downes, 1966). in most cases, when we discuss about personality disorders, when “personality features are inflexible and unable to adapt, with consequences on the social functioning and the occupational performance as well as on the subjective physical state, in terms of personality disorders. they are considered individual entities different from the classic psychiatric syndromes, among the most important for the phenomenon of illicit drug consumption being: the borderline personality, the antisocial personality (psychopathic or sociopathic), the cyclothymia personality, the depressive personality etc.” (downes, 1966). if the definition of crime related to drugs may be considered a reductionist endeavor and cannot cover the complexity of this phenomenon, we must mention the most frequent meanings in which it has been and is analyzed, as follows: crime in the drug system. breaking the law which limits the use of drugs generates, of course, crime. this category of crime may include: consumption of illicit substances, possession, growing, producing, import and trafficking, but also crime related to the drug system, such as producing drug follow-ups, money-laundering or driving vehicles under the influence of drugs (baciu & radulescu, 2002). o. chicoș, l. capriș, a. i. bulgaru iliescu, kantor c. social-cultural influences and personality disorders favoring drug consumption 25 the research performed concluded that this data and information regarding the first three categories of crimes are rarely monitored. there is a series of regional or local studies which try to explain these phenomena, but the data acquired is almost impossible to extrapolate. in the same time, we underline the fact that on romanian territory these types of data lack completely. an attempt to longitudinally analyze the dynamics of the criminal reasons instrumented by the courts between 2001 and 2009 highlights a constant increase of the percentages of the main indicators, with a tendency to relatively stabilize in the last three years. internationally, the treatment for drug consumption applied to consumers in terms of the criminal sanctioning was introduced gradually. in the last decades, in most modern societies, according to many humanist paradigms from the law and from the criminal justice system as well as with many psychosocial patterns and medical patterns for treating addictions are based on international, european and state regulations. therefore, the single convention on narcotic drugs in 1961, art. 36.1 let. (b) provides the following: “if these crimes were committed by people who abusively use narcotic drugs, instead of convicting them or ruling against them a criminal sanction or as a supplementary punishment to the conviction or to the criminal sanction, the parties may subject the people to treatment, educational measures for curing, readapting and social reintegration”. in the same context, the ungass statement provides the following: “member states should develop within the criminal justice system assistance skills for people who abusively use narcotic drugs through educational services, treatment and rehabilitation. in this general context, the close cooperation between the criminal justice system, the health and social system is required and must be encouraged” (unodc, 2019). 3. social deflection, misbehavior and delinquency a series of theories consider the social issues to be the direct consequence of the social development involved by the change and development processes. deflection occurs following social disorganization, certain institutional structures lose their functionality, social control decreases and the anomy state becomes predominant. deflection becomes thus a public issue which involves political decisions and not only therapy procedures of control organizations. therefore, deflection is a widely used term in social psychology, in sociology and criminology and it generally means straying or deviating from the social standards and values. in terms of misbehavior, m. cusson (cusson, 1997) divides this behavior in eight categories, namely: 1. crime and offences including: murders, theft, rape, juvenile delinquency; 2. suicide; 3. drug consumption with disorganized implications of psychosocial type; 4. deflective sexual conducts include: prostitution, homosexuality, lesbianism, pornography; 5. religious deflections which through fanatic characters encourage religious cults, heresies, witchcrafts; 6. mental illnesses have also been analyzed in terms of social misconduct; 7. political extremism; 8. physical handicaps. in the same time, certain theories also claim the fact that social issues represent an immediate effect of normative conflicts between different social groups and organizational obstructions to accede to status, power and/or wealth. due to the fact that certain social groups cannot acquire by legal means what they want, in order to achieve their purpose, they use illegal means which come in conflict with the social conduct standards. a general feature of the personal history of young delinquents is the fact that “in the crucial moments of the creation of the self-identity occurred circumstances which negatively oriented the socialization and structuring of the personality (disorganized families incapable of meeting the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 26 educational function or hostile family environments, school abandoning, adhering to delinquent subcultures, etc.). because the teenager personality is in the process of formation, it also has weak control mechanisms; therefore most behaviors are often aggressive, demonstrative, based on a weak tolerance to frustration. in this context, the punitive measures may be perceived as having unfair or exaggerated features and launch violent reactions” (reckless & smith, 1932). moreover, it is important to mention that “the social reintegration process of minor offenders” is doomed to failure despite the efforts to alter the law, to improve the conditions for detaining or recovery in terms of education, if the social (institutional) assistance network which should collect them from the streets does not exist. in most cases, the role of the assistance network cannot be interpreted only by the minor’s family, because one of the reasons for juvenile delinquency is exactly the lack of involvement of the family in educating and monitoring the evolution of the minor, in some cases the negative behavior patterns offered by the family members is decisive for the further evolution of the minor in terms of crime. the only institution which provides assistance after the minor’s release from the penitentiary is the probation service, but this type of assistance is made only at the request of the minor by concluding a form for assistance and counseling and the mentioned institution has limited capacities, without being able to monitor and inspect on one hand the efforts of the minor and on the other hand of the state institutions in order to integrate the minor in society. in the issue of juvenile delinquency, it is very important that the penitentiary does not only take the role of separating the delinquent minors from the rest of the society and location which performs the psycho-educational recovery of the minors, but must also actively get involved in the activities for preventing this phenomenon. after placing a minor in the penitentiary, the damage has already been done and it is highly unlikely that the minor will become a positive element of society following detention, regardless if he/she is placed in reform centers, penitentiaries for minors and young people or for grown-ups. detention represents most of the times the minor’s exposure to negative life patterns, his/her direct contact with a corrupt environment and mostly to physical and psychical traumas which will mark him/her for the rest of his/her life. with regard to the facts mentioned above, we consider advisable to remark the fact that although society sanctions and convicts illegal drug consumers, it is tolerant with regard to tobacco and alcohol (ciubara et. al., 2015; ciubara et. al., 2018) consumption, not considering that young people today do not distinguish between tobacco, alcohol and light illegal drug consumption. toxicomania is reflected in cancer which suppresses not only the body of the drug consumer, but also/especially his/her mind by severely disorganizing the human personality (banciu et. al., 1985). moreover, we conclude that deflection cannot be interpreted as a phenomenon or behavior detached from the social background. references abraham, p., baconi, d., & bălălău, d. (2008). abuzul şi toxico-dependenţa. mecanisme, manifestări, tratament, legislaţie. medical ed., bucharest. annual report of the world health organization. (1957). banciu, d., radulescu, s. m. (2002). evoluţii ale delincvenţei juvenile în românia. cercetare şi prevenire socială. lumina lex edition, bucharest. banciu, d., rădulescu, s., voicu, m. (1985). introducere în sociologia devianţei. ed. ştiinţifică si enciclopedică, bucharest, 58. ciubara, a., burlea, ş., săcuiu, i., radu, d., untu, i., & chiriţă, r. (2015). alcohol addiction – a psychosocial perspective. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 187, 536-540. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100 ciubara, a.b., nechita, a., tudor, r.c., matei, m., tutunaru, d., sirbu, p.d. (2018). social and medical ethics: implications for romanian protocols regarding the therapy of alcohol o. chicoș, l. capriș, a. i. bulgaru iliescu, kantor c. social-cultural influences and personality disorders favoring drug consumption 27 withdrawal syndrome in trauma patients. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 60, 174-179. cohen, a. (1986). deviance and control. prentice hall, englewood cliffs, new-jersey. cusson, m. (1997). devianţa, in r. boudon (coord) sociology thesis, humanitas edition, bucharest, p.21. downes, d. (1966). the delinquent solution: a study in subcultural theory. london, routledge & kegan paul. european observer for drugs and toxicomania, annual report 2007: drug situation in europe, luxembourg, for publications office of the european union. gheorghe, c., giorgescu, o. (2011) dimensiuni socio-culturale ale sistemului de probaţiune la minorii cu comportament adictiv privaţi de libertate – study. concordia edition, arad. golu, m. (2000). particularităţi ale integrării la nivel psihic in: “aurele corpurilor. interfeţe cu cosmosul.”. volume coordinated by guja cornelia, iaşi, polirom edition. holdevici, i. (1997). elemente de psihoterapie. all edition, bucharest, iind edition, p. 148. răşcanu, r., zivari, m. (2002). psihologie şi psihopatologie în dependenţa de drog, ars docendi edition, bucharest. reckless, w., & smith, m. (1932). juvenile delinquency. new york: mcgraw-hill. unodc. (2019). retrieved from http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/cnd/session/51.html microsoft word issue3.docx 17 questioning, context-sensitiveness and philosophical inquiry paniel reyes-cárdenas faculty of philosophy & humanities upaep av 9 pte 1908, barrio de santiago, 72410 puebla, pue., mexico +52 (222) 229 94 00 panielosberto.reyes@upaep.mx j. martín castro-manzano faculty of philosophy & humanities upaep av 9 pte 1908, barrio de santiago, 72410 puebla, pue., mexico +52 (222) 229 94 00 josemartin.castro@upaep.mx abstract: this paper aims to explain that context-sensitiveness is a very important aspect of philosophical inquiry, specifically through the activity of questioning. the activity of questioning fulfills a number of epistemic tasks; these render the inquirer to understand what is relevant about a context of a determinate inquiry, philosophical or otherwise. in revealing what is relevant for formulating questions it is also noted that fallibilism enters the picture of the establishing of a questioning activity: it shows us that the road of inquiry is relentless and we ought to not block it by context-insensitive questioning. keywords: philosophical questioning, inquiry, contextualist epistemology, fallibilism 1. introduction it has been said that the impact of philosophy is dim and hardly relevant for interdisciplinary approaches: epistemology, in fact, might be considered for some an unhealthy obsession for achieving a certainty about knowledge that is nowhere to be found, this due to either our fickle natures or to relativistic opinions. this pessimistic opinion can be proved misguided and wrong, since it lacks the acknowledgement of the huge informative methodological impact that philosophy has comported to a number of disciplines ranging from the experimental sciences to the social sciences and even in technology: philosophical inquiry and epistemology can be hugely beneficial in organizing ourselves in a self-controlled quest for knowledge. in short, epistemology seems to entertain doubts and concerns far from our every day worries, to come up with examples that challenge our common sense, and to establish a very elaborate standard for what we call knowledge; however, we can benefit from all these activities if we focus on the inquisitive character they have, and how they push the limits of what we take to know. it is true, however, that a great deal of the philosophical literature in epistemology seems to concern about worries that have little or no bearings in actual knowledge acquisition. much of the literature on justification seems to stem from an obsession of getting warrants of far-fetched scenarios such as that we are not deceived brains in sophisticated nerve-stimulating buckets or deceived by evil dream-leading genies. this, however, does not have to be the case, as epistemology has the talent to help philosophical and non-philosophical inquiry to carry on further, even when there are complications to our ways of finding a truth relevant to an aim. indeed, we can push forward knowledge if we acquire the skills to make it relevant to a context and we can discover that through the systematic study of questions, rather than propositions that represent achieved knowledge. in this paper i reject the claim that epistemology is unimportant in helping us pursue settling problems by introducing three philosophical topics crucial to inquiry in all disciplines of knowledge and methodology in and outside philosophy. we need to see how common sense beliefs, inquiry, and our more fundamental epistemic practices, entail considerations of context that raise activities and have practical bearings beyond the small circle of professionals in epistemology. i will (1) speak about inquiry as a goal-directed brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 18 activity that generates beliefs, and then (2) i will characterize inquiry as a process of questioning in a systematic manner that (3) takes for granted the context-sensitiveness and fallibilism of those beliefs. i shall conclude that philosophical inquiry expressed in questioning is not only beneficial but also essential for the systematic progress of human knowledge. 2. the aims of inquiry as mentioned above, inquiry can be defined as a goal-directed activity, and what we reach as an aim of inquiry is a belief that we want to hold as true. we can focus in two aims in this goaldirected process: we can either concentrate in finding a proposition p that fits the purpose of being the response to a relevant and pungent question or we can try to find ways of settling the kind of propositions that would make the question to settle upon, in both cases we are in the search for a belief that needs to be fixed, but the emphasis can be on the proposition to achieve or in the context that will make that proposition become salient. in a series of famous papers in which pragmatism was for the first time popularized, charles peirce (1878) observed, against the traditional inflated doubt of the cartesian inquirer, that doubts are prompted by forces external to us, i.e., a genuine doubt represents an “irritation” that is to be settled by a belief: nor must we overlook a third point of difference. doubt is an uneasy and dissatisfied state from which we struggle to free ourselves and pass into the state of belief; while the latter is a calm and satisfactory state which we do not wish to avoid, or to change to a belief in anything else. on the contrary, we cling tenaciously, not merely to believing, but to believing just what we do believe (peirce, 1877, 3; ep 1: 110). now, in order to perform inquiries that will allow us to settle genuine doubts by a belief, we need to have impinging doubts that prompt us to carry on in the way of inquiry, such are the cases of the so-called big questions, but it also applies for concrete inquiries. unless we take the logic of questions seriously, we shall have a flawed understanding of central issues in the philosophies of language and mind: assertions and beliefs are elicited or activated by questions and questioning. (see hookway 1990, 10) some aspects of this questioning activity are the following, and they are first and foremost characteristics of questions in epistemology: through questions we can formulate cognitive goals, i.e., we can establish what kind of responses to those questions actually will work as answers, and whether more questions have to be asked in this process. by the use of contextual aspects of a question we can elicit information: we surely will come across propositional information, but the emphasis of this paper wants to underlie that propositional information is secondary to the aim of generating questions that permit us to say that we are carrying a self-controlled activity. questions are used to have indirect complements in reflection, to exercise regulative control over inquires (see hintikka, 2007). questions are formulated in a pragmatic or contextual consideration: we cannot answer our questions if the beliefs or propositions we have come across do not make a difference in the ways we should act or respond, should we be presented with a similar situation. the above considerations are aimed to express some of the roles that are played by questions in order to achieve the aims of our inquiry. stressing the value of questions over propositions is not a matter of preference in the epistemic domain, what we want to say is that focusing in the kind of questions we can articulate will render us more propositional information than focusing on the justification of a particular proposition. the belief that the question aims to settle is expressed in propositional form, but arriving at it requires the process of inquiry. presuming that things can be the other way round equates to claim that we know the answers before asking the questions, but in that case we do not really need the inquiring activity. thus, for example, if i ask questions as to how far a galaxy is from us i might also be interested in questioning for the methods to find out that distance and other scientifically interesting p. reyes-cárdenas, j. m. castro-manzano questioning, context-sensitiveness and philosophical inquiry 19 questions: i could use that information in a creative way perhaps by questioning if that distance is actually stable or changing due the alleged expansion of the universe, or whether the distances represent some stage of the universe’s development and the like. but common-day inquiries also are favoured: suppose i am interested in getting a flight from helsinki to london: i can ask how to do the online booking and the like, but knowing that i can also ask about times when the price is low can actually help me save resources or optimise the flight, asking whether there are particular restrictions (even though my initial answers are settled), can make me change my mind about buying a deceivingly cheap flight and rather get another route, etc. 3. questioning as inquiring our best way to understand concepts such as the concept of knowledge is by examining their role in regulating our inquiries. a dynamic conception of knowledge is suited to favour inquiry rather than the static picture: suppose i know that p, how can i take a dynamic stance in my propositional state of knowing it? i can maybe ask: what is the belief that p good for? and if i can have salient considerations that can impact other related concepts then i am in a good place to see if the consequences of knowing that p are promising to push knowledge forward, rather than contemplating a system of beliefs. questions establish our cognitive goals, so therefore our progress in inquiry can be monitored and traced if we can discover to what extend we have answered a relevant question. doing questions elicits salient considerations if an inquiry is to prosper. the way we know that these considerations keep being relevant is if we can keep asking surrogate questions that push the road of inquiry forward. the way of inquiry is effectively push if it has the following order: a question prompts a problem to solve, this generates more questions and subordinate inquiries and so on… this process, if it is properly bound by a continuous aim of solving a problem in the road of inquiry, represents a dynamic (as well as unified) view of our inferential activities. consider the case of a murder, if i am a detective it won’t be any wise to ask: “who killed x?” i rather ask: who had any relevant relationship r that was relevant as a cause for the murder of x? a detective will have to know if she can keep asking questions that elicit explanations, but the most interesting thing is that the responses can be formulated in the interrogative mode and still be relevant. 4. epistemic contextualism contextualism is a strand of epistemology that focuses knowledge-attribution not only in the proposition itself, but also in the situation in which the attributor of the proposition is. there are many versions of contextualism; many of them are aimed to defuse sceptical challenges, so as to permit to consider if a sceptic challenge is actually salient. i will avoid spending too much of this space explaining what the nuances of different versions of contextualism (for detailed accounts see rysiew 2016). my aim is to show the reader that taking seriously our context can help us to be more sensitive to what a real doubt prompts. contextualism, so understood, is the proposition that “knowing” is an activity that ought to be relevant to a context, the context is the situation that will require higher or lesser standards for some belief to count as knowledge. as i see it, contextualism does not strip away the importance of either truth or justification, but articulates these around the process of a living problem or a body of problems: truth is something we want to count as settled belief for a problem, and justification is the explanation of how this is so. consider cases in which two groups of people can have questions about a matter that depends highly in fallible hypotheses: imagine one group of people is a group that survived a shipwreck in the middle of the pacific ocean and happened to find themselves in a desert island. now imagine that the other group of people is a team of relatives and rescue squads that have searched for them for months. after an extended period of time they start to entertain that there were no survivors: they fallibly, but steadily start to entertain that probably that will be the kind of proposition that will settle the matter. however, for the group of survivors the entertainment of that hypothesis is completely implausible, as they have survived! so in a way the context seems to give brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 20 reasons to the other group to entertain the no-survivors hypothesis, while the group of survivors needs to hold on to questioning how they might solve their conundrum of made themselves found. in the example presented, we can appreciate that the context of both groups (attributors of propositions) has entirely different epistemic scenarios about one question. the two groups do not claim to have contradictory knowledge about one situation, but differing contexts that render each of them different accesses to knowledge. 5. how questions can connect to contexts? we can consider the value of questions in two ways: one of them is to look at the semantic content of the question itself; in which case we need to see whether is a “who-question”, “whyquestion” etc. questions also offer an explanatory contrast among competing explanations, so they seem as important as propositions to render inquiry going (cross, charles, & roelofsen, 2016: 1). the semantic content of questions is a fundamental ability to use them properly, but it is not all there is to questions. indeed, the other kind of considerations about questions is how they relate to contexts: if a question is relevant that will not be revealed by its semantic content, but the pragmatic considerations that the question releases. suppose that i am interested in finding out whether a personality disorder, in the context of psychological inquiry, is an indicator of a mental illness: the semantic content will take me as far as identifying if there is a meaningful correlation between the two concepts. but if i want to discover whether this is the case for a particular person i also need to ask questions that have pragmatic considerations sensitive to the context of a patient such as questions of her personal history, family relations, and the like. the more a question produces a subordinate inquiry the more promising is, pragmatically speaking. but how to know if a question is sensitive to the context in pragmatic grounds. keith derose, a prominent contextualist epistemologist, proposes the “rule of sensitivity” in these words: when it is asserted that some subject s knows (or does not know) some proposition p, the standards for knowledge (the standards of how good an epistemic position one must be in to count as knowing) tend to be raised, if need be, to such a level as to require s’s belief in that particular p to be sensitive for it to count as knowledge. (derose, 1995, 36) the activity of questioning, in my opinion, is the best way to find out what is relevant for a context, and how the knowledge-attribution gets its main property: salience. salience is the fact that there is a relevant relation between a proposition and how an inquiry can be pushed forward. the value of the salience of a particular proposition can be put to a test if it renders responses that, as a subordinate inquiry, can be put in the interrogative mode. thus, for example, consider the case of a solicitor trying to find a way to excuse her client from the enforcement of a particular law due to an exceptional circumstances: she will need to ask different questions; possibly how the law can be interpreted, will have to find another cases that render flexibility to that interpretation in which she can ask why the law was interpreted otherwise. she will carry on finding evidence of different situations and in each case ask whether there are similarities to the context of her client. only if there are enough subordinate inquiries the solicitor will be able to make her case for her client, and hence try to push for an exception to the usual interpretation of a law. 6. fallibilism and context-sensitiveness fallibilism and context-sensitiveness fallibilism, as the doctrine that our beliefs must be sensitive to error and our theories prone to correction entails a concrete philosophical character to any kind of inquiry. however, only philosophical inquiry is wide enough to encompass the consequences to adopt fallibilism. fallibilism helps us to distinguish when a question is logically real and relevant as a real doubt prompting inquiry. p. reyes-cárdenas, j. m. castro-manzano questioning, context-sensitiveness and philosophical inquiry 21 so a question is locally real (for a community) when that community recognizes some things as straight answers to it, and recognizes that some evidence would favour one of those answers over the rest (hookway, 2008, 17), that it is its cognitive frame, but we must recognise that we do not hold absolute certainty for any of our beliefs. even in well-settled beliefs as those coming from mathematics or logic, there is always room for improvement or revision (see priest, tanaka, and weber, 2015). fallibilism is the negation that knowledge works as a fixed body of beliefs that remains unaltered and can be contemplated back without change. a fallibilist will rather consider that beliefs are, in peirce’s happy expression: strands of a cable rather than links on a chain: i.e., their effectiveness comes from the joint way they overlap with other relevant beliefs, but these are always developing. this conclusive aspect of fallibilism is good news, though: it means that our cognitive interest meets a balance with our pragmatic interest, and makes our beliefs sensitive to context and, even more importantly, sensitive to error. in this paper this relationships between inquiry, the context-sensitiveness of beliefs and the importance of questioning will become apparent. examples on how to apply these epistemic virtues beyond epistemology and philosophy will be shown. acknowledgments we would like to express gratitude to sally haslanger, who gave great insights as to extend applications of what is expressed here in an early version of this paper presented in rotterdam. thanks also to chris hookway, source of many interesting conversations in which we can reconsider the importance of questions. references belnap, n., & steel, t. (1976) the logic of questions and answers, new haven: yale university press. cross, c., & roelofsen, f. (2016). "questions", the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (spring 2016 edition), edward n. zalta (ed.), url: <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/questions/>. de rose, k. (1995). “solving the skeptical problem”, the philosophical review, 104(1), pp. 1–52. hintikka, j. h. (1974). “questions about questions”, in semantics and philosophy, m. munitz (ed.), new york: nyu press. –––. (1976). the semantics of questions and the questions of semantics: case studies in the interrelations of logic, semantics, and syntax (acta philosophica fennica, 28 (4)), amsterdam: north-holland publishing company. –––. (1983). “new foundations for a theory of questions and answers”, in questions and answers, ferenc kiefer (ed.), dordrecht: reidel, pp. 159–190. hookway, c. (1996). “questions of context”, proceedings of the aristotelian society, 96 (part 1): pp. 1–16. –––. (2008) “questions, epistemology, and inquiries”, grazer philosophische studien, 77, pp. 1-21 misak, c. (1987). “peirce, levi and the aims of inquiry”, philosophy of science, 54, 2. –––. (2004). truth and the end of inquiry, oxford: oxford university press. peirce, c. s. (1877/1878). “the fixation of belief” and “how to make our ideas clear”, in the essential peirce, vol. i. ed. nathan houser and christian kloesel. bloomington: indiana university press. priest, g., tanaka, k., & weber, z. (2015). "paraconsistent logic", the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (spring 2015 edition), edward n. zalta (ed.), url: <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/logic-paraconsistent/>. rysiew, p. (2016). "epistemic contextualism", the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (summer 2016 edition), edward n. zalta (ed.), url: <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2016/entries/contextualism-epistemology/>. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_special1_2018_v1l.doc 56 success in mobile and ubiquitous learning: indicators of effectiveness billy t.m. wong the open university of hong kong hong kong sar, china billywtm@gmail.com abstract mobile and ubiquitous learning has been a key focus in e-learning and practising broadly worldwide. among the research publications in this area, a majority of them focused on evaluating the effectiveness of relevant practices and reported positive outcomes. to interpret such results, the contexts in which mobile devices were used for learning and the indicators of effectiveness adopted for evaluation are of prime importance. however, the use of those indicators in relation to the contexts of practice has not been adequately studied. this paper presents a systematic review on the use of various indicators of effectiveness for the practices of mobile and ubiquitous learning. the review covers a total of 50 cases from relevant literature for the period 2007–2016. regarding the contexts of practice, the results show that 92% of the cases involved the use of mobile devices for accessing online or offline information; 40% involved social interaction among peers or between students and teachers; and 74% involved the apps or learning materials developed for specific courses. the indicators of effectiveness revolved around 10 categories, namely learning achievements, perceived usefulness, motivation, ease of use, satisfaction, learning attitude, cognitive load, system usage, self-efficacy, and social engagement. results also show that studies of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices mostly focused on specific courses with less than 100 participants. based on the findings, a number of limitations in interpreting the success of mobile learning practices are discussed. keywords: mobile learning, ubiquitous learning, e-learning, education, indicators of effectiveness 1. introduction as one of the key developments in technology-enhanced learning, mobile and ubiquitous learning has been playing an increasingly crucial role in education in the past decade. by removing geographical barriers and time constraints, it allows educational institutions to deliver flexible education and implement innovative pedagogies. the advances in mobile technology and improvements in network infrastructure have further motivated educational institutions worldwide to practise mobile and ubiquitous learning (unesco; 2013). to illustrate the overall trend in its popularity, the number of items on google scholar related to mobile and ubiquitous learning have increased from 2,570 in 2007 to 6,550 in 2011, and 9,540 in 20161 — a nearly 3 times increase in a decade. a majority of the studies on mobile and ubiquitous learning practices have focused on the extent of their effectiveness (wu et al.; 2012), usually reported using a variety of indicators. examples of common indicators include learners’ perceptions of usefulness (alrasheedi and capretz; 2014); learners’ attitudes (wittich et al.; 2016); the frequency of use of a mobile device for learning (shao and seif; 2014); and learning performance (teri et al.; 2013). they reveal various aspects in which mobile learning was considered to be effective in practice. despite being widely used in the literature, these indicators of effectiveness have not been systematically studied. in previous reviews of mobile and ubiquitous learning, the indicators have sometimes been categorised together with success factors — the conditions required for ensuring the effectiveness of mobile learning. for example, alrasheedi, capretz and raza (2015) identified 13 success factors which had a strong impact on the implementation of mobile and ubiquitous learning, 1 searched on 12 november 2017. b. t. m. wong success in mobile and ubiquitous learning: indicators of effectiveness 57 including user perception and increased productivity. yadegaridehkordi, iahad and baloch (2013) also found that perceived usefulness and attitude towards mobile and ubiquitous learning were two of the success factors. although success factors and indicators of effectiveness are tightly related — that is, the causes of success and the effects of actions — they are different concepts and should be handled separately (e.g. hilgarth; 2011). this paper presents a review of indicators of effectiveness in mobile and ubiquitous learning practices, showing how mobile technologies have been applied in a broad range of contexts, and the areas of effectiveness revealed in the practices. the findings of this study suggest indicators that can be used to measure the effectiveness of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices, and appropriate ways of interpreting them. 2. relevant studies the effectiveness of mobile and ubiquitous learning can be evaluated from multiple perspectives. examples include a socio-cultural perspective, such as the proportion of people in a society showing a positive attitude towards mobile and ubiquitous learning; an institutional perspective, such as the development of infrastructure for mobile technology in an institution; and an individual perspective, such as students’ learning experience. accordingly, various indicators have been used for evaluating the success of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices. in a review of mobile and ubiquitous learning, crompton, burke, gregory and gräbe (2016) studied 49 practices of mobile and ubiquitous learning in science, showing that they fell into one or more of three categories — designing mobile learning systems, evaluating the effects, and investigating the affective domains of mobile and ubiquitous learning. the results highlighted the significance of evaluation in mobile and ubiquitous learning studies. the evaluation of learning effectiveness is also a major focus in meta-analyses of mobile and ubiquitous learning. for instance, sung, chang and liu (2016) analysed 110 journal articles from 1993 to 2013 about the effects of mobile and ubiquitous learning, using an effect size measure. their findings showed that learning with mobiles was in general more effective than conventional modes using only pen-and-paper or desktop computers. the effects would be influenced by variables of educational contexts, such as the learners’ ages, the teaching methods and the subject disciplines. likewise, zydney and warner (2016) investigated articles on mobile apps for science learning, covering the mobile app design, underlying theoretical foundations, and students’ learning outcomes. they found that the most common outcome reported was basic scientific knowledge or conceptual understanding. also, wang, liu and hwang (2016) studied how mobile technologies have changed ubiquitous language learning in museums, focusing on system usefulness, activity usefulness and activity playfulness. the foci of evaluation reveal the areas of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices that can be assessed to show their effectiveness. the indicators of the effectiveness of mobile and ubiquitous learning have, however, only been studied indirectly, usually together with success factors for mobile and ubiquitous learning. alrasheedi et al. (2015) examined the critical factors for the success of mobile learning in higher education from the university students’ perspective, covering 30 studies from 17 countries. as noted earlier, the 13 success factors identified included factors such as user perception and increase in productivity which have also been used as indicators of the effectiveness of mobile learning. cardoso and abreu (2015) analysed mobile learning publications on the types and environments of mobile learning practices, and the determining factors which promoted the acceptance of mobile learning by students and teachers. among the factors identified, one was the changes in the processes of information access, which is an expected outcome after practising mobile learning as well as an indicator of its effectiveness. previous studies therefore have not given a clear overall picture of the indicators used in evaluating the effectiveness of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices. this paper serves to contribute to this area through conducting a comprehensive review of them. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 58 3. method this study aims to review the indicators of effectiveness in studies evaluating mobile and ubiquitous learning practices, as well as the contextual factors of the practices which may affect the evaluation results. the relevant literature was collected from google scholar using the keywords “mobile learning” or “ubiquitous learning”, together with “indicators of effectiveness” or “success factors” in the period 2007–2016. the literature was manually checked to include only studies reporting empirical practices of mobile and ubiquitous learning. a total of 50 cases were then collected, covering information such as countries, level of education, use of mobile devices for learning, and measures of the effectiveness of the practices. the information gathered was categorised into three areas: (1) contextual information on the mobile and ubiquitous learning practices, e.g. geographical region, educational level, number of participants, and level of intervention; (2) the use of mobile devices, e.g. the purpose of use, level of interactivity, and functions of the mobile devices; and (3) the indicators of effectiveness for the practices. 4. results 4.1. contexts of the mobile and ubiquitous learning practices the 50 cases of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices covered 14 countries/regions, including china, japan, taiwan, korea, sri lanka, turkey, spain, greece, the netherlands, britain, australia, new zealand, south africa and the usa. figure 1 shows the geographical distribution of the cases. among the 50 cases, 70% were conducted in asia, 16% in europe, 4% in oceania, 4% in africa, and 2% in north america. therefore, the results of this study represent more of the situation in asia. figure 1. geographical distribution of the case studies figure 2 shows the data collection methods applied in the studies. surveys were used in most of the selected cases (94%), followed by interviews (38%) and experiments (34%). apart from these approaches, observation (12%), field materials (8%), video recordings (6%) and discussion threads (2%) were also used in some of the studies. thirty of the cases involved the use of more than one method, mostly combining a survey and another one or more method. these suggest that most of the studies involved quantitative data at least in part. figure 2. data collection methods of the studies (note: a study may involve more than one method.) b. t. m. wong success in mobile and ubiquitous learning: indicators of effectiveness 59 figure 3 presents the education levels of the mobile and ubiquitous learning practices. most studies took place at the tertiary level (66.7%). also, 25.5% of the studies were conducted at the primary school level and 7.8% at the secondary school level. figure 3. education level of the studies figure 4 shows the number of participants in the studies, with the majority being on a small scale, having less than 100 participants (72%). twenty percent of the studies involved over 100 but less than 1,000 participants, and only two cases included more than 1,000 participants (4%). figure 4. number of participants in the studies figure 5 illustrates the levels of intervention of the studies. most studies concentrated on the course level (76.9%) and some on either the programme level (13.5%) or the institutional level (9.6%). two studies were conducted at more than one level. these results supplement the above number of participants where most of the studies were conducted on a small scale. figure 5. level of intervention of the studies 4.2. uses of mobile devices for learning the applications of mobile devices for learning were multifaceted. they depended on the purposes of the mobile and ubiquitous learning practices, such as acquiring new knowledge, revising or practising what had been taught, seeking help from instructors, and communicating with peers. figure 6 shows the purposes of mobile and ubiquitous learning in the studies. a majority of the cases were multi-purpose (54%). those with a single specific purpose were focused on “practice or revision” (34%) and “knowledge acquisition” (10%). there was a case where the application was to help new students to become familiar with the campus and teach them about the use of the facilities. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 60 figure 6. purposes of using mobile devices for learning figure 7 presents the level of interactivity in using mobile devices. sixty percent of the cases involved only one-way access for information either online or offline, while 8% involved social interaction with information exchange among learners. also 32% of the cases included both levels of interactivity in learning. figure 7. level of interactivity of the studies figure 8 captures the functions of mobile devices used in the practices. the results show that tailor-made applications for specific practices were most common (74%), followed by the use of a speaker (32%) and a camera (26%), where learners had to listen to audio materials using speakers or access online information by scanning qr-codes through cameras. in the various practices, other functions were also used, such as messaging (16%) for interacting with diverse parties and gps (14%) for outdoor learning activities. for the practices using older models of mobile devices without cameras, tools such as an rfid reader (8%) were used for accessing information via communication tags. figure 8. functions of the mobile devices used in the practices (note: each case could involve the use of more than one function.) b. t. m. wong success in mobile and ubiquitous learning: indicators of effectiveness 61 4.3. indicators of effectiveness figure 9 presents the indicators used for evaluating the effectiveness of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices. learning achievements (64%) and perceived usefulness (56%) were the two most frequently used, followed by motivation (26%), ease of use (26%) and satisfaction (24%). some indictors were used relatively less in the studies, such as learning attitude (14%), cognitive load (12%), system usage (8%), self-efficacy (6%) and social engagement (2%). those indicators were usually adopted in the studies using qualitative methods for data collection. the results suggest a possible relationship between the data collection methods and the indicators. the choices of indicators represent, in principle, how the effectiveness of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices can be most appropriately evaluated and presented using particular study methods. figure 9. proportion of indicators used in the case studies 5. discussion this study provides an overall picture of how the practices of mobile and ubiquitous learning have been evaluated for effectiveness. it summarises the indicators used in the evaluations, which are the most common type of mobile and ubiquitous learning study (wu et al.; 2012). the results also supplement past efforts to figure out the factors promoting the adoption and facilitating effective implementation of mobile and ubiquitous learning (e.g. alrasheedi et al.; 2015; cochrane; 2014; krotov; 2015; yadegaridehkordi et al.; 2013). the contexts of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices in this study are in general consistent with those in the relevant review literature. for example, as in wu et al. (2012), most practices were in higher education, followed by primary education. the results are also consistent with the finding of sung et al. (2016) that websites or mobile apps developed for specific teaching and learning goals have been widely used. those websites or apps account for most mobile and ubiquitous learning practices in this study, and so its results are representative of the practices. in the review of data collection methods, the dominant use of quantitative methods, especially surveys, corresponds with the findings in other technology-assisted learning contexts (wu et al.; 2012; zawacki-richter et al.; 2009). this study’s results, however, differ from wu et al. (2012) which found experiments as the second most common method for evaluating mobile and ubiquitous learning, whereas this study showed that interviews were more widely used than experiments. this suggests that interviews as a qualitative approach to complement survey findings have also been adopted in a certain number of studies. there are no observable differences in the indictors of effectiveness for mobile and ubiquitous learning practices involving access to information or social interaction. it is worth noting that less than half of the practices involved social interaction. according to slavin (2012) and sung brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, special issue on educational psychology (april, 2018), issn 2067-8957 62 et al. (2016), it is inconclusive whether social interaction with the aid of mobile devices enhances learning achievement. in addition to the wide use of perceived usefulness and learning achievements as indicators of effectiveness, the cases of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices also reveal a tendency for more indicators to have been adopted in recent studies. the average numbers of indicators in the studies have been increased from 2 in 2007, to 2.33 in 2011 and 2.71 in 2016. while more studies on a larger scale are needed to examine the issue, the present figures suggest that a broader range of factors have been considered regarding the effectiveness of mobile and ubiquitous learning. 6. conclusion this paper has presented the diverse ways for reflecting the effectiveness of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices. while mobile and ubiquitous learning has been shown to bring better learning performance than conventional modes of learning (sung et al.; 2016), this study’s findings provide various indicators to measure its effectiveness in a broad range of contexts. the results of this study suggest the need to conduct evaluation of mobile and ubiquitous learning practices on a larger scale. as the generalisability of the evaluation results depends on the extent of representativeness, it is uncertain whether the same degree of effectiveness will be obtained when extending the practices to a wider group of learners, as most evaluations focused only on single courses. evaluation at the programme or institutional level, covering different subject disciplines, would help to provide an answer on this issue. as no single indicator can serve all the purposes of evaluation, using multiple indicators could be one possible way to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of a mobile and ubiquitous learning practice. this study has shown a preliminary trend for more indicators to be used in recent evaluations. in this regard, the work which lies ahead includes how various indicators can be adopted to complement each other and interpretation of the multiple dimensions of effectiveness. references alrasheedi, m., & capretz, l. f. (2014). learner perceptions of a successful mobile learning platform: a systematic empirical study. proceedings of the world congress on engineering and computer science, san francisco, usa, pages 306–310. alrasheedi, m., capretz, l. f., & raza, a. (2015). a systematic review of the critical factors for success of mobile learning in higher education (university students’ perspective). journal of educational computing research, 52(2), 257–276. cardoso, t., & abreu, r. (2015). mobile learning and education: synthesis of open access research. handbook of mobile teaching and learning (pp. 133–148), berlin heidelberg: springer. cochrane, t. d. (2014). critical success factors for transforming pedagogy with mobile web 2.0. british journal of educational technology, 45(1), 65–82. crompton, h., burke, d., gregory, k. h., & gräbe, c. (2016). the use of mobile learning in science: a systematic review. journal of science education and technology, 25(2), 149–160. hilgarth, b. (2011). e-learning success in action! from case study research to the creation of the cybernetic e-learning management model. international journal of computer information systems and industrial management applications, 3, 415–426. krotov, v. (2015). critical success factors in m-learning: a socio-technical perspective. communications of the association for information systems, 36(6), 105–126. shao, d., & seif, h. (2014). mobile learning a new wave of learning: a survey among university of dodoma students. international journal of computer applications, 98(16), 1–4. slavin, r. e. (2012). instruction based on cooperative learning. in r. e. mayer, & p. a. alexander (eds.), handbook of research on learning and instruction, new york, ny: routledge, pages 344–360. b. t. m. wong success in mobile and ubiquitous learning: indicators of effectiveness 63 sung, y. t., chang, k. e., & liu, t. c. (2016). the effects of integrating mobile devices with teaching and learning on students’ learning performance: a meta-analysis and research synthesis. computers & education, 94, 252–275. teri, s., acai, a., griffith, d., mahmoud, q., ma, d. w. l., & newton, g. (2013). student use and pedagogical impact of a mobile learning application. biochemistry and molecular biology education, 42(2), 121–135. unesco. (2013). policy guidelines for mobile learning. the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002196/219641e.pdf wang, h. y., liu, g. z., & hwang, g. j. (2016). integrating socio-cu;tural contexts and locationbased systems for ubiquitous language language learning in museums: a state of the art review of 2009–2014. british journal of educational technology. retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjet.12424/epdf wittich, c.m., wang, a.t., fiala, j.a., mauck, k.f., mandrekar, j.n., ratelle, j.t., & beckman, t.j. (2016). measuring participants’ attitudes toward mobile device conference applications in continuing medical education: validation of an instrument. journal of continuing education in the health professions, 36(1), 69–73. wu, w.-h., wu, y.-c. j., chen, c.-y., kao, h.-y., lin, c.-h., & huang, s.-h. (2012). review of trends from mobile learning studies: a meta-analysis. computers & education, 59(2), 817– 827. yadegaridehkordi, e., iahad, n. a., & baloch, h. z. (2013). success factors influencing the adoption of m-learning. international journal of continuing engineering education and lifelong learning, 23(2), 167–178. zawacki-richter, o., bäcker, e. m., & vogt, s. (2009). review of distance education research (2000 to 2008): analysis of research areas, methods, and authorship patterns. international review of research in open and distance learning, 10(6), 21–45. zydney, j. m., & warner, z. (2016). mobile apps for science learning: review of research. computers & education, 94, 1–17. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue4_2017_final.doc 1 b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 4 december, 2017 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 2 about the journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next volume of the brain in february 2018. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 20th of january, 2018. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief:  bogdan pătruţ, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania managing editor:  agata asofroniei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania editors:  frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland  angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain  barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania  carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania  monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 – 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2017 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro n.b. bilgi, g.m. wali, akashta mense, priyanka takkekar, bhagyashri yaddi, sudarshan patil symptomatic decision support system for neurological disorders 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 6. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 7. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 8. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 9. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 10. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 11. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 12. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 13. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 14. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 15. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 16. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 17. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 18. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 19. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 20. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 21. heather k van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 22. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 23. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 24. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 25. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 26. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 4 27. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 28. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 29. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 30. valeriy perminov, tomsk polytechnic university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 31. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bio-inspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 32. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 33. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 34. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 35. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 36. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 37. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 38. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) consultant reviewers 39. dorin bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 40. răzvan bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 41. cătălin buiu, politehnica university of bucharest, bucharest, romania (robotics) 42. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl milan, italy (computer science) 43. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 44. piotr p chruszczewski, polish academy of sciences, university of wroclaw, poland (social sciences) 45. utku köse, uşak university, uşak, turkey (artificial intelligence) 46. ioan maxim, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (computer science) 47. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence) 48. ioan lucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (linguistics) 49. saim rasheed, king abdulaziz university, jeddah, saudi arabia (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 50. tiberiu socaciu, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 51. hassan soleimani, payame noor university, tehran, iran (applied linguistics) 52. elena-mădălina vătămănescu, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest (social sciences), romania 53. dmytro zubov, soochow university, suzhou, jiangsu, china (computer science) microsoft word articol-07.docx 66 mental health and family medicine: between scylla and charybdis alina pleșea-condratovici department of morphological and functional sciences, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, dunarea de jos university of galați, romania aliaplesea@yahoo.com simona lungu department of clinical medicine, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, dunarea de jos university of galați, romania drlungusimona@gmail.com mihai mutică elisabeta doamna hospital of psychiatry, galați, romania mutica1@yahoo.com cătălin pleșea-condratovici department of morphological and functional sciences, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, dunarea de jos university of galați, romania cmidr.pleseacatalin@gmail.com abstract background: since 1999 the romanian health insurance system shifts to a bismarck model where primary care is provided by family medicine physicians, in private practices, under contract with local insurance houses. family doctors are supposed to have a gatekeeping role, ensuring that patients see specialists only for conditions that could not be managed at this level and are referred to an appropriate specialist. aims: to explore the opinions of the family doctors on the interventions needed for a better management of the psychiatric cases. method: a survey was conducted among 43 family doctors from galati county (romania). results and discussion: despite a formal gatekeeping role, romanian family doctors do not have a pivotal role in coordinating psychiatric care. direct access to a specialist is possible for certain pathologies and there is evidence of overuse of ambulance services, hospital services and outpatient care setting bypassing primary care. conclusion: rather than focusing on the “gatekeeping” we should focus on more collaborative work between family doctors and psychiatrists with patients. an improved communication and cooperation between the family doctor and the psychiatrist plays an essential role for proper care processes and thus the overall quality of care for the psychiatric patient. keywords: primary care, family medicine, gatekeeping, psychiatric training 1. introduction due to the changes in the political regime, family medicine in romania had a special evolution. in the interwar period, family medicine existed mainly as private practice, even though there existed a health insurance system, the “central social insurance house”. between 1943 and 1978, primary care was organized territorially in “plase” (nets) and consisted of “circumscriptii” (rural sanitary constituencies for one or more communes with an average population of 5,000 inhabitants). the district was headed by a rural health-care district physician who was the hierarchical chief of the health and care staff in its constituency, with the exception of specialized hospitals and protective settings, and was subordinated to the net hygiene physician and county chief physician. the district doctor was responsible for initiating and executing all necessary measures in connection with hygiene and preventive medicine including compulsory vaccination [1,2,3], the health police and the medical care of the population within its constituency. he was helped by health care staff: a nursing sister and a health care provider (“agentul sanitar”) for an average population of 3,000-5,000 inhabitants and one midwife for each commune. medical dispensary had a day care center for children, home for a doctor and a nurse, a popular bath and deworming resort (law no. 189/1943 for the state health organization). since 1999 the health insurance system shifted to a bismarck model (law 145/1997) and primary care has been provided by family medicine physicians, mainly in solo practices, under contracts with the dhihs. healthcare is purchased through contracts between the district level health insurance branches and providers, following a standard framework contract. primary care physicians own their practices and receive payments based on a mix of age-weighted capitation and fee-for-service. a. pleșea-condratovici, s. lungu, m. mutică, c. pleșea-condratovici mental health and family medicine: between scylla and charybdis 67 however, despite a formal gatekeeping role, they do not play a pivotal role in coordinating care. direct access to a specialist is possible under certain conditions and there is evidence of overuse of ambulance services, bypassing primary care. fragmentation is increased by the fact that specialized ambulatory (or outpatient) care is provided through a network of hospital outpatient departments and polyclinics, specialized medical centers for diagnosis and treatment, and individual specialist physician offices. the health system is characterized by a lack of integration between different sectors (primary, hospital and public health) and by the underdevelopment of care continuity [4]. family medicine physicians are not required to assure provision of primary care out of hours, at weekends or during public holidays, but they do on-duty calls in continuity care centers. primary care physicians own their practices and derive income from that earned by their practices, through contracts with the dhihs. although strengthening of primary care has been on the policy agenda since 1990, primary health care services remain underfunded and there is overutilization of hospital services. the state no longer sustains salary payment for primary care workers, gps finding themselves thrown “in deep water” and undergoing forced privatization: 14000 gps had to become managers, hire 40000 nurses, make a list with at least 1000 patients in order to make a contract with health insurance houses. insufficient income did not allow keeping the initial medical and auxiliary staff so that out of 3 nurses on average only one nurse remained employed, and this generated an increase in the workload. if the medical office spaces were initially made available free of charge by the local authorities, they were gradually leased at market value. being forced to function not only as a doctor but also as an owner of a medical business without having the experience of private practice, the romanian gp was forced in antagonistic, conflicting roles. table i – conflicting roles of gp doctor a commercial business owner patient’s best interest own business interest refer patients to specialists more than needed less being a good colleague fighting competition i have to keep my business i have my own life complying to insurance rules not to be punished patient interest first over time, bureaucracy and punitive administrative rules, as stated in the framework contract for primary care, grew to a level hard to understand. if in 1999 the framework contract had 15 pages, in 2018 it has (together with its application norms) 660 pages. the number of penalties stipulated in the contract for administrative misconduct outreaches the letters of the alphabet. moreover, administrative limitations have appeared that restrict the prescription of compensated medicines by the family doctor. in some medical areas, these restrictions are so limiting and include basic meditation that limits the role of the family doctor to resolving only simple cases and sending patients unnecessarily to the secondary healthcare segment. psychiatry is one of the medical fields where gps are almost excluded from the healthcare team. holistic view, even if the patient with mental disorder should be seen from a bio-psycho-social perspective for an appropriate therapeutic plan [5] and the family doctor approaches that take into account social consideration in a holistic view. 2. methods a study specific online survey instrument was developed using google forms and pilot tests. the final survey instrument link was sent by mail to all 248 family doctors from galati county, romania. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 68 the response rate obtained in the trial was 17.33%, comparable with other surveys and lower than those from the general population. the sample is representative for the gp population in this area and the distribution of the respondents was as expected taking into account age, location and number of patients. the rural-urban distribution of praxis location is 58.1% and 48.9%; 55.9% of the respondents were over 45 years old and 39.5 percent had a praxis between 1500 and 2000 patients. data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using excel software from microsoft office package and for a population proportion of 3%; the confidence level was better than 95% (confidence interval 3% ± 4.64%). 3. results asked about the understanding of the regulatory process involving a psychiatric patient (“when to treat on his own practice? when to refer to a psychiatric consult? when to indicate hospitalization? when to refer the patient to a psychologist? when to contact social services?”), over one quarter of family doctors admit that they do not really know the optimum path. very goodpretty good not reallyno figure 1. knowledge of psychiatric case path this shows that the administrative hyperregulations in the contract with the health insurance houses do not have the role of improving the quality of the medical act in the case of psychiatric patients at the level of primary care. asked about the usefulness of standardized psychiatric questionnaires in family medicine, only 2.3% of family doctors consider them unnecessary, 34.9% would accept them unconditionally and the rest under certain conditions (only for screening, paid additionally, integrated in their medical software) agree, very useful agree only for screening agree for all cases where i suspect a pathology agree only if paid only agree if integrated in software i don’t agree, it’s useless figure 2. opinion about psychiatric questionnaires adapted for primary care the main barriers to the optimal management of psychiatric pathology at the level of primary care were: poor communication with psychiatrist not enough time 25.6 % 55.8 % 18.6 % 16.3 % 18.6 % 18.6 % 9.3 % 34.9 % a. pleșea-condratovici, s. lungu, m. mutică, c. pleșea-condratovici mental health and family medicine: between scylla and charybdis 69 lack of knowledge patients have more important diseases other problems figure 3. major barriers treating a psychiatric case at the primary care level 65% of family doctors consider the lack of time one of the major obstacles to optimal patient management at primary care level. psychiatric counseling is time consuming and the number of consultations settled by the health insurance house is limited to 20 daily for physicians with under 2000 patients. 23.3% of surveyed family doctors consider the better management of psychiatric cases in their cabinets an obstacle, given that they have to prioritize somatic conditions with a potential threat to the life of the patient. 58% of family doctors blame poor communication with the psychiatrist. this is a consequence of both lack of time due to overworking, but it is also a product of defective regulation, the medical letter being an administrative tool in the first place. the lack of necessary knowledge in the field of psychiatry is admitted by 53.5% of physicians questioned as one of the causes. this is a consequence of the need to prioritize consultations according to the ability to complete them. a completed consultation involves both the ability to diagnose and prescribe the treatment. prescription limitations for psychiatric medications decrease the physician's interest in this area of pathology, preferring to improve their medical knowledge in areas where this knowledge can be used resolving the case at the family medicine cabinet level. family brings him for behavioral disorders, personality changes the patient came on his / her own initiative the patient presents to you already diagnosesd by a psychiatrist (direct presentation to private clinics, ambulance, etc.) figure 4. gatekeeping psychiatric cases one of the free comments to this question very well synthesizes one of the main barriers: “the lack of certain skills in psychiatry, from the health insurance agency’s point of view, which deprived us of our doctor quality and competence and transformed us into civil servants, mere transcribers of medical letters. we don’t have the liberty of judging by skills and training each medical case anymore, all of them are in line with the contract’s implementing regulations, thus amputating our profession… and the rest of the specialties were affected similarly, it has ripped them from the medical trunk and left them as branches at best, or leaves into the wind...”. 26.5% of family doctors say that, most often than not, a new psychiatric patient comes to a family doctor already diagnosed by a psychiatrist (taken by the ambulance, direct address to the private cabinet, addressing directly emergency room, etc.), bypassing the gp filter. this percentage shows that the role of the gps as gatekeepers is mostly formal and psychiatric diagnosis, primary and secondary prevention are not done early by gp as would be desirable. questioned whether they prescribe psychotropic drugs on simple prescriptions without reimbursement as an act of their own will and knowledge, without the treatment initiated by a psychiatrist, 23.3 % 25.6 % 51.2 % brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 70 the majority of family doctors (53.5%) stated they never prescribed psychiatric medicines without reimbursement, at their own will. however, 18.6% of family doctors are prescribing psychiatric drugs on their own rarely and 27.9 % frequently. rarely never frequently figure 4. psychiatric drugs initialization these data should be taken into account as there are differences in the status of rural, urban and suburban doctors [6]. in remote rural areas, the family doctor is the only health care provider. it is important to keep in mind that the rural population is pauper and that the psychiatric patient generally has limited financial resources and access to the psychiatrist as for the rural patient that is more difficult and costlier, and there are also transportation costs. in this situation, the family doctor is more likely to assume psychiatric treatment, especially in cases where the necessary medication is not expensive. this explains the polarization between physicians who do not initiate psychiatric medication at all and those who are doing it frequently. 79.1% of the surveyed doctors considered that giving up the need for medical letters and granting the right to initiate psychiatric compensation in cases like mild depression, panic attack, and insomnia would be better for their patients. however, almost one third of questioned family doctors do not agree to this transfer of responsibility, considering it the psychiatrist's job. i agree, much better for the patient, at least for usual and cheap medication agreed, it would be much better for the patient i do not agree, it's the psychiatrist's job figure 5. giving up restrictions 4. discussion the level of gatekeeping is a health system decision and varies widely between countries. it ranges from free access to specialists, a need to obtain a referral from a gp to access a specialist (such as in australia), or an option to skip the gp by paying a private specialist. in the u.s., gatekeeping inaccess to specialists has been common for many years, and the affordable care act introduced in 2010 did not change any gatekeeping policies. in general, in medical systems where family doctors do not have a gatekeeping role, the only option in their relation with the psychiatrist is either competing or collaborating. 27.9% 53.5% 18.6% 16.3% 20.9% 62.8% a. pleșea-condratovici, s. lungu, m. mutică, c. pleșea-condratovici mental health and family medicine: between scylla and charybdis 71 in case gps benefit from the presence of specialists, the services provided by these health professionals can be considered as complementary. when gps are harmed by the presence of specialists, competition for patients seems to dominate the interaction between the health providers [7]. in romania, direct access to secondary level medical care is possible for some pathologies, including psychiatric ones as stipulated in the “list containing the diseases that allow direct presentation to the specialist physician in the specialized ambulatory. 22. psychiatric illnesses (schizophrenia diagnosis group, schizotypal and delusional disorders, mood disorder, autism, adhd, mental illness in children)” of the implementing rules of the framework contract. gatekeeping ensures that patients see specialists only for conditions that could not be managed by a gp and are referred to an appropriate specialist, hence saving specialists time for more complex cases (greenfield, et al, 2016). there are no cited cases in medical literature to analyze what happens if doctors (gps in our case) are excluded from an entire therapy field and that makes us think that such a situation never happened before. we found only one study in which short term effect of reimbursement restriction in benzodiazepines (to help the switch for modern ssri) seem to lower the rate of anxiety and sleepy disorder diagnoses [8]. romanian mds could neither gatekeep nor compete psychiatrists because they could not manage a case alone as they do not have the knowledge, motivation and possibility to prescribe psychiatric medication. particular strengths of this study were not only the sample size, but the comprehensive coverage of information about health policy regulatory limitations, possible by using open questions and commentaries in questionnaires. the study had some limitations: despite the response rate, the sample may not be entirely representative even for galati county as internet related activity is not favored by doctors after a certain age. older doctors are not very well represented in this research, only 7% in 55-60-year category and 2.3% over 60 years responded, even if official statistics shows that the average age of a romanian gp is 55 years. even if the situation is general and we do not see any reasons why it would differ in the other regions of the country, an assessment at the level of the other counties is necessary to extend the conclusions at national level. 5. conclusions lessons learned from the evaluation of the effects of pharmaceutical policies in one country may provide important information for policy makers and regulators in other countries. long term effects on hyper restrictive pharmaceutical reimbursement policy in an area leads to deprofessionalization of the targeted doctors, lack of knowledge and interest in prevention, underdiagnosis, unnecessary referrals and overuse of hospital services finally affecting the patient. a possible solution is that, rather than focusing on the “gate” (who controls it and to what extent), we should switch to focus on more collaborative work between gps and specialists with patients, as the most important stakeholder, taking ownership of their health. an integrated work environment between gps and specialists may generate a common sense of purpose [9]. 6. conflicts of interest the author declares no conflict of interest. references 1. lupu vv, ignat a, stoleriu g, ciubara ab, ciubara a, lupu v, burlea m, stratciuc s. vaccination of children in romania between civic obligation and personal choice. rcis (revista de cercetaresiinterventiesociala). 2017;56:123-132 2. falup-pecurariu, oana et al (2017) effects of prophylactic ibuprofen and paracetamol administration on the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of the 10-valent pneumococcal non-typeable haemophilus influenzae protein d conjugated vaccine (phid-cv) coadministered with dtpa-combined vaccines in children: an open-label, randomized, controlled, non-inferiority trial human vaccines & immunotherapeutics; 13 (3): 649-660; doi: 10.1080/21645515.2016.1223001 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 72 3. duceac, letitia-doina stafie, liviu valeanu, ioana pa, mitrea geta, baciu ginel, banu elena-ariela, romila laura, luca alina-costina (2018) sepsis in paediatrics – a special form of infection associated to medical assistance international journal of medical dentistry; 22 (3): 229-235 4. oecd/european observatory on health systems and policies (2017), romania: country health profile 2017, state of health in the eu, oecd publishing, paris/european observatory on health systems and policies, brussels. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264283534-en isbn 9789264283534 (pdf) series: state of health in the eu issn 25227041 (online) 5. mutica m, marinescu i, pirlogm.c, marinescud, untui, ciubara a. (2015). characteristics of cognitive disorders in schizophrenia and their relation to the social, familial and professional adaptation level. revista de cercetaresiinterventiesociala, 51, 56-63 . 6. lionis, c.,dumitra g.,kurpas d.“building research capacity in rural health settings: barriers, priorities and recommendations for practitioners”, australian journal of rural health, 2018, 26-4 300-302, https://doi.org/10.1111/ajr.12422 7. schaumanscatherine, 2008. "strategic interaction between general practitioners and specialists: implications for gatekeeping”, working papers department of economics ces0810, ku leuven, faculty of economics and business, department of economics .https://ideas.repec.org/p/ete/ceswps/ces0810.html 8. hoebert, joëlle m. et al. “reimbursement restriction and moderate decrease in benzodiazepine use in general practice.” annals of family medicine 10.1 (2012): 42–49. pmc. web. 8 may 2018 9. pena-dolhun e, grumbach k, vranizan k, osmond d, bindman ab. unlocking specialists’ attitudes toward primary care gatekeepers. j fam pract2001;50:1032-7.pmid:11742603 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2019, volume 10, issue 4, pages: 73-99 | doi:10.18662/brain/06 second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji¹, naeemeh kharaghani2 1 department of english language teaching and translation, shahr-e-qods branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran, fakhraeelaleh@yahoo.com 2 department of english, quchan branch, islamic azad university, quchan, iran, naeemehkharaghani@gmail.com abstract: this study is motivated by robinson’s cognition hypothesis and aims to investigate the impact of task grading along reasoning demands dimension on syntactic complexity in english as foreign language writing. the participants of the study were 90 intermediate efl learners from three intact classes at, and a control group. at first, the students in all groups took part in the writing pre-test which was a picture story description task. next, the treatment sessions including 8 sessions of picture description task performance began, during which the first experimental group received a series of picture description tasks in a randomized order of cognitive complexity. the second experimental group received the same tasks, but ordered from simple to complex based on their required reasoning demands. the control group, however, did not receive any picture description tasks; rather they received some typical writing activities and performed extra writing tasks from the course book. finally, during the last session, the posttest was administered to all participants. the results of the data analysis through analysis of variances (anova) using the spss software showed a significant positive impact for sequencing tasks from simple to complex on syntactic complexity of iranian intermediate efl learners. keywords: cognition hypothesis; task complexity; reasoning demands; syntactic complexity; triadic componential framework (tcf). how to cite: faruji, l.f., kharaghani, n. (2019). second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(4), 73-99. doi:10.18662/brain/06 mailto:fakhraeelaleh@yahoo.com mailto:naeemehkharaghani@gmail.com brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 74 1. introduction due to their potential to help l2 learners to perform in real life conditions, pedagogic tasks have been greatly concerned by sla researchers, educationalists, and curriculum developers around the world (birjandi & ahangari, 2008; birjandi & seifoori, 2009; ellis, 2000, 2003, 2008; long, 1989; long & crookes, 1992; maftoon, birjandi & pahlavani, 2014; nunan, 1989, 1991, 2004; skehan, 1996; skehan & foster, 1997, among others). although there has been more attention to the application of pedagogic tasks (in comparison with linguistic units) in designing syllabi in new years, there has been no agreement among researchers about the criteria based on which tasks should be graded in the syllabus (romanko & nakatsugawa, 2010). robinson (2001a, 2001b, 2005, 2007b, and 2010) proposed a set of cognitively based criteria for task grading by developing the cognition hypothesis (ch). according to him, “task sequencing, should be done by designing tasks simple on all relevant parameters of task demands first, and then gradually increasing their cognitive complexity on subsequent versions” (robinson, 2010, p. 242). in fact, he mentioned that pedagogic tasks should be ordered based on the increase in their cognitive complexity in order to get more similar to the real-life tasks. the ch seeks to provide a rationale for sequencing tasks by drawing on the triadic componential framework (tcf). robinson‟s tcf distinguished “three dimensions which interact to influence task performance and learning: task complexity, task conditions and task difficulty, of which robinson suggested complexity factors as the major basis for pedagogic task sequencing in task-based syllabuses” (robinson, 2001a, 2001b, 2005, 2007b, 2010). in fact, he made distinction between two aspects of task complexity‟s dimensions which are resource-directing dimensions, and resource-dispersing. according to robinson (2010), increasing task complexity along resource-directing dimensions can increase learners' attention and efforts at producing complex syntactic structures. however, using the resourcedispersing dimensions besides intensifying task complexity relates to an enhanced ability to obtain and apply knowledge during performance. many researchers have checked robinson‟s hypothesis by controlling task complexity along diverse resource-directing and resourcedispersing dimensions such as: “ ± here and now” (gilabert guerrero, 2005; robinson, 1995; robinson, ting, & urwin, 1995), “ ± reasoning demand” second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 75 (iwashita, elder, & mcnamara, 2001), and “± few elements” (kuiken, mos, & vedder, 2005; kuiken & vedder, 2007). most of the previous studies testing robinson‟s hypothesis had only addressed the direct results of manipulating task complexity variables; “i.e. they involve one-off experiments that examine task complexity variables at a specific point in time” (ellis, 2005). nevertheless, there have been few researches investigating the effects of using a cycle of simple to complex tasks taking place over a longer period of time than a single classroom session (e.g. robinson, 2007a; thompson, 2014); therefore, this study aims at filling the mentioned gap by investigating the potential effects of sequencing tasks based on their cognitive complexity on l2 learners‟ writing task performance in terms of syntactic complexity. furthermore, although many studies have examined the relationship between task complexity and l2 oral task production, quite few reaserches have investigated the relationship between task complexity and writing task performance (kuiken & vedder, 2007; rahimpour & hosseini, 2010; salimi, dadashpour, & asadollahfam, 2011). hence, this study aims at investigating the potential results of manipulating task complexity on l2 learners‟ writing task performance in terms of syntactic complexity. 2. review of literature 2.1. theories of task complexity in tblt two models of task complexity in the field of second language acquisition (sla) have been developed. the first one was suggested by robinson (2001a, 2001b, 2003) which is called “cognition hypothesis” and the second one proposed by skehan (1996) as “trade-off hypothesis” (or the limited attentional capacity model). in this study, robinson‟s ch model (2001a, 2001b, 2003) was used. in what follows, the two models will be explained and the justification for choosing the robinson‟s ch will be explained. 2.1.1. robinson’s cognition hypothesis (ch) and its related tcf robinson (2001a, 2001b, 2003) distinguished two dimensions for task complexity. the first one refers to “resource-directing”, which guides learner‟s attention to special linguistic characteristics of a task, and the second one refers to “resource-dispersing” which lessens learner‟s attention on different parts of the tasks (robinson, 2003, p. 59). “reasoning demands” is an example for resource-directing dimension .in this situation, doing tasks does not require reasoning on the part of the learners, it only brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 76 requires simple communication of information and smaller amount of theoretical and linguistic attempt and resources .on the other hand, a task which requires reasoning demands requires a minimum cause-consequence subordination. robinson states that if cognitive complexity increases through this form of dimensions, attentional and memory resources will be directed to task completion and the result would be a more exact and complicated speech; however, fluency would be influenced negatively (robinson, 2003). having access to “planning time” during task performance could be an example of a resource-depleting variable. the reason lies on the fact that having no planning time leads to more complexity of a task since attentional resources would be directed over the different parts of the task. however this dimension prepares learners for real-life situations and it should be considered by syllabus designers. considering resource-dispersing dimensions, it has been predicted that the increase in task complexity would have a negative influence on all parts of l2 production but it will improve interaction (robinson, 2003). finally, ch claims that tasks‟ sequencing based on the degree of complexity forms the perfect situations for practice; therefore, it leads to achievements in automaticity (dekeyser, 2000), and “it helps the administrative processes of scheduling, and coordinating the component demands of complex tasks”. robinson improved the tcf in association with ch (robinson, 2001a; 2007b).tcf has differentiated factors among task complexity, task condition and task difficulty. in the following a plan of the ch, along with its elements will be presented .meanwhile, its organization into categories in the tcf (its different versions) will be discussed (robinson, 2001a, 2001b; robinson & gilabert, 2007). robinson (2001a) identified three main factors, which communicate to influence task performance and learning including; “task complexity”, “task difficulty”, and “task condition”. the first one deals with “task complexity”. these are represented as “dimensions, plus or minus a feature, but can also be thought of in some cases as continuums, along which relatively more of a feature is present or absent” (p. 293). these dimensions of complexity, according to him, are “design features of tasks”, and they can be manipulated to improve or decrease the cognitive demands of task performance. “for example, tasks which require simple description of events happening now, in a shared context (+here and now), where few elements (+few elements) have to be described and distinguished consume less amounts of attentional, memory and reasoning resources than tasks which second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 77 require reference to events that happened elsewhere (−here and now), in the past, where many elements have to be distinguished (−few elements), and where reasons have to be given to support statements made (+reasoning)” robinson (2001a). the second group of factors in the tcf includes factors contributing to “task difficulty” (robinson, 2001a). “task difficulty” can be affected by two different variables: (a) affective variables such as motivation, anxiety and confidence which could vary in a short period of time and (b) ability factors which can be evaluated in advance such as aptitude, proficiency and intelligence. these features are brought by learners to task performance and nothing can be done generally about them before the application of syllabus. as a result, “task condition” factors deal with the nature of the participation required on task (e.g., one-way or two-way information exchange, closed or open task solution), and also participant variables, such as (same or different gender in pairs or groups, or being previously familiar/unfamiliar with each other). robinson and gilabert (2007) believed that “gradually approximating target-task demands, by using increasingly complex pedagogic tasks, requires both developing an operational taxonomy for classifying target task features which can be used by task designers, and establishing some principles for sequencing these features, and combinations of them, in an order which approaches target-task demands”. according to them the taxonomic system for pedagogic task classification "should include categories of the design features of tasks that can be simulated and sequenced to promote further analysis and development of existing interlanguage knowledge in line with the target l2" (p. 163). to meet these criteria, robinson and gilabert (2007) added new parts to the current version of the tcf. the foundation of the model by robinson and gilabert (2007) was based on a difference between task complexity, task difficulty, and task conditions, and a subdivision within each category (table1). table 1. the triadic componential framework for task classification (adopted from robinson & gilabert, 2007) task complexity (cognitive factors task condition (interactive factors) task difficulty (learner factors) (classification criteria: cognitive demands) (classification criteria: interactional demands) (classification criteria: ability requirements) brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 78 (classification procedure: information-theoretic analyses) (classification procedure: behaviordescriptive analyses) (classification procedure: ability assessment analyses) (a)resource directing variables making cognitive/conceptual demands (b)participation variables making interactional demands (a)ability variables and task-relevant resource differentials +/-here and now +/-few elements -/+spatial reasoning -/+causal reasoning -/+intentional reasoning -/+perspective taking +/-open solution +/-one-way flow +/-convergent solution +/-few participants +/-few contributions needed +/-negotiation not needed h/l working memory h/l reasoning h/l task switching h/l aptitude h/l field independence h/l mind/intentionreading (b)resource-dispersing variables making performative/procedural demands (b)participant variables making interactant demands (b)affective variables and task-relevant statetrait differentials +/-planning time +/-single task +/-task structure +/-few steps +/-independency of steps +/-prior knowledge +/-same proficiency +/-same gender +/-familiar +/-shared content knowledge +/-equal status and role +/-share cultural knowledge h/l being ready to experience h/l feeling management h/l task inspiration h/l processing anxiety h/l willingness to communicate h/l self-efficacy considering the impact of task complexity on l2 production , a different analysis was presented by skehan based on the alternative limited attentional capacity model (1996).this model is going to be discussed in the next part. 2.1.2. skehan’s limited attentional capacity model considering the limited attentional capacity model (also called as the trade-off hypothesis), “cognitively demanding tasks require trade-offs from limited attentional resources” (skehan, 2003; skehan & foster, 1999). second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 79 a set of hypotheses about learners‟ differences in doing tasks with different cognitive complexity levels form the trade-off hypothesis (skehan, 2009). it is assumed that attentional capacity and working memory are limited, and since performance in each of the three areas of, complexity, accuracy, and fluency (caf), requires attention and working memory involvement, committing attentional resources to one area might cause lower performance in others. in other words there is a competition between form (complexity and accuracy) and fluency, and most importantly, there is a competition between complexity and accuracy in cases where cognitive complexity of tasks increases. this is the most important distinction between the trade-off hypothesis, and the cognition hypothesis, where the latter assumes that simultaneous progress of accuracy and complexity will happen when cognitive task complexity of the task input is increased. 2.2 justification for choosing the cognition hypothesis drawing on levkina's (2013) accounts on the benefits of using ch and its related tcf in empirical studies, the researcher provided some justifications for using this framework as a basis for design of this study: first, robinson‟s suggestion is based on studies in different fields such as sociology, psycholinguistics psychology and even economy. therefore, his idea is highly theory-driven and it is based on the ch. meanwhile, a well-planned tcf in association with ch has been restructured based on empirical studies as well as theoretical ones to provide more opportunities for empirical studies. while skehan (1996) elaborated on the factors that may influence performance on the tasks, robinson (2001a) presented a detailed program for doing research on tasks, which was highly supported by theory. based on this program, researchers have a clear picture of the framework which can help them to design an experiment based on task complexity, and rationalize their results based on theories. finally, the model organized the main characteristics of task into three main groups including: task conditions, task complexity, and task difficulty. through this organization, any confusion would be prevented when applying the theory into practice, particularly when “task complexity” is contrasted with “task difficulty”. so both researchers and syllabus designers could use the model. 2.3. reasoning demands as a variable of task complexity as mentioned previously, robinson (2001a, 2001b, 2005, 2007a, 2011) categorizes reasoning demands as a part of the resource-directing dimension of task complexity. getting incites from first language acquisition brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 80 studies and psychological research, robinson (2011) identified three aspects of reasoning, including: “spatial, intentional, and causal reasoning” (p. 15). in some studies, researchers attempted to distinguish different types of reasoning demands (spatial reasoning, i.e., reasoning about distance and position in physical space; intentional reasoning, i.e., reasoning about motives and intentions of people; and causal reasoning, i.e., reasoning about causes and effects of events), however, in other studies no distinction were made due to the fact that the distinction is very delicate, especially between intentional and causal reasoning. the claim about "intentional reasoning" was originated from first language acquisition research. intentional reasoning entails “reasoning about, and successfully understanding (intention-reading) the motives, beliefs and thoughts which cause people to perform actions” (robinson, 2007a, p. 194), “which has been a much studied subject in both developmental and differential cognitive psychology, and in theories of the relationship between language and thought in child development”. shatz, wellman and silber (1983) mentions that” the ability to represent, conceptualize and reason about psychological, mental states has been called a person‟s theory of mind” which “frames and interprets perceptions of human behavior in a particular way; as perceptions of agents who can act intentionally and who have feelings, desires and beliefs that guide their actions” (malle 2005, as cited in robinson, 2007a). lee and rescola (2002) found that cognitive state terms (e.g., think, know) emerged later in children than physiological (e.g., sleepy), emotional (e.g., happy), and desire terms (e.g., want). they also represented that the application of psychological, cognitive state terms was related considerably and positively with the use of complex syntax in child development using measures from scarborough‟s (1990) “index of productive syntax (ipsyn)”. in l2 english, as robinson (2011) proposed, “the same process happens; in other words, tasks which require complex reasoning about the intentional states that motivate others to perform actions can be expected to draw the use of cognitive state terms for reference to other minds”. there have been a number of studies on intentional reasoning in oral modality (e.g. baralt, 2010; choong, 2011; kim, 2009; lee, 2002; nuevo, 2006; révész, 2011; robinson, 2000, as cited in robinson, 2005, among others). however, of the small group of studies on cognitive task complexity and writing, the work of choong (2014), frear (2014), kuiken, mos, and vedder (2005), kuiken and vedder (2007, 2008, 2011, 2012), masrom, alwi, and daud (2015), and sercu, de wachter, peters, kuiken, and vedder (2006) manipulated task complexity along reasoning demands dimension; in fact, second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 81 some of these studies manipulated task complexity along both reasoning demands and number of elements. 2.4. measuring written task performance measurement considerations should be addressed as an important part of every study of the effect of task complexity on l2 task performance. in this part, issues related to the measurement of the writing task performance in terms of syntactic complexity will be addressed. according to foster and skehan (1996) complexity draws attention to the "progressively more elaborate language", as well as "a greater variety of syntactic patterning" (p.303). in general, high complexity is shown by using a wide variety of both simple and sophisticated grammatical structures, while low complexity is indicated by using only simple structures. the syntactic complexity measures were classified into three groups generally used across language-related fields (norris & ortega, 2009): “(a) measures based on length in which syntactic complexity is calculated by dividing words by a chosen production unit. (b) metrics that measure amount of subordination, in which syntactic complexity is calculated by counting all clauses and dividing them over a given production unit of choice, yielding, and (c) measures using a variety of formulas” devised in other fields in order to capture the variety, sophistication, and acquisitional timing of grammatical forms used in production, such as scarborough‟s (1990) index of productive syntax. norris and ortega (2009) emphasized that sla researchers should approach “syntactic complexity from a multidimensional perspective; in fact, at best, they should measure overall complexity (e.g. mean length of t-unit), complexity by subordination (e.g. mean number of clauses per t-unit), and complexity by sub-clausal or phrasal elaboration (e.g. mean length of clause)”. however, they argued that in order to choose one measure among others researchers should use measures that best fit the proficiency level of the subjects of their study; they mentioned that at beginning levels of development coordination is expected to be the most indicative source of complexification, whereas at intermediate levels subordination is a useful and powerful indicator of complexification. however, at higher levels, using more phrasal-level complexification is considered as a sign of syntactic complexification. considering the above mentioned literature, the present study designed to analyze the following research question and research hypothesis: brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 82 research question: does grading tasks based on their reasoning demands have any significant impact on efl learners‟ writing task performance in terms of syntactic complexity? null hypothesis: grading tasks based on their reasoning demands does not have any significant impact on efl learners‟ writing task performance in terms of syntactic complexity. 3. method 3.1. participants 90 students from three intact classes at islamic azad university, shahr-e-qods branch, participated in the study. their ages were between 2032 years and the participants were both male and female. they were selected from a larger group of 120 learners based on their performance on preliminary english test (pet). students who scored within the range of one standard deviation below and above the mean in the pet test were selected for the purpose of the study. they were b.a. students majoring in english language translation. during the study they were taking two-credit essay writing course. they were expected to have studied english for 7 years in junior and senior high school levels before entering university. the sample was assumed to represent the larger population of iranian university students, for they were from different provinces of iran and factors such as age and gender were randomly distributed. during the course, all the students studied the same text book “the practical writer” by bailey and powell (2009). 3.2. instruments to obtain the required data for this study, the following instruments were employed: 3.2.1. preliminary english test (pet) pet (preliminary english test, 2015); taken from the website http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/preliminary/exam-format, is made up of three papers developed to test the participants‟ english skills. it consists of three sections: reading and writing, listening, and speaking. for the purpose of this study just reading, writing and listening part were administered. http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/preliminary/exam-format second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 83 3.2.2. pre-test and post-test a cartoon picture description task adopted from abdollahzadeh and kashani (2011) was used as both the pre-test and post-test. the task involved writing a story based on a set of nine cartoon pictures. the selected picture story, although clearly structured with a chronologically ordered series of events, requires interpretation on the part of the learners because the character‟s motive for performing different actions is uncertain until the final picture. 3.2.3. picture arrangement (pa) subtest of wechsler adult intelligence scale, revised version (wais-r) the wechsler adult intelligence scale (wais) is a test of intelligence designed to determine cognitive ability in adults. the original wais was mentioned in wechsler (1955, as cited in https://www.wechsleradultintelligencescale.com/). “it is currently in its fourth edition (wais-iv) released in 2008, and is the most widely used iq test for both adults and older adolescents in the world. the wais-r, a revised form of the wais, was released in 1981 and consisted of six verbal and five performance subtests”. for the purpose of this study the picture arrangement (pa) subtest of wais-r was used to operationalize intentional reasoning demands. it is based on a set of pictures which increasingly require more reasoning ability in performing tasks about characters of motives and their intentions behind doing actions. 3.3. procedure in order to answer the research questions the following steps were taken in the current study: for the purpose of homogenizing the participants, a sample of pet was used to ensure that the participants were from almost the same general proficiency level. after the main administration of the test, the participants were given a score based on their performance and those participants whose scores were within the range of one standard deviation above and below the mean were chosen to participate in the study. the selected participants were distributed in three groups: experimental a, experimental b, and a control group; each consists of 30 students. during the first session, the students in all groups took part in the pre-test. a cartoon picture description task adopted from abdollahzadeh and kashani (2011) was used as the pre-test. the participants were required to write a narrative account for the cartoon picture in thirty minutes. from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cognitive_ability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/david_wechsler brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 84 the second session, the treatment sessions including 8 sessions of picture description task performance began, during which the first experimental group (experimental a) received a series of 8 picture description tasks in a randomized order of cognitive complexity; each in one session. the second experimental group (experimental b) received the same tasks, but this time the tasks were ordered from simple to complex based on their required reasoning demands; in other words the simplest task were administered in the first session and the most complex one was administered in the last session of the treatment. the control group, on the other hand, did not receive any picture description tasks; rather they received some typical writing activities and performed extra writing tasks from the course book. in fact, during the first forty five minutes of every session students in all groups received the writing lesson from the book based on a pre-specified syllabus, and write a paragraph or an essay about an agreed upon topic. they were supposed to revise their pieces of writing and give them to the instructor as their assignment for the next session. two of the students were required to copy their papers for the whole class to be corrected by the other students and the instructor during the next session. the treatment tasks were administered to the participants in the experimental groups during the second forty five minutes of the session time. during the second half of the class time, first linguistic input, in the form of phrases that would be helpful, but not essential, for completing the tasks, were provided to the students along with the set of pictures for each task. next, the students were given 30 minutes to perform the task during which they were allowed to use a persian to english dictionary. after that the correct arrangement of the pictures was provided to the learners along with a clear description of the story; therefore, the students became aware of their errors, and ask and answer questions regarding grammatical points and word choice. the questions were answered by either the other students or the instructor. finally, during the last session the posttest which was the same as the pretest was administered to the participants. 3.3.1 the treatment tasks most of the previous studies related to task complexity and writing had been cross-sectional studies that only required students‟ participation at one point in time. however, in this study the treatment tasks were sequenced to increase in complexity according to the claims of robinson‟s (2003) ch. this involved sequencing the tasks so they increased in complexity along the resource-directing dimensions by increasing the intentional reasoning demands of the tasks. second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 85 getting insights from robinson (2000, as cited in robinson, 2005) reasoning demands was operationalized by using a series of one-way, closed picture arrangement tasks. “the participants were asked to view a randomly ordered series of pictures showing characters performing different actions, and decide which chronological sequence they should be arranged into in order to depict a coherent story”. then they were supposed to provide a written account of the story that the order of pictures presented (based on the sequential order). reasoning demand was differentiated by using a set of least to most complex picture sequences from the pa subtest of the waisr. pa consists of ten tasks; the last eight of which were administered during the eight sessions of treatment. during the pa subtest, a set of pictures was used which increasingly require more reasoning ability in performing tasks about characters of motives and their intentions behind doing actions. the simplest chain was made by using three pictures showing three stages, or sequential actions, which are required in building a house with no justification about the thoughts or intentions of the people. on the other hand, the most difficult form can only be ordered successfully if intentions, motives and thoughts can be understood. based on robinson‟s description of different types of reasoning; the tasks were designed to measure intentional reasoning. to perform the data coding, among different measures of syntactic complexity, the measure of subordination, which is the most employed type of complexity measure in sla research, was employed in this study. the subordination measure which was employed in this study was the number of clauses per t-unit. a t-unit was defined as” an independent clause and its dependent clauses” (hunt, 1965, as cited in polio, 1997). since the ch argues that increasing task complexity along resourcedirecting dimensions such as intentional reasoning demands will necessitate the use of logical subordinators, this measure seemed to be the most appropriate of all measures of syntactic complexity. this measure is calculated using the following formula: number of clause/number of tunits the students‟ performances in writing were scored by two raters; both the researcher and another expert teacher, according to the performance measures of syntactic complexity. to increase the accuracy of the rating, the researcher repeated the rating. intera-rater reliability and interrater reliability with the second rater were calculated. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 86 4. results in order to answer the research question and to verify the null hypothesis, first the quality of the numerical data was analyzed with onesample kolmogorov-smirnov tests of normality. later, reliability of the estimates of syntactic complexity was investigated and homogeneity of the samples in terms of their members‟ language proficiency and writing ability was evaluated. then the effect of the treatment provided in each of the samples on the subjects‟ writing complexity was examined individually (with three wilcoxon signed rank tests) and later in comparison with the other groups (with two independent-samples kruskal-wallis hypothesis tests). tables 2 through 7 summarize results of the wilcoxon signed rank tests of the pretest and posttest of syntactic complexity in the samples. table 2. wilcoxon signed rank test of the pretest and posttest of writing complexity of the first experimental group total n 30 test statistic 465.000 standard error 48.602 standardized test statistic 4.6784 asymptotic sig.(2-sided test) .000 table 3. wilcoxon signed rank hypothesis test of writing complexity of the first experimental group hypothesis test summary null hypothesis test sig. decision 1 the median of differences between the pretest of writing complexity of the 1st experimental group and the posttest of writing complexity of the 1st experimental group equals 0. relatedsamples wilcoxon signed rank test .000 reject the null hypothesis. asymptotic significances are displayed. the significance level is .05. in tables 2 and 3, the two-sided asymptotic level of significance of the difference between the first experimental group members‟ writing complexity scores in the pretest and the posttest, which was (p =.000), was second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 87 smaller than the standard level of significance which was (p =.05); consequently, it was concluded that a statistically considerable improvement had happened in the first experimental group. table 4. wilcoxon signed rank test of the pretest and posttest of writing complexity of the second experimental group total n 30 test statistic 464.000 standard error 48.617 standardized test statistic 4.762 asymptotic sig.(2-sided test) .000 table 5. wilcoxon signed rank hypothesis test of writing complexity of the second experimental group hypothesis test summary null hypothesis test sig. decision 1 the median of differences between the pretest of writing complexity of the 2nd experimental group and the posttest of writing complexity of the 2nd experimental group equals 0. relatedsamples wilcoxon signed rank test .000 reject the null hypothesis. asymptotic significances are displayed. the significance level is .05. tables 4 and 5, on the other hand, suggest that there was a statistically significant difference between the second experimental group members‟ performance in the pretest and posttest of writing in terms of writing complexity. in other words, because the estimated level of significance of the difference between the two sets of scores was (p =.00), which was smaller than the standard level, it was proven that, like the case with the first experimental group, the treatment given in this group was statistically effective. table 6. wilcoxon signed rank test of the pretest and posttest of writing complexity of the control group total n 30 test statistic 374.000 standard error 41.611 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 88 standardized test statistic 4.446 asymptotic sig.(2-sided test) .000 table 7. wilcoxon signed rank hypothesis test of writing complexity of the control group null hypothesis test sig. decision 1 the median of differences between the pretest of writing complexity of the control group and the posttest of writing complexity of the control group equals 0. related-samples wilcoxon signed rank test .000 reject the null hypothesis. asymptotic significances are displayed. the significance level is .05. finally, exactly similar to the two experimental groups, the control group members who had not been provided with any picture description tasks improved significantly throughout this research. this conclusion was made since the estimated level of significance reported in tables 6 and 7 (i.e. p = .000) was less than the pre-specified level of significance ( = .05). subsequently, it was established that the members of the control group had enhanced their writing complexity. following inspection of the effect of the treatments given in each sample, the effect of the treatments on the three groups was compared comparatively. this was done with two nonparametric tests (i.e. independent samples kruskal-wallis tests) because the data being analyzed was not normal. tables 8, 9, 10 and 11 and figures 1, 2 and 3 summarize the findings of these statistical tests. table 8. independent-samples kruskal-wallis test of the pretest of writing complexity of the three groups total n 90 test statistic .422 degrees of freedom 2 asymptotic sig. (2-sided test) .810 second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 89 table 9. independent-samples kruskal-wallis test of the posttest of writing complexity of the three groups total n 90 test statistic 46.362 degrees of freedom 2 asymptotic sig. (2-sided test) .000 the test statistic is adjusted for ties. table 10. independent-samples kruskal-wallis hypothesis test of the three groups hypothesis test summary null hypothesis test sig. decision 1 the distribution of the pretest of writing complexity is the same across categories of group membership. independentsamples kruskal-wallis test .810 retain the null hypothesis. 2 the distribution of the posttest of writing complexity is the same across categories of group membership. independentsamples kruskal-wallis test .000 reject the null hypothesis. asymptotic significances are displayed. the significance level is .05. table 11. pairwise comparison of the independent-samples kruskal-wallis hypothesis test of the three groups sample 1 sample 2 test statistic std. error std. test statistic sig. adj.sig experimental group 1 (tasks used in a randomized order of cognitive complexity) – experimental group 2 (tasks sequenced based on their cognitive complexity) -31.417 6.734 -4.665 .000 .000 experimental group 1 (tasks used in a randomized order of cognitive complexity) – control 13.217 6.734 1.963 .050 .149 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 90 figure 1. independent-samples kruskal-wallis test of differences between the pretest of writing complexity in the three groups figure 2. independent-samples kruskal-wallis test of differences between the posttest of writing complexity in the three groups group (no picture description task) experimental group 2 (tasks sequenced based on their cognitive complexity) – control group (no picture description task) 44.633 6.734 6.628 .000 .000 each row tests the null hypothesis that the sample 1 and sample 2 distributions are the same asymptotic significances (2-sided tests) are displayed. the significance level is .05. second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 91 the next step to be taken was identification of the pairs of samples differences which had led to the observed dissimilarity. this was done using pairwise comparison of the independent-samples kruskal-wallis test shown in table 11 and figure 3. it is clearly specified in table 11 that the second experimental group was considerably better than the other two groups in terms of writing complexity. this conclusion was made because the adjusted levels of significance of the pairs of experimental group 1 – experimental group 2 and experimental group 2 – control group were both .000 which was less than .05. this is illustrated in figure 3. figure 3. pairwise comparison of differences between the posttest of writing fluency in the three groups it is clearly specified in table.11 that the second experimental group was considerably better than the other two groups in terms of writing complexity. this conclusion was made because the adjusted levels of significance of the pairs of experimental group 1 – experimental group 2 and experimental group 2 – control group were both (p = .000) which was less than .05. this is illustrated in figure 3. 5. discussion based on the results of the data analysis, the null hypothesis (i.e. “manipulating task complexity along reasoning demand does not have any significant impact on efl learners‟ writing task performance in terms of syntactic complexity”) was rejected. this is because, the second experimental group members performed better than the members of the other two brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 92 groups. in other words, manipulating task complexity along reasoning demand affects efl learners‟ writing syntactic complexity if tasks are sequenced on the basis of cognitive complexity. in the rest of this section first the compatibility of the results of the study with robinson's ch (2001a, 2001b, 2003) will be examined, and then the results of the study will be compared to and contrasted against some previous related studies. according to robinson (2003) “manipulating task complexity along resource-directing dimensions (e.g. the amount of reasoning) may direct attentional and memory resources to task completion and therefore generate more complex speech” (robinson, 2003). therefore, the findings of this study partially confirm the robinson's cognition hypothesis; in that, it provides further support for the positive impact of task complexity manipulation (along intentional reasoning demands dimension) on efl learners' writing complexity. there are some studies which have investigated the effect of manipulating task complexity along different resource-directing dimensions on different aspects of writing performance (choong, 2014; frear, 2014; frear & bitchener, 2015; ishikawa, 2006; kuiken & vedder, 2007; masrom et al., 2015; rahimpour & hosseini, 2010, and sercu et al., 2006). the results of this study are to some extent in line with ishikawa‟s findings (2006) who concluded that increasing task complexity with respect to resource-directing dimension of (+/-here and now) improved written language productions‟ complexity. on the other hand, the findings are in opposition with the results of rahimpour and hosseini (2010) who analyzed the influence of task complexity along the resource directing dimensions of (+/-here-and-now and +/-contextual support) and demonstrated no significant effect for complexity on writing performance. among these studies choong (2014), frear (2014), kuiken and vedder (2007) and sercu et al. (2006) manipulated task complexity along the same resource directing dimension as this study (i.e. reasoning demands). however, it has to be mentioned that none of these studies manipulated task complexity along a period of time; in fact, they manipulated task complexity in one-shot studies by providing the learners with two or more versions of the same task (with different degrees of complexity) during a single session. except for this research there has been paucity of research directed specifically at the effect of a cycle of simple to complex versions of a task taking place over a longer period of time (e.g. robinson, 2007a; thompson, 2014); nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that both of these studies have been conducted in the oral mode of performance. in what follows, the second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 93 results of this study will be compared with previous studies which have been closer to this study. the results of the present study are partly similar to the results of the study done by masrom et al. (2015) in that they showed task complexity significantly improved syntactic complexity of language production throughout “asynchronous computer-mediated communication (acmc) writing tasks”. however, their study was different from this study in that they analyzed the results of managing the resource directing dimension of (+/causal reasoning demand) and another resource dispersing dimension (+/task structure) simultaneously within computer-mediated communication. the results of this study also confirm the results of the studies done by abdollahzadeh and kashani's study (2011) who manipulated task complexity along resource-directing dimension of (+/-here and now); in that they reported significant positive impact for task complexity on complexity in writing performance. however, the findings of the present study were in contrast with frear (2014) study which manipulated task complexity along (+/reasoning demands and +/few elements) through using three letter writing tasks with low, medium, and high complexity which reported negative effect for task complexity on complexity in writing task performance. and among those studies which manipulated task complexity along the reasoning demands dimensions the results of this study are only in line with the findings of choong's (2014) and frear and bitchener (2015) studies that examined the impact of task complexity manipulation along reasoning demands on written production and reported significant positive impact for task complexity on syntactic complexity. 6. conclusion this study investigated the impact sequencing tasks based on the resource-directing dimension of intentional reasoning demands from simple to complex on writing task performance in terms of syntactic complexity. the findings of the study showed that the second experimental group members outperformed the other two groups. in other words, manipulating task complexity along the reasoning demands dimension positively affects efl learners‟ writing in terms of syntactic complexity if tasks are sequenced from simple to complex on the basis of their required reasoning demands. the goal of future research might be to address the limitations of this study to pursue future research objectives, and thereby extend the potential brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 94 significant theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications in l2 acquisition theory and practice. references abdollahzadeh, s., & kashani, f. a. (2011). the effect of task complexity on efl learners‟ narrative writing task performance. journal of english language teaching and learning, 8, 1-28. bailey, e. p., & powell, p. a. (2009). the practical writer (10th ed.). belmont, ca, u.s.a.:wadsworth baralt, m. (2010). task complexity, the cognition hypothesis, and interaction in cmc and ftf environments (doctoral dissertation, georgetown university, washington, u.s.a). retrieved from: https://repository.library. georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/553230/baraltmelissa.pdf?seque nce=1&isallowed=y birjandi, p., & ahangari, s. (2008). effects of task repetition on the fluency, complexity and accuracy of iranian efl learners‟ oral discourse. asian efl journal, 10(3), 28-52. retrieved from: https://www.asian-efljournal.com/main-journals/effects-of-task-repetition-on-the-fluencycomplexity-and-accuracy-of-iranian-efl-learners-oral-discourse/ birjandi, p., & seifoori, z. (2009). the effect of training and task-planning on the complexity of iranian learners‟ oral speech. journal of english language pedagogy and practice,, 2(4), 57-80. retrieved from: http://jal.iaut.ac.ir/article_524141.html choong, k. p. (2011). task complexity and linguistic complexity: an exploratory study. teachers college, columbia university working papers in tesol & applied linguistics, 11(1), 1-28. choong, k. p. (2014). effects of task complexity on written production in l2 english (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from http://gigalib.org/index.aspx dekeyser, r. m. (2000). the robustness of critical period effects in second language acquisition. studies in second language acquisition, 22, 499-533. retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b69e/ 79182e91beda071b1b68ba4ffe7c544193ff.pdf ellis, r. (2000). task-based research and language pedagogy. language teaching research, 4(3), 193-220. doi:10.1177/136216880000400302 ellis, r. (2003). task-based language teaching and learning. oxford, the united kingdom of great britain: oxford university press. ellis, r. (2005). measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of second language: a psychometric study. studies in second language acquisition, 27(2), 141-172. doi:10.1017/s0272263105050096 https://www.asian-efl-journal.com/main-journals/effects-of-task-repetition-on-the-fluency-complexity-and-accuracy-of-iranian-efl-learners-oral-discourse/ https://www.asian-efl-journal.com/main-journals/effects-of-task-repetition-on-the-fluency-complexity-and-accuracy-of-iranian-efl-learners-oral-discourse/ https://www.asian-efl-journal.com/main-journals/effects-of-task-repetition-on-the-fluency-complexity-and-accuracy-of-iranian-efl-learners-oral-discourse/ http://jal.iaut.ac.ir/article_524141.html https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b69e/%0b79182e91beda071b1b68ba4ffe7c544193ff.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b69e/%0b79182e91beda071b1b68ba4ffe7c544193ff.pdf second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 95 ellis, r. (2008). the study of second language acquisition. oxford, the united kingdom of great britain: oxford university press. foster, p., & skehan, p. (1996). the influence of planning and task type on second language performance. studies in second language acquisition, 18(3), 299-323. doi:10.1017/s0272263100015047 frear, m.w. (2014). the effects of cognitive task complexity on writing (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/ handle/10292/7309 frear, m. w., & bitchener, j. (2015). the effects of cognitive task complexity on writing complexity. journal of second language writing, 30, 45-57. gilabert guerrero, r. (2005). task complexity and l2 narrative oral production (doctoral dissertation, universitat de barcelona, barcelona, spain). retrieved from: http://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/1662 ishikawa, t. (2006). the effect of manipulating task complexity along the [here-and now] dimension on l2 written narrative discourse. in m. d. p. garciamayo (ed.), investigating tasks in formal language learning (pp.136-156). clevedon, the united kingdom of great britain: multilingual matters. iwashita, n., mcnamara, t., & elder, c. (2001). can we predict task difficulty in an oral proficiency test? exploring the potential of an information processing approach to task design. language learning, 51(3), 401–436. doi:10.1111/0023-8333.00160 kim, y. (2009). the effects of task complexity on learner-learner interaction. system, 37(2), 254–268. doi:10.1016/j.system.2009.02.003 kuiken, f., mos, m., & vedder, i. (2005). cognitive task complexity and second language writing performance. eurosla yearbook, 5, 195-222. doi:10.1075/eurosla.5.10kui kuiken, f., & vedder, i. (2007). task complexity and measures of linguistic performance in l2 writing. international review of applied linguistics, 45(3), 261-284. doi:10.1515/iral.2007.012 kuiken, f., & vedder, i. (2008). cognitive task complexity and written output in italian and french as a foreign language. journal of second language writing, 17(1), 48-60. doi:10.1016/j.jslw.2007.08.003 kuiken, f., & vedder, i. (2011). task performance in l2 writing and speaking: the effect of mode. in p. robinson (ed.), second language task complexity: researching the cognition hypothesis of language learning and performance (pp. 91– 104). amsterdam, netherlands: john benjamin. kuiken, r., & vedder, i. (2012). syntactic complexity, lexical variation and accuracy as a function of task complexity and proficiency level in l2 writing and speaking. in a. housen, f. kuiken, & i. vedder (eds.). dimensions of l2 performance and proficiency: complexity, accuracy and fluency in sla (pp.143-169). amsterdam, netherlands: john benjamins. http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/%0bhandle/10292/7309 http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/%0bhandle/10292/7309 http://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/1662 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 96 lee, y. g. (2002). effects of task complexity on the complexity and accuracy of oral production in l2 korean (doctoral dissertation, university of hawai„i at manoa, honolulu, u.s.a.). retrieved from http://thesis1gigalib/docview/276045459 lee, e., & rescorla, l. (2002). the use of psychological state terms by late talkers at age 3. applied psycholinguistics, 23(4), 623-641. doi:10.1017/s014271640200406x levkina, m. (2013). the role of task sequencing in l2 development as mediated by working memory capacity (doctoral dissertation, universitat de barcelona, barcelona, spain). retrieved from: http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/ bitstream/2445/54846/1/levkina_phd_thesis.pdf long, m. (1989). task, group and task-group interactions. retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed366184.pdf long, m. h., & crookes, g. (1992). three approaches to task‐based syllabus design. tesol quarterly, 26(1), 27-56. doi:10.2307/3587368 maftoon, p., birjandi, p., & pahlavani, p. (2014). the impact of using computeraided argument mapping (caam) on the improvement of writing achievement of iranian learners of english. theory and practice in language studies, 4(5), 982-988. doi:10.4304/tpls.4.5.982-988 masrom, u. k., alwi, n., & daud, n. m. (2015). the effects of task complexity on the complexity of the second language written production. journal of second language teaching & research, 4(1), 38-66. nuevo, a. m. (2006). task complexity and interaction: l2 learning opportunities and development (doctoral dissertation, georgetown university, washington, dc., u.s.a.). retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/ profile/ana_maria_nuevo/publication/275969754.pdf norris, j. m., & ortega, l. (2009). towards an organic approach to investigating caf in instructed sla: the case of complexity. applied linguistics, 30(4), 555-578. doi:10.1093/applin/amp044 nunan, d. (1989). designing tasks for the communicative classroom. cambridge, the united kingdom of great britain: cambridge university press. nunan, d. (1991). communicative tasks and the language curriculum. tesol quarterly, 25(2), 79-295. nunan, d. (2004). task-based language teaching. cambridge, the united kingdom of great britain: cambridge university press. preliminary english test (pet). (2015). retrieved march 2016 from http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/preliminary/exam-format polio, c. g. (1997). measures of linguistic accuracy in second language writing research. language learning, 47(1), 101-143. http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/%0bbitstream/2445/54846/1/levkina_phd_thesis.pdf http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/%0bbitstream/2445/54846/1/levkina_phd_thesis.pdf http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/preliminary/exam-format second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 97 rahimpour, m., & hosseini, p. (2010). the impact of task complexity on l2 learners‟ written narratives. english language teaching, 3(3), 198-205. retrieved from: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/ uq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pairid=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnvca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3 brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ewa48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylm dbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbhpjqi7b~sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2 qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra __ revesz, a. (2011). task complexity, focus on l2 constructions, and individual differences: a classroom-based study. modern language journal, 95(1), 162181. doi:10.2307/41413425 robinson, p. (1995). introduction: connecting tasks, cognition and syllabus design. in peter robinson (ed.), task complexity and second language syllabus design: data-based studies and speculations [special issue] university of queensland working papers in language and linguistics, 1(1), 1-16. brisbane: cltr. retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/3877258/ task_complexity_and_second_language_syllabus_design_databased_studies_and_speculations robinson, p. (2001a). task complexity, cognitive resources, and syllabus design: a triadic framework for examining task influences on sla. in p. robinson (ed.), cognition and second language instruction (pp. 287-318). cambridge, the united kingdom of great britain: cambridge university press. robinson, p. (2001b). task complexity, task difficulty, and task production: exploring interactions in a componential framework. applied linguistics, 22(1), 27-57. doi:10.1093/applin/22.1.27 robinson, p. (2003). the cognition hypothesis, task design, and adult task-based language learning. second language studies, 21(2), 45-105. retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228554259_the_cognition_hy pothesis_task_design_and_adult_task-based_language_learning robinson, p. (2005). cognitive complexity and task sequencing: studies in a componential framework for second language task design. international review of applied linguistics, 43(1), 1–32. doi:10.1515/iral.2005.43.1.1 robinson, p. (2007a). task complexity, theory of mind, and intentional reasoning: effects on l2 speech production, interaction, and perceptions of task difficulty. international review of applied linguistics in language teaching, 45, 191-213. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/%0buq_229448/uq229448_oa.pdf?expires=1576103156&key-pair-id=apkajknbj4mjbjnc6nlq&signature=n~-jncezsd-wnnv-ca41qmvf9ksuf9s7lgyy~jbbsafgbtwdtd3jpsjkmurhqshesj6bm3brtcmig-bzfwoluke4ntedeuyylkz8u3fzgikszfmpqnb1ew-a48u5dkedxea7hrcsbca2i7tlt5ut8bkdpdhj4nkb~i3kl7w9xdhaylmdbqphdmvwfyt9nbuf-jpzww7xuf1uylku3w64qj2gayxngpzlbh-pjqi7b~-sjwxmci556slh~nef1nlhdbyzjoefxcguyufuwmrhbnrautk~fwtq2qx~yzenzaurjtxle0a4lrykn4belbhy2fn8p9gq8yk~soogprs~ra__ https://www.academia.edu/3877258/%0btask_complexity_and_second_language_syllabus_design_data-based_studies_and_speculations https://www.academia.edu/3877258/%0btask_complexity_and_second_language_syllabus_design_data-based_studies_and_speculations https://www.academia.edu/3877258/%0btask_complexity_and_second_language_syllabus_design_data-based_studies_and_speculations https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228554259_the_cognition_hypothesis_task_design_and_adult_task-based_language_learning https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228554259_the_cognition_hypothesis_task_design_and_adult_task-based_language_learning brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 98 robinson, p. (2007b). criteria for classifying and sequencing pedagogic tasks. in m. g. mayo (ed.), investigating tasks in formal language learning (pp. 7-27). clevedon, the united kingdom of great britain: multilingual matters. robinson, p. (2010). situating and distributing cognition across task demands: the ssarc model of pedagogic task sequencing. in m. putz & l. sicola (eds.), cognitive processing in second language acquisition: inside the learner’s mind (pp. 243268). amsterdam, netherlands: john benjamins. robinson, p. (2011). second language task complexity, the cognition hypothesis, language learning, and performance. in p. robinson (ed.), researching task complexity: task demands, task-based language learning and performance (pp. 3-38). amsterdam, netherlands: john benjamins. robinson, p., & gilabert, r. (2007). task complexity, the cognition hypothesis, second language learning and performance. international review of applied linguistics, 45(3), 161-177. robinson, p., ting, s., & urwin, j. j. (1995). investigating second language task complexity. relc journal, 26(2), 62–79. romanko, r., & nakatsugawa, m. (2010). task sequencing based on the cognition hypothesis. in a. m. stoke (ed.), jalt2009 conference proceedings (pp. 436445). tokyo, japan: jalt. salimi, a., dadashpour, s., & asadollahfam, h. (2011). the effect of task complexity on efl learners' written performance. social and behavioral sciences, 29, 1390–1399. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.378 scarborough, h. (1990). index of productive syntax. applied psycholinguistics, 11(1), 1–22. doi:10.1017/s0142716400008262 sercu, l., de wachter, l., peters, e., kuiken, f., & vedder, i. (2006). the effect of task complexity and task conditions on foreign language development and performance: three empirical studies. itl-review of applied linguistics, 152(1), 55–84. doi:10.2143/itl.152.0.2017863 shatz, m., wellman., & silber, s. (1983). the acquisition of mental verbs: a systematic investigation of first references to mental states. cognition, 14(3), 301-321. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(83)90008-2 skehan, p. (1996). a framework for the implementation of task-based instruction. applied linguistics, 17(1), 38-62. doi:10.1093/applin/17.1.38 skehan, p. (2003). task-based instruction. language teaching, 36(1), 1-14. doi:10.1017/s026144480200188x skehan, p. (2009). modelling second language performance: integrating complexity, accuracy, fluency and lexis. applied linguistics, 30(4), 510-532. doi:10.1093/applin/amp047 second language task grading and syntactic complexity in writing laleh fakhraee faruji et al. 99 skehan, p., & foster, p. (1997). task type and task processing conditions as influences on foreign language performance. language teaching research, 1(3), 185-211. doi:10.1177/136216889700100302 skehan, p., & foster, p. (1999). the influence of task structure and processing conditions on narrative retellings. language learning, 49(1), 93-120. doi:10.1111/1467-9922.00071 the wechsler adult intelligence scale (wais). (n.d.). retrieved march (2016) from https://www.wechsleradultintelligencescale.com/. thompson, c. (2014). guided planning, task complexity and second language oral development. [doctoral dissertation]. preston, united kingdom of great britain: university of central lancashire. retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/28233565/_2014_guided_planning_task_com plexity_and_second_language_oral_development biodata laleh fakhraee faruji received her m.a. in tefl (teaching english as a foreign language) from islamic azad university, north tehran branch (2008), ph.d. in tefl, islamic azad university, science and research branch (2017). now she is an assistant professor of tefl at islamic azad university, shahr-e-qods branch. she has been teaching different courses of tefl at undergraduate and graduate levels. she has written and co-authored more than 10 articles in national and international journals. her areas of interest include: sla, cognitive psychology, and curriculum development. naeemeh kharaghani is an assistant professor at quchan azad university. she got her phd in tefl from islamic azad university, science and research branch, tehran, iran. her areas of interest are sla, psycholinguistics and language teaching. \ https://www.academia.edu/28233565/_2014_guided_planning_task_complexity_and_second_language_oral_development https://www.academia.edu/28233565/_2014_guided_planning_task_complexity_and_second_language_oral_development microsoft word issue-4.docx 17 prediction of psychological well-being based on islamic lifestyle and coping strategies in patients with major thalassemia in tehran asghar ghorbani dr., pediatrician and assistant professor tehran university of medical sciences office of vice-chancellor for global strategies and international affairs, 21, dameshgh st., vali-e asr ave., tehran 1416753955, iran phone: (+98 21) 8889 6692 bartar.article@gmail.com parastoo rahimi m. a. student degree on general psychology faculty of humanities and social sciences, department of psychology isamic azad university, science and research branch science and research branch, daneshgah blvd, simon bulivar blvd, 14515/775, tehran phone: 44865179-82 & 44865154-8 marjan amoo khalili islamic azad university, roudehen branch researcher in mysticism and ethic philosophy of indian religions and ibrahimi religions po box: 189, roudehen, tehran, iran phone: (+9821)76505015-24 (+9821)76505891-9 mojtaba ebrahimi md, thalassemia center of i.b.t.o, iran abstract background: this study aimed to predict psychological well-being based on islamic lifestyle and coping strategies in patients with thalassemia major in tehran. method: the present study was categorized as descriptive research (correlation type) as the research method. because the aim of the research was to determine the contribution and role of each of the predictor variables in estimating and predicting the criterion variable. for this purpose, this study included all major thalassemia patients referring to zafar thalassemia clinic and thalassemia department of baharlo hospital in tehran. results:according to the results, coping strategies (coping focused on cognitive assessment, coping focused on problem solving, emotion-focused coping, social support, and coping focused on physical inhibition) have significantly improved psychological well-being in people with major thalassemia disease, as predicted, and also the islamic lifestyle significantly predicted psychological well-being in people with major thalassemia. conclusion: among coping strategies, coping focused on problem-solving, coping focused on positive cognitive assessment, coping focused on emotion and coping with physical inhibition for significant negative psychological well-being in patients with thalassemia major the study predicted and found that the islamic lifestyle has a positive psychological well-being in patients with thalassemia major. keywords: islamic lifestyle, major thalassemia, coping strategies, psychological well-being. 1. introduction the world health organization (2002) identified thalassemia as the most commonly diagnosed chronic genetic disorder among 60 countries, affecting the lives of 100,000 children a year. in our country, it is one of the most commonly encountered genetic cases (akbarbaglo and habibpour, 2010, 2003). the world health organization, estimated the world's mental disorder, 11.5% in 1998. the statistics show that in 2020, the disorder will be up to 15%, and the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 18 disappointment and anxiety of humans will be a burden on the community. since the physical problems of these patients cause many mental and psychological problems, it is imperative that effective psychological well-being, such as islamic lifestyle and coping strategies, be considered and the necessary strategies to promote these patients be provided to patients and their families for comfort, and a positive step to increase the useful life and promotion of social performance and quality of life. in case of neglecting different physical, mental, and even economic dimensions, these people will experience many problems including social isolation, depression, anxiety, reduced social and educational performance, dissatisfaction with life, low life expectancy and even suicide. the hope for life and the belief in spiritual and transactional issues will increase the acceptance and the follow up of interventions by the individual. the present study was conducted with the aim of "predicting psychological well-being based on islamic lifestyle and coping strategies in major thalassemia patients in tehran". the overall aim of this study is to predict psychological well-being based on islamic lifestyle and coping strategies in patients with major thalassemia in tehran. the minor objectives of the research are: the prediction of psychological well-being based on coping strategies in patients with thalassemia in tehran; and prediction of psychological well-being based on islamic lifestyle in patients with thalassemia in tehran. to test the hypotheses, hierarchical multi-variable regression analysis was used. this research is categorized as a descriptive study type (correlation type). this research is categorized as a retrospective research in terms of research design. in terms of purpose and type of research, the present study was conducted in the applied research group. in this research, three questionnaires were used: the rief psychological well-being questionnaire (rpebs), the billings and meus coping strategies questionnaire, and the kaviani lifestyle lifestyle questionnaire, self-report. the participants responded with help from the researcher's explanations. the statistical population of this study was thalassemia major patients in tehran. people who did not have a history of psychiatric hospitalization and did not participate in workshops and psychology classes were included in the study. also, people aged 17 and above were studied. the paper's structure is as follows: in the next section, papers and studies that address this issue are reviewed. then, the research variables (mean, standard deviation, and internal consistency) are described. in the next section, the assumptions of regression analysis have been examined and finally the research hypotheses have been tested. in the final section, we will draw conclusions from the findings. 2. method in this study, 97 participants (64.7%) were women and 53 others (35.3%) were male. also, 32 participants (21.3%) were under 25 years of age, 35 of them (23.3%) were 26-30 years old, 37 (24.7%) were 31-35 years old and 46 (30.7%) were over 36 years old. it should be noted that the mean and standard deviation of the participants' age was 33.29 and 8.58, respectively. the level of education of 71 participants (47.3%) have diplomas and certificates, 20 (13.3%), 40 (26.7%) and 17 (12%) have master’s degrees and higher. in addition, 81 of the participants (54%) were single, 63 of them (42%) were married and 3 (2%) of them were with their spouses. it should be noted that three of the participants did not determine their marital status. in terms of job, 20 participants (13.3%) were unemployed, 25 (36.7%) employees, 29 (19.3%) were employed, 34 (22.7%) had household activities and three (2%) were retired. it is noteworthy that nine of the participants did not determine their job status. prior to testing the hypotheses, the mean, standard deviations and cronbach's alpha coefficients were coping strategies (coping focused on cognitive assessment, coping focused on problem solving, emotional focused coping, social support and coping focused focus on physical inhibition), the islamic lifestyle and psychological well-being are calculated and presented in table 1. a. ghorbani, p. rahimi, m. a. khalili, m. ebrahimi prediction of psychological well-being based on islamic lifestyle and coping strategies in patients with major thalassemia in tehran 19 table 1. mean, standard deviation and cronbach's alpha coefficient coping strategies, islamic lifestyle and psychological well-being variable mean standard deviation cronbach's alpha coping strategiesconflict focused on cognitive assessment 9.55 2.96 0.679 coping strategies-conflict focused on problem solving 5.75 1.89 0.613 coping strategies-conflict focused on excitement 14.93 5.28 0.810 coping strategies-focused counter proliferation of social support 6.33 2.05 0.694 coping strategies focused focus on physical inhibition of islamic life style 6.91 3.82 0.745 208.75 24.85 0.975 psychological well-being 76.16 9.29 0.763 table 1 shows the mean, standard deviation and cronbach's alpha coefficients of the research variables. as you can see, the cronbach alpha coefficient for all components of the present study is close to or above 0.7. this indicates the acceptable internal consistency of the questionnaires used to measure the variables of the present study. correlation coefficients between the variables of the research showed that coping strategies, three coping strategies focused on cognitive assessment, coping focused on problem solving and coping focused on gaining social support were positively and at a meaningful level of 0.01, and two focused coping strategies on excitement and coping focused on physical inhibition were negatively correlated with psychological well-being at a significant level of 0.01. also, islamic lifestyle was positively correlated with psychological well-being at a significant level of 0.01. table 2 shows the values of elongation, skewness, inflation factor variability (vif) and tolerance coefficient of research variables. table 2. stretch, skewness, tolerance coefficient and inflation variance of research variables variable skewness stretch coefficient of bearing variance inflation (vif) coping strategiesconflict focused on cognitive assessment 0.119 0.395 0.519 1.926 coping strategies-conflict focused on problem solving -0.208 0.190 0.635 1.575 coping strategies-conflict focused on excitement 0.772 0.162 0.750 1.333 coping strategies-focused counter proliferation of social support -0.069 -0.476 0.675 0.482 coping strategies focused focus on physical inhibition of islamic life style 0.836 0.190 0.895 1.117 -0.237 -0.417 0.630 1.586 psychological well-being 0.108 -0.082 criterion variable criterion variable in order to evaluate the assumption of the normalization of the single-valued distribution, the values of elongation and skidding were evaluated to determine the coherence assumption of the factor of inflation variance (vif) and coefficient of tolerance. as table 2 shows, the indexes of slip and elasticity of any of the components have not crossed the 2 ° boundary. therefore, it can be said that the distribution of data related to those components is normal. the results of table 2 show that the co-existence problem in the research variables has not occurred. because the tolerance coefficient for all predictive variables was higher than 0.1 and the inflation factor for variance of all brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 20 of them was less than 10. according to meyer, gamst and guarino (2006), the coefficients of tolerance of less than 0.1 and the factor of inflation variance greater than 10 represent a coherence. in order to test the independence of errors among the predictor variables, the value of the watson camera index was evaluated, the value of the index was 1.763. filed (2006) believes that the value of the watson camera index above 2 indicates a lack of independence of error. based on the value of the watson camera index value, it can be said that the assumption of the independence of errors is also found among the research data. one of the other assumptions of regression analysis is the normalization of multivariate distribution. analysis of data relating to "mahlonobyz distance (d)" and drawing its distribution curve showed that the combination of predictive variables is in explaining the normal criterion variable (figure 1). thus, it was concluded that the assumption of the normalization of multivariate distribution is also present among the data of the present study. figure 1. histogram and box plot diagrams for mahlonobay distance (d) 3. results we are now investigating research hypotheses. the first hypothesis is that coping strategies (coping focused on cognitive assessment, coping focused on problem solving, emotion-focused coping, social protection-focused coping and focused concenter on physical inhibition) significantly impart psychological well-being to people with major thalassemia. the second approach is that the islamic lifestyle significantly predicts psychological well-being in people with major thalassemia. the research hypotheses were tested using a multivariable regression analysis with hierarchical approach. in the first stage, coping strategies and in the second stage of islamic life style as predictive variables were analyzed. in this study, the psychological well-being of patients with thalassemia major was a criterion. table 3 shows the results of multivariable regression analysis in predicting the psychological well-being of patients with thalassemia major based on coping strategies and islamic lifestyle. table 3. hierarchical multivariate regression in predicting the psychological well-being of patients with thalassemia major based on coping strategies variables of first stage (coping strategies) b se β t significance level r2 adjr2 conflict focused on cognitive assessment 0.533 0.253 0.170 2.106 0.037 conflict focused on problem solving 0.990 0.357 0.202 2.769 0.006 conflict focused on excitement 0.456 0.118 0.259 3.856 0.001 coping with social support 0.324 0.319 0.072 1.015 0.312 focused on physical inhibition 0.350 0.149 0.144 2.347 0.020 0.001<p26.313)=1.144(f 0.447 0.459 a. ghorbani, p. rahimi, m. a. khalili, m. ebrahimi prediction of psychological well-being based on islamic lifestyle and coping strategies in patients with major thalassemia in tehran 21 the first hypothesis can be examined using table 3. based on the results of table 3, coping strategies that entered the psychological well-being prediction equation in the first stage predicted it at a significant level of 0.01 (p <0.01, 313.26 = (144.1) f). multiple correlation squared analysis showed that the value of the multiplicity correlation coefficient (r2) is 0.447. this shows that coping strategies have explained 44.7% of the variance of psychological well-being. regression analysis showed that coping strategies, problem-centered coping (p <0.01, β = 0.202) and the coping focused on cognitive assessment (p <0.05, p <0.05) positively and at levels of 0.01 and 0.05, respectively, predicts psychological well-being in people with major thalassemia. also, the focus on emotion (p <0.01, β = -0.259), and coping focused on physical inhibition (p <0.05, β = -144 / 0), respectively, were negatively correlated at the significant levels 0 and 0.05 predicted psychological well-being in people with major thalassemia. thus, in the first hypothesis test, it was concluded that a combination of coping strategies, problem-centered coping-focused coping focused on cognitive assessment and positive-focused coping focused on emotion and coping focused on physical inhibition were negatively and significantly predictive of psychological well-being in people with major thalassemia. table 4. hierarchical multivariate regression in predicting psychological well-being of patients with thalassemia major based on islamic lifestyle variables of second stage (islamic life style) b se β t سطح معناداری r2 adjr2 0.094 0.027 0.252 3.444 0.001 0.001< 25.559,p)=6.143(f 0.01<p ، 11.862=∆f 0.040=r2∆ 0.517 0.497 0.01 <p ، **0.05 <p* the second hypothesis can be considered in accordance with table 4. table 4 shows that with the entry of islamic lifestyle to the prediction equation in the second stage, the value of r2 reached 517/0. this finding means that the entry of islamic lifestyle into the prediction equation has led to 51.7% of the variance of psychological well-being. the value of r2 (r2δ) changes was 0.40. this finding means that with the introduction of the islamic lifestyle in the prediction equation and by controlling the effect of coping strategies, the value of the explained psychological well-being is increased by 4%, which is statistically significant at the level of 0.01 (p <0.01), 862/11 = δf). regression analysis also showed that the islamic life style was positively predicted at the significant level of psychological well-being in patients with thalassemia major. (p <0.01, 252/0 = β). thus, in the second hypothesis test, it was determined that the islamic lifestyle positively and significantly predicts psychological well-being in people with major thalassemia. 4. discussion the first hypothesis was that psychological well-being is predictable based on coping strategies. for analyzing the hypothesis, hierarchical multi-variable regression analysis was used. according to the analysis of the data, the results of our hypothesis were confirmed. the results obtained by yazdi research (2004), mirand (2013), ghazanfari (2008), comps et al. (1988), zenozian et al. (2010), brilliant (2014), gray (2004), ziegler (1999), yang chua (2016), salehian (2014), babapur et al. (2016), khosravani (2012). in explaining the results, it can be said that problem-oriented skills are cognitive skills that a person performs and realizes with regard to position, accurate evaluation, separation from his emotions and emotions, and more these effective coping methods of physical symptoms and brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 22 psychological symptoms will show anxiety, lack of satisfaction and lack of satisfaction of life and will have a higher level of well-being and positive affection. the use of ineffective (emotional) coping styles makes people more vulnerable to stress situations and provides grounds for emotional disturbances and psychological incongruity and lack of mental well-being. the use of emotionfocused strategies eliminates the direct and effective involvement of the individual and reduces the individual's ability to solve the problem, and this disrupts the mental consistency and emotional turmoil and reduces mental well-being. people who experience a positive life-span lead to a greater life expectancy in life are more capable of enduring adverse conditions, which leads to psychological well-being of individuals. in fact, people who have a positive orientation experience life more. psychological well-being is at a higher level, and positive emotions (happiness, vitality, will) are more and less negative emotions (depression and anxiety). according to the literature, the meaningfulness of life causes a person to feel efficient and self-worthy and purposeful in life, and when individuals are purposeful in their lives, they have a sense of efficiency and control, and have a sense of self-worth. in this way they are able to face up to failures, life calamities and conflicts, and even positive events, advances and responsibilities continue to work and work to succeed. increasing the use of the excitement strategy matches the increase in anxiety, physical injury, and depression, and the reduction in the use of an orbital problem strategy matches the increase in social function disorder. thus, the excitement mode is more effective on physical and emotional symptoms, while the more orthogonal problem affects individual interactions and social functioning of the individual. the second hypothesis was that psychological well-being based on the islamic lifestyle is predictable. for analyzing the hypothesis, hierarchical multi-variable regression analysis was used. according to the analysis of the data, the results of our hypothesis were confirmed. the results obtained by kajbaf et al. (2011), nikoquar et al. (2014), babapur et al. (2014), nourmohammadi, najaf abadi (2014), nozari (2014), dehghan (2014), arshiyan mehr (2014) salam abadi (2014) have been consistent. 5. conclusion the results showed that the components of the islamic lifestyle, components of beliefs, family, financial and health, have predictive power of psychological well-being. religious behavior and beliefs have a positive effect on meaningfulness of life. behaviors such as trusting in god, worship, pilgrimage... can create inner peace by creating hope and encouraging positive attitudes. having meaning and purpose in life, feeling belonging to a higher source, hoping for god's help in difficult living conditions, enjoying social and spiritual protection, etc., are all methods that religious people by having them, can suffer less damage in the face of life-pressures. believing that there is a god controlling the situation and considering servants, to a large extent, reduces the anxiety associated with the situation, so that most believers often associate themselves with god, like a very intimate friend, and they argue that it is possible to control the effect of uncontrollable positions in some way through reliance and appeal to god. individuals with internal control are more likely to observe aspects of health and well-being care, such as weight management, exercise, smoking and preventive care, because individuals with internal control sources are determined by trying to find information that enables them to have more control over themselves and their environment. that's why it is their own promotion of their well-being. in addition, life based on the islamic model means life based on the teachings of the islamic religion, in which god remembers the relaxing of the hearts (raad surah, 21). such teachings reduce feelings of anxiety, depression and inefficient attitudes. this research was confronted with limitations: there was no research on the psychological dimension and psychological well-being of patients with thalassemia major. also, because of the fatigue caused by the number of questions, patients may be responsive to the questionnaire in a careful manner, and the reliability on the results should be cautious. it should be noted that this a. ghorbani, p. rahimi, m. a. khalili, m. ebrahimi prediction of psychological well-being based on islamic lifestyle and coping strategies in patients with major thalassemia in tehran 23 research is related to thalassemia patients in tehran. therefore, generalization to other areas and other patients and different ages should be done with caution. suggestions for future studies: researchers with similar research on other subjects and other statistical communities are recommended. in another studies, the relationship between the variables of this research and other psychological variables such as quality of life, self-esteem, determination and assertiveness, and others, can be considered. references agha, y., a., shaghaghi, f., dehestani, m., & barqi irani, z. (2012). relationship between quality of life and psychological capital with the perception of illness in ms patients. quarterly journal of psychology, (2), 1. akbar beygloo, m. & habibpour, z. (2010). the relationship between mental health and use of adaptive methods in parents of children with thalassemia and hemophilia. quarterly journal of urmia nursing and midwifery faculty, 8 (4). arshayan mehr, m. (2014). comparison of compliance rate of islamic life styles in patients with stroke with other patients and healthy persons. senior researcher, university of social welfare and rehabilitation sciences. babapour, j, zeinali, sh., zarezadeh, f., & nejati, v. (1395). structural relationship of religious attitude and coping strategies with quality of life and psychological fatigue in cancer patients. journal of health and care, 18 (1). besharat, m. a., (1387). psychological coping styles. stress psychology university of tehran, 7 (41): 30. chan lai-kwan, ch. (2016). self-compassion and psychological well-being among adolescents in hong kong: exploring gender differences. personality and individual differences; 101: 288–292. derakhshan, r. (2014). effectiveness of islamic lifestyle education on psychological well-being and the life of high school girl students in shiraz. master's thesis, islamic azad university, marvdasht branch, faculty of education and psychology. dehghan, h. (2014). prediction of psychological well-being based on islamic lifestyle in teachers of mentally retarded students. master's thesis, ministry of science and technology research. university of shiraz, faculty of education and psychology. ghazanfari, f. & ghadampour, e. (2008). coping strategies and mental health in residents of khorramabad city. a schedule of basic principles of mental health, 19 37. heidari, s., (2014). the study of the relationship between islamic lifestyle and job satisfaction and job satisfaction among high school teachers in bandar abbas. master's thesis. school of literature and human sciences, hormozgan university. kajbaf, m, sajjadian, p., & kaviani, m. (2011). islamic lifestyle with happy kami in satisfaction with the life of students in isfahan. quarterly journal of psychology and religion, (4): 47. khosravani, e., mahmoudi-rad gholam, h., & dastjerdi, r. (2012). relationship of coping strategies with quality of life and psychological well-being of coronary artery disease patients. fourth international psychiatric congress psyso, 04-068. kostyukova, t. (2016). psychological and educational support of substituting family selection for children of pre-school age. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 233: 327-332. mirbod, e. (2013). comparison of psychological characteristics, coping methods and body image in adolescents with thalassemia and healthy. senior thesis, faculty of educational sciences and psychology, sistan and baluchestan. nikokar, gh. h. (2014). the effect of islamic lifestyle on academic achievement. two journal of management and management of islamic management of the year , (22): 197-211. nozari, m. (2014). islamic management in promoting islamic-iranian lifestyle. case study: district 5 of tehran municipality. master's degree, azad university, tehran universit. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 24 nour mohammad najafabadi, m.& sedighi arfaee, f. (2014). the relation between islamic lifestyle and its impact on human mental health. research papers documents, first international congress on religious culture and religion. nour mohammad najafabadi, m. & sedighi arfaee, f. (1393). the relation between islamic lifestyle and its impact on human mental health. research papers documents, first international congress on religious culture and religion. nourmohammadi najafabadi, m. (2014). the relationship between islamic lifestyle and mental health and resilience of students of kashan university. quarterly journal of psychology and religion; 9 (1). salmabadi, m., (2014). modeling the marital adjustment model in relation to the islamic lifestyle and the quality of life of high school teachers in birjand”. master thesis, allameh tabatabaee university, faculty of psychology. department of religion and medicine. salehian, f. (2014). the effect of learning on coping strategies on personality characteristics of patients with ms. master's degree, azad university, tehran science research branch. yazdi, kh. (2007). problems and their coping with families of patients with thalassemia in golestan. journal of gorgan university of medical sciences; (2) :71-119. yazdi, kh. (2007). problems and their coping with families of patients with thalassemia in golestan; journal of gorgan university of medical sciences; (2):71-119. yun-jung, ch. (2016). immigrant women’s acculturation stress and coping strategies in korea: aqualitative analysis.international journal of intercultural relations; 55: 79-85. zahidi shalemani, m. (2011). the relationship between coping strategies and religious coping strategies with mental health. master's degree, islamic azad university, tehran research sciences branch,. zenzian, s., sardary, b., & yekah yazdan khah, r. (2010). the effectiveness of problem-solving training in student coping strategies. quarterly journal of psychology, tabriz university, 5(20). brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, pages: 58-83 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/15 challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu¹, radu vasiu2 1 politehnica university of timisoara, romania, victor.holotescu@yahoo.ro 2 politehnica university of timisoara, romania, radu.vasiu@cm.upt.ro abstract: with the interest and attention that the blockchain and the distributed ledger technologies (dlts) have recently demanded, the technology is advancing at a very high rate. with investors and applications in a wide variety of fields, a lot of funding and efforts are being driven into bringing the technology to everyday use. the community and companies are coming up with new ways to collaborate, which makes the blockchain ecosystem evolve at full tilt. consequently, this paper’s aim is to review the academic and grey literature and to provide readers with information about the evolution, benefits and challenges of the public distributed ledger technologies and to discuss the latest solutions, which are being developed for bringing decentralization closer to the mainstream. the paper reviews the directed acyclic graph (dag) structured distributed ledgers with focus on the hedera hashgraph, a novelty dlt bringing a unique consensus algorithm with new use-cases enabled by new cryptoeconomic mechanisms, as well as vital services, such as solidity smart contracts and distributed file storage. then, we are going to explore second-layer network protocols, a major topic for solving scalability issues and for decentralizing cryptocurrency exchanges. the article tries also to identify the particularities of these technologies and how they bring specific answers to the blockchain trilemma, consisting in three themes scalability, interoperability and sustainability. keywords: blockchain; distributed ledger technology; blockchain trilemma; scalability; interoperability; sustainability. how to cite: holotescu, v., & vasiu, r. (2020). challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 5883. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/15 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/15 mailto:victor.holotescu@yahoo.ro mailto:radu.vasiu@cm.upt.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/15 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 59 1. introduction since satoshi nakamoto published the paper about bitcoin (nakamoto, 2008), a trustless peer-to-peer network, in 2008, and since he has turned on the blockchain by mining the genesis block one year later, the technology has proven to stand out, making it possible to disrupt the future of many fields. the blockchain benefits brought by its distributed, transparent and immutable nature make possible use cases from finance, banking, business and supply chain to education, media and health (deshpande et al., 2017; chaum et al., 2000). during this period, blockchain projects have been very well funded, with $22.5b in initial coin offerings (icos) by the end of 2018 (coindesk, 2019), which have been proven to have a high risk of participation, with many international initiatives meant to accelerate the adoption and awareness of distributed ledger technology and digital currency (o„brien, 2019; virmani, 2018; mit digital currency initiative, 2020; eublockchain, 2020) and with trusted launchpads for funding new promising blockchain solutions through initial exchange offerings (ieos). with all the attention that blockchain technology has received, it still hasn‟t overcome its biggest hurdles in order to be ready for mass adoption, making its shortcoming widely debated, resulting in new solutions to be developed and explored. in this paper, we are going to introduce the blockchain technology, talking about its history and know-abouts. the first subject to be discussed is related to the limitations of public blockchain technologies and why trying to improve on any of the characteristics of scalability, interoperability and sustainability, referred to as the blockchain trilemma, will affect the true value and the benefits of the blockchain (ometoruwa, 2018). the next topic examined will be the directed acyclic graphs (dags), an alternative structure for blockchain, where we are aiming to introduce and provide insights on the different solutions using this kind of dlt, concentrating on hedera hashgraph, a unique patented network, which has to offer the whole set of decentralized services and new cryptoeconomic mechanisms, that bring a new level of fairness, speed and security to the decentralized space. ultimately, the paper will review the second-layer networks aiming to scale blockchains, exploring upon others the lightning network. this is an offchain protocol, starting as a bitcoin improvement proposal (bip) (croman et al., 2016) which is implemented by using hash timelock contracts (htlc) and which can be extended on blockchains with time-locks and multi-sig capabilities, providing interoperability solutions as well. challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 60 throughout the paper we are going to see the types of decentralized applications (dapps) that are being developed on hedera hashgraph and the lightning applications (lapps) built on the lightning network. by the end, we are going to identify the next steps for moving forward with the technology, finishing up with the conclusions raised throughout the paper. the paper is a literature review realized by analyzing academic journals, conference papers and grey literature (online articles, videos, newsletters, forums, e-mail archives, etc.) with the aim of encompassing the decentralized ecosystem, from the formal academic perspective and also from the more approachable means where the blockchain has its roots. 2. concepts 2.1. definitions there are many ways in which the distributed ledger technologies (dlts) and the blockchain have been defined, so as to suit different levels of knowledge and understanding and also to better encapsulate the essence of technology and its capabilities. a concept existing from 1982, distributed ledger technology (dlt) designates multi-party systems being able to withstand environmental adversaries, meaning that the network of independent participants can continue to work correctly with no central operator or authority, despite unreliable or malicious parties (rauchs et al., 2018). the blockchain is a type of dlt, an append-only chain-like data structure, made out of signed and timestamped blocks that contain the transactions. nodes called miners are participating in a consensus mechanism, and are responsible for validating transactions, with which new blocks are created. a transaction may involve the transfer of tangible or digital assets, or the completion of a task. blocks are identified through a cryptographic hash, each of them containing its own hash and the hash of the previous block, creating the chronologically ordered blockchain structure (casino et al., 2019). the distributed ledger technologies create a robust, auditable, secured and efficient environment, while establishing the self-sovereignty and eliminating the third party control (dabbagh et al., 2019). 2.2. history the blockchain technology came to life by bringing together technologies that have been proposed and published in different papers over the last 40 years. during the 1980s, david chaum defined blind signatures brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 61 (chaum, 1983) and the first electronic cash protocol (chaum et al., 2000) which solved the anonymity and double spending problem in a centralized matter. in 1997, adam back introduced hashcash (nakamoto, 2008), where, as a security measure for sending spam mail, the attackers had to solve a computational puzzle that was easy to verify, but hard to generate. this is the main concept of the proof-of-work protocol, which was first proposed by wei dai, when he discussed b-money (dai, 1998). the mechanism he described was lacking node interaction in the consensus and security. nick szabo (2008), with his proposals on bit gold, improved the mechanisms‟ security by adding the difficulty of the computational puzzle to be solved. in 1999, tomas sander and amnon ta-shma (sander & ta-shma, 1999) brought the merkle tree structures and zero-knowledge proofs, while in 2004 hal finney (chohan, 2017) defined what he called the reusableproof-of-work (rpow) consensus mechanism by incorporating hashcash. what the whole infrastructure was missing from what we know today as blockchain is the peer-to-peer network, the last piece of the puzzle, which was added by a person with the alias satoshi nakamoto, in the form of bitcoin, the peer-to-peer electronic-cash system (nakamoto, 2008). 2.3. blockchain types the blockchain has evolved into different categories, each of them having its benefits and downsides. private or consortium blockchains are those in which the nodes maintaining the ledger are permissioned to participate in the consensus, either by being centralized inside the entity running the blockchain or by going through know your customer (kyc) and anti-money laundering (aml) processes. thus these blockchains are semi or fully centralized and are useful for auditability. private and consortium blockchains have restricted access, with fewer and known upfront nodes participating in the consensus, these protocols for closed sets being faster than those for open networks. at the same time, being in a closed environment, some private blockchains will have issues interoperating with other networks, so the benefits are minimal (lyons et al., 2018). another type of blockchain are the public permissionless blockchains, which are run by thousands of nodes, anyone being able to set up a node and start participating in the consensus process. while it is likely for bad actors to join in, it is practically impossible for them to take over these blockchains, as that would require a huge financial investment. that is why public blockchains are considered to be tamper-proof (deshpande et al., 2017). bitcoin or ethereum are the best-known blockchains in these challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 62 category, examples of public blockchains being mainly discussed in the paper. hybrid (or federated) blockchains started to be developed as they can integrate the security of the public blockchains with the privacy and speeds of the private or consortium blockchains (casino et al., 2019). 2.4. consensus mechanisms the blockchain is run by a consensus protocol meant to solve the byzantine generals problem (lamport et al., 1982), where nodes need to make the right decision, given that there might be malicious actors participating in the process. nodes are incentivized to run these consensus mechanisms, being rewarded whenever they validate the transactions and add a new block, while also being heavily penalized whenever they try to add an invalid transaction to the blockchain. with all the mechanisms set into place, the consensus protocol is the main point of failure of a blockchain, as its failure compromises the ledger. there are multiple types of protocols which have been developed to run in different scenarios for public and private blockchains and also for other types of dlts. the ones used successfully by the major public blockchains are proof-of-work, proof-of-stake and delegated-proof-ofstake(casino et al., 2019). proof-of-work (pow) is the consensus mechanism which runs on bitcoin and ethereum, with different implementations called hashcash and ethash respectively. this protocol has proven to be the best solution for solving the byzantine generals problem, making it the most secure consensus mechanism. the nodes, called miners, participating in the consensus have to solve a computational problem of a certain difficulty. whichever miner solves the computational problem first will add the next block to the blockchain. the computational problem refers to the generation of the hash identifier of a block, where the difficulty dictates the condition under which the hash is valid. regularly, this means the hash has to be lower than a certain number and, thus, be preceded by a certain number of zeros. when the block is added to the blockchain and broadcasted to the network, the node that solved the problem is creating a new transaction, which transfers the mining reward to its address (baliga, 2017). in order to gain control over a blockchain maintained with a pow consensus mechanism, a malicious attacker has to take over more than half of the nodes participating, in a 51% attack, thus making the pow the most secure consensus protocol ever developed. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 63 proof-of-stake (pos) has been developed as a solution for the high volume of energy consumed in the process of pow and it is based on nodes proving ownership over their tokens to generate blocks. the most common practice for pos is for the system to choose a random leader, based on its stake in the network, which creates the block. the mechanism works because having more currency makes it less likely for a node to be malicious. all malicious nodes trying to alter the state of the blockchain are penalized by having their tokens taken. delegated-proof-of-stake is the protocol used by eos, steem, bitshares, ark or lisk, the first two blockchains having lately become very popular for building decentralized applications. blocks are created by block producers and validated by block validators. block producers are elected every round by the nodes inside the network, based on their stakes. while block producers can also fine-tune their block creation intervals and the block size, having a smaller pool of block producers allows a higher transaction throughput, while it is considered to be more centralized compared to the other consensus mechanisms (konstantopoulos, 2018). nowadays people are using distributed ledger technology and blockchain interchangeably even if dlts represent different technologies, one of which is the blockchain. although the two technologies are solving the same problem and trying to bring the same amount of benefits, of providing decentralization by potentially reducing the most important regulatory role of being a middleman in our society (dabbagh et al., 2019), the term of dlt has started to gain more popularity because of the new technologies developed for overcoming the limitations of blockchain. we will present these technologies in the section on the directed acyclic graph (dag), where we are going to discuss the unique hashgraph algorithm developed at swirlds. 3. challenges with blockchain becoming so popular, and with everybody trying to build the decentralized applications which will turn the technology mainstream, there are still many challenges for public blockchains, aside from the fact that the blockchain should be integrated in the current legacy centralized system. the challenges of the public blockchains are related to scalability, interoperability and sustainability, coined in 2018 as the blockchain trilemma by vitalik buterin, the creator of ethereum, referring to the difficulty of creating a blockchain with the three characteristics at the same time (ethereum, 2018). currently, there is no fully working blockchain challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 64 to have solved all these issues and it is considered that you can only address two of them by giving up the other one (lyons et al., 2019). that is why multiple blockchain platforms exist: to offer the best possible solutions for specific use-cases. in what follows, we are going to talk about these three challenges, while later on we are going to see possible solutions to them. 3.1. scalability a public blockchain should respond to the critical challenge of scalability, which means to achieve the consensus of the distributed computing nodes in a scalable and efficient manner. in the blockchain, all the nodes are involved in creating blocks that can be added to the ledger and they decide whatever unconfirmed transactions they want to include in the block they are working on. the node which calculates the first valid hash in pow or the declared leader in pos or other consensus mechanisms is going to forge the new block and then the block needs to be broadcasted to the whole network. a new block of 1mb for bitcoin is propagated every 10 minutes, giving it a throughput of 7 transactions per second (tps), while ethereum can confirm 20 tps (lyons et al., 2019). small adjustments have been brought to the blockchain in order to address scalability issues, such as increasing the block size of bitcoin, which is 1mb, to 4 or 8mb. a hard fork in the main bitcoin blockchain has been created, called bitcoin cash, having an 8mb block (bashir, 2018). while this adjustment can increase the number of transactions that can be stored on a block, the block will take longer to propagate in the network, as nodes require better internet connection with larger bandwidth. in the case of maintaining the size of the blocks, transactions with higher fees are validated faster, as miners have the ability to choose the transactions they want to mine, in order to gain higher rewards. this will unfairly cause the neglect of low fee value transactions, as the blockchain might not follow a first come first served rule. a solution for scalability is the segwit (segregated witnesses), another fork in the bitcoin, which eliminates different signatures from the blocks, thus allowing the addition of more transactions (bashir, 2018). to gain a better performance in scaling the blockchain, research has been conducted to address the problem by creating new data structures, such as directed acyclic graphs (dags), or more efficient consensus algorithms, or to move transactions and computations from the blockchain to a second-layer protocol. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 65 while looking for solutions for replacing the computation puzzles in pow with more useful ones, many blockchains are trying to replace pow with pos, or to integrate pos with pow. the ethereum team has been talking about replacing pow with pos since 2014, and wanted to replace ethash with casper protocol, which we currently see integrated in ethereum 2.0 (serenity), an early version of ethereum, built from scratch, using the pos. for this new version of ethereum, vitalik buterin states that it will validate transactions with 1% of the energy consumed by pow (zamfir, 2016). 3.2. interoperability with the persisting problems of scalability and the variety of approaches to solve them, the market has got up to more than 2700 cryptocurrencies in september 2019 (coinlore, 2019). the problem raised is that, with so many different implementations, and with many of them having their own adopters, blockchains will have to be able to share information with each other. this means that transactions could span multiple blockchains and information on a blockchain could be retrieved and validated through a transaction on another blockchain (yaga et al., 2018). in hardjono et al. (2018), hardjono et al. talks about what blockchains should look like in order to achieve interoperability, referring to the main goals of the internet architecture and how they should be applied on the blockchain. one of the examples built with the internet architecture goals premise is mit tradecoin. another project proposes the digital trade coin (lipton et al., 2018), a cryptocurrency to replace cash money with a worldwide stable digital token, serving as a “blueprint” for an interoperability model between blockchains. 3.3. sustainability sustainability refers to the ability of public blockchains to remain a viable solution over time. a blockchain has to be environmentally friendly, efficient, while its entities should be able to govern over the blockchain in a decentralized manner, in order to take actions in case unlawful acts are being committed (lyons et al., 2019). as blockchains are mostly open-source and maintained by communities of programmers and advisors, in order to be successful and sustainable, decentralized autonomous organizations (daos) or decentralized organizations (dos) can integrate the ways in which a blockchain should be maintained and governed, keeping the blockchain upto-date, secured and running for the good of the system. challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 66 many of the current blockchain projects are implemented by companies and corporations that make the decentralized public blockchain mostly centralized, due to the fact that these companies are deciding the roadmaps of the implementations. blockchain protocols are actively improved and nodes have always been incentivized to participate in the consensus, but the community and developers have been trying to find ways to improve the system in their own time. new business rules need to be applied to decentralize companies and corporations and also to govern a blockchain like bitcoin, to reward the individuals proposing enhancements and developing them towards improving the system. a dao can dictate the economy that incentivizes community participation, which can speed up the implementation of new technology. even if many blockchains are better than bitcoin in some ways, besides not being the first coin to have ever come out, they are not community-driven and thus, despite the decentralized technology they have to offer, they still remain somehow centralized. nodes have to keep the ledger with the full history of the transactions. in ethereum, nodes are holding smart contracts data, and smart contracts transactions need to be run by every node in the network. in september 2019, the size of the bitcoin ledger was 240gb (blockchain, n.d.), while the ethereum full-history ledger was 3.1tb (etherscan, n.d.). on top of this, bitcoin has proven since its appearance that pow works best in achieving consensus, even if it wastes a lot of energy. with that being said, at the moment of writing this paper, there are four mining companies which make a majority in the consensus of bitcoin (blockchain, n.d.), and the only way is to become more centralized. another downside of the pow protocol is that a lot of energy is wasted. bitcoin has an estimated annual consumption of 54.6twh (digiconomist, n.d.), it consumes more energy than countries such as romania or bangladesh. at the same time, the profit of miners is well beyond $1b. this shows that current consensus mechanism implementations are causing big sustainability issues. eventually, if we envisage a long-lasting life for blockchains, and a better behavior than visa which has 24000tps (raul, 2018), keeping a copy of the whole blockchain on each node might not be the best solution, as bitcoin‟s ledger is gaining 50gb per year. if this technology will be used by people, this number will only increase. solutions have been proposed, such as mimblewimble by tom elvis jedusor (jedusor, 2016), which can be built on top of bitcoin and, besides the extra brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 67 privacy of the account balances, it doesn‟t maintain the whole blockchain history; therefore, the implementation would reduce the size of the ledger from 80gb, the size of bitcoin in 2016, to 30gb. there are currently 2 separate implementations that build a new blockchain based on mimblewimble: grin, community driven, and beam, which is financed and run by a company (wheeler, 2019). other implementations involve lightweight clients, where old transactions are removed from the ledger and nodes hold reference only to non-empty addresses (zheng et al., 2017). in the next section we are going to talk about how dags and hedera hashgraph have addressed this problem, and why dags might be superior and the best choice for moving forward. 4. solutions to overcome blockchain trilemma 4.1. directed acyclic graphs directed acyclic graphs, also known as dags, are a type of dlt meant to solve the trilemma issues of the blockchain. a dag is a structure composed of vertices and edges that grows in only one direction, edges not referencing previous ones, thus being acyclic el ioini & pahl, 2018). a type of dag in a technical scenario is a git repository, where new branches or merges can be made, this way creating an acyclic graph. dags can accommodate new consensus mechanisms, other than the ones we can find in the blockchain, which can equally lead to solving the energy consumption problem of pow. there are already some implementations of dags in an experimental state, as they didn‟t have the time to prove their security. the most known implementation is the tangle (popov, 2015) developed by iota, which is designed to overcome the scalability of blockchains and acts as a great candidate for iot applications. each node making a transaction or a so-called site, needs to validate two other transactions, called tips, which haven‟t been confirmed yet. iota is a lightweight solution, as nodes do not need to have a full copy of the ledger. on top of this, the more transactions made on the iota protocol, the faster the confirmations are. bramas (2018) proposes a model to analyze the scalability and security of the tangle, suggesting that double spending transactions can be done on the dag, with more hashing power by the byzantine node. moreover, the model talks about the coordinator node which is part of the current iota implementations. without the coordinator node, since nodes can validate transactions only by knowing a part of the ledger, called a sub-dag, a challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 68 byzantine node can create a sub-dag that is afterwards accepted in the main dag and validated by others. another implementation is byteball (churyumov, 2016), a dag which emphasizes 12 witnesses, represented by trusted companies selected by users. witnesses have to consistently make transactions on the so-called main chain, where they post units sequentially. the token is called byte, and a byte is equal to 1 byte of permanent storage on the dag. holochain (holochain, n.d.) is another solution to replace blockchains, where different nodes, called agents, hold the state of their own transactions in a personal ledger and at the same time broadcast them through a distributed hash table (dht) to its neighbors. it is made of multiple shards of dht, so whenever your agent is offline, other agents may retrieve the transactions you have made through the dht, similar to bittorrent. agents run the so-called dna, a file containing the validations rules; whenever a new transaction shows up in the dht, the agents can validate the transaction through their dna; if the results do not match, the transaction will be shared with the network as being malicious. holochain is a framework for building decentralized applications and also blockchains, by changing the dna. like the other solutions, holochain is lightweight and can also run on mobile devices. it is a common assumption that dags rely on the fact that, with time, the value of the dlt will increase, in which point the network will become tamper-proof, meaning that a node needs an unrealistic amount of value and hashing power to tamper the structure. at this point, the mechanisms put into place by this implementation at the early stage can be removed, making the system work independently without being centralized. iota proposes to eliminate the coordinator node in the future and hedera hashgraph, the dlt addressed in the following section, also has some limitations which will be removed with time. 4.2. hedera hashgraph hedera hashgraph is designed by leemon baird and is an efficient consensus mechanism that makes transactions reach finality very fast, while keeping the time and order of transactions fair, with no security tradeoffs (baird, 2016). the patented algorithm is the first asynchronous byzantine fault tolerant consensus mechanism, designed and delivered by swirlds, inc. and it has been mathematically proven through coq, a proof management system developed at inria (the coq proof assistant, n.d.). the system is a dag running a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, where nodes are gossiping events to each other, during rounds, brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 69 at the end of which virtual voting is done to validate the transactions. the network runs a so-called gossip-about-gossip with virtual voting algorithm, that allows every member of the network to be part of the consensus through proxy staking. hedera provides services such as cryptocurrency, smart contracts written in solidity and a file storage, where files of any size can be appended to the ledger. by gossiping events to each other, every node will find out what the other node know. nodes hold an image of the same hashgraph history, containing all the confirmed events and transactions, while also knowing which events have been gossiped, to whom and when. by gossiping events to another node, the same transaction will be doubled and contained in another event of another node. when the virtual voting round is over and transactions are confirmed, the time of the transactions, the consensus timestamp, will be defined not by the average timestamp, but by the timestamp situated in the middle of the whole timestamp list for a specific transaction. in this way, hedera hashgraph assures a fair timestamp ordering of the transactions. timestamps are given by the clock on each computer running the nodes, which assures that if more than two thirds of the network have reliable clocks, the ordering of the transactions is fair. in figure 1, each circle is an event, containing the digital signature of the node that has created it, transactions, the consensus timestamp when the event was created, the hash of the node‟s previous event and the hash of the received event. to explain how the hashgraph works, witnesses are the first event of a node in a round, and a new round starts whenever witnesses are seen by a majority of the nodes. a witness is famous whenever more than a third of the nodes have received this event at the start of the next round. figure 1 shows a sequence of rounds in which d2 is decided as a famous witness by a4, meaning that every previous event, tracing back from d2, will reach finality. d2 can be seen by a3 through the previous alpha event and the event which was gossiped by delta. by b3, d2 is seen through bravo‟s previous event, charlie‟s event and delta‟s event, which were all gossiped to bravo. c3 can see d2 through its own previous event, which was gossiped by delta. thus, each node has a gossiped event by which it can trace back to d2 and declare it a famous witness. using the same principle of tracing back to each previous witness through a majority of the next witnesses, we can draw the conclusion that each node in round 2 is a famous witness. challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 70 as to this point, the famous witnesses are decided for each node, but they still need to see what each of them has decided, and the vote counting is done in the fourth round, where witnesses from the third round need to be „strongly seen‟ by witnesses in the next round; this means that it is not enough for a node to see its previous witness, so it needs to see it through events of the majority of nodes, which means two thirds of the nodes or by a supermajority of the nodes, considering their stakes in the virtual voting. as such, a4 can decide upon the famous witnesses in the second round, by seeing the witnesses in the third round through a majority of nodes, a4 can see a3 through a, c, d and b, b3 through a, c and d and b, c3 through a, b and c and d3 through a, c and d. figure 1 hashgraph and the consensus algorithm after a4 has decided on the famous witnesses, it can safely confirm the events marked in black, as they have been seen by all the famous brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 71 witnesses and thus consensus has been reached for all the black events. if it was to take into consideration the fifth round, the events in round 2 would start to be confirmed with the possibility that not all events in round 2 will be confirmed in the fifth round, as not all witnesses need to be famous as in the situation described above. it is mathematically proven that, despite every node and witness doing their own calculations, they will end up with the same result and the hashgraph will look the same for all the nodes participating in the consensus (baird, 2016). using the hashgraph algorithm, the experiments realized by hedera show that a very high volume of 100-bytes transactions per second reach finality in a short period of time. with a 3 seconds latency, when the network is spread across the globe in 8 regions, it reaches consensus finality in 3 seconds, when 32 computers are running 50.000 transactions per second (baird et al., 2019). proxy staking is a way in which wallet owners can delegate their hedera tokens, called hbars, to a node that participates in the consensus, contributing to that node‟s voting weight. by proxying their stakes, nodes are paid while their tokens are kept inside their wallets, without being deposited somewhere else or burned. mirror nodes are another way in which a user will be able to receive micro-payments and it will be available for everyone since the start of the mainnet. to keep the network as lightweight as possible, mirror nodes will be the only ones containing a full history of the transactions, while not participating in the consensus. mirror nodes can be pinged or subscribed to, as a means through which users can receive information about transactions, smart contracts or the file storage, by paying a small fee. hedera hashgraph is a fee-based system, where all their services, transactions and queries need to be paid through cryptocurrency microtransactions. every transaction will be sent to one single node in the network and will contain multiple fees:  a fee for the whole network, that has to be shared with the consensus participants,  a node fee, given to the node addressed, to afterwards receive the confirmation receipt, and  a service fee, if any smart contracts or file storage service have been requested to work with. additionally, users will have to pay for their node to be available on the network. challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 72 with all this being said, it will be a strong incentive for everyone to participate in the consensus through proxy staking as, by this means, they could earn back part of the fees they paid to live and use the network. hedera hashgraph is in its infancy, with test phases being run on its mainnet by a limited group of individuals, who have done kyc and aml checks, and have been given the opportunity to join the community. like all the dlts, hedera is also prone for a cold start. when a malicious node can be one of the early adopters, it can have the opportunity to take over the network rather easily. that is why the platform has set up different control mechanisms, such as the hedera treasury, which contains 65% of the hbars, which are being staked to a governing council. part of the governing council was already announced and will eventually consist of 39 organizations, including ibm, deutsche telekom or swisscom, coming from 18 different fields (hedera hashgraph, n.d.). its diversity, with companies from various industries spread throughout the globe in 10 major regions, assures that hedera hashgraph will become a general-purpose public ledger (hedera hashgraph team, 2019). each member has a limited stay inside the council, which consists of maximum 2 terms of 3 years, and which has a weight in the decision making for growing hedera. in the first years of the mainnet, we will see nodes of each member of the governing council participating in the consensus mechanism, with other members being able to join the consensus only through proxy staking. this way, with the legal and technical controls put into place, the network will never fork, taking into consideration that, in time, it will be made up of millions of users with no possible way of a byzantine node to own one third of the network, opening itself more to becoming a truly distributed ledger. with all the novelty features, the smart contracts, file storage support and the economic system provided by the hedera hahgraph, many projects started to be developed. hedera has been participating in events, creating workshops and webinars, organizing hackathons and the helix incubator, and has managed to bring new functionalities and applications by launching the main network in september 2019. projects developed during the hackathons and in the helix incubator have stood out with many new usecases. here we name a few projects participating in the incubator or community driven dapps (hedera hashgraph team, 2018):  paypar or payable links is an api which enables web pages to be accessed only after paying a small fee;  hopon enables a way of sharing mobile data by paying a small fee decided by the service provider; brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 73  hashing systems, similar to the ethereum name service, will allow hedera wallets to be easily identified;  hash-hash is a community website which lists all the wallets and their balances inside the hedera network. there are hundreds of dapps in development, a few of them in advanced stages, in fields like media, real estate, insurance, gaming, privacy and personal data sharing, supply chain or social media. the interface for building on top of the hedera hashgraph is delivered by using protocol buffers „protobufs‟ and grpc, providing a performant interaction between the nodes and the client. while protobuf is language-neutral, grpc offers support for 10 different languages, making the hedera hashgraph usable on any kind of device and application. hedera currently has sdks developed in c, go, java, python and rust with sdks to support other programming languages, like nodejs, which started being developed by the community. with all the great advancements, hedera hashgraph turns out to be one of the best options available, with a big community already by their side. although compared to bitcoin or ethereum, hedera hashgraph is not yet open-source, so we cannot have a deep understanding of the underlying code, this might change in the future, but keeping in mind that the hashgraph is a patented algorithm, nobody else will be able to use it without permission. the solidity smart contracts support is twofold as well, on one side different decentralized apps can be brought from ethereum with ease, which will help the network grow faster, on the other side, being a programming language designed for ethereum, some variables like block properties or gas in solidity do not exist for this platform. comparing ethereum and hedera, we can note the following conclusions:  there are more transactions and no forks on hedera;  history is not entirely saved on the nodes on hashgraph, instead only some of the latest transactions are stored, which are needed for the virtual voting consensus mechanism;  on ethereum it is paid for changing the state and interrogating is free, while on hedera there are small fees for everything, for the account or for smart contracts to be available;  everyone can participate in the consensus with hedera by proxy staking, which can earn you the money for paying the fees;  there is a possibility for 34% attack on hedera, while the percentage is 51% on ethereum, so attacks can happen on hedera if you control a smaller percentage of votes; challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 74  both can run solidity smart contracts, on hedera there is the possibility to store files on the hashgraph with a certain fee, based on size and time of availability, while with ethereum you can store on ipfs, which may sometimes be too slow. 4.3. second layer protocols the hashed timelock contracts while many developers in the community are trying to find new ways to solve the limitations of the blockchain by creating new protocols, some have started shifting their focus on solutions on a second layer offchain protocol to fix the problems of bitcoin and ethereum, along with other dlts (the crypto oracle, 2019). these off-chain established channels between users are interesting as they offer new solutions for improving inter alia, the scalability, in exchange for the security the blockchain can offer. a drawback is that these networks haven‟t proved to be secure and are prone to ddos and other cyberattacks, which can take nodes inside the network offline, a fact already happened to the lightning network (miraz & donald, 2019). with bitcoin and ethereum being the pioneers of designing such networks based on hashed timelock contracts, the network has also been tested to work interoperable with other cryptocurrencies, thus opening the path to decentralized exchanges (dex) through atomic swaps and submarine swaps. this process will cut out the single point of failure from today‟s cryptocurrency exchanges and will make the entry points to the electronic cash systems more secure. hashed timelock contracts (htlcs) have been created to securely make bidirectional transfers across a network of channels, where transfers need to make it across multiple trustless nodes in order to reach their final destination (poon & dryja, 2016). raiden is an off-chain network which allows erc20-compliant tokens to be transferred on the ethereum blockchain (the raiden network, n.d.), using payment channels established through a hashed timelock contract (htlc). by using these payment channels, the only transactions made on-chain are those establishing and closing a payment channel between 2 parties. between these 2 on-chain transactions, any number of token exchanges can be made between the involved parties, as long as there is enough liquidity available on the payment channel, with minimal transaction fees and at a very high speed. plasma network is a framework proposed in a paper written in collaboration by joseph poon, co-author of the lightning network, and vitalik buterin, the creator of ethereum (poon & buterin, 2017). plasma brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 75 proposes to scale smart contracts by moving state transitions on nested layers of the blockchain, lifting heavy computations off the main chain, while enforcing to it through fraud proof mechanisms. the network is created by building plasma contracts on top of the main blockchain, enabling token creators to have their own nested blockchain, which takes care of the high computations, posting only a hash and associated data on the main chain for every block, instead of the high volume of computations (de/centralize, 2018). it uses smart contracts which allow fraud proofs to be posted on the main chain if any malicious activity happens on the last block. if that happens, the block is declared invalid and it is rolled back, while the block creator is then penalized. one of the unique features of plasma is that it allows the private blockchain to run and get the root hash validated inside a public blockchain, which ensures security and other benefits of the public blockchain, thus creating a trustful and flexible environment for small companies to run in a market of huge multi-industry corporations. another off-chain network is trinity, designed for neo; it aims to build htlc on top of it, similar to raiden or the lightning network, providing smaller fees, while increasing the transaction throughput (trinity white paper: universal off-chain scaling solution, n.d.). 4.4. the lightning network in 2013, with the limitations of bitcoin, the community started to elaborate on satoshi nakamoto‟s idea of using time locks and multisig to change unrecorded transactions in an email exchange (hearn, 2013). in 2015, joseph poon and thaddeus dryja published the whitepaper of the lightning network (poon & dryja, 2016), a second layer network built on top of bitcoin, that would enable the blockchain to scale to billions of transactions per second. the network is the most evolved off-chain scaling solution with three companies working on it in different programming languages. acinq is working on a scala implementation and they are the first to have delivered a mobile lightning wallet called eclair. blockstream is working on clightning, written in c programming language, and lightning labs is working in golang on the lightning network daemon (lnd). there have been many successful tests for sending real bitcoin with the implementations of all the three companies. this not only shows that the lightning network is working, but also the interoperability between implementations. the development process is following a set of rules called “basics of lightning network” (bolts). with the help of the bolt challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 76 structure, the teams manage to work independently and developers will be able to write implementations in any programming language, while keeping them interoperable. while the network has been designed to scale public blockchains, it also offers interoperability between blockchains, privacy between the parties involved in a payment channel in terms of the transfer destination and new types of smart contracts. these can empower the limitations of bitcoin, as well as the ability to run decentralized exchanges on top of it. on the other hand, payment channels are run by a single computer inside the network, which creates a more vulnerable environment. privacy is achieved on the lightning network by the source-based onion routing, where the transfer is done through multiple hops, in order to reach the final destination, where each node can only see the next hop addresses. the node wanting to establish a channel creates several paths based on the information it receives about channel fees, capacity of the channels, and encrypts each hop based on the nodes‟ public keys. with the path‟s encrypted layers, each node in the route can decrypt the outer layer by using its private key, figuring out the successor node‟s address, to which it needs to pass the information in order to get closer to the destination. the network is based on htlc, that can be created by using the bitcoin scripting language, which is not turing complete and can also be extended to other smart contract enabled platforms, such as ethereum, litecoin, ripple and zcash among others. fees will be so small that users won‟t even notice them. on the lightning network, the smallest micro-transaction which was successfully made values at $0.000000037 (georgiev, 2018). with such a small value, the user will certainly overlook the payment fee, as thus he will access a genuine piece of information. with the subscription business models used by big players nowadays, a solution with pay-per-view articles or pay-per-minute videos will likely be embraced by the communities. currently, the technology isn‟t ready for an official release as there are still many bugs to fix, but the network runs on testnet and mainnet. with the help of 1ml(n.d.) we could see that in september 2019 there were 10,000 nodes running inside the network. channels can be refunded through wallets. by holding a well-funded hub on the lightning network, it can help earning more fees by being available for more payment channels. while this is considered to make the network more centralized, the hubs can become a target to hackers, which makes this not a feasible solution. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 77 5. discussions and conclusions decentralized ledger technologies are one of the fastest evolving technologies, with many promising solutions being developed. in this paper, we have presented extended reviews of four complementary technologies for blockchain, the first in the form of dags, a variant being hedera hashgraph, which have gained the attention and have been adopted by many leading organizations. also, we have talked about new second-layer protocols, that are being developed for the main public blockchains, bitcoin and ethereum, and which can be scaled to most of the available dlts. the following table summarizes the way the technologies presented in the article respond with novel concepts to the blockchain trilemma challenges and also other performant particularities they offer (marked with a plus sign), but also some drawbacks (marked with a minus sign). with developers working for on-chain and off-chain solutions and with new dlts being developed, we will soon see solutions fitting most of the use-cases. in order for the blockchain to work at scale, blockchain solutions should be integrated in proven, successful solutions, where dlts are integrated with the off-chain in interoperable infrastructures. table 1. addressing blockchain trilemma issues t e c h n o lo g y blockchain trilemma issues notes d ir e c te d a c y c li c g ra p h s  because the nodes (users) validate the transactions, the more transactions and users are, the faster the confirmations are;  accommodate new consensus mechanisms, reducing the energy consumption of pow (+);  some implementations can run on mobile devices (+);  being in an experimental state, they still have to prove their security (-);  partial centralized (-); challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 78 h e d e ra h as h g ra p h  for this type of dag, gossipabout-gossip with virtual voting algorithm allows every member of the network to be part of the consensus through proxy staking;  the specific consensus and reduces the communication overhead;  efficiency in bandwidth usage as only information about transactions are transmitted;  an efficient consensus mechanism that makes transactions reach finality very fast (+);  fairness concept: keeping the time and order of transactions fair, with no security tradeoffs (+);  innovation in many domains, micro-payments (+);  prone for a cold start: if a malicious node is one of the early adopters, it can take over the network rather easily (-);  it is a patented technology, not an open-source project (-); h as h e d t im e lo c k c o n tr ac ts  tested to work interoperable with other cryptocurrencies, thus opening the path to decentralized exchanges (dex) through atomic swaps and submarine swaps;  between two on-chain transactions, any number of token exchanges can be made as long as there is enough liquidity available on the payment channel, with minimal transaction fees and at a very high speed (+);  haven‟t proved to be secure and are prone to ddos and other cyberattacks (-); t h e l ig h tn in g n e tw o rk  is a second layer network built on top of bitcoin, being the most evolved off-chain scaling solution, that would enable the blockchain to scale to billions of transactions per second;  interoperability between implementations, as the development process is following a set of rules called “basics of lightning network” (bolts);  the technology isn‟t ready for an official release as there are still many bugs to fix, but the network runs on testnet and mainnet (-); the blockchain community should integrate daos, in which blockchain is used as a means to govern the workflow and should set up a solution to benefit the decentralized ledger in order for other entities to gain trust in adopting this technology. with the ongoing progress and with most of the top companies studying the dlt ecosystem and the ways to make it work for them, brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 79 education needs to become a major concern. not only individuals need to understand the true benefits of blockchain, but also the education needs to shape up new engineers to help in analysing, designing and developing the future of the internet of value, while making use of all the available technologies. many people do not understand the differences between the blockchain and bitcoin, with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies being only one of the use-cases of the blockchain, and what the benefits of the blockchain technology are. more specific training programs and adaptation of university curricula are needed. as it is difficult for a single solution to achieve the perfect balance of scalability, interoperativity and sustainability, the evolution of dlts is becoming more interesting as each platform comes with a specific approach to the blockchain trilemma. we appreciate that directed acyclic graphs (dags) could represent the future for public permissionless distributed ledger technologies, while the blockchain can continue to work on permissioned private dlts. references 1ml (n.d.). lightning network search and analysis engine. [internet source]. retrieved from https://1ml.com/ baird, l. (2016). the swirlds hashgraph consensus algorithm: fair, fast, byzantine fault tolerance. swirlds tech reports swirlds-tr-2016-01. retrieved from https://www.swirlds.com/downloads/swirlds-tr-2016-01.pdf baird, l., harmon, m., & madsen, p. (2019). hedera: a public hashgraph network & governing council. retrieved from https://www.hedera.com/hh-whitepaperv1.5-190219.pdf. baliga, a. (2017). understanding blockchain consensus models. whitepaper. [internet source]. retrieved from https://www.persistent.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/02/wp-understanding-blockchain-consensusmodels.pdf bashir, i. (2018). mastering blockchain: distributed ledger technology, decentralization, and smart contracts explained (2nd ed.). london, united kingdom: packt. blockchain (n.d.). blockchain size. retrieved from https://www.blockchain.com/charts/blocks-size. [accessed: september 30, 2019]. blockchain (n.d.). hashrate distribution. retrieved from https://www.blockchain.com/pools. [accessed: april 08, 2019] https://www.swirlds.com/downloads/swirlds-tr-2016-01.pdf https://www.hedera.com/hh-whitepaper-v1.5-190219.pdf https://www.hedera.com/hh-whitepaper-v1.5-190219.pdf https://www.persistent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/wp-understanding-blockchain-consensus-models.pdf https://www.persistent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/wp-understanding-blockchain-consensus-models.pdf https://www.persistent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/wp-understanding-blockchain-consensus-models.pdf challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 80 bramas, q. (2018). the stability and the security of the tangle. hal archive-ouvertes. retrieved from https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01716111v1 casino, f., dasaklis, t. k., & patsakis, c. (2019). a systematic literature review of blockchain-based applications: current status, classification and open issues. telematics and informatics, 36, 55–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.11.006 chaum, d. (1983). blind signatures for untraceable payments. in: chaum d., rivest r. l., sherman a. t. (eds) advances in cryptology (pp. 199–203). boston, ma, u.s.a.: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0602-4_18 chaum, d., fiat, a., & naor, m. (2000). untraceable electronic cash. advances in cryptology — crypto’ 88, pp. 319–327. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-38734799-2_25 chohan, u. w. (2017). a history of bitcoin. ssrn electronic journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3047875 churyumov, a. (2016). byteball: a decentralized system for storage and transfer of value. [internet source]. retrieved from https://obyte.org/byteball.pdf coindesk ico tracker coindesk. (2019) [internet source]. retrieved from https://www.coindesk.com/ico-tracker. [accessed: april 04, 2019]. coinlore. (2019). cryptocurrrency list [internet source]. retrieved from https://www.coinlore.com/all_coins croman, k., decker, c., eyal, i., gencer, a. e., juels, a., kosba, a., miller, a., saxena, p., shi, e., sirer, e. g., song, d., & wattenhofer, r. (2016). on scaling decentralized blockchains. in: j. clark, s. meiklejohn, p. ryan, d. wallach, m. brenner, & k. rohloff. (eds.), financial cryptography and data security. fc 2016. lecture notes in computer science, vol 9604. springer, berlin, heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53357-4_8 dabbagh, m., sookhak, m., & safa, n. s. (2019). the evolution of blockchain: a bibliometric study. ieee access, 7, 19212–19221. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2895646 dai, w. (1998). b-money. [internet source]. retrieved from http://www.weidai.com/bmoney.txt de/centralize. (2018, may 6). cryptoeconomic incentive mechanisms joseph poon, plasma & lightning network [video file]. retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kv0dtu3t_e deshpande, a., stewart, k., lepetit, l., & gunashekar, s. (2017). distributed ledger technologies/blockchain: challenges, opportunities and the prospects for standards. overview report the british standards institution (bsi). digiconomist (n.d.). bitcoin energy consumption index. retrieved from https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption. [accessed: april 11, 2019] https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01716111v1 https://obyte.org/byteball.pdf https://www.coinlore.com/all_coins http://www.weidai.com/bmoney.txt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kv0dtu3t_e brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 81 el ioini, n., & pahl, c. (2018). a review of distributed ledger technologies. in: h. panetto, c. debruyne, h. proper, c. ardagna, d. roman, & r. meersman (eds.) on the move to meaningful internet systems. otm 2018 conferences. otm 2018. lecture notes in computer science, vol 11230. springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02671-4_16 ethereum. (2018). vitalik buterin and nouriel roubini discuss blockchain trilemma, moderated debate to come? [blog post]. retrieved from https://www.bitcoinisle.com/2018/10/15/vitalik-buterin-and-nourielroubini-discuss-blockchain-trilemma-moderated-debate-to-come/ etherscan (n.d.). ethereum full node sync (archive) chart. retrieved from https://etherscan.io/chartsync/chainarchive. [accessed: september 30, 2019] eublockchain | an initiative of the european commission. (2020).[internet source]. retrieved from https://www.eublockchainforum.eu/. [accessed: april 04, 2019]. georgiev, g. (2018). lightning network milestone: „micro-auction‟ art piece sells for $0.000000037. bitcoin technology [internet source]. retrieved from https://bitcoinist.com/lightning-network-black-swan-cryptograffiti/ hardjono, t., lipton, a., & pentland, a. (2018). towards a design philosophy for interoperable blockchain systems. arxiv:1805.05934v1 [cs.cr]. cornell university, computer science, cryptography and security [internet source]. retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.05934 hearn, m. (2013). [bitcoin-development] anti dos for tx replacement. retrieved from https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2013april/002417.html hedera hashgraph (n.d.).[internet source]. retrieved from http://www.hedera.com/council. [accessed: maz 06, 2019]. hedera hashgraph team. (2018).hedera hashgraph announces winners of global hackathon and hedera mvps. medium. retrieved from https://medium.com/hashgraph/hedera-hashgraph-announces-winners-ofglobal-hackathon-hedera-mvps-c43df7f30c08 hedera hashgraph team. (2019). hedera hashgraph announces initial group of governing council members. medium. retrieved from https://medium.com/hashgraph/hedera-hashgraph-announces-initialgroup-of-governing-council-members-b11aa2e05c52 holochain (n.d.).holographic storage for distributed applications a validating monotonic dht “backed” by authoritative hashchains for data provenance (a ceptr sub-project): holochain/holochain-proto. retrieved from https://github.com/holochain/holochain-proto jedusor, t. e. (2016). mimblewimble [internet source]. retrieved from https://docs.beam.mw/mimblewimble.pdf https://www.bitcoinisle.com/2018/10/15/vitalik-buterin-and-nouriel-roubini-discuss-blockchain-trilemma-moderated-debate-to-come/ https://www.bitcoinisle.com/2018/10/15/vitalik-buterin-and-nouriel-roubini-discuss-blockchain-trilemma-moderated-debate-to-come/ https://bitcoinist.com/lightning-network-black-swan-cryptograffiti/ https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.05934 https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2013-april/002417.html https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2013-april/002417.html https://medium.com/hashgraph/hedera-hashgraph-announces-winners-of-global-hackathon-hedera-mvps-c43df7f30c08 https://medium.com/hashgraph/hedera-hashgraph-announces-winners-of-global-hackathon-hedera-mvps-c43df7f30c08 https://medium.com/hashgraph/hedera-hashgraph-announces-initial-group-of-governing-council-members-b11aa2e05c52 https://medium.com/hashgraph/hedera-hashgraph-announces-initial-group-of-governing-council-members-b11aa2e05c52 https://github.com/holochain/holochain-proto https://docs.beam.mw/mimblewimble.pdf challenges and emerging solutions for public blockchains victor holotescu, radu vasiu 82 konstantopoulos, g. (2018). understanding blockchain fundamentals, part 3: delegated proof of stake. medium. [internet source]. retrieved from https://medium.com/loom-network/understanding-blockchainfundamentals-part-3-delegated-proof-of-stake-b385a6b92ef lamport, l., shostak, r., & pease, m. (1982). the byzantine generals problem. acm transactions on programming languages and systems (toplas), 4(3), 382– 401. https://doi.org/10.1145/357172.357176 lipton, a., hardjono, t., & pentland, a. (2018). digital trade coin (dtc): towards a more stable digital currency. royal society open science 5(7):180155. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180155 lyons, t., courcelas, l., & timsit, k. (2018). blockchain for government and public services. technical report, european commission. european union blockchain observatory & forum [internet source]. retrieved from https://www.eublockchainforum.eu/reports lyons, t., courcelas, l., & timsit, k. (2019). scalability, interoperability and sustainability of blockchains. technical report, european commission. european union blockchain observatory & forum [internet source]. retrieved from https://www.eublockchainforum.eu/reports miraz, m. h. & donald, d. c. (2019). lapps: technological, legal and market potentials of blockchain lightning network applications. the chinese university of hong kong, faculty of law, research paper no. 2019-04 (p. 6).retrieved from https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1906/1906.11946.pdf mit digital currency initiative. (2020). [internet source]. retrieved from https://dci.mit.edu/. [accessed: april 04, 2019]. nakamoto, s. (2008). bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. retrieved from https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf o„brien, c. (2019). eu launches blockchain association to accelerate distributed ledger technology adoption. retrieved from https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/03/eulaunches-blockchain-association-to-accelerate-distributed-ledger-technologyadoption. [accessed: aprril 04, 2019]. ometoruwa, t. (2018). solving the blockchain trilemma: decentralization, security & scalability. coinbureau. [internet source]. retrieved from https://www.coinbureau.com/analysis/solving-blockchain-trilemma. [accessed: may 29, 2019] poon, j., & buterin, v. (2017). plasma: scalable autonomous smart contracts. [internet source]. retrieved from: https://www.plasma.io/plasma.pdf poon, j., & dryja, t. (2016). the bitcoin lightning network: scalable off-chain instant payments. [internet source]. retrieved from https://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper.pdf https://medium.com/loom-network/understanding-blockchain-fundamentals-part-3-delegated-proof-of-stake-b385a6b92ef https://medium.com/loom-network/understanding-blockchain-fundamentals-part-3-delegated-proof-of-stake-b385a6b92ef https://www.eublockchainforum.eu/reports https://www.eublockchainforum.eu/reports https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1906/1906.11946.pdf https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/03/eu-launches-blockchain-association-to-accelerate-distributed-ledger-technology-adoption https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/03/eu-launches-blockchain-association-to-accelerate-distributed-ledger-technology-adoption https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/03/eu-launches-blockchain-association-to-accelerate-distributed-ledger-technology-adoption https://www.plasma.io/plasma.pdf https://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper.pdf brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 83 popov, s. (2015). the tangle. retrieved from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-tanglepopov/feb18bc2793e907e9404ffe36e442162cd2b2688 rauchs, m., glidden, a., gordon, b., & pieters, g. c. (2018). distributed ledger technology systems: a conceptual framework. ssrn electronic journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3230013 raul. (2018).transactions speeds: how do cryptocurrencies stack up to visa or paypal?. howmuch. retrieved from https://howmuch.net/articles/cryptotransaction-speeds-compared. [accessed: march 26, 2019]. sander, t., ta-shma, a. (1999). auditable, anonymous electronic cash. in: wiener m. (ed) advances in cryptology — crypto’ 99. crypto 1999. lecture notes in computer science, 1666 (pp 555-572). heidelberg, germany: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48405-1_35 szabo, n. (2008). bit gold. [internet source]. retrieved from http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/12/bit-gold.html the coq proof assistant. (n.d.). retrieved from https://coq.inria.fr/. [accessed: may 08, 2019]. the crypto oracle. (2019). the current vs future state of distributed ledger technology. the capital. retrieved from https://blog.usejournal.com/thecurrent-vs-future-state-of-distributed-ledger-technology-e146d90a3099 the raiden network (n.d.).[internet source]. retrieved from https://raiden.network/. [accessed: may 12, 2019]. trinity white paper: universal off-chain scaling solution (n.d.). [internet source]. retrieved from https://trinity.tech/#/writepaper. virmani, t. (2018). 18 blockchain consortia you should know about. retrieved from https://medium.com/blockchain-blog/18-blockchain-consortia-you-shouldknow-about-6262b6a30ba9. [accessed: april 04, 2019]. wheeler, z. (2019). beam vs grin: who‟s nimble at mimblewimble?. crypto briefing. retrieved from https://cryptobriefing.com/beam-grin-nimblemimblewimble/ yaga, d., mell, p., roby, n., & scarfone, k. (2018). blockchain technology overview. national institute of standards and technolog internal report/nist ir 8202. u. s. department of commerce. https://doi.org/10.6028/nist.ir.8202 zamfir, v. (2016). the history of casper — chapter 1. ethereum [blog post].retrieved from https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/12/06/history-casper-chapter-1/ zheng, z., xie, s., dai, h., chen, x., & wang, h. (2017). an overview of blockchain technology: architecture, consensus, and future trends. in 2017 ieee international congress on big data (bigdata congress) (pp. 557–564). honolulu, hi, u.s.a. https://doi.org/10.1109/bigdatacongress.2017.85 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-tangle-popov/feb18bc2793e907e9404ffe36e442162cd2b2688 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-tangle-popov/feb18bc2793e907e9404ffe36e442162cd2b2688 http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/12/bit-gold.html https://blog.usejournal.com/the-current-vs-future-state-of-distributed-ledger-technology-e146d90a3099 https://blog.usejournal.com/the-current-vs-future-state-of-distributed-ledger-technology-e146d90a3099 https://trinity.tech/#/writepaper https://cryptobriefing.com/beam-grin-nimble-mimblewimble/ https://cryptobriefing.com/beam-grin-nimble-mimblewimble/ https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/12/06/history-casper-chapter-1/ microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx 26 neutrosophic modal logic florentin smarandache university of new mexico 705 gurley ave., gallup, new mexico 87301, usa phone: +1 505-277-0111 fsmarandache@gmail.com abstract we introduce now for the first time the neutrosophic modal logic. the neutrosophic modal logic includes the neutrosophic operators that express the modalities. it is an extension of neutrosophic predicate logic and of neutrosophic propositional logic. 1. introduction the paper extends the fuzzy modal logic (girle, 2010; hájek & harmancová, 1993; & liau & pen lin, 1992), fuzzy environment (hur et. al., 2006) and neutrosophic sets, numbers and operators (liu et. al., 2014; liu & shi, 2015; liu & tang, 2016; liu & wang, 2016; liu & li, 2017; liu & tang, 2016; liu et. al., 2016; liu, 2016), together with the last developments of the neutrosophic environment {including (t,i,f)-neutrosophic algeb-raic structures, neutrosophic triplet structures, and neutrosophic overset / underset / offset} (smarandache, 2016a; smarandache & ali, 2016; smarandache, 2016b) passing through the symbolic neutrosophic logic (smarandache, 2015), ultimately to neutrosophic modal logic. this paper also answers rivieccio’s question on neutrosophic modalities. all definitions, sections, and notions in-troduced in this paper were never done before, neither in my previous work nor in other researchers’. therefore, we introduce now the neutrosophic modal logic and the refined neutrosophic modal logic. then we can extend them to symbolic neutrosophic modal logic and refined symbolic neutrosophic modal logic, using labels instead of numerical values. there is a large variety of neutrosophic modal logics, as actually happens in classical modal logic too. similarly, the neutrosophic accessibility relation and possible neutrosophic worlds have many interpretations, depending on each par-ticular application. several neutrosophic modal applications are also listed. due to numerous applications of neutrosophic modal logic (see the examples throughout the paper), the introduction of the neutrosophic modal logic was needed. neutrosophic modal logic is a logic where some neutrosophic modalities have been included. let 𝒫 be a neutrosophic proposition. we have the following types of neutrosophic modalities: i. neutrosophic alethic modalities (related to truth) has three neutros-ophic operators: neutrosophic possibility: it is neutros-ophically possible that 𝒫. neutrosophic necessity: it is neutros-ophically necessary that 𝒫. neutrosophic impossibility: it is neutros-ophically impossible that 𝒫. ii. neutrosophic temporal modalities (related to time) it was the neutrosophic case that 𝒫. it will neutrosophically be that 𝒫. and similarly: it has always neutrosophically been that 𝒫. it will always neutrosophically be that 𝒫. iii. neutrosophic epistemic modalities (related to knowledge): it is neutrosophically known that 𝒫. f. smarandache neutrosophic modal logic 27 iv. neutrosophic doxastic modalities (related to belief): it is neutrosophically believed that 𝒫. v. neutrosophic deontic modalities: it is neutrosophically obligatory that 𝒫. it is neutrosophically permissible that 𝒫. 2. neutrosophic alethic modal operators the modalities used in classical (alethic) modal logic can be neutrosophicated by inserting the indeterminacy. we insert the degrees of possibility and degrees of necessity, as refinement of classical modal operators. 2.1. neutrosophic possibility operator the classical possibility modal operator «◊ 𝑃» meaning «it is possible that p» is extended to neutrosophic possibility operator: ◊ 𝒫 meaning «it is (t, i, f)-possible that 𝒫 », using neutrosophic probability, where «(t, i, f)-possible» means t % possible (chance that 𝒫 occurs), i % indeterminate (indeterminate-chance that 𝒫 occurs), and f % impossible (chance that 𝒫 does not occur). if 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 is a neutrosophic proposition, with 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 subsets of [0, 1], then the neutrosophic truth-value of the neutrosophic possibility operator is: ◊ 𝒫 = sup 𝑡 , inf 𝑖 , inf 𝑓 , (1) which means that if a proposition p is 𝑡 true, 𝑖 indeterminate, and 𝑓 false, then the value of the neutrosophic possibility operator ◊ 𝒫 is: sup 𝑡 possibility, inf 𝑖 indeterminatepossibility, and inf 𝑓 impossibility. for example. let p = «it will be snowing tomorrow». according to the meteorological center, the neutrosophic truth-value of 𝒫 is: 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], (0.2, 0.4), {0.3, 0.5}), i.e. [0.5, 0.6] true, (0.2, 0.4) indeterminate, and {0.3, 0.5} false. then the neutrosophic possibility operator is: ◊ 𝒫 = (sup[0.5, 0.6], inf(0.2, 0.4), inf{0.3, 0.5}) = (0.6, 0.2, 0.3), i.e. 0.6 possible, 0.2 indeterminate-possibility, and 0.3 impossible. 2.2. neutrosophic necessity operator the classical necessity modal operator «□𝑃» meaning «it is necessary that p» is extended to neutrosophic necessity operator: □ 𝒫 meaning «it is (t, i, f)-necessary that 𝒫 », using again the neutrosophic probability, where similarly «(t, i, f)-necessity» means t % necessary (surety that 𝒫 occurs), i % indeterminate (indeterminate-surety that 𝒫 occurs), and f % unnecessary (unsurely that 𝒫 occurs). if 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 is a neutrosophic proposition, with 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 subsets of [0, 1], then the neutrosophic truth value of the neutrosophic necessity operator is: □ 𝒫 = inf 𝑡 , sup 𝑖 , sup 𝑓 , (2) which means that if a proposition 𝒫 is 𝑡 true, 𝑖 indeterminate, and 𝑓 false, then the value of the neutrosophic necessity operator □ 𝒫 is: inf 𝑡 necessary, sup 𝑖 indeterminate-necessity, and sup 𝑓 unnecessary. taking the previous example: 𝒫 = «it will be snowing tomorrow», with 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], (0.2, 0.4), {0.3, 0.5}), then the neutrosophic necessity operator is: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 28 □ 𝒫 = (inf[0.5, 0.6], sup(0.2, 0.4), sup{0.3, 0.5}) = (0.5, 0.4, 0.5), i.e. 0.5 necessary, 0.4 indeterminate-necessity, and 0.5 unnecessary. 2.3. other possibility and necessity operators the previously defined neutrosophic pos-sibility and respectively neutrosophic necessity operators, for 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 a neutrosophic propos-ition, with 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 subset-valued included in [0, 1], ◊𝑁𝒫 = (sup(𝑡𝑝), inf(𝑖𝑝), inf(𝑓𝑝)), □𝑁𝒫 = (inf(𝑡𝑝), sup(𝑖𝑝), sup(𝑓𝑝)), work quite well for subset-valued (including interval-valued) neutrosophic components, but they fail for single-valued neutrosophic components because one gets ◊𝑁𝒫 = □𝑁𝒫. depending on the applications, more possibility and necessity operators may be defined. their definitions may work, mostly based on max / min / min for possibility operator and min / max / max for necessity operator ( when dealing with single-valued neutrosophic components in [0, 1] ), or based on sup / inf / inf for possibility operator and inf / sup / sup for necessity operator (when dealing with interval-valued or more general with subset-valued of neutrosophic components included in [0, 1] ): for examples. let 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 be a neutrosophic proposition, with 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 single-valued of [0, 1], then the neutrosophic truth-value of the neutrosophic possibility operator is: ◊ 𝒫 = ( max{𝑡 , 1-𝑓 }, min{𝑖 , 1-𝑖 }, min{𝑓 , 1𝑡 } ) or ◊ 𝒫 = ( max{𝑡 , 1-𝑡 }, min{𝑖 , 1-𝑖 }, min{𝑓 , 1𝑓 } ) or ◊ 𝒫 = (1𝑓 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 ) {defined by anas al-masarwah}. let 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 be a neutrosophic proposition, with 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 single-valued of [0, 1], then the neutrosophic truth-value of the neutrosophic necessity operator is: □ 𝒫 = ( min{𝑡 , 1-𝑓 }, max{𝑖 , 1-𝑖 }, max{𝑓 , 1𝑡 } ) or □ 𝒫 = ( min{𝑡 , 1-𝑡 }, max{𝑖 , 1-𝑖 }, max{𝑓 , 1𝑓 } ) or □ 𝒫 = (𝑡 , 𝑖 , 1 − 𝑡 ) {defined by anas al-masarwah}. the above six defined operators may be extended from single-valued numbers of [0, 1] to interval and subsets of [0, 1], by simply replacing the subtractions of numbers by subtractions of intervals or subsets, and “min” by “inf”, while “max” by “sup”. 3. connection between neutrosophic possibility operator and neutrosophic necessity operator in classical modal logic, a modal operator is equivalent to the negation of the other: ◊ 𝑃 ↔ ¬□¬𝑃, (3) □𝑃 ↔ ¬ ◊ ¬𝑃. (4) in neutrosophic logic one has a class of neutrosophic negation operators. the most used one is: ¬ 𝑁 𝑃(𝑡, 𝑖, 𝑓) = 𝑃(𝑓, 1 − 𝑖, 𝑡), (5) where t, i, f are real subsets of the interval [0, 1]. let’s check what’s happening in the neutros-ophic modal logic, using the previous example. one had: f. smarandache neutrosophic modal logic 29 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], (0.2, 0.4), {0.3, 0.5}), then ¬ 𝑁 𝒫 = 𝒫({0.3, 0.5}, 1 − (0.2, 0.4), [0.5, 0.6]) = 𝒫({0.3, 0.5}, 1 − (0.2, 0.4), [0.5, 0.6]) = 𝒫({0.3, 0.5}, (0.6, 0.8), [0.5, 0.6]). therefore, denoting by ↔ 𝑁 the neutrosophic equivalence, one has: ¬ 𝑁 □ 𝑁 ¬ 𝑁 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], (0.2, 0.4), {0.3, 0.5}) ↔ 𝑁 ↔ 𝑁 it is not neutrosophically necessary that «it will not be snowing tomorrow» ↔ 𝑁 it is not neutrosophically necessary that 𝒫({0.3, 0.5}, (0.6, 0.8), [0.5, 0.6]) ↔ 𝑁 it is neutrosophically possible that ¬ 𝑁 𝒫({0.3, 0.5}, (0.6, 0.8), [0.5, 0.6]) ↔ 𝑁 it is neutrosophically possible that 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], 1 − (0.6, 0.8), {0.3, 0.5}) ↔ 𝑁 it is neutrosophically possible that 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], (0.2, 0.4), {0.3, 0.5}) ↔ 𝑁 ◊ 𝑁 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], (0.2, 0.4), {0.3, 0.5}) = (0.6, 0.2, 0.3). let’s check the second neutrosophic equivalence. ¬ 𝑁 ◊ 𝑁 ¬ 𝑁 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], (0.2, 0.4), {0.3, 0.5}) ↔ 𝑁 ↔ 𝑁 it is not neutrosophically possible that «it will not be snowing tomorrow» ↔ 𝑁 it is not neutrosophically possible that 𝒫({0.3, 0.5}, (0.6, 0.8), [0.5, 0.6]) ↔ 𝑁 it is neutrosophically necessary that ¬ 𝑁 𝒫({0.3, 0.5}, (0.6, 0.8), [0.5, 0.6]) ↔ 𝑁 it is neutrosophically necessary that 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], 1 − (0.6, 0.8), {0.3, 0.5}) ↔ 𝑁 it is neutrosophically necessary that 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], (0.2, 0.4), {0.3, 0.5}) ↔ 𝑁 □ 𝑁 𝒫([0.5, 0.6], (0.2, 0.4), {0.3, 0.5}) = (0.6, 0.2, 0.3). 4. neutrosophic modal equivalences neutrosophic modal equivalences hold within a certain accuracy, depending on the definitions of neutrosophic possibility operator and neutros-ophic necessity operator, as well as on the definition of the neutrosophic negation – employed by the experts depending on each application. under these conditions, one may have the following neutrosophic modal equivalences: ◊ 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 ↔ 𝑁 ¬ 𝑁 □ 𝑁 ¬ 𝑁 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 (6) □ 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 ↔ 𝑁 ¬ 𝑁 ◊ 𝑁 ¬ 𝑁 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 (7) for example, other definitions for the neutros-ophic modal operators may be: ◊ 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 = sup 𝑡 , sup 𝑖 , inf 𝑓 , (8) or ◊ 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 = sup 𝑡 , , inf 𝑓 etc., (9) while □ 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 = inf 𝑡 , inf 𝑖 , sup 𝑓 , (10) or brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 30 □ 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 = inf 𝑡 , 2𝑖 ∩ [0,1], sup 𝑓 (11) etc. 5. neutrosophic truth threshold in neutrosophic logic, first we have to introduce a neutrosophic truth threshold, 𝑇𝐻 = 〈𝑇 , 𝐼 , 𝐹 〉, where 𝑇 , 𝐼 , 𝐹 are subsets of [0, 1]. we use uppercase letters (t, i, f) in order to distinguish the neutrosophic components of the threshold from those of a proposition in general. we can say that the proposition 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 is neutrosophically true if: inf 𝑡 ≥ inf(𝑇 ) and sup 𝑡 ≥ sup(𝑇 ); (12) inf 𝑖 ≤ inf(𝐼 ) and sup 𝑡 ≤ sup(𝐼 ); (13) inf 𝑓 ≤ inf(𝐹 ) and sup 𝑓 ≤ sup(𝐹 ). (14) for the particular case when all 𝑇 , 𝐼 , 𝐹 and 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 are single-valued numbers from the interval [0, 1], then one has: the proposition 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 is neutrosophically true if: 𝑡 ≥ 𝑇 ; 𝑖 ≤ 𝐼 ; 𝑓 ≤ 𝐹 . the neutrosophic truth threshold is established by experts in accordance to each application. 6. neutrosophic semantics neutrosophic semantics of the neutrosophic modal logic is formed by a neutrosophic frame 𝐺 , which is a non-empty neutrosophic set, whose elements are called possible neutrosophic worlds, and a neutrosophic binary relation ℛ , called neutrosophic accesibility relation, between the possible neutrosophic worlds. by notation, one has: 〈𝐺 , ℛ 〉. a neutrosophic world 𝑤′ that is neutrosophically accessible from the neutrosophic world 𝑤 is symbolized as: 𝑤 ℛ 𝑤′ . in a neutrosophic model each neutrosophic proposition 𝒫 has a neutrosophic truth-value 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 respectively to each neutrosophic world 𝑤 ∈ 𝐺 , where 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 are subsets of [0, 1]. a neutrosophic actual world can be similarly noted as in classical modal logic as 𝑤 ∗ . formalization let 𝑆 be a set of neutrosophic propositional variables. 7. neutrosophic formulas 1. every neutrosophic propositional variable 𝒫 ∈ 𝑆 is a neutrosophic formula. 2. if a, b are neutrosophic formulas, then ¬ 𝑁 𝐴, 𝐴 ∧ 𝑁 𝐵, 𝐴 ∨ 𝑁 𝐵, 𝐴 → 𝑁 𝐵, 𝐴 ↔ 𝑁 𝐵, and ◊ 𝑁 𝐴, □ 𝑁 𝐴, are also neutrosophic formulas, where ¬ 𝑁 , ∧ 𝑁 , ∨ 𝑁 , → 𝑁 , ↔ 𝑁 , and ◊ 𝑁 , □ 𝑁 represent the neutrosophic negation, neutrosophic intersection, neutrosophic union, neutros-ophic implication, neutrosophic equivalence, and neutrosophic possibility operator, neutrosophic necessity operator respectively. f. smarandache neutrosophic modal logic 31 8. accesibility relation in a neutrosophic theory let 𝐺 be a set of neutrosophic worlds 𝑤 such that each 𝑤 chracterizes the propositions (formulas) of a given neutrosophic theory 𝜏. we say that the neutrosophic world 𝑤′ is accesible from the neutrosophic world 𝑤 , and we write: 𝑤 ℛ 𝑤′ or ℛ (𝑤 , 𝑤′ ), if for any proposition (formula) 𝒫 ∈ 𝑤 , meaning the neutrosophic truth-value of 𝒫 with respect to 𝑤 is 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 , one has the neutrophic truth-value of 𝒫 with respect to 𝑤′ 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 , where inf 𝑡 ≥ inf 𝑡 and sup 𝑡 ≥ sup 𝑡 ; (15) inf 𝑖 ≤ inf 𝑖 and sup 𝑖 ≤ sup 𝑖 ; (16) inf 𝑓 ≤ inf 𝑓 and sup 𝑓 ≤ sup 𝑓 (17) (in the general case when 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 and 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 are subsets of the interval [0, 1]). but in the instant of 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 and 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 as single-values in [0, 1], the above inequalities become: 𝑡 ≥ 𝑡 , (18) 𝑖 ≤ 𝑖 , (19) 𝑓 ≤ 𝑓 . (20) 9. applications if the neutrosophic theory 𝜏 is the neutros-ophic mereology, or neutrosophic gnosisology, or neutrosophic epistemology etc., the neutrosophic accesibility relation is defined as above. 9.1. neutrosophic n-ary accesibility relation we can also extend the classical binary accesibility relation ℛ to a neutrosophic n-ary accesibility relation ℛ ( ) , for n integer ≥ 2. instead of the classical 𝑅(𝑤, 𝑤′), which means that the world 𝑤′ is accesible from the world 𝑤, we generalize it to: ℛ ( ) 𝑤 , 𝑤 , … , 𝑤 ; 𝑤 , which means that the neutrosophic world 𝑤 is accesible from the neutrosophic worlds 𝑤 , 𝑤 , … , 𝑤 all together. 9.2. neutrosophic kripke frame 𝑘 = 〈𝐺 , 𝑅 〉 is a neutrosophic kripke frame, since: 𝑖. 𝐺 is an arbitrary non-empty neutrosophic set of neutrosophic worlds, or neutrosophic states, or neutrosophic situations. 𝑖𝑖. 𝑅 ⊆ 𝐺 × 𝐺 is a neutrosophic accesibility relation of the neutrosophic kripke frame. actually, one has a degree of accessibility, degree of indeterminacy, and a degree of non-accessibility. 9.3. neutrosophic (t, i, f)-assignement the neutrosophic (t, i, f)-assignement is a neutrosophic mapping 𝑣 : 𝑆 × 𝐺 → [0,1] ⨯ [0,1] ⨯ [0,1] (21) where, for any neutrosophic proposition 𝒫 ∈ 𝑆 and for any neutrosophic world 𝑤 , one defines: 𝑣 𝑃, 𝑤 = 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 ∈ [0,1] ⨯ [0,1] ⨯ [0,1] (22) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 32 which is the neutrosophical logical truth value of the neutrosophic proposition 𝒫 in the neutros-ophic world 𝑤 . 9.4. neutrosophic deducibility we say that the neutrosophic formula 𝒫 is neutrosophically deducible from the neutrosophic kripke frame 𝑘 , the neutrosophic (t, i, f) – assignment 𝑣 , and the neutrosophic world 𝑤 , and we write as: 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 ⊨ 𝑁 𝒫. (23) let’s make the notation: 𝛼 (𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 ) that denotes the neutrosophic logical value that the formula 𝒫 takes with respect to the neutrosophic kripke frame 𝑘 , the neutrosophic (t, i, f)-assignment 𝑣 , and the neutrosphic world 𝑤 . we define 𝛼 by neutrosophic induction: 1. 𝛼 (𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 ) 𝑑𝑒𝑓 = 𝑣 (𝒫, 𝑤 ) if 𝒫 ∈ 𝑆 and 𝑤 ∈ 𝐺 . 2. 𝛼 ¬ 𝑁 𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 𝑑𝑒𝑓 = ¬ 𝑁 [𝛼 (𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 )]. 3. 𝛼 𝒫 ∧ 𝑁 𝑄; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 𝑑𝑒𝑓 = [𝛼 (𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 )] ∧ 𝑁 [𝛼 (𝑄; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 )] 4. 𝛼 𝒫 ∨ 𝑁 𝑄; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 𝑑𝑒𝑓 = [𝛼 (𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 )] ∨ 𝑁 [𝛼 (𝑄; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 )] 5. 𝛼 𝒫 → 𝑁 𝑄; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 𝑑𝑒𝑓 = [𝛼 (𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 )] → 𝑁 [𝛼 (𝑄; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 )] 6. 𝛼 ◊ 𝑁 𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 𝑑𝑒𝑓 = 〈sup, inf, inf〉{𝛼 (𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 ), 𝑤 ∈ 𝐺 and 𝑤 𝑅 𝑤′ }. 7. 𝛼 □ 𝑁 𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 𝑑𝑒𝑓 = 〈inf, sup, sup〉{𝛼 (𝒫; 𝑘 , 𝑣 , 𝑤 ), 𝑤 ∈ 𝐺 and 𝑤 𝑅 𝑤′ }. 8. ⊨ 𝑁 𝒫 if and only if 𝑤 ∗⊨ 𝒫 (a formula 𝒫 is neutrosophically deducible if and only if 𝒫 is neutrosophically deducible in the actual neutrosophic world). we should remark that 𝛼 has a degree of truth 𝑡 , a degree of indeterminacy 𝑖 , and a degree of falsehood 𝑓 , which are in the general case subsets of the interval [0, 1]. applying 〈sup, inf, inf〉 to 𝛼 is equivalent to calculating: 〈sup 𝑡 , inf 𝑖 , inf 𝑓 〉, and similarly 〈inf, sup, sup〉𝛼 = 〈inf 𝑡 , sup 𝑖 , sup 𝑓 〉. 10. refined neutrosophic modal single-valued logic using neutrosophic (t, i, f) thresholds, we refine for the first time the neutrosophic modal logic as: f. smarandache neutrosophic modal logic 33 10.1. refined neutrosophic possibility operator ◊ 𝑁 𝒫( , , ) = «it is very little possible (degree of possibility 𝑡 ) that 𝒫», corresponding to the threshold (𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 ), i.e. 0 ≤ 𝑡 ≤ 𝑡 , 𝑖 ≥ 𝑖 , 𝑓 ≥ 𝑓 , for 𝑡 a very little number in [0, 1]; ◊ 𝑁 𝒫( , , ) = «it is little possible (degree of pos-sibility 𝑡 ) that 𝒫», corresponding to the threshold (𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 ), i.e. 𝑡 < 𝑡 ≤ 𝑡 , 𝑖 ≥ 𝑖 > 𝑖 , 𝑓 ≥ 𝑓 > 𝑓 ; … … … and so on; ◊ 𝑁 𝒫( , , ) = «it is possible (with a degree of possibility 𝑡 ) that 𝒫», corresponding to the threshold (𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 ), i.e. 𝑡 < 𝑡 ≤ 𝑡 , 𝑖 ≥ 𝑖 > 𝑖 , 𝑓 ≥ 𝑓 > 𝑓 . 10.2. refined neutrosophic necessity operator □ 𝑁 𝒫( , , ) = «it is a small necessity (degree of necessity 𝑡 ) that 𝒫», i.e. 𝑡 < 𝑡 ≤ 𝑡 , 𝑖 ≥ 𝑖 ≥ 𝑖 , 𝑓 ≥ 𝑓 > 𝑓 ; □ 𝑁 𝒫( , , ) = «it is a little bigger necessity (degree of necessity 𝑡 ) that 𝒫», i.e. 𝑡 < 𝑡 ≤ 𝑡 , 𝑖 ≥ 𝑖 > 𝑖 , 𝑓 ≥ 𝑓 > 𝑓 ; … … … and so on; □ 𝑁 𝒫( , , ) = «it is a very high necessity (degree of necessity 𝑡 ) that 𝒫», i.e. 𝑡 < 𝑡 ≤ 𝑡 = 1, 𝑖 ≥ 𝑖 > 𝑖 , 𝑓 ≥ 𝑓 > 𝑓 . 11. application of the neutrosophic threshold we have introduced the term of (t, i, f)-physical law, meaning that a physical law has a degree of truth (t), a degree of indeterminacy (i), and a degree of falsehood (f). a physical law is 100% true, 0% indeterminate, and 0% false in perfect (ideal) conditions only, maybe in laboratory. but our actual world (𝑤 ∗) is not perfect and not steady, but continously changing, varying, fluctuating. for example, there are physicists that have proved a universal constant (c) is not quite universal (i.e. there are special conditions where it does not apply, or its value varies between (𝑐 − 𝜀, 𝑐 + 𝜀), for 𝜀 > 0 that can be a tiny or even a bigger number). thus, we can say that a proposition 𝒫 is neutrosophically nomological necessary, if 𝒫 is neutrosophically true at all possible neutrosophic worlds that obey the (t, i, f)-physical laws of the actual neutrosophic world 𝑤 ∗. in other words, at each possible neutrosophic world 𝑤 , neutrosophically accesible from 𝑤 ∗, one has: 𝒫 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 ≥ 𝑇𝐻(𝑇 , 𝐼 , 𝐹 ), (24) i.e. 𝑡 ≥ 𝑇 , 𝑖 ≤ 𝐼 , and 𝑓 ≥ 𝐹 . (25) 12. neutrosophic mereology neutrosophic mereology means the theory of the neutrosophic relations among the parts of a whole, and the neutrosophic relations between the parts and the whole. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 34 a neutrosophic relation between two parts, and similarly a neutrosophic relation between a part and the whole, has a degree of connectibility (t), a degree of indeterminacy (i), and a degree of disconnectibility (f). 12.1. neutrosophic mereological threshold neutrosophic mereological threshold is def-ined as: (min( ),max( ),max( ))m m m mth t i f (26) where 𝑡 is the set of all degrees of con-nectibility between the parts, and between the parts and the whole; 𝑖 is the set of all degrees of indeterminacy between the parts, and between the parts and the whole; 𝑓 is the set of all degrees of disconnectibility between the parts, and between the parts and the whole. we have considered all degrees as single-valued numbers. 13. neutrosophic gnosisology neutrosophic gnosisology is the theory of (t, i, f)-knowledge, because in many cases we are not able to completely (100%) find whole knowledge, but only a part of it (t %), another part remaining unknown (f %), and a third part indeterminate (unclear, vague, contradictory) (i %), where t, i, f are subsets of the interval [0, 1]. 13.1. neutrosophic gnosisological threshold neutrosophic gnosisological threshold is defined, similarly, as: (min( ), max( ), max( ))g g g gth t i f (27) where 𝑡 is the set of all degrees of knowledge of all theories, ideas, propositions etc., 𝑖 is the set of all degrees of indeterminate-knowledge of all theories, ideas, propositions etc., 𝑓 is the set of all degrees of non-knowledge of all theories, ideas, propositions etc. we have considered all degrees as single-valued numbers. 14. neutrosophic epistemology and neutrosophic epistemology, as part of the neutrosophic gnosisology, is the theory of (t, i, f)-scientific knowledge. science is infinite. we know only a small part of it (t%), another big part is yet to be discovered (f%), and a third part indeterminate (unclear, vague, contradictory) (i%). of course, t, i, f are subsets of [0, 1]. 14.1. neutrosophic epistemological threshold neutrosophic epistemological threshold is defined as: (min( ), max( ), max( ))e e e eth t i f (28) where 𝑡 is the set of all degrees of scientific knowledge of all scientific theories, ideas, propositions etc., 𝑖 is the set of all degrees of indeterminate scientific knowledge of all scientific theories, ideas, propositions etc., 𝑓 is the set of all degrees of non-scientific knowledge of all scientific theories, ideas, propositions etc. we have considered all degrees as single-valued numbers. f. smarandache neutrosophic modal logic 35 15. conclusions we have introduced for the first time the neutrosophic modal logic and the refined neutrosophic modal logic. symbolic neutrosophic logic can be connected to the neutrosophic modal logic too, where instead of numbers we may use labels, or instead of quantitative neutrosophic logic we may have a quantitative neutrosophic logic. as an extension, we may introduce symbolic neutrosophic modal logic and refined symbolic neutrosophic modal logic, where the symbolic neutrosophic modal operators (and the symbolic neutrosophic accessibility relation) have qualitative values (labels) instead on numerical values (subsets of the interval [0, 1]). applications of neutrosophic modal logic are to neutrosophic modal metaphysics. similarly to classical modal logic, there is a plethora of neutrosophic modal logics. neutrosophic modal logics is governed by a set of neutrosophic axioms and neutrosophic rules. the neutrosophic accessibility relation has various interpretations, depending on the applications. similarly, the notion of possible neutrosophic worlds has many interpretations, as part of possible neutrosophic semantics. references girle, r. (2010). modal logics and philosophy, 2nd ed., mcgill-queen's university press. hájek, p., & harmancová, d. (1993). a comparative fuzzy modal logic, in fuzzy logic in artificial intelligence, lecture notes in ai 695: 27-34. http://meetings.aps.org/meeting/gec16/session/ht6.111 hur, k., kang, h. w., & lee, k. c. (2006). fuzzy equivalence relations and fuzzy partitions, honam math. j. 28: 291-315. liau, c. j., & lin, b. i-pen (1992). quantitative modal logic and possibilistic reasoning, 10th european conference on artificial intelligence, 43-47. liu, p. (2016). the aggregation operators based on archimedean t-conorm and t-norm for the single valued neutrosophic numbers and their application to decision making, int. j. fuzzy syst., 18(5): 849–863. liu, p. d., & li, h. g. (2017). multiple attribute decision making method based on some normal neutrosophic bonferroni mean operators, neural computing and applications, 28(1), 179194. liu, p. d., & shi, l. l. (2015). the generalized hybrid weighted average operator based on interval neutrosophic hesitant set and its application to multiple attribute decision making, neural computing and applications, 26(2): 457-471. liu, p. d., & tang, g. l. (2016). some power generalized aggregation operators based on the interval neutrosophic numbers and their application to decision making, journal of intelligent & fuzzy systems 30: 2517–2528. liu, p. d., & wang, y. m. (2016). interval neutrosophic prioritized owa operator and its application to multiple attribute decision making, journal of systems science & complexity, 29(3): 681-697. liu, p. d., chu, y. c., li, y. w., & chen, y.b. (2014). some generalized neutrosophic number hamacher aggregation operators and their application to group decision making, int. j. fuzzy syst.,16(2): 242-255. liu, p., & tang, g. (2016). multi-criteria group decision-making based on interval neutrosophic uncertain linguistic variables and choquet integral, cognitive computation, 8(6), 10361056. liu, p., zhang, l., liu, x., & wang, p. (2016). multi-valued neutrosophic number bonferroni mean operators and their application in multiple attribute group decision making, international journal of information technology & decision making 15(5), 1181–1210. smarandache, f. (2015). symbolic neutrosophic theory, europanova, brussels, 2015. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 36 smarandache, f. (2016a). neutrosophic overset, neutrosophic underset, and neutrosophic offset. pons editions, brussels, https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1607/1607.00234.pdf smarandache, f. (2016b). neutrosophic overset, neutrosophic underset, and neutrosophic offset. similarly for neutrosophic over-/under-/offlogic, probability, and statistics, 168 p., pons editions, brussels. smarandache, f. (2016, may 23-27). (t, i, f)-physical laws and (t, i, f)-physical constants, 47th annual meeting of the aps division of atomic, molecular and optical physics, providence, rhode island, volume 61, number 8, monday-friday. smarandache, f., & ali, m. (2016). neutrosophic triplet as extension of matter plasma, unmatter plasma, and antimatter plasma, 69th annual gaseous electronics conference, bochum, germany, volume 61, number 9, monday-friday, https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1512/1512.00047.pdf. microsoft word issue 3.docx 34 the relationship between sociability and professional "burnout" of medical workers with different professional experience galina a. shurukhina m. akmullah bashkir state pedagogical university ulitsa oktyabr'skoy revolyutsii, 3а, ufa, respublika bashkortostan, russia, 450000 phone: +7 347 272-58-05 230659@mail.ru elvira sh. shayakhmetova m. akmullah bashkir state pedagogical university ulitsa oktyabr'skoy revolyutsii, 3а, ufa, respublika bashkortostan, russia, 450000 phone: +7 347 272-58-05 shaga.elv@yandex.ru alsu r. biktagirova m. akmullah bashkir state pedagogical university ulitsa oktyabr'skoy revolyutsii, 3а, ufa, respublika bashkortostan, russia, 450000 phone: +7 347 272-58-05 biktagirova-alsu@mail.ru lyudmila m. matveeva m. akmullah bashkir state pedagogical university ulitsa oktyabr'skoy revolyutsii, 3а, ufa, respublika bashkortostan, russia, 450000 phone: +7 347 272-58-05 matveeval57@mail.ru elvira i. karamova m. akmullah bashkir state pedagogical university ulitsa oktyabr'skoy revolyutsii, 3а, ufa, respublika bashkortostan, russia, 450000 phone: +7 347 272-58-05 elvikaramova@mail.ru abstract the article considers the professional "burnout" from the standpoint of "emotional exhaustion", "depersonalization" and "reduction." the study of sociability performed by the systemfunctional approach of a.i. krupnov, in which sociability is understood as a system of stable instrumental-style and motivational-semantic characteristics that provide the state of readiness and desire of the subject to interpersonal interaction. as a result of empirical research, it was revealed that medical staff (nurses), regardless of professional experience, are less susceptible to emotional “burnout” with an egocentric orientation of sociability. the specificity of the relationship between sociability and indicators of professional "burnout" among specialists with less work experience is manifested in the absence of significant associations of sociability variables with depersonalization. the specifics of the links of the interns are expressed in the relationship of social orientation and personal difficulties of sociability with the subjective perception of their professionalism, as well as in a larger number of connections of variables of sociability, instrumental-dynamic subsystem, increasing the risk of emotional exhaustion in professional activity. keywords: relationship; medical worker; sociability; professional burnout; systemfunctional approach; motivational-semantic subsystem; regulatory-dynamic subsystem. 1. introduction the professional activities of medical staff is associated with direct interaction with the public. the need for insight into the patient's problems, the ability to properly build the communication process implies a high level of sociability as a professionally necessary personality trait. a large flow of patients, a rigidly fixed time of admission leads to a professional "burning g. a. shurukhina, e. sh. shayakhmetova, a. r. biktagirova, l. m. matveeva, e. i. karamova the relationship between sociability and professional "burnout" of medical workers with different professional experience 35 out", and sometimes, leaving the profession. despite the large number of studies on this issue, the study of the relationship of sociability and professional "burnout" among medical workers with different professional experience has not been conducted and seems to us relevant, in demand, as well as practice-oriented in modern society. the purpose of the study is to identify the features of the relationship of sociability and professional burnout among health care workers with different professional experience. we consider professional “burnout” as a process of reducing or losing a person’s experience of the significance of personal values, characterized by difficulties in their implementation and inadequate emotional response in value-relevant situations (denisov, terekhina, 2015; drozdova, 2016). foreign (rada, jonson-leong, 2004; grunfeld, zitzelsberger, coristine, 2005) and domestic researchers identify various reasons for professional (emotional) burnout: the level of development of reflexivity (merkulova, 2013), long non-living by personal values (leng, 2008), character traits. the signs of professional “burnout” are highlighted: emotional exhaustion (indifference), depersonalization (negative attitude towards their professional activities and colleagues), reduction (subjective self-perception of a non-professional) (vodopyanova, starchenkova, 2008) and the need for the help of a psychologist or psychotherapist in this category of professionals is confirmed (chuvakov, chuvakova, yarmoshyna, 2016). sociability refers to one of the basic properties of the individual, therefore it can become a resource that improves resistance to external negative influences and promotes professional burnout of a specialist. the study of sociability performed using the system-functional approach a.i. krupnov, in which the studied personality trait is understood as a system of stable instrumentalstyle and motivational-semantic characteristics, which provide the state of readiness and desire of the subject to interpersonal interaction (krupnov, 2006). this approach presents two aspects of studying personality traits (sociability), motivational-semantic, including attitudes (socially significant or personality-significant), direction of motivation (sociocentric or egocentric), degree of awareness and understanding of sociability (meaningfulness or awareness), the scope of this personality traits (objectivity or subjectivity). in turn, the instrumental-dynamic subsystem is the central “core” of the aspirations of the personality, representing the intensity (energy anergy) nature of the experiences (stenichnostasthenichnost), type of volitional regulation (internality externality), features of the manifestation of this property in problem situations (operational or personal difficulties) (krupnov, novikova, 2014). in the course of the system-functional approach, age-related (fomina, bakova, 2010), professional (kudinova, kudinov, 2016), ethnic (kudinov, vdovina, 2013) features of sociability, as well as the relationship of sociability with aggressiveness (tolstova, 2013), adaptability, confidence (volk, akimova, 2010) and others were studied. 2. materials and methods testing and correlation analysis of pearson, as well as methods: “blank test-sociability” of a.i. krupnov; questionnaire of "professional burnout" of k. maslach, s.jackson in the adaptation of v.e. vodopianova. the study was conducted on the basis of polyclinic no 1 of ufa. the study involved 62 medical workers (nurses) with different professional experience: up to 5 years 30 people and from 5 to 10 years 32 people, the average age is 41 years. 3. results five significant relationships were identified, out of 48 possible, one of which is negative (figure 1). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 36 figure 1. correlation coefficients of variables of sociability and indicators of professional burnout among medical workers with professional experience of up to 5 years (n = 30) positive correlations have sociability variables — asthenia, internality, and the indicator of professional burnout, emotional exhaustion (r = 0.393; r = 0.431). the more often the experts feel embarrassed when the patient fails to answer, annoyed, when they fail to hide the negative attitude, attribute their own failures to internal factors, the more psychological exhaustion, loss of interest in activities and positive feelings, dissatisfaction with life in general. in other words, psychological exhaustion increases with an increase in the frequency of negative emotions, the internal locus of control. the sociable sociability of the meaningfulness and operational difficulties with the indicator of professional “burnout” reduction (r = 0.399) are positively significantly interrelated. such data suggests that the more deeply specialists understand sociability as a means of knowing oneself and others, the degree of a person’s readiness for interpersonal interaction, the more often they cannot render the necessary interaction to a patient, the sooner their professional incompetence is realized. understanding that insufficient development of effective interaction skills and the presence of difficulties from outside exacerbate the subjectivity of the perception of their lack of professionalism. the negative significant relationship of variable sociability, self-centeredness and the indicator of professional “burnout”, emotional exhaustion (r = –0.402) indicates that the higher the level of orientation of a person towards himself, the pursuit of his own goals, the lower his emotional exhaustion and, conversely, with a low level of variable self-centeredness in communication increases the level of emotional exhaustion. in other words, the expressed g. a. shurukhina, e. sh. shayakhmetova, a. r. biktagirova, l. m. matveeva, e. i. karamova the relationship between sociability and professional "burnout" of medical workers with different professional experience 37 orientation of sociability towards oneself increases the safety of the emotional sphere and is the prevention of emotional exhaustion. consider the correlation of the variables of sociability and emotional burnout in nurses with work experience of five to ten years (figure 2). in the structure of sociability and emotional “burnout”, thirteen significant correlations of 48 possible, of which five are negative, were identified. the sociability variables are positively related: awareness (r = 0.381), stichiness (r = 0.389), externality (r = 0.431), personal difficulties (r = 0.374), negatively variable self-centeredness (r = –0.396, p = 0.025) with an emotional scale exhaustion. such indicators suggest that the more widely and more extensively a person understands sociability, the more brightly are positive emotions; more often, experts see the reasons in external factors, on which the success of communicativeness depends and more personal difficulties: shyness, confusion, embarrassment at the realization of sociability, the more specialists are subject to emotional exhaustion. figure 2. correlation coefficients of variables of sociability and indicators of professional burnout among health care workers with professional experience from 5 to 10 years on the other hand, (egocentricity r = -0,396), the more the desire to gain independence and independence, to satisfy their desires, to improve themselves and their abilities, realizing sociability, the lower the level of emotional exhaustion. in other words, the superficiality of knowledge about sociability, excessive emotionality, executing rules from the outside and personal difficulties in realizing sociability contribute to the likelihood of emotional exhaustion, and the egocentric orientation of sociability reduces this probability. the positive associations of the sociability community variables (r = 0.537), externality (r = 0.372) and the negative association of the asthenia variable (r = –0.526) with the indicator of professional burnout depersonalization were revealed. such data suggests that the higher the level brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 38 of admiration when meeting new people, joyful emotions from the process of communication, creative attitude to this process, personal dependence on external factors and conditions, opinions of others, the more often ignoring their colleagues, indifference and detachment to their professional activities. in turn, negative emotions, accompanying sociability and hindering its development, prevent the manifestation of negativity and detachment, a cynical attitude towards others, arrogant behavior. in other words, the brightness of the manifestation of positive emotions and compliance with the internal rules promotes the growth of negativism towards their colleagues, emotional “relaxation” on colleagues, and irritation on patients reduces negativity towards colleagues and their professional duties. the sociability variables are positively related: socially significant goals (r = 0.401), awareness (r = 0.364), externality (r = 0.401) with the indicator of professional “burnout” reduction. the more often the sociability of medical interns is aimed at achieving social recognition in a team, the more active is the desire to be a respected person, the shallowness of knowledge and understanding of sociability and the tendency to assertion, the more often the success of sociability depends on secondary factors from the outside, the more subjective perception of their professional qualities as insufficiently developed . on the other hand, the reduction is negatively related to the variables egocentricity (r = –0.373, subjectivity (r = –0.360), operational difficulties (r = –0.406). that is, the greater the maintenance of one’s health, the achievement of material well-being, family life, the development of new interests, detente and elevation of one's mood, lack of understanding of another person, the less subjective is the perception of oneself as a non-professional. in other words, social orientation, lack of awareness, strict routine lead to growth subjectivity to itself as a non-professional and focus on themselves, produce sociality results for themselves and difficulties do not depend on the personality, help to reduce the subjective negativity, that is, more objective perception of themselves in their professional activities. 4. conclusion more correlations were found in the group of medical workers with experience from 5 to 10 years than in the group with experience of up to 5 years, characterized by different content and fullness. the general negative relationship between the variable self-centeredness of sociability and the scale of professional “burnout” emotional exhaustion, regardless of the length of service, was revealed. the specificity of the correlation of nurses with professional experience of up to five years is manifested in the absence of significant associations of sociability with the scale of professional burnout depersonalization, which in our opinion is associated with interest in their professional activities, interaction with colleagues, and specialists are at the beginning labor way. medical personnel with professional experience from five to ten years have their specifics in the interrelations of variables, socially significant goals and personal difficulties of sociability and scale reduction (subjective perception of their professionalism), as well as the presence of connections of variables of sociability (awareness, style, externality, personal difficulties) that increase the risk of emotional exhaustion in professional activities. according to the results of empirical research, the training program on the prevention of professional “burnout” of medical workers has been compiled, tested and implemented in the work of the psychological service of medical institutions. references chuvakov, g. i., chuvakova, o. a., yarmoshyna, i. a. (2016). personality characteristics of nurses with emotional and professional burnout, working with cancer patients. scientific forum. siberia, 2(1), 33-34. denisov, a. a., terekhina, n. v. (2015). emotional burnout in professional activity (on the example of an empirical study of emotional burnout in dentists). personal development, (4), 98-112. drozdova, o. o. (2016). features of emotional burnout of middle-level medical personnel. labor psychology, economics and management in modern russia: the organizational structure g. a. shurukhina, e. sh. shayakhmetova, a. r. biktagirova, l. m. matveeva, e. i. karamova the relationship between sociability and professional "burnout" of medical workers with different professional experience 39 and entrepreneurship materials of the international correspondence scientific and practical conference, 77-85. fomina, n. a., bakova, i. v. (2010). the relationship of sociability and personal adaptation of students. bulletin of peoples' friendship university of russia. series: psychology and pedagogy, 1, 48-51. grunfeld, e., zitzelsberger, l., coristine, m. (2005). job stress and job satisfaction of cancer workers. psychooncology, 14, 61-69. krupnov, a. i. (2006). system-dispositional approach to the study of personality and its property. vestnik rudn, 1(3), 63-73. krupnov, a. i., novikova, i. a. (2014). history and conceptual foundations of the system-functional approach to the study of personality traits. system studies of personality traits to the 30th anniversary of the scientific school of a.i. krupnov at pfur. moscow: rudn, 9-30. kudinov, s. s., vdovina, k. yu. (2013). comparative analysis of the factor structure of sociability among representatives of the russian, uygur and kumandin nationalities. bulletin of peoples' friendship university of russia. series: psychology and pedagogy, 4, 49-56. kudinova, i. b., kudinov, s. s. (2016). sociability as a factor of professional self-realization of personality. higher school: experience, problems, prospects. materials of the ix international scientific and practical conference: in 2 parts, 652-659. rada, r., jonson-leong, c. (2004). stress, burnout, anxiety and depression among dentists. jada, 135, 788-794. tolstova, d. a. (2013). to the problem of correlation of sociability and aggressiveness of a person with the severity of styles of conflict behavior. bulletin of peoples' friendship university of russia. series: psychology and pedagogy, 4, 65-72. vodopyanova, n. e., starchenkova, e. s. (2008). burnout syndrome: diagnosis and prevention. spb., 48. volk, m. i., akimova, a. r. (2010). the ratio of variables of confidence and sociability with indicators of adaptability in different groups of students. bulletin of peoples' friendship university of russia. series: psychology and pedagogy, (1), 52-56. shurukhina galina anatolievna (b. june 23, 1959) candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of the department of general and social psychology of the bashkir state pedagogical university named after m. akmulla, psychologistconsultant, coach. research interests: general psychology, psychology of leadership, family psychology. author of more than 70 scientific articles, 2 manuals, 3 monographs. biktagirova alsu rashitovna (b. may 19, 1974) candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of applied psychology and deviantology, head of the master's program "psychology of management and personnel management", deputy dean of the faculty of psychology for research and innovation of the bashkir state pedagogical university. m. akmulla. research interests: professional well-being, psychological culture of the head, job satisfaction, personnel reserve. author of more than 80 scientific articles, 1 textbook, 2 monographs. shayakhmetova elvira shagabetdinova (b. february 25, 1967) doctor of biological sciences, professor of the department of general and social psychology, head of the laboratory of psychophysiology and experimental psychology bspu. m. akmulla. research interests: psychophysiological features of various professions (athletes), psychological aspects of assistance with involutional changes and aging processes. author of more than 100 scientific articles, 10 textbooks, 6 monographs. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 40 matveeva lyudmila mikhailovna (b. february 01, 1960) candidate of social sciences, professor, head of the department of sports disciplines bspu. m. akmulla. honored master of sports in athletics. research interests: sociology and psychology of sports, psychology of health and health-saving technologies. author of more than 80 scientific articles, 3 textbooks, 3 monographs. karamova elvira ildusovna (b. september 10, 1978) senior psychologist the inspector of personnel department of the educational work of preprofile preparation and profile training (ppipo) of emercom of russia in the republic of bashkortostan. candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of the department of practical psychology and deviantology of the bashkir state pedagogical university named after m. akmulla. research interests: leadership, team management. author of more than 50 scientific articles, 1 textbook, 1 monograph. untitled brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer modeling self-organizing systems with social insects algorithms cyrille bertelle, antoine dutot and rawan ghnemat abstract. self-organization is common in natural systems. this tutorial describes some of these systems, specifically from insect societies like in bees, termites or ant colonies. in a first part, a modeling process is explained. objects and phenomena targeted by these methods are presented. natural or social complex systems are the context of these objects and phenomena. basic algorithms presented for example in [8] are given. these algorithms belongs to the class of swarm intelligence methods describing how a network of interacting entities can lead to emergent properties of the whole system. in a second part, more original applications are presented, based on extensions of these basic algorithms in order to model ecosystems, urban dynamics or to propose a decentralized method to distribute simulations over dynamical communication graphs. keywords: swarm intelligence, complex systems, ant colony optimization, self-organization, emergent properties 18 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms 1. complexity and self-organization physic, biology, computer science or human science give many examples of systems where the global behavior is the result of interactions between homogeneous or heterogeneous entities. our purpose is to model and to analyze social organizations inspired from these natural systems. moreover, we want to highlight the essential role of space and so, how spatial interactions are the catalyst of emergent properties which appear in the formation of these complex systems. on figure 1, we describe a two-level model of spatial self-organizations with interactions in both directions between these two levels: the emergence of organizations from entities interactions but also the feed-back process describing how organizations are regulating their own entities. figure 1: complex spatial organizational model in the following, we focuss our study on how building concrete algorithms to implement such phenomena involving adaptive complex systems. these algorithms are mostly belonging to swarm intelligence methods. 2. swarm intelligence swarm intelligence algorithms [7, 8, 15] find roots in various aspects of computer science development: from the evolution of the network architectures 19 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms that have led to distributed computing, but also from the evolution of software engineering that have led to distributed artificial intelligence paradigm. swarm intelligence is based on such distributed solvers expected to interact together. in this approach, there is no plannication of any kind of master solvers, splitting a problem in smaller ones and then assemblying the subsolutions of each slaves. in swarm intelligence algorithms, the computation is decentralized and the global solution emerges from these distributed solver interaction. the most famous swarm intelligence methods are particle swarm optimization (pso) [14] and ant systems [8]. in pso, the distributed solvers are moving virtual particles. these virtual particles are collectively moving on a solution space. the collective displacement of the particles system is inspired from c. reynolds boids [19] system which aims to simulate the collective behavior of fish banks or bird flocks. the virtual particles of pso interact by exchanging information in order to discover the best solution over the space solution. in ant systems the distributed solvers are ants moving in an environment. the emerging solutions are achieved through a concept called stigmergy. this concept is based on a system of indirect communication whose support is the environment. it is inspired by the behavior of natural ants depositing pheromone trails on the ground to communicate with their peers. 3. ant systems 3.1 self-organization in natural ant systems natural ant behaviors have fascinated complex systems researchers since many years by their capacities to organize themselves on various aspects. computer science researchers are using ant colonies behavior to design bioinspired methods and algorithms. their specific reactive individual behaviors are suitable to design efficient cooperation mechanisms in order to implement automatic processus leading to self-organization formation. to achieve this objective, only the few essential aspects of the ant behavior which lead to the self-organization processes, have to be understood and then described with mathematical formulations. engineering applications of such artificial ant colonies systems start to be developed nowadays, specifically for problems which can be described in term of graph optimization, task allocation or clustering. 20 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms on figure 2, two examples of self-organization in natural ants are presented. on the left side, the well-known deneubourg experiment consists to highlight with a very simple device the ant foraging problem. the ant objectives is to find the optimal way from nest to food source, using pheromone trail deposition. on the right side, cemetery clustering formation are shown at 4 successive times: ants form piles of corpses to clean their nests. each of them has elementary actions, unknowing the whole situation, but dealing only with local information. there is no supervisor to lead the piles formation which emerges from ant interactions. figure 2: optimization in natural ants collective behavior: foraging and clustering (from [8]) 3.2 ant colony optimization ant colony optimization [8] has been originally proposed to solve the famous traveling salesman problem (tsp). this problem consists in finding the shortest cycle which links n interconnected towns within weighted graph with only one pass in each town. the problem is described by a graph where nodes ci are towns and weighted edges dij are the distance between towns. tij(t) are pheromone quantity deposited by ants on the edge (i, j). 21 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms when an ant is on the town i, it computes the probability to go to the non yet visited town j by the formula: p kij(t) = ⎧⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎨ ⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎩ (tij(t)) α ( 1 dij )β ∑ l∈jk(t) (til(t)) α ( 1 dil )β if j ∈ jk(t) 0 if j �∈ jk(t) where • jk is the set of towns not yet visited by the ant k; • α and β allow to control the relative importance of the 2 quantities controlling the ant behavior: the pheromone trail quantity (tij) and the distance (dij). when an ant has found a solution as a good cycle between towns, it deposits some pheromone on all of the edges of the cycle, inversely proportional to the length of the cycle (lk): δt kij(t) = { q lk if (i, j) is a edge of the cycle 0 elsewhere where q is a constant parameter on each edge (i, j), the pheromone quantity is updated from step t to step t+1, by adding all the contributions of each ant to previous pheromone quantity: tij(t + 1) = ρtij(t) + m∑ k=1 δt kij(t) where ρ is an evaporation factor which allow that some first path/solution can be remplaced by better ones. 3.3 ant clustering ants and other social insects deal with cooperative way in distributed clustering, like cimetery. from the beginning of aggregations of objects, small clusters formation appear and act themselves on social insects by stigmergy. this mechanism make the clusters formation increase with time. 22 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms the algorithm consists in making a great number of autonomous ants move in random direction inside an environment of objects to agregate them in clusters. at each step, an ant is in one of the 3 situations: 1 the ant moves without carrying anything and meet no object. in this case, the ant continues to move randomly 2 the ant moves without carrying and meet an object. the ant can take this object to carry it. the probability of the ant take the object is: pp = ( k1 k1 + f )2 (1) – f is a value corresponding of the number of objects perceived in the ant neighborhood – k1 is a threshold, making this probability between 0 and 1, according to its relative position with k1. 3 the ant moves and carries an object. the ant can leave this object on the ground. the probability of the ant to leave the carried object is: pd = ( f k2 + f )2 (2) – f is a value corresponding of the number of objects perceived in the ant neighborhood – k2 is another threshold, making this probability between 0 and 1, according to its relative position with k2. 4. applications 4.1 methodology for applicative issues development from bio-inspired algorithms original research works, from the research team ri2c (french acronym for swarm intelligence and interaction netwoks) of the laboratory litis, is 23 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms developed in this section. they belongs to a specific methodology of development to applicative issues about living and social complex systems, within distributed computing. two major goals are defined and consist in (i) understanding and modelling the organization and self-organization of living systems using appropriate models and simulations, (2) taking inspiration from living systems to design new methodologies, new models and new algorithms suited to distributed computing. our objectives is to integrate inside our simulations, some models of feed-back control of these emergent organizations over their own constituents. swarm intelligence algorithms are the main basis of our implementation. 4.2 structure detections in distributed simulations this research actions deal with dynamical agent-based simulation distribution over computer network based on ant system. the goal is to distribute the previous simulation interacting entities on a computer network: the communication has to be minimized, placing highly communicating entities on the same computer. load balancing must be also considered in order to efficiently distribute entities to all the computers, respecting their power capabilities. the proposed solution consits in developing an innovative algorithm called antco2, acronym for ant competing colonies [12]. antco2 principle is an extension of the classical ant system with dynamical colored graph and colored pheromons. each ant is associated to one color: it is attracted by the pheromone of its own color and repulsed by the pheromons of other colors. antco2 results show the capability of this algorithm for cooperation and competition process leading to emergent clustering. on figure 3, graph clusterings are obtained by this algorithm. its major characteristic is its decentralized process which confer flexibility and robutness properties. 4.3 urban dynamics simulation social and human developments are typical complex systems. urban development and dynamics are the perfect illustration of systems where spatial emergence, self-organization and structural interaction between the system and its components occur [3, 4, 5, 6]. in figure 4, we concentrate on the emergence of organizational systems from geographical systems. the continuous 24 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms figure 3: antco2 algorithm for graph clustering: on the left the output of the computation on a communication network; on the right the output on a regular grid figure 4: complexity of geographical space with respect of emergent organizations 25 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms dynamic development of the organization feed-back on the geographical system which contains the organization components and their environment. to analyse or simulate urban dynamics, nowadays, we can use the great amount of geographical databases directly available for computational treatment within geographical information systems [17, 20]. on the organizational level description, the new development of multiagent systems (mas) allows nowadays to develop suitable models and efficient simulations [9]. the applications we focus on in the models that we will propose in the following, concerns specifically the multi-center (or multi-organizational) phenomona inside urban development. as an artificial ecosystem, the city development has to deal with many challenges, specifically for sustainable development, mixing economical, social and environmental aspects. the decentralized methodology proposed in the following allows to deal with multi-criteria problems, leading to propose a decision making assistance, based on simulation analysis. the ant clustering shows some spatial self-organizations but has the specificity to generate clusters at random places. according to the first random moves that the ants start to do in the beginning of the algorithm, some material will initiate aggregation and the clustering processus will complete this aggregation from these initial random first aggregations. to simulate some urban dynamics, we need to introduce specific location with respect to city center, for example. the clustering here will represent the people usage of these centers or equipments and we need to introduce an attractive effect by using a pheromon template. this method follows the algorithm known as ant nest building [10]. in ant colonies, the center corresponds to the position of the queen which needs to build the nest and the ant colony moves around it to protect the nest by various material taken on the ground. the queen emits a pheromon which allows to attract the ants during their building. the ant has to deposit the material carried only if the pheromon quantity perceived belongs to a specific range. we use an attractive fonction called pt, corresponding to a pheromon template and represented by the top part of the figure 5. using this template function, we remplace in the clustering algorithm, the two previous probabilities defined previously in equation (1) and equation (2) by p ′p = pp(1 − pt) (3) 26 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms p ′d = pdpt (4) on figure 5, we can see a single queen simulation. it is possible also for each queen to emit many different kinds of pheromons : we called them colored pheromons [13]. each colored pheromon will attract only the ants associated to its color. on figures (b) and (c), simulations on repast [11, 16, 18] are provided at successive times. the last figure shows the adaptive mechanism of the queen which grows with time according to the material density around it, like in natural observations. on the figure 6, we present a complete simulation with several centers and several queens [13]. on each center, a queen is emitting several colored pheromons and are able to attract some multi-colored material according to their initial location. simulation outputs at different iteration times are presented, from repast implementation and openmap gis visualization. the multi-template modelling can be used to model cultural equipment dynamics as described in figure 7. on this figure, we associate a queen to each cultural center (cinema, theatre, ...). each queen will emit many pheromon templates, each template is associated to a specific criterium (according to age, sex, ...). initially, we put the material in the residential place. each material has some characteristics, corresponding to the people living in this residential area. the simulation shows the self-organization processus as the result of the set of the attractive effect of all the centers and all the templates. 5. conclusion in this tutorial, self-organization mechanisms are described in natural systems and are used to design algorithms for distributed computing. applications on ecosytems or urban dynamics modeling are presented. a processus to distribute decentralized simulations from its communication graph is also presented. standard algorithms extensions need to achieve these processes or simulations are developed. the decentralized approaches, inherent to these bio-inspired algorithms, allow to extend them, respecting the complexity of the phenomena to model. 27 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms (a) template function (b) simulation on repast: after few step (c) simulation on repast: after queen adaptive development figure 5: adaptive queen behavior modelling: according to its surround material spatial perception, the queen evolves 28 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms f ig u re 6 : s im u la ti o n co m p u ta ti o n , a t su cc es si v e st ep s: it er a ti o n s 0 , 1 5 2 , 2 5 0 , 3 7 0 , 6 0 1 , 1 6 0 1 . 29 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms figure 7: cultural equipment dynamics modeling references [1] m.a. aziz alaoui and cyrille bertelle (eds) (2009) from system complexity to emergent properties “understanding complex systems” series, springer-verlag, berlin-heidelberg. [2] m.a. aziz alaoui and cyrille bertelle (eds) (2006) emergent properties in natural and artificial dynamical systems “understanding complex systems” series, springer-verlag, berlin-heidelberg. [3] m. batty and y. xie. from cells to cities. environment and planning b, 21:531–548, 1994. [4] michael batty. cities and complexity. the mit press, 2005. [5] itzhak benenson. modeling population dynamics in the city: from a regional to a multi-agent approach. discrete dynamics in nature and society, 3:149–170, 1999. [6] itzhak benenson and paul m. torrens. geosimulation. wiley, 2004. [7] geraldo beni and jing wang. swarm intelligence. in proceedings seventh annual meeting of the robotics society of japan, pages 425–428, 1989. 30 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms [8] bonabeau, e.; dorigo, m. and g. theraulaz (1999) swam intelligence, from natural to artificial systems, “santa fe institute studies in the sciences of complexity” series, oxford university press. [9] anne bretagnolle, eric daude, and denise pumain. from theory to modelling: urban systems as complex systems. cybergeo, 335:26 pages, 2006. [10] camazine, s.; deneubourg, j.-l.; franks, n.r.; sneyd, j.; theraulaz, g. and e. bonabeau (2001) self-organization in biological systems, princeton university press. [11] andrew t. crooks. the repast simulation/modelling system for geospatial simulation. technical report, ucl working papers series, september 2007. paper 123. [12] antoine dutot. distribution dynamique adaptative à l’aide de mécanismes d’intelligence collective. phd thesis, university of le havre, 2005. [13] rawan ghnemat (2009) adaptive modeling for spatial emergence within complex systems, phd thesis, le havre university, france. [14] james kennedy and russ eberhart. particle swarm optimization. in proceedings of the 1995 ieee international conference on neural networks, pages 1942–1948, 1995. [15] james kennedy and russel c. eberhart. swarm intelligence. morgan kaufmann publishers, 2001. [16] charles m. macal and michael j. north. tutorial on agent-based modeling and simulation. in simulation conference, 2005. [17] martin raubal and claus rinner. multi-criteria decision analysis for location based services. in geoinformatics 2004, proceedings 12th int. conf. on geoinformatics geospatial information research: bridging the pacific and atlantic, university of gavle, sweden, june 7-9 2004. [18] repast, see in march 2008. http://repast.sourceforge.net/. [19] craig w. reynolds. flocks, herds, and schools: a distributed behavioral model. computer graphics (siggraph ’87 conference proceedings), 21(4):25–34, 1987. 31 bertelle, dutot & ghnemat self-organization and social insects algorithms [20] ajay sharma, vishnu vyas, and dipti deodhare. an algorithm for site selection in gis based on swarm intelligence. in ieee congress on evolutionary computation, cec 2006, pages 1020 – 1027, 2006. professor cyrille bertelle litis university of le havre 25 rue philippe lebon, bp 540 76058 le havre cedex, france email:cyrille.bertelle@gmail.com doctor antoine dutot litis university of le havre 25 rue philippe lebon, bp 540 76058 le havre cedex, france email:antoine.dutot@gmail.com doctor rawan m. ghnemat german-jordanian university po box 35247 amman 11180, jordan email:rawan.ghnemat@gju.edu.jo 32 microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final_ok1.docx 144 novel detection features for ssvep based bci: coefficient of variation and variation speed abdullah talha sözer electrical and electronics engineering department, karabük university, turkey talhasozer@karabuk.edu.tr can bülent fidan mechatronics engineering department, karabük university, turkey cbfidan@karabuk.edu.tr abstract this paper introduces novel detection features for the steady-state visually evoked potential (ssvep) based brain computer interfaces. the coefficient of variation and variation speed features were developed using the stability of ssvep response. the developed features were tested on 13 subjects. on this dataset, for which the chance level is 12.5%, about 70% detection accuracy was obtained. based on these results, it is considered that the coefficient of variation and the variation speed can be used as discriminative features for ssvep. by using familiar ssvep features and developed features together, higher ssvep detection accuracy can be obtained. by this procedure the performance of single channel ssvep based bci systems can be improved. keywords: brain computer interface; steady-state visual evoked potential; detection feature; stability 1. introduction severely disabled people can regain some functions by means of a new augmentative technology known under the name of brain–computer interface (bci). this technology can be used also to enhance functions in healthy individuals. a bci system measures brain activity. it generates an artificial output that does not depend on the peripheral nerves and muscles. thus, this artificial output can be used to further ensure coordination between the brain and its environment (wolpaw and winter wolpaw 2012). the ssvep response is a continuous and periodic signal and it is induced through repeated visual stimulus ranging from 3.5 hz to 75 hz. the signal, together with its harmonics, has near sinusoidal waveforms. the frequency of the ssvep signal is the same as the frequency visual stimulus. the signal has almost constant amplitude and phase. using ssvep response in bci brings some advantages: high information transfer rate, non-invasiveness and does not need intensive user training (vialatte et al. 2010). for target stimulus detection, in most of ssvep based bci, two detection features are commonly used: spectral content (bin et al. 2009; diez et al. 2013; fan et al. 2015; cao et al. 2015; abu-alqumsan and peer 2016) and phase information (molina et al. 2010; lopez-gordo et al. 2010; manyakov et al. 2012; yeh et al. 2013; tong and zhu 2015). using canonical correlation analysis (cca) based detection methods, high detection accuracy is achieved even in short-term electroencephalographic (eeg) signals (nakanishi et al. 2015). however, these methods use multiple channels. user friendliness of bci systems is also important as performance for real-life applications. increased number of channels reduces the user friendliness. hence single channel ssvep based bci is more suitable for real-life applications. however available single channel ssvep detection methods cannot provide the enough accuracy. different features that define the signal may be the solution to increase the detection accuracy. stability of ssvep signal is a characteristic feature that distinguishes ssvep response from spontaneous eeg signal. this feature can be used to detect the ssvep signal. a. t. sözer, c. b. fidan novel detection features for ssvep based bci: coefficient of variation and variation speed 145 ssvep oscillates at the fundamental frequency and harmonics of the visual stimulus. signals belonging to other brain activities also contain components with the same frequency, and the intensity of these background signals varies with time. when the eeg signals are recorded at the scalp, due to the interference of the background signal, the component corresponding to the stimulus frequency of the eeg signal is unstable. nevertheless, it can be predicted that the change in intensity of spontaneous eeg will be sharper than change in intensity of the eeg component with ssvep. based on this situation, stability can be beneficial in detecting the ssvep signal. furthermore, since the intensity of spontaneous eeg signals is larger than the intensity of evoked potentials, the examination of the stability of the ssvep signal becomes important. in this study, new detection features called as coefficient of variation and variation speed are investigated by taking advantage of the stability of the ssvep signal. the proposed features are tested on ssvep datasets. detection accuracy of about 70% is obtained with 2-second eeg signals from 13 subjects. the obtained results show that the proposed parameters are discriminative features for ssvep. proposed features can be used together with spectral content and phase information to increase the detection accuracy. thus, the performance of single channel ssvep based bci can be improved. 2. method the flickering visual stimulus induces a ssvep response. the ssvep response is periodic and stable over time. based on this, the stability of the ssvep response can be used as detection feature for ssvep based bci. f re q u e n cy ( h z) time (ms) 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 figure 1: time vs frequency analysis of 10 hz ssvep response the stability of the ssvep signal was examined by using wavelet analysis (wu and yao 2008). since there is a trade-off between time and frequency resolution in wavelet analysis, examining the stability of ssvep with wavelet analysis is getting harder in systems where the visual stimulus frequencies are close to each other, as shown in figure 1. figure 2: overlapped eeg segments in this study, the short time fourier transformation (stft) is used to examine the stability of the ssvep. as the frequency resolution decreases with window size, overlapped eeg segments a m p li tu d e (µ v ) time (s) x1(t) x2(t) x3(t) brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 146 (figure 2) that give sufficient frequency resolution are used. coefficient of variation and variation speed detection features are proposed by using frequency spectrum of the segments. in equation 1, x(t) sequence defines overlapped eeg segments in time domain, and in equation 2 the x(f) sequence defines these segments in frequency domain and m is number of segments. )](...)()()([)( 21 txtxtxtxtx mn (1) )](...)()()([)( 21 txtxtxtxfx mn (2) for examining the stability of the ssvep response, the differences between the amplitude of the stimulus frequency and the amplitude of the neighboring frequencies in consecutive eeg segments are used. with the use of the amplitude differences, the effects of intensity variation caused by the spontaneous eeg in the examined frequency region are reduced. in equation 3, (fi) defines this amplitude differences and fi defines stimulus frequency. n(fi) is calculated as shown in equation 4. )](...)()()([)( 21 iminiii fffff  (3)    l k nbninin k fx l fxf 1 )( 1 )()( (4) in equation 4, knb f defines neighboring frequency and l defines number of neighboring.  sequences are shown graphically in figure 3. 0 5 10 15 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 a m p lit u d e d if fe re n ce 0 5 10 15 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0 5 10 15 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 5 10 15 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 0 5 10 15 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 0 5 10 15 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 5 10 15 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 segments 0 5 10 15 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 figure 3:  (fi) sequences at different frequencies the first developed parameter for the stability of ssvep is the coefficient of variation (cv). the variation in  (fi) sequence that is obtained at eeg component with ssvep response is expected to be less than the other sequences. equation 5 shows the calculation of cv. )( if is the standard deviation of  (fi) sequence. )( if is the averaged value of  (fi) sequence. )( )( )( i i i f f fcv       (5)     m n inf f mi 1 )( )( 1  (6)      m n finf ii f m 1 2 )()( )( 1  (7) a. t. sözer, c. b. fidan novel detection features for ssvep based bci: coefficient of variation and variation speed 147 the second developed parameter for the stability of ssvep is the variation speed (vs). it is expected that the amplitude differences for the component with the ssvep response in consecutive eeg segments will change more smoothly. for calculating vs, the difference of sequential values in  (fi) was used. the total difference throughout the  (fi) sequence is shown in equation 8 as )( if d . vs is calculated as shown in equation 9. the total difference is divided by the average value of  (fi) for comparing sequences with different average amplitude.       1 1 1)( )()( 1 1 m n ininf ff m d i (8) )( )( )( i i i f f f d vs      (9) 3. experimental procedure in order to test the developed features, the ssvep datasets recorded in (nakanishi et al. 2014) is used. flickering boxes had been presented on 24-inch lcd monitor with a refresh rate of 75hz. 32 visual stimuli had been generated with 8 different frequencies (8 hz, 9 hz, …, 15 hz) and 4 different phases (0o, 90o, 180o, 270o) as shown in figure 4. thirteen healthy adults had participated in the experiments. eeg data had been recorded by 16 electrodes (fpz, f3, f4, fz, cz, p1, p2, pz, po3, po4, po7, po8, poz, o1, o2 and oz). the sampling rate had been 512 hz. the datasets are grouped into 4 groups. the 0-degree stimuli formed the 1st group, the 90degree stimuli the 2nd group, the 180-degree stimuli the 3rd group and the 270-degree stimuli the 4th group. thus, it is made possible to test the developed features in more datasets. figure 4: visual stimuli 4. data analysis the eeg data are band-pass filtered from 7 hz to 30 hz using an infinite impulse response (iir) filter. the eeg signal recorded from oz channel is used for ssvep detection. ssvep detection is carried out by power spectral density (psd), cv and vs on 2 second eeg data. the window length for cv and vs is taken as 1 second. the windows are shifted to 32 samples to create overlapped eeg segments. neighboring frequencies are considered f-0.5 hz and f+0.5 hz brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 148 where f is the stimulus frequency. the power of the first and the second harmonics of the stimulation frequencies are utilized for psd analysis. value comparison method is used for feature classification. the target visual stimulus frequency f satisfies the equation 10, 11 and 12. in (10, 11 and 12), k represents the number of stimuli. f=argmaxi psd(fi), s.t. i=1, 2, …, k (10) f=argmini cv(fi), s.t. cv(fi)>0, i=1, 2, …, k (11) f=argmini vs(fi), s.t. vs(fi)>0, i=1, 2, …, k (12) 5. results when the results in figure 5 are analyzed, it is seen that cv and vs features provide detection results similar to psd, which is a familiar feature. considering that the chance level is 12.5% in these dataset, cv and vs can be used as discriminative features for ssvep. also on some subjects, like s3 on 1st and 4th datasets, and s11 on 1st, 2nd and 4th datasets, the proposed features have given clearly better detection results than psd. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13average 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 d e te c ti o n a c c u ra c y dataset 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13average 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 dataset 2 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13average 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 subjets d e te c ti o n a c c u ra c y dataset 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13average 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 subjets dataset 4 psd cv vs psd cv vs psd cv vspsd cv vs figure 5. ssvep detection accuracies by using psd, cv and vs features 6. discussions and conclusion spectral content and phase information of eeg is used to detect target stimulus in ssvep based bci systems. cv and vs features can also be used to detect ssvep as shown in results section. despite better detection accuracies are obtained by psd in most of the eeg data, the proposed features have results in better detection accuracies in some eeg data. this suggests that, using familiar features and suggested features together, a method that gives higher ssvep detection a. t. sözer, c. b. fidan novel detection features for ssvep based bci: coefficient of variation and variation speed 149 accuracy can be developed. also, considering the phase stability, the coefficient of variation and variation speed features can be improved. thus, the characterization of the ssvep signal can be better represented. for real life bci applications, cost and user friendliness are important besides information transfer rate (itr). this makes single channel bci performance more important. by using familiar ssvep features and proposed features together, single channel ssvep based bci providing high itr can be developed. acknowledgments: the authors are grateful to dr. masaki nakanishi for sharing the eeg datasets. references abu-alqumsan m, peer a (2016) advancing the detection of steady-state visual evoked potentials in brain-computer interfaces. j neural eng 13:36005. doi: 10.1088/1741-2560/13/3/036005 bin g, gao x, yan z, et al (2009) an online multi-channel ssvep-based brain–computer interface using a canonical correlation analysis method. j neural eng 6:46002. doi: 10.1088/17412560/6/4/046002 cao l, ju z, li j, et al (2015) sequence detection analysis based on canonical correlation for steadystate visual evoked potential brain computer interfaces. j neurosci methods 253:10–17. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2015.05.014 diez pf, torres müller sm, mut va, et al (2013) commanding a robotic wheelchair with a highfrequency steady-state visual evoked potential based brain-computer interface. med eng phys 35:1155–1164. doi: 10.1016/j.medengphy.2012.12.005 fan xa, bi l, teng t, et al (2015) a brain-computer interface-based vehicle destination selection system using p300 and ssvep signals. ieee trans intell transp syst 16:274–283. doi: 10.1109/tits.2014.2330000 lopez-gordo ma, prieto a, pelayo f, morillas c (2010) use of phase in brain–computer interfaces based on steady-state visual evoked potentials. neural process lett 32:1–9. doi: 10.1007/s11063-010-9139-8 manyakov n v, chumerin n, van hulle mm (2012) multichannel decoding for phase-coded ssvep brain-computer interface. int j neural syst 22:1250022. doi: 10.1142/s0129065712500220 molina gg, zhu d, abtahi s (2010) phase detection in a visual-evoked-potential based brain computer interface. in: european signal processing conference. pp 949–953 nakanishi m, wang y, wang y-t, et al (2014) a high-speed brain speller using steady-state visual evoked potentials. int j neural syst 24:1450019. doi: 10.1142/s0129065714500191 nakanishi m, wang y, wang y-t, jung t-p (2015) a comparison study of canonical correlation analysis based methods for detecting steady-state visual evoked potentials. plos one 10:e0140703. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140703 tong j, zhu d (2015) multi-phase cycle coding for ssvep based brain-computer interfaces. biomed eng online 14:5. doi: 10.1186/1475-925x-14-5 vialatte f-b, maurice m, dauwels j, cichocki a (2010) steady-state visually evoked potentials: focus on essential paradigms and future perspectives. prog neurobiol 90:418–38. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2009.11.005 wolpaw jr, winter wolpaw e (2012) brain–computer interfaces: something new under the sun. in: brain–computer interfaces principles and practice. oxford university press, pp 3–12 wu z, yao d (2008) frequency detection with stability coefficient for steady-state visual evoked potential (ssvep)-based bcis. j neural eng 5:36–43. doi: 10.1088/1741-2560/5/1/004 yeh c-l, lee p-l, chen w-m, et al (2013) improvement of classification accuracy in a phase-tagged steady-state visual evoked potential-based brain computer interface using multiclass support vector machine. biomed eng online 12:46. doi: 10.1186/1475-925x-12-46 brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 150 abdullah talha sözer (b. march 3, 1986) received his beng degree in electronics engineering from uludag university, bursa, turkey, in 2009 and m.eng degree in electrical and electronics engineering from karabuk university, karabük, turkey, in 2011. currently, he is a phd student in electrical and electronics engineering at the institute of natural and applied sciences, karabuk university, turkey. his research interests include: brain computer interface and signal processing. microsoft word issue3.docx 113 screening of minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus in iranian patients with nonerosive reflux disease (nerd) based on 24-hour multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph (mii-ph) monitoring tests hashem fakhre yaseri gastrointestinal and liver diseases research center, gastroenterology, iran university of medical sciences (gildrc), firoozgar hospital, tehran, iran department of internal medicine, firoozgar hospital iran university of medical sciences tehran province, 14665-354 tehran, hemmat highway, iran phone: +98 21 8670 1021 hfyaseri@chmail.ir abstract background/aims: impedance associated with ph monitoring is a new technique that can be used to detect acidic, weakly acidic, and nonacidic reflux episodes. also, this technique can be used to recognize fluids and gas. the present study was conducted to evaluate the differences in the total number of reflux episodes and its composition in participants with nonerosive reflux disease (nerd) and minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus and nerd based on the new technique of combined multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph(mii-ph) monitoring in iranian population. method: this study was conducted on 1134 participants aged 18 to70 years with nerd. they were selected using a questionnaire and esophagogastroduodenoscopy findings. mii-ph monitoring test was performed for all the patients. the number of reflux episodes and its composition, demeester score, integrated relaxation pressure 4(irp4), and distal contractile integral (dci) were recorded. results: of the 325 participants in the ineffective esophageal motility group, 66.7% showed a pathological acid exposure of time (eaet), which was more than the normal peristalsis group (43.6%).the frequency of upright and supine position of acid reflux was both 51.1% in ineffective esophageal motility (iem) participants, whereas the frequency of upright and supine position of acid reflux in patients with normal peristalsis was 24.8% and 23.1%, respectively. weakly acid reflux was more prevalent in nerd participants with iem than participants with normal peristalsis. conclusion: the present study revealed that acid, weakly acid, and gas reflux were more prevalent in nerd participants with minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus than in patients with normal peristalsis. mean integrated relaxation pressure4 (irp4) and distal contractile integral (dci) were significantly lower in those with minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus than in those with normal peristalsis. keywords: minor disorders peristalsis of esophagus, nerd, gerd, mii-ph, 1. introduction minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus is a type of hierarchical analysis of esophageal manometry based on the most recent chicago classification that include ineffective esophageal motility (iem) and fragmented peristalsis (fp) (rohof & bredenoord, 2017). impedance associated with ph monitoring is a new technique that can be used to detect acidic, weakly acidic, and nonacidic reflux episodes and recognize fluids and gas (bredenoord, 2008). high-resolution manometry(hrm) is now considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of esophageal motility disorders. chicago classification is a standardized approach for the analysis and diagnosis of esophageal motility disorders and improvers our knowledge of pathophysiology and upgrade the management of motility disorders and gastroesophageal reflux disease (rohof & bredenoord, 2017). several factors, such as integration relaxation pressure 4(irp4) of lower esophageal sphincter, esophageal body contraction, and gastric juice, are associated with esophageal symptoms and mucosal injuries (frazzoni et al., 2013; tack & pandolfino, 2018). kahrilas et al. reported that brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 114 peristaltic dysfunction, defined as failed or hypotensive primary peristalsis, occurs in 25% to 48% of oesophagitis cases. also, diener et al. showed that severe iem disorders are associated with more severe gastroesophageal reflux disease (gerd) presentation (savarino et al., 2013). in recent studies, the latest version of the chicago classification (v 3) was directly compared to the previous version and researchers reported that minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus were diagnosed significantly less often by the latest version, and these patterns were more often classified as normal in symptomatic patients (rohof & bredenoord, 2017). thus, significance of the relationship between minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus and gerd is questionable. nerd is characterized by troublesome reflux-related symptoms in the absence of esophageal mucosal erosions or breaks in conventional endoscopy. it has been estimated that the prevalence of nerd in those part of the population with reflux is 60% to 71.9% (savarino et al., 2013; yaseri, 2018). the present study was conducted to prospectively evaluate the differences in the total number of reflux episodes and its composition in patients with minor disorders of esophageal peristalsis and nerd based on the new technique of combined multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph(mii-ph) monitoring in iranian population. 2. materials and methods patients: the study population was selected from all patients who had gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms (heartburn and regurgitation) at least twice a week and who were admitted to firoozgar hospital in tehran, iran. gerd questionnaire was used as the study tool. all participants provided informed consent and accepted to complete the standard form of gerd questionnaire. diagnosis was based on questionnaires and results of esophagogastroduodenoscopy (egd). in this study, 1635 participants with no underlying diseases who had gerd symptoms for at least 3 months were initially selected. of the patients, 70.2% (1148/1635) appeared normal in egd and were considered to have nonerosive gastroesophageal disease (nerd). this case-control study was conducted on 1134 patients with nerd aged 18 to 70 years. the case group consisted of 325 nerd participants with iem, and the control group included 809 nud participants with normal peristalsis. the case and control groups had no history of documented ulcer, large hiatal hernia, esophageal varices, history of malignant diseases, previous foregut surgery, cardiovascular diseases, pregnancy, breastfeeding, psychiatric illness, and history of alcohol or drug abuse. also, fragmented peristalsis and achalasia findings in esophageal manometry, egd, or barium swallows were excluded. gerd symptoms (regurgitation and nccp) and negative esophagitis in egd were included. body mass index (bmi) was calculated by weight in kilogram in fasting state divided by the square of height in meters. smoking was recorded as positive or negative. moreover, esophageal manometry and esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph (mii-ph) monitoring tests were performed for all patients. esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph (mii-ph) monitoring: esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph (mii-ph) monitoring was performed using an ambulatory mii-ph system (manufactured by mui scientific, ontario, ca). the mii-ph catheter (unisensor ag, bahnstr, switzerland), with 6 impedance electrodes and 1 ph sensor (k6011-ei-0632), was inserted transnasally. impedance measuring sites were located in the distal esophagus at 3, 5, 7, and 9 cm and 2 impedance measuring sites in the proximal esophagus at 15 and 17 cm above the les. one antimony ph sensor was located 5 cm above the les.mii-ph data were recorded for at least 23 hours. the location of the les was determined by high-resolution manometry (hrm). participants were asked to discontinue ppis for at least 2 weeks, and they were also asked not to take h2-antagonist, prokinetic agents, and antacid for at least 3 days prior to miiph study. they were also asked to avoid eating fruit juice and acidic beverages during the examination. when esophageal ph remained below 4 in the distal esophagus, a total esophageal acid exposure of time (eaet)of >4.0% was used to define elevated acid exposure. hrm was h. f. yaseri screening of minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus in iranian patients with nonerosive reflux disease (nerd) based on 24-hour multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph (mii-ph) monitoring tests 115 performed using 23-channel silicone-customized water-perfused catheter (manufactured by mui scientific, ontario, ca). before each procedure, transducers were calibrated to 0 and 100 mmg using externally applied pressure. these studies were conducted with the participants in the supine position after at least a 6-hour fast. the catheter used was a water-perfused catheter, with an outside diameter of 3.8 mm (manufactured by mui scientific, ontario, ca).the catheters had 1 distal channel for gastric recording, 5 channels 1 cm apart for the les pressure, and 16 proximal channels, each 2 cm apart. microlumina was perfused with a pneumohydraulic perfusion system (mms software) at a water perfusion rate of 0.15 ml /min. pressure data were acquired and presented using a software specially designed for high-resolution manometry (mms v 8.23).the hrm assembly was passed transnasally. les was detected using the stationary pull-through method. then, 10 swallows of 5 ml ambient temperature water spaced more than 20 seconds apart were recorded. the pressure topography metrics were utilized in the chicago classification version 3. based on this consensus, integrated relaxation pressure 4(irp4) defined the lowest mean of abnormal esophagogastric junction pressure for 4 contiguous or non-contiguous seconds of relaxation. the distal contractile integral (dci) is calculated by amplitude × duration × length (mmhg-s-cm) of the distal esophageal contraction greater than 20 mmhg from the proximal to distal pressure troughs. the distal latency (dl) is measured from the upper esophageal sphincter relaxation to the cdp. the contractile deceleration point (cdp) represents the inflexion point in the contractile front propagation (7). ineffective esophageal motility (iem) is diagnosed when>50% of the swallows are ineffective, either failed (dci <100mmhg cm s) or weak (dci 100– 450 mmhg cm s) peristalsis. fragmented peristalsis is defined as >50% of the swallows with a large break (>5 cm) and not matching criteria for ineffective esophageal motility (kahrilas et al., 2015; chen & hsu, 2013). data analysis: analysis of the impedance signals included the total number of reflux episodes as regards to ph and its composition. liquid reflux was defined as a sequential decrease in impedance to a minimum of 50% of the baseline value. gas reflux was defined as a rapid (3kohm/s) increase in impedance. mixed reflux was defined as gas reflux that occurred during or immediately preceding liquid reflux. acid reflux is defined as a reflux event associated with a drop in esophageal ph <4; weakly acid is associated with a ph drop between 4 and 7; and nonacid is a reflux event associated with a ph drop <7. meal times were excluded from the analysis. statistical analysis: data were entered into spss version 20 after encoding for each participant. age was reported as mean ± standard deviation. statistical significance was compared between the symptom categories using either the mantel-haenszel chi square test with yates’ correction, or fisher’s exact probability test. a pvalue less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. 3. results this case-control study was conducted on 1134 participants out of 1148 participants with nonerosive gastroesophageal reflux disease (nerd) who were selected based on the results of a gerd questionnaire and esophagogastroduodenoscopy (egd). however, 14 patients with fragmented peristalsis were excluded from the study and even their data have not been included in the tables. the case group included 325 nerd participants, of whom 152 (46.7%) were female, with an average age of 44.7 ±9.9 years (21-70 years). the control group consisted of 809 nerd participants with normal peristalsis, of whom 408 (50.4%) were female, with an average age of 41. ± 8.9 (18-69) years. the frequency of iem and normal peristalsis in participants with nerd was 28.3% (325/1148) and 70.6%(809/1148), respectively. the frequency of fragmented peristalsis in patients with nerd was low,1.1% (14/1148); and of these patients, 10 (71.4) were female, with an average age of 40.3±7.8 years (28-95 years); however, their data have not been included in the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 116 tables. mean distal contractile integral (dci) value and mean integrated relaxation pressure4(irp4) were significantly lower in iem group than in normal peristalsis group, but distal latency (dl) values were comparable between the 2 groups. demeester scores were above the normal range in 48.9%(159/325) of the participants with iem. mean demeester score value was significantly higher in iem group. body mass index (bmi) and the rate of smoking were the same in the 2 groups (table1). of the 325 patients in iem(case) group, 66.7% (30/325) showed a pathological eaet (mean: 14.6.%, range: 3.3%-18.6%), whereas of the 809 patients in the normal peristalsis (control) group, 43.6% (81/809) showed a pathological eaet(mean:11.8%, range: 4.7%-19.2%), and the differences were significant between the 2 groups (p = 0.02).the frequency of upright and supine position of acid reflux in iem participants was 51.1%(23/325) in both positions, whereas the frequency of upright and supine position of acid reflux in patients with normal peristalsis was 24.8% (29/809) and 23.1%(27/809), respectively. thus, the differences between the 2 groups were significant (p = 0.03). the frequency of upright and supine position of weakly acid reflux in iem patients was 48.9%(22/325) and 20.0(9/325), respectively. the prevalence of upright and supine position of weakly acid reflux in participants with normal peristalsis was 25.6%(30/809) and 29.9(35/809), respectively. thus, the differences between the 2 groups was significant in upright position (p = 0.03). also, mixed reflux was less frequent in patients with iem than those with normal peristalsis in supine position [35.5%(16/325) vs. 48.7%(57/809)]. however, the difference was not significant between the 2 groups (p>0.4). also, gas reflux was less frequent in patients with iem than in those with normal peristalsis in supine position [15.5%(7/325) vs. 40.2% (47/809), p = 0.03]. the prevalence of liquid reflux in supine position was more frequent in iem group than in normal peristalsis group [20.0%(9/325) vs. 8.5% (10/809), p = 0.03]. the prevalence of non-acid reflux in both positions was lower in iem group compared to normal peristalsis group (table2). table 1. demographic information and prevalence of manometry findings and demeester score in 1134 patients with nonerosive reflux disease (nerd) findings np (n=809) iem (n=325) p-value sex female (%) male (%) 408(50.4) 401((49.6) 152(46.7) 173(53.3) ns age mean±sd, year range, year bmi(kg/m2 ) (range) smoking 41.6±8.9 18-69 20.6(17.8-44.9) 94(11.6) 44.7±9.9 21-70 21.4(18.8-45.9) 30(9.2) ns ns manometry criteria irp4 (mmhg, mean±sd) dci (mmg.s.cm, mean±sd) dl (s, mean±sd 6.2±1.2 1402.5±109.8 6.7±0.8 3.0±1.5 407.9±78.6 6.6±0.7 s s ns demeester score (mean±sd) 19.7±9.3 48.1±10.8 s np: normal peristalsis; iem: ineffective esophageal motility; sd: standard deviation; bmi: body mass index;irp4: integrated relaxation pressure 4;dci: distal contractile integration; dl: distal latency; ns: not significant; s: significant table 2. prevalence of the eaet and reflux episodes as regards to ph and its compositions based on body position of 1134 patients with nonerosive reflux disease (nerd) findings np n(%) iem n(%) p-value eaet 51(43.6) 30(66.7) s acid reflux episodes upright supine 29(24.8) 27((23.1) 23(51.1) 23(51.1) s s h. f. yaseri screening of minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus in iranian patients with nonerosive reflux disease (nerd) based on 24-hour multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph (mii-ph) monitoring tests 117 weakly acid reflux episodes upright supine 30(25.6) 35(29.9) 22(48.9) 9(20.0) s ns nonacid reflux episodes upright supine 5(4.27) 3(2.56) 0 0 liquid reflux episodes upright supine 4(3.4) 10(8.5) 1(2.2) 9(20.0) ns s mixed reflux episodes upright supine 65(55.6) 57(48.7) 30(66.7) 16(35.5) ns ns gas reflux episodes upright supine 64(54.7) 47(40.2) 29(64.4) 7(15.5) ns s np: normal peristalsis; iem: ineffective esophageal motility; eaet: esophagea acid reflux time; n: number; ns, not significant; s: significant 4. discussion to the best of our knowledge, this was the first iranian study to date to examine the prevalence of esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph (mii-ph) monitoring findings in patients with minor disorders of peristalsis of esophageal peristalsis, presented by non-erosive reflux disease (nerd).the results of this study revealed that total esophageal acid exposure of time (eaet), acid, and weakly acid reflux were more prevalent in nerd participants with ineffective esophageal motility(iem) than in patients with normal peristalsis. demeester score was positive in 48.9% of the participants with iem. integrated relaxation pressure4 (irp4) and mean distal contractile integral (dci) were lower in patients with iem than in patients with normal peristalsis. body mass index (bmi) and the rate of smoking were the same in the 2 groups. recent findings revealed that esophageal bolus transit abnormalities and presence of iem have been strongly implicated in gastroesophageal reflux disease (gerd) development. effective (chemical and volume) clearance depends on swallow-induced peristaltic waves (frazzoni et al., 2013). the noxious gastric juice into the esophagus is the main cause of esophageal injuries and symptoms. also, an increase in the duration of exposure of gastric juice, which occurs in patients with iem, causes esophageal mucosal injuries and symptoms in gerd patients (tack & pandolfino, 2018). effective esophageal peristalsis helps clear esophagus from refluxate and reduce exposure to noxious components of gastric juice. little is known about the correlation between esophageal dysmotility and reflux episodes as regards to ph (acid, weakly acid, and nonacid) and composition (liquid, gas, and mixed reflux episodes) in participants with nerd. however, wu et al. reported that esophageal motility disorder is less common in nerd patients than in those with erosive esophagitis (chen & hsu, 2013). kahrilas et al. found that peristaltic dysfunction (defined as failed or hypotensive primary peristalsis) occurs in 25% to 48% of oesophagitis cases. also, diener et al. reported that severe ineffective esophageal motility disorder is associated with more severe gerd presentation (savarino et al., 2013). in recent studies, the latest version (version 3) of the chicago classification was directly compared to the previous version and it was found that minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus are diagnosed significantly less often by the latest version and that these patterns are more often classified as normal events in symptomatic patients (rohof & bredenoord, 2017). one of the main clinical applications of hrm is to assess the integrity of peristalsis. roman et al. indicated that large and small breaks (more than 5 cm and 2-5cm) in 20-mmhg isobaric contour and failed peristalsis are frequently associated with bolus escape and incomplete bolus clearance (roman et al., 2011). based on the chicago classification version 3, the first step to detect esophageal motility disorders of esophagus is to evaluate the relaxation of the esophagogastric junction by the irp4. however, if the irp4 would not increase in the patients, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 118 meaning that it remains at less than 15mmhg.cms, then, peristalsis is classified as major or minor motor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus based on absence, distal latency, dci, and fragmentation. minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus are observed in healthy controls in contrast to major disorders of esophageal contraction. esophageal motility is normal when a patient has a normal irp4 and more than 50% of swallows are effective. minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus are classified as ineffective esophageal motility (iem) and fragmented peristalsis (fp) (rohof & bredenoord, 2017; savarino et al., 2013; kahrilas et al., 2015). ravi et al. reported that minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus were poorly associated with symptoms or esophageal stasis; they also found that the vast majority of participants never developed severe symptoms in the 6.4 years and that more than 70% of the patients even became completely asymptomatic (ravi et al., 2015). nerd is defined as a subcategory of gerd patients characterized by troublesome refluxrelated symptoms in the absence of esophageal mucosal erosions or breaks at conventional endoscopy. the present study had some limitations. first, some patients on longterm ppi therapy who had referred to the motility disorders laboratory of firoozgar hospital previously, met our exclusion criteria. second, participants who had fragmented peristalsis were excluded from study. third, not all our participants had accepted mii-ph-monitoring, so it could have had a different prevalence. fourth, nonacid reflux had overlap symptoms with bile reflux that could not be identified with miiph technique. thus, further studies are needed to confirm the association between minor disorders peristalsis of esophageal and nonerosive esophagitis by assessing bolus clearance time (bct) and postreflux swallow-induced peristaltic wave (pspw) index. 5. conclusion the present study revealed that acid, weakly acid, and gas reflux were more prevalent in nonerosive reflux disease (nerd) participants with ineffective esophageal motility disorder than in patients with normal peristalsis. the mean demeester score was above the normal value in both groups. mean integrated relaxation pressure4(irp4) and distal contractile integral (dci) were significantly lower in those with ineffective esophageal motility disorder than in those with normal peristalsis. thus, esophageal manometry and esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph (mii-ph) monitoring are essential for refractory nerd patients with minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus or for those with ineffective esophageal motility disorder, shown in highresolution manometry (hrm). acknowledgments we express our appreciation to the gastrointestinal and liver diseases research center of gastroenterology (gildrc), departments of endoscopy, pathology, and the motility disorders laboratory of firoozgar teaching hospital. references bredenoord, a. j. (2008). impedance-ph monitoring: new standard for measuring gastrooesophageal reflux. neurogastroenterology & motility, 20(5), 434-439. chen, c. l., & hsu, p. i. (2013). current advances in the diagnosis and treatment of nonerosive reflux disease. gastroenterology research and practice, 2013. frazzoni, m., manta, r., mirante, v. g., conigliaro, r., frazzoni, l., & melotti, g. (2013). esophageal chemical clearance is impaired in gastro-esophageal reflux disease–a 24-h impedance-ph monitoring assessment. neurogastroenterology & motility, 25(5), 399. kahrilas, p. j., bredenoord, a. j., fox, m., gyawali, c. p., roman, s., smout, a. j. p. m., ... & international high resolution manometry working group. (2015). the chicago classification of esophageal motility disorders, v3. 0. neurogastroenterology & motility, 27(2), 160-174. rohof, w. o. a., & bredenoord, a. j. (2017). chicago classification of esophageal motility disorders: lessons learned. current gastroenterology reports, 19(8), 37. h. f. yaseri screening of minor disorders of peristalsis of esophagus in iranian patients with nonerosive reflux disease (nerd) based on 24-hour multichannel intraluminal impedance-ph (mii-ph) monitoring tests 119 roman, s., lin, z., kwiatek, m. a., pandolfino, j. e., & kahrilas, p. j. (2011). weak peristalsis in esophageal pressure topography: classification and association with dysphagia. the american journal of gastroenterology, 106(2), 349. ravi, k., friesen, l., issaka, r., kahrilas, p. j., & pandolfino, j. e. (2015). long-term outcomes of patients with normal or minor motor function abnormalities detected by high-resolution esophageal manometry. clinical gastroenterology and hepatology, 13(8), 1416-1423. savarino, e., giacchino, m., & savarino, v. (2013). dysmotility and reflux disease. current opinion in otolaryngology & head and neck surgery, 21(6), 548-556. tack, j., & pandolfino. j. e. (2018). pathophysiology of gastroesophageal reflux disease .gastroenterology, 154(2), 277–88. yaseri, h. f. (2018). functional heartburn in iranian patients with non-erosive gastroesophageal reflux disease. bali medical journal, 7(1), 161-4. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 22 classification of phonocardiograms with convolutional neural networks omer deperlioglu afyon kocatepe university, afyonkarahisar, turkey erenler mahallesi, gazlıgöl yolu rektörlük e blok, 03200, afyonkarahisar merkez/afyonkarahisar, turkey tel,: +90 272 228 13 50 deperlioglu@aku.edu.tr abstract the diagnosis of heart diseases from heart sounds is a matter of many years. this is the effect of having too many people with heart diseases in the world. studies on heart sounds are usually based on classification for helping doctors. in other words, these studies are a substructure of clinical decision support systems. in this study, three different heart sound data in the pascal btraining data set such as normal, murmur, and extrasystole are classified. phonocardiograms which were obtained from heart sounds in the data set were used for classification. both artificial neural network (ann) and convolutional neural network (cnn) were used for classification to compare obtained results. in these studies, the obtained results show that the cnn classification gives the better result with 97.9% classification accuracy according to the results of ann. thus, cnn emerges as the ideal classification tool for the classification of heart sounds with variable characteristics. keywords: heart sounds classification, artificial neural network, phonocardiograms classifications, convolutional neural network 1. introduction one of the first causes of human deaths in recent years in our world is heart diseases or cardiovascular diseases. phonocardiograms (pcg) and electrocardiograms (ecg) are usually used for the detection of heart diseases. the most common method used to detect heart diseases is to listen to the sounds produced by the contraction of the heart during blood pump. these sounds are called pcg. doctors often use a stethoscope to listen or record heart sounds. but it does not always suffice to be able to diagnose heart diseases by simply listening or seeing a record of them. for this reason, studies on heart sounds or pcgs have been increased to make it easier for doctors to make a diagnosis (deperlioglu, 2018; bahekar et. al., 2017; ali et. al., 2017; shervegar et. al., 2017). studies on heart sounds are usually based on classification. these classification studies are being done to create infrastructure for clinic decision support systems, which is the largest reference source for physicians. naturally, a great majority of these studies are done to increase the classification success. there are the most common methods of improving classification success such as the segmentation of s1 and s2 sounds, determination of the peak values of s1 and s2 sounds, using different filtering methods, or using different classification techniques. for segmentation of s1 and s2 sounds of heart sounds, energy methods or comparison with ecg signals methods are usually used. in deperlioglu's work, he proposed a practical method of segmentation by re-sampled energy method. he explained that this method is easier than other segmentation methods and that segmentation can be done efficiently (deperlioglu, 2018). choi and jiang have made a comparative study about shannon energy, and hilbert transform and the cardiac sound characteristic waveform (choi & jiang., 2008). the algorithm proposed by saini is an automatic detection of two dominant heart sounds based on a 3-order normalized mean shannon energy envelope. this proposed automatic detection and analysis algorithm can effectively detect heart sounds s1 and s2 by reducing the effect of noises in heart sounds. due to the fact that the signal and the envelope calculation was pre-processed, the noises in the heart sounds could be easily suppressed (saini, 2016). in another study, shannon-energy-envelope based phonocardiogram peak spacing analysis method was used to examine the characteristics of pcg and cardiac rhythms. o. deperlioglu classification of phonocardiograms with convolutional neural networks 23 thus, the average heart rate was calculated from the shannon energy signal. pcg features were also found using mean, variance and autocorrelation (sharma et. al., 2014). el-segaier et al. have used qrs complexes and t waves in ecg signals to find s1 and s2 segments in their studies. they used ecg signals as a reference for segmentation of s1 and s2 sounds (el-segaier et. al., 2005). t waves in some ecg signals cannot be clearly selected. for such situations, carvalho and his colleagues used a new classifier in the selection of s2 sounds for low quality ecg signals. thus, they tried to come from above the problem of not being classified signals (carvalho et. al., 2005). many researchers are trying to define the s1 and s2 sounds with a few signal processing and statistical methods to reduce the excessive workload without using the ecg as a reference. other approaches include uncontrolled techniques such as envelope selforganizing map (liang et. al., 1997), spectrogram quantization method (liang et. al., 1998), and mel frequency cepstrum coefficients (kumar et. al., 2006). different artificial intelligence methods have been used to enhance classification success with segmentation. bahekar et al. have attempted to improve the classification success of pcg signals using the adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (anfis) and wavelet transform. ali et al. used three different ensemble techniques to improve the classification success. these are: bagging, adaboostm1 and random subspace ensemble techniques. they have said that the ensemble method has improved the success of classification (ali et. al., 2017). in their work, gharehbaghi and colleagues present a new method for discriminating between innocent and pathological murmurs using the growing time support vector machine. they compared the results with conventional support vector machines and found that the growing time support vector machine improves the classification success (gharehbaghia et. al., 2017). in their work, zhang and colleagues have proposed a scaled spectrogram and tensor decomposition-based method to improve classification accuracy. in this study, support vector machines were used for classification too. they have shown that the proposed method improves the classification success (zhang et. al., 2017). eslamizadeh and barati used artificial neural network to classify heart sounds as normal and murmur in their study. they used the modified neighbor annealing method for the training of artificial neural networks. they have shown that the modified neighbor annealing method produces good results for heart sounds classifiers (eslamizadeh & barati, 2017). recently, deep learning methods have also been used to classify heart sounds. for example, potes and colleagues have proposed a method based on a classifier group that combines the outputs of adaboost and cnn to classify normal/abnormal heart sounds (potes et. al., 2017). rubin et al. have proposed an automatic heart sound classification algorithm that allows time-frequency heat map indications to be combined with a cnn (rubin et. al., 2017). aykanat et al. used two types of machine learning algorithms for classification of heart sounds; support vector machine (svm) with mel frequency cepstral coefficient (mfcc) and spectrogram images in a cnn (aykanat et. al., 2017). chen et al. have studied the effectiveness of using cnns to automatically detect abnormal heart and lung sounds and classify them into different classes in their paper. they have tried to increase classification accuracy with 1, 2, and 3 convolutional layers. they have obtained the best accuracy value with 2 convolutional layers (chen et. al., 2016). ryu et al. proposed a diagnostic model of cardiac diseases using a cnn. this model can predict whether a heart sound recording is normal and abnormal by classifying phonocardiograms (pcgs) (ryu et. al., 2016). in this study, a deep learning method is proposed to increase the success of direct classification without dealing with more complicated methods or algorithms. first, 8-second samples of heart sounds were taken and normalized. after preprocessing, the signal filtering with elliptic filter was done. later, the pcg of every signal was created and resized image sizes of 100x75 pixels. at the end of the study, to compare the classification success, the same data set was classified with both ann and cnn. these studies are explained in detail in the following sections. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 24 2. material and methods heart and vascular diseases are the first cause of death in the world. the heartbeat, which is the result of the blood pumping of the heart, gives information about the functioning of the heart valves. thus, features can be obtained that can differentiate between normal and abnormal heart sound signals. with the ecg signal, it is possible to visualize the parts of the heartbeat signal. however, ecg measurement is usually expensive and requires extra time. for this reason, studies for the detection of heart diseases generally focus on the analysis of heart sounds. in this context, it is aimed to make a successful classification using deep learning method in this study. the block diagram of the application is shown in figure 1. the details of each block in the diagram are explained as follows. for all classification study, matlab r2017a software was used. figure 1. block diagram of classification process 2.1. resampling and normalization classification studies require that all heart sounds be at the same duration and at the same sampling frequency. if the sounds are recorded in different media with different devices, they are resampled so that they have the same sampling frequency. the sounds used in this study were recorded with the digital stethoscope digiscope® in the hospital. therefore, they are not resampled because they have the same sampling frequency. in this study, normalization was applied to the heart sounds signals [-1 1]. 2.2. filtering heart sounds that provide valuable diagnostic information in clinical examinations are among the most important physiological signals in the human body. however, heart sounds include noise, such as external sounds and lung sounds, caused by signal recording conditions. noisy heart sound signal negatively affects the diagnosis of the doctor (denga & hanb, 2018). digital filters are often used to filter biomedical signal. digital filtering is defined as the acquisition of desired frequency values according to the characterization of the desired filter in order to improve the signal according to the intended use (shenoi, 2005; thede, 1995). based on the experience gained from previous studies, an elliptic filter was used in this study (deperlioglu, 2018; guraksin et. al., 2009) . the heart sound signal covering the first two steps is given in figure 2 for sample sound file of 103_1305031931979_b in the pascal btraining data set. o. deperlioglu classification of phonocardiograms with convolutional neural networks 25 figure 2. pcgs for sample sound file of 103-1305031931979-b 2.2.1 elliptic filter the elliptic filter combines the properties of the chebyshev (type-1 and type-2) filters. it is a filter type that can change the numbers in the pass and stop band separately. chebyshev type-1 when the fluctuations in the dash band approaches zero, chebyshev type-2 when the fluctuations in the transmission band approach zero, and butterworth can also change into the filter when the fluctuations in both bands approach zero. the elliptical filter is the preferred approach when a very sharp transition band filter is desired. the disadvantage of this approach is that there are fluctuations in both the stopper and the transmission band (agaoğlu, 2008). 2.3. obtaining phonocardiograms of heart sounds and resizing all heart sounds in the pascal btraining data set are wav format. the duration of every sound is arranged as 8 seconds in the resampling and normalization step. in this step, pcg images were created image size of 560x420 pixels and rgb format. then, these images were resized to image size of 100x75 pixels, in order to need a smaller memory of the computer for the classification process. 2.3.1. classification artificial neural networks (ann) and convolutional neural networks (cnn) were used in this study. 2.3.2. multilayer feedforward network ann is an efficient data processing system compromised by the analogy of centrally based biological neural networks. ann acquires a large collection of units linked together in a specific way to communicate between units. these units, also called nodes or neurons, are simple parallel processors that operate in parallel. a neural network is an interconnected combination of simple processing elements, units or nodes based on the neuron of a loosely functioning animal. the ability to process the network has been recorded in a number of training examples, either at adaptation or at a combination of weights obtained by the learning process. associated memory can be defined as the process of calling patterns or templates stored in a partial or loud version of the original model. feedforward networks can be used to accomplish this task, but a more powerful tool is provided by the repeating networking class. they may be thought brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 26 of as not repetitively processing input models to provide new versions approaching a continuously stored memory. feedforward network is a non-repeating network with the processing units or nodes in the layer, and all nodes in a layer are linked to the nodes of the previous layers. there are different weights on the connection. there is no feedback loop, the signal input can only flow in one direction. multilayer feedforward network is feedforward ann concept with multiple weighted layers as seen figure 3. this network is called hidden layers because it has one or more hidden layers between the input and output layers (gurney, 2004; tutorials point, 2017). figure 3. multilayer feed forward network (gurney, 2004) 2.3.3. bayesian regularization in ann, some regularization algorithms were developed to solve the problem of extreme compatibility. levenberg-marquardt (lm) and bayesian regularization (br) learning algorithms are the most widely used methods. in general, they use the mean square error function to minimize the compatibility error between inputs and outputs. after the backpropagation algorithm, the lm editing technique has been developed for further convergence. however, lm is inadequate in environments where connection points and properties increase. despite its fast operation, it needs a lot of memory. for this reason, different algorithms have been developed that can be modified in large networks. one of them is a br. br is a function that includes the sum of the mean squares and the sum of the square weights to minimize the prediction errors and obtain a good generalized model. br works faster and more efficiently on large networks. bayesian regularization technique is different from lm method by updating weight and bias values. the mean square error and weights are reduced together to provide faster convergence. so it tries to find the right combination to create a generalized network model. sometimes this process is also referred to as bayesian softening (kayri, 2016; aggarwal et. al., 2005). 2.3.4. convolutional neural network convolutional neural networks (cnn) is an alternative neural network type that can be used to reduce spectral variations and spectral correlation models in sound signals. cnns are a more effective model for heart sound signals than other deep neural networks (dnns) because heart sound signals carry both features (sainath et. al., 2013). a cnn is a feedforward network comprised of one or more convolutional layers, generally comprising a sub-sampling step. it then consists of one or more completely interconnected layers, such as a standard multilayer neural network. a cnn architecture is designed to interpret the 2d structure of 2d image inputs most efficiently. local links and related weights are used to achieve this. these are collected so as to allow constantly changing properties. another benefit of cnns is o. deperlioglu classification of phonocardiograms with convolutional neural networks 27 that they have fewer trainings and easier parameters than networks that are fully connected to the same number of hidden units (convolutional neural networks, 2018). a cnns are biologically inspired variants of a multilayer perceptron. cnns establish a built-in local correlation by applying a local link model between the neurons of adjacent layers. as shown in figure 4a, the inputs of the hidden units in the m-layer are obtained from a subset of the units having the built-in areas in the m-1 layer. this ensures that a number of layers arrive consecutively, resulting in a filtration. it can encode 5 features such as a neuron in the m+1 hidden layer. on cnns, each filter hi is repeated on the entire image surface. these repeated units form a feature map that shares the weight and bias parameters. 3 hidden units of the same feature map are shown in figure 4b. the weights shown by parallel lines in the figure were also limited as same. to learn such shared parameters, the gradient method can be used with only a small modification to the original parameters. the sum of the inverse gradients of the shared parameters equals the gradient of the shared weights. figure 4. a) sparse connectivity, b) shared weights (convolutional neural networks (lenet), 2018) figure 5 shows an example of a convolutional layer. layer m-1 includes four feature maps. the m is a hidden layer and it includes two feature maps such as h0 and h1. the neuron outputs at h0 and h1 are calculated from the neuron outputs entering the 2x2 receiving area at the layer below layer m-1. thus, the weights are w0, and w1 and h,0 and h1 are weight tensors that have three dimensions. the leading dimension indexes the map entries summaries, pointing to the other two neuron outputs. to combine all of them klijw , with each pixel of the layer's minus k map, it refers to the weight of the link between neuron outputs (i, j) in the coordinates of the feature map m-1 (convolutional neural networks (lenet), 2018). figure 5. an example of a convolutional layer (convolutional neural networks (lenet), 2018) 2.4. performance evaluation the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity are commonly used performance measures in medical classification studies. these measures were used to assess the precision of the proposed method. they are calculated as the following: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 28 (1) (2) (3) in the equations, tp and fp represent the numbers of true positives and false positives, respectively. tn and fn the numbers of true negatives, and false negatives, respectively. fptn also represents the number of false positives and it is calculated from negative samples in the results of classification. the precision of the classifier's ability to diagnose correctly is determined by the ratio of accuracy. the extent to which the model correctly defines the formation of the target class is defined by the rate of sensitivity. the extent of the model's target class separation capability is defined by the rate of specificity (kahramanli & allahverdi , 2008). 3. applications of heart sounds classification in this study, pascal btraining heart sounds data set was used. sound files in this data set are wav format and they were obtained from a clinic trial in hospitals using the digital stethoscope digiscope® (bentley et. al., 2011). the data set contains 192 selected files of 3 types, as normal, murmur, and extrasystole. table 1 shows the general characteristics of the heart sounds files. after normalization and filtering are done for all files in the data set, images of heart sounds in the data set have been created. in the study, the classification process was done with ann and cnn for the same data set. in ann and cnn, a mean square error function was used for the performance algorithm. table 1. the general characteristics of the heart sounds files duration sampling frequency number of files normal category 8 second 4000 hz. 52 noisy normal category 8 second 4000 hz. 26 extrasystole category 8 second 4000 hz. 46 murmur category 8 second 4000 hz. 52 noisy murmur category 8 second 4000 hz. 16 total 192 3.1. classification with artificial neural networks multilayer feedforward network was used for classification with ann. in this application, the ann structure and parameters were obtained after a review of previous studies and very much number of trial runs. there is a total of 10 neurons in the hidden layer in ann. the bayesian regularization backpropagation was used for learning algorithm and the mean square error function was also used the performance algorithm. 134 samples in the data set were used for training data, 29 samples were used for validation data, and 29 samples were used for testing data. the confusion matrix obtained at the end of the classification was given in figure 6. as seen from the confusion matrix, the accuracy of classification 82.8% was achieved in the ann classification. the ann performed with a sensitivity of 92.40% and a specificity of 88.82%. o. deperlioglu classification of phonocardiograms with convolutional neural networks 29 figure 6. confusion matrix of multilayer feedforward network 3.2. classification with convolutional neural networks the same data set was used in the classification study with cnn. cnns are a type of deep learning that is particularly suitable for image recognition and classification. cnns are a deep network type that receives and processes image data as objects together with their label. in this application, the cnn structure and parameters were obtained after a review of previous studies and very much number of trial runs. the cnn has 8 layers. these layers are image input layer, convolutional layer, relu layer, cross-channel normalization layer, max pooling layer, fully connected layer, softmax layer, and classification layer, respectively. in this study, the image input layer is used to specify the image values of 75x100x3. these numbers correspond to height, width, and rgb format of images. any data conversions, such as data normalization or data augmentation in this layer, can be thought of as randomly flipping and truncating the data. they are often used to prevent overfitting and are done automatically at the beginning of the training. one convolutional layer was used in cnn. the parameters of the recursive layer are the size of the network filtering. these are the height and width of the filter used by the training function when scanning through the images. in this study, the filter size is set to 4. the second parameter, number of neurons that determines the number of feature maps and bound to the same region of the output, is the number of filters selected as 16. the convolutional layer is followed by a nonlinear activation function and it is called relu layer. the rectified linear unit function was used in this application. one cross-channel normalization layer was used in this application. the size of the channel window is set to 2. in other words, it is the channel window size for normalization. the max pooling layer is used for downsampling as another way of reducing the number of parameters and preventing over-fit. this layer returns the maximum values of the rectangular regions of the inputs specified by the first argument pool size. in this application, the size of the rectangle is [4, 3]. stride function was also used to determine the step size while the training function scans through the image. the fully connected layer combines all the features that previous layers have learned across the image to define larger patterns. the last fully connected layer combines them to classify them. for this reason, the output size parameter in the last fully connected layer is equal to the number of classes in the target table. in this application, the output size is 3 such as normal, murmur, and extrasystole. the fully connected layer usually uses the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 30 softmax activation function for classification. the final layer of cnn is the classification layer. this layer uses the possibilities returned by the softmax activation function for each input to mutually assign one of the special classes. the confusion matrix obtained at the end of the classification was given in figure 7. as seen from the confusion matrix, the accuracy of classification 97.9% was achieved in the cnn classification. the cnn performed with sensitivity of 99.47% and specificity of 98.42%. figure 7. confusion matrix of convolutional neural network 4. results and discussion at the end of the studies, the results are compared with the different studies conducted with neural networks in order to evaluate the obtained results. the obtained classification accuracies, sensitivities, and specificities were given in table 2. table 2. the comparison of classification accuracies, sensitivities, and specificities classification method accuracy (%) sensitivity (%) specificity (%) ann (this study) 82.80 92.40 88.82 cnn (this study) 97.90 99.47 98.42 adaboost and cnn (potes et. al., 2017) 94.24 77.81 86.02 cnn (rubin et. al., 2017) 84 73 95 cnn (aykanat et. al., 2017) 87.0 89.0 95.0 cnn (ryu et. al., 2016) 79.5 70.8 88.2 deep gated rnn (thomae & dominik, 2016) 55.0 99.0 11.0 cnn (nilanon et. al., 2016) 81.3 73.5 89.2 wavelet-based deep cnn (tschannen et. al., 2016) 82.8 85.5 85.9 deep convolutional neural networks (rubin et. al., 2016) 75 100 88 as seen in table 2, classification of heart sounds with cnn provides the best classification accuracy rate with 97.90%. also, it has the rate of sensitivity with 99.47% and has the rate of o. deperlioglu classification of phonocardiograms with convolutional neural networks 31 specificity with 98.42%. it is seen from these results that the proposed cnn model gives better results than the other cnn and deep learning studies. 5. conclusion the classification of heart sounds has been a subject for many years. this is the effect of having too many people with heart diseases in the world. studies on heart sounds are usually based on classification. in this study, three kinds of heart sounds such as normal, murmur, and extrasystole were classified in the pascal btraining data set. in order to make a comparison, both ann and cnn were used for classification. in the studies conducted, the obtained results showed that cnn classification gave the best results according to the results of ann, and previous studies. it seems that cnn is the ideal classification tool for the classification of heart sounds with variable characteristics. in future studies, larger images can be used to achieve better classification performance. in addition, segmentation of s1 and s2 sounds can improve the accuracy of classification. references agaoğlu, e. a. (2008). digital filter design and applications. in editor: book digital filter design and applications, ankara: baskent university institute of science. aggarwal, k. k., singh, y., chandra, p. and puri, m. (2005). bayesian regularization in a neural network model to estimate lines of code using function points. journal of computer sciences, volume: 1, issue: 4, pp. 505-509. aykanat, m., kılıç, ö., kurt, b and saryal, s. (2017). classification of lung sounds using convolutional neural networks, eurasip journal on image and video processing, 2017:65, pp. 1-9. ali, s., adnan, s. m., nawaz, t., obaid ullah m., aziz, s. (2017). human heart sounds classification using ensemble methods, technical journal, university of engineering and technology (uet), volume: 22, no. i, pp. 113-120. bahekar, l., mishal, a., bisen, m., koche, d., alone, s. (2017), heart valve diseases detection using anfis and wavelet transform, international journal of research in science & engineering, volume: 3, issue: 2, pp. 279-291. bentley, p., nordehn, g., coimbra, m. and mannor, s. (2011). the pascal classifying heart sounds challenge 2011 (chsc2011) results, http://www.peterjbentley.com/heartchallenge/index.html. carvalho, p., gil, p., henriques, j., antunes m. & eug´enio, l. (2005). low complexity algorithm for heart sound segmentation using the variance fractal dimension, proc. of the int. sym. on intelligent signal processing, 2005, pp. 593-595. chen, q., zhang, w., tian, z., zhang, x., chen, s. and lei, w. (2016). automatic heart and lung sounds classification using convolutional neural networks, signal and information processing association annual summit and conference (apsipa), 2016 asia-pacific, 13-16 dec., pp. 1-4, jeju, south korea. choi, s., jiang, z. (2008). comparison of envelope extraction algorithms for cardiac sound signal segmentation, expert systems with applications, volume: 34, pp. 1056–1069. convolutional neural networks, last access date: 10.01.2018 http://ufldl.stanford.edu/tutorial/supervised/convolutionalneuralnetwork/. convolutional neural networks (lenet) last access date: 10.01.2018 http://deeplearning.net/tutorial/lenet.html. denga, s. w. and hanb, j. q. (2018). adaptive overlapping-group sparse denoising for heart sound signals. biomedical signal processing and control, volume: 40, pp. 49–57. deperlioglu, o. (2018), segmentation of heart sounds by re-sampled signal energy method, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 32 el-segaier, m., lilja, o., lukkarinen, s., srnmo, l., sepponen r. & pesonen, e. (2005). computerbased detection and analysis of heart sound murmur, annals of biomedical engineering, volume: 33, issue: 7, pp. 937-942. eslamizadeh, g., barati, r. (2017) heart murmur detection based on wavelet transformation and asynergy between artificial neural network and modified neighborannealing methods. artificial intelligence in medicine, volume: 78, pp. 23–40. gharehbaghia, a., borgaa, m., sjöbergc, b. j., ask, p. (2017). a novel method for discrimination between innocent and pathological heart murmurs. medical engineering and physics, volume: 37, pp. 674–682. gurney, k. (2004). an introduction to neural networks, taylor & francis e-library, ucl press limited, london. guraksin, g. e., ergun, u., deperlioglu, o. (2009). performing discrete fourier transform of the heart sounds on the pocket computer. 14th national biomedical engineering meeting, biyomut 2009, pp. 1-4. kahramanli h, allahverdi n. (2008). design of a hybrid system for the diabetes and heart diseases, expert systems with applications, volume: 35, pp. 82–89. kayri, m. (2016). predictive abilities of bayesian regularization and levenberg–marquardt algorithms in artificial neural networks: a comparative empirical study on social data. mathematical and computational applications, volume: 21, no: 20, pp. 1-12. kumar, d., carvalho, p. gil, p. henriques, j., antunes, m. and eug´enio, l. (2006). a new algorithm for detection of s1 and s2 heart sounds, int. conf. of acoustic and speech signal processing (icassp 2006), pp. 1180-1183. liang, h., lukkarinen, s. & hartimo, i. (1997). heart sound segmentation algorithm based on heart sound envelogram, proc. of ieee computers in cardiology, pp. 105-108. liang, h., lukkarinen, s. & hartimo, i. (1998). a boundary modification method for heart sound segmentation algorithm”, in proc. of ieee computers in cardiology, pp. 593-595. nilanon, t., yao, j., hao, j., purushotham, s. and liu, y. (2016). normal / abnormal heart sound recordings classification using convolutional neural network, in “computing in cardiology”; volume: 43, pp. 585-588. potes, c., parvaneh, s., rahman, a. (2017). conroy, b. ensemble of feature-based and deep learning-based classifiers for detection of abnormal heart sounds, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1707.04642.pdf. rubin, j., abreu, r., ganguli, a., nelaturi, s., matei, i., sricharan, k. (2016). classifying heart sound recordings using deep convolutional neural networks and mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, in “computing in cardiology”; volume: 43, pp. 813-816. rubin, j., abreu, r., ganguli, a., nelaturi, s., matei, i., sricharan, k. (2017). recognizing abnormal heart sounds using deep learning, https://physionet.org/challenge/2016/papers/potes.pdf. ryu, h., park, j. and shin, h. (2016). classification of heart sound recordings using convolution neural network, computing in cardiology conference (cinc), 11-14 sept. pp. 1-4, vancouver, bc, canada. sainath, t.n., mohamed a.-r., kingsbury, b. (2013). deep convolutional neural networks for lvcsr. ieee international conference on acoustics, speech and signal processing. vancouver, british columbia, canada. saini, m. (2016). proposed algorithm for implementation of shannon energy envelope for heart sound analysis, international journal of electronics & communication technology iject, volume: 7, issue: 1, pp. 15-19. sharma, p. k., saha, s., kumari, s. (2014). study and design of a shannon-energy-envelope based phonocardiogram peak spacing analysis for estimating arrhythmic heart-beat. international journal of scientific and research publications, volume: 4, issue: 9, pp. 1-5. shenoi, b.a. (2005). introduction to digital signal processing and filter design, john wiley & sons inc. o. deperlioglu classification of phonocardiograms with convolutional neural networks 33 shervegar, m. v. and bhat, g. v. (2017). principal automatic segmentation of phonocardiogram using the occurrence of the cardiac events. informatics in medicine unlocked, volume: 9, ıssue: 1, pp. 6-10. thede, l. (1995). analog & digital filter design using c, prentice hall; 1 edition. thomae, c., dominik, a., (2016). using deep gated rnn with a convolutional front end for endto-end classification of heart sound, in “computing in cardiology”; volume: 43, pp. 625628. tschannen, m., kramer, t., marti, g., heinzmann, m., and wiatowski, t. (2016). heart sound classification using deep structured features, in “computing in cardiology”; volume: 43, pp. 565-568. tutorials point (2017). artificial neural network, tutorials point (i) pvt. ltd. zhang, w., han, j., deng, s. (2017). heart sound classification based on scaled spectrogram and tensor decomposition. expert systems with applications, volume: 84, pp. 220–231. zhang w, han j, deng s. (2017). heart sound classification based on scaled spectrogram and tensor decomposition. biomedical signal processing and control 32: 20–28. omer deperlioglu received his bsc in electric and electronic (1988) gazi university, msc in computer science (1996) from afyon kocatepe university, phd in computer science (2001) from gazi university in turkey. now he is associate professor of computer programming in department of science, vocational school of afyon, and afyon kocatepe university of afyonkarahisar, turkey. his current research interests include different aspects of artificial intelligence applied in power electronics, biomedical, and signal processing. he has edited 1 book and (co-) authored 3 books and more than 20 papers, more than 30 conferences participation, member in international technical committee of 4 conferences and workshops. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue4_2017_final.doc 17 a speech to text transcription approach based on romanian corpus andrei scutelnicu faculty of computer science, alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi, romania 16 general henri mathias berthelot, iași 700259, tel.: +40 232 201 090 institute of computer science, romanian academy, iași, romania romanian academy, codrescu, iași 700481, tel. +40 332 106 505 andreiscutelnicu@gmail.com mihaela onofrei faculty of computer science, alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi, romania 16 general henri mathias berthelot, iași 700259, tel.: +40 232 201 090 institute of computer science, romanian academy, iași, romania romanian academy, 2 codrescu, iași 700481, tel. +40 332 106 505 mihaela.plamada.onofrei@gmail.com anca diana bibiri alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi, romania bulevardul carol i 11, iași 700506, tel. +40 232 201 000 anca.bibiri@gmail.com mircea hulea faculty of automatic control and computer engineering, gheorghe asachi university of iași, romania, 67 bulevardul profesor dimitrie mangeron, iași 700050, tel. +40 232 278 683 mhulea@tuiasi.ro abstract automatic speech segmentation has many applications in speech processing and phonetics, e.g., in automatic speech recognition and automatic annotation of speech corpora. in both processes of training and evaluation of speech recognition systems large aligned speech-to-text corpora are needed. once aligned, identification of phonemes could be based on samples that are picked-up inbetween phonemes’ boundaries. because manual segmentation is costly and extremely time consuming, automatic methods of alignment are searched for. in this paper, we propose a simple, yet efficient, method for speech to text recognition based on a machine learning approach, using a romanian speech corpus. keywords: speech recognition, formant energy, algorithmic method, neural network; 1. introduction automatic speech segmentation is suitable for speech to text conversion and might improve the speech recognition results. in this paper, we propose a method of recognition of the speech signal based on analyses of variations in the energy of formants. the method that we have used in this paper for speech to text recognition is based on neural networks algorithm. 2. work in speech recognition the goal of an automatic speech recognition (asr) system is to find, given an acoustic signal (an utterance), its most probable corresponding words sequence. the asr term is also known as speech-to-text transcription, having application in human-computer interaction such as:  hand-busy or eye-busy applications;  telephony;  transcription of courses, monologue of a speaker, courthouse;  augmentative communication for human with inability to type. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 18 the problem of large-continuous speech recognition (lvcsr) is addressed in transcription systems with vocabulary of 20.000 to 64.000 words (jurafski et al. 2006, ch. 9; hunag et al. 2007). most systems make use of statistical models (huang 2001, jurafsky 2006, jelinek 1976). from this point of view, the speech-to-text task can be formulated mathematically as follows: )|(maxarg w * awpw w   (1) where w* ∈ w is the word string and a is the observed acoustics. using bayes decomposition rule, and knowing that the input acoustics are fixed and given to us, the above function can be rewritten as: (2) where the first probability distribution, p(a|w), is the observation likelihood and becomes the characterization of an acoustic model (am), while the second probability distribution, p(w), the a priori probability, becomes the characterization of a language model (lm). the optimal hypothesis is found out by searching (argmax) through all word sequences possible in the language. figure 1 shows the main components of a speech recognition system: figure 1. main components of an asr system (cucu, phd. thesis, 2011) a speech recognition system has three main sources of information: a speech signals corpus, a text corpus and a phonetic dictionary. the recognition has the next main phases:  signal processing phase, in which a vector of around 42 features (39 of spectral information, energy, spectral change) for each time window (jurafski et al., 2006; hunag et al., 2007);  acoustic modeling or phone recognition phase, the estimation of p(w|a), for each linguistic unit is computed a likelihood of the observed feature vectors; include the representation of knowledge about acoustics, phonetics, microphone and environment variability, gender and dialect differences among speakers, etc. search am lm a. scutelnicu, m. onofrei, a. d. bibiri, m. hulea a speech to text transcription approach based on romanian corpus 19  language modeling phase, the estimation of p(w), refer to a system’s knowledge of what constitutes a possible word and in what sequence,  decoding/searching phase of a speech recognizer, where the most likely word is given based on the sequence of acoustic likelihoods, a phonetic dictionary of word pronunciations and a language model. an acoustic model contains statistical representations of each of the distinct sounds (called phonemes), that makes up a word in a language. the romanian language has about 38 distinct sounds (chiţoran, 2001; ar, 2005) that are useful for speech recognition, and thus we have 38 different phonemes. an acoustic model is created by taking a large database of speech and using special training algorithms to create statistical representations for each phoneme in a language. these statistical representations are called hidden markov models (hmms) (baker, 1975; poritz, 1988; rabiner, 1989; jelinek, 1998). each phoneme has its own hmm. hmms are probabilistic finite state machines, which may be combined hierarchically to construct word sequence models out of smaller units. in large-vocabulary speech recognition systems, word sequence models are constructed from word models, which in turn are constructed from sub-word models (typically context-dependent phone models) using a pronunciation dictionary. a phonetic model is usually a pronunciation dictionary that maps all the words in the vocabulary to a sequence of phones. the phonetic dictionary can be regarded as an interface between the acoustic model, which works with phones and the language model which works with words. the development of a phonetic dictionary is an important, but difficult task. the task is timeconsuming and tedious (for a manual development) and also requires a very good knowledge of the language. the problem of large-continuous speech recognition (lvcsr) is addressed in transcription systems with vocabulary of 20.000 to 64.000 words [jurafski et al., 2006, ch. 9; hunag et al., 2007]. 3. the method the activity of collecting of a medium-size speech-to-text aligned corpus (bullinaria, 2011), allowed a visual inspection of the energy of the formants at the segments’ boundaries. figure 2 shows the energy of the formants f1, f2, and f3, for the word pasărea (the bird). abrupt changes can be noticed in the energies of formants at phone boundaries and relatively stable shapes inbetween boundaries. the algorithm that we describe below is inspired by these findings. figure 2. formants’ energy for the word pasărea (bird) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 20 after examining many such diagrams, it became evident that the energy of the f2 formant seems to have the most stable behavior with respect to the abrupt changes at the phones boundaries and to calmness in the interior of phones. ulterior, quantitative evaluations confirmed the claim that the energy of f2 can be reliably used as supporting a rule-based speech to text recognition algorithm. based on these observations, an automatic segmentation algorithm was carried out, based on the energy values of f2 as follows:  groups of 3 values were averaged;  values were extracted by means of mediations result; we imposed the following rules:  test 1: o if the value v [i + 1] is greater than the value v [i] then: we calculated the average of two consecutive values v [i] and v [i + 1], which must be greater than v [i] and the difference between v [i + 1] v [i] be greater than a threshold imposed as a parameter (chosen by empirical observations to threshold1 = 8; if (v[i+1] v[i] > threshold1) (1) o if the value v [i + 1] is lower than the v [i] then: we calculated the average of two consecutive values v [i] and v [i + 1], which must be greater than v [i] and the difference between v [i] and v [i + 1] is greater than a threshold imposed as a parameter (threshold2 = 5): if (v [i] v [i + 1]> threshold2) (2)  test 2: o if the value v [i + 1] is greater than the value v [i] then: we calculated the average of two consecutive values v [i] and v [i + 1], which must be greater than v [i] and the difference between v [i + 1] v [i] must be greater than a threshold imposed as a parameter (chosen by empirical observations to threshold1 = average of all inputs / 4) if (v [i + 1] v [i]> = threshold1) (1) o if the value v [i + 1] is lower than the v [i] then: we calculated the average of two consecutive values v [i] and v [i + 1], which must be greater than v [i] and the difference between v [i] and v [i + 1] is greater than a threshold imposed as a parameter (threshold2 = average of all entries / 5): if (v [i] v [i + 1]> threshold2) (2) for automatic recognition of phonemes, we used a neural network algorithm feed forward back propagation (figure 3). the neural network comprises an input layer x (figure 3 to 9 neurons), a hidden layer of neurons and an output layer y (in figure 1 to 6 neurons). network weights are chosen randomly and are stored in a three-dimensional matrix, where the transmitting neuron i represents index and j is the index of the receiving neuron; it is the index of the layer. choose a set of input data x (input vector values) and a data output y (output vector values) representing the desired outputs. each neuron in the hidden layers, respectively, of the output layer performs a weighted summation of the inputs and applying activation functions of these amounts. if the perceptron shown in figure 3, the neurons in the output layer performs a weighted sum of: a. scutelnicu, m. onofrei, a. d. bibiri, m. hulea a speech to text transcription approach based on romanian corpus 21  i ijij wxs , for ni ,1 ; mj ,1 , n input neurons, m output neurons; figure 3. feedforward back propagation neural network after calculating the amounts js were calculated neural networks outputs )( jj sfy  , where )( jsf is the activation function of neurons. activation function used in the implementation of the algorithm presented in this paper is sigmoidal function: jsj e y   1 1 , mj ,1 . for each pair of vectors ( px , py ) are executed the following steps:  calculate io generated by the network output, which is obtained by forward propagation of the input vector px , np ,1 ;  calculate the error output generated compared to desired output     n j jjp oye 1 2 2 1 , where pj yy  , pj oo  , np ,1 , and n represents the output number of the neural network;  calculate the error gradient:          mj p j p j p j p p dw de dw de dw de dw de e ,...,,, 321 , where ijw = mi ,1 represents weights to neuron input ix to neuron j, belonging to the output layer.  adjust output layer weights purpose of minimizing error, as follows: ijijij www  , where nj ,1 , mi ,1 ; (1)  variation weights will be calculated based on the output neurons of the previous layer and the gradient of the error: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 22 ij p iij dw de xw   (2)  the neuron activation function is js j e sg    1 1 )( , and integration function is    m i iij xws 1 ; derived error is calculated as follows:   j n j jj j p dw sgyd dw de            1 2)( 2 1 (3)  after replacing the equation (3) in (2) we are calculating new weights: ijijij www  ;  after performing a calculation according to (2) we have: ))(1( jjjj ij p oyoo dw de  , nj ,1 , mi ,1 ij p iijij dw de xww   (4)  as a vector output for hidden layers which aims to be achieved is not known, the gradient output is calculated as: ))(1( 1)1(    m r rj rj p ii ii p w dw de oo dw de (5), where j is the output layer, and i and (i 1) the hidden layer.  new weightings for the hidden layer (i 1) adjusted using equality (4), followed by calculation error gradient layer (i 1) using equation (5). similarly, using expressions (4) and (5) adjust the weights for all hidden layers of the network. 4. analyzed data the data used for the segmentation is based on the two questionnaires (amperrom[ania] and amprom) used in the project amprom (romanian multimedia prosodic atlas). this is the first prosodic atlas which aims to present the main prosodic patterns (intonation patterns) of the romanian language varieties identified both at the level of the diatopic variants of the standard language and at the level of the dialect variants. the data was collected during the dialectal prosodic surveys in the network of points that covers the whole territory of the dacoromanian dialect. the sets of statements, established by morpho-syntactic and phonetic criteria, are formed by: declarative sentences (affirmative and negative) and total interrogative sentences (affirmative and negative), having the syntactic structure of svo (subject verb object) where s and o receive, in turns, adjective and / or prepositional determinates; the words of the sentences follow the type cv ( consonant + vowel) formed of voiceless consonant + (semi)open vowel, which facilitates the segmentation of the phonetic elements and the 45 sentences of amper-rom[ania] questionnaire are made up of trisyllabic nouns: căpitan -captain(oxiton), nevasta -wife(paroxiton) and pasăreabird-(proparoxiton), seven trisyllabic adjectival determinants: frumoasă -beautiful-, harnică diligent-, tinerea -young-, galbenă -yellow-; elegant -elegant-, amabil -kind-, repede -fastand one noun determinant: (pasărea -bird-) papagal -parrotand a verbal form vede -see(when the noun captain is a direct object of the verb, usually, syneresis – contraction of two vowels into a diphthong – is produced as a feature of spontaneous speech: vede-un căpitan -sees a captain-). this date is used for testing, while for training the data is slightly different and consist of a large number of other types of utterances (those from amprom corpus). although the manual segmentation and labelling of the speech corpus constitutes a more accurate method (the segmentation accuracy may vary according to the different human phonetic expert criteria), this task requires a large amount of time and concentration for the human labeller. a. scutelnicu, m. onofrei, a. d. bibiri, m. hulea a speech to text transcription approach based on romanian corpus 23 an accurate segmentation that would be done fully manually would require as many as 800 times real-time, i.e. 13 hours for a one-minute recording (schiel 2003). the processing time is a major drawback for manual labelling, especially when faced with very large spontaneous speech corpora. thus, an automatic phonetic alignment tool is highly desirable. acoustic analysis tools that are used in processing the prosodic dialectal data that was recording during the investigations are praat/script praat for amper (antonio romano, albert rilliard), matlab, amper 2006, computer interface of prosodic curve. statements are recorded in digital format (files with .wav extension waveform audio file format) and acoustic analysis using software tools. the sequence analysis goes through several stages: changing the sampling frequency sound wave of 48 khz to 16 khz (gold wave) delineation and labelling according to the statements used in the questionnaire. the praat software was used to display oscillograms and spectrograms of the speech signal. by visualizing these channels and simultaneously hearing the sound, the human expert placed segmentation boundaries and labels each segment with the corresponding phonetic element (in the case of diphthongs the two vowels go together). thus, for each analyzed utterance, physical correlates of vowels (duration, intensity and fundamental frequency – f0, for the three points of the vowel) are recorded. the annotation levels in the corpus are: utterance, word, syllable, phoneme and grapheme. matlab routines have been used then to compute average values, duration graphs, intensity and individual melodic lines. in order to extract as many features needed for automatic alignment several tiers were generated: one tier with phones and another with words. additionally, a syllable tier is generated on the basis of sonority-based rules for syllable segmentation. in summary, the whole manual process results in a multi-level alignment annotation between speech and text within a textgrid composed of phonetic, syllabic, lexical and, optionally, utterance tiers. 5. results and future work following the implementation of the algorithm, we conducted the following tests:  firstly, we considered the distinction vocal consonant we have made some choices: for the input neurons, we have selected the values for formant f0 and amplitude a0; for the output the signal was binary encoded as 1for vocal, 0 for consonant; the number of iteration for training the neural network were as follow 100, 1000 and 3000 iterations. for this test the recognition algorithm recognition rate was between 54% and 56%;  in the second test, we have taken values for the input neurons for formants f0, f1, f2, f3 and amplitude a0; for training the neural network we have taken 100, 2000, 5000 iterations and the recognition result was between 62% and 68%. there is an improvement in outcome with an 8% -> 12% after using the 3 values and higher forms. the results presented in this paper are at first attempt. the next step is to add more features and to test the method on a greater variety of data such as increasing the training corpus, test it on more input values for neural network, improving the results with a statistical model and a language model. acknowledgement this work was supported by a grant of the romanian national authority for scientific research and innovation, cncs-uefiscdi, project number pn-ii-ru-te-2014-4-2298. references andre-obrecht, r. (1986). automatic segmentation of continuous speech signals, proc. of icassp-tokyo, 2275-2278 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 24 bibiri, a., cristea, d., pistol, l., scutelnicu, l., & turculeţ, a. (2013) romanian corpus for speech-to-text alignment, proceedings of the workshop on linguistic resources and instruments for romanian language processing, consilr-2013, miclăuşeni iaşi, the editorial house of ”al. i. cuza” university, iaşi, issn 1843-911x, 151 -162 boersma, p., & weenink, d. (2010). praat: doing phonetics by computer, http://www.praat.org bullinaria, j. a. (2011). text to phoneme alignment and mapping for speech technology: a neural networks approach, ijcnn, ieee, 625-632 cole, r., & hou, l. (1988). segmentation and broad classification of continuous speech. proceedings of icassp, 453-456 gómez, j. a., sanchis, e., & castro-bleda, m. j. (2010). automatic speech segmentation based on acoustical clustering, proceedings of structural, syntactic, and statistical pattern recognition, joint iapr international workshop, sspr & spr 2010, cesme, izmir, turkey, vol. 6218, 540-548 glass, j.r., & zue, v.w. (1988). multi-level acoustic segmentation of continuous speech, proceedings of icassp, 429-432 hatazaki, k., komori, y., kawabata, t., & shikano, k. (1989). phoneme segmentation using spectogram reading knowledge. in proceedings of icassp, pages 393-396, 1989. juang, b. h., & rabiner, l. r. (1990). the segmental k-means algorithm for estimating parameters of hidden markov models, ieee trans. on acoustics, speech and signal proc., 38(9):16391641 ljolje, a., & riley, m. d. (1991). automatic segmentation and labeling of speech, proceedings of icassp, 473-476 reddy, d. r. (1966). segmentation of speech sounds, j.acoust.soc.am, vol. 40, issue 2, 307-312 schiel, f., & draxler, c. (2003). the production of speech corpora. munich: bavarian archive for speech signal svendsen, t., & soong, f. k. (1987). on the automatic segmentation of speech signals, proceedings of icassp dallas, 77-80 & 341-344 toledano, d. t., hernandez gomez, l. a., & grande, l. v. (2003). automatic phonetic segmentation, ieee trans. speech and audio proc., vol 11, issue 6, 617-625 van hemert, j. p. (1991). automatic segmentation of speech, ieee trans. on signal proc., vol. 39, issue 4, 1008-1012 microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 95 a factor analysis model for dimension reduction of outcome factors in neonatal seizure context ionela maniu research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children, pediatric clinical hospital, sibiu, romania 3 george barițiu, 550178, tel. 0269 230 250 department of mathematics and computer science, “lucian blaga” university, sibiu, romania bulevardul victoriei 10, sibiu 550024, tel.: 0269 216 062 ionela.maniu@yahoo.ro george maniu department of mathematics and computer science, “lucian blaga” university , sibiu, romania 10 bulevardul victoriei, 550024, tel.: 0269 216 062 george.maniu@ulbsibiu.ro cristina dospinescu research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children, pediatric clinical hospital, sibiu, romania 3 george barițiu, 550178, tel. 0269 230 250 cristinadospinescu@yahoo.com gabriela visa research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children, pediatric clinical hospital, sibiu, romania 3 george barițiu, 550178, tel. 0269 230 250 gabiap@yahoo.com abstract there is a controversial concept among many studies whether neonatal seizures are risk factors for neonatal death and/or neurodevelopment impairments (in case of newborn survivors). multiple factors have been analyzed in literature, including perinatal factors, etiology factors, seizures characteristics factors, investigations findings factors, therapy-related factors. this paper aims to review the characteristics and the application context of different computational models developed for identifying both the risk factor of morbidity (epilepsy, cerebral palsy, development disability or their combination) and the mortality outcome after neonatal seizures. consequently, we determined the groups of main risk factors using factor analysis. the vast majority of identified models are logistic regression models, but also decision tree models. in the literature, there is a large variation in establishing the risk factors determining poor or favorable outcome after a neonatal seizure, with similarities and inconsistencies. these findings could be a consequence of different approaches regarding inclusion criteria, methodologies used to identify seizure, seizures definition or description, analysis using computational models. keywords: neonatal seizures, risk factors, epilepsy, mortality, logistic regression, decision tree 1. introduction presence of seizures and seizures control are very important aspects that clearly affect the intervention care phases and clinicians decision-making process. the differential diagnosis of neonatal and perinatal seizures is a complex task for a practitioner and it includes a lot of pathological conditions (epileptic and nonepileptic): 1. nonepileptic (gastroesophageal refluxsandifer syndrome, cyanotic breath-holding attacks, shuddering spells and jitteriness, pallid syncopal attacks-reflex anoxic attacks, hyperlexia, cardiac arrhythmias, subarachnoid hemorrhage, subdural hematoma, mitochondrial cytopathies, meningitis, encephalitis), 2.epileptic syndromes (benign, myoclonic, pyridoxine) (cazan et. al., 2014; cazan et. al., 2017). hence, the differential brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 96 diagnosis algorithms should be undertaken carefully and efficiently in order to promptly intervene in the case management and to avoid any undesirable complication. currently, there are many efforts to perform either noninvasive assessment of biomarkers in children with epilepsies or to apply different computational models to categorize the risk factors for susceptible cases (shahar et. al., 2012; choy, 2014; azhibekov, 2015; nicolae et. al., 2016; pitkänen, 2016; mahoney, 2016). different outcomes from neonatal period affect not only the suffering patient but the whole community. multiple prognostic factors have been analyzed in literature, including perinatal factors, etiology factors, seizures characteristics factors, investigations findings factors, therapy-related factors costea et. al. 2017). this paper aims to review the characteristics of different computational models developed for identifying the risk factor of outcomes after neonatal seizures and to determine the groups of main risk factors. 2. methods we examined ncbi databases (pmc, pubmed) using multiple search word combinations: neurological outcome, risk factors, neonatal seizure and neurological outcome, neonatal seizure, and epilepsy, neonatal seizure and mortality, selecting the articles including computational models analysis. the information from each article was synthesized in three synoptic tables. table 1 presents the reviewed studies description: author, year of publication, study period, type. we discussed the study concepts linked with the seizures description or definition, the inclusion or exclusion criteria and with other methodologies used to identify seizure and different risk factors. table 2 offers details concerning the characteristics of these models designed to identify the risk factors. table 3 provides further information about the identified outcomes and risk factors using different computational models. eventually, a factor analysis was implemented to define specific risk factors groups (table 4). based on our previously presented work (maniu et. al., 2017), we also considered in the factor analysis input (beside de reviewed studies from this paper) another five studies describing a different, scoring system based, approach (ellison et. al., 1981, 1986; pisani et. al., 2009; garfinkle, & shevell, 2011; salamon et. al., 2014; hur, & chung, 2016). 3. results we have found ten new highly related studies from the literature review, published between 2005 and 2016, of which two were multicenter studies (considering 2 and 4 centers) while the rest were one hospital based case series (miller et. al., 2005; ambalavanan, 2006; nunes, 2008; pisani, 2012; yildiz, 2012; lai, 2013; vargas, 2013; anand, 2014; shah, 2014; pisani, 2016). their brief description is presented in table 1. table 1. reviewed studies description first author year / country study period / study type study description miller 2005 / california 1994-2000 r, hb, mc -173 term (ga>=36 wk) newborns with neonatal encephalopathy (2 centers, 121 (1994-2000) + 52) -gestational age median: 6 days (range 1-24 days) -magnetic resonance imaging (mri) ambalavanan 2006 /maryland -/mc -205 neonates diagnosed as having hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy ht and control groups nunes 2008 / brazil 1999-2003 p (3659), pb -101 newborns with seizures -diagnosis of neonatal seizures was based on clinical observation -seizure etiology was based on positive clinical data, laboratory data and/or imaging studies (cus, ct or mri) pisani -403 consecutive newborns with gestational age from 24 to 32 weeks i. maniu, g. maniu, c. dospinescu, g. visa a factor analysis model for dimension reduction of outcome factors in neonatal seizure context 97 2012 / italy 2000-2007 / r, hb (preterm) -clinical and eeg-confirmed neonatal seizures yildiz 2012 / turkey 2007-2009 / r,hb -112 newborns (ages of 23-44 months) after manifesting seizures in their first postnatal 28 days lai 2013 / taiwan 1999-2009 / r, hb -232 term infants with clinical neonatal seizure 17 related risk factors were analyzed clinical neonatal seizure, eeg, cus vargas 2013/colombia 2008-2012 / cc, hb -ga < 44 wk with neonatal seizures, treated with phenobarbital -20 case (without response), 35 control (with adequate response) anand 2014/india -/ r,hb -108 newborns with seizure eeg, usg, ct, mri shah 2014 / uk 2007-2011 r,hb 85 neonates from 4 centers undergoing 72 h of th study hypothesis: seizure burden is associated with cerebral tissue injury independent of amplitude-integrated eeg (aeeg) background activity pisani 2016 / italy 1999-2012 / r,hb 76 preterm newborns with seizure video-eeg confirmed seizure cus r retrospective, p prospective, cc case – control study, mc multicenter controlled trail, pb populational based, hb hospital based, c clinical, ct computed tomographic scan, mri cerebral magnetic resonance imaging, cus cranial ultrasonography / cerebral ultrasound, usg ultrasonography, eeg electroencephalogram (standard), cph cord ph, bph blood ph, ht therapeutic hypothermia it can be noticed that seizure diagnosis was based on clinical grounds and functional explorations naming neuroimaging and/or eeg procedures (conventional eeg, aeeg, veeg, cus, mri). the minimum number of newborns considered in these studies was 55, while the maximum was 403 with a mean of 148 (sd=86.75, median=112, iqr: (98,175)) and a total of 2226 evaluated cases. figure 1. pediatric epilepsy in the context of a cerebral malformation (research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases, pediatric clinical hospital from sibiu, romania) the most frequently used computational model was the regression model, especially the binary logistic regression (table 2). the significance level considered varied significantly between studies (0.05-0.2). a few authors combined the significance level with or (greater than 1). a few studies specified the model’s performance using specific indicators such as correct classification brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 98 rates, sensitivity, and specificity. the performance values varied from 67% to 80% in case of death or disability and from 71% to 77% in case of death or 85.5% (in overall outcomes of the situation). table 2 characteristics of different computational models developed for identifying the risk factors study computational models reported indicators fisher exact test for qualitative (binary and non binary) variables n, %, p kruskal-wallis tests, spearman rank correlation, bootstrap modeling for non-normality investigation for numeric variables median (range), p univariate linear regression score change, 95% ci, p miller 2005 multivariate model score change, 95% ci, p early neurologic examination correct classification rates logistic regression or scoring system correct classification rates ambalavanan 2006 classification and regression tree analysis correct classification rates fisher and chi square tests for qualitative (only binary) variables n, %, rr, 95% ci, p student’s t test for numeric variables m, sd, 95% ci, p nunes 2008 multiple logistic regression model β coefficient, t, p pisani 2012 multivariate analysis or, 95% ci, p yildiz 2012 multivariate logistic regression or, 95% ci fisher and chi square tests for categorized data n, %, p lai 2013 simple and multiple logistic regression models n, %, or, 95% ci, p contingency tables, fisher and chi square tests vargas 2013 logistic regression m, sd or, 95% ci, p anand 2014 chi-square test n, %, p shah 2014 univariate and multivariate logistic regresion or, 95% ci, p student’s t test for numeric variables chi square tests for qualitative variables pisani 2016 multivariate logistic regression model n,% sensitivity, specificity outcomes like death, brain injury, cerebral palsy, developmental delay and/or epilepsy were displayed in table 3 for further analysis in our review. in some studies, different comorbidities were individually evaluated determining risk factors for each outcome. in other reports they were considered together (overall outcomes). only in three research papers, treatment factors were considered and identified as risk factors. table 3 risk factors of outcomes and mortality in neonatal seizures study outcomes identified risk factors miller 2005 brain injury bw, intensive resuscitation, severe encephalopathy, severe seizure ambalavanan 2006 death or moderate/severe disability at 18 to 22 months or death as the outcomes few components of the early neurologic examination were associated with poor outcomes epilepsy (ep) abnormal pnn, abnormal peeg, bw multivariate analysis – 0 factors nunes 2008 developmental delay abnormal nn, abnormal pnn, abnormal peeg, earlier pns, ga, bw i. maniu, g. maniu, c. dospinescu, g. visa a factor analysis model for dimension reduction of outcome factors in neonatal seizure context 99 multivariate analysis: abnormal pn, abnormal peeg mortality ga multivariate analysis – 0 factors pisani 2012 mortality brain damage abnormal ubs, bw (<1000), cardiopulmonary resuscitation yildiz 2012 cerebral palsy, epilepsy, developmental delay etiology, apgar score, resuscitation, electroencephalogram, neonatal status epilepticus, cranial imaging findings, type/duration of antiepileptic treatment, response to acute treatment lai 2013 death, cerebral palsy, global developmental delay, and/or epilepsy abnormal ubs, abnormal cerebral artery resistance index, abnormal eeg, presence of congenital heart disease vargas 2013 risk for therapeutic failure with phenobarbital and posible feature complications antecedents at birth/adaptation: seizure semiology (more than one), latency to phenobarbital startup greater than 12 hours, subtle or tonic seizures, seizures longer than 5 minutes postnatal antecedents: low as10, maternal intrapartum infection, neonatal shock anand 2014 overall seizure outcome low ga, low bw, low as5, etiology, so, st_epi, abnormal radiological findings, abnormal eeg shah 2014 overall seizure outcome electrographic seizure burden pisani 2016 overall seizure outcome (death, development delay, cerebral palsy, epilepsy) bw, as1, neurologic exam, eeg, ubs, presence of st_epi aed antiepileptic drug, cp cerebral palsy, gdd global developmental delay, ga gestational age, bwbirth weight, rs repeated/recurrent seizure, md type/mode of delivery, as1 apgar score at 1 minute, as5 apgar score at 5 minute, as10 apgar score at 10 minute, so seizure onset, st_epi status epilepticus, ubs ultrasound brain scan, msumaternal substance used, mis – maternal inflammatory state, prmprolonged rupture of membranes, pnn – postnatal neuroimaging, pns – postnatal seizure. the most frequently identified risk factors were the eeg findings (abnormal / severe electroencephalogram results), seizure characteristics (type, onset, duration, semiology), etiology, birth weight, apgar score, cerebral ultrasound scan findings (abnormal) (figure 2). figure 2. identified risk factors hierarchy brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 100 as can be seen from table 3, many different factors have been identified in previous studies as risk factors in neonatal seizures. in order to group these large number of factors, factor analysis was used. factor analysis’ main objective is to reduce many items into fewer latent factors by grouping similar variables into dimensions on the bases of pattern correlations. we consider reducing the risk factors dimension using factor analysis with principal axis factoring extraction method and varimax with kaiser normalization rotation method in our attempt to identify latent risk factors. the principal component analysis finds for the initial data a new orthonormal basis having the axes ordered depending on variance (from high to low). the new ordered vectors (eigenvectors) are the principal components. the method generated 5 main factors, this number being extracted from the examination of scree plot and eigenvalues (over 1). first latent factor gathered the treatment and the resuscitation records, the second one included apgar score and status epilepticus. delivery mode, gestational age, and birth weight (medical history factors) were grouped as the third-factor category. the forth category comprised the etiology and seizure characteristics while the fifth considered functional and imaging data (eeg, ultrasound brain scans, neuroimaging -mri, ct) (table 4). table 4. factor analysis reduction factors rotated matrix factor 1 2 3 4 5 treatment duration .892 response to treatment .738 .510 resuscitation .715 early neurologic examination -.482 status epilepticus .937 as .905 mode of delivery .847 bw -.631 .440 ga .627 etiology .863 so .669 ultrasound brain scan -.454 -.404 eeg -.439 .703 neuroimaging .702 4. discussions and conclusions prominently, the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the methodologies used to identify seizures, the description or the definition of seizures were different in these studies. anand et. al. (2014) referred in their study to the clinical diagnosed seizures, newborns lacking the synchronized video eeg recordings. the affected newborns with very subtle or electrical only seizures might have been excluded. lai (2012) had a similar approach analzying the patients with clinically evident seizures. on the other hand, pisani et. al. (2016) studied only the newborns with confirmed videoeeg. a more complex analysis was presented in shah 2014 study, where the aeeg and mri were considered for diagnosis. seizures pattern recorded on aeeg with corresponding 2-channel raw eeg (aeeg/eeg), were classified by severity of background and seizure burden; mr images were interpreted based on the severity of tissue injury. different risk factors related to the medical history were considered by different studies. lai, 2014 considered 17 variables such as gender, delivery mode, small for date status, maternal illness, perinatal insults, meconium stained liquor, apgar score at 1 and 5 minutes, seizure onset age, seizure type, etiology, electroencephalography (eeg) findings, antiepileptic drug efficacy, presence of metabolic acidosis, cranial ultrasonographic findings, and the presence of congenital heart disease. conversely, anand et. al. (2014) selected the following variables: time of onset of seizure, type, duration and frequency of seizure, neurological examination at the onset of the seizure, gestational age, type of delivery, birth weight, apgar score at 1 and 5 min, resuscitation at the time i. maniu, g. maniu, c. dospinescu, g. visa a factor analysis model for dimension reduction of outcome factors in neonatal seizure context 101 of birth. biomarker assessment for these patients however such as routine chemistries including blood sugar, sepsis screen, lumbar puncture, serum electrolytes such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, eeg, neuroimaging (ultrasonography/computerised tomography/magnetic resonance imaging [usg/ct/mri]), torch screening and inborn errors of metabolism screening were performed whenever indicated by the clinician and we couldn’t recognize a systematic approach in this respect. in contrast, ambalavanan used clinical and the laboratory variables (available within 6 hours of birth) to develop the model (both scoring system and decision tree). as a consequence, distinctive computational models and distinctive approaches in using the models were employed in these reports with a predictable variability in the identified risk factors. in some analysis, univariate and multivariate regression techniques were applied only on categorical variables while in other studies there were both categorical and numerical variables. we didn’t find any description of the categories selection. moreover, we noticed differences in cut of points considered for the same variable (risk factor) between authors. vargas et. al. (2013) considered that there was a higher risk with more than six medical antecedents at birth or with more than five postnatal medical antecedents. miller et. al. (2005) findings pointed out that the measured prenatal risk factors did not predict the brain injury pattern types as neuroimaging biomarkers (watershed predominant, basal ganglia/thalamus predominant, and normal) but that the patterns of brain injury in terms of neonatal encephalopathy are associated with different clinical presentations and neurodevelopmental outcomes. the large amount of factors identified in previous studies as risk factors for outcomes in neonatal seizures context make their analysis difficult to accomplish. we consider our approach to be an interesting and practical design for future computational models. it operates five major groups that cluster the most important studied risk factors on the reviewed studies. by using this type of data reduction technique, the large number of factors considered as risk factors for outcome in neonatal seizure context are restructured and we can identify derive groups of factors / underlying factors to be considered by the specialists in intervention care phases but also in prognostic and prediction of clinical outcome. although there are controversial discussions regarding the use of factor procedure in case of categorical (binary) variables, the resulted groups have clinical relevance. nonetheless, there are other limitations for this model related to the number of the included studies. further work on metadata and considering also other modeling techniques (principal component analysis for categorical variables procedures (tetrachoric correlation), association rules) are needed to validate and optimize the risk factors groups. acknowledgment this work has been conducted in the pediatric clinic hospital sibiu, within research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children ceforaten project (id 928 smiscsnr 13605) financed by ancsi with the grant number 432 / 21. 12. 2012 thru the sectoral operational programme „increase of economic competitiveness”. references ambalavanan n, carlo wa, shankaran s, bann cm, emrich sl, higgins rd, tyson je, oshea tm, laptook ar, ehrenkranz ra, donovan ef, walsh mc, goldberg rn, das a; national institute of child health and human development neonatal research network. predicting outcomes of neonates diagnosed with hypoxemic-ischemic encephalopathy. pediatrics 2006;118(5):2084-2093. anand v, nair p. neonatal seizures: predictors of adverse outcome. j pediatr neurosci 2014;9:97-9 azhibekov t, soleymani s, lee bh, noori s, seri i. hemodynamic monitoring of the critically ill neonate: an eye on the future. seminars in fetal & neonatal medicine. 2015;20(4):246– 254. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 102 cazan c, dobrota l, neamtu m po-0813 sandifer syndrome – a challenge for the paediatrician archives of disease in childhood 2014; 99:a520. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild2014-307384.1447 cazan c, dobrota l, neamtu m, bogdan neamtu, gabriela visa, nicolae bodrug, viorel istrate elevated aminotransferase activity as a clue to muscular dystrophy archives of disease in childhood 2017;102:a148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2017-313273.385 choy m, dube cm, patterson k, barnes sr, maras p, blood ab, hasso an, obenaus a, baram tz. a novel, noninvasive, predictive epilepsy biomarker with clinical potential. journal of neuroscience 2014; 34: 8672-8684 costea r., neamtu m, neamtu b. (2016) febrile seizures – eeg study and risks factors for recurrence and for epilepsy. european journal of pediatrics, 2016, issn: 175:1393-1880; 1432-1076; pp 1616; doi 10.1007/s00431-016-2785-8 ellison ph, largent ja, bahr jp. a scoring system to predict outcome following neonatal seizures. j pediatr [internet]. 1981;99(3):455–9. available from: http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?t=js&page=reference&d=med2&news=n&an=7 264808 ellison ph, horn jl, franklin s, jones mg. the results of checking a scoring system for neonatal seizures. neuropediatrics [internet]. 1986;17(3):152–7. available from: http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?t=js&csc=y&news=n&page=fulltext&d=med2 &an=2429227%5cnhttp://openurl.ac.uk/athens:_edu//lfp/linkfinderplus/display?sid=ov id:ovid+medline(r)&id=pmid:2429227&id=&issn=0174304x&isbn=&volume=17&issue=3&spage=152&pages=152-7& garfinkle j, shevell mi. prognostic factors and development of a scoring system for outcome of neonatal seizures in term infants. eur j paediatr neurol [internet]. elsevier ltd; 2011;15(3):222–9. available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpn.2010.11.002 hur j.y, chung ml. risk factor analysis and scoring system for neurodevelopmental outcomes after neonatal seizures. j neonatal biol [internet]. 2016;5(4). available from: https://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/risk-factor-analysis-and-scoring-system-forneurodevelopmentaloutcomes-after-neonatal-seizures-2167-0897-1000241.php?aid=83335 lai yh, ho cs, chiu nc, tseng cf, huang yl. prognostic factors of developmental outcome in neonatal seizures in term infants. pediatr neonatol 2013; 54: 166-72 mahoney, l. g. s. (2016) assessment of the transitional circulation in late preterm and term neonates using non-invasive biomarkers: a longitudinal analysis and evaluation of repeatability (doctoral dissertation, university of brighton) maniu i, maniu g.c, balan c, neamtu b, scoring systems for predicting outcomes of neonatal seizure, acta medica transilvanica (in press) miller, s. p., ramaswamy, v., michelson, d., barkovich, a. j., holshouser, b., wycliffe, n., … ferriero, d. m. (2005). patterns of brain injury in term neonatal encephalopathy. j pediatr, 146(4), 453–460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2004.12.026, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=5ebb0e03036aafb375605d053 46f1a5e?doi=10.1.1.328.3903&rep=rep1&type=pdf neamtu b, picu o, martu stefanache ma, ibric cioranu vs (2016) the comparative evaluation of salivary biomarkers (calcium, phosphate, salivary ph) in cario-resistance versus carioactivity vasile nicolae, rev.chim.(bucharest), 67, no. 4 , 2016 http://www.revistadechimie.ro nunes ml, martins mp, barea bm, wainberg rc, da costa jc. neurological outcome of newborns with neonatal seizures. arq neuropsiquiatr. 2008;66:168–174 pisani f, sisti l, seri s. a scoring system for early prognostic assessment after neonatal seizures. pediatrics [internet]. 2009;124(4):e580–7. available from: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2008-2087 pisani f, piccolo b, cantalupo g, et al. neonatal seizures and post-neonatal epilepsy: a seven-year follow-up study. pediatr res 2012;72:186e93 i. maniu, g. maniu, c. dospinescu, g. visa a factor analysis model for dimension reduction of outcome factors in neonatal seizure context 103 pisani f, facini c, pelosi a, mazzotta s, spagnoli c, pavlidis e (2016) neonatal seizures in preterm newborns: a predictive model of outcome. eur j paediatr neurol 20:243-251 pitkänen a, löscher w, vezzani a, et al. biomarkers in epilepsy. lancet neurol 2016;15:843–856 salamon s.a, neubauer d, petrovcic a, paro-panjan d. risk factors and scoring system as a prognostic tool for epilepsy after neonatal seizures. pediatr neurol [internet]. elsevier ltd; 2014;50(1):77–84. available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2013.08.010 shahar e, nagler r. (2012) oxidative stress in children with intractable epilepsy reflected by salivary glands anti-oxidant profile , neurology , 78 (1 supplement) p01.073; issn:1526632x shah dk, wusthoff cj, clarke p, et al , electrographic seizures are associated with brain injury in newborns undergoing therapeutic hypothermia, archives of disease in childhood fetal and neonatal edition 2014;99:f219-f224 vargas n.p, sánchez e.f, segura o.e (2014) risk factors associated with a poor response to first-line treatment in neonatal seizures a casecontrol study done at mercy foundation hospital, revista academia nacional de medicina, vol 103, https://encolombia.com/medicina/revistasmedicas/academedicina/vol103/tratamiento-crisis-neonatales/ yıldız ep, tatlı b, ekici b, et al. evaluation of etiologic and prognostic factors in neonatal convulsions. pediatr neurol 2012; 47: 186-92 ionela maniu is a lecturer professor ph.d at lucian blaga university of sibiu, faculty of sciences, department of mathematics and computer science and researcher in the neurology research department within the research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children affiliated to the pediatric clinical hospital from sibiu romania. current research is focused on data mining, machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques, with special interest in medical data sets. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue3_v6_ok1.docx 69 artificial intelligence as a decision-making tool in planning the research simina maris ioan slavici university, prof. dr. aurel păunescu podeanu, timișoara, romania politehnica university of timisoara, piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006, romania phone: 0256 403 000 siminamaris@gmail.com titus slavici politehnica university of timisoara, piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006, romania phone: 0256 403 000 titusslavici@yahoo.com petre nenu politehnica university of timisoara, piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006, romania phone: 0256 403 000 nenu_florinel@yahoo.com liliana baciu politehnica university of timisoara, piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006, romania phone: 0256 403 000 lforgacs@bleu-electrique.ro abstract the quality of a finite product is influenced both on quantitative and qualitative factors and thus it is somewhat difficult to determine the major factors which affect it and their degree of influence. in this paper we present the usage of artificial intelligence (in particular artificial neural networks) in the development of an efficient research plan for studying the quality of finite products in particular, wood briquettes obtained from various biomass mixtures. keywords: artificial intelligence, neural networks, innovation, finite products 1. introduction there is a strong correlation between basic research and applied research. the linear process linking basic research to applied research, development, commercialization, diffusion and their consequences is commonly denoted as technological innovation and development (zahra et al, 2007). during the last century, innovation became gradually the most important factor leading to productivity growth. consequently, one cannot omit the role of academic research and its applications in the socio-cultural and economic development. thus, new strategies to create wealth by valorizing existent results of academic research were developed. once agreed on the importance of research (both basic and applied) for technological development and, ultimately, for gaining wealth, it becomes simple for a company to search for new solutions and improvements regarding their products in the academic environment. thereby, reallife processes and phenomena are modeled and the subsequent physical, chemical or mathematical models are studied for their properties. development of computers and computer science lead to new methods to analyze a model. while methods of numerical analysis existed since more than 2000 years, the speed performances of modern computers lead to numerical solutions of increasingly complex problems, from numerical brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 70 weather prediction to programming automatic pilots and even chemical properties of semiconductors. all the models mentioned above use quantitative input values in order to compute quantitative, numerical outputs. a problem arises when, during the modeling phase, qualitative (discreet) inputs are required. the classical models should be replaced by new, statistical models, created either by statistical methods or by using artificial intelligence tools. our work is a response to the need of innovation expressed by a private company, sc andrei slavici srl. the company is searching for innovation in the production of wood pellets and briquettes on the market of nonconventional bio-fuels. there is a positive global trend in the usage of renewable sources of energy and romania has already overcome the 22% threshold of renewable energy used, assumed for 2020 (ren 2015). in this regard, economic, environmental and political aspects of using biomass in energy are investigated worldwide (davis 2014, nishiguchi 2016), and especially the usage of wood pellets as solid biofuel (grammelis 2010). 2. methods every research activity contains a data collection phase. data collection ensures there is enough real life information to construct a model and / or to set its limits. data may refer to (maris 2013, greer 2015, untaru 2012): • physical or chemical properties of an object (such as density, thermal conductivity, melting point, etc.) • biological models (e.g., “artificial” neurons used to model “real” neurons) • initial values for a process when dealing with time-progressive models (such as initial temperature, initial concentration, etc.) • boundary values for an object or process (such as temperature on the edges of the studied object, velocity of the edges, etc.) • economic information (prices, productivity, demand and offer, etc.) • miscellanea (state of economy, amount of rain, client’s degree of satisfaction, provenience of the object, availability of the object in a specific area, etc.) the traditional statistical methods used to link a certain output variable given a set of input conditions are generically denoted by the term of “curve fitting”. among them, one of the most commonly used statistical methods is the least squares method. new techniques of forecasting were developed as consequence to the development of computers and artificial intelligence. instead of “curve fitting”, the term “pattern recognition” appeared, designating a process through which a label is assigned to a given input value. among the pattern recognition software currently used in the field of decision making, there are (knowledge-based) expert systems and artificial neural networks (anns). expert systems emulate a real expert. hence, the output obtained using an expert system is comparable to a decision of a most competent real expert (corvid exsys). however, no decision could be made in the absence of the knowledge base. usually, the knowledge base is a collection of rules with the general form “if condition then result.” the process of decision making is based on the rules previously loaded in the knowledge base, leading to an answer to the problem (question) in discussion. anns became widely used since 1980s. the “neurons” of an ann are software elements which emulate human neurons by processing some input data and returning a function of it. currently, anns are considered as one of the most accurate decision-making tools. anns overcome the restrictions of classical methods used for complex problem solving like forecasting electricity consumption (kaytez et al., 2015), forecasting wind power and control the parameters of wind turbines (ata, 2015), analysis of consumer choices (kennedy at al., 2016) and estimating gross calorific values (estiati et al., 2016). to use an ann, one should go through three phases (russell and norvig 2002): s. maris, t. slavici, p. nenu, l. baciu artificial intelligence as a decision-making tool in planning the research 71 • the training phase (during which known associations between inputs and outputs are fed into the network); • the validation phase (during which the outputs of the ann are validated against known values of the outputs); • the testing phase (in which the ann predicts outputs associated to a certain set of inputs). since anns are generally more accurate than expert systems, linking both quantitative and qualitative inputs in order to obtain an output, we will use anns to achieve our goals. a typical ann contains (figure 1): • an input layer – i, composed of a certain number of neurons, • one or more hidden layers – h (each composed of a certain number of neurons) • an output layer – o, usually composed of one neuron (the “answer” of the network). figure 1. example of multilayer neural network (source: samarasinghe, 2016) the computations were made using the neural networks toolbox of matlab (chapman, 2015). 3. case study our research started with a request from the company sc andrei slavici srl to help innovate their production. a private microenterprise, sc andrei slavici srl was founded in 2012 as a spin-out of the ioan slavici foundation for culture and education. its purpose is to capitalize commercially the results of scientific research. the nace code of the company is 1629 (manufacture of other products of wood; manufacture of articles of cork, straw and plaiting materials), which allows the company to produce fire logs (briquettes) and fire pellets out of pressed wood or substitute materials. the technological line of the company allows the processing of a minimum of 400 kg raw material at once. the company search innovation in order to produce fire pellets and briquettes with higher energetic efficiency, addressing thus to the growing market of nonconventional bio-fuels. a more detailed description of the situation was given by maris et al. (2016). the key process parameters of pelletization have been listed by stelte in 2014: wood species (chemical composition), particle size, content of moisture, conditioning temperature, pelletizer temperature, length and diameter of the die, rotation speed of the die and, in case of torrefied biomass, the degree of torrefaction. other important aspects of the problem are the chemical composition of the resulting ash (biedermann and obernberger, 2005), as it can damage the stoves, and ash melting temperature, a higher temperature meaning a more efficient combustion (holubick et al, 2015). in addition to these aspects, the price of raw material should not be neglected, as it affects the price of the finite product and hence its attractiveness to customers. the price of raw brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 72 material depends on demand/offer ratio, frequency of cataclysms, state of economy, etc. (untaru et al, 2012) for the moment, the chemical composition of certain wood types will be considered. the chemical composition is known (krajnc, 2015) and will be used further in the computations. using the mendeleev formula, the total calorific value can be computed for various combinations of wood. an example of these values can be found in table 1. however, while the mendeleev formula links the calorific value of the fuel to only 4 chemical components, we aim to feed the neural network with an extended chemical composition of the fuel (10 chemical components). table 1. calorific values for various types of wood and combinations of woods (sample) biofuel c h o s calorific value (mendeleev formula) unit (%,wt. cont.) (%,wt. cont.) (%,wt. cont.) (%,wt. cont.) (mj/kg) bark 51.400 5.700 38.700 0.085 19.081 beech 47.900 6.200 43.300 0.015 17.693 poplar 47.500 6.200 44.100 0.031 17.679 spruce 49.800 6.300 43.200 0.015 18.658 willow 47.100 6.100 44.200 0.045 17.420 beech and spruce 1:1 48.850 6.250 43.250 0.015 18.279 spruce and beech 2:1 48.850 6.250 43.250 0.015 18.405 beech and spruce 2:1 48.850 6.250 43.250 0.015 18.152 figure 2. ann structure and performance s. maris, t. slavici, p. nenu, l. baciu artificial intelligence as a decision-making tool in planning the research 73 for our purpose, we used 27 samples, each sample containing 10 different elements, referring to unmixed wood. the set was divided randomly in training set (70% of the sets of values, i.e. 19 sets), validation set (15% of the sets of values, corresponding to 4 sets) and testing set (15% of the sets of values, corresponding to 4 sets). the data division was performed randomly. the best fitting results were obtained when training the ann using levenberg-marquardt algorithm, corresponding to an overall accuracy of 99.57%. figure 3. regression plots for the case presented table 2. comparison of the calorific values obtained by using the mendeleev formula and the ann (sample) biofuel real calorific value (hartmann et al, 2013) calorific value mendeleev formula (4 chemical components) calorific value ann (10 chemical components) unit (mj/kg) (mj/kg) (mj/kg) bark 19.200 19.081 18.9322 beech 18.400 17.693 17.4034 poplar 18.500 17.679 17.5016 spruce 18.800 18.658 18.5133 willow 18.400 17.420 17.2842 beech and spruce 1:1 18.279 17.9313 spruce and beech 2:1 18.405 18.1186 beech and spruce 2:1 18.152 17.7503 brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 74 the calorific value computed by the ann (based on 10 inputs) is generally less than the calorific value computed by mendeleev formula (based on 4 inputs). as further work, the inputs will consider the rest of the influencing parameters, and the outputs of the neural network will also contain the amount of noxious by-products and the price of the finite product. the performance of an ann is influenced both by its architecture and the algorithms used during the computations. while it is important to find the best combination of architecture and algorithms, it is not practical to perform this experiment even using the newest computation resources. thus, in order to optimize the ann, one should determine first the network parameters with the greatest influence on the forecast accuracy. once these parameters are determined, statistical methods should be used to construct a response surface in order to determine the best values for the influencing parameters. (slavici 2006) however, as this represents work in progress, these results should be presented in another paper. the results obtained using anns are useful to discern which inputs (and with what weights) determine the desired outputs. this is useful because it will help to perform the required practical experiments with reduced costs. 4. conclusions artificial intelligence provides the researcher with versatile tools, which can be successfully used in the process of planning the research. anns can be successfully used to estimate the yield of a certain combination of inputs in a given situation, despite some practical problems such as: a high complexity of the mathematical model for the required situation, associated with an insufficient accuracy of this model; incomplete available data, affected by noise and bias; too many restrictions to be applied and simultaneously optimized in the process. moreover, they allow the researcher to process both quantitative and qualitative data. currently, we constructed an ann to process the inputs associated to the fabrication of wood pellets and briquettes. as input, it was considered only the chemical composition of the biomass, the output being the net calorific value. the overall accuracy of the network was 99.57%. as a further work, the inputs will be diversified and the ann will be optimized, thus leading to more accurate forecasts. references ata, r. (2015). artificial neural networks applications in wind energy systems: a review. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 49, 534-562. biedermann, f., & obernberger, i. (2005). ash-related problems during biomass combustion and possibilities for a sustainable ash utilisation. austrian bioenergy centre gmbh & bios bioenergiesysteme, graz, austria. retrieved june 25, 2016, from http://www. biosbioenergy. at/uploads/media/paper-biedermann-ashrelated-2005-10-11.pdf chapman, s. j. (2015). matlab programming for engineers. nelson education. corvid exsys. (2015). retrieved from http://www.exsys.com/exsyscorvid.html davis, s. c., hay, w., & pierce, j. (2014). biomass in the energy industry: an introduction. london, united kingdom: bp plc. estiati, i., freire, f. b., freire, j. t., aguado, r., & olazar, m. (2016). fitting performance of artificial neural networks and empirical correlations to estimate higher heating values of biomass. fuel, 180, 377-383. grammelis, p. (2010). solid biofuels for energy: a lower greenhouse gas alternative. springer science & business media. greer, k. (2015). new ideas for brain modelling, broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, vol. 6, no. 3-4, pp. 26-46. s. maris, t. slavici, p. nenu, l. baciu artificial intelligence as a decision-making tool in planning the research 75 hartmann, h., reisinger, k., thuneke, k., höldrich, a., & roßmann, p. (2013). handbuch bioenergie-kleinanlagen, ed 3. überarbeitete auflage. fachagentur nachwachsende rohstoffe ev, hartmann, h. holubcik, m., jandacka, j., & malcho, m. (2015). ash melting temperature prediction from chemical composition of biomass ash. the holistic approach to environment, 5(3), 119-125. kaytez, f., taplamacioglu, m. c., cam, e., & hardalac, f. (2015). forecasting electricity consumption: a comparison of regression analysis, neural networks and least squares support vector machines. international journal of electrical power & energy systems, 67, 431-438. kennedy, m., dinh, v. n., & basu, b. (2016). analysis of consumer choice for low-carbon technologies by using neural networks. journal of cleaner production, 112, 3402-3412. krajnc, n. (2015). wood fuels handbook. food and agriculture organization of united nations. pristina, 2015. maris, s. (2013). numerical characterization of the computational domains for crystals grown by bridgman technique. in recent advances in low-temperature processes for the development of rf, eo, magnetic and electronic bulk and thin film crystals. materials science and technology (ms&t), october 27-31, 2013, pp. 2768-2773. montreal, quebec, canada. maris, s., et al. (2016). financing methods for innovative start-ups in the domain of nonconventional energies, nonconventional technologies review, no. 3 (xx) / 2016, pp.6570, issn 2359 – 8654. nishiguchi, s. & tabata, t. (2016). assessment of social, economic, and environmental aspects of woody biomass energy utilization: direct burning and wood pellets. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 57, 1279-1286. ren, p. s. (2015). renewables 2015 global status report. ren21 secretariat: paris, france. russell, s. & norvig, p. (2002). artificial intelligence: a modern approach. 2nd edition. prentice hall series in artificial intelligence. fort collins, co. samarasinghe, s. (2016). neural networks for applied sciences and engineering: from fundamentals to complex pattern recognition. crc press. slavici, t. (2006). artificial intelligence. eurostampa publishing house. timisoara, romania. stelte, w. (2014). optimization of product specific processing parameters for the production of fuel pellets from torrefied biomass. taastrup, denmark: center for biomass and biorefinery, danish technological institute. untaru, m., rotarescu, v., & dorneanu, l. (2012). artificial neural networks for sustainable agribusiness: a case study of five energetic crops. revista agrociencia, 46(5), 507–518. zahra, s. a., van de velde, e., & larraneta, b. (2007). knowledge conversion capability and the performance of corporate and university spinoffs. industrial and corporate change, 16(4), 569–608. simina maris is phd student with the politehnica university of timisoara since 2015. she holds a bsc in mathemathics and physics and a bsc in business administration, as well as a msc in applied computer sciences. she is part-time assistant professor at the ioan slavici university and head of mathematics and sciences department at the ioan slavici high school. her interests are: applied mathematics, mathematical modeling, practical aspects of using ict in education, computer simulation, artificial intelligence, using artificial intelligence for optimization of processes. titus slavici is professor with politehnica university of timisoara, and also cofounder and professor with ioan slavici university of timisoara. he helds a phd in industrial engineering and a phd in finances. since 2015 he is habilitated in industrial engineering. titus slavici has obtained a number of r&d grants and succesfully coordinated their implementation. his main areas of interest are: computer science, artificial intelligence, industrial engineering, finances and management, using artificial intelligence for optimization of processes. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 3, september 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 76 petre nenu is phd student with the politehnica universityof timisoara since 2015. he helds a bsc in heat machinery and equipments and a msc in renewable energies. currently, he is engineer at colterm sa. his interests are related to heat production, thermodynamics, applied sciences, nonconventional energy resources, sustainable agricultural development, sustainable agricultural production, applied computer sciences, industrial engineering. liliana baciu (forgacs) is phd student with the politehnica university of timisoara since 2016. she holds a bsc in mechanical engineering and a msc in industrial engineering. currently, she is manager at bleu electrique romania. her interests are: mechanical engineering, chemical technological equipments, welding, industrial engineering, management, using artificial intelligence for optimization of processes. 104 the effect of using appendectomy surgical simulation software (game-based) on the satisfaction of undergraduate students of operating room in isfahan, 2017 amin sedigh school of nursing and midwifery isfahan university of medical sciences hezar jerib street, isfahan, iran 8174673461 phone: +98 31 3792 3071 ahmad ghadami school of nursing and midwifery isfahan university of medical sciences hezar jerib street, isfahan, iran 8174673461 phone: +98 31 3792 3071 ghadami@nm.mui.ac.ir arash najimi isfahan university of medical sciences hezar jerib street, isfahan, iran 8174673461 phone: +98 31 3792 3071 masood sayyadi isfahan university of medical sciences hezar jerib street, isfahan, iran 8174673461 phone: +98 31 3792 3071 abstract one of the main challenges of the educational centers is the introduction of modern teaching methods. using the simulation devices in training is getting increasingly popularity. the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of appendectomy surgical simulation software (game-based) on the satisfaction of undergraduate students of operating room in isfahan. in this single-blind randomized clinical trial, 70 second semester undergraduate students were divided into control group and intervention group after obtaining satisfaction by random allocation. after using the simulation software (game-based) for the intervention group and the holding practice and lecture class (routine method) for the control group, the data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire the validity and reliability of which were confirmed. data were then analyzed by spss software version 16 and descriptive and analytical tests were also analyzed at a significance level of 0.05. the results showed that the average satisfaction score of the intervention group (58.94 ± 2.63) was higher than the control group (43.20 ± 3.02) and this difference was statistically significant (p-value <0.05). the results also showed that there was a significant relationship between age and satisfaction (pvalue <0.05). this means that as age increases, satisfaction increases (r = 0.26). appendectomy surgical simulation software (game-based) can improve the students' satisfaction with the training process. therefore, appendectomy surgical simulation software (gamebased) is recommended as a supplementary training method. keywords: software; game-based; simulation; surgical; appendectomy; satisfaction; undergraduate; students; operating room; training. 1. introduction the operating room undergraduate degree is one of the disciplines of the medical sciences whose main goal is to train experts who can effectively participate as a member of the surgical team (duers & brown, 2009). in iran, students are awarded a bachelor's degree in operating room field after 4 years. the operating room is a complex system in which staffs, technologists and patients are organized to provide patients with favorable outcomes (hosseini et. al., 2017). nursing education incorporates both theoretical knowledge and clinical activities, so that appropriate clinical care should be provided based a. sedigh, a. ghadami, a. najimi, m. sayyadi the effect of using appendectomy surgical simulation software (gamebased) on the satisfaction of undergraduate students of operating room in isfahan, 2017 105 on the theoretical knowledge (rikhotso & williams, 2014). clinical experience is the core of nursing education (aliafsari & zamanzade, 2017). helping, guiding and supporting students through clinical education with the aim of raising their qualifications and clinical performance through a creative environment enhances the nursing profession (henderson et. al., 2011). clinic is the only place that integrates theoretical knowledge and clinical practice. (henderson et. al., 2011) the more training a student is richer, the better the performance of students will be. the first experiences of nursing and medical students in the operating room with actual patients are always stressful and threatening. novices, without a defined role, feel a high pressure from working with experienced people. the student is aware that he/she may endanger the patient's safety, and tends to remain passive in order to prevent mistakes. as a result, novices feel that they are not effective in prospective decision making and therefore have a negative self-image (del blanco et. al., 2017). therefore, the complexity of learning in the clinical setting has made researchers examine clinical education from a variety of dimensions and bring about innovations in educating clinical students (assadi et. al., 2014). the introduction of new teaching methods has created challenges in education, especially in medical sciences (karimimonghi et. al., 2013). training practitioners have been always trying to make the most of the facilities (abnavi & ghadami ,2017).in-class or traditional educational environments have been criticized for the reasons such as encouraging passive learning, ignoring learners' differences and needs, ignoring problem-solving skills, critical thinking, or other high-level thinking. thus, given that the people are entitled to receive medical services from the potent experts, the method of education gains high importance (roghani et. al., 2006). new advances in technology have provided a variety of tools to enhance learning in higher education. computer simulation training has gained popularity due to the change in the style of learning, the facilitation of thinking and the creation of higher problem solving skills (koh et. al.,2010). virtual reality technology has been used in various occupational training programs including surgery since decades ago. humanoid and mannequin simulators reduce anxiety and facilitate students' acquisition of skills. they reduce errors and the probability of harm. they can be used at all levels of nursing education (ricketts, 2011). in simulation method, it is attempted to adapt the learning conditions to the real conditions so that the learning materials to be transmitted to the real-world context. this method reduces the complexity of learning that is prevalent in the real world (faraji, 2013, wilford & doyle, 2006). the reason of using the educational video games is their growing popularity. these kind of educational games that are primarily aimed at education and learning rather than entertainment have made many advances and lack some of the problems and limitations of the traditional way. these games should be amusing and have some of the main aspects of the game such as challenge, risk, reward and loss (sabri et. al., 2010). however, simulation training can neverre place practical training (xiao et. al., 2014).since the students are the important elements and the main audience of higher education, their viewpoints are now considered globally as an essential factor in monitoring the quality of education at the universities (ashrafsadat, 2013). therefore, students' satisfaction with education is of high importance. in order to increase students 'satisfaction, universities need to gather information about students' attitudes toward the services provided. then, drawing on this information, the students, the positive factors of satisfaction will be boosted and the negative factors will be corrected (zaribaf et. al., 2013). application of the new method in teaching practical skills in the operating room experts was considered by the researchers, but limited studies have been done on the students' effectiveness and satisfaction with game-based simulation. therefore, considering the importance of the issue, this study aimed to examine the effect of using appendectomy surgical simulation software (gamebased) on the satisfaction of undergraduate students in the field of operating room in isfahan. 2. methodology this study is a single-blind randomized controlled clinical trial. the study environment was the faculty of nursing and midwifery of isfahan university of medical sciences and the population brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 106 consisted of all second semester undergraduate students in the field of operating room. firstly, all students were selected by the convenience sampling method. after applying the criteria of entry and approval of participation in the study, 70 students were randomly assigned to two groups (control and intervention) of 35 persons were tested and tested. entry criteria included being undergraduate students of the operating room and having the basic knowledge and ability to work with the computer. in the control group, a practice session was held for two hours to familiarize the participants with the appendectomy and surgical equipment (lecture-presentation method using powerpoint) and then the students observed the appendectomy surgical instrument with the presence of the researcher. in the intervention group, during a two-hour session, the samples were introduced to the appendectomy (gamebased) simulation software, and then the students completed the stages of the game for practice in the presence of the researcher. the content of the software was developed in a scenario based on referrals related to the operating room and under the supervision of a qualified surgeon and then given to the developer for programming. the data collection tool was a self-administered satisfaction questionnaire that comprised 17 questions and measured student satisfaction with the course they attended. the questions were designed in likert scale including the choices strongly agree (henderson et. al., 2011), agree (aliafsari & zamanzade, 2017), no idea (rikhotso & williams, 2014), disagree (hosseini et. al., 2017) and totally disagree (duers & brown, 2009). the minimum score of the questionnaire was 17 and the maximum was 85. the desirable satisfaction criterion is getting a score higher than 51 and poorer satisfaction score waslower than the 51. the questionnaire validity was confirmed through a survey of 10 members of the faculty. reliability of the satisfaction questionnaire after the pilot cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.86. the data were analyzed by spss ver.16 using descriptive and analytical statistics (chi-square, pearson, mann-whitney, and kolmogorov-smirnov tests) at a significance of 0.05. 3. results in this clinical study, 70 undergraduate students were selected and randomly divided into two groups: control and intervention to examine the effect of the application of appendectomy surgicalsimulation software (game-based) on students' satisfaction. of the 70 students under study, 43 (61.4%) were women and 27 (38.6%) were male. the average age of the population under study was 20.23 ± 1.8 and the average grade of education was 17.14 ±1.50. the frequency distribution of the demographic characteristics of the population under investigation in two groups of control and intervention is shown in table 1.1. there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of age, gender, and average score (p-value> 0.05). the results are based on chi-square and mann-whitney non-parametric tests at a significance of 5%. table 1. determining and comparing frequency distribution gender in two groups variable group total significance intervention control gender male 13 )37.1%( 14 (40.0%) 27 (38.6%) 0.81 female 22 (62.9%) 21 (60.0%) 43 (61.4%) total 35 (100.0%) 35 (100.0%) 70 (100.0%) table 2. determining and comparing gender and educational average frequency distribution in two groups variable mean standard deviation number significance age control 20.14 1.17 35 0.88 intervention 20.31 1.21 35 a. sedigh, a. ghadami, a. najimi, m. sayyadi the effect of using appendectomy surgical simulation software (gamebased) on the satisfaction of undergraduate students of operating room in isfahan, 2017 107 educational average control 17.03 1.60 35 0.55 intervention 17.25 1.42 35 the results showed that the average score of satisfaction in the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group (p-value <0.05) (table 2.1). considering the higher average score of students in the intervention group (58.94 ± 2.63 of the criterion of this questionnaire i.e. 51) the satisfaction was desirable in this group, while the average score of students in the control group ( 20/43 ± 02/3 ) was less than the criterion that indicates that the students in the control group are dissatisfied with the training. the results are based on the mann-whitney nonparametric test at a significance of 5% (due to the fact that the distribution of satisfactory score is not normal based on kolmogorov-smirnov results(p-value = 0.001 <0.05)). table 3. determination and comparison of the average satisfaction score of undergraduate students of the operating room between the control and intervention groups group number mean standard deviation average standard deviation significance satisfaction control 35 43.20 17.88 3.02 0.001* intervention 35 58.94 15.59 2.63 the results also showed that there was no significant difference between the mean score of satisfaction of male and female students (p-value> 0.05). also, the results showed that asage increases, satisfaction score increases significantly (r = 0.26)( p-value <0.05 * ). 4. discussion the process of choosing educational methods is not merely based on learning and evaluation of learners, and educators must pay due attention to the satisfaction of learners as well. the satisfaction of learners with the educational method can affect their academic achievement (khoobi et. al., 2015). in recent years, using animation as a learning tool for learning improvement became popular (entezari et. al., 2013), but no study has been found to examine the impact of game-based surgery simulation software. of this study was to investigate the effect of using appendectomy surgical simulation software (game-based) on the satisfaction of second semester undergraduate students of the operating room. the results of the study showed that using simulation software leads to increased satisfaction of the students. their satisfaction after intervention in the intervention group was higher than the control group. there are different studies in this area that their results agree with our study. for example, in a study by shakour et. al. in 2013 titled "the effect of educational game on students' satisfaction and academic achievement in anatomy," second semester students of isfahan university of medical sciences were under the study. the research sample included all students who participated in sessions of the game (intervention group) and in the usual classroom sessions (control group). to examine the effectiveness of the game, two forms of the game were played in two sessions, arrangement games and the game of finding concepts and writing on the body's anatomy images. to assess the impact of the game on the academic achievement of the quiz test was used which was typically given at the end of each session. a survey questionnaire was used to assess students' satisfaction. analyzing the satisfaction questionnaire revealed that 4% of the students considered this method as excellent, 64% as good and the rest as average. none reported their own learning as low or dissatisfactory. as per the effectiveness of the game in the academic achievement of students, the average score of students was9.80 in intervention group and 7.45 in control group which was statistically significant (shakor et. al., 2013). khalila's study examines the simulation in nursing education and assesses the results of the first clinical practice of students along with simulations in 2014. in this study, 61 sophomore brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 108 nursing students of undergraduate students participated. the tool for examining the satisfaction was a self-administered questionnaire of 6 items with likert score of 5 points. after obtaining consent, students were given a pre-test questionnaire. two months later, students participated in three simulation training sessions. simulation scenarios included chest pain, asthma and pneumonia, or post-operative evaluation developed by the instructors. after the end of the sessions, the students were asked to complete the post-test questionnaire. the results showed that the average satisfaction score of students after the intervention increased. the results of this study were similar to ours (khalaila,2014). in the study by najafi et. al., which was conducted on the attitude of tabriz university of medical sciences students towards the use of computer simulation in education in 2011, 30 ph.d. students of tabriz university of medical sciences who took the pharmacology unit in 2007-2008 participated in the study. some parts of the course was taught with computer simulation software. the results showed that the training of the relevant parts of the pharmacology course which was done using simulation software, had a remarkable satisfaction of over 70 percent of the students (najafi & eteraf-oskouei, 2011). the results of this study were consistent with our study. a study by fluharty examined the effect of simulating the care of a dying patient in 2012. 370 nursing students from four faculties of nursing in america were randomly selected to participate in this research. students in five groups randomly selected one of the role of a nurse, spouse or observer to perform a scenario for 20 minutes. the data collecting tool was a researcherconstructed questionnaire, which was developed according to the nurse self-concept questionnaire. the results of this study showed that after intervention, the students' confidence and satisfaction scores increased (fluharty et. al., 2012). the findings of this study are also consistent with our study. in a study by alawi and shariati on 651 staff members of the tehran university of medical sciences, the staff's satisfaction with the e-learning course was studied in 2007. at first, the content of the course was determined by the selected educational committee and then published on a cd. following up the staff performance in the system was based on their entry into the system and the registering the requested information, including national id numbers and their personal information. end-of-course tests were given to all occupational groups electronically at the time specified by the personal page of the staff and at computer-equipped places at the university. after the end of the test, the participants were asked to complete an e-questionnaire related to the determination of staff satisfaction of these courses, which included 17 questions. the content of the questionnaire consisted of staff satisfaction with course content, staff satisfaction with course presentation and satisfaction with e-learning program. the results showed that the staff had a high satisfaction with the training course. the highest average satisfaction was related to satisfaction with the e-learning program (3.96 ± 0.9) out of 5, and the least was satisfaction with the content of the training course (3.84 ± 0.8). (alavi & shariati,2010) the results of this study are also in line with our study. in the meantime, studies have been also conducted that contradict the results of the study. in a study conducted by (noriyan,2012) titled "comparison of two methods of e-learning and traditional dentistry", on phd dental students of shahid beheshti dentistry school, 70 students of the 11th and 12the semester of dentistry participated in the study. the students of the intervention group received the content, which was completely similar to the control group, inhard and audio-visual copies after registration and entry into the system. the control group participated in the traditional classroom held in 17 sessions. students` satisfaction assessment was done using the standard individual development and educational assessment (idea) questionnaire, which was translated and determined to be valid and reliable. the results showed that the mean and standard deviation of the academic achievement test were similar in both the virtual and traditional education groups and there was no significant difference. also, students' satisfaction in the two educational groups was not significantly different in the four areas including teacher's capability, educational content, attitude toward the course and the difficulty of the course, and there was a significant difference between the two groups of students in the area of perceived and final judgment of students between the two educational groups (noriyan,2012). a. sedigh, a. ghadami, a. najimi, m. sayyadi the effect of using appendectomy surgical simulation software (gamebased) on the satisfaction of undergraduate students of operating room in isfahan, 2017 109 in the study by (zulkosky, 2012) that examined the application of simulation in the classroom, impact on knowledge absorption, satisfaction and self-confidence in 2012, 78 nursing students of the fourth semester participated. then, students were randomly assigned into two groups of intervention and control. the intervention group students attended a 4-hour class session and watched and discussed the simulation scenario with which they were trained. in control group, this content was presented in a traditional way using lecture and powerpoint presentations. according to the findings of the research, the researcher concluded that learners prefer to be trained in the traditional way due to getting used to their passive role. that is why they are not satisfied with simulation training (zulkosky, 2012). differences between the results of these two studies and our research may be due to differences in the type and semester of study of a research sample, and the data collection tool was different in our study and other studies. the study of hale et. al. in wichita state university was conducted in 2007 with the aim of assessing students' satisfaction with the allied health pharmacology course held online and inclassroom. the sample of the study included 224 people, 47 of them trained on the internet and 177 in the classroom in a traditional way. the results showed that the average satisfaction in both groups was estimated to be the same. the results of this study are consistent with the study. who believe that the satisfaction with the virtual method is similar to the traditional one. this is not similar to the results of our studies (hale et. al., 2009). it seems that the difference results from the difference in the number of samples and the training method in the intervention group. on the other hand, our study showed that there was no significant difference between the average satisfaction score among female and male students. also, the results showed that with increasing age, the satisfaction score increased significantly (correlation coefficient of satisfaction score and age equals 0.26). in a study by (arrasteh et. al., 2012) titled "student satisfaction survey on the first semester course-based master students" (case study), 270 graduate students were selected by cluster sampling method and were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire which included 26 questions based on maryland's student satisfaction study. the results showed a significant relationship between total satisfaction and as the age increases, overall satisfaction increases (araste & baniasadi, 2012). there was no significant relationship between demographic information such as gender and marriage. the results of this study were similar to ours. in a study by (pournamdar et. al., 2015), titled "student satisfaction at the faculty of nursing midwifery with the clinical education status in zahedan educational hospitals", 142 last semester students attending nursing, operating room and midwifery courses in associate and undergraduate degrees participated. to assess the satisfaction of a clinical condition, satisfaction questionnaire was used whose validity and reliability had been confirmed. the results showed that there is a significant statistical relationship between satisfaction and gender (p = 0.006) (pournamdar et. al.,2015). the results of this study are not consistent with the results of our study, which seems to be due to differences in sample numbers. according to the studies, and based on the results of our study, it can be concluded that the application of educational aids such as game-based simulation software can enhance the satisfaction level of the students. 5. conclusion according to the results, using appendectomy surgical simulation software (game-based) as a new educational method can be effective in increasing the level of satisfaction of undergraduate students of operating room. therefore, it is recommended that simulation be used as a supplementary training method for teaching undergraduate students of the operating room. the limitations of this study include the small number of the samples and it is suggested that the subsequent studies should be done by larger number of samples. acknowledgment the present paper is drawn from one of the parts of the master's thesis of the operating room approved by the code 396875 at isfahan university of medical sciences. hereby, i express my brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 110 gratitude the nursing and midwifery faculty for its collaboration in the research. also, i thank the isfahan university of medical sciences and the research office for cooperating and funding. references abnavi, s.d., ghadami, a. (2017). investigating the effect of displaying film before craniotomy surgery on self-efficacy and stress in operating room technology students in isfahan’s selected educational hospitals, in 2017. alavi, s., shariati, m. (2010). investigating employees satisfaction with e-learning courses in tehran university of medical sciences. iranian journal of medical education, 10(3), 200-210. aliafsari, a., zamanzade, v. (2017). nursing clinical challenges (review). journal of medical education development, 10(25), 68-81. araste, h., baniasadi, a. (2012). student satisfaction survey of the first educational masters course : a case study. journal of educational planning studies, 1(2), 5-25. ashrafsadat, h. (2013). influential components on nursing students satisfaction in field of study. journal of nursing education, 2(2), 20-10. assadi, s., shariati, a., haghighi, s., latifi, s.m., sheini-jaberi, p. (2014). effects of clinical education and evaluation with portfolio method on nursing students' satisfaction: a clinical trial. journal of clinical nursing and midwifery, 3(3), 70-79. del blanco, á., torrente, j., fernández-manjón, b., ruiz, p., giner, m. (2017). using a videogame to facilitate nursing and medical students' first visit to the operating theatre. a randomized controlled trial. nurse education today, 55, 45-53. duers, l.e., brown, n. (2009). an exploration of student nurses’ experiences of formative assessment. nurse education today, 29(6), 654-659. entezari, n., taleepasand, s., rezae, a. (2013). the impact of static images and animation on learning improvement: the moderating role of visual cues and gender .journal of learning and learning, 5(1), 23-49. faraji, a., khankeh, h., hosseini, m., abdi, k., rezasoltani, p. (2013). effect of simulated training course on preparedness of nurses to do pre-hospital triage. journal of health promotion management, 2(4), 24-29. fluharty, l., hayes, a.s., milgrom, l., malarney, k., smith, d., reklau, m.a. (2012). a multisite, multi–academic track evaluation of end-of-life simulation for nursing education. clinical simulation in nursing, 8(4), 35-43. hale, l.s., mirakian, e.a., day, d.b. (2009). online vs. classroom instruction: student satisfaction and learning outcomes in an undergraduate allied health pharmacology course. journal of allied health, 38(2), 36-42. henderson, a., briggs, j., schoonbeek, s., paterson, k. (2011). a framework to develop a clinical learning culture in health facilities: ideas from the literature. international nursing review,58(2), 196-202. hosseini, m., irajpour, a., hayrabedian, a., khusravi, m., rarani, s., ghadami, a. (2017). a study of the views of bachelor students in operating room on evaluation of clinical performance using paper logbook, isfahan university of medical sciences. annals of tropical medicine and public health, 10(6), 1668-1672. karimimonghi, h.,rad, m.,bakhshi, m. (2013). are new teaching methods effective in iranian medical education? a systematic review. journal of the steps in development of medical education, 10(2), 153-162. khalaila, r. (2014). simulation in nursing education: an evaluation of students' outcomes at their first clinical practice combined with simulations. nurse education today, 34(2), 252-8. khoobi, m., ahmadi hedayat, m., mohamadi, n., parvizi, s., haghani, h., izadibidani, f. (2015). a comparison of nursing students’ satisfaction in compact disc-based education vs. traditional education. iranian journal of medical education, 15(0), 89-97. a. sedigh, a. ghadami, a. najimi, m. sayyadi the effect of using appendectomy surgical simulation software (gamebased) on the satisfaction of undergraduate students of operating room in isfahan, 2017 111 koh, c., tan, h.s., tan, k.c., fang, l., fong, f.m., kan, d. (2010). investigating the effect of 3d simulation based learning on the motivation and performance of engineering students. journal of engineering education, 99(3), 237-251. najafi, m., eteraf-oskouei, t. (2011). pharmacy students’ attitude in tabriz university of medical sciences toward using computerized simulations in teaching. iranian journal of medical education, 11(4), 308-317. noriyan, a.d., noriyan, a.l., ebnahmadi, a., akbarzade, a., khoshnevisan, m. (2012). comparison of both virtual and traditional teaching methods in the teaching of theoretical community-oriented dentistry for ph.d. students of shahid beheshti dental school in 20102011. journal of dental school shahid beheshti university of medical science, 30(3), 174183. pournamdar, z., salehiniya, h., shahrakipoor, m., sohrabzade, s. (2015). nurse and midwifery students' satisfaction of clinical education in hospitals of zahedan. research in medical education, 7(2), 45-51. ricketts, b. (2011). the role of simulation for learning within pre-registration nursing education—a literature review. nurse education today, 31(7), 650-654. rikhotso, s.r., williams, m.j.s. (2014). de wet g. student nurses' perceptions of guidance and support in rural hospitals. curationis, 37, 1-6. roghani, p.s., akbarsharifi, t., ruzbeh, f., shekarabi, r., haghani, h. (2006). a study of senior nursing student’s opinions about clinical skills level acquired during nursing training. iran journal of nursing,18(44), 67-76. sabri, h., cowan, b., kapralos, b., porte, m., backstein, d., dubrowskie, a. (2010). serious games for knee replacement surgery procedure education and training. procedia-social and behavioral sciences,2(2), 3483-3488. shakor, m., haghani, f., shokri, t., bahramiyan, h. (2013). effect of game teaching method on student satisfaction and their academic achievement in anatomy lesson. journal of isfahan medical school, 31(244), 1038-1047. wilford, a., doyle, t.j. (2006). integrating simulation training into the nursing curriculum. british journal of nursing, 15(17), 926-930. xiao, d., jakimowicz, j.j., albayrak, a., buzink, s.n., botden, s.m., goossens, r.h. (2014). face, content, and construct validity of a novel portable ergonomic simulator for basic laparoscopic skills. journal of surgical education, 71(1), 65-72. zaribaf, m., mokhtariyan, m., lajevardi, m. (2013). identifying and prioritizing the factors affecting students' satisfaction with the services provided by the university using the kano model (case study: islamic azad university of firoozkooh branch). journal of industrial strategic management, 9(28), 57-71. zulkosky, k.d. (2012). simulation use in the classroom: impact on knowledge acquisition, satisfaction, and self-confidence. clinical simulation in nursing, 8(1), 25-33. microsoft word issue-1_vol-10.docx 73 a triadic formal concept analysis approach to analyzing online hate speech in facebook comments radu mihai meza babeș-bolyai university, cluj-napoca, romania strada universității 7-9, cluj-napoca 400084 phone: 0264 405 300 meza@fspac.ro șerban nicolae meza technical university cluj-napoca, cluj-napoca, romania strada memorandumului 28, cluj-napoca 400114 phone: 0264 401 200 serban.meza@com.utcluj.ro abstract this paper outlines computational thinking, language independent methodology for identifying and analyzing the contexts, targets and contents of online hate speech manifested in facebook comments on popular fan pages or open groups. the three-step process involves data collection via api tools, a preliminary co-occurrence analysis of user-defined semantic field codes and clustering and visual analysis using triadic formal concept analysis navigation tools. keywords: hate speech; co-occurrence analysis; triadic formal concept analysis; unstructured data; digital media analysis. 1. hate speech in the digital media the issue of online hate speech is the subject of heated policy debate in europe and globally over the past few years. although hate speech acts have been regulated by european laws, online communication through platforms owned by businesses located outside the users’ country and subject to different legislation raises new issues. as facebook is presently used by approximately 2.2 billion people globally, both governments and ngos look towards the social media giant to ensure sound and effective mechanisms of dealing with hate speech acts per each country’s policy. at the forefront of the group of european countries pressuring facebook to come up with improved methods is germany – which has some of the strictest regulatory frame-works concerning hate speech. in september 2015, after increasing pressure (donahue, 2015) on the backdrop of the refugee crisis, facebook announces an initiative to increase its efforts to tackle racist content on its german website. furthermore, in early 2016, facebook outsources the monitoring and control of racist posts over increased public criticism of the company’s reluctance to deal with hate speech in accordance with the european regulatory frameworks (“facebook outsources fight against racist posts in germany,” 2016). however, facebook activity by users in both europe and the united states at the end of 2016 has driven lawmakers to further increase pressure on facebook to “clamp down on hate speech, fake news and other misinformation shared online, or face new laws, fines or other legal actions”(scott & eddy, 2016). there is clearly a job market opportunity for computer scientists and digital media specialists who are equipped with the conceptual and technical skills to tackle this complex problem. they will need to use computational approaches to deal with hate speech in social media streams, to sift through large amounts of data to identify, analyze, and classify potentially dangerous speech, hate speech and offensive speech and prepare intervention strategies. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 74 a brief conceptualization of hate speech the key issues in countering online hate speech are outlined in the 2015 unesco study ”countering online hate speech” (gagliardone, gal, alves, & martinez, 2015): definition, jurisdiction, comprehension and intervention. there are different definitions of ”hate speech”, which frequently mix concrete threats to the security of individuals and groups with expressions of frustration and anger. also, online media communication platforms such as facebook, twitter or google define their own policies towards admissible content published by users. however, as recent tensions have shown, these often clash with national legislation and consensus seems unlikely. online networked communication platforms have given private spaces of expression a public function and the combined speed and reach of internet communication raise new issues for governments trying to enforce national legislation in the virtual public sphere, often in contexts managed by companies located in other states. there seems to be a lack of comprehension of the relation between online hate speech phenomena and offline speech and action or more precisely, violent action. in (gagliardone et al., 2015), the authors highlight the lack of studies examining the links between hate speech online and other social phenomena. different contexts for online communication have led to different intervention strategies – from user flagging, reporting or ranking to monitoring, editorializing and counter-speaking. however, popular online social network type platforms seem reluctant to publish aggregate results that would allow an overview of the phenomenon. media platforms define their own policies towards admissible content published by users, governments find it hard to enforce national legislation in the virtual public sphere, there is little comprehension of the relation between online hate speech phenomena and violent action and different contexts for online communication have given birth to different intervention strategies – from user flagging, reporting or ranking to monitoring, editorializing and counter-speaking. however, all these four key issues are strongly related to the identification and analysis of hate speech from semi-structured or unstructured data such as facebook comments. reports and academic works emanating from ngo initiatives are starting to shape an emerging scholarship on the issue. when analyzing hate speech as an act of communication, overviews of the issue (angi & bădescu, 2014) recommend focusing on: • content (what is being said); • emitters (who is communicating); • targets (who is the message about); • context (including when the action takes place). there clearly lacks a large scale online data-driven study of contexts, emitters, contents and targets for hate speech in social media with generalizable results and evidence that could drive policy in the matter. 2. computational approaches and co-occurrence analysis it is only very recently that digital social science academic research into the niche topic of online hate speech has emerged, using computational approaches towards collection and analysis of large datasets of comments on news sites, blogs and especially social media (meza, 2016). from a methodological standpoint, detecting violent, obscene or hate speech is a problem for both media researchers and content managers or digital platform owners. natural language processing is a complex task and there is a scarcity of tools available for most languages. computational thinking was popularized a decade ago as ”a fundamental skill used by everyone in the world by the middle of the 21st century”(wing, 2006). the concept developed and is still developing as it is adopted in education, but problem-solving via computational thinking may be defined by abstraction, automation and analysis (lee et al., 2011). r.m. meza. ș.n. meza a triadic formal concept analysis approach to analyzing online hate speech in facebook comments 75 co-occurrence analysis is widespread in communication and information sciences, especially in library science, but also in machine translation or natural language processing. recent efforts in computational linguistics applied to hate-speech use machine learning techniques similar to sentiment analysis in correlation with techniques for detecting terms used to reference racial, ethnic or religious groups (gitari, zuping, damien, & long, 2015). digital media analysis may make use of api interaction tools for data collection from social media, computational linguistics tools that allow the exploration of word or concept co-occurrence networks or user-friendly drag-and-drop visual environments for analysis of large data sets such as tableau as research shows students in the web 2.0 age prefer efficient, easy-to-use, accessible applications. 3. dyadic and triadic formal concept analysis (fca) preliminaries and tools formal concept analysis (fca) is a method of knowledge representation introduced in the 1980s by rudolf wille, rooted in the pragmatic philosophy of charles sanders peirce, based on a binary incidence relation, and building on applied lattice and order theory. it has applications in various fields and its advantage lies in the possibility to visualize and explore formal concepts in a formal context (a data table that represents binary relations between items in a set of objects and items in a set of attributes) as representations of complete lattices. the mathematical foundations are described as follows (ganter & wille, 2012): a formal context is a triple k := (g;m; i), where g is a set whose elements are called objects, m is a set whose elements are called attributes, and i is a binary relation between g and m (i.e. i ⊆ x ) . (g, m) ∈ i is read “object g has attribute m”. a formal concept of a formal context (g, m, i) is a pair (a, b) with a ⊆ g, b ⊆ m, a' = b and b' = a. the sets a and b are called the extent and the intent of the formal concept (a, b), respectively. the subconcept super concept relation is formalized by: (a1, b1) ≤ (a2, b2): ⇔ a1 ⊆ a2 (⇔ b1 ⊇ b2). the set of all formal concepts of a context k together with the order relation ≤ is always a complete lattice (i.e. for each subset of concepts, there is always a unique greatest common subconcept and a unique least common super concept), called the concept lattice of k, also called conceptual hierarchy. in a line diagram (in fca, the term line diagram is used for the hasse diagram of a lattice) each node represents a formal concept. triadic formal concept analysis (3fca) (lehmann & wille, 1995) was introduced to model relations between three sets: a triadic context is defined as a quadruple k := (g;m;b; y), where g, m, and b are set and y is a ternary relation between g, m and b, i.e. y ⊆g×m×b; the elements of g, m, and b are called objects, attributes and conditions, respectively, and (g,m,b) ∈ y is read: the object g has the attribute m under the condition b. a triadic concept of triadic context (g;m;b; y) is defined as a triple (a1, a2, a3) with a1×a2×a3 ⊆ y which is maximal with respect to component-wise inclusion. recent work on triadic conceptual navigation (kis, sacarea, & troanca, 2015; rudolph, săcărea, & troancă, 2015) has provided graphical navigation tools such as fca tools bundle which use a local navigation paradigm to make 3fca visualizations intuitive and applicable. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 76 4. proposed analysis method the three-step computational thinking, language independent methodology can be summarized as follows: 4.1. data collection via api interrogation tools or web scraping comment threads associated with facebook fan page posts can be obtained via api interrogation with various tools such as facepager (keyling & jünger, 2013). other contexts such as news websites comment threads, internet forums or message boards can be scraped with generic web scraping tools. 4.2. co-occurrence analysis of terms referring to potential targets of hate speech with codes for hate speech semantic fields co-occurrence analysis is deemed an appropriate method for studying large data sets of short texts such as comments or tweets. for the specific purposes of analyzing hate speech, codes may be defined to identify:  key words, terms or expressions referring to targets of hate speech acts (e.g. immigrants, different racial or ethnic groups);  key words, terms or expressions that constitute dangerous, hate, offensive or violent speech (e.g. invectives, insults, swear words, negative stereotypes, calls to violent action). such a method is used in (meza, 2016), yielding results in the form of co-occurrence frequency tables indicating the number of occurrences in the same comment (in the context of one or several facebook fan pages) of the two types of codes. visual representations are possible through tools like kh coder (higuchi, 2001), but lack navigation and concept discovery. 4.3. 3fca visualization and navigation by establishing threshold values (with respect to the size of the dataset), a co-occurrence matrix may be converted into a formal context. 3fca allows the definition of objects (targets), attributes (hate codes over content) and conditions (facebook fan pages). r.m. meza. ș.n. meza a triadic formal concept analysis approach to analyzing online hate speech in facebook comments 77 figure 1. triadic formal context example figure 1 shows a triadic formal context built with fca tools bundle (meza, 2016), illustrating how co-occurrence analysis data from large datasets of millions of comments can be converted into formal contexts. the objects are defined as the codes for the likely targets of hate speech. attributes are defined as codes that cover semantic fields of hate speech such as common negative stereotypes. the conditions are defined as the public facebook fan pages where the collected comments originate from. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 78 figure 2. local navigation of with 3 locked conditions (left) and 2 locked conditions (right) line diagram visualizations of 3fca local navigation (figure 2) with locked conditions can be used to identify what is being said about which targets in which contexts. for example, target5 is associated with the attribute dirty in all contexts, whereas in two of them it is also associated with thief. target4 and target2 are represented as dangerous and violent, both being associated with stupid and dirty. 5. case study: comments on facebook pages of alternative online news outlets in order to illustrate and evaluate the proposed methodology, a case study was designed. a dataset of 416.554 comments was collected from all the facebook posts created in january-march 2017 of the fan pages of 23 online romanian language alternative online news outlets. data collection was done by interrogating the facebook open graph api. keyword search was used to identify comments mentioning four groups who are often targets of hate speech: roma, hungarians, jews and lgbt. for each of the groups, variants of the of the popular romanian terms, both neutral and pejorative, were used. a total of 3620 comments contained references to the four target groups. r.m. meza. ș.n. meza a triadic formal concept analysis approach to analyzing online hate speech in facebook comments 79 figure 3. co-occurrence matrix of target groups and attributes for comments dataset keyword search was also used to detect terms referring to negative attributes such as dirty, lazy, liar, stupid, thieving, violent by several term stems from the appropriate semantic families. a total of 28.914 records in the dataset were found. co-occurrence analysis produced the matrix in figure 3, with 506 comments containing both terms referring to the target groups and the attributes searched. three facebook pages which contained the highest number of occurrences were chosen. the co-occurrence matrix is easily converted into a formal context by establishing a value threshold. in this case, the value threshold was set at a minimum (1). figure 4. newsfbpage1 figure 5. newsfbpage2 figure 6. newsfbpage3 once fca is applied using fca tools bundle (meza, 2016) and the formal concepts detected, each facebook page context can be visualized as a line diagram as shown in figures 4,5 and 6. this allows comparative analysis of the concept hierarchy and identification of similarities between formal concepts. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 80 figure 7. triadic fca application triadic fca allows analysts to distinguish between discourse patterns in different contexts. for example, in figure 7, we can see how the inclusion of one of the contexts may change the position of a target group in the concept hierarchy. 6. conclusion the proposed methodology improves on previous approaches by using 3fca over formal contexts derived from preliminary co-occurrence analysis of content, emitters and targets in one or several contexts comments to posts on popular facebook fan pages. the advantages of this methodology are that it is scalable (co-occurrence analysis of codes in short texts is not a very complex task for large datasets), language independent, and visually intuitive, hence easy to interpret for digital media specialists, linguists or social scientists. introducing computational thinking in problem-solving like hate-speech analysis and making use of freely available software tools referenced here may provide new opportunities for digital social researchers, journalists, professional communicators and digital media specialists. integrating api interrogation, web scraping, co-occurrence analysis and 3fca in future tools may prove useful in unstructured data analysis education. acknowledgements this work was supported by a grant of ministry of research and innovation, cncs uefiscdi, project number pn-iii-p1-1.1-te-2016-0892, within pncdi iii. references angi, d., & bădescu, g. (2014). discursul instigator la ură în românia. fundația pentru dezvoltarea societății civile. retrieved from http://www.fdsc.ro/library/files/studiul_diu_integral.pdf. donahue, p. (2015, september 26). merkel confronts facebook’s zuckerberg over policing hate posts. bloomberg.com. retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-0926/merkel-confronts-facebook-s-zuckerberg-over-policing-hate-posts. facebook outsources fight against racist posts in germany. (2016, january 15). reuters. retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/facebook-germany-iduskcn0ut1gm. r.m. meza. ș.n. meza a triadic formal concept analysis approach to analyzing online hate speech in facebook comments 81 gagliardone, i., gal, d., alves, t., & martinez, g. (2015). countering online hate speech. unesco publishing. retrieved from https://www.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wavgcgaaqbaj&oi=fnd&pg=pa3&dq =online+hate+speech+unesco&ots=taamaojqvb&sig=xufashqskdkdhtmimspl50my dre. ganter, b., & wille, r. (2012). formal concept analysis: mathematical foundations. springer science & business media. retrieved from https://www.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hnwqbaaaqbaj&oi=fnd&pg=pa1&dq= ganter,+b.,+wille,+r.:+formal+concept+analysis++mathematical+foundations.&ots=0crl5xee3p&sig=p4izdkox5d0i4iesnyb6_5qvrjm gitari, n. d., zuping, z., damien, h., & long, j. (2015). a lexicon-based approach for hate speech detection. international journal of multimedia and ubiquitous engineering, 10(4), 215– 230. higuchi, k. (2001). kh coder. a free software for quantitative content analysis or text mining, available at: http://khc. sourceforge. net/en. keyling, t., & jünger, j. (2013). facepager. an application for generic data retrieval through apis. source code available at https:// github. com/ strohne/ facepager. kis, l. l., sacarea, c., & troanca, d. (2015). fca tools bundle-a tool that enables dyadic and triadic conceptual navigation. proc. of fca4ai. retrieved from https://hal.univlorraine.fr/hal-01425672/document#page=45 lee, i., martin, f., denner, j., coulter, b., allan, w., erickson, j., … werner, l. (2011). computational thinking for youth in practice. acm inroads, 2(1), 32–37. lehmann, f., & wille, r. (1995). a triadic approach to formal concept analysis. in international conference on conceptual structures (pp. 32–43). springer. retrieved from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/3-540-60161-9_27 meza, r. (2016). hate speech in the romanian online media. journal of media research, 9(3(26)), 55–77. rudolph, s., săcărea, c., & troancă, d. (2015). towards a navigation paradigm for triadic concepts. in international conference on formal concept analysis (pp. 252–267). springer. retrieved from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-19545-2_16 scott, m., & eddy, m. (2016, november 28). facebook runs up against german hate speech laws. the new york times. retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/technology/facebook-germany-hate-speech-fakenews.html wing, j. m. (2006). computational thinking. communications of the acm, 49(3), 33–35. radu mihai meza (b. november 15, 1985) received his bsc in computer science (2008), bachelor of communication sciences journalism (2008), ma in media communication (2009) and ph.d. in sociology (2012) from ”babeș-bolyai” university, cluj-napoca. he is associate professor in the department of journalism, college of political, administrative and communication sciences at ”babeș-bolyai” university. șerban nicolae meza (b. may 7, 1983) received his bachelor of economics and business management (2006) from ”babeș-bolyai” university, cluj-napoca, b.eng. in telecomunications (2007), m.eng. in signal and image processing (2008), and ph.d. in electronics and telecomunications from the technical university of cluj-napoca. he is lecturer in the faculty of electronics, telecommunications and information technology at the technical university of clujnapoca. microsoft word brain_vol9_issue1_2018_v7_final1.doc 146 synergy between formal and non-formal learning approaches in teaching at university vesela mareva phd student at the department of social activities, faculty of medicine, trakia university, stara zagora, studentski grad, stara zagora 6000, bulgaria tel.: +359 886 864143 vesela.mareva@gmail.com abstract education is at the heart of sustainable development and is the key to the professional success of young people. in modern living conditions, the student needs a wide range of key competences to adapt successfully to the rapidly changing environment, and the rapid pace of development necessitates innovative approaches to teaching in the university environment. keywords: nonformal, formal education, methodology, innovation 1. introduction in the current situation of reform of secondary and tertiary education in bulgaria, it is necessary to focus attention on the need for innovative and flexible teaching methods that meet the needs and potential of the students. this provokes the author to look at the possibilities of quality interaction in school and the universality of formal and non-formal educational approaches. the need to seek innovative approaches in the educational environment is conditioned by a number of factors. as major challenges related to the quality and compatibility of bulgarian higher education, the ministry of education and science defines: abandonment of teaching methods, demotivation of young teachers and researchers, ageing of the faculty. low student motivation for science and research careers, as well as for acquiring fundamental knowledge (especially in the natural sciences) and their application in practice. out-of-date curricula.17 a european commission report on education and training in bulgaria in 2016 states that while our country is on track to meet its national 2020 goals, there are also challenges in terms of the quality of bulgarian higher education and its compatibility with the european higher education system, due to teaching methods that are lagging behind in new trends.18 they are, in turn, directly related to the competences and personal motivation of the teacher, which is a role model for the student. the challenges faced by the educational system in our country are also related to the changing needs of the trainees, related to the practice oriented models of teaching and the interaction of the university with the labor market. these needs strongly contrast with the current reality in the bulgarian educational system. 1.1. formal education formal education is usually based on a "vertical" relationship between teacher and learner whereby the knowledge holder provides knowledge to the successor in the form of courses and curricula. the momentum of decades of education in our country and the insignificant pace of introducing innovative teaching methods reinforce the disruption of the teacher-student relationship. education in bulgaria, like in many other countries, is still based on the paradigm of learning and learning, and there is no contribution from the learner himself. this, to a certain extent, disqualifies students and students and reduces the teacher's influence on them. 17 strategy for development of higher education in the republic of bulgaria for the period 2014-2020 2 monitoring education and training (2016). bulgaria, ec.europa.eu/education/monitor v. mareva synergy between formal and non-formal learning approaches in teaching at university 147 according to ilieva (2017)19, people do not always listen to what they are told because of the truth or usefulness of the content, but because of their respect for the speaker. in her monograph she identifies the need for a role model in the learning environment. increasing the motivation of future specialists at the level of university education requires the inclusion of new teaching methods and rethinking the current role model of the teachers. the quality of teaching at the university is not only a matter for the educational institution but also for the individuals involved in the learning process. the main tendencies in the development of modern education are several and according to ivanov (2004)20 they are characterized as follows: from activity centered to person centered pedagogy from passive to active memorization from training based on external stimulation to constructivist and developing learning 1.2. nonformal education the holistic principle and the active participation in the learning process, which are the basis of non-formal education, make it an appropriate, complementary element in the formal educational environment. in support of the thesis of the need for synergies between non-formal and formal education at university, we should highlight the good example of applying innovative educational practices in europe. in modern germany, alternative methods of education such as fh / fachhochschule / universities offering a large base of practical knowledge in each of the specialties with which they work are becoming increasingly popular. much of the lessons are not in the form of lectures, but in workshops. students are involved in projects that best meet their skills, have more freedom in their decisions and ideas, and the learner is able to draw the best of the practical lessons. in estonia, the established form of education is still a lecture, but it is increasingly being added to the creative approach and group activities of a project, encouraging the active inclusion of students. students in denmark attend lectures, learn independently and prepare individual or group projects. as in estonia, the classic method also interacts with system innovations. 1. in support of this thesis, there is also a 2000th recommendation of the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe, which states that only formal education systems cannot respond to rapid and permanent technological, social and economic changes in society and that they must be reinforced by non-formal learning practices.21 the concept of non-formal education by definition is broad, even uncertain. but it would be impossible, even meaningless, to give this concept a universal definition, since what distinguishes non-formal education is the variety of forms that it can take in response to the different demands and needs of different individuals or groups. moreover, non-formal education can be defined only in terms of its function in a specific context. we must remember that non-formal education is designed to compensate for the shortcomings and contradictions in the traditional school system and to satisfy often the urgent needs that are neglected by formal education.22 in this article, we will adopt the definition of non-formal education as a specific approach, using different methods by which the learner is directly involved in the learning process. 2. synergy between formal and non formal 19 ilieva m. (2017). interaction with the roma family in a multicultural educational environment 20 ivanov i. p. (2004). theories of education, shumen, bulgaria 21 parliamentary assembly origin assembly debate on 24 january 2000 (1st sitting) (see doc. 8595, report of the committee on culture and education, rapporteur: mr dumitrescu). text adopted by the assembly on 24 january 2000 (1stsitting). 22 non-formal education: a definition of the concept and some examples ali hamadache prospects quarterly review of education, vol. 21, no. 1, 1991 (issue 77) planning of education in an era of crisis: regional approaches (unesco; 1991 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 148 prominent connections and relationships between the main pedagogical concepts allow education to be defined as the bearer of the civilization sense of education and training. its content will include these pedagogical activities, interactions, processes and systems that are directly related to the development of the priority social spheres in the concrete context ideological, political, institutional, management, economic, scientific, technological, social, political and other. the specific rates of culturally-civilization development also determine the existence of educational standards and priorities. in formal and non-formal education, the overarching objective is to improve the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the quality of formal education. such would be achieved by collaborating between formal and non-formal learning methods. characteristic of non-formal education is that the individual is actively involved in the learning process. humanistic psychology and pedagogy recognize as the only effective educational interaction what all participants can behave naturally, accept other people and rely on acceptance, seek mutual understanding and reconcile their positions through dialogue that is characteristic of non-formal education. personal development and individual approach are central. the methods used are intended to give people tools to develop their skills and attitudes, which in turn affect the learner's internal motivation. the national youth forum in bulgaria, in its report, describes the benefits of non-formal education that support the use of non-formal methods as an appropriate complementary element of the formal university environment. according to the authors, "the participation of young people in non-formal education methodologies provides a direct opportunity for the practical application of accumulated knowledge and skills in the field of formal education. nonformal education is an environment in which innovative and creative thinking is greatly encouraged, and the direct route from idea to realization can be seen as a direct result. this is an environment in which the acquisition of theoretical knowledge is directly related to their practical realization. "23 in practice, non-formal learning approaches include gaming and simulation methods. as a major obstacle to the introduction of teaching in the university, stoykov, vassilev and ilieva pointed out the insufficient provision of didactic and didactic-methodical materials on the problem, as well as the lack of interest of many teachers in the inclusion of gaming methods in the training process. (stoykov, vassilev & ilieva, 2014) 24. in this connection, the necessity of setting up methodologies for introducing the non-formal educational approaches into the formal education and provision with appropriate training materials is determined. a key point is the use of international experience as well as that of organizations in the non-governmental sector in the field of non-formal education. the council of europe, and in particular the council of europe youth department, as well as a number of other international organizations, have a rich history in the field and are actively working to develop methodologies and concepts directly linked to different strands of education. by focusing on the development of the field of non-formal education as part of the overall national lifelong learning strategy, which focuses on putting learners' needs at the heart of the education process, a recommendation of the committee of ministers of the council of europe on access to the social rights of young people from vulnerable neighborhoods provides the legal basis and impetus for the development of partnerships between schools and institutions in this direction. it examines the individual person, i.e. those working in the field of non-formal education, as an essential element of the overall strategy for lifelong learning, underpinning national educational priorities and interests. in practice, through the texts of the recommendation, eu member states are encouraged to seek appropriate options for the recognition and certification of knowledge and skills acquired through non-formal education. 23 national youth forum (2014). position on non-formal education. benefits and challenges 24 stoykov a., vassilev r., ilieva m. (2014). "forming functions of the business game in the process of education of the students in the specialty" social activities ". xiv international scientific and practical conference on "psychologicalpedagogical problems of the development of the personality of the professional in the condition of the university education", kiten v. mareva synergy between formal and non-formal learning approaches in teaching at university 149 non-formal education is an essential part of the educational concept and the current educational model of modern europe. moreover, the recommendation provides the opportunity to work towards national validation and validation of this model and to achieve significant learning outcomes. the methods and models imposed by this european tendency in terms of training activities find a consistent and ever wider realization in our country. according to nikolaeva, in the last years in the sphere of education there are large processes of change of priorities, expansion, restructuring and reorientation of the existing traditional educational institutions and their governing bodies and units, the redistribution of educational functions and responsibilities among a wide range of public subjects, integration and standardization not only at national but also at international level (nikolaeva, 2015) 25. the overall aim of all these changes is the need to respond to the needs of today's people, characterized by a wide range of knowledge and skills, key competences and flexible professionalism opportunities offered to learners in an appropriate way. 3. collaboration it is essential to apply the european recommendations to adequately adapt the methodologies and manuals to the environment. another key point in the realization of methodologies based on non-formal education is cross-sectoral cooperation. the non-formal educational approaches are typical and are implemented in bulgaria mainly by the nongovernmental sector and by some of the programs of the ministry of education and science. it is necessary to be aware of the general reasons for work and the objectives of representatives of formal and non-formal education. successful collaboration would be achieved by setting up working groups of experts practitioners of the relevant specialty, certified non-formal education educators, teachers from different universities as well as students. the main objective is that the working groups on the different strands are to offer a methodology of teaching that is based on the expertise and need of the listed stakeholders. developing state-of-the-art methodologies, including the expertise and recommendations of all stakeholders, will deliver benefits at all levels. it will increase the interest of the trainees in the subjects taught, their perception, and the quality of the teaching material. in terms of teachers, the benefits of developing innovative methodologies for formal education environments include enriched instructional tools for teaching, increasing the share of successful students and creating conditions for working in a more comfortable environment. starting from the differences between the value systems and the perception among the different generations, teachers and learners, striving for a better world in which to develop their existence, come to the natural need of the evolution of education. higher education institutions are no exception to this need. on the one hand, the academic community, through their formal approach, conveys the authority, the severity and the prestige to learners. on the other hand, the new generation of young people seeks not the abstractness, but the specificity and interactivity that is brought to them by modern technologies and rapid access to information. this leads to remoteness and distance, which should create their own common intersection points through which knowledge can be transmitted. currently, education all over the world suffers from similar problems arising from the very nature of the system itself. its fundamental principles and foundations are in contradiction with the natural accumulation of every young person to develop; with the interest and curiosity of learning, which is natural to every living being. the synergy between formal and informal teaching methods in teaching gives the opportunity to develop students' cognitive skills. according to comenius and rousseau, teaching must be built on a historical and logical basis, not psychologically and sociologically. the learning process should stimulate the interest of 25nikolaeva s. (2015). non-formal education. philosophy. theories. practices, sofia brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue1 (february, 2018), issn 2067-8957 150 learners and motivate them to participate, as they are also part of the main characteristics of nonformal education. in this sense, non-formal education is one of the most appropriate transfer chains in this process, having the following characteristics:  it has the necessary dynamics needed by the new generation, who likes to participate more than to be a passive listener  it retains the role model, but refocuses authority on mentoring, which is significantly more motivating for learners  meets the needs of education reform  focused on individuality rather than on collectivism 4. conclusion nowadays training and qualification opportunities are offered by a number of organizations and institutions beyond the traditional formal learning environment. they satisfy precisely these specific needs of the individual for learning, which, for one reason or another, formal education fails to satisfy. the opportunities for this kind of extra-institutional training structured in a way that provides a wide range of alternatives for further education are another prerequisite for the distancing of the learner from the educational institution. the need for reform in higher education in bulgaria has long been on the agenda of society. the effectiveness of such a system in which formal and non-formal education is successfully combined is to ensure a high quality of system performance, flexibility and adaptability to changes in personal and social needs as well as partnership relations between all actors and institutions. the introduction of innovative approaches that non-formal education offers is a prerequisite for raising the quality and motivation of all stakeholders in the academic world. undoubtedly, the process is long, but taking steps to implement it is key to raising the quality of higher education in the country. references strategy for development of higher education in the republic of bulgaria for the period 2014-2020 monitoring education and training. (2016). bulgaria, ec.europa.eu/education/monitor parliamentary assembly origin assembly debate on 24 january 2000 (1st sitting) (see doc. 8595, report of the committee on culture and education, rapporteur: mr dumitrescu). text adopted by the assembly on 24 january 2000 (1stsitting) ilieva m. (2017). interaction with the roma family in a multicultural educational environment ivanov i. p. (2004). theories of education, shumen, bulgaria non-formal education: a definition of the concept and some examples ali hamadache prospects quarterly review of education, vol. 21, no. 1, 1991 (issue 77) planning of education in an era of crisis: regional approaches (unesco; 1991 national youth forum (2014). position on non-formal education. benefits and challenges nikolaeva s. (2015). non-formal education. philosophy. theories. practices, sofia stoykov a., vassilev r., ilieva m. (2014). "forming functions of the business game in the process of education of the students in the specialty" social activities ". xiv international scientific and practical conference on "psychological-pedagogical problems of the development of the personality of the professional in the condition of the university education", kiten vesela mareva is a phd student at the department of social activities, faculty of medicine, trakia university, with a master’s degree in mediation and social work. the author has four years of professional experience in the field of youth work; since 2016, she is a manager of „international youth center for children and youth at risk”, specialized in social inclusion of vulnerable groups through non – formal education. microsoft word special-issue-asamblare.docx 43 psychiatric drugs and antibiotics. when two worlds collide alina pleșea-condratovici department of morphological and functional sciences faculty of medicine and pharmacy dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 aliaplesea@yahoo.com simona lungu department of clinical medicine faculty of medicine and pharmacy dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 drlungusimona@gmail.com mihai mutică elisabeta doamna hospital of psychiatry, galați, romania mutica1@yahoo.com cătălin pleșea-condratovici department of morphological and functional sciences faculty of medicine and pharmacy dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 cmidr.pleseacatalin@gmail.com abstract background: both psychotropic medication and antibiotic therapy are extensively prescribed. in many cases, these medications are concurrent and the necessity to analyze this particular drug interaction appears. aims: to identify in specialized medical databases what these interactions are, which is their biochemical substrate, and which is the optimal method to avoid unwanted drug associations. method: abstracts of pubmed database were automatically filtered using a specific search tool, the keyword data being drug interactions psychotropics, antibiotics and their synonyms, and websites dedicated to drug interactions were interrogated on the same subject. results and discussion: given that there is not enough clear data, especially for new developed medicines, it seems that drug interactions between antibiotics and psychotropic drugs are generally benign. even if specialized web applications to identify drug interactions already exist, their results often differ or are not consistent. conclusion: although interactions between psychotropic and antibiotic drugs appear to be generally benign, more valid data are needed to properly assess their impact on treatment efficiency and the patient’s quality of life. antibiotics must be prescribed when necessary and it is advisable to avoid antibiotic classes with the most documented drug interactions: fluoroquinolones, macrolides and anti-tuberculosis drugs. keywords: psychiatric drugs; antibiotics; drug interactions. 1. introduction there is a plethora of data in the literature that supports the idea of a pandemic of psychiatric affections. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 44 results of the systematic review and meta-analysis indicated that approximately one in five persons experienced a common mental disorder within a 12-month period across general population surveys undertaken in 59 countries. the aggregate lifetime prevalence of common mental disorder was estimated at 29.2% from 85 surveys undertaken across 39 countries (steel et. al., 2014). accordingly, the consumption of psychotropic drugs is at a high level, 1 of 6 us adults reported taking psychiatric drugs at least once (moore & mattison, 2017). antibiotics are the second most commonly prescribed class of medication in the united states. an awareness and understanding of their potential effects on the central nervous system and their interactions with psychotropic agents is important in the evaluation of neuropsychiatric signs and symptoms in patients (sternbach & state, 1997). global antibiotic consumption had increased by 65% from 2000 to 2015 (klein et. al., 2018; duceac et. al., 2018). because, on the one hand, psychiatric pathology is particularly frequent, often requiring chronic medication, and, on the other hand, infectious pathology is also very common, antibiotics being the second most prescribed medication, the situations in which the two therapeutic classes are also very frequent. in literature, an increasing prevalence of bacterial infections have been described for patients with psychiatric disorders (wang et. al., 2014). moreover, infections have been associated with increased risks for mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and depression, and recent studies provide evidence for the involvement of infections and the immune system in the etiology of a wide range of mental disorders in children and adolescents (köhler-forsberg et. al., 2019; trandafir et. al., 2018). classically, drug interaction refers to the concomitant administration of at least two drugs resulting in different effects compared to the situation in which the drugs would be administered individually (ciubara et. al., 2018). from the point of view of interaction mechanisms, we can differentiate pharmacokinetic interactions, such as changes in absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion, and pharmacodynamic interactions, as with concomitant administration of agonist or antagonist substances for the same receptor. in medical practice three situations can arise in the drug interaction situation: potentiation of effects (agonist, synergistic effect), reduction of effects (antagonistic effect) or appearance of new, unwanted effects. knowing drug interactions is particularly important in practice. synergistic effects can be used to maximize the desired therapeutic effects, but caution should be taken to avoid overdosing. antagonist interaction should also be known to avoid combinations of drugs that decrease each other's effects to a limit that makes them ineffective. in the particular case of the interaction between psychotropic and antibiotics medications, precautions should be taken to avoid situations where antibiotics become ineffective, not controlling the infection, or where psychiatric medication leads to exacerbations of pathology or withdrawal phenomena. as a general rule, drug interactions should be avoided, or where this is difficult or impossible, doses should be adjusted accordingly. most drug interactions take place at the metabolic stage, of particular importance being the cytochrome p450. almost all psychotropic drugs are metabolized at this level. of the various families that are present in human beings, the most interesting in this respect are the 1, 2 and 3, and the most important enzymes are cyp1a2, cyp2c9, cyp2c19, cyp2d6, cyp2e1 and cyp3a4. the majority of the enzymes are also involved in the metabolism of endogenous substances, such as steroids or sex hormones, which is also important should there be interference with these substances. as a result of these interactions, the function of the enzymes can either be stimulated (enzyme induction) or inhibited (enzyme inhibition) (normann et. al., 1998). a. pleșea-condratovici, s. lungu, m. mutică, c. pleșea-condratovici psychiatric drugs and antibiotics. when two worlds collide 45 2. methods information on “drug interactions” is spread over nearly 300,000 pubmed results. to select relevant articles, a specific search tool was used, with keyword data being: drug interactions psychotropics, antibiotics and their synonyms. the abstracts were manually screened for relevant information and the results regarding psychotropic and antibiotics drugs interactions were summarized in a table. additionally, websites dedicated to drug interactions were interrogated on the same subject and the results were compared with the previous findings and added to the table. 3. results drug interactions between psychiatric medication and antibiotics appear to have only rare significant clinical consequences, usually benign or under-investigated. there may be more subtle interactions that seem to be underestimated or ignored. the antibiotics classes most commonly involved in interactions with psychotropic medication are fluoroquinolones, macrolides and anti-tuberculosis drugs. the most common interactions are those of the antagonist type in which the effect of both classes of medication is reduced, and the the qt interval is prolonged. the most frequent underlying mechanism seems to be the inhibition of cytochrome p450 enzymes. drug interactions are reported between antibiotics and typical and atypical antipsychotics, antidepressants from all the classes, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, tricyclics, and serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, antianxiety/antipanic medications, stimulants, mood stabilizers. there are more adverse drug interactions reported for medicines that are used in practice for a long time, and very few or none for new developed drugs. even in cases where class membership, structure, or mechanism of action justifies the suspicion of drug interactions, at least theoretically, the data is inconsistent or lacking. because interactions are not always clinically evident, their effects are often attributed to other causes and frequently clinicians fail to recognize and report them, so there is no clear epidemiological data on their incidence. there is a lot of inconsistent or contradictory data on drug interactions in both pubmed literature and on web sites that provide information about drug interactions. table 1. interactions between psychiatric drugs and antibiotics classes antibiotics psychotropics pe ni ci lli ns ce ph al os po ri ns fl uo ro qu in ol on es a m in og ly co si de s m on ob ac ta m s ca rb ap en em s m ac ro lid es g ly co pe pt id e su lfo na m id es li nc om yc in s a nt it ub er cu lo si s te tr ac yc lin es po ly pe pt id es o th er a nt ip sy ch ot ic s ty pi ca l chlorpromazine  perphenazine  trifluoperazine q q mesoridazine fluphenazine q thiothixene molindone thioridazine q loxapine haloperidol  a t yp i aripiprazole  brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 46 clozapine    ziprasidone   risperidone  quetiapine   olanzapine   a nt id ep re ss an ts ss r is citalopram  escitalopram  fluvoxamine paroxetine fluoxetine sertraline q q  m a o is selegiline isocarboxazid phenelzine tranylcypromine tc a s clomipramine  q amoxapine  amitriptyline  desipramine nortriptyline  q doxepin  q trimipramine  q imipramine protiptyline sn ri desvenlafaxine venlafaxine q q duloxetine  a nt ia nx y/ an ti pa ni c m ed ic at io ns lorazepam   buspirone propranolol clonazepam   chlordiazepoxide oxazepam   atenolol clorazepate diazepam   alprazolam   st im u la nt s: (d)amphetamine   methylphenidate m oo d st ab ili lamotrygine   lithium  references given in parentheses: “antianx” antianxiety/antipanic medications, “sti” stimulants, “m” mood stabilizers, “ssris” selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, “maois” monoamine oxidase inhibitors, “tcas” tricyclics, “snri” seretonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, “q” prolongation of the qt interval 4. discussion a significant number of new psychotropic drugs are introduced every year. although not as frequently, antibiotic classes and derivatives also appear. new drugs and drugs with a narrow therapeutic area are most likely to cause serious negative drug interactions. a. pleșea-condratovici, s. lungu, m. mutică, c. pleșea-condratovici psychiatric drugs and antibiotics. when two worlds collide 47 in the process of developing a new drug, it is impossible to study in vivo interactions with all other drugs. possible drug interactions can sometimes be estimated by looking at the theoretical models of action of the drug at the carrier and the receptor levels, most frequently being analyzed at the level of the cytochrome p450 enzyme assembly. this theoretical analysis is complicated by the fact that in humans there are 5 isoenzymes involved in this process that can be modulated differently from a large number of drugs and the clinical expression of these interactions is difficult to predict (straticiuc et. al., 2016). a logical way to prevent potential drug interactions for a new drug would be to test interactions at least for the most common association, which is also the case for antibiotics and psychiatric drugs. another way in which drug interactions between anti-infectious therapy and psychotropic medication are discovered is the publication of articles describing clinical cases of interactions. these are usually case studies that describe well-documented clinical effects, for example lithium intoxication reported in the case of a patient who was concomitantly treated with tetracycline. these findings are strained by the fact that they are based on a small number of cases where the genotype, phenotype, or other specific, individual factors can influence the outcome. sometimes these results are not reproducible to another patient or animal study. beyond the classic drug interactions, antibiotics and psychotropic drugs, psychiatric pathology implicitly, seem to be linked by a particular mechanism. recent studies identify links between intestinal dysbiosis, commonly caused by broad spectrum antibiotics, and psychiatric pathology, especially schizophrenia and depression. this phenomenon seems to be based on the gut-brain axis biochemical signaling from the gastrointestinal tract to the central nervous system (zhu et. al., 2017; ciubotaru et. al., 2016; “drug interactions checker for drugs, food & alcohol”, 2019; drug interaction checker, 2019; drug interaction checker | ucla health library, los angeles, ca, 2019). recognizing drug interactions based on memory is a burden for physicians. to summarize treatments from diverse therapeutic areas is even more difficult for family doctors. the only viable solution is to turn to specialized databases to identify drug interactions. none of the web sites analyzed seems to offer the clinician the perfect solution to ensure the absence of drug interactions. in some cases, the number of drug interactions is exaggerated, probably by considering theoretical interaction mechanisms without quantifying the actual impact on the effectiveness of therapy. in other cases, for interactions documented through clinical trials, the response to the site query is null. a desirable solution would be to implement, in the existing medical software used by clinicians, a module that automatically provides 3-level warnings, caution, moderate or mildrisk on possible drug interactions when writing an electronic prescription. 5. conclusions although interactions between psychotropic and antibiotic drugs appear to be generally benign, more valid data is needed to properly assess their impact on treatment efficiency and patient’s quality of life. antibiotics must be prescribed for patients receiving concomitant psychiatric treatment only when necessary. when possible, it is advisable to avoid antibiotic classes with the most documented drug interactions, such as fluoroquinolones, macrolides and anti-tuberculosis drugs, and to analyze any possible drug interaction using updated software applications. when the association is absolutely necessary, the therapeutic response should be carefully monitored, routine electrocardiographic testing for prolonged qt interval must be done and the dosages should be adjusted accordingly. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 48 conflicts of interest the authors declare no conflict of interest. references ciubara, a.b., nechita, a., tudor, r.c., matei, m., tutunaru, d., sirbu, p.d. (2018). social and medical ethics: implications for romanian protocols regarding the therapy of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in trauma patients. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 60, 174-179. drug interaction checker | ucla health library, los angeles, ca. (2019). retrieved from http://healthinfo.uclahealth.org/library/drugreference/druginteraction/ drug interaction checker. (2019). retrieved from https://reference.medscape.com/druginteractionchecker drug interactions checker for drugs, food & alcohol. (2019). retrieved from https://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html duceac, l.-d., stafie, l., valeanu, i., mitrea, g., baciu, g., banu, e.-a., romila, l., luca, a.-c. (2018). sepsis in paediatrics – a special form of infection associated to medical assistance. international journal of medical dentistry, 22(3), 229-235. filip-ciubotaru, florina-mihaela & manciuc, carmen & stoleriu, gabriela & foia, liliana. (2016). nadph oxidase: structure and activation mechanisms (review). note i. 120. 29-33. klein, e., van boeckel, t., martinez, e., pant, s., gandra, s., & levin, s. et. al. (2018). global increase and geographic convergence in antibiotic consumption between 2000 and 2015. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 115(15), e3463-e3470. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1717295115 köhler-forsberg, o., petersen, l., gasse, c., mortensen, p., dalsgaard, s., & yolken, r. et. al. (2019). a nationwide study in denmark of the association between treated infections and the subsequent risk of treated mental disorders in children and adolescents. jama psychiatry, 76(3), 271. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.3428 moore, t., & mattison, d. (2017). adult utilization of psychiatric drugs and differences by sex, age, and race. jama internal medicine, 177(2), 274. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.7507. normann, claus & hesslinger, b & bauer, joachim & berger, m & walden, joy. (1998). significance of hepatic cytochrome p450 enzymes for psychopharmacology. der nervenarzt. 69. 944-55. steel, z., marnane, c., iranpour, c., chey, t., jackson, j., patel, v., & silove, d. (2014). the global prevalence of common mental disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis 1980–2013. international journal of epidemiology, 43(2), 476-493. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyu038. sternbach, h., & state, r. (1997). antibiotics: neuropsychiatric effects and psychotropic interactions. harvard review of psychiatry, 5(4), 214-226. doi: 10.3109/10673229709000304. straticiuc, s., ignat, a., hanganu, e., lupu, v., ciubara, a., & cretu, r. (2016). neisseria meningitidis serogroup c causing primary arthritis in a child. medicine, 95(5), e2745. doi: 10.1097/md.0000000000002745. trandafir, laura & baciu, g & constantin, maria-magdalena & maștaleru, alexandra & oanaraluca, temneanu & mihai, b & novac, o & frasinariu, o.e. & ivan, a & tudorachi, n.b. & hiary, r.a.l. & moscalu, mihaela. (2018). predictive biological markers in posttherapeutic evolution in obese patients. revista de chimie. 69. 3048-3051. wang, x., zhang, l., lei, y., liu, x., zhou, x., & liu, y. et. al. (2014). meta-analysis of infectious agents and depression. scientific reports, 4(1). doi: 10.1038/srep04530 zhu, x., han, y., du, j., liu, r., jin, k., & yi, w. (2017). microbiota-gut-brain axis and the central nervous system. oncotarget, 8(32). doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.17754. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 184 are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence? a discussion on machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety7 utku köse suleyman demirel university, isparta, turkey çünür mahallesi, süleyman demirel caddesi, merkez/isparta, tel.: +90 246 211 10 00 utkukose@sdu.edu.tr abstract nowadays, there is a serious anxiety on the existence of dangerous intelligent systems and it is not just a science-fiction idea of evil machines like the ones in well-known terminator movie or any other movies including intelligent robots – machines threatening the existence of humankind. so, there is a great interest in some alternative research works under the topics of machine ethics, artificial intelligence safety and the associated research topics like future of artificial intelligence and existential risks. the objective of this study is to provide a general discussion about the expressed research topics and try to find some answers to the question of ‘are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence?’. in detail, the discussion includes a comprehensive focus on ‘dystopic’ scenarios, enables interested researchers to think about some ‘moral dilemmas’ and finally have some ethical outputs that are considerable for developing good intelligent systems. from a general perspective, the discussion taken here is a good opportunity to improve awareness on the mentioned, remarkable research topics associated with not only artificial intelligence but also many other natural and social sciences taking role in the humankind. keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, machine ethics, artificial intelligence safety, future of artificial intelligence 1. introduction artificial intelligence is an important scientific field, which is currently shaping the future of humankind. after it has started its journey as a result of innovative developments within computer science, it has provided many effective and efficient solutions to different fields, and has then taken an active part rapidly in the scientific arena with its great potential on solving real-world based problems (negnevitsky, 2005; russell et al., 2003). today, intelligent solutions are often employed in daily modern life by taking part in even our phones, cars or houses. in a general manner, there is an infinite loop of innovations, which is a typical result of collaboration caused by some popular scientific fields and the field of artificial intelligence is one of them. considering the unstoppable rise of intelligent solution approaches, methods and techniques of artificial intelligence, there has always been some discussions regarding the disadvantages and unclear characteristics of intelligent systems in the context of a life surrounded always by also ethical and morality-oriented issues (allen et al., 2000; bostrom, 2003; dubhashi, & lappin, 2017; floridi, & sanders, 2004; herzfeld, 2002). but the more advanced problems have been solved by intelligent systems, the more discussions over artificial intelligence have appeared. currently, people are often anxious about the possible existence of dangerous intelligent systems and that anxiety seems improving more with alternative discussions associated with different fields of the modern life. by moving from such anxiety-oriented questions, there is a great interest in some alternative research works under the topics of machine ethics or artificial intelligence safety. generally, objectives of such research works are mainly focused on designing and developing human-compatible intelligence systems or at least introducing some alternative solution ways to adjust badly configured intelligent systems. in more detail, the related works associated with developing ‘safe’ intelligent systems are also examined under some other alternative research topics like existential risks because artificial intelligence is accepted as one of the most 7 this work is the keynote speak made by utku kose at the smart 2017 – scientific methods in academic research and teaching international conference 2017 held in timișoara, romania, between september 8 and september 9, 2017. u. köse are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence? a discussion on machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety 185 remarkable risks having a threating potential towards humankind and even other living organisms. as combining all of these research efforts in a common ground, future of artificial intelligence is known as another research topic dealing with the future build over intelligent machines. considering the explanations made so far, the objective of this study is to provide a general focus on the expressed research topics and try to find some answers to the question of ‘are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence?’. in detail, the discussion includes a comprehensive focus on ‘dystopic’ scenarios, enables interested researchers to think about some ‘moral dilemmas’ and finally have some ethical outputs that are considerable for developing good intelligent systems. from a general perspective, the discussion taken here is a good opportunity to improve awareness on the mentioned, remarkable research topics associated with not only artificial intelligence but also many other natural and social sciences taking role in the humankind. in the context of the objectives of this study, the remaining content is organized as follows: the next section provides some brief information regarding considered research topics like machine ethics, artificial intelligence safety, and other associated ones. after that section, the third section discusses some anxiety points connected with possible dangerous scenarios or moral dilemmas. following that, the fourth section tries to answer the main question of the study by providing ideas about ethical outputs to develop good intelligent systems and finally the study is ended with discussions about conclusions and future work ideas. 2. research topics associated with anxieties on artificial intelligence anxieties related to artificial intelligence have caused the rise of different research topics in time. of course, these research topics do not always depend on just anxieties, but they also include research efforts for solving mysteries lying on the background of artificial intelligence and providing more findings for a better future shaped by intelligent systems. the scientific literature seems always open for introduction of new research topics and efforts within them but some remarkable ones taking researchers’ interest widely today can be explained briefly as follows: 2.1. machine ethics machine ethics is a research topic in which researchers’ deal with ethical issues that may appear while intelligent systems are solving some problems. these problems are generally associated with the existence of humankind or need very critical analyses to provide the most accurate solution at the end. in the literature of artificial intelligence, a similar term: ethical artificial intelligence can also be used to meet the same research efforts, but machine ethics is focused more on an exact intelligent system that is something like a robot or an advanced machine, which is strong enough to solve more complex problems that cannot be solved yet with current capabilities of intelligent systems. so, this research topic has connections with both current developments and possible future developments in the field of artificial intelligence (allen et al., 2006; anderson, & anderson, 2011). in machine ethics, researchers often encounter with issues that are both philosophical and technical (powers, 2011). issues covered in machine ethics are generally because of the following subjects having ethical conflicts in the context of artificial intelligence (anderson, & anderson, 2011; lin et al., 2011; torrance, 2008; wallach, & allen, 2008):  rights: what kind of rights should an intelligent machine have while solving problems for us? if an intelligent system causes an accident or show dangerous behaviors while working on its tasks – jobs, which rights should belong to it in order to have accurate judgments about it? more generally, should a robot (intelligent system) have rights like us? these are all important questions that are rising when we give an ethical view on rights for intelligent systems.  duties: it is certain that we need advanced intelligent systems to solve real world problems in more accurate, rapid and effective ways. so, all these needs require intelligent systems to have duties to be completed. but what if not all kind of duties brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 186 should be given to intelligent to be completed? sometimes, it may not be clear to see the end of some duties, which require some human oriented behaviors, which even cannot be simulated enough by artificial intelligence. while it is still an unsolved problem that how artificial intelligence can be completely be like us in terms of spiritual and mental manner, it may not be ethical to have it to be responsible for all duties.  human welfare: when we consider about our welfare, ethical issues rise in the way, which may cause lots of paradoxes to be analyzed. keeping human welfare at an optimum level may be a big problem for robots because it includes an almost infinite number of environmental factors to be evaluated because of dynamic nature of the human and also factors (i.e. nature, world), he / she is actively interacting. some dangerous behaviors provided by artificial intelligence may be some important steps that should be taken to save the human welfare for the future, but humankind cannot understand the ethical causes lying deep inside of that or ethical rules of a very-well trained – learned, advanced intelligent system cannot then be same / similar with the ones we know as ethical ones.  justice: how can an intelligent system apply justice when it encounters with events including ethical issues (i.e. killing someone to save yourself, causing some people to be dead because of somebody else’s faults, crimes hidden very well on the background of laws)? there are many issues because of the loopholes written laws; how can a robot in the role of a judge deal with cases? if we move away from the arena of the law, we can also derive questions about daily life: how can an intelligent system managing a shop apply the justice to its employers when these employers have some problems in an ethical manner? what does it mean for a robot to be fair when a duty assignment problem should be solved ethically considering all other robotic workers’ past performances at an intelligent factory? in the context of machine ethics, the following three remarkable concepts can be discussed widely to have some more ethical ideas regarding artificial intelligence (hibbard, 2014; mclaren, 2006; schneider, 2016; wallach, 2010):  information: it is accepted that the control of information which will be used to train intelligent systems or to which intelligent systems can use are important to ensure ethical intelligent systems. in detail, the amount of information, and even its value are also important issues evaluated within machine ethics.  control: it is believed that effective and accurate approaches can enable people to control intelligent systems to behave ethically. because artificial intelligence is a product of the human-mind, its control can be achieved better only by humans. that is also because only we can understand what kind of human errors may be included in intelligent systems and how such systems should be controlled to behave according to the ethical rules we believe.  reasoning: in intelligent systems (robots), reasoning is automated, and it has a flexible nature because of the continuing training process directed by environmental factors and experiences of the system more generally. at this point, one important question in the context of machine ethics is: how far should we trust an automated reasoning? furthermore, it is still unclear if any triggering ‘bad’ training data may affect the automated reasoning of an intelligent system so that it may act harmful to its environment. at this point, how can we understand if a training data is appropriate to make an intelligent system more ethical? the reasoning concept here comes with many alternative questions needing to be answered carefully. u. köse are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence? a discussion on machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety 187 figure 1. three remarkable concepts discussed widely in the context of machine ethics. research works under the machine ethics also focus on an important concept: ‘consciousness’. here, the essential ethical problem is associated with the question: ‘can intelligent systems (robots) have consciousness?’. moving from that, we can have some arguments such as (holland, 2003; torrance, 2008; wallach, 2010):  actually, an intelligent system cannot take responsibility of its actions. so, are the developers responsible for that? any human, company…etc.?  how far can responsibility be connected with us (humans)?  is it enough for the humankind to deal with some certain real-world problems? is it impossible for intelligent systems to have enough consciousness level to deal with all real-world problems?  should intelligent machines be considered in the context of what we actually understand from consciousness?  if an intelligent system (robot) has consciousness; (1) ‘should it have rights like us?’ (2) ‘what if it wants more things from the humankind?’ (3) ‘how far we can trust its consciousness?’ (4) ‘could a conscious system work for us?’ (5) ‘can we have the right to turn off a conscious intelligent machine?’...etc.  if we can achieve the consciousness in an intelligent system, should we consider any other additional factors affecting that consciousness?  is it really necessary for an intelligent system to have consciousness? should we design something like consciousness but a more specific thing special for intelligent systems? intelligent agents are widely discussed in the context of machine ethics. here, the objectives are all connected with ensuring an ethical agent. related to that ethical agent issue, the literature also defines two types of ethical agents according to their focus – design on ethics (anderson, & anderson, 2007; moor, 2009):  implicit ethical agents: agents that are limited by their designers to prevent from unethical actions – behaviors.  explicit ethical agents: agents that have special algorithms to make them acting – behaving ethical. figure 2. essential ethical agents according their focus – design on ethics. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 188 explanations so far are based on philosophical and theoretical approaches on ethical issues that can be associated with artificial intelligence and its outputs. researchers thinking that artificial intelligence can be dangerous (unsafe) because of some reasons find themselves in designing algorithmic approaches to eliminate possible side-effects causing unsafe intelligence systems and ensure a safe artificial intelligence environment. research works associated with such efforts are included under the research topic of artificial intelligence safety. 2.2. artificial intelligence safety artificial intelligence safety is associated with the idea of that it is possible to encounter with unsafe – dangerous intelligent systems if effective precautions are not taken. so, before it is too late, alternative approaches, methods, and techniques should be designed to obtain safe intelligent systems (robots in the future). in the literature, yampolskiy (2013) expresses that researchers have some ideas leading them to misunderstand the concept of machine ethics and an alternative research topic to ensure safety in artificial intelligence should be followed. such ideas have caused to think about developing safe artificial intelligence based systems (pavaloiu, & kose, 2017). it is also remarkable that although humankind has the highest priority in terms of safety, artificial intelligence safety is interested in dangerous or harmful actions – behaviors that can be shown by intelligent systems to humans, other living organisms, and also other intelligent systems (figure 2). figure 3. objective safety factors in the context of artificial intelligence safety. when we think about a safe intelligence system, the following questions and many more often wait to be answered accurately with effective research efforts:  should there be a ‘red button’ to stop any intelligent system when its actions start to be dangerous or harmful?  how can we develop a red button for preventing intelligent systems from turning to the ‘dark side’?  how can we stop an intelligent system to stop us from pressing to the red button when it learns enough about it and its effects?  how can we ‘limit’ an intelligent system to enable it only for its duties?  how can we prevent intelligent systems from being hacked by other intelligent systems or hackers?  can we predict future behaviors of an intelligent system? nowadays, there are some remarkable solutions developed for ensuring safe artificial intelligence based systems. by focusing on agent models of artificial intelligence, there are some alternative agent types introduced as ‘safe intelligent systems’. also, a widely-used machine learning approach: reinforcement learning is also considered in the form of an alternative learning approach in order to ensure safe intelligent systems. some essential information regarding these u. köse are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence? a discussion on machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety 189 developments can be expressed briefly as follows (abbeel, & ng, 2011; evans, & goodman, 2015; evans et al., 2016; lin et al., 2017; ng, & russell, 2000; orseau, & armstrong, 2016):  interruptible / ignorant / inconsistent / bounded agents: interruptible agents stands for safe agents, which were introduced as having a ‘red button’ to be stopped in case of any dangerous state. on the other hand, ignorant / inconsistent agents are based on the idea of that people are ignorant and inconsistent about their choices in the real life so intelligent agents should be like that in order to have ethically and safely structured intelligent systems. finally, bounded agents are based on designing optimal, frugal and fast agents, which are heuristics for next decisions – plans as by inspiring from the fact that humans are both biased and bounded cognitively.  inverse reinforcement learning: inverse reinforcement learning is a remarkable approach to determine a reward function for defining behaviors of the objective agent – system so that it can be possible to also find good policies. that means also ethical and safe ways in terms of considered research topics. in the literature, another remarkable research effort is associated with training data, which can be connected with the issue of information and the related factors, as mentioned before. in detail, the concept of ‘adversarial examples’ is used to define training data, which can confuse intelligent systems and make them learn something wrong (goodfellow et al., 2017). so, that research subject is highly associated with artificial intelligence safety, because of its potential to be useful for hackers of the future whether they will be human or other intelligent machines. examples provided in the literature show that small changes – additions in training data can cause artificial intelligence to understand false about the learned problem – solution easily and such problem is very critical about safety level of a developed intelligent system. some other concepts – issues discussed in the literature can be listed as: ‘rationality’, ‘corrigibility’, ‘value alignment’, ‘human-aligned artificial intelligence’, ‘openness’, ‘expected utility’, ‘reward’, ‘reward engineering’ (amodei et al., 2016; arnold et al., 2017; conitzer et al., 2017; dewey, 2014; riedl, & harrison, 2016; russell et al., 2015; soares et al., 2015; vamplew et al., 2017). machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety have no certain borders between them. machine ethics is even called as also ethical artificial intelligence (hibbard, 2014). at this point, research perspectives related both research topics can be even accepted in a common research field employing works for ethical and safe intelligent systems. on the other hand, all these works can be connected to the efforts of shaping a ‘good future’ of intelligent systems. so, another research topic: future of artificial intelligence rises here. 2.3. future of artificial intelligence increasing anxieties are always because humankind wants a future, which is supported by intelligent systems, which are human-compatible and safe. so, except research works focused on developing ethical and safe intelligent systems, there is also a need for discussing future developments regarding artificial intelligence. more ideas about how intelligent systems of the future will be like are essential for researchers to derive effective solutions for ethical and safe artificial intelligence. because of that, a research topic called as future of artificial intelligence deals with views over the future of artificial intelligence. today, there are different kinds of research interests introduced in the context of future of artificial intelligence. with their remarkable and logical background shaped by both technical and social aspects, two of them attract researchers interest widely. they are:  technological singularity: also known as ‘singularity’, this is a hypothesis indicating that artificial intelligence, which is better than human intelligence will shape the humankind and civilizations greatly in the future (callaghan et al., 2017; muehlhauser, & helm, 2012; nicolescu, 2017). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 190  superintelligence: it is both term and a research interest, which is explaining an intelligence, which is surpassing even the highest level human brain in the context of general intelligence. actually, many ethical and safety-oriented issues are also associated with possible, future intelligent systems having ‘superintelligence.’ (bostrom, 2014; dubhashi, & lappin, 2017; perdue, 2017). arguments defending the idea of ‘bad artificial intelligence’ has led researchers to classify artificial intelligence under existential risks, which is a separate research topic focusing on factors affecting the existence of the humankind. figure 4. two research interests that can be considered under the future of artificial intelligence. 2.4. existential risks existential risks is not directly associated with ethical or safety issues about artificial intelligence, but it is related to artificial intelligence because it accepts that field by considering two important characteristics. according to that research topic, an existential risk has a ‘global effect’ covering the whole humankind and a ‘terminal intensity’ reducing the surviving potential of the considered risk group through even new generations (bostrom, 2002). as a result of developments and increasing anxieties, these two characteristics are also associated with artificial intelligence. in detail, this corresponds to a possible bad artificial intelligence, which can cause the existence of the humankind to end. so, that research topic has important relations with machine ethics and especially artificial intelligence safety. figure 5. two characteristics of an existential risk. except from artificial intelligence, existence risks deals with many more alternative risks as presented in figure 6. u. köse are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence? a discussion on machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety 191 figure 6. existential risks. 3. possible scenarios causing questions as being research subjects of the explained research topics, there are already some possible scenarios, which enable us to think more about if we are safe enough for the future supported by artificial intelligence. in this context, especially remarkable scenarios can be explained briefly as follows: 3.1. moral dilemmas moral dilemmas have been always important for us. because moral dilemmas can easily confuse even us, they become more important problems to be solved in the sense of artificial intelligence. some possible scenarios of moral dilemmas can be expressed as follows by considering intelligent systems:  how can a self-driving car decide who should live and should die in case of a fatal accident, which has no possibility to leave everyone alive at the end?  how should a person be punished by the intelligent judge, if that person has killed somebody in order to save himself / herself?  which patient should be treated by the intelligent doctor, if there are many patients with high level priorities at the same time?  is it fair for an intelligent system to take any human’s work from him / her and leave him / her unemployed? 3.2. artificial intelligence to be created by artificial intelligence “an intelligent system company has introduced its new product, which has an artificial intelligence to create similar intelligent systems to solve some problems better with collaborative approaches done by an intelligent swarm.” that remarkable scenario is associated with a future including intelligent systems, which are created by other intelligent systems. except for religious discussions and anxieties, this scenario is important for researchers because it is not clear that if the creation of an intelligent system by other ones can cause more dangerous results at the end. the issue of allowing an intelligent system to brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 192 create new ones is also an important problem to be solved in terms of both machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety. the problem improves more and more if the creator intelligent system can employ dangerous and harmful training – learning data, which may cause all created intelligent systems to be all dangerous – harmful in the future. the issue of creation is similar in also copying intelligent systems. it is clear that the most important advantage of artificial intelligence is being easily copied or cloned to create intelligent systems with same characteristics or having newer ones with some different characteristics. at this point, it is important to also consider future opportunities for creating new intelligent systems easier and faster. but it is also an important question to ask if such fast flow can cause disadvantages (uncontrollable creation – copying – cloning, uncontrollable training – learning data etc.). 3.3. jobs to be done by artificial intelligence ‘the omega is a good, intelligent system (factory worker), which can perform a producing task effectively in less than an hour. because of that, there is no need for any human at the factory so that humans are even not allowed to enter to the factory area.’ it is a widely discussed scenario that our jobs will be taken by intelligent systems in the near future. at this point, there are serious anxieties – questions about how the economic situation and humans’ welfare will be like if there will be no jobs (or a few number of jobs to be done by humans) in the future. because employment is an important factor affecting many additional components like the economy, social life, self-confidence, career etc., a future including intelligent workers and not working humans can be a new age, which has a very misty way ahead, especially considering humankind. 3.4. social life transformed by digital individuals that scenario can be possible in the future if artificial intelligence has enough capabilities to take more part in human’s social life: ‘john meets every day with his virtual friends to discuss some philosophy and rock music. he does not need any human friends because his virtual friends make him improve his knowledge.’ it is already a certain problem that digital world has some negative effects on our social life with addictive applications of social media and more interactive computer games and computeroriented applications. at this point, advanced, intelligent, digital individuals can take place in our world and transform the current social life into another, unique form. such social life may cause humans to lose their exact cultural and emotional roots in time and even make humans architects of a future with bad intelligent systems, which is a typical dystopia for now. 3.5. rights and copyright problems ‘for last 100 years, there is no human, who is better than intelligent painters in that painting competition. but a human painter thinks that this year’s winner has benefited from his paintings, which was shared before him over the internet. the human painter thinks that the system has even stolen his painting style.’ that scenario shows that rights and copyright issue will be very unclear in the future in which intelligent systems take an active role. because an artificial intelligence based system has all abilities to reach all types of data from anywhere and anytime. in the end, the system then can use its almost infinite resources to make it even the most successful painter, poet, or an author. but should that prevent humans from sharing all their knowledge and abilities with artificial intelligence? which type of judicial adjustments should be made in order to eliminate all such possible scenarios having conflicts in it. in more detail, we can think about a song that is created by an intelligent system. at this point, can the intelligent system have rights over copyrights regarding that song or does copyright belong to the creator – developer of that intelligent system? all such questions should be answered accurately in the context of research topics like machine ethics and also artificial intelligence safety (because of the issue of using information from a human without any permission because of the open internet environment.). u. köse are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence? a discussion on machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety 193 4. some solution suggestions by inspiring from the performed previous works and analyzing essential issues discussed in this study so far, it is also possible to think some solutions in order to develop ‘good’ intelligent systems for the future. some of them can be mentioned briefly as follows:  in order to prevent conflicts that may appear between the role of humans, living organisms and intelligent systems (robots) over the world, a global hierarchical ‘tree of priorities’ can be designed. of course, control – management of such structure should be done carefully by appropriate authorities.  it can be seen from the literature that there is a good potential within agent-based systems to design ethical and safe artificial intelligence based structure. at least, algorithmic and mathematical models formed on the background of such systems are important factors for researchers to improve the associated literature for better further works with current findings. so, there should be more focus on developing ethical and safe agents with alternative research efforts. at this point, it could be a good idea to start by moving from philosophies lying on the background of implicit and explicit ethical agents and even inspiring from already introduced ethical and safe agent systems (like interruptible, ignorant, inconsistent or bounded agents). here, more mathematical and logical approaches should be employed in order to eliminate all possible paradoxes and gaps that may cause unsuccessful research attempts. because of that, such development studies should be done in a multidisciplinary manner including researchers from computer science, mathematics, logic, philosophy and even social sciences focused on the human, like sociology or education.  in addition to the suggestions expressed for developing alternative agents, it can also be a good way to classify artificial intelligence oriented systems with some ‘dangerous levels’. in this way, it can be possible to use some systems in only certain tasks and fields, which will enable to run a ‘limited task scope’ for such systems to prevent them from behavior changing or any actions that may cause harmful results at the end.  moral dilemmas will be always an open question for artificial intelligence because of changing dynamics of the world, society and fields in which we currently working, studying etc. so, research works trying to determine accurate behaviors of intelligent systems for such moral dilemmas should be always active and an intense consideration should be given to such research interests for shaping especially ethical background of the artificial intelligence.  a certain set of rules in algorithmic structures of artificial intelligence based systems can be designed in order to make them human and living organisms-compatible. here, three laws designed by asimov (mit technology review, 2014) in his widelyread science-fiction novels can be a good point to move from. asimov’s rules on robots seem still strong enough to cover all logical background on achieving an ethical and safe system. the related rules can be expressed as follows (mit technology review, 204): (1) “a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” (2) “a robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the law (1).” (3) “a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the law (1) or law (2).”  changing nature of the society and more effects of technology causes newer jobs and specialties to appear. at this point, there will be probably new kind of jobs associated with artificial intelligence in even a near future. considering ethical and safetyoriented requirements for artificial intelligence, it is possible to suggest some jobs as brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 194 follows: ‘training data analyzer for intelligent systems’, ‘ethics and safety analyzer for intelligent systems’, ‘agent expert’, ‘machine learning engineer’, ‘safe artificial intelligence engineer’, ‘artificial intelligence algorithm designer’, ‘safe robot hardware designer’, ‘robot safety expert’.  safety oriented works are generally focused on algorithmic ideas and efforts surrounded by them. but it can be also a good way to focus on how to design hardware components of intelligent systems (in terms of especially robots). in other words, robots (intelligent systems), which may have the potential of being dangerous or showing complex actions can be designed with safer designs and materials, which will give some advantages of being prevented from harmful results that may even cause because of some accidents.  as it was indicated before, information is one of the most remarkable factors for determining how an intelligence system can be ethical or safe. so, it is important to perform more research works about how to represent information for artificial intelligence and how to eliminate small information that may cause ‘butterfly-effect’ at the end and transform the system into a ‘bad one’. in this context, it is important also to evaluate learning – training approaches used for obtaining desired intelligent systems, which can just do their tasks and be aware of any dangerous information (data) affecting its nature. currently, it seems that the reinforcement learning is a good learning – training approach to be analyzed in detail but the future will be always open for introduction of newer approaches of course.  optimization lives in the heart of real life. all real-world problems can be solved effectively with optimization because they cannot be modeled mathematically. by inspiring from the optimization idea, it can be possible to design and develop some ‘regulator’ techniques for controlling and directing interaction of intelligent systems with the real world, which means active learning – training for them. in this way, simpler but effective enough solutions can be obtained in order to prevent such systems from evolving into bad systems or being affected by malicious factors. at this point, it is important to model which kinds of variables, constants and even constraints can be applied for certain types of intelligent systems developed with different techniques.  sometimes, details that are seen not too much important can be seen by some others and may lead scientific developments to different ways. theories here are key elements to achieve the related mechanism. it can be suggested here to develop new theories on ensuring ethical and safe artificial intelligence. such theories can be drawn with a multidisciplinary view combining different minds from different fields, which is interested in role of artificial intelligence in the world of the future. as a recent theory, readers are referred to the ‘fading intelligence theory’ (kose, & vasant, 2017).  there are anxieties regarding current and future state of artificial intelligence because the humankind is thought to be at the heart of the world and the life. although our future seems to be depended on only our decisions, there are many environmental factors affecting the whole life. so, it may not be always necessary to enable robots (intelligent systems) to do some tasks or take important roles on certain sides of the life. in order to keep a balance between the technology and the living organisms over the world (and even in the universe), it can be a better way to design an optimum ‘tasks sharing’. 5. conclusion and future work this study has provided a general discussion about ethical and safety-oriented issues regarding artificial intelligence. in detail, some remarkable research topics followed widely by the scientific community have been generally explained and a light has kept over possible dangerous u. köse are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence? a discussion on machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety 195 scenarios to understand more about what kind of issues are remarkable. at this point, the study is structured around the question of ‘are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence?’ along the study, the dangerous scenarios are also tried to be met with some possible solution suggestions. the study has been also organized as a reference work for enabling and directing interested readers to deeper sides of the literature. the associated literature in this manner still has a misty way ahead but many important developments have been done so far since first anxieties related to possible dangerous and harmful effects that may be seen in time with appearance of more advanced, superintelligence-based systems. it seems that improvements in supportive technologies will possibly cause also many rapid and advanced developments in the field of artificial intelligence, but still algorithmic and mathematical structures have important role on solving even the most complicated issues that we may encounter with even in the future. in addition to that study, the author is encouraged to take research done more steps away. in this sense, it is aimed to design and develop some algorithmic solutions for ensuring safe intelligent systems. such solutions will be probably applied in terms of multi-agent systems. on the other hand, there will be also further studies to understand more about nature of training data to have more accurate ideas about how it can be possible to prevent a training data from ‘malicious additions’ or additional data that will probably cause great changes in reasoning of an intelligent system. finally, additional theoretical works regarding machine studies and artificial intelligence safety to improve the associated literature will also be done by the author. references abbeel, p., & ng, a. y. (2011). inverse reinforcement learning. in encyclopedia of machine learning (pp. 554-558). springer us. allen, c., varner, g., & zinser, j. (2000). prolegomena to any future artificial moral agent. journal of experimental & theoretical artificial intelligence, 12(3), 251-261. allen, c., wallach, w., & smit, i. (2006). why machine ethics?. ieee intelligent systems, 21(4), 12-17. amodei, d., olah, c., steinhardt, j., christiano, p., schulman, j., & mané, d. (2016). concrete problems in ai safety. arxiv preprint arxiv:1606.06565. anderson, m., & anderson, s. l. (2007). machine ethics: creating an ethical intelligent agent. ai magazine, 28(4), 15. anderson, m., & anderson, s. l. (eds.). (2011). machine ethics. cambridge university press. arnold, t., kasenberg, d., & scheutz, m. (2017). value alignment or misalignment–what will keep systems accountable. in 3rd international workshop on ai, ethics, and society. bostrom, n. (2002). existential risks. journal of evolution and technology, 9(1), 1-31. bostrom, n. (2003). ethical issues in advanced artificial intelligence. science fiction and philosophy: from time travel to superintelligence, 277-284. bostrom, n. (2014). superintelligence: paths, dangers, strategies. oxford. callaghan, v., miller, j., yampolskiy, r., & armstrong, s. (2017). technological singularity. springer. conitzer, v., sinnott-armstrong, w., borg, j. s., deng, y., & kramer, m. (2017). moral decision making frameworks for artificial intelligence. in aaai (pp. 4831-4835). dewey, d. (2014). reinforcement learning and the reward engineering principle. in 2014 aaai spring symposium series. dubhashi, d., & lappin, s. (2017). ai dangers: imagined and real. communications of the acm, 60(2), 43-45. evans, o., & goodman, n. d. (2015). learning the preferences of bounded agents. in nips workshop on bounded optimality(vol. 6). evans, o., stuhlmüller, a., & goodman, n. d. (2016). learning the preferences of ignorant, inconsistent agents. in aaai (pp. 323-329). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 196 floridi, l., & sanders, j. w. (2004). on the morality of artificial agents. minds and machines, 14(3), 349-379. goodfellow, i., papernot, n., huang, s., duan, y., abbeel, p., & clark, j. (2017). attacking machine learning with adversarial examples, open ai – blog web site. retrieved jan. 21, 2018, from https://blog.openai.com/adversarial-example-research/ herzfeld, n. l. (2002). in our image: artificial intelligence and the human spirit. fortress press. hibbard, b. (2014). ethical artificial intelligence. arxiv preprint arxiv:1411.1373. holland, o. (ed.). (2003). machine consciousness. imprint academic. kose, u., & vasant, p. (2017). fading intelligence theory: a theory on keeping artificial intelligence safety for the future. in artificial intelligence and data processing symposium (idap), 2017 international (pp. 1-5). ieee. lin, p., abney, k., & bekey, g. a. (2011). robot ethics: the ethical and social implications of robotics. mit press. lin, x., beling, p. a., & cogill, r. (2017). multi-agent inverse reinforcement learning for twoperson zero-sum games. ieee transactions on computational intelligence and ai in games. pp(99). mclaren, b. m. (2006). computational models of ethical reasoning: challenges, initial steps, and future directions. ieee intelligent systems, 21(4), 29-37. mit technology review. (2014). do we need asimov’s laws?. 2014, technologyreview.com. retrieved jan. 23, 2018, from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/527336/do-we-needasimovs-laws/ moor, j. (2009). four kinds of ethical robots. philosophy now, 72, 12-14. muehlhauser, l., & helm, l. (2012). the singularity and machine ethics. in singularity hypotheses (pp. 101-126). springer, berlin, heidelberg. negnevitsky, m. (2005). artificial intelligence: a guide to intelligent systems. pearson education. ng, a. y., & russell, s. j. (2000). algorithms for inverse reinforcement learning. in icml (pp. 663670). nicolescu, b. (2017). technological singularity: the dark side. in transdisciplinary higher education (pp. 155-161). springer, cham. orseau, l., & armstrong, s. (2016). safely interruptible agents. in proceedings of the thirtysecond conference on uncertainty in artificial intelligence (pp. 557-566). auai press. pavaloiu, a., & kose, u. (2017). ethical artificial intelligence-an open question. journal of multidisciplinary developments, 2(2), 15-27. perdue, r. t. (2017). superintelligence and natural resources: morality and technology in a brave new world. society & natural resources, 30(8), 1026-1031. powers, t. m. (2011). incremental machine ethics. ieee robotics & automation magazine, 18(1), 51-58. riedl, m. o., & harrison, b. (2016). using stories to teach human values to artificial agents. in aaai workshop: ai, ethics, and society. russell, s., dewey, d., & tegmark, m. (2015). research priorities for robust and beneficial artificial intelligence. ai magazine, 36(4), 105-114. russell, s. j., norvig, p., canny, j. f., malik, j. m., & edwards, d. d. (2003). artificial intelligence: a modern approach (vol. 2, no. 9). upper saddle river: prentice hall. schneider, s. (2016). science fiction and philosophy: from time travel to superintelligence. john wiley & sons. soares, n., fallenstein, b., armstrong, s., & yudkowsky, e. (2015). corrigibility. in workshops at the twenty-ninth aaai conference on artificial intelligence. torrance, s. (2008). ethics and consciousness in artificial agents. ai & society, 22(4), 495-521. vamplew, p., dazeley, r., foale, c., firmin, s., & mummery, j. (2017). human-aligned artificial intelligence is a multiobjective problem. ethics and information technology, 1-14. wallach, w. (2010). robot minds and human ethics: the need for a comprehensive model of moral decision making. ethics and information technology, 12(3), 243-250. u. köse are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence? a discussion on machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety 197 wallach, w., & allen, c. (2008). moral machines: teaching robots right from wrong. oxford university press. yampolskiy, r. v. (2013). artificial intelligence safety engineering: why machine ethics is a wrong approach. in philosophy and theory of artificial intelligence (pp. 389-396). springer, berlin, heidelberg. microsoft word issue 3.docx 139 linear programming tool for the optimization of mixed biomass fuel recipes dorin alexandru ionica politehnica university of timișoara piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006 phone: 0256 403 000 ionicadorin@gmail.com stefan-alfred maris politehnica university of timișoara piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006 phone: 0256 403 000 stefanmaris@gmail.com raluca dicu politehnica university of timișoara piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006 phone: 0256 403 000 dicu.raluca@yahoo.com simina maris ioan slavici university of timisoara strada profesor doctor aurel păunescu podeanu, timișoara phone: 0256 213 108 politehnica university of timișoara piața victoriei 2, timișoara 300006 phone: 0256 403 000 siminamaris@gmail.com abstract in the quest for new, innovative energy sources, an important place is held by renewable energy obtained from biomass. solid biofuels (pellets and briquettes) obtained from one or more types of biomass are easy to obtain and ready to hand. however, one cannot achieve true technological innovation without performing a modicum of academic research. this paper presents a linear programming tool which can be used to determine the most efficient mixture of biomass in terms of calorific value and with respect to constraints imposed by international standards (noxes and ash content). to this end, a database of raw materials existent in the area was built. the properties of the biofuels were modeled based on the properties of their components, through previously validated mathematical models and formulas. keywords: linear programming; mathematical modeling; optimization; biofuels. 1. introduction solid biofuels obtained from biomass represent a cheap, reliable and handy source of energy (ren21). on the other hand, pollution due to a more or less indiscriminate usage of solid fuels, as well as its effects, represents a well-established fact. while almost any biomass type can be burned in order to obtain energy, there are specific standards to be met in order to classify the biomass as solid biofuel. these quality requirements are stated in the international standards iso17225 and enplus and refer to the origin of the biomass, physical parameters (size, bulk density, calorific value) dust and ash content, additives amount and chemical composition (like n, s, cl, as, cd, pb, hg, ni, zn, etc.). acknowledging pollution and its effects led to the development of environmental policies and regulations. thus, between 2011 and 2013 eu commission devised a framework concerning the quality of clean air (com 2013). in this regard, new regulations were adopted in order to limit the effects of industrial pollution on the atmosphere, engaging each eu country to implement air pollution control brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 140 programs and meet the pollution reduction commitments for 2020 and 2030, especially regarding the reduction of dust, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other toxic volatile compounds (e.g. chlorine compounds). hence, the industry of solid biofuels deals with two major trends: the first, to produce highly efficient biofuels, i.e. to maximize the calorific value of the biofuels and the second to keep the emissions due to the above mentioned biofuels within the limits dictated by the pollution reducing regulations. from this perspective, a romanian private microenterprise which produces heating pellets and briquettes faces the same challenges as any of its european counterparts. pellets are small particles and briquettes are larger blocks, both obtained by compressing solid biomass in a regular form (usually cylindrical). in the following, we refer to a microenterprise which is a spin-out of the ioan slavici foundation for culture and education and member of the cluster for environment and renewable energy sources westtim (merwt). as a spin-out, the enterprise has the purpose of commercial valorization of scientific research results, in particular by producing pellets for heating from innovative materials and mixtures, while abiding the eu regulations concerning the air pollution. the problem of determining a mixture with the maximum possible calorific value while maintaining the concentration of emissions lower than a certain level is a classical linear optimization problem. previously, we solved this problem using a brute-force algorithm and for mixtures of two components (maris et al., 2018) and later we analyzed the influence of additives to the two-component mixtures obtained by applying the same brute-force algorithm (maris, maris and tucu, 2018). while linear optimization is classically used for project selection and production planning, it could be also used to determine optimal solutions for financial investments of business (chumburidze et al., 2019), for determining product mixtures (chen et al., 2011) and even food recipes (ryan et al., 2014 and quijano-aviles et al., 2016). a mixed-integer linear programming technique was used in 2017, by lee and kim, during the elaboration of a feasibility study for the production of energy from biomass. however, up to our knowledge, linear programming is yet to be applied to the production of optimized biomass pellets, in the sense mentioned before (highest calorific value possible while emissions do not surpass a certain amount). thus, the aim of our paper is to present a software solution we devised, which computes a mixture recipe for optimized biomass pellets – whenever this mixture is feasible. the software, which is implemented in c, uses a database which contains the most usual biofuel in the area. in addition to the optimization problem, which is able to process more than two inputs and additive, the software we devised allows the user to add a new material to the database and to use his own standards in computing the solution. 2. materials and methods a. the problem while the real problem can be somewhat difficult to solve using the classical, time-consuming approach of empirical experimental trials – even using special techniques for experimental design, the linear programming approach offers a solution to the problem in almost no-time and for any combination of biomass inputs. in real life the usage of more than two components to the biomass mixture may raise practical and logistical issues, as each raw material should be stored in a separate bunker and special equipment should be used in order to feed all the components in the mixer. this issue does however not affect the computational approach. by solving the real-life problem, we understand to offer an answer, stating either that the combination of inputs does not yield to an output with respect to the constraints, or listing the mass ratio associated to the contribution of each component of the mixture. from the computational point of view, the problem to be solved is: given n materials for which the elemental composition (c, h, s, o, n, cl) resulting ash and calorific value (in mj/kg) are known, find a mixture of them (i.e. find the mass mi of each component i of the mixture) which maximizes the calorific value, while the resulting concentrations of n, s, cl and ash remain lower than some limit values imposed by the international standards. d. a. ionica, s.-a. maris, r. dicu, s. maris linear programming tool for the optimization of mixed biomass fuel recipes 141 in stating the problem, we should underline that the pelletization is a pure physical process and thus the chemical composition of the resulting pellets is identical to the chemical composition of their components. moreover, the amount of a certain chemical element in the resulting pellets is the weighted average of that chemical element in the biomass components used for pelletization. thus, the problem to be solved may be formulated as: max 𝑄 = 0.339 𝐶 + 1.029 𝐻 + 0.109 𝑆 − 0.109 𝑂 if 𝐶 = ⋯ 𝐶 + ⋯ + ⋯ 𝐶 𝐻 = ⋯ 𝐻 + ⋯ + ⋯ 𝐻 𝑆 = ⋯ 𝑆 + ⋯ + ⋯ 𝑆 𝑂 = ⋯ 𝑂 + ⋯ + ⋯ 𝑂 𝑁 = ⋯ 𝑁 + ⋯ + ⋯ 𝑁 𝐶𝑙 = ⋯ 𝐶𝑙 + ⋯ + ⋯ 𝐶𝑙 𝑎𝑠ℎ = ⋯ 𝑎𝑠ℎ + ⋯ + ⋯ 𝑎𝑠ℎ ≤ 𝑎𝑠ℎ 0 ≤ 𝑁 ≤ 𝑁 0 ≤ 𝑆 ≤ 𝑆 0 ≤ 𝐶𝑙 ≤ 𝐶𝑙 1 ≤ 𝑚 , … , 𝑚 ≤ 𝑀 (1) one should note that the formula for q is the mendeleev formula. a mixture with respect to some standard may or may not contain additives. from a practical point of view, an additive is a substance which could be added in small amounts to the mixture in order to improve its quality or help preserve it. from a mathematical and programming point of view, the additive, added in its maximum value, contributes to the modification of the standard limits. the relevant values for calorific value q, n, s, cl, ash and additives, according to the corresponding standards, are presented in table 1. table 1.relevant limit values imposed by iso 17225 and enplus standard name standard details (materials and usage) relevant values q (mj/kg) min n (w-%) max s (w-%) max cl (w-%) max ash (w-%) max additives (w-%) max enplus a1 stemwood chemically untreated wood residues non-industrial usage 16,56 0,3 0,04 0,02 0,7 2 enplus a2 whole trees without roots stemwood logging residues chemically untreated wood residues non-industrial usage 16,56 0,5 0,05 0,02 1,2 2 enplus b forest, plantation and other virgin wood by-products and residues from wood processing industry chemically untreated used wood non-industrial usage 16,56 1 0,05 0,03 2 2 i1 forest, plantation and other virgin wood 16,50 0,3 0,05 0,03 1 3 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 142 chemically untreated wood residues industrial usage i2 forest, plantation and other virgin wood chemically untreated wood residues industrial usage 16,50 0,3 0,05 0,05 1,5 3 i3 forest, plantation and other virgin wood by-products and residues from wood processing industry chemically untreated used wood industrial usage 16,50 0,6 0,05 0,1 3 3 mbp a herbaceous biomass fruit biomass aquatic biomass blends and mixtures non-industrial usage 14,50 1,5 0,2 0,1 6 5 mbp b herbaceous biomass fruit biomass aquatic biomass blends and mixtures non-industrial usage 14,50 2 0,3 0,3 10 5 problem (1) will be written in a standard form, before being solved numerically. b. the database linear programming can be used as a fast solving method for problem (1) provided that a database containing materials and at least information about their elemental composition is available. for the purposes of our research, a database containing the most common materials available for pelletizing in the area was constructed. the data was either measured, or collected from literature (e.g., krajnc, 2015, garcia et al., 2014). for the moment, the database has 76 entries, but it can be extended. while it is customary to add oil as additive in the pelletization process, for the moment we did not consider this option and we did not add any liquid biofuel to our database. a sample of this database is presented in table 2. while the price is not very important at this moment, it was set to 0 whenever we could not find sufficient data to compute it. table 2.sample database material c (w-%) h (w-%) o (w-%) n (w-%) s (w-%) cl (w-%) price (lei/kg) q (mj/kg ) ash (w-%) fir 51,23 5,98 42,10 0,06 0,03 0,19 0,04 19,19 0,41 hemp (strains) 46,10 5,90 42,50 0,74 0,10 0,20 0,00 17,00 4,80 wood charcoal 79,34 2,74 16,97 0,65 0,30 0,00 4,50 29,71 5,90 spruce (with bark) 49,80 6,30 43,20 0,13 0,02 0,01 0,04 18,80 0,60 nectarines (seeds) 48,57 6,22 44,48 0,50 0,23 0,00 0,00 19,56 1,10 barley (straws) 47,50 5,80 41,40 0,46 0,09 0,40 0,05 17,50 4,80 poplar 47,50 6,20 44,10 0,42 0,03 0,00 0,04 18,50 1,80 d. a. ionica, s.-a. maris, r. dicu, s. maris linear programming tool for the optimization of mixed biomass fuel recipes 143 corn (cobs) 44,78 6,02 48,77 0,22 0,21 0,21 0,40 17,69 2,40 rape (grains/cake) 60,50 7,20 23,80 3,94 0,10 0,00 1,10 26,50 4,60 rape (strains) 47,10 5,90 40,00 0,84 0,27 0,47 0,05 17,10 6,20 grapes (draff) 43,50 6,40 46,40 1,68 0,11 0,00 0,00 16,90 2,10 c. the simplex algorithm in order to solve problem (1), we use the simplex algorithm, as described by ferguson et al, 2000. consider a linear optimization problem of the form max 𝑓 = 𝑓̅ − 𝑐̅ ⋅ 𝑥 𝑥 + 𝑆̅ ⋅ 𝑥 = 𝑏 𝑥 ≥ 0 𝑥 ≥ 0 (2) step 1. if all the components of the vector 𝑐̅ are non-negatives, then the current basic solution is the optimal solution and the algorithm stops. step 2. choose the non-basic index𝑘such as 𝑐̅ = min 𝑐̅ (3) step 3. if 𝑎 ≤ 0 for all the basic indexes 𝑖 (i.e., all the elements of �̅� are negative or zero), then the problem (2) has an infinite optimum and the algorithm stops. step 4. find the basic index 𝑟such that = min 𝑖 basic index such that𝑎 > 0 (4) step 5. replace in base b column ar with ak, obtaining a new basis, b’. build the explicit form of the problem (2) with respect to the new basis and start again from step 1. 3. results a. mathematical formulation after reducing the variables, problem (1) can be stated as ⎩ ⎪⎪ ⎨ ⎪⎪ ⎧ max 𝑄 = 𝑥 𝑄 + … + 𝑥 𝑄 if 𝑥 𝑆 + ⋯ + 𝑥 𝑆 ≤ 𝑆 𝑥 𝑁 + … + 𝑥 𝑁 ≤ 𝑁 𝑥 𝐶𝑙 + … + 𝑥 𝐶𝑙 ≤ 𝐶𝑙 𝑥 𝑎𝑠ℎ + ⋯ + 𝑥 𝑎𝑠ℎ ≤ 𝑎𝑠ℎ 0 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 1 , 1 ≤ 𝑖 ≤ 𝑛 (5) where 𝑄 = 0.339 𝐶 + 1.029 𝐻 + 0.109 𝑆 − 0.109 𝑂 , 1 ≤ 𝑖 ≤ 𝑛 𝑥 = ⋯ , 1 ≤ 𝑖 ≤ 𝑛 (6) in this new form of problem (2), the variables 𝑥 represent the percentage ratio of the material i in the mixture. thus, problem (5) has a solution if and only if 𝑥 + ⋯ + 𝑥 = 1. (7) if additives are present, problem (5) is rewritten as brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 144 ⎩ ⎪⎪ ⎨ ⎪⎪ ⎧ max 𝑄 = 𝑥 𝑄 + … + 𝑥 𝑄 + 𝑥 𝑄 if 𝑥 𝑆 + ⋯ + 𝑥 𝑆 ≤ 𝑆 − 𝑥 𝑆 𝑥 𝑁 + … + 𝑥 𝑁 ≤ 𝑁 − 𝑥 𝑁 𝑥 𝐶𝑙 + … + 𝑥 𝐶𝑙 ≤ 𝐶𝑙 − 𝑥 𝐶𝑙 𝑥 𝑎𝑠ℎ + ⋯ + 𝑥 𝑎𝑠ℎ ≤ 𝑎𝑠ℎ − 𝑥 𝑎𝑠ℎ 0 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 1 , 1 ≤ 𝑖 ≤ 𝑛 (5’) and the percentage ratio condition (7) becomes 𝑥 + ⋯ + 𝑥 = 1 − 𝑥 .(7’) we admit that the value for 𝑥 is a constant depending on the chosen standard, being the maximum allowed by it. b. software solution the software solution we created consists in a main menu which offers more options: analyze the standard limitations, find an optimal recipe based on the database inputs, add a new material to the database and, of course, exit the program. after each response of the program, the main menu is displayed and the user can choose different options, over and over again, until a (more or less) satisfying response is found before exiting the program. if the user chooses to consult the standards, the limit values for n, s, cl and ash will be displayed for the predefined (international) standards. however, it should be stated that the user is allowed to use his own standard, in determining a recipe for a new mixture. if the user chooses to add a new material in the database, a warning is displayed – that is, it is imperative to know the percentage ratio values for n, s, cl, ash and for q in mj/kg. the main feature of the program is the determination of an optimal recipe. if this option is chosen, the database is read and the names of the materials (and their corresponding positions in the database) are displayed. the user should enter the numbers corresponding to the materials desired, ending with 0 when no other materials are desired for the current recipe. next step is to choose an additive. if so chosen, the additive will influence the values of the standard limitations (as shown in figure 1). thus, the program will display the relevant values associated to the chosen additive. further, the user should choose the standard to be used during the computations. one option is to add his own standard (own limit values for n, s, cl and ash). if an additive was already chosen, the current values of the standard are modified accordingly and displayed. finally, whether using an additive or not and within the limitations of the chosen standard, a recipe is computed using the simplex algorithm (figure 2). d. a. ionica, s.-a. maris, r. dicu, s. maris linear programming tool for the optimization of mixed biomass fuel recipes 145 figure 1. screen capture of the program with a recipe computed (additive influence and positive response) the structure of the main function, translated into english, is presented below, followed by a brief description of the functions used: void main() { intalegere; e200: printf("choose an option: \n 1 –see the standards\n 2 –find a mixture recipe \n 3 – add a new material\n 0 –exit the program\n"); scanf("%d", &alegere); switch(alegere){ case 1: consultastd(); goto e200; break; case 2: intrari(); standarde(); data(); simplex(); results(); goto e200; break; brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 146 case 3: adaugamat(); goto e200; break; case 0: printf("goodbye!\n"); break; } } figure 2. screen capture of the program with a recipe computed (choosing the materials, no additive and positive response) the function consultastd() prints the limit values for the n, s, cl, ash and additive for each of the standards in use. the function intrari() opens the file containing the database, prints the name of the materials from the database and, if the user chooses to use the material i, stores the corresponding values for c, h, o, n, s, cl, price, q and ash. the user can choose as many components as desired. if the user choses to d. a. ionica, s.-a. maris, r. dicu, s. maris linear programming tool for the optimization of mixed biomass fuel recipes 147 use an additive by entering the number corresponding to it in the database, then the function stores the corresponding database values. in the end, the file containing the database is closed. the function standarde() asks the user about the standard values to be used during the computations. the user can choose a predefined standard or can choose to input and use his own standard. if previously an additive was chosen, the standards are modified accordingly and the new values are displayed. the function data() builds the linear program corresponding to the problem (5’) and additional constraint (7’) based on the data selected by the user through the functions intrari() and standarde(). the function simplex() applies the simplex algorithm to the linear program built by the function data(), by calling, in this order, the functions pivot(), formula() and optimize(). the functionpivot() finds the pivot a from the step 4 of the algorithm. the functionformula() computes the new basis in the simplex algorithm, based on the pivot previously computed. the functionoptimize() establishes if the solution computed by the function formula() is optimal or not. the function results() prints the output of the algorithm: if the solution is not optimal or does not sum to 100% (thus does not fulfill (7’)) returns a negative response; else, prints the percentage composition of the mixture, the price of each material and the resulting calorific value (in mj/kg). the function adaugamat() allows the user to add a new material to the database. in order to adda anew material, the user should be able to provide the values considered essential from the computational point of view, i.e. n, s, cl, ash and q. the results in figures 1 and 2 can be summarized as follows:  the user tries to find a mixture recipe containing wood chips, oak branches and chips, and vine branches, within the limits of the standard mbp b.  the first approach uses lignin as additive; the second approach uses no additive.  the optimal recipe using additives contains 47,20% oak branches and chips; 47,80% vine branches; 5% additive (lignin) and no wood chips, at a calorific value of 16,24 mj/kg  the optimal recipe in absence of additives contains 15,79% wood chips; 15,79% oak branches and chips; 68,42% vine branches, at a calorific value of 16,46 mj/kg. one should note that, while the user can choose virtually as many components as desired for a mixture, the software may not retain all of them for the optimal recipe.while from a computational point of view the number of components should be less than a maximum value (in our case we chose 20), the number of components chosen by the user is limited solely by the design of the pellet mill. also, one should note than not always the additive contributes to a higher yielding mixture in terms of calorific value. for now, the software does not list the chemical composition of the mixture in terms of n, s, cl and the ash content, as from a computational point of view it is not important. however, should an user decide to sell the pellets, these quantities should be computed and used on the product label, and the production price should be computed as well. 4. conclusions there are many ways to solve the practical problem of determining a mixture of solid biofuels which yields the highest calorific value while keeping the percentage of critical elements (n, s, cl) and ash content below some limit values. the traditional method, through experimental trials and statistical data processing is time and resources consuming, even using techniques for designing the experiment. in order to overcome these aspects, we propose a new approach, based on linear programming. this solution is fast, cheap and user-friendly and offers apriori data on how the field experiments should be conducted in order to obtain pellets with a certain chemical composition and calorific value. further improvements of our work should add the chemical composition of the mixture to the final results; should add a visual interface; and should be able to determine the best choices for two component mixtures (with or without additive) given only one component input. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 148 references ren21 (2015). renewables 2015 global status report, paris (ren21 secretariat) isbn 978-39815934-6-4 com (2013). a clean air programme for europe.retrieved from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:52013dc0918&from=en cen (european committee for standardization), en 17225-1. solid biofuels – fuel specification and classes, part 1 – general requirements, may 2014. cen (european committee for standardization), en 17225-2. solid biofuels – fuel specification and classes, part 2 – graded wood pellets, may 2014. cen (european committee for standardization), en 17225-6. solid biofuels – fuel specification and classes, part 6 – graded non-woody pellets, may 2014. maris, s., cernescu, l.m., maris, s.a., darvasi, d. &slavici, t. (2018). determining efficient mixtures of biomass for pellet production, in actual tasks in agricultural engineering (proceedings of the 46th international symposium on agricultural engineering, opatija, croatia, 27 february – 1 march 2018), opatija, croatia, 2018, pp. 359-368. maris, s.a., maris, s., & tucu, d. (2018). an investigation on the influence of additives on the properties of pellets made from blends of two biomass types, in xix. risk factors and food chain conference, hungary, mátrafüred, 26-28, of september, 2018. chumburidze, m., basheleishvili, i., khetsuriani, a. (2019). dynamic programming and greedy algorithm strategy for solving several classes of graph optimization problems, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience. 10(1) 2019, 101-107 chen, d.s., batson, r.g., dang, y. (2011). applied integer programming: modeling and solution. john wiley & sons; 2011 sep 20. ryan, k.n., adams, k.p., vosti, s.a., ordiz, m.i., cimo, e.d., manary, m.j. (2014). a comprehensive linear programming tool to optimize formulations of ready-to-use therapeutic foods: an application to ethiopia. the american journal of clinical nutrition. 2014 dec 1;100(6):1551-8. quijano-aviles, m.f., franco-agurto, g.l., suárez-quirumbay, k.., barragán-lucas, a.d., manzanosantana, p.i. (2016). linear programming formulation of a dairy drink made of cocoa, coffee and orange by-products. emirates journal of food and agriculture. 2016 aug 1;28(8):554. lee, m., kim, j. (2017). feasibility study and benefit analysis of biomass-derived energy production strategies with a milp (mixed-integer linear programming) model: application to jeju island, korea. korean journal of chemical engineering. 2017 may 13:1-5. krajnc, n. (2015). wood fuels handbook, food and agriculture organization of united nations, pristina, 2015, isbn 978-92-5-108728-2. garcía, r., pizarro, c., lavín, a.g., bueno, j.l. (2014). spanish biofuels heating value estimation. part i: ultimate analysis data. fuel. 2014 jan 30;117:1130-8. ferguson, t.s. (2000). linear programming: a concise introduction. retrieved from: http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tom/lp.pdf dorin alexandru ionica is phd student with the politehnica university of timisoara since 2017. he has a bsc in mechanical engineering and a msc in advanced mechanical engineering. currently, he is mechanical design engineer with hella. his interests are mechanical design, industrial engineering, mechanical stress, numerical simulations, optimization of processes. raluca dicu is phd student with the politehnica university of timisoara since 2017. she holds a bsc in chemical engineering and a msc in occupational health and safety. currently, she is occupational health and safety specialist with smithfield romania. her interests are chemical engineering, work safety, occupational health, applied artificial intelligence. d. a. ionica, s.-a. maris, r. dicu, s. maris linear programming tool for the optimization of mixed biomass fuel recipes 149 stefan maris is phd student with the politehnica university of timisoara since 2015. he holds a bsc in business administration and a msc in robotic systems with artificial intelligence. he was involved as a volunteer in educational projects with the ioan slavici highschool. his interests are: management, practical aspects of using ict in education, computer simulation, robots for agriculture and greenhouses, optimization of processes. simina maris is a phd student with the politehnica university of timisoara since 2015. she holds a bsc in mathemathics and physics and a bsc in business administration, as well as a msc in applied computer sciences. she is part-time assistant professor at the ioan slavici university and head of mathematics and sciences department at the ioan slavici high school, where she is also responsible of european projects. at the ioan slavici university she has responsibilities in teaching and research in the fields of mathematics (algebra, linear algebra, calculus, differential equations, statistics, econometry) and computer science (algorithms, programming). at the ioan slavici high school, where she teaches mathematics, physics and ict, she initiated and coordinates a various extracurricular activities in the stem field, including research articles concerning the influence of internet and ict in increasing the efficiency of educational process and stem education for disadvantaged students. her interests are: applied mathematics, mathematical modeling, linear programming, practical aspects of using ict in education, computer simulation, artificial intelligence, using artificial intelligence for optimization of processes, and programming. microsoft word issue-4.docx 141 unilateral and bilateral muscular dysbalances of knee joint in junior tennis players – boys and girls tomáš vodička faculty of sport studies, masaryk university brno, czech republic žerotínovo nám. 617/9, 601 77 brno, czechia phone: +420 549 491 111 tvodicka@fsps.muni.cz martin zvonař faculty of sport studies, masaryk university brno, czech republic žerotínovo nám. 617/9, 601 77 brno, czechia phone: +420 549 491 111 zvonar@fsps.muni.cz jiří pačes faculty of sport studies, masaryk university brno, czech republic žerotínovo nám. 617/9, 601 77 brno, czechia phone: +420 549 491 111 296808@fsps.muni.cz jiří zháněl faculty of sport studies, masaryk university brno, czech republic žerotínovo nám. 617/9, 601 77 brno, czechia phone: +420 549 491 111 116498@fsps.muni.cz gheorghe balint university of bacau, bacau, romania calea mărășești 157, bacău 600115 phone: 0234 542 411 gbalint@ub.ro abstract tennis game is typical for high intensity, sudden changes of directions, rapid slow down, acceleration and running for the ball. these movements lead to intensive strain to lower extremities, which is connected with selective activation of muscle groups and their further adaptation. during the muscle adaptation, muscular dysbalances might occur, which can result in an increased incidence of injuries and can be the cause for the reduced ability to maintain a balanced body posture during the game. with regard to this fact, the aim of this study was to establish, the strength level of knee extensors and flexors and assessment of their unilateral and bilateral differences, further to examine the strength level in tennis players group boys (ten_m, n=10, aged 13.23 ± 0.51), girls (ten_f, n=10, aged 13.34 ± 0.69) in comparison with groups of boys (cs_m, n=10, aged 13.04 ± 0.61) and girls (cs_f, n=10, aged 13.21 ± 0.55 let) who do not perform any sport activity. diagnostics of knee joints strength was carried out by isokinetic dynamometry (humac norm csmi, stoughton, usa) under two angular velocities (180°/s and 300°/s). significance of differences in mean values was assessed by using cohen´s d. data analysis proved that differences between ten and cs groups concerning age, body height and weight were insignificant. comparison of isokinetic strength level (180°/s) between ten_m and cs_m group proved significantly higher strength level of knee extensors (d=0.75) and flexors (d=1.27) in tennis players dominant extremity. also for non-dominant leg in ten_m group, was found significantly higher strength level of extensors (d=0.68) and flexors (d=1.05). assessment of bilateral differences in strength of knee extensors (d=0.11) and flexors (d=0.05) of dominant and non-dominant extremity in ten_m group did not prove their significance. neither in cs_m group was found significant brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 142 bilateral strength differences between knee extensors (d=0.07) and flexors (d=0.15) of dominant and non-dominant extremity. comparison of isokinetic strength level (300°/s) between ten_m and cs_m groups proved significantly higher strength level of knee extensors (d=0.91) and flexors (d=1.48) of dominant extremity in tennis players group. also in knee extensors (d=0.85) and flexors (d=1.05) of non-dominant extremity, was proved significantly higher strength level in tennis players group. assessment of bilateral differences in strength of knee extensors (d=0.11) and flexors (d=0.01) of dominant and non-dominant extremity in ten_m group did not prove their significance. neither in cs_m group was found significant bilateral strength differences between knee extensors (d=0.10) and flexors (d=0.21) of dominant and non-dominant extremity. comparison of isokinetic strength level (180°/s) of dominant extremity between ten_f and cs_f groups did not prove significant differences in the strength of extensors (d=0.46) and flexors (d=0.45). significant lateral differences in strength level in favour of ten_f group were however proved in knee extensors (d=0.56) and flexors (d=0.73) on non-dominant extremity. assessment of bilateral differences in strength of knee extensors (d=0.04) and flexors (d=0.24) of dominant and non-dominant extremity in ten_f group did not prove their significance. neither in cs_f group was found significant bilateral strength differences between knee extensors (d=0.12) and flexors (d=0.05) of dominant and non-dominant extremity. comparison of isokinetic strength level (300°/s) between ten_f and cs_f group proved significantly higher strength level of knee extensors (d=0.63) of dominant extremity in tennis players group, while the significance of difference was not proved in flexors (d=0.48). neither in knee extensors (d=0.46) of non-dominant extremity was proved significance of the difference, while in flexors (d=0.89) there was proved significantly higher strength level in ten_f group. assessment of bilateral differences in extensors (d=0.01) of dominant and non-dominant extremity in ten_f group did not prove its significance, flexors (d=0.56) of dominant and non-dominant extremity proved significant difference. in cs_f group was not proved significant bilateral difference in extensors (d=0.30) and flexors (d=0.25) of dominant and non-dominant extremity. keywords: isokinetic dynamometry, knee joint, muscular dysbalances, tennis, anterior cruciate ligament, injury. 1. introduction modern tennis is typical of a high intensity of movement during the ball exchanges. thanks to the evolution of new materials and technologies the game is becoming increasingly fast, in particular in the force of strikes and velocity of the ball; as a result the game duration required for obtaining the scores is shorter (ferrauti et al., 2014; schönborn, 2012). an increasing intensity of the game places high demands on the players’ condition. the sports performance in tennis is, among other factors, much influenced by the level of locomotion abilities among which the most important are strength, speed and coordination (crespo & miley, 1998; ferrauti et al., 2014; kovacs, 2006). the combination of the above-mentioned mechanical factors along with other factors (such as mental, somatic and tactical) influences the performance in tennis. born (1999) states that a high level of coordination is indispensable for achieving the best performance in tennis. in the realisation of individual game elements (sprinting to the ball, stabilising the body before the strike, striking the ball and returning to the basic game position) it is necessary to engage individual segments of the body in a correct and timely manner. sanchez & fernandéz (2016) say that coordination is understood as the ability of the body to carry out harmonic and efficient sequences of motions. in this sense, coordination enables the necessary regulation of body motion and it helps to optimise the engagement of other fitness abilities (namely strength, speed and flexibility). coordination, being greatly influenced by the central nervous system capacity, participates in improving the efficiency of processing information and, consequently, addressing the topical t. vodička, m. zvonař, j. pačes, j. zháněl , g. balint unilateral and bilateral muscular dysbalances of knee joint in junior tennis players – boys and girls 143 situations in the game. with regard to the high incidence of random and unpredictable situations in tennis. bourquin et al. (2003) emphasise that only players with the maximum level of neuromuscular (technical) and energetic (physical condition) adaptation can become the best global players. it is obvious that a high level of coordination is determined by the correct functioning of both the central nervous system and the locomotion system. with regard to the high engagement of lower extremities in the tennis game – both in basic tennis skills realization (posture at service, forehand, backhand, volley, smash) and in the player’s locomotion around the court – these activities are highly dependent on the optimum neuromuscular coordination (proprioception). a number of older and newer studies (crespo & miley, 1998; csanadi, 1973; ferrauti et al., 2014; schönborn, 2012) say that the level of neuromuscular coordination is closely connected with the dynamic stability which is an important factor in stabilising the body and thus plays an important role in the tennis game performance (hrysomallis, mclaughlin & goodman, 2006). in most game situations the lower extremities play an important role in maintaining the stability of the body, for example in running after the ball, abrupt changes of movement, stopping and returning to the basic position. it is possible to say that the level of strength in the knee joint and the ratio of strengths between the agonists and antagonists influence the stability. in tennis, the strength of lower extremities plays an important role in the balance of the entire body. from biomechanical aspect, tennis put a high strain on knee joint with its surrounding ligament and tendon structures. fernandez-fernandez et al. (2005, 2010), girard and millet (2004), ferrauti et al. (2014) claim that tennis game is typical for fast run after the ball combined with rapid deceleration, sudden changes of direction and other twist movements that are necessary to successful game performance. according to kibler et al. (2000), one successful point in tennis match requires more than eight abrupt changes of movement, while knee joint and its surrounding structures has to transfer 1.5–2.7times of tennis player’s weight. other authors (silva et al., 2003; jayanthi et al., 2005) continue that 4.3–19.2 % of all injuries in junior tennis players connected with tennis originate in knee area and are predominantly of chronic character. incidence of injury in tennis is attributed mainly to long-term overloading of stabilization structures of knee joint (ligaments and tendons). overloading of stabilization structures of knee joint might be connected with muscular dysbalances as the response of the body to specific movement operation during the game (sudden changes of direction, frequent acceleration, or slow down, running for the ball, etc.). some authors (mccall et al., 2014; jones & bampouras, 2010; schlumberger et al., 2006; hickey et al., 2009) believe that unilateral muscular dysbalance can be related to injury incidence or even suboptimal achievements of the sportsperson (young et al., 2012). fried and lloyd (1992) state that quadriceps of knee joint are of the crucial role during run and jumps, further they ensure joint stability during sudden changes of direction (turnings and/or rotation) and slow down (stop). hamstrings (muscles of back part of the thigh) are activated especially during run and they ensure knee stability in high speeds (hagood et al., 1990), while quadriceps (muscles of front part of the thigh) are prevailingly activated in lower speed (martini & nath, 2009). kellis and katis (2007) point to the fact, that balanced ratio between quadriceps and hamstrings strength is essential for joint stability, which further decrease the risk of injury. also others (fousekis et al., 2010; lawson et al., 2006; newton et al., 2006; stephens et al., 2005) consider functional strength ratio in lower extremities as a fundamental precondition for increased achievements of tennis players; these authors further emphasize the ratio importance in injury prevention (jones & bampouras, 2010; knapik et al., 1991; schlumberger et al., 2006; hickey et al., 2009). croisier et al. (2008), kellis and katis (2007), ellenbecker and roetert (1999) define balanced function of knee muscles as the ratio between maximal strength of hamstrings to quadriceps (so called h/q_ratio), assuming that this ratio can be considered as the indicator of muscular stabilization of knee joint. aagaard et al. (1998) state, that low strength ratio (h/q) can stand for lowered dynamic stabilization of knee joint, which might lead to an increased risk of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 144 injury. griffin (2000) complements this theory, saying that quadriceps are significantly stronger than hamstrings, which put an extreme strain on anterior cruciate ligament that supports hamstrings in knee stabilization function and that is exposed to risk of injury incidence. several authors (begalle et al., 2012; dargel et al., 2007; neumann, 2010; dai et al., 2012; hughes & dally, 2015) agree that anterior cruciate ligament rupture occurs particularly in situations connected with sudden changes of direction, jumps, landings, or rapid acceleration. dai et al. (2012) and yoo et al. (2015) further state that incidence of anterior cruciate ligament injury is higher in men ( it is however necessary to take a higher number of male tennis players into account), but in women the incidence is 4–8 times more frequent (sugimoto et al., 2012; flaxman et al., 2014; holcomb et al., 2007). according to barber-westin et al. (2006) and ahmadet et al. (2006), unilateral muscular dysbalance is one of the principal reasons leading to anterior cruciate ligament injury. in agreement with above mentioned authors, ellenbecker et al. (2007) state that optimal ratio between agonists and antagonists muscles (quadriceps and hamstrings) is of crucial importance from injury prevention aspects. authors further state that maintenance of optimal strength ratio between quadriceps and hamstrings has recently become a priority, especially due to more and more frequent incidence of injury connected with an anterior cruciate ligament rupture. numerous studies (hewett, 2000; rozzi et al., 1999; barber-westin et al., 2006) point to injury of anterior cruciate ligament that is affected by high strain on lower extremity in a wide range of sports. a potential way how to contribute to its prevention is timely and ongoing diagnostics of strength skills in young tennis players, with respect to normative values of strength level in junior age. based on the results of lower extremities diagnostics and assessment of unilateral (h/q) ratio as well as bilateral muscular asymmetry, it is advisable to apply convenient compensatory programmes aiming to elimination of unilateral muscular dysbalances. 2. methodology the study has been carried out in 4 intentionally selected groups. two groups consist of tennis players boys (ten_m, n=10) and tennis players girls (ten_f, n=10), the other two groups consist of children who are not engaged in any sport activity: non-sportive control group boys (cs_m, n=10) and non-sportive control group girls (cs_f, n=10). total number of probands was 40. the group of junior elite tennis players aged 12-14 was obtained by an intentional choice from tennis clubs in brno (sample ten), (sample ten_m; ten_f), control groups of boys and girls, aged 12-14 who are not registered in any sport club consist of elementary school pupils of želešice, brno (sample cs_m, cs_f). all probands reported right lower extremity as the dominant one; they were free of acute or chronic injury in lower back or lower extremity. legal representatives of children as well as probands have been familiarized with testing procedures, legal representatives consequently signed an informed consent with the participation in the survey, as approved by the ethical board of masaryk university. data have been obtained by calibrated isokinetic dynamometer humac norm csmi (stoughton, ma, usa). subjects were seated and the test focused on concentric extension and concentric flexion of knee muscle group. range of motion (rom) in this testing was determined as 90°. in order to eliminate function of other muscle groups, fixation belts were used, according to producer’s instructions. range of motion as well as testing protocol is in accordance with ellenbecker et al. methodology (2007). prior to maximum strength diagnostics, the respondents warm-up their muscles on bicycle ergometre for 5mins. six gradient submaximal repetitions with increasing strength intensity for each selected angular velocity, were carried out prior to measurement itself. the first attempt was familiarization one, followed by five attempts focusing strength with gradient force performance, so that the strength of each attempt would exceed the previous one of 20%. which means the last (fifth) attempt reached 100% of maximal strength level. 30 seconds’ rest was followed by five repetitions with maximal strength intensity. maximal values obtained from five executed attempts both for concentric flexion and concentric extension (with the inclusion of the gravitational constant) are considered as the output data. in accordance with t. vodička, m. zvonař, j. pačes, j. zháněl , g. balint unilateral and bilateral muscular dysbalances of knee joint in junior tennis players – boys and girls 145 ellenbecker methodology (1991) subjects were tested at angular velocity of 180°/s and 300°/s. these levels of angular velocities correspond with further authors (barber-westin et al., 2006, ellenbecker 2000), these angular velocities are also utilized in physiotherapy programmes focusing on lower extremities. results of isokinetic diagnostics are given in newtonmetres (nm). data have been processed by statistica 10 and microsoft excel software. substantive significance of differences in observed parameters was assessed with respect to intended choice of probands by using cohen´s d (cohen, 1992). results results of data analysis are shown in table 1 as basic statistic characteristics of anthropometric indicators. table 1. basic statistic characteristics of anthropometric indicators. (male) group ten_m (n=10) cs_m (n=10) variables/sch m ± sd m ± sd age 13.23 ± 0.51 13.04 ± 0.61 height (cm) 161.59 ± 9.22 161.50 ± 5.04 weight (kg) 49.57 ± 8.63 49.66 ± 7.83 notes: m … arithmetic mean sd … determinative deviation sch … statistic characteristics ten_m … tennis players cs_m … non-sportive boys as obvious from table 1, both groups ten_m and cs_m were almost identical as long as basic anthropometric characteristics are concerned; tiny differences have been found in age (dif=0.16 years, d=0.34) and in body height (dif=0.09 cm, d=0.01) both in favour of tennis players, and in body weight (dif=0.09 kg, d=0.01) in favour of control group of non-sportive boys. substantive significance of differences in basic anthropometric parameters of ten_m and cs_m group was assessed by using cohen´s d (cohen, 1992) proved low effect of age differences, and no effect in body height and weight. therefore both groups can be considered as comparable from age and basic anthropometric parameters point of view. table 2. basic statistic characteristics of anthropometric indicators. (female) group ten_f (n=10) cs_f (n=10) variables/sch m ± sd m ± sd age 13.34 ± 0.69 13.21 ± 0.55 height (cm) 161.95 ± 8.30 162.95 ± 6.95 weight (kg) 47.96 ± 8.24 48.03 ± 5.24 notes: (see table 1) table 2 also shows that ten_f and cs_f groups are almost identical at the level anthropometric parameters. very small differences (substantively insignificant) in favour of tennis players were found in age (dif=0.13let, d=0.20), difference in favour of control group of nonsportive girls were found in body height (dif=1.00 cm, d=0.13) and weight (dif=0.08 kg, d=0.01). substantive significance of differences in basic anthropometric parameters was assessed by using brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 146 cohen´s d proved low effect of age differences, and no effect in body height and weight. also in girls, we can claim that both groups are comparable from age and basic anthropometric parameters point of view. table 3 presents results of statistic analysis obtained by isokinetic dynamometry (strength of knee extensors and flexors for angular velocity 180°/s and 300°/s). table 3. basic statistic characteristics of results obtained by test of knee muscle groups in angular velocity of 180°/s and 300°/s (male) group ten_m (n=10) cs_m (n=10) variables dom m ± sd ndom m ± sd dom m ± sd ndom m ± sd ext_180 83.70 ± 23.89 81.30 ± 19.23 69.20 ± 13.03 70.20 ± 12.20 flex_180 45.60 ± 13.21 44.80 ± 14.27 31.50 ± 8.26 32.70 ± 7.58 ext_300 58.00 ± 12.66 56.60 ± 11.46 45.80 ± 13.96 47.10 ± 10.62 flex_300 27.90 ± 4.39 28.00 ± 7.86 18.90 ± 7.35 20.40 ± 6.48 h/q_180 54.48% 55.10% 45.52% 46.58% h/q_300 48.10% 49.46% 41.26% 43.31% notes: (see table 1) ext_180 … knee extensors, angular velocity 180°/s flex_180 … knee flexors, angular velocity 180°/s ext_300 … knee extensors, angular velocity 300°/s flex_300 … knee flexors, angular velocity 300°/s h/q_180 … knee flexors and extensors ratio, angular velocity 180°/s h/q_300 … knee flexors and extensors ratio, angular velocity 300°/s dom … dominant lower extremity ndom … nondominant lower extremity comparison between ten_m and cs_m group (in angular velocity of 180°/s) proved substantively significantly higher level of isokinetic strength in the knee of the dominant extremity both in knee extensors (dif=14.50nm, d=0.75, medium effect), as well as in flexors (dif=14.10 nm, d=1.27, high effect). also for non-dominant extremity was proved significantly higher level of isokinetic strength in tennis players both in knee extensors (dif=11.10nm, d=0.68, medium effect), as well as in flexors (dif=12.10 nm, d=1.05, high effect), which might be assigned to sport specialization. when assessing the ratio of knee extensors to flexors strength (h/q * 100%) in angular velocity of 180°/s in ten_m group, it was h/q=54,48% for dominant and h/q=55,10% for non-dominant extremity. in cs_m group, the ratio was significantly lower, as h/q=45.52% for dominant, and h/q=46.58% for non-dominant extremity, which might be, again, assigned to sport specialization. comparison of isokinetic strength between ten_m and cs_m group in angular velocity of 300°/s proved significantly higher level of knee extensors (dif=12.20 nm, d=0.91, high effect) and flexors of dominant extremity (dif=9.00 nm, d=1.48, high effect) in favour of tennis players group. similar tendency of isokinetic strength of the knee is apparent also in non-dominant extremity, higher strength level in tennis players was proved both in extensors (dif=9.50 nm, d=0.85, high effect), as well as in flexors (dif=7.60 nm, d=1.05, high effect). knee flexors and extensors ratio in ten_m group was in angular velocity of 300°/s for dominant h/q=48.10%, and h/q=49.46% for non-dominant extremity. in cs_m group was the ratio much lower, h/q=41.26% for dominant and h/q=43.31% for non-dominant extremity. comparisons of knee extensors and flexors between dominant and non-dominant low extremity in ten_m and cs_m group are given in table 4. t. vodička, m. zvonař, j. pačes, j. zháněl , g. balint unilateral and bilateral muscular dysbalances of knee joint in junior tennis players – boys and girls 147 table 4. bilateral strength difference in extensors and flexors of the knee in ten_m and cs_m groups for angular velocity of 180°/s and 300°/s (male) group ten_m cs_m variables dom x ndom effect dom x ndom effect ext_180 dif_ext=2.40 d=0.11 dif_ext=1.00 d=0.07 flex_180 dif_flex=0.80 d=0.05 dif_flex=1.20 d=0.15 ext_300 dif_ext=1.40 d=0.11 dif_ext=1.30 d=0.10 flex_300 dif_flex=0.10 d=0.01 dif_flex=1.50 d=0.21 * notes: (see table 3) dif_de … difference right/left lower extremity, extensors dif_df … difference right/left lower extremity, flexors … no effect * … small effect ** … medium effect *** … large effect in angular velocity of 180°/s, there was found little strength difference in knee extensors of ten_m group (de_180_dom x de_180_ndom, dif=2.40 nm, i.e. 2.86%) in favour of dominant extremity. very little strength difference was also found in flexors (df_180_dom x df_180_ndom, dif=0.80 nm, i.e. 1.75%). assessing substantive significance did not prove significant lateral differences either in knee extensors (d=0.11, no effect) or flexors (d=0.05, no effect) of dominant and non-dominant extremity. in angular velocity of 300°/s there was also found little strength difference in knee extensors of ten_m (de_300_dom x de_180_ndom, dif=0.11 nm i.e. 2.41%) in favour of dominant extremity. very little strength difference was also found in flexors (df_300_dom x df_300_ndom, dif=0.10 nm, i.e. 0.35%), this time in favour of non-dominant extremity. assessing substantive significance did not prove significant lateral differences either in knee extensors (d=0.11, no effect) or flexors (d=0.01, no effect) of dominant and non-dominant extremity. in angular velocity of 180°/s, there was found very little strength difference in knee extensors of cs_m group (de_180_dom x de_180_ndom, dif= 1.00 nm, i.e. 1.42%)in favour of non-dominant, left extremity. there was also found little strength difference in knee flexors (df_180_dom x df_180_ndom, dif=1.20nm, i.e. 3.66%) in favour of non-dominant extremity. there was not proved substantive significance of differences between dominant and non-dominant extremity either in knee extensors (d=0.07, no effect) or flexors (d=0.15, no effect). in angular velocity of 300°/s there was found little strength difference in knee extensors of cs_m group (de_300_dom x de_300_ndom, dif=1.30 nm, i.e. 2.76%) in favour of nondominant extremity. bilateral comparison of flexors strength proved little strength difference (df_300_dom x df_300_ndom, dif=1.50 nm, i.e. 7.35%), again in favour of non-dominant extremity. assessment of substantive significance did not prove significance of lateral differences in strength between dominant and non-dominant extremity in knee extensors (d=0.10, no effect) and it proved low substantive significance of differences in flexors (d=0.21, low effect). table 5 shows results of statistic analysis obtained by isokinetic dynamometry in ten_f and cs_f groups. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 148 table 5. basic statistic characteristics of results obtained by test of knee muscle groups in angular velocity of 180°/s and 300°/s (female) group ten_f (n=10) cs_f (n=10) variables dom m ± sd ndom m ± sd dom m ± sd ndom m ± sd ext_180 74.00 ± 16.40 73.30 ± 16.43 67.00 ± 13.42 65.50 ± 10.84 flex_180 37.50 ± 11.70 40.60 ± 13.81 32.90 ± 8.35 32.50 ± 7.00 ext_300 47.10 ± 11.01 47.20 ± 9.15 39.90 ± 11.55 43.00 ± 8.88 flex_300 20.60 ± 6.96 24.90 ± 8.26 17.60 ± 5.43 18.90 ± 4.74 h/q_180 50.67% 55.38% 49.10% 49.61% h/q_300 43.73% 52.75% 44.11% 43.95% notes: (viz. table 4) in comparison with cs_f group (angular velocity 180°/s), ten group showed a higher level of isokinetic strength (but substantively insignificant) in knee extensor of the dominant leg (dif=7.00 nm, d=0.46, low effect). higher level of strength (but substantively insignificant) in favour of ten_f group, was also found in knee flexors (dif=4.60 nm, d=0.45, low effect). concerninng non-dominant leg, ten_f group proved higher level of strength in both knee extensors (dif=7.80 nm, d=0.56, medium effect) and flexors (dif=8.10 nm, d=0.73, medium effect). knee flexors and extensors ratio (h/q * 100%) in ten_f group was in angular velocity of 180°/s h/q=50.67% for dominant and h/q=55.38% for non-dominant extremity. values in cs_f group were lower, both for dominant h/q=49.10% and non-dominant extremity h/q=49.61%. comparison of the strength level (angular velocity 300°/s) between ten_f and cs_f groups revealed higher strength level in ten_f group for knee extensors of dominant leg (dif=7.20 nm, d=0.63, medium effect), as long as flexors are concerned, the difference is insignificant (dif=3,00 nm, d=0,48, low effect). identical tendency of isokinetic strength of the knee is apparent also in non-dominant extremity, higher strength level (but substantively insignificant) in ten_f group was proved in extensors (dif=4.20 nm, d=0.46, low effect), difference for flexors was substantively significant (dif=6.00 nm, d=0.89, high effect). knee flexors and extensors ratio in ten_f group was in angular velocity of 300°/s h/q=43.73% for dominant and h/q=52.75% for non-dominant extremity. in cs_f group was the ratio h/q=44.11% for dominant and h/q=43.95% for nondominant extremity. results of lateral comparison of knee extensors and flexors between dominant and nondominant low extremity in ten_f and cs_f groups are given in table 6. table 6. lateral strength difference in extensors and flexors of the knee in ten_f and cs_f groups for angular velocity of 180°/s and 300°/s (female) group ten_f cs_f variables dom x ndom efekt dom x ndom efekt ext_180 dif_ext=0.70 d=0.04 dif_ext=1.50 d=0.12 flex_180 dif_flex=3.10 d=0.24 * dif_flex=0.40 d=0.05 ext_300 dif_ext=0.10 d=0.01 dif_ext=3.10 d=0.30 * flex_300 dif_flex=4.30 d=0.56 ** dif_flex=1.30 d=0.25 * notes: (see table 3) in angular velocity of 180°/s, there was found little strength difference in knee extensors of ten_f group (de_180_dom x de_180_ndom, dif=0.70 nm, i.e. 0.94%) in favour of dominant extremity. slightly higher strength difference was found in flexors (df_180_dom x t. vodička, m. zvonař, j. pačes, j. zháněl , g. balint unilateral and bilateral muscular dysbalances of knee joint in junior tennis players – boys and girls 149 df_180_ndom, dif=3.10 nm, i.e. 7.63%) in favour of non-dominant extremity. there was not proved substantive significance of bilateral differences in knee extensors (d=0.04, no effect) or flexors (d=0.24, low effect) of dominant and non-dominant extremity. in angular velocity of 300°/s, there was also found little strength difference in knee extensors of ten_f group (de_300_dom x de_300_ndom, dif=0.10 nm, i.e. 0.21%), in favour of non-dominant extremity. higher strength difference was found in flexors (df_300_dom x df_300_ndom, dif=4.30 nm, i.e.17.26%), again in favour of non-dominant extremity. assessing bilateral differences in knee extensors of dominant and non-dominant extremity did not prove substantive significance (d=0.01, no effect), in case of flexors was proved medium substantive significance of difference (d=0.56, medium effect).in angular velocity of 180°/s, there was found little strength difference in knee extensors of cs_f group (de_180_dom x de_180_ndom, dif=1.50 nm, i.e. 2.23%) in favour of dominant extremity. there was also found very little strength difference in knee flexors (df_180_dom x df_180_ndom, dif=0.40 nm, i.e. 1.21%) in favour of dominant extremity. there were not proved substantively significant differences either in knee extensors (d=0.12, no effect) or flexors (d=0.05, no effect) of dominant and non-dominant extremity. in angular velocity of 300°/s there was found strength difference in knee extensors of cs_f group (de_300_dom x de_300_ndom, dif=3.10 nm, i.e. 7.20%) in favour of non-dominant extremity and there was found little strength difference in flexors (df_300_dom x df_300_ndom, dif=1.30 nm, i.e. 6.87%), again in favour of non-dominant extremity. there were proved insignificant bilateral differences between knee extensors (d=0.30, low effect) and flexors (d=0.25, low effect) of dominant and non-dominant extremity. 3. discussions and conclusions assessment of bilateral muscular dysbalances in knee joint area in ten_m group under angular velocity of 180°/s was carried out by using cohen´s d and it did not prove substantively significant strength differences in extensors (d=0.11) or flexors (d=0.05). neither angular velocity of 300°/s proved substantively significant bilateral muscular dysbalance in extensors (d=0.11) or flexors (d=0.01). substantively significant lateral differences of strength in cs_m group were not proved under angular velocity of 180°/s, or 300°/s either for extensors (d=0.07, or d=0.10) or flexors (d=0.15, or d=0.21). in ten_f group, under angular velocity of 180°/s, were not proved substantively significant bilateral muscular dysbalances either in extensors (d=0.04) or flexors (d=0.24). under angular velocity of 300°/s, were not proved substantively significant lateral strength differences in extensors (d=0.01), but they were proved in flexors (d=0.56). in cs_f group were not proved substantively significant lateral strength differences in angular velocity of 180°/s neither in extensors (d=0.12), or flexors (d=0.05). under angular velocity of 300°/s exist low substantively significant differences in extensors (d=0.30) and flexors (d=0.25). our conclusions are in concord with ellenbecker and roetert (1995) who examined diagnostics of lower extremity strength in junior tennis players aged 11–17. their conclusions point out to bilateral symmetry of knee extensors and flexors both in male and female tennis players. in case of bilateral muscular asymmetry incidence, this cannot be attributed to selective strength development, or the effect of domineering caused by muscles adaptation connected to tennis. hughes and dally (2015) and harput et al. (2014) claim that strength ratio between quadriceps and hamstrings is of crucial importance from knee joint stability aspect, which significantly lowers especially tensile forces to the anterior crossed ligament. dorgo et al. (2012) state that standard way to define mutual activation of knee joint muscles is the computation of their ratio arising from maximal strength (h/q * 100%). strength ratio (h/q ratio) in adults has been described by numerous studies. many studies engaged in strength of knee joint diagnostics suggest that the ratio of strength between agonists and antagonists muscle groups is recommended as h/q=60-70%. this ratio is given as the indicator of an ideal muscle stabilization of knee joint, which is connected with brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 150 elimination of risk injury of anterior crossed ligament. as mentioned in the synthesis of knowledge and further in the study (barber-westin, 2006; ahmad, 2006), unilateral muscular dysbalances, i.e. lowering the ratio (under the level of 60%) might be connected with an increased risk of injury in adults. there exist quite few studies focusing on defining unilateral strength ratio (h/q ratio), that would describe unilateral strength ratio in tennis players of older school age. ellenbecker and roetert (1995) were dealing with defining of unilateral strength ratio and they managed to examine a group of junior tennis players, boys (n=62), aged 13–19, and a group of tennis players, girls (n=25), aged 13–18. diagnostics of strength skills was carried out through identical angular velocities (180°/s and 300°/s) and the authors proved strength ratio h/q=59% in boys for right leg and h/q=61% for left leg (under 180°/s). under angular velocity of 300°/s, the ratio in boys was h/q=62% for right leg and h/q=63% for left leg. for girls group, the authors carried out the test only for angular velocity of 300°/s. the ratio for right leg was proved as h/q=66% and for left leg h/q=69%. later studies by the same author ellenbecker et al. (2007) was carried out in more homogenous group, as long as age is concerned. diagnostics of strength skills was realized in boy and girl groups aged 11–15, and then 16–21. results of unilateral strength ratio tests (180°/s) in junior tennis players aged 11-15 in boys group proved h/q=62% for dominant leg and h/q=63% for non-dominant one. under angular velocity of 300°/s, the strength ratio of muscular groups was h/q=60% for dominant leg and h/q=66% for non-dominant one. in concord with recommendation of the authors (ellenbecker et al., 2007), it is essential that further studies should aim the strength diagnostics at younger tennis player aged 10-12 and 12-14 in order to understand and describe strength skills development in each age category and gender groups. zuša et al. (2015) dealt with isometric diagnostics ok knee joint in girls (n=6) aged 11.4 ± 0.5 and the strength ratio for dominant (right leg) was proved as h/q= 38% and for left leg it was h/q=42%. in our tested group ten_m (aged 12-14) the strength ratio (under 180°/s) was h/q=54.48% for dominant and h/q=55.10% for nondominant extremity. under angular velocity of 300°/s, the strength ratio for extensors was h/q=48.10% for dominant and h/q=49.46% for non-dominant extremity. in cs_m group (angular velocity of 180°/s) the strength ratio was h/q=45.52% for dominant and h/q=46.58% for nondominant extremity. under angular velocity of 300°/s, the strength ratio for dominant extremity was h/q=41.26% and for non-dominant extremity it was h/q=43.31%. in ten_f group (180°/s) the strength ratio was h/q=50.67% for dominant and h/q=55.38% for non-dominant extremity. under angular velocity of 300°/s, the strength ratio for dominant leg was h/q=43.73% and for nondominant extremity it was h/q=52.75%. in group of non-sportive girls (180°/s), the strength ratio was h/q=49.10% for dominant and h/q=49.61% for non-dominant extremity. under angular velocity of 300°/s, the strength ratio was h/q=44.11% for dominant and h/q=43.95% for nondominant extremity. conclusions of our study stand for a missing part of the lower extremity strength profile of older school age category. acknowledgement this publication was written at masaryk university as part of the project “application of hand and isokinetic dynamometry for diagnostics of strength level and lateral asymmetries in sport” number muni/a/1363/2015 and “diagnostics of strength skills in elite junior tennis players“ number rozv/20/fsps/11/2015 with the support of the specific university research grant, as provided by the ministry of education, youth and sports of the czech republic in the year 2016. this publication was written at masaryk university as part of the project "diagnosis of level of strength in the context of influence of age, gender, somatic and sport-specific factors" number muni/a/1335/2016 with the support of the specific university research grant, as provided by the ministry of education, youth and sports of the czech republic in the year 2017. t. vodička, m. zvonař, j. pačes, j. zháněl , g. balint unilateral and bilateral muscular dysbalances of knee joint in junior tennis players – boys and girls 151 references aagaard, p., simonsen, e. b., magnusson, s. p., larsson, b., & dyhre-poulsen, p. (1998). a new concept for isokinetic hamstring: quadriceps muscle strength ratio. american journal of sports medicine, 26(2), 231-237. ahmad, c. d., clark, m., heilmann, n., schoeb, j. s., gardner, t., r., & levine, w. n. (2006). effect of gender and maturity on quadriceps-to-hamstring strength ratio and anterior cruciate ligament laxity. the american journal of sports medicine, 34, 370-374. barber-westin, s. d., noyes, f., r., & galloway, m. (2006). jump-land characteristics and muscle strength development in young athletes: a gender comparison of 1140 athletes 9 to 17 years of age. the american journal of sports medicine, 34, 375–84. bass, s., delmas, p. d., pearce, g., hendrich, e., tabensky, a., & seeman, e. (1999). the differing tempo of growth in bone size, mass, and density in girls is region specific. the journal of clinical investigation, 104(6), 795-804. begalle, r. l., distefano, l. j., blackburn, t., & padua, d. a. (2012). quadriceps and hamstrings coactivation during common therapeutic exercises. journal of athletic training, 47(4), 396405. born, h. p. (1999). la mejora de la forma física y de la coordinación en jóvenes tenistas. itf coaches review, (17). bourquin, o., coordination. (2003). strength and conditioning for tennis. in reid, m, quinn, a, and crespo, m (ed.), london, england: itf, p. 71-77. cohen, j. (1992). a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 155-159. crespo, m., & miley, d. (1998). itf advanced coaches manual. united kingdom: international tennis federation. croisier, j. l., ganteaume, s., binet, j., genty, m., & ferret, j. m. (2008). strength imbalances and prevention of hamstring injury in professional soccer players: a prospective study. the american journal of sports medicine, 36(8), 1469-1475. csanadi, a. (1973). futbol teknik-taktik tiirkiye futbol federasyonu teknik kitap yayinlari. ankara. dai, b., herman, d., liu, h., garrett, w. e., & yu, b. (2012). prevention of acl injury, part i: injury characteristics, risk factors, and loading mechanism. research in sports medicine, 20(3/4), 180-197. dargel, j., gotter, m., mader, k., pennig, d., koebke, j., & schmidt-wiethoff, r. (2007). biomechanics of the anterior cruciate ligament and implications for surgical reconstruction. strategies trauma limb reconstr, 2(1), 1-12. ellenbecker, t. s. (2000). knee ligament rehabilitation. 1. st ed. philadelphia, pa: churchill livingstone. ellenbecker, t. s., & roetert e. p. (1995). concentric isokinetic quadriceps and hamstring strength in elite junior tennis players. isokinetic exercise science, 5, 3-6. ellenbecker, t. s., & roetert, e. p. (1999). testing isokinetic muscular fatigue of shoulder internal and external rotation in elite junior tennis players. journal of orthopaedic and sports physical therapy, 29(5), 275-281. ellenbecker, t. s., roetert, e. p., sueyoshi, t., & riewald, s. (2007). a descriptive profile of agespecific knee extension flexion strength in elite junior tennis players. british journal of sports medicine, 41, 728-732. fernandez-fernandez, j., fernandez-garcia, b., mendez-villanueva, a., & terrados, n. (2005). exercise intensity in tennis: simulated match play versus training drills. journal of medicine and science in tennis, 10, 6-7. fernandez-fernandez, j., kinner, v., & ferrauti, a. (2010). the physiological demands of hitting and running in tennis on different surfaces. journal of strength & conditioning research, 24(12), 3255-3264. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 152 ferrauti, a., maier, p., & weber, k. (2014). handbuch für tennistraining: leistung, athletik, gesundheit. aachen: meyer & meyer. flaxman, t. e., smith, a. j., & benoit, d. l. (2014). sex-related differences in neuromuscular control: implications for injury mechanisms or healthy stabilisation strategies? journal of orthopaedic research, 32(2), 310-317. fousekis, k., τsepis, e., & vagenas, g. (2010). lower limb strength in professional soccer players: profile, asymmetry, and training age. journal of sports science and medicine, 9, 364-373. fried, t., & lloyd, g. j. (1992). an overview of common soccer injuries. management and prevention. sports medicine, 14(4), 269-275. girard, o., & millet, g. p. (2004). effects of the ground surface on the physiological and technical responses in young tennis players. science and racket sports, 43-48. griffin, l. y., agel, j., albohm, m. j., arendt, e. a., dick, r. w., garrett, w. e., & wojtys, e. m. (2000). noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries: risk factors and prevention strategies. journal of the american academy of orthopaedic surgeons, 8(3), 141-150. hagood, s., solomonow, m., baratta, r., zhou, b. h., & d'ambrosia, r. (1990). the effect of joint velocity on the contribution of the antagonist musculature to knee stiffness and laxity. american journal of sports medicine, 18(2), 182-187. harput, g., soylu, a. r., ertan, h., ergun, n., & mattacola, c. g. (2014). effect of gender on the quadriceps-to-hamstrings coactivation ratio during different exercises. journal of sport rehabilitation, 23(1), 36-43. hewett, e. t. (2000). neuromuscular and hormonal factors associated with knee injuries in female athletes. sports medicine, 5(29), 313-327. hickey, k. c., quatman, c. e., myer, g. d., ford, k. r., brosky, j. a., & hewett, t. e. (2009). methodological report: dynamic field tests used in an nfl combine setting to identify lower-extremity functional asymmetries. journal of strength & conditioning research, 23, 2500-2506. holcomb, w. r., rubley, m. d., lee, h. j., & guadagnoli, m. a. (2007). effect of hamstringemphasized resistance training on hamstring: quadriceps strength ratios. journal of strength & conditioning research, 21(1), 41-47. hrysomallis, c. (2008). preseason and midseason balance ability of professional australian footballers. journal of strength and conditioning research, 22(1), 210211. hughes, g., & dally, n. (2015). gender differences in lower limb muscle activity during landing and rapid change of direction. science sports, 30(3), 163-168. jayanthi, n., sallay, i. p., hunker, p., & przybylski, m. (2005). skill-level related injuries in recreational competition tennis players. journal of medicine and science in tennis, 10, 1215. jones, p. a., & bampouras, t. m. (2010). a comparison of isokinetic and functional methods of assessing bilateral strength imbalance. journal of strength & conditioning research, 24, 1553-1558. kellis, e., & katis, a. (2007). quantification of functional knee flexor to extensor moment ratio using isokinetics and electromyography, journal of athletic training 42(4), 477-485. kibler, w. b., & safran, m. r. (2000). musculoskeletal injuries in young tennis player. clinical journal of sport medicine, 19(4), 781-792. knapik, j. j., bauman, c. l., jones, b. h., harris, j. m., & vaughan, l. (1991). preseason strength and flexibility imbalances associated with athletic injuries in female collegiate athletes. the american journal of sports medicine, 19, 76-81. kovacs, m, s. (2006). applied physiology of tennis performance. british journal of sports medicine, 40, 381-386. lawson, b. r., stephens, t. m., devoe, d. e., & reiser, r. f. (2006). lower-extremity bilateral differences during step-close and nostep countermovement jumps with concern for gender. journal of strength & conditioning research, 20, 608-619. t. vodička, m. zvonař, j. pačes, j. zháněl , g. balint unilateral and bilateral muscular dysbalances of knee joint in junior tennis players – boys and girls 153 martini, f., & nath, j. (2009). fundamentals of anatomy and physiology (8th ed.). usa: pearson education. mccall, a., carling, c., nedelec, m., davison, m., le gall, f., berthoin, s., & dupont, g. (2014). risk factors, testing and preventative strategies for non-contact injuries in professional football: current perceptions and practices of 44 teams from various premier leagues, british journal of sports medicine, 48(18), 1352-1357. neumann, d. (2010). kinesiology of the musculoskeletal system. st. louis, mo.: mosby/elsevier. newton, r. u., gerber, a., nimphius, s., shim, j. k., doan, b. k., robertson, m., pearson, d. r., craig, b. w., häkkinen, k., & kraemer, w. j. (2006). determination of functional strength imbalances of the lower extremities. journal of strength & conditioning research, 20, 971977. rozzi, l. s., lephart, m, s., gear, w., & fu, h. u. (1999). knee joint laxity and neuromuscular characteristics of male and female soccer and basketball players. the american journal of sports medicine, 27(3), 312-319. sanchez, d., & fernandéz, j. (2016). proposal for the early development of coordination skills in tennis players. itf coaching and sport science review, 69(24), 10-12. schlumberger, a., laube, w., bruhn, s., herbeck, b., dahlinger, m., fenkart, g., schmidtbleicher, d., & mayer, f. (2006). muscle imbalances fact or fiction? isokinetics and exercise science, 14, 3-11. schönborn, r. (2012). strategie + taktik im tennis. gelnhausen: wagner verlag. silva, r. t., takahashi, r., berra, b., cohen, m., & matsumoto, m. h. (2003). medical assistance at the brazilian junior tennis circuit-a one-year prospective study. journal of science and medicine in sport, 6, 14-18. stephens, t. m., lawson, b. r., & reiser, r. f. (2005). bilateral asymmetries in max effort singleleg vertical jumps. biomedical sciences instrumentation, 41, 317-322. sugimoto, d., myer, g. d., bush, h. m., klugman, m. f., mckeon, j. m., & hewett, t. e. (2012). compliance with neuromuscular training and anterior cruciate ligament injury risk reduction in female athletes: a meta-analysis. journal of athletic training, 47(6), 714-723. yoo, j. h., lim, b. o., ha, h., lee, s. w., oh, s. j., lee, y. s., & kim, j. g. (2010). a metaanalysis of the effect of neuromuscular training on the prevention of the anterior cruciate ligament injury in female athletes. knee surgery sport traumatics arthroscopy, 18(6), 824830. young, w. b., james, r., & montgomery, i. (2012). is muscle power related to running speed with changes of direction? journal of sports medicine and physical fitness, 42(3), 282-288. zuša, a., lanka, j., čupriks, l., & dravniece, i. (2015). a descriptive profile of isometric muscle strength and muscle strength imbalance in young tennis players. baltic journal of sport & health sciences, 4(99), 54-61. microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx 119 teaching emotions, stress, and burnout among teachers in secondary education ramona-cristina bălănescu department for teaching career training and socio-humanities university politehnica of bucharest splaiul independenței 313, bucurești 060042, romania prc73ro@yahoo.com abstract this study aims to investigate the emotions and stressful events experienced by secondary education teachers. a number of 132 teachers in lower and upper secondary education were sampled following a convenience procedure. a mixed and transversal design blending both qualitative and quantitative research was preferred for the present study. during the last month of the school year, seven focus groups were conducted with teachers in secondary education. the focus groups aimed to identify a corpus of events and experiences considered to be stressful. a number of 43 events were identified. the second stage of the study consisted of applying the instruments to assess job-related stress, burnout, and teaching emotions. to measure teaching emotions, the tes questionnaire (frenzel, pekrun, goetz, daniels, durksen, becker-kurz, and klassen, 2016) was applied. to measure burnout among teachers in secondary education, the maslach burnout inventory educators survey (maslach & jackson, 1981) was administered. the paper reveals the presence of negative emotions associated with teaching. in addition, the level of distress and burnout are described and discussed. to conclude, the article reflects on the effects of teachers’ emotions on their performance, students’ motivation, and learning outcomes. keywords: stress; emotions; burnout; organisational environment; educational organisation; stressors. 1. introduction the term etymologically originates in the old french word “estrece” meaning “narrowness,oppression” and in the latin word “stringere” meaning “to compress, to tighten”, both referring to a constraint. if, at the beginning of the 16th century, the word “stress” referred, in english, to hardship or affliction, and later the termdesignated a seriesof nouns having related meanings, such as: strain, pressure, burden, force, effort, load, constraint;in the 19thand 20th centuries, numerous researchers intuited the existenceof stress the bodily response to exterior pressures. even charles darwin said that fear mobilizes the body, thus helping it to overcome danger. however, the history of stress started in the physiology laboratory of dr. hans selye, m.d., who continued the researches performed by cannon and claudein. he introduced the conceptof “general adaptation syndrome”, later referred to as the stress, and the notion of “adaptation disease”. selye is also the one who admitsthat no diseases are caused by stress, however, a too high an intensity of stress may lead to exhaustion, namely to the collapse of the adaptation mechanisms. stress is a complex phenomenon, which is yet to be fully elucidatedby the scientists.the specialised literature teems with definitions given to the notion of stress, some more comprehensive, others more restrictive. here are some of them below: selye (1950) defines stressas a “general adaptation syndrome” in order to designate an ensemble of adaptive reactions of the body to the non-specific action of “physical aggressors”. differentstressors cause not only a specific effect (lesions, burns, immune reactions, infectious diseases, etc.) but alsoanon-specific effect, common to all these agents: the state of stress. stressis “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change”, states selye as well. paul popescu neveanu (1978) gives two meanings to the term of stress: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 120 the first one refers to a situation, a stimulus placing the body in a state of tension; the second one refers to the special state of tension of the body itself whereby it mobilizes all its defense resources in order to cope with a physical or psychological aggression (strong emotion). mihai golu (1981) speaks about the psychological stressas a “state of tension, strain and discomfort determined by affectogenicagents having a negative significance, of frustration or repression of certain states of motivation (needs, desires, aspirations), of difficulty or impossibility to solve certain problems”. n. sillamy (1996) presents stress as “a global, non-specificresponse of the body to any demand made upon it.” thus, this definition suggests that the being reacts to the environment demands and must adapt to the surrounding conditions. most of the definitions given to stress focus on the interaction between the body and the environment, but the environment demands can cause stress only when the subjects consider they cannot handle them or that by complying with them, reaching other purposes may be endangered. some authorsemphasize the motivation showing that the stressoccurs when reaching a goal is threatened, while other state that it is the result of excessive stimulation that causes tension, and discomfort. all these seem however insufficientin defining a phenomenon as complex as stress. even though different visions related to the concept de of stress exist, common aspects can also be found. it appears following the interaction between the body and the environment, at a certain time and in a certain situation, and in all of them the subject is confronted with a dangerous situation, which requires effort and adaptation. 1.1. stress in the organizational environment organizational stress appears when the professional demands exceed the resources the human being has. “the organizational stressis understood by the individual as the excessive environment or work-related pressure, and the reaction to it shall lead to the occurrence of some of the organizational stress effects”, states gary johns (1998). it is important to make the distinctionbetween “eustress” + and “distress” -, at the work place. if a demand arising from the professional environment is motivating for the individual, it acts as a positive stress factor. meanwhile, if a constraint is perceived as unpleasant, difficult and it manifests permanently, it may lead to stress (“distress”), and to its sale negative effects. at the workplace, maybe the most exhaustive definition of the negative stress (distress) is: the change in the psychological, physical, emotional or behavioral state of a person, because of the constant pressure exercised on him/her in order to actin ways that are incompatiblewith his/her real or perceived ability, and with his/her available time and resources. in other words, workplace stress can be defined as the most harmful physical and psychological response occurring when the job requirements do not match the employee’s resources, abilities or needs. the workplace stresscan compromise the health and even lead to diseases. according to cranwell-ward (apud sava, 2004, p.181), the most affected organizations, concerning the perceived stress, are the organizations whose scope of business is service provision, which underwent ethnological changes, and which were significantly restructured. the category of service-providing organizationsalso includes the educational organization. concerning the multitudeof stress-generating factors, the following five categories can be identified in the professional activity, according to sava (2004, pg. 182): factors intrinsicto the performed work, factorsrelated to the employee’s role within the organization, factorsconcerning the workplace relations, factors concerning the career development, factorsconcerning the organizational structure and climate. moreover, the stressorscan also be differentiated depending on the employee’s position and on the type of work he/she performs. for instance, workers are mainly affected by the negative workplace relations and by the inappropriate working conditions, the public r.-c. bălănescu teaching emotions, stress, and burnout among teachers in secondary education 121 servants are stressedby the ambiguity of their role, the role conflicts and job overwork, and in the jobs involving care-taking, such as those of teachers or medical staff, the main stress-generating factorsare bureaucracy, lack of material resources and of control overthe activity, overwork or the lack of social support (tennant, 2001, apud sava, 2004, pg. 182). in the case of such employee categories, whose professional activity involves providing servicesin direct contact with the beneficiaries, an exhaustion syndrome may settle in (burnout), a special type of occupational stress, as it was also called. it may occur in individualsperforming professional activitiesinvolving having an intense relation with the clients (attorneys-at-law, medical staff, teaching staff).compared to the stress affecting everyone else, the exhaustion syndrome only occurs in the persons who were enthusiastic at the beginning of their career, having high expectations and objectives, which are not met later (schaufeli and buunk, 1996, apud sava, 2004, pg. 183). other authors (jinga, 2003, p. 111) mention other stress-generatingsources also for the people working in schools in romania: change, continuous reform of the romanian educational system, untimely salary payment, fear they might lose their jobs, faulty management, establishment of unrealistic objectives, unfair distribution of the available resources, and of the tasks perdepartments and people, subjectiveand unprincipled assessments, favoring certain persons to the detriment of others, inappropriate application of the motivational leverages (particularly of the rewards and sanctions), states of tension and conflicts between teachers and pupils, between teachers and principals, or between the teachers and themselves. in this context, this research aims at assessing the emotionsassociatedto the teaching activity, and the levels of stress and burnout in teachers in the secondary education. several hypotheses were formulated. thus, we assume that school, as an educational environment with certain specificity elements, is an organizational environmentwhere teachers experience stressgeneratingevents (h1). complementarily, we assume that the teaching activity, as a dominant activityin the school environment, also has negative deactivating state emotions associated to it (h2). 2. method 2.1. participants the sample in this study is the result of a convenience sampling procedure. a number of 132 teachers in lower and upper secondary education were sampled. most of the subjects in the sample are female (87%). the teachers’ ages ranged from 24 to 57 (𝑀 = 39.35, 𝑆𝐷 = 10.19).in average, the participants had been teaching for an average of 12.16 years (sd = 10.94 years). related to their teaching experience, 44.9% of the respondents hold the didactical qualification level i, whilst only 14.3% are junior teaching staff. the persons residing in the urban areas amount to approximately 60 per cent of the entire sample. as concerns the residence counties, 50% of the subjects live in bucharest and iasi. cumulatively, the subjects inhabiting the counties of brasov, bacau, valcea and bistrita-nasaud create a segment of 26.8%. less numerous are thesubjects in the counties of ialomita, arges, neamt, bihor, vaslui, hunedoara, and braila. 2.2. study design a mixed and transversal design blending both qualitative and quantitative research was preferred for the present study. during the last month of the school year, seven focus groups were conducted with teachers in secondary education. the focus groups aimed to identify a corpus of events and experiences considered to be stressful. a number of 43 events were identified. the second stage of the study consisted of applying the instruments to assess job-related stress, burnout, and teaching emotions. the questionnaires were self-administered through the survey gizmo platform (wapi method web assisted personal interviews). 2.3. measures teaching emotions. to measure teaching emotions, the tes questionnaire (frenzel, pekrun, goetz, daniels, durksen, becker-kurz, and klassen, 2016) was applied. the questionnaire for brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 122 assessing the teacher’s emotions (tes) was prepared and validated by frenzel et al. (2016). the tool includes scales for measuring three emotions that the authors consider relevant in the didactic activity: enjoyment of teaching, anxiety, and anger. the original tool version was tested on a sample of german and english-speaking teachers (n = 944). the option to select within the sample german and english-speaking teachers is argued by the need to test the equivalence across languages. the initial version of the questionnaire was prepared in german, having as an ideatic basis the contributions of the teachers invited to focus groups. a base of 37 items was elaborated. the semantic redundancy evaluation was performed based on the contribution of experts. the tool fidelity can be assessed as good to very good in the case of items concerning the teaching activity. 70 ≤ 𝛼 ≤ .77., namely, as very good to excellent for the items concerning the emotions associated to the relation with the pupils(.89 ≤ 𝛼 ≤ .92). the correlations between the items are statistically significant at a level of p<.01. in order to test the internal validity, the authors preferred the confirmatory factor analysis. the model with the best metric qualities is the one with three factors – corresponding to the three investigated emotions. the version applied in the context of this study has a fidelity similar to the previously mentioned one, 𝛼 = .79, for all the scales. the confirmatory factor analysis validatedthe model with three factors (enjoyment, anger, and anxiety). tes includes 24 items rated on four-point likert scale labelled with strongly disagree, disagree, agree, and strongly agree. job-related stress. in order to develop an appropriate instrument for evaluating the workplace stress, sevenfocus groupswere organized with teachers fitting the same socialdemographicprofile describedin the previous section. thirty-seventeachers attended the group discussions. they were asked to describe three of the most stressful situationsthey had found themselves in during the school year, which was ongoing at that time. the participants’ combined answers in the focus groupsled to identifying 43 stressful situations and events that were considered to be stressful for the school-like organizations. the nature of these stress-generating situations varied from conflicts with the pupils or the parents to conflicts with the colleagues or school manager. the participants in thequestionnaire-based research (n=132) assessed whether and to what extent they had experienced these stressing events during the school year. if experienced, an event was rated on a five-point likert scale where 1 suggests the lowest level of stress and, in opposition, 5 indicates the highest level of stress. by doing so, the author could investigate the amount of subjective experiences in teaching practice and their level of stress. burnout.to measure burnout among teachers in secondary education, the maslach burnout inventory educators survey (maslach & jackson, 1981) was administered. the instrument assesses three dimensions of burnout, namely emotional exhaustion (ee), depersonalization (dep), and personal accomplishment (pa). the 22 itemsincluded in the questionnairestructure are drafted under the formof statements concerning feelings or attitudes. each item is assessed on a 7point frequency scale: 0 is “never”, 6 is “every day”. the fidelity analysis revealed a coefficient of good to very good 𝛼 = .79 for all the three scales. 2.4. data analysis the analysis of the datacollected through the focus groupswas based on techniques specificto the content analysis. the author was interested in identifying the events with stressor potential. the respective experiences were formulated or reformulatedbased on the semantic redundancy criterion. for analyzing the quantitative data, the statistical package for social sciences software was used (spss, version 20.0). frequency analyses, averages (and the standard average deviation), correlation analyses (calculation of pearson’s r coefficient), variant analyses (anova) and multivariate regression models were applied in order to test thelevels of stress and burnout, respectively, the emotionsassociated to teaching and the relations between them. in the following section, the results of the previously mentioned statistical analyses are presented. r.-c. bălănescu teaching emotions, stress, and burnout among teachers in secondary education 123 3. results as stated in the previous sections, this study aimed at assessing the emotions associated to teaching, and the levels of stress and burnout in teachers in secondary education. the statistical analyses furthermore aimed at identifying the relations between the three variablesof interestfor the research. 3.1. teaching emotions the application of the tes questionnaire revealed a low level of the enjoyment of teaching: 𝑀 = 8.2, 𝑆𝐷 = 1.21, 𝑀𝑖𝑛 = 4.13, 𝑀𝑎𝑥 = 15.7).on age groups and didactical qualification level, the enjoyment of teaching shows low scores in the young persons, women and men, junior or holding the permanent teacher certification. the tukey t test is statistically significant for the differences between the seniority segments of 1 to 5 years, 6 to 10years, and 11 to 20 years, respectively, and for the seniority segmentsof 6 to 10 years, 11 to 20 years, 21 to 30 years, and over 30 years, respectively. a similar situation can also be foundin the persons over 41, holding, at least the didactical qualification level 2. given the fact that the didactical qualificationvariableis correlated to the seniority in the educational system, we identified the same tendencies in the correlation analysis. based on the results obtained in the context of this study, we can state that the teachers in the secondary education, who haverecently entered the system, experience low levels of the enjoyment of teaching, a phenomenonthat is also characteristicfor the persons having a seniority of over 20 years in the educational system. another emotion assessed through the tes questionnaire is anger (𝑀 = 11.7, 𝑆𝐷 = 3.28). out of the entire investigated sample, 78% of the subjectsstated they frequently feltupset while teaching. in the case of this emotion, the correlation coefficient, r, is not statistically significant (𝑝 = .62).the high average value calculated for this state emotionleads us to the decision to reject the null hypothesis and to accepthypothesis h2, according to which the school environment also has negative deactivating state emotions associated to it. the acceptance of this hypothesis is also supported by the descriptive statistics calculated for the third emotion measured through the tes questionnaire, anxiety: 𝑀 = 9.7, 𝑆𝐷 = 2.98. out of the subjects participating in the research, 67% stated they were frequently concernedthat the teaching activityis not heading in the envisaged direction. almost half of the respondents (48.7%) stated that the didactical activity planning and design are activitieswith an anxiogenic potential. the two negative and deactivating emotions associated to teaching influence the variance of the stress and burnout variables, as resulted from the variant analysis anova. 3.2. stress and burnout scores the stress score for teacherswas measured by the frequency (of dichotomicnature presence or absence) of the events consideredto be stress-generating, to which a sum-type score of the reported rating for every event was added. thus, out of the 43 events identifiedwithin the focus groups, the teachers reported having experienced, on an average, 26.3 events (sd=6.17). in order to examine the relationship between the social-demographic characteristics of the interviewed teachers (age, gender, didactical qualification, professional experience in the educational system), several regression models have been tested. through the regression analysis, the variables concerning the subjects’ social-demographic characteristicswere regressed to the number of stressful events experiencedby the participants. the data in table 1 shows that not all the b regression coefficients are significantly different from zero. thus, age and didactical experienceare variables that can explain the variationof the variable number of experienced stressful events (𝑝 < .01).the young less experienced teachers can experience a higher number of stressful events. the gender and didactical qualification variables do not bring additional explanations for the variation of the variablenumber of experienced stressful events. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 124 table 1. relations between the number of stressful events and socio-demographic characteristics non-standardized 𝛽 standardized 𝛽 t significance age -.351 -.496 6.157 .0001 gender .075 .089 .948 .256 didactical qualification .186 .197 1.962 .117 professional experience -.225 -.258 2.984 .001 the variables age and professional experience were introduced as predictors for the variable number of stressful events. the coefficients of multiple correlation r, ofdetermination 𝑅 and the adjusted coefficients of determination are shown in table 2.𝑅 = .180, 𝑝 = .001, which means that the regression model explains the existence of approximately 18% of the variable number of experienced stressful events. table 2. regression model summary r r2 f p .437 .180 5.578 .001 as regards the burnout score obtained upon the mbi inventory, the variables definingthe subjects’ social-demographic characteristicshold a higher explanatory statistical power. overall, the variablesage, gender, didactical qualification, and professional experience explain 23% of the burnout variable variation. differences could be found concerning the three dimensions measured for the burnout: ee, dep, pa (see table 3). thus, the variables age, gender, didactical qualification are significant predictors of the emotional exhaustion. young and less professionally experienced teachers have higher burnout scores. table 3. standardized 𝛽 and p-values for social-demographic characteristics and burnout score emotional exhaustion depersonalization self-accomplishment age -.358** -.173** .069* gender .092* -.273* -.098** didactical qualification -.068* .224 .242 professional experience -.122* .067 .233 note: *𝑝 < .05; **𝑝 < .01 as regards the depersonalization dimension, age and gender are the predictor variables. young women have the tendency tostronger feel the depersonalization, comparedto men. the final measured dimension is theself-accomplishment. the same variables as in the case of depersonalization are self-accomplishment predictors. women recorded lower scores comparedto men for this dimension. the correlation analysis showed astrong and positive correlation between the number of stressful events experiencedby teachers and the burnout score: 𝑟 = .78, 𝑝 = .02. 3.3. discussion the scholar discussion about teachers’ professional development and competencies traditionally focused on rational factors (junjun, 2016): knowledge, skills, and capabilities. however, teaching proved to be a space of emotions. as franzel et al. (2016, p. 148) argue r.-c. bălănescu teaching emotions, stress, and burnout among teachers in secondary education 125 ‘classrooms abound in emotions’.meanwhile stress and burnout among teachers have been largely researched, little research has been done within the field of teaching emotions. moreover, emotions in education are seen as predictors of students’ achievement and learning outcomes (hagenauer, hascher, & volet, 2015). in the context of the present study, the author aimed to explore teachers’ emotions and their classroom and school-related stressful experiences. the results recorded and described hereinabove highlightedlow scores for the enjoyment of teaching in young persons, women,and men alike, juniors or holding the permanent teaching certificate. the same goes for the persons having a seniority of more than 20 years in the educational system. moreover, young teachers having less professional experience recorded higher burnout scores. the results revealed low levels of enjoyment of teaching for both the teachers with less than five years of teaching experience and for those with more than 20 years of experience. in the case of young teachers (it will be preferred this expression in accord to their level of professional experience), various explanations can contribute to understanding the low levels of the enjoyment of teaching. during focus groups, young teachers reported themselves as low motivated for the teaching career. as chen (2013) states, noviceslack of development motivation and thus remain unconcerned for their professional development (p. 1405). according to possible selves theory (markus & nurius, 1986), the novices in the present study frequently experience a conflictual state of possible selves. many of the teachers participating in this research stated their aspirations could be hardly fulfilled in the context of their present work. they fear that they cannot enjoy teaching and achieve educational goals because they need to focus on how to quite noisy classrooms. moreover, these novices declare that they must struggle with the lack of motivation of the students they work with. during group discussions, the teachers mentioned different ideal selfimages as teachers in secondary education. there were subjects claiming that teaching is a provisional stage in their career and they think to quit teaching after several years. this segment of teachers tend to be less involved in the teacher – student relationship. research suggest that `good teacher–student relationships serves as a protective factor for maintaining young adolescents’ interest, active engagement in learning and healthy development` (opdenakker &maulana, 2010; maulana et al. 2011; skinner & belmont, 1993 as cited by maulana, opdenakker, stroet, &bosker, 2013, p. 1348).other subjects declared they want to be respectable teachers. however, in present, they do not feel like being respected by their students and, in some cases, by students’ parents either. only three participants expressed the fact that their teaching career is motivated by their passion for the educational process. these novices became teachers because they believed that the job would allow them to interact with others and increase students’ interest and even passion for a certain subject matter. thus, the decreasing levels of motivation of teachers are a real issue within the romanian educational system. however, romanian young teachers’ beliefs and motivation are not a singular situation over the world. other educational systems face similar issues (kumuzava, 2013; maulana et al., 2013; thomson,turner,&nietfeld, 2012). according to the results of a research performed by panisoara and his collaborators (2010), the young teachers bring with them, into theeducational organization, a series of fears concerning how their professional activity will unfold. they feel helpless, unsupported by the management and stressed regarding certain decisions they should make. in case the junior teachers can feel a strong level of stressin their relationship with their manager, the latter must display effective communication skills, he/she must explain to them what their role is or the type of appraisal they will be subject to and to lower their unjustified anxiety. as stated before, lower scores of enjoyment of teaching have been computed for senior teachers with over twenty years of teaching experience. a complex of factors can contribute to the understanding of decreasing levels of enjoyment of teaching in senior teachers. consistent with other studies (see the work of zakari, christian, brefo-manuh, marian, & thekla, 2016), the most powerful factors affecting the enjoyment of learning appear to be financial motivation, the extensive range of duties and paper work, and classroom realities. during focus groups, most teachers have brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 126 mentioned a gap between the ideal and the actual selves. the teachers who brought into discussion their passion for the educational process also mentioned a conflict between what they had expected to do and what do they do. a significant number of peripheral duties prevented them to pursue their initial goals. these findings are consistent with those of kumuzava (2013). in most of the cases, the senior teachers complained about the paper work which shifted their attention form the subject matter to secondary aspects of their career. over the passing years, some of the senior teachers lost their initial enthusiasm and even the passion for teaching. a remarkable contribution to this loss of motivation and passion had the financial issues.the financial motivation of teachers in romania has become a matter of debate in romania. this is also a matter of concern in the view of the fact that teachers’ motivation is a key factor in the quality assurance process.dwomoh, agyenim-boateng, ahmed, boachie (2016) state that the teachers’ motivation is influenced by how equitable the employees see the financial reward in relation to the skills, effort and knowledge (p.27). the present study revealed that senior teachers perceive a large gap between their self-perception of teaching competency and the financial reward and compensations they receive. the cited authors proved that there is a significant positive association between financial motivation of teachersand their performance (dwomoh et al., 2016, p. 33). the specialized literatureshows various opinions on how to deal with stress or not. some authorsstate that it cannot be avoided, others are of opinion that the positive stressis necessary,while others provide suggestions on how to control it. for instance, giulia negura (apud jinga, 2003, p. 121), a psychologist by training, is of opinion that by training to increase the capacity ofadaptation, which can also be done individually, stress can be controlled. the quoted psychologist thus provides the following recommendations: accept that you are stressedout and accept your own limits!; admit that you need a change in the pace you live your life with!; research the stress causes!; change the working conditions you find stressful!; find time to relax!; settle the interpersonal conflicts you are involved in, but do it calmly!; discuss with someone close about your problems!; be positive!; set realistic objectives!; if none of this was useful, call on a psychologist with confidence! 4. conclusion so, staying in good shape, but also being in a good mood, having an appropriate diet and enjoying good rest, having a proper work and life discipline, the right climate, within the family and at the workplace, and doing outdoor activities can be ways to prevent stressful situations or remediesto fight it. of course, solutions can be found both at individual, and organizational levels. every manager or employee will identify the appropriate remedy for them, depending on the characteristics of their personalities and of their environment or life, and on the characteristics of the organizational climate, allowing them to prevent stressful situations, but also overcoming them. references chen, w. (2013). analysis of motivation for young college teachers' development from the perspective of two-factor theory. the 19th international conference on industrial engineering and engineering management: engineering management, 1405 – 141. doi 10.1007/978-3-642-38433-2-147. dwomoh, g., agyenim-boateng, k., ahmed, m., boachie, w. k. (2016). assessing financial motivation and its influence on performance of teachers in government senior high schools in ghana. european journal of business and innovation research, 4(1), 25-35. frenzel, a. c., pekrun, r., goetz, t., daniels, l. m., durksen, t. l. becker-kurz, b., & klassen, r. m. (2016). measuring teachers’ enjoyment, anger, and anxiety: the teacher emotions scales (tes).contemporary educational psychology, 46, 148-163. golu, m. (1981).dictionar de psihologie socială (social psychology dictionary).bucharest: stiintifica si enciclopedica publishing house. r.-c. bălănescu teaching emotions, stress, and burnout among teachers in secondary education 127 hagenauer, g., hascher, t., & volet, s. e. (2015). european journal of psychology of education, 30(4), 385-403. jinga, i. (2003). managementul învățământului, cu privire specială la învățământul preuniversitar (educational management concerning especially the pre-university educational system).bucharest: ase publishing house. johns, g. (1998). comportament organizational (organisational behaviour).bucharest:economica publishing house, 435. junjun, c. (2016). understanding teacher emotions: the development of a teacher emotion inventory. teaching and teacher education, 55, 68-77. kumazawa, m. (2013). gaps too large: four novice efl teachers' self-concept and motivation. teaching and teacher education, 33, 45-55. markus, h., & nurius, p. (1986). possible selves. american psychologist, 41(9), 954-969. maslach, c., & jackson, s. (1981). maslach burnout inventory manual. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. maulana, r., opdenakker, m.c. stroet, k., & bosker, r. (2013). changes in teachers’ involvement versus rejection and links with academic motivation during the first year of secondary education: a multilevel growth curve analysis. journal of youth and adolescence, 42(9), 1348-1371. neveanu, p.p. (1978).dicționar de psihologie (psychology dictionary).bucharest:albatros publishing house. pânișoară, i.o., & pânișoară, g. (2010). motivarea pentru cariera didactică (motivation for the didactic career). publishing house of the universityof bucharest. sava, f. (2004). oboseala, stresulsi accidentele de munca (tiredness, stress and occupational accidents). inz. bogathy (ed.), manual de psihologia munciisi organizationala (manual of work and organisational psychology) (pp 181-183).iași:polirom publishing house. selye, h. (1950).the psychology and pathology of exposure to stress.montreal: publishing house xxx. sillamy, n. (1996). dicționar de psihologie (psychology dictionary).bucharest: univers enciclopedic publishing house. thomson, m. m., turner, j. e., nietfeld, j. l. (2012). a typological approach to investigate the teaching career decision: motivations and beliefs about teaching of prospective teacher candidates. teaching and teacher education, 28(3), 324-335. zakari, a., christian, n. o., brefo-manuh, a. b., marian, m., & thekla, b. (2016). assessing financial motivation and its influence on performance of teachers in government senior high schools in ghana. international journal of information, business and management, 8(4), 14-33. microsoft word issue3.docx 22 programming with term logic j. martín castro-manzano faculty of philosophy & humanities upaep av 9 pte 1908, barrio de santiago, 72410 puebla, pue., mexico +52 (222) 229 94 00 josemartin.castro@upaep.mx l. ignacio lozano-cobos faculty of philosophy & humanities upaep av 9 pte 1908, barrio de santiago, 72410 puebla, pue., mexico +52 (222) 229 94 00 luisignacio.cobos@upaep.edu.mx paniel o. reyes-cárdenas faculty of philosophy & humanities upaep av 9 pte 1908, barrio de santiago, 72410 puebla, pue., mexico +52 (222) 229 94 00 panielosberto.reyes@upaep.mx abstract: given the core tenets of term functor logic and aristotelian databases, in this contribution we present the current advances of a novel logic programming language we call term functor logic programming language. keywords: syllogistic, logic programming, aristotelian database. 1. introduction under direct influence of (sommers, 1967 ; sommers, 1982 ; sommers & englebretsen, 2000, thompson, 1982 ; mostowski, 1957), in other place we have offered an intermediate term logic for relational syllogistic that is able to deal with a wide range of common sense inference patterns (we call it the system tfl+); an under direct influence of (englebretsen, 1987 ; englebretsen, 1991 ; englebretsen, 1996 ; englebretsen & sayward, 2011) and tfl+, in other place we have presented the diagrammatic counterpart of tfl+ as to perform visual reasoning (we call it the system tfl⊕) (castro-manzano & pacheco-montes, 2018). now, under the influence of this couple of systems and the notion of aristotelian database (mozes, 1989), here we introduce the current advances of a novel logic programming language we call term functor logic programming language (tflpl). to better understand these advances consider, as in the following diagram, that the language we are suggesting here is the result of a series of works whose root lies in the logic of aristotle and go down three different paths: one for sommers’ algebraic term logic, one for leibniz’s linear diagrams, and one for veatch’s realist interpretation of aristotelian logic. these paths are grounded within three specific implementations: sommers’ logic, together with the recognition of the importance of non-classical quantifiers, result in the system tfl+; sommer’s project and leibniz’s import on terms and linear diagrams impact on englebretsen’s systems that, in turn, influence the system tfl⊕; and veatch’s ideas influence the computational work developed by mozes. together, these last three implementations guide the maturation of tflpl so that we obtain a computational application defined after an enriched logic of terms. j. m. castro-manzano, l. i. lozano-cobos, p. reyes-cárdenas programming with term logic 23 hence, in this contribution we try to reach a simple goal: to present the advances of a programming language designed after the system tfl+. in order to reach this goal we briefly present the system tfl (sommers 1967, sommers 1982, sommers and englebretsen 2000, englebretsen 1987, englebretsen 1996, englebretsen and sayward 2011) in the context of what we have called «the received view of logic» (§2) and the concept of aristotelian database (§3); then we expound the advances of the programming language tflpl by giving some details about its syntax and its working based upon the system tfl+ (§4); finally, we close with some remarks concerning future work (§5). 2. the received view of logic logic is about inference and in order to study inference we usually make use of first order languages. thus, for example, propositional logic, first order logic, and first order logic with identity are logical systems defined by first order languages: {p, q, r, ..., ¬, ⇒}, {a, b, c, ..., x, y, z, ..., f, g, h, ..., a, b, c, ..., ¬, ⇒, ∀, ∃}, and {a, b, c, ..., x, y, z, ..., f, g, h, ..., a, b, c, ..., ¬, ⇒, ∀, ∃, =}, respectively. the origin of this habit is associated with the representative advantages first order languages provide when compared to traditional systems. russell (1937), for instance, made popular the idea that the limits of the traditional logic programme, i.e. syllogistic (vide appendix a), were due to a commitment to a syntax of terms, that is, a grammar of triads composed by a subject term and a predicate term joined by a copula. carnap (1930) generalized this idea to all traditional logic when he maintained that its available syntax was predicative only, as in “all (some) greeks are (not) mortal” or “socrates is (not) mortal”. although it is true that the syntactical shortcomings of the ternary syntax (subject-copulapredicate) produce difficulties for the clear representation of singular, relational, or compound propositions, the major problem ternary syntax creates is term homogeneity. geach argues: our distinction between names and predicables enables us to clear up the confusion, going right back to aristotle, as to whether there are genuine negative terms: predicables come in contradictory pairs, but names do not, and if names and predicables are both called “terms” there will be a natural hesitation over the question “are there negative terms?” (geach, 1980, p. 64) according to this argument, term homogeneity does not allow us to preserve the fundamental noun-verb distinction. this incapacity of the ternary syntax is problematic because the function of a noun and the function of a predicate are not interchangeable: while the function of a noun is naming, the function of a predicate is predicating. thus, as geach argues, the interchange of subject and predicate terms is a syntactical issue that creates an undesired semantic effect, for only a noun can be a logical subject, but a noun cannot maintain its role as a noun if it suddenly becomes a predicate. so, this syntactical issue turns out to be also a semantic impossibility: between a term logic and genuine logic, goes geach (1962, p. 54), there can only be war. by contrast, genuine logic, namely first order logic (fol), follows the syntax of the fregean paradigm that results from dropping terms and favoring a binary grammar of function-argument pairs. these pairs promote a syntax that includes individual constants (a, b, c, ...) or variables (x, y, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 24 z, ...) as arguments that refer to individual objects as logical subjects, plus relations (a, b, c, ...) as functions that refer to concepts, not objects, as logical predicates. thus, for instance, a proposition like “socrates is mortal” could not be understood as a relation between a subject term and a predicate term, but as a function-argument pair were a constant, a saturated and complete element, say s, denotes an object named “socrates” that works as an argument of the unsaturated and incomplete expression “… is mortal”, say mx, in such a way that ms represents the proposition “socrates is mortal”: clearly, this syntactical representation does not allow any term shifting. moreover, given this binary syntax, a proposition like “all men are mortal” cannot be understood as a relation of terms but as a relation between variables and quantifiers, say ∀x(hx⇒mx), so that there are clear syntactic differences between singular propositions (like “socrates is mortal”) and universal propositions (like “all men are mortal”): this will be relevant below. hence, according to these remarks, genuine logic follows the syntax of the fregean paradigm that results from dropping the use of a ternary syntax (subject-copula-predicate) in order to favor a binary syntax (function-argument). this binary syntax promotes the use of first order languages. this syntactical choice is the one that seems familiar to us because it is the one we follow when we teach, research, and apply contemporary logic: this is the received view of logic. however, it comes as no surprise that this view might very well feel familiar, but it is certainty not natural. woods comments (emphasis is ours): it is no secret that classical logic and its mainstream variants aren’t much good for human inference as it actually plays out in the conditions of real life—in life on the ground, so to speak. it isn’t surprising. human reasoning is not what the modern orthodox logics were meant for. the logics of frege and whitehead & russell were purpose-built for the pacification of philosophical perturbation in the foundations of mathematics, notably but not limited to the troubles occasioned by the paradox of sets in their application to transfinite arithmetic. (woods, 2016, p. 404) so, even if genuine logic (classical, according to woods) has been fundamental for the study of inference, both in cognitive science and artificial intelligence, it amazes us that, despite its original purpose, it is constantly used as a bona fide tool for representing natural language reasoning. let us consider, to this effect, what we call “bar-hillel’s challenge”: i evaluated as to its validity with the help of formal logic. i regard this fact as one of the greatest scandals of human existence. why has this happened? how did it come to be that logic which, at least in the views of some people 2,300 years ago, was supposed to deal with evaluation of argumentation in natural languages, has done a lot of extremely interesting and important things, but not this? (staal, 1969, p. 256) this is certainly a scandal. however, since the late 60’s fred sommers defended a revision of the traditional ternary syntax under the veil of bar-hillel’s challenge. sommers, closer to a project of naturalization of logic, was concerned with how we reason. so, for instance, sommers asked himself how is that a rational agent realizes that the following pair of beliefs is inconsistent: (c1) all dogs are animals but (c2) someone who loves a dog does not love an animal. of course fol is capable of offering an answer to the previous problem by way of first order languages (let c1 be ∀x(px⇒ax); and c2 be ∃x∃y((py∧qxy)∧∀z(az⇒¬qxz))) and the proper deductive methods (table 1), but as we will see, this capacity is not necessarily relevant for understanding natural language reasoning. j. m. castro-manzano, l. i. lozano-cobos, p. reyes-cárdenas programming with term logic 25 table 1. a proof of the contradiction between c1 and c2 in fol 1 ∀x(px⇒ax) c1 2 ∃x∃y((py∧qxy)∧∀z(az⇒¬ qxz)) c2 3 ∃y((py∧qay)∧∀z(az⇒¬qa z)) e∃ 2, a/x 4 (pb∧qab)∧∀z(az⇒¬qaz) e∃ 3, b/y 5 pb∧qab e∧ 4 6 ∀z(az⇒¬qaz) e∧ 4 7 ab⇒¬qab) e∀ 6, b/z 8 pb⇒¬ab) e∀ 1, b/x 9 pb e∧ 5 1 0 qab e∧ 5 1 1 ab e⇒ 8 and 9 1 2 ¬qab e⇒ 7 and 11 1 3 qab∧¬qab i∧ 10 1 4 x efsq 13 3. basic aspects of term functor logic in this context, sommers (1967, 1982, 2000) and englebretsen (2000, 1987, 1996) developed a plus-minus algebra, term functor logic (tfl), that deals with syllogistic by using terms rather than first order language elements such as individual variables or quantifiers.10 according to this algebra, the four categorical propositions can be represented by the following syntax:11  sap := -s+p = -s-(-p) = -(-p)-s = -(-p)-(+s)  sep := -s-p = -s-(+p) = -p-s = -p-(+s)  sip := +s+p = +s-(-p) = +p+s = +p-(-s)  sop := +s-p = +s-(+p) = +(-p)+s = +(-p)-(-s) given this algebraic representation, the plus-minus algebra offers a sound, complete, and simple method of decision for syllogistic: a conclusion follows validly from a set of premises if and only if i) the sum of the premises is algebraically equal to the conclusion and ii) the number of conclusions with particular quantity (viz., zero or one) is the same as the number of premises with particular quantity (englebretsen, 1996, p. 167). thus, for instance, if we consider a valid syllogism from figure 1, we can see how the application of this method produces the right conclusion (table 2). 10that we can reason without first order language elements such as individual variables or quantifiers is not news (cf. quine 1971, noah 1980, kuhn 1983), but sommers’ logical project has a wider impact: that we can use a logic of terms instead of a first order system has nothing to do with the mere syntactical fact, as it were, that we can reason without quantifiers or variables, but with the the general view that natural language is a source of natural logic (cf. sommers 1982, sommers 2005, moss 2015). 11we mainly focus on the presentation by englebretsen (1996). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 26 table 2. an aaa-1 type syllogism proposition representation 1. all dogs are animals. -d+a 2. all german shepherds are dogs. -g+d ⊢ all german shepherds are animals. -g+a in the previous example we can clearly see how the method works: i) if we add up the premises we obtain the algebraic expression (-d+a)+(-g+d)=-d+a-g+d=-g+a, so that the sum of the premises is algebraically equal to the conclusion and the conclusion is -g+a, rather than +ag, because ii) the number of conclusions with particular quantity (zero in this case) is the same as the number of premises with particular quantity (zero). this algebraic approach is also capable of representing relational, singular, and compound propositions with ease and clarity while preserving its main idea, namely, that inference is a logical procedure between terms. for example, the following cases illustrate how to represent and perform inferences with relational (table 3), singular12 (table 4), or compound propositions13 (table 5). for a brief but systematic explanation of the rules employed in what follows vide appendix b. table 3. a reasoning with relational propositions proposition representation rule 1. some horses are faster than some dogs. +h+(+f+d) p 2. dogs are faster than some men. -d+(+f+m) p 3. that which is faster than what is faster than some men, is faster than some men.14 -(+f+(+f+m))+(+f+m) p 4. +h+(+f+(+f+m)) don 1,2 ⊢ some horses are faster than some men. +h+(+f+m) don 3,4 table 4. a reasoning with singular propositions proposition representation rule 1. all men are mortal. -m+l p 2. socrates is a man. -s+m p ⊢ socrates is mortal. -s+l don 1,2 table 5. a reasoning with compound propositions proposition representation rule 1. if p then q -[p]+[q] p 2. p +[p] p ⊢ q +[q] don 1,2 these basic notions of tfl are sufficient for offering a solution to the problems posed by traditional term logic that we metioned above. but moreover, these features provide elements that 12provided singular terms, such as socrates, are represented by lowercase letters. 13given that compound propositions can be represented as follows, p:=[p], q:=[q], ¬p:=-[p], p→q:=-[p]+[q], p˄q:=+[p]+[q], and p˅q:=--[p]--[q], the method of decision behaves like resolution (cf. noah 2005). 14or in other words: the relation faster than is transitive. j. m. castro-manzano, l. i. lozano-cobos, p. reyes-cárdenas programming with term logic 27 allow us to explain, for instance, why we instantaneously judge that (c1) all dogs are animals and (c2) someone who loves a dog does not love an animal are mutually inconsistent. let us consider, to this effect, the proof of the contradiction between c1 and c2 in tfl (table 6). table 6. a proof of the contradiction between c1 and c2 in tfl 1 −p2+a2 c1 2 +(+q12+p2)−(+q12+a2) c2 3 +(+q12+a2)−(+q12+a2) don 1, 2 if we compare the proof of the contradiction between c1 and c2 in fol (table 1) with the proof in tfl (table 6), we can clearly observe that in fol not only we need a more complex representation by using first order elements (say, variables and quantifiers), but also a more complex proof in order to justify there is a contradiction, and yet, such proof does not provide any lights as to why we instantaneously see a contradiction between c1 and c2. by contrast, tfl has a more natural grammar and a simpler set of rules for performing inference. and since fol, due to its very origin, does not have these features, it cannot offer cognitively relevant information as to how we actually reason. and so, even if fol has merits within the foundations of mathematics, it cannot be the logic of natural language. and as we can suspect at this point, this story is akin to the history of logic programming languages. 4. aristotelian databases indeed, according to mozes (1989), the abandon of traditional logic, i.e. syllogistic, by computer scientists in order to favor fol is not justified (cf. kowalski, 1988). syllogistic is a term logic that was originally created with the purpose of understanding and guiding human reasoning; but as we have seen, this was not the original purpose of fol, and so a term logic not only has cognitive import, but also computational interest. consequently, mozes developed the concept of aristotelian database based upon traditional logic. a database is aristotelian when it has the following features:  the ability to give natural-language explanations of deductions.  the ability to volunteer information, in answer to yes/no questions, if a stronger or weaker version of the “yes” answer can be proved.  the ability to point out results that cannot be proved but seem to be likely possibilities.  the ability, in answer to yes/no questions, to suggest “missing rules”, i.e. rules that if added to the database, will allow proving a “yes” answer.  the ability to suggest instances in which non-deductive forms of reasoning, such as analogy or induction, are likely to be useful. to obtain these features, the structure of a database à la mozes is defined by a set of constants that represent objects and a set of relations that represent properties (we will refer to this issue later). information about objects is expressed by facts, that is, by relations applied to objects, for instance, man (socrates). in this sense, these databases follow a syntax similar to prolog’s (cf. sterling & shapiro, 1994; bratko, 2001). a rule, on the other hand, consists of a subject that is the conjunction of one or more relations applied to variables or constants, and a predicate that is a unique relation; plus a type of rule that indicates the nexus between the subject and the predicate. when a rule is written we first write down the predicate, then the rule type, and finally the subject. there are four possible rule types that correspond to the four categorical propositions (vide appendix a). thus, for instance, mortal(x) a man(x) means all men are mortal (in prolog, mortal(x):−man(x).). in these databases there are two types of queries: answer queries that specify a fact or a rule to be proved; and retrieval queries that return an answer given the compliance of a conjunction of relations. after getting an answer, the user may ask for an explanation. if the query was a retrieval query, the user may specify a constant and ask why such a constant was not returned. if the query is brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 28 an answer query and it was not proven as true or false, the user may ask for implicit rules. besides the ability to prove negative facts, aristotelian databases also implement negation by failure. finally, as can be noted, the deductive processes of these databases are based upon syllogistic. consider, as an example, the next fragment adapted from (mozes, 1989): \\facts man(socrates) wise(socrates) man(joe) age(joe,l) man(john) age(john,15) man(peter) age(peter,40) dog(fido) work_of_art(monalisa) \\rules animal(x) a man(x) animal(x) a dog(x) mortal(x) a man(x) mortal(x) e work_of_art(x) man(x) e dog(x) responsible(x) e ¬man(x) responsible(x) a wise(x) responsible(x) e baby(x) responsible(x) i adult(x) responsible(x) e idiot(x) age(x,0-120) a man(x) baby(x) a (man(x)^age(x,0-2)) adult(x) a (man(x)^age(x,21-120)) idiot(x) i (man(x)^age(x,30-50)) \\example > mortal(x) a ¬responsible(x) joe by negation as failure: john possibility: fido > explain joe because joe is a man, he is mortal. because joe is a man with age 1, he is a baby. because joe is a baby, he is not responsible. > explain fido because fido is a dog, it is an animal. some animal is mortal; for example, the men. because fido is an animal, it is, perhaps, mortal. because fido is a dog, it is not a man. because fido is not a man, it is not responsible. > explain socrates because socrates is wise, he is responsible. > explain peter because peter is a man with age 40, he is an adult. because peter is an adult, he is, perhaps, responsible. aristotelian databases, then, use syllogisms as models of inference. the main advantage of this aristotelian approach is its cognitive closeness with natural language reasoning. this suggests, in mozes’ opinion, two applications in which traditional logic could be useful: applications that require human interaction with natural language, and applications that try to emulate human reasoning. j. m. castro-manzano, l. i. lozano-cobos, p. reyes-cárdenas programming with term logic 29 5. an introduction to term logic programming now, if we consider the first application, we require a more powerful aristotelian database, namely, one capable of dealing with a wide range of common sense inference patterns but also cognitively closer to natural language. to do this we first introduce the basic elements of the system tfl+ and then we present the advances of tflpl as a programming language designed after tfl+. peterson (1979) and thompson (1982) developed extensions for syllogistic (syll+) by adding some extra quantifiers, namely, “most” (for majority propositions), “many” (for common propositions), and “few” (for predominant propositions).15 so, this framework adds the next propositions: p is the predominant affirmative (few s are not p), b is the predominant negative (few s are p), t is the majority affirmative (most s are p), d is the majority negative (most s are not p), k is the common affirmative (many s are p), and g is the common negative (many s are not p). this framework allows us to extend syllogistic as to cope with a wide range of common sense reasoning patterns. as expected, the addition of p, t, k, b, d, and g increases the number of valid syllogistic moods (table 7). table 7. valid syllogistic moods according to syll+ adapted from (thompson 1982) figure 1 figure 2 figure 3 figure 4 with “most” aat att ati ead etd eto aed add ado ead etd eto ati eto tai dao aed eto tai with “many” aak atk aki akk eag etg eko ekg aeg adg ago agg eag etg eko ekg aki eko kai gao aeg eko kai with “few” aap app apt apk api eab epb epd epg epo aeb abb abd abg abo eab epb epd epg epo pai epo bao api aeb pai epo the plus-minus algebra of tfl, as we have seen, provides a simple and logically sound algebraic approach for syllogistic that, alas, does not cover cases of common sense reasoning involving non-classical quantifiers such as “most,” “many,” or “few;” on the other hand, the syllogistic extended with extra quantifiers comprises a wide range of common sense inference patterns but, unfortunately, it lacks an algebraic procedure. so, given this state of affairs, tfl+ is system of syllogistic that includes such a broad range of inferential patterns but with the virtues of an algebraic approach. in order to represent propositions p, t, k, b, d, and g within the framework of the plus-minus algebra, tfl+ uses the proposal displayed in table 8. 15we mainly focus on the presentation by thompson (1982). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 30 table 8. representation of the syllogistic propositions proposition representation proposition representation sap := -s0+p0 sep := -s0-p0 spp := +s3+p0 sbp := +s3-p0 stp := +s2+p0 sdp := +s2-p0 skp := +s1+p0 sgp := +s1-p0 sip := +s0+p0 sop := +s0-p0 given this new representation, the modification of the plus-minus algebra method of decision is as follows: a conclusion follows validly from a set of premises if and only if i) the sum of the premises is algebraically equal to the conclusion, ii) the number of conclusions with particular quantity is the same as the number of premises with particular quantity, and iii) the level of quantification of the conclusion is lesser or equal than the maximum level of quantification of the premises. the performance of this tweaked version of syllogistic may be better appreciated by considering the trade-off between the complexity of the syll+ framework and the expressive power of the tfl framework regarding common sense reasoning with non-classical quantifiers. to illustrate this, let us consider some examples (tables 10-13). as expected, this tweaked version of syllogistic allows the valid inference patterns displayed in table 9.16 table 9. valid syllogistic patterns with extra quantifiers in the tfl+ framework figure 1 figure 2 figure 3 figure 4 with “most” att ati etd eto add ado etd eto ati eto tai dao eto tai with “many” atk aki akk etg eko ekg adg ago agg etg eko ekg aki eko kai gao eko kai with “few” app apt apk api epb epd epg epo abb abd abg abo epb epd epg epo pai epo bao api pai epo table 10. an invalid reasoning: kaa-1 proposition representation 1. many homeless are ill. +h3+i0 2. this guy is homeless. -g0+h0 ⊬ this guy is ill. -g 0+i0 16for the valid inferential patterns that need existential import, like aat-1 or aak-1, the only requirement is to add the missing implicit premise that states the existence of the minor term, namely, something akin to +s0+s0. j. m. castro-manzano, l. i. lozano-cobos, p. reyes-cárdenas programming with term logic 31 table 11. an invalid reasoning: akt-4 proposition representation 1. all cops are fascists. -c0+f0 2. many men are cops. +m1+c0 ⊬ most men are fascists. +m 2+f0 table 12. a valid reasoning: bao-3 proposition representation 1. few cars are hybrid. +c3-h0 2. all cars are expensive. -c0+e0 ⊢ some expensive cars are not hybrid. +e 0-h0 table 13. a valid reasoning: ekg-2 proposition representation 1. no fool is a citizen. -f0-c0 2. most voters are citizens. +v2+c0 ⊢ many voters are not fools. +v 1-f0 as we can see from these examples, the tfl+ framework gains the advantages of an algebraic method (a reduction of a complex set of rules into a simple and unified formal approach) and, at the same time, it gains the advantages of a theory of syllogisms with non-classical quantifiers (an assessment of a wide range of common sense inference patterns that extends the scope of traditional syllogistic), with the addition that the tfl+ framework is reliable in that all valid syllogisms in the syll+ framework can be obtained by applying the modified plus-minus algebra method of decision, and vice versa, all syllogisms that can be obtained by applying the modified plus-minus algebra method of decision are valid syllogisms in the syll+ framework: proposition 1 (reliability) an inference is syll+valid iff it is tfl + valid. so, at this point we can say that, if the relevance of the reliability of tfl+ has to do with expressive and algebraic limitations of fol and tfl+ and syll+ with respect to common sense inference in natural language, the usefulness of term functor logic programming language (tflpl) results from its potential use for systems of information retrieval in which natural language interaction is basic or fundamental. given these remarks, tflpl is a language that, like prolog, has a special grammar. the next fragment is an example of a program of tflpl: -s0+h0 -h0+m0 the first line can be read as “socrates is a man” (i.e., -s0+h0 in tfl+; man(socrates) in prolog) while the second line represents “all men are mortal” (i.e., -h0+m0 in tfl+; mortal(x):man(x) in prolog). this allows us to see that, just as in tfl the distinction between singular and universal proposition disappears, in tflpl the distinction between facts and rules also disappears: this is an important difference from other logic programming languages like prolog; and this is also different from the aristotelian database originally proposed by mozes (table 14). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 32 table 14. comparison proposition fol tfl+ prolog tflpl socrates is a man. ms -s0+m0 man(socrates). -s0+m0 all men are mortal. ∀x(hx⇒mx) -h0+m0 mortal(x):-man(x). -h0+m0 many humans are greek. -+h2+g0 -+h2+g0 given the previous program, we can make some inferential queries: > s -h0+m0 -s0+h0 ----- -s0+m0 that is, “what is socrates?” (s), and the program answers -s0+m0, that is to say, “socrates is mortal.” we can clearly see another difference between tflpl and prolog. the syntax of tflpl is ternary, aristolelian as it were, and thus, it organically induces a database à la mozes; however, it different from the original notion of aristotelian database in another respect: tflpl avoids the choice of a fregean binary syntax in order to favor a syntax closer to sommers’. this results in a logic programming language based upon a system of natural logic rather than on first order logic. as a result of being grounded on tfl+, the syntax of tflpl is the same as that of tfl+ with the restriction that the super index notation is not maintained: the super index is written immediately after the term. the syntax, then, can be summarized by the following bnf: <program> ::= <proposition> | <proposition><program> <proposition> ::= <termn><±term0> <termn> ::= <±t0>|<+t1>|<+t2>|<+t3> that is to say, a program in tflpl is a sequence of one or more propositions. and each proposition is defined by two terms as in tfl+. this formal syntax allows us to define, in a rigorous way, the nexus between the philosophical and the cognitive motivation. clearly, given this syntax, the formal semantics of tflpl is directly the semantics of tfl+, and given proposition 1, it is possible to claim tflpl preserves the technical results we pretend to capture, namely, the inferential process of a logic of terms. the implementation of tflpl was achieved in c. at the moment, the inferential motor of tflpl receives a tflpl program and makes an iterative use of the inferential process defined previously, namely, that a conclusion follows validly from a set of premises if and only if i) the sum of the premises is algebraically equal to the conclusion, ii) the number of conclusions with particular quantity is the same as the number of premises with particular quantity, and iii) the level of quantification of the conclusion is lesser or equal than the maximum level of quantification of the premises. as an example, consider the following program: -s0+m0 // socrates is a man. -f0+d0 // fido is a dog. -m0+a0 // all men are animals. -d0+a0 // all dogs are animals. -m0+o0 // all men are mortal. -a0+o0 // few animals are not mortal. > s // what is socrates. j. m. castro-manzano, l. i. lozano-cobos, p. reyes-cárdenas programming with term logic 33 -m0+a0 // all men are animal. -s0+m0 // socrates is a man. ------ -s0+a0 // therefore, socrates is an animal. -m0+o0 // all men are mortal. -s0+m0 // socrates is a man. ------ -s0+o0 // therefore, socrates is mortal. we can extract some remarks after the syntax, the implementation, and the example: a) since the syntax of tfl involves the abandon of the fregean syntax, tflpl does not require the use of variables or constants. b) since the syntax of tfl implies the rejection of the distinction between singular and universal propositions, the distinction between facts and rules disappears in tflpl. c) given the previous remarks, tfl does need to use the equality predicate, =, and so in tflpl we have no need for substitution or unification procedures as in prolog. d) tflpl allows us to define aristotelian databases in so far as it uses syllogistic inference and has a leitmotiv closer to natural language, even though tflpl has also a syntactic difference with mozes’ databases, namely, that tflpl has a ternary syntax. e) as of today, tflpl only uses propositions defined after pairs of terms, but since tfl is able to model more complex relations, we need to add a relational module to tflpl, as well as a module for numerical reasoning. 7. final remarks in this contribution we have tried to reach a simple goal: to present the advances of a programming language designed after the intermediate term functor logic. as of now, the implementation only uses propositions with two terms and the rule don, but if we consider its working and its motivation, we can see that tflpl is a logic programming language that is quite promising, not only a computational device, but also as a research device associated to a cognitive project that will include inferential models for relational logic (in so far as tfl+ is capable of dealing with relational inferences), probabilistic reasoning (in so far as tfl+ accepts a probabilistic interpretation (cf. thompson, 1986)), and numerical reasoning (in so far as we could incorporate numerical term logic (cf. murphree, 1998)). also, this programming language can be adapted into psychological accounts of common sense reasoning (cf. keil, 2005 ; khemlani & johnson-laird, 2012)) and philosophical discussions about the nature of inference (cf. veatch, 1970 ; sommers, 1982 ; englebretsen, 1996, englebretsen & sayward, 2001)), not to mention it could have pedagogical advantages given its closeness to natural language reasoning. references aristotle. (1989). prior analytics, hackett classics series, hackett. bratko, i. (2001). prolog programming for artificial intelligence, addison wesley. carnap, r. (1930). “die alte und die neue logik”, erkenntnis, 1, pp. 12-26. castro-manzano, j.m., & pacheco-montes, j.r. (2018). “moded diagrams for moded syllogisms”, in chapman p., stapleton g., moktefi a., perez-kriz s., bellucci f. (eds.) diagrammatic representation and inference. diagrams 2018. lecture notes in computer science, vol 10871. springer, cham. couturat, l. (1961). la logique de leibniz d'après des documents inédits, hildesheim, g. olms. englebretsen, g. (1987). the new syllogistic, peter lang. englebretsen, g. (1991). “linear diagrams for syllogisms (with relationals)”, notre dame j. formal logic, 33(1), pp.37-69. englebretsen, g. (1996). something to reckon with: the logic of terms, university of ottawa press. englebretsen, g., & sayward, c. (2011). philosophical logic: an introduction to advanced topics, bloomsbury academic. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 34 geach, p. (1962). reference and generality: an examination of some medieval and modern theories, cornell university press. geach, p. (1980). logic matters, university of california press. keil, f. (2005). “exploring boundary conditions on the structure of knowledge: some nonobvious influences of philosophy on psychology”, in david s. oderberg (ed.), the old new logic: essays on the philosophy of fred sommers, bradford, pp. 67-84. khemlani, s., & johnson-laird, p. n. (2012). “theories of the syllogism: a meta-analysis”, . psychological bulletin, pp. 427-457. kowalski, r. a. (1988). “the early years of logic programming,” commun. acm, 31(1), pp. 38-43. kuhn, s. (1983). “an axiomatization of predicate functor logic”, notre dame j. formal logic, 24(2), pp. 233-241. mostowski, a. (1957). “on a generalization of quantifiers”, fundamenta mathematicae, 44(2), pp. 12-36. moss, l. (2015). “natural logic”, in s. lappin y c. fox (eds.), the handbook of contemporary semantic theory, john wiley & sons. mozes, e. (1989). “a deductive database based on aristotelian logic”, journal of symbolic computation, 7(5), pp. 487-507. murphree, w. (1998). “numerical term logic”, notre dame j. formal logic,39(3), pp. 346-362. noah, a. (1980). “predicate-functors and the limits of decidability in logic”, notre dame j. formal logic, 21(4), pp. 701-707. noah, a. (2005). “sommers’s cancellation technique and the method of resolution”, in david s. oderberg (ed.), the old new logic: essays on the philosophy of fred sommers, bradford, pp.169182. peterson, p. l. (1979). “on the logic of “few”, “many”, and “most”,” notre dame j. formal logic, 20, pp. 155-179. quine, w. van o. (1971). “predicate functor logic”, in j. e. fenstad (ed.) proceedings of the second scandinavian logic symposium, north-holland. russell, b. (1937). a critical exposition of the philosophy of leibniz: with an appendix of leading passages, g. allen & unwin. sommers, f. (1967). “on a fregean dogma”, in i. lakatos (ed.), problems in the philosophy of mathematics, volumen 47 studies in logic and the foundations of mathematics, elsevier, pp.4781. sommers, f. (1982). the logic of natural language, oxford university press. sommers, f. (2005). “intellectual autobiography”, in david s. oderberg (ed.), the old new logic: essays on the philosophy of fred sommers, bradford, pp. 1-24. sommers, f., & englebretsen, g. (2000). an invitation to formal reasoning: the logic of terms, ashgate. staal, j. f. (1969). “formal logic and natural languages (a symposium)”, foundations of language 5(2), pp. 256-284 sterling, l., & ehud, s. (1994). the art of prolog: advanced programming techniques, mit press. thompson, bruce (1982), “syllogisms using “few”, “many”, and “most”,” notre dame j. formal logic, 23(1), pp. 75-84. thompson, b. (1986). “syllogisms with statistical quantifiers”, notre dame j. formal logic, 27(1), pp. 93-103. veatch, h. b. (1970). intentional logic: a logic based on philosophical realism, archon books. woods, j. (2016). “logic naturalized”, in j. redmond, o. pombo, and a. nepomuceno-fernández (eds.), epistemology, knowledge and the impact of interaction, springer, pp. 403-432. appendix a. syllogistic syllogistic (syll) is a term logic that has its origins in aristotle’s prior analytics (1989) and deals with the consequence relation between categorical propositions. a categorical proposition is a j. m. castro-manzano, l. i. lozano-cobos, p. reyes-cárdenas programming with term logic 35 proposition composed by two terms, a quantity, and a quality. the subject and the predicate of a proposition are called terms: the term-schema s denotes the subject term of the proposition and the term-schema p denotes the predicate. the quantity may be either universal (all) or particular (some) and the quality may be either affirmative (is) or negative (is not). these categorical propositions are denoted by a label, either a (universal affirmative, sap), e (universal negative, sep), i (particular affirmative, sip), or o (particular negative, sop) that allows us to determine a sequence of three propositions called mood. a categorical syllogism, then, is a mood ordered in such a way that two propositions are premises and the last one is a conclusion. within the premises there is a term that appears in both premises but not in the conclusion. this special term, usually denoted with the term-schema m, works as a link between the remaining terms and is known as the middle term. according to the position of this last term, four figures can be set up in order to encode the valid syllogistic moods or syllogistic patterns (table a1).17 table a1. valid syllogisms figure 1 figure 2 figure 3 figure 4 aaa eae aii eio eae aee eio aoo iai aii oao eio aee iai eio appendix b. rules of inference for tfl for the purposes of this study, here we expound the rules of inference for tfl as they appear in (englebretsen 1996). 1. rules of immediate inference. 1. premise (p): any premise or tautology can be entered as a line in proof. (tautologies that repeat the corresponding conditional of the inference are excluded. the corresponding conditional of an inference is simply a conditional sentence whose antecedent is the conjunction of the premises and whose consequent is the conclusion.) 2. double negation (dn): pairs of unary minuses can be added or deleted from a formula (i.e., --x=x). 3. external negation (en): an external unary minus can be distributed into or out of any phrase (i.e., -(±x±y)=±x±y). 4. internal negation (in): a negative qualifier can be distributed into or out of any predicate-term (i.e.,±x-(±y)=±x+(±y)). 5. commutation (com): the binary plus is symmetric (i.e., +x+y=+y+x). 6. association (assoc): the binary plus is associative (i.e., +x+(+y+z)=+(+x+y)+z). 7. contraposition (contrap): the subjectand predicate-terms of a universal affirmation can be negated and can exchange places (i.e., -x+y=-(-y)+(-x)). 8. predicate distribution (pd): a universal subject can be distributed into or out of a conjunctive predicate (i.e., -x+(+y+z)=+(-x+y)+(-x+z)) and a particular subject can be distributed into or out of a disjunctive predicate (i.e., +x + (-(-y) (-z))=--(+x + y)-(+x + z)). 9. iteration (it): the conjunction of any term with itself is equivalent to that term (i.e., +x+x=x). 2. rules of mediate inference. 1. (don): if a term, m, occurs universally quantified in a formula and either m occurs not universally quantified or its logical contrary occurs universally quantified in another 17 for sake of brevity, but without loss of generality, here we omit the syllogisms that require existential import. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 36 formula, deduce a new formula that is exactly like the second except that m has been replaced at least once by the first formula minus its universally quantified m. 2. simplification (simp): either conjunct can be deduced from a conjunctive formula; from a particularly quantified formula with a conjunctive subject-term, deduce either the statement form of the subject-term or a new statement just like the original but without one of the conjuncts of the subject-term (i.e., from +(+x+y)±z deduce any of the following: +x+y, +x±z, or +y±z), and from a universally quantified formula with a conjunctive predicate-term deduce a new statement just like the original but without one of the conjuncts of the predicate-term (i.e., from -x±(+y+z) deduce either -x±y or x±z). 3. addition (add): any two previous formulae in a sequence can be conjoined to yield a new formula, and from any pair of previous formulae that are both universal affirmations and share a common subject-term a new formula can be derived that is a universal affirmation, has the subject-term of the previous formulae, and has the conjunction of the predicate-terms of the previous formulae as its predicate-term (i.e., from -x+y and x+z deduce -x+(+y+z>). table b1. an example of don proposition representation rule 1. every boy loves some girl. -b1+(+l12+g2) p 2. every girl adores some cat. -g2+(+a23+c3) p   all cats are mangy. -c+m p   whatever adores something mangy is a fool. -(+a23+m3)+f p   -g2+(+a23+m3) 2, 3, don   -g+f 4, 5, don ⊢ every boy loves a fool -b1+(+l12+f2) 1, 6, don 112 comparison of the effects of haloperidol and midazolam on reduction of adverse psychotomimetic reactions after induction of anesthesia with ketamine in adults alireza takzare anaesthesiology department, children’s hospital medical centre tehran university of medical sciences number 21, dameshgh st., vali-e asr ave., tehran 1416753955, iran phone: (+98 21) 8889 6692 maziar maghsudlou anaesthesiology department, children’s hospital medical centre tehran university of medical sciences number 21, dameshgh st., vali-e asr ave., tehran 1416753955, iran phone: (+98 21) 8889 6692 ebrahim espahbodi (corresponding author) anaesthesiology department, children’s hospital medical centre tehran university of medical sciences number 21, dameshgh st., vali-e asr ave., tehran 1416753955, iran phone: (+98 21) 8889 6692 shahram bagheri hariri emergency medicine department tehran university of medical sciences number 21, dameshgh st., vali-e asr ave., tehran 1416753955, iran phone: (+98 21) 8889 6692 drtakz@gmail.com abstract as an anesthetic agent, ketamine is associated with a number of adverse psychological reactions after patient recovery (motamed et. al., 2012). midazolam is currently used to mitigate such adverse reactions. however, they still cause discomfort in patients and sometimes their next of kin. the present study aimed to compare the effect of midazolam and haloperidol on decreasing these adverse psychological reactions. in this clinical trial, patients who were subjected to anesthesia induction by ketamine were randomly divided into haloperidol, midazolam, and distilled water (as control) groups. all patients underwent orthopedic surgery with a maximum duration of 2 hours. after the recovery of the patients, a questionnaire was completed by the anesthesiologist. in addition to demographic data, the questionnaire included a number of questions about adverse psychological reactions such as inaudible speech, uncontrollable crying and laughter, strange feelings, illusions, anxiety, and agitation. after completing the questionnaires, the data were introduced into spss and analyzed with statistical tests. a total of 60 patients including 30 men and 30 women were enrolled in the study. the mean age of the patients was 32.9±9.5 years ranging from 16 to 50 years. twenty patients received the premedication (pre-anesthetic drug) haloperidol before the induction of anesthesia, 26 patients received midazolam, and 14patients received distilled water. the patients were similar in terms of age, gender, and asa group. the recovery time for midazolam and haloperidol was significantly longer than that of distilled water (p=0.02). in addition, the number of adverse psychological reactions were significantly higher in the midazolam (p=0.02) 113 and haloperidol (p=0.04) groups than in the distilled water group. however, they occurred less often in midazolam group than the haloperidol group with no significant difference. a. takzare, m. maghsudlou, e. espahbodi, s. b. hariri comparison of the effects of haloperidol and midazolam on reduction of adverse psychotomimetic reactions after induction of anesthesia with ketamine in adults haloperidol can reduce the adverse psychological reactions of ketamine, but this reduction is not as prominent as midazolam. keywords: ketamine; adverse psychological reactions; haloperidol; midazolam. 1. introduction ketamine is a drug particularly suited to induction of anesthesia in emergency patients. it is the only anesthetic agent that increases blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac output (kalisvaart et. al., 2005). ketamine also has analgesic and sedative properties (cole et. al., 2002). occurrence of adverse psychological reactions is the problem with the use of this drug, which can be seen in 10% to 30% of cases, even some studies have reported them up to 100% (atlas et. al., 2007). age, sex, dosage, psychological background, and associated drugs can affect the development of adverse psychological reactions after the use of ketamine anesthetic agent. these adverse reactions are more prevalent in adults, in women, and when high doses of the drug are used (schrader et. al., 2008). people with a history of mental illness, such as those who fall into a dream alone, are more prone to adverse psychological reactions (campbell et. al., 2009).benzodiazepines are currently used to confront adverse psychological reactions. however, their effectiveness is still to be seen (sherwin et. al., 2000). the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of haloperidol on the reduction of ketamineinduced adverse psychological reactions and compare it with midazolam as a medicine used to reduce these adverse reactions. 2. materials and methods in this randomized clinical trial, all patients aged 16-50 years who were admitted to imam khomeini hospital in 2016-2017 and anesthetized with ketamine were enrolled in the study. the study was approved by the ethics committee of tehran university of medical sciences and the consent was obtained from the patient after giving the necessary explanations. the subjects were asa class i and ii. the exclusion criteria were history of cardiovascular disease (hypertension, congenital or acquired cardiac diseases), history of mental illness (depression, mania, schizophrenia, etc.), and parkinson’s disease. the study was conducted on patients undergoing orthopedic surgery less than two hours in duration. all patients were matched in terms of age, sex, and other confounding factors (e.g. the history of using psychosocial drugs). haloperidol was used as a premedication before induction of anesthesia. the effect of this drug on reducing the incidence of adverse psychological reactions after induction of anesthesia was compared with midazolam and distilled water as the control. ketamine was used in these patients as the anesthesia induction drug at a dose of 1-2 mg/kg of body weight. the patients were randomly divided into three groups. five minutes before induction of anesthesia, the first group received 3 mg intravenous haloperidol, the second group received 3 mg midazolam, and the third group received distilled water. sufentanil was used as the analgesic drug and atracurium as the muscle relaxant in all patients. after the end of surgery and recovery of the patient in the recovery ward, a questionnaire was filled out for each patient and the adverse psychological reactions were studied. the questionnaire was completed by a person who did not know the method of anesthesia and the premedication drug. the results were scored and then analyzed by spss using t-test. 114 3. results a total of 60 patients including 30 men and 30 women were enrolled in the study. the mean age of the patients was 32.9±9.5 years ranging from 16 to 50 years. twenty patients received the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 premedication (pre-anesthetic drug) haloperidol before the induction of anesthesia, 26 patients received midazolam, and 14 patients received distilled water. there was no significant difference between age, sex, and duration of surgery in different groups.but there was a significant difference between the midazolam and distilled water groups in the duration of operation. in the midazolam group, this time (75.0±26.0) was longer than the distilled water group (55.0±41.3), which should be corrected during the study period. in addition, there was a was significant difference in the duration of surgery between the drug groups and the distilled water group (haloperidol: 55.0±43.3). the recovery time in the midazolam and haloperidol groups was significantly longer than the distilled water group (p=0.02);i.e. it was 18.5±6.0 min in the distilled water group, 31.9±17.8 min in the midazolam group, and 25.5±10.8 min in the haloperidol group. in the recovery ward, patients were questioned and scored. the questions were about inaudible speech, uncontrollable crying and laughter, strange feelings, illusions, anxiety, and agitation. the answers were entered into the questionnaire. each of these symptoms were scored 1 and the scores were summed. the scores were then distributed and obtained for each group and the adverse reactions were calculated as mean ± sd in order to compare the different groups (table 1). comparison of the groups with nonparametric t-test showed a significant difference between the midazolam and haloperidol groups with the distilled water group; so that the mean scores in the distilled water group (1.8±0.1) were higher than the haloperidol group (1.2 1.1) (p=0.04) and the midazolam group (1.08±0.9) (p=0.02). this mean for the haloperidol group was similar to the midazolam group (p>0.05). table 1. comparison of mean scores of the adverse psychological reactions questionnaire in the study groups group number percent mean ± sd haloperidol 20 33.3% 1.2 1.1 midazolam 26 43.3% 1.08±0.9 distilled water 14 23.3% 1.8±0.1 total 60 100% 1.3±1.0 4. discussion 4.1. increased recovery time for haloperidol and midazolam in this study, the use of haloperidol was effective in preventing ketamine-induced adverse reactions, but this preventing effect was not as effective as midazolam. 4.2. similar studies in this field in a study in india, the effects of diazepam and haloperidol were compared in terms of reduction of ketamine-induced adverse psychological reactions, and it was concluded that diazepam is more successful than haloperidol in preventing the adverse reactions of ketamine (krystal et. al., 1994).another study by haleem et. al. in 2016 found that haloperidol was effective in preventing ketamine-induced adverse psychological reactions (haleem et. al., 2016). in a study by mostafa amr in egypt in 2013, haloperidol was found to be effective in reducing adverse psychological reactions (mostafa et. al., 2013). the present study revealed that haloperidol was effective in preventing 115 ketamine-induced adverse reactions; however, this preventative effect was not as pronounced as that of midazolam. 5. conclusion according to this study, haloperidol can be effective in preventing ketamine-induced adverse psychotomimetic reactions, and hence it is recommended that it is used before induction of anesthesia with ketamine. a. takzare, m. maghsudlou, e. espahbodi, s. b. hariri comparison of the effects of haloperidol and midazolam on reduction of adverse psychotomimetic reactions after induction of anesthesia with ketamine in adults references amr, m. a., shams, t., & al-wadani, h. (2013). does haloperidol prophylaxis reduce ketamineinduced emergence delirium in children?. sultan qaboos university medical journal, 13(2), 256. atlas, g. m., & milles, m. (2007). haloperidol for the treatment of ketamine-induced emergence delirium. j anaesthiol clin pharmacol, 23, 65-7. campbell, n., boustani, m. a., ayub, a., fox, g. c., munger, s. l., ott, c., ... & singh, r. (2009). pharmacological management of delirium in hospitalized adults–a systematic evidence review. journal of general internal medicine, 24(7), 848-853. cole, j. w., murray, d. j., mcallister, j. d., & hirshberg, g. e. (2002). emergence behaviour in children: defining the incidence of excitement and agitation following anaesthesia. pediatric anesthesia, 12(5), 442-447. haleem,s., hasan.m., fatima, n., mdkashif, j. (2016). a novel use in ketamine induced, 10861088 kalisvaart, k. j., de jonghe, j. f., bogaards, m. j., vreeswijk, r., egberts, t. c., burger, b. j., ... & van gool, w. a. (2005). haloperidol prophylaxis for elderly hip surgery patients at risk for delirium: a randomized placebo controlled study. journal of the american geriatrics society, 53(10), 1658-1666. krystal, j. h., karper, l. p., seibyl, j. p., freeman, g. k., delaney, r., bremner, j. d., ... & charney, d. s. (1994). subanesthetic effects of the noncompetitive nmda antagonist, ketamine, in humans: psychotomimetic, perceptual, cognitive, and neuroendocrine responses. archives of general psychiatry, 51(3), 199-214. motamed, f., aminpour, y., hashemian, h., soltani, a. e., najafi, m., & farahmand, f. (2012). midazolam-ketamine combination for moderate sedation in upper gi endoscopy. journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition, 54(3), 422-426. postoperative fulminant psychosis. international journal of science and research (ijsr), 5. schrader, s. l., wellik, k. e., demaerschalk, b. m., caselli, r. j., woodruff, b. k., & wingerchuk, d. m. (2008). adjunctive haloperidol prophylaxis reduces postoperative delirium severity and duration in at-risk elderly patients. the neurologist, 14(2), 134-137. sherwin, t. s., green, s. m., khan, a., chapman, d. s., & dannenberg, b. (2000). does adjunctive midazolam reduce recovery agitation after ketamine sedation for pediatric procedures? a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. annals of emergency medicine, 35(3), 229-238. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 104 to what extent is free will actually free? the answer of neurosciences gabriela marcu "lucian blaga" university, sibiu, romania, bulevardul victoriei 10, sibiu 550024, tel.: 0269 216 062 gabriela.marcu@ulbsibiu.ro abstract even though at the beginning of the 1980s the results of the first neuroscience experiments made some researchers label free will as an "illusion", researches of recent years have unexpectedly changed this perspective. it is raised the issue of post-classical, post-dualistic views in which free will can no longer be regarded as an "all-or-nothing" phenomenon, and in which freedom itself is paradoxically redefined as an unconscious predetermination out of an infinite number of options. the present paper summarizes the perspectives on free will generated by the first experiments in neuroscience and aims to find an answer regarding the freedom of choice, taking into account the latest scientific communications on this subject. keywords: free will, neuroscience, consciousness. 1. introduction are we responsible of our own decisions or are they predetermined? science, philosophy, religion have tried to answer this question over time. although we are provided with a certain psychological comfort when we believe we have complete control over our choices, it is still interesting to analyze the oppposite situation as well, from the point of view of the social and individual impact it has. all the more so, since the findings of the neurosciences on freedom of choice have come to transform the simple interest or curiosity into a reconfigured, not necessarily comfortable, way of perceiving the world. as prof. joaquin fuster affirmed, "one of the most interesting directions of development in western culture is the convergence of philosophical thinking with neuroscience on the subject of free will." 2. between faith and illusion a series of studies initiated more than 30 years ago by benjamin libet (libet, gleason, wright and pearl, 1983) provided evidence that the perceived freedom of will may be an illusion. since then, analyses have continued providing arguments for and against this idea. freedom has always been percieved as a state opposing constraints of any kind. this perspective seems to set apart two categories of free will theorists. on the one hand, the advocates of faith in relation to the freedom of human will many philosophers and theologians, present the construct as a human gift necessary for a moral conduct. "there are those who, in their moral fervour, label anyone a man of limited intelligence who can deny so patent a fact as freedom. opposed to them are others who regard it as the acme of unscientific thinking for anyone to believe that the uniformity of natural law is broken in the sphere of human action and thought. one and the same thing is thus proclaimed, now as the most precious possession of humanity, now as its most fatal illusion." a fragment from "the philosophy of freedom" rudolf steiner there were also philosophers who had a vision similar to what neuroscientists say nowadays. for example, nietzsche had asserted since the nineteenth century that the man lives in an illusion by believing in free will, while in reality everything comes down to necessity, determinism, mathematical calculus. research into cognitive neuroscience provides results which lean towards characterizing this concept as an "illusion". free will being an illusion created by the human mind is, of course, not the most comfortable scenario for the human race. do neurosciences make us choose between g. marcu to what extent is free will actually free? the answer of neurosciences 105 metaphysics and science before making the concept of free will incompatible with the scientific method? (anderson, j., 2007). how willing are we to accept and live with such a verdict? how do we get to understand what "big bad neuroscience" offers? 3. early beginnings: the libet experiment in libet's experiments at the end of the 1970s and early 1980s, volunteers sat down with a button and a clock in front of them. they could decide to press the button at any time, and libet asked them to check the time in the moment they made the decision to press it. the volunteers had several electrodes attached to their scalp so as to observe the neuronal cortex activity on the eeg. by recording the reaction time and comparing the time of pushing the button with the one in which the volunteers decided to press the button, libet's team found that the difference between the conscious decision of pushing the button and the event itself was about 200 milliseconds. analyzing the eeg result, libet was surprised to discover that the brain area associated with motion initiation became active 500 milliseconds before pushing the button. therefore, the brain became active 300 milliseconds before the moment of the conscious decision to press the button. the experiment was interpreted by the scientific world as the first demonstration that free will is an illusion. numerous other researchers (john dylan haynes, marcus du sautoy, patrick haggard) have repeated libet's experiment, observing even longer periods between the onset of brain activity and the moment of conscious decision. for example, a study carried out in 2008 by researchers at the max planck institute in leipzig showed that decisions can be detected even 7 seconds before the moment a person becomes aware of them. the replication research of these experiments came to the same conclusion, namely that the mind takes command before the protagonist reaches a conscious decision, so decisions are made earlier than previously thought. some authors claim that scientific experiments, starting with libet's and the others that followed, did not provide consistent conclusions, and therefore became irrelevant due to fundamental deficiencies (papanicolau, a., 2017). although they are believed to shape significant acts of will, in fact, all they do is shape inconsistent movements. although these movements have been shown to be preceded by or associated with neural events, these events can not be regarded as causes of the experience of free decisions more than other antecedents or correlations of other psychological events occurring simultaneously". in response to that, other authors introduce the concept of methodological determinism and insist on questioning the scientific state of the concept of free will, adding that the statement on "determining behavior through free will" is not falsifiable (in the sense of the criterion introduced by popper). therefore, we would speak in this case of a metaphysical statement and not of a scientific hypothesis. “men are mistaken in thinking themselves free; their opinion is made up of consciousness of their own actions, and ignorance of the causes by which they are conditioned. their idea of freedom, therefore, is simply their ignorance of any cause for their actions. as for saying that human actions depend on the will, this is a mere phrase without any idea to correspond thereto”. (spinoza, the ethics part ii: of the nature and origin of the mind (partially quoted by daniel wegner (1948-2013) 4. free will and quantum physics for decades, a topic of great interest is the possible existence of a quantum substrate of human consciousness. there was, as expected, a fusion of two seemingly unrelated directions on the one hand, the quantum level of physics, and on the other hand, the human consciousness. the idea of a human consciousness with a quantum substrate has thus, in recent years, taken up a whole part of the literature. henry stapp, a promoter of the quantum theory of consciousness, provides an explanation of the concept of free will, from the area of "orthodox quantum mechanics". the author, a distinguished theoretical physicist, shows how this theory, interpreted in a realistic way, assigns an important role to our free conscious choices. stapp argues that biology and neuroscience, despite brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 106 nearly a century of quantum physics, remain the slaves of some classical failed precepts, in which mental intentions have no effect on our physical actions. he indicates how quantum mechanics provides a rational basis for a better understanding of this connection. these ideas have major implications for our understanding of ourselves and our mental processes, and thus for the significance of our lives. ideas are carried further by roger penrose and stuart hameroff in "consciousness in the universe: neuroscience, quantum space-time geometry and orch or theory." on the other hand, physicists like david chalmers and victor j. stenger argue against the idea of a quantum consciousness. this is a debate from which we have a lot to learn, no matter how it evolves. it is certain that in this paradigm of quantum consciousness, psychology reached some kind of a dead-end in its concern for the study of consciousness. the method of observation is invalidated in explaining the facts of consciousness, including free will, in the case of a quantum substratum. the reasons were put forward by bohr and heisenberg who demonstrated that objective observations can not be made, as the action of observing alters the quantum state of the observed system. however, the observer effect is not the only drawback; at the instrumental and methodological level, psychology is deficient in providing on its own a conclusion in the debate of the existence of free will. 5. no wonder that researches led to neurosciences instead "neuroscience, not philosophy or physics determinism, is the right science to solve disputes over free will," says professor w. r. klemm, a neuroscientist, in his book "making a scientific case for conscious agency and free will." klemm presents a series of arguments according to which certain human behaviors are impossible to explain in the absence of free will, and free will results from the material processes of brain function. the idea is developed by dr. eric racine, who suggests a dynamic concept for free will, which should be ontologically and epistemologically rethought. his suggestion starts from the debate bestirred by recent research in cognitive science and social psychology which suggests that free will as a concept can describe a psychological phenomenon with interesting dynamic and implicit properties. the dynamic properties may indicate possible changes to free will in response to internal (physiological) and external (physical and social) questions. for example, research suggests that the phenomenon of free will is not static, but shaped by the physiological needs and external demands (rigoni et al., 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015). such free-will properties could explain the fact that changes in the dynamics of free will have implications such as acknowledging that a diminished free will may lead to unethical behaviors, for example deception (vohs & schooler, 2008), while a strong free will may predict pro-social behavior and work performance (baumeister et al., 2009; stillman et al., 2010). “the evidence for conscious causation of behavior is …empirically strong. however, conscious causation is often indirect and delayed, and it depends on the interplay with unconscious processes” (roy baumeister). 6. challenging experiments in 2007, john-dylan haynes, a neurologist from berlin, discovered by using fmri imaging that he could predict with a 60% accuracy whether a subject would press the left or right button, with up to 7 seconds before the person pressed it and 6 seconds before he/she "chose" which button to press. kerri smith, editor for the nature magazine, affirmed this about a 2011 study: "some researchers have literally dug deeper into the brain." one of them is itzhak fried, neurologist and neurosurgeon at the university of california, los angeles and the medical center from tel aviv, israel. he studied individuals who had electrodes implanted in the brain, as part of a surgical procedure for treating epilepsy. fried's experiments have shown that there was activity in the individual neurons in certain areas of the brain about one and a half seconds before the subject made a conscious decision to press a button. "at some point, things that are predetermined are g. marcu to what extent is free will actually free? the answer of neurosciences 107 accepted into consciousness," says fried. conscious will may be added to a decision at a later stage, he suggests. 7. explanations of neurosciences frankfurt and dennett propose compatibility, claiming that free will and determinism are compatible. determinism had, up to that moment, a position contrary to modern neurosciences in several respects related to the complexity, variance, nonlinearity and probabilistic nature of neural transfers, especially those related to psychological phenomena. frankfurt argues that, under certain conditions, conflicts may appear between a person's desire to do an action and a desire not to do so. the neural explanation of the conflict lies in the prefrontal mechanisms of reward search vs. the inhibitory control of the impulse. dennet, on the other hand, anchors the concept of free will in evolution, for example in altruism (manifested as a free will to help others) and attributes it to an evolutionary pressure of selection. dennet also develops the idea towards the gradual evolution of decision-making. fuster noticed the problem of the 2-stage decision-making models, which lies in the fact that they are based on feed-forward processing (in the direction of time) with minimal feed-back and little room for a chance to change. as a result, fuster proposes a cyclical model in which an action and the decision that has led to it can begin and can be completed anywhere within the perceptionaction cycle. within this framework, free will arises from the close relationship between the brain and the environment within this cycle, and the environment is largely internal, containing representations of the world, an internalized history in the cerebral cortex. the key thus reaches the prefrontal cortex because probably "among the degrees of freedom of the statistical variation in the cortex there is hidden one of the causes of the freedom of the human mind" (fuster). in the case of such a dynamic and complex adaptive system as the brain, variance is a sine qua non condition for plasticity, a emergence of new functions, and consequently, of freedom of cognition. the interesting perspective proposed here is that, if we have enough degrees of freedom in the brain processing loops, they would ensure a variability which in fact defines free will! but we must not fall into the trap of locating free will and assigning its place in the prefrontal cortex. rather, in the dynamic dashboard described above, this is a kind of "neural broker" (fuster) for the highest transactions between ego and the environment. another aspect of the analysis is that of multi-determination, based on the principle that the more causes we have, the less the constraints on freedom exist. multidetermination opposes reductionism, which seeks an ultimate cause, ending up fragmenting concepts into parts that become irrelevant. we have to take into account that the cognitive code is a relational, nonreducible code of the component (fuster), and as a result: "any attempt to break the code down to its molecular biology is like trying to understand a written message by studying the chemistry of the ink"(roger sperry, cited by fuster). in conclusion, we could say that when talking about free will, from the neuroscientific point of view, we refer to the freedom of information within the cortex (to its structural units, interactions and dynamics, to all the feedback loops and the action-perception circuits). cognitive neurosciences cause us to regard free will as a product of brain function, with a highly adaptive and complex capacity, supported by both conscious and unconscious decision-making structures. (ibanez a. et al., 2017) we are still on the brink of approximating a definition, warns ibanez, the author of a visionary study that overturns all of the classical outlooks of free choice. the theoretical platform that he proposes leads to new post-classical, post-ontological, post-dualist hypotheses. the concept of free will remains hard to define especially within the continuous paradigm changing on decision making (quantum and classical, for example). one path could be searching some patterns of those moments of thinking without conscious control. psychology has some instruments on predicting choice (also the independent ones) by integrating context and identifying some context-dependant decision patterns. cognitive neuroscience gets some inspiration from machine learning providing with neural patterns for decisions that could actually be learned. we may have a step back in 1949 when an important theory came up – hebb’s neural learning rule. the rule brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 108 explains associative or hebbian learning, in which simultaneous activation of cells leads to pronounced increases in synaptic strength between those cells. even if the hebbian theory has been mostly used in neuroplasticity studies, we consider that there is an important argument to take into free will explanation, as hebbian learning is a real-time learning that is more easily associated with the lack of conscious control. moving back to a different form of physical determinism, we may conclude that once the hardwired neural assemblies for different inputs are created (the decisionmaking contextual pattern), the algorithm can work in different modes both in presence and absence of attention. if the activation patterns (inputs) contain information about the decisions, the classifier developed into the brain can successfully predict decision outcomes from independent data and that could trigger choice that we see as volitional (free will). the remaining challenge is how this perspective will be managed further in the increasingly interdisciplinary context of human knowledge. references anderson, j. (2007). introduction: free will, neuroscience, and the participant perspective. philosophical explorations, 10(1), 3–11. http://doi.org/10.1080/13869790601170094 baer, j., kaufman, j. c., & baumeister, r. f. (2008). are we free?: psychology and free will. are we free?: psychology and free will. http://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189636.001.0001 baumeister r., masicampo, e.j., vohs, k. (2011) do conscious thoughts cause behavior, annual review of psychology 62: 331-61 baumeister, r. f. (2008). free will in scientific psychology. perspectives on psychological science, 3(1), 14–19. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00057.x baumeister, r. f., masicampo, e. j., and dewall, c. n. (2009). prosocial benefits of feeling free: disbelief in free will increases aggression and reduces helpfulness. pers. soc. psychol. bull. 35, 260–268. doi: 0.1177/0146167208327217 chalmers, david j. (1996). the conscious mind. oxford university press, oxford. pp. 333-341. dennett, d. (2003). freedom evolves. new york: viking books drozdzewska, a. (2017). chapter 4 free will—between philosophy and neuroscience a2 leefmann, jon. in e. b. t.-t. h. s. after the d. of the b. hildt (ed.), (pp. 42–60). san diego: academic press. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-804205-2.00004-5 frankfurt, h. (2008). commentary on frankfurt: “freedom of the will and the concept of a person.” in self and subjectivity (pp. 139–152). http://doi.org/10.1002/9780470774847.ch11 fried, i., haggard, p., he, b. j., & schurger, a. (2017). volition and action in the human brain: processes, pathologies, and reasons. the journal of neuroscience, 37(45), 10842 lp10847. retrieved from http://www.jneurosci.org/content/37/45/10842.abstract fuster, joaquín m. (2013). the neuroscience of freedom and creativity: our predictive brain. cambridge university press. ibanez a, hesse e, manes f, garcia am (2017), freeing free will: a neuroscientific perspective, in mario bunge (ed): doing science, publisher: world scientific, pp.161-176. doi: 10.1142/9789813202788_0012. kirsch, i., & hyland, m. e. (2017). methodological determinism and the free will hypothesis. psychology of consciousness: theory research, and practice. http://doi.org/10.1037/cns0000135 klemm, w. r. (2016). making a scientific case for conscious agency and free will. making a scientific case for conscious agency and free will. http://doi.org/10.1016/c2015-004420-3 nadel, l., & sinnott-armstrong, w. (2010). conscious will and responsibility: a tribute to benjamin libet. conscious will and responsibility: a tribute to benjamin libet. http://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195381641.001.0001 g. marcu to what extent is free will actually free? the answer of neurosciences 109 papanicolaou, a. c. (2017). the myth of the neuroscience of will. psychology of consciousness: theory, research, and practice, 4(3), 310-320, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cns0000116 racine, e., and saigle, v. (2014). static and dynamic metaphysics of free will: a pragmatic perspective. ajob neurosci. available online at: http://www.theneuroethicsblog.com/2014/01/static-and-dynamic-metaphysics-of-free.html rigoni, d., & brass, m. (2014). from intentions to neurons: social and neural consequences of disbelieving in free will. topoi, 33(1), 5–12. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-013-9210-y rigoni, d., kühn, s., gaudino, g., sartori, g., & brass, m. (2012). reducing self-control by weakening belief in free will. consciousness and cognition, 21(3), 1482–1490. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2012.04.004 rigoni, d., kühn, s., sartori, g., & brass, m. (2011). inducing disbelief in free will alters brain correlates of preconscious motor preparation: the brain minds whether we believe in free will or not. psychological science, 22(5), 613–618. http://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611405680 rigoni, d., pourtois, g., & brass, m. (2015). “why should i care?” challenging free will attenuates neural reaction to errors. social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 10(2), 262–268. http://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsu068 stapp, h. (2007). quantum mechanical theories of consciousness. in the blackwell companion to consciousness (pp. 300–312). http://doi.org/10.1002/9780470751466.ch24 stapp, h. (2010). minds and values in the quantum universe. in information and the nature of reality: from physics to metaphysics (vol. 9780521762250, pp. 104–120). http://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511778759.006 stapp, h. p. (1982). mind, matter, and quantum mechanics. foundations of physics, 12(4), 363– 399. http://doi.org/10.1007/bf00726783 steiner, r.(2015). filosofia libertății, ed. univers enciclopedic stenger, v. j. (1992). the myth of quantum consciousness. humanist, 53(3), 13–15. stillman, t. f., baumeister, r. f., vohs, k. d., lambert, n.m., fincham, f. d., and brewer, l. e. (2010). personal philosophy and personnel achievement: belief in free will predicts better job performance. soc. psychol. personal. sci. 1, 43–50.doi: 10.1177/1948550609351600 vieira da cunha, r., & relvas, j. b. (2017). chapter 3 “who’s afraid of the big bad neuroscience?” neuroscience’s impact on our notions of self and free will a2 leefmann, jon. in e. b. t.-t. h. s. after the d. of the b. hildt (ed.), (pp. 24–41). san diego: academic press. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-804205-2.00003-3 vohs, k. d., & schooler, j. w. (2008). the value of believing in free will: encouraging a belief in determinism increases cheating. psychological science, 19(1), 49–54. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.0204 microsoft word issue3.docx 120 study of marital satisfaction in students based on psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution masoumeh nadiri department of family counseling, islamic azad university 1666976113 north tehran, iran phone: + 98 21 22 56 51 49 bartar.article@gmail.com javad khalatbari associate professor, department of psychology azad university of tonekabon, iran mazandaran province, tonekabon, 22 iran phone: +98 11 5427 1105 abstract the purpose of this study was to predict marital satisfaction in students based on the psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution. this is an applied research in terms of objective and method and a descriptive-correlational study in terms of data collection method. the statistical population of this study consisted of all married students studying in universities of tehran in 2017 which were calculated on the basis of cohen, kergeci, and morgan table (1970) of 252 people. the data collection tools were a rich’s marital satisfaction questionnaire (1998), hazen and shew (1993), adult attachment styles questionnaire, ahwaz perfectionism scale (1999), and rahim's conflict coping style questionnaire (1995). in order to analyze the data, descriptive and inferential statistics incides and methods were used. so, in order to describe the collected data, the mean, standard deviation and frequency distribution tables, and to analyze the data, pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate regression were used by spss software. in general, the findings showed that there is a relationship between marital satisfaction and commitment and attachment styles and conflict resolution and perfectionism. also, the results indicate that secure attachment is associated with a higher degree of marital satisfaction than anxious-avoidant and anxious-ambivalent attachment. secure attachment styles have a positive relationship with marital satisfaction and anxious-avoidant and anxious-ambivalent attachment styles have a negative relationship with marital satisfaction. keywords: marital satisfaction, attachment style, perfectionism, conflict resolution. 1. introduction family is one of the main pillars of society, and achieving a healthy society depends on family health. the realization of a healthy family is conditional on its members having a good and effective relationship with each other. having a problem in establishing intimacy and proper relationship can be associated with a wide range of psychological problems, such as depression and chronic stress (carini, 2003, quoted from van der zi, 2009). one of the influential factors in each relationship is the attachment style of individuals. attachment model predicts the way and quality of future relationships. from the point of view of attachment, every person throughout the life cycle needs the presence of a secure attachment style as well as the ability to identify this style in its partner and to participate with him/her to maintain mutual relationships. in a relationship with good functioning, the attachment system acts in such a way that couples feel being protected and secure, and each one is able to affiliate with another and are not afraid of being affiliated with others and being affiliated of others with their owns (crundle and fisher, 2000). in an insecure relationship, self-protection is the first issue, and this often overcomes the ability of a person to respond sympathetically to his/her wife (reibestain, 2001). investigations on attachment represent the effect of primary experiences of attachment to future relationships in adulthood (hamidi, 2007). there is a m. nadiri, j. khalatbari study of marital satisfaction in students based on psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution 121 great deal of research evidence that shows the stability of the attachment style from child to adulthood and even its transmission among generations (break, 2007). perfectionism is also one of the factors influencing the satisfaction and desire of individuals to disclose information about relationships. studies have shown that self and other-directed perfectionism are directly related to more family relationships and other positive aspects of the romantic relationships of individuals such as trust (bailey and snell, 2005). perfectionism is a multidimensional personality style that is linked to a large number of psychological, interpersonal and marital problems. perfectionism is an abnormal pattern of behaviors, which can lead to many disorders. seeking success and loyalty encompass tangible and appropriate expectations (very difficult and achievable goals), and bring about a sense of satisfaction and happiness. while perfectionism requires inappropriate levels of tangible expectations and goals (such as perfection) and a permanent lack of satisfaction, regardless of functon (hewitt, 2009), conflict is a distressing interactive between two people who do not have the tendency or ability to listen to each other's discomfort, and a state of separation and tension that creates a lot of psychological pressure and negative feelings and emotions on both sides (khodami, 2012). research suggests that satisfaction of couples' relationships has a high correlation with conflict styles (bradburi, 2000). compatible couples value the positive effects of their wives and can tolerate their negative effects more easily. in contrast, incompatible couples think more about negatives and spend a lot of time paying attention to the unpleasant aspects of their spouses, and have difficulty in understanding their compensating and positive characteristics (dibaji et al., 2009). factors affecting marital satisfaction are of interest to scholars and have indicated numerous cases, for example schlesinger (1982) mentioned mutual respect, trust, love, attention, loyalty and mutual relation (tabrizi, 2004). the purpose of present research is to investigate the prediction of marital satisfaction in students based on the psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution. according to the research mentioned, in previous researches the relationship between attachment style and marital satisfaction has been identified in separate research (almost all of them abroad) in previous research. but there was no research in iran where these variables were studied simultaneously. the question now arises: is the degree of marital satisfaction in students predictable according to the psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution? to answer this question, the main hypothesis of the research is formed that the degree of marital satisfaction in students based on the psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism, and conflict resolution can be predicted. 2. literary review ebrahimi (1391) studied the "relationship of love styles and attachment styles with quality of life and marital satisfaction among female teachers in ardabil city" in a study on 100 people. the results of pearson correlation coefficient showed that there is a significant positive correlation between some love styles and attachment styles with marital satisfaction and quality of life. also, a positive relationship was found between secure attachment style and marital satisfaction in a research by natanzi (2012) entitled "investigating the effect of attachment styles and forgiveness on marital satisfaction in couples in masal city" on 75 couples. oghani esfahani (2012) studied the role of differentiation, attachment styles, emotional intelligence and coping styles in marital satisfaction". the statistical population consisted of all married people in tehran, at least one of whom was employed by governmental organizations and had at least one year of their common life and lived together during the research. the results showed that attachment style had the highest and coping style the least impact on marital satisfaction hirzbergger et al. (2009)15 years longitudinal research showed that couples whose attachment style is secure, have more marital satisfaction with anxious-avoidant, and evaluate their feelings about their spouse positively. in the year 2008 (2008), maryagral also came to the conclusion that social support and secure attachment style predict mental health and marital adjustment. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 122 judy (2006) investigated the structures of jealousy, commitment and style of romantic attachment in a sample of 372 students. the results of data analysis revealed a significant positive relationship between secure attachment and personal commitment, and a negative and significant relation between the avoidant attachment style and personal commitment was confirmed. heen, buyses and van (2005) concluded that there is a positive relationship between secure attachment style and depression and negative correlation with marital adjustment. on the other hand, insecure attachment styles had a significant negative correlation with marital adjustment and had a positive relationship with depression. martin and ashby (2004) examined the relationship between perfectionism, marital relations, and fear of intimacy. the results of the survey showed that perfectionists reported more fears of intimacy and less satisfaction with their marital relationships. 3. research methodology the present research is a descriptive cross-sectional and correlational study. the statistical population of the study is all married students studying in universities in tehran in 2017. a total of 252 people were computed using cohen, kergeci, and morgan table (1970) through randomized and convenience sampling. the data collection tools were anrich's marital satisfaction questionnaire (1998), hazen and shew (1993) adult attachment styles questionnaire, ahwaz perfectionism scale (1999), and rahim's conflict coping style questionnaire (1995). in order to analyze the data, descriptive and inferential statistics methods will be used. descriptive statistics including mean and standard deviation, and inferential statistics includes pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate regression (due to the multiplicity of dependent variables and having a subscale in the variables). all analyzes will be performed using spss statistical software version 22 and a significant level of "0.05" considered. 4. demographic characteristics analysis table 1. demographic characteristics of the research study hypotheses first main hypothesis: marital satisfaction in students is predictable based on the psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution. as shown in table 2, correlation matrix, marital satisfaction is correlated with attachment style (r = 130), perfectionism (r = 620) and conflict resolution (r = 002). to determine the significance of row specifications frequency percentage 20-25 years 50 19.8 26-30 years 98 38.9 age 35-31 years 77 30.6 more than 35 years 27 10.7 total 252 100 gender female 142 56.3 male 110 43.7 total 252 100 education bachelor 78 31 ms 105 41.7 p.h.d 69 27.4 total 252 100 child status have 81 32.1 do not have 171 67.9 total 252 100 m. nadiri, j. khalatbari study of marital satisfaction in students based on psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution 123 relationship between marital satisfaction with attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution, the correlation coefficient significance test was used. all correlations were significant. multiple regression analysis was used to determine the contribution of each of the variables of marital satisfaction with psychological components of attachment style perfectionism and conflict resolution. table 2. correlation matrix between marital satisfaction with psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution variable marital satisfaction attachment style perfectionism conflict resolution marital satisfaction 1.000 .130 .620 .002 attachment style .130 1.000 -0.71 .009 perfectionism .620 -0.71 1.000 -.095 conflict resolution .002 .009 -.095 1.000 table 3. correlation coefficients between marital satisfaction and psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution model r r2 adjusted r2 standard error 1 647. .418 .411 19..285 according to table 3, the value of the correlation coefficient is .647 and the correction coefficient is .418, therefore, 42% of the variance of marital satisfaction scores can be explained by a combination of psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution. table 4. multivariate regression between marital satisfaction with psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution based on the information in table 4, the calculated f value is 59.389, which is greater than the critical value with a degree of freedom of 3 and 248 at a level (p <0.05). therefore, there is a moderate correlation between marital satisfaction with psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution, and the psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution have predictive power in predicting marital satisfaction. table 5. relationship between marital satisfaction and psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resol model stats b se beta t significance level constant 52.209 14.221 3.671 .000 attachment components .299 .083 .175 3.579 .000 perfectionism .746 .057 .638 13.074 .000 solve marital conflict .160 .127 .061 1.254 .214 indicators source of changes sum of squares df average squares f significance level regression 66266.68 3 22088.92 59.389 .000 remaining 92240.02 248 371.93 total 158506.80 251 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 124 according to the statistics of table 5, the beta coefficients of the psychological components are 0.929 for attachment style and 0.446 for perfectionism, which are significant at the level (p <0.05), but the beta coefficients of marital satisfaction and conflict resolution are 0.160, which are not significant at level (p <0/05). we can show the prediction pattern as follows: y= 50.076 + 0.276 x1 + 0.613 x2 first sub hypothesis: the degree of marital satisfaction in students is predictable based on the psychological components of attachment style. table 6. the results of pearson correlation coefficient between marital satisfaction and psychological components of attachment style variables studied number of observations pearson correlation coefficient significance level type of relationship relationship form intensity of relationship marital satisfaction and secure attachment style 252 **0.238 0.000 significant direct and weak 23% marital satisfaction and anxiousavoidant insecure attachment style 252 **-0.198 0.002 significant indirect and weak 19% marital satisfaction and anxiousambivalent insecurity attachment style 252 **-0.261 0.000 significant indirect and weak 26% according to the results of the correlation matrix coefficient in table (6), it can be said that with a confidence of 0.95%, an error less than 0.05 was found between the components of marital satisfaction and the psychological components of attachment style. on the other hand, according to r calculated between marital satisfaction and secure attachment style, this ratio, which is equal to 238/0, direct (positive) and at weak level. this means that with the increase in secure attachment style, marital satisfaction will also be relatively weak. on the other hand, according to r calculated between marital satisfaction and the anxious avoidant insecure attachment style, this relationship is equal to -0.89, indirect (negative) and at weak level, meaning that with the increasing anxious avoidant insecure attachment style, marital satisfaction will also decrease slightly. also, according to r calculated between marital satisfaction and anxious ambivalent insecure attachment style, this ratio is equal to -0.261, indirect (negative) and at weak level, meaning that with increasing anxious ambivalent insecure attachment style, the amount of marital satisfaction will also decrease slightly. second sub hypothesis: the degree of marital satisfaction in students is predictable based on perfectionism. m. nadiri, j. khalatbari study of marital satisfaction in students based on psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution 125 table 7. results of pearson correlation coefficient between marital satisfaction and perfectionism variables studied number of observations pearson correlation coefficient significance level type of relationship relationship form intensity of relationship marital satisfaction and perfectionism 252 **0.453 0.000 significant direct and moderate 43% regarding the results of the correlation matrix coefficient in table (7), it can be said that with a confidence of 0.95% and an error less than 0.05, there is a relationship between the components of marital satisfaction and perfectionism. on the other hand, according to r calculated between marital satisfaction and perfectionism, this ratio is equal to 435/0, direct (positive) and moderate. that is, with the rise of perfectionism, marital satisfaction will also increase moderately. third sub hypothesis: the degree of marital satisfaction in students is predictable based on conflict resolution. table 8. pearson correlation coefficient between marital satisfaction and conflict resolution variables studied number of observations pearson correlation coefficient significance level type of relationship relationship form intensity of relationship marital satisfaction and conflict resolution 252 **0.197 0.002 significant direct and weak 19% regarding the results of the correlation matrix coefficient in table (8), it can be said that with a confidence of 0.95 and an error less than 0.05, there is a relationship between the components of marital satisfaction and conflict resolution. on the other hand, according to r calculated between marital satisfaction and conflict resolution, this ratio is equal to 197.0, direct (positive) and at weak level. this means that with increasing conflict resolution, marital satisfaction will also slightly increase. 5. conclusion and recommendations the results of pearson correlation test showed that there is a significant relationship between marital satisfaction and attachment styles. these results are consistent with the research conducted in this regard (najm, 2005; lawrence et al., 2008; bans, 2004; verdon et al., 2009). also, the results indicate that secure attachment is associated with a higher degree of marital satisfaction than anxious-avoidant and anxious-ambivalent attachment styles. secure attachment styles have positive relationship with marital satisfaction and anxious-avoidant and anxious-ambivalent attachment styles have a negative relationship with marital satisfaction. in explaining this finding, it can be said that people with a secure attachment style trust others, communicate easily, enjoy communication, are not concerned about rejection, have stability, in their relationship there is pleasure, honesty and friendship, and they have a sense of value to themselves and others. in contrast, people with insecure attachment are fearful of being rejected and lack comfort to have intimate relationships, since feeling comfortable in relationships and lack of fear of rejection indicates secure attachment and these two factors are important factors in marital satisfaction; therefore, it can be concluded that people with secure attachment style have high marital satisfaction and those with insecure attachment style experience lower marital satisfaction. the results of pearson correlation test showed that there is a significant relationship between marital satisfaction and conflict resolution in students. research suggests that satisfaction of couples' relationships has a high correlation with conflict resolution (bardbury, 2000). compatible brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 126 couples value the positive actions of their wives and can tolerate their negative actions more easily. in contrast, incompatible couples tend to think more negatively and spend a lot of time paying attention to the unpleasant aspects of their wives; they have difficulty in understanding their compensating and positive characteristics. stobber (2005) has shown that adults with more constructive conflict resolution strategies have more durable marital satisfaction. in explaining this finding, it can be said that constructive verbal strategies help couples to take a positive stance and show feelings and situations, seek consent from the other party, agree on issues, and trust each other. on the other hand, women seem to enjoy their husbands confabulating and talking about their mysteries, and vice versa, they upset their husbands' silence and feel saddened by their not expressing feelings. these gender differences cause a negative feeling in women and a decrease in marital satisfaction. the results of pearson correlation test showed that there is a significant relationship between marital satisfaction and perfectionism in students. the results of this hypothesis are consistent with studies (hokins, 2005; ashby et al., 2005). in explaining this finding, it can be said that in marital relationships, the existence of high-level expectations, along with a permanent perfectionist assessment of the behavior and practice of the spouse, imposes many different pressures on him/her. over time, this pressure creates a number of negative emotions such as anger, irritation and anxiety, and this affects the level of marital satisfaction. female students were able to psychologically empower themselves in their compliance with high-level expectations of their parents, and thus able to deal with marital conflicts and relationships more satisfactorily. of course, parents' expectations, in addition to marital satisfaction, marital affairs and conflict resolution, also had predictive power for personal issues, leisure activities, family and friends, and egalitarian roles. from this point of view, it can be said that the perfectionist expectations of parents are a dimension of perfectionism, which brings sustainability to female students. these inclusive and potentially meaningful roles are often not limited to immortality, and also drawn to after marriage by forming an internal conductive structure. according to the results of the research, the following points are recommended to improve the marital satisfaction of married students:  understanding the signs of insecure attachment style and early maladaptive schemas can be placed in a training package (premarriage recognition) and taught in educational settings, so that in addition to the awareness of girls and boys about the age of choosing a spouse regarding the recognition of these symptoms in themselves and the other party, there is the possibility of receiving specialized help to get rid of insecure attachment and maladaptive schemes pains before marriage and to begin a martial life.  developing educational curricula on conflict resolution education, perfectionism, and attachment styles is necessary for students. in this regard, students can explain the problem, on the one hand, by designing great programs and, on the other hand, by establishing workshops, and compilation of scientific, simple and practical books.  considering the importance of conflict and its effective resolution to the satisfaction and success of marriage, and the fact that the type of conflict and its resolution manner is a cultural affair, and also because researchers' search in databases has shown that research has so far, no research with qualitative approach has investigated the conflict areas and conflict resolution methods among married couples in our society, it is a necessity to conduct research with the aim of identifying conflict areas and conflict resolution methods for couples with satisfying marriage. references bradbury, t. n., fincham, f. d., & beach, s. r. (2000). research on the nature and determinants of marital satisfaction: a decade in review. journal of marriage and family, 62(4), 964-980. m. nadiri, j. khalatbari study of marital satisfaction in students based on psychological components of attachment style, perfectionism and conflict resolution 127 crandell, l. e., & fisher, j. v. (2000). complex attachment: patterns of relating in the couple. journal of sexual and marital therapy, 12 , pp. 211-223. dibaji forushani, f. s., emami, p. s., & mahmoudi, g. (2009). relationship between attachment styles and conflict resolution patterns with women's married satisfaction. jandishehraftar; 3 (11): 87-101. farnoosh, o. e. (2012). investigating the role of differentiation, attachment styles, emotional intelligence and coping styles in marital satisfaction using path analysis method. master's thesis. faculty of psychology and educational sciences. allameh tabatabaei university. fatimah, k. (2011). evaluating the effectiveness of conflict resolution training for mothers and their adolescent girls on improving their relationships. master's thesis, ferdowsi university of mashhad. hewitt, p. (2009). perfectionism [fact sheet]: canadian psychological association, ottawa, canada. huei, s. a., lindsey, c. r., & elliott, t. r. (2007). church attendance and marital commitment beliefs of undergraduate women. journal of applied social psychology ,37,3, pp. 501514. judy, a.(2006), understanding the contribution of relative commitment to the link between romantic attachment and jealousy. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of carolina.. laura, e. b. (2007). developmental psychology from adolescence to the end of life. translated by yahya sayed mohammadi. tehran: arasbaran publication. leila, e. (2012). the relationship between love styles and attachment styles with marital satisfaction and quality of life in teachers. master's thesis. faculty of psychology and educational sciences. university of mohaghegh ardebil. marques, s. r. f. (2010). relationship threat and self-regulation: the moderating effect of attachment anxiety. unpublished doctoral dissertation. queen’s university. mehdi, t. (2004). study and comparison of the effectiveness of couples combined group theerapy, group cognitive therapy and book therapy in reducing marital dissatisfaction". ph.d thesis in consultation, allameh tabatabaei university. rahi, m. a, & magner, n. r. (1995). confirmatoryfactor analysis of the styles of handlinginterpersonal conflict: first-order factor modeland its invariance across groups. j applpsychol, 80 (1), pp. 122-32. sadock, b. j., & sadock, v. a. (2011). kaplan and sadock's synopsis of psychiatry: behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry. lippincott williams & wilkins. shaver, p., & mikulincer, m. (2005). attachment theory and research: resurrection of the psychodynamic approach to personality. journal of research in personality, 39, 2245. shaver, p. r., & mikulincer, m. (2004). attachment theory, individual psychodynamics & relationship functioning. new york cambridge, university press. microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx 37 study on the development of personality traits in children with language disorders and children without language disorders georgeta pânişoară university of bucharest regina elisabeta 4-12, 030018, bucharest, romania phone: 021 307 7300 georgeta.panisoara@gmail.com cristina ghiță university of bucharest regina elisabeta 4-12, 030018, bucharest, romania phone: 021 307 7300 cristina.sandu@fpse.unibuc.ro iulia lazăr vasile alecsandri university calea mărășești 157, 600115, bacău, romania phone: 0234 542 411 iulia48lazar@gmail.com silvia făt university of bucharest regina elisabeta 4-12, 030018, bucharest, romania phone: 021 307 7300 silvia.fat@fpse.unibuc.ro abstract this study aims to investigate possible differences in the formation and development of personality traits for children with various language disorders and children who do not have language disorders from a neuropsychological perspective. the child's personality is a psychological and social construct with strong implications on how to relate it to the surrounding individuals and brain function. during childhood, the individual manifests a variety of typologies of behavior and attitudes depending on the context in which they are, so personality traits are formed as a result of existing interactions and the family and educational context. in the case of children with different language disorders, the personality must be structured in a more secure and stable emotional environment, leading to the development of adaptation capacities to the external environment and an increase in stress resistance. emotions and moods play a significant role in the development of personality traits. in this sense, we have started the research that aims to analyze the personality traits of children with speech difficulties and those who do not have these difficulties. the participants in this study are 60 children aged 7-12 years old from urban areas. the method used is represented by the hipic hierarchical personality inventory for children (i mervielde and filip de fruyt), a psychological tool for assessing the personality of children aged 6 to 13 and is based on the established big five model. the inventory is a personality hipic contains 144 items and allows the evaluation of the emotional, interpersonal, motivational and behavioral style of children based on the five dimensions of personality. parametric statistical methods were used to identify possible differences between the two groups of participants in research. also factor loadings and correlations between factors as results of exploratory factor analyses were evaluated. the study outputs confirms existing differences in the development of certain personality traits, the specificity being given by the situations experienced in the educational environment, the family environment and in the context of the process of recovering and improving the language disorders. keywords: language disorders; personality traits; emotional; children; neuropsychology; neuroscience. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 38 1. introduction personality should be seen as the most important psychological and social structure that an individual builds in relation to others. this could be interpreted by the effectiveness with which a person manages to stimulate positive reactions from others in different situations. caspi (2000) considers personality as the total sum of the typical ways to act, think, and feel, by which each individual becomes unique. childhood is a "crucial chance" to shape the individual's emotional predilections, since childhood habits are included in the synaptic networks of neural architecture and are difficult to change later (goleman, 2001). when we refer to personality development, it involves many changes, restructuring that can be considered vital. an important role at this stage, childhood and personality development is given by new factors such as: increasing personal relationships and experience, developing social knowledge, engaging in their own training process, and entering the life of the school community (cretu, 2007). recent research into neuropsychology technology has opened up interesting possibilities for analyzing the neural mechanisms underlying language learning and development. the last decade has seen an increased interest in linking research to learning sciences and cognitive neuroscience on various topics of common interest such as language development, problem solving, learning difficulties (goswami & szucs, 2011). according to the literature, openness is the most significant predictor of psychometric intelligence (heaven & ciarrochi, 2012). it is also associated with the acquisition of knowledge composing crystallized intelligence, such as information and vocabulary (bates & rock, 2004). people with high scores in openness are more motivated to participate in different kinds of cognitive activities. the aim of personality neuroscience is to understand both the biological systems that are responsible for the states associated with traits and the parameters of those systems that cause them to function differently in different individuals. deyoung (2010) defines personality as being ,,individual’s unique variation on the general evolutionary design for human nature, expressed as a developing pattern of dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and integrative life stories, complexly and differentially situated in culture’’. from a neurocognitive perspective, personality is focused primarily on traits, which are relatively stable patterns of behavior, motivation, emotion, and cognition. in contrast to traits, characteristic adaptations and life stories describe the individual’s specific responses to his or her particular life circumstances. norman (2003) stated that there is a strong correlation between big five personality factors (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness and acceptability), and children's conflict management strategies. studies have shown that these five factors have the following descriptions: neuroticism, reflects individual differences as a child perceives and experiences the world as threatening, problematic and dangerous; extraversion, involves an active approach to the social world and includes features such as positive sociability, activity, assertiveness and emotionality; openness to experience, describes the breadth, depth, originality and complexity of the child's mental and experiential life; convenience, includes features such as altruism, tendency, trust and modesty and conscientiousness, describes control of socially prescribed impulses that ease taskoriented behavior, such as thinking before acting, compliance with rules and rules (atashrooz, behrooz, 2009). researchers (garvey, fogel, 2007) have defined personality traits as a set of characteristic dispositions that determine emotional, interpersonal, experimental, attitude and motivational styles. personality dimensions, such as extraversion and neuroticism, have been shown to play an important role in the satisfaction of children's lives (khosla, 2012). another significant aspect of children's personalities is given by how they are reflected in their academic achievements. specialists have described the relationship between individual personal traits and academic achievements through the ability of general social adaptation, which we can call successful / unsuccessful socialization and specific adaptation to diversity (saarni, 1999). g. pânişoară, c. ghiță, i. lazăr, s. făt study on the development of personality traits in children with language disorders and children without language disorders 39 in the case of children with language disorders, the processes of recovery and education through cognitive stimulation, socialization, personal autonomy, occupational therapy, influence the personality of the individual through the skills they cause at the level of personality. this is supported by the personalization theory, which describes personality as the subject of the interpersonal relationship, being expressed in two psychological spheres: intra-individual (character, temperament, abilities, personality) and inter-individual (space that takes place in a group of relationships and reciprocal interactions). from this perspective, the results of language recovery appear in this dimension of personalization that contributes to the formation of student characteristics, especially in terms of self-esteem and self-image, quantitative and qualitative changes in positive emotions, behavior and attitudes (novojenova & sawilowsky, 1999). positive emotions are an essential component of childhood personality development (wang, shi & li, 2009). body and emotional changes of the child are essential in the development of the self. ). regarding the state of well-being and the emergence of positive emotions, there are strong relationships between their existence and the five personality factors: emotional stability, extraversion, benevolence, imagination and consciousness (deneve & cooper, 1998). individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect, relationships, and wellbeing. one of the most important values that a person develops throughout his life is self-identity, which operates through self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-image in the relationship with the self and others (horvath, 2012). emotions guide the child to others by making him become more aware of his self (gross & john, 2003). the importance of understanding and awareness of each individual's communication capabilities is a significant prerequisite for optimal cognitive adaptation to school and social needs. various operations of thought, such as analysis, synthesis, or comparison allow each individual to make remarkable social progress, managing to best build those personality traits that are right and specific to their own temperament set (griffits, 2007). strategies that teachers and therapists typically use in socializing negative emotions (sadness, anger, shame, fear) at different stages of development (childhood, adolescence) lead to mental health consequences (saarni, 1999)). emotional learning starts from the first moments of life and continues throughout childhood. children develop a base of emotional perspectives and emotional capacity. during this time, strong stress can affect the ability of learning the brain (goldberg, 1991). 2. methodology 2.1. aim analysis of how to develop and develop personality traits in children with language disorders and children who do not have language problems. identifying the specific features of children's personality traits from a neuropsychological perspective. 2.1.1. research objectives identifying existing differences between children with language disorders and children without language disorders in terms of developing personality traits. making the neuropsychology picture of the personality traits of children with language disorders. making a specific picture of the personality traits of children in the urban environment. 2.1.2. hypothesis there are statistically significant differences in each personality traits between children with language disorders and those with no language disorders. there is a specific picture of the personality traits of children in the urban environment. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 40 2.2. subjects the sample consisted of 60 children aged 7-12 years old from urban areas. the subjects were both children with different language disorders, as well as children with a normal development of language, from urban areas. voluntary participants were instructed before applying the questionnaire including on ethical issues in research. 2.3. data collection method the method used is represented by the hipic hierarchical personality inventory for children (i mervielde and filip de fruyt), a psychological tool for assessing the personality of children aged 6 to 13 and is based on the established big five model. the inventory is a personality hipic contains 144 items and allows the evaluation of the emotional, interpersonal, motivational and behavioral style of children based on the five dimensions of personality. the five dimensions of the questionnaire are: emotional stability (stab e), extraversion (extr), imagination (imag), benevolence (benev) and conscientiousness (constiint). 2.4. data analysis the data acquired after the psychological tool for assessing the personality of children aged 6 to 13 were explored through spss 13 program package. according to one-sample kolmogorovsmirnov test results, the five dimension of personality were establish to be normally distributed. so, the independent t-test was appropriate for investigate the impact of group characteristic (i.e. presence or absence of language disorders) on personality traits. exploratory factor analyses (izquierdo, olea & abad 2014) and correlational analyses were used to search the link between personality traits. 3. results and discussions 3.1. descriptive statistics collected data was input into the spss statistical software. because of the normal distribution of data (table 1), we were able to apply the independent t-test in order to investigate if are statistically significant differences between certain personality traits of children with normal language development and those with different language disorders. table 1 also shows descriptive statistics of the five personality traits investigated in this research for children with normal language development. as can be seen, the highest scores are obtained at the size of "imagination" and "benevolence". taking into account the standard scores, we believe that the results obtained by the participants in this category are great, which leads us to build a picture of their personality traits focused on imagination, emotional stability and benevolence. children who show a dominance of personality traits such as benevolence and imagination are characterized by positive attitude, eager to help, creativity, artistic activities. table 1. results for descriptive statistics for five dimensions in children with normal development stab e extr imag benev constiint n 30 30 30 30 30 normal parametersb,c mean 45.24 46.79 56.21 60.45 55.69 std. deviation 30.652 24.471 25.420 28.149 27.628 most extreme differences absolute .097 .085 .099 .219 .093 positive .091 .066 .076 .131 .072 negative -.097 -.085 -.099 -.219 -.093 kolmogorov-smirnov z .531 .468 .541 1.201 .509 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .941 .981 .932 .111 .958 in table 2 one-sample kolmogorov-smirnov test was applied to identify the distribution of the data obtained from the test for children with language disorders. also table 2 shows the g. pânişoară, c. ghiță, i. lazăr, s. făt study on the development of personality traits in children with language disorders and children without language disorders 41 descriptive statistics for the five dimensions of the personality analyzed in this study for children with different language deficits. the results presented in the table below show a normal distribution of data because the asymp. sig. (2-tailed) are greater than 0.05 which allows us to apply parametric tests for small groups in order to identify the differences between the two groups on personality traits. table 2. results for descriptive statistics for five dimensions in children with language disorders stab e extr imag benev constiint n 30 30 30 30 30 normal parametersb,c mean 42.03 40.17 37.86 38.79 49.90 std. deviation 32.775 29.111 30.936 39.564 37.747 most extreme differences absolute .135 .116 .173 .207 .168 positive .135 .116 .173 .207 .155 negative -.100 -.084 -.123 -.169 -.168 kolmogorov-smirnov z .739 .634 .947 1.133 .918 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .645 .817 .331 .153 .368 what it is interesting to overlook is that, on the one hand, lower scores were recorded for each of the five personality traits, and on the other hand the highest average was obtained at conscientiousness and emotional stability. from this we can extract the idea that, in their case, conscientiousness develops as a dominant personality trait and in the light of the gaps they present at the level of language. even if they have these language difficulties, these children present a psychological picture of personality traits dominated by conscientiousness, emotional stability and extraversion. 3.2. comparing the average results of the two groups taking into account the first hypothesis launched in this research on the differences between the two groups investigated in terms of personality traits, the independent t-test was applied. table 3 describes the independent t-test results for the differences in the score of personality traits for the two categories of participants. there are statistically significant differences between children with language disorders and those with no language disorders only related to their imagination (f=1.945, p< .05) and benevolence (f=6.827, p< .05) (table 3). positive, helpful and benevolent attitude is more common in children with a normal language development than those with language difficulties. altruism and focusing on the needs of those around them are dominant for children in the first investigated group. table 3. independent t-test results to determine the impact of group characteristic on personality traits levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f sig. (2tailed) mean difference std. error difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper stab e equal variances assumed .439 .697 3.207 8.193 -13.193 19.607 equal variances not assumed .697 3.207 8.193 -13.195 19.609 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 42 extr equal variances assumed .805 .344 6.621 6.943 -7.278 20.519 equal variances not assumed .344 6.621 6.943 -7.287 20.528 imag equal variances assumed 1.945 .015 18.345 7.310 3.712 32.978 equal variances not assumed .015 18.345 7.310 3.700 32.990 benev equal variances assumed 6.827 .018 21.655 8.865 3.910 39.401 equal variances not assumed .018 21.655 8.865 3.869 39.442 constiint equal variances assumed 7.441 .500 5.793 8.540 -11.303 22.889 equal variances not assumed .501 5.793 8.540 -11.336 22.922 figure 1. graphic on the differences between the two groups benevolence figure 2. graphic on the differences between the two groups – imagination 63% 37% graphic for benevolence 1 2 61% 39% graphic for imagination 1 2 g. pânişoară, c. ghiță, i. lazăr, s. făt study on the development of personality traits in children with language disorders and children without language disorders 43 the two figures represent graphically the differences between the two groups of participants in this study for two of the analyzed dimensions, benevolence and imagination. as can be seen in figure 1, the percentage obtained by children with a normal development of language to size, benevolence is 63% compared to 37% obtained by children with language difficulties. it is necessary to intervene the specialists in the field to alleviate these difficulties, thus building and developing positive and benevolent attitude in the case of children with language deficiencies. the same considerations apply to size, curiosity, where the differences are similar. 3.3. factor structure of the five personality traits in this stage we investigated the factor structure of the five personality traits using the results obtained by hipic hierarchical personality inventory for children (i mervielde and filip de fruyt) psychological tool. exploratory factor analysis (efa) (field 2006) in which principal axis factoring extraction with promax rotation was used to search the structure of the five personality traits (n=60). this analyses revealed that the item-factor structure of the psychological tool is unidimensional. the total variance accounted for one extracted factor with eigenvalues is greater than 1 was 50.558%. factor loadings (table 4) and correlations between factors (table 5) were evaluated based on efa results. table 4. factor loadings (principal axis factoring extraction, promax rotation, one factor, n=60) factor 1 stab e .656 extr .381 imag .744 benev .899 constiint .769 it is observed (table 4) that the factors with the highest load, which we consider to be the most representative for the model, in order of importance are: benevolence (0.899), consciousness (0.769) and imagination (0.744). 3.4. correlations between factors correlation analysis was performed between the most important psychological traits, i.e. benevolence and consciousness with the condition of constantly maintaining the effect of the extraversion variable on the two analyzed variables (table 5 and table 6). table 5. correlation between benevolence and conscientiousness for children with normal development benev constiint benev pearson correlation 1 .604** sig. (2tailed) .000 n 30 30 constiint pearson correlation .604** 1 sig. (2tailed) .000 n 30 30 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 44 table 6. correlation between benevolence and conscientiousness for children with language disorders benev constiint benev pearson correlation 1 .832** sig. (2tailed) .000 n 30 30 constiint pearson correlation .832** 1 sig. (2tailed) .000 n 30 30 table 7 and table 8 highlights that extraversion as control variable has a low influences on relationship between benevolence and conscientiousness, both for children with normal language development and those with language disorders. after isolation the effect of the extraversion variable the correlation between benevolence and conscientiousness increases slightly from 0.604 to 0.606 for children with normal language development and from 0.832 to 0.840 for those with language disorders. the benevolent attitude, the opening to the needs of others and the conscientiousness of personal actions are in a strong connection when the personality factor, extravagance, which is present for these children. table 7. partial correlation between benevolence and conscientiousness for children with normal development; extraversion as control variable control variables benev constiint extr benev correlation 1.000 .606 significance (2-tailed) . .000 df 0 27 constiint correlation .606** 1.000 significance (2-tailed) .000 . df 27 0 table 8. partial correlation between benevolence and conscientiousness for children with language disorders; extraversion as control variable control variables benev constiint extr benev correlation 1.000 .840 significance (2-tailed) . .000 df 0 27 constiint correlation .840** 1.000 significance (2-tailed) .000 . df 27 0 therefore, maintaining constant the influence of extraversion variable we noted a significant positive correlation between conscientiousness and benevolence, both for children with normal language development and those with language disorders. but the effect of consciousness on benevolence is stronger for children with language disorders (r(28)=0.840) than those with normal development (r(28)=0.606). g. pânişoară, c. ghiță, i. lazăr, s. făt study on the development of personality traits in children with language disorders and children without language disorders 45 4. conclusions the present study was conducted to explore the differences between children with normal language development and those with language difficulties. we also intend to build a psychological picture of personality traits based on a sample of 60 subjects on which has been applied the hipic hierarchical personality inventory for children. the results of this research allow us to express the following conclusions:  children with a normal development of language have a dominant personality trait, benevolent, which implies open, positive attitude, orientation towards other;  children with language difficulties have the dominant personality trait, the conscientiousness, which is responsibility, perseverance, seriousness in accomplishing the tasks. the strong correlation between the benevolence and consciousness mediated by the extraversion personality factor highlights the essential role that open attitudes, the knowledge of one's own personality, and the building of healthy relationships with people around him, play a sense of conscientiousness, responsibility and orientation towards the needs and feelings of others. therefore, the specific picture of personality traits developed by children in this study shows a strong focus on extraversion, conscientiousness and emotional stability. this study allows to investigate further hypotheses related to other dominant personality traits for the both subject categories. our recommendations are materialized by the recognition of programs specialists and activities for building those personality traits that are presented with low scores. acknowledgements this work was supported by a grant of the romanian national authority for scientific research and innovation, cncs/cccdi – uefiscdi, project number pn-iii-p2-2.1-pte-2016-0068. references atashrooz, j., & behrooz, k. (2009). the relationship between the big five personality traits and academic achievement, journal of iranian psychologists, 16, 367-376. bates, t. c., & rock a. (2004). personality and information processing speed: independent influences on intelligent performance/ intelligence, 32(1), 33-46. caspi, a. (2000). the child is father of the man: personality continuities from childhood to adulthood. journal of personality and social psychology,78, 158-172. crețu, t., (2007). psihologia vârstelor, polirom, iași. deneve, k. m., & cooper, h. (1998). the happy personality: a meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. psychological bulletin, 124, 197-229. deyoung, c. (2010). personality neuroscience and the biology of traits. social and personality psychology compass, 4/12, 1165–1180. field, a. (2006). discovering statistics using spss (second edition ed.). london: sage publications ltd. garvey, a., & fogel, a. (2007). dialogical change processes, emotions, and the early emergence of self. international journal for dialogical science, 2(1), 51–76. goldberg, l. r. (1991). language and individual differences: the search for universals in personality lexicons. in l. wheeler (ed.), review of personality and social psychology, 2, 141–165. beverly hills, ca: sage. goleman, d. (2001). inteligența emoțională. cheia succesului în viață. curtea veche. bucurești. goswami, u., & szucs, d. (2011). educational neuroscience: developmental mechanisms: towards a conceptual framework. neuroimage, 57(3), 651-658. gross, j., & john, o. p. (2003). individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. journal of personality and social psychology, 85, 348–362. griffits, c. c. b. (2007). pragmatic abilities in adults with and without dyslexia: a pilot study. dyslexia. 13, (14), 276-296. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 46 heaven, p. c., & ciarrochi, j. (2012). when iq is not everything: intelligence, personality and academic performance at school. personality and individual differences, 53(4), 518-522. horvath, h. a. (2012). conscience in fragments. practice and theory in systems of education, 7 (1), 37-52. izquierdo, i., olea, j., & abad, f., j. (2014). exploratory factor analysis in validation studies: uses and recommendations, psicothema, 26 (3), 395-400. khosla, m., (2012). emotion regulation and well-being. applied research quality life, 7, 323-325. norman, w. t. (2003). toward an adequate taxonomy of personality attributes: replicated factor structure in peer nominations personality ratings. journal of abnormal and social psychology, 66, 574–583. novojenova, r., sawilowsky, & sh. s. (1999). measurement of influence of the teacher personality on students in the classroom. social behavior and personality, 27, 533 – 544. saarni, c. (1999). emotional competence: how emotions and relationships become integrated. socioemotional development, 36, 115-182. lincoln: university of nebraska press. wang, l., shi, s., & li, h. (2009). neuroticism, extraversion, emotion regulation, negative affect and positive affect: the mediating roles of reappraisal and suppression. social behavior and personality, 37(2), 193-194. georgeta pânișoară, ph.d. (born 1974), is an associate professor in psychology area at department of psychology, habilitated in educational sciences, works at bucharest university. she wrote and coordinated more than 10 books (coordinator the psychology of modern child, coordinator 2011, the childhood and adolescence. new challenges in developmental psychology, 2016). she coordinates series of books child psychology and parenting at polirom publishing house. she was involved in national and international projects. co-founder of website www.performante.ro (about education and parenting). speaker in national media (radio, newspapers, tv). cristina ghiță, ph.d., lecturer in education sciences. works at the faculty of psychology and educational sciences at the university of bucharest. fields of interest are psychology of education, psychology of learning and management of student classes. she published two books on persuasive communication and motivation in the educational space. she has written numerous international and national articles in the field of education sciences and psychology and has been a member of research projects. she has participated in a large number of international conferences with works in the field of psychology of education. iuliana mihaela lazăr, graduate of the university of bucharest, romania; main field of interest research: study the impact of new digital tools in science education; coordinator and/or member of more than 10 research/development projects, won by national or international competition; publications in isi and bdi quoted journals that have accumulated more than 200 citations, with a hirsch index h = 6 (http://www.researcherid.com/rid/b-5974-2011). silvia făt is an associate professor at the faculty of psychology and educational sciences, university of bucharest. the author has expertise in instructional design and teacher training programs. its work aims to enhance the use of new technologies in educational practices, especially in the active field of teaching and learning strategies. the research area is defined by many studies conducted in elearning projects and the scientific review at international conference on virtual learning and international conference elearning and software for education (romania). 125 swarm robotics with circular formation motion including obstacles avoidance nabil m. hewahi department of computer science college of information technology university of bahrain, bahrain nhewahi@uob.edu.bh abed alkader a. almobayed department of computer science college of information technology islamic university of gaza, palestine abedk2006@gmail.com abstract the robots science has been developed over the past few years, where robots have become used to accomplish difficult, repetitive or accurate tasks, which are very hard for humans to carry out. in this paper, we propose an algorithm to control the motion of a swarm of robots and make them able to avoid obstacles. the proposed solution is based on forming the robots in circular fashion. a group set of robots consists of multiple groups of robots, each group of robots consists of robots forming a circular shape and each group set is a circular form of robots. the proposed algorithm is concerned with first locating the randomly generated robots in groups and secondly with the swarm robot motion and finally with the swarm obstacle avoidance and swarm reorganization after crossing the obstacle. the proposed algorithm has been simulated with five different obstacles with various numbers of randomly generated robots. the results show that the swarm in the circular form can deal with the obstacles very effectively by passing the obstacles smoothly. the proposed algorithm has been compared with flocking algorithm and it is shown that the circular formation algorithm does not need extensive computation after obstacle avoidance whereas the flocking algorithm needs extensive computation. in addition, the circular formation algorithm maintains every robot in its group after avoiding the obstacles whereas with flocking algorithm does not. keywords: robotics, swarm robotics, circular formation, obstacle avoidance. 1. introduction due to heavy duties or sometimes very accurate duties (duties performed in very narrow areas), human being cannot perform those tasks and it becomes very important to use robots. with the revolution of technology and the expanding of discoveries and science, the human's passion to know far things as in seas or in space is increasing. also, humans want to reach undiscovered locations and difficult to reach places. this made robots become one of those possible potential solutions. robots are pre-programmed or controlled and can carry out tedious, boring or dangerous tasks, and also able to do the needed works accurately. in addition, robots might involve in searching for survivors and rescue during natural disasters and wars. other robots might be used to carry out surgery tasks or household works. the robot's work might vary from simple to complex task. fortunately, robots have begun working in these places, where most of them have the ability to move with wires or wireless like uav planes which flies without a pilot, submarine or mobile brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 126 robot (hereford & blum, 2011). for such tasks one robot will not be enough and there is a need for more robots to work together. to study the swarm's behavior, scientists study the behavior of ants, bees and fish, and how they work together to find food or solve their problems. based on the motion of swarms and swimming of flocks, researchers build their algorithms that behave like fish schools, bird flocks, and ants (geunho & chong, 2008),(hanada, lee, & chong, 2007),(hereford & blum, 2011),(la & sheng, 2009),(lee & chong, 2008),(scanniello & erra, 2013). swarm robotics is the name which is given to a group of robots working together in autonomous; robots that perform behaviors or tasks which are particularly desirable in fields such as; space exploration, cleaning floors, mowing lawns, waste water treatment, rescue after any kind of disaster, and discovery of areas damaged with gas or contaminated with nuclear radiation(cheng, wang, & dasgupta, 2009),(stormont & kutiyanawala, 2007). researchers have worked in several fields related to swarm robotics; the way robotics can connect to each other by using simple techniques with little resources and how they share big tasks and solve them (stormont & kutiyanawala, 2007). researchers proposed several algorithms for swarm robotics to have one standalone algorithm for each robot; most of these approaches are based on fish school and motion of the birds including v formation and triangular formation (meng & gan, 2008). in this study, we develop a swarm robotics motion based on circular formation that will help them move fast in order to be able to avoid obstacles and to easy reform themselves. swarm robotics is a group of robots that moves in a particular format based on a simple connection to carry out a certain task, each robot in the group works based on a certain algorithm to interact with other robots to help in achieving the group task. this task can be achieved by assigning a subtask for each robot in the group. there are many different kinds of robots that are used in swarms of robots, including:  ant robotics: this model follows the traditional way of ant life and communication, by producing pheromones to give signals to other ants. in 1991, james mclurkin, provided the robot with special sensors, infrared and communication system to be able to follow the signs and interpret the signals received from other robots. an algorithm was developed to mimic the ant behavior on robots and several experiments were conducted to test and discover the distribution of the ants workload performed(mclurkin, 1995).  kilobot: in 2010, a small robot, which does not exceed a length of 3.3 cm, was produced in the self-organizing systems research group at harvard university. the cost for the robot does not exceed $ 15 and these robots can interact in doing tasks as a group (rubenstein, ahler, & nagpal, 2012).  nanorobotics: this technology is still in the process of growing up, where the scientists target is to have a nanometer-sized robot industry to be used in medicine operations by sending the robot into the bloodstream in the human body. some minor attempts in this area succeeded (freitas, 2005).  microbotics: an idea to design a robot less than 1 mm size and has a simple characteristics for use in a swarm of robots (lehr et al., 1996). 2. related works swarm robotics is a new research field, where researchers seek to develop small robots that have the potential to communicate with each other with the least amount of resources consumption to carry out major operations that cannot be performed by a single robot. there are different approaches which have been adopted for swarm robotics. these approaches can be classified into three types, communication (guo, meng, & jin, 2010), flocking (folino & spezzano, 2002; geunho nabil m. hewahi, abed alkader a. almobayed swarm robotics with circular formation motion including obstacles avoidance 127 & chong, 2008; hanada et al., 2007; hereford & blum, 2011; la & sheng, 2009; lee & chong, 2008; reynolds, 1987; turgut, çelikkanat, gökçe, & şahin, 2008) and formation (défago & konagaya, 2002; lee & chong, 2008; yun, alptekin, & albayrak, 1997). 2.1. communication swarm robotics is not always about the control and coordination of mobile agents, it entails the development of infrastructure for proper functioning such as communication, sensing, processing. nouyan and dorigo (nouyan & dorigo, 2004) implemented a chain formation behavior. initially the robots search for other chain members or the nest. once a robot finds a chain member or the nest, it becomes a chain member depending on two predefined timeouts. the robots distinguish chain members and the nest based on the color of the led ring around their body. a chain member can have three different colors: blue, green and red. it activates the color blue, if it connects to the nest or to a red chain member. it activates the color green, if it connects to a blue chain member and color red otherwise. this coloring mechanism allows robots to find the direction of the chain. since having a long chain instead of a chain with several branches is preferred, the robot follows the color to reach to the end of the chain to connect. 2.2. flocking what distinguishes a swarm of robots is the movement, which is either organized or simulates swarms of nature like a swarm of fish or flock of birds. in the case of nature like swarm, a robot is considered independent and moves autonomously. every robot is having its own number despite that in the simulation environment the robot is considered a point in a two-dimensional space. the main problem facing these robots is that it is separated from the rest of the swarm and do not take complex communication devices. on the other hand, the main characteristics of this approach are the simplicity in the process of communication, movement independently and carrying a decentralized algorithm. the goal of flocking is to simplify the coordination of the communication process “low sensing” between the robots and to allow them to interact with each other. lee and chong (lee & chong, 2008) proposed robot swarms in triangular shapes. this triangular formation is used to facilitate the movement of the swarm concurrently and simulates the movement of swarms of fish. the process of triangular formation is called "local interaction algorithm". in addition, another algorithm to make the swarm move forward simultaneously is developed. the swarm of robots keeps the organization of triangular formation during movement, which leads to a consumption of a lot of processes. several experiments were conducted mainly to avoid obstacles by a swarm of robots. 2.3. formation a fundamental problem in collective robotics is to have the group organize into global formations or patterns. these include simple patterns like circles, lines, uniform distribution within a circle or square, etc. in the presence of a central controller, these tasks are trivial, but this is not the case in a distributed system. the main goal is to have self-autonomy robots, where each behaves independently from the others based its surrounding environment including other robots' behavior. each robot might not be aware that it works within a group. ducatelle et al.(ducatelle, di caro, pinciroli, mondada, & gambardella, 2011) proposed a collective behavior based on network routing, capable of guiding a robot from a source area to a target. similarly to what happens in packet routing, the robots keep a table of the distance of other robots with respect to the target. a robot can then use the entries in the table and reach the target. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 128 the authors studied two different experimental setups. in the first, only a single robot is moving while the others act as beacons to guide it. in the second, all the robots are moving between two points, creating a dynamic chain. the previous works and studies have talked about swam robotics motion in different formations like v and fish school in addition to areas covering capability for searching and saving missions. our proposed approach is an attempt to reduce the computational complexity of some of the previous approaches and to make robots motion more simple and capable of avoiding obstacles regardless of the obstacles structure. 3. methodology and the proposed model the general diagram of the proposed approach is shown in figure 1 and presented below. figure 1.the five steps of methodology approach a) generate a random number of robots to have a swarm. b) organize the robots in circular formations, where every robot will be in a group related to circular formation. this means every circular formation is a cycle that has cyclic groups of robots on its circumference as shown in figure 2 and figure 3. we might have more than one circular formation. c) move the robots forward in a steady state. d) avoiding obstacles in case of facing an obstacle, and the swarm must adapt itself based on the type of the obstacle. various types of obstacles will be considered. e) the swarm reorganizes itself after avoiding the obstacle in the same way as it was before facing the obstacle. nabil m. hewahi, abed alkader a. almobayed swarm robotics with circular formation motion including obstacles avoidance 129 figure 2: a robot set with ten groups of robots figure 1: circular formation for nine hundred robots the detailed methodology approach is given in figure 4. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 130 figure 4: methodology flowchart 3.1. data collection one of the major steps in our proposed approach is to a have a certain formation for the robots to allow them to move smoothly and to maintain easy connection between them. the robot organization is based on circular formation in which robots are organized in circular groups. to obtain the circular formation, sequences of mathematical formulas have to be followed as shown in the next sections. 3.2. circle circumferences points formulas (1) and (2) are used to determine the new points on the circumference of the circle to form the circular formation shown in figure 5. figure 5: graph illustrate the new points on the circumference of the circle nabil m. hewahi, abed alkader a. almobayed swarm robotics with circular formation motion including obstacles avoidance 131 3.3. circle circumference calculation the pseudo code description of circumference of circle calculation is given in algorithm 1. 3.4. circle center calculation the pseudo code description of calculating the center of circle from three points is given in algorithm 2. 3.5. swarm robotics circular formation the pseudo code description to calculate the swarm robotics circular formation is given in algorithm 3 and figure 6. algorithm 2: calculate the center of circle from three points purpose: calculate the center of circle from position of three points input: (p1x,p1y,p2x,p2y,p3x,p3y) /*position x,y of three point */ output: center.x, center.y procedure: {//begin λy1=p2y-p1y λx1=p2x-x1 λy2=p3y-p2y λx2=p3x-p2x a=λy1/λx1 b=λy2/λx2 center.x= (a*b*(p1y-p3y)+b*(p1x-p2x)-a*(p2x+p3x))/(2*(a-b) center.y=-1*( center.x-(p1x+p2x)/2)/a+(p1y+p2y)/2 }// end algorithm 1: calculate circumference of circle purpose: calculate the point position on circumference of circle input: (r,degree, center.x, center.y, pn) output: , procedure: {// begin degree=360/pn for k=1..pn do degree=degree*pn =r*(cos(degree*π/180)+x; =r*(sin(degree*π/180)+y; }//end brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 132 algorithm 3: swarm robotics circular formation purpose: swarm robotics circular formation (code executed by a robot ri at the point pi) input: {p1,…,pn}set of position for robots{r1,…,rn}, cxy circular formation center output: procedure { //begin perceived in the current position for every robots. if rn<16 then for k1=1,…, gsn do cpn:=calculate new position of rn on circumference of circle  cxy m := move rn from pn to cpn end for else calculate center of group sets on circumference of circle cpgn:=calculate new position of rn on circumference of group set for k2=1,…, do cpn:=calculate new position of rn on circumference of circle of group set end for for k3=1,…, gn do /*group set number */ for k4=1,…, rn-cpn do /* cpn number of robot in every group set*/ /* calculate min distance between robots n center of group set */ psn:=min[dist(pn, cpgn)] end for end for m :=move rn from pn to cpn  psn end if } // end figure 6: swarm robotics move forward nabil m. hewahi, abed alkader a. almobayed swarm robotics with circular formation motion including obstacles avoidance 133 3.6. group set movement the pseudo code description to move group set is given in algorithm 4. 3.7. first obstacle crossing the pseudo code description to move the group set to avoid the predefined first obstacle as shown later in experimentation section. first obstacle crossing is given in algorithm 5 and figure 7. algorithm 5: move swarm robotics over first obstacles purpose: avoid first obstacles one robot can pass through obstacles input: constant w= width of gap on obstacles, oc= center of gap begin of obstacle oc2= center of gap end of obstacle {p1,p2,p3} position of three robots on circumference of group set circle gsn group set number {p1,…,pn}set of position for robots on group set {r1,…,rn }∈gsn drh distance swarm robotics will stop in before obstacles cxy' new circular formation center after avoid obstacles cg: =cx, cy center of group set procedure: {//begin repeat cg (cx, cy):= centerf3p(p1,p2,p3) /*find center of group set from three point*/ m =move (cx, cy) to drh for k1=1,…, ∈ gsn do cpn:=calculate new position of rn on circumference of group set circle ∈ cg m : =move rn from pn to cpn end for until (oc=drh) /*stop move of group set */ n1=1; repeat 1m move rn1 to oc if rn1 reach to oc then n1=n1+1 algorithm 4: move group set purpose: move group set input: constant pd = destination point {p1,p2,p3} position of three robots on circumference of group set circle gsn group set number {p1,…,pn}set of position for robots on group set {r1,…,rn }∈gsn output: cg:=cx,cy center of group set procedure: {//begin repeat cg(cx,cy):= centerf3p(p1,p2,p3) /* algorithm 3-2 find center of group set from three point*/ m =move (cx,cy) to pd for k1=1,…, ∈ gsn do cpn:=calculate new position of rn on circumference of group set circle  cg m :=move rn from pn to cpn end for until ((cx,cy)= pd) }// end brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 134 2m = move rn1-1 to oc2 until rn1=rn if reach to oc2 then cxy'= drh2 end if organizing robots in circular formation }// end figure 7. the first obstacle with 100 robots after passing some robots 4. experimentation and results we have developed an algorithm that allows a swarm of robots to move forward in a circular formation with a capability of passing obstacles. therefore, a simulation has been generated to simulate the swarm robotics in its movement and the way it passes the obstacles. all experiments have been carried out on asus laptop processing power of 2.40 ghz cpu with 16gb ram. rad studio xe7 is used as an ide for delphi programming language. the experiments were based on five different types of obstacles, where each one of them has its own specifications. for every type of obstacles, we implement four experiments using different number of robots as shown in table 1. table 1. every type of the five obstacles has four different number of robots as expeiements exp 1 using100 robots exp 2 using 50 robots exp 3 using 25 robots exp 4 using 16 robots in each experiment, we apply the number of robots on five types of predefined obstacles. here we show exp1 (100 robots) with predefined five obstacles. the robots are distributed to 10 robots in each group having ten groups. nabil m. hewahi, abed alkader a. almobayed swarm robotics with circular formation motion including obstacles avoidance 135 figure 8 : the first obstacle (allows one robot to pass at a time) the swarm movement and obstacle avoidance are shown in figures 8, 9 and 10 for the first obstacle. figures 11, 12 and 13 are to present the second obstacle and its avoidance. figures 14, 15, 16 and 17 are to present the third obstacle and its avoidance. figures 18, 19, 20 and 21 are to present the fourth obstacle and its avoidance. figures 22, 23, 24 and 25 present the fifth obstacle and its avoidance. figure 9: first obstacle with 100 robots before passing any robot figure 10: first obstacle with 100 robots after passing all the robots brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 136 figure 11: the second obstacle figure 12: second obstacle with 100 robots before passing any robot (allows one group set to pass at a time) figure 13: second obstacle with 100 robots after passing all robots nabil m. hewahi, abed alkader a. almobayed swarm robotics with circular formation motion including obstacles avoidance 137 figure 14: illustrate the path of move for robots on swarm robotics with the third obstacle type (allows one robot to pass at a time with a complex obstacle) figure 15: third obstacle with 100 robots before passing any robot figure 16: the third obstacle with 100 robots after passing some robots figure 17: the third obstacle with 100 robots after passing all robots brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 138 figure 18: fourth obstacle (a part of the obstacle can be passed by a group set but the other part can be passed by only one robot at a time) figure 19: the fourth obstacle with 100 robots before passing any robot figure 20: the fourth obstacle with 100 robots after passing some robots nabil m. hewahi, abed alkader a. almobayed swarm robotics with circular formation motion including obstacles avoidance 139 figure 21: the fourth obstacle with 100 robots after passing all robots figure 22: fifth obstacle (obstacle with two entries that each allow the passing of one robot) figure 23: the fifth obstacle with 100 robots before passing any robot brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 140 figure 24: the fifth obstacle with 100 robots after passing some robots figure 25: the fifth obstacle with 100 robots after passing all robots as shown above, with 100 robots, we get 10 group sets, each with 10 robots. for the case of 50 robots, the algorithm will form 10 group sets, each with 5 robots. for the case of 25 robots, the algorithm will form 6 group sets, where 5 of them will have 4 robots each, and the last group set will have 5 robots. for the case of 16 robots, the algorithm will form 4 group sets, each with 4 robots. the algorithm behaves like this because the minimum number of robots to form a group set is 4 robots and the maximum number of robots is 10. as stated before if the number of robots exceeds 100 robots another circular formation is created. 4.1. discussion comparing the circular formation algorithm with the flocking algorithm (lee & chong, 2008), the circular formation algorithm performs the process of organizing the swarm only once, and does not need to repeat the process and computations related to it. while the flocking algorithm repeats the processes of forming and reorganizing the swarm so it needs more computations. regarding the obstacle crossing, the circular formation is characterized by the possibility of separation for each group where it can move independently to the obstacle so it does not require complex computational operations, but the flocking algorithm performs full adaptation for the swarm and thus it needs computations for each robot. in circular formation, the swarm reorganization (post obstacle organization) does not need computations after crossing the obstacle where its groups automatically organized and identified. the only change will be the coordinates for the relocation of these groups. with flocking algorithm, it is forced to fully reorganize the swarm after crossing the obstacle. nabil m. hewahi, abed alkader a. almobayed swarm robotics with circular formation motion including obstacles avoidance 141 the possibility of separating the group sets from the swarm enables the circular formation to implement small tasks efficiently while maintaining the rest of the swarm away from danger. also, it is more efficient in searching tasks to find foods or even wounded people. the flocking algorithm could implement tasks that need a large number of robots working at the same time and tasks related to water environment due to the nature of the swarm which simulates the fish swarm, but the flocking algorithm uses the whole swarm to accomplish the tasks, putting the entire swarm at risk when dealing with dangerous environment. table 2 summarizes the difference between circular formation algorithm and flocking algorithm. table 2. the difference between circular formation algorithm and flocking algorithm. point circular formation algorithm flocking algorithm initial organization  it distributes the robots randomly.  heuristic way is used to organize the robots in a circular formation.  it distributes the robots randomly.  “local active interaction” algorithm is used to organize the robots by making triangular formation. movement after organizing the robots in a circular formation, the swarm robotics start moving forward for all robots in the swarm robotics in the same speed. after organizing the swarm robotics in triangular network, the robots start moving forward in the same speed. obstacles avoidance in this algorithm, we will define the obstacles and the points of the path that the robots will move through as an obstacle, if the obstacles allow the group set of the swarm robotics to pass through, then the group set will separate from the swarm robotics to avoid the obstacles alone. if the obstacles allow just one robot pass through it then the group set will again split into just one robot to move through the obstacle. in this algorithm, the obstacles will be defined then an adaptation for robots in swarm robotics is going to be split into multiple smaller swarms to let every new swarm to move through the obstacles. post obstacle organization after avoiding the obstacles, a center of the circular formation is created to be adjacent to the center of obstacles far away from the obstacles as a diameter of the circular formation and a half, to let the robots organize in a new circular formation without calculating the new position, because every robot will move to its previous known position. after avoiding the obstacles, the swarms will merge in a single swarm by calculating the distance between the nearest robots from every swarm by using sensing boundary between robots and calculating the smallest distance between other robots. in this step, it will repeat the local interaction algorithm to recalculate the distances and to make a new triangular network. drawbacks  the initial organization of the swarm takes a considerable time.  determining the points to define the swarm path through the obstacle takes a considerable time.  the initial organization of the swarm takes a considerable time.  also, pre obstacle swarm splitting takes a considerable time.  post obstacle splitting takes a considerable time.  high processing is needed to maintain the network of triangles in the transit called “adapting” during the crossing.  post obstacle formed triangles may contain different robots that were in the same triangle form, which means inconsistency if every robot of a triangle of robots have different duty. 142 5. conclusion our study focused on designing and developing an algorithm that guides and controls the swarm robotics motion including obstacle avoidance based on circular formation to allow robots to move, organize and reorganize themselves in a systematic way and to reduce the reorganizing time after avoiding the obstacles. the swarm of robots contains a group set that might face any of five defined different obstacles. a simulation process has been performed for the algorithm of circular formation to show the behavior of the swarm of robots during motion and obstacle avoidance. the algorithm deals with a minimum of four robots to consider them as a swarm, if the number is less than four, the proposed algorithm does not work as it is and a certain amendment is needed. if the number of robots exceeds 100, a new additional circular formation will be formed. twenty experiments have been conducted with five different types of obstacles. each type of obstacles has four experiments with 100, 50, 25 and 16 robots. these numbers cover the majority of the possibilities for the robots’ distribution in the circular formation. table 1 shows the main points used to differentiate between circular formation and flocking algorithm behaviors. the behavior of the swarm forming circular formation is considered by gathering the robots from their random distribution into a circular formation and moving towards the obstacles; and passing them. based on the nature and the shape of the obstacle, one robot might pass at a time, two robots might pass at a time, a group set might pass at a time, or could be any number of robots less than a group set. the obtained results have been generally compared with flocking algorithm. the circular formation movement of a swarm of robots using a circular configuration is better in terms of movement and organization. regarding the obstacle crossing, the circular formation is characterized by the possibility of separation for each group where it can move independently to the obstacle so it does not require complex computational operations, but the flocking algorithm performs full adaptation for the swarm and thus it needs computations for each robot. one more advantage for circular formation over flocking algorithm is that each robot before passing the obstacle will be in the same group after passing the obstacle. this will be good for two reasons; the first one is what we can call group harmony and the second one is the robot specific duty within the group. some of the future directions are: 1) simulate the circular formation algorithm in 3-d environment; 2) consider more types of obstacles; 3) considering various jobs for each group set; 4) considering different job for each robot; 5) considering different sizes and capabilities of the robots in the swarm; 6) considering various jobs for swarm robotics in space references cheng, k., y. wang, and p. dasgupta (2009). distributed area coverage using robot flocks, in nature & biologically inspired computing, nabic 2009. défago, x. and a. konagaya (2002). circle formation for oblivious anonymous mobile robots with no common sense of orientation, in proceedings of the second acm international workshop on principles of mobile computing. ducatelle, f., di caro, g. a., pinciroli, c., mondada, f., & gambardella, l. (2011). communication assisted navigation in robotic swarms: self-organization and cooperation, in proceedings of international conference on intelligent robots and systems (iros). folino, g. and g. spezzano (2002). an adaptive flocking algorithm for spatial clustering, in parallel problem solving from nature—ppsn vii. 2002, springer. p. 924-933. nabil m. hewahi, abed alkader a. almobayed swarm robotics with circular formation motion including obstacles avoidance 143 freitas, r.a. (2005). current status of nanomedicine and medical nanorobotics. journal of computational and theoretical nanoscience, 2(1): p. 1-25. geunho, l. and n.y. chong (2008). adaptive flocking of robot swarms: algorithms and properties. ieice transactions on communications, 91(9): p. 2848-2855. guo, h., y. meng, and y. jin. (2010) analysis of local communication load in shape formation of a distributed morphogenetic swarm robotic system, in evolutionary computation (cec), ieee congress. hanada, y., g. lee, and n.y. chong (2007). adaptive flocking of a swarm of robots based on local interactions, in swarm intelligence symposium. hereford, j. and c. blum (2011). flockopt: a new swarm optimization algorithm based on collective behavior of starling birds, in nature and biologically inspired computing (nabic). la, h.m. and w. sheng (2009). adaptive flocking control for dynamic target tracking in mobile sensor networks, in intelligent robots and systems, iros 2009. lee, g. and n.y. chong (2008). flocking controls for swarms of mobile robots inspired by fish schools, intech open access publisher. lehr, h., abel, s., doepper, j., ehrfeld, w., hagemann, b., kaemper, k. p., . . . theurigen, c. (1996). microactuators as driving units for microbotic systems. paper presented at the photonics east'96. mclurkin, j. (1995). the ants: a community of microrobots. massachusetts institute of technology. bachelor’s thesis. meng, y. and j. gan (2008). self-adaptive distributed multi-task allocation in a multi-robot system, in evolutionary computation. cec 2008 (ieee world congress on computational intelligence). nouyan, s. and m. dorigo (2004), chain formation in a swarm of robots. iridia, université libre de bruxelles, tech. rep. tr/iridia/2004-18. reynolds, c.w. (1987). flocks, herds and schools: a distributed behavioral model, in acm siggraph computer graphics. rubenstein, m., c. ahler, and r. nagpal (2012). kilobot: a low cost scalable robot system for collective behaviors, in robotics and automation (icra). scanniello, g. and u. erra (2013). software entities as bird flocks and fish schools, in software visualization (vissoft). stormont, d.p. and a. kutiyanawala (2007). localization using triangulation in swarms of autonomous rescue robots, in safety, security and rescue robotics. turgut, a. e., çelikkanat, h., gökçe, f., & şahin, e. (2008). self-organized flocking in mobile robot swarms. swarm intelligence, 2(2-4), 97-120. xiaoping, y., gokhan, a., & okay, a. (1997). line and circle formation of distributed physical smobile robots, journal of robotic systems, 14(2), 63-76. microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 5 design of an action selection mechanism for cooperative soccer robots based on fuzzy decision making algorithm s. hamidreza mohades kasaei islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran h.kasaee@khuisf.ac.ir s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran m.kasaee@khuisf.ac.ir s. alireza mohades kasaei islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran alireza.kasaee@gamil.com mohsen taheri islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran css_mt@yahoo.com abstract robocup is an international competition for multi agent research and related subject like: artificial intelligence, image processing, machine learning, robot path planning, control, and obstacle avoidance. in a soccer robot game, the environment is highly competitive and dynamic. in order to work in the dynamically changing environment, the decision-making system of a soccer robot system should have the features of flexibility and real-time adaptation. in this paper we will focus on the middle size soccer robot league (msl) and new hierarchical hybrid fuzzy methods for decision making and action selection of a robot in middle size soccer robot league (msl) are presented. first, the behaviors of an agent are introduced, implemented and classified in two layers, the low_level_behaviors and the high_level_behaviors. in the second layer, a two phase mechanism for decision making is introduced. in phase one, some useful methods are implemented which check the robot’s situation for performing required behaviors. in the next phase, the team strategy, team formation, robot’s role and the robot’s positioning system are introduced. a fuzzy logical approach is employed to recognize the team strategy and further more to tell the player the best position to move. we believe that a dynamic role engine is necessary for a successful team. dynamic role engine and formation control during offensive or defensive play, help us to prevent collision avoidance among own players when attacking the ball and obstacle avoidance of the opponents. at last, we comprised our implemented algorithm in the robocup 2007 and 2008 and results showed the efficiency of the introduced methodology. the results are satisfactory which has already been successfully implemented in adro robocup team. this project is still in progress and some new interesting methods are described in the current report. keywords: cooperative multi-agent system, decision making, decision tree, role assignment, id3 algorithm. 1. introduction robot soccer games had been popular with educational institutions around the world since the inauguration of the robocup competition in 1997. this initiative provide a good platform for machine learning (ml) techniques and multi agent research, dealing with issues such as cooperation by distributed control, neural networks, genetic algorithms, decision tree, decision making, fuzzy logic and also many hybrid approaches as a combination of some aforementioned ones ml techniques. in order to work in the dynamically changing environment, the decision making system of a soccer robot system should have the features of flexibility and real time adaptation. the robots in middle-size league should only use local sensors and local vision. each team can have a maximum number of six robots. they can communicate with each other through a brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 6 central computer via a wireless network. the rules in the competition are the same as the international soccer rules as far as they are practical for robots. the image information of the entire soccer field is captured by robot ccd camera then analyzes the image information to determine the situation of the soccer field and sent to the corresponding host computer. the host computer then analyzes the information to determine the situation of the ball and robots position in the field [1][2]. according to the determined situation, the host computer decides a strategy and plans the motion modes and the corresponding velocity commands for every soccer robot of the same team. each soccer robot of adro then receives a role command from the host computer. a decision tree has several nodes arranged in a hierarchical structure. it implements decisions in a simple, apparent, multistage manner. furthermore, since each node of a decision tree uses only a simple splitting role and a small subset of all features, the entire decision process is fast and efficient. in this paper a new methodology for decision making in robocup soccer with all abovementioned problems consideration is introduced. .we present our work in dynamic role allocation for a soccer robot team to modify robots role and strategies and decide which strategy should be applied to the current situation. dynamic role allocation allows a team to divide its main objective in a couple of sub-objectives more specialized and adapted to the location of each of the teammates and the strategy of the team. strategic game play involves role switching for teams with same robots and formation control during offensive or defensive play, collision avoidance among own players when attacking the ball and obstacle avoidance of the opponents [4]. figure 1. adro middle size soccer team from islamic azad universitykhorasgan banch, isfahan, iran 2. robot software we have developed a software system to fully utilize the hardware abilities. in this paper introduces software parts contain: robot strategy, role specification, world model construction, artificial intelligence, trajectory and network from a viewpoint of software system [3][5]. three actions are allotted to the robot: attack, support, and defense. the attack is realized through the following process: first, the robot acquires the ball. the robots continuously try to get the ball. next, the robot face to ball and targeting to opponent goal then dribbles and shoots the ball into the opponent goal. during the dribble, the robot adjusts its direction toward the opponent goal and dribbles with the fastest possible speed. one of the advantages of our robot is a strong kicking device; therefore the robot can shoot a loop-ball into the opponent goal before the opponent defender comes close to the robot. the support robot takes a position behind and near to the robot with the ball. the support robot fetches the ball only when the ball is near to the support robot. the s. h. mohades kasaei, s. m. mohades kasaei, s. a. mohades kasaei, m. taheri design of an action selection mechanism for cooperative soccer robots based on fuzzy decision making algorithm 7 defence robot is located between the ball and own goal. the defence robot doesn’t actively approach when the ball is far. in our team strategy three states are allotted to the team robots: attack, defense, and intercept. the robots autonomously choose to activate each of the roles. figure 2. finite state machine to determine the team strategy. 3. robot behavior in the proposed methodology some applicable skills are introduced and the decision making policy is developed by considering the features and limitations of this environment. the skills are classified in two layers, in the first layer there are the simple actions which are already implemented (low_level behaviors) and in the second layer the actions are more complicated and sometimes a combination of basic skills are used (high_level behaviors). besides, the decision making process has two steps; first step considers the robot’s abilities of performing a high level skill according to his circumstances and the second step considers the robot positioning and choosing the best action regarding to the first step results. the low level behaviors are defined as the actions, which are already implemented by adro robocup team; they can be employed by sending the proper commands to robot actuator, these commands are: move(x,y), capture_image(), read_ecoder() and etc. high level behaviors are those in which the world model information and the low level behaviors are being applied. these skills consist of the actions with ball like: pass, shoot, dribble, etc. and actions without ball like: mark a robot or position, find objects in noisy frames. to actions with ball these actions, basically we need some information about the ball treats, when a force with a particular angle is applied, considering the environment parameters. a number of complicated mechanical formulas could help to predict the ball movements. some of the most applicable skills with ball are as shoot, ball, dribble (move with ball), clear ball, and actions without ball skills make robots to be arranged in positions so that they would have the most chance to create opportunities for team or to get the opponents opportunities. 4. strategy in robot soccer systems, images of objects on the field are processed by a vision system. analysis of this primary data will yield information such as identification of objects including ball, line, player, and opponents. other information such as object identity (identity of player), opponent, position, orientation and velocity can also be computed. based on this information, each of the players carries out assigned roles including attacker, defender, supporter and goalkeeper. the simplest role selection strategy is to have a fixed role that does not change throughout the game. however, permanent role causes undesirable behavior such as a defensive player not going for the ball even though the ball is near but outside its defense zone or a forward player giving up its possession of ball when it incidentally enters a defense zone. the main objective in competitive brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 8 environment is to score goals; and if a player is in a better position to secure a scoring chance, it must be given the opportunity. a cost function evaluates some parameters like the ball distance, localization, player's orientation towards the ball, etc. and obtains a value for each role. this parameters will be calculated periodically and roles will be assigned to robots according to the values obtained [7][12]. figure 3. adro team formation control against mrl attacker robot 5. decision making phase i in this phase, the robot ability of performing an action according to the environment situation (e.g. opponents’ positions/speed, ball position/speed and their predicted states) is tested by decision makers (dm) to confirm if that action can be done by the robot in that condition. some of these decision makers are explained below: a) dm for shooting to a position: to determine if a robot can shoot to a position or not, first the robot calculates the minimum degree, for shooting, if the degree could be found less than max kick degree then tries to find an angle between min degree and max kick degree and a force less than max kick force. if the angle and a force found with these properties the dm returns true, otherwise it returns false. b) dm for shoot to goal first, the agent quantizes the goal, to n discrete positions. for each position first checks the shoot to position conditions, if the result is true then shoot the ball toward the goal otherwise check and select other behaviors according to environment situation. c) dm for dribble to determine if it is safe enough for player to dribble, first, the player check the path is free with a potential field algorithm, then he checks if there is no opponent with distance less than or equal with securedribbledistanceinside; if the result is true then select dribble behavior, otherwise check and select other behaviors according to environment situation. s. h. mohades kasaei, s. m. mohades kasaei, s. a. mohades kasaei, m. taheri design of an action selection mechanism for cooperative soccer robots based on fuzzy decision making algorithm 9 figure 4 shooting to a position requires minimum angle α to be less than (max kick angle) and minimum distance d less than (max kick distance) 6. decision making phase ii in the major issues we have addressed in this phase are the dynamic assignment of roles and team strategy. we adopted a formation/role system. formation contains: • formation name: like real soccer team formations. • strategic area: the area in which the player is mostly supposed to be. • center of strategic area: also known as the home position • player role: we introduced ٤ applicable roles for agents: goal keeper, defender, half backer and attacker. in this methodology the player role and team strategy are dynamically assigned to the layers according to with different factors. the most important factor is the ball position. according to this changes in strategy the strategic area of the player, changes. to select the appropriate strategy we developed a fuzzy algorithm. figure 5. the diagram for action selection when players own the ball in addition this algorithm helps a robot to find out the proper distance with ball according to his strategic area. depending on the robot’s team or the opponent’s team owns the ball, the output brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 10 variable strategy of fuzzy function may change. the last remaining condition is when the robot owns the ball, in this state agent uses the phase 1 decision making results to perform an appropriate operation. 7. roles specification the roles can be assigned to each robot in a statically or in a dynamical way. dynamic role allocation benefits for example, from opportunistic situations like fast ball changes along the field, or failures in some robot. we have considered six main roles in the robocup domain: goal-keeper, attacker, defender (right defense, center defense, left defense), and supporter. goal-keeper is the only role assigned statically. the main reason to have a single player to the goal-keeper role is that the rules do not allow that players enter in its own goal area (like in the hand ball). the rest of roles can be exchanged among robots according to game conditions. next, we are going to describe the objectives of each role and the advantages we have obtained using dynamic role allocation: a) goal-keeper: its goal is to protect its own goal from shots by the other team players. also, it should rest in its own area. b) attacker: it tries to get the ball and to carry it, or to kick it, towards the goal. when the other team has got the ball, it tries to recover it actively (going after the ball). none of the other roles are devoted to get the ball. this approach has one implicit advantage: it avoids collision among players of our team, which is explicitly penalized in the rules. c) defender: its goal is to intercept the ball if an opponent kicks it to its goal. furthermore, it should stand in the way of the opponent and should try to hide the goal preventing the opponent to kick the ball. another implicit consequence of the defender role is that one robot of the team always remains in a position near its own net. this fact is very useful taking into account that the ball quickly moves from side to side. we have always one robot covering its defending half of the field. d) supporter: the function of this role is to assist the attacker in its path, and to cover the maximum amount of field in case the ball will be kicked in the wrong way. the main contributions of this role are to recover the ball if the kicks made by the striker do not go in the good direction, and also to maintain a good position for future passing kicks. 8. world model the world model is responsible to build a world model using sensorial data. from the sensory inputs and the static information about the game, the word model builds the game model, which consists of basic information, like ball position and player postures (live or dead), and advanced information such as cooperation decisions. the variables used to define the world model are stored in a blackboard. the blackboard is a data pool accessible by several components, used to share data and exchange messages among them. traditional blackboards are implemented by shared memories and daemons that awake in response to events such as the update of some particular data slot, so as to inform the components requiring that data updated. in our implementation, the blackboard consists, within each individual robot, of a shared memory among the different components, organized in data slots corresponding to relevant information (e.g. ball position, goal position), accessible through data-keys. some variables of the blackboard are local, meaning that the associated information is only relevant for that robot, but others are global, so their updates must be broadcasted to the other teammates (e.g., the ball position) (lima 2002). the cooperation is divided in a high-level cooperation and a low-level cooperation. the former one is stored in the black-board, and consists of group-level and team-level tactics, that can be viewed as analogues of the coach's directives in real soccer. the group level tactics defines tactical parameters for the different player groups: defense, mid-field and attack. for instance, a good defensive tactic is to form a defensive line with the goalkeeper to block all paths to our goal. the team-level tactics set general tactical conditions of the whole team. parameters as basic formation, e.g. 2 defenders 1 attacker, if we are in a defensive play, or 1 defender 2 attackers, if we are in an offensive play. the s. h. mohades kasaei, s. m. mohades kasaei, s. a. mohades kasaei, m. taheri design of an action selection mechanism for cooperative soccer robots based on fuzzy decision making algorithm 11 low-level cooperation is outside the blackboard because it is a commitment between the robots that are involved in a cooperative action, e.g. when a robot tells another teammate to move to a certain position, in order to be able to receive a pass. it's necessary to have a communication method between all the robots, so they can exchange messages among them. we pretend to use an agent communication language (acl) (fipa 2002), allowing us to use a standard and highly flexible message format. [6][9] figure 6. defense strategy with two robots 9. artificial intelligent in this section the ai part of the software is briefly introduced. there are three distinct layers: ai core, role engine and behavior engine [11]. ai core receives the computed field data from world modeling unit and determines the play state according to the ball, opponents and our robots positions. considering the current game strategy, determination of the play state is done by fuzzy decision-making to avoid undesirable and sudden changes of roles or behaviors. then ai core sends a set of roles to role engine to be assigned to the robots. because there are instances in which the image-processing unit cannot see the ball, a memory is implemented in the ai core for the position of ball that specifies which robot owns the ball. since there is a relationship between new roles and old roles, roles are changed in a manner that robots never experiment sudden changes in roles (for example the role never changes from defense to attack in next cycle). role engine receives a set of roles from ai core and provides the behavior engine with a set of behaviors for robots. twin or triple roles are implemented so that the robots really cooperate with each other to do their roles. behaviors are the building blocks of the robot's performance which includes simple actions like rotating, or getting the ball and etc. the behavior layer is the lowest layer in our architecture. this layer receives a sequence of behaviors along with some parameters from the upper layer (role engine) and executes the essential subroutines in order to accomplish a certain behavior. these subroutines use world model information and trajectory data in order to perform necessary movements. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 12 10. multi-cost function for role assignment role assignment used by many teams is usually computed in real time. role assignment is necessary to avoid collision of players going for the ball or no player being assign such a role to attack the ball. at the strategy decider block has as inputs, amongst others, the score and the remaining time. based on this information this block selects a fitting strategy that is to be applied, figure 6. world model construction and artificial intelligent structure i.e. a combination of a formation (e.g. 1 keeper, 2 defenders, 3 attackers) and a tactic (e.g. center attack, tight defense). the strategy function has the following functionality: (1) load formations and tactics before the game starts; (2) dynamically choose new formations and tactics during the game, based on the environment information; (3) send a list of ٦ unique role identifiers (6 role ids) to the role engine, based on the chosen formation and tactic. the role engine is the component in charge of determining the applicability of the roles with respect to the robots and assigning the most suitable role to each robot. in other words, the role engine determines robot a set of suitable roles for each robot and a rank for each role as a measure of its applicability. on the basis of these ranks, the role assigner assigns to each robot the most suitable role while avoiding conflicts with the assignment of this role to another robot. the ranking is based on information about the mechanical state of the robot, the positions of the robot and its team members, and the position of the ball. a general definition for parameters that use in fuzzy arbiter is "value to estimate the cost of executing an action". the parameters will be calculated periodically and roles will be assigned to robots automatically according to the values obtained. in our role assignment the parameters will be individually computed by each robot as inputs to the fuzzy arbiter factors are distances to ball, goal, path obstacle and etc. these fuzzy variables are defined below: a) distance to ball: is the distance of the robot to the ball. b) distance to our goal: is the distance of the robot to our goal. c) distance to opponent goal: is the distance of the robot to the opponent goal. d) orientation: is the orientation of the robot with respect to the straight line path to the ball. e) path obstacle: is the angle bounded between the vector of the robot to the ball and the vector of the robot to the obstacle. to fuzzily the distance variable, the ratio of the minimum s. h. mohades kasaei, s. m. mohades kasaei, s. a. mohades kasaei, m. taheri design of an action selection mechanism for cooperative soccer robots based on fuzzy decision making algorithm 13 distance to ball to the distance to ball value is used, see equation 1. that is, the nearest robot to the ball will have a membership of value 1.0 for this variable. )1( . _. . ancetoballdist minancetoballdist u ancetoballdist = equation2 describes the membership function for the orientation variable. a single cosine function is used. the robot that is directly facing the ball will have an orientation angle of 0 degrees, and a membership value of 1.0 for orientation. otherwiseu norientatiofornorientatiocosu norientatio norientatio 0.0 )2(9090)( = ≤≤−= the 'or' operation used is the algebraic sum operation. all the fuzzy memberships are added together and the resultant is the membership value of the role assigned. next are the equations to select the appropriate robot for each role. in this paper we suppose that the order in roles assignment is striker, defender and supporter. defenderstrisupporterisupporter stridefenderidefender rstrikirstrike robotrobotiniuminu robotiniuminu niuminu ,)...1()( )3()...1()( )...1()( ker, ker, .,. ≠∧∈∀= ≠∧∈∀= ∈∀= the robot with the highest membership value is assigned the highest priority order among the robots to the role of "attack the ball". every robot updates its utilities periodically, and broadcasts this information to its teammates. we will refer to this information as coordination information. finally, the behavior executer block executes the behavior that belongs to the assigned role (role id). the behavior has to make decisions that are based on the environment at that time. for this purpose, it requires information from the world model. the assigned role is constructed based on a decision tree (behavior tree), which consists of the following three types of nodes: selector, sequence, and action, see fig. 7, 8, 9. the reason that we choose for a behavior tree over for instance a finite state machine is that behavior trees support a clear visual interpretation. the design uses weights for selecting a strategy and assigning the roles. these weights are a priori defined and during the match these weights cannot be changed. in the future, learning will be added to adjust the weights during a match such that a robot will make different decisions as the match develops. the information sent is its own location, and an estimation of its distance to the ball. coordination information is sent at 5hz. when one robot receives coordination information it updates data associated to the corresponding robot in its global model. this global model stores position of the teammates and, combined with the position of the ball is used to calculate utilities functions. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 14 figure 7. the decision tree which implements the strategy-based decision making system. 11. trajectory since the motion trajectory of each robot is divided into several median points that the robot should reach them one by one in a sequence the output obtained after the execution of ai will be a set of position and velocity vectors. so the task of the trajectory will be to guide the robots through the opponents to reach the destination (figure 11). the routine used for this purpose is the potential field method (also an alternative new method is in progress which models the robot motion through figure 8. example of a behavior tree: selector (diamond), sequence (rectangle), action (circle). s. h. mohades kasaei, s. m. mohades kasaei, s. a. mohades kasaei, m. taheri design of an action selection mechanism for cooperative soccer robots based on fuzzy decision making algorithm 15 figure 9. the decision tree which implements for soccer robot ai figure 10. adro robots in some different game situations. opponents same as the flowing of a bulk of water through obstacles)[7][8][9]. in this method different electrical charges are assigned to our robots, opponents and the ball. then by calculating the potential field of this system of charges a path will be suggested for the robot. at a higher level, predictions can be used to anticipate the position of the opponents and make better decisions in brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 16 order to reach the desired vector. in our path planning algorithm, an artificial potential field is set up in the space; that is, each point in the space is assigned a scalar value. the value at the goal point is set to be 0 and the value of the potential at all other points is positive. the potential at each point has two contributions: a goal force that causes the potential to increase with path distance from the goal, and an obstacle force that increases in inverse proportion to the distance to the nearest obstacle boundary. in other words, the potential is lowest at the goal, large at points far from the goal, and large at points next to obstacles. if the potential is suitably defined, then if a robot starts at any point in the space and always moves in the direction of the steepest negative potential slope, then the robot will move towards the goal while avoiding obstacles. the numerical potential field path planner is guaranteed to produce a path even if the start or goal is placed in an obstacle. if there is no possible way to get from the start to the goal without passing through an obstacle then the path planner will generate a path through the obstacle, although if there is any alternative then the path will do that instead. for this reason it is important to make sure that there is some possible path, although there are ways around this restriction such as returning an error if the potential at the start point is too high. the path is found by moving to the neigh boring square with the lowest potential, starting at any point in the space and stopping when the goal is reached. 12. network the network physical layer uses the ring topology. the udp (user datagram protocol) network protocol is used for the software communication layer. the data flow of the network is as follows: a half field data (the data representing the position and status of the robots, opponents, goals and the ball) is transmitted to the server from each client computer of robots, the server combines them, constructs the complete global localization field then sends the appropriate data and commands (indicating which objects each robot should search for) back to the clients. when the data is completed it is passed to the ai unit for further processing and to decide the next behavior of the robots. figure 11. potential at every point; it is highest in the obstacles and lowest at the goal. elsewhere it is generally higher farther from the goal and near obstacles. [image a describe the goal force (attractive potential to the goal) and image a describe the obstacle force (repulsive potential) and finally image c is goal force plus obstacle force] 13. result we implemented this methodology on adro robocup team. we compare adro team performance2008 with its previous version 2007 the results showed the success of this methodology; the team performance in coordination and collaboration highly improved; in fact the players switched their strategic area smoothly as the team strategy changed in a reasonable manner, the robots carried out the high level behaviors much more efficiently and at last the final results enhanced significantly. in 2007 we ranked 2nd place middle size soccer robot league in 2nd international iran-open robocup competitions the iran-open is one of the, asia’s major robocup event. at the china-open robocup 2007 as well as at the iran–open robocup 2007 we ranked s. h. mohades kasaei, s. m. mohades kasaei, s. a. mohades kasaei, m. taheri design of an action selection mechanism for cooperative soccer robots based on fuzzy decision making algorithm 17 2nd place middle size soccer robot league, in 2008 we achieved the first place in the 3rd international iran-open competitions. the basis for our success was the robust and reliable hardware design, well-structured software architecture and efficient algorithms for sensor fusion and behavior generation. 14. conclusion and future work in this paper, a new method for decision making in robocup middle size soccer robot (msl) has been proposed. first identification used to the robocup middle size soccer robot which led to mechanical formulas, then soccer skills were introduced and classified in different layers then a two phase mechanism for decision making is presented, we have developed a basic role engine and formation control mechanism among members of a multi robot team. robot localization and local ball estimation are the elements shared. combining periodically the information received with local information, each robot updates a global model of the environment. using coordination we have also got a very good way to identify the rest of the team members. in the development of robot soccer where players are homogenous, role engine and formation control becomes a necessity to formulate an efficient strategy to achieve the goal of a successful game. using a rule based approach allows the strategy for role selection to be naturally developed using domain expertise rather than the alternative of trying to find a suitable cost function that would provide the same performance. in this mechanism both fuzzy and non fuzzy algorithms are applied and finally the proposed methodology implemented on a adro robocup soccer team and the results. further information’s and video about our works are presented on our website http://www.iranadro.com 15. acknowledgment we would like to thank a lot, to dr. amir hassan monadjemi who played important role in software design and fruitful discussions on image processing and multi agent robot. also, we are very grateful to all our sponsors. 16. references [1] s.h.mohades kasaei, s.m.mohades kasaei, s.a.mohades kasaei, m.taheri, s.a.monadjemi " modeling and implementation a fully autonomous soccer robot based on omni-directional vision system ", industrial robot: an international journal, emerald group publishing limited [issn 0143-991x] 37/3 (2010) 279–286, [doi 10.1108/01439911011037686]. [2] s.h.mohades kasaei, s.m.mohades kasaei, s.a.kasaei, m.taheri, h.vahiddastjerdi and m.rahimi, "effective mechatronic models and methods for implementation an autonomous soccer robot" 17th iranian conference on electrical engineering , tehran, iran, may 12-14, 2009. [3] s.h.mohades kasaei, s.m.mohades kasaei, s.a.mohades kasaei, m.taheri, m.rahimi, h.vahiddastgerdi, m.saeidinezhad, "design and implementation a fully autonomous soccer player robot" proceedings of world academy of science, engineering and technology, volume 39, issn: 2070-3740, hong kong, china, march 23-25, 2009. [4] s.h.mohades kasaei, s.m.mohades kasaei, s.a.kasaei, m.taheri “design and development of novel solenoid-based kicking system”. 9th iranian conference on manufacturing engineering (icme), birjand, iran, march 3-5, 2009 [5] heung-soo kim, hyun-sik shim, myung-jin jung, and jong-hwan kim., "ac-tion selection mechanism for soccer robot", proceedings of ieee international symposium on computational intelligence in robotics and automation, 1997, pp 390-395. [6] hyun-sik shim, yoon-gyeoung sung, seung-ho kim and jong-hwan kim, "design of action level in a hybrid control structure for vision based soccer robo", proceeding of the 1999 ieee/rsj international conference on intelligent robots and systems, pp1406-1411. [7] s.h.mohades kasaei, s.m.mohades kasaei, s.a.mohades kasaei, m.taheri " autonomous navigation systems for mobile robots base on omnidirectional vision system", 12th international brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 18 conference on climbing and walking robot and the support technologies for mobile machines 9-11 september 2009, istanbul, turkey. [8] s.h.mohades kasaei, s.m.mohades kasaei, s.a.kasaei, m.taheri " improvement performance for humanoid soccer robot via robust structure design and fuzzy rule-based motion controller", the international conference on mechanical engineering, tokyo, japan, may 27-29, 2009. (issn 2070-3740). [9] s.h.mohades kasaei, s.m.mohades kasaei, m.taheri, h.vahiddastjerdi and m.rahimi, "design and development of a novel industrial humanoid robot", 9th iranian conference on manufacturing engineering (icme), birjand, iran, march 3-5, 2009 [10] roth, m., vail, d., veloso, m. “a world model for multi-robot teams with communication”. in: iros2003, october 27 31, 2003, las vegas, usa. [11] s.h. mohades kasaei, s.m.mohades kasaei, s.a.mohades kasaei, m.taheri, “path planning for mobile robots navigation applied to dribbling via artificial potential field”, 1st iranian conference on software development, khorasgan azad university (isfahan). [12] s.h.mohades kasaei, s.m.mohades kasaei, s.a.mohades kasaei , m.taheri, " modeling and implementation of omni-directional soccer robot with wide vision scope applied in robocupmsl ", 2nd international conference on man-machine system 2009 , 11-13 october 2009, penang, malaysia. microsoft word brain_vol8_issue4_2017_final.doc 109 a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning dattaprasad torse department of electronics and communication engineering, kls gogte institute of technology, jnana ganga, khanapur road, udyambag, belagavi, karnataka 590008, tel.: +91 831 240 5500, belagavi, india datorse@git.edu veena desai department of electronics and communication engineering, kls gogte institute of technology, jnana ganga, khanapur road, udyambag, belagavi, karnataka 590008, tel.: +91 831 240 5500, belagavi, india veenadesai@git.edu rajashri khanai department of electronics and communication engineering, kle dr. m. s. sheshgiri college of engineering and technology, udyambag, angol main road, belgaum, karnataka 590008, india tel/: +91 831 244 0322, belagavi, india rajashri.khanai@gmail.com abstract at present, manual observation of the electroencephalogram (eeg) signals is the prime method for diagnosis of epileptic seizure disorders. the method is a time consuming and error prone as it involves errors due to fatigue in continuous monitoring of nonlinear and nonstationary eeg signals. out of approximate 1% of the world’s epilepsy patients more than 25% cannot be treated correctly due to erroneous diagnosis. the automated seizure detection system can prove efficient by making the process reliable and faster. this paper reviews multi-domain feature extraction and machine learning classification techniques used in automated seizure detection systems. to analyse subtle variations in eeg, signal decomposition algorithms have been used in time, frequency, joint time-frequency, and nonlinear domain. the statistical and entropy parameters are the key features to discern normal from the seizure eeg signals. machine learning plays a critical role in extracting meaningful information out of the extracted features. the paper also evaluates the performance of multilayer perceptron neural network, naïve bayes, least square support vector machine, k nearest neighbour, and random forest classifiers using sensitivity, specificity and accuracy metrics. a seizure detection technique is developed by decomposing the eeg signals by means of tunable-q wavelet transform (tqwt). to quantify the complexity of the individual multivariate sub-bands of the biomedical signals tqwt proves effective with varied values of q factor suitable for analyzing signals with oscillatory and non-oscillatory nature. the highest accuracy of 97.3% is obtained using random forest classifier for the combination of spectral, shannon and kraskov entropy features. the paper compares the performance of feature extraction and classification techniques for the implemented system. the comparison explores possibility of hardware implementation of real time seizure detection scheme. keywords: seizure detection, tunable-q wavelet transform, shannon entropy, kraskov entropy, least square support vector machine, random forest brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 110 1. introduction epilepsy is a widespread brain disorder which affects a variety of mental and physical actions. when more than two episodes of seizures occur in a lifespan of a person then they are categorized as a seizure patient. epileptic seizures are provoked by group of nerve cells which affect a person’s normal behavior. this sudden brain signal change is life intimidating in few cases as it can cause physical injury to the affected person. in the form of partial and generalized seizures the abnormal brain activity poses a very important health concern to the patient. partial seizures start with a specific area of brain and usually called the epileptic foci. partial seizures may or may not affect conciseness of a person. generalized seizures involve seizure signals originating from most part of the brain and cause loss of mental alertness and muscle spasms. the process of ‘epileptogenesis’ is highly unpredictable and the risk involved in the form of injury is very high (d. buck, 1997). the seizure disorder occurs due to several causes such as birth asphyxia, stroke, traumatic brain injury or brain infections. the seizure disorders are not preventable or in some cases not completely curable but with the help of anticonvulsant drugs the life threatening seizures can be controlled in majority of the cases (englander j., 2014). the episode of epileptic seizures occurs as the brain’s controlled neonatal firing circuit malfunctions and causes excessive electrical discharge by a group of nerve cells in the brain cortex. this processing is sudden and unpredictable. depending upon the side of cortex, out of four sides namely frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal which originates the abnormal signals, the abnormalities in the motor control results in tonic-clonic movements of muscles and joints. the discharge of electrical energy in a normal brain cells is controlled and produces variations that are in normal magnitude ranges. however an abrupt and large transient rush of energy by the brain cells results in epileptic seizures. an epileptic seizure can show variation in properties of brain waves which can result in a short term muscle movement to severe convulsions. these variations mainly depend on the area of the brain from which the energy is generated, the level of electrical energy discharge and the total area over which this energy is extended in the event of abnormal activity (acharya u., 2013). the working of brain and its properties that cause epileptic activities are still a mystery. when a person experiences epileptic activity the possible observable signs are sudden movement of the body parts, loss of concentration, muscle involuntary movement, disturbance in visual and auditory senses and mood disorder. there can be several changes in a person suffering from mild to severe epileptic attack which are beyond the range of normal observations. when the seizures are seen in children who have limited knowledge about the situation that they experience it become difficult to notice the seizure onset. this pre-seizure behavior changes in children are linked to the behavioral disorder. hence, children with epileptic disorder need continuous monitoring and thus the epilepsy observation is a continuous process. in order to make the process fully automated with indication of seizure occurrence many signal processing algorithms need to be considered with detailed analysis. in order to detect epilepsy using automated computer assisted diagnostic (cad) techniques using eeg signals understanding the physiological aspects of the seizure signal class is essential (sanei, saeid). in this work, a tunable-q wavelet transform (tqwt) (iw selesnick, 2011) based seizure detection system is proposed which uses spectral and entropy based features to test performance of five classification algorithms. figure 1 shows the proposed block diagram of tqwt sub-band’s spectral and entropy feature based seizure classification system. as shown in figure, the features for two tqwt sub bands namely, sub-band 1 and sub-band 16 are taken to consideration for the feature extraction from normal and seizure eeg signals. the oscillatory information contained in the signal is reflected in the tqwt sub bands with low frequency content represented in the first sub band and the last sub band representing the high frequency oscillation. the eeg signal decomposition technique quantifies the sub band spectral and entropy features for low and high frequencies and this can be a widespread method to detect seizures from other eeg recording with appropriate choice of the q-parameter. the efficacy of features extraction and classification d. torse, v. desai, r. khanai a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning 111 algorithms is tested using computational complexity and the effectiveness of the proposed technique for hardware implementation. the performance of the designed algorithm is tested on the real time data recorded from epileptic and normal patients from a local hospital. the efficacy of the tested method motivates to build an automated seizure detection system to assist neurologists to diagnose the epilepsy and related disorders with improved accuracy. figure 1. flow diagram of the structure representing a step-by-step idea of the proposed method the remaining part of the paper is arranged as follows: in the following section, the different methods are reviewed that are currently used to detect epilepsy. in section 2, a review on state-ofthe-art algorithms of eeg signal feature extraction and classification is presented for seizure detection system. the results obtained using the tqwt feature extraction and classification techniques are illustrated in the section 3 and discussion on comparison between various methods is presented in section 4. section 5 concludes the paper. 2. literature review this paper reviews seizure detection systems that have been developed using the eeg database from university of bonn, germany (r. g. andrzejak,2001). the decomposition of eeg signals have been implemented time, frequency, joint time-frequency, and nonlinear domain. the statistical and entropy based parameters are used as the key features in machine learning algorithms to separate signals. 2.1. datasets the dataset used in this work is mainly consisting of five subsets, out of which two cases, namely, normal (set n), and seizure (set s) were considered for the system developed in this work. the eeg signals of subsets n was recorded in normal signal intervals for 5 patients (subjects) in the epileptogenic region. the subset-s is composed of eeg signals with seizure action recorded from all the electrodes showing seizure activity. the bio potentials of subsets n and s were recorded intracranially. the 128-channel amplification system is used to record the signals with an average seizure / non seizure feature extraction spectral features kraskov entropy shannon entropy multilayer classifiers mlpnn ls-svm random forest knn naïve bayes random  means square error (mse)  computational time  classification accuracy single channel eeg set-n set-s  p-value  wrapper test brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 112 common. to record the signal, depth electrodes were inserted symmetrically into the hippocampal formations. the basal and lateral regions of the neocortex were used to insert strip electrodes. the eeg was recorded during epileptic seizures is termed as ictal activity. figure. 2–3 show sample recordings of datasets n and s respectively. each dataset contains 100 single channel recording with a 4097 samples and a sampling rate of 173.6 hz. figure 2. normal eeg signal sample figure 3. epileptic eeg signal sample another clinical data was collected from patients receiving routine eeg examinations at dr. mohire’s neurology research centre, kolhapur, india. in total, routine eeg data from 30 participants (15 men and 15 women) was included whose ages varied from 12 to 25 years. there are normal and seizure activity in the recorded eeg data signal. the dataset includes signals of patients who suffered headache but diagnosis did not reveal any kind of epilepsy. the written permission was obtained from the patients and the neurologist to approve the research work. to find the latent d. torse, v. desai, r. khanai a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning 113 of the technique in real-time, training and test samples were divided into 70% and 30% respectively. 2.2. pre-processing the process of 10-20 eeg recording system can suffer from contaminations and thus generate ambiguous signal affected by various noise sources. although the vigilant design of the recording scheme and apt recording of signal procedures will be able to minimize the noise generated, a number of electrophysiological signals, mainly electrooculogram (eog), needs careful elimination using signal processing techniques. the main cause of electrical spike generation during eye blink is an electrical dipole in the human eye which is a result of a positive cornea and negative retina. the independent component analysis (ica) was independently used to filter artifacts from eeg signals by (maarten mennes et al., 2010, manousos a. klados et al., 2011, nadia mammone, 2012). the combination of discrete wavelet transform (dwt) and ica is studied by (mingai li, 2012, nadia mammone et al., 2014). another technique of adaptive noise cancellation using dwt was tested as a online predictive tool for ocular artifacts (hong peng, 2013). a method (qinglin zhao, 2014) demonstrates the elimination of ocular artifact by utilizing the adaptive predictive filter (apf) techniques to improve true eeg by finding eeg eye movement artifact signal amplitudes. an automated online filtering is developed by using a combination of wavelet decomposition, ica, and thresholding. the adaptive filtering has been compared with the ica and pca based methods in one of the studies to find computationally efficient method (2016, dattaprasad a. torse). the use of joint time-frequency domain approaches to process the eeg signals and preserve the useful information is explored by means of empirical mode decomposition (emd) (gang wang, 2016). the emd method outperform the wavelet based methods as in emd the signal is sifted for the predefined levels. the section of preprocessing stage depends on the application, dataset type used and complexity of the algorithm in terms of computation time. 2.3. feature extraction in many research papers, use of university of bonn, germany, database is made to categorize normal and epileptic eeg signals by means of pattern classifiers such as supervised and unsupervised. in (i̇nan gűler, 2005, pari jahankhani, 2006, hojjat adeli, 2007), wavelet based coefficients have been used as features and classifiers were tested for classification of eeg into normal and seizure states. most of the studies have aimed on implementation using software tools against the development of low cost, computationally efficient hardware for seizure detection. the combination of wavelet and pca and independent component analysis (ica) with svm classifiers was studied to classify eeg signals (subasi and gursoy, 2010). the epileptic eeg was analyzed with entropy features using principal component analysis (pca) enhanced radial basis function (rbf) neural network and support vector machine (svm) classifier by (ghosh-dastidar et al., 2008, oliver faust et al., 2010) respectively. the discrete wavelet transform (dwt) has been extensively used to decompose eeg signal into different sub-bands to find detail and approximation coefficients (tapan gandhi, 2011, rami j. oweis, 2011, esma sezer, 2012). the knn classifier was tested for dwt based variance features (shufang li, 2013). the 1-nn classifier resulted in the overall accuracy of 99% as compared to complicated svm classifier. the dwtentropy feature set resulted 100% accuracy in another study by (yantindra kumar, 2014). using multiple classifiers the performance of dwt and entropy is assesses in (oliver faust, 2015). in another study on dwt (jiang-ling song, 2016), automated detection of epileptic eegs is presented using a novel fusion features which characterize the similarity between signals and extreme learning machine. the ls-svm, feed forward multi-layer perceptron neural network, knn classifiers have been considered to identify epileptic seizure using wavelet packet decomposition (wpd). five mental tasks were classified using svm for categorization of epileptic seizures using brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 114 wpd and approximate entropy (apen) and sample entropy (sampen) (yong zhang et al., 2015). the effect of wpd based log energy entropy is studied by (raghu, sriraam, 2015). 2.4. tunable q wavelet transform in the literature, existing time-frequency domain analysis techniques are providing constant q-factor in accordance with the signal. on the other hand, tqwt can tune the wavelet’s q-factor in accordance with the signal. in tqwt it is apparent that the eeg signal under study can be decomposed into sub-bands with different properties. thus tqwt is a flexible and fully discrete wavelet transform that is particularly suitable for analyzing oscillatory signals (iw selesnick, 2011). it achieves flexibility by adjusting its input parameters such as q-factor (q), rate of oversampling or redundancy (r), and number of levels of decomposition (j). the excessive noise that is unwanted is controlled by the parameter ‘r’ in order to localize the wavelet temporally. without affecting the shape of the decomposed signal ‘q’ controls the number of oscillations of the wavelet. tqwt decomposes an input signal x(n) into (j+1) sub-bands for ‘j’ level of decomposition by employing two channel filter banks in an iterative method. the two channel filter banks are applied to the low-pass sub-band. in every stage, x(n) is decomposed into 0 ( )l n and 0 ( )h n . the 0 ( )l n is low-pass sub-bands and 0 ( )h n high-pass sub-bands. the low and high pass sub-bands have sampling frequency of fs and fs respectively. the scaling factors are denoted by α and β and fs is the sampling frequency of x(n). the low-pass filter ( )0h  and ( )1h  , with low-pass scaling α and high-pass scaling β are applied to produce 0 ( )l n and 0 ( )h n . however, perfect reconstruction is ensure without redundancy when α and β have relations given by: 0 < < 1, 0 <    1 and α + β > 1. the ( ) 0 j h  and ( ) 1 j h  are the equivalent frequency response generated after j-level for low and high-pass sub-bands respectively and mathematically represented as: 1 ( ) 0 0( )0 0 j h ifnj nh j if                  (1) 2 ( ),11 0 0 1 1 ( ) (1 )1 [ , ] j h h mj n j j j h if else                               (2) where, ( )0 ( 1) 1 h                () 1 ( ) 1 h               () d. torse, v. desai, r. khanai a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning 115 the ( )i is the daubechies filter’s frequency response with two vanishing moments given by: ( ) 0.5(1 cos( )) 2 cos( ) , i i i i     (3) the scaling factors are related to ‘r’ and ‘q’ parameters as follows: 2 1 r and q         (4) the prime reason to select tqwt over other time-frequency techniques is due to various advantages of tqwt. firstly, when a signal with little or no oscillatory activities, e.g. eeg, needs analysis demands a wavelet transform having a low q-factor. on contrary, oscillatory signals demand relatively high q-factor. however, majority of the wavelet transforms are unable to tune the q-factors for signals containing varied oscillatory behavior. tqwt solves the difficulty by adjustment in q-factors. secondly, tqwt has been applied for the analysis of various biomedical signals (hasan ahnaf, 2016, ram bilas pachori, 2016, abhijit bhattacharyya, 2017, shivnarayan patidar, 2017). the “rational transfer functions” of the filters in tqwt enhance computational efficiency and enables a perfect reconstruction of wavelet transform. these advantages motivate the use of tqwt in decomposing the eeg signal into sub-bands for further processing in the proposed scheme. in this paper, computational complexity of the algorithm is analyzed in order to improve the current information transfer rate of current bci based seizure detection system. 2.5. spectral and entropy features the idea of the paper is to test the classification performance of five classifiers namely, multilayer perceptron neural network (mlpnn), least square support vector machine (lssvm), naïve bayes (nb), k nearest neighbour (knn), and random forest (rf). for this purpose, spectral domain features are used to build primary feature space by combining minimum and maximum value, mean, median and standard deviation of eeg signals. this primary feature subset is combined with entropy features to build robust feature vector. the minimum and maximum values of eeg signals decomposed using tqwt are separately stored to create the first feature vector. the second feature vector is build using mean frequency, median frequency of the sub bands. in the third set only standard deviation of the absolute value of the coefficients are computed for each tqwt sub-bands. the standard deviation is effective frequency domain feature as it represents the average deviation of a random nature signal (phinyomark a. et al.,2102). the mean frequency (mf) is an average value of frequency computed as the summation of product of the eeg signal power spectrum divided by the total summation of the power spectrum (phinyomark et al., 2012). the mf is also explained as the central frequency (fc) in (du & vuskovic, 2004). the definition of mean frequency (mf) is given by: 1 1 n f pi iimf n pii     (5) where fj is the frequency component of eeg power spectrum at the frequency bin i, pi is the eeg power spectrum at the frequency bin i, and n is the length of frequency bin. in the study of eeg signal in time domain, n is usually defined as the next power of 2 from the length of eeg data. median frequency (mfr) is a frequency at which the eeg power spectrum is divided into two regions with equal amplitude (phinyomark a., et al., 2012a). mfr is moreover described as half of the total power. the description of mfr is as follows: 1 1 mfr n n p p pi i ii mfri i       (6) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 116 in the standard deviation the averaging is computed with power and not using amplitude. it is calculated, first by squaring each of the deviations previous to computation of the average. in the final step, the square root is considered to balance for the initial squaring. the standard deviation is given by: 2112 ( ) 1 0 n xin i        (7) where μ is the mean. 2.5.1 shannon entropy for a given discrete probability distribution, shannon entropy (shen) is defined as a measure of on average how much information is necessary to identify random samples from the given distribution. shen gives the average information present in the eeg signal. it uses a non-normalized method for estimation of entropy (shannon, 1948) based on energy content in the eeg. the non normalization shannon entropy is given by: (shannon, 1948), ( ) ( ) log ( )shen h x p x p x x    (8) as shown in figure. 4, the shen feature values are negative due to the fact that the difference in the entropy parameters is negative. 2.5.2. kraskov mutual information normally, the seizure detection is carried out by extracting a set of analytic features extracted from eeg signals. these features need to fulfill similarities for signals of same class and represent variations for different class. the hidden nonlinearity and non-stationarity in eeg signals often results in variations in analyzing these signals for extracting features. the time-frequency signal representations using wavelet transform based features is a suitable method for analyzing nonlinear and non-stationary eeg signals. recently, the kraskov entropy based nonlinear features were developed and found applicable in eeg signal analysis (k.a. veselkov, et al., 2010, a. kraskov, et al., 2008). for measuring and characterizing nonlinearities of eeg signals many authors have employed the kraskov entropy. it measures the shannon entropy or differential statistical entropy of the eeg signals using the knn sample with some distance measures such as euclidean or hamming. figure 4. plot of the shannon entropy values for normal and seizure signal’s high and low frequency sub bands d. torse, v. desai, r. khanai a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning 117 figure 5. plot of the kraskov entropy values for normal and seizure signal’s high and low frequency sub bands in continuous-time domain, the differential statistical entropy of d-dimensional random variable x with unknown density function f(x) is defined as: ( ) ( ) log ( )h x dx x x   (9) the density function dx can be obtained by probability distribution function for the distance between xi and the k-nearest neighbor samples. the above equation results in kraskov entropy by measuring the k-nn entropy. it can be expressed as follows (kraskov, et al., 2008): ˆ ( ) ( ) ( ) log( ) log ( ) 0 nd h x k n c i d n i          (10) where (x1, x2, x3, . . ., xn) are n random samples of d-dimensional random variable x, ϕ(t) symbolizes the digamma function, cd represents the volume of the d-dimensional unit ball that depends on the sample space. the term ( )i is the distance between sample xi and its knn sample points in ddimensional sample space. a more detailed explanation on mathematical aspects and other application is available from (kraskov, et al., 2008). in figure. 5, the kraen features values are plotted for normal and seizure signal’s low and high frequency sub bands. 2.6. classification in machine learning, classification of eeg signals deal with the task of categorizing a set of classes to which a new reading belongs, on the basis of a training set of eeg feature set containing occurrences whose class relationship is identified. based on the spectral and entropy features of tqwt sub bands, the classification of eeg signals is tested using five classifiers (bishop, christopher m., 2006). 2.6.1 multilayer perceptron neural network (mlpnn) the mlpnns with the ability to learn and generalize are most commonly used classifiers in eeg analysis and seizure detection. they need smaller training set and work fast with less complexity in implementation (haykin, 2001). in the mlpnn, every neuron j in the hidden layer sums its input signals by multiplying the signal xi and the strengths of the individual correlation weights wpq. the output yq is then computed as a function of the summation as:  q qp py w x (11) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 118 where f is the activation function. the activation function is to be selected depending on the application as a sigmoid or radial basis function. the addition of differences between the desired and actual values of the output neurons is squared and computed as: 1 2 ( ) 2 q q sum y ydq  (12) where ydq is the desired value of output neuron q and yq is the actual output of the neuron. each weight wqp is tuned to decrease sum as fast as possible. depending on the training algorithm employed the wqp value is set for the computation (haykin, 2001). the ann model development primarily focuses on the training algorithms. a suitable training algorithm can result in the better model for prediction. an optimized training algorithm can also reduce the training time and provide a better accuracy. there are several training algorithms used to train a mlpnn and the most often used is the backpropagation algorithm (haykin, 2001). the backpropagation algorithm is relatively easy to implement in which a search of an error surface using gradient descent is carried out. however, the error remaining in the local minima for indefinite time is a major challenge in the backpropagation algorithm. the long training sessions is another major concern in the backpropagation algorithm. therefore, a lot of deviations to advance the convergence of the backpropagation were proposed in the literature. 2.6.2 least square support vector machine (ls-svm) the focus in this paper is on the binary classification and ls-svms are least squares of svm, perfectly suited for the application. in ls-svm, a set of related supervised learning techniques analyze data, recognize patterns, and hence are used for classification and regression analysis. the method is based on using a quadratic error criterion with equality constraints as an alternative to a convex quadratic programming (qp) problem for classical svms. least squares svm classifiers, were proposed by (suykens, 2002). the ls-svms are a class of kernel-based learning methods. the svm is assuring classifier that reduces the error and increases the boundary to classify the data by separating hyper plane. the lssvm is least squares formulation of svm and contains the equality constraints. for two-class svm, decision function is as follows (suykens, 2002): ( ) [ ( ) ] t f x sign g x b  (13) where w d-dimensional weight vector, b bias, and g(x) is a function that maps x into the ddimensional space. to obtain w and b values, the subsequent optimization problem can be created in the subsequent way: 1 2 ( , , ) 2 2 0 nyt j b e e i i       (14) minimize subject to equality constraints [ ( ) ] 1 , 1, 2, 3, ..., t y g x b e i ni i i     (15) where xi and yi are n i/o pairs. 2.6.3. naïve bayes the bayesian classifier is a supervised learning technique and a statistical method for classification. it is one of the classification algorithms that apply density estimation to the data to work out diagnostic and predictive problems. this classifier uses bayes theorem, and naively presupposes that the predictors are conditionally independent for the given class of data. despite the fact that the hypothesis is usually desecrated in practice, this classifiers yields posterior distributions d. torse, v. desai, r. khanai a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning 119 those are stout to biased class density estimates, predominantly where the posterior is 0.5 (the decision boundary) (hastie, t., r., 2008). the naive bayes assumption is that all the features are conditionally independent given the class label: ( ) ( ) 1 d p x y c p x y cii      (16) these classifiers allocate observations to the most probable class. the algorithm works as: 1. an estimation of the densities of predictors inside each class. 2. modeling subsequent probabilities according to bayes theorem, i.e., for all k = 1,...,k, ( ) ( ) 1 ˆ ( , ..., )1 ( ) ( ) 11 p y k x y kjj p y k x x p pk y k x y kjjk              (17) where: y is the random variable equivalent to the class index of a sample set, x1,...,xp are the random predictors, and π(y=k) is the former probability for a class index k. 3. classification of the sample space by finding the posterior probability for all classes, and then assigning the sample space to the a class resulting in the highest subsequent probability (hastie, t., r., 2008). 2.6.4. k nearest neighbour knn is a non-parametric supervised learning algorithm (d. t. larose, 2004) in which use of class labels is made to stores all available cases and classify new data based on a similarity (distance function) measure. for the new sample data to be tested k number of training data closest to the test sample are estimated and the class that is most familiar amongst that k nearest neighbors is allocated as the class to the new test data. in this paper, the k nearest neighbors have been varied from 2 to 6 and achieved the highest accuracy for k = 2. the distance was calculated by means of euclidean distance similarity measure. the knn are an example of instance based supervised learning in which based on the number of nearest neighbour value k is used to make the classification order to memorize the training set data. the classifier takes the decision about the class label based on the computation done in the previous step. in this work, the combination of stand deviation and kraskov entropy features for the first and sixteenth sub band of the tqwt decomposed eeg signals were used to form the feature vector for knn classifier. 2.6.5. random forest a significant enhancement in classification accuracy are resulted from developing an ensemble of trees and allowing the vote for the most relevant class. random forest is an ensemble tool that takes a subset of features and a subset of class variables to construct a decision trees. a merger of such multiple decision tree is achieved to obtain a more precise and steady classification. the bagging techniques is used to develop the ensembles by repeatedly producing the random vectors to administer the growth of every tree in the group (breiman, 1996). another techniques used to build the ensemble is to split the selection randomly from k best splits (dietterich, 1998). in the optimization of rfs, a new training sets was produced by randomizing the outputs in the original training set (breiman, 1999). in several papers on “the random subspace”, a technique was presented that does a random selection of a subset of features to use to develop each tree (ho, 1998). the rf is a practically suited classification algorithm as:  rfs are non-parametric and can model arbitrarily complex relations between inputs and outputs, without any a aforementioned assumption;  rf can classify nonlinear and nonstationary eeg data; brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 120  rf are strong to errors in classes and are easily interpretable. for the given an assembly of classifiers h1(x), h2(x), . . . , hk (x), and by the training set drawn at random from the distribution of the random vector y, x, describe the margin function as ( , ) ( ( ) ) max ( ( ) )mg x y a i h x y a i h x jk k k kj y       (18) where i(·) is the indicator function. the margin measures the average number of votes at x, y for the right class surpasses the average vote for any new class. for the classification to be promising, margin should be more. the generalization error is as follows: * ( , ) 0) , pe p mg x y x y   (19) where the subscripts x, y indicate that the probability is over the x, y space. in random forests, ( ) ( , )h x h x k k   . 3. results and discussions the automated seizure detection algorithm was developed and tested using two sub sets from bonn university dataset. the efficacy of the designed algorithms has also been verified using eeg data recorded from a local hospital. the sample normal and epileptic eeg signals of 23.6 seconds duration are shown in figure 2 and 3 respectively. figure 6. 16 sub bands of sample normal eeg signal decomposed using tqwt d. torse, v. desai, r. khanai a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning 121 figure 7. 16 sub bands of sample epileptic eeg signal decomposed using tqwt the selection of most encouraging value of q and j is a significant step in signal decomposition using tqwt. to select the optimum value of q and j, numbers of experiments were performed by taking only shannon and kraskov entropy features as a result of maximum classification accuracy. further, the values of j were varied by keeping q = 3. it was noted that the highest possible value of j with q = 1 is 15. hence, the value of j is varied from 3 to 15 and shannon and kraskov entropies were computed for each subband. then, the classification was performed for varied values of j. the 16 sub bands of normal and ictal eeg data for a sample data are plotted in figure 6 and figure 7 respectively. it can be noticed that at j = 15, maximum variation in low and high frequency sub bands was obtained which resulted in more relevant entropy parameters and improved classification accuracy. therefore, j = 15 was selected for additional experiments. after selecting j = 15, the value of q was varied in steps from 1 to 3 and entropies are computed from 16 subbands for each value of q. the plot of frequency response for normal and seizure sample eeg signal is depicted in figure 8. the increase in r, while keeping q unchanged, has shown the effect of increase in the overlap between adjacent frequency responses. the parameter r has no effect on the general shape of the wavelet of frequency response as they are governed by q. with r>3, the number of levels j need to be increased to cover the same frequency range as a result of the increased overlap. the figures show the frequency responses on log frequency scale with an r of 3. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 122 (a) (b) figure 8. frequency response of tqwt sub bands for (a)normal, (b)seizure eeg signal sample the figure 9 shows wavelets for 3-15 sub bands for r = 3. the figures display the wavelets and the frequency responses when q is set to 3.0. (a) (b) figure 9. wavelets for 3-15 sub bands for (a) normal and (b) epileptic eeg signal sample it is to be noted that the frequency responses are more narrow for q =3, compared to the cases where q was set to 1.0. with increasing q from 1.0 to 3.0, more stages are needed to span the same frequency range because each frequency response is narrower. here, we made use of 16 stages divided into 2 parts for the purpose of display. the figures show a sample normal and seizure eeg signal decomposed using the tqwt, displays the subbands, and the distribution of energy across subbands. the seizure sample signal has a more oscillatory behavior than the normal signal used in the demonstration. it is interesting to note that out of total 16 stages specified the high-pass subbands (subband 1-8) have negligible energy as compared to the low-pass sub band (sub band-16). because the first eight subbands have d. torse, v. desai, r. khanai a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning 123 essential zero energy, it was decided not to compute entropy features for these sub bands for normal signals. figure 10. energy distribution for sub bands(1-4 and 13-16) for (a) normal, (b) seizure eeg signal sample the subscript in subband-1 denotes the first level of subband. the subbands from subband1 to subband-16 are in decreasing order of frequencies. first 15 subbands were reconstructed from the detail coefficients, and 16th subband was reconstructed from the approximate coefficients. in this way, the values of q and j were selected for further experiments. the different features were computed from all subbands and experiments were performed to find the best combination of features using various ranking methods and five different classifiers. further, with q = 3 and j = 15 different nonlinear features are computed from each decomposed subband. all the computed features are combined to form a feature set of size 140×4 . the typical range of spectral and entropy features obtained from sub band 1-16 are shown in table 1 and 2 respectively. the p-value statistical test (t. dahiru, 2008) was applied to examine the discrimination ability of various features. apart from spectral features, all other features were found to be significant with less p-values (p < 0.05) indicating their suitability for good discrimination of normal and seizure eeg signals. further, the features were ranked using receiver operating characteristics (roc) (zweig mark h., 1993). the classification stage followed the steps where decomposition of tqwt and computation of spectral and entropy features was achieved for both normal and seizure types of eeg signals. after feature computation the next task was to divide features into training and test datasets for the performing classification of signal into two classes. to improve the classification performance and brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 124 to provide faster and more cost-effective classifier the selection of the optimal set of both the feature sets is important. the p-test alone was not suited to describe the efficacy of the features employed in the classification. hence, the method called wrapper-based feature selection, suggested in (kohavi ron, 1997), was employed for feature selection. the performance of five classifiers have been tested. the performance parameters of classification methods, such as specificity (spec), sensitivity (sens) and accuracy (acc), were found by the 10-fold cross-validation process (van stralen karlijn j., et al., 2009). the 10-fold cross-validation process has been used in this work to get unbiased performance of the classifier. along with the above classifiers the wrapper-based feature selection algorithms have been carried out by the matlab machine learning and statistics toolbox (matlab, 2016) software on intel ® coretm i5-7200 u cpu @ 2.5 ghz with 8 gb ram. the parameters of lssvm and rbf kernel like cost and gamma were set to 1 for the selected number of features. the performance evaluation of the proposed shannon and kraskov entropy features has been presented for eeg classification. the distinguishing ability of the five classifiers have been tested using the two classes (normal, and seizure). the shannon and kraskov entropies of decomposed eeg signals have been computed and used as a separate feature set as compared to the spectral features set. table 1. spectral features of the extracted tqwt sub bands (q = 3, r = 3, j = 16). mean standard deviation scale no. normal seizure normal seizure 1 9.834927 8329.427 11.56066 71.58755 2 58.77755 11110.04 23.84113 65.25688 3 47.77503 8932.082 20.76151 85.51468 4 10.30816 446.1276 20.08941 114.6693 5 130.0165 1539.636 428.3669 99.01905 6 6.069761 243.3806 24.44858 106.087 7 34.06279 5926.254 16.71747 95.69294 8 33.06874 1857.898 11.7173 76.64777 9 522.3913 2032.91 35.768 71.35347 10 72.81399 28592.28 11.83377 251.9867 11 16.94179 7297.517 6.223891 298.7179 12 13.56822 3044.189 23.99828 116.3269 13 7.512193 7857.243 6.081293 132.1923 14 7.613255 426.0846 13.88737 287.1622 15 6.310997 552.7713 113.0568 282.8694 16 48.03316 86.0241 13.83567 79.17186 in table 1, the spectral features, namely, mean and standard deviation are projected. it signifies the computed value of sd by the projected technique for normal categories of eeg signals are less significant than expected, because of the absence of abnormalities present in signals. table 2. entropies of the extracted tqwt sub bands (q = 3, r = 3, j = 16). shannon entropy kraskov entropy scale no. normal seizure normal seizure 1 -7832.583117 -2120182.678 1.754068 3.25435 2 -19938.80744 -5836813.985 1.977948 4.173407 3 -21701.92126 -6969011.533 2.047737 3.642304 4 -31714.94771 -153011.0566 2.197772 2.397555 5 -1111243.781 -2075609.65 3.687368 3.24926 6 -133957.6349 -102607.3996 1.663588 1.940963 7 -33054.87133 -4459470.757 2.26557 2.829904 d. torse, v. desai, r. khanai a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning 125 8 -11657.37693 -1497161.665 1.949023 2.905165 9 -39067.18007 -622563.9997 2.312583 3.393844 10 -10312.37088 -5192562.954 1.677248 3.961785 11 -11278.44848 -5773207.133 1.815736 3.598474 12 -26697.77175 -3530204.881 2.095272 3.058711 13 -4380.662994 -5064415.974 1.443809 3.797015 14 -8794.364987 -76324.63628 1.803797 2.19443 15 -310926.8264 -106834.1615 3.172345 2.015378 16 -18999.05462 -15945.06889 2.065524 1.944525 in table 2, the shannon and kraskov entropy values have been presented for normal and seizure signals. the use of mlpnn classifier depends on the number of iterations and the learning rate used for a specific transfer function employed in the design. in this work, the highest classification of normal and seizure signal using mlpnn reported was 92.5% for the shannon entropy features. in the classification task, the entropy features outperformed the spectral feature. it was inferred from the mlpnn study that the tan-sigmoid and pure linear transfer functions were best possible for the application with backpropagation algorithm for the learning purpose. two different datasets were tested using mlpnn for the learning rate of varying between 0.1 to 0.4 and the classification tasks were assessed using sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. the simulation results showed that the classification accuracy indirectly varies with the mutual range of entropy features, p-value, features selected using the wrapper test and mean square error (mse). though, reasonably good classification accuracies were achieved from the five classifiers, the classification accuracy for ictal and non-ictal (s-n) eeg signals using knn and naïve bayes classifiers are 86.1% and 84.6%, which are significantly low. figure 11.receiver operating characteristics (roc) graphs for ls-svm, naïve bayes and random forest classifiers as compared to conventional knn and naïve bayes classifiers, the performance of the proposed random forest classifier with feature selected using wrapper test is very promising. in table 3, a comparison of classifier performances are presented using proposed features. in this technique, the parameter (q) is varied to obtain enhanced discrimination between two classes. many decomposition levels of tqwt are set to 8 and 16, respectively, to set the significance of the number of sub-bands in the entropy based classification. the roc curves for ls-svm, naïve bayes and knn classifiers is shown in figure 11. in all the classifiers, the accuracy increases by taking into account j = 16. for q = 3, r = 3 and j = 16, major enhancement in classification accuracies have been achieved for random forest brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 126 classifier. many classification tasks, like normal-seizure and seizure-interictal have shown promising results for entropy feature. the maximum accuracy of 97.3% was attained for naïve bayes and knn classification tasks. the maximum classification accuracy of 97.3% was obtained using random forest classifier. for the normal-seizure classification, the highest classification accuracy obtained was 98% with the kraskov entropy with decomposition using tqwt for the values specifies as q = 3, r = 3 and j = 16. the performance of classifier through the combination of shannon and kraskov entropy features is also noteworthy. table 3. classification performance of mlpnn, ls-svm, naïve bayes, knn, and random forest classifier classifier sens(%) spec(%) acc(%) mlpnn 91.5 90.5 92.5 ls-svm 94.5 93.2 95.6 naïve bayes 85.2 85.3 84.4 knn 87.3 84.3 86.1 random forest 94.5 95.6 97.3 table 3 revels the classification accuracies for the majority of classifiers presented in this paper. the table 3 presents comparison of the proposed entropy features based classifiers and their classification performance on the eeg database acquired from dr. d. m. mohire’s neurology research centre, kolhapur, india. in most of the cases, the combined entropy features have shown equivalent performance with the optimum algorithms described in the literature. the proposed system may prove useful in the detection of seizures and aid the neurologists to take accurate diagnostic decision pertaining to the epileptic seizure disorders. 4. conclusion manual monitoring of eeg to diagnose epilepsy is a very challenging task with cumbersome work of observing long recordings and decision making through experience. the automated seizure detection is a promising tool for neurologists in making epilepsy diagnosis. in this paper, an automated method based on varied values of q is developed that decomposes eeg signal, computes shannon and kraskov entropies and detects seizure signal using random forest. the method achieved classification accuracy of 97.3% and sensitivity and selectivity of 94.5% and 95.6% respectively. a literature survey is presented on the current studies that are related to single channel seizure detection. a comparison table showing different seizure detection methods show that most techniques use joint time-frequency domain signal decomposition and entropy features. several research papers have explored multi-domain features to build robust feature space. it is clear also that the tqwt is a promising trend for seizure detection and prediction that needs further investigation. the separation of normal and seizure event based on the extracted features is achieved by employing state-of-the-art machine learning classifiers. majority of the studies focus on improving classification accuracy using remotely accessed resources. however, there is increasing demand to implement the algorithms on local embedded system to reduce computational complexity. the main goal behind this review is to explore the field of eeg signal analysis in real time and accept the same to detect epileptic disorders using eeg recordings. references buck, d., baker, g.a., jacoby, a., smith, d.f. & chadwick, d.w. (1997). patients’ experiences of injury as a result of epilepsy. epilepsia. 38 (4), 439–444. englander, jeffrey, et al. seizures after traumatic brain injury. archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation 95.6 (2014): 1223. acharya, u. & rajendra, et al. (2013). automated eeg analysis of epilepsy: a review. knowledgebased systems. 45, 147-165. sanei, saeid, & jonathon a. chambers. (2013). eeg signal processing. john wiley & sons,. d. torse, v. desai, r. khanai a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning 127 selesnick, ivan w. wavelet transform with tunable q-factor. (2011). ieee transactions on signal processing 59.8, 3560-3575. andrzejak, r. g., lehnertz, k., mormann, f., rieke, c., david, p. & elger, c. e. (2001). indications of nonlinear deterministic and finite-dimensional structures in time series of brain electrical activity: dependence on recording region and brain state, physical review. 64, 8 pages. mennes, maarten, et al. (2010). validation of ica as a tool to remove eye movement artifacts from eeg/erp. psychophysiology 47.6 , 1142-1150. klados, manousos a., et al. reg-ica: a hybrid methodology combining blind source separation and regression techniques for the rejection of ocular artifacts. biomedical signal processing and control 6.3 (2011): 291-300. mammone, nadia, fabio la foresta, and francesco carlo morabito. (2012). automatic artifact rejection from multichannel scalp eeg by wavelet ica. ieee sensors journal 12.3, 533542. li, mingai, yan, c. & jinfu, y. (2013). automatic removal of ocular artifact from eeg with dwt and ica method. applied mathematics & information sciences 7.2, 809. mammone, nadia, & francesco c. morabito. (2014). enhanced automatic wavelet independent component analysis for electroencephalographic artifact removal. entropy 16.12 6553-6572. peng, hong, et al. removal of ocular artifacts in eeg—an improved approach combining dwt and anc for portable applications. ieee journal of biomedical and health informatics 17.3 (2013): 600-607. zhao, qinglin, et al. (2014). automatic identification and removal of ocular artifacts in eeg— improved adaptive predictor filtering for portable applications. ieee transactions on nanobioscience 13.2, 109-117. torse, d. a. & veena v. d., (2016). design of adaptive eeg preprocessing algorithm for neurofeedback system. communication and signal processing (iccsp) international conference on ieee. 392-395. wang, gang, et al. (2016). the removal of eog artifacts from eeg signals using independent component analysis and multivariate empirical mode decomposition. ieee journal of biomedical and health informatics 20.5, 1301-1308. güler, inan, & elif derya übeyli. (2005). adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system for classification of eeg signals using wavelet coefficients. journal of neuroscience methods 148.2 113-121. jahankhani, pari, vassilis kodogiannis, and kenneth revett. (2006). eeg signal classification using wavelet feature extraction and neural networks. modern computing, 2006. jva'06. ieee john vincent atanasoff international symposium on. ieee. ghosh-dastidar, samanwoy, and hojjat adeli. (2007). improved spiking neural networks for eeg classification and epilepsy and seizure detection. integrated computer-aided engineering 14.3, 187-212. subasi, abdulhamit, and m. ismail gursoy. (2010). eeg signal classification using pca, ica, lda and support vector machines. expert systems with applications 37.12, 8659-8666. ghosh-dastidar, samanwoy, hojjat adeli, and nahid dadmehr. (2008). principal component analysis-enhanced cosine radial basis function neural network for robust epilepsy and seizure detection. ieee transactions on biomedical engineering 55.2, 512-518. faust, oliver, et al. (2010). automatic identification of epileptic and background eeg signals using frequency domain parameters. international journal of neural systems 20.02, 159-176. gandhi, tapan, bijay ketan panigrahi, and sneh anand. (2011), a comparative study of wavelet families for eeg signal classification. neurocomputing74.17, 3051-3057. oweis, r.j. & abdulhey, e.w. (2010). seizure classification in eeg signals utilizing hilberthuang transform. biomed. eng. online 10, 38 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 8, issue 4 (december, 2017), issn 2067-8957 128 işik, hakan, and esma sezer. (2012). diagnosis of epilepsy from electroencephalography signals using multilayer perceptron and elman artificial neural networks and wavelet transform. journal of medical systems36.1, 1-13. omerhodzic, ibrahim, et al. (2013). energy distribution of eeg signals: eeg signal wavelet-neural network classifier. arxiv preprint arxiv:1307.7897 kumar, yatindra, m. l. dewal, and r. s. anand. epileptic seizure detection using dwt based fuzzy approximate entropy and support vector machine. neurocomputing 133 (2014): 271279. faust, oliver, et al. (2015). wavelet-based eeg processing for computer-aided seizure detection and epilepsy diagnosis. seizure 26, 56-64. song, jiang-ling, wenfeng hu, and rui zhang. (2016). automated detection of epileptic eegs using a novel fusion feature and extreme learning machine. neurocomputing 175, 383-391. zhang, yong, et al. (2015). comparison of classification methods on eeg signals based on wavelet packet decomposition. neural computing and applications 26.5, 1217-1225. raghu, s., n. sriraam, and g. pradeep kumar. (2015). effect of wavelet packet log energy entropy on electroencephalogram (eeg) signals. international journal of biomedical and clinical engineering (ijbce) 4.1, 32-43. hassan, ahnaf rashik, siuly siuly, and yanchun zhang. "epileptic seizure detection in eeg signals using tunable-q factor wavelet transform and bootstrap aggregating." computer methods and programs in biomedicine 137 (2016): 247-259. patidar, shivnarayan, and ram bilas pachori. "classification of cardiac sound signals using constrained tunable-q wavelet transform." expert systems with applications 41.16 (2014): 7161-7170. bhattacharyya, abhijit, et al. "tunable-q wavelet transform based multiscale entropy measure for automated classification of epileptic eeg signals." applied sciences 7.4 (2017): 385. patidar, shivnarayan, and trilochan panigrahi. (2017). detection of epileptic seizure using kraskov entropy applied on tunable-q wavelet transform of eeg signals." biomedical signal processing and control 34, 74-80. kumar, s. pravin, et al. (2010). entropies based detection of epileptic seizures with artificial neural network classifiers. expert systems with applications 37.4, 3284-3291. phinyomark, angkoon, et al. (2012).the usefulness of mean and median frequencies in electromyography analysis. computational intelligence in electromyography analysis-a perspective on current applications and future challenges. du, sijiang, & marko vuskovic., (2004). temporal vs. spectral approach to feature extraction from prehensile emg signals. information reuse and integration, 2004. iri 2004. proceedings of the 2004 ieee international conference. shannon, claude e. (1948). a note on the concept of entropy. bell system tech. j27.3, 379-423. k.a. veselkov, et al., a(2010). metabolic entropy approach for measurements of systemic metabolic disruptions in patho-physiological states, j. proteome res.9, 3537–3544. kraskov, a. et al., estimating mutual information, 2008 [online]. available:arxiv.org/pdf/condmat/0305641. bishop, christopher m. pattern recognition and machine learning. springer, 2006. haykin, simon s. neural networks: a comprehensive foundation. tsinghua university press, 2001. suykens, johan ak, tony van gestel, & jos de brabanter. (2002), least squares support vector machines. world scientific,. hastie, t., r. tibshirani, and j. friedman. (2008). the elements of statistical learning, second edition. ny: springer,. d. t. larose, (2004a). discovering knowledge in data: an introduction to data mining, new jersey, usa: wiley interscienceb. breiman, leo. (1996). bagging predictors. machine learning 24.2, 123-140. d. torse, v. desai, r. khanai a review on seizure detection systems with emphasis on multi-domain feature extraction and classification using machine learning 129 dietterich, thomas g. (1998). approximate statistical tests for comparing supervised classification learning algorithms. neural computation 10.7, 1895-1923. breiman, leo. (1999). random forests. uc berkeley tr567. ho, tin kam. (1998). the random subspace method for constructing decision forests. ieee transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence 20.8 , 832-844. dahiru, tukur. (2008). p-value, a true test of statistical significance? a cautionary note. annals of ibadan postgraduate medicine 6.1, 21-26. zweig, mark h., & gregory campbell. (1993). receiver-operating characteristic (roc) plots: a fundamental evaluation tool in clinical medicine. clinical chemistry 39.4, 561-577. kohavi, ron, & george h. john. (1997). wrappers for feature subset selection. artificial intelligence 97.1-2, 273-324. van stralen, karlijn j., et al. diagnostic methods i: sensitivity, specificity, and other measures of accuracy. kidney international 75.12 (2009): 1257-1263. matlab and machine learning and statistics toolbox release 2016b, the mathworks, inc., natick, massachusetts, united states. dattaprasad torse (b. april 12, 1979) received his b.e. in electronics and telecommunication engineering (2001), m.e. in digital electronics (2005), pursuing phd in electronics and communication from visvesvaraya technological university of belagavi, karnataka, india. now, he is assistant professor of electronics and communication department of kls gogte institute of technology, belagavi, india. his current research interests include different aspects of eeg signal processing, eeg analysis and machine learning. he has (co-) more than 10 papers, more than 10 conferences participation. he is a member of ieee and life member of indian society for technical education (iste). veena desai (b. august 17, 1969) received her b.e. in electronics and communication engineering (2001), m.tech in computer networking (2005) and phd (2012) in electronics and communication from visvesvaraya technological university of belagavi, karnataka, india. now, she is professor of electronics and communication department of kls gogte institute of technology, belagavi, india. her current research interests include different aspects of cryptography and network security and machine learning. she has authored more than 30 papers, more than 10 conferences participation. she is a member of ieee and life member of indian society for technical education (iste). rajashri khanai (b. october 15, 1979) received her b.e. in electronics and communication engineering (2000), m.tech in digital communication and networking (2007) and phd (2015) in electronics and communication from visvesvaraya technological university of belagavi, karnataka, india. now, she is professor of electronics and communication department of kle’s dr. m. s. sheshgiri college of engineering and technology, belagavi, india. her current research interests include different aspects of error correction coding for wireless communication, biomedical signal processing and machine learning. she has authored more than 20 papers, more than 10 conferences participation. she is a member of ieee. microsoft word issue-4.docx 38 critical infrastructure protection in the knowledge society: increasing the safety level by use of learning based on wargaming expertise dorel badea department of management, faculty of military management "nicolae balcescu" land forces academy of sibiu revolutiei street no. 3-5, 550170, sibiu, romania phone: 0269432990 dorel.badea@yahoo.com marin-marian coman military training center "nicolae balcescu" land forces academy of sibiu revolutiei street no. 3-5, 550170, sibiu, romania phone: 0269432990 coman.marian@gmail.com dumitru iancu department of management, faculty of military management "nicolae balcescu" land forces academy of sibiu revolutiei street no. 3-5, 550170, sibiu, romania phone: 0269432990 dorin_dan@yahoo.com olga bucoveţchi department of economic engineering, faculty of entrepreneurship, business engineering and management university “politehnica” of bucharest splaiul independenței 313, 060042, bucharest, romania phone: 0214029100 olga.bucovetchi@upb.ro abstract the linearity of processes is no longer valid only for strictly defined intervals, the decisionmakers being forced to explore and exploit other sources and options for imposing a predicted management order in accordance with standards, procedures, policies, etc. given the socio-technical particularities of organizations that own or manage critical infrastructures with direct implications for risk management activities, it is necessary to conduct theoretical and practical actions for testing their sensitivity by taking in consideration the variation of external factors (geo-climacterics, politics, military, economic factors, etc.) for verifying and validating the decisional variants structured at the operational management level. no matter the level of organizational maturity, the possible solutions for achieving this goal must be optimal from the point of view of the cost-effectiveness ratio and, in the same time, they should converge to a paradigmatic potential for valorizing in a timely and judicious manner the most important component of the organizational capability the human resource. in this context, the education for sustainability becomes the objective function that needs to be optimized. as a methodological framework for learning and internalizing the procedures that should become an operating standard, the conceptual modeling and simulation are very well suited and the serious games can be chosen as an implementation tool. therefore, the military organization has been selected as a model of good practice where the training is conducted through simulation and wargaming. when we should analyze the acquisition process of knowledge, the military organization is the proper choice because it offers a series of advantages by the way of transforming the real situation into elements of simulation and by an easy transfer of the gained experience into the real context. keywords: critical infrastructure, security, wargame, knowledge. d. badea , m.-m. coman, d. iancu, o. bucoveţchi critical infrastructure protection in the knowledge society: increasing the safety level by use of learning based on wargaming expertise 39 1. introduction the design of a research direction for this article, having as a framework the relationship between society, infrastructure, security and sustainability, has among arguments the cohen approach (2010), who considers critical infrastructures to be something that people depend on, in a direct or indirect manner, at any time, in terms of life and welfare. unlike this approach, the definitions of critical infrastructure given by different sources from the eu area, refer to the fact that it means an element, a system or a system's component, located within the territory of the member states that is essential for the preservation of vital societal functions, health, safety, security, social or economic well-being of individuals, and whose disruption or destruction would have a significant impact in a member state due to the inability to maintain those functions (*** directive 114/2008). therefore, ensuring the resilience of the society (understood as a meta-system) is a subject of the utmost importance and actuality for military, civil, public or private organizations (walker, cooper, 2011). more than ever, in a non-exhaustive enumeration, concepts such as the internet of things, cybernetics, process continuity, block chains, and industry 4.0 are leading the organizations to reconsider the ways to move to higher levels of maturity in terms of sustainability. based on the complexity, nonlinearity and dynamics of the component structures it is a fact that the relations between the constituent elements are not fully and correctly identified. on the background of the existence of a certain pretension, caused by the manifestation of the gap between the vision of the future and the understanding of current reality, it is more and more obvious that in the knowledge society, the improvement or redesign of critical infrastructure performance (related to the private domain and especially to the public domain) is indissolubly linked to the improvement of the specific information processes' functionality (denyer, 2017). taking into consideration the proposed paper's title, the above-mentioned thesis involves fundamental aspects specific to the reaction of organizations to environmental demands, such as: the use of unequivocally specialized vocabulary, the identification of good practices and development methods, the design of appropriate security governance metrics, and last but not least, accountability to ensure critical infrastructure security. in this thematic register, as a basis for providing solid premises to generate added security, the customization of specific elements (common values, competencies, behavior, personnel) comprised in a specialized tool that has a wide applicability in the field of organizational redesign (ex. the mckinsey 7-s model) leads to the necessity of condition fulfilling which is related to the operationalization of an adequate knowledge within holding organizations of critical infrastructure. it is essential to relate to the differences between knowing and knowledge, as already they were assumed in the literature: “knowledge is the result of a knowing process at one point. it can be generated, structured and transformed from a form into another form, in a continuous process. knowledge is a complex combination of conscious and unconscious, rational and irrational, direct experience of life and knowing the life, and the experience mediated in the process of learning.” (brătianu, 2015, p. 28). useful supplements in this direction are included in the dictionary of management as a reference work to demonstrate the level of theoretical and practical development of this discipline at the national level (nicolescu, 2011). after presenting knowledge as assemblies of applicable information and abilities generated by the receiver following the use of information, which has the capacity to generate added value by using them, the two components namely the human and the economic dimension are emphasized. in accordance with the research objectives of this paper, the explanation given to the human dimension of knowledge draws attention. in this regard, it is emphasized the fact that a certain information to a particular person with a certain type of training and skills is used appropriately and generates added value, and the same information is only a simple information to a less competent person. the issue of resources committed to generating paradigmatic value knowledge is in no way devoid of importance. the problem has mild contradictory aspects in the public sector, where, under specific budget constraints, a certain level of performance is required involving computer network-based technical solutions, using a specialized software, training, generically combined under an e-administration dome or even e-government. all this means a large amount of financial brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 40 resources for the creation of such administrative infrastructure. assuming an optimal dimensioned budget allocation, the starting point to be achieved as a fundamental criterion is the professionalization of the human resource. in this regard, the use of expert systems or specialized it technologies raises the cost of knowledge, which should take into account the imperative of human presence and the minimum skills needed to set up adequate inputs to the learning objectives, with further influences on outputs and outcomes. in this context the mixed solutions seem to be the most desirable for the use and implementation for knowledge generation and knowledge transfer processes (paiano, caione, & guido, 2015). in the sense of the conceptual approach mentioned above, the mixed solutions leave a sufficient and flexible actionable freedom, both for the object of the training and for the ways of using the tools in different situations from the point of view of the complexity of the replicated aspects of reality (figure 1). in such a context, the organizational learning takes new valences (treapat, gheorghiu, 2017), in the sense that it is internalized through employees, but it is not simply a sum of individual learning outcomes, becoming an essential process for adaptability to the requirements of the macroeconomic environment. figure 1. connections between types of knowledge and the use of gaming concept. (source: a compendium of wargaming terms (updated 7 july 2015) compiled by william l. simpson jr – http://www.mors.org/communities/copdocument-search http://www.mors.org/communities/copdocument-search the art of wargaming by peter perla) the wargaming concept is recognized as a dual use tool (military and civilian purposes) with broad applicability (figure 2) especially in the military field (it also supports the experimentations what if type). the concept itself created an entire industry (with both intensive and extensive achievements, as well as complexity and addressability), warren wiggins arguing in this respect: “there are multiple reasons for the use of war games; discovery, examination of concepts, and even learning. the value of the war game is to create an enabling environment to achieve the desired objective(s). the benefits of a war game are numerous; however, for the most part they provide new ways of conceptualizing the problem, new courses of action, new elements of information needed for decisions, previously unknown relationships between aspects of a problem, understanding of the problem’s dynamics.”1 an interesting addition to the use of dynamic term is the one made by the goldsworthy, stolk&associates, which highlights the fact that a conflict is not solely kinetic. “conflict is always the outcome of many societal dynamics. acknowledging those dynamics it is crucial to ensure a realistic simulated operating environment. gs&a have applied wargaming within various contexts: ministerial, nato, universities and civil security.”2 finally yet importantly, it is useful to mention david schroeder's approach that highlights the importance of wargames in both military and business environments. given the current development conditions of the various public or private areas of activity and based mainly on it and related vectors, the wargaming concept is applied with a strong tradition of use in the military field (there is already a wargaming book edited in 2017 by the uk mod that has the role to be a reference guide for all practitioners wargaming handbook, and a dedicated annual conference connections us wargaming 1 https://www.csiac.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/csiac_journal_v4n3_nov2016.pdf 2 https://www.goldsworthy-stolk-associates.com/?lightbox=dataitem-j66ficzt d. badea , m.-m. coman, d. iancu, o. bucoveţchi critical infrastructure protection in the knowledge society: increasing the safety level by use of learning based on wargaming expertise 41 conference). thus, it could be argued that the applied wargaming as a "discipline" is still in a full maturity process, there being no consensus between different specialists (military, security, education, and human resources experts, psychologists, sociologists, software development engineers, etc.) on the main directions to be investigated and the proper ways of better implementation of the results at the organizations level. taking into consideration the general way of developing a working terminology, regardless of the type used (education, training and analytics), the wargaming is a component of the decision making process done under conditions of uncertainty, that generate the courses of actions (decisional variants) which are analyzed in the context of an emerging situation. this situation is based on a tailored scenario of which the participants are aware, that is applied sequentially and managed in a logical succession, based on the rules known by all participants. figure 2. ways to conceptualize wargaming in the military and it business field. (sources: https://www.goldsworthy-stolk-associates.com/?lightbox=dataitem-j66ficzt; http://professionalwargaming.co.uk/connectionskeynote.pdf) the training exercise, which took place in 2017 in the usa called "navy private sector critical infrastructure war game" is an eloquent example of good practice in field of critical infrastructure. the exercise has been conducted by involving a number of 125 players from 14 critical infrastructure sectors, that covered a wide spectrum of representativeness from public and private field: “in our war game, the attacks that were most likely to escalate to a national security incident were those on the civilian nuclear sector and sectors that had strong linkages across the national economy. attacks on these sectors with strong linkages within the rest of the critical infrastructure created cascading effects, many of which had life or death implications beyond the initial scope of the cyberattack. therefore, results from the war game suggest that u.s. government resources and policies should focus on the energy, transportation, communications, water/wastewater, and nuclear sectors.”3 2. methodology before presenting the solution to be implemented, it is adequate to emphasize a way that shows how the practitioners should use for training a special purpose scenario. the red teaming guide, edited by uk dod highlights the idea of using the red team operational thinking way in order to provide to the training audience the support for a productive training: "the idea of using red teams has been around for a long time. commercial enterprises, such as ibm, and government agencies such as defence intelligence and the central intelligence agency, have long used them to reduce risks and to improve their problem solving."4 3 http://www.nwcfoundation.org/files/admin/corp%20logos/navyprivate%20sector%20critical%20infrastructure%20war%20game%20report%20%281%29%20%282%29 .pdf 4 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/ 142533/20130301_red_teaming_ed2.pdf brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 42 usually, for a specific scenario map, the use of colors for mapping the symbols to denominate the type of party is common in military wargaming and terminology. blue generally denotes own forces, red is for threat, green is often used to denote indigenous security forces and brown for other actors such as non-governmental organizations and the civilian population etc. the training events based on a proper tailored scenarios can provide knowledge and abilities to practitioners related to physical protection, cyber security, cyber and physical convergence, industrial control system, information about insider treat, standards and ways to command and control, ways to counteract, etc. all of these have as training purposes the improvement of awareness, capacities to respond, build trust communities or sharing knowledge. typically, the training audience will follow three phases for solving the problem/the crises: diagnosis phase (key assumptions, identify and question assertions, logic mapping, information check, etc), creative phase (role playing, brainstorming, what if analysis, indicators for changes, experimentation, etc.), and challenge phase (analysis of competing hypotheses, devil's advocacy, etc.). 3. proposed solution and problem solving steps the training event offers a framework that allows to all participants a way of working and collaborating with each other in order to apply the wargame rules for a worthwhile dialogue concerning decision-making process after reviewing case scenarios. moreover, such a training event has to be combined or connected with other kind of training events to maximize the reach of training objectives linked to value-based decision making. eubella alert is a fictitious scenario that has an imaginary situation in an imaginary setting with all other aspects being invented to achieve the exercise objectives and training objectives. the scenario is based on a major event a cyberattack on an energetic control system, which can affect the majority of the critical infrastructure sectors. in addition, the scenario is enriched with a physical break of security (bomb threat) at an important nuclear plant belonging to a country that is part of a union, which has promulgated a common security policy regarding the energy sector. the golden union (gu) located in the central eubella continent has been founded in 1992 (figure no. 3). gu comprises six neighboring countries (rozy, tanny, greenh, yellowe, purplet, and tana), which are parliamentary democracies and a federal governance system applies to all the political and economical voted policies related to the development of the union. on one hand, the gu has its own federal government, thus on the other hand, each constituent country has a national government that has to apply the internal policies in supporting their citizens welfare. the official language recognized by the gu federal govern is goldish language spoken almost in majority large cities of the union. even so, in some cities and areas from the gu countries, the population has the tendency to preserve their local habits and traditional language. the process of suburbanization and urban decentralization lead the gu citizens to have a good life. over time, there have been popular movements for independence in some areas, the majority of them based on ethnicity issues, culture, religion, and preservation of traditional language. three years ago, gu promoted a new energy policy, called greeny2015-2025, which led to a gdp's growth of the union with 20% more in the last year than in the previous one. the majority of countries from gu have natural resources and their economies are emerging. gu is located on the central area of eubella continent. around the union are located other emergent countries, each of them trying to apply the balanced economic policies for developing the trading and market exchange with their neighborhood countries and with union countries. the energy systems from countries inside the eubella continent is based on traditional ways of obtaining the energy, however some of them are based on nuclear energy. the traditional economic development of the region, in terms of energy system, is based mainly on the oil and natural gas import and export trading. the alternative energy solutions (solar photovoltaic energy, solar thermal energy, wind energy, biomass energy, etc.) are emerging and some of the countries have implemented standards for developing them. d. badea , m.-m. coman, d. iancu, o. bucoveţchi critical infrastructure protection in the knowledge society: increasing the safety level by use of learning based on wargaming expertise 43 redia, a large country located in the northeast area of the continent, is one of the richest countries having a large amount of crude oil and natural gas reserve. redia commercializes its abundant natural resources to other countries from eubella continent that do not have enough natural resources to produce the desired amount of energy necessary for the industry field or residential energy for population. the transportation system for oil and natural gas is in a developing and modernization phase. the main transportation pipeline, stream alpha 1, starts from rediasht city, one of the largest cities from redia, located at 100 km away from international border with gu. then, stream alpha 1 goes through rozy country territory and splits to the other countries that have trade agreements with redia for natural gas and oil import. (see figure 3) the last gu resolution102, voted by the federal govern and endorsed in 2015, established a well-balanced policy regarding the trade of resources inside the union neighboring countries. resolution102 supports the energy policy greeny2015-2025. moreover, after signing that important document, each country designated a maneuver brigade in order to form the golden union division army (guda) as a very versatile and deployable maneuvering unit along of the gu territories and international borders. figure 3. eubella alert wargaming scenario map after implementation of the energy policy greeny2015-2025 and the resolution102, all countries from gu started to cut down the amount of crude oil and natural gas import from redia. this fact, led to a real decrease of redia gdp and political frictions appeared between redia and gu countries. in addition, in the last 2 years, there were some sabotage events against main transportation pipeline stream alpha 1. the liberty panther group (lpg) from gu that figurehts for freedom of energy systems has claimed the sabotage events. consequently, redia started to strengthen its defense system and military combat power by developing new weapon systems and a professional army. many funds were invested to develop cyber security domain and a series of hybrid threat designed training exercises were conducted near international border of gu. on the other side, in the last year, rozy country from gu had for three times emergency situations that were linked to bomb threat events against its nuclear plant located in the vicinity of doreta city. the nuclear plant was built in 2012 near rosian sea, close to redia, and it assures 30% of the amount of necessary energy specific to energy system of the country. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 44 based on the tailored wargaming scenario, the training audience will make use of symbol list in order to portray on the exercise map the following elements: infrastructures, natural events, incidents, operations, and damage/operational symbology (table 1). table 1. extract (examples) from a symbol list to be used within emergency management process and first responder communities at all levels of need (sources: symbology reference, version 2.20, released: september 14, 2005, https://www.fgdc.gov/hswg/index.html; https://www.fgdc.gov/hswg/ref_pages/printablechanges.htm) symbol types/ symbol classes symbol image symbol terms and definitions infrastructures symbology examples (83 symbols) agriculture and food infrastructure (theme) production and retail services of foodstuffs. generation stations (energy facilities feature) a facility equipped with special equipment used for the production of heat or electricity. natural events symbology examples (27 symbols) landslide (geologic feature) a general term for a wide variety of processes and landforms involving the down slope movement under the force of gravity of masses of soil and rock material. flood (hydro-meteorologic feature) a relatively high stream flow that overtops the stream banks in any part of its course, covering land that is not normally under water; condition that occurs when water overflows the natural or artificial confines of a stream or other body of water, or accumulates by drainage over low-lying areas. incidents symbology examples (50 symbols) civil displaced population (civil disturbance feature) persons or groups of person who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, violations of human rights, or natural or human-made disasters. criminal activity incident (theme) an unlawful pursuit or action in which an individual participates. operations symbology examples (46 symbols) medical evacuation helicopter station (emergency medical feature) the locus of an emergency helicopter landing pad, utilized to transport severely injured persons. health department facility (emergency medical feature) the locus of a facility operated by a public institution which is dedicated to the promotion of health and the prevention of disease at the community, country, state, or national level. damage/operational symbology examples (10 symbols) incident (damage/operational) no levels not applicable operation (damage/operational) level 2 operational, but filled to capacity or otherwise closed. after the mapping process with all the scenario symbol elements portrayed on the exercise map, the training audience can apply the ways of thinking as for red teaming methods for identifying and assessing the assumptions, alternative options, vulnerabilities, limitations and risks for the organization. these solving methods are suitable for reacting to a crisis, in order to take in account all unpredicted situations, deepen the critical analysis, make predictions, and develop feasible courses of action (coa) (figure 4). d. badea , m.-m. coman, d. iancu, o. bucoveţchi critical infrastructure protection in the knowledge society: increasing the safety level by use of learning based on wargaming expertise 45 figure 4. a logical way of thinking (framework) specific to a red teaming during the wargaming event (source:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/142533/2013 0301_red_teaming_ed2.pdf) in order to run in an efficient manner the entire training with great outcomes, the training audience must put in practice the best coa to solve any unpredicted situation which could appear during the wargaming process. the teams should have to assess very well all the information received through the scenario, but usually they will try to evolve in their way of thinking and information assessing to enhance the level of awareness. besides critical thinking for analysis of current situation and future implications, additional useful information could be provided by the role players who act in accordance with established training objectives. doing that, the common operating picture (cop) will be clear enough for all participants and the effect will result in good countermeasures conducted in accordance with the development of the operational situation during the crisis. a better way of assessing information is by making use of the degrees of confidence specific to reliability of source and credibility of information, but they must be considered independently of each other. (table 2) as a result, a combination of letter and number will be appropriate for information assessing process. thus, information received from a "fairly reliable" source, which is adjusted as "possibly true" will be rated as "c3". this way of analysis and thinking is very useful for training audience (threat assessment team) when dealing with scenarios that emphasize an immediate crisis, like an imminent terrorist attacks in urban areas (a bomb threat in the vicinity of a crowd, a bomb placed in a critical infrastructure building) that could result in a mass casualty event. consequently, an emergency planning response must be implemented very quickly. table 2. definitions of reliability of source and credibility of information (source: http://eturwg.c4i.gmu.edu/?q=node/128) reliability of source (designated by a letter between a and f signifying various degrees of confidence) c fairly reliable refers to a source which has occasionally been used in the past and upon which some degree of confidence can be based credibility of information (designated by a numeral between 1 and 6 signifying varying degrees of confidence) 3 possibly true if, despite there being insufficient confirmation to establish any higher degree of likelihood, a freshly reported item of information does not conflict with the previously reported behavior pattern of the target brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 46 during the wargaming conduct, a main events list-main incidents list (mel-mil) will be employed. the purpose of mel-mil is to create challenging situations for training audience in order to meet training objectives of the exercise. the incidents will be injected as the situation develops and they will follow a logical evolution of the crisis in order to enhance the training audience's cop. in this manner, all the participants have to contribute with their expertise to solve all the incidents through a collaborative work by taking all necessary countermeasures that result in an emergency response planning. the after action review (aar) is mandatory to be conducted at the end of each wargame event. as a tool to get maximum benefit from every training session, aar is a facilitated discussion conducted for discovering and learning what happened and why, focusing on performance standards, that actively involves the training audience in order to allow to all participants to become conscious about their gaps in training for future improvement on weaknesses or for sustaining their strengths. 4. conclusions at the national level, there is a shortage of updated professional approach in relation to the international practice of the critical infrastructure security issue (ex. usa, canada, australia, germany etc.). although, as a declarative argument, the main idea from the official document regulating the long-term activity related to critical infrastructure, stipulates that: "the economic and social development stimulated by the accelerated technological progress and the phenomenon of globalization have strengthened the strong interdependence and interaction of the systems that ensure the security and welfare of the human society. the need to interconnect systems against the backdrop of the trend of removing administrative barriers and access to new emerging markets, along with the integration of infrastructure networks, leads to global security and stability developments." (*** national strategy on critical infrastructure protection, 2011, p.10) the starting point in writing of this article relies on the fact that the organizational proactive processes, as valuable resources, are based on a flexible learning process. these resources ensure the sustainability of public and private capacities, civil and military alike, and are coupled to the challenges of a highly dynamic macro-environment, which are characterized by uncertainty, ambiguity and volatility. in this context, asymmetric threats and especially hybrid threats, containing a complex information vector with different intensities, influence the social functionality in different basic areas such as medical services, food, defense, energy, administration and governance, communications, etc. the recent events fully demonstrate the thesis which states that the security has not only a black and white spectrum, but also gray hues, with interdisciplinary and cross-border nuances becoming the points of interest, both through the induced vulnerability potential and the means of provocation that surpass the strictly specialized military area. conducting the experimentation process type "what happens if" is a very costly and risky one from the perspective of actual way of carrying out, aspect which has at least the same intensity also for the critical infrastructure field. the expertise of this type of training in the military domain is accepted and the learning and education process for the security of the assets must be an effective and flexible one, built on the formulation, activation and/or updating of some mental models. the research team draws attention to the exploiting of predefined symbols, which are also employed in the military operational planning, as a less-used idea in the critical infrastructure literature, and the completion, where appropriate, with new ones. these symbols could be used for the graphical materialization of risk situations regarding the safe operation of a critical infrastructure system, according to a proper tailored scenario, in a training exercise of public authorities or private operators with responsibilities related to the management of crises based on disasters. a special role in the process of improving knowledge dedicated to increasing the level of security of critical infrastructure must be played by the educational, military and civil institutions, through special programs dedicated to the public sector that is involved in the management of critical infrastructure issues (postgraduate courses for further training or specialization, master d. badea , m.-m. coman, d. iancu, o. bucoveţchi critical infrastructure protection in the knowledge society: increasing the safety level by use of learning based on wargaming expertise 47 programs, etc.). in the knowledge of economy, universities face new challenges and they have to adapt to the new contexts. first, knowledge life cycle is decreasing and the focus of teaching and learning processes should shift from knowledge transfer to the students toward developing thinking skills (bratianu & vătămănescu, 2016). through this paper it is proposed, that the tool presented as a solution for learning in the field of critical infrastructure be implemented for testing and validation within a postgraduate program conducted in the land forces academy of sibiu and within a master program conducted in the faculty of entrepreneurship, business engineering and management/ university politehnica of bucharest. it is a good thing, in the sense of the above-mentioned, the fact that people are more and more aware of the role of knowledge, as an engine of generating performance in the field of security of critical infrastructures. an example supporting this statement is also one of the conclusions that emerged from the zagreb forum in 2017 resilient critical infrastructure (2nd zagreb security forum), which encourages the application of the "knowledge for development" paradigm as the foundation for designing critical documents on the protection of national critical infrastructures. (https://www.zagrebsecurityforum.com) the critical infrastructure security is a topic whose approach is achieved by taking into consideration both officially validated regulations and the level of maturity of the population's ability to objectively raise the awareness related to the main mechanisms of causes and effects specific to malfunctions that could emerge at any critical infrastructure. based on the above assertion, the main purpose of this applied research operationalized by predominantly qualitative means is the demonstration of viability of methodological framework provided by the wargaming procedures that can be exploited in a specific way also for critical infrastructures issues. in order to preserve the integrity of the real system framework, the focus was on a few variables actors, rules, resources that have been considered by authors the most important factors of the research. finally, it is brought to the attention of public authorities and all institutions involved in the management of critical infrastructure security, a feasible possibility of using a flexible and effective training method based on wargaming methodology that can be developed in an integrating way at the national level, which is in fact the added value of this paper. references cohen f. (2010). what makes critical infrastructures critical?, international journal of critical infrastructure protection, 3, 53-54. bratianu, c. (2015). gândirea strategicǎ, bucureşti: editura pro universitaria. bratianu, c., & vătămănescu, e.m. (2016). students’ perception on developing conceptual generic skills for business. in moffett, s., & galbraith, b. (eds.), proceedings of the 17th european conference on knowledge management, reading: academic conferences and publishing international, 101-108. denyer, d. (2017). organizational resilience: a summary of academic evidence, business insights and new thinking. bsi and cranfield school of management: cranfield, uk. paiano, r., caione, a., guido, a.l. (2015). business process management a traditional approach versus a knowledge based approach. brain-broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 6(1), 54-69. treapat, l. & gheorghiu, a. (2017). artificial systems and models for risk covering operations. brain-broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 8(1), 59-72. walker, j. & cooper, m. (2011). genealogies of resilience: from systems ecology to the political economy of crisis adaptation. security dialogue, 42(2), 143-160. ***strategia națională privind protecția infrastructurilor critice, monitorul oficial al româniei, partea i, nr. 555/4.viii.2011 http://eturwg.c4i.gmu.edu/?q=node/128, accessed in april 2018. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1 42533/20130301_red_teaming_ed2.pdf accessed in june 2018. https://www.fgdc.gov/hswg/index.html accessed in july 2018. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 48 https://www.zagrebsecurityforum.com accessed in june 2018. http://www.nwcfoundation.org accessed in july 2018. assoc. prof. dorel badea graduated the military technical academy of bucharest in 2002 and received the ph.d. degree in industrial engineering (2011) from technical university of cluj-napoca, currently being head of management department in “nicolae bǎlcescu” land forces academy of sibiu. he is holding courses in defense resource management, modeling and simulation of military actions and critical infrastructure protection. he wrote over forty essays issued in different scientific specialized reviews and proceedings on general management, military engineering and security. assoc. prof. dumitru iancu is vice dean for scientific researcher at the military management faculty, “nicolae bǎlcescu” land forces academy of sibiu. he holds a phd in management from the lucian blaga university of sibiu (2011). his research interests include human resources management and applications of general management theory in security technology systems. he is author and active participant at different international conferences and participated at many activities at national level related to research and innovations strategies necessary to be implemented. senior trng. instr. marin-marian coman is phd student in industrial engineering at university politehnica of bucharest and graduated “nicolae bǎlcescu” land forces academy of sibiu (2000). he holds a m.sc. in management and technology at the same military university (2015) and a m.sc. in science and computer engineering (2013) at "lucian blaga" university of sibiu. he collaborates with members of nato modeling and simulation group and his main areas of interest include operational planning and exercises and conceptual modeling of spatial critical infrastructures. assoc. prof. olga bucoveţchi received her bsc in economic engineering (2006) and phd in industrial engineering (2014) from university politehnica of bucharest. now she is assoc. prof. at university politehnica of bucharest. she is member of association of economist managers and engineers in romania and romanian association for the promotion of critical infrastructure and services protection. while working at upb she had several collaborations within national and international research projects related to risk management, critical infrastructure protection and business continuity. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, pages: 96-120 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/17 scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard service mykhailo strelbitskyi1, valentyn mazur2, yuriy ivashkov3, andrii karpushyn4, serhii serkhovets5, serhii sinkevych6, ihor bloshchynskyi7 1 doctor of technical sciences, associate professor, communication, automation and cyber security department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine. m.strelb@ukr.net 2 doctor of military sciences, associate professor, institute of advanced training, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, vumazur154@gmail.com 3 doctor of military sciences, associate professor, national security (border protection) and management department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine. yuriy-ivashkov@ukr.net 4 software engineer, communication, automation and cyber security department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, andrew.karpushyn@gmail.com 5 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of the canine department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine. ssv_1986@ukr.net abstract: the analysis of the state border guard service information and telecommunication systems, which provide the activity of the information and analytical units of the border guard agency, has been carried out. the peculiarity of such systems lies in the requirement of truetime operation. moreover, even a minor malfunction or a halt in operation can result in serious national scale damages. thus, the modernization process quality evaluation will allow to choose among the many available options the most efficient and consecutively to increase the effectiveness of administrative decision-making while protecting ukraine's borders. based on the analysis of the researches in the field of information and telecommunication systems quality assessment, the theory of effectiveness of goal-oriented processes is proposed to use. this approach most accurately describes the system effectiveness concept as the standard to achieve the system’s goal. to describe the approaches to quality assessment, the semantics of the input parameters of the effectiveness evaluation scheme has been developed and the indicator of the effectiveness of the information and telecommunication system functioning has been justified, on the basis of which the effectiveness evaluation scheme has been evolved. keywords: effectiveness indicator; information and analytical system; information and telecommunication system; information resource; special software. how to cite: strelbitskyi, m., mazur, v., ivashkov, y., karpushyn, a., serkhovets, s., sinkevych, s., & bloshchynskyi, i. (2020). scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard service. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 96120. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/17 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/17 mailto:m.strelb@ukr.net mailto:vumazur154@gmail.com mailto:yuriy-ivashkov@ukr.net mailto:andrew.karpushyn@gmail.com mailto:ssv_1986@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/17 6 candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of the general military disciplines department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine. sinkevich76@i.ua 7 doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, head of the english translation department, faculty of foreign languages and humanities, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine. i.bloshch@gmail.com mailto:sinkevich76@i.ua mailto:i.bloshch@gmail.com brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 98 introduction the geopolitical location in central-eastern europe is a significant factor to prioritize which security system should be built. recently, resistance to various political, military and economic threats to national security has become urgent. these include illegal migration and trafficking in human beings, cross-border drug trafficking, smuggling of goods, illicit trade in bioresources in the exclusive (maritime) economic zone, illicit arms trafficking, international terrorism. crisis zones and armed conflicts in and near the region, as well as their recurrent escalation, also increase the threats in the border area. all this requires an adequate response, relevant analysis and forecasting of changes to make a sound decision on counteracting those threats. information and analytical support for decision-making on the issues of the state border protection is performed by the state border guard service’s information and telecommunication system (its). currently, information has been one of the most valuable resources that determines the level of national security of the state. with advances in information technology and increasing importance of technical means of communication, information is exposed to an increasing number of threats that, if realized, could lead to national losses. under these conditions, the effectiveness of law enforcement bodies depends largely on the ability to adapt existing information and telecommunication systems to the presentday challenges. this is especially true for the border guard agency, which is largely related to the peculiarities of organizing protection of the state border. this includes, inter alia, state border crossings, the specifics of managing the administrative border and the demarcation line in the joint forces operation area. automated control systems, its of national security entities are installed mainly on the intranet networks of the relevant agencies and have a large number of subsystems distributed throughout the state. such systems require true-time operation and that is the major peculiarity. moreover, even a minor flaw or delay in operation can cause serious national scale damage. one of them is the border guard agency’s integrated information and telecommunication system. it consists of many information systems as well as information and telecommunication systems that collaborate as a single entity, and in the common data field. these systems can be divided into three groups that determine their functional peculiarities as well as the possibility to stop and upgrade them. scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 99 the first group includes real-time systems that are characterized by the practical lack of any possibilities to stop their functioning. the its automation of information-analytical systems for admission of persons, and vehicles across the state border is an example of such a system. to stop such a system for even a short period of time is unacceptable as it can lead to national losses. the second group comprises partial stop systems, which are characterized by greater possibilities for the upgrading process. one of them is the automated data system of daily activities. these systems generally operate during the day working hours. the third group involves full stop systems. they are distinguished by the maximum feasibility for the upgrading process. this type of system is limited only by its operational lifetime. as far as the second and third groups concern, no significant problems during the upgrading phase ought to arise as they can be stopped to renew all the system elements. the problem occurs with the first group its upgrading, which in practice is carried out element-by-element (and randomly) until the upgrading of all components is completed. in this situation it is necessary to take into account that there are thousands of elements of such a system (automated workplaces, software and technical complexes, etc.) in the border guard agency along the whole state border. thus, at the upgrading stage of the its, both the old and the upgraded versions of the special software function simultaneously in the shared data field. at the same time, it is assumed that separately old and new versions of special its software do not create destabilizing factors. destabilizing factors occur only in the course of joint operating old and new versions of special software in the common data field. the key aspects in making a decision based on information processing in real-time systems are the timeliness and reliability of the user's request. at the stage of upgrading the information system, a violation of its properties may occur due to the discrepancy of special software versions. the above requires the managers of this type of systems to clearly understand the scale of the risks involved in upgrading. one-way of identifying rational ways to modernize its is to evaluate the effectiveness of their functioning at the upgrading stage. thus, defining approaches to assessing the effectiveness of functioning the border guard agency’s information and analytical systems will allow taking into account the features of the upgrading process, which determines the relevance of the research. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 100 literary data analysis and problem statement defining quantitative and qualitative indices of the effectiveness of its functioning at the upgrading stage is quite a challenging task. it depends on: purpose of the system, conditions of its operation, information circulating in it, etc. in general, the its effectiveness, as a complex set of software-hardware, technical, organizational and other methods and measures, is the ability of the system to withstand the negative effects of destabilizing factors. the majority of the researchers’ study information systems only in stationary operation processes, in particular al rababah, (2019) provides a general analysis of the subsystems, on which the effectiveness of the information system as a whole without their mathematical modeling depends on. in the study of cao et al. (2018), only the isolated nodes (elements) of the information system are evaluated without taking into account the crossimpact of other elements. an attempt to consider the life cycle in describing the functioning of the its is realized by caniëls and bakens (2012), which will allow to evaluate its effectiveness in general, and not only at the isolated stages. the approaches available to assess the its operation effectiveness are based on two categories: quantitative and qualitative evaluation. qualitative evaluation methods are applied in case of considerable uncertainty and are generally grounded on the experts’ experience in the field. more accurate are the quantitative evaluation methods, in consequence of a thorough description of the research subject area, its operation detailed modeling. the use of these methods makes it possible to determine the specific significance of the evaluation of the research process and subsequently optimize it. maslova (2008) realizes an analysis concerning the criteria types encountered in practice. they include: "effect-cost" criteria type, which allows evaluating the achievement of the system operation goal at the predetermined costs, in other words economical effectiveness; criteria that allow to evaluate the quality of the system by the some indicators and exclude versions that do not satisfy the established limits, using multicriteria optimization methods and discrete programming methods; artificially formed criteria, which evaluate the integral effect. the above criteria make up a variety of methods and techniques that describe the process of evaluating the its operation effectiveness, indicating scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 101 that there is no single methodological approach to solving the problem. in addition, the components of this system type introduce complex subsystems whose operation effectiveness depends on its elements and is usually described by a set of criteria with antagonistic characteristics. the first approach to evaluating the its functioning effectiveness involves quality indices that operates in the "betterworse" categories. one of the methods of this approach is the expert assessment methods as a way of forecasting and estimating future results of actions on the basis of experts' predictions (international carnahan conference on security technology, 1990). the effectiveness of using this method depends on the expert's professional and intelligent level. another group of expert assessment methods includes multi-expert methods that ensure shaping common views owning to experts’ team-work (kupalova, 2008). among these methods are distinguished the following: commissions, delphi, remote evaluation, conference of ideas and others. the advantage of these methods lies in the ability to engage professionals with a comprehensive range of knowledge of theory and practice. one more group of qualitative evaluation is a formal approach. the reference documents that regulate the evaluation procedure are evolved on the basis of previously developed standards for assessing the its effectiveness, practical experience of operating such systems, emergence of the new threats to the information resource and counteraction methods. the next approach to evaluation is a quantitative approach, implemented through the use of stochastic methods and formal models. using this approach allows to objectively determine the system quality indicators value. among the stochastic methods we can distinguish the following: frequency, statistical, and probabilistic ones. the frequency method of assessing the its effectiveness is based on the statistical material analysis and is used to determine the loss from the realization of a specific threat (domarev, 2002). getting a necessary amount of statistical materials is its major disadvantage. the statistical method determines the occurrence of some threat over a certain period of time, i.e. the statistical processing of potential threats. the probabilistic method of the stochastic group determines the plausibility of the system failure as a result of destabilizing factors. another group of qualitative evaluation is the use of formal models, namely: matrix, multilevel, multicriteria, and optimization ones. some authors (artemov, 2015) offer to apply matrix or formal models. according to this approach, the properties of the system are brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 102 described by three parameters: subjects, objects and access rights. an analogue of this approach is the discretionary access model, which similarly describes the procedure for granting users of a system that act within the model as entities or processes running on their behalf, as well as the graham-denning model (shcheglov, 2004). the method of determining effectiveness indicators is aggregated in the research of maslova (2008). its essence lies in determining the parameters; drawing up a three-dimensional matrix of relations; transformation of the relation matrix into a two-dimensional table; determination of qualitative and quantitative indicators values. an optimization or combinatoric approach uses methods of discrete programming (discrete optimization) where the value of a function must be maximized (minimized). this approach uses linear, convex programming tools and more. using only one of the proposed approaches has some disadvantages. for example, using only expert evaluation methods puts at risk the final decision, which can be influenced by certain patterns and stereotypes. on the other hand, using exclusively mathematical methods requires clear source data, which are not usually available. in order to determine the its operation quality under ambiguity of the source data, mixed methods are proposed to use. one of such methods is comparative multidimensional analysis, the essence of which is to determine the degree of mutual influence of threats and the causes of their occurrence (harasymchuk & kostiv, 2011). the use of this method requires the formation of a matrix of features, for which the expert evaluation method is used. the method allows to evaluate the impact and interaction of the threats generated by experts and to rationalize the its upgrading processes on this basis. one of the mixed nature approaches is risk management as an activity aimed at making and executing management decisions in order to reduce the probability of a negative result and minimize the potential losses caused by its implementation (alekseyev, 2010). the most well-known algorithms that help optimize forces and resources in managing risks are the cramm and riskwatch methods. using the described methods for evaluating the its operation effectiveness requires objective impartial data, including statistics, that may be problematic. however, the nature of the destabilization factors caused by the upgrading stage in the its operation is probabilistic. for this reason, this approach is considered to be the most valid one for describing the process of evaluating the its operation effectiveness. a number of researches are devoted to the study of this approach, in particular (pihur & pohrebennyk, 2013) but only in some of them (gribunin scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 103 & chudovskiy, 2009) it is suggested to use the theory of effectiveness of purposeful processes. in our opinion, this approach most accurately describes the concept of system effectiveness as the degree of goal achievement by this system. however, the use of this approach is limited by the following reasons: a high degree of uncertainty in the input data, and the complexity of formalizing the operation processes. the analysis of work in the field of evaluating the its effectiveness showed a sufficiently wide range of methods used. however, the use of each of them requires taking into account the probabilities of destabilization factors caused by the modernization stage. moreover, a number of methods cannot fundamentally take into account the factors that are caused by the cooperation of border guard personnel with the its undergoing modernization. thus, existing approaches to assessing the its operation effectiveness do not allow taking into account the specific features: its functioning; its application in different conditions of the environment; the emergence of destabilizing factors regarding the its operation at the upgrading stage; the occurrence of destabilizing factors in relation to the information resource caused by the joint operation in the common data field of special software different versions. the above needs to solve a number of problems that will allow us to reasonably come up to the development of approaches concerning the its operation effectiveness evaluation at the upgrading stage. the purpose and objectives of the research the purpose of the research is to develop approaches to evaluating the state border guard service's information and analytical systems’ operation effectiveness at the upgrading stage. to achieve this goal, the following tasks were set: to develop semantic aspects of input parameters formation to the estimation scheme of its operation effectiveness; to substantiate the indicator of the its operation effectiveness; to develop a scheme for evaluating the its operation effectiveness; to investigate the results of applying approaches to evaluating an experimental sample of the state border guard service’s information and analysis system operation effectiveness at the upgrading stage. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 104 semantics of input parameters of evaluating the scheme of information and telecommunication system operation effectiveness information and analytical systems of the agency-level integrated and information system operate critical assets for decision-making by border guards. compliance with the information resource and its properties is generally the main task in terms of their adaptation to the current challenges. some sources (benmoussa et al., 2018) focus on meeting the needs of the system users. the concept of observing the its information resource properties or its security insurance presupposes the activities aimed at preventing unauthorized actions against this information in the system. the foregoing allows us to formulate the concept of its functioning as a goaloriented process with the sole (that is fundamental) purpose to prevent violations of the information system's properties as well as information resource in it throughout the its life cycle. it should be noted that in this definition the system is considered in isolation from the external environment, namely from the conditions of the system operation and the system exploitation. some authors (chen et al., 2010) consider the its functioning effectiveness from the perspective of information system strategies, such as: its compliance with the organization strategy, functional development and the system impact on the organization. this approach over-complicates the process of assessing the its effectiveness due to the expansion of the subject area and the complexity of its formalization. some researches (kavun et al., 2008) use the concept of the external environment as a basic condition for ensuring the its functioning. the quality of the system functioning depends not only on the degree of its properties observance and the information resource characteristics, but also on the ability to prevent the negative impact of the environment. basically, all researchers who consider the concept of “external environment”, evaluate only its negative impact on the system operation quality. the external environment is seen as a source of threats: the activities of organizations (individuals), the impact of natural disasters, the upgrading process, and so on. this approach to this concept consideration is reasonable, it actually makes sense to count only the negative impact, since the positive one does not broadly reduce the quality of its functioning. at the same time, the environmental impact can also have a positive effect on the its functioning or offset the negative effects on its quality. as part of this approach, the its external environment is considered not only the scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 105 negative side but also as an uncontrolled influence on the whole system functioning. it should be noted that the state border guard service’s information systems are vulnerable, first of all, to such information resource properties, as accessibility and integrity. it is the quality of the service performance by its in compliance with the information resource properties that significantly affects the effectiveness of the border guard agency’s its exploitation and, in turn, the state national security. the peculiarity of the state border guard service’s information systems functioning is the employment of leased communication channels for the data transmission to the border protecting bodies and units. therefore, for example, reducing the channel bandwidth or short-term channel cutoff by the owner cannot be classified as unauthorized actions against the system information, but such violation is an information destabilizing influence on the quality of its functioning. such actions fall under the category of “external environment”. let us define the concept of “external environment”, which is a set of objects that neither make up the its, nor directly perform its functions, but affect the system goal achievement. hereinafter, the term “external environment” will be savvied as a set of the its operating and exploiting conditions. basically, the its functioning can be imagined as a complex manmachine (ergatic) system with many possible states, which communicates with the external environment and manages its own resources in order to achieve the goal. when it has to do with its, “external environment” is considered to be the system application conditions, which are subject to various types of destabilizing factors of an objective nature, as well as the management system and the developer's upgrading. the management system (its manager) does not directly belong to the its, but has a direct impact on the system resources availability, determines the exploiting conditions and the functioning conditions through the its manager. for instance, the border guard agency’s its manager is the administration of the state border guard service. when its is created, the technical conditions of the specified system deployment are defined, and the resources for its creation are allocated by the manager. when the administrative function is implemented, the administration, through appropriate authorizing documents, establishes the procedure for the its usage in state border protecting bodies. getting feedback through evaluating its operation effectiveness allows the administration to adjust the operation conditions and the system brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 106 exploitation as a whole. if an existing system needs to be upgraded, the manager sends a requirement description to the developer for its upgrade. the developer, in turn, having received the task to upgrade the system, takes into account the usage conditions and makes changes in the system. upgrading its components leads to a change of the system operation effectiveness indicator, which, after its evaluation, is compared with the normative value. on the grounds, a decision is made by the management system to introduce the changes, alter the system operating conditions or determine the acceptable conditions for the its usage. it also takes into account the ability to regulate the resources allocated to ensure its functioning in order to comply with the effectiveness indicator to a given criterion. thus, its modernization can be considered as a set (sequence) of actions, coordinated over a period of time, aimed at achieving the goal of this process. when evaluating effectiveness, it is important to pay attention to the fact that this is a property of the process, not of the system itself. therefore, from this point on the concept of the its functioning effectiveness will be considered as a complex property of a goal-oriented process, which is characterized by the degree of its achievement. in assessing the quality of the system functioning described by n a measurement vector indicator n y , it is necessary to determine a set of criteria, which belong to the matching criteria class  g , the mathematical formulation of which is the following [17]:   : ,an ng y y (1) where n y indicator of quality of its functioning;  any a set of permissible entries of the functioning quality indicator. thereby, the system, for which the condition (1) is fulfilled, fits the goal and performs its functions. among the many system properties there are those that determine the quality of its functioning. the normative documents define the functional criteria, which describe the functioning requirements that ensure the correct its operation. in particular, it is the adherence to the requirements concerning the system information resource: confidentiality, integrity, availability, accountability, which determines many types of quality indicators (properties of the information resource): scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 107  , , , ,p i c a u (2) where i integrity; c confidentiality; a availability; u accountability. at the same time, some resources are required to make the system function at a given effectiveness level. thus, its can be characterized by three properties at any time: effectiveness the property of the system to ensure the fulfillment of information processing tasks; resource-intensiveness, which is characterized by the consumption of system resources (logistical, time, etc.); efficient response the ability of the system to perform information processing tasks within a specified time period. from the above we can conclude that the quality of its can not be characterized by isolated properties, but is determined only by the battery of the three properties. let us introduce these properties identifiers: 1 v n an effectiveness indicator; 2 r n a resource-intensiveness indicator; 3 t n time indicator, where 1 n , 2 n , 3 n the corresponding vector dimensions. then, an indicator of its quality will be n a measurement vector containing three groups of properties: 1 2 3 , , , n n n n y v r t (3) where 1 2 3 n n n n   . the partial indicators within the groups may be wound up by entering generalized indicators. so, in most cases, the resource-intensiveness can be cost-effective, and then (3) will acquire the form: , , , ; ; , i c a u y r     (4) where i  the integrity indicator; c  confidentiality indicator; a  availability indicator; u  accountability indicator; i i r r r r    the resourceintensiveness indicator;  time indicator. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 108 it is necessary to take into account that the generalized indicator loses physical value, when heterogeneous indicators are converged. so, it is correct to wind up the indicators only within the groups of result indicators in multicriteria analysis. convergence of the systems functioning quality indicators in different groups is unacceptable. the physical sense of the effectiveness indicators, which provides information resource properties, lies in determining the time during which its property will not be violated. the physical sense of the time indicator is to determine the operating time of all its components, which ensures the normative level of their functioning. in terms of reliability, this is a failure experience and is described by the well-known functional dependencies of the reliability theory. this indicator is a component in the formation of effectiveness indicators and can be curtailed in them. similarly, the resource-intensiveness also depends on the time the system is running. however, the its information and intelligence units’ deployment involves the consumption of certain resources but in case of their deficiency the permission to operate them is refused. therefore, this indicator does not require research and can be excluded from the vector of quality indicators of the system functioning and be taken into account separately when comparing two systems with the same values of quality indicator. thus, the vector of quality indicators of its functioning (4) will take the form , , , . i c a u y     (5) it is worth noting that the components of the vector are quantitative characteristics of the quantitative results of the process of the system functioning. we will assume that their qualitative characteristics are provided in advance before its exploitation begins. the same remark applies to the qualitative characteristics of the resource. substantiation of the effectiveness indicator of information and telecommunication system functioning to evaluate the information and analytical system functioning, it is necessary to develop the effectiveness indicator of its functioning, which must meet the basic requirements (petukhov & yakunin, 2006): scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 109 demonstrability (adequacy), criticality (vulnerability), complexity (completeness), stochasticity and simplicity. demonstrability allows us to evaluate the its operation effectiveness in terms of its main task performance. therefore, the system goal should be clearly stated in the system effectiveness indicator. the criticality of the indicator shows how sensitive it is to changes in the characteristics of the its functioning process. the complexity of the indicator permits us to solve the problem of determining the system effectiveness without involving its other characteristics. stochasticity will allow taking into account uncertainty of system functioning conditions, influence of destabilizing factors, which have the random character. the simplicity of the effectiveness indicator contributes to its accessibility, as well as to the analysis of the quality of its functioning. let us draw attention to the fact that the effectiveness indicator, which will be considered below, meets all of these requirements. it is known that effectiveness is a complex property of the system functioning process, which characterizes its ability to achieve the goal by the system. let us consider that the quality of the tasks performed by the system is determined not only by the final effect, but also by the resources that are spent to achieve the system goal (including time resources). together with the above, the indicator takes into account the conditions of the system operation and exploitation. the effectiveness indicators of the system are influenced by external and internal factors, which are determined by its environment. each of the components of the vector depends on the characteristics of the system and its organization, the conditions of the system operation and usage.  1 2 1 2, , , ,y y a a b b (6) where 1 a the its characteristics; 2 a characteristics of the process organization of ensuring the system functioning; 1 b characteristics of the its operating conditions; 2 b characteristics of the its application conditions. on the other hand, the components of the vector a y of acceptable values also depend on the conditions of the system usage and are determined by the control system  2 . a a y y b (7) brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 110 in the general case, the its characteristics, its organization, operation and application conditions are affected by a number of random factors, which determine these variables as stochastic. however, the acceptable values of the vector a y , which depends on the conditions of the system usage are a priori random, since it is not known in advance what the results of the its operation should be in order to ensure the necessary level of its functioning. some researches assume the worst case scenario (in terms of ensuring the correct its functioning) when the conditions of the system usage and functioning are determined, that is, the magnitudes 1 b and 2 b are not accidental. this assumption leads to unreasonable high resource expenses. all constituents of the vector of quality indicators of the its functioning are probable, therefore     1 2 1 2 2 ˆ ˆˆ ˆ ˆ, , , , ˆ ˆ . a a y y a a b b y y b   (8) as a result of the actual the its operating conditions, the suitability criterion (1) will emerge   ˆ ˆ: .ag y y (9) from formula (9) we can conclude that the its suitability is a random event that does not directly reflect the quality of the process. therefore, the characteristics of the its functioning quality is the accidental probability   ˆ ˆ .agp p y y  (10) to determine the effectiveness indicator, the desired distribution function of a random vector should be specified, a universal form emerges as:          ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ .i i c c a a u uyf y p                  (11) scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 111 as far as this problem concerns, namely the vector components of the quality indicators of the its functioning, the physical value of which is the time, when the information resource properties will not be violated, more convenient and informative form of integral distribution rule can be expressed like this:          ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ,i i c c a a u uyф y p                  (12) the physical value of which lies in the likelihood of observing the information properties within a specified time frame. the above allows us to lay down the full probability formula to achieve the its goal in the following way:       ˆ ˆˆ ˆ ag y zp p y y ф z df z                , (13) or    ˆ ˆ , a a a a g i c a uy z p ф z f z d d d d                 (14) where   ẑ f z is the probability density distribution of a random vector ẑ . therefore, g p probability is an its effectiveness indicator, which determines the degree to which it performs its functional tasks. on its basis, the criterion of system suitability is formed, i.e. st g g p p . scheme development for evaluating the information and telecommunication system functioning effectiveness the semantic aspects of the input parameters describe the components of the vector 1v n as indicators of its effectiveness, which are quantitative characteristics only of the quantitative results of the system. it should be noted that such an interpretation is permissible only if the qualitative characteristics of the performance components are observed. that is, the quality of ensuring the its functioning is provided even before the system “starts”. the above requires evaluating the effectiveness of the security process in two stages (fig. 1). brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 112 fig. 1. steps of evaluating the effectiveness of its functioning at the stage of evaluating the quality of the its functioning results:  the quality indicator of the its functioning results is determined through the vector of quality indicators of its functioning;  the quality requirements for the its functioning results are determined through the set of allowable values of the its quality indicator;  the quality evaluation criterion of the results of its functioning is grounded. at the stage of evaluating the its effectiveness:  the effectiveness indicator of the its functioning is determined as the probability of the goal achieving by the system;  the requirements for the effectiveness of its functioning are determined due to the minimum permissible value of the probability of the system goal achievement;  the effectiveness evaluation indicator of its functioning is implemented as a matching criterion;  the direct evaluation of the its effectiveness is carried out. generally, the its operation effectiveness is proposed to be determined by the probability of the functional tasks performed by the system under the conditions of both external and internal destabilization scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 113 factors. defining the vector of quality indicators’ values is carried out in accordance with the its structure. discussion of the results of application of effectiveness evaluation scheme of information and telecommunication system functioning in order to determine the type of distribution function of the its quality indicators at bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border service of ukraine, an its experimental version of the border guard agency units was launched. conducting research of the process of upgrading special software (ssw) allowed us to determine the specific type of distribution functions of each of the quality indicator components of the system functioning. fig. 2 shows the dynamics of changing the probability that data arrive at an its element from another version of the special software. fig. 2. dynamics of changing probability of data entry into its element from other version of special software:  k t is an upgrading part, t upgrading time, , , k k w a b are parameters of realization speed of upgrading its components data analysis allowed us to determine the functional dependency of the change in the elements number of the old version relative to the total number of elements during the upgrade period, which has the following look brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 114   ,wtk kk t a e b    (15) where , , k k w a b are the parameters of the upgrading speed of its components. this made it possible to determine the probability of data entering an its element from a different ssw version, namely:         , 1 wt old k k dis wt wt new k old k k a e b p t a e a e b            (16) where old  is the value of the information flow of the its old version; new  is the value of the information flow of the its new version. analysis (16) showed the invariance of the probability values of the data flow into an its element from another ssw version from a number of its elements under the condition of the equality of information flows of the old and new versions. however, in general, this assumption is not mandatory. due to differences in the information flows of dissimilar its versions, dis p value changes according to fig. 3. fig. 3. dynamics of changing probability of data entry into its element of another ssw version with divergences of information flows of different its versions: dis p means probability that data arrive at its element from another scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 115 ssw version, t is upgrade time, new  information flow value of the new is version, old  information flow value of the old is version the dynamics analysis of changing the probability of data entry into an its element from another version of the ssw with discrepancies in the information flows of different its versions showed a faster decrease of the specified probability in case of increasing the information flows of the new version. thus, the new versions of ssw introduction with a reduced amount of information flow, compared with the old version, leads to an increase in the probability of properties violation of the information resource. this factor must be taken into account when upgrading its. at the same time, the reverse situation leads to a decrease in the intensity of destabilizing factors of the information resource properties violation caused by discrepancies of ssw versions at the its upgrading stage. for the sake of clarity of dynamic changing values of probability to perform functional tasks aimed at providing information and analytical activity units, we fix some components of the functional dependence. figure 4 shows the effect of regulatory values of norminative indicators on the performance of its functional tasks. fig. 4. dynamic changes of probability values of performing functional tasks at partial changes of normative values:   ŷ ф y is an effectiveness of performing its functional tasks, norm i  normative value of the integrity indicator, norm c  normative value of the confidentiality indicator, norm a  normative value of the accessibility indicator, norm u  normative value of the observation indicator brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 116 the normative value of the integrity indicator exerts the greatest impact on the system effectiveness because of its greater influence on the observation indicator. post-run by impact are confidentiality and accessibility metrics that are of similar importance. the observation indicator exerts the least influence. therefore, as the values of regulatory effectiveness indicators increase, the average value of the probability of completing the its task to an accomplished standard at the upgrading stage increases, too. the physical value of this phenomenon is explained by the gradual decrease of destabilizing factors caused by the upgrading process. the dynamic change of the average value of probability of fulfilling its functional tasks at the upgrading stage with fixed values of normative results and change of a number of functional blocks of information processed by the system is shown in fig. 5. fig. 5. dynamic change of values of probability of completing functional tasks at change of a number of functional blocks of information (1) and a number of automated its jobs (2):   ŷ ф y is effectiveness of accomplishing its functional tasks, n a number of functional blocks of information / a number of automated its jobs analysis of the impact of a number of blocks of information revealed an exponential effect on the effectiveness of the system, that is, the increase in the amount of information. the information that is processed at automated its workstations, significantly reduces the probability of completing the tasks by the system. the above will allow making recommendations for upgrading information systems, namely the normative reduction of the number of information blocks or conducting upgrade at their minimum values. moreover, the increase of a number of its automated jobs has less impact than the amount of information. scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 117 the analysis of the influence of vm р , cd р and bp р probabilities change on the final effectiveness of the system functioning (fig. 6), showed that the increase of the values of and probabilities does not lead to a complete loss of system effectiveness. fig. 6. dynamic change of values of probability of performing functional tasks by the information system at separate components change:   ŷ ф y is an effectiveness of completing its functional tasks, vm р probability of ssw versions mismatch, cd р probability of a certain category data delivery in its, bp р probability that certain category data come into the general field of an its element from the old or new ssw versions with broken properties in this case, the final effectiveness is reduced only to a certain threshold. as can be seen from fig. 6, the minimum value of the system functioning at the maximum values vm р and cd р corresponds to the minimum value bp р and the increase of the latter results in incompleting system functional tasks. thus, when an its element from an old or new ssw data version with a defective property come into the general field, the system cannot perform its task. this circumstance leads to the loss of the probable component of the violation of the information resource properties and makes this fact deterministic. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 118 conclusions 1. to describe the semantics of the scheme input parameters for evaluating the effectiveness of information and telecommunication systems functioning, the characteristic features of the tasks performed by the border guard agency were determined. the influence of destabilizing factors on the components of the information resource of this type of systems is taken into account. in describing the approach to effectiveness evaluation, the real conditions for the its functioning were determined, which in turn required the formulation of the concept of “external environment”. the provided aspects have defined a generalized mathematical view of the approach to the quality evaluation of the system functioning. 2. to evaluate the effectiveness of the information and analytical system operation, the effectiveness indicator of its functioning has been developed. the developed indicator takes into account the its characteristics, the features of the organization of the process of ensuring the system functioning, the characteristics of the conditions of its functioning, as well as the characteristics of the conditions of its exploitation. the above functional dependencies allow to form the indicator itself on the basis of the approach to assessing the quality of the system functioning and to determine the suitability criterion. 3. taking into account the conducted researches the effectiveness evaluation scheme of information and telecommunication systems functioning was developed. the adequacy of the description is confirmed by the above physical justification, the point of which is the probability of observing the information properties within the specified terms. 4. the new ssw versions introduction with a reduced amount of information flow, compared to the old version, leads to an increase in the likelihood of violation of the information resource properties, which must be considered when upgrading its. it is safe to say that with increasing values of regulatory effectiveness indicators, the average value of the probability of completing the task that ensures the quality of its functioning at the upgrading stage increases. the physical value of this phenomenon is explained by the gradual decrease in the flow of destabilizing factors caused by the upgrading process. references al rababah, a. a. (2019). assurance quality and efficiency in corporate information systems. international journal of computer science and network security, 19(4), 8795. retrieved from scheme of evaluating information system effectiveness of the border guard … mykhailo strelbitskyi et al. 119 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ahmad_alrababah/publication/33 3176169_assurance_quality_and_efficiency_in_corporate_information_ systems/links/5d6b6a6a299bf1808d5cca53/assurance-quality-andefficiency-in-corporate-information-systems.pdf alekseyev, a. (2010) upravleniye riskami. metod cramm. [risk management. cramm method.]. it expert.-elektron. dan.-m.: zao it ekspert. [internet source].retrieved from http://www.itexpert.ru/rus/items/items/_cramm.pdf [in russian] artemov, a. v. (2015). informatsionnaia bezopasnost. kurs lektsiy [information security. lecture course]. retrieved from https://fictionbook.ru/author/a_artemov/informacionnaya_bezopasnost_ kurs_lekciyi/ [in russian] benmoussa, k., laaziri, m., khoulji, s., kerkeb, m. l., & el yamami, a. (2018). impact of system quality, information quality and service quality on the efficiency of information system. proceedings of the 3rd international conference on smart city applications (sca'18). https://doi.org/10.1145/3286606.3286818 caniëls, m. c. j., & bakens, r. j. j m. (2012) the effects of project management information systems on decision making in a multi project. international journal of project management, 30(2), 162-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.05.005 cao, y., wang, y. p., tang, x. m., & zhao, x. f. (2018). an evaluation method for network communication system efficiency based on multi-source information fusion. in: 37th chinese control conference (ccc), wuhan, china. pp. 4305-4309. https://doi.org/10.23919/chicc.2018.8483552 chen, d. q., mocker, m., preston, d. s., & teubner, a. (2010). information systems strategy: reconceptualization, measurement, and implications. mis quarterly, 34(2), 233-259. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/28954954/chen_et_al._information_systems _strategy_information_systems_strategy_reconceptu alization_measurement_and_implications_1 domarev, v.v. (2002). bezopasnost informatsionnykh tekhnologiy. metodologiya sozdaniya sistem zashchity [security of information technologies. methodology of creating security systems]. kiev, ukraine: ooo "tid "ds". [in russian] gribunin, v. g., & chudovskiy, v. v. (2009) kompleksnaia sistema zashchity informatsii na predpriiatii [integrated system of information security in an enterprise]. moscow, russia: izdatel'skiy tsentr akademiya. retrieved from: https://academiamoscow.ru/ [in russian] harasymchuk, o. i., & kostiv, yu. m. (2011). otsinka efektyvnosti system [estimation of system effectiveness].visnyk knu im. m. ostrohradskoho. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ahmad_alrababah/publication/333176169_assurance_quality_and_efficiency_in_corporate_information_systems/links/5d6b6a6a299bf1808d5cca53/assurance-quality-and-efficiency-in-corporate-information-systems.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ahmad_alrababah/publication/333176169_assurance_quality_and_efficiency_in_corporate_information_systems/links/5d6b6a6a299bf1808d5cca53/assurance-quality-and-efficiency-in-corporate-information-systems.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ahmad_alrababah/publication/333176169_assurance_quality_and_efficiency_in_corporate_information_systems/links/5d6b6a6a299bf1808d5cca53/assurance-quality-and-efficiency-in-corporate-information-systems.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ahmad_alrababah/publication/333176169_assurance_quality_and_efficiency_in_corporate_information_systems/links/5d6b6a6a299bf1808d5cca53/assurance-quality-and-efficiency-in-corporate-information-systems.pdf https://fictionbook.ru/author/a_artemov/informacionnaya_bezopasnost_kurs_lekciyi/ https://fictionbook.ru/author/a_artemov/informacionnaya_bezopasnost_kurs_lekciyi/ https://www.academia.edu/28954954/chen_et_al._information_systems_strategy_information_systems_strategy_reconceptualization_measurement_and_implications_1 https://www.academia.edu/28954954/chen_et_al._information_systems_strategy_information_systems_strategy_reconceptualization_measurement_and_implications_1 https://www.academia.edu/28954954/chen_et_al._information_systems_strategy_information_systems_strategy_reconceptualization_measurement_and_implications_1 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 120 kremenchuk: knu imeni m. ostrohradskoho, 1(66), chastyna 1. retrieved from http://www.kdu.edu.ua/publ/main.php. [in ukrainian] international carnahan conference on security technology, october 10-12, 1990. [in english] kavun, s. v., nosov, v. v., & mazhay, o. v. (2008). informatsiina bezpeka. [information security] navchalnyi posibnyk. ch.1 kharkiv: vyd. khneu. retrieved from http://www.repository.hneu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/3105/1/%d0 %9d%d0%b0%d0%b2%d1%87%d0%b0%d0%bb%d1%8c%d0% bd%d0%b8%d0%b9%20%d0%bf%d0%be%d1%81%d1%96%d0 %b1%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba.%20%d0%86%d0%bd%d1%84% d0%be%d1%80%d0%bc%d0%b0%d1%86%d1%96%d0%b9%d0 %bd%d0%b0%20%d0%b1%d0%b5%d0%b7%d0%bf%d0%b5% d0%ba%d0%b0.%20%d0%a7.%202%20%d0%9a%d0%b0%d0%b 2%d1%83%d0%bd%20%d0%a1.%d0%92..pdf [in ukrainian] kupalova, h.i. (2008) teoriya ekonomichnoho analizu [theory of economic analysis]. kiev, ukraine: knowledge [in ukrainian]. maslova, n. a. (2008). metody otsenki effektivnosti sistem zashchity informatsionnykh sistem [methods of effectiveness evaluation of information systems protection]. iskusstvennyy intellect [artificial intelligence], 4, 253-264. [in russian] petukhov, g. b., & yakunin, v. i. (2006) metodologicheskiye osnovy vneshnego proiektirovaniia tselenapravlennykh protsessov i tseleustremlonnykh sistem. [methodological foundations of external design of targeted processes and purposeful systems] m.: ast. retrieved from: https://www.twirpx.com/file/1179860/ [in russian] pihur, n. v., & pohrebennyk, v. d. (2013). otsiniuvanniya efektyvnosti kompleksnykh system zakhystu informatsii. [evaluatingiintegrated information security systems effectiveness]. retrieved from http://ena.lp.edu.ua:8080/bitstream/ntb/23063/1/45-61-61.pdf [in ukrainian] shcheglov, a.yu. (2004). zashchita kompiuternoy informatsii ot nesanktsionirovannogo dostupa [protecting computer information from unauthorized access].sankt petersburg, ukraine: nauka i tekhnika [science and technology]. [in russian] http://www.kdu.edu.ua/publ/main.php https://www.twirpx.com/file/1179860/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2019, volume 10, issue 4, pages: 115-144 | doi:10.18662/brain/08 students’ views on the teaching process based on social media supported flipped classroom approach huseyin bicen¹, ata taspolat2 1 near east university, nicosia, north cyprus, huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr 2 near east university, nicosia, north cyprus, ata.taspolat@neu.edu.tr abstract: the flipped classroom method, where in-class and non-class activities are translocated, is accepted as one of the new generation teaching models. the aim of this study is to reveal students' views on the use of social media in the teaching process based on the flipped classroom approach. this study is a qualitative action research and opinions of the participants were taken through semi-structured individual interviews. the study found that although the initial thoughts of the students about the social media supported flipped classroom method were negative, the final and the general thoughts were positive, that it improved in-class/ non-class communication and interaction, facilitated learning and increased motivation. the negative aspects of this method were found to be distractibility stemming from advertisements and notifications on social media, irrelevant negative comments, need for internet connection or excessive use of internet and feeling of being under constant surveillance. video ads uploaded on youtube and the students' consuming up their mobile data plans come to the fore as a disadvantage. the majority of the students expressed kahoot activity as an incentive for watching videos. keywords: flipped classroom method; social media. how to cite: bicen, h., & taspolat, a. (2019). students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported flipped classroom approach. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(4), 115-144. doi:10.18662/brain/08 mailto:huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr mailto:ata.taspolat@neu.edu.tr brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 116 1. introduction the world is becoming more globalized as the rapid development and change in information and communication technologies are combined with the influence of social media, which has become an indispensable part of daily life. prensky (2001) names today's people who are born into technology and are constantly in interaction with technology anytime, anywhere, as digital citizens. digital citizens can create communities by bringing together people living in different places, generate a variety of content which they debate on, comment and shape their emotions, thoughts and works accordingly, and have the opportunity to interactively share these with each other or with a wide audience with the next generation communication platforms called social media (kietzmann, hermkens, mccarthy, & silvestre, 2011). one of the main sectors affected by this process is education. the widespread use of the internet, social media and mobile technologies has increased the means for access to information. this has led to the implementation of teaching processes outside of traditional classroom environments (yıldırım, 2016). digital citizens, as stated by prensky (2001), should be individuals who know how to reach information, can think critically, are collaborative, creative, self-directed, are open to new ideas and can take initiative, have high level communicational, social and cultural skills, problem solving skills and leadership skills, are productive, accountable, and are information and communication technologies literate to become successful in both education and business life (eryilmaz & uluyol, 2015). it is extremely difficult for digital citizens to acquire the specified 21st century skills by reading, listening and watching teachers' presentation, that is, through the one-way teaching method, in which the passive participation of the student takes place as in the traditional method (karadeniz, 2015; betül, 2016;). as a result of all these developments, the quest for new teaching methods in education has accelerated. the teaching approaches in which the teacher is at the center have started to be replaced by effective, motivating and entertaining student-centered approaches where technology is benefitted from as much as possible to improve the "i can do it" attitude (jones, 2007). one of these new teaching methods is the flipped classroom method supported by information and communication technologies, which is believed to solve the limitations and problems in today's teaching processes (serçemeli, 2016). the word "flip", which means to invert, refers to carry out in-class activities in traditional approaches, such as teaching, outside the students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 117 classroom, and to perform non-class activities such as homework in the classroom. thus, it is defined as the translocation of the educational activities to be carried out at home and at school (strayer, 2009). at the core of this teaching method, videos are prepared for the theoretical part of the course taught by the teacher. students learn the subject by watching the course video wherever and whenever they want. in the classroom, students perform, high level cognitive activities such as homework, discussion, brainstorming individually or in groups. thus, the theoretical knowledge learned outside the classroom is reinforced (serçemeli, 2016; gençer, 2015; strayer, 2012; ash, 2012). in the flipped classroom method, the student can easily access to information by improving his/her skills related to independent learning, lifelong learning, and access to and use of information. the teacher plays a guiding role, rather than instruction, and provides the student with opportunities such as individual and group work in the classroom. in addition, the student uses the time spent in the classroom more efficiently because the theoretical knowledge is learned outside. in addition, students attend class activities more conveniently as they come ready for class. during the activities, students can ask the points they could not understand to the teacher who functions as a guide (serçemeli, 2016; herreid and schiller, 2013; bergmann and sams, 2012; miller, 2012; enfield, 2013; fulton, 2012; duerdan, 2013; morgan, 2014; talbert, 2012; bolat, 2016). the most important disadvantage of this teaching method is the students' not watching the videos prepared by the teacher, for various reasons. since theoretical teaching takes place outside the classroom, it is difficult for the teacher to follow whether or not the student is learning correctly or how much he or she has learned. in addition, it is difficult for the student to ask instant questions and receive feedback in non-class activities. high technical requirements can also be considered other technical disadvantages arising from technological systems in the implementation process (bergmann and sams, 2012; miller, 2012; enfield, 2013; duerdan, 2013; talbert, 2012; bolat, 2016). strayer (2009) explains the flipped classroom method as a model in which teachers can use multiple approaches simultaneously. in order to eliminate the limitations and to use the flipped classroom method more efficiently, its promotion with different information and communication technologies and teaching methods will contribute to this process. supporting the flipped classroom method with social media comes to the fore as one of these methods. in education, social media is used to enhance student-student and teacher-student communication, to share information brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 118 and resources, to gather information, to accelerate students' access to course material outside of class hours, to provide alternative to institutional learning methods, to occupy students and understand what they think during teaching, to create student study groups and increase the interest and cooperation of the students in the class (legaree, 2015; o‟brien, 2012;) in addition to this, friedman & friedman (2013) state that the use of social media in teaching contributes to increase communication and collaboration of students and develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills. 1.1. related studies in a study conducted by mok (2014), the flipped classroom approach was used to increase participation in the programming course and enrich the content. students reported that this method facilitates learning and that they reinforced their learning because they could watch the videos over and over again. in another study by turan and göktaş (2015), students' opinions were taken to determine the pros and cons of the flipped classroom management method. according to the findings obtained in this study, it was stated that the flipped classroom method prevents rote learning, provide permanent learning, the content of the course can be accessed from anywhere at any time, it gives the chance to get through the content repetitively and allows for learning by doing. its limitations are mentioned to be the necessity for technological infrastructure, difficulties experienced in the adaptation process, lack of instant feedback and the need for watching lecture videos in advance of the in-class activities. görü doğan (2015) conducted a pilot study to investigate students‟ views and experiences about conducting the class through the social media supported flipped classroom approach. according to the results of this study, students state that supporting the course with social media contributes to the teaching process. in addition, the students state that there are some discrepancies about the relationship and communication issues in the classroom. the author argues that this situation arises from the application environment and it will not occur in different environments supported by social media. özyurt & özyurt (2016) evaluate the impact of facebook on improving students‟ learning experiences and learning programming. the study is carried out within the scope of programming and algorithm course taught in the software engineering department of a university's technology faculty throughout the fall semester of 2014-2015 academic year. a facebook group is created to enrich teaching at the outset. 63 freshmen students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 119 engineering students and faculty members joins the facebook group. the educational use of facebook scale and semi-structured interview forms are used as data collection tools in the study. qualitative data are subjected to content analysis and quantitative data are analyzed descriptively. the results of this study show that facebook has positive effects such as providing a rich content for the learning program, increasing extracurricular communication, providing a collaborative and cooperative learning environment, increasing motivation and bringing different perspectives. on the other hand, it causes problems in face-to-face communication and selfexpression. according to the results of the study, it can be argued that facebook can be used efficiently to support classroom teaching strategies and to enrich learning experiences in the teaching of programming. another study conducted by sezer (2017) examined the academic achievement and motivation of students who are educated at technologically enriched flipped classroom environments. various electronic materials supporting the flipped classroom environment are distributed to the students in the experiment group 3 days in advance of the course. before the normal class hours, the basic framework of the subject is discussed with the students, problem situations are formed and solutions are proposed, unresolved issues are highlighted and, most importantly, student-teacher interaction is realized at the highest level. the study finds that the students in the experimental group have both better academic achievement and more motivation when compared to the control group. in another study, chen, su, huang & yang (2018) revealed the perceptions and experiences of a group of students on flipped classroom method, use of social networks, effect of utilization of game-based learning and class response systems as teaching methods with a study group that consists of 257 students. data were collected following a qualitative methodology. according to the findings, it is seen that the flipped classroom method facilitates motivation, autonomy and commitment to learning. it also serves to promote participation and commitment to the professional community and citizenship. in addition, the results of the learning-teaching process show an increase in the autonomy of the prior knowledge necessary to solve the homework and formative assessment. finally, these studies support the reflection of one's own teaching practice. a qualitative study conducted by öznacar, köprülü & çağlar (2019) examines the academic performance, participation levels, learning attitudes and academic achievement of international students who are educated according to the flipped classroom method. the study finds that the flipped classroom method has a more useful instructional design than the courses brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 120 taught with traditional methods. the findings show that students who use edmodo to follow the course acquire better learning outcomes and develop better attitudes towards learning experiences. 1.2. theoretical knowledge the flipped classroom method was first applied in 2007 by two high school chemistry teachers, jonathan bergmann and aaron sams. initially, the aim of the application was to record the courses taught at the class and publish them online so that the students who missed the class could watch later. following the online publication of the course videos in a downloadable format, it was understood that it would be more efficient to allocate the time that is actually spent for the teaching of theoretical knowledge to the group study activities in the classroom; and the flipped classroom method became widespread with the idea that it could be applied to all students (bergmann & sams, 2012). when the theoretical foundations of the model are examined, it is seen that the flipped learning model is a kind of hybrid learning models. the education structures in which traditional teaching methods and technology are integrated together are called hybrid learning or mixed learning (staker & horn, 2012). in addition, the flipped learning model eliminates the limitations in the learning environment to a certain extent as in the mobile learning method. this method supports problem-based, collaborative, inquiry-based and active learning theories. moreover, it is seen that the flipped learning model is based on social constructivist approach which is one type of the constructivist approaches. social constructivism states that the structuring of knowledge will unfold through socially and culturally regulated experiences (hung, 2015; brame, 2013). 2. purpose the purpose of this study is to reveal students' views on the use of social media in the teaching process based on the flipped classroom approach. the research questions in this context are as follows. what are the students' views on the use of social media in the programming languages course designed according to the flipped classroom approach? what are the general views of students on the social media supported flipped classroom approach? a. what are the positive and negative aspects of the implementation of social media supported flipped classroom approach? students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 121 b. what are the views of students on the videos shared via youtube and facebook? c. what are the factors enhancing and diminishing motivation towards the class? d. what are the general views of students on the impacts of social media supported flipped classroom approach on the motivation of the students for the class? 3. method 3.1. research model in this study, a qualitative action research was chosen as the research model. action research is conducted by an expert researcher with the participation of the parties to the problem and the practitioners in order to define the problem in depth, solve the existing problem and improve the situation (aksoy, 2003). the reason for choosing this research design is to get students' views and experiences regarding the promotion of the course, which is taught by the researcher based on the flipped classroom method, with social media support in order to eliminate the limitations of the course and to redesign the course accordingly. since the author is also the teacher of the course, he had the chance to make observations regarding the limitations of the course and conduct individual interview with the students, who were a party to the problem, at the end of the semester. 3.2. participants this study was carried out on 20 students who took programming languages course in near east university, department of computer education and instructional technology in 2016-2017 fall term. 58% of the participants were male, 42% were female, and mean age of the participants was 20. 3.3. data collection tools in the study, a semi-structured individual interview form, one of the qualitative data collection methods, was used to examine students' views on the use of social media in the programming languages course designed based on the flipped classroom approach. with semi-structured forms, the researcher prepares the questions in advance and receives in-depth answers with the probes asked to the participant in the course of the interview (türnüklü, 2000). brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 122 the semi-structured interview form consists of 8 open-ended questions. 5 of the questions have 6 sub-questions. the interview form which was developed by the author was examined by three professors and one teacher. in addition, a pilot study was conducted to measure the clarity and answerability of the questions. at the end of the pilot study process, students stated that the interview questions were understandable, and certain minor changes was made on the form by the author to bring it to the final form. the data collection process of the study started after the end of the programming languages course, which is a core course. invitations were sent to the students to participate in the project via facebook and 20 students gave a positive response to the invitation. the interviews, which were conducted on a voluntary basis in the classroom environment and conversational atmosphere, were completed in two weeks. in addition, the author audio-recorded the interviews with the permission of the participants. 3.4. data analysis qualitative data analysis was performed on the data obtained from individual interviews. the audio recordings were transcribed using a computer, and content analysis was performed on these transcripts. content analysis is one of the most appropriate methods in qualitative data analysis (kitzinger & barbour, 1999). during the analysis of the audio records, the research questions were taken into consideration and codes were formed accordingly. then, similar and related codes were categorized into themes. finally, the data were elaborated on and interpreted in detail. 4. implementation before the implementation process, a 14-week syllabus was prepared and shared with the students at the beginning of the semester, which included all the details such as the aim, subjects, teaching method, scope, activities and grading of the programming languages course. in the syllabus, it is stated that the course will be taught with the social media supported flipped classroom method, and a facebook group and youtube channel was created by the teacher for this purpose. students were particularly reminded to follow the social media accounts of the course. in the context of the flipped classroom method, the theoretical part of the programming languages course was taught and video-recorded by the teacher using camtasia program. the videos were shared via the youtube students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 123 channel. in addition, the video and other course contents of that week were shared on the social media group. before starting the class, the students were asked about the parts of the videos they did not understand and were given the necessary answers. then, an online question-answer event called kahoot was held at the beginning of the class. kahoot event, which involved multiple choice and gap filling questions with video, image and text, was prepared by the teacher. the event was covering the videos shared that week. the questions were projected on the whiteboard and the students participated in the kahoot event via their smartphones, tablets and computers. extra bonus points were given to the top three students and the top five students were announced from the facebook group to congratulate (figure 2). after kahoot application was performed, the activity of the week was passed on to. inclass activities were conducted as individual or group work, and the teacher, who took on the function of guidance, coached the students by giving them the necessary tips. an example of the in-class activities is shown in table 1. in addition, a discussion board was opened on the facebook group about the content of the event to be held next week and the students shared their ideas on this board. figure 1: example of a kahoot event result brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 124 table 1: in-class activity carried out in week 3. week-3 in-class activity activity title: educational software-multiplication table learning program duration: 120 minutes application topics variable definition, arithmetic operations, user data entry, control statements loop statements (for..do, while..do, and repeat..until), control statements explanation please develop the multiplication table learning program, the features of which is given below, and send the isimsoyisim.zip file via moodle. 1. ask the user: "which multiplication table do you want to ask?” to learn the multiplication table to be worked on. 2. the user will be asked with the multiplication table operation from 1 to 10 based on the figures entered by the user. if the answer entered by the user is correct, "congratulations... correct" phrase will be printed on the screen and the next question will be passed on to. if the answer is wrong, "your answer is wrong, the result is:" phrase will be printed on the screen with the correct answer, and the program will be terminated. program output students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 125 5. findings and discussion within the scope of the study, a focus group interview form, one of the qualitative data collection methods, was used to examine the views of students on the use of social media in the programming languages course designed based on the flipped classroom approach. 5.1. general views of students on the social media supported flipped classroom approach general views of students on the social media supported flipped classroom approach are presented in table 2. according to these findings, the initial thoughts of the majority of students about the method to be used are seen to be negative such as: surprise (n=7), the class will be challenging (n=5), curiosity (n=3), fear (n=3). certain student statements regarding these findings are presented below: student 1: “i was very surprised when the teacher first mentioned that he would teach with a different method. i'm surprised i didn't expect to learn the class through a different method at all” student 2: “when i first heard that the theoretical part of the course would be followed from the videos, and that the activities would be a part of grading, i thought it would be a very challenging course” student 3: “at first, i had no idea about the method you were talking about, so for the last semester, for example, we were learning the course through a method that could be considered traditional and i was missing the class when i did not go to school that day. so, i was very curious about it” student 4: “i was afraid when i first heard of it, but i liked it then” student 5: “the first thing i thought was that it would be different from other courses and that it would be a useful method in which we would research and find something or gain time by watching the videos before coming to the school, in comparison to the ordinary teach and go method” likewise, turan (2015) stresses in his study that the students had difficulties at the early weeks but kept up with the model and applied it smoothly after the second week. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 126 table 2: general views of students on the application category code f initial thought i was surprised 7 i thought that the course would be challenging 5 i was curious 3 i was afraid 3 i thought it would be useful 2 i thought i would be active 1 final thought i thought it was a much better method than my initial thought 10 it is a funny method 6 it can be used in any courses 3 it is a useless method 2 general thought positive 18 negative 2 according to the findings in table 2, although the initial thoughts of the students were mostly negative, their final thoughts have shifted in the positive direction. accordingly, the students' final thoughts are: „it is a much better method than my first thought‟ (n=10), „it is a funny method‟ (n=6) and „it can be used in any course‟ (n=3). some of the remarkable expressions mentioned by the students are presented below: student 3:” i was able to close my gap with the videos, when i didn't come to class. so, it was above my expectations, certainly not expecting this much” omer: “i did not think that the course would be that way, but it totally met my expectations” student 6: “the flipped learning, that we had never seen or heard of before, was very different. i'm not very good at the coding class, but it caught my attention a lot, and i came to the class more excitedly. it was a funny class. it also met my expectation at a high level” student 4: “my final thought at the end of the course is that it can be used in any courses if desired” in addition, as it is shown in table 2, a great majority of the students expressed positive views about the social media supported flipped classroom students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 127 method (n=18). some of the remarkable statements of the students are presented below: student 3: “because we used a different teaching model, we have learned the course more efficiently. a positive and very nice method” student 8: “it is a very useful method. my view is positive” student 7: “my view is positive. i wish it is applied as a traditional method in future” similar to the findings of this study, in a study by turan (2015), it was found that the students gave negative reactions when they first heard about the flipped classroom method, but that their opinions were shifted to positive at the end of the course process. in the literature, there are studies indicating that students mostly view the flipped classroom positively (yestrebsky, 2015; asiksoy & özdamli, 2016; stone, 2012; turan, 2015; touchton, 2015) and there are also those that argue the opposite (milman, 2012; davies, dean, & ball, 2013). it can be argued that, students' having the chance to perform more activities in the classroom, accessing to information whenever and wherever they want, having the opportunity to learn and reinforce their knowledge in accordance with their own pace of comprehension, and the performance of the learning process both individually and collaboratively in the flipped classroom method, are the significant factors in students' having positive views about the method. 5.2. positive and negative aspects of the utilization of social media supported flipped classroom method the findings obtained through the individual interviews conducted to determine students' views on the positive and negative aspects of the utilization of social media supported flipped classroom approach are shown under main headings and subheadings in table 3. table 3: positive and negative views of students on the course category code sub-code f positive aspects enhancing in/nonclass communication and interaction easy communication opportunity with peers and teacher 7 ease of feedback 5 knowledge sharing 3 instant communication 2 following up the peers 1 communication opportunity 1 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 128 facilitating learning access to course content anytime and anywhere 10 easy course follow-up 6 chance to watch the course videos for multiple times 6 preparation for the course in advance 4 ensuring sustainable learning 3 learning before coming to class 2 enhancing motivation encouraging 12 funny 9 attracts attention in the class 8 negative aspects distraction due to ads and pop-ups 15 decreasing class attendance 7 internet requirement/ over-use of the internet 6 feeling of constantly being monitored 2 5.2.1 positive aspects of supporting the course with social media participants were asked about the positive aspects of supporting the programming languages course, designed based on the flipped classroom approach, with social media. the findings were classified under three subheadings as: (1) enhancing in-class communication and interaction, (2) facilitating learning and (3) enhancing motivation. 5.2.1.1. enhancing in/non-class communication and interaction the students stated that one of the positive aspects of using the social media supported flipped classroom approach is to enhance the communication and interaction in and out of the classroom. in this context, according to the views of students the factors enhancing in/non-class communication and interaction are: the opportunity of easy communication with classmates/teacher (n=7), ease of feedback (n=5), information sharing (n=3), instant communication (n=2), the opportunity of interaction (n=1) and following up the classmates (n=1). in this context, the statements given by some students are shown below. student 2: “to me, social media is an important part of the method applied. with social media, the teacher has the opportunity to reach the students not only at school but any time” students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 129 student 9: “the teacher can give homework assignments through social media, or if students have questions, he can answer them. also, social media is used by everyone. it is certainly an efficient tool because it provides communication with the teacher” student 1: “i think that this method is very necessary because it provides direct and instant communication. most importantly, because you come to the class having already watched the videos, social media is also important in terms of preparation as well” student 10: “we get feedback more easily thanks to our facebook group” student 7: “we have facebook groups. and there is a youtube channel where the course videos are uploaded. we have sent our homework and accessed to the course materials from these channels. that is to say, social media gives us opportunity to share information” görü doğan (2015) gets students‟ views and experiences with respect to teaching the courses with the social media supported flipped classroom approach. it was found in this study that one of the positive aspects of supporting the course with social media is that it provides more interaction and communication opportunities between the teacher and student. the findings in both studies are consistent with each other. social media is one of the most popular communication tools of today and it enables people to interact and collaborate (öztürk & talas, 2015). on the other hand, there are other studies that are at odds with the findings of this study (stone, 2012; herreid & schiller, 2013). for example, in a study by turan and göktaş (2015) based on student views, the negative aspects of the flipped classroom method were found to be the excessive time that should be allocated for the course and lack of instant feedback. based on this, it can be argued that supporting courses that are designed based on the flipped classroom method with social media may enhance in/non-class communication and interaction. 5.2.1.2. facilitating of learning as shown in table 3, students stated that one of the positive aspects of the method is that it facilitates learning and provides access to the course content anytime and anywhere (n=10). other important reasons were stated as: easy course follow-up (n=6), the chance to watch the course videos for multiple times (n=6), the possibility of well-preparation (n=4), provision of permanent learning (n=3) and the opportunity to learn the topic before brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 130 coming to the class (n=2). some of the important expressions of the students regarding these findings are given below. student 4: “thanks to social media, we can access the course content from anywhere and anytime. in other words, we learn the topics while drinking coffee at our comfy houses” student 11: “the most important aspect of social media is that we can follow the course conveniently. we just watch the video and learn, that is, we come to the classroom having already learned the topic.” student 12: “the biggest advantage of this method is to have the chance to watch the course videos over and over” student 3: “this method ensures sustainable learning with in-class and non-class activities. besides, we can learn from the videos without coming to the classroom” according to the findings of the study, it is seen that the social media supported flipped classroom method facilitates learning because of its advantages such as easy access to resources, easy course follow-up, possibility of watching the course video for multiple times, possibility of coming to class prepared and ensuring sustainable learning. when the related literature is reviewed, there are studies showing that the involvement of social media in educational processes facilitates students' learning and it is an effective tool in learning (toğay, akdur, yetişkin, & bilici, 2013; sarsar, başbay, & başbay, 2015;). in addition, there are also studies reporting that the flipped classroom method facilitates learning more than the traditional teaching methods (turan, 2015; gençer, 2015; betül, 2016; yavuz, 2016;). it can be claimed that the advantages of online learning such as sharing the course content via social media and providing students with the opportunity to watch videos anywhere and anytime facilitate learning. 5.2.1.3. enhancement of motivation participants stated that another positive aspect of using the social media-supported flipped classroom approach was its enhancing of their motivation. factors that enhance students' motivation were found to be the method's being stimulating (n=12), funny (n=9) and interesting (n=8). some of the most important statements by the students in this respect are presented below. student 6: “the positive side of this method is kahoot application we do in the class. this both makes us prepare before coming to the class and enhance our motivation for the class” students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 131 student 8: “i think it is a very funny method. we are learning by having fun” there are several studies showing that teaching processes enhance student motivation through social media in the respective literature (sobaih, moustafa, ghandforoush, & khan, 2016; mao, 2014; raspopovic, cvetanovic, medan, & ljubojevic, 2017;). there are also experimental studies showing that teaching by the flipped classroom method enhances motivation. for example, asiksoy and özdamli (2016), turan (2015) and tuğun, (2015) examined the impact of the flipped classroom method on the motivations of students. the motivation levels of the students in experiment groups were found to be higher. in the flipped classroom method, which is considered a kind of the mixed-methods (staker & horn, 2012), a number of methods such as video-based learning, cooperative learning, gamification, social media supported learning can be used simultaneously. it can be argued that gamification activities such as kahoot might have enhanced students‟ motivation given that it was found to be funny and stimulating by the students. 5.2.2. negative aspects of supporting the course with social media the students were asked about the negative aspects of supporting the programming language course designed based on the flipped classroom method with social media and the answers are shown in table 3. the majority of the students stated the distraction caused by ads and notifications as the negative aspect of supporting the course with social media (n=15). in addition, irrelevant and negative comments (n=7), internet connection requirement / excessive internet usage (n=6), and the feeling of constantly being monitored (n=2) were stated as other negative aspects. some of the important statements by the students in this respect are as follows: student 13: “the negative side of this method is getting a notification from facebook in the middle of a class activity, or pop-up ads while watching a course video on youtube this is distracting us, and diminishing our motivation” student 14: “some of my friends are sharing irrelevant comments, just to fool around. i think this is a negative aspect” student 15: “in order to follow this course we need to have a computer with internet connection. it is very difficult to follow the course especially if you do not have internet connection. i think this is the negative side.” student 8: “as a negative aspect, adding our teacher as a friend to our social media account gives me the feeling that i am constantly being watched” brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 132 student 1 “my problem with videos is the internet. since i don't have internet at home, i have to watch videos on the phone, and i can't watch them when the internet package is slow” some of the participants (student 13, student 1 etc.) reported that they were distracted by the advertisements or notifications that they encountered while watching videos on social media. in addition, some of the students stated that irrelevant posts via facebook and the need for internet connection are the negative aspects of this method. (betül, 2016; yavuz, 2016; turan & göktaş, 2015) found that the presence of technological deficiencies such as lack of internet and computers are negative aspects of the flipped classroom method. the findings of both studies are consistent with each other. 5.3. students’ views on the videos shared via youtube and facebook the data obtained through the questions about the videos shared on the social media regarding the programming course taught based on the flipped classroom method are handled in 4 different categories as problems encountered with the videos, student suggestions about the videos, sharing time of the videos and the incentives to watch the videos. 5.3.1. problems encountered with the videos table 4: students‟ views on problems encountered with the videos category code f problems encountered with the videos technical problems 10 internet data plan 7 teaching is not fluent 2 in this category, students were asked about the problems encountered with the videos and the data obtained are shown in table 4. accordingly, majority of the students stated that they had technical problems (n=10) with the videos. other problems that come to the forefront are internet data plan (n=7) and the lack of fluency in the teaching (n=2). some student statements in relation to these findings are given below. student 2: “we experienced some problems while watching the videos. these were technical problems such as video resolution and audio. then our teacher reloaded the videos and solved the problem” student 16: “my concern is about exceeding my data plan while watching the videos” students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 133 student 4: “the teaching of the teacher was not fluent in some of the videos. i think it could have been in a conversational manner with us” the finding of this study with respect to technical problems such as resolution or audio which was found in this study, concerns about exceeding the data plan while watching the video, and getting bored when watching are consistent with the findings of the studies conducted by milman, 2012; yavuz, 2016; turan, 2015. given these results, it can be argued that the primary problems with the videos stem from technical issues. 5.3.2. student recommendations related to the videos table 5: student recommendations related to the videos student recommendations related to the videos videos should involve the teacher‟s footage 9 videos should be montaged 5 quizzes or games should be added after the videos 4 records should be made in studio environment 2 videos should be interactive 1 table 5 contains data on students' views on the videos shared on youtube and facebook. students' recommendations related to the videos involve: adding the teacher's footage in the videos (n=9), montaging the videos (n=5), adding quizzes or games after the videos (n=4), recording the videos in the studio environment (n=2) and making the videos interactive (n=1). some of the important student statements in this regard are as follows: student 7: “as in the last video, the videos should contain the footage of the teacher. because it is more useful to study by looking at someone with gests and mimics, instead of looking at the empty space” student 8: “the records should be montaged with a faster computer” student 11: “quizzes, games, tests and fill-in the blank applications can be added immediately after the videos to consolidate the topics taught” in a study by turan (2015), which is similar to this study, students suggested that teacher‟s footage and surprise questions should be included in the videos and the videos should be interactive. it can be said that as a solution to the technical problems experienced during the teaching process of the course, the students suggested that the videos, especially the footage of the teacher, should be included in the videos, the recordings should be brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 134 made in the studio environment, and games should be added lest the videos become boring. 5.3.3. student recommendations related to the videos table 6: student recommendations related to the videos sharing time of the videos should be posted 1 week in advance 9 should be posted 4 days in advance 3 should be posted 5-6 days in advance 3 should be posted 3 days in advance 1 should be posted 1 day in advance 1 the students were asked how many days before the course the videos should be shared on social media and the data obtained are shown in table 6. the majority of the students stated that the videos should be posted "1 week in advance" (n=9). other opinions are that the videos should be posted 4 days before the course” (n=3), “5-6 days before the course” (n=3), “3 days before the course” (n=1) and “1 day before the course” (n=1). in this context, the statements given by some students are shown below. student 16: “i think that the videos should be shared 1 week before the class so that we can be prepared for it by watching the videos” student 3: “it is sufficient to upload 5-6 days before the course. because we may not be able to watch it when it is shared 1 day or 2 days in advance” student 5: “i also think that the posting time of the videos may be 4 days before. we can have problems if they are shared 1 day in advance” given the students‟ recommendation regarding the timing of the video posts, it can be said that course videos should be shared via social media 4 days to 1 week in advance of the class. 5.3.4. factors stimulating students to watch the videos table 7: student views on factors stimulating them to watch the videos factors stimulating students to watch the videos kahoot activity 15 in order to perform the activities in the class 10 in order to learn the 7 students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 135 subject in order to get a high grade 6 competition 2 in order to keep up with the course 1 the students were asked to mention their opinions about the factors that stimulated them to watch the videos shared on social media and the data obtained are shown in table 7. accordingly, the majority of students stated that kahoot activity (n=15) was an incentive for watching the videos. other factors are mentioned to be: performing the activities in the class (n=10), learning the subject (n=7), getting high grades (n=6), competition (n=2) and keeping up with the course (n=1). some important expressions mentioned about these findings are presented below: student 3: “it can be said that the factors that urge us to watch the videos are kahoot activity, group work, achieving in the classroom activities and getting high marks and learning the subject” student 2: “the factors that stimulate us to watch the videos are learning the subject of the class, the aim of performing the activity in the class and kahoot activity” student 11: “it is the drive not to fall behind in the class, because when a question is asked in the classroom, or an activity is performed, if you do not know the subject you fall behind, and it is not good” there are studies supporting the findings of this study in the literature. milman (2012) reports that gamification activities urge students to watch the videos in the flipped classroom method. in another study by turan, (2015) the factors stimulating students to watch the videos in the flipped classroom method are enumerated as: the student‟s desire to learn the subject, quest for performing the in-class activity easily, and certain games added in the videos. 5.4. factors enhancing/ diminishing the interest in the course the students were asked about the factors that enhance and diminish their motivation for the programming language course which is taught based on the social media supported flipped classroom method and the data obtained are presented in table 8. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 136 table 8: views of students on the motivation towards the class category code f factors enhancing motivation towards the class kahoot game 14 announcement of the top 5 students of the kahoot activity on social media 10 getting bonus points from the inclass activities 9 opportunity to watch the course videos for multiple times 3 group work 3 teacher‟s innovative approach 3 rapid knowledge sharing via social media 1 factors diminishing motivation towards the class getting a high score at kahoot activity, but failing to be in the list of students announced on social media 5 failing to participate in the inclass activities when the videos are not watched 3 participants were asked about the factors enhancing their motivation towards the class and, as shown in table 8, the most frequently cited factors are “kahoot game” (n=14), “announcement of the top 5 students in kahoot on social media“ (n=10) and "earning bonus points from the activities" (n=9). on the other hand, it was found that the opportunity to watch the course videos for multiple times (n=3), group work (n=3), teacher's innovative approach (n=3) and rapid information sharing via social media (n=1) are other factors enhancing motivation towards the course. some of the important expressions mentioned by the students are given below: student 1: “the foremost factor enhancing our motivation towards the course was the kahoot activity, in my opinion. of course, announcement of the top 5 students on the social media is honoring us. at the end of the day, these posts are also viewed by our friends and other teachers as well” student 11: “i think that the bonus points earned from the kahoot and other activities is the most important element enhancing our motivation towards the course” students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 137 student 14: “i cannot attend the class because i am working. so, i can say that to have the opportunity to learn the course from the videos and to watch the courses over and over enhances our motivation” student 6: “i didn't want to come to the class at first, because i didn't like the programming course. but later on, kahoot, group work and our teacher's innovative approach increased my motivation towards the course, and i started to attend the classes” as shown in table 8, factors diminishing the students' motivation for the class were found to be “getting a high score at kahoot activity, but failing to be in the list of students announced on the social media” (n=5) and “failing to participate in the in-class activities when the videos are not watched” (n=3). some of the important statements of the students about the subject are as follows. student 16: “i am demotivated when i can't make it to the top five at kahoot. because, you share it on social media. but, in the meantime, i am getting more ambitious” student 8: “if we come to class without watching the videos, we have a hard time doing the activity in the classroom. since we are graded from the activities, it can sometimes diminish our motivation for the class” there are other studies that comply with the findings of this study. balakrishnan & gan (2016) and betül, (2016) report that kahoot activity enhances motivation for the learning processes. in addition to that, turan (2015) shared the top 5 students of kahoot activity on facebook in a course that administered the flipped classroom method, and the most popular factor in the end-of year student evaluations was reported as kahoot activity. in another study by özyurt & özyurt (2016) it is suggested that facebook can be used effectively to support teaching methods and that it considerably enriches learning experiences. fulton (2012) states that students‟ watching the course videos at home whenever they want enhances their motivation. according to the opinions of some of the students in this study, sharing the results of kahoot activity on social media may be a demotivating factor too. according to all these findings, it can be argued the entertaining and competitive, gaming notion included in kahoot and honoring and rewarding successful students on social media, enhance the motivation for the course whereas it can be demotivating for some of the students who fail to come out in these activities. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 138 6. conclusion and recommendations 6.1. conclusion it is seen that one of the next generation teaching models for the digital citizens, as prensky (2001) puts it, to acquire the skillsets of the 21 st century is the flipped class method. when the research on the flipped class method is examined, it is seen that students are willing and positive towards the method, that it enhances their motivation and academic success and facilitate the learning process, and that theoretical knowledge is given out of the class and high-level cognitive learning activities are performed in the classroom. however, due to some limitations of this method, the educational videos prepared may not be not watched, the process cannot be controlled by the teacher, and it is very difficult for the student to ask questions and get feedback in the activities performed outside the classroom. in order to find a solution to the said limitations, the flipped class method was supported by social media and it was aimed to get students' views on this application. according to the findings obtained in this study, it was found that students general and the final thoughts about the social media supported flipped class method are positive, although the initial thoughts of the students were negative, that it improves the communication and interaction in and outside of the classroom, facilitates learning and enhances motivation. on the other hand, distraction due to advertisements and notifications on social media, irrelevant negative comments, need for internet connection or excessive use of internet and the feeling of being under constant surveillance were found as the negative aspects of this method. when the students' suggestions about the videos are examined, the most prominent findings are the requests for inclusion of the teacher's footage in the videos, montaging of the videos, inclusion of supplementary quizzes or games after the videos. in addition, the students think that the videos should be shared at least 4 days to 1 week in advance of the class via facebook and youtube. moreover, the majority of students point out kahoot activity as the foremost incentive for them to watch the course videos. other important factors urging the students to watch the videos are having the opportunity to perform the activities in the classroom, learning the subject and earning high grades. it was found that the game, announcement of the results of the activities on social media and having the chance to get bonus points at the end of the activities are the motivating factors for students towards the course. on the other hand, the demotivating factors are the disclosure of the students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 139 students, who fail to come out in the activities, on social media and failing in the in-class activities when the videos are not watched. according to the findings of this study, it can be argued that promotion of the flipped classroom method with social media can bring about a solution to especially such limitations as students‟ not watching the videos, students‟ asking questions in extracurricular activities, and lack of an environment where students can get instant feedback. 6.2. recommendations for future research the following recommendations can contribute to a more comprehensive implementation of the flipped classroom method in the teaching processes:  students can be given explanatory information about the application and advantages of the flipped classroom method in the teaching processes to prevent negative thoughts that may occur in students at the beginning of the semester.  in this study, it was found that supporting the course with facebook and youtube increases teacher-student communication, but advertisements and notifications on social media may distract the students. in this context, different social media platforms that can find solutions to the problem can be found out.  in order to eliminate the limitations of videos, videos with no ads, high audio and video quality, and surprise questions or games can be posted to the students. further research can be conducted in this context.  in this study, it was found that gamification activities such as kahoot encourage students to watch the course videos. research can be conducted on large-size groups about supporting the flipped classroom method with different gamification practices and teaching approaches.  teachers must have the necessary qualifications to effectively implement the flipped classroom method. policy-makers may include more subjects in the curriculum, such as computer literacy and next-generation teaching approaches in teacher training programs.  necessary technological infrastructure can be prepared for the successful implementation of this method in schools. references aksoy, n. (2003). eylem araştırması eğitimsel uygulamaları iyileştirme ve değiştirmede kullanılacak bir yöntem. kuram ve uygulamada eğitim yönetimi, 9(4), 474–489. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 140 ash, k. (2012). educators view “flipped” model with a more critical eye. education week, 32(2), 6–7. asiksoy, g., & özdamli, f. (2016). flipped classroom adapted to the arcs model of motivation and applied to a physics course. eurasia journal of mathematics, science and technology education, 12(6), 1589–1603. doi:10.12973/eurasia.2016.1251a balakrishnan, v., & gan, c. l. (2016). students‟ learning styles and their effects on the use of social media technology for learning. telematics and informatics, 33(3), 808–821. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2015.12.004 bergmann, j., & sams, a. (2012). flip your classroom: reach every student in every class every day. alexandria, va, u.s.a.: international society for technology in education. betül, a. (2016). terz yüz sınıf modelinin akademik başarı, ödev/görev stres düzeyi ve öğrenme transferi üzeindeki etkisi. yüksek lisans tezi, süleyman demirel üniversitesi. bolat, y. (2016). ters yüz edilmiş sınıflar ve eğitim bilişim ağı (eba). journal of human sciences, 13(2), 3373. doi:10.14687/jhs.v13i2.3952 brame, c. j. (2013). flipping the classroom. vanderbilt university center for teaching. retrieved from: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-subpages/flipping-the-classroom/ chen, m. s., su, y. s., huang, c. s., & yang, s. j. (2018). effects of using social ınstructional videos and flipped classroom on students' learning achievements in smart campus. 2018 1st international cognitive cities conference (ic3) (pp. 317-319). ieee. retrieved from: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zgkkrmoaaaaj&hl=th davies, r. s., dean, d. l., & ball, n. (2013). flipping the classroom and instructional technology integration in a college-level information systems spreadsheet course. educational technology research and development, 61(4), 563–580. doi:10.1007/s11423-013-9305-6 duerdan, d. (2013). disadvantages of a flipped classroom. retrieved from: http://www.360-edu.com/commentary/disadvantages-of-a-flippedclassroom.htm#.utaqkvrdupw enfield, j. (2013). looking at the impact of the flipped classroom model of instruction on undergraduate multimedia students at csun. techtrends, 57(6), 14–27. eryilmaz, s., & uluyol, ç. (2015). 21. yüzyıl becerileri ışığında fati̇h projesi değerlendirmesi. gazi üniversitesi gazi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 35(2), 209– 229. retrieved from: http://www.gefad.gazi.edu.tr/en/issue/6772/91207 friedman, l. w., & friedman, h. h. (2013). using social media technologies to enhance online learning. journal of educators, 10(1), 1–22. retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1004891 http://www.gefad.gazi.edu.tr/en/issue/6772/91207 students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 141 fulton, k. (2012). upside down and inside out: flip your classroom to ımprove student learning. learning & leading with technology, 39(8), 12–17. gençer, b. g. (2015). okullarda ters-yüz sınıf modelinin uygulanmasına yönelik bir vaka çalışması. yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi, bahçeşehir üniversitesi eğitim bilimleri enstitüsü,i̇stanbul görü doğan, t. (2015). sosyal medyanın öğrenme süreçlerinde kullanımı: ters-yüz edilmiş öğrenme yaklaşımına ilişkin öğrenen görüşleri. açıköğretim uygulamları ve araştırma dergisi, 1(2), 24–48. herreid, c. f., & schiller, n. a. (2013). case studies and the flipped classroom. journal of college science training, 42, 62–66. hung, h. (2015). flipping the classroom for english language learners to foster active learning. computer assisted language learning, 28(1), 81–96. jones, l. (2007). the student-centered classroom. new york, u.s.a.: cambridge university press karadeniz, a. (2015). ters-yüz edi lmi ş siniflar. eğitim ve öğretim araştırmaları dergisi, 4(3), 322–326. retrieved from: http://www.jret.org/fileupload/ks281142/file/35._abdulkadir_karadeniz .pdf kietzmann, j. h., hermkens, k., mccarthy, i. p., & silvestre, b. s. (2011). social media? get serious! understanding the functional building blocks of social media. business horizon, 54(3), 241–251. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005 kitzinger, j., & barbour, r. (1999). developing focus group research: politics, theory and practice. thousand oaks, ca, u.s.a.: sage. doi:10.4135/9781849208857 legaree, b. a. (2015). considering the changing face of social media in higher education. fems microbiology letters, 362(16), 1–3. doi:10.1093/femsle/fnv128 mao, j. (2014). social media for learning: a mixed methods study on high school students‟ technology affordances and perspectives. computers in human behavior, 33, 213–223. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.01.002 miller, a. (2012). 5 best practices for the flipped classroom. [edutopia website]. retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/flipped-classroom-bestpractices-andrew-miller milman, n. (2012). the flipped classroom strategy: what is it and how can it be used? distance learning, 9(3), 85–87. retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/22761397/the_flipped_classroom_strategy_ what_is_it_and_how_can_it_best_be_used?auto=download mok, h. n. (2014). teaching tip: the flipped classroom.(report). journal of information systems education, 25(1), 7. morgan, h. (2014). focus on technology: flip your classroom to increase academic achievement. childhood education, 90(3), 239–241. http://www.jret.org/fileupload/ks281142/file/35._abdulkadir_karadeniz.pdf http://www.jret.org/fileupload/ks281142/file/35._abdulkadir_karadeniz.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 142 o‟brien, l. (2012). six ways to use social media in education. [blog post]. retrieved from: https://learninginnovation.duke.edu/blog/2012/04/six-ways-touse-social-media-in-education/ öztürk, m. f., & talas, m. (2015). sosyal medya ve eğitim etkileşimi. journal of world of turks, 7(1), 101–120. özyurt, ö., & özyurt, h. (2016). using facebook to enhance learning experiences of students in computer programming at introduction to programming and algorithm course. computer applications in engineering education, 24(4), 546– 554. doi:10.1002/cae.21730 öznacar, b., köprülü, f., & çağlar, m. (2019). the success of implementing flipped classroom in teaching foreign language for international students. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(2), 151-158. prensky, m. (2001). digital natives, digital immigrants. mcb university press, 9(5), 1– 16. retrieved from: https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf raspopovic, m., cvetanovic, s., medan, i., & ljubojevic, d. (2017). the effects of ıntegrating social learning environment with online learning. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 18(1). doi:10.19173/irrodl.v18i1.2645 sarsar, f., başbay, m., & başbay, a. (2015). öğrenme-öğretme sürecinde sosyal medya kullanımı. mersin üniversitesi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 11(2). doi:10.17860/efd.98783 serçemeli, m. (2016). muhasebe eğitiminde yeni bir yaklaşım önerisi : ters yüz. finansman dergisi, 69, 115–126. doi:10.25095/mufad.396664 sezer, b. (2017). the effectiveness of a technology-enhanced flipped science classroom. journal of educational computing research, 55(4), 471-494. doi:10.1177/0735633116671325 sobaih, a. e. e., moustafa, m. a., ghandforoush, p., & khan, m. (2016). to use or not to use? social media in higher education in developing countries. computers in human behavior, 58, 296–305. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.01.002 staker, b. h., & horn, m. b. (2012). classifying k – 12 blended learning. innosight institute. retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed535180 stone, b. b. (2012). flip your classroom to increase active learning and student engagement. 28th annual conference on distance teaching & learning, 1–5. retrieved from: https://cn.polyvision.com/24/_moodle_ruhr-unibochum_de/m/pluginfile.php/278895/mod_resource/content/3/icm_e ffects%20of%20active%20learning%20strategies%20and%20student%20f eedback.pdf https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf students‟ views on the teaching process based on social media supported … huseyin bicen et al. 143 strayer, j. (2009). inverting the classroom: a study of the learning environment when an intelligent tutoring system is used to help students learn. vdm-verlag mülle. strayer, j. f. (2012). how learning in an inverted classroom influences cooperation, innovation and task orientation. learning environments research, 15(2), 171– 193. doi:10.1007/s10984-012-9108-4 talbert, r. (2012). inverted classroom. colleagues, 9(1), 1–7. toğay, a., akdur, t. e., yetişkin, i̇. c., & bilici, a. (2013). eğitim süreçlerinde sosyal ağların kullanımı: bir myo deneyimi. xiv. akademik bilişim konferansı, 1–6. touchton, m. (2015). flipping the classroom and student performance in advanced statistics: evidence from a quasi-experiment. journal of political science education, 11(1), 28–44. doi:10.1080/15512169.2014.985105 tuğun, v. (2015). ortaöğretim öğrencilerinin ters yüz edilmiş sınıf öğretim modeli i̇le kodlama eğitimi. doktora tezi.yakın doğu üniversitesi. turan, z. (2015). ters yüz sınıf yönteminin değerlendirilmesi ve akademik başarı, bilişsel yük ve motivasyona etkisinin incelenmesi. doktora tezi, atatürk üniversitesi. turan, z., & göktaş, y. (2015). yükseköğretimde yeni bir yaklaşım: öğrencilerin ters yüz sınıf yöntemine ilişkin görüşleri. yükseköğretim ve bilim dergis, 5(2), 156–164. türnüklü, a. (2000). eğitimbilim araştırmalarında etkin olarak kullanılabilecek nitel bir araştırma tekniği: görüşme. kuram ve uygulamada eğitim yönetimi, 24, 543–559. doi:10.14527/578 yavuz, m. (2016). ortaöğretim düzeyinde ters yüz sınıf uygulamalarının akademik başarı üzerine etkisi ve öğrenci deneyimlerinin incelenmesi. yüksek lisans tezi, atatürk üniversitesi. yestrebsky, c. l. (2015). flipping the classroom in a large chemistry class-research university environment. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 191, 1113– 1118. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.370 yıldırım, s. (2016). infographics for educational purposes: their structure, properties and reader approaches. turkish online journal of educational technology, 15(3), 98–110. retrieved from: http://tojet.net/volumes/v15i3.pdf http://tojet.net/volumes/v15i3.pdf brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 144 biodata huseyin bicen (huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr) was born in nicosia on december 31, 1986. he began lecturing computer and educational technologies related courses in 2007, at the near east university, ataturk faculty of education, in computer education and instructional technologies department, as a lecturer. since july 2015, he has been associate professor on the same department. since october 2013, he has been head of distance learning centre and department of human resources development in education. hüseyin bicen has two (2) national academic content book published by reputable publishing houses. eight (8) of his articles was indexed at social sciences index (ssci) and thirty (32) were indexed in the educational field indexes (isi, british education index, eric, science direct, scopus etc.). ata taspolat (ata.taspolat@neu.edu.tr) was born on january 08, 1986 in fethiye at muğla. he graduated from fethiye technical high school from the department of computer software as a top student in 2004. he established a company which was operating in the it sector in 2004. however, in 2006, he left his job and began his higher education in computer and instructional technologies department at eastern mediterranean university (emu). in 2011, he completed his undergraduate education as a top scoring student. in february 2011, he began to work as a it manager at noah's ark deluxe hotel & casino. in september 2013, he started his graduate studies by earning his master's degree in information and communication technologies education programme at eastern mediterranean university. in november 2013, he resigned from his job at noah's ark deluxe hotel & casino and then he started to work as a data processing manager in i̇lkay m. genç ltd. in february 2016, he sucessfully completed his master's degree. in september 2016, he started his phd in computer education and instructional technology department at near east university. in 2017, he started to teach courses about computer and educational technologies as an academician for the department of computer education and instructional technology in atatürk faculty of education at near east university. currently, he is working at the private sector as well as academician. mailto:ata.taspolat@neu.edu.tr microsoft word issue 3.docx 41 resolution of brain-based consciousness as a quantum information field mustafa erol dokuz eylül university kültür, cumhuriyet blv no:144, 35220 konak/i̇zmir, turkey phone: +90 232 412 12 12 mustafa.erol@deu.edu.tr abstract this work resolves the brain-based consciousness as an open quantum information field, created and influenced via the environmental sensory information and operating under the full control of quantum mechanics. the external sensory information, modelled as quantised electromagnetic waves, is assumed to feed the cortical neurons and eventually construct the brainbased consciousness hamiltonian. any external energy/information, instantly reaching to the hamiltonian of brain-based consciousness, is taken into account as a perturbation. in order to obtain instantaneous wave functions and probability amplitudes well known time dependant perturbation theory is employed. quantum field theory is finally used to resolve the overall brain-based consciousness and some important conclusions are underlined. keywords: resolution of brain; quantum information field; consciousness hamiltonian; brain based consciousness. 1. introduction the human brain and exclusively the emergence of consciousness/mind are probably the most intricate concepts of modern sciences and philosophies (descartes, 1641; lotka, 1925; heisenberg, 1958; bohr, 1958, 1963; bohm and hiley, 1993; chalmers, 1996; appleby, 2013). especially, the mysterious emergence of consciousness/mind and complicated functioning ever increasingly challenge not only neuroscientists, biologists or psychologists but whole scientific community indeed (pribram, 1969, 1991; eccles, 1973; bass, 1975; popper and eccles, 1977; hopfield, 1982; pauen, 2001; behera et. al. 2004; zhang, 2011). the present work specifically focuses on physically resolving the enigmatic connection between the physical brain and consciousness/mind by considering the consciousness/mind as a pure brain-based materialistic concept. consciousness is defined as the dynamic self-awareness concept, constructed by the brain’s cortical neurons as a quantum information field that continuously receives information/energy from the brain, evaluates and processes the information and initiates the responses. the approach, in this work, briefly considers that the all environmental sensory information is transformed into the quantised electromagnetic waves, reaching to the cortical neurons by action potentials carrying unique and modified information/energy. this unique information/energy then transferred into the ordered water molecules of the cytoplasm of the cortical neurons and varies the quantum physical state of the water molecules through the wellknown quantum mechanical perturbation process and creates additional nambu goldstone bosons, here called consciousness-on/con, creating and simultaneously influencing the quantum information field that is in fact the consciousness/mind. in order to resolve the brain-consciousness phenomena, several classes of approaches have been managed in the past. those approaches have the congenital difficulty of never giving emergence of the higher brain functions or consciousness like phenomenon (zhang, 2011). the scientific research focusing on the resolution of brain and consciousness by using classical physical laws achieved incredible progress on the brain but almost nothing on the mind/consciousness (parent and carpenter, 1995; ricciardi and umezawa, 1967). in order to consider the consciousness as a physical concept, it has to be comprised of either energy or matter and it has to be a concrete concept that is purely measurable. nowadays, quite a number of quantum physicist, neuroscientist, psychiatrists and biologists are aware of the scientific connection between quantum physics and brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 42 brain or consciousness leading to some distinct scientific efforts (penrose, 1989,1994; abbot et. al., 2008; eisert and wiseman, 2007; arndt et. al., 2009; isart , 2010; erol, 2010a, 2010b). considering the quantum approaches to the brain-consciousness phenomena, some specific works surely move forward. ricciardi and umezawa, suggested that brain functions could be the result of a brain quantum field and have thus proposed a quantum model where the elementary constituents of the brain exhibit coherent behavior and macroscopic observables are derived as dynamical output from their interaction. in the quantum model of ricciardi and umezawa, the elementary constituents are not the neurons and the other cells and physiological units, which cannot be considered as quantum objects but some dynamical variables, called corticons, able to describe stationary or quasi-stationary states of the brain (ricciardi and umezawa, 1967). penrose suggested that consciousness/mind could not have been functioned in accordance with the principles of classical physics. this view would reaffirm the quantum theory that is a conscious human being behaves in ways that a classical mechanical model cannot fulfill (penrose, 1986, 1989, 1994). penrose and hameroff later suggested subjective wave function reduction or more specifically orchestrated objective reduction model, happening in the microtubules of the neurons (penrose,1989; hameroff and penrose, 1996). marshall (1989) realized that bose-einstein condensation could be a reality in brain functioning and responsible for the unified and singular structure of the consciousness/mind (inouye et. al, 1999). one of the most radical suggestions came from stapp in 1991, assumed that the only reality actually is the human consciousness/mind and only conscious actions results in the wave function collapse (stapp, 1991,1993, 2001). in 1990, eccles offered that mind and brain interconnected with a physical quantum field and the brain functions can be modeled with field quanta called psychon (eccles, 1990). later together with beck, they offered quantum tunneling of pychons through the synaptic connections causing the coherence of the wave functions (beck & eccles, 1992). jibu and yasue have proposed to interlace the ideas of pribram and umezawa into a unified quantum theory of brain dynamics. their theory takes the substrate associated with umezawa’s views to be the water that pervades the brain. excitations of certain states of the water system are called corticons, super radiance of evanescent photons, and they interact with photons in the electromagnetic fields of the dendritic network. they say: “with the help of quantum field theory, we have found that the creation and annihilation dynamics of corticons and photons in the quantum brain dynamics system in the sub microscopic world of the brain to be the entity we call consciousness or mind” (jibu and yasue, 1995, 1997). the quantum model of the brain proposed by ricciardi and umezawa is extended to dissipative dynamics in order to study the problem of memory capacity by vitiello. in his work, it is shown that infinitely many vacua are accessible to memory printing in a way that in sequential information recording the storage of a new information does not destroy the previously stored ones, thus allowing a huge memory capacity. the mechanism of information printing is shown to induce breakdown of time-reversal symmetry (vitiello, 1995, 2001; freeman and vitiello, 2006, 2008). in order to build a strong base to the quantum mechanical approach to the brainconsciousness phenomena, a great deal of experimental works provides evidences of quantum effects relating the living matter. for instance, an unexpectedly long-lasting quantum coherence in the electron transfer which is involved in photosynthesis (engel et al., 2007; lee et al., 2007; collini et al., 2010; panitchayangkoon et al., 2010, 2011; sarovar et al., 2010). another example of quantum dynamics in living systems has been found in photoreceptors. experiments using highresolution spectroscopic and nuclear-magnetic resonance techniques revealed coherent quantum waves in the rhodopsin molecule (wang et al., 1994; loewenstein, 2013). concerning olfactory system, electron tunneling has been suggested to play an important role in the detection of odorants by olfactory receptors (huelga and plenio, 2013). long-lived quantum entanglements in the cryptochromes of the retina seem to support the sensitivity of a bird’s eye to magnetic fields (arndt et al., 2009; ball, 2011; huelga and plenio, 2013). recent simulations show that quantum mechanical coherences in cryptochrome models can account for the precision of the avian magnetic compass (hiscock et al., 2016). in addition, quantum tunneling has been observed in other m. erol resolution of brain-based consciousness as a quantum information field 43 biomolecules, such as enzymes (klinman and kohen, 2013) or motor proteins (hunter, 2006). most importantly, contrary to the long-held view, under some conditions, the strong coupling to the noisy and warm environment is able to promote rather than hinder long-lasting quantum coherence in biological systems (plenio and huelga, 2008). 2. quantised electromagnetic field as the source of information the external sensory information (visual, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling) is certainly unique for every person at every instant and the uniqueness must be somehow included, defined and transferred to the brain. it is neurologically well-known fact that whatever the external unique information/stimuli, it is transferred to the brain’s cortical neurons by means of certain action potentials, electrical voltage pulses. the spatial and temporal dependence of any electromagnetic potential can electro dynamically be described by a vector potential of a(r,t). the time and space dependent vector potential a(r,t), in any case, must be obeying to the most general classical wave equation, that is, 𝛻 𝑨(𝒓, 𝑡) = 𝒗 𝐀(𝐫, ) (1) where 𝛻 denotes the laplace operator, 𝑣 denotes the propagation group velocity of the waves, r denotes the position and t is time and the general solution can simply be given by, 𝑨(𝒓, 𝑡) = 𝑨𝒕𝑨𝒓 + 𝑨𝒕 ∗𝑨𝒓 ∗ (2) in the equation, 𝑨𝒓 = 𝐴 (0)𝑒 , denotes the position dependant vector potential and 𝑨𝒓 ∗ denotes the relevant complex conjugate, 𝑨𝒕 = 𝐴 (0)𝑒 describes time dependence and 𝑨𝒕 ∗ denotes the complex conjugate. the angular frequency for the wave vector k, that is 𝜔 = 𝑣𝑘, is assumed for a non dispersive situation for simplicity. additionally, 𝐴∗ and 𝐴∗ expressions are, in fact, quantum mechanically associated with the annihilation and creation operators, respectively. the vector potential defined above is the physical source of the spatial and temporal dependant electromagnetic waves propagate through the axons of the nervous system and any environmental information is transferred to the cortical neurons by means of these electromagnetic waves. additionally, the electromagnetic waves must be quantized because of being physically confined within the volume of the relevant cortical neuron. the quantization is also important in order to be able to carry the huge number of sensory information. in general, many different modes of k and polarization of j will be generated by the vector/action potentials, depending on the complicated environmental conditions/information. physically each mode of k specifies a new harmonic oscillator with the frequency of 𝜔 , into which any number of bosons/photons, 𝑛 , can be created/added, (𝑛 : 0 → +∞ ). similar to the vector potentials, environmentally created electromagnetic field is of course primarily maintained by the classical wave equation and the expression for the electrical field is given by, ∇ 𝑬(𝒓, 𝑡) = 𝑬(𝒓, ) (3) in this expression, c denotes the velocity of the light in vacuum. the magnetic field counterpart can surely be written equivalently. the straightforward solution of the classical equations yield the time and position dependant electric field and magnetic field expressions as follows, 𝑬(𝒓, 𝑡) = 𝑬 𝑬𝒓 + 𝑬 ∗𝑬𝒓 ∗ (4) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 44 𝑩(𝒓, 𝑡) = 𝑩𝒕𝑩𝒓 + 𝑩 ∗𝑩𝒓 ∗ (5) where, 𝑬 = 𝐸 (0)𝑒 𝒌𝒓 represents the position dependant electric field expression and 𝑬 = 𝐸 (0)𝑒 denotes the time dependant general expression of the electric field, 𝐸 (0) denotes the initial electric field parameter, similarly 𝐵 = 𝐵 (0)𝑒 𝒌𝒓 and 𝐵 = 𝐵 (0)𝑒 represent the magnetic field counterparts. meanwhile, 𝐸∗ and 𝐸∗ denote the complex conjugates. spatial electrical field and magnetic field vectors, on the other hand, can clearly be written as, 𝑬𝒓 = 𝐸 (0)𝑒 𝒌𝒓𝒖𝒆 (6) 𝑩𝒓 = 𝐵 (0)𝑒 𝒌𝒓𝒖𝒆𝒙𝒖𝒌 (7) where 𝒖𝒆 is the unit vector specifies the direction of the electric field and uk is the unit vector for the propagation direction that is the direction of k and satisfying 𝒖𝒆𝒖𝒌 = 0. at this point, we introduce the quantization of the electromagnetic fields, that means many modes depending on the environmental state is simultaneously superimposed at the same point, with the total quantization energy of ℏ𝜔 , where ℏ denotes the reduced planck’s constant and 𝜔 denotes the angular frequency for the mode defined by the k. furthermore, the spatial electrical function 𝑬𝒓 can be chosen to have the normalization within the finite volume of the relevant cortical neuron that is 𝑉 . if we average over the electromagnetic energies with time then the overall energy carried by the electrical field ought to be equal to the energy carried by the magnetic field. the external energy carried by the electromagnetic waves must be conserved and also quantized due to the confinement within the volume of the relevant neuron. hence the overall electrical and magnetic energies then can be normalized by, 𝜖 ∫ |𝐸 | 𝑑𝑉 = 〈𝑛 〉 ℏ𝜔 (8) ∫ |𝐵 | 𝑑𝑉 = 〈𝑛 〉 ℏ𝜔 (9) where 〈𝑛 〉 denotes the average occupation number of the states by the bosons created by the electromagnetic waves for the mode of 𝜔 = 𝑣𝑘 and simply given by 〈𝑛 〉 = ℏ (10) in the expression, 𝜖 = 𝜖 𝜖 being the electrical permittivity and 𝜇 = 𝜇 𝜇 is the magnetic permittivity. the sensory neurons simply transform the external stimuli/information to certain quantized electromagnetic fields within the finite size of the sensory neurons, 𝑉 . the normalization condition only works in a finite volume of 𝑉 even though the results are more generally true even in a vacuum of infinite size, so the initial electric field and magnetic field parameters can be found from the normalization conditions as, 𝐸 (0) = 〈 〉 ℏ (11) 𝐵 (0) = 〈 〉 ℏ (12) m. erol resolution of brain-based consciousness as a quantum information field 45 the volume 𝑉 is arbitrary as it does not ultimately influence the hamiltonian and momentum, but the size of the neuron can be chosen for simplicity as a cubic box of side length l with periodic boundary conditions; these conditions restrict the allowed values of k to be 𝑘 = 𝑛 where nj is the relevant quantum number for the specific mode k and polarization j, a positive integer. the polarization is the other very important physical parameter for the electromagnetic waves and taking into account two linear independent solutions u(k,i) and u(k,j) satisfying u(k,i) u(k,j)=δij, the unit vectors describe two independent polarizations of the waves, namely horizontal and vertical polarizations. the electromagnetic wave modes are no longer indexed only by the wave vector k, but must also embrace the polarization j. hence, the electromagnetic fields for a given mode (k;j) and assuming 𝐸 (0) = 1 and 𝐵 (0) = 1, can be expressed by, 𝑬𝒌, (𝒓, 𝑡) = 〈 〉 ℏ 𝑒 𝑒 + 𝑒 𝒌𝒓𝑒 𝒖𝒆, (13) 𝑩𝒌, (𝒓, 𝑡) = 〈 〉 ℏ 𝑒 𝑒 + 𝑒 𝒌𝒓𝑒 𝒖𝒆,𝒋𝒙𝒖𝒌,𝒋 (14) and the electric and magnetic field operators accounting for all modes. the overall electromagnetic fields are the sums of the individual modes, 𝑬(𝒓, 𝑡) = ∑ 𝑬𝒌,𝒋(𝒓, 𝑡)𝒌, (15) 𝑩(𝒓, 𝑡) = ∑ 𝑩𝒌,𝒋(𝒓, 𝑡)𝒌, (16) the equations above are the overall quantised electric and magnetic fields physically carry all the environmental information to the cortical neurons, eventually to the mind/consciousness. the initial information/energy transfer to the cortical neurons is realised by the interaction between the quantised electromagnetic field and ordered water molecules of the cortical neurons. 3. hamiltonian of brain-based consciousness the interaction between the ordered water dynamical system and externally derived electromagnetic field is considered to be decisive for the emergence of quantum consciousness (jibu & yasue, 1995, 1997; georgiev, 2002, 2003). it is, in fact, obvious that there must be a mechanism for conversion of the entering external sensory information to the electrophysiological information down to the molecular level, specifically into quantum coherent states, creating the quantum information field in other words the actual mind/consciousness (ricciardi & umezawa, 1967; mensky, 2014). the uniqueness of the brain is surely due to the organization of the overall body in the sense that the sensory system is organised to feed the brain with the external sensory information. hence the data reaching to the brain puts it to a distinct position comparing the rest of the material world. the ultimate functioning of the brain is assumed to be determined by the hamiltonian of the ordered water molecules within the cytoplasm of the cortical neurons. in order to resolve the consciousness quantum mechanically one needs to define the actual hamiltonian. water molecules have a hamiltonian due to the molecular structure, that means 𝐻 = 𝐻 + 𝐻 +𝐻 and the hamiltonian in this expression includes all terms namely, the kinetic energies of the electrons and the electrical potential energies of the electrons. the overall hamiltonian of the water due to inter molecular and inter atomic structure has a fixed and time independent term and assumed to be not interacting with the external electromagnetic field at all. concerning the external stimuli or quantised electromagnetic field, the water molecules with a molecular mass of 𝑀 surely vibrate brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 46 due to the temperature, very similar to the harmonic oscillator situation. in order to resolve the interaction between the external quantised electromagnetic waves and the ordered water molecules one needs to primarily write down the overall hamiltonian. the overall hamiltonian of the interaction between the external stimuli that is the quantised electromagnetic field and ordered water molecules has mainly two components namely; time independent harmonic oscillator term (𝐻 ) and the time dependant interaction term (𝐻 ) , 𝐻 = 𝐻 + 𝐻 (17) hence, the overall hamiltonian of any water molecule must include the harmonic oscillator term due to the thermally derived vibrations. hamiltonian of the harmonic oscillator in the classical form is simply given by, 𝐻 = + (18) this expression basically assumes that water molecules own a singular vibration frequency, 𝜔 and the mass m represents the mass of the water molecules, m=𝑀 and p denotes the linear momentum of the molecule. this expression can also be given in the operator form in quantum mechanics by means of the well known creation, 𝑎 and annihilation, 𝑎 , operators; that is, 𝐻 = ℏ𝜔 (𝑎 𝑎 + ) (19) this equation is set to be time independent and does not interact with the electromagnetic waves because of being just the mass based term. the eigen values and the eigen functions for the harmonic oscillator are very well known and given by, 𝐸 = ℏ𝜔 (𝑛 + ) (20) 𝜓 (𝑟) = √ ! ℏ ℏ 𝑟 − ℏ 𝑒 ℏ (21) in the expressions above, 𝐸 is the total mechanical energy of the quantum state of n for the unperturbed case and 𝜓 (𝑟) denotes the only space dependant wave function for the unperturbed quantum state of n. the unperturbed case physically means no external stimuli or information arrives to the cortical neurons and hence to the water molecules, therefore one can easily consider that, 𝐻 = 0. the second term of the total hamiltonian is instantly time and position dependant, 𝐻 = 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡), represents the mutual interaction between the external quantized electromagnetic waves and electrical and magnetic dipole moments of the water molecules. hence, the interaction hamiltonian is comprised of two terms namely the electrical interaction and the magnetic interaction terms. then the overall interaction hamiltonian can be given by the sum of the two terms, 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) = 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) + 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) (22) the interaction of the external electric field and the electrical dipole moment in simplest form is very strongly time and space dependant and is written by, 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) = −𝝁𝒆𝑬(𝒓, 𝑡) (23) m. erol resolution of brain-based consciousness as a quantum information field 47 or in more detailed form is written by 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) = −𝝁𝒆 ∑ 〈 〉 ℏ 𝑒 𝒌𝒓𝑒 + 𝑒 𝒌𝒓𝑒 𝒖𝒆,, (24) this electrical interaction hamiltonian is highly dependent on the distribution of the angle 𝜃 between the electrical field, assumed to be in the z direction, and the actual electrical dipole orientation, hence one needs to calculate the mean value to reach a meaningful interaction hamiltonian. the hamiltonian is then just determined by the electrical field component of the dipole moment as a result of the scalar product, that is 𝜇 = 𝜇 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 denotes the z component of the electrical dipole moment. employing the classical maxwell boltzmann distribution function, one can easily calculate the mean value of the cosine of the angle 𝜃 which approaches to the well known langevin function; that is; 〈𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃〉 = 𝐿(𝑥) = 𝑐𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑥 − (25) where 𝑥 = where k denotes the boltzmann’s constant and using x ≪ 1 approach yields the langevin function to and the mean value of the z component of the electrical dipole moment is given by, 〈𝜇 〉 = 𝜇 〈𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃〉 = ( , ) (26) it is now straightforward to extract the overall hamiltonian due only to the external electric field component of the quantized electromagnetic fields; that is, 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) = − ( , ) (27) in analogous with the electrical interaction described above, the hamiltonian term due to the interaction between the magnetic moment and the external magnetic field is given by, 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) = −𝝁𝒃𝑩𝒌, (𝒓, 𝑡) (28) and the magnetic interaction hamiltonian is given by. 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) = −𝝁𝒃 ∑ 〈 〉 ℏ 𝑒 𝒌𝒓𝑒 + 𝑒 𝒌𝒓𝑒 𝒖𝒆,𝒋 × 𝒖𝒌,𝒋, (29) where 𝝁𝒃 denotes the overall magnetic moment of the water molecules. the magnetic moment of the water molecules is due to the orbital and spin movements of the electrons within the atoms, namely two h and one o atom. hence both spin and orbital magnetic moments ought to be taken into account. therefore, the overall magnetic moment term 𝝁𝒃 includes both the orbital 𝝁𝒍 and spin 𝝁𝒔 movements of the electrons, hence it can be written by, 𝝁𝒃 = 𝝁𝒍 + 𝝁𝒔 (30) similarly, what counts here, concerning the overall magnetic interaction hamiltonian and of course the interaction energy, is the magnetic field direction, that is z, of the magnetic moment; which is, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 48 𝜇 = 𝜇 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 (31) in order to get an expression for the overall interaction hamiltonian, one needs to calculate the expectation/mean value of the z component of the magnetic moment. to do so again the classical maxwell-boltzmann distribution function is used through the well known partition function and the definitions of the mean value. the final result is given by the brillouin function, 𝐵 (𝑥), that is, 〈𝜇 〉 = 𝑔𝑗𝜇 𝐵 (𝑥)=𝜇 𝐵 (𝑥) (32) where 𝑥 = and 𝜇 denotes a unit magnetic moment, 𝜇 = 𝑔𝑗𝜇 ; g is the lande factor, j denotes the total angular momentum quantum number and 𝜇 states the bohr magneton. using x ≪ 1 limit condition yields the brillouin function approaching to 𝐵 (𝑥) = similar to the langevin function. this leads the z component of the overall magnetic moment to the result of, 〈𝜇 〉 = ( , ) (33) the final conclusion for the interaction hamiltonian between the magnetic field component of the external magnetic field and the overall magnetic moment, that is the orbital and spin magnetic moments together, 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) = − ( , ) (34) the expression for the interaction hamiltonian is given by, 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) = − ( , ) − ( , ) (35) overall, the hamiltonian relating the water molecules interacting with the external stimuli or quantized electromagnetic waves is given by. 𝐻(𝑟, 𝑡) = ℏ𝜔 𝑎 𝑎 + + − ( , ) − ( , ) (36) in the final expression above, the individual electrical dipole moment for the water molecules is measured to be about 𝜇 = 2𝑒𝑑 = 9,85 . 10 𝐶𝑚 at about room temperatures. and the overall magnetic moment including the orbital and spin components is measured to be about 𝜇 = 2.45. 10 𝐽/𝑇 again at room temperatures, t denotes the body temperature which is about 309,6 k. 4. time dependant perturbation approach to brain-based consciousness human beings continuously receive huge number of signals from the surroundings by touching, smelling, tasting, seeing and hearing through the sensory organs and also via the internal neuron networks from the inner body. all that information is eventually converted to specific quantized electromagnetic waves as formulated previously and reaches to the network of the relating cortical neurons. the cortical neurons within the cytoplasm are shaped by the cytoskeleton structures that are surrounded the ordered water molecules which exhibit very interesting physical and chemical properties as summarized previously. continuously arriving external information makes the brain physically an open system which must be treated very carefully. therefore the m. erol resolution of brain-based consciousness as a quantum information field 49 brain ought to be considered as an open quantum information system physically stable unless an external information or energy arrives. hence, any external information can surely be considered as a perturbation term that influences the overall energy/field of the consciousness which is expressed by the actual hamiltonian. previously it was suggested that, highly ordered water molecules within the cytoplasm, maintaining macroscopic electrical and magnetic dipoles, interact with the quantized electromagnetic fields that lead to the generation of nambu-goldstone bosons/cons, which are longrange coherence mediating quanta in accordance with the well known quantum field theory (jibu et.al. 1997). the created nambu-goldstone bosons build the quantum information field which is, in fact, equivalent to the consciousness and named as consciousness-on abbreviated as “con” throughout this work. the present work offers that the specific quantized electromagnetic waves interacting with the ordered water molecules through the well known time dependant perturbation. the hamiltonian for the ordered water molecules, which are thought to be responsible for the cellular activities through the cytoskeleton structures, ought to have two terms namely the harmonic oscillator term and the perturbation term. hence the overall hamiltonian for any water molecule can be expressed by, 𝐻 = 𝐻 (𝑟) + 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) (37) where 𝐻 (𝑟) denotes the stable and time independent part of the water molecules which simply equals to the harmonic oscillator hamiltonian, defined by the equation (19), 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡) represents the perturbation term which is very strongly time dependant and purely determined by the external information or the external quantized electromagnetic waves resolved previously and given by the equation (35). the hamiltonian in fact expresses the instant state of the global personal consciousness. any information/stimuli arrives at the cortical neurons influences the interaction hamiltonian term and varies the consciousness as a perturbation. the wave functions accompanying the bosons/cons and specifying the physical behavior for the unperturbed stable situation, is simply given by the time independent schrödinger equation that is, 𝐻 (r)ψ (r) = e ψ (r) (38) where e is the total mechanical energy of the quantum state of n for the unperturbed case, previously given by (20) and ψ (r) denotes the relevant space dependant wave function is given by the equation (21) previously. overall time and space dependant wave functions for the unperturbed situation is given by the well known superposition of the unperturbed wave functions, including a time independent complex parameter, 𝑐 , ψ(𝑟, 𝑡) = ∑ 𝑐 ψ (r)exp [ − ℏ ] (39) any external information/energy reaching to the brain’s cortical neurons influences the hamiltonian and the mind/consciousness as a perturbation and accordingly creates a nambu goldstone boson/con and those bosons are physically accompanied by the waves defined above. in the expression above, the complex coefficient 𝑐 denotes the occurrence probability amplitude for the quantum state of n. the overall hamiltonian including the unperturbed and interaction terms then must be complied with the time and space dependant schrödinger equation which is given by, 𝑖ℏ ψ(𝑟, 𝑡) = [𝐻 (𝑟) + 𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡)]ψ(𝑟, 𝑡) (40) the general solution of the time and space dependant schrödinger wave equation is simultaneously composed of all the possible states and is given by, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 50 ψ(𝑟, 𝑡) = ∑ 𝑐 (𝑡)ψ (r)exp [ − ℏ ] (41) this expression simultaneously holds infinite possible quantum states just like the mind/consciousness and this property is known as the superposition principle. in the equation above 𝑐 (𝑡) denotes the probability amplitude of the quantum state of n. the probability amplitude is time dependant, in fact, indicates the very complicated interaction between the environment and the overall hamiltonian or consciousness/mind and describes the weight of the occurrence of a specific case within the overall possibilities. the energy term, e , is the total mechanical energy of the quantum state of n for the unperturbed case and ψ (r) denotes the space dependant wave function for the unperturbed quantum state of n. substitution of ψ(𝑟, 𝑡) into the time dependant schrödinger equation gives, 𝑖ℏ c (𝑡) = ∑ 𝑐 (𝑡)〈𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡)〉exp [ ℏ (e − e )t] (42) where 〈𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡)〉 denotes the mean/expected value of the time dependant interaction hamiltonian for the consciousness/mind. any instant information/energy reaching the consciousness/mind leads to a new expected/mean value which immediately changes the overall state. this purely time and externally dependant mean value actually expresses the rapidly changing human consciousness state and indeed psychology. the perturbation hamiltonian can be averaged by the initial quantum state, m, and the final quantum state, n, through the transition process, 〈𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡)〉 = ∫ ψ ∗(r)𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡)ψ (r)𝑑𝑉 (43) the interaction hamiltonian given above is the mean/expected value at any instant of t for the transition between the quantum states of m and n. the probability amplitude for the transition from the quantum state m to the final quantum state n due to the external stimulation is simply given by, c (𝑡) = − ℏ ∫ 〈𝐻 (𝑟, t́)〉exp [ ℏ (e − e )t́]dt́ (44) this expression is very important in the sense that it describes the probability of being in the quantum state of n for the consciousness. finally, actual probability for the transition from the quantum state m to the quantum state n is given by the squared amplitude, 𝑃 (𝑡) = |𝑐 (𝑡)| (45) this is the term, offered by the well-known time dependant perturbation theory, is assumed to be maintained for the interaction of the consciousness/mind and the external information. the environmental information/stimuli or energy primarily transformed to the quantized electromagnetic waves, described previously, eventually reaches to the ordered water molecules of the cortical neurons causing nambu goldstone boson/con emission in accordance with the energy conservation. assuming that the external information creates a single boson and increases the number bosons by just one, then the following interaction hamiltonian can be written for the process; 𝐻 = − + ∑ (〈𝑛 〉 + 1)ℏ𝜔 𝑒 ( 𝒌𝒓) (46) in the equation above (〈𝑛 〉 + 1)ℏ𝜔 represents the actual boson/con emission with the energy quanta of ℏ𝜔 . the external stimuli in fact instantaneous and of course continuous therefore m. erol resolution of brain-based consciousness as a quantum information field 51 the boson/con emission is called stimulated emission just like in the process of lasers. the sum is done over all the possible modes which is simply given by 𝑘 = 𝑛, n is being the positive integer and the angular frequency can be given by 𝜔 = 𝑐𝑘. the number of modes obviously depends on the actual size of the relevant neuron. the overall interaction hamiltonian is expressed by the superposition of all modes. the interaction or perturbation hamiltonian includes a parameter representing the material specifications and it is represented by z and is given by, 𝑍 = + (47) where 𝑉 denotes the neuron size, t is the absolute temperature, 𝜇 denotes the electrical dipole moment and 𝜇 specific magnetic dipole moment of the water molecules. the perturbation hamiltonian due to the externally driven boson emission can now be written in a simpler form, that is, 𝐻 = −𝑍 ∑ (〈𝑛 〉 + 1)ℏ𝜔 𝑒 ( 𝒌𝒓), (48) all the information arriving to the cortical neurons with the wave vector/mode k and polarization of j creates nambu-goldstone bosons/cons with the boson energy of ℏ𝜔 according to the hamiltonian above. the interaction hamiltonian is purely due to the external information created by the sensory organs and transferred to the cortical neurons via the synaptic network. the external sensory information flow to the mind/consciousness is surely continuous and varies with time very strongly. therefore, the mean value of the interaction hamiltonian is undoubtedly much more useful to understand the ongoing processes. the average of the hamiltonian in fact describes the instantaneous state of the consciousness and consequently the psychology. the perturbation term by definition is averaged over the unperturbed stable eigen functions for a single polarization (j=1) and given by, 〈𝐻 (𝑟, 𝑡)〉 = −𝑍 ∑ (〈𝑛 〉 + 1)ℏ𝜔 ∫ ψ ∗(r)𝑒 𝒌𝒓ψ (r)𝑑𝑉 (49) the expression above indicates that the current state of the consciousness depends on the number of k modes coming from the outside, the average number of bosons and the expected /mean value of the waves accompanying the bosons. the occurrence probability amplitude of the quantum state of n depends on the interaction between the external quantized electromagnetic waves and the magnetic and electrical dipole moments of the cellular water molecules within the cytoplasm that is expressed by the time dependant coefficients which is given by, c (𝑡) = ℏ ∑ (〈𝑛 〉 + 1)ℏ𝜔 ψ (r) 𝑒 𝒌𝒓 ψ (r) ∫ exp [ ℏ (e − e + ℏω )t́]dt́ (50) the equation above assumes that the photon with an energy of ℏω in the mode of k, transfers the energy to a water molecule that has ordinary harmonic oscillator energy eigen values of e and e . the transition probability from the state m to the state n is simply given by the squared amplitude of the time dependant coefficient of, c (𝑡) , p (𝑡) = 𝑍 ∑ (〈𝑛 〉 + 1) 𝜔 ψ (r) 𝑒 𝒌𝒓 ψ (r) ∫ exp 2i[(ω − ω ) + ω ]t́]dt́ (51) this equation essentially indicates that the probability of finding the consciousness/mind in the quantum state of n. the boson statistics offers no limit to the number bosons within any brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 52 quantum state hence an infinite number of bosons with coherent waves can be realised for n and this property gives the consciousness the power to function perfectly. the overall probability can be stated as the multiplication of four separate parameters in simpler manner, p (𝑡) = 𝑍 𝑓(𝑛 )𝑓 (𝑟)𝑓 (𝑡) (52) the first parameter influencing the state of the consciousness/mind, that is the probability, is the media term, that is, 𝑍 = + (53) this is the parameter determined by the electrical, magnetic and physical properties of the neurons. more specifically the physical volume of the neurons, temperature, magnetic and electrical dipole moments of the ordered water molecules, electrical and magnetic permittivity of the neurons describe the parameter. this parameter would be almost the same for everybody and individuality would make no difference. the other parameter could be called as mode parameter and is given by, 𝑓(𝑛 ) = (〈𝑛 〉 + 1) 𝜔 (54) the modal parameter depends on the average number of bosons/cons, that is 𝑛 , created for the mode frequency of 𝜔 . this mode parameter is purely determined by the external wave vector of k and therefore highly experience dependant and expresses the individuality and uniqueness of the personal psychology and consciousness/mind. the state of global personal consciousness/mind and therefore the probability expression p (𝑡) also depends on a spatial parameter that is, 𝑓 (𝑟) = ψ (r) 𝑒 𝒌𝒓 ψ (r) (55) this equation states spatial dependence of the state of global consciousness for any single mode of k. the parameter is determined by the unperturbed waves averaged between the initial state of m and the final state of n. the expectation value of the plane waves is also known as the matrix element and determines the position of the emitted photon. the position of the emitted photon is very crucial because it also determines the neuron or ensemble of neurons to ignite. the last parameter can be named as the time parameter since it describes the time dependence of the consciousness/mind and simply averages the time dependence part of the schrödinger waves. in the equation above the external stimuli injects the neuron system a specific quantised energy of ℏω and the unperturbed harmonic oscillator system interact with the coming energy in the sense that when 𝜔 = 𝜔 − 𝜔 = 𝜔 then the frequency parameter, ∆ = 2[(ω − ω ) + ω ], equals to zero which results the time dependant factor, that is, 𝑓 (𝑡) = ∫ exp [i∆ t́]dt́ = ∆ 𝑠𝑖𝑛 ∆ (56) equals to unity. this is the physical situation making the unperturbed consciousness/mind making a transition from the state m to the quantum state of n accompanied by the emission of a nambugoldstone boson/con with the energy of ℏω = ℏ(ω − ω ) this is also the condition for the energy conservation, taking into account of the overall modes coming from the sensory organs as m. erol resolution of brain-based consciousness as a quantum information field 53 the environmental information. any single information results a boson/con emission and all those bosons/cons are assumed to build the actual consciousness for the human beings. 5. emergence of quantum information field the approach employed in this work considers that the human brain is a unique organ in the sense that, it continuously receives the environmental information through the sensory organs and transfers the information to the consciousness in the form of quantised particles, bosons. the consciousness, as the ultimate control centre of the brain and hence human activities, is created by the brain as an epiphenomenon, more specifically via the interaction of the externally derived and quantised electromagnetic fields and the electrical dipole and magnetic moments of the water molecules within the cytoplasm of the cortical neurons (ricciardi & umezawa, 1967; jibu &yasue, 1997; vitiello, 1995). the process starts by receiving the external information via the sensory organs and internal information via the neuron network that are instantly converted to the action potentials or neurotransmitters. standard maxwell equations eventually transform the action potentials to the quantised electromagnetic fields such that every single bit of information maintains the very individuality. the quantised electromagnetic fields instantaneously interact with the electrical and magnetic dipole moments of the water molecules within the cytoplasm concluding the transfer of the external energy/information to the relating cortical neurons. the water molecules of the cortical neurons accordingly create the specific bosons which are the quanta of the quantum information field (qif) creating the actual consciousness/mind. the quanta of the qif could be named as consciousness-on or shortly‘con’. in order to analyse and model the consciousness/mind one surely needs to employ the standard quantum field theory. to start with, a non-hermitian consciousness operator, c, ought to be defined in order to characterize the consciousness and it is accountable for the creation and annihilation of the cons or so-called nambu-goldstone bosons. the consciousness is actually created by our overall past experiences and affirms the uniqueness of the individual personality. every single sensory data immediately transformed to quantized electromagnetic waves which adds up to the existing quantum field, consciousness/mind, by creation of a boson/con. the consciousness operator ‘c’ and its hermitian conjugate ‘𝐶 ’ has the property of destroying one boson/con or creating a boson/con, with the function state ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) , respectively. the creation of a boson/con due to the external information/energy is expressed by, 𝐶 ψ (𝑟, 𝑡)=ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) (57) whereas the annihilation of a boson/con is affirmed by, 𝐶 ψ (𝑟, 𝑡)=ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) (58) in these equations, n denotes any quantum number or alternatively existing number of cons/bosons or occupation number for the wave vector of k and ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) represents the relevant wave function which, based on the previous chapters, can be written by, ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) = 𝑐 (𝑡)ψ (r)exp −iω t (59) where 𝑐 (𝑡) , given previously, denotes the complex coefficient for the quantum state of n , and mode of k, ψ (r) states the space dependant state vector for the unperturbed case given previously by (21) and ω denotes the angular frequency for the unperturbed state. this is the standard quantum field theory; the operators are known as ladder operators since they increase or decrease the occupation number of a state vector by just one every time. the full mental space brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 54 specifically due to the external information of k defining the mental hilbert space {𝑘} (which is a truncated hilbert space) can be given ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) = ∑ ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) (60) the consciousness is constructed and continuously altered by the externally driven sensory information which is expressed by simply the wave vector of k, hence global personal consciousness/mind consists of all the wave functions and can now be articulated by, ψ(𝑟, 𝑡) = ∏ 𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡) (61) the states ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) are the independent linear orthogonal vectors of fock space defining the hilbert space of consciousness while the orthogonal linear vectors ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) constitute the mental subspace of certain k modes. the operators {𝐶 } are initiators of cognitive functions and are instruction protocols like all operators in quantum mechanics. neurons are the conduits of mental action, not the other way around. information functional space {𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡)} is to neurons what software is to the electronic hardware comprising a computer. the assembly of wave functions ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) constitutes the conceptual mental space on which our k-dependant mental life is constructed. in addition to the creation operator, 𝐶 , we have its conjugate identical, the corresponding annihilation operator, 𝐶 , that has the instruction to destroy an existing boson in the mode of k, thus decreasing number of bosons/cons already existing in the state ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) by one. by definition the vacuum state itself is annihilated by its action on the actual wave function for all k values, 𝐶 ψ (𝑟, 𝑡)=0. the joint action of these two operators can describe a third operator, could be named as number operator, 𝑛 and maintains to count the number of bosons/cons in a given neuron. the number operator together with the joint operation of the creation and annihilation operators can be described as, 𝐶 c ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) = 𝑛 ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) = ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) (62) in the equation, n is just the occupation number or more specifically the number of bosons/cons involved with the wave number of k. the expression also indicates that the eigen value for the number operator is simply equal to unity. the boson/con creation and destruction operators can also be defined in terms of the overall wave function of 𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡), comprised of all the possible states of n , 𝐶 ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) = 𝜙 𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡) and 𝐶 ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) = ϕ ∗𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡) (63) these equations point out that the destruction operator has a complex eigen value of ϕ which specifies an order parameter for the wave functions to become coherent. similar properties can surely be written for the creation operator. the order parameter ϕ , the eigen value of the destruction operator of 𝐶 , is defined as a complex number hence the destruction operator must be a non-hermitian operator. in this case, the destruction operator average 〈𝐶 〉 precisely equals to ϕ , ⟨𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡)|𝐶 |𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡)⟩=ϕ (64) the complex order parameter of ϕ physically determines the phase angle relating the individual wave vectors of ψ (𝑟, 𝑡). the coherence of the wave functions accompanying all the bosons/cons is vital to perform and manage consciousness and therefore neuron activities. m. erol resolution of brain-based consciousness as a quantum information field 55 the external information basically changes the mean/expected value of the occupation number. hence the mean occupation number must be related to the joint operation of creation and destruction operators and of course to the order parameters. this relation is very straight forward and can be expressed by, 〈𝑛 〉 = ⟨𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡)|𝑛 |𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡)⟩ = 𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡) 𝐶 𝐶 𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡) =ϕ∗ ϕ (65) the cons are assumed to be bose particles, in contrast to fermions which occupy any space only one at a time, bosons have the advantage that they can be generated at any space as many as one wants by repeated application of the creation operator on vacuum. any number of n bosons/cons can crowd into any single wave function of ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) . in order to obtain coherent wave functions suggestive of the coherent mental states just one single wave number of k is assumed. the standard quantum field theory offers that the coherent glauber states of bosons/cons can be written in terms of the vacuum state wave vector and complex order parameter; ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) = exp (ϕ ϕ ∗ )ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) (66) the coherent state is made out of varying number of bosons/cons and the equation (65) states that the average occupation number is simply equal to the joint operation of the creation and annihilation operators. the coherent state due to the mode k, in the zeroth order, is also given by the exponential form that is, ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) = ∑ ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) = 𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡) + (ϕ ϕ ∗)ψ (𝑟, 𝑡) + ( ∗) ! 𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡) + ⋯ (67) the remarkable aspect of this wave function is the possibility that at any given time, there can be any number of bosons/cons in the wave vector of k and the, 𝜙 are complex order parameters. if we choose these parameters sensibly, then the different probability amplitudes 𝜙 ϕ ∗of each of the fock state n will add up constructively to give a macroscopic amplitude of bosons/cons only if they have a common phase angle 𝜃 : when this happens we get the coherent states of ψ (𝑟, 𝑡). the equation (65) actually offers a smart expression for the order parameter, which is, ϕ = 〈𝑛 〉 exp (iθ ) (68) assuming the individual personalities, different functions of {𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡)} must of course be distinguishable. although the electrical signals/action potential waves traveling through the neurons are all alike to start with, what eventually distinguish them one from the other is the response they provoke in the different sensory channels? the overall coherent state due to all {𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡)} functions can now be determined. concerning the global coherent mental wave function, one can write the product wave function, that is ψ = ∏ 𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡) (69) this expression, by simply substituting the equation (66), can also be expressed as brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 56 ψ = ∏ exp(∑ ϕ ϕ ∗)𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡) = 𝑒𝑥𝑝 (φ 𝛷∗ )𝛹 (𝑟, 𝑡) (70) the coherent mental state ψ has the pleasant property of being able to single out a given function order parameter when it is acted upon by the function field operator, 𝐶 , 𝐶 φ = 𝜙 𝛷 (71) the global cognitive wave function ψ allows simultaneous measurements in all functional modes k and this is why these operators {𝐶 } commute. we can write for the global order parameter φ 𝛷∗ 𝛷 = ∑ 𝛷∗ 𝜙 = ∑ 〈𝑛 〉 = 𝑁 (72) here 𝑁 is the global average information population in the cortical brain summed over all the modes. now, a global cognitive order parameter φ emerges with one single phase angle 𝜃 to signify over-all phase coherence of the quantum information field. the expression above allows us to write for the global cognitive order in the form of, φ = 𝑁 exp (iθ ) (73) in order to obtain the global order, we have summed over all neuron labels. this emphasizes the fact that the cognitive order parameter φ represents in reality the full mental space. the individual label and phase of each neuron has disappeared from the global cognitive order which has emerged with its own global phase θ independent of space and time. the global order parameter can be defined as the operator average of the global destruction operator of consciousness c, which is written as φ = ⟨𝛹 |𝐶|𝛹 ⟩ (74) now the self-operator has taken a macroscopic significance. the expression suggests the global personality of ‘i’ and it has emerged as a result of global phase coherence between 𝑁 information bits. the meaning of the global cognitive order is 𝛷 = 𝐼 . this phase coherence is brought about by more and more rapid information transfer through synaptic connections between neurons. a critical neuron bandwidth or connectivity must occur before, i can emerge. the unique global phase angle θ , for φ with which order parameter emerges is a symmetry breaking transition. any other θ would have been equally good from the point of view of total energy of the cognitive system, but this θ and only this one, the order parameter φ of the brain system has chosen and retains throughout one's whole life. the expression is named as i; precisely because this unique 𝑁 confers on each individual his individuality, the imprint of a unique personality. the subjective self given by 〈𝐶〉 breaks the symmetry of the mental space {𝑛 }; a subjective-objective symmetry so to speak. from this point onwards, self and self-consciousness emerges as the hallmark of a stable personality. mathematically the unique global phase 𝜃 , translates the fact that the boson/con population 𝑁 is a variable number and the coherent brain ground state that fixes 𝜃 can be expressed in the form ψ (𝜃) = ∑ ψ(𝑁 ) exp (𝑖𝑁 𝜃 ) (75) δ𝑁 δ 𝜃 ~1 (76) m. erol resolution of brain-based consciousness as a quantum information field 57 the uncertainty relationship between phase locking of the global wave function and its information content is fundamental to the coherency of all brain processes. 6.conclusions this work has handled the solid problem of mind-matter by philosophically assuming the physicalism along with the approach of property dualism which states that the mental properties involving conscious experience can purely be resolved by the physical laws. to start with the human structure is completely analysed by considering the nervous system primarily separating the consciousness from the brain and engaging the ultimate control to the consciousness which is assumed to be appearing as an epiphenomenon of the brain. specifically speaking the brain-based consciousness is considered to be a dynamic open quantum system continuously influenced by the external sensory information. the external sensory information is assumed to be confined and quantised within the volume of the cortical neurons and interacting with the ordered water molecules and creating the actual hamiltonian for the consciousness. effectively the hamiltonian of the brain-based consciousness is supposed to be due to the electrical and magnetic moments of highly ordered water molecules of the cortical neurons, physically influencing the overall hamiltonian as the perturbation terms. therefore, the standard time dependant perturbation theory is assumed to be dominating the dynamical structure of the consciousness and treated accordingly. in this case, any specific sensory information that is expressed by the quantised electromagnetic field is considered to be creating the specific nambu-goldstone bosons/cons. finally, overall human consciousness and therefore being ‘i’ is assumed to be emerging by means of those bosons and standard quantum field theory is considered to be governing all the processes of the human consciousness, such as thoughts, beliefs, emotions, psychology, personality etc. the approach presented here is significant in the sense that it solidly connects the environmental information, in other words the living experiences, to the physical brain and further to the abstract concept of consciousness. this means that the built up of the human consciousness and hence the human psychology and personality and therefore individual beliefs and thoughts all strongly depend on the past experiences. this model could surely be beneficial for some practical applications and further improvement on resolving complicated brain functions, psychological issues and anomalies and vital educational problems. 7. acknowledgments i would like to thank abdullah vercin from ankara university, altuğ özpineci from middle east technical university and durmuş ali demir from izmir higher institute of technology for some important exchange of views. references penrose, r., davies, p., abbott, d., & pati, a. (2008). quantum aspects of life. imperial college press. appleby, d.m. (2013). mind and matter. arndt, m., juffmann, t., & vedral, v. (2009). quantum physics meets biology. hfsp journal, 3(6), 386-400. ball, p. (2011). physics of life: the dawn of quantum biology. nature, 474(7351), 272-274. bass, l. (1975). a quantum mechanical mind-body interaction. foundations of physics, 5(1), 159172. beck, f., & eccles, j. (1992). quantum aspects of brain activity and the role of consciousness. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 89(23), 11357-11361. behera, l., kar, i., & elitzur, a. (2005). a recurrent quantum neural network model to describe eye tracking of moving targets. foundations of physics letters, 18(4), 357-370. bohm, d., & hiley, b. (1993). the undivided universe (chap.15). london: routledge. bohr, n. (1958) atomic physics and human knowledge. new york: wiley. bohr, n. (1963) essays 1958/1962 on atomic physics and human knowledge, new york: wiley. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 58 chalmers, d. (1996) facing up to the problem of consciousness, journal of consciousness studies, 2(3), 200–219. collini, e., wong, c., wilk, k., curmi, p., brumer, p., & scholes, g. (2010). coherently wired light-harvesting in photosynthetic marine algae at ambient temperature. nature, 463(7281), 644-647. descartes, r., (1641) meditations on first philosophy, in cottingham et al. (eds.), the philosophical writings of rene descartes, cambridge: cambridge university press (1985). eccles, j.c. (1973) the understanding of the brain. new york: mcgraw hill. eccles, j.c. (1990). a unitary hypothesis of mind--brain interaction in the cerebral cortex. proceedings of the royal society b: biological sciences, 240(1299), 433-451. eisert, j. & wiseman, h. (2007) quantum aspects of life, in nontrivial quantum effects in biology: a skeptical physicists view, world scientific, singapore. engel, g., calhoun, t., read, e., ahn, t., mančal, t., & cheng, y. et al. (2007). evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems. nature, 446(7137), 782-786. erol, m. (2010). schrödinger wave equation and function: basics and concise relations with consciousness/mind. neuroquantology, 8(1), 101-109. freeman, w.j. & vitiello, g. (2006) nonlinear brain dynamics as macroscopic manifestation of underlying many-body field dynamics, physics of life reviews, 3(2), 93–118. freeman, w.j. & vitiello, g (2008) dissipation and spontaneous symmetry breaking in brain dynamics, journal of physics, a41, 304042. georgiev, d. (2002) the causal consciousness: β-neurexin promotes neuromediator release via vibrational multidimensional tunnelling. georgiev, d. (2003) electric and magnetic fields inside neurons and their impact upon the cytoskeletal microtubules. hameroff, s. & penrose, r. (1996) orchestrated reduction of quantum coherence in brain microtubules: a model for consciousness, journal of consciousness studies, 3(1), 36-53. heisenberg, w. (1958) physics and philosophy. new york: harper and row. hopfield, j.j. (1982) neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities, proc nat. acad. sci. usa, 79, 2554-2558. hiscock, h. g., worster, s., kattnig, d. r., steers, c., jin, y., manolopoulos, d. e., et al. (2016) the quantum needle of the avian magnetic compass. proc. natl. acad. sci. u.s.a. 113, 4634–4639. huelga, s. f. and plenio, m. b. (2013). vibrations, quanta and biology. contemp. phys. 54, 181– 207. hunter, p. (2006). a quantum leap in biology. one inscrutable field helps another, as quantum physics unravels consciousness. embo rep. 7, 971–974. inouye, s., chikkatur, a. p., stamper-kurn, d. m., stenger, j., pritchard, d. e. & ketterle, w. (1999) superradiant rayleigh scattering from a bose-einstein condensate. science, 285, 571. isart, o.r. (2010) toward quantum superposition of living organisms. jibu, m. & yasue, m. (1995) quantum brain dynamics and consciousness: an introduction. advances in consciousness studies, j.b. publishers, amsterdam. jibu, m. & yasue, k. (1997) what is mind? quantum field theory of evanescent photons in brain as quantum theory of consciousness, informatica, 21, 471-490. klinman, j. p. and kohen, a. (2013) hydrogen tunnelling links protein dynamics to enzyme catalysis. annu. rev. biochem. 82, 471–496. jibu, m., yasue, k. & hagan, s. (1997) evanescent (tunnelling) photon and cellular ‘vision’. biosystems, 42, 65-73. lee, h., cheng, y.c. and fleming, g. r. (2007) coherence dynamics in photosynthesis: protein protection of excitonic coherence. science, 316, 1462–1465. m. erol resolution of brain-based consciousness as a quantum information field 59 lotka, a.j. (1925) elements of physical biology. loewenstein, w. r. (ed.). (2013). “quantum sensing,” in physics in mind: a quantum view of the brain, chap. 5 (new york, ny: basic books). marshall, i.n. (1989) consciousness and bose-einstein condensates, new ideas in psychology, 7, 73. mensky, m.b. (2014) super-intuition and correlations with the future in quantum consciousness panitchayangkoon, g., hayes, d., fransted, k. a., caram, j. r., harel, e., wen, j., et al. (2010) long-lived quantum coherence in photosynthetic complexes at physiological temperature. proc. natl. acad. sci. u.s.a. 107, 12766–12770. panitchayangkoon, g., voronine, d. v., abramavicius, d., caram, j. r., lewis, n. h. c., mukamel, s., et al. (2011) direct evidence of quantum transport in photosynthetic lightharvesting complexes. proc. natl. acad. sci. u.s.a. 108, 20908–20912. parent, a. & carpenter, m.b. (1995) ch. 1, carpenter's human neuroanatomy, williams & wilkins. pauen, m. (2001) grundprobleme der philosophie des geistes, frankfurt, fischer. penrose, r. (1986) the emperor’s new mind, new york: oxford. penrose, r. (1989) the emperor’s new mind: concerning computers, minds and the laws of physics, oxford university press: new york. penrose, r. (1994) shadows of mind: a search for the missing science of consciousness. oxford university press: oxford. popper, k.r. & eccles, j.c. (1977) the self and its brain, berlin: springer. plenio, m. b. and huelga, s. f. (2008). dephasing-assisted transport: quantum networks and biomolecules. new j. phys. 10, 113019. pribram, k. h. (1996) some dimensions of remembering: steps towards a neurophysiological theory of memory. in j. gaito (ed.), macromolecules and behavior, new york: academic press, 165-187 pribram, k.h. (1969) brain and behaviour, hammondsworth: penguin books. pribram, k. h. (1991) brain and perception, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. ricciardi, l.m. & umezawa, h. (1967) brain and physics of many-body problems, kybernetik, 4, 44–48. sarovar, m., ishizaki, a., fleming, g. r., and birgitta whaley, k. (2010) quantum entanglement in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes. nat. phys. 6, 462–467. stapp, h. p. (1991) quantum propensities and the brain-mind connection, foundations of physics, 21(12), 1451. stapp, h. p. (1993) mind, matter and quantum mechanics, springer-verlag, new york. stapp, h.p. (2001) quantum theory and the role of mind in nature. found. phys. 31, 1465-1499. stapp, h. p. (2009) a model of the quantum-classical and mind-brain connections and of the role of the quantum zeno effect, physical implementation of conscious intent. vitiello, g. (1995) dissipation and memory capacity in the quantum brain model, international journal of modern physics, b9, 973–989. vitiello, g. (2001) my double unveiled the dissipative quantum model of brain, j. benjamins publ. company, amsterdam/philadelphia. wang, q., schoenlein, r. w., peteanu, l. a., mathies, r. a., and shank, c. v. (1994) vibrationally coherent photochemistry in the femtosecond primary event of vision. science 266, 422–424. zhang. x. (2011) the emergence of consciousness in the quantum universe. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 60 mustafa erol (b. march 21, 1965) received his bachelor of science (bsc) in physics from department of physics of ege university, in 1986, he received his phd on condensed matter physics from department of physics of lancaster university, in 1992. he currently holds a professorship at education faculty of buca at dokuz eylül university, i̇zmir. he recently focuses on some foundations of quantum theory, modeling of consciousness and a variety of subjects on physics education. microsoft word special-issue-asamblare.docx 55 anxiety and depression in patients with cancer. a case report păduraru marius ionuț regional institute of oncology, iași, romania grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 pad_marius89@yahoo.com jan vollmer spital johannesbad fachklinik bad füssing johannesstraße 2, 94072 bad füssing, germany phone: +49 8531 230 precupanu diana arcadia hospitals and medical centers, iași, romania phone: 004 0740 920 920 precupanu.diana@yahoo.com ciubară alexandru bogdan department of orthopaedics and traumatology emergency county hospital sf. apostol andrei, galați, romania department of clinical surgery, faculty of medicine and pharmacy dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 abciubara@yahoo.com calin tudor hozan department of surgery, faculty of medicine and pharmacy university of oradea strada universității nr. 1, oradea 410087, romania phone: 0259 408 105 hozancalin@yahoo.com dorel firescu faculty of medicine and pharmacy dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 dorelfirescu@yahoo.com ciubară anamaria elisabeta doamna psychiatric hospital, galați, romania dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract depression is among the leading causes of disability worldwide, leading in some cases, to suicide and it is considered to be the disease of the millennium. clinical depression is a common disease, and yet frequently overlooked, source of suffering among patients with cancer. anterior studies brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 56 indicate that the rate of depression in cancer patients is thought to be up to three times higher than in the general population. depression decreases the quality of life, compromises the outcomes, and results in increase the rates of mortality from cancer. clinical case: we identify a 50-year-old woman diagnosed with bilateral ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma. the imaging investigations revealed multiple metastases (ct3bn1bm1b – tnm classification). this stadium made the patient to be a candidate only for palliative chemotherapy. at first visit at the oncological specialist, the patient was worried about her health condition, but after discussing with the medical oncologist about the treatment and side effects of chemotherapy, the patient gained confidence. during a routine chemotherapy infusion, the patient reports some special side effects like increase feeling of “going through the motions” as if in a trance-like state, episodes of sudden tearfulness, and feeling like she is “out of control”. after the finish of the chemotherapy infusion, at the interview, the patient reports feeling safe, denies any self-harm or self-injurious thoughts, denies use of illicit substances and alcohol. she says that the impact of hair loss is very depressive for her. in these conditions, the oncologist decide to discuss an initial treatment plan with her that includes individual counseling. individual counseling helps the patient to complete her palliative therapies and increase her confident after the post-chemotherapy ct exam result. however, there is progression of her disease after 6 months. after this exam, she becomes despondent and is struggling to complete daily activities. she reports specific symptoms for depressive disorder: sleeping poorly and lacking appetite, and no longer enjoys spending time with her friends and family or pursuing her interests. she is preoccupied with death and has difficulty concentrating, but fortunately denies any suicidal ideation or death wishes. it was started the second line chemotherapy protocol. at this time the patient shows abandonment behavior, autolytic thoughts and drug ingestion triggered by acute family conflict, requiring psychiatric re-assessment and specialist treatment. conclusion: depression remains an under-recognised comorbidity in cancer patients, with major implications on patient suffering, mortality and healthcare expenditure. depression in cancer is markedly different from depression in healthy individuals, and involves a unique symptomatology. keywords: anxiety; depression; ovarian cancer; oncology; psycho-oncology. 1. introduction depression is among the leading causes of disability worldwide, leading in some cases, to suicide. clinical depression is a relatively common, and yet frequently overlooked, source of suffering among patients with cancer (mitchell et. al., 2011). the rate of depression in cancer patients is thought to be up to three times higher than in the general population. depression leads to a poorer quality of life, compromises patient outcomes, and results in higher rates of mortality from cancer (lemogne et. al., 2013). despite its clear impact on patients, depression continues to be under-diagnosed and inadequately treated. there are many reasons for this, ranging from the underestimation of depressive symptoms by clinicians, their widespread presence in the context of cancer, the entanglement of depressive symptoms with those associated with cancer and its treatment, or, indeed, the difficulty of clinicians in exploring emotional symptoms. concurrent with advances in cancer treatment, the importance of the psychosocial care of individuals with cancer has been increasingly recognized. in 2008, the institute of medicine in washington, d.c. (us) published cancer care for the whole patient: meeting psychosocial health needs, which documented under-detection and failure to optimally manage psychiatric disorders and psychosocial needs in patients with cancer and their families (graves, 2009). păduraru m. i., j. vollmer, precupanu d., ciubară a. b., calin t. h., d. firescu, ciubară a. anxiety and depression in patients with cancer. a case report 57 the onset and progression of psychological distress in patients with cancer, including patients with ovarian cancer, is not likely to be an acute threat that passes quickly but a chronic one with peaks and troughs of severity that occur during key stages of the cancer journey. ovarian cancer is the seventh most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the world. there were nearly 300,000 new cases in 2018 and 184,000 deaths worldwide annually (bray et. al., 2018). 2. case presentation in september 2017, a 50-year old woman with past medical history of hypertension presented for an outpatient clinic evaluation with a growing lump as large as 35/20/15 mm in her left supraclavicular fossa; she had had the mass for 2 months, which on biopsy was diagnosed as a metastatic papillary tumor. she underwent gastroenteroscopy being negative for the tumor and a thoracic computed tomography showing multiple mediastinal lymph node metastasis. finally, abdominal computed tomography showed a pelvic mass measuring 46/23 mm and retroperitoneal enlarged lymph nodes. the serum cancer antigen 125 (ca125) level was 315,6 u/ml. the patient had a gynecological oncology consultation and underwent exploratory laparotomy.the histopathology confirmed papillary serous carcinoma of both ovaries. subsequently, she was referred to the department of medical oncology for consultation. the final diagnosis was papillary serous carcinoma of the ovaries, international federation of gynecology and obstetrics (figo) stage ivb (pt3bn1bm1b). because of the metastases status, the patient was a candidate for a combination of palliative chemotherapy consisting of carboplatin auc 6 and paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 q3w. at first administration of chemotherapy, she was worried about her health condition, but after discussing with the medical oncologist about the treatment and side effects of chemotherapy, the patient gains confidence. during a routine chemotherapy infusion, the patient reports an increased feeling of episode sudden tearfulness, and feeling like she is “out of control”. during the interview, the patient reports feeling safe, denies any self-harm or selfinjurious thoughts, denies use of illicit substances and alcohol and says the impact of hair loss depresses most. the oncologist discusses an initial treatment plan with her that includes individual counseling. individual counseling greatly helps and she completes her palliative therapies and is confident after the post-chemotherapy ct exam result (mediastinal lymph nodes and pelvic mass were markedly decreased in size). carboplatin plus paclitaxel chemotherapy was administered for 6 cycles and ca125 level returned to normal. on follow-up (6 months), the patient’s serum ca125 level was increased to 115.3 u/ml and a pet/ct scan was obtained. fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography associated with computed tomography (pet/ct) images revealed areas of increased metabolic activity in the peritoneal cavity, left axillary and left supraclavicular lymph node metastases (figure 1). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 58 at this time, she becomes despondent and is struggling to complete daily activities. she reports sleeping poorly and lacking appetite, and no longer enjoys spending time with her friends and family or pursuing her interests. she is preoccupied with death and has difficulty concentrating, but denies any suicidal ideation or death wishes. the oncologist discusses a treatment plan with her that includes individual counseling and psychiatric consultation. the patient starts antidepressant treatment. in march 2018, during a second-line chemotherapy infusion, the patient shows abandonment behavior, autolytic thoughts and drug ingestion triggered by acute family conflict, requiring psychiatric re-assessment and specialist treatment. 3. discussion ovarian cancer is the seventh most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the world and in 75% of patients has already reached an advanced stage at the time of diagnosis (narod, 2016). in the present case, the patient initially presented with supraclavicular lymph node metastasis. the disease had already progressed to stage ivb. such cases have been rarely reported and usually have poor outcomes. depression is among the leading causes of disability worldwide, leading in some cases, to suicide. clinical depression is a relatively common, and yet frequently overlooked, source of suffering among patients with cancer (mitchell et. al., 2011). in two-thirds of cancer patients who experience depression, the distress may be related to cancer treatments or symptoms, may be situational, or may be addressed with problem-solving (vodermaier et. al., 2009). patients highly value their relationships with their oncologic providers, and positive support and encouragement are also meaningful interventions. at different times during treatment and recovery, people with cancer may be fearful and anxious. finding out that they have cancer or that the cancer has come back causes the most anxiety and fear. depression, anxiety, and other emotional problems can nearly always be helped with individual counseling, group support, cognitive behavioral or interpersonal therapy (antoni, 2013; condratovici, 2018). medications should be recommended for more severe symptoms (li et. al., 2012). in the confusion and stress that come after a cancer diagnosis, the emotional problems of people with cancer and those around them can often become fairly serious before they are recognized. păduraru m. i., j. vollmer, precupanu d., ciubară a. b., calin t. h., d. firescu, ciubară a. anxiety and depression in patients with cancer. a case report 59 4. conclusion depression remains an under-recognised comorbidity in cancer patients, with major implications on patient suffering, mortality and healthcare expenditure. depression in cancer is markedly different from depression in healthy individuals, and involves a unique symptomatology. consent written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. references antoni, m. (2013). psychosocial intervention effects on adaptation, disease course and biobehavioral processes in cancer. brain, behavior, and immunity, 30, s88-s98. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2012.05.009. bray, f., ferlay, j., soerjomataram, i., siegel, r., torre, l., & jemal, a. (2018). global cancer statistics 2018: globocan estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. ca: a cancer journal for clinicians, 68(6), 394-424. doi: 10.3322/caac.21492. condratovici, c. p., ilie, m., mihai, m., condratovici, a. p., chihai, j., baciu, g. (2018). anxiety associated with visit to the dentist. romanian journal of oral rehabilitation. 10(2), 86-90. graves, k. (2009). cancer care for the whole patient: meeting psychosocial health needs. written by the committee on psychosocial services to cancer patients/families in a community setting board on health care services. institute of medicine. the national academies press, washington, dc. 2008. 429pp. price: $46.95 (us), £24.99 (uk). isbn: 978-0-30911107-2. psycho-oncology, 18(3), 305-306. doi: 10.1002/pon.1478. lemogne, c., consoli, s., melchior, m., nabi, h., coeuret-pellicer, m., & limosin, f. et. al. (2013). depression and the risk of cancer: a 15-year follow-up study of the gazel cohort. american journal of epidemiology, 178(12), 1712-1720. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwt217. li, m., fitzgerald, p., & rodin, g. (2012). evidence-based treatment of depression in patients with cancer. journal of clinical oncology, 30(11), 1187-1196. doi: 10.1200/jco.2011.39.7372. mitchell, a., chan, m., bhatti, h., halton, m., grassi, l., johansen, c., & meader, n. (2011). prevalence of depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorder in oncological, haematological, and palliative-care settings: a meta-analysis of 94 interview-based studies. the lancet oncology, 12(2), 160-174. doi: 10.1016/s1470-2045(11)70002-x. narod, s. (2016). can advanced-stage ovarian cancer be cured?. nature reviews clinical oncology, 13(4), 255-261. doi: 10.1038/nrclinonc.2015.224 vodermaier, a., linden, w., & siu, c. (2009). screening for emotional distress in cancer patients: a systematic review of assessment instruments. jnci journal of the national cancer institute, 101(21), 1464-1488. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djp336. microsoft word issue-1_vol-10.docx 101 dynamic programming and greedy algorithm strategy for solving several classes of graph optimization problems manana chumburidze akaki tsereteli state university 4600, georgia, kutaisi, 59 tamar mephe st. phone: (+995 431) 24 00 36 maminachumb02@gmail.com irakli basheleishvili akaki tsereteli state university 4600, georgia, kutaisi, 59 tamar mephe st. phone: (+995 431) 24 00 36 basheleishvili.irakli@gmail.com anano khetsuriani akaki tsereteli state university 4600, georgia, kutaisi, 59 tamar mephe st. phone: (+995 431) 24 00 36 anano.khecuriani@yahoo.com abstract this article is devoted to the development of the scientific methods of dynamic programming and greedy algorithms to expose the software of innovation methods of mathematical and computational approaches in advancing modern science and teaching. the tools applied in this development are based on the graph theory, generalized approximate dynamical programming method and greedy algorithms. the results are presented on both the fundamental and applied level. keywords: dynamic programming; greedy algorithm; graph; optimization. 1. introduction the optimization problem in modern business belongs to the most general task of mathematical optimization problems. in our investigation solving this problem with general mathematical methodology and powerful algorithms as a way of furthering our interdisciplinary approach in research and teaching proceedings is considered. in this work, optimization problems for financial investment and supply management of a company, as a particular example, are considered. planning software to solve complex conservation planning problems in financial investment is delivered. investigations include the following stages of sub-problems:  statement optimization problems for financial investment of business-company (fic)  description how graph theory can be utilized as a representation language of building information models and implementation of basic concepts in a wide range of models of business processing.  construct the corresponding graphs of fic  investigation of basic solve strategies of fic  investigation of greedy algorithm strategy with respect to problems fic  justify of numerical approximation  implementation of program code for the optimization problem. 2. notations and definitive concepts this paper deals with the problem of optimal allocation of financial resources of the company, modeled with the use of directed graph-diagrams. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 102 one of the features of the modern economy is dynamism on each level of management. it defines the realization of different flows of goods and services, involves the movement and storage of raw materials during planning. the dynamic process must be balanced and optimal. the research of this problem makes the construction of a corresponding mathematical model necessary, because only through computer simulation we can determine optimal variant of the management of relevant flows of finance or goods in proper time so that they are reflected in the business plans of the company. we know many papers on the issues of optimal allocation of financial resources, using appropriate optimization methods, including (jeremy, 2012) but little work is devoted to the construction of optimal management system in the graphs. the problem of optimal management of investments relates to the problems of dynamic programming (sniedovich, 2010). in the methods of dynamic programming, the initial information is based on the consideration that in the model the real challenges are: objective; constraint condition; parameters of management. solutions of the problems occur by the method of dividing the investment operations into the multi-stage recursive procedures. profit during the entire operation is achieved from a sequence of profit at each stage separately. the problem of optimal resources management is from a class of the additional tasks. in this paper, we address several constrained optimization problems (financial investment, supply management) by using the multistage graph modeling method (berge ,1962), because the graph is a particular way for visualization of the storing and organizing dates of the investments and corresponding profits. we have constructed the software planning (sp) used to manage all types of resources and find the algorithm of greedy strategy use tooloptimizer to obtain the best results of solutions. 3. statement problem in this work, we have considered practical problems of optimal management of resources of a company to find the tour of investing projects to obtain the best available benefit given in the defined financial domain. let us consider the mathematical formulation of the problem, thus we introduce the following notations: 𝐶 = (𝐶 ) the matrix of initial values of projects investment in the company, 𝑅 = (𝑅 ) the matrix of the value of corresponding benefits (i=1,..,n; j=1,..,m), stotal sum invests of projects, nnumber of the company, m-number of projects, 𝑋 = (𝑋 ) the matrix of selected projects where 𝑋 = 1, 𝑖𝑓 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 0 , 𝑖𝑓 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 problem. it is required to construct – the matrix of optimal plan of investment in the company 𝑋 = (𝑋 ) satisfy the following conditions: constraint conditions: ∑ ∑ (𝐶 ∗ 𝑋 ) ≤ 𝑆 (1) criteria of optimization: ∑ ∑ (𝑅 ∗ 𝑋 ) → 𝑚𝑎𝑥 (2) let us consider modeling proceedings of this problem. m. chumburidze, i. basheleishvili, a. khetsuriani dynamic programming and greedy algorithm strategy for solving several classes of graph optimization problems 103 for the simplest case, we have considered the solution of the problem for the following particular case when n=3, m=4 and s=5. data value of initial investment of projects are presented in table 1. table 1. data value of initial investment project company i company ii company iii # investc1j profit-r1j invest-c2j profit-r2j invest-c2j profit-r2j 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 5 2 8 1 3 3 2 6 3 9 1 3 4 2 6 4 12 1 3 the multi-stage graph of management investment of projects in the company, corresponding the dates of the table are constructed and has the following form (look pic.1): sp program maintenance enables us to define the effective version of management of proper financial flows by using a visual diagram on each level of investment and find the optimal solution. the software performs the following procedures by using the corresponding tools:  to construct the table of date, for the particular value (table 1.)  to construct the multistage graph, corresponding the dates of table1. (look figure 1.) figure 1. directed graph of investment where pj (j=0, 1, 2, 3) designates the stage financial process for given projects of the company. the vertex (vjk , where j is the number of the stage) of the graph are used for storing the sum invests of the given stage (from the beginning to the end): v2k= v1k+ c2k ; v31=5= v2k+ c3k ; k=0..5; the nodes 0 and 5 are terminal points: 0 (only variant) defines the initial position of the system, 5 (only variant) are used for stored constraint condition. the edges of graphs are labeled by the benefits of the corresponding stage of investing plan accordingly to table 1. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 104 for example, the label of vertex, which connects v24 of p2 column to connect v31 of p3 column is labeled by the benefit -3mln corresponding the investment-1mln of the third stage. 4. problem solution we will consider the dynamical process of investment. the solution of complex problems is based on breaking them down into simpler substructures:  in the first stage the financial resources for the first company is invested, there are the six possible ways of investment between 0 flow-ofinvestment and 5 flow-ofinvestment (look at vertex of the column p1 of graph), in the nodes the column p1(first stage) the date of initial investment of first stages is stored.  in the second stage, the rest of the financial resource of the company is invested. there are the six possible ways of investment, in the nodes of column p2 (second stage) the sum invested together with the first and second stages are stored.  in the third stage, the rest of the financial resources for the company is invested. there is the only variant of investment, according to the methods of dynamic programming, in the terminal node of column p3 (third – final stage) the total sum of investment (from the beginning to the end) is stored and receives a value of financial constraints-5mln. the solution model according to the method of the dynamic programming is considered from the terminal node of column p3 before the initial node the column p0 of the graph. there are six possible ways of conditional optimal profit between p2 and p3 (look graphdiagram), for example, one of them the way 1 5 defined in p2 put in 1 million (mln) investment and in p3 put in 4mln investment, then 3mln. conditional optimal profit is given. analogically may be considered the conditional optimal profit between p1 and p2, there are six possible ways too (look graph-diagram), for example: 0 →0+15=15; 1→5+12=17; 2→6+11=17; 3→6+8=14; 4→6+3=9; 5→6+0=6. one of them: the way 1 – 4 defined in p1 put in 1mln investment and in p2 put in 3mln investment, then 3mln conditional optimal profit are given (9+3=12). for column p0-initial node (only variant) there are six possible ways of conditional optimal profit between p0 and p1. after considering all tour investing projects, the best profit -17mln is chosen. there are 3 tours of optimal plan investment:  tour(t1): 0→1→ 4 →5 defined, that in p1 put 1mln., in p2 put 3mln. and in p3 put 1 mln., accordingly to (1) and (2) elements of the matrix selected projects get the values: x21 =1 x32 = x23 = 1; x11 = x31 = x41 = x12 = x22 = x42 = x13 = x33 = x43 = 0. cost (t1) =5+9+3=17  tour(t2): 0→1→ 5→5 defined, that in p1 put 1mln., in p2 put 4mln. and in p3 put 0 mln., accordingly to (1) and (2) elements of the matrix selected projects get the values: x21 = x42 = 1; x11 = x31 = x41 = x12 = x22 = x32 = x13 = x23 = x33 = x43 = 0. cost (t2) =5+12+0=17  tour(t3): 0 → 2 → 4 →5 defined, that in p1 put 2mln., in p2 put 2mln. and in p3 put 1mln., accordingly to (1) and (2) elements of the matrix selected projects get the values: m. chumburidze, i. basheleishvili, a. khetsuriani dynamic programming and greedy algorithm strategy for solving several classes of graph optimization problems 105 x31 = x22 = x23 = 1; x11 = x21 = x41 = x12 = x32 = x42 = x13 = x33 = x43 = 0. cost (t3) = 6+8+3=17 this method is based on considering all the ways to invest all alternative projects for choosing the best profit and is called “consider all plans for selecting optimal value " but the obtained result is not achieved in reasonable time. the “dark color “indicates the tour of an approximate optimal plan of the investment project. the pseudo code of dynamic method has the form: pseudo code dynamic method ( ) { list paths; list profit; for each path in graphpaths (startvertex, endvertex) { pathprofit =0; for (i=0; i<path.verterxs.count-1; i++) { pathprofit = pathprofit + (path[i], path[i+1]).weight – (path.vertexs[i+1].labelpath.vertexs[i].label) } profit.add(pathprofit) paths.add(path) } maxprofit= profit.item[0]; pathindex=0; for (j=0;j< profit.item.count; j++) { if(maxprofit< profit.item[j]) { maxprofit= profit.item[j]; pathindex=j; } } print(path[pathindex], “›” ,maxprofit ) } greedy algorithms (bang-jensen, 2004) look for simple, easy-to-implement solutions to complex, multi-step problems by deciding which next step will provide the most obvious benefit. a greedy strategy does not produce an optimal solution in general, but nonetheless, a greedy heuristic may locally yield to the optimal solutions that approximate a global optimal solution in a reasonable time. greedy answer: 5+12+0=17 accordingly of (1) and (2) elements of the matrix selected projects get the values: x21 = x42 = 1; x11 = x31 = x41 = x12 = x22 = x32 = x13 =x23 = x33 = x43 = 0 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 106 the pseudo code for greedy algorithm has the form: pseudo codegreedy () { o[m], i[m] curentvertex=startvertex for (i=1; i<m;i++) { for each v in adj[curentvertex] { if ( ismax( (curentvertex, v ).weight-(v.label curentvertex.label)) in (curentvertex, adj [curentvertex]) ) { i[i]=v.label-i[i-1]; o[i]=(curentvertex, v).wight; curentvertex=v; } } } for (i=1; i<m;i++) { print(i[i],” ›”,o[i]) } } 5. conclusion in this work, dynamic programming and greedy algorithm strategy for solving optimization problems of fic models are investigated. the particular example of financial investment companies is considered and a corresponding multistage graph has been constructed. approximation algorithms, which solved multistage problems, have been delivered. it is important to mention that similarly to investment management, this program is able to address supply management and other logistic problems. references bang-jensen, j., gutin, g., & yeo, a. (2004). when the greedy algorithm fails. discrete optimization, 1(2), 121-127. barron, a. r., cohen, a., dahmen, w., & devore, r. a. (2008). approximation and learning by greedy algorithms. the annals of statistics, 36(1), 64-94. basheleishvili, i. (2018). the algorithm of selection and functions distribution of multifunctional personnel-case when the number of functions is greater than the number of personnel. journal of technical science and technologies, 6(2). bendall, g., & margot, f. (2006). greedy-type resistance of combinatorial problems. discrete optimization, 3(4), 288-298. berge c.( 1962.)the theory of graphs and its applications, wiley, n.y. chumburidze, m., & lekveishvili, d. (2014). approximate solution of some mixed boundary value problems of the generalized theory of couple-stress thermo-elasticity. world academy of science, engineering and technology, 6(28), 161-163. korte, b., & lovász, l. (1981, august). mathematical structures underlying greedy algorithms. in international conference on fundamentals of computation theory (pp. 205-209). springer, berlin, heidelberg. sniedovich, m. (2010). dynamic programming: foundations and principles. crc press. stein, j. c. (1997). internal capital markets and the competition for corporate resources. the journal of finance, 52(1), 111-133. m. chumburidze, i. basheleishvili, a. khetsuriani dynamic programming and greedy algorithm strategy for solving several classes of graph optimization problems 107 manana chumburidze has obtained phd degree in mathematics sciences in ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university of georgia in 1999. she is associate professor of department computer sciences at akaki tsereteli state university of georgia. she is membership of the american society of mechanical engineers (asme) and member of the scientific and technical committee of editorial review board on mechanics and computational sciences in the waset (world academy of science, engineering and technology) organization of usa. his research interests include: computer sciences, applied mathematics. irakli basheleishvili (b. march 27, 1991) received his bachelor degree in computer sciences (2012), master degree in computer science (2014), phd in computer science (2017). now he is lecturer in department of computer technology, faculty of exact and natural sciences, akaki tsereteli state university of georgia. his research interests include: software engineering, databases, information technologies in human resources management, algorithms, information systems, decision support systems, mathematical optimization methods. he has authored 2 books and more than 15 papers, more than 10 international conferences participation. anano khetsuriani, master student of computer sciences. in 2016 he was awarded the bcs of business administration; mainor education program: international relations. microsoft word document1 15 big data present opportunities and challenges andrei marcel paraschiv ștefan cel mare university of suceava str. universității 13, suceava 720229 phone: 0230 216 147 andrei@paraschiv.ro mirela danubianu ștefan cel mare university of suceava str. universității 13, suceava 720229 phone: 0230 216 147 mdanub@eed.usv.ro abstract large data volumes having various types and moving at high speed is the main feature of the current environment and is closely related to the big data concept. as a source of valuable insights, these data volumes have become an important asset for organizations, helping to make more informed and high-quality decisions. a real problem is that such data sets cannot be managed and processed by traditional methods. this paper presents some general aspects regarding big data and big data analytics as source of deep insights, and it highlights some of the general opportunities, challenges and the european commission strategy for big data. keywords: big data, big data features, eu strategy for big data adoption, opportunities, challenges. 1. introduction a long time ago sir francis bacon affirmed that "knowledge is power". paraphrasing this dictum, in the modern ages it has been demonstrated that information is power, so there can never be too much information as basis for decision-making. the last decades have been marked by an explosive technological development accompanied by huge possibilities for data generation, collection and storage. in this context data has become a torrent that floods all areas of society. the diversification of data sources (transactions, social networks, sensors, etc.) led to the emergence of new and complex data types whose storage and processing exceeds the possibilities of traditional databases. this is the reason why the big data concept has emerged. in this paper we intend to present the big data concept, some of its opportunities and challenges and the european commission strategy for big data. section 2 presents an overview of data mining features and section 3 briefly discuss aspects related to big data analytics. section 4 shows some of the measures and actions taken at european union level to implement big data projects. section 5 briefly addresses the issue of current challenges. finally, section 6 points to some conclusions and future research directions. 2. big data in fact, what does big data mean? big data is an evolving term that generally refers to a large volume of structured, semistructured and/or unstructured data whose exploitation is beyond of the abilities of typical database management systems to collect, store, manipulate and analyze. moreover, big data implies the existence of a set of characteristics known as big data vs. the main and most well-known characteristics are those related to the data volume, variety, and velocity. these characteristics were first identified by doug laney in a 2001 gartner report (laney, 2001). in time, other features have been identified and defined so that the number of vs has reached 42 for specific cases (shafer, 2017). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 16 although the word “big” in the name may suggest a large volume as the primary attribute of the big data concept, the size of the dataset needs to be appreciated by context. there is no minimum data set limit to be used for categorization as big data. it is known that there are organizations whose activities involve working with gigabytes or terabytes of data, while others, such as social networks, collect and manipulate petabytes or exabytes of data. but in both cases, there may be requirements for complex data processing and analysis that are specific to big data applications (danubianu & barila, 2014). the critical aspect for big data is variety, generated by associating data having different formats from different sources. combining this data for further analysis is a great challenge. velocity is related to the speed at which information arrives and is analyzed and delivered. there are two ways for data moving through the components of an organization. first, integration and batch loading at predefined moments is currently used in data warehousing. second, the realtime streaming of data is useful and used in areas such as complex event processing (cep), text search and analysis, machine learning, etc. in order to assess the velocity needs for big data is mandatory to understand the business process and the requirements of end users. there are organizations for which obtaining real-time information is essential, and a delay of few seconds can make the difference between a good decision and a bad one. there are other organizations for which analysis should be done with great accuracy without strong constraints imposed on response times. so, it should be taken into account that for each cases, the correct information needs to be supplied at the right time (danubianu & barila, 2014). ibm ("the four v's of big data", 2019) proposes another feature for big data: veracity. this refers to deviations, noises and anomalies in data and, in this context, is equivalent to quality. starting from these four vs and based on information we can obtain by a proper analysis of big data one can add the fifth v – value. big data analysis allows organizations to better understand the relationship between its evolution and the events from the environment. this can lead to enhanced decisions and to a stronger competitive position. figure 1 gives a brief overview of ibm's vision of big data features. figure 1. ibm's vision of big data v5 features ("the four v's of big data", 2019) a. m. paraschiv, m. danubianu big data present opportunities and challenges 17 3. big data analytics big data analysis is a complex process consisting of several phases: data acquisition and capture, data cleaning, data integration, data aggregation, representation and visualization. big data analytics refers analysis strategies aiming to discover models and connections that, otherwise, might be invisible. it helps organizations to harness their data and use it to identify new opportunities, and could provide valuable information to users. there are four types of big data analytics:  descriptive analytics combines raw data from multiple sources to consolidate past information without explaining why different events or phenomena occur. these analyzes are usually combined with other types of data analysis.  diagnostic analytics explains, based on historical data, the reasons or the context in which the events took place, finding dependencies and identifying patterns.  prescriptive analytics focusing on models that aim to solve specific problems and indicate the actions that should be taken for that. the results are reflected in rules and recommendations for future steps.  predictive analytics shows what may happen, based on descriptive and diagnostic analysis. it aims to detect trends, groups and exceptions, and to predict future trends being a valuable tool for forecasting. full information on a particular topic or scenario can be obtained by combining these types of analysis. figure 2 shows the relationship between the various data analytics types for a complete analysis cycle. figure 2. the relationship between big data analytics types 4. european vision concerning big data research, adoption and challenges like many other domains that benefit from the increased cooperation and synergies enabled by the european union, big data has been identified as a key component for fostering innovation and enabling the data-driven economy. among the first formal statements to recognize the importance of big data in the european context is the european commission’s communication from 2014 “towards a thriving data-driven economy” ("communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions", 2019). the communication is the european commission’s answer to the conclusion of the european council from october 2013 which was a call for eu action to provide the proper framework conditions for a single market for big data and cloud computing. the communication acknowledged the current state-of-play of big data technologies and services in the global and european context, the disparities in the uptake speed between europe and the usa, the great growth potential in multiple fields from health, energy, food security to smart cities and others, and proposed a series of application areas and actions to be considered in order for europe to bridge the gap and be able to reap the benefits that big data technologies are foreseen to enable. the three application areas that were identified are: community building, developing framework conditions and regulatory issues. prescriptive analytics diagnostic analytics descriptive analytics predictive analytics brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 18 in the area of community building, the following actions were proposed:  creation of a european public-private partnership on data  creation of open data incubators  development of a skills base  development of a data market monitoring tool  identification of sectoral priorities for research and innovation in the area of developing framework conditions, the following actions were proposed:  improving on the availability of data and interoperability (fostering open data policies, support innovation in data handling tools and methods, supporting new open standards)  enabling infrastructure for a data-driven economy (cloud computing, e-infrastructures, high performance computing, network, broadband, 5g, internet of things, public data infrastructures) in the area of relevant regulatory issues, of priority were identified actions related to the personal data protection, consumer protection, data mining, security and ownership/transfer of data. looking at the current situation, it can be observed that starting from the digital single market [6], one of the nine overarching priorities of the current european commission, multiple initiatives, platforms and support structures that were devised in order to foster growth and further the creation of value chains related to big data have been put in place. all of the application areas and action points identified in the european commission’s communication have been implemented and many have reached a very advanced level of maturity. of particular note, having a clear multiplier effect on the growth of the big data ecosystem in europe, have been two of the community building application area action points: the development of a data market monitoring tool and the creation of a european public-private partnership on data. the european data market monitoring tool (http://datalandscape.eu/) as, in order to improve, you first need to measure where you are, in 2013 the european commission financed an initiative to assess the current situation of the eu data market and data economy. the result of the initiative was a european data market study and the european data market monitoring tool (european data market smart 2013/0063) that was used to gather facts and figures on the size and trends of the eu data market and data economy. in order to provide a holistic view, the tool measured a number of indicators covering several areas of interest. the following indicators where measured (covering all 28 eu member states and, in addition, for brazil, japan and the united states): • indicator 1.1 number of data professionals; • indicator 1.2 employment share of data professionals; • indicator 1.3 intensity share of data professionals; • indicator 2.1: number of data supplier companies; • indicator 2.2: share of data supplier companies; • indicator 2.3: number of data user companies; • indicator 2.4: share of data user companies; • indicator 3.1: revenues of data companies; • indicator 3.2: share of data companies' revenues; • indicator 4: value of the data market; • indicator 5.1: value of the data economy; • indicator 5.2: incidence of the data economy; a. m. paraschiv, m. danubianu big data present opportunities and challenges 19 • indicator 6: data professionals’ skills gaps. initially the tool was used to assess the period 2013-2015 with a follow-up update covering 2016-2017. the studies provided three future scenarios (for 2020 and 2025, respectively) that would be used to inform decision makers in eu and guide future funding priorities: • the baseline scenario • the high growth scenario • the challenge scenario the european public private partnership (ppp) on big data value ("big data value public-private partnership digital single market european commission") the european public private partnership (ppp) on big data value is a partnership between the european commission and the big data value association-bdva. the bdva represents some of the most relevant industry players (including smes), researchers and academia, and was created with the aim to establish a functional data market and data economy in europe. the partnership is funded and implemented through calls for proposals from the 'leadership in enabling and industrial technologies' area (’industrial leadership’ pillar), under the horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. the funding priorities are based on the strategic research and innovation agenda (sria) ("european big data value strategic research and innovation agenda", 2017) which defines the overall goals, main technical and nontechnical priorities, and a research and innovation roadmap for the european public private partnership (ppp) on big data value. there are four types of mechanisms to support the implementation of the strategy: i-space – acting as incubators for new businesses and creation of competence, lighthouse projects to support large scale innovation projects, technical projects to support specific technical priorities, cooperation and coordination projects to facilitate cooperation and information exchange. 5. big data challenges as we have noted in section 3, big data analysis process goes through many phases, and each of these phases can raise its own challenges. generally speaking, these challenges can be classified into three major categories: data, process and management challenges (zicari, 2013). data challenges relate to the characteristics of the data itself, such as volume, variety, velocity, veracity, volatility, etc. the second group of challenges concerns the process. specifically, there is the question of how data is captured, how it is integrated and transformed and which is the appropriate way to data analyze and to deliver results. the third category is the management challenges that cover all confidentiality, security, governance and ethical issues ("big data challenges and opportunity"). the most obvious challenge associated with big data is the need to store and analyze huge volumes of data. there are reports ("the digital universe of opportunities: rich data and the increasing value of the internet of things", 2014) which estimates that every two years the volume of generated data is doubling and requires appropriate storage systems. most of these data are semistructured or unstructured. they are not found in databases, making it difficult their search and analyze. solving these problems requires the use of appropriate technologies. for example, converging or hyper-converging infrastructures may be storage solutions. additionally, technologies such as compression, deduplication and automated tiered storage can reduce the space and costs associated with large volumes of data. another problem is the data velocity. addressing this issue has led to the development of a new generation of data extraction, transformation and load (etl) tools, as well as to the deploying of analytical tools that considerably reduce the time needed for reporting. there are software with real-time analysis capabilities that allow for an immediate response to environmental events. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 20 last but not least, the issue of data quality, which is essential in generating information appropriate to decision-making, must be mentioned. in big data, due to the fact that data is less structured and comes from multiple sources, data quality may suffer. in this case, it is necessary to apply a data quality control process to develop quality metrics, evaluate data quality, repair erroneous data, and estimate a cost-benefit compromise associated to a better data quality. another important challenge for big data is its security. in the absence of adequate security mechanisms, sensitive and / or confidential information may be deliberately or not transmitted to third parties. insufficient data protection can lead to financial losses, damage to a company's reputation, and may determine users' resistance to big data adoption (harvey, 2017). this problem is addressed in most cases by using authentication and access authorization mechanisms, data encryption and data segregation. a real help can be a powerful security management protocol combined with security solutions such as intrusion prevention and detection systems. with the maturity of big data technologies, extensive personal data collection becomes a serious concern for individuals, businesses or governments. for example, sensors, which are an important data source for big data, can provide significant amounts of data related to the location and movements of individuals, their health conditions, or their buying preferences. all this can generate major concerns about keeping their privacy. privacy can sometimes be a hindrance to improving service quality or cost savings, so a balance should be found between using personal data and confidentiality concerns. despite the promised benefits, the actual use of big data is limited. this is due to the concerns expressed by many managers about the large investments associated with the implementation and use of big data analyzes. for many such projects, the definition of problems and objectives is unclear, and the use of emerging technologies leads to increased risk of failure associated with the impossibility of recovering the made investments. 6. conclusions it's obvious that we live in big data era. although the opportunities related to the technological evolution and big data adoption policies and strategies have allowed important steps in the development of the field, there are still a number of different challenges that require finding the right solutions. this paper briefly outlined some aspects of the european union vision of big data adoption and, moreover, highlighted the types of challenges still to be solved. we are proposing that in the near future we will conduct a detailed study of possible solutions for these challenges. references big data value public-private partnership digital single market european commission. retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/big-data-value-public-privatepartnership communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions. (2019). retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/document.cfm?action=display&doc_id=6210 danubianu m., barila a. (2014). big data vs. data mining for social media analytics, international conference on social media in academia research and teaching – smart2014 digital single market. (2019). retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/commission/priorities/digital-single-market_en. european big data value strategic research and innovation agenda. (2017). retrieved from http://www.bdva.eu/sites/default/files/bdva_sria_v4_ed1.1.pdf harvey, c. (2017). big data challenges. retrieved from https://www.datamation.com/big-data/bigdata-challenges.html a. m. paraschiv, m. danubianu big data present opportunities and challenges 21 http://datalandscape.eu/ http://datalandscape.eu/sites/default/files/report/edm_d2.1_1streportfactsfigures_revised_21.03.2018.pdf https://sites.google.com/a/openevidence.com/download/repository/smart20130063_final%20report_030417_2.pdf?attre directs=0&d=1 laney, d. (2001) 3d data management: controlling data volume, velocity and variety. meta group research note, 6. shafer, t. (2017). the 42 v's of big data and data science. retrieved from https://www.elderresearch.com/blog/42-v-of-big-data the digital universe of opportunities: rich data and the increasing value of the internet of things. (2014). retrieved from https://www.emc.com/leadership/digital universe/2014iview/index.htm the four v's of big data. (2019). retrieved from https://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/infographic/four-vs-big-data zicari. r.v., (2013). big data: challenges and opportunities. odbms.org; big data challenges and opportunity. retrieved from https://www.qubole.com/resources/big-datachallenges andrei marcel paraschiv (b. june 28, 1982) received his bsc in european studies (2005), msc in european studies (2007) from the romanian-american university. currently he is an it service manager and team leader in the european chemicals agency (echa) in helsinki, finland. previously he has been working as the head of ict in the ministry for research and innovation in bucharest, romania. his current research interests include different aspects of big data applied in project and service management. mirela danubianu (b. july 13, 1961) has obtained the b.s. and m.s. degree in computer science from university of craiova in 1985, and the phd. degree in computer science in 2006 from “stefan cel mare“ university of suceava. she has also obtained the b.e. degree in economics from university of craiova in 2001. currently, she is associate professor and head of the computers department at “stefan cel mare university” of suceava. she is the author/co-author of 5 books, 7 chapters and more than 100 papers which have been published in journals and presented at different conferences. her current research interests include databases theory and implementation, modern data architectures, data analytics, application of data science in economics, education and healthcare. microsoft word issue-4.docx 154 virtual general physician system using artificial intelligence saleem ahmed dept.of computer systems engineering, dawood university of engg and technology karachi new m. a. jinnah rd, jamshed quarters muslimabad, karachi, karachi city, sindh 74800, pakistan phone: +92 21 99231195 saleem3714@gmail.com naveed ali khan dept. of electrical engineering federal urdu university of arts, sciences &, technology new m. a. jinnah rd, jamshed quarters muslimabad, karachi, karachi city, sindh 74800, pakistan phone: +92 21 99231195 naveedali64@yahoo.fr dost muhammad saqib bhatti, dept.of computer systems engineering, dawood university of engg and technology karachi new m. a. jinnah rd, jamshed quarters muslimabad, karachi, karachi city, sindh 74800, pakistan phone: +92 21 99231195 saqibbhatti128@gmail.com kainat ali, dept.of computer systems engineering, dawood university of engg and technology karachi new m. a. jinnah rd, jamshed quarters muslimabad, karachi, karachi city, sindh 74800, pakistan phone: +92 21 99231195 mona sahar dept.of computer systems engineering, dawood university of engg and technology karachi new m. a. jinnah rd, jamshed quarters muslimabad, karachi, karachi city, sindh 74800, pakistan phone: +92 21 99231195 abstract health related issues have been regarded as one of the major problems which directly impact quality of life of an individual and development of the nation. healthy population is attractive in all countries and healthcare is the one of the most widely concerned topic in research. the objective of study is to introduce a system through which people can diagnose and treat their minor illness such as cold or diarrhea. in this paper, a virtual general physician system approach is proposed using artificial intelligence. k-nearest neighbor algorithm which is a part of artificial intelligence is used for disease diagnosing. this virtual general physician system can diagnose the diseases based on symptoms. it collects the symptoms from patient in the form of yes or no. four categories can be diagnosed by the systems which include respiratory tract/viral infections, gastrointestinal tract/stomach infections, fever, headache. each category include some diseases which the system can detect or diagnose like in viral infections (flu, tonsillitis, cold and pneumonia), respiratory infections (acute diarrhea, dysentery, food poisoning and gastroenteritis), fevers (dengue, malaria, viral and chikungunya) and headaches (migraine and cluster headache). the goal of this system is to assist patients get their treatment without going to the clinic and to reduce the doctor’s effort, time and working. keywords: artificial intelligence; health care, virtual, physician, system. 1. introduction the conventional diagnosis depends on a gathering of clinical information including side effect which means the problems that occur when treatment goes beyond the desired effect, physical examination and laboratory examination. it is made by the specialist's own insight and clinical s. ahmed, n. a. khan, d. m. s. bhatti, k. ali, m. sahar virtual general physician system using artificial intelligence 155 experience (han-bin et. al., 2009). with the ascent in innovation everything is getting automated nowadays to limit human endeavors. medical decisions turns into a hard action in light of the fact that the human specialists, who need to decide, can scarcely process the gigantic measures of information (dehariya et. al., 2011), because of this computer based analysis are getting to be certain in disease diagnosis (mahesh et. al., 2014). medical and clinical fields have demonstrated a vast interest for utilizing choice emotionally supportive networks over the previous years, particularly for helped finding expectation of therapeutic inconveniences, image analysis, and so on. machine learning procedures have been effectively connected to medical decision emotionally supportive systems. the strategies include taking in theories from a lot of analyzed examples, i.e., the information gathered from various vital medicinal examinations alongside the comparing analyze made by medical specialists, to help the medical specialists in making a diagnosis after gathering information (li & zhou, 2007). the basic models in the supported medical diagnosis framework are: strategy in view of measurable speculations, technique in light of fuzzy arithmetic, technique in light of case induction, strategy in view of artificial nervous systems and strategy in light of machine study, strategy in view of ontology and data mining innovation is likewise utilized as a part of the aided medical systems (zhou, 2011). utilizing artificial intelligence strategies, this can be likewise be performed utilizing procedures, for example, bayesian system (bn), artificial neural network (ann), fuzzy inference system (fis),genetic algorithm (ga), swarm insight (si), fluffy cognitive maps (fcm), and others [6]. in (zhaoxia & yueling, 2010), an expert system was constructed utilizing cap2 algorithm by giving cases of spotlight on the likelihood of the span of the condition of division as the heuristic data keeping in mind the end goal to give examples in light of binary tree-based classification technique. according to (bannet & hauser, 2012), design a common purpose (non-disease-specific) computational/ai model. this method mixed two different approaches i.e markov decision process (mdp) and dynamic decision networks (dcn) in order to study from clinical data. moreover, hybrid prediction application was launched for gene expression data analysis, which is mixture of rough-based feature selection method and radial basis function neural network (chiang & ho, 2008). contemporary another neural network called artmap was proposed by using fuzzy method which is more efficient in situ hybridization image signals (vigdor & lerner, 2006). it enables to diagnose the clinical numerical genetic abnormalities. for virtual healthcare particularly for those patients who are suffering from chronic diseases such as metabolic syndrome, an efficient system developed by (tseng et. al., 2015). it collects facts and figures, then analyze the results on regular basis, finally based on findings suggest some kind of diet plans and also useful recommendations. for the approximate entropy calculations, eeg detection application was given by (srinivasan et. al., 2007), it is also neural network and based on automated epileptic. although for the liver cirrhosis a noninvasive approach based on artificial networks analyzes data from laboratory was proposed in (bostan & pantelimon, 2015). similarly, an expert system based on generalized regression neural network (grnn) proposed, it used to find hepatitis b viruses is positive or negative (mahesh et. al., 2014). for pre-testing of psychiatric issues, a decision support system was accomplished by comparative study with case-based reasoning is proposed in (bouaiachi et. al., 2014). further, a programmed technique for incorporating the control for a neural prosthesis (np) that might enlarge elbow flexion/augmentation and lower arm pronation/supination in people with hemiplegia was depicted (iftime et. al., 2005) utilizing the radial basis function artificial neural networks (rbf ann) to decide synergies. to compare benign and malignant nodules in low-dose helical computed tomography (ldct) scans, a cad built in scheme by applying massive training artificial neural network (mtann) (suzuki et. al., 2005). by the use of real hypoglycemia episodes an automated program was proposed in order to type 1 diabetes mellitus in the patients (san et. al., 2013). hybrid rough-block-based neural network (r-bbnn) algorithm has been used to design for the development of above stated application. generally, hypoglycemia terminology used in medical science to symbolize the lower level of blood glucose. it signifies an optimum hazard in type 1 diabetes mellitus (t1dm) patients. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 156 in addition to that an improved cardiovascular diseases application developed by (feshki & shijani, 2016). the foundation was based upon particle swarm optimization (pso) and neural network feed forward back propagation algorithm. in order to identify the abnormal tissues in the patient those are affecting by tumors, entropy in the neural (brain) system, the intelligent application constructed by (bhanumurthy & anne, 2014), which recognized through mri images. extensively, a neuro fuzzy divider used to divide mri images in to normal as well as abnormal. in (islam et. al., 2013), a stochastic technique for describing tumor surface in cerebrum mr images was developed. the brain tumor texture was formulated using a multiresolution-fractal model known as multifractional brownian motion (mbm). various scholars put their efforts in the medicine field and innovated several computerized applications to assist the specific diseases but the common diseases like flu, cold and diarrhea etc. has not been given proper attentions as concluded by (shofi et. al., 2016). since a minor infection might be the cause to a serious ailment. in this study, we have suggested a virtual general physician system using an artificial intelligence algorithm, k-nearest neighbor. the rest of this paper is classified as follows. next part of this paper present a holistic view about thee building process of the virtual general physician system. third part contains the analytical results of our system. lastly, we suggest this work and point out some future work directions in section iv. 2. proposed method in the proposed method, we have attempted to simplify the diagnostic procedure through our virtual general physician system. the proposed system can diagnose disease without consuming much time. diagnosis can be done in number of phases. in the first phase, the system diagnoses the category of disease on the basis of symptom based questionnaire. it collects the symptoms from patient on the basis of these symptoms it decides that from which disease category it belongs to. the category is specified in this phase. in the second phase, the system diagnoses specific disease on the basis of specified category relevant symptom based questionnaire after detection of disease category. the system can deal with four categories i.e. viral infections (respiratory tract), stomach infections (gastrointestinal tract), fever and headache and their relative some diseases. all the symptoms and diseases of the categories are mapped in sample datasets. the core implementation is on php, python, and database designed on mysql. the diagnoses occur by using the artificial intelligence and its algorithm that is k-nearest neighbor (knn). the choice of knn is made due to its suitability in proposed scenario because it calculates the distance amongst the entities and assigns weights. this system is expected to provide cost effective solution for patients. it can be very helpful for physical disabled people, they can diagnose diseases from their own home without any doctor. an overview diagram for the proposed system is shown in figure 1. s. ahmed, n. a. khan, d. m. s. bhatti, k. ali, m. sahar virtual general physician system using artificial intelligence 157 figure 1. entity relationship diagram of virtual general physician system a. dataset the system contains sample datasets for diseases diagnosing purpose. in which five datasets are included, dataset used to identify category is a general category dataset which is combination of all four categories. other four datasets are relevant to each category specific diseases. general category dataset consists of 200 samples, in which 50 for each category is included. datasets related to specific disease contains 20 samples for each disease. these sample datasets consists of features and labels, symptoms is used as features and category or specific disease name is used as labels in datasets. some sample dataset of general category is shown in table 1. table 1. category dataset runny/ congested nose low grade fever high grade fever body ache nausea/ vomiting diarrhea headache blurred vision category 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 viral 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 fever 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 git 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 headache brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 158 b. k-nearest neighbor algorithm as compared to other machine learning methods, k-nearest neighbor is one of the simplest classification method. generally, it is very accurate classifier in most of situations. it is based on principle that the samples belong to same class if they are close in the instance space. k-nn is instance based learning method. it requires less computation time for training phase as compare to other learning algorithms such as decision trees, neural networks and bayes networks [22]. nearest neighbor classifier learning is based on resemblance. if any unlabeled sample is given, first it calculates the similarity with each sample of training set. its k-nearest neighbors are searched and then unlabeled sample is assigned to class label which majority of its neighbors belongs to. it fundamentally based on the belief that the data is connected to feature space and all points are considered in order, to find out the distance with the other data points. euclidian distance is used according to the data type of data classes used. k-nn is easy to implement as compared to other methods, it has low space complexity and time complexity. k-nn classifier working is very simple. first, value of k is initialized. after initialization of k value it calculates the distance between test sample and training samples then sort the distances. we have worked on euclidean distance formula which is given by:      2222 2 11),(),( nn pqpqpqpqdqpd   (1) then, take top k-nearest neighbors and apply simple majority. after that, it predicts class label with more neighbors for test sample. figure 2 shows the block diagram for the k-nn algorithm. 3. results and discussion to get the results from our classifier, we divide our dataset into training, testing and evaluation set. 80% of data was divided for training assessment, 20% for testing assessment and 10% of training data for evaluation assessment. after that, we gave some input to predict and the classifier predicted as according to our classification as shown in table 2. figure 2. block diagram of k-nn algorithm s. ahmed, n. a. khan, d. m. s. bhatti, k. ali, m. sahar virtual general physician system using artificial intelligence 159 table 2. category dataset runny/ congested nose low grade fever high grade fever body ache nausea/ vomiting diarrhea headache blurred vision category 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 viral 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 fever 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 git 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 headache we tested our system on multiple input sets and get our desired result with an accuracy of 97%. 4. conclusion and future direction in this paper, we have proposed virtual general physician system for diagnosis of four disease categories in which respiratory tract/viral infections, gastrointestinal tract/stomach infections, fevers, headaches are included. each category has some diseases which our system will detect or diagnose like viral infections (flu, tonsillitis, cold and pneumonia), respiratory infections (acute diarrhea, dysentery, food poisoning and gastroenteritis), fevers (dengue, malaria, viral and chikungunya) and headaches (migraine and cluster headache) are included. disease diagnosing is based on artificial intelligence algorithm which is k-nearest neighbor to provide reliable results. in our system, we have used different datasets based on symptoms in which category dataset, fever dataset, headache dataset, git dataset, and viral dataset are included. these datasets are used by our system to diagnose diseases. the main contributions of our proposed system is to facilitate the patients in such a way that they do not need to visit the general physicians and don’t need to pay heavy charges. they can easily examine their selves at their home. our proposed system provides cost effective solution for patients. patients from rural areas or in travel can take advantage from the proposed model. it helps in providing 24 hour service availability and also provides a great assistance for repetitive and monotonous jobs, so physicians and nurses can more concentrate on their actual jobs instead of repetitive tasks. this system can be very helpful in those countries or areas where healthcare facilities are not good. the results obtained by virtual general physician system are satisfying and sufficient to conclude that it can be very helpful for general disease diagnosing. for future work, it is recommended that system can be extended to deal with different categories and medicine prescription feature can also enhance its healthcare services. test feature can also be added to make it more efficient. if in case system is not sure about the disease, so it can assigns some test to patient to continue further treatment. datasets and the number of symptoms can also be increased to provide more accurate results. references bannet, c.c., hauser, k. (2012). art f c al intell gence framework for s mulat ng cl n cal dec s on-mak ng a markov dec s on process approach. elsev er. bhat a, a., mago, v., & s ngh, r. (2014). use of soft comput ng techn ques n med cal dec s on mak ng: a survey. ieee. bhanumurthy, m.y., & anne, k. (2014). an automated detect on and segmentat on of tumor n bra n mri us ng art f c al intell gence. ieee. bostan, v.m., & pantel mon, b. (2015). creat ng a model based on art f c al neural network for l ver c rrhos s d agnose. ieee. boua ach , y., khald , m., & azman , a. (2014). neural network-based dec s on support system for pre-d agnos s of psych atr c d sorders, ieee. ch ang, j.-h., & ho, s.-h. (2008). a comb nat on of rough-based feature select on and rbf neural network for class f cat on us ng gene express on data. ieee. dehar ya, a., khan, i., chaudhary, v.k., & karsol ya, s. (2011). an effect ve approach for med cal d agnos s preceded by art f c al neural network ensemble, ieee. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 160 feshk , m.g., & sh jan , o.s. (2016). improv ng the heart d sease d agnos s by evolut onary algor thm of pso and feed forward neural network. ieee. han-b n, o., shua , l., l , y., wen-hua, h., & sh -zhen, z. (2009). study on the new des gn of computer-a ded d agnos s system. ieee. ift me, s.d., egsgaard, l.l., popov c, m.b. (2005). automat c determ nat on of synerg es by rad al bas s funct on art fic al neural networks for the control of a neural prosthes s. ieee. islam, a., reza, s.m.s., & iftekharudd n, k.m. (2013). mult -fractal texture est mat on for detect on and segmentat on of bra n tumors. ieee. jadhav, s.d., & channe, h.p. (2016). comparat ve study of k-nn, na ve bayes and dec s on tree class f cat on techn ques, internat onal journal of sc ence and research (ijsr).v gdor, b., & lerner, b. (2006). accurate and fast off and onl ne fuzzy artmap-based image class f cat on w th appl cat on to genet c abnormal ty d agnos s. ieee. l , m., & zhou, z.h. (2007). improve computer-a ded d agnos s w th mach ne learn ng techn ques us ng und agnosed samples. ieee. mahesh, c., k ruth ka, k., & dh lsathfath ma, m. (2014). d agnos ng hepat t s b us ng art f c al neural network based expert system. ieee. sr n vasan, v., eswaran, c., & sr raam, n. (2007). approx mate entropy-based ep lept c eeg detect on us ng art fic al neural networks. suzuk , k., l , f., sone, s., & do , k. (2005). computer-a ded d agnost c scheme for d st nct on between ben gn and mal gnant nodules n thorac c low-dose ct by use of mass ve tra n ng art fic al neural network. ieee. san, p.p., l ng, s.h., nuryan , & nguyen, h. (2013). evolvable rough-block-based neural network and its b omed cal appl cat on to hypoglycem a detect on system. ieee. shof , i.m., kesuma, l., & an sa, g. (2016). andro d appl cat on for d agnos ng general symptoms of d sease us ng forward cha n ng method, faculty of sc ence and technology, un vers tas islam neger syar f h dayatullah jakarta. tseng, j.c.c., l n, b.-h., l n, y.-f., tseng, v.-s., day, m.-l., wang, s.-c., lo, k.-r., yang, y.-c. (2015). an interact ve healthcare system w th personal zed d et and exerc se gu del ne recommendat on. zhou, f., & wu, e. (2011). the des gn of computer a ded med cal d agnos s system based on max mum entropy. ieee. zhaox a, l., & yuel ng, z. (2010). appl cat on of ar thmet c cap2 n med cal d agnos s expert system, 2nd internat onal conference on educat on technology and computer (icetc), ieee. 126 the effect of different focus of attention as verbal cues on performance and retention of standing long jump elaheh mirmiran shahid rajaee teacher training university tehran province, tehran, shabanlou, iran phone: +98 21 2297 0060 gholamreza lotfi shahid rajaee teacher training university tehran province, tehran, shabanlou, iran phone: +98 21 2297 0060 farzaneh hatami shahid rajaee teacher training university tehran province, tehran, shabanlou, iran phone: +98 21 2297 0060 gholamrezalotfi@yahoo.com abstract the instructional guidelines play an important role in transmitting target information, and educators usually use them to teach and improve motor function of individuals at all skill levels. directing the focus of attention is one of the important factors affecting the effectiveness of instructional guidelines. however, this study aimed to investigate the effect of different focus of attention as verbal cues on performance and retention of standing long jump among teenager female beginners. for this purpose, 45 beginner students (m age= 13.12±1.82 years) in qazvin were voluntarily selected and after pre-test, they were randomly assigned to one of three groups: external verbal cues, internal verbal cues, and control. all groups performed standing long jump for three sessions; each session consisted of 5 attempts of 2. after last session of acquisition, the posttest was conducted. after one week of untrained, the retention test was conducted. the results of descriptive statistics showed that the standing long jump performance of all groups improved from training period to retention test. the results of one-way analysis of variance showed that there was no significant difference between three groups in pretest and acquisition stage. however, this difference was significant in post-test and retention stage. keywords: internal focus; external focus; verbal cues; performance; retention, jumping. 1. introduction due to limited capacity of individuals’ information processing, the teachers and trainers of various sports fields have been compelled to provide instructional guidelines to attract the attention of learners to key elements of performance. the researchers believe that although any kind of information which is called instructional guideline before performance and is called feedback after performance may help individuals to learn motor skills, the optimal use of information depends on focus of attention at movement or movement effect (shea & wulf, 1999). the instructional guidelines play an important role in transmitting target information, and instructors usually use them to teach and improve motor function of individuals at all skill levels (hodges & franks, 2001). the sport trainers may use verbal cues to educate and attract their learners' attention to key aspects of skills. the verbal cues are brief and short phrases which attract the attention of learners to regulative information and guide them about key elements of movement performance. the researches has shown that these simple and short phrases, as verbal instructions, are very effective in facilitating learning new skills and performing pre-learned skills. the teachers, educators, and therapists may use verbal cues in a variety of ways. one way is to e. mirmiran, g. lotfi, f. hatami the effect of different focus of attention as verbal cues on performance and retention of standing long jump 127 provide verbal cues in displaying skills to promote visual information. another way is to provide verbal cues to help focus on most important parts of skill (magill, 2007). the effect of focus of attention on performance and learning of motor skills has been considered significantly in recent years. the researchers and trainers believe that the direction of focus of attention may have an almost immediate impact on individuals’ performance; this means that at the time of performance, the accuracy and quality of performer movements is associated with his/her focus of attention . the attention is a process through which one uses his/her senses to perceive outside world. the focus of attention means getting informed of one thing and ignoring other things (roberts et. al. 1999). one of the important roles of instructional guidelines is to direct the focus of individuals’ attention (magill, 2007). the focus of attention is directed by guidelines and feedback which are given to performer. the focus of attention may be internal (focusing on body movements) or external (focusing on effects of movement in environment or its consequences). the fluency, coherence, accuracy, and quality of skill performance and the outcome of individuals’ movement depends largely on focus of performer's attention during the performance of skill (wulf & prinz, 2001). the attention is one of the most important limitations affecting human learning and performance; focusing it is one way to improve productivity and learning (magill, 2007). undoubtedly, using useful information, ignoring irrelevant information, and choosing the best focus of attention in education and performance will improve learning and increase successful performance of learner (graham, 2003). the instructors' guidelines to their learners may have a significant effect on their performance. in coaching, the internal focus cues are used frequently (becker & smith, 2015). the skilled athletes often report using internal focus and sometimes change different attention focuses in preparation and performance stages (becker et. al. 2018). over the past 15 years, the research has shown that focusing on effect of movement (external focus) improves performance and learning compared with focusing on movement itself (internal focus). the findings also confirm the use of guidelines or feedback which are given to participants based on type of task, skill level, and gender (wulf, 2013). in fact, the focus on body (internal focus) disrupts performance and learning, while focusing on effect of movement (external focus) improves performance and learning. also, several studies have shown that those who were in controlled conditions tended to use the same guidelines with internal focus at their performance. in fact, these groups tended to act in the same way as internal focus group with conscious control of movement and destruction of automated processing (becker & smith, 2013). there are several hypotheses regarding learning stages and attention focus guidelines; most of them have supported the guidelines of external attention focus and some of them have supported from guidelines of internal attention focus. wulf et. al. (2001) tested the limited function hypothesis to explain the benefit of external attention focus. they suggested that the external attention focus improves performance compared to internal attention focus through improving automated processing and reducing the consciousness processing. however, the internal attention focus improves conscious control and in turn reduces automated processing (becker & smith, 2013). based on limited function hypothesis, the attempts to consciously control the movement, depending on conditions of internal attention, limit the motor system and prevent automatic processes which control the movement. however, the focus on effects of movement (external attention) allows the motor system to be naturally self-organized and does not be limited to conscious control processes (salajeghe et. al. 2014). in other words, the external attention focus reduces attention requirements, while the internal attention focus involves more processing processes, increases conscious control and attention needs of performance, and leads to limited motor system and degrees of freedom. thus, the necessary automation for performing accurate movement gets disrupted and the performance becomes weak (abdoli et. al. 2012). the second hypothesis for attention focus is the automatic processing hypothesis. the apparent processing hypothesis states that in external attention, the performer only processes one source of information, i.e. what is external to performer. however in internal attention, the focus is on internal information and undoubtedly, the external outstanding information are also processed. as a result, the internal guidelines put more burdens on working memory; the more burdenson working memory in brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 128 internal attention focus will weaken performance (moghaddam et. al., 2008). in this regard, another hypothesis is non-automaticity of skills. according to this hypothesis, the internal attention focus is problematic only when individuals reach high levels of skill; it interferes with automated processing processes. the internal attention focus is more suitable for beginners(salajeghe et. al. 2014). based on james’ movement idea (1890), the movement effects and external attention effectively provide a stable representation for performing skill. therefore, the attention to movement effects may stimulate the movement systems to move. there are many researches on adoption of internal and external attention focus. most research has shown that the impact of adopting internal attention at the time of applying skills is weak and focusing on movement effects may lead to more effective performance and learning. some studies such as beilock et. al. (2002) and uehara (2008) also showed that the impact of internal focus on performance of subjects is more than external focus. these research concluded that the external focus is not always effective; sometimes, the internal focus leads to better performance. they argued that the effectiveness of focus of attention depends on skill and efficiency of individuals (pashabadi et. al., 2014). many research showed that in the process of learning motor skills, the training with an emphasis on external attention leads to more effective performance and learning than internal attention (tahmasebi et. al. 2009). the different studies which have used various laboratory tasks and considered various sports skills have shown that the external focus is more advantageous than internal focus. the previous studies have shown that providing training for learners with an emphasis on outcome and effect of movement rather than the movement itself may improve the accuracy of golf shoots(wulf et. al. 1999), volleyball services (wulf et. al. 2003), tennis hit(lewis & linder, 1997), and basketball free throw(zachry, 2005). however, salmoni et. al.(1984), learning theories argue that the learning is improved by directing learners’ attention to his/her body movements and using controlled processing; this is not consistent with recent findings. vance et. al. (2004), zachry (2005) and zachry et. al. (2005) showed that the application of external attention focus reduces the activity of muscular electrification and thus, increases the efficiency of movement. therefore, it is expected that the advantages of external attention to be seen at tasks which require accuracy and power such as throwing an object such as throwing a weight and discus or throwing the body such as long jump and high jump. damanpak et. al. (2012) considered vertical jump task and showed that when participants adopted external attention, they created more power and this resulted in higher jump. becker and smith (2013) studied whether age, gender, and complexity of task regulate the effect of attention focus on motor learning? they observed that in simple task, there was no significant difference between children and adults in terms of internal and external focus. in complex task, however, the male adults with external focus had better performance than other groups. becker and smith (2015) conducted a study to investigate the effect of applying internal focus cues on performance of athletes at long jump. the findings showed that the group which had received external focus guidelines jumped significantly higher than other groups. however, there was no significant difference between two groups which had received internal focus guidelines. they suggested that in professional conditions, the coaches should use the vocabularies as a guide which instills external focus as much as possible on athlete. abdollahipour and psotta (2017) reported that the external focus is advantageous at the task of receiving tennis balls by children. becker et. al. (2018) showed that the group which had adopted external focus at long jump task performed significantly better than other groups. they suggested that in the case of using internal focus at preparation stage, the athletes should use external focus at performance stage in order to achieve success. the application of this research to educate learners about adopting external or internal focus may improve their performance, optimize their energy consumption, and lead to successful experiences for them. the success may increase students’ motivation for continuing training. the key to effectiveness of verbal cues is that a link is created between cues and movements. therefore, the learner will not be e. mirmiran, g. lotfi, f. hatami the effect of different focus of attention as verbal cues on performance and retention of standing long jump 129 required to pay attention to different verbal guidelines. rather, the motor and cognitive components of skill will be considered. since there is no combined study on impact of type of attention focus as verbal cue on performance of fundamental skill of standing long jump and there are contradictions in findings of previous studies, it is necessary to do such research. 2. methodology this was an applied semi-experimental field study. the pre-test, post-test, and control group were used. the population consisted of all female first grade high school students in qazvin. however, 45 beginner students (m age= 13.12±1.82 years) in qazvin were voluntarily selected as sample; after pretest, they were randomly assigned to one of three groups (n= 15): external verbal cues, internal verbal cues, and control. during training sessions, the acquisition scores of subjects were recorded and one week after exercises, the retention test was conducted. in this study, the standing long jump test was conducted. at this test, the participants were placed behind a line on the floor. they should performed standing long jump with the help of throwing their arms. the location of heels at line indicated the jump score. this movement was performed at two turns and the maximum jump length was recorded for each participant. at all stages, the participants were asked to warm themselves up for 10 minutes by running and stretching. before pre-test, the information of test was given to subjects. after pretest, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: external attention focus, internal attention focus, and control. all groups performed standing long jump for three sessions; each session consisted of 5 attempts of 2. the verbal cue with external attention focus group received the words "line, jump"; this meant looking at target. the verbal cue with internal attention focus group received the words "hand, jump"; this meant throwing hands. the concept and reason of using these keywords were said to experimental groups. it should be noted that for external focus group, there was a line 180 cm distant from first line; the participants set it as a criteria for their exercises. during research, the test was performed in groups of 5 subjects to reduce the effects of fatigue and make equal conditions for all participants. the timing of each session, number of attempts, and training method of coach was similar for all participants in all sessions. immediately after last acquisition session, the post-test was conducted. after one week of inactivity, the retention test was conducted. the collected data were analyzed using spss software, version 21. the mean and standard deviation were used to describe statistically the data. the excel software was used to create charts. the shapiro-wilk test was used to examine data distribution normality and levene’s test was used to study the homogeneity of variances. the inferential statistics included repeated measures and one-way analysis of variance. the significance level in all analyses was considered to be.05. 3. findings the mean of standing long jump performance of studied groups at different measurement stages are shown figure 1. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 130 figure 1. mean of studied groups performance at different research stages the shapiro-wilk test results showed that the data had normal distribution at all study stages (p>.05). also, levin's test results showed the homogeneity of variances (p>.05). the one-way variance analysis at pre-test stage showed that there was no significant difference between mean of groups (f (2.42) =.042, p=.995). the variance analysis with repeated measures was used to analyze the data of acquisition stage. the results showed that the main effect of group (p=.331, f=1.136) and interactive effect of group and exercise sessions (f=2.205, p=.075) were not significant; but, the main effect of training sessions was significant (f=16.725, p=.001). the results of bonferroni post-hoc test indicated that there was significant improvement in performance of subjects at each session compared to previous session; this is shown in figure 2. * mean difference is significant at .01 levels ** mean difference is significant at .05 levels figure 2. intergroup and intra group differences in standing long jump performances of groups at different stages of measurement the findings of one-way analysis of variance compared to mean of groups at post-test showed that there was a significant difference between groups (f(2.42) =3.251, p=.049). the results of tukey post-hoc test showed that the external attention focus group was significantly more advantageous than control group (p=.039). in other cases, however, the observed difference was not significant. e. mirmiran, g. lotfi, f. hatami the effect of different focus of attention as verbal cues on performance and retention of standing long jump 131 at comparison of mean of groups at retention stage, the one-way analysis of variance showed a significant difference between groups' performance (f(2.42)=7.036, p=.002). the results of tukey posthoc test showed that the external attention focus group was significantly better than internal attention focus group (p=.027) and control group (p=.002). however, there was no significant difference between internal attention focus group and control group; these differences are shown in figure 3. 4. discussion and conclusion this study aimed to investigate the effect of attention focus type using verbal cues on performance and retention of standing long jump among beginner female teenagers. the findings showed that the standing long jump performance of all groups was growing from training period to retention test. however, there was no significant difference between three groups in terms of standing long jump performance at pre-test and acquisition stage. but in post-test and retention stage, there was a significant difference between three groups. this is consistent with findings of kakar et. al. (2013), carpenter et. al. (2013), shafinia et. al. (2006), damanpak et. al. (2012), ghayor et. al. (2014), vance et. al. (2004), zachry (2005), zachry et. al. (2005), abdollahipour and psotta(2017), becker and smith (2010, 2013) and becker et. al. (2018); they also indicated that the external attention focus is better. these studies are consistent with apparent processing hypothesis; it argues that in external attention, the performer processes only one source of information and in internal attention, the internal information are considered and the external information is also processed. as a result, the internal focus is associated with weaker performance. however, these are inconsistent with findings of beilock et. al. (2002); they showed that the internal focus is the best according to the hypothesis of non-automaticity of skills, which suggested that different attention focus guidelines lead to different performance in different individuals. in other words, providing internal attention focus guidelines to beginners leads to better performance than external attention focus guidelines. similarly, suggested that the external attention focus is more effective in difficult tasks and skillful subjects. the probable reasons for this inconsistency may include difficulty of task and type of skill, number of training sessions, and level of expertise and skill of subjects. since this study showed a significant difference between two internal and external attention focuses as verbal cues at standing long jump, it can be said that this is inconsistent with findings of tahmasebi et. al. (2009), and uehara et. al. (2008); they showed that there was no significant difference between internal and external focus groups. the research limitations in this study included inappropriateness of environmental conditions, low number of training sessions, fatigue, and pressure on legs by frequent jumps. all of these factors somewhat influenced the findings of research. however, it was suggested that the future research examine other sports skills such as high jump, pole vault, and etc., considering age, gender, skill level, efficiency, and conditions and duration of exercises. references abdoli, b., farokhi, a., shamsipour dehkordi, p., shams, a. (2012). effects of internal and external focus of attention via feedback and instruction on the learning of dynamic balance. motor behavior, 11, 63-80. abdollahipour, r., psotta, r. (2017). is an external focus of attention more beneficial than an internal focus to ball catching in children?kinesiology, 49, 1-7. becker, k. a., & smith, p. j. (2015). attentional focus effects in standing long jump performance: influence of a broad and narrow internal focus. the journal of strength & conditioning research, 29(7), 1780-1783. becker, k. a., fairbrother, j. t., & couvillion, k. f. (2018). the effects of attentional focus in the preparation and execution of a standing long jump. psychological research, 1-7. becker, k., & smith, p. j. (2013). age, task complexity, and sex as potential moderators of attentional focus effects. perceptual and motor skills, 117(1), 130-144. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 132 beilock, s. l., carr, t. h., macmahon, c., starkes, j.l. (2002). when paying attention becomes counterproductive: impact of divided versus skill-focused attention on novice and experienced performance of sensory motor skills. journal of experimental psychology applied, 8, 6-16. carpenter, sh. k., keith, r., lohseb, a. f., healyc, l. e., bourne, j. c., clegg, b.a. (2013). external focus of attention improves performance in a speeded aiming task. journal of applied research in memory and cognition, 2, 14-19. damanpak, s., shafizade, m., bahram, a., fazel, e. (2012). the effect of external and internal focus of attention on shot put skill. research in sport management & motor behavior, 18(2), 1-9. ghayor, e., bagherli, zh.aslankhani, m.a. (2014). the effect of internal and external attention focus on static and dynamic balance in 20-40 years-old women with multiple sclerosis. international journal of sport studies, 4 (11), 1393-1401. graham, t. (2003). attentional focus as a basis for mental skills intervention in sport. sportmedicine science. 1, 223-236. hodges, n. j., & franks, i. m. (2001). learning a coordination skill: interactive effects of instruction and feedback. research quarterly for exercise and sport, 72(2), 132-142. james, w. (1890). principles of psychology (vol 2). new york: holt. kakar, ch., nayeem zia s. s., suman, kh. (2013). effect of external and internal focus of attention on acquisition, retention, and transfer phase of motor learning in parkinson’s disease. hong kong physiotherapy journal, 31, 88-94. lewis, b.p., linder, d.e. (1997). thinking about choking? attentional processes and paradoxical performance. personality and social psychology, bulletin, 23,937-944. magill, r. a., & anderson, d. i. (2007). motor learning and control: concepts and applications (vol. 11). new york: mcgraw-hill. moghaddam, a., vaez mousavi, m. k., namazizadeh, m. (2008). the effects of task difficulty and attentional focus instructions on balance task performance. harkat, 36, 23-37. pashabadi, a., farokhi, a., jamshidi, a., shahbazi, m. (2014). effect of attentional focus on postural sways and muscular activity in semi-skilled gymnasts. journal of modern rehabilitation,8(1), 28-34. roberts, g.c., spink, k.s., pemberton, c.l. (1999). learning experiences in sport psychology, 2 nd ed. champaign, il: human kinetics. salajegheh, a., saberi kakhki, a.r., zareazade, m. (2014). the effect of attentional focus types as the self-talk form on acquisition and retention of basketball chest pass. motor behavior. 16, 111-124. salmoni, a., schmidt, r.a., walter, c.b. (1984). knowledge of results and motor learning: a review and critical reappraisal. psychological bulletin & review, 95, 335-386. shafinia, p., zarghami, m., noorbakhsh, p., baharlouyi, k. (2006). effect of internal and external focus of attention on performance and retention of static balance. olympic, 14(3), 37-43. shea, c. h., & wulf, g. (1999). enhancing motor learning through external-focus instructions and feedback. human movement science, 18(4), 553-571. tahmasebi, f., aslankhani, m. a., namazizadeh, m. (2009). effects of focus of attention and internal and external imagery on acquisition and retention of dart throw skill. research in sport sciences, 25, 99-126. uehara, l. a., button, c., davids, k. (2008). the effect of focus of attention instractions on novice learning soccer chip. brazilian journal of biometricity, 63-77. vance, j., wulf, g., töllner, t., mcnevin, n.h., mercer, j. (2004). emg activity as a function of the performer’s focus of attention. journal of motor behavior, 36, 450-459. wulf, g. (2013). attentional focus and motor learning: a review of 15 years. international review of sport and exercise psychology, 6(1), 77-104. e. mirmiran, g. lotfi, f. hatami the effect of different focus of attention as verbal cues on performance and retention of standing long jump 133 wulf, g., & prinz, w. (2001). directing attention to movement effects enhances learning: a review. psychonomic bulletin & review, 8(4), 648-660. wulf, g., lauterbach, b., toole, t. (1999). learning advantages of an external focus of attention in golf. research quarterly for exercise and sport, 70, 120-126. wulf, g., mcnevin, n.h. (2003). simply distracting learners is not enough: more evidence for the learning benefits of an external focus of attention. european journal of sport science, 3(5), 1-13. zachry, t. (2005). effects of attentional focus on kinematics and muscle activation patterns as a function of expertise. master's thesis, university of nevada, las vegas. zachry, t., wulf, g., mercer, g., bezodis, n. (2005). increased movement accuracy and reduced emg activity as the result of adopting and external focus of attention. brain research bulletin, 67,304-309. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, pages: 121-130 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/18 google ai approach and statistical results of using google applications in mobile learning huseyin bi̇cen1, ahmet arnavut2 1 near east university, faculty of open and distance education, nicosia, northern cyprus, huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr 2 university of kyrenia, distance learning center, kyrenia, northern cyprus, ahmet.arnavut@kyrenia.edu.tr abstract: the aim of this study is to determine the view of students in the near east university regarding the use of google applications on mobile learning. a data collection tool consisting of 20 items developed by the researchers were used in the study. the cronbach’s alpha rate of the data collection tool was found to be .942 as a result of the applications. general information is provided in the abstract section of the study. in the methods section the age and gender of the students and faculties in which the students are educated in is shown in tables. the data collected throughout the research is given in the results and discussion section and evaluated by the researcher in the conclusion section. as a result of the research it was concluded that the students have a positive view about the google applications in mobil education. when the data analyzed statistically it has found that using using google applications for students makes the most of the tasks easier to complete. thus, students saves more time and energy by using this applications. providing education on using these applications and benefitting from these applications will be good. with the data collected from this study it is aimed to guide other researchers from different universities and countries working on this subject. keywords: artificial intelligence; mobile learning; google applications; technology. how to cite: bicen, h., & arnavut, a. (2020). google ai approach and statistical results of using google applications in mobile learning. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 121-130. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/18 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/18 mailto:huseyin.bicen@neu.edu.tr mailto:ahmet.arnavut@kyrenia.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/18 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 122 1. introduction it is not possible to ignore the changes in education today. however, it is not correct to link this change to only one subject. even though technology takes the lead, factors such as people’s needs, way of communication and priorities in life are also amongst the reasons of these changes (ciampa, 2013). the developing technologies have changed and is changing not only education but also people’s life styles in their houses and their hobbies in a visible way (baran, 2014). the area in which these changes are most affected is undoubtedly the field of education (beldarrain, 2016). depending on their personal needs, habits and hobbies, people have forcibly changed the methods of training and educational materials (mtebe & raisamo, 2014). paper usage is reduced, digitization is increased, and digital documents are considered to be more reliable (chen et al., 2015; chiang et al., 2014). in addition, to bringing other conveniences these digital materials accelerated the exchange of files and documents. these digital documents and applications are headed by google and microsoft and other major corporations (najafabadii et al., 2015; hwang & wu, 2014). as a search engine, google has presented itself to the evolving digital world and to users of certain applications to contribute to education. these applications are similar versions of microsoft office applications online. google docs for creating written documents, google sheets for creating account spreadsheets, google slides for creating presentations, and google forms applications for creating surveys for information and feedback are all applications that google provide to be used in education. these applications can be used in traditional education as well as in distance education, and have a great contribution to distance education (hobfeld et al., 2012). as the largest contribution of distance education to applications, all of these applications are fully compatible with mobile technologies that have become a part of education today. this compatibility of these applications with mobile devices means that mobile devices are actively used not only by passive learners but also by those who teach and prepare materials. the government, companies or individuals are constantly collecting data for further use (atalay & çelik,2017). these useful data are stored in electronic media today. larger storage areas are needed as a result of mobile devices being used by larger masses and the increased coverage of the media created by these mobile devices (millard, 2019). these mobile devices have google ai approach and statistical results of using google applications in … huseyin bi̇cen et al. 123 turned into smart mobile devices over time and their usage areas have increased. mobile devices, which were previously used only for communication purposes, have become smart mobile devices and have turned into small computers that people take with them. the fact that these small computers make people's life easier and that they are constantly connected to the internet and provide access to social media has gradually increased their popularity (liu & bakici, 2019). media and shared media that can be uploaded directly and easily to the social media environment with smart mobile devices, increase the data capacity in the digital environment with each passing second (domoff et al., 2019). therefore, the methods used to analyze this previously digital data have become increasingly unavailable (ferguson, 2019; ghani et al., 2019). "data never sleeps 7.0" shows how much activity happened on the internet in just one minute (domo, 2019). the large number of activities reveals how large the resulting data can be analyzed. new methods are needed to analyze so much data accurately and conveniently; that is, "big data analysis" and "artificial intelligence". it is known that google previously added artificial intelligence applications to its products, increasing the usability of the products and collecting data with this method (ai multiple, 2019). google also provides its users with applications to store data and analyze the collected data. google's bigquery application is a storage and analysis application with an artificial intelligence application (cloud google, 2020). by explaining the artificial intelligence and data collection approaches of google, this study examines how much google applications are used by students on mobile devices. the data obtained were analyzed and interpreted by taking google's artificial intelligence and data analysis approaches into account. 2. methods the study took place in the nar east university located in north cyprus. the data was collected through a survey developed by the researcher. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 124 2.1. participants the sample of the research consists of 123 students studying at near east university. gender the gender distributions of the students participating in the survey are as shown in the table below. table 1.distribution of students by sex gender f % female 66 53.7 male 57 46.3 total 123 100 as shown in table 1, 53.7% (66 people) of female students and 46.3% of male students contributed to the survey. age the age distributions of the students participating in the survey are as shown in the table below. table 2. distribution of students by age age f % 18 12 9.8 19 26 21.1 20 31 25.2 21 17 13.8 22 13 10.6 23 10 8.1 24 5 4.1 25 6 4.9 29 1 .8 31 1 .8 39 1 .8 total 123 100.0 google ai approach and statistical results of using google applications in … huseyin bi̇cen et al. 125 as shown in table 2, most of the sample is composed of students aged 18 to 23 years. according to the table, we can say that the average age of the students who contributed to the survey is 22. faculties and schools the faculties and vocational schools in which the students participating in the research are educated in are given in the table below table 3. faculties and schools of the students faculties and schools f % faculty of education 19 15.4 school of physical education and sports 5 4.1 faculty of dentistry 2 1.6 faculty of pharmacy 5 4.1 faculty of arts and sciences 24 19.5 faculty of fine arts and design 3 2.4 faculty of nursing 5 4.1 faculty of law 5 4.1 faculty of economics and administrative sciences 4 3.3 faculty of communication 3 2.4 vocational schools 1 0.8 faculty of engineering 4 3.3 faculty of health sciences 27 22.0 faculty of medicine 8 6.5 school of tourism and hotel management 8 6.5 total 123 100.0 as shown in table 3, the students contributed to the research from 15 different faculties and schools in near east university. the number of students contributing to the research from the faculties of education, faculty of arts and sciences and faculty of health and sciences, which have a high number of students, is higher than the other faculties and colleges. 2.2. instruments as data gathering tool in the study, students perspectives on the students’ perspectives on the use of google applications in mobile learning questionnaire developed by the researchers has been used. it brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 126 consists of 20 positive statements. according to the answers to be given for the statements 5 points for “completely agree” and 1 point to “completely disagree”. the cronbach alpha rate of the questionnaire has been determined as very reliable (.942). 2.3. data analysis the research data were analyzed by the spss and the frequency has been analyzed as percentage and average and interpreted. 3. results and discussion this section includes average and standard deviation findings related to the use of google applications in mobile learning. 3.1. students’ perspectives on the use of google applications in mobile learning on table 4, there are average and standard deviation results of students’ perspectives on the use of google applications in mobile learning. table 4. students’ perspectives on the use of google applications in mobile learning items mean sd i create surveys with google forms 2.65 1.09 i can easily download the results of surveys created via google forms 3.01 1.15 i prefer participating in surveys created via google forms 3.25 1.12 i do not hesitate to provide personal information in google forms. 2.72 1.16 it is easy to access google documents applications via my mobile phone 3.36 1.13 i can easily do my homework via google documents 3.46 1.11 i can develop cooperative projects via google documents 3.15 1.12 i can easily share written information via google documents 3.38 1.08 i can easily create slide shows via google slides on my smart phone 3.37 1.05 i can create cooperative slides trough google slides 3.21 1.03 i can share high-volume files with friends via google drive 3.40 1.10 google ai approach and statistical results of using google applications in … huseyin bi̇cen et al. 127 i can access my folders at any time and at any place via google drive 3.43 1.18 i find it safe to save my folders on google drive 3.19 1.12 i can understand contexts published in different languages via google translate 3.32 1.27 i can access scientific contexts about my courses via google scholar 3.51 1.16 i can easily create my own web page with google sites 3.31 .98 i can easily remember important dates like assignments via google calender 3.35 1.11 i use google apps for educational purposes 3.54 1.02 i can download my presentation from anywhere via google slides 2.81 1.08 i can easily navigate to places i want to reach via google maps 3.08 1.04 when we look at the average and standard deviations of the items in table 4, it is seen that there are some similarities between the students' viewpoints of using google applications for mobile learning apart from some materials. in the survey consisting of 20items the responds of the students are as below; “i can easily do my homework via google documents“ (m=3.46, sd=1.11), “i can share high-volume files with friends via google drive” (m=3.40, sd=1.10), “i can access my folders at any time and at any place via google drive” (m=3.43, sd=1.18), “i can access scientific contexts about my courses via google scholar” (m=3.51, sd=1.16) and “i use google apps for educational purposes” (m=3.54, sd=1.02), for these items the respond of “i agree” was in the range of (m=3.40-4.19). these materials show us that students use google applications to share or do their homework. students responded to the rest of the questionnaire in the range of "not sure" (m = 2.60-3.39). a similar study titled “a study of student use of cloud computing applications” completed by taylor and hunsinger in 2011 show that at the university level, students’ intentions to use google docs are positively and significantly correlated with the constructs from the theory of planned behavior [11]. to reach better results about this topics, studies in the area can be merged by researchers who studies on mobile technologies. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 128 4. conclusion looking at the statistical results, it was seen that students' views on using google applications in education were not negative. students who responded to the questionnaire at most moderate levels indicated in their responses that they also participated in assignments and some of the materials related to the lessons. as a result of the study, it was decided that some studies could be done to make the students' views on the use of google applications in mobile education even more positive. it has been concluded that informative trainings should be conducted for informing and making students use these technologies. in the direction of the statistical data obtained from the study, it has been decided that students should be educated about the contents such as questionnaire creation, document creation, form creation and sharing, and students should be informed more. in the present age, the level of data produced with the development of technology is increasing day by day. from these data, the results that cannot be obtained with manpower can be obtained with machines. but it is also important to be able to use them correctly rather than obtaining data. people who take advantage of these technologies can sometimes be afraid of being reached in terms of their locations, their search histories in search engines, or their searches in different applications however, providers generally aim to provide the user with speed and convenience in their next searches by accessing this information. using mobile devices correctly and consciously will ensure that we do not have any fear in us, and that we get more efficiency from the devices and applications we use. 5. future studies in future studies, it is planned to measure how much information students have about the privacy policies of the devices and applications they use. in line with the data obtained, it is aimed to inform students about the privacy policies of large companies and to enable students to benefit from the mobile technologies they use more consciously. in order to achieve this goal, not only students but also the society of today should be informed about concepts such as artificial intelligence, machine teaching and big data analysis. references ai multiple, (2019). google is ai first: 12 ai projects powering google products. retrieved on 15.02.2020 from https://blog.aimultiple.com/ai-is-already-atthe-heart-of-google/ google ai approach and statistical results of using google applications in … huseyin bi̇cen et al. 129 atalay, m. & çelik, e. (2017). büyük veri analzinde yapay zeka ve makine öğrenmesi uygulamaları. mehmet akif ersoy üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi, 9(22), 155-172. baran, e. (2014). a review of research on mobile learning in teacher education. journal of educational technology & society, 17(4), 14-17. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f8cd/7b9a7e60e5724b694b1377991565e c0f891a.pdf beldarrain, y. (2006). distance education trends: integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration. distance education, 27(2), 139153. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587910600789498 chen, b., seilhamer, r., bennett, l., bauer, s. (2015). students’ mobile learning practices in higher education: a multi-year study. educause review, 7. retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/4/changingmobile-learning-practices-a-multiyear-study-2012-2016 chiang, t. h., yang, s. j., hwang, g. j. (2014). an augmented reality-based mobile learning system to improve students' learning achievements and motivations in natural science inquiry activities. journal of educational technology & society, 17(4), 352-365. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287529242_an_augmented_r ealitybased_mobile_learning_system_to_improve_students'_learning_achiev ements_and_motivations_in_natural_science_inquiry_activities ciampa, k. (2013). learning in a mobile age: an investigation of student motivation. journal of computer assisted learning, 30(1), 82-96. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12036 cloud google, (2020). google cloud platform. retrieved on 10.02.2020 from https://cloud.google.com/products domo, (2019). data never sleeps 7.0. retrieved on 20.02.2020 from https://www.domo.com/learn/data-never-sleeps-7 domoff, s. e., borgen, a. l., foley, r. p., & maffett, a. (2019). excessive use of mobile devices and children's physical health. human behavior and emerging technologies, 1(2), 169-175. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.145 ferguson, a. g. (2019). the rise of big data policing: surveillance, race, and the future of law enforcement. new york, u.s.a.:nyu press. ghani, n. a., hamid, s., hashem, i. a. t., & ahmed, e. (2019). social media big data analytics: a survey. computers in human behavior, 101, 417-428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.08.039 hobfeld, t., schatz, r., varela, m., & timmerer, c. (2012). challenges of qoe management for cloud applications. ieee communications magazine, 50(4), 28-36. https://doi.org/10.1109/mcom.2012.6178831 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f8cd/7b9a7e60e5724b694b1377991565ec0f891a.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f8cd/7b9a7e60e5724b694b1377991565ec0f891a.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/01587910600789498 https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/4/changing-mobile-learning-practices-a-multiyear-study-2012-2016 https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/4/changing-mobile-learning-practices-a-multiyear-study-2012-2016 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287529242_an_augmented_reality-based_mobile_learning_system_to_improve_students'_learning_achievements_and_motivations_in_natural_science_inquiry_activities https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287529242_an_augmented_reality-based_mobile_learning_system_to_improve_students'_learning_achievements_and_motivations_in_natural_science_inquiry_activities https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287529242_an_augmented_reality-based_mobile_learning_system_to_improve_students'_learning_achievements_and_motivations_in_natural_science_inquiry_activities https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287529242_an_augmented_reality-based_mobile_learning_system_to_improve_students'_learning_achievements_and_motivations_in_natural_science_inquiry_activities https://doi.org/10.1109/mcom.2012.6178831 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 130 hwang, g. j., & wu, p. h. (2014). applications, impacts and trends of mobile technology-enhanced learning: a review of 2008–2012 publications in selected ssci journals. international journal of mobile learning and organisation, 8(2), 83-95. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmlo.2014.062346 liu, y., & bakici, t. (2019). enterprise social media usage: the motives and the moderating role of public social media experience. computers in human behavior, 101, 163-172. retrieved from https://instituteforpr.org/enterprise-social-media-use-the-motives-androle-of-public-social-media-experience/ millard, c. (2014). data privacy in the clouds. in m. graham and w. h. dutton (eds.), society and the internet: how networks of information and communication are changing our lives (p. 146). oxford scholarship online. retrieved from https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/97801996 61992.001.0001/acprof-9780199661992-chapter-22 mtebe, j. s., & raisamo, r. (2014). investigating students' behavioural intention to adopt and use mobile learning in higher education in east africa. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 10(3), 4-20. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1059061.pdf najafabadi, m. m., villanustre, f., khoshgoftaar, t. m., seliya, n., wald, r., & muharemagic, e. (2015). deep learning applications and challenges in big data analytics. journal of big data, 2(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537014-0007-7 taylor, c. w., & hunsinger, d. s. (2011). a study of student use of cloud computing applications. journal of information technology management, 22(3), 36-50. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.473.1926&rep =rep1&type=pdf https://instituteforpr.org/enterprise-social-media-use-the-motives-and-role-of-public-social-media-experience/ https://instituteforpr.org/enterprise-social-media-use-the-motives-and-role-of-public-social-media-experience/ https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199661992.001.0001/acprof-9780199661992-chapter-22 https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199661992.001.0001/acprof-9780199661992-chapter-22 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1059061.pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.473.1926&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.473.1926&rep=rep1&type=pdf microsoft word issue3.docx 128 teaching mathematics: discovering vs storytelling aslanbek naziev ryazan state university ulitsa svobody, 46, ryazan', ryazanskaya oblast', russia, 390000 phone: +79106458189 a.naziev@rsu.edu.ru abstract there exist at least two approaches to the teaching of every subject, including mathematics. the first one is as old as the world (or, at least, as the education). according to this approach, to teach something means to outline what you teach. this approach is appreciated by the great majority of teachers. because the realization of this approach in most cases reduces to the telling of stories about what is taught, i call this approach by «storytelling». there exists also another approach, which goes from the famous statement by aristotle: «we learn something only when we do what we learn». from this statement, i think, was born the following idea by herbert spencer: «what does it mean to teach? — it means to encourage systematically the students to their own discoveries» (as it was formulated by george pólya and gabor segö in the epigraph to the preface of their book “problems and theorems in analysis” and repeated in polya, g., (1981)). this approach to teaching is natural to call «discovering». in this paper, i intend to look closely to these approaches (mainly, with respect to mathematics), to identify their advantages and/or disadvantages, and to consider the work of brain hemispheres within these approaches. keywords: teaching mathematics, discovering of proofs, storytelling, functional brain asymmetry 1. teaching math as discovering of proofs in mathematics, we have a tool that allows us  to discover new,  to confirm it, and  to understand how and why are things going. such a remarkable tool, “three in one”! this tool is named proof. basing on this, the author has suggested in the year 2000 the so-called conception of humanitarian oriented mathematics teaching according to which “to teach mathematics means to encourage systematically the students to discovering of their own proofs”. accordingly, in my teaching practice, i always try to teach my students to discover their own proofs. let me illustrate this by one example. consider the following problem. peter once said: the day before yesterday i was 9 years old, and next year will turn 12. what is the date of peter’s birthday, if what he said is true? solution. let peter said truth. then next year peter will turn 12. so, this year will be 11. so, in the past year, it turned 10. but the day before yesterday there were 9. so, 10 years was fulfilled yesterday. so, yesterday was the past year. and that can only be if yesterday was december 31. thus, peter’s birthday is december 31. a. naziev teaching mathematics: discovering vs storytelling 129 look at the written text. it is proof. it is the proof that if peter said truth than peter’s birthday is december 31. so, due to this proof we, first, discovered peter’s birthday, we, second, confirm our discovery, and we, third, understand why the things go exactly like this. note that the things go exactly like in this example with respect to every good proof. good proof, as we already said, is “three in one”: a tool for discovering, for confirmation, and for understanding. 2. storytelling but my dean (a physicist, not a mathematician) keeps telling me: “why do you require proofs from your students? this leads to a low level of their estimates. instead, tell them stories and ask them to retell you these stories, and you will see the growth of the estimates of your students”. of course, i have no doubt that in the result of the proposed replacement the estimates of my students will increase, but i also clearly understand that this will be the estimates for different subjects. my estimates are for mathematics while new estimates will be for the storytelling about mathematics. i have to stress that most storytellers do not see the difference between the first and the second (one example of such storytellers the reader will see a bit later). i will explain this difference. in order to learn to swim isn’t enough to listen to the stories about swimming. everyone who wants to learn swimming should try to swim. exactly these attempts will lead him to the fact that one happy moment he will suddenly discover inside of himself the ability to stay on the water. without this discovery, he will not learn to swim and no storytelling about swimming can help him to make this discovery. analogously, it is impossible to learn to ride a bicycle by listening to stories about riding a bicycle. it is impossible to learn to play the violin by listening to stories about playing the violin. and so on. but most teachers prefer not discovering, but storytelling. example. one of ryazan’s mathematics teachers invited me to his lesson. the lesson was about writing and reading number intervals. in the flow of the lesson, the teacher was in need to introduce the notation for infinite intervals, something like (1, ∞). the teacher decided not merely to introduce the notation but also to tell the story about it. the story was as follows. “children, scientists constantly meet with very large numbers, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000, 10000000…. but someday they met such a large number, such a large number (he repeated) that they did not even know how to call it. and then they decided to call it simply infinity.” i like very much this amusing story because it clearly shows what storytelling is. {story}-telling is {whatever-you-want}-telling! those readers who want right now object to me i ask to give a little patience. i am sure that they want to tell that i gave an example of a bad teacher and that with good teachers such things are impossible. wait and see. example. many times i read that ancient greeks instead of proofs produced drawings and wrote near them: “look!” someday i decided to verify if teachers i am working with know about this. my verification i divided into two questions. the first question was: do you hear that ancient greeks instead of proofs produced drawings and wrote near them: “look!”? the answer was “yes”. after that i asked the second question: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 130 do you know that ancient greeks instead of proof produced drawings and wrote near them: “look!”? the answer was: “why do you ask it again? we already said you that we hear this! let’s draw from this preliminary conclusion: many people brought up on storytelling, mathematics teachers included, do not distinguish between ‘to hear’ and ‘to know’. i heard, so i know! but this is, as i have already said, only preliminary conclusion. the main conclusion is much sadder. i repeated described above experiment many times, and always the result was the same. all the teachers i interviewed heard about this and even knew about it. moreover, i read this on educational sites on the internet and in dissertations on mathematics education, ph.d., and sc.d. why did i call this phenomenon sad? because what was said about ancient greeks is simply impossible! what is the main achievement of ancient greeks in mathematics? introducing the idea a proof! and, further, proving the infinity of the set of primes, proving the pythagoras theorem, proving the irrationality of square root of two, etc. how can inventors of proof omit proofs and write instead “look!”? in no way! so did not the greeks, but the hindus! but over and over again i hear that ancient greeks…”. this example shows clearly that {story}-telling is {somewhere-sometime-i-heard-something-like}-telling! example. when the perestroika (restructuring) began in the ussr, one historian told me with pride: “now i can speak whatever i want”. i answered him that neither before nor after beginning the perestroika i could speak whatever i want; because being a mathematician i have to tell only what is proved, and what is proved always is true, so i am forced always speak only that what is true (not what i want!). this last example shows clearly the key difference between the two approaches to mathematics teaching: teaching through discovering and teaching through storytelling. under the first approach one forced to tell only that what is true while under the second approach one can tell whatever he wants. in particular, it shows that {story}-telling is {whatever-you-want-because-who-can-verify}-telling. 3. storytellers about storytelling above, the author has outlined his own opinion on storytelling. now, turn to the opinions of storytellers themselves. we have chosen for this purpose, maybe, the most popular book about teaching mathematics through storytelling, teaching mathematics as storytelling by rina zazkis and peter liljedahl. the book begins with the following claims. “we like to tell stories. we tell stories about mathematics, about mathematicians, and about doing mathematics. we do this firstly because we enjoy it. we do it secondly because the students like it. and we do it thirdly because we believe that it is an effective instructional tool in the teaching of mathematics.” what is this? the answer is evident; this is a storytelling about storytelling. the authors tell us what they want to see in storytelling. let’s look closely at these statements. let’s begin with the second statement, a. naziev teaching mathematics: discovering vs storytelling 131 “we tell stories about mathematics, about mathematicians, and about doing mathematics.” we see three ‘about’ in this statement. now, let’s tell honestly, how must be titled the book? it must be titled “teaching about mathematics as storytelling”. so, inaccuracy begins from the very beginning, from the book’s cover. now, turn to the first and third statements, “we like to tell stories, and … the students like it.” is it true? precisely in this form, no. really, does somebody like to tell hard or hardly understandable stories? — no. everybody likes to tell stories easy, light, fairy, laughable. and students dislike hardly understandable stories, they only like stories easy, light, fairy, laughable. every teacher, i think, can remember the cases when he was talking about something; some students listened to him, some no; he told a joke, those students who have listened, laughed, and those who have not listened, asked those who listened, “what did he say?” these last students were ready to listen to the teacher but only in case, his talk is laughable. several times in my teaching practice, i have discussed with my students “the method”, or “a message to eratosthenes on mechanical theorems” by archimedes. the work is extremely interesting. it is interesting, first, by the very intriguing history of its discovering, and, second, by its content. unfortunately, i have not a place here to explain the history of its discovering. only note that the work by archimedes (who lived in the third century b. c.) was discovered in ... 1906! what about content, in this work archimedes uncovers before the reader his “kitchen”; he shows how he guesses for his results. can it be something more interesting for those who teach or learn mathematics? so, what i saw. while i was telling the story of the discovering of the work, the students listened with interest, but as soon as i moved to the main thing, to the content of the work, most of them immediately lost interest and occupied themselves with the most important thing in their life: staring at their smartphones. they even didn’t try to understand the way of archimedes’ thought! thus, we see that in the reality {story}-telling is {easy story}-telling, {fairy story}-telling, {laughable story}-telling, and so on. 4. steve jobs’ opinion several of my listeners, school and university teachers, turned my attention to the following words, “the most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. the storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” (steve jobs) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 132 they questioned me, how i can talk so disrespectfully about the storytelling if steve jobs himself gave to it such a high estimate. first of all, i do not think that this estimate is high. moreover, precisely in this form, this saying isn’t true. in fact, isn’t it absolutely clear that jobs’ statement is related not to all storytellers but to great storytellers only? after making this refinement, i ask my opponents, if they can confirm the jobs’ words. they were very surprised. “why to confirm? this was said by steve jobs! isn’t it enough?”' before going further, let’s mention the feature of the storytelling illuminated by this question, namely {story}-telling is {do-not-confirm-if-somebody-famous-tells-something-like}-telling. now, i can easily confirm the words of steve jobs. to do this, it is sufficient to show the following series of faces. who are these men? they are greatest storytellers of the past two centuries. look at these faces and repeat word by word the statement by steve jobs. you will see that these words constitute extremely precise characterization of these creatures. in fact, they were most powerful persons in the world in their times. and they set the vision, values, and agenda of the entire generations. tragic consequences of their activities are well known. it is very important to understand why did this happen. in my opinion, the main reason for this consists in that the human beings … aren’t parrots! in fact, what can do parrot? he can listen, memorize, and repeat. maybe, he can even drink your cocktail instead of you. a. naziev teaching mathematics: discovering vs storytelling 133 but there is such a thing that he will not do under any circumstances: the parrot will not believe you! this is absolutely excluded for him. now, let us imagine that human beings would be as smart as parrots. what would they do with the communist manifesto? read, memorize, and repeat. well, maybe also drink cocktail. and that is all! but human beings are not parrots. they are much more stupid. they need to believe! even if no one forces them to do this! why, for what — it does not matter! believe just so! they readily believe anything, even the most ridiculous nonsense! as tertullian said: i believe, for it is absurd! so, they believed what is written in the manifesto. but the belief is a very dangerous thing. for the belief, the human is ready to give his life and take the life of another. exactly this has happened. those who believed the sinister tales of marx rose up against those who did not want to believe and the rivers of blood flowed through the earth. let us note this feature of the human beings: they need to believe. let’s say the same thing in more rigid words: human beings suffer from the severe form of a dangerous disease, unknown to the representatives of other species. this disease is called abnormally high suggestibility. that was noticed long ago. for instance, in the port-royal logic is written: “[t]here are no absurdities too groundless to find supporters. whoever determines to deceive the world may be sure of finding people who are willing enough to be deceived, and the most absurd follies always find minds to which they are adapted.” (arnauld and nicole, the port-royal logic, discourse i) and in the twentieth century, johan huizinga wrote in his book-warning in the shadow of tomorrow: “the abnormally high suggestibility is that achilles’ heel, to which the advertisement beats the modern man. this applies to both commercial and political advertisement. and all this leads to the loss of critical judgment. in the result, huge masses of people are subject to the thoughtless execution of what is contained in the thoughts and phrases that are imposed from the outside.” and huizinga warned that this could lead europe to disaster. (he was talking about europe, but his prediction came true for the whole world. as is said in one of murphy’s laws, “things are not going so badly. they go much worse”.) but who wants to listen to thinkers? they like listening to storytellers with their beautiful fairy tales, and not predictors of collapse. so, nobody listened to huizinga, but as a result ... the result was already mentioned above and is well known. and we must understand that this shows us what storytelling is! so, we see that we need to augment the words by steve jobs as follows (steve jobs’ words are printed in blue, mine in red): warning! people, be careful! the most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. you will not even notice how the storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come. this can have and throughout the history of mankind many times really had the most tragic consequences. steve jobs and aslanbek naziev brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 134 adherents of the storytelling may object that they have not in mind something bad. to this, i can ask, what bad have in mind creators of the communist manifesto? “a spectre is haunting europe – the spectre of communism”. what’s dangerous? well, spectre. well, is haunting. well, europe. what’s dangerous? especially for cambodia in the twentieth century. but when this spectre got to cambodia in the 1970’s, the expression “the rivers of blood” became literal. of the seven million people, cambodia lost three million in the name of the triumph of marx’s fairy tales. those who take the problems of education seriously must understand that the storytelling exploits and aggravates the most dangerous features of the human race, excessive credulity, and abnormally high suggestibility. without this features storytelling would be impossible. in order to understand this, it is enough to imagine how at the beginning of storytelling listeners tell to the storyteller, “you can tell whatever you want but you must know that we will not believe you”. what would the result be of this declaration? storytelling would become impossible! this thought experiment shows that what is ordinarily called storytelling is in fact not merely story-telling but also story-believing. 5. two hemispheres of the brain does all that was said above mean that storytelling is useless? no, i do not think so. it is useful in its own time and place. in order to pick out these time and place, we need tell some words about the work of the brain’s hemispheres. the researcher of processes of intelligence and creativity paul torrance (1915–2003) conducted an experiment in the course of which he established four types of thinking:  left hemisphere thinking as one that is built on logic and analysis;  right hemisphere thinking where the thinking process is directed by emotions, intuition, and images;  mixed thinking where equally active are both right and left hemispheres, each of which is switched on at the right moment;  integrated thinking when the right hemisphere and left hemisphere thinking work simultaneously. torrance stressed that among these types of thinking there are no good or bad types: everyone has advantages and disadvantages. however, the scientists and educators in recent years have increasingly attached importance to the development of right hemisphere thinking. in this connection let’s recall the following words by outstanding russian neurolinguist and neuropsychologist vyacheslav vsevolodovitch ivanov: “the right hemisphere in the norm (when censorship of the left hemisphere is carried out) is wordless, and this is the source of its creative potential.” (ivanov vyach.vs. 1929–2017) a. naziev teaching mathematics: discovering vs storytelling 135 let us stress that to uncover the creative potential of the right hemisphere, censorship of the left hemisphere is necessary. now note that this censorship isn’t inborn. it has its own time and place. it is established in the early childhood in the course of the mother’s storytelling. in the first years of life, the child and mother establish special emotional relationships that are characterized by the child’s unlimited trust in the mother. when the mother points a finger at the dog and says in a special voice to the child that it is a doggie, the child does not just remember the name, he believes that it is a doggie. here, this credulity is in its proper place and is vital. (imagine, what would be if the child constantly questioned the mother’s words!) but what is appropriate in early childhood gradually becomes inappropriate and even dangerous as the child grows up. the infamous phenomenon of child theft is based, precisely, on the child’s overconfidence to outsiders, and this trustfulness needs to be specially disaccustomed. so, early childhood is the proper place for the storytelling. at later stages of development, it must give way to more advanced tools, retaining the role of only a minor auxiliary tool. 6. discovering against uncontrollable believing one of those more advanced tools mentioned at the end of the previous section pointed out rudolf steiner in his the philosophy of freedom. “we no longer want to believe; we want to know. belief demands the acceptance of truths which we do not wholly comprehend. but the individuality which seeks to experience everything in the depths of its own being is repelled by what it cannot understand. only that knowledge will satisfy us which springs from the inner life of the personality, and submits itself to no external norm.” (rudolf steiner, the philosophy of freedom) now, it is natural to ask, “what does it mean ‘to know’?” brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 136 it was explained by aristotle: “‘to know’ means ‘to discover with the help of proof’.” so, we are returning to the very beginning of our paper: to the discovering of proofs. this is the most effective counter-sanction against storytelling in adulthood. wherein, every time, passing to the storytelling, the teacher should warn the students, “now we leave the safe region of the discovering and turn to the extremely dangerous zone of storytelling. be careful! do not take a single my word to faith! check and double-check, check and doublecheck! and not because i’m so ugly, but because so ugly is storytelling!” references polya, g., (1981), mathematical discovery, john wiley & sons, new york & chichester & brisbane and toronto. naziev, a. kh., (2000), humanitarian oriented mathematics teaching in general school, ryazan, ryazan institute of education development. zazkis, r., liljedahl, p. (2009), teaching mathematics as storytelling, sense publishers, rotterdam/taipei. arnauld, a., nicole, p. (1861), the port-royal logic, translation from french, james gordon, edinburgh. huizinga j., (1936), in the shadow of tomorrow, ny, w.w. norton & company, inc (first published 1935). marx, k., engels, f. (1848), manifesto of the communist party, marx/engels selected works, vol. one, progress publishers, moscow, 1969. ivanov vyach. vs., (1994), unconscious, functional asymmetry, language, and creativity. in the unconscious (pp. 168–173), novocherkassk, saguna agency. steiner, r. (2011) the philosophy of freedom, translated from german, rudolf steiner press, east sussex, uk. aslanbek naziev’s biodata: education: moscow state pedagogical university doctor of sciences (=scd) in mathematics education; candidate of sciences (=phd) in function theory and functional analysis specialist (=ms) in mathematics and computer science achievements & awards: generalized gelfand-kolmogorov duality from the category of all compact topological spaces to the category of all separated locally compact topological spaces; generalized tannaka-krein duality from the category of all compact topological groups to the category of all separated locally compact topological groups; formulated and comprehensively substantiated the conception of humanitarian oriented mathematics teaching according to which to teach mathematics means to impel systematically the students to the discovering of their own proofs; grant: victor pinchuk’s foundation “territory of the future: the open university”, ukraine; award: honorary worker of higher professional education of the russian federation; daad scholarship (1996-1997, two months). teaching experience: developed and implemented in the practice of teaching at university level about ten author's courses in mathematics and mathematics teaching; in particular, “a course in foundations of mathematics” for students of pedagogical universities (4 semesters); prepared ten ph.d. students successfully defended their thesis on the methodology of mathematics teaching. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2019, volume 10, issue 4, pages: 01-13 | doi:10.18662/brain/01 auditory brainstem response abnormalities in schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations mohammad sayadnasiri¹, omid rezaei2, raheleh komar3 1 psychosis research center, university of social welfare and rehabilitation sciences, tehran, iran. nasiri115@yahoo.com 2 psychosis research center, university of social welfare and rehabilitation sciences, tehran, iran. dr_omid_rezaee@yahoo.com 3 islamic azad university, science and research branch, tehran, iran. raheleh_komar@yahoo.com abstract: background: although the exact pathogenesis of auditory hallucinations is not yet known, some suggested the impairment of perception and processing of auditory information as a possible explanation. so, the aim of this study is to evaluate auditory pathways of schizophrenic patients using auditory brainstem responses (abr). methods: schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations and age and sex matched healthy non-relative controls were recruited in this casecontrol study. scale for assessment of positive symptoms (saps) was used for rating the severity of hallucinations. then, abr recorded from all participants and the latencies of waves i, ii, iii, iv, v and interpeak latencies (ipl) of waves i-iii, iii-v were analyzed on both sides. chi squire and independent t tests were applied for statistical analysis. pvalue≤0.05 was considered significant. results: 39 patients and 35 controls were included. latencies of waves iii and v and ipl of iii-v were significantly prolonged on the left side. disease duration had no influence on the results. conclusion: there is a link between abnormal abrs and auditory hallucinations in schizophrenic patients that indicates dysfunction and abnormal asymmetry of auditory pathways in these patients. keywords: schizophrenia; auditory brainstem response; auditory hallucination. how to cite: sayadnasiri, m., rezaei, o., & komar, r. (2019). auditory brainstem response abnormalities in schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(4), 01-13. doi:10.18662/brain/01 mailto:nasiri115@yahoo.com mailto:dr_omid_rezaee@yahoo.com mailto:raheleh_komar@yahoo.com auditory brainstem response abnormalities in schizophrenic patients with … mohammad sayadnasiri et al. 2 1. introduction schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness that affects about 1% of the population (patel et al., 2014). signs and symptoms of this disease are classified into three major categories of positive, negative, and cognitive signs. abnormal sensory experiences such as hallucinations are among the most common positive signs of the disease with 70% of schizophrenic patients experiencing auditory hallucinations (waters et al., 2012). the exact mechanism of auditory hallucination in schizophrenic patients is still not well understood. however, recent studies have revealed certain aspects of it (kumar et al., 2009; tracy and shergill, 2013), some of the most important of which focused on changes in brain lateralization of these patients. reduction of right ear processing ability in the dichotic listening test (hugdahl et al., 2008), decreased right-handedness (hirnstein and hugdahl, 2014), and changes in language lateralization (ocklenburg et al., 2013) are among the findings of studies conducted on schizophrenic patients. meanwhile, the decreased volume of heschl’s gyri, especially in the left hemisphere and smaller size of right inferior colliculus are recent findings in the brain of schizophrenic patients that can be associated with auditory hallucinations (kasai et al., 2003; kang et al., 2008). interestingly, this decrease in the nervous system volume occurs mainly in areas related to the central auditory system. therefore, it seems that the prevalence of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia is associated with structural changes in the brain. some researchers investigating the mechanisms of auditory hallucinations have studied central auditory pathways through electrophysiological recording methods, and since the brainstem is the main transmission route of auditory information, recording of auditory evoked potentials (aep) in the brainstem is considered an optimal electrophysiological method for studying this sign (wahlstrom et al., 2015). auditory brainstem response (abr) is an exogenous response that is recorded in the first 10 milliseconds (ms) of an auditory stimulation in the auditory pathways and is a sign of simultaneous neuronal activity from the auditory nerve through the brainstem (wahlstrom et al., 2015). few studies evaluating abr in schizophrenic patients with or without auditory hallucinations yielded inconsistent results; the abnormal findings of these studies included the absence of one or more waves, an increase in the waves’ latency, and a decrease in waves’ amplitude (harrel et al., 1986; hayashida et al., 1986; igata et al., 1994; lindstrom et al., 1987; siegel et al., 1984). brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 3 although there is no agreement on abnormal abr findings in schizophrenic patients, these changes indicate a brainstem dysfunction and possibly a defect in the processing of auditory perceptions in its early stages. this means that auditory signals undergo abnormal changes before they reach the auditory cortex. therefore, we designed a case-control study to investigate changes in the brain aeps in schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations to help better understand the abnormalities of the central auditory pathways of these patients. 2. materials and methods 2.1. participants this is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study that was conducted from august to december 2017 at razi psychiatric center (tehran, iran). patients aged 18 to 60 years admitted to this center with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were considered to be included in the study. inclusion criteria were schizophrenia confirmed by a psychiatrist (or) according to dsm-5 criteria and presence of active auditory hallucinations. patients with hearing impairment, known central nervous system (cns) diseases (history of stroke, head trauma in the last 3 months, history of epilepsy or seizure in the last 6 months, multiple sclerosis or other cns inflammatory diseases and history of brain tumors) and systemic diseases (such as diabetes) that affect the auditory pathways were excluded. healthy ones, non-relatives of patients with no history of psychotic disorders in their first degree relatives, were selected as controls. 2.2. ethical considerations the study was approved by the ethical review board, university of social welfare and rehabilitation sciences (1395.158). informed consent was obtained from all participants or their first degree relatives; they were able to withdraw the study at any time. 2.3. data collection demographic data including age, gender, duration of illness, and drug use were recorded. the scale for the assessment of positive symptoms (saps) was used to record and determine the intensity of hallucinations. this scoring system provided by andreasen in 1984 evaluates four domains of schizophrenia, including hallucination, delusion, bizarre behavior, and positive formal thought disorder. the hallucination domain consists of auditory brainstem response abnormalities in schizophrenic patients with … mohammad sayadnasiri et al. 4 seven items, including auditory hallucinations, voices commenting, voices conversing, somatic or tactile hallucinations, olfactory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, and global rating of hallucinations, ranging from zero to five in severity. this test has good validity and inter-rater reliability for the screening of positive signs (andreasen, 1984). then, abr of all participants was recorded with an emg/nc/ep device (negarandishegan co., model 5000q). this test, which lasts about 20 minutes, is non-invasive and does not require active collaboration of the patient. the patient sits in a relaxed position on a chair in a dimly lit room. two active electrodes are placed on both mastoids, a reference electrode on the vertex, and an earth electrode on the forehead using a special gel, and then a headphone is placed on the participant’s ears. before starting the test, the impedance of the electrodes is measured to ensure their proper connection. first, the test method is fully explained to the participant and a short-sequence click is sent to the patient’s ears to become familiar with the test. the device then sends 1000 audio clicks (not more than 80 db) separately to each ear. the duration and frequency of each click are 1 ms and 5 hz, respectively. the device records the signals of neuronal activity in the auditory nerve and brainstem 10 ms after each click. these potentials include five waveforms named i to v, and the five-wave latency and the inter-peak latency (ipl) of the i-iii, iii-v waves are determined individually for each ear and recorded in ms. the results of abr are analyzed by a neurologist (ms) who is blind to the participants. 2.4. statistical analysis data were analyzed in spss 20 through chi-square and independent t-test for single-variable data. p-values of 0.05 or less were considered significant. 3. results a total of 39 schizophrenic patients (20 male) and 35 healthy controls (20 male) were recruited for the study. the median age was 37.5 years for the patients and 34.5 years for the controls. twenty-three patients (59%) had disease duration more than 2 years. in the hallucinations domain of saps, the mean severity of auditory hallucinations, voices commenting, voices conversing, and global rating of hallucinations were 3.8±0.02, 3.7±0.04, 2.2±0.02, and 3.9±0.03, respectively. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 5 figure 1. severity of auditory hallucinations according to the scale for the assessment of positive symptoms. comparison of latencies of abr waves recorded from the right ear showed no significant changes between patients and controls (table 1). table 1. comparison of right sided abr waveform latencies between patient and control groups. latency (±sd) waves patients (n=39) controls (n=35) p value i 1.78±0.02 1.77±0.02 0.27 ii 2.87±0.04 2.87±0.04 0.53 iii 3.95±0.02 2.96±0.02 0.06 iv 5.25±0.02 5.25±0.03 0.74 v 5.80±0.01 5.80±0.03 0.35 i-iii 2.24±0.02 2.21±0.19 0.34 iii-v 1.85±0.01 1.83±0.04 0.13 0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 auditory hallucinations voices commenting voices conversing global rating of hallucinations auditory brainstem response abnormalities in schizophrenic patients with … mohammad sayadnasiri et al. 6 table 2. comparison of left sided abr waveform latencies between patient and control groups. latency (±sd) waves patients (n=39) controls (n=35) p value i 1.78±0.02 1.77±0.02 0.52 ii 2.85±0.03 2.86±0.04 0.30 iii 3.95±0.03 2.97±0.04 0.03 iv 5.24±0.03 5.23±0.05 0.47 v 5.81±0.02 5.77±0.08 0.03 i-iii 2.23±0.02 2.25±0.04 0.23 iii-v 1.86±0.01 1.82±0.03 0.001 table 3. comparison of right sided abr waveform latencies between patients with different disease duration. (dd: disease duration) latency (±sd) waves dd<2 yr (n=16) dd>2yr (n=23) p value i 1.78±0.02 1.78±0.02 0.34 ii 2.87±0.04 2.87±0.03 0.47 iii 3.95±0.02 3.94±0.04 0.62 iv 5.25±0.02 5.25±0.03 0.24 v 5.80±0.01 5.81±0.03 0.32 i-iii 2.24±0.02 2.23±0.03 0.51 iii-v 1.85±0.02 1.83±0.04 0.27 table 4. comparison of left sided abr waveform latencies between patients with different disease duration. (dd: disease duration) latency (±sd) waves dd<2 yr (n=16) dd>2yr (n=23) p value i 1.78±0.02 1.78±0.01 0.54 ii 2.85±0.02 2.85±0.04 0.37 iii 3.95±0.03 2.97±0.04 0.33 iv 5.24±0.03 5.23±0.05 0.47 v 5.81±0.02 5.77±0.08 0.64 i-iii 2.23±0.02 2.25±0.04 0.23 iii-v 1.86±0.01 1.82±0.03 0.45 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 7 comparison of latency of abr waves recorded from left ear between patients and controls showed a significant difference in the waves iii, v, and iii-v, so that the latency was longer in the patient group (table 2). to evaluate the effect of the duration of the disease on the abr findings, patients were divided into two groups of disease duration of less than two years and more than two years, and the latency of their waves was compared, showing no significant difference (tables 3 and 4). 4. discussion our study showed that the presence of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenic patients was associated with changes in aeps; i.e., the prolonged latencies of the waves iii, v and iii-v ipl on the left side was significantly correlated with auditory hallucinations. study of auditory, visual, and somatosensory evoked potentials in schizophrenia has been of interest to researchers since the 1980s, although it has not yet found its place as a biomarker in the diagnosis of these patients. kubiszewski et al. (1993) reviewed the findings of evoked potentials in schizophrenic patients and presented the most common changes as 1) higher sensory evoked potentials (sep) amplitude during first 0.1 seconds in chronic schizophrenic patients with severe psychotic signs, 2) reduced amplitude and latency of abr waves and increased waveform variability of visual evoked potentials (vep) in schizophrenic patients with active hallucinations, 3) n2 latency prolongation in motor responses to simple and complex stimuli, 4) abnormal p300 and 5) increased waveforms variability in all modalities in chronic schizophrenics (kubiszewski et al., 1993). although attempts to record changes in the evoked potentials in schizophrenic patients have contributed to the understanding of structural abnormalities in the central and peripheral nervous system of these patients, there are still contradictions in these findings. according to researchers, impaired abr indicates abnormal processing of auditory information and impairment in sensory inhibitory gating in schizophrenic patients, which can lead to auditory hallucinations (freedman et al., 1996; siegel et al., 1984). siegel et al. (1984) evaluated sensory gating in schizophrenic patients by recording abr and found that, compared to normal subjects, schizophrenic patients (and some of their first-degree relatives) had deficits in inhibition of second auditory stimuli. the researchers interpreted these findings in favor of gating impairment or the inability to filter auditory stimuli, meaning that the influx of sensory information into the brain of auditory brainstem response abnormalities in schizophrenic patients with … mohammad sayadnasiri et al. 8 these patients (in the absence of appropriate and effective filtering) leads to misinterpretation and the occurrence of psychotic signs (siegel et al., 1984). in one of the first studies in this regard, lindstrom et al. (1987) reviewed changes in abr waves in patients with auditory hallucinations and recorded abnormal abr waves in half of the 20 patients. these abnormal changes did not correlate with severity of signs, age, and gender, but the association of abnormal abr with auditory hallucinations was statistically significant; so that 9 out of 11 patients reporting auditory hallucinations had abnormal abr. the researchers concluded that the brainstem dysfunction was involved in the psychopathology of schizophrenia, and impaired auditory pathways in the brainstem could lead to hallucinations in these patients (lindstrom et al., 1987). in our study, as in the above research, abnormal changes were recorded in abr, which could be in favor of an organic basis for the production of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenic patients. these researchers suggested mechanisms, such as denervation hypersensitivity for auditory hallucinations which can result in spontaneous impulse generation in the presence of neuronal injury (lindstrom et al., 1987). lindstrom et al. (1990) investigated the relationship between impaired abr and monoamine metabolites (hva, 5-hivv) in the cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenic patients. patients with abnormal abr had a lower level of hva. these findings suggest that brainstem dysfunction is associated with decreased levels of dopaminergic and possibly serotonergic activity in schizophrenia (lindstrom et al., 1990). in another study, igata et al. (1994) recorded abr in 30 schizophrenic patients. in 27% of patients, at least one of the waves i, ii or iii was missed on either side. the authors interpreted these changes in favor of impaired auditory transmission in the inferior brainstem. in this study, abr changes were associated with negative signs of patients (not hallucinations) (igata et al., 1994). in our study, the pattern of abr involvement was in favor of auditory pathways impairment in the superior brainstem, and these contradictions indicate that impaired abr in schizophrenia is not specific and fixed, especially with regard to patient’s symptoms. various neurophysiologic hypotheses have been proposed for the occurrence of hallucinations in schizophrenia including auditory hallucinations (chen et al., 2019; cho and wu, 2013; kumar et al., 2009; tracy and shergill, 2013; zhang et al., 2018). in the neurophysiologic dissociation theory, the occurrence of hallucination arises from dissociation of the primary sensory cortex from the cortical association areas (kumar et brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 9 al., 2009). in the present study, prolonged latency of the recorded waves can lead to dissociation of the auditory cortex from the pathways ending to it, indicating the reduced regulatory effect of cortical areas on lower pathways, which can lead to hallucinations. another theory in this approach is the perceptual release, based on which a censorship mechanism in the brain can actively keep away most of the sensory information that continually reaches the brain from the conscious level (aleman & laroi, 2008; kumar et al., 2009). however, the censorship mechanism has the best performance when there is a continuous flow of sensory inputs. impairment in recorded abrs in the present study will also lead to disintegration of the auditory information input to the brain; so, this impaired censorship mechanism is another mechanism that is suggested for the auditory hallucinations in the patients of this study. however, it should be emphasized that none of the above mechanisms alone can justify hallucinations in these patients (aleman & laroi, 2008). for example, impaired abr waves can be secondary to a defect in the superior brainstem that can simultaneously cause neurotransmitter disorders which role in the occurrence of auditory hallucinations has been proven (jardri et al., 2016). asymmetry of abnormal abr changes with a leftward focus was another remarkable point in this study. although the auditory pathways in the brainstem can establish bilateral hemispheric connections, these findings reconfirm the abnormal asymmetry of brain connectivity in schizophrenic patients (ribolsi et al., 2014). in recent years, several pieces of evidence have been obtained regarding the decrease in normal asymmetry and the occurrence of both structural and functional abnormal asymmetry in schizophrenic patients (ribolsi et al., 2014; sun et al., 2017). for example, patients with significant positive signs have shown leftward asymmetry in the brain functional connectivity confirmed by fmri (andreou et al., 2015; ke et al., 2010; xie et al., 2018). in contrast, patients with more severe negative signs showed a rise in rightward asymmetry of functional connectivity (ke et al., 2010). this asymmetry in the central pathways (including the brainstem auditory pathways in our study) can be of a developmental nature and confirm the neurodevelopmental hypothesis in schizophrenic patients. the ineffectiveness of the disease duration on the findings of abr also suggests that these changes are likely to occur before the onset of clinical disease. the present study had some limitations. in this study, the traditional method for recording auditory-evoked activity was employed which detects mainly the subcortical (brainstem) auditory pathways. so, this method would not completely elucidate the cortical contribution of auditory processing and auditory brainstem response abnormalities in schizophrenic patients with … mohammad sayadnasiri et al. 10 for this reason, limits our study. new methods for concurrent brainstem and cortical aep measurements may be more useful to analyze disturbed neural pathways of hallucinating patients (slugocki et al., 2017). in addition, our findings were based on monaural stimulation but some studies emphasizes on the binaural testing in evaluation of central auditory pathways which represents signal detection in a noisy environment. assessment of binaural interaction may reveal additional abnormalities in patients with auditory hallucinations. for this assessment, some studies used artificial intelligence such as a hybrid machine learning approach for the objective detection of the central auditory pathway disorders and showed promising results (strauss et al., 2004). for further research, evaluation of aeps of healthy first degree relatives of the patients, applying new methods of aep recording and simultaneous study of aep-functional brain imaging would be practically useful for elucidating the neural dynamics involved in auditory hallucinations. also, repeating abr after attenuation of hallucinations can help evaluate the relationship between abr impairment and auditory hallucinations more accurately. 5. conclusion the present study showed a relationship between the impaired abr in schizophrenic patients and their auditory hallucinations. this relationship, which was mainly observed in the left side waves iii, v and iii-v ipl, indicates that this dysfunction was in the superior half of the brainstem (pons and above). so, disturbance in the auditory input processing in cortical areas contribute to the occurrence of hallucinations. these findings demonstrate the organic basis of auditory hallucinations in this disease and may confirm the neurodevelopmental theory of schizophrenia. author’s contribution: or: design of the study, interpretation of data and revision of the article critically ms: the conception and design of the study, interpretation of data, drafting and final approval of the article rk: acquisition and analysis of data conflict of interest: none brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 11 references aleman, a., & laroi, f. (2008). the science of idiosyncratic perception. washington dc: american psychological association. andreasen, n.c. (1984). scale for the assessment of positive symptoms (saps). iowa city: university of iowa. andreou, c., nolte, g., leicht, g., polomac, n., hanganu-opatz, i.l., lambert, m., engel, a.k., & mulert, c. (2015). increased resting-state gamma-band connectivity in first-episode schizophrenia. schizophrenia bulletin, 41(4), 9309. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbu121 chen, x., ji, g.j., zhu, c., bai, x., wang, l., he, k., gao, y., tao, l., yu, f., tian, y., & wang, k. (2019). neural correlates of auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia and the therapeutic response to theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation. schizophrenia bulletin, 45(2), 474-483. doi:10.1093/schbul/sby054. cho, r., & wu, w. (2013). mechanisms of auditory verbal hallucination in schizophrenia. frontiers in psychiatry, 4, 155. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00155 freedman, r., adler, l.e., myles-worsley, m., nagamoto, h.t., miller, c., kisley, m., mcrae, k., cawthra, e., & waldo, m. (1996). inhibitory gating of an evoked response to repeated auditory stimuli in schizophrenic and normal subjects. human recordings, computer simulation, and an animal model. archives of general psychiatry, 53(12), 1114-21. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1996.01830120052009 harell, m., englender, m., demer, m., kimhi, r., & zohar, m. (1986). auditory brain stem responses in schizophrenic patients. laryngoscope, 96(8), 908-10. doi:10.1002/lary.1986.96.8.908 hayashida, y., mitani, y., hosomi, h., amemiya, m., mifune, k., & tomita, s. (1986). auditory brain stem responses in relation to the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia. biological psychiatry, 21(2), 177-88. doi:10.1016/00063223(86)90145-9 hirnstein, m., & hugdahl, k. (2014). excess of non-right-handedness in schizophrenia: meta-analysis of gender effects and potential biases in handedness assessment. british journal of psychiatry, 205(4), 260-7. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.113.137349 hugdahl, k., løberg, e.m., jørgensen, h.a., lundervold, a., lund, a., green, m.f., & rund, b. (2008). left hemisphere lateralisation of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia: a dichotic listening study. cognitive neuropsychiatry, 13(2), 166-79. doi:10.1080/13546800801906808 igata, m., ohta, m., hayashida, y., & abe, k. (1994). missing peaks in auditory brainstem responses and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. the japanese auditory brainstem response abnormalities in schizophrenic patients with … mohammad sayadnasiri et al. 12 journal of psychiatry and neurology, 48(3), 571-8. doi:10.1111/j.14401819.1994.tb03016.x jardri, r., hugdahl, k., hughes, m., brunelin, j., waters, f., alderson-day, b., smailes, d., sterzer, p., corlett, p.r., leptourgos, p., debbané, m., cachia, a., & denève, s. (2016). are hallucinations due to an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory influences on the brain? schizophrenia bulletin, 42(5), 1124-34. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbw075 kang, d.h., kwon, k.w., gu, b.m., choi, j.s., jang, j.h., & kwon, j.s. (2008). structural abnormalities of the right inferior colliculus in schizophrenia. psychiatry research, 164(2), 160-5. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2007.12.023 kasai, k., shenton, m.e., salisbury, d.f., hirayasu, y., onitsuka, t., spencer, m.h., yurgelun-todd, d.a., kikinis, r., jolesz, f.a., & mccarley, r.w. (2003). progressive decrease of left heschl gyrus and planum temporale gray matter volume in first-episode schizophrenia: a longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging study. archives of general psychiatry, 60(8), 766-75. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.60.8.766 ke, m., zou, r., shen, h., huang, x., zhou, z., liu, z., xue, z., & hu, d. (2010). bilateral functional asymmetry disparity in positive and negative schizophrenia revealed by resting-state fmri. psychiatry research, 182(1), 309. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2009.11.004 kubiszewski, m., hein-antonik, k., maciejowski, a., kiejna, a., & sobieszczańskalampika, m. (1993). brain evoked potential in schizophrenic patients. psychiatria polska, 27(4), 407-22. kumar, s., soren, s., & chaudhury, s. (2009). hallucinations: etiology and clinical implications. industrial psychiatry journal, 18(2), 119-26. doi:10.4103/09726748.62273 lindstrom, l., klockhoff, i., svedberg, a., & bergstrom, k. (1987). abnormal auditory brain-stem responses in hallucinating schizophrenic patients. british journal of psychiatry, 151, 9-14. doi:10.1192/bjp.151.1.9 lindström, l.h., wieselgren, i.m., klockhoff, i., & svedberg, a. (1990). relationship between abnormal brainstem auditory-evoked potentials and subnormal csf levels of hva and 5-hiaa in first-episode schizophrenic patients. biological psychiatry, 28(5), 435-42. ocklenburg, s., westerhausen, r., hirnstein, m., & hugdahl, k. (2013). auditory hallucinations and reduced language lateralization in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of dichotic listening studies. journal of the international neuropsychological society, 19(4), 410-418. doi:10.1017/s1355617712001476 patel, k.r., cherian, j., gohil, k., & atkinson, d. (2014). schizophrenia: overview and treatment options. pharmacy and therapeutics, 39(9), 638-45. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 13 ribolsi, m., daskalakis, z.j., siracusano, a., & koch, g. (2014). abnormal asymmetry of brain connectivity in schizophrenia. frontiers in human neuroscience, 8, 1010. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.01010 siegel, c., waldo, m., mizner, g., adler, l.e., & freedman, r. (1984). deficits in sensory gating in schizophrenic patients and their relatives. evidence obtained with auditory evoked responses. archives of general psychiatry, 41(6), 607-12. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1984.01790170081009 slugocki, c., bosnyak, d., & trainor, l.j. (2017). simultaneously-evoked auditory potentials (seap): a new method for concurrent measurement of cortical and subcortical auditory-evoked activity. hearing research, 345, 30-42. doi:10.1016/j.heares.2016.12.014 strauss, d.j., delb, w., & plinkert, p.k. (2004). objective detection of the central auditory processing disorder: a new machine learning approach. ieee transactions on biomedical engineering, 51(7), 1147-55. doi:10.1109/tbme.2004.827948 sun, y., chen, y., collinson, s.l., bezerianos, a., & sim, k. (2017). reduced hemispheric asymmetry of brain anatomical networks is linked to schizophrenia: a connectome study. cerebral cortex. 27(1), 602-615. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhv255 tracy, d.k., & shergill, s.s. (2013). mechanisms underlying auditory hallucinationsunderstanding perception without stimulus. brain sciences, 3(2), 642-69. doi:10.3390/brainsci3020642 wahlström, v., ahlander, f., & wynn, r. (2015). auditory brainstem response as a diagnostic tool for patients suffering from schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and bipolar disorder: protocol. jmir research protocols, 4(1):e16. doi:10.2196/resprot.3880 waters, f., allen, p., aleman, a., fernyhough, c., woodward, t.s., badcock, j.c., barkus, e., johns, l., varese, f., menon, m., vercammen, a., & larøi, f. (2012). auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia and nonschizophrenia populations: a review and integrated model of cognitive mechanisms. schizophrenia bulletin, 38(4), 683-93. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbs045 xie, w., peng, c.k., huang, c.c., lin, c.p., tsai, s.j., & yang, a.c. (2018). functional brain lateralization in schizophrenia based on the variability of resting-state fmri signal. progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry, 86, 114-121. doi:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2018.05.020 zhang, w., li, s., wang, x., gong, y., yao, l., xiao, y., liu, j., keedy, s.k., gong, q., sweeney, j.a., & lui, s. (2018). abnormal dynamic functional connectivity between speech and auditory areas in schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations. neuroimage: clinical, 19, 918-924. doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2018.06.018 microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 198 the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools students by using the genetic algorithm sabah manfi redha department of statistics, college of administration and economics, baghdad university, iraq baghdad, iraq, tel. +964 1 778 7086 drsabah@coadec.uobaghdad.edu.iq abstract in this research, the arima model of the time series has been applied for the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools for the male and female students during the period (2007-2015) by estimating the autocorrelation and partial coefficients. it shows that the time series is unstable. after estimating autocorrelation and partial coefficients, it manifests that the appropriate arima models (1,1,0) for males and arima (1,1,0) for females and arima (1,1,0) for males and females together. also, it has been assured that these models are good and give accurate predictions and close to the reality through statistical calculation q. it turns out that the selected models are appropriate and good. finally, the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools for the male and female students during the period (2007-2015) and required results were obtained by using the genetic algorithm through the applications (matlab r2013a version: 8.1) and (gretl 2016). keywords: prediction, arima model, genetic algorithm 1. introduction nations progressed through education and learning. when educated generations learn since a young age, a civilized and educated society arises. hence, this society will progress in terms of industry, agriculture, medicine and in all fields, and that the first stage of a person's life is the basis of education. so, the primary school is one of the most important stages in a student’s life, and if properly prepared, a student will be in interested in studying and will achieve his/her education which will benefit his/her own society. however, if it is improperly performed, the education will be a burden on the students. this will lead the student to think to drop out of school. in addition to other reasons, that may affect the student. so, from this point, this subject is selected, which is the prediction of the rate of the students’ dropout of the primary schools. the prediction model (boxjenkins) will be examined according to gender and to predict this model, a genetic algorithm will be used. 2. theoretical aspect 2.1. first: time series is a set views on specific phenomenon is taken for a period of time and can be expressed in the form as follows (1): also, the future values of the time series can be predicted by using the fixed form and which does not contain a random variable , and it is called determinism (deterministic). while most of the times series are characterized in incidental (stochastic). it means that the future values are subjected to probabilistic distribution by using a random model that contains a random variable . in some types of time series, it can be watched the changing values in every moment of the time periods and these types are called continuous time series, and that most of the time, series include the views of the variable that can be viewed at equal points in time where it is called discrete time series. this type can be obtained on either by recording phenomenon values in fixed times or by s. m. redha the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools students by using the genetic algorithm 199 collecting phenomenon values in a fixed time (2). the components of the time series are general trend, seasonal variations, cyclical variations, random variations (1,4). the time series is considered static if the static is constant that collects the data around and which is free from the influence of the general trend and seasonal variations. the time series has a constant statics and variable and contrasting is shown as follows (2,4): (2) (3) (4) if x1, x2, ..., xn is values observation the time series {xt} and if estimates are for , respectively the (5) (6) (7) the static time-series can be distinguished from non-static through self-correlation coefficients values where approaching its value to zero after the second and the third period with regard to the static time-series, while non-static time-series have significant differences close to zero after the seventh or eighth period, and there is a kind of time-series called seasonal time series if the series is repeating itself in each fixed period of time that is (8): xt=xt + s ... (8) where s represents the length of the season and can be known and distinguished through self-correlation coefficients, which is positive and so large that can differ significantly from zero at the time periods values. 2.2. second: autocorrelation function (acf): the autocorrelation function measures the correlation strength between the time series values of the phenomenon  tx within different time periods and it is used to determine the degree and the appropriate form by random errors residual for the purpose of knowing the extent of stability of time series or the series can be unstable. the mathematical formula is illustrated as follows (9): since the variation of static time series is fixed and equal for each different time periods, it is estimated as follows: (10) 2.3. third: partial autocorrelation function (pacf): brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 200 the partial autocorrelation coefficient function contributes also in determining the appropriate model, and reveals the link between time series with fixing of other variables and a mathematical formula are as follows (2): since represents the gradient regression. 2.4. fourth: formulation of model arima 2.4.1. autoregressive model (ar): this model is considered of great benefit for the analysis of time series and it is the most frequently used and this model can be represented by the format of the degree of p this model will be as follows (1): (12) since: et represents the random error, and  represents the model parameters, and p represents autoregressive rank. and this model can be written x using the background displacement factor b is described as follows: since: (13) (14) therefore, the autoregressive process called class p is irreversible. 2.4.2. moving average model (ma): this model represents the current correlation views of the time series with the time series of the same error for previous periods and this model can be performed as mathematical degree q are as follows (4) (15) as the: θ represents the model parameters, q represents the rank of moving circles. by using posterior displacement factor b we get on the following formula: (16) the formula is as follows: (17) 2.4.3. mixed autoregressive moving average model (arma (p,q) this model is considered as a cross between a self-regression model and moving circles, and represents the current correlation time series values with the previous values of the time series of the same series and with the same series error for previous periods of time and a model formula will be as follows (2) (18) (19) s. m. redha the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools students by using the genetic algorithm 201 by using posterior displacement factor b the formula would be as follows: (20) if that: and that the model parameters are , , , and . which is estimated from observations of the time series, and is considered independent random errors and a series of normal distribution an arithmetic mean of zero and constant variance . 2.4.4. autoregressive integrated moving average (arima (p,d,q): most of the time, series are not stable and are recognized by functions autocorrelation where the value does not reach zero after the second and third displacement remain significant for a number of displacements, so indiscriminate forms are used to convert the series to a stable series and then using backward differences operator and its form is illustrated as follows: if we substitute a with a in equation (20) we get a new model that deals with a particular type of unstable time series and it is called unstable mixed model and a mathematical formula for this model is as follows: 2.5. fifth: building time series model (box-jenkins): the style of box-jenkins to build a time series of works in accordance with the selfregression model and moving circles for a range of views of certain phenomenon, and going through several important stages for the construction of the model are as follows )1,2( : 2.5.1. model identification in this stage, the stability of the time series must be checked, and the required p,d,q is selected to select the arima model. the functions of autocorrelation acf and partial autocorrelation pacf must be designed to know the time series. however, if autocorrelation is located within the limits of the confidence interval 95%, the autocorrelation coefficient is close to zero and a series is considered static of zero rank and we are working on the values of the original views without transferring them. if the form of autocorrelation function does not fall within the limits of the confidence interval of 95%, the autocorrelation coefficient will not come close to zero and the series is considered static and must take its differences in order to convert the series into a static one; when taking the first difference, it will become the d = 1 value. however, if the second difference becomes the d = 2value of arima (p, d, q) model. so, this can be summarized the diagnostic process through table 1, as follows (1,2): table 1. diagnosis of the set of arima models model acf pacf ar(1) cede engineering starting from p1 zero after pkk1 ar(2) cede engineering starting from p2 zero after pkk2 ar(p) cede engineering starting from pp zero after pkkp ma(1) zero after p1 ceding after pkk1 ma(2) zero after p2 ceding after pkk2 ma(q) zero after pq ceding after pkkq arma(1,1) cede engineering starting from p1 ceding after pkk1 arima(p,d,q) cede engineering starting from pp zero after pkkp brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 202 since: p is the coefficient of autocorrelation function, pkk represents coefficient partial autocorrelation function. 2.5.2. estimation and testing at this stage, to build the arima model, estimating appropriate model is based on personalized parameters p, d, q, and using of appropriate equations for estimating; after the diagnosis and assessment stages are accomplished, it must be tested the efficient and estimated model. it is confirmed that box-jenkins is to check the residual to find out the stability and random residuals. the confidence limit must be tested which uses the value of the autocorrelation coefficients of the residuals and should be located between the extent set at probability 95% according to the illustrated formula : (31) since is a white fuss factor (when the residual is distributed according to a normal distribution with zero average and constant variation), and when the above formula is achieved, it refers to random transactions of residuals autocorrelation. the diagnosed form is considered good, convenient, highly qualified and predictable. for the purpose of examining residual series, the boxjenkins test is used to make sure that random residual have been used to estimate parameter model and formula will be as follows (1,4) (32) 2.5.3. prediction stage in this stage, the future values are predicted to observe the time series and it will t+l if we assume that xt(l) represents the value at time (t). the prediction can be got by taking the conditional expectation at the original time t of the model after writing period t+l so et (xt+1 / xt-1,....). therefore, we get the future prediction of the time series. the prediction formula model can be written as follows: where writing the equation (19) will be as follows: (33) this equation can be written at the period t+l and by taking the conditional expectation at period (t), we will get equation prediction at the original time are as follows: = (34) 2.6. sixth: genetic algorithm (ga) as one of the optimization and search methods, it can be categorized as one of the developmental algorithms methods, as it's called (genetic and evolutionary algorithm) (gea). it depends on the reproduction of (darwin's perspective) and that is to be, the living creatures try to adequate and adapt with their surroundings, without any alteration to its conditions through generations, and if they are not capable of adjusting or evolving, they will eventually go extinct. the high qualification creatures will prevail, while the low qualification creatures will fade and die. as for the genetic mutation, it's very rare to occur; it's one of the factors that assist to develop the genetic characteristics which are impacted by the genes, the jainism algorithm quotes the expressions and terms of the genetics, such as generations, transit, mutations etc. and in this algorithm, we get to use solutions inside a random society chosen according to the available data, every solution will be shaped as codes, these codes formed as a chain of chromosomes and its size is either bilateral or eightfold etc. and every gene inside the chromosome is symbolized as bit . s. m. redha the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools students by using the genetic algorithm 203 numbers should be allocated according to the size of the function as a primary solution for this algorithm, then we start by making fixed steps (fixed quantifications); a new solution is formed by applying the genetic commands and there are other solutions within this procedure by choosing random samples until we get the trade-off function (3,5) 2.7. seventh: genetic algorithm steps there are several steps to apply the genetic algorithm (3,5) 1. initialization: as a start, generating many individual solutions randomly for the primary form of chromosome, and its size depends on the nature of the trouble, but normally there are hundreds or thousands of possible solutions. 2. selection: choosing a proportion of the current chromosome to produce new generation throughout the successive generation, these are chosen by depending on the fitness function and there is another way by choosing a random set of chromosomes, but this procedure can take a very long time. 3. reproduction: it's the process of reproducing a new generation of chromosomes that can be chosen through testing process then make a hybridization and mutation process to produce children. 4. the crossover process: through choosing parents that are chosen due to the choosing test, by couple mating to produce two new children, this continues until a new group of chromosomes is found plus a new group of parents. there are so many methods in the process of crossover: a. one point crossover: this process leads to producing the next generation of inhabitants that are inconsistent to the first generation, where all the data will be assembled around this point to change the data with the condition of not repeating it. b. two points crossover: this process leads to producing the next generation of inhabitants that are inconsistent to the first generation, where all the data will be assembled around these two points to change the data with the condition of not repeating it. c. the crossover interfaces: this process leads to disconnecting the chromosome from a part that is different from the second chromosome which leads to change the length of the chromosome. d. mutation: it is a descent sudden change which results from the crossover process, these forms change in the chromosome's shape by changing the chromosome components (bit), the result is not due to parents. generally, the reproduction results in producing new chromosomes which can be implemented on by the fitness function to produce new children. e. termination: it is the process of finding a new generation and it continues until the causes of completion takes place, reaching to the best solution or to the exact number of generation or achieving the desired budget like the count of time or money or reaching the local minimum, with no elapsing ability. 3. the practical side 3.1. first: data description the privet data of dropout during the period of (2007_2015) has been taken to serve the purpose of applying one of (box-jenkins) models to predict the proportion of student's dropout in the primary stage for males and females, and to analyze the time data that has been used in the gretl 2016 program. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 204 3.2. second: time series stability after collecting all the students’ dropout proportion for both males and females in the primary stage, the first step of the box-jenkins is to draw the time chain data to understand the chain's attitude. 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 v 1 figure 1. drawing the time series for males primary stage we get to notice the instability of the time series, and to be more precise we draw each (autocorrelation function) acf, and (partial autocorrelation function) pacf in a row to ensure the stability according to the figure 2. -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag acf for v1 +1.96/t^0.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag pacf for v1 +1.96/t^0.5 figure 2. drawing of autocorrelation function and partial correlation for males primary stage the unit radix dickey-fuller test is used to assure the series’ stability. the results are: dickey-fuller test estimated value = 0.276151, statistic test = 0.87796, p-value = 0.8984 we get to notice from the values above p-value = 0.8984 on the abstract level of 0.05 which leads to accepting the null hypothesis and refusing the alternative hypothesis (existence of a s. m. redha the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools students by using the genetic algorithm 205 radix unit) implies that the time series is instable. by taking the first difference, it is observed that the stability of the time series has been accomplished . see figure 3: -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 d _ v 1 figure 3. drawing the time series for males primary stage students after getting the first difference we get to notice the stability of the time series, and to be more accurate we draw each (autocorrelation function) acf, and (partial autocorrelation function) pacf in a row to ensure the stability according to the figure (4). -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag acf for d_v1 +1.96/t^0.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag pacf for d_v1 +1.96/t^0.5 figure 4. drawing of autocorrelation function and partial correlation for males primary stage students we use the unit radix dickey-fuller test to assure the series’ stability. the results are: dickey-fuller test estimated value = 0.233403, statistic test = 0.125769, p-value = 0.6405 the values above p-value = 0.6405 is noted on the abstract level of 0.05 which leads to refusing the null hypothesis and accepting the alternative hypothesis (the nonexistence of a radix unit) implies that the time series is stable. figure 5 represents the time series of female primary stage students: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 206 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 v 1 figure 5. drawing the time series for primary stage female students the instability of the time series is noticed and to be more precise we draw each (autocorrelation function) acf, and (partial autocorrelation function) pacf in a row to affirm the stability according to the figure 6. -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag acf for v1 +1.96/t^0.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag pacf for v1 +1.96/t^0.5 figure 6. drawing of auto correlation function and partial correlation for females primary stage students we use the unit radix dickey-fuller test to assert the series’ stability. the results are: dickey-fuller test estimated value = 0.47242, statistic test = 1.22797, p-value = 0.9445 we notice from the values above p-value =0.9445 on the abstract level of 0.05 which leads to accepting the null hypothesis and refusing the alternative hypothesis (existence of a radix unit) implies that the time series is instable. by taking the first difference, it is noticed that the stability of the time series has been accomplished. see figure 7: s. m. redha the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools students by using the genetic algorithm 207 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 d _ v 1 figure 7. drawing the time chain for females primary stage students after the first difference the stability of the time series is observed and to be more accurate we draw each (autocorrelation function) acf, and (partial autocorrelation function) pacf in a row to assure the stability according to the figure (8). -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag acf for d_v1 +1.96/t^0.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag pacf for d_v1 +1.96/t^0.5 figure 8. drawing of autocorrelation function and partial correlation for females primary stage students the unit radix dickey-fuller test is used to ensure the series’ stability. the results are: dickey-fuller test estimated value = 0.736458 , statistic test = 0.380545 , p-value = 0.794 we notice from the values above p-value = 0.794on the abstract level of 0.05 which leads to refusing the null hypothesis and accepting the alternative hypothesis ( the nonexistence of a radix unit) implies that the time series is stable. figure (9) represents the time series of females and males in the primary stage students: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 208 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 v 1 figure 9. drawing the time series for males and females primary stage students the instability of the time series is recognized, and to be more accurate, we draw each (autocorrelation function) acf, and (partial autocorrelation function) pacf in a row to assure the stability according to the figure (10). -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag acf for v1 +1.96/t^0.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag pacf for v1 +1.96/t^0.5 figure 10. drawing of autocorrelation function and partial correlation for males and females primary stage students we use the unit radix dickey-fuller test to ensure the series’ stability. the results are: dickey-fuller test estimated value = 0.369693, statistic test =1.01829, p-value=0.9194 we notice from the values above p-value = 0.9194 on the abstract level of 0.05 which leads to accepting the null hypothesis and refusing the alternative hypothesis (existence of a radix unit) implies that the time series is instable. by taking the first difference, we notice that the stability of the time series has been achieved. see figure 11: s. m. redha the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools students by using the genetic algorithm 209 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 d _ v 1 figure 11. drawing the time series for males and females primary stage after the first difference the stability of the time series is noticed, so to be more precise we draw each (autocorrelation function ) acf, and (partial autocorrelation function) pacf in a row to ensure the stability according to the figure 12. we use the unit radix dickey-fuller test to assure the series’ stability. the results are: dickey-fuller test estimated value = 0.215889, statistic test =0.114984, p-value =0.719 the values above p-value = 0.719is noticed on the abstract level of 0.05 which leads to refusing the null hypothesis and accepting the alternative hypothesis (the nonexistence of a radix unit) implies that the time series is stable. -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag acf for d_v1 +1.96/t^0.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag pacf for d_v1 +1.96/t^0.5 figure 12. drawing of autocorrelation function and partial correlation for females primary stage students 3.3. third: diagnosing the time chain model ,estimate it and choosing the optimum accomplishing the time series stability for the dropout proportion for both male and female students, let us move to the next step of diagnosing the appropriate model representing the male and female time chain. the (akaike criterion), (hannan-quinn criterion) and (schwarz criterion) all have been adopted to differentiate between set of models. the model with teachers estimates and has been adopted to represent the model tested results , with the grades and the comparison standers of the primary stage: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 210 table 2. the results of the models tested with the ranking and benchmarks primary stage akaike hannanquinn schwarz used grades the primary stage 52.30670 50.96962 52.19852 arima(1,1,0) males 54.82685 53.48977 54.71867 arima(1,1,0) females 63.28090 61.94382 63.17272 arima(1,1,0) males +females table 2 shows the best model and according to comparison models which is established by its intangibleness. it has been given the least value standers for the three used models, the model teachers have been estimated according to (the maximum faculty). table (3) presents the model milestones and the intangible milestones for the males of primary stage students, as it's shown: table 3. the estimated and spirits parameters for the primary stage of males p-value z std. error coefficient parameters ** 0.0497 1.963 0.277415 −0.544476 phi_1 the reckoned model for males' primary stage is formed as: table 4 presents the model and intangible milestones for females of primary stage students as it is shown: table 4. the (estimated and spirits features of the primary stage for females p-value z std. error coefficient parameters ** 0.0562 1.910 0.279002 −0.532785 phi_1 the reckoned model for females primary stage is formed as: table 5 shows the model and intangible milestones for males females primary stage students as it is presented: table 5. the (estimated and spirits parameters for primary school male and female) p-value z std. error coefficient parameters ** 0.0536 1.930 0.278258 −0.536956 phi_1 the reckoned model for males and females primary stage is formed as: 3.4. forth: testing the accuracy model: after diagnosing and evaluating the models, the accommodating and the sufficiency of the models must be checked for males primary stage, through applying the compute (ljung-box q) to check the model accommodation on the function level 0.05 so the q value occurs of males primary stage students: ljung-box q' = 1.28784, with p-value = p(chi-square(1) > 1.28784) = 0.2564 knowing that the tabulated value equals 3.841, whereas the q value is less than tabulated value, so it accepts the null hypothesis which indicates the emptiness of the evaluated model out of the contrast accordance trouble. s. m. redha the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools students by using the genetic algorithm 211 it's possible to notice the two parameters functions (autocorrelation and partial correlation functions) of the residues for males primary stage, in which the residues value is located within the confidence interval limits which means the residues series is random and the evaluated model is good and convenient as it is presented: -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag residual acf +1.96/t^0.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag residual pacf +1.96/t^0.5 figure 13. drawing of autocorrelation function and partial correlation of the residues for primary stage males students after diagnosing and evaluating the models, the accommodating and the sufficiency of the models must be checked for primary stage female students, through applying the compute (ljungbox q) to check the model accommodation on the function level 0.05 so the q value occurs of primary stage female students: ljung-box q' = 0.966626, with p-value = p(chi-square(1) > 0.966626) = 0.3255 however, the tabulated value equals 3.841 whilst the q value is less than tabulated value, so it accepts the null hypothesis which indicates the emptiness of the evaluated model out of the contrast accordance trouble. it's possible to notice the two parameters functions (autocorrelation and partial correlation functions) of the residues for females primary stage students, in which the residues value is located within the confidence interval limits, which means the residues series is random and the evaluated model is good and convenient as it is shown: -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag residual acf +1.96/t^0.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag residual pacf +1.96/t^0.5 figure 14. drawing of autocorrelation function and partial correlation of the residues for primary stage males students brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 212 after diagnosing and evaluating the models, the accommodating and the sufficiency of the models must be checked for males and females of primary stage students, through applying the compute (ljung-box q) to check the model accommodation on the function level 0.05 so the q value occurs of males and females of primary stage students: ljung-box q' = 1.10306, with p-value = p(chi-square(1) > 1.10306) = 0.2936 note that the tabulated value equals 3.841 while the q value is less than tabulated value, so it takes the null hypothesis which manifests that the emptiness of the evaluated model out of the contrast in accordance trouble. it's possible to notice that the two parameters functions (autocorrelation and partial correlation functions) of the residues for male females primary stage, in which the residues value is located within confidence interval limits, which means the residues series is random and the evaluated model is good and convenient as it is presented. -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag residual acf +1.96/t^0.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 lag residual pacf +1.96/t^0.5 figure 15. drawing of autocorrelation function and partial correlation of the residues for males and females primary stage students 3.5. fifth: prediction the time series values have been predicted using the genetic algorithm for the next five years, and it manifests the described results as shown in table (6): table 6. predict the results of the standard deviation and confidence limits for each prediction primary stage 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 stage 11.2 11.2 10.8 11.0 11.1 males 17.8 17.7 17.7 17.1 17.3 females 31.6 31.1 29.9 30.1 29.8 males and females s. m. redha the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools students by using the genetic algorithm 213 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 v1 forecast 95 percent interval figure 16. drawing of the time series for males of primary stage students and its prediction -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 v1 forecast 95 percent interval figure 17. drawing of the time series for females of primary stage students and its prediction -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 v1 forecast 95 percent interval figure 18. drawing of the time series for males and females of primary stage students and its prediction) 4. conclusions and recommendations through the results, the study has reached to: 1. there is a noticeable rise in the dropout rate of both males and female students in the predicted years compared with the original data, so the dropout rate would reach to (32.6%) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 214 in 2020; that is a very high percentage and it would put iraq in a great embarrassment in the global education ranking. 2. there is a noticeable rise in the dropout rate for the predicted years compared with the original data, so the dropout rate would reach (11.2%) in 2020. 3. there is a noticeable rise in the dropout rate for the predicted years compared with the original data, so the dropout rate would reach to (17.8%) in 2020. 4. female students’ dropout rate is much bigger than male students dropout rate since several families are convinced with the idea that girls should stay at home after primary education. 5. also, some families have financial difficulties which lead to the increase the dropout rate, and fathers tend to make their children work after the primary education to make a profit of their financial source. therefore, we recommend the following: 1. increase the awareness and importance of girl's education in the society, through mass media and other facilities. 2. there must be an intervention by the government on child labor. references kasyok, al. 2013. simple steps for fitting arima model to time series data for forecasting using r. international journal of science and research (ijsr), issn (online): 2319-7064. ong, c.-s., huang, j. j., & tzeng, g. t. (2005). model identification of arima family using genetic algorithms. applied mathematics and computation 164 (2005) 885–912. alabsi, f., naoum, r. (2012). comparison of selection methods and crossover operations using steady state genetic based intrusion detection system. journal of emerging trends in computing and information sciences, vol. 3, no.7, july 2012, issn 2079-8407. asadul, i. (2007). explaining and forecasting investment expenditure in canada: combined structural and time series approaches (1961-2000). applied econometrics and international development, vol.7-1 (2007). razali, n. m., geraghty, j. (2011). genetic algorithm performance with different selection strategies in solving tsp, in proceedings of the world congress on engineering, isbn 978-988-19251-4-5, vol ii, july 6 8, london, u.k. microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx 128 empirical null distribution of -2log(lambda) bushra shamshad department of statistics, university of karachi main university rd, karachi, karachi city, sindh 75270, pakistan phone: +92 21 99261300 bshamshad@uok.edu.pk junaid saghir siddiqi department of statistics, university of karachi main university rd, karachi, karachi city, sindh 75270, pakistan phone: +92 21 99261300 jssdr123@yahoo.com abstract approximation of non-central chi-square distribution as an empirical distribution of loglikelihood ratio test statistics (-2logλ; abbreviated as lrt) has been a concern in the field of structural equation modeling. under extremely severe misspecification (chun & shapiro, 2009) reported that non-central chi-square is not a good choice. in this paper, we have used a bootstrap sampling procedure to investigate the empirical null distribution of lrt specifically in the context of a latent class model (lcm) via frequentist framework (that is, em algorithm). we used two types of data sets. the first type includes those sets of data on which lcm had been carried out (published results; named as “training data”). the other type is that of those data sets which are not published earlier (i.e. “real” collected data; named as “test data”). non-central χ2 distribution with degrees of freedom equals to the expected value of bootstrap lrt and non-centrality parameter equals to inverse of the variance of bootstrapped lrt is found to be very well fitted empirical null distribution of lrt in case of lcm. these results will help in obtaining the significance value of lrt for deciding on the number of classes present in a latent variable. keywords: latent class model, likelihood ratio test statistics, bootstrapping, emalgorithm, non-central χ2 distribution, goodness of fit. 1. introduction likelihood ratio is defined as the ratio of the likelihood of one model (stated in the null hypothesis) over the other (the alternative hypothesis). it is a statistical test and used to compare the fit of one model over the other, where one of the two models is nested in the other. when all regularity conditions are satisfied, -2logλ follows chi-square distribution and can be used for testing the significance of the fitted model. in the context of latent class analysis and mixture distributions, it has been known for years that the regularity condition of -2logλ does not hold, that is, the model parameters under the null hypothesis lie on the boundary of parameter space (aitkin., anderson & hinde 1981). in other words, it is not possible to carry out the test of likelihood ratio (lr) as two models (under the null and alternative hypothesis) that have a different number of parameters, where one model is nested under the other. a subset of the parameters stated under the null hypothesis is set to zero in order to compare it with the other model stated in the alternative hypothesis. therefore, it fails to follow the asymptotic chi-square distribution and the distribution is undefined for the likelihood ratio test. (wilks, 1935; 1938) showed that for large samples, the distribution of log-likelihood ratio test (-2logλ) for nested models will be asymptotically χ2 with degrees of freedom equal to the difference between the dimensions of the sets of parameters involve in the test statistics (where one (stated in the null hypothesis), among the two compare model, is the special case of the other (stated in an alternative model)). there are a number of studies done for finding whether chi-square can be used as an approximated distribution of -2logλ using simulation techniques. it was then suggested that the distribution of -2logλ can be approximated as chi-square with degrees of freedom equal to b. shamshad, j. s. siddiqi empirical null distribution of –2logλ 129 twice the number of manifest items in the model (wolfe, 1970). further study (hartigan, 1977) conducted also showed that the distribution can be approximated by chi-square with degrees of freedom p and p+1, where p is the number of manifest items. the problem in using the lr test was discussed by (aitkin & wilson, 1980) reporting that in small samples the test might not follow the asymptotic distribution of likelihood ratio. furthermore, (aitkin et al., 1981) and (mclachlan, 1987) showed reservation regarding approximation adequacy for the null distribution of -2logλ to be chi-square since regularity condition does not hold. the use of prior distribution for the vector of mixing proportion was showed by (aitkin & rubin, 1985). a note written by (quinn, mclachlan & hjort, 1987) which showed that for the approach used by (aitkin & rubin, 1985) too the regularity conditions do not hold and therefore the standard asymptotic result cannot be applied. several studies conducted for assessing the null distribution of -2logλ by various researchers. as mentioned earlier that through the usual testing procedure, it is considered to be asymptotic chisquare with degrees of freedom equal to the difference between the number of parameters under the null and alternative model. studies conducted in this respect show reservations, since the regularity condition do not hold for -2logλ with a mixture and latent class model and so the chances for fitting asymptotic χ2 as a null distribution of -2logλ are small. (aitkin, et al., 1981) mentioned the suggestions made by (wolfe, 1970) and (hartigan, 1977) that -2logλ could be approximated by 𝜒 on the basis of small simulation and that it should be between 𝜒 and 𝜒 respectively. they assessed the null distribution of -2logλ by simulating its two sets (19 points each), from a single population, in which 38 items (of teaching style data) were independent and the response probabilities are estimated from the real data, to test the hypothesis of a homogenous population at 5% level of significance. both the sets of values were rejected. the first 19 values were simulated under the null hypothesis of a no-class model against an alternative hypothesis of a two-class model and the other set of values generated under a two-class model against the alternative hypothesis of a 3-class model. both the sets were also considered as a single sample but none of the results (individual and/or pooled) showed the likelihood of fitting of asymptotic distribution of χ2. thus, we need alternative method(s) for testing the hypothesis on model parameters. 2. the empirical null distribution of lrt (-2logλ) simulation studies are done in the context of a mixture modeling to approximate the theoretical null distribution of lrt, which include studies/researches by (titterington et al., 1985) (mclachlan, 1987) (mclachlan & basford, 1988) and others (for details see mclachlan & peel, 2000). 3. bootstrap likelihood ratio test (blrt) statistic blrt was first introduced by (mclachlan, 1987) in his paper for the assessment of the pvalue of the likelihood ratio test statistic for the number of component in a normal mixture taking the simplest situation for a specified value of g , of a no-class model h : g = g against a two-class model h : g = g . this method starts, under the null hypothesis, a bootstrap sample from the mixture model, where φ being the vector of the likelihood parameter of φ estimated through its mle from the original data. the value of -2logλ is obtained for each bootstrap sample after fitting the mixture model for g = g and g in turn to it. the process is repeated independently m number of times, and the replicated values of -2logλ evaluated from successive bootstrap samples provide an assessment of the bootstrap, and hence of the true, null distribution of -2logλ (mclachlan and peel, 2000). a test developed by (lo, mendell & rubin, 2001) using the proposed theorem by (voung, 1989) that under the null hypothesis that the random sample is drawn from g − component normal mixture distribution versus the alternative that it is drawn from g − component normal mixture, where g < g . the likelihood ratio statistic based on kullback-leibler information criteria is asymptotically distributed as a weighted sum of independent χ with 1 degree of freedom. through simulation results, lmr test evaluates the improvement in the fitting of the two successive models brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 130 and provide significance value to see if there is any improvement in the fit for the higher component model. the inconsistency in the mathematical proof of lo-mendell-rubin test for normal outcome was pointed by (jeffries, 2003). despite such critic, many researchers are using lmr test empirically for determining the number of mixtures/ classes. “mplus" software provides lmr pvalue in fitting different models. also a package named “mplusautomation_0.5” (hallquist, 2008)) in r software is available which provides programming for model fitting and calculations for significance values of related fit statistics and extractions of model parameters. the program is developed by muthen and muthen (www.statmodel.com). (nylund et al., 2007) uses the method proposed earlier of bootstrap likelihood ratio statistic for lcm and calculated the p-value obtained through blrt estimates of the log likelihood difference distribution which indicates if a t-1-class model is rejected in favor of the t-class model. (nylund et al., 2007), while comparing the performance of blrt with lmr and a naïve chi-square test she also examine the performance of information criteria’s (which include aic, bic, caic and abic) for the lcm, factor mixture model and growth mixture model. the method involves estimating t-1 and t class models for the log-likelihood ratio statistic, which considered as initial estimates. on the basis of the simulation results bic was marked as the best indicator among other information criterions and the bootstrap likelihood ratio test (blrt) came up to be a very consistent indicator for determining the number of classes in three types of mixture modeling, namely, lcm, factor mixture modeling and growth mixture modeling. they considered both discrete and continuous lcm and use normal distribution to calculate the significance value of lrt regarding the number of component/ classes in the model. furthermore, they used bayesian approach and mcmc simulation technique for the assessment of the significance value of lrt. (chun & shapiro, 2009) assess the remarks made by (nylund et al., 2007) regarding normal approximation. they reported that non-central χ2 can be approximated for the lrt statistics under reasonable misspecification. according to their research, the findings may vary for different models. the power computation of the test for lrt was done by (gudicha, schmittmann, & vermunt, 2016), using two different methods, to estimate the non-centrality parameter of non-central χ2 distribution. we have used the method in frequentist framework (i.e. method proposed by bartholomew in 1987 to find the solution of unknown parameters for lcm through em-algorithm). thus, there is a room for investigation of the asymptotic distribution of -2logλ purely in the context of lcm for categorical data. 4. our approach for blrt to establish its empirical distribution we have used an approach proposed by (mclachlan, 1987) for a mixture of two multivariate normal. (nylund et al., 2007) uses the same method proposed earlier for bootstrap likelihood ratio statistic. they used normal distribution to calculate the significance value. although, they mentioned that it does not always fits. the approach we are using, to find and establish the empirical distribution of likelihood ratio test statistic, is by using confirmatory lcm, which then further used for exploratory models. initially, the hypothesis under consideration about log-likelihood ratio statistic (lrtt-1,t ) under the null hypothesis is of “t-1”class model against the alternative hypothesis of “t”class model. bootstrap samples are based on fitting of the lcm (via em algorithm) while using a set of parameters stated under the null hypothesis. for each bootstrap sample, lcm is estimated for “t-1” and “t” class model to compute the value of -2logλ. the complete procedure for bootstrap sampling and storage of lrt . is presented below. 1. estimate the model for t-1 and t-class model and calculate the initial estimates of the loglikelihood ratio statistic (lrtt-1,t)initial beforehand, which will be used for calculating the significance value of lrtt-1,t . b. shamshad, j. s. siddiqi empirical null distribution of –2logλ 131 2. assume a hypothetical population based on the parameters of (𝑡 − 1)-latent class model stated in the null hypothesis. from the assumed hypothetical population, generate bootstrap sample and estimate (t-1) and (t)-latent class models to calculate lrtt-1,t . 3. repeat step 2, say “b” times independently to compute lrtt-1,t at each replication. 4. the resultant vector of lrtt-1,t obtained is then used to evaluate the empirical distribution through goodness of fit test. the process is repeated independently “100” times. it should be noted that the estimation procedure used is same for both bootstrap samples and for the model fitted beforehand for obtaining parameter (mclachlan, 1987) (mclachlan & krishnan, 2008). in the following sub sections, we will be investigating the null distribution of lrt through the bootstrap sampling technique on training and test data sets. the hypothetical population considered here is from (t-1)-class model. for the simulation of hypothetical population, lcm is fitted on the concerned data and the estimates thus obtained are treated as parameters. the (t-1) and t-class models are fitted on the sample drawn from the hypothetical population. lrtt-1,t is then calculated using maximum likelihood estimates for (t-1) and t-class models from each booted sample. the process is repeated multiple number of times (say b-time) and lrtt-1,t of size b, is then assessed for the empirical distribution of -2logλ. it is then investigated that the empirical distribution of -2logλ found out to be a non-central χ2 distribution with degrees of freedom equal to the expected mean of lrtt-1,t and non-centrality parameter (ncp) equals to the inverse of the expected variance of lrtt-1,t. the chi-square goodness of fit test shows that the non-central 𝜒 distribution (with df = e(lrtt-1,t,) ncp = (v(lrtt-1,t )-1) is very well fitted to the data, for each situation and for each data considered. in the next sections we present the procedure for each training data, i.e., mastery, role conflict, and karachi university teachers society (kuts) panel data. goodness of fit test and its graphical representation for a single case of size (b = ) 100 is presented for bootstrap lrt1,2, lrt2,3 for both mastery and role conflict data and lrt1,2, lrt2,3 & lrt3, 4 for kuts panel data (since a 3-class model is best fitted on kuts data). 5. mastery data (macready & dayton, 1977) data known as “mastery data” was also used by (bartholomew, 1987) for applying latent class model. the data is about a test based on 4 dichotomous items constructed on solving problem of multiplications. the procedure for blrt is applied to mastery data in two situations 1) 1 vs. 2-class model and 2) 2 vs. 3-class model. as, it is known that a mastery data decomposed into two classes of a single latent variable named as “master” and “non master” class (macready and dayton, 1977) (bartholomew, 1987). although the procedure is repeated “100” times, we are presenting one simulation result of the goodness of fit test for situation 1 and 2. it can be seen from the table 1 (see also figure 1), that in both situations the non-central distribution (with df = e(blrtt-1,t), ncp = v(blrtt-1,t) -1) is a good fit to the null distribution of lrt, that is, p-value for goodness of fit for lrt1,2 is 0.46701 with 3 df ( = no. of classes–2–1; as 2 parameters are estimated). whereas, for lrt2,3, the p-value equal to 0.36136 with 3 df, also indicate very well fitting of non-central χ2 distribution. table 1. mastery data; expected frequencies obtained through the fitting of non-central χ2 distribution for size “b = 100”. observed frequencies from the bootstrapped sample of; (a) lrt1,2 (b) lrt2,3 lrt1,2 observed frequency empirical frequency (0.548,2.56] 18 16.99109 (2.56,4.56] 28 27.755298 (4.56,6.57] 27 23.037882 (6.57,8.58] 10 14.861048 (8.58,10.6] 9 8.40641 (10.6,12.6] 3 4.38686 (12.6,14.6] 2 2.167725 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 132 (14.6,36] 3 1.884808 total 100 99.491121 𝛘𝟐(goodness of fit) 2.546142 degrees of freedom (df) 3 p-value 0.46701 (a) lrt2,3 observed frequency empirical frequency (0,1.67] 28 28.393741 (1.67,3.39] 32 30.546773 (3.39,5.11] 20 19.279113 (5.11,6.83] 8 10.702626 (6.83,8.55] 9 5.591767 (8.55,10.3] 1 2.819109 (10.3,12] 1 1.38809 (12,33.2] 1 1.278692 total 100 99.999911 𝛘𝟐(goodness of fit) 3.203071 degrees of freedom (df) 3 p-value 0.361363 (b) (a) (b) figure 1. mastery data (for b = 100); along with a superimposed non-central 𝜒 distribution curve: (a) histogram for 𝐵𝐿𝑅𝑇 , ; (b) histogram for 𝐵𝐿𝑅𝑇 , . 6. role conflict data role conflict data is taken from (coleman, 1964). (goodman, 1974a; 1974b) used this data to explain a restricted lcm, which further discussed by (bartholomew, 1987). the data is a panel data collected at two different points in time. two questions were asked each time from individuals. each question was responded as either ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. a restricted model with an assumption that there exist two latent variables, and that they altogether form four latent classes is the solution for the data. the empirical distribution of blrt (b = 100) is presented in the table 2 for (a) situation 1 (h0: 1-class model vs. h1: 2-class model) and (b) situation 2 (h0: 2-class model vs. h1: 3-class model), along with the expected frequencies and goodness of fit test. in each case, chi-square test indicates the goodness of fit for the non-central χ2 (with df = e(lrtt-1,t), ncp = v(lrtt-1,t) -1) to the empirical null distribution of blrt. that is, p-value for 𝜒 goodness of fit in the first situation is 0.276083 with 2 df. whereas, in the second situation the pb. shamshad, j. s. siddiqi empirical null distribution of –2logλ 133 value equal to 0.058646 with 3 df also indicate very well fitting of non-central χ2 distribution. the goodness of fit can also be seen in figure 2 for both lrt1,2 and lrt2,3. table 2. role conflict data; expected frequencies obtained through the fitting of non-central χ2 distribution for size “b = 100”. observed frequencies from the bootstrapped sample of (a) lrt1,2 ; (b) lrt2,3. lrt1,2 observed frequency empirical frequency (0.45,2.8] 15 20.31083 (2.8,5.15] 35 31.96709 (5.15,7.49] 27 23.35075 (7.49,9.84] 15 12.99846 (9.84,12.2] 4 6.299644 (12.2,14.5] 3 2.806942 (14.5,16.9] 0 1.182026 (16.9,38.5] 1 0.779773 total 100 99.6955 χ2(goodness of fit) 3.867928 degrees of freedom (df) 2 p-value 0.276083 (a) lrt1,2 observed frequency empirical frequency (0.298,1.91] 23 20.37098 (1.91,3.53] 23 26.60688 (3.53,5.14] 19 20.69197 (5.14,6.75] 21 13.54058 (6.75,8.37] 9 8.11963 (8.37,9.98] 2 4.617904 (9.98,11.6] 2 2.534554 (11.6,32.7] 1 2.812054 total 100 99.29455 χ2(goodness of fit) 7.458069 degrees of freedom (df) 3 p-value 0.058646 (b) (a) (b) figure 2. role conflict data (for b = 100); histogram along with superimposed non-central χ2 curve for (a) blrt1,2; (b)blrt2,3. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 134 7. kuts panel data kuts panel data is the original results of the election held in 1993-94 of teachers of the university of karachi. two groups (panels) were contesting we named them as “rightist” and “mix” based on their manifesto. the data was first used by (shamshad & siddiqi, 2012) to fit lcm and found that a 3-class model is best among other class models. as described earlier the strategy for mastery and role conflict data we have assessed the empirical distribution of blrt for kuts panel data in three situations. (a) situation 1; (h0: 1-class model vs. h1: 2-class model) and (b) situation 2; (h0: 2-class model vs. h1: 3-class model) (c) situation 3; (h0: 3-class model vs. h1: 4class model. non-central χ2distribution when fitted to blrt in each situation gives test value (chisquare goodness of fit) very small (< 2), which is an indication of high p-value, that is, for test values 1.98, 0.1565 and 1.173 the p-values are 0.371, 0.924 and 0.882 for blrt1,2 , blrt2,3 and blrt3,4 respectively (see table 3; figure 3). table 3. kuts panel data; observed and expected frequencies (obtained through fitting non-central χ2 distribution) for size “b = 100”; bootstrapped sample of (a) lrt1,2 (b) lrt2,3 (c) lrt3,4 lrt1,2 observed frequency expected frequency (0,2.37] 21 21.5922 (2.37,4.8] 37 35.4063 (4.8,7.22] 19 23.1141 (7.22,9.65] 12 11.5248 (9.65,12.1] 8 5.05212 (12.1,14.5] 2 2.05339 (14.5,16.9] 0 0.79404 (16.9,38.6] 1 0.46302 total 100 99.99994 χ2(goodness of fit) 1.980392 degrees of freedom (df) 2 p-value 0.371504 (a) lrt2,3 observed frequency expected frequency (0,2.17] 23 22.83642 (2.17,4.4] 34 34.10453 (4.4,6.62] 23 22.26926 (6.62,8.84] 12 11.5264 (8.84,11.1] 5 5.340879 (11.1,13.3] 2 2.319014 (13.3,15.5] 0 0.964693 (15.5,37] 1 0.638765 total 100 99.99995 χ2(goodness of fit) 0.156566 degrees of freedom (df) 2 p-value 0.924703 (b) lrt3,4 observed frequency expected frequency (0,1.06] 21 21.84624 (1.06,2.16] 24 24.17677 (2.16,3.27] 18 18.18279 (3.27,4.38] 16 12.58786 (4.38,5.49] 7 8.380645 (5.49,6.59] 6 5.45261 b. shamshad, j. s. siddiqi empirical null distribution of –2logλ 135 (6.59,7.7] 3 3.493749 (7.7,18.5] 5 5.828512 total 100 99.94918 χ2(goodness of fit) 1.173873 degrees of freedom (df) 4 p-value 0.882381 (c) (a) (b) (c) figure 3. kuts panel data (b=100); histogram and a superimposed curve of non-central χ2distribution of bootstrapped (a) lrt1,2 ; (b) lrt2,3; (c) lrt3,4. table 4. percent acceptance rate of noncentral χ2 distribution with df = e(blrtt-1,t), ncp = v(blrtt-1,t) -1 level of significance 100 200 500 mastery data lrt(1 vs. 2-class model) 5% 86.73% 87.88% 88.89% 1% 95.92% 93.94% 91.92% lrt(2 vs. 3-class model) " 5% 80.81% 80.00% 55.00% 1% 96.97% 90.00% 67.00% role conflict data lrt(1 vs. 2-class model) " 5% 85.86% 85.00% 85.98% 1% 90.91% 94.00% 94.39% lrt(2 vs. 3-class model) " 5% 86.00% 81.08% 74.26% 1% 95.00% 91.22% 87.13% kuts panel data lrt(1 vs. 2-class model) " 5% 78.57% 81.82% 27.27% 1% 88.78% 93.94% 43.43% lrt(2 vs. 3-class model) " 5% 82.83% 78.79% 60.61% 1% 93.94% 92.93% 78.79% lrt(3 vs. 4-class model) " 5% 82.65% 62.63% 42.98% 1% 96.94% 78.79% 55.26% for sizes (i.e. b = 100, 200 and 500) approximately 100 repetitions are done to validate the fitting of non-central χ2 distribution on the empirical null distribution of -2logλ for mastery, role conflict and kuts panel data. the summary presented in table 4, show the percent acceptance rate of non-central χ2 distribution at 5% and 1% level of significance. it can be concluded that the null distribution of blrt is non-central χ2, when modeling is done using lcm. for b = 500, the percentage rate of acceptance is quite low, which can be improved by reevaluating the frequency distribution of blrt, as we have used the same codes for the construction of frequency distribution of blrt as used for size 100. since, for larger samples the distribution of blrt is highly skewed and need appropriate class intervals for the construction of frequency distribution of blrt. thus, once again the provision of accepting the decision, regarding the number of classes in the model, through calculating the significance value of blrt, using the non-central χ2 distribution (with df = e(lrtt-1,t), ncp = v(lrtt-1,t) -1) is very strong. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 136 8. test data sets: description of general health parameter (ghp) data ghp data set is collected through a survey of a long questionnaire (more than 76 questions) from more than 1500 students studied at different government and private sector universities and colleges in karachi, pakistan during years 2008-2010. the purpose is to check whether the respondent is aware about his/her health conditions. asking health related questions not only give a chance to a respondent to overview his/her health condition, but also provide collective information about health of teenagers in the society. even if the respondent would not answer correctly due to any reason, at least he/she would think and realize any sort of problem by themselves. questionnaire was adopted from the survey of world health organization and constructed in both urdu and english languages separately, keeping in mind that most of the targeted population might not be comfortable in the english version as they are in their learning stage and could have difficulty in understanding the language, which might result in misleading information. each question has been asked about the difficulty the respondents have had in doing work, moving around, listening, seeing, understanding, recognizing and remembering thing etc., considering the last 30 days. in order to get true response, each question is scaled from 1 to 5, 1 being (at a minimum) “none of the time” or “no problem” and 5 being the “all of the time” or “extreme problem”. from this survey we have focused our attention toward an important public health issue of problematic sleep which requires accurate diagnosis. sleep problem is referred as both symptom and sign of specific disorder, known as “insomnia”. (roth, 2007) defines “insomnia” in survey studies as a positive response to either question “do you have difficulty falling or staying asleep?” or “do you experience difficulty sleeping?” according to international classification of sleep disorder, 2nd edition (icsd-2) “insomnia” is defined as having complaints of difficulty in initiating and maintaining sleep or wake up too early or having a sleep that is of poor quality, such difficulties occur even with appropriate circumstances and adequate opportunities for sleep (schutte-rodin et al., 2008) (buysse, 2008), which results in at least one of the following daytime dysfunctioning. that are, daytime sleepiness; fatigue or anxiety; concentration, remembering or focusing problems; difficulty in complex mental tasks; social or vocational dysfunction; poor school/job performance; irritable or bad mood. having tension, headache or gastrointestinal symptoms in response to sleep loss; motivation, energy or initiative reduction; proneness for error/accidents at work or while driving and concern about sleep problem (icsd-2). here, we consider variables which are daytime impairment associated with insomnia as either symptom or diagnostic criteria. we named the set of these variables as “ghp-insomnia data”. the selected questions are as follow: r: how much difficulty did you have with concentrating and remembering things? (concentration problem) c: how much difficulty did you have with analyzing and solving problem in day to day life? (cognitive issue) l: how much difficulty did you have with learning new tasks, for example, learning how to get a new place? (learning issue) i: how much did you feel irritable or having a bad mood? (irritable) s: how much difficulty did you feel in falling asleep, waking up frequently during night or waking up too early in the morning? (problematic sleep) we have used a total of 1289 responses after discarding the responses having missing values for this analysis. for convenience, 5-level likert scale has been reduced to binary as “1-no difficulty” being marked as a negative response (“1”) and the rest of the level of having difficulty of any degree (that are; 2, 3, 4, 5) are marked as a positive response (“2”). summary of latent class model fitting up to 5 classes are presented in table 5, in which the aic is minimum in 3-class model and bic in 2-class model. the difference between the values of g and χ for 1-class and 2class model is also an indication of the presence of a latent variable in the data. b. shamshad, j. s. siddiqi empirical null distribution of –2logλ 137 table 6 presents the estimated model parameters for 1 till 3-classes the probabilities presented are of a positive response to each item along with the respective estimated standard errors of estimates. in case of 2-class model the class proportions dividing the total sampled population in two groups are estimated as 67% and 33%. class 1 (with the highest proportion of approximately 867 out of 1289 total respondents), show high probabilities of having difficulty in each and every statement. approximately, 674 out of 867 individuals in this class faced difficulty in concentrating and remembering things (r), 765 and 781 (out of 867) had difficulty in the cognitive issue (c) and feel irritable (i), respectively, in the same duration. whereas, approximately 75% and 70% of the respondents had had problematic sleep (s) and issues in learning new tasks (l), respectively. class 2 on the other hand constitutes those respondents who felt irritable (i) (approximately, 311 out of 422) and had problematic sleep (s) (approximately; 218 out of 422). the probabilities of having positive response to questions related to the concentration issue (r), cognitive issue (c) and the learning issue (l) are very low in class 2. the probability of being irritable or having a bad mood is high among individuals in class 2 although the probability of having sleep issue is also high but not too high. individual in class 1 seems to have at risk of having insomnia. in a 3-class model (see table 6) number of estimated parameters increased but with a clearer grouping of individuals with an additional class. there are only 8% individuals in the total sampled population who marked negative response to difficulty in any of the question asked with high probabilities. in class 1 (with approximately 108 individual out of 1289) none of the respondent feel being irritable or in a bad mood as well as only 37, 28, 31 and 39 (out of 108 individual) show difficulty in the concentration issue, cognitive issue, learning issues and problematic sleep respectively, and these probabilities are not very high. we marked this group as “healthy fellows”. whereas, class 2 with maximum proportion of 835 out of 1289 individuals (64.7% class proportion) represents that group of people who are at great risk of insomnia since the probabilities are very high for each and every question asked, i.e. they have disturbed sleep (s) (624 out of 835 marked positive response) as well as they face difficulty in daytime activities such as in remembering and concentrating things (r), cognitive issues (c), learning new tasks (l) and have a bad mood (i) with around 78%, 88%, 74%, and 89% probabilities, respectively. we marked class 2 as “chronic-insomnia risk group”. respondents in class 3 (class proportion is 26.89%) give 100% positive response to being irritable (i) and 204 out of 347 respondents complain problematic sleep (s), although this group of individuals have no difficulty, in analyzing and solving day to day problems in life (c) (with 62.8% proportion of 347), in concentrating issue (r) (with 51.38% probability) and 81.54% proportion of 347 in learning new tasks (l). for class 3, the probability of having disturbed sleep is slightly high; this might be due to reason of having a bad mood of all individuals of this group. feeling irritable might be a sign of anxiety or depression due to social or psychological issues, which may result in the nighttime sleep problem. we marked class 3 as “chronic irritable group”. table 5. results of fitting latent class models for ghp data 1 class 2 class 3 class 4 class 5 class aic 7752.916 7545.709 7536.830 7540.031 7546.453 bic 7778.724 7602.487 7624.577 7658.748 7696.140 g2 (likelihood ratio /deviance statistic) 257.969 38.762 17.883 9.084 3.506 χ2 (chi-square goodness of fit) 341.947 37.597 17.706 8.896 3.406 number of estimated parameters 5 11 17 23 29 maximum log-likelihood -3871.45 -3761.85 -3751.41 -3747.01 -3744.22 -2logλ 219.206 20.880 8.800 5.577 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 138 table 6. ghp survey data; latent class model parameter estimates for 1 to 3-classes (probabilities of having difficulty) 1-latent class 2-latent class model 3-latent class model model class 1 class 2 class 1 class 2 class 3 r 0.6633 0.7772 0.4290 0.3459 0.7778 0.4862 [0.0136] [0.0207] [0.0391] [0.0567] [0.0222] [0.0457] c 0.6920 0.8823 0.3005 0.2632 0.8804 0.3716 [0.0137] [0.0255] [0.0543] [0.0627] [0.0302] [0.0695] l 0.5516 0.7062 0.2335 0.2970 0.7368 0.1846 [0.0145] [0.0254] [0.0434] [0.0558] [0.0345] [0.0703] i 0.8472 0.9006 0.7372 0.0000 0.8930 1.0000 [0.0102] [0.0130] [0.0285] [0.0000] [0.0143] [0.0000] s 0.6734 0.7493 0.5172 0.3677 0.7481 0.5884 [0.0133] [0.0192] [0.0346] [0.0565] [0.0199] [0.0378] class proportion 0.6729 0.3271 0.0835 0.6476 0.2689 [0.0452] [0.0452] [0.0110] [0.0597] [0.0549] the cross classification table (see table 7b) of latent class membership against problematic sleep (s: insomnia) for the 3-class model present that 32.6% of the total individuals responded that they did not have problematic sleep at any time during the last month, whereas, 32.58% had problematic sleep, some of the time. the marginal totals for problematic sleep for responses “a good bit of the time”, “most of the time” and “all of the time” are 17.22%, 10.7% and 6.8%, respectively. as, we have converted the responses dichotomously as “no difficulty (1)” and “having difficulty of any degree (2  (2, 3, 4 & 5))”. therefore, the cumulative for responses (2, 3, 4 & 5) of “having difficulty of any degree” gives 67.33% of the total respondents. the proportion of class membership obtained through the cross classification against problematic sleep (s) are approximately the same as obtained through the fitted model (see table ), that are, 8.9% (116 out of 1289), 66.4% (856 out of 1289) and 24.5% (317 out of 1289) for classes 1, 2 and 3, respectively (see table: ). the distribution of individuals in each of the 5-levels of responses clearly show that in class 1 (marked as “healthy fellows”), 66.37% of the individuals do not face any difficulty in sleeping, while only 2.58% and 6% of the total face difficulty “all of the time” and “most of the time”, respectively. although, the cumulative percentage of responses “some of the time” and “a good bit of the time” is 25% (29 out of 116). in class 2 (marked as “chronic-insomnia risk group”), 37.5% of 856 respondents marked no difficulty in having asleep during the nighttime. even though, only 65 of 856 (6%) respondents had sleep problem all of the time, but the remaining cumulative of difficulty (low to marginally high degree; responses 2, 3 &4) is 56.15% which is quite alarming. the percentage distribution in 5level scale of having asleep at bedtime for the last group (class 3) of “chronic-irritable” show that, a total of 73.7% of 317 respondents faced difficulty (for responses; 2, 3, 4, & 5). the individual percentages of having difficulty are also very high, that are 35%, 19.8%, 11.2% and 7.59% for responses 2, 3, 4 & 5, in class 3, as compared to other classes. this might be due to irritability they were facing during that time, which could be a cause of any social, psychological or mental pressure. the cross classification table for a 2-class model is also presented (see table 7a) for reader interest. we will now assess the empirical null distribution of -2logλ for ghp-insomnia data. the estimated parameter of 1till 3latent class model provided in table--are used for booting hypothetical populations based on these estimates. for each lrt1,2 , lrt2,3 and lrt3,4, 100 replications of bootstrap samples are obtained on which non-central χ2 distribution with df =e(lrtt1,t) and ncp =[v(lrtt-1,t)] -1 is assessed for fitting distribution. b. shamshad, j. s. siddiqi empirical null distribution of –2logλ 139 table 7. ghp-insomnia data: cross classification tables of latent class membership against problematic sleep (insomnia) for: (a) 2-class model; (b) 3-class model latent class membership total problematic sleep (insomnia) “healthy fellows group” class 1 “chronic-insomnia risk group” class 2 1-none of the time 189 232 421 2some of the time 92 328 420 3-a good bit of the time 44 178 222 4-most of the time 32 106 138 5-all of the time 22 66 88 total 379 910 1289 (a) latent class membership total problematic sleep (insomnia) “healthy fellows group” class 1 “chronic-insomnia risk group” class 2 “corniceirritable group” class 3 1-none of the time 77 225 119 421 2some of the time 22 300 98 420 3-a good bit of the time 7 170 45 222 4-most of the time 7 96 35 138 5-all of the time 3 65 20 88 total 116 856 317 1289 (b) the significance values obtained from blrt1,2, blrt2,3 and blrt3,4 are 0.265872, 0.664608 and 0.08312 against test values 219.206, 20.88 and 8.8 each with 3 degrees of freedom, respectively, (see table 8; see also figure 4), show good fit of non-central χ2 distribution for each blrtt-1,t. table 8. ghp-insomnia data (size b = 100); observed frequencies; expected frequencies (obtained through the fitting of non-central χ2 distribution; (a) lrt1,2 ; (b) lrt2,3; (c) lrt3,4 lrt , observed frequency expected frequency (0.73,3.57] 16 10.80113 (3.57,6.41] 24 29.29937 (6.41,9.24] 25 27.83557 (9.24,12.1] 18 17.3231 (12.1,14.9] 11 8.624018 (14.9,17.8] 4 3.742099 (17.8,20.6] 1 1.479546 (20.6,42.5] 1 0.835142 total 100 99.93998 𝛘𝟐(goodness of fit) test statistics 3.959493 degrees of freedom (df) 3 p-value 0.265872 (a) lrt , observed frequency expected frequency (0.75,3.08] 12 12.08323 (3.08,5.41] 26 26.62737 (5.41,7.74] 29 25.28383 (7.74,10.1] 17 17.12687 (10.1,12.4] 7 9.693352 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 140 (12.4,14.7] 5 4.908126 (14.7,17.1] 2 2.303954 (17.1,38.7] 2 1.758664 total 100 99.7854 𝛘𝟐(goodness of fit) test statistics 1.577037 degrees of freedom (df) 3 p-value 0.664608 (b) lrt , observed frequency expected frequency (0.155,2.21] 15 16.22409 (2.21,4.26] 29 29.66279 (4.26,6.31] 31 23.90222 (6.31,8.37] 8 14.75638 (8.37,10.4] 11 7.985343 (10.4,12.5] 3 3.994056 (12.5,14.5] 2 1.895745 (14.5,35.9] 1 1.542697 total 100 99.96332 𝛘𝟐(goodness of fit) test statistics 6.672024 degrees of freedom (df) 3 p-value 0.08312 (c) (a) (b) (c) figure 4. ghp-insomnia data (b=100); histogram along with a superimposed non-central 𝜒 curve for bootstrap sample of; (a) lrt1,2 ; (b) lrt2,3; (c) lrt3,4 9. conclusion we have considered four different data sets: mastery, role conflict, kuts panel and ghpinsomnia data. the task of establishing the empirical distribution of -2logλ when fitting latent class model reveals that non-central χ2 distribution with df = e(lrtt-1,t) and ncp = [v(lrtt-1,t)] -1 is very well fitted (with high percentage) to each data set (either “training” or “test”) and that one can rely on calculating the significance value of -2logλ obtained through the empirical null distribution (i.e. non-central χ2 distribution). references aitkin, m., & rubin, d. b. (1985). estimation and hypothesis testing in finite mixture models. journal of the royal statistical society series b (methodological), 47 (1), 67-75. b. shamshad, j. s. siddiqi empirical null distribution of –2logλ 141 aitkin, m., & wilson, g. t. (1980). mixture models, outliers, and the em algorithm. technometrics, 22(3), 325-331. aitkin, m., anderson, d., & hinde, j. (1981). statistical modeling of data on teaching styles. journal of the royal statistical society, series a (general), 144(4), 419-461. american academy of sleep medicine. diagnostic and coding manual. 2nd ed. westchester, ill: american academy of sleep medicine; 2005. the international classification of sleep disorders. bartholomew, d. j. (1987). latent variable models and factor analysis. london: charles griffin & co. ltd. buysse d. j. (2008). chronic insomnia. the american journal of psychiatry, 165(6), 678–686. chun, s. y., & shapiro, a. (2009). normal versus noncentral chi-square asymptotics of misspecified models. multivariate behavioral research, 44 (6), 803-27. coleman, j.s. (1964). introduction to mathematical society. new york: free press. gudicha, d. w., schmittmann, v. d., & vermunt, j. k. (2016) power computation for likelihood ratio tests for the transition parameters in latent markov models. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 23 (2), 234-245. goodman, l. a. (1974a). exploratory latent structure analysis using both identifiable and unidentifiable models. biometrika, 61(2), 215-231. goodman, l. a. (1974b). the analysis of systems of qualitative variables when some of the variables are unobservable. part i-a modified latent structure approach. american journal of sociology, 79(5), 1179-1259. hallquist (2008-2011). mplusautomation: automating mplus model estimation and interpretation. r package version 0.5. http://cran.r-project.org/package=mplusautomation. hartigan, j. a. (1977). distribution problems in clustering. in j. v. ryzin, ed., classification and clustering, new york: academic press. jeffries, n. (2003). a note on “testing the number of components in a normal mixture”. biometrika, 90, 991–994. lo, y., mendell, n., & rubin, d. (2001). testing the number of component in a normal mixture. biometrika 88, 767-778. macready, g. b., & dayton, c. m. (1977). the use of probabilistic models in the assessment of mastery. journal of educational statistics, 2, 99-120. mclachlan, g. j. (1987). on bootstrapping the likelihood ratio test statistic for the number of components in a normal mixture. applied statistics, 36, 318-324. mclachlan, g. j., & t. krishnan. (2008). the em algorithm and extensions. hoboken, n.j: wileyinterscience. mclachlan, g., & peel, d. (2000). finite mixture models. new york: wiley. mclachlan, g. j., & basford, k. e. (1988). mixture models: inference and application to clustering. new york: marcel dekker. nylund, k. l., asparouhov, t., muthén, b. o. (2007). deciding on the number of classes in latent class analysis and growth mixture modeling: a monte carlo simulation study. structural equation modeling, 14(4), 535–569. quinn, b. g., mclachlan, g. j., & hjort, n. l. (1987). a note on the aitkin-rubin approach to hypothesis testing in mixture models. journal of the royal statistical society b, 49, 311-314. roth, t. (2007). insomnia; definition, prevalence, etiology, and consequences. journal of clinical sleep medicine, 3(5 suppl): s7-s10. schutte-rodin, s., broch, l., buysse, d., dorsey, c., & sateia, m. (2008). clinical guideline for the evaluation and management of chronic insomnia in adults. journal of clinical sleep medicine, 4(5), 487–504. shamshad, b., & siddiqi, j. s. (2012) exploration of groups through latent structural model. journal of basic and applied science, 8 (1), 145-150. titterington, d. m., smith, a. f. m., & markov, u. e. (1985). statistical analysis of finite mixture distributions. new york: wiley. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 142 vuong, q. h. (1989). likelihood ratio tests for model selection and non-nested hypotheses. econometrica, 57, 307-33. wilks, s. s. (1935). the likelihood test of independence in contingency tables. the annals of mathematical statistics, 6(4), 190-196. wilks, s. s. (1938). the large-sample distribution of the likelihood ratio for testing composite hypotheses. the annals of mathematical statistics, 9(1), 60-62. wolfe, j.h. (1970). pattern clustering by multivariate mixture analysis. multivariate behavioral research, 5, 329–350. bushra shamshad received her b.sc (honors), m.sc and ph.d degree in statistics from department of statistics, university of karachi, pakistan, in 2002, 2003 and 2013, respectively. she is associated with the department of statistics, karachi university since 2004, initially as a co-operative lecturer then became full-time lecturer in 2006. she is working as assistant professor since 2011. her awards and honors include first-class-first position and 2 gold medals in m.sc. and first-class-second position in b.sc. (honors). her research interests are multivariate analysis, categorical data analysis, distribution theory and structure equation modeling. dr. junaid saghir siddiqi born on 01-05-1952, he did his b.sc. hons. & m.sc. in statistics, in 1972 and 1973 respectively, from the department of statistics, university of karachi. he did ph.d. in statistics from university of exeter, england in 1992. he initially worked as teaching / research assistant in karachi university. he then joined government of sindh as research officer before joining the department of statistics, karachi university as a full-time lecturer in october1975. he has been retired as professor of statistics on 30th april 2012. currently he is working as an adjunct professor in the department. his research interest includes application of multivariate methods in several social and economic field. he has supervised 5 phd students. microsoft word issue-4.docx 49 cognitive agent-based accident avoidance system faisal riaz department of computer science & information technology, mirpur university of science & technology, ajk, pakistan college rd, new mirpur city, azad jammu and kashmir 10250 phone: +92-5827-961040 / 42 fazi_ajku@yahoo.com abdul ghafoor department of computer science & information technology, mirpur university of science & technology, ajk, pakistan college rd, new mirpur city, azad jammu and kashmir 10250 phone: +92-5827-961040 / 42 yasir mehmood department of computer science & information technology, mirpur university of science & technology, ajk, pakistan college rd, new mirpur city, azad jammu and kashmir 10250 phone: +92-5827-961040 / 42 naeem ratyal department of electrical engineering, mirpur university of science & technology, ajk, pakistan college rd, new mirpur city, azad jammu and kashmir 10250 phone: +92-5827-961040 / 42 iram zamir department of computer science & information technology, mirpur university of science & technology, ajk, pakistan college rd, new mirpur city, azad jammu and kashmir 10250 phone: +92-5827-961040 / 42 ujala siddique department of computer science & information technology, mirpur university of science & technology, ajk, pakistan college rd, new mirpur city, azad jammu and kashmir 10250 phone: +92-5827-961040 / 42 hina iqbal department of computer science & information technology, mirpur university of science & technology, ajk, pakistan college rd, new mirpur city, azad jammu and kashmir 10250 phone: +92-5827-961040 / 42 anila arbab department of computer science & information technology, mirpur university of science & technology, ajk, pakistan college rd, new mirpur city, azad jammu and kashmir 10250 phone: +92-5827-961040 / 42 abstract distracted driving is a growing problem that leads to many deaths in the world. causes of distraction are speeding, eating, texting, drinking, answering phone calls, reading billboards, adjusting vehicle equipment, and attending to passengers. these deaths could be prevented by a cognitive agent-based collision detection and auto collision avoidance (cabcd-ca) system. in order to reduce accidents caused by distraction, this paper presents a (cabcd-ca) system. the research is two-fold, first designed as a fuzzy inference system, which takes distraction, speed, and distance as input and produces the chances of an accident using fuzzy logic. then, different brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 50 probabilities of accidents are provided to the cognitive agent, which, in turn, performs appropriate collision avoidance manoeuvrers. the agent-based simulation of the cabcd-ca system is validated using vomas agent approach. extensive testing has proved the success of the proposed system for avoiding collisions due to the distraction of the human driver. keywords: cognitive agent, distraction, fuzzy logic, vomas agent. 1. introduction human distraction is one of the main causes of road accidents. according to chana and singhal (chan & singhal, 2013), distracted driving is a growing problem in the world and causes a high number of accidents. it can cause many deaths that could otherwise be prevented, especially in the younger generation of drivers (foss & goodwin, 2014). distraction occurs when drivers divert their attention from the driving task to focus on some other activity (foss & goodwin, 2014). according to the australian national crash in-depth study (ancis) (beanland, fitzharris, young, & lenné, 2013), it is concluded that distraction is the second largest cause of accidents due to inattention (gidron, gaygısız, & lajunen, 2014). distractions influenced by the advancement of technology, especially text messaging or talking on the cell phone with someone, can require a combination of visual, manual, and cognitive attention from the driver, thus making these types of distractions particularly dangerous (chan & singhal, 2015). there are many types of distractions. there are three different types of distractions; (a) visual distraction, (b) manual distraction, and (c) cognitive distraction (simons-morton, guo, klauer, ehsani, & pradhan, 2014). visual distraction means that drivers have their eyes off the road, is operating the vehicle entertainment system, adjusting vehicle equipment, or viewing roadside billboards (foss & goodwin, 2014). visual distraction involves taking one's hands off the wheel whereas cognitive distraction means that driver has his mind off the road when he/she is text messaging, talking on the phone, conducting a hands-free mobile conversation, or conversing with passengers (chan & singhal, 2015). other than above causes, distractions also include lack of concentration, adjusting vehicle equipment, viewing outside people/objects/events, talking to passengers, drinking, smoking, eating, etc. (lansdown, stephens, & walker, 2015). according to the united states department of transportation, "text messaging while driving increases a crash risk 23 times higher than driving while not distracted". despite these statistics, more than 37% of drivers have admitted to sending or receiving text messages while driving, and 18% admit to doing so regularly (lisetti & nasoz, 2005). results from (lansdown et al., 2015) also examine that electronic device use (6.7%) was the most common single type of distracted behaviour, followed by adjusting vehicle controls (6.2%) and grooming (3.8%). most distracted driver behaviours were less frequent when passengers were present. however, loud conversation and horse play were quite common in the presence of multiple peer passengers (lansdown et al., 2015). these conditions were associated with looking away from the road, the occurrence of serious events, and, to a lesser extent, rough driving (high g-force events) (lansdown et al., 2015). driver distraction is predicted to be one of the leading causes of motor vehicle accidents. in 2011, it accounted for 10% of all fatal crashes and 17% of injury crashes (administration, 2012) (nhtsa, 2013). in a recent review by young and salmon (2012), secondary task distraction is suggested to be a contributing factor in at least 23% of all accidents (nourzad, salvucci, & pradhan, 2014). 2. method in this section the details of the adapted method have been provided. first of all detailed literature review has been performed to identify the main causes of driver distraction. for this purpose authentic journals of high reputed publishers have been selected. one of the examples is the accident analysis and prevention journal by taylor and francis. we selected this journal because it provides more authentic information regarding the subject under discussion. then in second step, literature review regarding existing collision avoidance, detection and avoidance systems. in the next step, fuzzy logic (mamdani inference system) has been employed to compute the different levels of driver distraction. it is important to mention that fuzzy logic is a tool, which can be utilized f. riaz, a. ghafoor, y. mehmood, n. ratyal, i. zamir, u. siddique, h. iqbal, a. arbab cognitive agent-based accident avoidance system 51 to generate the quantitative values of qualitative terms like low distraction and high distraction. because the computer softwares need quantitative values instead of qualitative terms, hence the fuzzy logic has been employed. in the continuation of the research, the second type of simulation experiments has been performed using fuzzy logic to compute the chances of accidents using the different levels of driver distraction. the output was again in quantitative values, which were then provided to the agent based simulation tool known as netlogo. in the last the validation of the results has been performed using virtual overlay modelling agent (vomas) under the guidelines of the validation method propose by niazi et al.(niazi, siddique, hussain, & kolberg, 2010). 3. literature review we have performed two-fold literature reviews. the first fold of literature review helps us in identifying the main causes of distraction. the second fold of literature review helps us in studying the existing collision detection and avoidance systems. in (lansdown et al., 2015), it is discussed that if young drivers keep their eyes on the road and prefer secondary tasks, then crash risk increases because of distraction. in (simons-morton et al., 2014), it is discussed that driver distraction occurs if the driver performs physical tasks (including eating, drinking, or manipulating dashboard controls) or auditory/visual diversions (e.g., loud music or looking at a smart phone screen), or cognitive activities (e.g., talking on a phone or to a passenger). in (lansdown et al., 2015), systematic reviews of several driver distractions are given. in (cuenen et al., 2015), it is elucidated that distraction occurs due to inattention and it may impact driving performance. also, the effect of distraction on driving performance of older drivers has been checked. the aim was to investigate whether attention capacity has a moderating effect on older drivers’ driving performance during visual distraction and cognitive distraction. in (chan & singhal, 2013, 2015), it is discussed that driver distraction is one of the leading causes of motor vehicle accidents. roadside billboards contain negative and positive emotional contents and lead to non-attentive driving behaviour. the impact of emotion-related auditory distraction on driving is also discussed. the causes of distraction and the results of the literature review are given in table 1. in (gidron et al., 2014), an intelligent car interface is designed by facilitating natural human interaction with the drivers so that he/she will be aware of their emotional state while driving. in this way, the distractions can be avoided. riaz and niazi (riaz & niazi, 2017a) have proposed emotions enabled cognitive autonomous agent for efficient rear-end collision avoidance, which is installed in an autonomous vehicle. riaz and niazi (riaz & niazi, 2016) have also proposed a comprehensive survey regarding different collision avoidance techniques. a validated fuzzy logic inspired driver distraction evaluation system for road safety using artificial human driver emotion has been proposed by riaz et al. (riaz et al., 2018). this paper provides a solution to compute driver distractions and then using them to tailor an efficient road collision avoidance system. riaz and niazi (riaz & niazi, 2017b) have proposed an efficient collision avoidance system between autonomous vehicles and human driven vehicles using richardson’s arms race model. table 1. the causes of distraction causes result speeding distraction eating texting drinking attending to phone calls reading billboards adjusting vehicle equipment interacting with passengers brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 52 in paper (nourzad et al., 2014), they propose a system combination modelling framework that integrates a cognitive model of distraction and an agent-based traffic simulation model and validates it by using existing experimental data sets. the authors have developed a database of distraction types and, from that database, they calculated profile time of distraction and that profile time used an agent-based traffic simulation modelling. 4. proposed work we have given an agent-based assistant system that alerts distracted human drivers to avoid accidents. as we know, while driving, the human driver gets distracted because of different things mentioned above. in order to save human lives and avoid road accidents in this work, we tried to make a cognitive system which will check the crisp values of chances of accidents obtained from the fuzzy inference system and then generate alarms and take action on whether to reduce speed or to apply breaks to avoid accidents. 4.1. proposed sim-connector design in the first phase, using fuzzy logic, we have calculated the rate of distraction by taking all the causes of accidents as input. these values of distraction are then given to the fuzzy inference system, which then calculates the chances of accidents. the figure 1 shows how two simulators are joined using sim-connector. firstly, the value of speed, distraction, and distance are given to the fuzzy inference system to generate crisp values of chances of accidents. these crisp values are then given to an agent-based model using simconnector, which makes decisions on the basis of these values. figure 1. proposed sim-connector design 4.2. proposed validation method in the second phase, we proposed a distributed accident alerting system using an agent modelling tool, i.e., netlogo; a system which generates alerts for drivers by making intelligent decisions based on the values of chances of accident retrieved from the fuzzy inference system. using the sim connector approach, the accident detection system (the fuzzy inference system) simulation model is connected to the distributed accident alerting system. the proposed system can also take action on whether to slow down the speed or to use breaks, if the human driver does not respond to the alerts. vomas: a virtual overlay multi-agent system. this overlay multi-agent system can be comprised of various types of agents, which form an overlay on top of the agent-based simulation f. riaz, a. ghafoor, y. mehmood, n. ratyal, i. zamir, u. siddique, h. iqbal, a. arbab cognitive agent-based accident avoidance system 53 model that needs to be validated. other than being able to watch and log, each of these agents contains clearly defined constraints, which, if violated, can be logged in real time. for the validation of our cognitive agent-based accident avoidance system using vomas approach we use design invariant, which are; 1. if the pre-condition that “rear end distance between both autonomous vehicles is decreasing” is true, then the variation in the distance of autonomous vehicles would result in a post condition of “give alert accordingly”. if the pre-condition that “rear end distance between both autonomous vehicles is equal to threshold” is true, then the variation in the distance of autonomous vehicles would result in a post condition of “breakdown”. flow chart: 1. start moving cars followed one by another. 2. make a decision based on “chance of accident”. 3. calculate chances of accident. 4. if chance of accident is less than or equal to 80%, it generates an alarm. 5. otherwise: 6. if chance of accident is greater than 80%, it will take a break. the figure 8 shows the flowchart of an agent-based system, which checks the chances of accidents. when the chance of an accident is less than or equal to 80%, it generates an alarm and when these chances increases and are above 80%, it will take the break. 5. simulation and results in this section, details regarding simulation and results have been provided. 5.1. simulation-1 to compute distraction reason we constructed a mamadani-based fuzzy inference system (fis) for calculating the different intensity levels of distraction using the causes of distraction presented in table 1. the figure 2 shows the fuzzy inference system, which takes different causes of distraction as input and generates the values of distraction, which we use later as input in other fuzzy inference systems that will generate chances of accidents. 5.1.1. simulation-1 results: the table 2 describes the results, which determine the value of distraction. the values of eating, drinking, adjusting vehicle equipment, physical impairments are used as inputs as the major causes of distraction. 5.1.2. verification of simulation-1 results: as can be seen from the membership function of eating, the value of eating (0.139) lies in the very low category. in the same way the value of drinking, which is 0.175, lies in the very low category, the value of adjusting vehicle equipment, which is 0.355, also lies in the very low category, the value of physical impairments 0.657 lies in the average category. the output is 0.175, which lies in the very low values of distraction. from the membership function, it also lies in the very low category; hence the value of distraction is very low. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 54 table 2. simulation-1 results table 3. input and output of fuzzy logic inference system input fuzzy logic inference system output speed chances of accident distance distraction in the same way that the value of eating is (0.355) from the membership function, it lies in the average category. the value of drinking, which is 0.615, lies in the very high category, the value adjusting vehicle is 0.187, and it lies in the very low category, and the value of physical impairment, 0.232, lies in average categories, then the output of fuzzy inference of these five inputs is 0.187, which lies in the low category, hence the value of distraction is low. figure 2. distraction detection also, when the value of eating is (0.584) from the membership function, it lies in the average category, the value of drinking, which is 0.657, lies in the high category, the value adjusting vehicle is 0.139 lies in the very low category, and the value of physical impairment 0.49, which lies in the average category. so, the output of fuzzy inference of these five inputs is 0.657, which lies in the average category, hence the value of distraction is average. similarly, when the value of eating is (0.584) from the membership function, it lies in the average category. the value of drinking, which is 0.657, lies in the very high category, the value of adjusting vehicle equipment is 0.777, which lies in the very low category, and the value of eating drinking adjusting vehicle equipment physical impairments value of distraction 0.139 v.low 0.175 v.low 0.355 v.low 0.657 average 0.175 v.low 0.355 average 0.615 (high) 0.187 v.low 0.232 low 0.187 low 0.584 average 0.657 high 0.139 low 0.49 average 0.657 average 0.584 average 0.657 average 0.777 average 0.187 low 0.777 high 0.729 v.high 0.416 average 0.657 high 0.88 v.high 0.861 v.high f. riaz, a. ghafoor, y. mehmood, n. ratyal, i. zamir, u. siddique, h. iqbal, a. arbab cognitive agent-based accident avoidance system 55 physical impairment, 0.187, lies in the average category. so, the output of fuzzy inference of these five inputs is 0.777, which lies in the low category, hence the value of distraction is high. similarly, when the value of eating is (0.729) from the membership function, it lies in the very high category. the value of drinking, which is 0.416, lies in the average category, the value of adjusting vehicle equipment is 0.657, which lies in the high category, and the value of physical impairment, 0.88, lies in the very high category. therefore, the output of fuzzy inference of these five inputs is 0.861, which lies in the very high category, hence the value of distraction is very high. 5.2. simulation-2 to compute chances of accident in simulation-2, we constructed a fuzzy inference system in matlab, which takes the input speed, distance, and distraction and generates an output in the form of chances of accidents. we set a membership for each input and then set different rules. according to these rules, we verify the results. figure 3. rule editor. 5.2.1. input and output of fuzzy logic the fuzzy logic inference system takes the input like speed, distance, and distraction and produces an output using the fuzzy logic inference system about the chances of accident. 5.2.2. membership functions of fuzzy logic figure 3 shows the membership function editor in which we set the membership function for each input: speed, distance, and distraction in very low, low, average, high and very high categories. according to member functions, output variables “chance of accidents” plotted to demonstrate the range of accidents. 5.2.3. rule editor of fuzzy logic inference system we set rules for the three inputs, speed, distance, and distraction. figure 4 shows the rules that are set using fuzzy logic on the basis of which system generates chances of accidents (output). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 56 figure 4. membership function editor 5.2.4. simulation-2 results table 4 describes the results, which determine the chances of accidents. the values of speed, distance, and distraction are used as input, which gives the output of chances of accidents. membership is set for each input and then set different rules. according to these rules, we verify these results. table 4. chances of accident results based on input factors inputs output chances of accident speed distance distraction 0.416average 0.139 v. low 0.175 v. low 0.118 v. low 0.355 low 0.615 high 0.187 low 0.232 low 0.584 average 0.657 high 0.657 average 0.490 average 0.416 average 0.741 high 0.777 high 0.751 high 0.729 v. high 0.139 v. low 0.861v. high 0.880 v. high 5.2.5. verification of simulation-2 results as can be seen from the membership function of speed, the value of speed (0.416) lies in the average category. in the same way the value of distance, which is 0.139, lies in the very low category. the value of distraction, which is 0.175, also lies in the very low category. the output of fuzzy inference of these three inputs is 0.118. from the membership function, it also lies in the very low category; hence chances of accidents are very low. in the same way, when the value of speed is 0.355 from the membership function, it lies in the low category. the distance, which is 0.615, also lies in the high category and the distraction is 0.187, which lies in the low category. the output of fuzzy inference of these three inputs is 0.232, which lies in the low category; hence the chances of accidents are low. also, when the value of speed is 0.584, which lies in the average category and the distance, which is 0.657, lies in the high category and the value of distraction (0.657) lies in the average category then the output is 0.490, which lies in the average category, hence the chances of accidents are average. f. riaz, a. ghafoor, y. mehmood, n. ratyal, i. zamir, u. siddique, h. iqbal, a. arbab cognitive agent-based accident avoidance system 57 likewise, when the value of speed is 0.416, which lies in the average category and the value of distance is 0.741, which lies in the long distance category, and the value of distraction is 0.777, which lies in high, then the output of fuzzy inference is 0.751 from the membership function which lies in the high category. hence, the chances of an accident are high. similarly, when the value of speed is 0.729, which lies in the very high category and the value of distance is 0.139, which lies in the short distance category, and the value of distraction is 0.861, which lies in very high, then the output of fuzzy inference is 0.880 from the membership function which lies in the very high category. hence, the chances of an accident are very high. 5.3. simulation-3 validation for agent-based system we designed an agent-based model in netlogo simulator. the figure given below 5 is the interface view of the agent-based model in netlogo. figure 5. user interface of agent-based model system. figure 6 shows that the cognitive agent give alerts or generates an alarm when the chances of accidents are in the very high range (as 0.90). figure 7 shows that the cognitive agent “takes a break” when it notices that the chances of an accident are very high (as 1.0). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 58 figure 6. alert for high range accident chances. figure 7. take break action for very high range accident chances. 6. discussion existing studies have mostly investigated the causes of distraction and verify that the distraction is due to speeding, eating, texting, drinking, attending to phone calls, reading billboards, adjusting vehicle equipment, and interacting with passengers while driving. in (nourzad et al., 2014) (seyed hossein hosseini nourzad, dario d. salvucci and anu pradhan, 2014), they have developed a database of distraction types. from that database, they calculated profile time of distraction and that profile time was used in agent-based traffic simulation modelling. whereas, we have used fuzzy logic to calculate chances of accidents using speed, distance, and distraction (values of rate of distraction calculated by using fuzzy inference system) and used five variables of each parameter (very low, low, average, high, very high) and we also proposed the agent-based accident detection and avoidance system, which not only determines the chances of accidents using fuzzy logic but then takes action to avoid accidents. we have used the sim-connector approach in order to connect two simulations (fuzzy inference system and netlogo simulation) and validated our system using vomas agent. 7. conclusion distracted driving is the leading cause of accidents. in order to reduce accidents due to distraction, in this paper, we presented an accident detection and cognitive agent-based accident by cognitive agent-based collision detection and an auto collision avoidance system (cabcd-ca). this system involves two steps. in the first step, we constructed a fuzzy inference system, which uses distraction, speed, and distance as input and using fuzzy logic produces chances of accidents. f. riaz, a. ghafoor, y. mehmood, n. ratyal, i. zamir, u. siddique, h. iqbal, a. arbab cognitive agent-based accident avoidance system 59 then we provided these values of chances of accident to the cognitive agent, which then performed the collision avoidance process. we validated the system using vomas approach. different invariants are designed to perform the validation using extensive testing showing that the system works successfully and performs accident avoidance due to distraction of human drivers. references administration, n. h. t. s. (2012). nhtsa (2013). visual-manual nhtsa driver distraction guidelines for in-vehicle electronic devices. beanland, v., fitzharris, m., young, k. l., & lenné, m. g. (2013). driver inattention and driver distraction in serious casualty crashes: data from the australian national crash in-depth study. accident analysis & prevention, 54, 99-107. chan, m., & singhal, a. (2013). the emotional side of cognitive distraction: implications for road safety. accident analysis & prevention, 50, 147-154. chan, m., & singhal, a. (2015). emotion matters: implications for distracted driving. safety science, 72, 302-309. cuenen, a., jongen, e. m., brijs, t., brijs, k., lutin, m., van vlierden, k., & wets, g. (2015). does attention capacity moderate the effect of driver distraction in older drivers? accident analysis & prevention, 77, 12-20. foss, r. d., & goodwin, a. h. (2014). distracted driver behaviors and distracting conditions among adolescent drivers: findings from a naturalistic driving study. journal of adolescent health, 54(5), s50-s60. gidron, y., gaygısız, e., & lajunen, t. (2014). hostility, driving anger, and dangerous driving: the emerging role of hemispheric preference. accident analysis & prevention, 73, 236-241. lansdown, t. c., stephens, a. n., & walker, g. h. (2015). multiple driver distractions: a systemic transport problem. accident analysis & prevention, 74, 360-367. lisetti, c. l., & nasoz, f. (2005). affective intelligent car interfaces with emotion recognition. paper presented at the proceedings of 11th international conference on human computer interaction, las vegas, nv, usa. niazi, m. a., siddique, q., hussain, a., & kolberg, m. (2010). verification & validation of an agent-based forest fire simulation model. paper presented at the proceedings of the 2010 spring simulation multiconference. nourzad, s. h. h., salvucci, d. d., & pradhan, a. (2014). computational modeling of driver distraction by integrating cognitive and agent-based traffic simulation models computing in civil and building engineering (2014) (pp. 1885-1892). riaz, f., khadim, s., rauf, r., ahmad, m., jabbar, s., & chaudhry, j. (2018). a validated fuzzy logic inspired driver distraction evaluation system for road safety using artificial human driver emotion. computer networks, 143, 62-73. riaz, f., & niazi, m. a. (2016). road collisions avoidance using vehicular cyber-physical systems: a taxonomy and review. complex adaptive systems modeling, 4(1), 15. riaz, f., & niazi, m. a. (2017a). enhanced emotion enabled cognitive agent-based rear-end collision avoidance controller for autonomous vehicles. simulation, 0037549717742203. riaz, f., & niazi, m. a. (2017b). towards social autonomous vehicles: efficient collision avoidance scheme using richardson’s arms race model. plos one, 12(10), e0186103. simons-morton, b. g., guo, f., klauer, s. g., ehsani, j. p., & pradhan, a. k. (2014). keep your eyes on the road: young driver crash risk increases according to duration of distraction. journal of adolescent health, 54(5), s61-s67. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 60 faisal riaz (b. oct 2, 1980) is a phd candidate at iqra university, pakistan and currently serving as an assistant professor in the dept. of computer sciences, mirpur university of science and technology, azad kashmir, pakistan. his research interests are vehicular cyber physical systems, cognitive radio, affective computing, and agent based modelling. he has more than 31 research publications in various national/international research journals and conferences. he is the author of two books as well. furthermore, he is heading intelligent transport systems lab at mirpur university of science and technology (must), aj&k pakistan. under the banner of its lab, he has developed the first autonomous vehicle of pakistan. he is the reviewer of many well reputed journals. he has served as a technical program committee member in many international ieee conferences. his reviewing profile can be viewed over https://publons.com/author/742771. abdul ghafoor (b. september 1, 1972) received his master of computer science (2003) from university of azad jammu & kashmir, muzaffarabad, mscs in computer science (2013) from iqra university, islamabad campus. now he is lecturer in department of computer science & information technology (cs&it), mirpur university of science and technology, (must). his current research interests include different aspects of software engineering, ad hoc and wireless networking. yasir mehmood (b. march 9, 1975) received his master of computer science (2005) from university of azad jammu & kashmir, muzaffarabad, mscs in computer science (2009) from fast-national university of computer and emerging sciences, islamabad. he is currently working towards the ph.d. degree at the department of computer sciences, fast-national university of computer and emerging sciences, islamabad. currently, he is working as an assistant professor in department of computer science & information technology, mirpur university of science and technology. his research interest includes optimization using computational intelligence and swarm intelligence techniques. dr. naeem iqbal ratyal received ph.d degree in electrical engineering from capital university of science & technology (cust), pakistan in 2016. his research interests are 3d face recognition, image processing and computer vision. he is currently working as an assistant professor in the department of electrical engineering, mirpur university of science & technology (must), azad kashmir, pakistan. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2019, volume 10, issue 4, pages: 145-157 | doi:10.18662/brain/09 the relationship between parental perfectionism and children's academic achievement nadiri masoumeh¹ 1 department of family counseling, islamic azad university north tehran, iran abstract: undoubtedly, perfectionism is one of the personality traits that can be both constructive, useful and positive, as well as neurotic and abnormal (negative). in other words, positive and negative perfectionism have different effects on individuals' personality and efficiency. when perfectionism is unhealthy and abnormal, it can lead to disorders such as obsession, depression, anorexia nervosa, personality disorders, anxiety disorders (social anxiety) and so on. and if perfectionism is used in a healthy way and to enhance personal and motivational abilities, it will lead to self-efficiency. the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between perfectionism and children's academic achievement. the findings of the test and analysis of research hypotheses indicated that the effect of all independent variables on the dependent variable has been significant. therefore all the research hypotheses were confirmed. also, the effect of perfectionism on students' academic achievement and self-esteem has been more than other variables. keywords: perfectionism; academic achievement; efficiency; selfesteem. how to cite: masoumeh, n. (2019). the relationship between parental perfectionism and children's academic achievement. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(4), 145-157. doi:10.18662/brain/09 the relationship between parental perfectionism and children's academic … nadiri masoumeh 146 1. statement of problem several factors affect a child's attitude toward himself and his family members, including economic, social, and cultural factors governing family that are directly related to the level of literacy and education of the family. literacy and education, from an economic point of view, leads individuals towards community-based, creative, endogenous growth and development, and from a professional perspective, makes the society successful, adults are specified as a key factor in production, even with a specific economic term which are the active population or labor force. perfectionist and powerseeking parents usually students who are over-perfectionist have had parents in the childhood who believed that the parents always said right, the parents always had right and acted right (sanaei, 2013). perfectionism as a personality and motivational trait affects one's behavior. horney (1950) considers perfectionism as a way of life that one uses to relieve anxiety. although in the concept of perfectionism, it has allocated a great deal of attention of psychologists, it is still defined as an almost unknown and incompatible phenomenon (bakhtiarpour, 2007). the construct of perfectionism can be normal or neurotic. perfectionism is a threatening factor in the development of mental appetite and overeating. there is also evidence that perfectionism can prevent the successful treatment of depression and it is considered an important part of obsessivecompulsive personality disorder (zidi, 2013). it can be stated that since these parents do not understand the difference between their abilities and their children, they try to punish the children to reach their own criteria. criteria that is so unrealistic that they achieve rarely. this style is called power-seeking parenting style and provides the grounds for perfectionism in the child. also, parents who are selfperfectionist not only consider their children's successes to be small, but even reject their own successes (verner-filion & gaudrean, 2010). historically, the concept of perfectionism as a psychological category has been considered by many psychologists (horney, 1950). results show that perfectionists have parents with a high level of perfectionism (dibartolo & rendon, 2011). this relationship is especially strong when the parent and child are in the same gender. perfectionist parents critic a lot, they are strict, and support their children less. they evaluate their children's performance too much; this is by the expense of losing the close relationship between them and their children. perfectionist parents, instead of confirming their brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 147 children's behavior, constantly force them and warn them to do better (pong, johnston & chen, 2010). the children of perfectionists never feel happy because they think their behavior is not good enough to attract parents. also, perfectionist parents often refrain from loving and endorsing their children, thus punish them and their children never feel satisfied or happy (mirshekari and saadatmand, 2015). victims of such common fear try as much as they can to avoid situations that predict that their performance in those situations will be judged according to high standards and standards. on the other hand, the influence of perfectionism thinking on anxiety has been assessed by others that are the fundamental components of negative perfectionism associated with anxiety growth and states (shaye, 2012). given the importance of this issue in children's academic achievement and future success, this study is conducted to investigate the relationship between parental perfectionism and children's academic achievement. 2. theoretical framework of research perfectionism has been a favorite concept of psychologists since the early twentieth century. the first ones who worked on perfectionism defined it as: '' the extremist tendency to be impeccable, to consider his or her own smallest mistake as an unforgivable sin and anxiously wait for the ominous consequences of failure ''. in simpler terms, perfectionists consider too high criteria for success and if they fail to achieve their ambitious goals, they consider themselves as a defeated (mehrabi et al., 2007). they know the world by the law of all or nothing. every possible outcome is either a complete failure or a complete success. in sport, this phenomenon is clearly visible to athletes after the race. those who consider equality as a failure and have nothing to do with other factors are likely to be perfectionists. if we consider the perfectionist athletes before the race, we are most likely to be preoccupied with the fear of failure. (fakhr al-sadat, 2003) in general, fear of failure, concern of evaluating and how others think about themselves, formulating high-level standards, and not assuring their success, and the thoughts like this that perfectionists are engaged with them, are all considered the underlying and manifestation of anxiety. in other words, every human being has a set of abilities and by aware of the amount of these talents that determine his or her life goals (bakhtiarpour, 2007). it is assumed that perfectionists have cognitive schemas that, regardless of their abilities, choose goals beyond their capacity and as afraid the relationship between parental perfectionism and children's academic … nadiri masoumeh 148 of failing to attain their considered perfection, except for complete success, they are not satisfied with anything (bakhtiarpour, 2007). perfectionist thinking, on the one hand, alone leads to academic failure because perfectionist students are not satisfied with just doing their homework and achieving 100% good results. they are not satisfied with this issue that their performance is better than their peers and they have done their work or assignment as desirable and acceptable as possible, but they are only fully satisfied if they complete the task or assignment completely and without any error. for this purpose, they may abandon their responsibilities in any way due to the fear of lack of achieving their purpose. and for this reason, they will have the academic failure and on the other hand, perfectionism may indirectly lead to academic failure by depression and anxiety (besharat, 2004). in the last two decades of the twentieth century, the importance of this concept for its traumatic role was again emphasized (heidari & kushan, 2002). until this time, the concept of perfectionism was a one-dimensional concept and no attention was paid to its interpersonal features, but by the end of the twentieth century, perfectionism was exited the one-dimensional state and proposed as a multidimensional construct (besharat, 2004). various factors such as anxiety, extreme responsibility, inflexibility, depression, fear of self-efficacy, self-esteem and so on are effective. 2.1 perfectionism perfectionism is defined as the individual's enduring tendency to set complete and unattainable criteria and to strive for their fulfillment with selfcritical evaluation of the personal performance. perfectionism in psychology is the belief that all things must be done in an obsessive manner and not accepted otherwise (zidi, 2013). from a pathological point of view, perfectionism is an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder in which if the performance or outcome of an action is less than perfection, it is not accepted by the person. in such cases, these beliefs are unhealthy, and psychologists refer to such individuals as abnormal perfectionists (accordino, accordino & slaneyl, 2000). perfectionists constantly think about the consequences of their actions and always focus on the best; they always expect to do the best. but they can never finish their work well. such people have high expectations of their actual performance, so they cannot feel good because such personal and extreme criteria are the fear of failure. fear leads to avoidance behaviors. and avoidance behavior means that one must constantly be brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 149 aware of frightening issues. fear of failure may prompt components of perfectionism such as safety seeking, reforming others, and extreme investigation to the person to be achieved their irrational criteria (pong, johnston & chen, 2010). perfectionists avoid situations for fear of not fulfilling perfectionist criteria and may be neglected. hollander (1965) focused on cognitive processes that sustain perfectionism in the individual, such as selective attention i.e, perfectionists often focus on their mistakes and deficiencies, hollander considers perfectionism a negative trait, and the perfectionist has a self-humiliation. adler considers the view of striving for excellence as the basic reality of life. excellence is the ultimate goal striving for it. the purpose of striving for excellence is not striving for being better or selfish tendency or false belief to situations. the purpose of adler was the concept of striving for the concept of perfection. according to bronse, perfectionism is the source of interaction with parents and perfectionists because it is within such a relationship that the child is positively reinforced for excellent performance. however, when the child fails in the effort, the parents consider failure as a reflection of backwardness of their skill. instead of reassuring and comforting their children, such parents treat them with frustration, anxiety, and confusion (zidi, 2013). burns (1980) examined the continuous evaluation of perfectionists in successes. he observed that perfectionists have unrealistic extremist and inflexible criteria and that their interpretation of events is a destructive style and they define themselves on the basis of the ability to attain goals. undoubtedly, perfectionism is one of the personality traits that can be constructive, useful and positive, as well as neurotic, and abnormal (negative), and each category has different effects on one's personality and performance. on the whole, it can be said that the perfectionist is a person who needs and desires to be perfect, such a person assumes himself exactly as the ideal image of himself, the thing that "must" be ideal in his verdict (mirshekari & saadatmand, 2015). 2.2 academic achievement academic achievement means that the expected educational level to be met and the education organization to be closer to its predetermined goals. academic achievement means increasing learning, increasing the grade of scores, and students' acceptance in the courses and educational grades. academic achievement is "general or private knowledge or acquired skill in the relationship between parental perfectionism and children's academic … nadiri masoumeh 150 subjects that typically measure tests or marks, or both, that teachers or students set." the term academic achievement refers to the manifestation of a student's academic status (sanaei, 2013). cases like the school principal, the teacher, the goals and content of the curriculum, the methods and the educational facilities can be considered among factors, generally, give set of expectations to students that can play a significant role in the academic success or non-success of students. (sanaei, 2013). emotional conditions in the family are the most important factors in shaping students 'attitudes towards education, mainly the cultural poverty of some families due to their parents' illiteracy causes to not to pay attention to the children. on the other hand, in some high-level families with relatively good education, the dominant atmosphere in the family is such that science and education are more valued. it is expected from children to pass high levels of science, and sometimes the pressure on children to be good and meet expectations may be greater than their ability and capacity, and the imbalance between expectations and abilities can lead to many problems in students (sanaei, 2013). 2.3 impact of perfectionism on academic achievement human beings naturally wishes goodness and perfection, and this tendency toward perfectionism and humanity is almost incomplete and flawless. the defect is that the category of perfectionism becomes anomalous because the unhealthy dimensions of perfectionism are associated with a lack of self-esteem, neuroticism and little harms (shaye, 2012). in fact, perfectionism is not necessarily recognized as a negative factor, but as a factor that can have a positive and beneficial function. the life of perfectionists is usually summed up in a series of dos and don'ts. they should reach perfection in every way and do their best, otherwise they will not be satisfied, and their failure to fulfill them will cause them anxiety, depression, and severe guilt (zidi, 2013). these expectations, on the other hand, make it difficult for them to undertake hard and irrational responsibilities of life. some perfectionist parents wish to have perfect children. they are usually too ambitious, too competitive and too serious for their mistakes. this group of fathers and mothers do what they can to train perfect children. they regularly encourage their children to learn music or sports, of course, just learning and proficiency is not enough, but also their children should be beyond it (pong et al., 2010). perfectionist parents fill every moment of their children's lives with lessons, programs, and extracurricular activities, they expect from their children to have great scores brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 151 and they put constantly their children under pressure to choose activities and programs that are according to their desire, not what the children themselves desire. these improper pressures and perfectionism will end up for the children and what kind of personality they will find in adulthood. research has shown that positive forms of perfectionism are positively associated with life satisfaction. in addition, the negative forms of perfectionism have been negatively correlated with a variety of concepts of subjective well-being (gilman & ashby, 2004). concerning satisfaction from education, everyone expects the school and teachers to use the utmost facilities and efforts to students to reach the preset goals, but the point is that each student enters the educational environment by a unique background. the most important shaping of any student's background is the family environment and relationship with parents (gilman & ashby, 2004). one of the major problems that parents usually face is their lack of awareness of how to use appropriate educational styles for their children. if parents know that their educational styles determine the mental health fundamentals and educational and social competencies of their children, they will surely try more in learning and adopting appropriate educational styles. the purpose of educational styles of parenting are methods used by parents to deal with their children and have a profound impact on their childhood development and personality traits and subsequent behavior (diba & morteza, 2004). perhaps if people accepted that their defects were considered part of their beauty, it was this contradiction that made them unique and lovely. many psychological problems did not happen. perfectionism, as a personality and motivational attribute, affects one's behavior (mirshekari & saadatmand, 2015). in general, fear of failure, fear of being evaluated and how others think about themselves, formulating high standards and not assuring their success, and the thoughts that perfectionists have been engaged with them. all are the underlying and manifestation of anxiety (mirshekari & saadatmand, 2015). in other words, every human being has a set of abilities and by aware of the amount of these talents determine his or her life goals. it is assumed that perfectionist individuals have cognitive schemas that, regardless of their abilities, choose goals beyond their capacity and are afraid of failing to achieve their considered perfection, except for complete success; they are not satisfied to a thing. having perfectionist thinking on the one hand, alone leads to academic decline because perfectionist students are not satisfied with just doing their homework and getting good results. the relationship between parental perfectionism and children's academic … nadiri masoumeh 152 they are not satisfied with this issue that their performance is better than their peers or they have done the assignment well and acceptable, but their satisfaction is fully provided only when they do their assignment completely without any error. so they may not be responsible for fear of failing to achieve their goal, or abandon them in the middle of work and therefore they will have educational decline (sanaei, 2013). the motivational force of each individual is towards growth and flourishing that self-efficacy is considered an important element in this way. the natural tendency of people is to move from the path of realizing their potential, although they may face some environmental and social barriers. self-efficacy is a lasting and clear emotion from one's ability to cope effectively with many stressful situations. self-efficacy refers to a sense of self-esteem and self-worth, a sense of self-sufficiency and efficiency in dealing with life (bakhtiarpour, 2007). also, self-esteem is what we think about ourselves, characteristics of ourselves that we compare with others, and our ability to reach an acceptable result on important issues (mirshekari & saadatmand, 2015). self-esteem is one of the most important characteristics of any person and it affects his mental health. self-esteem also affects other personal aspects of a person, and lack of self-esteem will cause other aspects of their personality not to be grown or become inharmonic, and it may even underlie various mental illnesses such as depression, timidity and aggression. so self-esteem is at the heart of the matter. those who fail to achieve their goals or see negative features in themselves and consider themselves unattractive have less self-esteem than successful and attractive people (mirshekari & saadatmand, 2015). in other words, positive and negative perfectionism have different effects on one's personality and efficiency. when perfectionism is unhealthy and abnormal, it can cause disorders such as obsession, depression, anorexia nervosa, personality disorders, anxiety disorders (social anxiety), stress, psychiatric disorders and migraines. perfectionists are often depressed because their focus is on issues such as individual competency and selfcriticism. they blame, criticize and attack, and have strong feelings of guilt, shame, defeat, and dishonesty (pong et al., 2010). perfectionist students do more risk and consider more advancement. in a way, they are never satisfied with their work and refrain from competitions even if they are confident of their ability (mirshekari & saadatmand, 2015). brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 153 ultimately, this issue can lead to some disadvantages in the children's healthy education process, which can have long-term effects on academic failure, lack of interest in education, or obsession in gaining score from student. given the content and scope of the effects of positive and negative (abnormal) perfectionism, the hypotheses of this study can be proposed as follows: first hypothesis: maladaptive perfectionism (negative) of parents affects students' academic achievement. first sub-hypothesis: maladaptive perfectionism (negative) of parents affects students' anxiety. second sub-hypothesis: maladaptive perfectionism (negative) of parents affects students' fear of endangering. third sub-hypothesis: maladaptive perfectionism (negative) of parents affects students' depression. second hypothesis: positive perfectionism of parents affects students' academic achievement. fourth sub-hypothesis: positive perfectionism of parents affects students' self-efficacy. fifth sub-hypothesis: positive perfectionism of parents affects students' self-esteem. 3. research method this study is applied objectively and in terms of data collection is non-experimental designs. to ensure content validity, the research indices for the considered structures were designed based on previous studies and according to experts and university professors. a 5-point likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) was used for all analytical questions in the questionnaire. the statistical population of this study consisted of 196 undergraduate students of islamic azad university of science research branch in tehran. this value was obtained according to cochran's formula for the finite sample population (confidence coefficient 95% and error percentage 0.05). in order to lack valid data, (210) questionnaires were distributed among the sample population. after the survey, the correct questionnaire was extracted. the data obtained from questionnaires were analyzed by spss software. the data obtained from the analytical questions of the questionnaire were analyzed in order to investigate the research hypotheses according to the multivariate regression and the relationships among the main variables of the research were identified. also, the primary tool for data collection in this study was questionnaire. also, the research the relationship between parental perfectionism and children's academic … nadiri masoumeh 154 questionnaire consisted of two parts, which in the first part, the demographic characteristics of the respondents were investigated. in the second part of the questionnaire, respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement with each of the indicators on a 5-point likert scale. the questionnaire used included two categories of perfectionism questions and academic achievement. the second part included 28 questions about examining research hypotheses. in this study, face validity was used by experts to evaluate the validity of the measurement instrument (questionnaire) and the reliability of factors in the structural model was estimated by cronbach's alpha formula. the reliability coefficients obtained using this formula indicated the reliability of the questionnaires was high (0.954). 4. analysis an aspect of statistics is called inferential, which includes statistical estimation techniques and hypothesis testing. in which way (estimation or test) is deduced depends on the type of research. in this section, we examine the data obtained from the research questionnaires according to the various research variables described in the previous sections. in this study, we use the k-s (kolmogrof smirinov) statistic to test the assumption of normality of observations. the result of this test is summarized in the following table by separating groups. table 1: result of kolmogrof smirinov test variable sig.2-taild significance statistic k-s negative perfectionism 0.06 1.33 positive perfectionism 0.09 1.19 academic achievement 0.08 1.23 anxiety 0.08 1.33 fear of endangering 0.06 1.34 depression 0.09 1.35 self-efficiency 0.06 1.33 self-esteem 0.07 1.25 as it can be seen, all statistics are above 0.05 and the assumption of normality is confirmed. in the next part of the research, the research hypotheses are tested using regression analysis. multivariate regression is one brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 155 of the bases of data analysis and reveals the relationships between statistical data. table 2. results of the research hypotheses hypothesis beta coefficient significant level result the first main hypothesis 0.333 0.000 confirmed the first sub-hypothesis 0.460 0.000 confirmed the second subhypothesis 0.194 0.000 confirmed the third sub-hypothesis 0.275 0.000 confirmed the second main hypothesis 0.560 0.000 confirmed the fourth sub-hypothesis 0.442 0.000 confirmed the fifth sub-hypothesis 0.541 0.000 confirmed as it can be seen in the table above, the level of significance obtained indicates a significant relationship between the variables. thus, the null hypothesis for all research hypotheses is rejected and these hypotheses are confirmed. also, the effect of perfectionism on students' academic achievement and self-esteem has been more than other variables. 4. conclusion perhaps if people accepted that their defects were considered part of their beauty, it was this contradiction that made them unique and lovely. many psychological problems did not happen. perfectionism, as a personality and motivational attribute, affects one's behavior. horney (1950) considers perfectionism as a way of life that one uses to relieve anxiety. although in the concept of perfectionism, it has allocated a great deal of attention of psychologists, it is still defined as an almost unknown and incompatible phenomenon. the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between perfectionism and children's academic achievement. the findings of the test and analysis of research hypotheses indicated that the relationship between parental perfectionism and children's academic … nadiri masoumeh 156 the effect of all independent variables on the dependent variable was significant. therefore all the research hypotheses were confirmed. also, the effect of perfectionism on students' academic achievement and self-esteem was more than other variables. undoubtedly, perfectionism is one of the personality traits that can be constructive, useful and positive, as well as neurotic and abnormal (negative). in other words, positive and negative perfectionism have different effects on individuals' personality and efficiency. also, when perfectionism is unhealthy and abnormal, it can lead to disorders such as obsession, depression, anorexia nervosa, personality disorders, anxiety disorders (social anxiety), stress, mental disorders and migraine, and if perfectionism is used healthy and to enhance one's personal and motivational abilities, it leads to self-efficacy. and this self-efficacy is a sustained and clear sense from competency and capability of person to cope effectively with many stressful situations and is associated with self-esteem and self-worth and enhances them. findings from previous research also indicate that positive forms of perfectionism are positively associated with life satisfaction. in addition, the negative forms of perfectionism have been negatively correlated with a variety of concepts of subjective well-being. references accordino, b.d., accordino, m. p:, & slaney, r. b. (2000). an investigation of perfectionism, mental health, achievement, and achievement motivation in adolescents. psychology in the schools, 37(6), 535-545. bakhtiarpour, s. (2007). comparison of individual, educational, academic and economical characteristics of conditional and non-conditional students of ahvaz islamic azad university. (research project, unpublished). besharat, m. a. (2004). investigating the relationship between parental perfectionism and student test anxiety. journal of psychology and educational sciences, 34, 1-19. burns, d. (1980). the perfectionist’s script for self-defeat. psychology today (november), 34-51. diba, s., & morteza, l. (2004). investigating the relationship between motivational beliefs and students' self-regulation strategies in mathematics. journal of psychology, 4, 404-420 dibartolo, p. m., & rendon, m. j. (2011). a critical examination of the construct of perfectionism and its relationship to mental health in asian and african americans using a cross-cultural framework. clinical psychology review, 32(3), 139-52. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2011.09.007 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 157 fakhr al-sadat, e. (2003). the relationship between perfectionism and psychological hardiness with mental health and academic performance of students of ahvaz azad university (ma thesis). islamic azad university, ahvaz branch. gilman, r., & ashby, a, (2004). social cognitive theory. annual review of psychology, 54 (1), 1-26. heidari, a., & kushan, m. (2002), investigating the source of control and its relationship with academic achievement in nursing students. journal of secrets of sabzevar school of medical sciences and health services, 3, 4-11. hollander, m.h. (1965). perfectionism. comprehensive psychiatry, 6, 94–103. horney, k. (1950). neurosis and human growth: the struggle toward self-realization. new york, u.s.a.: w. w. norton & company. pong, s-l., johnston, j., & chen, v. (2010). authoritarian parenting and asian adolescent school performance : insights from the us and taiwan. international journal of behavioral development, 34(1),62-72. doi:10.1177/0165025409345073 mehrabi, z. h., mahnaz, a., atefeh, s., & yaleq, m. (2007). the relationship between self-esteem, social anxiety, perfectionism and belonging to academic performance and exam anxiety. journal of psychology, 43, 242-255 mirshekari, z., & saadatmand, z. (2015). investigating the relationship between perfectionism with self-efficacy and self-esteem of elementary school students in abadeh tashk. first scientific conference on strategies for development and promotion of science education in iran. retrieved from: http://thesis.iauctb.ac.ir/en/thesis/thesis.archive.html sanaei, z. (2013), the impact of family-based empowerment on self-efficacy and self-esteem in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery. journal of research development in nursing and midwifery, 11(2), 44-53. shaye, y. a. (2012), comparison of self-esteem, perfectionism and academic performance of epileptic and non-epileptic adolescent students in ahvaz. iranian journal of exceptional children, 11(2). verner-filion, j., & gaudreau, p. (2010). from perfectionism to academic adjustment: the mediating role of achievement goals. personality and individual differences, 49, 181–186. zidi, i. (2013), the impact of training based on the individual empowerment models on knowledge, attitude, self-esteem, self-efficacy and quality of life in postmenopausal women. journal of nursing care research center of tehran university of medical sciences, 26(81), 21-31. http://thesis.iauctb.ac.ir/en/thesis/thesis.archive.html microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx 55 the effect of written emotional disclosure on depression, anxiety, and stress of patients after open heart surgery zohreh barzegar amiri school of nursing & midwifery golestan university of medical sciences, gorgan, iran phone: +98 17 3245 2651 akram sanagoo associate professor, nursing research center golestan university of medical sciences, gorgan, iran phone: +98 17 3245 2651 sanagoo@goums.ac.ir leila jouybari associate professor, nursing research center golestan university of medical sciences, gorgan, iran phone: +98 17 3245 2651 naser bahnampour assistant professor, health school golestan university of medical sciences, gorgan, iran phone: +98 17 3245 2651 ali kavosi nursing research center golestan university of medical sciences, gorgan, iran phone: +98 17 3245 2651 abstract background and aim: so far, several strategies have been used to reduce and minimize the stress and anxiety of patients admitted in open heart surgery. writing about the most important and traumatic experiences of life can improve the physical and emotional health state of patients. the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of written emotional disclosure on depression, anxiety, and stress in hospitalized patients after open heart surgery. methods: this study was an experimental study with two groups and two control groups before and after the intervention. a total of 100 patients admitted in the open heart surgery department of amiralmomenin-e-kordkuy hospital (2018) were assigned in the form of random numbers to four groups of emotional disclosure of negative, positive, neutral and noninterventional. the groups exhibited 10-15 minutes of emotional disclosure written in four periods for one week. data were collected by the dass21 questionnaire before, one week and one month after the intervention by the groups. data were analyzed by spss software version 22 and descriptive and inferential tests (repeated variance analysis and one way anova). the significance level was considered as p<0.05. results: the severity of stress, anxiety and depression in the two groups of test and control before and after the intervention using anova repeated measure showed significant difference (p=0.0001), (p=0.0001), (p=0.0001) (p=0.0001), respectively. but there was no significant difference between the two groups before and after the intervention (p<0.05). conclusion: written emotional disclosure reduces depression, anxiety and stress in patients after open heart surgery. keywords: narration; emotions; self-disclosure; depression; anxiety; patients; surgery. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 56 1. introduction currently, cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death worldwide (black et. al., 2009). several methods are used to treat cardiovascular diseases, one of which is surgical (fayazi et. al., 2012). heart surgery is one of the most important surgical procedures that are often done these days (guo et. al., 2012). according to studies, more than 515,000 coronary artery bypass surgery in the united states and 17,000 cases in australia are carried out, annually (sharif et. al., 2012). the statistics show that, 30 to 40 thousand cardiac surgeries per year occur in iran, with more than 50-60% of these surgeries being heart bypass surgery, whose prevalence in iran has increased with respect to lifestyle (dehdari et. al., 2009). the number of heart surgeries and post-admissions hospitalization in iran has been reported to be 1260 and 8540, respectively, and the most important reasons for returning to the hospital are recurrence of illness, lack of proper understanding of the patient's progress in treatment and lack of follow-up (moein & davoodi, 2013). some researchers have examined the role of depression simultaneously as a risk factor for heart disease as well as the emergence of problems following heart surgery, and emphasize that the role of this mood disorder in problems after surgery is far more important, to the extent that it can cause many physical problems, such as delayed recovery, disability in everyday life, high prevalence of post-surgical pain, hospitalization, unexpected cardiac attacks, and reduced survival of patient (arrowsmith et. al., 2000; rahimi et. al.,2000). in the early stages of recovery, patients have the moderate symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression (albert et. al., 2009; gartner et. al., 2005), and in the following, these symptoms can be accompanied by signs such as tiredness, sleep disorders and mood changes such as stress, fear, disgust, dizziness, restlessness, agony, panic and anger due to feelings of worthlessness, lack of control and self-confidence (ziegelstein et. al., 2000). in this regard, a study by rahimi et al. on behavioral changes in patients between 4 and 6 months after intrusive cardiac interventions was performed. the researchers found that patients undergoing more psycho-emotional changes, so that serious non-intervention could disrupt their recovery (rahimi et. al., 2000). researchers estimated the incidence of depression after heart surgery to be 8%-47% (karlsson et. al., 2008). a patient undergoing open heart surgery is anxious due to various reasons, including severe chest pains and fatigue resulting in anxiety and distress in the patient. fear of death and disability, as well as the persistence of symptoms, despite the surgical treatment and the lack of readiness of the patient for surgery, contribute to these problems (tully et. al., 2008). today, though, therapeutic methods are used to reduce the effects of stress, anxiety and depression in cardiac patients, but these methods can be associated with some side effects (kshettry et. al., 2006; özer et. al., 2013), therefore, it is important to pay attention to the needs of the patients, including their psychological needs, for the nurse as the first person who is related to the symptoms and needs of the patient. the purpose of these methods is to control the risk of moderated factors, provide health-care education and management of the patient's physical-psychological problems, which is possible through regular and accurate follow-up (akbari et. al., 2015). research findings show that people share much of their everyday experiences with others, but refuse to share a small part of their experiences with others (niederhoffer et. al., 2009). some of these experiences and thoughts are different from, or are so painful to, individuals' personal values that it is very difficult to remember and talk about. under such conditions, people are prevented from revealing their thoughts and feelings. the attempt to conceal thoughts and feelings suppresses them, and the suppression of painful emotional experiences leads to their manifestation in the form of dreams, intrusive thoughts and mental ruminations (ghorbani, 2008). understanding the fact that unforeseen emotional memories and experiences play an important role in different aspects of health and the disclosure of these can have therapeutic effects. exposure disclosure actually means that a person expresses his deepest emotional experiences spoken or written to others or himself (pennebaker & chung, 2007). based on the theory of cognitive change, emotional disclosure, through exposure to harmful experiences, helps people to reconsider, better understand, and have a new meaning in life events. this ultimately causes emotional experiences to be absorbed into a new structure in the cognitive system, and the person accepts it as one of the usual experiences of life (pennebaker & seagal, 1999). several studies have been conducted on various methods of disclosure and its consequences for increasing psychological health, improving the immune system, reducing physical z. b. amiri, a. sanagoo, l. jouybari, n. bahnampour, a. kavosi the effect of written emotional disclosure on depression, anxiety, and stress of patients after open heart surgery 57 problems and reducing disturbing thoughts and symptoms of depression (gartner et. al., 2005; pennebaker & chung, 2007; ahmadi et. al., 2011). pennebaker's research considers emotional disclosure as one of the ways to prevent and treat emotional disturbances and focuses on emotional disclosure (pennebaker et. al, 2001). lepore concluded in his study that emotional disclosure moderates the effect of disturbing thoughts on depressive symptoms, thereby reducing symptoms of depression (lepore, 1997). also, ahmadi et al., in their study, stated that spontaneous and verbal excitement reduced the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress among people with these clinical symptoms (ahmadi et. al., 2011). considering the very limited history of emotional disclosure in the mental dimension of patients after open heart surgery in iran and abroad, the present study seeks to investigate the effect of written emotional disclosure on stress, anxiety and depression in patients after open heart surgery. 2. method this experimental study was carried out before and after four groups (two experimental and two control groups) on patients admitted to the open heart surgery department of amiralmomenine-kordkuy hospital affiliated to golestan university of medical sciences in 2018. sample size were determined by ahmadi tahour (ahmadi et. al., 2011) and at confidence level of 0.95 and test power 0.80, and using the multi-group mean comparison formula, 100 people (25 people in each group). the sampling method was that patients were selected according to entry criteria and divided into four groups using the random numbers table. inclusion criteria included hospitalization in open heart surgery department, reading and writing literacy, non-use of drugs associated with psychiatric disorders in the past six months, non-use of psychotropic drugs / known drug addiction, lack of major stressful events, such as the death of loved ones in the past six months, at the time of the study, and satisfaction to participate in the study. it should be noted that the cancellation of patients for any reason at the time of the study to continue and participate in the study, the death or hospitalization of patients due to complications of the disease, as well as those who have disclosed in the emotional exacerbation group less than three times, were excluded from the study. in order to observe ethical considerations, the researcher first explained the purpose of the research to the research units and the participants in the study and assured them that the information would be confidential and that there was no need to write the name and to participate in the research according to their personal desire. also, the approval of the ethics committee in golestan university of medical sciences was also approved by ir.goums.rec.1397.348 code of ethics. the data collection tool was a demographic and clinical profile that included age, gender, ethnicity, marriage, occupation and educational level, clinical status, duration of hospitalization, and the dass21 questionnaire. the 21-item questionnaire, with the subscales of the questionnaire, anxiety, stress and depression, was first introduced by lovibond (lovibond, 1995). the scores in this questionnaire were determined on the basis of the likert scale of four options at never, low, medium and high. the lowest score for each question is zero (it does not apply to me at all) and the highest score is 3 (quite true in my case). in this tool, 7 questions related to the depression (questions 3, 5, 10, 13, 16, 17, 21), 7 questions related to the anxiety (questions 2, 4, 7, 9, 15, 19, 20) and 7 questions about stress (questions 1, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, 18). the final score of each of them was obtained through the total score of the questions related to it. the severity of the symptoms for each of the subscales was five, which included normal, mild, moderate, severe and very severe. the severity of the depression subscales was considered to be from 0 to 9 normal, 10 to 13 mild, 14 to 20 moderate, 21 to 27 severe and above 28 was very severe. the severity of the anxiety subscale was considered to be from 0 to 7 normal, 8 to 9 mild, 10 to 14 mild, 15 to 19 severe and above 20 was very severe. the severity of the anxiety subscale was considered to be from 0 to 14 normal, 15 to 18 mild, 19 to 25 moderate, 26 to 33 severe and above 33 was very severe. determination of validity and reliability of the instrument has been confirmed in several internal and external studies of its reliability with acceptable cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.7-0.94) (chinchai et. al., 2003; kavosi et. al., 2017; sahebi et. al., 2005). the method of this study was to first select the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 58 participants according to the access criteria and use the random numbers table to be divided into four groups. (the groups were identified as follows: test group one = emotional disclosure of negative emotions and unpleasant memories related to the length of admission, test group two = emotional disclosure emotions and positive memories related to the length of admission, control group one = emotional disclosure emotions and memories with neutral topics, daily life and control group two = no action). after determining the groups, the dass21 questionnaire was completed before and after the hospital discharge by all patients and in all groups. then, a booklet was sent to the groups for the disclosure of emotion and from patients the test group on received a request for one week and four specific times for 10 to 15 minutes through writing deals to the emotional disclosure of negative emotions and unpleasant memories of the length of admission, at home and in the privacy room, and in the booklet. similarly, in the patients in the test group two, during the same time period and place to reveal emotional emotions and positive memories related to the length of admission and record in the manual. from patients in the control group one were also asked to record their emotions and memories with neutral topics, daily life, and in the booklet in this period of time and in four occasions of 10 to 15 minutes, but in the control group, however, no specific action was taken during this period. it should be noted that during one week of disclosure, all groups were followed up by a researcher. also, during the phone call, the reciprocal disclosure guidelines for each group were briefly recaptured. finally, after one week and one month of intervention, the dass21 questionnaire was completed again by all patients. data were analyzed by spss software version 22 and descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (repeated variance analysis and one way anova). normality of data was confirmed by shapiro-wilk test. chi-square test was used to test the homogeneity of demographic characteristics in the groups. the significance level was considered as p<0.05. 3. results according to the kolmogrov-smirnov test and observing the normalization assumptions (p<0.05), using one-way anova, the results were obtained so that the mean and standard deviation of the age in the test group one were 57.08±1.97, in the test group two were 57.96±8.29, in the control group one were 56.08±10.14, in the control group two were 57.20±9.13, which there was no significant difference (p=0.91). also, patients in the four groups did not differ significantly in terms of demographic variables such as gender, ethnicity, education, marriage, occupation (table 1). table 1. distribution of absolute and relative frequency of demographic characteristics in the two groups of test and control variable group test group one (negative memories) test group two (positive memories) control group one (neutral topics) control group two (nonintervention) p-value frequency (percent) frequency (percent) frequency (percent) frequency (percent) gender male (76)19 (68)17 (60)15 (64)16 pearson chi-square 0.66 female (24)6 (32)8 (40)10 (36)9 ethnicity fars (60)15 (76)19 (76)19 (80)20 pearson chi-square 0.46 turkmen (28)7 (16)4 (12)3 (20)5 baloch (12)3 (8)2 (12)3 (0)0 education under the diploma (64)16 (76)19 (52)13 (84)21 pearson chi-square 0.28 diploma (12)3 (12)3 (20)5 (8)2 higher than diploma (24)6 (12)3 (28)7 (8)2 z. b. amiri, a. sanagoo, l. jouybari, n. bahnampour, a. kavosi the effect of written emotional disclosure on depression, anxiety, and stress of patients after open heart surgery 59 repeated measures anova test showed a significant difference in the mean and standard deviation of stress, anxiety and depression among all groups before intervention, one week and one month after the intervention (p<0.05). but anova test showed no significant difference between the mean of stress, anxiety and depression of the experimental group with the control group before, one week and one month after the intervention. (p<0.05) (table 2). table 2. comparison of mean and standard deviation of severity of stress, anxiety and depression before, one week and one month after the intervention in two groups of test and control variable group test group one (negative memories) test group two (positive memories) control group one (neutral topics) control group two (nonintervention) p.value anova sd±mean sd±mean sd±mean sd±mean severity of stress before intervention 17.52±7.66 14.88±7.81 17.28±7.13 14.72±6.99 0.38 one week after the intervention 9.52±7.37 7.60±4.72 6.96±4.62 6.72±4.96 0.27 one month after the intervention 3.92±4.98 3.20±2.64 2.56±1.68 2.16±1.62 0.19 p.value (repeated measures anova) 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001 severity of anxiety before intervention 14.72±8.75 13.28±7.11 12.96±7.02 9.36±6.99 0.058 one week after the intervention 7.04±6.40 6.0±3.91 4.96±3.06 4.72±4.96 0.23 one month after the intervention 2.64±3.54 1.60±2.38 1.12±2.0 1.36±1.89 0.26 p.value (repeated measures anova) 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001 severity of depression before intervention 14.32±8.71 12.32±8.65 13.44±7.01 1280±7.04 0.51 one week after the intervention 6.64±6.04 5.44±4.37 5.76±3.28 5.12±4.08 0.46 one month after the intervention 2.40±3.65 1.12±2.00 1.36±1.60 1.12±1.52 0.18 p.value (repeated measures anova) 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001 4. conclusion the results showed that emotional disclosure on stress, anxiety and depression was effective in two groups before, one week and one month after the intervention and could reduce them. the results of our study are based on the results of (nakhjavani, & badri's, 2015; monazamitabar, 2015; issazadegan et. al., 2011; alipour et. al., 2011; ahmadi et. al., 2010; shen et al., 2018; perez et. al., 2017; kerpan et. al., 2013; kacewicz et. al., 2007; gartner et. al., 2005). the reason for the effectiveness of emotional disclosure, based on inhibition theory and cognitive change, relates to the fact that deep emotional disclosure, firstly, confronts a person with his emotional experiences and a real touch of emotions, and secondly revives events and emotional experiences and change the way they organize and re-engage. the emotional disclosure shatters the inhibition process and marriage single (4)1 (4)1 (0)0 (0)0 pearson chi-square 0.56 married (96)24 (96)24 (100)25 (100)25 occupation housewife (24)6 (32)8 (40)10 (36)9 pearson chi-square 0.70 worker (20)5 (12)3 (8)2 (20)5 employee (12)3 (24)6 (8)2 (12)3 free (44)11 (32)8 (44)11 (32)8 age 57.08±1.97 57.96±8.29 56.08±10.14 57.20±9.13 anova test 0.91 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 60 once the person is exposed in the face of deep emotions and feelings that have been painful and distressing to them. the disclosure of these emotions, due to the revival of negative memories, in the short term affects the mood of the individual, but in the long run, regains these experiences as a normal experience in the cognitive system and positive emotions are replaced by negative emotions. (lu, & stanton, 2010) it should be noted that the results of our study are not consistent with the results of the study by (milkavich et al., 2005). in their opinion, they prefer to share a lot of harmful experiences like some obsessive thoughts and the spread of like aids illnesses, not with written and in person structures, but only with specific individuals, including psychologists. also, the results of this study are not consistent with the research by (van middendorp et al., 2009). they believe that individuals prefer to disclose negative emotions in life, while in the present study, at least one test group and a control group of individuals have exposed the themes of positive experiences and memories, neutral topics, everyday life that has less emotional load. the result of the study by manier and olivares (2005) is not consistent with the present study (manier, & olivares, 2005). because they believe that written emotional disclosure is not good for people who experience a very painful incident and suffer from more severe discomfort. in addition, emotional disclosure for those who do not report any problems also has no effect. according to the results of this study, the most benefit from emotional disclosure is those who have experienced moderate levels of discomfort and stress. for this reason, it turns out that the study of an event with an emotional load looks like it narrates, and the unspeakable and inaudible emotions and tricks come up in the words of meaning that is no longer unspoken and inaudible. obviously, everything that is unspeakable and unsophisticated, it is more fearful and less aware of the crisis than it is, the event has a better outcome (alipour et. al., 2015). also, the results showed that stress, anxiety and depression decreased after intervention in control groups. it seems that the passage of time and the acceptance and adaptation of patients in the control group to their physical condition when they were hospitalized and undergone cardiac surgery were at the height of stress and anxiety, also, the psychological support of the family during the treatment period has reduced stress, anxiety and depression. the study of (peru et. al., 2012) about emotional-written disclosure on depression, anxiety and stress in psychopathologist students showed that two-minute written emotional exertion significantly increased negative emotions and in the long run reduced depression and anxiety (parv et. al., 2013). the results of (ahmadi et. al., 2010) about the effectiveness of emotional disclosure (verbal and written) on depression, anxiety and stress symptoms of 40 students who had high scores in subscales of depression, anxiety and stress; the process of changes in symptoms of depression, the process of changing the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress in intervention groups over time is significant (ahmadi et. al., 2011). in a study by stanford university's psychiatry and behavioral sciences at koopman et al. (2005), women with a history of abuse and violence on the part of their spouse, expressing feelings and emotions by writing did not have a significant overall impact on the level of perceived pain and depression and stress disorder, but long-term follow-up in patients who had an officer depression before intervention was significantly reduced by depression and stress (koopman et. al., 2005). regarding the fact that stress, anxiety and depression were decreased in all groups, but in comparison between the control and experimental groups, the statistical test did not show significant difference before, one week and one month after the intervention. of course, the results of this study are consistent with the results of studies by (travagin et. al., 2015; niels et. al., 2014; mogk et. al., 2006) but do not consistent according to (baikie et. al., 2012; zare et. al., 2011; harizchi et. al., 2009). the reasons for the difference in results may be the difference in the research community, their culture and education, the time of research, the difference in the used questionnaires, the duration of the intervention, the number of participants in the sample. as mentioned in the study results, long-term emotional disclosure has been effective in reducing stress, anxiety and depression in patients undergoing open heart surgery. it helps to improve the mental and physical health of individuals. in sum, emotional disclosure can be z. b. amiri, a. sanagoo, l. jouybari, n. bahnampour, a. kavosi the effect of written emotional disclosure on depression, anxiety, and stress of patients after open heart surgery 61 considered as a simple, constructive, low-cost, and effective way to confront and cope with lifethreatening experiences of life, which its preventive role is preceded by its therapeutic role. limitations of this research can be to limit the limited number of samples and not to have access to them all, not to follow the effects of emotional disclosure in the course of several months, the lack of control of the researcher on the problems and pressures of life in patients who could affect their stress, anxiety and depression, not employing more valid methods of clinical assessment, such as interviews, as well as mental and psychiatric conditions that affected the way in which questions were answered, therefore, in order to conduct further studies, it is suggested that the constraints expressed be controlled. also, because of the fact that the samples were heart patients only, they underwent open heart surgery in the amiralmomenin-e-kordkuy hospital, which would not normally represent the entire community of heart patients in iran, which can be effective in generalizing the results of this research. it is suggested that the present study should be conducted in other samples with different demographic characteristics and its effectiveness should be compared with other existing treatments. acknowledgments this article is the result of a special care nursing master's thesis and an approved plan by the nursing research center. we are sincerely grateful from deputy of research and technology of golestan university of medical sciences for financial support, and the patients participating in this study. code of ethics: ir.goums.rec.1397.348. references ahmadi, m., abdollahi, m. h., ramezani, v., & heshmatti, r. (2010). the impact of written emotional expression on depressive symptoms and working memory capacity in iranian students with high depressive symptoms. procedia-social and behavioral sciences. 5: 1610-4. ahmadi, t. m., ramezan, v., abdollahi, m. h., najafi, m., & rabieei, m. (2011). the effectiveness of emotional disclosure (written and verbal) is a symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress in students. journal of clinical psychology. 2 (4): 51-59. akbari nakhjavani, h., & badri gargari, r. (2015). efficacy of methods of emotional disclosure (verbal/written) to improve the quality of life in women with breast cancer. the journal of urmia university of medical sciences. 26 (6): 519-30. albert, n. m., gillinov, a. m., lytle, b. w., feng, j., cwynar, r., & blackstone, e. h. (2009). a randomized trial of massage therapy after heart surgery. heart & lung: the journal of acute and critical care. 38 (6): 480-90. alipour, a., noorbala, a., yazdanfar, m., & agah heris, m. (2011). the effectiveness of emotional disclosure intervention in reducing stress and inhibition among psychosomatic patients. journal of jahrom university of medical sciences. 9 (2). arrowsmith, j., grocott, h., reves, j., & newman, m. (2000) central nervous system complications of cardiac surgery. british journal of anesthesia. 2000; 84 (3): 378-93. baikie, k. a., geerlig, l., & wilhelm, k. (2012). expressive writing and positive writing for participants with mood disorders: an online randomized controlled trial. j affect disord. 136 (3): 310-9. black, j. m, hawks, j. h, & keene a. m. (2009). medical-surgical nursing: clinical management for positive outcomes: saunders elsevier. chinchai, p., marquis, r., & passmore a. (2003). functional performance, depression, anxiety and stress in people with spinal cord injury in thailand: a transition from hospital to home. asia pacific disability rehabilitation journal. 14 (1): 30-40. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 62 dehdari, t., heidarnia, a., ramezankhani, a., sadeghian, s., & ghofranipour, f. (2009). effects of progressive muscular relaxation training on the quality of life in anxious patients after coronary artery bypass graft surgery. indian journal of medical research. 129 (5): 603. fayazi s., sayadi n., & gheybizadeh m. (2012). comparison of the quality of life before and after open heart surgery. zahedan journal of research in medical sciences. 14 (9): 98-100. gartner, g., elliott, d., gill, j., griffin, m., & crawford, m. (2005). patient experiences following cardiothoracic surgery: an interview study. european journal of cardiovascular nursing. 4 (3): 242-50. ghorbani, n. (2008). cognitive, emotional, mental, physiological consequences of failure to disclose resistance and therapy exit thesis: dissertation. tehran: tarbiat modarres university. guo p., east l., & arthur a. (2012). a preoperative education intervention to reduce anxiety and improve recovery among chinese cardiac patients: a randomized controlled trial. international journal of nursing studies. 49 (2): 129-37. harizchi, g. s., ranjbar, k. f., talebi, m. m., pezeshki, m., & akbari, m. (2009). effect of written emotional expression anxiety and depression in patients with multiple sclerosis. quarterly iranian journal of neurology. 8 (25): 465-75. issazadegan, a., monie, f. m., & hasanzadeh, l. (2014). effectiveness of written emotional disclosure in symptoms of depression, hope level in adolescents exposed to trauma. journal of advanced psychological research. 9 (33): 125-41. kacewicz, e., slatcher, r. b., & pennebaker, j. w. (2007). expressive writing: an alternative to traditional methods. low-cost approaches to physical and mental health: springer, 271-84. karlsson, a.-k., lidell, e, & johansson, m. (2008). depressed mood over time after open heart surgery impact patient well-being: a combined study. european journal of cardiovascular nursing. 7 (4): 277-83. kavosi, a., alizadeh, z., rezapoor, z., movahed, a., moein, v., & mohammadi, g. (2017). survey of the level of stress and coping strategies in students of the school of medicine of neyshabur university of medical sciences in 2016. pajouhan scientific journal. 16 (1): 3341. kerpan, k. m., kross, e., berman, m. g., deldin, p. j., askren, m. k., & jones j. (2013). an everyday activity as a treatment for depression: the benefits of expressive writing for people diagnosed with major depressive disorder. journal of affective diseases. 150 (3): 1148-51. koopman, c., ismaili, t., holmes, d., classen, c. c., palesh, o., & wales, t. (2005). the effects of expressive writing on pain, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in survivors of intimate partner violence. journal of health psychology. 10 (2): 211-21. kshettry, v. r., carole, l. f., henly, s. j., sendelbach, s., & kummer, b. (2006). complementary alternative therapies for heart surgery patients: feasibility, safety, and impact. the annals of thoracic surgery. 81 (1): 201-5. lepore, s. j. (1997). expressive writing moderates the relation between intrusive thoughts and depressive symptoms. journal of personality and social psychology. 73 (5): 1030. lovibond, p. f., & lovibond, s. h. (1995). the structure of negative emotional states: comparison of depression anxiety stress scales (dass) with beck depression and anxiety inventories. behavior research and therapy. 33 (3): 335-43. lu, q., & stanton, a. l. (2010). how benefits of expressive writing vary as a function of writing instructions, ethnicity, and ambivalence over emotional expression. psychology and health. 25 (6): 669-84. manier, d., & olivares, a. (2005). who benefits from expressive writing? moderator variables affecting outcomes of emotional disclosure interventions. counseling & clinical psychology journal. 2 (1). z. b. amiri, a. sanagoo, l. jouybari, n. bahnampour, a. kavosi the effect of written emotional disclosure on depression, anxiety, and stress of patients after open heart surgery 63 milkavich, a., meier, j., & cooper, j. (2005). emotional writing effectiveness: do the coping styles and timing of the event predict outcomes. american journal of psychological research. 1 (1): 112-22. moein, m., & davoodi, v. (2013). comparison of the social status of men and women after coronary artery bypass graft surgery. journal of clinical nursing and midwifery. 1 (3): 1-8. mogk, c., otte, s., reinhold-hurley, b., & kröner-herwig, b. (2006). health effects of expressive writing on stressful or traumatic experiences a meta-analysis. gms psycho-social medicine. 3: doc06. monazamitabar, f., ahmadi, t. m., bagherian, s. r., & behbood, m. (2015). the effectiveness of writing emotional disclosure on reduction of depression, anxiety, and stress among veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. niederhoffer, k. g., & pennebaker, j. w. (2009). sharing one's story: on the benefits of writing or talking about emotional experience. niles, a. n., haltom, k. e. b., mulvinna, c. m., lieberman, m. d., stanton, a. l. (2014). randomized controlled trial of expressive writing for psychological and physical health: the moderating role of emotional expressivity. anxiety, stress & coping. 27 (1): 1-17. özer, n., özlü, z. k., arslan, s., & günes, n. (2013). effect of music is the postoperative pain and physiological parameters of patients after open heart surgery. pain management nursing. 14 (1): 20-8. parv, d., mohammadkhani, p., dolatshahi, b., & moshtagh, n. (2013). effectiveness of a twominute session of written emotional disclosure in depression, anxiety and stress among students suffering from trauma. pennebaker, j. w., & chung, c. k. (2007). expressive writing, emotional upheavals, and health. foundations of health psychology. 263-84. pennebaker, j. w., & seagal, j. d. (1999). forming a story: the health benefits of narrative. journal of clinical psychology. 55 (10): 1243-54. pennebaker, j. w., zech, e., & rimé, b. (2001). disclosing and sharing emotion: psychological, social, and health effects. handbook of bereavement research: consequences, coping, and care. 517-43. pérez, s., peñate, w., bethencourt, j. m., & fumero, a. (2017). verbal emotional disclosure of traumatic experiences in adolescents: the role of social risk factors. frontiers in psychology. 8: 372. rahimi, f., beheshti, a., & allami, m. (2000). changes in patients 'half behavior 4-6 months after myocardial infarction. iran journal of nursing. 13 (24): 8-15. sahebi, a., asghar, m., & salari, r. (2005). validation of depression, anxiety and stress scale (dass-21) for an iranian population. j iranian psychol; 1 (4): 299-310. [in persian] 7. carson bv. mental health nursing.2. sharif, f., shoul, a., janati, m., kojuri, j., & zare, n. (2012). the effect of cardiac rehabilitation on anxiety and depression in patients undergoing cardiac bypass graft surgery in iran. bmc cardiovascular disorders. 12 (1): 40. shen, l., yang, l., zhang, j., & zhang, m. (2018). benefits of expressive writing in reducing test anxiety: a randomized controlled trial in chinese samples. plos one; 13 (2): e0191779. travagin, g., margola, d., & revenson, t. a. (2015). how effective are expressive writing interventions for adolescents? a meta-analytic review. clinical psychology review. 36: 4255. tully, p. j., baker, r. a., & knight, j. l. (2008). anxiety and depression as a risk factor for mortality after coronary artery bypass surgery. journal of psychosomatic research. 64 (3): 285-90. van middendorp, h., geenen, r., sorbian, m. j., van doornen, l. j., & bijlsma, j. w. (2009). health and physiological effects of an emotional disclosure intervention adapted for brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 64 application at home: a randomized clinical trial in rheumatoid arthritis. psychotherapy and psychosomatics. 78 (3): 145-51. zare, h., shaghaghi, f., & dalir, m. (2012). the effect of writing disclosure is the severity of symptoms of ocd and depression of individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder. ziegelstein, r. c., fauerbach, j. a., stevens, s. s., romanelli, j., richter, d. p., & bush, d. e. (2000). patients with depression are less likely to follow the recommendations for reducing cardiac risk during recovery from a mucocutaneous infarction. archives of internal medicine. 160 (12): 1818-23. microsoft word issue3.docx 37 coopra algorithm for universal characterization of the experimental evaluation results of cooperative multiagent systems laszlo barna iantovics petru maior university str. nicolae iorga 1, târgu mureș 540088, romania phone: 0265 262 275 ibarna@science.upm.ro muaz a. niazi* comsats institute of information technology park road, tarlai kalan, islamabad 45550, pakistan phone: +92-51-9247000-9247002 corresponding author: muaz.niazi@ieee.org adrian gligor petru maior university str. nicolae iorga 1, târgu mureș 540088, romania phone: 0265 262 275 adrian.gligor@ing.upm.ro sándor miklós szilágyi petru maior university str. nicolae iorga 1, târgu mureș 540088, romania phone: 0265 262 275 szilagyi@science.upm.ro matthias dehmer university of applied sciences upper austria, steyr campus, steyr franz-fritsch-straße 11 4600 wels austria phone: +43 5 0804 10 matthias.dehmer@umit.at frank emmert-streib tampere university of technology, tampere, finland korkeakoulunkatu 10, 33720 tampere, finland phone: +358 3 311 511 frank.emmert-streib@tut.fi dániel tokody óbuda university budapest, bécsi út 96b, 1034 hungary phone: +36 1 666 5603 tokody.daniel@dosz.hu abstract experimental evaluation of the cooperative multiagent systems (cmass) provides an assessment way that should be analysed. in this paper, we propose an algorithm with acronym coopra that can make a deep performance characterization, based on different indicators, of the experimental evaluation results of a cmas. this could lead to the formulation of helpful information in some decisions related to the performance of the studied cmass. in order to validate the proposed algorithm, we performed a case study on a cmas composed of simple reactive agents that operate by mimicking the problem/task solving of natural ants. we chose this type of cooperative multiagent system architecture, based on the fact that even in case of the cooperative brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 38 multiagent systems composed of simple efficiently and flexibly cooperating agents could emerges an increased problem solving intelligence at the system’s level. the evaluation was performed for the travelling salesman problem (tsp) solving that is a well-known np-hard problem, having many real-life applications. keywords: intelligent system, cooperative multiagent system, np-hard problem, travelling salesman problem, nature inspired computing, ant colony optimization, digital image processing, medical imaging. 1. introduction cooperative multiagent systems (cmass) represent a subclass of the agent-based systems. by cooperating efficiently and flexible, even in cmass composed of simple agents could emerge an increased problem-solving performance that could result even in intelligence. frequently, developed cooperative multiagent systems are considered intelligent based on the extremely performant problem-solving ability (iantovics & zamfirescu, 2013; yang et al., 2003). many reallife difficult problem-solving is based on cmass (beni & wang, 1993; mir, merghem-boulahia & gaïti 2009; hao et al., 2017; zamfirescu & filip, 2010; bouzouita, chaari & tagina, 2017; khalil et al., 2015; pătruţ, 2014; arif et al., 2015; filip & leiviskä, 2009). there are different types of computational problems, which could be described by data, signals or images. different kind of difficulties related to the image processing are treated in the papers (kountchev & kountcheva, 2017; georgieva, kountchev & draganov, 2014; georgieva & draganov, 2016). there are many approaches to image processing based on intelligent agent-based systems such as different medical image segmentation (see for example bensag, youssfi & bouattane, 2015). agent-based systems require often the treating of different security-related aspects. the papers and books (iantovics, 2015; kerti & nyikes, 2015; nyikes, németh & kerti, 2016; albini & rajnai, 2018; peng et al., 2018; flammini et al. 2009; flammini, 2018) treats a variety of aspects and propose some solutions related to the security in different systems including agent-based systems. for the analysis of cooperative multiagent systems experimental evaluation results, usually, there are performed some traditional calculus like, for example, the average problem-solving time; in case of the tsp, the average length of the tour found in more consecutive running of the algorithm. there are several papers that propose some specific approaches related to different aspects of performance evaluation. gordillo and giret (2014) studied some specific cmass applied in manufacturing that use algorithms for task allocation. the main contribution consists in the proposal of a mechanism to measure the performance of agent-based scheduling approaches for manufacturing systems. ajitha and collaborators (ajitha et al., 2012) performed an analysis of the performance of software systems. software performance engineering is important in order to describe the performance of systems at the development stage. it is proposed a methodology to predict the performance of cmass based on an approach that considers the importance of cooperative behaviour of the agents. in the proposal, a designed mathematical model and the unified modeling language diagrams are used to give a quantitative measure to the cooperation of the agents. dimou and collaborators (dimou et al., 2015) outlined the lack of generalized methodologies for assessing the performance of agent-based systems. the authors consider that existing methods do not adequately address the complex nature of many systems. it is proposed a generic methodology for evaluating the performance of agent-based systems. we consider that on obtained experimental evaluations results can be performed some specific analysis that allows the formulation of different kind of useful conclusions related to the performance of studied cmas operation. as examples, we mention: the verification of the experimental evaluation results normality, the verification of the experimental evaluation results homogeneity/heterogeneity and the spreading of the experimental evaluation results across the mean. in this paper, we propose a more complete analysis and characterization of the cooperative l. b. iantovics, m. a. niazi, a. gligor, s. m. szilágyi, m. dehmer, f. emmert-streib, d. tokody coopra algorithm for universal characterization of the experimental evaluation results of cooperative multiagent systems 39 multiagent systems experimental evaluation based on an algorithm called characterization of the experimental evaluation results (coopra). for the validation of the proposed algorithm, we present a case study in which a cmas composed of simple reactive agents that operates like a colony of natural ants solves an np-hard problem. it was selected this type of cmas based on the fact that even very simple efficiently and flexible cooperating agents could have at the group/coalition or multiagent systems level an increased intelligence. it was selected a specific type of problem the well-known travelling salesman problem (tsp) for the case study based on the consideration that is an np-hard problem, which computationally is extremely difficult. a very large effort is put on the tsp solving. it have numerous real-life applications. our proposed coopra algorithm is universal, it is not restricted to cmass by the type of operation presented in the case study (is not dependent on the cmass architecture, and the composing agents architecture) and is not restricted to cmass that solve the type of problem that is solved in the case study. the upcoming part of the paper is organized as follows: in section 2 is presented the proposed coopra algorithm for characterization of the experimental evaluation results of a cmas; section 3 presents the performed case study, in subsection 3.1 is presented the solved np-hard problem, section 3.2 presents the general operation of cmass that operates like colonies of natural ants, in subsection 3.3 the operation of the studied cmas is presented, there are presented and discussed the obtained experimental evaluation results and section 4 presents the conclusions of the paper. 2. coopra proposed algorithm for experimental evaluation results analysis we denote with ic a cooperative multiagent system composed of a set of agents denoted ag1, ag2,…,agn; ic={ag1, ag2,…,agn}. |ic|, |ic|=n represents the number of agents that compose ic. we consider the experimental evaluation of the ic system on a problem set denoted probl={prl1, prl2,…, prlk}. |probl|, |probl|=k denotes the number of problems used in the experimental evaluation. the obtained experimental evaluation results (solving of the problems probl) are denoted as exp={exp1, exp2,…, expk}. where: exp1 denotes the obtained solution by solving prl1; exp2 denotes the obtained solution by solving prl2;…; expk denotes the obtained solution by solving prlk. figure 1 presents the main processing steps performed by the coopra algorithm. this is followed by the presentation of the coopra algorithm in details. prl={prl1, prl2,…, prlk}  problems transmission for solving ag1, ag2,…,agn  problems solving exp={exp1, exp2,…, expk}  performing an initial characterization of exp mean, sem, lci, uci, median, mode, sd, variance  analysis of exp homogeneity/heterogeneity cv/degree of homogeneity  calculates the kurtosis and skewness of exp kurtosis and skewness; visual representation/histogram verification of the exp data normality decision on exp data normality figure 1. the processing performed by the coopra algorithm brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 40 in the following, we discuss all the proposed indicators of the experimental evaluation results presented in the coopra algorithm and explain their meaning. k represents the number of solved problems used in the experimental evaluation. mean represents the mean of the experimental evaluation results. the standard error (se) of a parameter is the standard deviation of its sampling distribution. if the parameter or the statistic is the mean, it is called the standard error of the mean. sem denotes the standard error of the mean. cl denotes the confidence level of the mean, we recommend the use of 95% in most of the cases. lci denotes the lower confidence interval of the mean. uci denotes the upper confidence interval of the mean. both lci and uci are calculated at the established cl level. median represents the median of the experimental evaluation results. sd denotes the standard deviation of the experimental evaluation results. sd value expresses the quantity by how much the members of a group differ from the mean of the group. sd quantifies the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of data values (bland & altman, 1996). variance denotes the variance. the variance measures how far a set of numbers are spread out from their average value. min denotes the smallest value. max denotes the largest value. range is calculated as the difference between max and min; range=max-min. mode represents the most frequent experimental evaluation result. coopra: characterization of the experimental evaluation results algorithm in:ic={ag1, ag2,…,agn}; probl={prl1, prl2,…, prlk}. out: //indicators of the characterization mean, sem, lci, uci, median, mode, sd, cv, variance. step 1: obtaining of the experimental evaluation results. exp:={exp1, exp2,…, expk}.//results of the probl solving. step 2: performing an initial characterization. k:=|exp|. mode:=mode(exp1, exp2,…, expk); median:=median(exp1, exp2,…, expk); mean:=mean(exp1, exp2,…, expk); sem:= sem(mean); cl:=95%;//set the cl value, we recommend the 95%. @calculates lci, uci. sd:=sd(exp1, exp2,…, expk); variance:=sd 2; min:=min(exp1, exp2,…, expk); max:=max(exp1, exp2,…, expk); range:= max-min; step 3: analysis of homogeneity/relative homogeneity/heterogeneity. cv:=100×(sd/mean); if (cv[0,10)) then “exp is homogeneous;” elseif (cv[10, 30)) then “exp is relative homogeneous.” else //cv30 “exp is heterogeneous.” endif step 4: calculates the kurtosis and skewness. skewness:=skewness(exp1, exp2,…, expk); kurtosis:= kurtosis(exp1, exp2,…, expk); @construct the histogram for the visual interpretation of kurtosis and skewness; step 5: verification of the exp data normality. :=0.05; //set the significance level of the normality test. //formulates the hypothesis of the normality test. //h0 the null hypothesis and h1 the alternative hypothesis. @formulates h0 and h1; @verify the data normality using the ks-test; //let pks the obtained ks-test result. if (pks>) then @accept h0; “exp is normally distributed”. else @accept h1; “exp is not normally distributed.” endif endcoopra l. b. iantovics, m. a. niazi, a. gligor, s. m. szilágyi, m. dehmer, f. emmert-streib, d. tokody coopra algorithm for universal characterization of the experimental evaluation results of cooperative multiagent systems 41 skewness (joanes & gill, 1998) is a measure of lack of symmetry. a dataset is symmetric if it looks the same to the left and right of the center point. figure 2 ilustrates the graphical representation of skewness, with figure 2(a) illustrating the negative skewness, and figure 2(b) illustrating the positive skewness. figure 2. graphical representation of the skewness: (a) negative skewness and (b) positive skewness. kurtosis (joanes & gill, 1998) can be defined as the measure of whether the data are lighttailed or heavy-tailed relative to a normal distribution. figure 3 graphically presents the significance of kurtosis. data sets with high kurtosis tend to have heavy tails (outliers). data sets with low kurtosis tend to have light tails (lack of outliers). figure 3. graphical representation of the kurtosis. it is useful to be considered the histogram as a very useful graphical technique for visual interpretation (pearson, 1895). the humans and computing systems have different strengths and weakness comparatively with each other. from human point of view, easier versus the computing systems is the taking of some decisions based on visual interpretation. among others, a histogram is useful for showing the skewness and kurtosis of a studied experimental evaluation data set. the coefficient of variation (cv) (everitt, 1998) if is expressed in percentage (%) is calculated as cv=100×(sd/mean). the coefficient of variation is appropriate for the analysing the homogeneity/relative-homogeneity/heterogeneity of the experimental evaluation results. it can be considered the characterization of homogeneity/heterogeneity based on the cv value as follows: if cv[0%, 10%) we call the experimental evaluation data homogeneous; if cv[10%, 30%) we call the experimental evaluation data relative homogeneous; if cv30% we call the experimental evaluation data heterogeneous. in step 5 of the coopra algorithm, is described the verification of the exp data normality. more specifically, it is verified if the exp is sampled from a gaussian population. this information allows the formulation of some conclusions. for this verification, we used the one-sample kolmogorov-smirnov test (ks-test) (massey, 1951; miller, 1956; marsaglia, tsang & wang, 2003) that is one of the most frequently used statistical tests in the verification of the normality. the kstest should be applied at an established significance level that we denote with . in statistical hypothesis testing, a type i error is the incorrect rejection of a true null hypothesis. in other words, this could be called as a "false positive" finding. concretely  denotes the probability to make a type one error. we recommend in most of the cases the application of the ks-test at the =0.05 significance level. we denote with h0 the null hypothesis, which confirm that the exp dataset is normally distributed. we denote with h1 the alternative hypothesis, which confirms that the exp dataset is not normally distributed. the p-value of the ks-test is denoted in the algorithm with pks. if pks> than can be concluded that h0 can be accepted, having the significance that the normality brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 42 test passed. elsewhere if pks, h0 must be rejected and h1 should be accepted, the passing of the normality assumption being failed. 3. the performed case study 3.1. travelling salesman problem definition travelling salesman problem (tsp) was formulated in the 1800s by william hamilton and thomas kirkman. tsp can be enounced as follows (dorigo, 1997; bernardino & paias, 2018; bao, liu, yu, & li, 2017): given m nodes (cities) that form a directed graph, a salesman starts from a given node, he/she must visit each node exactly once and then return to the starting position (node). the salesman would like to choose the route that minimizes the total travelled distance. tsp is one of the most well-known np-hard problems. given n the number of cities to be visited, the total number of possible routes covering all cities can be given as a set of feasible solutions of the tsp calculated as (n-1)!/2. the tsp has several real-life applications, like: drilling of printed circuit boards (grötschel, jünger & reinelt, 1991), overhauling gas turbine engines (plante, lowe, & chandrasekaran, 1987), x-ray crystallography (bland & shallcross, 1989), computer wiring (lenstra, & rinnooy kan, 1974), and vehicle routing (ratliff & rosenthal, 1983). 3.2. cmass that operate like natural ants dorigo (dorigo, maniezzo, & colorni, 1991; colorni, dorigo, & maniezzo, 1991; dorigo, 1992) proposed first the problem-solving based on simple computing agents that mimic the behavior of natural ants in searching for food. in an ant system (as), initially, each agent (artificial ant) is placed on some randomly chosen node of the graph. a node represents a city in case of the tsp. an agent k currently at node i chooses to move to node j by applying the following probabilistic transition rule: (1) after each agent completes its tour, the pheromone amount on each path will be adjusted as follows: (2) (3) (4) , α, and β are adjustable parameters.  is the evaporation factor. in different implementations,  value (0,1). α and β control the relative weights of the heuristic visibility and the pheromone trail. q denotes an arbitrary constant. very frequently q value is set to 1. dr,z represents the distance between the nodes r and z. rz (rz=1/dr,z) stands for the heuristic visibility of the edge (r,z). the number of agents is denoted by m. lw stands for the length of the tour performed by the agent w (w[1,m]). the agents’ members of such a studied system have a reactive architecture. they operate in an environment represented by a graph of connected nodes. they are able to move in the environment from node to node during a problem-solving. many of the multiagent systems that operate by mimicking the natural ants are considered intelligent in the scientific literature. they are considered to have what can be called as swarm intelligence (si). the expression of si was introduced by gerardo beni and jing wang (beni & wang, 1993). there are many studies (see for ( ) [ ( )] [ ] if ( ) [ ( )] [ ]( ) 0 otherwise k ij ij k k il ilij l j i t j j i tp t                    ( 1) (1 ) ( ) ( )ij ij ijt t t         1 ( ) ( ) k m k ij ij k t t       if (i,j) _ _ _ _ ( ) 0 otherwise k kij q tour performed by agent k lt       l. b. iantovics, m. a. niazi, a. gligor, s. m. szilágyi, m. dehmer, f. emmert-streib, d. tokody coopra algorithm for universal characterization of the experimental evaluation results of cooperative multiagent systems 43 example chatterjee et al., 2017) focused on problem-solving using different types of swarm systems. the intelligence of cooperative multiagent systems that mimic by their operation the natural ants, frequently, is considered based on the analogy to the intelligence level at the colony of natural ants and the ability of very difficult problem solving (for example, there is solved an nphard problem). figure 4 illustrates an intelligent task solving by some ants. figure 4. intelligent cooperative natural ants [http://sciencenordic.com/ants-make-medicine-out-tree-sapand-fungi accessed on 27.03.2018] 3.3. operation of the studied cmas the first modified version of the as consisted in the ant colony system (acs). the ant colony system was introduced by dorigo and gambardella (1997). min-max ant system (mmas) was proposed by stützle and hoos (2000). mmas was applied for different real-life problems solving (stützle & hoos 2000; prakasam & savarimuthu, 2016). there are developed different applications of mmas for different real-life problems solving (stützle & hoos 2000; prakasam & savarimuthu, 2016). ic used in this case study operated similarly as a mmas. mmas differs from the conventional as based on different points of view. an mmas give dynamically evolving bounds on the pheromone trail intensities. the pheromone intensity on all the paths is always within a specified limit of the path with the greatest pheromone intensity. all the possible paths have permanently a non-trivial probability of being selected. this approach allows a wider exploration of the search space. there are used lower and upper pheromone bounds to ensure that all of the pheromone intensities are between these two bounds. the solution construction is according to (1). there are minimal and maximal pheromone limits to the quantity of pheromone on the paths between nodes, denoted as τmin and τmax. the evaporation is expressed as (5). equation (6) denotes the pheromone update based on the selected agent's round trip. min( ) max((1 ) ( ), )ij ijt t      (5) max( 1) min( ( ) ( ), ) bs ij ij ijt t t       (6) there are used the following notations. ij bs(t)=q/lsel if the path ijtsel, tsel is the selected best to date agent's round trip, lsel is the length of the performed trip. in the performed experiments we have initialized τ0=1/numberofcities. as another possibility for τ0 initialization that could be applied we mention τ0=τmax. the most appropriate approach for initialization could not be calculated theoretically, it must be established experimentally. 3.4. the performed experimental evaluation there were performed 18 experimental evaluations, probl={prl1, prl2,…, prl18}, using a computing system with i7-4720hq processor and 8 gb ram memory. it was considered the tsp brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 44 solving with numberofcities=90. the parameters values were established experimentally, as follows: maxtests(numberepochs)=50, α=1.6, β=1.5, =0.28, m=10. figure 5 illustrates graphically the obtained experimental evaluation results. table 1 depicts the obtained experimental evaluation results. figure 6 shows graphically the epochs in case of each problem-solving when is obtained the global-best solution during the search for the problemsolution. figure 5. the obtained experimental evaluation data figure 6. number of epochs for the obtaining of the solution table 1. the obtained experimental evaluation data besttodate epoch besttodate epoch 1257 15 1241 28 1286 13 1317 20 1134 11 1342 15 1159 18 1260 16 1456 27 1309 36 1211 35 1291 17 1330 25 1088 14 1218 15 1228 11 1268 15 1298 14 table 2 presents the results obtained by applying the proposed coopra algorithm. the mode value has not been obtained based on the fact that each experimental evaluation value appeared a single time. figure 7 represents the histogram created based on the best-to-date-data. among others, it was created in order to make a visual appreciation of the kurtosis and skewness. table 2. results obtained by applying coopra indicator value median/mode 1264/na sd/variance 84.03/7061.5 mean/sem 1260.72/19.8 cl, [lci, uci] 95%, [1218.9, 1302.5] cv/cv interpretation 6.67/homogeneose kurtosis/skewness 1.1/0.02 min/max/range/count 1088/1456/368/18 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 problemnumber b e s tt o d a te 10 15 20 25 30 35 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 noepochs p ro b le m n u m b e r l. b. iantovics, m. a. niazi, a. gligor, s. m. szilágyi, m. dehmer, f. emmert-streib, d. tokody coopra algorithm for universal characterization of the experimental evaluation results of cooperative multiagent systems 45 figure 7. histogram of the besttodate for the appreciation of the data normality, we considered the visual interpretation of figure 7 and the interpretation of the ks-test result. it was considered the application of the ks-test at the =0.05 significance level. for the ks-test result, it was obtained the value of ks=0.1112 and the pks>0.1 (p value of the ks-test). according to step 5 of the algorithm, based on the fact that pks>, can be concluded that h0 can be accepted. this has the meaning that exp is normally distributed. the obtained cv value was 6.67, according to the step 3 of the algorithm, cv<10 indicating a homogeneous experimental evaluation data. 4. conclusions cooperative multiagent systems, in many cases, outperform other systems, like the agents that operate individually, in different computational hard problems solving. based on this fact they can be successfully applied for a large variety of real-life problems solving. difficulties in the computing problem solving could appear based on fact that they are np-hard, solving encounter different types of challenges such as: incomplete description, the description contains erroneous data, etc. in case of experimental evaluation of many cooperative multiagent systems, there are missed some calculus that could allow the formulation of different useful conclusions related to the performance. based on this motivation, we propose an algorithm called characterization of the experimental evaluation results (coopra). our proposal is useful for a deeper analysis of the cooperative multiagent systems experimental evaluation results than other approaches. this analysis could lead to the possibility of a formulation of more accurate decisions related to the problemsolving performance mostly in case of cmas that have a heuristic problem-solving behaviour. for example, we mention a swarm of mobile robotic agents specialized in exploring an unknown place of environment. different runnings on the same problem solving could lead to different experimental evaluation results. for the validation of the coopra algorithm, we performed an illustrative experimental case study. it was considered the travelling salesman problem solving by a cooperative multiagent system composed of simple reactive agents that mimic the operation of natural ants in search of food. tsp is one of the most intensely studied np-hard problems, which has applications for many real-life problems solving. the proposed algorithm for characterization of a cmas is universal. it is not restricted to a specific type of cooperating multiagent system, or a specific type of problem-solving. as examples of possible applications we mention: cooperative robotic agents specialized in collecting objects in the environment or cooperative swarms of agent-based drones specialized in delivering goods to clients. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 46 the future works will consist in the study if this characterization could be extended in order to make a deeper characterization of the experimental evaluation results such that it allows performing more precise characterization of a cmas performance. one of the studied direction will consists in the analysing of the possibility to make a characterization of the central performance tendency. for this purpose, we intend to design an algorithm that will be based on some specific calculus. acknowledgment this research has been supported by the coroflow project pn-iii-p22.1-bg-2016-0343, contract 114bg/2016. references ajitha, s., suresh kumar, t.v., geetha, d.e., & rajanikanth, k. (2012). early performance prediction of co-operative multi-agent systems, procedia engineering, 38, 3037-3048. albini, a., & rajnai, z. (2018). general architecture of cloud. procedia manufacturing, 22, 485490. arif, m., illahi, m., karim, a., shamshirband, s., alam, k.a., farid, s., iqbal, s., buang, z., balas, v.e. (2015). an architecture of agent-based multi-layer interactive e-learning and e-testing platform, quality & quantity, 49(6), 2435-2458. bao, x., liu, z., yu, w., & li, g. (2017). a note on approximation algorithms of the clustered traveling salesman problem, information processing letters, 127, 54-57. beni, g., & wang, j. (1993). swarm intelligence in cellular robotic systems. in: dario p., sandini g., aebischer p. (eds) robots and biological systems: towards a new bionics?. nato asi series (series f: computer and systems sciences), vol 102. springer, berlin, heidelberg. bensag, h., youssfi, m., bouattane, o. (2015). embedded agent for medical image segmentation, 27th int. conf. on microelectronics (icm), 20-23 dec. 2015, ieee society press, 190-193. bernardino, r., & paias, a. (2018). solving the family traveling salesman problem, european journal of operational research, 267(2), 453-466. bland, j.m., & altman, d.g. (1996). statistics notes: measurement error. bmj. 312 (7047): 1654. bland, r.e., & shallcross, d.e (1989). large traveling salesman problem arising from experiments in x-ray crystallography: a preliminary report on computation. operations research letters, 8(3), 125-128. bouzouita, k., chaari, w.l., & tagina, m. (2017). assessing organizational effectiveness of cooperative agents, procedia computer science, 112, 917-926. chatterjee, s., sarkar, s., hore, s., dey, n., ashour, a.s., balas, v.e. (2017). particle swarm optimization trained neural network for structural failure prediction of multistoried rc buildings, neural computing and applications 28 (8), 2005-2016. colorni, a., dorigo, m., & maniezzo, v. (1991). distributed optimization by ant colonies. in actes de la première conférence européenne sur la vie artificielle, (pp. 134–142). dimou c., tzima f., symeonidis a.l., mitkas p.a. (2015). performance evaluation of agents and multi-agent systems using formal specifications in z notation. in: cao l. et al. (eds) agents and data mining interaction. admi 2014. lncs, vol 9145. springer, 64-78. dorigo, m. (1992). optimization, learning and natural algorithms (in italian). phd thesis, dipartimento di elettronica, politecnico di milano, milan, italy. dorigo, m. (1997). ant colonies for the traveling salesman problem. ieee transactions on evolutionary computation, 1(1):53-66. dorigo, m., & gambardella, l.m. (1997). ant colony system: a cooperative learning approach to the traveling salesman problem. ieee transactions on evolutionary computation, 1(1),5366. dorigo, m., maniezzo, v., & colorni, a. (1991). positive feedback as a search strategy. technical report 91-016, dipartimento di elettronica, politecnico di milano, milan, italy. l. b. iantovics, m. a. niazi, a. gligor, s. m. szilágyi, m. dehmer, f. emmert-streib, d. tokody coopra algorithm for universal characterization of the experimental evaluation results of cooperative multiagent systems 47 everitt, b. (1998). the cambridge dictionary of statistics. cambridge, uk new york: cambridge university press. filip, f.g., & leiviskä, k. (2009). large-scale complex systems, in: nof s. (eds), springer handbook of automation pp 619-638, springer, berlin, heidelberg flammini, f. (ed.) (2018). resilience of cyber-physical systems: from risk modeling to threat counteraction, series: advanced sciences and technologies for security applications, springer. flammini, f., marrone, s., mazzocca, n., & vittorini, v. (2009). a new modeling approach to the safety evaluation of n-modular redundant computer systems in presence of imperfect maintenance, reliability engineering & system safety 94 (9), 1422-1432. georgieva, v. draganov, i. (2016). multistage approach for simple kidney cysts segmentation in ct images. in: new approaches in intelligent image analysis. springer (pp. 223-251). georgieva, v., kountchev, r., draganov, i. (2014). an adaptive approach for noise reduction in sequences of ct images. in: advanced intelligent computational technologies and decision support systems. springer, 43-52. grötschel, m., jünger, m., & reinelt, g. (1991). optimal control of plotting and drilling machines: a case study. mathematical methods of operations research, 35(1), 61-84. gordillo, a., & giret, a. (2014). performance evaluation of bidding-based multi-agent scheduling algorithms for manufacturing systems, machines, 2, 233-254. hao, j., huang, d., cai, y., & leung, h.f. (2017). the dynamics of reinforcement social learning in networked cooperative multiagent systems, engineering applications of artificial intelligence, 58, 111-122. iantovics, l.b. (2015). a knowledge-based security approach for intrusion detection, jdcta: international journal of digital content technology and its applications, 9(5), 11-20. iantovics, l.b., & zamfirescu, c.b. (2013). erms:an evolutionary reorganizing multiagent system, innovative computing, information and control, 9(3), 1171-1188. joanes, d.n., & gill, c.a. (1998). comparing measures of sample skewness and kurtosis. journal of the royal statistical society (series d), the statistician 47 (1), 183-189. kerti, a, nyikes, z., (2015). overview of the information security standardization, acta technica corvininesis bulletin of engineering, 8(3), 109-116. khalil, k.m., abdel-aziz, m., nazmy, t.t., & salem, a.b.m. (2015). mlimas: a framework for machine learning in interactive multi-agent systems, procedia computer science, 65, 827835. kountchev, r., kountcheva, r. (2017). processing of correlated images through double pcabased transform in color and time domains, int. j. of mathematics and computers in simulation, 11, 135-142. lenstra, j.k., & rinnooy kan, a.h.g. (1974). some simple applications of the travelling salesman problem. bw 38/74, stichting mathematisch centrum, amsterdam. massey, f.j. (1951). the kolmogorov-smirnov test for goodness of fit. journal of the american statistical association, 46(253), 68-78. marsaglia, g., tsang, w., & wang, j. (2003). evaluating kolmogorov’s distribution. journal of statistical software 8(18). miller, l.h. (1956). table of percentage points of kolmogorov statistics. journal of the american statistical association, 51(273), 111-121. mir, u., merghem-boulahia, l., & gaïti, d. (2009). utilization of a cooperative multiagent system in the context of cognitive radio networks. in: strassner j.c., ghamri-doudane y.m. (eds) modelling autonomic communications environments. lncs 5844. springer, 100-104. nyikes, z., németh, zs., & kerti, a. (2016). the electronic information security aspects of the administration system, in a. szakal (ed.) 2016 ieee 11th int. symp. on applied computational intelligence and informatics (saci), ieee computer society press 327-331. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 48 pătruţ, b. (2014). designing a multi-agent system for improving the accounting e-learning, artificial intelligence applications in distance education, igi, 47-71. pearson, k. (1895). contributions to the mathematical theory of evolution. ii. skew variation in homogeneous material. philosophical transactions of the royal society a: mathematical, physical and engineering sciences. 186. 343–414. peng, s.l., wang, s.j., balas, v.e., zhao, m. (eds), (2018). security with intelligent computing and big-data services, advances in intelligent systems and computing, 733, springer. plante, r.d., lowe, t.j., & chandrasekaran, r. (1987). the product matrix traveling salesman problem: an application and solution heuristics. operations research, 35, 772-783. prakasam, a., & savarimuthu, n. (2016). metaheuristic algorithms and probabilistic behaviour: a comprehensive analysis of ant colony optimization and its variants. artificial intelligence review, 45(1), 97-130. ratliff, h.d., & rosenthal, a.s. (1983). order-picking in a rectangular warehouse: a solvable case for the travelling salesman problem. operations research, 31, 507-521. stützle, t., & hoos, h.h., (2000). max-min ant system. future generation computer systems, 16, 889-914. yang, k., galis, a., guo, x., & liu, d. (2003), rule-driven mobile intelligent agents for realtime configuration of ip networks, knowledge-based intelligent information and engineering systems, lecture notes in computer science, 2773, 921-928. zamfirescu, c.b., filip, f.g. (2010). swarming models for facilitating collaborative decisions, int. j. of computers, communications & control, v(1), 125-137. laszlo barna iantovics received the b.sc and m.sc degree in mathematics and informatics at the transylvania university of brasov; a ph.d. in artificial intelligence at babes-bolyai univ. of cluj-napoca and finished a postdoctoral study in artificial intelligence at alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi. dr. iantovics recently is associate professor at petru maior university, teaching also at university of medicine and pharmacy from tirgu mures. he is the director of the research center “advanced computational technologies” from petru maior university. his principal research interests include the intelligent systems, measuring the machine intelligence, computational intelligence, biostatistics, and artificial intelligence applied for difficult problems solving in healthcare, topics on that he published dozens of papers and book chapters and contributed to research projects as project director or researcher. dr. muaz a. niazi is chief scientific officer (professor) at the comsats institute of it, islamabad, pakistan. he has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, an ms, and a phd in computer sciences from boston university, ma, usa, and the university of stirling, scotland, uk respectively. his areas of research interest include modeling, simulation, and engineering of complex adaptive systems (cas) using various techniques such as agent-based and complex network-based approaches. dr. niazi is the founding editor-in-chief of springer nature complex adaptive systems modeling and igi global’s international journal of privacy and health information management. adrian gligor is associate professor at the "petru maior university" of tîrgumureș at the electrical engineering and computers department. he has received his b.sc in automation and industrial informatics (1997), m.sc in advanced systems for energetic and industrial process control (1999) from "petru maior university" of tîrgu-mureș and phd in civil engineering (2007) from technical university of cluj napoca. his areas of research interest include real-time and embedded systems, process control, system modeling, high-performance computing and artificial l. b. iantovics, m. a. niazi, a. gligor, s. m. szilágyi, m. dehmer, f. emmert-streib, d. tokody coopra algorithm for universal characterization of the experimental evaluation results of cooperative multiagent systems 49 intelligence. he has (co-) authored 6 books or book chapters, more than 75 scientific papers published in journals or conferences proceedings, member in international program committee of 3 conferences and workshops. dr. sándor miklós szilágyi, professor at the "petru maior” university of tîrgumureș has received his bsc in automation and industrial informatics (1996) from "petru maior” university of tîrgu-mureș, phd in computer science (2008) from budapest university of technology and economics and habilitation in informatics (2016) from "babeș bolyai” university of cluj napoca. his areas of research interest include artificial intelligence, biological system modeling, parallel and distributed computing, real-time systems and bioinformatics. he has (co-) authored 8 books or book chapters, more than 100 scientific papers, more than 25 conferences participation, member in international program committee of 3 conferences and workshops. dr. matthias dehmer is a professor at university of applied sciences upper austria, campus steyr and university of applied sciences upper austria and umit the health and life sciences university. he also holds a guest professorship at nankai university. his research interests are in graph theory, complex networks, complexity, machine big data, analytics, and information theory. in particular, he is also working on machine learning-based methods to design new data analysis methods for solving problems in manufacturing and production. dr. frank emmert-streib is an associate professor at the tampere university of technology in data science. before he came to tampere he was a senior lecturer (associate professor) at the queen’s university belfast at the center for cancer research and cell biology. he studied physics and mathematics and obtained his ph.d. in theoretical physics from the university of bremen (germany) and a diploma (with distinction) as well as a bachelor in theoretical physics from the university of siegen (germany). his research interests are in the area of data science, machine learning and digital society. daniel tokody is a doctoral candidate at doctoral school of safety and security sciences, óbuda university, budapest, hungary. he is an electrical engineer (bsc and msc). daniel tokody is the general board member of association of hungarian phd and dla students and member of ieee smc technical committee on homeland security. daniel does research in safety engineering, electrical engineering and railway engineering. his areas of research interest include intelligent systems, intelligent cooperative systems development, and safety-critical system. microsoft word special-issue-asamblare.docx 60 depression and poor functional results in elder patients with hip fracture razvan cosmin tudor county emergency hospital str. ștefan cel mare, nr.233, vaslui, 730006, romania phone: 0235312120 nicola vendemmia médipôle saint-roch groupe elsan 2 rue madeleine brès, 66330 cabestany, france mihaela pertea grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115 phone: 0232 301 600 viola badulescu grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115 phone: 0232 301 600 aurel nechita dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 nechitaaurel@yahoo.com anamaria ciubara dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract depression is the most common psychiatric disorder in the elderly, as well as one of the most common comorbidities in patients with hip fracture. although many authors have confirmed that clinically recognized depressive symptomatology after hip fracture has a negative impact on functional outcomes and mortality, the role of depressive symptomatology evaluated at the time of admission remains insufficiently investigated. depression can be assessed using the geriatric depression scale. predictor measurements of rehabilitation results that can interact with depression can be obtained. linear multiple regression modeling can be used to evaluate the relationship between depression and functional outcome. the identified factors associated with the postoperative 1 and 2 year follow-up of a hip fracture should be incorporated into clinical strategies and postoperative nursing to provide muscle rehabilitation and good functional outcomes. in addition, the health care plan must ensure, before discharge, that the community in which older adults live provides nutritional education, cognitive screening and psychological support. depression is a common disorder among orthopedic patients. a previous psychiatric diagnosis predisposes patients to depression following a trauma. the socio-economic status is also a predictive factor for increasing depression scores at 9 months after discharge. patients with a greater sense of support from friends and family have an inverse correlation with depression. reestablishing the quality of life the patient had before the fracture also seems to have a protective effect against depression. the severity of the trauma does not seem to affect the scores for the evaluation of depression. psychiatric counseling can avoid associated psychiatric comorbidities in trauma patients. high r. c. tudor, n. vendemmia, m. pertea, v. badulescu, a. nechita, a. ciubara depression and poor functional results in elder patients with hip fracture 61 levels of depressive symptomatology in elderly patients with hip fracture influence functional outcomes both in the short and the long term. we firmly support the introduction of the routine evaluation of this comorbidity. failure to identify this associated pathology in patients with hip fracture represents a missed opportunity for eventual improvement in both early and late functional outcomes. 1. background as a result of medical progress, there is a growing life expectancy in general population, which means that the increase number of hip fractures is inevitable (atay et. al., 2016). hip fractures in people over the age of 65 raise major problems of morbidity, functional disability and even mortality (phillips et. al., 2013; young, xiong, & pruzek, 2011; bottle & aylin, 2006). despite all the developments in current surgical interventions, anesthesia techniques, postoperative care and rehabilitation techniques, the mortality rate in the first year after the fracture was reported as 14% -36% (phillips et. al., 2013; young, xiong, & pruzek, 2011; bottle & aylin, 2006; paksima et. al., 2008). depression is the most common psychiatric disorder in the elderly, as well as one of the most common comorbidities in patients with hip fracture. although many authors have confirmed that clinically recognized depressive symptomatology after hip fracture has a negative impact on functional outcomes and mortality, the role of depressive symptomatology evaluated at the time of admission remains insufficiently investigated (dubljanin raspopović et. al., 2014; yeh et. al., 2017; ciubară et. al., 2018). hip fracture is an important and debilitating condition in older people, especially women. epidemiological data vary from country to country, but it is estimated that hip fractures affect about 18% of women and 6% of men. although standardized age-related incidence gradually decreases in many countries, it is much higher than the aging population. thus, it is estimated that the overall number of hip fractures will increase from 1.26 million in 1990 to 4.5 million by 2050. the direct costs associated with this condition are enormous as it requires a long period of further hospitalization and rehabilitation. in addition, hip fracture is associated with the development of other conditions, such as disability, depression and cardiovascular disease, alcohol withdrawal (ciubară et. al., 2015; ciubară et. al., 2018), with additional costs for society. in this review, we present the latest epidemiological data on hip fracture, indicating the known risk factors and conditions that seem relevant to determining this condition. a specific part is devoted to social costs caused by hip fracture. although hip fracture costs are likely to be comparable to other common diseases with increased hospitalization rates (eg cardiovascular disease), other social costs (due to the onset of new comorbidities, sarcopenia, low quality of life, disability and mortality) are greater (veronese & maggi, 2018). the main purpose in the treatment of hip fractures in elderly patients is immediate mobilization and regaining the functionality of the pre-fracture period, implicitly restoring the quality of life. however, compared to the pre-fracture period, 55% -75% of cases experience a loss of activities in their daily lives (phillips et. al., 2013; young et. al., 2011; bottle & aylin, 2006; paksima et. al., 2008; orosz et. al., 2004). in studies on risk factors related to the physical comorbidity of most patients with hip fracture, such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, there has been little evidence of morbidity and mortality rates in the life of practitioners. as a consequence, recent studies have identified the need to include psychological health and social factors in addition to ensuring physical integrity in treatment (benetos et. al., 2007; dubljanin raspopović et. al., 2014). although it is ignored in most elderly patients, depression is the most common psychological disorder a true co-morbidity of patients with hip fracture (yeh et. al., 2017). however, in the treatment of a hip fracture, the extent to which the return to predepression is effective, has not yet fully understood. in recent depression studies, it was reported that the risk of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 62 falling causes independent walking problems and there is an increased tendency to infection (altay et. al., 2016; ciubara et. al., 2018; ciubara et. al., 2015). 2. method in parallel with a growing population, hip fracture rates are also rising. the most important problem seen in the elderly after the treatment of hip fracture is the rehabilitation process. the primary goal of treatment is to achieve a level of activity after surgery and rehabilitation, which is close to the previous level of that person. the results may be affected by personal differences of age, co-morbidity, physical and psychological differences (rathbun et. al., 2018). depression after hip fracture in older adults is associated with worse physical performance; however, depressive symptoms are dynamic, fluctuating during the recovery period. depression can be assessed using the geriatric depression scale. predictor measurements of rehabilitation results that can interact with depression can be obtained. linear multiple regression modeling can be used to evaluate the relationship between depression and functional outcome (becher et. al., 2014; bhandari et. al., 2008). the identified factors associated with the postoperative 1 and 2-year follow-up of a hip fracture should be incorporated into clinical strategies and postoperative nursing to provide muscle rehabilitation and good functional outcomes. in addition, as part of the health care plan before hospital discharge, it must ensure that the community in which older adults live provides nutritional education, cognitive screening and psychological support (anakwe et. al., 2011; engel, 1977). positive and negative affect were assessed over time in a sample of older adults recruited after surgery for hip fracture and a comparison sample of older adults without hip fracture. for most of the individuals with a hip fracture, positive affect tended to increase over time whereas negative affect tended to decrease, suggesting that most people had at least some recovery of affect. in addition, individuals who showed a slower decrease in negative affect had higher levels of depression 1 year later, and individuals who showed a sharper increase in positive affect had superior physical function 1 year later (langer et. al., 2015). 3. results and discussion depression is a common disorder among orthopedic patients. a previous psychiatric diagnosis predisposes patients to depression following a trauma. socio-economic status is also a predictive factor for increasing depression scores at 9 months. patients with a greater sense of support from friends and family have an inverse correlation for depression (fortin et. al., 1999; van den akker-scheek et. al., 2007; o’toole et. al., 2008). reestablishing the quality of life that the pacient had before the fracture also seems to have a protective effect against depression. the severity of the trauma does not seem to affect the scores for the evaluation of depression. psychiatric counseling can avoid associated psychiatric comorbidities in trauma patients (sirbu et. al., 2017). the correlation between single neuropsychiatric symptoms and functional outcome in hip fracture patients is little investigated in the literature, and it is not yet established which neuropsychiatric symptoms are the most important determinants of functional outcome. among the neuropsychiatric symptoms, irritability and agitation are the most important. they are associated to poor functional outcome and are the only determinants of motor-fim outcome measures. relationships between specific neuropsychiatric symptoms and functional outcome have not been clearly described in hip fracture patients. irritability and agitation have been shown to have the strongest relationship with poor functional outcomes. appropriate identification, assessment and treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms may be useful to physicians for the management of hip fracture patients (gialanella et. al., 2014). disturbances in cognition and rehabilitation participation are common and are associated with poorer rehabilitation outcome. behaviors reflective of depression and anxiety are relatively uncommon and not associated with rehabilitation outcome. rehabilitation staff frequently detect and document disturbances in cognition and participation that are associated with poorer rehabilitation outcome. it is recommended that staff observations be routinely added to mental health evaluations. additionally, routine mental health screening and r. c. tudor, n. vendemmia, m. pertea, v. badulescu, a. nechita, a. ciubara depression and poor functional results in elder patients with hip fracture 63 required staff documentation of behaviors would improve the case detection rate (dorra et. al., 2002; condratovici et. al., 2018). in a study by bostrom et. al. (2014), 392 cases in the elderly general population, it was emphasized that there is an independent relationship with low functional capacity with symptoms of depression in the elderly (langer et. al., 2015). if the elderly who cannot go well for dayisolation often occurs and social isolation is in itself a risk factor for depression. it can therefore be said that it is a vicious circle of low adl both as a result of depression and that it can increase the depression caused by the feelings of a insufficient daily activities. in a long-term study by fredman et. al. (2006), functional healing was evaluated after 2 years in age-related cases with hip fractures and depression was affected by healing (fortin et. al., 1999). the results of the current study also demonstrated an effect negative impact of depression on daily activities at the end of a 6-month period. the active participation of the patient in the rehabilitation process has a positive effect on healing. however, the presence of depression will interrupt this process due to reticence, negative knowledge, and symptoms similar to psychomotor retardation. on the other hand, the findings of recent studies on the fact that depression has expanded the healing process by affecting the immune system and increased susceptibility to infections have been supported by both clinical and biological research. patients with symptoms of depression were less able to engage in activities of daily living than non-depressed patients and took significantly longer to complete a walking speed test at follow-up. they also scored significantly worse on the berg balance scale, used to measure balance in older people with impairment, at week six compared to non-depressed patients, and they spent a significantly longer in hospital and/or rehabilitation centers. 4. conclusions high levels of depressive symptomatology in elderly patients with hip fracture influence functional outcomes both in the short and the long term. we firmly support the introduction of the routine evaluation of this comorbidity. failure to identify this associated pathology in patients with hip fracture represents a missed opportunity for eventual improvement in both early and late functional outcomes. references anakwe, r., jenkins, p., & moran, m. (2011). predicting dissatisfaction after total hip arthroplasty: a study of 850 patients. the journal of arthroplasty, 26(2), 209-213. doi: 10.1016/j.arth.2010.03.013. atay, i̇., aslan, a., burç, h., demirci, d. and atay, t. (2016). is depression associated with functional recovery after hip fracture in the elderly?. journal of orthopaedics, 13(2), pp.115118. becher, s., smith, m., & ziran, b. (2014). orthopaedic trauma patients and depression. journal of orthopaedic trauma, 28(10), e242-e246. doi: 10.1097/bot.0000000000000128. bhandari, mohit & busse, jason & hanson, beate & leece, pamela & ayeni, olufemi & h schemitsch, emil. (2008). psychological distress and quality of life after orthopedic trauma: an observational study. canadian journal of surgery. journal canadien de chirurgie. 51. 15-22. bostrom g., condradsson m., rosendahl e., nordstrom p., gustafson y., & littbrand h. (2014). functional capacity and dependency in transfer and dressing are associated with depressive symptoms in older people. clin. interv. aging. 9. 249–257. bottle, a. and aylin, p. (2006). mortality associated with delay in operation after hip fracture: observational study. bmj, 332(7547), pp.947-951. ciubară, a., burlea, ş., săcuiu, i., radu, d., untu, i., & chiriţă, r. (2015). alcohol addiction – a psychosocial perspective. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 187, 536-540. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.100. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 64 ciubară, a.b. & tudor, r.c. & nechita, l & ovidiu, tita & ciubara, a & turliuc, s & raftu, g. (2018). the composition of bioactive compounds in wine and their possible influence on osteoporosis and on bone consolidation. revista de chimie. 69. 1247-1253. ciubara, a.b., nechita, a., tudor, r.c., matei, m., tutunaru, d., sirbu, p.d. (2018). social and medical ethics: implications for romanian protocols regarding the therapy of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in trauma patients. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 60, 174-179. condratovici, c. p., ilie, m., mihai, m., condratovici, a. p., chihai, j., baciu, g. (2018). anxiety associated with visit to the dentist. romanian journal of oral rehabilitation. 10(2), 86-90. dorra, h., lenze, e., kim, y., mulsant, b., munin, m., dew, m., & reynolds, c. (2002). clinically relevant behaviors in elderly hip fracture inpatients. the international journal of psychiatry in medicine, 32(3), 249-259. doi: 10.2190/6rek-nyyd-maxf-td34. dubljanin raspopović, e., marić, n., nedeljković, u., ilić, n., tomanović vujadinović, s., & bumbaširević, m. (2014). do depressive symptoms on hospital admission impact early functional outcome in elderly patients with hip fracture?. psychogeriatrics, 14(2), 118123. doi: 10.1111/psyg.12049. engel, g. (1977). the need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. science, 196(4286), 129-136. doi: 10.1126/science.847460 fortin, p., clarke, a., joseph, l., liang, m., tanzer, m., & ferland, d. et. al. (1999). outcomes of total hip and knee replacement: preoperative functional status predicts outcomes at six months after surgery. arthritis & rheumatism, 42(8), 1722-1728. doi: 10.1002/15290131(199908)42:8<1722::aid-anr22>3.0.co;2-r fredman, l., hawkes, w. g., & black, s. (2006). elderly patients with hip fracture with positive affect have better functional recovery over 2 years. j am geriatr soc. 54. 1074-1081. gialanella, b., ferlucci, c., monguzzi, v., & prometti, p. (2014). determinants of functional outcome in hip fracture patients: the role of specific neuropsychiatric symptoms. disability and rehabilitation, 37(6), 517-522. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2014.932446. langer, j., weisman, j., rodebaugh, t., binder, e., & lenze, e. (2015). short-term affective recovery from hip fracture prospectively predicts depression and physical functioning. health psychology, 34(1), 30-39. doi: 10.1037/hea0000111. oʼtoole, r., castillo, r., pollak, a., mackenzie, e., & bosse, m. (2008). determinants of patient satisfaction after severe lower-extremity injuries. the journal of bone & joint surgery, 90(6), 1206-1211. doi: 10.2106/jbjs.g.00492. paksima, nader & j koval, kenneth & aharanoff, gina & walsh, michael & kubiak, erik & d zuckerman, joseph & egol, kenneth. (2008). predictors of mortality after hip fracture: a 10-year prospective study. bulletin of the nyu hospital for joint diseases. 66. 111-7. phillips, a., upton, j., duggal, n., carroll, d. and lord, j. (2013). depression following hip fracture is associated with increased physical frailty in older adults: the role of the cortisol: dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate ratio. bmc geriatrics, 13(1). rathbun, a., shardell, m., stuart, e., gruber-baldini, a., orwig, d., & ostir, g. et. al. (2018). persistence of depressive symptoms and gait speed recovery in older adults after hip fracture. international journal of geriatric psychiatry, 33(7), 875-882. doi: 10.1002/gps.4864. sirbu, p.d., tudor, r.j., berea, g., scripcaru, a., ciubara, b., & bădulescu, o.v. (2017). bipolar polyethylene radial head artroplasty in posttraumatic unstable elbows prosthetic design and clinical results. van den akker-scheek, i., stevens, m., groothoff, j., bulstra, s., & zijlstra, w. (2007). preoperative or postoperative self-efficacy: which is a better predictor of outcome after total hip or knee arthroplasty?. patient education and counseling, 66(1), 92-99. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2006.10.012. r. c. tudor, n. vendemmia, m. pertea, v. badulescu, a. nechita, a. ciubara depression and poor functional results in elder patients with hip fracture 65 veronese, n., & maggi, s. (2018). epidemiology and social costs of hip fracture. injury, 49(8), 1458-1460. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2018.04.015. yeh, h., shao, j., li, c., wu, c., & shyu, y. (2017). predictors of postoperative falls in the first and second postoperative years among older hip fracture patients. journal of clinical nursing, 26(21-22), 3710-3723. doi: 10.1111/jocn.13743. young, y., xiong, k. and pruzek, r. (2011). longitudinal functional recovery after postacute rehabilitation in older hip fracture patients: the role of cognitive impairment and implications for long-term care. journal of the american medical directors association, 12(6), pp.431-438. microsoft word issue 3.docx 67 the effect of thermal suggestion on skin temperature under hypnosis mohammad soukhtanlou university of tehran tehran province, tehran, district 6, university of tehran alborz campus, iran phone: +98 21 8839 1400 m_soukhtanlou@ut.ac.ir mehdi fathi mashhad university of medical sciences mashhad, razavi khorasan province, iran phone: +98 5138049 fathim@mums.ac.ir paniz sadri university of tehran tehran province, tehran, enghelab square, iran phone: +98 21 61111 paniz.sadri@ut.ac.ir hamid reza rajabifar university of tehran tehran province, tehran, district 6, university of tehran alborz campus, iran phone: +98 21 8839 1400 hrajabifar@yahoo.com abstract since the application of hypnosis, there has been a controversial question of whether hypnosis is a cognitive state or a physiological phenomenon. here we tested the impact of thermal suggestion on perception and skin temperature of 30 participants. to achieve this goal we compared the temperature of individuals’ hand skin in a pretest-posttest design. in order to assess the thermal perception, a likert scale was conducted immediately after dehypnotizing. findings show that hands temperature during the hypnotic cold suggestion decrease by 2.26 centigrade in comparison with pre-test. furthermore, during hypnotic warmth suggestion 1.13 centigrade increase is observed after hypnosis. in conclusion, findings suggest that hypnotic suggestions can influence not only the perception of individuals but also their physiology. keywords: hypnosis; cognition; physiology. 1. introduction hypnosis is a consciousness state, which leads to changing memory, perception, and the voluntary control of action (kihlstrom, 2013). in hypnosis, the subject accepts suggestion without having critical thinking or analytical pondering (gemignani, et al., 2000). sometimes, hypnosis is considered identical to suggestibility, but they are different because suggestibility is said to increase with hypnosis (diense, 2012). the majority of hypnotic studies have focused on behaviorism and also have included hypnotic suggestion, cognitive and social processes (nash & barnier, 2007). however, hypnosis has recently revolutionized the scope of cognitive science and aroused interest in investigating the unconscious mental life (kihlstrom, 2007). clinical hypnosis has provided a wide range of literature concerning behavioral and physical changes. during hypnosis, individuals’ perception and feeling alter in comparison with the other states of consciousness (kihlstrom, 2014). the studies carried out about brain signals have proven that these waves change in hypnotic states (sebastiani and et al., 2003). consequently, it can be concluded that hypnosis causes not only a deep relaxation in the hypnotized individuals but also affects perception and the consciousness level brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 68 (williamson and et al., 2002). generally, the best way to find out about such changes requires four factors: suggestion approach, the alterations following the subject's mental experiences, changes in the subject's behaviors and the physiological changes (kihlstrom, 2005). changes that hypnosis causes in our body are extensive and all-inclusive. these changes include voluntary muscle behavior, the function of involuntary muscles, glands and body organs, and five different senses. moreover, hypnosis influences the changes of immunity system, cardiovascular system, breathing and other activities of mind such as brain blood circulation and brain waves, which can be observed in all individuals (roure and et al., 1999). one of the most critical issues about hypnosis is whether the observed alterations are induced by cognitive aspects or by physiological events. tebecis and provins (1976) showed in their research that an average difference could be found in the physiological parameters of every individual. although noticeable changes could be observed in the skin temperature, heart rate, and palmar skin resistance between two groups. another research indicated that the temperature of fingertip skin changed when pictures showing temperature experiences, mental pressure and relaxation were presented to the subjects. the study eventually showed that cognitive content of pictures triggered automatic responses (kistler et al, 1999). in other study, picture suggestion and hypnosis were more effective in relieving pain than no treatment. furthermore, placebo did not differ from the suggestion of no pain in this study. (milling et al, 2005). another study showed that painlessness suggestion can modulate pain experience differentially in healthy individuals with high and low hypnotizability (santarcangelo et al., 2013). consequently, they conclude that suggestion moderated different levels of pain more effectively in high hypnotizability group, whereas it was less effective on the group with less hypnotizability. raynaud et al. (1984) also found out that rectal temperature in males increased in response to hypnotic suggestion whereas the temperature of their body and skin gently returned to normal state when warmth suggestion was stopped. moreover, piedmont (1981) also studied the effect of hypnosis and biofeedback on the adapting skin temperature and found out that hypnosis influenced skin temperature significantly, while cognitive variables were effective to some extent. in another study, the researchers assessed the effects of hypnotic suggestion on the participants' control over the increase and decrease of skin temperature. they proved that the ability of the examinee to adjust his skin temperature was affected by the kind of applied suggestion (bregman & mc allister, 1981). finally, grabert, bregman and mc allister (1980) studied the suggestion effect and the response of skin temperature. they concluded that there was a significant difference in the skin temperature increase of the experiment group in comparison with the control group. as a result, they stated that the capacity of skin temperature increase might had been due to simultaneous application of suggestion and reaction. the aim of this study was specifically to determine the level of cognitive dimensions and physiological aspects of hypnosis by applying warm and cold suggestion to the hands of the individuals under hypnotic suggestion. .2 method 2.1. design this study was carried out experimentally by applying a per-test and a post-test besides having a control group in both phases. the statistical subjects of the study included students from payam noor university of mashhad. 2.2. participants thirty students were chosen as the experimental group, who were also in our control group. therefore, we used the available sampling method to select this group. the average age of participants was 24.8. they included 10 males and 20 females. d.n. karlov, v. n. zueva, d. a. trukhan, a. a. belykh application of high-speed algorithms for training neural networks for forecasting financial markets 69 2.3. performance method participants were invited to the psychology laboratory of payam noor university of mashhad individually. after the population’s cognitive data had been gathered, the temperature of their hands was measured and recorded using an infra-red thermometer (fluke 62 mini). then the hypnotist started to apply a specific hypnotic induction, which had been written by the researcher, from the instruction in order to being exactly similar for all the participants. the hypnotized person was induced that one of his hands was in a mass of snow and was gradually getting cold (the cold experiment stage). the second stage was allocated to heat induction. the hypnotized person who was still in a deep ecstasy was induced that his hand was in a warm water container. the left or right hand was selected randomly, and one hand was selected for the examined group while the other hand one obviously in the control group. before the hypnosis procedures, temperatures of the both hands of subjects were measured and recorded. both hands' temperatures were measured and recorded before hypnosis procedures came to an end as well. the hypnotized subjects were gradually relieved from ecstasy. after the subjects had come out of the hypnosis state, they were asked the following question: "how much heat or cold did you feel when you underwent the induction?" participants had to answer this question on a likert scale ranging from never to very much. the answers given to this question show to what extent temperature changes in hypnosis are related to cognitive procedure (table 1). after informing participants about the procedure of the study, the hypnotist started hypnotic deepening. when participants were experiencing a deep trance, the temperature suggestions were proposed. all the procedures in both deepening trance in this study, environmental temperature, considered as disturbing, was kept constant in the experimental condition. the thermometer showed the average temperature of 21.2 °c for induced cold hypnotically and 22.9 °c for the induced warmth hypnotically (the average range of changes was 1.2 °c). as the control group was responsible for both pre-test and post-test in this study, the dependent t test and independent t test were applied to interpret test results. to do so, spss 17 software was used and the results and purposes were analyzed by using descriptive and perceptive tables. 3. results the data indicated that 60% of participants perceived the suggested cold and 10% did not perceive any temperature change. considering the warmth suggestion, as we can see in table 1, 6.7% of participants did not perceive any temperature change, 70%, however, distinguished the suggested warmth. table 1. the rate of participants’ temperature perception data presented in table 2 shows the subjects’ hand temperature before undergoing hypnosis in comparison with the time when the warmth and cold were suggested hypnotically. data analysis in cold phase experiment, by applying t-dependent test (t = 3.31) and the significance level of 0.0001 (p<0.01), indicates that the average hand temperature decreased by 2.26 °c after hypnosis. heat induction cold induction f p f p undergoing subject’s sense of the rate of temperature change 2 6.7 3 10 never 5 16/7 4 13/3 a little 2 6.7 5 16/7 low 14 46.7 7 23/3 so-so 4 13.3 9 30 lot 3 10 2 6/7 too much 30 100 30 100 n brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 70 of course, this reduction rate is significant when we refer to the next table even with 0.05 alpha (0.95 certainties). this decrease accounts for the rejection of zero hypothesis; equality between average temperature of the hands in the pre-test and post-test stage, whereas it confirms the opposite or investigative hypnosis, which believes in the inequality of average temperature measured or recorded in both stages. in other words, the independent variable, which is hypnosis, has had statistically significant effects on the dependent variable, that of the change of hand temperature. as well, the data analysis in warmth suggestion experiment, by applying t-dependent test (t = 4.75) and the significance level of 0.001 (p<0.01), indicates that the average hand temperature increased by 1.13 °c. in other words, the independent variable, which is hypnosis, has had statistically significant effects on the dependent variable, which is hand temperature. table 2. the comparison of hand temperature before and after hypnotic suggestion in warmth and cold phase sig df t sd s m sd s m n situation 0/001 29 3/319 0/683 3/741 2/267 0/674 3/69 26/03 30 hand temperature before cold induction 0/676 3/70 23/77 30 hand temperature after cold induction 0/001 29 -4/753 0/238 1/306 -1/133 0/585 3/20 26/17 30 hand temperature before hot induction 0/625 3/42 27/30 30 hand temperature after hot induction table 3. the temperature comparison between the heat and cold induced hand and also the hand temperature of the control group sd s m n situation 0/676 3/702 23/77 30 cold induction to experimental hand 0/651 3/568 27/04 30 control hand in cold induction 0/625 3/426 27/30 30 hot induction to experimental hand 0/650 3/562 25/07 30 control hand in hot induction data analysis, by using dependent t test, implies that, in the heat induction experiment, average temperature of the induced hand increased in hypnotic process compared to its temperature before induction. those amounts of temperature increase were significant with regard to table 4 (p<0.0001). therefore, it rejects the zero hypotheses believing in the equality of average temperature of the hand induced with heat in the pre-test and post-test stage. in other words, the independent variable, hypnosis, had a statistically significant influence on the temperature change of the induced hand. in fact, the temperature of the induced hand increased. d.n. karlov, v. n. zueva, d. a. trukhan, a. a. belykh application of high-speed algorithms for training neural networks for forecasting financial markets 71 the data presented in table 4 illustrates that the average temperature of the cold induced hands and average temperature of the controlled hands after hypnosis had a difference of 3.27 °c. table 4. the state analysis of hands in the experimental and control group in the temperature induction in other words, the average of the controlled hand temperature was higher after the performance of the experiment. by applying loin test and variance acceptability, with the score of t= -7.73 and significant level of 0.01 (p< 0.01), we indicated the temperature difference between the hands of the cold induction group and the control group. furthermore, there was a 2.23 °c average difference between the hands of heat induction group and those of the control group after the hypnotic induction. it means that the temperature of the heat induction hand was higher than the average heat of the control group after the experiment had been carried out. after loin test and equal variance acceptability had been performed, the score t = 4.75 and significant level of 0.001 at the level of (p<0.01) were obtained indicating the difference between the temperature of heat induced hands and control group. since the significant level (sig= 0.000) was lower than 0.05, it was implied that the average hand temperatures of both groups were not equal. consequently, we concluded that the difference is statistically considerable, which in turn rejects the zero hypothesis and confirms the opposite hypothesis. 4. discussion reid and curtsinger (1988) investigated hypnosis impact on physiological changes of skin temperature and showed that temperature increase of the mouth and skin was generally observed simultaneously, whereas the control group who were in a relaxation state did not show any significant changes in their skin temperature. their findings were convergent with the findings of the present study. the convergence of the findings of this study with findings of other researches indicates the importance of temperature difference of both hands in the experiment of warmth suggestion, before and after hypnotic suggestion, and makes it clear that hypnosis affects physiology. these findings may change the current ambiguity in regard to the effect of hypnosis on body and physiology. in the present study, first cold and then warmth suggestion experiments were carried out. consequently, this issue caused the ones under hypnosis with cold suggestion to show more inductivity while induced with warmth. moreover, warmth and cold felt by the high percentage of the subjects indicates the cognitive dimension of the experiment. the fact that 90% of experimented subjects, in both conditions of suggestion, felt warmth and cold is a noticeable issue even if it did not have a significant physiological effect. this issue indicates that the mind can truly process what is imaginarily being made. in the same way, the study done on the group clinically diagnosed with depression showed the fact that if one is experiencing self-generated feeling of happiness we can observe almost the same brain oscillations as an individual who is experiencing the real feeling of happiness (soukhtanlou et al, 2019). accordingly, as psychological factors play an important role in experiencing pain, this viewpoint shows that hypnosis can play a significant role in pain reduction. the hypnotic situation sig df t sig f test situation 0/001 58 7/733 0/95 0/12 equality of variances is assumed the comparison of the cold induction hand and the control hand 0/001 56/73 equality of variances is not assumed 0/001 58 4/751 0/802 0/063 equality of variances is assumed the comparison of the heat induction hand and the control hand 0/001 55/97 equality of variances is assumed brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 72 allows the subject, responding to the advice of hypnotizer, to control the physiological process which is impossible in a normal conscious state. consequently, hypnosis provides us with a very effective clinical tool which can help control pain. hence, individuals who have more hypnotizability will benefit more from hypnosis. considering its natural essence or from its effects point of view, hypnosis causes the relief of pain which is an unquestionable issue. van der does and van dyke (1989) applied hypnosis to 28 patients suffering from burn. they concluded that hypnosis could be an effective way to decrease the pain related to burning. the subjects in our research asserted that they did not feel pain. consequently, the findings of the present study can be used to treat different kinds of physiological sufferings. from the results indicated in table 2 we can infer that although there was no environmental temperature change most of the participants experienced warmth and cold in their hand. this was due to the hypnosis and self-generated inductions. also the results of table 1 indicate that about 2:3 of participants reported perception of cold and warmth during hypnosis even though statistical data confirmed that the temperature change was just about 1to 2°c. statistically, it is obvious that this rang of change is not conceivable by human being. as our results consisted with previous studies and former explanations, we can infer that hypnosis can influence both our physiology and perception. recommendations and limitations it is a fact that the previous studies and ours have extended the border of science in this area, but there are lots of ambiguous concepts about the hypnosis and our conceptions. future studies can focus on the relationship between human perception and emotion during hypnosis using neuroscientific tools such as eeg, fmri, spect etc. accessing to a sample with previous hypnosis experiences was the main limitation of this study. apparently, this kind of experience would influence any hypnotic inductions. in any further research it would be better to test the samples by hypnotic scales to handle this limitation. acknowledgments this research was partially supported by both college of alborz and payame noor university. we also thank our colleagues from iranian scientific society of clinical hypnosis that provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research. references brann, l., owens, j., & williamson, a. (2012). the handbook of contemporary clinical hypnosis: theory and practice. chichester: wiley. bregman, n., & mcallister, h. (1981). effects of suggestion on increasing or decreasing skin temperature control. international journal of neuroscience, 14(3-4), 205-210. dienes z. (2012). is hypnotic responding the strategic relinquishment of metacognition. oxford: oxford university press, 267–278. edmonston, w., & moscovitz, h. (1990). hypnosis and lateralized brain functions. international journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis, 38(1), 70-84. gauld, a. (1992). a history of hypnotism. u.k: cambridge university press. gemignani, a., santarcangelo, e., sebastiani, l., marchese, c., mammoliti, r., simoni, a., & ghelarducci, b. (2000). changes in autonomic and eeg patterns induced by hypnotic imagination of aversive stimuli in man. brain research bulletin, 53(1), 105-111. grabert, j. c., bregman, n. j., and mcallister, h. a. (1980). skin temperature regulation: the effects of suggestion and feedback. international journal of neuroscience, 10(4), 217-221. hilgard, e. r. (1975). hypnosis. annual review of psychology, 26, 19-44. hilgard, e. r. (1987). research advances in hypnosis: issues and methods. international journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis, 35(4), 264-248. d.n. karlov, v. n. zueva, d. a. trukhan, a. a. belykh application of high-speed algorithms for training neural networks for forecasting financial markets 73 hilgard, j. r. (1974). sequelae to hypnosis. international journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis, 22(4), 281-298. kihlstrom jf. (2005). is hypnosis an altered state of consciousness or what? contemporary hypnosis, 22(1), 34-38. kihlstrom, j. f. (2007). consciousness in hypnosis. (pp. 445-479). cambridge: cambridge university press. kistler, a., mariauzouls, c., wyler, f., bircher, a., & wyler-harper, j. (1999). autonomic responses to suggestions for cold and warmth in hypnosis. complementary medicine research, 6(1), 1014. kurtz, r. m., and strube, m. j. (1996). multiple susceptibility testing: is it helpful? american journal of clinical hypnosis, 38(3), 172-184. nash, m., & barnier, a. (2008). the oxford handbook of hypnosis (pp. 225-254). oxford: oxford university press. lynn, s. j., and sherman, s. j. (2000). the clinical importance of sociocognitive models of hypnosis: response set theory and milton erickson's strategic interventions. american journal of clinical hypnosis, 42(3-4), 294-315. mcconkey, k. m., bryant, r. a., bibb, b. c., and kihlstrom, j. f. (1991). trance logic in hypnosis and imagination. journal of abnormal psychology, 100(4), 464-472. milling, l. s., kirsch, i., allen, g. j., and reutenauer, e. l. (2005). the effects of hypnotic and nonhypnotic imaginative suggestion on pain. annals of behavioral medicine, 29(2), 116-127. nash, m. r., and barnier, a. j. (2007). oxford handbook of hypnosis: theory, research and practice. oxford: oxford university press. piedmont, r. l. (1981). effects of hypnosis and biofeedback upon the regulation of peripheral skin temperature. perceptual and motor skills, 53(3), 855-862. raynaud, j., michaux, d., bleirad, g., capderou, a., bordachar, j., and durand, j. (1984). changes in rectal and mean skin temperature in response to suggested heat during hypnosis in man. physiology and behavior, 33(2), 221-226. reid. a. f., and curtsinger, g. (1988). hypnosis: the effect of hypnosis on temperature. the international journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis, 12(2), 111-119. roure, r., collet, c., deschaumes-molinaro, c., delhomme, g., dittmar, a., and vernet-maury, e. (1999). imagery quality estimated by autonomic response is correlated to sporting performance enhancement. physiology and behavior, 66(1), 63-72. santarcangelo, e., paoletti, g., chiavacci, i., palombo, c., carli, g., & varanini, m. (2013). cognitive modulation of psychophysical, respiratory and autonomic responses to cold pressor test. plos one, 8(10), e75023. sebastiani, l., simoni, a., gemignani, a., ghelarducci, b., and santarcangelo, e. l. (2003). human hypnosis: autonomic and electroencephalographic correlates of a guided multimodal cognitiveemotional imagery. neuroscience letters, 338(1), 41-44. soukhtanlou, m., rostami, r., salehinejad, m. a., lavasani, m. g., sharifi, a., & hekmatmanesh, a. (2019). electrophysiological processing of happiness during conscious and sub-conscious awareness in depression. neurology, psychiatry and brain research, 33, 32-38. tebecis, a. k., and provins, k. a. (1976). further studies of physiological concomitants of hypnosis: skin temperature, heart rate and skin resistance. biological psychology, 4(4), 249-258. thornton, j., guz, a., murphy, k., griffith, a., pedersen, d., kardos, a., etc. (2001). identification of higher brain centres that may encode the cardiorespiratory response to exercise in humans. the journal of physiology, 553(3), 823-836. van der does, a. j., and van dyke, r. (1989). does hypnosis contribute to the care of burn patients? gen. hosp. psychiatry, 11, 119-124. williamson, j. w., mccoll, r., mathews, d., mitchell, j. h., raven, p. b., and morgan, w. p. (2002). brain activation by central command during actual and imagined handgrip under hypnosis. journal of applied physiology, 92(3), 1317-1324. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 110 artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities ana iolanda vodă department of interdisciplinary research – humanities and social sciences “alexandru ioan cuza” university of iași 11 bulevardul carol i, 700506, tel.: 0232 201 000 yolanda.voda@gmail.com laura-diana radu department research, faculty economics and business administration “alexandru ioan cuza” university of iași 11 bulevardul carol i, 700506, tel.: 0232 201 000 glaura@uaic.ro abstract smart cities integrate a wide variety of technologies and support those innovations capable of delivering sustainable socio-economic development of cities. they are complex environments that are shaped by their innovation capacity, information and communication technologies (icts) development and adoption, living standards, residents’ readiness, and, last but not least, the willingness to invest. higher urbanization rates and “mega-cities” with 10 million inhabitants or more make difficult to create a sustainable and cost-effective environment and a high quality of life for the citizens. to overcome this shortcoming, the latest artificial intelligence (ai) techniques are needed to increase icts solutions and implicitly, to augment the cities competitiveness. our paper objective is to analyse the public attitude regarding the influence of ai on smart cities characteristics and to identify if there are significant differences in their perspective by gender and by age group. the statistical data analysis was performed using two-way measure analysis of variance (anova). the differences between groups were analysed using inferential statistics. this paper contributes to the understanding of the importance of ai techniques in improving urban living. keywords: smart cities, artificial intelligence (ai), competitiveness. 1. introduction smart cities are urban regions very advanced in terms of technology, where people and organizations are ultra-connected. they are systems of intelligent subsystems. all components work as an integrated system that provides real-time access to quality services and products in an economic and social environment characterized by sustainable development. this system involves the use of information and communication technologies (icts) to stimulate economic growth and improving the quality of life and, at the same time, the integration of all hardware and software technologies to improve urban management (kitchin, 2015). the expression “smart city” is not unique for this new city “which often link together technological informational transformations with economic, political and socio-cultural change” (hollands, 2008). some authors use expressions like digital city, intelligent city, ubiquitous city, knowledge city, green city, sustainable city and so on, according to their field of interest. nam and pardo (2011) studied the difference between these concepts. from the technological perspective, smart cities are cities with ubiquitous icts applied to critical infrastructure components and services (washburn et al., 2010; albino et al., 2015). these icts are more advanced. according to klein and kaefer (2008), they permeate into intelligentacting products and services, artificial intelligence (ai), and thinking machines. the smart cities dimensions have evolved from industry, education, participation, and technical infrastructure (giffinger et al., 2007) to smart economy, smart people, smart governance, smart mobility, smart living and smart environment (giffinger & gudrun, 2010). all these components have to support the sustainable development of human society. it is estimated that by 2050 about 70% of the world’s population will live in the urban area (gupta et al., 2015). this demographic pressure along with global warming issues and the significant reduction of certain categories of non-renewable natural a.-i. vodă, l.-d. radu artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities 111 resources led to the search for alternative solutions. according to other authors “water, sewer, transportation, electricity, telecommunications, housing, healthcare, education — all of these functions—will have to be built from the ground up” (glasmeier & christopherson, 2015). this search is facilitated by the evolution of icts in general and of ai in particular. ai offers possibilities to replace the human being in complex and dangerous activities. but, smart cities start from smart human capital (shapiro, 2006; holland, 2008), because only smart people can create smart icts equipped with ai (figure 1). these people and technologies will solve, by creativity and cooperation, problems associated with urban agglomerations, pollution, the depletion of some natural resources etc. figure 1. smart people, smart icts and smart cities the goal of this study aims to examine the potential of ai in smart cities development. the rest of this paper is organized as follows. in the next section, the definition and current status with some characteristics of smart cities and ai are given in brief. therefore, according to our research objective, the results of a survey on public attitude regarding the influence of ai on smart cities characteristics and the significant differences in their perspective, by gender and by age group, are identified in the methodology and results sections. the last section is used for concluding remarks and study limitations. 2. literature review smart cities are complex systems designed by using highly advanced integrated technologies which include millions of sensors and devices which are linked to computerized systems comprised of databases, tracking and decision-making algorithms (bowerman et al., 2000). due to its complex nature, the concept of ‘smart city’ is difficult to define. most authors in their attempt to offer a representative and comprehensive definition focus either on people or citizens or on their quality of life (caragliu, 2009; giffinger et al., 2007). just a few recall the importance of public and private institutions in improving the quality of life, while others pay attention to the environmental impact of urban activities (dameri, 2013) or the use of infrastructures (especially icts) (su et al., 2011). from the specialized literature, we selected caragliu (2009) definition which encapsulates most of the above elements, and according to which “a city to be smart when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport) and modern (icts) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory governance”. this holistic definition integrates different economic and social demands, and also focuses on the urban development needs which are subordinated to sustainable development principles. it also emphasizes the icts based infrastructures for enhancing both the competitive profile of a city and people’ quality of life. the urban development is based on six ‘soft dimensions’: smart economy, smart people, smart governance, smart mobility, smart environment and smart living (giffinger & gudrun, 2010). these dimensions and factors are the components of the framework for evaluating a city’s brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 112 performance as a smart city (table 1). due to the constantly increasing migration from rural to urban areas, concerns about economic restructuring, environmental protection, government and mobility issues must be dealt with in a smarter approach. according to batty (2014), the answer to these challenges will be provided by data mining and new forms of ai. table 1. smart city complex system factors smart economy innovative spirit entrepreneurship economic image and trademarks productivity flexibility of labour market international embeddedness ability to transform smart people level of qualification affinity to lifelong learning social and ethnic plurality flexibility creativity cosmopolitanism/ope n-mindedness participation in public life smart governance participation in decision making public and social services transparent governance political strategies and perspectives smart mobility local accessibility (inter-) national access availability of ictinfrastructure sustainable, innovative and safe transport systems smart environment pollution environmental protection attractively of natural conditions sustainable resource management smart living cultural facilities health conditio ns individual safety housing quality education facilities touristic attractiveness social cohesion source: author’s adaptation after smart-cities.eu, 2015 2.1. smart city complex system factors the greatest successes achieved in various component tasks such as speech recognition, autonomous vehicles, image classification, machine translation and question-answering systems can be attributed to a large degree of integration and mixture of ideas between ai, neuroscience, machine learning, and other interdisciplinary fields. our society progress is achieved not only by making ai more capable, but also by maximizing its societal benefits. figure 2 underlines the importance of traditional production factors such as capital and labour in achieving and driving growth which arises when either stock of capital or labour increase or they are more effectively used. total factor productivity (tfp) represents the growth enhanced by the use of technology and innovation. besides these traditional factors, purdy and daugherty (2016) consider that ai can be seen as a new production factor, a capital-labour hybrid that will lead to significant growth opportunities. this is due to the advancement made in ai, which allows nowadays to replicate some labour activities at a greater and faster scale than humans (e.g. virtual text assistance, self-learning machines) (purdy and daugherty, 2016). figure 2. traditional growth model vs. adapted growth model source: adapted after purdy & daugherty, 2016 in our days ai is already present in various fields of activity, in economic and social life. in table 2 are presented some examples of ai application and their benefits for human and environment. a.-i. vodă, l.-d. radu artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities 113 table 2. examples of ai applications description user author (year) r o b o t p at ro l v eh ic le  vehicle patrol robot equipped with advanced sensors, which rides though predetermined paths.  the mobile detection assessment response incorporated systems allow the ai robot to detect intrusions and alert the persons in charge of any perimeter violations;  estimated savings of more than $6 million in infrastructure costs (e. g. no cameras or lights or towers utilisations, etc.) and $1 million due to eliminating the need for equipment maintenance and protective force costs. nevada national security site, usa shachtman (2010) a rt if ic ia l in te ll ig en t a ss is ta n ce s y st em s  virtual assistance programs which allow huge raw data processing (e. g. stock trades) in short amount of time and can make predictions. in case of errors, the system can learn from the mistake and adjust based of the shifting dynamics in the market and broader economy;  ai helps monitoring around 30 factors that can affect the system performance (e. g. price-earnings ratios, interest rate). wall street patterson (2010) a u to n o m ou s l ea rn in g a g en ts  autonomous agents (e. g. drones) that though different algorithms collect and exchange information;  exchange of information would allow for strategies to be refined actively and improved;  developed for serving in the line of defence; disaster rescue situation management adams et al. (2008) a i ap p li ca ti o n s s el fd ri v in g ca rs  self-driving vehicles equipped with a variety of proximity sensors and driving programs;  over 3 million miles self-driven. usa google (2009) and waymo (2016) 2.1. artificial intelligence and smart cities as we previously saw, ai can be used in different areas from security purposes, stock market, to rescue management and transportation. when regard to smart cities development, complex factors such as economic restructuring, environmental protection, government, and mobility issues arise. in the following section, our analysis is focused on the importance of ai for the development of smart cities. for instance, ai can be used to achieve sustainable development of intelligent buildings. this is possible by using electronic devices, software driven systems or other advanced technologies in the form of ai, which perceive the building environment and take action to improve/ optimize the system performance (adio-moses & asaolu, 2016). agarwal et al. (2015) underline the importance of ai for the development of a more efficient intelligent transport system in smart cities. the authors reveal that ai is not only a viable and convenient solution for design, construction, maintenance and time scheduling of transport system, but can also be used for resolving complex transport system problems at a faster and more efficient scale (e.g. huge amount of data processing). integrating ai is also useful because it helps proving real-time report(s) on traffic accidents or predicting traffic conditions. in other words, ai application for development of intelligent transport systems is essential because can solve many of the smart city’s problems like traffic congestion, overcrowding, environmental degradation and so further (agarwal et al., 2015). nowadays, increase traffic flows represent an important issue for most smart cities around the world and its managing requires physical infrastructure complemented by new ways of thinking and advanced technologies. in line with these, hawi et al (2015) emphases the need for new and advanced technologies such as intelligent control and ai to make traffic routine decisions in order to resolve increased traffic congestion from most urban areas. for instance, through the twende-twende project developed by ibm in partnered with a kenyan internet service provider, individuals were able to receive information and advises on their phones about driving brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 114 routes and estimates on traffic congestion (hawi et. al, 2015). other authors like patel & ranganathan (2001) also presented an ann (artificial neural network) based on 83 neural nodes system that develops its decisions on the received inputs and selects the most suitable solution for the traffic situation. environment observation method based on artificial neural networks controller represents another neural network of supervising urban traffic. using different mathematical methodologies, the system makes time plans for intersections in order to prevent traffic congestions (de oliveira & neto, 2013). the use of ai is not limited to smart buildings or transportation. it covers a wide range of application from medical diagnosis, to robot control and virtual assistance scientific tools. nowadays, ai can be encountered in many services such as: cars speech recognitions, industrial robots, intelligent vacuum cleaners or fridges and so further. it can also be used in smart homes which permits by using hundreds or even thousands of sensors to provide services according to our preferences such as: ambient assisted living, energy saving etc. according to skouby et al. (2014), ai also can be utilized in smart homes by adding personalized features in form of context awareness which allows ai to move beyond automation level. these authors designed a four-layer pyramid which encases the icts based infrastructure for future smart cites (figure 3). figure 3. ict-based infrastructure and its four layers source: adapted after skouby et al., 2014 at the bottom layer we have a collection of iot who interacts directly with the users. the contextual information gathered by smart home systems is used to “learn” and predicts individual preferences and behaviour (layer 2). based on a mixture of the contextual system findings and ai utilization a new category of services can be provided such as: intelligent lighting and heating or other ambient assisted living, intelligent supervising system security, environmental monitoring for children or seniors etc., which are tailor-made for the user. the combination of all the four layers creates a smart city ict based infrastructure, which supplies ”advantages in the smart city areas”, “environment, energy and water”, “government, administration and public safety”, and “social programs and healthcare” ( skouby et al., 2014). 2. methodology and data in literature, many studies focus on gender and age differences in attitude towards robots (katz, 2014; schermerhorn et al.; 2008, loffredo & tavakkoli, 2016). starting from this premise, our paper objective is to analyse the influence of ai on smart cities characteristics and to identify if there are significant differences in public attitude by gender and by age group. the statistical data a.-i. vodă, l.-d. radu artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities 115 analysis was performed using two-way measure analysis of variance (anova). the differences between groups were analysed using inferential statistics. tests and modelling were performed using statistical package for social science (spss) software, spss 21.0 and gretl. in order to analyse the public perception on the influence of ai on smart cities characteristics, we have developed a survey which was completed during a four months period. the questionnaire-based survey was divided into two main parts: the first one contains some demographic questions such as gender, age, employment status and type, and field of activity. in the second part, in order to underline the relationship between ai and smart cities, we have developed several questions, in which respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with each item. in order to capture the importance and benefits of ai we used an online survey which was sent to 150 respondents, during august to november 2017 (table 3). different data sources were used to achieve more accuracy in the study (table 4). from this total amount, only 112 were completed and remained in the analysis. table 3. used data and sample variable name percentage age of the respondent 18-25 years 26-30 years 31-40 years 41-50 years +51 years gender of the respondent male female employment status yes no industry currently employed smes large private-sector corporation state enterprise/ public administration university/ research institute other institution field of activity it/software accounting advertising / marketing / public relations education – research others fields of activity 31.3% 6.3% 50% 12.4% 68.8% 31.2% 93.8% 6.2% 66.7% 6.7% 6.7% 20% 66.7% 6.7% 6.7% 20% table 3 shows the demographic data used for our survey. the majority of the respondents were male and employed. we encompass a widely range of age groups ranging from 18-25 years old to +50 years old. half of the respondents were between 31 and 40 years old, while just a few were between 26-30 years old (6.3%). the majority of the respondents were employed in small and medium enterprises (smes) and work in it/software field or education and research. public attitude on the influence of ai on smart cities characteristics was measured using the following items described in table 4. for each question we test if there are significant differences in the public attitude by gender and by age group (except question 15 due to the answering type). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 116 table 4. survey questions no. item question scale source q6. generally speaking, how do you assess the influence of ai in the development of intelligent cities? likert scale recoded: 1 (not important) to 5 (very important) q7 which of following features of smart cities would benefit the most from ai input: q7.1 smart economy (creative, innovation, entrepreneurship) q7.2 smart governance (e-government, e-democracy) q7.3 smart mobility (logistics and infrastructure) q7.4 smart environment (environmental protection, sustainable development) q7.5 smart people (education, ict skills) q7.6 smart living (security and quality of life) likert scale recoded: 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) source: adapted after giffinger et al. (2007) q8 on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being “not important” and 5 being “critical for survival”), how important do you think will be the ai for your business or your industry (or for the one you are preparing for) in the next 10 years? likert scale recoded: 1 (not important) to 5 (critical for survival) source: a. t. kearney (2016) q9 which of the following job functions will ai impact the most over the next 10 years? q9.1 general management (e.g. hr/people management). q9.2 product design and development (e.g. new product, ideation, development and introduction). q9.3 marketing (e.g. intelligent customer targeting, planning and executing marketing campaigns). q9.4 finance (e.g. robotic financial advisors, automated corporate financial analysis). q9.5 customer services (e.g. 100 % automated problem resolution, product or service delivery through automated driving). q9.6 health (e.g. consultation and diagnosis, surgery). likert scale recoded: 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much) source: a. t. kearney (2016) q10 how likely is the use of ai in the following city-specific management scenarios? q10.1 automatic waste selection via ubiquitous devices (e.g. rfid tag) on products. q10.2 automatic traffic management. q10.3 management and control of energy consumption in buildings and in the public space. q10.4 consultancy in the field of public services. q10.5 management of health services through biometric identification systems. q10.6 tourist assistance. likert scale recoded: 1 (impossible) to 5 (surely it will be). source: adapted after stone et al. (2016) and giffinger et al. (2007) q.11 on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being “totally unimportant” and 5 being “very important”), how do you consider that the influence of ai on individual safety will be? likert scale recoded: 1 (totally unimportant) to 5 (very important) source: adapted after stone et al. (2016) q12 in your opinion, ai will be present in education through: q12.1 evaluation process. q12.2 adaptation of information to the needs of each person. q12.3 robots to teach basic elements. q12.4 customize courses for each student. q12.5 a better management of learning through successive attempts (the fear of failure disappears). q12.6 supporting continuous, personalized learning that can be done anywhere. likert scale recoded: 1 (impossible) to 5 (surely it will be done). source: adapted after stone et al. (2016) a.-i. vodă, l.-d. radu artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities 117 no. item question scale source q12.7 reduces costs (fewer teachers, fewer schools). q13 in your opinion, ai influence the environment through: q13.1 increase in energy consumption. q13.2 increasing the volume of electronic waste. q13.3 better information for citizens. q13.4 attracting community members to environmental actions. q13.5 increase in co2 emissions. likert scale recoded: 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree) source: adapted after european green city index (economist intelligence unit, 2012) q14 in your opinion how would you feel if the following activities could be done by robots: q14.1 performing medical surgeries. q14.2 child care. q14.3 supply of consumer goods. q14.4 driving a car. q14.5 assistance in performing tasks at work. q14.6 cleaning. likert scale recoded: 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree) adapted after european commission report (2017) q15 which of the following domains is compatible with the use of ai (max 3 answers): manufacturing. healthcare. education. care of children, elderly, and the disabled. domestic use, such as cleaning. military and security. space exploration. informing citizens. transport / logistics. environmental monitoring. max 3 answers from 10 possible adapted after european commission report (2017) 4. results and interpretation survey question 6 respondents were asked to indicate how they evaluate the influence of ai in the development of intelligent cities. in order to fully understand the concept of smart cities, the definition of smart city given by caragliu (2009) was given to the respondents. it is presented in section 2. on question 6 two-way analysis was used to determine the difference by age and gender. there was no statistically significant interaction between groups as determined by two-way anova f (3, 106) = 8.675, p value>0.05 (p=.387). the assumption of homogeneity of variance was tested using the brown-forsythe test. there were statistically significant differences by gender (f=2.169, p<0.05) and by age (f=30.885, p<0.05). more than 9 in ten (almost 94%) consider ai to be important (50%) or very important (43.8%) while just a few (6.2%) recall a moderate importance for smart cities development. female participants scored significantly higher (m=4.60, sd=.49) than male participants (m=4.27, sd=.62) on question 6 „generally speaking, how do you assess the influence of ai in the development of intelligent cities”. at the same question: the 41-50 age group scored the highest score followed by the 18-25 age group (m=4.40, sd=.49). the 26-30 age group scored lower than the 18-25 age group (m=4.37, sd=.48) and significantly higher than the 31-40 age group (figure 4). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 118 figure 4. influence of ai in the development of smart cities by respondents age survey question 7 question 7 was used to estimate the characteristics of smart cities that will be the main beneficiaries of ai facilities. the respondents were asked to indicate which of the following features of smart cities would benefit most from ai input. their answers were evaluated using a likert scale: 1 means strongly disagree and 5 strongly agree. there were used the six characteristics identified by giffinger et al. (2007). the results are presented in table 5 per total and by gender. no statistical interaction between age and gender f (3, 108) = 1.97, p=.17) was found for 7.1, neither for 7.2 (f=1.052, p=.329), 7.3 (f=5.063, p=.058), 7.4 (f=.405, p=.539), 7.5 (f=0.16, p>0.05) and 7.6 (f=.483, p>0.05). the assumption of homogeneity of variance was tested using the brownforsythe test. in this situations the homogeneity assumption was violated. for 7.1 we found statistically significant differences by gender (f=7.639, p=0.007) and by age (f=4.373, p<0.05) and also for 7.3 by both gender (f=7.419, p=0.021) and age (f=1.996, p=0.017). for 7.2, 7.4, 7.5 and 7.6 no statistically significant differences were found either by gender (p>0.05) or age (p>0.05). in the analysis only the statically significant differences by gender and age were interpreted. the female participants’ score higher assuming that smart economy will be the main beneficiary of ai facilities. on the other hand, male respondents consider that logistics and infrastructure (smart mobility) as the main beneficiary of ai (table 5). table 5. means and standard deviations per total respondents and by gender item fields of interest total females males q7.1 smart economy (m=4.06, sd=.75) (m=4.60, sd=.49) (m=3.80, sd=.75) q7.2 smart governance (m=3.62, sd=.78) (m=3.60, sd=.49) (m=3.40, sd=.81) q7.3 smart mobility (m=4.43, sd=.61) (m=4.00, sd=.64) (m=4.40, sd=.81) q7.4 smart environment (m=4.25, sd=.75) (m=4.60, sd=.49) (m=4.20 sd=.75) q7.5 smart people (m=3.87, sd=.99) (m=4.00, sd=.64) (m=4.60, sd=.81) q7.6 smart living (m=4.12, sd=.93) (m=3.60, sd=.49) (m=4.20, sd=1.18) the majority of the respondents who found the smart features to be the main beneficiaries of ai facilities were ranging between 31-40 years old and +41 age old, followed by the 18-25 age group (m=3.80, sd =0.75), 26-30 (md=4.0, sd =.75) (figure 5). a.-i. vodă, l.-d. radu artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities 119 a g e smart_economy a g e smart_mobility figure 5. smart features as the main beneficiaries of ai in terms of the respondent’s age (statistically significant differences only for 7.1 and 7.3) survey question 8 on question 8 respondents have to indicate on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being “not important” and 5 being “critical for survival”), how important they think the ai will be for their business or industry (or for the one they are preparing for) in the next 10 years? no statistical interaction was found between age and gender f (3, 108) = .174, p>0.05). there were statistically significant differences by gender f (1, 108) = 50.261, p<0.05 and age, f (3, 108) = 9.298, p<0.05. female participants scored significantly higher (m=4.60, sd=.49) than male participants (m=3.36, sd=.88) on question 8 about the importance of ai for the fields of activity of the participants (or for those they are preparing for) in the next 10 years. at the same question: the 26-30 age group scored the highest followed by the 18-25 age group (m=3.80, sd=1.18); the 31-40 age group scored lower than the 18-25 age group (m=3.50, sd=.87); the 31-40 age group scored also lower than the 18-25 age group (m=3.50, sd=.51) (figure 6). figure 6. importance of ai for respondents business or industry by respondent’s age survey question 9 on question 9 a two-way analysis of variance shows that no statistical interaction was found between age and gender for 9.1 (f=.621, p>0.05), 9.2 (f=1.383, p=.242), 9.3 (f=.75, p=.54), 9.4 (f=.23, p>0.05), 9.5 (f=.952, p=0.33) and 9.6 (f=.47, p>0.05). there were no statistically brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 120 significant differences by gender and age for 9.1 (f=.383, p>0.05 for age and f=1.217, p>0.05 for gender) and 9.2 (f=.1.467 p>0.05 for age and f=1.383 p>0.05 for gender). for 9.3, 9.4, 9.5 and 9.6 we found statistically significant differences by gender and by age (9.3 f=.75, p<0.05 for age and f=5.217 and p=0.045 for gender; 9.4 where f=5.309, p=0.019, for age and f=19.247 and p=0.001 for gender; on 9.5 where f=2.638, p=0.05 for age and f=6.437 and p=0.013 for gender; and for 9.6, f=15.967, p<0.05 by age and f=23.361 and p<0.05 by gender). in the analysis only the statically significant differences by gender and age were interpreted. the analysis reveals that people perceive that ai will have a greater impact over the next 10 years on marketing (for example, intelligent customer targeting, planning and executing marketing campaigns) scored significantly higher (m=4.37, sd=.69) than on finance (for example, robotic financial advisors, automated corporate financial analysis) (m=3.87, sd=.60) (figure 7). for the same question customer services scored significantly higher (m=3.75, sd=.83) than health (e.g. consultation and diagnosis, surgery) (m=3.25, sd=.83). for the same question, the analyses by gender reveals that the majority of female participants scored significantly higher (m=3.40, sd=.81) than male participants (m=3.18, sd=.57) and those aged in the second group. a g e marketing a g e finance a g e customer_services a g e health figure 7. q.9.which of the following job functions will ai impact the most over the next 10 years? (statistically significant differences by age for 9.3, 9.4, 9.5 and 9.6) survey question 10 on question 10 a two-way analysis of variance was used to identify the fields with higher probabilities of ai use in smart cities management. on question 10 the analysis of variance shows that no statistical interaction was found between age and gender for 10.1 (f=1.013, p>0.05), 10.2 (f=3.545, p=.062), 10.3 (f=.32, p>0.05), 10.4 (f=2.836, p>0.05), 10.5 (f=2.939 p>0.05) and 10.6 (f=3.019, p>0.05). for 10.1 we found statistically significant differences by gender (f=12.917, p<0.05) and by age (f=7.997, p<0.05) also for 10.2 (by gender f=23.967, p<0.05 and by age f=6.208. p<0.05) and 10.3 (by age f=.384 and p=0.252). for 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6 no statistically significant differences were found either by gender or age (10.4: f=1.318, p>0.05 by age and f=2.836, p=.123 by gender; 10.5: f=.396, p>0.05 by age and f=.435, p=.123 for gender; 10.6: f=.793, p>0.05 by age and f=.932, p>0.05 by gender). in the analysis only the statically significant differences by gender and by age were interpreted. from questions q10.1, q10.2 and q10.3 were a.-i. vodă, l.-d. radu artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities 121 we found statistically significant differences by gender and by age the analysis shows that female respondents consider much more that ai will be used in the following city specific management scenarios: management and control of energy consumption in buildings and in the public space and automatic traffic management (table 6). the 26-30 age group scored significantly higher (m=3.60, sd=.93) than the other groups. table 6. means and standard deviations by gender item fields of interest females males q10.1 automatic waste selection via ubiquitous devices on products. (m=3.80, sd=1.18) (m=3.09, sd=1.24) q10.2 automatic traffic management. (m=4.20, sd=1.18) (m=3.72, sd=.75) q10.3 management and control of energy consumption in buildings and in the public space. (m=4.80, sd=.40) (m=3.63, sd=.98) q10.4 consultancy in the field of public services (m=3.00, sd=1.43) (m=2.54, sd=.78) q10.5 management of health services through biometric identification systems (m=3.00, sd=.90) (m=2.81, sd=.83) q10.6 tourist assistance (m=3.60, sd=1.03) (m=3.45, sd=.78) survey question 11 on question 11 respondents were asked to consider the influence of ai on individual safety using a 5 points likert scale ranging from 1 being “totally unimportant” and 5 being “very important”. the analysis of variance was used to determine the differences by age group and by gender. the analysis shows that no statistical interaction was found between age and gender f=3.081, p=0.08. we found statistically significant differences by gender f=7.639, p<0.05 and age f=6.318, p=.001). female participants scored significantly higher (m=4.40, sd=.81) than male participants (m=4.00, sd=.60) on question 11 about the influence of ai on individual safety. at the same question: the 41-50 age group scored the highest (m=4.50, sd=.51), followed by the 18-25 age group (m=4.40, sd=.81); the 26-30 age group scored lower than the 18-25 age group and significantly higher than the 31-40 age group (m=3.87, sd=.60) (figure 8). figure 8. influence of ai on individual safety by respondents age survey question 12 on survey question 12, the respondents were asked to indicate if they consider that ai will be present in education though the following six categories of activities: 12.1 evaluation process; 12.2 adaptation of information to the needs of each person; 12.3 robots to teach basic elements; 12.4 customize courses for each student; 12.5 a better management of learning through successive brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 122 attempts (the fear of failure disappears); 12.6 supporting continuous, personalized learning that can be done anywhere and 12.7 reduces costs (fewer teachers, fewer schools). the respondent’s answers were evaluated using a 5 likert scale. the two-way analysis of variance shows that no statistical interaction was found between age and gender for q12.1 (f=2.391, p=0.153); q12.2 (f=.907, p=.363); q12.3 (f=3.771, p=.055), q12.4 (f=3.094, p=.525), q12.5 (f=1.266, p=.263) or q12.6. (f=.282, p>0.05). we found statistically significant differences by gender and age for questions q12.3, q12.4 and q12.5 where all p values are lower than 0.05. for q12.1, q12.2 and q12.6 no statistical differences were found. in table 7 are presented the results of the analysis per total and by gender for each category of activity. the 26-30 age group score significantly lower than the other age groups. table 7. means and standard deviations per total respondents and by gender fields of interest total females males q12.1 evaluation process (m=3.81, sd=.95) (m=4.60, sd=.49) (m=3.45, sd=.89) q12.2 adaptation of information to the needs of each person (m=3.75, sd=.90) (m=4.40, sd=.49) (m=3.45, sd=.89) q12.3 robots to teach basic elements (m=3.62, sd=1.05) (m=4.60, sd=.81) (m=3.18, sd=.83) q12.4 customize courses for each student (m=3.18, sd=.95) (m=4.00, sd=.64) (m=2.81 sd=.83) q12.5 a better management of learning through successive attempts (m=3.68, sd=.98) (m=4.80, sd=.40) (m=3.18, sd=.72) q12.6 supporting continuous, personalized learning. (m=3.93, sd=.97) (m=4.80, sd=.40) (m=3.54, sd=.89) q12.7 reduces costs (m=3.68, sd=1.04) (m=4.80, sd=.64) (m=3.54, sd=1.16) survey question 13 on question 13, a two-way analysis of variance was used to evaluate the respondents’ opinions about the influence of ai on the environment. the two-way analysis of variance shows that no statistical interaction was found between age and gender for q13.1 (f=2.150, p=.173); q13.2 (f=2.269, p=.135); q13.3 (f=1.744, p>0.05) and q13.4 (f=2.894, p=.092). statistically significant differences by gender and age were found for questions q13.2 (f=14.181 and p<0.05 by gender and f=12.731 and p<0.05 by age) and q13.4 (f=15.755 and p<0.05 by gender and f=5.882 and p<0.05 by age). the participants consider that ai development will increase the energy consumption and ewaste (m=3.60, sd=1.03), but will improve also the level of citizens’ information on the environmental changes (m=3.60, sd=.49). the contribution to co2 emissions is on the fourth places (m=3.40, sd=.49), followed by the attracting of the community members to environmental actions (m=3.00, sd=.64). in the analysis of the statically significant differences by gender, female participants scored significantly higher (m=4.00, sd=.64) than male participants (m=3.63, sd=.77) in the case of the information of citizens on the environmental changes (m=3.80, sd=.75 vs. m=3.72, sd=.75) and the attracting of community members to environmental actions (m=3.00, sd=.90 vs. m=2.63, sd=.88). the analysis on age category, the results revealed that the 26-30 age group scored the highest at both questions (figure 9). a.-i. vodă, l.-d. radu artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities 123 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 age increase in energy consumption increasing the volume of electronic waste better information for citizens attracting community members to environmental actions increase in co2 emissions figure 9. ai influence on the environment survey question 14 question 14 was used to evaluate the respondents’ opinions about the use of robots in the following activities: performing medical surgeries, child care, supply of consumer goods, driving a car, assistance in performing tasks at work and cleaning (figure 10). the respondents feel most confident and safe to use robots for cleaning (m=4.18, sd=1.07) and for assistance in performing tasks at work (m=4.12, sd=1.05) and less confident and safe to use robots for driving a car (m=3.87, sd=1.11), for supply of consumer goods (m=3.81, sd=.81) and performing medical surgeries (m=3.68, sd=.92) the child care obtained the lower score (m=2.00, sd=86). a g e performing_medical_surgeries a g e child_care a g e supply_of_consumer_goods a g e driving_a_car a g e assistance_in_performing_tasks a g e cleaning figure 10. respondents’ opinions about the use of robots in different activities (grouped by age) in the analysis on gender, female participants scored significantly higher (m=4.20, sd=1.61) than male participants (m=4.09, sd=.67) for the case of assistance in performing tasks at work, for the case of driving a car (m=3.40, sd=.81 vs. m=4.00, sd=.74) and for the case of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 124 performing medical surgeries (m=3.80, sd=.75 vs. m=3.63, sd=.98). the male participants scored significantly higher (m=4.36, sd=.77) than female participants for the cleaning (m=3.80, sd=1.49) and for supply of consumer goods (m=4.00, sd=.74 vs. m=3.40, sd=.81). the child care obtained the lower score for both categories of participants: female (m=2.00, sd=1.11) and male (m=2.00, sd=.74). no statistical interaction was found between age and gender for q14.2 (f=11.919, p>0.05), q14.2 (f=.220, p>0.05), q14.4 (f=2.328, p=.130) and q14.6 (f=3.849, p=.078). statistically significant differences by gender and age were found for questions q14.1 (by gender f=18.093 and p<0.05 and by age, f=24.981, p<0.05); q14.3 (by gender f=8.030 and p=.006 and by age, f=4.755 and p=.004) and q14.5 (by gender f=11.105 and p=.001 and by age f=3.686 and p=.004). survey question 15 on question 15 were presented ten fields for evaluation corresponding with the six dimensions of smart cities. according to the respondents’ answers, ai will be most used on in space exploring (smart people) and environmental protection (smart environment). the analysis of variance was excluded because the respondents have to choose three-word answers. 5. conclusion and study limitations from question 6 we could observe that people perceive ai as a very important factor in the development of smart cities. significant differences were observed among both gender and age. for female participants, ai influence on the development of smart cities is more important than for male respondents. the 18-25 and 41-50 age groups scored the highest on this question. significant differences were both by age and gender were found for 7.1 and 7.3. the female participants’ score higher assuming that smart economy will be the main beneficiary of ai facilities. on the other hand, male respondents consider that logistics and infrastructure (smart mobility) as the main beneficiary of ai. the age group between 31-40 years old score the highest at this question. for question 8 significant differences were found by gender and by age. female participants consider ai to be more important for their business or industry or for the one they are preparing for in the next 10 years, than male participants. by age, the 26-30 old group score the highest. question 9 also reveals significant differences by gender and by age (9.3, 9.4, 9.5 and 9.6). the analyses by gender show that the majority of female participants scored significantly higher than male participants and those aged in the second group. from those the analysis reveals that respondents consider that ai in 10 years will influence the most the marketing field, followed by finance, customer service and health. the fields where we found statistically significant differences by gender and age were: automatic waste selection via ubiquitous devices on products, automatic traffic management and management and control of energy consumption in buildings and in the public space (q.10). female participants scored significantly higher than male participants. the 26-30 age group scored significantly higher than the other groups. on question 11 respondents were asked to consider the influence of ai on individual safety. we found statically significant differences by gender and by age. female participant’s score higher than men and also those aged 18-25 and 41-50 score higher than the rest of the age groups. for question 12 we also found significant differences by gender (q12.3, q12.4 and q12.5) and by age (q12.3, q12.4 and q12.5). female participants scored higher than men respondents. the 26-30 age group score significantly lower than the other age groups. on questions q13.2 and q13.4 we found significant differences by gender and age. female score significantly higher than men at both questions. in the age category, the once group between 26-30 score the highest at both questions. the respondents feel most confident and safe to use robots for cleaning and for assistance in performing tasks at work and less confident and safe to use robots for driving a car, for the supply of consumer goods and performing medical surgeries (q.14). significant differences by gender and a.-i. vodă, l.-d. radu artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities 125 by age were found for three of the activities that could be done by robots: medical surgeries, supply of goods and task assistance. our study demonstrates that respondents perceive ai as an important aspect that influences smart cities development. also, the paper shows that gender and age group influence public attitudes, findings which are in line with other studies (katz, 2014; schermerhorn et al., 2008; loffredo & tavakkoli, 2016). some limitations associated with this research include the selected sample region, so our results are limited and cannot be generalized. also, additional questions may be included in the analysis for a more complex overview and analysis. references adams, n. m., field, m., gelenbe, e., jennings, n. r., leslie, d. s., nicholson, d. & rogers, a. (2008). the aladdin project: intelligent agents for disaster management. in iarp/euron workshop on robotics for risky interventions and environmental surveillance (rise). adio-moses, d. & asaolu, o. s. (2016). artificial intelligence for sustainable development of intelligent buildings, in proceedings of the 9th cidb postgraduate conference, at university of cape town, south africa. agarwal, p. k., gurjar, j., agarwal, a. k. & birla, r. (2015). application of artificial intelligence for development of intelligent transport system in smart cities. journal of traffic and transportation engineering, 1(1), 20-30. albino, v., berardi, u. & dangelico, r. m. (2015). smart cities: definitions, dimensions, performance, and initiatives. journal of urban technology, 22(1), 3-21. a.t. kearney (2016), global cities 2016, retrieved from https://www.atkearney.com/documents/10192/8178456/global+cities+2016.pdf/8139cd44c760-4a93-ad7d-11c5d347451a batty, m. (2014). can it happen again? planning support, lee’s requiem and the rise of the smart cities movement. environment and planning b: planning and design, 41(3), 388–391. bowerman b., braverman j., taylor j., todosow h. & von wimmersperg u. (2000). the vision of a smart city. in proceedings of the 2nd international life extension technology workshop, paris. caragliu, a., del bo, c. & nijkamp, p. (2011). smart cities in europe. journal of urban technology, 18(2), 65–82. caragliu, a.; del bo, c. & nijkamp, p. (2009). smart cities in europe. journal of urban technology. 18, 65–82. dameri, r. p. (2013). searching for smart city definition: a comprehensive proposal. international journal of computers & technology, 11(5), 2544-2551. de oliveira michael, b.w. & areolino de almeida neto. (2013). optimization of traffic light timing based on artificial neural networks”. paper presented at 2013 ieee 25th international conference on tools with artificial intelligence retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271555424_optimization_of_traffic_lights_timi ng_based_on_multiple_neural_networks, pp. 825-832. economist (2010). artificial intelligence: riders on a swarm. the economist. retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/16789226. economist intelligence unit (2012), the green city index. a summary of the green city index research series, retrieved from https://www.siemens.com/entry/cc/features/greencityindex_international/all/en/pdf/gci_repo rt_summary.pdf. european commission (2012), special eurobarometer 382. public attitudes towards robots. report. retrieved from http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/robotics/docs/special-eb-survey-382public-attitudes-towards-robots-full-report_en.pdf. european commission report (2017). special eurobarometer 460. attitudes towards the impact of digitisation and automation on daily life. retrieved from brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 126 http://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/survey/getsurveydetail/instru ments/special/surveyky/2160. giffinger, r. & gudrun, h. (2010). smart cities ranking: an effective instrument for the positioning of the cities? ace: architecture, city and environment, 4(12), 7-26. giffinger, r., fertner, c., kramar, h., kalasek, r., pichler-milanovic, n. & meijers, e. (2007). smart cities. ranking of european medium-sized cities, final report, centre of regional science, vienna ut, retrieved from http://www.smartcities.eu/download/smart_cities_final_report.pdf. glasmeier, a. & christopherson, s. (2015). thinking about smart cities. cambridge journal of regions, economy and society, 8, 3-12. google (2009). google selfdriving car. retrieved from https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/. gupta v., agarwal p. k. & gurjar j. (2015). some basic issues for development of efficient public transport system in smart cities. national conference on sustainable & smart cities. hawi, r., okeyo, g., and kimwele, m. (2015). techniques for smart traffic control: an in-depth. international journal of computer applications technology and research. 4 (7), 566 573. hollands, r. g. (2008). will the real smart city please stand up? city: analysis of urban trend, culture, theory, policy, action, 12(3), 303–320. katz, j. e. (2014). attitudes towards robots suitability for various jobs as affected robot appearance. behavior & information technology, 14(33), 941-953. kitchin, r. (2015). making sense of smart cities: addressing present shortcomings, cambridge journal of regions, economy and society, 8, 131–136. klein, c. & kaefer, g. (2008). from smart homes to smart cities: opportunities and challenges from an industrial perspective. in international conference on next generation wired/wireless networking (pp. 260-260). springer, berlin, heidelberg. loffredo, d. & tavakkoli, a. (2016). what are european union public attitudes towards robots?, systemics, cybernetics and informatics, 14 (1), 11-19. nam, t. & pardo, t. a. (2011). conceptualizing smart city with dimensions of technology, people, and institutions. in proceedings of the 12th annual international digital government research conference: digital government innovation in challenging times (pp. 282-291), usa, acm. patel, m. & ranganathan, n. (2001). idutc: an intelligent decision-making system for urban traffic-control applications. ieee transactions on vehicular technology, 50(3), 816-829. patterson, s. (2010). letting the machines decide. the wall street journal, retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/sb10001424052748703834604575365310813948080.html. purdy, m. & daugherty (2016). why artificial intelligence is future of growth, retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/lv-en/_acnmedia/pdf-33/accenture-why-ai-is-the-future-ofgrowth.pdf. schermerhorn, p., scheutz, m. & crowell, c. r. (2008). robot social presence and gender: do females view robots differently than males?. in proceedings of the 3rd acm/ieee international conference on human robot interaction (pp. 263-270). usa. acm. shachtman, n. (2010). robots now guarding nevada nuke site, retrieved from http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/video-robots-now-guardingnevada-nuke-site/. shapiro, j. m. (2006). smart cities: quality of life, productivity, and the growth effects of human capital. the review of economics and statistics, 88(2), 324-335. skouby, k.e., lynggaard, p., windekilde, i. (2014). how iot, aai can contribute to smart home and smart cities services—the role of innovation. in proceedings of the 25th its european regional conference, brussels, belgium. stone, p., brooks, r., brynjolfsson, e., calo, r., etzioni, o., hager, g., hirschberg, j., kalyanakrishnan, s., kamar, e., kraus, s., leyton-brown, k., parkes, d., press, w., saxenian, a., shah, j., tambe, m. & teller, a. (2016). artificial intelligence and life in 2030. one hundred year study on artificial intelligence: report of the 2015-2016 study panel, stanford university, retrieved from http://ai100.stanford.edu/2016-report. a.-i. vodă, l.-d. radu artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities 127 su, k., li, j. & fu, h. (2011). smart city and the applications. proceeding of the ieee international conference on electronics, communications and control (icecc), 1028–1031. waymo (2016). waymo technologies. retrieved from https://waymo.com/tech/. washburn, d., sindhu, u., balaouras, s., dines, r. a., hayes, n. m. & nelson, l. e. (2010). helping cios understand “smart city” initiatives: defining the smart city, its drivers, and the role of the cio. cambridge, ma: forrester research, inc. retrieved from http://public.dhe.ibm.com/partnerworld/pub/smb/smarterplanet/forr_help_cios_und_smart_ci ty_initiatives.pdf. ana iolanda voda (b. november 23, 1983) is a scientific researcher iii at the department of interdisciplinary research – humanities and social sciences, alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi. she holds a phd in economics from the faculty of economics and business administration, alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi (romania) (first-class honours). she is a jean monnet module teaching expert (september 2017-august 2020) sustainable education through european studies for young researchers (sesyr) having experience in international teaching through erasmus and erasmus+ programmes. she has coordinated 3 national projects as a project director and published over 35 articles as main author or single author. her research interests include smart and sustainable growth, entrepreneurship and institutional economy. laura-diana v. radu (b. september 26, 1978) received his bsc in accounting and information systems (2001), m.sc. in business information systems (2003), phd in accounting (2006) from “alexandru ioan cuza” university of iasi. since 2009, she has been a researcher with the research department, faculty of economics and business administration, alexandru ioan cuza university of iasi. she is the author of one book, 10 chapters and more than 66 articles. her research interests include accounting information systems, green information and communication technology, green information systems, smart cities and agile project management. microsoft word brain_vol_9_issue_2_2018_v4_final2_ok.doc 215 instructions for authors author guidelines authors must submit their papers via email to brain@edusoft.ro or they can create an account and submit their papers online, at www.brain.edusoft.ro. submited paper must be written in doc format (microsoft word document), as clear and as simple as possible english. preferred maximum paper length for the papers is 20 pages, including figures. the template for the paper is at this address: http://brain.edusoft.ro/new_template_for_brain.doc the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point times new roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. the title will be bold 14-point, and the author will be 12-point italic. figures have caption in bottom-center side, and tables have captions in left-top side. use a tab for identing each paragraph and the subtitles, too. the subtitles will be bold 12-point. please use microsoft word. we encourage the authors to use the camera ready format even for the first submission. all paper submissions will be carefully reviewed by an editor, and by the members of the scientific board or independent experts, who will provide a written feedback with comments and ratings. authors will be notified of acceptance in maximum 3 weeks. accepted manuscripts should be revised according to the comments of the reviewers and of the editors. for questions concerning manuscript submission, contact mr. bogdan patrut by mail at bogdan@edusoft.ro. submission preparation checklist as part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 1. the submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the editor). 2. the submission file is in microsoft word or rtf document file format. 3. where available, urls for the references have been provided. 4. the text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with url addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 5. the text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the author guidelines, which is found in about the journal. 6. if submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in ensuring a blind review have been followed. ensuring a blind peer review to ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. this involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 216 1. the authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. 2. with microsoft office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under file in word), by clicking on the following, beginning with file on the main menu of the microsoft application: file > save as > tools (or options with a mac) > security > remove personal information from file properties on save > save. 3. with pdfs, the authors' names should also be removed from document properties found under file on adobe acrobat's main menu. copyright notice authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a creative commons attribution license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work privacy statement the names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 217 indexing our journal is currently indexed/listed in the following indexing services and international databases: 1. web of science (index emerging sources citation index) by clarivate analytics (former thomson-reuters, isi) 2. directory of open access journals (doaj) 3. ebsco (ebsco open access computer science, ebsco open access journals, ebsco open access medical and health collection) 4. indexcopernicus 5. the linguist list 6. google academic 7. ulrichs 8. getcited 9. genamics journalseek 10. zeitschriftendatenbank (zdb) 11. j-gate 12. sherpa/romeo 13. dayang journal system 14. public knowledge project 15. bium (bibliothèque interuniversitaire de medecine et d'odontologie) 16. newjour 17. articlereach direct 18. link+ also, some universities and organizations list our journal in their online libraries: 1. geneva foundation for medical education and research 2. base (bielefeld academic search engine) 3. river campus libraries (univ. of rochester) 4. tulips (university of tsukuba library)) 5. showa university library 6. keio university (shinamomachi media center) 7. university of pennsylvania 8. university of modena and reggio emilia 9. tel aviv university, gitter-smolarz library of life sciences and medicine 10. national autonomous university of mexico, genomic sciences center, institute of biotechnology 11. saint petersburg state university 12. university of puerto rico 13. vrije universiteit brussel 14. queensland university of technology 15. university of florida 16. john brown university 17. université paris-descartes 18. university of regensburg 19. michigan state university 20. university of colorado boulder 21. university of glasgow 22. washington university in saint louis 23. wayne state university 24. california state university, long beach 25. brown university, providence, rhode island 26. the university of honk kong 27. university of nevada, reno 28. ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen 29. dowling college, new york state 30. colgate university, new york state brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 218 table of contents articles 1. using the genetic algorithm for the optimization of dynamic school bus routing problem 6 özkan ünsal (süleyman demirel university, turkey), tuncay yiğit (süleyman demirel university, turkey) 2. classification of phonocardiograms with convolutional neural networks 22 omer deperlioglu (afyon kocatepe university, afyonkarahisar, turkey) 3. a genetic algorithm approach to regenerate image from a reduce scaled image using bit data count 34 kishor datta gupta (university of memphis, united states of america), sajib sen university of memphis, united states of america) 4. stable modeling on resource usage parameters of mapreduce application 45 yangyuan li (budapest university of technology and economics, budapest, hungary & xi’an siyuan university, china) 5. phonological awareness of persian monolingual children and kurdish-persian bilingual children 63 hassan soleimani (payame noor university, tehran, iran), parisa arabloo (payame noor university, tehran, iran) 6. is the gaze behavior during stair walking affected by pregnancy? 71 marta gimunová (masaryk university, brno, czech republic), martin zvonař (masaryk university, brno, czech republic), zdenko reguli (masaryk university, brno, czech republic), pavel ventruba (masaryk university, brno, czech republic), pavel ružbarský (university of presov, prešov, slovakia), igor duvač (masaryk university, brno, czech republic), peter šagat (prince sultan university, riyadh, saudi arabia), gheorghe balint (university of bacau, romania) 7. review of recent trends in measuring the computing systems intelligence 77 laszlo barna iantovics (petru maior university, târgu mureș, romania), adrian gligor (petru maior university, târgu mureș, romania), muaz a. niazi (comsats institute of it, islamabad, pakistan), anna iuliana biro (university of medicine and pharmacy, târgu mureș, romania), sandor miklos szilagyi (petru maior university, târgu mureș, romania), daniel tokody (óbuda university, budapest, hungary) 8. a factor analysis model for dimension reduction of outcome factors in neonatal seizure context 95 ionela maniu (pediatric clinical hospital, sibiu, romania & “lucian blaga” university, sibiu, romania), george maniu (“lucian blaga” university , sibiu, romania), cristina dospinescu (pediatric clinical hospital, sibiu, romania), gabriela visa (pediatric clinical hospital, sibiu, romania) 9. to what extent is free will actually free? the answer of neurosciences 104 gabriela marcu ("lucian blaga" university, sibiu, romania) 10. artificial intelligence and the future of smart cities 110 ana iolanda vodă (“alexandru ioan cuza” university of iași), laura-diana radu (“alexandru ioan cuza” university of iași) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 2 (may, 2018), issn 2067-3957 219 11. comparing the effect of neurofeedback and verbal self-instruction on children afflicted with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a cognitive-behavioral approach 128 rahim pendar (jahrom university of medical sciences, jahrom, iran), raheleh azarmehr (islamic azad university, bandar abbas, iran), nasrin shokrpour (shiraz university of medical sciences, shiraz, iran), ali taghinezhad (fasa university of medical sciences, fasa, iran), mahboobeh azadikhah (shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran), hoda nourinezhad (sabzevar university of medical sciences, sabzevar, iran) 12. a facial motion capture system based on neural network classifier using rgb-d data 139 fateme zare mehrjardi (yazd university, iran), mehdi rezaeian (yazd university, iran) 13. new ideas for brain modelling 4 155 kieran greer (distributed computing systems, belfast, united kingdom) 14. a corpus-driven study of contrastive markers in cantonese‒english political interpreting 169 jun pan (hong kong baptist university, hong kong), billy tak ming wong (open university of hong kong, hong kong) 15. approximation solutions of boundary-contact problems of non-classical diffusion models coupled-elasticity 177 manana chumburidze (akaki tsereteli state university), david lekveishvili (akaki tsereteli state university), elza bitsadze (georgian technical university) 16. are we safe enough in the future of artificial intelligence? a discussion on machine ethics and artificial intelligence safety 184 utku köse (suleyman demirel university, isparta, turkey) 17. the prediction of the rate of the dropout of the primary schools students by using the genetic algorithm 198 sabah manfi redha (baghdad university, iraq) instructions for authors 215 77 microsoft word issue-4.docx 161 frequent pattern mining of risk factors predicting neonatal seizures outcomes ionela maniu research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children, pediatric clinical hospital department of mathematics and computer science, “lucian blaga” university bulevardul victoriei 10, sibiu 550024, romania phone: 0269 216 062 ionela.maniu@yahoo.ro george maniu department of mathematics and computer science, “lucian blaga” university bulevardul victoriei 10, sibiu 550024, romania phone: 0269 216 062 george.maniu@ulbsibiu.ro gabriela visa research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children, pediatric clinical hospital gabiap@yahoo.com raluca costea research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children, pediatric clinical hospital ralucacostea2004@yahoo.com bogdan neamtu research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children, pediatric clinical hospital departament of computer science and electrical engineering, faculty of engineering lucian blaga university sibiu romania preclinical departament, faculty of medicine, lucian blaga university, sibiu, romania bulevardul victoriei 10, sibiu 550024, romania phone: 0269 216 062 bogdan.neamtu@ulbsibiu.ro, bogdan.neamtu@pediatriesibiu.ro abstract this study aims to present a possible approach to identify the most common combinations of possible risk factors for the outcomes following neonatal seizures. first, we extract important predictor variables from the published studies featuring aspects regarding neurological outcomes in the context of neonatal seizure. then, we used association rules to build prediction models to determine associations of risk factors which are frequently identified in real-data / evidence based researches. a total of 15 studies and 14 variables were included to identify frequent patterns and generating association rules processe. we searched for accurate and valuable interrelationships between various risk factors. the fp-growth algorithm generated different itemsets with the largest including four parameters: electroencephalography (eeg), seizures semiology (so), aetiology (et), birthweight (bw), with support 0.200. the insights regarding our results may help in creating evidence-based prevention programmes enhancing existing algorithms for diagnosis and treatment of neonatal seizure outcomes. keywords: neonatal seizures, risk factors, association rules, frequent patterns. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 162 1. introduction neonatal seizures seem to have paramount importance in forecasting longterm outcomes on neurological maturation. these paroxysmal episodes might manifest as subtle patterns (more than 50%), clonic or myoclonic (20-25%) and tonic (~5%). consequently, it is crucial for a neonatologist to make an adequate differential diagnosis to exclude other essential pathologies and to intervene in managing this syndrome effectively. different medical conditions could mimic neonatal seizures namely gastroesophageal reflux in sandifer syndrome, palid reflex anoxic attacks, cyanotic breath holding spells, hyperplexia, nervous system infections, haemorrhage or mitochondrial disorders, epilepsy syndromes, cardiac arrhythmias (cazan et. al., 2014; cazan et. al., 2017). among the prognostic factors, aetiology ranks first followed by perinatal conditions, seizures patterns, different biomarkers from the medical investigations, therapy type (costea et. al. 2017; azhibekov et. al., 2015). current approaches even tackle the possibility to find suggestive biomarkers noninvasively in epileptic toddlers or neonates (shahar, 2012; nicolae et. al., 2016; pitkänen, 2016; choy et. al., 2014). however, the most advanced angles are used for abnormal outcomes prognosis considering data mining techniques and association algorithms through a list of risk factors. many existing models for predicting mortality and or neurodevelopmental outcomes following neonatal seizures have been described. usually, the goal is to foresee these outcomes based on risk factors. irrespective of the model design to manage the outcomes the results intend to help the clinicians and researchers but also parents in initiating and planning decisions related to procedures, treatments, follow-ups, assistances, comparisons between different clinical studies or populations, institutions. however, it is difficult to choose risk factors. as can be seen from the reviewed studies, the initial number of included risk factors (10-20 or more than 50) and different types of factors (perinatal, aetiology, seizures, investigations, therapy) vary considerably between studies. there are also (expected) differences in the factors combinations which are selected by the algorithms as suggestive for high-risk outcomes. in the current study, we propose an approach to identify the most common combinations of possible risk factors published in the literature which could influence an abnormal outcome. our solution is based on frequent pattern mining (fpm), applied on risk factors identified by different research papers, a data mining technique mainly used for market basket analysis (mba or affinity analysis) to discover relations among vast amounts of business transaction records. 2. methods study selection we reviewed the literature searching for evidence based studies with a focus on the existing scoring systems to predict outcomes after neonatal seizures. five scoring systems emerged (ellison, 1981, 1986; pisani et. al., 2009; garfinkle, & shevell, 2011; salamon et. al., 2014; hur & chung, 2016). a detailed analysis of these research papers was already presented in a previous review (maniu et. al., 2017). however, we also considered other articles presenting case studies on computational models developed to identify risk factors (miller et. al., 2005; ambalavanan et. al., 2006; nunes, 2008; pisani, 2012; yildiz, 2012; lai, 2013; vargas, 2013; anand, 2014; shah, 2014; pisani, 2016). in our previuos work (maniu et. al., 2018) factor analysis was used to determine groups of main risk factors considering the articles mentioned above. a total of 15 studies were included in the current study analysis to identify the most common combinations of possible risk factors using this time frequent pattern mining and association rules techniques. variables first, we extracted the neurological risk factors from the prediction models presented in each study in excel format. then, we coded each outcome variable binary with 1 if the i. maniu, g. maniu, g. visa, r. costea, b. neamtu frequent pattern mining of risk factors predicting neonatal seizures outcomes 163 factor was considered as risk factor by the prediction model and 0 otherwise. a total of 14 variables were investigated. eventually, we used rapidminer implementation to build a model for frequent items/variables set mining and association rules generation. the process involved the following steps: (1) the excel table with 14 binomial type attributes and 15 records (for 15 reviewed articles) was imported in rapidminer, (2) fp-growth operator was added to the model, (3) create association rules operator was connected with the fp-growth operator. in the case of fp-growth operator, we considered 0.1 as the min_support value (to include even outliers in the analysis) while for association rules operator we considered 0.5 as the min_confidence parameter. frequent pattern mining association rules mining (arm) is a branch of data mining methods, including various algorithms that identify similarities between items/variables. it relies on techniques such as frequent itemset mining (horizontal, vertical, projected layout), sequential pattern(pattern-growth, apriori approaches), or structured pattern. agrawal and srikant proposed for the first time in 1994 a fpm algorithm for mba named ais, in the form of association rule mining. many scalable algorithms followed, having different approaches regarding the form, passes, reduced data set, candidate itemsets problems used data structures or storage space. the goal was a rule set simplification and/or performance improvements (liu et. al., 1999, hu & chen, 2006, hunyadi, 2009, hunyadi, 2011, kiran 2011, & inan 2013). beside mba, arm techniques have been used in many areas such as medical data (downs, 2000, aswani kumar, 2010, chaves, 2013, & inan 2013), customer relationship management (crm) (chen, 2005), spatial and spatiotemporal data (koperski, 1995; shiwei, 2018). fp-growth algorithm(frequent pattern growth) the table no.1 presents basic concepts of fpm technique. table 1. frequent pattern mining: basic concepts set of all items (ex: in a market basket data) 𝐼 = {𝑖 , 𝑖 , … , 𝑖𝒎} itemset / k-itemset a collection of zero or more items / itemset containing k items transaction a subset of items chosen from 𝐼 set of all transactions 𝑇 = {𝑡 , 𝑡 , … , 𝑡𝒏} support count the number of transactions that contain a particular itemset 𝜎 (𝑋) = | {𝑡 |𝑡 ∈ 𝑇, 𝑋 ⊆ 𝑡 } | support fraction of transactions in which an itemset occurs support (x) = ( ) frequent itemset an itemset (ex. x) is called frequent if: support(x) > minsup where minsup – user-defined threshold an association rule is an implication of the form 𝑋 → 𝑌 where x and y are sets of predictors (𝑋 ⊂ 𝐼, 𝑋 ≠ ∅, 𝑌 ⊂ 𝐼, 𝑌 ≠ ∅, 𝑋 ∩ 𝑌 = ∅ ) representing the antecedent and the consequent part of the rule. the most common measures to quantify the strength for generated rules are presented in table 2. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 164 table 2. association rule evaluation metrics confidence predictability 𝑋 → 𝑌 (𝑐%) a rule has confidence c in the dataset if c% of the dataset transactions that contain x also contain y confidence (𝑋 → 𝑌) = 𝑃 (𝑌|𝑋) = ( ∪ ) ( ) how frequently items in y appear in transactions that contain x support prevalence 𝑋 → 𝑌 (𝑐%, 𝑠%) a rule has support s in the dataset if s% of the dataset transactions contain x also contain y support (𝑋 → 𝑌) = 𝑃 (𝑋 ∪ 𝑌) = ( ∪ ) where n = number of transactions how often a rule is applicable to a given data set arm process identifies all the rules with the support and confidence equal or grather than coresponding support (minsup) and confidence thresholds (minconf). it aims to predict an item occurrence based on other items occurrences. this process is divided in two subtasks: frequent itemset generation and rule genaration. the first task objective is to generate all itemsets having the support >= minsup treshold. the second task objective is to generate high confidence rules using the frequent itemsets previously identified. there are many algorithms presented in literature for performing these tasks (as efficiently as possible). fp-growth method is a frequent itemset mining, projected layout based method, proposed by han et. al in 2000. the algorithm strategy involves a two steps approach: (1) build the fp-tree (a compressed form of the initial dataset), (2) extract frequent item sets (frequent patterns and corresponding support) from the fp-tree, using the recursively build conditional pattern base and conditional fp-tree (for each frequent item from the fp-tree) (han 2000, 2004, 2006; borgelt 2013). the fp-tree algorithm implementation is the following: procedure fp growth(tree, α) (1) if tree contains a single path p then (2) for each combination (denoted as β) of the nodes in the path p (3) generate pattern β ∪α with support_count = minimum support count of nodes in β; (4) else for each ai in the header of tree { (5) generate pattern β = ai ∪α with support_count = ai .support count; (6) construct β’s conditional pattern base and then β’s conditional fp_tree treeβ ; (7) if treeβ ≠ ∅ then (8) call fp_growth(treeβ , β); } 3. results the 15 studies analysis covered a period from 1975 to 2015, representing neonatal seizure real-data based studies from different states/countries (california, maryland, new york, brazil, italy, taiwan, colombia, india, uk, canada, slovenia, south korea). the samples size varied from 55 to 403 cases. the type and number of risk factors included in the models differed in the analysed studies. most of them considered a range between 10 and 20 factors, but there were papers with over 50 analysed factors (ambalavanan, 2006). multiple logistic regression model was the most widely used technique for risk factor identification. on average, a study has identified 4 risk factors (with mode values: 4 and 5) while the largest results had 6 risk factors. in all this studies the generated model had presence/absence of post neonatal outcomes (epilepsy, developmental delay, mortality) as target variable and different combination of i. maniu, g. maniu, g. visa, r. costea, b. neamtu frequent pattern mining of risk factors predicting neonatal seizures outcomes 165 clinical variables (perinatal factors, etiology factors, seizures characteristics factors, investigations findings factors, therapy related factors) as predictors. analyzing retrospectively the 15 studies, from the point of view of variables identified as risk factors, for each study we recorded the information for the following variables: birth weight (bw), gestational age (ga), mode of delivery (md), apgar score (as), resuscitation (re), seizure characteristics: type, onset, duration, semiology (so), status epilepticus (se), etiology (et), early neurologic examination (ene), eeg findings (eeg), cerebral ultrasound scan findings (ubs), neuroimaging (ni), treatment duration (td), response to treatment (tr). in the context of our data set, the set of all items 𝐼 consisted of the 14 risk factors while the 15 reviewed studies represented the set of all transactions 𝑇. the implementation in rapidminer using fp-growth operator and association rules operator effected different patterns. the process results are presented in the table no 3 with a perspective including frequent pattern generation for 2-itemset, 3-itemset and 4-itemset (with support >=0.2 for 2 and 3 itemset). the 2-itemset was counting 38 patterns, the 3-itemset 29 while the 4-itemset 8. the largest itemset consisted of 4 items, the combination with the largest support being eeg, so, et, bw items(s0.200). the combination of eeg, so, et was also the most common combination of 3 items (s0.333). table 3. frequent itemset generation 2-itemset 3-itemset 4-itemset 0.400 eeg so 0.333 eeg so et 0.200 eeg so et bw 0.400 eeg et 0.267 so et bw 0.133 eeg so et md 0.400 so et 0.200 eeg so bw 0.133 eeg et as se 0.333 so bw 0.200 eeg et bw 0.133 eeg bw as se 0.267 eeg bw 0.200 eeg as se 0.133 so bw as se 0.267 et bw 0.200 bw as se 0.133 bw as ubs se 0.267 as se 0.133 eeg so md 0.133 as re tr td 0.200 eeg as 0.133 eeg et as 0.200 eeg se 0.133 eeg et se 0.200 eeg ni 0.133 eeg et ni 0.200 so as 0.133 eeg et md 0.200 bw as 0.133 eeg bw as 0.200 bw ubs 0.133 eeg bw se 0.200 bw se 0.133 eeg bw ene 0.200 as tr 0.133 so et md the following figures describe the graphical rule visualisation (using kklayout format) and associated rules evaluation metrics, in the case of filtering after variables eeg (figure no. 1) and usb (figure no. 2). apgar score, birth weight and status epilepticus are factors that appear in both eeg findings and cerebral ultrasound scan findings (with same support (0.133) and confidence(0.667)). it is important to remind that the extracted rules are useful to understand correlations / associations but not causality. for example, the rule x → y indicates that y has a high probability to happen when x is present, but this does not mean that x is the cause of y. aditional information / domain experience is needed to make this claim. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 166 figure 1. graphical and tabelar rule vizualization, filtering after eeg factor i. maniu, g. maniu, g. visa, r. costea, b. neamtu frequent pattern mining of risk factors predicting neonatal seizures outcomes 167 figure 2. graphical and tabelar rule vizualization, filtering after ubs factor 4. discussions and conclusions this study underlines the applicability and suitability of association rules mining algorithms to determine the most common combinations of possible risk factors for outcomes following neonatal seizures. the insights regarding our approach may be useful along with clinical judgment and existing protocols for the epileptologists, neurophysiologists, pediatricians, neonatologists throughout the complex decision-making process in managing these cases. from a medical point of view more complex et, lower as or bw values, moderate or severe abnormal eeg (so) or ubs, increase the odds for an abnormal outcome. in the proposed design we intended to provide a simulation of the association rules to identify combinations of risk factors based on the identified risk factors from 15 literature studies. our study does not claim to have considered all possible risk factors for outcomes in the context of neonatal seizure, but it successfully bundled key factors such as et, as, with eeg, so and ubs. the analyzed articles presented models based mostly on the regression method, in particular logistic regression, but also other methods such as decision trees. to achieve the dataset of the present paper, the choice of variables did not take into account the prediction model, but only the fact that certain factors were considered/identified by the model (used in the study) as risk factors. this retrospective study has not considered a hierarchy of the included studies in terms of quality assessment criteria, models reliability and/or validity. we were focused on proposed predicted models results, with an emphasis on identified risk factors. also, some studies considered distinct prediction models for different types of outcome while other studies considered all outcome variants as one group using the prediction model for all types of outcomes as a group. the considered risk factors are very different from each other, in the sense that they don’t have the same frequency. some are common type of factors (bw, ga, as) and they brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 168 have naturally more chance of being frequent than items that are much less likely to be considered (known as rare items problem, such as ubs). in this context, our future work will focus on the following aspects: (1) including other studies in the analysis, (2) classifying studies according to quality assessments, (3) classifying studies according to prediction model, (4) classifying different individual outcome variants, (4) including, in the generation of association rules, of variables considered in the initial phase of the model, beside the risk factors variables identified by the model (5) considering other algorithms (msapriori (liu 1999), cfpgrowth (hu 2006), cfpgrowth++ (kiran 2011)), to deal with issues such as items skewed support distribution (rare items)). acknowledgment this work has been conducted in the pediatric clinic hospital sibiu, within research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children ceforaten project (id 928 smis-csnr 13605) financed by ancsi with the grant number 432 / 21. 12. 2012 thru the sectoral operational programme „increase of economic competitiveness”. references agrawal r. and r. srikant (1994) fast algorithms for mining association rules. in vldb'94, pp. 487-499 ambalavanan n, carlo wa, shankaran s, bann cm, emrich sl, higgins rd, tyson je, oshea tm, laptook ar, ehrenkranz ra, donovan ef, walsh mc, goldberg rn, das a; (2006) predicting outcomes of neonates diagnosed with hypoxemic-ischemic encephalopathy. pediatrics;118(5):2084-2093. anand v, nair p. (2014) neonatal seizures: predictors of adverse outcome. j pediatr neurosci;9:97-9 azhibekov t, soleymani s, lee bh, noori s, seri i. hemodynamic monitoring of the critically ill neonate: an eye on the future. seminars in fetal & neonatal medicine. 2015;20(4):246–254. borgelt, c. (2010) an implementation of the fp-growth algorithm. proceedings of the 1st international workshop on open source data mining: frequent pattern mining implementations. 10.1145/1133905.1133907 cazan c, dobrota l, neamtu m po-0813 sandifer syndrome – a challenge for the paediatrician archives of disease in childhood 2014; 99:a520. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2014-307384.1447 cazan c, dobrota l, neamtu m, bogdan neamtu, gabriela visa, nicolae bodrug, viorel istrate elevated aminotransferase activity as a clue to muscular dystrophy archives of disease in childhood 2017;102:a148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2017313273.385 chaves, r., ramrez, j., grriz, j.m. (2013) integrating discretization and association rulebased classification for alzheimers disease diagnosis. expert syst. appl. 40(5), 1571– 1578 chen r. s.,r. c. wu and j. y. chen, (2005) “data mining application in customer relationship management of credit card business”, in proceedings of 29th annual international computer software and applications conference (compsac'05), volume 2, pages 39-40 choy m, dube cm, patterson k, barnes sr, maras p, blood ab, hasso an, obenaus a, baram tz. a novel, noninvasive, predictive epilepsy biomarker with clinical potential. journal of neuroscience 2014; 34: 8672-8684 costea r., neamtu m, neamtu b. (2016) febrile seizures – eeg study and risks factors for recurrence and for epilepsy. eur j pediatr (2016) 175: 1393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-016-2785-8 i. maniu, g. maniu, g. visa, r. costea, b. neamtu frequent pattern mining of risk factors predicting neonatal seizures outcomes 169 downs, s., wallace, m. (2000) “mining association rules from a pediatric primary care decision support system.” proceeding of the 2000 annual symposium of american medical informatics association, los angels, ca, usa, november 4-8, pp.200-204 ellison ph, largent ja, bahr jp. (1981) a scoring system to predict outcome following neonatal seizures. j pediatr [internet].;99(3):455–9 ellison ph, horn jl, franklin s, jones mg. (1986) the results of checking a scoring system for neonatal seizures. neuropediatrics [internet].;17(3):152–7 garfinkle j, shevell mi. prognostic factors and development of a scoring system for outcome of neonatal seizures in term infants. (2011) eur j paediatr neurol [internet]. elsevier ltd;15(3):222–9 han j, pei j, yin y (2000) mining frequent patterns without candidate generation, in proc. acm sigmod intl. conference on management of data, 29(2), pages 1-12 han j, pei j, yin y, mao r (2004) mining frequent patterns without candidate generation: a frequent-pattern tree approach. in data mining and knowledge discovery. 8(1): 53–87 han j, kamber m, pei j (2006) data mining: concepts and techniques, morgan kaufmann hu, yh, chen, yl. (2006) mining association rules with multiple minimum supports: a new mining algorithm and a support tuning mechanism. decision support systems, 42(1):1–24. hunyadi d (2009) improvements of apriori algorithms, first international conference on modelling and development of intelligent systems – mdis, october 22-25, sibiu, romania, pg. 106-114, “lucian blaga” university publishing house, issn 2067-3965 hunyadi d (2011) performance comparison of apriori and fp-growth algorithms in generating association rules, the 5th european computing conference (ecc’ 11), paris, france, april 28-30 2011, pg. 376-381,isbn 978-960-474-297-4 hunyadi d (2011) performance algorithms in generating association rules, international journal of mathematics and computers in simulation, issue 3, volume 5, july 2011, pg. 282-289, issn 1998-0159 hur j.y, chung ml. (2016) risk factor analysis and scoring system for neurodevelopmental outcomes after neonatal seizures. j neonatal biol, 5(4). inan, o., uzer, m.s., yılmaz, n. (2013) a new hybrid feature selection method based on association rules and pca for detection of breast cancer. int. j. innov. comput. inf. control 9(2), 727–729 kiran, r. u, reddy, pk. (2011) novel techniques to reduce search space in multiple minimum supports-based frequent pattern mining algorithms. in: proc. 14th intern. conf. extending database technology, uppsala, sweden, 21-24 march, 11–20 koperski k, han j (1995) discovery of spatial association rules in geographic information databases. in: proceeding of the 1995 international symposium on large spatial databases (ssd’95), portland, me, pp 47–66 kumar aswani, ch., srinivas, s. (2010) mining associations in health care data using formal concept analysis and singular value decomposition. j. biol. syst. 18(04), 787–807 lai yh, ho cs, chiu nc, tseng cf, huang yl. (2013) prognostic factors of developmental outcome in neonatal seizures in term infants. pediatr neonatol; 54: 166-72 liu, b., hsu, w., ma, y. (1999) mining association rules with multiple minimum supports. in: proc. acm sigkdd intern. conf. knowledge discovery and data mining, san diego, usa, 15-18 august, 337-341 mahoney, l. g. s. (2016) assessment of the transitional circulation in late preterm and term neonates using non-invasive biomarkers: a longitudinal analysis and evaluation of repeatability (doctoral dissertation, university of brighton) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 170 maniu i, maniu g c, bălan c, neamțu b (2017) scoring systems for predicting outcomes of neonatal seizure, acta medica transilvanica, vol. 22, issue no 4, pp 48-50 maniu i, maniu g, dospinescu c, visa g. (2018) a factor analysis model for dimension reduction of outcome factors in neonatal seizure context, brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience , volume 9, issue 2, issn 2067-8957, 95103 miller, s. p., ramaswamy, v., michelson, d., barkovich, a. j., holshouser, b., wycliffe, n., … ferriero, d. m. (2005). patterns of brain injury in term neonatal encephalopathy. j pediatr, 146(4), 453–460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2004.12.026 neamtu b, picu o, martu stefanache ma, ibric cioranu vs (2016) the comparative evaluation of salivary biomarkers (calcium, phosphate, salivary ph) in carioresistance versus cario-activity vasile nicolae, rev.chim.(bucharest), 67, no. 4 , 2016 http://www.revistadechimie.ro nunes ml, martins mp, barea bm, wainberg rc, da costa jc. (2008) neurological outcome of newborns with neonatal seizures. arq neuropsiquiatr.;66:168–174 pisani f, sisti l, seri s. (2009) a scoring system for early prognostic assessment after neonatal seizures. pediatrics;124(4):e580–7. pisani f, piccolo b, cantalupo g, et al. (2012) neonatal seizures and post-neonatal epilepsy: a seven-year follow-up study. pediatr res;72:186e93 pisani f, facini c, pelosi a, mazzotta s, spagnoli c, pavlidis e (2016) neonatal seizures in preterm newborns: a predictive model of outcome. eur j paediatr neurol 20:243-251 pitkänen a, löscher w, vezzani a, et al. biomarkers in epilepsy. lancet neurol 2016;15:843–856 salamon s.a, neubauer d, petrovcic a, paro-panjan d. (2014) risk factors and scoring system as a prognostic tool for epilepsy after neonatal seizures. pediatr neurol [internet]. elsevier ltd;50(1):77–84 shahar, e., nagler r. (2012) oxidative stress in children with intractable epilepsy reflected by salivary glands anti-oxidant profile , neurology , 78 (1 supplement) p01.073; issn:1526-632x shah, d.k., wusthoff c.j., clarke, p., (2014). electrographic seizures are associated with brain injury in newborns undergoing therapeutic hypothermia, archives of disease in childhood fetal and neonatal edition 2014;99:f219-f224 shiwei lian, jinning gao, hongwei li (2018) a method of mining association rules for geographical points of interest, international journal of geo-information vargas n.p, sánchez e.f, segura o.e (2014) risk factors associated with a poor response to first-line treatment in neonatal seizures a case-control study done at mercy foundation hospital, revista academia nacional de medicina, vol 103 yıldız ep, tatlı b, ekici b, et al. (2012) evaluation of etiologic and prognostic factors in neonatal convulsions. pediatr neurol; 47: 186-92 ionela maniu is a lecturer professor ph.d at lucian blaga university of sibiu, faculty of sciences, department of mathematics and computer science and researcher in the neurology research department within the research and telemedicine center in neurological diseases in children affiliated to the pediatric clinical hospital from sibiu romania. current research is focused on data mining, machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques, with special interest in medical data sets. microsoft word issue-1_vol-10.docx 129 a review of the application of the concept of economic and smart sustainable value added (ssva) in industries performance evaluations nikolai siniak phd., university of information science and technology “st. paul the apostle” partizanska, ohrid, macedonia (fyrom) phone: +389 46 511 000 siniakn@mail.ru daniela koteska lozanoska m.sc., university of information science and technology “st. paul the apostle” partizanska, ohrid, macedonia (fyrom) phone: +389 46 511 000 daniela.k.lozanoska@uist.edu.mk abstract in today’s global digital world, smart sustainable development, value and wealth creation are among the most important goals of society. industry performance entails the incorporation of the objectives of smart sustainable development, namely social and territorial cohesion, economic efficiency, innovation, digital and environmental performance, into a company's operational practices. companies that compete globally are increasingly required to commit to and report on the overall smart sustainability performances of operational initiatives. the current indicator frameworks that are available to measure overall business sustainability do not effectively address all aspects of sustainability at an operational level, especially in developing countries such as romania, belarus or macedonia. for the sake of achieving these goals and objectives, the corporation, investor and government need some instruments in order to measure the potential value of each investment opportunity. it is clear that these instruments are not capable of predicting the exact future, they just provide some piece of information and advice that help the investor and government in the decisions he makes. among these criteria, the most common types are return on investment (roi), economic and sustainable value added (eva and sva). these criteria follow the performance assessment with regard to the changes in the sustainable value and alongside maximizing the long-term shareholder and society returns. in this paper, one of the most important criteria; i.e. eva, is investigated from several viewpoints. first, it is demonstrated the attempt to calculate eva at the industry level using aggregate indicators according to the common business methodology. for this, we generally assume that economic value is created by investment in excess return compared to its cost. we adopted eva indicator to belarusian general economic conditions and specifics of available aggregate sector data by adjusting return on investment and cost of capital. keywords: performance evaluation; performance analysis; value creation; economic value added; smart sustainable value added. 1. introduction the main current strategy of development europe 2020 (a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth) puts forward three mutually reinforcing priorities: smart growth: developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation. sustainable growth: promoting a more resource efficient, greener and more competitive economy. inclusive growth: fostering a high-employment economy delivering social and territorial cohesion. but growth itself does not create value. economic value is created by investment in excess return compared to its cost. this statement is central in the microeconomic theory and drives the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 130 development of a single firm through industry to a country’s economy. the principle of economic value added to invested capital is directly employed in economic value added (eva) indicator. industry performance entails the incorporation of the objectives of smart sustainable development, namely social and territorial cohesion, economic efficiency, innovation, digital and environmental performance, into a company's operational practices. companies that compete globally are increasingly required to commit to and report on the overall smart sustainability performances of operational initiatives. the objective of the paper is to propose a modified and more accurate model for measuring the industry economic and sustainable performance. the model integrates digital, environmental, social, economic and corporate governance indicators. it aggregates different indicators from different frameworks and allows the industries to compare their performance effectively. two main factors of smart sustainability assessment (eva and ssva) are depicted. it is demonstrated the attempt to calculate eva at the industry level using aggregate indicators according to the common business methodology. then, the materials and methods used for smart sustainability assessment are described. this is done by presenting an overview of the used indicators. the method of smart sustainability value added calculation is suggested as the main indicator of industry performance. 2. eva basic value indicator it is been argued that traditional accrual based earning measures like operating income, operating profit, profit after tax, return on investment etc. are often incompetent, manipulative and misleading in explaining value creation (altaf, 2016). accordingly, a number of empirical studies have been focused on determining as to which metric is best for measuring value creation. all value indicators calculations respect the neoclassical theory of the behavior of market subjects (the theory of rational expectations...) from microeconomics, suggesting the basic premise that the purpose of companies is to maximize profits (berzakova et. al., 2015). the idea behind eva is rooted in economic income as opposed to accounting income. the concept of economic profit appeared a long time ago, around 1890 (marshall). as economic income moves up or down, so goes the value of the business (valetka et. al., 2010). the theory of economic value added has traditionally suggested that every company’s primary goal is to maximize the wealth of its shareholders, which should be a given since it is the shareholders who own the company and any sensible investor expects a good return on his or her investment. in the past, however, other methods such as return on investment (roi) and earnings per share (eps) have been the most important performance measurement systems and have been used in determining bonus-based incentives even though they do not correlate well with shareholder value creation. economic value added (eva) is probably the most widely used approach to measuring value-creation nowadays. the analytical tool called eva, for economic value added, was commercially developed in 1982 by the corporate advisory team from stern stewart & co. of joel m. stern and g. bennett stewart and others (stern, 2001; sharma & kumar, 2010; qi; 2011). stern stewart & company came out with a new metric “economic value added (eva)” that, according to them, drives stock prices, creates wealth and can explain the changes in shareholder value in a better possible way than other traditional performance measures. they claim eva as the performance measure that comes closer to measuring the true economic profitability of a company and is directly linked to the shareholders' value. in an empirical evidence by stewart, it was amplified that eva is about 50% better than traditional earning based measures in explaining changes in shareholders' value on a contemporaneous basis. the first person who used the term eva in a publication was finegan in 1989, after him it was walter, in 1992, but the attention of the wider economic public eva received after the publication of a related article in fortune magazine in 1993 (tully) when it started to be used as a metric of business performance. consequently, this issue handled a number of experts. n. siniak , d. k. lozanoska a review of the application of the concept of economic and smart sustainable value added (ssva) in industries performance evaluations 131 putting forward by stern stewart eva is established on the basis of enterprise value evaluation theory researched by franco modigliani (2005), merton h. miler (1980) and william f. sharpe (1987). large firms like coca cola, diageo, lilly (eli), guidant, and spx have used eva as a guide to creating economic value for their shareholders (grant, 2003). bonuses and incentive pay schemes at these firms have been built around the manager’s ability (or lack thereof) to generate positive eva within the firm’s operating divisions. positive payments accrue to managers having divisional operating profits that on balance exceed the relevant “cost of capital,” while negative incentive payments may occur if the longer-term divisional profits fall short of the overall capital costs. thus, by accounting for both the cost of debt and equity capital, eva gives managers the incentive to act like shareholders when making corporate investment decisions. james s wallace also found that the former managers’ behavior followed by the incentive, which preferred the behaviors for maximization the shareholders’ wealth by processing assets, reducing investment, assigning excess funds to investors, fully using assets, etc. (wallace, 1997). other researches pointed out that eva index has superior ability to explain stock price changes than the traditional index (o’hanlon & peasnell, 1998) and we should use a comprehensive evaluation index to make up for eva inherent defects in the performance evaluation (mcintyre, 1999), analyzed the influence degree of the inflation to eva calculation results and their improving methods (villiers, 1997), how to use eva index into specific application of enterprise performance management, and how to establish a perfect system for value management, which includes strategic planning, capital spending decisions, performance management and evaluation, compensation plan and others (rogerson, 1997; ehrbar, 1998). it is against this backdrop, scholars have devoted considerable time and effort on the investigation of the claim whether eva is a better measure to explain market value addition (mva) than traditional earning based measures. the results of different empirical studies are divided into two distinct camps, one camp belongs to those researchers who found eva to dominate earning based measures in explaining mva. contrary to this, another field belongs to those researchers who found earning measures dominate eva in explaining mva. in theoretical discussions, there are new arguments in favor or against the application of the concept of eva and other criteria based on the value of the company in the context of ongoing changes in accounting and tax legislation, financial market conditions and the like in romania, belarus or macedonia or another transition country. keeping in view the above mentioned literature, this study attempts to advance the research in the following ways. firstly, we revisit the claim made as “eva stands well out from the crowd as the single best measure of wealth creation” in the context of an emerging market like belarus and thus further strengthens the applicability of the metric to the nascent body of research on the dominance of performance measure in emerging market firms, sectors and industries. moreover, the only measured evidence of eva as a superior performance is an in-house study conducted by stern stewart; except that, only few firms or industry field studies have been conducted to examine the relevance of eva as the best metric for explaining industry performance. second, in the process of determining the best metric for explaining eva of belarusian industries and sectors, the study seeks to shed light on the divergent findings of prior studies. third, this study uses samples from both the service and manufacturing sector and treats them separately, since there are a priori reasons to believe that the two sub-sectors will behave differently. this will again broaden the existing body of knowledge on the metric war between eva and traditional earning based measures. further, it must be acknowledged that belarus has certain unique characteristics that provide a natural setting for testing the aforementioned relationships. for instance, financial market imperfections and information asymmetries; under-developed capital markets and opaque financial reporting practices; limited role and size of the capital markets in allocating resources, under-utilized banking sector, incapable of providing demanded credit to the corporate sector, providing of preferential rates for housing construction credits, substantial governmental support and subsidies. all these factors, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 132 along with the lack of empirical evidence on the superiority of a metric to explain value creation, make belarus a unique country for testing these relationships. eva is also gaining popularity in the investment community. since june 1996 conference on “economic value added” at cs first boston “buy side” investment firms like global asset management and oppenheimer capital use eva in their stock selection, portfolio construction, and risk control processes. economic value added is most generally calculated as the difference between net operating profits after tax less market money value of capital invested. building on the relationships, at first glance it is clear that the calculation of eva will not be easy, given the ambiguity of the contents of sub-indicators in a country. just to quantify nopat net operating profit after tax the company stern stewart & co. introduces about 160 possible adjustments (salaga et. al., 2015). the calculation of eva gives the same mathematical results as discounted cash flow (dcf) or net present value (npv), both of which have historically been deemed the best analysis tools for determining shareholder value. however, the equivalence with eva and npv/dcf holds only in valuation and not in performance measurement. eva is expressed as money value in the currency of operation of a certain company. it estimates what amount of value is added to the invested capital. this value usually results in a higher net economic profit of a firm and higher dividends. negative eva indicates that either i) cost of capital is higher than the return on capital (the firm is currently earning less than expected giving its cost of capital) or ii) capital invested does not create enough of value for specific investment projects. the eva indicator of a firm is even more informative when considered in dynamic over a certain period of time. increasing eva indicates either a lower cost of capital, or higher returns (provided the invested capital is the same over the considered period). diminishing eva points to a higher cost of capital or lower profit (if invested capital is the same over the considered period). eva can be used as a qualitative indicator of growth at the level of industries and economy at general. eva results are logically connected to specific operating conditions for a firm or an industry by considering debt and equity share in capital structure as well as a specific risk premium for each industry. calculating eva for industries, the structure of the economy can become clearer revealing the best performing and worst performing sectors in terms of their economic value added. in practice, one can break down the economy into sectors with high eva and little eva for both positive and negative indicators. after a close look at each of the best or worst performing sector taking into account their specifics recommendations for using high potential or improving sector’s conditions might be drawn. eva allows watching the development of industries and a country’s economy in dynamic over a chosen period of time. for instance, growing eva for a country’s economy might indicate its growing potential for further development and sustainability. alternatively, diminishing eva in a chosen industry might be a signal for the poor quality of investments, the inadequate structure of capital invested or poor management. using eva as a performance indicator of economic sectors defined according to the industrial classification system as opposed to the traditional soviet union type division we get a possibility to make international comparisons. finally, economic value added (eva) indicator calculated for belarusian industries provides us with objective information about the current situation of the market when no stock exchange information is available. basic indicators for belarusian industries according to nace are presented in a research (altaf, 2016). a few important conclusions can be drawn according to eva estimation results for belarusian industries: n. siniak , d. k. lozanoska a review of the application of the concept of economic and smart sustainable value added (ssva) in industries performance evaluations 133 1. six industries created more than 2/3 of economic value added in belarusian economy: manufacture of chemicals, wholesale trade, transport and communication, agriculture, construction and manufacture of refined petroleum products and coke. 2. almost ¼ of the entire economic value was added in the chemical industry (manufacture of chemicals, chemical products and man-made fibers). 3. four sectors created no economic value and have negative eva indicator: education, health, community, social and personal services, and real estate activities. and, surprisingly, real estate activities. 4. the most striking finding of estimations was that the lowest eva indicator showed the division called „real estate activities“. this can be explained by having a close look at the sector’s further structure. according to nace „real estate activities“ behind direct services of selling estate and real estate agencies includes also the management of estate on a fee or contract basis, the services of numerous halls of residence. in belarus, the latter is simply maintenance services for households which are traditionally low-profitable and governmentsubsided. a governmental straight involvement in the construction sector production, providing of preferential rates for housing construction credits and other economic peculiarities in belarus have led to the unexpected result that firms from a should-be profitable nace class „development and selling of real estate” do not create economic value. ranking of indistries. finding the “best” companies and industries in the marketplace is of primary importance to investment managers. with the proper financial tools, portfolio managers may be able to enhance their active performance over-and-above the returns available on similar risk indexed-passive strategies. industry rank calculations were based on the three indicators:  the share of industry eva in total economy eva is used as an indicator of the industry’s role in the economy (weight is equal to 0.3);  eva/ employment ratio estimates the efficiency of human resources on one hand and technological advance on the other (weight is equal to 0.3);  eva/invested capital ratio is used to reflect the level of profitability of industries (weight is equal to 0.4). the ranking shows that top-10 investor attractive sectors in belarusian economy were: manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products; manufacture of chemicals, chemical products and man-made fibers; sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; wholesale trade and commission trade; manufacture of leather and leather products; computer and related activities; mining and quarrying; manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products; manufacture of transport equipment. the least attractive sectors are „social“ ones: education, health, community, social and personal services, and real estate activities. such negative eva indicates that either the cost of capital for a sector is higher than the return of capital (the firms are currently earining less than expected, given their cost of capital) or capital invested does not create enough value for specific investment projects. the first three mentioned sectors have clear „social“ character in belarus by receiving substantial governmental support and subsidies. we can state that these sectors and a real estate operate „at the cost“ of other industries. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 134 industries with higher rank can attract more foreign investors. 3. smart sustainable value added some papers are identifying directions for research of economic modelling of sustainable corporate performance and reporting, which include environmental indicators (measuring the environmental impact on resources), social indicators (health and safety, human rights, ethical behavior etc.), corporate governance indicators (related to efficiency, structure and responsibilities of the governance) and the economic value of the company, where it is considered a combination of sustainable value added, economic value added and data envelopment analysis methods (kassem et. al., 2016). the question of how to establish a sustainable value added (sva) indicator has been asked by figge and hahn (figge & hahn 2002) and who have defined the method of the sva calculation. however, even its authors are aware that the sva model does not do sufficiently, whether the value of the company is sustainable. we consider that smart sustainability value added (ssva) is a more effective method for sustainability assessment. sustainability valuation plays a strategic role in decision making (kassem et. al., 2016). it encourages companies and industries to deal with resources more effectively and efficiently. smart sustainable value added represents the extra value created as a result of using digital, economic, environmental and social resources, compared to a benchmark. it expresses in absolute monetary terms. according to the method published by (figge & hahn, 2004) the ssva value calculation can be expressed as follows: the gross value added of the company should be calculated (in unit €). after that, the amount of each digital, environment or social resources should be determined (e.g gb., t, m3, ..etc). then efficiency computed by dividing the gross value added on the amount of resources (unit €/t, €/m3). the same steps should be done for the benchmark. finally, the last two values are subtracted from each other and the result multiplied by the amount of considered indicator. whereas the improvements should include several modifications, in order to achieve the following factors:  comprehensive smart sustainability assessment: we focused our efforts on developing a comprehensive smart sustainability assessment. therefore, digital, environmental, social, economic and corporate governance indicators should be integrated. in this case, the proposed model will not only deal with financial indicators but should also include nonfinancial ones. with the ongoing development of new manufacturing technologies and progressing digitalization, decentralized production units fostered by the development of additive manufacturing technologies such as 3d-printing, already show an impact on gaining a better understanding of the possible contributions of factories to more sustainable value creation enables them to be a positive component of a smart development (juraschek et. al., 2018).  simplicity and suitability: the assessment should be done for different industries for example in belarus, romania and macedonia to compare results. however, the model cannot be universal, because the indicators should reflect the specifics of the industry of the country in which they operate. therefore, different available sustainability frameworks are used and a specific set of indicators is chosen for each sector (e.g. agriculture, manufacture ...).  applicability: the modified model should be easy, simple, smart, suitable and accurate. it reflects not only four dimensions (digital, economic, environmental, and social), but also the corporate governance pillar is added. as mentioned above, eva is the most important and measured indicator which combines all the basic components required to describe the economic situation of industries. for this reason, the gross value added (va) is replaced by economic value added to describe the financial situation of the companies more efficiently. n. siniak , d. k. lozanoska a review of the application of the concept of economic and smart sustainable value added (ssva) in industries performance evaluations 135 the evaluation of these factors and data will be part of a future assessment and subject to further research. 4. conclusion industry performance entails the incorporation of the objectives of smart sustainable development, namely social and territorial cohesion, economic efficiency, innovation, digital and environmental performance, into a company's operational practices. companies that compete globally are increasingly required to commit to and report on the overall smart sustainability performances of operational initiatives. the data obtained in both ssva, eva and foreign investor attractiveness rankings based on eva may be helpful for both foreign investors and government. smart sustainability assessment is a comprehensive process to achieve the best performance and determine the weak points of the studied industries performance. the smart sustainable development and incursive growth system are the models used for smart sustainability assessment. this paper aims to propose an improved method of investment industry performance smart sustainability assessment. it employs important and widely used financial value (e.g ssva, eva) for evaluating the efficiency of industries development. this work can be extended by making it reflect the specific requirements of the country and the industry in which the company operates. this can be implemented by calculating the weights and benchmark values for each sector (e.g. agriculture, bio-gas plants, manufacture, breweries...). finally, the results visualization can be presented in the case study for that specific sector. references altaf, n., (2016). economic value added or earnings: what explains market value in indian firms? future business journal, volume 2, issue 2, pp. 152-166. berzakova, v., bartosova, v., kicova, e., (2015). modification of eva in value based management, procedia economics and finance, volume 26, pp. 317-324. ehrbar, a., (1998). eva: the real key to creating wealth. new york: wiley. figge, f. & hahn, t., (2004). sustainable value added-measuring corporate contributions to sustainability beyond eco-efficiency. ecological economics, 48(2), pp. 173-187. figge, f., hahn, t., (2002). sustainable value added – measuring corporate sustainable performance beyond eco-efficiency, lüneburg: centrum für nachhaltigkeitsmanagement, 30p. grant, j., (2003) foundations of economic value added / j. l. grant. – 2nd ed. – new jersey: john wiley & sons – xi, 324 р. juraschek, m., becht, e., büth, l., thiede, s., herrmann c., (2018). life cycle oriented industrial value creation in cities, procedia cirp, volume 69, pp. 94-99. kassem, e., trenz, o., hřebíček, j., faldík, o., (2016). sustainability assessment using sustainable value added. procedia social and behavioral sciences, volume 220, pp. 177-183. kassem, e., trenz, o., hřebíček, j., faldík, o., (2016). sustainability assessment using sustainable value added, procedia social and behavioral sciences, volume 220, pp. 177-183. kessel, r., coase, r., miller, m., (1980). essays in applied price theory[m]. chicago : univer-sity of chicago press. mcintyre, e., (1999). accounting choices and eva. business horizons, v.42 n1: pp. 66-72. modigliani, f., franco, f., (2005). the collected papers of franco modigliani / volume 6. cambridge, mass: mit press. o’hanlon, j., peasnell, k., (1998). wall street's contribution to management accounting: the stern stewart eva financial management system. management accounting research, 9, no. 4: p. 421. qi, l., (2011), a review of economic value added (eva) survey—from the aspects of theory and application. in communication software and networks, ieee 3rd international conference, pp. 507–509. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 136 rogerson, w., (1997). intertemporal cost allocation and managerial investment incentives: a theory explaining the use of economic value added as a performance measure [j]. journal of political economy, vol. 105, no. 4, pp. 770-795. salaga, j., bartosova, v., kicova, e., (2015). economic value added as a measurement tool of financial performance. procedia economics and finance, volume 26, pp. 484-489. sharma, a. k., kumar, s., (2010). economic value added (eva)-literature review and rele-vant issues. international journal of economics & finance, 2 (2), pp. 200–220. sharpe, w., (1987). aat: asset allocation tools [m]. redwood city scientific press. stern, j. m., (2001).the eva challenge: implementing value added change in an organizati-on / j. m. stern, j. s. shiely. wiley. 240 p. valetka, u, siniak, n. and naurodski. s., (2010). measuring economic value added in real estate sector in belarus. 17th annual european real estate society conference. eres: proceeding of the conference. milan, bocconi university, italy. villiers, j., (1997). the distortions in economic value added (eva) caused by inflation. jour-nal of economics and business. 49, no. 3, pp. 285-300. wallace, j. (1997). adopting residual income-based compensation plans: do you get what you pay for? journal of accounting & economics. 24, no. 3, p. 275. nikolai siniak, phd. he was born in slonim (1972), republic of belarus. assistant professor of university of information science and technology (uist) “st. paul the apostle”, vice-head of the department production organization and real estate economics of belarusian state technological university, member of gif (german society of property researchers) and member of eres (european real estate society). the author of more than 200 publications (more than 50 in english), 11 monographs. special representative of the secretary general of the eurasian economic cooperation organization (eeco) in the european union, http://www.eurasianeconomic.org/998/, head of the education and science committee of the eeco, member of supreme eurasian real estate market council. daniela koteska lozanoska, msc. she was born in 1980 in ohrid, republic of macedonia. she studied at faculty of economics at university of “ss. cyril and methodius” in skopje. the bachelor degree she earned at the department of management in 2003 and the master degree in 2010 at the department of mbamanagement. currently she works at the university of information science and technology “st. paul the apostle” in ohrid as teaching assistant for economy and management. in the same time she is a phd candidate at the university “st. clement of ohrid” in bitola, on faculty of tourism and management in ohrid. 134 the effect of working memory training on executive function of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder ameneh sadat kazemi tehran medical sciences, islamic azad university tehran province, tehran, danesh rd, iran phone: +98 21 2200 6660 zahra mohammadi tehran medical sciences, islamic azad university tehran province, tehran, danesh rd, iran phone: +98 21 2200 6660 mohammadi111161@yahoo.com abstract attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd) is among developmental disorders that has taken the attention psychologists and psychiatrics from a long time ago. the present study aims to investigate the effect of attention and working memory improvement training on executive function of children with adhd. the present study was a quasi-experimental study and the sample included 44 children with adhd who referred to psychiatric clinics of babol and had the characteristics of interest and they were divided into test and control groups, each group contained 22 subjects. their performance was evaluated using tower of london test at the pretest stage. then, each group member exposed to training with attention and working memory improvement application for 20 sessions of 30 minutes (7 weeks, 3 times a week, 30 minutes). after the training period, posttest was administered with the same application for both groups. the results of analysis of covariance showed that despite increased executive function in both groups at the presets, the executive function in test group was higher and for this reason, attention and working memory improvement training has influenced the executive function of children with adhd. attention and working memory training and similar programs can be used as a complementary treatment method or an alternative for medical therapies. keywords: attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder; executive function; the tower of london test; working memory. 1. introduction attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd) is a developmental and neurological disorder among children that is characterized by disorders in attention and hyperactivity (marcelle, ho, kaplan, adler, castellanos & milham, 2018). this disorder is prevalent for 10% of children and continues until adolescence and adulthood (rajeh, amanullah, shivakumar & cole, 2017). diagnostic criteria according to the fifth diagnostic and statistical manual of psychiatric disorders for adhd address two points: the presence of disorders related to attention deficit and hyperactivity prior to 12 years old at least in two different environments (criterion c), in home and school, home and workplace, home and school and workplace (weiss, wasdell, bomben, rea & freeman, 2006). studies indicated that children with adhd show overlapping disorders. in this regard, 27% have anxiety, 7% have behavioral disorder, 38% have cd, and 13% suffer from depression (singh, yeh, verma & das, 2015). also, these children are at high risk of suicide compared with other children (bauer, gustafsson, nigg & karalunas, 2018). moreover, they show that some relationships exist between adhd and tourette syndrome (termine et. al., 2016). among children with adhd, 45 to 75% suffer from motor skills problems and this can negatively influence social competence of relationships with others and academic skills (tseng, henderson, chow & yao, 2004). morphological, cognitive and functional neurobiological biochemistry studies according to the neuropsychological basis of adhd point to the involvement of specific nervous areas such as frontal lobe, laryngeal lobe, hippocampus, and cerebellum (león-domínguez, martín-rodríguez & leóncarrión, 2015). studies that examined the effects of disorders in executive function on adhd pathology, show disorders in working memory and inhibitory control as the result of malfunctioning in a. sadat kazemi, z. mohammadi the effect of working memory training on executive function of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder 135 the prefrontal cortex (duff & sulla, 2015). these nervous areas have close relationships with executive function, so that researchers have concluded that the existing defects in executive functions are the main core of this disorder and they consider these defects as justification for problems in failure to pay attention to the impulsiveness and hyperactivity of these people (benzing, chang & schmidt, 2018). adhd is related to low executive function and motor problems. executive functions are defined as cognitive and high-level functions and regulate fundamental cognitive processes; therefore, they are essential for flexible and purposeful behavior. executive functions are composed of three major processes: 1. prevention that includes preventing dominant reactions and controlling the senses; 2. change that includes change in affairs or mental set; 3. working memory that includes maintenance and process of information (hasani, samimi, parooi & tamini, 2017). the terms “function” or “executive function” refer to a set of regulatory processes that are required to select, implement, and monitor thinking, emotions, and certain aspects of sensory-motor functions. this aspect is composed of areas such as prevention, start, sustained attention, changes in working memory, emotional regulation, planning, identification, and monitoring (qian, chen, shuai, cao, yang & wang, 2017). among executive functions, working memory is an important aspect that functions as an essential component in most of cognitive tasks such as attention control and problem solving (thorell, lindqvist, bergman nutley, bohlin & klingberg, 2009). in the following, considering the topic, we concentrate on working memory. as pointed out, adhd is a common developmental and neural disorder among about 5% of children. self-regulatory problems with this disorder include problems in both cognitive and emotional functions. common problems include decreased performance in tasks related to working memory that investigate the monitoring capacity and regulation of input information (jensen et. al., 2018).working memory, as defined by bedly (2012), is a brain-based system that provides the possibility to maintain stimulus and change information (nelwan, vissers & kroesbergen, 2018). the functions of working memory include:  maintenance of information in mind and working on them;  fundamental role in prediction and imitation of new behavior;  relationship with time and patience;  internal mental operation where any inconsistency makes the person dependent on external feedback; on the other hand, due to the problem in mental review, task reviews will be accompanied by problem. researchers believe that most of children with adhd suffer from problems in executive functions and working memory, especially in inhibition of response and working memory where the main signs are resulted from failure in these two components (holmes, gathercole, place, dunning, hilton & elliott, 2010). different medical and non-medical therapies are used to treat adhd (klingberg, forssberg & westerberg, 2002). since medical therapies cannot be sufficient to compensate problems related to adhd, development of more medical methods is necessary to target the main neuropsychological problems (qian et. al., 2017). a study by greenberg et. al., showed that working memory improvement can lead to improved executive functions such as working memory, inhibition of response, and arguments in children with adhd (schreiber, possin, girard & rey-casserly, 2014). computer-based working memory training for children with adhd indicates advancers in working memory, inhibition of reaction, and complex reasoning tests as well as a significant decrease in the number of adhd signs (schreiber et. al., 2014). recent studies show that computer-based cognitive training can provide reliable and sufficient improvement in attention, impulse control, social function, educational function, and complex skills (rapport, alderson, kofler, sarver, bolden & sims, 2008). egland et. al. in their studies showed that working memory training influences motor functions and improves reading and mathematics (egeland, aarlien & saunes, 2013). in both qualitative and meta-analysis studies, it has been indicated that working memory training can improve working memory functions related to trained working memory brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 136 affairs and has a close relationship in children, adolescents, and adults with different types of adhd (marcelle et. al., 2018). according to the above mentioned, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of working memory on executive function of children with adhd. 2. materials and methods the present study is a quasi-experimental study and the study was conducted at pediatric psychiatric clinics in babol and each clinic was managed by a psychiatric and at least a psychologist. all patients who referred to these units had medical file and were revisited at least every two months. the population included all children referring to psychiatric clinics in babol who were diagnosed with dsmiv and adhd according to the diagnostic criteria and the psychologist and were under medical therapies at least for 30 days and their parents consented to participate in this study. in this regard, 44 subjects were selected as the sample based on purpose sampling and divided into two groups of test and control, each containing 22 subjects. the research units had the following characteristics: 1. according to the evidences and the doctor’s opinion, they were suffering from adhd; 2. their medical therapy was started at least 30 days ago; 3. they were between 7 and 12 years old; 4. their parents were willing to participate in the study; 5. they could read and write and were familiar with computer; 6. they did not have any other problems such as mood disorders, anxiety, and conduct and coping disregard; 7. they had average iq according to wechsler’s intelligence scale. exclusion criteria included: 1. failure to understand the educational materials for the test; 2. suffering from a certain disease where they did not have the necessary conditions to continue the procedure both physically and mentally; 3. they migrated from their place of residence for any reason. subjects, according to these conditions were assigned into test and control groups based on purpose sampling. the measurement instrument in this study was the tower of london test. this test is one of the most popular instruments to measure executive function (baughman & cooper, 2007; zook, davalos, delosh & davis, 2004). this test is designed by shalis (shallice, 1982) and different researchers such as krikoorian, battok, gi (krikorian, bartok & gay, 1994) and kalberson and zilmer (culbertson & zillmer, 1998) used it with modifications and standardization. brain imagining study using pet, mri, and fmri indicates that the tower of london test is more susceptible to prefrontal cortex (boghi et. al., 2006; rasser et. al., 2005). this test is one of the important instruments to measure executive function (baron, 2003; lezak, howieson, loring & fischer, 2004; qian et. al., 2017). this test has high construct validity in measuring executive function of people. between the results of this test and porteus maze test, correlation of r = 0.41 is reported (culbertson et. al., 1998; krikorian et. al., 1994). the validity of this test is reported as 0.79 and it is acceptable (lezak et. al., 2004). this test is designed to assess at least two aspects of executive function that are strategic planning and problem-solving. after entering personal information of the subject in personal information section, the experimenter shows the screen to the subject and says: this is a problem-solving test; you should move the colored pages (i.e. green, blue, red) and place them in suitable places and create the sample with the minimal movement required. note that you only can move the upper pages and place 3 pages in the long column, 2 pages in the middle column, and 1 page in the short column. then, the subjects are asked to solve the example. in this stage, the person has three chances and should solve the problem according to the guidelines with minimum movements. then, the subject is called: you will have 12 problems and you should create the sample (like the example) with minimal movements. also, we remind people they have three chances for each problem and in each stage, after success (if after three attempts, the problem is not solved yet), the next problem will be given. when the subject understands the guidelines, the experimenter says: if you are ready, we start the test. when the subject confirmed, the test stars. to implement this design, the subjects are matched in terms of demographic characteristics (e.g. gender and age) and assigned into test and control groups. then, the performance of groups was assessed using the tower of london test at pretest. in the next stage, each member of the test group received instruction for 20 sessions of 30 minutes (7 weeks, 3 times a week, 30 minutes) individually using attention and working memory improvement application. after the training period, posttest was administered for both groups using the same application. this application includes three sections of a. sadat kazemi, z. mohammadi the effect of working memory training on executive function of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder 137 auditory memory, visual memory, and stabilization. auditory memory and visual memory have forward and reverse memory training capabilities. each section of forward and reverse training includes three subsections of letters and figures. each section such as numbers, letters, and figures is divided in terms of difficulty level from 1 to 9. after selecting the difficulty level, what the subject hears or sees is indicated in difficulty levels of 1-9 in three rows. also, in letters’ section, 9 letters with similar pronunciations and in figures’ section, 9 figures are indicated. the subject should answer what he is heard or saw with the computer mouse; for this purpose, inserts in the forward section and answers in the reverse section. for each correct answer, the subject receives 20 points and for each false answer, 10 points are deducted. after 5 correct answers, the subject goes to the next stage. the stabilization section divides into auditory and visual sections, so that each section divides into numbers, letters, and figures. after selecting each section, 9 cells are indicated. by selecting the difficulty level, numbers or letters or figures are heard or saw in these cells. then, the subject should answer what is heard or saw that is randomly asked by the application. again, the subject receives 20 points for each correct answer and for each false answer, 10 points are deducted. 3. results in order to analyze data, descriptive statistics indices and covariance test were used and the results are presented in the following. frequency distribution of demographic characteristics is presented in table 1. according to table 1, the percentages of males and females are equal in research groups, so that in each group, 19 males and 3 females exist. average age in test group is 8.95±1.56 and in control group is 9.36±1.47 and average ig in test group is 110.86±11.67 and in control group is 110.45±9.87. table 1. frequency distribution of demographic characteristics demographic characteristics test group control group frequency percentage frequency percentage gender male 19 86/4 3 13/6 female 19 86/4 3 13/6 age (year) 7-9 16 72/7 6 27/3 10-12 14 63/6 8 36/4 iq 90-100 5 22/7 4 18/2 101-110 7 31/8 9 40/9 111-120 5 22/7 5 22/7 above 120 5 22/7 4 18/2 table 2 shows the results of executive functions for test and control groups at pretest, posttest, and posttest after removing pretest’s effect. the resulted mean indicates increased posttest executive function compared with pretest in both test and control groups where the highest increase was observed in test group. table 2. the results of tower of london test for test and control groups in pretest and posttest variable stages test control mean sd mean sd tower of london test pretest 24/86 3/907 26/73 479/5 posttest 86/31 933/2 59/28 775/3 posttest after removing pretest’s effect 16/32 30/28 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 138 table 3 shows the analysis of covariance test. to administer this test, first, homogeneity of slopes (f = 0.494 and p = 0.486) and homogeneity of error variances (f = 0.436 and p = 0.513) were investigated. the results of this test indicate that controlling the pretest score percentage, the result of tower of london test (p<0.01), and according to the estimated f, a significant difference exists between estimated mean of posttest scores and the final result of tower of london test between test group and control group. the differences show that 29% of the observed dispersion is the result of attention and working memory improvement training. table 3. the results of covariance test for posttest mean of scores in test and control groups in tower of london test controlling pretest. variable source of changes sum of squares degree of freedom mean of squares f significance level eta square statistical power tower of london test pretest 728/94 1 728/94 083/10 003/0 197/0 873/0 group 641/157 1 641/157 780/16 000/0 290/0 979/0 error 181/385 41 395/9 total 000/40800 44 4. discussion this study aimed to investigate the effect of working memory training on executive function of children with adhd. executive function refers to a set of processes that include planning, cognitive flexibility, working memory, organization, inhibition, and problem-solving. a significant number of studies show that disorders in behavioral manifestations of executive function are the key features of adhd and treatments that target executive function disorders are important options for children with adhd (payne, arnold, pride & north, 2012). executive function is an important brain activity dependent on prefrontal cortex and is measured by tower of london test. findings confirmed significant changes in average executive function at the posttest in research groups. data showed that the executive function of the test group after receiving working memory training improved compared with the control group. the results of this study reemphasize the positive effect of working memory training on executive function of children with adhd. in a study by wang et. al. (2018), it was indicated that cognitive capacity increased by working memory training in both asb and adhd groups that is consistent with the present study (wang et. al., 2018). also, the present study is consistent with the following studies. a study by nelvan et. al. (2018) showed that working memory training can influence mathematics and visual memory (nelwan et. al., 2018). shuai et. al. (2017) conducted a study on executive function training for children with adhd and the results showed that the intervention leads to improved inhibition, working memory, planning, and decreased adhd and daily life aspects (shuai et. al., 2017). qian et. al. (2017) conducted a study that showed training improves executive skill (qian et. al., 2017). a review study by kwan et. al. (2015) on 695 articles to investigate the effects of cognitive training on adhd symptoms, neuropsychological disorders and academic skills in children and adolescents with adhd showed that in addition to improving the working memory functioning, those approaches that target different neuropsychological processes can optimize the transfer of effects from cognitive problems to clinical symptoms (qian et. al., 2017). a study by mahvash et. al. (2016) showed that working memory training influences cognitive problems and attention in children with adhd (wernoosfaderani, mahaki & ebrahimi, 2016). also, samimi et. al. (2017) investigated the effect of emotional working memory training on executive functions of children with adhd and the results showed that emotional executive function decreases response rate and improves reverse memory in these people (wernoosfaderani et. al., 2016). the most important limitation of the present study is the use of purpose sampling method and it is suggested to use other sampling methods with lower error rate for the future studies (willcutt, doyle, a. sadat kazemi, z. mohammadi the effect of working memory training on executive function of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder 139 nigg, faraone & pennington, 2005). also, it is recommended to investigate the effect of working memory on other disorders that hyperactive children suffer from, such as anxiety, depression, suicide, etc. since most of disorders accompanied by adhd continue until adulthood, similar studies on adults with adhd and comparing the results with children suffering from adhd can provide interesting and useful results (hummer et. al., 2011). according to the findings, it can be said that working memory training can be used in medical centers. psychiatrics and clinical psychologists can use working memory training method beside other therapies such as drug therapy and neurofeedback to improve executive functions of people with adhd. for this reason, children with adhd show different neuropsychological symptoms and they may be influenced by more than one disorder. multi-component training can be used to target a series of neuropsychological domains (cortese et. al., 2015). moreover, it is useful to train teachers and parents of children with adhd and normal children to use this strategy to decrease children’s impulsive behavior and increase their social skills. 5. conclusion finally, working memory training can significantly and positively influence adhd improvement in children who suffer from it. acknowledgement the researcher appreciates the professor and participants. references baron, i. s. (2003). neuropsychological evaluation of the child. oxford university press. bauer, b. w., gustafsson, h. c., nigg, j., & karalunas, s. l. (2018). working memory mediates increased negative affect and suicidal ideation in childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. journal of psychopathology behavioral assessment, 40(2), 180-193. baughman, f. d., & cooper, r. p. (2007). inhibition and young children’s performance on the tower of london task. cognitive systems research, 8(3), 216-226. benzing, v., chang, y.-k., & schmidt, m. (2018). acute physical activity enhances executive functions in children with adhd. scientific reports, 8(1), 12382. boghi, a., rasetti, r., avidano, f., manzone, c., orsi, l., d'agata, f., caroppo, p., bergui, m., rocca, p., & pulvirenti, l. (2006). the effect of gender on planning: an fmri study using the tower of london task. neuroimage, 33(3), 999-1010. cortese, s., ferrin, m., brandeis, d., buitelaar, j., daley, d., dittmann, r. w., holtmann, m., santosh, p., stevenson, j., & stringaris, a. (2015). cognitive training for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: meta-analysis of clinical and neuropsychological outcomes from randomized controlled trials. journal of the american academy of child & adolescent psychiatry, 54(3), 164-174. culbertson, w. c., & zillmer, e. a. (1998). the tower of londondx: a standardized approach to assessing executive functioning in children. archives of clinical neuropsychology, 13(3), 285-301. duff, c. t., & sulla, e. m. (2015). measuring executive function in the differential diagnosis of attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder: does it really tell us anything? applied neuropsychology: child, 4(3), 188-196. egeland, j., aarlien, a. k., & saunes, b.-k. (2013). few effects of far transfer of working memory training in adhd: a randomized controlled trial. plos one, 8(10), e75660. hasani, j., samimi, z., parooi, m., & tamini, m. k. (2017). the effectiveness of emotional working memory training on execution functions of adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder. education strategy medical science, 9(5), 381-391. holmes, j., gathercole, s. e., place, m., dunning, d. l., hilton, k. a., & elliott, j. g. (2010). working memory deficits can be overcome: impacts of training and medication on working memory in children with adhd. applied cognitive psychology, 24(6), 827-836. hummer, t. a., kronenberger, w. g., wang, y., dunn, d. w., mosier, k. m., kalnin, a. j., & mathews, v. p. (2011). executive functioning characteristics associated with adhd comorbidity in adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders. journal of abnormal child psychology, 39(1), 11-19. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 140 jensen, d. a., høvik, m. f., monsen, n. j. n., eggen, t. h., eichele, h., adolfsdottir, s., plessen, k. j., & sørensen, l. (2018). keeping emotions in mind: the influence of working memory capacity on parent-reported symptoms of emotional lability in a sample of children with and without adhd. frontiers in psychology, 9. klingberg, t., forssberg, h., & westerberg, h. (2002). training of working memory in children with adhd. journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, 24(6), 781-791. krikorian, r., bartok, j., & gay, n. (1994). tower of london procedure: a standard method and developmental data. journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, 16(6), 840-850. león-domínguez, u., martín-rodríguez, j. f., & león-carrión, j. (2015). executive n-back tasks for the neuropsychological assessment of working memory. behavioural brain research, 292, 167-173. lezak, m. d., howieson, d. b., loring, d. w., & fischer, j. s. (2004). neuropsychological assessment. oxford university press, usa. marcelle, e. t., ho, e. j., kaplan, m., adler, l. a., castellanos, f. x., & milham, m. (2018). cogmed working memory training presents unique implementation challenges in adults with adhd. frontiers in psychiatry, 9, 388. nelwan, m., vissers, c., & kroesbergen, e. h. (2018). coaching positively influences the effects of working memory training on visual working memory as well as mathematical ability. neuropsychologia, 113, 140-149. payne, j. m., arnold, s. s., pride, n. a., & north, k. n. (2012). does attention‐deficit–hyperactivity disorder exacerbate executive dysfunction in children with neurofibromatosis type 1? developmental medicine & child neurology, 54(10), 898-904. qian, y., chen, m., shuai, l., cao, q.-j., yang, l., & wang, y.-f. (2017). effect of an ecological executive skill training program for school-aged children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a randomized controlled clinical trial. chinese medical journal, 130(13), 1513. rajeh, a., amanullah, s., shivakumar, k., & cole, j. (2017). interventions in adhd: a comparative review of stimulant medications and behavioral therapies. asian journal of psychiatry, 25, 131-135. rapport, m. d., alderson, r. m., kofler, m. j., sarver, d. e., bolden, j., & sims, v. (2008). working memory deficits in boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd): the contribution of central executive and subsystem processes. journal of abnormal child psychology, 36(6), 825-837. rasser, p. e., johnston, p., lagopoulos, j., ward, p. b., schall, u., thienel, r., bender, s., toga, a. w., & thompson, p. m. (2005). functional mri bold response to tower of london performance of firstepisode schizophrenia patients using cortical pattern matching. neuroimage, 26(3), 941-951. schreiber, j. e., possin, k. l., girard, j. m., & rey-casserly, c. (2014). executive function in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: the nih examiner battery. journal of the international neuropsychological society, 20(1), 41-51. shallice, t. (1982). specific impairments of planning. philosophical transactions of the royal society of london. b, biological sciences, 298(1089), 199-209. shuai, l., daley, d., wang, y.-f., zhang, j.-s., kong, y.-t., tan, x., & ji, n. (2017). executive function training for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. chinese medical journal, 130(5), 549. singh, a., yeh, c. j., verma, n., & das, a. k. (2015). overview of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in young children. health psychology research, 3(2). termine, c., luoni, c., fontolan, s., selvini, c., perego, l., pavone, f., rossi, g., balottin, u., & cavanna, a. e. (2016). impact of co-morbid attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder on cognitive function in male children with tourette syndrome: a controlled study. psychiatry research, 243, 263-267. thorell, l. b., lindqvist, s., bergman nutley, s., bohlin, g., & klingberg, t. (2009). training and transfer effects of executive functions in preschool children. developmental science, 12(1), 106-113. tseng, m. h., henderson, a., chow, s. m., & yao, g. (2004). relationship between motor proficiency, attention, impulse, and activity in children with adhd. developmental medicine child neurology, 46(6), 381-388. wang, z., jing, j., igarashi, k., fan, l., yang, s., li, y., & jin, y. (2018). executive function predicts the visuospatial working memory in autism spectrum disorder and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder. autism research, 11(8), 1148-1156. a. sadat kazemi, z. mohammadi the effect of working memory training on executive function of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder 141 weiss, m. d., wasdell, m. b., bomben, m. m., rea, k. j., & freeman, r. d. (2006). sleep hygiene and melatonin treatment for children and adolescents with adhd and initial insomnia. journal of the american academy of child adolescent psychiatry, 45(5), 512-519. wernoosfaderani, a. m., mahaki, f., & ebrahimi, m. (2016). the effectiveness of working memory for decreasing cognitive/attention deficit problems of children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. willcutt, e. g., doyle, a. e., nigg, j. t., faraone, s. v., & pennington, b. f. (2005). validity of the executive function theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analytic review. biological psychiatry, 57(11), 1336-1346. zook, n. a., davalos, d. b., delosh, e. l., & davis, h. p. (2004). working memory, inhibition, and fluid intelligence as predictors of performance on tower of hanoi and london tasks. brain and cognition, 56(3), 286-292. microsoft word document1 22 university teachers plagiarism a preliminary review of research ghiațău roxana maria "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău calea mărășești 157, 600115 – bacău, românia phone: +40 234 576 901 mâță liliana "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău calea mărășești 157, 600115 – bacău, românia phone: +40 234 576 901 lsacara@yahoo.com abstract the purpose of this paper is to explore three different themes within university teacher plagiarism via the use of a systematic literature review: definition of concepts, the relationship between information and communication technologies and university teacher plagiarism and the attitudes and perceptions regarding university teacher plagiarism. the motivation of the research is related to the fact that there is a very comprehensive literature on plagiarism in general, but rather limited literature on university teacher plagiarism. teachers are role-models; hence, their actions and attitudes are often assumed by students. the data composing the present literature review were extracted from one of the databases very frequently used in romania: springer link. a literature search in this database was performed using the following keywords: “teacher plagiarism” and “researcher plagiarism “. we found that the concept of university teacher plagiarism does not exist as such, and authors support a unique delimitation, irrespective of context. the least represented domain is that related to ict and university teacher plagiarism, which urges for an immediate approach to this topic by means of empirical studies. keywords: higher education; systematic literature review; teacher plagiarism. 1. introduction this study is part of a wider research project called "factors influencing teachers' attitudes towards unethical information technology use in higher education". a natural step in our efforts is to conduct a review of one of the most known forms of academic misconduct, plagiarism. as indicated by the theme of the project, our interest is teacher misconduct, and in the case of this article teacher plagiarism. in this paper, the expressions ‘university teacher’ and ‘higher education teacher’ are used synonymously and interchangeably, as these expressions refer to assistant professors, associate professors, professors, supervisors from higher education, mentors, coordinators of master’s or doctoral theses. academic dishonesty is not a new phenomenon, on the contrary, it proliferates, with increasingly insidious forms. a survey by fanelli (2009) has found that 1.97% of scientists admitted to have fabricated, falsified or modified data or results at least once and up to 33.7% admitted to other questionable research practices. plagiarism is qualitatively different from fabrication and falsification, but it is also very frequent all over the world. mainly, ‘internet cut and paste plagiarism’ is growing (mccabe, 2003). as bennett, behrendt, & boothby (2011, p. 30) argue, “…we have much to learn about how to improve academic integrity in higher education”. the current research is an exploratory study using an inductive approach and incorporating a review of existing literature in relation to teacher plagiarism in higher education. this review focuses on three aspects of teacher plagiarism: 1. a conceptual delimitation of plagiarism from the perspective of a professor’s professional roles, with an emphasis on teaching and research; 2. attitudes and perceptions about teacher plagiarism; 3. the role of the internet and, in general, of technological factors in teacher plagiarism. the choices for the three themes reviewed are based on ghiațău r. m., mâță l. university teachers plagiarism a preliminary review of research 23 the following reasons. first, we found little systematic reviews on teacher plagiarism. most often than not, the definition and forms of plagiarism are approached in an abstract manner by resorting to concepts that are quite technical, such as cut and paste. obviously, we do not question the necessity of relating to unitary criteria, which supports objectivity, but plagiarism has many national, cultural, socio-media, institutional, linguistic determinations, as demonstrated by numerous studies (sowden, 2005; leask, 2006; vasconcelos et al., 2009). plagiarism cannot be understood without reference to the numerous factors to which it relates. our approach aims to highlight whether we can extract from studies those elements of defining plagiarism that are closely linked to the duties of a university teacher. there is no single form of plagiarism, but varied forms depending on intention, scale, awareness, purpose, forms that can relate to professional duties. second, many reviews focus on student plagiarism and attitudes of teachers towards student plagiarism. in this review, the focus will be reversed. we shall attempt to synthesize the data from the studies that pursue teachers' attitudes and perceptions towards plagiarism in their own segment, that of trainers and not of students. perception and attitude are critical topics because they can influence judgment and actions (husain, al-shaibani & mahfoodh, 2017). teachers are rolemodels, they influence students through everything they do. a teacher who has plagiarized compromises his career irremediably. perceptions influence how the teacher relates to the professional activities of writing scientific articles, teaching, etc. third, the technological revolution of the past 30 years is a reality that has fundamentally changed the academic world. higher education cannot evolve without information and communication technologies (ict), but the ways in which the rethinking of academic roles in relation to technology is not a matter of neglect, as it involves ethical risks. teachers make full use of electronic information resources, therefore the relationship between professor and technology requires a double approach, both to benefits and disadvantages. the internet seems to be one of the forces pushing to plagiarism. fourth, all three topics (definition, perceptions and attitudes, ict) will support the representatives of higher education institutions in better documenting their policies. dealing effectively with plagiarism should be based on a framework of understanding shared by staff and students. 2. the relationship between information and communication technologies and university teacher plagiarism 2.1. the university teaching profession today professionalism is defined as a group of attitudes, values, behaviours and relations by means of which the members of a profession relate to their public on a qualitative level. ethical standards are required and mandatory in a profession, apart from stages of preparation, special skills and expertise. in the case of university teachers, work products are of several categories: daily activities products such as courses, seminars, projects, along with scripted products such as research papers, articles. both can be studied from the perspective of plagiarism. wilhelm von humboldt has highlighted the two central values of university teachers, namely the ‘unity of research and teaching’ and ‘academic freedom’ (teichler, arimoto, & cummings, 2013). as a result, university teacher fundamental roles have already been traced: teaching responsibilities and research responsibilities. the traditional didactic roles of teachers from higher education are: course designer, teacher, supervisor, assessor, evaluator and subject expert (badley & habeshaw, 1991). along with teaching roles, university teachers also have many other roles: designers and implementers of research projects, project evaluators, managerial-administrative roles, etc. all of this adds to the “job description” sheet, resulting in extremely diverse and complex demands. but teachers have to move from these roles to others, appropriate to today’s social context. first of all, they need to become managers of learning rather than dispensers of knowledge. as managers of learning teachers will also have to become more aware of how learners learn, to help students move from surface approaches (mere memorization) to deep approaches (problem-solving, argumentation, debate). in addition, we add three ‘key challenges’ that have recently gained prominence in the knowledge society (kogan & teichler, 2007): a. a higher expectation of relevance from ‘scholarship of discovery’ to ‘scholarship of application’; b. a growing brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 24 internationalisation; c. a substantially increased managerial power in higher education. universities must not abandon their ethical and social mission, which is to cultivate ethical leadership and to form the values of citizenship. 2.2. plagiarism – conceptual difficulties and causes defining plagiarism is a difficult enterprise because we are talking about a complex, multifaceted phenomenon related to various factors, including linguistic competence, academic literacy, culture, racism, academic integrity, media scandal and institutional governance (carroll, 2003; bretag 2005). in her doctoral thesis, diane pecorari (2002, p.60) has elaborated a definitional model of plagiarism, comprising six elements: 1. an object (language, words, text); 2. which has been taken (or borrowed, stolen etc.); 3. from a particular source (books, journals, internet); 4. by an agent (student, person, academic); 5. without (adequate) acknowledgement; 6. and with or without intention to deceive. this model provides a very clear general framework that can be used in any context, including the work of university teachers. for helgesson and eriksson (2015, p. 94) plagiarism should be understood as “an instance of someone using someone else’s intellectual product (such as texts, ideas, or results), thereby implying that it is their own”. sonfield (2014) explicitly argues that plagiarism is often not a truly legal issue, but generally a professional and moral issue, governed by established academic ethical standards. we have synthesized from the literature several causes that provide an explanation for teacher plagiarism. firstly, we may report on the “publish or perish” syndrome, as defined since the 90’s (mcgrail, rickard and jones, 2006); chunmei & chuanjun, 2015). it is a feature of western higher education, but it has gradually extended all over the world. to publish as much as possible in the best rated journals is a target for university teachers all over the world. many higher education institutions require a minimum number of articles per year as a target for teachers. now more than ever, it has become critical for teachers to publish their research, to demonstrate their academic skills and build prestige among colleagues. “this enormous pressure to continuously produce scientific papers to survive has become an unavoidable challenge to the academia worldwide to become more competitive in securing their jobs and grants” (sandy & shen, 2018, p.3). this competitive academic world enhances the temptation for teachers to commit all the forms of academic misconduct, including plagiarism (de vries, anderson & martinson 2006; fanelli 2009). secondly, besides the “publish or perish” trend, there is also the “publish to earn incentives” phenomenon (sandy and shen, 2018). the research results are typically the main considerations in merit-pay frames, which is also a good reason for fraud. thirdly, a possible macrostructural cause that affects the ethical climate in academic environments is higher education marketization. a series of research (wangenge-ouma, 2008) points out that marketization opens the gateway to plagiarism for students, so it is likely that this also influences the behaviour of teachers. research in this direction would be particularly useful. another reality related to market free higher education is the fact that scientific knowledge becomes more and more treated as a commodity or as a product that is for sale (vermeir, 2013). commodification is a broader phenomenon that does not just involve the influence of money on science or the scientific fraud, but engages several negative phenomena such as: diminishes intrinsic motivation, causes loss of autonomy, decreases trust (vermeir, 2013). 2.3. aims of the present study over time, an enormous literature on plagiarism has been elaborated. some works focus on plagiarism in general, others focus on the attitudes of different actors of the academic world on this ghiațău r. m., mâță l. university teachers plagiarism a preliminary review of research 25 phenomenon. in this study we will focus only on plagiarism of university teachers, viewed from several perspectives. we believe that teaching and research duties outline the understanding of plagiarism. the major objective of the present study are to explore the existing literature to distinguish among types of teacher plagiarism in higher education along three lines: concept definition, attitudes and perception on teacher plagiarism, and the relationship between internet and teacher plagiarism. the research questions are: 1. can we extract, based on the analysed studies, a definition of teacher plagiarism, in relation to the specific roles of teachers in higher education? 2. what are the attitudes and perceptions towards teacher plagiarism. we shall investigate two types of studies: studies that focus on the attitudes of teachers themselves and studies that target the attitudes towards teacher plagiarism of other categories, such as students. 3. what is the influence of the internet and technological resources on teacher plagiarism, as shown by the studies? what are the main topics of discussion related to this topic? 3. method a literature qualitative review is the process to collect data, know, understand, analyse, synthetize and evaluate the group of scientific articles with the aim to create a state of the art for a certain topic of research (levy and ellis, 2006). there are a number of reasons why these methods should be undertaken by researchers: to summarise existing evidence concerning a domain, to identify the gaps in current research in order to determine where further investigation might be needed. this systematic literature search began in june 2018 and was completed in september 2018. we used the following criteria: 1. population – university teachers (fixed term and tenured, employed both full-time and part-time, trainers, instructors, mentors), researchers; 2. interest teacher plagiarism, researcher plagiarism, teacher cheating, teacher misconduct; 3. context university, higher education, faculty, or an equivalent tertiary education institution. exclusion criteria: population (students, children, high-school teachers, kindergarten teachers, non-teaching staff); interest (student plagiarism, student misconduct); context: pre-university institutions; language: non-english. 3.1. searching data sources the data composing the present literature review were extracted from one of the databases that is highly used in romania: springer link. a literature search in this database was performed using the following keywords: “teacher plagiarism” and “researcher plagiarism”. the choice of these labels is motivated by the fact that teachers’ roles are not just teaching but also research. the total number of results was 347 (for keyword plagiarism teachers) and 341 (for keyword plagiarism researchers). the filters for searching were: content type: article, discipline: education; language: english; date published: 1990-2018. we also reviewed the references provided in all of the articles looking for other relevant studies or citations. we supplemented our search with a manual search using the google scholar and science direct collection, but not as a priority. we found some studies that had already been selected and, therefore, redundant. other studies were available only in abstract form because not all articles have open access to the type of subscription that romanian universities can access. 3.2. selecting relevant studies this stage was laborious enough, requiring a hand-reading of all articles that looked at one or more of the three themes: definitions of teacher plagiarism, teachers' attitudes and perceptions on plagiarism in their own profession, ict involvement in teacher plagiarism. a lot of traps have been detected, especially related to the theme of attitudes and perceptions because many studies refer to teachers' attitudes toward student plagiarism or plagiarism in general but not explicitly to teacher plagiarism. this difficulty was almost impossible to overcome. practically, there is a very limited number of studies on this issue, which has forced us to accept the inclusion of expanded criteria such as selecting four articles that investigate students' attitudes and perceptions towards teacher brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 26 plagiarism. we highlight several limitations of the selection process. firstly, it is very difficult to know if the articles on researcher plagiarism are part of the sample of our research. many researchers also teach, but not all. the articles do not explicitly state whether researchers are also teachers. secondly, some articles investigate teacher misconduct, a wider phenomenon than teacher plagiarism. both types of results were taken into account due to possible implications for the research topic. articles accepted for initial review (n = 60). among these studies only 44 met the eligibility criteria for full text evaluation. in these studies, 12 articles described issue 1 (defining teacher plagiarism), 26 articles described issue 2 (attitudes and perceptions about teacher plagiarism) and 6 articles described issue 3 (teacher plagiarism and ict). 4. results and discussions issue 1: defining teacher plagiarism among the sources examined, the paper by helgesson and eriksson (2015) was of particular interest to our study, as they establish several criteria for an adequate definition of plagiarism in general (2015, p. 92): fitting language use the definition should catch basic semantic intuitions and should be able to handle paradigmatic cases; precision: the definition should settle whether a situation is a case of plagiarism or not; reliability (intersubjectivity): the definition is reliable if different users of it pass the same judgment on specific cases; theoretical fruitfulness: the definition is more theoretically fruitful if it is better at distinguishing things that may be important to keep apart; relevance for normative purposes: the definition should as far as possible identify as plagiarism those events that one would like to single out as morally problematic in this regard. simplicity: the general idea that it is preferable for a definition to be homogeneous and ad hoc-free. rosamond (2002) also synthesizes several lines of defining plagiarism: 1. from the plagiarist’s perspective who, having poor specialized training, will bear the consequences of his act; 2. as practice that breaches formal ethical standards established by institutions and professions; 3. as infringement of informal practices of academic life that requires positive values to work; 4. as legalistic approach a form of fraud of intellectual property of the original author. the types of plagiarism, common for teachers and students are: direct plagiarism, mosaic or patchwork plagiarism, paraphrase plagiarism, word switch plagiarism, metaphor plagiarism, copypaste plagiarism, self-plagiarism, auto plagiarism, cryptomnesia (evans, 2000; harris, 2001; cabe, without year). special attention is paid to self-plagiarism, more often found at experienced university teachers (hodges et all. 2017; bretag and mahmud, 2009). several authors (helgesson and eriksson, 2015; leask, 2006) raise a series of highly relevant questions regarding the issue of identifying and approaching cases of plagiarism. are all forms of plagiarism equally bad? what are the aggravating circumstances? why is plagiarism wrong? rosamond (2002) identifies three criteria that we must take into account when we consider plagiarism. a first criterion is intention, from which plagiarism results deliberately or unintentionally, a second criterion is quantity, that is, how much of the text was stolen (a word, an entire text, an entire research methodology). a third criterion defines plagiarism in such a way as to include both copying and paraphrasing without appropriate citation. for helgesson and eriksson (2015) the following aspects are irrelevant in determining whether or not a certain act is an issue of plagiarism: the scientific merit to be gained from the publication; the form of product where plagiarism occurs a published paper, a student essay, a doctoral thesis, or an oral presentation at a seminar; the author that is plagiarised (student, teacher, group report); the audience or purpose of the plagiarising work. for james, mcinnes and devlin (2002), “plagiarism varies in both intent and extent, ranging from deliberate fraud, to negligent or accidental failure to acknowledge sources of paraphrased material and misunderstandings about the conventions of authorship” (p. 5). the first conclusion to be drawn from this section of our review is that based on the evidence presented, we cannot extract a definition of teacher plagiarism specifically. the concept of teacher plagiarism does not exist in itself, even if some authors give contextual arguments: what ghiațău r. m., mâță l. university teachers plagiarism a preliminary review of research 27 constitutes plagiarism in a research report does not necessarily constitute plagiarism in an exam (carroll, 2003, p.13). specialists recommend a unique delimitation, whether it refers to teachers, students or other professional categories. plagiarism is plagiarism, no matter the context in which it happens. table 1. sample of evidences on definition and forms of teacher plagiarism author and date location data used in the study summary of conclusions eaton and crossman, 2018 canada articles found with electronic search in five databases: academic search complete; education research complete; eric; google scholar; proquest dissertations and theses. the aim of the research was to establish typologies of evidence that characterize the literature on self-plagiarism in scholarly and research journals, particularly in the social sciences. sonfield 2014 usa a case study the article deals with legal and moral aspects of an extreme and clear case of plagiarism. bretag and mahmud, 2009 australia conceptual analysis the study is an insight into how we define plagiarism and its forms. helgessonn and eriksson 2014 sweden conceptual analysis authors explain the concept of “plagiarism” and define plagiarism in relation to research. leask, b. (2006). australia conceptual analysis the author proposes a change of the metaphor “war and battle” that now characterizes plagiarism with that of intercultural meeting. rosamond, 2002 united kingdom conceptual analysis solving the issue of plagiarism is a matter of pedagogy and academic socialisation. issue 2: attitudes and perceptions about teacher plagiarism undoubtedly, perceiving the notion of plagiarism influences the professional conduct of higher education teachers. how teachers see cheating is a clue of how they see education (bouville, 2010). several conclusions that may be highlighted are: 1. teachers do not have unitary views of what plagiarism means (vasconcelos et al. 2009; bennett et al., 2011; kraemer diaz, spears johnson and arcury, 2015). for example, bennet et al. (2011) found disparities among teachers on regarding the recycled work of someone as plagiarism. 2. the incidence of academic misconduct in different surveys in the world of researchers is around 25% (honig and bedi, 2012) and 33% (anderson, 2008) which is not encouraging at all. 3. institutional responses to plagiarism in research are most often silence, apathy, laxity, even though there are serious written commitments to cultivate academic integrity (luke and kearins, 2012; sonfield 2014). by far, this section contains most studies, being also the most heterogeneous, with different approaches depending on the goals of the researchers. there are four major themes that are typically the focus of articles in this section: perceptions and attitudes towards understanding the notion of plagiarism / academic misconduct, along with the appreciation of the severity of academic cheating behaviour; teacher perception of the incidence of academic misconduct / plagiarism in their own profession and at students; perceptions and attitudes towards severe cases of plagiarism; studying some variables that could influence academic plagiarism, such as years of study abroad. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 28 table 2. sample of evidences on attitudes and perceptions about teacher plagiarism author and date location data used in the study summary of conclusions bennett, behrendt and boothby, 2011 usa (missourikansas) electronic questionnaire data from 158 instructors (from social sciences). this article focuses on instructors’ views on four themes: what constitutes plagiarism, personal experiences with plagiarism, detection strategies, response tendencies to instances of plagiarism. most participants agreed that behaviours that claim credit for someone else’s work constituted plagiarism. respondents differed in their perceptions of whether ‘‘recycling’’ one’s work was plagiarism. lei, and hu 2015 china survey on 112 chinese university english teachers divided into two groups (the overseas-trained teachers and home-trained teachers). the participants as a group understood transgressive intertextuality differently from anglo-american academia and the overseas-trained teachers had more fine-grained understandings of transgressive intertextuality than the home-trained teachers. hodges et all. 2017 qatar quantitative study, using the turnitin software and textual analysis of 763 abstracts submitted in four different years at a conference. a total of 88 abstracts were categorized as containing some form of plagiarism. faculty writers in non-western contexts did not plagiarise more than those in western contexts; the academic rank is important, senior faculty authors had a tendency to self-plagiarize poon and ainuddin 2011 malaysia survey data obtained from a sample of 102 business students from five universities in malaysia. practices such as fabrication, manipulation, and distortion of data are considered to be ethically unacceptable, and these behaviours were reported to be least prevalent. in contrast, the practice of misapplying statistical techniques was considered ethically acceptable and reported to be quite prevalent. hyytinen and löfström 2016 finland qualitative multi-method approach, including think-aloud and interview data academics’ views on the responsibility for teaching research integrity, the methods employed to teach it and the necessity of intervening demonstrate variation. tiong, et all. 2018 malaysia mixed qualitative and quantitative approaches, self-administered questionnaire for 141 university teachers approximately half of all respondents reported having personally encountered at least one case of academic dishonesty involving their peers. the results signals prevalence of various forms of academic misconduct among healthcare academics compared to their nonhealthcare counterparts. luke and kearins 2012 australia new zealand case study although universities show interest in high ethical values in the world of research and publishing, silence and complicity are frequent attitudes. issue 3: teacher plagiarism and ict evidence that establishes a link between student cheating and internet use has accumulated over time (stricherz, 2001; szabo and underwood, j. 2004; ma et al., 2008; eret and ok, 2014). ghiațău r. m., mâță l. university teachers plagiarism a preliminary review of research 29 much less can be said about the relationship between university teachers cheating and technological resources. even though many studies are triggering alarm signals, the relationship between university teachers’ plagiarism and ict is not present in empirical research. the phenomenon is approached rather globally, from the perspective of academic misconduct, or from the perspective of some side agents: phd students, undergraduates. even if there are few studies, we may highlight several tendencies. for example, papers on the relation between the internet and cheating provide contrasting conclusions. analysing the influence of the internet on plagiarism among doctoral dissertations, ison (2015) found that the internet may not be significantly impacting the prevalence of plagiarism in advanced levels of higher education. research conducted by akdemir, vural and çolakoglu (2015) revealed that prospective teachers are more likely to perform unethical behaviours in the virtual environment than in real life. the main topics related to technology and cheating approached in the studies are: digital cheating (conceptual approach), plagiarism detection methods, internet plagiarism among students. the conclusion that can be drawn from this review section is that the relationship between university teachers’ plagiarism and ict is undoubtedly the least represented in empirical research. table 3. sample of evidence on teacher plagiarism in relation to ict authors location data used in the study summary of conclusions ison, 2015 usa a sample of 384 dissertations were analysed by turnitin plagiarism detection software. the internet may not be significantly impacting the prevalence of plagiarism in doctoral dissertations. akdemir, vural, and çolakoglu, 2015 turkey the cross-sectional survey design with a sample of 352 prospective teachers. prospective teachers are more likely to perform unethical behaviours in the virtual environment than real life. men are more likely to perform unethical behaviours in the virtual environment than women. 4. conclusions the aim of this review was to shed light on the concept of teacher plagiarism in literature with a focus on three themes: definition of teacher plagiarism, attitudes and perceptions about teacher plagiarism and the relationship between plagiarism and ict. we found that the concept of teacher plagiarism does not stand alone, and the authors advocate for a unique delimitation, regardless of context. the least represented area is ict and teacher plagiarism, which recommends an urgent approach to this field with empirical studies. despite numerous studies, many aspects can still be investigated in relation to plagiarism. limitations of the study our research is a preliminary review. it has been restricted to articles/ papers searched in the springer link data base and google scholar with manual handling. other deep searches to include other databases are necessary to understand the phenomenon more fully. acknowledgements this work was supported by a grant of ministery of research and innovation, cncs uefiscdi, project number pn-iii-p1-1.1-te-2016-0773, within pncdi iii. references akdemir, ö., vural, ö. f., & çolakoglu, ö. m. (2015). prospective teachers' likelihood of performing unethical behaviors in the real and virtual environments. turkish online journal of educational technology-tojet, 14(2), 130-137. anderson ms (2008) scientific inquiry: maintaining the legitimacy of the research enterprise. proceedings of the 4th international barcelona conference on higher education, vol 1. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 30 ethics and relevance of scientific knowledge: what knowledge for society? global university network for innovation. badley, g., & habeshaw, t. (1991). the changing role of the teacher in higher education. journal of in-service education, 17(3), 212-218. bennett, k. k., behrendt, l. s., & boothby, j. l. (2011). instructor perceptions of plagiarism: are we finding common ground?. teaching of psychology, 38(1), 29-35. bouville, m. (2010). why is cheating wrong?. studies in philosophy and education, 29(1), 67. bretag,t. (2005). implementing plagiarism policy in the internationalised university (doctoral dissertation, university of newcastle). bretag, t., & mahmud, s. (2009). self-plagiarism or appropriate textual re-use?. journal of academic ethics, 7(3), 193. cabe patrick a. example of plagiarism: a taxonomy. available at https://www. skidmore.edu/psychology/resources/student/ tips.php , retrieved 15 september 2018. carroll, j. (2003) six things i did not know four years ago about dealing with plagiarism, in: h. marsden & m. hicks (eds) educational integrity: plagiarism and other perplexities, proceedings of the inaugural educational integrity conference, university of south australia, adelaide, november 2003, 12–18. chunmei, y. a. n., & chuanjun, h. e. (2015). to be or not to be? the “publish or perish” syndrome for english teacher educators in china. frontiers of education in china, 10(4), 526-543. de vries, r., anderson, m. s., & martinson, b. c. (2006). normal misbehavior: scientists talk about the ethics of research. journal of empirical research on human research ethics, 1(1), 43-50. eaton, s. e., & crossman, k. (2018). self-plagiarism research literature in the social sciences: a scoping review. interchange, 1-27. eret, e., & ok, a. (2014). internet plagiarism in higher education: tendencies, triggering factors and reasons among teacher candidates. assessment & evaluation in higher education, 39(8), 1002-1016. evans, j.t. (2000). the new plagiarism in higher education: from selection to reflection (electronic version).telri project. retrieved 5 june 2018 from www.warwick.ac.uk/ets/interactions/vol4no2/evans.html fanelli, d. (2009). how many scientists fabricate and falsify research? a systematic review and meta-analysis of survey data. plos one, 4(5), e5738. hamiti, m., & dika, a. (2011 ). challenges of computers and it in the coming decade, case study: see-university in macedonia. in information technology interfaces (iti), proceedings of the iti 2011 33rd international conference on(pp. 65-70). ieee. harris, r.a. (2001). the plagiarism handbook: strategies for preventing, detecting, and dealing with plagiarism. california: eyrczak publishing. helgesson, g., & eriksson, s. (2015). plagiarism in research. medicine, health care and philosophy, 18(1), 91-101. hodges, a., bickham, t., schmidt, e., & seawright, l. (2017). challenging the profiles of a plagiarist: a study of abstracts submitted to an international interdisciplinary conference. international journal for educational integrity, 13(1), 7. honig, b., & bedi, a. (2012). the fox in the hen house: a critical examination of plagiarism among members of the academy of management. academy of management learning & education, 11(1), 101-123. husain, f. m., al-shaibani, g. k. s., & mahfoodh, o. h. a. (2017). perceptions of and attitudes toward plagiarism and factors contributing to plagiarism: a review of studies. journal of academic ethics, 15(2), 167-195. ghiațău r. m., mâță l. university teachers plagiarism a preliminary review of research 31 hyytinen, h., & löfström, e. (2017). reactively, proactively, implicitly, explicitly? academics’ pedagogical conceptions of how to promote research ethics and integrity. journal of academic ethics, 15(1), 23-41. ison, d. c. (2015). the influence of the internet on plagiarism among doctoral dissertations: an empirical study. journal of academic ethics, 13(2), 151-166. james, r., mcinnes, c. & devlin, m. (2002). assessing learning in australian universities (electronic version). retrieved 10 june, 2018. kogan, m., & teichler, u. (2007b). key challenges of the academic profession and its interface with management: some introductory thoughts. in m. kogan & u. teichler (eds.), key challenges to the academic profession (werkstattberichte, vol. 65, pp. 9–15). kassel: international centre for higher education research kassel. kraemer diaz, a. e., spears johnson, c. r., & arcury, t. a. (2015). perceptions that influence the maintenance of scientific integrity in community-based participatory research. health education & behavior, 42(3), 393-401. leask, b. (2006). plagiarism, cultural diversity and metaphor—implications for academic staff development. assessment & evaluation in higher education, 31(2), 183-199. lei, j., & hu, g. (2015). chinese university efl teachers’ perceptions of plagiarism. higher education, 70(3), 551-565. levy, y., & ellis, t. j. (2006). a systems approach to conduct an effective literature review in support of information systems research. informing science: international journal of an emerging transdiscipline, 9(1), 181-212 luke, b., & kearins, k. (2012). attribution of words versus attribution of responsibilities: academic plagiarism and university practice. organization, 19(6), 881-889. ma, h., wang, g., & lu, e. (2008). digital cheating and plagiarism in schools. theory into practice, 47(3), 197– 203 mccabe, d. (2003). faculty and academic integrity: the influence of current honor codes and past honor code experiences. research in higher education, 44(3), 367–385. mcgrail, m. r., rickard, c. m., & jones, r. (2006). publish or perish: a systematic review of interventions to increase academic publication rates. higher education research & development, 25(1), 19-35. pecorari, d. (2002). original reproductions: an investigation of the source use of postgraduate second language writers. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of birmingham, birmingham. poon, j. m., & ainuddin, r. a. (2011). selected ethical issues in the analysis and reporting of research: survey of business school faculty in malaysia. journal of academic ethics, 9(4), 307. rosamond, b. (2002). plagiarism, academic norms and the governance of the profession. politics, 22(3), 167-174. sandy, w., & shen, h. (2018). publish to earn incentives: how do indonesian professors respond to the new policy?. higher education, 1-17. sonfield, m. c. (2014). academic plagiarism at the faculty level: legal versus ethical issues and a case study. journal of academic ethics, 12(2), 75-87. sowden, c. (2005). plagiarism and the culture of multilingual students in higher education abroad. elt journal, 59(3), 226-233. stricherz, m. (2001). many teachers ignore cheating, survey finds. education week, 20(34), 3. szabo, a., & underwood, j. (2004). cybercheats: is information and communication technology fuelling academic dishonesty?. active learning in higher education, 5(2), 180-199. teichler, u., arimoto, a., & cummings, w. k. (2013) the changing academic profession; major findings of a comparative survey, springer, dordrecht. tiong, j. j. l., kho, h. l., mai, c. w., lau, h. l., & hasan, s. s. (2018). academic dishonesty among academics in malaysia: a comparison between healthcare and non-healthcare academics. bmc medical education, 18(1), 168. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 32 vasconcelos, s., leta, j., costa, l., pinto, a., & sorenson, m. m. (2009). discussing plagiarism in latin american science: brazilian researchers begin to address an ethical issue. embo reports, 10(7), 677-682. vermeir, k. (2013). scientific research: commodities or commons?. science & education, 22(10), 2485-2510. wangenge-ouma, g. (2008). higher education marketisation and its discontents: the case of quality in kenya. higher education, 56(4), 457-471. computational methods in medicine brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, pages: 131-143 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/19 methods of handling unbalanced datasets in credit card fraud detection elena-adriana mînăstireanu1, gabriela meşniţă2 1 phd student, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iaşi, doctoral school of economics and business administration, iaşi, 700057, romania, adrianastan3@gmail.com 2 “alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, faculty of economics and business administration, business information systems department, iaşi, romania, gabriela.mesnita@feaa.uaic.ro abstract: nowadays fraudulent transactions of every type represent a major concern in the financial industry due to the total amount of money that are lost every year. manually analyzing fraudulent transactions is unfeasible if we think at the huge amount of data and the complexity of bank fraud in the digitization era. in this context, the problem to detect the fraud can be achieved by machine-learning algorithms due to their ability of detecting small anomalies in very large datasets. the problem that arise here is that the datasets are highly unbalanced meaning that the non-fraudulent cases heavily dominates the fraudulent ones. in this paper, we are going to present three ways of handling unbalanced datasets by: resampling methods (undersampling and oversampling), cost-sensitive training and tree algorithms (decision tree, random forest and naïve bayes), emphasizing the idea of why the receiver operating characteristics curve (roc) should not be used on this type of datasets when measuring the performance of the algorithm. the experimental test was applied on a number of 890,977 banking transactions in order to observe the performance metrics of all the three methods mentioned above. keywords: bank fraud; machine-learning algorithms; resampling; costsensitive training; unbalanced dataset. how to cite: mînăstireanu, e.-a., & meşniţă, g. (2020). methods of handling unbalanced datasets in credit card fraud detection. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 131-143. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/19 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/19 mailto:adrianastan3@gmail.com mailto:gabriela.mesnita@feaa.uaic.ro https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/19 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 132 1. introduction during the last decades, fraudulent transactions brought losses of billions of dollars every year, forcing in this way financial institutions to continuously improving their systems for loss reduction and as a consequence to this, combating fraud became a popular topic to explore. the actions against bank frauds remain divided into fraud prevention actions and fraud detection actions. fraud prevention actions consist of a set of principles, procedures and rules developed in order to stop fraud from occurring. on the other hand, the dynamics and the emergence of the new typologies of fraud require to identify new fraud detection action. this happens since delinquents are always looking for new ways and schemes to commit fraud. thus, the problem of combating fraud by developing complex decision-making systems remains critical and complex, taking into consideration that financial institutions are collecting daily huge information from o series of sources. this action raises another issue, that of detecting a rare but important case from a huge amount of data. in real-world domains this refers to high unbalance problem which got more and more emphasis in the last couple of years. in order to resolve this problem, different authors have been found different solutions both for data and algorithm. at the data level (chawla et al., 2003), these solutions include techniques like oversampling with replacement, random undersampling, directed oversampling and undersampling, oversampling with informed generation of new samples. at the algorithmic level (provost & fawcett, 2001), these include techniques of adjusting as follows: the costs of the various classes, the probabilistic estimate at the tree leaf, the decision threshold and recognition-based rather than discrimination-based learning. in this paper we are going to describe in a detailed manner three ways of handling unbalanced data by resampling, cost-sensitive training and tree algorithms. the paper is structured as follows. the first part will analyse the background of high unbalanced data based on literature review. in the second part we will present the methodology of the research and the results from the test concerning the performance of the tree algorithms. the main goal of the paper is to present different types of methods to deal with highly unbalanced data and some performance metrics regarding the tree algorithms used in fraud detection. methods of handling unbalanced datasets in credit card fraud detection elena-adriana mînăstireanu et al. 133 2. background and literature review handling the class unbalanced problem has become a common issue whereas implementing machine-learning algorithms to the actual problems. a data set is unbalanced when there is a considerable disparity in the numbers of positive and negative instances, frequently with the positive instances being more numerous than the negative instances (chawla et al., 2004; chawla et al., 2002; rao et al., 2006; kubat et al., 1998). major studies made around this problem concentrated especially on evaluation metrics and classification techniques. in literature the common measures applied to assess the performance of a classification method are as follow:  accuracy and error rate: these measure the general efficiency of the algorithm. this is made by assessing the proportion of correctly (accuracy) instances and those incorrectly (error rate). they are not appropriate to unbalanced datasets because they are focused more on the majority class.  precision, recall and f-measure: the first one determines how good the classifier is in detecting the fraudulent cases, as it takes into account the proportion between the cases with true positive attribute and the sum between those true and false positive. the second one evaluates the quality of a qualifier in order to not omit instances that should framed into the label. the last one mixes the first two measure to qualify the quality of a classifier for the occasional classes (van rijsbergen, 1979).  gmean (geometric mean): this type of measure is used to evaluate the performance of a classifier to create a balance between the minority and majority classes. however, the measure technique used, the principal characteristic of the algorithm consists in getting a high percentage of correct samples detected in the minority class and a small error percentage in the majority class. the receiver operating characteristic (roc) curve represents a standard technique used for evaluating the tradeoffs between true positive and false positive error rates in the case of classification algorithms. while the area under the curve (auc) represents the area that exists under a roc curve. in the opinion of provost and fawcett, the roc convex hull can be used as a method of “identifying potentially optimal classifiers”. as stated by the authors, the significance of this consists in the fact that “if a line passes through a point on the convex hull, then there is no other line with the same slope passing through another point with a larger true positive intercept. thus, the classification algorithm at that point is optimal under any distribution presumption in tandem with the slope” (provost & fawcett, 2001). brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 134 in order to handle the unbalanced problem several methods have been proposed. in this context we find in the literature many studies including that of chawla and colab., who proposed a synthetic minority oversampling technique or smote, for short, by generating synthetic data at random taking into account the similarities that exists between the minority samples and the k-nearest neighbors of each minority sample. as stated by the authors, the advantage smote technique is that “it maximizes the performance of the classifier and the learning biased as against the minority class”. however, this technique has some drawbacks, among which we can underline the fact that this technique is “applicable only for binary class problems” (chawla et al., 2002). fernandez-navarro et al. (2011) suggested two types of oversampling techniques: “a static smote radial basis function method and a dynamic smote radial basis function procedure” that was integrated into an algorithm of the mimetic type in order to optimize the radial basis functions neural networks. the experiments highlighted an improvement of the sensitivity in the generalization set and a high level of accuracy regarding the class classification. kerdprasop and kerdprasop (2012) proposed a combination between random oversampling, smote techniques and the following algorithms svm, neural network, decision tree induction, regression analysis to get an improvement regarding the performance of the results obtained by the learned model. furthermore, in order to get an improvement in the predicting accuracy they made use of a technique “based on a cluster feature selection”. seiffert et al. (2014), in their paper regarding classification performance in the imbalanced problems, used distinct classifiers including neural networks, decision tree, k-nearest neighbors, and naïve bayes. in their experiment they reviewed "the relationship between data sampling, classification performance, learner selection, and class imbalance and noise". their conclusion was that less noise can have a significant impact on the performance of the sampling technique. hulse and khoshgoftaar (2009) stated that the impact of noise is highly determined by the complexity of algorithm whilst simple classification algorithms like "naïve bayes and knn are often more robust than more complex classification algorithms like random forests or svm". moreover, they emphasized the fact that the technique increases the “performance of class imbalance and noise classifiers”. oversampling and undersampling represents effective techniques of dealing with unbalanced data sets. undersampling technique has as goal to methods of handling unbalanced datasets in credit card fraud detection elena-adriana mînăstireanu et al. 135 equilibrate class distribution through the random rejection of majority class samples, while oversampling aims to balance the distribution of classes by random replication of minority class samples. chawla et al. (2002) state that oversampling “can increase the likelihood of occurring overfitting, since it makes exact copies of the minority class examples”. however, undersampling offers better results than oversampling when used on large domains. in a study made by liu et al. (2010) results showed that oversampling techniques performs better than undersampling in the case of local classifiers whilst some undersampling techniques outperform oversampling in the case of classifiers that make use of global learning. kotsiantis and pintelas (2003) developed an “agent-based knowledge discovery (abkd) method” that combines three entities called agents (the first agent is used to learn using naıve bayes, the second one learns using c4.5 and the third one learns using 5nn) on a cleaned version of training data. the agent‟s predictions are then combined according to a certain voting scheme. the main objective of the method is to achieve different results for the detected errors through using different types of algorithms. in many cases of unbalanced, both the distribution of data is modified, and the cost of misclassification errors is variable. “the cost sensitive learning considers the misclassification cost through assigning higher cost of misclassification to the positive class and provides the model with lowest cost” (sun et al., 2007). however, the misclassification errors costs are often hidden and in this case cost sensitive learning may cause the appearance of overfitting (biodgloi & parsa, 2012). another cost sensitive proposed in the literature (uyar et al., 2010) is to adjust the “decision threshold of the machine learning techniques where the selection of threshold can be considered as an effective factor that influences the performance of the learning algorithms”. in the study of weiss et al. (2007), results obtained concluded that cost sensitive learning technique performs more better than the sampling methods. the literature (nguyen et al., 2009; haibo & edwardo, 2009; chris & robert, 2000; charles et al., 2004) presents several ways of incorporating cost into decision tree classification, like: one “cost can be used in order to tune the decision threshold, another one can be applied in splitting attribute selection in the construction process of the decision tree, and another technique that can be considered consists in applying to the tree the cost sensitive pruning schemes”. charles et al. (2004) proposed a method that can be used for building and testing decision trees that can minimize “the total sum of the misclassification and test costs”. the algorithm used is based on a splitting attribute that “minimizes the total cost, the sum of the test cost and the misclassification cost”. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 136 3. research methodology for this experiment we used a public database kaggle that contains information about transaction made by the european owners of credit cards in september 2013 (kaggle, 2003). the chosen data set presents two-day transactions with 492 frauds. the data set contains numeric variables that are the result of the principal component analysis (pca) algorithm used as normalization technique. due to confidentiality issues, the original information about this data cannot be provided, thus these features are labeled with v1 to v21. in this public data set, 'time' (transaction time) and 'amount' (transaction amount) are the features that have not been converted by the principal component analysis (pca) algorithm. also, there is a class property which represents the response variable and takes 1 for fraud cases and 0 for genuine transactions. due to this response variable, the data is extremely unbalanced, with only 0.172% of transactions having class = 1. for handling this unbalanced issue, we will apply over the public data sets three methods:  resampling where we are going to undersample the majority class and oversample the minority class through undersampling and oversampling;  cost-sensitive learning where we are going to use penalized random forest;  tree algorithms where we will use auc precision recall curve as a performance metric: in this step we will analyze all the three models (decision tree, random forest and naïve bayes loaded from scikit-learn) with their respective:  recall score ( also called true positive rate (tpr), sensitivity or hit rate) refers to the amount of fraud cases our model is able to detect  precision score ( also called positive predicted value (ppv)) refers to how precise is the model in detecting fraud transactions  fβ score ( ) = ( ) ; the β parameter determines the weight of the methods of handling unbalanced datasets in credit card fraud detection elena-adriana mînăstireanu et al. 137 precision in the combined score, β < 1 means more weight to precision, β > 1 favors recall. for this experiment β = 0.5 in order to not misclassify the normal cluster as fraud and to favor precision; where:  tp = true positive referring to the number of positive cases which are predicted positive – meaning correctly classified fraud transactions  tn = true negative referring to the number of negative cases which are predicted negative – meaning correctly classified non-fraud transactions  fp = false positive referring to the number of negative cases which are predicted positive – meaning incorrectly classified fraud transactions  fn = false negative referring to the number of positive cases which are predicted negative – incorrectly classified non-fraud transactions and choose the model based upon the fβ score. the chosen model will then be optimized and used as final model in which we will plot the auc precision recall curve. in order to apply the resampling methods – undersampling and oversampling – we first needed to prepare our data. for this we applied a logarithmic transformation on the data in order to handle the highly skewed feature distributions. this logarithmic transformation ensures that the very large and very small values do not negatively affect the performance of the learning algorithms. also significantly reduces the range of values caused by outliers. after this we normalized the amount feature within 0 to 1 range and applied the oversampling method. oversampling represents a sampling method which “balances the data set through the replication of the samples of minority class”. the advantage is that no useful information will be lost as we will see in the undersampling technique and the disadvantage is that it may lead to “overfitting and high computational cost if the data set is already very large and unbalanced” (guo et al., 2008; kotsiantis et al., 2006). in the experiment all data points from the majority and minority training sets were used. instances were randomly selected and replaced with data from the minority training set until we reached the expected balance of data. the results obtained are as follow:  recall = 0.91  precision = 0.97  fβ = 0.92 the oversampling using smote (synthetic minority oversampling technique) technique lead to the following results:  recall = 0.91 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 138  precision = 0.97  fβ = 0.92 the smote technique is based on finding the nearest neighbor of minority samples, taking their difference and multiplying this by a random number. thus, it helps to increase the model accuracy. undersampling eliminates samples from the majority class in order to obtain a balanced dataset. the advantage is that the method can be used with efficiency in the case of large-scale applications, due to the numerous majority class samples. the technique has an important weakness because it can remove some information with potentially that that would be relevant to the classifiers (nguyen et al., 2009; kotsiantis et al., 2006). in the experiment, for this method we used all the training data points from the minority class. additionally, samples were removed based on random process from the majority training set. this process have been repeated until the needed balance was achieved. the results obtained are as follow:  recall = 0.89  precision = 0.95  fβ = 0.90 unbalanced datasets can be handled by ensemble algorithms, penalized algorithms and tree algorithms separately. in this experiment we combined all these three algorithms in a single algorithm using random forest classifier. this has decision tree as the base learner and has a parameter called „class-weight‟. setting this parameter to „balanced‟, weights inversely proportional to the class sizes are used to multiply the loss function. this modification uses cost sensitive learning, meaning that a penalty towards classifying accurately the majority class is added, so correct predictions from the minority class have a higher weight. for this algorithm the results obtained are as follow:  recall = 0.71  precision = 0.94  fβ = 0.75 the results obtained for the decision tree algorithm without resampling the data are as follow:  recall = 0.76  precision = 0.82  fβ = 0.77 the results obtained for the naïve bayes algorithm are as follow: methods of handling unbalanced datasets in credit card fraud detection elena-adriana mînăstireanu et al. 139  recall = 0.83  precision = 0.06  fβ = 0.07 to summarize the results obtained it can be stated that the classifier that uses oversampling with smote techniques has given the best performance metrics. also, from the tree algorithms, the random forest classifier has given the best precision in detecting frauds with a precision of 94%. to assess the overall classification performance, we made use of the area under the curve metric (auc). auc precision recall curve is not biased against the minority class meaning that it does not focus on the use of one class than the other one. it represents the existent compromise between precision and recall for different threshold. average accuracy states that this “plot acts as the weighted mean of precision obtained at each threshold, with an increase in the recall from the previous threshold used as weight”. in our experiment the best threshold for the classifier should be around 0.85. for our study we achieved 93% of area for auc pr curve. a high value for the area under the curve presents both low false negative rate (fn rate) or high recall and low false positive rate (fp rate) or high precision. high recall or low false negative results and high precision or low false positive results indicate that the classification algorithm returns accurate results. to sum up, we can say that a high performing system with both high metrics (fn rate and fp rate) will predict a large number of fraudulent transactions with very high precision and accuracy. 4. results and discussion in this study we presented three ways of handling unbalanced data: resampling methods (undersampling and oversampling), cost-sensitive training and tree algorithms (decision tree, random forest and naïve bayes). the resampling methods and the tree algorithms have been loaded from the scikit-learn and analysed based on the results obtained in the fβ score. out of the three methods that were used in the experiment, only the oversampling with smote techniques has given the best performance metrics. this appear in literature as being the method of choice among the many available methods (abdellatif et al., 2018; ramentol et al., 2012; mi, 2013) when it comes to handling unbalance data. also, the literature states (gaoa et al., 2011; apurva & patankar, 2015) that this method presents as major advantages the following: independent on underlying classifier and brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 140 very easy to implement and the following limitations: time consuming by introducing additional computational cost and overfitting. when it comes to the other methods used in the experiment, the:  undersampling presented as an advantage the fact that this method is suitable for large scale applications and as a disadvantage the loss of some useful information through the process of removing significant patterns;  cost-sensitive presented as an advantage the “minimization of the misclassification cost through affecting the classifier as against the minority class”, and as a disadvantage the fact that the misclassification costs are often unknown;  tree algorithms presented as advantages the fact that working together offers high performing classification results and high resistance to noise, and as disadvantages time consuming and overfitting. the overall classification performance was based on the results offered by auc pr curve, which represents a convenient method to compare the performance of multiple classifiers. the results obtained in the experiment shows that the auc pr curve measures correct ratio of fp to tp, whereas auc of roc does not measure the true output in high unbalance ratios. roc curve is not a good visual illustration for highly unbalanced data, because the false positive rate ( ) does not decreases drastically when the total of real negative cases is huge. whereas precision score is highly sensitive to false positives. also, the literature (swamidass et al., 2010) highlights that roc curve can offer inappropriate results and requires special attention when the dataset is highly unbalanced and there are two roc curves that are crossing one another. in another study (saito & rehmsmeier, 2015) we find out that the auc metric is much better than an original roc curse because there can be some data points that can be missed from the roc curve. as a future work the research direction is to build a new classifier which will perform better in this data unbalanced problem as the existing classifier. 5. conclusions and future direction data unbalance represents an important topic that has been investigated over the time by machine-learning researchers. in this way several approaches have been proposed. however, there is no general solution for this issue since every method comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. methods of handling unbalanced datasets in credit card fraud detection elena-adriana mînăstireanu et al. 141 with regards to the future researches, it is necessary to explore and implement a new classifier that will outperform the existing one, moving to hybrid algorithms. references abdellatif, s., ben hassine, m. a., ben yahia, s., & bouzeghoub, a. (2018) arcid: a new approach to deal with imbalanced datasets classification. in: tjoa a., bellatreche l., biffl s., van leeuwen j., wiedermann j. (eds.) sofsem 2018. lecture notes in computer science, vol 10706. sofsem 2018: theory and practice of computer science (pp. 569580). edizioni della normale, cham. apurva, s., & patankar, r. a. (2015). a survey on methods to handle imbalance dataset. international journal of computer science and mobile computing, 4(11), 338-343. retrieved from https://ijcsmc.com/docs/papers/november2015/v4i11201573.pdf biodgloi, a. m., & parsa, m. n. (2012). a hybrid feature selection by resampling, chi squared and consistency evaluation techniques. world academy of science, engineering and technology, international journal of computer and information engineering, 6(8), 957-966. retrieved from https://zenodo.org/record/1060641#.xlj1fkgzam8 charles, x. l., qiang, y., jianning, w., & schichao, z. (2004). decision trees with minimal costs. in proceedings of the 21st international conference on machine learning (icml 2004). banff, canada. retrieved from https://icml.cc/conferences/2004/proceedings/papers/136.pdf chawla, n. v., bowyer, k. w., hall, l. o., & kegelmeyer, w. p. (2002). smote: synthetic minority over-sampling technique. journal of artificial intelligence research, 16(1), 321–357. https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.953 chawla, n. v., kolcz, a., & japkowicz, n. (2004). editorial: special issue on learning from imbalanced data sets. acm sigkdd explorations newsletter, 6(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1145/1007730.1007733 chawla, n.v., lazarevic, a., hall, l.o., & bowyer, k. w. (2003). smoteboost: improving prediction of the minority class in boosting. in proceedings of the 7th european conference on principles and practices of knowledge discovery in databases (pp. 107-119). cavtat-dubrovnic, croatia: academic press. chris, d., & robert, c. h. (2000). exploiting the cost(in) sensitivity of decision tree splitting criteria. icml. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2626981_exploiting_the_cost _insensitivity_of_decision_tree_splitting_criteria fernandez-navarro, f., hervas-martinez, c. and gutierrez, p. a. (2011). a dynamic over-sampling procedure based on sensitivity for multi-class https://ijcsmc.com/docs/papers/november2015/v4i11201573.pdf https://zenodo.org/record/1060641#.xlj1fkgzam8 https://icml.cc/conferences/2004/proceedings/papers/136.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2626981_exploiting_the_cost_insensitivity_of_decision_tree_splitting_criteria https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2626981_exploiting_the_cost_insensitivity_of_decision_tree_splitting_criteria brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 142 problems. pattern recognition, 44(8), 1821-1833. retrieved from http://ccc.inaoep.mx/~ariel/2012/a%20dynamic%20oversampling%20procedure%20based%20on%20sensitivity%20for%20multiclass%20problems.pdf gaoa, m., hong, x., chen, s. & harris, c. j. (2011). a combined smote and pso based rbf classifier for two-class imbalanced problems, neurocomputing, 74(17), 3456–3466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2011.06.010 guo, x., yilong, y., cailing, d., gongping, y., & yang, z. (2008). on the class imbalance problem. fourth international conference on natural computation, icnc '08, volume 4. https://doi.org/10.1109/icnc.2008.871 haibo, h., & edwardo, a. g. (2009). learning from imbalanced data. ieee transactions on knowledge and data engineering, 21(9).retrieved from https://www.cs.utah.edu/~piyush/teaching/imbalancedlearning.pdf hulse, j. v., & khoshgoftaar, t. (2009). knowledge discovery from imbalanced and noisy data. data & knowledge engineering, 68(12), 1513-1542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.datak.2009.08.005 kaggle. (2003). the home of data science & machine learning. retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/agpickersgill/credit-card-fraud-detection/data kerdprasop, n. & kerdprasop, k. (2012). on the generation of accurate predictive model from highly imbalanced data with heuristics and replication technologies. international journal of bio-science and bio-technology, 4(1), 49-64. retrieved from https://www.earticle.net/article/a207028 kotsiantis, s. b. & pintelas, p. e. (2003). mixture of expert agents for handling imbalanced data sets. annals of mathematics, computing & teleinformatics, 1(1), 46-55. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.59.2997&rep= rep1&type=pdf kotsiantis, s., kanellopoulos, d., & pintelas, p. (2006). handling imbalanced datasets: a review. gests international transactions on computer science and engineering, 30, 25-36. kubat, m., holte, r.c. & matwin, s. (1998). machine learning for the detection of oil spills in satellite radar images. machine learning, 30, 195–215. retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/a:1007452223027 liu, w., chawla, s., cieslak, d. a. & chawla, n. v. (2010). a robust decision tree algorithm for imbalanced data sets. proceedings of the siam international conference on data mining, sdm 2010, april 29 may 1, 2010, columbus, ohio, usa. https://doi.org/10.1137/1.9781611972801.67 mi, y. (2013). imbalanced classification based on active learning smote. research journal of applied science, engineering and technology, 5(3), 944-949. https://doi.org/10.19026/rjaset.5.5044 http://ccc.inaoep.mx/~ariel/2012/a%20dynamic%20over-sampling%20procedure%20based%20on%20sensitivity%20for%20multi-class%20problems.pdf http://ccc.inaoep.mx/~ariel/2012/a%20dynamic%20over-sampling%20procedure%20based%20on%20sensitivity%20for%20multi-class%20problems.pdf http://ccc.inaoep.mx/~ariel/2012/a%20dynamic%20over-sampling%20procedure%20based%20on%20sensitivity%20for%20multi-class%20problems.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2011.06.010 https://doi.org/10.1109/icnc.2008.871 https://www.cs.utah.edu/~piyush/teaching/imbalancedlearning.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.datak.2009.08.005 https://www.earticle.net/article/a207028 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.59.2997&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.59.2997&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/a:1007452223027 https://doi.org/10.1137/1.9781611972801.67 https://doi.org/10.19026/rjaset.5.5044 methods of handling unbalanced datasets in credit card fraud detection elena-adriana mînăstireanu et al. 143 nguyen, g. h., bouzerdoum, a., & phung, s.l. (2009). learning pattern classification tasks with imbalanced data sets. in p. yin (ed.), pattern recognition (pp. 193-208). vukovar, croatia: in-teh. provost, f., & fawcett, t. (2001). robust classification for imprecise environments. machine learning, 42, 203-231. ramentol, e., verbiest, n., bello, r., caballero, y., cornelis, c., & herrera, f. (2012). smote-frst: a new resampling method sing fuzzy rough set theory. in world scientific proceedings series on computer engineering and information science. uncertainty modelling in knowledge engineering and decision making (pp. 800-805). https://doi.org/10.1142/9789814417747_0128 rao, r. b., krishnan, s. & niculescu, r. s. (2006). data mining for improved cardiac care. acm sigkdd explorations newsletter, 8(1), 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1145/1147234.1147236 saito, t. & rehmsmeier, m. (2015). the precision-recall plot is more informative than the roc plot when evaluating binary classifiers on imbalanced datasets. plos one, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118432 seiffert, c., khoshgoftaar, t. m., van hulse, j. & folleco, a. (2014). an empirical study of the classification performance of learners on imbalanced and noisy software quality data. information sciences, 259, 571-595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2010.12.016 sun, y., kamel, m. s., wong, a. k. c. & wang, y. (2007). cost sensitive boosting for classification of imbalanced data. pattern recognition, 40(12), 3358-3378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patcog.2007.04.009 swamidass, s. j., azencott, c. a., daily, k. & baldi, p. (2010). a croc stronger than roc: measuring, visualizing and optimizing early retrieval. bioinformatics, 26(10), 1348–1356. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btq140 uyar, a., bener, a., ciracy, h. n., & bahceci, m. (2010). handling the imbalance problem of ivf implantation prediction. iaeng international journal of computer science, 37(2). retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7c3e/7b7fcfb7c1246a4cd7f0a401a60d94 79a22a.pdf van rijsbergen, c. j. (1979). information retrieval (2nd ed.). butterworths-heinemann. weiss, g. m., mccarthy, k., & zabar, b. (2007). cost-sensitive learning vs sampling. which is best for handling unbalanced classes with unequal error costs? proceedings of the 2007 international conference on data mining, dmin 2007, june 25-28, 2007, las vegas, nevada, usa. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789814417747_0128 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118432 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2010.12.016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patcog.2007.04.009 https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btq140 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7c3e/7b7fcfb7c1246a4cd7f0a401a60d9479a22a.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7c3e/7b7fcfb7c1246a4cd7f0a401a60d9479a22a.pdf microsoft word issue3.docx 150 intelligent representation of accounting knowledge bogdan patrut faculty of computer science, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania bulevardul carol i, 11, iași 700506 phone: +40 234 542411 bogdan@edusoft.ro simona elena varlan "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania bulevardul carol i, 11, iași 700506 phone: +40 234 542411 varlan_simona@yahoo.com abstract in this paper we will describe some methods for representing different kind of accounting and financial knowledge. these methods are integrated in an original architecture modeling the complete accounting analysis, starting by describing an economic operation in natural language, and finishing by writing the financial reports. 1. introduction representing accounting knowledge within an intelligent system implies, first of all, the establishing of the competences that an accountant should have. then, we must represent the rules, reasoning, norms, value judgments, laws and principles that lie at the basis of accounting. at the end, we must represent the financial reports in an adequate model. thus, hybrid intelligent systems can be conceived starting from the classic artificial intelligence systems such as the expert systems or intelligent agents. the final aim, hard to attain but not impossible, is realizing some complex programs that could assist and help the (human) accounting expert by taking over his/her tasks or even by replacing him/her. in this paper we will describe some methods for representing different kind of accounting and financial knowledge. these methods are integrated in an original architecture modeling the complete accounting analysis, starting by describing an economic operation in natural language, and finishing by writing the financial reports. 2. the general architecture the proposed architecture is presented in figure 1. it consists of the following elements:  documents – these refers to bills, invoices, contracts, and other input information  economic operations – these represents all kind of economic operations that can be described in natural language sentences  semantic interpreter – which will parse the natural language sentences and will automatically generate accounting entries  norms – which represents all the rules, norms and financial and accounting lows, gaap, ifrs  accounting entries – are formal equations for representing economic operations  rules – represents general accepted account functioning rules (i.e. technical rules)  reports – which represents financial reports of an enterprise at the end of the financial period (month, semester , year) in the figure we can observe different ways of representing accounting knowledge: regular expressions, first order predicate calculus, production rules, semantic nets, xbrl and skos. b. patrut, s. e. varlan intelligent representation of accounting knowledge 151 figure 1. the general architecture the bold arrows represent the flow of the process of complete accounting and financial operations, starting with reading or consulting the primary documents, and endind with the financial reports. it can be observed a special semantic interpreter, which can translate phrases describing economic operations into accounting entries. but the accounting entries are validated only if they respect the legal norms and the rules of functioning of the accounts. the regular expressions will be templates for accounting entries, as we will describe further. the rules of functioning of the accounts can be represented, as we will discuss further, by different ways: first order predicates calculus, production rules, semantic nets. the financial reports, which represents the final stage of the accounting analysis process, will use the xbrl mark-up language for representing balance sheets or other kind of final reports. the skos language will be used to describe the taxonomy of the components of the financial reports. 3. semantic analysis for economic operations this part of our paper deals with the “understanding” of the text afferent to an accounting entry. the procedure will parse the text, making the syntactical analysis, followed by an “interpretation” and “execution” of the analyzed text. thus, we intend that by providing our system with the description of an accounting operation, to receive back the corresponding accounting entry. for example18, we would like that for phrases of the kind of those on the left to get answers like those on the right: a) a social capital worth 3000 ron is subscribed => 456 = 1011, 3000 ron (ron = romanian currency: sg. leu/pl. lei) b) a land worth 2000 ron is deposited under the form of contribution in kind => 2111 = 456, 2000 ron c) the social capital worth 3000 ron is entered as being paid => 1011 = 1012, 3000 ron how could we make this possible, using the prolog language? first of all the phrases will be turned from a row of characters into lists of rows of characters, knowing that in the prolog language efficient predicates for working with lists can be implemented (the predicate "create_list" will deal with this). then, from the respective list the “word” representing the numerical sum will be extracted (using the predicate "extract_sum"). in order to make things easier, words that are considered non-relevant for the phrases are taken out. thus, neither prepositions nor other words that do not appear in a given dictionary, will not be taken into consideration. the predicate that simplifies a list goes through the list and analyses each word separately. this word is searched for in a dictionary (see the predicate "dictionary" and its clauses) and, if there is any, then it is replaced with its standard variant. the other variants are considered synonyms. in case the respective word does not exist in the dictionary, then it will no longer appear in the simplified list. 18 the numerical codes or symbols for the accounts are specific to romanian economy; in romania, like in france, there is a general accounts plan, in which a numerical symbol represents an account; for example, “1011” represents “subscribed capital” brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 152 after eliminating the “unimportant” words, the remaining words will be alphabetically ordered (by the predicate "sort" that implements a procedure of sorting through insertion). thus, sentences of the type "capital is deposited" or "deposited capital" will have the same meaning. finally, the predicate "translate" makes the desired translation is appealed to, thus reaching the required accounting entry. to illustrate this, let us consider the phrase "a social capital worth 3000 ron is subscribed". after the application of the first transformation ("make_list"), the following list is obtained ["is","subscribed","capital", "social", "worth", "3000", "ron"]. after that, the predicate ”extract_sum” will get the value of 3000 (ron) which will be finally displayed next to the accounting entry. by applying the predicate”simplify” to the obtained list of words, we are only left with the list [”subscribed”,”capital”], because the inarticulate standard variant “capital” has been chosen instead of “the capital”. then, the list is sorted, resulting in ["capital","subscribed"] which, according to the translation given by the predicate "translate" leads to the accounting entry 456=1011. 4. the representation of accounting knowledge to exemplify the accounting knowledge representation models in a knowledge-based system, we will consider the four account functioning rules that can be expressed in natural language as follows: 1) if x is an assets account, x reflects y and y increases then x sells out. 2) if x is an assets account, x reflects y and y decreases then x credits. 3) if x is a liabilities account, x reflects y and y increases then x credits. 4) if x is a liabilities account, x reflects y and y decreases then x sells out. for example, the first rule can apply to the account 512 that reflects the available in the current deposit on banks, in the case of payment of an invoice by a supplier, through payment order. the first rule represents accounting knowledge and we can notice its generality as an essential feature. this knowledge can be represented in a computer in more ways and the encoding done by the programmer should take into consideration the conceptual models of knowledge representation studied by artificial intelligence. we will present a review of some of these models (sowa, course technology) and we will exemplify the respective representations on rule 1. a. first order predicates calculus in first order predicates calculus, predicates represent attributes of entities or relations among these and can be regarded as functions with the codomain of the lots of true and false truth values. besides predicates the existential quantifier  and the universal quantifier  are used, as well as the operators of mathematical logics: conjunction , disjunction , negation , implication  etc. rule 1 above, expressed in natural language, can be represented in first order predicates calculus by the following formula: x assets_account (x)reflects(x,y)increase(y)sells_out(x) the names of the predicates are chosen by us, and their semantic will be encoded in the system according to the needs. b. production rules similar to first order predicates calculus, production rules are the most frequently used model of knowledge representation in intelligent systems, especially in the data bases of expert systems. within such a system, knowledge is procedural and the entire system is built around production rules whose structure is the following: <conditions>  <actions> this means: if <conditions> are true, then the <actions> can be executed. expert system generators like exsys (http://www.exsys.com) or clips (http://www.ghg.net/clips/clips.html) are based on such production rules. b. patrut, s. e. varlan intelligent representation of accounting knowledge 153 researchers divide the production rules into two categories: deductive rules and inductive rules. deductive rules are written under the form of the implication presented above, while the inductive ones under the form of a reverse implication. however, the difference between them is not syntactical. in the case of deductive rules we start from certain initial facts and, by applying the production rules we attempt to obtain new facts, finally reaching the intended aim, while in the case of inductive production rules we start with a purpose and, by applying the production rules “backwards” we attempt to demonstrate the purpose is attempted, on the basis of initial facts. prolog is such an example of inductive system. deductive rules in an expert deductive system generator the first functioning rule of accounts can be represented under the form if [x] is asset account and [x] reflects [y] and [y] increases then [x] debits. inductive prolog the prolog language has been designed particularly for artificial intelligence problems. it is based on first order predicates calculus and a prolog programme defines a series of predicates presenting for each of them its clauses that is, the facts and rules that render true the predicate. a rule is seen as an implication a1a2...anb, conversely written. in order to represent rule 1 of account functioning in prolog we will have to specify some predicates for the quality of being an account (assets or liabilities), for increasing (decreasing) the accountable matter that some account or other would represent, for the relation of reflecting the accounting matter through a certain account and to express the fact that an account sells out (credits). then we will write the mentioned accounting rule under the form of a clause, as bellow: predicates accont(integer,symbol) increases(string) reflects(integer,string) debits(integer) ... clauses ... debits(x) if accont(x,a), reflects(x,y), increases(y). c. semantic networks figure 2. the debiting rules representation of asset accounts by a semantic network semantic networks constitute a much more abstract modality of knowledge representation, but a more general and efficient one also. many researchers dealt with representing knowledge through semantic networks, but they are not so frequently used as the other models due to the difficulty of encoding them into a programme. we will not go into representation details but we can affirm that a semantic network is a graph whose knots contain sentence identifiers, logic connectives, entities etc., and the arc relations among these (class affiliation, subset, features, agent, predication brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 154 etc.). for example, the 1st functioning rule of accounts can be represented within a multi-sorted semantic network with the universal quantification of the variable x, as in figure 2. 5. regular expressions as templates for accounting entries regular expressions represent a meta-language for describing words in a language (formal or natural), in a very simple and elegant formalised way. there are different variants for noting regular expressions, we will choose one that is sufficient for describing accounting formulas (andone & pătruț, 2007). regular expressions are rows of characters that represent patterns or models. they are built on the basis of a grammar, just like a programming language. these patterns are used to “recognise” and manipulate some rows of characters. regular expressions are particularly used in text processing of any kind: programme writing, web pages generation. for some chapters in financial accounting, the accounting formulas are simple. however, there are some extremely complex cases for which there is a wide diversity of formulas. all accounting handbooks present the various chapters of financial accounting with more or less ambiguous explanations in romanian, with more or less relevant practical examples. for an accuracy of presentation the use of a formal and clear representation mechanism is required, and we consider fit the mechanism of regular expressions. also, the sums that are involved in an accounting formula should respect certain relations and these have to be accurately presented. to illustrate, will consider some accounting problems and we will present the representation modality of the adequate accounting recording by using regular expressions. 1. the constitution of the share capital it is recorded the constitution of the share capital in a value s. is also recorded the paid of share capital and its transformation in deposited subscribed and paid share capital. 456 = 1011 s ((5311|5121|5124|2xx|3xx|4xx) = 456)* [s] 2. the accountancy of the operations concerning financial assets for the acquisition of some shares from another entity in amount a, an entity will do the next accounting recording: ((261|262|263)=( 5121|269))* [a] then 269 = 5121 [a]] with a1 <= a. at the ending of the year there are recorded dividends afferent of the owned financial assets in amount d.. (5121 = (7611|7612|7613|7614|7615|7616|7617))* [d] there is recorded the sale of the bought shares at a price p 461 = 7641 [p] there is recorded the issue of sold shares from the administration (6641 = (261|262|263))* [a] 3. an entity buys raw materials in amount [x] lei, the invoice including also tva [x*0.19] ron. this is recorded in accounting, knowing that the entity uses the continuous inventory, like below: 301 = 401 [x] 4426 = 401 [x*0.19] 4. an entity realizes an informatics program whose production cost is [x] ron, for circulation accounting of the good purchased for resale, and also it buys another one for “the wages calculus and accounting” whose cost of purchase is [y] ron, with tva [y*0.19] ron. the amortization term is for 3 years, for both the programs, so the monthly amortization is [(x+y)/36] ron. b. patrut, s. e. varlan intelligent representation of accounting knowledge 155 a) it is recorded the realized informatics program by entity 208 = 721 [x] b) it is recorded the invoice of bought informatics program. 208 = 404 [y] 4426 = 404 [x*0.19] c) it is recorded the amortization for the first month of both the programs. 6811 = 2808 # [(x+y)/36] d) at the ending of the amortization time, is recorded the issue of both the programs. 2808 = 208 # [x+y] 667 = 4111 # [x*(1-y/100)*(1-z/100)*t/100] even if our examples use numerical symbols from the romanian general accounts plan, the bellow examples shows that the regular expressions are adecquate for writing templates for accounting entries. 6. xbrl – a new international standard for representing financial reports the xbrl xbrl stands for extensible business reporting language. it is one of a family of “xml” languages which is becoming a standard means of communicating information between businesses and on the internet. xbrl is being developed by an international non-profit consortium of approximately 450 major companies, organizations and government agencies. it is an open standard, free of license fees. it is already being put to practical use in a number of countries and implementations of xbrl are growing rapidly around the world (www.xbrl.org). in this section we will present an examples of business report created using xbrl. in this example we will use international financial reporting standard-general purpose (ifrs-gp) taxonomy adopted by the international accounting standards board (iasb). the example expresses a balance sheet, statements about assets and equity and liabilities for two distinct periods for a virtual european company. the namespace prefix used here for the taxonomy is a recommended one: ifrs-gp. the human readable version of the financial report is the following: table 1. two balance sheets the xbrl document for this report is: <?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”utf-8”?> <xbrli:xbrl brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 156 xmlns:xbrli=”http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance”xmlns:link=”http://www.xbrl.org/2 003/linkbase” xmlns:xlink = “http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink” xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/xmlschema-instance” xmlns:iso4217=”http://www.xbrl.org/2003/iso4217” xmlns:ifrs-gp=http://xbrl.iasb.org/int/fr/ ifrs/gp/2005-05-15” xsi:schemalocation=”http://xbrl.iasb.org/int/fr/ifrs/gp/2005-05-15/sample ifrsgp-2005-05-15.xsd”> <link:schemaref xlink:type=”simple” xlink:href=”ifrs-gp-2005-05-15.xsd”/> <xbrli:context id=”date_2006”> <xbrli:entity> <xbrli:identifier scheme= “http://www.iasb.org/sample”>samp </xbrli:identifier> </xbrli:entity> <xbrli:period> <xbrli:instant>2006-12-31</xbrli:instant> </xbrli:period> </xbrli:context> <xbrli:context id=”date-2007”> <xbrli:entity> <xbrli:identifier scheme=“http://www.iasb.org/sample”>samp </xbrli:identifier> </xbrli:entity> <xbrli:period> <xbrli:instant>2007-12-31</xbrli:instant> </xbrli:period> </xbrli:context> <xbrli:unit id=”u-monetary”> <xbrli:measure>iso4217:eur</xbrli:measure> </xbrli:unit> <!--balance sheet--> <!-for year 2006 --> <ifrs-gp:investmentproperty contextref=”date_2006” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 400,000</ifrs-gp:investmentproperty> <ifrs-gp: inventories contextref=”date_2006” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 140,000 </ifrs-gp:inventories> <ifrs-gp: constructioninprogress contextref=”date_2006” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 100,000</ifrs-gp: constructioninprogress > <ifrs-gp: currenttaxreceivables contextref=”date_2006” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 350,000</ifrs-gp: currenttaxreceivables> <ifrs-gp:prepayments contextref=”date_2006” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 10,000</ifrs-gp: prepayments> <ifrs-gp:cashandcashequivalents contextref=”date_2006” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 650,000</ifrs-gp: cashandcashequivalents> … <ifrs-gp:equitytotal contextref=”date_2006” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 1,710,000</ifrs-gp: equitytotal > <!-for year 2007 --> <ifrs-gp:investmentproperty contextref=”date_2007” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 400,000</ifrs-gp:investmentproperty> <ifrs-gp:inventories contextref=”date_2007” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 140,000</ifrs-gp:inventories> <ifrs-gp: constructioninprogress contextref=”date_2007” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 100,000</ifrs-gp: b. patrut, s. e. varlan intelligent representation of accounting knowledge 157 constructioninprogress > <ifrs-gp: currenttaxreceivables contextref=”date_2007” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 350,000</ifrs-gp: currenttaxreceivables> … <ifrs-gp:equitytotal contextref=”date_2007” unitref=”u-monetary” decimals=”0”> 1,710,000 </ifrs-gp: equitytotal > </xbrli:xbrl> the corresponding taxonomy for the xbrl document is an xsd (xml schema definition) file representing the xml schema instance of the vocabulary needed to express assets, equitable and liabilities. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <schema xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/2001/xmlschema” xmlns:xbrli=”http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance” xmlns:link=”http://www.xbrl.org/2003/linkbase” xmlns:xlink=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink” xmlns:ifrs-gp=”http://xbrl.iasb.org/int/fr/ifrs/gp/2005-05-15” xmlns:sample =”http://xbrl.iasb.org/int/fr/ifrs/gp/2005-05-15/sample” targetnamespace=”http://xbrl.iasb.org/int/fr/ifrs/gp/2005-05-15/sample” elementformdefault=”qualified” attributeformdefault=”unqualified”> <annotation> <appinfo> <link:linkbaseref xlink:type='simple' xlink:href='ifrs-gp-pre-bs-liquidity-2005-05-15.xml' xlink:role='http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/ presentationlinkbaseref' xlink:arcrole='http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink/ properties/linkbase'/> <link:linkbaseref xlink:type='simple' xlink:href='ifrs-gp-pre-bs-netassets-2005-05-15.xml' xlink:role='http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/ presentationlinkbaseref' xlink:arcrole='http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink/ properties/linkbase'/> <link:linkbaseref xlink:type='simple' xlink:href='ifrs-gp-cal-bs-liquidity-2005-05-15.xml' xlink:role='http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/ calculationlinkbaseref' xlink:arcrole='http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink/ properties/linkbase'/> <link:linkbaseref xlink:type='simple' xlink:href='ifrs-gp-cal-bs-netassets-2005-05-15.xml' xlink:role='http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/ calculationlinkbaseref' xlink:arcrole='http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink/ properties/linkbase'/> </appinfo> </annotation> <import namespace=”http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance” schemalocation=”http://www.xbrl.org/2003/xbrl-instance-2003-12-31.xsd” /> <importnamespace=”http://xbrl.iasb.org/int/fr/ifrs/gp/2005-05-15” schemalocation=”ifrs-gp-2005-05-15.xsd” /> </schema> 7. skos – language for describing the taxonomy of the accounts when we create a metadata for representing financial reports, we need to refer to shared group of accounts, reflecting some patrimonial elements that are common. this can be done by creating a selection of standardized terms with fixed meanings used to help metadata creators to describe a resource. in this way we can avoid ambiguity, control synonyms. this set of standard terms represent controlled vocabulary which can be a simple list of defined terms from which a metadata creator chooses a suitable one or might be a complex thesaurus made up of hierarchical relationships and synonyms. controlled vocabularies are useful because they help metadata creators brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, volume 9, issue 3 (september, 2018) issn 2067-3957 158 and searchers to use common meanings. to create controlled vocabularies we need a simple language to describe concept and concept schemes. semantic web already offers languages like rds and owl. the resource description framework (rdf) is a language for making statements about resources but provides only the low level semantics required for metadata statements (klyne & carroll, 2004). the owl language by the other hand, provides the necessary semantic level to describe resources but it demands effort, expertise therefore costs because it is a class-oriented language and requires a precise logically modeling. therefore there is a need for a language simple enough like rdf that does not required so much effort and expertise, bur power enough to define complex conceptual structures and to support semantically search like owl does. for this purpose it was created a new language skos. skos is an extensible rdf language for describing concept and content of concept schemes (taxonomies, glossaries, classification schemes and thesauri) that include semantic relationships between these concepts. skos core represents the core model for expressing the basic structure and content of a concept scheme (miles & brickley, 2005). skos core vocabulary is a set of rdf properties and rdfs classes that can be used to express the content and structure of a concept scheme as an rdf graph [4]. the skos core guide and the skos core vocabulary specification are currently working drafts for w3c working group notes. they present the basic metamodel consisting of an rdf/owl schema, an explanation of the features that the properties and classes of the schema represent. currently they are at the proposal stage within w3c. taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure, typically related by subtype-supertype relationships, also called parent-child relationships. the example presented here is about some concepts from the balance sheet presented in table 1. the properties used in this example are: skos:broader and skos:narrower used to define relationships of meaning between concepts. broader is the inverse of narrower. <rdf:rdf xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:skos="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#" <skos:concept rdf:about="http://mytaxonomyscheme/concept/#1"> <skos:preflabel>assets</skos:preflabel> <skos:narrower rdf:resource=" http://mytaxonomyscheme/concept/#2"/> <skos:narrower rdf:resource=" http://mytaxonomyscheme/concept/#3"/> </skos:concept> <skos:concept rdf:about=" http://mytaxonomyscheme/concept/#2"> <skos:preflabel> investment property </skos:preflabel> <skos:broader rdf:resource=" http://mytaxonomyscheme/concept/#1"/> <skos:narrower rdf:resource=" http://mytaxonomyscheme/concept/#3"/> </skos:concept> <skos:concept rdf:about=" http://mytaxonomyscheme/concept/#3"> <skos:preflabel>inventories</skos:preflabel> <skos:broader rdf:resource=" http://mytaxonomyscheme/concept/#1"/> <skos:narrower rdf:resource=" http://mytaxonomyscheme/concept/#4"/> </skos:concept> </rdf:rdf> b. patrut, s. e. varlan intelligent representation of accounting knowledge 159 8. conclusions our research is to identify a complex architecture for the complete financial and accounting analysis, using the new information technologies and knoledge representation model. this architecture will be used to develop an intelligent information system, able to realize the accounting analyze and to make financial reports, augmented with semantic. references andone, i., pătruţ, b., conttest – a multi-agent system for accounting education, sigef 2007, poiana brasov xiv congress of fuzzy systems in economy and management klyne, g., carroll, j. j., resource description framework (rdf): concepts and abstract syntax, w3c recommendation 10 february 2004. world wide web consortium, 2004. miles, a., brickley, d., skos core guide, w3c working draft, february 2005. world wide web consortium, 2005. miles, a., brickley, d., skos core vocabulary specification, w3c working draft, world wide web consortium, 2005. sowa, j., knowledge representation: logical, philosophical, and computational foundations, course technology; 1 edition isbn 978-0534949655 * * * exsys ltd., http://www.exsys.com * * * clips, http://www.ghg.net/clips/clips.html * * * www.iasb.com – the official site of the iasb organization * * * www.xbrl.org – the official site of the international xbrl community bogdan pătruţ, phd in accounting and computer science, is a senior lecturer at the faculty of computer science, ”alexandru ioan cuza” university of iași, romania. his domains of interest/research are computer science applied to social and political sciences and multi-agent systems applied to accounting education. he is also interested in social media challenges in the new academic environment. he published or edited more than 25 books on programming, algorithms, artificial intelligence, interactive education, and social media. simona-elena vârlan is an assistant professor at "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania. education: phd in cybernetics and statistics at the faculty of economics and business administration at “alexandru ioan cuza” university of iași; bsc. in computer science from “alexandru ioan cuza” university of iași; she has the ability to establish software requirements, to design, implement, and test using different programming languages and paradigms, data bases modelling, knowledge management and representation, to process and to interpret experimental data by statistical methods proved in 2 research & development grants where she was it expert. currently, her subjects of research are recommender systems, gis programming, semantic web and internet of things. publication activity: she published over 30 research papers in journals indexed in international data bases from which 10 are indexed wos. the international visibility of the scientific work is revealed by 19 citations (gs), h index 3. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2019, volume 10, issue 4, pages: 28-39 | doi:10.18662/brain/03 a comparative study of emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants and opioids users sanaz hosseinpour¹ 1 department of psychology, islamic azad university, science and research branch, faculty of humanities and social sciences, tehran, iran. abstract: background and objective: drug addiction and substance abuse have become a psychological social problem that seriously threatens the various countries and societies. the purpose of this study was to compare the emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants and opioids users. method: the research sample consisted of two groups of stimulants and opioids users consisted of 150 people (each group was 75 people) were selected by targeted and convenience sampling method and responded to the psychological emotional personality scale. results: the results showed that there was a significant difference in the dimensions of novelty seeking, harm avoidance, persistence, cooperation, self-directedness self-transcendence in stimulants and opioid users, and in all of the above scales, the mean scores obtained in stimulants was higher than the opioids. conclusion: these results indicate that addicted people show deficiencies in emotional cognitive regulation, which can be effective in preventing and treating addiction. keywords: emotional dimensions; personality; addiction; stimulants; opioids. how to cite: hosseinpour, s. (2019). a comparative study of emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants and opioids users. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(4), 28-39. doi:10.18662/brain/03 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 29 introduction today, the problem of drug abuse is one of the four global and major social crises in the country, which has close relation with the economic and cultural aspects. although, social factors in drug addiction are emphasized a lot, but abuse can be attributed to biological, psychological, and personality processes. personality refers to all the traits and features including thought, feelings, self-perception, views, thoughts, and many habits that represent one's behavior and actually refer to a particular aspect of the whole human personality addicts' personality traits are not just due to opioids, but addicts have had a number of psychological and personality disorders prior to addiction that have become more destructive after the addiction. so the problem of addicts is not just opioids, but in essence, the relationship between personality and addiction is discussed, and in fact, some people's personality structure is more conducive for accepting addiction than others. many researches shows that emotional instability is the axis of the dysfunction in personality disorder and one of the signs of specifying it (robbins, keng, ekblad & brantley, 2012; bornovalova et al., 2008). people with this disorder show greater frequency and severity in the emotions surveyed by self-assessment questionnaires (linehan et al., 2007; jacob et al., 2008). various studies emphasize irritability (links and heslegrave, 2000), anger (jacob et al., 2008) and shame (gratz, rosenthal, tull, lejuez & gunderson, 2010), stress and anxiety (stiglmeyr et al., 2005), fear (arntz klokman & sieswerda, 2005), and total negative emotions (walters, 2006). based on the evidence from effective brain systems that are divided into six distinct groups, it has been assumed that a great deal of personality variation can be attributed to the strengths and weaknesses found in these six systems. this hypothesis provides more evidence for the physiological bases of personality if proven (panksepp, 2004). also, davis, panksepp and normansell (2004) provide a tool called affective neuroscience personality scales (anps). the tool is used to measure six core emotions that according to them is “core” elements defendable from emotional experience of “happiness, curiosity, emphasize, phobia, discomfort and anger”. stimulants such as amphetamine, dextroamphetamine, and methylphenidate are a group of synthetic or plant-derived substances that increase alertness, arousal, and vigilance by stimulating the central nervous system. stimulants by affecting the brain's reward center create pleasurable effects such as euphoria. these effects are in the consumer that led to a comparative study of emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants … sanaz hosseinpour 30 dependence. these substances cause energy and happiness in the consumer. the members of this group do not have high physical addiction but their consumption is associated with psychological addiction and many physical effects. (mennin & farach, 2007). in contrast, opioids are substances derived directly from poppy sap or artificially produced from this substance and are the most common illicit substances used in iran. opium is a poppy-dried sap that is the source of a variety of addictive substances, including burned, sap, morphine, codeine, diphenoxylate and heroin. the physical effects of these substances include the feeling of heat and red face, pupil narrowing, dizziness and lethargy (sharp et al., 2014). behavioral disorders, feelings of joy and pleasure followed by depression and bad temper. mental retardation, restlessness, disorder in memory and concentration, disorder in judging are the psychological effects of drug use. according to the world health organization, methamphetamine use is the most abused drug in the world after cannabis. currently, there are approximately 26 million regular users of amphetamine versus 16 million heroin users and 14 million cocaine users worldwide (tomko, trull, wood & sher, 2014). in the studies of allen, moeller, rhoades and cherek (1998) and fisher et al. (2006), it has been reported that regarding drug abuse disorders, personality features such as impulsive, impulsivity, emotion seeking and restriction and prone to social deviations can expose the person to these disorders. in addition, heroin and alcohol abusers had higher levels of vulnerability associated with internalizing relative to the control group. on the other hand, conway et al., suggested that restriction factor (one of other features of personality) can well distinguish opioids and cocaine users (low restriction) from marijuana and alcohol users (high restriction). in this regard, according to the findings of ketabi, maher and borjali, (2008), the level of novelty seeking and harm avoidance of addicts is higher than non-addicts, while self-directedness and cooperation in opioids users is lower than normal people. also, sarvela and mcclendon (1998) in a study on addicts in manchester found that four factors of access to opioids, risky occupation, and pressure from friends and colleagues had a significant relationship with addiction, and in another study he specified that emotion seeking individuals have readiness to high addiction. robert et al (2007) in a study on opioids users in germany showed that opium users had 14.9% anxiety, 11.6% depression, 10.5% schizoid personality, 10.1% psychological weakness and 10.1% antisocial personality. the highest rate was related to heroin addicts. according to research, it seems that stimulant and opioids users have different personality, psychological characteristics that play a brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 31 decisive role in their tendency for stimulants and opioids. therefore, the present study seeks to answer the question whether there is a difference between the emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants and opioids users. research method this study is a causal-comparative study in which the personality emotional were compared in two groups of stimulants and opioids users. the statistical population of this study includes addicts (men and women) who are addicted to stimulants and opioids that referred to quit camps or addiction counseling and psychological centers in tehran in 2006. the sample consisted of 150 addicts who were selected using targeted and convenience sampling method. it should be noted that 75 stimulants and opioids users were selected as the sample group. entry criteria of sample group based on the dsm-5 include: 1 tolerance symptoms 2quit symptoms 3permanent desire to reduce or control the substance or unsuccessful efforts in this field 4long time to be spent from needed activities to obtain or release material from effects of the material. 5. important social, occupational, and recreational activities to be excluded due to drug use. 6continued drug use, despite awareness of its physical and psychological problems. 7. ability to read and write to answer a research questionnaire. tool it is the affective neuroscience personality scale (anps). the test questions are classified into 14 blocks used by the following components: search, phobia, care, anger, happiness, sadness and discomfort (only 12 items) that are generally followed by a filling question. items in each block (numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12) have inverse numbers. to guide the reader, there are 7 items from the "search" component on the form (numbers 1, 9, 17, 25, 33, 41 and 49) and 7 items on the back of the form that contain numbers (57, 65, 73 81, 89, 97, 105). rating changes from "normal" to "reverse" seven times. the translation and adaptation steps of this questionnaire with the permission of its creators (davis et al., 2014) in iran have been performed by amini et al. (2017) and its re-translation has been revised by the creators and finalized after modification. in amini's study (2017), 10 experts' view was used to improve the validity of this questionnaire and its validity was found to be appropriate. the reliability of the questionnaire was 0.84 using cronbach's alpha. a comparative study of emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants … sanaz hosseinpour 32 findings table 1 presents the descriptive indices of the two groups as well as the emotional dimensions of the personality. table 4.1 descriptive indicators of personality emotional dimensions discomfort happiness anger care phobia search user group components opioid stimulant 150 150 150 150 150 150 75 75 number 17.456 16.875 17.458 17.300 17.083 16.875 16.450 68.716 mean 4.7682 4.7253 4.7684 4.7111 4.795 4.7253 2.4004 11.8301 sd 10.00 10.00 10.00 10.00 10.00 10.00 10.00 44.00 minimum 27.00 27.00 27.00 27.00 27.00 27.00 20.00 99.00 maximum then, kolmogorov smirnov test was performed to investigate normal distribution of variables before multivariate analysis of variance (manova). since the significance level obtained in the k-s test for most of the variables of the study is more than 0.05, separately, it can be concluded that the distribution of the studied variables in the statistical sample has a normal distribution. table 2. kolmogorov-smirnov test significant level kolmogorovsmirnov group variable 0.200 0.077 opioid search 0.200 0.076 stimulant 0.025 0.107 opioid phobia 0.200 0.087 stimulant 0.199 0.088 opioid care 0.075 0.094 stimulant 0.191 0.087 opioid anger 0.087 0.088 stimulant 0.201 0.103 opioid happiness 0.200 0.94 stimulant 0.121 0.98 opioid discomfort 0.109 0.102 stimulant multivariate analysis of variance (manova) was used to analyze the data on the differences between the two groups of opioids users and stimulants users. box test results for investigating the default of all variancecovariance matrices showed a significant level of (p> 0.05). therefore, the brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 33 homogeneity of variance – covariance matrix was well observed (f = 1.125, p> 0.05). table 3. box test results to examine the default of all variance-covariance matrices in components of personality dimensions significance f box s m 0.345 1.125 6.892 to determine the significant effect of group on the components of personality emotional dimensions, the wilks' lambda test was used and the results are reported in table 4. table 4. results of the wilks' lambda test in multivariate analysis of variance eta squared significant level df degree of freedom of error f value test 0.153 0.001 3 156 0.364 0.847 wilks' lambda the results of wilks' lambda test showed that there was a significant difference between two groups in at least one of the components of personality dimensions. levon's test was also used to examine the equality of variance in the components of emotional dimensions of personality in the study groups. table 5. levon's test results for investigating the default of equality of variance in personality dimensions of personality. significant level df2 df1 f variables 0.120 158 1 2.438 search 0.106 158 1 2.640 phobia 0.799 158 1 0.650 care 0.112 158 1 2.450 anger 0.567 158 1 0.760 happiness 0.456 158 1 2.431 discomfort the table above shows that the variance of the components of the personality emotional dimensions does not differ significantly in the two a comparative study of emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants … sanaz hosseinpour 34 groups of opioids and stimulants users, which indicates the reliability of the results. table 5. results of multivariate analysis of variance eta squared significance f ms df ss variable group 0.128 0.001 23.100 783.225 1 783.225 search opioid group 0.044 0.001 7.235 308.025 1 308.025 phobia 0.074 0.001 12.649 345.156 1 345.156 care 0.055 0.001 13.345 435.345 1 231.435 anger 0.123 0.001 21.435 345.234 1 432.654 happiness 0.023 0.001 12.436 234.456 1 432.987 discomfort 0.121 0.001 13.367 5357.175 158 5357.175 search stimulant group 0.012 0.001 12.567 42.572 158 6726.375 phobia 0.098 0.001 11.987 27.288 158 4311.538 care 0.076 0.001 12.102 34.344 158 3467.341 anger 0.066 0.001 21.231 32.453 158 5687.345 happiness 0.145 0.001 14.243 54.543 158 4325.543 discomfort according to table 5, there is a significant difference between the two groups of opioids users and stimulants users in the dimension of search (p <0.01, f1, 158 = 23/100). that is, the search score for the stimulant group was significantly lower than the opioid group. the group variable explains 12.8% of the variance of search in the search. there is a significant difference between the two groups of opioid and stimulant users in phobia component (f1, 158 = 7.223) and p <0.001). the phobia score of the stimulant group is significantly higher than the opioid group. the group variable explains 4.4% of the variance in phobia. there is a significant difference between the two groups of opioid and stimulant users in care component (f1, 158 =12.649) and p <0.001). the care score of the stimulant group is significantly lower than the opioid group. the group variable explains 7.4% of the variance in care. there is a significant difference between the two groups of opioid and stimulant users in anger component (f1, 1 = 13.345) and p <0.001). the anger score of the stimulant group is significantly lower than the opioid group. the group variable explains 5.5% of the variance in anger. there is a significant difference between the two groups of opioid and stimulant users in happiness component (f1, 1 = 21.435) and p <0.001). the happiness score of the stimulant group is significantly lower than the opioid group. the group variable explains 12% of the variance in anger. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 35 there is a significant difference between the two groups of opioid and stimulant users in discomfort component (f1, 158 = 14.243) and p <0.001). the sadness score of the stimulant group is significantly higher than the opioid group. the group variable explains 14% of the variance in discomfort. discussion and conclusion this study was conducted to investigate and compare the emotional dimensions of personality in opioids and stimulants users. the results showed that there is a significant difference between the emotional dimensions of personality in opioids and stimulants users. that is, there was a significant difference between the two groups of addicts in terms of search, phobia, happiness, discomfort, anger. these results are consistent with the findings of the researches of habibeh and teklavi (2016), tahereh, khani, shahram, and gholamreza, (2011), gross and feldman barrett (2011), stevens et al., (2004). the results of the study indicated that the dimension of search in stimulants users is higher than opioids users; it means that following and searching is mainly more in stimulants users. this result may be due to the morale and personality of people who are inclined to use stimulants, so the search dimension itself can lead to more demand of stimulants by searchers than traditional drug users. the research dimension can be related to people's emotion seeking, emotion seeking people are ready for high addiction. the findings did not show a significant difference between the fear dimensions among stimulants users compared to opioids users. the above results show that both groups of users have no phobia to use opioids. contrary to the results obtained, other results indicated that heroin addicts had a high level of novelty seeking and non-phobia in comparison to opioids and control groups. in addition, the findings show that the anger dimension is higher in opioids users than in stimulants. the findings also show that the dimension of sadness and discomfort in stimulants users is higher than opioids users. various studies have shown that the most important factor that was significantly associated with the development and persistence of mental disorders was lack of motivation, interest and cooperation to change the conditions. in addition, opioids users had non-motivation and sadness caused by it. other results indicate that happiness dimension is higher in stimulants users than opioids users. since this study and previous research show that most of the stimulant users are young people and mostly young people under 40, it can be guessed that due to youth and more energy, they a comparative study of emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants … sanaz hosseinpour 36 have more discomfort and anger and happiness than opioids users and they have high-risk behaviors associated with the use of stimulants. according to the world health organization (who), methamphetamine use is the most abused after cannabis in the world. currently, there are approximately 26 million regular users of amphetamine versus 16 million heroin users and 14 million cocaine users worldwide. research findings suggest that stimulants users have a stronger dimension of care than opioids users. characteristics of impulsivity, emotion seeking, restriction, and prone to social deviations can expose person to these disorders. these results are consistent with the findings of the researches of bridges, denham and ganiban (2004), rawlings, claridge and freeman (2002), gratz and roemer (2004). the use of stimulants increases the level of dopamine in the body and follows symptoms such as aggression, anxiety, obsession, and irritability, hallucinations in individuals that can impair one's physical, emotional, and mental function. since this study is a comparative study, uncontrolled variables such as age, education, duration of use may have compromised the results of the study. in this study, the age variable was not controllable, because opium-dependent people were older than stimulant-dependent people. there was also another restriction that duration of use in opioids users was higher due to their high age and lower physical and spiritual destruction, while duration of use in stimulant users (crystal) was much lower due to the lower age and high physical and spiritual destruction. since most opioid users are not satisfied to just one type of substance, so access to people solely dependent on one type of opioid (in this research, opium) or stimulants is very difficult and this issue causes much limitation. also, the personality factors specified in this study confirm the problem of changing patterns and trends of drug abuse from traditional to industrial and higher prevalence of stimulants among young people. over time, change of the pattern of drug abuse, the amount of access to the drugs is due to demographic and geographical differences as well as cultural and economic differences. according to the direct and indirect role of emotional dimensions of personality, it seems that preparing and implementing interventional and preventive programs based on healthy personality, especially in adolescents and young people, can have a significant effect on reducing the tendency for drug abuse. it is suggested that in educational programs in counseling centers, educational centers such as schools, etc., a topic titled introduction to personality types and its consequences and emotional dimensions of personality to be considered to be investigated the maladaptive consequences of any personality pattern. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 37 references allen, t. j., moeller, f. g., rhoades, h. m., & cherek, d. r. (1998). impulsivity and history of drug dependence. drug and alcohol dependence, 50(2), 137– 145. doi:10.1016/s0376-8716(98)00023-4 amini, m., mehraban, a. h., haghani, h., mollazade, e., & zaree, m. (2017) factor structure and construct validity of children participationassessment scale in activities outside of school–parent version (cpas-p). occupationaltherapy in health care, 31(1), 44-60. doi:10.1080/07380577.2016.1272733 arntz, a., klokman, j., & sieswerda, s. (2005). an empirical test of the schema mode model of borderline personality disorder. journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 36(3), 226-39. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2005.05.005 bornovalova, m. a., gratz, k. l., daughters, s. b., nick, b., delany-brumsey, a., lynch, t. r., kosson, d., & lejuez, c. w. (2008). a multimodal assessment of the relationship between emotiondysregulation and borderline personality disorder amonginner-city substance users in residential treatment. journal of psychiatric research 42(9):717-26. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2007.07.014 bridges, l. j., denham, s. a., & ganiban, j. m. (2004). definitional issues in emotion regulation research. child development, 75(2), 340-345. davis, k. l., panksepp, j., & normansell, l. (2014). the affective neuroscience personality scales: normative data and implications. neuropsychoanalysis, 5(1), 57-69. doi:10.1080/15294145.2003.10773410 fisher, s. l., bucholz, k. k., reich, w., fox, l., kuperman, s., kramer, j., hesselbrock, v., dick, d. m., nurnberger, j.i. jr, edenberg, h. j., & bierut, l.j. (2006). teenagers are right-parents do not know much: an analysis of adolescent-parent agreement on reports of adolescent substance use, abuse, and dependence. alcoholism, clinical and experimental research. 30(10):1699-710. doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2006.00205.x habibeh, g., & teklavi, s. (2016). comparison of emotional maladjustment in students with borderline and normal symptoms. second national conference on educational science knowledge and technology of iranian social studies and psychology, tehran, sam iranian institute of knowledge and technology development conference. tahereh, g., khani, m., shahram, m. & gholamreza, s. (2011) comparison of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy based on coping skills and methadone maintenance therapy in improving emotion regulation and relapse prevention strategies. articles collection: postgraduate and phd theses in the field of opioids. (vol. 1). tehran: information. a comparative study of emotional dimensions of personality in stimulants … sanaz hosseinpour 38 gratz, k. l., & roemer, l. (2004). multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. journal of psychopathology and behavioral assessment, 26(1), 41-54. gratz, k. l., rosenthal, m. z., tull, m. t., lejuez, c. w., gunderson, j. g. (2010). an experimental investigation of emotional reactivity and delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder: the role of shame. comprehensive psychiatry, 51(3), 275–285. doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.005 gross, j. j., & feldman barrett, l. (2011). emotion generation and emotion regulation: one or two depends on your point of view. emotion review, 3(1), 8-16. jacob, g. a., cindy, g., zimmerman, s., corinna, n. s., rüsch, n., rainer, l., & lieb, k. (2008). time course of anger and other emotions in women with borderline personality disorder: a preliminary study. journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 39(3), 391–402. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.10.009 ketabi, s., maher, f., & borjali, a. (2008). personality profile of drug addicts using cloninger and eysenck's two personality systems. quarterly journal of research on addiction, 2 (7), 45-54. linehan, m. m., bohus, m., & lynch, t. r. (2007). dialectical behavior therapy for pervasive emotion dysregulation: theoretical and practical underpinnings. in j. goss (ed.), handbook of emotion regulation (pp.581-605). new york, u.s.a.: guilford press links, p. s., & heslegrave, r. j. (2000). prospective studies of outcome: understanding mechanisms of change in patients with borderline personality disorder. psychiatric clinics of north america 23(1):137-50. mennin, d., & farach, f. (2007). emotion and evolving treatments for adult psychopathology. clinical psychology: science and practice, 14, 329-352. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2850.2007.00094.x panksepp, j. (2004). affective neuroscience: the foundations of human and animal emotions. new york, u.s.a.: oxford university press. rawlings, d., claridge, g., & freeman, j. l. (2002). principal components analysis of the schizotypal personality scale (sta) and the borderline personality scale (stb). personality and individual differences, 31(3), 409-419. robins, c. j., keng, s. l., ekblad, a. g., & brantley, j. g. (2012). effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on emotional experience and expression: a randomized controlled trial. journal of clinical psychology, 68(1), 117-131. doi:10.1002/jclp.20857 sarvela, p. d., & mcclendon, e. j. (1998). indicators of rural youth drug use. journal of youth and adolescence, 17(4), 335-47. doi:10.1007/bf01537674 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 39 stiglmayr, c. e., grathwol, t., linehan, m. m., ihorst, g., fahrenberg, j., & bohus, m. (2005). aversive tension in patients with borderline personality disorder: a computer–based controlled field study. acta psychiatrica scandinavica, 111, 372–379. sharp, c., pane, h., ha, c., venta, a., patel, a.b., sturek, j. & fonagy, p. (2014). theory of mind and emotion regulation difficulties in adolescents with borderline traits. journal of the american academy of child & adolescent psychiatry, 50, 563-573. stevens a, burkhardt m, hautzinger m, schwarz j, & unckel c. (2004). borderline personality disorder: impaired visual perception and working memory. psychiatry research, 125, 257–267. tomko, r. l., trull, t. j., wood, p. k., & sher, k. j. (2014). characteristics of borderline personality disorder in a community sample: comorbidity, treatment utilization, and general functioning. journal of personality disorders, 28(5), 734-750. walters, k. n. (2006). emotional responses to social rejection and failure among persons with borderline personality features. [dissertation]. university of alberta. microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx 143 automatic optimal thresholding using generalized fuzzy entropies and genetic algorithm gh. reza atazandi department of electrical engineering, mashhad branch, islamic azad university razavi khorasan province, mashhad, kuy-e-honar, ostad yousefi boulevard, iran phone: +98 51 3525 1317 atazandi@gmail s. ehsan razavi department of electrical engineering, mashhad branch, islamic azad university razavi khorasan province, mashhad, kuy-e-honar, ostad yousefi boulevard, iran phone: +98 51 3525 1317 ehsanrazavi@mshdiau.ac.ir fariba nobakht faculty member of asrar institute of higher education, mashhad, iran razavi khorasan province, mashhad, district 11, 69, iran phone: +98 51 3866 1771 abstract the use of fuzzy entropy for image segmentation is one of the most popular methods, which is used today. in a classical fuzzy entropy, using a fuzzy complement with an equilibrium point of 0.5 is a limitation, which reduces the chances of obtaining an optimal result. we use generalized fuzzy entropy phrases in this paper, which uses fuzzy complements of sugeno and yager, and corresponds the equilibrium point to the m parameter (0<m<1), and increases the chance of finding the optimal threshold. so, we will have many pictures depending on the points of balance, and by the genetic algorithm, we choose the best decision among them. the effect of this method have considered in medical images to find the brain tumors. results have shown that the use of generalized fuzzy entropy and the genetic algorithm can greatly be used to find the optimal threshold. presented method is very effective for reducing the number of intensity levels. problems may cause images with height amount of unwanted information which is saved to the expanse of subjective more important information. keywords: image segmentation; fuzzy entropy; generalized fuzzy entropy; fuzzy complement operator; genetic algorithm. 1. introduction the fuzzy entropy determines the fuzziness level and ambiguity of a fuzzy set, it is also a basic concept for the theory of fuzzy sets. the fuzzy entropy has been widely used for image segmentation and threshold selection (huang, & wang, 1995; li, zhao, & cheng, 1995; cheng, chen, & sun, 1999). the first definitions of fuzzy entropy were presented by deluca and termini (de luca, & termini, 1972). the basic functions of union, intersections, and fuzzy complementation were used by them in their definitions which were introduced by zadeh (zadeh, 1965). one of the important characteristics of using a fuzzy supplement in the definition of entropy is that there is the greatest ambiguity at the equilibrium point of x = 0.5. this issue in real applications always confronts us with a truth. if we use the concept of fuzzy uncertainty to calculate the darkness of an image, as pal uses it (pal, 1982). a single point of equilibrium for a basic fuzzy complement does not necessarily result in acceptable results. by generalizing the concept of fuzzy entropy, zenzo (zenzo, cinque, & levialdi, 1998) created a condition in which we have the highest amount of fuzziness and uncertainty for the equilibrium points of x=m (m∈(0,1)) and the application of this generalized fuzzy entropy for threshold selection in image processing, increases the chances of obtaining an appropriate image. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 144 but the fuzzy entropy generalized by zenzo did not refuse the fourth condition of a fuzzy entropy, which includes a complement operator for a fuzzy set. therefore, the generalized fuzzy entropies were then presented (fan, & zhao, 2008). in which the comprehensiveness of the four conditions of the fuzzy entropy definition was taken into account. to apply these generalized fuzzy entropy definitions was made to select the optimal threshold with m membership degree, ( 0<m<1 ). but using these methods for image segmentation, provides m image which ultimately to choose the best picture is done by a person. depending on the individual view, the selected final images may also be different. in this study we present a method in which a variety of fuzzy complements are used for fuzzy entropies, to improve the previous methods. in addition, at the end, the genetic algorithm is used to select the best image from the m image provided by the extended fuzzy entropy, to have the optimal image selection by an intelligent method. the structure of this article is as follows: in the second section, we give an overview of the definition of fuzzy entropy, in section 3 we examine the various definitions of generalized fuzzy entropy. the fourth part introduces the method of image segmentation using generalized fuzzy entropy and the use of various fuzzy supplements. in section 5, an intelligent selection of optimal image based on genetic algorithm is proposed. the performance of the proposed method in images related to the identification of brain tumors has been done in section 6. finally, the conclusions and recommendations are presented in section 7. 2. fuzzy entropy in this paper, we show the set of all fuzzy sets on universal set x by means of f(x), and the set of all crisp sets by means of p(x). μ (x) is the membership function of a∈f(x). [a] is the fuzzy set of x, so that 𝜇[ ](𝑥) = 𝑎. complement, union and intersection operators for these sets are defined as follows: 𝐴 is the indicator of completes𝐴, so that c(x) = 1− x (x∈ [0, 1]). the union of two fuzzy sets of a and b is shown as 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵 and defined as 𝜇 ∪ (x) = max 𝜇 (𝑥) , μb (𝑥)) and intersection of two fuzzy sets of a and b is shown as 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 and defined as 𝜇 ∩ (x) =min 𝜇 (𝑥) , μb (𝑥)). a fuzzy set a∗ is called a sharpening of a. for the set of a* which is sharper than a, if 𝜇 (x) ≥0.5, then 𝜇 ∗ (x) ≥ 𝜇 (x) and if 𝜇 (x) ≤ 0.5 then 𝜇 ∗ (x) ≤ μ a (x). deluca and termini.4, defined the fuzzy entropy for the calculation of the uncertainty level of a fuzzy set, defined on the universal set x as follows: e(a) = 0 if a∈p(x); e(a) reaches to its maximum if a=[0.5]; if a∗ is a sharpening of a, then e(a*) ≤ e(a); e(𝐴 ) = e(a). 3. generalized fuzzy entropy as mentioned, the equilibrium point of the base complement operator is only at x =0.5, and this is a limitation to use to select the threshold. other complement operators have been proposed by researchers, which eliminate the limit of the unique equilibrium point (sugeno, 1977; lowen, 1978; yager, 1980; malinowski, 1993). for example, sugeno has presented a fuzzy complement function as follows: in which the equilibrium point of this function is equal to m = (-1±√(1+λ)) / λ. yager has provided the following fuzzy complement function: gh. r. atazandi, s. e. razavi, f. nobakht automatic optimal thresholding using generalized fuzzy entropies and genetic algorithm 145 which has the equilibrium point of m = 1 / √(w&2). based on the fuzzy complement with the non-unique equilibrium point, various functions for generalized fuzzy entropy (em: f(x) → 𝑅 ) are presented (khotanloua et. al., 2009), which refuses the four conditions below: (1) e m (a) =0 if a∈p(x); (2) e m (a) attains its maximum if a=[m] ; (3) if a* is shaper than a , then em (a*) ≤ em (a). here a* satisfies that μa (x) ≥ μa (x) when μa (x) ≥ m ; μa (x) ≤ μa (x) when μa (x) ≤ m ; (4) e(acm ) = e(a). but in all of them, only one fuzzy complement has been used. in this paper we use generalized fuzzy entropy functions with multiple complements to improve performance. some of the generalized fuzzy entropy relations for a fuzzy set a on a finite x set are given below: where where 4. fuzzy entropy-based image segmentation method to choose the threshold for image processing based on generalized fuzzy entropy has been one of the most commonly used methods in recent research. in this method we consider the parameter m in the interval (0,1) with steps 0.05, and we will find for each image 19 outcomes and then, by intelligent genetic algorithm, the best decision will be chosen from these results. we first consider the image of size m × n with a matrix q, where q xy shows the gray level of the pixel (x, y). if we look at the image as a fuzzy set, μq qxy represents the membership value, which indicates the brightness level of the pixels (x,y) in the q matrix. to show the gray level brightness, we use the s function, which is defined as follows: (li & yang, 1989) (7) in which x is the gray level in q and a, b, d are the parameters that identifies the shape of s function, and a > b > d. the image segmentation based on fuzzy entropy is based on the selection of maximum fuzzy entropy as threshold. the shape of the function s is determined by the parameters a, b, d, so the threshold selection problem is related to the combination of these parameters, so that maximum fuzzy entropy is obtained (li, zhao, & cheng, 1995, cheng, & chen, 1997, hrubes & kozumplik, 2007). this optimal combination of parameters is represented by (a*, b*, d*), then, using the generalized fuzzy entropy for image segmentation, the optimal threshold value is selected as follows: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 146 when we consider the fuzzy complement of the sugeno class instead of the base fuzzy complement, the relation between m, and ƛ is obtained as follow: (11) which is a mapping of m∈(0,1) to ƛ∈(-1,∞). if we use the fuzzy complement of the yager class, the relationship between m and w is as follow: (12) which is a mapping of m∈(0,1) to w∈(-1,∞). by respect to these relations, the relations introduced in (3-6) for generalized fuzzy entropy include parameters m (m∈(0,1)) . then we divide m in the internal (0,1) with steps 0.05. 19 results are obtained for each image. the best visual image will be selected by a smart algorithm. 5. genetic algorithm genetic algorithm is an intelligent tool for optimization, in this method, the problem is transformed from decimal space to the binary space in which each row is a set of parameters as an answer to the problem. the quality of all the answers in each generation is evaluated by a proper function. the best answer is selected with the highest probability along with a random exchange of information in two parts for intersection. these solutions are then used with the genetic mutation used to maintain genetic diversity and avoid local extremes. the stimulus operator returns randomly selected bits to a genetic sequence. an example of a flowchart genetic algorithm is shown in fig 1. in this case, an answer, containing the parameters a, b, c, will be the membership function of µ(a,b,c). all of these parameters are integers from 0 to 255, similarly, an answer of the problem will be encrypted with 24 bits. 6. experimental results in this section, we compare our method performance with that of the classical fuzzy entropy-based method and efficient methods used today for image tumor description. the generalized fuzzy entropy formulas mentioned in (3) ~ (6). the complement functions are segeno and yager’s complement. gh. r. atazandi, s. e. razavi, f. nobakht automatic optimal thresholding using generalized fuzzy entropies and genetic algorithm 147 figure 1. flow diagram of genetic algorithm 6.1. compare with traditional fuzzy entropy based the experimental images are meningioma and glioblastoma. for each of this images, first, we have extracted 19 retrieved images with generalized fuzzy entropy and then with genetic algorithm we find the optimal image. for meningioma (figure 2), with the generalized fuzzy entropy, the threshold of fuzzy entropy is 104, and the final threshold of the generalized fuzzy entropy with (ga) is located at m = 0.75 (t=149). for glioblastoma (figure 3), wuth the generalized fuzzy entropy, the threshold of fuzzy entropy is 117, and the final threshold of this method is located at m = 0.85 (t=157). figure 2. meningioma image: (a) prime image; (b) processed with fuzzy entropy; (c) processed with generalized entropy and (ga) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 148 6.2. compare with a fuzzy neural network in this part we compare the results obtained from this method with a fuzzy kohonen clustering network (n.i.jabbar & m.mehrotra, 2008). the result of the segmentation with our method obtained in m = 0.9 (t=200) (figure 4). figure 4. the image results : (a) prime image; (b) processed with a fuzzy kohonen clustering network; (c) processed with generalized entropy and (ga) 6.3. compare with a 3d brain tumor segmentation in mri using fuzzy classification, symmetry analysis and spatially constrained deformable models based on this method, first we will have a segmentation in the presence of tumors. then a tumor detection stage will be implemented with selection asymmetric regions, considering the approximate brain symmetry and fuzzy classification (h. khotanloua, o.colliotb, j.atifc & i.blocha, 2009, moumen t el-melegy & hashim m mokhtar, 2014, chalumuri revathi & b. jagadeesh, 2017). compare this method with the method that we presented, gives the following result in m =0.7 (t=151) (figure 5). figure 5. the image results: (a) prime image; (b) processed with a fuzzy classification, symmetry analysis and spatially constrained deformable models; (c) processed with generalized entropy and (ga) gh. r. atazandi, s. e. razavi, f. nobakht automatic optimal thresholding using generalized fuzzy entropies and genetic algorithm 149 7. conclusions with generalized fuzzy entropy and (ga)-based method we have segmentation for an image that the threshold can accept the membership value m. this method increases the chance of choosing optimal thresholds, so it provides better performance than the fuzzy entropy-based method. presented method is very effective for reducing the number of intensity levels. problems may cause images with height amount of unwanted information which is saved to the expanse of subjective more important information. results have shown that the use of generalized fuzzy entropy and the genetic algorithm can greatly be used to find the optimal threshold. however, doing this method with other well-known algorithms such as ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization and imperialist competitive algorithm, worth to research further. references cheng, h., chen, y., sun, y. (1999). a novel fuzzy entropy approach to image enhancement and thresholding, signal processing, 75(3), 277301. cheng, h.d., chen, j-r. (1997). automatically determine the membership function based on the maximum entropy principle, information sciences, 96(3-4), 163-182. de luca, a., termini, s. (1972). definition of a nonprobabilistic entropy in the setting of fuzzy set el-melegy, m.t., mokhtar, h. m. (2014). tumor segmentation in brain mri using a fuzzy approach with class center priors, eurasip journal on image and video processing, 2014(1), 1-14. fan, j. l., zhao, f. (2007). a generalized fuzzy entropy-based image segmentation method, international journal of computational intelligence systems. garcía, f. s., gil álvarez, p. (1987). measures of fuzziness of fuzzy events, fuzzy sets and systems, 21(2), 147-157. hrubes, j., kozumplik, j. (2007). automatic optimal thresholding of image data, 17th international conference radioelektronika, brno, czech republic. huang, l., wang, m. (1995). image thresholding by minimizing the measures of fuzziness. pattern recognition, 28(1), 41-51. jabbar, n.i., mehrotra, m. (2008)., application of fuzzy neural network for image tumor description, world academy of science, engineering and technology, 44, 575-577. khotanloua, h., colliotb, o., atifc, j., blocha, i. (2009). 3d brain tumor segmentation in mri using fuzzy classification, symmetry analysis and spatially constrained deformable models, science direct, fuzzy sets and systems, 160(10), 1457–1473. knotts, h. g. & haspel, m. (2006). the impact of gentrification on voter turnout. social science quarterly, 87(1), 110-121. li, h.,yang, h. (1989). fast and reliable image enhancement using fuzzy relaxation technique, ieee transactions on systems, man and cybernetics, 19(5), 1276-1281. li, x., zhao, z., cheng, h. (1995). fuzzy entropy threshold approach to cancer detection, information sciences, 4(1), 49-56. lowen, r. (1978). on fuzzy complements, information sciences, 14(2), 107–113. malinowski, g. (1993). many-valued logics. oxford university press, new york, isbn: 9780198537878. newman, j. l., fuqua, d. r., gray, e. a., & simpson, d. b. (2006). gender differences in the relationship of anger and depression in a clinical sample. journal of counseling & development, 84, 157-161. pal, sk. (1982). a note on the quantitative measure of image enhancement through fuzziness, ieee transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence, 4(2), 204-208. r. yager, r. (1980). on the measures of fuzziness and negation.ii. lattices, information and control, 44(3), 236–260. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 150 revathi, c., jagadeesh, b. (2017). segmentation of brain images for tumor detection using neuro-fuzzy inference system, international journal of current engineering and scientific research, 4(12), 42–48. theory, information and control, 20(4), 301-312. zadeh, l.a. (1965). fuzzy sets, information and control, 8(3), 338–353. zenzo, s., cinque, l., levialdi, s. (1998). image thresholding using fuzzy entropies, ieee transactions on systems, man and cybernetics. part b, 28(1), 15-23. seyed ehsan razavi (b. september 05, 1981) received his bsc in electrical engineering (2006), msc in control engineering (2008), phd in control engineering (2014). now he is assistant professor of electrical engineering department in islamic azad university, mashhad branch, mashhad, iran. his current research interests are control theory, biomedical engineering, nanoparticles, image processing and hyperthermia. he has authored several book chapters and published more than 30 papers in journals and conferences. microsoft word special-issue-asamblare.docx 66 postoperative weight-bearing after uncemented bipolar hemiarthroplasty for femoral neck fractures in geriatric patients with dementia sîrbu paul-dan faculty of medicine grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 pdsirbu@yahoo.com norin forna faculty of medicine grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 norin.forna@gmail.com dragoș cristian popescu faculty of medicine grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 dragospopescu1975@yahoo.com razvan tudor vaslui county hospital, department of orthopaedics and traumatology 233 stefan cel mare st. 730006 vaslui, romania phone: 0235312120 rc_tudor@yahoo.com wilhelm friedl wertheim hospital, department of orthopedics and traumatology rotkreuzstraße 2 · 97877 wertheim, germany phone: 09342/303-0 wilhelm.friedl@gmail.com anamaria ciubara dunărea de jos university of galați strada domnească 47, galați, romania phone: 0336 130 108 anamburlea@yahoo.com bogdan mihnea ciuntu faculty of medicine grigore t. popa university of medicine and pharmacy strada universității 16, iași 700115, romania phone: 0232 301 600 bogdanmciuntu@yahoo.com grigore berea emergency county hospital piatra neamț, department of orthopedics and traumatology 1 traian blvd., 611003 piatra neamtț, romania phone: 0233.21.94.40 grigberea@yahoo.com abstract dementia and hip fractures are two crucial problems in the elderly and the associations of these pathologies increase substantial morbidity and mortality. 178 patients with dementia (average age 81.5 years) were operated with an uncemented bipolar prosthesis for a displaced femoral neck sîrbu p.-d., n. forna, d. c. popescu, r. tudor, w. friedl, a. ciubara, b. m. ciuntu, g. berea postoperative weightbearing after uncemented bipolar hemiarthroplasty for femoral neck fractures in geriatric patients with dementiaa 67 fracture. they started rehabilitation sessions in the immediate postoperative period and were divided into two groups: group 1 – partial weight-bearing for 72 cases – and group 2 – total weightbearing for 106 cases. 17 patients were unable to walk and 6 died during hospitalization. 172 patients were discharged to a rehabilitation department (46.6%) or to their home with (31.9%) or without (21.5%) rehabilitation facilities. during follow-up, 103 out of 172 patients accepted a phone interview. after three months 55 patients had regained the pre-fracture level of independence (6 patients from group 1 and 49 patients from group 2; 81% were included in a rehabilitation program). the mortality at one year postoperative period was 26.21%; the majorities of these patients were included in group 1, were more than 80 years old and had more than 4 comorbidities (except dementia). the authors concluded that, for patients undergoing uncemented bipolar ha, immediate total weight-bearing and discharging to a rehabilitation facility showed a better recovery and return to the pre-fracture level, as well as a better one-year survival rate. keywords: dementia; femoral neck fractures; hemiarthroplasty; weight-bearing; rehabilitation 1. introduction dementia and hip fractures are two crucial problems in elderly patients and both are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality (friedman et. al., 2010; mizrahi et. al., 2018). dementia is a global loss of cognitive and intellectual functioning which gradually interferes with social and occupational performance (mcgilton et. al., 2012; vun et. al., 2017). in comparison with cognitively intact persons, the patients with dementia have 3 times higher hospitalization rates, 2 times higher hospitalization stay and 2.3 times higher relative risk of death (friedman et. al., 2010; draper et. al., 2011; pinkert & holle, 2012). traumatic lesions are one of the most frequent causes of hospital admission for patients with dementia (lai et. al., 2018; lach, harrison & phongphanngam, 2016; mcgilton et. al., 2007). due to the important relationship between dementia and osteoporosis (yamaguchi, 2015), the elderly patients with cognitive impairment are more likely to have a fragility hip fracture (draper, karmel, gibson, peut & anderson, 2011). 68% of hip fractures occur in patients over 65 years (braithwaite, col & wong, 2003). a lot of studies in the literature found that the prognosis for this serious health care problem is affected by age, comorbidities, fracture type and surgical procedure, dementia and pre-fracture functional aspect (mizrahi et. al., 2018; young, xiong & pruzek, 2011). despite the fact that dementia can affect the motivation of patients for rehabilitation (mcgilton et. al., 2007), some studies found that cognitive impairment do not complicate recovery post hip-fracture surgery in those who were mobile before the fracture (mizrahi et. al., 2018; mitchell, harvey, brodaty, draper & close, 2016). most elderly patients with hip fracture undergo surgery in order to save the patient’s life and to facilitate independence in activities of daily living (uzoigwe et. al., 2013; handoll, cameron, mak & finnegan, 2009). while for intertrochanteric fractures, the internal fixation (if) seems to be the best solution, for displaced femoral neck fractures, hemiarthroplasty (ha) is the only surgical solution (yin et. al., 2015; sirbu et. al., 2017). these different types of operations and implants prompted the use of different postoperative protocols regarding immediate weight-bearing: partial or full weight-bearing for ha and restricted or no weight-bearing for if (kayali, agus, ozluk & sanli, 2006; kim, hur, hwang, choi & kim, 2014). unfortunately, restricted weight-bearing can delay the functional recovery of geriatric patients, being a sensitive predictor of mortality (koval, sala, kummer & zuckerman, 1998; kadowaki, kono, nishiguchi, kakimaru & uchio, 2012). dementia can impact the rehabilitation and the mortality rate according to these various protocols for weight-bearing (mcgilton et. al., 2007; fansa, huff & ebraheim, 2016; lai, tang, kuo & hsu, 2018). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 68 the aim of this retrospective work is to quantify the early postoperative weight-bearing after uncemented bipolar hemiarthroplasty for femoral neck fractures in geriatric patients with dementia, in order to determine if weight-bearing is related to the future rehabilitation and one-year mortality in these difficult patients. 2. materials and methods between 1st january 2013 and 31st december 2016, 330 patients aged ≥ 65 years were admitted and operated for a displaced femoral neck fracture in a level 1 trauma center, out of which 178 patients (64 males and 114 females) had dementia (cognitive impairment from neurodegeneration) associated with numerous other comorbidities (osteoporosis, hypertension, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, chronic pulmonary disease, mild liver disease, renal disease, diabetes). the average age was 81.5 years (range 74-96 years). all the patients were able to walk indoors and outdoors independently or with assistive devices before the fracture. the type of operative treatment was hemiarthroplasty with a bipolar uncemented prosthesis using a pavi femoral stem (made of titanium alloy with a dual coverage). all patients followed a similar postoperative protocol which consisted of an early mobilization and standing with assistance as well as walking with an assistive device. the patients were divided in 2 groups according to the postoperative radiographic control, and surgeon recommendations were: group 1 – partial weightbearing for 72 cases and group 2 – total weight-bearing for 106 cases. during the first postoperative day, the patients were seen by the physical therapist for 30-40 minutes, once or twice a day on weekdays and only once a day on weekends and holidays. the intensive physical therapy sessions included: passive, active-assisted and active exercises as well as sessions involving gait training, walking and stairs climbing. while 155 patients used a walker for walking and 6 patients used crutches, 17 patients were unable to walk during hospitalization. none of the patients used a cane for immediate postoperative walking. according to the improving walking ability, the assistive device was changed and selected by the physical therapist. the patients who survived (172 patients) were discharged to an acute-care rehabilitation facility (80 patients – 46.6%) or to their homes, with (55 patients – 31.9%) or without (37 patients – 21.5%) skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities. 3. results the average duration of the stay in hospital was 14.5 day (range 5 to 58 days). a number of 6 patients (2 from group 1 and 4 from group 2, 10.68% of 178 patients) died in hospital. postoperative complications included pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrhythmia, urinary tract infections, superficial and deep wound infections, decubitus tegumentary complications. one week postoperatively, all the patients used the same assistive device. our follow-up was carried out with a phone interview. out of 172 patients discharged from hospital, 103 patients (32 from group 1, 71 from group 2, including their relatives) accepted the interview. three months post-surgery, 49 patients in group 2 with total weight bearing (69%) had regained the pre-fracture level of independence in instrumental activities of daily living and level of home assistance, as compared with 6 patients in group 1 with partial weight bearing. the patients who had been discharged to a hospital or at home with rehabilitation facilities were more likely to have recovered the pre-fracture level of independence (45 patients out of 55 recovered patients, i.e. 81% were included in a rehabilitation program). 1-year postoperative mortality, according to the phone interview results, was 26.21% (27 out of 103 discharged patients); 18 patients were included in group 1 and were more than 80 years old and had more than 4 important comorbidities (except dementia). sîrbu p.-d., n. forna, d. c. popescu, r. tudor, w. friedl, a. ciubara, b. m. ciuntu, g. berea postoperative weightbearing after uncemented bipolar hemiarthroplasty for femoral neck fractures in geriatric patients with dementiaa 69 4. discussions dementia and hip fractures are serious health care problems in elderly people and often coexist due to the ageing global population (vun et. al., 2017). studies in related literature are insufficient to demonstrate if dementia is the cause or effect of hip fracture, or if a bidirectional relationship between these 2 medical challenges can be identified (friedman et. al., 2010; vun et. al., 2017). in the same time, osteoporosis is a progressive musculoskeletal disease consisting of structural deterioration of bone architecture which leads to bone fragility and fractures (vun et. al., 2017; sirbu et. al., 2017). unfortunately, hip fractures are often life-changing or even life-ending events (vun et. al., 2017). multiple studies showed high mortality rates and poor functional results after hip fractures in geriatric population (kapicioglu et. al., 2014; mossey, mutran, knott & craik, 1989), dementia being a bad prognostic factor (mizrahi et. al., 2018; mcgilton et. al., 2012). according to the type of surgical procedure (if for intertrochanteric fracture, or ha for displaced femoral neck fracture), the immediate postoperative protocol for weight-bearing is crucial regarding the return to the functional level before the fracture, while dementia compromises the adherence to this protocol (lai et. al., 2018). the biomechanical advantages of prosthesis which allowed an immediate full weight-bearing were the reason for a better survival rate for geriatric patients as compared with those receiving if (lai et. al., 2018). due to the possible sudden death complication of cemented hemiarthroplasty in cardiac geriatric patients with femoral neck fractures (parvizi, holiday, ereth & lewallen, 1999), we have used an uncemented bipolar prosthesis (haidukewych, israel & berry, 2002) for 178 patients with dementia, with a femoral stem covered with hydroxyapatite, which improved prosthetic fixation and allowed total weight-bearing before osseointegration (sirbu et. al., 2011; trandafir et. al., 2018). the ideal weight-bearing protocol after uncemented hemiarthroplasty is controversial, but limitation in weight-bearing can compromise the results and the recovery, especially in geriatric patients with dementia. our results demonstrated that immediate full weight-bearing and including the patients in a rehabilitation program allowed a better recovery of independence in activities in daily living, with a better one-year survival rate. in contrast to the improvement of the walking ability and level of home assistance for patients included in the rehabilitation program, the improvement of cognitive functions was minimal. 5. conclusions dementia and hip fractures are challenging medical situations. for patients undergoing uncemented bipolar ha, immediate total weight-bearing and discharging to a rehabilitation facility showed a better recovery and return to the pre-fracture level, as well as a better one-year survival rate. references braithwaite, r., col, n., & wong, j. (2003). estimating hip fracture morbidity, mortality and costs. journal of the american geriatrics society, 51(3), 364-370. doi: 10.1046/j.15325415.2003.51110.x draper, b., karmel, r., gibson, d., peut, a. and anderson, p. (2011). the hospital dementia services project: age differences in hospital stays for older people with and without dementia. international psychogeriatrics, 23(10), pp.1649-1658. draper, b., karmel, r., gibson, d., peut, a., & anderson, p. (2011). the hospital dementia services project: age differences in hospital stays for older people with and without dementia. international psychogeriatrics, 23(10), 1649-1658. doi: 10.1017/s1041610211001694 fansa, a., huff, s., & ebraheim, n. (2016). prediction of mortality in nonagenarians following the surgical repair of hip fractures. clinics in orthopedic surgery, 8(2), 140. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 70 doi: 10.4055/cios.2016.8.2.140. friedman, s., menzies, i., bukata, s., mendelson, d. and kates, s. (2010). dementia and hip fractures. geriatric orthopaedic surgery & rehabilitation, 1(2), pp.52-62. haidukewych, g., israel, t., & berry, d. (2002). long-term survivorship of cemented bipolar hemiarthroplasty for fracture of the femoral neck. clinical orthopaedics and related research, 403, 118-126. doi: 10.1097/00003086-200210000-00019 handoll, h., cameron, i., mak, j., & finnegan, t. (2009). multidisciplinary rehabilitation for older people with hip fractures. cochrane database of systematic reviews. doi: 10.1002/14651858.cd007125.pub2 kadowaki, m., kono, m., nishiguchi, k., kakimaru, h., & uchio, y. (2012). mortality in patients with hip fracture aged over 90 years: a report from a progressively aging island. archives of gerontology and geriatrics, 54(2), e113-e117. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2011.10.003 kapicioglu, m., ersen, a., saglam, y., akgul, t., kizilkurt, t., & yazicioglu, o. (2014). hip fractures in extremely old patients. journal of orthopaedics, 11(3), 136-141. doi: 10.1016/j.jor.2014.06.009 kayali, c., agus, h., ozluk, s., & sanli, c. (2006). treatment for unstable intertrochanteric fractures in elderly patients: internal fixation versus cone hemiarthroplasty. journal of orthopaedic surgery, 14(3), 240-244. doi: 10.1177/230949900601400302 kim, y., hur, j., hwang, k., choi, i., & kim, y. (2014). the comparison of compression hip screw and bipolar hemiarthroplasty for the treatment of ao type a2 intertrochanteric fractures. hip & pelvis, 26(2), 99. doi: 10.5371/hp.2014.26.2.99 koval, k., sala, d., kummer, f., & zuckerman, j. (1998). postoperative weight-bearing after a fracture of the femoral neck or an intertrochanteric fracture*. the journal of bone & joint surgery, 80(3), 352-6. doi: 10.2106/00004623-199803000-00007 lach, h., harrison, b. and phongphanngam, s. (2016). falls and fall prevention in older adults with early-stage dementia: an integrative review. research in gerontological nursing, 10(03), pp.139-148. lai, y., tang, p., kuo, t. and hsu, c. (2018). different impacts of dementia on two-year mortality after osteosynthesis and hemiarthroplasty in treating geriatric hip fractures. archives of gerontology and geriatrics, 79, pp.116-122. lai, y., tang, p., kuo, t., & hsu, c. (2018). different impacts of dementia on two-year mortality after osteosynthesis and hemiarthroplasty in treating geriatric hip fractures. archives of gerontology and geriatrics, 79, 116-122. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2018.08.011 mcgilton, k., davis, a., mahomed, n., flannery, j., jaglal, s., cott, c., naglie, g. and rochon, e. (2012). an inpatient rehabilitation model of care targeting patients with cognitive impairment. bmc geriatrics, 12(1). mcgilton, k., wells, j., teare, g., davis, a., rochon, e., & calabrese, s. et. al. (2007). rehabilitating patients with dementia who have had a hip fracture. topics in geriatric rehabilitation, 23(2), 161-173. doi: 10.1097/01.tgr.0000270185.98402.a6 mitchell, r., harvey, l., brodaty, h., draper, b., & close, j. (2016). hip fracture and the influence of dementia on health outcomes and access to hospital-based rehabilitation for older individuals. disability and rehabilitation, 38(23), 2286-2295. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2015.1123306 mizrahi, e., harel, n., heymann, a., lubart, e., leibovitz, a., malik gadot, e. and barkan, r. (2018). the relation between gain in cognition during rehabilitation on functional outcome among hip fracture adult patients with and without prehip fracture dementia. archives of gerontology and geriatrics, 78, pp.177-180. mossey, j., mutran, e., knott, k., & craik, r. (1989). determinants of recovery 12 months after hip fracture: the importance of psychosocial factors. american journal of public health, 79(3), 279-286. doi: 10.2105/ajph.79.3.279 sîrbu p.-d., n. forna, d. c. popescu, r. tudor, w. friedl, a. ciubara, b. m. ciuntu, g. berea postoperative weightbearing after uncemented bipolar hemiarthroplasty for femoral neck fractures in geriatric patients with dementiaa 71 parvizi, j., holiday, a., ereth, m., & lewallen, d. (1999). sudden death during primary hip arthroplasty. clinical orthopaedics and related research, 369, 39-48. doi: 10.1097/00003086-199912000-00005 pinkert, c. and holle, b. (2012). menschen mit demenz im akutkrankenhaus. zeitschrift für gerontologie und geriatrie, 45(8), pp.728-734. sirbu, d., & petreus, t., munteanu, f., pertea, m., lunca, s., poroch, v., & botez, p. (2011). clinical experience with a macroporous synthetic bone substitute (eurocer®) in the treatment of the patients with bone defects. 10.1007/978-3-642-22586-4_75. sirbu, p.d. & tudor, r & berea, g & scripcaru, a & ciubara, b & badulescu, o.v.. (2017). bipolar polyethylene radial head artroplasty in posttraumatic unstable elbows: prosthetic design and clinical results. materiale plastice. 54. 298-301. sirbu, p.d. & tudor, r & veringa, v & ciuntu, b.m. & radu, v & ciubara, b & badulescu, o.v. (2017). strontium ranelate in the healing of fractures complicated with delayed union. it is really effective?. revista de chimie. 68. 1825-1828. trandafir, l., baciu, g., constantin, m.-m., maștaleru, a. temneanu, o.-r., mihai, b., novac, o., frasinariu, o., ivan, a., tudorachi, n. b., hiary, r. a. l., & moscalu, m. (2018). predictive biological markers in post-therapeutic evolution in obese patients. revista de chimie. 69. 3048-3051. uzoigwe, c., burnand, h., cheesman, c., aghedo, d., faizi, m., & middleton, r. (2013). early and ultra-early surgery in hip fracture patients improves survival. injury, 44(6), 726-729. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2012.08.025 vun, j., ahmadi, m., panteli, m., pountos, i. and giannoudis, p. (2017). dementia and fragility fractures: issues and solutions. injury, 48, pp.s10-s16. yamaguchi, k. (2015). cognitive function and calcium. the link between dementia and bone and calcium metabolism disorders. clinical calcium, 25, 189-194. yin, b., guo, j., dong, t., chen, w., zhao, h., sun, t., ... yin, z. (2015). clinical features and proportion analysis of adult hip fractures at 11 hospitals in southwest china from 2010 to 2011. zhonghua wai ke za zhi, 53, 349-352. young, y., xiong, k., & pruzek, r. (2011). longitudinal functional recovery after postacute rehabilitation in older hip fracture patients: the role of cognitive impairment and implications for long-term care. journal of the american medical directors association, 12(6), 431-438. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2010.08.005 microsoft word issue-1_vol-10.docx 137 the role of technology in creating job opportunities for learners with disabilities in the tourism industry tülen saner school of tourism & hotel management, near east university yakındoğu blv, lefkoşa, nicosia, cyprus phone: +90 392 223 64 64 zehra altınay ataturk education faculty, near east university yakındoğu blv, lefkoşa, nicosia, cyprus phone: +90 392 223 64 64 zehra.altinaygazi@neu.edu.tr fahriye altınay ataturk education faculty, near east university yakındoğu blv, lefkoşa, nicosia, cyprus phone: +90 392 223 64 64 nesrin m. bahçelerli school of tourism & hotel management, near east university yakındoğu blv, lefkoşa, nicosia, cyprus phone: +90 392 223 64 64 abstract the aims of this study is to determine the importance of technology in tourism education in terms of creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities. the study is a conceptual review of the literature on the use of technology in the tourism education, specifically related to technology as a tool for increasing employment prospects for people with disabilities. as a result of this research, an alternative education model is proposed for the tourism industry directed at learners with disabilities. keywords: disabilities; education technology; tourism; job opportunities; online learning. 1. introduction disability is a part of the diversity of human communities rather than a deviation from an objective norm. all communities contain individuals with disabilities with the world health organization (who) (1997) and the un (2009b) estimating that an average 10% of the population have a disability. this equates to 650 million people with disabilities living in the world today. disability is an aspect of the diversity of human communities rather than a deviation from an objective norm. all communities contain individuals with disabilities, with the world health organization (2012) and the united nations estimating that an average of 10% of the global population has a disability (un, 2017). this equates to 650 million people with disabilities living in the world today. people with a disability impacting their socio-cultural and health needs have to work and earn an income. the disabled workers hiring provide advantage about higher loyalty and better performance (schneider and dutton, 2002). from this point of view, it is an economic necessity for people with disabilities to enter work life (barnes and mercer, 2008). in the broader sense, an important element of the labor force is wasted when people with disabilities are not employed. the tourism industry is a labor-intensive industry. the rapid growth of the tourism sector has created a large number of jobs. furthermore, tourism education is closely related to employment and careers within the industry (ayres, 2006). additionally, tourism establishments have become an brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 138 appropriate sector for the employment of people with disabilities after they have completed vocational training and orientation programs. online learning provides flexible access that supports content and instruction at any time, from any place. it is defined as an approach to learning and a teaching process that provides flexible access to learning materials, as well as interaction with the content and instructor. it utilizes the acquisition and usage of the knowledge in an educational context. online learning experiences and practices support collaboration through the adoption of internet and communication technologies (barnes and mercer, 2008). the relationship between tourism education and the internet can be viewed from three perspectives. these are: (1)the internet as a teaching and learning tool; (2)assisting students with understanding the applications of the internet in the tourism industry; (3)developing students’ operational internet skills. the aim of this study is to provide recommendations for an alternative education model using technology, which will support new employment opportunities for learners with disabilities. 2. methodology this paper provides critical reflection on the literature in the field of education technology in the tourism industry in terms of providing job opportunities for learners with disabilities. in this respect, documentary analysis was applied to reveal the key arguments for the research focus. additionally, the paper proposes a model and perspectives on the role of technology education applications in tourism, in regard to the literature. furthermore, the research will recommend possible solutions for learners with disabilities through online learning in tourism education. 3. research findings 3.1. the role of technology in tourism education the impact of the internet has created the potential for educators to connect with learners on a global basis. this has enabled online learning to become a rich educational resource with the capability of supporting both real-time and asynchronous communication between instructors and learners as well as among different learners. furthermore, the internet as a teaching and learning environment also helps learners with understanding its applications in the tourism industry. moreover, online learning is more than an alternative educational platform for learners with disabilities. online learning tools are available for teaching and learning, and social media are increasingly being used by educational institutions. these tools can provide new opportunities and innovative ways to engage students, can promote collaboration, and can help enhance digital literacy (muir, 2001). two particularly criteria are increasingly being demanded by employers and using the internet in the teaching and learning environment in tourism education supports tourism students in achieving these criteria. specifically, these understand the applications of the internet within the industry, and a comprehensive set of operational internet skills. 3.2. creating job opportunities for learners with disabilities whiteneck, et al. (2004), stated that environmental factors should also consider out that any discussion for disability workers and barriers have a great impact in determining a person’s activity limitations.the basic principles regarding the employment of disabilities in the tourism industry remarked are listed below:  the employer should provide equal opportunities for people with and without disabilities and act in an equal, nondiscrimination manner.  the employer should have no prejudice against candidates. t. saner, z. altınay, f. altınay, n.m. bahçelerli the role of technology in creating job opportunities for learners with disabilities in the tourism industry 139  hiring should be based on merit, suitability of the person for the job and capability of the person.  as a complement to the third principle, job analysis should be applied to determine the physical, cognitive and other requirements of the position.  if necessary, positive discrimination should be used in favor of the workforce with disabilities, with regard to issues such as working hours and workload distribution. the process of online learning leads students to take responsibility for their individual learning process. this online learning environment combined with the internet provides resources that provide the opportunity to learners with disabilities to develop skills and confidence in managing difficult tasks and problem-solving. as social media continues to increase in popularity, they are increasingly incorporated in teaching and learning. some of the advantages of online learning can be defined as:  learning can occur anywhere  learning can occur at any time and at any place.  there is a synergy between the learner, instructor and environment.  high quality dialogue can be maintained, because it is not restricted by the traditional classroom or time models.  it can be adapted to individuals’ learning styles with greater ease. bengisu and balta (2011), argued that works that require a specific meaning or ability critically are not suitable for disabled people who do not have this meaning or ability, even with the help of technology or in other ways. nevertheless, experts and researchers often agree that disabled workers can perform any task in the tourism sector, except in the extreme and obvious cases of professional knowledge and skills. therefore, it is important for learners with disabilities to continue their education and have a profession. moreover, an increase in educational level can have a positive impact on employment prospects. 4. conclusion this conceptual study is aimed at revealing the potential of learners with disabilities by creating job opportunities with an innovation strategy by using technology in tourism education. technology and the internet enable modern individuals to determine easier, faster and more economical solutions to satisfy their information and communication needs. in order to benefit from these opportunities, various regulations should be applied to the education provided, and new information technologies should be developed and disseminated. in particular, the development of online learning programs is aimed at increasing employment in this significantly important area. in this sense, considering that many positions within the tourism sector do not require specific physical abilities, creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities in these fields is important by utilizing the online learning environment, learners with disabilities can acquire professional competences, which include: creativity, self-confidence, initiative, life-long learning, discipline and social abilities. in this study, the online education model aims to be an effective academic resource in terms of continuing the effective use of the internet and social media on the education for people with disabilities, increasing their employment prospects and removing obstacles. for further studies, the impact of practical courses for learning and social inclusion can be examined by analyzing the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 140 qualitative and quantitative nature of the research studies. the online learning environment can be evaluated and observed during practical training courses or internships to understand the potential for skills development of the learners. references ayres, p. (2006). using subjective measures to detect variations of intrinsic cognitive load within problems. learning and instruction, 16, 389–400. barnes, c., & mercer, g. (2008). disability, work, and welfare: challenging the social exclusion of disabled people. work, employment and society, 19(3), 527–545. bengisu, m. & balta,s. (2011). employment of the workforce with disabilities in the hospitality industry. journal of sustainable tourism 19(1), 35–57 muir, d.j., (2001). adapting online education to different learning styles. paper presented at the national education computing conference, building on the future, retrieved 25-27, chicago rheingold, h. (2008). using participatory media and public voice to encourage civic engagement. civic life online: learning how digital media can engage youth. in w. lance bennett (ed.), the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation series on digital media and learning, 97–118. cambridge schneider, j. & dutton, j. (2002). attitudes towards disabled staff and the effect of the national minimum wage: a delphi survey of employers and disability employment advisors. disability & society, 17, 283-306. united nations (2017) fact sheet on persons with disabilities (media release). https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/ (1february 2017). whiteneck, g.g., harrison-felix, l.c., mellick, d.c., charlifue, s.b., & gerhart, k.a. (2004). quantifying environmental factors: a measure of physical, attitudinal, service, productivity, and policy barriers. archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 85(8), 1324–1335. world health organization (2002). towards a common language for functioning, disability and health – icf. world health organization, geneva. microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx 65 roc curve analysis for classification of road defects huong thu nguyen baikal school of brics irkutsk national research technical university ulitsa lermontova, 83, irkutsk, irkutskaya oblast', russia, 664074 phone: +7 395 240-50-09 thuhuongyb@gmail.com long the nguyen department of information technology irkutsk national research technical university ulitsa lermontova, 83, irkutsk, irkutskaya oblast', russia, 664074 phone: +7 395 240-50-09 thelongit88@gmail.com abstract roc analysis is a visual and numerical method used to evaluate the performance of classification algorithms, such as those used to predict the structure and functions from string data. the main objective of the paper is to use the roc analysis to evaluate the accuracy of the random forest algorithm to classify road surface defects on three different sets of data collected from portugal, irkutsk city russia federation and thai nguyen city vietnam. this article summarizes the basics of roc analysis and interprets the results analysis with other thresholds to build roc curve. in addition, we present the steps to build a system to automatically classify road surface defects based on visual techniques and machine learning methods. keywords: road defect; graph cuts; image segmentation; object classification; random forest algorithm; machine learning; roc curve analysis. 1. background automatic classification of objects plays a major role in the application of machine learning of artificial intelligence. therefore, the reliability rating of the classification algorithm has become necessary to ensure data quality. among the available measures and methods of performance analysis, the receiver's performance characteristics (roc) (zweig, & campbell, 1993) occupy a special position. this is because, first and foremost, it provides an intuitive as well as digital summary of predictor behavior against simple performance indicators. second, it is becoming a major method in artificial intelligence applications. machine learning algorithms are often used in content-based recommender systems since a recommendation task can naturally be reduced to a classification problem: a recommender needs to learn a classifier for a given user where learning examples are characteristics of items previously liked/bought/seen by the user. however, multi-valued and continuous attributes require special approaches for classifier implementation as they can significantly influence classifier accuracy (brbic et. al., 2011). development of the automatic road defects classification software using classification algorithms was advocated by many researchers. moreover, the classifier ensemble can effectively improve classification performance compared to a single classifier. the research on road defects detection and classification using classifier ensemble methods are motivated since they have not been fully exploited. in (nguyen et. al.,2016; nguyen et. al., 2016) we have proposed a method to build a map of the defect based on algorithm markov random field and graph cuts. the method was demonstrated its efficiency, but also some drawbacks. due to the rough surface and non-uniform illumination, pavement surface images suffer with background noise. therefore, we propose a method to improve brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 66 a quality of segmentation bases on minimum energy function of graph cuts methods and classification by random forest. to enhance a quality of image we preprocess input images using adaptive filters and mathematical morphological operators (nguyen et. al., 2018). there are many different approaches for the detection of defects in the road surface. one of the most common approaches is carried out by the histogram analysis using artificial neural networks (ann). in (lee, 2003) authors use a neural networks combined with conventional image preprocessing and representation. a binary crack matrix was created by local statistics to tag tiles, which contains cracks. vector features were summed along the horizontal and vertical axes, which used as input data for multi-layer perceptron classification. the threshold based analysis approach is used to separate crack pixels from the background. hough transformation is used to detect or classify the cracks in paper (cheng et. al., 2001). in (zhang et. al., 2009) a new image enhancement algorithm in ridge let domain was proposed for detection of road cracks. the method based on the principle that an image ridge let transform is equivalent to one dimensional wavelet transform in radon transform domain. experiment results and their comparisons with other image enhancement algorithms show that the algorithm can be effectively used in enhancement of linear character of road cracks images. a good starting point can be found in the manuscript (chen et. al, 2011) which reviews the techniques applied for the development of automatic pavement distress detection and classification system. they also propose a novel approach according to the following major steps: region based image enhancement (to correct non-uniform background illumination) and a skeleton analysis algorithm to classify pavement surface distress types. in (lempert et. al., 2016) lempert, sidorov et. al. presented an approach to optimal pavement repair under the limited resources. the approach is based on combination of methods for identification and classification of defects using statistical analysis and machine learning (random forests) in combination with novel original methods for solving the infinite-dimensional optimization (optical geometrical analogy). automatic defects classification is important field of machine vision, e.g. in (sidorov et. al., 2008) sidorov, wang et al proposed two stages approach for automatic defects recognition and classification for vision systems development. the first offline stage of classification is based on a teaching process. on the second online stage, the inspection images are classified using features analysis. the main objectives of such systems are defect recognition and classification based on known features. the classification function is designed using cluster analysis. 2. system of road defect detection and classification the system proposed in this paper is designed for automatic detection and classification of road defect. the system consists of three modules: (i) image preprocessing (ii) segmentation of image (iii) feature extraction (iv) classification of road defect using random forest algorithm. figure 1 shows the overall system architecture. figure 1. block diagram of the proposed system 2.1. image pre-processing and feature extraction road defects image acquisition is the process of obtaining a digitized image from a real-world source, passed through the pre-processing steps. preprocessing includes noise removal and the elimination of redundant information as far as possible. images taken from the camera are histogram equalized h. t. nguyen, l. t. nguyen roc curve analysis for classification of road defects 67 for better contrast. during the process of road defects collection, the image often becomes corrupted by random noise which affects the detection of road defects. in addition, the illumination conditions may change for different image locations, resulting in a road image that is not homogenous. these problems can be solved using histogram equalization. rgb image is converted into gray scale image using ntsc gray scale conversion which is frequently used to convert rgb to gray scale conversion. the image is converted from gray scale to binary image that is an image with pixels 0’s (white) and 1’s (black). road defects have various features that can be exploited to discriminate them from noncrack features. they rois have valuable photometric characteristics such as value pixels; geometric features can be recognized by elongated continuous structures and frequency features. all these features can be extracted from rois using computer vision algorithms and machine learning methods. hu-moments. the most notable are hu-moments which can be used to describe, characterize, and quantify the shape of an object in an image. hu-moments are normally extracted from the shape of an object in an image. by describing the shape of an object, we are able to extract a shape feature vector (i.e. a list of numbers) to represent the shape of the object. chain code histogram. the chain code histogram (cch) is meant to group together objects that look similar to a human observer. it is not meant for exact detection and classification tasks. the cch is calculated from the chain code presentation of a contour. 2.2. build graph of road defect using graph cuts algorithm graph cuts for markov random fields (delagnes et. al., 1995; bouman et. al., 1995) energy minimization algorithm: the min-cut max-flow algorithm (kolmogorov, & zabih, 2001). to improve the quality of image segmentation the graph-cuts algorithm (boykov et. al., 2001) is employed (figure 2). figure 2. block diagram of road image segmentation a graph-based approach makes use of efficient solutions of the min-cut/max-flow problem between source and sink nodes in directed graphs. the summarization of steps used in graph cuts method can be depicted as below: step 1: an edge directed graph representing size and dimension of the target segmenting image has to be created. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 68 step 2: object and background seeds have to be distinguished properly with formation of nodes-source s and sink t. based on the object or the background labels, allseeds have to be connected with either source or sinks node. step 3: each link of the formed graph is to be associated with suitable edge cost. step 4: any minimum s-t cut method is to be used which indicates the graph nodes representing image boundaries for object and background. step 5: a suitable maximum flow solution for graph optimization is to be determined for graph cuts segmentation these segments are called “sites” and have a predefined orientation of 0, 45, 90 or 135 degrees. the separation between both cases is done with parameter 𝑘 ∈ {0; 1}. our goal will be to segment an image by constructing a graph such that the minimal cut of this graph will cut all the edges connecting the pixels of different objects with each other. we applied efficient graph based method to find the optimal d (defect) – n (not defect) as shown in figure 3 swap or d expansion given a labeling 𝑓. let us briefly outline the approach we used. figure 3. example of image segmentation let 𝐺 = (𝑉, 𝐸) be a weighted graph with two distinguished verticals called the terminals. a graph-based approach makes use of efficient solutions of the min-cut / max-flow problem between source and sink nodes in directed graphs. to take advantage of this we generate an s-t-graph as follows: the set of nodes is equal to the set of pixels in the image. every pixel is connected with its d-neighborhood 𝑑 = (4: 8) the minimum cut problem is to find the cheapest cut among all cuts separating the terminals. minimum cuts can be efficiently found by standard combinatorial algorithms with different low-order polynomial complexities. our experimental results have been obtained using a new max-flow algorithm that has the best speed on our graphs over many modern algorithms the running time is nearly linear in practice. some results of segmentation of classes defect road pavement are shown in figure 4. h. t. nguyen, l. t. nguyen roc curve analysis for classification of road defects 69 figure 4. result of road defect segmentation 2.3. classification of road defect the random forest (breiman, 2001) classifier (figure 5) was built using the package random forest 4.5-16 for the r statistical environment to classify feature vectors as defect or nondefect. the classifier was trained on pavements road dataset using chain code histogram cch, hu moments, size of defect for each variant. we also used boosting (gbts) to classify this dataset and to compare results from these two classification methods. the main difference between these two algorithms is the order in which each component tree is trained. figure 5. block diagram of road defect classification using random forest algorithm the classifier was built using the parameters ntree =(50,100) and mtry = 2 and depth =(2,5). the training set consists of 500 images (200 of class 'defect' and 300 of class 'non-defect'. in 200 images of class defect included 150 images (50 block images, 50 longitudinal images, 50 pothole images) for training process and 50 images for testing process. in 300 images of class nondefect included 200 for training process and 100 images for testing process. our dataset images were built by center for telecommunications and multimedia, inesc tec, portugal. beside we use own our dataset, which is collected by camera (canon d100 16 mega pixel). images are captured in conventional daylight condition, distance from camera to surface of road is 1m-1.2m. 2.4. using roc curve to analysis of road defect classification imbalanced data follows the idea of cost sensitive learning make random forest more suitable for learning. class weights are an essential tuning parameter to achieve desired performance. in the tree induction procedure, class weights are used to weight the gini criterion for brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 70 finding splits. in the terminal nodes of each tree, class weights are again taken into consideration. we introduce the concept: true positive – tp is classified correctly as positive, true negative tn is classified correctly as negative, false positive fp is classified wrongly as positive, false negative – fn is classified wrongly as negative. for random forest algorithm, there is always a tradeoff between true positive rate and true negative rate and the same applies for recall and precision. true negative rate = true positive rate = precision = threshold selection: it is immediately apparent that a roc curve can be used to select a threshold for a classifier which maximizes the true positives while minimizing the false positives. however, different types of problems have different optimal classifier thresholds. we may be prepared to put up with a relatively high false positive rate in order to get a high true positive, it is most important to identify possible road defect. so, in this article, for defining the label of the pavement defects. we can use thresholds in the parameters of the random forest algorithm, which can be: mtry parameters, tree numbers, digi indexes. performance assessment classifier comparison: roc curves also give us the ability to assess the performance of the classifier over its entire operating range. the most widely-used measure is the area under the curve (auc). as you can see from figure 7, the auc for a classifier of road defect based on algorithm random forest. a single threshold can be selected and the classifiers’ performance at that point compared, or the overall performance can be compared by considering the auc. in this work we selected thresh is gini index to evaluates the accuracy of the random forest algorithm in classifying road surface defects. the result showed that result of classification is good and fall between 0.5 and 1 (essentially random guessing, is 0.5, because the curve follows the diagonal. the auc for that mythical being, the perfect classifier, is 1.0). in this our case curves have status is nearer 1 value than 0.5 values. road defect classification of road defect in thai nguyen city random forest boosting (gbts) number of tree: 50 deep: 2 number of tree: 100 deep: 5 number of tree: 50 deep: 2 number of tree:100 deep: 5 time, (s) 150 257 140 278 accuracy(%) 91.57 95.29 80.5 85.47 figure 6. result of analysis roc for classification of road defect in thai nguyen city h. t. nguyen, l. t. nguyen roc curve analysis for classification of road defects 71 road defect classification of road defect in irkutsk city random forest boosting (gbts) number of tree: 50 deep: 2 number of tree 100 deep: 5 number of tree: 50 deep: 2 number of tree:100 deep: 5 time, (s) 775 1132 830 1270 accuracy(%) 90.50 93.75 83.0 88.50 figure 7. result of analysis roc for classification of road defect in irkutsk city road defect classification of road defect in portugal random forest boosting (gbts) number of tree: 50 deep: 2 number of tree 100 deep: 5 number of tree: 50 deep: 2 number of tree:100 deep: 5 time, (s) 1105 1775 1210 1808 accuracy(%) 90.50 94.0 83.0 86.50 figure 8. result of analysis roc for classification of road defect in portugal the result of roc curve shows random forests algorithm in figure 6,7,8 is fast to train, but they often require deep trees. random forests do not over fit as easily, but algorithm's test error plateaus. our experiments show that more trees are always better with diminishing returns. deeper trees are almost always better subject to requiring more trees for similar performance. the above two points are directly a result of the bias-variance trade off. deeper trees reduce the bias; more trees reduce the variance. there are several ways to control how deep our trees are (limit the maximum depth, limit the number of nodes, limit the number of objects required to split, stop splitting if the split does not sufficiently improve the fit, ...). most of the time, it is recommended to prune (limit the depth of) the trees if we are dealing with noisy data. finally, we can use our fully developed trees to compute performance of shorter trees as these are a 'subset' of the fully developed ones 3. conclusion the objective of the paper is to construct a roc curve to evaluate the effectiveness of the method of automatically classifying road surface defects based on the random forest algorithm. the article details the steps of the proposed algorithm, performed experiments to prove the correctness of our approach. we run experiments using three datasets of portugal, russia, and viet nam. experiments were performed and then evaluated the results obtained between the original random forest program and gbts method. the experimental data show that the proposed method brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 72 allows the random forest algorithm work faster, more stable and the results are more accurate. the authors are thankful to the attention and guidance of professor d. n. sidorov. references bouman, a. c., sauer, k., & saquib, s. (1995). markov random fields and stochastic image models, ieee international conference on image processing, 74(4), 532 551. boykov, v., & zabih, r. (2001). fast approximate energy minimization via graph cuts, ieee pami, 23(11), 1222-1239. brbic, m., & zarko, i. p. (2011). tuning machine learning algorithms for content-based movie recommendation, intelligent decision technologies, 9(3), 233-242. breiman, l. (2001). random forests, machine learning, 45(1), 5-32 chen, h., & miyojim m. (2011). automatic pavement distress detection system, journal of information sciences, 108, 219-240. cheng, h. d., jiang, x. h., & glazier, c. (2001). novel approach to pavement cracking detection based on neural network, transportation research board, 1764, 119-127. delagnes, p., & barba, d. (1995). a markov random field for rectilinear structure extraction in pavement distress image analysis, volume 1, pp. 446. kolmogorov, v., & zabih, r. (2001). computing visual correspondence with occlusions via graph cuts, in international conference on computer vision, 2, 508–515. lee, b. j. (2003). a robust position invariant artificial neural network for digital pavement crack analysis. technical report trb2003-000996. http://www.ltrc.lsu.edu. lempert, a., sidorov, d. n., zhukov, a. v., & nguyen, g. l. (2016). a combined work optimization technology under resource constraints with an application to road repair, automation and remote control (springer), 77(11), 1883-1893. nguyen, h. t., nguyen, l. t., sidorov, d. n., dreglea, a. i. (2018). machine learning algorithms application to road defects classification, intelligent decision technologies, 12(1), 59-66. nguyen, h. t., & nguyen, l. t., & sidorov, d. n. (2016). a robust approach for defects road pavement detection and classification, journal of computational and engineering mathematics, 3(3), 40-52. nguyen, h. t., nguyen, l. t., & zhukov, a. (2016). on road defects detection and classification, supplementary proceedings of the 5th international conference on analysis of images, social networks and text (aist 2016). ceur workshop proceeding, 1710, 266278. sidorov, d. n., wong, s. w., vasilyev, i., & salerno, s. (2008). automatic defects classification with p-median clustering technique, proc. of 10th intl conf. on control, automation, robotics and vision (icarcv), 775-780. zhang, d. q., qu, s. r., li, w. b., & he, l. (2009). image enhancement algorithm on ridgelet domain in detection of road cracks, china journal of highway and transport, 22(2), 2631. zweig, m. h., campbell, g. (1993). receiver-operating characteristic (roc) plots: a fundamental evaluation tool in clinical medicine, 39, 561-77. huong thu nguyen (b. march 03, 1988) received her engineer in informatics (2011) from information and communication technology university, thai nguyen, vietnam. now she is phd student in department of information technology, institute of high technology, irkutsk national research technical university, russia. she is a junior researcher at baikal school of brics, irkutsk national research technical university, russia. her current research interests in computer vision, machine learning, image processing. she has (co-) authored 15 papers, 6 conferences participation. h. t. nguyen, l. t. nguyen roc curve analysis for classification of road defects 73 long the nguyen (b. march 13, 1988) received his engineer in informatics (2013) from irkutsk national research technical university. now he is research fellow in department of information technology, institute of high technology, irkutsk national research technical university, russia. his current research interests in computer vision, machine learning, image processing. he has (co-) authored 18 papers, 6 conferences participation. microsoft word issue-4.docx 61 recent challenge for auditors: using data analytics in the audit of the financial statements daniel botez vasile alecsandri university of bacau faculty of economic sciences calea mărășești 157, bacău 600115, romania phone: 0234 542 411 daniel63331@yahoo.com abstract data analytics is the process of examining data sets in order to draw conclusions about the information they contain, increasingly with the aid of specialized systems and software. many organizations began using this process in their activities. a particular domain is the audit of financial statements. the quality of this audit can be enhanced by the use of data analytics. the use of new technology and software solutions change fundamentally the attitude regarding this audit. the use of data analytics in audit is at the beginning. but the near future requires that auditors respond to this provocation. keywords: data analytics; audit of the financial statements; professional accountants. 1. introduction we live in a constantly changing world, where challenges have become something usual. our future evolution depends on the way we understand and respond to them. in most cases, these challenges refer directly to information technology (it) or to other areas where the input of this technology is essential. today, human activity can not be conceived without the use of digital devices. having skills in information technology has become a basic requirement for most occupations and for obtaining professional qualifications in different professions. even though, in many cases, basic computer skills are required, they are rapidly developing in practice. digital information is widely used. their impact has significant effects in the social and economic environment. recent examples confirm this impact and show the extent of it. using personal information from facebook users has led to serious investigations in the usa. in the european union, on may 25th, a regulation on the protection of individuals with regard to their personal data being processed and freely distributed has entered into force. in the economic environment, the impact is stronger. many countries have developed strategies regarding the impact of artificial intelligence (ai) on economics and education. private companies invest in research programs leading to projects and ideas based on artificial intelligence. a huge economic effect based on productivity growth is considered. romania is a favourable environment for this industry. there are university centers which educate countless it specialists. the growth rate of digital information is doubled every two years. an article in forbes magazine mentions that digital information (data)5 is increasing so fast, that before or in 2020, 1.7 megabytes of new information will be created every second for every man on the planet. the way in which different countries will develop and follow research and application strategies for artificial intelligence will determine how they will ensure their competitiveness in europe and if they will withstand other competitors, reducing existing gaps. 2. what does the concept of data analytics (da) mean? we have collected some definitions from the literature. data is the fuel for succes for any size organization. (sas institute the statistical analysis system) 5 we use the term ”data” and ”information” with the same meaning of ”digital information” brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 62 data analytics (da) is the data review process performed to establish the conclusions about the information it contains, increasingly using specialized systems and software applications. da technologies and techniques are widely used in commercial industries to enable organizations to make business decisions on a much more informed basis and to allow scientists and researchers to validate or reject scientific models, theories, and assumptions. (http://serchdatamanagement.techtarget.com) da is the activity to extract what is significant from raw data using specialized computerized systems. these systems transform, organize and model information to draw conclusions and identify their model (pattern). while da activities can be viewed as simply as possible, today the term is mostly used to describe the analysis of a large amount of data and / or with a high speed, that contains unique computer-related and manipulation of information challenges. professionals with da skills, who generally have a high level of expertise in statistics, are called data scientists. (www.informatica.com) da is not a term used for big data only. da is a general term for any type of processing that involves historical information that has been used over time, but with the increase of the amount of information, this term develops in favor of the systems capable of processing large data. the big data period radically changed the requirements for extracting significant information from the vast bulk of business information. in the database world, administrators easily generate reports that contain business information, but they provide little or no intelligent business solutions. in this respect, they use external data storage solutions, but, generally, these can not solve the problems related to the actual cost of the big data. while data warehouse is certainly a relevant form of da, data analytics acquires step by step the ability of analyzing information of a very high volume, diversity and speed. thus, the da field is growing rapidly, in line with a market where systems that meet the major big data requirementsare developing, as well as with all the people who have the skills to manipulate data and interpret the results. the issue of training the da specialists through education is essential for strategies that foresee the implementation of new technologies. in the united states, i have noticed actual academic concerns regarding the training of these specialists. we can give the example of dakota state university, which has initiated a master degree programme named "master in data analytics". the course is organized in two forms: either face to face with the professor, or online distance learning. the disciplines studied are striclty specialized:  data warehouse and data mining  programming for data analytics  big data analytics  statistical programming  modern applied statistics but this is not the only university with such concerns. in a top of master of science (ms) master programs (http://www.mastersindatascience.org/schools/top-masters-in-analytics), specializing in business analytics programs or data science, we meet prestigious universities such as the american university, syracuse university, southern methodist university, university of california berkeley, george washington university or harvard, all of which offer on-line study programs. the situation is similar in europe. universities in the uk, germany, ireland, or spain offer students master degree programs in this field as well. there are software offers on the market which provide data analytics or data analysis solutions. on a simple search, it can be seen that the specialists have also established a classification of those. thus, one of the specialized sites (www.pcmag.com/business/directorydata-analytics) presents the classification of 26 software that contain da applications. these are the top five of them: d. botez recent challenge for auditors: using data analytics in the audit of the financial statements 63 1. looker 2. microsoft power bi 3. tableau desktop 4. domo 5. qlik sense enterprises server another one (www.predictiveanalyticstoday.com/top-predictive-analitycs-software) makes a classification based on 52 softwares, the top five being: 1. rapid miner studio 2. knime analytics platform 3. sap predictive analytics 4. ibm predictive analytics 5. dataiku dss specialized articles attempt to delimit terms or concepts used in the vocabulary specific to new technologies. for example, there is a need to delimit the concepts of data science, big data and data analytics (mannoppa, 2018). data science is the field that includes everything about processing, compiling and analyzing information. data science is a combination of statistics, mathematics, programming, problem solving, data gathering through ingenious ways, the ability to look at things differently, and the activity of compiling and analyzing them. big data refers to a very large volume of data that can not be processed with traditional applications. big data processing starts with raw data that is not aggregated and which is impossible to store in the memory of a single computer. a fashionable word used to describe the huge volume of data, both structured and unstructured, big data floods businesses everyday. big data is a concept that can define discerning analysis of the best decisions and strategic business moves. data analytics is the science of examining raw data in order to draw conclusions about that information. da involves the application of an algorithm and an extraction process from the inside. for example, it may be used in the health system, transportation, game theory. 3. concerns of the association of international certified professional accountants the iaasb 6set up a dagw-data analytics working group in 2015 to inform ifac about how and when to respond to technological developments of public interest. in september 2016, this group launched a document entitled "exploring the growing use of technology in the audit with a focus on data analytics," requesting comments by february 15, 2017. we present and comment briefly on this document. in an environment where the volume and complexity of data increase constantly, the use of technology and da gives auditors the opportunity to gain a more effective and appropriate understanding of the entity and its environment, increasing the quality of the audit risk assessment and the response to it. the da procedure, when used to obtain evidence in the audit of financial statements, is the science and art of discovering and analyzing patterns, deviations and inconsistencies, and extracting other useful information from underlying data or relating to a subject that is an audit problem by analysis, modeling and visualization (representation) for planning or performing the audit. the audit of financial statements is a professional engagement of the auditor with the objective of expressing an opinion regarding the extent to which they present a true and fair view of an entity's financial position and performance and that it is prepared in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework. the audit of the financial statements is part of the wider category of assurance engagements. because it is a public interest mission, it is based on mandatory professional standards and uses specific specialized terminlology. one of the particular features of 6 international auditing and assurance standards board –iaasb an independent standards body and at the same time, the managing body of the international federation of accountants ifac brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 64 this mission is to perform it with professional skepticism. an essential asset of professional accountants is the widespread use of professional reasoning to plan and perform the mission, and to draw the conclusions from which their opinion is formed. another feature of the audit of the financial statements is the collection of audit evidence from selected samples from the total set of information contained in the financial statements. after testing these samples, the conclusions are extrapolated to the entire population from which they were extracted. this traditional technique will be significantly modified by the use of da. the application of professional skepticism and professional reasoning is amplified when the auditor has a proper understanding of the entity and the environment in which it operates. other da benefits can be:  it increases the auditor's ability to collect audit evidence by analyzing a larger set, allowing the best risk-based selections to be tested;  widening and deepening the intervention interval of the auditor in the entity and its environment, which allows supplying the entity with additional information about its own risk assessment and business operations. the use of da in determining the size of information relevant to the audit is more comprehensive than in traditional analytical procedures. da can be used for the same procedures which the auditor usually applies: risk assessment; analytical procedures; substantive procedures; control tests. even if the benefits are clear, the auditors realize that there are limitations on da use. some examples are suggestive:  auditors need to understand clearly the data they are analyzing, particularly those data relevant to the audit. analyzing data that is not relevant to the audit, which can not be properly controlled, which is unreliable, and their source is not well understood, may have negative consequences for the quality of the audit;  considering the need for the auditor to exercise his professional judgment on accounting and auditing and also on the validity and completeness of the data, even if he can test 100% of the data set, it does not imply that the auditor can provide anything other than a reasonable assurance7 or that he can change its meaning;  in the financial statements, in most entities there are significant values and presentations that are direct accounting estimates or are based on accounting estimates or contain qualitative information. professional judgment is necessary to assess the reasonableness of accounting estimates and presentations. da can not replace this reasoning;  effective use of technology can support the auditor in obtaining sufficient and appropriate audit evidence. technology should be used cautiously and not be overly trusted. an important issue is the concerns regarding the da use. international standards on auditing (isas) will have to be modified to allow connection to new technologies. isas standards neither prohibit nor encourage da application. however, the standards welcome the use of the technology by the auditor in conducting the audit by using caats. 8 at the same time, it is understood that they have evolved significantly and that now we are speaking of the da. however, standards need to remain relevant in a rapidly developing environment and be able to support the auditor's performance under different circumstances, including the use of da tools and techniques. in fact, da makes the auditor's activity more effective. technological solutions reduce the time required to manually apply a procedure, allowing the auditor to use more time for professional reasoning. furthermore, da use involves faster identification of relationships between data and nonconformities, helping the auditor to maintain professional skepticism at a high level. 7 reasonable assurance is a high but not absolute conclusion that the financial statements are not materially misstated. 8 computer assisted audit technics caats d. botez recent challenge for auditors: using data analytics in the audit of the financial statements 65 a common question is whether isas should provide for da use. it is true that standards need to be constantly reviewed, considering the fact that technologies are changing and developing. however, several realities must be taken into account:  da use allows the auditor to be more effective, but the efficiency and effectiveness of an audit engagement requires the auditor not to use his time in low risk areas at the expense of high risk audiences;  isas standards are designed to harmonize professional practices globally, but technologies are developing differently in different countries;  the risk of using new techniques, for which clearly defined concepts in standards must exist, needs to be considered;  consideration should be given to the points of view of supervisors operating in different jurisdictions; discussions on how developments in technology are increasing the quality of the audit should be attended by auditors, supervisors, standards-producing bodies and other interested parties. it is certain that the standards will have to include future developments, especially those concerning new technologies. da use in audit is influenced by the circumstances and factors that optimists have to consider:  the data acquisition process is a challenge related to the existence of a large database that the entity must transfer to the auditor so that it can apply the da, which involves data security and confidentiality issues, as well as the existence of a storage space;  conceptual challenges-an audit involving the use of da implies asking for data and addressing questions that have not been requested in the past, which may create issues related to the attitude of the audited entity;  legal and regulatory challenges it is a concern regarding the security and confidentiality of data in different jurisdictions and the movement of data between them;  availability of resources da model requires the existence of people with ccertain skills to support the audit team;  the way in which supervisors and regulatory bodies can maintain their supervision under a rapid change of circumstances;  investments in preparing and creating auditors' qualifications (skills) to gain knowledge, abilities and experience in da use. the document highlights that, at the same time, some questions have to be answered:  it generic controls da triggers more questions about it controls, especially about the minimum level tested, the impact of the test results, and the impact of any deficiency in it controls when the auditor believes he can rely on the it system (the data provided by the it system is reliable);  the data used is produced in the majority of the entity and the auditor should reassess its attitude to meet the requirements of sufficient and adequate data acquisition standards;  consideration of the relevance and reliability of data outside the entity, i.e. data obtained from third parties for which completeness, accuracy and reliability can not be established;  what is the nature of audit evidence obtained through da procedures when initially using a risk-based approach procedure;  based on the assessed risk and the response to it, how does the mission team sort the samples obtained from da? what are the differences in risk assessment procedures, testing controls and background procedures when using da? what is the role of controls testing if the auditor looks at 100% of transactions in a particular audit area?  what is the nature of the audit evidence obtained from da in response to the identified risks? using da does not deny the pattern, but it changes the way it is implemented. how does the auditor document? brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 66  what is the appropriate level of the auditor's activity for the identified exceptions? in the current procedure, the auditor extrapolates the findings on the selected population at the level of the whole population (at the level of the financial statements as a whole). by using da, the auditor can identify many deviations, test each one , or test a sample to reduce deviations on a significant level;  risk assessment what is the implication of da use in assessing the risk of particular assertions?  changes to mission documentation requirements when da applies. what are the information the auditor needs to document when applying da? is additional documentation required?  changes in quality control procedures when the auditor uses da tools and techniques, but also when the auditor calls on third parties to conduct da technologies. specific situations are encountered when auditors audit small and medium sized entities (smis) in the sense that they typically use professional accountancy services, including the use of cloud computing. da use is advantageous in this case because it is possible to collect more qualitative evidence in accordance with the size of the entity. another specific situation is when auditors themselves are small and medium sized practices (smps), in the sense of lack of resources and experience to transform the existing model. they cannot internally develop tools as large entities can, but the specialized market can offer solutions. da is not included in the auditor training program today. after receiving comments on the publicly released document in january 2018, dawg published a document summarizing the comments. (iaasb, jan 2018) 51 respondents commented on the document, out of which 31 ifac member bodies, 19 audit firms, 14 national standardization bodies, 12 supervisory and regulatory bodies, as well as academics, investors, individuals and others. the key messages resulting from these comments were synthesized as follows: 1. respondents expressed strong support from dawg; 2. isas standards remain basic principles, but should reflect the digital era in application guides. there is a requirement for practical guides on da application; 3. applying professional skepticism when using da is of major importance. dawg will continue working with the other iaasb bodies, monitoring the aicpa's (american professional organization) activity refering to evidence task force, interacting with the public company accounting oversight board (pcaob), and will also continue the dialogue with data analytics advisory panel and will include aspects of da use in the iaasb strategy for 2020-2023. 4. other attitudes in the sphere of the accounting profession and in the economic environment iaasb is not the only body in the accounting profession concerned with the use of da in professional accountancy missions. american institute of certified public accountants – aicpa, the us professional body, has published a document aiming to gain a future perspective. (aicpa, 2015). in this paper, an essay deals directly with the subject of our discussion. it mentions that da applied in auditing financial statements is the art and science of discovering and analyzing patterns, identifying anomalies and extracting other necessary information from the underlying data or by observing the topics of an audit by analyzing, modeling, and visualizing with the purpose of planning and conducting an audit. da contains methodologies on:  identifying and analyzing patterns and significant deviations;  mapping and visualizing financial performance and other data related to operational units, systems, products or other references to address risk-based audit;  building statistical models or other predictive methods that explain the data in relation to other factors and identify significant deviations from the model; d. botez recent challenge for auditors: using data analytics in the audit of the financial statements 67  combining information from separate analyzes and different data sources in order to obtain additional information. da can contribute to each step of the audit, starting with the time of the preparatory work of the mission when deciding to accept it, continuing with the planning, understanding of the entity and its environment, risk assessment, assessment and testing of internal controls, application of substantive procedures and detailed tests, and ending with the conclusion and reporting phase. icaew (institute of chartered accountants of england and wales), the largest professional body in europe, has also published a document dealing with this issue. (icaew, 2016). it is brought up that da is a new discipline for auditors. it requires substantial investment in hardware, software, skills and quality control. it is an important part of the auditors' response to market demands. da can be applied to a wide range of assurance missions, not just to the audit of the financial statements. da allows auditors to manipulate a complete set of data, that is, 100% of a population, and for non-specialists to visualize results in a graphical form, easily and quickly. auditors did not invent da. entity management, risk management, and compliance monitoring, that are used by large companies, include developed systems such as oracle, sap, and rsa archer. oracle and sap have intelligent archive-based business applications. lavastorm, alteryx, and microsoft's sql servers provide advanced tools for specialists and non-specialists. these platforms typically use large, integrated systems, large and medium consultancy firms, and data analysis specialists. companies such as caseware and validis provide da service to small and medium-sized businesses, giving them the opportunity to provide da service for their own customers. technology companies who develop da have their roots in software developed in the early 2000s for extracting data in the banking and retail sectors, and for design in financial services and engineering. enthusiasts describe that da use allows manipulation of data "on an industrial scale", and calculations are performed "in a fraction of a second". da implies data extraction using the fields in the database structure more than those in the file format. a simple example is power view, an excel tool that filters, sorts, divides and highlights data in a spreadsheet, and enables visual presentation in a variety of graphical images. many da applications can be easily used by auditors with minimal help or no help from management. the ability to perform these independent analyzes is very important. many of them can be done at very detailed levels and / or can be fully done. common da procedures include:  comparing the last period in which a good was purchased with the period it was consumed for evaluation purposes  old stocks and the number of days the stock is held for an item  old claims and debts and reduction of uncollectability period from customers  analysis of income viariation, broken down by production or region  gross margin and sales analysis, highlighting the negative margins  compliance of payment orders with purchased goods  testing the task separation and its functioning  detailed recalculation of fixed assets depreciation  capital expenditure versus repair and maintenance expenditure  establishing three-way compliance between purchase decisions, sales, documentation of goods received and invoices. privacy and data security are critical issues. entities generally have protocols on the handling the sorting of personal data, archiving it, or deleting certain parts of it. these protocols need to be known by the auditor, who does not create new data. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 68 the neverending challenges in this regard relate to data stored in the cloud, revision of data handling and data protection guides, and to obstacles for regulatory bodies, especially those relating to the transfer of data across borders. the document developed by icaew also concerns the future. it is noted that auditors have a history of demonstrating the managers the adoption of new technologies. business people are learning about da from auditors at the same time as erp vendors are developing analytical business applications. the 2026 audit can be a hybrid of current methods and new tools. the speed of change is quick: audit committees ask companies if they have da capabilities and prospects regarding it. some think da are a real game changer and a transformation that will change the fundamentals of the audit. others say that da will cause firms to do what they can do well and quickly, and that the ability to enhance existing service offerings, and many of the new applications, such as management controls will be internalized. the development of standards is evolving. the existing system is stable in a stable audit environment or is slightly changing. but the environment is changing rapidly and it can not easily be predicted what professional practices will there be in five years. the issue is not just how standardization bodies manage the da challenge in audit standards, but also how the standardization process itself needs to evolve. da presents opportunities for standardization bodies to experiment and demonstrate that they can be innovative in their role as guardian of audit quality and representative of the public interest. da causes an actual uncertainty and vulnerability respecting the accounting profession. it is necessary to share concerns in a safe space where the tensions between ownership strategy, competition issues and regulatory challenges can be brought together. companies must go ahead, in the interest of a competitive advantage, and regulatory bodies must respond to this innovative process. the audit is a social product, a public good, and the benefit of the audit is achieved if the environment in which it develops is secure, before being exposed to the dangers and uncertainties of an open and challenging market for regulatory bodies. under the ecl brand, one of the leaders of audit analytics services, a professional accountant, john verver, has since 2008 presented a more practical approach to the challenge of using da in the audit. >(verver, 2008) it is the document in which we find phrases such as audit analytics aa or audit data analytics ada. he recommends seven practical steps to establish best audit analytics practices: 1. understand your tasks and identify which parts of the organziation and which business processes can be scrutinized using da. audit analytics can be used throughout the audit cycle. 2. understand your it environment to establish a suitable technical architecture; 3. develop a da strategy, a natural extension of your overall requirements which includes data accessibility, data analysis protocols, establishment of business process and internal control standards and the overall review of analytics performed. 4. define your own da architecture; 5. set up your own technology by establishing a centralized, secure and manageable aa environment, necessary in order to coordinate and plan your business. 6. assigning roles and responsibilities within the audit team 7. implement a training program regarding the aa use in the audit cycle concerns related to our subject matter also exist outside of the accounting profession. under the auspice of the financial reporting reform center, a world bank body, a document was published, specifically addressed to professional accountants who are small and medium sized practitioners (smps) and which presents some opportunities and some suggestions regarding the acceptance and implementation of da. (shukarova-savovska, sirois, 2017) thus, in terms of d. botez recent challenge for auditors: using data analytics in the audit of the financial statements 69 increasing the quality of the audit, the use of da leads to increased auditing relevance, early identification of problems, testing larger populations, obtaining more relevant evidence and a higher quality of them. using da leads to improved customer service, enabling high perspicacity, real-time problem solving, improved communication, and the ability to view results. it also increases the effectiveness of the audit because a large amount of data is rapidly evaluated, risk assessment is made on a more informed basis, auditor's attention is increased, more frequent testing is possible and reporting is quicker. this document highlights five suggestions for introducing da into the work of auditors: 1. accepting the use of technology in the audit process using da is not just a challenge for auditors. many large companies are already using da solutions, because they have invested in order to gain competitive advantages and respond to the stakeholders' expectations. they use da in the internal control and internal audit departments. financial reporting is changing and calls for real-time information and the expansion of nonfinancial reporting. smps also need to introduce new technologies, but they need support from professional education bodies, professional guides, software recommendations, and support for questions and comments. 2. audit standards will evolve current standards are developed taking into account the relationship risk-based internal control-analytical procedures and the use of caats. da challenges:  testing the entire population and how to handle exceptions, as well as the ability to measure results accurately;  appropriate audits following the introduction of da within the current requirements;  the integrity of significant data and how the auditor easily collects the data used in the procedures, and what procedures are needed to validate data from non-traditional external sources, for example from the media. it is necessary to revise standards to allow the introduction of developments, but with caution. 3. engage in learning processes about how to get analytics skills it is necessary for auditors to have and maintain basic training in traditional technical skills that are the main body of knowledge studied in the university and in continuing professional training programs. at the same time, a new set of skills is needed with regard to advanced audit technologies. this education is required in information technology, statistics and modeling, and this body of knowledge must be introduced into the university and professional training program for prospective accountants. it specialists will be part of the audit team in this complex technological environment. all auditors will need to have technological skills. a learning process is also needed to understand how the new tools are used and how the results of da use can produce evidence and lead to conclusions. 4. hardware and software investments are required the integration of new technologies into audit applications is underway and gives rise to a series of questions about: the complexity of data mining in company systems; obtaining data from diverse multiple systems; the validity of the sources; legal challenges and regulations; other barriers. for smes, there are some alternatives to large companies' investments: the use of third parties for processing and analyzing data; using simple but powerful tools that have auditor functionality, such as the ability to access a variety of data sources and source testing that is automatic, identifiable and repetitive. examples of da use:  testing unauthorized log entries  dividing accounts and log entries  inactive accounts brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 70  regular value inputs  suspicious key-descriptions  task separation tests  numerical sequences  variation and probability analyzes 5. use of da beyond traditional audit services the use of da tools can be extended to provide additional services or specialist advice, such as:  fraud detection and predictive accounting  tax consultancy  improvements in invoicing and cost management or business operations  identification of past and potential losses and incomes  identifying risks and providing advice on risk management  real-time monitoring of controls  using predictive models and improving forecasts  integrated reporting and sustainable reporting 6. conclusions it is certain that the digital technologies are, step by step, conquering all the fields of human life. it is important to be open-minded towards challenges and respond appropriately, i.e. in the public interest or to create a better world. new technologies, and especially developments in the field of artificial intelligence, can change, within a foreseeable time horizon, some of the fundamental coordinates of our existence. there are already large companies that use artificial intelligence to build personalized applications. accountants, in general, and financial auditors, in particular, carry out many missions in the public interest, of which the audit engagement of the financial statements is most relevant. the audit report addresses several categories of users of the information presented in the financial statements. most of them have different information needs, and the way financial information is aggregated must meet the needs of each. the use of data analytics in the audit of financial statements, as well as in other professional missions, may allow the auditor to conduct more comprehensive and in-depth investigations than by using traditional methods. as a result, he can better represent the interests of these users and the public interest in general. with a stretch of the imagination, we can think of using artificial intelligence applications in the work of professional accountants. advantages can be significant, auditors may develop their own applications to help them exercise professional reasoning, using personal qualities such as level of training, professionalism and experience. financial statements could be tailored to provide personalized information for each category of users. however, today the multitude of advantages can only be suspected. finally, we want to mention an important finding. no matter how high the level of the development of new technologies will be, we must not forget that these are made by people, for people. references aicpa audit analytics and continuous audit: looking toward the future. (2015). essay 5, data analytics for financial statements audit, trevor r. stewart, ca, phd, from www.aicpa.org. iaasb, dawg. (2016, september) ”exploring the growing use of technology in the audit, with a focus on data analytics”, from www.ifac.org. d. botez recent challenge for auditors: using data analytics in the audit of the financial statements 71 iaasb, dawg. (2018, january). feedback statement, prepared by the staff of iaasb, exploring the growing use of technology in the audit, with a focus on data analytics, from www.ifac.org. icaew. (2016). data analytics for external auditors – international auditing perspective, from www.icaew.org. mannoppa, a. (2018, march 2). data science versus big data versus data analytics, from www.simplelearn.com. shukarova-savovska, k. (2017). senior financial management specialist şi bonnie ann sirois, senior financial management specialist, cfrr, world bank, audit data analytics: opportunities and tips, from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/extcenfinrepref/resources/41521171427109489814/smps_spreads_digital.pdf. verver, j. (2008). white paper – best practices for use data analysis in audit, acl, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5b25/99d1323904f555dd74a6e61135d34290c30d.pdf. daniel botez (b. march 31, 1963) phd in accounting (2005) from "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași. now he is an associate professor of accounting and audit in department of accounting, audit and economic-financial analyse, faculty of economic sciences, vasile alecsandri university of bacau, romania. his current research interests include several of theoretical and practice aspects of accounting profession to international, regional and national level. microsoft word issue-4.docx 171 open education practices for learners with disabilities zehra altinay near east university, swedish association of distance education north cyprus, sweden, turkey yakındoğu blv, lefkoşa phone: +90 392 223 64 64 zehra.altinaygazi@neu.edu.tr fahriye altinay near east university, swedish association of distance education north cyprus, sweden, turkey yakındoğu blv, lefkoşa phone: +90 392 223 64 64 ebba ossianilsson near east university, swedish association of distance education, anadolu university north cyprus, sweden, turkey yakındoğu blv, lefkoşa phone: +90 392 223 64 64 cengiz hakan aydin near east university, swedish association of distance education, anadolu university north cyprus, sweden, turkey yakındoğu blv, lefkoşa phone: +90 392 223 64 64 abstract transition from traditional learning to open up education, the equality, openness and access has been reached for all learners without any time and distance limitations. although this transition happens all around to world to underline equality in learning, the principles of online pedagogy and restructure on pedagogical and organizational levels come into the consideration. access, openness and the equality for learning confirm the essence of active dialogue and engagement of learners to enrich transferable skills within the life. higher education institutions turn attention on massive open online courses (moocs) as part of the transformation in education by focusing on innovation and strategic opportunity in education. the literature has pointed out that moocs are providing educational opportunities for lifelong learners and become solution for inclusion in learning. while engaging online learning process, student support is the crucial element to provide active participation and match learners’ needs and expectations during the process. within a framework of online pedagogy, learner development is challenging pattern and heart of the online practices which mainly three components have been underlined: (1) student support, (2) institutional support, and (3) teaching learning process including assessment as learning procedure in higher education. this study aims to provide an example of open resources education course for orthopedically disabled learners which online training course supports learners and their families for their professional development within a frame of counseling and guidance. the study is significant to underline the principles of online pedagogy within the process and enrich abilities of learners including family members in particular contents. furthermore, the study shows how open education resources could be motivation for social learning within the life as part of the life-long learning philosophy. in addition to that, it contributes to underline the success of effective pedagogy in online context for learners with disabilities. keywords: disabilities, life long learning, professional learning, open education resources. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 172 1. introduction transition from traditional learning to open up education, the equality, openness and access has been reached for all learners without any time and distance limitations. although this transition happens all around to world to underline equality in learning, the principles of online pedagogy and restructure on pedagogical and organizational levels come into the consideration. access, openness and the equality for learning confirms the essence of active dialogue and engagement of learners to enrich transferable skills within the life (european commission, 2013). learning and teaching activities, nor was the monopoly of the traditional education system. learning through the possibilities provided by information and communication technologies has become a lifelong process. moreover, access to information, which is the main capital, has become easier. changes in the structure of knowledge and access to information are reflected in the field of education.today, there is a differentiation from the teaching-centered understanding to the learningcentered understanding. at the core of this change are key concepts that summarize the understanding of contemporary network society such as openness, flexibility, autonomy, and personalization. thus, learning, gained independence in the context of time and space, always occurred everywhere, has become a continuous action. lifelong learning has become important and meaningful as a reflection of this thought. in other words, success has been valued as long as it is sustainable. as a result of all the above developments, open educational resources (oer) and the massive open online course (mooc) have become transformations that can meet the information needs of twenty-first century learners. higher education institutions turn attention on massive open online courses (moocs) as part of the transformation in education by focusing on innovation and strategic opportunity in education. the literature has pointed out that moocs are providing educational opportunities for lifelong learners and become solution for inclusion in learning. while engaging online learning process, student support is the crucial element to provide active participation and match learners’ needs and expectations during the process [2]. within a framework of online pedagogy, learner development is challenging pattern and heart of the online practices which mainly three components have been underlined: (1) student support, (2) institutional support, and (3) teaching learning process including assessment as learning procedure in higher education. liberalization of learning have started to make equality for disabled people. online learning and education become a medium of learning for the construction of educational policy for disabled people. this fosters adult education and life long learning in order to create a base for professional development. in this respect, this research study gives an insight on the significance of open resources for gaining quality, transformation and liberalization in education (gazi & aksal, 2017). according to the salmon carpe diem model, there is significant need for team work in organizational aspects of online education. this study aims to provide an example of open resources education course for orthopedically disabled learners which online training course supports learners and their families for their professional development within a frame of counseling and guidance. the study is significant to underline the principles of online pedagogy within the process and enrich abilities of learners including family members in particular contents. furthermore, the study shows how open education resources could be motivation for social learning within the life as part of the life-long learning philosophy. in addition to that, it contributes to underline the success of effective pedagogy in online context for learners with disabilities. 2. methodology in this study, content analysis method was used to investigate the studies made in open educational resources (oer) and the massive open online course (mooc) in the field of educational sciences. content analysis is a scientific approach that allows for the objective examination of verbal, written and other sources in a systematic way (tavşancıl ve aslan, 2001). z. altinay, f. altinay, e. ossianilsson, c. hakan aydin open education practices for learners with disabilities 173 according to cohen, manion and morrison (2007), content analysis is also defined as the process of summarizing and describing the main content of written information and the topics it contains. this study has conceptual nature which comprehensive literature review shed a light to investigate oer practices for learner with disabilities. although there are studies (ossiannilsson, altinay, altinay, 2016; ossiannilsson, altinay, altinay, 2016) which highlight online pedagogy principles and practices, the studies stay partial by putting emphasis on open education practices for learners with disabilities. furthermore, the practice of open education course as an example of training course with its procedure, social dialogue, interaction and learner development has been developed in this research process. for the conceptual framework and comprehensive literature, the studies (ossiannilsson, altinay, altinay, 2016; ossiannilsson, altinay, altinay, 2015) underlined the methodological implications to highlight how open education resources become innovation and strategy for higher education. however, the studies are not sufficient to emphasis on transition could be the possible solution for learners with disabilities through open education resources. 3. research findings a. comprehensive look into oer researches atkins, brown, hammond (2007) provided review on oer researches which highlights opportunities, challenges to implement oer for the future practice of higher education institutions. haggard, et al. (2013) reflected forms of online learning including moocs practices. the limited studies such as altinay, et al. (2016) highlight the significant framework of oer for learners with disabilities thus it even stays conceptual. therefore, there is significant shift to reflect practical implications of oer diffusion on learning for learners with disabilities. it is possible to define open course resources as (carson, 2005):  organized in the format of a course, free and easily accessible,  usage and adaptation are open to the public with certain license terms (creative commons)  it is a high quality educational resource that is not used to give certificates or diplomas alone. mass open online courses will bring all the features necessary for participants to have full access over the networks, everyone is open and attendance is usually free. there are often a high number of participants, often more than five hundred. within a mass open online course structure, each individual participates in the system free of charge, creates content, interacts, analyzes, and reflects his / her achievements according to learning needs (koutropoulos et al., 2012; mcauley et al., 2010). teachers in the mass open online course system undertake facilitator functions. participants are both learners and educators with the contributions they provide (rodriguez, 2012; norvig, 2012). in the mass open online course system, learners are expected to find four types of activities (levy, 2011):  reach different sources,  to trace the source, bring together the resources that access,kişisel hesaplar oluşturmak,  for developing new insights bringing together their thoughts  to share the products revealed by other learners as well. b. maintaining course as a model as this study aims to provide an example of course regarding open education resource, the practical implications of courses and its effectiveness need to be examined from the perspectives and experiences of learners with disabilities. in order to maintain a model of course, firstly the expectations and needs of the learners with orthopedically disability as adult learners were asked to determine the course contents within a framework of professional learning. in fact, the result of workshops and meetings also highlighted the necessity of open education resources for adult learners with disabilities to support social inclusion and equality in learning within a framework of life-long learning. in line with workshop and meetings, particular course contents were constructed: (1) problems and possible solution path in society for learners with disabilities, (2) family and communication, (3) arts for learners with disabilities, (4) environment, life and travel, (5) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 174 technology. the course contents reflect the nature of counseling and guidance for the learners with disabilities and also for their families. the courses will be supported by tutor and social activities will provide awareness of learners between each others. the exercises and social activities of the courses will support social dynamism and engagement of the learners and their families as a motivation for learning and the life itself. as this course is the preliminary stage and first example for the northern part of cyprus, evaluation and assessment of the course will also provide indicators of success for open education resources for learners with disabilities. however, the course is only limited for learners with orthopedically disability. the course as a model covers following principles to overcome barriers and exploit opportunities for learning to all learners with disabilities within a framework of professional learning and competence development based on social interaction and engagement:  assistive technologies applications  e-learning systems for people with disabilities  open access to teaching and learning for people with disabilities  learning technology standards and people with disabilities  accessibility and usability of educational content and applications  pedagogical issues for technology-supported education for people with disabilities  evaluation and assessment as part of learning  orientation and training for technology-supported education for people with disabilities 4. conclusions and recommendations this conceptual review of literature aimed to reveal the potential opportunities of serving learners with disabilities through open education resources as change and innovation strategy in higher education. the proposed course as a model and literature gap supported that open education resources can be the solution path for transformation of innovative pedagogy and learning for learners with disabilities. for that transformation, digital leadership and institutional support is crucial to open the doors as educational policy. for learning and innovation in higher education, social inclusion, access, openness and equality need to be implemented with the opportunities of oer in higher education (akcil, altinay, altinay, 2016; akcıl, aksal. a., mukhametzyanova, gazi. a., 2016). technology-supported education as regarding the open education resources and moocs offer equality, openness and access for all learners with disabilities. beside educational opportunities, oer and online platform propose social inclusion and motivation within a safe and engaged learning environment. reaching learning environments with multi-touch devices provide benefit of knowledge construction in any time and any place within an interactive dialogue and engagement. without any time and location barriers, open education resources and online education practices create a potential access, openness, equality for all learners with disability within a framework of life-long learning (aksal altınay, 2015; altınay, dagli, altınay, 2016). these services provide opportunities of learning experiences as including nature of counseling and guidance. this model of course as stated in this study open an academic debate and challenge to further investigate new applications and trends for overcoming barriers and providing potential opportunities for learners with disabilities. for further studies, the impact of course for learning and social inclusion can be examined with qualitative and quantitative nature of the researches. further to this, each course activities can be evaluated to understand the potential skills development of the learners in both assessment and activities process. as peer learning and assessment increase collaboration and construction of knowledge in online context, the experiences of learners for that course can be examined to evaluate the system of learning technology standards and people with disabilities. accessibility and usability of educational content and applications can be examined in detail to overcome barriers of learning for learners with disabilities. z. altinay, f. altinay, e. ossianilsson, c. hakan aydin open education practices for learners with disabilities 175 acknowledgments we would like to thank to learners with disabilities who reflect their needs and expectations for professional learning within a frame of online education practices. references altınay, z., ossiannilsson, e., kalaç, m. o., başarı, g., aktepebaşı, a., altınay, f. (2016). establishing a framework on oer practices for ict competence of disabled citizens. turkish online journal of educational technology. altınay, f., dagli, g. altınay, z. (2016). role of technology and managment in tolerance and reconciliation education. quantity & quality, international journal of methodology, doi 10.1007/s11135-016-0419-x. atkins, d. e.; brown, j.; hammond, a. (2007). a review of the open educational resources (oer) movement: achievements, challenges, and new opportunities. in oerderves. hewlett foundation. akcil, u., altinay, f., altinay, z. (2016). assesing the effects of managers in the digital age on the management process of digital citizenship roles. the antropologist. akcıl, u., aksal. a., f., mukhametzyanova, f.s., gazi. a., z. (2016). an examination of open and technology leadership in managerial practices of education system. eurasia journal of mathematics science and technology education, 13(1), 119-131. aksal altınay, f. (2015). are headmasters digital leaders in school culture? education and science, 40 (182), 77-86. carson, s. (2005). mit ocw program evaluation findings report. http://ocw.mit.edu/ocwweb/global/aboutocw/evaluation.htm (accessed on 16 july 2018). cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2007). research methods in education. new york, ny: routledge. european commission. opening up education to boost innovation and digital skills in schools and universities (2013). http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_ip-13-859_en.htm (accessed on 30 march 2016). gazi a., z. & aksal a., f. (2017). technology as mediation tool for improving teaching profession in higher education practices. eurasia journal of mathematics science and technology education, 13(3), 803-813. doi 10.12973/eurasia.2017.00644a haggard, s. et al. (2013). the maturing of the mooc: literature review of massive open online courses and other forms of online learning. bis research paper. department for business, innovation and skills. research paper no 130. inamorato dos santos, a., punie, p., castaño-muñoz, j. (2016). opportunities and challenges for the future of moocs and open education in europe. in from books to moocs? emerging models of learning and teaching in higher education. de corte, e., engwall, l., teichler, u. eds.; volume 88; portland press. pp. 81-91. koutropoulos, a., gallagher, m. s., abajian, s. c., de waard, i.; hogue, r. j., özdamar keskin, n., & rodriguez, c. o. (2012). emotive vocabulary in moocs: context & participant retention. european journal of open and distance learning. http://www.eurodl.org/?p=special&sp=init2&article=507 (accessed on 16 july 2018). levy, d. (2011). lessons learned from participating in a connectivist massive online open course (mooc). in y. eshet-alkalai, a. caspi, s. eden, n. geri. and y. yair (eds.), proceedings of the chais conference on instructional technologies research 2011: learning in the technological era .pp. 31-36. the open university of israel, raanana. mcauley, a., stewart, b., siemens, g., & cormier, d. (2010). the mooc model for digital practice. http://www.elearnspace.org/articles/mooc_final.pdf (accessed on 16 july 2018). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 9, issue 4 (november, 2018), issn 2067-3957 176 norvig, p., (2012). the 100,000-student classroom. ted talks. http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_norvig_the_100_000_student_classroom.html (accessed on 16 july 2018). ossiannilsson, e., altinay, f., altinay, z. (2016). moocs, as change agents to boost innovation in higher education learning arenas. education sciences. ossiannilsson, e., altinay, z. & altinay, f. (2016). lecture notes educational technology,khribi, et al. open education: from oers to moocs.springer. ossiannilsson, e., altinay, f., altinay, z. (2015). analysis of moocs practice from learners experiences and quality cultures. educational media international. rodriguez, o. (2012). moocs and the ai-stanford like courses: two successful and distinct course formats for massive open online courses. european journal of open and distance learning, 15. tavşancıl, e. and aslan, e. (2001). sözel, yazılı ve diğer materyaller için i̇çerik analizi ve uygulama örnekleri. epsilon publish, i̇stanbul. microsoft word issue 3.docx b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 september 2019 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro 2 about the journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next issue of the brain in november/december, 2019. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 15th of october, 2019. papers sent after this deadline will be considered for future issues. send your articles to ana@edusoft.ro. editorial team editor in chief: bogdan pătruţ, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania managing editor: agata asofroniei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania editors: ana vaimberg, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 – 0473 e-issn 2067 – 3957 (c) 2019 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro official e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro managing editor e-mail: ana@edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. dorin bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 5. răzvan bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 6. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 7. cătălin buiu, politehnica university of bucharest, bucharest, romania (robotics) 8. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl milan, italy (computer science) 9. piotr p chruszczewski, polish academy of sciences, university of wroclaw, poland (social sciences) 10. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 11. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 12. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 13. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 14. ana-maria ciubara (burlea), dunărea de jos university of galați, romania (psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience) 15. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 16. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 17. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 18. omer deperlioglu, afyon kocatepe university, afyonkarahisar, turkey (computer programing, m-learning, fuzzy control, self-directed learning, fuzzy logic control, artificial intelligence) 19. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 20. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 21. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 22. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 23. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 24. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 25. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 4 26. utku köse, uşak university, uşak, turkey (artificial intelligence) 27. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) 28. ilya levin, tel aviv university, tel aviv, israel (computer design, cultural studies of information society, science and technology education) 29. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 30. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 31. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 32. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 33. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 34. aslanbek naziev, ryazan state university, ryazan, ryazan oblast, russia (mathematics) 35. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence) 36. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 37. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 38. valeriy perminov, tomsk polytechnic university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 39. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 40. ioan lucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (linguistics) 41. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 42. saim rasheed, king abdulaziz university, jeddah, saudi arabia (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 43. kamil roman, maria curie-sklodowska university in lublin, poland (smart city concept, intelligent transport systems, sustainable urban development) 44. tiberiu socaciu, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 45. hassan soleimani, payame noor university, tehran, iran (applied linguistics) 46. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 47. elena-mădălina vătămănescu, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest, romania (social sciences) 48. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 49. dmytro zubov, soochow university, suzhou, jiangsu, china (computer science) microsoft word issue 3.docx 96 the influence of employee attractiveness on service recovery paradox: facial recognition and eye tracker analyses erdoğan koc bahcesehir university faculty of economics, administrative and social sciences yeni mahalle şehit astsubay mustafa soner varlık caddesi no:77, 10200 bandırma/balıkesir, turkey phone: +90 266 717 01 17 erdogankoc@yahoo.com hakan boz usak university i̇zmir yolu 8. km. atatürk bulvarı merkez/uşak merkez, 64000 uşak merkez, turkey phone: +90 276 221 21 21 onlyhakanboz@hotmail.com burcin boz bilecik seyh edebali university adapazarı bilecik yolu bilecik şeyh edebali üniversitesi rektörlüğü, 11230 gülümbe/bilecik merkez/bilecik, turkey phone: +90 228 214 11 11 burcinsonmez86@gmail.com abstract this study aims to explore the influence of employee attractiveness on service recovery paradox by using eye tracker and facial recognition software. based on two service recovery scenarios an experiment was carried out with the participation of 20 subjects in turkey. in the experiment participants’ pre-and post-satisfaction levels before the service failure and after the service recovery attempt have been measured. the participants were also asked to respond to likert type questions to explain to explain how they felt about the service encounter they were exposed to in the scenarios. the analysis of data showed that although attractiveness reduced the negative of the responses, increased interest in the attractive service employee. however, the results showed that in both scenarios (with attractive and less attractive service employee photos) the service recovery paradox did not occur. keywords: service failure; service recovery paradox; artificial intelligence; hospitality; facial recognition; eye tracker. 1. introduction a service failure can be defined as any type of error, mistake, deficiency or problem that occurs during the provision of a service, causing a delay or hindrance in the satisfaction of customer needs (koc, 2017; koc, 2019a). due to the intense and frequent interactions taking place tourism and hospitality services are highly prone to service failures (koc, 2013). coupled with the general service characteristics of inseparability and heterogeneity nature, service failures in tourism and hospitality are almost inevitable. although service failures are almost inevitable, unsuccessful service failure recovery attempts result in negative emotions and negative behavioural outcomes and threaten the survival and growth of tourism and hospitality businesses (ha and jang, 2009; wen and chi, 2013 koc, 2017). the negative emotions and the behavioural intentions after a service failure may range from customer dissatisfaction (kelley et al., 1993; koc, 2017) to negative word-of-mouth (mattila, 2001), customer e. koc, h. boz, b. boz the influence of employee attractiveness on service recovery paradox: facial recognition and eye tracker analyses 97 switching (keaveney, 1995; pranić and roehl, 2013), increased costs (armistead et al., 1995), and lower employee performance and morale (lee et al., 2013) for the service business. service recovery is a process which comprises of all the actions designed and implemented to resolve problems and change customers' negative attitudes to prevent negative word-of-mouth communications and to avoid the switching of customers (miller et al., 2000, baker, 2017). first coined by mccollough and bharadwaj (1992) refers to service recovery situations in which a customer's post-failure satisfaction exceeds pre-failure satisfaction after a service failure has been recovered. the service recovery paradox relates to a secondary satisfaction after a service failure in which customers compare their expectations for recovery to their perceptions of the service recovery performance. service recoveries ensure that feeling of justice is reinstated. in a recovery situation, and for a service recovery paradox to take place, customers usually look for three types of justice. these are distributional justice, procedural justice and interactional justice (sparks and mccollkennedy, 2001). distributional justice is about the compensation of the losses incurred by the customer as a result of a service failure (patterson et al., 2006; koc, 2019b). distributional justice may be reinstated by refunding, or part of, the bill, or providing free products or services. procedural justice is to do with the perceived fairness of a process (sparks and mccollkennedy, 2001), i.e. whether the procedures or the criteria used in the recovery were perceived as being fair. the procedural justice may be established by the use of appropriate policies and procedures, the convenience of the process and the timeliness of the service recovery attempt (tax et al., 1998, smith et al., 1999; baker, 2017). according to blodgett et al., (1997) the speed of the recovery action taken is one of the major determinants of procedural justice. interactional justice relates to the interaction quality between the service employee and the customer and, depends on friendliness shown by service staff during the recovery process (tax et al, 1998; smith et al., 1999) or the interaction quality between a service employee and management (baker, 2017). several research findings show that after an efficient and effective recovery of a service failure, i.e. when the feeling of justice has been reinstated, customers' repurchase intentions, the likelihood of making positive word-of-mouth communications, and their image of the brand may increase significantly (baker, 2017). based on the above background this study explores the influence of the attractiveness of service employees on service failure paradox by attempting to reinstate distributional justice (sparks and mccoll-kennedy, 2001). 2. employee attractiveness attractiveness forms a bias causing favour in higher physical attractiveness and disfavour in lower physical attractiveness (berscheid and walster, 1972; frevert and walker, 2014). in fact, attractiveness is a heuristic device, a type of conditioning, people use in responding to external stimuli (villi and koc, 2018). facial attractiveness which primarily determines physical attractiveness (olson and marshuetz, 2005) may have a significant influence on other people's various responses towards the person who is attractive. for example research shows that physically attractive people may getter better grades in school (langlois et al., 2000; elovitz et al., 2009); may be more likely to be recruited following (johnston, 2010; roberts, 2012; toledano, 2013; verhulst et. al., 2010) and may even tend to get higher salaries for the same job done (bennett, 2010; salter et al., 2012; toledano, 2013; frevert and walker, 2014). the influence of attractiveness in tourism and hospitality has been researched by various scholars. for instance, magnini et al.'s (2013) study found that clean-shaven male employees and employees who smiled produced more positive feelings among hotel customers. kim et al.'s (2017) study found that while employee attractiveness enhanced the service encounter, attractiveness was not a substitute for friendly, courteous service. although appearance was one of the salient brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 98 attributes of an employee, when building rapport, customers paid more attention to the nonverbal and behavioural cues of employees. in another study, boz and yilmaz's (2017) study showed that tourism and hospitality managers were more likely to recruit attractive candidates even for back-stage jobs. villi and koc's (2018) study found that customers gave milder responses to service failures when they interacted with attractive service failure. however, the influence of employee attractiveness on service recoveries and particularly on service recovery paradox has not been researched by researchers. 3. the method and the procedure the study aims to explore the influence of employee attractiveness on service recovery paradox. in the study, data were collected from 10 female and 10 male participants who eat at a restaurant at least once a week. the participants were asked to read the following two scenarios: service failure and recovery scenarios scenario 1 imagine that you have had an exhausting day. it was so busy that you did not have time to have lunch during the day. you decided to eat dinner in a restaurant. you ordered your food to the waitress on the right. you felt that you were really hungry. the meal you ordered arrived without any delay. you started to eat your meal. the food tasted really good. but just before having your second fork of the meal you saw a long hair in the dish. you immediately called the waitress and informed her about what happened. the waitress first apologised and brought a new plate of food and told you that it was on the house, i.e. there was going to be no bill to pay. scenario 2 imagine that you had your dinner in a restaurant. after finishing your main course, you saw an appetizing dessert eaten by another guest in the restaurant. you ordered the same dessert to the waitress on the right. the dessert arrived and you started eating. but before having your second fork you saw a long hair in the dessert. you immediately called the waitress and informed her about what happened. the waitress first apologised and brought a new dish of a dessert and told you that it was on the house, i.e. there was going to be no bill to pay. the scenarios were basically the same except in the first scenario an attractive and in the second scenario not so attractive waitress photos were used. the attractiveness of the persons (waitresses) in the photos was determined with a pilot test with thirty participants two weeks before the experiment. the attractive female photo was provided courtesy of dr. martin gruendl at beautycheck (braun et al., 2001). the not so attractive female photo was taken from the chicago face database (ma, correll, & wittenbrink. 2015). the participants' emotions were measured before, during and after the reading of the scenarios. the participants were also asked to respond to four short questions appearing on the screen by using the mouse of the computer. the purpose of asking these questions was, though to a limited extent, to triangulate data (koc and boz, 2014) and support the data collected by the psychophysiological tools. these questions were particularly aimed at measuring participants’ emotions regarding the regarding e. koc, h. boz, b. boz the influence of employee attractiveness on service recovery paradox: facial recognition and eye tracker analyses 99 the service failure itself, the recovery attempt and their future intentions whether to at the same restaurant again and whether they would recommend this particular restaurant to other people. 4. the task and experimental procedure the experiment procedure was designed by using the experiment flows used in the studies of (boz, 2015; boz and yılmaz, 2016; taşkın, koç and boz, 2017; koc and boz, 2018). the task and the procedure were as follows (see figure 1): 1. in order to eliminate the influence of the order effect the visual materials were shown randomly to the participants. 2. the duration of the experiment was 120 seconds for each participant. 3. after the fixing of the facial recognition software subjects were asked to take a comfortable position and relax. participants ran the experiment individually using a mouse to answer assessment questionnaires. 4. first visual marketing material was shown ten seconds after the experiment started. during these ten seconds, the participants were shown a black screen. 5. after having being exposed to marketing stimuli the participants were asked to make an evaluation of the scenarios for a duration of twenty seconds by indicating their responses to the questions shown on the screen with the use of a mouse. 6. the participants indicated their responses on a likert scale a 1 (one) score meant “extremely negative attitude towards exposed stimuli” and a score of 10 meant “extremely positive attitude towards exposed stimuli” on the screen with the mouse. 7. the experiment was carried out in a quiet room. 8. prior to the start of the experiment, the participants were given information about the experiment procedure for 4-5 minutes in order to relax them. 9. the participants were instructed to avoid any excess movements during the experiment. 10. two service recovery paradox scenarios (figure 1) were shown to the participants. each scenario exposure lasted 35 seconds. then, the participants were asked to respond to four questions appearing on the screen for each scenario for a period of 20 seconds. 11. before each service recovery scenario, the participants were shown a black screen for ten seconds. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 100 the data collected by the psychophysiological tools of eye tracker and facial expression recognition were calculated and analysed by using the software developed by boz and kose (2018). facial expression recognition software was developed by using machine learning and artificial intelligence methods and the accuracy of the algorithm is %87. 5. findings and analysis the participants’ responses (likert type 1 to 10) regarding the service failure itself, the recovery attempt and their future intentions whether to visit the same restaurant again and whether they would recommend this particular restaurant to other people. by looking at the total means in table1 it can be seen that when the waitress was more attractive the participants tended to evaluate the service failure less important (4,70 to 5, 40 – the difference being 25,38%). this may mean that attractiveness of the service employee (the waitress) reduced the severity of the service failure by more than 25%. table 1. overall evaluation of the service encounter attractive waitress stimuli less attractive waitress stimuli the difference (between the totals) (mean) female respondents (mean) male respondents (mean) total (mean) female respondents (mean) male respondents (mean) total (mean) importance of service failure. 1= not important 10=important 4,50 4,90 4,70 5,80 5,00 5,40 25,38% overall evaluation of service experience 1= negative 10= positive 3,70 2,80 3,25 3,30 3,00 3,15 3,25% tolerability of the failure 1= intolerable 10= tolerable 3,80 2,50 3,15 3,00 3,10 3,05 3,15% recommending the restaurant to others. 1= would not recommend 10= would recommend 5,30 2,80 4,05 3,40 2,20 2,80 30,86% additionally, when the service employee was more attractive the participants tended to evaluate the service experience relatively more positively (3,25 to 3,15) as a higher score meant that the experience was more positive. moreover, when the service employee was more attractive, the participants found the failure relatively more tolerable (3,15 to 3,05). these three above findings are e. koc, h. boz, b. boz the influence of employee attractiveness on service recovery paradox: facial recognition and eye tracker analyses 101 in line with villi and koc's (2018) findings in which the customers gave milder responses to service failures when the service employee was more attractive. regarding the recommendation of the restaurant to others the participants stated that they were more likely to recommend the restaurant to others (4,05 to 2,80 the difference being 30,86%). these findings are line with the studies mentioned above (e.g. langlois et al., 2000; olson and marshuetz, 2005; elovitz et al., 2009; verhulst et. al., 2010; johnston, 2010; bennett, 2010; roberts, 2012; toledano, 2013; frevert & walker, 2014; boz and yilmaz, 2017; villi and koc, 2018) which found favorable outcomes relating to attractiveness of people. the findings show that the distributional justice used in the scenarios, to some extent, has been instrumental in reinstating distributional justice in the participants. overall, it can be seen that the attractiveness of the service employee (the waitress) had a positive effect both in terms of the service failure, as it was seen as a less of a problem and increased the satisfaction with the recovery attempt. however, it should be kept in mind that, in highly competitive markets, facial attractiveness cannot solve all of the problems. moreover, as found in kim et al.’s study the attractiveness may not be a substitute for delivering a high quality service. additionally, the idea of recruiting more attractive candidates for jobs has significant ethical and legal implications. the findings of this study also show that although attractiveness may lessen the negativity of the responses towards service failures, it may not solve all of the problems. for instance, having in mind the fact that, the mean scores were out of 10, the highest figure of 5,40 (table 1) may not be considered sufficient to establish a competitive advantage. business firms with higher scores on these may be more likely to survive and prosper in the competitive markets. the eye tracker and facial recognition data were analyzed whether the service recovery paradox took place after the recovery of the service. the eye tracker data showed where the participants concentrated/focused on the materials they were shown. figure 2: attractive waitress scenario eye tracker analysis results figure 2 shows the eye tracker analysis results for the first scenario, i.e. service failure scenario with an attractive service employee. the results show that while the duration of the focus of the male participants on the verbal explanations in the scenario was 268 ms, the duration of the focus of the female participants on the verbal explanations in the scenario was 251 ms. on the other hand, while the duration of the focus of the male participants on the attractive female employee photo 459 ms, the duration of the brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 102 gaze of the female participants on the on the attractive female employee photo was 231 ms. this means that male participants spent more time focusing on the photo of the attractive service employee than they focused on the scenario itself, while the female participants spent more time focusing on the scenario itself. figure 3. less attractive waitress scenario eye tracker analysis results figure 2 shows the eye tracker analysis results for the second scenario, i.e. service failure scenario with a less attractive service employee. the results show that while the duration of the focus of the male participants on the verbal explanations in the scenario was 307 ms, the duration of the focus of the female participants on the verbal explanations in the scenario was 231 ms. on the other hand, while the male participants did not focus on the less attractive service employee photo at all, female participants focused on the less attractive service employee photo was 352 ms. interestingly, the female participants focused on the less attractive service employee photo more than they focused on the attractive service employee photo. table 2. facial expression scores of the participants feelings attractive service employee less attractive service employee before the service failure after the service recovery attempt before the service failure after the service recovery attempt surprise 0,250 0,340 0,246 0,260 anger 0,004 0,047 0,004 0,005 sadness 0,0720 0,0746 0,0720 0,0750 disgust 0,3800 0,3711 0,0234 0,0370 fear 0,057 0,006 0,006 0,007 happiness 0,038 0,027 0,002 0,002 e. koc, h. boz, b. boz the influence of employee attractiveness on service recovery paradox: facial recognition and eye tracker analyses 103 neutral 0,792 0,790 0,854 0,838 table 2 shows the facial expression analysis results. the results mean that the service recovery paradox did not take place in both scenarios. in other words, the attractiveness of service employee had no effect on service recovery paradox. for instance, the scores for negative feelings (anger and sadness) did not decrease in both scenarios after they have been introduced to the service failure and service recovery. likewise, the positive feeling scores of happiness did not increase after the participants were introduced to the service failure and ensuing service recovery attempt. research shows that service recovery paradox may not take place in all service recovery situations. for instance, studies carried out by mccollough et al. (2000) and michel and meuter (2008) showed that service recovery paradox did not take place after the recovery of the service failure. there may be several reasons to explain why the service recovery may not occur due to factors, ranging from the severity of the failure to the cultural factors and from personality characteristics to various other factors such as the service sector the study conducted in (magnini et al., 2007; du et al., 2011). for instance, koc et al.’s (2018) that study showed in restraint cultures, as opposed to indulgence cultures, service recovery may not take place due to the fact that people from restraint cultures were more likely to remember negative events such as a service failure. 6. limitations of the study and recommendations for future research as one of the limitations of the study, the number of people (20) can be stated. future studies may investigate the concept of service recovery paradox with larger numbers and perhaps supported with focus group studies. a larger group of participants in the experiment supported by focus group studies may not only increase the validity and reliability of the study but may also enable gaining a deeper insight into the service recovery paradox phenomenon. in the study service recovery paradox was mainly concerned with reinstating distributional justice, i.e. compensating the losses incurred by the customer. future studies may investigate the influence of attractiveness in relation to other types of justice, i.e. procedural justice and interactional justice. additionally, this study investigated the occurrence of service recovery paradox in restraint cultures. future studies may be carried out in indulgence cultures or both cultures where and which the findings may be compared. 7. conclusions the study has found that the attractiveness of hospitality employees can play a role in terms of influencing customers’ perceptions of service failures. although the attractiveness of the service employees may mitigate the responses of customers service failures, service recovery paradox may not occur no mater service employees are attractive or not. in other words, customers may not easily forget what happened during the service failure and remember those negative feelings even after the service has been recovered. based on the findings of this study, hospitality managers can be recommended to establish better quality assurance systems in their businesses. it should also be borne in mind that the attractiveness of service employees may not be a substitute for providing a highquality service. references armistead, c. g., clarke, g. and stanley, p. (1995). managing service recovery, cranfield, england: cranfield school of management. baker, m. a. (2017). service failures and recovery: theories and models. in service failures and recovery in tourism and hospitality: a practical manual, 24-41. bennett, j. (2010, july 26). the beauty advantage. newsweek, 156(4), 46–48. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 104 berscheid, e., & walster, e. (1972). beauty and the best. psychology today, 5, 42–46. blodgett, j. g., hill, d. j., and tax, s. s. (1997) the effects of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice on post complaint behavior. journal of retailing, 73(2), 185-210. boz, h. (2015). turistik ürün satın alma karar sürecinde i̇tkiselliğin rolü: psikonörobiyokimyasal analiz, unpublished doctoral thesis. balıkesir, turkey: balikesir university, institute of social sciences. boz, h. and yilmaz, o. (2017). an eye tracker analysis of the influence of applicant attractiveness on employee recruitment process: a neuromarketing study. ecoforum journal, 6(1). boz, h., & kose, u. (2018). emotion extraction from facial expressions by using artificial intelligence techniques. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 9(1), 5-16. braun, c., gruendl, m., marberger, c. & scherber, c. (2001). beautycheck ursachen und folgen von attraktivitaet. du, j., fan, x., & feng, t. (2011). multiple emotional contagions in service encounters. journal of the academy of marketing science, 39(3), 449-466. elovitz, g. p., & salvia, j. (1982). attractiveness as a biasing factor in the judgments of schoolpsychologists. journal of school psychology, 20, 339–345. frevert, t. k., & walker, l. s. (2014). physical attractiveness and social status. sociology compass, 8(3), 313–323. ha, j. and jang, s., (2009), perceived justice in service recovery and behavioral intentions: the role of relationship quality, international journal of hospitality management, 28(3), 319-327. johnston, d. w. (2010). physical appearance and wages: do blondes have more fun? economics letters, 108(1), 10–12. keaveney, s. m. (1995), customer switching behavior in service industries: an exploratory study, journal of marketing, (59)2, 71-82. kelley, s. w., hoffman, k. d. and davis, m. a. (1993). a typology of retail failures and recoveries, journal of retailing, 69(4), 429-452. koc, erdogan; hakan boz (2018). how can consumer science be used for gaining information about consumers and the market?: the role of psychophysiological and neuromarketing research. in case studies in the traditional food sector, 129-152. langlois, j. h., kalakanis, l., rubenstein, a. j., larson, a., hallam, m., & smoot, m. (2000). maxims or myths of beauty? a meta-analytic and theoretical review. psychological bulletin, 126, 390–423. lee, y. l., sparks, b., & butcher, k. (2013). service encounters and face loss: issues of failures, fairness, and context. international journal of hospitality management, 34, 384-393. kim, k., & baker, m. a. (2017). how the employee looks and looks at you: building customer– employee rapport. journal of hospitality & tourism research. koc, e. (2013) power distance and its implications for upward communication and empowerment: crisis management and recovery in hospitality services. the international journal of human resource management, 24, 3681–3696 koc, e., & boz, h. (2014). triangulation in tourism research: a bibliometric study of top three tourism journals. tourism management perspectives, 12, 9-14. koc, e. (2017). service failures and recovery in tourism and hospitality: a practical manual. wallingford. koc, e., aydin, g., ar, a. a. and boz, h. (2017). emotions and emotional abilities in service failures and recovery in koc (ed.) service failures and recovery in tourism and hospitality: a practical manual, 42-55. koc, e., yilmaz, o., and boz, h. (2018). dizginleyici kültürlerde hizmet telafisi paradoksu: turizm ve konaklama sektörü, 23. ulusal pazarlama kongresi. e. koc, h. boz, b. boz the influence of employee attractiveness on service recovery paradox: facial recognition and eye tracker analyses 105 koc, e. (2019). service failures and recovery in hospitality and tourism: a review of literature and recommendations for future research. journal of hospitality marketing & management, 28(5), 513-537. koç, e. (2019b). hizmet pazarlaması ve yönetimi. baskı 3, seçkin yayınları: ankara. ma, correll, & wittenbrink (2015). the chicago face database: a free stimulus set of faces and norming data. behavior research methods, 47, 1122-1135. magnini, v. p., ford, j. b., markowski, e. p., & honeycutt jr, e. d. (2007). the service recovery paradox: justifiable theory or smoldering myth?. journal of services marketing, 21(3), 213225. magnini, v. p., baker, m., & karande, k. (2013). the frontline provider’s appearance: a driver of guest perceptions. cornell hospitality quarterly, 54(4), 396-405. mattila, a. s. (2001), the effectiveness of service recovery in a multi-industry setting, journal of services marketing, 15(7), 583-596. mccollough, m.a. and bharadwaj, s.g. (1992), the recovery paradox: an examination of customer satisfaction in relation to disconfirmation, service quality, and attribution based theories', in allen, c.t. (ed.), marketing theory and applications, american marketing association, chicago, il. miller, j., craighead, c. & karwan, k. (2000). service recovery: a framework and empirical investigation. journal of operations management, 18(4), 387-400. mccollough, m., berry, l. and yadav, m. (2000). an empirical investigation of customer satisfaction after service failure and recovery. journal of service research, 3(2), 121-137. olson, i. r., & marshuetz, c. (2005). facial attractiveness is appraised in a glance. emotion, 5(4), 498–502. patterson, p. f., cowley, e. and prasongsukarn, k. (2006), service failure recovery: the moderating impact of individual-level cultural value orientation on perceptions of justice international journal of research in marketing, 23(3), 263-277. pranić, l., & roehl, w. s. (2013). development and validation of the customer empowerment scale in hotel service recovery. current issues in tourism, 16(4), 369-387. roberts, s. c. (2012). evolution, appearance, and occupational success. evolutionary psychology, 10, 782–801. salter, s. p., mixon, j. f. g., & king, e. w. (2012). broker beauty and boon: a study of physical attractiveness and its effect on real estate brokers’ income and productivity. applied financial economics, 22(10), 811–825. smith, a. k., bolton, r. n., & wagner, j. (1999). a model of customer satisfaction with service encounters involving failure and recovery. journal of marketing research, 356-372. sparks, b. a., & mccoll-kennedy, j. r. (2001). justice strategy options for increased customer satisfaction in a services recovery setting. journal of business research, 54(3), 209-218. taşkın, ç., koç, e., & boz, h. (2017). perceptual image of conflict-ridden destinations: an eeg and eye tracker analysis 1. business and economics research journal, 8(3), 533. tax, s. s., brown, s. w., and chandrashekaran, m. (1998) customer evaluations of service complaint experiences: implications for relationship marketing. journal of marketing, 62, 60-76. toledano, e. (2013). may the best (looking) man win: the unconscious role of attractiveness in employment decisions. cornell hr review, retrieved from cornell university, ilr school site. verhulst, b., lodge, m., & lavine, h. (2010). the attractiveness halo: why some candidates are perceived more favorably than others. journal of nonverbal behavior, 34(2), 111–117. villi, b., & koc, e. (2018). employee attractiveness and customers’ service failure perceptions. journal of hospitality marketing & management, 27(1), 41-60. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 106 wen, b., & chi, c. g. q. (2013), examine the cognitive and affective antecedents to service recovery satisfaction: a field study of delayed airline passengers”, international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 25(30), 306-327. microsoft word brain_2017_vol8_issue2_final2.docx 151 man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation temur z. kalanov home of physical problems, pisatelskaya 6a, 100200 tashkent, uzbekistan tzk_uz@yahoo.com t.z.kalanov@mail.ru t.z.kalanov@rambler.ru abstract in this study it is proposed the critical analysis of the creation of artificial intelligence (ai) and of artificial general intelligence (agi). the unity of formal logic and rational dialectics is the methodological basis of the analysis. the main results of the analysis are as follows: (1) the model of man represents the unity of the two material aspects: “physiological body” (controllable aspect) and “psychical body” (controlling aspect); (2) the “psychical body” is the subsystem “subconsciousness + consciousness”; (3) in the comprehensive sense of the word, the thinking is an attribute of the complete system “physiological body + psychical body + environment”. (3) in the broad sense of the word, thinking and creativity are an essential feature of the subsystem “subconsciousness + consciousness”; (4) in the narrow (concise) sense of the word, thinking and creativity are the attribute of the instinct of the conservation (preservation, retention, maintenance) of life (i.e., the self-preservation instinct, the survival instinct); the instinct of the conservation of life exists in subconsciousness; (5) the instinct of life conservation is a system of elementary (basic) instincts; thinking is the attribute of the each elementary instinct; (6) the mechanism of thinking and the essence of creation cannot be cognized by men; (7) a computer as a device cannot think and create (in particular, it cannot prove theorems), because a computer does not have the subconsciousness; (8) the modeling of human thinking, human intellect, and the creation of ai and agi are the impossible because the essential properties of the complete system “man + environment” cannot be cognized and modeled; (9) the existence of ai and agi conflicts with the essence of the thinking; (10) the existence of ai and agi contradict to formal-logical and rationaldialectical laws. keywords: human intellect, artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence, artificial psychology, computer science, psychology, linguistics, mathematics, p versus np problem, millennium problems (clay mathematics institute), formal logic, dialectics, philosophy, metaphysics. 1. introduction as is known, the problem of creation of artificial intelligence (ai) and of artificial general intelligence (agi) over a long period of time attracts special attention from the researchers (mathematicians, cyberneticists, programmers, neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, etc.). the results of researches carried out by scientists in recent years show that the way to comprehend and solve the problem has not yet been found (icai'16). in my opinion, the explanation of the current state of research is as follows: (a) researchers neglect the correct methodological basis of the cognition (i.e., the unity of formal logic and of rational dialectics); (b) the scope of the standard paradigm of science is narrow. this signifies that the statement of the problem and the starting points of the problem must be analyzed within the framework of the correct methodological basis. first of all, one must answer the following key questions: what is the essence of man? what is the essence of thinking? what is the mechanism of thinking? what is the correct thinking? what are mind, intellect, intelligence, mentality, psychics? what is creation, creativity? what is the scientific creation, creativity? if there will be found correct and concrete brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 152 answers to these questions, then a new statement of the problem of creating artificial intelligence can be proposed. since only a man can tell what he thinks and how he thinks, one can try to model only human thinking. 1. as it is known, human creativity is an activity directed at the production of something that has qualitatively new, original, inimitable features, and socio-historical uniqueness. human creativity is the specific and essential feature of man because creativity is always a sign of the existence of the active creator, the subject of creative activity. in my opinion, the source and the driving force of a man’s creative activity is a manifestation of the following innate qualities that represent his essence (essential features). first, the essence of man is manifested in his programmed aspiration to progress (programmed striving for progress). (progress is the development of mankind by “negation of negation”). this aspiration represents the principle of mankind development and it is expressed as wars, as the use of nature, as the use of people (for example, slavery is a form of the use of people), and as scientific and technical creation. the aspiration to achieve the goal is the source and the driving force of creativity. the goal exists, but it must be found by humankind. secondly, the sublime emotions (the feeling of truth and justice, the feeling of harmony and beauty, the feeling of love and admiration) are the basis of human morality, cause and effect, the source and the driving force of creative activity. the ultimate goal of creative activity is the attainment of the greatest feelings: feeling of satisfaction, peace, and freedom. 2. creation is a deep individual activity. the result of the creation is not a direct and simple consequence of the initial (external and internal) conditions. the creative process is not reduced to labour or logical operations and expresses ultimately the moral aspect of the author’s personality. this fact determines the social importance of the results of creation for the progress of human society. the principle of human development (i.e., the principle as property of the system “mankind”) determines the creative activity of man (i.e., the property of the element “man”); the creative activity of man (i.e., the property of the element “man”) characterizes the principle of development of mankind (i.e., the property of the system “mankind”). 3. creative activity is developed on the basis of inherent (programmed) cognitive abilities. the creative activity of a man is the concretization of the principle of human development. human creation is the process of human activity adducting to making a qualitatively new material and spiritual values. there are different kinds of creative activity: industrial, political, scientific, technical, artistic activities, etc. the scientific-creative work is related to the activities of scientists for the production of fundamentally new knowledge, for the offering of new hypotheses and construction of theories, for the search and proving of truth. the essence of scientific creation is manifested in scientific discovery: the ascertainment of new, previously unknown facts, properties and laws of the real world. the newness, novelty, and social significance of the results are an important criterion of creativity. 4. scientific creation is a process of producing cognitive innovations (laws, theories, principles, methods, models, devices, equipment models, technologies) in science. the necessary conditions for carrying the scientific-creative work are as follows: (a) the existence of the wellposed problem; (b) the availability of information accumulated in the given field of science (i.e., professionalism); (c) the combinatorial ability of a researcher to create a wide variety of combinations (including low-probability combinations) of the known elements; (d) the intuitive ability of a researcher to the selection of relevant combinations for a probable solution of the problem; (e) the ability of a researcher to make risky decisions (i.e the cognitive courage of a researcher); (f) the readiness of the researcher to defend his opinion; (g) the stability (resistibility) of the researcher to criticism from the scientific community. 5. scientific cognition is a cognitive creation, and it is a manifestation of the active nature of the subject of cognition. scientific creativity is an expression of the innate (individual) qualities of t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 153 person, a result of loss of faith in the scientific authorities, the expression of his “ego”. in my opinion, finding one’s “ego” and faith in oneself are impossible without the awareness and recognition of the existence of the absolute truth, the supreme mind, and god. awareness and recognition of the existence of the absolute truth, the supreme mind, and god are the result of consciousness clarification. clarified, enlightened consciousness is the support for one’s “ego”. for example, faith in myself and faith in the existence of the absolute truth let me assert within the framework of the correct methodological basis that the works of the classics of sciences (such as theoretical physics and mathematics) contain formal-logical and dialectical errors (t.z. kalanov, between 1991 & 2016). the errors characterize the inductive method of cognition (i.e., the cognition by “negation of the negation”) and represent the essential and inalienable part of modern sciences. 6. in my opinion, the origin of the scientific errors in the works of classics of sciences can be explained in the following concrete actual way: (a) short-time lucid interval, short-time clarification (strikening, illumination, enlightenment) of consciousness, which leads to scientific discoveries, does not represent long-time and steady clarification (strikening, illumination, enlightenment) of consciousness (but long-time and steady clarification of consciousness is preserved throughout a person’s life!); scientific discoveries – as a result of short-time lucid interval, short-time clarification of consciousness – are not absolute truths: such discoveries, as a rule, contain the formal-logical and dialectical mistakes; (b) errors in sciences can be detected only under the critical analysis of the works within the framework of a correct methodological basis; (c) scientists ignore the correct methodological basis of sciences: the unity of formal logic and of rational dialectics; (d) scientists rely on a computer: scientists want to entrust the heavy, difficult, complex, complicated cognitive work to a computer; scientists are trying to turn (transmute) a computer into a creative robot. but computer does not have the human subconsciousness and consciousness. and man does not know and cannot know what are subconsciousness and consciousness, what is the mechanism of interaction between the subconsciousness and consciousness. therefore, computer (and a supercomputer) cannot perform the following actions: to create; to operate with concepts and to think; to formulate scientific problems; to generate correct solutions to complex scientific problems; to prove theorems; to critically analyze the theorems and the theories within the correct methodological basis; to detect errors in the sciences. computer is a computational-informational machine programmed by man. but man will never be able to create an algorithm of thinking and of creation. there are no scientific works which contain proofs of possibility or impossibility of creation of ai and of agi. the purpose of this work is to propose the critical analysis of the problem of relation between the creative scientific work of man and work of computer in order for the researchers to be aware of the problem of creation of artificial intelligence and of artificial general intelligence. the methodological basis of the analysis is the unity of formal logic and of rational dialectics. 2. the methodological basis as it is known, methodology is a doctrine of the structure, logical organization, methods and facilities of human activity. the scientific methodology is a doctrine of the principles of construction, forms and methods of scientific cognition. the general methodology of scientific cognition is the unity of formal logic and of rational dialectics. the unity of formal logic and of rational dialectics represents the only correct methodological basis of sciences. using the correct methodological basis is a necessary condition for the correct analysis of scientific works in order to make a distinction between truth and falsehood. however, this fact has been ignored by the majority of scientists until now. therefore, the main assertions of formal logic and of rational dialectics which are used in my works (t.z. kalanov, between 1991 & 2016) ought to be stated here as well. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 154 2.1. the basic principles of formal logic 1. formal logic is the science of the laws of correct thinking as well as a means of knowing the reality. correct thinking represents uncontradictory, coherent, consistent, and sequential thinking. the conclusions resulting from correct thinking are true statements which reflect correctly the objective reality in the process of the scientific cognition of the world. the basic formal-logical laws are the following four laws: the law of identity, the law of lack (absence) of contradiction, the law of the excluded middle, the law of sufficient reason. 2. thinking is the highest form of human cognitive activity which represents the process of reflecting the objective reality in the human consciousness. human thinking is performed with the help of concepts and it has different forms. 3. the form of thought reflecting and fixing the essential features (sings) of things, objects, and phenomena of reality is called concept. in other words, the concept is the thought that reflects things, objects from viewpoint of the general and essential features (signs). (a thing is an object that can be in relation to anything or have some property). 4. the essential features (sings) of the concept are chosen (are singled out) in objects and phenomena by thought. the essential features (sings) characterize the objects of given kind. nonessential features (sings) do not characterize the objects of given kind. the characteristic which is used to determine similarity or difference of objects of thought is called essential features (sing). in the most general view, features (sings) of objects can be reduced to properties (for example, large, small, white, black, good, bad, soft, hard, etc.), states (for example, the state of rest, state of motion, energetic state, equilibrium state, etc.), actions (for example, it works, he reads, she performs her duties, etc.), and results of actions (for example, have scored success, have benefited, etc.), etc. 5. the first basic form of thought is a concept. concepts are formed (created) with the help of logical methods such as analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalization. analysis is the mental decomposition (dissection) of the object of thought in terms of the elements, the choice (separation) of either feature (sing), and the consideration of it separately. analysis does not give knowledge of the object or phenomenon as a whole. synthesis is the mental integration (association, combination, junction) of the elements of the object or of the phenomenon. synthesis provides the knowledge of the object or phenomenon as a whole (as a unity of parts, as a system). but this knowledge is not the reliable and complete one. abstraction is the mental separation, the mental extraction of the certain, essential features (sings) of the object or phenomenon, and the passing over of all the other features (i.e., abandonment of all other features (sings) without consideration). generalization is the mental transition from the features (sings) of individual, separate, single objects to features (sings) belonging to whole groups (classes) of these objects. 6. all the concepts can be divided into the following separate types: single concepts and general concepts. the concept that relates to the only certain object, separate phenomenon, separate event, is called single (individual) concept. the concept that embraces (covers) a group (class) of similar things, objects is called general concept. 7. each concept has two aspects: the scope (volume) of the concept and the content of the concept. the scope (volume) of the concept is all the objects and phenomena which can be embraced (covers) by the given concept. the scope (volume) of the general concepts is expressed in the form of a logical class. the concept content is a set of all the essential features (sings) of the objects, phenomena embraced (covered) by the concept. 8. all the concepts can be divided into the following separate types: concrete concepts and abstract concepts. the concrete concept is the concept that relates to groups, classes of objects, phenomena, or to separate objects, phenomena. the abstract concept is the concept of the properties t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 155 of objects or phenomena, if these properties are taken as the separate (independent) object of thought and are abstracted from objects. 9. there is a special kind of concepts that is called categories. the categories are the scientific concepts reflecting the most common properties of objects and phenomena, the most common and essential relations and connections in reality. for example, the concepts of “matter”, “movement”, “content”, “form”, “causality”, "freedom", “necessity”, “randomnicity”, “essence”, “phenomenon” are the categories. 10. there are the following relations between the concepts: identity relation; relation of subordination; relation of collateral subordination; relation of partial coincidence; relation of disagreement. (for example, the relation of disagreement exists between contradictory concepts and opposite concepts). 11. the second, more complicated, form of thought is a proposition. the proposition is the logical form of expression of thought. the proposition is the logical content of grammatical sentence. the proposition is a statement about the objects and phenomena of the objective reality. the statement states the existence or absence of certain features (sings) of objects and of phenomena. the proposition has the following two properties: (a) the proposition either asserts or denies (negates); (b) the proposition is either true or false. the proposition is always an assertion or a negation. the proposition is true if it reflects reality correctly; and the proposition is false if it reflects reality incorrectly. every proposition represents a system of concepts. there are three elements in every proposition: subject, predicate, and connective word (element). the subject of the proposition is that what one states about. the predicate of the proposition is that what one states on the subject. the connective word (element) is an indication of the relation between subject and predicate. in any proposition, the subject and the predicate are concepts connected by a connective word (element). the connective element in any proposition is expressed by the words “is” or “is not”. 12. the third form of thought is an inference. the inference represents the connection of propositions, which makes it possible to derive a new proposition from a given one or more propositions. those propositions from which one derives the new proposition are called premises, and the new proposition derived from the premises is called conclusion. the relation between the premises and the conclusion is the relation between reason (basis) and consequence (logical corollary): the premises are the reason (basis) from which the conclusion follows as a consequence (logical corollary). consequently, the inference is based on the law of sufficient reason. depending on the number of premises, all the inferences are divided into two groups: immediate inferences and mediated inferences. the immediate inference is the inference in which the conclusion is the consequence of one premise. the mediated inference is the conclusion in which a new proposition is derived from two or more propositions. 13. the mediated inferences can be of two types: deductive and inductive. the mediated deductive inference is called syllogism if a conclusion is derived from two premises. the inference is called inductive inference if the premises indicate features of separate objects or groups of separate objects, and the conclusion is extended to other objects of the same kind. deduction and induction are in inseparable connection with each other and supplement each other. mathematics mainly uses the method of deduction. 14. scientific induction is based on the determination of the causes. therefore, the problem of the causal connection of phenomena is important for scientific induction. the causal connection of phenomena is that one phenomenon causes another phenomenon, and a change in the first phenomenon entails a change in the second phenomenon too. the phenomenon which necessarily entails another phenomenon is called cause, and the second phenomenon which is entailed by this cause is called effect of this cause. thus, the connection of cause and effect is a connection of two phenomena, two facts. in order to determine the cause of the studied phenomenon, one should use two basic logical methods of the inductive research: an intercomparison of the circumstances in brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 156 which the given phenomenon occurs; a comparison of these circumstances (in which the given phenomenon occurs) with other circumstances (similar in other relations) in which the given phenomenon does not occur. 15. the validity (trueness) of some proposition is determined with the help of proof. the proof is a determination of the validity (trueness) of some propositions by the use of other true propositions from which the validity (trueness) of the given proposition follows. the proofs are based on the logical law of sufficient reason. the proof represents an indication of sufficient reason for whatever proposition. whatever proof consists of three parts: thesis, arguments, demonstration (manifestation). the proposition is called thesis if one proves validity of this proposition. the propositions which are used for the proof of the thesis are called arguments (i.e., sufficient reason). the derivation of thesis from arguments is called demonstration (manifestation). in other words, demonstration (manifestation) is the propositions that show why the given thesis is substantiated (grounded) by the given arguments. 2.2. the basic principles of rational dialectics 1. rational dialectics (i.e., corrected dialectical materialism) is a science of programmed (predetermined) development: it is the science of the most common types of connections and laws of the development of nature, of human society, and of thought. the universal connection exists not only in the material world – in the nature and society – but also in thinking. the connection and interdependence of the forms of thought (for example, concepts) is (in the final analysis) the reflection of the universal connection and interdependence of the phenomena of the objective world in human consciousness. since concepts are the reflection of objects in human consciousness, they are interconnected, and they cannot be taken in isolation from each other. concepts must correspond to the natural and social processes, reflecting their contents. 2. the basic laws of dialectics are as follows: the law of unity and struggle of opposites; the law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative changes; the law of negation of the negation. there are also the most common laws of dialectics, which do not belong to the basic ones. the paired (relative) categories of dialectics – necessity and chance, possibility and reality, form and content, essence and phenomenon, etc. – are the theoretical reflection of non-basic laws of dialectics. all the laws and categories of dialectics represent forms of thought, forms of cognition of the objective world, forms of reflection of the objective world in the human consciousness. 3. as it is known, the cognitive psychical activity of man is performed in the following way (by the scheme): (sensation, perception, representation) (concept)  (theory)  (practice). sensation is a result of the influence (effect) of the outside world on the sense-organs of man; perception is an immediate (direct) sensuous reflection of the reality in the consciousness of man; a representation is an image of an object or phenomenon (which is not perceived at a given instant of time) in the consciousness of man. thinking is carried out with the help of concepts. a concept is the form of thought reflecting and fixing the essential features (signs) of objects and phenomena of the objective reality. theory is a system of concepts. 4. the unity of sensuous and rational moments in cognition is that sensuous cognition represents the starting point, the first stage of the cognitive activity. a man, even at the level of logical thinking, continues to rely on (rest upon) sensuously perceivable material in the form of visual images, of various schemes, of symbols, on sensuous form of language. 5. material activity of people represents practice. practice is (first of all) a sensuousobjective activity aimed at satisfying human needs. the theoretical activity is derived from practice. t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 157 social practice is a starting and ending point of theory. the unity of theory and of practice is a starting point of epistemology. practice is a driving force in cognition development. 6. social practice is a criterion of truth. the criterion of truth can be found neither in the object of cognition nor in the consciousness of the subject. practice is the experience of all humanity in its historical development. the absoluteness of practice as the criterion of truth is that all knowledge proven by practice is an objective truth. but, at every given stage (step) of theoretical study, practice can not corroborate completely or refute all theoretical propositions – in this sense, practice is relative. only the unity of formal logic and of practice can corroborate completely or refute all theoretical propositions at every given stage (step) of theoretical study. 7. the law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative changes is essential to analyze the foundations of mathematics. the essence of this law is as follows: quantitative and qualitative changes represent the dialectical unity (interconnection) of the opposite and interdependent aspects. quality is inherent determinacy in the objects and phenomena. quality is the organic unity of the properties, features (signs), and characteristics, that makes it possible to distinguish the given object or phenomenon from the other ones. in other words, quality is the unity of structure and elements. “there are no qualities, but only objects with qualities” (friedrich engels). quality expresses the specific character of an object or phenomenon in whole. quality is not only a holistic characteristic but also a relatively stable set of signs (features) which determines the specificity of the given object. quality is the holistic characteristic of an object or phenomenon; and property is one of the aspects (partial characteristics) of the object or phenomenon. some properties express the qualitative determinacy of the object; other properties express the quantitative determinacy. quantity is the inherent determinacy in the objects and phenomena, which expresses the number of inherent properties of objects and of phenomena, the sum of the component parts of objects and of phenomena, the amount, the degree of intensity, the scale of development, etc. in other words, quantity is the determinacy in objects and phenomena, expressed by a number. for example, man ascertains simultaneously the quantitative expression of object properties such as volume, weight, length, speed, etc. the quantities of volume, weight, length, speed, etc. are the quantitative characteristics of these properties. 8. quality and quantity are dialectically connected. they represent the unity of opposites. the qualitative determinacy does not exist without the quantitative determinacy, and vice versa. the unity of qualitative and quantitative determinacy is manifested in measure. the measure denotes the existence of the interdependence of the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the object or phenomenon. the measure expresses the limits (boundaries) within which objects and phenomena exist. each state has its own measure. the violation of the measure leads to a change in the state. the transition from one state to another is a movement. the leading place belongs to the quality in the unity of qualitative and quantitative determinacy. quality determines the framework of quantitative changes. the qualitative changes can only result from the quantitative changes (i.e. quantitative movement). 9. the law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative changes is essential for analyzing systems. the important theoretical proposition of system analysis is as follows. the properties of the system determine the properties of the elements; and the properties of the elements characterize the properties of the system. the main problem is that the dependences of the system properties (qualitative and quantitative determinacy) on number of the elements and on the qualitative and quantitative determinacy of the elements is not reliably known. (from this point of view, the universe (system) cannot be cognized by mankind (as the element of the system). 10. the law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative changes is essential to analyze the foundations of mathematics. the question of the fundamental applicability of mathematical methods in all the areas of scientific cognition must be decided on the basis of the law of interdependence of qualitative and quantitative determinacy. the following fundamental brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 158 statement results from this law: the operation of abstraction of quantitative determinacy from qualitative determinacy is an inadmissible mental operation. 11. the definitions of the concepts of “knowledge”, “cognition”, and “cognition system” are based on the definition of the following concepts: “subject”, “object”, “subject of thinking”, and “object of thinking”. “subject” and “object” are philosophical categories (concepts) denoting two interrelated, interacting aspects (elements) of the system, which are characterized by the following essential features: “activity” and “passivity”. the subject (i.e., set of individuals) is a carrier of the feature of “activity”, is an active aspect (i.e., the active element of the system), is a source of activity directed (aimed) at the passive aspect (i.e., at the passive element of the system). the object is a carrier of the feature of “passivity”, is a passive aspect (i.e., the passive element of the system) to which the activity of the active aspect (i.e., the active element of the system) is directed (aimed). the subject of thinking (thought) is the subject as a carrier, is a source of mental activity directed (aimed) to the object. the object of thinking (thought) is an object to which the mental activity of the subject is directed (aimed). since the concepts of “subject of thinking” and “object of thinking” have meaning only in mutual connection, they form a system of concepts. the concepts of “subject of thinking” and “object of thinking” are the basis for the following definitions. (a) cognition is an informational interaction between the subject and the object, the result from which derives the knowledge about the object. the object is expressed in the form of knowledge for the cognizing subject. therefore, the content of science represents an expression of the given object in the form of knowledge: laws, categories, and other scientific principles generated and developed during the development of human society. from the formal-logical point of view, knowledge is a system of concepts and assertions. from the point of view of the information theory, knowledge is a system of the elements of information. from the epistemological point of view, the knowledge on the object is the essence of the object of cognition, and the object of cognition is a manifestation of the essence of the object. (b) the scientific cognition of the world is carried out within the framework of the “human system of cognition” consisting of the “subject of cognition”, the set of “objects of cognition”, the “facilities of cognition”, and “knowledge”. the category of the “human system of cognition” is a complete system of concepts, determining human knowledge, and human knowledge characterizes this system. (human knowledge is an objective if it does not depend on the “facilities of cognition” and on the world outlook for the “subject of cognition”). 3. the structure of the scientific creation as it is known, the analysis of the problem of scientific creation, creativity, is impossible without an analysis of the structure of the creative process and the separation (choosing, singling out) of the main stages (steps) of scientific creation. the standard structure includes the following 5 stages (steps): (1) the statement of problem, the formulation of purposes and tasks of the research; (2) the gathering of information and the search of logical methods for solving the problem; (3) the stage of maturation (gestation) of the idea, which is also called the “incubation period”, and which is related to the work of the subconsciousness; (4) the appearance of a new idea in the form of guesswork; finding the approach to the solution of the problem with the help of the intuitive insight (strikening, aha reaction) or enlightenment (inside light); (5) the formulation of the solution found; the substantiation of the found guesswork up to the level of hypothesis; the transformation of the hypothesis into a theory via logical proving and testing of the hypothesis. in other words, logical, discursive, and intuitive moments in the creative process are interwoven. t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 159 the problem of the nature and of the role of intuition in scientific discovery should be emphasized due to the importance and transcendence of intuition. intuition – as a specific cognitive process – is the universal inherent feature of all people. the significance of intuition in the cognitive process is confirmed by numerous observations over people in daily circumstances and in non-standard situations. as it is known, there is a great number of facts in human culture, which demonstrate the possibility to obtain fundamentally new results by “aha reaction”. for example, famous scientists like g. helmholtz, a. einstein, h. poincare, j. hadamard, and others gave the interesting evidences of the intuitive insights. in concordance with descriptions and the experimental study of intuition, three main features of intuition can be emphasized: (1) suddenness (spontaneity) for solving the problem; (2) unawareness of ways and of means to solve the problem; (3) directness of the prolem’s solution comprehension. in agreement with these features, intuition is defined as follows: intuition is the ability of truth cognition by its direct comprehension, without proof. the psychological analysis of intuition is based on the study of the relation between the conscious and subconscious (unconscious) mechanisms. the epistemological nature of intuition is clarified in complex transitions of sensuous images into concepts, and in complex transitions of concepts into sensuous images by means of the synthesis of conceptual universality and the given sensuous. a number of contemporary authors see in these transitions an answer to the mysterious nature of intuitive knowledge. there exist works of psychologists and physiologists in which factors contributing to intuition or non-contributing to the manifestation of intuition are investigated. the factors which are favorable to intuition are as follows: high professional level as a researcher; a deep knowledge of the problem; a strong motivation to solve the problem; the search dominant; the presence of hint about the correct idea, etc. also, there exist some recommendations for activization of intuition: one ought to temporarily shut oneself down from problems in order to activate the subconscious mechanisms of thinking; one ought to work on several problems in parallel; one ought to believe in success, etc. as it is known from the history of philosophy, plato, aristotle, descartes, and others paid a great attention to the problem of intuition. considering the scientific works of these outstanding creative personalities, it is demonstrated the deeply individual nature of creativity, the importance of professionalism, talent, intuition, and moral qualities of the researcher. the scientific cognition is both the discursive and the intuitive process [96, 97]; it is a confluence of necessity and randomness. as it is known, the experience of science development shows that creativity can be activated within certain limits. the creation control signifies influence not only on the individual abilities of the researcher, but also on socio-economic, political, and general-cultural circumstances in order to create favorable conditions for the manifestation of creativity. 4. the essences of man and of animal the essence of man can be understood only within the framework of the system principle. as it is known, the system principle reads as follows: the properties of the material system determine the properties of the material elements; the properties of the material elements characterize the properties of the material system. 1. in accordance with the system principle, the following assertions are right (valid): (a) the properties of the universe (as a system) determine the properties of the earth (as an element); the properties of the earth (as an element) characterize the properties of the universe (as a system); (b) the properties of the earth (as a system) determine the properties of mankind (as an element); the properties of mankind (as an element) characterize the properties of the earth (as a system); (c) the property of mankind (as the system consisting of a set of countries) determine the properties of the country (as an element); properties of the country (as an element) characterize the properties of mankind (as the system consisting of a set of countries); (d) the properties of the country (as a brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 160 system) determine the properties of the man (as an element); the properties of the man (as an element) characterize the properties of the country (as a system). consequently, the properties of the man are determined by the properties of the universe, the earth, and mankind [17, 19, 26-28, 38, 45, 47, 50, 86, 87]. 2. in accordance with the rational dialectics (t.z. kalanov, between 1991 & 2016), living beings have measure, i.e. the unity of qualitative and quantitative determinacy. living beings – man, animal, etc. – represent the unity of the two opposite material aspects [45, 47, 50]: physiological body (i.e., the controllable aspect which is a system of organs) and the psychical body (i.e., the controlling aspect which is the following system: the unity of subconsciousness (subliminal consciousness) and consciousness). human consciousness represents the unity of two opposite material aspects (t.z. kalanov, 2009c, 2010b, 2010e): mind (intellect) and soul. the soul is the unity of good and of evil. human actions have only one “degree of freedom”: freedom to do good or evil. the decomposition of the unity of mind (intellect) and of soul signifies the following fact: the mind (intellect) becomes food for the supreme mind (intellect) (which is a material object), and the soul goes to paradise or hell (both of them are material objects) in accordance with the deeds (good-deeds or misdeeds) of man. from this point of view, the interpretation of the story of adam and of eve is as follows. adam and eve being in paradise (eden) ate the “apple of the empty mind” from the “tree of mind”. as a result, their souls were concatenated (united) with “empty mind”. since the unity of mind and of soul (i.e., the psychical body) cannot exist in paradise (by definition, the concept of “paradise” signifies the abode of the good), adam and eve received knowledge from god (i.e., god placed, introduced knowledge (information) into their empty minds), and they were precipitated (casted out) from paradise to the earth. the overthrow to the earth signifies the formation of the unity of “psychical body + physiological body”. therefore, the earth is the abode of the unity of “psychical body + physiological (terrestrial) body”; the moon is the abode of the unity of “psychical body + lunar (extraterrestrial) body”; the mars is the abode of the unity of “psychical body + martian (extraterrestrial) body”; the sun is the abode of the unity of “psychical body + solar (extraterrestrial) body”, etc. 3. as it is known, the qualitative determinacy of the systems “mankind”, “man” and “fauna”, “animal” remains an invariable one. this means that the development of these systems represents a quantitative change. the quantitative change is a manifestation of the qualitative determinacy. in other words, the qualitative determinacy of the system is the essence of the system, and the quantitative determinacy of the system is a manifestation of the essence. the qualitative determinacy of the system determines the borders of quantitative changes. the qualitative determinacy of the system is not identical to itself outside the borders of the quantitative determinacy. for example, the birth and death of the physiological body represent borders of the “physiological body + psychical body” system. the “physiological body + psychical body” system can be in different states. the death of the physiological body is the disintegration of the unity of the physiological body and of the psychical body. but the death of the physiological body does not signify the death of the psychical body. the psychical body can exist separately from the physiological body. this means that the psychical body represents the universal essence which does not depend on the properties of the physiological body. 4. the life of a living organism is conditioned by the existence of the following inherent property (qualitative determinacy): the instinct of conservation (preservation, retention) of life (i.e., self-preservation instinct, survival instinct, the instinct of the existence, the instinct of the struggle for existence). the life (existence) of a living organism is a struggle for existence, for the preservation (conservation) of the physiological body’s life. the instinct of conservation (preservation, retention) of life represents the system of the following main elementary instincts: the t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 161 feeding (food) instinct, the instinct of reproduction, the instinct of activity (which is manifested in the form of “life energy”, of the struggle for existence), the defensive instinct, the instinct of adaptability, the instinct of learning and of development. the instinct of life conservation (preservation) exists in the psychical body and manifests itself only in the system of “physiological body + psychical body”. in other words, the instinct of preservation (conservation) of life represents a necessary condition for the life of the physiological body. the decomposition of the unity of the physiological and psychical body leads to the blockage of the instinct of preservation (conservation) of life, which exists in the psychical body. this means that a living organism was created as a full (completed) “physiological body + psychical body” system. a living organism was not created by piecemeal. 5. thinking (thought) is one of the essential properties (attribute) of the instinct of life conservation (preservation, retention). therefore, thinking (thought) is one of the essential properties (attributes) of each elementary instinct. blocking the instinct of conservation of life signifies blocking the thinking (thought). the isolated psychical body cannot think. thus, thinking (thought) is the attribute of the “physiological body + psychical body” system. 6. the food instinct is the need (necessity, wants) of material food (for the physiological body) and the need (necessity, wants) of psychical food (for the psychical body). the psychical food for people represents a product of human psychical activity. the psychical food for people is created and eaten (consumed). examples of carriers of psychical food for are as follows: games, shows, arts, religion, learning, education, sciences, creative activity, and the results of creative activity. the psychical food for animals represents a product of animal psychical activity. the psychical food for animals is created and eaten (consumed) by animals. examples of carriers of psychical food for animals are as follows: games and training. 7. man gets psychical (i.e., immaterial, information-encoded) food from the ambient material space because the ambient material space is the source and the carrier of encoded information. this information has a unified, universal code. the psychical food (encoded information) is absorbed and processed by the subconsciousness and it is entered into the consciousness. the consciousness manifests (i.e., decodes) information in the form of thoughts and ideas. moreover, the consciousness manifests the encoded information in the scope of concepts that exist in the consciousness. thoughts and ideas are a human interpretation of the encoded information that exists in the subconscious. brain implements (executes, exercises, accomplishes) materialization of thoughts, ideas (existing in the consciousness): the brain gives orders (commands, instructions) to organs in the physiological body to express the information as an oral speech and written speech, as music, symbols, concepts, theories, images, etc. these forms are the material carriers (incarnations) of the information. the information in the material forms is a psychical (spiritual) food for human consciousness, and it is eaten (consumed) by people. the difference between the physiological properties of the bodies (for example, the human body and the animal body, male and female) determines the difference in interpreting the encoded information that exists in the subconscious. in other words, the interpretation of the encoded information that exists in the subconscious depends on the properties of the physiological bodies. one man can guess (calculate logically, heuristically) that another man thinks. but a man cannot guess (or calculate logically, heuristically) that an animal thinks. and animals cannot guess (or calculate logically, heuristically) that a man thinks. 8. the human interpretation of encoded information (existing in the subconsciousness) is carried out by the consciousness on the basis and within the scope of concepts that exist in the consciousness. if the necessary (basic) concepts do not exist in the consciousness, then the interpretation of encoded information cannot be carried out by the consciousness. this means that the possibility, accuracy, and trustworthiness (authenticity, reliability, adequacy, certainty) of the interpretation depend on the system of concepts that exist in the consciousness. the subconscious changes the structure of the consciousness: the subconscious orders concepts, and changes the brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 162 structure of the system of concepts. the subconsciousness “widens, expands, extends, broadens” and “illuminates, clarifies, does lucid” the consciousness. the expansion (broadening, widening) and the clarification of the consciousness are a necessary condition for correct interpretation of the encoded information that exists in the subconsciousness. the stepped (step-by-step, stepwise, sequential) expansion (broadening, widening) and enlightenment (clarification) of the consciousness (i.e., inductive development of consciousness) determines an inductive way of cognition of the absolute truth (i.e., the universal truth, the universe’s truth, universe’s moral principles) and determines the inductive way of development of man and of humanity (t.z. kalanov, 2007d, 2009c, 2010b, 2010e). the way of development of man and of mankind is heavy way of cognition of the absolute truth via struggle for existence. comprehension of the absolute truth (i.e., recognition of the existence and of uniqueness of god via the expansion of consciousness) is the single reason of the existence, the aim, the sense, and meaning of development, and destination (destiny) of man and of mankind. in other words, the principle of development of mankind is reduced to the principle of expansion of human consciousness. mankind will be absorbed (i.e., converted to another qualitative determinacy) by supreme mind, supreme intellect (t.z. kalanov, 2007d, 2009c, 2010b, 2010e) when mankind will reach the border of development, border of expansion of consciousness. thus, in the comprehensive sense of the word, the thinking is an attribute (i.e., inherent and essential property, an essential feature) of the complete system “physiological body + psychical body + environment”. in the broad sense of the word, the thinking is a process of interaction between “subconsciousness” and “consciousness”: thinking = subconsciousness  consciousness. human thinking is a way (means, method, mechanism) of expansion of human consciousness. 9. intercomparison of man and of animal is an important step to understanding the essence of man because man and animal have a common aspect: subconsciousness, consciousness, intellect. man has the human consciousness (intellect), a monkey has monkey consciousness (intellect), a dog has canine consciousness (intellect), a cat has feline consciousness (intellect), a mouse has mouse consciousness (intellect), etc. the thinking is an innate ability of man and of animal to seek, to guess, to find, and to check (i.e., to prove in practice) the solution of the problem. the found solution is materially manifested (expressed) in the actions of man and of animal. one man can guess (calculate logically, heuristically) that another man thinks. but man cannot guess (or calculate logically, heuristically) that animal think. and animal cannot guess (or calculate logically, heuristically) that man think. a) man and animal are living (rational) beings, biological objects, biological systems, biological machines, biological robots (in the broad sense of the word). the living being is a material system. this system represents the unity of two material aspects: external (physiological) and internal (psychical) aspects (t.z. kalanov, 2007d, 2009c, 2010b, 2010e). the external aspect is the physiological body (physiological machine; form of manifestation of the essence) which consists of the controlling organ (brain and spinal cord) and the controllable organs. the psychical aspect represents the psychical body (psychical machine; psychical aura; unity of consciousness and of subconsciousness; content, essence) which controls the physiological body. currently, there is no complete understanding of the psychical aspect because there is no understanding of the work of the subconsciousness. b) the brain of the thinking being is a system consisting of two hemispheres. the hemispheres are composed of zones (functional areas). connection between the zones forms the structure of the brain. the structure of the brain is a congenital one. but the congenital structure of the brain can be t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 163 changed under the strong influence of different (internal and external) factors. this change is due to the control action of the subconsciousness. the extreme situation leads to the mobilization and concentration of physical and spiritual forces of the living being to solve the essential (vital) problem arisen. the physical and spiritual forces are determined by his resources. the living being (as the unity of the physiological and psychical aspects) has the programmed quality: the living being tends to attack, to solve, “to devour” (“to consume”) the essential (vital) problem in order to survive and to achieve the feelings of satisfaction and of peace. (the feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, and of peace are also a reward for hard work!). in this case, zones of the brain can be disconnected, moved and combined (united) to solve the essential (vital) problems. the brain is an organ that controls the material manifestation of the information contained in the subconsciousness and the consciousness. thus, the unity of the psychical and physiological aspects is a necessary condition for the solution of the essential (vital) problems. c) creative activity of the thinking being is conditioned by inseparable relation between the subconsciousness, the consciousness, and the physiological body. strong emotions – the inducement, the motivation, the indomitable desire to achieve the goal, hope, disappointment, the need to satisfy the desire, the aspiration for satisfaction of the desire – are the driving force of the creative activity. the existence of emotions, thinking, correct thinking is a necessary condition for achieving the goal (i.e., for achieving result, satisfaction). thinking, intellect, and intelligence are means of understanding of the result. d) man and animal are the qualitatively and quantitatively different thinking beings. the difference represents the difference of the essences (contents, qualities) and of the manifestations (forms, quantities) of the essences. one man can guess (calculate logically, heuristically) that another man thinks. but man cannot guess (or calculate logically, heuristically) that animal think. and animal cannot guess (or calculate logically, heuristically) that man think. the difference is stipulated by the principle of development of mankind. the principle of development of mankind stipulates human thinking. connection and relation between the human and animal worlds are expressed in the dialectical law of the unity and of struggle of opposites. man is the highest rung in the hierarchy of living organisms on the earth, the subject of socio-historical and cultural activities. a distinctive and essential feature of man is cultural, social, and speech activity, ability to work, ability to think in words, ability to produce tools, ability to use the tools for transformation of the world. speech (oral and written) activity is a specific kind of communicative human activity, a means of expressing thoughts. speech and mental activity are interdependent forms of human intellectual activity. human thinking and expression of result of the thinking are carried out by means of a system of concepts (and a system of logical judgments). the concepts and the logical judgments are forms of thought. the forms and contents of thoughts are determined by innate qualities and human resources, practical, social and intellectual experience of the person. human thinking represents the unity of sensuous and rational aspects: the unity of sensuous-objective (i.e., practical) thinking and of abstract (i.e., theoretical) thinking. human activity is a means of expanding human consciousness. animal does not have the essential human qualities, does not have practical, social and intellectual experience of man and does not have the cognitive potential of man. animal can think. but animal cannot think with the help of concepts, and it has no language means to express thoughts. animal thinking represents the sensuous-objective (i.e. practical) thinking. therefore, animal cannot learn formal logic and dialectics. one man can guess (calculate logically, heuristically) that another man thinks. but man cannot guess (or calculate logically, heuristically) that animal think. and animal cannot guess (or calculate logically, heuristically) that man think. animal cannot solve the human problems because animal has no human essence. this signifies that one cannot teach animal the following human activities: to formulate and to prove the theorem, to analyze critically the works of the scientists, etc. (one can teach a parrot to speak, but it does not signify that talking parrot can operate with concepts and can prove the theorems). brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 164 therefore, animal activity does not lead to the essential expansion of animal consciousness and origination (formation, arising) of the human consciousness. e) the unity of the subconscious and conscious of aspects of the human psychic setup is a necessary condition for scientific creation. the ardent, fervent, passionate desire to solve the problem, a long (for months and maybe years), a exhausting, a agonizing, a delightful, and a tireless search for solution to the vital (essential) problems lead to the fact that human consciousness is clarified and expanded: the subconsciousness finds a solution based on concepts that exist in the consciousness; the solution is transferred from the subconsciousness to the consciousness (i.e., the solution of the problem is manifested (decoded) in the consciousness. the solution of the problem represents a new system of concepts); man finds peace of mind, self-reliance, and feeling of satisfaction. this solution represents a guess, conjecture [96, 97]. the guessed solution allows to guess and to construct the proof. thus, creative activity in science is manifested in guessing of the result (statement, theorem, theory) and guessing of the proof of the result (statement, theorem, theory). f) the solution of the problem can be guessed by man because the subconsciousness has the following essential feature (quality, attribute): (1) to receive, to contain, and to process information in a coded form; (2) to contain the program of development of man and of humanity; (3) to operate purposefully without concepts; (4) to operate taking into account of the concepts which is contained in the consciousness; (5) to estimate, to evaluate, to assess mentally the structure of the object of thinking (cognition); (6) to break, to sever mentally connections between the connected elements of the object of thinking (cognition); (7) to establish mentally connections between unconnected (unrelated) elements of the object of thinking (cognition); (8) to estimate, to evaluate mentally the adequacy of the mental operations. the consciousness can decode the information which is contained in the subconsciousness. mentally-related elements of the object of thinking (cognition) represent a system of concepts and of logical propositions (judgments) in the consciousness. (concept as a form of thought represents a unity of stability and of instability within certain limits). in other words, consciousness manifests mentally-related elements of the object of thinking (cognition) in the form of a system of concepts and of logical propositions (judgments). this system of concepts is called a solution of the problem. the proof of the problem, theorem is the awareness (realization) of the structure (i.e., connection of elements) of the system of concepts. the proof of the problem (theorem) is carried out in two stages (steps): the first stage (step) is the analysis, i.e., the successive expansion of the system of concepts and logical propositions (judgments) in terms of the elements. it is a movement from the terminal point (result) to the initial (starting) point of the problem (this is necessary condition); the second stage is the movement from the initial (starting) point of the problem to the terminal point (result) of the problem, theorem (this is sufficient condition). the solution of the problem (theorem) is correct (true) if and only if necessary and sufficient conditions are correct. thus, the inseparable connection, interdependence and interaction between the subconsciousness and consciousness is a necessary condition for prospecting and finding a solution to the problem and for guessing and proof of solution of the problem (theorem). the main points of this section are as follows: (1) thinking is an attribute of the living being as the material system “physiological body + psychical body”; “psychical body” is a material system “subconsciousness + consciousness”; (2) thinking is one of the essential features (signs) of the instinct of conservation of life (instinct of self-preservative, instinct of survival); the instinct of conservation of life (instinct of selfpreservative, instinct of survival) is a system of instincts; a system of instincts exists in the subconsciousness; a system of instincts does not work without the “physiological body”; t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 165 (3) the interconnection, the interdependence, the interaction between the subconsciousness and the consciousness is a necessary condition for the existence of thinking; the existence of a complete system of “living being + environment” is a sufficient condition for the existence of thinking; (4) the essence of thinking (thought) is manifested in the purposeful (rational, expedient, reasonable, appropriate, practical) activities of a living being; the purposeful (rational, expedient, reasonable, appropriate, practical) activities of a living being are aimed (directed) at the conservation (preservation, maintenance) of life (i.e., at the conservation, preservation of the physiological body); (5) certain living being can solve human (including scientific) problems if and only if a living being has human nature. 5. the essence of scientific creation as is known, the difficult, mysterious, esoteric way of cognition of scientific truth was described by famous creative scientists – mathematicians (for example, h. poincare j. hadamard, g. polya) and physicists (for example, m. planck, n. bohr, a. einstein) – in many books, articles, and autobiographical sketches. i can describe it by the following typical example from my life. over the years, i developed the “hard” style of analysis, based on the use of the correct methodological basis: the unity of formal logic and of rational dialectics. internal work began with what i had understood intuitively (i.e., i had guessed right) the existence of logical errors in the analyzed scientific works of the classics of theoretical physics. for a long time, albert einstein was my first and last serious opponent. the critical study of the works of the classics of theoretical physics was continued several years in nonstop run: during the day, i read the works of the classics (doing an effort to penetrate deeply into the problem), i thought over the problem (trying to restate the problem and to construct proof of the problem on this basis), and i could not sleep at night because i continued to think. the long-time and continuous reflections over the concepts that seemed previously to me to be so clear and precise made them blurry, fuzzy, and shaky ones. this internal work can be compared with the movement through a fog (mist) towards light. in the process of the work, i came up close to the psycho-physiological border, limit of my life: i felt and was aware of the existence of this border (but i did not cross the border: instinct of self-preservation worked!). being in such an extreme state, i began finally to feel that: (a) the mist was being dissipated, and a stable and permanent (long-time) lucid interval of consciousness was being occurred, i.e., clear and explicitly palpable understanding was being appeared, thoughts were being ordered, the concepts were becoming accurate, clear, precise ones. (a clear understanding, perceived as a peace and self-reliance is always the result of stable lucid interval (strikening, clarification, antireflection, enlightenment ad vitam) for keeps, rather than short-time flash of inspiration. the flash of inspiration – short-time and unstable lucid interval – does not lead to the change in the structure of consciousness. and the stable lucid interval (strikening, clarification, antireflection, enlightenment ad vitam) for keeps always expands consciousness and changes its structure for keeps); (b) the space around me was full of prompts, ideas. as a result of this experience, my consciousness (mind) was changed: i found a calm, stable self-reliance (independent of the opinions and relations of colleagues), i.e., i found the sensation of support which proceeded from the supreme intellect (mind) surrounding me. finally, i understood the essence of errors in einstein’s papers and in the papers of other classics of theoretical physics. i wrote series of the critical articles which was published in the peer-rewired journals. then the classics of physics became my friends! so i became indifferent to the critical (i.e., incompetent) opinions and high-profile titles of colleagues. thus, i found steady faith in myself, i.e., i found my “ego”. finding of my “ego” impelled me to consider the part of the passed way of cognition in the deductive point of view. as is known, the inductive method of cognition does not allow reliably predict, explain the future events because the “future events” are not a simple consequence of the brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 166 “present events”. in the deductive point of view, the past “facts of biography” of the person are a consequence of the future “facts of biography” destined (intended) by the supreme intellect (mind): destination is primary, and the “facts of biography” are secondary. so, i realized that my destiny and my “ego” are inseparably connected with the existence of the supreme intellect (mind), are determined by the supreme intellect (mind), and relied on the supreme intellect (mind). reasoning in this way, i subsequently guessed right the theorem of existence of god. i expended several years to prove the theorem. the definition of the concept of “god” given by isaac newton in his work, “mathematical principles of natural philosophy”, had an influence on my choice of method of proof. but the essence of the creative process is inscrutable, unfathomable one. creation is a riddle, a mystery. there is no solution to this mystery! however, the result of the creative activity can be easily tested (verified) by scientists. example of the creative solution of the euclid's v-th postulate is as follows (t.z. kalanov, 2011a). as is well known, the triangle is one of the most important figures in geometry and trigonometry. this figure as a material system can be constructed and studied as follows. 1. the triangle is constructed as is follows. if the sides of the angle are bound up with the rectilinear segment, then the synthesized system (the constructed geometrical figure) aob is called triangle (figure 1). figure 1. geometrical figure "right triangle" as a material system. points are universal joints. three points o, a and b are called vertexes of triangle. the rectilinear segments a, b and c bounded (bordered) by vertexes are called legs of triangle aob . triangle as a material system does not exist if length of any leg is equal to zero. existence of interior angles  ,  ,  of triangle leads to rise of the essential property (feature, parameter) of system: the sum  s . the problem of value of the sum s is the essence of the problem of euclid's v-th postulate. value of s can be determined only by means of experimental investigation of properties of triangle as a material system. 2. the experimental device for determination of value s represents the following material design: material triangle aob which has vertexes o , a , b as joints. the joints give opportunity to change the following characteristics of triangle: values of quantities  ,  ,  of angles and lengths of legs a , b , c of the triangle under the condition that 0a , 0b , 0c . in other words, joints give an opportunity of structural (“internal”) movement of triangle t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 167 (i.e., transitions from some structural states into others). (by definition, the structural movement of the system is the conservation of the basic properties of the system under various internal and external changes). structural movement of triangle is reduced to two elementary movements of its legs: to the “shift along a straight line” and to the “rotation around a point”). statement of the problem of euclid’s v-th postulate is as follows: it is necessary to show experimentally that  180s and this property of a triangle (as a system) does not depend on properties of elements of a triangle. in other words, it is necessary to show that s is the invariant of the structural movement of a triangle. the result of the experiment is as follows (t.z. kalanov, 1995a): (a) if the quantity  is subject to change, then this change leads to a change quantities  and  ;  1800  ;  1800  ;  1800  ; (b) if  0 , then  180 ; (c) if  180 , then  0 ; (d)    1800  ; (e) area (as a variable) is not the essential feature of triangle; (f) lengths of legs a , b , c of triangle are not equal to zero. in other words, unlike reasoning of a.m. legendre, it is not assumed in this experiment that “legs of triangle increase infinitely” (n. lobachevski). therefore, it is possible “to conclude from this that approaching of opposite legs to the third side under decrease of two angles is necessarily finished with transmutation of other angle into two right angles” (n. lobachevski). this result of the experiment signifies that quantity s represents the sum of the adjacent angles  and    . hence,  180s . thus, euclid’s v-th postulate (or the axiom v in the list of hilbert’s axioms) is proven. consequence is as follows: the list of hilbert’s axioms is incomplete because it does not contain the definition of concept of triangle; therefore, axiom v is not a logical consequence of axioms i-iv. (in other words, the properties of the triangle can be learned only if the triangle has already been constructed (i.e., if the triangle is defined in the list of axioms). therefore, the property (  180s ) of the triangle aob as the system is not a logical consequence of the property of the angle aob ). thus, the experimental study of the properties of a triangle as a material system gave me an opportunity to prove euclid’s v-th postulate. however, i don’t know who (or what the essence) led me in this way. what is this essence? 6. discussions in my opinion, the problem of the creation of artificial intelligence (ai) and artificial general intelligence (agi) is a problem of modeling human intellect (human mind, thought). the scientific problems must be researched within the framework of the correct methodological basis: the unity of formal logic and of rational dialectics. the criterion of truth is practice. and practice is a starting point of any correct theory. 1. as is known, the practical (empirical) facts are as follows: (a) man enters into the comatose state if his consciousness is completely blocked. this signifies that thinking does not work without consciousness; (b) man (i.e., the physiological body) dies (i.e., breathing and heart functions are ceased) if his subconsciousness is completely blocked (i.e., if the connection between the subconsciousness and the physiological body is disrupted). this signifies that the subconsciousness of the living man always works. thus, life and a thinking (thought) cannot exist without the subconsciousness and the physiological body; (c) man becomes a bio-robot (biological robot, in the narrow sense of the word) if its subconsciousness is not completely blocked. this signifies that a thinking works in a narrow, brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 168 restricted, limited range. bio-robots can eat, drink, talk, cry, laugh, work, and carry out simple orders, commands within the framework of the patterns of behavior, which is contained in his consciousness. but bio-robot cannot think critically and create. thus, the thinking is an essential property (i.e., an essential feature, attribute) of the system “subconsciousness + consciousness”. the creative thinking does not exist without the subconsciousness; (d) research of hypnotic and meditative states proves the existence of a complex structure of the subconsciousness; the structure of the subconsciousness, probably, cannot be cognized; (e) the consciousness has a complex architecture, and it can be in several states: active, passive, and intermediate states. each state of consciousness characterizes a certain state of the system “subconsciousness + consciousness” and a certain condition (mode, regime) of interaction between the subconsciousness and the consciousness. the consciousness in the active state operates in selective mode (regime): the consciousness censors and filters the incoming information (if information comes slowly). the consciousness in the passive state (i.e., in a sleepy or a hypnotic state) does not choose, does not select, does not censor, does not filter the incoming information. in this case, the information coming from the outside is acquired without resistance by the consciousness. this circumstance is used in practice of psychological (particularly, psycholinguistic) programming (coding) of the consciousness of the man; (f) the psychological (psycholinguistic, in particular) programming (psycholinguistic programming (coding)) of the consciousness of man forms new rules (schemes, instructions) of behavior (actions) of man. the new rules (schemes, instructions) are retained (maintained, conserved) in the consciousness and taken into account by the subconsciousness up to a certain moment until a programmer or subconsciousness does not change the rules. psychological programming of the consciousness of man is an effective means to stimulate mental activity. however, psychological programming of the consciousness of man is not an effective means to stimulate creative activity; (g) the means of the increase of effectiveness of activities of the creative people is formation of a powerful incentive, formation of a special environment (surroundings) and of existence conditions. the history of sciences and my experience show that the creative activity of man is highly dependent on the specificity of incentive (stimulus). the comfort (comfortable) conditions of life and the pursuit of comfort (comfortable) conditions of life are not a necessary and sufficient condition for the effectiveness of scientific creativity. the comfort (comfortable) conditions of life give rise to the “corporative science”: the “science” of conservation of comfort (comfortable) conditions of life of the scientist. the comfort (comfortable) conditions of life do not stimulate the search for scientific truth. 2. as is known from the history of sciences, the search for scientific truth – as the aspiration for a vital-essential aim (goal) – is the true sense (content, meaning) of life and of activity of a creative man. the search for scientific truth is possible if and only if the scientific community raises the truth (but not man!) on the pedestal (podium), if the search for the truth becomes a vital necessity and sense (content, meaning) of the life of a scientist. in this case, the scientific community also gives opportunity to scientists for open criticism of whatever scientific work. the possibility of public discussion and of criticism is an important condition for the existence of sciences, for the development of sciences, and for the increase of effectiveness of activities of the creative scientists. another important condition is the search for and selection of independent researchers. the independently thinking researchers can go against the current, striving for truth. the scientists of geniuses were and are always the independently thinking researchers. 3. can a computer think? can a computer replace the creative man? to answer these questions, one must compare man (in particular, the creative man) with a computer. in concordance with formal logic, the comparison can be made if man and a computer have common certain aspect. it is clear that the essences of man and a computer are absolutely different. however, the t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 169 certain manifestations of the essences can be similar and comparable with each other. obviously, the ability to process information and perform computations is the common aspect of the manifestations of the essences of man and of a computer. (a) as is known, “a computer is a general-purpose electronic device that must be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically (without human intervention). since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than one kind of problem. the principle of the modern computer was first described by mathematician and pioneering computer scientist alan turing, who set out the idea in his seminal 1936 paper, “on computable numbers”. conventionally, a computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (cpu), and some form of memory. the processing element carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in response to stored information. peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source, and the result of operations saved and retrieved. the defining feature of modern computers which distinguishes them from all other machines is that they can be programmed. that is to say that some type of instructions (the program) can be given to the computer and it will process them. modern computers based on the von neumann architecture often have machine code in the form of an imperative programming language. computer programming (coding) is a process that leads from an original formulation of a computing problem to executable computer programs. programming involves activities such as analysis, developing understanding, generating algorithms, verification of requirements of algorithms including their correctness and resources consumption, and implementation (commonly referred to as coding) of algorithms in a target programming language. source code is written in one or more programming languages. the purpose of programming is to find a sequence of instructions that will automate performing a specific task or solving a given problem. the process of programming thus often requires expertise in many different subjects, including knowledge of the application domain, specialized algorithms and formal logic. the synthesis of numerical calculation, predetermined operation and output, along with a way to organize and input instructions in a manner relatively easy for humans to conceive and produce, led to the modern development of computer programming. computer programmers are those who write computer software. their jobs usually involve: coding, debugging, documentation, integration, maintenance, requirements analysis, software architecture, software testing, and specification. a computer will solve problems in exactly the way it is programmed to, without regard to efficiency, alternative solutions, possible shortcuts, or possible errors in the code. computer programs that learn and adapt are part of the emerging field of artificial intelligence and machine learning” (from wikipedia); (b) a programmer and a computer represent the system: “programmer + computer”. mutual connection between the programmer and the computer is that a work of programmer depends on the features (possibilities) and operation of the computer, and the operation (work) of the computer is dependent on the features (possibilities) and operation of the programmer. but elements of the system “programmer + computer” are not equisignificant (equivalent, interchangeable) ones. there is the following dialectical relation between the elements: the “programmer” is a controlling element (aspect), and the “computer” is a controllable element (aspect). an essential feature (i.e., essence) of the system “programmer + computer” is a data-processing property. (c) “artificial intelligence (ai) is the intelligence exhibited by machines or software. it is also the name of the academic field of study which studies how to create computers and computer software that are capable of intelligent behavior. major ai researchers and textbooks define this field as “the study and design of intelligent agents”, in which an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 170 environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. john mccarthy, who coined the term in 1955, defines it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”. ai research is highly technical and specialized, and is deeply divided into subfields that often fail to communicate with each other. some of the division is due to social and cultural factors: subfields have grown up around particular institutions and the work of individual researchers. ai research is also divided by several technical issues. some subfields focus on the solution of specific problems. others focus on one of several possible approaches or on the use of a particular tool or towards the accomplishment of particular applications. the central problems (or goals) of ai research include reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, natural language processing (communication), perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. general intelligence is still among the field’s long-term goals. currently, popular approaches include statistical methods, computational intelligence and traditional symbolic ai. there are a large number of tools used in ai, including versions of search and mathematical optimization, logic, methods based on probability and economics, and many others. the ai field is interdisciplinary, in which a number of sciences and professions converge, including computer science, mathematics, psychology, linguistics, philosophy and neuroscience, as well as other specialized fields such as artificial psychology. the field was founded on the claim that a central property of humans, human intelligence – the sapience of homo sapiens – “can be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it”. this raises philosophical issues about the nature of the mind and the ethics of creating artificial beings endowed with human-like intelligence, issues which have been addressed by myth, fiction and philosophy since antiquity. artificial intelligence has been the subject of tremendous optimism but has also suffered stunning setbacks. today it has become an essential part of the technology industry, providing the heavy lifting for many of the most challenging problems in computer science” (wikipedia). “there are different approaches to understanding the problem of artificial intelligence. members of the russian association of artificial intelligence give the following definitions of artificial intelligence. artificial intelligence is: (1) the scientific direction which is aimed at solving tasks of hardware or software modeling (simulation) of the intellectual aspects of human activities; (2) the property of the intellectual systems to perform creative functions which are traditionally considered as the prerogative of man; (3) the set (complex) of computer sciences which are the basis of information technology. the task of this science is the reconstruction of rational reasoning and actions with the help of computer systems and other artificial devices. one of the definitions of intelligence, which is common for both man and “machine”, can be formulated as follows: intelligence is the ability of the system to create programs (in the first place, heuristic programs) in the course of self-instruction in order to solve the problems of certain class of the complexity however, there is no single (uniform, standard) response to the following questions: what is the artificial intelligence? what is the criterion of “reasonableness” of computers? what are the boundaries of potential (ability) of computers? does the level of human development will be reached by a machine? almost every one of the authors, who write about the problem of ai, proceeds from some definition characterizing achievements in a certain (special-scientific) fields of sciences. but there is no general-scientific (philosophical) definition of ai because the problem of the nature and of the status of the human intellect has no been solved in philosophy until now” (russian wikipedia). t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 171 4. the quotations from wikipedia show that development of a computer represents a change in quantitative certainty of a computer. but the quantitative determinacy (i.e., the essence) of the computer is not changed in the evolvement. the essence of the computer as an electronic (or biological) device is characterized only by the informational-computational aspect. common aspect of man and of computer is a property (ability) to operate with information and to perform calculations. the informational-computational property is a special property. and thinking (thought) is a common property which includes the informational-computational property. consequently, in accordance with the formal logic, thinking (thought) and calculation are not identical properties (features). the relation of partial coincidence exists between the concepts of “thinking (thought)” and “calculation”: (1) the existence of thinking (as common feature, as the essence) is cause of the existence of computational property (as special feature); (2) the existence of computational property (as special feature) does not set conditions for the existence of thinking (as common feature, as the essence). a programmer as a creative man can create computer programs only for the processes that he understands. a computer cannot carry out the instructions which are not described in detail by the programmer. therefore, limit of the development of the system “programmer + computer” is determined by the limit of the development of the programmer. the programmer as man will never be able to model the thinking and to create an algorithm for creation because: (a) man cannot cognize the essential properties of the complete system “physiological body + psychical body + environment”; (b) the creative process is not amenable to rational analysis. (in the eminent physiologist professor n.p. bechtereva’s opinion, intercomparison of brain and computer is a inadmissible mental operation because brain and computer have different qualitative determinacy). this signifies that the problem of the creation of artificial intelligence (ai) and artificial general intelligence (agi) as a problem of computer simulation (modeling) of the human thinking (thought) has no positive solution. creating of ai and of agi is impossible because: (1) the mechanism of operation (action) of the system “subconsciousness + consciousness” (underlying of thinking) cannot be cognized (learned, understood) by man; (2) a computer as a device cannot think because it has no the system the system “subconsciousness + consciousness”. thinking is an inseparable, integral and essential property (feature) of the system “physiological body + psychical body”; (3) modeling of manifestation of the essence (i.e., thinking) of man does not signify modeling of the essence (i.e., thinking) of man because a manifestation of the essence is not identical with the essence; (4) modeling of manifestation of the essence is imitation (simulation) of manifestation of the essence; (5) the imitation (simulation) of manifestation of the essence does not lead to origination (appearance) of essence (i.e., thinking, thought); (6) there is no practical proof (evidence) of the existence of ai and agi in the world; (7) in order that a computer can solve scientific (i.e., human) problems, a computer must have the qualitative determinacy of man. in other words, a computer and man must be identical to each other, must have identical essential features. therefore, the problem of creation of ai and agi is the problem of creation of “man-computer” (i.e., man who is a computer or computer which is man). remark 1. my solution of the p versus np problem is as follows: there really is no human way to generate the creative answer with the help of a computer. moreover, the works devoted to the p versus np problem, contain the formal-logical error. the error is that the problems in these works are divided into classes of complexity. but complexity is not an essential feature (sign) of a problem. the feature (sign) of the concept of “complexity” is not the basis (characteristic) of division of the concept of problem. the basis (characteristic) of division of the concept of problem is the following essential feature (sign): ”solvability”. therefore, all problems should be divided into two classes: the “class of solvable problems” and the “class of non-solvable problems”. if the problem statement (formulation) contains formal-logical errors, then the problem belongs to the brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 172 “class of non-solvable problems”. (in this case, there is neither a positive nor a negative solution). if the problem statement (formulation) does not contain any formal-logical errors, then the problem belongs to the “class of solvable problems”. (in this case, there is either a positive or a negative solution). remark 2. my remark on the millennium problems, major unsolved problems, is as follows. in my opinion, the “seven millennium prize problems selected by the clay mathematics institute to carry a us$1,000,000 prize for the first correct solution” cannot be solved. these problems belong to the “class of non-solvable problems” because they contain the formal-logical and dialectical-materialistic errors. but computer cannot critically analyze (examine) these problems and find errors because computer has no the system “subconsciousness + consciousness”, and programmer (who has the system “subconsciousness + consciousness”) does not use the correct methodological basis of scientific analysis. 7. conclusions thus, the critical analysis of the problem of creation of artificial intelligence and of artificial general intelligence within the framework of the correct methodological basis leads to the following results: 1) intercomparison of man and animal is a necessary step to understanding the essence of thinking (thought); 2) thinking (thought) is an attribute of the complete system: “man + environment”. the subsystem “man” represents the unity of the following material aspects: “physiological body + psychic body”. the subsystem “psychic body” represents the unity of the following material aspects: “subconsciousness + consciousness”; 3) thinking (thought) is an essential feature of the instinct of conservation (preservation, retention) of life. the instinct of conservation (preservation, retention) of life represents the system of the main elementary instincts (the feeding (food) instinct, the instinct of reproduction, the instinct of activity, the defensive instinct, the adaptability instinct, the instinct of learning and of development. the instinct of conservation (preservation) of life exists in the psychical body and manifests itself only in the system of “physiological body + psychical body”; 4) life is the struggle for existence, the struggle for the conservation (preservation, retention) of the physiological body. thinking (thought) is manifested in the appropriate (reasonable, rational, sensible) actions aimed at the conservation (preservation, retention) of life and at the creation of conditions for life. the criterion of the existence of thinking (thought) is practice; 5) creation is a process of interaction between the subconsciousness and the consciousness. the existence of the system “subconsciousness + consciousness“ is a necessary condition for creativity. the existence of the “physiological body” is essential for manifestation of creativity; 6) the scientific creation is a mysterious, esoteric process of cognition of scientific truth. the creation is manifested as a guess (conjecture) in the consciousness. the creation is not accessible (not understandable, not available) to analysis and understanding because the mechanism of the operation of the subconsciousness and of the system “subconsciousness + consciousness” cannot be understood by man; 7) computer as a device cannot think and create because it has no the system “subconsciousness + consciousness”. modeling (simulation) of manifestation of the essence (i.e., thinking, thought) of man does not signify modeling (simulation) of the essence (i.e., thinking, thought) of man. modeling (simulation) of thinking (thought) is imitation of thinking (thought). imitation of thinking (thought) does not lead to the emergence (appearance, origination, existence) of thinking (thought). therefore, the creation of ai and agi is impossible; t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 173 8) there is no practical proof (evidence) of the existence of ai and of agi in the world. also, the correct theoretical proof of the existence of ai and of agi does not exist and cannot exist in science because the existence of ai and of agi contradicts to formal logic and rational dialectics. references polya, g. (1965). mathematical discovery. john wiley & sonsinc. new york – london. v. i (1962), v. ii. hadamard, j. (1945). psychology of invention in the mathematical field. librairie scientifique. paris. kalanov, t. z. (1991). on the statistics of the electron gas. reports of the academy of sciences of the ussr, vol. 316, no. 6, p. 1386. kalanov, t. z. (1991). on the statistics of the photon gas. reports of the academy of sciences of the ussr, vol. 316, no. 1, p. 100. kalanov, t. z. (1996). proof of non-correctness of the lorentz transformation. reports of the academy of sciences of the republic of uzbekistan, no. 1-2 (1996), p. 32. kalanov, t. z. (1997). on the theory of relative motion. reports of the academy of sciences of the republic of uzbekistan, no. 12, p. 15. kalanov, t. z. (1998). on the theory of time. reports of the academy of sciences of the republic of uzbekistan, no. 5 (1998), p. 24. kalanov, t. z. (1995). the correct theoretical analysis of the michelson-morley experiments. reports of the academy of sciences of the republic of uzbekistan, no. 11-12, p. 22. kalanov, t. z. (2011). on the critical analysis of classical electrodynamics. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 56, no. 4. kalanov, t. z. (1999). 2cme  : the most urgent problem of our time. reports of the academy of sciences of the republic of uzbekistan, no. 5, p. 9. kalanov, t. z. (2011). analysis of the problem of relation between geometry and natural sciences. prespacetime journal, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 75-87. kalanov, t. z. (2006). bose-einstein statistics and fermi-dirac statistics: a logical error. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 51, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2006). bose's method: a logical error. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 51, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2001). correct quantum-statistical description of ideal systems within the framework of master equation. proc. xxvth icpig, nagoya, japan. ed. by toshio goto / japan: nagoya univ., vol. 3, p. 235. kalanov, t. z. (2012). critical analysis of bose–einstein and fermi–dirac statistics. elixir (statistics), no. 45, pp. 7657-7659. kalanov, t. z. (2011). critical analysis of the foundations of differential and integral calculus. mcms (ada lovelace publications), pp. 34-40. kalanov, t. z. (2012). critical analysis of the foundations of differential and integral calculus. international journal of science and technology, vol. 1, no. 2, pp.80-84. kalanov, t. z. (2013). critical analysis of the mathematical formalism of theoretical physics. i. foundations of differential and integral calculus. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc., (april meeting), vol. 58, no. 4. kalanov, t. z. (2013). critical analysis of the mathematical formalism of theoretical physics. ii. foundations of vector calculus. unique journal of engineering and advanced sciences, ujeas, vol. 01, no. 01. retreieved from www.ujconline.net. kalanov, t. z. (2013). critical analysis of the mathematical formalism of theoretical physics. ii. foundations of vector calculus. bulletin of pure and applied sciences, vol. 32 e (math & stat), no. 2, pp.121-130. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 174 kalanov, t. z. (2014). critical analysis of the mathematical formalism of theoretical physics. ii. foundations of vector calculus. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc., (april meeting), vol. 59, no. 5. kalanov, t. z. (2014). critical analysis of the mathematical formalism of theoretical physics. iii. pythagorean theorem. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc., (april meeting), vol. 59, no. 5. kalanov, t. z. (2007). critical analysis of the special theory of relativity. bulletin of pure and applied sciences, vol. 26d, no. 1, pp. 1-15. kalanov, t. z. (2006). dirac's theory of physical vacuum: continuation of bose's logical errors. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 51, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (1999). kinematics of material point: modern analysis. reports of the academy of sciences of the republic of uzbekistan, no. 7, p. 9. kalanov, t. z. (2011). logical analysis of the foundations of differential and integral calculus. indian journal of science and technology, vol. 4, no. 12. kalanov, t. z. (2011). logical analysis of the foundations of differential and integral calculus. bulletin of pure and applied sciences, vol. 30 e (math. & stat.), no. 2 (2011), pp. 327-334. kalanov, t. z. (2010). on a new analysis of the foundations of classical mechanics. i. dynamics. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 55, no. 1. kalanov, t. z. (2009). on a new analysis of the problem of planck constant. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 54, no. 4. kalanov, t. z. (2006). on a new approach to the solution of the problem of quantization of energy. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 51, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2002). on a new basis of quantum theory. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 47, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2005). on a new theory of physical vacuum. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 50, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2006). on a new theory of the black hole. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 51, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2003). on a new theory of the system of reference. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 48, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2002). on a solution of the problem of unitarization of the elementary principles of statistical physics and physical kinetics. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 47, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2012). on logical error underlying classical mechanics. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc., (april meeting), vol. 57, no. 3. kalanov, t. z. (2001). on logical errors lying in the base of special theory of relativity. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 46, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2004). on logical errors underlying the special theory of relativity. journal of theoretics (usa). vol. 6-1. kalanov, t. z. (2012). on rationalization of the foundations of differential calculus. bulletin of pure and applied sciences, vol. 31 e (math. & stat.), no. 1, pp. 1-7. kalanov, t. z. (2010). on the boltzmann distribution. galilean electrodynamics, vol. 21, special issues 1, p. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2006). on the correct analysis of maxwell distribution. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 51, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2007). on the correct analysis of the foundations of the special theory of relativity. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 52, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2007). on the correct analysis of the foundations of theoretical physics. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 52, no. 2. t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 175 kalanov, t. z. (2006). on the correct formulation of the first law of thermodynamics. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 51, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2005). on the correct theoretical analysis of the foundations of quantum mechanics. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 50, no. 2, p. 65. kalanov, t. z. (2003). on the essence of space. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 48, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2002). on the essence of time. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 47, no. 2, p. 164. kalanov, t. z. (2007). on the hypothesis of control of the universe. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 52, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2006). on the hypothesis of universe's "system block". bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 51, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2013). on the logical analysis of the foundations of vector calculus. international journal of scientific knowledge. computing and information technology, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 25-30. kalanov, t. z. (2013). on the logical analysis of the foundations of vector calculus. international journal of multidisciplinary academic research, vol. 1, no. 3. kalanov, t. z. (2013). on the logical analysis of the foundations of vector calculus. journal of computer and mathematical sciences, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 202-321. kalanov, t. z. (2013). on the logical analysis of the foundations of vector calculus. journal of research in electrical and electronics engineering (istp-jreee). issn: 2321-2667, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 1-5. kalanov, t. z. (2013). on the logical analysis of the foundations of vector calculus. research desk, (issn: 2319-7315), vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 249-259. kalanov, t. z. (2013). on the logical analysis of the foundations of vector calculus. aryabhatta journal of mathematics & informatics. issn: 0975-7139, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 227-234. kalanov, t. z. (2002). on the main errors underlying statistical physics. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 47, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2003). on the problem of knowledge of the universe. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 48, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2003). on the problem of the correspondence principle. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 48, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2014). on the system analysis of the foundations of trigonometry. journal of physics & astronomy, (www.mehtapress.com), vol. 3, no. 1. kalanov, t. z. (2014). on the system analysis of the foundations of trigonometry. international journal of informative & futuristic research, ijifr, vol. 1, no. 6. retrieved from www.ijifr.com. kalanov, t. z. (2014). on the system analysis of the foundations of trigonometry. international journal of science inventions today, ijsit, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 119-147. retrieved from www.ijsit.com. kalanov, t. z. (2014). on the system analysis of the foundations of trigonometry. pure and applied mathematics journal, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 26-39. kalanov, t. z. (2014). on the system analysis of the foundations of trigonometry. bulletin of pure and applied sciences, vol. 33e (math & stat), no. 1, pp. 1-27. kalanov, t. z. (2012). the boltzmann distribution: a logical error. elixir (adv. pow.), no 49, pp. 9935-9936. kalanov, t. z. (2012). the correct analysis of theory of photon gas. elixir (nuclear & radiation physics), no. 50, pp. 10197-10205. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 176 kalanov, t. z. (2004). the correct theoretical analysis of the foundations of quantum mechanics. journal of ultra scientists of physical sciences (international journal of physical sciences, india), vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 191-198. kalanov, t. z. (2007). the correct theoretical analysis of the foundations of classical thermodynamics. bulletin of pure and applied sciences, vol. 26d, no. 2, pp. 109-118. kalanov, t. z. (2009). the correct theoretical analysis of the foundations of classical thermodynamics. indian journal of science and technology, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 12-17. kalanov, t. z. (2009). the correct theory of photon gas. indian journal of science and technology, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 1-10. kalanov, t. z. (2010). the crisis in theoretical physics: the problem of scientific truth. prespacetime journal, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 824-842. kalanov, t. z. (2010). the critical analysis of the foundations of theoretical physics. crisis in theoretical physics: the problem of scientific truth. lap lambert academic publishing. isbn 978-3-8433-6367-9. kalanov, t. z. (2013). the critical analysis of the pythagorean theorem and of the problem of irrational numbers. basic research journal of education research and review, issn 23156872, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 59-65. retrieved from http//www.basicresearchjournals.org. kalanov, t. z. (2013). the critical analysis of the pythagorean theorem and of the problem of irrational numbers. bulletin of pure and applied sciences, vol. 32 (math & stat), no. 1, pp. 1-12. kalanov, t. z. (2013). the critical analysis of the pythagorean theorem and of the problem of irrational numbers. global journal of advanced research on classical and modern geometries, issn: 2284-5569, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 59-68. kalanov, t. z. (2013). the foundations of vector calculus: the logical error in mathematics and theoretical physics. unique journal of educational research, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 054-059. kalanov, t. z. (2013). the logical analysis of the pythagorean theorem and of the problem of irrational numbers. asian journal of mathematics and physics, issn 2308-3131, vol. 2013, pp. 1-12. retrieved from http://scienceasia.asia. kalanov, t. z. (2010). the modern analysis of the problem of multisecting an angle. prespacetime journal, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 468-474. kalanov, t. z. (2006). the problem of the seti: a methodological error in cosmology and astrophysics. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 51, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2006). the second law of thermodynamics: mathematical error. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 51, no. 2, p. 60. kalanov, t. z. (2010). the theoretical model of god: proof of the existence and the uniqueness of god. scientific god journal, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 85-97. kalanov, t. z. (2003). the theory of relativity: an error of the transformation of coordinates. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 48, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2009). theoretical model of god: proof of existence. indian journal of science and technology, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 80-88. kalanov, t. z. (2007). theoretical model of god: the key to correct exploration of the universe. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 52, no. 2. kalanov, t. z. (2016). critical analysis of the foundations of pure mathematics. mathematics and statistics cresco, v. 2, no. 1, pp. 2-14. retrieved from http://crescopublications.org. kalanov, t. z. (2016). critical analysis of the foundations of pure mathematics. international journal for research in mathematics and mathematical sciences, v. 2, no. 2, pp. 15-33. kalanov, t. z. (2016). critical analysis of the foundations of pure mathematics. aryabhatta journal of mathematics & informatics, v. 8, no. 1, pp. 1-14 (article number: msoa-2-005). t. z. kalanov man versus computer: difference of the essences. the problem of the scientific creation 177 kalanov, t. z. (2014). critical analysis of the foundations of the theory of negative number. international journal of informative & futuristic research (ijifr, www.ijifr.com), vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 1132-1143. kalanov, t. z. (2015). critical analysis of the foundations of the theory of negative numbers. international journal of current research in science and technology, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 1-12. kalanov, t. z. (2015). critical analysis of the foundations of the theory of negative numbers. aryabhatta journal of mathematics & informatics, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 3-12. kalanov, t. z. (2015). critical analysis of the mathematical formalism of theoretical physics. iv. foundations of trigonometry. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc., (april meeting), vol. 60, no. 4. kalanov, t. z. (2015). critical analysis of the mathematical formalism of theoretical physics. v. foundations of the theory of negative numbers. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc., (april meeting), vol. 60, no. 4. kalanov, t. z. (2016). on the correct formulation of the law of the external photoelectric effect. journal of review in sciences, no. 1, pp. 1–9. kalanov, t. z. (2016). on the formal-logical analysis of the foundations of mathematics applied to problems in physics. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting). kalanov, t. z. (2015). on the formal–logical analysis of the foundations of mathematics applied to problems in physics. aryabhatta journal of mathematics & informatics, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1-2. kalanov, t. z. (2015). where are the logical errors in the theory of big bang?. bulletin of the amer. phys. soc. (april meeting), vol. 60, no. 4. kalanov, t. z. (2014). where are the logical errors in the theory of big bang?. scientific god journal, vol. 5, no. 5, p. 432-433. the proceedings of the 18th international conference on artificial intelligence (icai'16), july 25-28, 2016. monte carlo resort, las vegas, usa. temur z. kalanov was born in tashkent (uzbekistan), in 1944. in 1968 he graduated from the department of engineering physics at the tashkent polytechnic institute and achieved the degree of m.sc. in engineering physics. in 1968-1971 he was postgraduate at the institute of electronics (academy of sciences, tashkent, uzbekistan) by the speciality of “physical electronics, including quantum electronics”. in 1971-1981 he worked as junior research scientist of the theoretical sector at the institute of electronics. in 1979 he defended ph.d. thesis on “vibrational relaxation in the gas systems with sources of the vibrationally excited molecules” at the physical-technical institute. in 1981-2004 he was senior research scientist at the theoretical sector of the institute of electronics. working at the institute of electronics as senior research scientist, he wrote a series of original works. his pioneering works on the critical analysis of the foundations of statistical physics were published in the “reports of the academy of sciences of the republic of uzbekistan” and “reports of the academy of sciences of the ussr”. in 1993 he presented his doctoral dissertation on the following subject: “the correct quantum-statistical description of ideal systems within the framework of the master equation” (by the speciality of “theoretical physics”). between 1995 and 1999, his pioneering works devoted to the critical analysis of the larmor-lorentz-poincare-einstein special theory of relativity were published in peer-reviewed journals. between 2007 and 2009, his pioneering works on the critical analysis of the foundations of classical thermodynamics were published in peer-reviewed journals. 6. in 2007-2009 i constructed the theoretical model of god and proved the existence and uniqueness of god. the results were published in the peer-reviewed journals. brain: broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 8, issue 2, july 2017, issn 2067-3957 (online), issn 2068-0473 (print) 178 subsequently, he worked on important problems, like critical analysis of the theory of big bang; the foundation of the differential and integral calculus; the foundations of geometry, vector calculus etc. and his relevant articles were published in peer-reviewed journals. since 2004, he is independent researcher (“home of physical problems”), working on the following problems: the critical analysis of the foundations of theoretical physics, of mathematics, and of philosophy. he carry out the analysis within the framework of the correct methodological basis: the unity of formal logic and rational dialectics. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2019, volume 10, issue 4, pages: 158-179 | doi:10.18662/brain/10 relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in kenya catherine njoki chege¹, kenneth lawrence wanjau 2, severina nkirina3 1 phd. student at karatina university, kenya; email: katienjoki@gmail.com 2 karatina university-kenya: wanjaukenneth@gmail.com and kwanjau@karu.ac.ke 3 karatina university-kenya, nkirinasp@yahoo.com abstract: the insurance industry has lately been associated with financial steadiness, security of government programs, enhancing trade and overall growth of a national economy. the industry however continues to experience very low penetration. kenya has a penetration rate of 2.3% compared to south africa’s rate of 7.6%. insurance firms in kenya are under considerable pressure from their customers and the regulator to invest in service blue print as a measure of analysing the impact of their service quality which is a result of their service innovations and enhanced processes or systems which are supposed to improve customer satisfaction and hence profitability. this study analysed the relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in kenya. the study adopted a causal research design. the unit of analysis was 17 licensed composite insurance companies in kenya with a unit of observation of 400 policy holders sourced from insurance company records. primary data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire which was self-administered. r-gui was the main statistical software. the study applied the linear mixed-effect models of structural equation modelling (sem) considering the multi-level structure of the data collected. a significant fixed effect coefficient estimate of 0.154 was established, implying that increasing the levels of service blue printing as perceived by a customer by one unit would result into an increase in the level of customer satisfaction by 0.154. the study concluded that a client who perceives efficient and effective service processes from his/ her insurer is bound to have higher satisfaction than a customer who does not perceive efficient and effective service processes from their insurer. service blue printing however, does not significantly affect the variations of customer satisfaction between the insurance companies. the study recommends that insurance industry firms invest in service blue prints as a strategy of achieving maximum customer satisfaction. service blue print will improve interactions between customers and service providers by acting as a service lens and they should be developed as a service innovation technique that may enable discovery of potential innovations that may have otherwise been overlooked. the insurance company can adopt service blue print as a benchmark for accreditation standards. keywords: service blue print; customer satisfaction; service innovation. how to cite: chege, c.n., wanjau, k.l., & nkirina, s. (2019). relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in kenya. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(4), 158-179. doi:10.18662/brain/10 mailto:katienjoki@gmail.com mailto:wanjaukenneth@gmail.com mailto:kwanjau@karu.ac.ke mailto:nkirinasp@yahoo.com brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 159 1. introduction the environment of business today is characterized by very knowledgeable customers that expect quality service delivery. as a result of the numerous players in the insurance industry, there is increased pressure to improve the quality of service in order to achieve a competitive advantage. osman, mohamad & khuzaimah (2015) showed that increasing levels of service quality leads to customer satisfaction and trust, hence enhances loyalty. they further posited that there is a connection between service quality and higher profits. in order for an institution to provide quality service effectively, they must have effective systems due to the intangible nature of services. one of the methods used to ensure clear and effective systems is service blue printing. andreou (2017) proposed that service blue printing dimension to be adopted as a measure of service quality in the hotel industry, while owino, kibera, munywoki & wainaina (2014) adopted it as a measure of service quality in the higher education sector. njegomir and demko rihter (2015) observed that the advancement of the insurance industry would result to assembling domestic savings, robust management of diverse risks, new capital accrual, less business anxiety, loss mitigation and overall monetary stability. the global insurance industry has however not matured in growth and performance as a result of low penetration. the global insurance premium real term growth has been experiencing a downward spiral from 4.7% in 2015, 3% in 2017 [insurance regulatory authority (ira), 2017]. the insurance industry in africa has similarly been experiencing a challenge in penetration with south africa having the highest penetration rate of 7.6%. the kenyan insurance industry that dates back to year 1963 has experienced tremendous growth that has led to intense competition among its numerous players. the industry players include 52 licensed insurance companies, 221 brokers, 9,348 agents and 31 medical insurance providers (ira, 2018). the insurance regulatory authority (2016) indicates that, only 16% of the population in kenya has access to insurance. the biggest challenge of the insurance industry in kenya is the low penetration rate of 2.3% and a low real term growth of 2.5% compared to the global real term growth of 3% (ira, 2017). a study by klynveld peat marwick goerdeler, (2016) revealed that 80% of insurance providers are not confident of the level of service quality delivery in the industry with 10% believing that their customer care is below average. they acknowledged that, satisfying customers is their biggest relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction … catherine njoki chege et al. 160 challenge. the insurance industry can therefore benefit from investing in service blue printing which acts as a guide to the major components of service delivery that influence customer satisfaction. this study analysed the influence of service blue print dimension on customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in kenya. 2. literature review this section discusses the theoretical and empirical literature about the research problem on service blue print dimension and its relationship with customer satisfaction. the script theory is described and how it guides service blue printing. the section ends with empirical literature and the knowledge gap. 2.1 the script theory script theory was proposed by tomkins (1978) in an attempt to further develop his “affect theory”. the theory was later developed by schank (1983) to what is now described as the “script theory”. script theory postulated that the behavior of human beings functions similarly to the way a script does by allotting a program for action. script theory stipulates that customers have clear cut scripts in their minds for purchasing which lead them to explicit behavior during service encounters. the scripts guide the customers to interpret information given, develop expectations and to portray suitable behavior patterns. service providers similarly have scripts that direct their behavior as they interact with the customers. there are two types of scripts namely convergent scripts where customer and employee scripts do not collide hence customer satisfaction is achieved. the second type is the divergent scripts where customer and employee scripts collide indicating areas of unfulfilled customer expectations (schank, 1983). a service blue print guides staff on how to provide services to customers. it specifies the service delivery process, roles of both customers and service providers to ensure their scripts converge in order to achieve customer satisfaction. 2.2 service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction a service blueprint is referred to as road map that presents accurate service systems so that all those involved in its burgeoning are able to understand and deal with it objectively. a service blue print describes the entire process of service delivery, roles of both customers and service employees and the clear. it is a very significant guide to major components of service that lead to customer satisfaction. service blueprinting enables brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 161 service providers to scrutinize as well as modify services and to sometimes design completely new services according to customer specifications. it is a new shift in perspective that results to undiscovered service improvements and innovations. this shift stems from internal process views to external customer experience views, which help to highlight unfulfilled customer wants and needs as well as any organizational misalignment of goals and objectives (bitner, ostrom, & morgan, 2007). shahin (2010) studied service blue printing and its effectiveness in targeting critical service processes in the hotel industry. he found that service blue print enables service providers to compare different service processes and helps to target the most critical ones, enabling the service providers to design effective quality service. ostrom, bitner and burkhard (2011) conducted a study on how to leverage service blue printing to rethink the higher education. they concluded that service blue print can be used to identify the best practices and develop service processes that can improve customer experience. they recommended service blue print as a service lens tool as well as a technique that can enable discovery of potential innovations that may have otherwise been overlooked. giannis, spiras, & achilles (2012) proposed that all service providers should have service blue prints in their organizations. they argued that service blue prints would fail if customer preferences were not incorporated in the blue prints. this would therefore encourage the service providers to become market oriented hence improving quality service and ultimately customer satisfaction. rajeswari & marzooth (2016) carried out a study of service blue print and its effect on customer satisfaction in the transport industry in tamil nadu. they found that service blue print helped to determine service gaps in the industry, hence enabling the service providers to seal the gaps and improve service quality eventually leading to customer satisfaction. owino et al. (2014) found service blue print to have a great predictive power on customer satisfaction in kenyan universities. it was rated second highest influencer of customer satisfaction next to reliability. service blue print captures the customer service experience from the customer’s point of view (bitner et al., 2007). the customer today is knowledgeable regarding the significance of experience and will pay any price for experiences and service blue printing helps to achieve customer insight so as to change the service and better satisfy customer needs (haugen, 2013). none of the above studies have studied service blue printing in the insurance industry in kenya. this study sought to fill this relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction … catherine njoki chege et al. 162 knowledge gap by analysing how service blue print dimension influences customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in kenya. 3. methodology the objective of this study was to analyse the relationship between service blue print dimensions and customer satisfaction. primary data was collected from the policy holders of 17 insurance companies using a semistructured questionnaire. a likert scale was used to determine how strongly the respondents agreed or disagreed with statements. a likert scale helps to measure respondents’ attitudes by enquiring the extent to which they agree or disagree with particular questions or statements (derrick & white, 2017). the study had two variables that is, service blue print (x) as independent variable and customer satisfaction (y) as dependent variable. causal research design was used so as to help discern the magnitude and nature of cause and effect relationship that existed among the variables. the study applied the linear mixed effect models of structural equation modelling considering the multi-level structure of the data collected. the following hypothesis was tested; h01: service blue print dimension does not have a significant relationship with customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in kenya. 3.1 research philosophy the epistemological research philosophy guided by positivist paradigm was adopted for the study. epistemology explains what comprises acceptable knowledge in a subject of study (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2009). the positivist approach is instituted on the belief of theory before research followed by statistical justification of the conclusions from testable hypothesis (cooper & schindler, 2011). the study adopted the epistemological positivist paradigm because it enabled for reporting of findings as discovered and interpretation of the new knowledge discovered. 3.2 target population the target population comprised of insurance customers (policy holders) from insurance companies in kenya that offer both life and nonlife policies otherwise referred to as composite insurance companies. the study population was therefore considered to form a multi-level structure with 2 units of analysis. the primary unit of analysis was that of policy holders who are nested (clustered) within the secondary unit of analysis (insurance companies). there were 17 licensed composite insurance brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 163 companies in kenya as at december, 2017 that all together had a total of 1,695,312 policy holders (ira, 2018). 3.3 sampling design considering the multi-level structure of the population studied, multi-stage sampling which is a random sampling technique was adopted. multistage sampling is preferred in practice in cases where units of observations (the primary units) are geographically or organizationally grouped (snijders & bosker, 2011). multistage sampling was designed to randomly sample level-2 units (insurance companies) followed by randomly sampling level-1 units (policy holders) from the selected level-2 units. however, in this study, the level-2 units were based on a census thus considering all the 17 composite insurance companies as the group size. the sample size of the respondents (level-1 units) to include in the study was determined using the sampling formula ⁄ proposed by israel (2009) where n is the sample size, n the population size which was 1,695,312 and e the permissible error which was taken as 0.05. the calculation resulted to a sample size of 400 policy holders across the 17 insurance companies. the 400 respondents sampled were distributed across the 17 entities based on the probability proportional to the size of the population of each company. 3.4 data collection primary data was obtained from policy holders of the composite insurance companies. secondary data was sourced from books, research journal articles, and electronically stored information (internet). primary data was obtained by use of a semi-structured self-administered questionnaire which also had a five point likert scale. 4. data presentation and analysis r-gui was employed in undertaking three types of statistical analysis, that is, descriptive analysis, factor analysis and hierarchical regression. pilot data was collected and used to assess instrument reliability based on the internal consistency test using cronbach alpha and to assess construct validity based on the tests for convergent validity and discriminant validity. factor analysis results formed the basis for testing for convergent and discriminant validity using the average variances extracted (aves) and squared multiple correlations for the tests respectively. considering the multi-level structure of the data collected, the study used multi level structural equation modelling (sem) as the basis for testing relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction … catherine njoki chege et al. 164 the study hypothesis. multi-level sem was based on restricted maximum likelihood estimation (reml) for linear mixed effect modelling. collapsing heterogonous grouped (multilevel) data in order to be analysed as though collected from one homogenous population at the group level may lead to erroneous conclusions referred to as the simpson’s paradox (lindley & novick, 1981). the sem models fitted were tested for fitness by computation of fit indices. as proposed by mcdonald and ho (2002), for absolute fitness, the chi-squared test, root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), goodness of fit index (gfi) were used to assess how well the priori models (proposed theoretical models) fit the sample data. for incremental fit indices, the normed fit index (nfi), comparative fit index cfi and the tucker lewis index (tli) were also generated to assess the fitness of the priori model against a baseline model (null model). model assumptions of normality, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation, multicollinearity and common method bias (cmb) were tested. maximum likelihood estimation holds the assumption that residuals of the model fitted follow a normal distribution. 4.1 measurement model of service blue print service blue print was found to only have a significant level-1 measurement model. figure 1 shows the retained manifest variables at level1 epresented by the squares were retained in both levels with path coefficients represented by the standardised factor loading. there is no path coefficient of the between model thus only 1 circle to indicate the leatent variable service blue prints in the within (fixed effect). figure 1: path diagram for the measurement model of service blue print brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 165 service blue print was found to have no significant level-2 measurement model thus none of the manifest variables had significant variance contribution to the latent variable across the entities. at level-1, the indicators were however found to significantly load the latent variable service blue print. the fit indices of the service blue prints measurement model are shown in table 1 which shows that the model met all the required cut-offs of both absolute and incremental fit indices. table 1: model fit indices for service blue print chi-square sig. cfi nfi tli gfi rmsea statistic 570.301 0.000 0.927 0.919 0.976 0.915 0.061 cut-off p-value <0.05 ≥0.9 ≥0.9 ≥0.95 ≥0.9 ≤0.08 4.2. diagnosis of assumptions of the model of service blue print on customer satisfaction diagnosis was also carried out on the model fitted to assess the effect of service blue print on customer satisfaction. figure 2 show a normal q-q plot of the level-1 residuals for this model. the q-q plots where used to assess the assumption of normality by comparing the distribution from the data to the theoretical normal distribution represented by the line shows that the residuals for this model generally follow a normal distribution. however a deviation from the line was noted from the line by low values. this implied possibility of a deviation from normality. figure 2: q-q plot for level-1 residuals -2 -1 0 1 2 le ve l 1 r es id ua ls -2 -1 0 1 2 inverse normal relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction … catherine njoki chege et al. 166 figure 3 shows a hanging rootograms with confidence intervals (ci) were also generated to assess and confirm whether the residuals were deviating from normality or not. some of the hanging roots of the level-1 residuals have confidence intervals within the zero mean. however, 5 of the last hanging roots show residuals that are significantly greater or less than from zero based on the 95% confidence intervals below or above zero implying. this shows that the level-1 residuals for this model significantly violated the normality assumption. figure 3: rootogram for level-1 residuals; service blue print against customer satisfaction model to further explore the nature of the distribution of level-1 residuals within each insurance company, q-q plots were fitted for each group (insurer) and presented as a line-up of q-q plots (figure 4). in comparison with the overall q-q plot of all the cases, the decomposed plots by group showed some elements of deviations from the theoretical normal distribution in in some panels such as insurer 2, 9 and 13. the plots were well aligned along the theoretical distribution line in each graph. while level1 residuals of this model showed from the entire sample showed a significant deviation from normality. -2 0 2 4 6 sq rt (f re q u e n cy ) -2 -1 0 1 2 level 1 residuals 95% conf. int. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 167 figure 4: q-q plots line-up for level-1 residuals hanging rootograms were further used to explore the normality in the level-2 residuals of this model (figure 5). from the residuals due to the random intercepts, only 2 of the hanging roots have the 95% confidence interval below the theoretical distribution (zero). this confirms that the blups (best linear unbiased predictions) of the random intercepts significantly deviate from normality. however for the residuals due to service blue print as a covariate, none of the hanging roots were significantly lower or higher than of the theoretical normal distribution line (zero). the results confirm that the level-2 residuals (random slope blups) follow a normal distribution. -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -2 -1 0 1 inverse normal 1 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -2 -1 0 1 2 inverse normal 2 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -.2 0 .2 .4 .6 inverse normal 3 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -2 -1 0 1 2 inverse normal 4 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -1 -.5 0 .5 inverse normal 5 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -1 -.5 0 .5 1 inverse normal 6 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -.2 0 .2 .4 inverse normal 7 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -.5 0 .5 1 inverse normal 8 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -2 -1 0 1 2 inverse normal 9 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -1 -.5 0 .5 1 inverse normal 10 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -1 -.5 0 .5 1 inverse normal 11 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -1 -.5 0 .5 1 inverse normal 12 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -1 0 1 2 inverse normal 13 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls .15 .2 .25 .3 .35 inverse normal 14 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -1.5 -1 -.5 0 .5 1 inverse normal 15 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -1.5 -1 -.5 0 .5 1 inverse normal 16 -2 -1 0 1 2 l e ve l 1 r e s id u a ls -1.5 -1 -.5 0 .5 1 inverse normal 17 relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction … catherine njoki chege et al. 168 figure 5: rootograms for level-2 residuals table 2 shows the normality test for both level 1 and level 2 residuals. the results show that level 1 residuals significantly deviates from normality. the p-value of the probability of skewness and that of the probability of kurtosis not equal to 3 are both less than 0.05. the jaquebera chi-square statistic of deviation from normality also has a p-value of 0.001 which is less than 0.05 implying significantly non-normal data at the client level. the level-2 residuals have p-values greater than 0.05 implying normality at level 2. table2: jaque-bera normality test variable obs pr(skewne ss) pr(kurtos is) adj chi2(2) prob>c hi2 level-1 residuals 364 0.0004 0.0016 18.74 0.0001 level-2 random slopes 17 0.3788 0.3792 1.74 0.4187 further to the exploratory assessment of the normality assumption, homoscedasticity was assessed using scatter plots of the residuals against the -1 0 1 2 s q rt (f re q u e n c y ) -1 -.5 0 .5 level 2 residuals (blup r.e. for insurer: _cons) 95% conf. int. level 2 residuals due to random intercept -1 0 1 2 3 s q rt (f re q u e n c y ) -.1 -.05 0 .05 level 2 residuals (blup r.e. for insurer: x4) 95% conf. int. level 2 residuals due to random covariate x4 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 169 predicted values. homoscedasticity of the residuals is referred to as constant variance of the residuals. heteroscedasticity is the opposite of homoscedasticity and is attributed to non-random patterns in the scatter plots. as shown in figure 6, the scatter plots on level-1 residuals displayed decreasing patterns implying heteroscedasticity and deviation from the homoscedasticity assumption. the level 2 residuals which were blups of random intercept predictions when fitted against the predicted values of customer satisfaction also exhibited heteroscedasticity with an increasing pattern of higher predictions (figure 7). level-2 residuals from the blups of random covariate (service blue print) predictions against the predicted values of customer satisfaction were randomly distributed about zero with no increasing or decreasing patterns to imply homogeneity of variance. figure 6: scatter plot of residuals against predicted values for level-1 residuals -2 -1 0 1 2 l e v e l 1 r e s id u a ls -2 -1 0 1 y hat (customer satisfaction predictions) relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction … catherine njoki chege et al. 170 figure 7: scatter plot of residuals against predicted values for level-2 residuals 4.3 structural equation model for service blue print and customer satisfaction to assess the effect of service blue prints on customer satisfaction, a structural equation model was fitted for the effect of the retained indicators of both variables with the between and within effect factor loadings and the effect of the latent variable service blue prints on the latent variable customer satisfaction. the control variables were not included as the respondent invariant variables were found to have no significant effects on customer satisfaction. from the structural equation model, service blue prints was found to only have a significant fixed effect as a level 1 independent variable with not a significant level 2 random covariate. table 3 shows the summarised structural equation model for the influence of service blue prints on customer satisfaction. the diagnostics tests revealed violation of the normality assumption and homoscedasticity of residuals. -1 -. 5 0 .5 l e v e l 2 r e s id u a ls ( b l u p r .e . fo r in s u re r: _ c o n s ) -1 -.5 0 .5 1 y hat (customer satisfaction predictions) level 2 residuals due to random intercept -. 1 -. 0 5 0 .0 5 l e v e l 2 r e s id u a ls ( b l u p r .e . fo r in s u re r: x 4 ) -1 -.5 0 .5 1 y hat (customer satisfaction predictions) level 2 residuals due to random covariate x4 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 171 table 3: influence of service blue prints on customer satisfaction level path estimate std.error a level 1 – client customer satisfaction within s.blueprint within -2.300 0.061 -37.705 figure 8 is the path diagram for the structural model on the influence of service blue prints on customer satisfaction. in level-2, the figure only displays the measurement model of customer satisfaction which was the only significant model in the entity level. service blue print was found to have no significant measurement model from the manifests to the latent variable. level-2 however shows the significant measurements of both service blue-prints and customer satisfaction based on their retained indicators and the significant path coefficient of the within effect of service blue prints on customer satisfaction. relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction … catherine njoki chege et al. 172 figure 8: path diagram of the influence of service blue print dimension on customer satisfaction from the measurement model of service blue print, factor scores were generated and used as latent variables to assess the influence of service blue print on customer satisfaction using the reml mixed effect models. according to the analysis in table 4, service blue print has a significant brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 173 coefficient estimate (β =-0.173, z= -4.040, p-value = 0.000) as a level 1 variable in the fixed effect components. the random effect component of that considered the level 2 (entity level) was also found to be significant with random intercepts only without including the random slope (random covariate service blue print). the intra-class correlation (icc) due entities (insurance companies) is 28.3%. the lr statistic is 73.39 with a p-value less than 0.05 implying significant random intercept effects in the model. table 4: influence of service blue print: fixed effect with random intercept mixed-effects glm number of obs = 364 group variable: insurer number of groups = 17 obs per group: min = 2 avg = 21. 4 max = 108 wald chi2(1) = 16. 36 log restricted-likelihood = -469.5157 prob > chi2 = 0.000 1 customer satisfaction (fac1_1_y) coef . std. err. z p>z [95% conf. interval] x4 0.17 3 0.043 4.04 0 0.000 -0.256 -0.089 _cons 0.10 8 0.142 0.76 0 0.449 -0.171 0.387 random-effects parameters estimat e std. err. [95% conf. interval] insurer var(_cons) 0.27 9 0.116 0.124 0.629 var(residual) 0.70 6 0.054 0.609 0.820 lr test vs. linear regression: chibar2 (01) = 73.39prob >= chibar2 = 0.000 level icc std. err. [95% conf. interval] insurer 0.283 0.086 0.147 0.476 relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction … catherine njoki chege et al. 174 to assess the level 2 effect of service blue print on customer satisfaction, service blue print was included in the random effect component of the model as a random covariate. the results of the analysis are shown in table 5. the variance attributed service blue print covariate at level-2 is 0.007implying almost the entire variation between insurance companies is due to the random intercept. the random component is however still significant as shown by the lr statistic which has a p-value less than 0.05 and an intra-class correlation of 28.7%. table 5: influence of service blue print dimension: fixed effect with random slopes mixed-effects glm number of obs = 364 group variable: insurer number of groups = 17 obs per group: min = 2 avg = 21. 4 max = 108 wald chi2(1) = 9.02 log restricted-likelihood = -233.30916 prob > chi2 = 0.002 7 customer satisfaction (fac1_1_y) coef . std. err. z p>z [95% conf. interval] x4 0.162 0.054 3.00 0 0.003 -0.268 -0.056 _cons 0.110 0.143 0.77 0 0.442 -0.170 0.390 random-effects parameters estima te std. err. [95% conf. interval] insurer var(_x4) 0.007 0.013 0.000 0.349 var(_cons) 0.282 0.117 0.125 0.635 var(residual) 0.699 0.054 0.601 0.814 lr test vs. linear regression: chibar2(01) = 13.36 prob >= chibar2 = 0.0001 level icc std. err. [95% conf. interval] insurer 0.287 0.087 0.149 0.481 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 175 to confirm whether the level-2 variation due to the independent variable service blue print was significant, a likelihood ratio test was carried out to assess the change in the random component of the model due to addition of service blue print as a level-2 covariate. table 6 shows the lr test where model m1 is with no random slope is nested in model m2 which has the random slope due to service blue print. the results show a significant improvement to the model as due to addition of the level-2 service blue print covariate. the addition reflects a 0.42 change in the lr chi-square statistic with a p-value of 0.517 which is greater than 0.05. further the bayesian information criterion (bic) of model m1 is less than that of model m2 implying that model m1 is a better model thus no significant random slope due to service blue print. this confirms that service blue print has a significant fixed effect on customer satisfaction at level 1 but has no random effect across the entities. table 6: lr test on the influence of service blue print as level-2 random covariate likelihood-ratio test lr chi2(2) = 0.42 (assumption: m1 nested in m2) prob > chi2 = 0.5172 akaike's information criterion and bayesian information criterion model ob s ll(null ) ll(model ) df aic bic m1 – me no random slopes 364 . -469.516 4 947.03 1 962.62 0 m2 – me random slopes 364 . -469.306 5 948.61 2 968.09 8 the fixed effects of service blue prints within each entity are reflected in figure 6 by the parallel lines with equal slopes. the random intercepts is reflected by the shift of the line from one entity to the other depending on the entity effect. the resulting equation from the model with fixed effects of service blue prints within and random intercepts across the insurance companies is given by; relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction … catherine njoki chege et al. 176 5. results, conclusion and recommendations from the bivariate analysis results between service blue print (sbp) and customer satisfaction, the second study hypothesis was tested and a conclusion drawn on the objective, that is; h04: service blue print dimension does not have a significant relationship with customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in kenya. 5.1 results from analysis, the p-value of the fixed effect coefficient of sbp was found to be 0.000 which is less than 0.05 thus the null hypothesis was rejected. a conclusion was then drawn that sbp has a significant relationship with customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in kenya. the results show that a unit increase in the levels of the sbp as perceived by a customer result into an increase in the customer’s level of satisfaction by 0.173. the model results however showed no significant random covariance between sbp and customer satisfaction across the clusters of customers (insurance companies) thus the variation and levels of customer satisfaction across the insurance companies is not explained by the variation in sbp across entities. the study findings confirmed that, there is a significant relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in kenya. this is a justification that insurance service providers who invest in service blue print are assured of customer retention since their customers are satisfied. this means that, their service systems or processes are enabling them to provide quality service with minimal complain. service blue print enables the firms to measure the success rate of service innovations and systems. service quality gaps identified serve as an opportunity for improvement (ofi) hence leading to cost cutting measures that will enable the firms to invest in service innovations and systems that will contribute to increase in profitability. through service blue print, interactions between customers and the service employees are easy to achieve. when proper systems and processes are implemented, customers derive satisfaction. service blue print models are relative. customer experiences also vary hence affecting customer satisfaction rates amongst kenyan insurance firms. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 177 5.2 conclusion the study concluded that service blue print has a significant relationship with customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in kenya. this was based on the hypothesis test carried out which was rejected to draw the conclusion of a significant fixed effect of service blue print on customer satisfaction in all the studied insurance companies. the influence of service blue print was found to be fully explained to be fixed in all the entities as implied by the insignificant random slopes due to service blue print. however, the study also found that the fixed effect of service print does not fully explain customer satisfaction as implied by the significant random intercept to imply that customer satisfaction is heterogeneous and differs across the insurance companies but is not due to the differences in service blue print across the entities. 5.3 recommendations the study recommends that, insurance firm managers should from a practical perspective should use the results generated by their service blue print models and use them to assist in evaluating and improving the existing service processes. service blue prints will assist them to identify and address the existing challenges facing the industry today and bring transformation. identifying and satisfying customer needs improves services and separates the industry from others hence developing a competitive advantage. the insurance firm managers should incorporate service blue print models in their company policy discussions as a key measure of their service innovations and systems/processes. service blue printing has the potential to align and coordinate insurance service processes hence making it an important policy tool to help improve quality and reduce costs. this will enable everyone in the service loop to understand their critical roles on the blue print along with the necessary logical improvements or changes. further, customer input should be incorporated to improve the core services. the study also recommends that, the insurance regulatory authority should consider including service blue printing as a benchmark for accreditation standards that evaluate how customers respond to existing service processes and innovations including measures of customer satisfaction. this will help to improve public perception towards insurance and create trust hence increasing penetration rates which are currently still very low in kenya. relationship between service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction … catherine njoki chege et al. 178 references andreou, g. (2017). blue printing and its effect on service quality: an empirical case study of coffee island. (masteral thesis, aristotle university of thessaloniki, thessaloniki, greece). retrieved from: https://ikee.lib.auth.gr/record/287689/files/gri-2017-18521.pdf bitner, m. j., ostrom, a. l., & morgan, f. n. (2007). service blueprinting: a practical technique for service innovation. (working paper, center for services leadership, arizona state university, pp. 1-24). retrieved from: https://paulallen.ca/documents/2014/06/service-blueprinting-a-practicaltechnique-for-service-innovation.pdf/ cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2011). business research methods (9th ed.). new york, u.s.a.: mcgraw-hill international derrick, b., & white, p. (2017). comparing two samples from an individual likert question. international journal of mathematics and statistics, 18(3) 1-13. retrieved from: http://www.ceser.in/ceserp/index.php/ijms/article/view/4997 giannis, k., spiros, g. & achilleas, b. (2012). service blue printing effectiveness: drivers of success. journal of service theory and practice, 22(6), 11-15. haugen, m. (2013). service blueprints: persistent qualities and future potentials. norwegian university of science and technology. retrieved from: https://www.ntnu.no/documents/10401/1264433962/margrethehartikk el.pdf insurance regulatory authority. (2016). annual insurance industry report for the year ended 31st december 2017. insurance regulatory authority. (2017). annual insurance industry report for the year ended 31st december 2017. insurance regulatory authority. (2018). annual insurance industry report for the year ended 31st december 2018. israel, g. d. (2009). determining sample size. institute of food and agricultural sciences, university of florida. retrieved from: https://www.gjimt.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2_glenn-d.israel_determining-sample-size.pdf klynveld peat marwick goerdeler (kpmg), (2016). kenya insurance survey encyclopaedia of survey research methods (6th ed.). chicago, u.s.a.: sage. lindley, d.v. & novick, m. r. (1981). the role of exchangeability in inference. annals of statistics, 9(1). 45-58. retrieved from: https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aos/1176345331 mcdonald, r. p., & ringo ho, m. h. (2002). principles and practice in reporting structural https://ikee.lib.auth.gr/record/287689/files/gri-2017-18521.pdf https://paulallen.ca/documents/2014/06/service-blueprinting-a-practical-technique-for-service-innovation.pdf/ https://paulallen.ca/documents/2014/06/service-blueprinting-a-practical-technique-for-service-innovation.pdf/ http://www.ceser.in/ceserp/index.php/ijms/article/view/4997 https://www.ntnu.no/documents/10401/1264433962/margrethehartikkel.pdf https://www.ntnu.no/documents/10401/1264433962/margrethehartikkel.pdf https://www.gjimt.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2_glenn-d.-israel_determining-sample-size.pdf https://www.gjimt.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2_glenn-d.-israel_determining-sample-size.pdf https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aos/1176345331 brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 179 equation analyses. psychological methods, 7(1), 64-82. doi:10.1037/1082-989x.7.1.64 njegomir, v., & demko rihter, j. (2015). the role and importance of insurance of business and supply chain interruptions. doi:10.7595/management.fon.2015.0025 osman, z., mohamad, l., & khuzaimah, r. (2015). an empirical study of direct relationship of service quality, customer satisfaction and bank image on customer loyalty in malaysian commercial banking industry. american journal of economics 5(2), 168-176. doi:10.5923/c.economics.201501.20 ostrom, a., bitner, m. & burkhard, k. (2011). leveraging service blue printing to rethink higher education. center for american progress. retrieved from: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2011/10/31 /10512/leveraging-service-blueprinting-to-rethink-higher-education/ owino, e., kibera, f., munyoki, j., & wainaina, g. (2014). service quality in kenyan universities: dimensionality and contextual analysis. european journal of business and management, 6(11). retrieved from: http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/73006/full%2 0text%20.pdf%20?sequence=1&isallowed=y rajeswari, m. & marzooth, m. (2016). a study on services blueprinting and services gap analysis with special reference to tnstc limited in villupuram district. international journal of science technology and management, 5(09). retrieved from: http://www.ijstm.com/images/short_pdf/ 1473504337_508-ijstm.pdf saunders, m., lewis, p. & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students (5th ed). harlow, the united kingdom of great britain: pearson education. schank, r., (1983). dynamic memory: a theory of reminding and learning in computers and people. new york, u.s.a.: cambridge university press. shahin, a. (2010). service blue printing: an effective approach for targeting critical service processes-with a case study in a four star international hotel. journal of management research, 2(2), 13-15 doi:10.5296/jmr.v2i2.352 snijders, t.a., & bosker, r. j. (2011). multilevel analysis: an introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modelling. (2nd ed.). london, the united kingdom of great britain: sage publications. tomkins, s. s. (1978). script theory: differential magnification of affects. (nebraska symposium on motivation, nebraska, u.s.a.). retrieved from: http://www.tomkins.org/what-tomkins-said/books-and-articles/scripttheory-articles/ https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2011/10/31/10512/leveraging-service-blueprinting-to-rethink-higher-education/ https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2011/10/31/10512/leveraging-service-blueprinting-to-rethink-higher-education/ http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/73006/full%20text%20.pdf%20?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/73006/full%20text%20.pdf%20?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://www.ijstm.com/images/short_pdf/%0b1473504337_508-ijstm.pdf http://www.ijstm.com/images/short_pdf/%0b1473504337_508-ijstm.pdf http://www.tomkins.org/what-tomkins-said/books-and-articles/script-theory-articles/ http://www.tomkins.org/what-tomkins-said/books-and-articles/script-theory-articles/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer ãlukasiewicz-moisil many-valued logic algebra of highly-complex systems ion c. baianu, george georgescu, james f. glazebrook and ronald brown abstract. the fundamentals of ãlukasiewicz-moisil logic algebras and their applications to complex genetic network dynamics and highly complex systems are presented in the context of a categorical ontology theory of levels, medical bioinformatics and self-organizing, highly complex systems. quantum automata were defined in refs.[2] and [3] as generalized, probabilistic automata with quantum state spaces [1]. their next-state functions operate through transitions between quantum states defined by the quantum equations of motions in the schrödinger representation, with both initial and boundary conditions in space-time. a new theorem is proven which states that the category of quantum automata and automata–homomorphisms has both limits and colimits. therefore, both categories of quantum automata and classical automata (sequential machines) are bicomplete. a second new theorem establishes that the standard automata category is a subcategory of the quantum automata category. the quantum automata category has a faithful representation in the category of generalized (m,r)–systems which are open, dynamic biosystem networks [4] with defined biological relations that represent physiological functions of primordial(s), single cells and the simpler organisms. a new category of quantum computers is also defined in terms of reversible quantum automata with quantum state spaces represented by topological groupoids that admit a local characterization through unique, quantum lie algebroids. on the other hand, the category of n– ãlukasiewicz algebras has a subcategory of centered n– ãlukasiewicz algebras (as proven in ref. [2]) which can be employed to design and construct subcategories of quantum automata based on n–ãlukasiewicz diagrams of existing vlsi. furthermore, as shown in ref.[2] the category of 1 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer centered n–ãlukasiewicz algebras and the category of boolean algebras are naturally equivalent. a ‘no-go’ conjecture is also proposed which states that generalized (m,r)–systems complexity prevents their complete computability (as shown in refs. [5]–[6]) by either standard, or quantum, automata. keywords: lm-logic algebra, algebraic category of lm-logic algebras, fundamental theorems of lm-logic algebra, many-valued logics of highly complex systems and categorical ontology, quantum automata categories, limits and colimits, bicomplete categories, quantum relational biology, generalized metabolic-replication (m,r)–systems, complex bio-networks; quantum computers, computability of complex biological systems; centered n–ãlukasiewicz algebras categories of n–ãlukasiewicz algebras, categories of boolean algebras. 2000 mathematics subject classification: og320, og330. 2 baianu et al. lm many-valued logic algebras 1. algebraic logic, operational and lukasiewicz quantum logic as pointed out by birkhoff and von neumann as early as 1936, a logical foundation of quantum mechanics consistent with quantum algebra is essential for both the completeness and mathematical validity of the theory. the development of quantum mechanics from its very beginnings both inspired and required the consideration of specialized logics compatible with a new theory of measurements for microphysical systems. such a specialized logic was initially formulated by birkhoff and von neumann in 1936, and called ‘quantum logic’ (ql). however, in recent ql research several approaches were developed involving several types of non-distributive lattice, and their corresponding algebras, for n–valued quantum logics. thus, modifications of the ãlukasiewicz logic algebras that were introduced in the context of algebraic categories [14] by georgescu and popescu [15]– also recently reviewed and expanded by georgescu [16]– can provide an appropriate framework for representing quantum systems, or in their unmodified form, for describing the activities of complex networks in categories of ãlukasiewicz logic algebras [5]. there is nevertheless a serious problem remaining which is caused by the logical inconsistency between any quantum algebra and the heyting logic algebra which has been suggested as a candidate for quantum logic. furthermore, quantum algebra and topological approaches that are ultimately based on settheoretical concepts and differentiable spaces (manifolds) also encounter serious problems of internal inconsistency. since it has been shown that standard set theory which is subject to the axiom of choice relies on boolean logic there appears to exist a basic logical inconsistency between the quantum logic–which is not boolean–and the boolean logic underlying all differentiable manifold approaches that rely on continuous spaces of points, or certain specialized sets of elements. a possible solution to such inconsistencies is the definition of a generalized topos concept, and more specifically, of an extended quantum topos (eqt) concept which is consistent with both ql and quantum algebraic, logic, thus being potentially suitable for the developing a framework that may unify quantum field theories with ultra-complex system modeling and complex systems biology (csb). 3 baianu et al. lm many-valued logic algebras 2. lattices and von neumann-birkhoff (vnb) quantum logic: definition and some logical properties we commence here by giving the set-based definition of a lattice. an s– lattice l, or a ‘set-based’ lattice, is defined as a partially ordered set that has all binary products (defined by the s–lattice operation “ ∧ ”) and coproducts (defined by the s–lattice operation “ ∨ ”), with the ”partial ordering” between two elements x and y belonging to the s–lattice being written as “x ¹ y ”. the partial order defined by ¹ holds in l as x ¹ y if and only if x = x ∧ y (or equivalently, y = x ∨ y eq.(3.1). a lattice can also be defined as a category (see, for example, ref. [9]) subject to all etac axioms, (but not subject, in general, to the axiom of choice usually encountered with sets relying on (distributive) boolean logic), that has all binary products and all binary coproducts, as well as the following ’partial ordering’ properties: 3. quantum logic (lql), ãlukasiewicz-moisil (lm) and operator algebras with all truth ’nuances’ or assertions of the type << system a is excitable to the i-th level and system b is excitable to the j-th level >> one can define a special type of lattice that subject to the axioms introduced by georgescu and vraciu [15] becomes a n-valued ãlukasiewicz-moisil, or lm -algebra. further algebraic and logic details are provided in refs.[16] and [9]. in order to have the n-valued ãlukasiewicz-moisil logic (lml) algebra represent correctly the basic behavior of quantum systems [7], [17] –which is usually observed through measurements that involve a quantum system interactions with a macroscopic measuring instrument– several of these axioms have to be significantly changed so that the resulting lattice becomes non-distributive and also (possibly) non-associative. several encouraging results in this direction were recently obtained by dala chiara and coworkers. with an appropriately defined quantum logic of events one can proceed to define hilbert, or ‘nuclear’/frechet, spaces in order to be able to utilize the ‘standard’ procedures of quantum theories [17]. on the other hand, for classical systems, modeling with the unmodified ãlukasiewicz logic algebra can also include both stochastic and fuzzy behaviors. for examples of such models the reader is referred to a previous report 4 baianu et al. lm many-valued logic algebras [5] where the activities of complex genetic networks are considered from a classical standpoint. one can also define as in [8] the ‘centers’ of certain types of ãlukasiewicz n-logic algebras; then one has the following important theorem for such centered ãlukasiewicz n-logic algebras which actually defines an equivalence relation. the logic adjointness theorem (georgescu and vraciu [15], georgescu [16]): there exists an adjointness between the category of centered ãlukasiewicz n-logic algebras, cluk–n, and the category of boolean logic algebras (bl). remarks (1) the logic adjointness relation between cluk–n and (bl is naturally defined by the leftand -right adjoint functors between these two categories of logic algebras. (2) the natural equivalence logic classes defined by the adjointness relationships in the above adjointness theorem define a fundamental, ‘logical groupoid’ structure. (3) in order to adapt the standard ãlukasiewicz-moisil logic algebra to the appropriate quantum ãlukasiewicz-moisil logic algebra, lql, a few axioms of lm-algebra need modifications, such as : n (n (x)) = y 6= x (instead of the restrictive identity n (n (x)) = x, whenever the context, ‘reference frame for the measurements’, or ‘measurement preparation’ interaction conditions for quantum systems are incompatible with the standard ‘negation’ operation n of the ãlukasiewicz-moisil logic algebra; the latter remains however valid for classical or semi–classical systems, such as various complex networks with nstates (cf. [5]). further algebraic and conceptual details were provided in a rigorous review by george georgescu [16], and also in the recently published reports, [5]–[6]. two new theorems are also noted in this context (albeit without proof). theorem 1completeness. the category of quantum automata and automata–homomorphisms has both limits and colimits. theorem 2. the category of cllassical, finite automata is a subcategory of the category of quantum automata. 5 baianu et al. lm many-valued logic algebras 4. quantum automata and quantum computation quantum computation and quantum ‘machines’ (or nanobots) were much publicized in the early 1980’s by richard feynman (nobel laureate in physics: qed),and, subsequently, a very large number of paperstoo many to cite all of them herewere published on this topic by a rapidly growing number of quantum theoreticians and some applied mathematicians. two such specific definitions are briefly considered next. quantum automata were defined in refs. [2] and [3] as generalized, probabilistic automata with quantum state spaces. their next-state functions operate through transitions between quantum states defined by the quantum equations of motions in the schrödinger representation, with both initial and boundary conditions in space-time. a new theorem was proven which states that the category of quantum automata and automata homomorphisms has both limits and colimits. therefore, both categories of quantum automata and classical automata (sequential machines) are bicomplete. a second new theorem established that the standard automata category is a subcategory of the quantum automata category. definition 1. one obtains a simple definition of quantum automaton by considering instead of the transition function of a classical sequential machine, the (quantum) transitions in a finite quantum system with definite probabilities determined by quantum dynamics. the quantum state space of a quantum automaton is thus defined as a quantum groupoid over a bundle of hilbert spaces, or over rigged hilbert spaces. formally, whereas a sequential machine, or state machine with state space s, input set i and output set o, is defined as a quintuple: (s, i, o, δ : s ×s → s, λ : s × i → o), a quantum automaton is defined by a triple (h, ∆ : h → h, µ), where h is either a hilbert space or a rigged hilbert space of quantum states and operators acting on h, and µ is a measure related to the quantum logic, lm, and (quantum) transition probabilities of this quantum system. remark. quantum computation becomes possible only when macroscopic blocks of quantum states can be controlled via quantum preparation and subsequent, classical observation. obstructions to actually building, or constructing quantum computers are known to exist in dimensions greater than 2 as a result of the standard k-s theorem. subsequent definitions of quantum computers reflect attempts to either avoid or surmount such difficulties often without 6 baianu et al. lm many-valued logic algebras seeking solutions through quantum operator algebras and their representations related to extended quantum symmetries which define fundamental invariants that are key to actual constructions of this type of quantum computers. definition 2. alternatively, aquantum automaton is defined as a quantum algebraic topology object– the triplet (gd, h − rgd , aut(g)), where gd is a locally compact quantum groupoid, h −rgd are the unitary representations of gd on rigged hilbert spaces rgd of quantum states and quantum operators on h, and aut(gd) is the transformation, or automorphism, groupoid of quantum transitions. remark. other definitions of quantum automata and quantum computations have also been reported that are closely related to recent experimental attempts at constructing quantum computing devices. related results: quantum automata applications to modeling complex systems. the quantum automata category has a faithful representation in the category of generalized (m, r) -systems which are open, dynamic bio-networks [6] with defined biological relations that represent physiological functions of primordial(s), single cells and the simpler organisms. a new category of quantum computers is also defined in terms of reversible quantum automata with quantum state spaces represented by topological groupoids that admit a local characterization through unique ‘quantum’ lie algebroids. on the other hand, the category of n-ãlukasiewicz algebras has a subcategory of centered nãlukasiewicz algebras [15] (which can be employed to design and construct subcategories of quantum automata based on n-ãlukasiewicz diagrams of existing vlsi. furthermore, as shown in ref. [15] the category of centered n-ãlukasiewicz algebras and the category of boolean algebras are naturally equivalent. variable machines with a varying transition function were previously discussed informally by norbert wiener as a possible model for complex biological systems although how this might be achieved in biocybernetics has not been specifcally, or mathematically presented by wiener. a ‘no-go’ conjecture was also proposed which states that generalized (m,r)– systems complexity prevents their complete computability by either standard or quantum automata. the concepts of quantum automata and quantum computation were initially studied and are also currently further investigated in the contexts of quantum genetics, genetic networks with nonlinear dynamics, and bioinformatics. in a previous publication [2]– after introducing the formal concept of quantum automaton–the possible implications of this concept for 7 baianu et al. lm many-valued logic algebras correctly modeling genetic and metabolic activities in living cells and organisms were also considered. this was followed by a formal report on quantum and abstract, symbolic computation based on the theory of categories, functors and natural transformations [3]. the notions of topological semigroup, quantum automaton,or quantum computer, were then suggested with a view to their potential applications to the analogous simulation of biological systems, and especially genetic activities and nonlinear dynamics in genetic networks. further, detailed studies of nonlinear dynamics in genetic networks were carried out in categories of n-valued, ãlukasiewicz logic algebras that showed significant dissimilarities [6] from the widespread boolean models of human neural networks that may have begun with the early publication of [18]. molecular models in terms of categories, functors and natural transformations were then formulated for uni-molecular chemical transformations, multi-molecular chemical and biochemical transformations [7]. previous applications of computer modeling, classical automata theory, and relational biology to molecular biology, oncogenesis and medicine were extensively reviewed and several important conclusions were reached regarding both the potential and limitations of the computation-assisted modeling of biological systems, and especially complex organisms such as homo sapiens sapiens [8], [9], [10]. novel approaches to solving the realization problems of relational biology models in complex system biology are introduced in terms of natural transformations between functors of such molecular categories. several applications of such natural transformations of functors were then presented to protein biosynthesis, embryogenesis and nuclear transplant experiments. other possible realizations in molecular biology and relational biology of organisms were then suggested in terms of quantum automata models of quantum genetics and interactomics. future developments of this novel approach are likely to also include: fuzzy relations in biology and epigenomics, relational biology modeling of complex immunological and hormonal regulatory systems, n-categories and generalized lm –topoi of ãlukasiewicz logic algebras and intuitionistic logic (heyting) algebras for modeling nonlinear dynamics and cognitive processes in complex neural networks that are present in the human brain, as well as stochastic modeling of genetic networks in ãlukasiewicz logic algebras (lla). remark. previous applications of computer modeling, classical automata theory, and relational biology to molecular biology, neural networks, oncogenesis and medicine were extensively reviewed in a previous monograph and several important conclusions were reached regarding both the potential and 8 baianu et al. lm many-valued logic algebras the severe limitations of the algorithm driven, recursive computation-assisted modeling of complex biological systems [6]. 5. conclusions non-distributive varieties of many-valued, lm-logic algebras that are also noncommutative open new possibilities for formal treatments of both complex quantum systems and highly complex biological networks, such as genetic nets, metabolic-replication systems (see for example refs. [19]–[21]), the interactome and neural networks [6]. this novel approach that involves both algebraic logic and category theory, provides an important framework for understanding the complexity inherent in intelligent systems and their flexible, adaptive behaviors. a consequence of the logical adjointness theorem– which defines categorically the natural equivalence between the category of centered lm-logic algebras and that of boolean logic algebras– is that one may be able to define artificial intelligence analogs of neural networks based on centered lm-logic algebras. in this process, higher dimensional algebra (hda; [12]-[13]) and categorical models of human brain dynamics (refs. [8]–[11]) were predicted to play a central role. these new approaches are also relevant for resolving the tug-of-war between nature-vs.-nurture theories of human development and the ‘natural’ emergence through co-evolution of intelligence in the first h. sapiens sapiens societies. references [1] e. m. alfsen and f. w. schultz. 2003. geometry of state spaces of operator algebras, birkhäuser, boston–basel–berlin (2003). [2] i.c. baianu.1971a. organismic supercategories and qualitative dynamics of systems. bull. math.biophysics., 33, 339-353. [3] i.c. baianu. 1971b. “categories, functors and quantum algebraic computations”, proceed. fourth intl. congress lmps, september 1-4, 1971, university of bucharest. [4] i.c. baianu. 1973. some algebraic properties of (m,r)-systems in categories. bull. math. biophys, 35: 213-218. [5] i.c. baianu. 1977. a logical model of genetic activities in ãlukasiewicz algebras: the non-linear theory.” bulletin of mathematical biology, 39:249258 (1977). 9 baianu et al. lm many-valued logic algebras [6] i.c. baianu. 1987. computer models and automata theory in biology and medicine(a review). in: mathematical models in medicine.,vol.7., m. witten, ed., pergamon press: new york, pp.1513-1577. [7] i.c. baianu. 2004. quantum nano-automata (qna): microphysical measurements with microphysical qna instruments, cern preprint ext2004-125. [8] i. c. baianu, r. brown and j. f. glazebrook. 2007a. categorical ontology of complex spacetime structures: the emergence of life and human consciousness, axiomathes 17: 223-352. [9] i. c. baianu, r. brown and j. f. glazebrook. 2007b. a conceptual construction of complexity levels theory in spacetime categorical ontology: non-abelian algebraic topology, many-valued logics and dynamic systems, axiomathes 17: 409-493. [10] i. c. baianu, r. brown and j. f. glazebrook. 2009. categorical ontology of complex systems, meta-levels and levels: the emergence of life, human consciousness and society’. in: “theory and applications of ontology.” vol.1, r. poli, et al., eds., springer, berlin (in press). [11] r. brown, and t. porter. 2003. ‘category theory and higher dimensional algebra: potential descriptive tools in neuroscience’, proceedings of the international conference on theoretical neurobiology, delhi, february 2003, edited by nandini singh, national brain research centre, conference proceedings vol 1 80-92. [12] r. brown. 2004. ‘crossed complexes and homotopy groupoids as non commutative tools for higher dimensional local-to-global problems’, proceedings of the fields institute workshop on categorical structures for descent and galois theory, hopf algebras and semiabelian categories, september 23-28, fields institute communications 43: 101-130. [13] r. brown, k.a. hardie, k.h. kamps and t. porter. 2002. a homotopy double groupoid of a hausdorff space, theory and applications of categories 10 (2002) 71-93. [14] g. georgescu and d. popescu. 1968. on algebraic categories, revue roumaine de mathematiques pures et appliquées 13: 337-342. [15] g. georgescu and c. vraciu. 1970. on the characterization of ãlukasiewicz algebras. j. algebra, 16 (4), 486-495. [16] g. georgescu. 2006. n-valued logics and ãlukasiewicz–moisil algebras, axiomathes 16 (1–2): 123–136. [17] n. p. landsman : mathematical topics between classical and quantum 10 baianu et al. lm many-valued logic algebras mechanics. springer verlag, new york, 1998. [18] mccullough, e. and m. pitts.1945. bull. math. biophys. 7, 112-145. [19] r. rosen. 1958. “the representation of biological systems from the standpoint of the theory of categories.”, bull. math. biophys., 20, 317-341. [20] r. rosen. 1973. on the dynamical realization of (m,r)-systems. bull. math. biology., 35:1-10. [21] m. warner. 1982. representations of (m,r)-systems by categories of automata., bull. math. biol., 44: 661-668. i. c. baianu, phd, professor, aces college and npre department, university of illinois at urbana-champaign, urbana il 61801, usa e-mail:ibaianu@illinois.edu james. f. glazebrook, phd, professor, department of mathematics and computer science, eastern illinois university, charleston il 61920, usa e-mail: jfglazebrook@eiu.edu george georgescu, phd, professor department of mathematics, bucharest university, romania e-mail: ggeorgescu@ubuc.edu ronald brown, phd., professor, school of informatics, university of wales, dean st. bangor, gwynedd ll57 1ut, uk e-mail:r.brown@bangor.ac.uk 11 microsoft word issue-1_vol-10.docx b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 january february 2019 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 2 about the journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. call for papers we are seeking papers for our next issue of the brain journal, from academicians, professors, researchers, doctors and clinicians, linguists, psychotherapists, phd students ... anyone connected to the topics of our journal. we welcome contributions from all over the world. we plan to put out the next issue of the brain in april, 2019. you are invited to write on any topic of our journal. the deadline for sending articles is the 15th of february, 2019. send your articles to brain@edusoft.ro or sign in to use the online system for submitting papers (www.brain.edusoft.ro). editorial team editor in chief:  bogdan pătruţ, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania managing editor:  agata asofroniei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania editors:  frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland  angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain  barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania  carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania  monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 – 0473 e-issn 2067 3957 (c) 2019 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 3 scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 5. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 6. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 7. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 8. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 9. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 10. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 11. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 12. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 13. gheorghe dumitriu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (education, psychology, sociology) 14. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 15. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 16. pat hayes, director of aaai, institute for human and machine cognition, affiliated with several florida universities, united states of america (artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, mathematics) 17. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 18. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 19. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) 20. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 21. heather k van der lely, department of psychology, harvard university united states of america and centre for developmental language disorders and cognitive neuroscience, united kingdom (developmental language and cognitive neuroscience) 22. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 4 23. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 24. georgios k. matis, democritus university of thrace, medical school, neurosurgical department, university hospital of alexandroupolis, greece (neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience) 25. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 26. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 27. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed systems) 28. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 29. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 30. valeriy perminov, tomsk polytechnic university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 31. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bioinspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 32. zvezdan pirtosek, university medical centre, ljubljana, slovenia (clinical studies, neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience) 33. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 34. merritt ruhlen, department of anthropological sciences, stanford university, united states of america (anthropological linguistics) 35. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 36. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 37. nora wiedenmann, munich, germany (psycholinguistics, linguistics) 38. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) consultant reviewers 39. dorin bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 40. răzvan bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 41. cătălin buiu, politehnica university of bucharest, bucharest, romania (robotics) 42. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl milan, italy (computer science) 43. mariana costache, "m. costache" psychology office, bacau, romania (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience) 44. piotr p chruszczewski, polish academy of sciences, university of wroclaw, poland (social sciences) 45. utku köse, uşak university, uşak, turkey (artificial intelligence) 46. ioan maxim, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (computer science) 47. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence) 48. ioan lucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (linguistics) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 1 (january february, 2019), issn 2067-3957 5 49. saim rasheed, king abdulaziz university, jeddah, saudi arabia (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 50. kamil roman, maria curie-sklodowska university in lublin, poland (smart city concept, intelligent transport systems, sustainable urban development) 51. tiberiu socaciu, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 52. hassan soleimani, payame noor university, tehran, iran (applied linguistics) 53. elena-mădălina vătămănescu, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest (social sciences), romania 53. dmytro zubov, soochow university, suzhou, jiangsu, china (computer science) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, pages: 144-156 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/20 does energy intensity affect the relationship between financial development and environmental pollution? celil aydin¹, reyhan demir onay2 1 associate prof., bandırma onyedi eylül university, balıkesir, turkey, caydin@bandirma.edu.tr 2 graduate student, bandırma onyedi eylül university, balıkesir, turkey, reyhanonay@ogr.bandirma.edu.tr abstract: this paper examines the role of energy intensity on the relation between financial development and environmental pollution for brics countries consists of the period 1990-2015. financial development indicates the countries' currency capacities, which is significant for net energy importer countries that need currency to sustain their energy import. additionally, for all countries, environmental degradation is important for sustainable growth. so in this study, we employ panel smooth transition regression model (pstr) to evaluate the “threshold” level of energy intensity which has vital role for consumption of energy. the findings indicate that for full sample there are three energy intensity threshold points. above the threshold point (11.4%), an increment in financial development index causes more environmental pollution. however, below that energy intensity threshold point, an increase in financial development negatively affects environmental pollution. so this study may be a guide for decision makers and political authorities for sustainable energy supply and sustainable environment. keywords: co2 emission; environmental pollution; energy intensity; financial development. how to cite: aydin, c., & demir onay, r. (2020). does energy intensity affect the relationship between financial development and environmental pollution? brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 144-156. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/20 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/20 mailto:caydin@bandirma.edu.tr mailto:reyhanonay@ogr.bandirma.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/20 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 145 1. introduction in scholarly literature, the explicit connection between energy consumption and co2 emission has been researched. as findings indicate that energy consumption with using high intensity-carbon fuel is the biggest cause to an environmental degradation. for example, based on the assessment of relation between energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in china, unidirectional causality from energy consumption to long-term carbon emissions is observed in granger causality test (zhang & cheng, 2009). the other papers which investigate the relationship in the united states, eu member countries and bric countries also show causality from energy consumption to environmental pollution (carbondioxide emissions) (soytas & sari, 2007; soytas & sari, 2009; pao & tsai, 2010). so, countries’ energy demand for grater output causes much more co2 emissions than other factors. there are substantially main constituents in countries’ increasing rate of energy demands such as industrialization, growth of the economy that means increment in gdp, urbanization, high technology usage, low performance in energy efficiency and etc. both developed countries and emerging markets need energy resources for sustainable economic growth in particular. and to enhance economic output; financial development, including financial depth, financial openness, financial market access and financial institutions' qualityis a prominent factor. while these instruments are drivers of investment and r&d expenditures in developed countries, they are also indicators of currency capacity in net energy importer countries. countries need to be financially developed in order for them to be able to import energy. otherwise, they would not find sufficient energy resources and could not sustain economic growth. carbon dioxide emission, in other words, environmental pollution is critical for countries that can import and use a great amount of energy. in this sense, the literature has researched the link between development of financial system and co2 emissions. according to result, an increase or a decrease in financial development index affects the environmental quality (tamazian et al., 2019). in this context, energy efficiency or energy intensity takes a crucial role to maintain the economic growth with low energy consumption. because energy intensity is an indicator of an amount of energy use to produces one unit of gdp in the production process (aydin & esen, 2017; ray, 2011). so, high energy-intensity means that a country uses energy resources less efficiently. high energy intensive sectors consume more energy than the low energy intensive sector for the same amount of output. does energy intensity affect the relationship between financial development … celil aydin, reyhan demir onay 146 therefore, these sectors produce more carbon-dioxide and they affect the environmental quality negatively. 2. problem statement the causality between financial development and co2 emission or in the other words environmental pollution is one of the most debated and addressed issues within the development process of economy. in recent studies show evidence of the great importance of understanding how much country’s development of financial system is included to environmental pollution. these studies searching the linkage between financial development and environmental pollution are focused on linearity of this relationship in general. so literature can be divided into two groups; 1) empirical studies confirm the relationship between financial development and degradation of the environment, which posits a positive linearity, 2) empirical studies confirm the relationship between financial development and degradation of the environment, which posits a negative linearity. in the first group, the relationship between trade openness, financial development and carbon emissions is investigated using the ardl boundary test by bekhet et al. (2017) for the gulf cooperation council countries from 1980 to 2011 and by shahzad et al. (2017) for pakistan from 1971 to 2011. the findings prove a unidirectional relation from trade openness and financial development to carbon emission in long-run equilibrium in pakistan and in oman. siddique (2017) also studies the effect of financial advancement on environmental damage by carbon emission in pakistan by using ardl bound test with the period of 1980-2015. the findings support the results of shahzad et al. (2017) study that there is a positive path way from trade openness, developed financial system depth and advanced financial market to carbon emission. alam et al. (2015) test the relation between energy demand and financial development in saarc member countries over a period of 1975-2011. results prove that financial development plays a major role in increasing energy demand in countries that leads to more carbon emission. ziaei (2015) studies role of financial advancement on co2 emission in the countries of europe, east asia and oceania with the period of 1989-2011 and according to results, increasing carbon emission is also driven by developed financial system. ganda (2019) and cetin and ecevit (2017) investigate the environmental impact of financial development in oecd countries and in turkey respectively. the findings prove that there is a in both oecd countries and turkey, brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 147 increasing in financial development index causes an increment in environmental pollution. in the second group, yuan et al. (2019) measure how financial development changes the quality of the environment in china by using data from 285 prefecture-level cities within 2003-2015 periods. according to the results, increasing in financial development causes a decreasing in environmental pollution except megacities. the other studies (yuxiang & chen, 2010; ji & zhang, 2019; jalil & feridun, 2011) reveal that green development in china is supported also by financial development. according to these studies, besides financial development, technology and environmental regulations are developing that reduce the carbon emission. tamazian et al. (2019) and saud et al. (2018) measure the adverse impact of economic and financial development on carbon dioxide emission in the bric countries between 1992 and 2004 and the belt and road initiative countries between 1980 and 2016. the findings indicate that development in economy, financial system and trade openness leads to a less environmental pollution meaning that decreases environmental degradation. in recent studies examining the impact of developing financial system on environment are focused on linearity of this relationship. the linearity of the financial development / environmental pollution relationship, however, is still considerable. so, the present study aims to test the linearity of the relationship under the effect of energy intensity for the brics (brazil, russia federation, india, china and south africa) countries by using pstr model. these countries are emerging markets that need energy resources in order to sustain their economic development. 3. research questions the present study verifies important findings that can be explained that there is a smooth non-linear link between co2 emissions and financial development in the economies in question. so, when energy intensity level is included, financial development does not linearly alter the level of environmental pollution in a positive or negative way. the u-shape relation is presented as geometrically. this means that when energy intensity level is higher the certain point of energy intensity, in brics countries, increment in financial system development expedites the carbon emission. 4. data set and research methods this analyse examines if the effect of financial development on environmental pollution depends on the level of energy intensity based on does energy intensity affect the relationship between financial development … celil aydin, reyhan demir onay 148 brics countries including the years from 1990 to 2015. this relationship was evaluated on the basis of model used by yuxiang and chen (2010); ji and zhang (2019); yuan et al. (2019). the equation (1) shows the model that comprises financial development as a carbon emission factor: (1) where represents per capita emission; is the financial development index; denotes the white noise error term; t = 1, 2, …, t time periods; and i=1, 2, 3…, n countries. we converted the model shown in equation (1) into the pstr model shown in equation (2) to examine the non-linear connection between financial development and carbon emissions: ( ) (2) , coefficient, enables the potential of unit-specific fixed effects and qi represents the threshold variable. the term ( ) is employed as a transition function in equation (2). and this term is displayed as a form of logistic function in equation (3): ( ) [ ( ) ] (3) in equation (3), displays the threshold parameter between two regimes which are indicated as ( ) and ( ) terms respectively. the term is a smoothing parameter. this parameter specifies the smoothness of the shifting of regimes which transiting from one to another. in other words, represents the slope of the transition function between two threshold points. in this study, we used the per capita co2 emissions as a dependant variable. we also used the financial development index (fd) as the independent variable and energy intensity as threshold variable of the model. we obtained the data of co2 emissions from international energy agency (iea), the data of financial development index from imf and the data of energy intensity from world development indicators (wdi). brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 149 5. empirical results in this research, primarily cross-sectional dependence test was applied. this is because cross-sectional dependency is significant for the evaluation of estimation results to a vast scale (breush & pagan, 1980; pesaran, 2004). after this test, unit root test was applied to test the stationary of the times series. without it, the results of the analysis may be deceptive. finally, nonlinearity of the relationship between financial development and carbon emissions was researched. the lmadj (adjusted lagrange multiplier) test presented by breusch-pagan 4 and deviation was adapted by pesaran (2004) was studied for the presence of cross-sectional dependency. the findings which are observed from the analysis are stated in table 1: table 1. cross section dependence co2 fd model cdbp 27.532*** 31.245*** 98.525*** cdlm 7.124*** 8.096*** 12.165*** cd 1.649** 2.257** 5.365*** lmadj 4.490*** 3.784*** 7.598*** significance at 10%, 5% and 1% levels are stated respectively as *, **, ***. table 1 represents the test statistics for per capita co2 emissions and financial development index series. according to the test, the null hypothesis is evaluated as “the time series of countries are not dependent by cross-sectional”. and there can be come out explicitly that the null has been rejected. this implies that there is cross-sectional dependence on the times series and model. so, any dramatic change in one of the countries data would have impact on the others. in addition, the lmadj (adjusted lagrange multiplier) test has an important role on to select the method for the second test stage. cross-dependence test and unit root test should be coherent to each other. therefore, moon and perron’s second-generation panel unit root test was applied for the stationary of the series which takes the cross-sectional dependence into consideration (moon & perron, 2004). table 2 provides the finding of the analysis. according to these findings, the null hypothesis that “the series have a unit root” has been rejected for all series. so, the series are stationary at level [i(0)]. does energy intensity affect the relationship between financial development … celil aydin, reyhan demir onay 150 table 2. results of moon and perron’s 9 panel unit root tests full sample co2 fd �̂� 2 3 𝑡𝑎 -15.038 (0.000) -19.722 (0.000) 𝑡𝑏 -12.846 (0.028) -9.598 (0.038) �̂�𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑙 0.842 0.864 notes: �̂� is the estimated number of common factors. 𝑡𝑎 and 𝑡𝑏 are the unit root test statistics based on de-factored panel data. corresponding p-values are in parentheses. �̂�𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑙 is the corrected pooled estimates of the autoregressive parameter. in the final stage, the linearity of the relation was tested by using pstr model. for the first part of the pstr analysis, wald tests (lm), fisher tests (lmf) and lrt tests (lrt) were applied both for analysis of the linearity in all models and to evaluate the amount of transition functions. table 3. tests for the linearity threshold variables (energy intensity) model 𝐻 ∶ 𝑟 𝑣𝑠 𝐻 ∶ 𝑟 lm 26.155*** (0.000) lmf 15.490*** (0.000) lr 29.202*** (0.000) significance at 5% and 1% levels is stated respectively as **, ***. according to the data of table 3, the null hypothesis asserts that, there is no threshold value in the model. however, as indicated in the outcomes of the lm, lmf and lrt test, the null hypothesis is rejected at the 1% level of significance and the h1 (the alternative hypothesis) should be confirmed. this second hypothesis emphasizes that there is at least one brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 151 threshold value making the relation non-linear. so, this model should be repeated by setting null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis as “there is one threshold level and there are at least two threshold levels, respectively”. the aim is to determine the number of the threshold values through repeating the tests. so table 4 indicates the results of remaining nonlinearity of the pstr model. table 4. tests for the remaining non-linearity of the pstr model threshold variables (energy intensity) model 𝐻 ∶ 𝑟 𝑣𝑠 𝐻 ∶ 𝑟 2 lm 23.820*** (0.000) lmf 13.572*** (0.000) lr 26.312*** (0.000) 𝐻 ∶ 𝑟 2 𝑣𝑠 𝐻 ∶ 𝑟 3 lm 10.701*** (0.005) lmf 5.382*** (0.006) lr 11.167*** (0.004) 𝐻 ∶ 𝑟 3 𝑣𝑠 𝐻 ∶ 𝑟 4 lm 0.080 (0.961) lmf 0.037 (0.964) lr 0.080 (0.961) significance at 5% and 1% levels is stated respectively as **, ***. table 4 shows that, the null hypothesis need to be rejected with 1% significance. so according to the findings, there are at least two threshold values and three regimes by accepting the alternative hypothesis. the next stage is to find the exact number of regimes and threshold effects. does energy intensity affect the relationship between financial development … celil aydin, reyhan demir onay 152 consequently, the h1, alternative hypothesis, indicating that "model has two threshold values" was again evaluated against the null hypothesis which states that there are at least three threshold values. at this point, null hypothesis was rejected again and the alternative hypothesis was confirmed with 1% significance and tested for the next stage. at the final stage, the null hypothesis was settled as “there are three threshold values”. alternative hypothesis is that there are at least four threshold values. in this final test, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. so, it can be concluded that the model has three threshold effects and four regimes. after determining the number of threshold values, the next analysis is to examine the way of nonlinear relationship between financial development and carbon emissions by using four-regime pstr model for sample. table 5 shows the results of estimation. table 5. estimated results of the pstr model threshold variables (energy intensity) model fd1 -20.625*** (2.236) fd2 4.987*** (1.225) fd3 8.157*** (1.057) fd4 17.477*** (1.260) location parameters, 8.642 10.433 11.443 slope parameters, 0.000 0.497 0.113 standard errors are corrected for heteroskedasticity in parentheses. *** indicates the 1% significance level. the statistics, presented in table 5, explain that the estimated slope parameters are ranging from 0.000 to 0.497. so, they are relatively small in all models. this implies that there is a continuum of circumstances between brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 153 regimes that is, the relationship between per capita co2 emissions and the financial development index smoothly switches from one regime to another regime as showed in figure 1: figure 1. estimated transition function of the pstr model the model's assessment demonstrates that an increment in financial development index decreases per capita co2 emissions and, after reaching the first energy intensity threshold (θ=8.642), such an increase reduces per capita co2 emissions. the connection, however, is still negative. on the other hand, when an increase in the financial development index reaches the second energy intensity threshold (θ=10.433), the effect of increased the financial index on per capita co2 emission decreases less compared to the previous regime and is negative. when an increase in the financial development index reaches the third energy intensity threshold (θ=11.443), the effect of increased the financial index on per capita co2 emission increases and is positive. does energy intensity affect the relationship between financial development … celil aydin, reyhan demir onay 154 6. discussions and conclusion financial development has gained a great importance, especially following the financial crisis in 2008 both in terms of countries’ sustainable growth and their implementation of fiscal and monetary policies. on the other hand, global challenges like climate change and efficiency of greenhouse gas emissions and their causes have been studied in the literature besides in recent years; relationship between financial development and global pollution has been investigated. main objective of these efforts emanates from countries’ prioritization of not only their economic development but also the development of their financial systems. question of this research subject is “does carbon emission increase while countries developing financially?” according to the researches, financial development linearly affects the carbon emission. that is to say, development in the financial systems of researched countries either increases or decreases the carbon emission. however a gap in literature is standing out at this point. is there a non-linear relationship between financial development index and environmental pollution? recent study tested the linearity of the relationship between financial development and carbon emission under the effect of energy intensity using panel smooth transition regression model for brics countries with annual data from 1990 to 2015. the findings show that there are three threshold levels of energy intensity. these threshold levels are 8.62%, 10.43% and 11.44%. the increase in financial development for the all countries reduces the co2 emission dramatically until energy intensity level reaches the first energy intensity threshold level (θ=8.642). after this threshold level, the relationship still remains negative until the energy intensity threshold level reaches the point (θ=11.443). however, the effect of increment in financial development index on co2 emission is lighter in these regimes. when the energy intensity level over step the threshold level (θ=11.443), the rise in financial development leads to higher co2 emissions. the present study verifies important findings that can be explained as; firstly, there is a smooth non-linear link between co2 emissions and financial development in the economies in question. the findings indicate that when energy intensity level is included, financial development does not linearly alter the level of environmental pollution in a positive or negative way. secondly; the geometrical represent of the relation is u-shape. this means that when energy intensity level is lower than 11.44%, financial development contributes to the environmental quality. but after this certain brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 155 point, in brics countries, increment in financial system development expedites the carbon emission. so the main object is the energy intensity level in these countries in terms of green development. to guarantee a sustainable future for the all countries, policy makers should integrate energy intensity level to economic and financial development projections. references alam, a., malik, i. a., abdullah, a. b., hassan, a., faridullah, awan, u., ali, g., zaman, k., & naseem, i. (2015). does financial development contribute to saarc's energy demand? from energy crisis to energy reforms. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 41, 818-829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.08.071 aydin, c., & esen, o. (2017). does the level of energy intensity matter in the effect of energy consumption on the growth of transition economies? evidence from dynamic panel threshold analysis. energy economics, 69, 185-195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2017.11.010 bekhet, h. a., matar, a., & yasmin, t. (2017) co2 emissions, energy consumption, economic growth, and financial development in gcc countries: dynamic simultaneous equation models. renewable and sustainable energy review, 70, 117-132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.089. breusch, t. s., & pagan, a. r. (1980). the lagrange multiplier test and its applications to model specification in econometrics. the review of economic studies, 47 (1), econometrics issue, 239–253. https://doi.org/10.2307/2297111 cetin, m., & ecevit, e. (2017). the impact of financial development on carbon emission under the structural breaks: empirical evidence from turkish economy. international journal of economic perspectives, 11(1), 64-78. ganda, f. (2019). the environmental impacts of financial development in oecd countries: a panel gmm approach. environmental science and pollution research, 26(7), 6758-6772. doi:10.1007/s11356-019-04143-z jalil, a., & feridun, m. (2011). the impact of growth, energy and financial development on the environment in china: a cointegration analysis. energy economics, 33, 284-291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2010.10.003 ji, q., & zhang, d. (2019). how much does financial development contribute to renewable energy growth and upgrading of energy structure in china?. energy policy, 128, 114-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.12.047 moon, h. r., & perron, b. (2004). testing for a unit root in panels with dynamic factors. journal of. econometrics, 122 (1), 81–126. pao, h. t., & tsai, c. m. (2011). co2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in bric countries. energy policy, 38(12), 7850-7860. does energy intensity affect the relationship between financial development … celil aydin, reyhan demir onay 156 pesaran, m. h. (2004). pesaran general diagnostic tests for cross section dependence in panels. cesifo, working papers series 1229. retrieved from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_1229.html ray, s. (2011). measuring energy intensity in selected manufacturing industries in india. journal of energy technologies and policy, 1(1), 31-45. saud, s., chen, s., danish, & haseeb, a. (2018). impact of financial development and economic growth on environmental quality: an empirical analysis from belt and road initiative (bri) countries. environmental science and pollution research, 26(3), 2253-2269 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3688-1 shahzad, s. j. h., kumar, r. r., zakaria, m., & hurr, m. (2017). carbon emission, energy consumption, trade openness and financial development in pakistan: a revisit. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 70, 185-192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.042 siddique, h. m. a. (2017). impact of financial development and energy consumption on co2 emissions: evidence from pakistan. bulletin of business and economics, 6(2), 68-73. soytas, u., & sari, r. (2007). ewing bt. energy consumption, income and carbon emissions in the united states. ecological economics, 62(3-4), 482-489. soytas, u., & sari, r. (2009). energy consumption, economic growth and carbon emissions: challenges faced by an eu candidate member. ecological economics, 68(6), 1667-1675. tamazian, a., chousa, j. p., & vadlamannati, k. c. (2019). does higher economic and financial development lead to environmental degradation: evidence from bric countries. energy policy, 37, 246-253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2008.08.025 zhang, x. p., & cheng, x. m. (2009). energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth in china. ecological economics, 68(10), 2706–2712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.05.011 ziaei, s. m. (2015). effects of financial development indicators on energy consumption and co2 emission of european, east asian and oceania countries. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 42, 752-759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.10.085 yuan, h., zhang, t., feng, y., liu, y., & ye, x. (2019). does financial agglomeration promote the green development in china? a spatial spillover perspective. journal of cleaner production, 237, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.117808 yuxiang, k., & chen, z. (2010). financial development and environmental performance: evidence from china. environment and development economics, 16(1), 93-111. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355770x10000422 https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_1229.html microsoft word document1 33 cultural adaptation and optimization of the compliance questionnairerheumatology (cqr) through statistical methods for patients with rheumatic diseases mihaela-simona subtirelu faculty of pharmacy university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova str. petru rareș 2, craiova 200349, romania phone: 0351 443 500 mihaela.subtirelu@yahoo.com adina turcu-stiolica faculty of pharmacy university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova str. petru rareș 2, craiova 200349, romania phone: 0351 443 500 adina.turcu@gmail.com florentin-ananu vreju faculty of medicine, department of rheumatology university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova str. petru rareș 2, craiova 200349, romania phone: 0351 443 500 florin_vreju@yahoo.com paulina lucia ciurea faculty of medicine, department of rheumatology university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova str. petru rareș 2, craiova 200349, romania phone: 0351 443 500 stefan cristian dinescu faculty of medicine, department of rheumatology university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova str. petru rareș 2, craiova 200349, romania phone: 0351 443 500 andreea lili barbulescu faculty of medicine, department of pharmacology university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova str. petru rareș 2, craiova 200349, romania phone: 0351 443 500 johny neamtu faculty of pharmacy university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova str. petru rareș 2, craiova 200349, romania phone: 0351 443 500 jneamtu@yahoo.com raluca christiana dănciulescu faculty of medicine university of medicine and pharmacy of craiova str. petru rareș 2, craiova 200349, romania phone: 0351 443 500 ralucadanciulescu@yahoo.com brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 34 abstract there is a growing interest in the management of long-term conditions and increasing awareness of the need for compliance/adherence's assessment. an inexpensive and simple way to measure patients’ treatment compliance is pharmacoeconomic measurement tools. the aim of the study is to increase the quality of assessment of patients’ compliance through statistical methods in order to obtain a more accurate estimation and a shorter, easy-to-respond selfadministered questionnaire. we used the compliance questionnaire-rheumatology (cqr) translated into romanian and we verified the reliability and the internal consistency of this instrument. the research included 140 consecutive patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis according to currently used criteria, with different treatment strategies and from different parts of romania. two methods for cqr's optimization were used. the first method identified associations between cqr score and patient compliance. an exploratory factor analysis was performed, as an alternative method, to reduce the number of items in cqr. the factor analysis identified a two-dimensional 9 item model that explains 66.78% of the variance in adherence and has a good internal consistency and fits the data. a shortened and optimized version of the cqr increases the clinical utility by reducing the patient’s burden while maintaining a good level of reliability. keywords: compliance; adherence; reliability; compliance questionnaire-rheumatology (cqr); pharmacoeconomics. 1. introduction more and more, pharmacoeconomic instruments have been used to predict the quality of life of patients, but also to ease efforts to identify associated pathologies. as defined by the us food and drug administration (fda), pro (patient-reported outcomes) is “a measurement based on a report that comes directly from the patient about the status of a patient’s condition without amendment or interpretation of the patient’s response by a clinician or anyone else” (u.s. food and drug administration, 2009). pro (patient-reported outcomes) can be easily implemented and in the same time can be associated with lower costs because the interval to complete these forms is shorter, and most often no specific training is required in order to complete. the management of rheumatic diseases is particularly important because they have increased levels of influence on patient’s quality of life, mortality, and morbidity, thus the drug therapy plays a major role in the disease outcome. in order to obtain optimal management, there is a need for an accurate understanding of the pathology but, it is clear that the effectiveness of any subsequent therapy depends on each patient’s decision to take the treatment correctly or not. thus, we have several international studies that showed patients suffering from rheumatic diseases are often not compliant with the treatment prescribed by the specialist. rheumatic disorders are a group of inflammatory conditions that have similar immunopathological mechanisms. these disorders are characterized by a complex pathology involving multiple organs and systems, thus increasing the rate of morbidity and mortality. as with other chronic rheumatic conditions, besides an accurate periodic clinical and paraclinical evaluation, using modern imaging techniques (vreju et al., 2016; filippou et al., 2018), patient adherence to treatment is an important part of therapy success. since rheumatic diseases involve lifelong treatment, the impact of low adherence to treatment can also influence its effectiveness. a lack of adherence to treatment can be misinterpreted as low efficacy or lack of response to treatment (anghel, farcaş & oprean, 2018). there are studies (kardas, 2007; haddad, brain & scott, 2014) which demonstrated that good patient compliance with treatment leads directly to stable clinical effects. non-compliance causes a number of serious problems in properly managing the medical condition involving very high costs and treatment-related changes. for this reason, measuring and predicting the compliance of a particular patient is a piece of useful information for the optimal management of the disease. m.-s. subtirelu, a. turcu-stiolica, f.-a. vreju, p. l. ciurea, s. c. dinescu, a. l. barbulescu, j. neamtu, r. c. dănciulescu cultural adaptation and optimization of the compliance questionnaire-rheumatology (cqr) through statistical methods for patients with rheumatic diseases 35 pednekar (2019) assessed the multiple methods for measuring medication compliance/adherence and self-reported questionnaire was the most used from these methods. the number of pharmacoeconomic instruments that measure directly the level of adherence or compliance of the patient to drug treatment for rheumatic diseases is quite low (van den bemt et al., 2009). a single questionnaire was specifically developed to assess patients’ compliance to treatment for various rheumatic diseases and is called the compliance questionnaire for rheumatology (subtirelu, turcu-stiolica, vreju & neamtu, 2017; de klerk, van der heijde, van der tempel & van der linden, 1999). the compliance questionnaire-rheumatology (subtirelu, turcustiolica, vreju & neamtu, 2017, table 1) is a standardized, self-administrated compliance instrument that can be used by patients diagnosed with rheumatic diseases or specialist in the field of rheumatology. this pharmacoeconomic tool contains 19 questions with four response options (also called the 4-point likert scale). table1. the full compliance questionnaire for rheumatology (cqr19) questions q1 if the rheumatologist tells me to take the medicines, i do so. q2* i take my anti-rheumatic medicines because i then have fewer problems. q3 i definitely don’t dare to miss my anti-rheumatic medications. q4 if i can help myself with alternative therapies, i prefer that to what my rheumatologist prescribes. q5* my medicines are always stored in the same place and that’s why i don’t forget them. q6* i take my medicines because i have complete confidence in my rheumatologist. q7 the most important reason to take my anti-rheumatic medicines is that i can still do what i want to do. q8 i don’t like to take medicine. if i can do without them, i will. q9 when i am on vacation, it sometimes happens that i don’t take my medicines. q10 i take my anti-rheumatic drugs, for otherwise what’s the point of consulting a rheumatologist? q11 i don’t expect miracles from my anti-rheumatic medicines. q12 if you can’t stand the medicines you might say: “throw it away, no matter what”. q13* if i don’t take my anti-rheumatic medicines regularly, the inflammation returns. q14* if i don’t take my anti-rheumatic medicines, my body warns me. q15* my health goes above everything else and if i have to take medicines to keep well, i will. q16* i use a dose organizer for my medications. q17* what the doctor tells me, i hang on to. q18* if i don’t take my anti-rheumatic medicines, i have more complaints. q19 it happens every now and then, i go out for the weekend and then i don't take my medicines. note: items denoted with * have been retained in the final 9 items cqr9 questionnaire. using an already validated questionnaire has many advantages over the other commonly used methods; it is considered a procedure that is not invasive, it has minimal costs, but can also provide relatively accurate measures of compliance with the actual information provided by the patient. the questionnaire is based on a four-point likert scale, ranked from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree". a lower score indicates lower levels of adherence. if the adherence score is higher than 80, the patient is adherent to treatment (subtirelu, turcu-stiolica, vreju & neamtu, 2018). the time spent by the patient with completing the questionnaire is short, up to 10 minutes. regarding the measurement of adherence for rheumatic diseases, there are few pharmacoeconomic instruments in english-language, but in romanian, there is no validated questionnaire that measures the level of adherence for patients. usually, people seek treatment at the final stage of the disease, when the various conditions tend to become more serious and lead to functional disabilities, pain, tiredness, even restrictions on social participation. this requires a better understanding of the systematic monitoring of these results, in addition to traditional clinical outcome measurements. we translated cqr19 (subtirelu, turcu-stiolica, vreju & neamtu, 2017) according to international translation guidelines (beaton, bombardier, guillemin & ferraz, 2000). the translation of the cqr19 was made by two of the authors, native in romanian language and fluent brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 36 in english. both authors were connected in the health/pharmacoeconomic field. the two translations were carried out independently and for the final version of the questionnaire, both checked out for possible misunderstandings, choosing a final questionnaire. each item translated must meet certain criteria related to clarity, good understanding in the romanian language because patients coming from different social environments will respond to the questionnaires. our aim was to optimize the cqr19, investigating if it is possible to reduce the number of items in the cqr19 while maintaining internal reliability. a shorter questionnaire would be quicker and easier to administer during a routine outpatient clinic appointment. in the same time, the reduction version allows for the cqr to be incorporated into a battery of questionnaires for research purposes (turcu-stiolica, subtirelu, vreju & neamtu, 2018; subtirelu, turcu-stiolica, vreju, neamtu, 2017). 2. methods 2.1. patients a total of one hundred forty romanian patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (ra) according to currently used criteria, with different treatment strategies (n1=103 patients treated with conventional and n2=37 treated with biologic drugs) were enrolled in this study. the patients were enrolled from the rheumatology clinic of emergency county hospital craiova, city hospital filiasi and city hospital dragasani. the questionnaire was completed under the guidance of a pharmacist and a physician, senior specialist in the field of rheumatology. the local ethics committee approved this study and patients’ informed consent was obtained, during which they were informed of their rights and obligations and other study details. the diagnosis date for rheumatic conditions is different for each of them, ranging between 2007 and 2018. at the 103 patients we found diseases like: gonarthrosis, spondylosis, acute lumbago, coxarthrosis and most patients claim to have chronic degenerative rheumatism (arthrosis). the cqr was translated into romanian (subtirelu, turcu-stiolica, vreju & neamtu, 2017) and the final version was optimized after the obtained value of adherence of the ra patients treated with biologics and conventional treatment. in addition to the biological treatment, the patients also had conventional medicines such as: nsaids, ipp (pantoprazole) and some otcs used to treat rheumatic pain. in romania, the national health insurance house (nhih) governs health insurance for ra patients (kawalec et al., 2017). a doctor diagnoses the ra patient and issues prescriptions for symptomatic therapy and synthetic or biologic disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (dmard) that will be dispensed by a pharmacist in a community pharmacy. the patients could pay a difference for symptomatic drugs, but in the case of dmards, the drugs are totally reimbursed by nhih. more, ra patients treated with biologic dmards have better results than the ra patients treated with conventional dmards. so, the patients treated with biologics should be more adherent than patients treated with conventional drugs. the romanian cqr-19 score was first calculated as the sum of all scored item (every item has the score 1, 2, 3 or 4) minus 19 and divided by 0.57: 𝐶𝑄𝑅𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 = ∑ . (equation 1) a patient is adherent if the score is bigger than 80%. the influence of demographic factors (age, gender, living place and level of education) was assessed. 2.2. optimization of cqr19 the use of tests with multiple items is inconvenient for many reasons. one of these is the time consumed with their application; the other may be the uselessness of keeping items whose contribution to the overall score is small or going in a different direction. identifying and removing m.-s. subtirelu, a. turcu-stiolica, f.-a. vreju, p. l. ciurea, s. c. dinescu, a. l. barbulescu, j. neamtu, r. c. dănciulescu cultural adaptation and optimization of the compliance questionnaire-rheumatology (cqr) through statistical methods for patients with rheumatic diseases 37 or optimizing these items is one of the objectives of this study. the basic criteria for this operation are the value of the cronbach alpha index, which has a variation range between 0 and 1. in our study, we used two methods for optimization of cqr19. method i to adapt and optimize the questionnaire, the cqr score was analyzed using pearson correlation coefficients. the validity of cqr was assessed by identifying associations between cqr scores and patient compliance. some of the items in the cqr received a negative score if the patient indicated less compliance. the items of some questions were recoded (score 1→4, 2→3, 3→2, 4→1) to obtain a useful total score, where high scores are related to higher compliance. test-retest reliability was measured by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficient (icc), a measure of concordance that corrects for systemic errors (fleiss, 1986). the number of items was reduced for predicting an acceptable amount of medication adherence. the negative issue regarding the recoding of the elements is that although this may significantly increase the adherence score, the use of inverse questions may reduce the patients’ response tendency. if questionnaires are used with inverse questions, they must be carefully formulated, ensuring that they are properly interpreted. multiple regression analyses were used to obtain the weights that increased the cqr score. method ii the self-reporting questionnaire cqr19 was interpreted with a multivariate statistical procedure, exploratory factor analysis, for reducing the number of variables and optimizing it (williams, brown & onsman, 2012). we aimed to reduce the number of items by removing those not adding to the explained variance of the factor, that is adherence, in this study. a factor can be described in terms of the variables measured and their relative importance for the factor. in our questionnaire, variables were measured with the initial 19 items. therefore, having discovered which factors exist, we analyzed correlation coefficients between responses and factors. according to tabachnick and fidell (2007), the correlation matrix must be inspected for correlation coefficients over 0.30. factorability of 0.3 indicates that the factors account for approximately 30% relationship within the data, or in this study, it would indicate that a third of the variables share too much variance, and hence becomes impractical to determine if the variables are correlated with each other, or if they are influenced by the dependent variable (multicollinearity). factor analysis produces a matrix of coefficients (or factor loadings) that describes the interrelationships between the measures under study and the underlying factors (like the correlation coefficients) (kleinbaum & kupper, 1978). not all factors were retained because we want to assess only treatment adherence of ra patients. this is the reason why we used another approach: catell's screen test that involves plotting each of the eigenvalues of the factors. the process of deciding how many factors to keep is called extraction. eigenvalues associated with a variate indicate the substantive importance of that factor (field, 2013), so we retained only factors with large eigenvalues. the eigenvalues represent the amount of variation explained by a factor and that an eigenvalue of 1 represents a substantial amount of variation. catell recommended plotting each eigenvalue (y-axis) against the factor with which it is associated (x-axis), retaining all factors above the elbow, or break in the plot, as these factors contribute the most to the explanation of the variance in the data set (pallant, 2007). prior to the extraction of the factors, kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test of sphericity. a kmo index of 0.5 and significant bartlett’s test of sphericity (p<0.01) are considered suitable for factor analysis (hair, 1995). once the final model was determined, the internal consistency was tested using cronbach’s α with a threshold of >0.8 being considered as having high internal consistency (>0.7 is a good consistency, <0.7 is considerably questionable). statistical analysis was carried out using spss version 20.0. the quantitative variables were characterized by the mean and standard deviation (normal distribution), and qualitative variables brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 38 with absolute frequency. for qualitative data, the comparison between groups was realized with the chi-square test (χ2). for comparison between means of two groups of parametric data of independent samples, student t-test was used. pearson correlation was used for analyzing two quantitative variables. a p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. in spss, patients’ data were stored in rows and variables were stored in columns. we had 26 variables (age, gender, environment, education, employed, q1-q19, treatment, adherence score). 3. results the demographic characteristics of the patients in the cultural adaptation and optimization analysis are summarized in table 2. the mean (± standard deviation) age of the patients was 54.31 (±14.48) years. the majorities of the participants were aged over 40 years (76%) and most were females (66%). the most part of the patients live in the urban environment (73%) and one third have a university background (38%). table 2. demographic characteristics of the patients (n=140) patients characteristics total (n=140) n (%) patients treated with biologic drugs (n=37) n (%) patients treated with conventional drugs (n=103) n (%) χ2 (p) age, yr (mean± sd) min max 54.31 (±14.48) 20 83 51.97 (±12.78) 21 83 55.16 (±15.01) 20 82 age category 18-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70+ 12 (9%) 12 (9%) 22 (16%) 37 (26%) 38 (27%) 19 (14%) 4 (11%) 2 (5%) 7 (19%) 13 (35%) 9 (24%) 3 (8%) 8 (8%) 10 (10%) 15 (15%) 24 (23%) 29 (28%) 17 (17%) t=1.148 (p=0.253) gender male female 47 (34%) 93 (66%) 7 (19%) 30 (81%) 40 (39%) 63 (61%) 4.842 (0.028) living place urban rural 102 (73%) 38 (27%) 30 (81%) 7 (19%) 72 (70%) 31 (30%) 1.720 (p=0.281) level of education 8 classes highschool post-high school university 40 (29%) 27 (19%) 19 (14%) 54 (38%) 4 (11%) 10 (27%) 5 (13%) 18 (49%) 36 (35%) 17 (17%) 14 (13%) 35 (35%) 8.439 (p=0.038) employment situation employee pensioner unemployed 74 (53%) 48 (34%) 18 (13%) 23 (63%) 12 (32%) 2 (5%) 51 (50%) 36 (35%) 16 (15%) 3.046 (p=0.218) m.-s. subtirelu, a. turcu-stiolica, f.-a. vreju, p. l. ciurea, s. c. dinescu, a. l. barbulescu, j. neamtu, r. c. dănciulescu cultural adaptation and optimization of the compliance questionnaire-rheumatology (cqr) through statistical methods for patients with rheumatic diseases 39 3.1 method i compliance, as measured using different formulas, is summarized in table 3. in order to determine the questionnaire questions to be recoded, ibm spss statistics 20.0 is used as a working tool. table 3. compliance value: cqr scores compliance’s patients treated with cd mean (sd) compliance’s patients treated with bd mean (sd) low adherence (% of patients cd with less than 80% compliance) low adherence (% of patients bd with less than 80% compliance) initial formula (equation 1) 57.13 (7.71) 65.86 (7.15) 100% 100% recoded formula (5-q4, 5-q12, 5-q19) 56.16 (8.56) 73.49 (10.41) 97% 89% weight formula (q4, q8, q9, 5q12, 5-q19) 63.13 (10.90) 77.98 (12.98) 92% 51% cd=conventional drugs, bd=biologic drugs compliance is done in the following particular cases:  in the initial version when all 19 questions are considered, coded according to the likert scale;  in the recoded version, when certain questions are selected (q4, q12, q19) and recoded;  in the weight formula where using spss, the program considers or not the value of the answers given. the results obtained with weight formula are better because of the increased values of the cqr score in the case of biologic drugs. the results obtained in the first case are presented on line 1 of the table. in the current study, for the 103 patients treated with conventional drugs, an compliance of 57.13% with a standard deviation of 7.71 results; this means that the 103 patients are 100% non-adherent to treatment. also for the 37 patients treated with biological drugs an compliance of 65.86% and a standard deviation of 7.15 was obtained. all 37 patients are non-adherent (non-compliant). these conclusions are erroneous leading to the need to perform the optimization of the questionnaire. line 2 of the table presents the results obtained in the case of recoding of questions no. 4, 12, and 19. in this case, the 103 patients treated with conventional drugs showed an adhesion of 56.16% with a standard deviation of 8.56; so 97% of patients are non-adherent to treatment. at the same time, the 37 patients treated with biological drugs have an adhesion of 73.49% with a standard deviation of 10.41. the percentage of non-adherent patients decreased from 100% to 89%. an improvement in the adhesion score is observed for both categories of patients. 3.2. method ii the measure of sampling adequacy, the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) is considered high at a value of 0.87, so there isn’t any problem with the sample size. the kmo can be calculated for individual and multiple variables and represents the ratio of the squared correlation between variables to the squared partial correlation between variables. the kmo statistic varies between 0 and 1. a value of 0 indicates that the sum of partial correlations is large relative to the sum of correlations, indicating diffusion in the pattern of correlations (hence, factor analysis is likely to be brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 40 inappropriate). a value close to 1 indicates that patterns of correlations are relatively compact and so factor analysis should yield distinct and reliable factors. the test of sphericity of bartlett is significant (p<0.001), so we have at least one significant correlation between two of our items and we can run factory analysis. we don’t have any value of less than 0.3 in the communalities table and no items’ problems. there were 5 eigenvalues of >1 which explained 64.03% of the total variance. according to the parallel analysis, we should retain the same five new factors. we analyzed the component correlation matrix to determine if the new factors are going to be orthogonal or oblique. the values were not greater than 0.5, the new factors presented a weak or moderate correlation. table 4. cronbach’s alpha factor component from rotated component matrix initial reliability cronbach’s alpha cronbach’s alpha if item deleted 1 q1, q5, q6, q15, q16, q17, q19 0.683 0.861 (if q19 item was deleted) 2 q2, q3, q4, q13, q14, q18 0.615 0.834 (if q4 item was deleted) 3 q6, q7, q11, q12 0.251 0.722 (if q12 item was deleted) 4 q1, q8, q9, q19 0.019 0.499 (if q1 item was deleted) 5 q3, q10, q11 0.391 0.471 (if q11 item was deleted) after successive exploratory factor analysis, the msa and factor loadings were recalculated. table 4 shows that checking the reliability on each of our factors, we obtained better cronbach’s alpha if we would delete q4, q12, and q19. table 5 shows the outcomes we obtained for every new type of cqr questionnaire if we remove some items. table 5 exploratory factor analysis of the full and reduced versions of the compliance questionnaire for rheumatology factor analysis no. of items kmo items removed msa of removed items highest factor loading of removed item number of items total variance explained 1-cqr19 0.870 na na na 5 64.028 2-cqr16 0.864 4 12 19 0.303 0.474 0.520 0.452 0.806 0.517 4 63.761 3-cqr15 0.862 7 0.376 0.551 4 65.123 4-cqr12 0.859 1 3 10 0.376 0.309 0.309 0.483 0.606 0.856 4 65.781 5-cqr9 0.855 8 9 11 0. 192 0. 192 0.479 0.818 0.596 0.849 3 62.892 6-cqr9 0.865 2 66.778 cqr19=19 item compliance questionnaire for rheumatology, cqr15=15 item compliance questionnaire for rheumatology, kmo=kaiser-meyer-olkin, msa=measure of sampling adequacy m.-s. subtirelu, a. turcu-stiolica, f.-a. vreju, p. l. ciurea, s. c. dinescu, a. l. barbulescu, j. neamtu, r. c. dănciulescu cultural adaptation and optimization of the compliance questionnaire-rheumatology (cqr) through statistical methods for patients with rheumatic diseases 41 inspecting figure 1 of the initial cqr19 we can see a point at which the shape of the curve changes direction and becomes horizontal. we observe in figure 2 that the final cqr9 has two components with eigenvalue bigger than 1, that reflecting the outcome of compliance. in fig.1 is presented a capture of the results obtained with the spss program in the case of the analysis of the main components (a component is a group of variables or questions that have a certain characteristic). analyzing the diagram (method 2, graphics) only those components (factors) those have their own values greater than 1 are retained because these factors contribute most to explaining the variance in the data set. practically a straight line is drawn over the points that have the lowest eigen values; there are 5 components (factors, question groups) that are important for the analysis of the study. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 42 according to the parallel analysis, we should keep the same five new factors. the component matrix was analyzed to determine whether the new factors would be orthogonal or oblique. values were no more than 0.5 and the new factors were weak or moderately correlated. once we have obtained the final model, it is tested the internal consistency using the cronbach index; if the value of this index is greater than 0.8 then we can assume that we have a high internal consistency of the questionnaire; if the value of the index is between 0.7 and 0.8 then we have a good consistency and if the index value is less than 0.7 then we have a weak consistency. it can be seen from the figure that the last cqr-9 (9 questions questionnaire) has two components with an eigen value greater than 1 which reflects the adhesion result. the final value of cronbach alpha of 0.865 (see table 5) suggests a very good internal reliability of the scale coherence of this questionnaire. the final cronbach’s alpha value (0.865) suggested very good internal consistency reliability for the scale with this questionnaire. the two remaining components show us two different ways to calculate adherence:  component 1: q 5 (“my medicines are always stored in the same place and that’s why i don’t forget them.”), q6 (“i take my medicines because i have complete confidence in my rheumatologist.”), q15 (“my health goes above everything else and if i have to take medicines to keep well, i will.”), q16 (“i use a dose organizer for my medications.”), q17 (“what the doctor tells me, i hang on to.”)  component 2: q2 (“i take my anti-rheumatic medicines because i then have fewer problems.”), q13 (“if i don’t take my anti-rheumatic medicines regularly, the inflammation returns.”), q14 (“if i don’t take my anti-rheumatic medicines, my body warns me.”), q18 (“if i don’t take my anti-rheumatic medicines, i have more complaints.”) both two final components, like two subscales of compliance, had very good internal reliability: 0.849 and 0.853, respectively. component 1 emphasizes the belief in rheumatologist and medications. component 2 emphasizes the fear that not taking the prescribed drugs could lead to distinct worsening of ra symptoms. cqr9 (q2, q5, q6, q13, q14, q15, q16, q17, q18) will assess the compliance using the formula: 𝐶𝑄𝑅𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 = ∑ . (equation 2) m.-s. subtirelu, a. turcu-stiolica, f.-a. vreju, p. l. ciurea, s. c. dinescu, a. l. barbulescu, j. neamtu, r. c. dănciulescu cultural adaptation and optimization of the compliance questionnaire-rheumatology (cqr) through statistical methods for patients with rheumatic diseases 43 using the above formula, patients treated with biological drugs had an adherence average of 81.08% (standard deviation of 14.10) versus 65.86% (standard deviation of 7.15) than they had in the initial case (questionnaire with 19 questions). patients treated with conventional drugs had an average adherence of 62.75% (standard deviation of 13.20) versus 57.13% (standard deviation of 7.71) as compared to baseline. 4. discussion in this study, we developed and optimized a romanian version of the cqr for the patients with ra. the original cqr measured compliance in patients with ra, polymyalgia rheumatica and gout (de klerk, van der heijde, landewé, van der tempel & van der linden, 2003) and we could forward the next research to patients with other diseases. noncompliance in ra can lead to brief aggravation of arthralgia, while there is no such immediate effect in gout. some authors (grymonpre, didur, montgomery & sitar, 1998) have suggested that selfreporting is a useful measurement technique if the patient is interviewed at home. however, selfreporting questionnaires still have the inevitable limitation that it is purely subjective. refill compliance based on pharmacy refill data is a method that best reflects real-life compliance. in romania, the two health insurance houses (cnas=national house of health insurance and opsnaj=house of health insurance of defence, public order, national security, and judicial authority) could enable us to measure pharmacy refill data accurately. thereby, in the case of biologic drugs, we could measure compliance patients with almost 100% accuracy. factor analysis allows us to condense a large set of scale items (19) down to a smaller, more manageable number of items (9). the compliance’s size obtained with cqr9 formula was closer to reality. the two subscales of cqr9 highlights the fact that psychosocial factors, particularly perceptions, are strong predictors of compliance to anti-rheumatic medication. this study benefitted from having a substantial sample size and patients that had a large treatment experience as well as different socio and geographic demographics and ages. although the cqr9 performed well compared to the cqr19, the next step would be to validate the reduced version against a measure of adherence to determine the sensitivity of assessment of suboptimal adherence in a more objective manner. 5. conclusions in conclusion, we optimized the romanian version of a compliance questionnaire for rheumatoid arthritis. it showed adequate reliability for clinical application. thus, the new optimization questionnaire responds to the needs of the target population in romania with adequate reliability for the following clinical applications. references anghel, l., farcaş, a., & oprean, r. (2018). medication adherence and persistence in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases: a narrative review. patient preference and adherence, volume 12, 1151-1166. beaton, d., bombardier, c., guillemin, f., & ferraz, m. (2000). guidelines for the process of cross-cultural adaptation of self-report measures. spine, 25(24), 3186-3191. de klerk e., van der heijde d., van der tempel h., van der linden s. (1999). development of a questionnaire to investigate patient compliance with antirheumatic drug therapy. de klerk e., van der heijde d., landewé r., van der tempel h., van der linden s. (2003). the compliance-questionnaire-rheumatology compared with electronic medication event monitoring: a validation study. field a. (2013). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics. 4th edition. sage publications ltd. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 44 filippou, g., scirè, c., adinolfi, a., damjanov, n., carrara, g., & bruyn, g. et al. (2018). identification of calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease (cppd) by ultrasound: reliability of the omeract definitions in an extended set of joints—an international multiobserver study by the omeract calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease ultrasound subtask force. annals of the rheumatic diseases, 77(8), 1194-1199. fleiss j.l. (1986). the design and analysis of clinical experiments. new york: john wiley and sons. grymonpre, r., didur, c., montgomery, p., & sitar, d. (1998). pill count, self-report, and pharmacy claims data to measure medication adherence in the elderly. annals of pharmacotherapy, 32(7-8), 749-754. haddad, p., brain, c., & scott, j. (2014). nonadherence with antipsychotic medication in schizophrenia: challenges and management strategies. patient related outcome measures, 5, 43-62. hair j., anderson r.e., tatham r.l., black w.c. (1995). multivariate data analysis. 4th ed. new jersey: prentice-hall inc. kardas p. (2007). compliance, clinical outcome, and quality of life of patients with stable angina pectoris receiving once-daily betaxolol versus twice daily metoprolol: a randomized controlled trial. vascular health and risk management, 3(2), 235-242. kawalec, p., tesar, t., vostalova, l., draganic, p., manova, m., & savova, a. et al. (2017). pharmaceutical regulation in central and eastern european countries: a current review. frontiers in pharmacology, 8. kleinbaum d.g., kupper l.l. (1978). applied regression analysis and other multivariate methods. duxbury, ma, duxbury press, pallant j. (2007). a step-by-step guide to data analysis using spss. open university press pednekar, p., ágh, t., malmenäs, m., raval, a., bennett, b., & borah, b. et al. (2019). methods for measuring multiple medication adherence: a systematic review–report of the ispor medication adherence and persistence special interest group. value in health, 22(2), 139156. subtirelu m., turcu-stiolica a., vreju f.a., neamtu j. (2018). the study on the medical adherence of patients to rheumatoid arthritis treatment. management and marketing journal. subtirelu m., turcu-stiolica a., vreju f., neamtu j. (2017). the post-traumatic stress disorder and medication adherence encountered at patients with rheumatoid arthritis. value in health, 20(9). subtirelu m., turcu-stiolica a., vreju f., neamtu j. (2017). translation and validation of the cqr19 for romanian patients with rheumatic diseases. value in health, 20(5). tabachnick b.g., fidell l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistics. boston: pearson education inc. turcu-stiolica a., subtirelu m., vreju f., neamtu j. (2018). the correlation between mental disorder parameters and medical adherence in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. value in health, 21(3). van den bemt, b., van den hoogen, f., benraad, b., hekster, y., van riel, p., & van lankveld, w. (2009). adherence rates and associations with nonadherence in patients with rheumatoid arthritis using disease modifying antirheumatic drugs. the journal of rheumatology, 36(10), 2164-2170. vreju, f., ciurea, m., popa, d., popa, f., parvanescu, c., & chisalau, b. et al. (2016). ultrasonography in the diagnosis and management of non inflammatory conditions of the hand and wrist. medical ultrasonography, 18(1), 90. williams b., brown t., onsman a. (2012). exploratory factor analysis. a five-step guide for novices. australian journal of paramedicine, 8(3). patient-reported outcome measures: use in medical product development. (2009). retrieved 10 february 2019, from https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidancem.-s. subtirelu, a. turcu-stiolica, f.-a. vreju, p. l. ciurea, s. c. dinescu, a. l. barbulescu, j. neamtu, r. c. dănciulescu cultural adaptation and optimization of the compliance questionnaire-rheumatology (cqr) through statistical methods for patients with rheumatic diseases 45 documents/patient-reported-outcome-measures-use-medical-product-development-supportlabeling-claims www.cnas.ro, www.aopsnaj.ro microsoft word issue 3.docx 117 neutrosophic hedge algebras florentin smarandache university of new mexico 705 gurley ave., gallup, new mexico 87301, usa phone: +1 505-277-0111 fsmarandache@gmail.com abstract we introduce now for the first time the neutrosophic hedge algebras as an extension of classical hedge algebras, together with an application of neutrosophic hedge algebras. 1. introduction the classical hedge algebras deal with linguistic variables. in neutrosophic environment we have introduced the neutrosophic linguistic variables. we have defined neutrosophic partial relationships between single-valued neutrosophic numbers. neutrosophic operations are used in order to aggregate the neutrosophic linguistic values. 2. materials and methods we introduce now, for the first time, the neutrosophic hedge algebras, as extension of classical hedge algebras. let's consider a linguistic variable: with 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥) as the word domain of 𝑥, whose each element is a word (label), or string of words. let 𝒜 be an attribute that describes the value of each element 𝑥 ∈ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥), as follows: 𝒜: 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥) → [0, 1] . (1) 𝒜(𝑥) is the neutrosophic value of 𝑥 with respect to this attribute: 𝐴(𝑥) = 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉, (2) where 𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 ∈ [0, 1], such that – 𝑡 means the degree of value of 𝑥; – 𝑖 means the indeterminate degree of value of 𝑥; – 𝑓 means the degree of non-value of 𝑥. we may also use the notation: 𝑥〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉. a neutrosophic partial relationship ≤ on 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥), defined as follows: 𝑥〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 ≤ 𝑦〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉, (3) if and only if 𝑡 ≤ 𝑡 , and 𝑖 ≥ 𝑖 , 𝑓 ≥ 𝑓 . therefore, (𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥), ≤ ) becomes a neutros-ophic partial order set (or neutrosophic poset), and ≤ is called a neutrosophic inequality. let 𝐶 = {0, 𝑤, 1} be a set of constants, 𝐶 ⊂ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥), where: – 0 = the least element, or 0〈 , , 〉; – w = the neutral (middle) element, or 𝑤〈 . , . , . 〉; – and 1 = the greatest element, or 1〈 , , 〉. let 𝐺 be a word-set of two neutrosophic generators, 𝐺 ⊂ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥), qualitatively a negative primary neutrosophic term (denoted 𝑔 ), and the other one that is qualitatively a positive primary neutrosophic term (denoted 𝑔 ), such that: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 118 0 ≤ 𝑔 ≤ 𝑤 ≤ 𝑔 ≤ 1, (4) or transcribed using the neutrosophic com-ponents: 0〈 , , 〉 ≤ 𝑔 〈 , , 〉 ≤ 𝑤〈 . , . , . 〉 ≤ 𝑔 〈 , , 〉 ≤ 1〈 , , 〉, where – 0 ≤ 𝑡 ≤ 0.5 ≤ 𝑡 ≤ 1 (here there are classical inequalities) – 1 ≥ 𝑖 ≥ 0.5 ≥ 𝑖 ≥ 0, and – 1 ≥ 𝑓 ≥ 0.5 ≥ 𝑓 ≥ 0. let 𝐻 ⊂ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥) be the set of neutrosophic hedges, regarded as unary operations. each hedge h∈h is a functor, or comparative particle for adjectives and adverbs as in the natural language (english). h:dom(x)→dom(x) x→h(x). (5) instead of h(x) one easily writes hx to be closer to the natural language. by associating the neutrosophic components, one has: h_〈t_h,i_h,f_h 〉 x_〈t_x,i_x,f_x 〉 . a hedge applied to x may increase, decrease, or approximate the neutrosophic value of the element x. there also exists a neutrosophic identity i∈dom(x), denoted i_〈0,0,0〉 that does not hange on the elements: i_〈0,0,0〉 x_〈t_x,i_x,f_x 〉 . in most cases, if a hedge increases / decreases the neutrosophic value of an element x situated above the neutral element w, the same hedge does the opposite, decreases / increases the neutrosophic value of an element y situated below the neutral element w. and reciprocally. if a hedge approximates the neutrosophic value, by diminishing it, of an element x situated above the neutral element w, then it approximates the neutrosophic value, by enlarging it, of an element y situated below the neutral element w. let's refer the hedges with respect to the upper part (⊔), above the neutral element, since for the lower part (l) it will automatically be the opposite effect. we split de set of hedges into three disjoint subsets: h_⊔^+ = the hedges that increase the neutrosophic value of the upper elements; h_⊔^= the hedges that decrease the neutrosophic value of the upper elements; h_⊔^∼ = the hedges that approximate the neutrosophic value of the upper elements. notations: let 𝑥 = 𝑥⊔ ∪ 𝑤 ∪ 𝑥 , where 𝑥⊔ cons-titutes the upper element set, while 𝑥 the lower element subset, 𝑤 the neutral element. 𝑥⊔ and 𝑥 are disjoint two by two. 3. operations on neutrosophic components let 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉, 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 neutrosophic numbers. then: 𝑡 + 𝑡 = 𝑡 + 𝑡 , if 𝑡 + 𝑡 ≤ 1; 1, if 𝑡 + 𝑡 > 1; (6) and f. smarandache neutrosophic hedge algebras 119 𝑡 − 𝑡 = 0, if 𝑡 − 𝑡 < 0; 𝑡 − 𝑡 , if 𝑡 − 𝑡 ≥ 0. (7) similarly for 𝑖 and 𝑓 : 𝑖 + 𝑖 = 𝑖 + 𝑖 , if 𝑖 + 𝑖 ≤ 1; 1, if 𝑖 + 𝑖 > 1; (8) 𝑖 − 𝑖 = 0, if 𝑖 − 𝑖 < 0; 𝑖 − 𝑖 , if 𝑖 − 𝑖 ≥ 0. (9) and 𝑓 + 𝑓 = 𝑓 + 𝑓 , if 𝑓 + 𝑓 ≤ 1; 1, if 𝑓 + 𝑓 > 1; (10) 𝑓 − 𝑓 = 0, if 𝑓 − 𝑓 < 0; 𝑓 − 𝑓 , if 𝑓 − 𝑓 ≥ 0. (11) 4. neutrosophic hedge-element operators we define the following operators: 4.1. neutrosophic increment hedge ↑ element = 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 ↑ 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 = 〈𝑡 + 𝑡 , 𝑖 − 𝑖 , 𝑓 − 𝑓 〉, (12) meaning that the first triplet increases the second. 4.2. neutrosophic decrement hedge ↓ element = 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 ↓ 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 = 〈𝑡 − 𝑡 , 𝑖 + 𝑖 , 𝑓 + 𝑓 〉, (13) meaning that the first triplet decreases the second. 4.3. theorem 1 the neutrosophic increment and decrement operators are non-commutattive. 5. neutrosophic hedge-hedge operators hedge ↑ hedge = 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 ↑ 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 = 〈𝑡 + 𝑡 , 𝑖 + 𝑖 , 𝑓 + 𝑓 〉 (14) hedge ↓ hedge = 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 ↓ 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 = 〈𝑡 − 𝑡 , 𝑖 − 𝑖 , 𝑓 − 𝑓 〉 (15) 6. neutrosophic hedge operators let 𝑥⊔〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ∈ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥) i.e. 𝑥⊔ is an upper element of 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥), and – ℎ⊔ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ∈ 𝐻⊔ , – ℎ⊔ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ∈ 𝐻⊔ , – ℎ⊔ ∽〈𝑡 ⊔ ∽ , 𝑖 ⊔ ∽ , 𝑓 ⊔ ∽ 〉 ∈ 𝐻⊔ ∽, then ℎ⊔ applied to 𝑥⊔ gives (ℎ⊔ 𝑥⊔)〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ↑ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉, and ℎ⊔ applied to 𝑥⊔ gives (ℎ⊔ 𝑥⊔)〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ↓ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉, and ℎ⊔ ∽ applied to 𝑥⊔ gives (ℎ⊔ ∼𝑥⊔)〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ↓ 〈𝑡 ⊔∼ , 𝑖 ⊔∼ , 𝑓 ⊔∼ 〉. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 120 now, let 𝑥 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 ∈ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥 ), i.e. 𝑥 is a lower element of 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥). then, ℎ⊔ applied to 𝑥 gives: ℎ⊔ 𝑥 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 ↓ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉, and ℎ⊔ applied to 𝑥 gives: ℎ⊔ 𝑥 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 ↑ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉, and ℎ⊔ ∽ applied to 𝑥 gives: ℎ⊔ ∽𝑥 〈𝑡 , 𝑖 , 𝑓 〉 ↑ 〈𝑡 ⊔ ∽ , 𝑖 ⊔ ∽ , 𝑓 ⊔ ∽ 〉. in the same way, we may apply many increasing, decreasing, approximate or other type of hedges to the same upper or lower element ℎ⊔ ℎ⊔ ℎ⊔ … ℎ⊔ 𝑥, generating new elements in 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥). the hedges may be applied to the constants as well. 6.1. theorem 2 a hedge applied to another hedge wekeans or stengthens or approximates it. 6.2. theorem 3 if ℎ⊔ ∈ 𝐻⊔ and 𝑥⊔ ∈ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥⊔), then ℎ⊔ 𝑥⊔ ≥ 𝑥⊔. if ℎ⊔ ∈ 𝐻⊔ and 𝑥⊔ ∈ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥⊔), then ℎ⊔ 𝑥⊔ ≥ 𝑥⊔. if ℎ⊔ ∈ 𝐻⊔ and 𝑥 ∈ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥 ), then ℎ⊔ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑥 . if ℎ⊔ ∈ 𝐻⊔ and 𝑥 ∈ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥 ), then ℎ⊔ 𝑥 ≥ 𝑥 . 6.3. converse hedges two hedges ℎ and ℎ ∈ 𝐻 are converse to each other, if ∀𝑥 ∈ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥), ℎ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑥 is equivalent to ℎ 𝑥 ≥ 𝑥. 6.4. compatible hedges two hedges ℎ and ℎ ∈ 𝐻 are compatible, if ∀𝑥 ∈ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥), ℎ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑥 is equivalent to ℎ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑥. 6.5. commutative hedges two hedges ℎ and ℎ ∈ 𝐻 are commutative, if ∀𝑥 ∈ 𝐷𝑜𝑚(𝑥), ℎ ℎ 𝑥 = ℎ ℎ 𝑥. otherwise they are called non-commutative. 6.6. cumulative hedges if ℎ ⊔ and ℎ ⊔ ∈ 𝐻 , then two neutrosophic edges can be cumulated into one: ℎ ⊔ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ℎ ⊔ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 = ℎ ⊔ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ↑ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉. (16) similarly, if ℎ ⊔ and ℎ ⊔ ∈ 𝐻 , then we can cumulate them into one: ℎ ⊔ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ℎ ⊔ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 = ℎ ⊔ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ↑ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉. (17) f. smarandache neutrosophic hedge algebras 121 now, if the two hedges are converse, ℎ ⊔ and ℎ ⊔ , but the neutrosophic components of the first (which is actually a neutrosophic number) are greater than the second, we cumulate them into one as follows: ℎ ⊔ = ℎ ⊔ ℎ ⊔ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ↓ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉. (18) but, if the neutrosophic components of the second are greater, and the hedges are commutative, we cumulate them into one as follows: ℎ ⊔ = ℎ ⊔ ℎ ⊔ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 ↓ 〈𝑡 ⊔ , 𝑖 ⊔ , 𝑓 ⊔ 〉 (19) 7. neutrosophic hedge algebra 𝑁𝐻𝐴 = (𝑥, 𝐺, 𝐶, 𝐻 ∪ 𝐼, ≤ ) constitutes an abstract algebra, called neutrosophic hedge algebra. 7.1. example of a neutrosophic hedge algebra 𝝉 let 𝐺 = {𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙, 𝐵𝑖𝑔} the set of generators, repres-ented as neutrosophic generators as follows: 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙〈 . , . , . 〉, 𝐵𝑖𝑔〈 . , . , . 〉. let 𝐻 = {𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦, 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠} the set of hedges, repres-ented as neutrosophic hedges as follows: 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉, 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠〈 . , . , . 〉, where 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 ∈ 𝐻⊔ and 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 ∈ 𝐻⊔ . 𝑥 is a neutrosophic linguistic variable whose domain is 𝐺 at the beginning, but extended by generators. the neutrosophic constants are 𝐶 = 0〈 , , 〉, 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚〈 . , . , . 〉, 1〈 , , 〉 . the neutrosophic identity is 𝐼〈 , , 〉. we use the neutrosophic inequality ≤ , and the neutrosophic increment / decrement operators previously defined. let's apply the neutrosophic hedges in order to generate new neutrosophic elements of the neutrosophic linguistic variable 𝑥. 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 applied to 𝐵𝑖𝑔 [upper element] has a positive effect: 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉𝐵𝑖𝑔〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . . , . . , . . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . , . , . 〉. then: 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉(𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . , , . 〉. 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 applied to 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙 [lower element] has a negative effect: 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙)〈 . . , . . , . . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙)〈 . , . , . 〉. if we compute (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦) first, which is a neutrosophic hedge-hedge operator: 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦) 〈 . . , . . , . . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦)〈 . , . , . 〉, and we apply it to big, we get: (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦)〈 . , . , . 〉𝐵𝑖𝑔〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . . , . . , . . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . , , . 〉, so, we get the same result. 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 applied to 𝐵𝑖𝑔 has a negative effect: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 122 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠〈 . , . , . 〉𝐵𝑖𝑔〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . . , . . , . 〉 = (𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . , . , . 〉. 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 applied to 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙 has a positive effect: 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠〈 . , . , . 〉𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙)〈 . . , . . , . . 〉 = (𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙)〈 . , . , . 〉. the set of neutrosophic hedges h is enriched through the generation of new neutrosophic hedges by combining a hedge with another one using the neutrosophic hedge-hedge operators. further, the newly generated neutrosophic hedges are applied to the elements of the linguistic variable, and more new elements are generated. let's compute more neutrosophic elements: 𝑉𝐿𝐵 = 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠〈 . , . , . 〉𝐵𝑖𝑔〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐵𝑖𝑔) 〈 . , . , . 〉 ↑ 〈 . , . , . 〉 ↓ 〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . . , . . , . . 〉 ↓ 〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . . , . . , . . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐵𝑖𝑔)〈 . , , 〉 𝑉𝑀 = 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚)〈 . , . , . 〉 ↑ 〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚)〈 . , . , . 〉 𝐿𝑀 = 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠〈 . , . , . 〉𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚)〈 . , . , . 〉 ↓ 〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚)〈 . , . , . 〉 𝑉𝑉𝑆 = 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦)〈 . , . , . 〉𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙)〈 . , . , . 〉 𝑉𝐿𝑆 = 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠〈 . , . , . 〉𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙〈 . , . , . 〉 = 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦〈 . , . , . 〉(𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙)〈 . , . , . 〉 = (𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙)〈 . , . , . 〉 𝐿𝐴𝑀𝑎𝑥 = 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠〈 . , . , . 〉𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚〈 , , 〉 = (𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚)〈 . , . , . 〉 ↓ 〈 , , 〉 = (𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚)〈 . , . , . 〉 𝐿𝐴𝑀𝑖𝑛 = 𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠〈 . , . , . 〉𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚〈 , , 〉 = (𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚)〈 . , . , . 〉 ↑ 〈 , , 〉 = (𝐿𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚)〈 . , . , . 〉 7.2. theorem 4 any increasing hedge ℎ〈 , , 〉 applied to the absolute maximum cannot overpass the absolute maximum. proof: ℎ〈 , , 〉 ↑ 1〈 , , 〉 = (ℎ1)〈 , , 〉 = (ℎ1)〈 , , 〉 = 1〈 , , 〉. 7.3. theorem 5 any decreasing hedge ℎ〈 , , 〉 applied to the absolute minimum cannot pass below the absolute minimum. proof: ℎ〈 , , 〉 ↓ 0〈 , , 〉 = (ℎ𝑜)〈 , , 〉 = (ℎ𝑜)〈 , , 〉 = 0〈 , , 〉. 8. diagram of the neutrosophic hedge algebra τ 1〈 , , 〉 absolute maximum 𝑉𝑉𝐵〈 . , , . 〉 very very big f. smarandache neutrosophic hedge algebras 123 𝐿𝐴𝑀〈 . , . , . 〉 less absolute maximum 𝑉𝐵〈 . , . , . 〉 very big 𝐵𝑖𝑔〈 . , . , . 〉 𝑉𝑀〈 . , . , . 〉 very medium 𝐿𝑉〈 . , . , . 〉 less big 𝑉𝐿𝐵〈 . , , 〉 very less big 𝑉𝐿𝑆〈 . , . , . 〉 very less small 𝑀〈 . , . , . 〉 medium 𝐿𝑀〈 . , . , . 〉 less medium 𝐿𝑆〈 . , . , . 〉 less small 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙〈 . , . , . 〉 𝑉𝑆〈 . , . , . 〉 very small 𝐿𝐴𝑀𝑖𝑛〈 . , . , . 〉 less absolute minimum 𝑉𝑉𝑆〈 . , . , . 〉 very very small 0〈 , , 〉 absolute minimum 9. conclusions in this paper, the classical hedge algebras have been extended for the first time to neutrosophic hedge algebras. with respect to an attribute, we have inserted the neutrosophic degrees of membership / indeterminacy / nonmembership of each generator, hedge, and constant. more than in the classical hedge algebras, we have introduced several numerical hedge operators: for hedge applied to element, and for hedge combined with hedge. an extensive example of a neutrosophic hedge algebra is given, and important properties related to it are presented. references cat ho, n.; wechler, w. hedge algebras: an algebraic approach to structure of sets of linguistic truth values. fuzzy sets and systems 1990, 281-293. lakoff, g. hedges, a study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts. 8th regional meeting of the chicago linguistic society, 1972. zadeh, l.a. a fuzzy-set theoretic interpretation of linguistic hedges. journal of cybernetics 1972, volume 2, 04-34. microsoft word issue 3.docx 5 the impact of adler lifestyle education on resiliency of parents of educable mentally retarded students j. tavakolizadeh school of medicine gonabad university of medical sciences gonabad, razavi khorasan province, iran phone: +98 51 5722 3028 isfahan university of medical sciences isfahan province, isfahan, iran phone: +98 31 3792 3071 es. yazdi islamic azad university of qaenat branch qaenat, iran a. akbary school of medicine gonabad university of medical sciences gonabad, razavi khorasan province, iran phone: +98 51 5722 3028 doctor.akbary@chmail.ir abstract introduction: over the past two decades, the field of resiliency has attracted increasing attention in evolutionary psychology. having mentally retarded children is one of life’s stressors for parents, that can have a devastating impact on their mental health. therefore, any strategy that can help the parents of these children relieve stress and deal effectively is important. this study aimed to determine the impact of adler lifestyle education on resiliency, especially on parents of mentally retarded students and will measure the following two hypotheses. method: this was a semi-experimental study with pre and post-test with control group. the statistical population of this study included parents of all the students of the shahid alavian exceptional education center in gonabad (n=120) whose children were studying in the 2012/2013 academic year; 60 people were randomly selected and assigned to two groups of 30 (case and control). it should be noted that each group consisted of 15 fathers and 15 mothers. the pre-test was administered to both groups separately. after that, the training in 11 sessions of 60 minutes was presented in the workshop of advisers for the case group. in this study, the connor and davidson’s resiliency questionnaire was used. in this study, the reliability coefficient equal to 0.89 was obtained using cronbach's alpha method. to determine the validity, the correlation of each item with the total score was calculated. in the present study, the reliability of this instrument using cronbach's alpha coefficient was determined as 0.89. data were analyzed using spss for windows version 16. results: the mean scores of the resiliency have increased in the case group than the control group which is statistically significant (p < 0.01). the mean scores of fathers’ resiliency have increased than mothers, but the differences were not significant between the two groups (p > 0.05). conclusion: the result of this study concluded that appropriate adler lifestyle training helps parents of educable mentally retarded children to boost their resiliency. this is important due to the existence of mentally retarded children on parental stress. keywords: adler lifestyle; resiliency; parents; educable mentally retarded students; stress. 1. introduction over the past two decades, the field of resiliency has attracted increasing attention in evolutionary psychology (mohammadi et al., 2005). resiliency refers to the ability to cope with life brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 6 crises and overcome them. resiliency is actually a positive adaptation in response to the harsh conditions of life (waller, 2001). abiding individuals reduce adverse effects and maintain their mental health despite being exposed to chronic stresses (soleimani et al., 2008; hosseini and jalali, 2018). some authors refer to resiliency as adaptation to the dynamic process positively grim experience (luthar & cicchetti, 2000; masten, 2001). resiliency, also known as "stress resistance" (garmezy, 1985) or "post-traumatic growth" (tedeschi et al., 1998), is along a continuum with varying degrees of resistance to the psychological damages (ingram & price, 2001). resiliency by this definition is beyond that survived the destruction of life stresses and adversities (bonanno, 2004) and agrees with the positive growth, adaptability and reach a level of equilibrium after being disturbed balance in the former (richardson, 2002). this definition of resiliency represents the efficiency and dynamics of a construct that involves a complex interaction between risk and protective factors (olson et al., 2003). early theories about resiliency were stressed on the characteristics associated with positive outcomes in the face of stress and adversity in the life (rutter, 1985; rahavard, 2018). these studies, then found the outer protective factors such as efficient school and supportive relationship with adults effective in improving the resiliency (luthars et al., 2000). current theories consider resiliency as a construct which is consisted of the multi-dimensional nature of the variables, such as temperament and personality with special skills such as problem solving skills (campbell-sills et al., 2006). having mentally retarded children is one of life stressors for parents that can have a devastating impact on their mental health and parents' mental health risk (alizadeh, 2003; khoshtinat, 2017). certainly the birth of the child with mental retardation in a family can be a challenging and undesirable event that may cause frustration and despair (tavakolizadeh, 2017). there is a large body of evidence indicating that parents of children with mental problems are more likely to encounter with social, economic and emotional problems that often are destructive, widespread and have restrictive nature (mikaeli, 2008). therefore, any strategy that can help the parents of these children relieving stress and dealing effectively is important. there are many methods to stress resiliency that many of them are psychological in nature. different people according to their personality, each choose a method for adaptation to stress. some try to look into the problems of life with a positive perspective, some are seeking social support and others that fled. one of the things that seem to help parents cope with the stress of having mentally retarded children is educating them in changing their lifestyle. lifestyle is the look on he’s own person, others, the world around and the distinct behaviour to achieve goals and uses it to their destination. although the first six years of life are taught to an individual lifestyle, other events are also a big influence on his development. childhood itself has no effect on the individual's experience. what is important to the interpretation of events. adler’s concept of the self, personality, individuality, character and unity to confront problems or general attitude towards life speaks (stein & edwards, 2003; gujirat and kumar, 2018). adler believed that people have four types of lifestyle that reflect the six types of lifestyle which are joyful, rebellious, receiver, ruler, incompetent and socially beneficial (keshmiri, 2010), and any person in his life extends the lifestyle which is often useful in solving problems related to three functions: social interactions with others, employment and love (keshmiri, 2010; alahdadi and razaghi, 2018). in adler lifestyle teaching, the ways of telling stories, interviews, diary writing and art therapy are used. the content of training programs for parents includes a sense of belonging, a sense of security, communication, cooperation, sense of empowerment, a sense of self-control and self-discipline, self-worth and confidence (snow et al., 2001). similar studies on the relationship between mental health and resiliency (bonanno, 2004; campbell-sills et al., 2006; samani et al., 2008; rahimian boogar, 2008) and the relationship between lifestyle and coping strategies (keshmiri, 2010; summers et al., 1996) have been conducted. but there is not any study exploring the impact of adlerian lifestyle education on j. tavakolizadeh, es. yazdi, a. akbary the impact of adler lifestyle education on resiliency of parents of educable mentally retarded students 7 resiliency, especially parents of mentally retarded children. this is especially due to workloads that are stressful for the parents of these children and are of great importance. for example, dalton & epstehn research on parents of mentally retarded children did conclude that the parents of these children may have different emotions such as feelings of hopelessness and sadness and feelings of guilt about their conflicting feelings of responsibility concerns react to the child's future (dalton & epstehn, 1963). sternberg j showed in a study about skills like communication skills, coping, selfassertiveness, resiliency can express them and seek to increase the health level (conner & davidson, 2003). this study aimed to determine the impact of adlerian lifestyle education on resiliency, especially parents of mentally retarded students and will measure the following two hypotheses: 1 adler lifestyle education leads to the increase of resiliency in parents of mentally retarded children. 2 the impact of adler lifestyle education on the resiliency of parents of mentally retarded children is different. 2. material and methods this was a semi-experimental study with pre and post-test with control group. the populations of all parents of 120 students in special education center martyr alavian of gonabad city were enrolled during the school year 1389-1390. the researchers randomly assigned 60 parents and then divided them randomly into two groups (30 cases and 30 controls). it should be noted that each group consisted of 15 fathers and 15 mothers. subsequently, the training was conducted in 11 sessions of 60 minutes for the case group by the author and one of the family education instructors who had a master's degree in exceptional children with a certificate of attendance at the adlerian counseling workshop. the training was as follows: session i: preparation and pre-tests, session ii: understanding the purpose, to provide guidelines for participation, communication and empathy, specifying the goals of counseling sessions to explain the outline of the group's members, session iii: understanding lifestyle and the factors affecting it (the introduction of the position of the family and each family member), session iv: exploring the dynamics of individual, familiar and challenging tasks of life, recognizing the beneficial and harmful behaviors, session v: understanding the challenges and priorities in life personal preference and clarify its fifth assignment of life (work, spirituality, love, social relationships and self), session vi: understanding the challenges of living with basic errors (change of ideas as part of lifestyle modification and the use of press technique), session: vii understanding the early memories (meaning early memories, discover old memories, memories rewrite), session viii: to encourage self-evaluation, re-evaluate life goals to strengthen social interest, identify goals and barriers in its realization, session ix: giving hope and courage to change (acceptance, develop relationships with others, depending on the capabilities and highlight the positive points) and summarizing the categories of family systems, memories, fundamental errors, behavioral objectives, work life and personal preference. session x: to encourage self-analysis and gain insights, identify goals and barriers in implementing it, helping reorientation, insights into practice exploring life metaphor and. the session xi: implementation and completion of post-test resiliency questionnaires again by testing the control group with an interval of about three weeks after session x. in this study, the connor and davidson’s resiliency questionnaire was used (conner & davidson, 2003). the connor-davidson resilience scale (cd-risc) comprises of 25 items each rated on a 5-point scale (0-4), with higher scores reflecting greater resilience. the subject’s minimum score is 0 and his/her maximum score is 100 in this scale. internal consistency, test-retest reliability and convergent and divergent validity of the scale have been reported adequate and the results of exploratory factor analysis has confirmed five factors (competence/personal strength, confidence and personal instincts/tolerate negative emotions, positive emotions reception/security relations, containment and spirituality) for the resiliency scale. since, the reliability and validity of brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 8 the scale have not yet definitively confirmed, the overall resiliency score is currently valid only for the researching purposes (conner & davidson, 2003). mohammadi has adapted this questionnaire for using in iran (mohammadi et al., 2005). in this study, the reliability coefficient equal to 0.89 was obtained using cronbach's alpha method on 718 men within the age range of 18-25 years old on the resiliency scale implementation who were divided into normal individuals, consumers and drug abusers. to determine the validity, the correlation of each item with the total score was calculated. factor analysis method was then used and the results indicated adequate validity of the questionnaire. in the present study, the reliability of this instrument using cronbach's alpha coefficient was determined as 0.89. 3. statistical analysis data were analyzed using spss for windows version 16. quantitative variables were presented by central indices (mean and standard error of mean) and qualities variables were presented by frequencies tables (frequency and percentages). independent sample t test was used for comparison of quantities variables between two groups. two-tailed significance level of 0.05 was used to detect difference between variables. 4. results the mean and standard deviation of pre and post-test scores of the case and control groups are shown in table 1. table 1. mean and standard deviation of pre and post-test scores of the case and control groups. group number mean standard deviation pre-test post-test pre-test post-test case 30 38.47 52.03 7.405 11.74 control 30 40.17 41.40 6.5 8.48 the mean and standard deviation of pre and post-test scores of the parents in the case and control groups are shown in table 2. table 2. the mean and standard deviation of pre and post-test scores of the parents in the case and control groups. parents group number mean standard deviation pre-test post-test pre-test post-test fathers case 15 38.13 52.73 6.064 11.71 control 15 39.8 41.2 7.52 9.961 mothers case 15 38.8 51.33 8.74 11.77 control 15 40.53 41.6 5.47 7 based on data from table 3, the mean scores of the resiliency have increased in the case group than the control group which is statistically significant (p < 0.01). in the other words, educating adler lifestyle has increased the resiliency of the parents in the case group than the control group and the first hypothesis is confirmed. table 3. t-test scores of the case and control groups’ resiliency differences. group number mean difference standard deviation standard error t score df p value case 30 13.57 9.95 1.82 control 30 1.23 10.78 1.97 4.61 58 0.000 j. tavakolizadeh, es. yazdi, a. akbary the impact of adler lifestyle education on resiliency of parents of educable mentally retarded students 9 as seen in table 4, the resiliency scores of parents in the case group have increased than the control group which is statistically significant (p < 0.01). so, adler lifestyle education has increase the resiliency of parents in the case group than the control group. table 4. t-test scores of the case and control groups’ resiliency differences in men and women. parents group number mean difference standard deviation standard error t score df p value fathers case 15 14.60 12.36 3.19 control 15 1.4 10.67 2.75 3.132 28 0.004 mothers case 15 1.067 7.07 1.83 control 15 12.53 11.26 2.91 3.34 23.55 0.003 results table 5 show that the mean scores of fathers’ resiliency have increased than mothers, but the differences were not significant between the two groups (p > 0.05). thus, it is concluded that lifestyle education had not different effect on parent’ resiliency. table 5. t-test scores for both fathers and mothers’ resiliency differences. case group number mean difference standard deviation standard error t score df p value fathers 15 8 13.18 2.41 mothers 15 6.8 10.93 1.99 0.384 28 0.702 5. discussion the results of this study confirmed the first hypothesis of the study that adlerian lifestyle training increases the resilience of parents of exceptional educable children. this finding is consistent with samani and jokar (2007), who showed that resilience is associated with the increase in mental health. it seems that parents of the case group, influenced by the adlerian lifestyle training, increased their level of resilience and more easily faced with stressors such as retarded child and used more constructive strategies. increasing the skill to change lifestyle causes parents to feel that the situation is manageable. one of the consequences of gaining insight and discovering the metaphor of life is positive thinking, which seems to be associated with the sense of environmental control and internal causation documents. because internal causation documents allow one to control emotions and change inappropriate behavior (fati et al., 2006). the results of this study rejected the second hypothesis about the different effect of training adler lifestyle on resiliency of the parents of exceptional students. the results indicated the positive effect of adler lifestyle education on the level of resiliency of parents of mentally retarded children. but the parents are the same in this regard and there is no significant difference between them. this finding is consistent with the results obtained from the study of maldar (2012). thus, the findings show adler lifestyle education does not work different according to gender. the limitations of the present study may be the limited sample of the parents of educable mentally retarded students and the use of self-report tools to collect data. attention to these issues in future researches will provide more accurate judgments about the two variables. 6. conclusion the results of this study concluded that appropriate adler lifestyle training helps parents of educable mentally retarded children to boost their resiliency. this is important due to the existence of mentally retarded children on parental stress. more studies on a larger group of parents of children with varying degrees of mental retardation are necessary for more accurate judgment about this issue. however, training to all parents who have children with mental retardation is recommended mental health programs to all parents. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 3 (september, 2019), issn 2067-3957 10 references alahdadi, n., & razaghi, m. (2018). investigation of lifestyle and identity changes of khorramabad residents in iran. journal of humanities insights, 2(1), 51-59. alizadeh, h. (2003). the impact disabled child on family. exceptional education, 14, 3-7. bonanno, g. (2004). loss, trauma, and human resilience: have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events?. american psychologist, 59(1), p.20 campbell-sills, l., cohan, s., & stein, m. (2006). relationship of resilience to personality, coping, and psychiatric symptoms in young adults. behaviour research and therapy, 44(4), 585-599 connor, k., & davidson, j. (2003). development of a new resilience scale: the connor-davidson resilience scale (cd-risc). depression and anxiety, 18(2), 76-82 dalton, j., & epstein, h. (1963). counseling parents of mildly retarded children. social casework, 44(9), 523-530 feta, l., & moutabi, f. (2007). training of life skill for the students. the guidance book for teachers. tehran. faezepublication. garmezy, n. (1985). stress-resistant children: the search for protective factors. recent research in developmental psychopathology: journal of child psychology and psychiatry book supplement, 4, 213-233. gujirat, o., & kumar, n. (2018). investigation of work and life balance of women employees and its effects on emotional and social well-being. journal of humanities insights, 2(3), 152 155. hosseini, a., & jalali, m. (2018). the possible biological effects of long-term stress on depression. medbiotech journal, 2(04), 149-152. ingram, r. e., & price, j. m. (2010). vulnerability to psychopathology: risk across the lifespan. guilford press. kashmiri, m. (2009). comparison of lifestyle and coping strategies for teachers of exceptional and normal education. exceptional education, 98 and 99, 3-21 kern, r., gfroerer, k., summers, y., curlette, w., & matheny, k. (1996). life-style, personality, and stress coping. individual psychology, 52, 42. khoshtinat, v. (2017). review the impact of adherence to islamic beliefs concerning healthy life style, general health and academic achievement as well as factors affecting drug consumption. medbiotech journal, 01(03), 139-148 luthar, s., & cicchetti, d. (2000). the construct of resilience: implications for interventions and social policies. development and psychopathology, 12(4), 857-885. luthar, s., cicchetti, d., & becker, b. (2000). the construct of resilience: a critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. child development, 71(3), 543-562. maldar j. (2012). the effect of self-awareness skills training on resiliency of parents of exceptional children in saryan [dissertation]. azad university of birjand. masten, a. (2001). ordinary magic: resilience processes in development. american psychologist, 56(3), 227. mikaeli, f. (2008). comparison of maternal psychological well-being of primary school children with and without mental disabilities: the effects of coping styles. research on exceptional children, 8(1):53-68. mohammadi, m., jazayeri, a. r., rafiei, a. h., jokar, b., & pourshahnaz, a. (2005). a study on the factors affecting resilience in people at risk of substance abuse. modern psychological research, 1(2-3), 203-224. olsson, c., bond, l., burns, j., vella-brodrick, d., & sawyer, s. (2003). adolescent resilience: a concept analysis. journal of adolescence, 26(1), 1-11. rahavard, i. (2018). learning impact and its effect on student behaviour. journal of humanities j. tavakolizadeh, es. yazdi, a. akbary the impact of adler lifestyle education on resiliency of parents of educable mentally retarded students 11 insights, 02(01), 26-36. rahimian, b. e., & asgharnezhad, f. a. (2008). the relationship between psychological hardiness also ego-resiliency and mental health in adolescent and adult survivors of bam earthquake. richardson, g. (2002). the metatheory of resilience and resiliency. journal of clinical psychology, 58(3), 307-321. rutter, m. (1985). resilience in the face of adversity. british journal of psychiatry, 147(6), 598 611. samani s, joukar b.n. (2008). sahragard resiliency, mental health and life satisfaction. journal of psychiatry and clinical psychology (thoughts and behavior), 13(3):290-5. snow, j., kern, r., & curlette, w. (2001). identifying personality traits associated with attrition in systematic training for effective parenting groups. the family journal, 9(2), 102-108. soleimani, m., amiri, m., zarei, a., noruzi, a., & rostami, a. (2008). exploring the relationships between the burnout and psychological wellbeing, among teachers while controlling for resiliency and gender. iran occupational health, 5(3 and 4), 68-75. stein, h. t. (2008). adler's legacy: past, present, and future. journal of individual psychology, 64(1). stein, h. t., & edwards, m. e. (2003). classical adlerian psychotherapy. the encyclopedia of psychotherapy, 1, 4. sternberg, j., & bry, b. (1995). solution generation and family conflict over time in problem solving therapy with families of adolescents. child & family behavior therapy, 16(4), 1 23. summers, y. & curlette, w. l. & kern, r. & gfroerer, k. & matheny, k. (1996). life-style, personality and stress coping. the journal of individual psychology, 52, 42-54. tavakolizadeh, j., amiri, m & rastgoo nejad, f. (2017). sexual self-esteem in mothers of normal and mentally-retarded children. the journal of the pakistan medical association. 67 (6), 929 932. tedeschi, r. g., park, c. l., & calhoun, l. g. (eds.). (1998). posttraumatic growth: positive changes in the aftermath of crisis. routledge. waller, m. (2001). resilience in ecosystemic context: evolution of the concept. american journal of orthopsychiatry, 71(3), 290-297. microsoft word issue-2_volume-10_all-articles.docx 74 bidirectional associative memories for adaptive rule based systems nabil m. hewahi department of computer science college of information technology, university of bahrain bahrain international circuit, zallaq, bahrain phone: +973 1743 8888 nhewahi@uob.edu.bh abstract in this paper we present an algorithm for rule based systems that uses bidirectional associative memories (bams) to memorize the inputs and their corresponding outputs, and outputs and their corresponding inputs of the system. adaptive rule based system are becoming very important because rule based systems are now used in many applications. one drawback of current adaptive rule based systems is that these systems care only about forward chaining mechanism which diminish their performance. because most of the applications that use rule based systems follow the forward chaining, adaption attempts which is concerned with predicting the inputs given the output is almost null, but this does not eliminate the importance of backward chaining since it is used in too many applications. to tackle this problem we propose a new algorithm that utilizes the good theoretical ground of bams to memorize and adapt rules in rule based systems. the main difference between the proposed algorithm and other algorithms is that the proposed algorithm is simple to code the rules and adapt them. in addition, because bams supports bi-directions, the proposed algorithm is the only algorithm with adaptation that is able to expect what conditions should be true if we provide the system with outputs. the proposed algorithm considers "and" and "or" rules in the used rules, whereas in all the previous systems, only "and" relation is considered. the proposed solution will be useful in adapting any rule based system whether it uses forward chaining or backward chaining, which is considered to be a significant contribution. the proposed algorithm has six parts; cod table creation, input and output vectors construction, weight matrix calculation, procedure to test the system, procedure to run the proposed algorithm and finally rule extraction or what we call rule code decoding. to illustrate parts of the proposed algorithm, a simple example is provided. keywords: rule based systems; adaptive systems; bidirectional associative memories. 1. introduction in this section, we shall give an overview on two main issues related to the basics of the work of this paper, rule based systems and adaptation; and bams. 1.1. rule based systems and adaptation rule based systems are systems that work based on given rules related to the problem domain. most of these systems use standard rule structure, where each rule is having conditions and actions. the conditions might be connected with "and" or "or" relation. to obtain the action, the condition has to be true. the standard rule structure is having the form: if conditions/ antecedents then actions/consequences usually rule based system uses an inference mechanism to obtain the final conclusion, this inference could be forward chaining, backward chaining or both together. in forward chaining inputs for the conditions are given to get the outputs, on the other hand, during the backward chaining, the expected output is given to the system and the then system goes backward to prove it if possible. the concepts of forward chaining and backward chaining are very important in creating adaptive rule based systems. many trails have been made to develop adaptive rule based systems, and most of these trails depend on firstly representing the rules in a certain approach then train the n. m. hewahi bidirectional associative memories for adaptive rule based systems 75 system to be able to induce new rules (blount et al., 2011; cimino et al., 2012; farid et al., 2016; hewahi, 2004; hewahi, 2005; hewahi, 2011). in addition, these approaches consider only forward chaining mechanism, and are usually complex because they need a sophisticated rule representation stage before learning. additionally, in the previous attempts, only "and" relation between the conditions is considered. the advantages of these approaches are that new rules might be extracted. because many rule based systems depend on backward chaining or both forward and backward chaining, it would be necessary to have adaptive systems that consider such kind of chaining. these adaptive systems should consider simple representation of rules and deal with "and" and "or" relations within the condition part of the rule. in our proposed approach, rule representation and the learning process are very simple processes. in addition, rules can be extracted. and above all, this approach can work in forward chaining as well as in backward chaining considering also rules with "and" and "or" condition relations. the proposed approach depends on bams that have been used as a theoretical ground to memorize and adapt the rules, and to facilitate working with forward and backward chaining in the adaptive rule based system. in this introduction, we present two subsections related to the core work of this paper. the first part is to give an overview on rule based systems and rule structure. the second part is to go through bams. 1.2. bams bams are neural networks proposed by kosko (1987) and works in bidirectional. bams is an extension of hopfield networks which works in one direction (1982). one direction means the neural network can memorize its inputs. in hopfield networks, the networks memorize the given inputs. bidirectional means the neural networks can memorize outputs related to given certain inputs, and can also memorize inputs related to given outputs. bams are two layer neural networks whereas the hopfield network is a one layer neural network. the advantages of bams over hopfield networks is that when input is given, we can get the corresponding output, and when the output is given, we can know the corresponding input. in bams, we need first to calculate the weight matrix w which is defined in formula (1) n w = ʃ (xi. y t i) (1) i=1 where n is the number of examples, x is the ith example and yti is the transposed output corresponding to x . the inputs values for x is 1 for true input and -1 for false input. similarly for output values. to test the network, we can give any input from the given input examples, or new input not seen before. in case, the input is from the given examples, the system should produce the corresponding output, and in case the input is not given before, the system is expected to get one of the given outputs; however, if obtained output is not among the previously given outputs, we can still get the most reasonable expected output. similarly, if the output is given as in the memorizing examples, the system will be able to obtain the necessary inputs. if the given output is not one of the memorizing examples, the system will be able to give us the closest required input. formula (2) is used to compute the output vector f(wt xi) (2) assuming z = wt xi, f will give value 1 if z>0 and will give value -1 if z< 0. if z = 0, f will get value of the last output 1 or -1. assume we have two inputs x1 and x2 and two outputs y1 and y2 (where y1 is the output for x1 and y2 is the output for x2) as below: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 76 x1 = [ 1 1] y1= [1 -1 -1] x2 = [-1 1] y2= [1 1 -1] w = x1.y1 t + x2.y2 t 0 -2 0 w = 2 0 -2 let us now assume that we want to test the network with x1 as input. 0 2 1 f -2 0 . 1 0 -2 = [ 1 -1 -1]t if we now want to see the association between the output and input, assume [1 -1 -1]t as input = f(wxi) 1 0 -2 0 1 = f 2 0 -2 . 1 = f [2 4]t = [ 1 1]t now let us assume we want to know the expected output for the input [1 -1], following the same procedure, the expected output will be [-1 -1 1]t and if want to see the association from output to input and start from the output [-1 -1 1]t, we get [1 -1] as inputs. 2. literature review many attempts to develop adaptive rule based systems have been done. most of these attempts are firstly focus on representing the existing rule set in a certain structure that can be used for learning process. holland (1985) developed a system called a classifier system that learns classifiers (classifiers are rules coded into bit patterns). the system uses an algorithm called bucket n. m. hewahi bidirectional associative memories for adaptive rule based systems 77 brigade algorithm to make conflict resolution between classifiers and to assign credit to each classifier. new classifiers are generated based on genetic algorithms. the main disadvantage of this process is the long action chain caused by the bucket brigade algorithm. moreover, this approach has nothing to do with backward chaining and only "and" relation is considered between the conditions. in (towell & shavlik, 1991; towell & shavlik, 1994), a proposal called knowledge based neural network (kbnn) has been presented. the idea is to represent the rules first in a neural network and consider important inputs with high weights and unseen inputs with very low weights. after training, some of the weak weights might become strong and new rules can be constructed. again, in this process backward chaining is not considered and only "and" relation is used between the conditions. bahradwaj and silva (1998) proposed an approach to develop an adaptive system for hierarchical censored production rules (a special type of a rule structure that handles real time cases) has been proposed. this approach is called variable precision neural logic. the used approach is a sort of integration between hierarchical censored production rules and neural networks. actually this approach also takes a quite some time to represent the rules first. in addition it does not deal with backward chaining despite the used rule structure facilitates to go backward. also "or" relation between the conditions is omitted. hewahi (2004) introduced a new method called general rule structure neural logic (grsnl) network. this approach was developed to have an adaptive system for rules called general rule structure (grs) rule (hewahi, 2002). this approach also needs to represent the rules first into a neural network, and then training is performed to extract new rules. again this approach cares only about forward chaining and considers only "and" relation between the conditions. in (hewahi, 2011) an approach based on probabilistic neural networks has been presented. in this method rules are first implemented in a probabilistic neural network and then the neural network can answer queries. this approach also needs full representation and implementation of all the given rules into the probabilistic neural networks. this approach is only useful for forward chaining. wang (2017) claims that there is no algorithm to adapt business rules that are used in industry when known information is in the form of statistical nature. he proposed an algorithm based on mathematical programming. the scope of the proposed algorithm was based on two concepts which are called bounded case and linear iteration bounded. this approach is still limited to business and the information of statistical nature and the main concern is only the adaption. tabebordbar and beheshti (2018) proposed an adaptive monitoring system to monitor the precision of the rules. their approach can recognize rules that cause the system to perform bad, the proposed approach could catch the improper rules. actually, this work has nothing to do directly with the work in this paper, but still it shows the importance of rule based systems and their adaptation. many adaptive rule based systems have been developed for certain areas such as alzheimer classification (jain et al, 2013), facial expression recognition (ioannou et al, 2004), managing situation-awareness (cimino et al, 2012) , classifier for mining big biological data (farid et al, 2016), classifying activities of daily living (okour et al, 2015), malware detection (blount et al, 2011), and smart home energy prediction (jithish & sankaran, 2017) in all the previous works, the used approach is only designed to fit with the used application domain, which means any approach used in one work is not directly useful to other domains. to sum up, all the previous works for developing adaptive rule based systems need to represent rules first and then start training. in addition, backward chaining is not considered. in case of designing adaptive rules based systems for specific domains, these approaches do not work with other domains and would be difficult to work as a general approach. in our paper we present an approach that does not need to represent the rules in a complex structure and avoid the drawbacks of the previous methods. we depend on the theory of bams which deals with input and output. the process which we follow can memorize the inputs and their corresponding outputs, and outputs and their corresponding inputs. in backward chaining we check whether the goal can be achieved starting from the goal, but in our approach, going backward means known what are the necessary conditions need to be true to achieve the goal. the proposed approach can be used in various application domains. the advantage of using bams for adaptive brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 78 rule based systems is that the most of rule based systems have a limited number of rules that can be coded and represented easily. 3. the proposed approach as stated above our proposed approach depends on bams theory. we assume rules have only one condition, "and" relation conditions or "or" relation conditions, but "and" and "or" relations are not considered in one rule. in most of the previous approaches, only one condition or "and" relation conditions are only considered, but "or" relation is not considered. also our assumptions include that any rule has only one conclusion, positive or negative, which is also the same in all the previous algorithms. the proposed approach has five parts, creation of coding table, input and output vectors construction, obtaining the weight matrix, testing the system, running the system and rule extraction (rule decoding). 3.1. coding table in this stage, rules are coded in a specific table called coding table. coding table contains the rules condition inputs, the rules outputs and whether the relation in the rule condition is "and" relation or "or" relation. each row in the table represents a rule and is called rule code. each rule input slot is filled with 1 if true and -1 if false, and each rule output slot corresponding to the rule is filled with 1 if positive (true) and -1 if negative (false). under the relation column, if the rule is having "and" relation, its relation slot is filled with 0, if the rule is having "or" relation, its relation slot is filled with 1. if the rule has only one condition, the slot becomes empty. the used table is shown in table 1. table 1. the proposed rules coding table for three rules. the total number of inputs in all rules is 8 and total number of outputs in all rules is 3 3.2. input and output vectors construction inputs: the coding table for the system rules. output: the input and output vectors for the system rules. updated coding table. highlights: to make our concept clear in this part, assume we have the following rule if a then z and assume further that the number of conditions/inputs in the system rules are 5 (for example a,b,c,d and e). the above rule means, a should be true to conclude z regardless of the values (true/false) of the other system inputs b,c,d and e. this simply means for example if a and not b then z is still a true rule , and if a and b and not c then z is still a true rule unless a contradictory rule appears in the future. the process: a. find number of the generated copies for each rule code (nc) based on the following formula nc = n * δ, (3) inputs relation outputs # a b c d e f g h x y z 1 2 3 n. m. hewahi bidirectional associative memories for adaptive rule based systems 79 where n is the number of inputs ( for example 8 in table 1) and δ is the copying factor. δ is a value that satisfies the condition 1≤ δ ≤ 2n-z, where z is the number or remaining conditions other than those which have 1 or -1 in rule code. the larger is the value of δ, the more is the number of copies are generated. the minimum number of copies will be equal to n in case δ = 1. b. every input vector xi is represented in the form [i1 i2 i3, ..in], where i1 for example is the value assigned for the first input. each copy of the rule code is identified by xij to indicate that it is the jth copy of the ith rule code. c. for every rule code (row in the table) in the coding table do the following: d. if the rule is having one condition c, nc number of copies will be randomly generated to have values 1 or -1 and indicated by 1' or -1' respectively for inputs other than c. the c value for all the copies will be always 1 for positive input condition and -1 for negative input condition. we use 1' and -1' to distinguish between these generated values and the original value of the condition c. this is important in the stage of rule extraction (rule code decoding). we do not use 0 as a don't care for other conditions other than c because 0 in hopfield and bams indicates that 0 values means that the input/output will keep its previous value 1 or -1. so if we keep 0 in our computation as a don't care, we will not get correct results. e. if the rule is having "and" relation between say i and j conditions, nc number of copies will be randomly generated to have values 1' or -1' for inputs other than i and j. the values for i and j will be always 1 or -1 for all the copies depending on their input value positive or negative. f. if the rule is having "or" relation between say i and j conditions, two sets of copies will be generated, the first set will have the condition i value as 1 or -1 and the remaining conditions values will have either 1' or -1' values generated randomly. the second set will have the condition j value as 1 or -1 and the remaining conditions values will have either 1' or -1' values generated randomly. in this case we shall get 2*nc copies. g. output vector yi = [o1 o2 o3..om] is the output vector for the i th rule code, where m is the number of outputs in the system. all the copies of the ith rule code will have yi as output. this means the nc for a certain rule code will have the same output. our assumption is that the output vector values are having exclusive or relation, which means only one of them can be true and the rest should be false, or one of them is false and the rest is true. the output vector will have 1 or -1 for the output to be achieved (1 for non-negated output and -1 for negated output). if we have a non-negated output, all the other output values should be -1', and if we have a negated output, all the other output values should be 1'. it is to be noted that all the input copies are added to the code table. 3.3. obtaining weight matrix input: code table -the input vectors extracted from the code table. output: the weight matrix w the process: the proposed approach produces the weight matrix (w) that can be used to test and find the output of any given input. we follow the same approach used in bams in computing w. in the computation of w, every 1' is considered as 1 and every -1' is considered as -1. the following is the steps required to obtain the weight matrix. a. for every rule code, we compute rule weight (rwi) rwi = ∑ (𝑋𝑖𝑗)𝑇. (𝑌𝑖) (4) b. compute w = ∑ 𝑅𝑊𝑖 (5) where r is the number of rule codes in the table. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 80 3.4. testing the system inputs: the weight matrix w. code table. the input (can be input or output) required to get its output/input. output: the output of the given input, or the input for the given output. the process: the steps below are the steps to be followed to get output/input. this process includes testing and adapting the system: a. get the input and apply it to obtain the corresponding output using formula 2. in normal cases, if the given input vector is among the input vectors used to obtain the weight matrix, the exact expected output will be produced; this is normally obtained by following the bams approach. it is normal if the given input is not one of the inputs used to get w, the obtained output mostly will not be also included in the output list of the system. b. if the obtained output is one of the outputs, then accept it, if it is not; try to find the closest output by computing the hamming distance. the hamming distance is the number of differences between the corresponding values in two vectors (this mechanism is used in hopfield approach). c. if the hamming distance d is less than or equal to threshold t, then consider the output with the most less hamming distance as the output for the given input. otherwise, the output is considered to be the output of the given input known by the user. t can be computed as t = m * c (6) where m is the number of values in the output vector and c is acceptance coefficient which is 0 ≤ c ≤ 1. when the user wants to be stricter, he/she can make the value of c less, and when he/she wants to be more flexible, he/she can increase the value of c. when c= 0, no tolerance is accepted and the same output should be considered. the worst case is when c=1, which means all output values in the output vector can be incorrect. d. since this is a testing stage, the output should be known by the user, the expected output is compared by the obtained output, if they are the same, the testing is over. e. if the obtained output is not as the expected output, the input and the expected output are added to the code table and w is recomputed. this re-computation needs first determining only the inputs and output vectors as explained above for the recently added input and its corresponding output. the above steps are applied if you start from input to output or if you start from output to input. 3.5. running the system input: the weight matrix w. code table the input (can be input or output) required to get its output/input. output: the input/output for the given input (can be input or output for the system) by the user the process: in this stage, steps from a to c in testing the system stage are typically performed. then, if the obtained output is not among the output vectors listed in the code table, the given input and the corresponding obtained output are inserted into the code table, and w is recomputed. n. m. hewahi bidirectional associative memories for adaptive rule based systems 81 3.6. rule extraction (rule code decoding) in this stage, we follow certain points to extract the rules, or what we call rule code decoding: input: rule code table output: extracted rules the process: a. for every code rule, we construct a rule with inputs as the conditions of the rule and the output as the action of the rule. b. to construct the conditions, for every true input, use its name in the rule, if the input is false (-1 value); use its negated name in the rule. in this stage, we ignore 1' and -1' from our consideration. c. for every rule code, if one or more input values have 1 or -1, the relation is checked in the table, if it is 0, "and" relation between the inputs is constructed, otherwise "or" relation between the input conditions is constructed. d. to construct the action, for every true output (1), use its name in the action part of the rule. similarly for negated output (-1), use its negated name in the action part of the rule. again here 1' and -1' are ignored. e. the rule should only be extracted once. similar rules will be ignored. 4. example let us assume we have the following rules if a then b if c then g if g and m then r if r or n then z if x and ~s then e the constructed table is the one shown in table 2. table 2. the constructed table for the given set of rules. 0 relation means "and" relation, and 1 relation means "or" relation based on table 2. w can be computed as below. the input vector is to represent values for [ a c g m r n x s] and the output vector represents [b g r z e] in the same order. for rule1 the value of a should be true (value 1) to conclude b. based on this the output should be y1 = [1 -1' -1' -1' -1'] t. where -1' is a value assigned by the algorithm to have exclusive or relation. this means b is true and all other outputs should be false. for the input, a should be true regardless of other input values. let us assume δ (copies factor) = 1.5, then nc = 8 x 1.5 = 12 copies, we generate all input values other than input a at random 1 or -1 and use 1' and -1' to represent them respectively, for example: inputs relation outputs # a c g m r n x s b g r z e 1 1 1 2 1 1 3 1 1 0 (and) 1 4 1 1 1 (or) 1 5 1 -1 0 (and) 1 brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 82 x11 = [1 -1' 1' -1' -1' 1' 1' -1'] t x12= [1 -1' -1' 1' 1' -1' -1' 1'] t x13 = [1 1' 1' -1' -1' 1' 1' -1'] t and so on until we get 12 copies all these input vectors have output y1 for the second rule c must be true to conclude g. this will give x21 = [ -1' 1 1' -1' -1' 1' -1' 1'] t x22 = [1' 1 -1' -1' 1' -1' 1' 1' ] t x23 = [1' 1 -1' 1 ' 1' -1' 1' -1'] t and so on until we get 12 copies and all of them have output y2 = [-1' 1 -1' -1' -1'] t similarly for rule 3, to conclude r, g and m should be true. it has to be noted that the relation between g and m is "and" relation. this will give x31 = [-1' -1' 1 1 -1' -1' 1' -1'] t x32 = [-1' 1' 1 1 1' -1' -1' 1'] t x33 = [1' -1' 1 1 -1' 1' -1' -1'] t and so on until we get 12 copies and all of them have output y3 = [-1' -1' 1 -1' -1'] t for rule 4, to conclude z, r or n should be true. because we have or relation, we create 24 copies, half of them ensures that r is true and the rest ensures that n is true. x41 = [-1' -1' 1' -1' 1 1 -1' -1'] t x42 = [-1' -1' -1' -1' 1 1 1' -1'] t x43 = [-1' -1' -1' -1' 1 1 -1' -1'] t … x413= [ -1 ' -1' -1' 1 ' 1 1 -1' -1' ] t the output for all x4 inputs is y4 =[-1' -1' -1' 1 -1'] t for rule 5, the same process is done as that of rule 3, the only difference is that the values for x and s are always 1 and -1 consecutively. below is an example related to x51. x51 = [ -1' -1' -1' -1' -1' -1' 1 -1] the output for all the copies for rule 5 (rule code 5) is y5 = [-1' -1' -1' -1' 1] t now based on the above, we include all the generated copies in the code table and compute the weight matrix w as below: rw1= (x11) t.y1 + (x12) t.y1+ (x13) t.y1 +……(x112) t.y1 rw2= (x21) t.y1 + (x22) t.y1+ (x23) t.y1 +……(x212) t.y2 similarly rw3, rw4 and rw5 are computed. now it is time to compute w w = rw1 + rw2+rw3 +rw4+rw5 n. m. hewahi bidirectional associative memories for adaptive rule based systems 83 5. conclusion in this paper a new algorithm to represent and adapt rules in rule based systems based on bams is proposed. the strength of bams is that it has a strong theoretical ground that can be used with full trust. the proposed algorithm utilizes bams to memorize and adapt rules in rule based systems and facilitates the deal with forward chaining and backward chaining as well. the proposed algorithm has advantages over other algorithms in terms of rule representation, inference mechanism and logic relations within a rule. the simplicity of rule representation through the code table made the rule extraction a simple process. implementation of this algorithm is simple and rule adaptation process is still based on the theory of bams. most of the previous algorithms deal with only one condition or with "and" relations between the conditions in the rule. in our algorithm, we also consider "or" relation between the conditions. the proposed algorithm discusses six issues, code table creation, input and output vectors construction, weight matrix calculation, testing the system, running the system and extracting the system rules. in code table creation, we construct a table where each rule is coded in terms of 1 and -1. in input and output vector, we generate copies of the rule codes and insert them in the code table, 1' and -1' are used to fill wildcard condition/outputs. '1 and -1' are used to be identified from the original 1's and -1's. in the weight matrix calculation, we follow the concepts used in bams. in the system testing stage, we follow a process to test the system learning performance and do necessary changes if needed. in the system running stage, the same process is done as testing stage, but the system tries to improve itself without the help of the user. in the rule extraction (rule code decoding) stage, we present how rules are extracted from the code table. some of the future directions could be implementing the proposed algorithm with various rule based systems applied in various domains. references bharadwaj, k., & silva, j. (1998). towards integrating hierarchical censored production rule(hcpr) based system and neural networks, in f. oliveira (ed.). lnai (vol. 1515, pp.121-130), springer. blount, j., tauritz, d., & mulder, s. (2011). adaptive rule-based malware detection employing learning classifier systems: a proof of concept. 2011 ieee 35th annual computer software and applications conference workshops, 110 – 115. cimino, m., lazzerini, b., marcelloni, f., & ciaramella, a. (2012). an adaptive rule-based approach for managing situation-awareness. expert systems with applications 39(12) 10796–10811. farid, d., mamun, m., manderick, b., & nowe, a. (2016). an adaptive rule-based classifier for mining big biological data", expert systems with applications, vol. 64, 305-316. hewahi, n. (2002). a general rule structure (grs), journal of information and software technology, vol. 44/8, 7-13. hewahi, n. (2004). principles on integrating general rule structure (grs) based systems and neural networks, proceedings of the international conference on artificial intelligence, ic-ai '04, 174-180. hewahi, n. (2005). training and extracting real time system symbolic rules using neural networks, asian journal of information technology, vol. 4, no. 10, 920-926. hewahi, n. (2011). probabilistic neural networks for rule based systems, international journal of advanced research in computer science, vol.2, no. 2, 21-26. holland, j. (1985). properties of the bucket brigade", proceedings of the 1st international conference on genetic algorithms, 1-7. hopfield, j. (1982). neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities, proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the usa, vol. 79, no. 8, 2554–2558. ioannou, p., raouzaiou, a., karpouzis, k., pertselakis, m., tsapatsoulis, n., & kollias, s. (2004). "adaptive rule-based facial expression recognition", in goebel, randy, tanaka, yuzuru, wahlster & wolfgang (eds.), lnai, (vol. 3025, pp.466-475), springer. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 84 jain, m., dua, p., dua, s., & lukiw, w. (2013). data adaptive rule-based classification system for alzheimer classification, journal of computer science & systems biology, vol. 6, 291-297. jithish, j., & sankaran, s. (2017). a hybrid adaptive rule based system for smart home energy prediction, in ceur workshop proceedings, vol. 1819. kosko, b. (1987). bidirectional associative memories, ieee trans. syst. man cybern. smc-00, 000. okour, s., maeder, a., & basilakis, j.(2015). an adaptive rule-based approach to classifying activities of daily living, international conference on healthcare informatics, 404 – 407. tabebordbar, a., & beheshti, a. (2018). adaptive rule monitoring system, ieee/acm 1st inter. workshop on software engineering for cognitive service (se4cog), gothenburg, sweden, 45-51. towell, g., & shavlik, j. (1991). interpretation of artificial neural networks: mapping knowledgebased neural networks into rules, advances in neural information processing systems, vol.4, 977-984. towell, g., & shavlik, j. (1994). knowledge based artificial neural networks, artificial intelligence, 70, 119-165. wang, o. (2017). adaptive rules model: statistical learning for rule-based systems, machine learning [cs.lg], université paris-saclay, phd thesis. nabil m. hewahi obtained his phd degree in computer science from jawaharlal nehru university, new delhi, india in 1994, and m.tech degree in computer science and engineering from indian institute of technology, bombay, india in 1991. he is now with the university of bahrain, bahrain and the islamic university of gaza, palestine. dr. hewahi is a full professor of computer science (artificial intelligence) since 2006. he published over 65 papers in well-known journals and conferences. his main research interest is intelligent systems including machine learning and knowledge representation. 159 a portfolio optimization algorithm using fuzzy granularity based clustering s. m. aqil burney institute of business management korangi creek, karachi, karachi city, sindh 75190, pakistan phone: +92 21 111 002 004 aqil.burney@iobm.edu.pk tahseen jilani university of nottingham nottingham ng7 2rd, uk phone: +44 115 951 5151 university of karachi main university rd, karachi, karachi city, sindh 75270, pakistan phone: +92 21 99261300 tahseen.jilani@notingham.ac.uk humera tariq university of karachi main university rd, karachi, karachi city, sindh 75270, pakistan phone: +92 21 99261300 humera@uok.edu.pk zeeshan asim virtual university, pakistan m. a. jinnah campus, defence road, off raiwand rd, lda avenue phase 1 lda avenue, lahore, punjab, pakistan phone: +92 42 111 880 880 ms080400010@vu.edu.pk usman amjad university of karachi main university rd, karachi, karachi city, sindh 75270, pakistan phone: +92 21 99261300 usmanamjad87@gmail.com syed shah mohammad university of karachi main university rd, karachi, karachi city, sindh 75270, pakistan phone: +92 21 99261300 syed@vu.edu.pk abstract clustering algorithms are applied to numerous problems in multiple domains including historic data analysis, financial markets analysis for portfolio optimization and image processing. recent years have witnessed a surge in use of nature inspired computing (nic) techniques for data clustering to solve various real world optimization problems. granular computing (gc) is an emerging technique to handle pieces of information, known as information granules. in this paper, an ensemble of fuzzy clustering using particle swarm optimization and granular computing for stock market portfolio optimization. the model is then tested on stocks listed in hong kong stock exchange. experimental results suggested that clusters formed through fuzzy particle swarm optimization (fpso) with granular computing are well suited and efficient for portfolio optimization. for comparison, we have used a benchmark index of hong kong stock exchange called as hang sang composite index (hsci). results proved that results of proposed approach are better in comparison to benchmark results of hsci. keywords: hybrid approach for portfolio selection; fuzzy c-mean clustering (fcm); fuzzy particle swarm optimisation (fpso); granular computing; hong kong composite index. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 160 1. introduction data clustering is the mathematical method designed to identify relevant data within a collection of data (nerurkar et. al., 2018). it can be described as a methodology for assignment of data into groups in a manner that the data points in same group or cluster are analogous to each other and unrelated with objects of other clusters or groups (hammouda and karray, 2000). it is being used efficiently in various domains for identification of natural groups present in large datasets. data clustering can be used by businesses for identification of potential customers of a product by analyzing or collecting buying patterns of customers, so as to design marketing strategies based on those behaviors (ravi, pradeepkumar and deb, 2017). finding out clusters in a large dataset is challenging task and usually require some data mining tool. clustering tools usually assign data elements to a clusters based on their similarities to the group. clustering remained an area of interest for researchers in last few decades, thus various clustering techniques were developed. clustering techniques can be generally divided into two types (suganya and shanthi, 2011). based on classical set theory there is a type of clustering called hard clustering algorithms in which data items can only be assigned to only one group at a point of time. a widely used hard or crisp clustering algorithm is k-means. but for real datasets where there are no definite boundaries, this technique is not useful. (izakian and abraham, 2009). soon after the introduction of the fuzzy theory, the researchers applied fuzzy set theory on clustering algorithms (izakian and abraham, 2009). there is no sharp boundary in real world data, so fuzzy clustering algorithms remained fruitful in those applications. it can handle real world uncertainties efficiently by assigning membership degree to items. membership degree in such clusters relies on the proximity of values to the cluster centers. widely used and famous fuzzy clustering algorithm is fuzzy c-means (fcm) introduced by bezdek in 1974 and is being applied at large (bezdek, 1984). swarm intelligence (si) is an area of computational intelligence which comprise of algorithms getting inspiration from population based natural phenomenon working on the basis of decentralized control and self-organization (shandilya et. al., 2017). it can be said that si is “collective behavior of decentralized and self-organized systems” (zhang et. al., 2013). on the other hand granular computing (gc) is a computation theory for efficiently using granules such as clusters, groups and subsets to build a computational model for complicated applications that contains huge amounts of data and information. a granule can be described as one of the various small data points or particles combining to form a larger unit. in this paper we have used fuzzy particle swarm optimization (fpso) using the concept of granular computing to divide the information granules into different clusters to build a portfolio that can optimize the weekly investor’s returns. the experimental results using the hong kong stock exchange data indicate that our proposed method provides better returns than the benchmark index for the hong kong stock exchange. 2. literature review 2.1. fuzzy data clustering fuzzy logic concepts are based on degree of membership so imprecision concepts are dealt with fuzzy logic in better way. fuzzy logic can be used in data clustering so as to deal with partial membership of data points. fuzzy logic based data clustering algorithms assign data object partly to more than one cluster. fcm proposed by bezdek (bezdek, 1984), divides the collection of n data objects denoted as o = {o1,o2 ,...,on} in r dimensional space into c fuzzy clusters, where (1 < c < n) with centroids or cluster centers z = {z1, z2,..., zc}. fuzzy clustering can be represented by using fuzzy matrix μ with dimensions n x c. here n is count of data objects whereas c is count of data clusters. data item present at ith row and jth column is represented by μij. degree of membership of ith and jth object is represented by μ. degree of membership μ has following properties: [ ] (1) s. m. a. burney, t. jilani, h. tariq, z. asim, u. amjad, s. s. mohammad a portfolio optimization algorithm using fuzzy granularity based clustering 161 ∑ (2) ∑ (3) fuzzy c-means has the objective function to minimize the following equation: ∑ ∑ (4) s.t, | | (5) where m; (m > 1) is a scalar constant value called as “weighting exponent”, which manages the fuzziness of clusters whereas dij is euclidian distance between object oi and the cluster center zj. where zj indicates cluster center of jth cluster and it is obtained using equation (6) 1 1 n m ii ij j n m i ij o z        (6) fcm is an iterative algorithm and described in below steps: i) select the weighting component m where (m>1) and initiate μij, the membership function values where , i = 1,2,..., n; j = 1,2,..., c . ii) using above mentioned eq. 6 find out the cluster centers zj , where j = 1,2,..., c. iii) calculate the euclidian distance dij, where i = 1,2,..., n; j = 1,2,..., c iv) using below mentioned eq. 7 update μij, the membership function, where i = 1,2,..., n; j = 1,2,..., c. 2 ( 1) 1 1 ij ik m ij dc k d          (7) v) if not converged, go to step 2. there are many conditions that can be used to stop the execution of this loop. one of them is to stop iterations of the algorithm when the change in the cluster center values becomes negligible or the objective function as specified in the equation (4), cannot be minimized more. one problem of fcm algorithm is that it is very much dependent on initial values and likely to fall in local optima problem. 2.2. fuzzy particle swarm optimization (peng et al., 2004) suggested a variant of pso based on fuzzy logic, for travelling salesman problem (tsp), known as “fuzzy particle swarm optimization (fpso)”. in this algorithm the velocity and position of individuals are re-defined to characterize the fuzzy relation within variables. in fuzzy pso algorithm, x represents fuzzy relationship between collection of data objects, o = {o1,o2,..., on} , and the collection of cluster centers, z = {z1, z2,..., zc} . fuzzy relationship x is represented as: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 162 11 1 1 c n nc x                (8) in the above mentioned matrix x, μij denotes the membership value of object i to cluster j with constraints specified in the eq. 9 and 10 [ ] (9) ∑ (10) the position matrix specified in the above mentioned equation of each individual is similar to fuzzy matrix μ specified in fuzzy c-means algorithm. velocity of each individual is specified by a matrix of dimension [n, c] where n denotes number of rows and c is the number of columns. elements of the matrix are within the range of [-1, 1]. eq. 11 and 12 are used for changing the velocities and positions of every particle on the basis of matrix operations. 1 1 2 2( 1) ( ) ( ) (pbest(t) x(t)) (c r ) (gbest(t) x(t))v t w v t c r         (11) ( 1) ( ) ( 1)x t x t v t    (12) here  denotes the matrix addition and  represents the matrix multiplication. it is important to note here that constraints stated in eq. 9 and 10 may be violated after update of position matrix. thus normalizing position matrix is necessary here. for normalization purpose, all the negative values in matrix are made zero. and if all matrix elements turn out to be zero then the matrix is evaluated again using random numbers within range of [0, 1] and then matrix is transformed without violating the conditions. 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 c c j c j j j c c n nj nc nj j j xnormal                                   (13) similar to other nature inspired algorithms fuzzy pso algorithm uses a fitness function for assessing the general solution. following equation will be used for evaluation of the solutions. ( ) m k f x j  (14) in equation 14, k is a constant while jm is objective function for fuzzy c-means algorithm given in eq. 15. 1 1 c n m m ij ij j i j d     (15) as the value of jm is smaller, clustering results will be better fitness value f(x) being higher. fuzzy pso algorithm for fuzzy clustering is described as under: s. m. a. burney, t. jilani, h. tariq, z. asim, u. amjad, s. s. mohammad a portfolio optimization algorithm using fuzzy granularity based clustering 163 1. instantiate the following parameters: p the population size, w, c1, c2 and maximum number of iterations. 2. initialize a swarm with p number of individuals. here x, gbest, pbest and v are matrices of size n, c. 3. instantiate x, v and pbest values for every individual and gbest for the whole population. 4. determine the centers of cluster for every individual using eq. 16. 1 1 n m ii ij j n m i ij o z        (16) 5. evaluate the objective value of every individual using eq. 15. 6. evaluate the value of pbest for every individual. 7. evaluate the value of gbest for the whole population. 8. change velocity matrix for every individual by using eq. 11 and 12. 9. change position matrix for every individual by using eq. 13. 10. go back to step 4 until stopping criteria is met. stopping criteria is either the predefined maximum number of iterations or no progress in global best fitness for a specified number of generations. in this paper we have used fuzzy pso clustering algorithm on the granules created from the original dataset. to divide the dataset into granules on the basis of market capital value of the company, the companies with similar market value are placed into same group. for the clustering of these granules fuzzy pso algorithm is used which gives the benefit of lower computational time and offer better results than fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm (mehdizadeh, 2009). 3. methodology used from the literature review it is revealed that lot of work was done for data clustering and portfolio management but not much work is done on clustering stock data for the portfolio optimization using fuzzy pso. the use of data clustering for stock data helps in segmenting different stocks in a way that all stocks having similar characteristics are grouped together (cheng, chen and jian, 2015). a method for creating efficient portfolios with markowitz model by using the clustering method to select stocks, called clustering based selection was designed by (nanda, mahanty and tiwari, 2010). to classify stocks into clusters they used fuzzy c-mean data clustering algorithm. after classification of stocks, some stocks were selected from clusters for building an optimized portfolio to minimize the risk by diversifying the portfolio. according to them, the problem of efficient frontier can be solved more efficiently by clustering the stocks. although fuzzy c-means (fcm) algorithm is considered one of the most popular and widely used fuzzy clustering techniques because of its efficiency, straightforwardness, and convenience of implementation. but problem is that fuzzy c-means is very sensitive to initialization and it can easily be trapped in local optima. on the other hand particle swarm optimization (pso) is a stochastic global optimization tool which is used for various optimization problems. (li, liu and xu, 2007) proposed a fuzzy pso based data clustering algorithm to overcome the shortcomings of fcm. their suggested method uses the power of global search in pso algorithm to overcome the shortcomings of fuzzy c-means. in our methodology the focus is on how stocks can be divided into granules and how fuzzy pso based data clustering algorithm can be applied on these granules to further divide data into small clusters and how to design a diversified portfolio using stocks from different cluster to maximize portfolio returns. so fuzzy pso algorithm is applied to create clusters for each granule. the dataset used for the experiment contains the information about financial ratios of companies listed in hong kong stock exchange. this dataset is divided into six different sub groups known as brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 164 information granule. information granules are collections of entities that are arranged together due to their similarity, functional or physical adjacency, coherence etc. a granulation criterion deals with the question of why two objects are put into the same granule. we divided the dataset into 6 different partitions or granules based on their market capitalization value. this is followed by calculating the optimal number of clusters in each group. then fuzzy pso data clustering algorithm is applied on each granule to divide it into optimal number of clusters as calculated in the previous step. after that 1 to 3 stocks are selected from every cluster according to the important fields as indicated in the principal component analysis. then average weekly return of each stock selected is calculated in the last step on the basis of their market value during january2012 to june-2012. the stocks having good positive average weekly returns are selected for the portfolio creation. finally, variance – covariance matrix for the selected stocks is calculated in the last step. matlab is used for the development of efficient portfolio against the efficient frontier. for this purpose, we have used the matlab financial tool box command frontcon. this command returns optimized portfolios as per the provided input parameters. we have taken 3 portfolios from the given set of portfolios and calculated the actual weekly portfolio returns for each portfolio on the basis of market value during july 2012 to december 2012. then we calculated the hang seng composite index weekly performance from july 2012 to december 2012 from the bloomberg website. hang seng composite index is benchmark index for hong kong stock exchange. hsci is a comprehensive benchmark index and covers about 95% of total listed companies on main board of stock exchange of hong kong (“sehk”). hsci is used as a basis for performance benchmarks. in next step we compared these portfolio results against the hsci and the comparison showed that these portfolio returns are better than the hsci. flow chart of proposed model is shown in figure 1. 4. data description dataset of the hong kong stock market companies’ data for the financial year 2011 was taken from the new york university dataset page. in data preprocessing step, it was checked for missing values by removing the instances with missing data from dataset. there are 774 companies’ data present in the dataset after the removal of missing values. this dataset contains companies’ data from 77 different industry groups and represents almost all industry groups of the hong kong stock exchange. there are 42 fields for each company which includes many different types of financial ratios to represent the financial position of that company at the end year 2011. some of the financial ratios include market capital (in us$), total debt (in us$), firm value (in us$), cash, enterprise value (in us$), cash firm value, liquidity ratio, book debt to capital ratio, market debt to capital ratio, book debt to equity ratio, market debt to equity ratio, beta, correlation with market, pbv, ps, return on equity and return on capital etc. in this dataset variety of data values are used. some fields contain very large values like market value, enterprise value, market capitalization and some very small fields like beta, debit to equity ratio. data is first pre-processed to deal with large values. initially, the data was transformed to zscores to get similar variability of the values. another problem is that there are 42 fields in the dataset which are difficult to handle for calculations while performing data clustering; therefore we used principal component analysis (pca) for this purpose. pca uses a mathematical procedure to transforms a number of correlated variables into a smaller number of un-correlated variables called principal components. this process is also known as dimension reduction. the transformation in pca is done in such a way that the 1st principal component has the largest possible variance, and each succeeding component in turn has the highest variance possible under the constraint that it will be uncorrelated with the preceding components. before performing pca the data must be standardized to remove the influence of different measurement scales and to give approximately equal weightage to all the values. we have used spss tool for this purpose. s. m. a. burney, t. jilani, h. tariq, z. asim, u. amjad, s. s. mohammad a portfolio optimization algorithm using fuzzy granularity based clustering 165 figure 1. flow chart of proposed model for portfolio optimization after performing pca on our data, 12 principle components cover 94.7% variation of the full dataset with 42 variables. the identified fields sorted by respective eigen values are, 1. firm value (in us$), 2. book debt to capital ratio, 3. price to sale ratio (ps), 4. free cash flow to firm (fcff), 5. beta (a measure of the volatility of a portfolio in comparison to the market as a whole), 6. liquidity ratio, 7. correlation with market, 8. return on capital, 9. net profit margin, 10. net debt issued, 11. cash firm value, 12. ev invested capital. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 166 first four fields represent around 62% of the dataset variation as per the pca so we will use these four fields for selection of stocks from different clusters. 5. experimental results 5.1. granules formation the dataset was divided into six different sub groups also known as information granules. information granules are a group of objects that are organized together based on their similarity, coherence or physical adjacency. a granulation criterion describes the rules for dividing data objects into different granules. the categorization of companies into different partitions is made based on market capitalization. the companies were divided into groups namely mega, large, mid, small, micro and nano. there is no formal definition of the exact cutoff values. therefore, following market capitalization values as granule criterion are used: 1. mega companies: over $10000 million 2. large companies: $5000 $10000 million 3. mid companies: $1000 $5000 million 4. small companies: $250 $1000 million 5. micro companies: below $250 million 6. nano companies: below $50 million after the granules formation the number of companies in each granule is shown in the table 1: table 1. granules frequency table granule name frequency percent cumulative percent nano micro small medium large mega 182 312 151 95 17 17 23.5 40.3 19.5 12.3 2.2 2.2 23.5 63.8 83.3 95.6 97.8 100 total 774 100 5.2. granules formation optimal number of clusters estimation in each granule number of records of companies’ data in each granule is different, with wide range of values so there would be different number of clusters in each granule. to divide each granule into clusters we have used k-means data clustering algorithm and to identify optimal number of clusters internal validity indices. for the cluster estimation we have used available tool for this purpose designed by mr. kaijun wang matlab code: (http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/13916). this tool is designed in matlab release 7.2 (r2006a). the tool is suitable for the performance comparison of different indices on the estimation of the number of clusters, algorithm design for applications by using or improving part codes, etc. this tool also provides internal validity indices which we have used to estimate the optimal number of clusters between 2 and 14. following internal validity indices are used in this method for the cluster estimation.  silhouette (sil)  davies-bouldin (db)  calinski-harabasz (ch)  krzanowski-lai (kl) the results of optimal number of clusters estimation for each granule using above mentioned tool are described in table 2: s. m. a. burney, t. jilani, h. tariq, z. asim, u. amjad, s. s. mohammad a portfolio optimization algorithm using fuzzy granularity based clustering 167 table 2. optimal number of clusters or each granule table granule silhouette (sil) davies-bouldin (db) calinskiharabasz (ch) krzanowski-lai (kl) optimal no. of cluster nano micro small medium large mega 6 5 2 3 2 2 6 5 2 3 2 2 6 5 2 3 2 2 8 7 2 3 2 6 5 2 3 2 2 5.3. clustering granules using fuzzy pso after the optimal numbers of cluster estimation for every granule we have performed data clustering using fuzzy particle swarm optimization algorithm. the code for this data clustering technique is written in matlab 2010 using the fuzzy pso algorithm. the code is run for 300 times for each granule and the best clustering result are used for further processing. to evaluate the best clustering result objective function value and internal validity indices are used. following internal validity indices are used for the evaluation of clustering results.  partition coefficient (pc)  classification entropy (ce)  partition index (sc)  separation index (s)  xie and beni’s index (xb) 5.4. selection of companies from each cluster after applying the fuzzy pso (fpso) data clustering algorithm on all granules we have developed clusters in each granules. in our next step we selected 1-3 companies from each cluster based on the performance of financial ratios during the year 2011. the ratios used for the selection of companies to build a portfolio are those fields which are identified in the principal component analysis. the fields & ratios used for selection of companies are firm value in us$, book debt to capital ratio, ps (price sale), fcff (free cash flow to firm), beta, liquidity ratio, correlation with market, return on capital , net profit margin, net debt issued/repaid, cash firm value and ev invested capital. as a result of this process 33 companies were selected for further processing. the detail of number of companies selected from each granule is given in table 3: table 3. no of companies selected from each granule granule name no of companies selected total no of companies no of clusters nano micro small medium large mega 4 6 5 8 5 5 182 312 151 95 17 17 6 5 2 3 2 2 total 33 774 20 the number of companies selected for hybrid optimal portfolio from each cluster of every granule is given in table 4: table 4. no of companies selected from each cluster cluster no. granule name 1 2 3 4 5 6 nano micro small medium large mega 1 1 3 1 3 3 1 1 2 4 2 2 0 1 - 3 - - 0 1 - - - - 1 2 - - - - 1 - - - - - brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 168 5.5. selection of companies for portfolio management for the selection of companies for the portfolio management we calculated the average weekly earnings of above mentioned companies for the period of january 2012 to june 2012 (26 weeks). for the calculation of the average weekly earnings we have downloaded the company historical share prices from yahoo finance. for further processing we selected only those companies that have weekly earnings of 0.08%. there were 15 companies out of 33 that have weekly earning greater than or equal to 0.08%. the names of those companies are as under: table 5. list of companies selected for portfolio creation sr # company name industry group granule cluster 1 vs international group ltd. (sehk:1002) machinery nano 2 2 chun wo development holdings ltd. (sehk:711) engineering nano 5 3 huafeng group holdings limited (sehk:364) apparel nano 6 4 national electronics holdings ltd. (sehk:213) apparel micro 2 5 hon kwok land investment co. ltd. (sehk:160) real estate (development) micro 3 6 convenience retail asia ltd. (sehk:831) retail (grocery and food) small 2 7 shimao property holdings ltd. (sehk:813) real estate (development) medium 2 8 kerry properties ltd. (sehk:683) real estate medium 2 9 cafe de coral holdings ltd. (sehk:341) restaurant medium 2 10 franshion properties (china) ltd. (sehk:817) real estate medium 3 11 haier electronics group co., ltd. (sehk:1169) furn./home furnishings medium 3 12 galaxy entertainment group limited (sehk:27) hotel/gaming large 1 13 china resources land ltd. (sehk:1109) real estate (development) large 2 14 china overseas land & investment ltd. (sehk:688) real estate (development) mega 1 15 boc hong kong holdings ltd. (sehk:2388) bank mega 2 5.6. design portfolios using the frontcon to design different portfolios, we have used frontcon function from matlab’s financial toolbox. this function returns the mean-variance efficient frontier with user specified covariance and returns. frontcon is a matlab 2010 function that helps us to design portfolios of asset investment weights which minimize the risk for given values of the expected return. the portfolio risk is minimized subject to constraints on the asset weights or on groups of asset weights. to use the frontcon we need a variance-co variance matrix of given companies, expected return and number of portfolios required to be designed. we have calculated the var-co variance matrix using the average weekly earnings calculated before, for the expected returns we have used the average weekly earnings of these companies between january 2012 and june 2012. to calculate the average weekly earnings we downloaded historical share price of these companies from the yahoo finance. the frontcon function returns the portfolios with specified number of shares of each company. the frontcon also returns the estimated portfolio returns and the risk associated with that portfolio. the syntax of frontcon is as under: [portrisk, portreturn, portwts] = frontcon (expreturn, expcovariance, numports, portreturn, assetbounds, groups, groupbounds, varargin) we have used this function for 20 portfolios. the portfolio 1 gives a portfolio weekly return of 1.1127% at the risk of 1.3694% and the portfolio comprised of 8 companies. this portfolio has the lowest risk and the risk is lowered by diversifying investment in 8 companies. the portfolio 20 gives a portfolio return at the risk of 9.0925% and the portfolio comprised of only one company. this portfolio gives highest return but also contains the highest risk. the efficient frontier for our given values is as under. the associated return and risk of each portfolio is described in table 6: s. m. a. burney, t. jilani, h. tariq, z. asim, u. amjad, s. s. mohammad a portfolio optimization algorithm using fuzzy granularity based clustering 169 table 6. risk associated with each portfolio portfolio no portfolio return portfolio risk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 1.1127% 1.1903% 1.2678% 1.3454% 1.4230% 1.5005% 1.5781% 1.6556% 1.7332% 1.8108% 1.8883% 1.9659% 2.0434% 2.1210% 2.1986% 2.2761% 2.3537% 2.4312% 2.5088% 2.5864% 1.3694% 1.4578% 1.6697% 1.9324% 2.2264% 2.5407% 2.8711% 3.2147% 3.5679% 3.9389% 4.3340% 4.7513% 5.1856% 5.6427% 6.1287% 6.6375% 7.1710% 7.7630% 8.4072% 9.0925% figure 2. risk and expected return of portfolio a portfolio that offers maximum expected return for a given level of risk, or conversely the lowest level of risk for a given expected return is known as optimal portfolio. efficient frontier is a set of optimal portfolios that suggests highest expected return for a defined level of risk or in other words lowest risk for a specified level of expected return. so we can say that the set of all efficient portfolios is called the efficient frontier, shown in graph presented in figure 2. 5.7. portfolio performance to assess the efficacy of our portfolios we measured the actual weekly performance of these stocks from july 2012 to dec 2012 and compared it with the standard index of the hong kong stock exchange for the same duration. for this we have used the hang seng composite index (hsci) which is one of benchmark index for the hong kong stock exchange. the hang seng composite index (hsci) offers a comprehensive hong kong market benchmark that covers about 95% of the total market capitalization of companies listed on the main board of the stock exchange of hong kong (sehk). hsci uses free float adjusted market capitalization methodology, and can be used as a basis for performance benchmarks. so to compare the portfolio performance weekly performance of hsci is calculated and compared with the portfolio performance. top three portfolios having least risk for the invested capital are used. the portfolio details of 3 portfolios formed are given in tables 7, 8 and 9: brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 170 table 7. portfolio number 1 composition sr # company name weight granule cluster membership 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 cr asia (831) franshion ppt (817) haier elec (1169) galaxy ent (27) china res land (1109) national elec h (213) hon kwok land (160) 0.22186 0.00418 0.15436 0.05250 0.02305 0.16128 0.38278 small medium medium large large micro micro 2 3 3 1 2 2 3 table 8. portfolio number 2 composition sr # company name weight granule cluster membership 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 v.s. intl (1002) cr asia (831) franshion ppt (817) haier elec (1169) galaxy ent (27) national elec h (213) hon kwok land (160) 0.01817 0.24439 0.06214 0.15718 0.03945 0.14326 0.33540 nano small medium medium large micro micro 2 2 3 3 1 2 3 table 9. portfolio number 3 composition sr # company name weight granule cluster membership 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 v.s. intl (1002) cr asia (831) franshion ppt (817) haier elec (1169) galaxy ent (27) national elec h (213) hon kwok land (160) 0.040 0.263 0.114 0.156 0.024 0.115 0.288 nano small medium medium large micro micro 2 2 3 3 1 2 3 the actual weekly performance of our portfolios and the benchmark index for the july 2012 to december 2012 is given in table 10: table 10. comparison between benchmark index & our portfolios week no hsci portfolio # 1 portfolio # 2 portfolio # 3 week # 1 return week # 2 return week # 3 return week # 4 return week # 5 return week # 6 return week # 7 return week # 8 return week # 9 return week # 10 return week # 11 return week # 12 return week # 13 return week # 14 return week # 15 return week # 16 return week # 17 return week # 18 return week # 19 return week # 20 return week # 21 return week # 22 return week # 23 return 0.83% -2.73% 1.09% -0.25% 0.85% 0.79% -0.60% -0.65% -2.58% 1.90% 3.94% 0.52% 0.75% 0.60% 0.79% 2.26% 0.12% 3.54% -2.62% -1.15% 3.15% 0.39% 0.91% 0.26% -1.08% 0.01% 0.23% 0.62% 3.06% -1.84% 2.65% -1.42% 2.77% 3.15% 3.33% 1.06% 0.08% -0.84% 1.41% 1.25% 3.73% -0.95% -0.31% 2.80% 3.21% 1.79% 0.25% -1.24% 0.17% 0.49% 0.48% 2.46% -2.02% 2.63% -1.36% 2.62% 2.79% 2.66% 1.01% 0.30% -0.58% 1.28% 1.18% 3.38% -0.53% -0.41% 2.79% 4.06% 2.03% 0.27% -1.48% 0.26% 0.82% 0.22% 1.86% -2.22% 2.58% -1.40% 2.61% 2.59% 1.84% 1.05% 0.58% -0.33% 1.17% 1.08% 3.17% -0.11% -0.44% 2.91% 4.94% 2.20% s. m. a. burney, t. jilani, h. tariq, z. asim, u. amjad, s. s. mohammad a portfolio optimization algorithm using fuzzy granularity based clustering 171 the performance of our three portfolios and the hsci benchmark index from july 2012 to december 2012 is shown above. the graphical view of weekly performance of our portfolios and benchmark index are shown in figure 3: figure 3. performance comparison of three portfolios the graph of figure 3 clearly suggests that the performance of our three portfolios is greater than the hong kong stock exchange benchmark index hsci. another important point to note here is that in all the three portfolios, stocks belongs to different set of granule and clusters. as a first step we divided the stocks into 5 different granules based on their market capitalization value and in the next step the granules are further sub divided into clusters. as we know that cluster helps in grouping similar records so we can say that clustering will divide stocks into similar groups. therefore, selecting stocks from different groups will diversify our portfolio and as a result it will also reduce our risk, as we know that diversification reduces the risk. in the portfolio 1 there are two stocks from micro granule. first stock belongs to cluster 2 and second belong to cluster 3. there is one stock from the small granule that belongs to cluster 2. there are two stocks from the medium granule and both of them belong to cluster 3 of that granule. there are two stocks from the large granule that belong to cluster 1 and 2 of that granule. in the same way the stocks are also diversified from different granules and clusters in the portfolio 2 and 3 which helps in reduction of portfolio risk. 6. conclusion in this research a method for portfolio management by using granule based fuzzy data clustering is proposed. granular computing is integrated with fuzzy based particle swarm optimization technique to design portfolios that can offer returns matching the benchmark index. this method is also useful in selecting the stocks for the investment as initially there were 774 companies’ data from 77 different industry groups of the hong kong stock exchange. there are 42 fields for every company present in the dataset which includes many different types of financial ratios to represent the financial position of these companies at the year-end 2011. this method reduces time for the selection of stocks from different categories and also helps in convenient grouping of stocks into a cluster and thus best performing stocks from those groups can be selected. the selection of stocks from different granules and then from different clusters will diversify the portfolio and as a result our portfolio risk will be reduced. the aim was to maximize return by investing in different groups of stocks that would individually react in a different ways for the same event. an important point to note here is that although diversification does not guarantee against loss, but diversification can be used as an important factor for maximizing returns while minimizing risk. we can reduce risk associated with a stock, but general market risks influence almost every stock. that’s why for building an optimal portfolio we selected stocks from different granules and clusters so that each stock has its own characteristics and would react differently for the same event. to design optimal portfolios, matlab function frontcon from financial toolbox is used. this helps us to design portfolios that maximize the return for the given value of risk. the results of designed portfolios are better than the benchmark index of the hong kong stock exchange which further validates the view. to summarize this work, it can be said that we have demonstrated brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 2 (april, 2019), issn 2067-3957 172 a granule based fpso data clustering approach for the selection of stocks, portfolio management and designing portfolios on the efficient frontier. references bezdek, j. c., ehrlich, r., & full, w. (1984). fcm: the fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm. computers & geosciences, 10(2-3), 191-203. doi:10.1016/0098-3004(84)90020-7. cheng, s., chen, s., & jian, w. (2015). a novel fuzzy time series forecasting method based on fuzzy logical relationships and similarity measures. ieee international conference on systems, man, and cybernetics, doi:10.1109/smc.2015.393. hammouda, k., & karray, f. (2000). a comparative study of data clustering algorithms. retrieved from http://www.pami.uwaterloo.ca/pub/hammouda/sde625-paper.pdf. izakian, h., abraham, a., & snasel, v. (2009). fuzzy clustering using hybrid fuzzy c-means and fuzzy particle swarm optimization. world congress on nature & biologically inspired computing (nabic). doi:10.1109/nabic.2009.5393618. li, l., liu, x., & xu, m. (2007). a novel fuzzy clustering based on particle swarm optimization. ieee international symposium on information technologies and applications in education. doi:10.1109/isitae.2007.4409243. li, x. y., sun, j. x., gao, g. h., & fu, j. h. (2011). research of hierarchical clustering based on dynamic granular computing. journal of computers, 6(12), 2526-2533. maciel, l., gomide, f., & ballini, r. (2013). forecasting exchange rates with fuzzy granular evolving modeling for trading strategies. proceedings of the 8th conference of the european society for fuzzy logic and technology. doi:10.2991/eusflat.2013.40 nanda, s., mahanty, b., & tiwari, m. (2010). clustering indian stock market data for portfolio management. expert systems with applications, 37(12), 8793-8798. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2010.06.026. nerurkar, p., shirke, a., chandane, m., & bhirud, s. (2018). empirical analysis of data clustering algorithms. procedia computer science,125, 770-779. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2017.12.099 östermark, r. (1996). a fuzzy control model (fcm) for dynamic portfolio management. fuzzy sets and systems. doi:10.1016/0165-0114(96)84605-7. rajagopal, s. (2011). customer data clustering using data mining technique. international journal of database management systems, aircc publishing corporation, 3(4). ravi, v., pradeepkumar, d., & deb, k. (2017). financial time series prediction using hybrids of chaos theory, multi-layer perceptron and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. swarm and evolutionary computation, 36, 136-149. doi:10.1016/j.swevo.2017.05.003. shandilya, s. k., shandilya, s., deep, k., & nagar, a. k. (2017). handbook of research on soft computing and nature-inspired algorithms. hershey, pa: information science reference. shi, y., & eberhart, r. (1998). a modified particle swarm optimizer. ieee international conference on evolutionary computation proceedings. ieee world congress on computational intelligence (cat. no.98th8360). doi:10.1109/icec.1998.699146. suganya, r., & shanthi, r. (2012). fuzzy cmeans algorithma review. international journal of scientific and research publications, ijsrp inc, 2(11). zhang, y., agarwal, p., bhatnagar, v., balochian, s., & yan, j. (2013). swarm intelligence and its applications. the scientific world journal, 2013, 3. zhu, q., & azar, a. (eds.). (2015). complex system modelling and control through intelligent soft computations (vol. 319). springer, cham. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31912883-2. zhu, h., wang, y., wang, k., & chen, y. (2011). particle swarm optimization (pso) for the constrained portfolio optimization problem. expert systems with applications, 38(8), 10161-10169. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2011.02.075. s. m. a. burney, t. jilani, h. tariq, z. asim, u. amjad, s. s. mohammad a portfolio optimization algorithm using fuzzy granularity based clustering 173 professor dr. s. m. aqil burney is the head of actuarial sciences, risk management & mathematics at institute of business management (iobm) karachi. he holds m.sc.(statistics), m.phil( risk theory and insurance -statistics) from university of karachi (uok) and ph.d.(mathematics) from strathclyde university, glasgow-uk along with many courses in population studies of un, computing. he has taught for more than 40 years at uok and extensively delivered lectures at other institutions and universities of pakistan and abroad. he also holds extensive experience of academic management and organization and provost, registrar, project director development of dept. of computer science and a institute of information technology and founding director of main communication network of university of karachi. dr. aqil burney was meritorious professor at dept of computer science university of karachi prior to joining at iobm. he has published more than 135 research papers and 7 books nationally and internationally in ict, mathematics, statistics and computer science. he has supervised more than 10 phd and 5 ms/m.phil in mathematics/computer science/statistics and approved hec supervisor .dr. aqil burney is chairman (elect) national ict committee for standard psqcaministry of science & technology govt. of pakistan and member national computing education accreditation council (nceac), member ieee(usa), member acm(usa) was fellow royal statistical society uk) for 30 years or so. his fields of interests are algorithmic analysis & design of multivariate time series, stochastic simulation and modeling, software engineering, computer science, soft computing, risk theory and insurance e-health management and data sciences and fuzzy and other logical systems. tahseen jilani received the b.sc. degree in computer science from government science degree college, in 1998, and the m.sc. (statistics) and ph.d. (computer science) from university of karachi, pakistan, in 2001 and 2007, respectively. he is working as associate professor since 2014, in the department of computer science, university of karachi. since january, 2016, he is engaged with the school of computer science and school of medicine as post doc data scientist, university of nottinghamuk. his current research interests include data sciences, machine learning in medical sciences, statistical techniques for big data analytics, imprecise and uncertainty data modelling. dr. jilani is a member of rough set society (rss) and association for professional health analysts (apha). he is serving as member of technical committee and active reviewers for many national and international research activities. he was the recipient of the hec indigenous 5000 scholarship in 2003, the national science foundation grant 2010, the nottingham university fellowship and honorary postdoc at university of sterling. usman amjad received bs. degree in computer science from university of karachi, in 2008. he recently completed his phd in computer science from university of karachi. his research interests include soft computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence and programming languages. he was the recipient of the hec indigenous 5000 scholarship in 2013. currently, he is working as ai solution architect at datics.ai solutions. humera tariq received b.e (electrical) from ned university of engineering and technology in 1999. she joined ms leading to phd program at university of karachi in 2009 and completed her phd in 2015. currently she is working as assistant professor at department of computer science, university of karachi. her research interest includes image processing, biomedical imaging, modeling, simulation and machine learning. mr. syed shah muhammad is working as a lecturer in the department of computer science in virtual university of pakistan. he obtained the degree of ms in computer sciences (mscs) with the specialization of computer networks from the university of agriculture, faisalabad in 2005. presently, he is ph.d. computer science scholar at university of engineering and technology (uet) lahore. 77 psycho-oncology support laura rebegea medical clinical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, dunărea de jos university of galati strada domnească 47, galati, romania phone: 0336 130 108 radiotherapy department, sf. ap. andrei emergency clinical hospital str. brailei nr. 177 galati romania 800578 phone: 0236 301111 laura_rebegea@yahoo.com dorel firescu surgical clinical department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, dunărea de jos university of galati strada domnească 47, galati, romania phone: 0336 130 108 surgery clinic ii nd , sf. ap. andrei emergency clinical hospital str. brailei nr. 177 galati romania 800578 phone: 0236 301111 ginel baciu clinic department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy, dunărea de jos university of galati strada domnească 47, galati, romania phone: 0336 130 108 emergency clinical paediatric hospital, galati, romania anamaria ciubara clinic department, faculty of medicine and pharmacy dunărea de jos university of galati strada domnească 47, galati, romania phone: 0336 130 108 psychiatry ii nd clinic, elisabeta doamna psychiatry hospital strada traian 290, galati, romania phone: 0236 479 401 anamburlea@yahoo.com abstract background: malignant diseases represent one of the most important worldwide morbidity and mortality causes. in romania, the number of new cancer cases is 78800/year and the number of cancer deaths is 48300/year. in galati county the number of oncology patients under observation is continuously increasing, ranging from 11426 cases in 2008 to 17083 cases in 2017. methods and materials: we are presenting psycho-oncology reactions manifested by an oncology patient during his evolution from pre-therapeutic evaluation, to diagnostic set-up, treatment and further evolution. anxiety and depression prevalence among oncology patients vary in very large limits, function of malignant site, but also, within the pale of the same disease, the highest incidence of depression being in patients with breast, lung, colorectal, head and neck cancers. in the specialty literature the following influence factors for psychological and psychiatrically reactions are mentioned: age, neoplasia sites, emotional, psychological status, and depressive status prior to cancer diagnostic. psychic reactions are various and variable from one patient to another, progressing from denial, revolt, anger, sadness, anxiety to depression and suicidal tendencies. taking into consideration that depression brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 78 symptoms are overlapping with those given by neoplasia itself and with toxicities of the oncologic treatment, the evolution of depression is complicated. conclusions: the polymorphism of psycho-oncology reactions manifested on the entire route of malignant diseases requires psychological counseling in all disease stages. efficient communication with the oncologic patient, psychological counseling of patient, of their family, of medical staff and group therapy can be achieved only with specialized personnel employed in oncology centers: psychologist, psychiatrist, social assistant, and priest. keywords: psycho-oncology reactions; patient; depression. 1. introduction neoplastic diseases are one of most important worldwide morbidity and mortality causes. according to globocan (2018), new global cancer data suggests that the global cancer burden has risen to 18.1 million cases and 9.6 million cancer deaths (globocan, 2018, https://www.uicc.org/new-globalcancer-data-globocan-2018). the international agency for research on cancer (iarc) estimates that 1 from 5 men and 1 from 6 women worldwide will develop cancer over the course of their lifetime, and that 1 from 8 men and 1 from 11 women will die from this disease. the factors that contributed to this increase are particularly a growing and ageing global population, an increase in exposure to cancer risk factors linked to social and economic development, and, on the other hand, increasing efficiency of cancer treatment modalities (globocan, 2018, https://www.uicc.org/new-global-cancer-data-globocan2018). in europe, the incidence and the death rate are higher than both in north and south america, being 21% and respectively 14.4% (globocan, 2018, https://rohealthreview.ro/statistica-globocan-2018romania-fara-date-exacte-privind-cancerul/). in romania the highest incidences are for lung cancer (13.6%), colorectal cancer (13.3%) and breast cancer (11.5%) (globocan, 2018, http://saptamanamedicala.ro/articole/noi-date-despre-cancerin-romania-de-la-globocan/). regarding galati county, the number of patients still existing in oncological evidences in 2007 is 17083, 25% higher than in 2010 (with 12902 oncological cases in evidence). the number of new cases recorded in 2017 was 1003 and we observed great variations from one year to another, 1626 new patients with neoplastic disease being registered in 2013. in sf. ap. andrei emergency clinical hospital in galati, there is a single psychiatric physician and a single psychologist for all oncologic patients, their family and medical staff. the psychological impact of cancer is due to the incurable disease aspect, representing one of the principal causes of death but the emotional effect is devastating; one the other side, cancer treatment is aggressive, mutilating, debilitating, affecting the quality of patient’s life (fann et al., 2008; wefel, kesler, noll & schagen, 2014). stress refers to any event in which course internal or external requests are perceived as solicitant or exceeding the adaptive resources of one person. stress causes are fear of death, changing of life plans, corporal image changes, loss of self-esteem, major changes in day-to-day life, financial and legal problems, waiting of results, lack of understanding of medical terms, treatment begging, treatment resistant attainment, unresolved anterior emotional trauma (fann et al., 2008; wefel, kesler, noll & schagen, 2014). the major cause of stress for cancer patient’s appears at the moment of diagnosis, at the moment of treatment initiation, change of therapeutically sequences, at the relapsing moment or at the moment of metastatic disease diagnostic. 2. methods and materials during the oncological treatment, psychological reactions depend on patient’s personality, neoplastic sites, and secondary side-effects of cancer treatments (saracino, weinberger & roth, 2017). there is no standard behavior in the patient’s confrontation with cancer. the psychological reaction at the moment of oncological diagnosis is described as one staging process with the following l. rebegea, d. firescu, g. baciu, a. ciubara psycho-oncology support 79 fazes (kubler-ross scale): denial, revolt, anger, resignation, depressive anxiety syndrome (wefel, kesler, noll & schagen, 2014). depression evaluation at cancer patients is much more complicated than fatigability and pain evaluation. depression has symptoms which are overlapping with neoplasia and its treatment. the frequent symptoms of depression in cancer patients which are included in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm) are fatigue and loss of appetite (smith, 2015). because of overlapping symptoms, other criteria were proposed. endicott criteria replace some physic symptoms related with neoplastic disease with more psychological symptoms. however, according to dsm criteria and endicott criteria, there is a strong correlation between diagnosis and major depressive disorder in cancer patients (smith, 2015). most of the time, in patients with cancer, depression remains undiagnosed, unrecognized, undertreated, with negative effects upon the quality of life and disease evolution (smith, 2015; lavdaniti, barbas & fratazana, 2012; saracino, weinberger & roth, 2017). the psychiatric syndrome manifested clinically frequently occurs in cancer patients after therapy initiation due to disease evolution and oncological treatments. the most frequent disorders are delirium, depression and anxiety. one patient can present one or more of these syndromes. the onset of disorder varies from one individual to another and is often related with disease stage or treatment performed (smith, 2015). depression is associated more frequently with chemotherapy vs. radiotherapy and surgery, maybe due to alopecia, nausea, secondary insomnia, post-chemotherapy amenorrhea. also, depression can be a direct consequence of anti-neoplastic therapies. there are some neoplastic sites which frequently determine brain metastasis (m1bra), such as: malignant melanoma, breast cancer, lung cancer and kidney cancer. the symptoms manifested in m1bra and which can be mistaken for psychiatric symptoms are hallucinations, spatial-temporal disorientation, confusing states, memory disorders, amnesia, aphasia, diminishing of thinking skills synthesis. when psychiatric symptoms do not respond to the pharmacological treatment, there is m1bra suspicion. another issue is the link between pain and depression. inadequate treatment for pain can cause anxiety symptoms and depression. the link between pain and depression remains controversial. sixty percent of depressive patients say that they experience pain at the diagnosis moment. depression can be a significant predictive factor of persisting pain. patients with pain and depression are more likely to commit suicide, autolysis or treatment renouncing. it was reported that administration of antidepressants increases quality of life, permits a higher grade of psycho-social readjustment of cancer patient (smith, 2015). for the treatment of depression associated with neoplasia, multidisciplinary therapies are frequently used: cognitive-behavioral therapies, medication, sustaining psychotherapy, emotional support (spoletini, 2008). nccn elaborated in 2002 specific and practical guides for each type of contribution in patient’s care, giving recommendations for emotional behavior screening, selecting, initial evaluation, orientation and treatment for each participation type in patient’s care through each member of the therapeutical team: psychologist, psychiatrist, social assistant, palliative care specialist, pastoral assistance (nccn guidelines, 2018). the term “distress” was chosen due to the fact that it sounds less embarrassing, is more acceptable and less stigmatizing than “emotional”, “psychosocial” or ”psychiatric” and can be defined and measured by self-report (nccn guidelines, 2018). distress in cancer is defined as a multifactorial experience of a psychological, social, spiritual and/or physical nature that may interfere with the capacity to deal with neoplasia, with its symptoms, treatment and side effects. distress spreads along a continuum, from normal fear and sadness, concern that can be identified among criteria of diagnostic of some psychiatric disease, depression and anxiety (nccn guidelines, distress management, 2018). brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 80 the prevalence of distress varies with the type of neoplasia, sites and stage of disease. there are some cancer sites associated with increased occurrence of depression: pancreatic, oropharynx, lung, breast, colon, gynecologic and lymphomas (nccn guidelines, distress management, 2018). screening is required, along cancer evolution, at diagnostic moment and also, after diagnosis, after treatment initiation or when therapeutical sequences are changed, after periodical post-treatment evaluation, at the moment of relapse, in the period of transition through palliative care. in each of these periods distress can appear (nccn guidelines, distress management, 2018). in the last decades, due to increasing early stage diagnosis (explained by adequate screening and progress of diagnostic methods), occurrence of new therapeutic options, improvement of treatment options and increase of global survival for all patients at all ages, the following were observed: increasing side effect frequency, decreasing capacity for carrying out day-to-day activities, and symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety and depression (nccn guidelines, distress management, 2018). favoring non-psychological factors for distress appearing are effects induced by neoplasia itself and effects induced by secondary reactions to cancer treatment. distress can be a reaction of neoplastic disease diagnostic and different transitions through pathways of this illness, including survivor’s pain (nccn guidelines, distress management, 2018); 2052% of survivors have a high risk of distress and present the probability of using drugs for anxiety and depression two times higher comparative with patients without cancer history (nccn guidelines, distress management, 2018). oncologic patients can have psychologic or psychiatric conditions which can interfere with the ability to deal with neoplastic diseases. in canada, psychosocial care have become a “standard of care” for cancer patients, emotional distress being considered the 6 th vital sign which is monitored alongside with pulse, respiration, blood pressure, temperature and pain (nccn guidelines, distress management, 2018). social stress, psychological distress and psychosocial support influence cancer patients’ adaptation and adherence to treatment. the aspects that can influence adherence to treatment, improve adaptation and disease evolution are clear and open communication, manifestation of emotions, collaboration and involvement in resolving problems (smith, 2015; spoletini, 2008; nccn guidelines, distress management, 2018). thirty-forty per cent of patients with different types of cancer present more than one types of distress (spoletini, 2008; nccn guidelines, distress management, 2018). 3. depression in breast cancer patients breast cancer is the most frequent neoplasia in women, in 2012, the annual estimated incidence being 94.2/100000 with a mortality rate of 23/100000; 33% of breast cancer patients present moderate and mild depression and 13% present severe depression with tendency of underestimated depressive symptoms (fann, thomas rich, & katon, 2008; coyne, thompson, palmer, kagee & maunsell, 2000; gilbody, house & sheldon, 2001; pignone, gaynes, & rushton, 2002). major depressive disorder (mdd) diagnosis in breast cancer patients is frequent, in most of the cases, unrecognized and undertreated, leading to diminished adherence to treatment and magnified psychic symptoms and all these together determine a major decline of life quality (fann et al., 2008). because of the unique character of psychosocial and hormonal factors which influence the mood of breast cancer women, data regarding depression treatment and epidemiology from other neoplastic sites cannot be applied in breast cancer cases. in the first year after diagnosis, breast cancer treatment presents a higher risk for depression development (fann et al., 2008), especially in young patients (fann et al., 2008), (compas et. al., 1999), premenopausal, previous with chemotherapy, with depression history. breast cancer patients who performed chemotherapy have a high risk of depressions due to the medication’s side effects, negative cognitive effects (15-33% of cases), that can persist months or even years after treatment, affecting quality of life (fann et al., 2008; schagen, van dam, & muller, 1999; leedham & ganz, 1999). also, chemotherapy has secondary effects upon fertility, sexuality, early menopause (associated with diminution of bone density and osteoporosis onset), cardiovascular illnesses development which leads to high level of distress (fann et al., 2008). l. rebegea, d. firescu, g. baciu, a. ciubara psycho-oncology support 81 hormonal therapies with tamoxifen affect the emotional state, with a negative impact upon cognition influencing the onset of depression, in some cases being necessary to interrupt the treatment in depressive patients. on the other hand, frequently, breast cancer patients are fearful of disease relapsing which is also an anxiety and depression cause (fann et al., 2008; saykin, ahles & mcdonald, 2003; cathcart et. al., 1993; thompson, spanier& vogel, 1999; breuer & anderson, 2000). one possible reason for depression prevalence in breast cancer patients is that menopause and the decrease of estrogens levels are related to depression (fann et al., 2008). hormonal therapies (ovarian suppression) diminish the estrogen levels in patients in pre and post-menopause (fann et al., 2008). estrogen increases brain serotonin postsynaptic responsivity and cumulatively act as a serotonin agonist (halbreich, rojansky & palter, 1995). the serotonergic system plays an important role in behaviors that are disturbed in affective disorders, including mood, sexual activity, sleep, cognitive function and appetite (pearlstein, 1995). gaston-johannson et. al. (gaston-johansson et. al., 1999) examined the influence of depression, pain and fatigue on the health status of 127 breast cancer patients. 91% reported fatigue, 47% pain and 54% depression. these symptoms were all significantly correlated with each other and with the general health status (fann et al., 2008; dodd, miaskowski & lee, 2004). depression exacerbates sleep problems (spiegel & giese-davis, 2003) and these are associated with fatigue (bower, ganz & desmond, 2000). 4. depression in colorectal cancer patients colon cancer rates third as incidence in both men and women world-wide. depression incidence in colorectal cancer varies in specialty literature, in large range, between 23.6% and 69.4%. these differences are due to many factors, such as different design of studies, patients with different characteristics included in the same lots, different evaluation methods (lavdaniti, barbas, fratazana & zyga, 2012). depression affects approximately 15-25% of cancer patients, being the most frequently cancer related symptom and is a comorbid disabling syndrome. independent predictors for depression are, in some studies, nutritional and gastrointestinal factors (lavdaniti, barbas, fratazana & zyga, 2012; breen, baravelli & schofield, 2009). patients with colon cancer report serious psychological and emotional morbidities (lavdaniti, barbas, fratazana & zyga, 2012; fillipovic et. al. 2007; ashbury et. al. 2003). many studies have shown increased levels of depression in cancer patients using different methods of evaluation (lavdaniti, barbas, fratazana & zyga, 2012; jadoon, munir, shahzad & choudhy, 2010; pirl, 2004; mystakidou et. al., 2005). it is reported that depression in cancer patients may be caused by diagnosis of cancer, side effects and long duration of treatment, disruption and diminished quality of life (lavdaniti, barbas, fratazana & zyga, 2012; jadoon et. al., 2010), (mystakidou et. al., 2005). colorectal cancer patients manifesting anxiety and depression have a lower overall survival rate and, also, interaction between mental and psychic problems in elderly patients can exacerbate depression and anxiety. kras gene mutation influences the development of psychosocial distress and can be associated with low overall survival in colorectal cancer. depression should be assessed and treated as early as possible in older metastatic colorectal cancer patients with the kras mutation (zhou et. al., 2016). in a study by yi zhou et. al., 62 metastatic colorectal cancer patients were analyzed (zhou et. al., 2016). the kras mutation rate was 40.3% of cases, 76.0% of with kras mutations had probable depression (19 from 25 with depression), and only 24.3% of the patients with wild-type kras were probably depressed (p<0.05). the kras mutation was associated with higher hads depression scores, independent of gender and performance status (p<0.05), but not with higher hads anxiety or total scores (zhou et. al., 2016). 5. depression in thyroid cancer patients thyroid cancer accounts for about 1% of all malignancies and for 0.2% of cancer deaths. it is the most common malignancy of the endocrine system (tagay et. al. 2005). withdrawal of thyroid brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 82 hormone therapy with consecutive hypothyroidism has a well-known negative impact on patients’ hrql, leading to increased levels of fatigue, decreased appetite, problems with constipation and motor skills, and fluid retention (tagay et. al. 2005). during treatment, patients manifested psychological symptoms and social changes, such as family decreased motivation to work or distress. patients suffering from non-metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer (dtc) have been shown to have worse hrql during peak thyroid withdrawal (tagay et. al. 2005; dow, ferrell & anello, 1997). the study by (tagay et. al. 2005) analyzed two lots of patients: a hypothyroid group who performed 4 weeks of levothyroxine treatment (dtc-h) involving 130 cases and dtc out-patients subsequent to radioiodine therapy under tsh-suppressive levothyroxine treatment (dtc-l), involving 100 patients. the health survey short-form 36 (sf-36) (tagay et. al. 2005; ware et. al., 1995) was used to assess generic hrql. this investigation instrument analyses aspects of physical, psychological, social functioning, quality of life, anxiety, depression (tagay et. al. 2005; bullinger, kirschberger & ware, 1995). the results indicated that quality of life significantly decreased in both lots, but more accentuated in dtc-h vs. dtc-l (p<0.001). in both subgroups, 44.6% and, respectively, 17.7% of cases manifested anxiety and depression (tagay et. al. 2005). 6. depression in head and neck cancer patients patients with head and neck cancer (hnc) have multiple, complex, and concurrent physical, functional, and psychosocial problems as a result of their disease and its treatment; the uncertainty of the diagnosis; also, the impact of the disease on facial disfigurement, ventilation, nutritional intake and communication have negative effects on vital functions and may lead to the high incidence of depressive symptoms in these patients (guro et. al. 2015; haisfield-wolfe et. al., 2009). in the specialty literature, several predictors of depressive symptoms in patients with hnc were identified, such as higher stage of disease (guro et. al. 2015; joseph et. al., 2013), tumor site (guro et. al. 2015; singer et. al., 2012) combined modality treatment (guro et. al. 2015; joseph et. al., 2013) aggressive rt regimens (guro et. al. 2015), higher number of comorbidities (guro et. al. 2015; haisfield-wolfe et. al., 2009), side effects (guro et. al. 2015; neilson et. al. 2015; joseph et. al., 2013), being single or living alone, (guro et. al. 2015; chen et. al., 2009), education (sehlen et. al., 2003; duffy et. al., 2007), working, smoking, (chen et. al., 2009), alcohol usage, (duffy et. al., 2007) specific working conditions, decreased social support, lower physical functioning (hammerlid et. al., 1999) and increased numbers of physical symptoms; also, depressive symptoms were associated with malnutrition, and changes in body image, as well as with increased anxiety (rhoten et. al., 2014) and decrements in various dimensions of qol (guro et. al. 2015; britton et. al., 2012). in the study by katherine rieke et. al., 3466 hnc patients were analyzed; 18.5% of cases were diagnosed with depression during the study and these patients were more likely to die of cancer vs. those who received no depression diagnosis (katherine et. al., 2017). 7. depression in cervical cancer patients cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide, with persistently high incidence and mortality in developing countries (soo et. al., 2010; parkin et. al., 2005; vistad, fossa & dahl, 2006; pearman, 2003). the increasing survival rates of women with cervical cancer increased the importance of health-related quality of life (hrqol) of the survivors (soo et. al., 2010; saracino et. al., 2017). the multiple treatment modalities (surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy) of gynecological malignancies induce a significant morbidity. women frequently manifest physical, psychological, and sexual changes after treatment including loss of ovarian function, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, bowel or bladder changes, and mood changes (soo et. al., 2010; morley, 2004). soo et. al. performed a study on 828 patients with cervical cancer. anxiety was significantly more prevalent in younger patients (<50 years) than in control arm (which included 500 patients), 40% vs 26.4%, respectively; p<0.001. in multivariate analyses, anxiety and l. rebegea, d. firescu, g. baciu, a. ciubara psycho-oncology support 83 depression were associated with financial difficulty, poor body image, low existential well-being, sexual inactivity (soo et. al., 2010). 8. depression in elderly cancer patients the management of elderly cancer patients represents a challenge. depression in elderly cancer patients varies in literature between 3 and 31%. depression in geriatric patients is often under-recognized and under-treated due to the tendency for older adults to report depressive symptoms differently than younger adults (saracino et. al., 2017; gallo, anthony & muthen, 1994; duc et. al., 2017; american psychiatric association, diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 2013). for elderly cancer patients, it has a significant impact on quality of life, morbidity, and mortality (guo et. al., 2006). epidemiological studies reported that 60% of malignant diseases occur in patients  65 years, and is estimated that in 2020 approximately 70% of all cancers will be diagnosed in patients  65 years (gallo, anthony & muthen, 1994; guo et. al., 2006; passik & lowery 2011; akechi et. al., 2003). depressive symptoms, mild or severe, are associated with increase of deficiencies in neoplastic disease management. the principal causes of these difficulties come from depression diagnosis criteria overlapping with neoplasia symptoms and/or treatment side effects. the overlapping symptoms may include: sleep disturbances, decreased interest in sexual activity, and lack of energy (gallo, anthony & muthen, 1994; guo et. al., 2006; mitchell, lord, symonds, 2012; spoletini et. al. 2008; polikandrioti, evaggelou & zerva, 2003). it is difficult to set up the efficient treatment for depression in this patient category due to multiple medication (comorbid illnesses), difficulties in patient–physician relationship, lack of adherence to treatment, social stigma (kathleen et. al., 2007). polikandrioti et. al. analyzed 159 cancer patients and the results of the study revealed that the depression level increases directly with age, with significant differences between age groups. the statistical analysis showed that patients >70 years old experienced higher levels of depression, compared with those who were <50 and 51-60 years old, p=0,025 and p=0,005, respectively (polikandrioti, evaggelou, zerva & zerdila, 2008). possible reasons are that elderly patients with cancer have pre-existing comorbidities often associated with situations able to change their lives, such as functional impairment, poor network of social support, loss of spouse, loss of interest for activities, cognitive disorders (poor memory or concentration difficulties), and non-acceptance of actually state of depression (heilman, lee & dury, 2002; pasquini & biondi, 2007). the study performed by duc s. et. al. analyzed 344 geriatric patients with chemotherapy and the independent factors of depression were depressive symptoms at baseline (odds ratio (or) = 6.7, p < 0.001), malnutrition (or = 5.1, p = 0.014), and risk of malnutrition (or = 1.6, p = 0.014) (duc et. al., 2017). depression is a common symptom in cancer patients, which is difficult to be detected and consequently to be treated. it deteriorates over the course of cancer treatment, persists long after the end of therapy and influences negatively the quality of life (kathleen et. al., 2007). regarding educational status, patients of primary education experienced higher level of depression compared to those of secondary and higher/university education (heilman, lee & dury, 2002). the socio-economic status of patients with cancer is frequently responsible for the incidence of depression. according to heilman et. al. (2002) a correlation was found between financial stress and depressive symptoms in patients with cancer. many researches stated that depression needs to be examined in combination with personality and the stage of disease (heilman, lee & dury, 2002; bailey et. al., 2005; bardwell et. al., 2006) and other comorbidities like alcohol withdrawal (ciubara et. al., 2015; ciubara, et. al, 2018). cancer is a chronic disease, induces important changes to the functional capability, the body image and the social or family role involving emotional problems for the patient. health professionals should be aware of the consequences of depression in all dimensions of patients’ lives that undergo cancer treatment. early diagnosis of depression and awareness of its impact have great importance for evaluation, medical treatment and the planning of personal care (heilman, lee & dury, 2002). the depressive syndrome is associated more frequently with chemotherapy vs. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 84 radiotherapy and surgery, maybe because of its side effects and their psychological impact on patients. the psycho-social support must become a “standard of care” for oncological patients, the same as it is in canada. the psychologist must be an active member in multidisciplinary theme; its role is to support the patient’s better understanding of the disease itself, the multimodality treatment, their side effects, changing treatment sequences, disease relapsing, palliative care. also, the psychologist should provide psychological support for families, medical staff and care-givers. 9. instead of conclusions the relationship between physician and patient has a supportive role when it is based on trust and reciprocity, when communication is open, sincere and full of honesty. supportive psychotherapy must focus on solutions, and in these cases, supportive groups may be efficient by sharing individual experiences, such as patient groups with the same oncology diagnosis (breast cancer, colon, prostate, etc.), or patient groups with the same therapeutical sequence (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery). anxiety and depressive syndrome prevention may be achieved by psychological counseling for oncological patients, family, medical personnel, and group therapy. there is a strong need to identify and treat depression in cancer patients in order to increase quality of life and reduce mortality. it is required to identify the most effective combinations of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments for depression in cancer patients. also, in our oncology department from sf. ap. andrei emergency clinical hospital in galati, it is necessary to have two active psychologists to provide supportive psychotherapy for all oncologic patients, their family and the medical staff. references akechi, t., nakano, t., akizuki, n., okamura, m., sakuma, k., & nakanishi, t. et al. (2003). somatic symptoms for diagnosing major depression in cancer patients. psychosomatics, 44(3), 244-248. doi: 10.1176/appi.psy.44.3.244 american psychiatric association (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th edition. american psychiatric publishing, arlington, va. american psychiatric association. diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: dsm-5. american psychiatric association; arlington, va, (2013). ashbury, fred & madlensky, lisa & raich, peter & thompson, mark & whitney, geoff & hotz, ken & kralj, boris & s edell, william. (2003). antidepressant prescribing in community cancer care. supportive care in cancer : official journal of the multinational association of supportive care in cancer. 11. 278-85. 10.1007/s00520-003-0446-8. bailey, r., geyen, d., scott-gurnell, k., hipolito, m., bailey, t., & beal, j. (2005). understanding and treating depression among cancer patients. international journal of gynecological cancer, 15(2), 203-208. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1438.2005.15204.x bardwell, w., natarajan, l., dimsdale, j., rock, c., mortimer, j., hollenbach, k., & pierce, j. (2006). objective cancer-related variables are not associated with depressive symptoms in women treated for early-stage breast cancer. journal of clinical oncology, 24(16), 2420-2427. doi: 10.1200/jco.2005.02.0081 bjordal k, kaasa s. (1995). psychological distress in head and neck cancer patients 7-11 years after curative treatment. br j cancer. 71(3):592-597. bower je, ganz pa, desmond ka, rowland jh, meyerowitz be, belin tr. (2000) fatigue in breast cancer survivors: occurrence, correlates, and impact on quality of life. j clin oncol;18:743–53. breen sj, baravelli cm, schofield pe, jefford m, yates pm, aranda sk. (2009) is symptom burden a predictor of anxiety and depression in patients with cancer about to commence chemotherapy? med j aust. 190 (7 suppl):s99-104. l. rebegea, d. firescu, g. baciu, a. ciubara psycho-oncology support 85 breuer b, anderson r. (2000). the relationship of tamoxifen with dementia, depression, and dependence in activities of daily living in elderly nursing home residents. women health;31:71–85. britton b, clover k, bateman l, et. al. (2012). baseline depression predicts malnutrition in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. support care cancer. 20(2):335-342. bullinger m, kirschberger i & ware je. (1995). the german sf-36 health survey. zeitschrift gesundheitswissenschaft: 10: 21–36. cathcart ck, jones se, pumroy cs, peters gn, knox sm, cheek jh. (1993). clinical recognition and management of depression in node negative breast cancer patients treated with tamoxifen. breast cancer res treat;27:277–81. chen am, jennelle rl, grady v, et. al. (2009). prospective study of psychosocial distress among patients undergoing radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. int j radiat oncol biol phys. 73(1):187-193. chen sc, lai yh, liao ct, lin cc, chang jt. (2010). changes of symptoms and depression in oral cavity cancer patients receiving radiation therapy. oral oncol. 46 (7):509-513. ciubara a., burlea ş. l., săcuiu i., radu d. a., untu i., & chiriţă, r. (2015). alcohol addiction–a psychosocial perspective. procedia-social and behavioral sciences;187, 536-540 ciubara, a.b., nechita, a., tudor, r.c., matei, m., tutunaru, d., sirbu, p.d. (2018). social and medical ethics: implications for romanian protocols regarding the therapy of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in trauma patients. revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 60, 174-179. compas be, stoll mf, thomsen ah, oppedisano g, epping-jordan je, krag dn. adjustment to breast cancer: age-related differences in coping and emotional distress. breast cancer res treat 1999; 54:195–203. coyne, j. c., thompson, r., palmer, s. c., kagee, a., & maunsell, e. (2000). should we screen for depression? caveats and potential pitfalls. applied & preventive psychology, 9(2), 101-121. dodd mj, miaskowski c, lee ka. (2004) occurrence of symptom clusters. j natl cancer inst monogr; 76–78. dow k, ferrell b & anello c. (1997). balancing demands of cancer surveillance among survivors of thyroid cancer. cancer practice: 5; 289–294. dow kh, ferrell br & anello c. (1977). quality-of-life changes in patients with thyroid cancer after withdrawal of thyroid hormone therapy. thyroid 7:613–619. duc s, rainfray m, soubeyran p, fonck m, blanc jf, ceccaldi j, cany l, brouste v, mathoulinpélissier s. (2017). predictive factors of depressive symptoms of elderly patients with cancer receiving first-line chemotherapy. psychooncology 26(1):15-21. duffy sa, ronis dl, valenstein m, et. al. (2007). depressive symptoms, smoking, drinking, and quality of life among head and neck cancer patients. psychosomatics. 48(2):142-148. fann, j., thomas-rich, a., katon, w., cowley, d., pepping, m., mcgregor, b., & gralow, j. (2008). major depression after breast cancer: a review of epidemiology and treatment. general hospital psychiatry, 30(2), 112-126. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2007.10.008 fillipovic br, fillipovic bf, kerkez m, millnic n, randelovic t. (2007). depression and anxiety levels in therapy –nive patients with inflammatory bowel disease and cancer of the colon. world j gastroenterol. 13(3): 438-443. gallo jj, anthony jc, muthen bo. (1994). age differences in the symptoms of depression: a latent trait analysis. j gerontol 49:251–264. gaston-johansson f, fall-dickson jm, bakos ab, kennedy mj. (1999) fatigue, pain, and depression in pre-autotransplant breast cancer patients. cancer pract 7:240–7. gilbody sm, house ao, sheldon ta (2001). routinely administered questionnaires for depression and anxiety: systematic review. bmj;322:406–9. guo y, musselman dl, manatunga ak, et. al. (2006). the diagnosis of major depression in patients with cancer: a comparative approach. psychosomatics 47(5):376–384. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 86 guro lindviksmoen astrup, tone rustøen, christine miaskowski, steven m. paul, kristin bjordal, (2015). a longitudinal study of depressive symptoms in patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiotherapy. cancer nursing. 38 (6):436–446 haisfield-wolfe me, mcguire db, soeken k, geiger-brown j, de forge br., (2009) prevalence and correlates of depression among patients with head and neck cancer: a systematic review of implications for research. oncol nurs forum.;36(3):107-125. haisfield-wolfe me, mcguire db, soeken k, geiger-brown j, de forge b, suntharalingam m. (2012). prevalence and correlates of symptoms and uncertainty in illness among head and neck cancer patients receiving definitive radiation with or without chemotherapy. support care cancer. 20 (8):1885-1893. halbreich u, rojansky n, palter s, tworek h, hissin p, wang k. (1995). estrogen augments serotonergic activity in postmenopausal women. biol psychiatry 37:434–41. hamish r. smith (2015). depression in cancer patients: pathogenesis, implications and treatment. oncol lett. 9(4): 1509–1514. hammerlid e, ahlner-elmqvist m, bjordal k, et. al. (1999). a prospective multicentre study in sweden and norway of mental distress and psychiatric morbidity in head and neck cancer patients. br j cancer. 80(5-6):766-774. heilman mv., lee ka., dury fs. (2002). strengths and vulnerabilities of women of mexican descent in relation to depressive symptoms. nursing res. 51:175–182. ilaria spoletini, walter gianni, lazzaro repetto, pietro bria, carlo caltagirone, paola boss`u, gianfranco spalletta (2008). depression and cancer: an unexplored and unresolved emergent issue in elderly patients. critical reviews in oncology/hematology 65: 143–155 jadoon na, munir w, shahzad ma, choudhy zs. (2010). assessment of depression and anxiety in adult cancer outpatients: a cross-sectional study. bmc cancer. 10:594. jesse r. fann, anne m. thomas-rich, wayne j. katon, deborah cowley, mary pepping, bonnie a.mcgregor, julie gralow (2008). major depression after breast cancer: a review of epidemiology and treatment. general hospital psychiatry 30:112–126 joseph la, routledge ja, burns mp, et. al. (2013). value of the hospital anxiety and depression scale in the follow up of head and neck cancer patients. j laryngol otol.127(3):285-294. katherine rieke, kendra k. schmid, julia houfek, eugene boilesen, shinobu watanabe-galloway (2017). depression and survival in head and neck cancer patients. oral oncology, 65: 76-82. kathleen e., quon b., quinn d., dwight-johnson m.,wells a., lee p-j., et. al. 2007. improving treatment of depression among low-income patients with cancer : the design of the adaptc study. gen hosp psychiatry. 29(3):223-231. kelly c, paleri v, downs c, shah r. (2007). deterioration in quality of life and depressive symptoms during radiation therapy for head and neck cancer. otolaryngol head neck surg. 136(1):108-111. kohda r, otsubo t, kuwakado y, et. al. (2005). prospective studies on mental status and quality of life in patients with head and neck cancer treated by radiation. psychooncology. 14(4):331336. leedham b, ganz pa (1999). psychosocial concerns and quality of life in breast cancer survivors. cancer invest.17:342–8. maria lavdaniti, george barbas, aikaterini fratazana, sofia zyga (2012). evaluation of depression in colon cancer patients. health science journal volume 6, issue 4, pg.681-692. mitchell aj, lord k, symonds p. (2012). which symptoms are indicative of dsmiv depression in cancer settings? an analysis of the diagnostic significance of somatic and non-somatic symptoms. j affect disord. 138(1–2):137–148. morley je. (2004). the top 10 hot topics in aging. j gerontola biol sci med sci. 59(1):24–33. (pubmed: 14718483) l. rebegea, d. firescu, g. baciu, a. ciubara psycho-oncology support 87 mystakidou k, tsilika e, parpa e, katsouda e, galanos a, vlahos l. (2005) assessment of anxiety and depression in advanced cancer patients and their relationship with quality of life. qual life res, 14:1825-33. national cancer institute. depression available at http://www.cancer.gov access in 8 august 2011). nccn guidelines versions (2018). distress management. neilson k, pollard a, boonzaier a, et. al. (2013). a longitudinal study of distress (depression and anxiety) up to 18 months after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. psychooncology. 22(8):1843-1848. new global cancer data: globocan 2018 | uicc. (2018). retrieved from https://www.uicc.org/new-global-cancer-data-globocan-2018 noi date despre cancer în românia de la globocan. (2019). retrieved from http://www.saptamanamedicala.ro/articole/noi-date-despre-cancer-in-romania-de-laglobocan okamura m, yamawaki s, akechi t, et. al. (2005). psychiatric disorders following first breast cancer recurrence: prevalence, associated factors and relationship to quality of life. jpn j clin oncol 35: 302-309. parkin dm, bray f, ferlay j, et. al. (2005). global cancer statistics, 2002. ca cancer j clin. 55:74y108. pasquini m., biondi m. (2007). depression in cancer patients: a critical review.clinpractepidemolment health. 3: 2. passik, sd., lowery, (2011). a. recognition of depression and methods of depression screening in people with cancer. in: kissane, mm., sartorius, n., editors. depression and cancer. wiley and sons; oxford. pearlstein tb. (1995). hormones and depression: what are the facts about premenstrual syndrome, menopause, and hormone replacement therapy? am j obstetgynecol 173:646–53. pearman t. (2003). quality of life and psychosocial adjustment in gynecologic cancer survivors. health qual life outcomes.1:33. pignone mp, gaynes bn, rushton jl, burchell cm, orleans ct, mulrow cd, et. al. (2002). screening for depression in adults: a summary of the evidence for the u.s. preventive services task force. ann intern med;136:765–76. pirl wf. (2004). evidence report on the occurrence, assessment, and treatment of depression in cancer patients. j natl cancer inst monogr. 32:32-9. polikandrioti m., evaggelou e., zerva s., zerdila m.,koukoularis d., kyritsi e. (2008), evaluation of depression in patients undergoing chemotherapy. health science journal. 2 (3):162-172. rebecca m. saracino, mark i. weinberger, andrew j. roth, arti hurria,christian j. nelson (2017). assessing depression in a geriatric cancer population psychooncology. 26 (10): 1484–1490. rebecca m. saracino, mark i. weinberger, andrew j. roth, arti hurria,christian j. nelson, (2017). assessing depression in a geriatric cancer population psychooncology 26(10): 1484–1490. rhoten ba, deng j, dietrich ms, murphy b, ridner sh. (2014). body image and depressive symptoms in patients with head and neck cancer: an important relationship. support care cancer. 22(11):3053-3060. rowland j. (1999). anxiety and the blues after breast cancer: how common are they? cns spectr; 4:40–54. saykin aj, ahles ta, mcdonald bc (2003). mechanisms of chemotherapy induced cognitive disorders: neuropsychological, pathophysiological, and neuroimaging perspectives. semin clin neuropsychiatry;8: 201–16. schagen sb, van dam fs, muller mj, boogerd w, lindeboom j, bruning pf (1999). cognitive deficits after postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy for breast carcinoma. cancer; 85:640–50. sefik tagay, stephan herpertz, matthias langkafel, yesim erim, lutz freudenberg, nicole schopper, andreas bockisch , wolfgang senf and rainer gorges, (2005). health-related quality of life, anxiety and depression in thyroid cancer patients under short-term brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 88 hypothyroidism and tsh-suppressive levothyroxine treatment. european journal of endocrinology 153 755–763. sehlen s, lenk m, herschbach p, et. al. (2003). depressive symptoms during and after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. head neck. 25(12):1004-1018. singer s, krauss o, keszte j, et. al. (2012). predictors of emotional distress in patients with head and neck cancer. head neck. 34 (2):180-187. sneeuw kca, aaronson nk, van wouwe mcc, et. al. (1993). prevalence and screening of psychiatric disorder in patients with early stage breast cancer. qual life res 2: 50-51. soo hyun kim, sokbom kang, yong-man kim, byoung-gie kim, seok ju seong, soon do cha, chan-yong park, young ho yun (2010). prevalence and predictors of anxiety and depression among cervical cancer survivors in korea. int j gynecol cancer;20: 1017y1024 spiegel d, giese-davis j. (2003) depression and cancer: mechanisms and disease progression. biol psychiatry;54:269–82. statistica globocan 2018. românia, fără date exacte privind cancerul | ro health review. (2018). retrieved from https://rohealthreview.ro/statistica-globocan-2018-romania-fara-date-exacteprivind-cancerul/ thompson ds, spanier ca, vogel vg. (1999). the relationship between tamoxifen, estrogen, and depressive symptoms. breast j;5: 375–82. van dam fs, schagen sb, muller mj, boogerd w, vd wall e, droogleever fortuyn me, et. al. (1998). impairment of cognitive function in women receiving adjuvant treatment for highrisk breast cancer: highdose versus standard-dose chemotherapy. j natl cancer inst;90: 210– 8. vistad i, fossa sd, dahl aa. (2006). a critical review of patient-rated quality of life studies of long-term survivors of cervical cancer. gynecol oncol. 102:563y572. ware je, snow kk, korinski m, gandeck b. (1993). sf-36 health survey manual and interpretation guide. boston: new england medical center, the health institute, wefel, j., kesler, s., noll, k., & schagen, s. (2014). clinical characteristics, pathophysiology, and management of noncentral nervous system cancer-related cognitive impairment in adults. ca: a cancer journal for clinicians, 65(2), 123-138. doi: 10.3322/caac.21258 yi zhou , xiaohui gu, feng wen, jing chen et. al. (2016). association of kras gene mutations with depression in older metastatic colorectal cancer patients. int psychogeriatr. 28 (12):2019-2028. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, pages: 178-188 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/22 multifaceted problems of intercultural adaptation: a case study of chinese students in ukraine marina bilotserkovets1, tatiana fomenko2, oksana gubina3, olha berestok4, yuliia shcherbyna5, olena krekoten6 1 associate professor, phd in pedagogy, foreign languages department, sumy national agrarian university, ukraine, mbelotserkovets@yahoo.com 2 associate professor, phd in pedagogy, foreign languages department, sumy national agrarian university, ukraine, taniafomenko75@gmail.com 3 senior lecturer, phd in pedagogy, foreign languages department, sumy national agrarian university, ukraine, gubinaoxana_@ukr.net 4 senior lecturer, foreign languages department, sumy national agrarian university, ukraine, berestok@email.ua 5 senior lecturer, foreign languages department, sumy national agrarian university, ukraine, juliasherbina09@gmail.com 6 senior lecturer, foreign languages department, sumy national agrarian university, ukraine, zhouravliova66@ukr.net abstract: the paper is aimed to indicate the multifaceted problems that international students, in particular, those who belong to non-european intellectual traditions, meet at sumy national agrarian university, ukraine. the authors examined the scientific works concerning chinese students’ intercultural adaptation experience in foreign universities. it was found out that successful intercultural adaptation process depends on effective interpersonal communication, which improves language proficiency, motivation, and promotes students’ interaction with representatives of foreign cultures. interviews and questionnaires with the international students were compiled and processed to determine the main problems of adaptation from physiological, socio-psychological, sociocultural, academic points of view. the data for the survey was collected through observation over the participants, focusing on students’ ability to keep the norms and rules of behaviour in ukraine; ability to establish and maintain ties with the representatives of other cultures; ability to overcome intercultural tension in the process of communication. thus, it has been concluded that intercultural adaptation can be successful only in the process of psychological, social, and cultural accommodation of international students, which can be gained with the following strategies: social facilitation, cultural awareness, psychological and pedagogical support, effective organization of interpersonal communication of students in the academic group, dormitories, communication with lecturers both at classes and outside the university. keywords: academic and cultural environment; communication; cultural awareness; interaction; intercultural adaptation; international students. how to cite: bilotserkovets, m., fomenko, t., gubina, o., berestok, o., shcherbyna, y., krekoten, o. (2020). multifaceted problems of intercultural adaptation: a case study of chinese students in ukraine. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 178-188. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/22 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/22 mailto:mbelotserkovets@yahoo.com mailto:taniafomenko75@gmail.com mailto:gubinaoxana_@ukr.net mailto:berestok@email.ua mailto:juliasherbina09@gmail.com mailto:zhouravliova66@ukr.net https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/22 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 179 1. introduction ukrainian universities are actively involved into the process of training international students. currently, according to official international enrollment statistics, 75,605 international students from 154 countries are attending universities in ukraine (ministry of education and science of ukraine/ukrainian state center for international education, n.d.). although the choice of a higher education institution by international students is influenced by numerous criteria, the most important one is the quality of education, that in many respects depends on their effective adaptation to the new academic environment. therefore, promotion of ukrainian educational services to the international market requires organization of the process of adaptation of international students to the academic and cultural environment of higher educational institutions (fomenko et al., 2019). in this context, there is a crucial necessity to study the process of students‟ intercultural adaptation and the approaches that can be implemented by ukrainian universities in order to facilitate and support these students‟ learning activities. the research was aimed to study the multifaceted problems that international students faced, while studying in sumy national agrarian university (snau), as well as the ways to solve them. the researchers regarded the experience of universities worldwide on intercultural adaptation of international students, chinese ones, in particular, who formed the largest group of international students in sumy national agrarian university at the moment, 200 out of 490. that is a current issue for snau, because since 2017 it has been actively cooperating with several chinese higher educational institutions in the scientific and educational spheres. snau is engaged in several joint bachelor and master programs, postgraduate training, exchange and internship of students, postgraduate students, faculty; holding joint conferences and symposia; promotion of mutual scientific research in different directions, etc. (snau, 2020). 2. literature review modern economic and political trends have caused significant changes in scientific and educational spheres and drawn attention to the formation of future specialists, who are aware of their belonging to the world culture, and are capable of tolerant and successful collaboration in personal and professional areas with bearers of other cultures. they are able to perceive foreign language cultures and represent their own ones, as the multifaceted problems of intercultural adaptation: a case study of chinese … marina bilotserkovets et al. 180 diversity of languages and cultures is a valuable source of knowledge, personal development, and self-fulfillment (bakum et al., 2019). it was found out that there is a wide variety of studies, devoted to the problems of international students‟ adaptation to the academic and cultural environment of a foreign higher educational institution. the researchers have underlined that entering the host society, international students undergo intercultural adaptation which is defined as a process of students‟ preparation to meet the demands of a new cultural environment (kim, 1989). the core factor of intercultural adaptation process is communication. when people communicate with someone from another culture, it considerably influences their behavioral practices, because it highlights and develops three main themes of personal communication – language ability, adaptive motivation, and flexibility, and it results in facilitation of their adaption to foreign cultures. so, it is essential to take into account peoples‟ overall capacity to encode and decode hosts‟ information appropriately that helps them to easily adjust to the host environment, as well as capability of overcoming culture shock in the process of intercultural adaptation (kim, 2008). various countries are featured with culture that is more specific than the social structures, so most scientists admit that it is extremely complicated to adapt and to get involved in other people‟s values, traditions and customs, while ”adaptation to the social order of life in a foreign country is getting faster. so, primarily, a person adapts to the social conditions of life, and then to the cultural ones” (merkulova et al., 2018). however, some scholars (solodka, 2013) note, that an individual does not need to adapt to all the aspects of the foreign culture in terms of temporary cultural contacts such as training, internships, participation in different international programs etc. international students need to learn only the most significant aspects of culture that affect interpersonal communication, and acquire the practical skills that underlie cultural and deterministic behavior of people of distinctive culture; gain understanding the rules which are used for social relations in this culture. according to the topic of this study, the works concerning chinese students‟ intercultural adaptation experience in foreign universities were of special interest. the research findings of the study regarding chinese students and their british lecturers showed that ”both parties went through a three-stage adaptation process during their one-year intercultural encounters. the first stage was marked with unfamiliarity and frustration for both chinese students and british lecturers. in the second stage, the two parties brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 181 met greater expectation gaps, intercultural academic identity conflicts and psychological struggles. only the third stage of their two-way adaptation process was perceived by students and lecturers with gradual adaptation and relaxation. two factors were identified as being pivotal in relation to the ease or difficulty of integration of international students to the foreign academic environment: the pedagogical culture „legitimated‟ by the lecturers and the level of intercultural sensitivity, especially as shown in a sense of otherorientation and support”. (zhao & bourne, 2011). another one-year in-depth qualitative research was drawn upon a small group of chinese postgraduate students‟ in a british university. it focused on exploring the three fold „stress adaptation growth‟ in the intercultural learning process of these participants by reflecting and sharing their life experience in the uk. the researcher stated that ”intercultural adaptation is in itself a process of intercultural learning, which potentially can cause essential changes in personalities of overseas students, transforming their perception of the education experience, self-knowledge, understanding other peoples, moral values and world perspectives”. (scherto, 2007). modern researchers h. moon, j. nam, and y. kim investigated the chinese students‟ level of korean culture awareness as well as the proficiency in foreign language in order to determine the most effective educational measures. they revealed that cultural education cannot be separated from language education for foreigners. the study indicated that international students from the same country may have different degree of exposure to foreign culture, knowledge priorities, and cultural familiarity, depending on their level of foreign language proficiency, prior learning, and degree of cultural similarity (moon et al., 2014). the scholars (niemets et al., 2016) determined the main problems associated with the adaptation of international students while studying in ukraine: • linguistic (problems with learning ukrainian or russian, acquisition of special terminology in the chosen specialty, difficulties with understanding the lecturers, etc.); • socio-cultural (problems of everyday communication with local residents and classmates, peculiarities of national cuisine and certain differences in the nutrition of local and international students, etc.); • socio-psychological (tolerance issues, homesickness and isolation, etc.). thus, the study of the scientific sources proved that all cross-cultural experiences are both crucial and prosperous, providing opportunities for multifaceted problems of intercultural adaptation: a case study of chinese … marina bilotserkovets et al. 182 personal transformation. problems caused by cross-cultural experiences enable international students to change some of their old ways of behavior to undergo intercultural adaptation, in particular to meet the demands of the new educational and cultural environment. 3. methodology this study was conducted with a qualitative research approach. thematic analysis revealed two research questions: 1. what are the main problems, caused by cross-cultural experiences that chinese students need to solve while studying at sumy national agrarian university? 2. what are the ways to facilitate chinese students‟ adaptation to the academic environment of the ukrainian university? to determine the main problems of adaptation including physiological, socio-psychological, sociocultural, academic aspects, special hand-out questionnaires were compiled and processed. also necessary information was collected through observation over the participants (fomenko et al., 2019). the following skills of international students ability to keep the norms and rules of behavior adopted in the host society; ability to establish and maintain communication with the representatives of other culture; ability to overcome intercultural misunderstandings in the process of communication were assessed on the basis of pedagogical observation. during the pedagogical observation, the expert estimation method was used to obtain a more qualitative result of the data. the method consisted of an intuitive and logical analysis of the problem of interaction between students. the survey was conducted by lecturers and tutors who observed the interaction of students during practical classes, extracurricular activities. in total 148 respondents participated in this study. the participants were identified as international master (76) and postgraduate students (72). the purpose of the semi-structured interviews was to conduct an in-depth exploration of chinese students‟ experiences in ukraine. each interview lasted 45 minutes. the respondents were asked to indicate the level of difficulty they had experienced with each issue, using a 10-point scale with responses ranging from 1 (no difficulty) to 10 (extreme difficulty). the major issues presented by the students are summarized in table 1. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 183 4. findings the empirical findings indicated that chinese students had to solve different problems while adapting to the academic and cultural environment of sumy national agrarian university (fomenko et al., 2019). table 1. physiological, socio-psychological, socio-cultural, academic aspects of problems that the participants of the survey met in the process of adaptation to the ukrainian university aspect problem % of students met physiological climate, weather 6 8 ukrainian cuisine socio-psychological feelings of homesickness 11 the need to communicate in a foreign language 15 problems with transport 3 socio-cultural unfamiliarity with a local lifestyle 14 difficulties in social behavior 17 academic curriculum and pedagogy in the ukrainian university 12 difficulties in understanding the lecturers and answering orally 14 thorough analysis of the responses of chinese students to the questionnaires revealed that on arrival in ukraine they had had to get used to the climatic conditions (6%) and to the ukrainian foodstuff (8%). they had had complications with socialization: feeling of homesickness (11%), foreign language communication (15%); 3% of the students who had been interrogated, had pointed out the problems with transport as well. having been asked: “how do you communicate with ukrainians?”, 84% students answered that they had mainly used english, and 16% of respondents said that they had interacted well with the local population at an initial level of communication in ukrainian. moreover, 33.3% of the chinese multifaceted problems of intercultural adaptation: a case study of chinese … marina bilotserkovets et al. 184 students indicated that they could not be understood by ukrainians during a live communication. as one student reported: the major problem i am having now is how to communicate with local people. they can’t speak english well so it’s hard for me even to order a meal in the cafe, etc. most of the foreigners who come to ukraine have problems in live communication. this significantly prevents them from freely interaction with the local people. thus, there is a problem of alienation and mutual misunderstanding that affects both the physical and the psychological condition of an international student. many chinese students in ukraine had experienced confusion caused by ethnic identity and cultural difference. common patterns of cultural difference included unfamiliarity with local lifestyle (14%), difficulty in social interaction (17%), but, at the same time, most chinese students admitted being in friendly terms with ukrainian students and faculty. chinese students‟ adaptation to the new academic environment had also caused certain problems in frames of an academic process at the university. 12% of the respondents had experienced complications in adapting to a different curriculum and pedagogy. 14% interrogated chinese students told that initially it had been extremely difficult for them to understand the lecturers and to answer orally. however, most interviewees had considered their interaction with faculty to be positive, encouraging and facilitating their academic needs. the respondents explained: the english language we have learned and the english pronunciation here are different and can’t be recognized immediately. we can’t even understand what our teachers are talking about. also we have to adapt to a new teaching and learning culture. still we feel constant help of teachers, classmates, and people around. the chinese students took their academic courses in english, yet many of them revealed certain degree of stress with language difficulties, that might have affected negatively their academic achievement: as i’m not good at english, the major problem is my language proficiency. i didn’t have a reasonable level of english competence when i studied in china. that’s why it is difficult to study all the common courses in english. so i’d like to improve my level of english. since, according to this survey, the biggest problem that the international students had marked was the language barrier, chinese students brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 185 were engaged in special english-language programs, meant to help them in overcoming this problem. the chinese students attended also courses of the ukrainian language and culture. 76% of them had difficulties with studying ukrainian; 24% of the respondents noted that they knew already some ukrainian expressions. nevertheless, most of the international students thought that ”their level of proficiency in ukrainian was not sufficient for the academic process” perceptions of lecture materials, oral answers, etc. (fomenko et al., 2019). so, the survey determined the following rate: socio-cultural sphere had caused certain problems for 31% of the international students, 29% of the participants had undertaken socio-psychological challenges, 26% of the respondents had met difficulties in the academic sphere, 14% of the respondents had faced physiological problems. 5. discussion physiological aspect of adaptation regards international students‟ organisms‟ adjustment to the new surroundings. it is determined by the psycho-physiological consequences of changes in rhythm of life, stress factors of the environment, inaccessibility of the recreational sphere. unusual climatic and geographical conditions and the absence of experience in adapting to them, new water and food rations are also of particular importance. international students may suffer both physically and psychologically because of such factors as sleepiness, appetite disturbance, indigestion, physical exhaustion, homesickness, depression, disorientation, and feelings of isolation and alienation (niemets at al., 2016). socio-psychological aspect of adaptation refers to the international students‟ entering the system of interpersonal relationships in ukraine, establishing ties within the academic group and forming personal behavior. the main factors that complicate the process of socio-psychological adaptation are identified as need for performing learning activities in a foreign environment, separation from the family and the usual social surrounding, feeling of loneliness in the first months of stay in another country. in our opinion, an effective way of adapting chinese students to living conditions in another country is „social facilitation’, that is defined as an organization of a collective problem-solving process in a group managed by a facilitator (tutor, lecturer, dean). the task of social facilitation is the activation of students‟ academic work as a result of the strengthening of their dominant reactions – expressiveness and fluency of the language of multifaceted problems of intercultural adaptation: a case study of chinese … marina bilotserkovets et al. 186 intercultural communication, presentation of their own point of view, generation of critical ideas (kim & park, 2010). so, the adaptation of chinese students to an unfamiliar environment, mentality, culture, worldview, customs and traditions involves the effective organization of interpersonal communication of students in the academic group, dormitories, communication with lecturers both at classes and outside the university (during excursions, visits to museums, theaters, theme soirees, days of national culture, etc.) (fomenko et al., 2019). socio-cultural aspect of adaptation concerns chinese students‟ awareness about the elements of the basic culture of ukrainian society, the system of its values and norms of behavior, as well as culture and traditions of the university. it refers to the concept of „cultural awareness‟ as a way of thinking and viewing the world. it includes understanding, respecting and successful interacting with people whose background, views, values, behavior, communication styles, customs and practices are different than one‟s own. it usually involves internal changes in terms of attitudes and values (de beuckelaer et al., 2012). it is provided by chinese students‟ participation in intercultural trainings program. this program is necessary to ensure the elimination of the language and didactic barriers, to prevent interpersonal, interethnic conflicts with other students and to promote emotional comfort of the chinese students. it is aimed in maintaining relationships among identity groups, and promoting better teamwork (fomenko et al., 2019). while analyzing the problems of academic adaptation, special attention should be paid to the peculiarities of teaching in multinational groups where there is a contact between two or more cultures and students who speak different languages (english, ukrainian, chinese etc.). the rules and processes of assessment, testing and examination are to be explained in detail. an international student should clearly understand what he/she has to do in order to pass the exam or credit and what assignments are to be accomplished during the term. the assessment should be objective and based on the standards approved by the ministry of education and science of ukraine and according to the university agenda. students should be differentiated and motivated by marks during their process of study and at its end. this will give them sense of fairness and will be a good incentive for their further efforts. academic achievements motivate students to solve other social and cultural problems, as they reinforce the main goal of the international students‟ staying in ukraine. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 187 6. conclusions intercultural adaptation is a complex process that can be successful only in the case of interaction between the individual and the environment. international students‟ staying in the academic environment with different culture, the mismatch of education systems in various countries are facilitated by the intense process of their adaptation on the physiological, socio-psychological, socio-cultural, and academic levels. the study revealed that most difficulties in intercultural adaptation for chinese students in snau are caused by communication problems, both in socio-cultural and academic aspects, as well as the peculiarities of the surrounding environment. also, the findings of the study proved that to achieve the successful adaptation of international students to study at the university, the whole range of academic and social programs should be implemented that would improve the academic and cultural environment of the university. thus, intercultural adaptation is an ongoing interactive process, where the new culture influences and changes an individual, but at the same time an individual influences and changes the environment. references bakum, z., palchykova, o., kostiuk, s., & lapina, v. (2019). intercultural competence of personality while teaching foreign languages. revista espasios, 40(23), 24. de beuckelaer, a., lievens, f., & bücker, j. (2012). the role of faculty members‟ cross-cultural competencies in their perceived teaching quality: evidence from culturally-diverse classes in four european countries. the journal of higher education, 83(2), 217–248. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhe.2012.0007 fomenko, t., bilotserkovets, m., & kobzhev, a. (2019). extrapolation of canadian universities‟ internationalization strategies into ukrainian higher agrarian education. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(2), 110125. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/120 kim, y. y. (1989). intercultural adaptation. in m. k. asante & w. b. gudykunst (eds.), handbook of international and intercultural communication (pp. 257-294). newbury park, ca, u.s.a.: sage. kim, y. y. (2008). intercultural personhood: globalization and a way of being. international journal of intercultural relations, 32(4), 359–368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2008.04.005 kim, d., & park, j. (2010). cultural differences in risk: the group facilitation effect. judgment and decision making, 5 (5), 380–390. multifaceted problems of intercultural adaptation: a case study of chinese … marina bilotserkovets et al. 188 merkulova, l. p., smirnova, e. v., kaziakhmedova, s. k., & kireeva, i. a. (2018). inculturation of student youth in mastering a foreign language as a factor in optimizing the international activity of heis. revista espasios, 39 (10), 31. ministry of education and science of ukraine/ukrainian state center for international education (n.d.). study in ukraine [blog source]. retrieved from http://studyinukraine.gov.ua/life-in-ukraine/international-studentsin-ukraine moon, h., nam, j., & kim, y. (2014). new measures for the improvement of history education for chinese students in south korea. the new educational review, 37 (3), 54–55. niemets, k. a., virchenko, p. a., & kliuchko, l. v. (2016). aktualni pytannia adaptatsii inozemnykh studentiv do navchannia u vyshchykh navchalnykh zakladakh ukrainy (iz dosvidu roboty kafedry sotsialno-ekonomichnoi heohrafii i rehionoznavstva) [actual questions of foreign students‟ adaptation to study at ukrainian higher educational institutions (from the experience of the department of socio-economic geography and regional studies)]. problemy suchasnoi osvity – problems of modern education, 7, 97–102. retrieved from http://dspace.univer.kharkov.ua/bitstream/123456789/12552/2/problem y_7_2016.pdf. [in ukrainian]. scherto, g. (2007) overseas students‟ intercultural adaptation as intercultural learning: a transformative framework. compare: a journal of comparative and international education, 37(2), 167-183. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057920601165512 solodka, a. k. (2013). sotsiokulturni transformatsii osobystosti u protsesi kroskulturnoi vzaiemodii. [social and cultural transformations of personality in cross-cultural interaction] teoretyko-metodychni problemy vykhovannia ditei ta uchnivskoi molodi: zbirnyk naukovykh prats – theoretical and methodical problems of education of children and pupils: a collection of scientific works, 17 (2), 303–312. [in ukrainian]. sumy national agrarian university (snau). retrieved 15/01/2020, from http://snau.edu.ua zhao, t., & bourne, j. (2011). intercultural adaptation – it is a two-way process: examples from a british mba programme. in l. jin et al. (eds.), researching chinese learners (pp. 250-273). palgrave macmillan, a division of macmillan publishers limited. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230299481_12 http://studyinukraine.gov.ua/life-in-ukraine/international-students-in-ukraine http://studyinukraine.gov.ua/life-in-ukraine/international-students-in-ukraine http://snau.edu.ua/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, pages: 01-13 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/11 gaming disorder: a contemporary ampliative account abiola bamijokookungbaye¹, mudasir firdosi2, dimitrios koukoularis3 1 phd, division of mental health, sofia university, bulgaria, bami-joko@yahoo.com 2 dr., mbbs, md, pgdip, mrcpsych, consultant psychiatrist, south west london and st. george's mental health trust and honorary senior lecturer, st george's, university of london, mudasirfirdosi@gmail.com 3 dr., d. ed, phd, educational researcher, sofia university, bulgaria, dpk78@hotmail.com abstract: diagnosing gaming disorder requires that mental health practitioners weigh in patient's values in an appropriate symmetry with an evidence-based approach to deal with patient's issues. nevertheless, to date, the science of gaming disorder tends to overemphasize psychopharmacological and therapeutic intervention, while the importance of values is ignored to the periphery. we argue in this paper, for gaming disorder formalization to be rigid, the science of gaming disorder needs further research and its scientific basis be established with an improved data of the players at the local level. keywords: gaming disorder; world health organization; diagnosis; mental disorders; classification; mental health. how to cite: bamijoko-okungbaye, a., firdosi, m., koukoularis, d. (2020). gaming disorder: a contemporary ampliative account. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 01-13. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/11 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/11 mailto:bami-joko@yahoo.com mailto:mudasirfirdosi@gmail.com mailto:dpk78@hotmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/11 gaming disorder: a contemporary ampliative account abiola bamijoko-okungbaye, et al. 2 methodological remarks analytical method approach is taken in this paper to address the formalization of gaming disorder; the systematic analysis is due to the theoretical scope of this paper. in this analysis, we draw our data juxtaposing the data of proponents of formalization of gaming disorder with those that called for caution. inferences derived from the findings are used to suggest a path forward. introduction after the demise of closed mental health research, the future of research tends to oscillate in the direction of evidence-based and open research. we shall not here attempt to criticize that position, but rather attempt to outline a comprehensive account. if the future of research is in the direction of open research, it is within this context; we address the controversies surrounding gaming disorder as a disease. vladmir poznyyak, member of who's office of mental health and substance abuse, convincingly argues for the need to add gaming disorder to the list of icd list of disorders. as a representative of who, he explains that this disorder can reach the threshold to warrant a psychopharmacological intervention (susan scutti, cnn, 2018). what exactly is gaming disorder? according to who, gaming disorder is presented to have the features of impaired control over gaming. for the patients suffering from this disorder as who's office put it, the gaming activity supersedes other social activities of the individual. supporters of this inclusion have welcomed the attempt to formalize gaming disorder as a disease. in the icd list, for example, mueller and woelfling (2017) begin their support for the inclusion of gaming disorder by emphasizing that normality can quickly become abnormality. they claim that certain behaviors that are meant to make our life enjoyable can easily make life unbearable. the duo explicate that supporting the inclusion of gaming disorder in the icd list as a disease is of great benefit to the practitioner and the patient, as they put it: "one prerequisite for being in the position of receiving therapeutic help is having a clear diagnosis a therapist can rely on – and here we are finally, leaving the scientific ivory tower behind and understanding that clinical reality demands having an icd diagnosis of igd. thus, to conclude, instead of being afraid of "moral panic," we have to be aware of the opportunities for treatment an icd diagnosis can offer‖ (p.120). the authors recognize that there are moral concerns in pushing gaming disorder as a disorder (müller & wölfling, 2017). we believe that pushbrain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 3 ing gaming disorder in the realm of abnormality without rigorous scientific basis can lead to stigmatization of subjects playing games. others have made similar claims that moving in the direction of formalizing gaming disorder without substantial empirical evidence is problematic to the society at large (van rooij et al., 2018). the matter on the table for discussion is where the line of demarcation lies, when what is designed to be enjoyable becomes unbearable. for instance, contemporary theories of education suggest employing games in classes to enhance the cognitive capability of learners. kardefelt-winther et.al (2017) attempt to disentangle this entanglement pertaining the line of demarcation by proposing that the best way to conceptualize behavioral addiction is to codify it in a functional sense, that is, as a functional impairment in clinical settings under the guidance of health professionals, rather than applying surveys in a healthy population. besides, they include persistence over time to be part of the indicator to consider when addressing gaming disorder (kardefelt-winther et al., 2017). do these factors mentioned by kardefelt-winther et al. resolved the classification of gaming disorder as a disease? two things that quickly come to mind isfirstly, how do we balance diagnosis with freedom to play games? secondly, who get to determine the criteria for the disease? one can easily say from the questions above that a comprehensive diagnosis will involve the participatory patients within a clinical setting, that is, a subjective account from patient's perspective given that a brain account is not available yet to determine gaming disorder from practitioner's perspective. a highly participatory method is likely to turn out to be beneficial to patients during treatment. now, the challenge we currently face is the objectification of gaming disorder as a disease is predicated most times from practitioners' perspective. we do not claim that patient's expression should be taken literally, this should be integrated within a balanced norm of the existing environmental cues and for those practitioners in diverse settings, understanding the cultural dimension of patient's environment is key to a successful treatment. conceptual challenges facing the formalization of gaming disorder as a disorder at matter here is not just the trade-off between an objective functionalist account that mueller and woelfling propagate to be central to the diagnosis of gaming disorder and qualitative investigation of the problem of gaming disorder, but also the extent to which the science of gaming disorder allows practitioners to capture the indicators of these disorders during the practitioner-patient relationship (müller & wölfling, 2017). it is writ large gaming disorder: a contemporary ampliative account abiola bamijoko-okungbaye, et al. 4 that the practitioner would struggle empirically, identifying the subjects who claimed that they do not have the disorder, despite a family member might have felt the need for psychopharmacological or therapeutic intervention. an example where this tension can arise is the case where a british player of the game pokemon (played on mobile devices, outdoor game), claimed that the digital game has helped in his attempt to lose weight. according to this player, he walked 141 miles in 20 days prompting his weight to drop. as he explains, he could fit into trousers he had not worn in six years. it is plausible in the case mentioned above that a family member might be concerned about this player playing pokemon that this activity has superseded all his social activities (sophie eastaugh, for cnn, 2016). should this then be considered as a disorder? does gaming disorder as being described have the data that cover the way to measure the persistence of the activity, before it exacerbates to a disorder? do we have enough data to verify the "i experiential" account during the practitioner-patient interaction? in this paper, we refer to ―i experiential‖ as the self that interacts with her umwelt to form the foundation of his/her understanding through sensorimotoric and embodied engagements. these questions suggest that it would be cardinal that formalization of gaming disorder would require it to be expanded, so therefore operationalizing gaming disorder would require additional findings and these additional findings will require the integration of subjective accounts of gaming participants. even, in the case of severe mental disorders, delusion as a mental disorder, the evidence that false belief stems from the brain is still vague and continuous research is likely in this area as fuchs nicely points out, that delusion usually comes to reality within intersubjective experiences. the patient usually struggles to align his or her thoughts with others, a situation that can lead to double bookkeeping, that is, instead of integrating the thought of others, patients tend to juxtapose his/her thoughts against others. if this is captured during the intersubjective experience, seeking falsifiable account in the brain might be elusive to the practitioner. in the severe case of schizophrenia, which delusion is a feature, thomas fuchs, (2015) claims: "no matter what their neurobiological presuppositions and neurocognitive components are – no doubt that these are of crucial importance – delusions are not just products of individual brains. their basis is not a faulty representation of the world, but a failure of enacting a shared world through interaction with others" (p.179). at least, it is essential to demand that the understanding of gaming disorder be normatively and implicitly understood before the formalization of the disorder, especially, the call to improve the science of gaming disorbrain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 5 der. fuchs, sass and byrom would welcome such call, as they have called for more studies on the subjective account of the individuals suffering from mental disorders (fuchs, 2015; sass and byrom, 2015). we suggest that contemporary ampliative understanding of gaming disorder would help clear the conceptual clouds over the formalization of gaming disorder as a disease. contemporary ampliative understanding of gaming disorder van rooij et al. (2018) ardently argue for the need to have robust scientific standard before the formalization of gaming disorder as a mental disorder. we are wholly sympathetic to such call, even when we acknowledge that the formalization has already taken place, yet we want to direct the reader's focus to an additional aspect of the debate, a dimension that is often precluded or push to the periphery during the conversation, the contemporary ampliative understanding of gaming disorder, which can be explicated analytically and phenomenologically. this, we believe, will drive the conversation forward and assist our colleagues at who when deciding about how to solidify gaming disorder's empirical basis in order to enhance understanding. examining gaming disorder, we notice a description that encompasses our normative approaches, which entail our values in bodily connection with our shared experiences and during specific application can be heuristic. understanding gaming disorder's connection to a holistic level, where the data of the "i experiential" is integrated into the treatment approach, simultaneously recognizing the measurable dimension of the mental processes. the contemporary ampliative understanding seeks to explain that likely, the central norms of a gaming disorder are within the domain of our normative understanding and neuropsychological domain. the normative questions raised by gaming disorder is not a position that we believe that the quantitative dimension will not be able to answer. we contend the obstacles right now to fully understand the status of gaming disorder is an epistemic stage that additional research into the "i experiential" would be able to account for missing puzzle. we claim there can be consilience in establishing the formalization of gaming disorder through the application of contemporary ampliative understanding, an approach, informed by the quantitative aspects in consonance with the data of the "i experiential" mediating the two in a cognitive-affective regulation. for gaming disorder as a disease to be anchored empirically, we suggest that the data of the "i experiential" data be systematically integrated into the robust science of gaming disorder. we believe at this current stage, the science of gaming disorder is not solid enough gaming disorder: a contemporary ampliative account abiola bamijoko-okungbaye, et al. 6 to warrant its inclusion as a disease. we have seen authors in recent years that have raised questions about the validity of empirical foundations of psychological science. this should come as no surprise, given the complexity of the brain-mind system. as schimmack ulrich (2012) observes that psychologists rush into judgment believing that raising the number of replications within an article enhances the validity of psychological science. this has proven not to be the case due to the derived understanding gained from the conceptual understanding of the self. correspondingly, ledgerwood & sherman (2012 ) claim that implicit credence to the problem of data processing to further increase the number of positive replication studies to ensure scientific credibility is based on false assumption because the assumption that multiple replications represent a litmus test for strong evidence of a hypothesis can be illusory. coupled with psychiatric epidemiology challenges, the meta-analysis of scientific-data is value-laden, and when the values are not balanced appropriately, we see a shift in the outcome and process of the empirical data. besides, the success conspicuous in genomics is more in the field of disease-modifying drugs in general medicine. the clinical psychopharmacologic attempts to extrapolate data from animal models is still ongoing but moving slowly. the roadblock slowing the process down, as nutt et al. ( 2006) put it, is the absence of suitable animal models result and extrapolating data has not been easy because translating findings in animals to efficacy in humans has proven to be complicated. they see future development likely in the field of disease-modifying drugs in general medicine than in the area of neuropsychiatric diseases. they say if similar animal models could be put in place for other cognitively impairing neuropsychiatric conditions, there would be progress in the field. given all these challenges to collate data objectively outside of patient's experience, it would be appropriate to seek answers from different approaches, hence our call to seek ―i experiential data‖. we understand that playing games excessively can lead to inchoate feelings, but a contemporary ampliative understanding of gaming disorder would require a robust scientific backbone for its formalization to be rigid, failure to adhere to this standard can lead to abuse of the rights of subjects who play games to cope with other challenges in their life. during the formalization of a disorder, it is crucial to allow the interpenetration of the qualitative dimensions of mental states and their measurable domain. we notice in the case of gaming disorder; its measurable dimension is not yet on firm footing, as discussed in this paper. the contribution of the group around king et al. (2013) validate this concern we have about the methodology researchers employ to capture the clinical perspective of gaming disorbrain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 7 der, as they point out that diverse psychometric properties of assessment require additional improvement. others have made similar claims, based on a range of research studies that underscore how unstructured power determines the modus operandi in psychopharmacology (bamijoko-okungbaye abiola, 2019). for example, chris chambers (2019) calls the issues we are currently facing in methodology as the seven sins of psychology, subscribing to our assertions that open science, an emerging philosophy that aspires to make research more transparent as possible would be the best route to correct the problems of methodology. contrary to the popular paradigm, then, neither quintessence nor verity are the aspirations of quantitative aspects of cognitive-affective systems. as researchers or doctors, we must recognize this and acknowledge that our tools can be imperfect. for this reason, contemporary ampliative understanding of gaming disorder would require that the science of gaming disorder reaches the level of rigorous theory building, theory testing, and replicated, these are the basis of proper scientific research. it would be topsy -turvy to create a diagnosis that would affect the populace based on weak scientific grounds, so therefore in therapeutic settings, our approach, that is, calling for an alternative that will include the data of the players and well balanced within the empirical data is an avenue to pursue. arguments for the integration of the "i experiential" cognitiveaffective system instead of juxtaposition of data in gaming disorder. mueller and woelfling (2017) claim that the clinical perspective is cardinal to the formalization of gaming disorder. we think that claim is a fair assessment; however, when claiming that the science of gaming disorder is up to par with rigorous research, such assertion has a modicum of evidence. we call for the integration of the "i experiential" data with the clinical data, as of current standard, the science of gaming disorder will require additional multidisciplinary research before its evidence can reach a holistic level that will benefit patients who might seek intervention for their struggle. we support patients who consented to intervention to address their struggles with video games. we notice that this ongoing debate about the status of gaming disorder has been ongoing in the realm of the juxtaposition of facts. consequently, this has led to dubious treatment centers and governmental intervention in certain countries, such as south korea . we contend such direction can lead to abuse and overdiagnosis in mental health, synthesizing the data of the "i experiential" in confluence with clinical dimension would represent a comprehensive body-brain-mind system in a gaming disorder: a contemporary ampliative account abiola bamijoko-okungbaye, et al. 8 contextual calculus. formalization of disorders is not a novel approach in medicine; it is fundamental to mental health approaches. in most cases, this is done analytically, not by intuition, but we intuit that formalization of disorders displays in itself a different facet, a multifactorial formalization. sometimes, researchers and mental health practitioners use mathematical quantities or factor in overlapping quotients during treatment plans. notably, in gaming disorder, the data of the "i experiential" would certainly add value to the rigorous formalization of the disorder, we have not noticed a slam-dunk argument against the integration of the "i experiential" data into the formalization of gaming disorder. what we demand is that the science behind the formalization be within the standard of the scientific aspirations, that is, pre-established findings of the ―i experiential‖ data associated with the robust data of the objective analysis. for example, van rooij et al. (2018) put it lucidly: "the answer is, of course, that prior to enshrining gaming disorder as a diagnosis, its clinical utility must be demonstrated in highquality, transparent research with patients‖ (p.5). focusing solely on the mental causation dimension of gaming disorder might hide the structural and normative dimension of the "i experiential", which should be part of the holistic consideration during treatment of gaming disorder given that absolute validity can be outside of our quantitative research. the clinical objectivity guidance used to determine the scientific explication of gaming disorder tends to be too mechanistic, resulting in gaming disorder, developed as a causal disorder state considering the multilayered links within the structural construct of the "i experiential‖. research shows that people of a certain age tend to have more than one functional malady. we suggest that the triangulation of data will further assist in the formalization of gaming disorder if the threshold of it being a disorder is reached, and this should start with fine-tuned and fine-grained analysis of the "i experiential" data concomitantly with that clinical data. bruno schvinski’s research (pontes et al., 2019) is a move in the right direction, that is, determining the factors that contribute to gaming disorder as a disease. contemporary disease formalization should be premised on rigorous scientific findings within the framework of contemporary ampliative understanding of mental conditions, but in gaming disorder, the evidential data is difficult to track down. what is needed to improve the current status quo is the integration of subjective accounts of players suffering from gaming disorder, into the perimetric objective accounts of patient's sensomotoric umwelt experiences. as we show in this paper that people sometimes participate in gaming to cope with other mental conditions, we must be cautious not to pathologize each brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 9 reaction to a stressor as a disease. getting stressed from activities does not necessarily indicate a mental disease. the challenge with gaming disorder as a disease is how do we go about treatment of gaming disorder psychopharmacologically when its scientific basis is not yet fully grasped? again, the stakeholders must invest in further research involving academics from various disciplines, as part of open research, the healthcare ecosystem should be widened to include active gamers in decisionmaking. this helps the domain of clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. the other area we are concerned about is the direct link of gaming to violence with blurred scientific evidence. we indicated in this paper that certain people play games to deal with life's challenges. moreover, mental health research shows that most people with mental disorders pose no threat to anyone but themselves. we do acknowledge that severe mental illness can be a risk factor, usually, in confluence with other factors, that is, a multifactorial link. even then, it is essential in the case that the court wants to accept the neuroscientific evidence as proof to determine whether the patient involved meets the criterion of mens rea, the court must possess an understanding of conceptual-analytic methodology required for the evaluation of scientific evidence (bamijoko-okungbaye, 2019). finding balance when determining moral culpability is essential to this particular decision-making. we share the assertion that certain people do play game excessively due to akrasia, but do we have robust scientific elucidation on akrasia of gaming disorder? this prompted wagenmakers et al. (2012) to propose recommendations to increase the veracity of empirical findings. as they put it: "this fairy-tale factor increases the probability that a presented finding is fictional and hence non-replicable. we propose a radical remedy — preregistration — to ensure scientific integrity and inoculate the research process against the inalienable biases of human reasoning‖ (p.633). in spite of the fact that addiction might be appropriate to address the issue of overplaying games , this might be deemed too generic and runs the risk of being weaponized to reach inimical goals. due to these challenges surrounding gaming disorder as a disease, we posit that who supports local programmes that support mental health understanding and fund those prevention programmes at the local level. what is next for gaming disorder as a disease? clinical perspective has produced substantial development which has allowed formalization of mental disorders, regrettably the mechanistic nature of this methodology has pushed for objective evidence in psychopharmacolgaming disorder: a contemporary ampliative account abiola bamijoko-okungbaye, et al. 10 ogy and mental health which is claimed to be neutral, pushing the "i experiential" data to the periphery. because of this, we have seen an increased abuse in medicine based on iterated errors that could have been avoided by additional training. the current classification of gaming disorder is representative of a larger problem, that is, rushing to formalization without adequate empirical and "i experiential" data. walking our readers throughout this paper, we have echoed the importance of having a robust data of the quantitative and the "i experiential" data, which should be integrated into a robust technical methodology, this approach we believe is the way forward. the systematic culmination of this data above is within the framework of contemporary ampliative understanding of gaming disorder. higuchi et al. (2017) state that the formalization will open doors for additional research given the insufficiency of the current empirical data. it is plausible that we see extensive research due to the formalization of a disorder. is it not reversed empirically to formalize a disorder without robust data? petry and o' brien (2013) predict these improvements in dsm-5, when gaming disorder is categorized to be a disorder that requires further study, as shown in this paper, the comprehensive data of the "i experiential" and clinical data are yet to be achieved. critics of our work have said the quick formalization will reduce moral panic, as history teaches us to take a cursory glance at the scientific data of mental disorders with a pinch of salt. formalization based on weak scientific grounds and "i experiential‖ data exacerbates moral panic. conclusions our contribution in this paper is not to prevent gaming disorder formalization as a disease; instead, to distinctly argue that formalization should be predicated on rigorous empirical data integratively with the data of the "i experiential" to form the clinical foundation. on gaming disorder, we have seen a rush to formalization without sufficient data. it is this normative structure of the "i experiential" and less rigorous science of gaming disorder that does not fit easily to the listing in icd. hence, the contemporary ampliative account presented in this paper. we must allow the possibility of getting out of a loop that projects to push the data of the "i experiential" to the periphery. why do we think formalizing a disorder that is based on weak scientific ground and data of the "i experiential" is the way out of the predicament that formalization of gaming disorder finds itself? we acknowledge that the objective data that is captured during research is vital to the codification of gaming disorder, however, the evidence brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 11 of the data of the "i experiential‖ is equally as important in the formalization, so therefore we suggest to our colleagues in who, world health organization, to support the opening of research ecosystem that opens itself to gamers, gaming industry executives, doctors, therapists and others, especially the data of the research should reflect all gamers regardless of age. we welcome the seminal qualitative work of snodgrass et al. (2018) paper, this is a great move in the right direction. icd listing is an international listing, and it is our opinion that the social and contextual dimension should be factored in during research and decision-making process, as the saying goes, cosmopolitan thought is an aggregate of local events. we do not deny the mechanistic approach as part of the foundation to improve the formalization of gaming disorder. however, what we deny is that we should prevent from the outset the data of the "i experiential" during formalization. we remain optimistic that who will support initiatives that will support a rigid classification of gaming disorder as a disease integrating the data of the players symmetrically with robust scientific data of gaming disorder. references academics create the first psychological test for gaming disorder (2019). [internet source]. retrieved from https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-06-01academics-create-the-first-psychological-test-for-gaming-disorder bamijoko-okungbaye, a. (2019). philosophical dimensions of psychopharmacology. [ph.d. dissertation]. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/39177726/abiola_bamijokookungbaye._philosophical_dimensions_of_psychopharmacology chambers, c. (2019). the seven deadly sins of psychology. monograph. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691192031 fuchs, t. (2015). the intersubjectivity of delusions. world psychiatry, 14(2), 178-179. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20209 gaming disorder. (2018). [online q&a]. retrieved from https://www.who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en/ higuchi, s., nakayama, h., mihara, s., maezono, m., kitayuguchi, t., & hashimoto, t. (2017). inclusion of gaming disorder criteria in icd-11: a clinical perspective in favor. journal of behavioral addictions, 6(3), 293-295. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.6.2017.049 kardefelt-winther, d., heeren, a., schimmenti, a., van rooij, a., maurage, p., carras, m., & billieux, j. (2017). how can we conceptualize behavioral addiction without pathologizing common behaviors? addiction, 112(10), 17091715. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.13763 gaming disorder: a contemporary ampliative account abiola bamijoko-okungbaye, et al. 12 king, d. l., haagsma, m. c., delfabbro, p. h., gradisar, m., & griffiths, m. d. (2013). toward a consensus definition of pathological video-gaming: a systematic review of psychometric assessment tools. clinical psychology review, 33(3), 331-342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2013.01.002 ledgerwood, a., & sherman, j. w. (2012). short, sweet, and problematic? the rise of the short report in psychological science. perspectives on psychological science, 7(1), 60-66. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691611427304 müller, k. w., & wölfling, k. (2017). both sides of the story: addiction is not a pastime activity. journal of behavioral addictions, 6(2), 118-120. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.6.2017.038 nutt, d. j., robbins, t. w., stimson, g. v., ince, m., & jackson, a. (2006). drugs and the future: brain science, addiction and society. amsterdam, netherlands: elsevier. petry, n. m., & o'brien, c. p. (2013). internet gaming disorder and the dsm-5. addiction, 108(7), 1186-1187. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.12162 pontes, h. m., schivinski, b., sindermann, c., li, m., becker, b., zhou, m., & montag, c. (2019). measurement and conceptualization of gaming disorder according to the world health organization framework: the development of the gaming disorder test. international journal of mental health and addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00088-z sass, l., & byrom, g. (2015). phenomenological and neurocognitive perspectives on delusions: a critical overview. world psychiatry, 14(2), 164-173. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20205 schimmack, u. (2012). the ironic effect of significant results on the credibility of multiple-study articles. psychological methods, 17(4), 551-566. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029487 snodgrass, j. g., bagwell, a., patry, j. m., dengah, h. f., smarr-foster, c., van oostenburg, m., & lacy, m. g. (2018). the partial truths of compensatory and poor-get-poorer internet use theories: more highly involved videogame players experience greater psychosocial benefits. computers in human behavior, 78, 10-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.09.020 sophie eastaugh, for cnn. (2016). pokemon go player claims he shed pounds. [internet source]. retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/29/health/pokemon-go-sam-clark-lostweight/index.html susan scutti, cnn. (2018, june 18). who says 'gaming disorder' is a mental health condition. [internet source]. retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/18/health/video-game-disorderwho/index.html van rooij, a. j., ferguson, c. j., colder carras, m., kardefelt-winther, d., shi, j., aarseth, e., & przybylski, a. k. (2018). a weak scientific basis for gaming brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 13 disorder: let us err on the side of caution. journal of behavioral addictions, 7(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.19 wagenmakers, e., wetzels, r., borsboom, d., van der maas, h. l., & kievit, r. a. (2012). an agenda for purely confirmatory research. perspectives on psychological science, 7(6), 632-638. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612463078 computational methods in medicine brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2019, volume 10, issue 4, pages: 56-72 | doi:10.18662/brain/05 application of nonrelational databases in the social networks miroslav dechev¹, miroslav galabov2, tsvetanka georgievatrifonova3 1 faculty of mathematics and informatics, “st. cyril and st. methodius” university of veliko tarnovo, veliko tarnovo, bulgaria, miroslav.dechev@gmail.com 2 faculty of mathematics and informatics, “st. cyril and st. methodius” university of veliko tarnovo, veliko tarnovo, bulgaria, lexcom@abv.bg 3 faculty of mathematics and informatics, “st. cyril and st. methodius” university of veliko tarnovo, veliko tarnovo, bulgaria, cv.georgieva@live.uni-vt.bg abstract: the purpose of this research is to present knowledge in the field of work of databases that contain semi-structured data, also known as nosql, in applications using big data. the characteristics of the main categories of the non-relational databases and some of their typical representatives (mongodb, redis) have been reviewed from the point of view of using them for storage and analysis of data in the social networks. the article presents a study, conducted on the already existing research in regards to the implementation of the non-relational databases in the social networks. some of the perspectives of the future research are outlined as well. keywords: nosql; databases; social networks; big data; redis; mongodb. how to cite: dechev, m., galabov, m., & georgievatrifonova, t. (2019). application of non-relational databases in the social networks. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 10(4), 56-72. doi:10.18662/brain/05 mailto:miroslav.dechev@gmail.com mailto:lexcom@abv.bg mailto:cv.georgieva@live.uni-vt.bg brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 57 1. introduction the object of the research is the non-relational database and its application in the social networks. a non-relational database (not only structured query language, nosql) utilizes a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data, that uses a freely-coordinated pattern in contrast to the widely distributed relational databases. 1.1. non-relational databases the general idea behind the creation of the non-relational database was to suit the needs of the internet applications, whose most typical trait is their flexibility when it comes to working with large quantities of semistructured data. this article reviews the nosql applications on the social networks, where big data are used. big data is the designation of a technology utilizing a number of specific instruments and processes that aid the organizations and the companies in dealing with the ever-increasing quantities of information. the structure of big data changes very rapidly, which stems from the fact that new information generates constantly and originates from various different sources – social networks, video channels, gps data, etc. because of this, the structure of big data is very dynamic (klisarova-belcheva, 2015). a serious upsurge has been registered in the last years in the development of databases that do not support sql, or are non-relational. the main purpose of this is to achieve better productivity, refusal-steadfastness or to pursue the opportunity to deliver to a large number of systems. one of the benefits of this approach is the acquisition of horizontal scaling. most often, a non-relational database is a well-optimized storage space that contains information from the key-value type. its purpose is to ease the processes of retrieval and addition of information, in order to enhance the productivity. the nosql databases emerge at the beginning of the 21 st century. they were created to answer the necessity of managing the large quantities of information in the modern web and mobile applications. solutions such as mongodb (2009), redis (2009) and others begin to appear. the nosql databases are used to deal with big data and real-time web applications. with the development of the cloud technologies, the role and the importance of the so-called nosql databases grow even further and further. this is due to the convenience that they offer when working in a real-time setting in web environment with big data (cheresharov & krushkov, 2016). application of non-relational databases in the social networks miroslav dechev et al. 58 the non-relational databases play a substantial and ever-increasing role at the real-time web and the big data applications. the essence of the real-time web applications is in the processing and delivery of data in a limited and preferably a very short period of time. the real-time web applications deliver content in „real time‟ – within few seconds or a fraction of the second. their creation is a response to the contemporary business environment on the internet. 1.2. social networks the online gambling business, the financial applications, the games and the social networks are fully or partially based on real-time web implementations. the real-time web functionality allows the customers to obtain the actual information at the very moment when it s available on the server. this functionality is implemented through different techniques that are based on the different types of communication on the internet. there are numerous examples of real-time web applications and the challenges they face in the very environment around us (nedyalkov, 2017). such an example is the social network facebook and its notifications that are implemented in real-time. if a comment or a “like” occurs in our profile, we will be notified at the same moment as this occurrence. as one of the largest social networks with over 2 billion subscribers, facebook is striving to respond to its users‟ requirement of a minimal delay. facebook utilizes a combination of web sockets and long pooling in its real-time implementation (nedyalkov, 2017). another example is the social network twitter, which registers a large number of changes of the status of its users. each user may have thousands or even millions of other users that are his/her followers. namely, the followers are the ones who want to receive constantly and instantaneously updates for the user that they follow. in order to respond to this demand, twitter uses a real-time implementation as well. the giant google utilizes real-time implementation for its application “google docs”, where the users can share their documents with other users. the main goal is for everyone to follow the changes that are made in real time. the nonrelational systems are called “not only sql” (structured query language), or nosql, in order to emphasize on the fact that they allow the use of search languages that are different but similar to those of sql. the architecture of the non-relational database is distributed in a pattern, resistant to damage, as the data objects are kept in a few servers. through this, the system may upkeep itself by adding more servers and if a server becomes damaged, the system will continue to operate successfully. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 59 this type of database broadens in a horizontal manner and is used for the operation of large quantities of data when the productivity (in real time) is more important than the successiveness (as in the indexing of a large number of documents, the service pages of the websites with heavy traffic and the concession of streams) (strozzi, 2017). 1.3. categories of non-relational databases the systems of management of the non-relational databases are generally intended to support allocated depositories where a high level of scalability is required. there are a few categories of non-relational databases as different methods with different categories and sub-categories for their classification exist. the most widely accepted classification is the one based on the data model. some of the non-relational databases and their representatives, classified on the basis of the model of the data are presented in the following list: column-oriented databases: hbase, cassandra, accumulo; document-oriented databases: mongodb, couch, raven; keyvalue databases: dynamo, riak, azure, redis, cache, gt.m; graph databases: neo4j, allegro, virtuoso, bigdata (http://nosql-database.org/, 2009-2011). a typical trait of the databases of the key-value type is their use of associative arrays in the form of a hash-table holding a unique key and an index to a certain record. the data are presented in collections of sorted pairs of key-value; the key is unique within the borders of the collection. the document-oriented databases provide storage, management and extraction of semi-structured data. mongodb and apache couchdb are the more prominent representatives of this type of non-relational databases. the document-oriented model of data is similar to the key-value one with the sole difference that the recorded values represent documents and have an internal structure. compared to the relational model of data, the collections can be reviewed as tables and the documents can be reviewed as records (rows in tables). on the other hand, the documents in a single collection of document-oriented database do not necessarily share a common structure. all records of the table have the same successiveness of fields (attributes), while the separate documents in the collection may have fields that are completely different from one another. the data of the column-oriented databases are saved in cells which in turn are grouped in columns, not rows (as is the case of the relational dbms (database management system)). the columns on the other hand are grouped logically in families. each family can contain practically an infinite http://nosql-database.org/ application of non-relational databases in the social networks miroslav dechev et al. 60 number of columns. data are saved and read by columns, not by rows. the advantage of the column-oriented format is the rapid search/access to the records, as well as the easy data aggregation. this is determined by the fact that the rows of the relational dbms are saved in different partitions of the disc, while the column-oriented non-relational dbms save all the cells of one column as a consecutive record in a single location of the memory, thus decreasing the time for input-output operations of a single read of the disc. another type is the graph databases. they are intended for data whose relations will be best presented through a graph. the data and the connections between them are presented as nodes and edges of a graph. these databases bear similarity to the document-oriented ones but they maintain connections between the separate objects. this database implements the idea of “object” of data known as node, which can have properties and edges with other nodes. examples for such databases are: infinite graph, infogrid (https://help.superhosting.bg/sql-nosqldatabases.html, 2019). a subcategory of the graph databases are the rdf (resource description framework) depots (rdf triplestores). the rdf standard, developed by w3c, allows for the semantic description of the web resources and their mutual connections in a manner that is simultaneously understandable to machines and humans alike. rdf presents the meaning of the data through triples; and every triple gives a statement that a certain resource (subject) has a property (predicate) with a certain value (object). according to the cap theorem it is impossible for a theoretically perfect working distributed data store to simultaneously provide more than two of the following three guarantees (brewer, 2012):  consistency (c) – consistency of the data. as a result of every read of data, their latest version must be available;  availability (a) – it is accepted, as a guarantee, that every request to dbms will receive a result. if the time period for the receiving of the result is too long, this may be understood as an impossibility for a response or unavailability of the data;  partition tolerance (p) – the ability to divide between numerous servers. the system can perform data distribution between few independent servers and it will continue to operate despite the failure of one of the servers or of the software. the relational databases allow for the realization of the ca and cp (which is more difficult) combinations, but they are not intended for the ap combination. on the other hand, and especially with the internet services (the social networks included), the availability is quite important, and the https://help.superhosting.bg/sql-nosql-databases.html https://help.superhosting.bg/sql-nosql-databases.html brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 61 lack of possibility for distribution between numerous servers, serves as a limiter of the growth of the service. distributed databases are those that can be divided and replicated. the innovatory nosql solutions can also be allocated to this type of databases. they provide the property “stability to separation”. the main task of the nosql is to overcome the limitations of the relational model. the main problem of the relations becomes apparent when the quantities of information increase. the more the quantity increases, the more the time required for access to the entered information rises as well. the characteristics of the nosql dbms make them suitable for storage and operation of large quantities of data. despite the many positive sides and advantages of the cloud technologies in the solutions of the companies that develop software, a certain amount of disadvantages is also present. in terms of security and confidentiality, it still cannot be certainly determined whether the service providers ensure adequate data protection and the business applications require a high level of reliability as they cannot bear crashes while operating. a prerequisite for acceptance would be the eventual creation of a reliability register. 2. comparison of the characteristics of mongodb and redis with the apparition of the social networks, the usage of the nosql database rapidly increases. the contemporary social networks grow constantly more and more and the data generated are enormous, volumetric and complicated. the big data are a new solution for this phenomenon. compared to the traditional sql technology, nosql has numerous positive sides – simplicity of projection, scalability of the data model, competitiveness, control, successiveness in the storage included. in addition, nosql has many types of databases – for example, the abovementioned contemporary networks mongodb and redis. for the social networks the large quantity of data is always related to more development and a day-today support service. the relational database is vertically scalable, which means that the data can be scaled only through hardware enhancement. in this manner, however, the technology becomes quite expensive for the processing of big data. nosql enables for the support of a large quantity of read – save operations and saving of joint objects, which contributes for the co-ordination of the data in the distribution system. this shows that the nosql database is a necessary choice for storage of large unstructured amounts of data, taking in consideration the quantity of data, the data access model and the characteristics of the social networks. nosql has its application of non-relational databases in the social networks miroslav dechev et al. 62 irreplaceable advantages. nosql is already widely used in the modern media business. two popular nosql databases mongodb and redis already boast a broad application within the contemporary social media that work with enormous quantities of data and possess a number of advantages. nosql plays an important role in the big data of the social networks. fundamentally, the website for social networks consists of 5 main components: pro, post, relations, media, api (zhang & zhang, 2017). apart from the access to information, the users are also given the opportunity to share their thoughts and messages, to connect with one another, to share photos and videos. api provides the social networks with the opportunity to connect to other websites and applications. as the social network deals with big data, the time of usage cannot be too long. when extracting different data from different tables in a relational database, the execution of sql requests containing join operations, executing calculations for search and comparison – that would lead to extension of the time for data extraction is required; especially if the data are distributed to different servers. one of the popular dbms is mongodb (from english “humongous”“enormous”) a document-oriented system for databases, that works on different platforms. as it is classified as a non-relational database, mongodb evades the traditional table, based on the relational structure and utilizes json-similar documents with dynamic schemes (mongodb uses bson format) which allows for the data integration within some applications to be easier and faster. this dbms was developed by 10gen (now mongodb inc.) in october 2007 as part of a platform initially planned to be a service, but in 2009 the company focused on a model of software development with open-source and it began to offer paid support and other services. since then, mongodb is accepted as back-end software by a number of large web sites and services (koleva, 2014). firstly, it does not require a lot of time in order for one to learn how to write code for mongodb. afterwards, the scaling is one of the significant advantages of the use of this system for management of databases. when large quantities of data are present, they can be saved in numerous nodes, which is a good method to decrease the data in the social networks. the main structure of mongodb is the document and it generates automatically a primary key (id) in order to establish unique identification for each document. the identification and the document are conceptually similar to the key value. mongodb attempts to hold most of its data in the memory thus the simple requests require less time and it becomes faster. its brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 63 advantage in comparison with the other nosql is that it is easy to use and allows the users to benefit from the advantages of the cloud; with its horizontal scaling as well as its good compatibility with the various types of data that are used today (asay, 2014). mongodb is used for a number of applications in the real world. however, the security restrictions vary depending on the occasions for its usage and the amount of the data sets used for the security characteristics that are presented in the two of the most popular nosql databases. the authors present security threats, which include lack of support for encryption of files of data (gupta & gugulothu, 2018). another database that is rather popular to use for social networks is redis. it has an open source and uses key-value for storage. this nonrelational database utilizes many types of data structures, instead of just one – for example interconnected lists, sets, sorted sets, hashes etc. the main purpose of its applications is to decrease the loading times of the websites. redis saves all of the data in the ram memory, which makes it quite useful as a cashing instrument. there is a certain restriction to the amount of data that can be saved, as the ram memory does not allow the storage of large quantities of data. with the nosql databases the data can be saved on a drive. therefore, redis is a database that saves data in the ram memory of the machine with assured persistency. it is written in c and is funded by vmware. the work logic of redis as a key/value storage is similar to memcachedb (zhang & zhang, 2017). redis stores the data to the memory and periodically makes records of the changes of the disc. it is used for extraction of atomic values in a very fast manner. however, redis may only be used when the data have lesser volume so that they can be saved to the memory of the server. the loss of a little quantity of information is acceptable at power shortages for example; but for situations when there is a greater loss, it is preferable not to use redis. it allows the user to save lists in the value field, that are not arrays, but solely interconnected lists, which ensures the possibility even when many elements are present in a list, a new element to be added with lpush in a constant time. arranged lists are also supported, as well as a set object /a unique list of strings/. there are a few popular applications of redis in the social networks nowadays. the most common solution is mysql or another relational database, which can serve as a main data depot. meanwhile, redis might be devoted to work fields that require more flexible and effective kind of work. this relates to a real project of application of non-relational databases in the social networks miroslav dechev et al. 64 development, usually with a lesser number of data. redis became popular among many social media and companies, some big names such as twitter, weibo, pinterest and snapchat and etc. (zhang & zhang, 2017). generally speaking, the social networks have two major requirements for the database system; the first one is the ability to save a large quantity of data, the second – a responsive server and user. in other words the usage of nosql is much more suitable for the processing of big data. the rapid pace in the increase of data of the social networks requires simplicity of the design work, better control and continuity in the storage process, things that the sql technology cannot fully respond to, especially in terms of the storage of this enormous quantity of data. in the social networks, the quantity of data is related to the everyday maintenance and developments. taking into consideration the quantity of data, the model of access to the data and the characteristics of the social networks, nosql has its proven advantages and as it became clear from the exposition above – two of the popular nosql databases are mongodb and redis. both systems of database management are widely applied in the contemporary social networks, because of their ability to work with the large quantities of data that are generated in these applications. one of the biggest disadvantages of the relational database is the longer exploitation period because while sharing and uploading videos and photos, the posting of statuses and the addition of new friends to our lists in the social networks adds up to the large quantity of data and delays the data extraction. the advantages of mongodb compared to the relational database are firstly the time and secondly the scaling. the transition from one type of document to another, the addition or deletion of data is much easier, because here we talk about the property to divide the documents to different nodes. due to its model of data collection, mongodb allows the users to take advantage of the benefits of the cloud in the infrastructure with its horizontal scalability and to utilize easily the various types of data, that are used today (zhang & zhang, 2017). it can also be said about redis that it is a flexible type of database. typical for it is the assigning of a pending key, comparatively lesser saved data and a high speed. it seems unrealistic to store large quantities of data in the memory. redis helps us with a solution for optimization, by providing us with the key expire, which clears-up the current lifecycle of the key (zhang & zhang, 2017). one of the users of redis is the social network pinterest, one of the popular media whose main activity is the sharing and publishing of photos brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 65 and videos. the data stream there is very large and it requires fast updating of the images, especially for the mobile phones. redis works in the background and stores several types of lists for a given user p, a list of users, which p follows, a list of user walls, which p follows, a list of the followers of p (zhang & zhang, 2017). a summarized comparison of the main characteristics of mongodb and redis is presented in table 1. table 1. comparison of mongodb and redis characteristics dbms nosql type of software structuring and storing requests distribution of the information mongodb documentoriented database document collections in json format. it utilizes a file system that allows for the eventual connection to many servers. specific fields of documents. there are various types of queries, supported by mongodb. among them are the field queries, range queries, as well as searches with regular expressions (regex). distributes the information in collections evenly between set of keys (shard). redis key-value type of database strings and more complex data structures – linked lists, sets, sorted sets, hash tables. it stores the data in the ram memory, which requires small quantity data, that can be saved on a disk. redis might be used for storage and extraction of atomic values in an exceptionally fast manner. supports the establishment of clusters, which is automised by redis sharding itself. 3. related works on application of non-relational databases in social networks the existing research on the application of the non-relational databases in the social networks may be divided in two groups depending on application of non-relational databases in the social networks miroslav dechev et al. 66 the functionality for which they are intended – storage of the data in the social network or their analysis. apart from that, the non-relational databases may contribute to the successful implementation of additional functional characteristics of the social networks. from the point of view of the non-relational databases that are used, it is important to mark that certain research interest was noted in regards to the application of semantic technologies for modelling and analysis of social networks (bontcheva & rout, 2014), (mika, 2007). 3.1. application of the non-relational databases for scalable storage of the data in a social network the research of this group could be summarized as related to:  finding of problems and offering of solutions with the help of non-relational databases; in (faisal, chaudhary & mumthas, 2015) there are certain problems that are defined, that stem from the development of a social network with the aid of a relational database. the established problems are related to provision of scalability and productiveness of the requests. certain solutions are offered through graph databases.  advantages and disadvantages of the application of non-relational databases for social networks. some general conclusions were drawn up, regarding the advantages and disadvantages of some specific non-relational databases from the point of view of their use for social networks – the document-oriented mongodb (kanoje, powar & mukhopadhyay, 2015) and the database from the keyvalue type redis (zhang & zhang, 2017). in the publication of (mathew & madhu kumar, 2015) the nonrelational databases used in popular social networks are studied and the characteristics of the different categories are compared (document, keyvalue, graph, column-based types). the advantages of the non-relational databases are reviewed – in order to overcome some of the problems that come from the necessity of both storage and management of the big data for the development of applications for the social networks (gašpar & mabić, 2017). this work contains a detailed conclusion on why a great number of the popular social networks do not choose to switch completely to non-relational storage. brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 67 3.2. application of the non-relational databases for analysis of the data in the social network. in (warchal, 2012) the opportunities of the graph database are studied and the existence of functionalities is affirmed for the graph database neo4j when analyzing the social networks. in order to conduct analysis of data in social networks through application of semantic technologies:  rdf (resource description framework) data presentation of a social network is proposed as well as the implementation of sparql (sparql protocol and rdf query language) requests (ereteo et al., 2009);  ontology is defined (li, yang, he & ai, 2010);  the architecture of the application of the rdf storage is described as well as the extraction of data with the sparql queries (srivastav & chauhan, 2017). in (angles, prat-pérez, dominguez-sal & larriba-pey, 2013) a study was conducted on the productivity of the different types of queries for extraction of useful information from social networks, executed in graph (dex, neo4j), rdf (rdf-3x) and relational databases (virtuoso, postgresql). through an experiment it was confirmed that the graph databases, including rdf provide better productivity. 3.3. application of the non-relational databases in the provision of additional functionality for the social network. the prototypes and the ontologies of the social networks were developed with the aid of the semantic technologies in order to provide them with additional functionality:  for social data portability, reuse and integration; a prototype of a social network through the application of semantic technologies – in order to overcome the limitations, related to the social data portability, the reuse and the integration is presented in (razmerita, jusevičius & firantas, 2009).  for exchange, compatibility, conversion and extraction of data; the prototype of a social network, described in (martín & gutierrez, 2009), fulfills the listed functionalities with the aid of rdf – for presentation of the data model and sparql for transformation and extraction of the data.  semantic compatibility. application of non-relational databases in the social networks miroslav dechev et al. 68 in (tserpes, papadakis, kardara & papaoikonomou, 2012) a piece of ontology is defined – in order to achieve semantic compatibility – interoperability between different social networks. 3.4. summary and perspectives frequently the non-relational database of choice for the support of a social network is not just one. on the one hand, the benefits and the characteristics of each database are used to serve to a specific aspect of the functionality of the social network. on the other hand, this choice represents a way to overcome some of the disadvantages of the non-relational databases. as a general disadvantage of most of the databases we can point out the lack of standardization and the limited abilities for requests. the problems that stem from that are related with: data transfer, compatibility between the nonrelational databases and dependency on the supplier. an attempt to solve these problems is the use of the rdf databases (allegrograph, 4store, virtuoso, stardog, graphdb, etc.), which explains the noticeable research interest, aimed at the application of the semantic technologies for modeling and analysis of the social networks and represents the perspectives for a possible future research:  definition and enrichment of the rdf descriptions and ontologies;  provision of a semantic interoperability and integration of the data between the different social networks;  application of algorithms for data mining on a rdf graph – in order to extract useful knowledge from the data on the social network. 4. conclusion nosql will continue to have an important role for the future development of the social networks and will receive ever-greater attention from them. the academic circles, as well as the business appreciate highly the future of nosql. the purpose of nosql is not to fully replace sql, but to support the relational database to work better and better. as it became clear in the aforementioned, the advantages of the nosql databases over the relational ones are the high level of scalability and their productivity. nosql can be developed on a completely new level. after all, the „wheel of technology‟ goes only in one direction – and it is forward. the combination of big data and cloud-based calculations is the latest technological challenge for the new technological world and the it brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 69 specialists. the general focus is on the creation of an allocated work environment for big data. in the last years, the cloud technologies and big data provoke great interest in the business as well as among the softwaredevelopers. for the implementation of the mobile applications, for example, there is the necessity of centralization on the basis of the data in order to enable the data exchange between users that use different devices, or to improve the accessibility of the users‟ data for different devices and applications. for the maintenance of the data, a cloud-based service type baas (backend as a service) is used for the development. most of the baas suppliers offer non-relational databases (antonova & valchev, 2015). big data represents a bulk of data, whose quantity and complexity turn their management and processing into a difficult task, when the traditional methods of processing and storage are at use. although the term big data is often used in relation to the quantity of the data, it also bears a different meaning. big data designates the technology that includes instruments and processes that the companies use to deal with the everincreasing quantity of information. the progress of the informational and the communicational technologies, the digitization of the commerce and the distribution of the social networks are a prerequisite for the creation of large quantities of information in a rising pace. according to a recently conducted study, over 90% of the data worldwide were generated in the last 2 years. various sensors, the websites of the social networks and other sources generate an enormous data flow – such data as digital photographs, videos, purchases, sales gps coordinates etc. acknowledgment a pre-print version of this article was available on researchgate at the following link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337186961_ application_of_non-relational_databases_in_the_social_networks the current paper contains the final version of the article. references angles, r., prat-pérez, a., dominguez-sal, d., & larriba-pey, j.l. (2013). benchmarking database systems for social network applications. proceedings of the first international workshop on graph data management experience and systems grades '13. new york, u.s.a. doi:10.1145/2484425.2484440 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337186961_%0bapplication_of_non-relational_databases_in_the_social_networks https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337186961_%0bapplication_of_non-relational_databases_in_the_social_networks application of non-relational databases in the social networks miroslav dechev et al. 70 antonova, v. & valchev, p. (2015). android mobile application for a personal library catalog in cloudy environments. scientific papers at the university of rousse. retrieved from: http://conf.uniruse.bg/bg/docs/cp15/3.2/3.2-28.pdf. asay, м. (2014). mongodb, cassandra, and hbase the three nosql databases to watch. [internet source]. retrieved from: https://www.infoworld.com/article/2848722/mongodb-cassandrahbase-three-nosql-databases-to-watch.html bontcheva, k. & rout, d. (2014). making sense of social media streams through semantics: a survey. semantic web journal, 5(5), 373-403. brewer, e. (2012). cap twelve years later: how the "rules" have changed. computer, 45(2), 23-29. doi:10.1109/mc.2012.37 cheresharov, s., & krushkov, h. (2016). nosql approaches in sql databases, scientific conference “innovative ict in business and education: future trends, applications and implementation”, pamporovo, retrieved from: http://fmi-plovdiv.org/getresource?id=2519. ereteo, g., gandon, f., buffa, m. (2009). semantic social network analysis. web science, websci’09, pp.1–5. athènes, greece. retrieved from: https://hal.inria.fr/inria-00378174/document faisal, a., chaudhary, a., & mumthas, s. (2015). role of graph databases in social networks. retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304462174_role_of_gra ph_databases_in_social_networks (accessed 13 july 2019). gašpar, d. & mabić, m. (2017). nosql databases as social networks storage systems. enterprise research innovation conference. dubrovnik, hrvatska. retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319944521_nosql_dat abases_as_social_networks_storage_systems gupta, s. & gugulothu, n. (2018). secure nosql for the social networking and e-commerce based bigdata applications deployed in cloud. international journal of cloud applications and computing, 8(2), 113-129. doi:10.4018/ijcac.2018040106. kanoje, s., powar, v., mukhopadhyay, d. (2015). using mongodb for social networking website: deciphering the pros and cons. ieee sponsored 2nd international conference on innovations in information embedded and communication systems. doi: 10.1109/iciiecs.2015.7192924. klisarova-belcheva, s. (2015). implementation of cloud computing in big data applications, management and sustainable development, 52 (3), 51http://conf.uni-ruse.bg/bg/docs/cp15/3.2/3.2-28.pdf http://conf.uni-ruse.bg/bg/docs/cp15/3.2/3.2-28.pdf https://www.infoworld.com/article/2848722/mongodb-cassandra-hbase-three-nosql-databases-to-watch.html https://www.infoworld.com/article/2848722/mongodb-cassandra-hbase-three-nosql-databases-to-watch.html http://fmi-plovdiv.org/getresource?id=2519 https://hal.inria.fr/inria-00378174/document https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304462174_role_of_graph_databases_in_social_networks https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304462174_role_of_graph_databases_in_social_networks https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319944521_nosql_databases_as_social_networks_storage_systems https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319944521_nosql_databases_as_social_networks_storage_systems brain. broad research in december, 2019 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, issue 4 71 58. retrieved from: http://oldweb.ltu.bg/jmsd/files/articles/52/5208_s_klisarova-belcheva.pdf. koleva, p. (2014). open source database management systems. nosql databases. retrieved from: https://informatika.dokumentite.com/art/sistemiza-upravlenie-na-bazi-ot-danni-s-otvoren-kod-nosql-bazi-ot-danni/86605. li, t., yang, h., he, j. & ai, y. (2010). a social network analysis methods based on ontology. conference paper of the third international symposium on knowledge acquisition and modeling (pp.258-261). wuhan, china. doi 10.1109/kam.2010.5646196. martín, m. s. & gutierrez, c. (2009). representing, querying and transforming social networks with rdf/sparql. in: aroyo l. et al. (eds), the semantic web: research and applications. lecture notes in computer science, (vol. 5554, pp. 293–307). berlin, germany: springer. mathew, a. b. & madhu kumar, s. d. (2015). analysis of data management and query handling in social networks using nosql databases. international conference on advances in computing, communications and informatics (pp. 800-806). kochi, india. doi: 10.1109/icacci.2015.7275708. mika, p. (2007). social networks and the semantic web: computing for human experience. new york, u.s.a.: springer. nedyalkov, i. (2017). models of web applications processing large data arrays in real time. [doctoral thesis]. university of national and world economy, sofia. retrieved from: http://konkursi.unwe.bg/documents/ 585avtoreferat-2017_05_13.pdf. razmerita, l., jusevičius, m., & firantas, r. (2009). new generation of social networks based on semantic web technologies: the importance of social data portability. workshop on adaptation and personalization for web 2.0. (pp.79-87). retrieved from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/ viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.352.8469. relational and nonrelative database (sql/nosql), retrieved from: https://help.superhosting.bg/sql-nosql-databases.html, 2019. srivastav, a. & chauhan, a. (2017). social network data retrieval using semantic technology. asian journal of pharmaceutical and clinical research, 10(13), 31-35. doi: 10.22159/ajpcr.2017.v10s1.19541. strozzi, c. (2017). nosql relational database management system, retrieved from: http://www.strozzi.it/cgi-bin/csa/tw7/i/en_us/ nosql/home%20page. tserpes, k., papadakis, g.a., kardara, m., & papaoikonomou, a. (2012). an ontology for social networking sites interoperability. proceedings of http://oldweb.ltu.bg/jmsd/files/articles/52/52-08_s_klisarova-belcheva.pdf http://oldweb.ltu.bg/jmsd/files/articles/52/52-08_s_klisarova-belcheva.pdf https://informatika.dokumentite.com/art/sistemi-za-upravlenie-na-bazi-ot-danni-s-otvoren-kod-nosql-bazi-ot-danni-/86605 https://informatika.dokumentite.com/art/sistemi-za-upravlenie-na-bazi-ot-danni-s-otvoren-kod-nosql-bazi-ot-danni-/86605 https://informatika.dokumentite.com/art/sistemi-za-upravlenie-na-bazi-ot-danni-s-otvoren-kod-nosql-bazi-ot-danni-/86605 http://konkursi.unwe.bg/documents/%0b585avtoreferat-2017_05_13.pdf http://konkursi.unwe.bg/documents/%0b585avtoreferat-2017_05_13.pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/%0bviewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.352.8469 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/%0bviewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.352.8469 https://help.superhosting.bg/sql-nosql-databases.html http://www.strozzi.it/cgi-bin/csa/tw7/i/en_us/%0bnosql/home%20page http://www.strozzi.it/cgi-bin/csa/tw7/i/en_us/%0bnosql/home%20page application of non-relational databases in the social networks miroslav dechev et al. 72 the international conference on knowledge engineering and ontology development (pp. 245-250).doi: 10.5220/0004142202450250 warchal, l. (2012). using neo4j graph database in social network analysis. studia informatica, 33(2a), 271-279. zhang, y. & zhang, c. (2017). applications of nosql database in modern social media. retrieved from: http://www.cs.rochester.edu/ courses/261/fall2017/termpaper/submissions/12/paper.pdf (accessed 13 july 2019). biodata miroslav dechev was born in veliko tarnovo on 4.11.1979. he obtained his bachelor‟s degree in book publishing (2005), master‟s degree in journalism; he is a phd student in computer sciences (2018) at the “faculty of mathematics and informatics” of the veliko tarnovo university “st. st. cyril & methodius” in veliko tarnovo, bulgaria. he currently works as a journalist at a regional media. his research interest includes different aspects of the information security, the artificial intellect, the internet of things, the cloud technologies, the social networks. he is the author of over 5000 interviews and two books /fiction/. miroslav galabov was born in veliko tarnovo. he received his ph.d. degree in automation systems for processing of information and control in 1999. since 2002 he serves as an assistant professor; in 2005 he became associate professor and in 2015 professor in the computer systems and technologies department of the st. cyril and st. methodius university of veliko tarnovo. he is the author of 10 textbooks, and over 50 papers. his current interests are in signal processing, 3d technologies and multimedia. tsvetanka georgieva-trifonova received her msc degree in mathematics and informatics in 1997 and her phd degree in computer science in 2009 – both from the university of veliko tarnovo, bulgaria. currently she serves as an associate professor at the university of veliko tarnovo, bulgaria and teaches databases, information systems modeling, data warehousing and mining, and artificial intelligence. her research interests include data mining, text mining, non-relational databases, and information systems. http://www.cs.rochester.edu/%0bcourses/261/fall2017/termpaper/submissions/12/paper.pdf http://www.cs.rochester.edu/%0bcourses/261/fall2017/termpaper/submissions/12/paper.pdf microsoft word special-issue-asamblare.docx b r a i n broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue on psychiatry june 2019 edusoft www.brain.edusoft.ro about the journal the aim of this journal is to create links between researchers from apparently different scientific fields, such as computer science and neurology. in fact, there are a lot of topics such as artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurosciences that can intersect in the study of the brain and its intelligent functions. our journal contains peer-reviewed articles. these articles should be original, unpublished articles of the authors. the peer review process is a blind one. the reviewers are well recognized scientists who are part of our scientific board, and also independent reviewers. some innovative young researchers from around the world had the idea to edit and publish the brain journal in order to make an agora of interdisciplinary study of the brain. young scientists and seniors in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and neurology fields are expected to publish their original works in our journal. brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 2 editorial team editor in chief: • bogdan pătruţ, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iași, romania managing editor: • agata asofroniei, edusoft publishing house, bacău, romania editors: • anamaria ciubară, dunărea de jos university of galați, romania • frank emmert-streib, tampere university of technology, finland • angel garrido, national university of distance education, spain • barna iantovics, “petru maior” university of târgu mureş, romania • carmen holotescu, “ioan slavici” university of timişoara, romania • monica pătruţ, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacău, romania issn 2068 – 0473 e-issn 2067 – 3957 (c) 2019 edusoft publishing address: editura edusoft romania 600065 bacău 9 mai 82 c 13 tel. 0040 741 63 81 82 fax: 0040 234 20 60 90 web: brain.edusoft.ro official e-mail: brain@edusoft.ro managing editor e-mail: agata@edusoft.ro scientific board members (reviewers) 1. ioan andone, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (artificial intelligence in accounting and management) 2. stefan andrei, lamar university, department of computer science, beaumont, texas, united states of america (artificial intelligence) 3. ovidiu andronesi, athinoula a. martinos center for biomedical imaging, brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 3 massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school, charlestown, boston, united states of america & "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (neuroscience, biophysics, neuroimaging) 4. dorin bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 5. răzvan bocu, transilvania university of braşov, brașov, romania (mathematics, computer science) 6. constanţa bodea, academy of economic studies, bucharest, romania (cybernetics, economics, artificial intelligence) 7. cătălin buiu, politehnica university of bucharest, bucharest, romania (robotics) 8. gianluca ceriani, dacom srl milan, italy (computer science) 9. piotr p chruszczewski, polish academy of sciences, university of wroclaw, poland (social sciences) 10. doina cmeciu, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau and europe direct centre in bacau, romania (semiotics, literature, linguistics) 11. svetlana cojocaru, institute of mathematics and computer science, chisinau, moldavia (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, mathematics) 12. domenico consoli, university of urbino, italy (software systems, data-mining, economics) 13. doru costache, st andrew's greek orthodox theological college, sydney college of divinity, sydney, australia (theology, philosophy) 14. ana-maria ciubara (burlea), dunărea de jos university of galați, romania (psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience) 15. dan cristea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (natural language processing, linguistics, artificial intelligence) 16. gabriela czibula (şerban), "babes-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (distributed artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 17. mattias dehmer, vienna university of technology, austria (applied discrete mathematics) 18. omer deperlioglu, afyon kocatepe university, afyonkarahisar, turkey (computer programing, m-learning, fuzzy control, self-directed learning, fuzzy logic control, artificial intelligence) 19. francesca d'errico, roma tre university, rome, italy (philosophy, communication and visual art department) 20. claudia diamantini, polytechnic university of marche, ancona, italy (artificial intelligence, artificial intelligent systems) 21. ioan dzitac, "aurel vlaicu" university of arad, romania (artificial intelligence, distributed systems, education) 22. angel garrido, faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (mathematics, physics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence) 23. annette hohenberger, cognitive science department, informatics institute, middle east technical university, ankara, turkey 24. barna iantovics, "petru maior" university of târgu mureş, romania (artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing) 25. daniela jeder, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (pedagogy, education) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 4 26. parvaneh khosravizadeh, sharif university of technology, islamic republic of iran (linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics) 27. utku köse, uşak university, uşak, turkey (artificial intelligence) 28. piedad yuste leciñena, faculty of philosophy, department of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain (history and philosophy of sciences) 29. ilya levin, tel aviv university, tel aviv, israel (computer design, cultural studies of information society, science and technology education) 30. manuel lópez-ibáñez, iridia, université libre de bruxelles, belgium (metaheuristics, multicriteria analysis, operational research, swarm intelligence) 31. lorenzo magnani, university of pavia, italy and sun-yat sen university, canton, china (cognitive sciences, logic, epistemology, philosophy) 32. ioan maxim, “stefan cel mare” university of suceava, romania (e-learning, education) 33. ana-maria minut, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (general linguistics, applied linguistics) 34. grigor moldovan, “babeş-bolyai” university of clujnapoca, romania (distributed systems) 35. aslanbek naziev, ryazan state university, ryazan, ryazan oblast, russia (mathematics) 36. elena nechita, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (artificial intelligence) 37. bogdan patrut, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (software systems, artificial intelligence, natural language processing) 38. iulia karin patrut, university of trier, germany (literature, hermeneutics, historical semantics) 39. valeriy perminov, tomsk polytechnic university, russian federation (mathematical modelling, informatics) 40. camelia mihaela pintea, "babeş-bolyai" university of cluj-napoca, romania (bio-inspired computing, distributed artificial intelligence) 41. ioan lucian popa, "vasile alecsandri" university of bacau, romania (linguistics) 42. bogdan o. popescu, romanian society of neurology, bucharest, romania (neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, biology) 43. saim rasheed, king abdulaziz university, jeddah, saudi arabia (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 44. kamil roman, maria curie-sklodowska university in lublin, poland (smart city concept, intelligent transport systems, sustainable urban development) 45. tiberiu socaciu, "stefan cel mare" university of suceava, romania (artificial intelligence, computer science) 46. hassan soleimani, payame noor university, tehran, iran (applied linguistics) 47. iolanda tobolcea, "alexandru ioan cuza" university of iasi, romania (clinical psychology, education, speech-language pathology, neurology) 48. elena-mădălina vătămănescu, national university of political studies and public administration, bucharest (social sciences), romania 49. zdzislaw wasik, philological school of higher education in wroclaw, adam mickiewicz university in poznan, international communicology institute, poland (general linguistics, semiotics) 50. dmytro zubov, soochow university, suzhou, jiangsu, china (computer science) brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue (june, 2019), issn 2067-3957 5 microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 65 modeling and implementation of omnidirectional soccer robot with wide vision scope applied in robocup-msl s. hamidreza mohades kasaei islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran h.kasaee@khuisf.ac.ir s. mohammadreza mohades kasaei islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran m.kasaee@khuisf.ac.ir s. a. monadjemi islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran monadjemi@eng.ui.ac.ir mohsen taheri islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club, isfahan, iran css_mt@yahoo.com abstract the purpose of this paper is to design and implement a middle size soccer robot to conform robocup msl league. first, according to the rules of robocup, we design the middle size soccer robot, the proposed autonomous soccer robot consists of the mechanical platform, motion control module, omni-directional vision module, front vision module, image processing and recognition module, investigated target object positioning and real coordinate reconstruction, robot path planning, competition strategies, and obstacle avoidance. and this soccer robot equips the laptop computer system and interface circuits to make decisions. in fact, the omnidirectional vision sensor of the vision system deals with the image processing and positioning for obstacle avoidance and target tracking. the boundary-following algorithm (bfa) is applied to find the important features of the field. we utilize the sensor data fusion method in the control system parameters, self localization and world modeling. a vision-based self-localization and the conventional odometry systems are fused for robust selflocalization. the localization algorithm includes filtering, sharing and integration of the data for different types of objects recognized in the environment. in the control strategies, we present three state modes, which include the attack strategy, defense strategy and intercept strategy. the methods have been tested in the many robocup competition field middle size robots. keywords: mobile robot, machine vision, omni directional movement, autonomous systems, robot path planning, object localization. 1. introduction robocup is an international competition to prompted robotics and related subject like: artificial intelligence, image processing, control, devise design and etc. one of the subjects in robocup competitions is soccer. naturally robotic soccer is an interactive and complex procedure. it might be so idealistic, but some consider a challenge with a real human football team in 2050, as the final goal of robotic soccer. the robots in middle-size league should only use local sensors and s.h.kasaei is with the young researchers club of khorasgan islamic azad university (isfahan), iran. (phone: +98 9133048469 e-mail: hamidreza_kasaee@yahoo.com, web page: http:// www.iranadro.com). s.m.kasaei is with the young researchers club of khorasgan islamic azad university (isfahan), iran. (phone: +98 91312624512 e-mail: mrezamk2005 @yahoo.com, web page: http://www.iranadro.com). local vision. each team can have a maximum number of six robots. they can communicate with each other through a central computer via a radio link. the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 66 rules in the competition are the same as the international soccer rules as far as they are practical for robots [1]. the middle size league team of the adro was founded in 2006. in 2007 we ranked 2nd place middle size soccer robot league in 2nd international iran-open robocup competitions the iran-open is one of the, asia’s major robocup event. at the china-open robocup 2007 as well as at the iran–open robocup 2007 we ranked 2nd place middle size soccer robot league, in 2008 we achieved the first place in the 3rd international iran-open competitions. the basis for our success was the robust and reliable hardware design, wellstructured software architecture and efficient algorithms for sensor fusion and behavior generation. our main research interest is both, the development of learning robots and the development of improved sensor fusion and sensor integration techniques. among others, several different approaches have been investigated so far: • reinforcement learning to learn intercepting a ball. • reinforcement learning to learn dribbling and path planning. • development of a computational efficient algorithm for self-localization. • development of estimation procedures for robot and ball velocity • development of a vision system with an omni directional vision sensor and a front camera to recognize ball position and find necessary information in field. in this paper, we will at first describe the general hardand software design of the adro robocup team, (section 2) and after that focus on our scientic approaches in sensor fusion and learning (section 3). finally, section 4 concludes this paper. 2. hardware architecture every fully autonomous robot of “adro” is equipped with an omni-directional vision system, a normal camera as front vision, and an electromagnetic kicking device. the robot is s.hamidreza kasaei, s.mohammadreza kasaei, s.a.monadjemi, mohsen taheri islamic azad university – khorasgan branch, young researchers club , isfahan , iran controlled by a notebook pc is demonstrated in figure 1. figure 1 our robot is a 3-wheeled omni-directional mobile robot with an omnidirectional vision system, a normal camera and a kicking device, and is controlled by a notebook pc. the chassis of the robot is designed as a frame construction where there is the electronic circuit board, batteries, kicking device, motor controller and notebook pc. the omnidirectional vision system and the normal camera are on the top of the framework. s. h. mohades kasaei, s. m. mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, m taheri modeling and implementation of omnidirectional soccer robot with wide vision scope applied in robocup-msl 67 a. omni directional wheels and robot chassis figures omni directional robots usually use special wheels. these wheels are known as omni directional poly roller wheel. the omni-directional movement system consists of omnidirectional wheels, dc motors, a drive shafting system and a controller. the three omni-directional wheels are the key component of the robot, each wheel radially equipped with dozens of small wheels. the three-wheel drive robot can move at any direction and at any moment. although three such wheels are sufficient for the robot to move omnidirectionally, a fourth wheel can provide redundancy in motion and control [2]. our robot structure includes three omni directional wheels for motion system and three small free wheels as feedback mechanism where shaft encoders are mounted on, as shown in figure 2. figure 2 three omni directional wheels act as actuators while three free wheels are for feedback. b. omni directional vision system since the beginning of mobile robot, the map building was one of the most addressed problems by researchers. several researchers used omni directional vision for robot navigation and map building [3]. because of the wide field of view in omni directional sensors, the robot does not need to look around using moving parts (cameras or mirrors) or turning the moving parts [4]. the global view offered by omni directional vision is especially suitable for highly dynamic environments. the omni-directional vision system consists of a hyperbolic mirror, a firewire color digital camera (basler digital camera) and a regulation device. the hyperbolic mirror, design by ourselves. the mirror can make the resolution of the images of the objects near the robot on the field constant and make the distortion of the images of the objects far from the robot small in vertical direction. searching through different articles and catalogues from various mirror-making companies; we found that they used the following hyperbolic curve for their omni directional vision mirror [5] (1). 1 7.11353.233 22 −=− yx (1) however, this equation is suitable for the mirror with large size and wide view. for our soccer player robot, we need an image with a diameter of 4m on the field, so to achieve a compact mirror with wide view, the above curve scaled down by a factor of 2.5 to yields (2): 43.6 7.11353.233 22 −=− yx (2) brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 68 figure 3 profile of the overall mirror and the proposed mirror. next, a special three stages process was considered for the mirror manufacturing: a. curve fabrication, b. polishing, c. coating.in the first stage the curve was fabricated on steel 2045 with cnc machining. then, the work-piece was polished by a special process and finally ni-p electroless plating was employed. the regulation device can adjust the height of the omnidirectional vision system and the distance between the hyperbolic mirror and the camera. c. ball handler and kicking system one of the most essential parts of a soccer robot in middle size and small size classes in the kicking system, this system is in charge of kicking the ball upon the command issued by the processor of robot. almost every team develops their own unique shooting device. in this section, we are going to describe designed and developed our multi power kicking system that enables loop and vary shooting power. the principle used for our kicking devices is self-inductance. by sending a current trough a turn of wire a magnetic field can be build. as the number of turns or current increases, the magnetic field increases too. with magnetism ferromagnetic materials can be attracted or repulsed. this phenomenon is used in a solenoid. for kicking device the solenoid has to be really fast, because it travels 10cm in about 10ms when shooting at 10m/s. to design a good solenoid and to obtain maximum velocity of ball some parameters like: inductance, response time, resistance, force, dimensions and core-material should be balanced carefully. this design takes advantage of the property that a solenoid has a ferromagnetic core which is attracted into the coil centre. the piece of nylon which is attached to the iron bar is a non-ferro and shoots outwards and hits the ball. it is able to shoot very fast, 10m/s when about 800 turns and a current of 60[a] are applied. it is rather small (length is about 20cm and about 5cm diameter) and lightweight (2[kg]). only a transformer, a capacitor, some resistors and a switch is used so it is in theory very reliable. and most important shooting power can be varied by varying the time of the applied current. the disadvantage of the use of a solenoid is that it operates at a high voltage and current, so it can be quite dangerous. this can be solved by hiding dangerous parts in a black box. it also uses a lot of power for a really short time, so a capacitor is needed to supply high voltage and current. we used a dc-dc converter (boost regulator) for getting different currents to have different power of shooting. s. h. mohades kasaei, s. m. mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, m taheri modeling and implementation of omnidirectional soccer robot with wide vision scope applied in robocup-msl 69 figure 4 ball handler and kicking mechanism d. the solenoid controlling circuit through this circuit, the time needed for first charging of the condenser to 450v, is 13 seconds. this voltage will be about 150v after a stroke with the maximum force. the time need for recharging the capacitor from 100 volt to 450 volt is about 9 seconds. parallel to the capacitor is the solenoid, modeled with a coil and a resistance with the values of the solenoid. the solenoid is connected to a transistor which is controlled by a pulse source. the transistor can handle high currents (irg4pc50fd) .when the source-signal is high the transistor is closed and solenoid is activated, when low it is open and solenoid is idle. the transistor opens in 380[ns] and closes in 70[ns]. parallel to the solenoid is a diode with a resistance to "catch" the back-current generated when turning of the solenoid. the solenoid designing for the normal conditions is not able to return to the first place after the stroke, because after imposing and cutting the voltage from solenoid, its shaft will be stopped in the last possible place. for returning it to its first condition, we should use another mechanism. this returns the solenoid to its first place after the stroke. an easy and cheap solution for the above problem is using a spring at the end of the solenoid. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 70 figure 5. the solenoid controlling circuit design 3. robot software we have developed a software system to fully utilize the hardware abilities. in this section introduces software parts contain: image processing algorithm, position controller architecture, world model construction, artificial intelligence, trajectory, and network and team strategy from a viewpoint of software system. three actions are allotted to the robot: attack, support, and defense. the attack is realized through the following process: first, the robot acquires the ball. the robots continuously try to get the ball. next, the robot face to ball and targeting to opponent goal then dribbles and shoots the ball into the opponent goal. during the dribble, the robot adjusts its direction toward the opponent goal and dribbles with the fastest possible speed. one of the advantages of our robot is a strong kicking device; therefore the robot can shoot a loop-ball into the opponent goal before the opponent defender comes close to the robot. the support robot takes a position behind and near to the robot with the ball. the support robot fetches the ball only when the ball is near to the support robot. the defence robot is located between the ball and own goal. the defence robot doesn’t actively approach when the ball is far. in our team strategy three states are allotted to the team robots: attack, defense, and intercept. the robots autonomously choose to activate each of the roles. a. image processing algorithm utilizing a digital camera, each time the computer on each robot performs the processing of the current frame and calculates the position, direction and velocity of the robot. it also determines the position and velocity of the opponent robots as well as the position and velocity of the ball. the image-processing algorithm first filters the image by using a table for labeling the colors then recognizes the contiguous regions through either a bfs or a dfs search algorithm and finally extracts the positions by looking in the image to ground map table. the server gives the necessary commands to the image processing computers. the algorithm used to find objects is optimized to process the maximum number of frames. first it searches the pixels by swiping them with certain steps, when it finds a desired one and detects that object, saves its coordinates so the next time it can start back with the same point about. sometimes for better image manipulation the rgb color space is converted to hls (hue, saturation and luminance). to recognize a certain color, a combination of conditions on hue, saturation and rgb is used. this procedure makes the color recognition independent from the change of brightness and other unpredicted conditions. we are trying to evaluate new methods to find some kinds of objects based on pattern recognition to reduce the effect of changing the colors on algorithm. the image processor receives its data through fire wire port connected to a basler digital video camera with the speed of 20 to 30 frames per second. s. h. mohades kasaei, s. m. mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, m taheri modeling and implementation of omnidirectional soccer robot with wide vision scope applied in robocup-msl 71 b. world model construction although each agent tries to extract the real world map as accurate as possible, but “noisy data” and “non-global optimized” algorithms reduce the reliability of processed data. the world model module receives different data sets from every agent. each data set contains different environmental information like self, ball and opponents’ positions. each data carries a ‘confidence’ factor; a larger confidence factor means a more reliable piece of information. the most recent data sets are then chosen for data fusion, in which the following rules and facts are applied: • closer object are of more accuracy. • objects further than a specific distance could be said to be totally inaccurate. (this distance is experimentally known) • an object in the field cannot move faster than an extreme value. figure 6. vision systems, object detection (goals, flag spots, ball ) and line detection for self figure 7. world model construction and artificial intelligent structure. with respect to the above fact, the module filters unwanted duplicates of objects, (many opponents close to each other seen by different agents), calculates the best approximation for ball brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 72 and opponents’ positions with first order kalman filtering, gives every object a confidence factor, applies a low pass filter on data and finally constructs a complete world model. this new world model contains information about the objects which may not have been seen by each agent correctly and also enhances approximations of all environmental information. the constructed world model is then sent back to all agents so they will have a better view of the world around them! the interaction between the modules on different machines is provided by a communication protocol which bundles commands and parameters generating command packets and interprets the incoming packets for other modules. in the following, each layer, its interface and parameters will be discussed in details. c. artificial intelligence in this section the ai part of the software is briefly introduced. there are three distinct layers: ai core, role engine and behavior engine. ai core receives the computed field data from world modeling unit and determines the play state according to the ball, opponents and our robots positions. considering the current game strategy, determination of the play state is done by fuzzy decision-making to avoid undesirable and sudden changes of roles or behaviors. then ai core sends a set of roles to role engine to be assigned to the robots. because there are instances in which the image processing unit cannot see the ball, a memory is implemented in the ai core for the position of ball that specifies which robot owns the ball. since there is a relationship between new roles and old roles, roles are changed in a manner that robots never experiment sudden changes in roles (for example the role never changes from defense to attack in next cycle). role engine receives a set of roles from ai core and provides the behavior engine with a set of behaviors for robots. twin or triple roles are implemented so that the robots really cooperate with each other to do their roles. behaviors are the building blocks of the robot's performance which includes simple actions like rotating, or getting the ball and etc. the behavior layer is the lowest layer in our architecture. this layer receives a sequence of behaviors along with some parameters from the upper layer (role engine) and executes the essential subroutines in order to accomplish a certain behavior. these subroutines use world model information and trajectory data in order to perform necessary movements (figure 7).. d. trajectory since the motion trajectory of each robot is divided into several median points that the robot should reach them one by one in a sequence the output obtained after the execution of ai will be a set of position and velocity vectors. so the task of the trajectory will be to guide the robots through the opponents to reach the destination. the routine used for this purpose is the potential field method (also an alternative new method is in progress which models the robot motion through opponents same as the flowing of a bulk of water through obstacles)[8][9]. in this method different electrical charges are assigned to our robots, opponents and the ball. then by calculating the potential field of this system of charges a path will be suggested for the robot. at a higher level, predictions can be used to anticipate the position of the opponents and make better decisions in order to reach the desired vector. in our path planning algorithm, an artificial potential field is set up in the space; that is, each point in the space is assigned a scalar value. the value at the goal point is set to be 0 and the value of the potential at all other points is positive. the potential at each point has two contributions: a goal force that causes the potential to increase with path distance from the goal, and an obstacle force that increases in inverse proportion to the distance to the nearest obstacle boundary. in other words, the potential is lowest at the goal, large at points far from the goal, and large at points next to obstacles. if the potential is suitably defined, then if a robot starts at any point in the space and always moves in the direction of the steepest negative potential slope, then the robot will move towards the goal while avoiding obstacles. the numerical potential field path planner is guaranteed to produce a path even if the start or goal is placed in an obstacle. if there is no possible way to get from the start to the goal without passing through an obstacle then the path s. h. mohades kasaei, s. m. mohades kasaei, s. a. monadjemi, m taheri modeling and implementation of omnidirectional soccer robot with wide vision scope applied in robocup-msl 73 planner will generate a path through the obstacle, although if there is any alternative then the path will do that instead. for this reason it is important to make sure that there is some possible path, although there are ways around this restriction such as returning an error if the potential at the start point is too high. the path is found by moving to the neigh boring square with the lowest potential, starting at any point in the space and stopping when the goal is reached. fig. 8 potential at every point; it is highest in the obstacles and lowest at the goal. elsewhere it is generally higher farther from the goal and near obstacles. e. network the network physical layer uses the ring topology. the udp (user datagram protocol) network protocol is used for the software communication layer. the data flow of the network is as follows: a half field data (the data representing the position and status of the robots, opponents, goals and the ball) is transmitted to the server from each client computer of robots, the server combines them, constructs the complete global localization field then sends the appropriate data and commands (indicating which objects each robot should search for) back to the clients. when the data is completed it is passed to the ai unit for further processing and to decide the next behavior of the robots. 4. conclusion the performance of our robot team in iran-open robocup competitions 2008 (1st place) showed that the combination of methods and techniques described in this paper are led to a successful soccer player team. in our robot, omni directional navigation system, omni-vision system and a novel kicking mechanism have been combined to create a comprehensive omni directional robot. the idea of separating odometry sensors from the driving wheels was successfully implemented. three separate omni directional wheels coupled with shaft encoders placed apart of the main driving wheels. the result was reducing errors such as slippage in the time of acceleration. combination of odometry and vision led to a more accurate and reliable self-localization algorithm. a new hyperbolic with a special coating technique was used to create a wide and compact omni vision mirror. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 74 fig. 9 adro middle size soccer robot team form khorasgan islamic azad university, isfahan, iran acknowledgment this research was supported by islamic azad university khorasgan branch, isfahan, iran. 5. references [1] kitano, h. (1997a) robocup: the robot world cup initiative, proceeding first international conference on autonomous agents, pp. 340-347 [2] alexander gloye, ra´ul rojas. robot heal thyself: precise and fault-tolerant control of imprecise or malfunctioning robots. robocup 2005 international symposium, osaka, japan, july, 2005.r. j. vidmar. (1992, aug.). on the use of atmospheric plasmas as electromagnetic reflectors. ieee trans. plasma sci. [online]. 21(3), pp. 876-880. available: http://www.halcyon.com/pub/journals/21ps03-vidmar [3] kortenkamp , d.; bonasso ,p. & murphy , r. , editors (1998). artificial intelligence and mobile robotics . aaai press / mit press [4] yagi , y. (1999) . omni directional sensing and its applications , ieice trans ,inf. & syst . vol. e82-d(no.3), pp. 568-579. [5] ishiguro h. (1998), compact omni directional sensors and their applications, m & e, kougyouchosakai, march 1998. (in japanese) available from: http://www.accowle.com/english/spec.html [6] c.s tesng, b.-s. chen, and h.-j uang , “fuzzy traking control fo nonlinear system via t-s fuzzy model ” , ieee trans. fuzzy sysrem,vol 9 , pp 381 , june 2001. [7] y. yagi, s. kawato, s. tsuji, "real-time omni-directional image sensor (copis) for visionguided navigation", ieee trans. on robotics and automation, vol. 10, n. 1, pp. 1122, 1994 [8] khatib, o. (1985). real-time obstacle avoidance for manipulators and mobile robots. in proc. of the ieee intl. conf. on robotics and automation, pages 500–505, st. louis, missouri. [9] lee, lee, & park, "trajectory generation and motion tracking for the robot soccer game,” proceedings of the 1999 ieee international conference on intelligent robots and systems, pg 1149-1154, 1999. microsoft word brain_1_3.doc 75 brain diseases in mesopotamian societies piedad yuste faculty of philosophy, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 7, 28040, madrid, spain pyuste@fsof.uned.es ángel garrido faculty of sciences, national university of distance education, madrid, spain paseo senda del rey, 9, 28040, madrid, spain algbmv@telefonica.net abstract in ancient mesopotamia were not practiced neither autopsies nor dissections, so the internal organs of human body were known only from occasional inspections on wounds and injuries. the brain was considered as a part of the head and was not related to mental activity. however, babylonian and assyrian physicians were able to identify the symptoms of many diseases that affect this organ. we will make here a brief overview of them. keywords: brain, mesopotamian medicine, akkadian diagnostic handbook. 1. introduction more than five thousand years ago, it was established in middle east, close to the river mouths of tigris and eufrates, a people of unknown origin: the sumerian. with the passage of time, this community imposed its culture and its language on the rest of the human groups seated in that place. they founded cities like uruk, ur, isin, larsa, lagash, eridu, arisen around a temple, where the local god was worshiped and whose monarch was exercising the power resting on an elders' council, and on other one integrated by warriors, as tells us samuel noah kramer [1]. the sumerian people invented the writing, from pictograms that little by little were stylized up to composing ideograms and phonetic signs. they were writing on small tablets of clay with a stylus, sliding it on the humid surface. then, these tablets were left to dry in the sun or baked. the system of cuneiform writing spread over the whole region and was used by assyrians, hittites, elamites and canaanites, who adapted their language to the sumerian signs. in the middle of the third millennium bc, akkadian people advanced from the north and they occupied the sumerian cities. since then, the akkadian language was displacing progressively the sumerian, though this one remained in force in the palaces, temples and schools. the sumerian people also created a positional numerical system, in sexagesimal notation, where only two signs were utilized to express all quantities: one for the tens and other for the units. though this happened from the second millennium, in the so called old babylonian period (20001600 bc). they also had a stable metrology, with linear units, of surface, capacity, weight and volume, as it appears in the codes promulgated by the kings sulgi and hammurabi [2]. the first schools of scribes were created during the neosumerian period, founded by urnammu, about 2144 bc., but they had his major summit in the old babylonian period. most of preserved school texts come from this period [3]. in the scribe schools both sumerian and akkadian languages were taught; children also learning numeracy, geometry, laws, poetry, administration and accounting [4]. the akkadian society was firmly structured: under monarch’s power there were the officials, merchants, craftsmen, soldiers, peasants and slaves. depending on the temple were, not only to the priests and scribes, also the astronomers, exorcists and physicians. as it looks like, there existed a civil education and religious other one, the first one given in the schools and the second one in the temples and places of worship [5]. we know all things thanks to the enormous quantity of documents that the archeologists have dug up in the ancient cities of nippur, uruk (warka), hattusa (boghazköy), etc. in nineveh it has found the library of the assyrian king assurbanipal (668-627 bc), which contained over brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 76 20,000 volumes, with the main literary, scientific, and sapiential texts, mostly proceeding from the libraries and files of the conquered cities. many of these documents were copies of more ancient others, catalogues and references to more extensive works. here we will discuss the medical treatises, and the practice conducted by the physicians and the experts in health care. 2. texts and medical practices so far we have not found any kind of the theoretical texts [6]. professional and technical personnel in mathematics, astronomy, engineering and medicine, only left witness of their practical knowledge: like school problems and numerical tables; measurements of the relative positions of the stars, the moon and the planets; sets of omens, prayers and exorcisms; and medical treatises [7]. we can distribute these last on three classes: • medicaments and remedies. • treatments and practical recommendations. • diagnostic and prognosis series the art of the healing was carried out in two different ways, according to the type of disease (dimitu) afflicting the patient [8]. there existed the exorcists, called āšipu, who did an exhaustive examination of the patient and of his environment, observing every detail: the pulse, the secretions, the color of the skin, the face, the tongue, the eyes, and the smells expelled by the patient. and as outcome of the observed, they announced a diagnosis of the disease and his forecast. remedies and potions are prescribed only if the sufferer could heal; but they were abstaining from beginning the treatment if the patient was terminally ill. in last instance, the āšipu invoked the gods, because they were the real instigators of the evil or, at least, tolerant with it, since the reason of the same could be the infraction of a taboo or norm. in this case, the treatment was depending on the repentance of the sinner; afterward the ”āšipu” raised prayers to the responsible god for the disease, while he was treating the patient with “namburbi” rituals and sorceries. the physicians (ašu) carried out a more empirical practice, by recommending therapies of plant, animal, or mineral; by supplying potions, applying balsams, treating wounds and injuries, restoring broken bones, administering antidotes against the bites of serpents and scorpions. nevertheless, the patient was going to one or another specialist, depending on his illness and according to the confidence that the experience of these were offering him. the most ancient mesopotamian medical document that we preserve dates back of the period neosumerian (2112-2004 bc). this is a pharmacological digest that gathers knowledge from the therapeutic sumerian tradition. concrete remedies are included here to relieve some ailments, but without detailing the proportions of the ingredients neither their respective dosage [1]. the named elements are of vegetable origin, and it used the seeds and the root, stems, bark and leaves of all these products. in this treatise we have identified substances proceeding from the myrtle, cedar, palm date-palm, fig tree, willow, etc. also they are mentioned some food coming from animals, as the honey and the milk. minerals: saltpeter, common salt, “clay of the river”, and “oil of the sea”. some of these elements are not still known for us. one of the products most recommended in therapeutic practices, and that it acts as excipient, is the beer, the favorite drinking for diverse societies in mesopotamia. in occasions, there appear references to elements of animal origin: skin of serpent, shell of tortoise ..., but these were used in the exorcisms and spells, to banish the causative demon of the diseases. as we have previously said, the babylonians healers wrote therapeutic treatises, in those the remedy, the name of disease, and its specific treatment are mentioned. all these texts have the same structure in three columns and they are of three classes, according to the nature (šikinšu) of the main ingredient: vegetable (sammu šikinšu), mineral (abnu šikinšu), or animal (ṣeru šikinšu). let's see an example taken from erica reiner [9], p. 29: yellow saffron / for constricted bladder / to chop, to administer as a potion in fine beer. kaniš-acorn / for the same / to chop, to administer as a potion in fine beer. p. yuste, a. garrido brain diseases in mesopotamian societies 77 garlic / for the same / to chop, to administer as a potion in oil or fine beer. pistachio-herb / herb for the lungs / to chop, to administer as a potion without eating. another class of medical treatise is the one that describes the symptoms of the diseases and their respective prognostics. we preserve a handbook with these characteristics, and as it is indicated in the colophon, it was written by esagil-kin-apli, at borsippa, a āšipu that it lived during adad-apla-iddina's reign (1069-1046 bc), which brought here part of the medical knowledge accumulated till then. rené labat [10] was who translated and commented what we preserve of this work, originally consisting of 40 tablets, with more than 5,000 written lines, in whose incipit from the first tablet we read: “when the exorcist goes to the house of the sick person…” (“enūma anta bīt marsi āšipu illku…”). this text [11] is commonly called akkadian diagnostic handbook (adh), and we know its english version, diagnoses in assyrian and babylonian medicine, edited and commented by joann scurlock and burton a. andersen [12]. the first two tablets of this handbook have a marked character exorcist, but the remaining ones are a precision example in the description of the symptoms, examination of the patient, and prediction: “he will die” or “he gets well”. this work includes neither treatments nor recommendations, with the exception of the warnings formulated in relation to certain type of diseases "fallen from heaven" or that owe its emergence to the "hand of a god or a ghost”. likewise, we have two copies of a catalogue of the adh. in them there are registered the corresponding incipit to the 40 tablets, recording in addition the quantity of lines that there contains each of them. it is very important to observe that the author (possibly, the same esagil) distributes the handbook in six sections, such as we believe that was ordered the original work [12]: (1) tablets i-ii: omens (2) tablets iii-xiv: inspection from the head to the feet. tablets xv-xvi: classification according to days that the disease lasts. tablet xvii: disease states through the day. tablet xviii: study fever. tablets xix-xxi: distinction between illness with fever and without fever. (3) tablets xxii-xxiii: infectious diseases (xxiv and xxv are missing). (4) tablets xxvi-xxx: neurological syndromes (seizures, strokes, ghosts, and gods). (5) tablet xxxi: fever. tablet xxxiii: skin lesions. (6) tablets xxxvi, xxxvii, and xl (xxxviii and xxxix are missing): on the woman and infants. also we have recovered another text of diagnoses and prognostics more ancient than the previous one; according to the incipit: “if you approach a sick man”. but of this one we only preserve two fragments: one proceeding from nippur, and other one found in the sultantepe's excavations, an assyrian enclave belonging to turkey [13]. magic and therapeutic remedies went often together. the babylonians believed that the curative properties of the medicaments were depending on the ritual with these were elaborated. as erica reiner explains (p. 48), “the medicine has to be prepared under the stars’ benefic influence, and administered at a propitious time”. the physician advised: “you let (the preparation) spend the night under the stars", or “at the night you place it in front of the goat star”. goat is the star vega, associated with gula, the goddess of the health. the ašu covered his head to collect the herbs, and he did it at night, in darkness, when the position of the stars was propitious. also he covered the brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 78 plant with a cloth and he drew a circle of flour around it. thus, the goddess poured her healing power on the herb. 3. diseases of the brain the babylonians believed that the heart was the place where the mental activity is generated. therefore, the diseases that nowadays we consider to be cerebral or nervous were imputed to this organ. some of the symptoms would be: “not in full possession of his faculties”, “difficulty speaking”, “he wanders about (in a confused fashion)”, and “he does not know where it is” (scurlock & andersen, p. 531). by contrast, the ailments afflicting the brain could only come from injuries and traumatisms produced in this area. the brain was one more part of the head, together the eyes, the mouth, the nose and the ears. one of the most common sicknesses that they concern the head is the fever; others are the stained with blood eyes, headache, the cloudy sight, the sunstroke, etc. we read: “if a man’s eyes are sick…”, “if a man’s brain contains heat…”, “if a person’s temples continually hurt him…” (ibid., p. 285) mesopotamian healers and physicians distinguished a group of diseases to which we identify with the epilepsy; these are examined in the fourth section of the adh: “if the patient continually turns his head to the left, his hands and his feet are immobilized, he closes and roles his eyes and spittle flows from his mouth, (and) he makes rumbling noises, an.ta.šub.ba (seizure).” (ibid., p. 305) this way, they named with the term sumerian "an.ta.šub.ba" to one sudden seizure "fallen from heaven ", while the disease of chronic character was admitted by the word akkadian "bennu" (stol, p. 92). but there are other akkadian words related to this class of ailments: "miqtu" (something that have fallen down), "ajjattu" (fit), "ibtu" (seizure), though we do not know if they refer to different stadiums, modalities or degrees of intensity of these diseases. the term "an.ta.šub.ba" also appears when there are described ailments that concern the neck, back and heart [14]. according the texts, the variety "an.ta.šub.ba" is much more serious and has fatal consequences. the same thing happens when the "miqtu" attacks the children: they fail to suck the milk and, consequently, they die. we can read: “if an infant as soon as he is born (and alter) two or three days pass, (his stomach) will not accept the milk and miqtu fall on him as in hand of god, hand of ištar. the thieving one has touched him; he will die.” (scurlock & andersen, p. 316) we see how some diseases were falling down from the sky or were provoked by the hand of a god or of a demon: “if a man is quivering all the time when lying down, shouts like the shouting of a goat, roars, is apprehensive, shouts a lot all the time, (then it is) the hand of bennu, the demon (šēdu), deputy of sîn. in order to cure him, you shall…” (stol, p. 8) “if the muscles of a person’s neck hurt him, hand of a ghost.” (scurlock & andersen, p. 285) “if his head continually afflicts him and he does not have a fever, hand of ištar.” (ibid., p. 285) therefore, it aetiology was of divine nature: they fall down of the sky or come from the stars; like "spawn of heaven", or "spawn of anu". the most serious modality of epilepsy is blamed to "the spawn of šulpaea ". it was a secondary god tied to jupiter, the star of the god marduk. those who offended the god were punished, though not directly by him, but across his lackey šulpaea, who was spilling the evil on the guilty, or on his offspring. some cases were so severe that p. yuste, a. garrido brain diseases in mesopotamian societies 79 the āšipu was recommending getting rid of the affected one, to prevent the damage from spreading to the whole family: “[if spawn of] šulpaea is born with him, the house of his father will be scattered at his feet; [in order for it no to be scattered], you throw him alive into the river and his evil will be carried away. [its sign is that, from] the moment he is born, he does not wail (or) cry or stiffen up …” (ibid., p. 247) “if an affliction afflicts him while he is going along the road and when it afflicts him he makes his hands and feet writhe in contortion against the earth, his eyes are dark, his nostrils are contracted, (and) he eats his garment, spawn of šulpaea. as its sign, (it portends) destruction of the house of his father. his father and mother will bear his punishment. in order for it not to approach (them) you bury him alive in the earth; its evil will be dispelled.” (ibid., p. 335) to some extent, the āšipu knew that this disease could be hereditary. sometimes the patient senses his attack: “if when (a confusional state) comes over him, his torso (feels) heavy and stings him (and) afterward it comes over him and he forgets himself, an.ta.šub.ba (seizure). (if this happens) in the middle of the day, it will be difficult for him.”(ibid., p. 321) in other documents there was mentioned the demon lugal.ùr.ra, causer of the abnormal movement of the eyes and the jerk’s tongue, proper of the seizures. lugal.ùr.ra was known also as “the lord from the roof” (stol, pp. 16 ff.). this one seems to be a slightly secure place for the persons, especially in the night. here also it was stalking lurker (rābiṣu), the demon that stalks and attacks its victims in the loneliest places (ibid, pp. 294 ff.): “if an rābiṣu seizes a person’s mouth so that he continually has inability to talk, his tongue is cramped, his breathing is difficult, his saliva flows and will not stop, his teeth are weak and ooze blood…” “if when he comes up from the water, his body is paralyzed and he (feels like he) is spinning and falls down, he was struck by the rābiṣu of the river…” “if the breast continually hurts him, he stops eating and drinking a lot (and) he lies down lot, he continually galātu’s (seizure) and parādu’s (seizure), bennu afflicts that person. it afflicted him, either in the door or in the courtyard or in the river.” the hammurabi’s code (article 278) regulates the sale of slaves who are afflicted with hidden diseases, like epilepsies ones: “if a man buys a male (or) female slave, and before one month has passed, bennu falls upon him, he (the buyer) will return (the slave) to his seller, and the buyer will take (back) the silver that he had paid” (stol, p. 92). this law anticipates the frequency of seizures of this sickness and tries to compensate those who purchased in good faith some epileptic attacks are caused by deep wounds in the head. the hands of the gods are responsible for these ailments: “if he was wounded on his head and, consequently, his eyes are heavily clouded, hand of ningirsu.” “if he was wounded on his skull and, consequently, his ears not hear, hand of ištar. assyrian āšipu knew the consequences caused by injuries localized in certain areas of the brain: a lesion in the left hemisphere will produce aphasia, while if the wound is located on the right side, the patient will suffer a paralysis on the left side of his body (scurlock & andersen, p. 307): brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 80 “(if) the entire [right side of] his body is tense (and) he is not able to talk (and) he is [not] able to […] hand of šulak (or) he was wounded with the wound of a stroke; the āšipu should not make a [prognosis as to his recovery.” nowadays, we have identified many of the symptoms described in the adh. scurlock and andersen (pp. 333 ff.) relate them to diverse diseases of neurological origin: parkinson disease: “if his face seems continually to be spinning (and) his hands and his feet tremble (and he has been sick for) fifty-nine days, hand of dapinu.” dementia: “[if] his [mentation] is continually altered, his words are unintelligible, and he forgets whatever he says, a wind from behind afflicts him; he will die alone like a stranger.” chorea: “if the patient (is sick) and his ears ring (and) (his) right hand and foot jump to the left and (his) left (hand and foot jump) to his right, hand of šulak. he will not get well; he will die.” gilles de la tourette syndrome: "if his illness enters and leaves (and when his confusional state comes over him), he continually talks in a frightful manner, hand of antat lilĩ.” autism: “if a woman gives birth and (the child) rejects its mother…” fainting: [“if something like] a stupor continually afflicts him and his limbs are tense, his ears roars, (and) his mouth is seized so that he cannot talk, hand of an evil alû.” coma: “if he trembles (and) makes (the pupils of) his eyes constrict, the one who strikes him stands at his head and consequently he will die.” narcolepsy: “if a person goes to sleep and his sleep is pleasing to him (but) when he gets up, he feels exhausted and goes back [to sleep]; to cure…” cataplexy: “[if] something like an.ta.šub.ba (seizure) continually flows over [a person] (and) he cannot move his hands and feet by himself, a gallû afflicts that person.” one of the most serious neurological diseases is the huntington illness, with prognosis of death: “if his affliction afflicts him in the evening and when it afflicts him, a mournful cry roars to him and he continually answers it, he continually cries <without> ceasing: ‘my father (and) mother or my brothers and my sisters will die’ [without] recognizing anybody, [he continually wails] (and) when he has wailed he goes to sleep and does not get up (and) when his affliction has left him, he does not know what he wailed, ‘spawn’ of šulpaea; it cannot be removed. in his illness, you burn him with fire.” assyrian physicians defined mental illness in a very precise: “a person who is well but his behaviour is sick”. among these we find those caused by stress and worry, like headaches, the restless sleep, insomnia, nightmares, teeth grinding, dreaming of dead people, sleep talking (scurlock and andersen, pp. 367 ff.): “i cannot sleep at night because of worry about you.” however, the feeling of anxiety was attributed to the abandonment of the personal god or goddess: p. yuste, a. garrido brain diseases in mesopotamian societies 81 “if a person continually has crushing of the heart (and) day and night he has fearfulness, his god is angry with him; in order to make his god at peace with him…” we can recognize in this handbook many other mental disorders, such as paranoia, psychosis, depression, moods swings, antisocial personality, etc. it even makes a subtle description of love-sickness, which disturbs the mind and body, causing restlessness, poor appetite, and irritability (ibid., p. 372): “if he continually flutters about, he is continually insolent, he continually talks with himself, (and) he continually laughs for no reason, he is sick with the love-sickness; it is the same for a man and woman.” 4. conclusion the oral and written tradition accumulated over several centuries by healers and physicians of mesopotamia demonstrates the ability into observation and analysis of diseases carried out by these specialists. particularly interesting are the texts that describe mental illness and seizures. hippocrates of cos was the first physician who located in the brain this kind of sickness, and he took away their sacred provenance. until then, many diseases whose origin was unknown were attributed to the influence of evil spirits, or to the infringement of a social rule: the hand of a ghost, a god, or a goddess was behind this illness. in such cases, the āšipu could only prescribe remedies of magical nature, while specific treatments for the most common diseases were prepared and dispensed by the ašu. the examination of the brain could only be made when it was wounded or injured. on these occasions, the āšipu could see how the infections, swellings, and the trauma affecting the skull generated a collection of ailments as pain, fever, paralysis, tremors, and seizures. some of these symptoms were very similar to those manifested when evil came from a divine punishment. therefore is not surprising that the physicians blamed ištar, the goddess of war. assyrian healing wisdom probably influenced in the pre-hippocratic medicine, mainly at school of cnidus [15]. 5. references [1] kramer, s. n. (1956). history begins at sumer: thirty-nine “first” in man’s recorded history. university of pennsylvania press. [2] robson, e. (2008). mathematics in iraq. a social history. princeton university press. [3] nemet-nejat, k.r. (1998). daily life in ancient mesopotamia, greenwood press. [4] proust, c. (2008): « quantifier et calculer : usages des nombres à nippur ». revue d’histoire des mathématiues 14, pp. 143-209. [5] oppenheim, l. (1977). ancient mesopotamia: portrait of a death civilization. university of chicago press; revised edition [6] margueron, j.-c. (2003). les mésopotamiens. paris: picard. [7] köcher, f. (1963-1980). die babylonisch-assyrische medizin in texten und untersuchungen, 4 vols. berlin, new york: walter de gruyter. [8] bottéro, j. et al. (1996). introducción al antiguo oriente. de sumer a la biblia. grijalbo mondadori. [9] reiner, e. (1995). astral magic in babylonia. philadelphia: the american philosophical society. [10] labat, r. (1951): traité akkadien de diagnostics et pronostics médicaux.paris, leiden : académie internationale d’histoire des sciences. [11] heeβel, n. (2000). babylonische-assyrische diagnostik alter orient und altes testament 43 (aoat), münster: ugartit verlag. [12] scurlock, j. & andersen, b. (2005). diagnoses in assyrian and babylonian medicine. urbana, chicago: university of illinois press. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 1, issue 3, july 2010, ”happy summer 2010!”, issn 2067-3957 82 [13] stol, m. (1992). epilepsy in babylonia. groningen: styx publications (p. 91). [14] we write sumerian logograms with small capitals; words in italics are akkadians. phrases or words in parentheses are added by editors to a better understanding of the text; square brackets are used to add missing words in the original text. [15] geller, m. j. (2004): “west meets east: early greek and babylonian diagnosis”, in h. f. j. horstmanshoff and m. stol, magic and rationality in ancient near eastern and graeco-roman medicine, leiden, boston: brill, pp. 11-61 brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, pages: 44-57 | https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/14 comparison of inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous anesthetics with propofol in children under flexible bronchoscopy anahid maleki1, alireza takzare2, mehrdad goudarzi3, alireza ebrahim soltani4, maryam nodehi5 1 assistant professor, children medical center, tehran university of medical science 2 assistant professor, children medical center, tehran university of medical science, drtakz@gmail.com 3 assistant professor, children medical center, tehran university of medical science 4 associated professor, children medical center, tehran university of medical science 5 general physician, children medical center, tehran university of medical science abstract: objective: bronchoscopy is a diagnostic procedure. due to lack of cooperation of children, pediatric bronchoscopy is necessarily accompanied by anesthesia. the most prevailing method of anesthesia in children is inhaled anesthesia, but since duration of anesthesia is long and there is involuntary respiration in this method, the amount of dispersed gas is high. the objective of this review is comparing inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous anesthetics with propofol in children under flexible bronchoscopy, in order to do a more appropriate and safe bronchoscopy and also to improve recovery after general anesthesia in children. methodology: 80 children under the age of 10 who were going under flexible bronchoscopy, were randomly divided into two groups of 40 individuals. for anesthesia of one group inhaled sevoflurane was given, and for the second group intravenous propofol was given; then in both groups changes in blood pressure, heart rate, o2 saturation t, and recovery time were recorded and compared. findings: there is no significant difference in three times measurement of both anesthetics. in other words the average blood pressure shows no difference after anesthesia, start of bronchoscopy, and end of bronchoscopy in both anesthetics (p-value=0.771). moreover, no significant difference was observed in three times measurement of both anesthetics. this means that the average heart rate shows no difference after anesthesia, start of bronchoscopy, and end of bronchoscopy in both anesthetics. furthermore, the average o2sat is different after anesthesia, start of bronchoscopy, and end of bronchoscopy in both anesthetics (p-value>0.001). keywords: bronchoscopy; sevoflurane; propofol. how to cite: maleki, a., takzare, a., goudarzi, m., soltani, a.e., & nodehi, m. (2020). comparison of inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous anesthetics with propofol in children under flexible bronchoscopy. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 44-57. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/14 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/14 mailto:drtakz@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/14 comparison of inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous … anahid maleki et al. 45 introduction the term anesthesia was first proposed by oliver wendell holmes (haridas, 2016) on the basis of its greek root meaning “no sense” to william morton in 1846 (morton, 1846). even in deep anesthesia some basic senses continue to exist, so it is more appropriate to assume anesthesia as a stationary state without any kind of perception. as an easy definition, anesthesia is losing sense of pain or perception during a surgery. anesthesia is classified into local, regional or general forms, and may vary depending on type of surgery and health conditions of the specific person (bakan et al., 2014) types of anesthesia and their level of effect differ. regional anesthesia creates analgesia effect, while anesthesia with benzodiazepines creates sedative effects. general anesthesia may produce all effects of analgesia, sedation, and forgetfulness; its ultimate goal is to attain conditions in which surgical procedure is done in the best possible way with minimum risk. this goal is achieved through various but connected functions of medicines on nervous system of patient. for instance, the drowsiness impact of medication is created by affecting the central nervous system cells and activating state of sleep for the patient (chen et al., 2016; damian et al., 2019). injectable anesthetics are medicines injected to body through intravenous. propofol is one of the most important of these medications. propofol has no analgesic effect, it reduces blood flow of the brain, brain pressure and pressure of the eye. it also lowers blood pressure by dilating the arteries. quick infusion of propofol causes apnea in patients (dewhirst et al., 2013). it spreads in body rapidly and enters the central nervous system (cns) as well. its quick exit from cns is a reason of its short-time effect. it is also metabolized in liver speedily (hofmeister & pille, 1977). inhaled anesthetics are chemical compounds having anesthesia properties and patient becomes unconscious by inhaling them. sevoflurane is one of the important medications of this group. this medication quickly enters blood through lungs and leaves blood with the same speed, therefore has a rapid anesthesia and anesthesia return. minimum alveolar concentration (mac) is 4.1% in elderly and 3.3% in children (larsen et al., 2012). various studies are conducted in this field. for example, chen et al. (2016) performed a research to determine effects of propofol and sevoflurane on cytokine levels in children with acquired pneumonia from a population under flexible fibrotic bronchoscopy. results showed that in brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 46 children with acquired pneumonia from that population, the use of sevoflurane was dependent on low levels of interleukin 6 and 15 versus propofol. the intensity of pneumonia was reflected with higher levels of blood cytokine (chen et al., 2016). also, rivenes et al. (2001) found out that halothane causes a significant reduction in the average pressure of ejection fraction and the heart index. moreover, in a study done by larsen et al. (2012) it became evident that sevoflurane reduces regional area of infarction and improves hemodynamics in patients. findings of a research conducted by hasani et al. (2011) (hasani et al., 2013) indicated that compared with propofol, sevoflurane could have similar and safe effects in non-relaxant intubation in children undergoing surgery (moshiri et al., 2013). bronchoscopy is a diagnostic procedure and general anesthesia is required for doing it. currently, flexible bronchoscopy is used for diagnosis of many lung diseases, in children due to the lack of child cooperation, bronchoscopy is inevitably done with anesthesia. various anesthesia methods are used for this group of patients, the most prevalent of which is inhaled anesthesia. but since duration of anesthesia is longer in this method and there is involuntary respiration, the amount of dispersed gas is high. intravenous methods are used as well. propofol due to its short-acting effect can be helpful in such cases. controlling duration of anesthesia as well as short-time effect of medication is amongst necessities of this method. to achieve this, the present study was performed with the objective of comparing inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous anesthesia with propofol in terms of hemodynamic and induction and preservative effects, and improvement features in children under flexible bronchoscopy in a pediatric medical hospital. materials and methods this study is a clinical trial and interventional, which was conducted on children with flexible bronchoscopy in a pediatric medical hospital. research participants included 80 children with the age range of below 10 years old, and with physical condition of asai, ii who participated in the research by having informed consent and observing all ethical issues, then based on random numbers table they were divided into two groups. during this study, these children were undergoing bronchoscopy to remove external objects from their tracheobronchial tree. they were randomly divided into two groups of a and b. group a with n=40 included children who received 8% of sevoflurane for anesthesia and anesthesia continued the same. group b with n=40 included children who received 2 mg/kg propofol for comparison of inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous … anahid maleki et al. 47 anesthesia, and it continued with 200-300 mic/kg/min. the age, sex, weight and patients profiles as well as the details of their physical inspection along with findings of chest x-ray, were recorded in information collection forum. method of research after having access to the peripheral vein, all patients received 0.01 mg / kg atropine and 0.1 mg / kg dexamethasone and fentanyl 1 mic/kig. in group a. drager fabius plus anesthesia machine equipped with sevoflurane was used for patients. anesthesia induction was done by mapelson f system and face mask with inhalation of 100% oxygen and sevoflurane during involuntary breathing, and concentration of anesthetics was increased gradually in every 3 to 5 inhalation for sevoflurane at 2-4-6-8% concentration, respectively. in group b, anesthesia induction was done by propofol infusion at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg, and anesthesia continued with propofol infusion 25-100 mic/kg/min. to reduce pain in the injection area, propofol was diluted with lidocaine 2% with ration of 1: 1. before bronchoscopy, in all patients, lidocaine 2% with a maximum dose of 5 mg / kg was sprayed on the epiglottis and larynx and between the vocal cords and the upper part of trachea. the depths of anesthesia and bronchoscopy conditions were evaluated by clinical hemodynamic parameters including blood pressure, heart rate, cough, pushing and movement. when the procedure ended, inhaled medicines were stopped and bronchoscope was removed through airway. during involuntary breathing, children received %100 oxygen through mask. the time interval between cutting the anesthetics medicines and opening the eyes or responding to non-painful stimuli was recorded. any unfavorable effects such as cough, laryngeal or bronchial spasm, shortness of breath or apnea were recorded. postoperative croup and oedema of the upper respiratory system, if observed, were treated by inhalation of epinephrine and wet oxygen. criteria to participate in research include: being fast, patients must be connected to ecg and blood pressure measurement devices before anesthesia induction, aximetry pulse, recording heart, bp and arterial oxygen level in every 5 minutes, consent of patient to take part in the research, having no specific disease, and being conscience before surgery. criteria to leave research include: lack of patient‟s consent, abnormal response to anesthetic medicines of study, patients with serious cardiovascular, liver, kidney and muscular diseases, children with a history of increased respiratory sensitivity and irritable airways and history of airway disease, and patients having cold and children with history of respiratory response to anesthetics. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 48 data analysis method the collected data were recorded in spss data bank, and then analyzed on the basis of research objectives. quantitative data were explained as mean, standard deviation, and qualitative variables as frequency or relative frequency. in order to analyze variables in groups in regard of quantitative data, repeated measures and independent sample t-test were used. p-value under 0.05 was considered as significant. ethical observations according to the principles of the declaration of helsinki, data were recorded confidentially and required explanations were given to the parents of patients. besides that, all information of patients is secret and will not be available to any legal or natural person. research conditions are explained to research participants and their parents and informed consent is taken from them. moreover, before implementation of the study, coordination with the authorities of the surgery department and surgery room was done. no extra charge will be imposed on patients. research findings in table 1 a comparison of blood pressure mean in three times of measurement in the two kinds of anesthetics is represented. there is no significant difference between three times of measurement in the two kinds of anesthetics. in other words, blood pressure mean shows no difference after anesthesia, in the beginning of bronchoscopy and in the end of bronchoscopy (p-value=0.771) (figure 1). table 1. a comparison of blood pressure mean in three times of measurement in the two kinds of anesthetics anesthetics mean std. deviation n blood pressure mean after anesthesia sevoflurane 75.7750 7.67405 40 propofol 77.3000 6.20164 40 total 76.5375 6.97484 80 blood pressure mean in the beginning of bronchoscopy sevoflurane 77.1000 6.85553 40 propofol 76.5333 6.39480 40 total 76.8167 6.59325 80 blood pressure mean in the end of bronchoscopy sevoflurane 76.0333 7.56013 40 propofol 77.6667 5.79222 40 total 76.8500 6.74196 80 comparison of inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous … anahid maleki et al. 49 figure 1. rate of changes in sevoflurane and propofol comparison of pr in three times of measurement in the two kinds of anesthetics in presented in table 2. according to the results of figure 2, there is no significant difference between three times of measurement in the two kinds of anesthetics. in other words, heart rate mean shows no difference after anesthesia, in the beginning of bronchoscopy and in the end of bronchoscopy (p-value=0.214). table 2. a comparison of pr in three times of measurement in the two kinds of anesthetics anesthetics mean std. deviation n pr after anesthesia sevoflurane 126.1750 24.29085 40 propofol 121.3000 21.67854 40 total 123.7375 23.00674 80 pr in the beginning of bronchoscopy sevoflurane 127.8750 26.02187 40 propofol 123.0000 20.78461 40 total 125.4375 23.52798 80 pr in the end of bronchoscopy sevoflurane 127.3750 24.75489 40 propofol 123.3000 20.33590 40 total 125.3375 22.60276 80 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 50 figure 2. pr changes of sevoflurane and propofol comparison of o2sat in the two kinds of anesthetics in presented in table 3. according to the results of figure 3, there is a significant difference between three times of measurement in the two kinds of anesthetics. in other words, o2sat mean is different after anesthesia, in the beginning of bronchoscopy and in the end of bronchoscopy in the two kinds of anesthetics (p-value<0.001). table 3. a comparison of o2 sat in the two kinds of anesthetics anesthetics mean std. deviation n o2 sat after anesthesia sevoflurane 97.5000 4.64648 40 propofol 97.3000 3.79068 40 total 97.4000 4.21450 80 o2 sat in the beginning of bronchoscopy sevoflurane 91.2000 7.25435 40 propofol 97.2000 5.21929 40 total 94.2000 6.96719 80 o2 sat in the end of bronchoscopy sevoflurane 87.7250 9.68739 40 propofol 96.8000 5.72534 40 total 92.2625 9.13020 80 comparison of inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous … anahid maleki et al. 51 figure 3. changes of o2 sat of sevoflurane and propofol comparison of age, weight, and recovery time in both groups with independent sample t-test showed that there is no significant difference in the age mean (p-value=0.732) of patients in the two kinds of anesthetics which is indicative of proper homogenization in two groups. there is no significant difference in the weight mean (p-value=0.423) of patients in the two kinds of anesthetics which is indicative of proper homogenization in two groups (table 4). furthermore, results of table 5 show a significant difference (p-value<0.001) between recovery time in two groups. in other words, recovery time mean is different in two groups. the mean is higher in sevoflurane anesthetics. table 4. difference between age and weight in two groups of sevoflurane and propofol anesthetics n mean std. deviation std. error mean age sevoflurane 40 3.7500 2.80339 .44325 propofol 40 3.9500 2.39069 .37800 weight sevoflurane 38 17.9211 7.96744 1.29249 propofol 40 19.2000 5.83183 .92209 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 52 table 5. difference in recovery time in two groups of sevoflurane and propofol anesthetics n mean std. deviation std. error mean recovery time (minute) sevoflurane 40 32.1250 5.45935 .86320 propofol 40 19.5000 4.77708 .75532 discussion statistically there is no significant difference in demographic variables (age, weight) of two groups, so it seems that homogenization of groups has been appropriate and in this regard there are no confounding factors in this research. as can be seen, systolic and diastolic pr and bp variables were measured in both groups in the beginning, during and the end of surgery. after anesthesia induction, patients of both groups showed a slight increase in heart rate and decrease in blood pressure. but this rate of increase and decrease required no special clinical measurement. at the same time, statistically there is no significant difference in any one of the groups and between the two groups before, during, and after surgery. it seems that cardiovascular stability rate of both kinds of anesthetics is similar and in this regard both can be safe. there is a significant difference in propofol and sevoflurane groups between in full consciousness time and recovery time. in sevoflurane group, recovery time is nearly doubled. it seems that in terms of recovery time and full consciousness, propofol is preferred and can reduce recovery time of patients. side effects (sough, apnea, spam) were more in propofol group than sevoflurane group, but they are not statistically significant. by increasing sample size, contradictory results may be obtained, therefore it seems that prescribing these medications does not escalate complications; in this regard if any complication is observed, it is due to the procedure itself and not because of type of anesthesia and anesthetics used. apparently both medications are suitable for patients with foreign object endoscopy and scientifically both of them are safe. in a research conducted by kaynar et al. (2011), diverse effects of propofol and sevoflurane on heart beat rate were observed. while propofol decreased blood pressure and heart beat depending on the depth of hypnosis, sevoflurane showed no prominent effect on hemodynamic indices. despite the mentioned studies, in this research no significant difference was observed in heart beat rate of patients in two groups. of course, it must be emphasized that hypnosis level is not measured and investigated in the comparison of inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous … anahid maleki et al. 53 present research. there is evidence that indicates some patients develop tachycardia after receiving propofol; but this study showed no difference in heart beat rate of patients. potocnik et al. (2011), in a study, investigated and compared propofol and sevoflurane impacts on hemodynamic indices of patients under thoracotomy. it was also observed that hemodynamic indices are more stable in the group receiving propofol and patients of this group need less ephedrine (cai et al., 2013). in a research barthi and et al compared effects of sevoflurane and diets having propofol. their findings indicated that sevoflurane is superior to propofol in maintaining cardiovascular stability; they also observed a shorter recovery time in the group receiving sevoflurane (bharti et al., 2012). this finding is contrary to our research findings according to which patients receiving sevoflurane and ketamine had shorter recovery time than propofol and ketamine. glaisyer and sury (2005) observed in a study that recovery time in the group receiving propofol and remifentanil, was 19 minutes shorter than propofol, sevoflurane and nitrate oxide recipients. their finding is consistent with results of this study. different studies have been conducted to evaluate various anesthetic techniques and compare anesthetics about the difference between propofol as an injectable medication and sevoflurane as an inhaled medication, butthe implemented procedures have been different.for example, in glaisyer's study, this comparison is made during painful oncology procedures. in the research of (liao et al., 2010), during rigid bronchoscopy, in boninn‟s study (d'arienzo et al., 2011) in fibropetic intubation, and in the study of kogan (kogan et al., 2003) various surgeries were performed on air data including rigid bronchoscopy and micro-laryngeal bronchoscopy and laser treatments on air data. in our study type of surgery has been constant and flexible bronchoscopy is done for all patients, therefore this confounding factor of surgery type is decreased in achieving results of the study. in various studies different combinations of data are used. the study of glaisyer and sury (2005) compared effects of propofol, sevoflurane and nitrozoxide combination with total iv propofol and remifentanil combination. this is while in this research, similar to studies of liao et al. (2010) and boninn (d'arienzo et al., 2011), two groups of sevoflurane and propofol medications are compared separately; in this way the impact of medications overlapping effects is eliminated and evaluation and comparison of the two medications is made easier and safer. in the study of glaisyer and sury (2005) the sample size was of 22 persons, it was of 64 individuals in the study of liao et al. (2010), and of 52 persons in the research of bonnin (d'arienzo et al., 2011),. each of the studies used premedication. in the brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 54 present study sample size was of 80 individuals, which is superior to other studies in this respect. in the study of glaisyer and sury (2005) variables of age, procedure duration, recovery time, and parents desire for kind of anesthetics are evaluated. however in the present study, homogenization, homogeneous age groups and children's weight, recovery time, hr, bp, spo2, and postoperative complications were evaluated. variables used by liao in the study (liao et al., 2010) included pr, hr, bp, induction time, and the need to intubation. therefore, it seems that our research is superior to the studies of glaisyer and liao in respect of homogenization of demographic variables and evaluation of hemodynamic and arterial oxygen depletion and evaluation of anesthesia and recovery time. research findings of glaisyer study showed that recovery time in propofol group was much shorter than sevoflurane and propofol combination, and patients‟ parents were more willing to use propofol, but other variables was almost the same in each group. therefore, in respect of recovery time, this study is consistent with findings of glaisyer‟s study, and in regard of hemodynamic stability, similar to glaisyer‟s study, both medications acted the same. however, in the research of liao, induction and recovery time in group receiving sevoflurane was reported to be shorter which is contrary to our findings. no difference between the two medications, in respect of induction and recovery time as well as hemodynamic variables is reported in the study of bonnin. referring to time spent in recovery, as expected, this time was significantly lower in the sevoflurane group, the reason can be due to inhalation method of sevoflurane and the chemical and pharmacokinetic properties of thisanesthetic medication. two cases of nausea and vomiting were observed and recorded in the sevoflurane group. however, no cases of nausea and vomiting were observed in the propofol group, which was expected as well and is related to antiemetic effect of propofol. of course, this difference was a statistical one, and since patients with nausea and vomiting in sevoflurane group needed any special treatment, so there was no significant clinical difference in respect of nausea and vomiting in two groups. conclusion it seems that both medications have been suitable for patients with foreign object endoscopy and scientifically both of them are safe. but the appealing finding of this study was that in the propofol group, both the speed of anesthesia and recovery were higher in patients. accordingly, it comparison of inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous … anahid maleki et al. 55 seems that, referring to time, prescription of propofol can make the duration of time safer for us, and is preferable in this regard. about hemodynamic variables both medications are safe and suitable in respect of anesthesia induction in bronchoscopy patients. the use of propofol causes less contamination of surgery room, better recovery, and in general reduction in costs for the patient. references bakan, m., topuz, u., umutoglu, t., gundogdu, g., ilce, z., elicevik, m., & kaya, g. (2014). remifentanil-based total intravenous anesthesia for pediatric rigid bronchoscopy: comparison of adjuvant propofol and ketamine. clinics, 69(6), 372-377. https://doi.org/10.6061/clinics/2014(06)01 bharti, n., chari, p., & kumar, p. (2012). effect of sevoflurane versus propofolbased anesthesia on the hemodynamic response and recovery characteristics in patients undergoing microlaryngeal surgery. saudi journal of anaesthesia, 6(4), 380. https://doi.org/10.4103/1658-354x.105876 cai, y., li, w., & chen, k. (2013). efficacy and safety of spontaneous ventilation technique using dexmedetomidine for rigid bronchoscopic airway foreign body removal in children. pediatric anesthesia, 23(11), 1048-1053. https://doi.org/10.1111/pan.12197 chen, l., cheng, j., & wang, y.-l. (2016). effects of different anaesthetics on cytokine levels in children with community-acquired pneumonia undergoing flexible fibreoptic bronchoscopy. journal of international medical research, 44(3), 462-471. https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060516633564 damian, s. i., diac, m., iov, t., hunea, i., & bulgaru-iliescu, d. (2019). particularities of medical education in the field of forensic toxicology. studying dangerous chemical agents in forensic research. revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala, 11(4s1), 337-344. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/194 d'arienzo, s., stumbo, r., coletta, f., sansone, p., pace, m., passavanti, m., & aurilio, c. (2011). comparison of a propofol target-controlled infusion and inhalational sevoflurane for fibreoptic intubation under spontaneous breathing anesthesia in patients with difficult intubation: 19ap1-8. european journal of anaesthesiology (eja), 28, 226. retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/ejanaesthesiology/fulltext/2011/06001/compa rison_of_a_propofol_target_controlled.731.aspx dewhirst, e., lancaster, c., & tobias, j. d. (2013). hemodynamic changes following the administration of propofol to facilitate endotracheal intubation during sevoflurane anesthesia. international journal of clinical and experimental medicine, 6(1), 26-29. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23236555 brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 56 glaisyer, h. r., & sury, m. r. (2005). recovery after anesthesia for short pediatric oncology procedures: propofol and remifentanil compared with propofol, nitrous oxide, and sevoflurane. anesthesia & analgesia, 100(4), 959-963. https://doi.org/10.1213/01.ane.0000147667.06156.df haridas, r. (2016). the etymology and use of the word „anaesthesia‟: oliver wendell holmes' letter to wtg morton. anaesthesia and intensive care, 44(1_suppl), 38-44. https://doi.org/10.1177/0310057x1604401s07 hasani, a., gecaj-gashi, a., llullaku, s., & jashari, h. (2013). postoperative analgesia in children after propofol versus sevoflurane anesthesia. pain medicine, 14(3), 442-446. https://doi.org/10.1111/pme.12031 hofmeister, e., & pille, u. (1977). inhalation anaesthesia in bronchoscopies on infants and small children (author's transl). hno, 25(10), 368-369. kaynar, a., kelsaka, e., karakaya, d., sungur, m., baris, s., demirkaya, m., sarıhasan, b., & baysal, k. (2011). effects of different doses of remifentanil infusion on hemodynamics and recovery in children undergoing pediatric diagnostic cardiac catheterization. journal of cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia, 25(4), 660-664. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.jvca.2010.09.024 kogan, a., efrat, r., katz, j., & vidne, b. a. (2003). propofol-ketamine mixture for anesthesia in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac catheterization. journal of cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia, 17(6), 691-693. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.jvca.2003.09.008 larsen, j., sivesgaard, k., christensen, s. d., hønge, j. l., & hasenkam, j. m. (2012). heart rate limitation and cardiac unloading in sevoflurane post‐ conditioning. acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica, 56(1), 57-65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-6576.2011.02580.x liao, r., li, j. y., & liu, g. y. (2010). comparison of sevoflurane volatile induction/maintenance anaesthesia and propofol–remifentanil total intravenous anaesthesia for rigid bronchoscopy under spontaneous breathing for tracheal/bronchial foreign body removal in children. european journal of anaesthesiology (eja), 27(11), 930-934. https://doi.org/10.1097/eja.0b013e32833d69ad morton, w. t. g. (1846). circular: morton's lethēon. boston, ma, u:s.a.: dutton and wentworth potočnik, i., novak janković, v., štupnik, t., & kremžar, b. (2011). haemodynamic changes after induction of anaesthesia with sevoflurane vs. propofol. signa vitae: journal for intesive care and emergency medicine, 6(2), 5257. https://doi.org/10.22514/sv62.102011.7 rivenes, s. m., lewin, m. b., stayer, s. a., bent, s. t., schoenig, h. m., mckenzie, e. d., fraser, c. d., & andropoulos, d. b. (2001). cardiovascular effects of sevoflurane, isoflurane, halothane, and fentanyl–midazolam in children comparison of inhaled anesthesia with sevoflurane and intravenous … anahid maleki et al. 57 with congenital heart disease: an echocardiographic study of myocardial contractility and hemodynamics. anesthesiology: the journal of the american society of anesthesiologists, 94(2), 223-229. https://doi.org/10.1097/00000542-200102000-00010 yazdi, b., houshang, t., moshiri, e., & alaee, a. (2013). the effect of aminophylline on hemodynamic parameters and recovery time after propofol infusion. journal of anesthesiology and pain, 3(2), 111-118. retrieved from https://vlibrary.emro.who.int/imemr/the-effect-of-aminophyllineon-hemodynamic-parameters-and-recovery-time-after-propofol-infusion2/ brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience issn: 2068-0473 | e-issn: 2067-3957 covered in: pubmed.gov; indexcopernicus; the linguist list; google academic; ulrichs; getcited; genamics journalseek; j-gate; sherpa/romeo; dayang journal system; public knowledge project; bium; newjour; articlereach direct; link+; csb; citeseerx; socolar; kvk; worldcat; crossref; ideas repec; econpapers; socionet. 2020, volume 11, issue 1, pages: 189-203| https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/23 assessing the effectiveness of tactical skills level when using a laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator artem bratko1, viktor hashchuk2, taras suslov3, roman misheniuk4, vitalii zhuravel5, vitalii havryliuk6 1 ph. d. in military sciences, associate professor of the general military disciplines department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine. bratkoav84@gmail.com 2 ph. d. in pedagogics, associate professor of the general military disciplines department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine. gas9669@ukr.net 3 ph. d. in pedagogics, lecturer of the general military disciplines department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine. zvdozdk@i.ua 4 ph. d. in pedagogics, associate professor of the general military disciplines department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine. rmishenyuk@gmail.com 5 ph. d. in military sciences, professor of the general military disciplines department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine. vg_zhuravel@i.ua 6 ph. d. in pedagogics, lecturer of the general military disciplines department, bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine, khmelnytskyi, ukraine. gavrilyuk.vitaliy85@gmail.com abstract: the result of military personnel practical training lies in skilful and confident actions using available weapons and military equipment in all types of the combined arms operation. there is a need to use training and simulation equipment in order to increase the force proficiency, to save resources in weapons and military equipment use. analysis of the ground forces personnel military training system in the militarily developed leading countries of the world indicates the tendency of further reduction of the weapons and military equipment use for the personnel professional training, the introduction of new forms and methods into training with the use of simulators, training and simulation equipment and training and simulation complexes. the armies of nato countries have a tendency to use full-scale simulators designed to provide cadets with specific skills that allow the personnel training as part of crews (teams), platoons, company and other units, as well as to carry out the full range of their functional responsibilities. the authors of the article have developed a method for assessing the effectiveness of the military personnel competitive activity when solving tactical tasks using laser tag type two-way skirmish simulators, which allows to determine the level of separate components training (the skills level of separate tactical techniques accomplishment, tactical, physical, psychological readiness) and to carry out the personnel training level assessment as a whole. the assessment included the most important training level criteria which characterize a degree of a serviceman tactical training and have an influence upon the real end result when solving the tactical tasks by the unit as a whole. keywords: competitive activities; degree of tactical training; tactical task; tactical technique; effectiveness factor; two-way skirmish simulator. how to cite: bratko, a., hashchuk, v., suslov, t., misheniuk, r., zhuravel, v., & havryliuk, v. (2020). assessing the effectiveness of tactical skills level when using a laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, 11(1), 189-203. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/23 https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/23 mailto:bratkoav84@gmail.com mailto:gas9669@ukr.net mailto:zvdozdk@i.ua mailto:rmishenyuk@gmail.com mailto:vg_zhuravel@i.ua mailto:gavrilyuk.vitaliy85@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/11.1/23 assessing the effectiveness of tactical skills level when using a laser tag … artem bratko et al. 190 1. introduction at the present stage, the state border guard service of ukraine actively uses training and simulation equipment and training and simulation complexes for educational and training purposes, as evidenced by the number of command-and-staff training exercises and practical field exercises involving these technical means. the use of simulators in the educational process in terms of the personnel training allows within the shortest possible training time to work out a solution of several training-combat tasks, choosing the most rational option, to expand the list of emergency situations (to increase the list of situations to occur), to learn new techniques and methods of conducting the combat. miles-2000 system is actively used by the armed forces of ukraine. the experience of its use shows that such simulation of real combat can significantly improve the effectiveness of the military personnel individual combat training and therefore the overall level of the unit effectiveness. the multiple integrated laser engagement system (miles) is a training system that provides a realistic battlefield environment for soldiers engaged in training exercises. miles provides tactical engagement simulation for direct fire-on-force training using eye-safe laser “bullets”. each individual and vehicle in the training exercise has a detection system to sense hits and perform casualty assessment. laser transmitters are attached to each individual and vehicle weapon system and accurately replicate actual ranges and lethality of the specific weapon systems. miles training has been proven to dramatically increase combat readiness and combat effectiveness of military forces. soldiers use miles devices primarily during force-on-force exercises, from squad through brigade level, to simulate the firing and effects of actual weapons systems. these weapons systems include the m1 abrams tank, bradley infantry fighting vehicle, m113 armoured personnel carrier, wheeled vehicles and other non-shooting targets. additionally, basic miles simulations address anti-armour weapons, machine guns, rifles, and other ancillary items, such as a controller gun, within the program (federation of american scientists, 1999). the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine (nasbgsu) uses a similar system, called the laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator. brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 191 in the process of using this simulator in training exercises on general tactics, military personnel perform competitive activities during which they receive a combat mission to solve a tactical task, and the instructors of the training exercise comprehensively evaluate each serviceman. this system gives the opportunity during the execution of tactical techniques and tasks to record: the movement of soldiers across the battlefield, the total number of shots made by a serviceman, the number of hits, injuries and the effectiveness of fire activity. in the process of the training exercises conduct involving the use of this system, we experienced a problem of qualitative assessment of the level of skills of performing certain tactical techniques and the degree of tactical training of the military personnel and units as a whole related to the use of weapons during combat operations. 2. literature review the significance of information and communication technologies usage by future border guard officers who study on specialty «state border security and protection» according to the first (bachelor) level of higher education for state examinations was revealed in the study of bloshchynskyi (bloshchynskyi, 2017a). the analysis of the scientific literature showed that the problems of modernization and creation of military simulation and modelling complexes were addressed by such scientists as rusnak & shevchenko (rusnak & shevchenko, 2002); methodical approach to substantiation of characteristics of simulation facilities and systems is described in the work of matvievskyi (matvievskyi, 2005); simulation support of ground forces as a mechanism for increasing the level of combat training of mechanized and tank troops is covered in the work of rudkovskyi (rudkovskyi, 2012); issues concerning training and simulation equipment state and prospects for its further development with respect to mechanized and tank units were addressed by rusilo (rusilo, 2010). since 2014, considering the complex situation in ukraine and experience of the protection and defense of the southeastern border areas of the state, new models of cadets training based on practical execution of law enforcement and military objectives were developed; basic qualifications for graduates were corrected. in view of this, 2/3 of the teaching hours are allocated to the study of professionally oriented subjects, 70% of which are practical classes. also, target reorientation on military specificity within the law-enforcement function of the border guard agency was performed. it was based on the experience of combat employment of border units in a rapid assessing the effectiveness of tactical skills level when using a laser tag … artem bratko et al. 192 change of the situation and localization of conflict, non-standard situations at the state border, combating sabotage-reconnaissance groups and illegal military formations. cadets’ military training at the nasbgsu now is performed in order to enrich and improve knowledge acquired during lectures, and to improve practical skills in performing duties in bg units under real conditions (bloshchynskyi, 2017b). the aforementioned works focus on the fact that military personnel training with the use of simulators becomes one of the main attributes in the professional development of almost all categories of servicemen. also, the problem of assessing a serviceman training level and a unit as a whole specifically when using the simulators is not sufficiently covered. therefore, the authors of the article have developed and tested a model to assess the military personnel competitive activity effectiveness when solving tactical tasks as exemplified by the use of laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator, which allows to determine the level of separate components training (the skills level of separate tactical techniques accomplishment and degree of tactical training) and to carry out the personnel training level assessment in general. 3. materials and methods when conducting tactical exercises, there is a problem of qualitative assessment of the skills level concerning performance of separate tactical techniques and tactical training associated with the use of weapons and equipment in the conduct of combat operations by military personnel and units as a whole. due to the fact that the laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator gives the opportunity during the execution of tactical techniques and tasks to record: the movement of soldiers across the battlefield, the total number of shots made by a serviceman, the number of hits, injuries and the effectiveness of fire activity, a demand arose in order to systematize the given data and include them in assessing the skills level concerning performance of separate tactical techniques and degree of tactical training of the military personnel using the laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator. in the process of using the laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator in training exercises on general tactics, the military personnel perform competitive activities during which they receive a combat mission to solve a tactical task, and the instructors of the training exercise comprehensively evaluate each serviceman. the competitive activities of the military personnel in solving tactical tasks with the help of the laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator should be understood as the military personnel splitting into 2 teams that will brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 193 perform tactical missions in real-time mode with the help of the laser tag type two-way skirmish simulators, whereupon one team carries out the tactical task in defence and the second team in the offense, taking into account the need for the advantages of the advancement unit as 1/3. the complexity of assessing the effectiveness of the military personnel competitive activities in solving tactical tasks is due to the specificity and variety of tactical techniques used by the military personnel, the structure of which consists of a large number of diverse technical and tactical actions, which are accompanied by the manifestation of various mental, physical and individual-psychological characteristics of a serviceman and require the presence of stable skills in performing tactical techniques and tasks. when performing tactical tasks, the instructors taking into account the whole variety of criteria concerning the level of a servicemen training, as a rule, assess separate actions of the serviceman, which include specific mobile qualities and skills that reflect the physical, technical and degree of the serviceman tactical training in respect of tactical tasks performance, availability of stable skills in performing tactical techniques and tasks, as well as the manifestation of the servicemen individual-psychological characteristics such as endurance, resistance to stress, ability to assess the situation and make the right decision, etc. at present, the problem of objective assessment of the military personnel competitive activities effectiveness in solving tactical tasks is not fully solved, by virtue whereof a method for assessing the effectiveness of the military personnel competitive activities in solving tactical tasks with the help of the laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator has been developed and tested. this method gives an opportunity to determine the level of separate components training (the skills level of separate tactical techniques accomplishment and degree of tactical training) and to carry out the unit training level assessment as a whole. it should be noted that the assessment included the most important criteria of the levels of training, which characterize the degree of the serviceman tactical training and have influence upon the real end result in solving the tactical tasks by the servicemen. the proposed method has been tested in assessing the military personnel competitive activities when solving tactical tasks using laser tag type two-way skirmish simulators during practical classes at the general military disciplines department of the state border protection and security faculty of bohdan khmelnytskyi national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine during august-november of 2019 in the course of 53 training exercises on general tactics with different categories of the state border guard service of ukraine servicemen. assessing the effectiveness of tactical skills level when using a laser tag … artem bratko et al. 194 4. results of research assessment of the skills level of separate tactical techniques accomplishment. assessment of the level of skills in regard of performing separate tactical techniques is due to the assessment of the effectiveness of practical skills implementation concerning the performance of separate tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving. to do this, each serviceman must take part in the solution of at least three tactical tasks, two of which should be versatile (offense and defence). the effectiveness factor of practical skills implementation (efpsi) in the course of separate tactical techniques performance with the help of laser tag type two-way skirmish simulators was based on the following indicators: the total number of shots, the number of hits, the received injuries, the effectiveness of fire activity. the effectiveness of combat operations of an individual serviceman is calculated on the basis of these indicators by calculating the effectiveness factor of attacking actions (efaa) and the effectiveness factor of defensive actions (efda). the effectiveness factor of attacking actions (efaa) determines the percentage of successful shots (ss) that were made by a serviceman to the number of all fired shots (fs) by a serviceman while performing competitive activities in the course of solving tactical tasks with the help of laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator in the group of the servicemen performing the tactical task in offensive operation. it is calculated for each tactical task separately, depending on the number of performed tactical tasks. after obtaining the values of the effectiveness factor of the attacking actions (efaa1), (efaa2) for each of the tactical tasks performed, the average arithmetic value of the factor according to the formula is calculated, which will reflect the numerical value of the effectiveness factor of the attacking actions (efaa). brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 195 the effectiveness factor of defensive actions (efda) determines the percentage of received injuries (ri) to the number of all fired shots (fs) by a serviceman while performing the serviceman competitive activities in the course of solving tactical tasks in defensive operation with the help of laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator. it is calculated for the performance of each tactical task separately, depending on the number of performed tactical tasks. after obtaining the values of the effectiveness factor of the defensive actions (efda1), (efda2) for each of the tactical tasks performed in the defensive operation, the average arithmetic value of the factor according to the formula is calculated, which will reflect the numerical value of the effectiveness factor of the defensive actions (efda). the arithmetic mean of the sum of the effectiveness factor of attacking actions (efaa) and the effectiveness factor of defensive actions (efda) will be the effectiveness factor of practical skills implementation (efpsi) when performing separate tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving with the help of laser tag type two-way skirmish simulators in offensive and defensive operations. the effectiveness factor of practical skills implementation when performing tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving for each serviceman is determined on the basis of the assessment of the aforementioned factors. the arithmetic mean of the effectiveness factors of practical skills implementation (efpsi) for each serviceman in the team has been determined in order to determine the effectiveness level of practical skills implementation (efpsi) when performing tactical techniques carried out in assessing the effectiveness of tactical skills level when using a laser tag … artem bratko et al. 196 the course of tactical tasks solving with the help of laser tag type two-way skirmish simulators. an example for a team of six servicemen. the “reference” model of the effectiveness of practical skills implementation when performing separate tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving has been calculated in order to determine the effectiveness level of practical skills implementation (efpsi) when performing separate tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving with the help of laser tag type two-way skirmish simulators. the “reference” model has been calculated with the condition that the effectiveness factor of attacking actions (efaa) and the effectiveness factor of defensive actions (efda) makes 100% respectively, and the effectiveness factors of practical skills implementation (efpsi) also equals to 100%. figure 1. effectiveness models of practical skills implementation when performing separate tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving as a result of the analysis of the assessment of the effectiveness of practical skills implementation (efpsi) when performing separate tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving with the help of model 1 model 2 38 62 42 58 40 60 100 100 effectiveness models of practical skills implementation efaa efda efpsi reference model brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 197 laser tag type two-way skirmish simulators of the defeated and winning teams in the course of the military personnel competitive activities in tactical tasks solving and comparison of their models of the effectiveness of practical skills implementation when performing separate tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving makes it possible to determine quantitative characteristics of practical skills implementation when performing separate tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving which are shown in figure 1. the first model shows the quantitative characteristics of practical skills implementation when performing separate tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving with the help of laser tag type twoway skirmish simulators peculiar to the military personnel from the defeated team in respect to the “reference” model; as it can be seen the effectiveness factor of practical skills implementation (efpsi) is below 50%, and makes only 40% concerning the team which was unable to accomplish the combat mission during the military personnel competitive activities in the course of tactical tasks solving. the second model shows the quantitative characteristics of practical skills implementation when performing separate tactical techniques carried out in the course of tactical tasks solving with the help of laser tag type twoway skirmish simulators peculiar to the military personnel from the winning team (accomplished the “combat” mission) in respect to the “reference” model; as it can be seen the effectiveness of practical skills implementation (efpsi) is above 50%, and makes 60% concerning the team which was able to accomplish the combat mission and won during the military personnel competitive activities in the course of tactical tasks solving. a mathematical method, due to which the effectiveness factor of practical skills implementation (efpsi) has been determined, was used to determine the level of practical skills implementation when performing separate tactical techniques by a serviceman in general; the results of the analysis indicated that if the effectiveness factor of practical skills implementation (efpsi) when performing separate tactical techniques used in the course of tactical tasks solving is below 50% then the serviceman and the team cannot perform the combat mission, and accordingly, if the effectiveness factor of practical skills implementation (efpsi) when performing separate tactical techniques used in the course of tactical tasks solving is above 50% then the combat mission is accomplished by the serviceman and the team. thus, it can be concluded that the servicemen and the military teams who won and accomplished the combat mission in the competitive activities assessing the effectiveness of tactical skills level when using a laser tag … artem bratko et al. 198 during practical exercises on general tactics using laser tag type two-way skirmish simulators showed the effectiveness level of practical skills implementation (efpsi) above 50%. assessment and analysis of the level of tactical training the level of tactical training is determined by the assessment of the following tactical actions: actions that ensure the implementation of the defined tactics of warfare; actions that provide a reorganisation of warfare tactics during combat; situational and preparatory actions to combat. the actions that ensure the implementation of the defined tactics of warfare represent a particular variant of combat operations by a serviceman which is determined by a senior commander, but each serviceman still acts differently. the actions that provide a reorganisation of warfare tactics during combat determine the readiness of a serviceman to suddenly change warfare tactics (counter a surprise attack, counterattack, etc.); the timeliness of decisions making to reorganise and to take appropriate actions should be evaluated in the course of this factor assessing. the situational tactical action is an activity of a serviceman that aims at the advantageous use of individual elements during combat (relief, defensive structures, inattention of the enemy, etc.). during the competitive activities of the military personnel accomplishing tactical tasks, the reproduced situations can be divided into situations that will have positive consequences and the ones which are not favourable for the serviceman. the favourable situations include those situations in which the enemy is in a difficult position, the unfavourable situations include those where the serviceman finds himself in a difficult position. the favourable situations include: loss of alertness by the enemy, neglect of tactical standards by the enemy, withdrawal of one or more servicemen of the team from the competitive process, etc. the favourable situations include the opposite ones to the aforementioned. the preparatory actions to combat within the military personnel competitive activities include: arrangements on cooperation and control within the team, false manoeuvres, throwing out advanced guard or servicemen, and other actions aimed at misleading the enemy, gaining an advantage in the tactical task solving. the aforementioned tactical actions were assessed in quantitative indicators, on the basis of expert assessments and were recorded in the protocol of assessment of the military personnel degree of tactical training in the course of competitive activities (table 1). brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 199 table 1. protocol of assessment of the military personnel degree of tactical training in the course of competitive activities components of tactical training degree tactical tasks total points task 1 task 2 task 3 ability to apply the chosen tactics of warfare ability to reorganise warfare tactics as appropriate use of situational actions during combat use of preparatory actions during combat assessment of tactical actions is as follows: if a tactical action was used during the military personnel competitive activities, then it was evaluated as 1 credit point, if it was not used, then it counted 0 points. the points in the protocol of assessment of the military personnel degree of tactical training during the military personnel competitive activities are allotted for each of the tactical tasks, and as we have already mentioned herein above, there can be at least three what is more of bidirectional character. after that, the total points for each element of degree of tactical training is determined by adding all received points. the quantitative characteristics obtained during this assessment make it possible to evaluate the degree of an individual servicemen tactical training in the course of competitive activities using the following factors: efsta stands for an effectiveness factor of the selected tactical actions, purposefulness and perseverance of the serviceman in accomplishing the tactical techniques inherent in the tactics of actions that are defined to the team; efrta stands for an effectiveness factor of reorganising of tactical actions i. e. actions that provide reorganisation of tactics of conducting competitive activities in the course of the solution of a tactical task, to ensure a positive end result, or to mislead the enemy. efsta stands for an effectiveness factor of situational tactical actions indicating how confident a serviceman is using an immediate situation at this or that moment of time when performing competitive activities in the course of a tactical task accomplishment (using terrain, protective structures, friendly casualties, changing the order of movement, etc.). assessing the effectiveness of tactical skills level when using a laser tag … artem bratko et al. 200 efpta stands for an effectiveness factor of preparatory tactical actions which is a quantitative indicator of the availability or absence of preparatory tactical actions when performing competitive activities in the course of a tactical task accomplishment. the ideal model of tactical skills training has been calculated for the purpose of comparative analysis of the level of the military personnel degree of tactical training. it is a model in which the factor of tactical skills training of the servicemen is equal to the number of tasks completed by the serviceman, i. e. when performing three tasks, the factor makes 3, which will correspond to 100% of the qualitative tactical training of the serviceman. thus, having analysed the tasks execution by the teams defeated in the military personnel competitive activities in the course of accomplishing of the tactical tasks, it can be seen that the servicemen do not qualitatively implement the selected tactics of action at the level of no more than 33% and have a quantitative factor of 1, prematurely or without interaction with the group, reorganise the warfare tactics depending of the circumstances at the level of 33%, insufficiently use situational actions in the course of the combat at the level of 66% and do not always use preparatory actions in the course of the combat at the level of 33%. the effectiveness factor of tactical training degree (efttd) equals the arithmetic mean of the factors of selected tactical actions, reorganising of tactical actions, situational and preparatory tactical actions. thus, the effectiveness factor of tactical training degree for each serviceman is taken into consideration. the arithmetic mean of the effectiveness factors of tactical training degree of all military personnel participating in the team is calculated in order to find out the quantitative value of the effectiveness factor of tactical training degree for a military team. analysis of the tasks execution by the winning teams in the military personnel competitive activities in the course of accomplishing of the tactical tasks indicated that the servicemen skilfully implement the selected tactics of action at the level of more than 66%, timely and in interaction with other servicemen of the group reorganise the warfare tactics depending of the circumstances at the level of 100%, sufficiently use situational actions in the course of the combat at the level of 100% and in the majority of cases brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 201 use preparatory actions in the course of the combat at the level of 33%. (figure 2). figure 2. analysis of the tactical tasks implementation by teams in the course of the military personnel competitive activities a mathematical method due to which the effectiveness factor of tactical training degree (efttd) has been determined was used to define the level of tactical training in the course of competitive activities as a whole. carrying out comparative analysis of the values of the effectiveness factors of tactical training degree (efttd) shown by the winning and defeated teams, we can conclude that, with relatively similar indicators, when using preparatory and situational actions, the teams that accomplished the task showed higher results in the ability to reorganise warfare tactics depending on the situation and applied the chosen tactics of action more skilfully. 5. discussion the use of modern simulators makes it possible to increase the level of trainees without significant cost when using weapons and military equipment in the course of practical exercises. the main unresolved issue is the procedure for assessing trainees when using simulators. the authors of the article have developed a method for assessing the effectiveness of the 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 ability to apply the chosen tactics of warfare ability to reorganise warfare tactics as appropriate use of situational actions during combat use of preparatory actions during combat analysis of the tactical tasks implementation by teams in the course of the military personnel competitive activities reference variant winning team defeated team assessing the effectiveness of tactical skills level when using a laser tag … artem bratko et al. 202 military personnel competitive activity in the course of solving tactical tasks using laser tag type two-way skirmish simulators, which allows to determine the level of separate components training (the skills level of separate tactical techniques accomplishment and degree of tactical training) and to carry out the personnel training level assessment as a whole. the assessment included the most important training level criteria which characterize a degree of a serviceman tactical training and have an influence upon the real end result in the course of the tactical tasks solving by the unit as a whole. 6. conclusions thus, the use of the laser tag type two-way skirmish simulator during practical exercises on general tactics gives a unique opportunity to assess the level of skills of separate tactical techniques accomplishment and degree of tactical training related to the use of weapons in the process of combat operations conduct by a serviceman. taking into account the possibility of recording events that occurred in the course of competitive activities while carrying out tactical tasks during practical exercises, there is an opportunity to carefully analyse the actions of teams with appropriate further analysis of their activities and assessment of the team leader concerning the organization of competitive activities, and work in the course of its implementation, which may constitute a material for further research. references bloshchynskyi, i. (2017a). usage of anki specialized program application during future border guard officers’ independent foreign language professional training for passing state examination. information technologies and learning tools, 58(2), 49–58. bloshchynskyi, i. (2017b). enhancement of cadets’ practical training at the national academy of the state border guard service of ukraine named after bohdan khmelnytskyi. science and education, (4), 5-10 federation of american scientists. (1999). multiple integrated laser engagement system (miles). retrieved from https://fas.org/man/dod101/sys/land/miles.htm matvievskyi, o. (2005). methodical approach to substantiation of characteristics of simulation equipment and systems. science and defense, 1, 58-62. rudkovskyi, o. (2012). ground forces simulation support as a mechanism for increasing the level of mechanized and tank troops combat training. military and technical collection, 1(6), 238-243. https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/miles.htm https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/miles.htm brain. broad research in march, 2020 artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 11, issue 1 203 rusilo, p. (2010). challenging issue regarding the state and prospects of training and simulation equipment development for mechanized and tank units. weapons and military equipment system, 2(22), 61-64. rusnak, i., & shevchenko, v. (2002). problems of military simulation and modelling complexes modernization and creation. science and defense, 1, 3236. microsoft word articol-04.docx 46 the effect of behaviour in patients who are hospitalized and suffer from alcohol withdrawal andrei bradeanu dunarea de jos university of galati, romania loredana pascu dunarea de jos university of galati, romania sorin ungurianu dunarea de jos university of galati, romania sorinungurianu@yahoo.com dana tutunaru dunarea de jos university of galati, romania laura rebegea dunarea de jos university of galati, romania mihai terpan dunarea de jos university of galati, romania anamaria ciubara dunarea de jos university of galati, romania abstract background: several mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, anxiety, insomnia, hallucination and depression, appear when people heavily consume alcoholic beverages for weeks, months, or years. this behaviour appears in up to 80% of patients who are alcohol dependent and is called alcohol withdrawal. it can appear in patients hospitalized between 8hrs and 3 weeks, depending on the stage of their alcohol dependence. more than 90% of alcohol withdrawal signs and symptoms occur within 48 hours after the patient stops drinking. every year,500,000 episodes of withdrawal symptoms are estimated for1.2 milion patients hospitalized. it is very important to know that over 50% of patients with alcohol withdrawal syndrome are middle-class, highly functional individuals.the withdrawal period can mean additional stress for the pacient who presents injury and needs to undergo surgical procedures. poor healing increases the risk for infections, complications and prolonged hospitalization. stress and other behavioral factors can also affect wound healing. consequently, it is very important to speak about the dangers to which other patients are exposed, such as bites that can transmit hepatitis, syphilis, hiv, and the physical aggressions on health professionals. for patients who are heavy alcohol drinkers, the risk is the same because anxiety can the slowing of respiration and increases pulmonary risks. also, the decreased activity increases the risk of thrombosis and of bowel upset. conclusion. this type of patients should be treated like normal patients, but it is necessary for them to stay as isolated as possible in order not to put the lives of others in danger. 1. background who defines excessive drinking as the consumption of at least 60 grams of pure alcohol in men or 40 grams of pure alcohol in women at least once in the last 30 days. romania ranks 5th in the top of countries with an excessive type of alcohol consumption [1]. although it is widely accepted that low doses of alcohol would have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system, the level of these doses is not accurately established. in general, a a. bradeanu, l. pascu, s. ungurianu, d. tutunaru, l. rebegea, m. terpan, a. ciubara the effect of behaviour in patients who are hospitalized and suffer from alcohol withdrawal 47 reduction in cardiovascular risk was observed for daily doses of about 10 grams of pure alcohol (one dose of beverage) [2,3]. a glass of wine daily brings a sufficient intake of resveratrol, estrogen or quercetin to be considered a constant consumption of substances that may influence bone metabolism [4]. resveratrol is considered to be the strongest antioxidant, 4 to 5 times stronger than betacarotene, 50 times than vitamin e and 20 times than vitamin c. it removes free radicals from the body, normalizes the level of fluids in the blood, improves blood circulation, arteries remaining elastic, lowers bad cholesterol and increases the level of good cholesterol. resveratrol also has a powerful anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effect. there are discrepancies in the way we perceive the effects of high alcohol consumption (affecting family and social relations, costs, problems at work) and the social costs incurred by family or other people close to the chronic consumer (cost of treating diseases secondary emerging, low family income) due to the fact that the effects have an insidious onset. alcohol is metabolized by the liver and eliminated through urine. an excessive amount of alcohol cannot be metabolized and it is absorbed by other parts of the body, such as the brain. the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal may vary from mild to severe. consequently, when alcohol impacts the brain, consumers may feel happiness and relaxation, but also present symptoms of drunkenness (memory lapses, difficulty walking) and severe physical and psychological symptoms, depending on the quantity of alcohol, on how long the person has been abusing it, consumption frequency, polydrug use or history with addiction to other substances. alcohol abuse affects dopamine and gaba release: gaba (gamma-aminobutyric acid) produces endorphins in the brain, which leads to a state of well-being and is the primary neurotransmitter tied to the production of feelings like relaxation. in chronic alcohol consumers there is an imbalance in gaba production resulting in a negative psychological and physical symptomatology (withdrawal): headaches, agitation, anxiety, heart palpitations, confusion. during alcohol withdrawal, the brain releases glutamate (an excitatory neuron) to compensate for the alcohol’s enhancement of gaba in the brain, which seems to cause delirium tremens [5]. dopamine is related to the body’s reward system, regulating the energy, motivation, enjoyment and assists to body’s sense of attention, cognition and mood. alcohol releases dopamine, and with the increase of dopamine also occurs the alcohol dependence of the body due to the fact that the brain craves the happy feelings. alcohol withdrawal symptoms can occur as early as two hours after the latest drink, but tipically the peak is between 24 and 72 hours. the timeline for common withdrawal symptoms is: a) 6 to 12 hours post-ingestion agitation anxiety headaches shaking nausea and vomiting; b) 12 to 24 hours post-ingestion disorientation hand tremors seizures; c) 48 hours post-ingestion grand mal seizures insomnia high blood pressure tactile, auditory and visual hallucinations brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 48 high fever and excessive sweating delirium tremens including sudden mood changes, excitement, altered mental functions, fear, deep sleep [6]. these symptoms raise serious integration problems and create a high level of stress on the family as well as on those with whom they come into contact. in the case of operated patients, besides the surgical stress, the stress caused by the presence of the osteosynthesis material, this level of discomfort and mental stress affects multiple systems, including healing and ossification (the main aspects pursued in this article). 2. stress response to physical stress and mental stress generally, stress can be defined as an imbalance between a living organism and its environment. the response is characterized by activation of the sympathetic nervous system (sns) and increased secretion of the pituitary gland. the metabolic effect of hormonal changes is increased catabolism. the response to stress proceeds to one of the peripheral catecholamine systems (sympathetic-nervous system, sympathetic-adrenal-medullar system, and dopamine systems) through the autonomic nervous system. stress response is driven by the synaptic input from different brain regions (the limbic system – hippocampus, amygdala; brainstem) and performed on five endocrine axes: hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (hpa), hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid (hpt), hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (hpg), hypothalamic–pituitary–somatotropic (hps), and hypothalamic–pituitary–prolactin (hpp) [7]. hypothalamic releasing factors stimulate the pituitary gland and synthesize acth (due to release of corticotrophin-releasing hormone (crh)), β-endorphin, n-terminal precursor, growth hormone (gh) and prolactin. the concentrationof other hormones (thyroid-stimulating hormone (tsh), follicle-stimulating hormone (fsh) and luteinizing hormone (lh)) do not change significantly during physical stress, such is the surgery stress [8]. the most important mediators of mental stress which influence bones regeneration are glucocorticoids, inflammatory cytokines and growth hormones (gh)[7], but gh responses are rarely seen [9]. recent studies showed that gh can induce osteoblast proliferation and differentiation [7]. most of the gh’s actions are mediated by insulin-like growth factors (igfs), especially igf-1, produced in liver, muscles, etc. as a result of gh stimulation [8]. igf-1 has an anabolic effect and promotes the activity of resident osteoblasts. increased circulating igf-1 is detected by the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland and suppresses gh secretion by negative feedback. nevertheless, stress alters this feedback loop and, after a while, it can lead to catabolic effects on the bones [7]. another important factor that should be taken into account is age, which determines an increased activity of the hpa axis; as a result we will notice a higher level of glucocorticoids (cortisol). therefore, an elderly operated patient, who shares the room with an alcoholic patient, will experience significant increases in glucocorticoids by all three factors: firstly, due to age; secondly, due to mental stress, to which surgical stress is added showing a peak level of cortisol after 4-6 hours after surgery. to achieve a bone structure with a micro-architecture that is as close as possible to the original one, there must be a balance between bone formation and resorption, i.e. between the activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts [10]. osteoblasts and osteocytes are the major target cells of glucocorticoids, but the responses are quite different when it comes to physiologic levels and higher levels [11]. generally, glucocorticoids play an important role in maintainingbone structure through a. bradeanu, l. pascu, s. ungurianu, d. tutunaru, l. rebegea, m. terpan, a. ciubara the effect of behaviour in patients who are hospitalized and suffer from alcohol withdrawal 49 induction of osteogenic differentiation of progenitor cells [11], [12]. moreover, glucocorticoids influence the transport and function of leukocytes and inhibit the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines; in vivo studies showed that chronic stress determines gr resistance, which plays a major role in the development of osteoporosis [12], [13]. high levels of cytokines, such as il-6, il-1β and tnf, are also secreted by the corticotrophin-releasing hormone (crh), suppress the function of osteoblasts and initiate osteoclastogenesis leading to osteoporosis. in these cases, recent studies showed that the only antiosteoporotic treatment with double action mechanism (on bone formation and bone resorption) is strontium ranelate. although it has some cardiovascular contraindications, strontium ranelate is the best choice for bone healing due to its properties to inhibit osteoclasts, improve osteoblasts activity and reduce osteoblasts apoptosis as well, thus obtaining fast and qualitative bone healing [10]. in addition, physical stress (surgery stress) transmits nociceptive signals by small myelinated (a-delta) and unmyelinated sensory afferent fibers, which seems to have more implications. studies suggest that these fastconductingfibers may be involved in the endocrine and metabolic responses. physical stress after fracture, blood vessels break down and determine the formation of hematoma and specific inflammation, then fibrocartilaginous callus formation and ultimately bone callus, butcomplete healing may take up to a few months depending on the nature of the fracture and the specific function of the affected member. therefore, in order to fix the fracture, osteosynthesis materials are needed to ensure bone integrity for this period of time. nevertheless, the metallic material causes bone stress and predisposes to osteoporosis, so that the bone may not recover completely until the material is extracted. to reduce elements of any additional physical stress, methods of imposing the existing osteosynthesis materials (plaques, prostheses) have been studied so as to obtain an integration as anatomical as possible for a quick recovery and better mobility in patients, improved quality, reliable biocompatibility and modularity. one of the most common fractures in the upper limb is the radial head fracture of the elbow. for those patients with comminuted and irreparable fractures, polyethylene bipolar prostheses have been created, and rapid mobilization and rehabilitation, better joint tracking by multiple movements and angulations were observed [14]. it is also known that the success of fracture healing depends on the mechanical conditions inthe fracture healing zone, the anatomical location of the fracture (metaphyseal – epiphyseal or diaphyseal) [15]. initially, immediately after injury, polymorphonuclear neutrophils (pmns) are attracted, and then macrophages (attracted by chemokines) take part in endocondral ossification. then lymphocytes migrate and numerous pro-inflammatory cytokines are released, prostaglandins (generated by cyclooxygenase (cox) enzyme, involved in the regulation of hpa axis activity), interferons, prostanoids, nitric oxide (which participates in multiple interactions between neuroendocrine and neuroimmune systems) and transcription factors [14], [16]. acute stress affects the functionality of cox-prostaglantine and no synthase-no [16]. psychological stress influences the oxytocin and glucocorticoids levels, catecholamine and health behaviors, which will determine a lower level of pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukins, tnf-α) and matrix metalloproteinase enzymes, increased wound hypoxia, reduced neutrophils infiltration and antimicrobial peptides and increased risk of bacterial and microbial infection leading to impaired wound healing [17]. 3. conclusions each patient has an individual way of adapting to stress and tolerance. in the case of surgically treated patients, a combination of stress factors may be observed: the pre-existing stress brain – broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience volume 10, special issue 2 (october, 2019), issn 2067-3957 50 of the patient (daily problems, depression, fear, menopause, other comorbidities, age), surgical stress causing an increase in inflammatory factors (cytokines, interleukins) and metabolism (to maintain the body’s homeostasis). when these patients are hospitalized in the same room with alcohol withdrawal patients (delirium tremens, psychomotor agitation), significant mental stress acts on common axes with surgical stress (hpa, stimulates glucocorticoid secretion cortisol, acth), but also on new axes that will only create a more conducive environment for long and complicated healing. therefore, in order to improve the quality of postoperative care and its effects, as well as to reduce the costs and duration of hospitalization, the most appropriate way to manage such patients (alcohol withdrawal) is to isolate them and ensure the necessary medication, both for the benefit of the patient himself, and for the benefit of other hospitalized patients. references 1. http://www.parpa.pl/images/file/comparative%20monitoring%20of%20alcohol%20epidemi ology%20across%20the%20eu.pdf 2. ciubara a., burlea s. l., săcuiu i., radu d. a., untu i., & chirita, r. alcohol addiction–a psychosocial perspective. procedia-social and behavioral sciences 2015;187, 536-540 3. ciubara a.b., nechita a., tudor r.c., et al., social and medical ethics: implications for romanian protocols regarding the therapy of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in trauma patients , revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, 2018, 60:174-179 4. ciubara, alexandru bogdan; http://apps.webofknowledge.com.am.enformation.ro/daisyoneclicksearch.do?product=wos&search_mode=daisyoneclicksear ch&colname=wos&sid=f6demnoeusldtqcsg8r&author_name=tudor,%20rc&dais_i d=31732436&excludeeventconfig=excludeiffromfullrecpagetudor, razvan cosmin; nechita, luiza; tita, ovidiu; ciubara, anamaria; turliuc, serban; raftu, gheorghe the composition of bioactive compounds in wine and their possible influence on osteoporosis and on bone consolidation revista de chimie 2018; 69(5): 1247-1253 5. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/alcohol-abuse/withdrawal-detox/#gref 6. malone d, friedman t. drunken patients in the general hospital: their care and management, postgraduate medical journal 2005;81:161-166. 7. wippert p-m, rector m, kuhn g, wuertz-kozak k. stress and alterations in bones: an interdisciplinary perspective. front endocrinol 2017; 8:96.10.3389/ fendo.2017.00096 8. j. p. desboroughthe stress response to trauma and surgery. british journal of anaesthesia, 2000; 85 (1): 109-117. doi.org/10.1093/bja/85.1.109 9. ranabir s., reetu k. stress and hormones. indian journal of endocrinology and metabolism. 2011;15(1):18–22. doi: 10.4103/2230-8210.77573. 10. sirbu, paul dan; tudor, razvan; veringa, vlad; ciuntu, bogdanmihnea; radu, valentin; ciubara, bogdan; badulescu, oana viola strontium ranelate in the healing of fractures complicated with delayed union. it is really effective? revista de chimie, 2017; 68 (8): 1825-1828 11. zhou h, cooper ms, seibel mj. endogenous glucocorticoids and bone. bone research2013; 1(2):107–9.10.4248/br201302001 12. wippert p-m, rector m, kuhn g, wuertz-kozak k. stress and alterations in bones: an interdisciplinary perspective. front endocrinol, 2017; 8:96.10.3389/ fendo.2017.00096 13. silverman mn, sternberg em. glucocorticoid regulation of inflammation and its functional correlates: from hpa axis to glucocorticoid receptor dysfunction. ann ny acad sci. 2012; 1261:55–63 14. sirbu, paul dan; tudor, razvan; berea, grigore; scripcaru, andrei; ciubara, bogdan; badulescu, oana viola bipolar polyethylene radial head artroplasty in posttraumatic unstable elbows prosthetic design and clinical results materiale plastice, 2017, 54 (2): 298301 a. bradeanu, l. pascu, s. ungurianu, d. tutunaru, l. rebegea, m. terpan, a. ciubara the effect of behaviour in patients who are hospitalized and suffer from alcohol withdrawal 51 15. mirhadi sara, ashwood neil, karagkevrekis babis factors influencing fracture healing. trauma may 2013; 15(2): 140-155 doi: 10.1177/1460408613486571 16. anna gądek-michalska, joanna tadeusz , paulina rachwalska, jan bugajski cytokines, prostaglandins and nitric oxide in the regulation of stress-response systems. pharmacological reports 2013; 65 (6): 1655-1662 17. gouin j-p, kiecolt-glaser jk. the impact of psychological stress on wound healing: methods and mechanisms. immunology and allergy clinics of north america 2011; 31.1: 81–93. brain. broad research in artificial intelligence and neuroscience, issn 2067-3957, volume 1, july 2010, special issue on complexity in sciences and artificial intelligence, eds. b. iantovics, d. rǎdoiu, m. mǎruşteri and m. dehmer on converting software systems to object oriented architectures istvan gergely czibula and gabriela czibula abstract. object-oriented concepts are useful concerning the reuse of existing software. therefore a transformation of procedural programs to objectoriented architectures becomes an important process to enhance the reuse of procedural programs. moreover, it would be useful to assist by automatic methods the software developers in transforming procedural code into an equivalent object-oriented one. in this paper we aim at introducing a hierarchical clustering algorithm that can be used for assisting software developers in the process of transforming procedural code into an object-oriented architecture. keywords: software engineering, procedural systems, object-oriented systems, machine learning, clustering 2000 mathematics subject classification: 68n30, 62h30. 12 i.g. czibula, g. czibula on converting software systems to object oriented architectures 1. introduction it is well known that software evolution is an inevitable process for software systems. repeated changes alter the structure of a system, rapidly degrading it and making the system “legacy”. reengineering seems to be a promising approach to upgrade these systems according to the latest technologies [1]. object-oriented concepts are useful concerning the reuse of existing software. therefore a transformation of procedural programs to object-oriented architectures becomes an important process to enhance the reuse of procedural programs. the evolution of some legacy software systems often requires the rewriting of the system into an object-oriented programming language. this activity, especially for large software systems, is difficult and time consuming. that is why it would be useful to assist by automatic methods the software developers in transforming procedural code into an equivalent object-oriented one. unsupervised classification, or clustering, as it is more often referred as, is a data mining activity that aims to differentiate groups (classes or clusters) inside a given set of objects [2], being considered the most important unsupervised learning problem. the resulting subsets or groups, distinct and non-empty, are to be built so that the objects within each cluster are more closely related to one another than objects assigned to different clusters. central to the clustering process is the notion of degree of similarity (or dissimilarity) between the objects. we have previously introduced in [3] a clustering approach for transforming procedural systems into object-oriented ones. for this purpose, a partitional clustering algorithm, named koos, was introduced. in this paper we aim at extending the approach from [3] by introducing a hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm that can be used for re-grouping the entities from an existing software system written in a procedural language. the goal is to obtain a partition of a software system, in which each cluster would correspond to an application class from the equivalent object-oriented system. the rest of the paper is structured as follows. the clustering approach for assisting developers in the process of transforming software systems written in procedural programming languages into object-oriented systems that we have previously introduced in [3] is described in section 2. in section 3 we introduce a hierarchical clustering algorithm for transforming procedural systems into 13 i.g. czibula, g. czibula on converting software systems to object oriented architectures object-oriented ones. section 4 outlines some conclusions of the paper and also indicates further research directions. 2. a clustering approach for oo transformation. background we have previously introduced in [3] a clustering approach for transforming procedural systems into object-oriented ones. in the following we will briefly describe the proposed approach. let s = {s1, s2, ..., sn} be a non object-oriented software system, where si, 1 ≤ i ≤ n can be a subprogram (function or procedure), a global variable, a user defined type. in order to transform s into an object-oriented system, we have proposed an approach consisting of two steps: 1. data collection the existing software system is analyzed in order to extract from it the relevant entities: subprograms, local and global variables, subprograms parameters, subprograms invocations, data types and modules, source files or other structures used for organizing the procedural code. 2. grouping the set of entities extracted at the previous step are grouped in clusters. the goal of this step is to obtain clusters corresponding to the application classes of the software system s. 3. a hierarchical clustering algorithm for oo transformation in our clustering approach, the objects to be clustered are the entities from the software system s, i.e., o = {s1, s2, . . . , sn}. our focus is to group similar entities from s in order to obtain groups (clusters) that will represent classes in the equivalent object-oriented version of the software system s. in order to express the dissimilarity degree between the entities from the software system s, we will use an adapted generic cohesion measure [4]. consequently, the distance d(si, sj ) between two entities si and sj is expressed as in equation (1). d(si, sj ) =   0 if i = j 1 − |prop(si)∩prop(sj )||prop(si)|+|prop(sj )| if prop(si) ∩ prop(sj ) 6= ∅ ∞ otherwise , (1) 14 i.g. czibula, g. czibula on converting software systems to object oriented architectures where, for a given entity e ∈ s, prop(e) defines a set of relevant properties of e, expressed as follows. • if e is a subprogram (procedure or function) then prop(e) consists of: the subprogram itself, the source file or module where e is defined, the parameters types of e, the return type of e if it is a function and all subprograms that invoke e. • if e is global variable then prop(e) consists of: the variable itself, the source files or modules where the variable is defined, all subprograms that use e. • if e is a user defined type then prop(e) consists of: the type itself, all subprograms that use e, all subprograms that have a parameter of type e and all functions that have e as returned type. our distance, as defined in equation (1), highlights the concept of cohesion [5]. it is very likely that entities with low distances will be placed in the same application class, and distant entities will belong to different application classes. hoos is based on the idea of hierarchical agglomerative clustering, and uses an heuristic for merging two clusters. we use average link as linkage metric, consequently we will consider the distance dist(k, k′) between two clusters k ∈k and k′ ∈k as given in equation (2). dist(k, k′) = 1 |k| · |k′| · ∑ e∈k,e′∈k′ d(e, e′) (2) the heuristic used in hoos is that, at a given step, the most two similar clusters (the pair of clusters that have the smallest distance between them) are merged only if the distance between them is less or equal to a given threshold, distm in. this means that the entities from the two clusters are close enough in order to be placed in the same cluster (application class). the main steps of hoos algorithm are: • each entity from the software system is put in its own cluster (singleton). • the following steps are repeated until the partition of methods remains unchanged (no more clusters can be selected for merging): 15 i.g. czibula, g. czibula on converting software systems to object oriented architectures – select the two most similar clusters from the current partition, i.e, the pair of clusters that minimize the distance from equation (2). let us denote by dmin the distance between the most similar clusters ki and kj ; – if dmin ≤ distm in (the given threshold), then clusters ki and kj will be merged, otherwise the partition remains unchanged. in our approach we have chosen the value 1 for the threshold, because distances greater than 1 are obtained only for unrelated entities (equation (1)). each cluster from the resulted partition will represent an application class from the equivalent object-oriented version of the software system s. in order to experimentally validate the proposed clustering algorithm, we have considered a simple code example written in pascal and the algorithm successfully provided the equivalent object-oriented code. 4.conclusions we have presented in this paper a hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm (hoos ) that can be used for assisting software developers in transforming procedural software systems into object-oriented ones. in comparison with existing approaches for transforming procedural systems into object-oriented architectures [6, 1, 7], the approach proposed in this paper offers an automatic method for the transformation process and heuristically determines the number of application classes candidates. further work will be done in the following directions: • to improve the distance function used in the clustering process. • to extend our approach in order to also determine relationships (class hierarchies) between the application classes obtained in the object-oriented system. • to apply hoos algorithm on large software systems. • to apply other search based approaches for transforming procedural software systems into object-oriented ones. acknowledgement this work was supported by cncsis uefiscsu, project number pnii idei 2286/2008. 16 i.g. czibula, g. czibula on converting software systems to object oriented architectures references [1] cobo, h., mauco, v., romero, m.d.c., rodŕıguez, c.: a tool to reengineer legacy systems to object-oriented systems. in: er ’99: proceedings of the workshops on evolution and change in data management, reverse engineering in information systems, and the world wide web and conceptual modeling, london, uk, springer-verlag (1999) 186–197 [2] han, j.: data mining: concepts and techniques. morgan kaufmann publishers inc., san francisco, ca, usa (2005) [3] czibula, i.: a clustering approach for transforming procedural into objectoriented software systems. in: kept ’09: proceedings of the knowledge engineering: principles and techniques conference. (2009) 185–188 [4] simon, f., loffler, s., lewerentz, c.: distance based cohesion measuring. in: proceedings of the 2nd european software measurement conference (fesma), technologisch instituut amsterdam (1999) [5] bieman, j.m., kang, b.k.: measuring design-level cohesion. software engineering 24 (1998) 111–124 [6] zou, y., kontogiannis, k.: incremental transformation of procedural systems to object oriented platforms. in: compsac ’03: proceedings of the 27th annual international conference on computer software and applications, washington, dc, usa, ieee computer society (2003) 290 [7] jacobson, i., lindström, f.: reengineering of old systems to an objectoriented architecture. sigplan not. 26 (1991) 340–350 istvan gergely czibula and gabriela czibula department of computer science, babeş-bolyai university 1, m. kogalniceanu street, cluj-napoca email:{istvanc, gabis}@cs.ubbcluj.ro 17